Schwarzbiernacht!!!

After riding my bike for four hours yesterday and walking around Weimar for another four, I was pretty tired. But not tired enough to miss Schwarzbiernacht (literally: black beer night). This is an event sponsored by the Köstritzer brewery, the makers of a popular Thüringian Schwarzbier. For this event you need to have a wristband, which costs 10 euros, and this lets you into all of the participating bars in town, all of which had live musical acts. (Unlike, say, Halifax, live music in a bar is uncommon here.) In all there were over 3 dozen bars, restaurants, and clubs participating, as well as bands playing at the Goethe Gallerie, the shopping centre in the middle of town. I thought this was hilarious, that the mall was packed with people, all of whom were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and eating bratwurst, while watching a band play on a big set up stage. (People were lining the railing of the second floor atrium, dangling glass bottles of beer and lit cigarettes from their inebriated hands over the heads of the unsuspecting people below. But I've learned that in Germany you don't have to prevent accidents, just buy insurance to protect yourself from them financially.)

I wasn't sure how good it was going to be, after all for 10 euros on any other night I could buy myself four pints and still have a euro left over after tip, but Susanne and Calin and another PhD student, Hagen, were all going, so I figured I'd have fun. I really didn't realize that the entire city was going to be there, everyone from about 14 to about 65 years of age at least, and possibly some people from the surrounding towns as well. The city was jammed full of people, all out to hear some music, drink some beer, and eat some sausages.

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of some of the funniest parts of the evening, but here's a scene on Wagnergasse, a street lined with bars and cafes, just to give some idea of the numbers of people that were out.We ended up going to 6 or 7 places last night, and it was a good excuse to see some new places that I hadn't been before. To me, the most entertaining place was Nordsee, (lit: North Sea), which is a fast food chain of fish and chips shops here. It's not usually a bar at all, just a restaurant with a lot of deep fried sea food and potatoes, but tonight they had live entertainment and a bunch of beer in containers of crushed ice. And the entertainment was Käp'n Alfred, who was going to be performing Seemenschlieder (see shanties). Käp'n Alfred was an older guy with an accordian, a song book, and some back-up tapes for some of the numbers, so I wasn't expecting much, but I was more than entertained. Suddenly it was like being at a bar in Halifax where everyone knows all the words to all the songs, and they're singing along, except that it was in German, and it was in a place that was more like a McDonalds. This didn't stop people from dancing though! Interestingly, there were a couple of tunes that I recognized, but with different words. One was to the same tune as "Roll out the barrels", and the other shared a melody with "The Wild Rover", a staple of the Irish bars in Halifax. I wish I got a picture of the Käp'n, but it was too small a place, and seemed a bit too much like I was taking pictures of the people dancing in front. Sometimes I just don't like taking pictures in public places.

(I should also mention that while this was incredibly fun, the best band I saw, in the musical sense, was The Merry Poppins, this fantastic Austrian band who were playing at the Irish Pub. I wish they were a little more local so that there was a greater chance they'd be playing in Jena again!)

And of course there were lots of stands selling bratwurst, open late for the occasion. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the famous bratwurst here are pretty long, something like 25 cm, while the bun is at most 1o cm in diameter. It's really just a little grip to keep your fingers clean. They certainly do make great cheap (1.40-1.80) and greasy snacks to slow down the absorption of alcohol though. Here's a terribly unflattering picture of Susanne partaking in the Thüringian speciality: