After my flight to Bavaria, cycling was the beginning of feeling normal again. Cycling with my buddy Marcel, the plan was that simple. No, it wasn’t that easy after all. Because with Marcel you don’t just sit on the saddle and drive off. Marcel insisted that we check the weather forecast days in advance.
The Germans are really conspicuously complicated in every matter, I thought to myself. Even the weather. I didn’t really take it seriously. It can be said that many Syrians pay little or no attention to the weather. It is hot to very hot in summer and rarely really cool in winter. Weather isn’t a format on the news that anyone really pays attention to. In Syria, the most important thing is to follow the war news. Not least because of the fighting in their own country.
In Germany, I notice that people pay close attention to the weather forecast on TV, on the radio and via Google. In Syria, people are more likely to follow each other. Most of the news channels there should not be trusted. Politics is twisted and even the weather forecast is wrong. Because even that is used to make the President look good. His TV channel claims it’s sunny even though it’s cloudy. If it serves to get Assad supporters to attend a pro-Assad demo, then this means is also acceptable.
One summer it was very hot in Syria, actually 45 degrees. On TV you could hear something below 40 degrees. Why? So that the people don’t get angry. The scarce electricity is regulated by the government, in large parts of the country you only have access to electricity for three to four hours a day in summer. The hotter the temperatures, the greater the dissatisfaction with refrigerators and ventilation systems being switched off.
Here in Bavaria the weather is changeable, simply complicated. Sometimes you experience all four seasons in one day. At noon the air conditioning runs, in the evening the heating. It would be an interesting scenario if the people of Munich had to get by with just four hours of electricity a day. I now monitor the weather every day when planning a trip, trip or barbecue.
Back in Syria, when the weather news came on TV, my grandmother got up and told me to put out feed for the donkey. I did that and while the donkey chewed we watched him. It was very clear: if the donkey’s ears are pricked up, he’ll be happy because the sun will shine tomorrow. If his ears droop, then it’s going to be cloudy.
A Syrian proverb says: Do not eat straight from the pot, lest there be a storm on your wedding day. In Munich, the grandmothers and grandmothers of the city also have their meteorological wisdom: Eat your plates empty, then the weather will be nice tomorrow!