Yes, Buster lives,
and that’s the most retarded picture of me ever on thebikegame, but that was
a pretty sick evening (literally), so I guess it’s all gravy. Wow, that was
a ridiculous night…I remember drinking everything in sight…throwing up…and
then not getting out of bed until evening the next day.

I haven’t died
or fallen into a deep hole…kinda got busy and hectic I guess. Lots more later,
but a super quick update now…

Thursday – rode
my 5.5 hours, got tired, went to sleep

Friday – worked
most of the day on internet stuff then went to this humongous fair thing in
Stuttgarter, the Canstatter Wasen, it was kinda like the biggest fair I’ve ever
seen times about 100. It was absolutely sick.

Saturday – I didn’t
go to sleep that night, and went straight to the aeropuerto in Frankfurt around
430 in the morning to pick up Jamila, then came back to Heidelberg and packed
up my stuff.

Sunday – Hung out
in Heidelberg a little while longer, then headed south a bit to Karlsruhe, which
is where I’m at right this second, in an internet cafe and I just finished some
more PEZ work. Tomorrow, we’re headed to Colmar in Alsace, then maybe to Reims,
and definitely Paris by the end of the day. Gotta get going early I figure…gonna
take whole advantage of the Eurail pass this time. I figure one city is a good
day on Eurail, so three cities in one day, that’s something else.

Alright, it’s late,
Karlsruhe really is the epitome of uncool, and I’m going to walk back to the
hotel and go to bed, cuz tomorrow is going to be anything but uncool. Chargin
up the camera batteries and it’s on tomorrow.

K bye.

I know this is
a day late, but I’ll try and recount the past anyway…why not…it’s quite
a dumb story.

So I went bikin
in the morning with Rolf. That was fun. We rode a really hilly route on super
small roads, so after three hours we barely made 50 miles, but we weren’t riding
all that slow. Kinda funny that. We rode through some really beautiful vineyards
in the hills. The vineyards have these awesome little roads that go up really
steep to the top of the ridge and then you can see for forever…or about 20k…whatever.

I rode over to
Rolf’s house after we were done so he could fix my borrowed team bike’s bottom
bracket, which was making a helluva lot of noise…or so we thought. He put
a brand new one in, and I left, and it was still making lots of noise, which
is when I used my superior deduction skills to deduce via deduction that the
noise was of course not coming from the bottom bracket, but from the front wheel,
more specifically the front skewer. Well, at least the bike has a new bottom
bracket to go along with a sweet creak.

I got home after
a good three hours of bikin and got ready to go to Heidelberg. Oh wait, I went
to the grocery store first for a few things for eatin. I like eatin. Anyways,
after that I left the house around 330 and that’s when the adventure began.
I caught the bus to Wiesloch without any hassle, but had to stop and switch
busses to go the last little bit to the train station (maybe 1-2k). I hopped
on my bus and we were off to the train station…I kinda got distracted for
a minute or so and then I realized that I should already be at the train station…looked
around…dammit…I’m going the wrong way. This is bikin territory. We’re headed
into the country. I stayed on the bus just hoping we’d loop around until we
didn’t and the bus stopped for good in Schatthausen – a good 20k from Wiesloch.
Yeah, that was pretty sweet.

I finally got the
nerve up to talk to the bus driver (they’re usually so mean), and he kinda laughed
at me, and then I figured out a new plan to take the bus all the way into Heidelberg
instead of the train. At this point, it would take me 30 minutes before another
bus came for Wiesloch, another 30 minutes to get back to the train station,
plus a train station wait, plus the train ride. Or, I could wait an HOUR and
then take a FIFTY minute bus ride to Heidelberg. I had pretty much given up
on life at this point, so I figured I’d wait for the bus to Heidelberg, and
that way I’d KNOW that I’d end up in Heidelberg…eventually.

So I waited and
waited and walked around pretty little Schatthausen and saw a lot of nothing,
except for a small church and a memorial to World Wars 1 and 2. There were a
lot of names on the plaques, and considering how small that town is, I’d guess
that was 75% of the manly population. Seriously, it’s a tiny little bunch of
houses.

Eventually, I made
it to Heidelberg, a full three hours after I left. What should take about 45
minutes, took me 180. I win.

I got to walking
round and round on the Hauptstrasse, looked in some stores, ate some cola gummis,
a little this a little that, but nothing spectacular, just walkin. I think I’m
pretty close to finally walking all of the streets of Heidelberg. I never thought
it would be so tough, but it’s quite the vast undertaking what with all the
little alleys and such…

I think I ran into
the exchange students headed down to the Tuesday night party. There’s always
this Tuesday night get together type deal for the exchangers. It used to be
at this bar called Amadeus, but that bar got dead, and was replaced with an
art gallery (I was really confused for the longest time, cuz I was looking for
it and thought I had forgotten where it was…it just wasn’t there anymore).
Anyways, how do I know this? This huge storm of students comes flooding down
the Hauptstrasse – I mean at least 100 students, if not more, speaking all kinds
of different languages, and of course somewhere in there you hear that familiar
tune of American as well as English, and yes, it makes sense to separate the
two here, because they sound so damn different. I had a moment where I considered
turning around and jumping in with the group, but then I saw the future…

I saw myself drinking…drinking
some more…buying other people drinks…drinking some more (100 euros later)…it’s
now 3 in the morning…where do I go from here? Maybe I make some friends and
sleep on a floor, or maybe I doze in the train station and come home around
4 in the morning with the first train/bus, and that’s making the big assumption
that I wouldn’t be passed out drunk in an alleyway in Heidelberg to begin with.
I know it sounds a little drastic, but um, it happens. It has happened before
in Heidelberg, to me of course.

In conclusion,
I headed home around 8. I tried to call Frank to have him pick me up in Wiesloch,
but I couldn’t get hold of him. I got a little nervous about that, so I called
the other number, but no luck. I called a few more times, but still nothing.
Then I gave up. I gave up because the damn phone kept eating all my damn money.
If a call wouldn’t go through, it would just swallow up the change and not give
it back, so I went to another one and it did the same damn thing. There was
no sign that said anything about cannibalistic pay phones, but whatever, I gave
the stupid German Telekom something like 5 euros last night.

I took the train
to Wiesloch and tried to call Frank again, and again, no answer. At this point,
I’m thinking to myself: self, what the shit are you going to do? I’m back in
Wiesloch too late to get a bus to Muehlhausen and I’m a good 15k away I think.
That’s a long walk. I keep thinking…think a little more…and then it hits
me…of course! Rolf lives in Wiesloch. I was just at his house today, and I
even know how to get there, sort of. Once again, I’m walking…walkin walkin
walkin. After a few wrong turns, some directional advice, and some cold hands
I finally got to Rolf’s at about 930.

Rrrrrrring…nothing…Rrrrrrring…ah
hell looks like I’m walking home tonight…one more try…Rrrrrrring…answer

Sweet.

So I didn’t have
to walk home. Rolf answered the door, had a good laugh, and everyone was happy,
and by everyone I mean me, because he gave me a ride home. When I got home,
I found Frank in the cellar working on his bike, which would explain two things:
1.) no answer on the house phone and 2.) no service to the cellular.

And that was all
for my day…I was tired and passed out soon afterwards…it happens.

Oh, the money game…I
spent a lot on Tuesday…I donated a good bit to the German pay phones:

Day 1 – 95 euros

Day 2 – 0 euros

Day 3 – 7 euros

Day 4 – 11 euros

Day 5 – 10 euros

Day 6 – 27 euros
(10 euros groceries, 7 euros transpo, 5 euros stupid phone, 5 euros for good
fun eatin)

150 euros in 6
days…25 a day…

Ok, so what about
today…I slept till noon. That’s a good place to start. It’s so dark in Frank’s
house and I don’t have an alarm, so it’s literally possible for me to sleep
all day. It’s kinda cool, kinda not cool. I have a very vibrant lazy streak
and extremely dark rooms make me extra worthless.

I woke up and went
for a run. Yeah, you read right. I went running. I ran down to the bakery to
buy some rolls and bread and stuff, but apparently they close at 1 for some
reason. Damn. Actually, they close before that, because I was there at 1250
and the lady was already throwing all the carbohydrates away. I was sad. She
let me buy four rolls though…and a pastry. It was nice of her to let me buy
something during open hours.

I ran back to the
house for a total of like 15 minutes of running…maybe…probably more like
10. I was proud of myself. I felt pretty cool with my new running shoes on.
I’m going to be a runner yet.

First I want to
be a rugby player though. Rugby looks so freaking cool. Oh man. I watched a
rugby game in Heidelberg the other day. I walked by an Irish pub there (I used
to go there a fair bit with my English friends) and they had rugby on…Fiji
vs South Africa. One of the coolest sports I’ve ever watched on tv. So yeah,
biking first, then rugby, and then when my knees have completely given out I’ll
take up running. Sweet.

Anyways…after
I made my little bakery run (ha, it actually was a run), I put on my bikin clothes
and went bikin. I had a cool route all mapped out and written down on a little
piece of paper, but I succeeded in maybe riding 50% of it, because I got lost
all over the place today. I got lost in a good way though – I rode an extra
20 miles or so, but they were fun miles in the mountains. I rode up some mountains,
through the mountains, and then back out to the flat lands. I was about 10 miles
north of Heidelberg when I got out of the mountains, and I made it to HD in
less than half an hour. I was flying. On my own I was doing 25ish, and one time
I got in behind a truck and pedalled really hard behind him doing 40 for a little
bit. That was rough. I’m not very fit right now. My legs hurt. I breathed hard.
It was cool.

I also started
sprinting out of every stop light, turn, or other slow down. Frank has been
doing it to me for a few days now and I’ve been pretty close to freaking out.
I contemplated yelling, punching, shooting, any number of things, but I figured
I’d just start doing the same thing but harder. I absolutely hate it when people
sprint for absolutely no reason. It pisses me off and makes me pedal vigorously,
and I don’t like to do that. It’s pointless. Pointless things make me angry.
So if you ever ride bikes with me and want to make me mad, just start sprinting
after stop lights and turns and after slowing down. I’ll have a guaranteed come
apart in an hour.

The ride was fantastic
today though. I was peaceful. I was also warm, because it was warm again. I
think the high was around 65-68, and it was just absolutely perfect for biking.
I just wore shorts and a jersey, but had a whole ton of extra stuff for when
it got toward evening. At one point I’m riding along, cooking up a good sweat
in just shorts and a jersey, and this other guy rides by in the other direction.
I wave, and of course he doesn’t, but he’s looking at me like I’m insane. Of
course I’m looking at him like he’s an ass cuz he won’t wave, but then I realize
he’s a nutter (or rather, just a typical German biker) – he’s got on leg warmers,
booties, a winter jacket, and gloves.

I’m not making
this up. It was a great moment though as I looked over at the guy convinced
he was missing a few puzzle pieces, and the guy looks over at me and is thinking
the exact same thing in German. I think he’s crazy, he thinks I’m crazy, I feel
a cliche coming on: are we all crazy? Everybody ‘cept for me of course.

Toward the end
of my ride today, I was running out of water, and I was beginning to wonder
about drinkage…there really aren’t that many places to refill it seems, maybe
it’s because I don’t know the area that well…or maybe it’s because I’ve never
stopped because nobody on rides ever stops for water because one bottle is enough
for about 8 hours…anyways, so I’m riding along, wondering aloud about water
and there like a beautiful oasis in the woods is a water spigot flowing beautifully
out of the mountain…a mountain spring!

I love it. I’ve
seen a few around and usually somebody has gallons of empty containers and sits
there for ages filling them all up so they can drink free mountain spring water.
It’s really funny because the water doesn’t flow very quickly, so it really
must take about an hour to fill up a few gallons. It would be a cool errand
though…be back in a little while…I’m going to get some water.

I got home right
around dark and I was hungry, so I took a shower and walked down to the Kerwe…it’s
the last day…and I needed food. I bought a kebap, a marmelade crepe, and some
cola gummi’s. I was happy. I was full too, but I’m not full anymore. I’m hungry,
but there isn’t any real food here because I didn’t buy any. I guess that’s
a good way to lose some weight…speaking of which, I’m almost back to normal.

Tomorrow I’m riding
with Rolf at 10…he can only ride till 1 so I’ll ride three hours, maybe an
extra hour, come back and get some groceries, and then I’m going to Heidelberg
again to take some more pictures…and buy some gelato from the nice ice cream
man. I might try a vegetarian tortilla as well.

My trip to Heidelberg
will bring about my traditional conundrum – to buy a ticket or not. In the whole
year that I spent in Heidelberg, I only saw two ticket controls on the trains/busses…true,
they were disturbing, but that was all. So, with that in mind, I could easily
play the odds and probably get off without ever getting caught…and save probably
at least 50 bucks – that’s a lot of ice cream. Of course, I could get caught,
but really, it’s only a 40 euro fine. They really make a big ol scene about
it though, but last time I checked, yelling doesn’t hurt, but 40 euros does.
When you think about it, I think it’s worth the risk, but I’m a mature adult.
I’m responsible and I am going to do what’s right (I’m laughing) – I’ll buy
the damn tickets, but I’ll think about not doing it every time.

