down time
i have the flu, i'm told. and yes, the telling was necessary, because i don't remember ever having the flu before. stomach flu, yes, but that's just a different ailment entirely. so it's been a week of sleeping and fluid consumption for the most part, but the story of this week will come when the convention of chronology calls for it. good lord, why do i write like that. i sound like a nerd. oh...doh. anyway, the last of our adventures took place still in...
beierfeld. we woke up early the morning after summer christmas and hit the road, our day's destination:
the sachsenring. motogp. the racing itself was awesome. never before have i wanted a sport bike so badly. it's really quite beautiful to watch the riders control the bikes the way they do. it's a combination of speed and grace that isn't matched often elsewhere. our seats were placed well for viewing a number of crashes mere yards away, one of which ended in what appeared to be somewhat serious injury. poor kid. and i mean that. in the 125cc and 250cc classes, the majority of riders were something like 15 or 16 years old. it really makes me feel like i've wasted my life to this point. it's amazing how retrospection reveals so much that you could have done in your life. damn you, hindsight. anyway, will was in heaven walking around and looking at the literal thousands of bikes parked all around the track. i was pretty pumped that there are german hicks and rednecks that, barring the obvious language difference, would easily be confused with those of our lovely home province, alberta. other highlights of the day included will leaving his towel on the roof of the car overnight and us driving away without checking it in the morning (let it go, because man, it's gone), and a gas station aptly named "OIL!", exclamation point included (and trademark pending). the next day we woke up, i was educated by rene on the intricacies of life in the former german democratic republic (east germany), we packed up, played pool with dirk (whom we'd met in the pool hall the previous friday. stellar guy, so cool, so chill.) for a couple of hours, and hit the road, our sights set on...
dresden. which is just as lovely as everyone said it is. the center of the city is a beautiful old town set on an equally lovely river, which we explored the bulk of as soon as we arrived in town. we soon located dirk's friend basti's apartment and set up camp for the night. basti and his friend lars were fully cool guys, and the apartment was located smack in the middle of the city's coolest and most party-geared street. which really isn't to say too much, since everyone was so laid back anyway. it was like a much, much cooler whyte ave., set in a much cooler city. the next two days consisted mainly of eating out, shooting pool in dive bars, watching skate/snow/surf videos on basti's computer, going for walks at night, will drinking beer in the streets as if he had to make up for years of not being allowed to do it in canada, and learning as much about the german youth as we could. our conclusion: that they're some of the most hospitable, laid-back, and fun young people we've met anywhere. a huge thanks to basti for letting us stay, to dirk for the hook, and to lars for being a supa-fly dresden guide. i would have stayed for years, but we had a schedule to keep, and that meant driving for hours in the monsoon-grade rain towards...
berlin. we got there eventually, and thanks to our terribly inadequate internet directions, we were almost immediately lost. so i parked the car in a lidl parking lot and we took a several hour nap. when we awoke, we went in to the lidl and bought dinner. and by dinner, what else could i possibly mean than NOUGAT PILLOWS! this is the absolute king of all sugary cereals. the box advertised no less than "40% nougat!" and i can absolutely assure you that they made good on their claim. this shit was absolutely disgusting. i mean, i like my chocolate cereals, but this was way, way too much. we both choked back a giant bowl of it and swore to each other that we'd never ever eat it again. forever ever? forever ever! but at the same time, how could i possibly pass up the chance to eat a cereal that contained 40% chocolate? you're absolutely right, i couldn't.
anwyay, after the nougat pillows debacle we set out to find our couch for the night. and boy did we not even come close. every turn we were supposed to make according to our directions happened to be at an intersection that was under construction and was inaccessible from any other direction, sidestreets included. so after an hour of driving aimlessly in some degree of disbelief, we headed half an hour back down the autobahn and slept yet again in the car. the next day involved a fruitless search for a coin-operated public telephone (that's one thing that i despise about europe: the phone card operated public phones. go to hell, phone companies.), a frantic and again virtually directionless wild goose chase throughout greater (and road-construction choked) berlin to meet the lovely nora schweppe, who was so kind as to walk around with us and make us a spaghetti dinner at her place, and of course a third and final unnecessarily long and detoured car ride to the airport, where we bid a fond farewell to the meriva and caught our expectedly later-than-expected easyjet flight to...
