Jeremy's Euro Trip

Cool Panoramics

2007-08-07T15:08:00.000+02:00

My fancy new camera has a cool function allowing for Panoramic pictures to be taken and then automatically aligned in Photoshop, here are some of my favourites from the year.

At the outskirts of Freiburg near the Opfinger See

Near the top of Interlaken, we were standing where there was a glacier back 50 years ago.

At the base of Interlaken overlooking the lake near our camp ground.

This was taken in Turkey in the Cappadocia region.

Back with updates!

2007-08-07T14:50:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the lack of updates as of late, but blogger is simply a pain in the ass to upload pictures to, especially with flickr and facebook making it so hassle free. But for those of you that don't have either here are a few pics from the last couple weeks here in Freiburg!

Charlie and Tom in deep thought.

View from Fierelings.

I rollerbladed up to the top of this hill all the while playing ball hockey, a good workout but I am sure i looked a bit strange to locals.

Yes its wine season again and the grapes are amazing!

Innovation is the name of the game, Guiness with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, Guiness float anyone?!?! (on a side not it actually tasted not bad!)

The Juan and Maria.

We wanted to have a Spanish themed party for Juan but the only hats we could find all said Fosters.

Another Spanish goodbye party, this time for Jesus.

This Rainbow was very impressive, the first one i'd seen since I was like 10 years old.

And its all for Fierelings!

Biking to Opfinger See.

The pub crew.

After our successful rendition of I'm Too Sexy we order Jamieson straight up.

Oh yeah, manly men.

Ben's Visit

2007-06-11T00:49:00.000+02:00

The dream team!

There have been sightings of Bigfoot in Freiburg!!

Or sightings of Ben!

Relaxing with a brew at Feierling's

Dancing up a storm at Stusie

Is Benny sleepy?!?!

The cousins shot

This is what happens around 12 on Augustiner Platz

We were solicited into selling fries, and what do you know? Sold out!

Chest hair competition

Schützenfest!

Alex's Birthday

2007-06-11T00:37:00.000+02:00

Its been a while since I updated this page but here are a few pics from Alex's birthday

Apparently my amazing hair was a hit!

The most amazing birthday present of all time.

Stockholm

2007-05-19T17:15:00.000+02:00

I spent last weekend visiting Billy in Stockholm. The city is very cool and is a total mashing of nature and city, with lakes, parks, tree lined streets the whole shabang.

Shortly after take off from the airport on the way back.

This was probably one the most impressive things I have seen before, a 16th (I think) century ship that sunk shortly after its maiden voyage, it sat at the bottom of the Baltic sea until the 1950 when it was raised up. Too bad that you can't actually go into it though.

Literally walking a few feet behind Billy's residence and you are immediately in what is strangely similar Northern Ontario, around 3 minutes later and you are at a series of lakes and beaches, very cool indeed.

I was debating rock climbing here, instead I just took a few pictures.

At the end of the city hall garden, not too many city halls in the world can boast water front real estate.

H and M in Stockholm?? No way! You couldn't walk a block without finding another H&M, to give you perspective is like Tim Horton's in Canada.

At the city hall again.

After having an epic BBQ we went into town to watch the Sweden Canada semi finals. The place was packed with hockey loving Swedes and Billy and I as the only 'real' Canada fans.

These guys were hard core hockey fans, the guy on the left loved Detroit, especially Holstrom. He even offered Billy an all inclusive trip to his home town in Sweden!

In the end he ended up giving him his hat. The trip is still up for discussion I think.

Later on we went to house party and corridor party and I displayed my body checking abilities to Billy. I think he approved of it!

One of the streets in old town.

View of the city

One of the rooms in city hall was decked out in gold and mosaic. I didn't have a good pic of the entire place but this one turned out well.

Another picture of the down town.

Funny Pic...

2007-05-06T22:32:00.000+02:00

This picture is hilarious, an advert for a residence bar.

April May Randoms

2007-05-06T19:10:00.000+02:00

I haven't been using my camera too much since I got from Turkey but here are a few shots of what has been going on.

Black forest.

I haven't been using my camera too much since I got from Turkey but here are a few shots of what has been going on.

Damien was back up visiting for the weekend and we traveled up to Oberreid, it was rainy and foggy but I still got some good picks.

One of the back streets of Basel.

Bridge over the Rhein in Basel

Strange symbol I thought for a Catholic Church

The Rhein again.

The Klettern Baum as it is affectionately referred to as.

Summer in Freiburg is amazing so for, 'grilling' seems to be the shit, I don't know why they just don't call it BBQing. The weather has been amazing since I got home from Turkey with only the last two days raining.

Alex the Smoke Ring Champion.

Some crazy fountains in Basel, I don't think they have any purpose.

Sunset outside of my window in Vauban.

Sean doing his best Deliverance impersonation, and damn is it convincing.... you sure got a pretty mouth!

Seepark again.

Imogen and Sean, both Innisfree bar compatriots.

Istanbul

2007-04-12T12:41:00.000+02:00

After an uneventful month I kicked off April with a week tour of Turkey.

This was our cave room, no heat, cold desert nights and not hot water make Jeremy very cold... but a very cool experience.

Pic from the tram in Istanbul

Underground cave in Cappadocia, a series of underground caves and rooms that apparently housed over 40,000 people at the start of the 3rd century.

Another pic of the tunnels

We rented scooters for 10 Lyra (around 7 bucks) for an hour and cruised around the country side.

Arriving in Cappadocia at 7am after a fun 12 hour bus ride!

