Another picture only post from walking around town yesterday.

Iceland...


I've decided I'm going to do everything in my power to go to the Iceland Airwaves Music Festival in Reykjavik. I've also wanted to go to Iceland - been a bit of a goal of mine - and I'm going to do it. My heart is pounding just thinking about it.

It's raining again today. Yesterday was a lovely day. I hung out with my friends Melissa and Jared from Canada. We went to the Albert Cuyp Market, had some lunch, made dinner at home and went to see ZOX, a fantastic band from Baltimore at the Melkweg. The show was superb. Great day.

I've got a ton of work to do, so I'm holing myself up at home and bearing down...

more later.

Grrr...

Sometimes I get so frustrated here I want to kill a baby. Getting a phone contract in the Netherlands is proving to be beyond difficult. Each place I go requires something different, and although I have everything they need, there is always some byzantine reason, or some abstract form I haven't heard of that I'm missing... Gah!

Plus, in order to register for my elective, yup that's right, elective courses, I have to go through this god-awful complicated system which involves going to differen departments within the University and getting approvals and signatures and this and that...

I guess if it was easy I'd be complaining to.

Fack!

I'm addicted to this stuff. It's delicious.

Travel Travel Travel...

Here's a quick map of the Netherlands for reference...

---

I start school next week, so I'm taking advantage of my 40% off all train travel (Voordeelurenabonnement) card and heading to Delft this week and Nimejen next week to see the cities. It's valid in all Benelux countries, so might as well.

It's raining again.

Here's a picture-only post of Amsterdam on a lovely day. Things are status-quo here. Had a lovely weekend with some Couch Surfers

peace-

Howdy...

I've been updating this everyday. I sure hope people are reading it. Regardless, it's fun to recant my normalcy. Today was my sister's wedding anniversary, which again brings about another tough emotional day. It doesn't get any easier. But I move on, every moment, minute, hour and day in search of something better, whatever that may be.

Today was uneventful. Going through my going's on is not all that entertaining, so I'll spare it. The integration simply continues. In order to sign up for dutch lessons, one must embark on this 'kill the death star' byzantine journey in which papers must be signed, accredited and return in haste, so therein lies a task for next week. I'm also considering going to Edinburgh, but the flight prices may halt such excursions. A friend is putting on a play at the Fringe Festival there.

Hosting more friends this weekend, including a few Canadians and a Scot, and may head to Rotterdam for a friend's party on Saturday. Nothing special. I just want to wish my amazing friend Jenn Bui a safe move to Calgary to start her new job, as well as my buddy Jared a safe move to Amsterdam, where he'll join us in the 'suck.' Just kidding, it was a gorgeous day today, one that warranted a canal stroll-along.

Anywho, here's a link to the play, Rob Roy, in Edinburgh and a shout-out to 365 Magazine, who hired me today for more writing stuff. Love you all, especially Alli....

Obstacle Course...


Everytime I ride my bike, I feel like a mouse in a maze trying to overcome some of byzantine obstacle course in order to get to my destination. Take today for example; I went into the centre, about a 10 minute bike ride to take care of some things. I had to deal with cars, trams, people, ignorant tourists, other bikes, people going the wrong way, obstructions in the bike lane, construction etc... Plus my back tire was flat. Thankfully I got it fixed and the bike rides better, and I have yet to kill myself. I have to go back into town in a few hours. Pray for me.

The new Pilate CD is quite good. I'm not shitting you. Go download it or heaven-forfend, purchase it!

Promotion Time...


My exceptionally talented bandmate, Kae Sun will be teaming up with Guelph's wonderful What The Thunder Said for a night of original music in Hamilton. Please go if you can. The details are below.

Kae Sun
featuring What The Thunder Said
Saturday, August 18th
The Pepper Jack Cafe, Hamilton, ON
(38 King William @ Hughson)
9PM, 19+, $6/door.

I wish I could go.

Blogsterdam!

I am really getting the hang of this city geographically. Once you get over the fact that there is no such thing as a straight line, the city becomes quite easy to navigate. I haven't been lost in a few days. That's nice.

Today was a bit of a shitty day, but I have no one to blame but myself. I stayed up way too late last night, and am paying for it today. I slept much of it, ran a few errands and went to work, das it all. Tomorrow my lovely friend Kate from Leeds is coming to visit, which will be a treat. Then I'm hosting some couch surfers this weekend. It should be a hottenanny, if it doesn't rain.

One of the greatest dutch inventions of our modern age is Blokker. Blokker is a discount Canadian Tire, but even cheaper and with more crap. It's a housewares dream for a student, and I am going back there tomorrow. Also going to see Xavier Rudd on Tuesday, which should be lovely.

Now I'll leave you with some photos I took. My bike is one of these.

I've been reading the e-mails all my classmates have been sending remembering our good friend Scott. Here's a quote that has struck me. I've been having a wretched, horrible day thusfar; everything has gone sour today, but now, it doesn't matter. More later.


"I believe we have all of the resources necessary right now to create a utopia." - Scott Lauriston


.... RIP.

Sunny Day!

Today there was SUN! SUN! SUN!! It was a gorgeous day. Absolutely gorgeous. So gorgeous a useless adverb like 'Absolutely' is more than warranted. After a week straight of rain, including some horrible moments where I've been completely drenched, head-to-toe on my bike, a sunny day was a blessing. A few friends stayed with me last night, friends who I met through Couch Surfing, a great site meant of building new contacts and experiencing other cultures. Matt and Sofie are Parisian, and I hope to send them a visit later this fall.

Yesterday was not so nice. It rained harder, and longer than it has yet, and I got so wet my jeans stuck to my skin. I biked from my place downtown, about 20 minutes, and got absolutely drenched. I met Grant and Amanda for some jazz in Nieuwmarkt before heading back with Matt and Sofie for dinner. We ate too much surinamese food and went to sleep.

Today I did very little. I enjoyed the sun. I went to Vondelpark to read, but it was too busy so I settled on my balcony. I intended to see Calexico tonite, but it was sold out. I betcha it's gonna rain tomorrow.

Lastly, it's certainly been tough integrating. Sure everyone speaks english, but EVERYTHING is in dutch, including cell phone manuals and bank statements. The best thing is, the Dutch pride themselves in inconvienencing you by doing this. They sneer at it. I'm going to enroll in a Dutch language course in September, as I get a huge discount with the University. Off to bed. More social commentary tomorrow.... Oh yeah, read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. I'm 60 pages in and it is brilliant.

Rain Rain Go Away...

I haven't left the flat this morning. I plan on going to the English bookstore and then to head down to the Nieuwmarkt to see some jazz with a friend, but it's been pouring all day. I remember once I was in Scottsdale, AZ and we participated in a Monsoon. It rained so hard it hurt.. like pellets. It feels like that today. Still thinking about Alli and Scott. RIP.

Horrible, Sad News...

I just found that my classmate and good friend Scott Lauriston died suddenly in Toronto on Tuesday night. He was 28. I feel sick... utterly sick. RIP Scott. You will be missed my friend... I'll never forget ya you sarcastic bastard.

I wanted to share a story about Scott, even if no one reads this blog anyways. I remember sitting with my thesis partner, Shaun Tucker in the lab at 3A or some ungodly time, struggling over some bitchy code that we couldn't figure out. I remember Scott walking in and just hanging out with us for a bit, joking about this and that before he went to the back of the lab to work. We then decided to get pizza and we asked Scott if he wanted, but in his true Italian sense, he said 'what the fuck, no meat on pizza? What are you, lesbians?' I had a good chuckle. Scott had a bit of a raunchy sense of humour, but he was always there for ya when you needed it, whether it was to insult his leather motorcycle jacket or just shoot the shit. I remember him saying he was planning on going to law school... I guess life is one big delay of the inevitable, but his delay was way too short.



Scott Lauriston's Obituary

It's been exactly one month since Alli passed away. I got up at 6AM this morning to go to synagogue in Amsterdam. The only one I found with a morning service was the famous one, entitled Esnoga, a portuguese synagogue erected 400 years ago. It was pouring rain, so I hopped the tram and it let me off right outside the synagogue. It was a gorgeous building... majestic even. Yet, I sat and ran the bell for forty-five minutes, getting beyond soaked and no one answered. I walked around and rang on the side doors; nothing. I found an open tourist cafe and checked the internet again telling me a service existed; it did. The time passed. I rang again, and again and again. Nothing. I gave up. In a final symbolic gesture, I dropped my bag in the rain, faced the west and did the Kaddish, by myself in Mr. Visselplein square at 8:30AM in Amsterdam, thinking that Alli was up there having a chuckle at my misfortune. I was soaked to the bone. I tried. I hopped the tram back and went home and right to bed. I love you Alli.

Quick One,

Everytime I try to speak dutch, they don't understand me and then speak back to me in English. It's gonna be tough learning this language.

Shain

Howdy,

Another crazy eventful day in Amsterdam. I slept in a little bit today, which was nice considering the lack of sleep I've been getting. I went straight to school, where they told me to go to another building in school, who promptly gave me a letter to take to the bank. Forty-five minutes later, I had a bank account. Then I got a cell phone. The rest of the day has been spent grocery shopping anf wandering amidst the rain and wind... lovely amsterdam weather. That's about it.

One thing I've noticed here, is that everything is more difficult for the non-dutch, regardless. Systems are set up to benefit the dutch, and annoy foreigners. Yet, I believe the dutch have a right to do this. They have made a living, since the beginning of their country, doing business by learning our language and coming to us. Now that I live here, the more I realize that in order for them to do that, it comes with a catch, either by charging more money or acting differently. Yet, they have a right to do this, and I accept it. It's my job to integrate, not theirs to be welcoming. Dutch is a tough language phonetically at first though, so I'm having difficulties, but I'll pull through. The adventure awaits.

Here are some pics from my flat I took two minutes ago.





Love Ya... (especially Alli)

Shain

Godenmorgen,

This is my first post from Amsterdam, and my first since Alli died. I wanted to memorialize her by keeping her at the top of the page throughout August, and now that I'm in Amsterdam slowly intgrating into culture, I know she'd want to hear about it.

Things have been really difficult the past month or so, and the past few days were no different. My flight from Toronto was surprisingly good though, as I was bumped up to first class and enjoyed getting liberally doused in beer throughout the flight. Once I arrived in London, I took the train back to Lisa's, had a nap, went for breakfast at a lovely diner and took the train back to the airport. I fumbled with my bags for a while, but ended up getting everything on the flight to Amsterdam for free (even though it was all overweight) and got through customs.

The flight was delayed two hours. Thankfully I met a lovely American named Shanna on the flight who was moving to Amsterdam just because, and she got me a ride to Dam Square with a friend after we arrived. I then cabbed it from here and here I am.

Today was eventful. Very eventful. I went to a small town outside Amsterdam called Hilversum to take care of my immigration. An hour later and many forms out of the way, I got my residence sticker - a big deal by the way - and came back home. Then I proceeded to get CRAZY lost biking home, ending up in a neighbourhood I've never seen. Then my bike broke, so I had to walk it home. I found a repair shop, fixed the bike and stumbled on home, exhausted and two hours late.

Then began my introduction to dutch grocery shopping. I went to the cheaper retailer, Dirk Van der Broek and spent a lovely hour grabbing everything from Zucchini to dutch jam. After ringing everything through, I brought out my VISA and they told me that they don't take credit cards. NOBODY TAKES CREDIT CARDS. Since I don't have a debit card yet, it's cash cash cash, and I had to start eliminating food to get down to the amount of cash I had in my pocket. I held up the line for 15 minutes, as everything had to be scanned individually. People were generally understanding, but I stood out like a black girl at an Aryan dance. Fun.

I've fully unpacked and hooked up my phone. Call me at 905.667.4389 if you like but remember, I'm six hours ahead. I have to go to school tomorrow, and then head to the bank to setup an account. I never thought they would just give me the residence permit, so I'm gonna make a headstart in getting a bank account set up, if my credit cards are useless.

More later with pictures.

RIP - Sarah Allison Shapiro 1979-2006

I will post pics soon. I love you Alli.

Addison Groove Project are fun... I love internet radio. I really do. I'm sitting here listening to AGP whilst writing overdue articles on my girlfriend's computer whilst she is at work. It's also Saturday Night. What a life I lead. In this blog entry, I would like to recommend Hiruki Murakami, as I have been entrenched in his prose as of late. Here's a pic of the book I've been reading below. READ IT.

Back in Leeds,

I hate French keyboards, so I decided that I'll jot notes down in my book throughout the trip and wait till I get back to Leeds for a full update. Like the brilliant mastermind I am, I forgot to jot stuff down and here I am stretching my memory to its limitations remembering all the details since Lyon. I'm hoping Fisch's blog entries have been more in depth so I can just take stuff from him.

Anyway, Lyon was one of my favourite cities on the trip. There is something about the layout and attitude of the city, from its bustling river-side food and art market to their wonderfully touristy old-town to myriad squares and fountains lining the city centre that really did it for me. Certain elements of French culture intimidated me, especially when my juvenile French linguistic abilities limited my abilities to communicate, but my overall experience with the city was amazing. We climbed a large hill in the centre of town in crazy heat to a cathedral that offered up gorgeous views of the city.

Much of our time in the city was spent walking around and eating. There wasn't a museum that was worth going to (that we knew about) and it was shabbat, so Joe couldn't go out anyways. Instead we spent time exploring the city aside from its tourist stuff. The first night we ended up at an Australian Bar (called Ayers Rock) because we thought we'd meet English speaking people. We ended up conversing in poor French with a few girls and met some American soon-to-be lawyers who wanted nothing to do with us. Following that I got a Falafel - which was decent - and we went home.

Our last day in Lyon I met up with my friend Emily Mallick, who lives with her boyfriend Jeremy in Lyon. They are teachers at an international school but are moving back to Canada in a few weeks. We went for Ice Cream and drinks and walked around, before I met up with the guys dinner. We went to a recommend burger joint, watched some world cup on TV and went back to the Ice Cream place for dessert.

The only crappy thing about Lyon was our hotel. I would never recommend Hotel de Bretagne to anyone. It is a 1 star. 1 star. We shared two double beds, had cobwebs everywhere and there was no hot water at night. Plus, the owners spoke no English. I tried to stay away.

On our third and final day in Lyon we went to Paris. We caught the 6PM train and proceeded to do nothing but find our hotel (a 3 star) and go for dinner. Dinner, and subsequently our introduction to the city, was fantastic. We went to a Kashmiri Restaurant around the corner from our hotel (in Villiers) and were treated like royalty. Good food, lots of it and good treatment. Kashmiri food is different from Indian I learned. The spices are a bit different and the presentation and preparation of the naan is different. Regardless, it was damn tasty. After that we walked around and Joe and I indulged in some Creme Brulee Ice Cream before going to sleep.

The next day was a bit of a whirlwind day. It was my last day in Paris and it was crammed with stuff. We left the hotel at 11AM and didn't get back till the Metro closed after midnight. I don't quite remember every single thing we did, except that we walked around for ages and ages. We went to Hotel Invalides, which houses Napolean's grave and the museum of artillery and armour, which was nice. The building was also fantastic. The grave was a bit ostenatatious, but such is life in imperial graves. Atleast it wasn't the pyramids. Following that we walked along the Siene for a whole before hopping the Metro to Montmarte, the area which has Sacre Cours. Sacre Cours is a gorgeous church on top of a big hill that offers great views of the city. We paid our €5 (after getting angry as all hell with the automated ticket teller) and hiked up the windy stairs to the top. The view was great, but the walk was crap. Also, my camera died on top so I only snapped a few pictures. Kowski, still feeling under the weather since Milan, decided to wait at the bottom as he did the hike last year.

Following that we ate lunch and walked back to Champs D'Elysses, stopping at a bookstore for a moment as well as some pay phones. We then had dinner, sat on the Arc de Triomphe for a while and walked down to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up, all tacky looking, at nite. It still looked gorgeous, despite the obvious over-doing-it of the decorations. Sipping Heineken, we relaxed around the eyesore for a while before going home.

Lastly, we went to Versailles on my last day before I boarded the train to Amsterdam. Versailles's garden is gorgeous, a site to be seen, but we all grew tired of its interior. It was nice, almost too nice, but it all moulded in looking exactly the same and we really thought the interior designers of Louis XIV went a step too far in outfitting the palace. An hour into touring the rooms after waiting in burdening heat for an hour outside and we were done with it. The best part of Versailles was a stick fight the four of us had. At times we got frustrated with each other and silence was usually the best weapon of choice. This time, in trying to hit Joe, I hurled a stick at him, accidentally whacking Fisch right in the head with it. A flurry of stick hurling ensued, entrenching all four of us in a stick hurling melee until we were all on the ground in histerics, pleased with our actions.

After lunch and a coffee, I boarded the train and said goodbye to the guys. I'll really miss them, but I sure do need a break from them as well. Travelling with someone, seeing them 24/7 can be exhauasing, and you can get on each other's nerves quicker, without having time apart. I think that happened a bit on this trip, and a break was needed. I also learned a lot about myself, and needed some time to just relax, be alone and think. More about that later.

Lastly, where in all hell are Kalman and Lance? They should really get in touch us, those shitheads... Hopefully they are still reading this.

Music - the radio in Josie's house... Robbie Williams, god help me I think...

This one will be fast...

I am using a french keyboard, so point form descriptions it is.

- Milan was crap for the most part
- Nice was lovely. We went to the Chagall museum, witnessed an amazing street party-music festival that reminded us of what mardi gras may be like.
- ate some flan
- spent time on the beach in both villefrance sur mer and cannes
- visited san rafael, monaco and antibes
- fisch fell into a broom closet at the monte carlo casino
- took lots of pictures
- spent quite a bit of time walking around
- met an anti-seperatist french canadian on the train to san rafael
- now i am in lyon
- it is amazing: hiked up a big hill and saw great views of the city
- went to an australian bar last nite. more proof i cannot speak french
- went to marsailles for an hour or so on a layover. not impressed. i also banged my toe up quite good
- gorgeous squares and fountains in lyon.
- meetin an old family friend for a drink.

more later

Milan is okay...

Welcome to the first, and unfortunately abridged addition for the second leg of our trip. This internet cafe in Milan is quite possibly the most annoying one we have ever been to, so updating the blog at length and remembering everything will be difficult.

I had a hell of a time getting from London to Venice in one day through Rome. I spent an amazing day with my amazing girlfriend in London before boarding a Ryanair plane to Rome. There was turbulance, quite a bit of it and I sat next to a lady who went to Rome to meet her mistress (still a guy) who she met on a girl's weekend a few weeks back. I became her psychologist, as she was asking me what to do with her life, if she should divorce her husband of 16 years, what to do with her kid etc... Twas fun. The plane was also 2 hours late, and since I timed it to make my 10:50 train to Venice, it became a marathon getting to the train.

But I made it. just barely. I sprinted with my bag to a bus, boarded it (it was also twenty minutes late) and then hopped the subway 4 stops before sprinting anohter 200 metres to find the train delayed 15 minutes. Thank the good dude!!! The train was horrid; people were sleeping in the hallway, their was no bar car and it was hot, but I made it to Venice at 5:30AM, made friends with an Iowan named Greg and began wandering around Venice.

Venice is lovely. All the transport is done by boat, which is kinda nice at first but annoying after a while, because it takes ages to get anywhere. My hotel was in Lido, the furthest island from the city centre and it took over an hour to get there from the train station. The hotel was nice though, as I got a huge room to myself (the attic) and no curfew, while the guys ended up at a Christian hostel with a midnite curfew and a lockout, located on an out of the way island. They would not stop complaining about the hostel, citing it as the worst one ever. I'd read http://adamfisch.livejournal.com to read more about that.

I did not meet up with the guys until 7PM, so the day involved lots of walking with Greg, an amazing lunch near the guy's hostel featuring one of the freshest and best sandwiches I have ever had: couple that by eating it right on a Venetian canal with a friend = perfect.

I split with Greg who had to go back to Rome and went back to my hotel for some rest... I then met up with the guys in Santa Maria square and we proceeded to walk through town, ending up at the local Chabad called Gam Gam for dinner. Joe is orthodox, so we ate with him because it was shabbat. The dinner was quite nice... They laid out dozens of tables right on the canal and we ate communally, like a family. Free food too, which was nice... I almost knocked a girl into the canal, which would have been horrid because the canals are extremely dirty, so thankfully that was averted. Post Gam Gam they had to make curfew so we went for a drink and I slowly walked back through Venice, taking the last boat back to my hotel.

In the morning I went to the beach and walked around before boarding the boat to meet the guys at the train station. Therein we left Venice for Milan, which I am in now.

Milan is a frustrating city... It is huge, dirty, cosmopolitan and busy, and in my opinion has a very arrogant feel to it. Last nite we found our hotel and went for dinner. Dinner was fantastic and quite cheap (best pizza I have had yet), before we took Kowski back to the hotel because he was feeling ill. He just recovered from a bout with strept throat, but we feel the bug is kicking back in and he has been in bed since last nite. We are quite worried about him, but we hope he'll bounce back. He is still in bed now, and after I update the blog I am gonna head back to the hotel to check up on him.

Last night the three of us went out and found the student neighbourhood, which consisted of a big square with bars and people relaxing and drinking. We'll hopefully head back there tonite. Today we went to the Duomo, but had to return to the hostel when they would not allow us in with shorts. Then we got back and hiked up its stairs for the view, which was marvelous, but upon proceeding to sit down and play the guitar, we were kicked out of the duomo for sounding too much like 'woodstock.' Some religions just confuse me... playing guitar is considered rude, wearing shorts is rude, pedophelia is okay... Alright, I'll stop.

I laso bought a water to find out it was carbonated today and my new mountain co-op pants broke! The zipper fell off. I saved it to present to them when I am back in Toronto... Lunch consisted of Panini... lovely panani and there have been copious amounts of gelato consumption. Today we gotta go back to the train station and try and get Kowski out of bed, before heading to Nice tomorrow. I'd like to return to the student area, as I liked it and not much about this place has impressed me. Apparantely I HAVE to go to Rome and Florence and see the David, so that will be done later this year or next hopefully...

If Kalman or Lance is reading this, e-mail us back ya fockers...

peace-

Sanity Music - Beatles in the internet cafe... one redeeming quality.

quick post...

Here is A LINK TO ALL THE EUROPE PICTURES.

peace-

Pictures of home!

Back in Toronto...

I'm quickly back in Toronto for two weeks. The Alli's Journey Concert held on June 1st was a huge success. I performed "Just Like That" with my band, Kae Sun and Lionel Richie's "All Night Long" with Vanderpark. In addition, Michael Burgess, Jackie Richardson and Guido Basso, among others lent their talents to a wonderful night introducing this amazing new charity. The concert next year is going to be even better, I promise you that.

Now, more pictures from Europe and after that, pictures from my BRAND NEW FLAT in Amsterdam. I found a wonderful place to live and I am posting exclusive photos for all of you who seek a couch to crash on in the near future... But be warned, it'll cost ya... he he. I'm so excited to move in. I'm sharing with a lovely Amsterdammer named Alex and I get a living room/dining room and bedroom, along with kitchen and washroom. Perfect. So here we go; Pictures ahoy!

Pictures! Finally

Zooming all the way back to London,


Well, my flight was cancelled. Apparantely the door on the plane did not close properly in Vancouver yesterday and my plane never made it back to London today. Therefore, upon arriving at the airport, I found out that my plane had been delayed for 23 hours till 3PM tomorrow. Thankfully, they fed me for free, gave me a free phone card and paid for a cab to my brother's house and back tomorrow morning. So here I am sitting at my brother's while they watch Big Brother, enjoying a lovely evening in London. Part of me does not care, especially when I learned that I may be entitled to financial compensation under EU law for this, which would be fantastic.

Another amazing thing happened today. I found a flat in Amsterdam and agreed with the owner upon moving into it. This flat is amazing; a dream come true. It is owned by a local guy who decided to move to Africa for two years, so I am essentially housesitting on the cheap until he gets home in December 2007. The place is luxurious. It has everything and more I could have ever hoped, and is right on the Prinsengracht in the Jordaan, a upscale-chic neighbourhood. If this all works out, and it seems it will, it will confirm that in some ways, I am the luckiest guy in the world. It is just a house, but it signals the start of a new life and that means a lot.

Now back to the last of the trip. The guys are still in Berlin, and from now on, please visit Fisch's Journal to find out what shenanigans they are up to. They are heading to Hamburg shortly, before venturing up to Scandinavia for trips to Copenhagen and Oslo. I am jealous, but I will make it there eventually. The last two days in Berlin was filled with sombre reflection and crazy partying. We walked around more, visiting the Reichstag, a horrible modern art museum called the Hamburg Bahnhof that was housed in a gorgeous old train station, a few Jewish memorials including the oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin and the only synagogue not destroyed by the Nazis. It was used as a storage facility, apparantely. In addition, we walked through the Tiergarten, a gorgeous park smack dab in the middle of the city centre and walked through the Hofptbahnhof, a gigantic train station that was redesigned for the World Cup.

At nite I saw Jason Collett and Amy Millan one night, which was lovely at a really weird venue called the Postbahnhof. In addition, we met a lovely German music journalist called Alisa who we partied with on my last night in Berlin. We tried to go barhopping, but the first bar we went to took ages to serve us and our bar hop turned into a crawl, which turned into going to two bars. Still, it was lovely.

In addition, I ate a bunch of Falafels, some delicious and some horrid, did more walking around Berliner Toursiting. On our last day, there was a big city-wide party outside the opening of the train station, in which a horrible German cover band, playing shitty American pop poorly headlined outside. They played the Stones, Uncle Cracker and Peter Gabriel, among others while many enthusiastic German fans lapped it up. It was horrible, yet horribly funny at the same time. I remember this one women just givn'r in front of us, air guitar and all. I wish I could have taken a picture. I did take one of the train station though, and the party outside.

I did not shower in Berlin though. Our hostel, way in the East end of the city had communal showers, and all their furniture was outfitted by communist army surplus. I showered the first night, but a security guard came in to the shower while I was soaping to tell me that showering after ten was strictly prohibited. Also, he did this in German. That was enough showering for me in Berlin.

I guess that is it for now, even though I feel I left stuff out. I am going to publish some pictures after this post as well.

peace-

Brugge - The city that always sleeps
Brussels- spouting with action
Viva Colognia
and Ich Bin Ein Berlin- Tourist...

I wish I could sit here and regail you in the insanity of the past few days, but I have nineteen minutes and counting on my internet voucher, so I will be quick. I hope to update this in full tomorrow, but who knows.

Brugge is a lovely city. Is it quaint, quiet, historically gorgeous and boring. Our hostel there seemed to be the only party in town, and it was not that enthralling. We did see a gorgeous cathedral, went to a hospital museum that showed what a hospital in the 1200s was like and walked around alot. We also went to a fair, did the bumper cars and haunted hous and got trapped in a hall of mirrors. Seriously, the three of us could not for the life of us get out. Two girls sat outside and laughed histerically as we bumped our heads and got trapped. The ride actually closed down and they let us out. It was embarassing to say the least. Kowski also had an ineresting experience in Brugge. He ended up meeting up with a 19 year old daughter of a Saskachewan oil tycoon in our hostel room, trapping Fisch and I in the hall while he engaged in what turned out to be a very uncomfortable experience, or so he says. The girl was not the most visually appealing sheep of the flock (I am trying to be nice) and Kowski was drunk. So to make it short, we ended up receiving free beer from our neighbour for sitting out in the hall for a while (which was spilled for the most part and cleaned up with dirty laundry) and eventually, we made it back to the room and went to sleep. The funnier thing is the next day, a friend of this unnamed girl approached him and chastized him for ignoring the situation the next day. This girl, Marie from Newcastle, was really angry, creating a high-school style situation that both Fisch and I ignored, leading us to leaving the hostel quietly the next day. To add more icing on the cake, her name was the same as the giraffe Kowski met in San Sabastian. Perfect.

We spent the next day split in Brussels and Koln. Brussels is gorgeous, and capping off our day was a trip to a musical instrument museum, which both enthralled and angered us. The displays were great, but the way they displayed them were horrible. Instead of being able to listen to each individual instrument, they played combined pieces when discribing individual instruments, which creating a difficult listening experience. Joe would have still enjoyed it. We then walked around for a while, ate lunch in the middle of a traffic circle (we bought groceries in Brugge), went to another cathedral and hopped a train to Koln. We missed the direct train, so we had to take three local ones, but it was fun. We met a few american high school exchange students and tought them lessons on university and a Canadian dentist working in Brussels who served in Afghanistan in 2003. She actually identified, through dental records, one of the guys killed in the friendly fire incident. wow.

Okay, less than ten minutes left now on my card. Koln was INSANE. Right when you get out of the train station there is this massive cathedral called the Dom facing you. This place looks amazing and somehow escaped unscathed from world war II, even though the city was bombed to shit. We found our hostel, a nice place right downtown and ended up at a jazz club on the river. Before that, I had an episode with german phone cards, which basically sealed the deal of me not buying anymore phone cards. I have spent like 40 euros calling home and Josie, so for the next two days, email will be king.

The jazz club was great. It had the vibe of a speakeasy, with peanuts on the bar thrown all over and a very intimate atmosphere. The band was excellent, as the piano player played base using an analog foot pedal dealie that enthralled all of us. There we met three Cologne-ites, Ans, Pasquale and Valerie. The rest of the night would require another blog entry entirely. They wanted to go to a student club, so we took the tram uptown. Upon finding it overflowing with people, we ended up at another bar, which I have no idea what its called or where it is, but it was a cave in the basement of a complex, and then the night got crazy. The germans listen to horrid music, and this DJ played it all... Dirty Dancing, La Bamba, Beach Boys, Dandy Warhols, local Cologne songs including VIVA COLOGNE and other stuff. We drank alot, as their local beer, Kolsch, is very easy to drink and tastes good, and somehow 4:30AM rolled around and it was pouring, we had no idea where we were and we were exhausted. We took a cab back to the hostel. More on last nite later.

four minutes left. Today we went and sight-saw around Cologne. (It is also called Koln). We went to the Lindt Chocolate Museum, which was disappointing. Promises were made of myriad free samples and we got two small ones. Plus the museum was just poor. Useless exhibits. We should have known. We went inside the dom, walked around a bit, went by the world's largest music store (called The Saturn) and hopped a train to Berlin. Here we are now. The hostel is way on the eastern side of the city, so we decided it is best to explore tomorrow and get some sleep tonite because we are not in the centre. The guys are already asleep. I will elaborate on more later.

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Now I have seven minutes left on my internet card. We are still in Berlin. Did a lot of sight-seeing today. Much of it will be elaborated on later. Here are a few quotes instead that must be published.

`Wow, the third German word I know is a curse word' - Me after meeting some weird German girls on the train who tought me how to curse in German.

'First a giraffe, then a ogre. What is next, a man? - me again, with Fisch´s help. Kalman will understand.

'Are youse guys from America?'
'nope, we are from Canada.'
'then what part of America are youse guys from?
- The exchange between myself and Marie from Newcastle.

Also, hello to both Kalman and Lance. We miss you American idiots.

Brugge-a-Rific,

Well, I am going to start this blog entry with a quote, because if I don't, I will forget. It may not make any sense, but whatever...

"Don't Get Elimigated" - Kalman

Okay, now on to the good stuff. I am in Brugge right now, sipping on Leffe from a real Leffe glass enjoying Tenacious D at the hostel bar. The hostel is called the St. Christopher's Inn at Bauhaus and it is sorta just outside te city centre in Brugge. This is a wonderful place, one we will explore at great length later, but from one quick walk through, I am loving it. It is old, has fantastic architecture, is clean and quiet. There are two chip stands outside the main square in town, which we discovered get auctioned off every three years to the highest bidder. After buying chips (and mayo) from one of them, we had a discussion with the proprietor and learned that the three-year auction system was hard on the owner, because you had to buy all the equipment upfront and pay taxes and rent, so once you developed your business, it had to be auctioned off it seems, so you had to outbid everyone to keep your business going. Weird system. More about this later.

I guess I left off the last entrance in Amsterdam. Kalman and Lance have since left us, unfortunately, and we have moved on to Belgium. The last thing we did in Amsterdam was laundry, which was anti-climactic, and this morning we went to a traditional crepe/pancake place for breakfast, and I went to school for a bit. Nothing much to report; it didn't rain, which was nice.

The few days previous was spent enjoying the beauty and culture of my soon to be called home. After switching hostels, the five of us went on a long walk that saw us pass by the long line at the Anne Frank Huis and get horribly lost, on my account, and end up luckily at Vondelpark after asking for directions. The rest of the day was thoroughly uneventful, as Amsterdam often initiates; filled with walking, getting lost, going to coffee shops and cafes and just enjoying the gorgeous surroundings. We went through the Red Light District during the day, just so the guys could have a reference point for when we returned at night, and walked around more. I wish I could wax poetic about the craziness that ensued, but nothing much happened. It was relaxed, quiet and introspective... always a good way to go in Amsterdam.

Our second day began with a trip to the Heineken Brewery. After meeting up at the hostel, as Kalman and I were staying with my friend Amanda, we walked all the way up to Museumplein to go to the Van Gogh, but the line was too long and it was raining so we opted for beer. The tour was actually quite fun. We got to be our own beer bottle and delivery horse/cart (I wish I could explain it further, but it was interactive) and drink three *free* half-pints of lager. It was a lovely time, no doubt. After that, we went for food and had a horrible falafel (Kalman's first ever - he is getting cultured) and spent the night chilling out for the most part. We walked through the Red Light District at night, as promised and ended up at McDonalds for cheap Ice Cream. At 2AM, we unfortunately said goodbye to the guys and went to bed.

More stuff; we went for lunch which saw Kalman bitching like no other, because the sandwiches that were served were open faced. They werent cheap, but were absolutely delicious, but because he did not receive that top piece of bread, his mouth went off like a sailor's and he went to town. It was quite funny, but temporally funny, so I guess you had to be there.

Tomorrow we hope to explore the city and indulge in more Belgian ale. We will be off to Brussles, Cologne and then Berlin in the coming days, so keep notice. I miss Kalman and Lance. I wish they were around. It is interesting that in twelve days of travelling together, you get to know someone so much that they are as close to your best friend as anyone else. It was sad to see them head off and I am excited to welcome them in Amsterdam next year. I also want to give my condolances to Lance and his family for the passing of his grandmother. RIP.

Well, I should not leave this post on a sad note, so I will tell you that I found out today that I will be in the same town as my amazing friend Alicia at the end of June. I will be meeting her in Paris. That is awesome. I love her to death and am excited for that. I am also excited to see my sister back in Canada next week, and my girlfriend. It is going to be a busy week.

Best-

love you....

Sanity Music - Tenacious D (in the bar)

Kalman (aka Wiggles) and Lance... - we miss you guys.. you are still killing our livers as we speak...... YEAH DUDE!!!!

Well Hello There,

I wish I could sit here and write a novel about my travels, which by the way has never been done by anybody, but my time is limited so I will get right to the point and update our shenanigans...

We missed our train from San Sabastian to Paris. Unfortunately our vernacular differences with the train person led to a misunderstanding the night before, and our train left from Hendaye, France, a town 20 minutes away, the time when we thought it left San Sabastian. So we laughed about it and walked back to my favourite hostel in Europe, Olga's Place and stayed another night. Olga's Place is a guesthouse run by Rafael and Olga. They don't speak English, but somehow you communicate through broken words and hand gestures, and they treated us like family every minute we were there. They cooked for us, let us use their cooking facilities, chatted with us, help us with directions, everything... I missed it already.

We left Spain the next day at 4:30, making damn sure we got on the right train and made our way to Paris, through a switch at Hendaye. The train was seven hours long and thoroughly uneventful, minus a heated discussion about music between the five of us, and filled with sleep. I actually shaved on the train and only cut myself once, which was a miracle. We also had our own car, the first time this had ever happened, and used it to full advantage by laying out, getting yelled at by having our shoes on the seats and being generally loud. A lovely time had by all. When we arrived in Paris, our hotel was on the other side of the city, so took the metro for an hour and checked in at 12AM. This place was WEIRD. It was called Metropole Lafayette and it had winding staircases akin to horror movies, a crazy cock-eyed check-in guy who hated Americans (Lance and Kalman are now from Windsor) and horrible rooms. I was in the attic; there was no working shower and there were holes, actual holes, in my mattress. The guys slept fine, and so did I after a while, but it was sketchy. The night was capped off with a quick visit to a local bar for a bottle of wine and some weird european foosball with a local drunk. Great times all together.

We purposely got up extremely early because this was our only day in Paris. Our train left for Amsterdam at 6 so we wanted to fit in as much sight-seeing at possible. We did great! We saw the Eiffel Tower, walked down the Champs D'Ellyses, saw the Notre Dame and partook in a bread festival and spent almost two hours in the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa, Venus De Mylo, Hammurabi's Code and the Inverse Pyramid, among others. Overwhelming place, no doubt. It would take months to see it all.

Paris is gorgeous. Kowski loves it to death and I can see why. Such a magical place with a feeling and aura all its own. The architecture rivals any other city and the people were wonderful, as long as we are not Americans. The metro system is also easy to use, unlike Barcelona and we did not get lost. We finished our sight-seeing, as well as ice-cream indulging I believe, and made our way to Gare Du Nord train station. We actually took the 5PM one because we wanted to get into Amsterdam at a decent time. The train stopped in Brussels for a minute and minus some loud, vulgar conversation that we are accumtomed to and fantastic it, the train was uneventful. We harked on about 80s cartoons, movies and sitcoms for two hours, recanting the theme song to Full House, among others and discussing and reminiscing about our past. Suddenly, it was 9:30PM and we were at Centraal Station in my favourite city in the world, and soon to be new home, the crazy Amsterdam.

We could not find a hostel for the hoping hell of us here. Kalman and I stayed at my friend Amanda's, while the other three stayed in Haarlem, a suburb of the city reached by train. They only got to book one night there, so this morning they lugged their bags around for a bit and ended up in another hostel, owned by the same chain (http://www.stayokay.nl) as the one in Haarlem and found a room. The new one is in the centre near the Red Light District, so it is more exciting and we can party tonite a bit.

Last nite was thoroughly uneventful. We split up and the guys went to the hostel in Haarlem, in which I heard they played pool and hung out. We went out with Grant and Amanda to a few bars and took a cab back to their flat in the eastern part of the city. We all slept, showered (which was much needed) and regrouped this afternoon. Today has been spent walking around and not much else; We passed by the Anne Frank Huis and then got lunch, which I am responsible for and finally ended up in the right hostel. We also went for pizza and falafels. Tonite is up in the air, but it is the last night where it will be the five of us, instead of the three of us, so it will be a party, no doubt.

On Monday I will head to school to introduce myself, then Fisch and I are off to Brugge, Belgium while Kowski is heading back to Paris for a day to go to Versailles, and then will meet us back in Belgium that night. The trains are great, so splitting up is possible; Also, I will be back in Paris in early July, so I don't need to go with Kowski. He, on the other hand, will not be.

Kalman and Lance leave Sunday night for the States. Ah well. Here are some lovely quotes to end off this installment, before I forget them.

"I am not going anywhere till I go somewhere." - Kalman

"If I lived at the beach, I would be at the beach everyday." - Lance

Also, Kalman is real good at impersonating Fisch. It is hilarious. And we haven't killed eachother. We actually still like eachother. What a surprise.

Sanity Music - My Ipod is dead and my adapter shorted. Bite me.

I love San Sebastian,

Our hostel is fantastic. It is called Olga's Place and it is a guesthouse, where the owner and his family live in a room next to hours. This is the first time on this trip where I have stayed at a place that actually feels like home. San Sebastian is a wonderful place. It is in Basque Country, where they dont speak Spanish, they speak Basque, which is said to be descended from the Iberians and not related to any other language on Earth. We communicate through broken French and pointing most of the time. The town is also dirt cheap. The five of us spent 25€ and bought enough food for three meals and eight, count em eight, bottles of wine. We made pasta for dinner last night and made French Toast this morning, which was amazing because we have not had a 'real' breakfast in weeks. Usually, it is just bread and cheese, which in this town is more than fine with me.

We met up with almost a dozen people from our hostel and went out last night. There were a few Australians, some more Canadians and some Americans. We went to a bar that was 2 for 1 on Monday night and the rest of the evening is more or less a blur. Lance, Kowski and Kalman paired up with girls, even though Kalman's threw up right after he kissed her. Apparantely he bought her one too many drinks, and this Edmontonian (she is from Edmonton) could not handle either one; the drinks and Kalman. Kowski met a girl from Charlotte who was taller than him, prompting Fisch, Kalman and I to refer to him and her as kissing giraffes. The quote of the day, or atleast one I remember will refer to that below. I drank too much Sangria and got lost walking home, yet I was still the first one back.

Today is Kowski's Birthday, so we spent it at the beach. The sand at this beach is much better than the sand in Barcelona, in my opinion and the water is slightly warmer. All five of us spent quite some time in the water, trying to 'catch waves' and body surf. There is not a cloud in the sky, and there is a nice cool breeze to top it all off. We still havent seen rain. Amazing.

Tomorrow we are going to do some sightseeing as there is a tram that takes you to the top of the mountain that overlooks this town for amazing views, and there is a world-class aquarium. No more beach days after this, as we are taking the night train, again, to Paris tomorrow night, where will spend a few more days together and split up with Lance and Kalman. More updates later. Much love.

Shain

"We are so screwed communicating with anyone... so you know who will end up hating us? Everyone." - Fisch and Shain

"Kowski and the girl are like giraffe-tit-park" - Kalman

"I dont even care" - the motto of the trip

this is paradise.. I am soaking up each and every moment...

San Sabastian,

Well, I do not have a lot of time today and there is a ton to go through´. No pictures yet. I am sorry.

Barcelona is extremely different from Madrid. They are seperate entities, both amazing in their own way but completely different. We started our trip in Barcelona on the wrong foot. We got horribly lost, getting off at the wrong metro station from our hostel and walking around for nearly two hours aimlessly, before we stopped someone and asked for directions. The metro system befuddled us; Barcelona´s system makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are two companies that run the system and instead of using colours, they use shades of colours, so there are three different blue lines. We kept getting lost when we were there; everyday we got lost, but it became more fun than annoying in the end.

We spent our first night in Barcelona at the hostel, just relaxing and getting to know the folks there. We met two Scandinavian girls, Emily and Emma, and ended up hanging out with them for much of our time in the city. We went for our first nice dinner in weeks, which the guys enjoyed but I hated, and just chilled. We got up fairly early and spent much of the day walking around the city. We must have walked for miles. We saw Segrada Familia, an amazing church constructed at first by Antoni Gaudi that is set to be finished in 74 years. We hiked up 72 metres of winding stairs. I never made it to the top, either did Fisch, but the rest of the guys and Emma did. We got some great views of the city and some good pictures as well, so it was well worth the 5€. After that, we walked and walked and walked. We past a bullfighting area, went to a lovely park and chilled a bit, decided 15€ was not worth it for the zoo and found the beach. Barcelona is huge, and is full of unique neighbourhoods that have attitudes unto themselves. Getting acquainted with them was well worth it.

The party area, or one of them for that matter in Barcelona is Las Ramblas, a long street that leads to the beach filled with tourist traps. Throughout the street, there are these performers who dress up in crazy garb and enact statues of themselves for money. I think they are all glorified panhandlers, and seeing them do the same thing every single day was an interesting experience. Like, how do you fail so much at life that you end up being a human sculpture for a living on a street? Plus, hordes of idiotic tourists flocked to see them, giving them money and encouraging their lack of getting a real job. I sound angrier than I really am, because some of their costumes were great, but for the most part it got annoying.

On our first night, Fisch, Kalman and I went to see the North Mississippi Allstars at the Sala Apolo while Kowski and Lance went out with Emma and Emily. The concert was amazing, and I will be writing it up for JamBase, so I will post a link to that. After that, we went out with some American girls we met earlier that day. I went home early because I felt sick but Kalman got accosted by 7 prostitutes apparantely, bringing his grand total from Madrid up to 10. Fisch did not talk to one. Kalman does not look like the type of guy to pay for sex, but it is funny that so many Spanish women think so.

Our second day was spent entirely at the beach. Nothing much to report, except that we all got sun burned, had an amazing, yet tiring day doing nothing and hung out with the American girls for longer. The beach was exhuasting, so we napped and then went for dinner. Well, we had dinner before the nap, a horrible chinese buffet that I am still regretting. To counteract that, Kalman, Fisch and I went for Tapas and Paella with a friend of ours from Costa Rica called Mario who we met in Madrid, met the American girls again and went out. I went to bed early because of a slight cold, but apparantely the guys had a good time. They got back to the hostel at 4AM and proceeded to have a laughing fit. Then I started beating up Kalman because he wouldnt stop snoring, yet not fess up to doing it. He was too out of it, I guess. It was super funny. One more thing, two nights ago the three of us, minus Kowski and Lance went to see this singing fountain at the Olympic Square in town. Essentially, there is this huge fountain that lights up and is choreographed to classical music at night, at fifteen minute intervals. It was absolutely awesome. The lighting and the way the water shot up in accordance to the music was awe inspiring. I got two pictures that worked, thankfully. Plus the view of Barcelona from where the fountain was, which was at the top of the hill, was amazing.

The hostels in Barcelona are crap. We switched after two nights at the Centric Point just north of the main area, called Catalunya Square to one in Las Ramblas called the Ideal. Both were horrid, but they served their purpose. The Centric was always hot, and it was illegal to go on the balcony. At the Ideal, it was illegal to hang towels off the balcony. Weird. Also, Kalman got shoved by a French guy for no reason whatsoever at the Ideal and both hostels took ages, almost an hour, to check in. The pace in Spain is much slower, and checking in to the hostels proved that. Catalunya Square has the highest number of pigeons I have ever seen. Someone blew a horn at the square while we were walking with our bags to switch hostels, and suddenly amass of pigeons came flying at us, Hitchcock style, flying mere inches from our face. I had to duck and thankfully, no one got pooped on.

Yesterday we went to Gaudi Park, a park designed by the architect before he died that has amazing architecture. Gaudi is famous in these parts, as he designed much of Barcelona. His work speaks for itself, as it is elaborate and eloquent; a trip up Sagrada Familia speaks to that. We also went back to the beach, got our train tickets and hung out with Mario for a bit. We also ran into Cam from Madrid and got traditional, delicious Tapas. They are just little appetizers but they were surprisingly filling. After that, we just made our train to San Sabastian and now we are here. The sleeping arrangements on the train were weird. The train is made up of six person compartments, and all of us were seperated. Thankfully mine was quiet and no one spoke English.

We are in San Sabastian after taking the night train from Barcelona last night. We all slept well, then took a four hour nap at our hostel, which we have fallen in love with. It is a quaint little guesthouse and San Sabastian looks amazing. Small, clean, amazing beach, internet cafe with USB ports... excellent. We are travelling with Kalman and Lance till Paris, hitting Bordeaux first on Wednesday.

For more in depth analysis, visit Fisch and his blog at http://adamfisch.livejournal.com

Barcelona-tastic...

This is a really weird keyboard. It is neither Spanish, which is something I have gotten somewhat used to, nor English. It is something else and for the life of me, I cannot find the question mark button. Well, onto updating the blog. I am really upset because finding USB adapters in Europe to throw pictures up has been hard. We have lots of pics, but they are stuck on our camera right now. Soon enough...

Well, we are now in Barcelona. Firstly, we got horrendously lost today. Barcelona has a very confusing transit system, as two companies own the metro system and transferring and finding the right train is a challenge. There are two stations called Gracia, and we went to the wrong one. We walked around for nearly 2.5 hours finding the damn place, eventually stumbling upon it after finding the right station, getting out at the wrong exit and walking all the way around the area.

We were extremely famished from not eating on a 5.5 hour train ride from Madrid, so we inhaled dinner at a restaurant and have been casually relaxing in the hostel tonite, getting to know a bunch of Americans staying here as well as folks from Finland and Sweden. We also met a lovely trio of Mexican-American girls on the train and will be going to the beach with them tomorrow, if the weather permits. We also hope to make to more museums, sight-see and get a feel for the city.

Tomorrow we are going to see the North Mississippi Allstars at the Apollo in Barcelona as well. Other than that, nothing much more to report, so I will leave you with a few recontextualized quotes that made us laugh more than ever on the trip...

"I am going to go hit on his wife" ¨- our friend Mark upon viewing an old man at a nightclub.

"This is not a pillow case, this is a pillow sleeve" ¨- Shain upon learning that his pillow case had openings on both ends.

"There are no bathrooms anywhere. Dont the Italians go to the bathroom here." - Fisch in the Madrid, Spain metro station frustrated about not finding a toilet.

"Mayonnaise is the cavalry of Canada" - Lance (we still do not know what we meant).

Much Love...

Shain, Fisch, Kowski, Kalman and Lance.

Madrid... Americanos?

Well, it has been tough keeping on top of things while I have been travelling, so there is alot to report in this report, so bear with me if you are the least bit interested.

We have been in Madrid for a few days. On our last day in Lisbon, we decided to take a day trip and go to Estoril, a beach town just west of Lisbon. After gorging on bad taste in Lisbon, Estoril was a lovely, beachy treat that left us leaving Portugal loving Portugal. We sat on the beach for hours, enjoyed hordes of beautiful people, played guitar, drank cervejas, munched on toastas and sandhuches de queijo and just enjoyed the day. Estoril has one of the largest casinos in Europe as well, so Adam wanted to go in. It was nice, nothing to write home about, but there were no poker tables, so we promptly exited. We also walked along the boardwalk, which was gorgeous to a neighbouring town called Cascais. Overall, it was a lazy, relaxing and thoroughly enjoying day. I got sunburned to shit though, and three days later am still reeling from it. I swear I put on sunscreen but I guess I did a patchy job. Kowski got tanned; ass.

During our stay on the beach, we noticed a gorgeous Portuguese woman sunbathing topless. Later that day, we went to a patio bar for drinks, and Kowski proceeded to talk bluntly about the girl, not noticing that coincidentally, she was sitting right behind him on the patio. It was one of those ýou had to be there´moments, but it was extremely funny. After Estoril, we grabbed some groceries at the most heavily guraded grocery store we have ever been in - we had to check our bags and enter in a single file - and hopped the overnight train to Madrid.

That is where the craziness began...

Just outside of the train station in Lisbon we ran into two Americans from Indiana, Kalman and Lance. Both work at a hotel in Aspen, Colorado and are on off season, so they took a transatlantic cruise from Texas to Lisbon and am bumming around for a few weeks. We grabbed a few cervejas and boarded the train, where we met some Canadians and Chileans and proceeded to get toasted on the train, drinking and chatting for most of the ten hour ride. It got intense at moments, and I passed out at about 5AM, and slept 15 minutes on\off for the rest of the trip. We have stayed with much of our train buddies, and we have grown considerably as a group now that we are in Madrid. Kalman and Lance are part of the group now, and will be till they depart from Amsterdam on the 22nd, and we have been going absolutely crazy since arriving in Madrid.

Madrid is amazing. It is everything that Lisbon is not. It is busy, but tame, energetic but clean and passive at times, relaxed but insane. We have chilled in parks, partied at clubs and partied so much our memories failed at times, all in the past few days. We arrived at Cat´s Hostel http://www.catshostel.com in the morning, and that is where the insanity began. Cat´s has a large courtyard and a huge bar, and everyone here is here to party. Going out is mandatory, and we have abided by such laws with ardor and compliance. To begin the trip, we went to a Morrocan restaurant for breakfast that had no menu, spoke no English or Spanish and drugged us. All the guys who ate the mystery meat (we still do not know what it was) got sick, leaving all of us in a horrible state that included sickness, indigestion and hallucinations. We napped it off, however uncomfortably, and made it out into Madrid by the afternoon. We went out into town, which is lovely. There are stately squares, like most European cities, a few palaces and gorgeous architecture. We walked around aimlessly for a few hours. We sat in a park and chilled, I joined in on a busking session which was visually documented and we bought some wine before returning to the bar\hostel to find the place busy. We met some girls and the rest of the night is pretty self explanatory. Many of us got drunk, we ended up a nightclub whose named rhymed with a certain STD, had some ridiculous conversations revolving around everything from philosophy to the linguistic abilities of sexual organs and by 4AM, we were pooped, dizzy, drunk, full of cheer and ready for more. The guys, Lance, Fisch and another friend Mark, took some girls back to our room and promptly screwed up any chances they had, leaving us laughing at them whilst creating an awkward moment for everyone the next morning. Let us just say that Fisch is a `walking mistake´ in the eyes of our bright-eyed Canadian girl. I wish I could fully extrapolate the brilliance and beauty of last night, but my exhaustion and desire to not type too much on vacation is setting in, so I will move on.

Today has also been an absolutely enchanting day. We woke up at 11AM had breakfast. It was crap. Kalman had a spanish omelette that was horrible; ironic that the worst spanish omelette he's ever had was in Spain. My meal was equally poor. I ordered a veggie sandwich and I got iceburg lettuce and white asparagus on a peace of buttwered brick toast that was then deep fried for no real reason at all. I love eating no protein for breakfast and then trying to make it through the day on ruffage. This part of Europe makes me feel like a squirrel sometimes... All I eat are toastas de queijo and weird amalgamations of poorly marinated veggies on white bread. Three cheers for treating vegetarians like cattle... once again...

After our sordid breakfast experience, we boarded the clean but awkward smelling Metro (it smells like good cheese or bad meat all the time) to Museum Sofia, a fantastic collection that had over twenty Picassos and Salvador Dalis. The first story though occured trying to find a place for our travel guitar, which they refused to check at the museum. We found a hostel across the street and tried to ask them to take it, but the women who ran the place did not speak english and when we tried to leave the building, the door jammed and myself, Kolman and Fisch were locked inside the building. It was traumatic. We spent almost ten minutes trying to find a way out, but the door was locked. Suddenly, after one exhuasting push and some luck, the door opened and the lady who could not speak english emerged from the balcony to berate me in the vernacular. Good fun... Let me tell you. To add to the icing on the cake, I fell up the stairs. I hate doing that. The funny thing is, Zach and Lance had no idea we were locked inside, because they were chatting with girls at a nearby restaurant.

The museum was amazing. It was intellectually exhausting, and trying to not embarass ourselves by saying the wrong thing is equally tough in a place like this. We saw the original GUERNICA, and it was amazing. It was huge, intricate and inspiring. We also saw many other originals Picasso´s and a whole room full of Salvador Dali originals, which was absolutely fantastic. That man was a nut, a genuis and a visionary and seeing his work in the flesh was wonderful. There was also a side room featuring this artist who died recently, who did crazy, hallucinogenic things with wood. I wish I could due it justice, but we were not allowed to take pictures... the museum was strict about alot of things, and that was one. Zach got yelled at for sitting four times.

After that, we ate lunch at none other than McDonalds (I know) and went to a huge park in the middle of Madrid. This equalled Central Park in NYC. It was HUGE. There were myriad areas in this place, including an amazing manmade pond where we rented a rowboat and sunbathed for an hour, architectural gems, a fantastic rose garden and the memorial for the train bombing that happened in 2003 in Madrid. At the memorial, we met two old men who directed us to the big pond, and this place, in which pictures will be uploaded was amazing. On the boat, we met a bunch of American girls who directly intonated every stereotype that clings to American travellers. They were directly rude to us, even when we tried to be as nice as possible. I was speaking with one about Barcelona, and mid conversation, her friend took control of the boat and paddled away as we were speaking. How nice of them. To cleanse the bad taste, we went for a beer and sat about more, including meeting a lovely American girl (to compensate I guess) who had been pick-pocketed that day. I hope our jovial demeanor made her smile... she deserves it.

On the way back, I tripped over a wire that seperated the lawn from the pavement, and cut my toe up. I am okay, but I fell while I was simultaneously telling Lance that his behaviour, which is more adventurous than mine, would hurt him. I keeled over humourously, and limped home. Now we are waiting for an apparant pub crawl at 1AM and doing laundry.

Other than that, not much else to report. The five of us are off to Barcelona tomorrow, and waited for an hour in the train station to reserve today. Other tidbits; I broke the curtains in our hostel room, leaving us open to the world 24-7. Fisch lost it and fell down laughing. It is impossible to decipher the locking system here. We all have these watches that are linked electronically to the doorknob, but they never work. I was locked out for quite some time. My sunburn is subsiding slightly, but now I have to deal with a bad toe... I guess you win some, you lose some. All the guys are well, except Fisch has a bad sunburn and all four continue to strike out, miserably I might add, with the ladies. All I do is smile and think about Josie. Except for Kowski, who has been faithful to his wonderful girlfriend Kendra, the guys are swinging and missing left, right and centre. Remember, no matter where we go, Fisch is still that 'awkward mistake.´ We tried to hook up the camera to the computers, but the USB port driver doesn´t work, so we will try again in Barcelona. My UK phone is 011447910173986. Please e-mail, call, whatever...

That´s it... Love-

Shain

Lisbon? Lisboring...

Well, I am less impressed with Lisbon as I was with Porto. Porto was a slice of heaven... I cannot say the same about Portugal's largest and most recognizable city. Our intorduction to the city was less than impressive. After stepping out of the train station into an obviously less than affluent neighbourhood, we went to a cafe where I was berated by a homeless man, and he had to be removed from the restaurant by the owner. After finding our hostel, we were told it was overbooked and we were walked to another hostel/guest house, back in the bad area, where we proceeding to have language difficulties with the owner over how to pay. No one speaks English in Lisbon, and our Portuguese has had to improve dramatically just to get by. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as we should be speaking their language as a respect to the culture, but when you speak english here, you are perceived to be American and treated poorly from the onset. What a lovely city.

We settled into the guest house, which turned out to be fine, and went out to the 'party neighbourhood', an area called Barrio Alto that was recommended in our travel book. While their was myriad bar selection, once again, no one spoke english. The only people we met that spoke english was a triage of drunk Australian girls whom we were less than impressed with. We drank a bit, walked around and tried to embrace the city, but the language difficulties were too difficult.

We went home, slept and went sightseeing yesterday. We went to this lovely museum that displayed a collection previously owned by a wealthy socialite, which featured classic art, antiquity, tapestry and other doodads. The art was fantastic; original Rembrants, Monet's, Manet's, Rodin's and others. The museum was split in two, so went for Lunch in between, which proceeded to make Kowski sick, so our trip to the second part of the museum was flawed by indigestion, which prompted a return to the hostel. After that we decided to try something new, and took the ferry to some random place called Barreira, which was recommended by the train ticket-taking guy. It turned out to be no more than a poor suburb where we had cheap beer, looked at the lack of sites and went home. Following that, we went for dinner because thankfully, we found a Chinese restaurant that served veggies and went to sleep.

One last thing, Portugal has never heard of vegetarianism. When you say you are a vegetarian here, you are greeted with laughter and sarcasm, and treated like cattle (I betcha cattle are treated better). The only thing available to me here has been cheese sandwiches, or sandes queijo, and I am getting sick of eating nothing but white bread, butter and cheese. Today will include a trip to the grocer, where I can fill up on veggies. The only silver lining came when we found an organic/natural smoothie/salad restaurant, but while enjoying my fruit salad, another bum came in and berated me. Three cheers for Lisbon.

Today we are taking a day trip to a beach town called Ericidea. It is supposedly gorgeous. The overnight train for Madrid leaves tonight at 10PM, and we are excited. I will throw up a bunch of pictures then, as Portugal is gorgeous, but lacks USB adapters in cyber cafes.

Till then, dommo obrigado Mr. Oporto.

much love.

Shain

Howdy (doody),

Well, it is difficult to recant two amazing days in Porto when I am sitting here with 17 minutes left on my internet card in Porto, Portugal. This is an absolutely magestic place. When we arrived in the country, it was cold and rainy, but since then, this place has yielded absolute perfection. Firstly, we made a mistake on our hostel reservation and they honoured it anyway, beginning two days of sightseeing, awe-inspiring and walking around....

Porto is hilly... very hilly. We have walked many miles. But one thing I notice here is that people are extremely passionate about their day-to-day lives. This is a busy place, crowded at times and cramped, but people seem more interested in improving their quality of life, from having a two hour lunch (siesta) to enjoying the finer things, like good port and beer.

I have seen some crazy things, like a man walking around with an iguana on his head, a marching band travelling the city on a double decker bus playing military music, a castle that is actually home to the Saudi Arabian Embassy, gondolas being used as trams.... I have also been on two port making tours, met a crazy Brit named Oz who was the epitome of British crassness, shared drinks with some wonderful dutch people and walked and walked and walked around this more than wonderful city. We keep saying this is paradise, a place not worth leaving, where everything makes you happy, makes you smile and makes you think... This city and country are not to be missed, and I will be back. Heck, if I could buy some property here, I would.

Kowski and Fisch bought a travel guitar today, so all we have been doing is sitting in parks and playing music. We also climbed up the talling church in Portugal and took some wonderful pictures... Tomorrow night we are off to Lisbon, even though part of me wants to move here... and move all my family, my sister, my girlfriend, mother and friends here... We have no plans from Lisbon, as we are riding by the seat of our pants planning one city in advance...

We will upload pictures either tomorrow or the next day, because their is no USB connection at this this cyber cafe... We have loads, and they are breathtaking... many of them atleast. Avoid the ones we are in of course.

Love you...

Shain

Howdy,

Well, this is the first post from my trip, as I am sitting in my girlfriend's living room in Leeds, UK. I arrived in London on Monday afternoon after a twelve hour trip that included a stop in Cardiff on the tarmac exhausted, and after checking in at my friend's hostel in London and having a shower, I hopped a train to Leeds. Since, I have just been nostalgically enjoying my time here and spending time with my girlfriend, along with some old friends. We've eaten some lovely meals, including an amazing dessert last nite at a new Italian restaurant where I had grappa and Josie had lemoncello cheesecake. Nothing much to report, except that I am leaving Leeds later today and heading back to Stansted Airport, where I will catch a flight early tomorrow morning to Porto, Portugal. I have never been to the north part of the country, so I am really excited.

Today I had an interesting, well somewhat interesting experience waiting to buy a youth railcard for Britain at the train station. We waited almost twenty minutes in line, with a whole whack of other people, and not one person seemed impatient or frustrated. People just waited, respectfully and quietly, unlike how it is in North America where any wait that is longer than 3-5 minutes is greeted with scorn and anger. We could learn a lesson from this, and even though my patience varies from time to time, I am trying to get better, learn how truly relax and not care as much about time and scheduling.

Next time I update this, I will be throwing some pictures up here. I did not take pictures in Leeds, for the most part, as I already have many from when I was living here, and minus a few store fronts, the city has not changed very much. I'm off, as my girlfriend would rather me not spend all my time updating my website. Much love.##

-Shain

Howdy...

Well, I leave for Europe in four days and I'm swamped, so this will become my tour journal/diary from now on... Not much to say now, except my hands hurt from moving and I gave blood today, so I feel like a champ... Peace-

Sanity Music - Yeah Yeah Yeah's

I didn't realize that there were three TV channels specifically dedicated to celebrities, along with whole sections of 'news' broadcasts dedicated to them too. I think we have redefine culture in our day and age as 'a age-old adage, now extinct, that used to relate to people who cared about themselves, their own personal expression, the state of their world and the arts, science and politics dwelled within.' RIP intellectualism.

Hiya,

Quick post. This blog will be my tour journal this summer, as I'm spending two months in Europe along with a few weeks across Canada before settling in Amsterdam to go to school full-time. I will try and continually update this site as frequently as possible, despite not even having time to do the dishes often...

So my thesis defence is on Monday. I have a 30 minute presentation sandwiched by questions. Three months of work, toil and sweat comes down to answering a few simple questions. I hope that my performance does not detract from the quality of the project. The project should be online by the fall,as it is a course website that will indeed by used by McMaster University. I am excited to see that happen.

Finally, Kae Sun will be travelling to Guelph and Hamilton this weekend, so check our website and hopefully we're see you dancing as much as we will be.

Best-
Shain

This is some information for my band, Kae Sun's upcoming show in Guelph, ON at Vinyl. Check it out!

Hey!

It turns out I did not get into school in Denmark, so it is official; I will be moving to Amsterdam to do my MA at the University of Amsterdam. I will be done my undergraduate studies on April 22nd, and then I'll have a break for the summer. I'm going to be doing a little bit of travelling with some friends, interspersed with trips back to Canada to be with my family. I'm going to Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Eastern Europe, not to mention the British Isles. I'll also be back to graduate on June 6th and for a short relaxing jaunt back to Canada in the middle of July.

Here's a piece I just wrote that I think represents what I've been upto. Read it Here. Let's hope people read it. I'm gonna leave you with more travel photography, as it is a passion of mine to try and capture the essence of where I go, even if it is far from realistic. peace-

Hiya,

I'm trying to update this as much as possible, even though I am stuck working on my thesis. Right now I'm converting 40 PPT's to PDF's, so I have plenty of time. I just want to share one my favourite all time pictures I have taken. It's from Amsterdam and it gets me excited for the future. Toodle-oo. I love bikes.

Sanity Music - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

One more post; I just wanted to update my band's tourdates at the end of the month.

Come see us:

www.kaesunmusic.com
www.myspace.com/kaesun
www.liferecordsent.com/kae.htm

Saturday, March 25 @ TBA in Toronto, ON (Industry Showcase)
Friday, March 31 @ The Gypsy Co-Op in Toronto, ON (w/Jay Crocker)
Saturday, April 1 @ Brando's in Brantford, ON
Friday, April 7 @ Vinyl in Guelph, ON
Saturday, April 8 @ The Pepper Jack Cafe in Hamilton, ON


peace

Hi,

Haven't updated in a few weeks; I have decided that until I graduate from school, this blog is going to be slightly ignored due to time constraints. Yet, I will make it up to all you lovely readers, as I will be updating this every day as I travel throughout Europe for three months. I'll also make sure to update it with my daily growl upon settling in Amsterdam.

Hope all is well. I have a multitude of grandiose, brilliant topics to set on discussing here, but it'll all have to wait, as my thesis is due in three weeks and my life revolves around it. All I hope for, in this short period, is that Dick Cheney continues to shoot his friends, until every last one of them is dead or a vegetable. I'm not a violent person, but a few less rich white guys in power is fine by me.

And on that note-

<-- Human Quail -->
Hi.

Haven't updated in a few days. I'm been battling a nasty sinus virus that has kept me in bed for the past ten days. I'm feeling better but no where near 100%. Ah well.

I find it interesting that when Dick Cheney shoots someone, it is seen as a humourous joke through the eyes of the biased, sensationalist media but murders, shootings and violence are always at the top of the news hour on TV. I believe Cheney should be charged with unlawful misconduct, but unfortunately we do not live in a free and fair world and the evil man will get off scot free. Apparantely the victim suffered a minor heart attack because of the shooting, not to mention getting shot.

Also, it took the white house 21 hours to break the news after the shooting, and it was done so by a private newspaper in Texas. When is this obviously hidden agenda of this administration going to end? I wish impeachment was an option.

Here are some links:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cheney_hunting_accident

All I have to say is, those quails are pecky mothers... I'd suppose Cheney could mistake a human for a quail.



-peace

Sanity Music - Apostle of Hustle - Folkloric Feel