Germany and Gel Pens

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

If you were wondering what those posts about the Greek Islands were all about, well, it was because I left you and went to Germany for a week. Combine that with a dissertation proposal just beforehand, and you have a perfect storm of lack of time, energy, and interestingness. So. Here we are. Germany.

I stumbled my way around moreso than usual. Nearly had to pay a 40 euro fine for not validating my subway ticket (the ticket machine said nothing about this when I purchased it). Irked a coffee barista for asking for hot water refills with my tea, because Europeans hold onto tap water like it's a valuable national resource. And I never quite seemed to find a way to say "Do you speak English?" in a way that didn't somehow elicit an offended response from the German-speaker. You win some, you lose some. Germany and me don't gel quite as well as me and say, France or Japan or Turkey.

I went to a tiny town in Germany for ~4 days, of which I have no photos since it was mostly a work trip. I followed this up with a day on the train and then wandering around Hannover's 'new' city hall, and the last day was all buying gel pens and getting work done in cafes with irked baristas. 'Gotta love how a new writing implement and being in a foreign city with not much else to do creates great inspiration for getting work done.