Echo

I ended up going out last night. Went to some bar next to the hotel and sat in the corner and people watched. It looks like pegged jeans is in in Germany. One of my ex-coworkers who has family in Germany told me they were about 10 years behind in fashion. So they’re in the 90’s, I’d asked. Better than the 80’s, I guess. The 80’s were tragic. But I don’t know how I feel about the pegged jeans look.

It was boring so I went to the other side of my hotel where there was live music. I had to pay a cover of 12 Euros but was told it was good for 15 clubs, and there was a shuttle running between the clubs. I thought, this could be bad. This could be very bad. The club featured a spunky 3-man band playing covers. The only ones I recognized were “Losing My Religion” by REM and “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure. Met a nice guy named Alex who didn’t know a lot of English so he mostly just stared at me and smiled. I took off after about 6 songs and headed to a dance club called Walden. Unless it means something in German, Walden makes me think of solitude, contemplation and Thoreau. This club had a great DJ. Right away he had a house mix going with Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall. I had a Hefeweizen that tasted like sushi, but it got me really, really drunk, especially since I’d eaten so much midday that I’d skipped dinner. As everything blurred, the only thing that kept me steady was the beat.

I was dancing and then at some point, staring at this guy’s ass while his oblivious girlfriend texted away on her cellphone. Wondered what the Germans think about casual sex. I was enjoying dancing by myself but then this one Asian girl kept staring at me and dancing closer and closer to me. She said something to this tall, goofy white guy she was with and he turned and looked at me, then said something to her. She promptly got RIGHT UP in front of me and started showing off with these crazy hair tossing moves, followed by looking back at me intensely. As with these types of situations, I wasn’t sure if she wanted to fight me or fuck me, though I heavily suspected the latter, so I left the dance floor and hung out at the bar with a Beck’s Green Lemon beer which kind of tasted like weed. Maybe jetlag’s got my taste buds all messed up. But I do swear many people in that place did smell like weed.

There was a kid who looked like the flying kid on Heroes. He looked about 18 and he kept doing status checks on me (this is when a guy doesn’t have the guts to talk to you, so while he’s working up the guts, he’ll keep looking over to make sure he knows where you are). I thought about how I blew the whole “sex with an 18 year old” thing in Hawaii last year and thought, this kid’s even more tender than that one (that one I thought was a 25 year old sports model). I would totally corrupt him. But then this obnoxious nerdy guy who was sitting next to me kept getting more and more aggressive (he resorted to staring and bumping me), and it was becoming harder to avoid eye contact and act like I didn’t notice he was repeatedly sticking his elbow into my side, so I figured I’d call it a night before I did anything I regretted. The kid’s friend saw me putting on my coat and got his attention. He looked at me kind of panicked, but I winked and waved, then made my way out the door.

Kept waking up in the middle of the night with the room spinning.

Got up in time for the complimentary breakfast. There was only one other person there, this middle-aged Filipino looking guy who had said hi to me in the lobby the other day and seemed too attentive. He was really excited to see me and asked me if he had seen me at the bar the other night. I said, I don’t know, and then sat at another table and pulled out a book because I didn’t want him to invite me to sit with him. He was clearly done with his breakfast, but he lingered, and lingered. When I went to get up for water, he asked me what room number I was in. I was surprised and couldn’t recover to lie, so I told him. I figured I was checking out within the hour anyway, so it wouldn’t matter. I waited until he got up for more coffee, then I slipped out. It looked like he was waiting for me and I didn’t want to ride the elevator with him. I was in my room for 5 minutes packing when the phone rang. I thought it was my wake up call but it was him. “It’s your friend from downstairs,” he opened.

Oh Christ, I thought.

“How long are you staying here?” he asked.

“I’m leaving today,” I said.

“Where are you going?” I truly worried he was the type who would follow me across this country.

“Home to the US,” I said.

“Really? That short? I thought you said you just got to Frankfurt yesterday,” he said.

Jesus. “I was in Berlin the last few days for business,” I said, remembering that Frankfurt is a hub and many people still have to fly out of this city.

“Oh, okay. Well, bye.” he said.

I hung up without saying bye, and got out of the hotel quickly.

I made it to the train station an hour before my departure to Bacharach but was really confused about where I was supposed to be. With 10 minutes to spare, I realized I was actually supposed to be on another level. Again, a woman was nice enough to help me. People here are really great.

Arrived at Bacharach, reminded me of the movie Hostel. Tiny town with a castle turned hostel at the top of the hill. Unfortunately, it was raining so my plans to bike along the Rhine were foiled. I still hiked up the hill to the castle which was a challenging climb, but offered a beautiful view of the river and the city. There was this empty shell of a chapel, Werner Kapelle, which was this circular structure with no windows except this single panel of red stained glass. The information plaque said there was a rumor that this was a location of ritualistic killings of Jews here which are false, but the structure remains as a reminder that religions can co-exist (I’m paraphrasing but that’s about the gist of it). Looking up at this structure, you could feel the gravity of guilt here–whatever actually happened at this remote location, it serves as a reminder for the Germans of dark period of their history.

Nothing was open so I just wandered around and then headed back to my hotel. I’m going to leave earlier than I’d originally planned for Amsterdam tomorrow since there I’ve explored most of this town already.

Amsterdam will hopefully be interesting.