Markus and Brian's Excellent European Adventure

Jacob's Wheelchair

I think I'll aim for a daily update now so I can get the remaining pictures out of the way ASAP.

Here's a short movie of Markus horsing around with his little cousin Jacob at his grandparents' place in Germany. No, the poor kid's not normally in a wheelchair.

Sounds stupid, but it always amazed me to hear little kids speaking different languages wherever we went. "Markus! That kid is SPEAKING ITALIAN! That's weird!"

Ich Bin Kein Berliner

Hey there Peoples,

Having been exposed to Berlin for a couple of days now, I can tell you with confidence that this is the kind of place that has something for everyone. The amount of renovation and fixing up that has gone on here is simply phenomenal and it's not exactly hard to see that people here have not been shy about spending money to brush away most signs of the recent past. I had the pleasure of taking a 9 hour walking tour through Berlin yesterday which went through every little detail of WW II and the cold war when Berlin was divided into 4 different regions. If ever you were curious about how the Nazis gained their power or how and from where they managed to orchestrate everything with such deadly efficiency, then Berlin is the place you want to be. The stories, the places and even the general aura of certain buildings like the SS headquarters sent shivers down my spine after the tour guide gave us vivid and detailed descriptions of exactly what went on there. It really hits home when you see some of the memorials for people who were killed trying to cross the wall with dates not yet twenty years old.

Anyways, that´s enough depressing talk for one posting. Besides all that history Berlin has museums, operas, theatres, a philharmonic orchestra and a night life to rival almost any other city in Europe. I haven´t had a lot of time here, but so far what I´ve seen and done has left me with nothing but the warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction to comfort me. I even had the pleasure of eating at a restaurant attached to a cooking school today, so the prices were phenomenal and were I the teacher I would have to give these guys an A+ for their efforts to make my meal tasty. I'm still planning on checking out a couple of museums and then I'll be catching the night train to Paris so that I can catch up to Brian in Ireland in a couple of days. I'll let you peoples know how I make out in Frenchy land and then, if I can remember how to use a computer or what a computer even is, I'll be able to talk all about those famous Irish pubs.

Until then, take it easy,

Markus

Just Call Me Hansel

Hey there peoples,

What Brian has said is indeed true. I am back with my family being fattened up for the kill once again (as it turns out I lost 6kg between leaving them and coming back) and I plan to check out Berlin, maybe my birth town of Cologne (It's Köln in german, so no jokes about how I smell) and then I plan to meet up with Brian in Paris (I like using brackets because they make my run-on sentences even longer. Woohooo! I'm gonna sing the long song now. long long long long long... sorry).

Anyways, I promised you people some descriptions of Rome, so to counter my usual format of horrendously wordy sentences, I'm going to try things in a concise single-adjective format. Rome was:

Hot. Ancient. Crumbly. Gi-normous. Catacomby. Fat...Ph-Fat that is.

Okay, so maybe I haven't escaped the early 90s and my wielding of adjectives in such a manner has turned out to be more dangerous than descriptive. Maybe adjectives just aren't my thing. Whatever it is, I guess I'll have to resort to the old fashioned paragraphs that I am only slightly more proficient at. Alrighty then, lets cut to the chase: Rome was amazing. In fact, I would have to say that Rome has been my favourite city on this trip thus far for many reasons. Some of these reasons I dare not tell you, some might even disturb you, but what I can say is that there is simply so much that has survived here which is still interesting to look at, that it can do nothing else but blow my fragile little mind. We tried to absorb all that we could in the two meager days that we had, but upon retrospect I realize that this was not nearly enough time to do Rome justice. There is, of course, the intense and excruciating heat to contend with, but as far as history and architecture and sheer jaw-dropping, awe-struck wonderment is concerned, Rome wins my vote hands down. I think the reason that I feel so intensely about this is that I have many other places to compare it too now. I've been to greece and I've seen the condition their temples are in. Sure, the experience is still relevant and intense especially when a little imagination is thrown in on the side, but being impressed by something like the Pantheon in Rome requires nothing more than the two little eyes in my head. First of all, the Pantheon has a one up on most of the stuff in Greece because it's still standing after 2000 years. All of it. But when you see the size of the dome on this thing and consider when it was built, bewilderment is the only natural thing to follow the glance up. I mean, the pyramids are big, but at the end of the day they're a bunch of blocks piled up on one another. When I saw that dome with the knowledge that it had been built over 2000 years ago, I could do nothing more than shake my head and wonder at the ingenuity that must have been used to bring something like it into existence. On top of this you have the coliseum, the Roman Forum, countless fountains, ancient ports, ruins of every size and shape and the list goes on.

