the travelling circus (from europe travels in 2009)

day 64 paris - vancouver

2010-07-23T09:20:00.000-04:00

23 july 2009

catherine came at 745a to check out apartment and return damage deposit and then we were off to gare du nord by cab to take the RER to CDG terminal 2. checked-in with no prob and same with security. went to my last swarovski store in europe (paris duty-free) but still could not find earrings :(. boarded the plane after having to wait on the bus and then exit only thru the front which was annoying. on the plane realized that "taking care of ben and hannah tonight" potentially means staying up til 430a paris time. watched "the international" (sucked) and "watchmen" also sucked.

in montreal, we actually had to deplane and pick up our baggage and go through customs which was stressful , but we made it with ample time. we, however, had to wait for others to go through, and in paris and montreal there were people with checked baggage that didn't make it, so we had to wait for their baggage to be removed. customs wise, we were probably slated to be checked, but i figure we weren't worth the time and hassle considering the line-ups. we also watched, " i love you man" again which is still hilarious, and "adventureland" which was mediocre.

arriving in vancouver, we had to figure out which baggage carousel to goto and then we were picked up by kate, dave, ben and hannah!

day 63 paris

2010-07-23T01:00:00.000-04:00

22 july 2009

early rise today to maximize our last day in paris and europe (for this trip at least). went to la grande epicerie (kind of like urban fare) and got dragee almonds, chocolate and other gift items for various folks. took the metro to near the louvre, and walked down rue de rivoli in hunt of angelina's. found a cool kids paris book that we got for ben and hannah and then at angelina's, had hot chocolate, white hot choc and pain aux raisins... oh my gosh. all so good!

bought more choc goodies for gifts and for us and then walked to galeries lafayette to exchange tie (got hugo boss tie, AND andree made 20e or so!) and then got rip curl shorts in prep for hawaii! dropped stuff off at andree's and then strolled to rue de petite carreaux for lunch, and to get cheese and wine to take to canada (i chose the gewertzmaminer). napped for a looooooong time and felt the groggiest i have ever once we woke up at like 5:15p. andree wanted to take me to jardin de luxembourg and on the way stopped at monoprix to get OJ and win and pate (for canada). the jardin looked soooo different compared to january, and i could still remember the walking route and photo spot from this past winter. we hung out at the fountain and i watched the little toy boats that kids play with. they aren't controlled... the wind just takes them whereever, and when i enquired as to whether the family was afraid if it would come back, he replied "it's a very optimistic sport..." (brilliant)

then we walked to st.germain de pres to meet zoya and ryan at "lipp" at 151 where i was basically kicked out for being underdressed. also apparently one of the restaurants that poets/ authors/ philosophers like victor hugo used to frequent. andree and i went just next door and had our last meal of moules a la creme and escargots.

after a fun hang out with zoya and ryan, andree and i went to the eiffel tower (this time also to top level) to hang out at one of our romantic spots (2nd level, bench between north and east towers) where we had tea and a brownie this time (not coffee and cheescake like in jan). we also saw a marriage proposal which was cute. got home and packed to ensure 23kg checked baggage compliance, and then was in bed for 2am.

day 62 lauterbrunnen - paris

2010-07-21T21:36:00.000-04:00

21 july 2009

slept in again (ahhhh... holidays with andree :)) and when we checked out, we received 2 bars of swiss chocolate as a goodbye from the hostel! made our way to airtime to say our goodbyes and to grab coffees to go and caught a train to interlaken to hang out for the day.

walked from ost to the field across from the metropol hotel where ew watched paragliders land with the jungfrau framed backdrop

i had a hankering for asian food and there were a tonne of koreans in the region so we ate some korean, and then found a coop and got more movenpick ice cream. walking around interlaken, we found mozart balls and hiking maps that i wanted to get framed, but they themselves cost 35CHF! in the end, we managed to use up virtually all our CHF with coop and migros shopping. the train to bern was stupid hot and people were annoying. final train ride, andree had an earphone in and loudly asked me to "cream her face" which could be taken the wrong way. we played both cribbage and chess and i won. today was trifecta including rock, paper, scissors earlier in the AM. andree also found a german newspaper, found a comic strip and laughed even though she had no idea what was going on. staff in the food car thought andree was a famous celebrity (tina fey?) and when we got back to paris, we did some mass packing, cleaning and interneting.

day 61 lauterbrunnen

2010-07-20T22:30:00.000-04:00

20 july 2009

started off the day quite late and we headed to airtime for a coffee and to have a game of regular sized chess (which i won). after some recommendations from olivia, we were on our way! as we were walking towards trummelbachfalle, we passed by a swiss sausage vendor so we had that for lunch. so good! we also passed a couple of guys who had just base jumped, so our eyes were constantly looking up towards the mountains/cliffs to see if anyone was jumping. however, that was stopped short by the barrage of flies... we crossed a river at some point too and decided to refresh our feet in the uber cold glacial water. the trummelbachfalle is pretty darn cool. 10 waterfalls nestled within a mountain with very little protection between viewer and certain catastrophe. it was here that i got frustrated with my camera in low lighting and subsequently figured out how to change the ISO! after the falls, we stopped nearby for ice cream and discovered swiss made movenpick! hiked to cable car station and caught a "free" ride upto murren where we dined on a patio with amazing views of the adjacent peaks. there was a wasp or something pissing us off, and it got angry and bit/stung andree. we found another coop grocery store (yay!) and then another big chess board with the best view ever of the eiger (where andree beat me again... at "duplo" chess)

for dinner we had swiss cheese fondue with spice, chives, onions, fennel seeds and garlic additions, followed by swiss chocolate and passion fruit/mango movenpick ice cream. i explained to andree the rationale behind her duplo chess wins, with the peripheral vision theory that we tested.

day 60 lauterbrunnen

2010-07-19T23:46:00.000-04:00

19 july 2009

so much today! so tired! so sore!

today was to be a day of hiking, and it certainly was. we started out by visiting wanda and getting a coffee and then were off! first to wengen (passing by the appel house that wanda and andree are obsessed about), and we made it up in 40 minutes despite the stated 1:20h. in switzerland, they don't state distances, they do times. good for beginner hikers i guess. wengen is nice! there was a festival going on with live music, we chugged 1L of OJ and got lunch supplies (with btl of rose from lauterbrunnen). we also saw a big outdoor chess board so planned to come back at somepoint to play.

then wengen to kleine scheidegg, and we wanted to go via mannlichen but the signs confused us and we ended up going thru allmend, wengernalp and then to end location in 1:45h (stated 2:45h). we decided to push on through so took the very steep route just off the pool/reservoir looking thing to eigergletscher where just before we ate on a perfect little rock bench with the beautiful alps surrounding us. at this point, we were in shorts and decided to change into pants (editor 2010 - it was starting to get cold as we were quite high up altitude wise). along the way on an earlier part of the route, we also chanced upon a cacphony (well, nice actually) of bells that were around cows! very docile creatures and they crap everywhere. the grass on mountains nearby also looked perfect, soft and very rollable except for high likelihood of hitting a patty of cow poo. at the beginning of the hike, we also took pics of various peaks, and as the hiking progressed, it was very cool to see them get closer and bigger and more beautiful

once we hit eigergletscher, we decided it was clear enough (or would be) to go to jungfraujoch (the top of europe, UNESCO world heritage site). on the train ride up, there were 2 short stops at viewpoints but andree and i decided to sleep instead. at the top, i started to heavily feel the affects of high altitude (3454m) and was light-headed couldn't think entirely straight, and had shortness of breath. hence i blame that for my unintentional shop-lift of my final postcard to emily! whoops...

being that high (and despite having paid 100CHF each for return ticket to eigergletscher), they still charge crazy amounts for food and drink, and our cashier was a mean-ish lady. BUT... the views are wicked! my gosh. so pretty and peaceful (although some tourists have no common sense/etiquette at all). we first went to the ice palace (which was kinda cool, but more a series of tunnels then a palace), then the plateau viewing point which was mindblowing with views of various peaks from the other side (we crossed thru the mountain range on the train ride up), and the glacier. then we went to the sphinx tower thing, another 100m up and andree made good friends with a few birds that ate out of her hand!

after, we had a gassed hike (10-15m, stop to rest...) to the hotel/restaurant that was a good 40 min away along the snow. i went to order a coke and some soup and the following conversation ensued:
"hi, can i order some stuff?"
"are you staying here?"
"no, i just wanted some food"
"the last train back down leaves in 15 minutes"
"oh... good to know. thanks...(to andree) babe, we gotta go!"
"you won't make it back in time... we'll give you a ride"
... first ever snowmobile ride! and in the beautiful alps!
we made it in time (luckily)... at eigergletscher, we decided to not hike the eiger trail, and hiked back down to kleine schneidegg and then as last train had already left, back down to wengen where we met wanda. along the way, we peed in the alps (had to... sorry), saw lots of slugs and i proved that sheep respond to "baa", not "beh" (editor 2010 - andree and other quebec peeps are convinced that sheep say, "beh" instead). a sheep came right upto me and almost kissed me! we also found a wally look alike.

back in wengen, we had our game of oversized chess and i got schooled. caught the train back down to lauterbrunnen (for free!) and had dinner with wanda. then i came back to hostel to res, shower and update journal and andree had one last drink with wanda before she leaves for her trip!

day 59 paris - lauterbrunnen

2010-07-19T00:18:00.000-04:00

18 july 2009

super early morning to catch 6:54am train to lauterbrunnen so we left andree's apartment around 6:20am, saying goodbye to my last travel bud, nusbaum. the night before, i believe we all "cheers"ed to a whole host of events for back in toronto now that i think about it.

journey was relatively uneventful. arriving in lauterbrunnen (being able to show andree the blue glow to the river... which was at a much higher level this time), it was raining :(

we couldn't check in until 3pm so we grabbed some lunch and bought some hazelnut swiss milk chocolate (0.60CHF!). the hostel is nice and very clean and our room has amazing views of the mountains to the north. we settled in and then napped for 2 hours, and then got in contact with andree's friend wanda who lives in wengen and works at airtime coffee shop in lauterbrunnen (small world!)

she took us for coffee and recommended some hikes, then we went for dinner and drinks, meeting claudio and some really drunk new zealand dude who was really hammered.

day 58 bayeux - paris

2010-07-18T16:28:00.000-04:00

17 july 2009

went to get breakfast and got nusbaum one of the custardish pain au raisin which he liked!

the main street in bayeux also seemed to be getting ready for a street market which was cool. we made our way to the musee memorial de la bataille de normandie which was actually awesome! learned so much more about d-day and subsequent events. nazi marshall rommel, who was in charge of the "atlantik wall" consisting of gun batteries and beach fortifications etc. was killed on my birthday (today!) 65 years ago... crazy. they also had a quick blurb on general von choltitz, who by the description must be the "saviour or paris" i read about in january. hitler apparently ordered him to destroy the city when they were about to pull out but he refused to, hence all the surviving history in the city. also learned that from june 14 to august 25 1944, bayeux was the capital of france!

also learned that general (didn't last long) charles de gaulle was villified by then vichy french government, but was basically the driving leader of the french resistance... oh, and he is a tall dude. got a picture with a jeep (GP willy) that was apparently designed in 4-5 days!

also, to correct my knowledge, the "mulberry harbour" was the name given to the design of the artifical harbours, and they existed at omaha (briefly due to storm) and arromanches.

i also gained a much greater appreciation for other people involved i.e. medical staff, war correspondants, grave registration units and the engineers.

when we left, it was quite windy and i came close to getting hit by a falling piece of pottery that got knocked off a balcony by a shutter... that would have sucked.

nusbaum (back in paris at galerie lafayette) took our quick advice re: jacket... "get it"). for my bday, andree got me a skydiving trip in hawaii, a hugo boss shirt and 2 armani ties! she also got rose champagne and sweet pastries. went to dinner in the latin quarter, drank more.

he also yelled out really loud, "just one glass!" when he tried to get me to booze more :)

other:
- no ticket needed for bayeux-paris trip!

day 57 paris - bayeux

2010-07-18T16:11:00.000-04:00

16 july 2009

caught a morning train to bayeux in the normandy region and easily found our way to our hotel, walking through a very nice area of the town. the timing was awesome and after getting some quick lunch, was met by the "nomandy d-day sightseeing" van.

first went to pointe du hoc where 225 rangers ha to climb cliff faces to take out the gun battery that could have hindered the allied invasion on 6 june 1944. most of the gun cassements were moved inland, and at the pointe, telephone poles were installed as guns, much to the chagrin of the rangers (editor 2010 - from aerial views, the telephone poles would have looked like guns). at the site, there were pockmarks of bomb craters everywhere which was crazy. i got upset with some french tourist who posed in front of one of the gun cassements as if she were holding a machine gun. i thought that was in pretty poor taste... this is a historic site where people died and this lady is laughing and pretending to load a gun. idiot.

tour guide also told us a quote from a veteran who returned to the site, his first since 1944. when asked why he wanted to return, his response was, "i wanted to see what it looked like standing up, instead of on my belly" (or something like that... heavy).

then we went to one of 4 sites along omaha beach where it was possible to access the inland (due to predominant cliff terrain). we went to "D-1 exit" (aka dog green). germans knew these areas would be used if invasion did occur, so you can see machine gun stations facing into these access points, and big gun cassements pointing towards the beach areas. this was also the site where artifical "mulberry harbour" was constructed (from pre-fabricated pieces done in england). this harbour was destroyed in a storm though, a few weeks after d-day. there is also a preserved gun cassement and the gun, atop which is now a national guard monument with quotes from world leaders at the time.

FDR's is awesome, "we too born to freedom and believing in freedom are willing to fight to maintain freedom. we and all others who believe as deeply as we do would rather die on our feet then live on our knees."

the beach on this stretch is now a buzz with families and sunbathers. which is good, but just a little odd considering the blood that was shed there over 65 years ago.

next was the american cemetary with an amazing visitor centre which tells the story of plans uoto d-day, but also strategies (inflatable tank decoys!) and innovations used to coordinate and execute this huge attack. i noticed in the cemetary that people were standing and walking over what i would consider the graves. again, a little upsetting. on the van-ride at somepoint we were also told about dieppe where 6000 troops took the harbour to learn what would be necessary for a greater attack. 4000 people dide, but valuable info was gained that prob led to success of d-day. 4000 out of 6000 were canadian.

last stop was a gun battery at longues sur mer, where very well preserved guns and cassements are.. these guns are huge.

other:
- i hear from hartell-sims... twins born july 15!
- messages were sent from allies to the french resistance thru bbc transmissions!
- water levels at omaha are deceptive so while some troops jumped in and could walk at knee/waist height, others jumped in thinking the level was the same but drowned due to depth and gear
- bayeux was the first town liberated in france following d-day invasion
- "cassements" should be "casements"
- grandfather of guide's friend lived in bayeux during occupation and he was forced to help build the casements... they did it slowly though and also may have passed on design to french resistance.

day 56 paris

2010-07-18T14:42:00.000-04:00

15 july 2009

poor andree had a bit of a hang over and had to goto work this morning. nusbaum, rob and i left around 11am and we (minus rob who went back to hostel) went to musee-d'orsay. our route there sucked... we got off metro at solferino and walked a big stupid loop to the museum. oh well. musee d'orsay was impressive... used to be a train station (evident from general look of the glass roof/ceiling and massive clock), housing cezanne, manet, van gogh and monets (to name a select few). there were not as many rodin's there as i thought there would be, although i did finally learn what "chat noir" is... old popular theatre back in the day that told plays with shadow theatre.

