No Planes, No Automobiles
I've been riding a lot of trains, lately.
A few days ago, an old man had a heart attack on the train to work. A couple of seats away from me. At first it sounded like kids fighting, then sudden loud spitting and a female voice, shouting in Russian cut through whatever I was listening to at the moment.
Two men had rushed to the man, a green suit and a black one, and were giving him CPR. Someone had already called a doctor. The Russian woman was crying and out of breath. A young girl awkwardly tried to touch her hand but the woman pulled away.
People were looking on anxiously as the CPR continued. Everyone shifted about in their seats, unsure of how to behave. Then the man in the green suit asked for a tissue. Within seconds, he got offered about 40 of them.
After a few minutes, a sudden sort of boredom set in. The man was still on the floor and the doctor was still on his way and the train had halted at Hackerbrücke, the stop where everyone gets off to go to the Oktoberfest. People began getting back to normal:
"Hello, Susanne? Yes, I'll be running a little late today. Yeah there's a situation on the train. Another 10-15 minutes maybe?" The woman shut off her mobile phone and took out a book.
The doctor arrived, finally. The old man was dragged outside by three guys in orange outfits, while one of them tried comforting his wife. The train almost instantly drove off.
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I'm off to Frankfurt tomorrow, doing more teaching. Last week I stayed for two days and managed to catch a little bit of the city, walking around the central station at night. The entire area around the station is filled with titty-bars. Middle-aged men in suits and suitcases stand next to Asian students in backpacks and crowd the boardwalks in front of them.
I think it was the first time I've ever checked into a hotel and stated I was "in town on business." Never realized how much I've always kind of wanted to say that.
The hotel is in Bad Homburg, another twenty minute train ride from downtown - a smallish town that Queen Victoria's eldest daughter once used as a sanatorium. There's a huge park with a statue of her right next to the hotel, that I walked around in for a good three or four hours before my course began. Never really pictured me doing (and enjoying) that kind of thing either.
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My train back comes in late Wednesday night. Last time I felt like the most sober dude in Munich, boarding my regional train to my little town of Buchenau together with about 200 people coming back from the Oktoberfest (or Wies'n, as the krauts call it).
Then I went myself, two times. The last time (two days ago) was with my ex-girlfriend. It was good. We got drunk and rode a bunch of carousels and rollercoasters and she knew I was afraid of heights and told me not to be stupid and tell her if I didn't want to, but I did. And I squealed like a baby all the way through it. I had a feeling I would like that sort of thing, someday.
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Your usual Disco programming will resume in a few days. Until then, here's a mix I made that I sent to Basil a few weeks ago, Viel Vergnügen!