Where have you been?

Well, I'm back. I've slowly readjusted to my life back in the good ole US of A. Work has returned to normal, my jet lag is pretty much over (like as it would turn out most of my friends in Germany had, I had a little cold when I got back that made it harder to adjust), and so on.

While I spent most all of my time in Germany, I did have one more country to add to the list of countries that I'd been to: Austria. I found a cool site that lets you select which countries you've been to. You can click below to try it.



Create your own visited countries map

They even have one for states:



Create your own visited states map

A couple notes: It's places I've been to, like physically stepped foot on, even if just to change planes, or drove through, not necessarily places I enjoyed. I clicked Mississippi because when I was 18 I went through there on a train to New Orleans. Otherwise I'd never lay claim to being there. :-) Also it's why I've been around Arkansas, and never in it. I'd been to the Memphis airport (Northwest hub), so it's miles from the border, but never in Arkansas. And again, I'm pretty proud to say I haven't. :-)

Check it out!

Steig jedes Burg!

Okay, I went to Salzburg for the day. Salzburg is incredibly beautiful. It's nestled right at the base of Alps. It's no wonder the Sound of Music was filmed there. Although I must say it took me quite awhile to get any song from the movie out of my head.

Salzburg however was entirely run over by Americans. There were scores of tour buses that dropped Americans off by the hundred, showed them around, and then brought them right back to their hotel. I helped a family from Arkansas find their way, and since we were going the same way, we chatted a bit. And in this booming southern voice, the woman asks me, "Oh, have you been to Hilter's house? It's not far from here, and it's so beautiful, it's where Hitler used to spend his summers," to which I quickly said, "JESUS LADY! Stop dropping the H-Bomb!" It's not a name you mention around here. Alan and I have taken to referring to him as "That Guy". Even generations removed from WWII, there's a special amount of guilt around here because this was where he first rose to power. Just be a little more careful about it next time, hon.

So I ended up just going there, picking up a map when I got there and walking around. After spending 10 years afternoons of my youth of piano lessons, I had to go to see Mozart's birth place. And I'm no musical queen, but if I went to Salzburg without seeing a couple locations where the Sound of Music was filmed, I'm sure I'd be bitch slapped when I got home. I ended up walking about 40 minutes to this beautiful house right on a lake. It turned out it wasn't open to the public, but you could see it across the small lake very easily. There was a restaurant there when I ended up having a beer with the locals and just enjoying the day. Wünderschön. I walked back through some local small streets off the beaten path and enjoyed the local color. Beautiful. Words can't describe, but I'm sure the pictures I'm uploading can do a pretty good job. :-)

On the way back I chatted with a lovely pair of Grandmothers from Nebraska. They were staying in Munich, but went to Vienna for two days and were on the way back. We chatted most the entire way back. They were on a whirlwind tour of Europe, having been to the South of France, Italy and now Austria and Munich. I told the story how I shared our office at work with two other girls, and they two of them had the vacation the three of us had all had separately! They were an absolute delight to talk to. The one actually was a German American, and kept in touch with her distance Bavarian cousins. We exchanged stories of our different experiences with Europeans, good and bad, of course mostly good. It was great fun.

Blogdatum: Freitag, 15.09.2006

München ist hässlich...

The men are ugly, the beer tastes awful, the weather's been attrotious, and as all the Germans add to the end of their sentences.... NICHT!

Oh my god, Munich is like a fairy tale. The weather has been absolutely beautiful. It's been like 80 every day and 60 every night, my completely ideal weather. I've been extremely lucky. I'm sure it's just making up for my first trip to Munich last November, when it was cold and snowed the whole time. We went and checked out the Englischergarten and went down to the Chineshienischer Turm, a Chinese pagoda made out of oak in the middle of a Biergarten in the middle of Munich. I got a mass of Weißbier and some Currywurst with Pommes Fritz. Yeah, that was hell. :-) I have a picture. I think it's going on my desk. :-)

We walked through the park by a nude park right in the middle. The locals call it "FKK", which stands for "Frei-korper" something or other, or "free bodies". The Germans have absolutely no problem with being naked, as long as it's where appropriate. I remember we went the first night to a local pool, much nicer than the municipal pools of my youth. The sauna areas were clothing optional, and believe me you looked more out of place with a swimsuit on than without. Oh, mixed gender too. It was very strange as an American, but when in Munich. :-)

