germany

i have been kicking around in germany for a couple of weeks. the party atmosphere of the first week dissipated quickly when germany lost to spain in the final. i was actually a little bit disappointed after visiting munich and berlin - sprawling metropolises with lots of different suburbs and galleries and gardens and palaces to explore, but it just feels like ive seen it all before. instead, i appreciated dresden and nuremberg a lot more. we stayed at a cute hostel on a artsy street in dresden, that managed to be bustling and laidback at the same time. dresden old town was compact and filled with grand old buildings with blackened walls reminding everyone of the allied firebombing of 1945, and the rustkammer there had the best collection of arms and armour that ive come across (better than the kremlin and the met in new york. nuremberg was more romanesque than gothic, which was a nice change, and the dokumentation centrum set in the old nazi rally grounds was excellent. frankfurt and hamburg were also nice towns to spend a few days in, guzzling down excellent beers by the water, watching the world float by on the waves.

racism: when people treat you differently because of something you have no choice about, something you cant change, it makes you feel very vulnerable. the rest of the day changes for you, all of a sudden you are on the look out. every comment, every glance, seems to be suspicious or even hostile. its a very unpleasant state of being. when the trigger event stem from children, its so much more hurtful in its innocent cruelty. i suppose lots of countries have mostly homogeneous populations, if you look chinese or japanese, they assume you are. even when i assure them im from australia, they look incredulous and fall back on 'but you dont look australian'. no, i dont look like paul hogan, but then again, most australians dont. but they wouldnt know anything about that. and its not just germans that are guilty of racial stereotyping or tactless behaviour towards foreigners. lots of other people ive met on my travels are also just as clueless.