OK, back in business.

Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits. 

But really tho, here is the new page with some more stories and pics. Enjoy 

Click here for july and august mayham

Vienna and Salzburg...

!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNINGTHISBLOGENTRYISKINDABORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we left for Vienna on our first night train adventure this year. We got to the station about 15mins before our train left, and that’s when the shenanigans began. 1. we didn’t have our tickets, they were with the rest of the group (it was Andy Pat and I) and they were nowhere in sight. B. we needed tickets to get on the train. Four, Poland was playing a deciding game in the world cup and I wanted to watch. Panic struck once again, well not really… but I guess it could have struck… since this was a situation where panic normally would strike. Luckily all was well since we found the rest of our group along with the train tickets. Night trains are trains where you have couchettes. These tiny rooms have 6 bunk beds and little to no ventilation. Perfect for drinking, terrible for sleep. Luckily that’s just what we needed. As the train rolled out of the station we began our partying. I played chess with Paul, and the game was the standard game of chess; intense to the max. We somehow packed about 8 people into this cramped room, and drank drinks. This is about the time I found out that Poland had lost to Germany. I was devastated. Well to tell you the truth, I didn’t really care that much, since I knew that Poland would shit the bed anyways… Since all the players were probably drunk, along with the coaches. We crashed at about 3:30 and the train arrived in Vienna in the morning at around 8:00. We stumbled to our hostel still half asleep. 

That day was the beginning of me fully understanding the term: What a small world. At our hostel some random girl came up to us and asked if she could tag along with us while we toured Vienna. After talking to this girl, we found out that she is also working at ALSTOM (Switzerland) Ltd. Crazy. But that’s not all folks. Oh no, theres more. We started touring the city, and we decided to stop by some ol’kebab kiosk. We were all getting kebabs and suddeny.... Simon from university shows up! "What the fuck?" we all proclaimed. Apparently Simon *happened to be* in Vienna at the same time as we are… indeed a small world. This is about the time that we all split up into a couple groups since our group was bloated with people. I reckon there was about 15 of us. So Aaron, Brandon, Dieter, Paul, Simon and I took off into the unknown abyss, otherwise known as Vienna. We checked out some crazy modern surrealist museum and once again, Paul fell asleep. Paul has the tendency to fall asleep in museums, apparently he loves art. I reckon that every museum he’s been in this year he has fallen asleep in (including the Louvre!!!). Well after that we walked around some more and Then we went to meet everyone at the opera house for some Vienna opera. The tickets for the front row were up to 500€... but since we are cheap praktikants, we paid 3€, and stood in the back. The opera was pretty sweet. We stumbled across the Rolex shop after the opera, and we saw some unthinkable things in the windows. Watches for well over 10 000euro, some really strange prices on things that really should not be expencive. For example:

Small cube (not a die, not anything, just a cube: 188euro

A thermometer holder: 174euro

Hat for very very small person (or dancing frog... u be the judge of what this things purpose is... legend has it, that it might even be a thimble for a really really fat person) : 72euro

Bookmark: 43euro

Paperclip:  116euro

the list goes on. If i was rich... maybe i would buy the platinum bookmark, or the small hat... but not on a praktikant sallary. :) 

We went out for some drinks and I had some wicked awesome wiessbier which was only 3.50€ for a halb liter. Funken sweet i said. It was possibly the best wiessbier i've ever had. (i reckon it was called: Weihenstephan) It was about 12:15 when we decided maybe we should check when the last train to the hostel was. I asked the bartender, and after about 2minutes of trying to explain myself in English he asked someone who knew English and told me that the last train was probably leaving NOW. So we ran. Somehow we made it.

The next day we all awoke at 8:00 for free breakfast, I was so tired and lazy and cranky that I stayed in bed and missed out on breakfast! OOPS. The second day in Vienna we walked around the palace gardens and checked out a really really sweet art museum in the Belvedere Palace where we saw some Van Goht paintings along with some Monet paintings. It was pretty much the sweetest museum yet. Once again we were strictly forbidden to take pictures, especially of the Monet and Van Goht paintings. 

That evening we forgot to make plans on meeting with the rest of the bunch so we just went to a huge market and bought some hacky sacks and kababs and hackied all day it was sweet. We wanted to check out his famous house from some architect, called Hunterwasse or some such shit. The journey there turned out to be longer than we had planned...

We had no clue were we had to go, so i asked some people on the street and they told us the wrong directions!!!  Well to tell u the truth,  i probably lead everyone in the wrong direction, but lets keep that quiet for now... It took us about 3.5 hours to find this place, but at least we had our hackysac to keep us entrertained. The whole time we were walking we kicked the hackysack on the ground to one another in true soccer fasion. It kepts us entertained. OH YEA, we happen to stumble across the canadian embassy which we found sanctuary inside (it was airconditioned) and this was the first AC building in vienna which we had stepped foot in since making landfall there. The Hunterwasse appartaments were pretty sweet. But nothing extra special, i mean the floor was all wavy and everything was colorfull and made of tiles... well acually now that i think about it, yea it was pretty sweet. It cost money to use the bathrooms so i pissed on the sidewalk. ... just kidding... (or am i?) The next morning we caught a morning train to Salzburg. 

 In Salzburg, everywhere you looked, there were people playing Mozart on all sorts of wacky and zany instruments. Absolutly sweet. The first thing we did was get our room in our hostel which was about 10min walk from the station, and then we started out toward the castle. This castle is the biggest best preserved castle in the world (apparently). It has never lost a battle or has ever been taken over. Pretty awsome. We toured around the castle and saw some really nice views of the city, since the castle is on top of a large hill. Some would say its on top of a mountain, i beg to differ. This hill is not big enough to be called a mountain, nor does it have jagged rocks and mountain goats. THUS it should not be called a mountain. 

Alright so after the castle we were hungry and we all split up to find some food. Brian, Louise, Pat and i went out looking for a good (ie. cheap) restaurant. It would be safe to say that we got lost... we were scared, and without maps. But then we saw some golden arches... and we ate at macdonalds... haha just kidding... here is what really happened... we somehow stummbled across some hidden beer gartens that had the best food and beer ever (and cheap to boot!) i cant forget to mention the service! it was spectacular, we got our food in less than 10mins! well after that we watched the ghuana game and the usa - italy game. the screen was sooo huge! and it was outside in the middle of the salzburg square, and there was beergartens around it! it was sweet! there was a ton of usa fans, and the us team played really well! to tell u the truth, i wanted them to win, since the italians are stuck up diving no good greasy slimy did i say diving... er... where was i... hmmm so after the game we got rained on and we got soaked. we came back to the hostel and went to the bar, drank and played cards. then we went to sleep. oh yea i forgot to mention. at the beer gartens i ordered (foolishly) some "beer" called rattler. Apparently this is beer/lemonade mix. not good. low % sweet cooler like beer. HIGHLY NOT RECOMENDED.

The next day we walked around some crazy gartens and played hacky sac till the train came. we caught the train and got back home at 7. and that is all folks. sorry this trip was not filled with the same amount of tomfullery or shinanigans as the others were, but i'll work on it! :)

WORLD CUP BABY... GO POLSKA 

The world cup has started off with a huge bang! We went to the bier gartens last night and enjoyed some beers, and watched Germany kill costa rica. The bier gartens were sooo packed it was nuts we had to stand on the tables to see the screen. everyone was cheering for Costa Rica becuase the swiss dont really like the Germans too much... why you ask? well probably kuz they dont like getting mistaken for them, and maybe the 2 world wars they started could have something to do with it too... who knows i dont. asfter the game i met up with a ton of polaks (since poland was playing also) and we shot the shit for a coupld hours and they bought me some beers it was fucken sweet. well i just woke up and ive already had enough typing... im gonna go play some soccer and then hit the schwimmbad. takereasy

 One more blog attempt...

