Nuremberg
It was significantly cheaper to fly into Nuremberg than it was into Munich (an hours train ride away) but I thought it would be a good idea to check out Nuremberg. More nazi shit! Who wouldn't want an uplifting time in the place hitler loved the most?
Hitler had good taste in this regard. Nuremberg is precious. Our hotel is one block away from the old town walls, and walking across town takes about a half hour. The airport is very close to the center of town, making it a very easy trip in. We're right in the center of spielhalle (casino) central and it's like taunting Justin. This is more shit that he likes that I hate. And it seems that everywhere we stay, we're right smack in the middle of casinolandia. Justin always says he wants to go in, and I really don't. it's a mixed blessing because even though justin thinks gambling is fun if you just set a monetary limit of what you're willing to lose, he knows that he'd probably just lose all of it and be annoyed. We have this back and forth a lot: justin saying he wants to go in, I say no, he's mildly annoyed, then I say yes, then he decides it's not a good idea.
We walk into the old town and there's musicians EVERYWHERE. We just happened to pick the weekend of their annual 3-day international music festival. when I say everywhere, I don't mean in a New Orleans kind of "oh there's so much music!" I mean that they're so close to one another that the dissonance of their musical styles is distracting.
Oh, and they pretty universally are terrible.
Call me a snob, but as far as music is concerned, we really have everything in New York and the overall level is just really high. This was not. Especially jazz. We unfortunately had to listen to a three piece ensemble who was certainly playing the notes, but just didn't "swing," and a Latin band that had no groove.
Justin's hungry so we sit down a traditional Bavarian bierstube and order some sausages. Different regions of Germany are true to their own variation of sausage. Nuremberg seems to be true to three kinds: weisswurst (white veal sausage with herbs), some kind of sausage that is pork and tastes like our breakfast sausage, and pickled sausage. He orders the sausage plate for one with sauerkraut.
Would you like to know how many sausages Nuremberg thinks is an appropriate serving for one person?
NINE. Nine sausages. I thought justin was going to keel over.
We walk off the sausages and finally hear something that sounds good on the bass guitar. Justin and my ears perk up and make a beeline towards it... yeah, it's two black dudes. Insert obvious joke here... let's just say there are not a lot of black people in Nuremberg, and finally the music sounds good....
It turns out that there are a handful of main stages in the festival, and everyone on the main stage we're pretty good. It was the buskers on the street who were lackluster.
We wait around for the two black dudes to start playing because even them warming up sounded better than anything else we had seen thus far. They were scheduled to go on at 6pm. At 5:59 an even organizer gets on to introduce the band.
There's nothing I enjoy more about this country than their precision and impeccable and renowned promptness.
I really loved the band. It was a Mozambican drummer, a bahian bassist, and a white Dutch guitarist. They were playing "Afro-Latin-jazz" and justin and I are bopping our heads to the beat... we look around and a large sea of white faces are not. Just a bunch of Germans respectfully, quietly, and without moving any part of their body, listening and enjoying. No one was dancing.
I'm sure Germans dance and move to the rhythm of music. Just not here.
Next day, Sunday... the town is CLOSED. Bavaria is very catholic, and has very strict rules about what can be open and what cannot. There is nothing to do but more music festival, or the holocaust memorial just outside of town.
It's so fucking hot out that justin can't take the idea of walking around outside looking at more nazi and war memorials. I agree with him. I'm done with it, too. We spend the day taking it easy, trying unsuccessfully to stay out of the sun and away from shitty music.
Justin makes a reservation at a quaint little restaurant for us. We show up... his computer was set to the wrong time zone and he accidentally made the reservation for the night after. No problem. In the summer, it seems that everyone wants to sit in the tables outside in restaurants to take advantage of the short summer, and it's easy to sit inside. We had almost and entire little room to ourselves. the waiter speaks in very good but very strange English. Every time he walks away, he says "and here we go." He's funny.
I order the sausages. Yes, 9 of them. "They're small," justin says. Yeah, but they're still 9 fucking sausages. I also had a rauschbier (smoked beer.) SMOKED! Awesome.
As we're ready to leave, there's a very loud heavy metal band we can hear starting up outside. Justin says to the waiter, "so, how do you like having this music festival outside," showing obvious disdain.
He says, "Three days already of this fucking shit festival. Every weekend, another fucking festival."
His English wasn't so weird after all.
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