Enough of that. I guess I could have summed it up with "If old buildings is your thing, check out Rome.", but then again you should know me by now. After Rome, we found ourselves visiting these five little villages, appropriately called Cinque Terre, which lie on a 12 kilometer long stretch along the Mediterranean sea. The countryside consists of sheer cliffs and green rolling hills and is graced by the presence of the 5 small villages and vineyards in such a manner that can only bring a smile to ones face. Brian and I decided that hiking the narrow and winding path connecting the five towns was the only sensible thing to do when confronted with beauty such as this, and as a result we were richly rewarded with kodak moments galore. I won't share these pictures with you right now, but am content to string you along with empty promises that they are coming soon. What I mean to say is, "Brian has the camera and I don't know when he'll have time to post pictures".

I feel that this is the time to leave you, after being shunned and disappointment, and have only this to say to you in consolation. "your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"

Take it easy,

Markus

P.S. I've been dying to do some inside jokes for a while. I appologize to those who don't get them.

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

Deutschland Continued

I'm still in Germany as I write this, and will be until tomorrow morning at the earliest. I couldn't travel to Dijon, France on a Tuesday evening night train because of the French rail strike, but I could go during the day, I was told. Then yesterday, after saying goodbye to Markus and his extended family, I found out rail travel during the day wasn't possible, either. So I opened the guidebook, waved my finger blindly over the map before jabbing at a spot, and hoped on a five hour train ride to Freiburg, deep in the Black Forest in southwestern Germany.

It's a small city of about 200,000 people, over 10% of which are students. It makes me cry to see the kind of place Waterloo could be if students weren't overcome by active apathy. And I'm not even seeing the full picture; I chatted on the whole second half of my train ride with a German student who lamented that I was visiting his beloved student town during a school holiday week. I really would have seen the city in action if I had come just 3 days later. But even still, the place was alive on the streets, especially around the university quarter. So many hang-out spots, cafes, bars, bike paths, trees, old well-kept buildings, and energy in the people all around.

My German friend on the train was studying something to do with sports health, and we talked about everything. Particularly interesting was that Germany youths used to be obsessed with everything American. If you wore a t-shirt with the American World Cup soccer team's logo on it, you were sure to get several girls, at once. Now, all the American clothing and expressions are mothballed.

Also, Germany youths (possibly just the men, I don't know) have been required to serve in the military for 18 months for some time now. But now, the time requirement's been dropped to 9 months, and there's an alternative option to do community service for 10 months instead. My German friend opted for the latter. It was tough work, he said, especially when he was working in a hospital and the old World War II veterans condemned his choice of community service, ranting that if he had been around during the war, he would have been lined up and shot. Great to see some things never change.

Anyway! Today, since the French train strike is still continuing, I took a cable car up to the nearby mountain in the high Black Forest region. The slopes are covered by a canopy of trees, and a maze of hiking and biking paths wind their way everywhere. I packed a bottle of water, some bread and cheese, and hiked around all day. The Black Forest wasn't quite totally dark as night, but the tree cover was pretty dense in many areas. It was also almost deserted today, making for a very relaxing trek. Insert some long-winded comment about spiritual growth and being one with nature here.

And now, I'm waiting for a train (after missing my first train, oops) to take me to the nearby small town of Baden-Baden, renowned for its two huge ritzy and glitzy health thermal spas. Waterfalls, pools, saunas, grottos, both hot and cold. I'm looking forward to it after a full day of hiking. One of the two spas has a strict no-clothing rule; I'm not sure if I would have gone, but since it's the far more expensive of the two, my decision's been made for me. (Phew!)

Erk, I better run and catch my train. Tschuss!

Achtung, Kinder!

My time here in Germany has been incredibly memorable. Living with a typical German family is an experience I won't soon forget, and I really feel like I've made some pretty strong connections.

Recap: The last week we've been swimming almost daily at a friend's nearby pool or at the town swimming park, visiting the beer gardens and massive city park in Munich, exploring the BMW museum (the more modern relics and future advanceds exhibits at the top level were the most interesting), hiking up to the castles south of Munich (which were a little bit of a letdown when you realized just how recently they were built; they had photographs of their construction), hiking around the Olympia Park (host of the 1972 Olympic Games), and having several visits with Markus' family and friends. Today I also had a great time meeting up with two friends from my time at Redknee, currently in the Munich office for the summer.

Still, I'm incredibly eager to get going and move on. Every night, I gaze longingly at the nighttime sky for hours, thinking that the very same stars I see glittering in the sky are being watched by a certain special tourist information booth out there, hundreds of miles away, waiting just for me. Being in one place in Germany has been fun, but I really need to move on.

So, tomorrow morning I'm off to the train station to work my way across to Dijon, France, in the middle of the Cote D'Or wine region. Markus will be hanging back here in Germany for a few days, and we'll likely meet up again in Switzerland.

It's time to travel again! I'm pumped. Before I head off to bed, some pictures from the past few weeks. Captions are after the pictures.

