Obviously, Germans do not celebrate Thanksgiving, so we had a quiet turkey day at home with just the three of us (but enough food to feed 20). Eric and I have so many things to be thankful for! I wanted to participate in the '30 Days of Thanks' thing on Facebook, but we have so many things to be thankful for that I figured I'd just end up annoying everyone and clogging up their walls. I thought about doing it on my blog like I did last year, but then all of a sudden Thanksgiving is over, and I blew that idea. Honestly, we've got lots to be thankful for and try to give praise for our blessings every day.
There are a few things that Americans and Germans have in common, {living here isn't so different that it's been a difficult transition} but only a few. One of those commonalities is Black Friday shopping- their version: Christmas Markets! I had gone Black Friday shopping with my mother- & sister-in-law last year and hated every single second of it! I don't think anything is worth the pure insanity that I witnessed at Walmart, at midnight, on a Thursday night! And I think that it has been scientifically proven, or something, that I am right, nothing is worth that. Since I've only experienced it once I guess I'm not a good judge of comparisons, but I'd say Christmas Markets are sorta close to America's Black Friday, except that here, everyone is happy and merry- no one is using violence to get what they want.
We spent our Black Friday at Germany's largest and oldest Christkindlesmarkt in Nürnburg (Nern-berg or Ner- em- berg as American's like to say)!
Before I start posting pictures from our weekend I should explain that we were warned that pick-pockets are pretty terrible at crowded places like Christmas markets, so I decided not to take my big camera and instead just brought my little point-and-shoot, to save us from hauling around my camera backpack. These pictures are bad! I will never go another place in Europe without my beloved camera ever again! The weather was kind of terrible too. It was cold, gray, and windy.... I guess if there was a day to not bring my big bulky camera this was the day.
Unfortunately, not a single one of our holiday decorations made it here! It was all my fault, there was an entire closet full of totes that I had missed and realized after the movers had already left. So we are starting from scratch for decorations- and no better place to get Christmas decorations than a Christmas Market!
We spent our day touring the market square, Imperial Castle, and spent a very short amount of time at the Nazi Documentation Center.
We didn't budget our time in Nürnberg very well. We had more than 10 hours to spend and thought that since we were there to see the Christmas Market, that's where we should stay. But 10 hours is way too much time for walking around Christmas booths! So we decided to see at least one of the Nazi sites, but decided just before dark, not giving us enough time to see much.
{We'll be making another trip to Nürnberg this summer to see everything we missed!}
Creepy...I just don't get it.
Super creepy.
Eric and I have a few more Christmas Market trips planned for the next month, but both of our work schedules are about to get completely ridiculous until after the holidays, so if I'm not blogging you know why.
Just in case I'm not able to blog during the next few weeks, I wanted to leave with this suuuper strange street performer we saw yesterday. I didn't know whether to be scared, or laugh. He gave me the googly eyes when I took his picture and for a second I thought that maybe he wasn't so strange. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!
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