One amusing side-effect of traveling the way that I do, is that after a while, your junk drawer starts to look a little bit like Doc Brown’s binder of different currencies from Back To The Future 2.
Most of the places I travel are on the Euro, but not all of them. The amount of Czech Crowns I have left would barely buy a glass of beer here, but I store it because at some point, I’ll be back in Prague. I try to use up my currency before I leave, but I don’t always succeed. I use paper CD sleeves to store them so I can see easily what I’m dealing with.
What’s the most interesting currency you have put aside?
I love movies. I love watching them. I love their quotable lines, their soundtracks… I love pretty much everything about a good movie. Living in Germany, I don’t get to see them as much as I used to. My command of the language isn’t that great, so watching an entire movie in German is an exercise in frustration.
The answer to this problem, for any native English speaker, is the OV movie. OV is short for Original Version. Sometimes it’s listed as OF, or Originalfassung. OV movies are presented in their original language, and more often than not, that original language is English. The Cinemaxx theater closest to my apartment plays one OV movie every Monday night- just one. Lately, they’ve also been adding an occasional very late Thursday night OV movie as well. This gives me a good chance at seeing most of the megablockbusters – The Hobbit, The Avengers, and so forth. This isn’t enough showings for every movie that comes out, so there are some movies that never play here in English. I’m stillbummed that I haven’t seen the last Muppet movie in English. I did watch it German- I could follow the storyline without any problems, but I missed a lot of good verbal jokes.
Nuremberg has a better theater, though. I first heard of the Cinecittà when simulcast showings were being announced for The Day Of The Doctor and I was looking for a theater to see the film. I was able to see that in Regensburg after all, so my first visit to the Cinecittà in person was in mid-December, when I went to see Frozen. I’m a convert, and I’m sure I’ll be back there again.
The entryway looks like a normal theater with just a few screens. However, most of the complex is built underground. It’s impossible to see from the surface just how large the theater is- there are about 22 screens. Some are small, but the complex includes 3D projection, IMAX-sized screens, and so-called 4D theaters where the seats move for an immersive movie experience. Best of all, they play many OV movies, and not just on one day of the week.
Walking through the complex underneath the main lobby area, there are snack bars, restaurants, and small art displays.
This being Nuremberg, there’s a display of Albrecht Dürer art, including his famous Hare.
I didn’t realize just how enormous this theater complex truly is until I noticed this view. By the time I took this picture, I had already gone down a sloped ramp to a lower level, and this is a view looking downwardat the levels still beneath me.
My residence permit expires at the end of October, and I’ll be heading back to the US around that time. October may seem like a long way off, but it’s really not. I have less than three hundred days left in Germany.
I wrote a 500 days post back in June, after I passed the halfway mark of my time here. It listed a number of the things that I wanted to accomplish before I leave. Between June and December, I finished five of them. Here’s an updated list of things that I really want to do before I go.
I want to see the Tulip Festival in Holland. This will likely happen- My partner-in-crime Jenny and I are planning on trying to make it out, but you can’t really plan that too far in advance. The tulips don’t bloom on a set schedule and if they’re not blooming when you go, it’s a wasted trip.
I kinda want to see Mini Europe in Brussels. I’ll probably pair Brussels with a visit to Luxembourg- they’re in a straight line, more or less, and they’re all on my Geographic to-do list.
There’s a bunch of other places in Germany that I want to see. A selection:Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Oberhaus Fortress in Passau. The Tomb of Charlemagne in Aachen’s Palatine Chapel. The Auto Technik Museum in Heidelberg.
I’m going to see Carnival in Cologne. I already have my hotel room reserved for the events of Carnival Sunday and the Rose Monday parade.
I’m attending a wedding in July. I’ve wanted to write a post about weddings here for a while, but I haven’t been to a wedding in Germany yet. That’s going to change though: Over the holidays, Jenny and her boyfriend Robert got engaged! Jenny is my best friend on this continent, and I’m wildly happy for them both. I’m sure I’ll be writing about this happy occasion several times this year.
We’re going to Drachenstich! I found out about this too late last year to make it happen, but I’ve already got tickets for this August. I’m really looking forward to this! Drachenstich is a festival in Furth Im Wald which is kind of like Medieval Times, but with a giant robot firebreathing dragon!
Here’s a trailer thingie so you can get a sense of the festival.
I need to visit more countries. I haven’t been into Poland, Romania, Turkey, or Croatia yet, and I’d like to. And maybe Greece, if there’s time. There’s still so much to see!
If you only had one year remaining to live in your current country, what would you want to do before you had to leave?
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, or Silvester to the locals. They’re not directly analogous. Silvester is a religious holiday, the Feast Day of Pope Sylvester I. They both fall on December 31st, though. It’s traditional at this time of year to take a look back and see what you’ve accomplished over the last twelve months.
I decided a while back that I wanted to see the Nuremberg Christmas Market this year. The Nuremberg market is one of the most famous, and it’s a big attraction for tourists. It sees about two million visitors a year. This is what it looked like at around 5pm on a very rainy Saturday night.
It was pretty difficult to move up and down the aisles because of the volume of people visiting. This was more crowded than my visit to Oktoberfest, although that was a weekday rather than a Saturday.
It’s held in the Hauptmarkt, a large courtyard between a big church and a big pointy fountain in the Nürnberg Altstadt. This is the fountain:
There are booths and decorations on all the connecting streets as well. This little fellow was in front of a store.
The market has the usual things you find in any Christmas market – hot nuts, Lebkuchen, Bratwurst, handmade goods, and Glühwein.
Nuremberg also sports the world’s largest flaming punch bowl. I took some pictures of the flaming punch bowl, but they really didn’t come out very well so they won’t be included here.
While I was there, a German chorus was singing English Christmas music in front of the Church.
When I stopped for a closer look, the director (in the red cowboy shaped hat) asked the audience if there were any Americans in the audience. He seemed disappointed with the lack of response- apparently the Americans are usually noisier.
Perhaps it’s because all the Americans were enjoying the Glühwein- Nuremberg had the white variety seen here. It’s not quite as sweet as the usual red wine flavors of Glühwein, but it was very delicious. A hot steaming mug of this was enough to make me forget it was raining the entire time I was at the market.
What is the most crowded event or festival you have visited?
Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV. 