trampen

The cheapest way to get to Prague (or anywhere, I guess) is to hitchhike. I’ve done so twice so far with Miki. He advises against my going alone, for safety reasons. And I agree with him for linguistic reasons. I think I could get myself into the Czech Republic, but seeing as I can only say “My name is Maggie. I’m an American.” and “I live in Berlin.” I don’t think that would really help me get to Prague. Miki has hitchhiked almost every time since the weather got nice to Berlin and back. The only thing is that it takes an indeterminate amount of time, so if you have some place to be that evening, chances are high you might not make it. Miki has a lot of luck alone on Weekdays. He usually goes with truckers. The two times we’ve gone together have been on a Friday that was a German public holiday and a Sunday. Neither of which are the best choices since most of the people traveling already have full cars. So we receive a lot of the “I would take you, but I have no room” shrug and gesture to the back of the car. Regardless, on both occasions we ended up at our destination at the end of the day, and I thought they were both pretty pleasant experiences.

Of course I say that now. However, hitchhiking requires a lot of patience. It’s a philosophy that requires patience, faith, and trust. So says Miki. This past Sunday we stood for almost two hours in Berlin before finding a ride just 50 km down the road. But that first ride is all you need to prove yourselves a trustworthy trekker, because in our new spot, it was obvious someone had to have dropped up off there in a car. We found the next ride within 10 minutes. Here are some helpful hints to keep in mind if you ever wish to hitchhike around Germany. Yes, I know, I’ve only done it twice, so I have no credibility, but most of this is information from Miki.

1. Use signs so it is clear where you are headed. This eliminates unnecessary stopping which could annoy the drivers as well as you, since it gets your hopes up.

2. Stand somewhere where it is easy for cars to pull over and stop, or where they are already stopped (like a gas station or rest stop).

3. Shave. This one doesn’t really apply to me, but in general, look nice. They have to trust you too.

4. When you get a ride, follow the lead of the driver and other people in the car. If they want to start a conversation, have a conversation. If they just want to drive in peace and listen to the radio, keep to yourself. But don’t fall asleep. (Okay, so I broke this when driving from Dresden to Prague on Sunday, but only because it was like one of those sun ovens we cooked pizza in in girl scouts in the backseat. And Miki was in the front seat having a conversation with the driver in Czech.)

5. Know where you want to go. Sometimes people offer their own ideas, and that’s great. But you should still have some idea of where you want to go, and make sure they are going past that before you get in the car.

On both occasions, the first ride was a married couple. The first time I almost didn’t spot him since he was just gesturing us over from the gas station while he was pumping gas with gloves on. But it was a nice quiet ride and they ended up giving us a box of Rittersport chocolates. They took us to the last gas station before Dresden, which also happens to be the last gas station in Germany on the highway to Prague. We found that out with the next couple who offered us a ride. I think he was German and she was Romanian. They were awesome and obviously just liked adventure. They lived in Dresden, but offered to stay on the highway to Prague and take us to the next gas station. They specifically cleared out their backseat for us, which had been filled with lots of lumber, and gave us beer. She kept saying that they would go with us to Prague, if it weren’t for the fact that they hadn’t fed their cat. And her reaction when they accidentally ended up in the Czech Republic was hilarious. The final leg of that journey was on a bus full on 6 or 7 year old soccer players. They were just starting a movie too, and about 10 or 15 minutes into the drive, someone changed the subtitles to English.

This Sunday was a little less exciting, but it didn’t take nearly as long. (We stood in the first gas station in the Czech Republic for an obscene amount of time the first time we went. We got on the soccer bus at 10 or 10:30pm. So like I said, you can’t make same-day plans.) The first couple was nice, but the ride was short. The next guy was the most interesting. He took us to the last gas station before Dresden. He was coming from a poker tournament in Berlin in which he placed third. He was Austrian but lived in Dresden. He’s been to Las Vegas 27 times. He knew Pennsylvania because he flies into Philly and takes a train to Atlantic City. He loves Las Vegas so much, he flew his wife there to marry her in the little white chapel (I pretended to know what that was). The last guy was the Czech who talked to Miki the whole time while I slept. But he seemed nice. He had an ostrich egg in the back seat which I almost sat on. Perhaps I should add that to the list. Don’t sit on someone’s ostrich egg; you might break it. Luckily the egg was not harmed.

Weihnachtskonzert in Mittenwalde

This weekend the Blasorchester had it's last concert of the year, followed by a party. However, as usual, I didn't exactly know what was going on most of the time. I mean I understand the stuff they tell me, like when to get there, what to wear, and what and when we're playing, but along the lines of what is going on where we are playing is what I never fully understand. I knew we were joining another group. But what I didn't realize is that this group was some sort of marching band consisting of drums, marching glockenspiels and piccolos. More piccolos than should ever be allowed to play together in one place. All of the piccolo players also had a bugel hanging on their belts that they would also play depending on the song. But mostly it was the piccolo. Let me tell you, you have not lived until you have heard the piccolo/glockenspiel/drum versions of selections from ABBA or Andrew Lloyd Webber. I should probably get out my flute and practice since it's been awhile, and I tried to play someone's piccolo later in the night and wasn't very successful. I mean I could produce a sound, but reading the music and forming any semblance of melody was very much lacking. In fact, I bet the majority of people around me wish I has been unsuccessful at creating a sound. This melodic failure could very much be the result of the celebratory Champagne and crates of beer that the Blasorchester provided its members in celebration of the last concert of the year and Christmas. That's right, I said crates of beer. Beer that I've seen bought it bulk in Germany comes in plastic crates instead of cardboard cases. I'm guessing this is to make it easier to collect and return the empty bottles, since Germans are much better at recycling than Americans. Plus they have the incentive of getting money back for returning most empty glass and plastic bottles. Aside from my atrocious piccolo playing, the after party was a very good time. It can best be described as like the dance portion of a wedding reception. The host band offered us a classroom in which to spend the night since we weren't in Berlin. About a dozen or so people did so, and then they provided breakfast the next morning (free food being one of the main reasons I stayed). It was an all around good time.

One thing I don't understand is that while I'm pretty sure the whole occasion for the concert was christmas, I didn't hear much christmas music. The set we did in the beginning was apparently standard German christmas songs. I recognized a couple as tunes to hymns at church (one of which was Thine is the Glory, so evidently the text is very different from the German version since, for us, that's a song about the resurrection and not the birth of Christ) but that was about all I knew. Our second set had no Christmas songs at all and from what I heard of the other groups, they didn't play much Christmas music either (though one group did don santa hats). The DJ did blast Christmas songs over the loud speakers during any down time. This includes when they introduced the Blasorchester at the very beginning, when the large white room divider (we were in a gym) that was constituting a curtain slowly rose during which a dramatic version of the little drummer boy was crescendoing in the background. It was intense.