Müchen (Part 1)

As much as I'd love to talk about tonite...

I owe ya'll last weekend's adventure.

I'll prolly cover this on another blog, but many European cities sound, are spelled and are pronounced completely different than their American counterparts. I don't know if this is, yet again, attributable to American obstinance, but Müchen (i.e. Munich) is one of them (along with...

• Koln (Cologne)
• Lisboa (Lisbon)
• Wien (Vienna)
• Praha (Prague)

...and the list goes on).

Anyways, shortly before leaving for Hamburg, I had mentioned to some colleagues at work that I was thinking about going to Munich the following weekend. Luckily for me Julia was within an earshot.


[And yes, this is the same girl from the first picture]. As it turns out, her parents own a condo in Munich. All she needed was advanced notice and, provided she could get the key from them in time, I could stay there. Well, luck was on my side, and last weekend it treated me to 2 free nights in Munich (I could go on here how in America its doubtful that coworkers would loan their place to someone from another country that they've only known for less than a month, but I'll save you the America bashing skip to the picture reel...besides, this is prolly gonna be a long blog anyways).

the bedroom (unused)

the bathroom

living room


kitchen (unused)

Before I continue, there's another supporting character that without a doubt deserves mention in this blog. His name is Thomas, and he not only sits next to me in the office, but he also started the exact same day I did...



As it turns out, he is from Munich. So, during the entire week leading up to my Munich trip, he compiled a comprehensive email of all this things I needed to do during the weekend I was to visit (replete with links to each venue's respective website). As you will see, I was able to do all but one of his suggestions...

5. Marienplatz, City Mall at 12:00 !!! (chimes)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marienplatz

It is important to note, however, that I definitely went to Marienplatz (pronounced, "marine platz") on more than one occassion, its just that I was unable to make it there before 12pm.

The plan was to leave work and take the 6:5-something train to Munich, get there about 10:30 or 11, get settled in the condo and head to...

1. Hofbräuhaus:

Drinking beer, Bavarian Live-Music, Waitresses wearing bavarian clothes

(www.hofbraeuhaus.de)

before it closed at midnight.

Unfortunately, I got there at like 12:01 and the security people did not oblige to my American tourist attempts to get in. Fortunately however, the Hofbauhaus is centrally located (not that far from Marienplatz actually) and there were several places to choose from to spend a Friday night, including...

7. "Atomic Cafe" (night club): (http://www.atomic.de/)

on friday, they play indiepop (4 DJs & Guests)
on saturday: Beat, Soul, Garage & Powerpop (div. DJs/Teams changing),
every 6th saturday: Funk

opening: fr & sa 21:59-4h

I must admit, I felt like Josh for a second. See, Josh, having done 2 tours of duty in Iraq, can go into any bar in America, show that he's a soldier, and get the royal treatment. Now, I'm not saying I got the royal treatment...but I will say that a Florida (Tallahassee) license is quite the rare occasion in Munich. Add to that a German bouncer who used to play for a band that once did a show in Tallahassee, and you not only get in with a smile, but you also find out all types of interesting stuff. Like which beer to drink...

(Augustiner Muenchen)

I really didn't spend that long in here cause this was really on some electronica/indie music/crowd stuff. But I did discover the piece of German clothing I was going to get from Munich. For the short time I was there, there was this dude "dancing" on the floor that was dressed in 'typical' Munich garb. The piece-de-resistance...the scarf...


I remember in high school, I used to see dudes that frequented the go-go rocking this exact same scarf, but I never could find it. Now was my chance. I took the beer "TO THE FACE!" (shout to Thomas) and headed out to the next location...wherever that was.

As it turned out, to back up a little bit, I ran into 3 women on the subway over from the condo to the Hofbrauhaus. Although the one that stood out was half North Carolinan, half Greek (she looked west indian), the one I ended up conversing with basically the entire subway ride was from Germany. Unfortunately, all I remember from the conversation (now as well as when I was leaving the Atomic Cafe) was that there were suppposedly a number of clubs (one of which they were going to) along this street called "Maximillianplatz". So that's where I headed.

