Day 15 (21 June): The German Frathouse
So I dropped Hugh like a bad habit today and headed to Berlin on my own, since he has plans to go back to the US and hike parts of the Appalachian Trail for the rest of the summer. Before getting to Berlin, I wanted to note how much I enjoyed Budapest, I would definitely go back. In many ways it rivals Paris and London except that its a lot cheaper, a lot more surprising, and more culturally different.
Upon arriving at the airport in Berlin, I was greeted by a exchange student we had in high school, Jullian. He drove me into the city where he arranged to let me stay at his former fraternity house, where his younger brother Götz is still and active member. Its different from an American fraternity in a number of ways:
1) it started as a fencing/dueling society
2) it has more aristocratic roots since it orignally only privledged students/noblemen were allowed to carry swords
3) it is much smaller and has less than a dozen active members, yet their houses are equally, large and nice.
4) people who attend different universities are in the same fraternity; in this house threedifferentt universities around Berlin were represented.
They have a website if you´re interested:
http://www.guestphalia-berlin.de/
That afternoon, we BBQed and went out to watch Germany play Argentina in apparently a very important soccer match. I´ve never seen so many people, so excited about a sport before, even at a Red Sox game. I didn´t get it as an American though, just as they wouldn´t have understood last year´s World Series. Oh yeah, Germany won which meant more party afterwards.
Economic observations of the day:
1) In some countries where they seem to operate under an honor system, they do check your public transport tickets. This happened to me in Budapest today. Budapest is a lot better off economically, however, than Zagreb was. Fortunately, I had validated my ticket and got through.
2) At the Budapest airport, the coke vending machines only dispensed 100 mL per push of the button and had a counter, measuring the amount dispensed over the day. I imagine this prevents ripoffs, etc. Why don´t they have these everywhere or do stores just accept that they are going to get ripped off and people will steal their beverages.
3) Beer. We´ve been lied to in the US. Hefeweizen isn´t actually beer or at least it doesn´t qualify as one in Germany. I learned about the strict requirements of German Beers from the members of the German Frat.
4) Smaller cars, smaller engines, more fuel efficiency. The car discussion came up again today and I learned that VW and Audi actually put smaller engines in some of the same cars here in Germany and all over Europe. You can get an Audi A4 with a 1.6 liter engine and no turbo if you want, but I´m not sure why you would unless you wanted fuel efficiency really badly.
Upon arriving at the airport in Berlin, I was greeted by a exchange student we had in high school, Jullian. He drove me into the city where he arranged to let me stay at his former fraternity house, where his younger brother Götz is still and active member. Its different from an American fraternity in a number of ways:
1) it started as a fencing/dueling society
2) it has more aristocratic roots since it orignally only privledged students/noblemen were allowed to carry swords
3) it is much smaller and has less than a dozen active members, yet their houses are equally, large and nice.
4) people who attend different universities are in the same fraternity; in this house threedifferentt universities around Berlin were represented.
They have a website if you´re interested:
http://www.guestphalia-berlin.de/
That afternoon, we BBQed and went out to watch Germany play Argentina in apparently a very important soccer match. I´ve never seen so many people, so excited about a sport before, even at a Red Sox game. I didn´t get it as an American though, just as they wouldn´t have understood last year´s World Series. Oh yeah, Germany won which meant more party afterwards.
Economic observations of the day:
1) In some countries where they seem to operate under an honor system, they do check your public transport tickets. This happened to me in Budapest today. Budapest is a lot better off economically, however, than Zagreb was. Fortunately, I had validated my ticket and got through.
2) At the Budapest airport, the coke vending machines only dispensed 100 mL per push of the button and had a counter, measuring the amount dispensed over the day. I imagine this prevents ripoffs, etc. Why don´t they have these everywhere or do stores just accept that they are going to get ripped off and people will steal their beverages.
3) Beer. We´ve been lied to in the US. Hefeweizen isn´t actually beer or at least it doesn´t qualify as one in Germany. I learned about the strict requirements of German Beers from the members of the German Frat.
4) Smaller cars, smaller engines, more fuel efficiency. The car discussion came up again today and I learned that VW and Audi actually put smaller engines in some of the same cars here in Germany and all over Europe. You can get an Audi A4 with a 1.6 liter engine and no turbo if you want, but I´m not sure why you would unless you wanted fuel efficiency really badly.
posted by Traveling Brian at 8:38 AM
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