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Urine soaked subways and it’s not San Francisco?

Nope. Running neck and neck with San Francisco for the Shittiest Subways in the World award… enter London.


We spent Easter weekend there, and experienced possibly the best and the worst a city can offer. Hotels under renovation, a decimated public transport system, bobbies, palaces and pre made sandwiches. Tune in soon for our review of warm beer, dessicated sausages that could have been in the oven since the Summer in Love and an airline that believes that the best way to show their commitment to service is to tell someone to screw themselves.

All this and more in the slightly more frequently updated Scowl, Nu?

Posted in Travel.

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By Avery – April 28, 2003

Pining for the Fjords? City Review: Oslo

City Review – Oslo Norway


Well, faithful readers, as part of my new position, I am getting the opportunity to travel
around Europe to support my customer base. This week, it was a quick 20 hour trip to Oslo, Norway.


What can I say about Norway? 8 Euros for a .4 liter beer (in München, it's 2.60 Euros for a half liter&#41. Lots of salmon. Oh, and that smoked fish that looked like kippered salmon? Eel.
Complete with a spinal column and all. Five glasses of milk, a couple of eggs (some hard boiled, some scrambled&#41 and salmon. And the eel. And a baked potato. And three beers that probably cost me close to 24 Euros.


On the plus side, everything looks like a sauna. No shit here, folks. Lots of cedar everywhere. The Oslo Flughavn is full of it. The offices are full of it. When it's warm, it smells just like,
well, a sauna. Or a cedar chest. Or an old guy that took a sauna and then put on a sweater that was sitting in a cedar chest. You get the idea.


Nice place. When I make my millions, I will certainly take a vacation there just to explore
one of the few places where you can ski in the morning and sail in the afternoon. Until then, I'll go to a sauna, drink a beer and tip 100 percent and listen to Monty Python's Dead
Parrot sketch.


Norwegian Blue? Beautiful Plumage…

Posted in Travel.

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By Avery – April 28, 2003

The hills are alive…

If you believed the ads you occasionally see on the Fernsehen (TV&#41, you might be led to think that the Walden (forests&#41 in Deutschland are full with elves making little Gummi Bären.

Well folks, you're in for a surprise. I've checked around, no Gummis are to be found in the Schwartzwald (Black Forest&#41. What there is, however is even more magical. The hills (or to be more precise, the forests and swamps&#41 are alive… with Bärlauch.

Bärlauch is an leafy green vegetable indigenous to Europe and parts of Asia. It just does not grow in North America. Bärlauch, which loosely translates to 'bear leeks' are the food that the bears supposedly graze upon when waking up from hibernation. It's a relative of both the onion as well as the water lily… so it grows these beautiful spear shaped leaves that are extremely tender and have a light onion flavor without any of the sharpness found in a leek or green onion. It's perfect for soups and sauces (like the Bärlauch and cream sauce for the pasta I made tonight&#41 and is only available for a few months each year.

That's the thing about Germany. You can't get every type of Obst (vegetable&#41 every day. At the vegetable shop in my building, you can usually find a couple types of lettuce, some peppers, mushrooms and a whole host of other vegetables, fruits and tubers. But you could go in one day and see three types of hot peppers, and the next day, none. The people here expect that if the shop owner can't find a good batch of a certain produce, they don't settle for second best, they just don't have it. This makes planning out meals difficult, but on the occasions when you can find fresh garlic that doesn't need to be peeled because it is so tender… or when you see that magical bunch of Bärlauch sitting among the salad greens, it's all worth it.

Tschüss,

Avery

Posted in Observations.

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By Avery – April 25, 2003

The hills are alive…

If you believed the ads you occasionally see on the Fernsehen (TV&#41, you might
be led to think that the Walden (forests&#41 in Deutschland are full with elves making little Gummi Bären.


Well folks, you're in for a surprise. I've checked around, no Gummis are to be found in the
Schwartzwald (Black Forest&#41. What there is, however is even more magical. The hills (or
to be more precise, the forests and swamps&#41 are alive… with Bärlauch.


Bärlauch is an leafy green vegetable indigenous to Europe and parts of Asia. It just does not grow
in North America. Bärlauch, which loosely translates to 'bear leeks' are the food that the bears
supposedly graze upon when waking up from hibernation. It's a relative of both the onion as well as
the water lily… so it grows these beautiful spear shaped leaves that are extremely tender and have a light onion flavor without any of the sharpness found in a leek or green onion. It's
perfect for soups and sauces (like the Bärlauch and cream sauce for the pasta I made tonight&#41
and is only available for a few months each year.


That's the thing about Germany. You can't get every type of Obst (vegetable&#41 every day. At the vegetable shop in my building, you can usually find a couple types of lettuce, some peppers, mushrooms
and a whole host of other vegetables, fruits and tubers. But you could go in one day and see three types of hot peppers, and the next day, none. The people here expect that if the shop owner
can't find a good batch of a certain produce, they don't settle for second best, they just don't have it.
This makes planning out meals difficult, but on the occasions when you can find fresh garlic that doesn't need to be peeled because it is so tender… or when you see that magical bunch of Bärlauch sitting among the salad greens, it's all worth it.


Tschüss,


Avery

Posted in Munich Life.

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By Avery – April 25, 2003

Since when…

Since when did disagreeing with the government suddenly make one “un-American”?

We woke up this morning and checked out CNN – and Janet noticed an article about a TSA (Transportation Safety Authority) baggage checker saw a “No War in Iraq” sign in a passenger’s bag and wrote a note stating that they “didn’t appreciate” the person’s un-American attitude.

It’s sad how people forget about the cornerstone of America – the Constitution – and the rights it provides… most specifically the freedom to assemble and the freedom of speech. In fact, the most American thing any individual can do is to question the government, come up with their own decisions and be vocal if they feel that their government is doing something that doesn’t represent their values or beliefs.

Call me crazy, but sometimes I think the problem with America is all of the so-called “Americans” who think the only way to be patriotic is to fall in line behind the President and follow him blindly like sheep without question or thought to whether his direction is legally or morally right.

Baaaa… Baaaa… Baaaa…

Posted in Quick Thoughts.

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By Avery – March 16, 2003

Don’t believe what you read…

Contrary to popular belief, Germany is not Anti-American.

Open up most major American newspapers or turn on CNN and you’ll probably be barraged with stories of how Europeans, most specifically Germans and the French are making a national pastime of bashing America.

Well, I can’t speak for my neighbors to the West, but I can tell you first hand about the Anti-American sentiment that is running rampant here in Deutschland.

Specifically, it’s bullshit. Complete, unadulterated bullshit.

Sure, there the majority of people here in Germany believe that based on the UN findings, a war in Iraq is completely unwarranted at this time. It is also true that a good number of the Germans I have talked to are at the least severely confised by the US Government’s position and at most are in strong disagreement with its destabilizing position. But Anti-American?

To me, for a nation to be Anti-American, you’re talking about North Vietnam during the war – where Americans are singled out, arrested for no reason and killed on the spot. Well, I can tell you that I walk the streets of München with no fear of being arrested and tried for my country’s actions. In fact, the worst thing I have to worry about on the streets is someone asking me for directions in German and not being able to help them out.

Germany is not Anti-American. In fact, Germany tends to have very kind feelings towards America and its people. What it doesn’t have a soft spot for is George W. Bush, who the general consensus of people I have talked to feel is a dangerous, unstable war-mongerer. But again, they’re just stating their opinion in a rational, non-voilent discourse… and since when did that become Anti-American?

Posted in Scowls.

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By Avery – March 16, 2003