The taxi driver

 Usually I don't get along with taxi drivers.
I do the same mistake and I always start the conversation because I keep thinking that it should be such a great relief to say anything you want to someone you will never see.
So you don't need to worry about what he thinks etc..

But I always end up so irritated when I finally reach my destination. Don't get me wrong, i am not a racist (if you think of taxi drivers as a whole different race) but usually they start blaming immigrants for everything wrong in this country and they drive me mad! Some of them keep talking about how greater they are (their nation)than everyone else, because their ancestors were once great. I know that when I talk with this kind of people I should just shut up and pretend I agree with them, but I simply can't. So, I start telling them that after thousands of years it is impossible that they have even a single gene in common with those people.

It's my fault, I know...One of them nearly left me in the middle of nowhere while shouting that it's a shame I live in this glorious country and that possibly, I am just a spy who came to ruin the perfection of the country we live in.That's when I realized I should have just shut up from the beginning ...

Anyway, I wanted to write this post after I came across with this magnificent taxi driver. Even by his "hello" you could tell he was a bourgeois. In a good way ...

He started talking to me about how much more beautiful our city used to be 40 years ago .He talked about a lot of things but I remember only how amazed I was by his words. It really wasn't a proper discussion because , as I could tell,he had a hearing problem and while he was trying to listen to what I was saying he was turning his whole body back , putting both our lives in danger... So I decided to just let him talk.No answers from me.

Then he asked me about the music I prefer to listen to, I told him (several times till he actually heard what I said) that I listen to almost everything, but that precise day I was listening to Benny Goodman and couldn't stop. He got so excited, started shaking my hand and then he admitted:

He wasn't really a taxi driver!I should have understood... He didn't swear for the whole drive!  So, he was a teacher in a public music school.


This is not a good outcome for drivers after all. I met one of you that i liked and he was a fake one!There is no hope...

But if you want to feel better listen to good old Benny Goodman aka "king of swing". You will immediately.

Frankfurt

Came back from Frankfurt yesterday.It was such a great experience!

I went for the book fair as my family is in book business. It is so great to meet so many new people , every single one of them a book lover.(I meet them so rarely these days...)

There was nothing that reminded me of autumn there.Weather was sunny and everyone was out walking with a smile on their face...Even though Frankfurt is such a depressing city, with the skyscrapers and all, giving the idea that there is no home there,only offices, I was lucky enough to see the human side of it.

Also went for a day trip in Heidelberg . Extraordinarily beautiful. Especially under that burning sun. Didn't do much though, just sat in a cafe -for more than an hour- and ate in a picturesque traditional restaurant (pumpkin soup was just perfect!).

That's all I guess... Now listen to this song which followed me for five days. It was stuck up there .I couldn't help it.

Der Himmel über Berlin

Another movie to talk about.

The story may sound a little silly: two angels flying above Berlin listening to people's thoughts. They can't do anything to change their lives but sometimes they hold their hands and make them feel better. One of them falls in love with a young circus actress and decides to leave his divine nature to follow her. While Nick Cave follows them...(he is everywhere!In the posters on the streets, in the soundtrack , he even appears playing live at the end of the film. Wim Wenders must be obsessed with him)

What was really interesting was the exploration of human thought. I always loved the idea of understanding the thoughts of  people.Thoughts that begin from suicide and end up on that guy who wears the wrong socks for his outfit.

The scene that you can see here is from the metro. A place so many souls visit everyday.

It was filmed in 1987.Germany was so different back then.

I am flying tomorrow morning to Frankfurt and I want to have this picture of Germany in my mind..