Hug, hug, hug

It is a cold and rather rainy Spring day in Frankfurt this Saturday. One of those miserably damp days that just seems to sink into all the aches and pains leftover from a stressful week. Nick's friend Mike was in town visiting for the day and despite the unfavorable weather we ended up sitting outside at my favorite Saturday farmer's market at Konstablerwache having pancakes and cappuccinos before Mike had to catch his flight. As we walked him down into the subway, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by about 6 or 7 people carrying signs that said "Free Hugs" in a couple of different languages.

I have no idea what this was for or who was organizing it, but we all got hugs from the people with the signs. I got two for taking this picture. . . . It's definitely one way to brighten up a rainy April morning.

*** A quick addition to this. After a quick bit of research, apparently there is a Free Hugs Campaign out there. Check it out.

Snowy Frankfurt Mornings

Well, after all this time I finally have the chance to see a little snow in Frankfurt. What a surprise to wake up this morning and see the rooftops frosted with snow. I didn't actually think it would happen while I was here now that it's practically spring time. Then again, there's been a lot of snowfall in the Alps so I suppose it's not quite as crazy as it might seem.

I guess this means that I won't be biking into the office this morning.

Good morning, Frankfurt!

It is a gorgeous morning here in Frankfurt, crisp and cool. It might almost feel like winter save for the fact that there is absolutely no snow in the city. But it doesn't matter. I woke up to the sun scattered on the clouds behind my apartment. A more welcoming vision than what I had last weekend in Helsinki to be sure.

Time to start another day.

Late Summer BBQs

Well, I think this may have been one of the last really beautiful weekends in Frankfurt. It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, temperatures in the mid-70s with bright sunny skies. A perfect day for a BBQ and a birthday celebration.

After a rather raucous Friday night with Francesca, her new boyfriend, a couple of her friends, Nick, John and Christine (John's girlfriend's sister, confused yet??) which culminated in pasta being cooked at 2:30 am for a late night snack (have I mentioned that I love having Italians over for drinks??), everyone ended up invited to a celebrate the end of summer BBQ on Sunday.

So of course, after many burger patties had been made, John, my trusty fire starter appeared quarter to 4pm. Then 4pm arrived, then 4:10, then 4:20 and no other guests had shown up. John looked at me and said:

"You didn't invite any Germans, did you?"

To which I replied, "No, why do you ask?"

And he said, "No wonder no one is on time. The Americans never want to be the first one at the party and the Italians are guaranteed to show up at least an hour late!"

And he was right. Doug showed up next followed by Francesca and the rest of her friends at around 5pm. Almost exactly an hour late. Inside each cliche is a grain of truth. We had a great time though, good food, good wine and great company. It was a pretty perfect way to finish off the summer.

Not that the end of warm weather means I won't be BBQing any more. I am from Chicago after all, BBQ season is every season.

Museumsufer Fest

This is the biggest and last of the Frankfurt Summer Street festivals. And it's completely unlike any street festival I've ever actually seen. In Chicago, people walk around drinking beer from plastic cups in baseball caps and shorts, it's really only a group of 20-somethings and 30-somethings heading out to get drunk for the afternoon (or often although you can do lots of other fun things too), somehow it seems kind of dirty and crowded and overwhelming . . . In Frankfurt, people walk around in such an orderly fashion drinking wine and beer out of actual glasses (glass glasses! no plastic cups here, folks!). Old couples, young couples, couples with kids, teenagers in summer romances, you name it they're here and they're here until the early hours of the morning. No one bats an eye at little kids wandering around because everyone is so well behaved.

Music is playing in the gardens behind the museums but if you make your way down to the riverside you find stages with club music and dancers (scantily dressed dancers) going until the earliest hours of the morning. It's great. Somehow civilized and yet like a club all at once.

My friend Francesca took me out to the festival and we spent an hour or two wandering around the booths, I managed to get a wooden ring stuck on my finger (for a full 30 minutes mind you, the guy used both oil and dish soap to get the thing off my hand). It was great. Really gorgeous jewelry and decorations from Columbia to South Africa (some of it was the usual tourist junk, but there were some amazing finds if you spent enough time looking).

It makes me sad that I didn't make it out to more of the festivals this summer, but there's always next year!

Say "No!" to Nazis

So last month there was a Nazi/Anti-Nazi rally in Frankfurt. I admit I didn't actually get to see any of the marching, but little signs of the event were scattered throughout the city afterwards on streets and buildings.

