Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Vance Seeley's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, October 18th, 2006
12:44 am	New Blog! Alright I've started a new blog. It can be found at: http://www.thevanceblog.blogspot.com/ (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 30th, 2006
1:35 pm	Back in Canada Well I've been back in Canada for about a month now. As expected things have definitely slowed down. Since this blog was created to document my adventures in Europe, it's only proper that it ends now that I am back in Canada. For this reason this is probably the last entry in this blog. Last year was the best year of my life. I saw many things and grew more than I had ever done before. To give a summery I went to 24 countries (counting Scotland and Northern Ireland as countries). They were: Spain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Italy, Greece, Norway, England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Holland, Belgium, Russia, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Switzerland, Egypt, Portugal, Turkey and Hungry. I'm not sure what my favorite trip as all of them were amazing. Thank you those of you who read this blog all year. I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope you had fun reading it. Vance Good bye Baden, you were good to me Hello Calgary (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 29th, 2006
11:18 am	Zermatt, Switzerland The weekend of June 24-25 was my last weekend in Switzerland. I wanted to do something very Swiss so I decided to do a hike in the mountains, specifically around Zermatt. For those who don’t know, Zermatt is a town located in the south of Switzerland within the mountains. It is similar to Banff and is basically a ski town. Zermatt’s claim to fame is the Matterhorn, an oddly shaped mountain that serves as a symbol for Switzerland. If you look a Toblerone chocolate, the mountain on its logo is the Matterhorn.   The Matterhorn The only problem with Zermatt is that it’s on the other side of Switzerland in the mountains, which means it takes a 4-hour train ride to get there. That meant that I had to wake up early on Saturday. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem, however I made a poor sleep related decision the night before. The Swiss were playing in the World Cup Friday night; this was a rare opportunity to see the Swiss party. After watching the game at Pickwicks (and somehow acquiring giant Swiss hats) we hit the streets of Baden. The streets were alive and we dragged many of the sleeping praktikants out. Long story short, I got home at 3:30 am. I had to wake up at 5 am to pack. So I woke up at 5:50 and still quite drunk from the night before. I quickly packed my bag and ran to the train station for the 6:20 train. To give you an idea how messed up I was, Saturday night I discovered that I had put my boxers on inside out and backwards that morning. Once we got to Zermatt (after a well need 4 hours of sleep) we started our hike. Our hike group changed between the days due to reasons too tedious to detail. On Saturday it was me, Kevin, Brain, Jan and a Canadian girl we met name Jude. We took a train up a mountain and spent the afternoon hiking down. It was a relaxed hike and good times were had by all.    Scenes around Zermatt   Brian goes for a mountain swim   Group pic Left to right: Jude, Brian, me, Kevin and Jan   Kevin skips some rocks That night was relaxed, as we were all tired. We went to a pub and had a relaxed beer. It was Jan’s birthday (or equivalent) so we all gave him a toast.   Pub in Zermatt. Left to right: me, Dan, Andy, Jan, Brian and Kevin The hike on Sunday was the real hike we wanted to do. It took about 8 hours and it consisted of us hiking up a mountain and then hiking down. The group for this hike was me, Kevin, Brian, Andy and the English man Dan.   Me, ready for a day of hiking in Zermatt    Scenes from the hike   Awesome waterfall   Resting on the hike The weather on Sunday was extremely varied. At some parts we all had our shirts off due to the heat, where it was cold for other parts. It rained heavily for the last hour. Everyone got soaked, luckily my mom had given me a Canada poncho so I managed to escape relatively dry.   Andy and Dan hide from the rain I was happy that I was able to go on one last hike before I left Switzerland. In the end it was my last trip within Europe. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
11:27 am	Vaduz, Liechtenstein I’ve always been interested in Liechtenstein and it’s rich culture heritage. It was for this reason that I organized a trip that would allow us to explore the elegance of Liechtenstein... ok I’m lying. I have very little interest in Liechtenstein, nobody does. Ever. I went there for one reason and one reason only: to say that I went to Liechtenstein. Ok I know what your thinking. You’re thinking “Whoa, slow down there slick. Liechtenstein? What the heck is a Liechtenstein?". Well my geography-lacking friend, the answer to that is a complex. Liechtenstein is a tiny country located between Switzerland and Austria. With a population of under 35 000 people, Liechtenstein is most well known as a tax haven for the Swiss (because even the Swiss need to skip paying taxes). Here are a couple bonus facts about Liechtenstein (courtesy of Warren and Jan):  - It shares Customs and Money... with the Swiss! - It is defended... by the Swiss! - It has it's own fucked up version of German ... like the Swiss! - Their football teams play in the Swiss league... with the Swiss! - It is the fourth smallest country in Europe! - It is one of two doubly landlocked countries (it's landlocked... and all of it's neighbors are landlocked). Everyone knows the only other    doubly land locked country is totally Uzbekistan. - 1 of 20 Liechtensteiners are a captain of a sports team - It’s the only country that contains more corporate head offices than citizens. - You have to pay a fee in order to get a Liechtenstein stamp in your passport - It has a prince who still has sweeping political power and lives in a castle - It has a total area of 160 square km With a fact sheet like that, you now know why we totally had to go there. The Thursday of June 22 a group of left on a quest which would bring to right into the dark heart of Liechtenstein, the capital of Vaduz! However, this was not going to be an easy task. From Baden it’s about a 2-hour train ride to Vaduz. Since we train passes which allow us to ride for free after 7 pm (and we’re cheap), we would have to take the train to Vaduz, party there and return before the trains stop running for the night. That gave us a scat 40 minutes in Vaduz. Failure to see Liechtenstein successfully or miss the train would have consequences so dire I fear committing them to print. A group of 13 praktikant were up to the challenge. The brave group consisted of me, Warren, Jan, Taryn, Keegan, Krispin, Richard, Brandon, Mike, Andy, Travis, Kevin and Darren. Would we be successful, read on and find out! We gathered at the Baden sbb station promptly at 7pm, each packing their supplies for the journey (water, dinner and lots of booze). There was a ominous feeling in the air. All knew that the journey was going to change their lives forever. The trip was filled with trials too tiring to be described. Perhaps the pictures can better illustrate the pilgrimage to Vaduz.      The epic journey in the train     The startling transfer to a bus   The bus brought us straight into the depths of Liechtenstein Just when we had given up hope that we would never make it, we were shocked to see a sign announcing that we had finally arrived in the metropolis of Vaduz!   Victory! Upon arriving there was much celebration, frolicking and gallivanting around.      Assorted shenanigans However, the party had to be cut short because we realized that we had come to Vaduz for a reason. We had to be able to say that we had been to Liechtenstein. That meant we had to be tourists and see every Vaduz had to offer. In order to claim one has truly been to a European country, they need to accomplish each task on the following list (Lindsey you reading this?): Vance’s List of Things you Have To Do To Have Bragging Rights for Visiting a Country 1) Need to use at least one map 2) Need to see a castle 3) Need to see a fountain 4) Need to see a big church 5) There needs to be at least one wacky hijink So lets see if we accomplished our goal: Map. Check Castle. Check. Fountain. Check. Big church. Check. Wacky hijink. Check. Awesome. Looks like I can brag about going to Liechtenstein. With our task done we started to the long journey home. The trip back was euphoric as we all knew that we had succeeded where generations before had failed.   The victors! From left to right: Taryn, Andy, Travis, Warren, Krispin, Kevin, Keegan, me, Darren, Richard, Brandon, Mike and Jan   Darren rests after the lengthy trip The trip to Liechtenstein was a surprisingly fun “trip“. It was actually my last trip with most of the praktikants and it went off without a hitch. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
1:56 pm	Berlin Again At this point and time I’ve become a bit tired of hoboing around Europe. I’ve had a good run but I definitely am ready for a break. However, the weekend of June 15-18 was a long weekend in Switzerland. A four-day weekend was much too long not to travel somewhere. Tommy had been working in Berlin for over a month now so I decided I should go visit him. I still had stuff to see in Berlin and was getting a place to stay for free, so I figured it’d be a good time. Oh, also there was this thing called the World Cup happening so there had to be some form of a party happening. I left on a night train the evening of Wednesday June 14th. It was a 10-hour ride to Berlin from Baden. Tommy greeted me Thursday morning (he was late of course, vintage Tommy) and he brought me to his flat. There I met his roommate Steve. We caught up for a bit (and I watched Tommy drink about 2L of coffee) then we parted ways, Tommy to work and to do some sight seeing. As mentioned before, Germany was currently hosting the 2006 World Cup. This meant that everywhere I looked I was faced with soccer. Be it shops selling scarves or loads of tourists in jerseys, I saw more soccer than I every thought possible. This was instantly evident wandering around the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial (which is basically a awesome church that was bombed to hell in WWII). The area was filled with fans and people selling stuff. I was annoyed by the amount of fans, but was happy to see many of the monuments had been opened allowing tourists to examine more. I was able to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche and it’s beautiful stained glass, something I couldn’t do in November.   Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial   Inside Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche Next stop was Potsdam Platz and it’s modern architecture. The Sony Center had been converted into a viewing area for the world cup. I was able to go inside, but had to leave before the game started.    The Sony Center of Potsdam Platz While at the Sony center I went into the Museum for German Film and TV. It was really cool and had lots of footage of old films and TV. Next I wandered into the Canadian consulate since they had a sign welcoming guests. The nice lady told me about the Embassy and what they do. The building itself was nice; all the building supplies had been shipped in from Canada. I spent some time at the Jewish Holocaust Memorial. Last time I there I didn’t like it much. But now I spent some time it started to evoke the emotion of dread. So it was successful.   Holocaust Memorial It was only up the road that I hit the peak of soccer mania. In front of Brandenburg Gate a giant soccer ball was erected. Inside the ball the World Cup was displayed. The mile between Brandenburg and Victory Column had been fenced off as the fan mile. After passing through security one would be greeted by several large screens, food stands and people.   Brandenburg Gate  Can you spot the World Cup Influence?   Fan Mile I wonder who was playing that day... Ok let me take a moment to comment. If you look at my pictures you’ll see about 100 people wearing Swedish jerseys since they were playing that day. From what I can infer from the shear amount of blue and yellow I was exposed to, the population of Sweden was in Berlin that day. I asked a Swedish guy why there were so many of them, he responded “Well, Berlin is only a 10 hour drive away”. Keeping in the theme of World Cup madness, outside the Reichstag a monstrosity of a replica soccer stadium had been built. Inside the stadium was a small soccer field and 2 big screens where fans could watch the game. The stadium could hold 9000 people.   The Reichstag   The Replica Stadium   At first glace it looks like every other soccer stadium That evening I met up with Tommy and we watched a game in the replica stadium. It was a really good atmosphere. After Sweden won the game we rushed the field with the fans. So now I can say I rushed the field at the world cup, albeit a fake miniature field. After the game we hit the fan mile. Several stages were set up playing different types of music. From what I could tell you could chose between techno, pop, Bavarian and Euro trash. Friday I did a Third Reich tour of Berlin. The tour guide really knew his stuff and described the history and layout of Nazi Germany. The tour ended just in time for me to meet up with Tommy to watch another game in the replica stadium. The game was good though much less exciting than the one the night before. That night we met up with Simon (the old Calgary praktikant). Once we got all caught up, we grabbed Steve and went out to see the Berlin nightlife. Steve showed us this awesome club in the East of Germany. The club was the kind of thing you envision when you thing the underground electronic music Euro club. To get there we had to walk through parking lots, alley and loading bays, but it was awesome. When we arrived at 3am the place was just getting started. When we left at 6am the place was still going and didn’t look like it was going to stop for a very long time. On the way home from the club we saw some unfortunate soccer hooliganism where a teenage Sweden fan got punched by a drunk German. The kid was pretty hurt but your could tell he would be ok. Saturday I woke up at a surprising reasonable time. Here’s the sites I saw that day: Schloss Charlottenburg - Once a palace the Schloss Charlottenburg looked fairly old school.   Schloss Charlottenburg  Neo Synagogue – Nice. Probably has the best security I’ve seen in Europe. Berlin Wall – Not much left. Much smaller than you’d imagine. Needs to be fenced off so tourists don’t take it apart.   What's left of the Berlin Wall Soviet TV tower – Once the showpiece of Soviet technology and dominance. For the World Cup they turned into a giant pink soccer ball. That’s perhaps the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.   Soviet TV Tower deckout out for World Cup That night Tommy and I went saw X-men 3. My review of the movie… well.. it had some cool moment but it sucked. It sucked hard. At least X1 and X2 were good. After the movie I needed something to wipe the memory from my mind. Luckily we knew a place that had the best ice cream in the world.   Hells yeah! Sunday was pretty relaxing. Tommy and I just wandered around downtown Berlin. I remembered it was one of the last times we could drink in public so we took full advantage of that. We managed to visit the World Cup, Checkpoint Charlie and may other cool sites.   Checkpoint Charlie    The closest Tommy's ever going to get to the World Cup   Tommy and I in front of Berliner Dom Berlin was a great wind down trip. Berlin is so alive and it’s one of my favorite cities. It was great visiting Tommy again for one last European adventure. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006
3:57 pm	St. Gallen again On Saturday June 10th I went down to St. Gallen to visit my Swiss friend Dominic. We partied in St. Gallen that night. It was a good night of bar hopping with the Swiss, which is always a good time.   Dom with his new kitten Emily   Dom showing me around St. Gallen   Soccer I stayed at his house Saturday night. Sunday he showed me around St. Gallen a bit and I watched his team play a soccer game. It was a really laid back weekend. I was glad that I was able to visit Dom one last time before heading back to Canada. (Comment on this)
2:40 pm	Istanbul, Turkey Let’s talk Turkey. The weekend following Egypt a group of us headed down to Istanbul, Turkey. We were able to get some super cheap Easy Jet tickets, though it meant that we had to arrive and leave at about 4am in the morning. We arrived the morning of Saturday June 3rd and we left Monday June 5th. This was one of my last group trips. On this trip was me, Lindsey, Beka, Travis, Richard, Devon and Krispin. Istanbul is in a unique position in the world. The Bosporus Straight runs through it and divides the city into two parts. The part on the west is in Europe and the section on the east is in Asia. So now I can say I’ve been to Asia. In lots of ways Turkey acts as the portal from Europe into the Middle East. Bonus fun fact: Turkey borders Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Syria, Iraq AND Iran. Now that’s a spicy meatball. Turkey is a country that has much more history than you expect. Constantinople is an old name for Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire ruled from Turkey. Most of European politics came about due to Turkey. Going to Istanbul we were all braced for something similar to Egypt. It’s a known fact that Turkey is a Muslim country and we expected a similar society. Boy, were we wrong. I’m not sure what it’s like in smaller cities, but Istanbul was insanely westernized. It has way more in common with a place like New York than Cairo. All the Muslim things we’d come to expect were relaxed. For example, we were even able to wear shorts into the mosques. Before I get into my trip I want to make a comment about the Arabia kind of setting we see in movies/films such as Aladdin. The one thing that is often skimmed over is the fact that they actually represent an Islamic culture. The architecture style is that of a Muslim country. In fact, the term Sultan is an Islamic term. Just interesting that movies do everything they can to avoid mentioning anything remotely religious. We arrived in Istanbul early in the morning (like 4am) and got to our hostel with no problems. Our hostel was located in a great area and we were able to walk to most of the sights. Our first stop was Topkapi Palace, the place where the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire once ruled. The palace was pretty cool; the best part was the Harlem. The Harlem was an interesting place because the only people allowed there were the sultan’s family and the sultan’s concubines. The concubines were non-Muslim women who would do all the biddings of sultan. Be it cleaning, raising the children or various forms of recreation (if you know what I mean).     Around Topkapi Palace     Inside the Harlem The next stop was the Grand Bazaar. Turkey is famous for it’s salesmen who hassle you to buy their stuff. Especially carpet salesmen. However we were ready. Egypt made me a changed man. I was now immune to all salesmen. Even if I wanted to buy something, I’d still ignore them. Basically Egypt made me a jackass.   The Grand Bazaar However, in the bazaar we quickly discovered that it had been much over hyped. Sure the salesmen approached you, but let me quickly show a comparison between Egypt and Turkey. In Turkey this happens: Turkish salesman: Do you want to buy this? Me: No *Turkish salesman leaves you alone* In Egypt: Egyptian salesman: Do want to buy this? Me: No Egyptian: You sure you don’t want to buy this? Me: I don’t want it *Egyptian proceeds to hassle you for another 20 minutes, including following you down the street as you run away* That evening we took a walk along the water front and were able to see some wild dolphins, which was as awesome as it sounds. The night was spent at the hostel drinking beer and smoking shisha pipe. Before anyone freaks out and says “shisha pipe! What kind of crazy drugs has Vance gotten into?“. All a shisha pipe is a water pipe that one uses to smoke flavored tobacco. The water filters the smoke so you get a nice wisp of flavor. It’s very common in Turkey. I enjoyed it, but it’s not something I’d do very often. Next morning we woke up and went to the Hagia Sophia which is a Catholic Church turned mosque turned museum. It was huge inside and looked cool.   Outside Hagia Sophia   Inside Hagia Sophia The next stop was the Dolmabahce palace on the Asian coast. We didn’t go inside because it was too expensive, the front door was nice.   The front door of Dolmabahce Palace We had discovered from the Internet that a chocolate convention was happening in Istanbul that weekend. For this reason we went to the Hilton hotel all expecting to receive mountains of chocolate. When we got there we were dishearten. Instead of having a convention for chocolate, there was a convention on menopause. So convention involved less chocolate than we would have liked. The rest of that day was spent wandering the super modern down town. There were many sports stores so I generally hung out outside while everyone else shopped. I had purchased this awesome top yo-yo thing, so I was content to fiddle and people watch while I waited for the others. The climax of this time was when I was sitting down on a step with a half finished bottle of coke. A dude came up and attempted to sell a ticket pack. I was resisting when he reached beside me, grabbed my coke and proceeded to chug it down. He then put the coke back and tried to sell me the ticket pack some more. I wasn’t mad because I was going to throw the coke away anyway, it was just odd. That night at the hostel I meet a dude who lived in Sundance. His name was Johnny and many of you might know him since he worked at the Husky for a couple of years. It was odd seeing the dude who I used to buy my gas from in Istanbul.   Me and Johnny We started Monday by first visiting the Blue mosque. It’s called the blue mosque because the inside is decorated primarily in blue.   The Blue Mosque   Me inside the Blue Mosque   Group shot outside Blue Mosque Left to Right: Krispin, Richard, Beka, Devon, Lindsey, me and half of Travis After than we jumped on a ferry and sailed down the Bosporus straight. The boat took about 4 hours and brought us in front of the black sea.   Rocking out on the boat The last boat stop had a small tourist stop and a small castle. We spent about an hour climbing on the castle and then jumped back on the boat home to the hostel.   Awesome random castle   Richie climbing around the castle We hung out at the hostel for a while until it was time for home. Turkey was a really relaxing trip. Istanbul was so westernized it was like I had traveled to Greece. After the stress of visiting Egypt, it was a real breath of fresh air. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006
11:17 pm	Egypt part 2: Luxor This is the second part of my blog for Egypt. Scroll down the page to see the first part. After 3 days in Cairo, it was time to head to our next location: Luxor. On the night Friday June 26th we got on a night train. The group consisted of me, Song, Mike, Victor and Keegan; however only Song and I were going to Luxor. The other guys were going further south in Egypt. Luxor is a city south of Cairo located on the Nile (bonus fact: pretty much the entire population of Egypt lives close to the Nile). It took about 9 hours to get there on the night train. If you recall from my last entry, Luxor was the capital of ancient Egypt from about 1991-1070 BC. This contained the reigns of the pharaohs who during the Middle and New Kingdoms. So as expected, since Luxor was the capital of ancient, wealthy, pharaoh ruled Egypt for about 1000 years, there’s a lot of cool stuff to see. Luxor is different from Cairo in that it’s mainly a tourist city. Most people who live there make a living off of tourism. Luxor is such a tourist hub that there exists an airport that caters mainly to bringing in tourists. Luxor being a tourist place had good aspects and bad aspects. First it meant that everything was fairly relaxed and easy to navigate. It was possible to wear shorts (and not look out of place) and everybody spoke good English. However, it was bad because the hassling got much worst. Walking down the street became a trial. One was constantly muttering “No taxi”, “No carriage”, “No I don’t want to buy that”, etc. The worst part was getting off the train. The moment we placed our feet on the ground a fleet of touts trying to get us to go to their hotel accosted us. It was like breaking through a barrier as we shook people off. Some even followed us down the street and close to the hotel we were staying at. The wackiest was just outside our hotel, a motorcycle pulled up with a driver and passenger. The motorcycle briefly slowed down while the passenger jumped off. As the motorcycle raced off the passenger ran up to us and asked, “Are you staying at Little Garden Hotel”? Me being surprised he guessed our hotel said “Ughh... yea”. He got all excited up till the moment I told him we booked on the Internet. He bitterly said “Oh, its right there” and just started walking up the street. Upon arriving in our hotel we were greeted by Travis, Warren, Beka and Richard eating breakfast. I was happy because Richard had already taken the effort to plan the site seeing for the day, a task I was not looking forward to. After some talk, we headed out. The sites of Luxor are located on both sides of the Nile. The city is located on the East bank, as well as any temples that were meant to be seen by the general public. On the West bank are things that were supposedly hidden from the common people and possible grave robbers. This includes the tombs of the Pharaohs. We spent all of Saturday on the West bank. Travis, Beka and Warren on the boat to the west bank Our first stop on the west bank was the so-called Valley of the Kings. You’ve probably heard of the term since many of the most famous finds are located here. For example, king Tut’s tomb is located in the area. The Valley of the Kings is exactly as the name suggests, it’s a valley containing the tombs of many pharaohs from the Middle and New Kingdoms. The Valley of the Kings The tombs themselves are actually smaller than one would imagine. While they differ in size and contents, generally they contained a similar layout of small rooms with decorated walls. In one of the rooms the sarcophagus would rest and contain the mummy. Some of the pharaohs had elaborate tombs with many rooms, stairs, pit traps and false burial chambers. Others were just a simple single room with extremely lacking wall decoration. It all depended on the Pharaoh since he was generally responsible to construct his tomb. Resting at the Valley of the Kings Left to right: Song, Warren, Beka, Travis and Richard When we visited the Valley of the Kings, we purchased a ticket which allowed us to visit 3 of the tombs. We chose the tombs of King Ramses I, Tuthmosis III and IV. We chose these largely because they happened to be open and not swamped by other tourists. I’m going to take a quick moment to comment on King Tut because he’s so damn famous that they charge an extra exorbitant amount to see his tomb. King Tut (or Tutankhamen) is actually a rather unimportant pharaoh. He died when he was still a kid and isn’t remembered for anything in particular. He’s famous in North America for 2 reasons. The first being that his tomb was only recently found (being of the 1900’s) and it was unlooted (even though looters had entered the tomb). So unlike every other tomb in Egypt, King Tut’s tomb still had all its treasure. The amount of treasure in the tomb was astounding and is often shown around the world (about a quarter of the Egyptian museum in Cairo is dedicated to the contents of king Tut’s tomb). However, I think the main reason that king Tutankhamen is so famous is that unlike many of the other pharaohs, he has a name that can shortened and is easy to remember. After touring the valley, Richard informed us that in order to get to the next site, we were going to have to do a little hike in the desert over a large hill. Now at this point it was 2pm (so high sun), about 38°C outside, I was in jeans and lacked water. I responded to Richard’s suggestion of a hike in a mature and relaxed manor: I accused him of trying to kill us. Somehow I got talked into it, and next thing I knew we were hiking over a large desert hill in the blistering sun. Some would say that I wined through out the hike; I would say that I bitched. I wanted everyone to know that if were to die in the desert that day, it was not my idea On the hike/death camp The hike (or death march depending who you ask) was actually fun. Though it would have been even more fun if I was in anyway adequately prepared for hiking in the desert. We saw some really breathtaking views and the ruins looked really cool from above. Now I can say I’ve hiked through a desert. Scenes from the hike The next stop was the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri. After drinking about 2 liters of water, we explored the temple which was stunning to look at. We hung out in one of the many shaded areas for about an hour before we moved. The temple of Hatshepsut One of the walls from Queen Hatshepsut Temple After negotiating a cheap rate, we rode a truck to the next set of ruins, the Ramesseum. Since the Ramesseum is a little of the beaten path, we were able to explore it without having to deal with other tourists. The Ramesseum Statues from Ramesseum In the temple Ramses II built the whole complex of the Ramesseum as an attempt to make a bid for immortality in the afterlife. This causes me to ask a question “What the hell made him think that this was going to work?” Did he wake up one day and say “Hey, maybe if I make like 100 statues of myself, I’ll get to live forever.” There must have been something pretty potent in the drinking water. The last site that day was the nearby tombs of nobles. The tombs of nobles were quite different since they were small and somewhat humble. Instead of showing the gods, the tomb walls were decorated with everyday activates. It was a stark contrast. We visited the tombs of the nobles Khonsu, Userhat and Benia. Seeing the tombs of the nobles was somewhat sketchy since it was off the beaten path. When we first found them, they doors were locked. Some dude quickly ran up and unlocked them for us. Some kids took interest in us while we toured the tombs. The girls were selling dolls they had made. The interesting thing was due to the reaction of the many tourists, the girls thought the English name for the dolls was “maybe later”. I bought a doll and it’s one of my favorite souvenirs. Saturday night I was done. I slept for about 13 hours while Beka, Travis and Warren all left on night trains. Sunday morning Song and I remained and did some sight seeing. Our first destination was Karnak temple located slightly outside of Luxor. The ruins of Karnak were amazing. The site itself is huge. It’s been called the largest ancient religious ruins in the world. Within the temple were large columns and many cool looking hieroglyphics. Karnak was my favorite thing that I saw in Egypt.    The enterance of Karnak Scenes around Karnak That afternoon Song and I explored Luxor temple, which is located in the center of the city. The temple was cool, but Karnak was definitely more interesting. Enterance of Luxor Temple (that obelisk is part of pair. The mate is in Paris) Luxor Temple Song wanders Luxor Temple That evening Song and I went on a small boat on the Nile to watch the sunset. The boats are called feluccas and are powered by a sail and a row boat. The boat was crewed by two teenagers who were nice. A felucca Me and the felcucca driver Unfortunately while on the boat we saw some serious police corruption. The police pulled up to the boat and asked to see our captain’s boat licensee. After he took it, the police officer refused to return it unless he was paid money. It was no good. The Nile at sun set That night we took a night train back to Cairo. There we met up with Richard. Together we somehow figured out the Egyptian bus system and got back to the airport. All in all Egypt was great trip. It was unlike anything I’ve seen. I was glad that I saved it for one of my last trips because it took all my travel skills to get around. Next blog is my trip to Istanbul. Also, if you go to Egypt make sure you drink lots of Fayrouz. It's like candy in drink form. Fayrouz!!! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 9th, 2006
7:34 pm	Egypt Part 1: Cairo A couple of weeks back I went on my longest and most unique trip: Egypt. I’ve got a lot to say about this trip so I expect this to be the mother of all blogs. I’ve spilt it up into two parts so I can post it quicker and get caught up. This trip was unique in that Song, my friend from Calgary, came along for the ride. She arrived Sunday May 22nd. Also that weekend we had another guest named Michelle who is a good of Song and was in Europe at the time. Since there were already 4 people at the Berg, Jenny let Song and Michelle stay with her (which was a good thing because otherwise someone would have had to sleep in the bath tub or something). That Sunday we ate fondue, wandered around Baden and hit up the beer gardens. Also that Sunday That Monday I was able to convince Song to cook and we had perhaps the best meal that the Berg kitchen has ever produced. Fondue goodness Left to right: Pat, Jenny, Mike, Jacqui, Michelle and Song Engineering girls! (Notice Darren as a height reference) Left to right: Song, Lindsey, Jacqui, Adrienn and Darren Song and I left Tuesday morning for Egypt. We left Tuesday May 23 and returned Monday May 29th. That’s about 6 days and 6 nights. The flight took 2.5 hours from Milan and Egypt is in a different time zone than Switzerland. Egypt is unlike any country I’ve ever been too. While Europe is westernized and very similar to North America, Egypt is a completely new world. Perhaps the most obvious difference is that Egypt is a visibly Muslim country. Even though the government is fairly secular and there are other religions present, much of Egyptian society is focused around Islam. Unfortunately, us westerners are pretty much clueless about what a Islamic country is like so I’ll quickly describe some of the differences, most of them are actually fairly subtle. First off, a Muslim country does not necessarily mean that people are wandering around screaming “Jihad!!!“. Islam is actually fairly tolerable towards other religions. It’s just that the media likes to focus on the attention whoring extremists. The most visible thing about Muslims is that they dress very conservatively. The men don’t wear shorts and women are often covered up showing only their face (or in some cases, just their eyes). This is actually a less jarring sight than you’d expect. Standard men fashion is often sandals, button up dress shirt and kakis. Women still have fashion, it just that they don’t show much skin. The whole time I was in Cairo I wore jeans and a t-shirt. Instead of churches Muslims have mosques. A mosque is different from a church in that it is not a place that people come to hear sermons once a week, instead people come there to pray, study and reflect. There are no chairs in mosques; one removes their shoes when they enter and sit/lie on the floor. It is common in a mosque to see people praying, reading or even napping. A mosque One of the most important aspects of Islam is that each individual has a direct connection to God. This means unlike Christianity, there is no priest caste that acts as a connection to God. There still is a Muslim clergy, but instead they offer wisdom, study the nature of Islam and serve as care takers for the mosque. An example of where Christianity and Islam differ is that Islamic clergy cannot absolve sins. Another aspect of Islam is that Muslims pray 5 times a day. This takes places at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and after dark. Essentially this entails followers facing the direction of Mecca (east) and praising Allah. At prayer times chanting can be heard all over cities originating from the load speakers located at Mosques. The other key difference about Egypt is unlike North America and most of Europe, it is not a wealthy country. This means that little money for us is a lot of money for the average Egyptian and things are cheap. The currency for Egypt is the Egyptian pound and the conversion is about 5 Egyptian pounds for every 1 Canadian dollar. The currency is unique in that it has no coins, the equivalent to cents are also in bill form. Often I’d get confused between the 50-pound bill and the 50 cents bill. It is also kind of funny how beat up the money is. I’m not sure if it’s due to the conditions or if the government doesn’t reissue money often, but the bills look extremely worn and dirty. It’s not uncommon to see tears and rips. It’s very visible that the small bills are in much worst condition than the larger bills. Comparing new and old Egyptian money The people of Egypt are an extremely mixed bag. The problem is many of them only want your money. Your often hassled walking down the street with people demanding you go into their shops or offering you a taxi. It becomes a real pain in the ass shaking them off all the time. The worst is that it is common for people to approach you pretending to be friendly and wanting to “practice their English“. After talking to you for a bit, they will try to trick you to go into a shop or coffee house so they can collect the commission. Due to this one becomes incredibly paranoid and unwilling to talk to anyone since half of all people are trying to screw you. It is extremely psychology tiring. It’s too bad though because with the exception of people who make their living scamming/selling stuff to tourists, Egyptians are the nicest people in the world. As you walk down the street (away from the tourist areas) people are constantly saying “Welcome“ and flashing you smiles. Kids (especially young boys) are really interested in you. They run up and use the little English they have (Often “Hello, what is your name?“ or “What time is it?“). The few people we talked to who weren’t after our money were awesome. On that note I want to point out that Egypt is ridiculously safe. It has an astonishly low crime rate and very few violent crimes. The only dangers in Egypt are people scamming you out of your money, you’d never be mugged. Song and I arrived in Cairo Tuesday afternoon. Our hotel arranged for a transfer which consisted of some dude picking us up. His car breaking down due to the heat was my first introduction to what Egypt was going to be like. The airport pickup also introduced me to Egyptian driving which can be summarized as shear pandemonium. There is not a car in Egypt that does not have a dent or scratch since people drive like madmen. The street lines are ignored while each driver weaves through traffic at their own pace. I thought I was going to die at least once a minute. It should be noted that crossing the road is similar. Cars never stop for pedestrians. People just cross the street whenever and drivers try to dodge you. Seriously, it’s crazier than you could imagine. At the hostel we met up with the other group who had been in Egypt for several days at that point: Richard, Warren, Travis and Beka (Travis’ sister). After some “Vance motivation“ we grabbed some dinner and headed out. That night we visited Grand Bazaar (a huge labyrinth of shopping stall madness) and went to the most holy mosque in Cairo, the al-Hussein. The mosque of al-Hussein at night Notice the crowd of people outside waiting to get in We were not allowed into the mosque (Muslims only) so we went to a near by restaurant, drank ourselves some juice (best juice ever) and watched the hoards of people outside the mosque. Wednesday morning we woke up early because we were going to spend the day touring the pyramids of Cairo! We had prearranged a van for the day and a English speaking tour guide. The van was good because the pyramids are located at distant parts of the city, though the tour guide kinda sucked. Where at first he was helpful and full of useful facts, as the day wore on he said less and less. He was much more focused on ushering us into stores so he could collect commission. Ok at this point I know your thinking. Your thinking that sure you’ve heard of the great Egyptian Pyramids, but you probably have no idea where they are and what’s the deal with them. For this reason I present to you: Vance’s Guide to the Pyramids of Cairo First off, the pyramids are old. I mean impossibly old. From the time that the first pyramid was built (around 2600 BC) to the time that the Greeks conquered Egypt (around 330 BC) the pharaohs had ruled Egypt for around 2300 years. The time scale on this is so large that nothing else can really be compared. So that means in 1333 BC when King Tut saw the pyramids he would have said “Holy crap, that’s old“. I don’t want to get into a big history lesson (you can find that everywhere) but here’s a quick summery. The pharaohs’ rule of ancient Egypt is divided into 3 parts: Old Kingdom (2575-2134 BC), Middle Kingdom (1991-1648 BC) and New Kingdom (15700-1070 BC). It was during these times that Egypt was united with a strong central government. During the Old Kingdom the capital of Egypt was Cairo (then called Memphis). During the Middle and New Kingdoms, the capital of Egypt was Luxor (then called Thebes). The most famous pyramids are the ones around Cairo and were all built in the Old Kingdom. The pyramids were initially outside of Cairo. However, like a frequent visitor to McDonalds, Cairo has greatly expanded (the population is 15 million people!). These means many of the pyramids are now inside city limits. The pyramids were built to act as tombs for the pharos. Not every pharaoh got a pyramid, only those who had the time and money to build themselves one. Our first stop on our pyramid tour was the first pyramid ever built, the Step Pyramid at necropolis of Saqqara. The pyramid itself is 62 meters tall and was built for the pharaoh Djoser around 2600 BC. It’s referred to as the step pyramid since unlike later pyramids, the walls are not smooth and appear as steps. In front of the Step Pyramid Left to right: Richard, Travis, our tour guide, Warren, Song and Beka Also around the pyramid are other burial sites and ruins. The next stop on the tour was our tour guides first attempt at hitting us up for money and we went to a carpet shop. After watching some children make carpets (which was actually interesting) we avoided the high-pressure salesman and headed out. Somehow we landed up in a carpet shop The next stop on our tour was the pyramids of Dahshur. This area contains 2 pyramids: The Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid. Both built around 2600 BC. The Red Pyramid got its name due to the red rocks used to make it. It is the first smooth sided pyramid. It was possible to go inside the Red Pyramid, which is both cool and disappointing. You see pyramids aren’t like the movies. They are not full of rooms, traps and other places where one can have wacky adventures. Instead they generally contain a step small passage down, and a small hallway to a small room containing the tomb. Where they would have once been filled with gold, today nothing remains except a funny smell and darkness. The Red Pyramid Group shot in front of Red Pyramid The Bent Pyramid got it’s odd look because the engineers had to change it’s design midway through the building process to prevent the building from collapsing. Bent Pyramid in the distance Next stop on the tour was a series of shops where our tour guide was a buddy with the owner. At this point we decided our guide was not getting a tip. However we were brought to an Egyptians house where Richard, Song, Warren and I arranged for a camel tour of the Giza Pyramids. Riding a camel was fun though crazy at times. A guide riding a donkey and 2 kids leading our camels accompanied us. As far as I can tell, those kids do not drink water. We walked though a poor suburb (which was an experience in itself) and the desert till we were at the great pyramids of Giza. Warren, Richard, Song and I rocking out on camels Warren takes control of his camel When one refers to the Pyramids of Egypt, they’re generally referring to the Pyramids of the Giza Plateau. Contained within this area are 9 pyramids (3 big ones and 6 small ones), tombs and the Great Sphinx. It should be stressed that while the pyramids are in a desert, they still are close to civilization. Giza is a district in Cairo and there is a Pizza Hut and KFC across the road. Seriously. The Pyramids of Giza It's impossible to get a more classic picture The 3 largest Pyramids for Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. The 6 small ones are for various queens. The Pyramid of Khufu is the largest (at about 140 meters tall) and is often known as the Great Pyramid. The Great Sphinx sits in front of the pyramids and actually appears much smaller than photographs would have you believe. Sphinx in front of the Great Pyramid While the pyramids were awesome, never had we felt so hassled. Everyone around the pyramids were attempting to scam us. Even the tourist police attempted to scam money off you for a picture. To you an example of a standard conversation at Giza: Egyptian scammer: Hello, what country you from? Vance: Canada *what follows is a meaningless conversation about a variety of random things* Egyptian scammer: You owe me 20 pounds. It was ridiculous. After going into the pyramid of Khafre we arrived to see our tour guides being hassled by the cops. They hustled us into our van and we went back to the hotel. Sketchy. All in all it was a busy day and we were all tired, luckily that evening we had decided to throw our piles of western money around to go a cruise down the Nile. Unfortunately Beka was feeling sick so Travis (being the good brother he is) stayed with her. The boat ride was awesome. It lasted 2 hours and just did a loop down the river on the Nile. We were served a buffet dinner on the boat and we ate like kings. Enjoying our food on a boat My favorite part was the entertainment. First they had live singers who were ok. The next act was a belly dancer, which was cool to see. Warren and Richard got dragged on to the stage to take part in the drumming. This actually happened After the belly dancer my favorite show came on, a Sufi dancer. Imagine a dude who spins round and round in circles so fast that his colorful skirt thing is lifted up by the centrifugal force. Now imagine he does it for 15 minutes. That’s a Sufi dancer. Sufi dancers rule The boat ride ended with the belly dancer taking to the stage again. Song went up and danced with her for a bit. Song dancing it up The boat ride was an excellent way to end an otherwise stressful day. Thursday was rather chill. We woke up and walked to the Citadel (which involved walking down some pretty interesting Egyptian streets). The citadel is basically a palace. We came too late and were unable to get in. The Citadel Group shot in front of Citadel Also that day we visited a mosque called al-Azhar. Mosques really are part of the Egyptian community with people hanging out in them and using them as a water source. We were able to climb the tower that gave a good view of the surrounding village. Inside al-Azhar mosque Old Cairo You may notice from the picture that many of the houses seem to have unfinished roofs. It’s appears that the construction workers just stopped building halfway through the top floor. That was done on purpose because in Egypt, a house is not taxed until it is finished. So that means you can live in a half built house untaxed. Stuff like this is just too crazy to make up. For dinner we attempted to find a place that they had eaten in before called El Haty. Richard was leading the way, but unfortunately had forgotten where exactly it was or what it looked like. After some hijinks getting lost in the street we just gave up and ate in the one place we knew was cheap and safe: McDonalds. I know, we’re corporate whores. Richard tastes his defeat That night Richard, Travis and Beka left on a night train to Luxor. Song and I weren’t alone long though because later that night Victor, Keegan and Mike arrived in Egypt. We spent the night together hanging out in the hotel lounge. Next morning we woke up, bought train tickets and went to the Egyptian museum. All the tombs of ancient Egypt are currently bare because they’ve either been looted or the contents are currently in the British museum in London or the Egyptian museum in Cairo. At the Egyptian museum Group change. Left to right: Keegan, Mike, Song, me and Victor The museum was really interesting and contained may things to see. It was also funny because it was one of the rare places where you saw large groupings of tourists. When most people visit Egypt they stick to tour buses that ferry them around from site to site. They get to skip the discomforts of Egyptian society. It’s a stark contrast to the way we do it. In the museum I was able to see several mummies of pharaohs. While the bodies were wrapped in bandages, sometimes the face was visible. It was amazing that with the exception of the black skin, the mummies often look like sleeping thin old men. They looked much more lifelike than Lenin did. The rest of the day was spent around the bazaar and the al-Hussein mosque. That night we jumped on a night train and were on our way to Luxor. The mosque of al-Hussein in the day Oh we also went at out to dinner. Using my mad map skillz we were able to go to El Haty. Take that Richard. I know I'm a sad shallow man. Me in front of El Haty Gloating is fun Us eating dinner. The food was damn good, it was worth the effort to find Left to right: Victor, Mike, Keegan, me and Song (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 20th, 2006
11:16 pm	April/May Madness The last two months in Baden have been madness. Not only is it summer, which brings both good weather and fun events, it’s also change over time for the praktikants. Us old praktikants are now all seeing their jobs at ALSTOM/ABB come to an end, while new praktikants are coming to replace us. Personally I got a contract extension for 2 months, so that means I’m still working till the end of June. Several people have done the same thing, which has a caused significant overlap with the new Calgarians.  I just want to do a quick recap of April and May while it’s all still fresh in my mind. I’ll start with the most recent events and work back. Visiting Italian Switzerland Today  (Saturday May 20) a group of us visited the southern/Italian region of Switzerland. The main purpose of the journey was to check out an area known as Ponte Bella. There we discovered a small gorge with water flowing through it. The rocks had been eroded so they were smooth and cool looking. Ponte Bella There we crawled around and some people did some swimming. There was an old Swiss dude there who impressed the hell out of by doing some cliff diving off a 19 meter drop. The praktikants enjoy the scenery It started raining so some of went and wandered around the near by city of Locarno. It was the second time I had been there so I showed the new praktikants the cool things I remembered about the city. Random Street in Locarno Krispin and Pat in Locarno It should be noted that southern part of Switzerland is unique because it does not look like the stereotypical Swiss area. Due to the nice weather and humidity palm trees were common and the area looked tropical. Drinking in Germany Way back in January I befriended a Germany dude name Philip who worked within the ABB workshop. Last weekend (May 13 – 14) I went to his home town to party. It was actually a great weekend. Saturday morning we drove to the city of Schwennigen (about 1.5 hours into Germany) and stayed at his house. There I meet his parents (very nice people) and got a home cooked meal. That night we went to his favorite pub (Ultra Café) and drank a bit too much. There I meet a bunch of his friends and the group of us partied all night. They were all really cool people and didn’t mind that they had to speak English to me. Unfortunaly since it was a drinking event I have no pictures of the event. One of the few pictures I have of Schwennigen... The New Generation of Praktikants At the beginning of May the new interns from Calgary (and other places) all started to stream in, egar to claim both our jobs and apartments. Since so many of us are still around, there’s been a bit of a traffice jam in many of the houses. Some places will have double the amount of people in them this month. An unfortunate side effect of all this is that the Berg has disbanded. Tommy has already left Baden (*sniff*) for his new job in Berlin and Lindsey has moved to another apartment due to space issues. Tommy and Jenny on Tommy's Last Night Last Picture of Old Berg Currently within the Berg is me and the new Berg: Andy, Mike and Pat. They seem like a good crew and I think they will keep the spirit of the Berg alive. They’ve already gone about organizing the various messes in the flat and discovering things about the Berg that I was unaware of. In a couple of weeks I will start to train the new guy taking my job, Jan. One of the good things about the new guys being is that my old friend Krispin finally came out. I’ve been so busy that I’ve been able to hang out with him much, but it’s good to see the ol’sidekick again. I think he’s going to have an awesome year (though it may take some adjustment for him due to the supreme lack of Asian girls out here…) A mix of Old and New Left to Right: Krispin, Richard, Paul, Jacqui, me  and Pat Beer Garden and Fountain Report 3 Baden really picks up in the summer time. The streets become filled with people just chilling out and enjoying the nice weather. One of highlights of Baden is the beer garden. You might recall this from last year but I’ll recap. Even though Baden is a small city, it is still home to a beer brewery called Mullar Brau. Me and Mullar Brau have had some good times out here. During the summer the brewry opens up a beer garden in it’s back yard. So basically in the summery the Swiss like to go outside and drink freshly brewed beer by the litter. On May 3rd we had the first big beer garden night. Mullar Brau!!! Scenes around the Beer Garden That night has also of importance because two people embraced their fountainy fate. We all knew that Victor had to go in. He had recently finished work and was about to embark on a month filled with travel. We lured him to Pickwicks and overwhelmed him. There was no escape for Victor There was another surprise visitor to the fountain, Olivier. Olivier is actually a former praktikant from Montreal. He had left Baden in December and none of us expected to see him again. However, since he is currently working for ABB again, he had to come back to Baden for a week. He actually spent this week (May 2-7) staying at the Berg with Pat and me. When he left in December he was lucky, since it was winter the fountains of Baden were empty. That night in May he learned a valuable lesson: If somehow you manage to avoid the fountain treatment, never return to Baden unless you plan to get wet. Olivier learns that no one escapes the fountain Also that night I got thrown into the fountain because it seems that’s the new tradition. Howver I was lucky and only got my feet wet. My glasses were not so lucky as they were crushed. I’ve been wearing just contacts since that night. My glasses have seen better days... Easter Dinner This happened awhile ago, but on April 20th all of us praktikants had a big Easter pot luck dinner. It was one of the last events of the old group. Adrienn, Shane and Evan hosted it and the evening was a success. If your curious, I brought some shrimp cocktails (I know it was a cop out, but I totally made my own dipping sauce). Yummy Easter pot luck dinner Dungeons and Dragons Ok if you don’t know what the term 1D20 means, you shouldn’t read this next bit. Otherwise your coolness might be irrersiably harmed. Also, I don’t want to be one of those guys who writes about their DnD stuff in an online blog, so I’ll make this brief. During the winter months out here in Baden, a group of us played a game of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. I DMed the campaign and introduced most people to it for the first time. I was actually really surprised how well the players took to the game and successful the campaign was. We had some player turnover, but all the characters got to a higher level than I expected. Here’s a quick rundown of the players their characters and their final level: - Adrienn played Viola Etain the level 6 eleven ranger. - Jacqui played Indigo the Technicolor gnome, a level 6 druid. She had the animal campanion of Borus - Richard played Tinkerdon Nitt the level 6 gnomish mage - Javier played Lumar the level 3 human cleric - Anthony played Messer the lever 3 half-orc fighter/goon - Warren had two characters. Elderdo/Reynaldo the level 5 human rouge and then Reynaldo the level 4 human fighter/bard - Alain played Qortez the level 4 human paladin Our final adventure was on April 25th since none had time to play anymore now that summer had arrived. Playing DnD. These people will haunted by blackmail for the rest of their lives Left to right: Richard, Adrienn, Jacqui, Warren and Alain The next couple weeks are going to busy ones (like always). Tommorow my friend Song is coming out. She’s not here long before we head to Egypt for most of next week! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 16th, 2006
10:27 am	World War Road Trip (also Belgium and Luxembourg) One of my goals for this year in Europe was to see the battlefields from the world wars. A weekend ago I was finally successful in doing this. Since train can’t reach the battlefields, we had to do a road trip. We left Friday May 5th and got back into Baden on Sunday May 7th. What started as a single car blossomed into a total of 3 cars doing a Belgium road trip that weekend. The cars were as follows: Car KSB: Consisted of the all sometime ksbers of Torsten (German), Alain (another wacky Calgaryian), Andre (Australian) and Oliver (back from Montreal for the weekend) Car Kehl: Was filled with the new Calgary praktikants Paul, Dieter and Brandon. Richard was the grizzled veteran who led the car to victory Car Charisma: I chose the nickname. It was me, Kevin, Warren and Tommy (*sniff* this was Tommy’s last trip)   Our Car: a Suzuki Seat Our car was a well-oiled machine where every member used their skills to the greatest possible efficiency. All the navigating and driving was done using Kevin’s old man wisdom/charisma and Tommy’s skills. Warren and I sat in the back seat the whole time, made wisecracks and looked pretty. Some say that Kevin and Tommy did all the work; I say that Warren and I helped in more subtle ways.   Kevin and Tommy driving/navigating us to victory For this trip we totally dropped the ball and didn’t have good maps. All we had were some half ass print outs from the Michelin map website. It was a miracle that we got anywhere with the maps we had. This was in direct contrast to Richard and Alian’s cars; who not only had extensive maps, Alian even had a laptop that could be used to pin point their location when they got lost. After picking out car up from Loerrach Germany (the same place I got my Spain trip car), we hit the road. Not all 3 cars were going to the same places. Car KSB was going to Brussels while Car Kehl was trying to do a similar trip as us. With exception of the hostel booking the first night, we did not expect to meet up much. In order to get to Belgium we went through Luxembourg, it was about a 3.5-hour drive to get there. That Friday night we stayed in the town of Bournglinster. And when I say town I mean village. And when I say village I mean 6 houses. However, we had some issues with the hostel there. We were the first car to arrive but when we went to our hostel, no one was there. The door was unlocked but the reception was not around. After some issues we made our way to the local restaurant to see if any one could help us. There met a nice lady who hooked us with some bungalows we could sleep at. Just as we were about to leave for them though, our hostel receptionist showed up. Since we had already paid at the hostel, we were forced to stay there and couldn’t tell the nice lady who helped us. It sucked, but it showed that Luxembourgers are awesome people.   The street of Bournglinster (notice the lack of a plural) Saturday morning we woke up and explored the capital city of Luxembourg: Luxembourg! Luxembourg is an odd little country. The full country contains 470 000 people and 80 000 live in the capital. Even though it’s small, Luxembourg has it’s own culture and language. The language is funny to hear, it sounds like a mix of French and German with some random sounds added. They even have their own royal family and 3 beer brewers. Luxembourg is in the EU and is known as a banking capital.   Scene's from Luxembourg Group photo in Luxembourg From left to right: Kevin, Warren, me and Tommy Luxembourg city looks a lot like I envisioned a European city would look when I was back in Canada. It is built within old castle walls on top of a cliff. There were large bridges and stairs all over.    The stairs of Luxembourg City We basically wandered around the city. There were some old caves that we explored. We also stumbled upon a small fair and grabbed some kebobs. It was there that I saw the best invention of mankind, a plastic knork! The caves: spooky! Canon hijinks   A Knork!!!! (you might have to see the big image to see the knife part) It was now time to go into Belgium. We drove for about 3 hours and decided to make a stop in the city of Ghent because it was on the way to our destination. It was a good decision because Ghent was beautiful. It also was the most efficient sight seeing ever, we pulled in, parked, walked like 10 meters and then was in town center with the beautiful landmarks. The highlights were the church of St. Nicolas and the Belfry of Ghent.   Scene's from Ghent  Kevin, Tommy and me in front of the Belfry of Ghent After Ghent we headed towards our goal for this trip, the town of Ypres (Ieper). Ypres was an important area back in WWI because it held a key position in Germany’s strike into Belgium and France, for this reason many battles were fought in that area. It was about an hour away from Ghent. Upon arriving in the Ypres area, our goal was to find somewhere to sleep for the night. We had booked a hostel in a nearby town, but we failed to write down the phone number, address or even the name of the hostel... yea we really weren’t prepared. We drove through the city and then said, “Screw it“. Side note though, Car Kehl arrived in the town later than us, but Richard actually knew where the hostel was. When he asked to see if they had space they said they did, but only because 4 other people who had booked did not show up that night (us). We made ran into the Ypres tourist center a minute before it closed. The nice man told us of a nearby Holiday Inn with cheap prices. So strangely we stayed at the Flanders Holiday Inn at the price to stay at a hostel. The tourist guy also gave us a super sketchy map that marked many of the surrounding war sites. Saturday night we watched the closing of Menin gate (more on that later) and went out to sample some world famous Belgium beer. Belgium beer is yummy, but it’s different than most beers. It kinda has a tasty syrup taste to it. It’s really hard to explain. Belgium beer goodness   Warren weaves a war tale Sunday morning we woke up and went to check out the WWI sites. I now present: Vance’s Guide to War Memorials around Ypres. As I mentioned before, Ypres was an important strategic position in World War I. For this reason there were many battles in the area and many troops died. Ypres is also infamous because it was the first place on the Western Front where poison gas was used. The largest battle took place in 1917 and was called the Third Battle of Ypres. It was one of the major battles of WWI. In the battle British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand troops attacked the German strongholds. Since the Canadian troops were considered to be elite, they headed the most dangerous attacks. At the end of the battle over half a million men had died. Within Ypres they built a gate as a monument to those who died. It is known as Menin gate and is quite large. Every day since 1928 at 8pm, a ceremony is preformed called the closing of Menin gate. Several army men match out, a trumpeted is blown and the names of several soldiers who were killed is called out. Menin Gate   Ceremony at Menin Gate  Cemeteries can be found through out the area surrounding Ypres. The largest is Tyne Cot, which contains about 12000 bodies of the British Commonwealth. Since so many of the bodies could not be identified, many of the graves simply say “A Soldier of the Great War“ and then “Known Unto God“. Tyne Cot Grave of an unknown soldier   A Canadian grave Also within the area were locations that marked significant battles. They would be marked with a clearing and a large stone stating the battle that it represents.   Memorial for "Hill 62" Memorials could be found for the various troops. Since Canada had such heavy losses, their memorials were easy to find.   St. Juliaan Memorial It should be noted that the poem Flanders Field was written about this area. Flanders is not a specific region; instead it’s a region within Belgium (like the Canadian Shield for example). There was a graveyard named after the author of the poem: John McCrae. Within the area was a preserved trench named the Yorkshire trench. It was amazing how deep those trenches were. Yorkshire Trench Warren in Yorkshire Trench When we were exploring the area, it was raining hard. We had issues just going to gravesites, to fight in that area must have been insane. All the sites were well cared for and often had fresh flowers at the site. The people of Belgium put forth a lot of effort to honor the dead. While exploring the area we stumbled upon Kehl car. They were doing a similar thing. After talking to them for a bit we headed towards our next site: Vimy Ridge. Vimy Ridge is a memorial located near the small French town of Vimy. It was about an hour and half drive from Ypres. Within Vimy we had some problems finding the memorial. The town was small but there were no directions to get there. After looking for a bit we asked a French lady who was walking on the street. Her name was Carolyn and she was extremely nice. She invited us into her house where we met her brother William. They drew us a map and invited us to stay for coffee. I would have loved to stay and talk to them, but we were in a rush because it was going to be hard to catch the last train home after returning the car. I will never speak ill of the French again after meeting them. Vimy Ridge was a battle that held great significance. In WWI it held one of Germany’s most heavily defended fortresses and prevented the allies from performing an offensive. Both the French and British had failed in their attempts to take it, so they decided to give the Canadians a go at it.  It was the first time that the full Canadian army had been brought together (all 4 divisions). The Canadian’s planned much for the attack. They even built a replica of the fortress in order to practice the attack. In April 1917, the Canadians managed to take the ridge. Since it was such an important battle (it was the first success for the Allies in a year and half) it held great symbolic significance. The French government gave the land to Canada to celebrate, so technically the memorial of Vimy Ridge is Canadian soil. Vimy Ridge Vimy Ridge consists of 4 major things: a gravesite, the memorial, restored trenches and underground tunnels. The land around Vimy ridge has not been landscaped since the war, so all the holes made from the shells is visible. This means that the land around Vimy Ridge is amazingly bumpy and uneven. The pictures don’t do the area justice.    The area around Vimy Ridge The Vimy Ridge area during the War The Canadian Government runs the faculty itself. That means everything is in French and English and the uniform is that of the National Parks. It felt like we were in Canada. There’s an extremely large memorial at Vimy Ridge; however, it has become so decayed in the last hundred years that it is currently under reconditioning. The reconditioning is so severe that a building has been built around it and you can’t see anything. It was a real shame.   What we saw of the memorial What the memorial looks like We crawled through the various trenches. It was amazing how close the German and British Front Lines were.    The trenchs of Vimy Ridge   The front lines. The one the right is the German front line, where Kevin stands is the Canadian front line   Group shot in the trenchs of Vimy Ridge From left to Right: me, Tommy, Kevin and Warren One thing that is often ignored about trench warfare is the role of large underground tunnels. At all major trench sites, large tunnels were used for staging, planning and safe transport of supplies. The Allies side of Vimy Ridge has 1.2 km of tunnels that were 8 meters below the surface. At the memorial it was possible to go on a free tour through a small portion of the tunnels. It was amazing how people would basically live in these tunnels for weeks at a time. The tunnels of Vimy Ridge Following the tour of the tunnels we had to leave in a hurry. We still had a long drive back and we had a last train to catch. On the way to our car we ran into Car Kehl yet again as they walked to the monument. We laughed that they’d never make it back to the train station in time; little did we know that Richard’s maps were so good that they would beat us there.   Car Kehl arrives on the scene From left to right: Richard, Paul, Brandon and Dieter The trip back took about 7 hours driving. I’m really happy that I was able to see these war sites. When you look at the conditions that the soldiers went through and see the carnage, all you can think is “Thank God I don’t have to do that“. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006
7:37 pm	Moscow, Russia A weekend ago I got to go somewhere that I’ve always been interested in: Moscow, Russia. I left the morning of Saturday, April 30th and came back the afternoon of Tuesday, May 2nd. Moscow has been my most expensive and difficult to organize trip. It’s not like jumping on a train to Paris; I really needed to plan this one. To get into Russia Canadians need a visa, which cost about 250 chf and required me to go to Bern. The flight to Russia wasn’t cheap either. It required a 3 hour plane ride from Zurich and crossed over two time zones. That meant that in Moscow I was 10 hours ahead of Calgary time. That’s almost on the other side of the globe from Calgary. We had a good group of just me, Warren and Victor. It meant that we were able to see everything we wanted. Also kudos’ to Victors mad camera tripod skillz, it’s due to him that we were able to get so many group pictures. Moscow was definitely a society much different from anything else I’ve seen. It was fascinating to see them recovering from Communism and trying to adjust to Capitalism even 17 years later. Someone once described Moscow as having hyper-capitalism, this is a term I agree to, everyone is trying to sell something. Instead of working inside a large store like in North America, people would sell things at the side of the street. Just on the way into the city from the airport, someone on the metro got on the train and tried to get people to buy the hangers he was selling. It was impossible to find grocery stores; instead you would buy your food at the hundreds of little food stores scattered throughout the city. Also advertisements were everywhere. The society is capitalism in the hands of individuals instead of just large companies. I never knew how large Moscow was. 9 million people live in Moscow alone. 9 million! I never realize Russia had such a huge population until I started doing some research. Language was a bit of an issue. It was rare to find English speakers, however it appeared that Russian had become used to tourists and accommodated us easily (by pointing, writing numbers on a calculator, etc.). The one area we had problems though was the alphabet. You see, the Russian’s don’t use Latin letters, they have their own Cyrillic alphabet. It’s been translated so Cyrillic letters are equivalent to Latin letters, but it was rare to see the Latin letters used. Once I got off the plane it took me 3 seconds of reading signs before I realized that I was going to have to learn some basic Cyrillic translations. The most frustrating thing about the trip was all the maps we used (all 5 of them) had the street names in the Latin letters, but the streets were all in the Cyrillic letters. Cyrillic Pepsi: Madness Before going to Russia I was told that Moscow was super expensive. This wasn’t true; it was actually very comparable to Canada. For example, a meal that would cost $10 in Canada would cost about 200 rubles in Russia (with 20 ruble = $1). But this was my impressions for just visiting 3 days, it must be much more expensive to live there. Never before had I been in a place where disparities in wealth had been so obvious. There’s a lot of rich people in Moscow and many poor. The cars were either Lada’s and other cruddy communist cars or limos and BMWs. There was no in between. There are men in uniforms everywhere. Be it soldiers, guards or police; nearly every street corner was manned in the day. Even at night security was very present. The flight in on Saturday was uneventful. However, finding our way to the hostel from the airport took some luck. After jumping on a bus that was marked Metro we found ourselves on the Moscow metro system and wow, we were in for a treat. The metros in Moscow are a sight in themselves. All of them are extremely clean and easily marked. Most importantly, the metros are all beautifully decorated with marble pillars and chandeliers. Many of them have different motifs that might involve stained glass or mosaics. Moscow Subway pictures By the time we found our hostel it was already evening. Since everything was closed we decided to just check out Red Square. During the day they close the square up, so we were lucky that in the evening we were able to walk in and check the square out. That evening we also were able to see a service of the Russian Orthodox church. It consisted of people, standing, chanting, praying, bowing and giving themselves the cross. I’ve never felt so out of place. It was Sunday morning that we really had chance to explore Red Square. For that reason I present: Vance’s Guide to Red Square Red Square is a place with much history. Basically it’s an open area just outside the former Tsarist Palace (the Kremlin). It was here that the revolution took place and the most famous landmarks of Russia can be found. It basically consists of 6 things. I’ll give the run down starting at the southeast corner and go clockwise. Saint Basil’s Cathedral- The most famous site in Russia is amazing to see in person. The pictures just don’t do the colors justice. In front of the church is a statue of two Russian war heroes from the late 16th century. St. Basil's The Kremlin – The Kremlin actually consists of 6 buildings (3 being churches and 3 being government buildings) surrounded by a wall. From within these walls that the Tsar, Soviet and current government ran the country. The Kremlin from Red Square It is possible to enter the Kremlin to see the churches and we did. Russian churches are amazing inside. Instead of one dull pattern, the walls in the churches are filled with different individual paintings. You could spend hours trying to decipher all the pictures and link them to the stories they represent. Assumption Cathedral Inside Annuciation Cathedral Also inside the Kremlin is the largest bell in the world and a huge canon. Us in front Peter's Bell The classic gaint shlong picture Also inside the Kremlin is a museum containing the Russian diamond fund and other really expensive stuff. It’s a mix-matched collection of gold, diamonds, crowns and carriages. It was awesome. Lenin’s Mausoleum – Ok now were’ talking. Located in a small building outside the Kremlin walls is a preserved Lenin that the world can come see. Now this is main reason I came Moscow instead of St. Petersburg, I wanted to see dead Lenin! To get in we had to stand in line for 20 minutes. They don’t allow cameras in so we had to check them. Inside it was dark, all you can see as you move along the hall way is black and Russian soldiers staring at you intently. Lenin is located in the center of a room inside a glass box. The path goes around him and the room is illumined in red. I stopped for a minute to look and the Russian gave me a poke to keep moving. Lenin himself looked rather waxy but well preserved. He looked just like the many propaganda images you’ve probably seen. Though I can say, Lenin was one short dude. Lenin's Mausoleum Behind the mausoleum the other Russian leaders are buried. This includes members of the Communist party and leaders such as Stalin. State Historic Museum- A museum dedicated to the history of Russia and Moscow. We didn’t go inside it (except the gift shop). Though the gift shop had some nice post cards. State Historic Museum of Russia GUM Department Store – Located opposite the Lenin’s mausoleum is one of the nicest malls I’ve ever seen (just as Lenin would have wanted outside his tomb). GUM Department Store: Pretty much the most awesome mall in Red Square Lobnoye Mesto – Basically a random stone platform outside of saint Basil’s. I didn’t even know what it was till I looked it up on wikipedia. The only real significance is that it’s a great place to sit and there’s a hole on the top behind a gate. It’s a tradition for Russians to go to the gate, close their eyes, make a wish and then try to throw a coin in the hole. If the coin goes in their wish is granted. After Red Square we got on the metro and went to a market of shorts. The market was odd. First off, at the entrance to the market were two bears and their keeper that were putting on a show, which was unexpected. Russian bear. There is no way this is humane The market could be described as a flea market, except it sold so many different things, namely name brand clothing and house hold items. There was one section that sold touristy stuff so we went there and picked up some souvenirs. Warren and Victor managed to bargain themselves a good deal for a bunch of fox hats in the Russian style. Victor and Warren wheeling and dealing At this point it was getting dark so we got some food then wandered the city again. We saw many of the cool things that are scattered about Russia. Church of Christ the Savior Stalinist Skyscraper Statue of Peter the Great At this point we also went to a MacDonald’s to see if the prices were really as expensive as reported; they were actually slightly cheaper than in Canada. The main highlight was the ice-cream ones only cost about 25 cents, so we had to buy many. Warren chows down a big mac That evening we went back to Red Square and chilled out with a couple of beers. There we met some interesting people, namely a really cool couple. It was awesome since you could tell that the guy had learned much of his English from American movies (“Cool Guy!“, “Snowboarding!!”, “I’ll be back!“). It was a nice evening. Us with an awesome Russian couple Chilling out in Red Square in hats. Pretty much the most awesome picture in the history of mankind From left to right: Victor Warren and me. We managed to hang out for about 3 hours when the guards decided to take an interest in us. It was funny he basically slowly walked up to us said “No beer“ and walked away talking to his friend. I love Russians. Monday morning we woke up and head to an area know as the VDNKh or in English the “Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR”. The current official name of the area from the non-Soviet government is the All-Russian Exhibition. Basically the area was created for one reason: to show how awesome communism was. Socialist art Us mocking Socialist art. This was amazingly painful on the left foot Building in the VDNKh. There are stalls of people selling stuff inside these buildings The area itself is absolutely beautiful. It consists of several statues and buildings designed to look impressive. An example of this was a large tower that was built to celebrate the space launch. Everywhere in the square was filled with communist propaganda. The ironic thing though is that outside the buildings represented everything great about the USSR, inside the buildings were all filled with small shops and booths. It was a prefect example of the new state of Russia. Next stop on our Moscow tour was Victory Park. Victory park was extra impressive because not only was it huge and amazing, we had no idea to expect that it would be. If it were in any other city, it would be considered the cities major site. However, Russia is so loaded with interesting things that to visit it is an after thought. Yet another victory arc Victory Park That evening we decided to do something special and went to the Russian Circus! The circus was awesome and over the top. While there were dogs, monkeys and tigers, the best part were the human acts. I was extremely excited for the full 2 hours that the circus preformed. Perhaps the best Russian circus I saw all day It was after the circus though that we had most unique experience of our trip: Someone tried to mug us. Note that the dialogue below has been censored a bit. In every quoted statement there were much a 100 more F-bombs dropped. We were walking home after hanging out in a near by park. Now let me say that we weren’t doing anything stupid. The street was a busy walking street and while we were carrying beers, we were bring to our hostel and weren’t drunk at all. However, in order to get to our hostel, we had to walk down a poorly lit street. We had walked about 3 meters down the street when a big Russian guy and his friend approached us. The big Russian guys looked exactly as you’d expect a mugger to: big, bulky, bald and leather jacket. His friend was about our size, though he stayed back and really didn’t do anything. The big dude said “Money. Money“. Now we were all stunned, both Victor and I were just coming to the conclusion that we were being mugged when Warren said “What, no! No! Fuck you“. The Russian replied, “No, fuck you, money!“ and he hit Warren. He nailed Warren straight in the face with a good hit, however Warren stayed up (which was damn good). At this point Victor and I moved to either side of the Russian since we agreed that we were now resisting him. However I was now between the mugger and a wall. That’s when he turned to me and hit me next. The punch landed on my head and slid down to my jaw, I wasn’t very hurt. I then took the opening the punch gave to slip and around the Russian closer to the street. Warren threw a Fanta bottle he was drinking at the mugger (which hit him on the back of the head) and we ran for it on the busy walking street. He didn’t chase us. The whole thing must have taken about 2 minutes. We think that the mugger was basically walking by with his friend when he saw us speaking in English and thought “Payday“. You could tell that he was not expecting us to resist and that he was expecting us to be scared. For his actions a dude at the hostel nicknamed Warren “Braveheart“. The next morning Warren had to go to the plane while Victor and I wandered around an a bit more. We hung out at Red Square and then went inside Saint Basil’s cathedral. It was nice inside, though it consisted of many small rooms and was clearly never meant for a large mass. Me in St. Basil's Cathedral Russia was an amazing trip. From the culture to the mugging, Russia was a completely new experience for me. While the trip was costly, it was worth every penny. Also the cool thing about Moscow is that since it is still constantly evolving, if I go back in 5 years, it’ll be a completely new city again. One last thing I discovered when I got home and checked my email. It turns out that the day of the mugging my mom had gotten a odd feeling and was worried about me. So just before the mugging my mom had sent an email seeing if I was ok. She has never done this before, so she knew something bad was going to happen to me. I am so weirded out by this it's insane. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 27th, 2006
3:40 pm	Fountain Report 2: The Great Fountain Fiasco Monday April 24th is a day that will forever live in infamity. It was the day of the Great Fountain Fiasco. I will now weave you the tale of how a group of innocent Canadians all met their fate. I apologize for the amount of pictures in this entry and their darkness, but they are necessary to properly portray this story of violence, betrayal and Pickwicks. The site of the tragedy (the fountain is to the left, barely out of the picture) The night started innocent enough. A group of us praktikants gathered at Pickwicks for “all you can eat” ribs. It was an evening filled with good friends and good food, however there was tension in the air. The praktikants enjpy their ribs. Note the look of fear in thier eyes.  From lef to right Lindsey, Stefan, Keegan, Travis, Devon, Henry, Mike, Tylers curly locks You see this was not an ordinary Pickwicks gathering, instead it was a last gathering for several soon to be gone Canadians. Henry, Bernard, Mike, Tommy and Tyler were leaving Baden soon, which meant they had to go in the fountain. This was a troublesome situation, 5 people had to go in the fountain. 5! Such a task had never been accomplished. How were to get all 5 of them? While we were struggling with 1, the other 4 might run. Also, what happened if they worked together against us. Surely, all 5 of them could successful rise up against their would-be fountain dunkers! To avoid this, the evening was filled with whispers and plotting. Tommy had brought his friend from Zurich to meet us all. He had to leave early to walk her to the train station. We knew that this was time to strike.   Myri, Tommy and Warren (they were never seen dry again) The moment that Tommy left the bar we pounced! Tommy was so shocked by our surprise attack he barely had time to react before he was thrown into the fountain!   Tommy is the first to go    It's now time for him to walk Myri home... The cat was out of the bag, it was now a matter of getting the other 4. Setting up guards outside the bar, a group of us went in to get the next victim. Like prisoners awaiting execution, they sat in a fearful calm as we chose who’d be next. After must deliberation, we snatched Henry and dragged him the awaiting fountain.              Henry is dragged out to the fountain We were now ready for a challenge. We knew that both Mike and Tyler would not go to their cold wet fate without a struggle. After sizing them up, we sensed weakness in Mike and grabbed him. He put a fight, but no one escapes the fountain!         Mike embraces his watery fate That’s when it happened! Richard let it slip that in preparation for this fountain night, he had worn a swimsuit under his jeans. We could not let this stand unchallenged, we grabbed the fiend and threw him the fountain. His swimsuit did a good job getting wet.         Richard made his choice Bernard then approached us. He had made peace with the world was ready to accept his sentence. We gave him one look of solemn respect... and proceeded to thrown him in the fountain.      Bernard goes out with honor It was now time for the main event: Tyler. I will give Tyler credit, he was quite the scrapper. An umbrella was damaged in the struggle to get him into the fountain. However, we rallied and he could not escape his fate.      Tyler fights with all his might (that was the last time the umbrella was seen undamaged) You’d think that now that the 5 had gone in (plus Richard) we’d be done. Wrong, it was now time to get the surprise fountainings. Shane was leaving Baden soon, he expected that we would get him later. Little did we know that luring here was part of our cunning plan to get him in with minimum struggle. Tyler was barely out of the fountain before Shane had been thrown in.       Shane feels the cold chill of the water Next up was Devon. While he was staying Baden, he was changing jobs. That was good enough reason for us and we surrounded him. He joined the large group of now wet Canadians.      Devon is caught off guard and thrown in Evan was next. Evan had to go into the fountain because... ugh... well... this is where it started to break down. We had gone to far, we were now fountaining people for no reason what so ever. Like the Great Terror of the French Revolution, we were now cannibalizing ourselves!   So it begans with Evan... I came to this shocking realization too late, the scoundrels had already gotten me. I struggled and tried to run, but there were too many of them. The next thing I knew I was sitting in a pool of water.      Unsanctioned fountaining of me!!! As I sat within the fountain outside of Pickwicks I had an epiphany. It couldn’t stop at me. All the Canadians were going to have to face a similar fate. I stood up on the fountain and announced: “If I got in, EVERYBODY goes in!!!“ I looked at the people who were still dry and chose Warren as my next target. Without a moment of hesitation, I ran in to him and proceeded to push him towards the fountain. It was an epic struggle as everyone stood back to watch the clash between Warren and I.   It's a clash of the titans as I push Warren to the fountain However I made a miscalculation. You see I assumed Warren was a normal person and it would be a fair fight, however I quickly discovered this was not true. Years of war, pain and RIAA lawsuits had changed him inside. His inner fury had made him more than a man, he had become an Instrument of Vengeance filled with unholy strength and speed. And that is why Warren was successful in throwing my ass in the fountain. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I was sitting in the fountain and Warren was gloating dryly. It was in this moment of darkness that light came:  Tommy returned from dropping off Mryi. Tommy and the group descended on Warren and he joined me in the fountain.   No one escapes the fountain It was time for the next target: Travis. We got him the fountain but he managed to escape without getting his head wet. We weren’t done with him yet...      Travis goes in the first time. He should have just let us dunk his head... I decided that Felix was going in next, however I knew Felix was going to be tricky. You see, Felix can run like a gazelle on crack. I only had two options to take him down. Either 1) I take out his knees or 2) I ambush him when he’s not expecting it. I went for option 2 since it seemed to have less legal ramifications. We tackled Felix and he was soon floating in a pool of water.         Felix is ambushed!!! Kevin came next. His old man wisdom/charisma wasn’t enough to save him from the fountain. Though it was enough to somehow get me back into the fountain...      FOUNTAINED (Ow, Kevin's dryness)   I even don't know how this happened... Travis had assumed he had escaped having dry hair. We proceeded to prove him wrong.      Travis with his newly wet head plots revenge At this point Keegan had been using his ninja skills to lurk on the edges and escape the fountain. However, the sight of Travis going in must of distracted him and we jumped him. The next thing he knew he was swimming with the fishes.   Not even his skills can save Keegan At this point all the Canadian guys were wet. That left only one option, the girls! Lindsey was the first to go. She tried to run but Tommy was successful in catching up to her (Where’s your gym now Linds?!). Into the water she went.      Lindsey is the first girl to go for an unplanned swim Jacqui and Adrienn were next. Unfortunately, since they were taking all the pictures, we have no pictures of them going into the fountain. Adrienn put up quite the fight. It took about 5 of us to get her into the fountain and she bit Mike, but it didn’t help her in end and into the fountain she went. Finally Evan picked up Jacqui and threw her in. It probably involved the least struggle.   Group shot of us now wet Canadains  From left to right: Tommy, Travis, Mike, Richard, Evan, Felix, me, Lindsey, Bernard, Keegan, Jacqui, Shane, Devon, Kevin, Adrienn, Warren, Tyler and Henry   Bernard bikes away from Pickwicks never to return (I'm really happy with the way this picture turned out. Looks like being drunk gives a bonus to my photography skill) That’s brings us to the end of the great Fountain Fiasco. Where 5 were only supposed to go in, 18 did. To this day we still wake up in the middle of the night and question how we allowed ourselves to involved in such a blood curdling tragedy outside the quiet bar of Pickwicks. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
11:19 am	Ireland Easter weekend was an eventful weekend for me. Out here in Switzerland we get 2 vacation days for the Easter holiday. This meant that it was a 4-day weekend, therefore I had to travel somewhere. The only problem was I had nobody to travel with. Everybody had personal trips/plans that weekend and I couldn’t latch on to their trips. That meant I was flying solo for the first time. For this trip I decided to go to Ireland. I left Switzerland the night of Thursday April 13 and returned the night of Monday April 17th. Since it was the Easter weekend, everybody in Europe had a holiday. That meant that all planes were now super expensive and I was going to have to take the super budget flights. Luckily for me, Easy jet fly’s to Belfast. Unluckily for me, Easyjet only fly’s to Belfast from Geneva. That meant that I had to spend 3 hours on the Swiss train to get to the airport. The flight from Geneva to Belfast took about 2.5 hours. Ireland was part of my trend of traveling to English speaking countries, note I said English-speaking countries not English countries. Calling an Irish man English is equivalent to hitting his girlfriend and then asking, “what are you going to do about it?”