i think i'll drink some fluids and nap. mmmmmm.
jh..
beierfeld. we woke up early the morning after summer christmas and hit the road, our day's destination:
the sachsenring. motogp. the racing itself was awesome. never before have i wanted a sport bike so badly. it's really quite beautiful to watch the riders control the bikes the way they do. it's a combination of speed and grace that isn't matched often elsewhere. our seats were placed well for viewing a number of crashes mere yards away, one of which ended in what appeared to be somewhat serious injury. poor kid. and i mean that. in the 125cc and 250cc classes, the majority of riders were something like 15 or 16 years old. it really makes me feel like i've wasted my life to this point. it's amazing how retrospection reveals so much that you could have done in your life. damn you, hindsight. anyway, will was in heaven walking around and looking at the literal thousands of bikes parked all around the track. i was pretty pumped that there are german hicks and rednecks that, barring the obvious language difference, would easily be confused with those of our lovely home province, alberta. other highlights of the day included will leaving his towel on the roof of the car overnight and us driving away without checking it in the morning (let it go, because man, it's gone), and a gas station aptly named "OIL!", exclamation point included (and trademark pending). the next day we woke up, i was educated by rene on the intricacies of life in the former german democratic republic (east germany), we packed up, played pool with dirk (whom we'd met in the pool hall the previous friday. stellar guy, so cool, so chill.) for a couple of hours, and hit the road, our sights set on...
dresden. which is just as lovely as everyone said it is. the center of the city is a beautiful old town set on an equally lovely river, which we explored the bulk of as soon as we arrived in town. we soon located dirk's friend basti's apartment and set up camp for the night. basti and his friend lars were fully cool guys, and the apartment was located smack in the middle of the city's coolest and most party-geared street. which really isn't to say too much, since everyone was so laid back anyway. it was like a much, much cooler whyte ave., set in a much cooler city. the next two days consisted mainly of eating out, shooting pool in dive bars, watching skate/snow/surf videos on basti's computer, going for walks at night, will drinking beer in the streets as if he had to make up for years of not being allowed to do it in canada, and learning as much about the german youth as we could. our conclusion: that they're some of the most hospitable, laid-back, and fun young people we've met anywhere. a huge thanks to basti for letting us stay, to dirk for the hook, and to lars for being a supa-fly dresden guide. i would have stayed for years, but we had a schedule to keep, and that meant driving for hours in the monsoon-grade rain towards...
berlin. we got there eventually, and thanks to our terribly inadequate internet directions, we were almost immediately lost. so i parked the car in a lidl parking lot and we took a several hour nap. when we awoke, we went in to the lidl and bought dinner. and by dinner, what else could i possibly mean than NOUGAT PILLOWS! this is the absolute king of all sugary cereals. the box advertised no less than "40% nougat!" and i can absolutely assure you that they made good on their claim. this shit was absolutely disgusting. i mean, i like my chocolate cereals, but this was way, way too much. we both choked back a giant bowl of it and swore to each other that we'd never ever eat it again. forever ever? forever ever! but at the same time, how could i possibly pass up the chance to eat a cereal that contained 40% chocolate? you're absolutely right, i couldn't.
anwyay, after the nougat pillows debacle we set out to find our couch for the night. and boy did we not even come close. every turn we were supposed to make according to our directions happened to be at an intersection that was under construction and was inaccessible from any other direction, sidestreets included. so after an hour of driving aimlessly in some degree of disbelief, we headed half an hour back down the autobahn and slept yet again in the car. the next day involved a fruitless search for a coin-operated public telephone (that's one thing that i despise about europe: the phone card operated public phones. go to hell, phone companies.), a frantic and again virtually directionless wild goose chase throughout greater (and road-construction choked) berlin to meet the lovely nora schweppe, who was so kind as to walk around with us and make us a spaghetti dinner at her place, and of course a third and final unnecessarily long and detoured car ride to the airport, where we bid a fond farewell to the meriva and caught our expectedly later-than-expected easyjet flight to...
i think i'll drink some fluids and nap. mmmmmm.
jh..
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