nusbaum and i split after museum and i went to galeries lafayette and a store called citadium with lots of skate stuff.

i then started walking to palais royale (louvre) but then caught the metro at palais royale to pick andree up from work at 53 rue de boetie. chilled at her place, and then when nusbaum came back, we went to rue de petite carreaux for dinner, meeting up with kelsey.

called it a relatively early night, and packed small (yay!) bag for bayeux overnight trip.

other:
- stopped at fromagerie and had that little puck of soft, creamy goat cheese we had in january

day 55 marseille - paris

2010-07-14T21:14:00.000-04:00

14 july 2009

very early train departure this morning where andree attempted to upgrade to 1st class, but the cost was rather high... so euro-rail is looking better and better as an economical tool! i met up with her in the dining car for coffee and then we played a game of chess (that i won!)

(btw, marseille metro was not on time that made me a little antsy...) arriving back at andree's, she pretty much immediately cracked some beers open to get things going. hit up some lunch and grocery/wine shopping for later on, and then napped.

met with rob and kelsey at trocadero metro just outside palais de chaillot where there were tanks on display, and a tonne of police (for crowd control). it took us forever to make it to champ de mars because they were closing down bridges and roads for security and fireworks (public safety) reasons.

we eventually found a spot with a great view of the eiffel tower, and were joined by nusbaum's buddy dave, his gf tannis, andree's friend steve (three total!) and shane (sp?), a hawaiian traveller who was by herself. we drank a lot of wine, spilled a lot too, and had a nice picnic.

when we went to go find steve (andree's friend), it was close to fireworks time and she didn't want me to miss them. my response (editor 2010 - rich and nusbaum, you will want to throw up if you read this), "i wont miss the fireworks. they are right here..." (pointing to the two of us)... damn i am good :)

the fireworks show was amazing. they managed to make it look like the eiffel tower was twisting, turning and dancing! after, we walked to have a drink and ended up at this place where the servers didn't seem to get what we wanted. french steve had a blast watching the gong show.

andree had to work the next morning so we left with french steve (quebec actually) and took forever finding a metro/RER stop as pont de l'alma was closed. we eventually hit les invalides and trained back in a very full car with lots of drunk people. shortly after we returned home, rob and steve arrived.

rob was there due to potential curfew at hostel and dude that was smelling feet (yuk).

day 54 marseille

2010-07-13T21:24:00.000-04:00

13 july 2009

original plan was to wake up at 9am so that andree could call tourist info office and get details on trips to cassis and "calanques" (cliff areas around marseilles)... we woke up at 11am. whoops.

managed still to book a 3hr boat ride where we brought 2 bottles of wine and picnic lunch. we got boozy, i fell asleep on the way back, and nusbaum wet his pants twice.

arriving back in marseille, we walked to vieux marseille (which wasn't too much actually) and then i had a "kir royal" (cassis juice w/champagne), and nusbaum showed us the 2 bottles on top of each other and bill removal trick... pretty cool

then andree and i went to dinner where i had boullibasse (awesome!) and then came back to hotel. pretty slow day :)

other:
- andree dances to disco tune preceeding messages over PA in metro

day 53 bordeaux - marseille

2010-07-12T21:41:00.000-04:00

12 july 2009

spent a lot of time... wasting time in bordeaux. everything is pretty much closed on sundays, so we walked around thru jardin public (where andree seems to agree with nusbaum's fetus artwork thing, and also where we saw many canadian geese...) and then along the river for a tiny bit

we cut it close getting onto the train to goto marseille, and unfortunately andree was stopped by SNCF guy as she tried to join us in 1er classe. her car was cooking hot, so we moved a bit and promptly fell asleep after starting to listen to her ipod (with my earphones... her's sucked).

after arriving and departing toulouse she came up to 1st class where i got my ass kicked at crib and asshole. and then she schooled me at chess... boo. after finding our hotel (where we were given a 2 room suite with 3 beds!)

we ate at a fast food chinese-ish place and then walked along the vieux port, and upto the base of notre dame de garde (which is very well lit up at night).

talked asterix on the way back down (which nusbaum has never heard of!) and then back to hotel for some shut eye

other:
- helped a lady with a baby, a stroller, a hand carriage and a big bag off of the train.. how did she get in?!
- good deed for the year... check!
- andree has issues with steps in marseille
- hotel reception guy knows we are 3 people :(
- andree peels some skin off after sun burn from nice and like in austin powers says, "aw. thats a keeper..." :)

day 52 bordeaux

2010-07-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

11 july 2009

started our wine tour at 9:30am at the tourist information office on cours de juillet and was first taken to the musee de vin et negoce, which was housed in the chartrons district which historically is the wine-commercial centre of bordeaux. the wine industry organized itself into wine estates, brokers, and wine merchants and eventually merchants began buying estates and building chateaux, just because they were that rich. sulphur was used to sterilize barrels such that theaging process could occur and by some weird law, wines from chateaux must be bottled there, and the label must have a picture of the chateau.

