Hairstylist

Today while getting a haircut, my hairstylist explained to me a little about how muslim marriage is done in her country. The girl and guy get together twice with the family and see if they like one another. During this time the families will go to each other's neighborhoods and ask all the neighbors what type of person this is. For instance smoking, drinking, and hanging out alone with members of the opposite sex are points against you. Then after ther 2 meetings the "lovers" will decided that they want to be engaged to be married.

This is very similar to my job in Emergency Medicine. I meet a patient briefly, gather some information from my exam and tests and possibly some info in the computer then with limited data I make a very important decision.

Search for my place

Upon my return from Germany I realized that I did not fit entirely into the German mindset nor culture. However it is not just Germany. At this point I don't fully identify with any culture. Where does this leave me?

The idea of a global city is most appeasing. In these cities it is very easy to phase in and out of various cultures and not be trapped into any one mindset. At most, there is a way of the city which is a mix of many cultures and people. New York City is one of these cities. The other traditional ones are London, Paris, and Tokyo.

Airport

The airport security was insane this trip. At the German airport I lost a stick of deodorant and my contact lens solution. The guard simply reprimanded me with "keine Fluessigkeiten" (NO Liquids). In the terminal I looked around me and noticed that there was a disproportionate number of people wearing glasses. Apparently they knew that there would be no solution allowed in flight and who wants to risk having your contact dry out on a long flight.

What was unusual is that the USA allowed contact lens solution on the way to Germany. Why would Germany's rules be stricted than ours?

Game night

A bunch of us got together to play games, drink alcohol and suck down candy at a very cool game bar. The menu had everything.

We played on game called Lupus in Tabula. In it there were three types of players; werewolfs, seers, and villagers. The seer could see who was who and the werewolfs would decide which villagers would get killed, and everyone attempted to find out who the werewolfs were. It was very fun.

WC

The Hamburg Hauptbahnhof bathroom was a ripoff. It costed 50 Euro cents and it didn't even have a sink to wash your hands.

Germany really needs to remove all of the pay bathrooms, especially in places like train stations. It should be a public service to have bathrooms for people to use.

Pomm-Doener

I thought I had found a gold mine in the basement level of the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. A turkish fast food place had on the menu a Pomm-Doener. I naturally understood this to mean a doener how I like it with french fries in the bread. When I go it, it was everything mixed except in a cardboard cone. I tried to get them to make it my way but they refused and would only sell me a piece of bread to do it myself.

Lesson - don't let a name fool you into buying something that is not what you want.

Smoking in Germany

The bus is now nonsmoking, furthering the eventual fall of smoking that will take just a little more freedom away from the smokers and give a little more to the nonsmokers. Europe is a big hold out for smoking.

I remember going to classes in Dortmund and watching people douse their cigarrettes directly outside the lecture hall and blow smoke into the room as they entered. Dortmund university has also become relatively non-smoker. The professors started the movement by smoking inside the buldings in designated places instead of outside in plain view. The students and others followed this trend such that it appears that smoking has been banished on campus.

Circus Hostel - my icon in Berlin

I have many fond memories of the Circus hostel in Berlin. In 2000 and 2001 I stayed here as I was visiting and also while I was working in Berlin. It had a huge sofa on which you could fit two people laying down head to toe. They played cool music and always let the backpackers play their CDs. The staff made the best hot chocolate I have ever drank. There was a bookshelf with "give a book, take a book." The place was clean and not too loud.

Things change. They now have expanded to incorporate two locations. The original location has been changed dramatically but it still located across from the Berlin Volksbuehne in the East. The place used to be very underground but now looks very modernized. My favorite sofa is gone, now replaced by rooms. They added a pool table.

Things stay the same. The hot chocolate is still the best I have ever drunk. Now I finally had a chance to share this nectar with Carol. The upstairs has the same hallway towards teh bedrooms with the same old cigarette machine and the same old German pay phones, which I used quite frequently since I never had a cell phone in Europe.

I would say that this was the most shocking experience for me in Germany to see just how much my favorite hostel had changed, showed just how much the world had changed and me with it. This was more jolting than seeing the infiltration of Starbucks all over Berlin.

Currywurst

I had my first Currywurst today accompanied by Pommes with Mayo. It is a very traditional food that I had to have before leaving the country. It cannot compare to the taste of the Doener. I have always found Turkish food to taste better than German food.

Starbucks

Starbucks has been my guage of civilization on this trip. Hamburg has 2 Starbucks being built. Dortmund has one in operation. Berlin has many.

One interesting observation is that the Starbucks do not have Venti size. Grande is the largest. Does this have something to do with the relative drink stinginess of Germany or are they making an attempt to be somewhat healthier by limited the portions of sugar and coffee.

Water

Water is always a big travel theme for Carol and I.

We were walking by the Brandenburgertor and overheard three elderly women in a group, obviously from the south in the states from their manner and accent.

One said, "that water is gassy, but boy does it do the job."