After getting lost a couple times, I found this building, reminiscent of Hotel Monaco in DC, that had three clubs in it (all of which had separate entrances from the street. After asking a couple people if they played hip-hop inside, I ran into this one dude who seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about what was going on around there. He told me that of the three clubs, the one to check out was called "Baby." However, and this is the first time I ran into this in all of Germany...this club was guest list only. And the lady at the door wasn't having it. American or not, if you weren't on the list, you weren't getting in (I didn't even get a chance to flash my Florida license). I tried to walk around and use my mission impossible skills to sweet talk this security type dude guarding the back door, but my German wasn't good enough (my American came off to him like..."dude, I know what you're trying to do and I ain't finna risk it on some American dude...I heard about ya'll"). So I left.

While walking I thought about a conversation I had with a chick in Berlin at the Cut and Paste thing where she broke down the "stereotypical" attire for men in each of the major German cities...(its on tape, I believe)

• Frankfurt - dudes in suits (cause of the European Central Bank, investment banking crowd)
• Berlin - conservatively stylish (cause of the eastern German influence upon western Germany and vice versa)
• Hamburg - jeans and hoodies (cause of its industrial/shipping location and character)
• Munich - uber chic (while I don't know the exact reason, I would venture to guess cause of its proximity to the countries to the south that border the nearby Alps (i.e. Swizerland, Italy, Austria and France)

So, I thought to myself, it would make sense that this was the first German city in which I encountered a "guest list only" club.

I was about to give up on finding another club to go to that night, when I randomly ran into this dude with an English accent that told me about "Crowns".

"It's wack!" he said. "They say they play hip-hop, but their idea of hip-hop is playing hip-hop lyrics over dance [i.e. techno] music." Still I went, and it was exactly how he said it was. Of note, I got my shoes stepped on (it was BEYOND packed) and there was this black dude dressed head to toe like Blade, that about 5 bouncers made a circle for. Then, the DJ stopped the music and played this "Blade-type" music so this dude could do his little corny "Blade" routine on some techno-dance stuff.


I had to leave after that.

The plan for Saturday was to hit up Marienplatz (where all the name brand shops were), then head a little to the east to...

6. Go Shopping:

Tal (downtown, there are some 2nd-Hand-Shops),
Herzogstrasse (in Schwabing, there are a lot of small shops)

Then to the northeast where the following was located...

4. Englischer Garten, Chinese Tower/Beergarden
(if the weather is fine, e.g. on sunday!)

Unfortunately, I didn't heed Thomas's advice (although the weather wasn't that good on Sunday either) and I found out the hard way that the English Garten (i.e. beergardens (i.e. benches outside where people drink beers)) was closed. I could go about how I carried 4 pint beer glasses basically the greater portion of the afternoon and evening, only to have them break as I left the Hofbrauhaus (later on) and the subway on the way back to the crib (even later-er on), or how it got dark at about 5pm and the Chinese Tower in the English Garten was not only closed, but its restaurant was too boosie to give me any service once they sat me (and this isn't some American impatience stuff, I really believe they just wanted to me to leave..and offering no service was the sure fire way to do that). But I'm not. Long Saturday short, this is what happened.

• I got to Marienplatz around 12:30 / 1pm, and got my first taste of gluewein (warmed up red wine with other spices in it (I believe)).
  

The good thing is that they serve it to you in these souvenir "Weihnachten" (Christmas) mugs. Over the course of the day/evening, I bought 4 and, needless to say, was already buzzing by the time I got to...

• The Hofbrauhaus (from which the preview video was shot).
  

Basically, this is a traditional Bavarian (the German state in which Munich is located) beerhaus where the male servers wear leiderhosen (the get up Snoop wore for the MTV European Music Awards) and the female servers wear durdels (the get up the girl wears on the label for St. Pauli Girl beer--which is funny cause St. Pauli is a district in Hamburg. In other words, that's like saying Maryland crab cakes and having a California beach bunny with two crab cake sandwiches in each hand).

• In between these two, I walked along the Marienplatz (with its name-brand Zara and H&M type shops) and took pictures of the numerous sites...

drank some beer at the Paulaner Beer House (my favorite beer in Germany thus far and from where I bought the 4 pint sized beer glasses that subsequently broke)...


and even met some cool people at the Nike store on my way to the Englisch Garten.


