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Home from dinner and drinks with Matt and Company from England (CfE). Great time.
We met outside the shopping mall and CfE asked me to go into the electronics shop with them and give them my opinion on a couple of digital cameras. Neither of them have ever owned one before, so they valued my opinion as a (former, but also soon to be) digital camera owner.
From there, we decided that we were all very hungry, so we made our way to Café Einstein. I like that restaurant a lot, but only go there for special occasions. I went there back in January when my friend Hayley visited (Matt had only been here for a week, so I invited him as well) and Matt and I went there once in March (I think) when we were out for a stroll (it wasn’t the same then due to the fact that it wasn’t a special occasion). I ordered my usual meal (schnitzel with tomatoes and cheese on it, fries and salad) and they ordered what they wanted. We spent a couple hours there and then took a walk down to the river.
We walked for quite a while and talked about whatever. CfE and I first met in on the last trip in August and we’ve gotten on well from the beginning. We had known about each other through Matt, and he knew that we’d get on well, and we do. This is kind of his biggest fear as well (or so I tease him). This also brings out a different side of Matt. He even paid for our dinners (being the tightwad he is, something like that is more than unusual)!
CfE is more than his best friend in this world. Here in Germany, Matt is grumpy and whiney (and he knows that), but when CfE is here, he’s ‘Other Matt’ (so I’ve titled him). He’s happy, his ‘pride shield’ is down, and other things that he doesn’t usually display. He knows about the Other Matt thing and he agrees that he likes that person better, but also says that he finds it hard to be that person here.
We walked back into Old Town and ended up at a pub called Zum Schiffchen (translation: To the Little Ship (?)) for a drink and more conversation. CfE doesn’t drink a lot, so Matt and I were forbidden from having more than one beer. We both didn’t mind it, as CfE is quite a conversationalist and the three of us has tons of great conversation.
We made our way back to the turn off point near our flats, but made a quick stop at the DVD shop so they could pick up a movie to watch before going to bed. We said our goodbyes and I arrived home at 22h05.
A wonderful evening spent with good friends. Germany definitely didn’t suck this evening.
Other than a minor inconvenience, I have what appears to be a fun filled weekend coming up if everything works out.
Matt’s Company from England (CfE) arrived last night and the three of us are planning on hanging out this afternoon and having dinner and drinks this evening. Saturday I have the nuisance of work (9 – 12), then I’ll be going to Spence’s wedding with Vince, Matt, CfE and Js for both the ceremony (in the early afternoon) and the reception (later that evening).
Sunday is going to be a ME day. I’ve booked a room in a four star hotel about 11 km from here due to the fact that the rate was only €34 for the night. I’ll be doing nothing for the afternoon/evening but relaxing, swimming and chilling out before returning to my room to watch TV. I don’t have a one at home, so watching TV is a luxury to me.
Monday? After returning to town, the plan is to go to Matt’s flat to help him with his CV. He shared his CV with Vince and me on Wednesday and we both told him that his format was terrible. So, while we were out on Wednesday evening for a chat, I offered to bring my laptop over to his house and help him format it better (using the template of his choice on Word).
Not much blogging will be going on this weekend.
since I haven’t gotten much of it this week and what little I have gotten hasn’t been good. Apparently, I’m not good at it even after years of practice.
To do list update:
301712 essays to mark [they're not going to be done this week];15 quizzes to mark;32 exams to make, one of which is for Thursday;Inventory project at work needs to be finished this week
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(part whatever). Thanks to Pratt for keeping my inner-Philadelphian alive.
Philly named ‘Next Great City’
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) — Ask any Philadelphian what the city is known for and the response might be cheesesteak or that scene in “Rocky” when Sylvester Stallone runs up the art museum steps.
But the October issue of National Geographic Traveler says there are lots of other good things to eat in Philly — and you should actually go inside the museum after goofing off outside.
The magazine delves beneath pop culture to reveal the historical, artistic and gastronomic layers of Philadelphia, a place it has christened America’s “Next Great City.”
“This is a city that has been greatly overlooked,” said Keith Bellows, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “It’s the last great opportunity for anyone who wants a terrific urban life in the Northeast.”
Impressed by Philadelphia in recent visits, he had to convince his staff that the City of Brotherly Love would be the next hip metro area. “They kind of all looked at me like I had lost my marbles,” Bellows said.
But he dispatched his contributing editor, Andrew Nelson, to find out for himself.
What the author said he discovered was a Philadelphia that’s no longer the city of “gritty urban decay” portrayed in the Rocky Balboa saga, nor “D.C. on a bad hair day.” Long in the shadow of New York City and the nation’s capital, Philadelphia now can flick that supposed chip from its shoulder and stand tall on its own merits.
It’s been a long time coming. While the city has plenty of history — it’s where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted, and it’s home to the Liberty Bell — urban decay had crept in as people fled to the suburbs in the 1970s.
That has turned around in a big way.
There’s a condominium building boom downtown, where the number of restaurants — highlighted by ventures from well-known restaurateurs Georges Perrier and Stephen Starr — has tripled since 1992. And the magazine called the Old City area, with its vibrant arts and nightlife scene, the liveliest urban neighborhood between SoHo in New York and SoBe in Miami.
A walkable city that bridges the old and new, Philadelphia boasts stately 19th-century neighborhoods, the Champs Elysees-inspired Benjamin Franklin Parkway and, soon, wireless Internet access throughout its 135 square miles.
