Oct 20
Vienna was expensive. It felt like Zurich and like home. High fashion, high paced, business first, art second and then everything else. We saw lots of fancy chocolate shops and bought some Mozart balls, a special treat Austria has to celebrate their claim to fame in the composer.
At an open market, we picked up some fresh vegetables and dried fruits and talked with the vendors. Some exploring on foot led us to a bookstore called Shakespeare & Co, like the one I stayed at in Paris except it wasnt nearly as classic and the man working there was far from friendly, but I did find a new book. The rest of our time in Vienna was spent reading and chatting in different cafés. Austria is known for its coffee, but I drank fruit tea.
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Oct 17
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Oct 16
After filling the tank with petrol on Saturday, I paid the fifty cent toilet fee and gave a pursed lip nod to the uniformed man standing guard at the rotating gate. There was high traffic at this autobahn rest stop, but the chrome piping and white ceramic shined sterile.
I took the first stall. The knob and lock were unusually hefty stainless steel fixtures, the door was heavy and shut smooth with a thud. What a place, I thought! Well worth the fifty cents.
Having never met anyone whos contracted anything from a public toilet, Ive pretty much shook the fear of sitting directly on them, yet I still made a quick inspection for miss fires. The coast was clear, but I noticed a picture of a hand next to a red LED. Impulsively, I waved my fingers over the little graphic to see if I could get the light to do anything.
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Oct 10
As part of my efforts to seek exposure for writing and photography, I spent the last week tuning this website up. It should load faster and have less distracting stale information now. There are more posts on the homepage now too.
All the fun stuff on the map is still there and I added some one sentence stories for each location. Go click “Where Else Have I Been” and explore around a bit. Make sure to note the controls that show up beneath the map.
My mom will surely be letting me know about all the typos, but if you find anything else amuck..please let me know!
Oct 07
Today we went for a walk in the forest, a few square miles of well spaced oaks and maples on the edge of Bochum.
Massive grey trunks, hundreds of years old, reach strong from a clean, soft brown earth. In the lush cover far above, there is a constant swirl from the autumn winds that came earlier this week. The large open space between all the trees gives this place such an open feeling. Its easy to breath here.
I wear a few layers to keep warm in the new, light air. Except for when raising my sleeve to wipe small drips from my nose, my hands stay wrapped to fists in my pockets. Giant gusts come, moving my hair and filling my coat. A welcome break, my feet enjoy the padded ground while we climb one small hill after another.
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Oct 04
Most Germans dont graduate university until their mid to late twenties. I was surprised to learn this at first, but it made some sense of how Ive always met so many Germans while traveling. They are encouraged to do other things besides study. Guys have to spend a year doing military or social service. Girls dont have to do anything like that. I wonder if there exists any German men-groups claiming sexism.
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