Magun... ¿qué?

Hoy he estado en una de las pocas ciudades alemanas con pasado romano: Maguncia (o Mainz, como dicen los nativos).

Lo de pasado romano se puede ver desde la misma estación de tren, puesto que al lado de los andenes están los restos de un teatro romano. Esto parece algo muy español (lo de construir algo al lado de un yacimiento arqueológico, porque la estación vino después que el teatro, que conste), pero esta vez sucede en Alemania. Y más allá de esto quedan pocos restos de los tiempos del Imperio.

Maguncia es famosa por su catedral, que realmente es digna de ver, especialmente el claustro. Parece que esta fue una de las pocas que se salvó en la Segunda Guerra Mundial de los "bombardeos de escarmiento" de 1944 y 1945 (Dresde y Francfort, como ejemplo). No es la más espectacular, pero es muy interesante, sobre todo por las tumbas antiguas que tiene, donde se representa a los prohombres de la Edad Media con una cabeza medio calavérica.

En Maguncia desemboca el río Meno (el que pasa por Francfort) en el Rin, y como se puede imaginar fácilmente, eso parece el mar, como se aprecia en la foto.

Por lo demás, es una ciudad donde pasear es muy agradable, donde hay que mencionar su cuidado centro histórico y la recargada en exceso iglesia de los Carmelitas. Añado, para los cunefitos, que es donde Guttemberg imprimió su primer libro, je, je, je. Para una visita de un día, es un sitio muy recomendable.

Algunos comentarios sobre la vida en Alemania

Ya llevo casi un mes por tierras teutonas y voy viendo cosas algo diferentes a la forma de vivir que tenemos en España.

En primer lugar me llama la atención la pasión con que se siguen los partidos de fútbol, como ya he explicado aquí antes. Es que ves a gente con la camiseta de un país que no es el suyo y animando y cantando como locos. No sé si serán simples y llanas ganas de fiesta o si es una pasión algo más extendida. Lo poco que he tratado con alemanes, me dice que entienden más bien poco de fútbol, así que probablemente sea lo primero.
En otro orden de cosas, aquí los ríos son de verdad, hechos y derechos, no como las lenguas de agua que en España, a falta de otra cosa, denominamos ríos. He contado los pasos que doy sobre el río Meno todos los días para ir a trabajar y suponiendo que cada paso mío son 75 centímetros (debe ser algo más), sale que el río tiene 124 metros de ancho. Ale, a ver quién supera eso.

Estamos teniendo ahora algunos días de calor y es increíble cómo la gente sale al campo o al río a disfrutar del sol, lo que me hace pensar que es un bien escaso y valioso en estas tierras. Destacaría la gran cantidad de patinadores en línea que hay, y la gente que se ven en bicicleta y bien vestida. Esto es algo que yo no podría hacer, pues inevitablemente sudo algo cuando voy en bicicleta y luego no es cuestión de ir oliendo a sudor.

También es algo diferente la forma de vivir los domingos aquí, pues este día es que está todo cerrado y paralizado, con una diferencia con el sábado mayor que en España, en mi opinión. Es el día que la gente aprovecha para estar en casa y en familia, mientras que el sábado aún permite algunas otras alternativas de ocio.

A day in Heidelberg

Heidelberg is known as one of the nicest cities in Germany as well as for hosting the oldest German university (back in XIIIth century). As it lays only 90 kilometres away from Frankfurt, I decided to pay it a visit.

First thing I must say is that Heidelberg is incredibly medieval. However, something happened in 1693 (a fire?) which destroyed the whole city but one house: the one on the right. It seems almost an unbelievable story. This house is at the end of the Hauptstrasse, the main street leading to the old town from the modern Bismarckplatz. In front of this house, one finds the cathedral, a huge building in the middle of the Marktplatz, with some shops around it. Before in the Hauptstrasse, the Universtätsplatz and some other amazing palaces have been left behind.

River Neckar goes through Heidelberg, dividing the city in two uneven halves. The Alte Brücke was the only way to cross the river until modern times and it has kept all its charm, although when I visited it, it was being repaired. On the other side, we have the Philosophers Weg, a nice walk after a crazy uphill path, with wonderful views of the city itself.As it can be seen on the picture, over the old town of Heidelberg lies a castle, half destroyed but with very nice gardens and views of the city. There is a funicular going uphill until the second highest hill in this part of Germany, but it was too much for just one day.

