Okay I think it's time to get out of Munich. Here I am in Europe and I've never even been out of Munich, practically speaking. Haven't seen the Black Forest, Berlin, The Alps, or anything else of note really. I confess I haven't even seen the "sights" in Munich--the Deutsches Museum or Koenigsburg Platz. What will I tell the people when I get back home? What famous names will I rattle off? What proud sightseeing claims will I make?
Well that's basically why I haven't done any of this stuff--because it feels like it's for other people and not me. I am weary of such things. The last thing I want to be is a tourist, seeing everything in Europe and yet seeing really nothing at all. Better to know one place well than skim the surface of many.
And I think I have began to get a pretty good feel for this place and the vibe it gives off. Not the old vibe, not the thousand-year-old-vibe, but the vibe that it's giving off right now. I have kindly asked Munich not to impress me with its Past but to impress me with its Now. It has. But it's time for me to move on, things are already starting to seem too familiar, and I begin to perform things routinely. Staleness is setting in. To me it felt like Eric and I tasted everything Munich had to offer on the last day he was here, and also kind of defiled the place with our irreverent American presence. And last weekend I came close to completing the KPO experience by beginning early and seeing it all the way through to the strung-out 6-in-the-morning end.
Time to get out. Plans are already in the works for me to visit Mark's hometown in Kassel two weekends from now. The following weekend my brother Ed is flying over to visit me, and who knows where we'll end up. Looking at Durer works in Nuremburg? Visiting Eric in Berlin? At the castle Neuschwanstein? In Paris, Amsterdam, Prague? (See how good I am at throwing out these names?)
Posted by Alan at July 23, 2002 09:14 PM