Doing What the Locals Do

As the full moon rose over the city (pictured below), I read a book while waiting in a coffee shop right around the corner from our first Frankfurt apartment until Fritz was released from his German colloquium.  I waited here because we were invited to have dinner at the neighborhood German restaurant with the academic crew from the colloquium.  

Pictures of the moon never do it justice, but it was such an incredible scene I had to try. 

When Fritz and I lived in this neighborhood, we passed this place every day, but never realized it was a restaurant or that it was home to "the hip local scene."  We were told by our new German grad-student friends that they come here often, sometimes in the early hours of the morning after a long night out when they aren't yet ready to call it a night.  They were well acquainted with the bartender here as a result.  

Pictured above is the entrance to the restaurant.  I can't remember the name. 

The restaurant was set in off the street and you had to walk through a private-looking, gated yard to get to the front door.  If it weren't for Fritz's fellow grad students, we probably would have never found this place despite the fact that we walked passed it every day for a week.  

Inside it was warm and lively in contrast to the quiet, somewhat abandoned look of the outside entranceway.  Fritz and I both did our best to do as the locals do and ordered the most traditional German meals on the menu.  

Classic Frankfurt Dish: Frankfurter Schnitzel mit Grüne Soße (Basically fried pork, potatoes, and green sauce.  Also, the letter "ß" makes a "Z" sound.  Before I knew better, I was guessing "B" since it kind of looks like a B, but that's the completely wrong end of the alphabet.)

I don't remember the name of this dish but it's ham, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and mustard. 

 Our meals were delicious and quite filling.  Perhaps a little lacking in vegetables, but still good.  Green sauce, by the way, has a yogurt based with 7 spices in it.  Our friends weren't complete sure what those spices were, but there was a clear consensus that there was definitely 7 in there. 

Here are our friends!  Johanna, pictured on the right, was in touch with us while we were still looking for a place to live.  These three are a lovely bunch and Fritz was thrilled to learn that our friend on the left is completely obsessed with American Football and LOVES the Green Bay Packers.  Just to put this miracle into perspective, Fritz couldn't find people to watch games with him in Ithaca, New York (which is in the United States).  What are the chances that he finds a fellow fan all the way in Germany?!  To give you a sense of what it means to be a true fan in Germany, you have to stay up until 3am just to watch the kickoff due to the time difference.  Now that is commitment!  Even though 3am American football is oodles of fun, we are are going to try to see a German football (soccer) game with these guys sometime in the near future.  And that would be while the sun is still shining.