Adventures in Germany II

Part Deux,

On a cold and blustery day, which was similar to most every day, Jen and I hopped into the little speedsters precious Honda and set off to Osnabruck. First order of business was Michi, who had recently become a daddy which in itself is a bit of a shock considering that less than a year and a half ago he was in Miami, partying with us like a nice irresponsible twenty something, and now he has a precious bundle that just wants to put stuff in his mouth, that he calls Len. It was great to see Jen get down and play with the little kid, she always claims that she has no interest in babies and how she is not a big fan but everyone knows she is a total softie on the inside, and just pretends to be a tough cookie. But you really get to see how becoming a dad changes someone, as Michi was totally obsessed with his boy, he was showing us videos that were taken three days ago, and it was as if it was not even for us but more for himself that he wanted to see them again, and not miss a single moment of Len's life, which was so admirable.

Following our baby adventure, we went to see the BIG BABY, or at least I claim would be the perfect Halloween costume for large. We went to his house, where his dad kept bottles of beer popping out of nowhere and Pascal made sure that there was a never ending cast of visitors stopping by. I have to say it was totally cool. I think almost every single person that I have met who has visited Pascal in the almost 2 years that we lived together showed up on a freezing Sunday night to chit chat, relieve old stories and see what everyone has been up to since the last time we met up. It is strange because I was like a host for most of the visitors in Miami, showing them around, giving them tips on where to go, and taking them out clubbing. It is strange but I kind of like the role of being the host, and someone who leads others around and shows them the best of a place, or at least what he thinks is the best of the place. Jenny is similar I have a feeling she loves it too, but she is more of a democracy then I am, I just take people where I think is good, and really discourage them from places that do not interest me, Jen is much more open and willing to let them do what they want to do. In any case it was a great evening seeing Pascal and everyone. It is so strange but when Jen and me were casting for a house mate way back in November of 06, never did we imagine that the 6 ft 8inches (205 cm) giant that had to bend his head to walk through doors would turn out to be such a great roommate and a great friend. That was the Benevento house, and anyone who happened to spend some time there during the 2 years we were there for knows what I am talking about, there was always something going on, you were never for a second bored or lonely in the Benevento house, there were visitors, parties, basketball game watching, beach days, barbecues and countless pregames held there.

Next day J and I anticipated that we would be going back to the Heartz for skiing and snowboarding, but thank god that we did not, we were both so totally tired and exhausted. Instead we spent the day chilling and then we had Large come over to Bad Oeynhausen and we all went to the Bali Therme, which is a kickass place. It is a bunch of pools that are heated by underground springs, and it has a whole Indonesian vibe feel where the three of us recapped our times in Miami and tried to make plans for when we would all see each other again.

SKIIIING! That was the news of the day, it was time for shaky knee's Lav to learn to Ski, and man oh man, was that an adventure. So first is walking in those boots, man that is a mission, and has anyone noticed that Ski's are kind of heavy, not at first, but when you have to climb up to get to the slope cause that’s the only way there, dude....Once I got there I strapped in and started going, well going is not the right way to describe it, I would being to slide and freak out. Usually like a bad cartoon I would go down backwards, sideways and any which way, I would attempt to break but that was laughable, mainly I would fall into a heap of cris crossed ski’s and my legs in angles I never dreamed I could pull off. But those initial problems were quickly solved and I thought myself to be well on my way, except I had to learn how to turn and that is no easy feat, or at least not when your instructor, and well mine being Jen’s dad who has been skiing since before he was born, tells you to lean into the valley (meaning put all your weight into that big drop down there and do not worry it will all be ok) which seems simple enough, except what you know you should do and what your body does are two total opposite things, it took me some time to get used to that. I ended up in several hedges of the forest because of my lack of shifting weight in the turn, or not mastering slowing down into the turn and thus just ramming myself right into the forest, where my ski’s would be so tangled I looked like those people who play the game where you spin the spinner and put your hands and legs on the colored patches on plastic and you end up in funky contorted usually very explicit poses. Now I managed to get a hang of the whole turning thing soon, and I was picking up speed, a few times I would go into a turn and come out going twice as fast somehow and then with my increased speed it resulted in lack of future turns on the way down, and into a full speed descent down the mountain…..not a good idea if you cannot stop, so just about when it looked like I would crash into the host of people waiting by the lift, I decided to sacrifice for my fellow humans by throwing myself onto the ground and trying to stop by clawing my hands into the snow.
All in all it was amazing, after about two hours I felt like a pro, which is why you see that facebook picture of me, do I not look like I could be in a slalom race, or any of those? I was totally impressed with Jen though; man she can board like it is nothing. I mean wow, totally cool, I will have to try that next time, she was weaving and curling and it was impressive to see her look so damn cool! I also managed to fall of the lift once, and instead of just going to the line and getting a free lift up again, I walked up the whole way, like a moron in snow shoes in snow that was knee deep. Let me just say that this was the first and last time that I will ever do that again, I was so damn tired of carrying those ski’s up the slope and trying to not have my feet sink to my knees on every step.
With that our adventures in northern Germany were coming to a close, we had some great times, lots of great dinners (the duck was delicious, especially when Jen’s dad pretended he was dancing with the duck just to scare Jenny, who has a fear or rather is completely disgusted by raw meat). It was New Year’s Day and we had a date with a train back to Mannheim. A pleasant 5 hour ride later we were in Mannheim and planning for the evening, we would be going to a club called Baton Rouge with some students from Jen’s Uni, including Simon who was this totally nice dude who just happened to be completely wasted, and was hilarious all night long. The DJ was pretty good and we had some fun time dancing, but the time seemed to go by real fast, it was almost 3 am before we noticed and all of a sudden it felt as if the playlist was on repeat as the same songs were coming back on, probably the DJ had some extra bubbly and was in no mood to keep up the creativity so we slowly made our way home. I say slowly, because the whole city was icy, I do not know if it rained or what but there was a thin layer of ice everywhere that made for some nice sliding, though it was fun to slide for a few meters until I almost cracked head a few times and was more careful.
Then slowly the worst days started coming, it is when you know that the trip is almost over, and I was about to be heading back to Zagreb again, and parting with Jenny. You always hear how people can get used to anything, that it is just a matter of routine, well Jen and I have parted ways so many times, and it is never easy, in fact it is harder with each visit. We made some lovely dinners and lunches those last few days, and watched several movies, it was a great time, on the last night we went out to this cocktail bar that is on top of a tower, it is in the center of Mannheim and it overlooks the whole city, 360 degrees around, a great view. There was talk of some cocktail specials but alas they had changed the specials with the new year, so I was ready to order some celebrity (the names of all the cocktails are celebrity names, and they kind of go with their personality) when I see a picture of Clint Eastwood looking all cool and well like Clint Eastwood, so I had to have his drink, and Jenny had a Jude Law, which is hilarious cause I always imagined Jude Law as a sissy, and when she got some large glass that had pineapple, and all other fruits I knew it was Jude Law for sure, there was barely a hint of alcohol which confirmed that Jude Law is a girly drink and a girly dude. Clint was like a kick up the ass, it was 3 kinds of rum with a dash of lime juice and lemon squeezed into him, Jenny said that she could smell the alcohol across the table. We even got to go drinks, I had Uma Thurman and Jen tried another English/Scottish/British/Pompous actor, who in this case was Colin Farrell, who I will admit was more of a manly drink then Jude Law could ever hope to be.
With that my trip was over, all that remained was a train ride to the airport, and one tearful goodbye with my Jenny, we parted ways on a train platform, with tears and kisses, totally movie cliché style, I even had something fall out of my pocket onto the tracks, but to be honest, I would not have had it any other way. There was the slight matter of finding a seat on a packed and booked out train, while having tears down your cheeks that was a bit unsettling and got me a seat quicker than normal, but that was that. Oh yeah, I was 7 kilos overweight and had to repack, and pay a bit of a fee, but it was worth it. I even have olive oil that Jenny got me, along with 10 milka chocolates :) All in all my adventures in Germany were awesome, and there was not a thing I would change about them, well except to appreciate every hug and kiss more than I did, and maybe try and not get a cold sore on the second day, and thus lose about 7 days of getting kissed.

Let it Snow

Isnt it amazing, thats from my window, in the morning.
I woke up and saw that the city was covered in white gold, twas so pretty, and the park outside my window had yet to have a single step ruin the perfection of the snow blanket that fell over Zagreb.


This was as I walked toward a tram station in New Zagreb, where i was picking up some documents related to work, i loves how the trees and the tracks looked.



Snow is so amazing, it covers all the imperfections and makes everything a pristine white, until people wake up, move around, cars make their way, then it becomes a gray/black mixture that looks like rain puddles and is far from the perfection it was before.

What i loved most about the snow today, as i was taking my grandma to her doctor, was that there was a beautiful blue clear sky above me, with a sun shining so bright, white gold all around the floor, and snow was still falling, there were amazing flakes trickling down.....

Adventures in Germany I

I have just come back from an amazing vacation in Germany, I was there for 15 days. I arrived in Stuttgart, and went right to Mannheim to see Jen, who had a little cold, that she managed to brave very well. We made it to Heidelberg with her buddy Fabian and some other peoples the following night, for what was an eventful night (I broke my jacket in two places, we met people who are going to MBA in the USA without taking the GMAT, and we managed to freeze our asses off). I had my UniClub experience the following night, now this is truly something everyone should have: You arrive in this restaurant/bar/wooden place, where they have great beer on tap in all sizes, with large tables and lots of cushy pillows to sit on, if you look up onto the ceiling you will notice that there are tables glued to it, looking down at you like a mirror, with cutlery, menu's and everything glued on, but the real treat is the SCHNITZEL! Two big pieces that come with a mountain of thin crispy french fries, and a large portion of salad....MMMMmmmmMMMMM

Then was the train ride to Bad Oeynhausen, which lasted 6 long hours, mainly due to severe train delays cause of an engine problem, and more likely the fact that half of Germany was on a train going somewhere for the holidays. But the ride was worth it, we get to Jen's parents house and we have fresh squeezed OJ waiting for us, and dinner....MMMMmmmMMMMM again. Delicious, you really could not have asked for more, it was some soft meat in a sick sauce, man i was drooling over it! Christmas came and went, I gave some hopefully good presents, and I received some lovely ones a scarf, tie, soft as all hell towel, sweater, chocolates, etc. And ate a good piece of fish, very nice! There also was a 7km walk around some swamps, which was good, cause the air was fresh, and the walk was nice, i like to walk, and i mean the swamps were not much, in fact not even swampy, a few ponds, and some amazing sunset pictures, and others



We went hiking up the Brocken, which was a total trip, it looked like a winter wonderland. I seriously felt as if i was in the disney cartoon, and there was someone singing

Gone away is the bluebird,
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song,
As we go along,
Walking in a winter wonderland.

Damn disney, im looking for a clip and i cannot find anything, they are tight asses with videos of that little mouse. Suffice it to say that it was amazing, a clear blue sky

and snow everywhere, pine trees covered with snow, and the whole time i was expecting a white tiger or moose or some other winter animal to come out of the trees and greet us....and half the time we were walking on half a meter of snow on top of little streams or who knows what, but it was not a path by any means, we just kind of went into the forest and navigated, SPECTACULAR!....and i love this picture
Thats my Jenny chilling over a bridge with a stream flowing underneath, with the top kind of fake frozen, but the current strong underneath...the solitude you feel while walking is crazy, one moment there are 10 other people there, and you turn a corner and you feel as if there is no one for miles, and you are lost in a forest and who knows what kind of snow wolf will eat you


There is a feeling of peacefulness and total calm that you feel as you climb a winding path towards a target with snow all around you. The sun beating down on you, making you reconsider wearing that sweater under the jacket as you begin to sweat, and yet the snow is showing no signs of giving up its domination of the terrain. As soon as you turn a corner you are more grateful for the sweater's warmth as the shade makes the temperature drop several degrees in an instant.

Tomorrow on the blog: Skiing, LARGE, New Years, Mannheim, Train Scams, Leaving Jen, Zagreb again