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Wine week in Wiesbaden… one last hurrah, and two rip offs!

Bill and I were trying to decide what we wanted to do today… when we were younger and less cranky, we might have decided to go to a place further afield, like Bad Homberg, or maybe Rüdesheim, which was having a wine fest this weekend. I’ve actually been wanting to go back to Rüdesheim myself, because I want to ride the Seilbahn. I’ve never done it before, and now is a good time to try it, before the weather turns to shit, as it usually does in September. But we didn’t feel like risking a Stau, and weren’t wanting to go far, so we decided to go back to the Wiesbaden Wine Fest, which ends tonight.

Overall, we had a good time. I drank lots of wine, and teased Bill, who didn’t drink nearly as much, since he had to drive. We ate good food and enjoyed the agreeable temperatures, which aren’t as bad as they have been lately, even if my house is still hot. We need rain very badly. But I know it’s coming, because the seasons are going to change soon. And, in my experience, they will change quickly.

We sat in a different part of the festival this time, and tried wines from three different Weinguts. We had different food, and I enjoyed a different public toilet. Sadly, Bill and I BOTH got ripped off.

It started with Bill. As it was mid afternoon, we required some food. He went off and came back with a fruit/cheese platter that was plenty of food, but not enough of what I wanted to eat. Bill had been talking about Langos, which is a popular Hungarian street food, that consists of fried dough topped with savory treats. Before today, I had never heard of them, but Bill talked them up. Then we saw someone with one that looked really good. So I told Bill I wanted to try one.

He went to the stand, very close to where we were sitting, and ordered me an Italian Langos– fried dough, tomatoes, mozzarella, balsamic vinegar, and paprika spread. It was actually delicious, but the guy who made it, ripped off about 15 euros from Bill by shortchanging him. Bill was pissed about it, but didn’t want to confront the guy. So I dispensed a piece of wisdom, which was “You don’t always need to be driving the karma bus.”

It’s true. When it counts, Bill stands up for his rights. He did sue our ex landlady, after all. This was a minimal loss, and we were having a good time… and that guy is going to be caught eventually. Last night, we booked five nights at the very nice Bareiss Hotel in the Black Forest, a place that guy will probably never get to experience. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. I empathize with Bill being pissed, though. I just don’t think it needs to ruin the day, especially if it’s not enough of a big deal to say something about it.

Then I got up to pee. I paid the 80 cents with a two euro coin… I got change. Guess what? The “one euro” coin I got, came from Argentina. Yep… I got ripped off, too. I guess he saw me coming. Oh well. I took the coin and put it in my special foreign coin purse, which I bought in Istanbul, Turkey in 1996. It has coins from all over the world, as well as US coins that date back to 1880. No, a coin from Argentina doesn’t have monetary value in Germany, but having it provides me with a good story, which, to some people, is probably worth more than a euro. And I’ve never been to Argentina, so now I have a reason to go there, right? To spend my almost worthless two pesos, exchanged for a euro. The two peso coin is currently worth about .01 euro cent.

Anyway, we still had a good afternoon. This time, we had wines from three different wineries in the Rheingau. When we left, a lovely lesbian couple had taken over the table. They were doing what Bill and I always do when we buy wines to taste– trading the glasses. What a love language. The wine week ends tonight, so next weekend, I hope to have different photos. But for now, here’s what I have…

I made gross jokes…
to get these reactions.
We arrived when it was quiet.
Same water bearing young guy was there as last week, filling glasses for the electric company.
Grape juice for Bill.
And snacks with an erection.
Langos. Good, except for the cold cheese and shortchange.
Oops. I wanted Riesling.
Flowers on the statue.
First time I noticed the trash cans and their signs.
My Turkish foreign change purse.
Sad. This is worth .01 Euro.
I bet that guy did that on purpose. But karma will catch up to him. I’m not worried. The story is worth more, anyway.

All in all, it was a nice afternoon, in spite of being ripped off. We learned new things. And, in the grand scheme of things, being ripped off twice isn’t a big deal. Because eventually, those guys will likely get busted, and we don’t miss the money, anyway. Next month, I will be writing about a legendary Black Forest hotel, after I get dental care. If you ask me, we are pretty blessed… as I write this, Elton John’s “Blessed” is even playing.