Later on Thursday, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the crazy weekend and rain were approaching, so we decided just to spend the day relaxing at a nude beach down by the Isar. Of course, there's a Biergarten right by it, run by a lovely eldery couple. Hey, when in Munich. :-)

I met the most adorable man from Regensburg tonight. We chatted along for awhile in German. Finally I said, "I have no idea if this translates into German, but in English we just say," and then in English, "What are you doing for the rest of your life?" He paused a second, and of course in a very German way, he said "Probably working for another 20 or so years and then retiring." "Falsch antwort," I smiled back. He smiled too. They're so literal here. :-)

So I was thrilled with the fact that I was able to get tickets for Sunday. It's the big tent day at Wiesn. I already have my Gutscheine for my Masses of beer. I don't have Lederhosen, but I am going to wear my "Kurzhosen" that I picked up in Cologne. Like "Lederhosen" (which just literally means "leather pants", but I don't have to explain to you what they actually are), "Kurzhosen" literally means "short pants". Like so much else, "Kurzhosen" are meant to signify the traditional German shorts (complete with the two zippers in front instead of just one), where as literally "Shorts" means what we know shorts to be. Viel Spaß. :-)

Oh and "Wiesn" is what they refer to as Oktoberfest around here. (It's probably a shortened version of the Thierenwiese, the name of the grounds it takes place on.) It's kind of the difference between "Coke" and "Cola". Everyone has Oktoberfest (Salzburg was preparing for their own when I was there), but "Wiesn" is the original Oktoberfest, the "real thing" as it were. Everything else is just a copy. :-)

Blogdatum: Freitag, 15.09.2006

Diese böse kleine Deutscher(innen)

Those evil little German women

So as I mentioned before, the deal in Stuttgart fell through. I had first class tickets to go there from Cologne on Friday, and then another to head to Munich on Monday. So I decided to stay in Cologne for the weekend instead, since at least I knew people there, then use the Cologne to Stuttgart ticket on Monday and then get on the Stuttgart to Munich

So on the Friday of depature of this full-fare first-class ticket, I go to the Hauptbahnhof to go change my ticket Cologne to Stuttgart from Friday to Monday. I walk up to the window and ask in German that I need to change this ticket from Friday to Monday. The woman looks at the ticket and looks very shocked. She asks "Why did you not get on your train today?" (in German). I answer back simply "Well, my plans changed." I had not formulated an excuse more than that, let alone translate it in my head for public consumption. "Moment mal," she says. She stands up and goes over to her supervisor.

She comes back and says "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. If you had come yesterday, I could have done something for you, but it is too late."

"What?" I pause. "This ticket is worthless?" I continue in now stammered German. I shocked. I didn't know what to do, again, in English let alone in German. We bantered back and forth a little bit. I'm sure I looked completely perplexed and visibly disturbed. "I had no idea. I didn't know. I'm here on vacation and this is my first time on Deutsche Bahn and this is a full-fare, first class ticket," I finally stammer out in German.

And then she starts to do something I couldn't understand. She grabbed her stamp thing, starts fiddling with it, stamps my ticket and starts to write something. As she's doing this, and I'm not understanding what she's doing, I'm asking "Was kann ich tun? Was soll ich machen?" What can I do? What should I do? over and over.

"Gar nichts" she keeps saying. Totally nothing. To which I interpret as "you're f'd." Now I'm getting mad. Not wanting to cause a scene, she hands me my tickets and I walk out. I figure I'll blow off some steam, catch my cool, and then figure things out.

So I walk out mad. I'm furious. 134 Euros (about $170 US) down the Toilette. So what do I do now? Do I buy another ticket? Do I just try and get a flight direct to Munich? And then I think, why didn't she try and just sell me another ticket?

So I take a walk down the Rhein towards my hotel. And I think. Think Joe, think. It's what you do, it's what you're good at. It's a beautiful day, unseasonably nice and sunny for Cologne, walking along the Rhein. I need just to clear my head, get a good walk in and then figure it out.

So I walk along the Rhein and go back into my room. I grab the tickets out and start to see if there's a phone number for a central office I can call. My plan now is just call them up, pray to Jesus and give them my sand story of the American who's German vacation went very awry. The Reader's Digest version of course, they don't need to know every detail. My story was that my friend in Stuttgart's aunt died and he wasn't to be there. Rack it up to artistic license.

