The Free Market

November and December 2024

Esslingen

It had been a long overland trek from Turkey, all the way through Eastern Europe, and eventually I made it to here, to the town of Esslingen Am Neckar, near Stuttgart in southern Germany, to start my work stint.

This was my journey from Bolu, where I'd left my bike.

I took a bus to Istanbul, stopped there for a few nights, and then did the same in Varna in Bulgaria, Bucharest (capital of Romania), Bratislava (capital of Slovakia), and then went to Baiereck near Stuttgart in Germany, and then finally came here to Esslingen.

I arrived in the afternoon, and from the railway station I strolled to the apartment Holgi had booked for us market workers. I was amazed at the beauty of the old town.

This crazy guy was doing tricks as I walked past

A Syrian Tragedy

A couple of the guys had already arrived at the apartment, and I was met by Dilshad, a guy from Kurdistan, who fled Syria when the war broke out some years ago, and eventually made it to Germany as a refugee. He's a beautiful guy, and was so welcoming to me - as were all the guys, who arrived, one by one, over the next couple of days.

On that very first night Dilshad told me some harrowing stories of how his home city, Kobani, in the far north of Syria, right on the border with Turkey, had been almost totally destroyed during years of war in the region.

The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, after widespread protests against the brutal rule of the Assad family dynasty. President Bashar Al-Assad's response to the dissent was to order his military to bomb the shit out of his own people. He was supported in his brutal endeavour by Iran and Russia, while Turkey supported opposition forces.

A large chunk of northern Syria, populated by Kurdish people, eventually came under the control of non-government Kurdish forces, who managed to maintain practical autonomy from the Assad regime.

Unfortunately, the Turkish President, Recep Erdoğan, is a fierce opponent of the Kurds, as they populate large chunks of eastern Turkey, and, in the past, had fought Turkish forces to get more rights for Kurds within the country, and some aspired to create an autonomous Kurdish province.

Erdoğan has used the Kurdish issue to boost his own power, using them as a scapegoat for his own mismanagement of problems within Turkey, and he engages in regular military attacks against them to boost his strongman appeal to Turkish nationalists.

In Kobani, where Dilshad is from, the city was attacked by ISIS militants from Iraq in the midst of the civil war, who took over large portions of the city. Dilshad's mother was killed, and he fled. The US then stepped in, bombing the city to smithereens, which defeated ISIS, but also left most of the city in ruins.

Now that Bashar Al-Assad has finally been deposed as leader, Dilshad is very fearful that Turkish forces will attempt to end Kurdish control of the region.

I went to bed feeling incredibly sad for Dilshad and his family, the rest of of whom remain in Kobani. He showed me pics of the devastation there. It's hard for someone like me to fathom the degree of pain these type of events can have on people. Dilshad hasn't seen any of his family for many years, and is still traumatised by what happened.

But he's made a life for himself in Germany, and is a beautiful, warm and friendly man. We shared a room, and have an easy connection, including jamming to his amazing Kurdish vocals.

It wasn't Dilshad's beer, it was mine. He doesn't drink.

Work And Play

And so I began my long stint of 4 weeks of working at the markets, every single day, from 9 or 9.30 in the morn till 9 or 10 at night. So that's a 12-13 hour working day, every day for four weeks in a row, with just two mornings off per week.

But it was mostly heaps of fun - despite the long hours, the cold, and the repetitive nature of the work.

As I expected, the main reason for the fun bit was the amazing group of people I was working with. Almost all of them had worked at these markets before. Most were German, but there were also a few German-speaking Slovaks in the crew, and Dilshad as well, who also speaks German.

And then there was me. My German is pretty crap - which was a hassle when you're hanging out with a bunch of young Germans who are always speaking quickly, and who use lots of slang, and you're the only non-German speaker in the room. But at least I can understand some things, and I definitely improved over time. I also chatted a lot in English with people, but that was mainly when we were one-on-one, or sometimes in small groups.

But the language thing wasn't really such a big thing when we were together. We all connected in a really beautiful way, and I've made some really good new friends. It's always people that make your life amazing. It doesn't matter where you are.

And these people were the best of the best, most of them sorta living a little (or sometimes a lot) outside mainstream society, many of them uni students, and all incredibly warm and welcoming of me, one of the few newbies.

