In Which We Saw Some Things and Screamed a Lot

I won't have photos until tomorrow so I shall add them to Facebook and make this entry nice and pretty later. For now, perhaps I'll just stick with a list. You can always google image them yourself if you want to be jealous early.

On Wednesday Paul and I spent our first day in Berlin. We saw:

• Brandenburger Tor
• Bundestag (parliament)
• The memorial for homosexuals killed in concentration camps.
• The Jewish memorial.
• Tiergarten (the huge park in the centre of the city).
• Siegesäule (the big statue which was almost entirely covered by scaffolding)
• Wilhelm I Memorial church
• The Berlin Wall
• Checkpoint Charlie
• The memorial for Soviets killed during WWII
• Bellevue Stately Home (they say castle, but it's really just a flash house).
• Topographie des Terrors (Topography of Terror exhibition - Nazis in Berlin)
• Jewish Museum - a history of the Jews in Germany beginning in the Middle Ages
• Berlin Cathedral

We spent about 12 hours in the city. There is pollen everywhere. If you were asthmatic or allergic, you would not survive Berlin in summer. The spores cover the ground like snow. In the Tiergarten, there are pockets of nude sunbathers. I don't care really, it doesn't harm me, but it does show th differences in the countries. Imagine trying to sunbathe nude in the Auckland Domain!

We got a lift to Berlin from mitfahrgelegenheit.de - a website that is basically organised hitch-hiking. You search for people going to the same place, where to get picked up from, how much it costs (Munich to Berlin €30, whilst the train tickets start at €60) and then you go. It has the possibility to be dodgy, so Paul and I now own pepper spray, just in case (from the American shop). No problems yet though. The autobahn is cool. It's basically a straight line with the occasional curve, so one can see why it would never work in such a hilly place as NZ. The trip to Berlin took just over four hours - Mercedes Benz, 180 km/h! People hardly seem to indicate on the Autobahn, but getting one's licence takes so much more work here than in NZ. You have to be 18 and it costs approximately €1000 or something expensive anyway. There are lots of classes and tests involved too. Apparently, Paul's classes were disturbed to hear how easily NZers get their licences.

Wednesday night, we went to the hostel bar to play pool. Met some lovely Finnish people, Jenni and Juha, and had drinks with them (as well as a long conversation from 2-4am!) We hung out in Berlin the next day, visiting the East Side Gallery (artworks on the Wall), the German History Museum, the Berlin Aquarium (with SNAKES, Mum - and some tuataras from Victoria University). We went to a restaurant with a rude waitress (I refuse to tip you if you are unnecessarily grumpy) and I had some potato soup. It was about 32 degrees (89.6 Fahrenheit) that Thursday. Later we all went out to Plaza Toro, a mexican place outside our hostel (off Landsberger Allee, for future reference) and had cocktails and card games. I had a cubre libre which I am positive was purely rum with a hint of cola and lime for flavouring. Good night though!

On Friday the Fins left and Paul and I went out on our own once again. We saw the DDR museum and the Berlin Film Museum. Then we went flag hunting. This took way longer than it should have. We wanted a NZ flag for the upcoming World Cup, but there were none to be found anywhere. We encountered many rude Germans though.

One woman, when politely asked what kind of country flags they sold, replied "There are lots of different ones outside, I'm not sure which ones exactly and I don't want to go and check." And that was it. She promptly turned back to her magazine. Even the FLAG SHOP didn't have NZ flags and despite the fact that there was no one else in the store besides Paul and I, and we were clearly looking for something, the guys running the place didn't pay us ANY attention!

We eventually found a flag (small, paper) at the Checkpoint Charlie store. We went to a rugged Kiwi pub that night, which sold Flame, Tui, Export Gold and Monteiths. Fear not Dylan, it also had German beer. Spoke to a rather cheery, racist, old-fashioned American from Missouri (who also voted for Obama) and convinced the bartender that Paul was really called Rangi, from Huia. I showed off my beer knowledge and we didn't stay too long.

I went to the public square in Burghausen last night to watch Germany demolish Australia 4-0. They have these rituals that they do whenever someone scores. There's an MC guy with a mic, who says: GOAL! Everyone cheers. MC: *first name of whoever scored* Everyone: *last name* MC: *first name* EVERYONE: *last name* MC: Deutschland! EVERYONE: Heil! MC: Australia! E: Buuuu! MC: Danke! E: Bitte!

