Guten tag. Sprechen zie deutsch? Ya, bissen. Deutschland ist solch ein schöner Platz, nicht ist es?
Wow. What an incredible week! I ate incredible food (Rindfleisch mit Kraüterbutter, Spatzl, Butterbrezel) and horrible food at an Italian restaurant. I had a beautiful lunch in Friedwald (after a 3 hour wrong-turn due to bad directions and really, really bad BMW GPS navigation). [Jenn kept calling it FreeWorld - as in "Keep on rockin' in a free world!!"]. Everyone thought that this was just a ploy to get out of work that day (it wasn't), but it was a nice drive and the lunch was fantastic. On the drive I noticed a number of wind turbines which were really cool - I just wish we had more of those here in the states. I also went bowling twice... once in Wiesbaden, once in Heidelburg - something I haven't done in years. I even went to a Wal Mart (?!) to find KinderEggs - but found that they were out of season.
On the first day there was some sort of wine festival going on so we walked the streets of the town it was held in (?) along the Rhein and experienced some local German flavor. After walking the festival, we had a lovely drive up along the Rhein to see some weird statue with plenty of history. One strange note, there didn't seem to be many bridges - just ferries to carry the cars across at numerous points. It was fun ordering an ice cream cone at a local vendor - I inadvertantly kept mixing spanish with german (If my coworker Jenn hadn't helped me last week - I would have had a difficult time indeed). When we walked out to the statue near the middle of the river via a landbridge, we got to observe some form of local boat race. One team wore some sort of uniform (and won) while the other looked like a collection of overweight locals.
On the last night, I went dancing at a Techno/Trance club in Darmstadt called "Stella's" (thanks to Pinar for showing me around). My god, some of those German women were SO hot. Many at the club were simply stunning... I was like a kid in a candy store. After 3 (drei) Jaggermeister shots that cost 2euro 50 cents (not quite $3) each, I was ready to dance. From what I was led to understand most German towns have an unusually high female to male ratio. Unfortunately, that was not born out in Darmstadt - despite being a university town. So many men, in such close quarters was confounding to say the least. I'm told that the guy that kept "bumping" into me wasn't doing it on purpose, but it still makes me shutter. I sure wish I could have met more of those girls... but that bland trance music just wasn't helping. Dammit, I would have killed for a little DMX; and would it have hurt them if they started earlier than MIDNIGHT with the real party starting at 1AM - I mean a guy has got to work to pay for the trip doesn't he?
One thing I noticed is that many of the girls looked like teenagers... but were actually in their mid to late 20s (and sometimes in their 30s and 40s). I'm told that this is because the german culture encourages sports and general phystical fitness for everyone well into their 30s. Here in the states the gut begins to explode after high school where most sports and exercise stops. By the time the average american reaches 30 they are considered medically overweight (some even obese) - leading to back problems such as the kind I occasionally have. ;)
Finally, I wish I was more fluent mit deutsch... it was embarassing to have to use English while I was in their country. [Damn my knowledge of Spanish - it has totally screwed up my haupt deutsch (that and it's been 21 years since I was there last).]
Danke. It's good to experience a different culture once in a while. Es ist ganz gut, prost. (It's all good, cheers.)
UPDATE: Numerous grammar and flow issues corrected. Man, am I tired from that 8.5 hour flight. Than again, maybe I'm still on German time (EST + 6).
UPDATE: I found more grammar issues! (Check even pointed out a few)
posted @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 4:23 PM