Lisboa (Part 2)

Enter Saturday.

When I say this day was beautiful...you have no idea. And it wasn't until after rushing to make it downstairs in time (yeah, I overslept..duh) that I realized my worst nightmare may very well be upon me:

My camera didn't charge overnight.

Which was odd at the time because I could have swore I put the camera on the dock before going to bed. All throughout the day, I thought it was because I didn't put my key card in the little slot by the door that makes all the lights (and electricity maybe?) work...so the docking station had no power. Then when I returned home, I thought it was cause the docking station was broken. It was only until a few days ago that I realized the true culprit...the battery was blown.

Man, I will say it again--the weather, lighting, sights were absolutely perfect...and I was literally pouting and sulking out loud the entire time. All jokes aside, I was pissed! Fortunately, I was able to squeeze a few pictures out of the camera for Saturday's monumental stroll through Lisbon.

Please bear in mind: 1) these are the representative sample of but 1/16th of the pictures that I could/would have taken were I to have had a fully charged camera, and 2) these pictures were taken with haste as for each one I had to turn the camera on, align, aim, and shoot before the camera automatically shut off (i.e. less than 2 seconds).











After the stroll (mid-afternoon) everyone broke off into groups. Some wanted to shop (the ladies). Those that were not staying the extra night (those with families), left to pack their things to catch their flight home. Me? I left, with two others, to go back to the hotel to try to charge my camera. Now here's the funny thing...it didn't work on the first outlet, but it did on the second. And after checking into Saturday night's hotel shortly thereafter (the 5-star jumpoff was nice, but since the company wasn't paying for the next night, we weren't trying to pay 5-star prices) the camera charged again. I didn't think much about it then (I was just happy that the camera was back working again with the last vestiges of dusk-daylight left), I just left the hotel and went to out to take some pictures. Here's what I was able to salvage of the day...





Each of us took a shot of this Portuguese Cognac I bought while we were out and went out to dinner later on...


and for the second time in Lisbon, I had steak with a sunny-side up egg on the top and fries.


They told me a little "urban legend", if you will, that if you finish ALL of your food the night before, you'll have good weather the next day. Needless to say...


My food wasn't all I finished that night...let's just say the phrase, "TO THE FACE!" has officially been adopted by the Frankfurt office.

The restaurant was, again, in the Bairro Alto section of Lisbon...


and as the night progress into our inebriated selves, we somehow found ourselves again at the Kareoke spot from Friday night...and this time we were twice as deep and we armed with a bit of Portuguese pop culture. So much so that I'm sure to all the locals, we were the loud, drunk foreigners in the back that sang "louco por ti" louder than the guy on the mic.

I would expound on the Kareoke experience but 1) you had to be there and 2) I was there and don't remember. What I do remember is that after leaving, the half of us that didn't call it a night then went to supposedly one of Europe's most famous clubs: Luxe.

Look, at this point, I was done and all I remembered was that the club didn't live up to the hype (size-wise it wasn't as big as Dream), they played that Euro-dance music all throughout (which I have nothing against but really wasn't feeling), and there was a big pump on the roof...


You see the couple making out in the front of the shoe? What's funny is that when I got back to Frankfurt, there is no way I would have remembered taking this picture if it wasn't for this slip of paper in my pocket that (in handwriting that wasn't mine) had an email address on it reminding me to send the pitcure to the couple kissing in front of (and in) the shoe. Well I did and got a very pleasant email from them. Turns out the dude in the picture (Jose) is a painter and has a blog of his own. Check it out: www.jobelenguer.blog.pl

Anyways, I was out of commission for the rest of the trip. On Sunday, we went to this "shopping center" (since malls are what's hot in the streets of Portugal) that I can't even remember the name of (maybe I'll come back later and insert it in). Supposedly its supposed to be the largest in Lisbon or even Portugal or something. Now, maybe I didn't see all of it or something (cause there was this open-air, underground portion that I semi-traveled through), but the joint was like half the size of Pentagon City. Maybe this is American bammaness speaking, but the place really left more to the imagination. Or maybe it was just I was eager to leave cause I had a charged digital camera, it was midday and I was itiching to at least try to recreate Saturday's stroll. Unfortunately, it just wasn't the same (and no, eating your food doesn't guarantee perfect weather).
















After this, I trudged back up to the hotel, packed my things, wrote and mailed my postcards at the airport and slept the entire flight home.

