B29

B29 Bundesstrasse. Took the picture from one of the overpasses during one of my bike trips, probably freaking out the drivers who saw me in the process.

Crazy drivers

The roads are full of people who should be banned from getting closer than 50m from a car, let alone drive it. And while it’s true that the amount of idiots driving around is far smaller here than on the romanian roads, we have our fair share of them. Unfortunately.

I was driving on this 2-lane national road, a “Bundesstraße” how they call them. I was on the speed lane and I was driving at some distance behind a Smart 4Four, everything was fine. Ahead of both of us, there was a slow driving truck on the right lane and behind it, a Mercedes A-Klasse. The speed limit on this road as 120km/h, them two were driving at most 100km/h, if not slower.

As the guy in front of me approaches them, the A-Klasse suddenly pulls out, cuts the guy off and starts to overpass the truck.  I personally didn’t see any signaling. The 4Four had to break rather hard in order not to smash into the A-Klasse. I was some way back so I didn’t have to break that hard.

The guy in the 4Four got very pissed, and with good reason. He honked the idiot in the A-Klasse, flashed him too I think. After the A-Klasse finally passed the truck, with less than 120km/h, the 4Four pulled next to him and the driver started to wave his hands at the idiot, his screams being probably less than kind.  I guess he could not let it go ’cause he went on the right lane in front of the A-Klasse and hit his breaks. By now I  was also next to the A-Klasse and I looked inside. There I could see one of those old retards who should’ve been banned from driving like 15 years ago. He was just showing the finger to the guy in the 4Four .

I do not really condone what the 4Four’s driver did, getting in front of the other guy and breaking, but I can certainly understand him. I would’ve been probably just as pissed. I imaging this is how most accidents happen, not so much because of high-speed driving but because some people are just idiots and endanger everyone else. I really think that after a certain age, people should be called and re-tested, to see if then can continue to drive or if they should be put into an asylum and fed intravenously.

I have to say though that this is the first time I saw such violent behavior since I am in Germany. As opposed to Romania, where my blood pressure starts rising already 30km after passing the border.

Moon and Venus

The night sky showing the Moon and Venus, as seen in a break during my night drive to my lovely workplace. It’s true, it kinda sucks to leave at 4:00am in order to be at work at 7:00 am and then spend 10 hours there.

But what can you do, you gotta take joy in the little things you find. At least you have empty autobahns and you can zip along with no worries for radars. And every now and then you can see some pretty sights like the one above.

Another week

Another week is almost over. A very hot and humid week at that, even though yesterday we had a really violent storm in München. I was still at the office and the storm was right on top of us, lightning and thunder were almost instant. I am surprised none of the windows broke from all the thundering.  One of the lightning bolts landed on one of the tall buildings across the campus (where some GSM antennas are) and managed to cut off my phone conversation. Fun.

Also had one of those events organized by Cisco at the Brickhouse Club (rented for the occasion), with a project update session and news in the first part and food/drinks in the second part. Food was good as always and at least you have a chance to meet other people who work in the same project with us. (Note to self: do not wear a thick black t-shirt on a hot and humid day)

Oh, we started to watch “True Blood“, almost through the first season. Really good series I would say, I like it. Vampires, blood, sex, drugs, violence, gore, lots of southern accents, more blood. How can you go wrong with that ? ;-)

And last but not least, last week I had the pleasure of getting stuck in a 10km traffic jam on the autobahn because of this:

Not very amusing.

New license plate

Yesterday I finally found some time to go and register my private car at the new address. The city where I moved to belongs to a different “Kreis” which means I had to replace the car registration papers and license plates. How long did it take ? 10 minutes.

I arrived the place, there was nobody at the counter so I just gave the guy my paperwork. He sent me across the street to get my new license plates, there it only took 3-4 minutes until they made them. I got back, I paid, I got my new registration papers, they stamped my license plates and that was it! No line, no stress, no complication, no idiot people.

30000km

In about 9 months.

Driving License

I remember many years ago when I got my driving license: complicated business, lots of paperwork, long lines, heat, smelly crowds, public workers with the enthusiasm of a brick, etc. I don’t know what’s it like these days, not sure if anything changed.