Strolling to work in our medieval gear.

Holgi and Anja own a few food stalls they operate at various markets around Europe, and it's a big operation. I worked in the falafel stall, making and selling felafel, haloumi or pakora wraps, and our team also ran a lángos (Hungarian deep-fried bread with toppings) and lentil soup stall, and a stockbrot stall, which sells rolled bread-on-a-stick.

Our felafel stall, with Fynn looking at me very suspiciously

Every morning we'd arrive a couple of hours before the market opened, to prepare for the day - chopping mountains of salad and haloumi, filling the multitude of large sauce containers for our three selling counters, cleaning up outside from the day and night before, doing this and that, and then having a breakfast from the bakery, all provided by the very generous Holgi and Anja.

Stefan and his daughter Frida

Tino, Fynn and Wlado in the morn

A random brekky. German bakery products are the best in the world, in my gastronomical opinion.

Holgi and Anja really looked after us - the shelf around the back of the stall was always jam-packed full of snacks that we could help ourselves to whenever we wanted - chocolates, fruit, biscuits, vitamins, sweets, herbal teas, coffee, drinks - we never went hungry or thirsty.

The usual suspects

On top of all that, the food stalls in the Medieval Market have an arrangement whereby all of the staff from pretty much all of the stalls can eat or drink from any of the other stalls for free - meaning we could just go and get whatever food and drinks we wanted anywhere in the market. A great arrangement for everyone.

So, while I worked hard for the whole month, with super long hours, I never went hungry or thirsty.

Spinatknödel mit Champignon-Rahmsauce - spinach dumplings with creamy mushroom sauce, from the Knödlerei. The bomb.

The view from the back of our stall, with Alex DJ-ing, which is what we call the task of making up and then juggling all the different orders onto different parts of the hotplate, (which is hotter in the middle), and to make it easier for the different servers to pick them up from whichever counter they're serving from.

When the counters are packed DJ-ing is a super busy multitask.

Serving the ants

Dilshad and I 'round the back

Sometimes it was super packed. I really enjoyed serving at the counter in German, but didn't serve when it was crazy busy. When someone said something I really couldn't understand I just asked them if they could say it in English. And most could.

I met heaps of people from all around the world, but mainly Germans, other Europeans, Americans and Poms. I didn't meet a single Aussie or Kiwi.

Stefan at the serving counter. He's an actor who specialises in impro, and has a great sense of humour, which you definitely need in his line of work. We chatted a lot, and have a really nice connection.

Alex is Peruvian, but has lived in Germany for a few years. She lives with her sister, but her parents and younger sister still live in Lima. She's great fun, full of beans, and we had a lot to talk about. She told me heaps about Peru, and showed me vids of her sister's traditional Peruvian dances.

Sarah flashing her polar bear. We had loads of conversations, jokes, card games, and beers together, and have a great connection as well.

Stockbrot

I'd really love to catch up with all these guys again sometime.

Stefan, Sarah and Anja sharing a joke

There was plenty of entertainment around, even though we couldn't see the nearest stage from inside our stall. The market employs a whole bunch of musos and street performers, who wander around, or perform on one of the 3 main stages.

The basketmaker's woven wagon blocked our view of the stage.

The Esslinger Mittelaltermarket Und Weinachtsmarkt

The market is sort of split into two - with a Medieval market (where I worked), where all the stalls are wooden, the staff dress up in medieval clobber, and they sell handmade things - and then a more traditional German Christmas market, which also had loads of handmade stuff too actually.

The markets are right next to each other though, you can just walk through both.

The markets are a huge tourist drawcard for the town, and even though many German towns and cities have Christmas markets, the one in Esslingen is one of the better known and larger ones. Loads of international tourists were there, the English speakers mainly coming from the US.

It got super packed some days

Ahhh, Glühwein, which is a delicious spiced hot wine, with orange juice and zest in it, and sometimes with a shot of amaretto or rum. I partook in one or two cups after work each night. It's delicious, both the red and the white versions. But its gotta be drunk hot. And it gets ya hot drunk, if some of the rowdy crowds around the drink stalls every day and night are any indication.