. On that note I should give a little background on Ireland. Ireland is an island located off the coast of England; however the island does not have a united government. The north part of the island is called “Northern Ireland” and is part of the United Kingdom (just like England, Whales and Scotland). The rest of the island is called “The Republic of Ireland” and is its own independent EU country. Belfast is in Northern Ireland and Dublin is in the republic. I arrived in Belfast fairly late. All I could do that night was go to my hostel. I was actually really disappointed in my hostel. Since I was alone I was hoping I could meet someone cool at the hostel to hang out with, man I was I out of luck. The hostel was filled with either young kids or what I like to call “Travel Zombies”. Travel Zombies are people who have been on the road for so long that nothing around them is even significant anymore and they have become incapable of holding a meaningful conversation. Friday morning I woke up and started to explore the city. Belfast is well known for one thing: terrorism. Whenever you hear of the IRA and conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, it always takes place within Belfast. My goal on Friday was to get through the crap you see on TV and learn something about the conflict. Me in front of city hall To do this I went on a tour through neighborhoods where the conflict takes place. An Irish Republican gave the tour, so there was some definite bias. However, he did a great job explaining the conflict and why it exists. To give a quick summery about the conflict, it’s not really about religion. People assume that it’s Protestant vs. Catholic, while the conflicting religions don’t help things; it’s not the source of the violence. Basically, Ireland has never liked being ruled by the British, but those wacky British didn’t want to give up Ireland. When Britain controlled Ireland, there were contant rebellions for many years. Eventually, in the first half of the 1900’s, Britain accepted that it couldn’t control all of Ireland anymore. So it let most of Ireland form it’s own country (Republic of Ireland) and retained control of the region that was filled with people loyal to the empire (Northern Ireland). However, there was a minority who wanted Northern Ireland independent and the problems began. That left two groups, the Irish Republicans (who happened to be Catholic who the IRA represents) and the British Loyalists (who happened to be Protestant). Without getting in to it, neither side really handled the situation well. The Loyalist government tried to crush the minority Republicans through discrimination, which radicalized the Republicans, which in turn radicalized the Loyalists. What followed was years of protests, violence and either side willing to give in to the other. Belfast is famous for it's protest murals Currently the Catholics and Protestants live in separate neighborhoods separated by Peace Lines (which are basically big fences). The Irish Republicans have disarmed (IRA) and peace talks are expected to take place later this year. The situation has calmed a lot and people who want peace appear to be in control right now. Things will be very different a year from now (I don’t know if it’ll be better or worst though). The Peace Line After all that learning, I decided it was time to head to chill out and start drinking. After the tour I jumped on a bus and headed to Dublin. The trip took about 3.5 hours. That night in Dublin was an odd night at the hostel. That Friday was Good Friday, which meant nothing was open. So basically the hostel was filled with sober people who had nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was odd to see so many people basically killing time. That night I met an American girl name Carolyn who I spent most of weekend with. All we did that night was wander the streets. Saturday morning I jumped out of bed and went to a historic walking tour. I saw the major sites of Dublin (their castle sucks) and now know more about the history of Ireland then I will ever need. The tour was only 2 hours, but the guide seemed to pack in a University course of information. Christ Church Me and Dublin "Castle" After the tour I went to the Guinness factory. It appears the Guinness factory was the cool thing to do that day, as I had to stand in line for about an hour to get in. My first impression of the Guinness Factory The Guinness factory was a nice piece of marketing propaganda (though well put together). It ended with a free Guinness and beautiful panoramic view of Dublin. I enjoy my free Guinness over the city scape of Dublin    Common tourist picture That night I went out to Temple Bar. Temple Bar is the artist/pub/club/tourist area in Dublin and I actually had a great time. We met some Irish girls and we spent the night drinking with them. One comment though, I never noticed until I was in a bar filled with Irish girls, but the average Irish girl is a bit stout. Not fat or anything, but I never noticed that about the Irish build. Sunday morning it was Easter and parade time. In 1916 Ireland had a large uprising against the British on Easter Sunday, to celebrate this a parade was held. It was military parade (which was odd based on the size of the Irish military) and it was filled with soldiers, tanks and other stuff that’s used for killing (like a bagpipe band). It was the first military parade I’ve been too. Easter Parade The most dangerous weapon in the parade After the parade I went to Trinity College. Trinity College is an old awesome college, which once again highlighted how much the aesthetics at the U of C suck. There I saw the Book of Kells, which is an old old bible. Awesome university I spent the rest of Sunday walking around Dublin. Dublin is a cool city, gritty but it’s got a good vibe. That’s when I found it: Tim Hortons!! It was only a donut/coffee stand within a convenience store but it’s the only one I’ve seen in Europe. But I ate good and all was well. Jackpot!!! Sunday night I went to Temple Bar again and had some good times. Monday was spent traveling back to Baden. From Dublin I had to bus to Belfast, bus to airport, fly to Geneva, train to Baden. The full process took 13 hours. It was not a fun trip to do alone. I had a good time in Dublin. I learnt much about Ireland, which I’m all about. This trip did highlight to me the advantages of traveling with friends vs. solo trippin’. While it’s nice to do whatever you want, it sucks not having people to share it with. Sure you can always hang out with hostel people, but it’s never the same. Hostel people generally aren’t your friends, their just people going in the same direction as you. You can share some laughs, but there’s no connection. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
9:43 am	Scotland The last 2 months have been big travel months for me. Not only did I travel nearly every weekend but most of the trips were large ones. My trip through Scotland was one of my more ambitious trips, not only did I spend 4 days there (a lot compared to my usual schedule of weekend trips), I managed to hit 3 cities. I flew out to Scotland the night of Wednesday April 5th and returned the afternoon of Sunday April 9th. It was only Jacqui and I on this trip; Jacqui has family in Scotland and by keeping the group small, we were able to mooch free room and board (more on the family later). A common misconception is that Scotland is independent country. In reality it is part of the United Kingdom and not an independent entity (it’s definitely got a uniquely Scottish culture though). That means that it uses the £ for currency and is somewhat in the EU. Scotland has it’s own parliament but it’s power is limited; many Scotsmen lament that the real decisions are made in London. Going to Scotland I was under the misconception that they spoke English. I quickly discovered that this was not the case and instead of English, they spoke Scottish. Scottish is alot like English except it’s fast, garbled and has it’s own special words. It’s actually a lot like Vance-speak. There are 4 different types of weather in Scotland: a) Rainy b) Windy as hell c) Overcast d) A mix of a), b) & c) Often the conditions would change within an hour. I’m happy to report that every time it rained, it cleared up very quickly. In Scotland I discovered my new favorite soft drink: Irn-Bru! Irn-Bru is Scotland’s 2nd national drink (the first being whiskey of course). It’s an orange colored drink with a difficult to describe taste, some say it tastes a bit like cream soda with a fruit mix. Either way I love it.  Irn-Bru!! Jacqui's family lives in Glasgow, so that's where we flew to and served as our home base. The family relation is that Min Yu is Jacqui's dads brothers son. He is married to a nice woman named Yvonne and they have three kids: Emma (aged 4), Euan (age 2) and Evie (age 3 months). They were extremely kind to us and really went the extra mile to help us out. Not only did they offer free food and board, they also helped us to find to cool places to go and drove us. They were awesome. A big thanks to them if they read this. Jacqui's Relatives: Min Yu holds Euan standing next to Jacqui and Yvonne. Baby Evie can be seen but Emma is being shy. We arrived in Glasgow Wednesday night. Min Yu picked us up and we spent the night at their house. Their house was awesome; it was built in old Victorian style so all the rooms were closed off from each other. Apparently the house itself was older than Canada. First thing the next morning we caught a bus to Edinburgh. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and was about an hour away from Glasgow. While Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, its Edinburgh has all the major sites. The Scot's monument in Edinburgh. I didn't actually go there, but isn't that a nice pic. The most obvious site in Edinburgh is the castle that looms over the whole city. In order to get to the castle you walk through the Royal Mile, which is street of cool old buildings and tourist shops. The Royal Mile Leading up to Castle. Pretty much the best mile I saw all day. Edinburgh castle was awesome. This is what I expected to see when I came to Scotland. It was the type of castle you think of when you say castle. Within the castle we saw canons, a POW museum, a memorial to Scotsmen killed in war and the Crown Jewels of Scotland. Scotland has both a State Sword and a Stone of Destiny, how cool is that? Jacqui and I in front of Edinburgh Castle Random castle cannons After the castle and a quick pub lunch, we went to the Whiskey Museum. We learned everything there was to learn about Scotch and sampled some. Good times were had. My Travel Yoda Rocks out over the city of Edinburgh Those two sites took up most of the day. That evening Jacqui took a bus back to Glasgow to hang out with her family, while I jumped on bus heading to Inverness. From there I would be able to get to Loch Ness. The trip up to Inverness was uneventful, it took about 3.5 hours and I got a good look at the Scottish countryside. Scotland is beautiful and it looked exactly as you’d expect. If you’ve ever watched Brave Heart, you know what the Scotland countryside looks like. If you’re curious, Glasgow and Edinburgh are in the Low Lands where Inverness is at the very tip of the High Lands. I arrived in Inverness late in the evening. Since there was no point to hanging out alone in the hostel, I went looking for a cool pub. I lucked out and must have found the coolest pub in Inverness. They were having an open mike night and various people were playing various instruments from guitars to a didgeridoo. The highlight of the evening was when some guy, who was just traveling though Inverness, got up there and just blew the whole bar away with his awesome guitar/sing skills. He was so good that I got to thinking, “Man, I should buy that guy a drink he’s so awesome“. Then it occurred to me “If I was thinking I should buy that dude a drink, I wonder what the girls are thinking...“. And that is why all males should learn to play guitar. The next morning (Friday) it was time to go to Loch Ness. Let me take a moment to say how much traveling to Loch Ness actually meant to me. When I was a kid I used to spend hours reading about the monster and wondering if it existed. I never thought that I would get to see Loch Ness. So now, while I no longer believe in the monster, it’s a big deal that I was able to go see the lake. To me it signifies that I can go and do whatever I want, all I have to do is organize myself. Me at Loch Ness (Castle Urquhart in the background) If you didn’t know, Loch is another term for lake. There are lots of Lochs in Scotland, it’s just that Loch Ness is one of the biggest and the most famous. Loch Ness: Doesn't that look fun to swim in. If the cold doesn't get you, the monster will. The cheapest way to see Loch Ness was to go on a tour. The tour basically drove you to the Loch (about a 30 minute drive) and then put you on a ferry across the lake to the ruins of castle Urquhart. After that the tour brought me to a museum that explored the legend of the monster. The ruins of Castle Urquhart Loch Ness was exactly as I pictured it: huge, cold and foggy. After seeing so many pictures of it in my youth, it was cool to actually see it in person. The ruins of castle Urquhart were fun to crawl around in. A tower was still standing which allowed a great view of Loch Ness. Quick summery of the Loch Ness monster museum: there is no monster. Me and the closest thing Loch Ness has to a monster One of the more interesting aspects of my time at Loch Ness was a women who was one the tour with me. Her name was Patti Love and she was extremely friendly/interesting, I hung out with here all day. At the end I discovered she was an actress and that explained a lot. She acted exactly like you’d expect an actress to, from the constant self-awareness to the dramatic way that she spoke. She told me a bit about her life (which was interesting to hear) and we had several good talks about a whole range of subjects. She’s by far one of the most interesting people I’ve met out here in Europe. Patti and me After Loch Ness I jumped on a bus and headed back to Glasgow, just in time for dinner. Jacqui and then suited up and went to check out the Glasgow nightlife. Glasgow has a great music scene and we saw a band called Trap_6 at a place called Arches. They were ridiculously good for a band playing in some random club. Good times were had by all. Saturday morning was spent playing with the kids. Both the kids were super cute and had awesome Scottish accents. It was kinda odd interacting with kids after not seeing them for so long.     Jacqui and I play with Emma and Euan Here’s a quick rundown of everything we saw in Glasgow for Saturday and Sunday:  Glasgow Cathedral – Old old cathedral. Kinda creepy inside which was cool. Glasgow Catherdral Glasgow graveyard (Necropolis) – Really creepy and big grave yard. Great place to spend a Halloween. Jacqui amoungst the crypts of the creepy Glasgow graveyard Museum of Religious art – small museum that gave a great overview of all the major religions. Glasgow University – One cool university. Yet another university which highlights how much the architecture of the Calgary Engineering building sucks. University also contained a art gallery and random stuff museum (The Hunterian museums). Glasgow University: 99.8% more awesome than the Mechanical Engineering building Mackintosh Buildings – Mackintosh was a architect who married an artist. Together they designed many buildings and are famous for their designs. We viewed two buildings designed by them. One was their house of residence (which had been rebuild within the University) and another new building (A house for an Art Lover). It was nice to see art in a different medium than you usually see in a museum. Burrell Collection – Burrell was this rich dude who collected a bunch of random stuff. He then gave it to the city and built a museum filled with it. It had everything from ancient Asian pottery to medieval weapons. Saturday night we went out partying again. This time we went to a pub that had 3 bands playing. The first band was meh and the 3rd was real good. The most interesting was the second band because is contained a 2 guitars, a bass, a drum, a trombone, a xylophone and a cello . The band was called Lean to Swim and they were real good. The band "Learn to Swim". The picture doesn't evn show all the people/instruments in the band. My time in Scotland was great. Jacqui’s relatives were awesome and I had a good time playing with the kids and talking to the adults. It also highlighted that while I may want kids someday, I sure as hell don’t want them now. I saw a lot of things I really wanted to see (Loch Ness and an awesome castle) and met a lot of cool people. Scotland was awesome. I almost forgot, I tried haggis while I was over there. It basically tasted like ground beef that had been heavily spiced. It was actually real good. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 12th, 2006
