Even Right Guard Turned Left

Harry (from dumb and dumber) was half correct when he said "I don't know Lloyd, the french are A-Holes"... what he should of said was "I don't know Lloyd the Parisians are A-Holes".

Paris -

I've never dealt with such a large amount of rude people in a short amount of time in my life. Our trip was coming to an end, We were short on sleep, patience, and time. I was shocked and appalled at how rude people in Paris were, and I say people in Paris because I met plenty of French people that were very nice and friendly but as soon as we got to Paris it's like the decency gloves were off. I would ask very politely "Do you speak English" in their own language and they would scoff and give me a dirty look or just not answer at all.

With that out of the way i'm glad we got to see what we did while in Paris, i just wish it could have been in like after WWII (you know when we came to their rescue and saved their butt's...) or something like that with no locals around. The Eiffel tower was very cool and the Louvre was very intense, we could have spent days in there but only spent a couple hours and just brushed over the highlights (we were sick of museums).

Yet again the hop on hop off tour was a huge hit, we did this in almost every single town we were in and it never failed to deliver a great way for us to get to places we wanted without dealing with the local service workers. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and many other amazing sites on our hop on hop off tour and used it two of the three days while in Paris.

Day three was one of my favorite days while in Europe and we did the most touristy thing you can think of... Disneyland!!! Paris!!!! haha, but it was just what the doctor ordered, because Disney (unlike McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks... etc.) knows how to train employee's so that it is exactly the same experience no matter where you are in the WORLD. Every worker spoke english and was very nice (even if it was fake). This day was the best because we didn't have to rush around to see old buildings, or take tours, we had a whole day to relax and have fun. We did everything at our own pace and I had more fun this day than maybe any other day the whole time there. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed everywhere else very much but it was nice to have a vacation from our vacation.

Our final day in Paris was a short one, we woke up, got breakfast, bought lunch for the bus ride and made our way to the bus station to bid Paris A-du (cause i will never go back...). It was also the most expensive and worst shape hostel we stayed in... can you tell i'm bitter about Paris and how rude they were to me, it ruined the last city of our trip for me.

Paris as a whole 5 - Glad i went, but i would NEVER go back.

The French Language: 6- rather throaty as well... not a huge fan of French

The attractiveness of the (local) people: 9 - The local people we very attractive (a lot of people just going topless on the beaches too... Not the kind of people i expected but they weren’t hard on the eyes.

Expensiveness: 9 (very expensive) - a room with a "private bathroom" (minus a toilette) and a shower with no hot water for over $100 a night... suck it paris.

Sights to see: 8 - The architecture alone is worth going to see, and the museums are a dime a dozen

Food: 7 - nothing too impressive, but not bad either.

Side Note: Parisians don't wear (or even own) deodorant... their is a reason PePe-Le-Pu is a French Skunk... EVERY SINGLE PERSON MADE ME GAG...

Donde Esta El Banco!?

Barcelona - 

The first day in Barcelona was cut short due to all kinds of strikes and protests in Athens, we were delayed getting to the air port and further delayed by 3 or 4 hours leaving for our flight because of public transport strikes, bus, tram and train drivers as well as Air Traffic Control personnel. 

The night we got to Barcelona we caught a cab to our hostel because we were sick of dealing with public transport and just wanted to get there and relax. Our Hostel was one of my favorites yet, it was a college dorm that they turn into a hostel for when school isn’t running. It came with a free buffet style breakfast which we stocked up on every morning. That night we went to bed early as we were tired and exhausted from dealing with the ordeals of leaving greece. 

The next morning we got up bright and early, man handled the breakfast buffet and set out on our quest to get tickets for the Futbol Match that night at Camp Nou. We walked outside to a sad sight, Torrential Downpour in Spain, this made rain in the Pacific Northwest look like a drizzle. We got off the tram for the stadium and immediately bought ponchos, stood in line for over an hour until it all became a reality, the tickets were in my hand and i was going to be attending a Futbol Match, IN spain, AT camp nou, with the love of my life!! I was BEYOND stoked, i’m not even a huge soccer (futbol) guy but this might as well have been a super bowl, i was giddy and super excited to do this. We used the rainy day to plan out the next couple. We purchased Train tickets to Paris, booked our Hostel for paris, planned our day for tomorrow and then went back to our Hostel, took a nap and got ready for the big game! 

We left our Hostel about 4 hours before the Match started, In our Messi Jersey’s with our Poncho’s in my backpack. We made our way to Camp Nou, found a local pub and enjoyed a couple drinks and a couple “apps” as kayla calls them (appetizers). After pre-funking like a husky tail gate we went down toward the stadium and checked out the Team Store, purchased a shot glass for my “Man Cave” and made our way to our seats to watch warm ups. The atmosphere of the game was indescribable, the environment was electric and it wasn’t even a “big game” they were playing Atletico Madrid and from the looks of it they were Madrid’s B team. Messi looked like me playing against the team i coached when they were sixth graders. He made people look silly, and played part in all five of the goals (a blow out 5-0). Messi scored 3, assisted 1 and scored another off the face of a defender so it was scored as an own goal. This was my favorite part of Barcelona, can’t believe i got the chance to go to this game. Something to cross off the bucket list.

