Egypt

May 19-29, 2006

OK, gonna skip ahead a bit because I haven't had time to write any other trips up. So little time, in fact, that my sister Beka wrote this up (thanks!), enjoy:

I love Canada even more! Anyway, Warren, Travis, and I left for Egypt fairly well researched but still unsure of what to expect. We bought some beer for the train, in preparation for visiting a Muslim country where alcohol isn't widely available, and talked excitedly about what we could buy and what we would see. The travel took about 9 hours, and we arrived for our culture shock in Cairo at 3 in the morning. We promptly failed the first task, which was changing cash and buying visas. The money was ok, but the the postage stamp-style visas immediately fell on the floor without our noticing and we were yelled at. As I was pulling out my water bottle to wet the stamps, I was appalled to see both Travis and Warren with the stamps in their mouths (I'll mention now that Egypt is by far the dirtiest place I've ever been, more later.) Next was our free hostel-provided taxi ride. We were all surprised to see a man with a rifle crouched behind a wall as soon as we pulled away from the airport. (We soon discovered that such armed officers are stationed at every street corner.) We quickly noticed the different driving style; which was very fast and with no attention to the lines on the road. The sights outside were even more foreign: there were people everywhere, walking in the streets, attending campfires (in the street), and at open stores. We were staying downtown, which in the night looked like slums, but was slightly better in the daylight. Our hostel was very nice, and my first impression was that I would be happy spending the full 10 days there.




The first few days we were in Cairo, a filty and crowded city with a population of 17 million, we walked around and didn't look at much in particular, except a few of the million mosques. (Richard joined up with us at the end of the first day.) That was an entertainment overload in itself. First of all, we were the only white people. Everyone recognized us as tourists and at first we thought they were friendly because we would hear "Welcome" or "Welcome to Egypt" every few seconds (almost everyone there is fluent in English). However, we frequently encountered friendlier people who would talk longer to us and then try to lead us to their store or sell us something. The business style towards tourists is essentially harrassment, which was constant with taxi drivers, street vendors, store owners, beggars (ie. all Egyptians). And they don't give up easily. In addition, everyone wanted a tip - from the man who walked us two steps to our train, the man who kicked us out of a section of a temple, even to the tourist police officer in the temple. We dealt with it by saying no constantly and then walking (or running) away.




Also of entertainment value was the transportation (pollution aside; we read that being downtown was the equivalent of smoking 30 cigarettes a day and my eyes were sore the whole time and I had trouble breathing). To cross the street you have to step out into traffic, whether it's moving or not. Then, if a car stops, you walk by it and stop and wait again: in the middle of the road with traffic that pays no attention to the lines flying by on either side of you. We became experts at this after a few days, after sprinting for our live the first few times. And the metro: fast and cheap if it's not busy, but crowded in rush hour. In rush hour, the car was full and people kept coming on and coming on, until you couldn't move at all. We began to wonder how we would get off, even though we were quite close to the door. That actually turned out to be easy: everyone from behind us pushed through and we literally didn't even have to move. I was slowed down a bit by the person riding out on my backpack, but we all landed well. As I looked up in relief, a wall of people was sprinting at me to get on the train and we were almost knocked over. Cool once, but no more rush-hour.



After a few days in Cairo, we decided to take a train north to Alexandria, on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is very historically significant, but the ancient sites and buildings were all destroyed, either by the Romans or the warring religious groups. The ancient library was probaby the most important destroyed site, and contributed greatly to the city's intellectual heritage. They've rebuilt an amazing modern library, which had a ton of English books including three volumes listing the world's problems. We also went to the Egyptian National Museum, which had some cool artifacts. Back on the streets, we were hungry and began to look for the least dangerous place to eat. We walked down a gasoline alley, full of auto-part hovels and people welding motorcyles, etc. and went into the only food place. (I should point out we were really hungry.) We ordered 15 cent falafels, which were very good, and then thought that the price was right so we should order more. We also had funny-tasting pickled vegetables and they brought temptingly cold water in tin cups. Luckily, I was the only one who didn't get sick. Next adventure on the streets; horse-drawn carriage ride through the city, through the same terrifying traffic. It was so much fun, except we were dropped off in the worst slums yet, where we were lost for two hours. It was the only time of the trip when I felt anxious, becuase no one knew where we were going. To top that off, it was especially filthy and we were consistently being followed by a group of neighbourhood kids who were interested in us.




Now to the ancient Egyptian sites, what you actually associate with Egypt and which all the other tourists are escorted to and from in tourbuses without ever setting foot in the street. (I never felt unsafe, but I kept thinking there must be a reason why we never saw tourists walking anywhere.) The museum of antiquities has an astounding collection, including everything raided from King Tut's tomb (his mummy was damaged so they just tossed him back), huge sculptures, and even mummified animals. Very few items were labelled; they found all this amazing stuff and just put it all in cases without any organization. Most of it had to do their burials; with the multiple decorated caskets, urns for viscera, and sarcophaguses. It bothers me that these people had such strong beliefs about preservation, burials, and the afterlife and we show no respect by digging them up and displaying them for our interests. King Tut's soul will never recognize his robbed body without the gold head-covering and he'll need his organs; packaged in a set of four, one of which is touring abroad. Still an amazing museum and definately worthwhile.


The pyramids, the most famous and incredible site, and also the most scam-filled day. Song and Vance had arrived the day before, and we found what we thought was a good price to have a guide and air-conditioned van us the pyramids. The day started off well with visits to the Saqqara and Dashur sites, and our guide explained how the pyramids were built for royalty wanting impressive tombs. These pyramids are less-visited and include the step pyramid and the angled pyramid (the initial angle used proved to be too steep, so they had to decrease it partway up to avoid collapse). The problem with our tour was that it included stops at places such as a "carpet school," where we saw child-labour in action, and a "papyrus museum" where we could buy things. We finally got close enough to see the big pyramids when the van pulled into a back alley and we went into a sketchy hovel where a man was offering ridiculusly expensive camel rides around the pyramids. He told us that we needed a camel becuase it was too far to walk, pretty much that we'd die if we didn't have one. Travis and I didn't want to ride a camel, so I said no which led to an hour long battle between me and the camel-guy. He just kept pushing and wouldn't give up until I was on a camel. I said no repeatedly until Travis and I were driven up to the entrance.




