h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

you ARE Irish! I rather did enjoy the sporting experience of road crossing in Cork, we all got along splendidly, the drivers ignoring the pedestrian crossings, and the pedestrians ignoring any red lights.
Home in Germany i then proceeded to do some really fast road zipping in a small city, you should have seen the carp faces staring at me, from behind the windshields.

Good stuff - delighted to see when in Ireland you learnt how to get around the Irish way!! In all seriousness, of course I'm not advocating people being reckless on the roads. I understand why a lot of Germans may wish to respect the laws and wait for the green man to cross. It's just unbelievable the dirty looks and muttering I get when I do it, and over here I ONLY do it when there's really NO chance of a car coming through the crossing - I am not offending them with my "lawlessness" and I don't understand why people let themselves get so uptight about it. Being angry at me does not affect me, but it does raise THEIR blood pressure , and I don't understand people doing that to themselves! Anyway, that's my rant over!! Are you living in Germany at the moment or are you testing road-manners in other countries?

Not to worry, I understood you allright, and i also mind my traffic manners now. It was just that after three years of Cork, well you know. That i was bawled out by some busybody for crossing the road at red was just a little time ago, i didn't know it was quite a common phenomenon. He said it was misleadin' him into thinking that it was green already, and i told him to use his own eyes, as he had no business comin' tootlin' after me, and if he did, i was not to be blamed for the consequences, and away he went muttering, the old meddler.
Then i tested road manners in South Africa, only i was in a car that time, having to avoid them families and donkeys and kudus on the road, with everybody overtaking in the face of oncoming trafic at breakneck speed ... did you know that when they filmed The ghost and the Darkness, they lost 2 of the film crew due to road accidents?
What i liked in Eire was that whenever i got on the wrong side of the road, everybody was so sweet about it, you just try that here!
Where from in Eire are you?

Gosh, good for you for coming back at that guy crossing the road. I'd have gone red and scuttled away! I remember in Dublin a while back they asked people to cut down on the jaywalking - not so much cos they were a hazard but because tourists weren't paying attention - they'd be chatting to each other, see 10 people moving across the road and just step off the pavement without thinking to check the traffic!!
I'm from Limerick...but despite what you may have heard in Cork that does not make me dangerous.
Where are you from?

Well the Corkonians have to say something about most everyone, AND are divided into north and south siders as well, so one better shuts up in the pub one staggered into before closing time, until having worked out exactly which side of the Lee it stands on.
So, Limerick, well i refrain from saying the obvious, and askin you to cite fourliners, what?
I'm East German and work in the Baltic sea area, harbour town very much like Cork, but my folks live by the River Elbe, former border to West Germany, we are now nearer Hamburg than i quite like, as we get weekend crowds when the wheather is fine.

Where in germany are you? You can also write to me at [email protected] btw, considerin that this is a very public place.

Hiya, thanks for the email address, but I don't mind writing here. But if you want to take it offline pls write to [email protected]. I'm living in Munich - it's a cool town. Lots to do and lots of nationalities around. Lot of crazy drivers with cool cars though!

As a rule i'm a bit cagey about being too specific in a place like this, but Munich is so big as to be anonymus. Bavaria is not Germany, strictly speaking though, you can easily discern that by the language.

True, true...I have occasionally to deal with Bavarians on the telephone and it can be funny. No matter how many times I saw "I'm sorry, could you please speak Hochdeutsch as I only understand a little Bavarian" they just come back with "aberrrr natuerrrlich, i hab net gewusst, koenna sie ma joitzt verstehen?"...groan! Nice people though...and they'd only be too happy for you to say they're Bavarian and not German. Heehee. Do you guys have a dialect in Hamburg? I've heard that the German is much clearer up north.

Actually, i never met a Bavarian who wasn't nice and friendly.
Yes we speak Hochdeutsch in the north, although there is another language here, the socalled Platt, that is actually a lot like English.