Weltanschauung.

Berlin, 4 June

Berlin!!!

I arrived this afternoon, and after fights with various sets of stairs coming in from the train stations I have settled in quite comfortably.

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It occurred to me while in Heidlberg on Saturday that I hadn’t landed yet. My mind was still spinning off somewhere else and my body was in this place so crazy beautiful it couldnt be real. As if this place could be real But it was, and I was sitting outside the only empty bar, enjoying a pilsner, in the sun, as ACDC played.

I overheard a group of British students talking about ‘while Heildberg was well occupied during the war, the US decided not to bomb it because it was just too pretty..’

I arrived there sometime in the afternoon after christening my eurorail pass. The same day that early in the morning I couldn’t figure out how to cross the road. There had been a DEEP nap in between and I had enough of my senses together to be able to book a series of trips and get myself across the country by mid afternoon,

Heidlbeg was PACKED. People everywhere. Tourist information told me it was because there was going to be a huge fireworks show reinacting when the french blew up the castle on the hill /over there/.. This was all going to happen when it got dark. The thing is, I’m yet to experience dark here I Germany, it is just constantly daylight. I think in Frankfurt I was told that the sunset around 10:30 - 11pm and rose again at 4am. I decided not to stay for the fireworks and after a brief /lost/ adventure again made it back to Frankfurt. To honour my father I had a Frankfurt in Frankfurt for dinner that night.

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Sunday in Frankfurt it just rained. And rained, and rained. I curled up in my nest and listened to tunes, lost a credit card and found it again, and made sure that everything still fitted in my pack. I had planned to walk to an art gallery, but was fairly content to just stay in the warm and collect myself. Tried watching TV - the German version of the family guy - endlessly entertaining. In the evening I met up it my friend Christian and had coffee, talked about the internet, technology, transparency, aid work and our ever evolving world. I landed.

I found Christian’s blog when I was living in HaNoi and just found it so interesting. I still do! And here I was all these years later, having quoted his researech in my Masters thesis having coffee with him in Frankfurt. The web really does create ‘the death of disfance’ (was that Tim OReilly that said that?) It was also when I was in HaNoi that Clay Shirkey had started taking and writing about cognative surplus, and social media was really beginning to create a buzz. It was the start of I guess what was web2.0, connection, innovation and creation online. It was going to be amazing. And now we are here, and what has happened? People still think of twitter as new and yet I have had an account since 2007. In technological terms that is forever, in community mind, perhaps still very new. I love how technology can be used in so many ways. I love that Im using an iPad to write this blog, to call people on Skype, plan bike rides in Paris, listen to music, read, watch films. I love that the internet is able to give me access to everything.. What I love most about it all is the ways it allows us all to connect.

It was lovely to hang out with Christian and connect in person. We met up again for breakfast this morning - until I left for Berlin. My mind had been fed with ideas and I was ready to take on the world again, and perhaps even finish my journel article…

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Berlin. Stairs. Berlin, cafes, culture, music, atmosphere.

I took myself out for dinner tonight. I’m really terrible at eating while traveling. I either eat to much when it is fed to me - stay on a work trip, or I don’t eat at all. Before eating dinner tonight I had a pretzel and a banana as my meals for the day. For dinner I ate salad. Glorious salad, from a Spanish cafe aroud the corner. The salad came with free shots of Zappa. Imagine. As I walked back to my new nest I could feel a little jig burst from my legs. This is only the beginning of your journey, you have so much left to go.

Jet lagged me is dumber than we think.

No really.

One of the wonderful things about waking up at 3:30am most days is that it gives me lots of time to plan. Today’s main plan was to cross the road to my left and go to one of the many cafes near the trainstation for breakfast. Easy yes? No.

Jet lagged me can be compared to the simple dog form hyperbole and half. Everything is just…confusing and harder, and really magical.

So after two (TWO) coffees here in my nest i set out on my little adventure, leaving most stuff behind knowing I’m not capable of doing much else other than eating. I walk outside, it really cold - problem 1. I also can’t figure out how to get across the road, problem 2.

There are lots of trams and buses, as well as heaps of traffic that go past the front of the train station. It’s quite a maze. There are traffics lights and thing to help those not afflicted with jet lag idiocy to get across. I just COULD NOT figure out how to get across. Each direction I went the train station seemed further away and the maze of tram tracks got bigger. And it was cold. So I gave up and went into a supermarket to buy some food instead.

Jetlag logic breakfast - museali, chocolate mousse and Pringles.

I have no idea now long I walked through the isles, everything was just so amazing. And shiney. And tasty. The coffee isle. How I stared at it. I almost bought an entire cheese to bring back to my room and eat, bugger the fact I had no idea what the types were, it was cheese!!!

I came back to my nest, ate some of my food and fell fast asleep.

