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Published: June 24th 2008
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Bus to Seβlach
yep... there's all 50 of us (sort of). On Thursday the 2nd of June, International Stammtisch (round table) decided it would be nice to go explore some nearby towns, so the international office rented a 50-person bus, and we all
schlepped over to
Seβlach (yeah, I know it’s only in german… just click some stuff, it’s bound to take you to something interesting). We got an honest to goodness tour of the old town, which is preserved under german historic-site laws. The town is neat for so many reasons. It’s pretty small, but the original wall is still in place (ok, it’s been repaired quite a few times, but same footprint), all the towers are there, and because of the laws, no one inside the town walls can have TV antennas or satellite dishes or anything that changes the original façade of the buildings. Also, every single square inch (centimeter?) of street and sidewalk is *cobbled*. Not a drop o’ paved motorway. The neatest, though, was the way the town’s brewery distributed (to this very day) beer to the locals. Yes, granted, some of it is kegged for resale, but at that only in a small surrounding region is the beer sold. No, the way you get beer if
you live in Seβlach is to take a garbage can-sized thing that straps to your back à la backpack, and go *to* the brewery, where they fill ‘er up. Then you walk back home. And that should last you a couple of days, if your lucky. See, our tour guide said it the best: “Bier ist, in Bayern, lebensmittel (Beer is necessary sustenance in Bavaria).” Everything about the place was so amazingly kitsch, it was hard to believe! But it really is one of those unbelievably well preserved towns, where people were so slow in taking to modern technological advances, that it just kind of… self-mummified. Example no. 372: The town wasn’t even wired for electricity until 1960-something. And who knows about the running water thing (don’t worry, they’ve got all those nice amenities now). The 50 of us (because it *was* a full bus) all sat down at the (*the*) local pub for dinner and a brew. I shared a plate of some awesome
Jagerschnitzel mit Pommes Frites with Vanessa, and the whole lot of us yucked it up until it was time to head back. Hey, the pictures say it better. On to the next party!
I dirtied
Seβlach
Me 'n' the city. It's an official city, Seβlach is. I don't know what makes it a 'city' as opposed to a 'town' or something else. Maybe the presence of the wall? nearly every dish I have to make a Mexican fiesta for 8 on the evening of June 4th. It’s ok, though, cuz they still all fit in the sink to wash when I was done (so that’s about how many dishes I have). Dinner would have been a bigger affair, but Green Day and REM were both playing at a nearby festival, so a bunch of people went to that. I don’t blame them, really, if I’d had the monetary means, I would have blown the whole idea off myself! It actually turned out just right in the end, we all fit at one table, there were just enough tortillas, and when we were done we were the perfect size group to go explore the flea market that was taking place in town.
The flea market. The one occasion I have yet to see where Germans will *sell* things on a Sunday. It actually started Saturday evening, and I guess a lot of vendors didn’t sleep, or at least not much, because they just wanted to sell their things. People were camped out in lawn chairs during the normal Saturday *morning* market, staking their claim to taped-off sections of sidewalk
Seβlach
couple o' houses in town. (tape care of the city). The evening was a confusion of consumerism, I’ve never seen this town so alive at 11 at night, even on a Saturday! It was too dark to really *see* anything in order to buy it by the time we got there, so I mostly just enjoyed the atmosphere. And a cup of coffee at the café we sat at. (Still open that late! So unlike them!) I returned Sunday for a bit, but resisted the urge to purchase… hey, whatever I get either has to be carried or given away in another 2 months!
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Craig S
non-member comment
Bier
Beer, what a wonderful thing to share! The pictures are lovely and the idea of one stein serving so many is really wonderful!