(I gotta give it to dude though, we was really the type of salesman you want to run into. He wasn't pressuring me to buy anything, but he made me want to buy something...but they didn't have my size in any of the shoes). Shortly after leaving the Nike store, I found a small little shop that sold the scarf I was looking for.

Jumping forward, after I left the Hofbrauhaus, I headed back to the condo to take a shower and meet up with this Venezuelan dude Peer put me in contact with.

To be continued in part 2...

Cheers.

Wie übel!

Yeah, I'm making ya'll wait for the Munich blog cause I'm still smarting over the fact only two people actually read my Thanksgiving blog and responded with what they had for dinner :-(

In any event, this is yet another video clip that circulated through the office today.



The literal translation is "how sick!"

Cheerx.

Today's Blog has been Postponed in Remembrance of...

Devoted father, husband and Redskin Pro-Bowl Safety.

Yeah, I didn't know the man, but #21 for the 'Skins was my favorite player on the team.

Moreover, it goes to show the senseless violence that plagues our society (specifically American society) these days.

It truly makes me sad...real talk.

Rest In Peace.

Müchen (preview)

Cheers.

Man, I Took Some Good Pictures Today...

It all started at the Hauptbahnhof ("main train station") as I was coming up from the U-Bahn. I caught my first glimpse of sunlight since sometime in the middle of last week (if not before that)...

Then, as the Monday morning status meeting began, I realized the only thing missing from this picture was my camera. So I politely excused myself, and when I returned...


Towards the end of the meeting, while in deep focus trying my best to pick out as many German words as possible (i.e. head down while staring intently into the face of my watch), a sort of "Magic Eye" thing took place where I saw the "image behind the image". I thought to myself, This would be a raw picture...too bad the camera can't get in that close. Wait...it just might....Can't hurt to try. Lemme turn the sound off first [the camera makes beeping and clicking sounds as you take, select and delete pictures].

Once the sound was off, it took a couple tries but I got it...


The guy to the left is Pascal, the spontaneously cooky guy in the office, and the guy to the right is Peer, the stylish paisan who always wears a scarf around the office. I love how I got the pen, the cup, the clouds and the sunlit silhouettes all in one shot from the reflection in my watch...at a Monday morning meeting much less.

Heading back to the office after lunch, I was treated to this...


The big cylindrical building in the background of all the traditional German apartment buildings is the building that is not only next to our office, but also constructed by the same architect. You can sort of see it from here, but all of the windows are triangular just like ours--only our building is shaped like a trapezoid that juts out towards the water. Aww shucks. I didn't take this picture today, but just so you know what I'm talking about, here...


The day progressed and I found out I was to accompany one of my colleagues on an inspection tomorrow. So towards the end of the day, I headed to her office so we could go over the specifics. I saw her desk, and those of the two adjacent to hers, and it reminded me of the cluttered appraisers' desks back home. But in typical European fashion, there's was done a bit more tastefully...


A couple hours more past, and it was time to call it a night. But not before I caught "Reflections (pt. 2)". See, the funny thing about the office is that regardless of the weather during the day, the view from the office at night is always beautiful. The blue lights of the nearby bridge and surrounding buildings never fail to perfectly frame the Main river with its wavy tranquility and reflected lights. Here you get a glimpse into my world as well.


And like that [*poof*], I disappeared into the night.

Cheers.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I'd like to take this post to wish everyone (back home and abroad) a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving. In giving thanks, I'd like to thank all of my faithful viewers (commenters and lurkers alike) for being the battery in my back to get up, get out and get blogging. I'd also like to take the time to thank the Lord, my parents, my family, my friends and colleagues of mine for the wonderful life that I have been blessed to have lived, and for the wonderful life that lies ahead of me.

I would give thanks that I have the day off...but I don't. So ya'll better be thankful that you have today and tomorrow off...and will be eating damn good for the entire weekend.

I implore each and every one of you all to leave me a comment (yes, even all you lurkers...pleeeeeeeeeeeease, just this one time :-). In addition to the requisite "Happy Thanksgiving", if you could take an additional 15 seconds to let us all know where you're spending Thanksgiving and what's on deck for dinner (I'll let you save the "what I'm thankful for"'s for your Thanksgiving blessing at the dinner table).