I find it really interesting how how the Germans I know react to this particular history chapter. Some of them respond by just not knowing that much about it, others just refuse to talk about it besides a really brief acknowledgment. It's interesting. Anyway, a friend of mine encouraged me to stay away even though I wanted to go and get some photos of it, as he said, "If you're close enough to get pictures, you're close enough to get into trouble." I thought he meant with the Nazis, but he actually meant the anti-Nazis. I asked him why and he said it was just the difference between anarchists (the anti-Nazis) and communists (the Nazis). The anarchists would always cause more trouble . . . .

Chickens on Parade

Ah weekends in Frankfurt, when all the Chickens come out to play.

I'm looking for good chicken quotes, jokes, insights to put with this picture . . . so if you've got 'em, share 'em here.

Sunday BBQs

Finally a gorgeous weekend in Frankfurt, one where it actually felt like it might be summer! The perfect weather for a BBQ in fact, which is exactly what I did with a few friends from work, Birgit and John Wilson, Michael and Daniel, and the fantastic BBQ stylings of my friend Jon.

Never a dull moment, Jon arrived around 1pm to get the fire going, lit the coals, and promptly set fire to the charcoal bag which lit from sparks that blew out of the grill. I, up to my elbows in hamburger meat, turned around to ask him something just in time to see him stomping madly on the flames. Oh fortuitous beginnings . . . . but that was by far the most dramatic part of our day, with my throwing of the pickle jar coming in a close second. (Ok, so maybe it just slipped out of the fridge when I was grabbing something else, but the shattering jar and splashing pickle juice was fairly spectacular) Fortunately there aren't any scorch marks on my deck. I can't imagine how I might even begin to explain that one to my Hausmeister.

Lunch was a full spread of food: veggie skewers with tomatoes, onions, peppers and fennel, classic all-beef burgers (hard to find straight up ground beef in Germany that makes good burgers, it's all too lean so it often doesn't taste quite right, but these turned out pretty darn good!), brats made Wisconsin style (Midwesterners, you know what I'm talking about here, brats cooked up in beer and then grilled to get that perfect smokey charred taste), German style potato salad and of course classic condiments like relish, Heinz ketchup and French's mustard to really make it an American style bbq. Oh, and to finish off we had my newest dessert creation: Grilled Peaches with Honeyed Mascarpone Cheese and Balsamic Reduction. (You can find the recipe at the end of this posting.)

Several hours eating, drinking and sharing good stories was a pretty perfect way to cap off one of my rare weekends in Frankfurt. I'm just glad the weather actually cooperated for once. Next time I'm around I think it might be time for a pancake brunch, after all Birgit and John have already promised to bring the Bloody Mary's . . .


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Since I claimed initially that this blog was going to somewhat be about food (it is one of my favorite topics after all), I figured I would include my newest recipe. So if you've got a grill, try this out. I think it's delicious and it seemed to go over quite well with my friends:

Grilled Peaches (or any stone fruit) with Honeyed Mascarpone Cheese and Balsamic Reduction

Serves 6

Ingredients:
3 Peaches (half of a peach per person), not too ripe, they need to be relatively firm to withstand the grill
1/2 cup Mascarpone Cheese
1 T Honey
1 cup Balsamic Vinegar, gently simmered until it has reduced to about 4 Tablespoons
1 T finely ground White Pepper

- Combine the Mascarpone and Honey and whip together with fork.
- Clean the grill (you don't want the beaches to taste like burgers or something). The coals should be cooler than when grilling meats but still hot.
- Slice the peaches in half and remove the pit. Brush the cut side of the peaches with a little bit of olive oil.
- Place the peaches cut side down over the hottest part of the grill and cover it with the grill lid. Wait 2-3 minutes. Open the grill and turn the peaches a quarter turn (so they have nice grill marks) and close the grill again.
- After another 2-3 minutes. Turn the peaches over, close the grill and give it five minutes. You'll know the peaches are cooked because if you give them a little squeeze with the tongs they will feel soft.
- Remove the peaches from the grill and sprinkle the cut side with a pinch of White Pepper, top with 1 T of Honeyed Mascarpone and drizzle with some of the reduced Balsamic.
- Serve warm.

If you try this out, let me know what you think. . . you can leave comments here on my blog (Just click on the little link that says comments), or email me.