So I pull out the tickets and I read what she wrote. I had to read it like four times to really comprehend what it meant. I understood the words the first time, but made no sense the first time I read it. It had a little stamp with the ReiseCentrum with the date 07.09.06 and the words "aus [unreadable] gründen gültig am Montag den 11.9.06 zu einfachen Fahrt".

Translation: For whatever reasons, valid on Monday, the 11th of September for one-way travel.

That pesky little German woman. It's a freakin' valid ticket.

I couldn't believe it. What she was doing with the stamp was changing the date on the stamp to the day's before date, and allowing the ticket to be used on Monday, and then wrote that it was valid.

Everything she was saying to me was you're f'd. Everything she was doing was saying I was good to go. That's why I had no idea what was happening. Her actions made no correlation to her words. I was confused as all hell and now I finally figured it all out.

But what she was trying to say wasn't "There's nothing you can do." She was trying to say "Don't do anything, you're good to go, now get the hell out of here before I get in trouble with my supervisor."

And so here I sit, on a train in first class going across Germany at 300 km/hr, just waiting to be served my sandwich and Warsteiner. And all because of that pesky German woman. I oughta kiss her. But that would be very un-German of me. But then again it was very un-German of her to bend the rules for me. And man am I glad she did.

Blogdatum: Montag, 11.09.2006

Ein Flittertag

There was a "Hochzeit" in my hotel on Saturday night. A good honest German wedding with a German volk band (not really the "oompa loompa" style... this was in Nordrheinwestphalen, after all). But one of my favorite words in the German language, and a word my German teacher would tell me about with great zeal was the term "Flitterwoche". It means the honeymoon. Much like the English word, the literal translation is difficult to attach to the actual meaning of it. Why does "honey" and "moon" together have to do with a trip to Barbados?

Anyways, Flitterwoche. "Woche" means a week, and Flitter, as my German teacher explained to me, is something that isn't real, it's just kind of out there. I.e., your "Flitterwoche" is that period of time when you're still just kind of high from the wedding and it's all new and unreal and you're not really back to reality yet.

Well, I had what I called a "Flittertag". It's not a real German word, and yet when I explained what happened in correlation to the word, the Germans knew exactly what I was talking about.

No I didn't get married. What I did this weekend was completely unplanned and really a forced change of plans based on the way it started. I was going to Berlin for the street fair last weekend. I'm now on a train going across Germany at 300 km/h headed very fast to Munich for Oktoberfest. What happened in between was totally in the air.

So my plan was to have something of a "Flitterwochenende", a couple little flings with people I'd met on previous trips to Europe, nice guys that if the circumstances were different, we might have dated over something, but live a third of the circumference of the planet away, yada, yada, yada, "und so weiter" as the Germans say. But since they do, hey, I'm here, let's meet up, have some fun, and just enjoy our time. And then afterwards, it's back to reality. One of them was in Cologne, the other in Stuttgart (although he lives in Madrid, he was there for work).

Well, the Stuttgart guy got let go from job and had to go back to Madrid, and the Cologne guy's aunt died and he had to attend the funeral. Keine Flitterwochenende. Scheisse. The best laid plans of mice and men, as the English say.

So here I am in Cologne. I'm not alone. I have friends here, not quite on par with the others, but you know me, I'm a very resourceful person when I need to be.

And so I just had fun. I actually slept the first couple days, and once everything got settled, I could finally get a couple decent nights sleep. And then came the weekend, and out I went. And Friday night I did.

And there he was. He was the kind of guy you just look at and I was stunned. He had these beautiful eyes that pierced right through you and a smile that could melt butter. He tall (a few more centimeters than me), a beautiful body, a little muscular, and just exactly my type. I had one thought on my mind the first instant I laid hands on you, and it was, ich will seine Kleidung abreißen. (The translation is not for public consumption, but ask me next time you see me and I'll tell you.) I walked by him and he smiled that smile that would make a grown man cry. My next thought was, this guy cannot be looking at me. I walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. I walked back by him towards the front where the strangely warm Cologne night air was coming in the open doors, and I never made it there. He says to me the words I will never forget: "Wie geht's?" "Es geht mir ganz gut," I reply back.

