No Swiss + Correct Beer Drinking Procedure...

I didn't make it to Switzerland after all. Couldn't find any reasonable hotels and the train to the French-speaking part takes a bit too long so I'm now not too convinced that it fits in so well.

It was strange to turn up unannounced at the local Esperanto club.

They were having their annual general meeting. It was all pretty interesting and afterwards I got a lift back to the city centre.

Turns out the bus with the Russian Esperantists going to the Universal Congress will be in Munich on Thursday so I might hang around for that. I'll probably get a free city tour with them and I might be able to get a cheap lift to Florence.
---------------------------------

Couldn't resist taking a photo of the Zeljko sign of course. It has a certain ring to it.


As good as place as any to park your bike I suppose.


Take note of the correct technique for drinking from a litre glass. Anything else will lead to a sore wrist so not at all condusive to a long drinking session.

BMW...

Interesting snippet overheard in a pub today. An American from some smallish city was explaining to a German why he couldn't buy a BMW. There is no BMW dealership in his city so he'd have buy one from somewhere else and he'd never live that down - not supporting his city.

The 3 day rule...

One of my fellow travellers once said - you have to stay in each place you go to for at least three days because it's only after three days that you get to know it. And this is proving true for Munich. My perception of it has changed a bit the last few days and I like it more now.

27-7-06

I went for a wander around town after lunch, just seeing how people live, stopping off at a few pubs along the way.

After a couple of minutes in one of the pubs I noticed a huge wooden phallus sticking up (excuse the pun) next to one of the beer-taps - a quick look around - aha, gay bar.



Maybe the firehose on the sign should have tipped me off?

While I was finishing my beer, the only other person in the bar asked me where I was from and of course this bloke had been to Australia. I say of course because it does seem to be true that just about half of all Germans have been to Australia, and whereas one in a thousand Australians has been to Alice Springs - all of these Germans have been there. And it's also universal that for whatever reason, Germans just rave about Australia.

Anyway, this bloke (in English), starts telling me that he couldn't go to Darwin because the air is too dusty - no, no, there is too much water in the air. To show that I understood I wanted to throw in the German word for humid. Only problem was that it immediately occurred to me that the word for humid and the word for gay are only a diaresis apart - namely schwühl and schwuhl respectively. Who knows, perhaps you just don't use the word for humid amongst gays. Anyway I couldn't resist showing that I knew the word for humid. He came straight back with Ja, genau, schwuhl ok, schwühl nicht ok. Then we both laughed - me, politely - he, rather lasciviously.

Monday 24th July 2006 - Munich

Well, the hotel's not so bad. Huge room but no need to pay extra just because in theory the room could hold 6 people.

Got thrown out of my first place today. I was at an outside beer place for breakfast (of course) and Katja was waiting for her chair to be cleaned and when the waitress came over and started cleaning the table I just mentioned to her that she might clean the seat as well and she went off and said 'I can't do everything at once blah, blah, blah' so I mentioned something about her being in a bad mood. If she hadn't thrown me out I would have left with a flourish anyhow. When I saw that the other places were packed and hers was empty of course I pointed that out at the top of my voice.

Beer for breakfast seems to be a common thing in Germany. How on earth is it that those German cars keep running? Maybe they're all made in China or something?

Checked on hotels and it seems the cheapest hotel is just under $100 Australian - and that's with the toilet and bathroom in the hall. Needless to say I'm leaving tomorrow. Probably I could have found something on the internet but we live and learn.

Did nothing today but wander around and check out the three suburbs that got a big write-up in the Munich in your pocket guide. Apart from some really interesting Persian restaurants nothing lived up to the hype.

Oh, we've got an appointment tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. We had to share a table at one of the many meals we had this evening and a bloke we had to share with decided he'll show us Munich tomorrow morning before we head off for Switzerland. Should be interesting.

Sunday 23-Jul-2006 - Poland and Germany (again)

Poznan railway station turned out to have a pretty sleepy feel to it. I found the Russian Esperantist I'd arranged to meet there and we decided to wander into town before heading back to Germany to take advantage of the travel anywhere in Germany for 30 Euro's up to five people week-end ticket.

The girl manning the hotel info counter at the station didn't speak Esperanto nor did the drunks sitting outside whom I asked directions from. I'm probably lucky they didn't.

Poznan city on a Saturday was pretty dead. It has a slightly run-down, should be busier than it is, eastern European feel to it. Well barely eastern European as it no doubt used to be part of Germany.

