Frankfurt Christmas Chaos

23 December 2009

Christmas Chaos in Frankfurt

Today would be Anna’s last day in Germany. Across Europe, people were heading back to their hometowns by the masses. December 24th is the big day to celebrate Christmas, more important than December 25th. Anna wanted to make sure she made it home with no delays or issues for the holiday so she booked her flight out of Germany the night before mine would leave. We tried to get up as early as we could that morning, but we were still pretty tired from the previous night’s festivities. The hotel was very quiet that morning as they would also be closing down for the Christmas holidays later that day. After taking advantage of the free breakfast, we decided we’d take one last stroll around beautiful Heidelberg before leaving. At this point, we had both decided we could easily life in this town!

It was sad to see the weihnachtsmarkts almost completely gone at this point. Left in their wake, was a lot of debris littered on the ground of the beautiful plazas. Workmen were determinedly taking down Christmas lights and attaching stalls to trucks so the could be pulled off, ready for reuse next season. I brought Anna over the old bridge crossing the River Main so that she could see the views I enjoyed the previous day while running. In the ten minutes since we’d left the hotel, the rain started to turn into snow again. Heidelberg was shrouded in fog and the haze of the icy snow falling from above. We were reluctant to leave, but vowed to come back, perhaps next time in the summer months when we could better enjoy the outdoors. Before heading to catch the bus back to the train station, I stopped at my favorite place in Heidelberg, Café Gundel, and bought a bag of the most delicious and buttery Linzer Torte cookies.

We headed to the bus stop where we had been dropped off the day before which was right on one of the squares where the Christmas market had been. We were waiting for awhile and wondering if the bus was still running through the area with the big clean-up in progress. We were given a false sense of security when half a dozen Taiwanese tourists also joined us in waiting for the bus. A few minutes later, a German girl walking by stopped and informed us that the bus was not going to be stopping here today and showed us the way to the next closest stop. Anna and I were both in awe of this random act of kindness.

The train back to Frankfurt was quite full. It appeared that the Germans were all headed home for the holidays, everyone toting suitcases. The holiday rush was the same here as it was at home. Luckily the snowy freezing conditions had subsided in this part of Europe, however from what I heard, the UK was getting slammed with a lot of snow and wintery conditions. Anna and I were thankful that the weather would not delay us from making it home to celebrate the holidays with our families.

Anna’s flight was not until 2000 that night, so we had a little time to hang out in Frankfurt before she left. First we checked into my hotel, The Concorde, which was across the street from the train station and right around the corner from the hotel we had stayed in earlier. The staff was friendly, and at the check in counter they were giving out the smallest box of matches I have ever seen in my life. The sticks themselves were about 1cm long. I am not sure how one can light the match and not immediately burn one’s fingers! I will experiment at home…My room at the hotel was tiny, just enough space for a twin bed and desk, but it was modern and clean. It even came with mood lighting. A flip of a switch would change the lights from white, to orange, to blue. There was free WiFi and free breakfast in the morning; what more could a girl want?

This time we had no trouble finding our way to the Frankfurt aldstadt. We made our way to the Römerberg. We found the square in the same state as all of the plazas in Heidelberg; workers were hurrying to dismantle the weihnachtsmarkt. It seemed somewhat hasty, as if Christmas was ending two days early. I have always thought that there was something depressing about the end of the Christmas season-taking down the tree and putting it on the curb, putting away the glitz and glitter of the ornaments, watching the leaves fall off the poinsettia plant. I wasn’t ready to see the end of the Weihnachtsmarkt; I could have eaten one more bratwürst!