11:23 pm	Oslo, Norway Several weeks ago a group of us went to Norway. We arrived in Oslo the night of Thursday March 30th and left the afternoon of Sunday, April 2nd. A fair number of people went on this trip. The group included me, Adrienn, Jacqui, Lindsey, Tommy, Evan, Devon and Richard. Evan and Devon knew someone who lived in Oslo so they didn’t stay with us in the hostel. Norway is located in the north of Europe and is one of the Scandinavian countries (and therefore had Vikings!). The country is known for its extreme socialism and is not part of the EU. Oslo is the capital and is the largest city in Norway (with just 500 000 people). Oslo has a harbour due to a large inlet from the ocean. Being in Oslo felt a lot like being in Canada. The weather is the same (similar to spring in Calgary), there’s 7-11’s everywhere (no slurpees though) and everybody speaks English (as well as Norwegian). The culture was so similar that I felt like I was visiting somewhere in Canada and not another country. It was nice and I felt at home there. The one thing about Oslo is that it was so very very expensive. It’s been rated the most expensive city in the world and I believe it. I’ve never dropped my jaw in shock about the price of something before, but in Oslo that took place about once 15 minutes. For this trip we went super budget but I still dropped about 300 chf. We arrived into the hostel late Thursday night so all we could was check into the hostel and go to bed. It was in the hostel that we met Paul. Paul was an English man who was on Olso on vacation and sharing our hostel room with us. He partied with us every night and was key to deciphering our drunken hijinks. Friday morning we woke up and hit the town. Here’s a quick run down of what we saw that day: Viking ship museum – This was a really cool museum. Basically when important Vikings would die, they’d get buried with a ship. These ships would sit in the ground until they got dug up by scientists. Since they spent centuries in soil they would be extremely well preserved. This museum contained 3 of these ships which we gawked at. Awesome Viking Ship Me and viking ship Maritime museum – This was the most random attraction I’ve every seen. Basically they took a hall, stocked it with random boat stuff and decided to call it a museum. If it had not been for a really cool movie exploring the coastline of Norway (it was a 3 screen panoramic in a movie theatre), I would have felt ripped off. Oslo coast line – Just like Vancouver with less ferries and more castle. Coastline-arfic Vigelandsparken – A park designed by the artist Gustav Vigeland. I really liked this park and it’s my favourite thing that I’ve seen in Europe. The park contains about 200 sculptures of mainly nude people in various poses and situations. The center of the park contains a large pillar of nude humans called the Monolith. Even though the people are nude in the statues, it is in no way crude and very tastefully done. I don’t know why I enjoyed this park so much, but never have I related to a piece of art so deeply before. I visited the park 2 more times alone after the first visit with the group. The Monolith of Vigelandsparken Radom Statue from the park Another Statue, this time with more baby fighting Royal Palace - Looked nice from the outside, didn't seem worth going into though Group in front of Palace. From left to right: Evan, Richard, Tommy, Jacqui, Adrienn and Devon After sight seeing that day we went to the local university for some free coffee. Evan and Devon knew a person who lived in Oslo name Paige (who is actually from Alaska). She tipped us off about social meeting for international students which supplied free munchies and coffee. We were quick to take advantage of free stuff. That night we went back to hostel to make some dinner (too cheap to eat out). Then it was time to party. First we went to Paige’s house where we met some of her friends and it off to the bar. Due to some hijinks Evan and I got separated from the group and had a wacky adventure just trying to get back to the hostel for the night. This is the reason why I always hold the hostel key. Saturday morning the group was being painfully slow, so I quickly abandoned them and went on my own little journey. Here’s what I saw that day: Miniature bottle museum – You read that right, it was a museum dedicated to those little liquor bottles you get (like in an airplane). The museum was actually super cool and original. The bottles came in all varieties and were displayed in creative ways. For example, the museum had a horror room in the basement. The horror room consisted of scary music, skeleton dummies and bottles shaped like skulls. It was creepier than it should be. Also the museum had a slide, how is that not awesome. One of the many rooms filled with miniture bottles Me, Evan, Jacqui, Lindsey and Adrienn stuck inside a miniture bottle (Who knows how we pulled that off) Akershus Castle – cool castle, great view of the harbour and city Ankershus Castle The castle and me Picture of the city from the castle. The huge building is city hall Nobel Peace Museum – It contained an exhibit describing the Nobel peace prize and gave descriptions of people who had won it in the past. Nice way to pacifist it up. National Gallery – There is a great selection of art that covers all genres. One of the “The Scream” paintings was there (there are 4). It was nice though more decayed than I was expecting. Finally the night came and it was clubbing time. It was April 1st and therefore Tommy’s birthday. Tommy had recently completed the hat trick and Evan and Devon made a crown to celebrate the feat. Tommy celebrates his birthday with style Group picture of getting ready for the club. From left to right: Tommy, me, Lindsey, Evan,Jacqui, Devon, Adrienn and Richard Paige showed us to a club that was having a student party and it huge. The club had 4 floors that were filled with different rooms. That inclued 4 different dance floors, a live band, an auditorium, and several chill out lounges. I spent the full night wandering from room to room. Paul and the girls Sunday morning was fairly uneventful. I split up from the group again and went to the Vigeland museum and the park again. The museum detailed Vigeland’s work and displayed how the park was created. On the trip home Tommy took a different flight due to confusing booking reasons. While we had a direct flight home Tommy had a stop over in Paris. Due to a flight delay he was stranded in Paris for the night. This marks the second time that Tommy had been stranded in Paris this year. I don’t know how it happens, but Tommy is just a magnet for unfortunate events. I had a surprising good time in Norway. I find that I enjoy traveling to the colder countries in Europe and Norway was no exception. The Vigelandsparken was especially gorgeous and I’m glad to have discovered it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
3:34 pm	Another Vance Update Blog catching up time again. It’s hard to get these things together when I’m traveling so much but it’s something I don’t want to fall behind on. As you’ve probably already noticed, I finally figured out how to get pictures on this thing. From here on in I’ll throw pics on. If I have time I’ll go back and put it on some of my old ones, namely the Olympics pics so you can see us in our body paint. Here’s a quick update on what’s happening in my life. My work contract has been extended to June 30th, so I’m going back to Canada July 2nd. A few days after I get back I have summer school. Things are going to be very chaotic for me in the next couple of weeks. The new Canadians are coming and there’s going to be alot of moving to make room for them. Upcoming things to look for in my blog are my Norway and Scotland write up. For Easter I will be in Ireland, which I’ll get together next week. (Comment on this)
1:36 pm	Fountain Report 1: Nate vs. the Fountain Alright, I finally figured out how to post images on my blog. I will now harness this power to tell a epic tale, the tale of Nate vs. The Fountain. All this took place last night Tuesday April 11th. As many of you know, it’s a tradition out here that when a Canadian praktikant leaves, he has to be thrown into a fountain. It’s not something we want to happen, it’s something that has to happen. Since we’re reaching the end of April we are now in fountain season. Nate was the first to leave Switzerland (he’s on a plane as I write this) and therefore he had to be the first to go into the fountain. But Nate was sneaky; he knew what we were planning and organized himself to avoid it. Instead of having a last going away party at Pickwicks (which has a fountain) he chose to have it at his house. Shane, Kevin and Tommy attempted to ambush him on his way home from work that evening, but failed when somebody abandoned their post (*cough* Tommy *cough*). That meant we were going to have to abduct him from his house. In preparation for this we gathered some tools. The nearest fountain was a few blocks down the street and we planned to drag a struggling Nate there. We obtained a shopping cart and duct tape just for this reason. Tommy lulls Nate into a false sense of security The evening at his house was a good time. At about 12:30 only Shane, Tommy, Kevin, Nate and I remained. We were standing just outside Nates front door chatting as we all put on our shoes (and prepared the duct tape). The second Kevin threw his shoes, on the trap was sprung! We rushed him! However we made a grave error and underestimated the slipperiness of Nate. He escaped our hold we had on him and ran into his room. There he locked the door and proceeded to start mocking us. Now this was not going to stand, somehow Nate had not only managed to escape the grasp of all four of us, he was now rubbing it in our face. We used all our engineering skills in an attempt to get the door open. The skills being that we unscrewed as much of the door handle as possible and cursed at Nate. Nate hides in his room Eventually it became evident that the standoff was not going to end. We weren’t going anywhere and if Nate went to sleep, we’d either push the key out (possible if he wasn’t holding it) or get him on the way to his plane. Using his old man charisma/wisdom, Kevin managed to make a deal with Nate. He would come dunk his head in the fountain and we wouldn’t try to force more. Also we had to bring along a towel and shampoo. So Nate came out of the room and we started marching to the fountain. Nate walked between the 4 of us so he wouldn’t try to make a break for it. Nate being the villainously clever man he his, had filled his jacket and pants with Kevin’s electronics. That meant if even if we were able to get Nate all the way in, Kevin would be ruined! The walk was uneventful, when all of a suddenly, Nate spotted the duct tape that Tommy had in his jacket pocket. Nate turned around to run and the 4 us tackled him in an attempt to subdue him. It was at this moment that the police arrived. Oh crap At this point it was about 2am in the morning. We had surrounded Nate and were in the process of duct taping and kidnapping him. This was going to be interesting to explain to the police. The 2 police officers got out of the car and confronted us. Kevin jumped into action and started using his old man charisma/wisdom to explain the situation and prevent us from being arrested. However Nate, being the diabolical mastermind he is, goes to the other police officer and says “I want to go home“ repeatably. It was at that moment that I thought “Well, it looks like I’m going to Swiss jail tonight“. Fortunately Nate changed his mind/story and helped Kevin to explain it all. The police just told us to keep it quiet and drove off. Yay for not being arrested. We finally got to the fountain (and victory) when it happened, Kevin gave into dark temptation. We were at the fountain preparing to dunk Nate when Tommy offered to show Nate what we were going to do . The sight of innocent Tommy bending helplessly over the fountain was too much for Kevin’s evil encrusted heart to ignore and he proceeded to try to throw Tommy into the fountain. Nate took advantage of the resulting confusing to make a break for it, Shane and I went after him. We split up, Shane sprinted to the house hoping to cut him off while I (my stamina destroyed after years of mega man and candy abuse) checked all the nearby hiding places to be sure that he wasn’t lurking in the nearby area. Shane was successful in catching Nate and was holding him when the rest of the group met up (it’s about time Shane’s good fitness paid off for me). We dragged him to the fountain to accomplish our mission. We had an agreement to only dunk Nates head. Since we’re men of honor (and since Nate was using Kevin’s electronics as insurance) we only dunked his head. It wasn’t the full body swim we wanted, but we were successful in getting Nate in the fountain and not allowing him to flee to Canada dry. Escorting Nate to the fountain Nate post fountain After dunking Nate, Kevin grabbed Tommy and threw him in. Shane proceeded to push Kevin in. So the end of the night Nate’s hair was wet, Kevin arm was drenched and Tommy was soaked from the waist up. Hijinks All in all, it was a successful night (mainly because I escaped warm and dry). I didn’t get to bed till 3am and it’s made today at work a little more difficult, but it was worth it to banish Nate to the abyss that is the fountain. 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11:17 am	Picture Check (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
11:04 am	Vance and the Chocolate Factory On Tuesday March 28th I took the morning off work for an important soul fulfilling purpose, a tour of a Swiss Chocolate Factory! A group of us went to the Frey Chocolate Factory in Aargau. There were 16 of us in total. The group consisted of me, Tommy, Lindsey, Henry, Torsten, Rebecca, Adrienn, Jacqui, Bernard, Mike, Richard, Travis, Tyler, Warren, Keegan and Jenny. Frey is a large chocolate company within Switzerland; it supplies the chocolate to the grocery chain Migros. I do all my shopping at Migros, so if you got some Swiss Chocolate from me, it was Frey chocolate. It was Jenny’s idea to do the tour and she organized the whole thing. The only thing I did was recruit people to come along. So if you’re reading this, thanks Jenny! The Frey chocolate people were awesome. The tour was free and everyone was super friendly. I’ll do a quick break down on the tour: It started off innocent enough; we grabbed some free chocolate in the waiting room while Jenny used her Swiss German skills to get us all arranged. The Frey ladies then lead us into a room where got free extra creamy hot chocolate. I got two cups. It should be noted that we were not the only people getting a tour that day, a school group made up of 12 year olds were ahead of us the full time. Tommy, Jenny, Tyler and I enjoy the free hot chocolate After the hot chocolate we went and watched a video. The video was super cheesy and it taught all about how chocolate was made. I was actually really in to it. After that we put on hair nets, lab coats and booties (I love booties!) and the actual tour begin. Us in our sexy lab coats, hair nets and booties The Frey lady led us throughout the factory. Along the tour there were 5 sampling stations. There we could eat as much as we wanted but couldn’t take any with us. That was a challenge I couldn’t walk away from. Our guide to this beautiful chocolate fantasy I ate some much chocolate that I lost count. Even when I was sick and could barely walk, Warren managed to convince me to eat more. At the end of the tour I could barely see straight and collapsed on every chair I could find. It took me a couple of hours before my body was able to work out all the candy and I felt ok again. It’s a good thing that my body has a good resistance to chocolate after years of abuse; a chocolate dose of that magnitude would have killed a normal human. Me after the tour trying not to die The tour was alot of fun and good times were had by all. Though I’m sure everyone spent the rest of the day eating salads. I’ve got 3 weekends of travel lined up. Today I’m off to Oslo, Norway. Should be expensive and socialist. (1 Comment |Comment on this)