Aachen & Weihnachtsmarkt

Originally, my classmate, Andrea and I were going on the Study Abroad ESN Trip to Luxembourg and the Ardennes...unfortunately (but then again not so unfortunate) our Hydrogeological Transport Phenomena changed our class time from Friday morning to Friday afternoon.  This conflicted with the scheduled departure of the trip, so we ended up selling our tickets to 2 very lucky Italians, who were more than thrilled.

Sebastian and his red Volvo!

Andrea's roommate, Sebastian, and his girlfriend, Janine are both geology students who went to Aachen University for their Bachelors.  Sebastian is now at Utrecht to get his masters and staying with us for two years (yay!) and Janine is on an exchange in Amsterdam and will be going back to Aachen to finish up her Masters (sad face).  Anyways, they had told a group of us about Aachen and its Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) and invited Andrea, 2 more of their roommates (Matthew - also Hydrology and Kathryn - a European law student), and I to go to Aachen for the weekend with them.  Since Andrea and I had changed our plans, we were now able to go with them since Sebastian was planning on leaving Friday evening.

Aachen Weihnachtsmarkt

Though Sebastian wanted to leave by 4 pm...our professor decided to keep us until 5 pm exactly despite the fact that the entire class was restless (we have since decided our professor needs to take a "chill pill" and not get so worked up...also his teaching style sometimes intimidates me).  By 5 pm, we were finally on the road, hit some traffic of course, but we were in Aachen at Janine's apartment around 7:30.  As soon as we got there...we left again, but this time to the Weihnachtsmarkt!!

Rathaus

Aachener Printen

Weihnachtsmarkt...they are famous in Germany and well-known to the rest of the world.  I went to my first one back in 2008 when I was studying in Freiburg.  It was perfect - we drank Glühwein while snow was falling.  The second time was during Winter Break 2009/2010 when I went to Berlin for New Year's.  This one was smaller, but just as good (it was at Gendarmenmarkt to be exact). Well...Aachen I have to say was better than both combined (sans the weather...way to warm for it to be "Christmas-time").

Glühwein Stand

Flammkuchen

First stop: Glühwein!  Served hot, Glühwein is made with either red or white wine and spices like cinnamon, cloves, sugar and orange zest.  The best translation would be mulled wine, but probably not exactly the same.  After several glasses, we all walked around the market eating Flammkuchen, french fries, Bratwurst and Crepes.  The surprise food of the night was potato latkas with apple sauce, as I thought that it was only eaten during Hanukkah.  I am glad to know that it is a much more common!

Matthew with his Eis

Besides the six of us (Sebastian, Janine, Kathryn, Matthew, Andrea and I), we were joined that evening by two of Sebastian and Janine's friends, Arne and Gunnar. After the Weihnachtsmarkt closed for the night we ended up going to Guinness House and continued to hang out drinking beers (along with whiskey and Jagermeister shots).  That was definitely a fun evening...trying to say difficult words in German and Welsh or...well it was a bunch of topics let's just say.

Lindt Fabrik - so much chocolate

Noah's Ark at children's store

Kathryn, Matthew, Andrea and I split up between sleeping in Janine's kitchen and sleeping on the futon at Arne's apartment.  Saturday morning, we all met up at Janine's for breakfast after sleeping in until 11 since we didn't go to bed until around 4 am.  Afterwards, we went back to the market so that we could walk around and do some Christmas shopping! Also made pit stops at a cafe to warm up (hot chocolate!), the Lindt factory for chocolate (or so Sebastian could get 500 g of his favorite and eat it in 2 days!), and a children's store (ended up buying a board game).  Kathryn went back to Utrecht as she had a lot of work to do, but the rest of us went back to the Weihnachtsmarkt for another glass of Glühwein and to the Aachener Brauerei for some echte Deutsche Spiesen.

Janine and Sebastian

That night, we were invited to Arne's for a housewarming party.  Sadly Matthew was not feeling well and could not join us, but Andrea and I had a good time meeting other geology students from Aachen Universität. Basically we have decided that Geology (geology-related) students are awesome people to hang out with no matter what country you are in.  Honestly, they are some of the most down-to-earth, truest people I have met.  Any person I have gotten to really get to know I would without a doubt keep in touch with for years to come.

Matthew eying Andrea's mussels

Matthew, Andrea and I

 We ended the night with a game some of them made up using glass beer bottles and bottle caps. The object was to knock off a bottle cap placed on the top of a full beer bottle using another bottle cap. You did this sitting on the ground with bottles placed directly in front of you. Your opponent could knock your bottle cap off your beer bottle up to three times, but within those three times you had to have finished your beer.  Now this is no can...and I miserably failed at drinking the entire bottle, but I got to half of it.  Honestly, I do not chug beer to begin with and cannot drink beer fast (unless it is flip cup).

Sunday morning we met up again for breakfast after sleeping in until 11 am and then back to Utrecht we went, getting in around 4:30 pm.  All in all, it was a wonderful weekend with friends.  I enjoyed being yet again in Germany...and trying to practice more my German.  Of course, I am looking forward to my next visit to Aachen ^_^

Me, Janine, Kathryn, Matthew and Andrea at the Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen