It's Over!

For those of you who haven't noticed, I've stopped updating this. For those who keep checking this site, you can stop. I appreciate the support, but I'm not planning on updating anytime soon. Have a good one!

Concerts and ...

Not a ton of new stuff going on here. Same work schedule (for now... dun dun DUN!) and weekends are spent either in Saginaw, or here, if Jamie comes over here. Life is grand, all around. This past weekend, Third Day and David Crowder Band (and Electro-Hypo-Lake-Effect-Shock-Theapy Union... but who knows them...) played some songs in Saginaw. I went and so did a bunch of friends from Ferris. It was a grand show all around. DCB and Third Day are two of my favorite bands, so seeing them together was awesome. Not actually TOGETHER, but first one then the other. But it was cool. DCB brought the intensity with the the enthusiasm for worshipping God, which was spectacular. And Mr. Crowder happens to be extremely funny as well. So props there. As usual, Third Day ditched their electric instruments for a few songs and played an acoustic set which is (in my opinion) the highlight of their performance. They had a delightful mix of older and newer songs to keep everyone captivated for their however-long performance. And at the end we all got free foam pool noodles. Except for the part about the foam pool noodles. And free. But after the show we all went out for dinner. Much merrymaking was had and good times were enjoyed by all. Unbeknownst to me, my partner in crime Luke slipped my friend Jamie a small semblance of your favorite baseball player and mine. Blog followers, you may remember him from such photos as the Leaning and the Eiffel. This execution of clandestine operation put the proverbial ball back in my "court," as it were, and now our intrepid Mariner waits in quiet and solitude to await his next appearance...

I Will Survive

I'm alive! I should say, we are alive. When we last left our intrepid heros, they were setting out for the adventure of a life time: riding the 5th best commercial river in the world, the Upper Gauley. We went in knowing that it would be intense. We knew Doug, our guide, and knew his reputation. That is to say, nobody asked us if we were looking for the intense ride or a more safe ride after we told them we were going with Doug. Born and raised local to the Gauley river, Doug knows every nook, eddy, ripple, pour-over, hole, undertow and trap in the water, and he will take you through it all. In addition, he has one of the most encouraging personalities I've met up with. Being super intense and directed, the four us felt like we could conquer any task put before us, as long as we had our raft, our paddles, and Doug. One challenge on the Gauley is to charge straight at Pillow Rock and see how far up the face of it you can get your raft. Our group took gold, by no small margin. In addition to feeling like we could conquer the river, Doug frequently let us know who was in charge. You may notice the lack of fellowship with our guide here. Moments before this shot, our raft was vertical in the water, with four young, headstrong rafters seated inside, paddling desperately. No one noticed Doug inching over to the highside of the raft until it was too late. All in all, it was an excellent trip. A small mix up with the local authorities (no worries, it wasn't Deliverance style) at about 4am was the only hiccup. I talked to Justin yesterday (being Thursday) and he said he was also just coming down off the adrenaline. Yeah, it was a good weekend. I think Kevin frames our emotions best.

Gauley Me!

Big plans for the weekend. Here is the roster: First off, we have Justin. Justin is a fun loving, hard-charging brute of a man who will not let up when a challenge faces him. These qualities, along with a "go big or go home" attitude makes him an ideal candidate for this weekend. Next up is Kevin. Kevin defines laid-back when the world is a hustle and bustle around him. In a life of chaos, Kevin is the slow walker, enjoying endless-sand beaches and water. But when his intensity turns up, be prepared to see a Jekyll & Hyde conversion into a fierce warrior, putting his life on the line for his friends and beliefs. Both of these faces will be integral in this weekend's endeavors. Third on our hit list is Luke. A peaceful man, tempered by a tour in the Marines, producing a double-edged sword capable of accomplishments only God can know the extent of. Luke's indomitable drive may well provide the glue that binds our team together. Finally: The mission. The four of us will embark on a great adventure this Friday. Departing from Grand Haven in the afternoon, we will travel to the wilderness that is West Virginia to tackle the pitfalls and waterfalls of the Gauley River, armed with nothing but a raft, four paddles, (a guide) and our wits. One of the most intense sections of river in the nation. This will be epic.

More of the same.

Well, in the fast-paced, action packed news of my life, things are pretty quiet. No major events have happened, therefore I haven't felt inspired to post. My day life has become the routine of work, which I enjoy. I still love my job. I recently was put in charge of a major project, so I'm excited to head that up. The afternoons are filled with waves (this is the wavy season in Michigan, after all), or hanging out with friends. I feel like I don't do much, but I have no free time. Strange. The boogie boarding is still great fun. I broke the leash on Justin's board the last time I went, so today I bought a new sweet one. I like it a lot, and I think he will too. The picture was from that session, which ended the strap. Riding in Grand Haven is a complex beast to tame. I've never ridden in the ocean, or at any of the sweet, well-known hotspots for waves. All I know is the Grand Haven Rockpile and the Pier. Basically, in a south wind, the waves build up as they approach the shore. Coming in at a diagonal, they rebound off the pier and create these super narrow, tall waves. Riding one is challenging, because if get outside of it, you'll just stop. Riding along the pier is exhilarating, because most of the waves are pushing you straight into the cheese-grater type pilings, but there is a 3 foot "safe" section every so often which can yield some pretty intense rides. Today, Dave, Nate and I went out. The wind had a lot of south too it, so riding along the pier was out of the question. Every so often the rebounds would line up right and we would get some super intense rides, but for the most part, it was just large chop out there. But hey, any day in the water is a good day, in my opinion. My boss from this past winter is right, though. While I am totally loving these waves, I can't wait for the white powdery type to fall from the sky and change my outdoor recreation completely.
I spent this past weekend in Saginaw, visiting my friend Jamie. It was a great weekend. Met some new friends, played games, and just had a great time. More on that in the future.

Been a long time gone.

Luke wins the "cool photo to start my post with" award.
So, I haven't posted in quite some time now. I thought this would happen. Well, let's not dwell on it and suffer through apologies, as the stereotypical blog tends. On with the news!
The stairs (topic of the previous post) are still not done. Our DEstruction still stands as a testament to the step-father/son bonding experience. The CONstruction has yet to conceal our monument to unity. But enough with the past.
I'm currently working as a full time, salary paid employee of the Grand Haven Area Public Schools. I'm a sub for a tech guy who is out on sick leave. That basically means that my job is secure through the end of the month. I'm digging it, though. I love the people I work with, the job itself, and the responsibilities. Great combo. In recreational news, I fall more in love with the idea of surfing every day (read the dangling modifier however you want. It's true either way). My friend Daryl brought up the idea of him, Matt, Eric, and myself attending a surf camp. Tarnations, that would be fun. I can't think of a better way to spend a week. Well I could, but we won't get into that here. The point is, I'm stoked about the idea. Since I don't have a surfboard, I've been boogie boarding a lot with some friends. Nate and Shyle are an awesome couple; I've known Shyle since she was in middle school. Nate is really into boogie boarding, and between him, Dave, and I, I doubt a day goes by with decent waves that we don't call each other. Super quality.
I've been visiting my friend Jamie off and on. It is a new friendship which is cool. Also, hanging out with a guy Andy from around here. He's super cool and fun to be around. A new addition to the Grand Haven regulars over the summer.
Speaking of Grand Haven, I feel like I still need to defend my home town. For those that grew up here, you all know that it's not the coolest place to be as a kid, unless you're downtown and have easy access to the waterfront. After leaving for a period of time, I came to realize how awesome it is, and I'll be honest: I get a bit defensive when people down this place. True, it has its' faults (primarily in the winter), but in the summer months, I daresay that it is unbeatable. This sunset, while it may not be "commonplace," is certainly not out of the ordinary. This doesn't make it any less spectacular, and every night holds a new one, equally unique. Unfortunately I miss many of them due to lack of self motivation to indulge, but the fact remains: Grand Haven is a breeding ground for summer awesomeness. While I'm a bit sad that summer is gently drawing to close, it is without regret that I eagerly welcome the winter months, with their skiing, snowboarding, sledding and all sorts of snow-related activities. Until next time: (insert cool closing here)

Onward and (hopefully) Upward

Andy and I had a grand time last night. My parents are having their stairs redone, so we decided to facilitate the construction crew by putting in a little destruction. We removed the drywall which was encasing the stair case. It was a good time.

I have a sort of interview today with a group in Muskegon. The job is listed as an "IT Systems Administrator" and it seems pretty decent. We'll see how it goes. I've come to realize that this blog, whether or not anyone reads it, is basically my journal of major and (more frequently) minor events.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. A good time to relax, and hang out with one of my good friends from the Rostock Mission Trip, Jamie. Other than that, no big plans. Till next time!

Coke and Mentos... yeah, we played with it.

My friends Jason and Amy were up from Texas this week. They're missionaries with Casas por Cristo, building houses for the homeless. Every year we go down and build with them; it's always a great experience. So when Jason and Amy came up to Big Rapids, I naturally drove from Grand Haven to visit. A bunch of the His House crew all grilled out, and Jason even demonstrated his Sand Storm equipment (lightsaber not included). After dinner we got around to playing with Mentos and Coke. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just drop four Mentos into a 2 liter of Diet Coke, all at once. It's a good time. Then Luke, in classic Luke fashion, went bigger and better. Kids: don't play with dry ice in enclosed containers. College students and above: play with dry ice in enclosed containers. Basically, just adding water creates pressure inside the 2 liter until it explodes, sounding much like a shotgun. And a shrapnal bomb. So stand back (more back than I think...). Oh yeah, in other news, I've been working for Grand Haven Area Public Schools again, in the Tech Department. It's part time, 7am-noon, which gives me the afternoon to hunt for jobs. It's a great gig, and we'll see what happens with that :) I've applied just about everywhere on the planet which is even remotely cool. Now it's time to start looking for the realistic job ;)

White and Yellow Water

This past weekend was pretty incredible. Some of the friends from His House up at Ferris invited me to go white what rafting in West Virginia on the New River. So we all drove down on Friday, camped at Songer and rode on Saturday. It was pretty intense. Our guide, Doug, was awesome and knew all the local lore. Pretty intense of 3s, 4s, and 5s. And we're pumped to ride the Gaully in the fall. After our float trip, we hiked up a trail in the canyon and found some sweet cliff faces overlooking the river. Three nameless people decided it was an appropriate time to water the local flora, and did so. Back at camp, we crashed after unsuccesfully trying to start a fire with wet wood. This morning, we got up, packed, and hit the road. With a short stop at Cabella's, we finished our 10 hour trip in Big Rapids. Kevin and I rode it out to Muskegon, then I finished it to Grand Haven, where I am now. After a shower tonight, I'll sleep, then get up in the morning and hammer out the details of a part time job with my boss. More on that later...

To settle the record...

During my travels, I got into a debate with a few other travelers. This is not meant to boast... yet. I spent time on beaches in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Greece. Here comes the boasting part. No beach I've been to even compares to the beach at Grand Haven, Michigan. Not just because it is my hometown, but for many reasons. Freshwater, endless sandy beaches, low crowds (mostly), and water as far as you can see. True, the downside is that it IS seasonal, and the waves frequently leave something to be desired. However, this week, I have been boogie boarding in 80 degree water, swimming with friends and family until the sun has set, and laid out on sandy shores gathering as many sun rays as possible. I didn't have to worry about cutting myself on the reef, jellyfish stings, or other predators. All in all, I have yet to find a beach that I enjoy as much as Grand Haven in the summer. I just wanted to set the record straight.

So the family reunion is wrapping up, and tonight I'm heading to Big Rapids, meeting some friends, and traveling to West Virginia to go white water rafting for the weekend. It will be a good time, with good friends, and good camping.

On a technical side, I'm thinking about disabling anonymous posting on here, since I've been getting two or three spam postings each day. So if you want to post, you may have to create a free account. It's a small hassle, but it will save on random people posting spam links on the comments.

It's like traveling, but without the moving around part.

Crazy! I had planned on taking a week to relax, but it has flown by! Here's the rundown. I got back on Sunday night of last week. My wonderful mother picked me up at the airport and took me home, and we had a wonderful round of story swapping. Monday saw a nice day of relaxing (I think that's when Dave, Andy, Mark and I went golfing. Hole 18 is pictured above). Tuesday I drove up to TC to see Annie. We spent the afternoon together and it was nice :) On Wednesday, I drove down to Big Rapids to hang out with the old crew. Good times were had by all, especially in the pool! Late that night I drove home. Thursday Annie came and visited, and the Coast Guard Festival was underway. On Friday, we went to the beach and did a little (very little) kiteboarding and windsurfing. Saturday saw the the Coast Guard Festival Parade, family and friends reunion beach afternoon, and fireworks at night, followed by a great show put on by Soul'd Out. Sunday was church, then spending time with my aunt, uncle, cousins, mom, and Annie. Annie just left this morning at about 6am to make it back to work on time :) I got lunch with Matt, Eric, and Daryl (forming the Fantastic Four). I just got back from that, and have officially started the job hunt! So if anyone out there knows of any computer networking jobs in the Grand Rapids area, drop me a line! I'll keep updating this blog semi-occasionally, as stuff happens. If my life slows down, so will the blog. We'll see what happens :)

Coming soon to a blog near you...

I'm not dead. I made it home safely. However, catching up with family and friends, Coast Guard Festival, and a family reunion have more or less consumed all of my time. As such, I've allowed posting to this blog to fall by the wayside. The next few days should be more productive on the blogspot.

Ich bin ein Berliner! (had to do it...)

Amsterdam... was ok. Cologne, was alright. I daytripped out on suggestion and found this AMAZING park. It was like straight out of the Final Fantasy games (for you nerds out there) or would be a great place for Jedi/ninja training (for the rest of you nerds out there). There is a big waterfall which I'm told is turned on during the weekends and Wednesday afternoons. It runs through the park, fills stream beds and is a few km long. However, when it is off, there are more passages and places to explore. Small stone outposts in the woods, castles to climb and explore, buried in the forest. Straight out of lord of the rings. Many photos taken. Well, that was a few days ago. For the past two days, I've been in Berlin. Met a couple people at a cool hostel, and we went out yesterday for a free walking tour. After that, we found out that on Thursday, after 6pm, all the museums on Museum Island are free. So we hit those up. Then one of the gals got tired and went home (haha, by home, I mean the hostel), so the other one and I went out after sundown and took those cool artsy poetic night shots of busses in blurred motion with the Reichstag as the backdrop. It was a good time. Today we're going on a Third Reich tour, and seeing more of the city. Berlin is huge. I've been told it is 9 times larger than Paris. And it lacks a city center. It has about 5 city centers. We did one yesterday. I could spend a lot of time here. But, I fly out the day after tomorrow. So tomorrow I may go see a concentration camp, then get packed up. I want to get to Hamburg by midnight, when public transportation is probably still running. Then find my way to the airport (I have no idea how to actually get there) and spend the night there, since it is cheaper than a hostel, especially for only a couple hours of sleep. I fly out at 7:45 am to London, then make a connection to Detroit. I have no idea what time (or day, really) that I get in, and I honestly don't know how I'll get home at this point. I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I just recently realized that my Eurail trainpass won't work in Michigan, for a variety of reasons. Any ideas, anyone? :) Well, this may or may not be my last post from Europe. We will see what happens! Later!

That time and once again, I'm bouncin' round the room.

How could I forget?

AND I play frisbee. A lot of it. More hippy points there.

Amsterdam... no catchy title needed

Yeah, I'm there. I've met a bunch of travelers in past two months, and many of them have the same response when they hear a particular bit of trivial information about myself. It usually manifests itself in the following form: "wait wait wait... you mean you've got the longest hair I've seen on a guy in a while, you wear hemp jewelery, listen to Phish, Dave Matthews and the rest of the scene, say things like 'Right on' and 'No worries', lived in a van for a summer, and you've NEVER smoked pot??" Well, that's general the response, and it's true. So what else is there to do in Amsterdam? Actually, there is some neat stuff. The Heiniken musuem, whether or not you drink beer, is a fascinating tour. The Anne Frank Haus was certainly an eye-opening and thought provoking experienece. This whole place sort of reminds me of Venice, what the canals and general beauty of the city. Until the sun goes down... the redlight district is everything that it is known to be. After walking two blocks, one feels the need for a shower (coming from me, that says a lot). So all in all, Amsterdam has been a good time. Hostel was a little slow, didn't hook up with any people to tour with, but the street performers (outside the RLD) were more than enough entertainment. After this, it's on to Cologne, then Berlin.

This one time, Jack Bower tracked down Kiefer Sutherland and killed him because he heard that Kiefer Sutherland plays Jack Bower. Nobody plays Jack Bower.

(thanks Mike)

Skip the Frankfurter!

First stop on the final leg of the tour: Frankfurt! What is in Frankfurt: Nothing! So the full day I had there, I grabbed a train to Boppard, then took a ferry (compliments: Eurail) to Mainz. Beautiful countryside, castles and villages along the Rhine. Spent the day with two guys from California. The next day, moved on to Antwerp. While trying to make a train connection in Brussels, a lady in front of me on the escalator fell over backwards, and I attempted to catch her. Hard to do with a huge backpack on. But I slowed her down until we arrived at the bottom of the escalator. Escalator. So we were still moving up. I continued to try and steady her and finally got her to stop moving until someone finally hit the button to stop the escalator. Then a local Belgian and I got her the rest of the way up. Her foot was cut up bad, so we got it bandaged, and she missed her train to a town about 30 minutes away, so the local and I carried her bags and escorted her to her destination, to the car that her cousin had to pick her up. Then I continued on to Antwerp. Super cool hostel here, met a girl from Cali and a dude from D.C. Went to a free showing downtown of House of Flying Daggers. It was shown in the middle of a parking lot, with tons of sand brought in to make a fake beach. Really awesome. The movie was in Chinese, with subtitles in Dutch and French. We left at intermission. Today we day tripped to Brussels. It was cool. We played the classic tourists. Standard pics. Oh yeah, today's photo is from the Rhine ferry. It is Cyclops from the X-Men telling you not to enter the control room (Yes, Rostock crew, I am STILL plqying the "misinterpret the sign" game. Endless fun). That's it for now! Later all!

I will not go quietly into the night...

Unleashing the Bavarian

Turns out that Munich is really cool. Took the best tour ever. It's a free walking tour, and the guides survive on tips alone, so they do their best to make sure you enjoy the tour. Our guide's name was Ozzie (from Canada), and he is the only black man in Munich. Seriously. He was so awesome. After the tour, some people from my hostel hung out with him at a concert in the middle of town. It was cool. Ozzie went to a meeting, so Malc, Laura, Deanne, Jordan, two Austrailians and I all went to the river, where people were surfing the standing wave (much like a flo-rider). The current is extermly fast. So we all left the majority of our clothes on the bank and jumped in, and floated down about 500 yards, playing in the river, hanging from low bridges. It was really an awesome day. I did the tourist thing on the tour (Way to go Glockenspiel. As Aussie said "I'm sorry, but you will never get those 15 minutes of your life back"), and did the local thing with the friends. Later, we met Ozzie at a local pub and had dinner together. It was super cool. From here, I'm off to Frankfurt, Antwerp (and Brussels), Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Detroit, then Grand Haven. It's winding down!

My God, it's full of stars...

I'm not dead yet!

Havent been able to post in a while, and I still can't. Don't have the time right now. In any case, I#m still alive. I survived Corfu and the Pink Palace, and I'm in Munich right now. I missed Mike and Kirsten by a little, but I've got the next 15 days (aka, the rest of my trip) booked. I won't be able to make it to Rostock again (sorry Marco. I still love you). It feels like it is coming down to the wire. I still need to find an internet cafe with USB, though. I have CDs of pictures I need to burn. The Pink Palace was a lot of fun. Not as relaxing as I was led to believe, but fun nonetheless. Met some really fun people on the 14 hour bus ride there, and we rented quads as soon as we arrived and toured the island in style. The next day we rented kyaks and toured the seas in style. The next day, we relaxed at the beach in style. Then an overnight ferry, 8 hours on trains, a 2am hostel in Bern, 8 more hours on trains, and a chill out time later, and I'm ready for bed in Munich. Tomorrow is a 3 hour walking tour and then on my own for the day. Day after takes me to Frankfurt. Later all!

They never thought it would end like this.

Hip-Hop-Acropolis

I can officially say that I've done Athens. Did the Acropolis (sorry Luke our bobble-headed friend was forced into luggage-check at the bottom), Hadrian's Arch, Temple of Zeus, all that stuff. It was grand. Busy, but grand. Caught the game last night. Go Italy :) Does anyone know what Materazzi said to Zidane? Must have been pretty bad. In any case, I've been the classic tourist for the past couple of days. Tonight I'm taking an overnight bus to Corfu to relax on the beach. Following that, it's an overnight ferry to Italy, and a train (potentitally overnight) back up to Bern, to see Mike and Kirsten. From there, I plan on booking up Belgium (hopefully with Mike and Kirsten) and through Germany. With only 20 days left from today, I think that will just about finish my trip. Hopefully I can get back to Rostock for a day or two to say bye to Marco and Marat and the gang. The days are passing quicker now. The first month seemed to take a long time, but since my last stay in Bern, it just seems to cruise. I keep meeting cool people, and sometimes we day trip together, but usually just hang out each night. It's a good time. Not a whole lot else going on here, noteworthy, at least. I guess that sums it up.

fade to black

It's all Greek to me...

