Friday, January 1, 2010
New Years Day 2010
We took the dogs out on this New Year's Day to play in the snow. Bella loves the snow and goes crazy when she gets to play in it. Here are some pictures from our winter afternoon.
Silvester 2009
Germans have a more creative term for New Year's Eve: Silvester. Like the cat, just not spelled the same. Why do they call it that? Got me.
Even if it is holiday that may or may not be named after a cat or Rambo, these germans sure know how to celebrate it. And by celebrate, I mean turn the city into a war zone. Starting around dinner time and continuing past two in the morning, our fellow Leipzig residents lit sparklers, bottle rockets, fire crackers ranging from the *pop* kind to the *BOOM* kind, and fireworks whose handling should probably be left to the professionals. All these explosive festivities were going on between buildings, in parking lots, on street corners, and on sidewalks. They could have been going on in the park as well, where there's plenty of open room and less chance of lighting a 60 year old building on fire with mortar fireworks that don't clear the roofs, but we remained in the safety of our own (groundfloor) apartment.
Unlike the grocery stores in the states, where both of us specifically remember working late on New Year's Eve, everything here closed between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. Did we look at the holiday hours ahead of time to make sure we would get to the store in time to have food to eat for the following days? Of course not. But, as luck would have it, we got to the local grocery store an hour before closing time and managed (along with many, many other people) to get our last minute groceries.
Oh, and snowed. Looks wonderful--we're going to head off to the park soon for some winter wonderland fun.
Even if it is holiday that may or may not be named after a cat or Rambo, these germans sure know how to celebrate it. And by celebrate, I mean turn the city into a war zone. Starting around dinner time and continuing past two in the morning, our fellow Leipzig residents lit sparklers, bottle rockets, fire crackers ranging from the *pop* kind to the *BOOM* kind, and fireworks whose handling should probably be left to the professionals. All these explosive festivities were going on between buildings, in parking lots, on street corners, and on sidewalks. They could have been going on in the park as well, where there's plenty of open room and less chance of lighting a 60 year old building on fire with mortar fireworks that don't clear the roofs, but we remained in the safety of our own (groundfloor) apartment.
Unlike the grocery stores in the states, where both of us specifically remember working late on New Year's Eve, everything here closed between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. Did we look at the holiday hours ahead of time to make sure we would get to the store in time to have food to eat for the following days? Of course not. But, as luck would have it, we got to the local grocery store an hour before closing time and managed (along with many, many other people) to get our last minute groceries.
Oh, and snowed. Looks wonderful--we're going to head off to the park soon for some winter wonderland fun.
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