Here i try a new blog again... hopefully this one is gonna kick some serious ass... but probably not. i just moved into my own room last night so ill be sure to post some pics of the hole... urrrr castle we live in. enjoy... CIAO 

Florence, hookers and Italian trains

Train tickets are expensive and we are terribly poor. And hence there lies the dilemma. We have a train pass which allows travel all over Switzerland for free as long as the train is after 7, but only to the Swiss border does it apply. Thus, we decided to abuse that privilege, save some money on tickets to italy and take the free evening train to Chiasso (a Swiss Italian border town) sleep there the night, and in the morning take earliest train possible to Florence. Good idea right?

We made it to the Chiasso station at about 1:30 after a 4hour train ride, and begin to look for some benches to sleep on. To our dismay, all the benches were being used up by pimps trickin’ their whores.

Tough luck!
The whores were ugly.

We moved on.

Luckily we found some unused benches at the other end of the station! Some homeless people were hanging around, so we felt right at home. My fellow travelers, Andy, Brian, Louise and Pat (no particular preferential treatment on ordering my friends… just alphabetical according to their first names… so don’t get too excited Andy… and Pat… don’t sob) hang out and chilled. I closed my tired eyes, I drifted off to the soft, soothing… one might even say… ’melodic’ sounds of pimps tirckin’ their sluts and freight trains lullabies.
In the morning I awoke to my alarm clock going off and the sound of our train approaching. We grabbed our seats on the train, and guess who sat down close by… that’s right, the pimp and his 2 whores.

Tough luck again!
The whores were ugly.
And probably expensive.

The pimp began to yell at his whores in Italian, cursing, yelling, spitting... As I sat there soiling myself scared, I grabbed my fork, my tuna (the only food I brought on the trip…. 6cans of it) and my bread and started munching away at my breakfast. About half way through my slice of bread, the pimp decided to ask Pat for directions or something in Italian (since we were the only ones in that car), Pat just told him he does not know Italian. This caused the pimp to miss his stop. Pimps apparently don’t like missing their stops. He got mad and started yelling some more… but that’s all. He got off at the next stop… and this is when I realized that amidst all the commotion, I had been scarfing down moldy bread.

Great.

We transferred trains in Monza, and got a really fast new train to Florence, I passed out on my pillow, it was great. We got into Florence 25minutes late (booo… Italian trains suck) and then found our campsite which was on top of a hill overlooking the hustle and bustle of the city of Florence. Kewl. Our tents were pretty much broken, but thank god we had duct tape :D

That day we went and saw the Plaza Vecchio which Michelangelo decorated…

And we saw the Duomo…  And climed a tower.

We found out that since this place is filled with tourists, everything is expencive, but luckily we found a sweet place that sold cheap food (finally a break from tuna… ) and had free seating.
Oh yea. Here in Europe tipping is fucken weird. U sometimes pay for seating (included in the bill) and then there is a tip included in the bill… but not always… kuz sometimes u don’t pay for the table, and u r tip is included in the bill… but sometimes it’s the other way around… or viseversa… or upsidedown. there is a good solution to this: don’t tip. Well at least I don’t tip, but im an asshole. So moral of the story is: don’t tip. When was the last time you got tipped? Thought so. Im going straight to hell. Im not even passing GO or collecting 200$.

Anyways… so I didn’t tip... but Andy did. And remember that because this is an important piece of information. After dinner we went back to the tent and spooned with men. That’s right I said it.


At least I was big spoon.
Pat got middle spoon.
And Andy got little spoon.

The tent was a 2man, but we managed to fit 3. It didn’t rain that night thank god, because when ur spooning with dudes, u don’t wanna be spooning with wet dudes.

Jesus… that’s messed up.