Education of the masses in Berlin

We were on a train sitting across from a guy, wearing a black t-shirt and commo pants, who was playing with his pocket PC. Next to him sat a huge fellow who reaked of alcohol and who could barely keep his eyes open. The huge fellow was curious about the PPC so he asked.

For the next 10 minutes the first guy explained everything you can do with a PPC to the second guy in a friendly and understandable manner.

Money exchanges

As I was paying for a water for Carol it really struck me that the Germans don't exchange money hand to hand. In fact there is a tray on the counter for the entire purpose of never having to touch each other or even drop change into the palm of another. Why is this and why do we exchange money hand to hand in the USA.

Does it have something to do with security or cleanliness?

Bussing it

The bus crowd from Hamburg to Berlin was A-ok. Not like the smelly, fat, out of it people you find on the American greyhound. These were "normal" people who were peaceful and made for a pleasant ride.

Shoe shopping

Today I went shoe shopping with Carol at the Gortz. The lady who helped me was entirely friendly and full of product knowledge. She accompanied us to the cash register and made sure everything was doen perfectly.

I told Carol that she must work on commission. Carol disagreed and said that shoe shopping in Germany is simply better.

After asking, we found out that she really does work on commission. Even so, she provided much better service than any shoe store I have visited in America. Are their role models Al Bundy in the states?

Tip Berlin

We picked up the Tip Berlin which is a hip city magazine with all the goings on much like Time Out NYC. In it the main article was 123 reasons to love Berlin:
- Berlin actually has shops open on Sunday unlike their richer Munich competition.
- You can look around you and say "everyone else also doesn't have any money"
- In taxis, you can drink beer, eat, and smoke.
- The #1 reason - the huge Wienerschnizel as big as elephant ears you can find there

Rain rain go away

In Hamburg there is a lot of rain. In fact there is enough rain that one could categorize it such as was done in the movie Forest Gump. It really poured on us today and we quickly ran from shelter to shelter as we were trapped outside in a quite neighborhood outside of city center.

Teamwork

Today Carol and I engaged in a lot of teamwork with our French friends. As we were strolling through Hamburg, Carol saw some fruits (Knallerbsen) and pointed out that the buds popped when you step on the them. Naturally we wanted to try, just as one likes to pop bubble wrap. The problem was that the fruits were located behind a tall gate and out of reach.

Each of us first tried to poke our fingers through the gate to no avail. Then we tried a new strategy. I pushed the gate backwards toward the treasure. Nathalie grabbed a branch and pulled towards our group. Olivier reached in to grab the prize. Carol was security and comic relief and our resident expert, who would know what to do once we claimed our prize. We gave it great effort but were unsuccessful. Then Carol walked a little farther and found another part of the gate where we could get the Knallerbsen quite easily. The pop or crunch sound was music to our ears.

Later we went to PlantenundBlomen park and found all the water games. We shot water streams at the center of a pool in which a ball floated. The object was to get the ball between the goal and there were 4 water streams which needed to be guided to make this happen. In the end my team won with a score of 1-0 but it was a tough battle against the Frenchmen.

Frauenparken

There is a trend in Hamburg to put Frauenparken (women's parking) in all of the areas I would normally expect handicapped parking. In fact many times there was only frauenparken and not behindertenparken (handicapped).

Will this trend make it to America? If so it will be another advantage of being married and will likely result in more time spent together as a family. Men will always want to go places with their wives instead of alone so they can get the good parking spots.

St Michael's Church

We went to the top and enjoyed the view of the city. We decided to walk down the stairs and on the way down heard a loud boom on a level next to us. I big bag of sand had fallen. We were with the French lovers so I shouted " run, the Germans are bombing us!"

Tipping

We ate at a German restaurant and were needy and even asked for free water for 4, which is a big thing, since the Germans are stingy with their drinks.

At the end, the French pair decided not to leave a tip. I left there feeling dirty. Later we found out that in Germany you should tip 5-10 % at a restaurant.

It appears that some tricks can't be taught to old dogs. When we dined at the Blockhouse steak restaurant, the Frenchmen plotted stealing the tip at the end of the meal.

Schwarzfahen

I came up with a great funny way to schwarzfahr by not buying a ticket then getting caught then asking someone to sell a ticket to you in the train.

Alex explained why that wouldn't work then went on to explain that in 2 years of riding you might get caught twice and pay 3 fines totally 80 Euros. But in a month of riding, the ticket costs 50 Euros. Do the math.

Meeting of the old and new in Hamburg

Olivier
Nathalie
Saski
Inken
Alex
Flo
Nina
Roland
Anika
Sarah

Fish market
Reeperbahn
Grosse Freiheits strasse 36 dance club
Stadtmittel Hamburgs
Restaurant in the alley

Hamburger

If you come from Hamburg, you are a Hamburger. This could lead to quite humourous conversations with Americans. "I am a Hamburger." "No you aren't, you're a freaking man!!" etc.

Carol's recognition

Flo, a true German, called my wife Carol very organized. He was incredibly impressed with the way she had planned our entire day. For Carol to impress the Germans about planning, she is truly amazing.