16-VII-1977.
Don't quite remember where we went this time - the ticket says this day, and it's from Stuttgart to a bunch of other places.
When one travels abroad, specially westward, usually people will ask what did you buy there. Doesn't necessarily imply smuggling, it's just that people want to know, maybe they'll hear about some handy technical novety, or just gauge ther market, perhaps order something from someone of theirs who travels there. Having been somewhat thin on cash, I limited my shopping to two things: four albums and a polarizing filter. There were actually seven LPs - the best of Kinks, something likewise from Frank Zappa, one piano and orchestral version of „Pictures at an exhibition“, by some Swiss and a swiss orchestra, which turned out to be a great disappointment while Keith Emerson grew two sizes larger in my eyes, and a four LP box of Mike Oldfield. Somewhere I found one of those turntables where you could stack six LPs and it'd drop them one by one and play them fully automatically. I saw those before but never operated one on my own.
The polarizing filter fulfilled my expectations much better. I wanted to have one ever since high school graduation, polarization of light was the theme for my graduation paper, and I kept imagining how it should work, extrapolating from what I learned. It turned out even crazier, the shots came out... well a miracle. Extra points for hundred kinds of transparent plastic which twist the polarization plane, so the colors of the rainbow appear in unexpected places.
It's most probably when we went to the Sommernachtsfest, which is yet another german beer night. We went to this little town, visited two of her cousins. Then a boyfriend of one arrived, and we all went to Stuttgart to have a bunch of beers there on the street. I was starting to speak german somewhat, and beer surely helped, but I was lost - I didn't know how many mistakes would I make, or how much meaning would I push across, so I tasked this guy to correct me. Because nobody else would, they were so happy that someone was learning their language, they didn't want me to get disappointed by lack of progress, so they wouldn't even laugh. This guy took it seriously and kept correcting me all day. My failure rate decreased with each beer.
A beer was 2DEM, and you got it in a plastic cup of 0,5l. However, you could get a liter for 4 but the caution (fee that you get back when you return it) for the stoneware tankard was another 4. We decided to keep one (I see it in the window as I write this in 2020). No glass cups anywhere - in case someone throws one, or just loses balance and drops it in some ballistic fashion, there would be a splash, but there would still be nothing with sharp edges and no broken shop windows. These ceramic tankards could do that, but the german logic has it that nobody would do that, if they could get the 4DEM back. The logic worked, they may be as drunk as they can, they still want the 4DEM.
The urinal is a matter of fantasy. It was huge, and didn't have individual stalls. It had walls with wide concrete gutters at the bottom, the fence wall being somewhere knee height, so it could take about fifty guys peeing at the same time.
We also got some cocktail, "voodoo-voodoo mug", 2DEM for caution, also kept the mug. It's still in the house.
The other half of the vacation we stayed at Inge. Not too memorable, didn't have anyone to go out with.
Mentions: 19-VI-1990., Inge tanti, in serbian
5-X-2020 - 11-IX-2025