I Think I've Seen Petrol-head Heaven

Last weekend Steve Paige and I caught the last weekend of the Frankfurt International Auto Show (IAA). Unbelieveable. Never have I seen so many cars in one place. Never have I seen so many people trying to see so many cars in one place. We easily spent 7 hours walking around and between exhibit halls with no more than 30 minutes of that to grab a couple of beers, a pretzel and some kind of meat lump in a bun. To give you some idea, One hall that had maybe 3 or 4 big car manufacturers and then a few smaller Customization and parts companies was easily BIGGER than the ENTIRE Calgary Auto Show. And that was one hall of about 8! I could talk for hours about what we saw and what was cool but instead I'll throw down some pics and give you a top 3:

1. Audi R8 - Completely chrome finish. Spectacular.
2. Lamborghini Reventon (Drop-top) - Waited about 15 minutes to get close to the bloody thing but it was worth it. One heck of a sexy machine.
3. Everything else! Kind of a cop-out but damn it if I don't just love all cars! I'll say this though, the exhibition itself was quite impressive. Car companies displays were as creative as they were stunning and they definately left an impression!







When we had finaly gotten through everything, Steve and I headed to our hostel - situated, it turns out, in the middle of Frankfurt's Red Light District. But, while in a shady neck of the woods, it was one of the better hostels I've been to. Only about a year old it had a full bar, clean sheets and a free breakfast (because the elevator wasn't working) - pretty much all you need! After getting there we settled in for a recooperative 45minute nap then grabbed some dinner and some Caiparihnas from the bar. We met a guy from Toronto and went on a Pubcrawl the hostel suggested.

It took us a while to find the meeting spot of the pubcrawl (outside the Haupfbahnhof), paid 10euros for our participation, were given a shot bottle of Jaggermeister and a wristband. We were also accosted by a bachelorette party. I bought a shot bottle of Schnapps from her because I thought she was funny... The pub crawl led us, unfortunately to 2 latin bars and a very expensive basement (I ended up speaking more spanish than german that night) and the drinks were so pricey and the crawl progressed at such a slow rate that we soon got bored and hungry and went venturing for food as well. After getting some shitty pizza, we stumbled back to our hostel past all the peep shows and strip clubs, brushing past a couple of what I'm pretty sure were hookers - one in a tight red leather dress and the other who was quite literally wearing nothing but string.. funny...

Next day, we capitalized on the free breakfast and had a remarkably chill day by the river. We walked around for a bit, napped on a bench, walked around some more, grabbed a beer from a biergarten, walked around some more, grabbed a kebap, walked around some more, slept for 3 HOURS in a park by the riveredge, headed to the HBF, grabbed some supplies and took our train home.



An equally awesome and relaxing trip that i'm glad we took!

Ich bin das Walross

This past weekend, Dave, Steve Paige and I journeyed to Stuttgart. I had wanted to go there for some time as it is the home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche and as such has two museums in their respective honors.

We went to Stuttgart in a somewhat unconventional way: carpooling with a total stranger named David (pronounced Da-fid because he's a German). We had to meet him at a trainstation just outside of Zurich. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this and thought we were just meeting him in Zurich. When we got to Zurich and I was informed that we had to take another train to get to him, we were in such a hurry that I forgot to buy another train ticket. Fortunately, we made it there without anyone checking (a rarity on Swiss trains) and this marked the beginning of the unprecedented chain of luck that would continue for the next day or so.

It turns out that Steve Paige and I both managed to forget our passports and it worried our driver slightly when we told him this. We carried on regardless and fortunately it was never an issue. We arrived in Stuttgart after about two hours of driving the Autobahns (which, incidently, I can't wait to drive myself) and began to search for our accomodation. Steve Paige had lived in Stuttgart for 6 weeks some years prior and as such was able to get us a place to stay with the family he stayed with then. It took him a little while to remember the neighborhood but he eventually figured out which direction we should go. On our way, realizing we were quite hungry, we happened upon a Burger King and stopped in for some quick eats.

