Sunny Day
Yesterday it was 49 F as the warmest temperature here. Today
it was a lovely, sunny, breezy day in the 60s. I took a long walk, and did not
get lost for the first time in this very large city. I am only keeping to a
small part of the city, but it is still quite confusing, as hardly any roads go
straight; some are ring-roads, and many just make kind of s-curves as they go.
So you don’t end up where you thought you would, judging by what it looked like
when you started out!
Some impressions of Germany:
Roses, roses everywhere!!!! All different colors, often in
one yard. They smell good, too. There are, of course, many other kinds of
flowers blooming as well, but the roses are gorgeous and abundant.
Don and I have determined that we will never again in this
country order two entrees—or desserts, for that matter. The portions are HUGE. I mean huge, much
bigger than even American large servings. I don’t know why Germans are not all
500 lbs, although it may be that most of them are eating nothing, and are just
drinking the coffee that is everywhere. Although all of them appear to be eating ice cream.
German people love dogs; dogs are everywhere, including in
stores (just as I had noticed back in Stockholm). Bowls of water are provided
by many restaurants, where dogs keep their human companions company at the
outside tables. Just as in Stockholm, the dogs don’t seem to be interested in
people besides their owners; I have only managed to say hello, up close, to one
so far. And my normal attractiveness to cats seems to only be true for American
cats; none of the ones I try to lure to me respond in any kind of positive
manner. Sigh. I miss my own cat and dog.
Today, Friday May 30th, is THE night that some of
the local stores—especially the 678 department stores in the downtown
pedestrian shopping district (that’s an exaggeration; I think it’s actually
347)—are going to stay open late. Some say they will be open until 10:00
pm. There are also sales announced at
some stores. When I was making my way back toward the hotel at about 2:30, I
could barely walk through the crowds of people who seemed to have gone
completely insane. This was like the day after Thanksgiving at an American
mall. I dropped into TK Max (it’s the same as TJ Max; I don’t know why it’s a
different letter here) to see if they had a pair of decent shoes I could afford
(shoes here either seem to be really cheaply made, at low prices, or really,
really well made, at exorbitant prices. Seriously, I’m not going to pay $150 or
more for a pair of loafers. My problem is that I only brought sneakers and
sandals, which turned out to not be adequate when it was pouring rain and the
streets were filled with puddles. I may simply take a chance on it never
raining again while I’m here, although that seems like a real gamble). Well, TK
Max was downright frightening, with clothing, handbags and shoes flying about
(not really, but it felt like it). It was a mob scene. I think the workers will
have to stay until tomorrow morning just to clean the place up.
But this is a very interesting thing: in the States, other
than Black Friday and the day after Christmas, we don’t tend to have days or
weeks when stores coordinate their sales, and people go shopping-crazy in mobs.
The fact is, goods in northern Europe tend to be “overpriced”, relative to prices
in American shops (it’s probably because American store-owners pay their
workers poverty-level wages, and Europeans pay closer to a living wage), so
when there is a one-day sale, mob shopping ensues.
Don says that the campus was correspondingly empty, although
classes were supposed to be in session.
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