The Summer of Rain

When the summer started, Andrea predicted that it would be a cold and rainy summer. Little did I know at the time how right she would be. It has been an unbelievably cold and rainy summer in Frankfurt.

Everyone I meet claims that this is not normal, well everyone who is actually German that is. All the expats I know who have been living here for a while say that this is normally what the summer is like . . . although even they will admit that it has rained a bit more than usual. They claim that the Germans forget how cold and rainy summer is just like in Chicago we all forget how miserably cold the winter is during summer.

I think they may be right.

Truly not a single day (almost) goes by with out at least one rain shower. And the temperature! Don't get me going. One day it over 90 degrees and the next it barely reaches 60 degrees. Lately it's smells like Fall when I leave the house in the morning for work. Not really summer I have to say.

Oh well, maybe it means we'll have a good winter for skiing if there's this much precipitation. . . that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

The moments I know I'm truly living in another country . . . .

They happen, quite often, but sometimes there's just something that's so glaringly different from home that I just burst out into laughter.

Take last night for instance. When I opened up the mailbox imagine my surprise to find not mail, but a handwritten note (in English) asking me to kindly sort my garbage the proper way. Now keep in mind that garbage sorting in Germany is a fairly complicated endeavor. They have four (yes four!) different garbage cans out front that you're supposed to deposit your garbage in. One for old packaging and paper, one for recyclable plastics and such, one for glass, and one for everything else that doesn't fit into the other three. Now I thought that I was doing a pretty good job at all of this after four months, but apparently not.

But honestly! Would that ever happen in America? I think not! No one would bother taking the time to sort through the garbage to see who wasn't following the rules. That's life in Germany though!

Happy 4th of July!

Fireworks over Chicago

Just a quick note to say Happy Independence Day! I can't say there's much of a celebration going on here in Frankfurt this fine, rainy day but I have no doubts that there are lots of fireworks and bbqs going on at home.

I definitely miss the madness of the Taste of Chicago and having the chance to watch fireworks from Emily's balcony, but the street festivals in Frankfurt aren't half bad and every now and then they put on a fairly, ok slightly, respectable fireworks display. So I still get a little bit of the celebration now and then.

Happy 4th from Frankfurt!

What happened to Summer in Frankfurt????

Summer in Germany has not been quite what I might have hoped. After spending almost a week away in two decidedly hot locations, I returned from Athens to Frankfurt to find that it was only 14 C (that would be about 57 F for you North American types) and raining. So in a matter of 4 hours I went from sitting in my bikini on the Mediterranean coast thoroughly loving being in the water to desperately wanting to stay dry and needing a scarf, jacket and umbrella to do it!

It's crazy. All of my colleagues here have insisted that last summer was perfectly gorgeous and they can't figure out why (besides the inevitable and most likely accurate statement that it's due to global warming), the summer is so miserable.

And now, someone has just mentioned to me this strange German phenomenon called the Siebentage, or seven day, which apparently is the mythical starting date of a seven week period of rain. Boy I hope that's not the case otherwise I might very well flee the country for southern climes! But as of today we've got forecasts for the next week that say it's going to stay below 70 degrees and rain every week! Yikes!

I can't tell you how much I'm missing that sticky July Chicago heat and humidity right now.

Andrea Does Frankfurt

So last weekend my fantastic friend, Andrea, jetsetter that she is, flew in from Cairo for a weekend in Frankfurt before heading back to Lausanne for work.

It poured rain the entire weekend, but still we had a fantastic time. Hours of conversation over wonderful bottles of wine sitting on the balcony while the rain came down as the night turned into early morning the next day.

We even made it out to the Rheingau on Saturday to do some wine tasting with my friends John and Nicole. It was so beautiful, the sun actually came out for a while and we walked through the vineyards on our way to taste some wines. We went to this amazing overlook that had a breathtaking view of the Rhein River. I think it was a former manor or something. It was beautiful and all in yellow with a terrace for people to sit down and look out over the view.

After that we stopped in Kiedrich for dinner and they had the most beautiful rose garden along the river. This is probably one of my favorite places in the Rheingau that I've been to so far, although I still prefer the wines that Doug and I bought at the Kloster Eberbach to anything else I've tasted so far.

We spent Sunday tooling around Frankfurt, the first time I'd really had a chance to actually check out my neighborhood. Of course it was raining so we didn't walk around for too long, but we did manage to find a cute little restaurant to eat lunch in called Lokal Bahnhof. So yummy, I once again found my favorite German comfort food, kase spaetzle. Mmm German macaroni and cheese.