then onto the wine tasting, and andree also points out frontsac which is where her ancestors are from, within the bordeaux-ish area. her family's last name used to be gaussin before moving to canada (she is 19th generation). bordeaux also used to be simply an important por, trading in alot of different things, and it wasn't til later that wine was the specialty.

the buildings in bordeaux also used to be dirty as heck, but recently effort has gone in to clean... huge different. eglise st.louis (on rue notre dame!) has 2/3 cleaned, and 1/3 still dirty. then lunch time. wow. started with hot goat cheese dish, then confit de canard, followed by cheese buffet (150 types!) and tarte aux pommes and espresso... and wine...

then after we hopped on a full bus to go to some chateaux! andree and i were shushed by some aussie couple who was actually listening to catherine our tour guide. boooo....

hit up two chateaux (lanessan and giscours) the last one being "grand cru" class... in 1755 or something like that, 60 out of 8,000 or so estates were deemed of highest quality.

nusbaum licked mould for 20e from andree andi got a good pic smacking andree's bum with a cricket bat (KCC placard was there!)

as an example, chateau giscours had about 12.5M e in wine in their cellar that we were in... wow. on the tour we met cindy, rob and kelsey. after tour, we bought andree a rash guard for surfing and tried (but failed) to get the roxy sundress i foud yesterday (i should've just got it)

we met up with the tour friends and had dinner and drinks.

other:
- i think cindy is in the porn industry
- rob did a penguin impression to take kelsey and andree's mind off having to go to the washroom
- i gave nusbaum 5e to have another drink
- "terroir" the natural environment that dictates grape and wine quality

day 51 biarritz - bordeaux

2010-07-12T21:07:00.000-04:00

10 july 2009

with earplugs last night, i actually slept really well despite still being able to hear drunk people last night.

we were a bit too early to the grocery store so we wandered into the nearby local market which was very clean and cool. however, all i noticed were the little jars of "puree de piment d'espelette"... i have been brainwashed...

after brekky (and waaaaay too much OJ) we took off for gare biarritz to catch our train, where i fell asleep very fast. directions with tram to citea bordeaux were very easy, and we only stood outside a retirement home for a few minutes before realising it was not our hotel.

the room (with 2 beds!) was not ready yet, so nusbaum and i went looking for a park to eat lunch at. we ended up at some plaza and then checked-in. went exploring through the shopping district (rue saint catherine) and ended up at "monument aux girondins" with the esplanade in front. then towards jardin public where nusbaum thinks there was a depiction of a fetus in one of the ponds, and then towards the river front to walk back. we stopped at the charles dickens pub for a beer and to catch end of 7th tour de france stage.

back to rue saint catherine, and then i checked out st.andre cathedrale.

met back up with nusbaum to grocery shop and then made dinner (with leftovers for andree). i picked her up at gare st.jean and then thanked the make a wish foundation. on the way back from the station, i explained the stewie resemblance of some older renault twingoes (editor 2010 - the front of the car reminded me of stewie from family guy), and she understood! when nusbaum rejoined us, we drank beer and talked science hierarchy.

other:
- the game is "pelote"! basque is the region that biarritz is in!

day 50 biarritz

2010-07-09T15:47:00.000-04:00

9 july 2009

ouch. my body hurt today when i woke up. yesterdays surfing plus my slowly aging body ganged up on me.

after a quick brekky form the nearby supermarket, i took off to check out the beach and surf conditions. it looked awesome. and the sun started to come out as well. i had made up my mind. despite being in pain, i was going to go surf again. as a result, i also decided to get a rash guard with wetsuit front/chest and back for later trip to hawaii but also for skimboarding in vancouver. after a heart attack lunch of bread, camembert and pate, i went for a short walk to digest, and also picked up a bottle of, "puree de piment d'espelette" that andree had kept talking about. i also went to le plage de la cote des basques to check out the prep for the women's longboard world championships starting tomorrow (roxy jam).

powerful waves yet again and i got my ass handed to me (again) but still had a load of fun.

went back to hotel to shower and then to tourist office to enquire about tonight's game. lady told us to be there for 8pm (game starts at 9pm)

i went to use up internet time and was able to call andree while she was in paris metro (they get service everywhere!)

met steve and had dinner where i got rocked by a stupid sandwich... so much. plate of fries in the sandwich.

arrived at game around 8p which was waaaaay to early, but watched a kids game and picked up the rules. when the guys played... wow. fast and technical. awesome/dangerous to watch. still have absolutely no idea what the game is called. walking back to town centre, i went to check out the live stage outside casino at grand plage where i heard a band playing opening to a yeah yeah yeah's song. i got bored so left, and on TV at hotel there was some weird michael jackson movie on.

other:
- in my head last night, i could not get the following two things out of my head... 1. surfing, 2. the words, "puree de piment d'espelette"... wtf.
- (editor 2010 - the last picture is the largest vending machine that steve and i have ever seen. there is literally a small shop of shelves and a robot arm goes to get whatever it is you want that you order from the ATM looking machine)

day 49 guethary - biarritz

2010-07-09T15:46:00.001-04:00

8 july 2009

got up, and after breakfast went surfing! we went to the beach just south of yesterdays lesson and there were a tonne of surfers out, so we tried to veer clear of them. caught a few and rode on my belly, and i managed to stand for about 2m. still a tonne of fun!