When we last left our hero, the sun was rising on another day, with dreams of volcanic cities and Jedi's returning flowing through his head. Here's what actually happened. I'm using the Let's Go 2006 guide book as my permanent traveling companion. I went to Caserta to see the waterfall (Dave, I believe it is in the Ewok scene, at the early stages of the party, perhaps when the X-Wings are flying overhead with the fireworks, but potentially with written over with the newscenes after the re-releases and you may have to go back to the originals to see it, but it's ok because the palace in front of the gardens are also the setting for Amadala's palace so it's cool anyway), but the palace and gardens were closed on Tuesday. Let's Go said they were open Tuesday-Sunday, which is odd. So I didn't see them. I trained back to Naples and hopped a train for Pompeii. Go there at 6:00, which is fine because Let's Go says they close the excavation at 7:30. Walk to the entrance, get there at 6:05. Last tickets are sold at 6:00. No go on the Pompeii. So, a defeated tourist returned to the Hostel in Naples. I met traveler from Norway, and we went to a bar to celebrate my country's independance as well as watch the Italy-Germany game. Italy won, and there were fireworks on the 4th of July :) How classic. The city erupted with horns, sirens, people flying flags from houses, cars, and mopeds. I loved it. We wandered the choas until late in the morning and eventually packed our bags and went our seperate ways. I headed for Brindisi, and was fortunate enough to get a 4 hour layover in Caserta. So I did get to see the Palace, the Gardens, and the waterfall. Famous. Nabbed the train to Brindisi, slept most of the way. In Bari, I woke up and started talking to this Italian lady sitting across from me. She's from Brindisi and is meeting her boyfriend at the station. She offers to drive me to the hostel, and I accept. Her boyfriend is a windsurfer, and gives me his cell # in case the wind is up tomorrow (which it wasn't). They take me around town, show me the port, the beach, take me to the supermarket and drop me at the hostel. Right on Italy! We part ways, and I check in and rack out after dinner. In the morning, I meet two Irish gals over breakfast who are also going to Athens. After our individual tours of Chaotic touring, we all just realax at this super cool hostel all day, lounging in the sun, in the inflatable kiddy pool out back, journal, read, Sudoku, and the like. Around 5, we all get a ride from the hostel owner down to the port and get on a 16 hour ferry from Brindisi to Patras. Slept well, sunned on the deck, and relaxed a bit on the way. Got in, got to the train station, and took the train to Athens. I got in to my hostel, met a couple from Kansas City and a gal from France, who were my roommates last night, and crashed. Today, I'm off to see the Parthenon, Acropolis and other Atheny sights. Dang these things get long. Congrats to those who made it this far. Your intrepid reading skills are masterful and should be rewarded. I'm giving Ron a run for his money...

And they were never to be heard from again.

Your Naples are showing...

I made it here just fine, followed the usual routine of checking in, getting maps, finding the supermarket. I then decided to see downtown Naples, since it was only early afternoon. Took the Metro back in to the main station and started walking to some of the more well known Piazzas. Naples is human chaos. People everywhere, cars everywhere, cars going the wrong way on one way streets, running reds, people wandering out into traffic, horns honking. Total chaos! So I started just walking with no real direction. Somehow, I hit the cost, and so I turned south. I just walked along the beautful shoreline and just kept going. I ended up walking past the area where my hostel is (about two city sections from the main station) and walked the entire Bay of Naples. Got to the southern point, sat on a bench, let the sun set behind me and watched the city light up. It was really cool. Then I walked back north to where my hostel was, got lost trying to find the metro station (the only landmark I know in the Mergellina city section, eventually located it and found the hostel. It was an awesome day :) Today I'm planning on checking out Pompeii and Caserta. I know Sarah suggested Herculeam, but I hear that it is less excavated than Pompeii. I want to Caserta, because there's this 75m man-made waterfall there. If you want to see a picture of it, watch the last scene of Return of the Jedi. I hope I have time to go to both places, because honestly, I'm a nerd, and I don't know which one I really want to see more... On a side note, I keep looking for internet cafes with USB or SD connections so I can keep posting pictures, but these are harder to come by than one may think.

May the force be with you.

No Logins Allowed

So at this place, I can't actually log in to my blogger account, so
hopefully this email comes through ok. In any case, today was really
awesome. I spent the morning moving from one hostel to another, due to
booking issues a bit ago. After that, I went out and walked across the
entire toursity part of the city. The place I wanted to go was a park
just off of one of the maps I had, and covered by advertisements on
the other map I had. And every tourist information place I stopped at
(including the one right outside the park) didn't have a map with the
park, let along a map OF the park (it's a big park). And I was trying
to get to a specific place within the park. In any case, I found the
park and it was amazing. And huge. Two hours walking to the park, and
another two walking around IN the park. Had some lunch, and felt
comfortable that I had found the spot I was looking for. Right around
5pm, a couple (later to be known as Kim and Shannon) started walking
across a field, frisbee in hand. Sure enough, they were also here for
the ultimate game. Eventually more people showed up. A few locals,
plus Kim (formerly the head of the Catholic Camps Fellowship at
Northern Michigan University), Shannon, Wade (Formerly the head of
Campus Crusade for Christ at a school in Ohio) and two of Wade's
friends from Ohio, were all here for the game. It was a ton of fun. It
was good to run and jump, catch and throw again. Quality times. I
skinned both my knees on an aborted layout, but they'll be ok :) All
around, it was awesome. To top it off, Kim invited me over to his
place for dinner with Shannon. They made pasta and salad and spinach,
and it was awesome. It was super cool because we got to talk about
faith stuff, and I had some of my questions about the Catholic faith
answered. We got along really well. Tomorrow I'm heading out for
Naples. I look forward to that. On a side note, I'm told that there's
a newsletter about the Germany Mission Trip from earlier available at
www.hhcf.org. It is written by Adam, one of the guys from the trip. I
can't read it here, though, because you need Adobe Reader, and this
computer does not have it. I hear from reliable sources that it is
quite enthralling.

And they lived happily ever after.

Across the city, back and forth

Day two of Rome was also productive. I went back to the places that I just saw the exterior of, namely two of the Churches from Angels and Demons, and the Colloseum. I went inside this time. And was impressed on every count. Most breathtaking, however, was my blunder at the Vatican. I intended to simply go into St. Peter's Cathedral. I got in the wrong line, however. Apparently, there is no line to simply go in, as it is huge enough to house a house. The line I got in ended up being the line to climb 550 stairs to the TOP of the dome. As in, on top, outside, looking over the smallest country in the world. It was super cool. And many photos were taken. I did end up back downstairs and inside the dome, and it was also impressive. Breathtaking. I wanted to go to the Sistine Chapel, but to do so involved paying some extra euros and taking a longer tour of the museums. I may get swayed into tomorrow, since I don't have a lot planned. In fact, the only thing I have planned for tomorrow is finding this particular park just south of the Vatican where people apparently play ultimate at 5pm. Other than that, I'm looking at a pretty relaxed day, just letting my legs rest a bit, since I've noticed that they have been getting more tired more quickly. I think a day of rest is in order. Again, I'm at a loss on how to conclude this post. I'm bad at this part. If I ever write a book, I'll have someone else write the last chapter. And he rode off into the sunset.

