Updates from Munich

Note to self: next time I go to a conference, take the time to actually find out where your hotel is, where the conference center is and how to actually get to both destinations. Those are good things to know.

Although I haven't travelled extensively yet in Europe, I always get a “lost in translation” moment when I get to the hotels and fight with the plumbing. It's just one of those things. Munich has been an adventure in the absurd at times. When I arrived, my mobile didn't work even though the phones of the people I was travelling with did. Apparently, it's commonplace for Orange not to activate roaming until you ask for it. That took a few days, but it's working now.

The restaurant at the hotel is a nice little place, but the muzak that's playing there is another example of weirdness. Classics of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s interspersed with yodeling. I'm pissed about the food situation. There's tons of pig on the breakfast buffet but I can't have any of it because it's all in sausage or pate form. Poo, I say. The food situation in general has been ok, not spectacular. I have breakfast at the hotel, snacks during the day and massive amounts of beer at night. Weißbier is evil. More on this later. I had a Mister Bean moment a few days ago. I thought of swiping some bread rolls, some cheese and some ham from the breakfast buffet and make myself a sandwich at the conference. I didn't have ay cling film to keep the foodstuffs together though, so I flashed back to the sketch where Bean is making his lunch on the park bench by taking stuff out of his clothing, hehe.

The conference is going well. PRIDE is generating a lot of interest, which is good. I'm getting to put a face to some of the names I've heard about. I'll be glad to go home though. I miss Katy. Parsley is keeping me company at night, but he's no substitute. I think he's getting very social with the cleaning lady for my room. Every time I get back to the room at night, the bed's been made and Parsley is put in a different spot on the duvet, in a different pose. I think he made a friend. As a continuation of a developing trend, I keep having dreams about old friends and family that I haven't seen in a looooong time. Bizarre. So far, I've helped PO and Sonia move into a ghetto old house and I've planted cabbage seeds in a freshly plowed field that also happened to be in an attic. Nice.

I've been visiting Munich in my free time. On monday, I went walkabout in the old city center. I was supposed to go meet up with some friends at Marienplatz, in front of the new Rathaus clock tower. Of course, because of Sod's Law, we never connected, even though we were in the same plaza for 45 minutes.We had plans to go have a beer at the biergarten at the Chinese tower in the English garden, so I wandered in that direction, acting touristy and taking pictures of garishly painted lions. This will sound really shocking for people who know me, but I had a lovely stroll in the park for about one hour. Yes. I did. Outside and all! After being turned around a few times, I made it to the biergarted, where Sod's Law struck again. The place is fucking HUGE and paced with people. There's no way in hell I could find them (though they were there too). I had a large maß of beer. Those glasses are friggin' heavy! It's like a kilo of beer wrapped by another kilo of glass. I forfeited my deposit on the stein and kept it. So far, on this trip, I have *ahem* acquired two large beer steins and 4 pint glasses. This is bad. Funny, but bad. Another thing I have noticed on this trip is how appallingly bad my german has gotten, though I do remember a few words here and there which are often enough to ask for directions and pay for stuff.

Last night, we went to the Hofbrauhaus. It's a traditional beer hall, with complete strangers sitting on large wooden benches at large wooden tables singing together and quaffing large jugs of beer to the sounds of an oom-pah-pah band. Another completely random moment: when you realize that the song that's being mangled by the band is “Country Roads” by John Denver. Being played in Munich. Sung by drunken japanese tourists. Gotta love it.

I got pissed.

Sooooooooooo pissed.

I have random flashes from last night of a coworker peeing behind a tree on a rather busy street (which is frowned upon in this country), us lot meeting and then subsequently losing a group of british teenagers in the underground, then hitching up with some local germans to go to a bar in the middle of nowhere while someone (who might have been me) was singing the Marseillaise. After people started having technicolor incidents, we called it a night and hailed a cab home. I'm happy to say that I didn't puke (though I came close, but the moment passed, thank god. I'm too old for that shit).

The only reason I have time to write this entry is because I'm currently still a bit hungover and manning the EBI booth (it's fairly calm during the plenary talks), Today will be an easy day with lots of liquids.

But the best news is that I'm going home tomorrow.

Visiting is fun, but I miss my sweetie.