Hierophany

Heading to Munich. This morning Em wakes me up at seven. I get up & take pack into shower w/ me. Unload what I need. See that there’s no shower curtain & set pack aside. Take my shower. Brush teeth. Em is dressed when I get out of shower (she showered last night). Get everything ready, all misc. items including towel & shoes back into pack. Fully dressed. Take only day packs to breakfast. Many youth also up. Long line. Em just got coffee & sat down. Neither of us was going to get anything we decided. We could eat at the—I said airport—train station. A Mitzy sighting at breakfast but no contact. Went back to room after our cups of coffee. The roomies had gotten up; before, while I showered, we dressed & got ready, they had remained in bed. We had been as quiet as possible. Get back & they are up & dressed, so as soon as we left they must have gone into action mode. Freshening up, getting changed & ready. They left the room before we did. Em & I went & checked out. I got my passport.

We walked down toward the road where we could catch our bus. Em was fishing in her Buddha coin purse for 1.80€. I was thinking about how I had gathered my fare this morning, the exact amount; it was now sitting by its lonesome in my left jeans pocket. John, I don’t think I have one-eighty. I checked my other pockets. Came up with .15€, which gave her 1.55€.

That’s all I’ve got, Em, I don’t know what to tell you. I asked you if you needed any change and you didn’t say anything. Well, I don’t need any change! She went back to the check-out counter and got 2 2€ and 1 1€. So we were in business. [9:47 am] (Train has stopped; Man said something over speaker, people don’t look too upset; Gewërbeflacher; A lumberyard; Cute girl eating a banana.)

On the road, dusty, green, we pass a riff-raff group of seven or so and one looks me up & down a bit derisively, I thought. At breakfast the guy who said “Hallo!” out of the 2nd floor window yesterday was looking at me with a loser-ish Cheshire cat grin and, sitting at the bus stop, I was feeling very American and thinking it was odd that coming here—specifically Germany, & even Heidelberg, has made me more proud of my heritage than I’ve been in at least a few years. Yes, I do come from America, whatever that means, and I’m goddam proud of it, motherfuckers. Eyefuck me again and see what happens. Ah—I don’t really know what to feel but I hate these little fucking grins I get from these complacent shits here & there like this guy on the train whose seat is facing mine. No use venting at length. [9:51 am] (Train moving.)

As Em went back to get change, the bus we wanted, #33 passed us by (cute girl is painting her nails; in her bag is a book: Praxisbuch, NLP. Ah, she has just grabbed it & opened it.) So it was going to be about 20 minutes until the next one came. We sat on the bench at the bus stop. On our right was no view down the road really, because of an advertisement for the world cup (WM). In other words, we couldn’t see Mitzy as she made her way down the road from the hostel to the bus stop. So it was all of a sudden that she was upon us. She acted very casual, which I suppose is fine but if I learned one thing from this it’s that: if you are going to desert, it’s OK; there’s no reason why Mitzy has to be hitched to us just because we struck up a convo w/her; but if you’re going to desert, you should inform, & certainly this has not always been my custom. Hereby, it will be: John, if you are going to desert (dessert?), first you must inform.

Maybe Mitzy’s just Mrs. Cool-toes, but in her shoes

(I’m such a shoe-a-holic. (That was on the bus this morning. She planned to get some Birkenstocks here because they were only 40€.) I bought like three pairs in Spain—now that’s the place for shoes if you wanna buy shoes—and I had to send them back early w/ my aunt cause I wasn’t gonna have any room for them.)

Mitzy asked us something about the castle, like if we got to see it. But I don’t know—what kind of question is that cause of course we got to see it, she was there w/ us. Then we were talking about what we did after the castle. This was Em’s big part, “We went to a pub & got something to eat & drink. Then we walked [into a tunnel, third tunnel today. Evil eye, from snooty guy, up yours too] around some more. Then we went to a café where we got some more to eat & drink.” How about you I said to Mitzy. She looked at cuckoo clocks because, she said, her father was “crazy about them.” But she didn’t buy any even though she saw some she liked. “I’m gonna wait until I get to the Black Forest area.” Freiburg. That’s where she was going today, and depending on how much she got done there, she was maybe going to come to Munich, like us. So Mitzy may be out there somwhere again. [10:17 am]

No bad dreams last night. Frank Sinatra singing a number about how he calls breasts Jamies because of this girl he was singing to, Jamie Bozelle. “I get the Jamie from Jamie Bo-zelle….” And thread two was about how in New York you can get an easy ground-level view of events at (I guess) Madison Square Garden just by walking up to the window & looking in but nobody ever did it. Some guy was talking telling me about it.)