At Camp Nou, Looking out From about five rows down in front of our seats

The next day we got up super early because we only had one day to see all the sights in Barcelona. We made our way to the town square and purchased another hop on hop off tour, this one was kind of picky, not letting any drink or food on the bus which sucks on a hot day. The first place we stopped was the Church that has been under construction since the early 1900’s. The architect was Gaudi, which is where the term for something being to boisterous or over the top “Gaudy” came from. The inside looked like something from the Wizard of Oz, where the Wizard lives. It was insane yet very beautiful. 

 

Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's Basilica he designed)

The rest of Barcelona was pretty amazing, with Gaudi architecture all over the city, each building as crazy as the last. Barcelona was an awesome city, we even went to the beach just to see it as we didn’t have much extra time to just lounge around. My favorite part was definitely the Futbol Match. 

Barcelona as a whole 8 - I’d love to come back and enjoy the beach and the and surrounding areas.

The Spanish Language: 8 - Thought i knew Spanish “Fairly” well, i had no idea how to communicate back haha, i knew what people were saying for the most part but i had no clue how to communicate back, i was talking to a lady asking here where the ATM or Cash machine was and i threw an O at the end of bank (turns out it’s the right word) haha and she pointed me in the right direction!!

The attractiveness of the (local) people: 9 - The local people we very attractive (a lot of people just going topless on the beaches too... Not the kind of people i expected but they weren’t hard on the eyes.

Expensiveness: 8 (fairly expensive) - a mixed drink at a bar is 6.5 EUROS!! not cool barcelona... not cool!!

Sights to see: 8 - The architecture alone is worth going to see, and the coast line is beautiful 

Food: 7 - nothing too impressive, but not bad either.

My Island Get Away

Santorini -

We spent 4 days (kinda) and 3 nights on the Greek island of Santorini. The day we got there it was already kind of late as we had to take an 8 hour ferry. So the only thing we did was check out the local shops, get our shot glasses and postcard, get dinner and scope out activities for the next day. 

The first full day we woke up, went out and had breakfast and rented an ATV for only 15 euro’s all day, great deal if you ask me. We took the ATV and explored the beach coast line as far as it would take us, found our favorite spot and grabbed two sun beds and an umbrella. The drinks were insanely expensive so we only had one each. After we had our fair share of laying around in the sun we hopped back on our ATV to explore the island some more, we found an awesome little spot to watch the sun set and enjoy another crazy expensive drink. After we were done and had our fill of crusing around with our big ugly helmets on we went back to our hostel and turned in the ATV, walked down to the beach and the both of us played a little beach volley ball, (kinds funny side note) kayla and i met in PE class where we played volley ball, lets just say i didn’t fall in love with her for her skills on the court haha. 

Our ATV

The next day was a full lazy day on the beach, i bought some goggles (which ended up not working...) brought the volley ball and a towel. We lounged in the sun and just hung out all day. This time i brought my own drink as it was much cheaper to buy a pint from the store than it was to drink on the beach all day. After a full day of laying on the beach we got dinner at the place that gave us the free umbrella and sun beds (part of the deal i guess) we got a delicious potato (twice baked) and a ham and four cheese pizza which was surprisingly delicious. after trying to talk to the waitress (who didn’t speak very good english) about trying some swordfish, we ended up buying a whole steak of swordfish which i guess was the only way to sample it. It was surprisingly normal,  a little fishy tasting but it was ok. Another one and only time kinda thing. 

That night we went home and got in our first little argument, i was cranky, she was cranky it was just a bad combo. we both got over it and went to bed just in time to get up and pack up yet again (i’m getting sick of living out of a back pack) to catch another eight hour ferry back to athens. 

Santorini wasn’t the most gorgeous place i’d ever seen, don’t get me wrong it was beautiful but it wasn’t to die for or anything. It was a nice place to relax and recharge the batteries for the rest of our trip. I would go back but i’m not dying to go back. It wasn’t very green, and the sand wasn’t very fine, it was more like little rocks than it was sandy beaches. When you go out into the water its one big rock, as Santorini was at one point the victim of a volcano. This made it kind of difficult to make your way into the water as it was slippery volcanic rock underneath the water for as far as you could touch. The water was beautiful and the sights were amazing but i felt it was missing some color, or maybe i’m just spoiled back home with all the green everywhere.

Santorini as a whole 9 - I’d love to come back, i would love nothing more than to just hang out and lay on the beach, but i’m not dying to come back.

The Greek Language: 7 - kinda like a mix between German and Italian, some glimpses of elegance with some rather harsh sounds mixed in.

