March 29, 2009: Tom Takes Helga to Duisberg

I got up at 10:00, or actually what was 11:00 thanks to daylight savings time. It was nice to sleep in for once. I had a coffee and a nice little breakfast before packing up Helga’s panniers with food, water, warm clothes and a bag of gummy bears and heading out.

 

I wanted to go west from Ratingen to Kaiserswerth then north to Duisberg and loop back through Lintorf to Ratingen, this would have been around 40km or so, a nice distance to cover on a 1960’s era three speed. The weather was being nice and I cruised along the road-side bike path for 15km or so just enjoying myself. I reached a fork in the road and decided to take the more exciting looking path, the dirt one. It ended up skirting all the way around Düsseldorf International Airport. This was ok though because I got to take a break and watch the planes fly close above my head on their way to the runway.

 

I passed the airport and went into an affluent neighborhood filled with boulevards teeming with tulips. I took a seat in a nice park and enjoyed a water and gummy bear break. From there I went to Kaiserswerth, along the cobblestone streets, beside the castle and along the Rhein River. After a long while of biking I made it to Duisberg, at least the outskirts of Duisberg, and took a seat in a café at the local horse riding school. I had a small lunch ruined only by the fact that I was an idiot and put lemon in my tea with my milk.

 

After that I got nice and lost, for about two hours. It was not the bad kind of lost though, the weather was nice and I was exploring! I ended up in Duisberg Süd. I found the most significant landmark of Duisberg Süd, a small white mausoleum; I took a picture and continued on.

 

I found a bus stop that had the name of the train station near my house on it as the final destination and played Hansel and Gretel following the bus stops back to my house. I finally was home! My journey ended up being about 60km and 5 hours. Helga more lumbers then zooms along, but she got the job done. I made a great dinner for 6 even though it was just me here and saved the rest for lunches. I typed up some blog, watched a movie and hit the hay.

March 28, 2009: Transit to Transit

Today I got up at 9:00 and made myself a wonderful breakfast. Fried eggs, hashbrowns and toast with cheese. The forecast was for lots of rain so the plan for today changed from biking to Wuppertal to taking the train. I took my sweet time getting ready and finally left at around 13:12.

 

Two trains and 45min later I arrived in Wuppertal, the home of the worlds oldest monorail. The monorail is really the only thing to see in Wuppertal. In fact, the Wikipedia article on the Wuppertal Schwebebahn is longer then the one on Wuppertal itself. I off of the train and stopped by the mall for some food. I only went to the mall because I wanted to get out of the rain. I got some döner and kiwi juice then headed out for some monorail!

 

The Wuppertal monorail is a suspended monorail that opened in the year 1901. It has 13.3km of track and is mostly suspended 12m above the river Wupper. It is really a sight to see. I paid my 2.20 Euro to ride the monorail and took a great trip from one end of the line to the other and back. The whole car tilts on the corners and the elevated position gives a great view of the city. The other neat thing about the monorail is that most of the stations are suspended above the river as well so while you wait for the monorail you can look down into the river.

 

I got off after I finished traveling the length of the track and luckily the sun came out to greet me. I decided to take advantage of the sun and walk along the Wupper and back to the main station to catch a train back to Ratingen. Sorry Wuppertal you are a bit of a one trick pony, you have your monorail, but what else?

 

I got back into town and I decided to go out and have a beer at the bar. I went to DasLiberty, the American Bar in town in hopes that there would be English people that I could talk to. Unfortunately I was not feeling up to approaching random groups of half-drunk people who may or may not speak my language in an attempt to make some friends and I promptly left after one beer.

 

I got home and hit the hay, after some Sypeing. 

March 27, 2009: Tom and Helga go for a Ride

I was productive at work today, got some quotes sent out for and gathered some more data for my work term report. I left work at 3pm. I wanted to take Helga (the name of my little blue bike out for a ride through the countryside.

 

I had no idea how nice the area right outside Ratingen was. I biked to the bike store and bought a helmet; it was more expensive then my bike. Then biked briefly along a secondary highway before going along the narrow cobblestone roads of the nearby hamlet of Homberg. I found the bike path that I was looking for and started on my way. The trail went through lush green farmers fields, then into a forest with a calm creek meandering through it. The whole time I was on a single lane cement path. Helga liked this.

 

I figured out how to use the gears on my bike. Old-fashioned hub gears do not like being shifted while pedaling, you have to stop pedaling and then shift. The path weaved through old looking farmer’s houses and gradually turned from paved to hard packed dirt. This was still ok for Helga as she is not a road bike and has a little tread on her tires. After I made it to Hösel things got interesting. The path got dirtier and muddier; soon I was offroading, I mean offroading for a city bike with thin tires, no shocks and panniers on. I ended up going the wrong way and ended up in a mud puddle under a bridge adjacent to the train tracks. I found my way and I was soon back on pavement and able to enjoy a smooth ride back home.

  

This is my first weekend at home so I made the most of it and got to bed at 7pm. 

March 26, 2009: Shelving

Got up the usual hour, two smacks of the snooze button and I was ready to go. I broke my promise to myself and ended up bussing to work. At work I was busy assembling shelves and gathering data. After work I was somehow very lazy. I decided to check out how comfortable my couch was and laid down. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to watch two movies in a row, I fell asleep at some point during some sub-par Hollywood flick. 

March 25, 2009: Meeting, Take Two

I have work now!!! I finally gathered the troops together and hosted my little meeting. The long and short of it is that I now have some work to do! Most of it is in the factory, so no Ron Burgundy suit tomorrow just grungy jeans, man sweat and a torque wrench in both hands, that’s right, both hands. Anyway I was properly happy and actually got some stuff done this afternoon. Tomorrow I am going to bike to work. This weekend I am going to bike to Wuppertal, a local town that has the world oldest monorail, it was sold to them by some guy named Lyle Lanley (Simpsons reference).

 

I got home and watched “Good morning Vietnam,” typed some bloggage then got to bed.

March 24, 2009: The Little Raccoon that Could

According to Wikipedia it is illegal in Germany to house a raccoon in a pen by itself. You have to have two raccoons in order to prevent loneliness; it is true, look it up. I was sort of feeling like an illegal raccoon today. All day at work I only had business conversation, no talking about the weather or what people are doing on the weekend, just blankets of overheard audio noise and engineer valve talk.

It is a bit late to come to this conclusion but instead of attempting to wallow in self-pity, I am not very good at that, I am going to make a real effort to learn more German and make work the best part of my day. Of course the first step to having a good time is buy a bike, not really but that makes for a good segue into my next story. By the way that is one of the dumbest spellings for a word ever, did the Segway Corperation just steal the right spelling?

So I bought a bike today after work from the used bike store by the train station. I went all out. Her name is Helga, she is a three speed bike with hub gears, back-pedal brakes, a headlamp and taillight and it is a cool blue colour. To break her in I went for a ride to near by Homberg. It was a nice 5km on roadside bike trail. To celebrate making it there I stopped at the pub for a beer. Then I biked back in time for dinner, that I made. Bed time came swiftly after.

March 23, 2009: Meeting?

Today was rainy. I went to work and nobody showed up to the meeting that I scheduled, that was a let down. I talked to everyone and set a new date. I got me some eats at the grocery store on the way home and had an uneventful evening.

March 22, 2009: The Largest Technology Museum in the World: ACTUALLY!

I got up at 5am and said goodbye to Brad. He was kind enough to let me stay there after he left and I slept for another 2 hours before getting up and starting the day. My goal for the day was to visit the Deusches Museum in Munich. I went for a breakfast at the same place that I went with Brad the day before and ordered an Obama Bun, a Taj-Mahal Bun and a coffee and took a seat. It was great. A short walk after that brought me to the train station where I caught the train to Munich.

The hour and a half train ride gave me some time to read the book that my mom had sent me in the mail “The Sparrow.” Pretty good so far, and believe it or not it is my fourth book that I have read this semester! The others being “Jurassic Park,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Anyway, I was soon in Munich. I got a map and headed to the museum. I managed not to get lost and was soon in the foyer of the kind of place that, if there was a bar, would be the closest thing that I could fathom to Engineer Heaven.

I got in for 3 Euro, because I am a student, and walked into the first exhibit, of 40! The Marine Navigation Exhibit was massive, not unlike all the others that I explored over the next 4 and a half hour that I was there. My favorite two exhibits were the mining exhibit: they transformed the basement and subbasement into a mine. They covered the walls with fiberglass rock and had all different types of shorings, mining technologies and tales of how terrible it was and still is to work in some mines. To give you an impression of just how large this was it took me 45min of walking at a reasonable museum-pace to cover the whole thing!

My other personal favorite was the Aeronautics exhibit. Three floors of planes on the floor, the walls and hanging from the roof. They had cross sections of various types of jet engine that I sat and ogled for a very long time. I will leave it at that, but if you ever have the chance GO HERE IT IS HEAVEN!

I left and went to Starkbierfest, a celebration of a beer that is brewed only during lent by monks. Dirndl and Lederhosen were ubiquitous, ska music was playing and strong beer was served from ceramic mugs. It was interesting to sit in on. I really would have liked to have some buddies there for this event but I made the most of it. I had a beer and a giant pretzel. Then the trip home.

I got home at 1:00, talked to my mom and got to bed.

March 21, 2009: Climbing up a Ski Hill

I awoke at 9am after a sub par night sleep, I would later figure out that I slept on the wrong side of the mattress. I had a shower and got ready for the day. We were planning on going to Partnach Gorge, a famously beautiful area near town. Brad was ready and soon were heading out in search of some breakfast.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a beautiful town filled with the true essence, in my mind, of what Bavaria should look like. Most of the buildings in town have ornate murals painted on the walls adjacent the street; these murals depict everything from religious scenes to fairy tales. There was snow on the ground and I could not be happier. We stopped for breakfast at a local bakery, I was surprised at how inexpensive everything was, and had some food. We were going to meet one of the girls from The Abrams at 12:30 so we had some time to waste until then. We went shopping. At 12:30 we realized that Brad's friend could not come and we departed. We took the bus to the stadium from the 1936 Winter Olympics. The Patnach Gorge starts directly behind the building. We asked a lady at the shop there where it was and figured out that it was in fact closed due to avalanche danger. Damn.

We adjusted the game plan and decided to hike up a ski hill instead. We headed to the base of the Eckbauer, the mountain with the massive ski jumps at its base. The sun was out and we enjoyed a 2 and a half hour sunny walk up the ski hill. We got to the top and sat down at the Bavarian style lodge at the summit. We grabbed some water and took a seat on the balcony. We had an amazing view over the Alps. After sitting for a while we went into the restaurant and enjoyed some spaghetti. We sat for a while longer until the place closed, at 16:00. We then began the trip down the hill.

I REALLY wished that I had skis or a sled at this point. Walking down a ski hill, how lame is that? We were passed by two parents and their kids on GT Racers. Oh well, the walk down was a lot easier then the trip up and we were at the base in no time. We caught a bus back into the Garmisch side of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and stopped for some chicken at the local chicken shop.

Brad had work the next day at 5:00 so he got to bed early. I watched some Looney Toons with one of his neighbors for a while then hi the hay too.

March 20, 2009: String Theory to Clubbing: Good Times in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

I got to work at 7:00 this morning, later then I would have liked because I forgot my bus pass at home and had to miss the bus I wanted. At work today I worked away drafting up a part for the factory here. I actually spent the whole day working. That being said I did get off work at 13:00 so I guess it was not the WHOLE day.

After work I grabbed my backpack and my cloth bag with my compressed sleeping bag in it and got on the bus to the main train station in Dusseldorf. I had 40min to kill before my train left to Cologne so I grabbed a Döner at the local shop and sat in the sun waiting for the train.

Before the train that I wanted came another one (an ICE train) came to the platform. It said Cologne on it so I got on, I have this thing for ICE trains. Turns out that this train did not go to the station that I wanted in Cologne and I would have to take another train to Cologne Main Station. If I missed the connection then Bradley, my couchsurfing host, would be sitting at the train station and I would not be able to contact him. I got off the train and ran to the other platform caught the commuter train then got off that and ran to the train I would take to Manheim.

On this train I was sitting across from a guy who was doing very complicated looking integration at staggering speed. I inquired as to what it was about and I soon figured out that he is a professor researching string theory. Lucky for me I had just read the Wikipedia article on string theory. We spent the hour and a half ride talking about the 11 dimensions of space time as stated by the M-theory, the mystical Higg's particle and supersymmetry. I was surprised that I actually remembered what I had read. We parted ways in Manheim and I switched trains; onwards to Munich!

3 hours later my train pulled into Munich, I switched trains and was finally on route to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. An hour and a half later, at 21:00 I pulled into the station. I was happy to see snow on the ground, Ratingen has long been past the snowy part of winter. Brad was waiting for me on a bench in the station.

Brad is a Chef at the American run hotel in town. He is one of the many Americans staying in the Abrams, the staff residence of the hotel. Anyway, we shook hands and walked back to his residence building, the whole time talking about the US, Canada, Germany and all the fun little quirks that differentiate them. On route we picked up some beer at the gas station, and so the night began.

I checked into The Abrams with my passport, the place is guarded like a military base, and Brad proceeded to give me the tour of the place. Apparently it was an old Nazi hospital. It had wide hallways, medical-related murals painted on the walls above the stairs and in all probability the highest density of 'Proud Americans Live Here' doormats in Europe. The vibe of the place brought me back to residence in university, a bunch of 20 year olds living in a big building, the main difference is that these guys do not need to study and have a source of income.

Time to get our'pre-game' on, soon Brad's room was filled with an assortment of Americans drinking beer out of 2l glass bottles and having an all around merry time. The plan for the night was to go out to Music Café, a local disco. Brad and Lanea told me that it was possible to make it through the night there not buying any drinks (getting other people to buy them for you); I was not sure how that would work but the concept intrigued me.

A group of us walked to the club and the festivities began. Lights were flashing and sweaty people (some more so then others) bounced up and down on the dance floor. Sure enough drinks kept on coming my way. I would order a drink and offer to pay, then someone would say 'are you trying to insult me (by paying)' and soon I would have a drink in my hands free of charge. I was not sure why this was going on but it was nice. The night ended, as most great ones do, with a 3am trip to McDonald's. We got a ride back with the US Military Police. At some point during the ride I tried in vain to argue the superiority of the Canadian military, for some reason he did not believe me. He dropped us off and I was soon asleep on a spare mattress on the floor of Brad's room.

Garmisch

Deutsches MuseumOn the top of Eckbauer after a long hike
The ski jump
On the way up
Clubbing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

March 19, 2009: Running Wild

So it turns out that what I thought was a US Army base is actually the staff residence of a fancy hotel. Funny how I could make that mistake eh? So I am meeting Bradley at the train station in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps tomorrow at 9pm. I am planning to go hiking or cross country skiing on Saturday and go to the museums in Munich on Sunday. Either way I will be able to talk English, be it American English, to a English-as-a-first-languager.

Tonight the modivation to go for a run surged through me like an NFL linebacker through a line of engineers playing red-rover. I ran 5km no prob, had some amazing leftovers from last night, talked on Skype for a bit then watched “Dr. Strangelove: or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.” Bed time soon followed. THE ALPS TOMORROW!

March 18, 2009: Trying to Understand the World Around Me

Today on the bus four German kids were practicing their English in preparation for a test. This was the first time that I had truly understood what was being said in bus converstation. It made me a little homesick. Right now I have a very good understanding of German numbers, days of the week and months and very basic verbs. This can only take you so far in the world of overhearing bus conversation. 90% of the conversations that I overhear to me sound like this:

“I have . . . good . . . twenty three! Jajajaja. You . . . me . . . 6 o’clock Saturday. . . . good . . .. two hundred fifty . . . main train station . . . lettuce. . .. JAJAJA. But mom, I have no grocery bags. Bye!”

Good times. Work today was intersting. All this modivation I have mustered up is starting to actually deliver. I have managed to find a spare computer to use for the rest of the week while mine is in Egypt and I am drafting up some clever devices for use in the factory.

After I got home I tried to get off my butt and go for a run but watching low rate American trash cinima staring Adam Sandler seemed more tempting. I did however manage to fashon myself an amazing meal: egg fried rice with lentils and seared pork tenerloin, oh so good. I watched “Don’t Mess With The Zohan” and went to bed.

Pics from Holland

The Haag Central Station
A Middelburg canal
Dave, Wessel and Kim on a bridge in Veere
Me, Wessel, Kim and Dave in front of the Delta Works
The 42m wide sluice gate and hydraulic actuator 

March 17, 2009: Pushups and Planning

Today that was pretty much all that I did after work, pushups and planning my next weekend’s trip. It looks like I am going to the Alps. I may be staying in a US Army base of sorts. We’ll see. You stay classy San Diego. 

March 16, 2009: Busy Bee

Today at work I felt a surge of initiative and spent the day getting things done that were above and beyond what I needed to. Half the people are away on vacation or business so I was working on the desk of one of colleagues because he is out on vacation. Julia brought cake and Günter went for donors so I was full and when I am full I am happy.

Sarah from VICEG was meant to spend the night at my house tonight so I got home and tidied up for her and made some dinner. I sat and typed up my blog as I waited. 8, 9, 10 o'clock passed and still no sign. I was getting worried. Eventually at 11 o'clock the bell rang. I sprung up out of bed and answered it. Turns out that Sarah pulled a Tom and took the wrong train, then once at the staion closest to my house a wrong turn. I makes me feel good that I am not the only one with a bad sence of direction.

I showed Sarah to the couch and I hit the hay.

March 15, 2009: Sights that Transcend my Concept of Amazing

I got up at 8:00 and felt like the king of the world. I did not realize how bad my mattress at the rental house is until I realized how refreshed I felt after sleeping here. I got up and looked out over the Dutch countryside. Wow, what a beautiful place. I had an amazing hour of doing nothing but sipping tea and thinking about my European adventure thus far. At 9:00 is was breakfast time and I did not want to keep Vera, the name of the B&B owner, waiting.

 

Breakfast was in the sunroom. Calm classical music was playing and the leaves of the bushes in the garden outside fluttered in the wind. Vera had lined up one amazing breakfast. An egg, a bun, three types of jam, two types of cheese, a smoothie, coffee, milk, fresh fruit with icing sugar on top and yogurt with honey and walnuts on top. I was in heaven. After breakfast I called Wessel because he said that he would pick me up in the morning to bring me back into town.

 

I checked out the playground adjacent to the B&B while I was waiting. In the playground there was one piece of play equipment that is not often found in Canadian playgrounds: a WWII German anti-air bunker. I went into it and checked it out; it was very bunker-like. Wessel came and drove me into town. He gave me a tour of his university; it is housed in the former town hall of  Middelburg, a very old Belgian style building complete with flying buttresses. UVic ain’t got nothin’ on that.

 

We stopped for coffee in front of the main building of the university and chatted for a while under the blue sky. Wessel asked if I wanted to go to the Haag in the afternoon and catch a train home from there, of course I said yes. We were going to leave at 13:00 so it gave me some time to further explore the town. We parted ways and I set off.

 

I walked along the canals on a gravel path; I walked past windmills and tulips galore and the whole time I was lucky enough to have the sun warming me to an early summer like temperature. I picked up some bread and amazing Dutch cheese and sat on a bench along the side of the canal and just took it all in. After the canals I checked out the rest of the town, everything from the small, completely garbage free, alleys to the churches and buildings rebuilt in the old style after the German bombing raids.

 

At 12:30 I started back to the Residence building to meet Wessel. I got there and found out that two girls would be sharing the ride with us. Joy and *_____* are two nice girls originally from Africa who are also studying at the Roosevelt Academy.

 

Two and a half hours later Wessel dropped me off in The Haag and we parted ways after some goodbyes. What a nice fellow. Now I had 3 hours to wonder the city until my train came.

 

I found The Haag to be similar to Amsterdam in the fact that it had canals and a big city feel, however The Haag had a more serious undertone to it and less tourists. I walked around for a while and had a seriously overpriced beer then got on the train home.

 

I got home at 22:30, talked on Skype for a wile then hit the hay.

March 14, 2009: If Ya Ain’t Dutch Ya Ain’t Much

In my standard travel fashion I got up at 4:30 to catch the first train to Middelburg. I will give the quick and dirty of my trip to Middelburg:

 

Ratingen Ost to Düsseldorf            Departs 5:12

Dusseldorf to Venlo                        Departs 5:48

Venlo to Breda                        Departs 7:79

Breda to Roosendaal                        Departs 8:52

Rosendaal to Goes                        Departs 8:59

Goes to Middelburg                        Departs 9:16

ARRIVE IN MIDDELBURG 10:26

 

I got off of the bus from Goes and saw that this place was much different from Utrecht or Amsterdam, the only Dutch cities that I had been to by this point. There is a draw bridge over the canal directly across from the main train station and rows of houses lining the canal. The main difference that I notice is that there is more of a sense of openness, the buildings are smaller and roads are wider.

 

The first thing that I had to do was contact Wessel, the guy that I met on couchsurfing.com. I soon figured out that the Dutch all have cell phones and therefore there is an extreme lack of payphones, they removed the one at the train station. I found a pay phone a bit further into town, but it was full of coins and did not accept Canadian credit cards (no chip) or T-Mobile chip cards (another provider). I asked some teenagers who were washing a car on the road where a phone was and they pointed me to the post office. The phone there did not accept my means of payment either and luckily the nice guy working there let me use his phone. Soon Wessel pulled up on his bike.

 

Wessel is a Philosophy student at Roosevelt Academy, a new university in town. We got a coffee at a place across the street from the post office. I learned about all the languages that he speaks and all his previous couch surfing experiences. After coffee we walked back to his residence building to drop off my bag and drive out to the Delta Works. I was traveling with my MEC 70L expedition pack (because my Arcteryx Blade 21 does not have room for my sleeping bag) and looked like a tool walking through town.

 

On the way back we met Wessel’s friend Kim and her buddy from Phillidelphia, Dave. They decided to join us on our adventure to the dyke. We dropped off my stuff back in rez and piled into Wessel’s Peugeot 205 and headed out. The dyke was 20km away so we had some time to check out the countryside. We saw the massive dykes lining the coast and Wessel told us where the spot the English bombed to drive out the occupying Germans was. Soon we were driving along the Oosterscheldekering, the largest of the Delta Works surge barriers, complete with ENORMOUS vertically mounted hydraulic actuators used to lift and lower the 42m wide steel sluice gates. Here is a great quote that is written on one of the plaques adjacent to the surge barrier from Wikipedia:

 

"Hier gaan over het tij, de wind, de maan en wij" ("Here the tide is ruled, by the wind, the moon and us (the Dutch)").

 

We pulled into the Delta Works Museum and headed in. Admission was a hefty 18.50 Euro, but it included a boat tour of the Delta Works and the adjacent marine sanctuary so it was not too bad.

 

We spent some time checking out the exhibits including the mussel expo, all about the little shellfish that are oh so popular for eating and pearl production. We then checked out a sweet Dutch 3D film that must have been from the 1990’s but was sweet nonetheless. I checked my watch; it was getting close to boat time! We headed out and watched the seals, at the seal show, doing tricks and splashing people.

 

After a cold blustery 15min wait in line we boarded the boat. The announcements were in 4 languages so there was a non-stop tape talking about all the details of the Delta Works. For those who still do not understand how impressive this was, know this:

 

“The Oosterscheldekering is sometimes referred to as the eighth Wonder of the World, and has been declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.”

 

Thanks Wikipedia. After the boat ride in the North Sea we checked out the other exhibits: the aquarium, the whale exhibit and a walk along the top of one of the surge barriers.

 

We all got into the car and headed off to the next destination: Veere. Veere is a small town with a population of 1500 people directly adjacent to the water protected by the Delta Works. Here we walked through a 18^th century fortification tunnel and saw some windmills. Then it was time for Apple Tart Cake. We all huddled under the heat lamps of a local café and had some apple tart cake and hot chocolate. This was nice.

 

After apple tart cake it was back to Kim’s place for some pasta. Residence at Roosevelt makes SAC look like a North Korean shantytown. Everyone has their own large room with kitchen and bathroom! While Kim cooked, I searched for a couch to surf. Wessel was in his room searching for a couch as well. No luck. The dinner was amazing and the boys volunteered to do the dishes. After that, together with Kim’s Dutch skills, I found an attic room in the local bed and breakfast. Before I went there we headed to De Mug (The Mosquito), the local pub for a beer and some conversation. The beer and conversation did not let me down and I hauled my huge pack to the main train station to catch a budget cab to the B&B.

 

A nice Dutch lady answered the door and pointed me to my room after asking how I would like my boiled egg in the morning. I went up two flights of stairs and got to the nicest place that I have slept since I got to Europe, including my apartment. I wrote a post card or two and hit the hay.

March 13, 2009: Preparations

Work was uneventful, I did get to go into town with Julia the secretary and ogled some fancy German stationary supplies at the story. Ever since my youth I have had this inexplicable fascination with pens and pencils, it is not healthy. I managed to avoid buying anything except for some delicious cake at the bakery.

 

My plan for this weekend is to go to Middelburg in the Netherlands. I need to check out these Delta Works that my Opa and Oma have been trying to get me to see for so long. I am trying something new, couchsurfing! Basically the idea is that there is an online database full of available couch all over the world from Siberia to Antarctica to New York that you can stay on for free, just a bunch of nice folk helping other nice folk.

 

I leave at 5:12 tomorrow and get there 4 ¾ hours later. I should get to bed now.

March 12, 2009: Vegetarianism

Everyone at work is traveling all over the globe. My boss to Egypt, another person to India another to France. It is nuts, nobody is going to be here next week.

 

After work I made up a quite yummy dinner of lentils, rice with saffron, peppers and onions. I managed to get 15g of saffron for 2.5 Euro so I based my dinner around that. It is probably fake saffron, oh well. I made way too much for one meal so it will be my lunch tomorrow as well. Bedtime now.

March 11, 2009: Grasping Life by the Climbing Holds

I got up and made it to work at 8:30. Today I was going to spend the whole day in the factory assembling some systems, timing work steps and finding things to be improved on. The most hilarious moment of my week came about when I was holding my clipboard writing down some numbers and one of the workers said in a serious, professional voice, “Tom, could you hold me?” what he really meant was could I help him hold up a beam that he was working on. I lost my mind laughing inside my head. All day this kept me chuckling to myself. It makes me think that all the mistakes that I make in my German skills are probably equally hilarious.

After work I tried to get some train tickets to Paris to visit my friend Sarah’s friend Nancy. Unfortunately the tickets were sold out for both the outbound and return trip and they would have cost me 26 Euro each way on top of my Eurail pass. I unfortunately will have to go someplace else this weekend. I am thinking a trip to The Netherlands would be fun, some place other then Amsterdam. My Opa and Oma recommended the Delta Works, a series of MASSIVE dykes that stop The Netherlands from becoming the Sunkerlands.

All this business made me want to pull myself up a wooden wall using plastic holds, so that is what I did. I went to a small climbing wall in some out of the way neighborhood of Dusseldorf. Here I met Ollie, my climbing buddy from Klettermassiv, where I usually climb. We climbed a few routes before his buddy showed up to teach him what looked to me like industrial rope work, who else ascends using a triply redundant frog system? His buddy was wearing pretty much every product that Petzl sells and jingled as he walked. I was sooo jealous.
I made it home after a short walk, tram and train ride and hit the hay.

March 10, 2009: Working in the Factory

Today I was in the factory, I made a little nook for working in-between a bunch of pallets of metal parts and worked away. Life in the factory is fun, it is like assembling IKEA furniture that costs 10000 Euro. Torque wrenches, blind rivetnuts, vices, dirty hands, grease and general manliness is what characterized my day.

I could not stay up when I got home, so I got to bed early.

Pics from Latvia

The Germans, Austrians and the Finnish guy that I met
The Latvian Fishermen
The Port in Liepaja
The View From the St. Peter's Church Tower
Riga's Truss Bridge and the Riga Television Tower

March 9, 2009: Pizza, Wine and Techno

Work today was good. My boss is heading out to France and most of the people that I usually work for are away so I read relevant textbooks and really tried to get as much done as I could.

 

I got home and finished up the laundry, made some pizza, typed up a little bit of blog, listened to some techno and hit the hay.

 

 

March 8, 2009: Luck of the Irish

I got up before my alarm at 7:00. I thought that there was the daylight savings time switch but turns out that it there was not. I had plans to catch the bus to the airport with a couple Germans that I met at the hostel who were from areas around Düsseldorf. I packed up the few things that I had, took my important things out of the hostel safe and went to get some breakfast.

 

First I poked my head into the hostel bar because there was a music video on the screen with pretty colours. I went in, and who did I hear? The Irish people who were staying at the hostel is who. They were playing drinking games, having a good time and carrying on. They had been up all night drinking because their plane left at noon and they though that staying up and drinking the night away was the best plan of attack to catch the plane. Whatever floats your goat, I thought to myself.

 

I headed out of the hostel into the cold crisp Baltic air. I had to get some breakfast before my bus left to the airport. I walked around the old city for a while until I got to a convenience store where I picked up some eats. Before I knew it I was back on the Ryanair cattle car heading back to Düsseldorf. I smooth flight ended with the whole plane cheering upon landing. Fun. I was going to get a ride back into town with the Germans but I lost them at some point and had to take the bus. 14 Euro later I was at the hauptbahnhof. I then caught the train and was back home in no time. I promptly took a three hour nap.

 

I got up, did my laundry, made some chicken/broccoli fried rice, watched a movie and hit the hay.

March 7, 2009: Back to the USSR

I got up at 9:00, I think I heard people coming back from the bar at 8:00. After some bread and meat for breakfast I was out the door and on the road. I wanted to check out as much of the town as I could in my full day in Riga. My first stop was the market.

 

The Riga market was an interesting place. Tons of people had stalls set up selling second hand clothes, second hand underwear, food and flowers. I almost bought some wool socks but I went to check out the bus depot first. I read that the Baltic Sea was the place to be, it sounded like it was for me so I went to see if there was a bus that would take me there. My guide book said that Liepāja was a “beautiful coastal town,” this sounded like a nice place to visit so I asked, in my best Latvian aka pointing at the word on a piece of paper, if there was a bus that went there. Turns out there was and 6 Lat ($13.57) later I was on it. The bus was an early 90’s model Mercedes Benz Sprinter with, as I would later figure out, no shock absorbers.

 

I was all pumped to go and the Russian pop music playing on the radio egged me on. I had the same feeling that a ten year old has on Christmas Eve, unfettered anticipation. Then I saw the sign, 200km to Liepāja. This was further then I thought. Turns out that I was on a bus to the other side of Latvia. Hmmmmm. I thought I would make the most of it and before I knew it I had striked up a conversation with the Ukrainian guy next to me, overflowed a coffee machine at a Latvian gas station and made it to Liepāja.

 

Queue Soviet national anthem. This was what I was looking for. Soviet apartment blocks with siding that nobody but Mike Wang would be proud of, Russian writing on the manhole covers, and a general Soviet vibe emanated from the place. I first went to the market. This market was a lot more rural then the one in Riga. I saw some amber that I liked and bartered the old amber dealer down to 5 Lat for a big piece and 2 Lat for a smaller one. Amber washes up on the shore of the Baltic Sea and is one of the world’s major amber sources.

 

I then went and got some food from a small restaurant. It was buffet style so I piled some stuffed pastries onto my plate followed by this chicken mushroom breaded concoction and some lemonade. All the signs were in Latvian so I was sort of guessing as to the contents of the pastries. I sat down to two guys drinking small (250ml) glasses of water that I slowly realized were vodka not water. These guys drank three MASSIVE glasses of vodka each in the time I was eating my lunch. The food at this place was quite good and inexpensive too.

 

After lunch I checked out the churches, the fisherman’s wharf, the fish market and the former Soviet navel base. Everything was just as my Eastern European fantasies portrayed. After getting hassled by some locals for some beer money I thought that it was time to head home while it was still light out, back to the company of my international buddies at the hostel. I caught the 5:45pm bus back into Riga. 2 ¾ hours later I was back in Riga. I took some sweet pictures of the bridge and I was back in time to catch up with people before they headed out for the night.

 

I spent several hours talking to people from all over the globe, in English and bad German. The Spainards had apparently closed down the club, at 6am, last night and decided that they wanted some more so came back to the 24hour bar at the hostel and stayed up until 8am drinking away. These Europeans amaze me. Finally the call came for tonight’s pub crawl and I thought that I may as well go. I made it to the first bar and at 1:45 the homing instinct took hold and I was asleep in the hostel in no time.

March 6, 2009: Multi-Cultural Mania

I got up at 4:30; this seems to be standard for my weekend trips. I got ready, dropped off my keys and started the walk to the bus that would take me to the airport. On the way I was lured into a bakery by the smell of fresh German bread. I got some sweets, a bun and a coffee and went back out into the rain and onwards to the bus stop. I got to the bus stop early so I had the chance to savor the flavor of German baking before I caught the bus to the airport.

 

I checked in at the Ryanair booth, this privilege (a mandatory one because I am not an EU citizen) cost me an additional 10 Euro, and went to line up in the long line to security. I boarded the plane and shortly realized why they can afford to only charge 24 Euro each way from Düsseldorf to Riga. My flight was a two hour infomercial. Buy this, buy that blah blah blah, the PA system was kept busy with advertisements for all the things that I could buy while I was flying. The overhead bins all bore bus-esque ads and everything that could cost money did. I managed to avoid the temptation to buy stuff sat tight for the 2 hour flight.

 

I landed at 10:00 in Riga International Airport. I withdrew 70 Lats (161 CAD) this would be my spending money, eating money and accommodation money for the next three days. Latvian money looks cool. A bit of history for you from my buddy Wikipedia:

 

“Latvija, officially Republic of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Republika) is a country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), and to the east both by Belarus (141 km) and the Russian Federation (276 km).[3] Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden. The territory of Latvia covers 64,589 km² and has a temperate seasonal climate.”

 

Additionally it is important to know that Latvia has been occupied by both the Russians and the Soviets (separated by a brief bit of independence) and has its own language (Latvian) and currency (The Latvian Lat). I got out of the airport and took the bus to the old city where my hostel was.

 

I got off the bus and walked around the building where the hostel supposedly was and could not find it. I stood infront of the building looking confused until an old man pointed me around to the orange door in the ally behind the building. I go to the orange door and there was no sign, no anything to signify that it was a hostel. I rang the bell and headed up two flights of narrow wooden stairs to a bustling modern looking hostel lobby. I guess that Friendly Fun Frank’s Backpackers Hostel does not depend on drawing people off the street with their sign. The amazingly good looking Latvian girl at the desk asked me for my booking info and then asked me if I would like a free beer. Um . . . yes. She said she would finish the paper work while I took a seat in the bar.

 

I headed to the leather couch in the bar to sit down and before my butt hit the leather I had people introducing themselves to me. This is where I met some Austrians, Germans and a Finnish guy on exchange in St. Petersburg and out to Riga for a weekend of shenanigans. My free Latvian beer showed up and I sat, talked and had a good time. They invited me out to their trip to the town market later in the day and I gladly accepted.

 

After some getting ready we were in our warm clothes and wondering the streets of Riga. I should now add that I was very surprised at how modern Riga was. It seemed that the entire infrastructure was very new and not nearly as Soviet as I expected (and at some level wanted). We decided that we would stop for some food before commencing the journey to the market. One of the girls (Anne?) decided that TGI Fridays was a good idea so that is where we went for lunch. We all got burgers and I even had to coach one of the Germans through the procedure of eating a big burger as he had never done it before, oh those Germans. The food in down town Latvia was not cheap at all, 9.90 Lat for a burger and a beer, which is $22.89!!! It for some reason does not hurt as much when you see the price in Lats. During lunch we decided to check out the museums and St. Peter’s church instead of going to the market, we would do that the next day.

 

We got to St. Peters and ascended the elevator to the 72m high observation deck. This provided a great yet cold view of the city. We all took pictures then headed off to the Latvian museum of the occupation, the first occupation.

 

The museum was OK, not the most interesting place that I have ever been but it provided an insight into what the Baltic States have been up to in the past 100 years. Most of the museums contents were old ceramics and furniture. After the main exhibits we found an auxiliary staircase on the side of the foyer that headed up to an art sale.

 

Here we tried to bled in with the suit wearing art folk, but we were in winter coats which made this difficult. This did not stop us from enjoying the free wine and food that comes with art shows. I was approached by some art people and asked if I liked the paintings. I pontificated for a while and replied, “I enjoy his insightful colour scheme and his elegant, yet simplistic perspective.” Honestly the guy was no Bob Ross, but had some skilz.

 

All this pontification made me tired. I headed back to the hostel with my international crew and took a nap. I got up three hours later and had some bread, meat, cheese and a pear for dinner.

 

Now the party started. People started coming out of the woodwork and before I knew it I was surrounded by Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Spaniards, Irish people, Germans, Austrians, Finns and French folk. Wow, it was like a cultural soup that I was swimming in. I got to talking to the guy form Lithuania and it turned out that he was a fourth year physics student in Lithuania. He told me that there was no Lithuanian textbooks on quantum mechanics so he classes were taught in Lithuanian but the texts were in English, Russian or German. This guy then proceeded to blow my mind as he spoke fluently in their native tongue to most of the people who occupying the hall upstairs, everything from English to Russian to Chinese.

 

The daily hostel pub-crawl, in true European fashion, did not START until 1am. I could not make it this late and despite my best efforts the homing instinct took hold and I was horizontal before the crowds left.

March 5, 2009: The YOUTH Hostel

All day at work I could not wait to begin what I hope to be one of my more memorable trips to date. I added some additional shelves to a shelving unit in the inventory room and got some free eats at Herr Mende’s G-Tag.

 

After work I went home because I forgot my alarm clock. I made some dinner and finished the movie that I started in the morning.

 

Then I was off! A train to Düsseldorf, a train to Keler then a 30min slog in the rain to a very out of the way hostel. This hostel turned out to be more of a summer camp then a hostel. I later read in the brochure that there was hiking and canoeing, too bad I showed up at 8:30pm and left at 4:45am.

 

I walked in the door of the hostel and saw 30 8 year olds running wild. I checked in and enjoyed some of the sparkling water that they left out while listening to the herds of wild German children running though the halls. I had the two-bed room to myself.

 

I CANNOT WAIT FOR TOMORROW!!!

March 4, 2009: Mega Nap

I got to work today at 8:30. I figured out that some more systems needed to be wired. "Right on," I thought, something to get me away from the text book on lean manufacturing that I am reading. It turned out that I was going to teach someone else how to wire these things. In one day of being electrician I have already been promoted to "supervisior electrician," at least until the real electrician comes back. Anyways turns out the guy I was showing how to do things had a three year diploma from electrician school. I sensed some irony in the fact that I was now checking his work.

I got home at 6:25 after some grocery shopping. I had big plans for the night including washing my clothes and cooking a nice dinner, but first a nap. I put the groceries away and laid down. I woke up at 6:00 the next morning. JP always told me that a nap after 5 is a bad call, maybe he was right.

PIC UPDATE

Me sleeping on the train
The Prague Castle

The Cologne Cathedral

March 3, 2009: ADATO (Another Day at the Office)

No I am not talking about the 14c sport route, by the same name, at Horn Lake if any of you were wondering. Today I did my work thang, had some soup and enjoyed the privilege of Internet access. I also pounded out a big-o-blog as you can see from the past few days’ entries.

March 2, 2009: The Never Ending Day

Today never really began. It was merely a bumpy train riding continuation of yesterday, albeit a more tired one. I left the train at 6:50 this morning after the 12-hour train ride direct from Prague. This morning my Internet was going to be put in between 8 and noon. I got home with some bread that I procured from the bakery on the way back from the train station and cleaned up the house and had a shower. I ate some bread any laid down to wait for the Internet guy to come.

He came at 10, plugged me in and I left for work. Work was relatively uneventful. I left and got home to fix my internet that was not working this morning. Alice Internet helpdesk does not speak English here I figured out. This was a problem because although I can ask “do you have a mirror?” in German I cannot figure out Internet issues in German. I called in a favor from my landlord Mr. Großman and his native German got the job done. Two hours and twelve minutes of Interneting later I hit the hay.

March 1, 2009: The Lotsa Castle and Lotsa Rock

I got up at 10:00 and set out on my day after a brief breakfast and checking out of the hostel. I had decided not to join the Australians today because they were heading out to see a church made of bones and I wanted to see the National Technology Museum.

Prague is a beautiful city with a charm unique from all the western countries that I have visited. The architecture is very different; I almost liked it more. My first stop was the Charles Bridge, a famous bridge made in the 1200’s lined with statues. It was fantastic. Then I was off to the largest castle in the world, yes that is right here is another quote from Wikipedia:

“Prague Castle is one of the biggest castles in the world (according to Guinness Book of Records the biggest ancient castle) at about 570 meters in length and an average of about 130 meters wide.”

Inside the castle was another massive church and lots of neat “artisan cottages” as various guidebook describe them. I check out all this, saw some Czech dudes in fur hats marching in formation and continued onwards to the museum.

I made it there and much to my dismay it was closed. Damn. Oh well, I thought, I will just go to the National Agriculture Museum next door. This was the single oddest museum that I have ever been to. The actual exhibits were housed several floors apart from one another in a building fillied with offices. Half of the rooms were barred off with velvet ropes and there were printed sheet of paper flapping in the wind with Czech written on them along with arrows pointing places. The exhibits were odd too, Tractors, paper models and famous Czech garden architecture. I left after an hour.

The next stop was another museum, the National museum of the Czech Republic. I was not to be disappointed. This place was amazing. There was natural history, paleontology, mineralogy, zoology and Czech history exhibits housed in a massive and extremely well laid out medieval looking building will gold leafed pillars and an old airplane hanging from the roof of the lobby. The minerals were my favorite part, my buddy Graham would have lost his mind. I think that there must have been two of every mineral there. 3 massive room with shelf after shelf of mineral each neatly labeled. Each shelf had 2000 specimens, I did the math, and there was a ton of shelves. I left when the museum closed and headed to the train station for my overnight train home. I did not sleep that well.

February 28: The Slog to Prague

I got up at 5:00. I prepared myself to leave and got on the local commuter train to go to Essen where I would catch the next train to Berlin then to Prague. I got on the train and met some entertaining drunk people smoking up a storm on the train. The train is one of the few places in the country that you cannot smoke. They were coming back from downtown and playing jokes on each other and having a good time. I even tried out some German on them with mediocre results.

I got to Essen and switched into the posh Berlin bound ICE high-speed train. I got onto the train and saw something that I found truly German: there was a middle-aged couple with their daughter. The daughter was balling her eyes out and clutching a toy bulldozer. I thought to myself that this is what mechanical engineering parents do. In my over tired state I quickly cobbled together a back-story for them and had a little chuckle.

I got to Berlin and made my reservations for the next train to Prague. I grabbed some Mc Donald’s and was on my way. This train meandered along the Vltava River and skirted beautiful limestone cliffs. Rustic houses and artillery hole-filled buildings lined the river; this was a completely different sight from Western Europe. I felt truly grown up sipping a coffee, writing in my journal and watching the countryside zoom by.

I got off the train and walked into an environment that had a completely different vibe from Western Europe. I could not read a word on any signs, my Czech is not too good, I had a tingly feeling all over; I was in Prague!

I switched my Euro to koruna; I got 1300 for 50 Euro, and was on my way. I felt balla clutching my 1000 koruna bill.

2.5 hours of going the wrong way down the same street four times, it is possible (trust me), and I found the white small sign for the Clown and Bard Hostel. I walked down the stairs and into the rich wooden bar area of the hostel. It was empty except for an attractive Swedish girl at the desk. I began booking my room. This is when I met Jim and Kim from Australia; we agreed to have a beer together later that night.

I was handed my key, attached to a large piece of wood, and headed up the stairs to my room “Residence 4.” I headed up a large staircase and saw that all the rooms had sweet names “Justice,” “Loyalty,” “Honor,” “Winter Garden,” “Nice View,” “Best View,” and then “Residence.” I got into the room and met Billy, Fiona and Nicola, Fiona and Nicola from the UK and Billy from Australia. These would be my partners in the misadventures to come. We talked for a while and agreed to meet up after dinner for a pub crawl that was going on.

I asked the lady at the front desk where a good, reasonably priced restaurant is. She replied “do you like meat?” I said I did and she pointed me in the direction of a local Czech place that apparently was good. Before leaving I had a beer with Jim and Kim and discussed possible plans to meet up the next day to explore the Prague castle.

I followed the directions and managed not to get lost on the way to the restaurant. I sat down in the non-smoking section and ordered a Pilsner Urquell. The guy brought me a menu, which fortunately had English on it, and I ordered an onion/cheese soup and some ribs off the “for big eaters” menu.

The soup was delicious, sort of a Czech take on French onion soup. Then the main course arrived. I can best describe it as the definition of manliness. 700g of meat covered with a tomato/onion sauce sitting in the middle of a wooden cutting board. The meat was overlapping the sides of the board and I sat in awe of the largest piece of meat that I had ever seen delivered to someone at a restaurant. There was no veg to separate me from the meat, just the meat and me. Time to begin. I finished about 20 minutes later, another victory for man over meat.

Another sweet, sweet Czech beer washed down the rest of the beer. This most excellent meal only set me back 250 Crown (10 Euro), dope. I headed back the hostel. Here I had a drink or two with the Auzies while planning the game plan for the night. We decided to try to catch up with the pub-crawl. So we showed up at the bar that apparently the pub-crawl meets at and they were no place to be found. We asked around and figured out that it was not going on tonight. No problem, we just asked the nice fellow at the bar next to us where a place with loud techno and jumping people was, he said he had just the place for us.

I will spare the details of the trip to the club, but it involved loosing Billy and asking for directions. We showed up at the place. There was sparkling white lights shining from between twisted rebar-welded into odd shapes reminiscent of a certain statue behind a UVic art building. This however was MUCH cooler; all the rebar was combined with car parts and pieces of pipe to form the interior of the main club. Large moving chandeliers fabricated from car components rotated on the ceiling sending off a neon glow from the florescent tubes attached to them. Loud techno music boomed from the dance room which had a wall covered with the motherboards of computers complemented by more LED lights. A funky looking DJ spun some mad beats. We took a seat and ordered a beer. The only available seat was with a Czech guy. He tried to teach us some Czech but it was a futile effort.

We spent a while on the main level and then decided to check out the basement. Magic. The basement had an electrical theme. Everything was decorated with the large ceramic insulators found on high-voltage lines as well as massive transformers and Telsa-coils. Bad Ass. We got into the main room of the basement which had low ceiling supported by brick arches. The music playing was AMAZING. It was a DJ spinning some techno with a hard-core looking Czech guy with a shaggy Mohawk rapping away faster then I had ever heard anyone rap before. Then a guy with a flute started playing in the DJ box. NO WAY! This was awesome, was all I could think for the next hour, I faux-danced away with a massive grin never leaving my face.

We cabbed home after some more shenanigans and I go to bed at some unearthly hour in the morning.

February 27: Pipes in Köln

I left work at 2:30 and took a bus and train to Köln where I was going to pick up my Eurail pass. Düsseldorf apparently does not sell these things. Anyway, I made my way to the customer service desk in the train station in Köln after an hour long train ride. At the desk I picked up my ticket to Europe: 8 days of unlimited travel on all forms of train in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, The Netherlands and the Czech Republic. I shelled out a huge pile of dough for this baby but it would surely be worth while.

While in Köln I thought that I would take some time and explore the city. I had read that Köln has the tallest church tower. I will now quote one of my best friend in the world of technology, Wikipedia:

“The choir of Cologne Cathedral, measured between the piers, also holds the distinction of having the largest height to width ratio of any Medieval church, 3.6:1, exceeding even Beauvais Cathedral which has a slightly higher vault.
Construction of the Gothic church began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, until 1880 to complete – a period of over six hundred years. It is 144.5 metres long, 86.5 m wide and its two towers are 157 m tall.”

So I walked out of the train station entrance and was greeted by the single most menacing structure that I had ever seen. The Dom was EMENCE; it just kept on filling my field of view as I exited the train station. The travel guide that I have describes it as the “Mount Everest” of cathedrals. Years of pollution have left the outside almost pitch black which made it even scarier to look at. Inside was equally impressive with a massive vaulted ceiling. This is the only building that I have ever been into that has given me butterflies in my stomach just being in its presence, it is REALLY cool. Another interesting fact is that it was the tallest building in Europe until the Eiffel Tower was erected.

To continue my tale I walked around Köln for a while longer and stopped for the best falafel that I have ever had. It was so good I ordered another. I sat with an old guitar player from Chicago named Scott who was also all into the falafel. I bid him adieux and ventured on. I saw a pipe shop and, intrigued, I went in.

Inside I met a short guy from New Orleans with a green sweater vest and one of those old hats, with the floppy bit that buttons onto the brim of the cap, on. He would turn out to be the most interesting person that I would meet in this town. After the German shop owner failed at talking me into buying something this guy started. Personally I do not smoke but I enjoy the concept of smoking a pipe. This shop had two levels with all the walls packed with different types of pipe in velvet holders. In the middle of the room was a large table with all the varieties of tobacco laid out. He promptly asked what type of tobacco I was looking for. I said, I did not smoke but a few of my buddies in Vic did and I wanted to pick them up some eurobacco.

“well,” he began, “fruit tobacco is for beginner smokers,” as he unrolls a leather pouch with 6 or so expensive looking pipes, “as you get to be a more advanced smoker you move away from that and into something with more paprika.” All the tobaccos were colour coded and each had a number based on the blend that they had. “My favorite tobacco here is number 66, as you get more advanced you tend to strive for things like number 168. Number 168 has a more complex flavor that can easily burn the lungs of a beginner” This guy spoke of smoking like an Olympic sport, if it was a sport he was built like a champion smoker.

I left and had a relatively uneventful time at a local bar before I headed to the train to get a few hours of shut eye back home before I left to Prague.