When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": May 2018

Friday 25 May 2018

Gulag time .... time to say Hello Again and to say Good Bye ... Forever

4:00
Holy jet lag. Good thing I went to sleep early.

I already noticed at yesterday's arrival that my view of the mountains is a thing of the past. During my absence, a whole new level was added to the high rise in construction next door.

5:45

The waiting without being able to do anything productive drove me bonkers ...

so I booked Mother's and my FRA-YVR-FRA return trip. Good. Now I have the corner stones in place and can start scheduling around it. Hotels, train tickets, etc etc. I feel slightly better.

6:30

I've ordered some shoes. I've tried at least FOUR times now to get Converse shoes in Asia AND Istanbul in any size above size 43. It's impossible. So this time they will travel with me to the countries of small-feet men !

7:00

Breakfast time. The breakfast room is FULL of Chinese tourists, all frantically running around to add hot water to their imported noodle-breakfast mixture or to raid the fruit basket. And all 20 arrived within 3 minutes of each other. It was a planned raid !

OMG, during breakfast I kept browsing the shoe store website. And I just HAD to buy these too, LOL

Now I can keep up with Peter in foot fashion ;-) (Hallo Marion ! ;-)

Time for a 2nd breakfast and WINE at Denny's.

A waitress who shall remain name-less (I know that the manageress reads this blog ;-), fills my glass of wine to non-sanctioned levels. Do-Je saai !

The weather forecast calls for SUNNY skies in Vancouver. LIARS !

Visiting Grandma is disconcerting. She looks the same on the outside, but inside ....

not mine, but very similar

I find one of my Native silver watch bracelets lying around the kitchen. HOW did it get there? She must have DUG DEEP this time to find this. When I mention it to her, she just says "I'm going to bring it to the watchmaker".

WTF?

1st of all it is MINE. And the attached watch is a 1960s mechanical automatic watch that certainly does NOT need to see the watchmaker. Then the caretaker pipes in. Apparently Grandma had told her that this bracelet and the watch belonged to Grandma's late husband. People are allowed to BELIEVE in different versions of reality. But let's face it: There can be only ONE !

The caretaker tries to be helpful: "Yes, but you can put a new battery in the watch". I demonstrate how the watch is self-winding but I don't think she gets it.

I wake up in the middle of the night realizing that I will have to move ALL of my stuff to a safe location, otherwise Grandma will just randomly bring items to the watchmaker, use items as presents, or simply loose the stuff.

OK, time to get used to the idea that now I have TWO ancestral women with limited mental capacity and that I'm the ONLY one in my family branch still ticking properly.

Talk about time to step up and stand on my own.

It's a lousy night, I don't get much sleep, and only make it to breakfast at 9:30.

I really don't want to miss seeing my kookum for the last time before she flies to Edmonton today at 1:30 but I'm not sure I can make it there .... FUCK

OF COURSE I make it. I ride the bike to East Van. Neither traffic nor the resulting air quality did improve since I was here last. To all those now saying "But Vancouver is such a beautiful city", try riding your bike across the city, instead of just along the beaten tourist conveyor belt around Stanley Park and you will probably change your mind.

And I'm glad I did make it to see Kookum.. In retrospect I would have never forgiven me for not seeing her for one last time. When I first spot Kookum, I am shocked. The last time I saw her was 5 weeks ago, but I'm looking at a different person. She lost half her weight and her face is drawn. But what floors me are her eyes. I've known this woman for 20 years and I never noticed. Now, that she is very ill, her eyes are a carbon copy of George's eyes. I'm under no illusions that I'm going to see her alive again, so I try to say to her all the things that need telling when there won't be another chance to say them.

Ride back to North Van. A quick lunch at my Viet place leaves me disappointed. NO, the didn't get worse, but they, unlike the Viet place in MomTown a week ago, do NOT have those special Vietnamese herbs that make the dish special.

Back to the hotel. Now: Refill Safeway Card, deposit cheque, visit Grandma and talk to Caretaker. What a day !

