10 October

For a full list of all trip photos, click here. For more on the technical specs behind these photos, click here. For the text entry that accompanies these photos, click here.

My second day in the collegetown of Karlsruhl, having performed at their poetry slam the night before, and then getting incredibly fucked up, going downstairs to the packed discotheque, and spending the next four hours literally living inside a Kafka novel. (I didn't even bother trying to take photos; I was so high by then I barely knew my own name. Thanks, Marc!) I don't know what this sign means in German, but everytime I'd think of its English meaning I'd giggle. "More automatic spanking, mein Herr?" "Sehr gut, mein Fraulein!"

The outside of Gotec, the homegrown arts complex that sponsored our show the night before. The facilities stretch labyrinth-like within both of the buildings you see here.

Robert, my half-French, half-German, young, good-looking, earnest hiphop-poet travelling companion. Sigh...if we could only all be half-French, young and good-looking.

The cabaret where we performed the night before (Tango, treated as a separate facility by the owners), now by the light of day and a little easier to see. We slept in this room as well.

The International Herald-Tribune, basically the global version of the New York Times, and one of only two English newspapers you can reliably find on newsstands in Europe (the other being USAToday, yuck). Expensive (two euros a day for only 24 pages) but sometimes well worth it, just to catch up on the news, read a few comics and do the crossword.

Here and below: The "breakfast club" at Gotec. Clockwise from left: Juergen Klumpe, co-host of the Frankfurt poetry slam and main host of Karlsruhl's; Marc, one of the owners of Gotec; Marc's girlfriend, name never revealed; and Robert.

Next nine photos: Originally our plan was to stop at the tourist mecca of Heidelburg on our way back to Frankfurt, to have some lunch and laugh at all the Americans. But we got a late start, so our time in Heidelburg was limited to a tourist drive-by shooting ("And that's the castle, and that's the cathedral...") and a quick ten minutes while Robert and I ran to McDonald's to use the bathroom. (Yes, you will go to McDonald's at least once on your international vacation. Yes, it will be to use the free bathrooms. Yes, you will stay and get some food as well, since what the hell, you're already there. Yes, you will feel bad about it afterwards.) Nonetheless, I did manage to snap off some picturesque shots while there, which is pretty much impossible to not do when you're standing inside the city - Jesus, no wonder it's become such a tourist mecca.

Here and below: radioX, the community station where both Juergen and Dirk Huelstrunk (the other co-host of the Frankfurt poetry slam) work. Juergen was doing an experimental sound show this particular day, with an electronic-musician friend of his live in the studio. Eventually they had me jump on and perform my poem strangeplastikrobot, while they twiddled with the dials and made my voice actually sound like a robot's. Cool, man - you gotta love the community radio stations.

This photo didn't come out as well as I had hoped (I had these huge, huge bags under my eyes, which you can't quite see here), but this basically is what happens to you after ten extremely hard and punishing days of travelling - up by 8 or 9 a.m., walking five to six miles a day, skipping meals, then loading your body up with liquor and drugs every night until 1 or 2 in the morning. I love my international adventures, but by the end I also love the idea of going home.

Copyright 2004, Jason Pettus. All rights reserved. Although this material is presented here for your enjoyment free of charge, it is still illegal to repost this material without my permission, and especially so if you charge others money to see it. I am usually happy to let others reprint my work in the context of a free artistic publication, so please don't hesitate to contact me at ilikejason at hotmail dot com if you are interested in doing so.