Thanksgiving weekend: Christkindlsmarkt

i wonder how many times i said, "oh, i have to take a picture of this for my mom!" during this outing.

i now present to you:

the nuremberg christkindlsmarkt (christmas market)

each december, 2 million visitors come to nuremberg just for this event.
hundreds of vendors set up wooden stalls in the hauptmarkt (main square), selling traditional Christmas treats: spicy gingerbread, baked goods & other sweets, ornaments, candles, toys, etc.

and that is why nuremberg is referred to as, "the christmas capital of the world".

i think it's a pretty perfect place to be living right now, don't you?

sidenote: fulbright sent out emails, the newspaper headlined it, the teachers at my school heatedly debated about it....the rumors surrounding the market would not stop. as i mentioned before, germany is under a terror alert, and there has been a lot of hype about an attack on the market.

there really was no fact to support these theories, other than the logic that thousands of people would be at the market at any given day in december, thus providing an easy target for a terrorist attack. kayla talked to her parents about it as well as her au-pair parents who told her, ''terrorists breed terror, that is why they are called terrorists. if you give into the fear and stop living your life, then they have won'' (this made me think of zach galifinakis via the hangover, ''thanks a lot, bin laden'').

we debated whether or not we should go and decided we'd just keep reading the news and play it by ear. i fell asleep the night before the market, praying that if it was a bad idea to go, one (or both of us) would wake up with a gut feeling that it wasn't right. we both felt totally peaceful about it in the morning, so we decided to go as early as possible, partly in attempt to ''be safe'' and partly just to avoid the crowds. it was a good decision on our part! we were so happy we went early (and the crowds did come in herds as we were leaving) and i think we both would have been really sad had we stayed at home (as we've been anticipating this for months - seriously). it was freeeeeezing but fun. and i'm going back this weekend. :)