Subway Characters

So last night while doing laundry, Lady Gaga's song "Judas" shuffled through. And I'm not particularly fond of the song per se, but I love listening to it because it brings up memories from my summer in Germany. Seriously, Germans have an obsession with Lady Gaga. But that's not what I want to talk about, primarily anyways.

People on the Subways in Germany are...great. Their trains are not like in London, Boston, or Chicago (and I have yet to visit New York, so I can't comment on theirs, but I gather the experience is not that great). The trains in Germany carry their people - all their people in one way or another. But there are some particular characters I met on their glorious transportation system - and here they are in no particular order.

1. The two Lady Gaga fans who (while listening to their iPods) sang and danced  to "Judas" for us, without any prompt, I might add. They were actually pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wagn8Wrmzuc

2. The shaky beggar with crazy eyes that hopped on the train EVERY time we tried to leave the Alexanderplatz station. I don't think he ever filled up that crumpled paper Coke cup in a day.

3. A little old German lady who wore stockings and orthopedic shoes who always had an opinion on where we should go visit next. It usually involved a museum of some sort.

4. A tourist who did not (or could not) speak German. And what's weird is, after being in Germany for awhile, we could pick them out and silently judge them because we sorta felt like natives. Psht. Stupid tourists.

5. A school of little German school children wearing matching scarves on a visit to the school. They were adorable until we all realized that they spoke German better than we did. And they were 7 years old.

6. A middle-aged couple on their way to any one of the many "Fests" around the country. One particular couple went to a Polka Fest  - and they were excited about it.

7. A guy who I think just sat there and read the newspaper all day on the train. Hey - that's not a bad retirement plan.

8. A guy in a business suit who refused to sit down (maybe he thought his pants would wrinkle) with a super serious look on his face. He was probably a lawyer.

9. A group of three or four guys getting their drink on with some regional brew. Which could also be seen on the sidewalk. Note: drinking in public is commonplace.

10.  Instrumentalists that ruined whatever you had planned on listening to because their trumpets were so f***ing LOUD.

Bonus: There were also a bunch of American students pretending to "be German," even though we fooled nobody. But we did get a whole bus to sing along to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" after the first game of the Women's World Cup. People broke out into song a lot now that I think about it...