The start of our epic hiking trip.

These cave homes were still being used until the 1950's.

View from the top of the ledge.

At the Palace in Istanbul.

Pic from the ferry ride we took to the Asian side of Istanbul.

Under the old town section of Istanbul lies an old Roman water conservation.

Fountain in the Sultan's garden.

This is from the Sultan's garden

This is taken in the old Bazaar, the oldest shopping centre in the world! Although you couldn't go more than two feet without being haggled.

Our guides Timur and Jenn.

This kid was loving the scooter and also loved me taking a pic of him!

See Ryan I have more than just Brazil socks!

Saturday night in Istanbul... it was chaos trying to walk down the street.

In front of the Christian-converted to Mosque-then later to Museum.

This license plate was in one of the tourist buses, I love the blood haha!

In the Hagia Sofia

One of the revealed Mosaic art pieces.

Myself with some Americans studying in Uppsala that were visited, the girl in purple was our belly dancer/stripper.

Guy and the Blue Mosque

Inside the Mosque, there are no pews in the place, only this carpet, each section is for one worshiper.

Another Bazaar

Fancy pic lol

The Blue Mosque again.

Canadians get ripped on for having way to many flags but it was nothing in comparison to the amount of Turkish flags, they were literally hundreds and hundreds in the city that we saw.

St. Patty's Day

2007-03-19T19:58:00.000+01:00

St. Patty's day in Germany is not anything like what I've seen in Canada. Its on a much smaller scale and only the Irish Pubs celebrate it. Our day kicked off with a Parade around the downtown core with a few Irish Ex-pats, a couple were playing the bag pipes and drums and it was really cool to be a part of it. The pub was packed the entire night, we had a live band, they were great but only played a handful of Irish tunes. The highlight for me was taking a 40 of Jagermeister from some drunk fool that was slamming it back in the centre of the dancefloor, he tried to bribe me with shots, then attempted to wrestle it from my hands (unlucky for him he was a foot shorter than me). Finally I made my way to the bar, passed it to another bar tender and then promptly kicked his ass out!

The next day we had a delicious lunch at the other Irish pub in town, the two pubs cooperate a lot which is something that you don't often see. We then had some beers, entertained by live music, magic and I got a crash course on cricked.

Adam and myself in Schlampen.

Alex giving the 'eye'

I had the pleasure of rocking a leprechaun outfit for the parade.

Alex Fiona and Marta in their parade outfits.

The bags and drums.

Live music from Sunday at O'Kelly's

Last week I also made some amazing chocolate and coconut covered Strawberries. AMAZING

Random pic

2007-03-13T00:58:00.000+01:00

I was searching through some old pics and found this one, cool shot so here it is. Also on a bonus note my camera no longer has that dark blot showing up any more... great news!

Sushi, hockey and spring?

2007-03-13T00:12:00.000+01:00

The last couple of days in Freiburg have been gorgeous, 17 degrees and sunny. I hope it stays this way, I've been spoiled by good weather this year that Canadian winters are going to smack me in the face!

We played some Frisbee and soccer at the top of Schlossberg. I'm such an artist! Right Ryan?

Action shot!

Harnessing the power of the Munster!

After a good round of Frisbee and soccer I threw in the idea for some sushi making, neither Guy or Sarah had ever made it so it was a blast to show them! Although tuna is ridiculously expensive here (almost 4 bucks per 100 grams).

Alex was amazed by it as well.

This is Guy's excited face!

Behind one of the student residences is Seepark, a cool small lake that is surrounded by soccer fields and basketball courts, apparently it is packed in the summer.

The English crew and Sarah with some frisbee.

Finally! After 6 months in Freiburg we finally attended one of the Freiburg Wolf games, it was a good show (Freiburg won 4-2 over the Hannover Indians), full of hockey excitement but the was a definite lack of checking which was a bit of downer. The team is also starting the play offs so for 8 euros I will definitely be checking it out.

R Kelly, Linda, Sarah and Mark enjoying the post game celebrations.

Barcelona 3

2007-03-06T15:17:00.000+01:00

At the Travelers bar.

This picture sums up the bike trip we had, Ryan is having a good time, Chuck is pissed because he has to pay 10 euros for breaking his bike and Matt is constantly trying to fix his.

More dancing

Apparently we are angry...don't know why though.

Thanks Chuck for the eye

This place was so packed, sandwich and bottle of Rosat 3 euros, not being able to leave, priceless.

We control the moon

oh the beach shot

Love this pic

Yes we are Gods

more sandwiches

I really like this shot, took me 15 minutes to get it, while Chuck carried all of the groceries.

never ask a Spanish man to take a picture, apparently here they look through the lens!

So we had to use the automatic timer shots.

Barcelona 2

2007-03-05T20:41:00.000+01:00

The amazing 'Wes Face'

Charles is upset that the Sangria is on our table and not his.

The album cover

Blue Steel

Quick Wes get over here!

The English and Canadians getting ready for the bar.

Ryan is the best dancer on the planet.

and Matt is number 1!

Get these women off of me! I am just trying to dance here!

Shots from Famille Sangria (i think?)

Barcelona 1

2007-03-05T19:27:00.000+01:00

First post in a while, I have over 350 pictures from Barcelona and its taking a while to put up but hopefully I will get them all up soon. I will just be posting the pics because Ryan has already done some extensive commentary on his blog and you can read about what we got up to there.

Vag on Vag.... translation?

This game was almost more exciting than the BCL FC game!

Chuck attacking the small child with the helmet after 'andwiches and wine.

I have to credit to Guy for the inspiration on this one.

National Art Gallery, apparently there is an amazing fountain show here but it was a bit far to get to.

Very cool fountain, monument thing.

Epic shot

At the ocean

The cooking crew!

Our first hostel enjoying the 2 euro sec.

In front of the Arc de Triumph

Breisach

2007-02-10T16:33:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, Craig Guy and I took a trip down to the village of Breisach. Its next to the Rhine, on the Border of France.

Overlooking the Rhine

Tourists...

Very cool monument slash statue, but I have no idea what it is about, something to do with Zeus I think.

Last few days

2007-02-08T20:55:00.000+01:00

I have had a ridiculously hard time loading pictures lately with firefox, actually the new version of firefox tends to be overall quite useless. One that note, these are a few pictures of the last week. Damien left last week to go back to Grenoble to keep up with his Med studies.

This pic was taken at the top of Oberried, a few clicks from Freiburg.

Group shot, the view from here is amazing but too much fog to see anything on that day.

Craig doesn't seem to like the cake, funny, i thought it was very tasty.

Picture from KGB, a fitting name for this Russian bar, all red, a thousand different vodkas and some groovy patriotic russian tunes.

We opted for some sekt, I tried to convince them to go for the metre of Vodka, I guess I'll have to come back.

Linda giving her sexy face.

The Pub and Snow in Freiburg

2007-01-25T15:24:00.000+01:00

Here are a couple pics from the pub that I work at; The Isles of Innisfree. Getting a Guiness every time I work is almost worth working for free!

We finally have snow if Freiburg, I took this last night after one hell of a bike ride through ice and snow, dodging Germans who have no idea how to drive in the snow!

Raclette Time

2007-01-16T00:42:00.000+01:00

Thought I would put of a picture of my room here in my apartment, I'll take some more pictures and maybe post a video later on of the rest of it.

Last weekend Kristoff came up from Grenoble to pay a visit back to Freiburg. Friday night we had a raclette dinner, which was very tasty. Afterwards we headed out to Schlampen, the student pub for a few drinks.

Guy is making his famous Ottawa raclette meal, or maybe he's just reaching for the garlic.

Showing the french how to properly shotgun a beer. Although they still needs some practice.

Shotgun team.

The other racletters.

Grenoble 2

2007-01-08T00:49:00.000+01:00

Guy and Damien waiting for the delicious meat to cook.

Standing beside our personal bar.

View of Grenoble from the top of Chamrousse

Battle scenes

New Years day, the car wasn't that comfortable and makes the second time a car was my bed in a foreign country. And won't be the last.

Grenoble again.

Noon at the base of Chamrousse, conditions were blizzard like but at least we had snow, the last time was in early December. From the top of the mountain you were lucky to see a few yards, it clear up by the bottom but then you just heading back up again to do it again.

End of the day.

Heading up the slopes.

This was from the highest point of the mountain, the area directly abouve the village and right were all ski trails, for a combined 140km. All for the low price of 24 euros, how the hell does Whistler get away with 100 dollars!?!?!

Grenoble

2007-01-06T17:01:00.000+01:00

After spending a few days at home working at the pub I headed out New Years eve to visited Guy and Damien in Grenoble, in the French Alps. Great skiing, views and city. We spent New Years Eve in Charousse, a ski resort just outside of Grenoble. We spent a couple of days skiing, first in Charousse and the next in the Three Valleys. Very cool.

Damien pulling off a 360

Guy bailed, and instead of trying to help him I covered him in snow and then took a picture. I am glad to report that he survived.

Denis, Damien, Guy and myself taking a lunch break.

Shot of the village.

We were 15 minutes late for the last gondola to give us a lift back to the last hill we needed to take to get back to the car, which was parked at the other side of the mountain. Luckily one of the operators was nice enough the lend a group of us his truck to drive to the other side to get the car, 6 people eventually crammed into the truck while Dam, Guy and a couple of others waited in the village. Two people decided to take a cab to get over and ended up costing them 300 euros! The village was nice but absurdly expensive i.e 9 euros for an irish coffee. After waiting for 5 hours we eventually got back.

On the road back to Freiburg.

Driving 180km on the autobahn while taking a picture (not really).

Grenoble

Christmas

2006-12-28T00:36:00.000+01:00

I spent the weekend at my Grandmas house in Schwarzenau. I visited relatives that I had not seen since September and enjoyed 3 amazing Christmas dinners. It was good to see everyone and spent Christmas with family.

The chef at work.

Booya.

My amazing gift of giant socks with equally giant elephants sewed on the side.

Amazing dinner number 2

Country side near Frankfurt.

This is the village where my Mom grew up.

Another shot of Schwarzenau.

This is the best I could do for snow.

Shooters Bar

2006-12-28T00:10:00.000+01:00

Christmas Market in Freiburg

Last hurra before the break.

Guy and I toasting to one of many shots offered at Shooters bar, over 250 I am told. A list of the available shots are on the walls for viewing but I decided against actually counting them.

Disappointed that in a land where most beers come in 0.5L size, it was almost too much to handle when this Heineken was a mere 0.3! One of the best parts about shooters bar is not only are there a ridiculous amount of shots to try but most come with some sort of actions or tasks that you must do before you can enjoy it.

I can't remember the name of Guy's shot (to many Rambos perhaps!) but he was handcuffed to Daniella and was 'forced' to stay that way until his drink was finished. Poor Guy.

Damien's shot was not as great, he had to put on this dirty horrendous vest, which I am sure that they use to wipe out the ashes in the urinals every night, and beg for 2 euros to pay for his drink. Luckily for him most people were very generous, since they too had to do ridiculous stuff for the sake of a drink. On the bright side he got to use the money for the shot!

Bitte geld! The guy ended up giving him 1 euro!

Having not seen an Arnold, Commando, Terminator or Dutch shot on the board I went for the next best thing: the Rambo. I received a verbal thrashing for about 2 minutes, a few swats to the head, forced pushups and finally a lap around the bar yelling and Rambo lines that came to mind (mostly Arrgg!!).

Secret Santa

2006-12-22T16:55:00.000+01:00

About 15 of us decided to have Secret Santa, organized by Guy (as usual!) Some pics from the events:

In Canada breweries give their loyal customers 4 bucks off a 2-4, in Germany for Christmas they give 2 for the price of 1! God bless Freibuger Pils.

Iiona, Maribel and Sarah, Per looks on from below.

Josh was given his 1st penisman-made-from-a-cigarette-carton-action-figure. Needless to say he was very excited.

I really need to figure out how to rotate pics!

Konstantin is great at telling stories, I think this one is about the time he was on acid and everyone in the bar turned into dinosaurs....

The Last Supper

2006-12-22T16:34:00.000+01:00

Last week I had the opportunity to experience an event that only a handful of people in history have taken part in, The Last Supper with Jesus. Although there may have been a few minor difference from the biblical version and the one that I took part in: namely, it took place in our appartment in Germany and not in the Middle East, we had wine and bread, but I think it was a cabernet and not blood and Jesus was facing a red eyed flight back to Spain in the morning for Christmas and not arrest and beatings at the hands of Roman Soldiers.

Dinner! Espanol-style

The Almighty himself

Alex had these shirts printed up to Boycott Tuition fees that are coming into effect next year, support the cause!

Skating in Colmar

2006-12-13T22:37:00.000+01:00

Last night the Canadian crew, the Spanish girls and the French (a.k.a Damien) went down to Colmar to get some skating in. Little did I know that Colmar is actually in France until Guy told me at the train station, thus being my first time in the country whoo hoo! A good part about my semester ticket from the Uni is that it covers about 100km around Freiburg, allowing for a lot of day trips and lets me get all the way to the border for free. We did some skating, did a walk around town and then heading back home.

I swiched my blogger to the beta version...still have to figure out how to flip pictures..

Sarah and Maribel

Guy and Damien

Sarah and Maribel

The Colmar Munster

Porto Pt IV

2006-12-06T15:54:00.000+01:00

Last set of pictures from the weekend

Oh oh, looks like I'm getting artistic here.

some side street

Not sure what it says, but I don't think that the Portuguese are too fond of ol' George.

The tour bus, and yes that is a 200ft tall banner of Pierce Brosnan holding a beer in the background.

More of Old Town

The Ocean

Jenn and Lindsey

Another one of the old back streets of Porto.

Portugal Pt III

2006-12-06T15:46:00.000+01:00

Beside our river cruising boat

The infamous Sandeman, this man was everywhere in town.

The Ferreira distillery where we took our tour.

Portugal Pt II

2006-12-06T15:36:00.000+01:00

The Portuguese are very Catholic

Taken from the Port distillery side of the river

Big Pimpin' with Jenn, Libby, Ashley and Lindsey.

Part of old town.

Weekend in Portugal

2006-12-06T15:07:00.000+01:00

I caught a flight out to Poro Portugal last week, from Thursday to Sunday. It was my first time traveling alone so it was a bit daunting at first but staying in hostel it is very easy to meet people. Oddly enough over half of the people there were Canadians.

A shot from the valley of the bridge that connects the old traditional Port making areas and the main part of town.

I think I tried 4 times to make this picture, I still couldn't manage to get it right, but I am actually very happy.

Cool shot of the Old Town with the flag.

Rue da Santa Katrina, the main commercial area of town.

This was just beside the entrance to the very old dilapidated parts of Old Town, the part that earned Porto the UNESCO World Heritage site.

No idea what this is here.

Old church on Rue Katrina.

Overlooking the old town.

Titisee

2006-11-19T17:26:00.000+01:00

Saturday we made a trip up to Titisee, a small lake town high in the Schwarzwald. It was 16 degrees in Freiburg and it was about 5 or so in town. Quite a change in temperature, something I felt wearing shorts.

Guy Per and Damien, I think Per is in another world in this one, either that or taking in the experience.

Titisee.

Apparently beavers are not allowed to crap in town.

Another shot of the lake.

For some rediculous reason they decided to go for a swim in the near freezing water...as I watched and laughed nice and dry.

Marybell showing her best poker face.

Damien pledging his allegence.

More Pictures

2006-11-13T20:56:00.000+01:00

Another installment from Craig's pics.

Random German says hello

aww, everyone is a winner at Oktoberfest!

Except maybe this guy, he just got rejected by the blond.

Frauleins...

How deep could your thoughts be with a litre of beer in your hand on your way to the washroom)

The Gods of the show!

What is he lying about?

You

Yes you!

Fear the Guns!

Or else!

He is in deep thought

That is a lot of beer, no wonder she has wrist guards on.

Another threatning picture of Lars.

Climbing master extraordinare!

Never order Weiss Wurst, 2 Sausages, hot water, a Pretzel and mustard=6 euros.

Sweet picture from our camping spot in a farmers field outside of Munich.

Pilsen brewery

If only I could take them all home....

Craig agrees.

Its a bird! Its a plane! No its Super Damien!!

Proast!

O Canada!

The Canadian crew in Konstanz

The second best beer in the Czech, Budweiser takes 1st place.

Picture updates

2006-11-13T20:24:00.000+01:00

Craig burned me a couple of picture CDs from September up until now. Here are a few.

On the Czech-Austrian border trying to figure out which train goes to Vienna.

Bar night in Freiburg

Craig showing off his 'borrowed' items.

Lars Erik proving that he can walk on stilts too.

Shot from a Czech train.

Prague Square.

The infamous bike ride, little did Alex know that she would literally be eating dust in about 15 minutes! Poor girl.

In a Czech abandondoned compound.

Irish car bombs in Konstanz.

The Freiburg crew (minus Craig).

European Handball Madness!!

2006-11-12T23:37:00.000+01:00

Sunday I went to watch a hand ball match, it is basically basketball mashed with Lacrosse with more or less full contact, minus eye gouging. Our team lost unfortunately but it was definitely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Something about beer and sports just mix so well in Germany.

Team 'stasche (although only until tonight.)

Hand ball hooligans, similar to soccer hooligans only more drunk, loud and better at pissing off the other team.

shot of the action

how the goalie is supposed to stop this hurling ball with no equiptment is beyond me.

When the floor because to slippery from the blood sweat and tears (literally), they blow the horn and out runs this poor kid wearing the blue tights and mops it up.

Weekend Pics

2006-11-12T22:58:00.000+01:00

Pictures from the weekend.

Craig decided to do some cooking at 2am.

Burt Reynolds was in my house?

Somehow this girl slept on my couch for 2 hours through blaring music, I have no idea how.

I think Sarah is impressed with my mustache!

If you ever see this man on the left, run as fast as you can and bring your beer with you. Friday night I was at a birthday party and was trying to use my new beer opening technique; using the cap of one beer to open the other one, and this fine gentleman offered to give it a shot. He wasn't able to do it and gave me back one of my beers and proclaimed 'this one must be for me!' he then proceeded to drinking it informs of my dumbfounded eyes. Realizing that I had a beer mooch on my hands I took my remaining 4 beers and grabbed a seat in the other end of the room. I got up to talk to a few people and about 15 minutes later I noticed this guy wandering around the room in obvious search of alcohol to satisfy his cravings. I later found out that he had took two more of my beers as well as 4 from two of my Norwegian friends, successfully downing 6 beers throughout the night.

Rat Pack Concert and Hasselhoff

2006-11-09T17:11:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to the 'History of Music from the Rat Pack,' consisting of impersonations of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. The concert was held at the Konzerthaus an immaculate building normally reserved for renditions of Mozart and Beethoven. The show was done well although Frank wasn't as good as I would have expected for 30 euros.

Probably the fanciest washroom I have ever been in. In the Konzerthaus.

Today as I was browsing through the music section I stumbled again onto something that is both mindblowing and aweinspiring.....

It is true, everything that Eurotrip parodied about Germans loving the 'hoff is true, not only is he on TV every day but he has a greatest hits CD. The question I ask is: how many CDs has this guy put out to warrant a greatest hits CD? Normally I wouldn't hesitate to add such an amazing CD to my collection but the 12 euros was a bit steep. Besides if I do decide to get it later on I don't think I have to worry about them running out of stock.

Europa Park!

2006-11-06T18:03:00.000+01:00

This weekend Guy Lars and myself checked out Europa Park, the largest theme park in Germany for its last day of operation of the year (its also open in December for the Christmas season but with only a few rides). It is a really cool park that is divided into sections with a different country representing each area. It was decked out for Halloween too, with probably a thousand or more pumpkins all around the park. We tried to get on as many rides as we could, even the water rides which was not the smartest idea, but Guy got the worst of it.

Just inside the gates of the park.

Switzerland

For some reason they had these ridiculous warning signs on the Silver star, the largest roller coaster in Europe, I especially like the universal sign for pregnancy, a stork carrying a baby. We rode it 4 times by the end of day. For a virtual ride check out http://www.europapark.de/index.php?ctemplate=parktemplate_&id=1340&amp;amp;amp;amp;cid=32〈=en&land=7

Checking out the pumpkin carving.

Not too sure if this one is really politically correct.

I think these are supposed to be pirates but they look more like strippers to me with the pole dancing and what not.

Shot inside Holland.

http://www.europapark.de/index.php?ctemplate=parktemplate_&id=1340&amp;amp;amp;amp;cid=32〈=en&land=7

Halloween

2006-11-02T21:49:00.000+01:00

Konstantine, Richard, Josh myself and Alex in the Vaubar.

Lars doing his 'no diving in the shallow end' impersonation.

Jenny and me.

Kitchen Party at Guy's

Birthday Party

2006-11-02T20:43:00.000+01:00

After ball I went over to Craig's place for a bit of a pre party and it turned out to be a surprise birthday party for me. It was definately a good time, we ended up going to the bar at 2, biking there. Although bad luck befell me, while I was toasting with Lars, one of the glasses broke and a piece somehow fell straight down and sliced my poor unsuspecting Birkenstock clad foot. It was a bit of a nasty cut so I thew on a band aid and decided to call in a night.

Damien showing us how they play pool in France.

Attack!

On the way to Stustie Bar

....on the way back, apparently bikes don't work going up stairs.

The aftermath of excessive cheering, on a side note don't wear sandales to the bar.

Faux ball hockey

2006-10-29T19:25:00.000+01:00

So I showed up Friday expecting to school the Germans at Canada's favourite past time: hockey. I was surprised to find that their version of ball hockey is actually indoor field hockey. Which was a bit disappointing, considering I shelled out 25€ for a stick. Although, it was also comprised of 65 percent women, which made it a little bit less devestating. Its a good game and it takes a bit of time to get used to stickhandling with one hand but other than that it was a good time.

Carving masters.

2006-10-29T19:17:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday we had a bit of a carving contest at my place. Although its hard to say who won it was an interesting experience for Per, from Sweden who had never carved a pumpkin before.

Per, myself, Guy, Damien, Sarah and Linda.

Per, myself, Sarah (Jagermeister symbol done very well) and Guy.

Amsterdam

2006-10-24T16:41:00.000+02:00

I got a call Thursday night from Jason and Eric, two other Canadians doing a co-op project around the Baden Wurttemburg area and they asked me if I wanted to go to Amsterdam for the weekend. We left Friday afternoon at 6 got in at into town around 1, parked the car and wandered around a bit. I didn't bring my camera out Friday night so all of the pictures are from Saturday and Sunday.

View of the canals in the down town area.

Canals and me.

Street shot.

Taking in the 'Heineken experience,' although the brewery tour had little to do with beer making, it was more of a 2 hour advertisment. At one point they had an interactive ride where you live the life of a Heineken beer bottle, very interesting.

What better way to describe Amsterdam?

I love this shot, I think Heineken should hire me for their marketing department.

Gotta love the Spock advertsment, very logical.

This is basically a brainwashing device where you watch the last 30 years of Heineken advertisments.

Again, please hire me.

This is a shot of the main pedestrain area of town at around 10 or so.

Taking photographs of the prostitutes is not encouraged, if the pimps see you doing it they have a tendency to heckle at you and probably throw mini bags of coke at you while hollaring 'hey Charlie!! Feck off!'

Another shot of me and the Quebec boys.

My favourite shot of the Red Light District.

Myself and Patrizia at some Irish Pub.

Sunday morning, never ask an Asian girl to take a picture of you. You ask for one and soon she is changing the angles, dictating poses and when you get your camera back you have over 3000 shots of the same thing.

On the Autobahn. Two minutes after getting back into Germany a motorcycle cop pulls in front of us, I told Jason to gun it because he can't do anything but then the lights come on and another cop pulls up from behind. Oh shit, what did we do? We pull over and they search us and the car (expecting to find some guns, drugs and/or dead prostitutes in the trunk I suspect.) Being the nice Canadians we are, we are more than happy to oblige to their requests. After about 15 minutes of us cracking jokes about taking off on them on the Autobahn and the cops not finding anything we were let go with a friendly 'auf Wiedersehen!'

Jesus and BÃ¤ren JÃ¤ger

2006-10-20T14:33:00.000+02:00

I dedicate this post to Alex, I have found the infamous BÃ¤ren JÃ¤ger that your Opa is so fond of and I have another bottle here with your name on it. Please if anyone can give me aexplanationon as to what the hell is going on in this label I would appreciate it.

Close up.

Also, I welcome my new roommate Jesus from Spain to our apartment. We have a cleaning system here where everyone has a section of the counter for dirty dishes, Alex my roommate decided that it would be a good idea to use a visual aid to indicate his part of the table. Click on the picture for a better view.

On a side note classes finally begin next week and I'm off tAmsterdammn for the weekend with the boys from Georgian College.

Course registration

2006-10-17T20:18:00.000+02:00

Having spent the last few weeks doing very little school related asides from the language course I am stuck with the tedious task of finding courses for this semester. This is turning out to be a far more difficult task than I had first expected, one thing Germany is not particularly famous for is their bureaucracy, not to mention their usefulness of the website. I decided to take a picture to demonstrate my frustrations.

Tubingen crew in Freiburg

2006-10-15T17:17:00.000+02:00

This weekend the OBW crew from Tubingen came down for the weekend to get a taste of Freiburg. I think they were impressed the most by what Jake called the 'ambitious' hippies that live beside my residence. Had some good times and they are always welcome back.

Saturday we went for a hike up Schauinsland at 5pm and decided to walk down (on avg takes about 3-4 hours) not taking into consideration remaining daylight hours....

After 3 hours of face paced walking we emerged at the bottom. The don't call it the black forest for nothing, you literally can't see more than a few feet infront of you.

Snapped this shot at the bottom of the hill.

Inside the 13th century MÃ¼ster in Freiburg.

This street performer was insane, juggling fire tipped sticks and knives on a unicycle. His lips also looked like Tyrone Biggums'. Although he was from Amsterdamn.

Holly and Siobhan.

Guy doing his Spiderman impersonation.

and again with his Elvis impersonation.

Breakfast the next day, what time does the clock say?

Vienna

2006-10-11T19:23:00.000+02:00

We got into Vienna a bit late Sunday night and had to settle for a pension, which was twice as much as a hostel. Vienna was cool, I checked out a few museum, a Picasso display, the Freud Museum and at a Mozart Concert.

Dali's sketch of Freud.

Vienna Schloß, 1444 rooms.

St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Another church.

View from the gardens.

More Cesky

2006-10-11T19:08:00.000+02:00

While waiting for our train we saw the coolest kid in all of Czech. He sported not one but two of the coolest haircuts from the last 20 years. First was a bowl cut, complimented by a foot long rat tail that started 2 inches below the bowl line. Topped off with a pair of camo pants and he was good to go climb a tree. All the while his dog tried to eat him :)

Inside a really cool tea house. I also found out my camera has a long shutter function.

We climbed into what seem like an old soviet camp or something, complete with tank deterrants, barb wire and a massive courtyard.

Another set of Hostel II.

Cesky Krumlov

2006-10-11T18:26:00.000+02:00

After Prague we checked out a small town in south Bohemia Cesky Krumlov. The town was very cool and old with a river running through the heart of the town. Hostel II was actually being filmed while we were here but they rufused to let us be extras... their loss.

Bike tour with Alex, Kim, Rene and Craig. A few minutes later Alex bit the dirt and had to get 10 stitches in her chin, nothing better than bleeding everyone in the back countries of Czech. I'm glad to report she survived.

At the travellers hostel. Playing another game of sloppy, the Aussies can't get enough of the game now.

Shot of Absinth.

Pool games, Rene and I made a miraculous comeback against two Aussie pool sharks. It was all in the cue though I think.

Time of pass out: 4:44 Friday afternoon, weapon beer and Czech moonshine.

This fine lady was a cook at the restaurant where they were shooting Hostel II. We came by the next day to have a beer and the entire staff was pissed and insisted that we have a couple of shots with them before we could order our beers, which we did. Hollywood must have cut them a good check for scene.

This is the last bits left from the set of Hostel II.

A view from the river.

attack of the tourists, which if you ask me is more scary than Hostel.

Prague

2006-10-11T17:38:00.000+02:00

After a night in Plzen we made our way to Prague. Its a beautiful city but way to many tourists. We stayed for a couple of days and made our way down to Cesky Krumlov.

Part of the Czech castle.

Changing of the Guards, a tourists dream.

inside the city square.

Amazed at Charles Bridge.

Charles bridge.

Czech Republic and 1st Plzen

2006-10-11T17:27:00.000+02:00

View from the top of the Cathedral in Plzen

Enjoying the unpasterized Plzen Urquell.

This shot is taken from inside the underground brewery where up until the 80's all of the beer was made in massive oak kegs.

Picture from our hotel in Plzen, total cost 22 dollars.

Tasting the 'real' Budweiser. And yes Grant it tastes much better than US Bud.

Dachau

2006-10-11T17:18:00.000+02:00

I couple of shots from the 1st Nazi concentration camp in Dachau from 1933. I would have taken more but my battery died.

The entrance.

The beer tents

2006-10-11T16:21:00.000+02:00

It was time to hit the tents Saturday, we got into town around 12 and found that all of the tents were already packed. Luckily Craig had a few extra passes from his Ultimate Frisbee tournament (his team reserved tables). We got inside and it was insanity, the waitresses all in traditional outfits were carrying 6-8 massive beers blowing whistles and hitting everyone in their way. To order beer you have to sit down so we found a few spots and let the festivities begin. The place was chaos, we stayed until 11pm or so when they closed it down. I met up with some other Canadians who saw my leafs shirt and apparently they were there at 8:30am just to get a seat. Everyone at some point in their life have to go Oktoberfest...

First view from inside the beer 'tent', its more like a airport hanger.

Sitting with the other Canadians who were there since 8:30, not sure how long they lasted.

this is barely a quarter of the room, I'd say about 95% were Italians.

Some crazy local.

Prosting, it happened every 5 minutes or so.

Eric and Jason who made the trip out for the day.

Some more locals.

The bands are Gods in the beer tent, they start the prosts every 5 minutes, belt out traditional tunes and classics. Sweet home Alabama, country roads and sweet child o'mine. They also had dance moves for every song that everyone seemed to know.

By 9pm everyone wanted to be in pictures. Everyone at this point is standing on the benches, only the waitress on the floor.

Cool shot around 9 or so.

This is is getting towards the end, people naturally lose their ability to walk. Guy in blue is a perfect example. I'm pretty sure he's saying 'i love you guys.'

More Oktoberfest

2006-10-11T15:29:00.000+02:00

Back at the Hofbrau Haus

Picture from the english gardens

lots of bikes

Germans are crazy, they created a beach resort complete with a green house, volleyball courts, and automated wakeboarding course in a man made lake.

action shot of ultimate frisbee.

Oktoberfest!

2006-10-11T15:01:00.000+02:00

My language course finished up at the end of September and I decided to check out Oktoberfest in Munich, it was probaby the craziest thing I have ever been to. Just try not to get directions from locals who by 2pm are not greatest sources of reliable information.

View from inside the world famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich. (This is not actually where Oktoberfest is)

The first of many casualties from 1 litre beers. His buddies were glad to let me take a picture. I don't think he ever ended up eating the pretzel.

Enjoying the first ein maß (litre beer) after a 4 hour train ride from Freiburg.

One of the oldest buildings in Munich the town hall.

Konstanz and Ontario Reunion

2006-10-11T14:35:00.000+02:00

Over the second last week of September all of the other Ontario students got together in Konstanz, southern Germany on the Swiss border. We spent the weeking doing a bit more orientation and sight seeing including the oldest castle in Germany and a tour of the old town.

View of the vineyards and Lake Konstanz

Cool shot I took inside of the oldest Castle in Germany

View of the castle from the courtyard

Standing outside of the Schoß in Konstanz

Tests, Fußball and dancing.

2006-09-25T22:46:00.000+02:00

No idea whats going on with these guys here....
Craig is looking pissed off, could be because I just step on his foot, took a picture or by this point the 12 hours of drinking.
Us dancing in a basement bar in Freiburg with a dancefloor about 15 feet wide and long, with about 5000 or so people all on it at once.

The english girls and Jason from Barrie.
Craig and Andy getting ready for a bit night.

A veiw of Freiburg from the top of a lookout point just out of the city.

One of the hardcore fans, so hardcore he brings his drum set.
Jason keeping the fans in it with the drumming, while still drinking a beer, impressive.
I had the chance to watch a Freiburg vs some other German team Fußball match. Of all the live sports I've watched, this one was probably the most crazy, yelling and screaming event I have ever witnessed. Every time the opposing team had the ball the entire stadium erupted in boos and heckling. Game ended in a tie, I'll have to check out the rematch.

All of the people from my language course from the last 4 weeks, my prof is the guy in the striped golf shirt in the centre.

Manbeast

2006-09-25T22:20:00.000+02:00

Freiburg has quite a few street performers and Guy being the actor he is decided to throw on his stilts and do a bit of performing of his own (how he got them here is still a mystery). The dog didn't seem to like him and tried to take a bite out of him.

Not everyone enjoyed the show, the chain smoking boozing clown to the left certainly didn't. But after realizing I took a picture of him he chucked a candy at me....but I think he was trying to hit me with it.

Lars, Guy, Andy and Lars.

Karaokee

2006-09-25T21:33:00.000+02:00

Lars and Guy picking a song, i think they went for Barbie girl....

Even when dancing with two sexy ladies, Guy can't get away from cell phone solitare.

Schauinsland

2006-09-22T16:37:00.000+02:00

From the top of schauinsland, part of the black forest. From the top you can seen both France and the Swiss Alps. Paragliding is nearby too.... the tram ride up takes about 15 minutes, the walk back down was about 3 hours.Careful for bull crossings, luckily we didn't see any.

about 2 hours later.
Our 'guide' trying to debate which way to go to find civilization. We ended up going straight down into the dark part to the left.

Night out in Freiburg

2006-09-18T17:22:00.000+02:00

After finishing off a tought week of classes we thought we'd relax with some poker, too bad the deck I bought was a Euchre deck... good thing Craig had ample drinking games up his sleeves from his days in Winnipeg. We started off with an interesting game called ZOOM, basically you make eye contact with another person and they have to drink. After went back to Kings, it seems that every country has their own version of it.

Waterfall...Kristoff and Damien from France
Sarah and Guy doing what I don't know.
Virtual bike racing and Craig's giving us the go ahead!
Julia and me.
Group shot.
Ein Metre as they call it, Honest Lawyer's Yard; eat your heart out.
Three of us, doing our best to give Canada a great name.

Lunch and Absinth

2006-09-12T17:24:00.000+02:00

While waiting for the bus to take us back to Freiburg I happened to see a bottle of absinth and figured it might a good time to try it out, although Guy was the only one to give it a shot.

Prison...

2006-09-11T19:17:00.000+02:00

Guy, Sarah, Lars Erik and me.

The university had legal authority over students up until the 20th century and used a prison from the 1700's to 1912 to punish students who were guity for disturbing the piece I.E being drunk in public and chancing after pigs in the street (which slapped you with two weeks of bread and water). The writings and paintings were from students locked up in the joint.

Heidelberg

2006-09-11T18:59:00.000+02:00

Heidelburg

Hello Deutschland

2006-09-11T18:37:00.000+02:00

Haven't have internet for over a week so heres a breakdown of what happened

Sept 1st- drove to Schwarzanou to visit relatives
Sept 3rd-my laptop broke, lost all 5000 songs but luckily i backed up my pictures.
Sept 5th- drove to Freiburg, moved into my place, its a cool apartment. I share it will 4 Germans and a French girl, my room is giant in comparison to my prison cell from Saugeen and we have a balcony which is cool.

I went on a pub crawl organized by the Uni, had my first experience with a beer garden and 1 litre beers (for the low price of 5 Euros). Went to another pub that looked like a bomb shelter from WWII.

Sept 7th- bought a new Macbook.

Sept 8th-went hiking in the Swarzwald and went out to a few bars.

Sept 9th- went to Heidelburg. It is an amazing city and hosts Germany's oldest university from the 13th century.

Switzerland

2006-08-30T19:51:00.000+02:00

After leaving T.O at 12:00am, arriving 8 hours later in Frankfurt and driving for another 5 hours down to Switzerland we finally arrived at our place in the middle of the night, a traditional Swiss Chalet about 1000m up from the highway. After a few steins, 2 Euros for a 6pack; something that will outdoubtably contribute to me developing liver failure, I finally passed out. I woke up to an amazing view of the surrounding Alps and valleys below and spent the day hiking around on the ample trails available.

I also had the chance to witness probably the greatest feat of German engineering...a rotating self cleaning toilet seat, although I still have to get used to the idea of paying a buck to use the washroom.

Still no tequila

2006-08-28T06:34:00.000+02:00

Decided for one last bar night in Barrie with some friends from Horseshoe Friday night, it started out with dinner at Jack Astors in the world famous Elvis booth (littered with Elvis merchandise) and a couple of beers, soon to be followed by a couple more beers and several shots, its never just one for some reason. Although I had to turn down the offered tequila shots due a previous rough engagement with the terrible stuff....

Emily and I

Myself Steph and Grant.

Packing...

2006-08-23T23:40:00.000+02:00

Trying to fit a years worth of stuff into a few suitcases is a bit more challenging than i expected, considering I pack a massive suitcase for a weekend.