Travel

A Penny For My Thoughts

Magdeburg was great yesterday – I’ll blog once I have the 400 pictures I took processed. No, not all of them came out, but I have some good thoughts to share about my little day trip.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d share this nice little blerb – which (knock me over with a feather) aired originally on Fox News. Truly, this says so much about the state of the American government – and what our politicians and leaders in office are doing. It counts as a Penny for his thoughts – and a Penny for mine… because it truly reflects what I think too. I guess that makes it worth a full 2 cents.


I guess my question is – WHY as AMERICANS are WE NOT OUTRAGED? I know I am – and I’m living abroad because I can’t stand the way things are being done in my own country. I deal with very subtile Racism, genderism, a glass celing and a very real dislike of “auslanders” (foreigners) here in Germany – but honestly, I feel safer, more protected, and less like the German government is out to get me – than I currently do in the USA. What does that say – overall? Somewhere along the line, Germans seem to have more COMMON SENSE than those in the USA – despite the bureaucracy, despite the subtle racism, despite everything.

Things that make you go humm….Time for a Change – Attitude adjustment – via VOTES. If that doesn’t work? well… I’m sure as a population we’ll force an attitude adjustment and make that change.
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Lost in Translation (take 6) – Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween Everybody!

It’s my favorite holiday because well, you can dress up as anything you want to be – good, bad, or ugly. Plus, you get to go banging on your neighbor (and complete stranger’s) doors and beg for Candy (beer, food – whatever). Oh.. and then there’s the whole scary part. I like that factor too.

Anyhow, in honor of the holiday, I thought I’d do the Halloween Horrorfest version of Lost in Translation. Signs seen along the way….

First up.. there’s a production here called “Tanz Der Vampire” (dance of the vampire) that’s apparently a huge hit here in Berlin. I keep seeing signs for it everywhere and they have a great setup in Alexanderplatz where as you’re going through a tunnel, haunting singing is triggered (at night only). One of their advertisments contains a warning for all of us:

The Vampires love Berlin
Literally, it says “The Vampires LOVE Berlin” then it has a vampire warning sign with the words “Sundown to Sunrise”. Personally, I love the concept of the flying vampire about to get me. *evil grin*

Adding to the horrorfest is the “heine bakery and pastery shop” that’s near where I live. Beware when going in – you might not make it back out again…. (Not to mention what exactly ARE in those baked goods/pasteries anyhow?)
Heine Bakery and Pastry shop

Next would be the Kaos Tattoo & Piercing Parlor. Another location in the town I live in that makes me wonder… would I entrust my body to a place named KAOS? Yikes…

Kaos Tattoos & Piercings

Speaking of strange places…. Apparently there’s an erotic museum in the city. Over the weekend I did find it. Not so bad – except for the signs that say “erotic Museum” sponsored by “beate uhse” (beat us – pronounced in english) clothing. Don’t blame me for the puns below – this is really a street which goes to Wedding, has parking, and well… an erotic museum where everyone wants to be “beaten”.

Erotic Museum (pun-ny)
Last but not least… (and perhaps the most frightening of all) ..

You can’t have Halloween without an ELVIS. Yes, yes, ladies and gentlemen, this was seen in a store window on the Ku’Damm over the weekend. No kidding…
Glamour
Happy Halloween, this has been the Halloween Horrorfest version of “LOST IN TRANSLATION”. Now back to your regularly scheduled Scream….
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Checkpoint Charlie, irony, capitalism

I had a lovely Sunday. Went to brunch near a park. Just hung out in the sun/clouds that looked like they were going to rain on us and gossiped with everyone there. It was fun.
After that, we were going to go and play some football, but in the end, the rainclouds didn’t look like they were going to blow over and it was getting pretty dark, so JTW and I decided to head to Old Emerald Isle and see if we could possibly catch part of the cricket match. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out (Of course not – it’s Sunday and SOCCER day) and the bar had Irish soccer on the tele.
Well, not willing to be my own party pooper (JTW headed home to listen to the rest of the game) and having the cam in the backpack, I headed out to wander a little bit. I wound up going to an exhibit on “the topography of terror”, seeing some of the berlin wall, and then heading down toward checkpoint charlie.
I will say this. Checkpoint Charlie is in the middle of the city, and it’s got a lot of history surrounding it. The problem is that maybe it’s not what I expected in my mind. What I expected was a guardhouse, with remenants of wall on either side, and exhibits on the wall, etc. Maybe a little further down/around the corner some toursity shops.
What I got was a tiny little guardshack in the middle of the street. In front was some chick in an old army uniform holding up an american flag. On either side was a bunch of tourist shops selling various t-shirts, pieces of the berlin wall (in many many forms) and so on. The closest thing to a “museum” was walking between the topography of terror exhibit down the street – to checkpoint charlie. Basically, this is a bunch of plywood put up and laminated with the history of the division of berlin (after WW2) and the building of the wall, escapes and so on. Not really much of a museum – more just 8 foot by 16 foot panels of reading and photos all in the outdoors and on a busy street. Busy – *cough* being a relative term – there were more tour busses and tourists than there was actual people in the area.
What I found most interesting was that on the “american” side, (west berlin) there were still vacant lots, a couple buildings (with coffee shops and restaurants) and not much else. On the “Soviet” side – the “east” side of checkpoint charlie, there were shops, souvenier stands, and everyone trying to make a buck. You could get your passport stamped (In Russian or In English saying you went thru checkpoint charlie) for a fee, and pretty much anything that you want.
The ironic thing? hovering just behind checkpoint charlie on the East (think soviet) side of the “wall” was a restaurant. Ok that’s not the big deal. What was amusing was that it was specializing in “Mexican food” with “Moscow style coffee” and “american ice cream”. It honestly made me giggle. I doubt that the soviets had Mexican food or American Ice cream.
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