Shopping
Jan 4th
Today, I hit the shopping district. That was fun. Most that I could do is take pictures and window shop, but it was still fun! I went to the large cathedral. It was amazing! So beautiful. This place is fantastic. It is really cold but that hasn’t stopped me. My feet are killing me!! It has really been a great adventure. Some German’s aren’t that nice, but for the most part, they are fantastic. The shopping district here is unbelievable. There are malls and shops everywhere. All the high end shops that I can’t even afford to go into are there on the strip. It was really cool. I stopped into some of the little pubs and it was exactly what you would expect. They were very nice and had all types of beer. I got a new shirt and a scarf. Both of which I needed desperately. Did I mention it is cold as hell?
Anyway, I walked until I got lost and then walked some more until I found myself. BUT I did make sure to avoid the red light district. Besides, I am on vacation and don’t feel like working at all :-) I think I forgot to talk about the man peeing on the sidewalk on my last entry. Funny story actually. I was walking along next to a 12 century beautiful church when there was this guy standing in middle of the sidewalk with his weiner out and he was just peeing. Ok……. Well, he must have had to really go. I just never expected to see that. It caught me off guard, but whatever :-)
I found a lot of really cool little shops and cafés. I got lost a few times down back alleys, but there really weren’t any unsavory characters to be seen. Just me I was prepared too. I have heard all about purse snatching and pic pocketing so I made sure to walk with that ‘go ahead, I’ll beat your ass’ walk. It seemed to keep me out of trouble…..when they didn’t assume that I was a hooker that is.
I hit the Irish pub again. The food there is good and it is a lot of fun. By chance I met a couple chicks from New York here for school for the weekend. They were really nice so I drank a few beers when them. The rest of their group showed up and we had about 20 Americans all hanging out in the Irish bar. IT was good times. We were sharing stories about what we have done since we have been here and what we have seen. I started off with the red light district story and then of course it lead right into the man peeing on the side walk story. All the guys got quiet for a second and then started laughing. They asked me if he had this weird scar on his mouth…. And as a matter of fact, he did. It was one of the guys in the group. He was a little too drunk and just decided to pee right where he was. What are the odds? It was a good laugh. The guy couldn’t look me in the eye the entire night. I had a great time with them and will probably hang out with them again tomorrow night. As for now, I am drunk as I have been many times today and yesterday. It’s funny, I will get pretty drunk at one pub early in the day, I start walking around and sober up a bit until I find another pub.
Oh... and I can't forget. Even though I am away from work, it follows me still. Everyone from the station has been getting ahold of me online to tell me how much crap is going on in my station. The butthole guy was promoted so we can expect a alabama nazi running around the station. They also told me that this shitty company that I work for is transfering my captain to a start up base. A start up base really has nothing there, no station, no store, often time not even a fire truck. It is hard work to start up a base and get everything going. My captain has about 30 days left in his contract. Instead of leaving him alone, they are making him pack up and leave to go to a crappy base where he may not even be able to call his pregnant wife. After three years of loyal service, this company is going to throw it in and break it off. THe are just errible people. They are not even good business people, much less good chiefs. BUt they really think they are important. I don't believe most of them have any idea what it means to be a firefighter to begin with. They sit at head quaters and can't even agree on what format the paper work should be, so we literally have to change our paperwork everyweek, sometimes three or four times a week. It is unbelieveable. Anyway, here I am going on about my damn company. Like I said, I just don't seem to be able to escape the stresss. But guiness is trying to help :-)
Today, I hit the shopping district. That was fun. Most that I could do is take pictures and window shop, but it was still fun! I went to the large cathedral. It was amazing! So beautiful. This place is fantastic. It is really cold but that hasn’t stopped me. My feet are killing me!! It has really been a great adventure. Some German’s aren’t that nice, but for the most part, they are fantastic. The shopping district here is unbelievable. There are malls and shops everywhere. All the high end shops that I can’t even afford to go into are there on the strip. It was really cool. I stopped into some of the little pubs and it was exactly what you would expect. They were very nice and had all types of beer. I got a new shirt and a scarf. Both of which I needed desperately. Did I mention it is cold as hell?
Anyway, I walked until I got lost and then walked some more until I found myself. BUT I did make sure to avoid the red light district. Besides, I am on vacation and don’t feel like working at all :-) I think I forgot to talk about the man peeing on the sidewalk on my last entry. Funny story actually. I was walking along next to a 12 century beautiful church when there was this guy standing in middle of the sidewalk with his weiner out and he was just peeing. Ok……. Well, he must have had to really go. I just never expected to see that. It caught me off guard, but whatever :-)
I found a lot of really cool little shops and cafés. I got lost a few times down back alleys, but there really weren’t any unsavory characters to be seen. Just me I was prepared too. I have heard all about purse snatching and pic pocketing so I made sure to walk with that ‘go ahead, I’ll beat your ass’ walk. It seemed to keep me out of trouble…..when they didn’t assume that I was a hooker that is.
I hit the Irish pub again. The food there is good and it is a lot of fun. By chance I met a couple chicks from New York here for school for the weekend. They were really nice so I drank a few beers when them. The rest of their group showed up and we had about 20 Americans all hanging out in the Irish bar. IT was good times. We were sharing stories about what we have done since we have been here and what we have seen. I started off with the red light district story and then of course it lead right into the man peeing on the side walk story. All the guys got quiet for a second and then started laughing. They asked me if he had this weird scar on his mouth…. And as a matter of fact, he did. It was one of the guys in the group. He was a little too drunk and just decided to pee right where he was. What are the odds? It was a good laugh. The guy couldn’t look me in the eye the entire night. I had a great time with them and will probably hang out with them again tomorrow night. As for now, I am drunk as I have been many times today and yesterday. It’s funny, I will get pretty drunk at one pub early in the day, I start walking around and sober up a bit until I find another pub.
Oh... and I can't forget. Even though I am away from work, it follows me still. Everyone from the station has been getting ahold of me online to tell me how much crap is going on in my station. The butthole guy was promoted so we can expect a alabama nazi running around the station. They also told me that this shitty company that I work for is transfering my captain to a start up base. A start up base really has nothing there, no station, no store, often time not even a fire truck. It is hard work to start up a base and get everything going. My captain has about 30 days left in his contract. Instead of leaving him alone, they are making him pack up and leave to go to a crappy base where he may not even be able to call his pregnant wife. After three years of loyal service, this company is going to throw it in and break it off. THe are just errible people. They are not even good business people, much less good chiefs. BUt they really think they are important. I don't believe most of them have any idea what it means to be a firefighter to begin with. They sit at head quaters and can't even agree on what format the paper work should be, so we literally have to change our paperwork everyweek, sometimes three or four times a week. It is unbelieveable. Anyway, here I am going on about my damn company. Like I said, I just don't seem to be able to escape the stresss. But guiness is trying to help :-)