Volume 2, Day 20
I had another fitful night of sleep from indigestion, and spent some hours of the early morning listening to podcasts and trying to fall back asleep. I eventually decided to get up around 6 and make a cup of coffee and breakfast. I had bought a loaf of sliced bread and butter to make toast, and with my regrets from overeating, I started to do the math on how much toast I was planning to eat over two mornings. At least I had talked myself out of buying any jams (because there was a collection in the fridge, leftover from previous guests one can only presume).
If I had been a bit more ambitious, I should have gone to find a rental bike to travel up to that famous bridge. But, it was kind of nice having a whole space to myself, so I did my best to take advantage of it.
Regarding the unofficial nature of the hostel, though I had made a reservation and shown up, there wasn’t exactly a reception. In fact, there was merely a bill on the table in my room with some bank information for me to make a transfer (at my convenience). A bank transfer would not be convenient, and I was counting on the fact that the owner would eventually show her face and I would be able to hand her cash. Though I was convinced of my own honesty, I couldn’t really relax until I knew the bill was settled. So, apart from my own laziness, I justified my hanging around all morning on the chance that the landlord would appear. She did and I discovered I can string a few sentences of German together–not fluently, mind you–but I surprised myself.
After she left (which was pretty soon since I am an immaculate guest and there wasn’t any cleaning up to do), I made an early lunch to finish off the other three bratwurst from the package. They were so good (and I got lucky by finding ketchup in the fridge). I packed up all my empty bottles and took them to the recycling point at the Kaufland. I took another look at the durables section of the Kaufland and the craft store across the hall to see what was available for possibly keep the suitcase wheels in one piece.
In the morning, I conducted an inspection of the wheels and realized just how much trouble I am in. I picked apart the flayed rubber from one of the wheels to reveal the plastic core underneath. This is exactly what happened to the suitcases in Taiwan. Some combination of heat, rough road, and overload rips the rubber apart. The rubber lodges in the sides of the wheel causing friction that erodes the whole wheel base. Hindsight is 20/20. I purchased superglue in Japan, but I left it in China. That would have been useful (especially since it is expensive in Europe). Even more useful would have been early intervention to repair the rubber before too much damage was done.
With all that on my mind, I didn’t make any decision yet, but popped into the theater to see a movie. Maybe I should do my bit to help Endgame break the Avatar record. Though the theater had been empty the day before, it was packed on Tuesday and by the time I got to the front of the line, I had missed the start of Endgame, but I bought a ticket to X-Men: Dark Phoenix instead. Apparently, not only do you pick a seat, but they employ some sort of tiered concert pricing for different seat sections. I didn’t quite follow and just accepted what was recommended. There is a base ticket price (under 6 euros on Tuesday) but with unspecified surcharges of up to 4 euros, which I guess cover the seat section, the type of seat, 2D/3D, German/Foreign, etc. Why do I need a tide chart to know how much something in Germany will cost?
I was vaguely aware that the movie might be dubbed. Those concerns magnified when the trailers started. Every trailer was both from Hollywood and dubbed in German. The German dubbing sounded terrible, with barely any attempt to actually engage in voice acting, but when you see actors with such distinctive voices, like Idris Elba or Clive Owen and they are chattering away stupidly in German, it is jarring. I think I understand why Europeans look down on American films.
Well, its a good thing I picked a movie that I wasn’t particularly excited about seeing in the first place so that I could learn this valuable lesson. It was actually fine. The dialogue in X-Men is mostly cliches which are easy to understand from context and the film does so little character development, there were only a handful of talky scenes where I couldn’t really follow what was being said. Honestly, if the ticket price was a little bit cheaper, I would do this more often to really practice my German listening. Of course, for an important movie (like Spider-Man), this won’t work.
After the movie, I swung through the Kaufland to buy the superglue and some more water. I looked at the ice cream, and am now completely ruined in terms of my price points in Europe. A liter of ice cream costs the same as a single scoop. It’s so cheap. Doesn’t it cost something like 6 bucks for less than a half gallon in the US by this point? There is also a perverse economy of scale. A single serving ice cream bar costs basically as much as a full container. You have to pay more if you can’t trust yourself.
I talked myself out of the ice cream and returned to the apartment. Again, I was thinking I should go out and exercise, but it was very hot. And the ice cream was swirling in my head. So, I ran over to the nearby supermarket and bought my “dinner.” I had a lot of salad left to eat, but it just excite me. I watched another movie, finishing off the whole container of ice cream (cherry flavored) over several courses. When I went to shower, I heard someone else enter the apartment, but they mostly stayed to their room, and I still had a whole room to myself.
| Hostel (2 nights) | 43 |
| Movie (X-Men) | 8.3 |
| Superglue | 1.41 |
| Ice cream | 1.59 |
| Total: | 54.3 EUR (423.54 RMB) (USD 61.55) |
Running Total: 8014.5 RMB (USD 1164.88)
Daily Average: 400.7 RMB (USD 58.25)