Tails from the Day Off...

Well this will be the second time I've typed out this Blog. My battery went dead on my laptop the first time and I had the alarms for the battery turned off…

Yesterday I took a day off to do "house work" like laundry and replacing the wallet.

The wallet hunt was quick and easy got a nice leather one on sale for 7 bucks. Although the hunt for the parking spot took three tries before fitting the car in. This is going to sound like the three bears story… Well after finding out the hard way that in the parking garage you drive on the left side of the up ramp, we found a spot, I let Lindsey out before pulling in but it was soo tight that I couldn’t get out and I wasn’t going to crawl out of the back hatch. So on to the next spot, this time I could shimmy out of the car but there was no way the person next to me was getting in there's. Finally we looked about 10' away and there is a double spot, If it wasn’t on the 5th floor it would of been handicap.

Before we hit up the laundry mat we needed some supplies, we were trying to find some detergent and softener and I swear the both of us almost lost or breakfast smelling some of these! Eventually we found some that were bearable in smell. Since McDonalds is in the same lot and there is ample reasonable sized parking spots we went there for lunch. Lindz and I are sitting there eating our McNuggets and we start to clue in to the lyrics of the rap music playing in the restaurant… "Fuck you Fuck you I don’t give a Shit." was how the curious went… This is suppressing that they allow this, and even thou it was in English, Fuck translates to Fuct so they pretty much sound the same…

So on to the laundry mat, again we had to stock a parking spot. I think that spot cost me 3 bucks and luckily I didn’t get a ticket (unlike Sunday night) as you could only be there for 30min… I think we were there for 3 hours, I had to keep visiting the meter, luckily the meter maid did not notice me slide some change in as she was writing tickets… Laundry cost more then I ever expected, I was 10cents short for the third load. Due to that I was directed by other business that would not break my change to the bank… I got $20 in 50cent pcs. and $8 in 20cent pcs. which will come in handy for the parking and future washes. So Lindz and I are sitting there watching the world go around and this ther couple comes in with clothes in a English wal-mart bag (yes Germany also has Wal-Mart, oh I forgot to say but you can get a McBeer at McDonalds) and the fellow turns around and asks us if were from America… Turns out they were from Indiana and frequently visit this region. Ironically they were in London last summer… So It was nice to have a chat with some fellow North Americans. From there experience there are only two laundry mats in southern Germany (Both in college towns).

After the Landry we went back home and had our siesta nap, not much else to do when its +31 deg outside. So we went to dinner and again we had to hunt down a parking spot, upon arriving at the restaurant we asked our waiter about where we parked (as we cant read the signs). Well I guess we could only park there for 5 more minutes then it was locals only (heard one to many stories about the meter maids in that lot earlier in the day)… So I moved the car and was back in our favorite garage. After ordering dinner Lindz and I both thought… Crap we should of made half-orders. So once again the meal was huge!

As you can tell this is not a society for the automobile unless you are commuting to another city. If you noticed the cost of regular gas in the picture of the "not so smart car" was 1.22 $EU/L. I did the calculations last night and it works out to 1.98 $CA/L or 6.00 $US/Gal. So just like the Canadian weather, it (the fuel price) will always be worse some where else. Fortunately we are getting about 1000km per 60L (620mi per 16 gal) of Diesel.

Cheers!
-Marsh

P.S. to the Canadians don’t be afraid to call us… Only a buck for 30mins! (Best time is between to reach me is 15:00-18:00)