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Germany and After...
Jul. 31st, 2004 01:45 pmHoomba woot woot bang-pop, what a way to celebrate the completion of Alch. 1??
Germany kicked ass. The plane rides did not. It was worse going over there--we're talking an 11 hour plane ride, which when you add the second plane ride, customs, security, and general airport stuffs, translates into about 14 hours. And of course we're going forward in time--which means we never saw night, and ended up arriving at around 1:00 pm German time, which translates to, oh, 4 am Cali time. Then we had to stay up even later until at least 10 German time to beat jet lag. I have never slept so well.
We went to Munich first, and spent six days there, wandering all over creation admiring the incredible arcitecture and general art. We went to a couple of Schlosses (palaces), museums, historical sights, and in the midst of it all we decided we wanted to get happy, so we went to Dachau. I can't really talk about that one, I couldn't really see straight that whole day.
We went to Hofbrauhaus, a famous brewery, and I had my first taste of German dark beer. Yeah. No buzz, tho. I didn't actually down a beer until later on when we went to the Augustiner brewery, and I can say that German Augustiner Radler is very good, for beer.
We ate lots and lots of pork.
After Munich it was off to Berlin, which has a darker sort of feel to it than Munich. We went to the victory column, and Checkpoint Charlie, and Schloss Charlottenburg, over the course of about 4 days. It was phenomenal the amount of wall they were selling. Every single shop I went in was selling "wall." They must think all American tourists are stupid.
Brought back a Hofbrau one-liter mug, to commemorate that experience, and a shitload of postcards and coasters. Overall the whole trip rocked. I've been to museums and historical sights before, but you think of American history compared to European history--man, European history could run circles around American. This is stuff from the 1300's we're looking at here, bridges and buildings and other things that have been around that long. As for Pergamon (Roman/Greek/Assyrian/Islamic/Babylonian museum), that's thousands of years old, hoo-boy. And the art! The arcitecture! They love their architecture in Germany, I'll tell you that. They love their beer, pork and mustard too.
I think I might have eaten raw beef by accident. Shows how far you can trust a menu who's language you don't understand. I felt sick the day I found out. Wouldn't eat anything with meat in it for the rest of the trip.
I got a bit of editing done too, but not much to bark about. I devised a Self-Editing Checklist that I have to follow before I can turn it over to editors/first readers/publishers. It's very, very thorough.
One thing I've resolved to do after my stint in Germany is use public transportation more. They like their public transportation. No one drives there, everyone trains or walks.
Damnation. Today's a blue moon, absolutely perfect for spellcasting, but I've got no spells I need to do. And tomorrow is Lammas. I tried to find someplace nearby that would be having a celebration, but nothing doing. I'll have to figure something to do on my lonesome.
Auf Wiedersehn!
Germany kicked ass. The plane rides did not. It was worse going over there--we're talking an 11 hour plane ride, which when you add the second plane ride, customs, security, and general airport stuffs, translates into about 14 hours. And of course we're going forward in time--which means we never saw night, and ended up arriving at around 1:00 pm German time, which translates to, oh, 4 am Cali time. Then we had to stay up even later until at least 10 German time to beat jet lag. I have never slept so well.
We went to Munich first, and spent six days there, wandering all over creation admiring the incredible arcitecture and general art. We went to a couple of Schlosses (palaces), museums, historical sights, and in the midst of it all we decided we wanted to get happy, so we went to Dachau. I can't really talk about that one, I couldn't really see straight that whole day.
We went to Hofbrauhaus, a famous brewery, and I had my first taste of German dark beer. Yeah. No buzz, tho. I didn't actually down a beer until later on when we went to the Augustiner brewery, and I can say that German Augustiner Radler is very good, for beer.
We ate lots and lots of pork.
After Munich it was off to Berlin, which has a darker sort of feel to it than Munich. We went to the victory column, and Checkpoint Charlie, and Schloss Charlottenburg, over the course of about 4 days. It was phenomenal the amount of wall they were selling. Every single shop I went in was selling "wall." They must think all American tourists are stupid.
Brought back a Hofbrau one-liter mug, to commemorate that experience, and a shitload of postcards and coasters. Overall the whole trip rocked. I've been to museums and historical sights before, but you think of American history compared to European history--man, European history could run circles around American. This is stuff from the 1300's we're looking at here, bridges and buildings and other things that have been around that long. As for Pergamon (Roman/Greek/Assyrian/Islamic/Babylonian museum), that's thousands of years old, hoo-boy. And the art! The arcitecture! They love their architecture in Germany, I'll tell you that. They love their beer, pork and mustard too.
I think I might have eaten raw beef by accident. Shows how far you can trust a menu who's language you don't understand. I felt sick the day I found out. Wouldn't eat anything with meat in it for the rest of the trip.
I got a bit of editing done too, but not much to bark about. I devised a Self-Editing Checklist that I have to follow before I can turn it over to editors/first readers/publishers. It's very, very thorough.
One thing I've resolved to do after my stint in Germany is use public transportation more. They like their public transportation. No one drives there, everyone trains or walks.
Damnation. Today's a blue moon, absolutely perfect for spellcasting, but I've got no spells I need to do. And tomorrow is Lammas. I tried to find someplace nearby that would be having a celebration, but nothing doing. I'll have to figure something to do on my lonesome.
Auf Wiedersehn!
