The Land of Poets, Thinkers and Affordable Wine..

(wanna go for some wine? Tastes like the price: impressively cheap)

NOTHING CHANGED…

…but my own attitude. Weird, I am back in my home village Geyer after 8 long months. Remembering my last return from a long trip (it was my 8 month study period in New Zealand then), it felt vastly different this time. After my return from Middle Earth in early 2004, I felt compelled to embrace my home village and Dresden in a special way…absorbing the long-missed smells and view as best as I can. This time, it is as if I have been away for a few weeks only. I expecting this ‘old friend’...the slight melancholy or ‘weltschmerz’ (‘Hach, ist das wieder schön hier…’), when you see places you love again after a long while. Nothing. Could be that this feeling wears off after the first time.

Don’t get me wrong…it’s wonderful to be back, see family (esp. my almost 4 year old sister) and to get proof that in some regions of this planet, the world seems to spin a lot slower and things are steady and reliable. ‘Home is where you understand and can interpret everything’. Quite true.

(here we are this time…somewhat remote to S’pore, Malaysia and Thailand…but beautiful nonetheless)

WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE???

Like two years ago, I went around with my camera to take some pics…This is one thing that you only do when you begin to start seeing your home place through the eyes of a common tourist. And to be honest, there are not many here…despite the fact that so much structural help money has been pumped into this region since the reunification of Germany in 1990. Many villages have wonderful town centres, hiking trails have been repaired and monuments restored.

(Klinger Max and his horse..one thing you don’t see very often. He’s an institution and living, local monument)

However, an interested guy roaming around the outskirts of Geyer, taking photos of houses, views and signs seems to arouse some suspicion. I was asked twice by passing peasants what I was doing (not in a very unfriendly way though). Must be fishy and somewhat dubious..and beyond the normal understanding that someone could waste his time photographing a very normal village.

PRICE HAMMER!

One remarkable development can be seen during the last decade in Germany: the uncompromisingly positive attitude to ever-cheaper prices. I guess all this manifested itself years ago when a big electronics chain came up with the famous slogan ‘Geiz ist geil’ (Stinginess is exciting). Since Germans are famous for taking orders, we collectively took this as our main objective, abandoning any sense for quality for the mere sake of price. As you can see on the first wine picture, normal supermarkets (esp. in the east of Germany..where purchasing power is at a record low due to economic depression and high unemployment of more than 20%) will offer you a fantastic variety of finest wines for ONLY 1,99€. Many Germans seem to think that they buy a good wine when they pick a 4,99€ bottle once in a while.

('kompromisslos billig' = relentlessly cheap; my granny used to say ‘Buy cheap, buy twice’...I think this is still true)

This is nonsense. Germany is a No-man’s-land in Europe regarding quality wines in supermarkets. Any producer only gives us the cheapest and therefore a bit different 'quality' wine; anything higher than 6 Euro is considered high quality (this is the starting price level for the cheapest table wine in most other countries from my point of view...). It is a bit of a shame, but has nothing do with the fact that Germany itself is producer of tasty quality wine, e.g. in the Rhineland Palatinate.

Moreover, many consumers start being so-called hybrid consumers…those who buy big cars, expensive mobile phones and ipods, but tend to go to Aldi, Lidl & Co. to buy the cheapest possible food (give a heck on the conditions they were produced). There is a reason for the fact that Germany has by far the cheapest foodstuff in Europe…so low in price that even people from the Czech Republic (who are really not blessed with high wages) cross the border to do their groceries in a German supermarket…

I stop whining here (also typical German ;-) I really feel like I’m finally back mentally)

Maik

(a field of dandelion flowers..very typical in the German countryside…will turn into a ‘blow-flower’ a few weeks later, because the whole head will consist of an array of little parachute-like seeds that can be blown into the wind..preferably by children of ANY age :-))