we had to end that session early though to check out of our room. tried playing some 2 player card games, one of them being "spit" (apparently) where we probably calvin-balled it and made up a lot of rules as we went. we also tried 2 player asshole with continuous play and poker hands and that was dismal.

then surf session 2 with christophe! we paddled out to a point and pretty quick i was able to catch a wave that i rode all the way in, even starting to experiment with carving at the end. it rocked. rest of the session was a little tougher because we were far out and i am not the best gauge of waves, or where to be to catch them. paddling is hard as hell. the core body workout as well as back is incredible!

caught the bus into biarritz centre as recommended by christophe and after showering in hotel anjou, i took off to get info on some game that is big in this region (looks like "hailai" but they call it something i have not figured out yet). we will go tomorrow to check out the outdoor game. i also bought my first souvenir for myself... a billabong biarritz hoodie :). met up with nusbaum and we went walking around town, and then to get dinner and dessert.

watched the sunset which was so nice, and then back to hostel.

other:
- antibiotics done today!

day 48 guethary

2010-07-09T15:46:00.000-04:00

7 july 2009

after breakfast at the hotel, i went for a walk around guethary. the sun was poking thru a bit which was good, and hopefully it'll stay like that for today and tomorrow's surf lessons!

finally managed to get stamps at the post office (pretty ones with pics of various french well-knownish-places, so i chose the one from nice for postcard to emily from nice!)

made my way to the beach and saw the awesome waves! took a hike to the beach further north where i believe we will be later on today. started analysing the physics behind catching a wave... we'll see if it works and if it is in line with what christophe says!

...it is... although i quickly learned the obvious that leaning to far forward when trying to catch the wave can lead to sinking the board into water, me with it.

great fun overall but hell did we consume a lot of sea water. at one point nusbaum asked how much we could drink before puking and i remember thinking i was pretty close at points.

christophe also warned us that the conditions were very rought. we saw and experienced what he meant. waves were big and crashing and frequent as hell meaning it was crazy difficult to get out to sea. i still managed to actually catch two waves and surf them to shore which rocked.

if we have juice, tomorrow ~10a we will head to the beach i walked to today (we surfed today at the beach just north).

after showering and de-sanding, we got a beer and checked out new plan to get to biarritz tomorrow after the afternoon lesson. bus 26 should take us into the town centre quickly for 2e. came back to rest, and then out to dinner with 2 short games of crib. also managed to mooch good wifi from bar basque and called andree and ma and pa. was good talking to them!

tonight, i finished reading "city of thieves" by devid benioff that i had purchased specifically to read on this trip... da vinco code was sold out in wal-mart :) still a great book!

day 47 guethary

2010-07-06T20:53:00.000-04:00

6 july 2009

woke up quite refreshed despite being in a train overnight and proceeded to raid unused water bottles from other cabins

we arrived at gare de biarritz (la negresse) on time and waited a good 30 minutes for our surf school pick-up that never came. after some nice help from the tourist office guy, we had to cab in to guethary (smaller town just outside of biarritz) as the car came to get us from another station. oh well.

it started raining in the cab-ride over which is crap. the place we are staying at is nice enough, but we thought we got upgraded room with kitchenette and beach side location. taking a walk to the surf school site (aka small booth/hole in the wall) we learn the site we booked through was an intermediary so we'll need to chat with them about the upgrade fee we paid. our lessons begin tomorrow at 4pm (to 5pm). we continued walking (in rain) to tourist office where we learn that there is no internet cafe.

i then stroll to post office to try and get stamps to canada after failing miserably yesterday in nice, only to find they are closed for 2 hours during the day. i should live in france... or at least here.

off to biarritz because we have pretty much seen most of guethary!

we found an internet cafe and got to work looking for 2 extra nights in biarritz itself, and i worked on marseille but will wait to see if andree can join us before booking. nusbaum also wanted to book bordeaux-marseille and marseille-paris trains, so we did that and passed info on to andree.

walked around biarritz and saw a clump of surfers on waves very near grand plage which i thought was odd. checked out hotel anjou where we will be staying and then came back to guethary. walked pretty much the whole town and eventually just ate at a little italian place. came back, read a lot and then passed out.

other:
- saw a honda 125 at our hotel!
- return train to guethary, SNCF dude told us we needed to use "1 day" on our eurail pass. wtf?

day 46 nice - biarritz (guethary... over night train)

2010-07-05T08:48:00.000-04:00

5 july 2009

kim left today for amsterdam

phil, andree and i hiked up the tower that andree and i had failed at last night and then tried to go kayaking but it looked like the promenade des anglais was getting shut down for the 1st stage of the tour. we asked around, and surprisingly, official looking people did not know if there would be a pedestrian crossing or not.

turns out there is... the car tunnel labelled monaco-menton was switched to pedestrian traffic for the tour.

so instead we hung out at blue beach. phil left to hit switzerland and nusbaum and i got spots to watch the tour go by. andree came back with lunch and fruit and we chatted with an english couple who didn't know the tour was coming through til after they booked their holiday! lucky them. and then the lead pack of 4 and the peloton wizzed by... and everyone left... but it was super cool.

we then went sea kayaking which was awesome. nusbaum took off to go roaming and andree and i stayed at beach a bit, then hit b&b to shower. then she took me our for a lovely drink and snack at "castel" where i proceeded to barrage her about the 3 things she got me for upcoming 32nd bday.

back at hotel and then i walked andree to the train station. met back up with nusbaum, got fruit for tomorrow morning after crap traing brekky (come to think of it, i don't think we'll even get that). i reshowered and then off to station for us. we got another 6 person cabin... but luckily there were only 3 of us in there. i actually managed to fall asleep despite the espresso an coke!

other: inability to buy stamps to canada at 5 or so tabacs! wtf?!

day 45 nice: le tour de france!

