16. December 2010
The car strained up the incline, wheels alternately whirring and grinding as they slipped, gained purchase and slipped again. Being native to an area often blessed with copious amounts of snow in the winter, less-than-ideal conditions are nothing out of the ordinary, but this snow-covered sloped was nothing short of ghastly. The snow shone eerily in front of us, lit only by the outdoor lamps shining dimly through the mist from the adjacent buildings.
“I’m going to try to find the reception,” H finally decided, and she climbed out of the car and trekked crunchily up the hill in front of us. J and I sat in silence, chilled by the sharp blast of freezing wind and the prospect of attempting the incline again.
“This can’t be the entrance,” J mused and began backing down the road. The car fishtailed wobbily and he cursed worriedly under his breath. We cleared the tree and turned back onto the main road. And this was the start of my weekend in Wernigerode. Thankfully, this first grueling episode didn’t translate into a grim tone for the rest of the weekend.
In fact, it was quite the contrary. I left H and J with their family and met my friend, Erin, who also works as a teaching assistant. We took refuge from the wind and she cooked a fragrant tortellini soup in her cozy apartment. Between soup and lots of tea that we cooked whenever we came in from the cold, we had no problem staying thawed.
The next day the shopping activities revolved around cookies – the sugar kind with icing. Unfortunately, there was a minimal selection of sprinkles, and there were no red hots to be found. Erin’s apartment has a kitchen, but no oven, so we had to use the kitchen in the WG (Wohngemeinschaft – shared apartment) next to her apartment. Mixing the ingredients posed the challenge of converting everything in the recipe to metric, and then I proceeded to mix away as one of the WG guys watched curiously.
While the dough chilled, Erin and I braved the cold once again to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt. A giant Pyramid spun in the main square, and we perused the wares. I completed my Christmas shopping and treated myself to melt-in-your moth Creppelchen, which are called “Schmalzkuchen” in Werni. Then we saw something odd.
“Puf-fer-fies,” we stuttered, “What’s that?”
“I think we have to try it,” Erin decided.
I agreed. Pufferfies turned out to be like little pancakes with a hollow center. They are made on a griddle with rows of round indents by pouring batter into each indent and then flipping it when it’s halfway done to create the aforementioned hollow inside. We tried some with Eierlikor (literally translated: egg liquor…but I’m still not 100% sure exactly what it is), which was odd, although the Pufferfies were very tasty.
On our way home, we also purchased a Schneeballchen (like pie crust remnants formed into a ball, baked and then coated in almost anything to can imagine) because it was just one of those “have to try it” kind of days. Hmmm…possibly we enable each other…
Cookie time was quite a success, although we have a small disaster trying to boil sugar in water to make a corn syrup substitute. As in the common German Christmas song, “In der Weihnachtsbäckerei” (In the Christmas bakery): Gebrannt! (burned). Then WG guy had a lot of fun stirring up a new batch and using it to “thicken” our green frosting. Really, I think he just wanted to experiment with his concoction. It was funny, though. I wish he and I would’ve had Erin’s saintly cookie decorating patience; sadly, our contributions were rather haphazard. But they tasted good.
Riding home on the train the next day, I felt utterly content. Sometimes going away for a few days really helps you put a different perspective on things.
Bis bald!
Deine,
N*
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