I don't know how much or if to tip, but at least there's a pinball machine in the hostel lobby

This is technically only Day 2 of this Germany trip, which I find hard to believe, as I've already fit a lifetime in. A mayfly's lifetime, perhaps, but a busy one. Originally I was going to stay in Frankfurt one night to recover from the plane trip, but my friend pointed out that you can get a tie-in train ticket from Lufthansa, only 49 Euros to go anywhere in Germany after your flight... and leaving from the Airport train station, so you don't even need to go downtown! Then I find out that the city of Bielefeld is doing my bestest favoritest early-Verdi, Giovanna d'Arco, that very night, so I consider going there... until I read about the BIEFELD CONSPIRACY, and, well, that settled that. i'm goin' ta Bielefeld.

Biefeld does exist, unless I've been compromised & am now part of the conspiracy. Its old downtown, what was inside the medieval walls, has been converted to a maze of pedestrian shopping streets -- it's actually quite charming. And the show was great -- orchestra and chorus scrappy, but all three leads in amazing shape. This time, instead of a teenage virgin who saves France in drag and is then burned alive, Joan is a human rights campaigner who finds herself turned into a celebrity by the hungry media, and worries that she is letting her love of fame distract her from the well-being of the people of Bosnia. Or something. Who cares, with those tunes. I blissed out and hope I wasn't too annoying for the hausfrauen surrounding me in Rinks 8.

This morning, the impossible happened and my brain exploded: a German train was late. Fortunately, my connecting train was also slightly late, so I got to Hamburg in time, where I walked about 2 miles trying to figure out the .5-mile distance from the train station to the A&O hostel/hotel where I'm staying (Biefeld has no A&O so I had to make do with a fancy-pants Mercure hotel with actual tubs in the bathrooms). Tonight's the first opera here, Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos I've been told the Hamburg Opera house is a sight in itself, so I'm looking forward to it. More later!