Yes, it was going for me much better now.

And so we chatted for a bit. I found out he was not German. (I'll keep his nationality out of this blog to protect the innocent.) He learned English before he learned German (he had only lived in Germany a few years), and so we began to chat in English. I had grown very much more comfortable with my German, and some people I chatted with entire evenings auf Deutsch, but he learned English in school, and was very comfortable with it, and it was afterall meine Muttersprache. And so it went.

So we chatted for a bit. I was meeting some other Kölnische friends there, and then later they show up. The smoking hot guy was just stopping in for a beer. He said "Tchüss" and headed out. I then went out with my friends with a big huge smile on my face.

So the next evening, I run into him again, same Bat place, same Bat channel. We chat a bit again, and he says he's going to a museum in Dusseldorf and wanted to know if I'd like to join him. Good lord, I would drink this man's bathwater if he asked me to. Of course I would go with him. I give him my phone number, and the next morning he calls me and picks me up.

And thus begun the Flittertag. He was a wonderful host, and we just spend the day going to the museum, chatting in a cafe, walking along the Rhein. We chilled out a bit at his place, went and dinner, and then saw me to the S-Bahn Haltestelle and I headed back alone to hotel. Again, he lives a third of the circumference around the world and wasn't looking to date at the moment. To which I said, well, I have a nonrefundable one way ticket to Munich leaving the following morning, so I'm about as safe and he could get. :-)

And that was that. And everything works out in the end. So maybe I didn't get my Flitterwochenende. Just a Flittertag. I still have a huge grin on my face just thinking about it. :-)

Blogdatum: Montag, 11.09.2006

Vergebe mich Vater, weil ich gesündigt habe

Forgive my trespasses, and forgive me for those who have trespassed against me.

And yet, now, all is right with the world.

I committed a sin yesterday. A sin only unto myself. I said forbidden words, and although at the time I had very good reasons to say them:

"Auf Englisch, bitte?"

Now hear me out. I was in line at Schöneberg Flughafen. A very serious German woman in Sicherheit asks me a question in German. I could almost make out what she said. In fact, I knew every word she said, just not exactly what she was asking for. I had made a promise myself never to utter those words here. And yet not wanting to spend a few hours in a security, and really wanting to get on my nonrefundable flight, I asked:

"Auf Englisch, bitte?"

"Can you open your bag and take the electronics out of your bag?"

"Ja, sicher" antwortete ich zurück.

And thus I did. And so I did. She scanned everything through once again and everything checked though again.

But tonight, I evened the score. I was in a bar, and talking with a local (in a Lokalklub, i.e., nothing English, don't play Englisch music, tourists go away), I was checking out and clearing my tab. They do it by name, and they said "Ihre Name, bitte?"

"Josef," I said. I had found out earlier it's an entirely uncommon name, even among Jewish people, probably apart of the German Angst.

"Seven Euros sixty, please," he said. Yeah, he asked me in English.

And thus I even the score:

"Auf Deutsch, bitte?"

"Oh, entschuldigung! Ich meinte es nicht, dich zu beleidigen!" He didn't mean to insult me.

"Es ist okay," ich sagte. "Ich bin Amerikaner."

"Oh! Ich wüsste es nicht, dass du Deutsch sprachtest!" He didn't know I spoke German.

And so, the score was even. Karma does have it's ways. And then, I laughed most the entire way back to my hotel. :-)

Blogdatum: Samstag, 09.09.2006

Zieg Herr deine Füße, Zieg Herr deinen Schuh, und sehe die fließige Waschfrauen zu

Sing the next line of that song and you'll know what I did today. :-)

My German teacher used to teach us songs to help us learn words and phrases of German. The songs are originally like for school children to do the same. But she liked to dance, and this one we would do such a dance. It translates to:

"Show the man your feet, show the man your shoe, and watch upon the industrious washwomen."

And thus we would do just that, a little dance where you show your feet. And the next line?

"Sie waschen, sie waschen, wie waschen den ganzen Tag,
"Sie waschen, sie waschen, wie waschen den ganzen Tag."

And thus would be the little dance we would do. We would make the hand motions like we were washing, and the make a big symbol with our hands, like it was "den ganzen Tag", the whole day, which in the old times, the wash day was the whole day.

