Kazan — summer 2010

My plane was to depart Dulles at 10:00 last night. At 10:10 the pilot announced that a thunderstorm was passing by, and that ATC required them to sit 30 minutes till the storm passed over and eastward. We of course we're to fly out eastward. I was skeptical about the 30 minutes. When the storm hit, it was worthy of an Arizona August monsoon. The lightning was marvelous and the plane swayed back and forth as if some giantess were rocking us to sleep while singing a thunderous lullaby. Finally two hours later we took off.

My companion on the left was a New Yorker descended of Indian parents. She had married a German man, and they spoke to the kids in both languages. Needless to say, she was holding her 22 month old son in her lap, which would be hell for some bachelors, but I've always loved kids, and this one was certainly calmer than my nephew had been at that age. They finally served us dinner at 1:30 a.m. Frankfurt time. Bennet, the hyperactive little boy, had succumbed to Morpheus around 11:00 p.m., and his mother held him in her lap for the next eight hours, never getting up to use the restroom or eat. I was struck by how easy my life is in comparison with parents with young children. In the morning Bennet awoke, and I had the pleasure of using the airplane magazines to play the "Where is?" game, pointing at pictures and asking things like «Wo ist das Fraulein?» «Wo sind die Uhre?» «Wo ist das Ring?» And the kid semi-cooperated. I was pleased. We arrived at 2:00 p.m. Our approach had its bumpy moments. Bennet's sister Chelsea barfed, and just when we thought we were out of the danger zone and safely on the ground, Bennet did the same. Fortunately I had a blanket handy for quick clean up.

The Frankfurt airport is enormous. After I had obtained a boarding card and confirmed that all was well with my luggage, I took the subway train into Frankfurt am Main, aiming at the Hauptwache. Mind you, I haven't used German for sixteen years, so I can't say much these days outside of «Haben Sie etwas zu erklären?» "Do you have something to declare?" Not a particularly helpful phrase for finding your away around. The machine that I bought my subway pass from was all in German, and there were so many destination options within Frankfurt that I had to ask help four times before I found a potentially reliable answer. And even then I only partially understood what train to get on, forgetting completely that sometimes a train only runs part of a line, which means on the first attempt I only got to the main train station. By then I was starting to understand the difference between the city maps and the subway diagrams. I got to the Hauptwache plaza.

Glory! The weather was perfect tourist weather, slightly overcast and about 75 degrees. This part of Frankfurt has quite a few pedestrian streets, several of which had farmers' markets going on. Even in the subways there were fruit and vegetable stands, all of which sold these beautiful cups of freshly cut fruit, that struck me as a much more sensible snack than anything I myself have ever seen in an American subway. Each of the produce stands also sold the German's favorite vegetable, white asparagus. In some of the stands the white asparagus was freakishly thick, remining me of nothing so much as albino marital aids.

They had something called a "Fressgass Fest" going on, which meant there was a plethora of food stands everywhere along with live music. I wandered the streets, enjoying the occasional neo-classical building or medieval remnant that appeared in the midst of more modern construction. Per stereotype there were sausages everywhere, and to my surprise one of the ubiquitous ones was Currywurst, a sausage with Indian seasonings. Very tasty. The Germans are particularly noted for their love of beer, but today there was a drink everywhere with strawberries floating in it. I inquired. It's a mix of strawberries, strawberry syrup, and white wine (Proseco?). And let me tell you, they weren't using pre-processed strawberries. I watched a woman cut the strawberries fresh herself.

After a couple hours of wondering I went back to the airport. Wouldn't due to miss the flight, after all.

Tomorrow: Kazan!