Unexpected Homophobia In Stuttgart

On March 6, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany4 Comments

I just returned home on Tuesday afternoon from a trip that included Karlsruhe, a bit of Stuttgart, and Cologne for the Karneval festivities on Sunday and Monday. I’m still sorting those photos, and I’ll post about Karlsruhe and Cologne next week.

It was a very interesting weekend, though. When I was in Stuttgart, I saw a very large Polizei presence walking through the Hauptbahnhof on either side of a small group of people carrying pink flags. One of the flag carriers shouted, in English, “This is what democracy looks like!” I had no idea what he was talking about. Later on, I saw a second, much larger group of men without any noticeable flags or placards being escorted by another rather large group of Polizei.

The Stuttgarter-Nachrichten had the story- there is a plan to include more details about homosexuality in the sex-ed classes in Baden-Württemberg, and there was a homophobic protest against that change. What I saw was part of of a counter-protest, hence the pink flags. The Stuttgarter-Nachrichten has a great article about the protests here, including some pretty terrific photographs. I was mildly surprised to see the old “Gays are pedophiles” canard written out on a German protest sign, but it was there.

Here’s a few pictures I snapped in the Hauptbahnhof before I found out what was going on. If I had known this protest was happening, I would have tried to get over to Palace Square to see more.

Have you ever stumbled across an unexpected political protest?

Travel Tools: For The Frequent Concert Attendee

On March 3, 2014February 26, 2014 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe

(Editor’s note: This is not a paid advertisement. I get no kickbacks from writing about this stuff. It’s just things that I use regularly and find to be incredibly useful.)

The vast majority of my trips to new cities start with news of a concert that I want to see. I’ve written about this before, and even listed the concerts I’ve seen in a separate post. I wanted to write some posts that detail the tools that I use in my travels, and there are two tools in particular that are invaluable for the music-based tourist that I am.

The first tool is the means with which I find my concerts. In the old days, I would use magazines with concert listings, searches on eventim.de and ticketmaster.de, band announcements, and sheer luck to find my concerts.

In this enlightened Internet age, I mostly just use SongKick.com. I’m not sure when the website launched, but the iOS app launched in 2011, and the Android app was released the next year.

Here’s why SongKick is amazing- with your free account, the app will scan the music you have on your phone, and it will begin tracking the artists. If you use the website, you can have it import artists from your iTunes collection, your Spotify playlists, your Pandora history, or your last.fm tags. You can also select specific cities to watch. The site then begins to notify you (usually by e-mail, in my case) of the concert and tour details for the artists and cities that you’re watching. From that list, you can tag certain shows as “Track This” or “I’m Going” and they’ll show up on your Dashboard on the Website.

aprilsecond — I’ve been to three of these five venues. Can you guess which ones?

I’m currently tracking almost 1300 musical acts and more than twenty cities. I’ve even subscribed my calendar to the RSS feed of the concerts that I’ve started tracking.

I’ve only found two flaws in SongKick so far. The first is that there’s no sanity-check in the artist listings; it’s entirely user data driven. As a result, SongKick was tracking concerts for me from Zero Mostel. Considering that Zero has been dead since 1977, I can’t imagine that would be a very good show. (Or, maybe, it would be the best concert I’ve ever seen. In an infinite universe, anything is possible.)

The second flaw in the SongKick system is just overload: I now have so many amazing concerts at my fingertips that I can’t see them all. I simply don’t have the time or money I would need to see everything. I also haven’t figured out yet how to clone myself to see shows in different cities at the same time.

The second tool I wanted to mention here is a tiny item, but one which is absolutely necessary to really enjoy all these concerts: a good set of earplugs. I used to use the little ball-of-wax ear plugs you can buy for a few dollars in Walgreens or Boots, but they get dirty easily, and they block out too much of the sound. I wanted to find a better way so I did a little research- there are dozens of options and brands out there for high quality hearing protection. What I ultimately settled on was a pair of V-Moda Faders.

Faders are little metal ear-plugs with a variety of silicon “fittings” to go with different ear sizes and a little plastic case to keep them in your pocket. The Faders are connected by a string which can be removed, but the one time I took the string off, I dropped one of the plugs on the floor within seconds. Now I leave them attached. The V-Moda Faders claim to drop the volume of whatever you’re listening to by twelve decibels without sacrificing clarity. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that I’ve used them now for Cyndi Lauper, Ellie Goulding, and Gary Numan. For Gary Numan, I was standing right next to the stage, and I could hear everything clearly, without the distortion that high volume usually brings me. I also didn’t have to spend the half hour immediately after the show saying “What? What?!” to everyone that spoke to me. These ear-plugs work perfectly.

Do you have any favorite tools that you use for concerts, games, or other events?

Look up- You’ll miss me if you blink twice.

On February 3, 2014January 30, 2014 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe14 Comments

I sleep better in hotel beds.

When I’m in my own apartment, my brain never quite shuts off. It’s partly FOMO, I think. Until a year ago, I’d never heard of FOMO- Fear of Missing Out. It’s a type of social anxiety, a compulsion and a fear that you might miss something cool happening. Fear of missing out is why I never fall asleep before midnight, and rarely before one in the morning. Part of my need to travel is FOMO, I suppose, but it’s also a variety of some other things that I can’t quite put a name to. When I’m at home, I never settle in. I rarely sleep very deeply. I never wake up refreshed.

In hotels, though, I sleep better. I think it’s partly that when I’m traveling, my mind shuts off- I see entire cities in a single day or a weekend. I walk the breadth of a city, traverse courtyards, climb up church spires. I run until I’m exhausted. I wear myself out, and then I can sleep. Then I can breathe.

In my early twenties, a girl I dated saw this trait in me. Even then, I had the wanderlust, the need to keep moving. Even when I was stuck in South Florida with no passport and no money to speak of, she saw that I was discontent. When she called me out on it with her typically insightful way, she referenced a single line from an Alanis Morissette song: “Why are you so petrified of silence?”

It was an excellent question then, and it’s an excellent question now. I think that maybe I like Adventure Steven far more than I like the silent version of myself that visits whenever I’m at home for a long time. Living on a continent that isn’t your own is a distinctively lonely experience. Sure, I visit with my friends here- we share meals, or go to the pub. That covers a few hours, or an evening. Then I go back home, play around on the computer, chat online, watch far too much Netflix, and fail utterly to fall asleep. The loneliness and isolation sets up a lively card game with the discontented restlessness, while boredom puts some good tunes on the record player. Mild insomnia tends bar.

I’m still lonely when I travel to new cities, but I feel it so, so much less when I’m in motion.

I can always breathe a little bit easier when I’m in motion. I sleep better when I’m on the road.

That’s why I travel. That’s why I run.

Bamberg

On January 27, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany17 Comments

It’s difficult to travel in January, unless you’re going to somewhere much warmer out of the country. The days are short and grey and frequently a little bit on the chilled side, so sleeping in is usually much more desirable.

I’ve learned over the last two years that if I spend too long in Regensburg without taking any trips out of town, I start to get a little cranky. To combat this, I’ve compiled a small list of day-trips- places I can go in a single day on a Bayern Ticket (€23 for one person covers all RE,RB and local trains as well as bus rides, U-Bahn, and S-Bahn anywhere in Bavaria for the entire day.) With that short list in mind, I just try to go on a Saturday morning.

For the first three Saturday mornings of January, I reached the all important moment of getting out of bed and going to the train station, and I chose to keep sleeping instead. This weekend, however, I finally beat the evil snooze alarm, and I hopped the first train after 9am to scenic Bamberg!

Bamberg is about sixty kilometers north of Nuremberg, and is easily reachable by trains. Local trains (RE and S-Bahn) go between Nuremberg and Bamberg on an almost hourly basis. I arrived in town about fifteen or twenty minutes before noon, and started to wander. I had a list of about five things I wanted to see in the city, and I took the time honored tradition of “winging it” for the rest.

Item the first on my Bamberg list: Altenburg Castle

Altenburg Castle sits on a hill overlooking the old city of Bamberg. I wasn’t interested in going inside the castle, and I could see it clearly from where I was, so I didn’t bother going much closer than you can see from this picture.

Item the second on my Bamberg list: Bamberger Dom (the Bamberg Cathedral)

The main cathedral in Bamberg was built originally in 1012, but it was partially destroyed and rebuilt a few times. Its present form is kind of like this:

Inside the cathedral are a lot of interesting statues, including the famous Bamberg Horseman (Der Bamberger Reiter.) Nobody knows who this statue represents, but it’s probably been there since about the year 1237. The crown suggests royalty, but there’s no other items to suggest identity. Saint Henry II is buried in this cathedral, and some believe that it represents him, but there’s no Imperial Regalia to confirm that. Pope Clement II is also buried in this cathedral.

There’s a lot of fascinating sculpture in the Bamberger Dom, so it’s worth having a look around. I thought the headless clergyman here was interesting:

Just three more pictures from the cathedral, and then we’ll move on.

