Germany 3

Today I had to make these two graphs. Now I have to (somehow) find a way to put the green graph in the same place as the red one. Any ideas?

I only made a couple of observations today (and these were actually from yesterday) but here they are:
Observation 11-
European tap water is terrible.

Observation 12-
Germans who wear graphic t-shirtss wear ridiculous ones. Most of them don't seem to care about what they say, only about the way the words look, I guess. Examples- "I AM NOT A TOURIST BECAUSE I LIVE HERE, " "Skating Power!" and others I don't recall because it's a little late. I'll keep track tomorrow.

Edit from 6/13/10: Other shirts include "First Team Varsity Baseball" and something about jazz music being founded in the 1940s.

Observation 13-
Even though this is Germany, every single corner has a Gelato store, and the Gelato stands are the most crowded places on the street. Not that that's weird since gelato is delicious, but still, I have yet to find a sausage (and that's the only thing I want.).

My professor kept me a little longer today so I slept in a little longer (5 hours instead of 4) so I went into town later than I usually did so I didn't do as much, which was fine because my legs are starting to hurt from all the walking I've been doing and I'll be hiking a few miles the day after tomorrow. S'all good.

Anyway, I started today by finding out about Neckar River tours, and they look really cool, so instead of visiting Neckargemünd by foot tomorrow, I will be visiting both Neckargemünd and Neckarsteinach (which I wanted to see way more because it has four castles) by boat. After that I went to the Palatinate (Kurpfälzisches) Museum, which was fantastic. It has a bunch of portraits of old Baden-Württemberg Prince-Electors, rooms redone using stuff from the Heidelberg Castle to match rooms from the 17th and 18th Centuries, stuff from archeological sites in the area (Roman, Celtic, and Neolithic!), paintings of landscapes, a timeline of German fashion using real costumes from different time periods, and a room full of pictures of Grace Kelly (this exhibit was German-Only so I have no idea how it was supposed to apply). Oh, and I also almost got thrown out...

The first thing they told me when I walked in was "Keine Foto!" which I know means "no photos" but I smiled and nodded and pretended not to understand. As I walked through the museum I discreetly snapped photos of all the things that liked, until I got to one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen- a cabinet with lots of inlaid woodwork that opened up to a wood sculpture of Jesus. I greedily snapped away and suddenly heard over the museum PA (if I weren't the only person in the museum, everyone would have heard) something in angry German about photos. I hid my camera and thought maybe they weren't addressing me, until a security guard I had seen at the front door met me with his walkie-talkie in hand, pointed at my pocket and yelled "KEINE PHOTO! NO PHOTO!" I guess it was a pretty big deal. Oh yeah, then I looked around and realized the museum had more CCTV Cameras than New York City- there wasn't a single spot in the museum where one could hide from security.

As I left the museum I received scolding glances from everyone who worked there (whatever) and crossed the courtyard into another museum I had previously thought was a wing of the first museum. This museum was a modern art museum with only two exhibits- one was completely in German (I don't know what it was but there were lots of lists) with a video of an "artist" who changed a picture's colors in photoshop and sent it to a "send your photo to us and we'll make an oil paint rendition of it" service (then sold the piece for 2000 dollars at an respectable art auction to show how artists were really just greedy moneymaking machines) and the other was the creepiest, most unsettling thing I have ever seen.

The exhibit was a plain white room that had various all black and faceless child-size figures. The figures were supposed to represent ghosts of the artist's friends and families- they were terrifying. In a big black box in one of the corners was a video playing clips of the artist's lighting a fuse that leads to her mouth (it cuts before she explodes), her limbless torso being attacked and molested by her limbs, and of her head fighting with her arms. The environment, the images, and the high pitch drone of the movie had such an affect on me that I left the museum shaking and utterly terrified. It must have been the best exhibit I've ever seen.

After that, still shaking, I walked down Haupstraße, ate a pretzel (it was good), ate gelato (it was good), bought a silly gift for my brother, and killed time waiting for my bus by walking to the other side of the river. I think the highlight of my whole day was when I asked the woman at the Gelateria for my favorite flavor of gelato, Stracciatella (a super Italian sounding word). My Italian accent must have been awesome, because she took my order and spoke to me in Italian. Relishing in this and delighted that she had just said "allora, ecco" to me instead of "now here's" (and was also really, really nice), I decided I was thirsty and asked for "una Fanta, per favore." I might just speak Italian for the rest of the trip

Anyway, that's today. Short things:
The only place I even see people my age is at stores or walking on the street, and I don't know how to approach a large group of adolescents without being sneered at (Tried that the first day, remember?) At the bus stop today I tried talking to a nice looking grandma and she didn't speak English. I'm probably going sit next to someone on the boatride tomorrow.
Red paths on the sidewalks are for bikes. If you don't ride a bike and walk on the path, you will be hit by a biker (not me, someone else).
Apparently Germany is known for their Turkish Döner Kebabs, which I'm pretty sure are just Gyros. If all else fails, I will have a Döner Kebab by the end of the trip (though I have a sneaking suspicion the Kebab store also sells sausages....)
Here's a link to the brochure from the creepy exhibit. There are stills from the video you can see what I'm talking about.

Tschüs!