Bugatti: Check

I found a Bugatti dealer here in Berlin and actually got to lay eyes on a real-life Bugatti Veyron yesterday. If you remember from a post or two back I listed all the cool cars I've seen in two weeks of European car watching and mentioned that the Bugatti Veyron was really the only super cool car that I had yet to see, so you can imagine how thrilled I was with this discovery. The Bugatti Veyron, as far as I know, is currently the world's fastest and most expensive street-legal production car. Unfortunately I was not allowed into the showroom to touch or drool on the Veyron, but instead had to marvel at it's beauty from a few feet away through the showroom window like a kid standing on the sidewalk looking through the candyshop window. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that for the rest of my life I will never again see another one of these cars.

We are about to leave Berlin and go to Amsterdam for a few days. I really liked Berlin and I am quite sure that I could move here to live for awhile. It is a pretty huge city and I didn't roam very far from the city center, but Berlin doesn't have a very centralized city center and really it seems like it's more about the numerous little neighborhoods throughout the city instead. It makes for a city with lots of pretty interesting and diverse feels and characters.

Beer, Breakfast, and Bratwurst

You know the saying, When in Rome... (do as the Romans do), so this morning I had a beer with my breakfast. Yup, it seems that in Germany it is entirely acceptable to have beer at 9 in the morning, with or without food. In fact, it seems more common to have JUST beer for breakfast than to have it WITH breakfast. I was hesitant at first just because it felt so wrong to order a beer with my morning eggs, but I decided to go for it anyway. I opted for a smaller .3-liter heffeweizen and I must admit it was very nice. I don't know if it was the fresh morning air or the delicious Heffeweizen, but it just didn't really even taste like beer. In fact, it almost looked just like that all-natural unfiltered applejuice that you can get for $5 a glass in fancy breakfast places. Anyway, I think I will have to make this a regular thing for the rest of my time here in Germany and hopefully it won't become a habit when I get back home too.

I've also had plenty of different kinds of sausage, but that isn't as blog-worthy as the breakfast beer.

Big Bus Envy

Since becoming a bus driver back in December, I have become susceptible to varying degrees of Bus Envy. Basically it is a feeling of envy when I see bus drivers who are driving bigger buses than I ever get to drive. For example, since Grayhound buses are bigger than the buses I got to drive for the Town of Vail, I got a little twinge of bus envy when I saw Greyhound buses, but it was often neutralized by knowing that they spent most of their time just driving on the highway which is boring, and also that they had to deal with lots of crazy sorts of people. Sometimes I felt envy towards the ECO bus drivers because their buses were slightly longer than the Town of Vail buses. But nothing compares to the bus envy I've had here in Europe. Not only are there lots of big, long, beautiful buses, but also most of them have manual transmissions (extra envy), AND they get to drive them through the crazy traffic and narrow cobble-stoned streets of europe (yet more envy). I'm pretty sure that being a bus driver in Europe would be at least like 3.4 times more fun than in the USA. Every time I see one of those beautiful huge manual-transmission buses go by I imagine to myself how much fun it would be to drive.

In addition to bus-watching, I've also been doing plenty of car watching which has also been quite rewarding. Car-watching in Europe differs in three primary ways: 1) There are lots more diesel cars, 2) There are lots of small and European-brand cars which are unknown in the USA, 3) There are more expensive cars that I rarely see in the USA. In the past week and a half I have seen several different Ferarris, more Porsches, BMW's and Mercedes-Benzes than I can keep track of, an Audi R8, at least one Rolls-Royce Phantom, a Lamborghini, a few Bentlys, a few old Minis, lots of crappy old Soviet-era crap-mobiles, and several $100k VWs. Plus it is interesting just to see all the tiny econo-boxes and minivans and stuff that don't exist in the USA.

So whether it be buses or cars, it's been pretty good vehicle-watching so far. I think the only really special car that I have NOT seen yet is a Bugatti Veyron, but I'll be keeping my eyes peeled no doubt.

We just got to Berlin today after a quick spin through Leipzig and a few days in Dresden. Berlin is huge and I think I will really like it a lot! Aufwiedersehen!

European Update

I don't have much time to write, but the short of it is that Prague was neat, but it was full of tourists. We came to Dresden yesterday, but there isn't much to see here so we are hopping on the train in a few hours. We were originally going to go straight to Berlin from here, but after looking at the train schedules we have decided to take the short and fast train over to Leipzig for a few hours and then take another short and fast train from there to Berlin later today. I think Berlin is going to be pretty neat and I'm looking forward to it. We're planning to spend more time there than we have spent anywhere else yet because it looks like it's a pretty huge city with lots to see and do.

Anyway, I hate writing summary-style blogs like this. Sorry. Maybe I'll have time to write a proper entry once we get to Berlin.

Brothers?

Dad and I ended up sitting next to a table with two Spanish guys at breakfast this morning. While we were waiting for our food to come I was sitting there trying to devote at least some of my attention to my conversation with Dad, but I was also trying to eavsdrop on the Spaniards to my left. At first they were talking about the normal sorts of things, like how much this trip cost them, how it's worth it anyway, etc. But then I heard just the tail end of them talking about me and Dad. The part I heard went something like this:

1: Do you think those two are gay?
2: You mean like a couple?
1: Yeah, do you think they are a couple, or are they just father and son or something?
2: Oh, they're probably just father and son.

That's when I decided to surprise them and so I told them in Spanish that we are indeed just father and son. They got this sort of shocked/embarassed look on their face as they realized that I had heard what they thought was their secret conversation. I think it's actually the first time I've ever been able to catch someone talking about me in another language like that. It was pretty satisfying.

Anyway, after they took a minute to get over their embarassment we had a nice little conversation about being in Budapest and whatnot. I'm pretty sure that they were a couple themselves, so maybe they were just looking for some more gay companionship or something, but I enjoyed just getting to speak some spanish to them. Dad thinks that they were confused because I "look mature beyond my years and because he looks gay beyond his years." Could be... hahaha.

That wasn't the first time that someone failed to immediately come to the conclusion that Dad and I are just father and son. When we got to the hostel here in Budapest, the girl that checked us in thought that we were brothers and acted all surprised and shocked to learn that we were father and son. At first I thought she was just trying to flirt with Dad or something because I don't think we look anywhere near the same age so as to be brothers. Maybe in Hungary people have really old/young siblings or something. Who knows...

Budapest is definitely a 'grittier' city than Munich and seems to have a certain 'Former Soviet State' sort of feel to it (whatever that feels like...). I think I like it though. I can't say if I like it more or less than Munich though beause really they are just different. Munich is prettier, but Dad and I have decided that the Budapest girls are prettier. Munich has more fancy cars, but Budapest has more funky old cars that I've never seen before. Munich is flatter and has more bicycles, but Budapest is hillier and might have cooler architecture. Plus, Hungarian is a crazy language which means Budapest gets some extra bonus points.

The highlight of today was probably going to one of Budapest's many thermal pools. The one we went to was in a parque just a few metro stops out of the city center. It is kind of like a fancier, classier version of the Glenwood Springs pool if you know what that's like. There was also sort of a circular lazy river thing that you could swim in and it was kind of like bumper-bodies. It was pretty fun. Anyway, tomorrow is our last day here and then we will be taking a night sleeper train to Prague. The Spaniards said that two days is enough to see Prague, but what do they know?

The Land of Good Pizza

Last night Dad and I went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. The place was hoppin' and so we got seated in a booth with a large German man who was trying unsuccesfully to get a table for one. He quickly realized that we didn't speak German, but he didn't hesitate to try conversing with us in his slightly limited English. When the waiter came to take our order I ended up ordering a pizza for some reason. When the pizza came, the portly German man said to us, "you come from the land of good pizza, and yet you order pizza in Germany." We proceeded to explain to him that pizza isn't good in all parts of the country, but anyway I just thought it was a funny comment. So from now on the United States of America shall be known as The Land of Good Pizza.

We'll be getting on a train to Budapest in a few hours.

