Czeching in

Greetings. I am now in Lübeck but was in Prague for 3 days. I left Bettina in Hof on the 20th take the train.. well for the most part. I changed at Cheb in Czech into an old train which after a few stops had to call it quits and we had to move to a bus to take us 20 mins or so to another train station. I had no idea about this but luckily this Czech woman, who couldn't speak english, and I no czech or german, tried to tell me this. I realised after that what she said made sense but it didn't click in, but she was really nice and waved for me to follow her and made it to the train and then onto Prague.

Well, I think I may be the only one to say this but, I think Czech guys are pretty hot. Not all of them of course, but the ones that were attractive were very nice looking. The girls are very beautiful too. Maybe it is just the Polish part in me to find this.

Anyway, Prague is a very beautiful city. The architecture is quite amazing, though many buildings are a bit run down and need some cleaning up, was still an amazing place. On Thursday, Christian's friend Clair played tour guide and showed the visiting friends myself, Jack and Malorie (friends' of Will, Christian's roommate) and Dina (cousin of their friend Illiad?) around prague. Showing us the Prague Castle which is more just a huge palace, the royal gardens, Charles' bridge (which was made back in the 1400s and they used eggs in the concrete to hold the bricks together) and the touristy streets.

The first night I was there Christian and I went to the old tow square to watch the Germany vs Equador game (Germany winning) and later saw the England vs Sweden game (Sweden winning and now Sweden and Germany play tonight, perhaps my last game to see in Germany). Then on Thursday it was the big game for the US vs Ghana, but also Czech and Italy were playing, and since we were with many Americans we had to try to hunt down a place that was showing the American game live. Took a while but we finally found a sports bar that out of 6 screens, 1 was of the American game. But both the US and Czech lost. ("They're going home, they're going home. US is going home").

Now you may ask, how did I get from Prague to Lübeck which is in northern Germany? Well luckily for me Christian had a Red Cross meeting in Schwerin, a beautiful city in northern germany, renting a car and let me join him on the 7 hour drive. We left at about 6:30am and drove through Prague, which seemed even more beautiful with the early sun, and by the Czech countryside. Occasionally you could see castles or fortresses on the hill tops. Was really beautiful. Right before the German boarder there is this small town which is full of erotica shops and bars. But at 8am we didn'T see any prostitutes walking around, damn. Then once we got to the Germany Christian decorated the Czech car with a German lay and German flag. We travelled through many small towns, Christian really itching to finally get to the Autobahn. When we finally got to the highway, Christian decided to try out how fast the little rental car could go and I think he got up to almost 200km/hr. I couln't believe I was in a car going that fast. Then most of the rest of the way he was driving steadily at 160km/h as if it was only 100. When we did drive at 120 or 130 it felt so slow. But it was really cool to experience that. The trucks though or only allowed to drive the max 80km/ which is much better than in Canada at like 120km/h.

but I have to jet. cheers and talk to you from Sweden.

World Cup

I have been in Germany now for a whole week. It has been amazing. As I told my dad, though I am in Germany during the world cup, I have felt very safe here and have had no problems. Just great excitement. It is just amazing to be a part of something that is so huge and so many countries get into.

Even coming to Germany was an adventure. I came on Tuesday, June 13thI was travelling by train from Zürich to Stuttgart on the day it happened to be the Switzerland vs France game. The train was completely full of Swiss supporters, though I think I sat beside the only French guy on the train. His name is Gilbert and he was born in France but has lived in Switzerland about 40 years. He was with a group of Swiss fans, who playfully made fun of him that he wasn't wearing the French colours, supporting his team. There was also a guy from Argentina who was with them, wearing the Swiss colours.

Wearing soccer colours I think is kind of funny, since there are so many countries with the same colours on their flags. There are some flags that look exactly the same but is upside down or sideways to another. The Netherlands fixed this problem by having their soccer colour bright orange.

Coming off the train was definitely a sight to see, and I was right in the middle of it. All the Swiss fans were coming down the platform towards the station, waving their flags, cheering and some guys were banging drums. It was like a parade. Then once in the station they continued cheering and tossed flags in the air and everyone around was looking on. Later on, when I was walking around, you could see Swiss supporters everywhere, but I only saw a few French flags. Some Swiss police were added to the force for the World cup, since the Swiss are known to be more rowdy, but nothing that I know of happened. Just good fun.

I met up with my friend Christian Fett and he showed me around part of town and then later in the evening, Christian, his girlfriend Ingnes and I went to a beer garden on top of one of the many hills in Stuttgart. Two of the many things I like about Germany are their Beer Gardens and their Ice Cafes. Our friend Christian Paul (yes another one, and there is one more yet) and his girlfriend joined us and we sat chatted (mostly about school, seems most people in Stuttgart are Engineers) in this cute beergarden, with stone floor and wall, trees surrounding it and looking out at the gorgeous view of the city.