1) Starting from left: Me, Christina (Markus' aunt), Joseph, Jacob, Tina (bottom) and Sushi (top). Joseph, Jacob, and Tina are Markus' cousins, and Sushi is Tina's best friend. (It's a nickname; Germans aren't that crazy to name their kids after Japanese delicacies.)
2) Markus, with a girl on both sides, as usual.
3) Markus' cousins mimick his two most frequent looks.
4 & 5) The Glockenspiel in Munich. The little figures move around in circles at noon. Terribly boring, but since we spent so much time watching it, dammit, we weren't about to walk away without a memory of it.
6 & 7) The main street in Landshut, an old town an hour out of Munich. It looks touristy, but it was 100% locals. Very quaint.
8) Markus tries to look calm and collected while fighting his overwhelming fear of heights.
9) The local castle in Landshut. Your town just ain't worth it, they say in Germany, if it ain't got a castle.
10) Admiring the view from the castle hill.
11) A view from the castle. I like this shot a lot.
12) Our favourite vacation photo so far. The sign reads, in German, "Watch out! Children shoot hadoken fireballs!"
13) A typical German neighborhood. (This one's for you, Serge.)
14) A view of the distant Alps as we head towards the castles in southern Germany.
15) The smaller castle near the big Neuschwanstein castle.
16) The view from Neuschwanstein. It was raining at the time, but still, we like this shot.
17) A sunset taken on the long train ride back to Munich from the castles. If you're looking for a desktop background, we'll have some better sunset pictures soon...
18 & 19) Me at the bluescreen exhibit in the Broadcasting section of the Deutsches Museum. I had no idea what was on the screen when Markus took these pictures of the TV; I was trying to imitate the opening sequence of Tracy Morgan's Brian Fellows character on SNL.
20 & 21 & 22) Some random, dry photos of a residential area in the German countryside. (For you, Serge!)
23) German hop fields. These are guarded by soldiers.
24) Markus, lost in thought.
25) The 4-cylinder BMW building, the BMW Museum, and part of Munich.
26) Slightly sunburnt, me hanging out with Kaoru and Gary in downtown Munich.

Anyway, time to catch some sleep, and make up the rest on the long train ride to France tomorrow.

Role Model

I spent most of my time tonight replying to emails, prepping a new batch of photos, and trying vainly to pull myself away from the German version of Braveheart, so I'll make this update brief and get to the meat and potatoes (or Bangers and Mash, as they say in Britain -- thanks Dave) tomorrow.

These photos below are from the beer garden at the center of the Englischer Garten in Munich yesterday.

Listen, I'm still a little touchy and embarrassed about the whole afternoon, so just go easy on me, okay? Okay.

Gardens of Beer, MMmm Beer

Hello everybody,

Yesterday was a good day. The sun was shinning and casting its glorious warmth across the green fields of the English Gardens, people were lazing about and soaking in what a slow Saturday afternoon had to offer them, and as we strolled through this earthly re-creation of Eden our ears were graced with the sweet sound of clinking beer mugs, boisterous laughter and, to bring it all together, some traditional German folk music. I'm sure that Brian would describe it even better than I, but unfortunately he passed out after the second liter of beer and hasn't yet remembered who he is or why he has some guy's phone number in his back pocket.

Nah, just kidding, we only drank one liter each since the beers cost about 5.80 euros per mug (That's about $9.50 Canadian), and although the mugs are one liter each, that's expensive beer. The experience was well worth that heightened price, however, and judging by how busy the place was, a lot of other people agree with us on that note. What really topped the day off for me was coming across a smaller Beer Garden within the park where the band was playing some high spirited jazz instead of Umpa Polka music. We had some ice cream and watched as the people on stage used those instruments to weave together some of the best Jazz Fusion that I've ever had the pleasure of listening too. The day was one filled with simple pleasures, but marvelous all the same.

On a more personal note, yesterday I also did something I told myself I would not do on this trip. I went out and bought myself a cheap discman along with some Weezer, RATM and the first 9 symphonies composed by Beethoven. The CDs were all on super sale, so it didn't cost me that much, but I was still hoping to get through this trip without having to resort to this. I thought that I would allow my horizons to be broadened by listening to the kinds of music that all these European countries have to offer, but after hearing 50 cent come on for the 1 millionth time I have decided that the world is being reduced to a state that doesn't include anything that even remotely resembles the words "good taste". There have been moments when good music I would never hear anywhere back home has come on, but alas I have discovered that I am an addict and since this is a vacation I have decided to get my fix.

Anyways, that's about it on my end. Brian and I have some great pictures for you that we'll post up later today.

Take it easy,

Markus

New Threads

Website has been redesigned, as you can see. Still some minor stuff to be tweaked, though, and we plan to fill up some of the empty space in the title. Let me know if something doesn't display properly in your browser. (And let me know what you think!)

Now's also a good time to hand out some mad propz. Thanks to my incomparable S.O. Heather for the Bill & Ted-imitated logo, and thanks to John Ko for the great site name idea. Also thanks to Jessie Shen for the Europe map graphic I have yet to incorporate into the site, but for which I should thank her, lest she heap yet more bitter scorn upon my name.

Don't poke me, I'm full of chocolate!

Hello Everybody,

I'm sorry that we haven't been too frequent with the updates lately, but it's hard to get to the computer to type up an entry when you're busy gorging yourself. I'm glad that I don't live here any more for the simple reason that if I did, I wouldn't be able to fit behind this keyboard to write an update. My previous theory that I would get into really good shape on this trip has been replaced by the hope that I can work off what this visit to Germany has done to me.

Even though it doesn't sound like it we've also been enjoying some of the things Germany has to offer that are not edible in nature. So far we've managed to see the Glockenspiel, BMW museum and the Olympia park in Munich. Yesterday we also made the 3 hour treck to Füssen (very close to the Austrian border) so that we could see two spectacular castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau (You can look up some great pictures of these on the internet). Today we plan to go to the a huge science and technology museum based in Munich called the Deutsches Museum. They have one of the coolest exhibits there where they take a "volunteer" from the crowd, put him in a giant metalic sphere and shoot a huge bolt of electricity towards said volunteer. Instead of spontaneously combusting, like you would expect, the person remains completely unharmed due to the physics involved with the sphere. I think I'm going to "volunteer" Brian for this one and just not tell him what's going on. "No Brian, it's okay, step into the metal sphere. You can trust us Germans." Then once he's in there I'll yell, "Sucker!" as loud as I can and run away laughing maniacally. It'll be great!

Anyways, I have to get going, but I just wanted to let you all know that we're doing great. I'll probably be fifty pounds heavier when I leave Germany, but hey, I can always swim it off in Greece.

Take it easy,

Markus

Das ist fil spass

We're currently deep in the heart of Bavaria at Markus' aunt's farm / house, and it's been an experience that's been both very rewarding and moderately frustrating so far. Before I get onto that, a few quick notes on Versailles and the trip to Munich:

Home Away From Home

Hello everybody,

Friday we got to Munich with the night train (formerly called sleeper train, but sleep is not exactly what you get when they pack you in like sardines and jerk the train to a stop every half hour). We exited the train rubbing our eyes, but I was glad to be back in a place where I understood the language. We took another quick train to Moosburg after which we called Christine and were picked up by my uncle Josef and my cousin Jacob. Coming back to Mauern was wonderful for me. Memories of previous visits came flooding back and I started to get that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you come back to something pleasant and familiar.

After some warm greetings, we were given some lunch and this is when I knew for sure that we were back in Germany. A large assortment of breads, some warm Leberkässe and delicious potato salad were offered along with questions about what kind of dinner we would like that evening. These are my kind of people! After lunch we went to visit my Grandparents to have cake and coffee and Brian got the pleasure of seeing several photos of me in my younger "afro" years. Even though he got to see embarrassing pictures of me, I did feel kind of bad for Brian since a lot of the time I simply forgot to translate for him. There were also a lot of times when I would become involved with the discussion and then minutes would go by before I would "sum up" what was being said. Instead of seeking a better translator, Brian has decided to take the burden of learning some German upon himself, much to our amusement. He is making some progress, though, and it'll only be a short while before he'll be able to say some short key phrases such as, "Hallo. Mein name ist Brian. Bitte schlage mich sehr hart ins Gesicht." I taught him that one myself :-) (check it out with Babel fish if you don't speak German.)

Aside from actually doing our laundry, eating well and seeing all my relatives we've been making plans about what we want to see down here. Today is my grandfather's birthday, but next week we plan to travel to Munich so that we can drink and sing in the famous German beer gardens. Oh, I mean to see the wonderful museums and, uh, majestic castles and, ummm, see the Olympic park and... drink and sing in the beer gardens! Yay. (maybe I am a bit of a raging boozer, but then again I don't feel so bad about it now that Brian's sexuality is being questioned again.)

Seriously, though, we're having a great time down here and it's hard not to feel welcome when you get the amazing hospitality that Christine and Sepp give out without thought. A big thank you from both of us for everything!

I hope that everyone's summer is going as well as ours thus far and if anybody out there wants some postcards, just e-mail me and let me know your address and from where you want it.

Take it easy,

Markus

P.S. We had some technical difficultis yesterday (Christine's computer froze on Brian after doing a LOT of work. As a result, istead of throwing though the window, he prudently decided to go to bed.) Pictures will come after my Grandfather's Birthday today and we'll have a smaller version of them for all you poor dial-up users out there.