The attractiveness of the (local) people: 9 - The local people we very attractive (a lot of people just going topless on the beaches too... kinda weird at first).

Expensiveness: 6 (not bad at all) - the food here was fairly cheap, one of the cheapest so far, the room wasn’t too bad either and the fact that you can get an ATV which allows you to drive all over the island for under 30 euros once you factor in gas... sounds like a great deal to me!

Sights to see: 6 - Not much to see or do here but hang out on the beach, we never did go to the Volcano ruins but thats cause we were here to relax..

Food: 7 - nothing too impressive, but not bad either.

Where in America are you from?

Athens - 

The moment i walked into the bar at our hostel the bartender immediately knew i was American... Not sure how but after talking to her i guess it was the backwards hat and the Jordans that gave it away haha.

We arrived in athens and our hostel was perfectly located to see all the sites we needed to see, it was a decent room but what made it worth it was the location. The first day we kinda hung out and explored the areas near our Hostel, purchased the usual things from souvenir shops and ate the local food, i tried veal for the first time (i know, baby cow, strapped down and not allowed to move...) it was a one and only time type of thing. It was delicious, but not so delicious to justify what was done to the animal. 

That night we went to a local authentic greek show and it was “ok” not my type of thing as it was singing and dancing but it was kinda cool to see the culture of the locals, a lot of the people that attended were local families and it was only an hour and a half so it wasn’t so bad. After the show we went back to our hostel and crashed, we had signed up for a 5 hour walking tour (again) and it started at 10am. 

Authentic Greek Show

We woke up early and got breakfast at our hostel, Greek has the best bacon i’ve ever had. After breakfast we put on our walking shoes and met our guide in the lobby. We got to see a ton of cool stuff including the temple of Zeus, the stadium where the olympics were first started, Socrates Prison, Tomb of the Unknown soldier, Parliament buildings and the climax of the tour was the Acropolis.

The Acropolis was one of the coolest things i’ve seen, it was a little mini town built on top of a mountain with the Temple of Athena (whom Athens was named after, i believe goddess of the wind?) and the Parthenon. The coolest part of the Acropolis was the View of the entire city of Athens, pictures don’t do it justice. We did however get some cool pictures and got to just sit and marvel at a rather breath taking site for a little while. After that we got some more authentic greek food, Kayla had the Mousaka which was a dish with meet and a creamy potato topping and it was rather delicious, i went a little safer and got a 4 cheese ravioli which was great as well. We ended up splitting each dish half and half and kayla didn’t tell me until after that the Mousaka had egg plant hidden in it (good thing too cause i never would have eaten it haha). 

View from the top of the Acropolis

That night we enjoyed a little bit of the local distillery, i tried some 7 year old scotch and kayla tried their famous strawberry liqueur. This was apparently the first distillery in greece and has been open ever since.  After that we went back to our hostel and called it a night as we had to leave bright and early for Santorini the next morning. 

Athens as a whole: 8 - Athens was a beautiful city, with tons of things to see, mostly which could all be seen in one long day.

The Greek Language: 7 - kinda like a mix between German and Italian, some glimpses of elegance with some rather harsh sounds mixed in.

The attractiveness of the (local) people: 8 - The local people were attractive 

Expensiveness: 6 (not bad at all) - dinner places charged you a cover charge like a bar back home, kinda weird but after that it’s not too bad to eat a good meal, great portions too.

Sights to see: 8 - The sights of Athens were amazing, couldn’t sum it up any better than that... a must see for anyone in these parts of europe, if you’re close to greece buck up and pay the price for a plane ticket to get here!

Food: 7 - nothing too impressive, but not bad either.

When In Rome

Rome Italy -

After over a decade of dreaming about it, i finally made it to my own personal Mecca... ever since middle school i've been infatuated with Roman History and have loved every single movie to do with that time period, i've dreamt about going to this place since i can remember... dream... come true!!

My Personal "Mecca"

Outside of the colosseum Rome had many wonderful sights to offer, although we stayed in a rather cheap (but close) part of town, which turned out to be Rome's "China Town" I loved every second of it and the kid who was about my age, who owned the place was very nice and friendly.

The first day we got there we walked around our neighborhood a little bit and explored the little souvenir shops. We purchased our typical shot glass and post card, got a cheap dinner and called it a night so we could rest up for the day ahead of us tomorrow.

The second day we went straight for the good stuff, the hop on hop off tour and only waited two stops to exercise that right, as i was about as geeked out as i've ever been, The Colosseum!! we spent about an hour or two here and just marveled at the amazingness of the history that this spot had seen. From there we went to palentine hill and the roman forum, so much history (that i was actually interested in) and so little time. We found some pretty good souvenirs for my Uncle Joe and Nick... haha can't wait for them to see what they got. We hopped back on our tour and went a few more stops and ate lunch right by the Trevi Fountain, which was also amazing where kayla got all her bridesmaids a souvenir (all 10,000 of them haha). After lunch and the souvenir shopping we went back to our hop on hop off tour and finished it up then called it a night.

