Monday, April 11, 2011

musings from an offline world

In Germany there is no such thing as free WiFi. It is making it really hard for me to find an internet connection anywhere, so I've been writing offline and hoping to upload. Here are a few excerpts from the last few days:

07.4.11 Just landed in Munich and now am en route to Regensburg where my friend Albi lives. It's a beautiful day here, sunny and warm, and I could not be happier to escape the rainy confines of the PNW climate. The airline lost my backpack, so I'll have to wait to have it delivered to Regensburg, hopefully by the afternoon. Honestly, I'm quite happy about this development, as it means I am currently not lugging my entire travel pack through Bavaria - KLM will do all the heavy lifting for me. I'm pleased to find that my German, while missing vocabulary words that I once knew without hesitation, is functional still and allowed me to cope more or less seamlessly with the baggage situation. Now I'm in the train and listening to a lady argue with the conductor about her ticket. She has a pass that allows her unlimited travel within a certain zone, and we are currently outside of it, as the conductor emphatically continues to point out with the help of a map. The lady does not seem to understand, which makes me feel better because no matter how foreign and inadequate I feel regarding communication in this country, I am reminded that I am at least not an idiot. This lady is a native German speaker and my communications thus far have functioned at least 10 times better than her conversation with the conductor.
Actually, I really feel like I've come home. I mean, Germany is the only place I've ever lived besides Seattle, and I'm surprised how quickly I'm stepping right back into the swing of things here, at least as far as train travel is concerned. Then again, I did lots of travel by rail previously in Germany, so I would hope I'd be good at it by now. Unfortunately, I bought the unlimited card for today for myself only, when I could have tried to find fellow riders to share a group ticket and saved myself some money. To put this in perspective, the ticket I just purchased would buy you a week's Metro card in New York. So I had better ride into town today on the ticket to get my money's worth! Fair to say that my 12 hours of travel so far have earned me a beer at the Hofbrauhaus or perhaps a beer garden somewhere. The weather is definitely perfect for it! If only I had a bike to ride as well.

11.04.11 It is about 6pm and I am in my hostel in Jena, where I am about to fall asleep because I am still not completely used to the time difference. It hasn't been a full week yet though, so I'm not too disappointed in myself. I shouldn't really be allowing myself these naps either but when you're really tired, what else can you do? Jena is a cute little city. I'd never been here before today, and it is really quite adorable. There is a university here which would be fine for students, but this place is actually perfect for raising a family. I mean for real. It is just so quiet and nice and idyll that I can't imagine doing anything but raising a family here. Outside of that, there is really nothing to do in Jena. I've been here half a day and I already feel like I know the city super super well. It's crazy. The reason I am here is because my friend Travis' band is playing here tonight. The venue is the Rosenkeller, in the basement of an old stone building that looks sooooo metal. It is like decending into a dungeon with approximately 15 cells and it just keeps on going and going and going.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home