On the way back home, at the Frankfurt Train Station, we watched drug dealers selling drugs without hiding themselves at all, just close to the underground station, in an extremely disgusting and sad image. I wonder whether nothing could be said in order to prevent it. This image darkened what had been a very pleasant day in a very nice city.

Second week in Frankfurt

Yeah, finally I have managed to get an Internet connection. It has not been easy and finally I have decided myself for the person who best understood me and who more time devoted to me. O2 in Zeil and Deutsche Telekom near Rossmarkt were not interested at all in having me as a customer and their employees could not go beyond monosyllables. I am not interested only in getting the lowest price, but also in the way I am treated, and here Deutsche Telekom in Sachsenhausen wins by a remarkable difference.

I am in the middle of my second week in Frankfurt and it is about time for an update here. Step by step I am getting used to this new life and let me tell you that officially I do live in Frankfurt since Wednesday, when I registered myself in the Town Hall. Therefore, the number of inhabitants of Frankfurt increased at least by one that day.

I would like to highlight that Germans are crazy with national football team (die Mannschaft). On Sunday the city centre was full of people dressed in the national colours, even five hours before the match and afterwards, after a victory over Poland (not a big team in football terms), they were shouting as if they had won something. Needless to say, it was impossible to watch on a TV something different (Formula 1, for example) than the previous hours to the "big match".

Frankfurt is really a flat city when compared with Guadalajara. It has no hills at all. Well, it has some in Sachsenhausen but I just try to stay far from them. I have bought two second-hand (or third or forth or tenth) bycicles in some kind of "Flohmarkt" (it was quite tough not to be cheated by sellers and to understand so many different accents in German). I have gone out twice and I do not get tired: the maximum uphill trip has less than 50 metres... I must further investigate some routes, because cycling here is a pleasure (if weather accompanies, which is the case right now).

Yesterday se had some kind of corporate race near my job. It was amazing how many employees were taking part (voluntarily or compulsorily) in this race (newspapers claimed that 73.000). I cannot imagine such an event in Spain, it is something we cannot import from Germany. I wonder who won but I am sure that there was a policeman close to him because the city centre was invaded by the police.

Close to my house, in the nearby park, lives a beggar and it seems people give him food and even some money. He must be some kind of symbol for the neighbourhood. I still have not spoken a work with him (let's assume that I have hardly interacted with locals or any other people, I think the person with whom I have interchanged more words is my bank advisor, Sonja) but now he has turned into some kind of symbol of my life here in Frankfurt.

Under the sun and the heavy rain

Well, here am I in my new city, where I will work in the next ten months. Today is my first day at work but as my boss is out of the office, I do not have much (anything) to do. It seems that yesterday there was a big party for the 10th anniversary of the ECB, with significant politicians, economists and so on coming, but unfortunately I was just flying to Frankfurt and I could not attend the event.

In the plane, I was seated just closed to the former Ministry of Finance and former Chairman of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Mr. Rato. It was quite funny, although we did not talk at all. He looked like older and fatter than in the media. You should have seen his face when I asked the stewardess to read El País (Mr. Rato is a right-wing politician while El País is a left-wing newspaper).

First thing that shook me was the weather. It was extremely hot. I know I am a Spaniard and I should be used to it, but believe me, hot weather in Germany is far different (and worse). I sweated a lot while doing the first buys here. Then, in the evening, I decided to go for a short walk to the city centre and it started to rain cats and dogs. I have to wait 30 minutes in a shop for the rain to stop. Meteorologically speaking, it was a weird start.

But my apartment is amazing; I love it (although some minor issues to be solved or better understood, such as garbage). I must prepare some pictures for my landlords and I will upload them in the blog too.

Working environment is also different here in Frankfurt. I do not know how to express it, but it is not the same. I hope I can get used to it, but the Intranet alone seems too heavy for me! Let’s see if I can cope with it and also with live in Germany. The next exciting event is buying a mobile phone, an extremely challenging experience in Spain, so just imagine it in Germany, where all the information will be displayed in German! I cannot say I am looking forward to it.