The Gremlin's Grotto

Well folks, I am taking a moment to write this even though I am totally hung over... I will get to that, but first, let me explain what has been going on. Umm.. hmm... I can´t really remember the last thing I wrote about offhand, but I am pretty sure it ended with me saying we weren´t sure where to go next, or when. We ended up staying the extra time with Lisa and Tomas to watch his first playoff game. It was fun, but Tomas´team lost, which kinda sucked. After that, we decided to head on to Vienna. In Vienna, we managed to get lost looking for a bloody hostel... two hours of walking around in the freezing cold, I was not a happy camper. However, it ended up being worth it. We found a cool hostel and ended up bunking with some Japanese guys who were hilarious. Only one spoke English, and the guy that didn´t was traveling with a Japanese girl who didn´t speak English either. We went out to an Irish Pub, and drank a bit. The Japanese can not hold their liquor at all!!! The English speaking Japanese got smashed and ended up leaving us early. Well, apparently beer replaces language, because we still managed conversations with the other two through teh night. Ok... that didn´t sound nearly as funny as it actually was.
The next day we went to a major art gallery, the Kuntz. It was amazing honestly. I saw a dozen paintings I actually studied, saw a Carravagio, Bruegel, Rubens, and a ton more that I can´t remember right now... but I bought the gallery catelogue, so I have reference. We then got lost again in Vienna... a theme for that city, and ended up buying tickets to a classical concert for 25euro. It was a short concert of Mozart and Strauss, but it was amazing. Later that night, we went back to thee hostel and sat around chatting to yet another German from Hamburg (a theme of the trip for sure), another Japanese girl ( a cute doctor), and an artist from Romania. It sounds like a leadup to a joke honestly hehe. They were all cool people and we had a great time just sitting around for hours on end.
In the morning, we moved on to Salzburg to see a major Austrian castle for a few hours (it was cold and miserable but we still went), but it was a massive dissapointment. The tour sucked, the castle view was obstructed from the literal snowstorm going on, and we couldn´t find the bloody tram to get back down, so we had to walk( which is how we got up). After wasting a few hours on the castle, we got back on the train and came to Munich, and that is where I sit. Now, that was two nights ago, so let me explain what we have done here. First night, sat around the hostel and chatted with a girl from Vancouver, the hostel attendant (girl from Australia), and a Dutchmen... notice a theme, always the right amount of people for the beginning of a joke hehe. Anyway, that was a mellow night, which I really needed. Next day, we took a tour of Dauchau, which was the first concetration camp of the Nazi regime. It was not an extermination camp like Auswitz (my spelling sucks), but it was just as brutal. It was a very good tour and incredibly interesting. During the tour, we met a 28 year old retired editor... strange one huh? We decided to go drinking and went and grabbed the dutchmen from the night before as well.
We first went to the biggest beer hall in Germany; let me explain something... you cannot understand how HUGE this place is... I mean it took us about 10 minutes to walk around to all the different parts until we found a seat. It could hold a few thousand people easily. Now, why I have a hangover, in case you can´t guess. They sell beer by the litre only... meaning 1 beer= alot, but we had 2 beer which equals drunk. After this drinkfest, we decided we wanted to go meet some locals and party some more. oh oh oh, wait... I forgot a very funny part, the soccer fans who read this can appreciate this the most, but it is definitely a good laugh. the night before Arsenal played Bayern Munich in Champions League... Arsenal won, but not enough to win the two game series... so what do I wear to the club? Yup, my Arsenal jersey!! Oh yeah, fear nothing!!! So, I am in the can, releasing roughly a litre of beer, when a very large German looks at me and says, in a mean voice... 'Arsenal'. So, I smiled and said, 'yup, Arsenal'. He then smiled and we kinda talked about the series... he didn´t speak English and was pounded, and I definitely don´t speak German. I complimented Munich so I could not piss off the large drunk German, and he grinned and said, ' Arsenal Sheitzer', which means, ' Arsenal is shit'. I laughed and he put his arm around me and tried to drag me back to his table of rabble rousing drunks, but I slipped under his arm, not hard considering the size difference, and waved my goodbyes. Needless to say, I was scared at first, but it ended up being a good idea wearing the jersey, only since Munich won of course.
So, back to the story, we moved on to a dance bar, but apparently they would not let us in, either because we were four guys with no girls to bring into the place, or because we were English, which actually seemed more likely this time. So, we looked around for another bar and found something called the Cattle Corral, or the Fat Cow or something like that.... well, we just HAD to go in. It was small and uneventful, but when I looked for a bathroom (which I had to leave the tiny bar to find), I think I ended up in someone´s private apartment... there was a bathtub, and such... it was funny as hell. We did go to one more dance club, where again my shirt was commented on by some german girl. It was hilarious, I think in total, 4 people stopped me to talk about Arsenal... 1 Englishman and 3 germans. Freaking hilarious. So, here I sit, the morning after, hungover from roughly 3 litres of beer and trying to decide my next move... which I think is Switzerland for a night... Bern maybe, or we may go to Uhm, or hmm... ah hell, you get the picture. So, in conclusion, meeting lots of people, having a great time, and seeing some very cool stuff. I try to write more about the adventures than the stuff I see mostly because it is hard to convey the beauty of alot of this.
Hey Burton: does that make up for not seeing some Prague music scene? I hope so ;)
Freaking German keyboards are different, this is really hard to write... so I end it here for a few days at least. Keep commenting on things folks, I love to read them, makes writing this all worth while.

So moves,
The Desk Gremlin

Any problems or comments for the Grotto should be directed to a dark place, or if you really must, daiunus@yahoo.ca