We eventually arrived at the house, chucked our stuff down, got acquinted with our host and decided to go out for "a few drinks and a chill night". Our host was kind enough to drive us to a bar whose name I can't remember but was adorned with lots of fluorescent paint and lights. It just so happened that it was reggae night and I must say that the music fit the atmosphere quite well. Another important thing to point out is that we were officially the first 3 people in the bar at around 9:45PM.

Not minding this - it was going to be a quiet night after all - we ordered some Jaggerbombs(!) as we'd been talking about them earlier, pounded those back and had beers. And some more Jaggerbombs(!). And some more beers. Basically we just got far more drunk than we intended to. People started to arrive at the bar quite a bit later and we were approached by some 18yr old german kids who invited us to come to their table. Flo-rida, TIMMY, Mo and Katie (these were their names. Well, close enough anyway) had never heard of Jaggerbombs and had the absolute worst choice in drinks - Caiparihnas & Baileys on the rocks to chase? Come on kids! Eventually, we were asked to pay and were ushered out of the bar - opened it AND closed it, right on! Fortunately there was a club downstairs where we drank a little more and danced like idiots to some reggae music. Dave and Steve Paige went of and hit on some gay guys for a while, not sure what that was about...

We left the bar and as we were walking away found that TIMMY, who had gotten waaay too drunk had been kicked out of the bar and accompanied by Mo, was wandering around like an idiot. We wished them our best and started our walk home. But we were hungry. We sought out food trying two gas stations to no avail. Then we saw it. The blue, white red and gold beacon of hope: BK. Yup. We ate at BK twice in one day. Three times if you count the fact that after we had sat down and eaten our meals, we were given 3 more free burgers by staff that couldn't finish them - Luck strikes again.. kind of..

Having gotten home after 4AM, we had a pretty slow start to the next day. After having breakfast, though, we got our asses out the door and headed to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. Only had mild trouble finding it as well. Probably one of the more spectacular museums I've seen. Granted, I'm biased towards it because it's full of cars, but it was really well done (and a good deal at that!) Free audioguides that automatically activate in certain areas of the museum were very informative. I had no idea how much Karl Benz and his company contributed to motoring. I particularly liked all the relics, the first cars, engines, etc. That old technology is simply beautiful.


The museum itself was inside a gorgeous building. A really cool elevator takes you to the top to start, speakers inside it play the sound to a movie that you can view outside the elevator as it rises with you. From the top, you make your way down the building and the exhibits take you chronologically through the history of the car, the engine, the company, motorsports, and even some german history. It was really cool to see where all the product names came from (ie. Mercedes was the name of a client's daughter - the car that was named after here was a phenomenal success) and what the symbology on the cars represents (the 3 pronged star represents their 3 pursuits: Land, sea and sky). They even had special sections dedicated to famous people's cars, service vehicles and buses!




Immediately following the Mercedes museum we decided to check out the Champion's League game between Stuttgart and Koeln happening more or less right next door. We missed about half the game trying to buy tickets and food but we did see the second half and witnessed Stuttgart lose 2:0. Oh well, good try..


That night we were knackered, went to bed early despite intending to party in Stuttgart, and got up early on Sunday. After a nice breakfast we set out for the Porsche Museum. In an equally spectacular building to that of the Mercedes Museum, the Porsche Museum was also very nice. Porsche got into the game quite a bit later than Karl Benz but there was still a lot of history and technological evolution evident. Porsche seems to have a very strong identity and it was cool to see the evolution of their cars as they stayed true to the original designs.






After this museum we were hungry and only had about 3 hours before our train home. We sought out pretzels to tide us over and then headed to the biergarten for a schnitzel and some beers. Walked down Koenigstrasse and saw some of Stuttgart as opposed to the outlying industrial areas. Then, grabbed some more pretzels and went home!

A good first foray into Germany - I'm excited to go back next week!

Quite an Acheivement

Today I completed reading the last of all 7378 Dilbert comics to date. So that's how work is going...

Haven' t been up to much since spain but I have 4 weekends of travel in a row now so stay tuned.

Spain Again

I love Spain. I don't even really know why but I do. That's why I was super excited for this last week, why I enjoyed it the whole time I was there, and why I will now recall what transpired fondly.

We left from Zurich airport on tuesday night on a flight that happened to also be transporting some sort of elderly spanish tour group. Los abuelitos couldn't figure out how to read their tickets so boarding took a really long time, further delaying an already late flight. This concerned me because, for some reason, I though we were heading into another time zone and losing an hour - God knows what I was thinking! Anyway, we eventually arrived in Madrid and, after what seemed like a good 30 minutes of taxi-ing, we entered the terminal and headed for our gate. We were on one of the moving walkways behind a guy in a wheelchair and who we presumed was taking care of him. However, she did not and when he reached the end of the walkway he kinda just came to a complete stop, blocking the path. This could have caused a disasterous pile up but, due to my quick thinking, I grabbed his wheelchair handles and moved him out of the way thus averting disaster.

The next leg of the flight to Valencia was more uneventful. We arrived a little before midnight and took taxis to our (4-star) hotel. We made plans to meet the next morning at 5:15AM to go to La Tomatina and promptly went to bed to get our 4 hours sleep. We got up, took taxis to the train station and, to our surprise, were not the first ones there. A bunch of Brits, Americans and Aussies had a similar plan it seemed.

We took the train to Buñol - the scene of La Tomatina - and began our day with ham sandwiches and a good litre of Sangria. We then stumbled upon the site of the - at the time ungreased - greased pole. We hung out there for a while, waiting for stuff to get going. Rachel spotted a presenter from MTV or Much or something and we proceded to shout and wave at him. We also ran into Chris, Steve and Phil which was good. When 9AM rolled around, men started to lather up the pole with some fat/soap - we're not 100% sure which. They then tied a massive leg of smoked ham to the top of it and hoisted it up, planting its base in a manhole and wedging it in place to prevent it from wobbling.

At this point, riduculousness began and would only continue to escalate for the rest of the day. You see, traditionally, in order for the tomato fight to start (something that everyone is obviously keen for), someone has to make it to the top of this pole and cut down the ham. I neglected to mention that the pole is about 3 stories high and very, very smooth and slippery. As you can imagine, getting the ham is a very difficult thing to do. Add in the fact that 50% of everyone there was already drunk at 9AM and, well, you get the idea. People were clambering over eachother, standing on top of eachother, falling off and landing on the road, groping, grabbing, being violated, kicking, pulling etc all around this pole. I'm certain that good teamwork could have done the trick but, alas, it was not so. The pole climbing took so long in fact that people started getting antsy and fighting in the street. People would soak their shirts, ball them up and throw them at eachother. As, Steve can tell you, it hurt!

By about 11AM, the organizers must have lost faith in the ability of the hoard to climb the pole and decided to unleash the tomatoes despite the ham maintaining its greasy throne. Trucks of tomatoes were distpatched down the main road with people atop them, throwing tomatoes at the crowd below. After the first truck went by, you were lucky to see maybe one tomato - my first thought was that it was rather disappointing. However, when another 5 trucks went by and dumped their entire loads on the street, it was actually pretty amazing. At one point i was up to my knees in tomatoes. I actually saved a girl from drowning when she fell over and no one else noticed. Tomatoes flew everywhere from everywhere. The crowd was so thick that the only part of you that was exposed was your head. I took a bunch in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and throat. What's more, the tomatoes tasted and smelled absolutely disgusting. Despite this though, it was unimaginably fun. It was good to just go in and get stupid messy!.

When the fight was over, the participants were quickly herded out of town (presumably so it could be cleaned up). Locals would hose you down as you went past, a welcome relief from the heat, smell and mess. It was also good because you had to satisfy a certain level of cleanliness to board the train back to valencia. You also had to have a shirt which, frankly, was nearly a problem as mine had been ripped in half. I ended up wearing it like a vest - I hope someone has a picture!

We returned to our Hotels and showered and then headed to the beach where we'd arranged to meet Chris, Pat and Phil. Took a dip in the gloriously warm mediterranean and then sought out dinner. No one else had been to spain before so I suggested they go for paella. I managed to get Valencian style meat paella that supposedly had chicken and rabbit in it. I couldn't tell the difference between the meat in it so we'll say there's a pretty good possibility that I ate and enjoyed rabbit! That night everyone was knackered and, despite an expressed intention to go out, we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

The next day we checked out of our luxurious digs after taking advantage of the free breakfast and took a taxi to La Ciudad de Las Artes y Sciencias (Its official name is in Valencian but I don't know that...). Basically its a massive park that has an opera house, science museum, IMAX theatre and aquarium all housed in some of the most modern and progressive architecture I've seen (in person). We went to the aquarium first, saw a dolphin show, took some pictures. I've always loved aquariums. We then went to the Science Museum which was in a really cool building and had some less conventional exhibits. I thought it was pretty cool. I'd like to go back there and maybe spend some more time perhaps...

That took us through till the time we had to leave to catch our bus to Madrid. Easily the most comfortable 4 hours I've ever spent in a vehicle, not entirely sure why...

When we got to Madrid I navigated us through the metro and got us to the hostel. We checked in and while doing so were invited to join a pubcrawl. So we did. It was fun. We got early morning doners. Yum.

So, on Friday we took a trip to el Palacio Real, the Royal Palace. I was happy about this because it was one of the few places i didn't make it to on my last trip to Madrid. I got in trouble a couple of times for not reading signs. One of them was for going through a door that took me to the exact same place going through another door I was allowed to go through took me to. Dumb. Its a pretty cool palace, the decorations are rediculous. I also loved the armoury there. Medievil weapons are cool and I especially liked the old rifles and pistolas. The mechanisms are fascinating and the scale of some of the guns is pretty impressive too!

We then headed to el Retiro, A big park in Madrid's center. We hung out here for a while, some people caught up on sleep, Rachel and I chatted and I got a sandwhich. We then decided to visit La Reina Sofía Museum. I'd been there before but didn't mind because it's huge, has a load of temporary exhibits and I'm a big fan of the artists in the permanent collections. However, this did tire me out and I was in desperate need of food after.

We found some yummy tapas for dinner and then booked it to a place where some people wanted to watch flamenco dancing. I'd seen it twice before, both times for free, and didn't feel like paying 25EUR this time around. Instead, Bianca, Shannon and I went and got some beers and hung out in a park. When the Flamenco finished, we went to a churro place I'd been to last time I was in Madrid. We got 12 Churros and a litre of chocolate and were told that because it was para llevar (take out) only we weren't allowed to eat at any of their otherwise empty tables. So, we walked into the middle of a plaza 10m away and ate it there instead. The girls then found a store that was open late, did some shopping, and we headed back to the hostel.

We awoke early saturday to attempt to get to San Sebastian for some bull running. We ended up missing it but bought tickets for that nights bullfight. Upon realizing there was nothing worth seeing in San Sebastian, we headed back into central Madrid and ended up in Plaza Mayor. We checked out a cool market there, bought some beers and then headed to the park behind the royal palace for a good nap. I woke up to having been pooped on by a bird. On my wrist, the same place I had been pooped on some months prior in Marseille. Gah. And it got on my camera strap. After resting, we swung by the hostel and headed back to San Sebastian for the bullfight. It was interesting to see again as I'd forgotten all of the ritual and ceremony that is involved. I hadn't, however, forgotten the blood. That sort of thing tends to stay with you. Perhaps ironically, went for dinner afterwards and I got a beef burger. Yum.

Next morning we took a bus back to Valencia (so we could fly back to Madrid to fly back to Zurich - don't get me started). Rachel, Shannon and Steph had managed to get on an earlier bus so Bianca, Olivia and I met them at the Valencia bus station an hour later. Olivia and Bianca grabbed some lunch and we went to relax in Turia Park - used to be a river until it was diverted back in the '60s. Shannon and Olivia napped while Rachel, Bianca and I went for a walk and an ice cream. Saw some graffiti on an old building that we had seen an exhibit about in Madrid - was pretty stoked about that. Took a taxi to the airport and had a fairly uneventful flight home.

However, when we got the to the Zurich HBF there was some sort of Indian festival on (well, being taken down) and they were still serving curry! Had some dahl and some korma and a samosa. Had been missing the Indian food!

So yeah, a great trip overall! I look forward to my next trip to Spain!