Markus and Brian's Excellent European Adventure

Life Without Brian

I woke up today and discovered that Brian was missing. I was very confused at first since he almost always sleeps later in the mornings than myself due to his evening chats with Heather, but today he was up before me. I was puzzled at first, but then like a truck driven by inebriated monkeys, it hit me. Brian was gone. I remembered it clearly then, the conversation on the platform for his train. He kept saying, "It's not you... It's me. I think it's time we started seeing other Countries." Oh, I've heard that line before, but I know he'll be back. I hope he'll be back...

Actually, I'm very glad that Brian decided to go on by himself for a little bit. Staying here just because of me would have created an endless loop of me feeling bad for him because he feels committed to stay out of courtesy, and him suppressing the desire to go and see more of what's out there. He doesn't have the same family ties here that I do, and therefore, when I said goodbye yesterday with a handshake and a smile, I was truly hoping that he'd have fun off in French land with all his fellow French-talking people. Alas, Brian had the misfortune of meeting the consequences of the strike head on, but somehow I think that he'll still have a lot of fun being stuck in a town filled with nothing but students on holiday and lots of beer.

As for me, I'm doing just fine. I've been shopping and swimming and visiting people and generally doing whatever I feel like doing at any given time. I ended up buying another shirt, which is lighter and brighter than my others, since the sun decided it was time to test the combustion thresholds of my skin recently. There are people out there with cherry-red convertibles that would have envied my skin colour yesterday. I've also continued to support my nasty little habit through bad influences such as Incubus and Green Day, but on the whole, life is pretty good. I'm enjoying a life filled with food, family and fun and that alone is more than I could ask for. I'm still looking forward to the continuation of our most excellent adventure, of course, but I'm also appreciating the wonderful time I'm having with family members that I don't have the pleasure of seeing very often. I'll do a big wrap up posting on Sunday and then I'll be off to meet Brian in Interlaken, Switzerland. Home to everything that has any connection to the X-treme Games. Until then, party on!

Markus