(I should stop wiping my pen on permanent objects cause I looked at the fabric of the seat between my legs & it’s definitely marked up. I been wiping my pen everywhere. And lookin’ at asses. I admit it! Auf der geigens it aussteigen.)

Em & I first checked out the board. Our train would be @ 20 mins. late. We went lookin for something to eat. There were two choices, a small counter & a large counter. I went to large counter and was looking. A lady asked me if she could help me & I hadn’t really decided on anything. Some of the signs for items were obscured so I said “nein” & eventually left that place. (Moving in opposite direction now; well, my seat is facing opposite way. I poke Em with my pen. “I don’t know.” I think we’re OK though.) Em had come over & said I’m gonna check out that place. Em had maybe come from there & thought, too, that it looked better. So we went there & ordered two little pizzas & a still water. The woman there asked us if we wanted it here or to go & we didn’t know what the hell she said. The woman next to us in line translated. We thanked her. The woman helping us looked annoyed after that point—understandably so. We stood at a tall table & ate .

Still facing backwards. “We’re 30 minutes late.” “Pssh. Fine with me.” An old lady loses an argument with her grandson about where to sit. Em sneezes, & sneezes again. Plochingen. A thousand million ecstasies, time fulfills my fantasies, a look from Mephistopheles, and now my eyes slip back with ease.
[10:40 am]

Little kids, who cut the cheese? Wipe pen inside my sweatshirt. Our pizzas were damn good. Supreme & I’ll have gas later from the sausage or whatever it was, but mmm. Em went to get some juice. I drank all the water up & went to look for plastic recycling. I didn’t really find it but dumped it in a thing for packaging that maybe was for plastic. When I got back Emily yelled at me for leaving her bag unattended & I wanted to tell her to go fuck herself. She was ten feet away & she never asked me to watch it. “Really, John, I’m serious. Don’t leave my bag unattended again.”

“Alright,” I said, & went to the shop next door to look for more water & snacks. The woman at the register there now was the woman from the pizza purchase counter so I was a little fretful. I looked @ for a good bit & got two bananas, an Evian .5L, & some tortilla chips. It was 3.60€. Not bad. Danka. Em got something. Then we walked to our platform. No, first, I bought a newspaper, an International Herald Tribune for 2.10€. Read some on platform & ate banana #1. It has articles from NYT, W Post. Interesting. World news. Suicide attack in Israel. Bush visits D-Day memorial. Govt. pre-suspicion but un-acted-upon about attacks? Who the fuck knows. Train was a bit late. When I went to throw banana peel away, I said Em I’m going to go throw this away. Train came & we got on.

Em is clipping her nails again. A word or two about getting to sleep last night. I got back to room & knocked softly twice. No answer. Then I went & moderately kicked wall about where Em’s head would’ve been in her bed. She answered and was like, “Finally, geez!” This made me angry because I would’ve liked to have stayed out much longer. Now she asks me, “Did you talk to anyone last night, or were you just writing?” I just wrote. What were you writing about, you already wrote a lot earlier in the day. Just stuff, the events of the day, reflection. Exasperated sigh.

Woman comes and asks to see our pass. Em cannot find it. I get frustrated. Woman asks us what our end station is, “Your end station is?” but I think she’s still speaking in German so I don’t even hear that it makes sense to me. Munich? Munich, yes. Emily finally finds the pass. I don’t think she (the woman) ever came back to check it.

Anyway, last night. I get back into the room. Emily offered to turn on a light. The two roomies were in bed. I said No, no, no. Went to bathroom. Climbed the mini ladder up to my bunk. Had taken shoes off but lay in bed w/ jeans & thermal still on. No covers yet. (A field of goldenrod, piles of logs, horses.) Was thinking about my foto friend & almost asleep. But then doors banging, I guess the door to the hostel, right at the end of the hall, outside of our room & it was banging open & close about every 15 seconds & I could not sleep & felt like I was wasting my time, I could be reading or something. Took socks off. Took shirt off. Took jeans off. And fell asleep after being in bed for 45 minutes or so. Not bad.
[11:03 am]

Em goes to bathroom & gives me Eurail pass in case woman comes back asking for it. Frisch & fit. Tortilla chips. Tennis courts. A man in a field w/ a hoe. Sleepy, day-dreaming. [11:31 am] Rova to www.greeger-gruppe.de.