We visited the Kleinmarkthalle, a large indoor food market that runs on a daily basis. One can find everything from cow liver to handmade soaps, dried fruits to a wine bar, tons of fresh produce in every color spectrum of the rainbow and an array of European cheeses. We perused through the market, stopping at nearly every stand to admire their delicacies, and when available, eat their food samples: cheese, salami, prosciutto, wasabi peas, quark spreads, dried ginger. The cheese stalls seemed to be the most popular. The Germans were clearly stocking up on cheese for the upcoming holiday as today was the last shopping day before Christmas began. I had to wait in line for quite awhile to purchase some Boursault, weihnachts cheese, and French “fleur de sel” butter. You just can’t get these items in the US! I also got a loaf of pumpkin seed bread that probably weighed about 5lbs, dense with fiber.

For lunch, we found a German pub right off of the Römerberg. It was a bit touristy but we were ready to eat. Anna and I each ordered one last hefeweizen and shared a meal of wild boar with dumplings and red sauerkraut. It was now time to start slowing making our way back to the hotel and get Anna off to the airport. I was sad to part ways with my good friend, as she headed back to Sweden to celebrate the holidays with her family over glögg instead of glühwein. I knew we would see each other again as soon as time allowed. We were already brainstorming about the next trip we could take together, like bicycling through Holland, touring South East Asia, eating more pastries in Austria. So many places to see, so little time. It’s great to have a friend with who’s also afflicted with the wanderlust.

As I walked Anna to the train station, we passed the two sketchiest and creepiest looking men I’ve ever seen. They were both sitting on the stairs that lead down to the S-Bahn, or subway. One man had a leg of his trousers rolled up and was fiddling with his left leg, and the other man was sprawled out at the bottom. He clearly suffered from some kind of upper extremity nerve palsy. His hands were encrusted in some sort of brown scum, it could have been dried blood, feces, or a mixture of the two. He had the fly of his jeans zipped down and was picking at his lower abdomen. It was actually very disturbing, I was really dreading having to return past these men when I went back to the hotel. After I helped Anna buy her S-Bahn ticket and find the proper platform we hugged one last time and said our goodbyes. If it had not been broad daylight in a busy station, I would not have returned up the same stairwell as the suspicious men but it truly was the shortest route and I figured I’d be safe. They were both still there, the one was still picking at his belly…not sure if he was going after scabies, crabs, or bed bugs or just picking off the insects that he hallucinated were burrowing into his skin. He did not even notice my presence as I walked by. The second man, further up the stairs, was still examining his leg, blood was running down his calf as he pulled scabs off his skin while simultaneously lighting a cigarette with his other hand. This whole scene gave me that horrid, sick feeling deep in my bones-truly sad and disturbing human beings who had probably just shot up a nice big vial of heroin. I guess this is why the travel guide described this part of the city as “sleazy.”

I decided to take care of some last minute shopping and have a brisk walk to pass my last few hours in Germany. I found a grocery store where I bought some German yogurts and some quark cheese. Nothing rivals the European dairy products! After this, I made my way back to the main shopping street where Anna and I had gotten lost previously. My goal was to find one last delicious pastry and pick up a few more Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, most of the bakeries had already closed and all that was left open was the equivalent of a Dunkin Donuts.

The shopping promenade was absolutely filled with pedestrians. Clearly the Frankfurters were out in droves, doing their last minute shopping. Stores were filled with customers. There was even street music, it felt like a festival was taking place when really it was just the mad Christmas rush. I spent some time in one of the German department stores, Galeria Kaufhof. My goal this entire Christmas season was to avoid the hubbub of crowds and chaos at malls. I thought by doing the brunt of my shopping in Germany, I would be free of this. I found out that the Christmas season seems to bring on the same sense of panic and urgency in Germany as well as the US. Galeria Kaufhof was jam packed with shoppers scurrying up escalators, waiting in long check-out queues, and rifling through sale bins. Why does the Christmas season bring out anxiety in people across the globe? I did not stay in the store too long, for fear of losing my mind, or perhaps a hand in a fight over the last roll of wrapping paper. My time in Germany was had come to a close. It was time to return to the mood lighting of my cozy little hotel room and rest up for the long journey home in the morning.