When in Rome...

Made it here, checked in fine, things are good. I found a system that I really enjoy. For a while, I'd see a city, then head out in the afternoon, get in to the new place at night, find my hostel and crash. That led to a tired, hungry, lost version of myself wander strange streets in countries I do not understand. A little tweaking has made life awesome. Now, my current MO is to leave a city in the morning, train for a few hours, arrive a little after noon, find the hostel, check in, then locate the necessities, such as central grocery store and a map. Then the rest of the day and evening are spent in the city, getting used to it and seeing stuff. Rome has been great. I've used this formula and met with much success. I saw the Colosseum today, and it is awe inspiring. I didn't go in, but I will tomorrow. There is an entrance fee, and I was there close to closing. I don't want to be rushed ;) Also, I read Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons. It is set in Rome, and it has been pretty neat to see some of the monuments, churches, and sights that he describes Robert Langdon interacting with. For those of you following the World Cup (that is to say, not me (also, if someone could find out why it is abbreviated WM over here, like what WM actually stands for, that would be enlightening)) you may have noticed that Italy defeated someone tonight. I'm aware of this fact because the city errupted with car horns, singing, dancing, and mopeds flying around the streets waving giant flags. It's a ton of fun, even though I can only sing the parts of the songs that go Ole OleOle Ole OleOle. Then I say right on, and it's all good again. Sidenote: When determining if a northern Irish guy is going to be good company or not, if he says: "I love it when a plan comes together," it's a deal clincher.

Pack your bags, we're going to Milan, or: It's so hot... milk was a bad choice!

Ok, I didn't actually see Milan. But it is super hot. Let's catch up. I parted ways with Mike and Kirsten (first train I've had to RUN for... with a backpack... not winning friends looking like that...) but I made it. Got in to Genova, checked in to the hostel, and realized that my plan of day tripping to Milan was hosed because it was too late already. So I checked out a little of Genova before calling it a night. The next morning, I got on a train headed for Florence. Actually, I was headed for this little podunk town halfway between Florence and Sienna called Castelfiorentino (not on a map, don't bother looking) because there was a hostel there for cheap, and then I could daytrip both cities. After checking in, I ran back into Florence and checked out the evening life (not night life, since my hostel has a midnight curfew. Thumbs down). Crashed, and met my roommate, aka the only other person in the hostel. The next morning, he went into Florence, while I checked out Pisa. Instead of getting a lame picture of me pretending to hold up the tower, I have formed a photo album of pictures of other people looking like idiots, trying to hold up the tower (shown above). It was a fun activity while eating my lunch on the lawn. The afternoon was spent in Florence. I wanted to see the David, but the line was two hours, so I put it off for a day. My plan was to come pack in the morning and see it then. I went to the science museum to see some of Gallileo's toys, but was closed, as was St. Corce church, here is buried along with Micaelangelo and Machiavelli. More things for the next day. As it was getting late, I returned to the hostel, did some laundry in the sink, and went to bed. And it is incredibly hot, and sweat never stops. So today, I ran into Florence and headed for the David. And the line was twice as long. So, I took a picture of a naked guy who's name is David. Not really. Well, ok, I actually have, but that's another story, and it was a long time ago. I did make it to the science museum and St. Corce, they were stunning. Then I hopped a train to Sienna, and checked out that place. (this is getting long) Sienna was cool. It is days before the famous SomeItalianWord Race, which is a huge deal. Parades, drum lines, and dancing abounded. It was fun. And I saw the whole city in an afernoon. So now I'm back in Castelfiorentina, and I'm about to make dinner (aka, half a loaf of bread, half a brick of cheese) and call it a day. Next time: Roman the Countryside, or In Search of the Original Ceaser Salad.

Berning Down the House

Yesterday was wonderful :) I spent about four hours online, just booking hostels. I booked all the way through Itay and Greece, which has turned into about 18 days. That gives me time to come back up to Bern, visit with Mike and Kirsten again, and then book through the Netherlands and Germany. Maybe a little more in France too, depending on time. In any case, after the Internet Extravaganza, we went out for a walk in town. It was really cool. Later on in the afternoon, it started to rain off and on, but it wasn't bad. Pretty refreshing, actually. It was still warm, and I do love a warm rain. We wandered over to the bear pits, but the rain turned them all inside. We walked along the river, through a petting zoo, bought some coffee at a cafe and ate our lunches. Then we hiked to the top of the largest hill in Bern (and took a tram up the peak) and had an overlook to die for. There was a huge children's playground, with the largest Rube Goldberg device I'd ever seen. It was a system of tracks and machinery where a ball rolls along the track until a stopping point, when a person has to turn a crank to activate the next section. Hard to explain, but super fun. We probably spent an hour playing with it. In any case, we climbed a huge tower and had a beautiful view of the city and surrounding hillsides. After that, we went down, grabbed some food on the way back, and crashed when we got back to the apartment. Tomorrow, I'm off to Genova, where I can daytrip out to Milan as well.

Nomandy, Belgium, and back to Switzerland

Well, a lot has happened in the past few days. I ended up on the Normandy coast, in the town of Bayeux, which was the first town liberated from the Germans. It was cool, smaller than Caen, and a great central place to spend my time in Normandy. I was in a hostel for a night, but it was overbooked for the next two, so I stayed in a monestary where a few nuns took care of me and a guy from Northern Ireland who was in the same situation that I was in. He and I found the Normandy coast hard to get to without a car, so we signed up for a tour. A little pricey, but very well worth it. We saw Arromanches, then went on to the few remaining German gun emplacements, complete with German 88s. From there, we went on to the American Memorial, which some may remember from the begining and end of Saving Private Ryan (I believe that's where they were, and where it was filmed). After that, we were off to Omaha Beach (pictured). Spent a little time there, then saw Pointe du Hoc. It was an incredible trip, really. There's more pictures. After my time in Bayeux, I went on to Brugge, since I couldn't find a hostel on short notice in Belgium. Brugge is a fascinating little town, and can only be described with the assistance of pictures. This morning, I grabbed a series of trains down to Bern, Switzerland, where I'm currently crashing on Mike and Kirsten's couch. You may remember this amazing couple from early on in my soloing adventures in Europe. As soon as I got here, they prepared a specatcular meal of smoked trout, white asparagus, and absinth (the real stuff, the real way). So from this excellently hospitible base of operations, I will book my hostels for the future through Italy and Greece, since with tourisim in high season now, it is nigh impossible to find a cheap place to stay on short notice. While I realize that this sacrifices some of the freedoms of not being tied down, it does ensure that I see the places that I want to see. After Italy and Greece, I plan on going back up to Belgium, Amsterdam and the like. On a side note, Luke: Parkur is real, they really call it that, and they really practice it in parks in Bayeux. That's me for now!

This one's for Luke ;)

Luke, I don't know if you're reading this, but this picture is for you alone. Sorry about the inability to focus.