Here's mine...


Cheers.

Snoozey Q.

I have a confession to make…

The snooze button and I have had this on-and-off again relationship ever since high school. With her, I seem to push all the right buttons. And like no other, she puts me right to bed.

I’ve known for quite sometime now that our relationship is unhealthy. But for some reason, I can’t seem to quit her. Especially after nights like last night (I was up til 3:30am).

Its like the hook from the last song on Rhymefest’s Blue Collar LP, “Build Me Up”. In vintage form, ODB sings:

[Whyyyy dooooo you buiiiild me up,
Buuuuttercup, baaaaby, just to let me dowwwwwn.
Mess me around→
And the worrrrrst of aaaaaallll,
You never call, baby, when you say you iiiiiiiiis
But I love you still→
I need YOU
More than aaaanyone baaaaaby
You know that I have from the staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart
Build me up,
Buttercup, don’t break my heaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt//


Cheers.

The 12

The lone (non-soldier) black American man in Frankfurt felt a tap on his foot.

Are you kidding me? He thought to himself. I sat on the back of this tram for 2 reasons. One, I figured I'd get a better view of the city from three sides. Two...cause no one's back here!

He turned to see whom was invading his space and saw the "hey man...you all right" faces of two German guys in what looked to be their early 20's.

One of the guys then gestered the universal "sleeping sign" (hands together on one side of the face), while the other held his hands out, palms to the ground, as if to say simultaneously, "we mean no harm" and "dude, you look out of it."

"Konstablawache," he then said.

The black American nodded with wide, slightly sarcastic eyes that said, "I know."

He then caught himself. Obviously these guys mean no harm or ridicule. They're just objectively concerned. It's actually nice they thought enough to let you know what stop the tram was at. Besides, you do tend to zone out. Just now you were thinking about how you used the subway closing down as an excuse to stay at home last night when you're forgetful self forgot that you could have taken the tram. Thinking about how in skate videos, there would always be small text in the lower right or left corners of the screen denoting either the skater or the location of where the tricks were being done. Given the places I've gone, and how at times, if those little locational subtexts were to be shown at the bottom of the "normal" things I do doing the day (which in many ways are identical to how they are done or look in America), it would give the boring things I do out here some charact--

He caught himself zoning out again. He politely shook his head as if to say he wasn't sleeping and replied, as sincere and serious as possible, "Danke."

He then rested his head back against the window-pane of the tram and continued zoning out.

No more than two stops later, he got another tap on his foot.

Come on now.

This time however there were no gestures, just incomprehensible German.

The reflex to demostrate somehow, oftentimes bluntly, that he was sober, was trumped by the swift realization that he was in a foreign country. So he fell back to his "international" instinct, smiled and asked, "Sprenenzie Englisch?"

The guy who spoke earlier then chimed, "a little."

The black American had to chuckle to himself for a second. Their idea of "a little" means that there are some three and four syllable words that either escape them at the moment or they may ask you to repeat because you said it too fast. But verb conjugations or tense...no problem!

"I wasn't sleeping."

"Oh, with your head against the...car.... Well, where do you get off?"

"Huh?"

"We will tell you when your stop--"

"Bornheim."

"Oh...that stop is far...after ours."

"Oh. It's ok...I wasn't sleeping, just thinking. I mean, here I am, all the way...on the other side of the globe."

"Where are you from?"

As if you can't tell, he thought. "America."

"Ahh," he chuckled, "funny thing about America. Me and my girlfriend want to go to New York. But she is Greek."

He paused.

"Greece is not one of those...main...countries. You see, Germans go to the airport, they stamp your passport...90 days," he said with a waive of his hand. "But my girlfriend, they look at her passport, and send her back."

"Really?"

"Ja, I don't know...America thinks...something...I don't know. We want to go though."

He paused again and looked at his friend.

"No, we love America," he said with a sincere smile and thumbs up, "they are just strict if you are not from one of the big countries."

"That's interesting."

Suddenly looking up and outside, the silent of the two tapped the verbose one and said in German that this was their stop. Exiting the tram, both said chao to the black American who then replied the same.

After the doors closed and the tram pulled off, the American thought not about immigration/visa/passport clearance issues in the States, but of how many blogs he now has on deck.

