Look for me in the Whirlwind
Weather: 12 Degrees/Cloudy
CD currently in the CD Player: The new U2 CD (I bought it off the black market in Spain for 3 Euros)
Three weeks of a whirlwindtour across Europe have finally come to a close. Three weeks of damage to the liver. Three weeks of damage to the pocketbook. Three weeks that were desperately needed to get everything straight, to reawaken my senses and get me going in the right direction again. It’s nice to be back in Dresden again, where I can sleep in a bed and not have to worry about where the next bed, meal or bathroom/shower will be found. And it seems as if I’ve brought the Spring from Spain to Dresden (you can all thank me later) as yesterday it was around 13 degrees and the SUN was out! Brilliant! A quick summary of the past couple of weeks.
Regensburg/Hannover: Hilmar kicks ass. His friends kick ass. Bowling kicks ass. I could go on… Hilmar and his friends took a 2 month vow of abstinance from alcohol to prepare for their semester exams. That vow ended on a Friday afternoon with a kist of Becks. I would never dream of taking such a vow. I like to think I’m smarter than that. Thus I helped them celebrate the divorce. We met at the Bowling Alley (Super Bowl) for a couple of frames, and a couple more Becks, and laughed at the diminishing abilities of our bowling game as our consumption increased. After a cheap meal und a bit of vodka we were at a club Hilmar’s brother worked at. More alcohol was consumed, a trist here, a flirt there, and it was time for the club to close. The third wind hit us hard though and we were sprinting for the finish line waiting for us at Hilmar’s brother’s apartment. After a glass of wine I looked over to see Hilmar rocking the Cowboy hat and singing “Viva Las Vegas” (which apparently are the only words of the song he knows). We picked ourselves up and wandered through the dawnlit streets. Sometime around 7.30 we hunkered into a heap in whatever corner we could find for a snore-filled sleep.
Nürnberg: More exploits. This time with the multi-kulti crowd. The program invited us to Nürnberg for a Mid-Point Seminar on their tab. What were they thinking? For three days it was Amis, French, Poles, Russians and Tschechs indulging on the free food, wine and beer. Brilliant! If only the men in suits would let us take care of political matters… there would never be another thought of war. The Amis taught the Euros how to get down and dirty on the dancefloor (Baby Got Back) while the Amis themselves were treated to a dance tutorial on how to do that dance where you cross your arms infront of your chest and kick your legs out. Nürnberg is pretty too.
Spain: A little like Mexico. But with better water. And not as many illegal immigrants. Spain was beautiful. 4-5 days of sneaking in and out of Kristin’s Residencia in Granada kicked things off. The city is beautiful and was like nothing I’d seen before. I really dug the Muslim district with its winding maze of streets and caves and tobacco bars all perched on a valley overlooking the magnificent Alhambra, a palace of dreams.
Then off to Sevilla for a visit with Dreher. A typical day there: wake up at 1.30. Eat. Go to the city around 3.30 for sightseeing. Visit the palace (15 minutes). Visit the Royal Gardens and discuss important matters in life such as how Spanish Bees got a bum deal because Spanish Bees don’t have a stinger and the cool thing about being a bee is the ability to sting people (30 minutes). Go to the river and drink (Dreher knows the bartender. We drink at halfprice). Go back to his place and nap. Wake up with a beer. Go to the river and meet Tech kids and drink. Go to a bar where he knows the doorman and get in for free. Go to the VIP for free (doorman). Meet bitchy girls. Talk shit to them. Watch one UT frat boy tell us “it’s time to get shameless” and refuses to leave the club alone (“it’s all about lowering your standards”). Go home “early” at 5.30. Repeat. Dreher is in Sevilla with 40 Tech kids. Imagine all the stereotypes you can… when they play themselves out, you too are with them in Sevilla.
Finally Madrid. A day of palaces and museums and the Guernica from Picasso which truly is amazing. No picture, no art book, no nothing could ever do it justice until you’re standing right infront of the mammoth statement from a genius. The thing that amazed me was the emotion it illicited. These random shapes struck fear and terror and sympathy directly in the heart. A birthday dinner for Kristin with a Cuban Salsa band (and a couple margaritas) and it was time to be home.
Not the Guernica, but Solana’s “La Tertulia del Cafe de Pombo”. I really dug it.