Item the third on my Bamberg list: The Franconian Brewery Museum

Alas, the Fränkisches Brauereimuseum is closed until April. I do have some bad luck with things being closed when I visit. I had the same problem with the film museum in Paris and the suspended trains in Wuppertal.

Item the fourth on my Bamberg list: The Bamberg Historical Museum

Right next to the Dom, this was also closed, for “Winter Pause.” That’s ok, though. In this case, I didn’t want to go inside so much as I wanted to see the building.

Item the fifth on my Bamberg list: Try Rauchbier

Bamberg is famous for Rauchbier, or smoked beer. The distinctive smokey smell and flavor is achieved by drying barley over an open flame. Schlenkerla and Spezial have been brewing smoked beer in Bamberg for nearly two hundred years, and Schlenkerla is one of the best known brands of smoked beer in the world. This is what I tried.

I thought it would be disgusting, but it wasn’t. It’s difficult to describe the flavor- my friend Alice likens it to “drinking a campfire,” and that’s probably the most accurate description I’ve yet heard. I didn’t really care for Rauchbier, but I can see the appeal. Additionally, I only tried one variety from one brewer- there’s also a smoked Weizen (wheat beer) available, and I’d like to try that some time.

Item the sixth on my Bamberg list: The Bamberg Altes Rathaus

This building was my favorite thing about Bamberg. It’s situated on the Regnitz river. More accurately, it’s perched somewhat precariously over the Regnitz river. Reachable from either side only by a pedestrian bridge, this is a very impressive and fascinatingly beautiful structure. It helps that this is the one point all day where the sun came out and pretended to not be part of January.

This is one of the sides visible from the pedestrian bridge, a street fittingly named Obere Brücke, or Upper Bridge.

There are bridges on either side of the Altes Rathaus. The first photograph of the Rathaus in this post was taken from this bridge, a much more modern affair, but with a fantastic view of the building.

Item the seventh on my Bamberg list: Winging It

The rest of these are just things that I found wandering around the city that I thought were interesting. For example, in the Grüner Markt, there’s a fountain containing a sculpture called “Gabelmann.” Gabelmann translates to “Fork Man,” which is apropos since the statue represents Neptune, god of the seas, holding up his traditional trident. In hind-sight, I wish I’d taken a better photograph than this one.

Mohren Haus means Moor’s house. Every time I encounter something named after the Moors in Germany, I’m utterly fascinated. The tiny statue of little Moor dude on the building totally makes it, don’t you think?

Interesting sculpture!

More interesting scultpture! This one represents Kaiserin Kunigund, but I don’t have any real idea who that is.

Next up is a statue of Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria. Spend any amount of time in the south of Germany and you’ll encounter at least one Luitpoldstraße in every city. There’s one in Regensburg, a block away from my apartment.

Luitpold became the Regent of Bavaria after the (frankly rather suspicious) death of his nephew, King Ludwig II. He remained the Prince Regent until his death in 1912, at the age of 91.

Last, but not least, I stopped in at the Stadtgalerie (City Gallery) Bamberg, because there was a poster for an ongoing exhibit (there until the first of June) called Jüdisches in Bamberg. I wanted to see what Jewish stuff was in the exhibit, so I took a look. For a €5 entry fee, this was well worth a stop.

One of the displays had three or four of these rather amazing three dimensional images. From above, it looks a little bit like a honey-comb. It’s a cube rather than a rectangle, but when viewed from the front, the depth is rather ingenious. This picture doesn’t quite capture how amazing it is.

Among the artifacts on display in the Jewish exhibit was a Torah scroll, along with the Mantel (the velvet cloak that goes over it), the Kesser (the two silver doo-dads that go atop the wooden shafts), and the Yad (the silver pointer used to read from the Torah.)

This particular one is apparently on loan from the Bamberg Historical Museum, and I was not able to find any details about its origin prior to that. Every Torah is hand-written by a special scribe, though, so they’re not terribly easy to come by.

Have you ever been to Bamberg? Did you try the Rauchbier? What did you think of it?

Currency

On January 23, 2014January 21, 2014 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe8 Comments

One amusing side-effect of traveling the way that I do, is that after a while, your junk drawer starts to look a little bit like Doc Brown’s binder of different currencies from Back To The Future 2.

Most of the places I travel are on the Euro, but not all of them. The amount of Czech Crowns I have left would barely buy a glass of beer here, but I store it because at some point, I’ll be back in Prague. I try to use up my currency before I leave, but I don’t always succeed. I use paper CD sleeves to store them so I can see easily what I’m dealing with.