Anywho…

The next day we woke up bright and early at 8:30 and went to the Uffizi museum (6.50€). The lineup was 2hrs long. If u go… get reservations kuz fuck that lineup sucked. But in the museum we saw a whole wankload of wicked paintings (Boticelli, Da Vinci… etc) Then after that museum we went to another museum to see the statue of David (9.50€). Really cool. The museum however was a rippoff becuase the only thing in there is the statue of david and Michalangelos unfinished works... but well... at least i get to say i saw David's penis. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the statue so it sucked even more... And they were really strict about it.

The sweet restaurant was closed, but we walked around during the night and ate some gelatos and had some more coffee. We saw some street shows, one of which was really sweet. There were these 2 diehard hippies givin’er hard on the guitar and playing hippy songs like: the sound of silence, I am a rock, etc etc. mainly Simon & Garfunkel it was dope. We went to bed later that night but not after taking some pictures of the ponte vecchio at sunset. Romantic? Very. Too bad my right hand was busy taking pictures…

We went to bed. And in the morn I was gonna go to Pisa to see the leaning tower but there was a mixup with our passports (ie. I didn’t have it on me kuz the campground people held on to them) and therefore I could not go. That kinda pissed me off. But whatever.

We went to that sweet restaurant and ordered some more calzones… and the dude threw in free fresh dohnuts!!! Fucken insane! And then we came back to buy some more dohnuts and the guy just told us not to pay for them… and thew in some more dohnuts!!! Awesome… I don’t know why he loved us so much, but it was sweet, kuz all the other stores try to rip u off, but this one was so dope. I was happy and full.

Life was sweet…

Until we got to the train station to catch our train back to Zurich.

SOPP.... I wonder what that means when it’s written beside ur train home on the billboard…. We didn’t bother to check until we got our coffee and ice-cream and our train was supposed to leave in 10mins. Then we decided to check what this strange SOPP sign ment... It means canceled. That’s right. The train got straight up canceled. Welcome to Italy. Thank the fuck god that our tickets were still good for any connection from Florence to Zurich that day, so we got on the train to Milan and then transferred to a train to Zurich. Both trains were totaly full and we had to sit in the isle... we played hearts the whole way back, and i shot the moon a couple times so it was a pretty sweet train ride.  We got to Zurich at 0:01 and the LAST train to Baden left at 0:03... i almost shat myself...

Game plan:

1)check what track train is on.

2)Run, push, jump or claw your way to the train.

3) Hope that the train is not a night-train and u don’t get screwed for not getting a night supplement (80chf)

Somehow we made it back alive. And that wraps up our first trip without any of the old praktikants to help us out.

Next Trip: Vienna and Salzburg in Austria on 15 – 18 / 06 / 2006

Cinque Terre, Octopus and 1€ boxes of wine

Guten Tag!

We left for Italy on Friday night, on our way to cinq terre (which is located on the north west coast of Italy). The trip took 8 hours but the whole time our heads were hanging out the window, and our mouths open in awe as we saw the many sighs of the Swiss alps and the palm trees of Italy. When we got to Monterosso (the first of the 5 towns of cinq terre) the first thing we did was drop our baggage off in our hostel. Now, at this point my impression of hostels was bunk beds, covered with stained sheets, though this time we lucked out. The 'hostel' room (which should have been called a 3star hotel room) had 3 bedrooms 8beds a bathroom a kitchen and a gigantic balcony overlooking the beach which spilled onto the Mediterranean.

 The first thing we did was eat Italian cuisine, which by the way comes with a free bread and oil, along with a one and a half hour complimentary wait. I had lasagna since the menu was pretty shabby. We also ordered some bottles of wine which were cheap but good, but considering my knowledge of wine, they should be compared to human urine. The night was spent on the beach drinking 3€ bottles of wine, im gonna have to say... we got pretty hammed... we stumbled back to the hostel and had an after party there. The first thing that happened was Brandon busts out a full 26of jag. Alright, now were all jammunked off wine, so why not? we had a couple, spilled a couple... had some more. and went to bed (ie. passed right the fuck out) i slept on the floor... and the others spooned on a bed... i woke up to the following plesent expression:

"Hay guyz...? did we have an orgy last night?"

