Quick trip to Nurnberg

So Sunday I ventured back to Nurnberg. Must admit that after the last insane trip I took there with Crystal a year ago, it was a bit anticlimactic. I mean, there was no breakneck race in a BMW, no running into friends from Slovakia, and no random chatty Italian on the train ride home, but it was still a great day with friends.
This time I went with Laura, Jonathan and Roshani. It was our first trip as a trio out of the country, which naturally meant there was a lot of excitement.

I really enjoyed getting "Ausgang" into the picture to prove we were actually in Germany :)
Once there we got hot drinks in exciting little boot cups. In the end, I don't think you can really see much of the cups, but I got the fun photo all the same :)

The weather wasn't nearly as beautiful as last year, but the temperature was a lot better. I didn't feel like my hands and feet were totally going to fall off so that was great :) We wandered down to the market and enjoyed the sights and sounds that Nurnberg has to offer. Once again I took photos of Santa and his dog playing the accordion. We also saw four or five other sets of musical performers in the streets. It was fun to have the sounds of Christmas in the air, mixed with the smells of warm wine, freshly baked bread, and other delicacies of the season.
Of course my favorite part is always looking at the displays of beautiful ornaments. A lot of them aren't the sort of thing I'd ever buy, or even generally think look nice, but when they're all on display together they truly look amazing.



After wandering around for a while we took a break for lunch. The place we ate was like a medieval hall, complete with axes on the walls, and some medieval characters having lunch at a table nearby. I didn't get any pictures of them, but I did enjoy the table decorations.
By the time we were finished with lunch the sun was really going down. It doesn't take long for that to happen these days after all. We went back out and wandered through the shops a bit more. I got a few more nice pictures of the booths and the massive crowds that had amassed by that point.

The one and only thing about the day that remained the same as last year was...Starbucks! After a long afternoon wandering in the cold, we were welcomed by the familiar warmth and comforting smells of America in a cafe. While I often find myself feeling a need to stand out from American culture on the whole, I really can't deny that, deep down, I really am American. The very fact that I find so much overwhelming happiness from a cup of coffee just demonstrates the fact. So here are Laura and I, toasting the memory of a long ago cup of joe with Crystal :) Naz dravi!