At least the wall will protect me: Nuremberg, Germany.

Well, my last days in Munich were fun, I got to be slightly lazy in familiar atmosphere, just kind of loafed around town, had some amazing bean stew, and took care of maintenance tasks. One of these tasks was laundry, which on its own is a very dull subject, but as with all things Kyle, nothing is as it seems on the surface right? Right... So there I am, in the laundry room, waiting... waiting.....waiting.... well you get the idea. These bloody machines took 90 minutes each, so I was in this basement room for a long time. The service is free however, so it was worth my time to wait, which I'm glad I did. I met some very interesting people down there. Levi, and Bohnz were the major names that night, as I spent a good large portion of that evening engaged in a massive ping-pong tournament with them. I got dominated, but it did bring back good memories of ping-pong in Alan's basement, ah good times. The rally was cool, but so was the huge bowl of free food that was brought down for people like me to devour with our mighty jaws. There was this large bowl of boiled potatoes, with bacon and onion seasoning... drooooool. I was the only one down there for most of the time, so I had a LOT of potatoes. When I was full, I forced myself to eat some more "for the road" as free food is hard to come by. The sleep that night was fantastic, with dancing spuds and some crazy gold eagle, which reminded me of the glockenspiel in St. Mary's square.

Wednesday morning I took a train to Nuremberg. The problem with this train was its departure time was around 11:00am, and it seems that trains for that time period take the scenic route. So a 55 minute ride (if I departed at 7:00am) took just over 140 minutes. Upon arrival in Nuremberg, it was still quite early in the day, but it was overcast and light rain. I located the nearest map and locked down the hostel I found nights previous. Excellent people, but I'm within visual range of the red-light district, which is kind of.... interesting. luckily for me however, there is this GIGANTIC wall 6-7m from the front door of my hostel. This wall is a medieval stone defensive structure built hundreds of years ago to protect the city. Most of this wall is still intact, though much of it was reconstructed after the war (Nuremberg was completely leveled in wwII).

Now for a story of fate. I remember first leaving for Europe that one of my regrets would be missing the James Blunt concert. Interesting that on my way to the hostel, that I would see an add for a show, in Nuremberg, TONIGHT, and in four hours. I decided it was fate, and decided to go to the show. After some quick research online, I quickly had my wind taken from my sails, as the show was sold out. Time was getting low, but I was determined to see the show. I hoofed it all the way to the arena, in the dark of night (it gets dark early), in rain, and wind, uphill etc... Once I determined that I was in fact on the right path (lots of winding roads in this city), I eventually made it to my destination. Keep in mind I was 92% sure that I would not gain entry to this show, but I was determined to see the it, no matter the cost.

Here were my amazingly cunning plans:
1)Wait for someone to leave through the exit doors, then sneak in before the door closes.
2)Make up some feeble cover story that I lost/never received my ticket, and hope they let me in rather than check my story (hey I'm just some silly north-american right?).
3)Distract the security with a smoke bomb, then use a grappling-hook to gain access to the roof hatch.
4)Enter from a back door, and pretend to be James Blunt's tardy pyrotechnic assistant supervisor.
5)Buy a ticket from a scalper.

After about 45 minutes of SERIOUS contemplation between battle plans, I made my way down to the shadows to find some scalper, hiding in a corner with only a single lit cigarette, lightly illuminating his face. I did find someone, but it was not this shadowy figure. It was some German fellow, in his late 50s, very friendly, selling his ticket right in the face of some 10-12 security guards. I talked to him and bought the ticket at cost, after first affirming the validity of said ticket. Minutes later I was in my seat for a great show, which I recommend for anyone who was interested in the show he'll be giving in Saskatoon. I will say that at around the 3rd or 4th song, I was getting worried as it seemed James Blunt was losing his voice. He couldn't project those extremely loud, high pitched vocals for length. At the 6th song or so, he exploded with great energy and the whole concert took off like a rocket, and the encore was spectacular. The night as a whole was certainly one of the most interesting I've ever experienced, and so awesome.

Today (after sleeping in), I bought a museum day pass and visited a couple of attractions around town, and walked some of the streets. I'm not usually a fan of modern art, but I went to the Nuremberg Museum of Art, where they had two levels of some stuff that seriously impressed me. I still had a good laugh at the crap such as "pile of typewriters in a corner" and the ever classic "large canvas of single colour". If all it takes to be considered an artist, is to shove a bunch of old crap into a corner, than consider me a full blown artist! Most of the showpieces were quite interesting to look at, with excellent use of composition, contrast, texture, and visual trickery. My only problem was that everything was in German, so I couldn't quite get a grasp on any of the artist comments, but in a way, that may have made it more interesting and mysterious for me.


I'll be in Nuremberg for two more nights, and then I'll be off to Prague, which was not on my initial list of destinations leaving Canada (as it's not on my EU rail pass). For 45EU however; I can get there, and I think based on the relative cheap cost of living, I'm going to stick around for 7-12 days and make real use of my time and money there. Not to mention I hear it's a major center for Architecture, so I'm there.

-Kyle interpretation: a blue field of grain story, in space.