#24 Robert (Robbie)

If I had to write a biography about someone I think it would be Robert.
When I arrived in Split, Croatia on the ferry I was offered a room by and man and his son. It was a good price so I went with them to the house and when I got there I met a guy named Robert who comes and lives there for at least a couple of weeks every summer. He looks like a mix between George Castanza and Danny Devito but with a smile that I would imagine Mr Bojangles has in the song by Jerry Jeff Walker; it was only redone by the others. Robert drinks too much, smokes too much and has a dirty mouth, but means well. Much of his family lives in Michigan. His parents are both from Hungary and moved to the US when they were very young. They had their honeymoon in Pearl Harbor when it was getting bombed. He doesn´t like his mother. He has two sisters and a brother; one sister recently passed away. He is in his 50`s. He has lived in California and studied Oenology (the study of wine and wine making). He also lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and spends the majority of his time in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
I got to spend only about 24 hours with him but got to hear many stories. Our conversation was 90% Robert, 5% me and 5% silence (usually when he was buying a beer or taking a leak). He worked as a Roadie in the early 70`s for Yes, The Eagles and Pink Floyd; they liked him because he worked hard while they hooked up with women. He loves music and reading and writing. He has every National Geographic since 1953 and reads a lot of George Orwell and other classic authors. He hates McDonalds but eats a burger every once in a while to remind himself. His last girlfriend turned out to be a lesbien. The girl he liked most he was together with for 3 years and she had been married 3 times before him. At one point he told me that after he left her...well, she sort of dumped him, there was another girl interested in him but he still had feelings for the old one. He then adds 'looking back, I should have forgot about her and I would have even hooked up with roadkill'
He gave me advice about life: Don`t get married and don`t have kids. When I asked what else, he said that was it.
Once when he was in Estonia he almost got strangled to death by muggers who he earlier swore at and then resisted when they tried to take his money.
Following his stories I often felt like I did when I watched 'memento' where it jumps to the future and then the past and your just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
I mostly just laughed at his stories and asked him more questions; I couldn't get enough. When I managed to say a word or two he would tell me that I'm really funny before starting another one of his stories.
When we passed the old square in Split he said 'See how old this stuff is, it's before indians came to detroit, that's what I like about history, how old stuff is.
As he would finish a beer he would say 'to beer or not to beer, that is the question and I know the answer' I once said 'another beer?' and he replied 'it's what I do, sometimes I just drink beer'
Robert remembers dates and cities that he`s visited from all over the world. To EVERY lady that walks by he says 'hi honey'
He told me that if he were a lady he`d find me good looking, he then laughed about this and for the next 25 minutes told me not to worry he loves women and I have nothing to worry about. (He then pointed out all the girls he would hook up with, which was pretty much everyone that walked by)
He does great accents from all over the world.
There is so much more that I can't even think of right now.
It wasn`t just the stories he told but the demeanor he told them in while coming up with quick, whitty comments about the stuff going around us at the time as well. He made me laugh and called me his friend; he even gave me a hug when I was getting on the bus to the airport. It`s very rare to ever meet a Robert but I will remember him and hopefully meet him again somewhere down the road to hear more stories. We traded contact info but he doesn`t have email yet. I know that you all would love to meet him so when I find out when I will meet him next I may take him on tour.
Next time you have a drink, cheers for Robert.

#23 Song long Dubrovnik, off to split

My last day in Dubrovnik I wandered all around the parts of the city I haven't been to after taking a morning swim. After my long walk (5 hours) I went for an afternoon swim before going back to make some dinner. There happened to be a festival in the main square where they had a band playing and passed out free drinks and appetizers to everyone; score!!! I spent a lot of the time there watching these little kids play, it's funny to hear little kids talk in other languages.
The next morning I boarded a ferry for an 8 hour ride up the coast to Split. It was an absolutely beautiful day, the sun was out, we were between the main coast looking at the cliffs and on the other side small islands and the big blue sea. I made some friends on the ride as well, a guy from new zealand, andrew who we spent about 3 hours of the trip laughing at this or that. Then I met an australian girl who I talked with in between her reading her lonely planet book and me telling her it was worthless. Then I met two German guys who I assumed they were friends because they sat next to each other and bought each other beers. They didn't really talk to each other, just sat quiet for hours taking in the sun and drinking there beers. When we finally got talking they were quite funny and we chatted and laughed with the australian girl the rest of the way to split.
I was sneezing a lot on the ride (I know, sneezing again.) I really enjoy sneezing, it really jolts the soul and stirs things up. I was also thinking how much I enjoyed the scooter riding and thought that if I live somewhere warm it would be fun to get a motorcycle or scooter but then thought about sneezing with the helmet on and the fact that the eyes shut for a moment, it could make for a dangerous, messy, situation.
More to come soon. I have met one of the most interesting people in all my days.

#22 Cruising through Croatia

Back in Prague Adam and I had another night out with nothing to exciting to talk about except that we saw this lady with bright red, leather pants that we found very funny and took lots of pictures of, you will see a couple.
The next day we toured and walked all around the city and ended the day with a boat cruise up the river through the city.
Thanks again to the Topalo family for being so kind and letting us stay in their apartment and feeding us as well.

Adam and I were then off on a flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We arrived and were picked up at the airport by people who we booked the hostel through. I on the way to the city we booked scooters (mopeds) for the next day and a 3 island boat tour for the following day. But for this first night we were ready to go out and check out the city's nighlife. We had our own apartment in the old part of the city. (The old part is surrounded by walls) It is a very special place, something very unique, the pictures will help you get an idea. So we headed out for the night and found out that everyone in the city goes out on saturdays to the point of being clostrophobic in every bar. Even when there is no room to go anywhere people keep pushing in and barreling through. The ones pushing through with the most force arent the big guys, but the girls. They are like running backs making space for themselves. We went to about 5 different bars and clubs until we just couldn't take it anymore.
The following morning we woke early and headed to a place we had been waiting for; the beach. It was absolutely stunning, so we laid there and swam for a few hours soaking up some sun and checking out the local scenery. After we both were worn out from the sun we stopped for lunch and then went to get our scooters. We felt like tough guys on the scooters, me with my helmet too small for my head and adam's helmet going over his ears we were off to explore as much as we could. We first cruised around the main city getting comfortable with our bikes and then headed for the main roads out of the city. We ventured to a neighboring town where we walked around and went swimming in their beaches as well. After a while at the beach I told adam that I'm going to get a speedo on this trip because it is acceptible here and when he asked me what if I get a boner all I could think was that then my back would get really tan. (I still haven't gotten one) We then headed up, up, up to the top of a mountain that overlooked all of Dubrovnik. To the backside of the mountain were hills and mountains that we were told not to go around because there are still lots of landmines out there. It is crazy to think that only 15 years ago there was a war going on where thousands and thousands were killed. The view from the top of this place was brilliant and at the point where we were resting and getting our views this dog kept coming by us and licking us and laying right next to us. We couldn't believe that the owners (who we assumed were the other people there) would not call their dog off. But then they left and when the next family came and the dog went to check them out which led to the little girls screaming we got bad looks because they assumed it was our dog. This was an ongoing cycle and we still never found out who's dog it was, but it was a very friendly, gentle dog.
We eventually made our way back to town with no accidents although I almost got ran off the road by a bus and adam almost skidded out once and almost became part of a pole another time. We had an easy night this night so we would be ready for our island tour the next day.
We boarded our boat along with a brazilian couple, a german couple, and a french couple. The brazilian couple was late and would be the entire day with no cares in the world. We left early in the morning and arrived around 7 in the evening. In between we visited three local islands and getting to know our company on the boat. We got a chance to have lunch with the French couple who were very nice and made lunch a bit more enjoyable. We went swimming off the different islands, and I had my first injury which was by a black plant in the water, the plant was more like bunch of black needles that got into my knee. When I stopped bleeding I asked our captain and he said not to worry, he's gotten it many times. This was the same captain who smoked and drank while he drove our boat with his foot and knee. It was a great day trip being able to see the local islands with the great company we had on the boat.
That night we wandered out into the city again. There is a building on the main street that has a stone protruding out of it and it is said that if you can stand on this stone and take your shirt off and put it back on without falling off you will have good luck for a year. We watched many people try and fail with only few actually being able to stand. We did watch one guy do it along with the shirt removal; I guess all the locals can do it. We tried and couldn't even stay up on it. There was an Ausralian girl who could stand on it easily, the only problem was she had a dress on and so wouldn't take it off. All the guys she was with wouldn't lend her their shirt so I told her I would lend her my shirt, but if she accomplished it we would share the year of luck and with that an agreement was made. She did it successfully and we were both happy. I'm not sure if my luck is the first or second 6 months or if it's split monthly.
The next morning adam was off back to the states and I once again am flying solo. I headed to the local national park island where I swam in their version of the dead sea and tried climbing a rope from the water before heading to the top to see the fort. When it began to rain I went back to get on the ferry and headed back to the main city. After getting dinner I went and sat in an outdoor cafe where I sipped a glass of wine while listening to a jazz band for a few hours and let the last couple of weeks soak in.
Two weeks traveling with adam flew by but still we did a ton of stuff: A walking tour in Budapest, a bike tour in Krakow, I river boat tour in Prague, a scooter and island tour in Dubrovnik along with many nights out and a lot of other sighseeing. When we weren't busy we were usually laughing about something stupid or making fun of each other for something or another.
Adam-I'm going to be in internet cafe's a lot less without you. It was a lot of fun, I'll just think of the mirrors or other little things we did if I need a laugh.

21 Taking over Prague

When we arrived on our night train to Prague we were welcomed with open arms by our friend's mom who lives here in Prague. Not only are they letting us stay in their extra apartment, but when we got there the fridge was stocked with food.
Thank you Goran and Mrs Topalo, you are too generous and the place is great.
We are now pumped because we can unpack our bags and scatter our things for a few days.
Adam aka Borat and I spent the next few days walking the entire city. We went to a castle, that's right, a real castle so this time when adam points and says castle it actually is. We saw the famous Charles bridge, went to the little island off the river that had an exhibit that I had seen over two years previous in Portugal of a famous photographer who takes pictures all over the world. We walked through the old Jewish area of town, the main squares and then made our way up to the highest point in the city. Petrin is a tower that is on a high hill that we had to climb over 300 stairs to get to the top and overlooked all of Prague. Near petrin was a mirror maze along with magical mirrors that transformed our bodies in many strange ways. We spent hours in this little room that was no bigger than the size of a kitchen laughing until we had tears. I don't know if it was really that funny or just that the time we went we were in the mood for it.
We've had a couple of long nights out on the town in some clubs where we took over the dance floor and mingled with locals. The first night out we were talking to two girls and when they asked if we had girlfriends, Borat came out and explained to these girls that he has a wife, but she is at home in a cage. These girls were trying to figure out if they understood right and kept repeating "You keep her in a cage"? Needless to say that were quite nervous of the both of us at this point so we told them that it was just a joke. Another night out between walking from one club to another we stopped in casino. This so called casino and 3 rooms about the size of high school class rooms. We were the only people in the casino and went to the black jack table. We ordered our free drink and put our bets down. Our new favorite drink is apple juice with vodka, it has to be 100 percent juice, not the fake juice stuff, but trust me it's amazing. After I one the first bet with all the money I had I stopped playing and sipped on my drink while adam played about 10 hands and won as well. So after about 10 minutes of playing we both left with more cash than we started and a free drink in our bellies, they loved us there.
After our short visit to the next club we decided to jog back to the apartment which suprisingly we made and my sandles survived as well. We saw some interesting outfits out and about as well that you will get to see when I put the pictures up.
A couple more days in Prague and then off to Croatia.
Wa Wa Wee Wa

Let me know if anyone tries the apple juice and vodka. about 1-4th to 1-3rd vodka.
It's a niiiiiiiicccceeeee.

#20 Tour of Krakow through day, night and a day at Auschwitz(HELL)

When we finally awoke after our big night out we headed to do a five hour bike tour around the city of Krakow. We were the only two on the tour so it was very friendly, personal, and extremely informative. We got to hear about the history of the city from hundreds of years ago to moving all the jews in the city to the Jewish Ghetto (which we went through and got to see) in the early 40's and even learned about the ways of communism and how it's changed slowly since the wall came down in 89'. We saw the river that runs through the city, saw the different neighborhoods, universities (Krakow is the largest university city in Poland), and learned about the traditional happenings in day to day life. We also visited Oscar Schindler's factory where they did a bit of the filming of the movie. (Schindler's list). There we got a full picture of Oscar from the beginning when he took the factory from a jewish family and then got rich by using slave jewish laborers; but he did change dramatically and put himself in harms way by helping over 1000 to survive.

Did you know that speed walking was an olympic event? I did not. A polish man is the defending 3 time gold winner of speed walking. During our tour there happened to be a speed walking race through the main city and yes, it did look as funny as you would think. I don't know how they tell the difference between that and a run but I think all these guys could walk faster than I could run. I don't know how you decide to do this seriously. Maybe when you're young you tell your friend you'll race him to the corner but no running and that's when it is discovered that it's time to take this fast walking to the next level. I couldn't get enough of watching it and watching the judge determine if they are walking by the rules.

We headed out for the night still a bit tired from the night before combined with our full day tour. We ended up at a live music bar which was quite entertaining. Not only did the band sing great (all english songs that they sang like the singer themselves although I don't know if they really knew english or just knew the words to the songs because when they took a break and I talked to them a little they didn't seem to understand me or more likely just didn't want to understand me) but there were a group of really drunk, strange looking english guys that took over the dance floor and put on a show for everyone there to see music; there was no chance of not watching these guys because they were all that could be seen between the people watching and the band.

This morning we headed out to the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. This was the biggest concentration camp which killed around 1.5 million people. Just over 1 million of these peoples were Jews from around all of Europe and the rest were intellectuals, Political prisoners, Gypsies, Handicap, and other assorted groups. They were executed by guns, hangings, poisoned, along with starved and worked to death. They were tortured such as forcing 4 people to stand in a 4ft X 4ft square, bricked in for hours and sometimes for days. We saw the crematoriams that could burn up to 1,400 bodies a day, the sleeping quarters, the gas chambers and all the other parts of the camp that went on for multiple years.

Even after spending the day there, seeing and hearing all the stuff it is impossible to fathem the reality of what really took place. When they talk about a day that 1,000 were executed it seems insignificant compared to the 1.5 million, yet the 1,000 is the size of many high schools. On the bus ride back to Krakow we heard all american songs on the radio and mid way back the song 'wonderful world' by Louie Armstrong came on and I like to think that we do live in a wonderful world and we can all make it a wonderful world, but there are some fucked up people and stuff that goes on everyday.

We arrived back in Krakow and headed to a very authentic polish restaurant we heard through the grapevine. It was great, cheap and we left ready to nap for days. We spent less than $10 dollars each and ordered at least twice as much as we should have. Many people in the place were laughing when they saw how much food we had between the two of us. (One appetizer we ordered was something that said '3 types of perogies' and when we got it there were 3 types but there were about 8 of each type). That was one of 4 appetizers we got before our two main courses. We are now on our way to an overnight train for Prague. Main goal of the trip-not to lose our tickets.

#19 Amsterdam and Budapest/Krakow with Adam:aka:Borat

I arrived in Amsterdam late at night and was tired and planned on taking it easy until I met two beautiful brazilians outside of my hostel and after chatting a bit we decided to go and check out the town. Amsterdam is a great city with canals going through it every which way. It is also known for a few other things since it is a liberal city. There is the red light district which is a few streets lined with women in windows and red lights above them. It is possible to hire services from these women. They have a union and it is called the red thread union which helps the women set up like an entreprenuer. I would wonder when they decide to stop selling themselves and are ready to move on what they would put on the resume and depending on the job or the boss if that would help them get a job or hurt their chances.
After checking walking around the red light district and the downtown the girls and I met up with a couple of other brazilian friends of theirs. We then went to a coffee house. Coffee houses aren't known for selling coffee even though they do. They are more famous for handing you a menu which lists many types of canibus; aka: marijuana, weed, and such. (If you would like to know all the names for this there is an Ali G episode where he goes into it). Don't worry, I didn't buy any canibus, but everyone always thinks I smoke anyways since I talk slow, am usually not in too much of a hurry, usually have a smile and am generally up for eating munchies. Although it is legal in Holland, their country has one of the lowest percentage of users, it is mostly all tourists. (Just so you know, you don't have to fly to amsterdam to buy it, although it isn't legal everywhere, you can buy it anywhere).

The following morning I headed for a walk around town and met up for a 5 hour bike tour that took me all around the city learning about the different areas, the history, out to a farm that makes cheese and clogs (some people still wear clogs-wooden shoes). I had to walk back to the hostel, get my bag, jump on a tram to the train station, take a train to the airport, took a flight to budapest, got a taxi to a hostel and there waiting was Adam (a different one than in germany) this one we call Houdini or BORAT.

