And twisted an ankle or something.
And this German Bauernregel (farmer or folk saying) doesn’t sound very promising, either: „Wie das Wetter um den Frühlingsanfang, so hält es sich den ganzen Sommer lang.” As the weather begins in spring, all through the summer will be the same thing. Dumb-ass farmers.
Eiskalt kehrt der Winter zurück.
And don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
Whenever it snows here, for instance, like it did big time over the weekend, you can rely on a few S-Bahn and Deutsche Bahn stretches to break down in earnest the next day, or in this case Monday.
Germany is a country unfamiliar with snow, you see, or at least I have to assume as much, because much of their technology is not designed to operate in this weird, white and powdery substance.
In their defense, though: I’m not a scientist or anything, but I think all of this more-snow-and-cold-than-usual has something to do with this global warming phenomenon thingy or something. Because its snowing right now, yet again. As we speak, so-to-speak. In the German Spring.
Auf die Bahn ist Verlass: Nach dem Schneefall vom Wochenende brach der S-Bahn- Verkehr am Montag auf mehreren Strecken zeitweise zusammen. Und am Hauptbahnhof wurden am Mittag die Zufahrten vor beiden Haupteingängen gesperrt, weil Schnee und Eisbrocken abrutschten.
Right in the middle of winter, too.
Die fast flächendeckend über Deutschland liegende Schneedecke wird wegen der erwarteten weiteren Schneefälle bis Mittwoch auf ein Gewicht von sechs Milliarden Tonnen ansteigen.
What is this bizarre weather phenomenon?
Concerned Germans and climate activists everywhere are puzzled by a strange form of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice that has suddenly begun falling from the clouds all over Germany.
“Although we have only just begun our studies now,” everyone said in unison. “This is clearly another indication of the direct relationship between Global Warming and the gases (particularly CO2) we have emitted into the atmosphere. Brrr! Is this one cold puppy or what?”
60 Zentimeter Schnee auf der Zugspitze in Bayern. Bis zu einem halben Meter in den Mittelgebirgen. Selbst in Schleswig-Holstein liegen 20 Zentimeter Schnee.
Only in Berlin? I’m not so sure. Remember way back when (getting on two years ago) when the Berliner S-Bahn commuter trains had to go on a Notfahrplan (emergency schedule) bis auf Weiteres (until further notice) because of massive problems they were having with their brakes (they hadn’t been checked or maintained properly)?
Remember then about a year or so later when there was a Not-Notfahrplan (emergency emergency schedule) for the same S-Bahn system when something called “winter” hit?
Well winter has struck yet again and we now have our next Not-Notfahrplan (irregular, 20-minute intervals for the few trains that are still running–about 200 of a 500 fleet) and there’s no end in sight. Two years on, people.
It’s not all that out of the ordinary if you stop to think about it, really. German Baustellen (construction sites) are generally built to last. And to last and to last and to last. And we have to be fair here too when it comes to these difficult winter conditions: Germany isn’t a country that has ever had to deal with things like “snow” in the past, you know–or at least that’s what one must assume.
Personally, I’m confident that these trains will all be up and running on regular schedule next year. In the spring of 2012, I mean.
“Because we can’t remember the hard winters of the 1970s, we resort to the word ‘chaos.'”
Oh, my, God. The Scheechaos (snow chaos) has now reached Berlin! You know, like the Red Army once did?
What’s even more shocking is that it’s reached the taz too (the newspaper for all the lefty-anarcho-chaos experts living here). And even more shockingerer still is that Berlin’s environmental minister (yup, cities like Berlin have one of those) Katrin Lompscher (Left Party not Green–can’t you be both?) has called for a freakin’ Krisengipfel (crisis summit). You know, just like the one they had recently somewheres but I can’t remember where, about something, but I forget. Only this Krisengipfel will be worse, or better, or whatever.
We’re all going to die or something!
Talk about your Snow Crash.
“Thousands of accidents, autobahns blocked: Winter unleashes traffic chaos.”
Or lack of it, I should say. The behavior, I mean. As reported earlier, snow punks recently took over the streets of Leipzig, kind of.
Now Jugendliche (have you ever noticed that it’s like always “young people”?) in Nürnberg are throwing snowballs from bridges at the passing cars below! How shocking or something. One of these snowballs even busted a windshield. Is nothing sacred anymore?
I think we’re dealing with manifestations of high sea fatigue here, only it’s more like high snow fatigue, if you stop and think about it. All this snow is slowly driving everybody here crazy.
Die Täter konnten zunächst von der Fußgängerbrücke im Nürnberger Stadtteil Langwasser entkommen.
I guess it’s officially a tradition now. For the second (or third?) New Year’s now, a group of abominable anarchist snowmen types (this time around 200 strong) have picked a snowball fight with the rest of the world in Leipzig at a place called Connewitzer Kreuz.
Then of course the snowball fight got out of control and expensive cars, buses, store windows and even cops got hurt. Other than all the feelings, I mean. Hey, you’ve got to do something down there. At Connewitzer Kreuz, I mean.
Auch Polizeikräfte wurden mit Schneebällen sowie mit Flaschen beworfen, wobei zwei Beamte verletzt wurden.
Observing Hermann 