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Published: June 27th 2006
Gotta love the Amber
Here you see a picture of the most beautiful and talented group of women ever put together!!Ok if you have been following along with the blog you will be used to the format of "this is what I did on Monday, this is what I did on Tuesday..." at this point I am going to have to change the format a bit because I have no idea what day it is anymore!
A few congratulations have to go out here to some amazing friends that I am incredibly proud of. In alphabetical order
AMBER!!
Last year during Canadian Idol the world got to see what all of our friends and myself already knew, Amber Fleury is the most amazing singer the world has ever seen!! With her talent and personality it was just a matter of time before mind blowing success would be banging down her door and it looks like that time has come! Amber together with Ashley Leitao and Casey LeBlanc have formed a trio by the name of Braided and their first single, "A Little Bit Closer," has been released to radio. I have yet to hear it but with the talent of the 3 and their producer, Mark Lalama, I find it very hard to imagine this not being
The new James'
Never thought those three could look any cuter but there ya go! a huge success. I cant wait to hear it Amber and you had better thank me when you're accepting your Grammy!
Quick little update while Im throwing some pics on here. The CD has now been released!! You can also find them online at either http://www.braided.ca/ or their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/braidedmusic
THE NEW JAMES´
I first heard the news that Ryan and Tabitha got married a couple of days ago and all I have to say about it is ITS ABOUT FRIGGING TIME!! For those of you that don't know Ryan and Tabitha are friends of mine from back on the coast. They are like brother and sister to me and now they are married...ok that's a little creepy, isn't that only legal in Kansas, but Im sure you get the point! They kicked it all off with a cute little high school romance that ended but they have both come to their senses! They have decided to try to extend their already beautiful family with the little lady killer Cameron leading the pack! I wish I could be there for the party but Im just a little bit out of the area but I wish
Now how cute are these two?
Cam you are going to be such a heart breaker!! And with him as your mentor there is no doubt! you two nothing but the best in the future!
All right now that those two are out of the way, what the heck have I been up to?
Took about a week or so for the hazy fog to lift from my brain that was Amsterdam so forgive me if my notes are a little off here. As you can tell 9 days in Amsterdam is way too long so I was getting a bit bored and was really happy to get back on the road to Berlin.
First night here in Berlin I went for a quick little walk down the main drag to check out the Fan Fest. What they have done is they shut down about a kilometer of downtown Berlin and have thrown up a ton of HUGE outdoor tv screens and letting everyone get wasted and watch the games! Fantastic idea. On my way down there I walked past this huge circle of fiberglass bears that were set up in this huge circle. I guess its a United Nation thing and every country got to pick a local artist to design a bear depicting that nation. Some of them were really funny,
The random Berlin wander
There are huge stories about all of these buildings and I know them all but Im just going to make stuff up, its more fun that way. This is the buiding where Pee Wee Herman was caught *ahem* the US Statue of Liberty bear, the Irish leprechaun...the list goes on. All of a sudden I was standing in the middle of them all when I looked down and saw a strange clear bit of plexiglass in the ground. Under that there was what looked like empty white bookshelves. I was a bit taken aback by this I did a little more investigating and this was actually Bebelplatz site of the Nazi book burnings during WWII. I found it a little strange because if you didn't know about it before going there the bears just suck you in almost as if they were trying to hide it or something. From there down to the fan mile and checked out a little bit of World Cup insanity and trust me when I tell you that these people know how to party! It was very similar to the Calgary Stampede in atmosphere but it was nothing but football jerseys as far as the eye could see.