The third day in rome we went to Vatican City, St. Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Talk about a "how am i so lucky" moment... We spent all day touring the three sites and it was so amazing, we saw some amazing works of art, some amazing works of religion and some just flat out amazing things. After the vatican tour we went back to our room and called it a night.

The Fourth day in rome was a lazy day (finally). We slept with no alarm to wake us up which was nice, then when we did wake up we took our time, mailed off some stuff to back home, reserved a shuttle to the air port for our trip to Athens and the only sight seeing we did was the Pantheon which was pretty amazing, the largest concrete dome in the world. Before going into the Pantheon we had lunch at a little restraunt in the ally that led to it, i know i've been saying how good italy's food was... but this was by far, the best, food i've ever eaten... i can't even pronounce what i ate (or begin to spell it) but it was like lasagna but it was spelt like canoli (not an actual canoli, i know what those are but i'm trying to get you in the ball park incase you go).

The next morning at 3am we left the coolest place i've ever been, and i already can't wait to go back!! I love italy, and Rome did not disappoint AT ALL...

Rome as a whole: 9 - The history here was un beatable, my favorite time in all of history and to walk the same places that some of the people that paved the way for the country i love, i do not have words for how cool Rome was.

The italian Language: 9 - Probably to coolest language to listen to people speak, something about it sounds so elegant and romantic.

The attractiveness of the (local) people: 8 - not as many hotties in Rome

Expensiveness: 7 (not bad at all) - Rome was a little more expensive but still not "that" bad.

Sights to see: 10 - I would come here just for the Colosseum, but their is so much more to see and it's amazing. 

Food: 101919292 - Yes, thats right, above ten... best food to ever pass these lips...

 This is what it looked like, and i want more NOW!!

Why you lookin at my girl bro!?

Cinque Terre:

Finally a couple days to relax and enjoy some of gods wonderful nature masterpiece... right!? well for one day anyway, the second day would turn out to be the most intense physical exertion of my life... we’re talking a 9k hike Straight up and straight down hill in 90+ degree heat and insane humidity... bad... idea!! 

At first we booked a place that said it was 6k from “Cinque Terre” which was REALLY about a WTA bus ride from bellis fair to down town Mt. Vernon with stops on the way... so when we got there a (VERY) nice lady let us cancel our room for free and she helped us by calling around and finding us a very nice hostel for cheaper than we were going to pay at this place, and it was about 300 yards from the train station we needed to get to each town in Cinque Terre... 

The first day in Cinque terre we enjoyed the beach at Monterosso, which was amazing. Not complaining or anything but what would have made it perfect is if it were sandy, and not little tiny pebbles... but hey, nothings perfect right? the water was breath taking, you could see the bottom well beyond where you could touch, easily the most beautiful beach i’ve ever set foot on. For lunch we went to a little spot overlooking the ocean right on the beach and ordered some pasta, to drink i told the waiter i wanted a “double” whisky and coke, because back home that means two shots of Jack D’s and the rest filled with coke... the waiter looked at me with huge eyes and said “I Bring you single, if that not enough i bring more later.” i was a little taken aback and fully understood only after he brought me a well glass 70% full of whisky and a coke on the side...

The glass in the middle is indeed full of straight whisky... this is what they called a whisky coke in Cinque Terre... my kinda town!!

The second day, because of a nursing school friend of Kayla’s (and an Oregon fan so i should of known better than to take her word for anything...) told us we “HAD” to go on this hike... so we started off at about 10:30am from Riogimorrae and headed through the five towns ending in Monterosso. Let me tell you it was some of the most amazing views i’ve ever seen in my life... but a little warning would have been nice as every person we passed (that spoke english) said we were “different” than anyone else because we were doing the whole trail... we didn’t get the memo that you’re supposed to do this trail between the towns over several days... It was too late as it was our last day in town and we wanted to finish, so we kept on going until the end and we actually made it the full 9k’s in just over 5 hours (1/2 an hour shorter than the estimated average time it should take you). i think i might have lost half my body weight in sweat but it was actually well worth it. 

Side note for Cinque Terre: I can’t believe the audacity of the italian men to almost fall off their bike to check out my fiance... i mean really, c’mon bro, you see me standin here, you see the rock on her hand... show some respect and look at her after i pass you... one dude looked at kayla, folded his hands, looked up at the sky and said thank you all right in front of me (don’t get me wrong, i’m thankful for her too but cheese and rice, really!?)... so i learned that if you stare back at them as intensely as they stare at your girl, they stop jockin... 

Cinque Terre as a whole: 8 - I’d love to come back, i would love nothing more than to just hang out in each of these five towns... wish i’d spent more time here but, who has time to lay on a beach... on to the next one!!