München

I've been in Munich (München) for about two davs now and I keep typing z's when I want to type y's because the keyboard is a little different, but that aside my time in Munich has been very pleasant. Munich is a pleasant city with charming narrow winding streets, attractive architecture, and plenty of big green trees. On the first day here we went to a huge museum featuring all sorts of technology including lots of old and different kinds of engines, planes, mining equipment, computers, lasers, and the list goes on and on. Someone told us that if you were to spend 1 minute at each display, you could be there for 33 days (and I believe it). I started feeling jetlagged pretty early in the day, but I soldiered on and we decided to go to another museum which was pretty strange and quirky (but not really in the interesting way). The whole time I kept thinking that it was the sort of museum my uncle Dwight would probably enjoy; I don't know why. Lots of people ride bikes here and Dad and I took a bicycle tour today through part of town into a huge park with a beer garden in the middle. Beer doesn't grow from trees in a beer garden, but it is served in humungous mugs. I have yet to buy a really big mug of beer, but I have certainly had plenty of beer today. When we aren't seeing the sites, we've been riding around town semi-aimlessly on the plethora of trams, buses, and subways, or sitting at outdoor cafe's drinking beer and eating sausage. I am still having a hard time with the whole not being able to speak German thing since I am more accustomed to being able to speak the language when I go places, but despite that we've been able to get around fine and stuff (although we've certainlz had our fair share of confusions). We will be taking a sleeper train to Budapest tomorrow night. I'm sure Budapest will be cool, but I could almost imagine myself living here in Munich someday if I had to; it's that cool.

Singin' In The Rain

Maybe it is too cliché to say this, but I love the rain. I love the smell. I love how it makes everything look shiny and clean. I even love how it feels to hydroplane through it on the road. It is raining right now and I think the sound of the rain on the roof of the house is probably one of the best sounds to go to sleep to. Someday in another life when I am wealthy and can build my own house I think I will build some sort of rain machine that will shower water onto my roof whenever I want for an on-demand rainy sound. But then maybe I would become too desensitized to it if I could just turn it on and off whenever I wanted to. Or maybe instead of building an artificial rain device, I could just move to Seattle (since I want to anyway). Allegedly they get lots of rain there (It has always been beautiful and sunny when I've been there). I wonder how much is "a lot" and how long would it take for me to get tired and annoyed by it. Being from Colorado I bet that my idea of "a lot of rain" isn't even CLOSE to "a lot" of Seattle rain. In Colorado it doesn't usually rain for more than a few hours straight, and then it often clears up and the sun comes out and makes everything nice again and so rain is sort of refreshing and cleansing, but I bet that in Seattle it can get to feeling kind of stifling. I guess I wouldn't know unless I lived there...

Anyway, in other news, the bus driving gig is nearing its end (sort of) and I'll be going to Europe for a month in just a few weeks (is it that soon already?!). As for summer plans, the only two suggestions I got on the previous post could be combined into one road trip to the East Coast; bring my uncle Dwight his stuff from his college days, and help my Aunt and her hubby with remodeling their house. Lately I've also been thinking that maybe I would like to try to go to Rio de Janeiro to study Portuguese for a month or two, but that is probably the most expensive thing I could do this summer. I have also been told that I can get as much work as I want driving the bus, which pays pretty well. I should probably also try to take the GRE this summer. Then, I am going to try to get a job in Antarctica for next season. So maybe I'll drive the bus to rack up enough money for a trip to Rio, go to the East Coast for a couple weeks, go to Rio, and then hopefully go to Antarctica... Yeah, that kind of sounds like a plan.

Today's video is a kind of F-ed up Antarctica-related video by Of Montreal called "Wraith Pinned to the Mist."

Haha, Oops!

The other day I was driving the Intown bus through the pedestrian area in Vail. I was going about 10 mph (maybe 12, max) and a skateboarder was approaching me from ahead coming the opposite direction. Just as we were about to pass each other, he suddenly looses control of his skateboard and it whips out from underneath him and flies directly under the bus. I slam on the brakes hoping to avoid running it over. After I stop he runs behind the bus, presumably to try to recover his board. Then I see him come around the other side where he discovers that the board is lodged securely under the rear tires and so he motions for me to keep going, so I do. As I start pulling away I hear the crunch of cracking wood, he picks up his board and starts running the other way and I continued on my merry way. I felt a little bit bad that I had probably ruined his board, but at the same time I had done my best and it wasn't my fault at all. But really it wasn't entirely his fault either. I mean, people fall sometimes, it happens. It was just bad luck for him that his board chose that particular trajectory...

Anyway, that evening after I got off work instead of going straight home like I usually do, my gimpy sister and my mom and I decided to go have dinner at a nice place in Vail right by the creek (we rarely go out to dinner together, and almost never to nice places in Vail by the creek). I told them this story about the broken skateboard while we were at dinner. Then towards the end of dinner, Mom looks out the window of the restaurant towards the creek and sees a skateboard sticking out of this strangely-placed trashcan. As we left we went to investigate this skateboard, and we determined that it was almost surely the same broken skateboard. This was kind of Twilight-Zone-y because the incident happened about two blocks away from this trashcan, and because the chances of us ever seeing this trashcan located in such a strange place is almost zero. It was strange. But I sure did get some satisfaction out of seeing my handiwork. That guy must have been pretty pissed, but really he could only be mad at himself.