And thus it was also mine. I found a Waschsalon down the street from my hotel. I had much to wash (including the new shirts I bought). And I washed, I thought of other verses, like "Sie hangen" (yes, they hang them) and "Sie bügeln" (they iron, although I didn't iron, one of the buttons on the Waschmaschine was "Bügelfrei" or iron-free... we would call it Permanent Press).

And it made the Waschtag go just that much more faster. That and finish up my blog. :-)

Blogdatum: Donnerstag, 07.09.2006

Like Final Destination, except for vacations

This weekend was doomed from the start. Now don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be here, I'm still having fun. It's just been a bit of a convoluted journey to get here.

I'm working on Plan, um, I think D, or E or something. Berlin went like clockwork. My plan was to go for Berlin for Labor Day weekend, then Oktoberfest, and the weekend in between was open. I tried a bunch of scenarios. I thought of going to Madrid, but my friend from Madrid was to be in Stutgart for a few months for work. I thought maybe there was this party weekend I knew of in Sitges, and I hadn't been to Barcelona yet. The party actually got cancelled, although I hadn't seriously considered it, given the distance from here. So maybe I'll do a little circle around Germany. A couple days with friends in Cologne, meet up with my Madrid friend in Stuttgart.

Like I said, doomed from the start. A few days before I left Germany, I get a message from my Madrid friend. His contract has been suddenly cut short, and he won't be able to be in Stuttgart. Well, I didn't konw anyone else in Stuttgart, but I did in Cologne. So I decided just to extend my time in Cologne. Luckily, I had changeable train tickets, and could easily reschedule them.

It gets worse. So my friend in Cologne said he had friends coming in on the weekend. I figure I'd figure something out (I'm rather resourceful that way), probably just stay in a hotel. I love Cologne, it's definitely one of my favorite cities in Germany (after Munich). Well, he calls me the day before I'm to leave to Cologne. His aunt died, and he needs to go to the funeral. At this point, and unlike my train tickets, my plane tickets to Cologne were not changeable or refundable. So I end up going and finding a hotel, as that was like plan D-2 if I couldn't stay with Patrick on the weekend anyways (the same hotel I stayed at last year actually, and it's cheaper than it was when I stayed here last, oh and they completely remodeled the rooms too, I remember they were working on that last time I was here), and just extending it earlier from just the weekend to the whole stay. Oh, and I negotiated it all in German. (Just had to say that.) :-)

I'm swearing to god, I feel like those kids on Final Destination, where somehow they escape death, and death goes after them to complete their fate. Not that that's going to happen to me, but like I said, I think this is like Plan E or something. I certainly hope we're done with the chasing now!

Anyways, I'm now here, I managed to go to Cox and grab a Kölsch or 6. It was weird. Being back there, still chatting with Dax the Bartender (although he's not fond of my German, that I'm not his type... I'm like 10 years too young and 50 pounds too light.... so I'm told!), being at the place where it all began. Although this time it's a hell of lot nicer weather. I think I just might wear shorts tomorrow. In case you didn't know, that's "Shorts" in German. :-)

So hopefully the rest of the time will go much better now. I was saying to a San Franciscaner in Berlin after his coat was stolen out of a coat check, there's always one unpleasantness on every trip. Nothing ever goes 100% right. And the unexpected little things that go right most always seem to balanace out the those that don't. And besides, I got a first class train ticket waiting for me on Monday to go to Munich. It was originally going to split up between Cologne to Stuttgart and Stuttgart to Munich, but it'll work. And did I mention, it's first class? :-)

Blogdatum: Mittwoch, 06.09.2006

Eine Zeit zu ruhen

So I flew from Berlin to Cologne today. It had rained in the morning, and while it was cool and windy in the morning, the sun came out, and it was warm and humid. Schlepping (not only Yiddish but German as well) stuff around to head to the airport, I was schwitzing away like mad. (Again, not only Yiddish but also German.) I had to go to Schöneberg all the way over in the former East Berlin. At one point I had to change trains. the line just ends at this point, and then we had to cross this big long bridge to connect to another train. I thought it was just a quick connect on the map. I thought to myself, would it have killed them to put the end of one line a little bit closer to the connecting train? Then I realized, yes, it would literally have killed them. The long bridge we walked over was where the former Berlin Wall used to be. (Now just a clearing.) We were connecting from a former West Berlin line to a former East Berlin line. Oh. I'll shut up now. :-)

