Cést la vie, Mr. Moustache Man

Vienna, Austria

Damon and I went to sleep the earliest of our trip last night and maybe our lives (actually probably not for Damon). The pillows called at 9:30 PM and we answered the challenge. But we were up early this morning on the way to Vienna. Many hours before - probably a little after we were in bed - Sarah was hopping on board a plane to cross the ocean blue.

And now we are all here. We just finished eating a home-cooked dinner. We´re still not quite sure what it was. We combined some chicken (for Sarah) and some kind of meat (pork?) with some kind of frozen vegetable mix. What was in that stuff? As Damon said at dinner, there were a lot of little "doughy, softie, bready things." He is always so poetic. In the end though, we had quite our fill and an enjoyable time visiting in the courtyard rose garden of our hostel. For all those LBJ grads from ´04, we spent much of the time discussing how cool our class is and how our Follies will never be topped.

Damon leaves us tomorrow night, but we have plans for a breakfast with his good family friend, Gunter. Then we will check out a few sights - maybe a crime museum - and bid the kid adieu. And by the way, Mark: Damon´s hair is not just "frosted." It also has a close resemblence to a Brillo pad.

One more thing to note: I shaved the moustache off early this morning. I actually look worse now. Okay, maybe not...

Get ready for the real pictures!

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Finally! An Internet cafe that has some speed! Explorer Cafe uploaded at nearly 50 kbps (vs. 2 kbps at most other places). So I have been able to upload all of our pictures to this point. I created a sub-album on dotphoto and tried to change the picture names so you will have a little background. The first 61 pics are at the previous link, but the new picks are below.

Click here for set 2!

I'd like to add the pictures directly to the blog so you don't have to go through dotphoto. But it is somewhat of a hassle in that I have to download a software program to put pics on the blog. Once I am settled in England, I will be able to put pics on here more easily.

Enjoy.

Cheers to the Slovenians

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Let's be honest. Before reading this blog, how many of you knew where Slovenia was? Or perhaps a better question -- how many of you knew where Ljubljana was?

And how unfortunate. But get ready to start hearing about Slovenia and Ljubljana. Bet you didn't know this little country is the 2nd richest in the EU. Bet you didn't know that Ljubljana is the new rave on the European backpackers' tour. So much in fact that when Damon and I arrived yesterday afternoon, we could not find a spot in any of the local hostels.

Nestled among the Alps and on a quaint little river, Ljubljana is very scenic. The city is rather small (about 290,000) and this might explain why the hostel/hotel industry has not caught up with the sudden tourist boom. Without a room and lugging around huge packs, we ended up in the tourist office in the city center and luckily gained a spot in a local private home for 35 euros per night. Unfortunately, the house is located about 3 km outside of the center. Thus, we had to book it over there last night.

Mind you, this is after a rather long day of travels and fresh off of a sleepless night (remember, we took the night train from Belgrade to Zagreb). We were tired and hungry and so the hike across town did not appeal to us. Yet we did it. I will be honest at this point: I think that it was the most miserable that Damon has ever been in his life (definitely on this trip). He wanted to get a taxi, but I pressed on.

I could feel his eyes bearing through my backpack as I trekked on. The kid was tired but we finally made it to our cute little bungalow. We were greeted by the friendly caretaker. He speaks about 6 words of English, but that was enough to give off a hospitable greeting and welcome.

After unpacking and a quick shower, we headed to the local sports bar. We wanted to watch the USA basketball team play Argentina and according to the tourist office, the sports bar was sure to have it. Ha. We caught a few highlights of the Olympics, but no USA basketball. I guess it's better that we didn't!

We had a relaxing day in this beautiful Slovenian weather. I am currently wearing khakis and a sweater; there is a fresh breeze cooling this little cafe along the river. We are about to head out on a two-hour evening tour of the city. Tomorrow we are going spelunking in a cave about 50 km from here.

By the way, I fixed the link to the pictures (for those that were having trouble). I will put up more soon. The ones from Athens are great, and I look forward to sharing them.

Also, the blog got its 2000th hit today.

Pictures

Here is the link to my dotphoto album. I will upload more photos (including Olympics) as soon as I can.

Click here

A hectic bit

Zagreb, Croatia

Zagreb, Croatia? How did we get here?

The plan was to leave Belgrade last night on a night train for Slovenia. But when we went to get our tickets, the train to Slovenia was about 60 USD. The train to Zagreb was only 23 USD, and a train from Zagreb to Slovenia is only 13 USD. So we save money plus get to see the Croatian capital.

We finished off our visit last night in Belgrade with a movie. Both Damon and I were in need of some down time, so we snuck into the Tuckwood complex to check out Van Helsing. It is a pretty good flick, and kind of makes me want to check out Tranyslvania in Romania. In any event, the interesting part of the movie story is that the theater was right in the middle of the Serbian government center. Walking to the cinema, we noticed at least 3 or 4 buildings that were severely destroyed. The windows were gone and they literally looked as if they had been bombed. That is when we realized that they had. Interesting to see a movie in a theater next door to a whole block that was under seige a few years back. It puts a unique perspective on how close to home air attacks can hit an average citizen. Later that night, I was reading the Tuesday edition of the USA Today, and there was a front page article about the air raids going on in Iraq including a picture of a bomb dropping on what appeared to be a government building. Makes you wonder how many of those strikes are hitting right next to the local Tuckwood cinema complex.

And now I sit in an Internet cafe, finally uploading some pictures to dotphoto. I will put some on the blog eventually, but it really is a pain to do. In the meantime, let me tell you a bit about Zagreb. After a short walk around the city, I have full intention of coming back to this country. The capital city is quite clean and tidy. The mass transit system seems excellent, and the people are friendly. All in all, the city seems like an up and coming European metropolitan. This definitely makes me want to come back and visit Zagreb, and then continue on to the famous coast!

We are off to Slovenia in a few hours to do some cave exploring tomorrow and tours of Ljubljana. Then it is off to Vienna, where my path will part from Damon and join with Sarah.

Beograd Fun Club

Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

It's official. Damon and I have become members of the Beograd (Belgrade) Fun Club. The club was founded in 1937 and all we had to do to become members was buy shirts.

Okay, so there is no Beograd Fun Club. But we did get the shirt. It's quite a random t-shirt: the print has a guy on a motorbike and of course it says "Beograd Fun Club" underneath. For 350 dinars, we just couldn't pass up the deal. Damon took it a step further, buying a large, framed photo of old town Beograd from the same little shop. I'll confirm your assumption: Damon's gonna have fun lugging that thing around for the next week.

Belgrade has been one of my favorite stops to date. The journey here was excruciatingly long and tedious (as Damon explained in the previous post), but it was worth it. This city is relatively tourist-free, or so it seems. This makes for an interesting stop as the city really doesn't seem to tailor much of anything to the tourism industry -- refreshing, in the least.

Before arriving here, we read in our Eastern Europe book that Belgrade is like a smaller version of New York City, shutting down late in the night (early in the morning, rather) with a bustle of people heading to and fro. I couldn't believe the book. Belgrade, Serbia? No way. I can count on one hand (and maybe one finger) the number of people that I know that have visited here. Could it be like a mini-NYC?

Ah, but it is folks. I highly recommend it and so does Damon. The Old Town area -- where we settled in for two nights in the oldest hotel in the city, the Hotel Royal -- is like a smaller version of Times Square. Damon and I just finished a lunch -- a spinach cakey thing -- in the middle of it all and even though we've been here for a few days now, we were still amazed at the bustle of the city center. There are lots of young and very well-dressed men and women and tons of designer brand shops. It's funny: any American designer or name brand has a shop here, and the prices are quite high.

Just north of the city is an old park -- don't ask me how to spell or pronounce -- and we have spent much of our time here. The park is unique, as it contains the old city fortress, basketball and tennis courts, a lot of green space, the national zoo, statues, a military museum, an outdoor theater, and more. We met up with one of my Serbian friends from ITU, Marija, last night and saw the sun set on the Danube River from atop the Old Fortress. Afterwards, Marija showed us around the city and we ended up on the oldest street in all of Belgrade. It is a scenic little area, with many traditional restaurants and shops. It kind of reminded me of Prague, or a scene from Epcot in Disney World. Continuing our tradition of dining at a local eatery, we feasted on more meat than you can imagine and sampled the local beers of this colorful city as we were serenaded by some traditional Serbian musicians. The meal was outstanding; all we could hope for at its end was a taxi to whisk us away to our hotel so we could cozy up in bed. Unfortunately, we found none ready and made the sweaty (more so for Damon) hike back.

This morning we got up -- Damon feeling sick as usual -- and tried to put our pictures online. As my friend Marija recommended last night, I will wait until Slovenia. Perhaps there will be a faster Internet connection there, as it would have taken 12 hours to upload the photos in the Plato Internet cafe. After a quick breakfast in the hotel, we went to the national military museum in the park. Damon was quite interested in going, and a good source had also recommended the destination. A friend of a friend was in Serbia and the surrounding area serving in the US Army during the NATO bombings a few years ago. I have been in touch with her, and she recommended the visit to the museum. As she pointed out to me in email (and in the book that she wrote - Let's Go Eastern Europe), there is quite an interesting relic in the military museum. Nestled away in a far-off corner of the museum is small display of items captured from a US soldier during the NATO bombings. You might recall that three American soldiers were captured and held hostage here in 1999. So there we stood today in semi-shock and awe, staring at a US Army uniform and other gear on display with the label: Captured from US military in 1999. Wow.

