Chapter 33; Verse 1: The Autobahn Less Traveled

Guten Abend mine Space Travelers.  Ya!  We are having fun now! He he.

It's been a while since I've strapped myself into plane and ventured off.  I was investigating a trip to Europe for a while.  I needed to get out and meet people; have a cultural experience.  I needed to be put in a new context.  I find that when I travel, I see myself in the third person (sort of).  I think now is a good time for that.  I'm coming out of a huge period of change and some reflection on who I'm becoming would be good.

Hans Liberty Auto

The plan is to land in Berlin on August 31st, and fly out on September 13th.  I have a rental car reserved, and everything else (like lodging or figuring out how to order vegan food in other countries...) I'll improvise.  Not much of a plan, but I'm confident in my ability to make this work.  In many ways this trip has many similar elements to my 2007 road trip that started this blog.  I'm traveling alone, which in many ways seems like I'm missing out on the whole "sharing the experience."  I do like to have travel companions, but there is something incredibly satisfying about the independence and autonomy of single travel.  In 2007, I had not planned to hang a sharp turn and go off the planned route, but had I not, I would have missed Devil's Tower and (this detail stands out to me) the prairie dogs in the surrounding plain.  

So I have a general path sketched out, but nothing in concrete.  My goal is to hit Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Frankfurt, and anything that catches my attention in transit between.
  

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Chapter 25, Verse 1: New York Adventure In The Only City That Matters So I Hear

Space Travelers, I have a question. It's not uncommon for me to meet a new yorker here in DC, and it's also not uncommon for a new yorker to talk about New York. I experienced the same thing with Los Angeles. The mentality is this: New York is the only city in the world. If no that specifically, it's just that it is just more important, and by transitive properties, THEY are also more important. Being that I'm from the Midwest, I get some fairly odd comments about Missouri or any of the "fly-over" states.

"Wow, you speak so well!" "Did you like... um... grow up on a farm?"

This is of course ironic because this low class understanding of something different is being espoused by those claiming to be more upper class and enlightened. I'm briefly reminded of politics and geography. I'm a progressive, yet I feel like I can relate with many rural conservatives in the way they perceive these large urban centers. I share their feelings of being culturally obscure. I am forced to blush a little guilt out for those times I put down "red necks" but honestly they are people too. It's a shallowness in my character, I'd like to be absolved of honestly. How we view each other is often tinted with the filter of insecurity. I found so many of the people in beautiful California to be dull and boring despite their effort to be culturally in tune via osmosis.

Today, the roommates and I are packing up our belongings, and going to New York for the weekend. I suspect, that despite the claims of my new yorker friends, that it is in fact just a city. I'm not playing down the fact that it will probably have a distinct character, but lots of cities have character.

We will be staying right near Penn Station, and are close to lots of things. I'll be uploading pics multiple times a day to my snaplog account, so keep an eye out for updates. As always, I will have my trusty camera Sunny with me. I'm hoping to get some cool footage.

So, after all of that, here is my question: In modern society, does a center of the world exist, and if so, where is it?

Peace and thanks for reading Space Travelers,
~Chi