A run in the evening

After an intensive day of coding and staring out my window at a mountain I should have climbed I finally dragged myself from the deathly grip of my laptop. I went running in the dark. It was actually quite nice. I wombled around the outskirts of Oberstdorf and randomly up into the hills a bit before returning.

It’s some strange Oberstdorfian tradition today. I had been warned about it. Guys dress up as monstrous horny things. I’m using the word horny to signify that they have horns. They also have shaggy hair and wear bells like the cows do here. They then clonk around the streets of Oberstdorf making a lot of noise. I’ve been warned that it is dangerous on the streets while the clonkers are clonking due to the possibility of being clonked.

Here’s what a local couch surfer said:

“Just to warn you: on Friday you should be careful on the streets, as there’s an old custom where the young girls of the village try to frighten the bad spirits of winter… that means that they dress like witches, drink too much alcohol and have sticks to beat tourists and boys… I also participate. 🙂 On Sunday it’s the turn of the boys. These customs might seem strange to people who have not grown up here but nevertheless it’s quite funny.”

As I ran down the hill two kids leaped over a bank to get out of my way. I soon found out why. They had mistook me for a clonker. A hoard of them approached me up the hill. Spotting me they began clonking ominously and running towards me. I ran over to the other side of the road so as to be hidden by the corner and ducked up someone’s steps to a house where I hid like a scared thing as they clonked by.

Maybe a better word for them is plonkers.