We got to Berlin on Tuesday 24th and straight away went to our apartment. It's in a street called Simon-Dach Str. which is "apparently" known in all of Germany. Lack of lift severely annoyed us due to the fact that we had to drag all of our stuff four storeys and lack of any sort of exercise in the last two months really showed after running up and down a couple of times. The apartment is huge... about 90 square meters which is more than enough for the two of us. And now we have it for a month. It's furnished and has almost everything we need.
But the funny thing is and that's something we've been asking ourselves - why is it that we always get to live in a flat owned by a single gay men who have distinct interest in pigs? In 2003 we stayed in a spare room of a gay guy who had a cupboard full of rubber and leather, police uniforms, gas masks, etc. AND his kitchen bench was full of little pig figurines. AND he didn't quite know how to talk to me... in fact he avoided me and disregarded my existence.
This guy we haven't actually met 'cos he's in Shanghai... and his female friend from the flat downstairs looks after the renting out side of things. BUT it doesn't take a genius to figure out who lives here. The kitchen and various appliances are either completely grubby or broken indicating absense of a female person. In the bathroom there is a poster of an asian guy from the navel up lying in a field of flowers. On a bookshelf amongst chinese literature (this guy is some sort of academic in chinese literature and history) there's books such as 'Tom of Finland' who was - as I discovered - one of the first to draw gay pornographic cartoons. Then there's a monthly gay digest... oh and the bedside table draw is full of sex toys... now why wouldn't someone actually take those out if the flat is being rented out I don't know. Oh and there's a little pig stuck to the mirror in the bathroom... and a pig calendar in the kitchen???? If someone knows what significance pigs have for gay men please let me know... AND if you're a guy I won't tell anyone! ;-P
The presumptions of gayness and singleness got confirmed by the above mentioned woman. She's apparently been friends with this guy since school and that he is indeed gay and originally moved into this flat with his boyfriend, who was from Taiwan... and because the boyfriend was an architect and was much more cleaner than the owner himself she christened him the 'Taiwanese Princess'...
Sunday, January 29, 2006
The little things (in Germany)...
- In a restaurant to celebrate the newly acquired residence and work permit was a poster on the wall which had in big letters written on it 'Gastro Award'... speaks for itself
- Jack's uncle Bernard likes his mints and he likes 'Fisherman's Friend'... however, he doesn't like whole ones, so he uses two sets of plyers to break each one in half and store it in his little mint box... very cool!
- Radio in Germany - with abundance of radiostations it seems that the only variety of music that this country listens to is poxy 80s pop such as 'I want to be free', poxy country music 'Achy breaky heart'.
- In a newspaper article about why young drivers slaughter themselves on German roads one comment stood out in particular "Drink driving is of particular concern especially as younger drivers are not as experienced with this"
- My knowledge of German is significantly improving... the Strassenbahn (tram) stop 'Allerheiligentor' (All Saints Gate) became 'alegator'. Meike, Jack's cousin, was teaching me some slang and 'Zahneschnite' (slice of cream) which is something used by chicks to describe hot guys became 'Zahne schnitzel' (which roughly means 'cream schnitzel')... and produced a good number of laughs.
New phone numbers
Heya Folks
We also have new mobile phone numbers in Germany. This means we wont be checking our Australian numbers very much (read hardly at all).
If you need to reach us and we have forgotten to e-mail you the numbers, drop us a comment or an e-mail and we'll sort you out...
We also have new mobile phone numbers in Germany. This means we wont be checking our Australian numbers very much (read hardly at all).
If you need to reach us and we have forgotten to e-mail you the numbers, drop us a comment or an e-mail and we'll sort you out...
Deutschland here we come!
So we've done everything that london has to offer so we pack our bags, say our goodbyes and set our alarm clock so that we can make the plane on time. There's a catch...
our alarm clock is my mobile
if one takes the battery out of the mobile it makes current time = 00:00
if one does not notice this there can be problems
luckily we have a cousin who's on the ball and at about 5 minutes before we have to leave the house to make our plane she comes in and says "so are the two of you going or what?". Picture that cute little Warner Bros. character - tassie devil, that was us stuffing the last things into our bags and our the door - made it to the plane too.
Arrived in Frankfurt no problems, except that for about an hour my uncle could not be found... well he could and it would have been in another terminal but we managed to track each other down so all was good.
This and other posts will continue shortly to include:
our alarm clock is my mobile
if one takes the battery out of the mobile it makes current time = 00:00
if one does not notice this there can be problems
luckily we have a cousin who's on the ball and at about 5 minutes before we have to leave the house to make our plane she comes in and says "so are the two of you going or what?". Picture that cute little Warner Bros. character - tassie devil, that was us stuffing the last things into our bags and our the door - made it to the plane too.
Arrived in Frankfurt no problems, except that for about an hour my uncle could not be found... well he could and it would have been in another terminal but we managed to track each other down so all was good.
