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Speaking of meetings on the road, one of the most original ones I ever had was in Munich. I managed to lose a bet and a dinner while watching a soccer game. It was on my 15 solo days in June 2002 in Germany.
The trips at the turn of the century were particularly influenced by my general mood of restlessness and impatience. They were beautiful, but I did not enjoy them fully because I was not serene enough.
I moved by public transportation and visited
- Munich and Dachau
- Berlin
- Hamburg and Lübeck
This on mymaps the itinerary
I go there because she doesn’t like it
I had recently graduated from college and had started working. I liked the job very much but I had had to move back in with my parents. This had destabilized me after my years as an off-campus student in Bologna. I would have liked to take my own space, but I still could not afford it.
More than anything though, as I approached 30, I still didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I had started to combine something with women, but I kept becoming infatuated with people who did not match me.
I was dating as a friend, although it was a great hypocrisy because I avowedly wanted a relationship. She really didn’t want to know, but she was beve to have a guy buzzing around her, while I was convinced that sooner or later she would give in. In fact we never even kissed and it dragged on for three wearisome years and when I came to my senses I realized that I didn’t even like her.
She also professed to be a future traveler, however, she once told me that she would never go to Germany, which did not inspire her at all. Since I dreamed of traveling the world with her, since I would have to go alone that summer anyway, I chose that destination precisely because she would not go there anyway.
He was always present in my mind. I was constantly making mental lucubrations about how to recount an event that happened and then I would get anxious if she took too long to respond to my text messages. Sometimes I would pathetically try to make her jealous or think how much I would like to have her there.
They are very frustrating those kinds of platonic relationships. Fortunately, between melancholy thoughts, I made several female acquaintances on the road as well, although definitely not positive ones.
Meetings on the road also planned from home
I reached Germany and then went around it always by train. It still wasn’t convenient to fly. I had the opportunity to be able to stop almost on the way in Riva del Garda where a gal I had gone out with one evening a few weeks earlier had gone for the season as receptionist. Of the place I saw nothing particularly, but it was a particularly pleasant evening. In retrospect I was really stupid to let someone like that get away. I woke up at dawn and left, leaving her naked in bed without even saying goodbye; I went to the station and took the first train north, thinking about my ridiculous platonic love.
In Munich, karma began to punish me. In addition to wandering around the center and seeing the various churches, I didn’t miss the Botanical Garden, I used to be fond of it, now I just visit there if I have nothing else to do. I really enjoyed the museum of technology where in times when the selfie didn’t exist yet, I took a few dumb selfies. I spent a lot of time in the parks. In one crossed by a stream with a fair amount of flow there were guys surfing standing still after tying themselves with long ropes to the bars of a small bridge.
Meetings on the road and the lost bet
It may be that the atmosphere is a bit reminiscent of my beloved English pubs, but I immediately liked the big biergartners, and in particular the huge one with many tables around a Chinese pagoda(ChinescherTurm). In those days there was the World Cup being played in South Korea and of course all the competitions were being screened. In the knockout stage our national team was facing the hosts at a time close to lunch and so all satisfied I sat at a big table in front of one of the big screens and ordered a giant pork knuckle and the first 1-liter mug.
I had not thought about it, but it was indeed a foregone conclusion that all the other 18 German diners would cheer against Italy. While I think it was unimaginable that my very next-door neighbor was Korean! With a certain amount of flamboyance, I proposed to her that we play a dinner game. I already felt guilty because I was convinced she would pay for it and because it seemed almost too much on the same day-a juicy lunch, qualification to the quarterfinals at the expense of all those Germans, and also an evening with a beautiful Asian. It turned out decidedly badly. It was the famous match with referee Moreno, the Germans cheered big time, plus in the after-dinner paid for by me I didn’t get anything done.
My first concentration camp
Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp I visited. It is located about 20 kilometers from Munich; I got there by bus.
Approaching and skirting the long barbed fence is already shocking, let alone stepping through the gate with the famous expression later used in all the other camps.
My feeling of unease increased with the realization of how clean and orderly everything was now. Although we have all heard so much about it, and certainly to anyone with any feelings it does not give pleasant feelings, I highly recommend the experience of visiting one of these places.
These are links to similar experiences I have had:
There is one place in Poland you absolutely must visit.
Visiting Israel with terrorism alert
Why go to Phnom Penh ? The Auschwitz of Asia
Next stop Very varied knowledge on the road in northern Germany
More travel by way of Germany
- Traveling in Western Europe, feeling like home
- Traveling during the Covid – Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg
- Going to the Czech Republic and also to Bratislava but not only
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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