I'd read huge praises of it's old town so it was actually that that we were looking for. The old market square is absolutely huge with the usual restaurants/beer places all the way around it. It's strange when you think that every similar square in all of Europe has the same purpose - marketing tool for beer. So while the rest of the city was very quiet, the old town was where all the people were. And yes - it is just like Krakow - but without the kebab shops on every corner. It just had a couple of the usual old-fashioned touristy stalls - the ones selling postcards and souvenirs. And the obligatory for these places, horse-drawn carriage ride.

So after a quick beer it was back to the railway station. No beer in the station super-market - as good a reason as any other to leave Poland.

On the train back to Germany I asked the conductor about getting to Munich on the weekend ticket (not so straightforward as no super fast trains are allowed with it). I was surprised to see her type something into her German Rail hand-held computer and she then wrote out the entire itinerary down to Munich with about 6 train changes.

Much discussion at the station with some locals as to how to buy tickets for the local city network from a vending machine (we had to get to the main station). Glad it's not just me that has trouble with these things. The machine also dispenses the week-end ticket which was pretty handy at midnight.

So, just after midnight, still no bed, we're waiting for the first of about five trains that will take us to Munich by ten thirty in the morning.

The trains might stop at just about every stop but they are beautifully modern, are on time like clockwork - and above all - are full of a kaleidoscope of characters. Well what do you expect at after midnght on a Saturday. And being Germany it didn't matter how drunk they were, they were perfectly well behaved.

On one train I was mesmerised by some young bloke with the gift of the gab entertaining his friends with a complete run-down of the photos on his digital camera - complete with slide-show. He had a delivery unheard of during nine years of German study in Australia.

On another train a group of four nearly 18 year-old girls got on. They went from being bubbly to all falling asleep. But in the meantime the train's air-conditioning was on full so it became freezing cold. Not a good combination when you're falling asleep. One of them had shorts on so she was really suffering. She ended up pulling her knees up, putting her head through them, and cascading her long hair over her legs to keep warm. The one opposite with bare feet opened her handbag and put her feet in as her strategy.

I had a coup at Leipzig station. In Berlin I'd got carried away after working out how to use the ticket-vending machine and bought two of the week-end tickets by mistake. I was most distaught when I realised later, but Katja spotted some Asian bloke buying a ticket on the platform in Leipzig and I managed to stop him as he was feeding in the last five Euros. It took a while to convince him that I wasn't trying to rip him off but we both went away happy.

Several trains later - Munich. The beer is looking pretty inviting but the first priority is a hotel. We were pointed in the right direction by a taxi-driver. But there's always the problem that if you just look around the station, the hotels are either super expensive - or crap and just a bit expensive. We're in the latter.

All in all, a long trip from Hobart but great to look back on now that it's over.

Frankfurt - 22-Jul-2006

Absolutely amazing weather. That sums up Germany. Or perhaps it's just that we've had such bad weather in Hobart recently?

Anyway, as predicted I had no sleep at all the night before I left. That meant that I did get plenty of sleep on the three legs to Germany.

Air China? Pretty ordinary. I was tempted by the food but I was mostly disappointed. And well, a plane full of Chinese can be a bit trying. They can tend to talk pretty loudly and the bloke next to me seemed to be using something in the seat-pocket as a spitoon. I tried not to look too closely though.

It turned out Shanghai to Peking was a domestic flight and I did't have a visa. But it seems they expect that now and again and give you a free one on the spot - but it does take them about 15 minutes.

Immigration out at Peking took ages. If it's like that during the Olympics they'll be queueing up right back to the Great Wall.

Plane to Germany had a bit of a cattle wagon feel to it. Seats were five abreast in the middle. I'd hate to be sitting in the middle of one of them.

Deathly silence on the train to Berlin. Children are quickly shooshed if they get even a bit worked up. Beautiful light falling on the countryside. It's just struck me that it was six a.m. when I arrived - and probably daylight saving time. Could mean that it could get pretty hot later on in the day.

The concept of just hopping on to one of these trains and heading off to some strange destination basically anywhere in Europe is dizzying. And yet Germans come to Australia and think it's great - well they also watch Eurovision...

Berlin

Bloody oath, they're confident of their trains. At Berlin Ostbahnhof I made my connection by 2 minutes and about the same in Berlin-Lichtenberg. You wouldn't want to dawdle.

Train to Poznan is the Warsaw Express but so far it hasn't gone very fast. Very long carriage on a very hot day and packed with people. The person sitting next to me doesn't seem to speak Esperanto.

Thursday 20th July

Well, I've got my blog spot up and running. Pretty straight forward. Bloody nice concept.
Catching the bus at 04:30 Friday morning. Not much point going to sleep before that so it's either - extra time for packing - or more likely - extra time for not packing and still just having the one hour before I'm due out the door to actually pack.