What are the chances of two people metting up half-way accross the world? Well, I can tell you I just increased that probability today.
Today I dedicated to museums with the possibility of going to the trade fair. As I was wondering down to the first museum, I get a tap on the back. I trun around and see Paul Stephenson, one of my classmates!! I can't get over just how unlikely it is that we both arrive in the same city, on the same day and by complete luck, without either of us knowing the other was in the city, passing by one another on the other side of the world!!
Paul was planning on catching a train out of Frankfurt with his travel pass, however since we bumped into one another he decided to join me for the day. We followed my plans of going to the museums. We purchased one of those student passes for most of the museums in the city, which ended up being a massive saver. This first one was the Museum fur Kommunikation (Communication Museum), which had some very interesting displays of historical communication devices such as telegrams and they even had a few enigma machines.
The next one we went to was an art museum - Museum Giersch. It had many old German paintings, many set within Frankfurt, from the 1800's. We then went to the Deutsches Filminstitut which had some of the very first filming technologies. Next was the Archeologisches Museum Frankfurt (Archaeology Museum). Here they had some ancient findings dating back to thousands of years BC, such as ancient tools and pots (I am now sick of pots!). The final stop was the Zweigstelle Historisches Museum (History Museum), which had displays showing some German (mainly Frankfurt) history such as how the city was affected by the war.
There is something that happened on the way to one of the museums that I simply have to record. If you know me you'll probably find it funny that I found this funny, but being Germany I was not prepared for this! Walking down this street, this man said in this voice that I cannot describe but will never forget: "Want some time with the girls? Don't you have some time for the pussy?" I was so shocked by the way he said it I found it hilarious!
Another thing I have to refer back to - I cannot believe the cars they drive in this country! So many Jags, Porches, Mercs (including all taxis), BMW's (the nice ones!). And so far I've seen four Ferrari's. A few French and Italian cars, but other than that it's all German with a very few exceptions. Hyundai seems to be the most popular non-European car with a few Fords too.
It's a little bit more of Frankfurt tomorrow morning and then down to serious business in Zurich.
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Thoughts on Rust
4 years ago
Thats because countries like south africa (the lower caps is intentional), has huge import takes on motor vehicles. So, cars produced and incoming from Germany, Italy, etc have large import duties, whereas some cars are manufactured locally (VW for example) and are cheaper, therfore there is a higher quantity demanded of them (take that Adam Smith prick!)...
ReplyDeleteThere have been cases where BMWs and VWs manufactured in SA were exported to countries like Australia (if I recall correctly) and sold for cheaper down there than in our own country - where they were manufactured!
ReplyDeleteThis is just another baffling case of exploitation analogous to the telecom-monopoly - which doesn't make sense, especially considering that we're a developing country!
I realise we have far higher prices due to factors out of our control. I don't expect to see fancy cars all over our roads anytime soon, even if the prices were similar to certain other countries.
ReplyDeleteWhat interests me is the number of such wanted cars in Frankfurt (the whole of Germany?) in particular. I've been to several other European countries, America and China/Japan and none of them match what I saw in Frankfurt. It must be somehow related to the number and quality of German cars.