Bumblin around

Well its been an interesting time since I left my mother on the 6th of June. I was able to hang out one more night with my cousin Jared in Lyon. After that I went up to Paris for a couple of nights where I stayed with the sister of a good friend of mine and old coworker, Marty! She hooked me up with her sister, Ellen and her family, Veit her husband and their daughter, Sophia Louise. She was a funny little one, she is 5 years old and of course speaks French, German and English. She took me right in and wanted to teach me how to speak French!! Funny little girl! So while they did their things during the day, I went to the Musee D'Orsay and the Louvre. Both of those museums are amazing and the Louvre is absoulutely enormous. I barely touched the surface in the 5 hrs that I was there. Interesting history in both but I really liked the Orsay, it has many impressionist paintings and that is what I like the most. After those two days of looking at paintings and having good food with them at night I headed out again. This time it was to Cologne, Germany to mainly see a band, Gov't Mule and of course the city as well. I really did not know what to expect when I arrived in Germany and boy what that a world apart, it was another one of those I cannot understand a lick of anything countries! I had a very, very fun first day. It was coincidence but there was a huge Protestant Evangelical festival when I was there so it was a huge crowd of religious folk but they all seemed a bit different than your normal run of the mill, Jesus lover! They had a street festival in one area and they had music, food, and stuff for the kids. Anyway, I had some really good German food for lunch and I wanted to wash it down with a tasty German brew! So I headed over to the beer stand, which was a kinda of makeshift bar, so I ordered a beer and was just checking the crowd out and next to me were these two black dudes speaking in some very cool language. The one facing me held his beer up and said, "Prost", which is cheers in German. So that was that and the next thing we know we are having a blast chattin about this and that, it turns out that they are from Mozambique in Africa, been in Germany for awhile and one spoke very good German, actually he spoke 4 different languages! He is an artist, his name is Kitu or Vasco, depending on which country he is in!! And his friend, is Adetito, A-ded-eee-to, both were great guys and really took me in. At one point when we were just chatting something very interesting happend on one of the stages in the street, mind you this is a Protestant event, some music came on and all of a sudden about 12 transvestites came on stage and pretty much put on a drag show!! It was very odd sight seeing all these family folks just jammin out dancing and singing with their kids, all the while these drag queens just singin away on stage, the only thing that came to mind was, "Only in Germany" So after many good beers we split up for a while and were to meet later for more chattin and what not. They met me again at the same place then they took me to their local bar, Klein Pub, which was not too German but more African, there were no Germans there only Africans!! Really cool scene and everyone was very nice to me as they obviously could see that I was an outsider, in many ways! So we had a blast all night hanging. So after a long night I went back to the hostel and then got ready for another day. So the next day I walked around Cologne and took some pics of the huge cathedral in the center of town and then I was to meet up with Adetito for some chiliin out! So I wanted to get a real German Bratwurst, so I headed to the festival and after getting the sausage of course I needed a good beer to wash it down and there at the beer stand was Vasco and Adetito again, funny stuff! So we just chatted there again for a long while and met this really nice girl Evelyn. So we all laughed and joked, then it was getting near the time for me to go the concert! So I said my goodbyes and took emails and was off! Then I went to the concert! The show was great it was actually four shows. Three openers then Gov't Mule. They played all good songs, kinda weird though not being able to talk with that many people cause they all spoke German!! Anyhoo, great tunes and a great night!! Then I headed to Munich the next day! I went to the Hoff Brau house at some sausages with sourkrout and had a liter of beer in the biggest stienglass!! After that I headed on a train to the small village called Bernried. I was there to meet up with a coworker from Antarctica. He was working a new job, I met up with him and his coworkers, they were all Brits, funny as hell guys! We all had a great time chattin it up over some pints! The next day I went on a bike ride to the next village and had lunch. After I sat down and started to look at the menu I realized that it was goin to a fun lunch, I could not read the menu, so I pointed and came up with what I thought was the coolest looking German cause at that point you might as well choose off of asthetics! So I was then delivered a tasty brew and a bowl that looked like soup but it was not steaming! It was lunch, jello soup with pork slices and an egg! YUMMM! So that was a fun one. So after a couple of days I headed to Geneva to suprise my dad, gotcha dad, stayed there for a day and some before heading off to Prague, which is where I am at right now! This town is great! Im here visiting my old boss from the Juvenile Center in Boulder, Kristine! So she has shown me what Prague has to offer. Pretty amazing architechture and old world feel! Plus, a very hip night scene!!! Lots of young people and beautiful woman on each corner! I just got my camera stolen a couple of days ago so I have no pics of anything before Prague! All's well ends well! Well folks till the next time!