There's "Tatort" the German CSI-equivalent show/movie that was being shot in front of our building all day--the fake gunshots of which always caught us by surprise...then had us running to the window to see the final scene happen again for like the umpteenth time. There's also the wonderful conversations I had with several of my office colleagues after work today over Apfelwein in Sachsenhausen (mainly involving WWII and the German/Nazi-stigma). Not to mention Idiosyncrasies #2 (which I have been faithfully compiling since the first installment). Wait...haven't written a 3rd person...anything, since like college. Hmm....

He smiled.

I think they'll like it too....

Cheers.

To Cooky's or to Bed...?

As I'm sure you all are aware, there was a game a couple nights ago between the Redskins and the Cowboys. As it turned out, Sky Sports (the only network this side of the pond that carries NFL games) decided to air this game-->basically, every Sunday during the football season they only show one of the 1 o'clock and one of the 4 o'clock NFL games. If you ask me their algorithm for choosing which games to air, I couldn't tell you cause sometimes they pick of the most games (one week those chose to show Tampa vs. Tennessee or something). So, this being one of the 'Skins most important games of the season, around 10:30pm (i.e. 4:30pm EST) I made my way down to Yours Sports Bar (the American sports bar, two doors down from my flat, that shows the games)...

Long story short, because the outcome of the game doesn't merit discussion, I met this dude there from the N.O. that told me he can get into this club called Cooky's for free. The funny thing is, Cooky's is about the only club in Frankfurt I'm familiar with (I went there my very first night in Frankfurt and had a night very similar to "One Night Only"...but that's another story altogether). We exchanged numbers and he told me to hit him up on Tuesday, as that is one of the best nights to go to the club.

Fast forward to Tuesday, I can't find the paper I wrote his number down on. As I write this blog, it's now Tuesday at 1am (when clubs in Frankfurt get to jukin', regardless of whether its the weekend or weeknight) and I'm still up. I also feel like I'm horrible at keeping up with contacts (not just here, but at home as well), so going would be my attempt to break the habit. On the other hand, I think the subways are closed now and its quite a walk there (although managable; I'd probably take a taxi back). Furthermore, if I go, I'm most likely not going to get in for the free.99. So basically I'd be going just to maintain a contact...and maybe have a little fun, although I wouldn't be drinking much at all given I have to work tomorrow (there's no Thanksgiving holiday over here, remember?). I also haven't been getting much sleep during the work week...but that' ya'lls fault--I gotta make sure these blogs are consistent (and tight). So...(you know what time it is):

Pop quiz, hot shot...

Do you go to Cookys or to bed?

Cheers.

Haus der Photographie

Using Berlin as the template, I figured I’d spend a few hours, before heading back, doing one or more “cultural” things in Hamburg (in Berlin, I went to Pottsdamer Platz and took photographs of the holocaust memorial site (I think)…

and the last remnants of the Berlin Wall)…


As the train headed into Hamburg Hauptbanhof the day before, I saw this big warehouse-looking building…


Like I said in CtrlX&CtrlV, I have a dead-serious interest in photography. So this was going to be my cultural thing for the day (the fact it was walking distance from the station, and thereby walking distance from the hotel, didn’t hurt either).

But first things first…breakfast.

There was bread…


Meats & olives…


Cheeses, mixed fruit and yogurt…


And stuff to put in the yogurt (including that old school cereal with the Frog on the front, I think its called “Smacks” or something)…


This is the spread in one shot.


No bacon, or cooked meat for that matter, and all you could get in the way of eggs was a boiled one.

It was still damn good.

By this time it was around 11:30am and the Haus der Photographie opened at 12pm, so I headed over. It wasn't long after I paid the 7 Euro entrance fee that I saw like half of the gallery was devoted to distinctly American images (I would insert more photos here but...surpise, surprise...picture taking was not allowed. So my vivid descriptive detail will have to suffice). Then I read the exhibit's title, "American Beauties." In a nutshell, they displayed the works of 6 American photographers and 1 New York City Art Club from 1993.