The italian Language: 9 - Probably to coolest language to listen to people speak, something about it sounds so elegant and romantic.

The attractiveness of the (local) people: 9 - The local people we very attractive

Expensiveness: 6 (not bad at all) - breakfast for two people was less than 10 euro... cheapest place so far, i would however suggest if you come here to book a room a little bit in advance, we kinda got stuck and lucked out.

Sights to see: 8 - The trail itself is breathtaking, simply put it’s a place you have to see if you’re in italy, even if it’s just for a day.

Food: 101919292 - Yes, thats right, above ten... best food to ever pass these lips..

Parlla Ingleis!?

Venice:

Venice was The... Most... Beautiful... place i’ve ever seen. It’s bus system is all by boat, so you go to bus stops to get picked up by a boat and taken to the next stop and get off the boat and walk to your destination. I didn’t see a single car while on the actual island of Venice, which was pretty amazing with the amount of people there. 

Kayla Looking out from the Island of Venice

We were only there for one day (which was really enough) and there weren’t many “sights” to see... By that I mean the point of Venice for us anyway was just walking around and exploring the town, no historical places we just “had” to go to, which was nice after a huge list of stuff we needed to get too in Berlin. The day we got there we just hung out at our campsite, we got what was advertised as a “beach side cabin” and apparently it was lost in translation because what we got was an air conditioned double wide, with a fence that didn’t let us go to the beach. This was fine because it was super cheap and fairly secure, with our own bathroom (no towels though, they wanted six euros per towel so i dried off with their extra blanket they left in the room haha). The next morning when we woke up we hopped on the first boat to the Island of Venice and just kinda “got lost” as we walked around and explored keeping in mind the general direction we needed to head in when we wanted to go back. After we were done we found a local place to eat some amazing pasta dishes, the waiter got made when i tried to poor my own coke can in my glass haha. I ordered lasagna and kayla got an Alfredo dish. Both were the best we ever had, (sorry ma, they must put some sort of crack in it cause it blew yours out of the water). Birds were everywhere and a little guy came and chilled on our table while we ate, so when the waiter wasn’t looking kayla slipped him some bread and he flew off and shared with his buddy.

After lunch we made our way back to our camp site and got ready to go hang out on the beach, we caught a ferry to the local beach where the Venice Film Festival is held, grabbed some ice cream cones (AMAZING) at the local ice cream shop and we just hung out there on a blanket and enjoyed life, kayla even convinced me to go in the water a little bit but i wasn’t a fan as the seashells in the sand didn’t feel too great on my  bare feet. 

Gondola rides were a little steep for my price range... 120 euros for a ride... not thanks!!

Venice as a whole: 7 - I’d come back, but their wasn’t much to see, i guess the city as a whole is what you go to see.

The italian Language: 9 - Probably to coolest language to listen to people speak, something about it sounds so elegant and romantic.

The attractiveness of the (local) people: 9 - The local people we very attractive

Expensiveness: 9 (very expensive) - by this i mean the transportation, you have to buy a day pass for the boats and ferry’s if you’re going to come here and it’ll cost you 22 euros EACH per day... the food isn’t too steep but it isn’t cheap either.

Sights to see: 8 - The city itself is breathtaking, simply put it’s a place you have to see if you’re in italy, even if it’s just for a day.

Food: 101919292 - Yes, thats right, above ten... best food to ever pass these lips...

Sprechen Se Englisch!?!?

Germany:

From Amsterdam to Germany we took an overnight train and we shared a cabin with four other people all on bunk beds, kayla and I were on the bottom bunks which was nice. We didn’t have to switch trains and it was a straight shot on a high speed over night train to Berlin, at first we only had one person in our cabin who was from France and was on “holiday”. He was a very nice gentleman and spoke fairly good english (compared to how well i speak french it was amazing). He asked our names and when i told him my name was TJ he looked at me funny so i told him it was a nick name. He said (insert heavy french accent) “I’m Xavier, you call me Fox man, that my nick name” as we both laughed for a good couple minutes. We shared stories of all the places we were going and he told us he didn’t like Paris as he was from a small town, when he asked where he should go if he were to come to the US i told him he should come to Ferndale, i’ll show him a good time at the OutLaw Saloon haha.

We arrived in Berlin at 4:30am and our debit cards didn’t work (first minor crisis of the trip) because we had to pay for our EuRail Passes with cash and i’d maxed out my card for ATM withdraws for 24hours. After we found a Taxi that would take a credit card we made our way to our Hostel. Kayla (my lovely yet sometimes very blonde fiance) wrote down the address wrong, she wrote the zip code as the street number so the taxi cab driver dropped us off in front of a gym and we were stuck trying to find our hostel with little help from anyone who spoke english. We managed to find a 24hour internet cafe and made it to our Hostel by 7am and it didn’t open until 9:30am (great right?) so we sat outside for two and a half hours until it opened, we stored our bags and ventured out to discover germany.

