You might be wondering what Sturm and Conkers are... so was I the first time I heard these words. Here is the story...
It was officially the first day of fall 3 days ago. The leaves have just started changing and falling off the trees. My students started talking about playing a game called "Conkers" and naturally I thought this was the latest kid fad or some kind of toy. One student attempted to explain it to me, but I still didn't understand so I had to Wikapedia the rules.
Around the same time, I started noticing people caring bags of little brown nuts on the tram and metro. I wondered what they were and if people could eat them. They had clearly been collecting them from somewhere, but where? It wasn't until I went for a run in the Prater that is how I picked up on where these nuts could be found. As I ran down the running path, I was lucky enough to dodge these brown speeding bullets (nuts) as they crashed to the ground from the trees above. Americans would probably just call these strange nuts Chestnuts. But these are "special Chestnuts" but suposidly most people collect them to play a game. (ah... the connection)
The game
- A hole is drilled in a large, hard conker using a nail, gimlet, or small screwdriver. A piece of string is threaded through it about 25 cm (10 inches) long (often a shoelace is used). A large knot at one or both ends of the string secures the conker.
- The game is played between two people, each with a conker.
- They take turns striking each others conker until one breaks.
hmmm... not too sure I'll be playing this game, but my 2nd graders sure are crazy about it... I think I'll stick to the Chestnut schnapps that I keep hearing about.
Sturm is an entirely different story... I kept seeing this word posted in the restaurant and bar windows. Then a few soccer friends came to visit for a few days from Dubai, they discovered Sturm while they were out one day while I was at work.
Sturm is basically a young wine that is only produced for one month between September and October. It is made from young grapes right after the harvest. The shelf life of Sturm is only a week or two. They don't properly cap the bottles and it goes bad rather quick. It comes in either Rot (red) or Weis (white) and is quite cloudy. This young wine has a very sweet taste similar to champagne. I guess its another reason to be out and about in the fall and is what I'll be drinking until I'm freezing cold and Gluvein (mulled spiced wine) starts to appear in the streets! So for now...bring on the Sturm!