I realized that in my haste, I didn't actually say what I've been doing in my last post. Barcelona was cool. for the sake of time, I'll have to tell you about that in person. Paris was awesome. We did the Louvre, and yes, I did see the Mona Lisa. After reading The Da Vinci Code, I have determined that either they re-arranged the room, or Dan Brown has never seen the Mona Lisa in person. Oh well. She was still spectacular. I did find a bookstore and got a travel guide. Now I'm headed out to the coast to see so,e Normandy sites and begin the Band of Brothers tour. Hopefully I can find a place to stay :)

Flying solo again!

Well, I parted ways with Jamie, Adam, Anne and Kristen. They also split up, but to meet again later. I'm excited to go solo for a bit, not nearly as freaked out as I was before, so it's all good. We did a day in Paris yesterday. I want to do more in Paris, but there wasn't time to find a hostel, so I booked a night train to anywhere (I ended up in Toulousa, where I am now) and slept the night. Upon waking, I found an internet cafe (again, with no USB support, and this time, just about every key on the keyboard is in a different location than I'm used to) so I booked a hostel in Paris for tonight. I'll be back there today to check in, scope out the night life, and I have a few addresses of English bookstores, since the most amazing gift I've received on this trip (the travel guide from Mike and Kirsten) was left somewhere in Venice. So tomorrow is laundry, planning, booking and things of that nature. Till next time!

100% Pure Valencia

Valencia is pretty awesome. Adam and I went out last night to check out what people do on a Thursday night. We found this square, around midnight. It was full of high school kids, most riding roller blades, some on bmx bikes. Everyone was just chilling and having a good time. It was really cool. We´re getting up early tomorrow to catch a 6.40am train to Barcelona. We´re doing Barcelona in a day, then night training on to Paris, I think. That´s the current plan, at least. We´ll see what really happens. Well, they´re telling us that they´re closing the lounge here in our hostel, so we gotta jet to bed. Night all!

The world of overbookings and changing plans

So our trip to Barcelona is rescheduled. The train from Geneva to Barcelona was booked solid, so instead, we booked a night train to San Sebastian. We toured the town, climbed a cliff, and hit the beach for a couple hours. We got a hostel from a lady at the station, and the next day we took off Bilbao. We wandered Bilbao for the day, took in a ton of sweet buildings. Lots of good architecture there, which is great when you´re touring with four architecture students. Saw the Googenheim over here, which was splendid, as shown in the picture. Last night, we went to the train station, booked a night train to Madrid with intentions of continuing on to Valencia this morning, but upon arrival, we found that the Valencia trains are booked until 2pm, so we have about 5 hours to tour Madrid before our train. In the mean time, we´re booking hostels, internetting, and shopping at the supermarket. It´s been pretty awesome. Night trains are decent, I´ve found. Sleeper cars are a little more pricey, but it´s ok because then you don´t pay for a hostel. Couchettes and regular cars at night are basically worthless because there´s no room to actually sleep. So we´re down with the sleepers now. I plan on sticking with this group for a while, until they head out, then I think I´ll be in the northern Germany or Amsterdam area, and I may head back down to France and begin the Band of Brothers Tour. But, who really knows :) I still need to go do Italy again, and check out Greece. So much stuff to do...

Again, no USB support.

Sorry Joe, I have a pic of more than 2 feet of snow. It's of a glacier. And I'm on it, and we rode all day. It was sweet. Unbelieveable. On to the new post :)

So I booked a night train in a sleeper car to some place in Switzerland. I didn't even care where, as long as I got a bed that wasn't made of tile for the night. I was headed to Mike and Kirsten's to get back on track. As I'm getting the sleeper car ready for the night, my roommates show up. A guy and three girls, all from Detroit. We laugh at our luck and talk for a while. They tell me about a hostel that they are staying at in Geneve, where we're going, so we get there in the morning, and find that there are in fact places to ruck up (still getting the Austrailian out of me). So I book and all is good. I'll go back to Italy when I'm assured I have a place to stay. For now, we had a blast in Geneve. These folks also had problems finding rooms in Venice, so we spent a leisurly day in a leisurly town, just walking around, went swimming in the lake, got a little sun burned, and lounged for a day of recouperation. Tomorrow, we're headed to Barcelona. I realize that I'm blitzing through these countries, but I have full intentions of returning and hitting up some more cities. For now, I found a great group of traveling companions, and I've found that even in the worst situations, one good person can turn a situation from survivable to enjoyable. For now, I'm blessed with four such people. I really wish the USB here worked so that you all could see pictures of what's been going on. I've already sent three CDs home of pics (yes Mom, two more are in the mail. And don't worry, I'm not wasting money on worthless souveniers, I didn't pay for what else is in the box ;) On a side note, sleeper cars are awesome. Italy isn't so hot, because they still make you reserve a seat, which is 25 euros, even though we all had Eurail passes. That makes it inefficent to use them as alternate housing, in Italy. Tomorrow we may check into prices in other countries, because it was so much fun. Well, I have 4 minutes left. Time to get to the e-mail side of things. Later!

Hosed

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Venice, which is a pretty good spot to be, in my opinion. However, I spent last night on the floor of a train station, still have no place for tonight (all rooms are either booked or more than 100 dollars), and I seem to have lost my journal. But heck, I am in Venice. I don't know for how long, though. It seems that Italy is a pain to book, hostel wise. Due to this, I may just skip the whole country in frustration.

Into the Eagle's Nest

I arrived safely in Salzburg, although very tired from the many days of walking that I've been doing. I decided to just stay in, since I had arrived at 7pm. Just journaled, then read the section in Band of Brothers about the Eagle's Nest, since those were my plans for the next morning. Well, at 8pm in the lobby of my hostel, they were showing The Sound of Music, which is set and filmed in Salzburg. I figured, what the heck. I'm tired anyways. So I ventured down and sat with two girls from London, one of which is totally all about the Sound of Music. Then three Aussie guys who are in the same room as me walked up and were like "We saw the Band of Brothers book on your bed, and we're going to Eagle's Nest tomorrow" so the four of us went out after the movie to sample Salzburg's nightlife. We had a good time, then hit the hay (or, as they say, rucked out. Or rooked out. I don't know how to spell it. Or why they call McDonalds "Mackies.") They all paid for the guided tour (about $65 US), while I decied to use my train pass and wing it. I never saw them there, but I did meet a guy from the UP, travelling with a guy from Louisiana, and the three of us wandered about the Eagle's Nest. I got some pictures of the place, but the overpriced internet cafe I'm at right now doesn't have access to USB ports, so I can't show you any of them. I'm heading to Kitzbuhel tomorrow night, for three nights. It's near Innsbruck, so I can go there for a day, and also check the place out. As for the future, I think Italy may be in the running.

Vienna

Ok, due to popular request, here's a shot of me under a chandaleer (I can't spell that...) made of human bones, at the BONE CHURCH. In other news, I'm planning on linking back to everyone who is kind enough to link to me and also to add a site meter, but currently, every post I make is on a pay-per-minute basis, so I basically log on, do my thing, and log off as soon as I can. If I find free Internet, I will right all wrongs :) Vienna was cool. I don't know what to say about it. I walked a ton today. I got in at midnight, and the hostel directions were poor, and also utilized a bus line that stopped running at midnight. Then I got poor directions from a local. So more or less, I wandered the streets until 1:30am, when I found the address. No sign out front, and no sign on the first floor even. But they had left a key out for me, and I made it :) I booked a hostel for two nights in Salzburg. I wanted three, but the only cheap place had just two available. I may splurge in the near future, as I found a deal on skiing a glacier for $30, all day, with rental. So tempting... we'll see. That's all for now. Mom, expect a package in the mail soon. I need to send some stuff home that isn't doing anything for me now. As soon as you get it, I need you to copy the CD of pictures to my computer, then e-mail me and let me know that they all copied correctly, so I can clear off my memory card. I just have to find out how to mail it. Later all. I miss you all!

on Riding Black and Czeching out...