That’s all from
me.

Oh, the money game:

Day 1 – 95 euros

Day 2 – 0 euros

Day 3 – 7 euros

Day 4 – 11 euros

Day 5 – 10 euros

123 euros in 5
days…under 25 a day now! Sweet.

Oh boy, a lot more
happened today…oh wait, because I actually did something besides bike and
sleep. Whatever.

I did bike though,
for about 4 hours. We rode somewhere down southward again. I like the south
and all, I really do, but dear lord, there’s so much more to ride. I don’t mean
this as a slight, it’s just a general observation – mountains are avoided here
at all costs. Seriously. Sure, you might run into one every now and again, but
considering how many awesome climbs there are within an hour’s ride, it’s a
crying shame that they’re avoided like…wait for it…the plague.

I mentioned riding
down a bit further south today into the next set of mountains – basically two
moderate climbs of 3-4k apiece and maybe 750 feet of elevation gain, something
like that. I might be way off. Oh no! You can’t do that! That’s too hard. I
know, I know, I was on a group ride, so just stop complaining, of course, and
I’m riding alone tomorrow, but it’s just disappointing that anything beyond
1-2 minutes of uphill is basically out of category and not for riding…especially
considering that the roads in the mountains here are so ridiculously cool –
no traffic, beautiful, winding, etc etc. Whatever, I’ll get my fill for uphill
tomorrow.

So anyways, after
another still cool ride, I got myself together and headed in to Heidelberg.
I could keep on complaining about not being in Heidelberg, or I could always
just get up, take the bus and then the train and be in Heidelberg in 45 minutes.
So I did, and lo and behold the transportation network is still functioning
and there I was in Heidelberg. Sweet.

I walked all over
the place…I walked along the river, through the town, up to the castle, back
around, every little alleyway I could find. It was probably the most thorough
walk-thru that I’ve ever done of the town, and almost disappointingly (but obviously
cool), there were a lot of little areas that I’d never see before.

I took a ton of
pictures…somewhere around 250 I think. I came home and deleted half of them.
Oh well.

Five notations
from the day:

1.) Looking for
a concert? Look no further than the Heidelberg/Mannheim area…they’ve got Rod
Stewart and Meatloaf coming. Sweet.

2.) Cutting in
line and mean, mean, mean elderly people. Ok, I know Oma is going to hit me
the next time she sees me for saying this, but it’s really getting old when
old people decide that they don’t have to wait in line. I hate waiting in line.
Really I hate it. I hated it when I was 5, hated it when I was 10, 15, 20, will
definitely hate it when I turn 25, 40, 50, 80, 150. The point is, lines suck,
and just because you turn 60 doesn’t mean you don’t have to wait in line anymore.
You’re not entitled to a free jump past my patient ass who has been standing
there for 15 minutes.

Seriously, if another
person just decides to waltz up and cut me in line when I’m walking up to the
counter, I might seriously throat punch them, and by throat punch, I mean, I
might actually say something. Of course I never say anything. I just take it
with a grimace and think, ah well, they’re old and mean.

You know what else,
I bet a whole ton of the elderly in Heidelberg have had a hard life, I bet they’ve
seen and experienced some things that I honestly don’t ever want to see, feel,
or endure. No questions. Then again, just because you’ve been shat on, doesn’t
mean you get to shit on me.

And if another
old person comes rugbying by me to get on a train…I’m going to freak out.
They’re just so damn mean. I don’t like mean people. I think I’m an ok guy,
I think I’m moderately respectful until provoked, but COME ON. Just leave me
alone.

3.) Heidelberg
and a certain little syntax discrepancy…ok, so I’m walking through town today
and I come across a disturbing little sign which reads something to the tune
of – here stood the Jewish synagogue in Heidelberg until 1938…of course it
was then burned to the ground, and the Jews were forced to pay for the rubble
disposal. More or less that’s what it said. I walk a little while longer and
come to another sign on the Alte Bruecke (the old bridge), and it says something
like – the original bridge was senselessly destroyed in 1945 in the waning days
of World War II. Of course, the word SENSELESSLY strikes me as a bit odd, considering
that it is really just a bridge, and a whole city’s worth of Jews were senselessly
relieved of all property, money, possessions, and of course their lives. Normally,
I probably wouldn’t even have noticed, but I had just been by the Jewish memorial
and it was somber, but there were no subjective words, just an objective statement
of what happened, and then not 15 minutes later I run into the bridges plaque
and the Allies senselessly destroyed the beloved bridge. I don’t know what’s
worse…an almost mechanical rendering of what happened to the Jews in Heidelberg
or an emotional plaque devoted to a pretty bridge.

