Random Thoughts

• So on the heels of my thinking, "Okay, now that I've gotten used to it somewhat, this bike thing isn't that bad", well of course I had my first mishap.  I guess it had to happen sometime, and it could have been much worse, but last night I hit the pavement for the first time.  I was on a little side street trying to find an address for a first aid class that you have to take in order to get your driver's license (and if you're going to be here for over six months, you have to get one) and I was ten minutes late to boot, so I was pretty frustrated at this point.  I had a little post-it note in my hand and was looking at the addresses on buildings, when a car turned onto the street ahead of me.  Now, I was in no danger of being hit whatsoever.  But unconsciously, with the one hand I had on the handle bars, I turned sharply and gripped the brakes.  The problem?  The hand I had on the handles was on the front brake side.  Yep, over the front I went.  Like I said, it wasn't that bad, but I've got a bruise on one side of my ribs that's pretty sore, and I ripped a pretty cool shirt that I had just bought within the last week or so.  No real damage to the bike, thankfully, considering how much I paid for that sob, but it still sucked.  Hopefully, I've got that out of the way now.

• I've noticed that dogs are extremely well-behaved over here.  A lot of the time, a person's dog will just be following along-side their owner without  a leash, and you can tell that there's not a chance that it's going to run off somewhere chasing whatever it's seen.  This morning I was sitting outside a cafe getting breakfast and a lady walked in with her dog behind her.  They asked her to leave the dog outside (now, that's not a given - had lunch yesterday at a table next to a lady with her dog inside the place - still very well-behaved, but inside none the less).  So she led her dog back outside, told it to lie down under a table next to the door, went inside, and the dog - well, he just laid there.  Now I was at the table right next to the dog, with a plate full of food, and he acted like he didn't know I was there.  I guess the best way I can think to explain it is that the dogs here are all just like seeing-eye dogs as far as their demeanor.  Very calm, very well-trained.

• The drink situation here just befuddles me (yes, I said befuddled - get over it).  As I've said, it's like they don't really trust the water that comes out of the taps, but at the same time they will swear to the quality of their water treatment system.  So in restaurants, they just don't do glasses of water.  If you do order water, it'll be bottled water (quick side note - I was wrong on the term for non-soda water.  The correct term is 'ohne kohlensaure', without bubbles; mit, ohne - with, without; pretty easy, really, if I'd actually bother to study the freaking language).  And it won't be cheap.  In fact, it seems that it costs the same if want juices, sodas, water, whatever - including beer.  For a half-liter bottle of any of them, it's around €3.20.  Yep, five bucks just for the drink.  So you can understand why I've been drinking a lot of beer - might as well, right?  Now, this is only in restaurants - in the grocery stores and Getränkte Märkten ([ge-train-ke mairk-ten] drink markets - like beer stores, but with soft drinks and juices as well) they are actually very reasonably priced.  Of course, now that I think about it, the prices in the restaurants also include the 19% VAT (value-added tax) and service.  On the other hand, so does the food, and the Mexican buffet I went to yesterday was only €5.90.  Like I said, befuddled.