Monday, December 31, 2012

New years eve in Germany

This is how the last three new years eves have gone for me in Germany. I pop down to the local supermarket to buy a few cans of beer around 16:00. I find the supermarket closed. I then start to panic and rush to another supermarket. I find they are all closed. I start to sweat and panic. One year I found that I could buy beer from a shop close to the station. This year they knocked down the shop to do some development work. There is just a big hole.

By the magic of the Internet I now find that the shops usually close about 14:00 on new years eve. Unlike the UK, the shops just assume you know this. Anyway this year I did my shopping in the morning. It was a bit stressful, with the supermarket full of old people pushing shopping trolleys, and moving incredibly slowly. My beer is chilling in the fridge. I doubt that I will drink it tonight because I am going to the void festival.

When I was going into the local Aldi supermarket I saw a couple come out with what looked like
broomsticks. Later in the store I saw that the broom sticks were actually rockets. The other supermarket I went in was also selling fireworks. At midnight there are normally a lot of fire works set off -- now I know where they buy them from.