This and other posts will continue shortly to include:
- why going to the australian embassy to ask them how to get residency permits etc... for Polina was a mistake
- weather - a relative discussion on the merits of the term cold (Melbourne 5, Frankfurt -12, Berlin -26 and Novosibirsk -60)
- dinner with my female identical twin cousins and and Irish girl
- food stuff - and how much of a difference it is here in germany
- pool mit Olaf and Meike, my cousins
- Applewine express & pretzels
- How attending an 18th b'day makes you feel old
- work, how to get it, why resumes are not always resumes and my first interview
- Finding places to live in berlin - unreasonable expectations of real estate type people
- ice hockey - just like cricket except that more happens on field
Horse guards pde, London eye, Dali museum, Toad in a holeThis
post will be fleshed out when we get around to it. For now it will suffice to say:
Horse guards parade = changing of the guard. Think people on horses standing around in the cold not doing much then stretch it out for an hour...
London Eye = the most expensive british airways flight when comparing pounds spent to miles travelled. The service is about the same as jetstar too...
Dali museum = this is one very cool tripped out dude.
Toad in a hole = british cullinary delights - yes it is sarcasm you can see dripping off that one...
Stonehenge
So stone henge you say, 48pounds each on the train and a nine mile walk from the trainstation you say, stuff that for a lark I say - lets hire a car and have outselves a road trip. On the way there:
One has to say it was a lot smaller than I though it would be from the TV shows and books I've seen about it. Not quite dissappointing, but a lot more compact as it were than I expected. Not to get me wrong, it was still big, and each stone was massive, but I guess it's more that I've heard so much about it over the years that it did have an awful lot to live up to. The audio tour (included with entry price) was pretty good - though given that this calendar / temple / pub was built many thousands of years ago they could have done with out "the ditch around the stones was dug by hand" "the stones were shaped by hand" "...by hand" "... by hand". We're not all americans and hence understand that not everything is done with cranes and power tools. Though I guess it does give them something to talk about other than "Here be stones, we know not why".
Other interesting things to note - tourists used to hire a hammer from the local blacksmith so they could chop of a lump and take it home. We've had to progress to postcards and "english heritage mustard" (wtf??) in the gift shop.
Zoya this one's for you:
So after all that history we couldn't resist wizzing down the road to look at "Wood Henge". Not that there's much to see - the wood having gone quite a while ago has been replaced by short concrete pillars. I think you'll agree though that these make a stirring sight:
We drove into Sailsbury and stopped at the old castle and old cathedral (which was pulled down so the stones could be used in the current one). Was pretty dark by then so no good pics...
Our last stop was one quick look back at stone henge at night time - well 5pm and hence completely dark. Here we had a nice chat with the security guards who get the "occassionaly hippy freak" but are always amused to be alerted to their presence as they stumble into either a) the sheep or b) the thigh high almost invisible wire carrying a little electric surprise.
One last note on this conversation - why of all the flaming cricket teams did we have to lose to a bunch of whining poms? *grrrr*
The drive back to london was completely un-eventful, it simply taking an hour or so extra as we looked at some of the interesting by ways through ye olde londone towne. Note to potential travellers, although the street map may indicate that the road you are on is a large road, that goes straight to your destination - do not be fooled. There will be (without any mention on the map) barriers across the road, corners where there have no right to be corners and the occasional black hole. I think this method of keeping cars out of the city is a much better initiative than the congestion tax.
One has to say it was a lot smaller than I though it would be from the TV shows and books I've seen about it. Not quite dissappointing, but a lot more compact as it were than I expected. Not to get me wrong, it was still big, and each stone was massive, but I guess it's more that I've heard so much about it over the years that it did have an awful lot to live up to. The audio tour (included with entry price) was pretty good - though given that this calendar / temple / pub was built many thousands of years ago they could have done with out "the ditch around the stones was dug by hand" "the stones were shaped by hand" "...by hand" "... by hand". We're not all americans and hence understand that not everything is done with cranes and power tools. Though I guess it does give them something to talk about other than "Here be stones, we know not why".
Other interesting things to note - tourists used to hire a hammer from the local blacksmith so they could chop of a lump and take it home. We've had to progress to postcards and "english heritage mustard" (wtf??) in the gift shop.
Zoya this one's for you:
So after all that history we couldn't resist wizzing down the road to look at "Wood Henge". Not that there's much to see - the wood having gone quite a while ago has been replaced by short concrete pillars. I think you'll agree though that these make a stirring sight:
We drove into Sailsbury and stopped at the old castle and old cathedral (which was pulled down so the stones could be used in the current one). Was pretty dark by then so no good pics...
Our last stop was one quick look back at stone henge at night time - well 5pm and hence completely dark. Here we had a nice chat with the security guards who get the "occassionaly hippy freak" but are always amused to be alerted to their presence as they stumble into either a) the sheep or b) the thigh high almost invisible wire carrying a little electric surprise.
One last note on this conversation - why of all the flaming cricket teams did we have to lose to a bunch of whining poms? *grrrr*
The drive back to london was completely un-eventful, it simply taking an hour or so extra as we looked at some of the interesting by ways through ye olde londone towne. Note to potential travellers, although the street map may indicate that the road you are on is a large road, that goes straight to your destination - do not be fooled. There will be (without any mention on the map) barriers across the road, corners where there have no right to be corners and the occasional black hole. I think this method of keeping cars out of the city is a much better initiative than the congestion tax.