I had a beautiful connection with Chris, an English guy who's also lived in Germany for decades. He curated the entertainment for the markets and performed himself every day. Lovely man. He also happens to be the dad of Rhia, who worked with us.

Güny making crepes. They were delicious, and I visited his stall a lot, favouring the Apfelmus (apple purée) and Nutella/banana varieties the most.

These French women appeared lost, but then just wandered off, spreading their rice paper fairy dust around the place.

A blacksmith at work

The fireplace at the cacao tent hangout zone. The chillest and warmest place to be, both at the same time.

The world post-Glühwein

Nativity scene, complete with Mary's ass

There were medieval game stalls and rides too.

This kid is throwing metal stars at targets. He didn't pull any punches, I can tell you, throwing them at full pelt as hard as he could. I wouldn't wanna be a knight at the other end of him.

It was cold sometimes. Particularly when walking home from our favourite bar (Karmeliter) late at night.

Only €6 for a lust roll. So cheap. It was bloody cold rolling around though.

These guys were really great musos. Lovely guys too, all from Czechia.

The ladder isn't fixed sideways, you have to balance as you go up. This girl fell right after I snapped.

The Christmas market section

Anja spent the whole month at the market with us, but Holger was only there for the stall construction and dismantling, and for one weekend in the middle. When he came he brought their daughter Leah, whom I know from when she visited Australia some years ago, and also their granddaughter Mia.

Leah and I jammed one night back at the apartment. She's super nice, and has a lovely singing voice too. She happens to be a really good pianist too. Life is good, innit.

Mia and I on the carousel. I'm sure I had a better time than her. It's actually a manual carousel, two guys twist it around, which tightens a spring, and then they let it go and it swings around quickly in the other direction.

There's also a manual mini ferris wheel. The guys just spin it around.

Wow! 50c women! I told Sarah she was underselling herself, but she just laughed

So, of course, after a long day's work we often wound down by either going home and jamming around our kitchen table, and playing copious amounts of Shithead (a card game) and hanging out, or by going to Karmeliter, a cool pub that had a free jukebox with thousands and thousands of songs on it, where we also sat around and ate, drank beer, and shitheaded.

The men's at Karmeliter

Karmeliter vinyls art work

King Crimson, In The Court Of The Crimson King, from 1969

Hanging out together at night was, of course, a really great part of the day, and seriously broke the Goundhog Day nature of the working part of the day.

There were also a number of fun dinners and celebrations we had during the month - an opening and closing dinner at Indian and Greek restaurants, compliments of Holgi and Anja, an opening dinner put on by the local council, and Bergfest, a party in the middle of the market period, named as such because Berg means mountain, and we'd made it over the top, to the second half of the work slog.

The Bergfest punk band. They were pretty good in my opinion, but seemed to be extremely skilled at completely clearing the dance floor. The DJ was great though, I haven't danced in awhile, and it was so good to shake the booty.

Chatting with Oli at Bergfest.

Fynn, Tino and I at the opening dinner put on by the local council. They're both really awesome guys, close to the end of their physiotherapy studies. Fynn, Oli and Tino were staying in our apartment for the month, and we spent many nights hanging out and chatting.

Sometimes other people would come over and sing or play cards or hang out.

Our market team (almost all of us)

Oli and Fynn getting supplies from Rewe, our local supermarket

Our apartment.

Don't look at all the empties. And this wasn't the final pile either. But actually we didn't drink that much, there were 6 or 7 of us staying there at different times.

Tino's philosophy. I agree with him. Plus his biceps are almost as wide as mine.

I wish.

Shuffling home in the dark.

If you read my blogs from Georgia or Armenia you may recognise these guys - Ade (Wolf) and Ali - they came to the Esslingen markets one day from Frankfurt to visit me. It was great to hang out with them after work, and chat to Ade's daughter Tsatsa, whose mum is Chinese, and who loves playing guitar.

On the wall of the Greek restaurant. After John F Kennedy's assasination in 1963 his wife Jacki ended up marrying this guy.

One night, towards the end of the market, was the Fackelumzug zur Burg, (the fire-torch parade to the fortress), when everyone got fire sticks and climbed up the hill together to the old city fortress. It was super interesting. It had been raining in the evening, but luckily it stopped just in time for the parade.