So I made it Cologne just fine. I plugged in my computer, along with my PDA, my cell phone, my headset, my iPod... when i try to sleep, it looks like the lights of a small city off in the horizon. Everything needs recharging. The next day in Cologne is exactly that. I need rest like you wouldn't believe. Berlin was madhouse of go, go, go. This is my third time to Cologne, and I'm meeting with friends, but mostly on the weekend. Since I've been here before, there's not a lot new I'm dying to do, no big parties, although there's definitely several things. But I'm here through the weekend, so I can pace myself a bit better. Only thing I really need to do tomorrow is laundry. There's a "Waschsalon" just a couple blocks down. Not that I took a lot more clothes this time, but in Berlin, it rained a bunch (just a brief small shower here and there, I never even needed a "Regenschirm"), but the worst of it was it just all went into the air, making it real damp. Luckily it wasn't too warm. But still, I'd just sweat and it wouldn't go anywhere. Plus the fact that they smoke in the bars, so between it all, I got a lot of dirty clothes. It'll be good to get some fresh laundry!

For me, I put the "bitte nicht storen" on the door. I'm trying to sleep in, but I can't sleep for long. I don't know exactly why. It could just be 100 little things. An unfamiliar place, creeping jet lag (it is difficult to go here and try to wake up earlier and earlier), total lack of air conditioning anywhere (it's not hot, but I've always slept in a cold room, and I think it just makea it a bit uncomfortable, just enough like the princess and her pea, it just enough so I can't sleep). I think the biggest thing is I can't shut off. The voices in my head keep going over things over and over. What am I going to do tomorrow, how do you say certain things in German (außerdem, I was trying to think of how to say "besides"), is there anything I need to be doing. This vacation is the execution of months worth of work. I just wanted to make sure it's going well.

But so I'll just relax for a day or two. I'm already referring to Cologne as this trip's Paris. (Last year on my trip to Europe, Paris was between a party weekend in Cologne and one in Madrid... I ended up sleeping most all of the time.) And I know I'll need my rest once I get to Munich for Oktoberfest!

Blogdatum: Mittwoch, 06.09.2006

Mein letzer Tag in Berlin

Yesterday I took it easy. I started to do a little shopping and such. I stopped in at an Imbiss and there was a young American couple ahead of me in line. They were a very typical American couple. They didn't know or even try a word of German. They asked for a hot dog. The attendant at the counter asked "Would you like to try something different? Something a little bit outside of the usual?" The guy ended up getting the wurst, but the girl stuck with the hot dog. I just kept thinking to myself, man, I'm having such a better time than they are. They were just pointing at things, and you could tell it was a scary experience for them. I thought, why on earth would you go to some place and not attempt to enjoy it? And I realized why I love Germany so much, so much more so than many of my American friends, and especially those who don't speak German (although there are a number who don't and still love it).

Sidebar: By the way, I'm typing this in Berlin-Schöneberg airport sipping a Beck's. I love Germany.

So last night, I tried to find this bar a friend told me about. Mind you it's a Tuesday night. I didn't have my map with me, and I got a little off the beaten path. I ended up walking by a local supply shop for, who? Emergency service workers. Firemen, ambulance drivers, etc. They had the real deal, the suits, and jackets, everything. And in the window, I see it: Ein Berlin Feuerwehr T-Shirt, complete with the Berlin bear logo. I.... must.... have it. So my flight the next day isn't until 6:30 PM, so I have plenty of time to run out and get it before my flight.

So I do. I head right there and walk in. I go over to the t-shirts. I don't see any. A man comes up to me and asks, "Kann ich Ihnen hilfen?"

"Ja. Haben Sie irgendein Berlin Feuerwehr T-Shirts?"

"In Ihre Große?" In your size? he asks.

"Ja."

He starts looking. He can't find any other. And then he stands up and says, "Ein halb Stunde." This is one of those moments when I understand exactly what he says, but no idea why he says it.

"Wie bitte?" I ask.

"Dreizig Minuten?" OH!!! He can have one made for me in 30 minutes!

