3 degrees of separation

I think I know why March is not the tourist season in Germany. It's 3 degrees here in Mainz and raining and snowing and such. Spring has arrived!

Also, this is secular Germany and its Easter weekend, so almost nothing is open. Thank God the Turks keep the Kebab shops open, or I would have been starving. The Doner Kebab standard is great, but I tried a burrito-like Durum which was good as well.

Usually when I am in Germany I try to avoid eating German food (except for breakfast which they do so well you don't really need lunch or dinner.) But the employee has to try it. So we sit in some dark and musty "traditional" restaurant and I ordered her a Schweinhaxe, which is pretty much what it sounds like: some part of the pig hacked out and served with massive amounts of potatoes and sauerkraut.

Now, the employee is an asian female, so the waiter puts us up in the "romantic" balcony. Later on another whitey/asian female couple is sent up. Then a family comes up - asian father, German mother, with offspring. I am getting nervous. Should I feel comforted by all of the diversity, or are the Germans segregating us for some nefarious purpose?

I made the mistake of using my actual voice to order the Schweinhaxe and not pointing at the numbers, so the waiter insists I read my order as well, uhhhh, Bauernschamewaggggeh? I believe it is a version of the farmer's breakfast...so you can see, the Germans truly do breakfast correctly. Dr. Atkins would not approve.

Somehow I really fit in here in Europe. On Day 1 three different people asked me for directions, twice in Dutch and once in German. This has happened to me before. Next time I plan to have a massive Canadian flag on each piece of clothing and luggage to put a stop to this. I have a big suspicion that Karl might get similar attention in Germany except that everyone is asking him for weed, not for directions. That dude looks frickin' German. Like Rye looks Israeli-French. or J-hole looks Bosnian refugee.