Upon waking up, booking all my eurorail tickets for the rest of my trip, going to Heildberg and various other things I returned home at 10:30pm.

This is when I realized why I couldnt cross the road. The train station is to my left. Id been walking to my right and wondering why it kept getting so far away……

Frankfurt AM Main, June 1 - Zwei

I need to stay awake for two more hours.

Room service was convinced I had the flu today. ‘why aren’t you up? You’re not going outside?’ I’m tired I tell them. ‘I think your ill’ they tell me. In fact, I was planning my assault on Frankfurt today - which of course took them by surprise when I finally arrived down at reception. They had been talking about me and planning to bring me some tea to check and see if I was ok. Sweet. :)

The lady at reception is lovely. We talked for an hour or so about all things here and around Frankfurt. She gives me coffee for free. ‘Have you been to France, you could go today - two hours by train.’ Distance in Europe is something that blows my mind. Distance and transport. It sometimes takes me two hours to get to work by train… She scribbles on a map for me and I’m set on my days adventure, following the roads too.. the opera house. Which was not where I meant to go… Following the wrong circle on the map I had stumbled onto something quite beauitful. After sighing for awhile and taking a photo (photos are up on Flickr) I turned and took the backstreets to my actual destination. The backstreets were just beautiful. So quiet!! Lovely cars, red red roses. mendelssohnstrasse, beethovenstrasses, beethovenplatz..

I knew I was close to where I needed to be as a to scale t-Rex came looming out of the park to my right. ‘These are my people’ I though to myself ‘Beethoven and dinosaurs together, dreamy’ .. I had made it to the Senckenberg Museum. Totally geeked out. Didn’t bother to look at anything else but the dinosaurs. I did see one room that was just anatomy in jars, and was suitably freaked out enough to back out into the comfort of the Dino room again. I did manage to buy a triceratops bottle opener before I left..

After my dinosaur adventure, I decided to return to the opera house and keep walking in that general direction until I made it to the Rhine. This took me through a maze of open air drinking and eating spots. People everywhere. Beer everywhere. Me, I found myself eating a cup of fresh strawberries in juice. Nom.

The roads intertwine with major traffic free shopping plazas. It’s really lovely and buzzes. After further wandering and looking, I was in Römerberg with what seemed like every other tourist in town. I believe the houses were reconstructed after WWII? I could be wrong…And thus I kept walking, past a store that sold only magi noodles, endless sausages, coffee, beer.. I eventually bought a preztel from a vendor. So good!

I made it to the Rhine and decided to cross, the bridge I chose was covered in padlocks with wishes for long lasting love on them. I nice find, I thought..

From there I wandered along the Rhine back to my nest. Avoided the red light district and was again amazed at the Frankfurt AM Main train station. Here I am finishing my pretzel, planning tomorrow - perhaps I will go to Heidleberg.. and trying to figure out how to link photos to this blog.

I still don’t feel settled or secure, and although its 9pm my brain is telling me there is daylight outside. Rest I must yes. Adventure I must too.

Frankfurt, June 1

The strange thing about this journey is just how aware as a traveller I have become, and how on this trip I need to let a lot of that go. Most of my overseas travels of late have come with security briefings, medical checks, more security. ‘you’re getting out of the car facing traffic, make sure your bags are facing the car, do not open yourself to theft.’ Yesterday as I fumbled my way from Frankfurt airport to my hotel everyone was nice, everyone was helpful, only one person was dismayed with my lack of German. Even going through customs ‘you have a nice smile, oh - you’ve been here before? You should catch the S train into town.’ Easy!! Struggling with my bag up some stairs a man asks ‘can I take that for you?’ I pause. I look at him, he looks back at me wondering why I am hesitating. I wonder if I should ask him for directions too, or if I am just setting myself up as being the most vulnerable target. Thirty four hours in transit, can’t get up the stairs, dont really know where I am. He looks at me again. I smile, ‘thank you, that would be great.’ He carries my bag to the top, points right at my hotel (which is, as promised right across from the train station). ‘Have a nice night’ he tells me - ‘you too, danke’… Breathe Jess, breathe again.

In my hotel there is no kitchen, there is a bar when people smoke and watch football. I order a pizza to be delivered to me. It comes on the back of a bike. Fabulous!! I couldnt eat it all and tried to store it in the mini bar fridge by rearranging the bottles and stacking the pieces in a glass. Jet lag logic 1, Jess 0. I looked at it this morning and sheepishly cleaned the cup to make coffee. This was a pretty nasty find…

Today I have rested, not yet left my nest. I will. I planned this day to allow myself to catch up, breathe. Let my mind meet my body here in Europe - I think probably it is still in Melbourne or maybe KL. It is calm here, and I feel safe - as safe as someone who has no idea where they are can feel.

I will go out now, buy myself some coffee. Sit in a cafe and read.

Holidays :)