paraphernalia

Today was one of those fantastic relaxing days in the life of a traveller.

After a long lay in, and a chance to catch up with emails etc., Bianca and I left the house at midday for the Deutsche Museum. This place is HUGE... it's touted as the European version of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC and it's not far off it.

It's essentially a Science and Tech Museum, but it contains full bridges, planes, space landing modules etc., so it's really hands-on and certainly beats Questacon anytime!! Not taht that is particularly hard to do!

After 3 hours there, during which I got to see the Northern hemisphere night sky in a planetarium (sooo much fun to watch all the stars spinning - I felt like a little kid again), we walked to Sacchus, at one end of the extensive pedestrianised Aldstadt (old-town). The aim was to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 in English, but that was not to be - the next session was in 5 hours So instead we went to the nearest restaurant and I had Jägerschnitzel. OMG so nice!!! It's chicken schnitzel done in creamy sauce with noodles and salad. Deceptively simple, but oh so good.

After dinner, Bianca and I met Flo (her boyfriend who I had met in Singapore), and two friends of theirs: Marc and Jasmine. Marc studies with Flo, and Jasmine was over from Austria. We walked for AGES before finding a suitable place to have a drink, and ended up in the huge, but deserted clubbing district of Ostbahnhof (East Central Station). On a weekend this place is nuts, but at the time it was quiet and really nice, with potent cocktails. The potency, however, may have been because I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, but hey, that's a Bavarian drink isn't it?

I also continued my education in German phrases. For example, the sitcom "Step By Step" from the 1990s is known as "A Strong Family" in Germany. You may be wondering why this subject came up at all - seriously though, when don't we talk about Step By Step!?? Nah, it came about because the aforementioned cocktails were damn cold, and Flo proceeded to have a "Brain Freeze", which is exactly the same in German (i.e. it's a literal translation). Apparently the phrase became known here through Step By Step. Small world huh?