We decided to go on a hike and tour the 5 villages which span on the coast of he Med.  Started the hike at 14:00. The hike involved a walk along a path winding its way along the Mediterranean coast through vineyards, olive groves and lemon trees, it was pretty much the best hike in the whole world. The path was too narrow to fit 2 people side by side, and to the right was often a 200m drop into the sea, without a guard rail, or any safety device, just our still drunk ‘judgment’ to keep us alive… fucken great. The other towns were a nice break from the hike, where we enjoyed some gelatis and more cappuccinos. In the 4th town we decided to go swimming in the Mediterranean for the first time… we swam between some Ziploc bags and condoms.

Nuff said.

Naw, but really it wasn’t that bad…

I was lucky to only get stabbed by 1 syringe.

Really tho it wasn’t THAT bad…

We finally reached the final town and as we sat down for some seafood pasta, after looking for a restaurant for a good half hour... the sun was just ducking under the horizon. We feasted. The rirst thing we ordered was the cheapest wines on the menu, 7€ for a L of wine, so we got a couple liters. I had clam spaghetti (10€), and found out that 'calamari' in Italy is whole baby octopus.  At his point we are all feeling pretty broke and we decided to buy the cheapest wine we could get. I had no clue what was in store for me.

I decided to go balls to the walls.

I raised the bar.

I’ve had training in this sort of thing.

Tetra-pak box of wine (1€) – White – Piss Warm
Bottle (3€) – Red – The fucken bottle had a Canadian maple leaf on it. Once again… Nuff said.

We partied on the beach all night and got gooned while playing night frizbee. We met some americans that also were down for a party and hung out with them for a while, then we somehow made it back to the hostel and downed the rest of the jagger that we didnt get a chance to demolish the night before.

The next morning we awoke and had the following day plan:
1: Cappuccino
2: Gelati
3: Pizza
4: Beach
5: Rinse and repeat

We swam around some rocks about 100m from the shore. I started climbing some underwater rocks to get up higher when I noticed that they were completely covered with strange black baseball sized things. At first I thought they were chocolates since I was still drunk… apparently they were urchins. Darren quickly found out that they are not soft and cudly. We sat down for food at 19:30 in a very fancy restaurant that we clearly were not welcome in, since we were ushered into the darkest corner of the restaurant. We sat down, and I wondered why we received such unwelcome treatment, as we emptied the sand out of our dripping swim shorts. Strange, strange country.

The menu was huge, and this restaurant was by far the best we have been to. We obviously did not belong. We were told about some insane dish they make here where apparently its the whole ocean in one steaming pot. We didnt hesitate and ordered a dish for 3 people for 43€ which we could not pronounce. It turns out that this dish was the best goddamn seafood in the world. The waitress comes in the room and slams a huge clay bowl and gives us some plates, she then returns with a 5L clay urn, and begins to unload. Here is what splashes and wiggles out:

20 Mussels
6 Prawns
3 Squid
3 Fish (of some kind)
1 Full Lobster
1 Full Octopus

Along with the rest of the ocean, fishhooks, nets, seahorses and all.

We eat the whole dish in less than 30mins. People were taking photos from other tables in the restaurant! What kind of uncultured rif raff take pictures of dishes in a restaurant? Strange strange country...

That night we spent walking around Monterosso, and we stumbled across a crypt on the top of a hill in the middle of the town. This crypt was crazy. Every grave had a candle and flowers, and the graves were in walls spanning dozens of hallways across the top of the hill. There were fireflies buzzing around as we walked around. It was midnight, and we got a little creeped out so we shat our pants and left. I slept on the balcony that night. The train came in the morning at 12:55 and we got home to Baden at around 21:00. We played card games the whole way back. I finally learned how to play hearts :D So that gives me somthing to do at work on the computer! :D I was exhausted and it felt like I didn’t even have a weekend, even though the trip was supposedly one of the most relaxing trips that we were expected to have this year.