Bach to basics

I just can't wait pulling out the el cheesio blog titles, and hopefully this is the finest colby yet.

Embarking on the journey to Leipzig in the ICE or Intercity Express certainly showed off one of Europe's prowess of transport - the transcontinental trains cruising at 160 km/h. Due to some mix-up with the booking, or maybe the booking lady didn't like the look of me, I took a position on the floor in one of the carriages. I had decided to head to Leipzig for a couple of days to break up the hegemony of city life to head to.... another city. Anyhow, it was worth it.

On Thursday afternoon about 4pm I disembarked from the train to Europe's biggest Bahnhof - Leipzig Haupt Bahnhof. After sitting for a couple of hours, I couldn't wait to do more of the same in the hostel room. The Hostel Sleepy Lion was more than accomadating, and to its credit, it's the cleanest and cheapest hostel I've been in so far. More on the cheap later. The room was around the 18 euro mark, which is pretty standard for Germany, however it was the beer which caught my eye. All the large bottles (almost crate-bottle-like for you Jake the Muss fans) were 1.50 Euro. So, my penchant for a fine brew or two (from such places as the Chezch republic and Hungary) saw me undertaking a 3.30am retirement in the morning chatting with a bunch of school kids who were there on a field trip. And Europe, being it's liberal self there wasn't a problem with them smoking or popping out to the bar and marking mer and merryment.

The next day after a lazy arousal from bed, breakfast was served. I consulted the trusty Lonely planet for a suitable tour of the city to do in a day (I was heading out on Saturday morning at a frosty 8am, since the rest of the day the services were replaced by buses - it felt like the Johnsonville train line all over again.. I shuddered at the thought of buses and was happy at the compromise). After discovering that it's a pretty universal truth that a large number of second hand computer salesmen have the personality and approachability of a festering boil, I kept looking for a hotspot to absorb that the word was doing. No luck, I progressed on my Moses tour of Leipzig. The Altes Radt house was interesting, but being in 95% German didn't give me the full experience. Or was the experience not as good since it was in 5% English? Glass-content glazing aside, there was more than enough history of the area to keep me interested for a couple of hours.

Onward to Thomaskirche (Thomas Church) where J.S. Bach was musical director for several years and his statue outside the church shows him with his jacket pocket hanging inside out - he rekons he was always broke from the number of kids he was raising. At least his sense of homour. I wandered to the new Radt House (council chamber), then had a kip in the park for the rest of the afternoon.

I went out for a couple of beers with some people who had moved in to the hostel room, then headed to bed for an early night's rest (relatively). I just caught the train with a minute to spare before arriving at Berlin a couple of hours later.

I write this in Potsdamer place, which, the complex itself has two IMAX cinemas. Not sure if I've mentioned that already - the conglomerates who have interests in this part of town are Sony and DamlerChrysler and are trying to outdo each other with lofty and large buildings. I say this as the lights on the ceiling have changed from a magenta hue to a blue one. Next stop is a brisk trip on the U-bahn to the Zoot Woman concert. I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow - I could be flying to Amsterdam or perhaps stopping off on the train to Dusseldorf for a night. It'll probably be one of two outcomes. One is that I've left everything too late and I have to take some scroungy expensive option, and the other is I pull finger now and book something. Oooh.. here's the desert menu.