I really don’t
mean to be bitter, but I think it’s this book I’ve been reading, it always comes
back to reading, it’s dangerous. Anyways, I was lured to reading this book cuz
it’s history and it’s a Pulitzer Prize winner (automatic smart points!): Postwar:
A History of Europe Since 1945…there was a lengthy section on not just the
Holocaust, but the lasting effects that the genocide brought about…and not
just the death of millions. Again, I don’t know why I’m falling into this topic,
but those two signs really bittered me up nicely. The book is really good too…too
bad it’s like 800 pages long and it’s not Harry Potter. I just got to the hundredth
page. Whew.

4.) Americans.
Americans in Muehlhausen! Two days in a row now I’ve run into Americans in this
tiny little town not near anywhere. It’s commonplace to find Americans in Heidelberg,
it’s normal – Heidelberg is the largest American military presence in Europe
(or something like that). Amis are everywhere. In Muehlhausen though? I mean,
just look at the name. Seriously, there they go, right on past me, no idea that
they just passed a fellow Ami. They didn’t nod or smile at me either, I gave
em both. I guess Americans suck too. Why didn’t I turn around and talk to my
fellow Americans? I dunno, it’s not my thing…I kinda go to foreign countries
to not be in America, and pursuing America in Germany…seems kinda counterintuitive.
Whatever. Maybe I’m just unfriendly sometimes too. I don’t think so. I still
nodded and gave a smile.

4a.) Speaking of
quiet…I have never been so at peace as I was today walking around Heidelberg.
I didn’t want to talk to anybody, I didn’t want to associate with anybody, I
just wanted to walk around and be by myself. I just wanted to be some nondescript
nobody in a foreign town and that was all. I mean, I’m a nobody everywhere I
go, but when you’re 4000 miles from home, you’re extra nobody, and nobody knows
who I am or cares to know who I am, and I feel the same way some days (of course
there are others when I want to talk to everyone and be friends with everyone).
I just want to amble through their world and observe and be quiet and think
and kinda steal a little of their world in my pictures. I’m looking forward
to riding my bike by myself tomorrow. I need some alone time right now. I’ve
been thinking a lot. I know, it doesn’t seem possible.

5.) And finally,
I love Heidelberg. I might bitch and moan, but really, it’s all about the love.
I’m absolutely mesmerized by the city and the surrounding areas. I love my people
here, I love the town, I love the bars, the restaurants, the gelato, the castle,
the bridge, I love the mountains, I love this weather. Seriously, I love it.

The things that
irritate me, really are the things I love. I love how the ice cream shop man
is absolutely evil and takes great pleasure in belittling me. I smile and know
that a pigeon is going to shit on him soon and that’ll really piss him off,
and maybe he’ll be so pissed off about that, he’ll just leave me alone and give
me my damn 70 cent scoop of gelato.

I like the old
people that are absolutely grotesquely mean to me. I’m not going to be here
much longer, so they’ll be mean to somebody else. I was going to say, they’re
going to kick the bucket soon, but that’d just be awful.

I love the people
that ram into me and look at me like I fell out of the sky and dropped right
in front of them just to get in their way. They’re really sweet. I bet they
have somewhere important and special to be…I’m just a rambler in a foreign
town looking for absolutely nothing in particular…except maybe a few choice
pictures.

I love the bikers
everywhere here who cannot for the life of them look up at me and say hi, or
even nod. I swear to buddha if I could just coax a wave I might turn around
and introduce myself. It’s even worse than in America. Apparently everyone has
terribly interesting hands and needs to stare intently at them at all times,
especially when an approaching rider is sensed. It’s ok, I’m getting over it,
not everyone wants to be sociable with me, that’s cool, I might not yell at
you…if I’m in a good mood.

I love the cars
here. Everyone is always like, oh, it’s Europe, everyone loves bikers…bla
bla bla…don’t fool yourself. I’ve managed to go ages without being honked
at of late (wait a tick, I haven’t ridden in ages, ok, before that), I haven’t
been grazed by a car in even longer. Seriously, in 12 hours of riding, I’ve
been honked at by at least 10 cars, and gotten a good brushing from two. It’s
cool! The roads are narrow and they’re probably just trying to let me know they’re
coming and those irate hand gestures are probably just some German hello thing.

Then there are
the awfully nice people who actually smile and nod and are cool. I met at least
ten nice people today who nodded, gave a small smile. I rode with five truly
friendly people today, and I was happy. I met a little kid on the train, and
he was super fun. All of the people I saw sunning themselves on the grass next
to the river (the Neckarwiese), they were all happy as can be. I think it has
something to do with this weird switch here – work and play. When there’s any
type of work involved, all friendliness goes into hiding, but when it’s playtime,
all is well in the world and we’re all happy. I think I’m onto something. I
dunno, this is getting really long.

And finally, the
mean ice cream man. I will never visit him again. I win. I met a super nice
ice cream man today on my walk, and I will forever visit him, and never visit
you, so suck it. That’s how I roll.

To finish it off,
the money game:

Day 1 – 95 euros

Day 2 – 0 euros

Day 3 – 7 euros

Day 4 – 11 euros

I wonder if anyone
reads this junk. I hope not. If I read this on somebody else’s website, I’d
think they were the biggest douchebag ever. I’d probably think they were a whiny
little child, completely uninterested in foreign culture, hateful of older people,
and downright miserable. So there you have it. I’m just callin it like I see
it right now, and Heidelberg is providing luscious amounts of material.

I rode my bike
for almost five hours today. It was pretty sweet.

I slept in kinda
late, cuz I went to bed feeling sick, but the long sleep did me right. We left
Frank’s around 1230 to go biking…hurried down the road a bit to meet our group
for the day, and it only consisted of my man Rolf and a junior, Victor.

We set off into
the hills southward and it was good. The weather was perfect, the scenery ridiculous,
and it was pretty much the coolest thing ever to ride bikes with Rolf again.

We finished around
530 and I came back and passed out for almost an hour. Turns out taking three
weeks off does something to you. I feel so out of shape right now. It doesn’t
matter one bit, but ugh, it’s still not pleasant. I figure I can rectify that
in one fantastic week of biking…for what reason though, absolutely none…since
I’m going two whole weeks after that with no biking. whatever. Details do not
concern me…but riding my bike a lot sounds fun, and it also plays the important
role of keeping me out of trouble. I wasn’t looking for any parties tonight
that’s for sure.

I felt like such
a fat ass on the ride today when I had to stop and get some food and water.
Seriously, three hours into the ride, I was out of two bottles, and I hadn’t
brought any food with me, because I don’t have any right now, so I ask to stop…I
get a quizzical look…I run in, buy a Snickers bar and some Gummi Bears, hell
yeah, and I’m happy. I fill up my bottles outside and commence to lunching and
I get the comment…you’re going to gain weight while riding! It was kinda funny.
Seriously though, I paid attention after that and everyone else had one bottle
– which they didn’t finish, and I saw ONE bar total eaten all day…from my
four other companions. I was about to start chewing on my head if we didn’t
stop at the three hour mark.

We did go down
to the big town festival thing tonight though, the Muehlhausen Kerwe (care-veh).
It was pretty alright I guess…weird age groups…it was either 40+ or 18-.
I guess that means parents and kids, but none of the kids were with their parents,
no questions. Most of the teenagers were rip roarin drunk and it was only like
930 when we left. I don’t want to know what it’s like right now at 1230. haha.
There was of course lots of beer, food, desserts, and some carnival type rides.
I had some pizza and a nutella crepe. I love nutella. Nutella loves me.

I took out another
150 euros from the bank…I can’t wait to see how much that’ll set me back.
If the exchange rate holds true, that should be 250 bucks. Oh I hurt reading
that. I need to go into frugal mode quick snap. I only spent 7 euros today!
That’s better than the 95 I went through the first day. Ugh.

Day 1 – 95 euros

Day 2 – 0 euros
(maybe hang overs are good for something)

Day 3 – 7 euros

I figure if I’m
going to survive this trip, I need to get the average to around 20 euros a day
or less. Oy ve. Which means the next week had better be really really frugal,
because it’s going to be hard travelling on 20 euros a day or less. I’m going
to guess impossible. Oh well, it’ll be a fun contest at least.

