EuroYankee

I read today that clove cigarettes are being outlawed in the United States. They’re viewed as the gateway drug of the smoking world. What’s next? Wine coolers? Mike’s Hard Lemonade?

(photo credit: splifr intermission)

So I just went through a mini Thomas Mann phase (don’t worry, I’m over him now). Read several of his short stories. Watched Buddenbrooks. Well, that’s about as far as the phase got. I can see why people love him so much. He has a real talent for evoking time, place and the difficulties that come with life. But I feel like he needed a good editor. He rambles on a lot about “what it means to be an artist” which brings nothing to the narrative. The narrative action gets all mucked up in ramblings and tangents. Acutally, I feel that way about a lot of books I read.

It could be the last beautiful Sunday in Germany for a long, long time. That’s what everyone was saying. Which means it’s time to get out the hiking boots and head for the nearest national park, which in my case is about 1.5 hours away in the Eifel. It has all the necessary requirements for a beautiful day of hiking: a charming lake with lots of inlets, a cafe at the mid-point, a ghost town and a Nazi cum NATO training area, now a “museum” with the worst Apfelstruedel on earth. I forgot my camera, but other hikers didn’t, so here are a couple of pictures.

photo credit: Claus Moser, leguan001