Two days in Prague were excellent. A lot of good times wandering the streets of old city and new, seeing the giant cathedral on the hill, overlooking the city, as well as some modern art. Public transportation is awesome. I was running low on funding, and still had to navigate around the trains. When you just hop on the city subways and trams without a ticket, it's called "riding black." So that's what I did all day. I felt a little like James Bond, keeping an eye out for Jaws, who was prepared to rip my tram and my head in half, demanding the 500 crown fee for being caught. An American couple in front of me got caught and had to cough up the money. It was exciting. Today, we're going to a town called Kutna Hora. I guess back in the days of the plague, this town was more or less wiped out. They burned all the bodies, but there so many that they didn't know what to do with them. A monk took all the bones and built a cathedral and furniture out of them. Sounds creepy, but cool, nonetheless. I've got my next hostel booked in Vienna for the next two nights, so that's where I'm headed. Austria, here I come. Joe, I'm looking for some late season pow pow on the cheap :)

Java stuff

The hostel I'm at allows internet, but no Java, so I can't use the
normal blogspot interface to update, and therefore, I can't post a
picture with the post for today. So the picture for this text is
actually below this text, in the previous post. Shouldn't be too hard
to figure out. Oh well. In any case, I went to the train station
in Hamburg this morning to get on a train to Berlin. I was on the
platform, about half an hour early, and saw a couple that I recognized
from the hostel I was staying at. We chatted, and it turns out that
they were waiting for the same train, but were headed past Berlin, to
Leipzig. So we chatted for a bit, Mike and Kirsten turned out to be
really cool, and the convinced me to head to Leipzig with them.
Kirsten spent a year here studying, so she knows German very well and
is familiar with the city. Today, we went to a nearby town and climbed
a huge hill to a castel. The castle was Wartburg, but I forget what
town it is in. I can look that up when I get home. Tomorrow morning,
we're headed to Prague, where Kirsten knows of a really cool hostel.
We're all spending the night there, and they are returning home the
next day. I think I may spend another day in Prague, or head on to
somewhere else. That's still up in the air. Till next time, cheers!

Sorry, no picture, probably

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Final hour in Rostock

So, our stay here in Rostock is coming to an end. The bus comes at 3am (in one hour) and we're all heading to Hamburg. Once there, the team is flying home and I'm finding a hostel and crashing for the night.
Today was pretty laid back. We went downtown in the morning so people could do some last minute shopping. Then we had lunch and headed over to Toitenwinkle. We played some frisbee and soccer with some of our friends, made our goodbyes, then headed to the church for dinner. It was good to just chill and everything in the evening. Then we talked until about 11, parted ways with Marko and Daniel, and then headed back to the hostel. Once here, we packed, then have been hanging out in the lobby, playing cards and chilling.
So after this, I don't know how often I'll have internet access, so updates may be sporadic, or potentially daily. Who really knows. Till next time!

Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday

Ok, so Friday started with a prayer breakfast with the SMD students. I don't remember if I covered this or not, but the SMD is a student mission group on the Rostock campus here. They were cool, and we talked a lot. Learned a cool pre-eating song. Jon and I agree that we need to initiate pre-eating songs in the US. After that, we went shopping downtown. Some of the peeps picked up scarfs and jerseys for the soccer teams. I did not. After that, we went back to Toitenwinkel for the final Bistro. We set up, practiced a drama, then went to the soccer fields to kick around a ball for a little bit. After that, we met some of the local students and brought them back to the church and played some volleyball. After that, we ate and Troy shared the gospel with the group, then we broken into small groups to talk about it. A couple of the kids were totally into it, which was awesome, and they even showed up at church on Sunday. After small groups, two of the students pulled out an american football and began tossing it around. There's an american football league in this state in Germany, and it turns out that Friday is the Rostock seniors against some other neighboring city team. So we accepted an invitation to the game. After that, we went home, did devotions, and crashed.
Saturday was pretty much the football game. Prior to that, a few of us went to town to do more shopping. My cold was starting to get pretty intense, so I went in search of decongestant. I stepped into a drug store, coveyed that I was sick, and I needed drugs. The lady seemed confused by what kind of sickness I had. I tried to communicate a cold. This didn't go well. In the end, she gave me a box of drugs, and I've been taking them. I haven't found that they help a lot, but they aren't hurting.
The football game was pretty funny. Imagine a country whose primary sport is soccer. Now imagine that at every american football game, the announcer has to explain the general concept of the game and a rough layout of the rules (see photo). Just about every kick was eight feet in the air and straight. On one extra point attempt, a defensive lineman was actually pegged in the face. But it was fun to watch and hang out with our new friends. And we were interviewed for NDR, which is like the local northern Germany news channel. That was all of Saturday.
Today, we went to church and played a song for the congregation. I played drums, which was cool, but rough. All around, it was neat, especially because we were seeing some of our friends from earlier in the week. After church, we went to lunch with the SMD peeps, which was fun. Then we met up with Mike and Simone and their children. We walked around downtown in extreme wind (On a side note, Jerome, tons of people were out windsurfing and kiteboarding on the baltic. Super intense :) and we eventually took shelter in a small Italian restaraunt. We chatted for a bit, then headed back to the Hostel. That's where we are now. I'm going to go eat German chocolate and give a devotion. Later.

It's been some time...

Ok, so I've missed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I've tried to update this a few times, but always get interrupted. I would save each draft and finish it later, but all the buttons I have to click on are in German, so I have to guess which one means "Save for later" and so far all I've found "Delete Forever." I hope I finish this one.