Tino and I climbed up the top of a wall to get a better view.

It was really cool. There were all sorts of fire dancers, costumed creatures, and a band.

At the end the firedancers lit a bonfire in the middle, and everyone gathered around it, rather too closely for my liking, given how combustible everyone's down jackets were.

An Amazing Town

On my few mornings off in the month I basically slept most of the time. It was so good to be off my feet.

But I did go on a few small missions around town, for various reasons.

The town of Esslingen am Neckar has actually been a market town from way back in the 800s. In 1229 the bridge over the Neckar River was built, and it became a major trading centre on the route between Italy, Switzerland and northern Germany.

Unlike many cities and towns in Germany, it was relatively untouched during World War II, and, towards the end of the war, was peaceably surrendered to the Allied forces, meaning it wasn't bombarded and fucked up like everywhere else. Around 50,000 East German refugees moved there shortly after that war.

So the town is a really beautiful place, a classic example of a medieval German town.

The Rathaus, where those ratty local government officials work, otherwise known as the town hall.

Gothic spire at the back

The old city walls up the hill

Fearless and free. A memorial to the local men who died fighting in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, which Germany won. The declaration of war and invasion by France in 1870, and its subsequent defeat (including the fall of Paris) eventually led to the amalgamation of the Kingdom of Northern Germany with many southern German states. This created a strong unified Germany that usurped French hegemony over Europe, and, as history showed, would have a huge impact on the future of Europe.

School art

Bakery art

Don't know about that

One of many new 24 hr staff-free shops that have opened all over Germany.

It's pruning time

The school across the road

It was bloody cold sometimes. Quite often actually. Luckily we were working in a food stall, and there were gas burners and hot plates going all day.

Suddenly, It Was Over

Our last weekend was a killer, and everyone was trashed after a whole month on their feet, and by the fact that the last night culminated in the Apbau, the dismantling of all the market stalls, in the freezing cold.

We were done by 3am.

And then, suddenly, it was over.

Fynn, Tino, Oli, Sarah and I went out for lunch the next day, later joined by Rhia and Malika, and then most of the crew headed off on their trains and we all said goodbye.

It was sad, but we were also all pretty relieved to know that finally we'd get some time to rest.

I stayed one more night, moving into the women's apartment with Rhia and Malika, and spent the last night chatting with Malika, who told me all about the really fascinating upbringing she had with her sister Rhia and their brother, living in many countries all over the world, including in South America for many years. They now live smack bang in the middle of Sicily.

They left early the next morning, and I slept until the last possible moment, before my midday checkout.

So now my Medieval Market work stint is over.

It was a super beautiful time. Oli says that being there is like living in a bubble, because you're outside of your normal home, family, friends and work or study scene, and then you live, work and socialise with another bunch of people in a really cool and free market environment for a whole month.

It was a beautiful experience for me, I felt totally welcomed by everyone, like part of a big family, with everyone looking out for each other all the time, and helping each other out, and, of course, partying together.

I really loved all the singing jams we had, with Dilshad, Sarah, Charlie, Toni, Paula, Tino, Stefan, Malika, Rhia, Fynn, Micha, Jakob and Leah all getting into it at various times.

The work environment itself felt very free, we all knew what we had to do, and just had breaks when we needed them, making sure everyone else got the breaks they needed too, and that everything got done as it should.

It really was a free market.

Holgi and Anja are amazing. They own the business, but are really open, and do the same work as everyone else when they can (as well as all the extra stuff they do, of course, including all the organising of supplies and looking after all our needs etc). I felt cared for by them, and am super grateful.

And now it's all over.

And my plans?

Well, firstly to rest.

Next stop for me is to have Christmas with Carmen, my ex-wife, and her family, and to spend a few nights at her mum's place, which is actually not too far from here.

After that?

Well it's still way too cold to ride, so I'm off to very-likely-not-sunny England for awhile again, aboard the ferry from Dieppe in France, to Newhaven, near Brighton in the south.

Yeah, enough of this working rubbish.

I've got a pocketful of Euros now, to keep me going for awhile.

I have friends I'm dying to see.

And I have time.

Lots of it.

What more could a young man want?❤️

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