more food and drink

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We only left the apartment around 4 yesterday after catching up on the computer. We hopped on the S-bahn after buying our day pass (Markus had already left for Wall-E and Nurlan had work). Jan wasn't sure that we were waiting on the right side of the station, so I said I was sure but that it didn't matter if we went the wrong way! This reminded us that we're free to explore whereever we want, so we got off at the stop labeled "Ledermuseum," which had caught our attention.

It was a small residential town, but we found our way to the Ledemuseum and the more commercial area. All hotels and shops near a tourist destination are named after the destination, so there was a lederhotel, a lederkiosk, etc. Jan figured out that leder means leather as we approached the museum. We mentioned this side trip to Nurlan later and he said that this is a joke among Frankfurters because Ledermuseum is the stop between Offenbach (where many gay people live) and Frankfurt and it attracts many gay people.

We got back on the S-bahn and decided not to go to the Stadl museum yet because we had such a late start. When we emerged from the station onto Schillerstraße, we stumbled onto an amazing farmers market. There were carts of strange meats and cheeses, and wonderful looking breads and pastries. There were lots of people milling around, doing shopping. After eating some samples and salivating over salamis and things we continued on to a snack shop where we had a milchkaffee (coffee topped with foam) and a pastry and sat outside at some tables. Near us was a scruffy man with a backpack begging, and I mentioned I was grateful we didn't have to do Europe like that, even if we do have to share pastries.

We continued onto one of the parks where we saw a female drummer performing for a crowd of about 50 near a large statue. She did things with her drumset that I never imagined possible, including play trance-style music (which is much more popular here than rock or anything else). After watching for 15 minutes we continued on to another park and sat on a bench. In the distance we saw what looked like waterfalls so we continued on to a large pond with more benches and fountains (there are lots and lots of fountains here). We found a jungle gym nearby that I couldn't imagine in the US - I nearly fell off several times, I don't know what a kid would do. We also saw an outdoor pingpong table made of metal. We continued on to the zoo and started to make our way back.

It took us a while to find something cheap enough for dinner (last night we spent 40 euros on dinner with Markus and though it was well worth it we were in no mood to treat ourselves). We got some grillebratwursts (sort of like hotdogs) and a medium soda which was smaller than a small at home. After seeing pastries all day I wanted one for dessert and we went to the gourmet grocery in the train station but the pastries were being put away by the time we got back.

Instead we went back to Offenbach (it was 9, the plan was to be back by 9:30 or 10) and I got a coffee from a nice guy who wished us a nice meeting with Germany, and we stopped at the grocery store. There is a fantastic variety of Haribo gummy candies and we spent about 10 minutes deciding on the right one, called "Vampire." Actually we were a bit disappointed as it contained licorice but it served well as dessert.

We got back to the apartment and met their friend Harold, who was looking through a Dusty Springfield coffeetable book. After some vodka and "bullit" (a knockoff redbull), they were ready to go and we ran for the s-bahn. We met some more of their friends, Olin from Washington DC who moved here 15 years ago, and Karin, an adventurous flight attendant from Lufthansa (many if not most of their friends are employed by Lufthansa). We made our way to the Yachtklub, where Nurlan's dj friend from Berlin was playing.

Jan and I had apfelweins from the bar, while everyone else had gin & tonics and such, and we danced and talked until past 3. The dj booth was very cozy, complete with a desk lamp, and there was a furnace in the middle of the floor. It was a very practical set up, and we had a great time even if all they play is electronic music.

Jan got tired so we left before everyone else did. Nurlan walked us to the night bus and waited with us half an hour until it came. We talked with him about all sorts of things, including the phenomenon in Germany of English words that don't mean anything in America. An example is "handy" for cell phone or "dark wave" for music like Marilyn Manson. He thought it was invented by advertising companies, even though apparently 60% of Germans don't speak English (we've met one so far).



This morning we woke up around 11. Nurlan and Markus had taken the first S-bahn in the morning home, getting back around 5, and they were quite groggy. The night before I hadn't wanted to leave, but in the morning I was grateful to Jan. Nurlan made us fancy coffee drinks and we went out to the market with Markus, which was like the Schillermarkt but bigger. We saw all sorts of unidentifiable meats, vegetable and other things, and identifiable things such as the skin of a boar, royal jelly (what bees eat) and mounds and mounds of food.

We got back and had a most amazing traditional Bavarian breakfast. On the table at each setting was a soft pretzel and a half-liter of heffeweissen beer. I couldn't pour mine the proper way, which involves sticking the bottle upside down into the special glasses, so Markus did it for me. I mentioned that he knows a lot about beer, which he took as a nice way of saying that he's an alcoholic. This was served with white sausage. Traditionally, they told us, the sausage didn't keep past noon so it was had for breakfast with pretzels and beer. We told them they could tell us anything was traditional and we would do it, including beer for breakfast.

Afterward we went up to visit their neighbors and they offered us sparkling white wine, so we made some more alchoholic jokes. As we sat on their balcony an old bi-plane whizzed over our heads. It seems you can rent them for 8 people at a time. The neighbors were Christian, about to drive to France for the surfing championships and Julie, who we will see tomorrow when she comes down to watch the weekly detective series.

Time to go eat dinner with Stephen and Oliver!

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