Thursday was an adventure. The students are out of school for both Thursday and Friday. Thursday is "National Celebrate Men Day" which translates into "Guys, get wasted." So school was canceled for that. Friday was canceled for the unofficial "National Hangover Day." So on Thursday, a few of us were invited by a group of students to go to a beach to play volleyball and other beach games. This sounded cool, so we went. Originally, the plan we heard was to take a tram to parking lot where some friend with a van would pick us up and drive us to the beach. We took the tram to a parking lot, then a bus came to take us to the beach. And by "to the beach" I mean "two miles from the beach" which we then walked. Bear in mind that this is still "Drink 'till You Can't See Day," so we are accompanied by plenty of loud Germans as we walk along this road, also sharing the space with the local drivers, who are presumably also taking part in the day's festivites. But after the long walk in the rain and cold, we arrive at the Beach. This beach is about 100 feet long (well, not really, beacause we're on the metric system), with beautful waves of black oily foam lapping at a rough, crushed gravel shoreline. But it was still fun, even though the water was unswimmable, the rain cold, the beach painful, and the stomachs empty. The fellowship was fun :) Eventually the rain and cold got to myself, Jamie, and Carrie. We decided to find our way back. Up till this point in the day, we've been following local guides, and therefore not paying attention to streetnames, bus numbers, or tram routes. But we're confident. So off we go. After the familiar two mile walk, pestered by loud inebriated Germans, we round a corner and see a bus driving toward our bus stop. Casting thoughts os Social Outcast to the wind, we decid to sprint, while wearing backpacks. We arrive just in time for our bus to drive straight past us without stopping. We laugh, realizing that the totally uncool sacrifice of running with a backpack was just made totally worthless by missing our bus anyways. So we wait for it to come back. Jamie remembered that we needed bus 16 or 18 to get home, and 18 came into sight. The sign at the intersection said Rostock (our destination) to the left, and SomewhereElse to the right. We boarded bus 18 and hoped for a left turn. Luckily for us, it turned right. Because who would actually want to go home? We laughed at our situation, because that's that kind of people we are. So we decided to ride the bus to the end of the line, wait for it to turn around, then head for home. We arrived at the end of the line, which turned out to be Wandermunde. You may remember this town from an earlier post. Yes, we had been there before, but this time we were on the East side of the bay. Which basically equates to trying to get to the Grand Haven beach from Blockbuster and ending up in Ferrysburg. Your goal is just about in sight, but you really have a long way to get there. We sit on the bus and watch the Numer 18, and the destination, waiting for it to change to Number 18 and SomeplaceWeRecognize. It changes to to Number 17 and WhoKnowsWhere. So we bail from the bus before it takes off in some random direction, further from our desitnation. Luckily, the bus doesn't leave, and in broken German, we ask the driver how to get home. He tells us to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes (metric time) for the new #18 bus, or take the ferry. We again laugh at how unfortunate we are. So we start walking around Wandermude East-Side. We find the ferry, and walk up to the ticket office. In horrible German, we make attempts to talk to the ferry ticket sales-dude. The nice old man speaks in more broken English, and conversation begins to ensue. I show him my bus-and-tram pass, trying to figure out if ferrys were included on the ticket. After quite the conversation, we conclude that we're good, and so we walk to where the ferry was loading just a moment ago. As we turn the corner, we see the ferry pulling away from the dock. Again, laughter at our horrible misfortune ensues. I couldn't have asked for better traveling companions. We take a couple pictures at the dock and chat for about five minutes, until the next ferry pulls in. The Germans are certainly efficient. We board the ferry, take more pictures, and travel across to Wandermunde West-Side. After disembarking, we recognize nothing that we were hoping to. So we simply follow the mass of people into the town. Magically, we pass the Train Station! We stop at the station, and spend about 15 minutes trying to figure the schedule in another language. Not only are we convinced that we're successfull at that, but we're pretty convinced that we know where to transfer from the train to the tram! So we jump on the next train (they all have to go South, since North leads to the Baltic. As Marko said, the trains leaving Wandermunde only go North once), and are on our way to freedom! On the train, we reflect on our adventures and continue to laugh more. We succesfully make our transfer, and arrive back at Hänse-Hostel, missing the rest of the group by mere hours. A note was left for the three of us to call "Scoddy," who we deduce is Scott, our team leader. We get in touch with Troy, who tells us that if we left now, there may be some dessert left at Mike and Simone's. We tell him that we're going to grab some food, since we hadn't eaten in about 8 hours. So we walk up and down the street, trying to find something that is open on "Men, Get Plastered Day." We find a Chinese restaraunt. We manage to convey an order to the service person there. Imagine only knowing English and couple words in German, and trying to order from a person who only knows Chinese and a few German words. It was very similar to that. But we get our food, and return to the hostel to eat. Again, we laugh, this time at the fact that we're Americans in Germany, and we ended up eating Chinese. Good times. Eventually, the rest of the group makes it home (we didn't have time to go get dessert), and the rest of the night continues with devotions, then bed. All around, and adventuresome day. Ok, this is way too long as it is, so I'll get to Friday and Saturday a little later on. 'night!

A successful bistro!

So we went into the school again to talk with the classes. This time, we got a Philosophy class, and a 6th grade class. The young ones haven't ever been taught anything about America, so for two hours, they simply sat and asked us questions such as "Are the fish bigger in America?" We also got to play "Get up and move" twice, which is always a good time. The more time I spend with the team, the more I find out about each individual and discover how cool each person is. I'm surrounded by excellent friends. Last night, we held a Bistro for all the students in the area we're working in. It was so successfull. We had one on Monday, but no one showed up. Last night, we had a ton of people. We had to go out and buy more food. It was cool, just playing games, eating, and talking about God with them. Ok, breakfast time. I love it!

Back to school

The past two days have been pretty awesome. We got a chance to go into the local highschool and hold discussions in the classes. One group took an English class and the other a Religion class. Within these groups, we held discussions on perspectives of Germans from Americans and Americans from Germans. Mostly, we got to hang out with the students. After school today, we met up with a bunch of the students and played soccer. It was a lot of fun, because they play just about every day, and we suck. So it was pretty much sit back and let the Germans carry your team. Much fun.

Chillin' in the Baltic

Today we went to the church service at the church we are serving at. It was pretty cool. I didn't get a ton from the message, as it was all in German, but singing familiar songs in a different language was a cool experience. After that, we ate lunch with one the families that will be guiding us around this week. They have four children, David, Charon, Sara, and a new baby. Charon was awesome. In the picture, she's the one standing in front of me. We hung out all day. Tomorrow, a few of us are going to a local middle school and talking to an English class. We're discussing common social pressures, specifically where one draws his or her identity from. It'll be sweet. Tchuß.

Travel and the first daz

Pardon typos and potential lack of photos. The keyboard is German and the websites are all in German. In any case, travel was good, we took about 25 hours to get to our Hostel. Saw Cuba Gooding Jr. at the airport. Once here, we went to the church we'll be working at and met the people we'll be working with. There was a big party earlier tonight outside our Hostel, and I got some photos of that. Tomorrow we'll be going to church and then to the beach. This picture is of the Hostel we are staying at. The second floor windows are for the girls and the guy's are the next level up. The yellow building on the left is the home of the owners of the Hostel. That's it for now! Later!

Arrivial of the Departure

Today is the day. Annie gave me a nice suprise and came to visit me yesterday. She and my step-dad are taking me to Lansing to meet up with the group. From there, we hitch a ride to Detroit and board the flight to London, then to Hamburg, Germany. The next 12 days is the mission trip with the group. After that, I'm on my own. I couldn't sleep last night. Just tossing and turining. Got to that stage of "Ok Brett, it's really important to go to sleep now," and I just can't sleep with all that stress on me. The irony strikes me. I can sleep on the plane, though. The only downfall to this is my recent Sudoku addiction. I'm not good, which means it takes me longer, which means I won't sleep as much. Oh well. It'll work out. Well, my next post will be from another country! Later!

The end of school

This is the trademark "This is my first blog post" post. I'm just getting used to this thing. School is done. If I walk away now, they send me a diploma. That's a good feeling. Most of my grades turned out better than expected.

I guess the main point of this blog is to keep people posted on what I'm up to while I'm on my trip in Europe. I leave on the 18th of May, and will return on the 30th of July. I've started prepartations, to a certain extent. I've ordered a digital camera, so soon these posts will contain pictures. Really, that's all I've done.