Looking forward to Tuesday's game, even if we do lose.

The One in which We Went Back in Time, and I Noticed Some Things

Things I have noticed since travelling to Germany:

(1) The keyboards on computers are different. Thankfully they have keys for all the umlauted letters, but the 'Z' and the 'Y' have swapped places. Some of the punctuation marks are in different places too, such as '?' and apostrophes require one to hold down shift, which is way annoying. Paul's keyboard was recently attacked by coffee, and is still recovering. Any spelling mistakes are mostly due to buttons not recognising that they have been pushed.

(2) The pedestrian crossings do not have buttons to push. The lights are always active, whether someone is there or not. Also, they don't make much noise to alert you that they are green, so you had better be paying attention.

(3) The German phrase for breaking up with your boyfriend or girlfriend is "auf der Mond schießen" or "shoot to the moon." In Germany, you flick them to the moon when th relationship is over.

(4) Broadband is super fast. You can load up a video page, push play and be certain that the video will load faster than you can watch it.

**FUN FACT** As I type this, I am drinking Sprite and eating Nutella with a spoon.

(5) Burghausen has an "American Shop". Guess what it sells?

That's right Weapons. Lots and lots of weapons. And lighters, NY caps and naturally, guns.

(6) The rumours are true. You can buy beer everywhere. Vending machines, petrol stations, movie theatres, McDonalds. Pretty much anywhere. At the petrol station, there are mini bottles of Jägermeister right next to the chocolate bars and packets of gum. And they cost about NZ$10 for 300ml. 750ml costs NZ$20. In NZ, 750ml of Jägermeister costs around $35. 500ml of beer, when bought from retail stores, costs aout NZ$3. They better have strict drunk-driving rules.

(7) Spaghettieis is available in Burghausen, but they only do the simple version (without the chocolate icecream 'meatballs'). It was good. The texture was a bit strange but it looked cool and tasted great. It was vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce and white chocolate shavings. And a wafer.

Paul and I got up early on Wednesday morning to go to Munich. Set us back €30, but it was for both there and back. 'Twas all very easy except for the part when the train was going to leave in five minutes and we hadn't yet bought our tickets, and there was a man in front who couldn't have taken longer if he'd been a turtle with arthritis. But we held our tongues. We're determined to be foreigners with ettiquette.

The tour to Dachau left at 12:30pm. We took the bus to the town, which is twenty minutes from Munich and houses about 40,000 people. The sky was growing darker as we approached and rain eventually fell upon us, setting an appropriately dreary mood. The camp itself retains quite a few of the original buildings, including the gas chambers and incinerators. The camp site and museum were thought-provoking and respectful, although I had to wonder at the poor taste of a "No Smoking" sign outside the crematorium building.

I also learnt that it is compulsory in Bavaria for German students to visit a concentration camp at least once during their schooling. It is recommended for students in other states to do so as well, but is not compulsory as of yet.
More photos can be found on facebook. None of the photos have me in them because I thought it would be in poor taste to 'pose' at a memorial site such as this.

The guide was informative and everybody seemed appropriately contemplative, except for one fat man who kept getting in the way of everyone's photos.

Heading home, we were playing 'Last Card' on the train. We were sitting next to a blonde girl and lamenting the fact that we hadn't made any travelling buddies to whom we could teach our game. Said blonde girl revealed she could speak English, her name was Theresa and that she came from Tanzania. Apparently 'Last Card' is almost exactly the same as a German game called 'Mau-Mau'. So we played card games on the train together.

On June 8, we are going to Berlin for four days. This weekend we may be heading to Salzburg, via Fucking. I promise to buy and photograph the light beer from the area, "Fucking Hell".

Kuchen und Bier und eine Burg

Saturday was my "Exploring München" day. Frühstück with Alina's friend was cancelled so we eventually left the house around 12:30pm. This might seem like a waste of time to any New Zealander, but that's the thing that I still am not used to. The European Summer. It hasn't yet grown too hot, but it's light until 9:30pm. At 5pm it feels like midday. It's very different.

We caught a tram and a train to Marienplatz, and considering how often we use public transport, I'm glad it's "free". Photos to follow on facebook. I saw Marienplatz, die Frauenkirche, Odeonsplatz, an Englische Garten and Leopoldsstraße - where there was a huge street party taking place! Very cool.