In other news, for some reason I didn't get that Middlebury scholarship that I had applied for, and I haven't made any contingency summer plans, so if anyone has any good ideas for how I should spend my summer, I'd love to hear them. I AM going to Europe with my dad (Germany, Czech Republic, and Hungary most likely) from April 23 to May 23, but from May 23 until around Octoberish I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll just stay here in Edwards and drive the bus sort of pseudo-full-time and ride my bike a lot and go camping and hiking and stuff (you know, try not to be a lazy turd). The biking and camping and hiking sound fun, but honestly I think that I have had enough of living in Edwards already (again), and another four friendless months here doesn't sound that appealing. I've also thought about going back to Chinese Summer Camp in Minnesota again, but I'm pretty sure that job doesn't even pay minimum wage (but I do get all the rice porridge I can stomach every single morning!).

Today's video is "Princesa" by Sacha Nairobi. She doesn't even have a page about her on Wikipedia (not even on Spanish Wikipedia), so she must be kind of a nobody, but I think she's from Venezuela. This song is basically about how she used to be a rich princess with no love, but now she's poor and in love and she prefers it that way and such. It's a strange video though that provoked some questions in my mind. Why does she have a white dove on her head? Why is she riding a large pink wooden horse on wheels? Why is she rolling in the mud with pigs? Why is she milking goats? I get that she's poor and all, but even poor people don't go roll around in the mud with pigs just because they are poor. I suspect she's kind of into bestiality.


I'm also adding a bonus video because I feel like it. This Starburst commercial makes me laugh every time I see it:

The Rules

So here are some rules to follow when using public transportation.

1. Use Body Language Wisely - This rule has many applications. The bus driver is a visual creature that uses primarily the sense of sight to determine when people wish to get on/off the bus, etc. If you are standing near a bus stop and wish to get on an approaching bus, then you need to stand up and look expectantly at the bus driver and make it look like you want to get on the bus, because if you don't look like you want to get on the bus then the bus driver might assume that you don't want to get on the bus and might decide not to stop for you. Do not, however wave at the bus in an attempt to wave the bus down to stop for you unless you are absolutely sure that the following three criteria are met: A) you are actually standing at a designated bus stop, B) you are absolutely sure that the bus you are waving at is SUPPOSED to stop at the bus stop at which you are standing, AND C) you are fairly confident that the bus isn't stopping because the bus driver has for some reason forgotten that he/she needs to stop there. If any of the three previous conditions are not met, then you should not, under any circumstances try to wave a bus down because the bus driver will hate you until the very moment that you get off the bus.
   
   If you happen to be standing at a bus stop and do NOT wish to board the approaching bus, then you need to make it clear to the bus driver through your body language that you do not wish to board that bus. The best way to do this is with a simple "no" shake of the head. If for some reason this does not seem to be enough body language, then a large, exaggerated "keep going" motion of the arms is appropriate. You should NOT, however, try to wave at the bus driver in a manner that might be confused with the "stop, I want to get on" wave which was previously discussed and which should only be used under very strict conditions. You must also realize, however, that many times the bus driver will still have to stop at the bus stop to let people off and so you should not be offended if despite your attempts to wave him/her past he/she still stops anyway. Know in our heart that the bus driver still appreciates your valiant effort to save him/her from the agony of making an unwarranted stop.
   
   If you are already ON the bus, your body language is still very important. First of all, you should never stand near either of the exit doors (ESPECIALLY not in the rear stairwell) unless you wish to de-board at the following stop because the driver may assume that people standing by the door wish to get off the bus and will stop and be severely annoyed if after bringing the bus to a stop those people do not get off the bus. If you DO wish to get off the bus at the following stop, you should always pull the Stop Request cord. If you have some aversion to the cord, then you should stand up and walk towards the exit door approximately 10 seconds before the bus arrives at the stop. If you move there too early, the bus driver will think you are an idiot who doesn't know where the stop is located. If you go there too late, the driver will think you are an idiot who doesn't know where the stop is located AND he might just pass up your stop completely and feel no remorse for you. If you fail to pull the cord AND fail to get up and make it obvious that you would like to get off the bus and the driver drives past your stop, he/she will be laughing on the inside at your incompetence as a user of public transportation.
   