After an quiet first night we woke to walk around the city for a few hours before doing a 5 hour walking tour around Budapest. There is a river that runs through the city and in the old days on one side it was called Buda and the other side was Pest. Why they called the city Budapest instead of Pestbuda I can only guess, but it definately flows better this way. Not to brag but I one the prize in our walking group for answering the questions our guide asked. The prize: a coin worth about 4 cents; I don't know where it is anymore. It is great touring around with Borat because every big building he points to and calls it a castle. If you get a chance to travel with him and he is your guide you will wonder why no city has churches, museums, government buildings or any other type of large building. You will however be amazed at the amount of castles built and wonder why they have a cross on them or other markers that might fit another building better.
After a brief rest we headed out for the night. First stop-a jazz fest. This was situated right on the river and we got to sit in a little hut, drink wine, listen to the music, enjoy each others company while discussing how we'd both rather have the company of a lady at that moment but instead we were stuck with each other. After coming to this conclusion and finishing our wine it was time to head out. We then ended up at a bar/club that we couldn't get into because I had brought my bag along; I bring this bag everywhere, it has my life: cameras, ipod, passport, medicine.. you get the point. (This won't be the only place I'm not allowed in. It wasn't the first and is far from the last, I'm usually too dressed up and places won't let me in). So we ended up at some other outdoor festival for a while until we decided to end the night after devouring a pizza and burning our mouths.
Next day we put the walking shoes back on and first stopped in a church that was carved into the side of a cliff and then headed to the highest spot in the city where there is the Liberty statue of Hungary and from there we could overlook the entire city.

Toilets around parts of Europe. Instead of these toilets looking like a funnel where everything goes in the hole some toilets have a ledge right beneath you and then when you flush it pushes everything forward into a hole at the front of the toilet. Because of this, when you do your business and finished it is glaring at you and you are forced to see what you've done. It's as if the toilet is talking to you saying "alright, look what you've done, now how do you feel?" I thought I felt better but now I'm so ashamed and since it's not in water the smell takes over too so I feel even worse thinking I made that and that smell. It really can humble you.

Borat and I headed on an overnight train to Krakow, Poland. After a few hours we had to switch train cars and when we did we realized that we had accidentally left the tickets on the old car which was left back in another city. So we had no ticket and two more countries to go through. We found a guy in the train who spoke english and explained our situation to the ticket man in Poland; he was fine with it. Then he explained it to the guy in the next country; he wasn't fine with it and charged us for the duration in his country which luckily was only a couple of hours. Then we arrived in Poland and that ticket lady was MEAN. She told us an amount for the ticket and since we didn't have Polish money we had to pay in US and we knew the currency exchange and she tried to tell us it was different but we held strong and when she got frustrated she left. We figured we owed her between $40 and $50 and when she came back she told us a number and knowing she wouldn't take credit cards we asked her if she would and this frustrated her to ask us how much american money we had without speaking any english of course; there was a lot of hand motions, some noises and her speaking the same lines in polish that we didn't understand and us speaking the same lines in english that she didn't understand. We gave her a $20 and told her it's all we had and she gave us a ticket and left fairly happy.

With a couple hours of sleep we arrived in Krakow. We treated ourselves to a gourmet breakfast which costs about $5 each while in the meantime laughing to tears for no other reason except that we were so tired that anything was funny. We we got into our hostel we took a well deserved long nap before heading out of town to the world famous salt mines. (World famous and I bet you've never heard of them).
These mines were unbelievable. It was like an underground city. It went over 1000 feet deep and since they started it they've taken out over 30 million tons of salt; think about that number. Thousands died in the hundreds of years they worked on it. Down at the bottom of the mine there is a church that is breathtaking, everything in it is carved out of salt, the alter, the chandeliers, the statues in the walls and a statue of the pope. The only downfall of this was that it was extremely set up for tourists, they suck every cent they can out of you and make you go on a guided tour through roped off areas. I want to get down and dirty on tours, scrape my knees, fight for air and not just listen to a lady or is talking to us like she's said the same thing thousands and thousands of times.

We had taken a bus to the salt mines about a half an hour outside of the city and while waiting to catch a bus to head back I jokingly suggested that we hitchhike back to the city. Two cars later a car of three ladies drove by and I partially put my hand out; the brake lights went on and they stopped. We asked if they were headed towards the city and when they said yes we jumped in. The were three attractive women in their late 30's who only spoke polish so all the way back they cranked up the american rock and roll music and we all sang as our driver raced a taxi towards town. When I gave them gum in a shape they apparently haven't every seen they asked if it was drugs and when they chewed it they jokingly started making sexual noises. When we got to the city we sat and had a drink with them and then after talking with to Dutch guys who were in a golf tournament there we headed back to our hostel to get ready to go out for the night.

Being in Krakow on a saturday night I could only look with my mouth open, it was as if we were in a rap video or on entourage. Half of the girls that walked by were stunning. When we found our way into "the best club in town" on our second time there (the first time we weren't allowed in because of what I had on from head to toe, so I had to change) it went up to maybe 8 or 9 out of 10. We ended up with a bachelorette party for the whole night talking and dancing with them. I spent a portion of the night talking and trying to understand a girl telling me that she's dated someone for three years who she doesn't love but it would be scary not to have someone because it's comfortable; no conclusion came about. Adam and I headed out of the bar with a plan to find our next thinking maybe it was 1:30 or so and when we were on the street and asked someone the time we were utterly amazed when they said it was 4:30. (Neither one of us has a watch, we go to bed when we're tired and wake up whenever. So far we've been on time to everything we needed to to be; I repeat, so far).

Oh yeah, one of the girls asked us if we liked jokes and then asked us "why don't italians like grilling?" Because the spaghetti falls through.
We politely laughed and wondered if that would be any funnier told in any other language.

Most cities have famous quotes on a wall or on a statue or something like that.
In Amsterdam they have a saying carved into the stone on a famous building that forever will be sound advice. Translated it says "Human Beings should not urinate into the wind" Something to live by.

There are more pictures up for this portion http://tinyurl.com/oa3ea

#18 Adam in Quakenbruk, and taking over Bremen with Tom

I was kindly picked up from the train station by adam who treated me to one of his favorite german meals; burger king. We then headed to his apartment which we were welcomed by the main light in his main room which is a bright red light. Imagine looking up at his apartment window and seeing me with my shirt off with a bright red light behind me; exactly. So you can imagine my dissapointment after standing there for a number of minutes and not getting any takers. Adam has two beds, both in his room and the foot of each bed facing each other so when we would wake up we would sit up and be looking directly at each other. So while dragging one of the beds out to the main room adam tells me that for breakfast I can eat some of the corn flakes in the cupboard. While I'm thinking to myself how nice this is of him, he adds, I bought them on accident and hate them, if you add some sugar it will make them better. So with the bed out in the main room and tucked behind the couch and under the slanted ceiling I can now sleep comfortable in my little cocoon.
I got a chance to walk around Quakenbruk which is a quaint little town where everyone knows everyone's business. I went to the mid-friday farmers market and explored the city.

Adam was raised by Giggles and The Footer. If you visit their home you will see lots of frog statues and frog things around the house. The story behind the frogs I will not be able to tell because the Footer swore Giggles to secrecy about the story. Now, Quakenbruck means frog bridge. All around town there are little frog statues in front of shops that are all painted different ways; we quickly named these 'Footer's Frogs'. You will see a seperate folder of pictures with these frogs and you may also notice letters held up near each frog which may bring us closer to understanding the deep, intellectual inner workings of the Footers mind. Feel free to comment under this blog or ask footer questions (footer-you feel free to explain as well, if only the frog part of the story was the strange part.

Adam plays professional basketball here in Germany. Friday night the trainer of the team had invited the coach and all the players over to her house for dinner. This turned into the team + Steve dinner. They would not serve any of the team alcohol this night but we quickly came to the conclusion that I am not on the team which would mean that I was allowed wine while the rest of the team sipped on apple juice. While sitting outside with adam and a couple of other players the hostess continued to bring us plates and plates of delicious meats put together by the self proclaimed grillmeister; she also felt it necessary to keep my wine glass full at all times. At one point she became busy putting meat on my plate and instructed one of adam's teammates to top off my glass. The teammate she picked out was not only a basketball player who is used to being pampered, but one who is used to top notch pampering as he has had a few stints in the NBA. When she told him to go inside and, "grab steve some wine," I just broke down laughing and could hardly contain myself. Needless to say he was very confused and didn't retrieve my wine. After thanking our hostess she made me promise that when I come back through I would stop by again; how could I refuse.

It didn't take long to understand adam's life here in Germany; it reminds me of...oh yes, the same life he lives in the US. He wakes up and eats some cereal, goes to practice, comes home and eats an american deli sandwich or pbj and watches american tv. He then rests and dreams about happenings in the US before heading back to another practice where most of his teams are american including the coach. Back home to read books or listen to music sent from the US. Even at restaurants he orders in english, but to give him credit he will say goodbye or thank you some times in german.

My next day of walking around the city an old lady was walking down the sidewalk and had a bad fall. I ran over to help her and helped her from her stomach to her knees which is when I think she said to give her a moment. So while standing there and waiting for her and some movement she continued talking to me in German and I just rubbed her shoulder and back for moral support, not having any clue of what in the world she was telling me; alright well maybe she was saying "I can't believe I fell, I'm alright, I'm ready to get up, do you have any idea what I'm saying". A few older people came to help and check on her and I think they were asking her if I took her down. After getting her up I gave a smile and walked away a new man, a little confused but I also felt like a small time superhero (who doesn't speak german).

I then headed north saturday afternoon to visit a german friend, Tom who lives in Bremen and I haven't seen for a couple of years. We decided that we would take over the city. We sat at his house, had a great dinner and decided to drink a few beers with a couple of shots to help it go down smoothly. A couple hours out on the town and it was time to walk home. On the way home there was a big house with a wedding party which of course I thought, "I've seen wedding crasher, I can do that" So into the party I went not thinking about the small details; once again my lack of german and the fact that I had on shorts and a big sweatshirt. I didn't stay too long.

The next morning was not the best morning I've ever had but Tom was there to help me feel better, with a plate of sandwiches, a tall glass of water and a playboy magazine he thought would help the recovery. Low and behold the magazine was in german so I couldn't even read the articles, the nice gesture made me feel better though. We then went on a tour of Bremen to check out the downtown, the river walk, the university, and the lake. Tom had recently seen his first episode of friends and quite enjoyed it, so he decided to order a season. Which season would you start with, probably the same one that he chose to start with; season 9. We watched 9 episodes of season nine on Sunday, made for a successful day.
Tom-Thanks for the great night out and full city tour; I loved it and enjoyed eating more German food in 24 hours then I have during the week with adam.

There are more pictures in the Germany folder.

Choos

#17 Visting my peeps in Germany

To see all of the pictures I have so far if you are having trouble here is what you do: go to this website: http://tinyurl.com/oa3ea when you do it will ask for your winkflash account, if you don't have one, make one up; it is free. When you are in your account go to public folders. When it asks the user name you can put in my name which is: stevehowson and then you will be able to see all of the picutres.

When I left England it was off to Stuttgart, Germany where I was to visit a friend that I made 6 years ago when visiting Germany; Sarah. I probably picked on of the most transitional times to visit her. She is in the middle of finishing her masters thesis, interviewing with different companies and deciding which job she will want to take which in turn will change her life completely and on top of it the trying to deal with the men in her life and what she think of the whole mess. This just goes to show that like everywhere else in the world people in general worry about similar things.
It was a very relaxing few days. Her apartment was outside of the city and sat up on a hill where if you looked off the balcony you could see quite a ways. We made a trip into Stuttgart for a day which is very clean and lively city. We headed to Munich for a day (I wondered around while she had to do a full day interview). There was lots of excitement around Munich as they were preparing for the Pope's visit along with beer fest starting soon. We also went to visit her University which was near her house. Did you know that Universities in Germany are paid for by the government so anyone can go and study for years and years.
Sarah is quite a cook too, so after getting used to traveling and eating like a backpacker I was for a few days fed like a king. In the process I got a chance to try very Germany foods which I took to liking (I'm sure you are all surprised considering how picky of an eater I am).
Sarah-Thank you for your hospitality and good luck with the decision of choosing which path to follow.
And like that three days were over and I got on a train to head to northern Germany to visit Adam (footer jr) who lives and works playing basketball in Quakenbruck, Germany. On the train ride north some guy who was sitting near me left his big luggage high on the rack and when the security came by and he was gone for a while I had to answer lots of questions about this man and how long he had been gone. When the security came back the second time with more security they asked me and others to clear the section. After some time of checking out the luggage the man came back and had decided that he wanted to sit about 10 seats back away from his luggage (probably just away from me but he forgot his luggage near me).

I will leave you with a joke that my brother Mark sent me:

Two turtles went camping. They brought a bunch of beer and sandwiches. After 3 full days of walking they found the perfect spot, but it was then that they realised that they had forgotten the bottle opener. "You have to go back and get it" said the first turtle "or else we won't have any beer". "No way" the second one said. "If I go back you will eat all the food while I'm gone". "I promise I won't" the first one replied. So the second turtle headed back and after 9 full days of waiting he still hadn't got back. So hungry, the first turtle couldn't wait any longer and bit into the sandwich. The second turtle jumped out from behind the rock and said "I knew it!!!! I'm not fucking going back!!"

Thank you to my family and those of you who have sent me emails letting me know how you are doing and what I am missing out on in your lives!!!

#16 So long England after reunion with Friends

First off late me say, Happy labor Day!! what is this labor business anyways?

After fully recovering from a cold and loads of rest I got to enjoy one of the other great parts of traveling. I got a chance to meet up with friends that I had made on previous trips.
One night I met up with my friend Kathy in London. She was my scuba instructor in Australia a couple of years back so it wasnt a big surprise when I saw her and she kindly called me scuba steve. I met up with her and a few of her friends at her place of stay. We shared a couple of bottles of wine, had dinner and then headed to a couple of bars for the night.

I then headed south to Brighton which is right on the Sea (the english channel which connects the north sea to the atlantic). In Australia I traveled for about a month with three lovely english girls, Anya, Sal, and Lynne. It was Anya's place that we met at in Brighton which was about a block from the sea. Sal and Lynne drove about 5 hours from the north to have a reunion for the weekend. It was so hard to believe that it had been nearly three years since seeing each other, but was so comfortable and nice to catch up and reminice about the days traveling together. It's funny how well you get to know people when traveling and spending so much time together because you really get to see the core of the person. I feel I knew the three of them better than many people that I have known for a much longer time.
We toured around Brighton, it happened to be cold and rainy for the couple of days we were there but none the less we had each others company. We drank tea like it was going out of style (by the way, what is back in style in london and maybe england for that matter is the full jeans with the jean jacket look and also the skirt with the pants or tights on underneath; gotta love the 80's). I learned that I weigh 15 stones (does everyone know this measurement 1 stone=14 pounds) There were often other words that they used which I didnt understand as there were also words that I used which they didnt understand which would usually bring about a big bout of laughter from everyone which is always a common language.
I decided that I needed to go in the sea just because. The girls thought I was crazy because it was cold, wet and the waves were huge and there was not another single soul in the water or in shorts for that matter. I went in and it was great; very refreshing. After a couple of days which went by in what seemed hours we all had to say goodbye and hope that it wouldnt be 3 years until seeing each other again (at least I felt that way). Anya-thanks for having us over and being such a great host!!!! Sal and Lynne- Thanks for making the long drive to come and meet up, it meant a lot. All 3-Thanks for the smiles, laughter and of course singing along.

I also got a chance to do something I haven't done for a long time:SHUB. When I lived with Evan in college for a year we lived in the attic of a house. Since it was the attic the roof would slope down on both sides. It happened to slope over the bathroom and the lowest point came down over the tub. Because of this there was no way to stand a shower in the tub, you would have to lay down and move the spout back and forth over your body. As Evan loved it and shubbed (showering in the tub) many times a day I would go to the Kuwaiti house (friends that are all from Kuwait) and shower there everyday. Well, I had my chance to shub again at Anya's place and jumped at the opportunity which will explain the picture in the photo album.

I headed back to london for a night and got to see skaya who's bed I had slept in for the last week while she was on holiday (thank you skaya). The next morning I headed off to Germany. 3 countries down, many more to go!!!

You should be able to see the England pictures, it is the same link as the last 2 because now it has just turned into a public drive where all the pictures will be able to be seen.

You also may be wondering how I do so much in a short time since I often have the same shirt on. I'll just tell you that it' not in such a short time, I only have so many shirts.