Cheers.

I Have to Document This...

Long story short...

I went to this club in the basement of the European Central Bank called "Living." Upon leaving I called Kadija, who accompanied me, via phone, I'd say about 4/10's of the way. I thought I knew where I was going, but upon hanging up with her, I realized this was not the case.

Now, if you think lower Manhattan is a maze, don't even think about coming to Frankfurt (or any other European city with history for that matter). I have tried to walk home both sober and drunk and found myself caving in to either take the tram, subway or...hold your breath...taxi (people who know me know that I HATE taxi cab and tow truck drivers). Its just that difficult. I don't know if its that the old horse paths became paved roads (i.e. planned with no attention to straight-ness or which way is north, etc.), or the old walls surrounding the city that "paved the way" (pun intended) for the "main" streets that encircle the city (thereby, complicating the streets that branch from them as well)...but it just wasn't coming together. And mind you, I PRIDE myself on my exceptional directional ability.

But that all changed tonight.

After hanging up with Kadija, I believe I had an idea of where I was. But where I would normally question myself and backtrack, this time I trusted in whatever it is that's greater than this world, as well as myself.

I do not remember all the queues that popped up along the way that made me seriously question whether or not I was going the right way and/or turnaround (besides, I did not have my camera with me as the charger is bunk). But I stuck through it, and we were right.

It was deep because, to get a bit personal, I feel I have personally not been as in touch with with my spiritual side as I have been recently at home. Like I said, I ain't finna get preachy, it just felt very good to fully trust (myself, It, whatever, etc.), see it through...and be correct (despite all the doubt).

And with that...I'm out.

Cheers.

Louco Por Ti (Lisboa Preview)

Tonight, I would blog about last weekend's trip to Lisbon, but:

1. Between preparing last Friday's presentation/packing for the trip on Thursday night; a couple druken nights where I had to get up soon after hitting the sack; and staying up Sunday night catching up on all the news I missed over the weekend, the last 4 nights I've probably gotten a total of 16 hours sleep and I really need to get some rest; and
   
2. I'm bummed because the charger on my camera doesn't work and now I'm out of commission picture-wise (and yes, I found this out in Lisbon).

I'll get to it all (and probably split it into at least 2 not-so-long blogs because I know the picture-reeled essays take their toll on enjoying the blog that is the Adventures of Frankfurt Freddie)...I promise. In the meantime, enjoy the anthem of our trip (as well as discovering the traces of Spanish, French and Italian in the language that is Portuguese):

Cheers.

Idiosyncrasies #2

• Automatic transmission is non-existent
• Glaze donuts are non-existent (the closest you can get is a donut with granulated powdered sugar on top). All donuts have some sort of topping.
• To enter most stores, you have to push, not pull, the door open
• When giving directions, people will tell you the distance…in meters. (Which is funny because in the States we always give distances in time—“oh, it’s about five minutes’ walk”. Distances in blocks is about as close as we’ll come. Cause I mean really, when was the last time someone told you how far you needed to go…in feet?!)
• Peperoni is not pepperoni as we know it in the States…it’s hot peppers. If you want pepperoni, it’s called peperoniwurst
• Public trash cans are few and far between. Should you be lucky to find one, its prolly hanging from a street sign post and about ¼ the size of those found on every corner in America. Those that are free-standing are split into 4 quadrants, each having a hole—2 for paper, 1 for glass, and 1 for “waste”
• Pizza and gelato are the only foods that are cheaper out here, after conversion to dollars, than at home.
• Mercedes’ are badgeless (i.e. you never know the car’s model number, just that you want one)
• Escalators have motion detectors. So late nights, when no one is using them, they stop and only start back up the next time someone goes to use them (remember that the next time yo drunk self decides to supaman down the escalator thinking its broke)
• McDonald’s are like Chipotle’s out here. The quality of the food and restaurant interiors are MUCH better than at home…also more expensive.
• No free refills
• All names of clubs are English words
• Gas is cheaper in the city than it is on along the Autobahn
• You can go to any store that sells liquid in a glass bottle, give them your empty glass bottle, and they are required to take it and give you a credit on your next bottle purchase
• In some places, the storage lockers are free…all you do is pay a 1 Euro deposit that you get back when you return the key. The same goes with the gluhwien mug at the Christmas market, only with this, the deposit is typically 3 Euro and the mugs are hardly ever returned by tourists like myself cause they make for good souvenirs.
• Finally, it isn’t pronounced “Cheers”, its “Chioos” for women and “Chuss” for men.