On Wednesday was the Germany vs Poland game, and of course I had to go see the game on their big screens. All the cities have several areas where screens have been set up (food and beer is available to purchase) for people to come together and watch the games for free. Wow. It was like my train ride in but 10x more exciting. We weren't even standing inside the beer tent where the screens were; we were standing behind the fences and we were still in a huge mob of German fans. There were black, red and yellow wherever you looked. Christian (Fett) said that he had never seen so many German flags in one place. Germans are finally feeling proud again to be German. There were a few Polish flags but you really had to search for them. For most of the game it was hard to see the screens, even though they were huge, due to all the people, but Christian would update me on what was happening. Even though not much really happened in the game until the last minutes, the energy of the fans remained at a high level. In the last minutes of the game, Germany finally made a successful goal and all of Germany must have been cheering. After the game, most people, including us, went to beer gardens to celebrate. The day after, everything seemed to have gone back to normal.

In the days I was in Stuttgart, Christian showed me Birkenhopf (I think that is how it is spelt) this hill which after WW2 a lot of the remains of old buildings were piled on top of this hill. We also went to their TV tower, which at some point was the tallest building. Both places had a great view of Stuttgart and the surrounding area. When we were at the tower there was a guy there who was going to run up the stairs of the tower to beat the record. We got to the top before him by elevator but when he reached the top, he seemed like he did it every day.

I even got to see Mario and Brian, once Gamli Gardur mates. It was really a coincidence since Brian was only there for 2 days because he was passing through to head back to Iceland, hoping to work on a fishing boat for the summer. It was nice to see them again.

On Friday, June 16th, the day I left Stuttgart, it was the Netherlands vs Cote D'ivoire playing and there was orange everywhere. The dutch even had crazy Elvis like hairdoes that were orange and orange clogs.

I was now heading to visiting Bettina. We met in Würzburg where we walked around the downtown, she showed me the little brother of the Versaille Castle and we enjoyed milkshakes and a sundae at an Ice Cafe. We went to a music festival, all bands I didn't know. German rock/emo bands. After wondering around the festival and the bazaars looking for something nice and cheap to buy but unsuccessful, we decided to head home, to Bettina's family'S house in Grettstadt.

On Saturday we took a train to Nürnberg where we did some shopping, and then headed to one of the beer tents to watch some soccer. On the way there, really in the middle of it, was the place where Hitler made many of his speeches. Was kind of weird to see that in the middle of such world wide excitement for soccer.

On Sunday we went to a swimming pool and basked in the sun and cooled off in the pool for most of the day. When we got home we ate some strawberry cake, drank champagne with Bettina'S mom, aunt and uncle, brother and his girlfriend. They add some elder icecream to the champagne which makes it fizz up and taste very sweet. Bettina's uncle is learning english in order to be able to work in England as a general practitioner. To me, his English sounded very good and he had only been learning intensely for the past 8 weeks. I wish him luck. I was so amazed that even a man of his age, maybe in his 50's or 60'S, was working so hard to obtain his dream even though if he gets the position he might only work another 10 years. It as refreshing to see his dedication.

Right now I am in Hof, where Bettina goes to school. We had to wake up early in order to get a ride here so she and the car pool could get to class by 8am. I got to experience being on the Auto Bahn though. Seemed like we were constantly excelerating and even still people were passing us. I wonder if it is true that Germans are better drivers.

Tomorrow I go to Prague, to visit another Christian.

Swisstown

Just a quick message. Sorry it has been awhile but have been busy and have had little access to internet.

I was in Belfast, Northern Ireland visiting my friend Fionnuala. Ireland is really beautiful, though I didn't like Dublin so much, but I was only there for 3 hours so couldn't see much of it. The countryside was gorgeous and peaceful, after so much city life. Despite what Fionnuala says, Belfast is really nice too. Was weird going on a bus tour of the city and the guide was pointing out places that had been bombed, one hotel is actually in the guiness book of records for being the most bombed building at 45 times. The city feels realy safe now though and I had no problems, haha except Finny's brother hitting on me the first night at the pub.

Then I flew back to London on June th in the morning and met up with Martina and Sonya again and we wandered around the Camden Market. I only bought some sunglasses that can fit over my glasses that kind of look like Dana's bugeye sunglasses (sorry mom your glasses broke and didn't fit comfortably, but I will get you new ones).

I spent one night in Brussels on mz way to Switzerland. Again I wasn't there long enough to really get to know the place. I tried to find a store that sold Tin Tin books but I guess I was in the wrong part of town. I also didn't see any belgium waffles. I was really happy when people were speaking French and I could actually understand them. So there is nothing wrong with my french, it is just crazy quebecois talk funny :P

Now I am in Zurich with Sereina. I think Switzerland is my favourite stop so far. The landscape and the architecture is so beautiful. I'd really love to work or live here for a while. Sereina showed me Winterthur, Stein am Rhein and Shaffhausen yesterday. In Shaffhausen we watched the German vs Costa Rica game in a beer tent. Was a lot of fun but a lot of the Swiss were cheering for Costa Rica. Then last night we went to a Russian Disco. Wow, never heard so much Russian music before, but was so much fun. I really missed dancing (can't really dance in Bar 11). And Swiss boys are cute :)

Well I should go. We are heading downtown Zurich today. Sereina lives in a suburb which is surrounded with trees and plant life that it doesn't feel like we are actually in a city so will be neat to see the downtown.

bye for now.