I think a second. "Ja, gerne!" So he picks out a blank T-Shirt in my size. "Ich gehe um und komme zurück," I say. I'll go around and come back.

"Okay!"

"Okay!"

30 minutes and zwolf Euro later, I'm the proud and happy owner of made-to-order official Berlin Feuerwehr T-Shirt.

And one annecdote richer. I walked out about high as a kite. Now whenever I wear it, I got one helluva story to tell about too!

Blogdatum: Dienstag, 05.09.2006

Ich bin heute ins Starbucks gegangen

Now, if you know me, you know I that when I travel, I don't do chains, or McDonalds, or anything like that. I like to do what the locals do. To that effect, there's still magic marker on my shoulder from last night to prove it. The story of it isn't for general consumption, but if you see me, you'll have to sing for me the first verse of "99 Luftbalons" auf Deutsch in order for me to tell it to you. Trust me, it's part of the story. If Homer Simpson can do it, so can you. But I digress. So when I did go to a Starbucks in Berlin, you know there's a good reason for it.

I finally got to do some sightseeing today. And man, meine Füsse schmerzen! I started off at Potzdammerplatz. Formerly a huge section quartered off by the Berlin Wall, now the freed area has become a major hub of commerce, where many international headquarters are based. But, they did have a memorial to the wall was, including large sections of the wall, and stone was set into the streets and sidewalks to show where the wall once stood. There was a memorial near by of the people who had died attempting to cross it. The story of it was quite depressing. And so for a little pick me up, I went and got myself a Vanilla Latte. Not just from any Starbucks, but one that stood in the former "Death Zone" of the Berlin Wall. I considered it my little "Fuck you, Commies. Yay, Capitalism!" I felt a lot better after that!

So I ended up walking all over the place. I checked out the new Memorial for the Murdered European Jews. I don't know that it's having the effect to most people that the creator intended. However, one is encouraged for walk through it. It reminds me a lot of a field of train cars, like those that carried the Jews away in the first place. When you come to the center, you have this feeling of being trapped, that you cannot see the sites around you, just only the sky above, the blocks too high to traverse. It carried its weight on me.

I went to the Brandenberg Gate, even waited a half an hour to go to the top of the Bundestag, the German legislature (more akin to our House of Representatives). The new German government took the Bundestag and put this huge glass dome on the top, and you can see right down into the chamber. It's build on the idea that government should be open, and thus, there are windows everywhere. Plus you can see much of Berlin from the top. No sign of Angie though. (Merkel) Still I'm very glad I did it.

I walked down to Alexander Platz into what was the former East Berlin. There are cranes everywhere in Berlin, especially in the former East. The road to Alexander Platz (formerly the main train station for East Berlin) is now covered in new hotels and embassies. In fact, the new American embassy is on it (you might thing appropriately enough where the Wall once stood). But it doesn't take long to see signs of the old. The Russian Embassy is shortly into it, and Aeroflot right door, still in their original buildings.

But East Berlin has been changing at a furious rate. I found it incredibly ironic that there was Galleria right in the shadow of the Alexander Platz tower, and a McDonalds and Burger King right in the Alexander Platz station.

Photos are now available, ohne Kaptionen for now. I'll enter those later, especially as several are needed. For example, the thing on my bed pillow is a thing of gummibears, not a condom, as Paul asked. In either way, they knew I was coming. :-) You might have to look at the detailed picture for many of them, and I highly recommend you do!

Blogdatum: Montag, 04.09.2006

Ich habe das Wochenende übergelebt

I made it. One crazy weekend in Berlin. On my last trip, my crazy weekend was the last one of the trip in Madrid. This time the crazy weekend was right up front. Having jetlag, staying out until 7 AM was like staying out until 10 PM in San Francisco. And so I did. I went out to all sorts of bars and clubs, drank so freakin' much beer (mmmmm, beer), and met up with friends, both visiting like me from SF and locals here. And on Saturday night I went to this dance party at the coolest venue. It used to be a factory down by the river. We get off at the U-Bahn station, and the address is on the same street, so we just follow it a few blocks to the address number. We get to the address, and it's these big apartment buildings. I'm thinking, this doesn't look like a disco. Then I realize people are going to the side of the building. It looks like this park, and so we start following them. There's only this dark path lit up by candles to show you the way. We follow it a couple hundred meters along the river, and it comes out to this entrance. We walk up the stairs and give them our tickets. From there, it's the collapsed ruins of this factory, and so it's nothing left of this part of the factory, but the foundation and what's left of the brick walls. It's been raining, so it's full of water, so we walk on these pallets to get to the back. There is an open air bar, and on each side is standing building, each with a disco and a different DJ. It's by far the coolest dance party I've ever been to.