The first day we tried some authentic food at a breakfast place right across from our Hostel, The food (i would have never eaten in my life back home) was actually pretty amazing, i tried everything and really liked the curywurst and the meatballs. After we got a good breakfast in our stomach (and i tipped the waiter WAY too much, you should of seen the look on his face when he said “All of it!?” and walked away as i said keep the change) we went back to our hostel and got ready for the day. 

A 4 hour tour. We (stupidly) signed up for a Four hour WALKING tour of Berlin. It was amazing but the walking part nearly killed me. We got to see the Berlin wall, the place where Hitlers Bunker was, the Jewish memorial for the Jewish people that were killed in WWII and alot of other amazing buildings that i wont even try to spell. The history itself was awe inspiring and our guide was a history major so i learned more in 4 hours of this tour than i had previously known about WWII from a german perspective. 

The second day it was raining so we used that as our chance to go and see some Museums. We went to Museum Island and saw some of the most amazing (but stolen) pieces of Roman, egyptian and Mesopotamian art works. It was a low key day but we were both starting to know our way around Berlin.

"Hard work will set you free" (is the translation if i remember correctly)

The third day (Kaylas Birthday) we had one chance to go to Sachsenhausen Concentration camp, i know not really what you want to do on your birthday right? But kayla was a trooper and we made our way on another tour of this Concentration Camp. This was one of the saddest tours i’ve ever been on and to see first hand the suffering that these people went through and the depths of evil that humans can reach was truly eye opening to me. It is something i think everyone should take a chance to do, keep in mind that (i learned this on this tour) Sachsenhausen was a Concentration camp, this is not the same as an Extermination Camp. They are completely different, Sachsenhausen was used to keep people locked up, all though thousands were killed. Places like Aushwitz were Extermination camps and their sole purpose was to kill in very sadly large numbers of prisoners. I say this so you too can see that although this place was very sad and a very harsh place to live, it wasn’t a tour of gas chambers and torture rooms. Toward the end of the wars (Both WWII and the Cold War) they did start executing people in larger numbers but it wasn’t even a blip on the radar of an extermination camp. The tour guide put us in the mindset of both a guard (which was hard to do) and a local resident outside the concentration camp. He did this to show us how they justified it (which was wrong, but necessary to understand so it wont be repeated) The people living in the city were lied to and told that the people in the concentration camp were real prisoners who committed horrific crimes.  All in all this place was very sad to see but i think very important as well.

The Berlin Wall

Berlin as a whole: 8 - Huge amounts of history I could go back and probably see tons more, but you can get all the main things out of the way in two or three days.

The German Language: 5 - Very “Throat-y” i’m not a fan of a language that sounds like you’re trying to hock a loogie every time you say a word...

The attractiveness of the people: 5 - The local people we not attractive

Expensiveness: 6 (not bad) - You can get a good meal at a sit down restaurant for around 20 euros 

Sights to see: 8 - The history that surrounds all of Berlin is worth a trip to europe all on its own, if you’re in to WWII and all that stuff, which i am, very much!

Food: 8 - German Pastry’s were amazing, their Orange Juice (not sure why) was to die for and their dinner food was very tasty, not a fan of their salad dressing though.

Red... Light... District!!!

Amsterdam: 

We arrived in Amsterdam at 9am and as we got off the bus we were immediately met with the challenge of finding our way to our hostel without being able to speak dutch. This wasn’t truly difficult until we got off the city bus as the people in the bus station and the tram drivers spoke fairly decent English. The problem was the (very nice) gentleman at the tram station told us the wrong stop to get off to begin with and we got off earlier than that because another stop started with a similar name. As we walked for a while we came across a nice man who (i assume) was from the UK as he spoke only english, he pulled out his GPS and told us to get back on and take the same (wrong) stop a few stops down. After getting off this stop we walked for about an hour and a half (in the wrong direction) until we were both very annoyed and encountered our first argument. I stubbornly called over a taxi and paid a ridiculous amount of euros to get a ride two city blocks back where we had walked past. 

Once we had the city transportation figured out it was fairly easy to find our way around, that night we ended up going to get some food, burger king of course. Then we wandered down to the red light district, explored some coffee shops, bought some souvenirs and found our way back to our hostel. 

The next day we got up early, checked out of our hostel and locked our bags in their bag storage for the day as our train for Germany didn’t leave until 10:00pm that night. We got to go to the VanGough Museum and see some of his earliest artworks and sketches. After that we went to the Anne Franke House, which was life changing. To see first hand the conditions she lived in during such a dark part of history was sad but very important to see in-order to stop history from repeating itself. 

Amsterdam was pretty amazing but if i were to go back it would be a guys trip, So much more to amsterdam that i didn’t really see or explore however both types of trips are fun i’m glad i got the site seeing trip out of the way if the occasion does arise for me to be able to return. 

