Bienvenue a Frankfurt

After spending a week in Guildford, England, it was time to leave the land of "How, you doin' - alright?" and one of the most technologically advanced of the fiscal primates of the world - rumour has it Angola is right up there too since had received notice of my next abode of notoritety - Darmstadt. In all fairness it was a good time there. Tim, who's flat I wasstaying at had a pretty cool party on Saturday night. It was a T and P party, so unfortunately I had finished my tenure at Eagle Boys so coudn't go as a pizza delivery guy. One guy did turn up in one of his more familiar daily costumes - apostie - dissapointingly he didn't look like Newman from Seinfeld.

A town (I was to learn on the internet) boasted two squash courts and several technical training instituits. With a population of 140,000 or so, I would be assured of eventually seeing at least one familiar face on the way to work.

The flight across to Frankfurt was pretty uneventful. Aparently as we were taxing out to the runway at Heathrow, we w passed a Kiwi Concorde. I don't call it that due to the possability of it being manufactured in a small Tonan garage in Manurewa. Rather I've called it due it it's flying characteristics of the bird ofthe same name. The as we were taxing to Frankfurt/Main disembarking gate, we went past a heap-big bunch of American freighter planes on the tarmac, which are used to transport much-needed nappies and tampons to Bagdhad. For those of you who are plane watchers, they look like smaller versions of the Russian Antonv 124.

Since Darmstadt is so small, the trip to the Hotel was best made by foot. The local welcoming committe of heroin addicts and unemployed IT workers was there togreet me as I left the station. I didn't get a a frangipannie Lei, but it was just as charming. Hotel Prinz Heinrich was an attempt to look neo-Middle Age (if there's such a term), however I could feel that "ye olde chest-o-drawers" was part of a kitset that could be bought online, right next to the authentic old Irish pub kitset. However, they seemed to pull the deal off quite convincingly. "Internet, you must be crazy, we don't have that here". "You want to use an iron? What are you - a blacksmith?".

As per any first day, you were expected to know, off by heart, everyone in the internal directory along with their pet names they were called in school. "Herr Etwas" is pretty much all I can remember, for those of you who know a bit of German. The following day, I headed to Amsterdam for some internal work meetings. Istayed at the usual Hotel Annemarie, not far from Museumpleine - I still haven't been to the Van Gough museum yet. Hotel Annemaire is nice, they still remembermy name (and it's not because I ticked them off) whenever I go back. Sort of like Cheers, but more funny than the Ted Danson/John Kerry guy.

After returning to Darmstadt some days later, I went out on Friday night looking for some action. The worst I was to find was a bunch of rowdy youths in the main square having a few beers. I think the only shops open at 8 at night were thePizza Hutt, McDonalds and a couple of cafes. I even went looking in to the local dodgy poorly lit park, but it seems that everyone, vagrants included take Friday night off to spend time in their rabbit warren at home..... wherever that maybe. Even the locals struggled to point out more than one or two bars or pubs. This won't do, I thought to myself, and vowed to repatriate myself to somewhere with a nightpulse. The next day I took a train to Frankfurt to stay in the DJH for a night. More on that when I get a chance to write on the train back from work.