Munich has a population the size of Auckland, but the city feels so much bigger. I'm sorry to anyone reading this, but I really adore beautiful architecture, so lots of my photos are of buildings. Albeit, I did take a cool picture in the Frauenkirche of "der Teufelsfußabdruck" - the devil's footprint, where the devil apparently stood in the church before he was banishd by whatever Pope was being papal at the time.

We spent all day out and eventually had dinner at 9pm in a traditional Bayerisch (Bavarian) restaurant. I had a goulash meal with some strange buttery pasta stuff. It was really big and ridiculously filling.
And yes, Dylan, I had a 500ml glass of Radler. It was a good balance between beer and lemonade with a nice lime aftertaste. The head on these beers is quite intense and you have to wade through quite a bit of head before you get to the beer, but it keeps it fizzy for longer. As it should be.

Sunday: we went to see Paul's friend Jamie - who really loves Michael Jackson, New Zealand and Lord of the Rings - for lunch. Lunch was good and there was lots of German conversation - that I listened to.

Afterwards Paul and I left for Burghausen. It's in the wops of Bavaria. But the Altstadt (the old part of town) is really pretty. It sits next to the river Salzsach, so-named because of the huge barges that traveled the river with salt cargoes - back in Roman and medieval times, when salt was an expensive commodity. Austria is just on the other side of the bridge that crosses the river - I went there last night whilst looking for somewhere to eat. I have seen the castle that sits above the town and have partaken in cake (strawberry cream cake) and beer (helles Lager).

Tomorrow we are taking the train into Munich to go on a third reich tour Dachau is only twenty minutes out of town. Photos later tonight on Facebook. Promise.

Death by Flying Coins

Here follows "actual Europe". As requested. (29/5)



Ow. Headache.

My hair is poofy. Very poofy. It has "volume". It was worse yesterday after I washed it. I guess it's the different climate. I had it cut short for the sake of not needing to get it cut whilst in a non-English speaking country, but it seems to have doubled in size.



The napping on th plane did not work as a woman in front of me wanted to put her chair back as far as it would go, until it was on my head. How far back to those things go?

Excuse me, mam, but your seat is in my supper.



The flight from Singapore to Munich was really long. I noticed every hour going by and when I thought I had been asleep for ages, it had only been twenty minutes! And then it was all pain and fidgeting. I did watch these two interesting foreign films, and ye-gods, did I just use the term foreign to describe non-Hollywood movies? It must be the jet-lag.



(1) Exam. A British film, by a Mr. Hazel-something.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258197/
An interesting film on social reaction experiments. Reminded me of Das Experiment. Some of the acting was only so-so, but the characters were interesting. More proof that Hollywood isn't making the interesting movies.

(2) 14 Blades. Chinese.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442571/
It was like Lone Wolf and Cub meets Wuxia Pan. It was crazy.

By the by, Munich airport doesn't sem to have any immigration checks or declaration of goods. If anyone wanted to smuggle something in, I don't know where they'd stop you. A guy checked my passport but I didn't get a stamp. I'm technically not here.

Staying with brother's girlfriend Alina. Her place is nice, modern and cosy. Paul speaks only German with her and she speaks only German to me. I can follow her well enough, but at the moment, replying is difficult. I'm either responding with only a few words at a time or in well-constructed sentences a few minutes after she asked the question. There's usually an awkward silence or two. Thankfully, I'm not thinking too much about my sentence construction, but my vocab needs to catch up. But I can follow a conversation okay.

Also, I have not asked anyone the way to the train station yet. Although if I did, I wouldn't need them to show me how to get a ticket, because apparently they are unnecessary. According to some. That said, Munich is expensive and we take public transport all the time. On tram ride, for the whole of two blocks, costs €2,40. That's NZ$4.80! Ridiculous.

Also, people seem to throw money at you. Paul and I picked up breakfast before catching the train. After I paid my money, the woman behind the counter flung the change into this little glass square with a depression in the middle that sits atop the counter. One must reach up to gather the coins out of the bowl, whilst avoiding customers. It's troublesome.

Also, things I've noticed about Germany: the dawn chorus of birdsong starts at 3:30am.

(New Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged update!)