• Art Club 2000 - a multi-cultural, co-ed group of 7 students belonging to an art club in 1993. Basically, the students all posed in different scenes (in this cruddy movie theater wearing pajamas, dressed in mascot-grade animal costumes, buck-naked on a bed, etc.). I don't believe any one of the students was actually behind the camera, they were just the models.
• Larry Clark - a bunch of black and white stanged images of people from the early 80's. I think they were all taken in the same dingy room (looked like a motel from a horror movie). Each person is partaking in some sort of vice, be it drugs, aiming guns, sexually suggestive, etc.
• Wim Wenders - a bunch of color photos, this time from the mid- to -late-80's of different suburban/western/deserted landscapes. One photo in particular, of a Safeway sign on the side of a building was my one of my personal favorites...turns out this was one of the main photos used to promote the exhibit
  
  
  
• Lisette Model - I really don't remember this photographer or the exhibit. I think it was just black and white photos of people in the 70's making strange facial expressions.
• Nan Goldin - this was probably my favorite of the photographers. I'd say I'm better at landscape/scenic photography than taking photos of people because landscapes don't move (taking photos of people is like trying to hit a moving target). So when I see people take good or intriguing pictures of people or a person, it piques my interest. That's what this dude did with this supermodel named James King back in '95.
  
  
  Not all of the photos were good, but when looked at altogether, it told the story of her many sides as a supermodel. When she was made up, she really looked like an attractive supermodel, but when the make-up was gone and you really caught her off guard, it wasn't a good look (which ironically was a good look cause it helped to tell the story). As with the Safeway picture, the 2 or 3 photos I liked the best were used to promote the exhibit.
• David Hockney - this guy reminded me of me...or at least the type of photos I take--scenic photographs that either tell the story of the location or use the elements of the landscape to create a pattern. I found myslef going through this guy's stuff and saying, "I could take that picture...easy"
• Karl Strusse - basically black and white pictures of the brooklyn bridge from 1913. Reminded me of back in 2003 when I took a bunch of black and white photos of the Brooklyn Bridge. Nothing special here...I don't care if he took 'em close to 100 years ago.

Like I said, these exhibits took up about 1/2 of the gallery. And guess what, no one was really peeping the other half of the gallery. And that's not because the "American Beauties" exhibit just opened or is about to close (it opened 10.10.07 and is running through 06.01.08<--that's January 6, 2008).

Attempting to look at it objectively, I got the impression (especially those of Art Club 2000 and Larry Clark) that America is this place with a bunch of almost unreal character/personality-types...on steroids. I mean, we basically export our culture, via the entertainment industry, throughout the entire world. I don't know, but I wonder if people from around the world are intrigued by this place called America much in the same way when you were a kid you wanted to go to Disney World to meet Mickey Mouse...or how teeny-boppers (and adults) get star-struck. Its like this person or thing that you've only interacted with through some sort of medium...and when you actually go there and experience it first hand, its tangibility is captivating in and of itself.

I mean, I, as an American, look at these exhibits and get that yes there are personality-types like this in America. But by and far, the people in America are not this ostentatious. But to those outside of America (most of whom have never been), specifically those where English is not the first language, this is the America they are familiar with. As such, the unreal (to us), becomes real (to them). But then again, maybe not. Because I'm sure those mannerisms that these American "charactures" exhibit, subconsciously trickle down into our "American-swag." I mean let's face it, we're also influenced by the same entertainment-export. So when we're overseas acting normal, they see the vestiges of this "over-the-topness" in our actions, and feel that much more validated in their overall view of America--"land of the free, home of the brave" (think about that...and I don't mean it in the "patroitic" way Americans typically associate with the phrase).

Sadly, the rest of the photos in the gallery just didn't move me. While I concede that my American-cultured tastes have probably predisposed me to identifying more with the "American Beauties" photographers than with the other artists...I'm sorry, it was just too "the-big-red-stripe-handpainted-on-top-of-the-picture-of-the-sunset-landscape-symbolizes- man's-obsession-with-water" for me.

What's interesting is that the few that did move me were the exact same pictures that were used in the various prominently displayed German publications that reviewed the exhibit. Some might say that's a testament to the paper's picture selecting pedigree...I beg to differ. See, not all but some of these photos I know I could have taken...if not taken better (given the right equipment). I've been told too many times that I take good pictures and have a wonderful eye. The truth of the matter is I know a good picture when I see it, whether its hung up on a wall...or in the viewfinder of my camera.


