Germany

German food has a reputation for being nothing but a big bowl of stodge. So wrong!! German food is hearty, and definetly geared towards a healthy meat eater, but it's tasty and comforting, and really sets you up well for a day of travelling.
Last christmas, my boyfriend and I started our first real European journey (as adults anyway) in Frankfurt. We moved from there to Nuremburg to visit the famous christmas market, then onto Munich (for my beer-obsessed man), before heading out of Germany to Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France.
My main experience with German food was the sort you eat when wandering at the markets, when you're almost turning blue from the sort of cold you've never experienced before...
Nuremberg sausages with bread (mit brot) and sauerkraut, Mulled wine (Gluhwein), hot potato cakes with sour cream or apple sauce, and piping hot mugs of hot chocolate (heisse schokoladen).



The bier halls too were pretty incredible, with wonderfully large plates of sausages, dumplings, pretzels, pork belly, or pork anything really!
I've been craving really good sausages since we returned home. And not the dodgy supermarket ones either, full of gristly nasty stuff, but real ones - the juicy, melt-in-your-mouth variety. I've heard of a place in Sydney that stocks them, so I think I have a day trip planned in the near future.
I would urge anyone to go and visit the European christmas markets, especially the German ones. They are special and magical, especially very early in the morning, when the vendors are first setting up, yelling "Morning" (or Morgen - in German) out to each other. Listening to them, and smelling the morning's first sausages sizzling away, whilst gripping on to my mug of hot chocolate... that is how I will always remember Germany.