[2:15 pm]
WEST END


Hotel West End. In a nice set-up here at the hotel. Dreary, off-on rainy out. Going to get some stuff to eat. Turkish fast food. Then to cash some traveller’s checks: Können sie einen Reisechecke einlösen, bittë? Kurnern zee ighnen righzershehk ighnlurzen, biter.

“Friendly Canadiens” at Reiseburo Euraide booked us the room. City or train? City. Did you know that Thursday is a holiday here? Noooo… Day of Corpus Christi. Roman Catholic holiday so it might be hard to book a room. We asked for 3 nights, Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. And he made a call. Looked like a German Canadien JFK.
[2:24 pm] Leave.


[4:45 pm]
HOFBRAUHAUS


Roughly, the place to go for beer. Paying gagglefuck. Gave waiter 16€ for two 5.93€ beers. So I got pissy. Took a cheesy picture of Em with her big beer. There is some German tabloid here on the table and we’re looking at that a bit. Em is having a cig and the smell of it makes me want to never have a cigarette again. She—We are thinking about an Internet café a bit later. They were supposed to have Ump-a-lumpa music but there isn’t any. Pretzels came by and we passed. That was our chance, we missed it. Well, we’re fuckin broke after the beer debacle. (Besides, the pretzel I got yesterday at the street vendor wasn’t any good.)

The beers are a liter big and have psychoactive effects. Not really. The glasses say HB/München. Maybe the music will start up at fünf. The Hard Rock Café is across the street. I’ve got some gas building up.

Itches rashing fleas
Warlocks sipping teas
Swipe my hands across my knees
And grand ma-ma’s snowy peas

A tanker tipping in Cadiz
Skipper lifts a leg and pees
Free checking count there are no fees
Let’s tear apart those dungarees

Armies storming in humvees
Those funds I say are mine to seize
Plumage flocks from X. Valdez
A dancing prancing Socrates
[5:03 pm]
My mother’s whim I will appease
Seventy-seven hear ye hear ye’s
Peaches lost in this spring’s freeze
And now the eyes slip back with ease

Mimics making mockeries
William Makepeace Thackeray’s
FETAS CHEDDARS SWISSES BRIES
Mustached man decries, decrees

Hold on a second while I sneeze
(Hey, grab a tissue if you please)
A-high we sail the seven seas
In humpty-dumpty’s random sun-breeze

Zipping zapping sniffing bees
His I’s Mine’s & Me’s
A’s & B’s & C’s & D’s
Durings, metas, posts, and pres

Democracies
Meritocracies
Bureaucracies
Aristocracies
Hickory-dickory-dockerees

Let’s laugh at the retardees
Their bus is bound for chimpanzees
B-dee b-dee b-dee b-dees
It’s about time we looked at your praeces
[5:20 pm]
She’s he’s we’s a tease
We can profit from all this debris!
Afresh afresh those budding trees
Cross-checked, referenced indices
Into the future like crash-test dummies

Undo the knots in our tummies
Mind the current’s boundaries
Even now they fly daily sorties
That waffle cone I say’s Ranjee’s

Crispy crunchy spicy Lee’s
Another cig & I’ll begin to wheeze
Arby’s HB’s Sunday aft QB’s
Without a photo jealousies

To do it use some elbow grease

And you’re gonna be so jealous you don’t have one. [5:29 pm] Well, you have to write down that the music started at 5:30. Did you write down that I got a pair of shoes? I think so, why? Just wondering, just curious.


[9:08 pm]
WEST END

Deliver me, God. Deliver me. Em driving me a little fucking nuts. Feel like she just won’t let me be. John, what are you doing? I was f-ing asleep. Ate my tortilla chips. Well, I thought you were asleep for the night. Aren’t you going to write for like five hours in your journal? Are you just going to sit there like that? Ugh. What are you doing? I don’t like that light (by which I write).

This entry posted by J Rand : 06:22