Cheers.

*Editor's note: I'm sorry, I can't get the last paragraphs to format correctly to save my life.

Da Art of Storytellin' (part 4)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/5020148ef75de9/

Ya'll know what it is.

Cheers.

Mission: Hamburg

Take one sexy beast…

whose shoes, while definitely a respectable classic, don't exactly blend with his outfit…


and send him to Hamburg to find a pair of casual, yet sleek, rubber-soled, black shoes he can wear with a nice pair of jeans to the club/lounge or with a sweater while he’s out and about.

These are the adventures of Frankfurt Freddie.

A little background is in order. You see the coat I’m wearing in the above photo. Well, I bought it in a vintage shop in Berlin. What’s more, the designer is from Berlin. The goal was to do the same thing in Hamburg. See, my goal is to come back to the States with a distinct garment from each of the German cities I’ve visited…overnight (Heidelberg doesn’t count cause I didn’t stay the night…besides, the town isn’t big enough to have an area for vintage/second-hand shops anyways). Munich and Cologne are next.

Anyways, after checking into Hotel Wedina (lonelyplanet.com is a god sent), the lady at the front desk was nice enough to not only provide me with one of their free maps (which served me quite well the duration of my time in Hamburg), but also direct me towards where the shops are. The good thing about the hotel was that it was not only walking distance from the Hamburg Hauptbanhof (“main train station”…remember?), but also walking distance from the main drag of shops in Hamburg…as they are located on the other side of the station.

Unfortunately, these shops were just like Haupt Strasse in Heidelberg and the Zeil in Frankfurt. In other words, it was a bunch of H&M’s, Zara’s, Puma’s, Addidas’, FootLockers, and other name-brand German retailers that are found all around the country and pretty much sell the same stuff you can find in the States. On a positive note, I did have quite possibly the BEST “carry-while-you’re-shopping/browsing” meal in my life. Unfortunatley, I didn't take a picture of the place, recall the name nor find the name after searching google for the past 15 minutes. All that matters is that they serve fish and chips (fried of course) and basically for 4.70 Euro (it’s now to the point I don’t even do the conversions anymore) you get fries, fried fish, ketchup and remoulade (tartar) sauce thrown in a cone-shaped paper bag, and you use a 3-pronged wooden throat lozenge to clean it out. Its oh soooooooooo…good (shout to London, cause I’m quite sure its of their origin).

Once I reached the end of the shops, I asked a couple people where the river was, because the lady at the front desk also told me that there were shops on both sides of the river—Hamburg was/is a shipping town and the city splits the numerous rivers and bridges found throughout. After a couple “Vasa?”’s, one man then replied “Elba?” That sounded like the German word for river, so I followed his direction. Unfortunately, it was not only the name of a particular river (as in proper noun), but it was also the wrong river. What’s worse, I couldn’t find either of the streets of the intersection I was at on the map. So I walked into the nearest store to attempt to reorient myself from the directions of another. Fifteen minutes later, I was back on track…but hungry for some sort of dessert. I found a place, which I wouldn’t be surprised was French, and got this apple dessert that was real good (I should have been taking pictures of all this stuff, but I was on a mission…and it was night time so I was of the mind-frame that all of my pics would have come out blurry anyways, so what’s the point. Take this for example…


If it was brighter, or I had a better camera, this would look a whole lot better. But it doesn’t, so I was reluctant to take pics.)

The waitress spoke English and had a tattoo on the back of her neck. Using my well-honed spy skills, I figured she was hip and be able to point me in the direction of where the real shops were. And right I was. The area’s called Schanzen Strasse and it’s just north of the St. Pauli area—where all the clubs, including the red light district, are located (which she also told me). By this time, mid you, its around 6:45pm and all the stores close at either 7pm or 8pm. Did I fold, no sir…time to make moves. I tipped her well and was out the door to the Jungfernstieg station to catch the S-bahn (S1), transfer at Landungsbrucken to the U-bahn (U3) and get off at Feldstrasse station.

Once inside the trains and stations, I see people dressed like this...