Well, today being my free day, I managed to get to the Kreis capital. The Landratsamt building (the authority which deals, among other things, with driving licenses) has its own underground garage so I didn’t have to look all over the place for a parking spot. I got inside, there was nobody in front of me so a lady asked me if she can help. I told her the story, she asked for a picture, a form (which I had already filled in at home, it’s available on the net) and an ID. And that was it. She explained that if the Police stops me it should be ok, at least in Germany, they will know about it. 5 minutes later I was out of the building. I wonder how  much something like this takes, requesting a replacement driving license after yours was stolen. Would be interesting to know if things changed.

I managed to day to get a parking permit from the town hall. It does not allow me to park in front of the house (it’s a pedestrian zone) but I can park for free in the marked spots from the area. It’s not the most idea l solution but it’s kinda messed up with the parking around here because it’s the old city center. I can rent a permanent parking spot in one of the park hauses in the area but I pay 45 euros per month and while it’s not that far, it’s not in front of the house. Oh well, you can’t have everything.

Today I also made another trip to the dumpsite place with a van full of trash bags, old wood, old electric devices, metal, etc. It was cold, heavy snow, wet, very bleh, yucky! And this time there was a guy watching us and he took his job really serious: “Oh, this goes there”, “This goes over there”, “No, no, no, this does not go in here. This is type 3 electrical trash, go on the other side”, “Oh, cardboard ? Over there, in that container”. Shit, that dude ran us all over the place. I hope I won’t have to go there anytime soon.

And now off to bed. Since I moved here I need 25 more minutes to get to Münich in the morning so I have to wake up at 4:00am. Great.

Solid metal bar – 1, Me – 0

Oh well, this had to happen eventually to me too I guess, my first “accident” since I am here. And who’s fault is it ? That’s right, mine.

It all happened saturday evening when we were working at the house. I realized I had to buy some more stuff from Toom so I got into the car and I tried to get out of the parking. Another car was coming from the other direction (still in the parking) so I tried to squeeze between the guy and the parked cars. I passed (a little annoyed since he was driving on the middle) but shortly after that I didn’t pay enough attention and I passed too close to a tree. Which tree had some thick protection metal bars. Which metal bars impacted my car (notice the blame shift …). I was not driving fast, maybe 10-15 km/h but enough to mess up really bad my left headlight, bumper and side.

I backed up (with the torn remains of the left-side bumper and headlight hanging and I parked again. Then I got out of the car and admired my masterpiece. This is exactly what I needed, what a mess. You could not drive the car anymore because parts of the bumper were scrapping badly against the left tire. After realizing the bumper and headlight won’t magically put themselves back together just by me looking at them (and after Freya managed to get me a bit out of my dark mood) I resigned myself and called the police. They arrived after 15 minutes or so, two of them, a woman and a guy. The police car was also a Passat but it was in one piece, unlike mine which was in .. many. Of course they asked me if I had something to drink and the guy actually checked. What kind of idiot drinks and then calls the police ? I guess they tried their luck.

Anyway, there was not much to report since no other car was involved. They just told me that I might get a fine from the City if they decide to press charges for me hitting the tree protection bar !! I could not believe it. They actually looked at the metal bar but it was obvious that I was not the first, there were all kind of paint marks on it. In the end they probably realized how stupid that sounds and they dropped that. Then they wished me luck (Gee … thanks!) and left.

All things considered, what happened next went better than I expected. Saturday and Sunday I could not do much, but monday morning I went to the local VW dealer. The car being new it has a 3 year warranty and some other kind of VW insurance on top of that. The guy was very helpful, he registered the whole thing and we called the ADAC. The ADAC dudes were very quick, in less than one hour the car was standing in the dealer’s parking. Free of course, that’s why I am a member. In the meantime I had called the insurance and registered the accident. I gave the neeed info to the guy at the VW dealership, I got the replacement car (they have to give you one if they can’t repair yours in 3-4 hours) and that was it. When I got home I just let the carfleet people at my company about the vent and now I am waiting to be called when the car is repaired.

It’s a shame, poor car. It had only 7km onboard when I got it from the company. But I guess Murphy was right: “If shit can happen then shit WILL happen“