Once there, our guide (a friend of the camel-guy who was now pissed off at me) told us that there was no student discount and asked for 80 pounds to buy tickets for us. I told him I wanted to buy my own tickets, and with another conflict fought my way out and bought us the student tickets for 20 pounds each. I was quite angry at this point, and my stomach hadn't felt great all day, but we were at the pyramids! They are amazing and seem to rise out of the desert as naturally as if they had grown up from sand. That they were built 7000 years ago only adds to the awe you feel when you see them. Travis and wandered around (they are very close together), went into one, and just looked. Towards the end, I started to feel sicker and had to duck behind the the Great Pyramid to throw up, but awesome other than that. (I seemed to have picked up a virus somewhere and spent the night writhing around in agony and vomiting at the hostel, but it went away quickly and I was fine the next day. Being a great person, Travis stayed back from dinner to take care of me.)

Meanwhile, our friends on the camels enjoyed a long ride through dirty streets to be led through a gate in the fence and continued to ride only close enough to the pyramids where there was still a sand dune behind which camels could be hidden. They then walked the same distance as us between pyramids and went back to the camels and the ride back, on which they were stopped by the police and an exchange in Arabic took place. So, their entrance fees and admission fee to see inside the Great Pyramid (supposed to be included, but actually not) went straight to the thieving, agressive camel asshole, who overcharged them in the first place. At the end of the day, I was going to say something to the guy we arranged the tour with and ask for our money back, but I was very ill at that point and didn't have to vomit at the precise moment, so couldn't even express myself that way.



Next excursion: night train to Luxor. Very cheap, like everything else that we didn't have to bargain for, and first class was actually quite nice. Except for the bathrooms. I opened the door to check them out and there was sewage sloshing back and forth on the floor. I decided I could hold it for the next eight hours and then actually had a dream about my favourite toilets at home. Luxor is south; another tourist site and very hot. We spent the day looking at the Karnack and Luxor temples, which were similar and both impressive. We also made a stop at McDonald's, happy for the air-conditioning and cleanliness (really, cleanest place we ate) and food that wasn't likely to make us sick. In the evening we walked into an expensive hotel on the Nile, the only place where we fit in, and enjoyed the sunset from the beautiful garden.





The second day in Luxor we went to see the Valley of the Kings, with knowledgeable Richard having the day planned out to see the best tombs and temples. No pictures allowed inside the tombs, but they were very well decorated and completely raided, besides the odd sarcopagus. Our day also included a hike over the mountains to reach the next destination, where we saw some great views (and the heat almost killed us).



At this point in the holiday, we hated Egypt and Egyptians and wanted to be home. We were staggering around delirious and fantasizing about showers and clean Switzerland. But one more day in Cairo, after the night train back from Luxor. Travis and Warren wanted to sit and drink fruit juice (which was amazing, just fruit crushed to liquid form, we drank a lot of it, always in fear of getting sick) and smoke sheesha (flavoured tobacco served in a table-height bong). I wanted to go to the Giza Zoo, so we began our last staggering march through the heat.

The zoo was unbelievably cheap to get into, essentially free with the exchange rate. We quickly realized that being white tourists at the zoo we could go into any back area to see and play with the animals for a tip. I'm sure with enough money and the request they'd let you feed one species to another. The baby lions were being pushed, and Travis was interested, so I went with him into a back area with two zookeepers. They closed the door behind us and we were in a room that reminded me of the Bugs Bunny cartoon with lion pits: there were locked doors made of bars all around the room, with lions behind them. Within two seconds, a door was unlocked and Travis had a 25 day old lion cub in his arms. He was gorgeous! I pet him and Travis held him for a while, and then a second cub was brought out and handed to me. He was slightly bigger than a cat, but sturdier. Mine started to growl and hiss and was quickly taken away, but Travis' was quite docile and cuddly. They asked for a tip equivalent to two dollars, which I think was fairly well spent, however sketchy.

As soon as we were let out of the lion cage, we walked by a white van parked in the centre of the zoo between the ostrichs and some sort of pronged ungulate. We were approached by a group of harrassers and quickly realized that Egyptians were no longer after only our money, they wanted our blood too. Sorry, there isn't any argument that could convince me to donate blood in an African zoo, and we never sprinted faster. The zoo actually wasn't that bad, the animals seemed to be relatively well taken care of and the cages were quite large.



For our last night Travis and I went on a dinner cruise on the Nile (which we were almost scammed out of) which was very nice once we got there. We had a buffet style dinner of not entirely Egyptian food, and I was feeling well enough to do an almost complete buffet binge. The entertainment was excellent; with a belly dancer, drums, and a soufi dancer. Then one last scary taxi ride to the airport. It's the only place I've been too, Travis as well, where we never want to come back, the option just isn't open. I wouldn't recommend that anyone go, the main reason being the constant harrassment from people wanting your money. The sites are amazing, and this is where civilization began, but unless you're really interested in ancient Egyptian history it's not worthwile. It was an amazing experience, but skip it and look at our pictures.

Prague for the Second Time

March 31 - April 2

A pretty loosely planned laid back trip so I'll just write a simple blog entry too (by simple I mean no pictures, and the real reason for that is I'm just a bit lazy and don't have them at work anymore). Warren, Nate and I went to Prague for weekend to hits some clubs, see a bone church in Kutna Hora and get some cheap food and drinks. Warren and I have already been to Prague but we went back to see the bone church, because its fun to hang out in places where stuff is cheap and to hang out with Nate one last time. It was going to be his last trip before going back home to Canada, so we went fairly large.

The first night we got in and had some great Chinese food at an awesome price, had a couple drinks and then went to this awesome five story club that I'd been to last time as well. Different music on every floor, packed with people, and about 1.25 CHF for a beer. I'll spare some other details and just talk about the music. It was a special DJ night on one of the floors, DJ Tomekk was doing a set. I'd heard the name prior to the evening but didn't know too much. He was born in the Czech Republik and is now working out of Germany, and he plays hip hop. When we were waiting in line a taxi pulled up and a few guys hopped out and started heading for the front of the line. I thought to myself, "I bet that's DJ Tomekk". It turned out I was right, I guess I just have a knack for that kind of thing...or maybe it was the fact that he and the guys with him were carrying multiple crates of records..I don't know.

It turned out he was an awesome DJ, probably the best hip hop DJ I've seen live (well, the best DJ set, I've seen better DJs backing MCs). He played a perfect mix of hot new tracks and classics and had a well suited style of blazing through some tracks and letting others run a bit longer, with mix techniques most hip hop DJs don't do enough at most clubs.

After the club we headed vack to the hostel. There's one thing I've yet to mention that is really awesome on all of these trips. When you're done partying, for the most part, you leave the club and have a long/short walk home, nice and simple. Way easier than at home when someone has to drive all the way out to where I live or I have to crach and go home in the morning etc. As I'm writing this though I'm thinking about the 'for the most part' comment in the previous sentence and flashing back to many hours spent wandering, wondering where you are in search of your bed. I choose to forget those and think only about the good times when getting home is simple.

On Saturday we tried to find out some info about hockey games in Prague which are supposed to stupid cheap and good quality. We couldn't really find anyone useful to help us and what we did find oput was that a couple of the big teams had away games that weekend so we gave up. The plan was then to head to Kutna Hora to see a church decorated with bone art on the inside, I can't remember how many people's bones were used but it was a lot. We bought one photo ticket and let Warren take all the pics so I'll get those sometime and put a couple up. Its funny how easy it is to procrastinate on getting pictures when you live with the guy who has them.

After the church we saw a sweet gothic cathedral in the same town (much wider than most, huge flying butresses) and got dome more greeat cheap food and beer. We headed back to Prague and got ready for the evening and went to a pub for a bit and enjoyed some dark beer (Kozel was the brand) before looking for a place to spend the rest of the night. We ended up heading back to the same five floor club for another great time.

On sunday morning we went to a bagel place that Nate and Warren had little faith I'd be able to find. Come on, though. Bagels were involved, I couldn't have taken a more direct route if I could fly. We had to cross the river to get there, though, which reminds me that the water level was unbelievably high (riverside patios were underwater). I should post some contrast pictures from this trip and the last time I was there last summer. Bagels were awesome, so was the cheap cheesecake.

Next, we looked around the castle area and downtown a bit more before heading to this restaurant called the Highland that was so good I'd already eaten there twice the last time I was in Prague. They even upped the decor since the last time (I was sitting on some sort of animal fur). I had soup, beer, an incredible, thick steak plus dessert for a very low price. We wandered back to the town center and got some souvenirs and some more beer, which was the cheapest I've ever had. 2.25CHF (about $2 CAD) for a litre of dark beer (dark Czech beer, tasty). The Czechs also have this spiced liquor called Becherovka that is 80% alcohol still but tastes so good. The only spice I can distinguish is cloves. I love that stuff, I brought back a litre.

We went to bed Sunday night knowing we had to wake up without an alarm clock at 7AM to catch our flight home for work. We were a bit worried but somehow we all managed to get up with plenty of time.

By the way there is no way I'll ever right up a blog post about my first trip to Prague, it was just too long ago, picture what ever you want happening that trip if you need to.

#5 Listening Update

May 3, 2006

I've been going through a lot as usual so this is simply the latest and what I can remember right now.

Right this second I'm listening to a pretty good drum and bass radio mix that came as a part of a larger DnB torrent. The weather has been great lately and high-energy drum and bass is perfect. I've got Roni Size in the playlist next. His classic CD 'New Forms' was actually my last music purchase (other than ebay...), I bought it for only 9€ in Dublin when I was there a couple weeks back. I've had it forever, but it was a copy, so I figured I'd buy it because I really enjoy it.

Speaking of new purchases, I bought the Roots Come Alive for about 15 CHF equivalent when I was in Prague about a month ago (these are great prices, btw, Europe is hugely expensive for music generally). Its an awesome live album that has some great version of their classic tracks. 'You Got Me' is still one of my favorite tracks of all time and the live version is incredible, although very different from the version we saw in Montreux last year.

Speaking of Montreux...wow, like the segues this post? Anyways, they announced their 2006 line-up recently and it looks tight. I hope to see Sigur Ros and then Massive Attack the next night. It will involve some flight shuffling but wil be worth it. Later on there is a Turntablism night with Q-Bert, Amon Tobin and Kid Koala. I'd love to see that too but I will probably be in Greece.

Speaking of Greece...DJ Shadow's new track with David Banner shows that Shadow can perfect a pounding crunk beat...? Diplo has a sweet remix out of 'Helicopter' by the Bloc Party...? Mobb Deep and Busta Rhymes have new albums droppin' soon...? Those things are all true but have nothing to do with Greece actually.

Some more truth...I haven't seen a concert in far far too long. Not a whole lot on the horizon before Montreux either. Maybe Thrice next weekend, we'll see.

Look out for Royal Xejax. Daedelus is equally underground and sweet as well, plus one of his EPs that I need to track down has the most beautiful (more conceptually than artistically, but still artistically great) cover art I've ever seen. It's called 'the Household'.

Unfortunately, like the last music post, this post ends with some shitty news. Proof of D12 was shot multiple times and killed in some sort of fight with a bouncer in Detroit recently. I'm not sure where they're at on the investigation but the bouncer died of his gunshot wounds too. I hate this kind of thing.

Barcelona, Spain

March 24-26, 2006

Taking it way back now that I have a few spare seconds. All the way back to March 24-26 and a trip to Barcelona with Warren, Kevin, Ty, Tommy, Lindsey, Alain, Ryan, and Mak. If I remember correctly it still wasn't terribly warm at home so it was sweet to go south to coastal city (with a frisbee!) and soak up the sun.

We left on a night train Friday night and woke up 13 hours or so later in Barcelona. The train was the best night train yet, 4 bed rooms with nice seats for before bed and a sink in the room. Once we arrived we realized that we had no idea where we were (we knew where the hostel was, just not where we were in relation). We wandered until we found a bus stop map that orientated us and found the place just fine.

The plan was then to see the Sagrada Familia, a famous Gaudi church, and then hit the beach. On the way walking to the Sagrada Familia we saw a big cathederal (under construction, like every church I've seen) and a bunch of street performers including some awesome brekdancers. I didn't give them any money.

The Sagrada Familia was a completely different style (like all of Gaudi's work it turned out). It too was under construction, I have a couple decent pics.





Then the beach. It wasn't too hot and the water was cold so we stayed dry. Well most of us did. We were playing frisbee for a while and Tommy threw it into the water (about 3 feet from shore) and tried his hardest to goad a dog into getting it. However, Tommy and the dog were equally afraid of the crashing waves and the frisbee
drifted further and further...The funny thing is on the metro to the beach I was talking about how I'd had that frisbee since I was like 7 years old and how I really loved it. So, Tommy convinced Ty to go for swim to get the frisbee (keep in mind if the frisbee had been retrieved right away it would have been wading, not a five minute swim). But, I got it back so I was happy.



That evening we went to a fancy restaurant and I had some nice sea bass. Everyone got really full so when we went back to the hostel to prepare for the evening things started a little slow. We were all really hot too so we stripped down and relaxed for a bit. A lot of people actualy went to bed early, too (???? It's Spain people! Dinner doesn't end until midnight!)Despite a dissappointing turnout Tommy, Ty, Lindsey and I still made a night of it and hit the streets for a while. It was daylight saving time and the clock sprang forward at some point plus I stopped checking my watch so who knows what time we got back.



The next morning we headed straight for Guell Park after breakfast (another Gaudi creation). Guell Park was the thing I was most excited to see in Barcelona by far (I like parks, OK?) It had lots of cool structures and was built into a hill and gave great views of the area.






After the park it was back to the beach where this time we ended up watching some people play cricket for a while. They almost hit so many people with the ball but didn't seem to care (I think it was just a tennis ball covered in tape so not too dangerous). Mak (who is from India incidentaly) even joined them for a couple hits, after doing his best to explain cricket to us. I think I kind of get it now.

After that another seafood restaurant, I had some more nice fish, plus they threw in a prawn or two. I'd never eaten prawns before, I'm not a big fan of shellfish. But these were quite good, everyone else said they were the best they ever had, so I was happy to start with them. Kevin/Ty and Ryan/Warren shared a massive plate of assorted seafood each.




Post dinner gelato was flavoured with roquefort cheese and walnuts for me, which was spectacular, one of my all time favorite flavours. Then we headed for the train home. Tommy and I took a quick look through a park that had a Spanish version of the Arc de Triomf. I got a couple good sunset pics but almost missed the train in the process.



We got in to Baden pretty late but the weather was amazing there too so I was happy. It was my first time wearing shorts to work of the year!

I'll hopefully get to some other posts soon too, such as Prague for the second time, Belfast/Dublin, Croatia (unbelievably gorgeous) Rome for the second time right up to Alicante, Spain this past weekend. By the way, this past weekend marked the one year mark since I arrived here. Time really flies, but on the other hand things seem so different than at the start.

Anyways, hopefully I can get to those other updates soon.

Lisbon, Portugal

March 10-13, 2006

I booked this trip about six months ago because I was really interested in Portugal all of the sudden, and it lived up to my expectations. On Friday Kevin, Warren, Mike, Rebeca, Victor, Keegan, Preston and I left work early to go to Basel and then flew on to Lisbon. Originally Kevin, Mike, Warren, Nate and I had booked this trip but Nate had to stay back for the last game of the hockey team he's been coaching so he transferred his ticket to Rebeca. The good news is that Rebeca is from Panama and speaks Spanish, which is a lot closer to Portugese than English, that helped a lot! Victor, Keegan and Preston just happened to book the same trip on the same weekend, so that worked out great.

I got a lot of sleep on the easyjet flight (see #4 Listening Update, 2ManyDJs was the night before so I was lacking sleep), but as we were landing I woke up to a lot of plane bouncing and figured we were hitting some turbulence. It turned out we were really close to the ground though and the landing was horrible. Kevin overheard the flight attendants joking about how they 'can't believe that guy's a pilot'. Makes you feel really comfortable, oh well, we survived!

We headed for the hostel, checking out the main square (Praca de Comercio I think) along the way. When Kevin tried to pay he got into a huge discussion with the this slow hostel guy who actually wanted Kevin to pay less than he was supposed to (foreshadowing). I would have given up a lot sooner but Kevin kept pushing to pay the correct amount (morals? not when you have to argue with someone to pay more). Anyways, we got it sorted and hit a cool restaurant nearby. Only 3.20€ for house wine! Plus we got to eat some local potato-cod dish that was really good. PLUS instead of bread and oil on the table they served us bread and some really good cheese. Incredible value for an excellent meal, but nothing compared to the next night...




The hostel had showers in our private room; pretty good, private room, own showers, right? Well the shower door was messed, Kevin pushed on it lightly to get out and it flew off the tracks (more foreshadowing, in case you're wondering about the randomness of this paragraph).

Saturday morning we had some pastries for breakfast, typical Portugese thing. I had about a dozen over the weekend. Most of them were custard filled, so good. We checked out a flea market that had EVERYTHING. I could have got an original gameboy, used underwear, tools, old kids toys or any number of random other things including typical tourist items and flea market stuff. Next was a parthenon that had great views of the coast and city.





Lisbon had Expo '98 I think so they have this whole ultra-modern Expo district that was nice to explore, but the highlight was the acquarium, the largest in Europe. It had one massive tak representing all of the worlds oceans, four smaller tanks for other oceans, and countless smaller tanks highlighting certain species. They even had jelly fish like the one that stung me in Ibiza...I love those things though, so I can't be mad. We spent several hours there just watching the sharks, rays, fish, otter, penguins etc etc.






We made our way back downtown for dinner, and my favorite meal in Europe so far. It was a meat grill place, with the barbeque visible from the street, so we had to go in. The owners immediately took a liking to us, and there was only one other group in the restaurant so we got excellent service. We all decided to go with a meat platter as our entree. The cook/waiter/owner brounght out bread and a sampling of sausages as an appetizer. They were so good! One type was pure black and some sort of blood sausage that was just amazing. Beer was only 75 eurocents a bottle too. The main course started with a few bowls of a rice and bean dish hitting the table, it was a perfect complement to the meat. From then on, for the next hour or so the owner kept bringing plates of grilled pork, steak, and beef wrapped in bacon until we were stuffed. It was perfect, I've had so little meat because of the its cost in Switzerland so gorging on beef made me happy in so many ways. After the meal we sampled a custard dessert that was so good we had to order some. The owner even brought down a guitar and let Warren and Rebeca play a bit after dinner! He tried to teach us Portugese, too, and told Keegan if he came back the next night he could eat for free (he really liked Keegan for some reason). All said and done, they only charged us for the entrees and drinks too. Amazing!



Then, back at the hostel, things took a turn for the worse...As we were getting ready for bed we all noticed our bags looked rummaged through and Kevin's was missing altogether. It didn't make any sense though because whoever did it decided against taking the cash in both Rebeca's and my bag. We talked to the hostel guy, who in his slowness/covering for an inside job (still not sure), focused on the door and told us the lock was secure so we must not have locked it. But that wasn't even the issue, the missing bag was the issue...I'm still so frustrated. We gave up on the staff guy for that night and immediately realized that, even when locked, the door opened with a slight nudge (just like the shower). We brought this up with the hostel dude the next morning so he began focusing on how it was an old lock and needed to be replaced, useless! So, never stay at the Resedencia Oliveira in Lisbon.

On Sunday we checked out the Castello Sao Jorge, which is a big castle on the hill looking over the city and ocean. A lot of it looked rebuilt so there were lots of walls to walk along and areas to explore. The best part, though, was the orange tree we found and liberated a few oranges from. Tasty.





In the afternoon we went west along the coast to an area with lots of gardens, a few museums, a couple of towers/monuments and a monastery. I think the name of the overall area was Belem. The monastery cloister was pretty cool, with intricate carving and architecture. The Tower of Belem was nice to see as well, we played frisbee outside of it for awhile.





Did I mention the weather? It has been hovering around zero in Switzerland with a lot of snow lately, but in Lisbon it was hovering around 20 degrees with full sunlight when we were there. It was incredible. My mood just gets so much better when the sun is out!


We had some really good pizza for dinner (not as authentic of a meal as the night before, but it was still damn good) and then went up the soccer stadium to try and get tickets for SL Benfica (from Lisbon) versus Naval (from somewhere in Portugal). Benfica had beaten Liverpool handily earlier in the week to advance to the quarterfinals in the UEFA Champions League so I was quite excited to see them play. Naval I knew nothing about and are near the bottom of the table in the Portugese Liga. We got cheap tickets (four rows back, but on an end, not quite behind the net, but offset a bit). It was cool to be that close to the action, but we couldn't tell exactly what was going on on the far end of the field. There were 49,000+ people at the game so the atmosphere was crazy. The game ended 0-0 but with tons of excitement as Benfica almost scored several times as they pressured to get a win they needed against a lower team. Portugese soccer is really rough, we noticed that at the game and on the other games we saw on TV while there. There were about 7 yellow cards this game and even a red when a Naval player shoved/ran into the ref after a hand ball was called.





Monday was a awesome, relaxing day. Some more pastries for breakfast, a stroll around downtown, and then we headed out of the city to the beach. It was a nice, sandy beach decorated with rocks and perfect weather. The water was surprisingly chilly but not at all too cold to get a nice swim and some more frisbee in. Plus you could dry off quickly (and get a bit of a sunburn) in the hot sun. The funny thing was the drunk guy Vance looked after in Torino (see my Olympics post) showed up at the beach. I talked to him for a bit, it was weird to run into him again because we already ran into him at random on the second night in Torino after meeting him the first night.




After the beach we headed for the airport for a boring flight. We were greeted in Basel by the horrors of subzero temperatures. I want the summer! It will be here soon...it's even sunny right now as I write this.

Venice and Olympics in Torino

February 17-21, 2006

What can I say? I got to go to the winter olympics in Torino and spend a day in Venice for Carneval beforehand. My writing skills (or even speaking skills, for that matter) are nowhere near good enough to describe this trip. I'll do my best.

This trip was bits and pieces with different people, but starting off from Baden was Lindsey, Tyler, Kevin, Vance, Bernard, Tommy, Richard and me.

We booked stuff way too late and the night train got really expensive, so we improvised. On Friday night we took a Gleis7 train to Chiasso (last town in Switzerland before Italy). We arrived at about 02:30 and had 2.5 hours until the train to Milan, then switch with the Metro, then the train to Venice. We could slept all the way to Venice for about 3 times the price. I actually managed to sleep in Chiasso despite the cold and uncomfortable bench, Vance helped me out a lot by letting me use his sleeping bag as a pillow.

After a delerious sleep-deprived train to Venice we got off at the 'Mestre' station. Well, everyone but Bernard did. He had to sit separately and slept through that stop and ended up at the main Venice town, which was not where our hostels were. He had the right plan at that point and stayed at the station so we met up with him a bit later after the check-in process.

We met up with Jacqui and Adrienn at the hostel Kevin, Ty and I were staying at (the others were staying down the street). Jacqui and Adrienn had already been to the Olympics, so I asked Jacqui how they were as soon as I saw her. She answered in the most screaming induced damage/sick sounding voice you can imagine that they were 'sooooo amazing'. I knew at that point that the weekend was going to be killer (meaning both that it would be ludicrously fun and as physically demanding as hell). The problem was that accomodations that didn't cost a month's salary were hard to come by so we had to stay in Milan, a two hour train ride away, with the only viable train possibility from Torino after events being at 05:00 the next morning.

...but back to Venice, I'll get to the Olympics. So it is now Saturday morning and Carneval in Venice is in full swing. I've had the first of dozens of panini sandwiches for the weekend (I love Italian food) and am ready to check things out, despite the lack of sleep. Venice is a great collection of canals and cool streets that, due to Carneval, were packed with people in costumes and masks and face paint, and stands selling all three. It was great to just explore.




We eventually made it to our destination, the Piazza San Marco, which has the Basilica San Marco on one end. The Piazza was huge and grand, see the picture, and the exterior of the Basilica had a look that I can't describe and doesn't show up in the pics. Looked kind of marbly, and really cool.






After looking around for a bit we got some awesome (but damn pricey) pizza, some masks and then some liquor to start the evening's festivities off.



We went back to the Piazza, which was full of people still and started to drink, we were getting pretty into it and then someone looked at there watch and realized it was only 6:30 in the evening, it felt more like 10:00. It started to rain and a drum band (from Switzerland actually) came out and we partied in the square for a bit. Then, we lost Vance and Jacqui and began wandering the island following a group of people who were supposedly taking us all to a club. After a LOT of wandering and some highlights along the way, we made it to the club, which had a live band playing. Danced for a bit, then night bus back home.

So, back in the hostel in Venice at 4AM I tell Ty and Kev: "we have to get up in three hours, we already have tickets for that train, we can't miss it, we have no alarm, wake up in three hours". Six hours later I wake up with faint hope it is only 7AM but I feel way too rested and there is way too much sun in the room. We sit around for ten minutes wondering about the train ticket and then explode in to action and try to catch the next train. Thankfully Jacqui and Adrienn were prepared (and somehow up before us, even though they had nowhere to be) so they were nice enough to hook us up with some snacks for the train because all we had time to do was run, and you always need food after a night of drinking.

The train situation worked out OK actually, the guy wanted to charge us more but for some technical reason with
his PDA-like ticket device he couldn't. I love Italy. I would say it all worked out but were still over 2 hours late
meeting Nate and his friends from Canada, Pat and Jason, in Milan. We got together, checked-in in Milan and then headed to Torino for the Canada-Finland hockey game!



I should mention at this point that the week before the Olympics Tommy says to me: "I'm dying my hair red for the Olympics, you should too". To which I responded "ya, sure". Completely random decsision, but I'm glad I made it. I was able to represent Canada right.

This is the part where it gets hard to describe. Looking arounf Torino getting ready to go to the game, during the game (even though we lost), partying after the game, everywhere, there was just a cool vibe and everyone in the whole city seemed to be enjoying themselves and wanting to share that. I guess that is what the Olympics is supposed to be about.



Anyways, we painted our chests to spell Canada:



We partied with new Canadian friends in Torino until the 05:00 train back to Milan. Kevin and Tyler carried back on to Baden for work, a fate that awaited me the next day) and Nate, Pat Jason and I got three hours sleep
at our hostel before heading back to Torino for the Women's Gold Medal game between Canada and Sweden.



Lindsey, Vance, Richard, Tommy and Bernard stayed in Venice one extra day so we met up at their apartment in Torino (that they somehow found) to get ready for the game. After a minor snag and the respective story-telling and reliving of the past nights we were on a bus the stadium. The whole bus somehow missed the
stop (alcohol was involved, even for some 40+ year olds who were also having a blast). We made it, Canada won 4-1, gold medal! More body painting, good times, and then to another bar to party.





Richchard and I left the bar for a bit to get food (best sandwqich ever, btw, bacon and brie):



But at that point I had to be at work in Baden way too soon so Richard convinced me to stay another night for the Canada-Czech mens hockey game. Party ended at around 6AM and I was able to crash on the floor of the rented apartment (thanks guys!)

The bext day was a hungover/sleep deprived dream-like-state. The hockey game was in the afternoon so we grabbed a bit of beer (trust me, we didn't need much) and only face-painted this time. I bought a scalpers ticket after meeting some cool Czech fans. I love those guys, such good fans, they let me have some great liquor, it tastes like cloves! Canada won the game 3-2, despite shaky play for 2/3 of the game.





Afterwards we saw a fireworks display back in Torino, looked around a bit, and headed to the other side of the city looking for a party. All we really found was a horribly drunk guy from Edmonton that we had met the night before. We briefly went into a club playing the best house I've ever heard live but had to leave because of the drunk guy's antics. Vance, being the responsible, loving, caring, decent human being that he is decided he had to take the guy home or he would end up dead. Thing was, the guy didn't know where he was staying, so after a wild goose chase Vance took him back to their apartment to sleep. A lot of people were really tired but Vance, Tommy and I partied one last time. We met a lot of Italians that night, who all seemed to love us. More of the great vibe.

Plus, I almost forgot, Tommy and I met Cassie Campbell in the bar that night:



I grabbed my bag after the bar and caught the first train back to Baden to head to work and close out what was easliy one of the best trips ever. It had it all.

#4 Listening Update

March 10, 2003

It's been a while for one of these, way too long. I still need to write up my Venice-Olympic blog post too, I'll get to it.

Last night I went with Jude (praktikant from London) to Radio Soulwax presents Nite Versions Live: 2ManyDJs & Special Guests. I'm using the long official title for some reason, basically we went to see 2ManyDJs, a pair of Belgians who play a lot of good music and even have an electronic band thing going on.

The special guests were DJ Headman (who I've never heard of but gets points for playing a straight up Johnny Cash song, and warming up the crowd in excellent fashion) and WhoMadeWho, a rock band from Denmark that played over a backbeat. I had never heard of WhoMadeWho either but they had a really unique style. They even covered Benny Benassi's dance hit 'Satisfaction', with amazing results. They incorporated some other dance tracks into their rock songs too.

The electronic band with 2ManyDJs had a drummer, guitarist/drum machine player, sampling machine player/vocalist, and a guy on a full complicated drum machine/sampler of some sort. Sort of a mini electronic orchestra. It was interesting no doubt, and again very unique.

When the electronic band finished up and their equipment was away 2ManyDJs did a classic turntable set playing all sorts of dance tracks mixed in with Blur, AC/DC and other miscellaneous party heat. Great set.

Went to Luzern for Fasnacht a week and a half ago. Basically a party in the street with many big bands and percussion crews. I found myself lost in the drums thinking 'this is all I need, right here' on multiple occasions throughout the night.

Last Friday we saw a classical concert that was great, I've never been to one before and it was a very fulfilling experience. The place turned into a club with a techno DJ afterwards too, and some experimental musicians on the lobby. Wicked.

On to what I've been listening to in the privacy of my home and office...lots of stuff, as usual. I found an old EP from 7L & Esoteric that is giving me a nice fix of straight-up no BS hip hop. At a club in Torino during the Olympics I heard only one track before we had to leave (more on that in my Olympic post, when I get to it) but it was a gorgeous deep progressive house track that made me want MORE. So I got a few more Satoshi Tomiie and Danny Tenaglia sets, plus some more Sasha and John Digweed, even though their style is different. When I get into a dance music mood I really get into a dance music mood and am thus really enjoying those sets.

I finished another mix, called 'Accessibilty' because it is full of hip hop that hip hop nerds like myself can really enjoy. Lots of unique concepts and lyrical stuff that is not going to be on the radio any time soon. So, I chose accessibility as a misleading title.

Jenny told me about a French hip hop group called TTC, so I got some stuff and I love it. The lyrics are all in French and I'm surprised how much I can pick up. Really it is not much at all, but I can still really enjoy the music. Same goes for some a Swiss German hip hop track I've heard by Breitbild: 'Für 1 hets immer no glangt'. No idea what they're talking about but it has a well-sampled horn loop.

I'm still loving the Four Tet, but it puts me in a weird mood so I can't listen to it too much. DJ Shadow has a new album on the way. I plan on seeing the GZA in Luzern in a couple of weeks. Good stuff.

I'll close with some not so good stuff, terrible in fact. On February 10, producer J Dilla (aka Jay Dee) died from complications of a blood disease he's been dealing with for a while. His latest instrumental album (Donuts) was just released three days before. Dilla was low key but produced a lot of key tracks for a lot of people like Common, De La Soul, the Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, his group Slum Village, Busta Rhymes, and an amazing collab album with Madlib under the name Jaylib (I think I mention it in one of my previous listening posts).

Oslo, Norway

Feb. 2-5, 2006

Last weekend I went to Oslo, Norway, the 14th country I've been to in Europe (still lots to go!) I went to visit my Mom's friend Pat and her family. They've been visiting Canada for as long as I can remember and always encouraging us to come see them in Norway. Seeing as Switzerland is a lot closer to Norway than Canada, it was the perfect opportunity to take them up on their offer and take in some Norwegian sights!

I flew in on Thursday night after work and met Pat at the train station in Asker, a town outside of Oslo. From there we drove to Pat's house in Bodalen, another small town fairly close to the city of Oslo. Pat grew up in Canada but has lived in Norway for over twenty years so she is well-versed on all things Norwegian and the start of a very informative weekend started on the drive back to their place Thursday night. Pat pointed out all sorts of places and talked about what things would be like in the daylight and where the kids play hockey etc, it was great.

The plan for Friday was to see some museums in Oslo and look around the area where Pat lives in Norway. Before we left dinner was put in the oven so it would just have to be turned on later. We were having this beautiful trout:



The first museum we went to was the Kon-Tiki Museum which chronicled the travels of modern day Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl. One of the things Thor is most kwown for is his quests to prove that ancient peoples could in fact travel long distances accross oceans in their 'primitive' boats made of reeds tied together or other similar construction. The Kon-Tiki expedition itself was to prove that people from South America could have made the 4300 mile journey to settle the Polynesian islands. Him and his team built the boat with no modern tools and lived off food from the ocean. They completed the journey unharmed in 101 days.

The RA II, a boat Thor Heyerdahl used on a later voyage to sail from Morocco to Central America:



We then went to the Fram museum, which centered around another Norwegian explorer (Roald Amundsen) and his polar exploration ship, Fram. Apparently the museum was going for an authentic polar experience because the inside of the museum (which contained the actual Fram) was colder than outside, and it was quite cold outside. It was again very interesting as you could walk through the ship and see the living quarters and supplies that were used on these explorations. The cold in the museum really did give you an appreciation for what the explorers went through in exploring the poles. Roald Amundsen is the explorer who beat Scott to the south pole, and it is easy to see why. Amundsen was prepared, while Scott actually tried to get the south pole with ponies!

The bell of the Fram:



Next was the Norwegian Ship Museum (I can't remember the name in Norwegian). There were plenty of cool ship models there as well as a 20 minute panoranmic video of helicopter fly-bys of beautiful Norwegian coastal towns and villages. That alone was worth the price of admission. On that note, I'll mention now that an Economist article at the end of January named Oslo as the world's most expensive city (Switzerland's most expensive city, Zurich, was only number 7 on that list). That definitely seemed the case to me, most everything was very expensive. Museum prices for students were quite reasonable, however.

A view of Oslo across the Oslofjord from the area containing all three of the above museums (notice all of the ice, apparently it would frezze solid if it wasn't for the massive cruise ships sailing in and out):



The last museum of the day was the Viking Ship Museum, which contained 3 famous 1200 year-old Viking ships that are in quite good condition to this day. The reason for this is that Viking ships were often used as burial vessels for important people. The deceased and an assortment of possesions were placed in the ship and earth was used to create a massive burial mound on top of the ship. The three ships in this museum were only un-earthed about 100 years ago. There were also an assortment of Viking artifacts found with the ships that contained beautifully intricate wood carvings.




The Canadian Ambassador's house in Norway. Pat showed me this as a part of her excellent tour of everything.



Pat with the Oslo city hall in the background:



A view of the unuasally still Oslofjord at the spot where Pat and her family spend the summer swimming. I was so wishing it was summer and I could go swimming at that point. The beach was not sandy but instead had flaky, sheet-like rocks full of fossils. Pat found a couple for me in no time.



After the awesome fish dinner that evening (Pat's son Matthias made chocolate sauce for ice cream from scratch for dessert) we took a drive to the nearby town of Drammen. In Drammen there is a spiral tunnel (called Spiralen) that goes up the centre of a mountain and gives you a great view of the town from the top. Aside from being a look-out point, there are also many kilometers of ski trails originating from the top of Spiralen that are groomed and lit at night. Cross-country skiing is somewhat of a national obsession in Norway and people seem to do it everywhere all the time. Here is me pretending I have skis on:



On Saturday I went into the heart of Oslo to meet up with Pat's daughter Katrine and her boyfriend Klaus. They proceeded to show me around the city-center sights in Oslo. First we saw the grave of famous Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen. We then proceeded to the main street (Karl Johan's Street) where the Parliament building, National Theatre, and original University are located (pictured below in order).





At the top end of Karl Johan's Street is the Royal Palace. On the walk up to it we walked past the host of Norwegian Idol on the street. I didn't recognize her, but I must say I did notice her. Here is the palace and a guard who is supposed to keep his composure but apparently they are allowed to move around and shift a little bit unlike some other palace guards. Another advantage of local guides is that they told me a funny story about how a politician's wife drove down the stairs in front of palace at a state dinner.




The city hall in Oslo had carved wooden relief paintings all around an inner courtyard, one is pictured below. I enjoyed them, I had never seen a wooden relief carving before (only stone, and some from salt in the Polish salt mine we visited). The clock on the city hall was also pretty nice.




A view of some ships in the Oslo harbour, looking out down the fjord:



We then went up to the Akershus Fortress, a former military facility to defend the city. It was interesting little complex with lots of ceremonial guards marching around. In the summer they hold outdoor concerts and performances at the fortress. Here are Klaus and Katrine at the fortress:



After the fortress we went to a museum housing the world's largest collection of miniature bottles. Most of them were liquor bottles in a vast assortment of shapes and origins. None of the pictures turned out to well, but there was a model train village populated entirely with bottle cars and bottle houses, a doll house filled with bottle people and furniture and countless other themed areas. There was a section with old-west styled bottles, Christmas bottles, sports bottles, a whisky bottle for every family clan in Scotland, country-themed sections, 'dangerous' bottles (liquor bottles filled with worms, snakes etc as well as liquor, plus the exact Absinthe
I had in Prague!) There were lots more that I don't remember but it was definetely a very well done museum. The urinal was cool (see pic) and there was a chandelier decorated with mini bottles (see pic). They had a bar there too that had mini match books, I took a bunch.




By the time we left the bottle museum we were starved so we went for food. I had a calzone filled with a pesto-type stuff that was also spicy, I loved it. I also had my first cheesecake in probably at least a year, it could not have tasted better. The meal wasn't Norwegian at all but oh well. At that point Katrine had to go to work, it started to snow, and Klaus took me out to Vigeland's Park, a park filled with scultpures by Norwegian Gustav Vigeland. This is a must see if you go to Norway, I bet the park would be absolutely gorgeous in the summertime. As it was, all of the naked people depicted in sculpture form looked pitifully cold to me. The angry baby is one of the most famous sculptures, and has thus been stolen several times (look closely at the left ankle and you can see where it has been sawed to remove the sculpture). The centre-piece of the park is the column of writhing people.




Next Klaus took me over to his friends place where we enjoyed some local beer (Ringnes, I met a guy on the plane back who worked for Ringnes in Norway but was doing an exchange with Feldschlossen brewery in Switzerland, a beer I've had my share of). The Ringnes beer seemed to be one of the cheaper brands available but it was still about 15 CHF for a six-pack in the grocery store, where it is cheapest. Bring your own liquor of you go to Norway, hard liquor is even more expensive. It was fun to talk about different cultures, Norwegian music, and the mysteries and philosophies of quantum physics with a couple of Norwegian guys. We listened to a bunch of cool Norwegian music from Royksopp, Motorpsycho and Madrugada plus they told me about Kent (from Sweden) and Mum (from Iceland). I've been listening to a lot of Royksopp and Mum since then, they are really cool trip-hop style beats.

For dinner that night Pat had made roast beef, and there was some left for me when I got back. I somehow missed having roast beef back in Canada over Christmas so this was my first in 9 months. It was so amazing, I have never been happier to taste beef. I even packed a roast beef sandwich in a BAGEL for the flight back to Switzerland, too perfect.

On Sunday, Pat pulled out their 'sparks', a Norwegian sled that used to be a prime mode of transport (especially for school kids) until roads started being salted and cleared.



You stand on the runners coming off on the back of the sleds (right hand side in the picture) and steer and brake by manipulating the runners with your feet. There is even a seat at the front for someone to ride one. They were a lot of fun, and very easy to push uphill or on flat ground. I totally wish I had one when I had to go up and down my driveway to catch the bus for school. Norway was a really great trip. I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while and get an inside look at the country. I feel I have a pretty good view of the typical Norwegian lifestyle, not like most of the countries I visit on weekend trips where all you really see is the tourist stuff and downtown of cities. I don't think I did a very good job sharing many ideas about the lifestyle, sorry about that, it would have been way too much writing. I would love to go back in the summer and see some of the western fjords as well. We'll see if I have the mone and time...