The Day it Snowed in the Dorf

I shouldn’t be this enthusiastic about frozen water particles, but I am. It snowed in Dusseldorf!

I woke up Saturday morning, opened the blinds to see big fluffy snow flakes falling from the sky and settling on the pedestrian street below. 

"It’s snowing," I yelled to a groggy Kata.

As an adult, I understand that I'm supposed to resent the snow, or at least feign resentment. It’s dangerous to drive in, back breaking to shovel from your driveway, and, for four to five months of the year, serves as natural fodder for water cooler banter in the office.

But a little bit of snow occasionally is nice, in some cases needed. Take the Christmas season, which I spent in Canada with only a dusting of snow. There are no carols called Green Christmas.

On the other side of the Atlantic, winter in the Dorf consists of greyness, high winds, cold-ass rain, and more greyness. I made fun of the darkness of Hungary once, but the Dorf''s grey, soggy, wet cold trumps that. 

And! While Toronto has gotten snow days and cold alerts, the temperature here sits above zero, with a wind that whips through the streets and a wet, rainy cold that chills you down to your bones. No wonder waterproof Jack Wolfskin winter jackets are worn by so many people they could be Germany's national uniform. 

Yes, I sympathise with everyone back home with their Facebook snow photos and Twitter complaints about driving in the stuff. I've been there, I understand. But winter is not winter without a bit of snow.

Anyway, we got some snow. So on this snowy Saturday, we walked through the Altstadt to a bakery for breakfast and sat by the window and watched the snow fall. The Altstadt is also the Dorf's party centre, so there was almost no one around, aside from the odd parent struggling to pull sleds carrying a kids dressed like eskimos. 

As the falling snow let up, we visited the Japanese garden – there is a big Japanese population in the Dorf, though not as big as the German population. Nothing was in bloom, of course, but the pond was frozen and the snow has settled on the trees.

I’ll let the photos speak of the garden for themselves, but it really demonstrates that a little bit of white makes the grey a little more bearable.

I'm not the only one happy about the snow. Check out this photobombing snowman:
happy about the snow and likely happy about being made. 

The Japanese garden.

A happy Hungarian in a Japanese garden in Germany, posing for the Canadian photographer.