Categories
Humour

Champing At The Bit

Passengers leaving Ryanair jet
“But… But this is where we left from!”

This is weird. I’m going to sunny Germany tomorrow, but I’m sitting here with nothing to do. For once I packed well in advance. This is as unlike me as it is possible to imagine, and must basically have happened by accident.

So tomorrow we’re driving to Knock, which should take about an hour, flying with Ryanair to Frankfurt, which should take two hours, and then getting from there to where Frankfurt actually is, which will be the longest leg of the whole trip. You know the usual way.

English: Night view of the euro monument (euro...
Oh look, it’s breaking up!

Hahn airport – “Frankfurt-Hahn“, as Ryanair have the nads to call it – is actually nearer Luxembourg. The tickets were fantastically cheap though, it must be said. We are going to Frankfurt basically because we can afford to. Oh, there will be some research and meetings and stuff. This is the home of the European Central Bank, the institution that is handling our currency in such a profoundly wrong-headed way, so there is much to learn. Perhaps we will even have a little protest. I plan to stand opposite the ECB with my arms folded, frowning really hard.

I’ve been planning this trip for a few weeks though, you think I found time to refresh my German? Did I hell. But then, do I need to now? My phone can speak German for me. Even the free Google Translate is very good – though bear in mind that to use an online translation service you have to pay for data at roaming rates. Right now I’m just getting it to say things like “How many cars may I eat?”, “This shop sells millions of ducklings in a box”, and let’s not forget that old favourite, “My wombat is constipated”.

7 replies on “Champing At The Bit”

An update on that: In Frankfurt at least, English really was spoken everywhere. But I also found my German coming back quite rapidly. It is really not a hard language for an English speaker to make themselves understood in, there’s no excuse not to learn some.

I think English speakers are badly served by often having French for their first experience of a foreign tongue. I suspect it is an innately frustrating language, and could put you off the whole idea of foreignness for like. We would be better off starting with something closer to English, like German.

Or of course Dutch.

Richard, you are rapidly becoming my laugh a day guy! I’m trying to spread the articles out to the days of the week I don’t care for. Cath

Leave a Reply to Richard ChapmanCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.