Leave me alone

People are weird. It's a fact.
My Grandma used to say the following: " All the world's queer except thee and me, and even thee's a little queer."
See? She was old, she knew things.
As a traveller, this saying holds true. Constantly seeing new things, countries and cultures means coming into contact with the foreigners who live there (duh). But also the tourists who, like you, are flocking to, let's say Dubrovnik, to see some church which is 1500 years old. Or to Belgrade, to see the grave of the Marshall Tito (or all his presents, they were massively cool).
Anyway.
As a foreign western woman, travelling mostly by myself, I've copped some strange blicks from some even stranger looking folk throughout my trip.
Many of these, such as the "What on earth are YOU doing?" look (popular on the underground with a middle-aged or older crowd) come down to breaking some kind of unspoken cultural rule. Such as blowing ones nose on the subway in Japan, a bit strange given that it's perfectly acceptable to vomit in the street there. Ditto having a quick wee.
When i visited the golden temple (it's big, it's gold and there's a lake around it. enough said.) in Kyoto, a group of country kids on a class trip ran up to me an asked me to be in their photos. Strange. They'd never met a Gaijin before. Odd.
They were nice, except their teachers kept pointing at me.
Dirty old men.
There are unspoken rules on the underground in Germany too. Everyone pushes past each other as they're trying to get on and off the train, but you're not allowed to ask someone to move over. People in Germany appear to have no shame in looking at someone, I kept meaning to stare them down. Of course it doesn't help that I occasionally wear ridiculous clothes (NOT the jumpsuit yet, but I will!), such as stripes and other patterns.
Many Germans are really nice though, in ways that are often surprising. Offers of help, travel advice and food recommendations have abounded. Sometimes it's ok to be a woman travelling by yourself.
Sometimes it's not.
Last week, as I ventured out East to the Berlin-Museum Karshorst (to the Russian-founded "Museum of Capitulation"), I got stalked. Some strange German guy, (who may or maynot have spent tiem in jail) decided to follow/give me a tour of the museum. It was founded by the Russians, to teach East Germans about the crimes of Nazism. Against the Socialist Motherland, but that's another story. There was a place for the Holocaust and other persecutions, but as usual with Soviet/former Soviet histories of the war, the focus is on the suffering and subsequent victory of Socialism over facism.
This guy pointed out all manner of random shite whilst following me over 16 rooms, 2 floors and three exhibitions. He laughed at my BVG suggestions, aghast that an Australian could know the Berlin train system better than him, and was disappointed that I did not share his fondness for Soviet tanks.
I eventually ditched him at the train station,but not before a strange bus ride and an invitation to "stand outside the Foo Fighters concert to soak up the vibes" followed by a ride home on the train together.
Needless to say, I jumped on my city-bound train, jumped right to track 19 of Disc 2 of the 2008 Eurovision cd and vowed never to visit a military museum without my own Soviet tank again.
Strange people, it seems, are everywhere.

You got Style 1#

Just a heads up chickens that there'll be some fashion posts soon. Critical they may be, but German fashion is too hilarious not to write about.
Ditto Balkan style, which obviously takes it cue from nouveau-Russian riche.
Goodnight.

World in Motion (Euro 2008)

I like football (soccer). I've always been partial to some English Premier League (EPL), ever since my father sat my brother and I down in front of his taped copy of the 1998 FA Cup final and told us with almost religious reverence of the importance of Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars in helping the Gu
Though he neglects to wear his suit jacket most of the time: the first time I saw it on was after the 1-2 loss to Croatia (no mis-counted yellow cards this time, though Bastian Schweinsteiger (yes it is a ridiculous name) was sent off for a dodgy, but-not-that-dodgy challenge), though I think it was just to hide the shame of visible sweatpatches on international telelvision.
I would have covered up.

In fact, most of the coaches are pretty well dressed. All of them wear suits (or at least shirt and pants), except the Spanish, Portugese (who looks like a squashed version of Gene Hackman-that's what someone told me and I find it potentially amusing enough to share it with you) and the German coach of the Greek team Otto Rehhagel, who spends more time on the rug on his head than on picking something nice to wear.

The matches are pretty good too. The Dutch are playing VERY well, and have won their group. The Stimmung in Germany is that the team (their time) can go all the way, and it's really interesting to see how EVERYONE is transfixed. The streets, public transport and shops are all empty, even when Germany isn't playing. You can even buy red-black-gold leis, in addition to all the usual "official" pallaver. The official chef's cookbook is alright, but not as good as that of Matthew Hayden or Glen McGrath.

There is a lot of red-black-gold around the traps at the moment, sport is one of the (very) few means which Germans can express their sense of national pride without evoking the past. Balconies and buildings (residential, not official) are covered in the national flag (though there are lots of Turkish flags as well, and a good assortment of Croatian, Polish and Russian ones too), everyone is talking about it, and all (a bit of an exaggeration) the men are wearing the national kit.
Is anyone excited about it at home: are some of you staying/getting up to watch the matches?

There is even a musical sub-genre used during these large sporting events. Each country has their own national song for the tournament. I think I've heard the German one, by Markus Stanzi. It's not very good. The press don't think so either, as they prefer to play 'Football's coming home,' which is amusing given that 1) it's an English song, written to reflect their claim to 'own' the origins of the game and 2) even if the Germans wanted to send football 'home,' they couldn't, 'cos England didn't even make the final.
They also play New Order's World in Motion (the English song for the 1990 World Cup) and the Austrian song 'Fieber'(not to be confused with the Peggy Lee song of the same name) a bit, though there's lots of chanting. And
I think that EURO2008 is better off without England in it. For one, Cristiano Ronaldo is officially the most preened person in the stadium, an unthinkable feat in the presence of the English WAGS. And David Beckham.
Go Sweden and Germany: let's hope your failures in Belgrade bring success in Wien!
I hope Sweden are listening to Hero, I think it's very motivational.
Tally Ho.