I'm Not a Very Strong Swimmer
Monday, August 07, 2006
We've been here a couple of days now, and its nothing like what I've expected. Everywhere you look you are inundated with a new bit of architecture, a new word to learn, a new custom to understand. I wish I were joking when I say this, but it’s exhausting. Every day I have to take a nap, I thought it was the six-hour time skip, now I don't know. I've jumped into this Bavarian lake, no ducky water wings, no piece of driftwood, and I think I'm going down. But damn it, its a glorious thing.
There are the things that are curious, for instance when Germans parallel park, they don’t park 12 inches away from the curb -- the roads are much too narrow for that. Instead they have about 90 percent of the car up on the sidewalk. No need to worry about alignment, the curbs is no more than four inches high. Next, going out to dinner. Being a northeasterner we must learn to slow down. The wait staff will get to you, eventually. Meals are a time of relaxing, talking and slowing down the pace of the day. Everything happens on its own accord, you can’t push it along. It’s not unheard of for a quick bite to last about an hour. The menu, other than being in German, therefore having to guess what you are eating half the time (can I have the Labskaus. What’s that? I have no idea but there is a pickle in it) is the alcohol induced splendor that is beer being the same price as soda, I have a feeling by the time we leave here, our livers are going to be on the verge of shutting down.
The hardest thing for me, I'm not sure about Turtle, is the language barrier. It’s frustrating when a five year-old speaks in coherent sentences and you are struggling with asking what are the specials. I don't expect that I will be fluent over night, but its rough when you are used to expressing yourself easily.
But you forget all that walking around. The city is clean. Quiet when you compare to those famous east coast burghs. We haven’t seen one part of the city where we feel uncomfortable (and we've been doing some walking). The architecture is beautiful. A mixture of Swiss aesthetics, Art Deco influence and Rocco posturing. For a city of about a quarter of a million people it is unbelievably green. You expect evergreens, chestnut, and shrubbery, but an English garden... well maybe, but 20 foot bamboo trees?
It’s hard to put down everything we've seen. Information overload. Within the first hour of going out everyday I think my brain turns off. Too much to process. I know sooner or later it will become apparent to me what there is and sooner or later I will be able to relate better tales, but for now I am basking in the city, drowning in it. Let's hope brain damage doesn't occur.
posted by Don Taylor @ 12:00 AM,