Grandma is in a foul mood and doesn't even attempt a semblance of good manners towards me or her caretaker. When I talk to the caretaker I learn that Grandma had spun a tale around my watch bracelet in which Grandma had it for her deceased husband. It would have been nice if she had done so, but unfortunately that tale was completely invented.

What did a nurse once say? They die like they lived.

At least Baggins Shoes & Canada Post delivered my shoes already ;-)

I can now wear
"Pastel
Camouflage"

Wednesday 23 May 2018

I can smell sulfur already ! Back to the GULAG ! (MomTown - FRA - YVR)

NO, today is not a day to just roll over in bed to keep napping. Gotta go somewhere today....

It's drizzling under sunny but chilly skies during my 1st cigarette, so I'm glad I brought the bike away yesterday already.
Pedaling a heavy and power-less e-bike with ALL my luggage in sprinkles? NOT a good idea ...

The owner is preparing breakfast today. No eggs available! He's exhausted by the looks of him. No wonder though, he is running TWO hotels !

Today I will make another step into the digital present. I will present my train ticket on my cell phone ! The fact that I now have a phone without the spider-web of cracks on the display certainly helps in this endeavor. We'll see how that goes ....

10:15
I check with Radstation whether they have received my money-drop and maybe have figured out what was wrong with the bike. All seems to have been the fault of that bloody little display computer on the handle-bar. NOTE TO SELF: On the next long bike trip, take TWO of those little fuckers along ;-)

10:33 Leaving MomTown ...

11:25 Was about time one of these trains was late ....

NOT only is the train 25 minutes LATE, and not only does it leave from a platform different from the one indicated.
German train stations have indicator boards showing where each car will stop along the platform. German boards are digital whereas in Vietnam, where the same customer-friendly system is in use, the information is written by chalk onto a board. The Viet chalk-written information is always accurate, i.e. the train actually stops where it is supposed to stop.

NOT so here, as I and an old lady I was talking to have to find out. The train is already LATE, so it tries to keep its stops to a minimum, and we have to run (hobble in the old lady's case) for more than 100 meters along the platform. There isn't even a conductor in sight, who I can instruct not to close the door before the old lady arrives.

NOT amused !

Armes Deutschland !

In the train, the seat-reservation display system is Kaputt, as it also was in the previous 2 trains. This seat is POSSIBLY reserved it says above EVERY seat.
VERY helpful indeed, LOL.

12:15
NO WiFi at Cologne Central Station ;-(

But at least my seat strategy paid off. The German Rail seat-reservation system seems to automatically fill the train car by car, BUT there is also an option where you can choose your own seat. So I chose a seat in a car where pretty much nothing was reserved yet. The result: I'm sitting at a window in a mini compartment of 4 seats all by myself.

Perfect for sipping wine and napping. I feel like I'm under a bridge, LOL.

12:40
NO WiFi at Bonn Central Station ;-( Please note that Bonn used to be the Capital of Germany !

12:55
We're already passing Remagen (February 2018), when a conductor finally wants to check my ticket. He scans my cell phone. And it actually WORKS. I have saved one sheet of paper. Of course, there is a drawback ! I had to write down the connecting train #s, times, and platforms on the inside of an old and empty cigarette pack ;-)

13:15
NO WiFi at Koblenz Central Station....

Romantic Rhine. Unfortunately the compartments in this car are on the wrong side of the train, so that the window faces the mountain instead of the Rhine Valley ;-(

13:30
I've noticed the very positive effect that cycling has had on my body shape, debris-content of my lungs, and general disposition during the last week and I am hatching a CUNNING PLAN on this train ride.
WHAT prevents me from buying one of those fabulous 45 km/h Speed Pedelecs when I bring mother back in about 6 weeks and having the store SHIP the bike to VIETNAM ?
Absolutely NADA (except maybe German export regulations?).
An S-Pedelec with 2 batteries in Quy Nhon.
Now THAT sounds like a DREAM that is just MEANT to come TRUE ;-)

Yes, I rode a bicycle along here..... or maybe not .... did I get off that Disney Ship in St. Goar ..... is that South or North of here..... I can't remember .... that was in 2013, 5 years ago.... good thing I have a blog that I can check .... oh right, I'm in Germany and there is NO FRIGGIN WiFi !!!!!