Once outside, I see this…


It seemed everybody in the immediate vicinity was headed either to or from this fair. Furthermore, when looking down the street I was supposed to walk down (Neuer Kamp Feldstrasse) to get to the street that had the vintage shops (Schanzen Strasse), it looked as if nothing was down there. I was real temped to say forget it, get on the ferris wheel and see if they had funnel cake in Germany…but I stuck with the plan—to walk from Feldstrasse station, north, to Stern-Schanze station (via Schanzen Strasse and all its vintage shops).

Once I got to Schanzen Strasse, I was relieved to see that the area did in fact have small, vintage-like shops that may very well have the shoes I was looking for. But after actually walking on Schanzen Strasse, as well as the branching Schulterblatt and Susannenstrasse, it seemed as if every store that looked promising was closed, and the ones that were open either didn’t sell shoes, only sold sneakers (skateboarding sneakers at that) or told me that the store I was looking for was closed. When it was all said and done, around 7:45, I found myself dejected, disoriented and closer to the station I started at (Feldstrasse) than the one I originally intended to head towards (Stern-Schanze station). Wanting to see this thing to completion, I turned around and headed to Stern-Schanze station.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like a vintage store across the street, while I was walking and looking down on at my map. It looked open as well, so I figured a gander inside couldn’t hurt. As I neared the store, the storefront window had the exact pair or sleek shoes I was looking for…the only thing was they were in brown. I quickly rushed inside and, sure enough, they had them in black. They asked my size and I told them 10.5, to which I got calculative faces. Why you ask? Cause these shoes didn’t have American or British sizes, only German. My size…44. And they had a pair. The price, 79.95 Euro—which is good considering that most decent pairs of shoes in Europe are 100 Euro and up.

Talk about a buzzer beater. I couldn’t ask for a better ending to the story. Mission Accomplished.


Cheers.

This is a Public Service Announcement...

I'm planning on going to Hamburg this weekend. I'll probably leave sometime Saturday morning and get back Sunday evening. The 'Skins/Cowgirls game starts at 10:30pm our time. Accordingly, if internet access in Hamburg isn't widely available AND free, you prolly ain't hearing from me til Monday.

Cheers.

King Kamehameha

Peer (pronounced "pear") is the guy who's always wearing a scarf (tied) around his neck, around the office. He says its cause he's a bit under the weather, but given that we wears velour suits to work on casual Fridays, I'm guessing its also for style purposes. But that's neither here nor there. Since Peer and I are of the late-20's, early 30's set, early in the week he suggested I come with him on Thursday to a meeting held by members of the exclusive "asmallworld.com" social-networking site. In a nutshell, sort of like urbandaddy.com--you can only join the site if you are invited (and I wouldn't be surprised if there were other barriers to entry...like an interview or submitting your resume for board review). As for those that are members, they're all 'ex-pat' young professionals whose jobs require them to travel around the world. Myspace...paah! Facebook...I'll pass. But this, I'll give a try...this just might fit the bill for International Frankfurt Freddie.

Well Thursday comes around and Peer has better plans. There's this place called "King Kamehameha" (pronounced "kinka-meyah-meyah") and they have a live band that plays on Thursdays. He suggested we go to that instead. Of course I wanted to find out about this social-networking site, but I also wanted to get out (since I hadn't been out in Frankfurt in a while). So I was down.

Between Peer's email to people in the office and my asking all the people in valuation I ran into to come, like damn near half the office showed up to this lounge/club. Even people who had told me they weren't coming when I left the office were there. Shortly after everyone in the office found each other in the club (as we all came to the club in separate groups), the band went on.

They didn't tell me it was a cover band...a cover band whose two lead singers spoke English the entire time...a cover band that covered songs like "PYT", "Outstanding","Deja Vu","You Got to Show Me Love", etc. And the place was packed with Germans.

Not really much else to say. I got to talk with some more of the people in Valuation that I haven't really talked to (becuase they're in another area of the office). I got to talk to some of the people in Investments (sales brokers) that were there. And I got to listen to American Urban Pop music played by a live cover band at a packed German venue (I loved it). Oh yeah, there's no Cuban embargo over here. So I was indulging myself in Havana Club Rum Mojitos and Cuba Libres. And that was the night.

Hey you...


Cheers.