2010-07-04T20:33:00.001-04:00

4 july 2009

pretty much started doing laundry right away! time trials didn't start til 4pm, so we had the morning to do whatever in nice. after coughing badly last night, and with gentle prodding from andree and genevieve, i went to see a doctor. he was nice and we were lucky to catch him in his 2 hr window. i have bronchitis and he prescribed antibiotics, painkillers and expectorant (sp?) which we picked up at a nearby disco-party (editor 2010 - in france, the pharmacies all have these bright green neon cross signs that often flash in weird funky ways). andree took such good care of me, even helping me with my first dose of everything, ensuring i had second dose, and that i had enough to last the day :)

andree and i the walked back to meet kim and steve and from there we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to monaco via a 1e bus!

we were dropped off at a seemingly odd location but then andree found the way down to the festivities. luckily, we pretty much immediately found the start of the time trial, and saw a bunch of cyclists depart, lance armstrong being the 18th to go. we then went to the finish and once again saw armstrong. following that we found an area to jump into the water to cool off, and then upto monte carlo. caught the bus back to nice and then had dinner at place with sweaty guy, and awesome unbreaded calamari salad.

kim and nusbaum went back to hotel and andree and i went for a walk consisting of failed attempt to hike up to the ballande (sp?) tower (gated and locked after 8pm) and then a rock throwing and drop-rock aim competition which i won :)

day 44 berlin - nice

2010-07-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

3 july 2009

at schonefeld airport, there was no self check-in system so we had to old-school-line-up. however, ms fancy-pants kim had speedy boarding so she ditched us. her check-in, however was not that much speedier that us. she did get to board first though (first time i have flown bus style... find your own seat!)

arriving in nice, i began to use my french again, "trois billets pour le quatre-vingt-dix-neuf svp".

when we hit the train station we decided to deal with our train tickets from nice to biarritz and biarritz to bordeaux (after not fully trusting the german DB lady and her info). and guess what? once again, euro-rail screws us with lack of information... turns out only a certain number of seats or couchettes for eurorail pass holders, and for nice to biarritz (and stations in between), those were all full. so we paid 140e each (no discount with pass) to sleep once again in a potentially shitty 6 sleeper/couchette cabin. nice. not.

arriving at nice home sweet home, we happened to bump into andree who was coming down to let phil in. we went up first and the B&B is very nice, but no internet and no AC. as a plus, laundry was only 5e total! settling in, i decided what luggage i would no longer need and gave it to saint andree who would take it back to paris for me.

phil arrived (with much more hair than when i met him in april) and i let the two siblings try the mozart balls. andree loved them... not sure why. quickly re-hit the beack (well, they "rehit" and kim, nusbaum and i "hit") and refreshed our tired and sweaty bodies in the cool mediterranean sea. the beach itself was topless and rocky (so it was weird when we realised that they sold glass beer bottles... bad combo...)

went to dinner in this busy section of nice and then wandered around town finding plaza with statue things on raised metal platforms that lit up at 930p. some break-dance group kicked in at that time with a chris tucker wannabe, but who was actually really good. then we gave a michael jackson guy a chance, but he sucked.

day 43 berlin

2010-07-02T15:42:00.000-04:00

2 july 2009

today we joined a "mosaic" guided tour led by jacob (who is fluent in 4 languages) to sachsenhausen memorial concentration camp, about 30 minutes outside of central berlin by s-bahn train.

although extermination's did occur at this site (at "station z"), it's primary function was for slave labour. interesting thing about this camp is that it is right beside a normal community where nazi/ss families (aryans) would have lived. there used to be roll-call everyday in a big open area immediately after the entrance gates (with a message in the gate reading, "work will set you free", and a not-so-neutral zone along the borders where guards were at liberty to fire away should a detainee step in.

learned about the 134M pound counterfeit attempt to weaken the UK economy (via inflation) and saw a recreated memorial jewish barrack (38), which had been attacked by neo-bazis. sheesh...

also learned at first how opel was asked to produce a killing mechanism for prisoners... this prompted me to ask about other still-existing companies, and these include hugo boss(!) and coke (who apparently started fanta to penetrate given coke embargo). the pathology lan was disturbing as well with how autopsies were rushed and generally only 3 causes of death were allowed to be recorded ... hence many autopsies defaulted to "heart failure". how sad. lastly, learned about "death march" intended to kill off prisoners following pending liberation... crazy.

nusbaum and i then hit up the bode museum (free! thursday!) and then to kate recommended mr vhoung's for vietnamese food. it rained hard again and nusbaum still hasn't learned...

other:
- we're going surfing!
- kim and steve call me "childkiller" as i jaywalk...

