Alexander Platz and Museums

Not much to report for Thur. We got sort of a late start (ok, everyday is a late start because the Berliners keeps such late hours) and didn't really move much till we went towards Museum Island in order to take advantage of some free Thu evening museum stuff. Not as many free museums as there used to be (the website I saw said six, but there were more like two); but, after the first museum, we were museumed out so, that was that.

Andy and I met a cool woman (twice) the first meeting of which led to our first traveling disagreement. Come on now. You didn't really expect that two people, who have never traveled together before, could do so without a single argument, a single disagreement. And certainly no one who knows me (or Andy, I fear) would expect this. This issue was simple. The cool woman spoke English and Andy felt that I talked over him and didn't let him get many words in edgewise. Ok, I can accept that criticism. As it happened, we saw her again several hours later on another train. This time I let Andy take more of the lead in our conversation. Though the conversation probably didn't flow as smoothly as when I'm doing the George thing (and this woman was quite similar in style to me), it was cool. What a concept! Conversations do not always need to proceed at George pace or even under my guidance. I know at least one of my readers (who will remain nameless.................................JON) who would really sympathize with Andy here. Unfortunately, Andy somewhat squandered his opportunity to ask the pretty lady to join us for dinner; but c'est la vie, no?

I do find the Germans (or, perhaps more accurately, the Berliners) to be fascinating people in distinct ways. Ok, that last sentence was filler. What does it mean anyway? Simply, that I find it curious that the same people who are so very comfortable disrobing publicly, the same people that stay up till all hours of the night (and keep their children out very, very late as well) at bars that have no legal closing time, that these same people stand at crosswalks and wait for the "walk" sign before crossing. No matter that it's 2 in the morning. No matter that there isn't a car moving. Anywhere. In all of Berlin. To be clear, I don't intend to advocate capricious lawbreaking (as opposed to well-planned law breaking I guess). Rather, I just find it odd that these people who are so liberal, so uninclined to the conventional in so many other ways, waste minutes, hours, and days of their lives waiting to cross perfectly empty streets.

Of course, one of these same people micromanaged how I held my camera in the museum. A female employee at the museum approached me to warn me that I had to carry my camera flat on my chest because it was too big. Hmmm. Too big I thought. Anywho, like my helpless little camera was going to swing wildly and knock some priceless sculpture weighing a ton off its little stand? I don't think so. But there you have it. I was told where exactly on my body to carry my camera. That's a first

That seems to be it folks. Sorry no more interesting tidbits of erudition from Thursday. Perhaps today, Friday, will bring more tantalizing morsels.