Cheers.

NMTMBA?!

Editor's note: my last blogs were long and I'm positive they drained me more than they drained you reading it. I'mma try to keep this one succinct.

Frankfurt-n-Motion is basically a networking group comprised of ex-pats whom happen to be living/working in Frankfurt. While some of its members work either for the military or contract for the military (and the predominant language spoken amongst the group is English), many of its members are not American. Case in point, Etsuko...


She is Japanese, speaks 3 languages (Japanese, German and English) and is working on a fourth (French). Anyways, every Tuesday evening, Frankfurt-n-Motion holds "Drinkstag"--basically, Frankfurt-n-Motion members meet at a bar/restaurant and converse over drinks and food.

At some point during our (Etsuko and I) conversation, she makes the statement, "I want to learn to talk like you." Now mind you, Etsuko's English, while superb (verb conjugation and tense recognition and all), is no doubt spoken in an accent to where you know English is not her first language. I asked her what she meant, to which she replied with the phrase "do you know what I'm saying" while simultaneously imitating one of the many hand gestures I often use subconsciously. I found this interesting as I saw it less of a reflection of me, but more as an interest in "learning" (if you will) American "swag"...or maybe even the possibilty of learning more American slang so that less of her personality is "lost in translation" (if you will).

Throwing corniness to the wind, I took the back of a receipt on the table and wrote:

"you-o-what-m-sayin?!"

Of course she pronounced this very phoenetically, after which I corrected and instructed her to sort of let the letters/sounds flow together as easily as possible. It was then that I believe I inadvertently stumbled upon an epiphany (and of course, my tape recorder was at home).

I began to explain that we Americans are lazy (in theory). So in talking, we try to avoid the use of hard consonants or letters/sounds that chop the flow of a word/sentence. This in turn makes for words/sentences that are easier and/or faster to pronounce. I then broke down the following phrase and told her this is what's currently hot in the streets of America in the '07 (I really didn't say that, but you'll get the picture)...

"do you know what I'm talking about?"

"u-no-wh-m-talm-bout?"

"NMTMBA?!"

It was quite the entertaining exercise watching and hearing her attempt to this phrase this out...but sure enough after 5 or 6 tries, she got it. It was then that the British guy sitting next to us chimed in. He stated that that may be the case for America, but in England its different. He used the word "little" (which they pronounce "li-oo"--> I'm sorry, I don't know how to write it out, but EVERY SINGLE VIEWER AT HOME...NSMTMBA!)

I then felt even more gratified cause this only served to further extend my epiff. See, they do the same thing, the only difference is while we Americans try to smooth over the natural break caused by hard consonants, the British sort of chop it up--while omitting the hard consonant sound altogether (Kadija...you want to chime in on this?).

Anyways, I found this all quite amusing. Score one for American swag...and another for the intelligence of the boy Freud to articulate it.

Cheers.

Müchen (Part 2)

As much as I built it up, nothing much happened that Saturday night.

I had called Rainer, the Venezuelan dude Peer put me in contact with, and he and some friends were going out to this salsa club. Of note, I actually called him on Friday when I touched down in Munich, but because Thursday was his birthday, he was pretty much out of commission from the partying the night before. Anyways, we ended meeting up in front of the Hofbrauhaus close to midnight and me, him and 3 of his friends (his girl and another guy/girl combo) hopped a taxi to the first spot.

It was basically a hall where during the day I think its like a food court, but at night they set up a stage and hold events there. Tonight just happened to be salsa-night. So I got a mojito (yes, with Havana club rum) and made my way to the floor to pop my salsa cherry. It wasn't anyone on the floor, or even some lady of latin-decent, who ended up teaching me the VERY VERY limited basics of salsa dancing...but a German lady who looked to be in her late-40's. I would bore- (or even lol-) you with how much of a catastrophe I was on the floor, but I'll just leave it at "once the song was over she expediently fled the scene of the crime". Which was good cause everyone was ready to head to the main event, "Cohiba"--another salsa club (not one but 2 salsa clubs popping in Munich, Germany on the same night...go figure).