We're outta here today, heading to Slovenia. We might stop in Croatia though, depending on the train schedule. So stay tuned!

Trains, Buses, Automobiles, Ferries, Feet, and Sweat

Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

-From Damon

As of 0100 Wednesday morning, we have been in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. Everything is fine - ok Mom?

Though we have not done much yet, we already are enjoying the city's environment. Has that gothic appeal of Prague with that mainstream feel of Berlin - a combination we enjoy. Our tour book said that most people wear jeans here and shorts aren't too popular. So we donned our pants for today's daytime excursions so we would feel more localized. Bad call I must say. I must have lost 10 lbs of leg in the first hour.

The real treat is not so much being here, as it was enjoying how we got here. Please pick up on the sarcasm now. It offcially took us 35 hours, 24 minutes and 11 seconds between our Corfu hostel departure and our hotel check-in last night. Think about that one for a little. All travel time and waiting around - for those who have never backpacked, there is always plenty of waiting around time. Transportation schedules don't fit ours -we fit theirs - and if we are lucky.

Trip Summary:

Leg 1: Walk .3 mile from Corfu hostel to bus stop. Sweat. Wait for bus for 40 minutes while sweating.
Leg 2: Cram on standing room only bus for ride to Corfu town to catch bus. Buy bus ticket. Wait two hours and sweat. Watch Olympic sailing - fun..
Leg 3: Take bus to ferry for 2 minutes, unload, but ticket, take ferry for 1.3 hours, no sweat because breeze, get off, load bus again. Took about 2 hours total.
Leg 4: Sit on crammed bus for almost nine hours. Seemed longer though - want to know why? It was a two lane highway that drove along a cliff (with no guardrails of course) for about 80 percent off the way. Sweat (not because hot but because really frikkin nervous). Slept a little. No vent stealing this time. Arrived in Thessaloniki, Greece at 0515.
Leg 5: Took bus to train station. Bought ticket and waited for 2.5 hours. Ate more cakey stuff.
Leg 6: Boarded train at 0805. ON time - yipppeee. You think it arived at our destination on time - hell no! We were on the train (old WWII thing) for 16.5 hours. We sweated some more. Andy freaked out again but left his shirt on. Met a Canadian Serb (not to be confused with a Croatian Serb) who told us about all the gangsters in Belgrade but then said not to worry. Uh-ok... Guess what our reaction was - sweat. I actually had a problem at the Macedonian border because the stamps in my passport did not match up. They could not understand how I got to Greece from Prague, etc. Luckily one of them was nice and just moved me on. That whole stamping of passport thing is another issue we have been chatting about. It is too infrequent and inconsistent. Anyways, no other major problems except for smelling the train's bathroom for about the last 3 hours of the journey. Arrived about 0045.
Leg 7: Finally found our hotel about an hour later after sweating and getting lost. Traveling tip - try not to arrive places after dark unless you are us. We got a pizza (less a slice - weird), chowed, and crashed.

So, yes, traveling is fun and all but this was a bit ridiculous. When it comes down to it, it is all part of the fun and memories though. It was quite the experience to see the countryside of this former war infected country. Everything is just so different - you have to see it for yourself. And, if you do, consider flying from place to place.

So Corfu was fun. That was our party destination and this old man was still able to hang with the young'ens. My traveling mate wasn't so lucky though - he made the youthful mistake of drinking Kentucky bourbon in Greece. I'll let him to fill you in on the rest of the details if he chooses. I remember one night at dinner we were sitting with seven others. Two from England, 2 from Canada, two from Austrailia and one from South Africa. We realized there was representation from each major English speaking country when we were having beers later. Then we realized we forgot Ireland (though it is UK). Not a second later, two Irish girls joined our crew. We met some good friends in Corfu.

Ok, so that is what is going down. I am now in my last week and I officially start my job in last than two weeks - yikes. We are looking forward to touring here even though it seems we are the only tourists out there. People seem very friendly though - even though we have counted four skippers already.

Later.

Skippers

Thessonaliki, Greece

As we wait at the train station to depart for Belgrade, Damon and I have noticed something that I hesitated to mention on this Weblog. But this topic has become quite the joke between us now, and thus I find it necessary to share with readers.

I will keep it simple: Greek people are skippers. Now, I don't mean that they master boats at sea. No, what I mean is that they really like to cut in line. Of course, this is a daring generality to make and I certainly make it in jest. As I mentioned earlier, this has become quite the joke of the trip to Greece and I realize that all Greeks do not necessarily skip. But the fact is, Damon and I have been blatently skipped in line nearly ten times during our short stay in Greece. At first I thought it was random chance, but then I asked one of my friends that I met in Corfu. Vicili, a native of Greece, said that it is in fact true: the Greek are notorious for skipping in line. In fact, as a generality the Greek people tend to have that "skipper" attitude. As Vicili told me -- and as I confirmed later -- you have to get in a person's face when they skip (or do anything to take advantage of you) or they will walk all over you. I'm not one to avoid confrontation, so you'd better believe I've done just that.

In any event, as we waited this early morning to buy our train ticket to Belgrade, Damon and I noticed one last skipper as we departed from Thessonaliki. I was too tired to say anything, and just laughed as the 70 year old man looked around a bit, then planted his luggage at the front of the line and casually sat down on the bench right next to the ticket teller. You gotta love that.

The One Where the Guy Takes the Other Guy's Vent

Corfu, Greece

Damon and I have reached Corfu. We are staying at a frat-style hostel on the western side of the island called the Pink Palace. Evidently this place is famous among the under-25 year old backpacking crowd. I guess Damon decided that he'd fit in too, even though he's a ripe old 27.

The Palace really is pink...totally pink. Everything is pink, including walls, signs, togas (for the toga party of course). It's crazy. The place is right on the beach, and Damon and I have had a good time relaxing in the sun. Tomorrow we are going to rent a car and check out the entire island. Supposedly this is one of the prettiest Greek islands. It is lush and full of beautiful scenery, so we decided to make a day of it and check it out.

The real story to report though has to do with our travels to Corfu from Athens. We took an overnight bus out of Athens that departed at 8:30 PM. Damon and I snuggled up at the back of the bus and talked for the first half of the ride. There was no bathroom on the bus, which of course made me nervous (which most of you will understand). But luckily we stopped every few hours. And when I say that we "stopped," I mean it. We sat at these random restaurants for about an hour as the locals dined on their favorite Greek meal.

About half way through the journey, the AC goes out on the bus and it starts to get really hot. Damon and I notice that the guy in front of us is getting pretty agitated about the temperature. He was sweating and got pretty worked up. It was almost like he was nervously frustrated at the heat. He was sitting next to this random guy on the bus, and finally the guy snaps.

He looks around a bit on the bus, and then leans over to see if his neighbor is actually asleep. Then ever so slowly -- so as not to wake the sleeping man -- he reaches up and points the other guy's vent in his own direction. And Damon and I sat there and watched all of this. We found it quite amusing, as we got to witness one man's frustration from the hot bus build up to a final culminating moment.

But the gentleman in front of us was not the only one to snap. I have trouble sleeping as it is, but my chances of sleeping on the bus dropped to near zero once the AC went out. Damon -- of course -- zonked out next to me. I think a few snores even escaped from his way. I -- on the other hand -- sat miserably through the heat, watching the minutes click by on the big digital clock that illuminated the front of the bus with it's big red numbers. The sweat began to build up on my brow, and finally I had enough: I snapped just like the man in front of us.

But I didn't take Damon's vent. No, that would have been a mean thing to do. Instead I did the gentleman thing to do: I removed my shirt and immediately cooled off quite a bit.

Later when Damon awoke, he looked over at me and busted out laughing. He knew that I had snapped just like the vent thief, as on a typical day this fine southern boy would never remove his shirt on a public bus. But this was no typical day.

We finally arrived to a small port town -- called Isthamus or something similar -- and then took a big ferry over to Corfu. Damon and I found ourself on the top deck in quite chilly weather, and as Navy boy Damon explained the different parts of the boat to me, the droan of the motor (and Damon's talking) drifted me away into a deep sleep.

Another quick funny story about our travels: we arrive to Corfu and have no idea where to go from there. Damon had booked three nights at the Pink Palace, so we called them up. Mind you, it's 6:00 a.m. at the time. I dial the number and a lady picks up. I tell her that we just arrived on the ferry from Athens and need a ride to the Palace. She hurriedly -- and when I say hurriedly, imagine a frantic "hurriedly" -- responds with "Where are you? We're at the bus station. Come immediately. The bus is waiting on you." Click.

I call back. "What do you mean the bus is waiting for us?" Again hurriedly, she tells me that she is in a blue car and that she will take us to the bus.

We walk around the corner and Mayna hops out the car. "Quick, put your things in. The bus is waiting." We hop in and there is another driver in the car. He starts with some small talk, asking us where we are from. But Mayna tells him that "there is no time," -- evidently there is a bus waiting for us. We drive no more than 1 km and then there is the big pink bus. Mayna rushes us on the bus. The whole thing felt like a frantic drug deal (or something similar? I'm not sure how frantic drug deals go, but it would probably involve hurried phone calls, fast rides in small cars, and big pink buses.).

And that's how we found ourself on the beautiful lush island!

The Shortest Post Ever

Athens, Greece

We're about to go to the bus station to go to Corfu -- an island off the west coast of Greece -- but I wanted to post my top three highlights from the Olympics in Athens.

-Ivo Karlovic of Croatia lobs a shot over the head of Carlos Moya's (Spain) head and Moya hustles to retrieve it. His between the legs shot was spectacular and really pumped up the crowd. Evidently it pumped up Moya, as he ended up coming from behind to beat Karlovic in three seats.

