Wine, Athletes and Hair Cuts

Wine in Wiesbaden

Church and Wine Festival Wiesbaden

Last weekend the 38^th Wiesbaden Wine Festival started. It is all ather civilised and offers the visitor the opportunity to sample local wines and sparkling wines from the region. Mostly white wines, so the red wine drinkers might feel left out. All at very reasonable prices too, between 2.50 to 3.50 € a glass. We went down on Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday we got speaking to this really interesting German couple. Perhaps, I found them interesting because they found me interesting. No, that cannot be the reason could it? They had both visited South Africa on a number of occasions, so we were able to exchange views and ideas. It was nice to actually talk to people for a change rather than be ignored or invisible, as I often feel I am. People say you need to talk to people in German to improve your language skills; but in order to do that you need to get the opportunity to talk to people; and not only the people pushing in at the check-out. [And they might not even be German these pusher-inners]. So it is possible to meet interesting people when you go out and I look forward to meeting more like the couple I met on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday also saw a Triathlon [swimming, cycling, and running] take place in Wiesbaden. When we walked down to the Wine Festival on Sunday we noticed that there was hardly anyone around, after it had been very well attended on Saturday. We were wondering where everyone was, thinking that perhaps they had tasted too many glasses of wine the previous night. There was some evidence to this effect on the pavements. We followed the signs of life and discovered where the rest of the town, and all those under the age of 60 were hiding. They were watching the final stages of the Ironman/woman competition. It is very motivating watching tri-athletes complete, although I often wonder if they are remotely human or perhaps some sort of alien breed of A-personality over-achievers.

Two observations: Firstly the Master of Ceremonies was an extremely irritating man. His accent soon revealed he was South African. Not only did he have a ghastly accent when he spoke German, but he went on about Cape Town being the most beautiful city in the world bla bla. Cape Town is nice enough, but it really is not the centre of the universe, contrary to what the people who live there think. In fact he never stopped talking the whole time, and made all sorts of comments about the competitors’ smiles and goodness knows what else. He kept addressing the competitors by their first name. Makes me wonder how the German competitors felt about this. The usually prefer to be addressed as Herr oder Frau, rather than Jurgen or Anna.

The other thing that made me smile was seeing an old lady chain smoking while all the hyper- fit, athletes ran past. Watching can be very exhausting and she had no doubt earned her cigarette.

After watching the running for a while we went back to the Wine Festival. I think the festival ends this coming weekend. I imagine I might find myself there at least once more at the weekend. Before then I need to have my haircut. This is always a bit of a challenge for me. So far I have been to two hairdressers in Wiesbaden and on both occasions I decided not to return. The last decent haircut I had was in England in April. London is a bit too far to go for a haircut. It seems to be very difficult to explain to the people here what I want. I even show them the photographs of my hairstyle from the UK, but they are still not able to manage it.

So I imagine I will be wondering around aimlessly over the next few days hoping to find someone that can do a decent job, at a decent price. I am all for the fact that hairdressers in Germany now earn a minimum wage, prior to this some people were paid 3.60 € an hour. A few years back I could and did get my hair cut in Berlin for 5.00 €. On the two most recent occasions here in Wiesbaden, I have paid multiples of 5.00 € for worse haircuts. Even the offer of a free 10^th haircut at either of these places; has not been sufficient reason to return! Wish me luck as I look for a hairdresser, here in Wiesbaden. If I am really lucky I might find one that I can go back to for a second visit in a few week's time, but I no longer believe in miracles and wonders.