It was a great weekend. I can't wait to travel with Andrea again but we'll have to do it soon, we don't have too much time left before she moves back to the States in July.

Oh the Fire Fighters

So last weekend I was walking home from the Konstablerwache farmers market when I saw this very large crowd gathered right by the pedestrian bridge on the river. There were all of these fire trucks and a fire fighting boat and many people in fire gear and all I could think is that one of the freighter ships that moves up and down the Main River must have gotten into an accident!

And then I got closer and heard a man commentating on the happenings over a bullhorn. That was when I realized that it was a demonstration, and not just any demonstration, a youth fire brigade demonstration. It was so fun to watch. To see these little kids handling these really large fire hoses. I tell you! I just love the way they do stuff in this country. I actually saw an ad for the youth fire brigade on TV the other day. Apparently all German youth have to do some sort of community service whether it's serving in the army, working with the ambulance corp, the fire brigade or something along those lines.

Sights around the City

Ever since I arrived in Frankfurt in March, I have tried to carry my camera around with me so I could capture some of the things you see when you're just new to a city. The things that once you've been there for a while start to blend into the background and simply become the place that you live.

These are a few of the images that really caught my attention in the first few weeks and months.

Flohmarkt

So every Saturday just a few blocks from where I live, there is a 10 story flea market that springs up along the river. You can find almost anything you might possibly want in this flea market, from bicycles to lamps to socks to rifle scopes . . . . and I'm not kidding about that last one. But in all honesty, I wouldn't say that it is that much different from a flea market back in the states, but what is interesting is how the styles of selling differ.

On one of my first weekends in Frankfurt I actually found my kitchen table here. It's the base of an old iron sewing machine so it's incredibly heavy, but very cool looking. I made one of my friends, Jon, help me carry it the 10 blocks back to my apartment. He at 6'4" and me at 5'4" made quite the sight hauling this thing down the street. And the thing must have weighed 200 lbs. Insane, but I was just so glad to have a place to sit down and eat something while I waited for my furniture to arrive.

So back to the market, there are both Turkish and German sellers at this market and each has a distinctly different style of selling, the Germans tend to be much quieter, much less ostentatious in how they sell. The Turks on the other hand are out there, in your face, shouting following you down the sidewalk, always selling, selling, selling. They've really carried so much of their selling style from home into Germany. It's interesting.

The relationship between the Turks and the Germans is quite tense and has been for a while. As I understand things, back in the 50s and 60s Germany relaxed many of its immigration laws because it had a very low rate of unemployment and needed workers to come into the country to fill low-paying, labor jobs. The Turks moved very quickly into Germany because there was a lot of opportunity for them. Unfortunately, as unemployment rates went up over the years, none of the Turks left Germany, so a real sense of resentment started growing among the Germans about how many Turkish there were in Germany, and they were taking all of these jobs, and actual Germans were unemployed. . . . you get the picture. Basically there is quite a lot of racism directed against the Turkish who are living in Germany. It doesn't seem to be quite so obvious from what I've seen, but I have heard that there are quite a lot of problems. Particularly from the more disenfranchised young German men.

There are definitely some interesting similarities between racial tensions against recent immigrants in America and the current situation in Germany. Particularly in regards to how quite a few people see Mexican immigrants as taking away job opportunities domestically. The problem with that view, from what I see, is that most native born Americans don't want to do the work that recent immigrants are willing to do. As far as I can tell, the same situation also seems to exist here in Germany. It's an interesting point of similarity between our two countries.

Bike Polo Anyone?

So one day not too long ago, I was walking around the city, trying to find new places (and a cup of coffee). As I walked by the old stock exchange, in addition to the usual punk kid skate boarders, I saw this group of people on bikes riding slowly in circles with big sticks. It took me a minute to figure out what they were doing, but turns out they were playing polo on bikes!

The things you see in this city sometimes.

First hours in Frankfurt

Well, I'm here. I'm jet lagged. And I can't quite seem to move from the middle of my hotel bed. Somehow I just am not able to figure out what I'm supposed to do with myself. I am sitting here, staring around the room and I have no place to go. Work doesn't start for another day and I don't have an apartment to go to. What I really need to do is find a hair dryer. . . .

But first I have to motivate and find a way out of the bed.