I get to the bus stop 3 minutes before the twice-an-hour bus leaves.
Karma Kredits ;-)

I feel like HOME, when I see that my hotel room has a fridge & a water kettle. COFFEE is the thought that comes to mind right away.
WTF? NO coffee. And WHAT KIND of tea is THAT? Strawberries & Cream. LOL, the hotel owner must have found 200,000 bags of that for a buck, LOL. Which person in their right mind would buy that????

Nap or just a lay-down?

It turns out to be a 15 minute nap rudely interrupted by my alarm clock. I find out that I could have slept another WHOLE HOUR when I find out that my dinner companions are FAR from ready ;-)

But it's nice to see my pseudo-relatives again. Good food and fabulous wine.

The evening lasts longer than expected and I crash into my bed at 23:30

Breakfast has been open since 6:00 but I only make it there at 8:00.
It's dark and drizzling outside, which is a nice way to ease into today's destination, LOL
To think that I will be locked into a metal tube for 10 hours with a large number of people who are actually excited to fly to Vancouver is a bit unsettling at this early hour.

I spend the hour before check-out reading my blog for September 2016. The bike trip from Paris to Frankfurt. I realize how much I miss that semi-aimless wandering on a bicycle through parts unknown. !

11:00
Time to take the 751 bus right to the Airport Terminal 1 for 3.20 Euros. Much preferable to a 30 Euro taxi ;-)

They built a smoking enclosure outside the terminal. But everyone still smokes in the old spot, LOL

Time to buy cigarettes. 'Duty Free' is becoming more and more of a joke. HINT: There is no duty on chocolate to begin with and it is MORE expensive in duty free stores than in your regular store. As for cigarettes, which carry duty, their duty-free price has climbed to 45 Euros. Outrageous. On the other hand, that's CAD$ 68, still only half the price of American smokes in Canada, LOL.

(I stop laughing when I buy my first pack of Winston cigarettes in Vancouver one week after this event. $16.50 for ONE PACK)

Rose wine & Frankfurter sausages. I'm probably going to regret that later ....

OK food and good wine. How about a cigarette? I check Airportsmokers.com and learn that there is a smoking lounge right next to my gate....
How convenient is that ?

12:30
Half an hour until boarding time. But then they always lie about the boarding time, don't they? At least the plane is already here and is tethered to the walk-way tunnel. One less worry ....
I have to smile when I see that the plane has been named Achim.
Good Morning, my name is Achim and I'll be your plane today ...

While I'm waiting on one of the benches, a Middle Eastern or North African cleaning guy approaches me and points under my seat. A wallet had fallen out of my bag and below the seat. HOLY SHIT. NICE GUY! He is happy for the 20 Euro Thank You accompanied by a Namaste and I'm happy I still have CAD$ 200 in Vietnamese Dong, A while later I realize that this wallet also contains US$ 400 AND my Vietnamese bank card.

Thank you Karma and Thank You Cleaning guy !

There is not much worth mentioning about the Condor flight. Everyone already knows they're horribly CHEAP with the in-flight entertainment and the food. The check-in woman had fucked up and given me a center seat when I asked for an aisle seat. Karma to the rescue: The stewardess gets me an aisle seat after I ask her. And it's at the emergency exit with endless legroom ;-)

It's a good thing the Canadian Immigration Officer (she looks like a 17 year old girl) asks me "Where do you come from?" and not "Where have you been?". That allows me to answer "Germany" without having to lie. Much less likely to result in stupid questions than "Vietnam, Turkey, Austria, Germany".
It's actually SUNNY in Vancouver.

Switching from the SkyTrain to the bus downtown, I realize that not much else has changed around here ....