It’s almost 1…riding
at 930 in the morning. It should be frickin cold about that time – mid 40’s
I think. It’ll be 60ish when we finish. I’m not complaining though, the weather
is gorgeous, and the leaves are turning.

K bye.

And then there’s
today…

Last night, Frank
and I went to an Athlete of the Year award show thing in Nussloch. It was pretty
god awful boring for the most part and I think everybody was of the same opinion…there
were a few bright spots: namely the judo show we saw…the people in it were
literally body slamming each other to music onto the hard wood floor. It was
awesome. I want to play judo. Then there was some kind of dance performance
set to…wait for it…wait…FINAL COUNTDOWN. I just about fell onto the floor.
Then there was champagne and pretzels afterwards and that’s when things started
to get shady. You’ll have that sometimes.

I kinda drank a
whole bunch last night. I think it was an awful lot. It sure felt like an awful
lot when I woke up this morning. So I went and rode with Frank and Florian on
my new borrowed bike. It’s pretty sweet. I like bikes…not such a big fan when
I can barely keep my eyes open because my head hurts so bad, but even through
the hangover haze I was happy, how could I not be?

I went back home
and fell asleep for at least four hours, got up, and went riding again. I had
a fun, easy ride all planned, but since it was after five when I left, I kinda
had to speed it up a bit. So instead of easy, I got my first tempo ride of the
new season in! I crammed a three hour ride into 2.5. I’m not going to let my
hangover ruin my day, no sir. It was unfortunate though that I had to cram my
ride into a short, little period, because I passed my old house and it got me
to thinking, and I have a hard time pedalling and thinking, so I would have
preferred to stop and think, but alas, I just had to pedal. Ok I’m kidding.

Seriously, it was
weird to see my old residence. I know I’ve talked way too entirely much about
Heidelberg in the past, but it has had a huge affect on me for whatever reason.
I feel like I lived here…like it was home. I mean, I know I lived here, that’s
obvious, but I really felt like I was a real resident. Maybe I just hope that
I was and that I wasn’t just some dumb American hogging up some German’s room
in the dorms.

I’ve got an even
better plan for tomorrow – I’m going to ride north to Heidelberg…oh sidenote:
so I’m not even close to Heidelberg right now. It’s really really weird for
me when I look outside and I don’t see anything Heidelberg related. I’m about
20 miles south of my favorite city, so in some ways it’s great – parties are
much further away thus hopefully deterring anymore drinking and I can’t think
of any other things, oh yeah, the biking is even better – I’m smack dab in the
perfect biking area. Unfortunately, I’m far away from Heidelberg, and I love
being in Heidelberg. I love walking aimlessly down the Hauptstrasse, sitting
down for a drink or something, and eating my way down the 3k long pedestrian
only zone with pastry after pastry. yeah.

So basically, on
all my rides I want to ride through Heidelberg and get a little taste everyday.
So back to my plan for tomorrow – I’m going to ride in that direction and ride
up the Koenigstuhl (the mountain that overlooks Heidelberg), and then head off
further into the mountains northward…turn around and come back the easy way…and
it’ll be about 60 miles…and if I ride it easy like I want to, hopefully it’ll
take four plus hours. haha. There is a lot of climbing, so it’ll probably take
that long whether I ride hard or not.

I’ve of course
been taking lots of pictures, which I will hopefully start putting up on the
site…that’d be cool to have pics on the site again!

This was from yesterday afternoon.

I got my fill of
Heidelberg for today.

I’m tired now.

I’m really tired
now.

I walked through
town for awhile, bought mostly dumb stuff and a few smart things, but mostly
I just went through and sampled the foods from all of my favorite places. There
was a pretzel from Ditsch, a scoop of gelato from this corner vendor dude, a
Fanblock from Kamps, a vegetarian tortilla from Gino’s, etc etc. Needless to
say, I got full…

I am also coming
to grips with the fact that the euro to dollar conversion sucks absolute ass
right now. It’s seriously about 60 cents to the euro at the moment. I bought
a cool watch today cuz I figured I needed one since my cell phone (which serves
as my watch as well) doesn’t work here…it was 30 euros. Sweet. As I was walking
out, I did a little counting, ah hell, that was 50 bucks. Shit. Oh well, it’s
a good thing it’s solid and the band didn’t fall apart about an hour ago. Oh
wait, shit.

I’ve got that going
for me.

