Weimar

Jun. 26th, 2012 09:42 pm
abouthalfthree: cute big cat cub (Cheeter Cub)
So, Eis Cafes.

This evening I was almost completely beaten by my ice cream. It came with a lot of nuts heaped over it, and they were more filling than expected. Also, as well as the cream on top of the generous scoops of ice cream, the stem of the glass dish was also filled with cream! I managed to eat all the ice cream around the last handful of nuts.

I forgot to order milk to go with my tea, but that was okay.

I am in Weimar. Last time I was in Weimar was close to midwinter, like second week of December, I think. It was dark and cold and closed. Weimar seems to be doing well for itself, better than last time. There are some buildings near the station that need fixing up, but someone of them are being used for funky art things. I'm not sure how much of teh change is a change in the economy from seven years ago and how much is just that it's summer, the sunsets at quarter past nine and everything is open.

No updates since Munich. So.

First, to follow the ice cream theme, today's tartufo had amaretto liquor instead of cherry liquor. I prefer the cherry based tartufi to the amaretto based ones.

Long update, including small Bavarian towns, amusing dogs, fire, and no visits to any castles. (Click little arrow to left or this test to read it.) )

There are a lot of museums I have to visit tomorrow before I catch the train to Dresden. I'm tired from walking and from the alcohol in my ice cream and also because I keep sunburnt without realising it. (I spend sometime in the early evening wondering while I feel flushed.)

Oh wait! on my way back to the hostel from the Eis Cafe, I got stopped by Mormons. Sadly, I did not quite have my wits with me to cause trouble, and I think it would have been mean. But I have plans for the next time religious fundamentalists want to talk to me about their religion.

Icecream

Jun. 21st, 2012 10:44 pm
abouthalfthree: TS Eliot: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws." (I should have been)
This was going to be more of a post about how the Germans have Eis Cafes, which have the decor of sandwitch shops and sell icecream sundaes. There is one on the way back to this hotel from the underground. I was worried that it would closed when I was on my way back from the movies, but it's open til midnight.

Also, there was art this morning, and shopping for improbably coloured trousers. (One pair is fine blue and white stripes, the other pair red.)

But it turns out that La Trobe Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is getting rid of Art History. Like, it seems, getting rid of the entire area of study. No more Art History subjects. (No more Art History staff?) So I have had to spend some time looking at tumblr to restore the chocolate icecream and cherry liquor induced mood of earlier.

And now I must sleep.

Munich

Jun. 20th, 2012 05:17 pm
abouthalfthree: black on white lino print of a domestic street (Default)
I was planning on going out this evening to see a film, but it is now raining extremely heavily.

I know that storms can be bad in Munich because last night lightening knocked out one of the control towers at the airport. We were half an hour delayed leaving Hamburg, then got to fly holding pattern for another half hour before we could land at Munich.

On the other hand, I am glad the humidity has broken, because that was beginning to get on my nerves. (Actually, I could probably still go. The underground station is not too far, and I have my rain coat. It's not actually cold.) Right now I'm waiting for my washing to dry.

There was one thing I wanted to record for amusement.

If you want to complain a about British border security/passport control, then you right to the UK Border Force. They must be written in "English (or Welsh)".

The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities. In one there is the great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the death-ride with crouching motorcyclists, the big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the middle. The other half-city is of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest. One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is temporary, and when the period of its sojourn is over, they uproot it, dismantle it, and take it off, transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half-city.

~ Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino