Happy Halloween...

Everyone enjoy the holiday weekend. I'm back on Monday at 7:05PM...

Bittersweet...

Last night I said my goodbye to Kai in the case that I don't have a chance to see her this weekend. We met in Köln and I was only 20 minutes late due to traffic. Although I did get stuck on the northern bridge across the Rhein with a wonderful view of a night lit Dom. Other than the time I went to the wrong gym first, she never beat me to a destination. She got me a very nice cutting board with a map of the innen-stadt of Köln and a postcard with the Köln coat of arms and a goofy caricature drinking a Kölsch. Her gifts were thoughtful and wrapped, whereas I just got her climbing gear which I hid under her jacket when she got up from the table... She was very pleased after I explained what the gear was used for and provided the proper warnings in usage. As usual she picked an excellent restaurant. Parking was a little tight and I had to get up at one point when the police started ticketing cars (all of them) on the street I parked on. For dinner I had a penne noodle with turkey breast in carbonara sauce and she had a giant dumpling. It was a lot of fun, but very sad at the same time. Now that I have a social life here I kind of want to stay longer and spend just a little more time with my new dear friends. But alas, with good friends, distance is not a problem.

If I could get the link on this computer I would post the video for 'Bittersweet symphony.' So if you're reading this, go to to youtube and listen to the song for me.

Prague Day 3...

We got back around 6am from the club, but at the same time Sunday was our final day in Prague. I set my alarm for 9:30 so we could get a decent amount of sleep in when including the time shift for daylight savings. I figured that my phone would automatically adjust for the time shift, but I was sorely mistaken at 8:30 when we headed down for breakfast... It was fine though. Breakfast included many nice cheeses and breads. I didn't eat the eggs or bacon though, but Lili said they were fantastic.

A shower and haphazard packing later we were back on the street headed directly to the Jewish district, Josefov, as it was our last chance to see it. Although Prague was occupied by the nazis and most jewish ghettos were destroyed as part of the holocaust this section of town was supposedly preserved to be a 'museum of the exterminated race.' The messed up part is that it is now a major tourist attraction full of museums...
Major highlights of this section of the town are the 13 century old new synagogue which we went to first. In order to enter I had to wear a yamecha which made for some hilarious pictures. Then we went to another synagogue which was converted to a museum. Inside you can find pictures drawn by the children held in the ghetto during world war 2. Apparently there was about 4000 children and less than 500 survived. It was very sad and I didn't want to stay long. This was followed by the old Jewish cemetery. This cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe and it was amazing to see how the headstones were basically set up like dominos with no real space in between.
The Maisel synagogue was unfortunately closed due to technical difficulties, but we did make our final stop at the Spanish synagogue. Although you won't find the Spanish synagogue named that way in wikipedia nor on most city maps. I'm not sure why it is called that way, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the facility. A really interesting thing is that most of the museums and treasuries of the Jewish synagogues did not have very many opulent treasures. Sure there were a bunch of silver Torah pointers and a few silver Torah shields. I confused the first with a back scratcher the first time I saw one... The main items are books and pictures that are under the glass cases in the museums. Of course part of the history is that when money etc. was needed the expensive items were melted down and sold or traded.
Time ran out on us and after a brief stop at the astronomical clock to watch it ring in the new hour, I had to make a quick trip to the airport. I asked the lady at the desk of the hotel the best way to the airport and she said I could take a taxi for about €30 or a train to the bus station and it would take about an hour. Not wanting the hassle I opted for the taxi and was at the airport with 1.5 hours to spare before liftoff... or so I thought. I got inside to find that my flight was canceled. I went through the massive check in line to try for assistance and I got passed off to another line. They gave me a new flight with Lufthansa, but it left more than 3 hours later. Which was just enough time to piss me off and not enough to get to the city and back. I went to my gate and hung out. I spent the last of my Czech money and waited with a red bull in hand. About 5 minutes before I was supposed to begin boarding the staff finally arrived at the desk. It was about the time where you second guess yourself whether or not you're in the right location.
A short announcement was made. The flight has been delayed, more information will be given in 40 minutes... scheisse... I was out of money and fading very fast. I managed to stay awake reading an interesting book about a non-fiction view of Lord Byron. Finally I got on the bus to the plane after hearing 3 other flights get cancelled due to the fog. See I told you we'd get back to that. In the end I got on the smallest plane I can remember flying on and it was quite rickety and I feared for my life. But it did the job and I got back to Deutschland ok.
Finding my auto was another issue. Turns out there's multiple parkhouses in the same area that look vaguely similar with the same numbers on the spots. So when I got to the spot marked 4.547 and there was no car there I was quite upset. I went to the SOS phone and the gentleman spoke no English, but I was able to understand that I needed to go to parkhaus 3 to make a police report. On the way out I called Kai and explained the situation which she found hilarious. The good news is that on the way to the other parkhaus... well the direction I felt was right... I recognized the on-ramp I had used days earlier. Sure enough I was in the wrong parkhaus the first time. After that I forgot to get the receipt for the €63 parking bill, but I did take a picture of the screen as proof... But at least I could blame a long weekend ;-)


That about sums up my Czech adventures... I'd go back... even move there if I could for a short time as that city is alive. Anyone who has the chance, should go.


I also apologize for the spelling... once I get a chance to use my laptop again I'll come back through and fix the last few posts. It just goes to show how illiterate I've become here...

Prague Day 2...

After catching up on some zzz's after a slew of late nights in Kutna Hora I was ready for day 2 in Prague. A short walk awarded us the dazzling view from Charles bridge of Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. I plugged in the general direction into my internal Navi we began the trek up the meandering streets to get to the castle. I'm not 100% sure which was the castle proper, but I'm pretty sure that everything on top of the hill was part of the complex. That and Guinness puts Prague castle as the largest ancient castle in the world. They even had London type guards which I wanted to pose for a picture with, but I figured they wouldn't know I wasn't going to hit them... Oh well, maybe next time.

Prague is supposed to be a city of music. Indeed there were quite a few street musicians on the paths of our exploration, including a quintet of classical musicians whose music greeted us on the castle summit in front of the main gate. Not to mention every cathedral had 'live' music each night we were there. The band was very nice, and so was the main gate, but St. Vitus was my goal and that is where we went first. The exterior is a great Gothic structure (largest church in the country) completed in 1344 similar to, but not as good as, the Kölner Dom. The interior was a little bit of all right with a very nice gilded silver sculpture tucked away in the back corner. In order to really enjoy the sculpture we climbed up on a small step of a chapel and stood above the slow moving procession of tourists who would snap a single picture and move on. But after watching a group of people cut in the line upon entry to the cathedral with no protest from the masses I decided it was OK for us to take our time. Lili was now carrying a large quantity of free pamphlets and information so we finally had other objectives. The first being the ascent of the Great Southern Tower of St. Vitus... but much like the royal garden, part of Charles Bridge, and the castle Powder tower, it was closed due to technical difficulties.

Disappointed as the view should have been spectacular, we moved on to the next objective which was St. George's Basilica. After being turned away by the need for tickets we moved on. When we were denied the next objective of the Golden Lane by a need for tickets I broke down and bought us 2 and we headed back to St George's. St George's is the oldest church building within Prague Castle, originally founded in 920. According to the pamphlets it was the best preserved baroque structure in the country. I wasn't seeing it though... I took 2 half hearted pictures inside and both ended up being very blurry. Although the scary looking skeleton statue I took a picture of in the central knave(?) was morbid and awesome. Also, I think it may have been made of jade. Everything else about the place was pretty blah and uninteresting so we quickly moved on.

Other interesting points of note were the Dalibor Tower which had various instruments of torture on display including a rack, but no thumb screws or iron maidens. We also took a trek down the Golden Lane which is an old street that has a house where Franz Kafka wrote some important books. To be honest, I had no idea who Franz Kafka was, but Lili knew his work very well and it turns out that he is quite the important author in the 20th century. It was interesting how short the doorways were and how low the ceilings were. I can't believe the giants here originated from that stock... We finished with a quick walk through the history of Prague castle museum full of interesting treasures. There was of course no photography allowed and the lighting was actually poor enough that I didn't bother taking pictures.

About halfway through the museum my stomach and feet told me it was time to go and Lili agreed. We ended up eating some Italian food near the castle. Much like the eatery outside of the Vatican in Rome I left with a lot less money and ready to eat again. There was a brief debate about whether we would go up the Prague 'Eiffle tower' or head back to the Jewish quarter. The tower being uphill and the Jewish quarter being downhill we decided on the latter. Plus the previous day we were turned away from the Jewish quarter due to everything shutting down at 6pm. We got there and, what a shocker, it was closed. Turns out that Saturday is the Jewish day of rest, not Sunday...

A little disheartened about missing out again, we moved back towards the old town square. Being denied the ascent of the tower earlier in the morning I wanted to get a better view of the city. I picked the astronomical clock tower as it would provide a nice view of Tyn Cathedral and the old town square. It turned out to be a good idea, except for the overcrowding in the 1 person wide isleway at the top. We soaked in the spectacular view and I snapped about 50 pictures with different angles on all of the interesting sights in the town. Exhausted from walking all day on hard and uneven pavement a short nap was in order since the game plan included a nigh of dancing at a club.

I asked the guy behind the desk for a good electronic music club but he was a bit too old for that I guess. He did show me on a map the location of a 5 story club with a different DJ on every floor. That sounded nice so I had him write down the name and general location on the map and we set out once again. On the way to the club we stopped for dinner at a jazz restaurant. When we got in, the lady told us that at 11 they were done. I figured an hour would be enough for eating and enjoying the live band. We had passed up on live gypsy music only because I couldn't find the restaurant a second time. After about 10 minutes and the waiter saying the tourist menu was closed the band packed up and left so we got to dine in silence. I ordered the rabbit which smelled bad and tasted worse... Luckily Lili didn't mind it so I ate her fillet. After getting the bill which was another whopper I had to take a picture. The final total was 768 and a note said service of 10% was not included. The waiter was kind enough to write in '+service 860' on the bottom. I'm not sure what kind of gorilla math they teach in Czech schools, but 92 is not 10% of 768... Figuring I would just correct him when he brought my change, I found out that he kept 860 and gave me a giant stack of CZK 2 coins... In Kutna Hora 3 of us ate 3 course meals with lots of booze for my two colleagues for less than 1300...

We finished the night, or rather began Sunday, at the club. 5 stories of DJ's and all kinds of different nationalities were present at the club. We started at the bottom for some reggatone and dirty dance music. On the second floor they had electronic music and a decent DJ. The dance floor was kind of scary with a large crucified robot looking thing with lasers for eyes... All I want is a freakin shark with a laser beam attached to its head, is that too much to ask for?... The third floor was oldies with some swing dancing and disco, but neither I nor anyone else in the club actually knew how to dance to that music properly. The fourth floor was the hip-hop, R&B floor which reminded me a bit of the Post in Novi... both the clientele and the music. The 5th and final floor was called the chill out room where there were couches and a great house DJ. Of all the floors I think we spent the most time there as it had the best music and I could actually sit down.

Finally at the ripe hour of 6am we were back at the hotel and sound asleep... This weekend should be the last for a long time where I get back from a club after 3am.

Prague Day 1...

My train from Kolin to Prague was delayed and it actually worked out for the best. It put me in Prague at about 10:30am (I know... don't tell anyone I didn't go in that day)... Lili's train was supposed to arrive at 10:45 so I did a quick sweep of the train station to find the area we had planned on meeting at. Since the station was under construction I failed in finding it, so I scoped out a spot where I though all arriving passengers would pass by and set up a lookout. Unfortunately Lili and I are both short in a land of giants, but right before I was ready to give up looking since I figured I'd missed her, (Prague main station is one of the busiest in Europe) she appeared and we left.
Turns out that Lili had forgotten all the material she printed off about sites and maps etc. Since she was supposed to do the research on this trip I did nothing but book a hotel. Having looked at the general layout of the city when looking for a decent hotel I had a vague image of the stadtplan in my head... I actually can't think of the English word for stadtplan, heaven help me... Of all the trips other than Rome this was the only European trip where I actually had sunshine and no rain. So I simply looked to the heavens, making adjustments for the winter position of the sun, a Rodney Dangerfield check of the wind, and we set off in the direction of the old town... ish... first place we ended up was Wencelas square which is like the Czech Champs Elysees and center of the 'new town.'
Of course with my experience in travelling random cities without a map I got us to the Charles Bridge after only one wrong turn corrected by a U-Bahn map. Lili wanted to buy a map at a tourist stand, but I said to wait for the free one at the hotel even though I didn't have the hotels address or know where exactly it was... just a general area near the bridge. It wasn't quite check in time, nor did we actually find the hotel, so we continued deeper into the town. We went up a tower for a great view of the bridge and city beyond and to kill the time for dumping our luggage off in the room.

After exiting the tower we asked a local police officer where the hotel was and he laughed. 'I can't know everything.' I kept my snide comment to myself, tested the air again, and picked a direction. Upon reaching the next intersection I looked left and bam, there was the hotel. The location couldn't of been better since it was right on the river 30 meters from the western foot of the Charles bridge. Spectacular! We dumped our luggage and freshened up then it was back on walkabout with free maps in hand noting all of the major attractions. Also, on the rim of the map advertised was day trips to Kutna Hora. As with every major city I suggested we hit the big items first which meant the Old Town square. It was quite frigid out and joking around I tried on Lili's hat. I then wore the hat in our wanderings which drew quite a few stares and laughs, which was great.
We went back across the bridge in the direction of some sweet looking towers I could see over the buildings and towards the astronomical clock. In no time at all we were there and taking in views of ancient churches, the clock, and the main square of Prague's old town. One note about the clock is that every hour the windows open up and you can see the 12 apostles. Without any other information than that of wikipedia, I figured we'd see some interesting bells and whistles with dancing prophets etc. But it turns out to be pretty lame and I was truly confused as to how it could draw such a huge crowd. I digress...
Once again I took pictures inside the beautiful Gothic Tyn Cathedral when it was forbidden. The Tyn Cathedral was actually the towers I could see over the buildings and it was great. I think that God would really want me to share the sights with all of those people who can't make it on their own. That or I'm just building up a whole lot of bad Karma which might explain Sunday night... Anywho... we saw the sights and all of the major points of interest on the eastern side of the tourist map, including St. Nicholas church, Astronomical Clock, Jewish Quarter, Powder tower, another tower I can't remember the name of, and of course random interesting architecture. We finished the night with a walk through the park where I fought some statues and even Lili took part in the ridiculousness. I did manage to get some spectacular sunset shots of the Prague Castle (the largest castle in the world), but mostly what you notice is St. Vitus Cathedral which we saved for the second day.
Tired and hungry we found a nice spot for dinner... well it was the next spot we passed by, but it turned out to be nice. We both had some excellent goulash and apfel strudel. Then it was a night time stroll back through the old town finished with a nice long sleep to recuperate for the following day which we planned on going out dancing and seeing everything we failed to catch the first day.
It's really hard to pick just 5 or 6 of the best pictures from any given sight seeing tour. I'm not sure though if this crazy idea of taking up photography is warranted. What do you think? Do your think there is hope for my photography, or am I just fooling myself?

Goodbye Köln...

Today was my last day in my apartment. Everything is coming full circle as I've moved back into Der Club, zimmer 9. As before Heiligenhaus is a dead town and after taking a walk I'm back at the office using the internet struggling with the Deutsch keyboard. For those of you who have never used a Deutsch keyboard the y and z are inverted and all special characters except the period and comma are moved...

I had planned on making a final trip by the Dom and stopping off at the mediamarkt downtown before leaving the city. I slept in a little since I didn't have to go to the office today, plus I needed it and realized it was too late in the day for shenanigans. After a rousing game of what clothes are bad enough that I can justify throwing them away so I don't have to pack them, I took off to get my deposit back on my keys.

On the way out I filled the better part of the cardboard recycling trash bin with empty water bottles and red bull cans from my collection over the past few months. I wasn't sure which was the plastic bin and which was the paper, but in retrospect I'm pretty sure I messed up. We'll find out if the landlord sends a big bill... Which wouldn't really make sense since some (maybe all) of those bottles was worth something. Oh, and I need to find a place to dump the contents of the smart...

Regardless, when I turned in my parkplatz key the staff said, 'ok we'll credit your account with the deposit, have a nice day.' I laughed and said, 'no I brought cash for the key. If I didn't expect cash back I would have kept the key.' 15 minutes later with two trips to the bosses office upstairs and my version of compromise, where they paid all the fines and deposited the US equivalent of €40 in my US account, the lady came down with cash. Hopefully this is the last bit of stupid German crap I have to deal with... probably not though since I've still got 6 days to go.

After that it was off to Heiligenhaus and the medimarkt in Velbert to get a bigger USB card to backup all of my pictures. I got an 8Gb card for €15... actually I got two of them. So it's almost 33% full with pictures. I'll fill the rest with music from Joerg's computer. At least the next few nights will be good as I've got dinners and parties to go to for the rest of my time here. I'll get the post about Prague finished today, but probably won't have much time for posting or email until I get back stateside.

Uh oh... Spell check is not functioning... and I copied and pasted everything into a word document and every word was underlined red... stupid Deutsch computer.

Kutna Hora

Last Tuesday I had just gotten back to my apartment from work and was packing for my trip to the Czech Republic when I got a phone call. It was the head of the facility I was going to visit the following morning. I had thought everything was all set since the head of global engineering, my boss here, and the guy who was showing me around all were ok with the travel. My flight, taxi, and hotel were all booked, even the hotel for the weekend in Prague was booked on my expense. The plant manager calls and asks, 'Hello, is this Scott Brown?' Pretty sure of the answer I said yes. 'Who are you and who said you could come to my facility?' Nice! So after listening to a 15 minute rant about me not being allowed to come and how there will be no support for me etc. He told me to cancel my trip. He told me he thought I had no arrangements and it turns out he couldn't get ahold of his secretary who booked my trip in time to cancel everything. I made a short call to my boss and he actually resolved the issue for me. Regardless one would assume that was not a good start to a plant visit.
The work aspect was fine. I basically chilled out for a while and made observations since I wasn't allowed to take pictures and nobody was allowed to give me any documentation. In the end it was useful, but stupid at the same time. The positive aspect was that instead of staying in the usual town that is close to the plant, at the suggestion of Marek (the guy who showed me around), I stayed in Kutna Hora which is an old mining town whose hills are the scraps from the mines. I did not get to go on a mine tour due to lack of time, but Kutna Hora's downtown has been deemed a UNESCO world heritage site and wikipedia tells us that Kutna Hora used to battle with Prague for cultural and financial superiority back in the day. I don't feel so bad about missing the mine tour since I did get to see some spectacular views, sculptures, and architecture including a pillar built post Bubonic Plague seen here... sweet!
The first night Marek and I went out and did the brief tour after I checked into my totally sweet hotel room. Lucky number 13... The first site we hit was the Gothic Church of Barbara after a nice stroll down the lane in the first picture. Inside was beautiful and the exterior was amazing although half of it was under construction. The structure itself is not quite as imposing as that of the Dom, but the interior was a little bit better with more interesting chapels. We saw some stunning views of the valley the town was built in and a pleasant view from the opposite hill of the Church after dusk. I think that the other church pictured here is the Cathedral of our Lady, but that doesn't sound right and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. The mushroom cloud is indeed a mushroom cloud, but from a coal power plant not an atomic bomb...
For dinner I had a traditional Czech dish which I can't pronounce, spell, nor remember what I did with the sheet that Marek wrote it all down for me on. Regardless it was a tasty treat with meat from near the spine of a cow that had to have fat inserted into it to make it tender. A wonderful brown sauce with cranberries and some dumplings that looked like bread. Although it's apparent that it's a common mistake to call it bread based on the ire from Marek when he said it was a dumpling... hehe... We hit a few pubs afterward then it was time for bed and work the following day.

On the second night... work was lame and I don't think anybody cares about what I do at work anyway... Marek and I looked into me taking a driving lesson and rolling over some cars in a panzer tank. Unfortunately, I would of needed 5 hours for training and driving around which I didn't have. Instead we settled on the Ossuary where an acient partially blind monk made some beautiful artwork out of the local ingredients... Basically, at one point in time, some earth was brought to the area from another holy site and a graveyard was formed. Over time as the old were forgotten and new people needed burying the bones began to pile up. So what does the industrious monk do? He makes some pyramids, a chandelier, and an awesome coat of arms out of the remains. Very, very morbid, but beautiful and interesting all at once. Definitely something that you don't see every day, nor can you see in many places on this planet... unless the predators have some trophy cases yet undiscovered.

After the Ossuary we parted ways for a while and I went on walkabout for some more sunset photography. That's where I captured the gem with the mushroom cloud. We met with another colleague whose name I can't pronounce, nor remember since it's too foreign, for dinner at my hotel. I had a boar steak with peppered potatoes and a herb butter sauce. Delicious! Then it was off to yet another pub for some interesting conversation. Of course the election came up, but I also got to dispel some interesting myths about America and the obesity of its populace amongst other topics. After a late night and a short nap, it was off to the train station for Prague to meet up with Lili and the last hurrah of my travels in Europe. My train was delayed due to fog, which seems to be a common issue for the Czech transportation as we'll get to at the conclusion of my Czech adventures...

Ze German way...

Today is my last day at the customer facility in Köln. It feels kind of nice since there are some issues that I've been working on that I couldn't fix. Therefore, I passed the buck to a colleague today... heheh... The good news is when I leave I put up an away message directing all questions/comments/concerns to my colleague and forget about everything here. Outside of the customer facility I have no access to the email account I've been using for the past few months.

Tomorrow I fly to the Czech Republic for the remainder of the week for tours of the production line. I have a feeling the plant there will be similar to that of the Mexican plant. Hopefully things will be a bit more organized, but based on the quality of parts coming here I doubt it very much. Either way I'll be spending the weekend in Prague. Turns out Fridays at the plant are half days so that gives me ample time in Prague... except now I need to find a place to stay in the city. Regardless, the company is funding my flight so that saved me quite a bit so maybe I get a nice place instead of a dump for the weekend.

I'm not sure if I'll have internet access while I'm gone so this will probably be the last post until I get back to Deutschland on Sunday... maybe Monday depending on how good the weekend is ;-)

For NicBunny... (4)

The 4th installment of inappropriate and Ridiculous pictures...

Party Bus in Munich The movie Kids comes to mind....
This is a figurine of the god of wine... Apparently the guy who made it was drunk...
More wishful thinking by the sculptor...Haven't choked any statues lately...
Buildering outside the dom... about 6' up

Uhh... from the chocolate museum...

My midget playing the flute from my first trip to Köln...
Probably my most inappropriate picture of all...

*Correction: In reviewing previous posts it turns out this is the 4th installment

The rollercoaster (2)...

Saturday night was an interesting one. After dinner and a stroll, Lili and I started looking for a club to go dancing in. Both of us being in the mood for some electronic music, I had heard that Peter Pam was the spot in the altstadt. I had really wanted to go back to Nacht Residenz, but I didn't remember how to get there and it was really cold outside so I didn't want to walk too far. I vaguely remembered the direction of the club and that it took a long time to get there. Coming up on Peter Pam and seeing that entry was free and the tunes seemed all right, floating out from the basement of this building we decided to stop in.
I must say that the bartenders were very well endowed with much silicone and tiny shirts. Stephanie, pictured here, was our bartender from Brazil. She kept complaining about how bored she was with the club and how nothing ever happened there. I ordered my usual red bull and an alt bier for Lili. We went dancing and noted that the DJ had a passion for Latin music which was fine by us. After a while we found our way back to the seats at the bar that we had occupied at the beginning of the night. By this time we were on our 3rd round when Stephanie brought me a red bull and vodka. That really pissed me off since I took a nice big gulp then realized my drink was spiked. She tried to tell me that I had ordered it that way...
After some more dancing and chatting Stephanie complained some more about being bored. Lili and her danced to a good Latin song, I didn't get very good pictures, but it was hot... really hot... We sat back down and shortly thereafter there was a commotion on the dance floor. They flicked the lights on to signal the bouncers to come on back for the second time that night. 2 little guys ran from the dance floor and out of the club. Shortly thereafter 4 real big dudes started making their way to the dance floor when the screams started. There was a stampede of Germans from the dance floor on the opposite side of the bar. The setup was that the club was a rectangle with a large square at one end, bar cutting through the middle, and seating on the outside. We were at the center of the bar on the opposite side of the stampede.

At this point I grabbed Lili and tucked her underneath the bar and tried to assess the situation. There was still a decent sized crowd on the dance floor which confused me. I thought about the indian temples where people die as a result of stampedes due to false bomb rumors and overcrowding. While surveying the panic I heard 3 reports in relatively short succession. I couldn't make out what kind of gun it was from the sound. Either the loud music or acoustics of the building could have muffled the report, but I really think the biggest it could have been was a .22, but possibly some kind of gas powered gun since handguns are difficult to acquire here (for the general public that is). It was at this point I dropped down too, still watching as more Germans fled from the dance floor and ensuring neither of us was injured as a result. We waited under the bar until a sufficient number of police in riot gear showed up for my taste, at which point I grabbed Lili and took her out.

We made it as far as the coat check and found Lili had lost her ticket. There were some girls hiding in the coat check area and the old man running it was quite flustered. At this point there was the discussion of the crowd about the gun. I knew schleissen (shooting) and Lili picked up the old dudes Italian about a shooting etc. It would make sense with the stampede, but the sound of the report, and the unhurried fashion of the cops just didn't add up. A long argument with the old dude and his helper ensued about them not giving us her jacket without a ticket. I really wanted to just punch the helper and if anyone said anything just point at him and say, 'no ticket.' That and the helper guy said he didn't speak English, in English. When I called him out on it, knowing full well he'd had more than 5 years of English in school here, he of course had an explanation, also in English. We finally got Lili her jacket from the old dude and got out. There was some more police activity with sirens blaring and autos speeding into and coming out of the altstadt as we made the walk back to the car. When we finally got into the car I drove about 300m on the way back to Köln and found Nacht Residenz... So much for Düsseldorf and red bull...

I've been unable to confirm the shooting as I can't find a local paper online or any reports about it. My colleague was unsuccessful in finding anything about it either, but put a call into his cousin who is a cop. Either way that was a shockingly terrible evening...

The rollercoaster...

This weekend was full of ups and downs. Lili came to town Friday night to hang out for the weekend and get a free guided tour of Köln and Düsseldorf. She had to leave early Sunday so our potential plan of hitting another country was nixed. That and after Saturday night, I don't think I would have made it anyway. If you haven't guessed already, it was quite the late night Saturday, but we'll get to that later. Right now I want to discuss the ups of the weekend.

Friday night was nice as we just chilled in Ehrenfeld and by the hauptbahnhof and dom. I gave the generic tour of the city which was amazing for her as she lives in a tiny town similar to Heiligenhaus. It was nice hanging out and catching up since munich. Saturday we went inside the Dom and I finally got into the treasury. As Aachen was the seat of Charlemagne there was a serious horde as I have posted about previously. The difference? The Dom is one of the largest churches on the planet. It houses the shrine of the 3 kings, which is an opulent and gigantic gold box (not pictured here... although doesn't this remind you of the lost ark), which I've also talked about previously. This is on display in the center of the church, but Aachen's treasury has nothing on that of the Dom. We need a Livonia Brown and the chains of St. Peter, or something like that.
After that it was off to the Roman/Germanic museum which I'd heard so much of from Kai and looked longingly at in many of my travels past the Dom. Inside was pretty nice, but the Louvre has ruined me on other museums, much like the Dom and St. Peters has ruined me on churches. The funny story is that when excavating for an air raid shelter in 1941 ze Germans came across the remains of a large roman villa. Afterwards they built a museum out of/over it, to preserve the archaeological site. The courtyard mosaic is quite impressive considering the age (ca. 220/230 AD) and the fact that it hasn't been moved since it was installed.
Lili loves chocolate, much like myself. So the logical conclusion of our tour of Köln prior to our expedition to Düsseldorf is the Lindt chocolate museum. I've heard (from the larger people at the office) about how cool the chocolate museum is, but had not made the trek to it in my stay here. It's a nice short walk down the Rhein to the museum which is more of a representation of small production lines. I was hoping for song and dance with chocolate waterfalls and fat or nasty kids being taken away by oompa loompas. I had to settle on pictures of ridiculous mascots of the past and not offending the staff by referring to them as chumba wumbas. The chocolate was very good, although we only got 3 free samples. One interesting point to note is that the cacao plant originated from Mexico so Lili was quite overjoyed by the historical section of the museum. That and the original chocolate bar was not something you could pick up at the gas station, but a real pub where rich people would go to drink chocolate.
A short nap after the ensuing sugar crash got us to dinner in the altstadt at my favorite schnitzle house. Where I quote, 'Scott I'll never doubt you again when you say you know a good dish to eat.' After dinner and a nice evening stroll through the altstadt, it was time for some dancing, but again I want to focus on the highlights so we'll skip ahead to Sunday. As all trips begin and end at the Dom when it comes to Köln, this was no different. Other than the weather was quite fine this time around. We made the 509 stair ascent to the top of the south tower. I suppose you can't get much higher in the city than that. As usual the view was excellent and breathtaking. Especially considering the engineering involved in the construction of the tower and installing the worlds largest free swinging bell, St. Petersglocke.

We finished the grand tour passing the one fountain in the city that I actually know the story behind, thanks Kai, with lunch at a mexicanische restaurant. Ze germans don't know what Mexican food is unfortunately, but at least my tacos were edible and slightly spicy. A tearful goodbye ensued with me chasing the train down the tracks shortly thereafter... hehe... not quite... I finished out the day dodging the ticket control on the subway back to my apartment since I didn't buy a ticket and walked the last 2km home where I struggled to stay awake for a few more hours so I didn't wake up at 3am without the ability to fall back asleep.

Why is it...

that only on Friday, right near the end of the day, do people come needing things urgently? I know for a fact that nothing will be completed as a result... I called my home base looking for assistance and, what a shocker, nobody answered their phone. I made it almost the entire week without a single 'urgent' request. Now it's 3:30, half an hour to quitting time for potentially a top notch weekend, and I just had two high level people come looking for information that I don't personally have. It's now 4pm, I pick Lili up at the hauptbahnhof at 8... Livonia Brown is switching into Ninja Mode... time for a rooftop escape!

Quicky...

No, not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter...

Today as I was finishing packing my bag for work I looked down at my 'computer' chair. It had an Ikea tag on it. In the corner of my eye I could see the table by the door where I keep my keys and miscellaneous pocket items. I did a slow turn in my living room and came to the realization that I'm now living in the Ikea nestegg. Ikea being very popular here and slowly creeping stateside, I'm pretty sure all of the uncomfortable and hideous 'trendy' crap furniture is from Ikea in my apartment. The only thing I know that is not from Ikea is the dishware as they are labeled with 'Romania' and 'Thailand.' As I write this the first thought that comes to mind is, 'now what?' Thanks Mr. Palahniuk...