Drinking, Dancing and Frankfurt

Marburg as a city, is a cute little city compared to some of the other cities here in Germany. Full of hills, trees and people you recognize. One thing that Marburg does still have, and we have just recently experienced some of it, is a nightlife. Thursday night a group of us met up at a BierGarten with Raphael, it was a small walk from the Cineplex (but then everything is a walk here).  The BierGarten was nothing new, as we have been drinking beer quite a bit here. Though it was nice to go with a large group (we got to people to watch quite a bit). Mariko and I only had one beer each, I got a Radler once again... but Mariko tried the WeißenBoch. It was pleasant, and tasted like a fruity dark beer (her words).


The dance club was rather interesting to say the least. It didn't really look much like a club from the outside, more like a closed industrial building. There were a lot of Germans hanging around the outside though, so that gave me the impression that something was going on here. We each paid our 3 Euro and headed in. The dance floor was much smaller than I was used to, but there was also a stage with a few couches and chairs setup. Mariko and I dubbed them the make-out couches! A bar was naturally there as well, off to the side, and the prices looked fairly cheap too. Mariko and I refrained from getting another drink, purely on the basis that we knew we would have to walk home after this.


We arrived at the club around 12:30am(ish) and it was fairly slow.... apparently things don't get "bumping" until around 1-2am. The music was fairly danceable, nothing too awesome.... and the beat was pretty much the same for every song. It was techno remix style, which can be fun, but not always easy to have a variety. We got our groove on with our little group, and as time went on the club got busier. Soon we were rather pressed together with small spaces between groups, and dancing got more difficult. And of course with all the people packed in there, and us dancing the night away things were getting hot!!

Our small group, about 5 people, left the club about 1:45am to head home... it is a long walk up a steep hill and we knew that we were going to be tired at the end of it. Luckily things went simply and we got home ok and went straight to bed.... most people even made it to class the next day (I say most but I was not one of them... oops).

Interestingly enough we got to experience more of German culture two days later. Though this is more educational and historical culture than the beer gardens and dance clubs. We visited Frankfurt am Main and took a guided tour. The city was very busy, as it was the Museumsuferfest (a museum fest held in Frankfurt every year). Mariko and I opted for the German speaking tour, we wanted to continue to try and practice our German, and luckily the tour guide was very easy to understand..... and when I was paying attention I even understood some of it!


We toured the first German Parliament, the Kaisersall (Imperial Hall), and of course the Goethe Museum. It was a rather long tour, but that also means that we got to see quite a bit of historical things. The Goethe house was probably my favorite out of all of them. For those of you who are not familiar, Goethe was Germany's Shakespeare and had a fun house! I know, I'm very articulate!

After taking the tour we had free time. The tour guide had dropped us off right in front of a large shopping area, and so we made our way up to the top. The interesting thing about the building was that as soon as we stepped into the mall I recognized the building from my previous trips to Germany... yep I remember it from over 14 years ago, pretty good in my opinion. The escalator to the top was nice, since we had been walking all day, and the view was really nice!

We stopped at a cosmetics store for Mariko, and she was REALLY excited when she found some polish that she had wanted to get while she was here. By the time we were done with that the rest of the group had found a Farmer's market like square, so we caught up with them and grabbed some food. Mariko and I each had a Steakbrötchen (A pork steak inside of bread)! They were yummy and meaty!! The highlight at the Farmer's market was a juice stand, they had some fresh juice... and we got some Himbeerensaft (Raspberry Juice)! It was 750ml of pure tasty goodness!

After that we mainly walked around Frankfurt, though Mariko was starting to get tired and wanted to just sit down for a little bit. A few shops later Mariko and I went with a small group to Starbucks. Interestingly enough the restrooms in the area all cost money to use, but if you were a Starbucks patron you could use their restrooms for free... so we bought two drinks and passed the code around to other Fulbrighters to use.

Sadly Mariko and I didn't get to see as much of Frankfurt as we would have liked. We left Frankfurt and headed home to Marburg. Quite a few people fell asleep on the ride back, I was just happy to watch the landscape go by. All-in-all it was a fun excursion out with the Fulbrighters and I'm hoping that Mariko and I can make a trip back to Frankfurt sometime.