And so yesterday (Sunday) was pretty much just recovery. I got my laptop on the Internet, and made some phone calls, made sure everyone knew I was alright, checked my emails. Then I went out and grabbed something to eat and had a couple beers. But I didn't stay out nearly so late. And also I wanted to get up the next morning and do some "Sehenswertigkeiten" (My German teacher made me remember that word: Sightseeing) and that world famous shopping Berlin is known for.

It was funny though. I often on my trips find myself in unbelievable situations. Not remarkable, just unbelieveable. I figured I'd check out the Wurst Germany is so known for, and I must say I had the best Wurst I'd ever had (play on words fully intentional). Like I said, not remarkable, but I was standing at the gay "Imbiss" (like a snack bar) right in front of KaDeWe on this beautiful plaza. It's right by the gay neighborhood, and so tons of gay boys coming by to grab something to eat (it being a Sunday, many of the restaurants were also closed) in various garb, ready for the night. And me with my Currywurst. Damn it was good. It was beautiful. It's good to be back.

Und so beginnt es (wieder)

Ah Europe. My third time here. Having arrived on a Friday, I got accustomed to things quicker this time around. I was worried that my German would be a little rusty. The worrying started a couple months ago. In San Francisco, one of the TV stations rebroadcasts Deutsche Welle. They broadcast alternately in English and in German, and while most of the time they broadcast only the English programming (along with programming from many countries), two nights a week they broadcast the German programming as well. I could record it and then practice my comprehension.

Well, two months ago they stopped broadcasting it in German. Scheisse! Use it or lose it, and I worried I would. I still could practice with my German friends "chatten" online. When my friend Uwe moved from Frankfurt to Santa Clara, I could practice with him in person, but he moved not long before my trip, I didn't have much of a chance to practice in person.

My worrying was for naught. On the flight over, they dubbed all the movies in German (or you could watch them in English too), but I watched them all in German. It all came back. In fact, after a day I was completely comfortable with it again, and little weird things came back to me. For example, it had been raining here (although, thank you God, as if you knew I was coming, it pretty much stopped right as I arrived), and I remembered out of the blue the word for an umbrella (ein Regenschirm), things like that which I'd never have to know but did. I got lots of a complements and even a few wondering why my German was so "perfekt". It's not perfect, not yet, but Jesus, I'm in Deutschland for 18 days, it'll be damn near by the end of this trip. For example, I didn't know the word for that little sticker they give you when you check your luggage (of course in German, that's all one word), but give me that much. :-)

Likely, I had the coolest thing happen last night, not dissimilar to something that happened to me in Paris on my first trip. I started chatting with some locals in one of the bars here last night. "Woher kommst du von?" we would all ask each other. "San Francisco," I would answer. And then the other one said, "Oh, I'm from Baltimore," in English. He's actually an ex-pat living in Frankfurt. But one of the guys in the group (a Berliner) really didn't speak English. And so around him, the three of us spoke German. As soon as he'd walk away, we'd just switch to English, and then if he came back, we switch back to German to fill him in on the conversation, often times in mid-sentence. Ganz kuhl, they say here.

But it's funny being back here. There were little things I had forgotten. For example, when crossing the streets, the lights turn green. (Grün Licht gehen, rot Licht stehen, they teach the kids here. I always liked that.) However, then the light just turns red. It doesn't flash, it doesn't count down, it just goes red. The first time I was a little dissettled, but you do have a few seconds to clear the intersection before the other direction turns green.

But it is my first time in Berlin, and I must say I'm quite impressed. It's an incredibly green city. Part of it is that is has been raining a lot here, and so everything is incredibly green. But there are parks and lakes and trees everywhere here. And the neighborhood where I'm staying is totally cool. There was an art gallery opening right next door. There are tons of little shops and some (although not a lot) of restaurants. Es gefällt mir sehr. (I like it a lot!) :-)