Tonight I went out for some food and it’s Sontag so many places are closed already. I decided to go with the old standby, Schlenkerla – I’ve been there five nights out of ten spent in Deutschland as of tonight. The area on the left for the locals was open again, the walls had been repainted I was told, and all the antlers had been replaced. I like Schlenkerla because 1) it’s open late on Sontag und 2) ist nur ein bier so I don’t have to a) try to choose od b) try to figure out what the barmaid is saying (yes they have a bock and a weissen but those are special orders and they end up opening a bottle and pouring it out for you – put that up against a real wooden keg with a brass tap and there’s nothing to choose and they know it). “Ein bier bitte” takes care of everything at Schlenkerla and that’s the way it should be. I had some bratwurst mit sauerkraut.
I was sitting for a few minutes when a couple came in and spoke to me, they wanted a seat I knew but I had no idea how to respond to them without acting like I didn’t know how to speak at all. I finally brought myself to say “Ich verstehen nur ein bisschen Deutsch”, I got half way through the sentence and the woman completed it for me. She must not have spoken any English though because she said “OK” and sat down and never spoke another word directly to me. The man didn’t catch this as he was hanging up the coats. Another man came in and sat down across from me and spoke to me. Having practiced once, I was much quicker and the woman interjected as well, I thought I recognized this man and it turned out I was right, I had seen him last Sontag and he knew I was American. A few minutes later the first man tried to ask me a question, so this was three in a row. Anyway, it turned out the man from last weekend spoke English reasonably, so he and I talked quite a bit. The couple were interested in visiting Thüringen and he was discussing this with them which he kept explaining to me. They have a different kind of Bratwurst in Thüringen among other things (there is also a cave system there where the V1 and V2 (that’s “Fau 1” and “Fau 2”) rockets were built during the “Second War”).
After a while a man came in wearing knickers and such, and I wonder if maybe he was a Jäger, I forgot to notice whether he wore a green pointed hat. Then a few minutes later a younger man came in dressed in a mostly black costume including a tall hat and carrying a bundle over his shoulder, which I later noticed had a not at all modern hammer in it, and he had a staff in his hand. He pounded the staff on the floor and yelled out and nobody looked at him and then he made some announcement. I thought maybe he was crazy since everyone ignored him but then he started walking around and everyone gave him money.
The man across from me said that the man in the costume was studying a trade, in this case woodworking and after he has the basics down he must go on a journey outside of his home area. He said this is a tradition that is only practiced in a few ancient crafts such as woodworking and baking. The craftsman must leave his home and go on a journey and not enter within a certain distance of his home for several years. This does several things, most importantly it prevents too many craftsman in one area competing and it ensures that craftsman learn new ideas from other areas. These tradesmen who are journeying are called Geselle. He said the Zeitung (newspaper – most likely “Fränkischer Tag” – i.e. the Franconian Daily) said a baker from the north of Germany is currently visiting Bamberg and he is learning the breads of Bamberg which are much different from the breads in the north. When he has learned enough he will be allowed to stop journeying and return to his home to take over his father’s bakery as the new “meister”. So it is with the woodworker, he will have to find work in Bamberg and it is traditional to give him some money to support him, just 0,50 € is plenty. So, I gave the Gezelle “fünfzig Cent”.
(Everyone is “the man” or “the woman” because almost nobody introduces themselves, so unless I ask someone’s name, I have no idea what it is).