June 21st: On to Germany
First night without internet in a week so time to catch up on the old journal.
Got to Germany finally, and were picked up by mom’s friends. I guess I can relate to these friends as the equivillant of Andy or Paul in my life…people I met or lived with when I was in London. Of course they are in their 60s now but I imagine if they did half the shit I did when I was in London that they have a bond I can respect. We had some good german beers in their apartment and this continued for 2 days. Love the germans and their beer. Again, good local food that I would not be getting if I were in a major city and staying at a hostel. This night we had a giant bowl of chicken soup. I always try and spell bowel intstead of bowl….stupid vet school. Lots of bread from the local bakery, more large glasses of german beer, and cheeses. Chilled out and watched soccer this evening while mom caught up with her friend. They had good wireless internet so took the opportunity to download loads of podcasts and what not. I realized that I love the podcast on my travels. Very little mental effort and batteries last a long time on the old ipod. Not like reading or watching movies. Adam Corrolla is my new friend on the road. Plus, I can put one ear plug in and walk around with my mom and only partially listen..
June 22nd.
Went and saw the sights in Bremen today after a large German breakfast…bread, cheeses, and cold cuts.
Roland the night, a glimpse of Beck’s brewery from across the river, and the animal statue which I knew well from growing up and having little ones around the house. Of course everyone wanted their picture taken with it so we had to come back after the kids have left. Wandered down into little shops and found another little statue of some fat people with one spitting water onto the other. Took a picture while pretending to drink from it like it was a water fountain. Overall Bremen is a nice city and appears to have somewhat of a nightlife judging by the look of peopl e and posters around town….too bad I didn’t have a chance to experience it.
We then met up with Peter (the husband of my mom’s friend) and had lunch at the house followed by a stroll to the park and then a 20k bike ride around town (me and Peter). The park was nice with petting zoos and stuff. Coolest thing was a giant guinea pig preserve with a minature house that they lived in. Peter is 69 years old and leaving the next day for a 2200k bike ride across spain…dude has run 51 full marathons. Absolutely crazy fitness wise. He said at my age he didn’t have time to do that sort of thing…only now that he is older. Nice ride, stopped for a pint along the way at a pub.
More good beer and food, this time roast if I can remember, then more soccer. Stayed up until 2 in the morning booking my egypt ticket as well a tickets to Dubai, Dehli, and Bangkok. At least my trip is a bit more sorted out at this point. Still don’t know what the hell I am doing in Europe, but it looks like 2 weeks in Berlin, 1 week in Prague, 10 days in Vienna, Budapet, Bratislava, and 10 daysCroatia, then 2 weeks in Greece. Should be a good balance of travel and sitting in one place, though I’m a bit worried there may not be a place to stay in some of the areas. Skipping the tours in Croatia and Greece, going to wing it there….but felt it was necessary to book one in Egypt. Went with a 9 day tour at the end of August which may have been a giant mistake given that it is 104+ degrees that time of year. Should be staying in a/c though. Booked with a tour group that focuses on young people but is at the same time affordable (~$550) and not a piece of shit tour where we you have to sleep on the deck of a boat with no bathroom for 3 days as I saw offered on a few places (you had to read the fine print to realize this).
June 23rd:
Slept in a bit, then headed about 1 hours drive north to the coast in Germany. Some sort of resort beach typ eplace which I have no idea of the name. But the big thing is that it’s a beach but when the tide goes out, you can walk like 3-4 hours out into the ocean…when it is in the water is about 1 meter high. There is this island about 4 miles out that you can walk to, but then have to stay out there for like 6 hours (or take a boat back). Something I would have surely done if I were on my own there. Instead we walked about 1-2 miles along the tide-revealed land. Every 6 inches or so there were little worm holes present. Worms dig down into the ground like 1 foot and force a bit of mud to the surface where they had dug from which looks concidentally like a worm. I thought I was stepping on dead worms the entire time but I wasn’t…just their diggings. The funniest thing I thought about this place was that they have horse drawn wagons of old people going out to the island (the people who were too old or lazy to walk the 4 hours). To me it seemed like they were taking a truck load of old people who were about to die out to sea for the purpose of letting them go to never come back. I was told there was a cemetery out there and I remarked that of course they were taking them to a cemetery….for good. I saw like 10 wagon loads of people going out to see over they day…..
We walked back to the car, and I slept on the way home…. Starting to re-think the purpose of my time with my mom at this point, but I guess this is a small portion of my otheriwse long and soon to be fun trip.
Made it home. Dinner was beef, potatoes, hollindase (I wish condiments were this good at home), and white Asperigus. My piss smelled like hell for the next day. Watched more soccer and drank more German beers.