day 42 berlin

2010-07-02T15:20:00.000-04:00

1 july 2009

CANADA DAY!

we joined a walking tour today that had been suggested by someone kim knew and it was great. uk guy named matt took us around and explained so much history that had taken place in berlin, most interestingly (to me at least), the berlin mauer (wall). so crazy to hear why it was built (to stem the drain of east germans into west berlin who would then be transported to the capitalist west germany)... so they contained everyone (or west berlin). a barbed wire fence simply went up one day, that in the 4th reincarnation was the wall most people know. the tube structure at the top was to prevent easy handholds and grappelling hooks, and i learned that there were 2 walls, inner and outer. at checkpoint charlie we asked matt a lot of questions regarding the iron curtain as well. matt also told us that the mock checkpoint charlie guard (and others in his trade) are from an exotic dancing company (1e for pic, 10e for lap dance).

we also went to the jewish memorial which was very cool (and totally reminded me of pics i had seen of the jewish cemetary in prague). ironically, the anti-graffiti coating on the memorial is manufactured by the same company that supplied the concentration camps with cyclon-b... used to gas and kill the jews. terrible.

also visited the site of the nazi book burning, although it was enveloped in fashion week festivities that was kind of annoying.

hearing matt fill in gaps around the press conference that reopened west berlin was crazy too... wasn't supposed to happen that night... the press guy didn't have too much info, so when asked by a journalist when the travel visas to west berlin would commence, he simply said... immediately. oops. but yay!

other:

- matt pointing out gouges in buildings from bullets, bombs and shrapnel. i would never have considered them unless he pointed them out...
- red pedestrian signal, "childkiller!" jaywalking

day 41 prague - berlin

2010-07-02T15:05:00.000-04:00

30 june 2009

poor kim woke up sick from some food she had last night :(. nusbaum and i went grocery shopping for food for lunch and i got kim a big bottle of water. but i failed because it was sparkling. whoops. train ride was uneventful save the 20 minute delay in departure, and the awesome display of tongue senses with the mock pepsi challenge (normal vs max=diet)

from berlin hbf, the public transit system was very easy to figure out to get to the hostel, and directions provided with the hostel reservation were crystal clear. how very german. on the s-bahn train, there was a skinhead dude who took his shirt off (granted it was hot) and he looked pretty bad ass

the reception here at jetpack hostel is also the coffeeshop cafe which is also where we would get breakfast. the guy who checked us in was very helpful and very flambouyant.

we are in the upper floor of the lower section and we finally have a nice computer to use!

after checking out purchased pics from interlaken (which were a rip-off... and i got angry because there were pics of that out-of-element family), we went wandering (i got cough capsules... who knew?) and then to "story of berlin" museum which contained a lot of great info, but was poorly organized.

then dinner at a thai place and nusbaum, who was concurrently doing laundry, got caught in the end-of-the-world thunderstorm that developed. kim showed us more noise/face impressions at dinner with korean men vs women which was hilarious, and walking back to hostel, nusbaum waded thru some severely flooded streets/sidewalk. he is now on euro-rail site and learning more how messed up the train routes and scheduling is...

other:
- dude at restaurant and i played charades for "black tea with sugar and milk". he never did quite get "milk" even with the udder actions
- kim also teaches us cut-eyes and cut-teeth
- hitler's hope for germania... capital of the world
- final solution-extermination :(

day 40 prague

2010-06-29T22:10:00.000-04:00

29 june 2009

free walking tour! we joined the one that stops at our hostel and were shown around by sophie, this little ball of blonde welsh energy. on the way to the main rendez-vous point (tram), this little kid with huge glasses that reminded me of the jerry maquire boy kept staring at me, and morgan (edmonton girl we met today) kept laughing at the situation.

tour start... sophie makes the dud of an astronomical clock a lot more interesting with descriptions of the dials and statue figures involved. she also mentions how there is a rooster that "CAWS" at the end, but i guess we missed that yesterday. a lot of history thrown at us that i appreciated, talk of the charles bridge using egg yolk as a solidifier (yeah right) and then an answer re: relative unscathed nature of prague despite war after war... ceasefire agreement in WW2... they left peacefully. true? maybe.

then the tour ended and kim, morgan, nusbaum and i went to the site of the czech senate, which also has a weird black artificial grotto that we saw from the palace yesterday. peacocks tried to hump (one would have none of it though, despite persistent attempts) and a cool exhibit on czech history. morgan the IR kid seems to know her stuff about the advent of the EU. ps. pak is wrong. the uk (or great britain) is part of the EU.

got back to hostel and promptly did laundry (much needed after sweating thru everything when i had a fever). found out that poor rich is stuck in paris because someone called in a bombthreat.

i have also suggested a travel plan to nusbaum, and we'll see how he takes it.

1. nice-marseille
2. marseille-bordeaux
3. bordeaux-biarritz
4. meet him in paris and he caan go do stuff til then
5. paris-normandy
6. normandy-paris

we met up with sturgess again for dinner and we ended up at this littly dingy looking place that served frigging huge portions! smoky as hell inside too. then we went to a nearby place for drinks and kim was chatting with some random drunk czech guy through the window who seemed to have an irish accent.

walking back from metro to hostel, some guy puked hard in front of us and we had to hurry by fast or else kim said she would puke too. lovely.