We're really really really sorry
Yes yes - we know *guilty look*... excuse:
lotsa stuff to do when you're moving countries, hemispheres and generally dangle right-side-up on the other side of this small planet we call Earth. Right now we're driving to Berlin from Frankfurt am Main and are doing an average of 110 on the autobarn... we're overtaking trucks on the left the windwipers are used instead of the indicator (to be fair though the speed limit is 120 for most of the drive). But I think we overcame the biggest challenge thus far - the roundabout! Now not only do you approach it on the right side, but you have to watch out for cars coming from the LEFT! Just to make sure it was safe we checked both sides... just in case :)
Last time we left off in London so to attempt to catch up from where we left off...
lotsa stuff to do when you're moving countries, hemispheres and generally dangle right-side-up on the other side of this small planet we call Earth. Right now we're driving to Berlin from Frankfurt am Main and are doing an average of 110 on the autobarn... we're overtaking trucks on the left the windwipers are used instead of the indicator (to be fair though the speed limit is 120 for most of the drive). But I think we overcame the biggest challenge thus far - the roundabout! Now not only do you approach it on the right side, but you have to watch out for cars coming from the LEFT! Just to make sure it was safe we checked both sides... just in case :)
Last time we left off in London so to attempt to catch up from where we left off...
Friday, January 13, 2006
London ends, Germany begins
One drunken evening:
Four people - friendship is priceless;
One bottle of Grey Goose - 30 pounds
Three beers - 3 pounds
One large bowl icecream - big mistake.
Man was I ever seedy well into the next day...
A visit to the 221b Baker Street is 'Elementary my dear Watson'
Complete with props, wax figures etc...
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
London through pictures
Previously mentioned roast piggy courtesy of South African chef - aka Clive, can be observed in the following picture (Disclaimer: actual size of pig may vary from the photo)
Also previously mentioned climb of St Pauls cathedral - and the views were very amazing. The weather that day was good - sunny and relatively warm, which is rare for this time of the year. There are two balconies that you can walk on - the first one is pretty big and is about two thirds up; and then there is a tiny one right up the top where about 100 people tried to cram in about 3 square meters of prime London real estate... but the views were even better.
That probably sums up our main touristy things due to arrival/delivery by Zoya of da party animal - aka Peace Giraffe (otherwise known in his passport as Denis Vladimirovich Matveev). And this, of course, was followed by some drinking, cheering and generally behaving like a bunch of friends who haven't seen each other for a while...
The morning after we decided to go to Greenwich to meet up with Matt and stand on "0 degrees longitude". The day was rather cold and even climbing the hill to where the observatory is didn't really warm us up. After standing in line to take a photo on "the Line" this is what it looks like...
Sidetrack - During our time here due to my white fluffy winter jacket I've been cristened 'marshmallow' and due to my these-days curly hair I've also been cristened 'sheep' which together made up a nickname of 'marshmallow sheep'... !
baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Now back to Greenwich... We also got to see the fastest ever clipper - the famous Cutty Sark and it reminds me of a model that my brother Gleb and Father did a while ago but didn't end up finishing it because the little threads for ropes were too fiddly and the construction slowly fell apart and degraded on the fridge and in the end was put in the bin - the sad sad story.
We drank to our adventures in a very cool pub called Captain Kidd
- which is in this very old cool part of London which you imagine through Dickens' books... dark, foggy, tall brick buildings... but the pub itself is actually less than 20 years old. It is very nice inside though and for a 1.95pounds you get a pint of very decent larger. Later that week we went to a REALLY old pub - 'The Olde Cheshire Cheese' which was just recently rebuilt - in 1667!!!
That evening we also went to listen Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the Barbican and enjoyed it very much... apart from those of us who slept through parts of it :)
To get a bit more cultured we went to the British Museum and the place is HUGE! I wish there
were more museums like it - we only managed to do the Egyptian part of it and even that took a while. It did make me feel pretty awkward in those rooms full of mummies - I mean the whole point of smart old Egyptians was to preserve and hide the important people from prying eyes so that they can have a good time with Osiris lad... but instead they're lying in glass enclosures for any man and his dog to see (the museum is free thanks to the generousity of London Town).And that was about time we got to New Year celebrations. The celebrations took place in a Docklands pub called 'The Ship' and it was kind of a private party, but because Matt is a liked visitor there we all were able to attend and party like it's 2005! Unfortunately (or fortunately) we were not aware that it was actually a theme party which was Pimps & Ho's... so we just rocked up in our very best and had a great time anyway. Just before midnight a screen was pulled down on one of the walls and we got to see the London Eye fireworks which were magnificent. After that it gets rather blurry but I was being strong and drank only beer all night which meant that I could function reasonably well the following day and didn't pass out as I normally do at these occasions. The fun continued by singing old soviet songs on the respectable streets of Docklands and on the tube... oh and dancing on the stations!
... and now for some generic photos:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)