Paved with Gold

Chicken wire

János woke the next morning in a fog. He had slept but not as well as the first time, and unfortunately without any dreams. The ride was bumpy and there were noises like children throughout the night to keep him from a deep slumber. The attendant alerted them that morning that they would arrive in Hamburg around noon.
Sure enough, the train pulled into the Hamburg station a few minutes before 12pm. It jolted to a stop and people immediately hopped up and left the cabin almost instantly. János let them go first and then followed suit.
Exiting into the dark train station, everything looked as it did in Budapest, except now there was German lettering everywhere. He hadn't spoken German in a while, and was hoping he could just get by.
The Amerika steamship didn't leave for another day, and János wasn't exactly sure what he would end up doing for an entire day and night. He imagined he would probably sleep on a bench somewhere.
János meandered through the train station and followed the crowd of people to find his way out. The sunlight shone brightly as he neared the entrance, and finally he saw beautifully tall buildings and a city square loaded with busy people. Again, it looked a lot like Budapest. Maybe all cities look the same.
He saw the same types of vendors with their carts, the same women and children hurrying to wherever they need to be. He walked to the center of the city square and stopped. Just taking it all in, decided what to do next. Of course he was hungry, but he didn't want to waste all of his money. He also didn't know if Germany would take Hungarian coins
János walked out of the square and down a little cobblestone path, waiting to find a secluded area. He passed people who smiled at him, and others who sneered at his obviously tattered clothing.
Ignoring them, he observed every detail on his walk. The winter air had killed any of the flowers and trees that he imagined were beautiful in the spring.
Dark moss still grew in between the stones of the walkway, and many of the buildings that lined the street had the same dark moss etched on their sides. He walked slowly, trying to draw out his day.
Eventually, he came up on a little stone cottage with a sign out front that was written in many different languages, one of them being Hungarian. He squatted down to get a better look.

Immigrants welcome. Bed and food for work.

The sentences were broken, but obviously Hungarian was not this persons first language.
It seemed to mean immigrants could stay in one of their rooms in exchange for working. Not a bad trade, especially since he had nowhere else to go.
János walked down the little driveway and gave a little knock on the dilapidated wooden door. He heard feet shuffling, and after a few seconds a tiny old woman opened the door and smiled up at him.
"Guten tag." János said in his best German.
"Hallo!" The old lady said cheerfully.
"Ich bin Ungarin." János said, explaining that he is Hungarian. Her face lit up.
"Oh!" She gasped, and then paused, making sure her next words were correct.
"You.... Need a bed?" She asked in decent Hungarian.
"Yes. For one night." János said slowly. He tried to break up his sentences and not speak so fluently so she could understand. "I will work." He finished.
She clapped her hands together one time and smiled at him again. She waved her hand at him to follow him, and started walking upstairs. She led him to a tiny room with one cot and a dresser. The blankets were nicer than anything he had at his house, and the room was painted a pastel yellow.
"Here is your room." She said in German again. She took his bag off his shoulder and laid it next to the bed.
She pulled him by the arm and led him back down stairs and out to her back garden area. She had chickens everywhere, and he could see her fence was falling apart.
She paused, trying to think of words he could understand.
"Fence. Chickens." She said finally. Her Hungarian accent was pretty good. She pointed at a roll of new chicken wire.
Back to her in German, he signaled taking down her old fence and said
"New fence?" She clapped, smiled, and assured him that's what she wanted.
Easy enough.
János got to work immediately. He started putting up the new fence directly behind the old one. When he was done, he would rip up the old fence. That way no chickens could escape.

The lady had a large yard, and it took him most of the afternoon to get everything right. Later into the job, he started to smell something incredible. A rich, smoky smell with something tangy. He looked in to see the lady at the stove.

"Ich bin fertig." János exclaimed that he was finished as he walked in the back door.

"Danke, thank you." She said with her back still turned to him.
János looked at what she was cooking, and could see fat sausages frying in a pan and a pot of what looked like cabbage. She fixed him a plate of three large sausages and a heaping portion of the cabbage, and laid it on the table. She motioned quickly for him to sit. He did as he was told.
She fixed herself a plate of the only other remaining sausage and a small bit of the cabbage. And sat down across from him.
"Wurst and sauerkraut." She explained and started cutting her sausage.
Sauerkraut! János thought. He knew of the word but didn't remember it until she said it. He had it once before at the bakery with Évike. They had made a German dinner for some travelers a few years back and he ate the leftovers with her.
He pushed the thought of her out of his mind and  cut into his sausage.
The taste was heavenly. So rich and smoky, and they had a nice crisp edge from the pan. The sauerkraut was so tangy and sour, but was so delicious.
János didn't realize how fast he was eating. He scarfed down three whole sausages and the helping of sauerkraut in a matter of minutes. He hadn't eaten that much in a very long time. He thanked her and they chatted as best they could while she finished eating.
He learned her name was Babette, and that she was 87 years old. She started to notice how many immigrants going to America and elsewhere were sleeping under trees waiting on their boat ride, so she decided to open a "free" inn, where the immigrants paid her by doing the work she could no longer do as an old lady.
Babette cleaned their dishes and then brought him a sliver of cherry strudel for dessert. He thanked her again and headed upstairs for the night.
János crawled in the cot in the soft yellow room and almost instantly fell asleep.