The next day I hopped on the wrong bike tour of Berlin (whoops) but mine lasted longer than the one that I was supposed to be on and wherever I am is the coolest
Nothing like a hue pile of books to burn
This was what caught my attention that maybe there was more than just the cute little UN bears to this square. place to be so its the others loss not mine! Checked out Checkpoint Charlie, Topography of Terror, a big chunk of the Berlin Wall, monument to the Jews that died during WWII, then it was off to the pubcrawl. The pub crawl started off at 3 pubs then ended off at one huge nightclub. There were probably 50 of us going so no matter where we were it was awesome! Bumped into a guy wearing an Oilers jersey, grrrrrrrrr. We got to the final nightclub and I don't think that I have ever danced that much in my life. I finally realized that i couldn't find anyone that came there with me and it had to be about 2-3am at this point and I had started to sober up so I decided to head back to the hostel. Blacked out windows and killer dance music have a way of messing with someone's perception of time because when the door opened I realized that it was already light out and was in fact 8am!! Whoops!
Back on the bus then to head out to Dresden and although there really wasn't that much to do there it was great to just
The thing about bears is...
As cute as they seem they could still rip your face off in the wild. kick back and relax. Found a really interesting VW manufacturing plant there. I was expecting Bugs and Golf and everything but they only make one car there, the Phaeton. I had never really heard of it before so Im just a bit curious. Turns out VW decided that with increased competition in the small/cheap car market they would have to try something different. What they decided to do was go high class. The top of the line Phaeton is about $150 000 CDN and is definatley something I could see myself in. What sets this car apart is that when you buy one, you can actually walk through the assembly line and put it together yourself. After a couple of hours there I headed back to the hostel to see if I could find somewhere to watch the Stanley Cup game 7 but no luck...single tear. Still in Dresden and there wasn't much more to do so it was full of kicking back in parks and learning how to do nothing and be happy about it, which kicks ass I have to say.
On the way to Prague we stopped off at a concentration camp and its really hard
Paddy O' Bear
I will give you one guess which countries bear this is. to say anything upbeat and happy about that stop. Im not going to bore you all with the details but when we all got back on the bus it was really hard to talk for about an hour or so, I have never heard a bus that quiet before.
Off to Prague and I think Im going to buy a house and kick back there. It was amazing there. The city was full of interesting and beautiful things to see and do but there was another aspect of the city that just blew me away. WOMEN!! I had just gotten off the bus and was talking to a guy I knew that had just spent 3 nights there and all he had to say about the town was that "the women are everything you have heard and more". I asked him to explain it further but once we got checked in me and a couple of the folks headed out and it was insane! I have seen, and dated, some of the most beautiful women on earth but they are the needles in the haystacks everywhere else. In Prague it almost impossible to find a woman young or old,
Kanadas bear
They dont really use the letter C in german so Canada is spelled Kanada, it was really weird cause they were all in alphabetical order and there was no Canada in the C's. that hasn't been a professional model at one point or another. My neck is still sore and its not from the sun burn. Once the novelty of that wore off we decided that it was about time that we tried the local delicacy that is Absinthe. All I can really say is that this stuff is liquid fun! Have a couple of shots and get ready for one of the best nights of your life! Imagine all the good things about being drunk, super friendly, laughing, loving life, and take away all the bad things, problems walking, slurring speech, beer goggles and that is basically Absinthe!
Next morning went on a walking tour of Prague and it was definatly worth going on. It was hard to pay attention to the guide with all of the local natural "attrations" walking by but Im pretty sure I got a good idea what's going on in Prague. That night I was made an honorary Austradian. Since Canada doesn't have a team in the world cup and since I have been hanging out with nothing but Australians for the last 2 months I can fake it pretty good. The national food is Vegemite,
The darker side
Here you see the empty white bookshelves to represent the Nazi burning of the books. Kinda a downer. the national anthem is a song called Waltzing Matilda, after a few drinks they are powerless against a good chant of AUZZIE AUZZIE AUZZIE OI OI OI, they are fiercely patriotic and the national flag quickly turns into a cape anytime Australia is playing football. We had heard that there was an Auzzie pub in Prague so we were on a mission to find it. The problem with that match was that Brazil was playing at the same time so it was really hard to find anywhere that was showing the Australia match. After getting lost a few times and following some really shitty directions we missed the kickoff but eventually saw a kangaroo flag in the window of a pub up ahead. A quick chant of AUZZIE AUZZIE AUZZIE by yours truly was quickly followed up by a roaring OI OI OI, officially announcing that we had in fact found the right place! All Australia needed was to either win or tie and they would be through to the next round and it was probably one of the best matches I have ever seen, granted that could be the Absinthe talking but its all good. When Australia tied it
Happy now Harriet?
Saw this and just couldnt help but think of you! up in the 2nd half I thought a bomb had just gone off it was so loud in there! There is nothing better than walking the streets of Prague with about 70 drunk singing Australians, if you ever get a chance to do it I would highly recommend it.
Next day was a nice quiet little day of just Glyn aimlessly getting lost in Prague. I eventually found myself by the TV tower there and it is a sight in itself. Not only does this look like something straight out of a 1970s James Bond movie but a couple of years ago someone came up with the idea of putting big black fiberglass babies with no faces crawling up and down the tower. NO THAT'S NOT THE ABSINTHE TALKING! It was probably one of the stranger things that I have seen so far but just something you have to see for yourself to believe. Later on that night we found a fun local nightclub that came highly recommended by Alex the Welsh Bartender at the hostel bar. This place was strange. I tried to take a ton of pictures of all the weird crap they had in there but
My new car
Why is this my dream car? W-16 engine that can produce 1001 HP, top speed of 250+ mph (400+ kph), 0-60 mph in 3 seconds, 0-180 mph in 14 seconds, price tag of $1.2 million US, and to quote Handsome Rob from the Italian Job, "There's not a lot a girl won't do in the passenger seat of one of those things."
it was really hard. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING had been custom fabricated for this place. The dj booth looked like a medieval dentist chair, one room had a foosball table stuck up on the ceiling with small little motors causing the players to move around, it was one of the stranger things that I have seen but the music was good and after a couple of drinks its impossible to say no to a good beat.
Next day we were off to what has to be one of my favorite stops so far, Cesky Krumlov. It was an incredibly small town and besides tourism there wasn't much there but it was exactly what we needed. The hostel was run by this strange Scottish guy named Gavin and wow what a guy. A former lawyer and air traffic controller he was one of the more interesting people I have met. The night started out with some INCREDIBLY cheap drinks and just sitting on the patio of the hostel when Gavin brings out the guitar and starts playing us some songs. A banjo and a mandolin quickly followed. It started out with some covers of songs that I was
Dark and gloomy
Just one of those random gates that they seem to have all over Berlin ;-) amazed he could play or knew but then he started singing us some of his own "colorful" songs. It doesn't happen very often but some of them actually made me blush. I will not get into the lyrics but one of them was called "Risky Bum Love in Cesky Krumlov", trust me you don't want to know the lyrics!
The next day had to be one of the highlights of my trip. It was one of our Auzzies, Travis´birthday so we all decided to go rafting to celebrate. Lets see, what do we need for a WICKED rafting trip? A birthday boy? Check. A raft? Check. A fantastic group of people to go with? Check. Weather so amazing that it puts all other days to shame? Check. Bikinis and beer? Check. A river with little shack pubs selling disgustingly cheap beer and sausages every 10 minutes? Check. All we need now is some guitars and we are set. A quick stop off by the hostel fixed that up and the next 5 hours were just amazing. Two rafts full of 7 people each slowly floating down the river for an alcohol fueled sing-along, not a bad way to spend
History or football?
Makes you wonder whats more important? The Brandenburg Gate or football?
a Sunday if you ask me. Had to make 2 calls back to the rafting place to say that we were going to be late but its all good, that's what they get paid for. Back to the hostel for some more birthday celebrating and that made for one of the best days on this trip yet!
After a nice and relaxing couple of days in Cesky Krumlov it was time to head off to Vienna and that's basically brought you all up to date on where I am at this point. Im off to go check out some of the palaces in Vienna and might even go hunt down the zoo. Hope to hear from you all soon, love reading the emails!! The website isnt letting me put any pictues on at the moment so i will have to try again later! Heres someone elses pics too :-) http://tjmcinnes.multiply.com
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