I walked up the
Philosophenweg to look down at Heidelberg and generally be a perfect tourist
for today. It was all going well until I sat down on a bench and passed out.
I woke up about an hour and a half later completely freaked out because I had
no idea where I was. That was cool.

I’m about to take
a train south to Walldorf…Frank is going to pick me up there and then we’re
going to the MLP Team’s annual rider of the year award thing. Maybe there will
be food there. I feel gluttonous today.

We are also picking
up my bike…sweet…I’m going biking tomorrow.

On that earlier
comment about people dressing up stupid warm…I’m really not making that up…I
saw a biker roll by wearing knee warmers and a long sleeve jersey – it’s 80
now. This dude walking past me in the train station has one of those eskimo
looking jackets with the fur around the hood. Most of the people here look well
prepared for a 50 degree drop in temperature at any moment. There will definitely
be no want for scarves…we’ve got scarves aplenty here.

I’m so happy to
be back. It’s so much more interesting here than back home. I like looking around
and seeing completely alien things than I’m used to seeing. It’s interesting,
it’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s eyebrow raising, it keeps me awake…for the
most part.

On a sad note…down
in the pedestrian zone (the Hauptstrasse), there’s this clothing store for women,
Tally Weijl, back when I was here last time, they had this god awful huge sign
for their store with the hottest woman pretty much ever…she had to have been
about 20 feet long. I never ceased to give her a long gaze as I walked by. So
of course when I toured the town today, my eyes were perked and ready to say
hi to Tally again…except she was gone, replaced by the tiniest of tiny signs
leaving no inkling of the glory that once was. I was disappointed.

I was also disappointed
when I went to my favorite grocery store in the whole world and they didn’t
have my favorite cereal (Fit + Aktiv) or bread dessert (Chinois). I mean, what
is this, do things actually change when you disappear for three years?

See, I like to
think yes, yes for sure, but then in most of the stores I went into – I recognized
the people working there. I’m not talking about some office building where people
tend to work at for long periods, I’m talking about the ice cream shop, the
tortilla place, the grocery store, the bakery, etc etc. In some ways it’s cool,
and in others it’s unnerving.

Wow, I just saw
a dumb teenager run smack into a blind dude in the train station. Wow, that’s
a number one way to feel like a complete jack ass. I feel better about myself
now. I’ve done a lot of things today, but I sure as hell haven’t bowled over
a blind dude. Sweet.

The weather can’t
get one single bit better here. This is probably one of the nicest days I have
ever had the privilege to live through – mid70’s up to 80, light breeze, perfectly
sunny, perfect place.

I’m going to get
to see the leaves turn while I’m here – that’ll be cool.

I hope I don’t
run out of money…this whole exchange thing is a real downer. I gave the exchange
people 170 bucks and they gave me 104 euros. Dear god where did the other 66
go? You might think, oh, well the prices are made accordingly…don’t fool yourself.
If it’s a two dollar item in America, it’s two euros here.

I’m going to stop
complaining now. I’m really so entirely happy I just want to sit here and marvel…which
is what I am doing…so I am going to continue doing what I’m doing and start
plotting my next pastry purchase.

k bye.

Seriously, I’m
back in Heidelberg.

I was last here
in August of 2004…what is it now? October 2007 I guess.

This little website
thing came about because of Germany, so I figure it damn well better go back
into use for my latest trip to Germany.

It started out
pretty sweet. I missed Frank at the airport and ended up taking the train to
Heidelberg while he was left waiting for me, but I just figured he wasn’t coming
– I waited a bit, but I had never actually clarified that I’d be there or not,
or whatever, I don’t know, either way, I’m here in Heidelberg and Frank is in
Frankfurt. Woops.

Then I got to Heidelberg
and promptly got hit by a car, almost. I jumped onto its hood and saved my legs
for another day. It was pretty cool.

I’m awake now.

One other thing,
and I do love pointing this out – it’s like mid 70’s today – it’s warm. I’m
wearing jeans and a tshirt and I’m hot. Not my Heidelbergian friends! No no,
it’s downright chilly…jackets with vests on top have been spotted…so have
gloves and hats…I’m not kidding. I heard someone complaining on the train
that it was cold. Did I miss something? I love it. I’m going biking today in
a winter jacket and leg warmers.

I don’t even want
to go into how happy I am just sitting here looking at my favorite place.

Jacob predicted
that I’d be painful when I got back from this trip…he’s pretty much exactly
right. I’m in heaven, and it’s only going to get better.