Ridiculous Speed (part 1)

(pre-script: if you see 'z's and 'y's mixed up, it's cuz I'm typing on a German Keyboard and those two letters are switched. The symbols are also in weird places, so this post may be all screwy.)
Ok, so where was I?

Ah, yes. Poland. And the trip thereto (June 21-23). It started out quite early on a Wednesday morning. We all met at the Hauptbahnhof for a train ride to Görlitz. This is a German town, but it is on the Germany/Poland border. Our train got delayed on the middle of the tracks for about a 1/2 hour, which meant that we missed our connection. We were stuck in some tiny little po-dunk town for about an hour. We walked around, I bought chocolate, and life was good.

We finally arrived in Görlitz. And then. It began raining. Not sprinkling. No, this was a straight out of the Bible, where is Noah when you need him, the ark is not ready, sort of rain. We raced through the rain, which at one point, was so bad that we had to pile into a little tiny alcove to get some respite. Here is a picture of said alcove. I would have taken one while we were all crammed into it, but, like I said, it was a tad bit wet outside.


Then we ate lunch at this weird little bar. It had a bunch of weapons hanging on the walls and musical instruments strewn about the place. Our waiter looked like a pirate, and then, in one of the weirdest, most interesting things ever, he became an ACTOR and told us this story about a dude who makes a deal with the devil and loses his soul in the process. I don't know details, because he was speaking German in the weird Saxon accent that they have up here. I like Storytime, though.


During lunch, we made various structures out of coasters and table ornaments:



After that, we had a tour of Görlitz. It was pretty neat. Görlitz, from what I remember, was a major trading city back in the day. Then, the trading route got plagued by robbers and so they banded with 5 other cities to control the problem.....
Ok, so that was probably the lamest history recount EVER.

Here are some pictures that I took during the tour. I saw the coolest statue/fountain I have EVER seen.


Other fountains and statues were cool too:The have a doorway there, called the Whispering Wall, and if you stand with a friend, one on each side of the door, and one whispers, the other person can hear it like they were standing right next to each other. It was really amazing!





They had some really cool architecture in this city, but I don't know the history behind it or anything special about it. The following was my favorite building shot.




We finally got settled into our hotel. I roomed with Sierra again. This hotel was not nearly as nice as the one in Wernigerode. It was called Pension Pico Bello. The owners also own a little Italian restaurant (called Antica Roma), and he invited us to have a free glass of Champagne there. So we went. All 30 of us. And we were hungry. And it is a restaurant. So we ordered food. TWO HOURS LATER, our food had still not gotten there. He explained that they were not expecting us all to stay and were not prepared. I was NOT happy with the situation. It is a RESTAURANT, after all. They are supposed to make food for people. (wow! my eye just started twitching as I was typing! I must be madder about this than I thought.) Anyhoo. They finally started bringing food and he brought out two Tortellinis. Only one person had ordered Tortellini. Great! The take a million years and they can't even make the right food!!! So he came back out and said, "ok, I have two pizzas and then everybody has their food, right?" But, NO! I DID NOT HAVE MY FOOD!!! My Pasta Combinazione was not there. He said "can you eat the extra Tortellini?" That made me mad. I had waited over 2 hours for food that I hadn't even ordered!?!?!?! But, I ate the Tortellini. And it turned out to be my Pasta Combinazione. And it was o.k. And those two things made me even madder. My food had been sitting there for 10 minutes because the OWNER couldn't tell what the dishes looked like AND the food was mediocre at best?!!?!

(take a deep breath)

So, apparently, I looked really mad about this, because the owner offered me a glass of wine for all the trouble. WHICH, I can't drink! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! We were talking about this kind of thing at the table that night and the TAs said that in Germany a person just waits. Once you've ordered, you wait. I think that's foolish. They also said that I must have made a BIG impression on the owner with my ire, because restaurants NEVER offer wine or other types of apologies, no comps, nothing. That made me feel bad, because, normally I am a very patient person and I don't let stuff like that get to me. I went and apologized to the owner for my attitude. I don't like for people to think I'm evil. (I'm not saying I'm all goodness and light, either. I could very well be evil. I just don't like for people to think I am.)

But, the evening ended on a good note. We went to this sweet little french place and had Crepes. The service was good, the food was Excellent and the waiter was gregarious. (I feel better now).

Moral of Part 1: If you happen to be in Görlitz, don't stay in Pension Picobello, don't eat at Antica Roma and DO eat at Le Tour.