Such revitalization efforts, together with a marketing campaign and high-profile events such as the Live 8 concert, have put Philly back on the map, city officials said.
Since 2000, the number of visitors to the city has grown by 21 percent to 25.5 million, said Meryl Levitz, president and chief executive of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.
But Bellows said the city’s self-image still needs a little work: “Philly has a little bit of an underdog sense of itself and it doesn’t even realize how great it is.”
I’ve been in a lousy mood for most of the day. Now, it’s just started raining.
Beware students tomorrow!
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30 17 essays to mark;15 quizzes to mark;3 2 exams to make, one of which is for Thursday;
(I found a bit of time to relax yesterday evening and spent it writing this)
Matt and I met at the school at 10h as planned, with an unexpected surprise. Our friend S was with him. She told me that she had found him in McDonalds about to commit a cardinal sin: have a cheeseburger for breakfast. She let him order a cup of coffee, but not a cheeseburger. We all chatted for a bit and then S went off to catch a train. Matt and I then hopped on our bikes and took off.
The weather was about 18ºC and cloudy, but we had both worn shorts in hopes that it’d warm up a bit later. I had worn a polo shirt and put a heavy shirt over it, and he had also worn a polo shirt and had a jumper over it. I guess you could say we’re hopeless optimists.
The only thing that had been planned about this trip was the day and time, the rest of it was up to what we wanted. We cycled over the Pfaffendorfer Bridge again and headed north, no destination in mind. We cycled on the promenade along the Rhein, rode up and down a few hills and eventually came to Vallendar. We noticed a small flea market going on, so we dismounted and walked our bikes through it. There was nothing of interest to either of us, so we hopped back on and kept pedalling.
Unfortunately, the promenade ended and we had to cycle on the B42 til we got almost to Bendorf. It had a cycling lane, so it wasn’t all that bad, but we both would rather have been cycling along the river. We were both very glad to get back to the river just before Engers.
Just before we got to the promenade, I realised that I had finished my last roll of film the day before and forgotten to bring an fresh one with me, so I hoped that there’s be a Schlecker in Engers, as there are in most German villages, and was right. There was. I popped in and bought a couple rolls of film (36 exposure, 200 ASA €1.99 for both). When I came out, the conversation went like this:
M: ‘This is a lovely town. Let’s stroll around for a bit.’
J: ‘Translation – your legs are tired.’
M: ‘Exactly.’
We strolled down to the castle, I took a few photos and we walked back to the Rhein and cycled on. As we were leaving Engers, the sun came out! Being sun lovers, we were both ecstatic about that, but weren’t sure if it would last or not.
The cycling path continued on, but be came slightly different. It went away from the town and out into a series of fields. It was lovely, and continued like that until we reached Neuwied.
I used to teach in Neuwied, so I knew the town a bit and told him that I had a plan. We rode into the city a bit and Matt said, ‘This place is nice. Let’s walk for a bit,’ to which I replied, ‘Your legs are tired again,’ to which he told me they were. I told him that I had figured that would happen and was taking him to a place that we could walk around. He thanked me for thinking about him, and we got to the pedestrian area, locked our bikes and went to Media Markt to look at digital cameras and DVDs. Neither of us bought anything.
From there, we strolled through the pedestrian area, browsing through a couple of €1 shops along the way. Matt wanted to sit and have a coke, but I didn’t want to be in the centre of a city, so we hopped back on our bikes and rode back to the river. At the end of the city, we came across a beer garden, so we stopped for a coke and to sit in the sun. We put our sunnies on and sat directly in the sun while chatting about nothing in particular. It was wonderful to be able to sit in the sun and not be cold in late September.
From there, we hopped back on our bikes and rode til the promenade ended at the Wied River. We could have backtracked a bit and gone over a bridge, but decided not to since the sky was becoming cloudy off in the distance. We decided to head back towards our town so that we could get home more quickly if it rained, and an hour later we were back on the opposite side of the river from which we lived. However, we didn’t go back into the city, we cycled on for a bit. We were having fun and the sun was still shining, so we headed for paradise.
Two kilometres before reaching it, Matt asked me how much longer it was. This was a miracle, as Matt is known for whining (about just about everything), so it was amazing that it took him almost six hours to start (I chose to overlook his other comments about walking). It had to be a new record.
Reaching our destination, we sat down and enjoyed a couple of beers after about 70 km of cycling. We stayed for two hours, still enjoying the sun and then cycled back to the city. Arriving, we went to a supermarket and bought what we needed for chicken tacos and then rode to his house again to make chicken tacos. We spent the next 4 ½ hours talking, eating and enjoying a bit of wine.
As previously mentioned on my blog, Matt and I never run out of things to talk about. The funny thing about it was when Matt was cutting the chicken and there was a slight lull in the conversation, he said, ‘Talk. Give us a topic to talk about.’ We discussed how we had already talked about many different subjects that day (travel, work, cycling, friendship, our families, sex, etc) and that there wasn’t much left to talk about. He tried to bring up the topic of politics, but we agree on most political topics so that didn’t work. We finally started playing a word game, and that encouraged conversation again and it continued til I left at 23h45. Isn’t it ironic that the only time we couldn’t find something to talk about was when we were discussing what to talk about?
All in all, a great day.
That’s me in the car.
To do list:
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