For my own benefit i will rate each place on a scale from 1-10 (10 being good) on the following subjects. This is very much a generalization so don’t take offense if you’re from these places.

Amsterdam as a whole: 7 - small amounts of history but a very intriguing city none the less, you can “see” all you need to in one day really.

The Dutch Language: 5 - Very “Throat-y” i’m not a fan of a language that sounds like you’re trying to hock a loogie every time you say a word...

The attractiveness of the people: 8 - The local people we’re fairly attractive

Expensiveness: 4 (pretty expensive) - 30 bucks to eat at Burger king... Not cool...

Sights to see: 8 - the fact that it’s all on water puts it at a 7 on its own for me

Food: we didn’t really try any traditional dutch food so i can’t rate it, i know, i know... my bad...

Mum, adam hit me in the privates (insert cute little kid english accent)

London - Days 1-3

London was amazing, so much history and so little time. The buildings and architecture were stunning, the venues and structures were super cool to see. Tower of London was awe inspiring and Buckingham palace was a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to visit, seeing as it's only open 5 weeks of the year (we got lucky). I feel like the culture and way of life was fairly similar to home, and by home I mean the big cities of the US (minus accents) but it does have a few minor changes in they way they do things. Picture New York city traffic, condensed down to INSANELY narrow streets and double decker busses in a hurry to get from point A to point B. Another funny change (perspectively) was the fact that they use Mayo like I use ranch (if you know me, you know thats a lot). Their underground transport services were awesome and fairly easy to navigate, I just got comfortable using them today, still haven't figured out the bus lines.

With all that being said i don't truly feel the urge to come back here. The people aren't very friendly (servers, taxi and bus drivers... etc.) oh and if I hear kayla say something is worth so many "peso's" one more time i might step in front of a tram... haha. It was amazing to visit but i don't think i'd come back, i've seen all that London has to offer but maybe the outer parts of the UK would be nice. The picture's below are of a hostel kayla and I stayed at last night...

we paid the equivalent of $80 for one night in this room... yes this is it, i was standing in nearly the doorway... 

This is kayla in the bathroom/shower... yes bathroom SLASH shower... it's all a tiled off area and you could use the toilet while taking a shower... too weird...

All that being said, London was insanely over priced from the food, to the places we went and the places we stayed... but it was worth it, just this once.

The Madness of March

March Madness
       My personal favorite time of the year, "March Madness" for those of you living under a rock your entire life is the NCAA Mens Basketball National Championship Tournament. It starts out with 64 teams and it's one loss and you go home. People everywhere across the nation and some other parts of the world enter into office pools, side bets with friends all about who will pick the best bracket. The amount of money that changes hands "illegally" would make anyones jaw drop, the funny part is if we could be a fly on the wall i'd be willing to bet that the district attorney has an office pool with a five dollar buy in as well.
        
          For the entire month of march you are guaranteed to have at least one good basketball game on per day, if not 3 or 4. The heart these college kids play with is awe inspiring, every possession, every shot, every play means the world to these teams and it's fascinating to watch. I love basketball as a sport and I truly believe that March Madness is when the sport is at its best.

          So when you're filling out your bracket, it really doesn't matter some people get close by picking whose mascot would win in a fight, some on the color of the jersey's. What it all boils down to is luck because year in and year out something happens that throws a wrench into everyones bracket.

Moral of the Story

“I'd rather be lucky than good.”

School Spirit

School Spirit

I'm about to become a "Western Washington University Alumni" and it started me thinking, what did Western offer me besides a (in my opinion) kick ass education? I've been going there for two years and the only thing i've done outside of going to class is play intramural sports. I've never been to a basketball game and thanks to our (insert sarcastic angry tone) lovely athletic director, never had a chance to go to a football game. In fact sadly I feel more attached to UW than I do to my own college from a pure school spirit standpoint.

Sports I believe is a major part of creating a bond between a college and it's student body, if you talk to a WSU grad they truly bleed crimson and grey. Same story goes for UW graduates, I feel that I was somewhat robbed of a huge college experience because their is no football games to go to, the basketball games yeah they are there but (coming from a marketing major) they do a piss poor job of letting the student body know when they are, how much they cost and who they play.

In order for Western to take that next step in alumni donations they need to create that bond, I think a huge appeal of Western to most students that attend is the fact that they don't have a "Greek" system, that's fine but why not have some other ways for students to connect with the university. Donations from Alumni would come back ten fold if they could create that bond that just simply doesn't happen.

Moral of the Story:

"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall." Frank Leahy

Kobe's Ego

Black Mamba

This viral video is one of the best sports viral videos I've ever seen. While most people would watch this and think it's a video about Kobe, I would like to point out that every 15 to 30 seconds his shoes are mentioned. This is what the video is about, that and Nike stroking Kobe's Ego.

It is a six minute shoe commercial, and an insanely good one. Nike does an amazing job at playing off Kobe's ego and his fans all in an effort to do one thing, sell shoes! Don't be mistaken, this short clip probably cost Nike millions of dollars but in the first couple days of it hitting the Internet it went viral faster than the swine flu. 2 million people had watched this within a week of it hitting the Internet.

I just thought I'd share this with you as i thought it was a great commercial and more importantly it's disguised as something that doesn't look like a commercial so i figured I'd help ya out considering I hope stuff like this to be my job some day.

Superstitions

Superstitions

Back in the day I played a lot of golf, I feel that this plays a large part in how superstitious I am when it comes to sports today. Now I'm not the kind of guy who wont wash anything while on a winning streak, but I do repeat behaviors while seeing success in sports. During flag football intermurals I wore the same shirt all season (because we didn't lose until the playoffs) I did wash it weekly. During basketball season while I'm coaching if my team wins one game in a gym i will fight to stay on that side of the court (for my bench) for the next game.

Here is how out of control my superstitions have become as of late. In Leavenworth we were playing great and here is a list of my superstitions for that tournament (and continued into next weekend):

• Stand at the top of the key during warm ups
• Wear my track jacket until warm ups is over and then not again until the second half
• Crack open a monster at the tip off
• Chew gum in the second half
• Sit at the end of the bench

This is how out of control my superstitions have become, it's borderline OCD. But if we continue to win I will continue to do it. I don't feel anxiety if I don't do these things, maybe its just the little things i feel i can control!?

Moral of the Story:

“The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.” - Francis Bacon

Your Defense is Offensive

Hello all, I am back after a Mid-term week long hiatus.

Your Defense is Offensive

Anyone who is a fan of watching the sport of basketball has to have a serious problem with what the NBA has grown into. In the first play of this video Kevin Durant beats his man while three others stand and watch him go straight to the rim, one guy does throw a weak attempt at blocking the shot. In the second play all four players from the heat stand around and watch as Blake Griffin puts on a show. Three guys were within arms length of Griffin but were too lazy to even jump up and contest the dunk. In the third play one (poor) guy gets back in transition defense as his team mates watch him take part in the embarrassing side of a poster-dunk. In the Fourth play it's the same thing, one guy gets beat and it's straight to the rim for a weakly contested poster dunk. In the fifth and final play Derek Rose runs the length of the court and gets an ally-oop dunk in front of two piston defenders.

Now I know, it's a highlight tape of dunks and it's not always like that right?! WRONG! The NBA has become to basketball what the WWF is to wrestling, in my opinion it's a joke. Now watch this video and tell me the difference (minus the tackling), because from a basketball fan standpoint I don't see one:



Offense wins games, defense wins championships:
As a North Carolina fan, this is painful for me to say but I actually do love watching Duke (when they're good) because of how fundamentally sound they are. They play TEAM defense, something lost in the NBA. If the ball is on the opposite side of the court you very rarely see a Duke player not in the help position. If you google "Top Defensive plays" for the NBA you get 10 plays, 8 swats and 2 steals that end in a dunk. The NBA is officially all about the swat, the dunk and the theatrics. Yet we wonder why kids don't understand if you stay on your feet with your arms straight up they wont call you for a foul but the moment you leave your feet to get that "dikembe mutombo" swat your going to get called for the body.

Moral of the Story:

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success" - Henry Ford

Black Mamba Vs. King James

M.V.P.
 

   most valuable player: "the player judged to be the most important to the team or sport."

King James as most of you know was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the record of the team the year they drafted him was a shocking 17-65, his rookie season he averaged 20 points per game while Kobe only averaged 11, Kobe was drafted to an already playoff ready team with several all-stars around him. Lebron had one all-star for one year around him during his whole career at Cleveland, yet he took the team (single handily) to the NBA finals and an NBA best regular season record. Now here is the rub (and why I don't care for the NBA) Laker fans will jump on here and say "the regular season doesn't matter"

First to Worst

The fact of the matter is (in my opinion) if Kobe Bryant were to leave the Lakers they would still make the playoffs. If Lebron left the Cavaliers (oh wait he did) they would be the worst team in the NBA (oh wait they are...). For the first time in NBA History a team went from the best team (judging by regular season record) to the worst team in the NBA in the span of just one season, that isn't because of bad luck, it isn't because they are struggling. It's because the best player in the NBA left because he got tired of carrying a city on his back with no one offering to help.

Most would say that Kobe is a better team player that's why his team is better, to those i would say Lebron averages more assists. Lakers fans would say Kobe is better because he has more rings, to those i would say Lebron will end his career with more now that he is on a good team.

Team

The Lakers are an amazing dynasty, i truly believe the most important person within the Laker organization is Phil Jackson, NOT Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant, Paooooo (or however you spell it) Gasol, Andrew Bynum... etc. Are all a product of the system, the Triangle Offense should be considered one of the wonders of the world and having Dr. Phil running the show is what has brought LA so much success.

Moral of the Story

“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.” - Joe Paterno