Germerican Denglish

So there we were, sitting in front of a parking garage in Trier, waiting to get in so we could go enjoy the heaven that is the Trierer Weihnachtsmarkt.  And we waited, and waited, and waited some more.  Was the Christmas market so busy that there was no parking, you ask?  That’s what we thought at first, that’s the only reason we were waiting so patiently in front of the lovely red “Besetzt”* light…….

Then a car appeared at the exit gate.  Hallelujah!  Our patience had paid off!  Once he put his ticket into the machine to leave, we would be allowed to enter.  WRONG ANSWER!  He drove away, and our little gate did absolutely nothing.  No magical green blinking light to touch to get a ticket, no sign of life whatsoever, just nothing.  Then another car left, then another, and another.  After about 10 cars had left is when I started to feel like I was in an episode of Seinfeld and had offended the Soup Nazi.  No Glühwein* for you!  And to make it even better, there was a line of other people waiting behind us.  However, I soon used my keen skills of observation to ascertain the problem.  See if you can find the problem…….

Do you see it?  If not, look very closely at the left side of the picture.  It might as well be a video actually, and it would look the same.  For anybody that still doesn’t see it, I’ll tell you. The exit gate was stuck open!  Didn’t move an inch.  Half of the people still stopped and put their ticket in, but most of the people just drove right on out.  Some of them were even quite humorous to watch as they tried to figure out what was going on.  After we were tired of feeling like we were on an episode of TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes or Verstehen Sie Spass I finally had the bright idea to push the help button.  That should solve the problem right away, right?  No, oh no.  It didn’t even solve the problem soon.  After the “phone” rang forever and ever, I finally got to explain the problem and they said they would send someone right out.  I might need to go find that person so we can go over the meaning of sending someone right away. because that was more like forever.  And just when I had all but given up, right before I was about to get out and ask the people behind us to let us out of line, it happened.  Like the sun bursting through the clouds or a gift from an angel, the little green light came on and we were allowed to get our magical ticket to enter the parking garage.

In the end, we had a good time.  We drank Glühwein, we ate Schhwenkbraten*, and our little Germerican got to ride the Carousel about 1,000 times.  That’s all it takes to make a trip to the Trierer Weihnachtsmarkt complete.  We could have had more though if it wasn’t for that stupid parking garage gate!

*German Glossary

• Weihnachtsmarkt = Christmas Market
• Besetzt = Occupied
• Glühwein = Hot Spiced Wine
• Schwenkbraten = Grilled and marinated pork steak, in this case served in Brötchen (a.k.a. heaven in a bread roll!)