We hopped another taxi and were there I'd say probably around 1 or 1:30am. I stayed all of about 15 minutes. Not only was I done with packed clubs (this one was just as super-packed as Friday night's "Crowns") playing music that my body hasn't figured out the equation to yet, but my mind and body were just done--this was like the 14th day in a row where I had to get up early (and Sunday was going to be the 15th). So I politely bid Rainer and the crew adieu, and hopped yet another taxi home (the 3rd in one night--those that know me know that this is probably a record...I HATE taxis). I was asleep not long after hitting the couch.

Keeping with tradition, Sunday was gonna be my "cultural" day in Munich. And what better way than to visit...

3. BMW-Welt: (www.bmw-welt.de)

Museum just beside the BMW-factory and the Olympic Parc with
an interesting architecture.

Now, before I get to the picture reel, it is worth noting that BMW-Welt is just one part of the BMW headquarters/plant:

http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/index_highend.html?content=http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/home.html

Unfortunately,

• The BMW Museum is currently under renovations and won't be finished until Spring 2008. They had a temporary museum set up, but 1) it was a tent; 2) it supposedly didn't show half of the stuff the finished museum will show; and 3) they charged to get in. Needless to say, there are no pics of the museum.
• The BMW Munich Plant is only open to the public Monday through Friday, and you need to make a reservation far in advance (as it is quite the tour--I hear is ABSOLUTELY amazing). Needless to say, there are no pictures of this as well.

All that leaves is the newly constructed/opened (i.e. 2 weeks old) BMW Welt (pronounced "velt") building. Prepare for the picture reel...


As much as I tried to get the entire building in one shot, with the exception of one other shot (to be seen at the end of this blog), this was about the best I could do. On a good note, you can see the Olympic Tower in the background. On a bad note, the weather was dreary like this all Sunday (not to mention the weekend), so all of the pics outside have a bit of a "bleak" aesthetic to them. Sorry.


One flag for each of the models they produce (if you look closely, yes there is a 1 series...and as far as I know its only produced for/in Europe...and yes it is small).


Pic of the BMW Headquarters office building (left) and the BMW Museum to be completed Spring 2008). Please note that when you look at the BMW Museum from a birds-eye view, the roof of the building looks like the BMW emblem.


Before you get into the main portion of the building, you notice one of the most striking aspects of the building's architecture--the "connected-at-the-tip" cones that support one corner of the building. However, upon closer examination, you see that this area can not only be entered...


but is also used for functions.




I also saw what would be the first of many cafes where you can purchase all sorts of exotic desserts and sandwiches (I ended up getting a brie on baguette sandwich).

Anyways, onto the interior of the main building...

This area (showing every single BMW model on rotating floors) was not accessible to the public
The upscale restuarant located on the upper floor.

The book store on the upper floor.
The cafe adjacent to the book store.
The two-level gift shop...

...where you can buy rare model BMW's designed by Andy Worhol...

...and David Hockney (remember him from Haus de Photographie?).

Now, coupled with these pictures, if I then showed you this...


...you would think that this was THE place to see not only every single model that BMW produces, but also that rare-breed BMW automobile that would make even the most jaded of car-enthusiasts salivate. Well, you'd be in for a very big let down.

For all of its architectural hype (not to mention location at the BMW Headquarters in Munich), this place didn't really show any "ooooohh/aaaahhhhh" cars...other than this M3,


with a V8 engine...


And this 650...


with the maroon guts that did actually make me go "oooooooohhhh".


In all honesty, it really just seemed to me like a BMW dealership on steroids (and yes, each one of the car displays had a BMW representative present to open the doors/hob-nob with the apparently well-to-do, while simultaneously non-verbally shunning away the non-German speaking layman (I'll let you guess whom the latter is)). However, to their credit, I'd say about a third of the building was dedicated to explaining/demonstrating the superior mechanical and safety aspects of their vehicles (i.e. their braking system, hybrid technologies, etc.). Below is this cool set up where I believe you can construct your own BMW.

They also had a video game type simulation where you drive a BMW on this snowy road (not pictured).

Well, kiddies, that's about it. After this I went back outside and took a couple more photos of the exterior...



...then went back to the condo, got my already-packed belongings and missed my train trying to find postage and a mailbox to send off ya'lls post cards.

Yeah, I had to mention that. :-) No worries though, they run on the hour...I just found a spot at the bar, got a beer and wrote the outline for these excruciatingly long blogs.

Cheers.