Maybe not so cheap afterall

That last two days I've been subsisting off of mostly Christmas Market food. There are so many things I've obviously never tried, that I haven't really been able to pull myself away from it. None of it is terribly healthy, but they are all small portions and I've been walking so much, that I'm hungry every three or four hours. Things eaten include : Rote Freiburger Wurst (Red "Freiburg" sausage) that resembled a hot dog in taste, Gemüse Spätzle (vegetable dish with the German spatzle noodles) that was extremely good, crepe with Nutella, Dampfnudeln (steamed noddle) which is a giant balll of dough steamed and then topped with cinnamon and sugar and melted butter -- didn't like because the pure melted butter reminded me of eating lobster, steamed Kartofelpuffer which are potato pancakes serves with apple sauce which were very good, and others. Germans LOVE their bakeries -- at least two or three for every block that do very good business. Tonight I'm going for the Schweinebauch mit Brötchen which is translated to pig stomach with roll - my most "German" endeavor yet..
Yesterday was a lot of fun. At 4.30pm, I met a couch surfer, Eva, who was born in New Zealand but has lived in Germany most of her life. She goes to the "Uni" here -- tougher to get in then most of our universities -- and is studying several languages. Anyway, she whisked me away to a local cafe I would have never found and we waited a while but were eventually served a spiked apple cider that was very good. During our conversation, we were talking the prices of food, and I mentioned how everything is cheaper, you don't have to tip, and she corrected me in a very friendly tone that you DO have to tip. She works in a pub, and it's customary to tip 10%, and she was bitching about a very large and loud party of American girls she had Saturday night, racked up a 330 Euro bill and didn't leave a tip. I told her how I felt bad because I didn't leave a tip for my Italian server at the restaurant and I would have to make an addendum to my previous post...
Anyway, another girl, Anna was meeting me at 5pm, and she called me at the cafe when I wasn't at the designated spot. Luckily, it was two minutes away, I gave Eva the phone and she directed Anna to the cafe where we all shared another drink. (I hadn't heard from Anna for a couple of days, so I wasn't sure we were still on and the meeting spot was right outside the window.) So we were all sitting down -- two German girls who never met each other and me -- and it could have been awkward, but we are all fairly open minded people meeting total strangers from around the world, so it was fine. It was mostly in English , but they would occasionally speak German to one another and I'd stare at them with a smile on my face pretending I knew everything they said. I think it kind of eased some of the tension that each of them had a fellow German to talk to when the stunted conversation involving me got boring. FIVE HOURS LATER WE"RE ALL JUST TOTALLY MAKING OUT. Kidding. That didn't even come close to the truth. About 5.30 Eva had to leave to get ready to go work at the pub, insisted on paying depite my attempts to pay because I would have never found this cool cafe without her. Anna suggested that she show me around the city for an hour or two, and then go to Eva's pub and we can make it up to her with a big tip. Done. After Eva, left Anna reiterated that Eva is a very generous person because she also a student, and they barely have any money, which made me as determined as ever to leave her a great tip at night.
I got to know Anna some. She's studying biology and doing an Internship in Freiburg. She showed me two of the main gates in the city -- each built in the 13th century. (pic) She told me there are actually only two towns in Germany known for their Lebkuchen, and showed me a store that has Lebkuchen (gingerbread) from this town. She showed me where the laundramat I desperately needed was. She gave me about an hour tour of the town and the campus. After we stopped by the Chirstmas Market again, which being a local, she found cheesy, and got a Nasenwärmer (Nose warmer) -- a hot wine I was completely sold on by the name-- we went to Eva's pub. Eva was there, but working, of course. Anna told me she was born in former East Germany, Dresden, and her mother was spied on my the East German police before the wall came down. They had tapped her phones fearing that she was a supporter of the West German government. Anyway, good conversation... (Eva also introduced me to another American sitting at a table next to me, who is also from Chicago, but came here 10 years ago because of a girl. It didn't work out, but he chose to stay...)
We were getting to leave and Eva came to us with our bill. Anna insisted on paying for her part, and Eva turned to me and informed me my tab was 8 Euros, which again was very generous. I gave her a 10 , got my change, and she expectantly stared at me for a moment or so longer. I was waiting for her to leave so I could put the tip on the table, so the only thing I was thinking that she was waiting for was a good-bye?! I told her it was great meeting her, hit me up if she's in Chicago, and thank you for everything. We shook hands and she left ... As I fishing through my wallet for a 10 to place on the table, I felt Anna staring at me. I looked up at her and she was staring at me sympathetically and kindly informed me I can't leave a tip on the table because someone would probably take it. WHAT?! I was beet red as Anna told me that I am supposed to settle the tip with the server when I pay the bill. That's obviously why she was staring at me for longer than was comfortable. I figured she wanted a good bye hug. We were laughing about that for a while, she suggested I try to give the tip to Eva personally which makes everything 10X more awkward that it should be, but of course Eva wouldn't take it. I pleaded to her fellow server that I need to give her a tip, but I don't think he spoke English , and I had been speaking in English for too long to switch my mind back into German mode.
Long story short, I met two very generous people. I texted Eva on the way out thanks again, and then Anna and I capped the night at a salsa club. (For those of you wondering, Anna has a boyfriend and is a healthy relationship. ) I was joking that I learned to salsa in Miami and could probably dance her under the table. Unfortunately, she took me up on the offer. We walked into this club attached to the train station, it I didn't see a single soul there that looked slightly amateurish, let alone who had one hour tops of life time salsa experience. Anna let me cower in the corner with a beer while she found some dance partners she had known, and I just thankfully sat on the sidelines. Her boyfriend eventually came to pick her up , and we called it a night.