The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful

So we have been in Freiburg a week now and we have spent most of our money. I hvae 700 Dollars left and after the conversion, thats not so much. Me and speyers came to realization we are not going make until August. So speyers just got off the phone with the airline company and the only day he can fly back is the 26th. In 11 days. This really sucks but thats the way it has to be. I'm waiting for a call back to see what dates they have avalible, so far it's looking like the 5th of july. Besides that BS heres whats gone down in freiburg.

We arrived at my uncles house to a warm welcome of friendly faces and the wine and beer flowed. It's really nice to feel like im home. Nothing too exciting happened the first few days we just BS'd around the city a little bit. The first night we were here my uncle told us that friday we would go to the Heauboden, as my uncle put it, the best disco (german for nightclub) in a 200km area. We had a few before departing on foot, only a 10 minute walk. We arrived and chilled on the first floor of the nightclub which was a relaxed bar area and we had a beer and then walked upstairs and it was all old people doing what looked like square dancing to aweful techno/pop music. We went to the basement level which is where the younger people seemed to congregate and we shot the shit with some soccer players from I forget. So we start getting drunk, blah blah blah, the soccer players seemed to be infatuated with spring break from what they see on MTV and promise me that they will come to america for this. I'm not much of a dancer in general and especially not to this god aweful music, so I observe, which proved to be plenty of entertainment. One of the soccer players, daniel, said which girl would you like, a little confused I say what and he repeats the question, still confused he tells me that I will bring her over here for me. I think this is funny considering he is nearly wasted, so I point and he walks over to her and says something and he walks back, surprising, empty handed and he did this several times. Then while dancing next to speyers he kicks some girl in the butt and the girl turns and looks at speyers and says something and keeps dancing and daniel proceeds to kick the girl in the butt again and she looks at speyers again and speyers said ''fuck it she already thinks its me'' and kicks her in the butt too. She walked away. Then another one of the soccer players starts dancing like a drunk stripper. Daniel buys me and speyers a round and speyers hits the dancefloor and somehow almost gets into a flight. Then around 5am after alot redbull vodkas we take a shot of whiskey and hit the road and on the way out some dude pinches speyers ass and he almost fights him but a bystandard breaks it up. After we get home we decided to see if the neighbor was up, he was, still partying. Thank god he had pizza rolls or we would have died because we only ate one meal that day. We drink some schnapps and smoke a delicious rose flavored hooka then at around 7am we decide it's time to head back. Needless to say the next day we didn't do shit.

Sunday we went to Triburg with my brother and nephews. Triburg is a badass town in the heart of the black forest where the cookoo clock comes from. We chilled and tried some schnapps and took a hike up this biggest waterfall in germany. It was no niagra falls but it was cool. My nephews are the coolest little kids ever. Then watched germany dominate in soccer and chilled.

Monday we went into the city on the prowl for Rothaus beer t-shirts. We came to the concencus that this is the best beer in germany. We failed, but I did manage to get a badass honer harmonica and the guy at the music shop knocked off 5 euros because I was from Austin, home of stevie ray vaughn. I remembered about a place that brews its own delicous beer and we got our first liter beers we drank 2 and hit the road feeling fine. We bought some cigarettes and walked around and decided to buy a bottle of absinthe and I remembered a liquor store that sold it so we hit the road and found the place bought a bottle of 60% absinthe and chilled at a park and took a couple of swigs before we have yet another good idea to find some smoke yet again I remember a park, frulinger, where you can find it with ease. Within in 5 minutes we spark up a conversation with a rasta looking guy and his friends. The rasta guy, George was from Ghana and spoke perfect english so after we got a decent ammount of hash for 10 euros we chill, burned one and drink some beers and he invited us to watch the game with him at the public viewing area we accept and are on our way. We stash our absinthe in the woods becasue you are not allowed to bring any outside drinks in. We sit and watch the game which was italy vs. paraguay and the place was full of wop's and considering last years world cup I just wanted italy to lose and they almost did. It would have been a huge upset. We left after the game and talked with George about life and I have come to the conclusion that everyone that gives a shit enough to talk about the world wether its my uncle, marlon and his friends in berlin or a stranger in duisberg we can all point out the evils of this world and it really helped restore my faith in humanity. One thing Saint George helped me realize is that no matter what happends, stay positive. I'm really taking this to heart on what is turning out to be the last leg of the journey.

Berlin Invasion Pt. II

So Marlon invited us to a BBQ of his brothers friend, ok, pretty normal, lets go. Well they left out the fact that it was a BBQ in the middle of a protest. It was awesome. Rich people from south germany and other countries are buying cheap property in Berlin where many artist live and fixing it up and jacking up the rent (sounds familiar) and they are actually doing something about it. Well sorta, it was more like a giant party but I think they got there point across. I got to see all the weirdos berlin has to offer and I realized it is not so different from austin in that sense. These protest have turned violent in the past so the police were in full force. After a while the police chilled out and dropped the stern looks. At one point I saw them chasing eachother around the police car with a squirt gun. I'm trying to recall everything but this was almost a week ago. Marlon found a pack of cigarettes with some weed in it. That was a pleasent surprise. Afterwards we got some lebanese food and while eating someone spotted the sillouette of some dude showering, it was pretty funny. Then afterwards he was either A. Shaving his legs B. Putting lotion on his legs C. Spanking it. We left. Went to some club with marlon and his brothers friends. I was tired and everyone was speaking german so called it a night and left.

Sunday was a pretty chill day. At one point in Berlin they had 3 airports so they closed one and turned it into a public park (great idea). It was massive! The runways, fields and you could even go into the terminals. Then we went back to marlons and his awesome mom made us BBQ. We decided to roast marshmellows over the coals and it was all fun and stuff until my marshmellow burned off the first layer of skin off marlons knee, SORRY MARLON!!! Then we got stoned and played mario cart. Woke up, took a train to frankfurt, recovered our mighty steeds from the pound and hopped on another train to Freiburg to see the family. It feels good to be home.

The Berlin Invasion

So I emailed Marlon and told him we were coming to Berlin, in 5 hours. A little short notice. Luckily he had just finished school and doesnt have a job so the timing was perfect. On tuesday we arrived and were tired so we just crapped out early, nothing special. Wednesday we woke up and ate an awesome breakfast of eggs, potatoes and bacon, first warm breakfast we have had in a while (Marlons mom is awesome) and hit the road to see what this city is about. We enjoyed some coffee in the ''dead zone'' which is the place inbetween the walls where gaurds would shoot anyone they saw in it. We went to the WWII museaum, which was built where the SS/Gestapo Headquarters use to be. Creepy, but it had a great timeline of how the third reich came into power. Then we went to the Holocost memorial which was really awesome and if you didn't know would assume it's a giant place to play hide and go seek( I will upload pictures eventually). Then we saw the rest of this awesome city, alot of which was destroyed during the war. We decided to meet up with the brits from Frankfurt, so the fun begins. We met them at their hostel bar and had a few and they convinced us to come on a ''pub crawl'' with them. Okay the pub crawls here involve paying some company 10 euros to walk in a group and you get a jager shot with every beer you buy. Odd, I know. So we were going hard for 2 bars, definately being the most lively ones then the jager started to get to us, mainly marlon. We acted as human crutches for him to escort him to the next bar where we only stayed long enough to say bye to the brits. Somehow marlon got us to the subway station although he had a difficult time walking. He vomited on the subway which I thought was funny. Earlier in the day we heard an announcement on the subway ''mind the gap'' speaking of the gap between the subway and platform we laughed becasue we thought it was impossible. Well I am a pretty amazing person and managed to get my leg wedged in there, all the way up to my knee. Luckily the subway didn't take off and I still have a leg, seriously, shit could have gone very wrong.

Thursday we didn't feel so good but the weather was perfect so we decided to go swimming in a lake marlon knew of. We saw a moderate ammount of people hanging out but no one swimming. After inspection of the water we understood why, it was fucking cold. Thinking that it couldn't be worse then barton springs I jumped in and I thought I was going to die. Stayed in for about 45 seconds then got out hoping my dick had not receeded into my stomach. We just chilled soaking up the sun drinking some beers watching germans be germans, which includes but is not limited to bringing a ghetto blaster to a serene lake to play shitty techno. We met up with marlons friend and headed back to his house where we met up with another of his friends and proceeded to chill. We drank some the finest polish vodka that has straws of grass a buffalo pissed on, it is said to enhance the taste. His friend made some badass mojitos and spaghetti and we continued to chill. Then we dicided to go to playground near marlons house and we had some ''coffee'' and got on this spinny thing that almost made us vomit. It was awesome.

Friday we woke up late and didn't do shit except head into the city and chill in this field in the center of the city, it was beautiful. We met marlons friend and he told us about a reggaee club that has sand and shit. Sounded cool, so we headed that way. We decided to get some ''roadies'' (road beers). Of course we all got the hairest beer possible. A liter of 10% beer with a fucking viking on it. It got us drunk and made sneaking into the club a little more difficult, but we did it. We just chilled and smoked on the beach that was on the river. We chilled pretty hard and started talking to the young german kids next to us and burned a few with them. Shit got weird after that. They tried to get us to play a game in germany where one person says penis then you have to say it louder then person before you, we declined. Then the asian one who was super fucking high starts to draw a face with a dick as the nose and we began to be creeped out, then it was as if this creeper alert had been hit and some weirdo pops out the woods and puts the cherry on top this creeper pie and we split. The club was located next to the the eastside gallery which is an intact portion of the wall where artist are allowed to paint, it was so awesome! Then the viking starts to come out. We find a wheelbarrow, empty it, put marlon in it and walk about a half a mile. We decided to throw the wheelbarrow in the river and did it. Then we continued to walk and marlon destroyed a computer monitor with a giant rock, it was pretty cool. We were hungry so they went to mcdonalds but me and speyers refused to eat there. After kicking a soccer ball that we found around, we went inside to join them as they eat and there was some old dude asleep at a table with all the chairs around him ontop of the tables. The poor fella didn't even get to eat his cheeseburger so I ''liberated'' it from his table. After that we hoped on the train and made it to rudow safely and watched the sun peek over the horizon, at 4 in the morning!? It was strange becasue the sun doesn't fully set until 10pm. Now it's Saturday and planning on going to marlons brothers BBQ. I cant imagaine shit getting more hectic then yesterday.

Fuck it

So me and speyers talked about what we want to do and decided that we are going to buy a 3 day train pass and go to Berlin for a while. We are storing our bikes in Frankfurt for a week. This is taking quite a chunk out of the budget but we figure it's worth it. Everyone has spoke highly of Berlin and I'm extremely excited to go. Probably the most excited I've been the entire trip. I hope it's not all hype, I don't it will be. No more shitting in the woods for these guys. I forgot to mention in my last posting that I broke a spoke nipple being a dumbass getting my bike off of speyers I didn't realize his pedal was in my spokes, i immediately freaked out because it was the rear wheel driveside and I don't have a cassette tool. But the replacement nipple was long enough to thread back onto the spoke. I just sraightened the spoke
With some plyers and was on my merry way.

Livin on Reds, Vitamin C and Coffee

So we boogied out of Cologne with the worst hangover ever. Not a good idea to learn how hard the kolsh party when you have to have all your shit packed and out the door by 11. We met some people from the hostel that wanted to go out and we did. I figured out why I dont see many people my age out and about, they are all cramped into underground rooms dancing their asses off. I was already drunk when we went out and so I only stayed long enough to drink one then me and the germans from the hostel left but speyers had the disco fever and stayed. So yeah I felt like death when I woke up and was not digging anything about the day, I actually hated everything. We only went 60km then found nice camping along the rhine and we got to see our first real mountains. The next day shit got real.

We got out of the campsite around 11 after a couple cups of coffee on a lawnchair peeping the mountains. We set out for Koblenz which is 60 km away. The riding was a breeze, we thought, just follow the river. When we got to koblenz it turns out that the river split into another fair sized river and of course we followed the wrong one. When we were 30 km down the river we realized something wasn't right, this river is too small. So we figured it out and set out to correct it. The rivers run parallel so it wasn't so bad, we thought. We found a road that connected them and set out for it. Immediately upon inspection of the road we realized we where fucked. Mountains are cool, I love em, just not riding a bike with 70lbs of shit up one. But we did with surprisingly minimal ammount of stopping, I thought speyers was going to die, he didn't, but he did puss out and walk a portion of it. The climb was 4 km and we still encountered some more hills before the downhill. Before we did the epic downhill we enjoyed some coffee and put our helmets on. We get to the road that we are supposed go on to go downhill and there is a cop turning cars away and we thought we were fucked, until we saw him let one pass we went up him and he said it was cool for bikes. Yes a blocked road just for us to haul ass down, it was sweet, and very very scary. Speyers rode his brakes the entire way down and I waited a good while for him at the end. It was so cool, the max speed was 59.5 km. It turns out there was a marathon being run at the end so we busted out the bike stero, it was pretty funny. So we where pretty much dead after all that riding and the only campsites we could find where on the other side of the river and not a bridge or ferry in site and we almost gave up until we saw the glorious sign. Set up camp as it began to drizzle and then the great flood came ALL NIGHT. The bottom of my tent was moist when I woke up and I was not too happy about that. I sat in my tent and enjoyed some coffee so I could be content with laying back down on my sleeping bag then the sun illuminated my tent blue and I felt hope. I got up took a shower and when I got out it was raining again. Fuck, so we chilled and then the sun came out again this time for long enough to dry our tents and our spirits and as soon as we finished packing up it started raining again. This shit contined all day. Not wanting to spend 25 euros on a real rainpancho we bought 2 euro ones that were trashbags with cut outs for arms and a head and looked like kkk robes. We sounded and looked like trash in the wind. We rode until the weather was to fucked and we took a train to Frankfurt which was like 30km away.

Now we are at the 5 elements hostel and it's pretty awesome here. Last night me and a quite eclectic group of people (aussies are my new favorite) just sat in the hostel which had a bar and talked and were entertained by the passer byers. Did I mention the hostel in the heart of red light district. So some of the highlights from the night : A bum walks up to the window and starts pointing at shit on the table and at first I asssume hes talking about the one slice of pizza on the table and I point at it, he shakes his head, then the beer next to it, he shakes his head again, then the unlit candle next to all of it and he gives me the yes nod and I look at everyone with a wtf expression then we look back out the window and the bums buddy holds up a CD player from a car. Then when we were smoking a cigarette outside a group of young kids walk up and the most trashed one grabs one of our beers and takes a sip and we werent too mad because this kid was trashed trashed and then he starts talking shit about the police maybe 30 yards away, then he starts yelling shit about the police and they just sit there, then starts talking shit to me and I almost break my beer glass over his head but he had a way of defusing situations by saying ''oh I was joking, its fun'' Plus he was in a track suit, how can you be mad at someone in a track suit. I wonder if he ever got that ass beating he was looking for? Then this black bum puts on these pink sun glasses and just starts freaking out, it's really hard to describe because I had never seen anything quite like it, but it was definately the hardest I have laughed in the last 2 weeks. Well i'be been here for too long, time to see this city. -Max

The Tour So Far

Well after about 500km or so, heres the wrap up. Starting in Amsterdam where it seems like everyone and their grandmother rode bikes (seriously I saw an old man with an oxygen tank in his pannier) and it's awesome, everyone on shitty mtn bikes and dutch city bikes everywhere (I only saw about 3 fixed gears and one roadie, it was nice) . It was early and I didn't want to go directly to the campsite so I got some "coffee" rode around and dug the arcitechture. We stayed at a campsite a little bit outside of the city in a place called Zeeburg and it was a cool little place with houseboats, spraypaint and a large d.i.y art house. After waiting quite some time for spyers to arrive he never did so I took a nap then he wakes up later and tells me his hecitic story of how he got there, after stripping his crank putting his pedal on he tried to find a ride to the campsite for 3 or so hours until a helpful local just 'rethreaded' the pedal so if every comes off or loose he's kinda fucked. We left the campsite at 9am and headed to the center and after a nice dutch breakfast which included salami, cheese, bread, heinken and hash we took off for Rotterdam and being ignorant to ways of the road we didn't get a map of holland in the city so when we got outside of the city in the direction we thought Rotterdam was we asked some locals, they laughed at us and said "are you serious, thats an hour and a half car ride" we reassured them we where completely serious, they laughed and pointed us "that way." It was a learning expiereice of a ride we finally got a map after we asked another person for directions and he informed us that we were "stupid" and to stop at a shell and get a map. The biking was unbeilievable, perfect. We had our own bike path pretty much all through holland and clearly marked signs pointing us exactly where we needed to go. We still got lost, alot. It took us 120km or 75 miles and about 20km of that was being lost/going in a giant circle. We finally arrived in Rotterdam and where looking at a map when soon to be friend Yoland asked us where we were heading and she gave us directions but after that asked her if a store was open and she showed us that as well and after getting some beer, cheese, meat, bread (turning out to be our staple food) she invited us to drink some beers at her house around the corner and not getting a shady vibe we kindly accepted and it was really cool to get to hear what real dutch person has to say about life and she had alot to say. She feared the disintigration of her nation and I could relate. It was getting dark so we left and found the campsite after getting lost, again, that seems to be a common theme with us. We stocked up on some "coffee" and hit the road. Every single town in Holland was spelled like someone just mashed their hand on a keboard i.e. jaikgjöioak, see, doesn't that look dutch? But we kept on truckin for the next 5 days. Holland is a very.......unique place. Super flat which I think over time could cause some sort of dimensia. They like miniature things like ponies and windmills. STROOPWAFFELS RULE! The camping is super wack, they bring the indoors to the outdoors. Its really weird, fake flowers outside and old people in R.V's that make you feel like your camping in their front yard. Oh and mother fuckin dutch kinds playing badmitton at 8 in the morning. I just found it's thursday, I thought it was tuesday. We got into germany 2 days ago and the camping got real. First night was an open field with 2 other campers and a beautiful lake with a sand beach, what I wanted the entire time. The next day we where in Duisburg and it was getting late and needed a place to stay so we asked someone, later to be known as Saint Christopher, he showed us a spot on the lake he would camp with his boyhood chums. We thanked him and he was on his way, later in the night after enjoying some "coffee" we hear some rustling in the woods, freaked out at first we see Saint Christopher. He brought us some warm pasta and drinks! It was a blessing. We talked and it was getting dark so he left and we passed out. The next day it started raining after 12km and not having any rain protection we took a train 40km to Cologne and now we are the Black Sheep hostel. Met some really nice friendly people here, they are cooking lentil soup right next to me an someone is eying me for the computer so i'm gonna go.

5.4.3.2.1

This is a test to see if this shit works

Location:Glumack Dr,Fort Snelling,United States