Doug’s World

Foggy Friday

I said I was too tired to write last night. WARNING: that too, has passed …

I took a walk around Freising this morning and snapped a few more pictures. It’s a nice town for pictures — lots of color and texture and cute architecture. But I haven’t really seen it in good light yet. I’ve been coming and going when it’s dark for the most part, and the times I’ve been here in daylight hours it’s been foggy.

Here are a few photos from this morning:

There are lots of spider webs around Freising, so I guess they haven’t had much wind lately. I remember my Mom, who grew up on the windswept plains of North Dakota, talking about how striking it was to see little piles of snow on the top of picket fences as an adult, since where she grew up the snow was constantly swirling around and didn’t stay on top of things. Where were those picket fences, Mom? DC?

This is my first time in Germany, and I like it. You’re right, Megan, we need to spend some time here together. Here are a few first-time visitor observations:

It’s clean. Damn clean. Oddly clean. I’ve walked all over this town, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single can, bottle, or paper bag anywhere. Hell, I don’t think I’ve seen a candy wrapper or a toothpick. Last night I walked past a tree hanging out over the street, and I realized there wasn’t even a leaf in the street under it. It’s not the wind sweeping these streets clean (as the spiders can attest), so how do they do it? I’m tempted to toss some trash in the street and then watch to see what happens to it. Anyway, there’s a pervasive tidiness to this town. Is all of Germany like that?

The people are tall. In Asia, I’ve always found it a bit annoying to stick out so much. I’m six feet tall, and in places like India or Vietnam people see me coming from a mile away and know I’m a foreigner. But here, there are lots of guys my height or taller, and I fit right in. I’ve had a couple of people talk to me in German, assuming I know the language — believe me, that never happened in Vietnam. OK, maybe that’s not just a height thing.

The stereotypes about Germans’ focus on engineering and a generally results-oriented approach seem to be true. For example, there are monitors down in the lobby of this hotel (a Marriott) that show the gate assignments and departure times for flights at the Munich airport, so you can see whether your flight is on time while you’re checking out of the hotel. Why aren’t there monitors like that in the lobby of US hotels?

I had an exchange with a taxi driver named Stefan last night that struck me as somehow very German:

Doug: I’m going to Octoberfest tomorrow, do you have any advice?
Stefan: Don’t take a taxi, it takes too long. Take the train.
Doug: Is it hard to find the Octoberfest place from the train station?
Stefan: No, you get on the train and follow the crowds of lederhosen. Get off where they get off, walk where they walk. If you follow the lederhosen, you’ll arrive at Octoberfest.
Doug: Have you seen a weather forecast for tomorrow?
Stefan: I pay no attention to weather forecasts, because I am in my taxi every day and I control my weather. My forecast for tomorrow is 21 degrees, same as it was today.

Everyone speaks perfect English. Frankly, people here speak English better than people back home. I felt the same way in India, although in India they all have that sing-song delivery that sounds like a comedy routine, and here they have that gruff gutteral delivery that sounds like a stern father lecturing his kids. No disrespect intended to my friends in either place, I’m just honestly saying how it sounds to me. Anyway, I wish Americans studied the English language as much as many non-Americans obviously do.

Oh, and here’s some advice for others who haven’t been to Germany: if you’re a guy, use the restroom with an H on it. The one with the D on it doesn’t have urinals, and after a bottle of fine German wine you might not even think about that detail until you’re walking out and a woman is walking in. Theoretically speaking, of course. I don’t know what those letters stand for, but my new rule of thumb is “D means DON’T!”

That’s what I’ve noticed so far. I’m sure I’ll have even more profound observations after Octoberfest.

I was planning to visit nearby Dachau today, like Steve did earlier in the week, but after taking a walk through the local cemetery I decided to skip it. I’d rather go watch drunk Germans laugh and carry on. A German tourist would rather visit the Super Bowl than Guantanamo, right? That’s how I feel, too.

OK, time to work for a couple of hours and then head for Octoberfest in the afternoon after the fog has burned off a bit. My buddy Francesco the waiter told me what train to take last night, and Stefan told me what to do after I get on the train: follow the lederhosen. What could go wrong now?

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 2:16 am. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.