   
2. Be On Time - First of all, know when the bus arrives at the bus stop and be there EARLY. Nothing gives a bus driver greater joy than seeing someone running to a bus stop, arms flailing in exacerbation, as the driver pulls away slowly from the stop already a minute or two late. If you happen to find yourself trying to catch a bus at the last possible second, follow these rules to increase your chances of catching said bus. A) Run, don't saunter. Bus drivers don't like waiting for people running late to catch a bus, but they REALLY HATE waiting for people who are sauntering slowly to catch a waiting bus. If the bus is already at the stop and is stopped waiting for you, RUN! If the bus is already pulling away, but you think you have a chance of running and maybe catching it, don't ever flip it off because the driver might see you just at that second and decide that instead of waiting for your late ass to catch up that he/she will just keep going instead and ponder joyfully how much trouble you will be in when you get to work 30 minutes late. Also, if you happen to be running/walking directly in the path of the bus that you are trying to catch, don't wave at it to wait for you because it can't go anywhere with you standing in it's way anyway and the bus driver will automatically know then that you are an idiot and he/she will hate you for the duration of your ride. This brings me to the next rule.
   
   
3. Get Out of the Way - Basically, if a 25000 lb. bus is moving in your general direction, get out of the way. If it is pulling into a stop, stand back from the curb because the driver probably wants to get as close to the curb as possible to facilitate easy loading and unloading, but when people are standing too close to the edge of the curb there is a risk of hitting them with the mirror or the corner of the bus and so he/she can't get as close and he/she is annoyed. If you are in the direct path of a bus, stop and/or move in the other direction. It's really pretty simple. The driver obviously doesn't want to run people over, but in the battle of bus v. human, bus wins.
   
   
4. Don't Be Annoying - Firstly, don't make small-talk with the driver unless A) you are abnormally good-looking, B) you have something genuinely interesting or funny to say, C) the driver initiates the conversation, or D) you know the bus driver and it would be socially awkward and uncomfortable to sit there in silence. The bus driver has to keep track of a lot of things when he/she is driving (like not running over people, missing stops, staying on schedule, etc), so small-talk can be really distracting and unsafe.
   
   Also, don't ask stupid questions if you can avoid it. If your question can be answered by simply looking at the bus schedule for a few minutes, then don't ask the driver.
   
   If you are drunk and on a bus, the same rules apply. Don't ask stupid questions. Don't be a jerk. Don't be an asshole. Don't be loud/obnoxious or sing stupid songs. Don't ask to honk the horn. Don't ask to turn up the music. Don't ask where to find easy women. Don't ask where to find marijuana. Don't bring your preferred substance onto the bus. Don't miss your stop. Don't vomit. Don't pound on any of the windows or doors. When the bus stops, either get on or get off, but don't stand in the door trying to get girls to come home with you. And finally, MOST IMPORTANTLY (whether you are drunk or not), never ask the driver to take you to anywhere that is not a designated stop on the designated route. If you wanted to go there, you should have taken a taxi instead. This includes asking the driver to drop you off somewhere that isn't really a stop. It is against the law for them to do so and they risk getting in big trouble if they let you off there, so don't even ask them to.
   
   
5. Learn the System - Know where the bus stops and where it does not stop. Know which direction the bus goes in (also, if you have to guess, the direction that the bus is facing is also often the same direction that the bus will be traveling in). Read the signs on the bus. If a bus says "Out of Service," then that does not mean that it is some other bus that you wish it is. If a bus has gone to the same place at the same time the past 3 weeks that you have ridden it, then you don't need to keep asking.

So basically, the best bus riders are the ones who can figure out a schedule by themselves, are on time to the stops, have good overall body language, and know when and where and how to appropriately get off the bus. Unfortunately these are also the riders that the drivers are least likely to notice and so they never get the praise that they deserve because the drivers are busy hating the riders who suck. But from a real-life bus driver I commend all those who follow these rules and do their part to ensure a smooth public transportation experience for all the others. And for those who break these rules, shame on you, and please read and follow these rules carefully in the future for the sake of all humanity. I might have missed a few rules, but I think these are at least the most important ones. If anyone else would like to contribute some rules that I may have overlooked, please do so.

Don't be like this guy: