The thanks I get.

So last night was full of fun and the always amusing night sweats, chills, and flu-induced nightmares-- where I kept getting run over by trucks. But the fever broke this morning and I think the worst is over. Only I am still going to rest today and take advantage of the free internet offered by the youth hostel. The youth hostel is a trip by the way. I am the only one here--so the lone worker here gives me the keys and goes home at 2--and tells me to call his cell if anything comes up.

So my first two days in Zagreb I had a roommate from Austrailia. He was so sick with the flu he was bedridden for two days and I had to bring him water and tell him to eat only soup. Good advice. He got better and I got sick. When I first learned I had a sick roommate, my first thought was to try and grab a different room--but then that 'Young man's pride' kicked in and I told myself that I won't get sick, I'm too healthy and strong for that. Yeah right.

So now I get to tell a few more less interesting observations of my trip, than I normally have time for. The first being the type of clientele that uses the internet cafes. They really should be called porn cafes. In Austria I seen more gay porn than I thought possible as the young patron next to me kept downloading movies and pics. He had headphones but the sound was set just a little too loud and I kept hearing whack whack whack sounds--thats when I glanced over at his screen and all became apparent.

Last night, while trying to write the Zadar post, there was another patron there who talked nonstop about a new PS2 game named Bully. He kept telling me that I just have to watch the trailers of it and kept directing me to do so. He said he just purchased the game, which left me befuddled as to why he was looking at the trailers of it on the internet. After about an hour of this he abruptly became quiet and started taking pictures of the screen using his cell phone. I thought this was odd, so I glanced over at his screen and saw he was a big fan of large breasted women and the things one can do with large breasted woman. At least his tastes were better than those of the fellow in Austria. But did he really need to take pictures of these? Maybe I'm learning something about the new generation of today's youth. In my day we hid the playboy's under the bed. Today they're stored on the phone so you can take them with you everywhere.

I have to get me a cell phone--a fancy new one with a digital camera and LOTS of memory.

The city of Zadar and the songs of the sea

Zadar is a most beautiful city with many surprises, some not so good (like me getting sick). The Croatian coast just might be the city I must retire to, so I have warm sea weather and the ease of sailing ports. Above you can see the rowboat that takes you across the channel for 3 Kunos.

My last night in Zagreb will be one of the highlights of this trip. As I mentioned earlier I had a date with one of the beautiful tall and black haired croation girls that lives and goes to school in Zagreb. Her name, correctly, is Zrinka. We met that night in the City Center next to the statue of a horseman that is about 20 feet tall and very majestic. We went to a mexican tourist cafe where we had some drinks and appetizers. Mexican restaurants over here, by the way, are considered kind of fancy. After that we went and sat in the park and just talked about nothing for three hours. I brought a blanket, a bottle of wine and we watched dogs and their owners stroll by all night under the cold night sky. Travelling by oneself has its many freedoms, but one of the draw backs is just finding someone to go out with and converse, much as you would do with friends at home. This is made even more difficult with the language barrier. Most here speak some english, but I do not meet many that speak it fluently or that want to talk about there country in a congenial setting. It is what made the night so special and one of the few that I didnt want to end and I thank Zrinka for that. Not many would take a chance and do that for some american tourist. At the end of the night, she gave me a kiss in the park, another at the bus stop she was to leave me at, and there we parted ways. Me to my hotel, and her to her friends.

Do you believe in Karma? I think Karma gave me a visit that night when I went back to my hotel. Remember how I told you I might have smelled up the bus when I tried to dry me feet on the bus back from Lake Bled? Well that night a I had a guy from Greece in my hostel, who didnt speak any english but really loved america. Earlier that night he tried to invite himself out on the date, but I said no, and in his broken english he kept asking all about the american movie actresses--sound like this: zhou leek Pamela Anderson? I would knod--then he would cup his breasts and say....verrryyyy neeecce! He did this with about 20 actresses--I could see he was a very big fan. This was comical in all, but slightly disturbing too. Anyway that night I went to bed about 12:30 and when my grecian roommate arrived around 3 am, his feet smelled so bad, that they woke me up. I have never smelled feet so rotten in my life. It was so bad I could swear I could taste it. Karma, for sure.

As for the trip to Zadar, it was horrible. Woke up at 9am, took one more trip to the awesome open market and then hopped the train. It took 7 hours by train to Zadar (takes only three by bus) because they stop at every small town on the way there. I ended up getting sick on the train and spent considerable part of my time with my head over the toilette. I thought it was just motion sickness but when I woke up in my youth hostel, the whole body was aching and me with a cough. Wonderful, I think, must be a flu. But on the positive side, if there is a place to spend a few days in recovery, this is it. The air is about 10C or about 50F and has the sweetness of the sea. The youth hostel gives out only two person rooms and is currently abandoned of tourists. The privacy feels great once again--it is also across the street from the beach, so I get the sound of rolling waves for a great night of sleep.

I have visited a few of the tourist attractions here. One is a Roman Forum built in 1 AD. Amazing. I am turning this pic into post cards and will be mailing them out soon. If I dont have your address and you want a post, send me the address soon. One of the amazing attractions here is the Sea Organ on the shore. This an actual organ played be the waves of the sea--water fills the tubes and expels air through reeds or whistles. The sound is then directed up through the Riva, or oceanfront through vents. It is eerie and haunting and looks like a favorite spot for couples to make out, as couples will do. Everyone seems to make out in public over here and the young and old are not shy about it--somewhat different than in the states. I made a video and recording of the sea sounds, and they are posted below. One is the sound file, and the other is a video of the sea organ playing its symphony.

I've never been one for the sidewalk cafes here, or in america, but the ambience and great tasting tea are converting me, especially in the flu-aching state I am in. It is very relaxing at the moment.

Vidimo se poslije. (see you later)

The video, two minutes long, 8mb
http://www.mosteal.com/video/seaorgan.wmv

The sound file, one minute long, 1mb
http://www.mosteal.com/video/SND_0144.WAV

Zagreb Wants and Women

So, I had planned to exit Zagreb early this morning to make the way to the Adriatic Coast and the warmer weather that entailed. But something strange happened last night to make me stay at least one more day. More on this later.

For the past two days I have been actually doing some shopping. Which is strange for me, cause I usually hate doing it. I've been going to the local farmer market here in Zagreb. This is no ordinary market. It is one of the largest open free markets Europe and it is sprawling. Your name it, it seems they got it. Want some fresh squid? Simple hop inside the fish facade and there awaits every ocean treasure you could think of. Fresh fruits and vegetables abound and a little further on down the street lies the clothing market. Underneath the Fruit and vegetable square lies more slaughter than I have ever seen. Whole pigs, lambs, sides of beef, and poultry lie on hooks and display cases waiting for you to take the whole carcass or just tell lady with the big ass meat cleaver to goto work. She does it with vigour. So much so I seen red morsels flying right into her hair.

Amazingly enough this is also where the breads and pastries are sold. For the past two days the first thing I do is head for this market, which is open everyday, and order up the best damn fruit strudels I've ever tasted. There so fresh there are still warm from the oven and they go down so easy. Plus, when you do the dollar conversion, they come out to be about a 50-60 cents. The ambience of fresh red meat everywhere does nothing for strudel eating, but still does not stop me. I only wish I had a kitchen to cook something using all this fresh food.

Being Zagreb just got a cold spell, I've had to do some long sleeve shirt shopping. Sweatshirts are too thick to pack and less versatile (coats even more so), so lately I've wore about 3-4 layers of shirts to keep warm. Shopping for these has been an experience--I've never had so much fun getting ripped off. I haggle and haggle then walk away, come back, make the purchase only to find myself paying more than the listed price (or it seems) and the merchants with a big happy grin. These guys are zen masters in the art and I need to study up. But for the most part, I got two warm long sleeve shirts for the price of 10 bucks each, so all is not bad. There is a huge selection of nuts and dried fruit that I load up on to and make my own custom trail mix.

Friday was free museum day and they have an exhibit of Leonardo deVinci. They showed his drawings and thoughts, and then showed the modern technology of it. For example, DeVinci did some research on bearings, and beside this they had a V12 Ferrrari engine and a video of how it was made--from the metal casting to the spec testing of all components. Pretty amazing actually.

Being what I thought was my last day here, I decided to treat myself and take my groovin self to one of the clubs here. I picked one called Aquarius (the one in Rochester is much nicer by the way). The music was OK as they played mostly hip-hop (99% american) but the women there were something else. But let me start from the beginning.

After getting lost twice on the trams, I finally showed up at the clubs around midnight, which as it turns out, is a little early to show up. The club is open until 4am, some til 6am. I walk into the club and nearly walk straight back out. It was all 16-18 year old kids and not my type of crowd. But the bouncer explained the older crowd came later so I took a seat in the back. After sitting for about five minutes I noticed the guys next to me were speaking english and ended up coming from Virginia. After meeting them I was surprised to find that three croation girls just come right up to us start and talking away. I've never had it so easy dancing or meeting girls in a club before. For most of the night I would just dance and if the three croat girls I initially met left for a drink, a couple of other girls would just come dancin right up to me. Its one of the best times dancing I ever had! Lovin' the attention I tell you. But for the most part I hung out with the initial three croation girls (they were a little crazy, but at least older than 21) and they gave me a ride back to the hotel too (at about 4:30) which was good cause I found out the trams dont run at night and a taxi would have been expensive.

So that brings me to why I stayed here for another night--one of the three croations, her name is Zerica, said she would love to show me some of the Zagreb sights (my translation anyway).
So thats the plan tonight, and tomorrow I am definetly out of here to the Zadar city and Adriattic coast.

Surprises in Slovenia

Day one in Ljublana, Slovenia was in many ways just like any other city I come into after a long train ride. I was tired and travel sore. Why does sitting on your ass for six hours make me tired and irritable? I don't know either.

But all was not bad as I found my youth hostel rather quickly. It was named Hostel Celica (translation: Hostel Cell) and was a former military prison. From the outside, it looked like a graphiti art convention. More on my 'cell' lodgings later. My lodgings consisted of a 12 bunk dorm room where all the beds were laying randomly on the floor--just put your stuff on one and that is the way you claim it. This is what you get when one asks for cheapest available. After doing so I went down to the 'Oriental bar'. It was oriental in the fact that everyone sat on cushions on the floor. Very international I thought. None of the tables were free so I sat down with someone seated by himself. His name was Babakay and was from Nigeria. He working and going to school in Ljubljana. He worked as a DJ for one of the clubs down there and, like alot of other locals, hung out at the Hostel due to the cheap beer and drinks served there. After that I went and explored the town a little but didn't get very far due to the rain and blowing wind. Had some dinner of cheese soup and a veal cutlet. The hostel had a party there for some strange reason. Turns out Slovenians prefer to party more on the weekdays (the day being Tuesday) than weekends. There rarely go out on Saturday nights.

I tried to mingle but it was hopeless. Try approaching a foreign people in a language most dont grasp very well and the conversations tend to be awkward. And then they just ignore you and go back to their own friends. Well one rejection was enough for me that day so I went up to hit the bed early--it is in the attic of the place, where the kitchen was too. Upon going past the kitchen I heard three people speaking english, which after the broken conversation I just had downstairs, sounded like music to the ears. I introduced myself to them and found out the two girls were from Norway and the one guy was from Austria. The two girls were down in Ljubljana (pronounced lube-yana) to do a floral internship for two weeks. The Austrian was there for a two week course on how to speak slovenian--caused he lived on the slovenia/austrian border and wanted to interact more with the locals. So I got to know them pretty well and we bullshitted until about midnight and then went to bed. They had there work at 8 in the morning and I had a castle to storm.

Castle Ljubljana, like most castles in the cities, was the main tourist attraction in Ljubljana. So I took the hike up there in the early morning and it was of course raining. That wasn't too bad though as it afforded me a castle all to myself. So I scaled the turret, took some pics, watched a 3d video on the castle and the town, and I was off on another adventure.

Went to the local farmers market, where horseburger seems to be the main attraction. I couldn't eat it though. I like horses. I like riding horses. I cant bring myself to eat something I see as a pet. Which is why pigs will never be a pet of mine. So I bought a bunch of nuts and dried fruit, hailed a bus, and took the hour ride to Lake Bled.

Lake Bled is small village located in th valley of two mountain regions. It is very picturesue. It even has a small island in the tiny lake that some christians thought it would be good to put a church on. This takes up the whole size of the island. So I hiked the 6 kilometer trail along the lake, took a video, pictures of some ducks, and was on my way back to Ljubljana. My feet were so wet on the bus, I took off my shoes and smelled up the whole bus--but my feet got dry and the locals got angry and I received plenty of dirty looks. Dry feet are worth it.

Back in town, I found a Doner Kebab to have a quick bite. These are turkish stands more ubiquitous than McDonalds (and cheaper) that serve all kinds of wraps and sandwiches they can throw that shaved slices of browned pillar of meat on. What is that stuff anyway? Wait, maybe I dont want to know--probably horse.

Back in the hostel I ordered a beer and started watching a sport called handball that is very big over here. It was Slovenia against Germany and the slavs were losing. I seen a long haired brunette girl giving me a couple of sidelong glances at me (probably cause my feet still smell) so I go over and introduce myself and ask if she watches these crazy sports. She says no, but is very talkative nevertheless. Turns out she (her name was Katsica) is the cultural attache and sculptor of the Hostel Celica and ends up giving me a tour of the entire grounds. Here is the web address of some of the pics.(http://www.burger.si/Ljubljana/VR3/Celica/uvod.htm)
Every cell had an artist come in and redesign it in their own representation and she showed me all the rooms that were free. She also show me the dungeons and solitary confinement (which is not on the regular tour) which I must say is pretty damn spooky. The artists had to drill through the wall to get to the dungeons as the military had holed it up to hide evidence of the attrocities that had been done there in WWII. I took some pics of them. Well Katsica had to run and about the time she did, the Norwegians, there slav coworkers, and BabaKay and some of his nigerian friends all showed up so I invited both groups to my lonely table and I once again had a party of like five nationalities--Norwegians, Slavs, Nigerians, a Serbian, and me.

I had finally warmed up to the slavs and they even bought everyone a round. They were telling me the secrets of slav women. It turns out that if you start talking to them and they dont bring up a boyfriend in the first five minutes, that means they have an interest in you. It was explained to me that this should give you incentive to be 'more aggressive' as they still will be quite shy and act aloof. If after an hour they still don't bring up a boyfriend, you are still in and can safely cudgel their head and bring them back to your cave.

So after that great piece of advice, I learned one more very important lesson. It was brought about by the lone serbian. I had seen him sitting alone at a table and invited him over. He didnt know english but he knew slav. so to speak with him I used of the Slavanians at the table. But he was quiet and didnt say too much anyway. After about 30 minutes sitting with us he takes out a little canister, pours himself a couple of coke lines, rolls up a euro and offers all a snort or two. Interesting I think, but I dont really give it much thought. This was not so with my other guests. They all left about five minutes afterward after telling the bartenders what the serb was doing. At first I think this is a little overreaction until I learn why. Turns out, you gat hard jail time for drug use AND for being associated with a drug user in Slovenia. Uh-huh. BabaKay tells me this afterward everyone leaves. Well, at that moment I think it is well time to move on to the next country of Croatia. So the next morning I pack up my stuff, take a morning trip to see the famous caves of Southern Slovenia and then head across the border before I end up in some military dungeon.

The caves were pretty cool by the way. They are so deep and long, you have to take a roller coaster type train for 2-3 kilometers into the mountain. If you stand, your head gets cut off. I think this is just safety nonsense. But no its absolutely true --the train moves so fast and the tunnels cut so low that if you were over 6'5 sitting you better be alert and duck in a few places. It added to the adventure. Along with 6-10 foot stactites above, that if they broke off, you're done. While underneath them they politely tell you that earthquakes hit here every couple of years.

So now I am in Zagreb, Croatia. The currency is Kunos, and you get about nine kunos to every dollar. I can't wait to hit the coast in a couple of days--warmer weather abounds there--about 50 degree days are the average.

Some Videos for you to enjoy:

http://www.mosteal.com/video/lakebled.wmv

http://www.mosteal.com/video/cave.wmv

Pics have to wait--I am being kicked of the internet cafe.

Dear Voyeurs,

For a little over a week now, you have looked into the intimate details of my life abroad. The pain, pleasure, perseverance, and profuse writing have all been yours to enjoy with little work from yourself. This can be no more. It is now YOUR turn to tell me about your intricate lives, hopes, desperation, and general malaise you have caused everyone else. I fully expect at least a paragraph about what it happening in your lives. You see, I care deeply about all of you who have enough free time and boredom in your life, that there is enough time to read inane posting after posting of mine. Judging from the amount of bandwith being drawn from the videos downloaded on mosteal.com, I know there are a few of you out there. So give it to me--straight up and cut to the bone. I can take it.

A few of you have rather been absent in any and all posts. Where are the challenges--the truths and dares if you will. Has all your imagination gone to sleep? Must I slap you with the gauntlet to get you out of your American sloth (to those not reading between lines....I just did)?

To Ryan N., where is the description of the Ice House Debauchery? If there ever was a person who was filled with verbose verbage and the antithesis of brevity--tis you! Yet I hear but a faint remembrance of vomit with nothing to give it clarity. Has dictation already sapped the creative will?

Brain K., where is the california dream you speaked of? The lush trees, the beautiful women you can now only look at (please send pics)?

Nate, where are the scenarios I thought for sure would test my braveness or aka insanity?

Dee, how come I see no flannel pics with angry looks? I want to see the beaches swarming! Your the photographer of the group--quit shunning me!

Adrianne, where is the latest 'Kase' requests for me to try?

All the others--susan, jeanna, bruce, rob, cindy, michelle, robert, teresa, mike, jonathan, becky, john, abby. etc--I now your out there.


These are but a few of the challenges I await. Send me your worst!

Peace. The t-dog.

PS. I'm in Slovenia right now while reading DRACULA. That make me just a little cool.

Last day in Vienna

Today the first thing I had planned was see the tombs of the former Hafsburg rulers. The whole city here pretty much revolves around the Hafsburg monarchy the was present here for 600 years up until 1918. If you dont know much (or anything in my case) about Hafsburg rulers, Vienna might not be the place for you. The assasination of the Hafburgs is one of the things that led to WWI. Vienna is filled with art from all places, cappecino houses, and monarchies from years past. Things would be much more interesting if I had the faintest idea about any of these. But about the only thing I found interesting about the Hafsburg rulers was that there dead and entombed for me to see at the bargain value price of 3 euros (4.50 dollars). That is as cheap as the entrances get here, so that decided it for me.

Well the tombs were large, overdone, and the size of a truck (see above). I like the sculpture of the skulls and angels all over them, but that is about all I could get into. I was there about 15 minutes and took off for the living. I had wanted to goto a Mozart concert here--they were playing the marriage of Figaro in THE opera house mozart had his first composition. I told myself it would be worth the expense if I could find a date, but unless one comes in here and sets on my lap in the next 15 minutes, I am not going to make it. It tough to get a date on a Monday, at least for foreigner who speaks about a 100 words of the local language (german). So, no date for me--or classical opera house set in the schonebraum castle.

I went walking down the Danube river and then got lost. I was able to make it back to the city after an hour or two though. Here is a short video of my lunch out on the 'Blue Danube'.

http://www.mosteal.com/video/Vienna.wmv

Some other pics of vienna are here:

http://photos.yahoo.com/mosteal

The Vice in Vienna

On Saturday afternoon I rolled in Vienna tired, sore, and hungry. By the time I figured out how to get across town on foot to my youth hostel, I was even more so and ended up eating hungarian goulash at the hostel and sleeping four hours for a nap. Hungarian goulash consists of one part salt, and one part braised beef, or seemed to taste like it. I needed copious amounts of water to wash it down. For the night plans, I decided to try a night club called Flex. It consists of a underground bunker that was once a subway station.

Flex lies alongside the infamous Danube river. But let me tell you, from the looks of the brown and brackish water, its been a long time since the song of 'Blue Danube' had any significance. Not helping are the piles glass beer bottles crashing off the cement banks from the Flex patrons. It was in a seedy neighborhood with some seedy inhabitants. One man that strolled by had a second-hand overcoat, half-shaved head, buddy holly glasses with scrubs and hospitals slippers to round it out.

As bad as the club sounds, it turns out it is pretty famous. A couple I met inside was from Munich and they were saying it is quite a landmark in Vienna. Much the way First Avenue is in Minneapolis is my guess. The music was not really my style--it was a mix of undancable techno, big bass with super fast hip-hop. The only ones that were trying to dance to it were 18 yr old punks who seemed to flop around more than dance. Everytime danceable beat came up the DJs would switch the rhythm and the whole crowd would stop. Not very good in my opinion. Drugs were everywhere with 'backpack patrons' in the bathrooms. All in all, it was quite the experience.

Today, I got another camera and will be posting some new pics soon. Its tough to get in the Art seen here in Vienna, when you don't know a damn thing about it, which is 90% of the museums here. I seen two museums today, which is enough for me in any given day. One was the archeological finds of a roman city that dated from the first century. The other was the armor and weapons from medieval and renaissance time periods. The steel armor is great--I kept telling myself that I am going to get some. That is sure to impress the ladies.

With today being Sunday, everything is closed or only open til 2 or 3 in the afternoon, so it will be a day to rest a little and do some reading. Only thing open late here are McDonalds.

One last Party in Prague

Friday night was my last night in Prague. The hostel residents I got to know the best was some Finlanders, also celebrating their last night in Prague. The day before before I made friends with some Czechs and invited them to the last night out to. By the end of the night the table consisted of Finlanders, Swedes, Austrailians, Czechs, and some French, all speaking some level of English. A few universal laws were found to be true across all countries, the finger sniff test and the area code girlfriend/boyfriend statute (different area code==no cheating). Its good there are universal laws that apply order to all. One of the swedes thought it would be a good idea to try and climb into bed with one of the Austrailian girls that went to bed earlier that night. So we naturally all went down to watch the proceedings. You see, the dorms were coed, unlike most hostels. The swede was real suave until the shela woke and screamed Fuck off and get the hell out of her bed, at which point the rest of us fell down in laughter at our rebuffed swede.

By that time is was 2 am and a few went out to party some more (bars are open until 5am) and I went to bed to try and catch the 5am train to Vienna. I missed that though. I also missed the 8:30 am too. But I caught the 10:30 am train. After four hours and many scowls from Czech passport officials, I was in the land of museums. Note to self, no more toothy grins when the ex-KGB passport officials keeps looking at you and then passport. I thought he was going to pull his gun for a moment.

Piss me off Prague.

So I made about three videos for everyone to see and had tons of cool shots of me and the crazy pragues I have met over here, but my memories have been stolen, them bitches. My camera grew legs last night and walked off. Its pretty much my fault. I had tons to drink last night trying to keep with the new czech friends and didnt lock my stuff up when I crashed into bed last night. I was thinking that with two locked doors, It should have been safe, but that was not to be. I´m staying a dorm/hostel and this shit is just to be expected I guess.

But the trip goes on and tomorrow I will be in Vienna, Austria and will pick up another camera there. There twice what they are in here in prague versus the USA. But beer only costs 1 dollar here in any bar you goto--so that balances it out.

As for the videos, you will just have to read my narration of them. The one I really wanted to show people was the proologs. The proologs are the russian housing developments built in the 60´s and 70´s to combat the growing burgoies individuality. The apartments are made out of prefabricated cement blocks. Each building of five or six stories is exactly the same as all the rest, which makes them look like prisons. These buildings stretch for miles and miles down the outskirts of prague and is where the low and middle class of society lives. I brang up the proologs last night to the czechs and it was very sore subject to them, cause one of them grew up in there and said the living there was absolute shit. The neighbors walls were sometimes only separated by a then veneer of plywood.

The puppet show last night was great--consisted of the don giovanni opera where the main character just sleeps with all the ladies of the court and gets punished at the end for it. It was pretty funny puppet style. Tonight I am taking it easy and not going out--Im still a bit miffed about the camera.

Tomorrow its Vienna and I will write more then.

Terry

Amazing Prague

As my sleepy and somber hotel-on-wheels came across the Czech border, there was a small stir in the night. That is, if you call some crazed ex-KGB Czechs trying to brake your door down, a small stir in the night. I had locked my door with the dead bolt and then for good measure put on a security chain that the was door had on it. At 6am, the train came to hasty stop, and there was some loud yelling of PASS! PASSPORT NOW!! Then the doors were literally flew open. Except mine, cause it had the security chain on it. So they started kicking it in! I flew up as fast as I could looking for a weapon and then a passport. Thinking, who the hell is this. So I opened the door in my microfiber coccoon and gave two ´gentleman´ in green overcoats my passport. After scrutinized me, gave it back and our train was onto prague.

Huge city, people dont seem to friendly, not to many smiles returned, but I get a lot of scowls though. Met four american girls from texas, but those are the only people I seen speaking english--other than one other austrailian guy I met. The city is fun, but a travel partner would be nice. Other people I have met include a guy from israel and another from sweden. The swede tolk me which castles to go see.

I plan on going to a marionette show tomorrow set to beethoven. Kinda like the sound of music I think. Too bad there is no yodeling involved though. Other visits include the Old Jewish quarter and the ghetto they were forced into for a time.

Here is the latest video at the Olympic Stadium.

http://mosteal.com/video/prague.wmv

Frankfurt, and my trip finally starts.

Today, I started the eastern europe with a short stop in Frankfurt. I didn't really see much accept lots of high retail shops and one Eine Euro shop, like the Dollar store in the states. I bought a hat there, cause it was damn cold--like 4 degrees celcius. Why didnt someone tell me to bring a winter coat?




I am taking a sleeper train to Prague. This is where you leave at midnight and get a bunk to sleep in, hopefully, by the time you wake up, you are in Prague, with little boredom in between. It sounds easier than it is though, especially for me as Jetlag is not going away. Every night I goto bed at 11 and wake up at 1 or 2 am. There is no possibility of going back to sleep. Around noon the next day, my head looks like a bobble head doll drooling for a pillow. It sucks. I took sleeping pills last night and was able to sleep until 3--a slight improvement.


Here is my cheasy video of frankfurt. The sound was horrible as it was a bit windy (and cold). Enjoy my first production.


http://mosteal.com/video/frankfurt.wmv

most recent photos are under album frankfurt at:

photos.yahoo.com/mosteal

Tage Drei und Vier

Well I found myself an apartment--that is the good news. The bad news was that I had to stay the weekend in Marburg in order to sign the paper work on Monday--thus delaying the eastern european tour. So I made the best of it and rented a bicycle and went exploring the bike paths and pubs of Marburg. I tried to bike to an old abandoned castle about 15 kilometers from here but got lost and gave up. It was a struggle to find my way back home and barely did before I died of exhaustion before darkness came.

The tough thing about the pubs and bars here is that they are literally smog huts from heavy smoking. The smoke doesnt bother me, but my clothes stink so bad, I can't where them the next day. This is a major problem when you only have three pairs of underwear, socks, shirts, etc. and don't want to do laundry every three days. At first glance, everyone over here seems healthier-even all the fast food dishes some with some kind of salad (usually cole slaw). I haven't seen a real fat person yet--some extra pounds here and there, ut nothing like the state fair of minnesota. but then you realize that it seems half the population smokes--of those that smoke, half of them are chain smokers.

The cars over here are super compacts by american standards. Most are two person smartcars and I havent seen a truck yet. When you look at the gas prices, you see why. For a 13 gallon tank, it would cost 100 american dollars to fill it with the 7+ dollar a gallon gas price here. Driving is very pricey and it is common to find some germans never even acquiring a drivers license. It is not needed with all the trains and buses.
Tomorrow I hope I start my journey to the czech republic and prague. Ill let you know more about that on the next blog.

I would post some pictures, but the computer here at the youth hostel is running win 95 and the usb/photo card wont load. Hopefully later.

Bis Spater!

Day 2 and the search is on.

Today´s adventures involve searching for a apartment. In order to legally work in the lab, I need a work visa. To get a work visa I need proof of residence. I have no residence. And no proof there of. Short of coming to find a professional counterfeiter, I need a signed lease.

In my travels of finding an apartment, I have at least wasted 24 man-hours. 8 from the one bilingual graduate student in the lab, and 8 from another american who has a car for us three to drive around and see these tiny tiny apartments. Germans need a larger ´comfort zone´ I hear--about a full meter. I now know why--there compensating for the not-so-quaint 12 x 15 ft (4x5 meter) apartments they live in. You dont want to see the dorms.

One old lady even closed the door in my face today--that was supposed to be my shoe in. I have one more for the night to see and then I am done. I had planned for prag but that is out of the question until I secure working visa--otherwise I come back to no apartment and no job.

Oh yeah, Marburg is home to three types of people hear, normal, blind, and crazy old women who scream on the corners for HOURS! Ill comment on that more later. My 15 minutes of internet is up.

Day 1 and tired as hell

So I am here in Marburg for my first night in a Jugendherberge (youth hostel). The hostel even has its own friendly cat. There was many frustrations today--such as the plane being an hour late and me missing my train not once, but twice. What a pain in the rump. Then as soon as I get here, it starts raining. To top it off these euro keyboards suck! there all switched around and I am having trouble retraining the hands and brain. Oh, and it turns out not as many people speak english in the lab as was thought, so I have some serious language requirements to fill. Upon getting to Marburg, I had about 2 hours of paper work, and have about 5 more hours to do tomorrow. Germans love paper work is my new theory.

But not all is bad, as I am still having the time of my life, just cause everything is new and fresh and Minnesota is left far behind.

A strange and funny thing about this place is they love playing country music and John Denver came along people were actually singing along at the youth hostel. Yeah, I don't know why either but that is just the way it is.

Tomorrow upon completing said paper work I leave for Prag, which everyone tells me it is beautiful and fun to boot. There is a castlz made of bones there and concentration camp I think I might visit. Lively aren´t I?

Report more when something interesting happens--as it is, im so tired Im two seconds away from crashing, plus internet time is in 5 min from done. tschus

Prove your loyalty

Friday night the guys threw me one last party, --it lasted until Sunday morning. In terms of the amount beer and laughter consumed and heard throughout the night, it cannot possibly ever be beaten. It...was...just...that...good. Those that were sober cabs, probably have a different version of some of the events that follow, but I thank their sacrifice anyway.

Friday night started at Famous Dave's where the highlights for me were watching a BBQ sauce squirt fight happen between Jason and Andy, the singer dedicating a song to me (You made me feel like a natural women.....) and having a pretty cool gift that consisted of a picture album of drunken moments from years past. Priceless. Probably the most hilarious situation this weekend happened at the Gastafs nightclub on Friday night and is presented in the following prose:



Ripe was the feeling that followed.
from copious amounts of beer that was swallowed
arrived at gastauf's with twinkle in the eye
half hour before closing, for one last try

a mexican vixen I did meet
she made me and saw me as sweet
a bigger mistake has never been made
when she wooed me and tried to get laid

so a little fun was made of my new friend
when Michelle became my lover for pretend
But this little drama had no effect
for this little vixen had no respect

for herself or my former lover Michelle
only eyes for me, my latin tinkerbelle
so the antie went up when I asked her how true
her loyalty could be, was I just the latest pursue?

NO! NO! her kids were to be STEELE named
just let me prove it she exclaimed
so I thought of a test for this little demand
to prove where her loyalty really did stand

To my friend Andy I pointed, and I said to her
lay upon him french kisses with breath reeking of liquor
no sooner was it said and she leapt to the task
like she was downing some tequila flavored flask

down did I go, laughing with glee
seeing her kiss Andy, to prove her loyalty (to me)
but unfortunetly, I still had to say no
while still curled up and laughing in the snow

Sometimes, even I know I'm being a real......jerk. Coming home from a goodbye beer with Brian, I stumbled upon this poor soul, who decided it was easier to use a fire hydrant to jack up her whole front end. See her? She's a little to the left of the car up above. Maybe she needed to change her tires or her horn oil--I'm not sure. What I am sure of was the first thing I grabbed was my camera and started taking pics, and then woke up a few members of the house so we could all watch out front. We then waited for the wrecker and cops to come. After about 20 minutes, the cop came and made her his guest in the back seat of the cruiser. He then searched the car--What did he find? Only what might have been a flask in the front seat. This is a lesson to learn folks, if you run over a fire hydrant, throw out the flask before the cops get there.

And then beat the kid taking pics of your stupid self before he puts it on the internet for all to see.

My Trip through eastern europe--Plan A

Plan A--cause I still think I am going to sleep in Train Stations to be able to pull off this much travel for so little expense.

Plan B--I'll Let you know when it hits me, or slaps me hard.

The wheels on the bus go......

Amazingly, I think the highlight of my New Years Eve might have been on the bus. It was very interesting to see people who normally drive cars everyday get concerned that I/we were going to get kicked off cause I was drinking a beer. (see left hand, photo above) What they didn't really know was that it was the norm not to be drinking a beer on the bus, and if you didn't you were pretty much inviting yourself to be asked for food/money/sex/house. Usually in that order too. A list of some of the things I have seen on the public bus:

People groping and making out.
People smoking--cigarettes and pot.
People drinking 12 packs openly.
People passed out next to there 12 packs.
Cops boarding the bus because a group of passengers would not leave the bus.
Freshman girls with short skirts teasing homeless men. (and me)
A strange yet sober man who layed down in the aisle for a few minutes and then proceed to crawl underneath your seat for god knows why.
A young lady who through a cranky old man's bag cause he wouldn't move it when she sat down.




Sometimes, there really is nothing like a bus ride and beer with the show all around you.

For more busride photos see my site full of pics:

http://photos.yahoo.com/mosteal

Have you met Abadir Yoya?

Profile of the Day:

Meet Abadir Yoya. Abadir comes by my lab every night at 5:30 to clear the lab garbage and sweep the floor. He's the longest janitor thats been here since I've been here. They usually have a 3-month life span.

Not Abadir though, he comes through the door everyday loving his work and looks happy to be alive.

Abadir grew up in Southern Ethiopia and went to trade school to work on Diesel Engines. He worked for 18 years fixing diesal train engines in Ethiopia, and due to the tribal wars over there, came here six years ago.

Despite 18 years of diesal train engine repair, Abadir could only find work here as a janitor, but doesn't seem to mind. The last job diesal job he applied for, he said there were over 100 applicants, and he had to several hours of testing. He didn't make the cut though, so he went and found another job, here at the U. I commend his great attitude and wished more Americans were as industrious as Abadir.