Deuschland

I'm in Berlin! Its probably good that it doesn't occur to me until the day of my travel that I'm changing countries, otherwise I'd probably get to nervous. Like realizing that I don't speak German! I forgot how isolating it is not to speak a country's language, first of all I'm having problems typing since the z is where the y is normally and there's plenty of searching time for the right symbol. First, I figured it may be harder to talk to people so I thought I'd be okay wandering around or sitting in a cafe reading a paper, but oh wait, the papers are all in German! So maybe I'll go to the cinema, nope, no subtitles. Or watch tv, nope. This is probably an obvious point, but it's been a while since I've been alone in a foreign-language country so it's a whole new form of isolation. Before I was just this foreigner wandering around cities and shops, now I'm an idiot that points at things and makes grunts since I don't know whether or not to use tid-bits of German or English and somehow Spanish seems to pop out. So, that's my culture shock which I'm sure I'll adjust to.

Anyways, I went through many ordeals arriving here and then I finally get here and start walking around and my hostel is not too close to much so I just walked for blocks and blocks until I found the zoo which has some stuff around it. I somehow wandered into an Erotik Museum, which shows the history of erotic toys and has a massive shop. It was funny to be able to look at such strange stuff in place where noone looks at you weird because everyone there is curious, but at the same time, it's strange seeing a wall of dildos with a grandfather on my right and a father with a baby carriage on my left.

In any case, I had a splendid weekend with my friend Jack in a campervan, going around the southern coast. We would just pull over to the side of the road when we got tired, and one night ended up parking near a military firing range so we heard bombs and machine guns all night. I hope that's the closest to warfare I ever get. We had many splendid times which involved walking around ridiculously quaint towns that looked just as we would imagine them in the 1800s with the cobble and old stones. We went by the ocean and went to an arcarde where I became addicted to those games where you put a coin and it falls on other coins in hopes to push out more coins. It costs 2pence and that is about the only game where I felt rich playing, so despite winning sometimes, I just kept feeding it like a gambling addict. Psychologists must have designed it and known exactly what would draw people in. You put in the coin and it slides in the right spot that you planned (first endorphine high), then it pushes just where you wanted it (it's coming, it's coming!), then the coins move (insane endorphine rush) and allllmost fall (doh). Put in another 2pence and repeat.

It was quite nippy and grey throughout most our trip, but it was still quite fun. As Jack can attest, people continually comment on the rain like it's a new thing, I thought they just wouldn't even notice. ("We do want good weather ya know" responds Jack). I'm still wondering if I can take the cloudiness of Seattle since it's on my short list of places to move to, and while it would be different, it still is kind of depressing. Anyways, for some reason I thought Germany would be a bit warmer, but it's barely above freezing. (What idiot decided to go to Europe in winter? Oh right.). Don't get me wrong, I do like brisk weather, but when all I have is a hoodie and a fleece, it gets bit nippy. So I invested 6 euros in being stylishly warm, getting some oliver-twist-esque mittens and a scarf. I may not be able to understand 99.9% of what people say here, but at least I fit in a bit better and am less cold.