Consumenta

We had hoped to give the Germans we are staying with a taste of an American Halloween and set up a really awesome Haunted Woods on their property, which is perfect for such a thing. They have a bit of woods that borders part of their property and they have a truck we could have used to do a hay ride through it. However, it just so happens that the largest Expo in Germany started on Halloween day and Enzensteiner was participating in it. There was a lot of preparation that went in to that and it's a week long event that goes from morning to night every day so, needless to say, we did not get to have much of Halloween celebration. There are two hug jack-o-lanterns in front of the house though :) so at least we got a little.

So, the expo that I mentioned is called the Consumenta, and it happens every year in Nuremberg the first week of November. As I said before it is the biggest expo in Germany and possibly the largest in Europe, but I am not so sure about that. Enzensteiner was one of many breweries to tae part in it, but one of the few to actually have a brewery set up and actually brew beer everyday. They were testing out some really high tech brewing equipment for a friend of the brewmeister. It runs a full week from Saturday through the following Sunday, and I got to tag along on the first and last Sundays and check it all out.

There are 12 halls that house all the participants and each hall is the size of like, a small wal-mart, so you can imagine how long it takes to walk through the whole thing. Some of the halls have definite themes and some are just a mish mash of the leftover stuff. Food, restaurants, cafes, cooking demonstrations and the like took up 2 full halls at least and then there were random other places selling food in other halls. There was a health awareness hall with all kinds of doctors and homeopathic remedies and massage and the like and Brandon and I got to have a free health screening. Of course, we don't speak German very well so we could only understand about half of what the girl said but I did understand that she said we were very healthy. There were also halls for clothing and textiles, construction materials, roofing and hot tubs, fountains, kitchens, bathrooms, home decor, trinkets and lots of other stuff I can't remember. Half way through the week they open up another hall that houses horses and all sorts of horse accessories to buy, and you can go watch horses and riders performing.

We had a really fun time just wandering through and trying all kind of things that people were handing out. We got to eat some food we can't always get since we are in a small town, and just to see what all is out there and what people are interested in. The crowds were obnoxious as usual but I tried to not let it get to me. It was really nice to get out and do something totally different, after having been here for a month. Things are going well, and we are learning a lot and having a good time.