-Lebron James recieves an ally-oop pass against the Australians and slams it home. The "Dream Team" took a while to get started, but in the end pulled it through. One note: the Australian fans were wild!

-We watched Lisa Fernandez pitch a one-hitter today against Greece, but the highlight was seeing Cat Osterman of UT. I wore my Longhorns shirt and Damon had his big foam "Hook EM" hands, and Cat spotted us in the stands and gave us a big "Hook EM!"

More later with some pretty cool pics of the Olympics, the Acropolis, and more.

Fried Cakey Stuff with Stuff In It

Athens, Greece

-From Damon

So I am sitting in waiting for my friend Tom to return from the evening's tennis matches. We both saw Venus Williams (who we always cheer against in the US - but not today) get crushed from front row seats about 30 feet from where they were serving. It was quite extraordinary. I left at this point to catch the Italia-Paraguay futbol match across town while Andy stayed behind to watch the doubles match with 85 year old Martina Navratilova. She's so old. I would like to see a picture of her next to the Parthenon - that would be a lot of OLDness. But, good for her though - still pluggin away and getting more exercise than probably 99 percent of us. I am in the one percent though cause I am a pro golfer...

Today was the most tiring one yet. After waking up late since we were on the wrong time (again) we immediately took off for all the old 500+ BC Greek sites that lie in, on and around the Acropolis. Unlike the museum in Prague, seeing these old ass rocks was pretty cool. We slipped our way across about 10,000 acres of marble and rocks to see the sights. I must say it was one of the neatest (that is a shout out for Beaver Cleaver) sights I had ever been around. You take these experiences so far with you, I have learned. Sometimes when you are there, you just want to take a picture and run away from the 100 degree sun. It's down the road that you are grateful and more cultured for seeing something so simple (yet so amazing).

Tomorrow we wrap up our stay in Athens. That means we will consume about 20 more gyros and fried cakey stuff with stuff in it. Despite what you may be hearing we are finding Athens to be pretty cheap - if you don't count the Olympic tickets of course - but even with them we are getting in for about 15 euro a pop. On to see USA-Greece softabll game tomorrow. The USA hasn't lost in like 30 years and has outscored opponents this tournament like 500-0 (ok, 30-0). Either way we are still pretty psyched to wave our US flags all over the place and make local people mad. We can't tell if they are talking about us. We hope our UT girl, Cat O. will pitch cause I didn't carry this big foam "Hook-em Horns" hand for nothing. If you are up in the morning check out the Today show - we may be on that as well. Matt Lauer loves Italians from Rochester.

Oh yeah, today Mr. Selleck shouted out "Bring down the house" to Venus. It was cool.

And, yes, Berlin was as Andy stated. The scenery was weak but the history was impressive. Having my German twin there also helped. It is amazing how many laughs we got out of walking around saying "Hautz-maur" (or something like that) under our breaths to random people. It means shut-up. Ahhh, the simple things in life.

We will be resting in Corfu on the beach come Friday. Precious down time to rest our legs, burnt faces, and wallets.

Adios.

Camping on the roof?

Athens, Greece

Wow, I was a little worried there for a bit.

We arrived in the Athens airport this morning with no place to stay. Our only connection for a place was with Damon's buddy that is working for NBC. Unfortunately, he is not allowed to bring any guests into the hotel.

So there we sat -- in the airport calling hotel after hostel, trying to find a place to rest our heads.

I wasn't worried about finding a place...until I talked with Nick from Athens Hostel No. 5. He didn't have any beds, but we could rent a spot on the roof for 25 euro. That got me really pumped.

But finally we found a place for the next two nights! It has a great view of the city, especially the Acropolis. Damon is frantically searching online for Olympic tickets and we're in the process of deciding on what we will see. Maybe women's volleyball tonight? Wish we could go to the USA vs. Greece basketball game, but that is of course a tough one to get a ticket for.

Pictures will be posted soon -- I promise. Sorry, but I've had a tough time finding a place to let me use a USB port.

Berlin in a nutshell

Berlin, Germany

It is hard to summarize the past four days in one blog entry. This is in small part because Berlin is a good city to visit, but mostly because Damon and I had such gracious hosts while staying here.

Damon met Pieter and Franziska about three years ago in Amsterdam on a random night on the town. Over the years, Damon and Pieter kept in touch through email. Although their friendship seemed quite casual, Damon emailed Pieter several weeks ago to tell him that we were coming to the German capital.

An outside observer of the weekend would have thought that Damon and Pieter were brothers, not just random drinking buddies from long ago – for two reasons. First, Pieter and Franzi were as kind and hospitable as one can be. They opened their home to us, gave us multiple tours of the city, took us shopping (I got some shoes!), and hosted us for many fine meals. They even borrowed the car of Franzi’s mom to take us to the airport this morning at 5:00 a.m. for our flight out to Athens. All in all, they made us feel like guests of honor. It was amazing. I hope to one day return the favor.

