Freiberg

Freiberg is an ancient mining town west of Dresden where silver (and other metals) were mined starting from the 12th century. “Free mountain” is so named as the miners were given their freedom and allowed to keep whatever they extracted (not like Aussie government royalties). Because of mining Freiberg was the economic centre of Saxony and the royal family spent a lot of time here to keep an eye on their money (including being buried here to allow them to check on their investments from the afterlife?!). According to the information booklet (yes I read one - this entry almost has accurate facts – shock!) the “friendly residents even today use the miners greeting”. I should really know what that is but I never saw it in uni. I suspect it has something to do with alcohol - over dinner a friends dad “introduced” me to some of the schnapps varieties in the area (as well as sampling the local Freiberger Pils). Half a dozen shots later I was allowed out of the house and safely into a pub. Beer, just what I needed! Not that more beer was a bad thing – at -5 and snowing the alcohol blanket was essential. After a few beers in the pubs we went wandering to try and find a pub for another couple (Joerg was keen to inspect all his old uni haunts, I was interested in more beer and less cold!) but it degenerated into snow fights and pressing our noses up against bars trying to shut up for the night. Somewhere in the drunken haze I managed to take one of the best photos Ive ever taken (submitted below for internet criticism!).
The next day found us walking around town in the snow – here are gratuitous snow shots because I don’t get to play in snow that much!
No thats not dirt on the lens - its snow!!!!!I never knew Tupperware was in Germany – let alone supplied company cars!
Later in the arvo we ended up in the worst internet place Ive been – strange since it was in a computer shop. To start the guy was a little coy on whether he had internet or not (something about the bondage outfit worn by the customer before us made me wonder whether “internet” was a codeword for something). The eight computers set up on a mezzanine level seemed to be a giveaway so he then began stressing about us not being able to download anything – not a big deal when all you’re trying to do is find a hostel in Dresden but important enough to tell us 3 times. The hard part was printing my train ticket. The instructions were: hit print, choose b&w or colour, done. Yeah right. Mr Utility Jeans (200 zips and more dangling cables/chains than available for sale in his shop) took a good 20 minutes to figure out the problem – umm, err, hit print, umm, err, hit print again. Check paper, toner and repeat. Eventually - someone hadnt installed the software. Excuse me? You have 8 computers and you can’t network them to a printer. If that’s what he can’t do in his own shop just think what he couldn’t do for your LAN. Good luck with your business mate – you’ll need it seeing as you don’t have any ability.