But I understand why Bill was pissed. No one likes to be a chump. At least he wasn’t alone today. 😉

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anecdotes

Blast from the past…

My body language says it all…

 

Yesterday was Throwback Thursday on Facebook.  One of my friends wanted to see a photo of me when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer.  A lot of my photos from that time period are in storage in Texas.  However, I do have some pictures from a trip I took in June and July 1996.  My friend Elaine and I went by bus from Yerevan, Armenia to Turkey and Bulgaria.  Our first stop on our trip was in Istanbul.  Even though Armenia borders Turkey, we couldn’t go there directly because Armenia and Turkey had no diplomatic relations.  We had to access Turkey via Georgia, which was in itself its own adventure.

Northeastern Turkey is one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen in my lifetime.  It seriously looks like a fairyland.  The above photo was taken not long after an arduous ordeal at the Georgia/Turkey border, just a couple of days after my 24th birthday.  We were stuck at the border for most of the day and had spent a lot of time drinking vodka and waiting for the customs people and border guards to let us through.  We’d been sitting in a big field near the border that was filled with wildflowers… and little piles of human excrement.  Unfortunately, there were no bathrooms at the border, so many people had just copped a squat behind bushes.

Maybe an hour or two after the border crossing, we stopped for watermelon and more vodka.  At this point in the trip, we had been traveling for maybe 24 hours.  I was tired because I can’t sleep on buses… or at least I couldn’t in those days.  It took another two days to get to Istanbul.

Our bus from Yerevan to Istanbul.  About half of the seats were taken out to accommodate goods.  This bus went from Yerevan to Istanbul every week and was mostly used by people buying stuff in Turkey to sell in Armenia.  It was mostly empty on the way to Turkey, but was probably loaded to the gills on the way back.

The man in the first photo was an obnoxious Armenian guy who would not leave me alone.  He kept grabbing me and talking to me.  At one point, he commented on how fat I am.  When this picture was taken, he was trying to bond with me.  Just imagine… we’d been on a hot bus for more than a day.  He hadn’t bathed, brushed his teeth, or used deodorant in some time (if ever).  He was sweaty and reeking of cigarettes and vodka.  In the photo, I’m cringing, yet still somehow able to smile.

Another shot of our watermelon break.  Notice how the guys are squatting.  I always called that the “Armenian squat”.  You’d see men squatting like that all over the place.  I’m sure people around the world squat like that, but I never noticed it as much as when I lived in Armenia.  These folks were pretty nice to Elaine and me.  We were the only Americans on the bus, so we were invited to the party.

Back when I was there, Armenians loved having their picture taken.  When the guy in the photo saw me pull out my 35 millimeter camera with actual film in it, he insisted on striking a pose with me.  I don’t remember the guy’s name or even if he told me what it was, but he was just one in a string of males on that journey who offered unwanted attention to Elaine and me.  The funny thing is, we were both looking a bit scruffy during that trip.

Those were the days when I earned $5 a day as a Peace Corps Volunteer, so there was no money for anything other than the necessary and the practical.  Moreover, Elaine actually loaned me $500 so I could go with her to Turkey and Bulgaria.  After a year spent in 90s era Armenia, Turkey was like a modern wonderland.  Aside from the sexual harassment, we had a fabulous time.

You might notice the raw spots on my legs.  I think the wound on my left leg was caused by a shaving mishap.  I was trying to shave in the dark (had no electricity in my apartment) and I accidentally skinned my shin.  Both of my legs were also horribly chafed because a couple of days before we took off for Turkey, we attended a fundraiser for hungry horses at the Yerevan Hippodrome.  The organizers let us ride some of the horses.  I made the mistake of wearing shorts (which I NEVER did when I rode horses all the time).  While in the saddle, I rubbed some of the flesh off my legs.  Despite the injuries, that remains a great memory for me, because it was the first time I’d been on a horse since 1990 and I found I could still ride with relative ease.

I have wonderful memories of cantering effortlessly around the ring on a stallion, the very first one I ever got to ride in my lifetime.  That experience was well worth getting chafed legs.  I remember the guy asking me twice if I knew how to ride.  I have never been obviously athletic.  I promised him that I did know how to ride a horse, so he let me go.  People were surprised by my skills; most of them didn’t know I practically grew up in a barn.  Sadly, since that day, I have not been riding.  I have also not done any other three day bus trips on no frills transportation.  I can’t say that is my favorite way to travel, but it was definitely memorable and special.  I’m glad I had the opportunity.  I’d love to go back to Turkey now that I’m married.  😉

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