The second reason that one might think that Damon and Pieter were brothers is that they really get along great. Damon has a unique and sarcastic wit that typically comes off as lighthearted and fun. Pieter has a very similar sense of humor, so it was very interesting to see these two guys – guys that barely knew each other at the start of the weekend – feed off of each other. I think Damon had a blast with Pieter’s personality, and vice versa. Not to say that I didn’t of course. But I often found myself partnered in conversation with Franzi (in her cute Irish accent that she picked up while studying there) while Pieter and Damon told each other jokes (and Pieter taught Damon German expletives).

The unique bond that these two guys seem to share is worth a pause for reflection. In this world that seems so huge, it is truly amazing that two people from totally different backgrounds can share so much in common. It makes me wonder about the other seven billion people alive. How many other Pieters are out there that Damon hasn’t met? Or that I haven’t met? And what about you?

Of course, I must take a moment to discuss the happenings in Berlin. All in all, the city is not very spectacular looking. Berlin is a big metropolitan center that lacks the magic of many smaller European cities – Prague, for example. But for what the city lacks in scenes, it makes up in history. I found the visit to the Berlin Wall the most interesting sight. First off, it was neat to get the perspective of Pieter and Franzi – both from Eastern Germany. I knew the history a bit – learned more at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum – but was able to get a German’s view on the situation. (As an aside, this was another great advantage to having a local host: we got to discuss many issues and get a German/EU perspective. I’ll keep politics out of this blog, but will mention that it wasn’t surprising to hear/see how the EU feels about the upcoming presidential election.)

Other highlights of the trip included:

-Shopping and the best ice cream in Berlin at Potsdammer Platz, which is Berlin’s smaller version of Times Square.

-A visit to the Reichstag, which is the home of Germany’s federal government. A new glass dome was built recently and we were able to go to the top for a great view of the city. Near the Reichstag, we observed the famous Brandenburg Gate. One note: Damon and I both noticed that the landscape maintenance was sub-par. We expected the capitol to have spectacular grounds, but they were typically overgrown and shoddy.

-The Jewish National Museum had very unique architecture, including some interesting sculptures in memory of those murdered during the Holocaust. The museum was mostly about the history of German Jews, but also had a major section on the culture and traditions of Judaism. Damon and I found this part quite fascinating.

We had our final meal last night at a traditional German restaurant and it was outstanding. The portions were enormous and the food delicious. Damon and I agreed: next time we’re in Berlin, we will return to the restaurant.

And now to Athens. I’ll keep you posted on which events we’re going to so you can watch for us on TV!

Love the liver

Berlin, Germany

A few years ago, I took a big road trip out to the west coast with a group of my friends from Auburn. Along the way, we kept a quote book of funny things that people said throughout the journey. Damon and I are not keeping a quote book, but after last night we are thinking about starting one up. The first entry:

That looks like something off of Fear Factor. -Damon

We were fresh off the train from Prague and after traveling by metro and foot for two hours had finally reached Damon´s friend´s house. It was nearly 10 PM and we had not eaten all day, so we stopped at the only restaurant that seemed open. It looked great from the outside with a relaxing patio area and festive middle eastern music. We plopped our big packs down, ordered a German beer, and then tried to tackle the menu.

"Tried to tackle the menu" would be the key phrase from the previous sentence. It was a bilingual menu, but unfortunately for us that meant German and Arabic. Our waiter spoke a bit of English and so we asked him what his favorite is. He pointed to it and we liked the price, so we ordered two.

Fifteen minutes later and still waiting on our beers, our salads arrived. We had not eaten all day, so the salads of parsley, tomato, onion, cucumber, radish, and carrots looked delectable. Enter the Fear Factor quote. The waiter brings out our trays 0f food, and it is quickly evident to Damon that we are going to be eating liver for the rest of the night.

I have had liver before when I was a lot younger, and all I remember is that it is pretty try. In a previous post, I mentioned that I can no longer say that I do not like beets. Well, it is safe to say that liver can take its place.

I am sure that there are many reading this that have no problem with liver. I respect that and even applaud that. But on this particular evening fresh from eight hours of a journey, we were ready for something a little more appetizing. We did not get it. It was bitter and dry and in the end, we ate a combined 3 pieces (of the few dozen that were brought to us).

All was fine though. We ate our salads and pita, paid the bill, and made it safely to Pieter´s house down the road. What more could we ask for? Okay, maybe a large pizza from Austin Pizza Live would have made it better. But in the end, we had a roof over our head and got a great night of rest.

We have done quite a bit of touring around the city today, and are on our way to see the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Tomorrow we will get a tour from Pieter, which should be nice since he has lived in Berlin for many, many years. I hope to put some pictures online soon too. Get excited - they´re prettz good.

One more note: I only brought a pair of flip flops over here with plans on buying a pair of hip European walking shoes upon arrival. So I have been shopping for some shoes throughout the journey, and so far have only run across one pair of shoes in my size! This is probably not worth mentioning on the blog, besides the fact that it is pretty funny that I remain shoeless over here solely because of my long feet!

I AM Tiger Woods (I mean Phil Mickelson)

Prague, Czech Republic

-From Damon

That's right. Chalk up another celeb look alike for me. I have gone from Chris Odonnell to that dude from Party of Five and now to Phil Mickelson. 5 drunk Scotsmen from the bar last night pinned me with this new title. Not sure where they got the idea - trying to decide if it's the man boobs thing or the lighter hair, for sure it ain't the money. Anyways I am excited to be a pro golfer look alike - I AM PHIL MICKELSON.

So after about 20 plus miles of walking around the city yesterday (in American flops of course), we got to take a 10 minute cable car type ride up the Praha hillside - it was absolutely the most miserable experience in my life. Mind you our car sat four but 16 people were wedged in - and deodorant is just not popular around here - or windows on these things.

Pizza and beer was the dinner of choice last night, and we did dessert this time around - more beer. Stayed out late for the **first** time, walked home in the pouring rain and got late night burritos. And what a hostel we have - not one sheet of toilet paper in the place! And if you know Andy (on that level) our room doesn't really smell all that good. Praha has been fun - just like I remembered it.

So Tom Selleck and Phil Mickelson are off today to Berlin. We will be staying with my friend Pieter, whom I met my last time in Europe. Knew the guy for about 6 hours but for some reason he feels compelled to give us the use of his pad (flat) for the weekend. Pretty psyched.

Still have no place to live in Athens so please send suggestions.

Peace.

Tom Selleck eats beets

Prague, Czech Republic

When people ask me what foods I don't like to eat, I always quickly reply with "beets."

No more, my friends. Last night Damon and I had a traditional Czech meal -- pork, sausage, sour kraut, dumplings, Plzen beer, and of course -- beets.

Simply put, they were delightful. (Mom, this does not mean that you need to cook beets when I return home in September. I'd much prefer a pot of red beans on the stove.)

So you're probably wondering how Tom Selleck comes into this? Well, since we're in Europe, Damon and I are trying to let loose and have decided not to shave. Informally, we've decided to have a contest to see who can grow the craziest facial hair. As many of you know, I rarely have to shave -- the only hair that I grow is around the moustache area. And thus, Damon has started calling me "Tom Selleck" or just "Tom."

Funny that he's ribbing me for being Tom Selleck. The kid died his hair blonde while he was in Alaska last month and is on the way to get a tattoo on his back of the Charles Bridge. Prague -- Czech it out.

One other brief mention: we went to the National Museum yesterday. The outside of the building was amazing so we figured it would be a cool one to hit. We were hoping to get some insight on the history of country and city. Instead, all we saw was a bunch of stones and bones. As we later read in our guidebook, this museum is only for the biggest "enthusiasts" and should be saved for only the "rainiest of days." Justin Stickler (my archaelogist friend) would have been in heaven. We weren't.

We leave for Berlin tomorrow at 3 PM.

Tomorrow Damon promises to post -- as soon as he dries off from all of his sweating.

Who needs luggage anyway?

Prague, Czech Republic

Before leaving, I thought about putting a blog entry up about all of the preparation that I put into packing for this trip. I sought advice from friends and read tips online. I even bought a cool dry-fit towel and a super sweet REI backpack. I packed in great detail, sealing my underroos in a zip-lock baggie and getting travel-sized toiletries (except for shampoo...I've got a lot of hair).

Turns out that was all for naught.

As I ran through the Paris airport at 6 a.m. on Monday morning, I already knew that my preciously packed bag wasn't going to be waiting for me in Prague upon arrival. Another late flight (which should be a topic in its self) and I barely made my connection. My luggage didn't make it. How could it?

And so I found myself waiting in the Prague airport for Damon to arrive, luggage-less and tired. I waited and waited, and just when I was about to give up on the kid and hop on a train to Coppenhagen (why not?) there he came around the corner. I was never so happy to see a Boston Red Sox hat, and I guess never so happy to see Damon.

We quickly found a hostel in the city centre and took the metro into town. After a long voyage across the Atlantic, we surprisingly had a lot of energy and went for dinner and a few Czech beers. The prices are up here, which we pretty much expected, but things are still cheap by US standards.

Upon our return from dinner, my luggage was there -- delivered by the Air France agent straight to my door. So in all actuality, the delayed luggage saved me the energy of lugging it into the city!

And so we're here and the adventures begin. Time to get to them...

Don't Mess with Texas

Washington, D.C., USA

As I put the finishing touches on my preparations for the trip, I'd like to address a question that many have posed to me in recent weeks: how in the world did this excursion to Eastern Europe get dreamed up?

It all goes back to the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. My roommate at UT, Damon, had worked at the '02 Games and throughout our time in Austin, he relayed many stories about his days in Utah. In sum, he had one of the best times of his life and I was quickly convinced that working at the Olympics was something that I wanted to do at some point in my life.

My graduation from UT in May 2004 and my upcoming departure to Cambridge in October 2004 left me with quite a long summer to fill my time. Knowing the summer Olympics were going to be in Athens, I decided back in the fall of 2003 to try and score a job in Greece. After a (very) little contemplation, I thought that I had the master plan: I would work for the famed USA basketball team: the "Dream Team." I went to the team Web site and browsed around looking for any type of leads regarding employment opportunities. I found none, but using my uncanny resourcefulness I ran across a page of the Dream Team executive board. I was in luck: one of the executives was from Texas. Don't mess with Texas, I thought to myself.

I called up the exec, explaining to his secretary that "It was Andy from Texas." Surely -- I thought -- any Texan would want to talk to another Texan. Fortunately, I was right and the secretary buzzed me through. Yet my Olypmic dreams quickly came crashing down. The bad news? The Dream Team hires their Olympic crew directly from the NBA. But the gentleman from Texas quickly bounced back the surprising good news: a "contact."

And so came my "in" into the US Olympic network. One contact led to another and before I knew it, my resume was in the hands of the US Olympic Committee PR director. Through a little paperwork, I all of the sudden had a gig working at a peasant's wages (actually a small stipend) for the USOC.

And thus the seed was planted for a little jaunt over to Athens in August. But try as I might, I could not manage to secure housing for the month for less than 8000 euros. (Yes, you did in fact read that correctly.) Wow, that's quite a sum and so I weighed my different options.

In the end, I decided to take the money that I would have spent doing the Olympics for three entire weeks and morphed the trip into an all-around Eastern European adventure. Luckily, I'll still be able to go to Athens. And even more lucky, the USOC is still going to let me work for as long as I can be there.

And my luck hasn't run out. I've got some good friends that have hopped on board for some of the fun. Damon will be with me on the first three-week leg of the journey (Prague to Vienna) and then Sarah will join for another two and a half weeks. Adam has finally committed and will be coming over for about ten days at some point in the exploration. There are a few others that are waivering (the recently married Cliff Kornegay and ping pong champ Brian Kelsey), so hopefully we can get them to come on down too. All are friends from UT so you can be sure that wherever we go, we'll be sharing the pride that got us all here in the first place. Don't Mess with Texas.

Getting ready for the ride

Washington, D.C., USA

"Life is a journey. Enjoy the ride."

I remember using this quote in high school. It comes from an old Nissan advertisement campaign. Yeah, you remember it: the one with the old man that looked like Mr. Miyagi and the little dog that looked like Spudz MacKenzie.

I used the quote in a speech at my high school graduation. I was trying to be deep. I was trying to be profound. My interpretation and application of the quote was fairly straightfoward and simple. I talked about the "road of life" -- which ironically became another Nissan ad campaign a few years later -- and how there would be ups and downs, and forks in the road that represent major decisions in life. I probably quoted Frost (although I can't be certain) and Wonka (although I can be certain). The speech most certainly included clichéd phrases like "hopefully our paths will cross again" and "this has been a journey of joy." I told colorful stories of the journey, and somehow I remember relating those stories to the phrase hakuna matata from the Lion King. How exactly -- I'm still not sure.

In the end the speech was not very memorable. It was neither deep nor profound, although I do recall receiving many approving laughs from the audience.

But I'm a changed man now, and thus I decided to revisit the quote. The change is a big one. The first time I uttered those words, I was eighteen and thought that I knew all. Now I'm twenty-four and realize that I know very little. And so I'll take my simple translation from long ago and make it even simpler.

Life literally is a journey. We -- mankind -- can make cute little analogies of what that journey is. That's what I did in my speech six years ago. But if life is a journey, then let's make it just that: the act of traveling from one place to another throughout one's life.

Simple enough then.

Life is a journey and fortunately for me, my journey is going to include some pretty cool places over the next six weeks. From Prague to Athens to Istanbul, I'll be traversing all over Eastern Europe.

Last summer I was in Ethiopia, and many will recall the email listserve that I sent out: andysafricanadventures. All in all the emails seemed to be a hit, and I've had many friends and family members ask if I was going to set up something similar for the summer.

But in this day and age, a blog makes more sense. Now you can check up on me at anytime. No clogged inbox but still the same colorful stories from thousands of miles away. And hopefully I'll get some pictures up and running.

And so I welcome you to my blog. Just do one thing for me: enjoy the ride.