Arriving in Frankfurt

I got on the train for Frankfurt to meet my friend from Israel. I will meet up with Paz in Paris on 5th June. When I left the Sheraton lodgings the landlady came to check my room as you have to leave it clean before you check-out, and she started talking about her sister (they are English) who married a Moroccan and is living near Paris. She works for Chanel as a cashier and would like to move to a job in the village she lives in, but work is scarce. After all said the anorexic landlady EVERYONE wants to be a cashier, don't they, there's just not the opportunity!

Now my travels take on a different nature. I left Munich and took an early train to Frankfurt, I had a lot of heavy luggage, including my three pairs of Italian shoes from the Sheraton lost and found. I was also carrying my emancipated liquor.

Paz was fine about my departure, though Paris seemed a bit daunting. I arrived in Frankfurt and checked into the hotel. The room was not as 5 tar as the last time we were here. From my Sheraton job I knew all the signs of VIP treatment and from them we got the bathrobes, free newspaper, turn down service with a bottle of mineral water as well as a rose in the bathroom. I set to work with all my alcohol to make it 5 star. I put a wrapped teddy bear which I had bought my friend on the pillow, put champagne on ice, ordered an extra ice bucket, glasses plus 2 bowls, I put fruit in one and sweets in the other. I had also brought chocolates from Switzerland and Austria. I brought extra coca cola so we wouldn't have to use the exorbitant mini-bar. Then I ordered an iron and ironing board and ironed my skirt. Took a bath, discovered an English TV channel and went to pick my friend up from the airport. The hotel is joined to the airport by a sky ramp. I went to the airport gate and sat there picking away at yesterdays cherry nail polish until my nails were clean. There were several other halves of couples waiting for their other halves, and it was funny watching the different forms of reunions from discrete pecks on the cheek to near intercourse on the concourse!

Reflections

I must write character sketches about some of the people I meet on my travels.

Shazlee - the Egyptian; Antonio-the Italian, Ros and Jill from Scotland and England and our very strange room mate - Rosana - from Sicily, where the mafia come from.

It's funny I am always writing and it's Paz who wants to be the writer. I'm quite proud that I am doing this, as they say "a writer writes"it's as simple as that. I have also come to know Paz much better, she has major hang-ups about her family life, sex life and life in general. She has very little motivation. She wants to be rich but hasn't got past that to HOW do I get rich. She is a victim about her childhood, makes out as if things were impinged on her as a child which have left her scared for life. She has an incredibly vicious streak and will to survive above all others, but a lack of respect for herself. She vacillates from putting herself down in front of people to flaunting her snobbish and empty values about being sublimely superior. She sees men as a totally different race from woman, a race... as for me I'm happy, worship my parents, love life, never have any problems more than enough to make the game of life a game! And modest too!!!

Bought an art pad so will start drawing again.

checking out of the Sheraton

The checking out procedure wasn't as traumatic as I'd expected, just handing in my uniform, getting a couple of signatures. There may be irrelevant tax forms registered post from the Sheraton in the future. The complicated part was the finance. They couldn't pay me until the 30th so Paz is going to stay on till then and I will give her power of attorney at the bank to collect the money for me. She will also put it into traveller's cheques for me. I hate relying on other people to do things for me especially with finances.


I stole 2 bottles of champagne, 2 wine and some small whiskey, vodka and gin bottles to have with my friend from Israel. Sorry I didn't steal them I emancipated them from the mini-bar poor bottles were dying to escape, what could I do turn my back on their pleas for freedom? At least this way they know they'll be drunk and not left to sit on the shelf - like spinsters in a store room.

14 May 1991 - Heart attack in the Sheraton

On my last day in my last room Fiona, a fellow chambermaid came up behind me and gave me a fright. For the next 2 hours I experienced what I have had periodically since I was a child. I have always called it a heart attack although it is obviously not. I get dizzy, sweat, my heart beats very fast making my body shake slightly and it is hard to breath. I had this once in a dance class in University. When I was younger I remember getting milder versions of this when my breathing would get difficult and I would feel like there was a vice around my chest. I remember lying on my tummy on Lulu's couch in her lounge until it went away. So I want to have on the record that it happened on 14.5.91 - hope it doesn't happen again.

Leaving the Sheraton and other thoughts!

In German subways there are escalators which only move when you step on them, we choose which exit to take from the subway according to where there are escalators.

I really should have kept a record of time from the moment I decide something to the time it occurs just to find out how long it takes. I once decided to have red shoes and yesterday there was a sale in the hotel of all the lost property. I got 2 pairs of Italian red shoes for three marks each. Also got some black shoes, a straw hat and a dress shirt all came to 17 marks. Also one day said to Paz I want some stockings, that afternoon a girl gave us 3 pairs each because her mom had given them to her and she didn't like the color.

Yesterday was my last day working at the Sheraton and I wanted to finish early as there is a long checking-out procedure and I needed to do it that day as I was leaving the next day. So I did all the work that normally took me a whole day by lunch time! That's 12 tower rooms and 8 VIP rooms!

Leaving East Germany

We got a lift out of Leipzig which is a more industrial city than East Berlin. It is also enormous but the people seem to be making more of an effort to upgrade themselves with the occasional flower pot and curtains in the window. We saw two long lines outside banks as we drove through. Then we got a lift with an ex-East German, born in East Germany traveled extensively in the Eastern block but now living in the west half and doing business with the old East half. He said he never wanted to escape before, life was hard but reliable. Everyone had work - even if they had to halve a job to give 2 people work. They lacked competition. Products were either over produced and not wanted or produced but no choice of brand etc. He does still feel loyalty to the East but as he said Socialism is very nice as an idea but totally unworkable. It is also not very uplifting spiritually if you can never strive for something better. He said now that he is free to travel there are places he would like to see but first he has a lot to see in West Germany. He is one of the lucky ones, he now has a nice car and job which even sends him overseas and a new life. Other East Germans are finding the transition harder. Our next lift after a grueling 2/3 of an hour wait, was with one of the drop out types typical of Berlin. He drank 2 beers while driving from Nuremberg to Munich. As Paz put it - he was pretty but needed a dam good scrub! Home at last and ready for all the upheaval and planning and anxiety of transition period from chambermaid to traveler.