clssmitty

[clssmitty]

Landed in San Francisco

I've always felt compelled towards San Francisco.  It might have started with the drive through during my first visit in 2007 with my two best friends on a 3 week road trip, after a bear broke into our car and it was towed to an impound lot, windowless and snackless we taped up the gaping hole with plastic and spent the night in the car, sentences run on, and so did we to Oakland, CA.  We had just completed a 4 day semicircular trek around the Halfdome Peak in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park.  

At one of the lookouts we met a British grandmother named Claire who upon hearing our tails of roadtripping thought we were take-in-able and she offered beds and hot meals for us if we were to be in the bay area.  The days spent at her house perched on a hill looking out over the bay were extraordinary as she provided full bedrooms for each of us and served delicious english breakfasts among other great meals.  Perhaps all of the good cooks have left England.

It might have been this first defining experience of the Pacific coast or my underlying fascination with technology and entrepreneurship.  Either way, I've moved to San Francisco and the vibe here is inspiring.  I've moved into a communal tech house with 50 other people.  The place itself is story enough for an entire blog.  The things that happen when you put 50 twenty somethings in a tiny building are noteworthy. 

The house is located in the heart of the booming web 2.0 district in the South of Market neighborhood where many of the new web companies are buying up old warehouses and renovating them into offices.  Meanwhile, the area is juxtaposed with the side effects of gentrification, homelessness, expensive condominiums and trendy cocktail bars adjacent to old graffitied buildings, methadone clinics, and porn shops.  It's a cultural experience.

The house is more like a long term hostel for tech entrepreneurs supporting tenants from the States, Austria, Germany, Chile, Spain, Ecuador, India, Russia, Australia, and England.  The age ranges from 18 year old programmers to a 40 year old Indian guy working on his 12th startup who just wants to be around the vibe.  Weekly events range from tech talks, programming sessions, biweekly parties, Sunday family dinners, Game of Thrones sessions and a morning gym routine.  It has me seriously thinking on how to integrate communcal living into the future.  One of these roommates is Kumarovski, an Americanized Indian born to an Indian family in Africa, with a charming personality and a knack for driving traffic to peoples websites.  He plays African and Middle Eastern drums at weddings and leaves the drums in the common area. This is a bad idea when other roommates such as myself and a friend, Sam, get to talking.

We started the night at a club down the road where one of the roommates was DJ'ing.  It turned out to be a gay club and after being hit on by one too many men in thongs (there was only one), we left to have a drink at the house.  Thirty minutes later we were shoeless playing bongos on the street corner with a solo cup sat out for donations.  People would walk around the corner hearing some poorly played drums and either ignore us, try to dance along until they realized we lacked rhythm, or offer something offhand.  About an hour in and we had earned $1.75, 3 chicken tenders, some waffle fries, and a dance/rap with a local homeless man.  My stay in San Francisco was off to a good start.

Since then, I've found an office space, gotten involved with the local sailing club, found some kiteboarding spots, won a hackathon (a weekend business/programming challenge to create innovative ideas around a specific topic) and started on two projects that are leading towards business. Things move fast here.

[clssmitty]

My Travel Tips

I've had a few people ask for travel advice lately so I penned down some thoughts here.  In the last 5 years and 35 countries, I've picked up a few hard earned pieces of wisdom that I now rely on for fun, safety and efficiency.  Hopefully they help you on your next trip.

Use ATMs instead of currency exchange

In my experience its nearly always cheaper to get money out of ATMs when you get to your destination than to exchange currency, just be sure and let your bank know where you're going.  Well's Fargo has an automated phone number to let them know dates and destinations.  My local credit union account gives the market exchange rate plus a 1% transaction fee.  It seems you usually lose about %6 or more on currency exchange.  Generally I always carry $100 - $200 in US dollars just in case.

Always have a water bottle and snacks

Most of the time it's my trusty nalgene.  Empty it before going through security at the airport and refill for staying hydrated on long flights.  I never leave for a bus/train/airplane trip without it.  Also, bring some food, usually Cliff Bars for me or some protein bars.  You never know when you'll get stranded and being hangry (hunger + angry, noob) is the worst.  

After 4 weeks in Southeast Asia and a bout of travel sickness in Bangkok, I flew to Dubai ready for any food that wasn't asian.  I arrived during one of the worst times for a foodie, Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when it is illegal to consume food (or sell) in site of the public during daylight hours.  What's more it was midday, I hadn't slept, I was starving, there wasn't a single restaurant open and I couldn't get in touch with the French couch surfing host I was supposed to stay with.   This is probably why I pretty much always have a stash of atleast 2 or 3 cliff or protein bars in my backpack now.  It's super for saving money when you get locked into a tourist spot with 4x markups and you don't want to spend money or when you stayed out late the night before and you wake up to check out and run to the bus/train/plane. And to finish the story, I found a grocery store that opened in the evening and randomly bumped into a Tunisian guy who offered a couch to crash on.

Bargain and give in

Bargaining is the norm in most third world countries.  And as much as you'd like to have the trinket, it's not worth getting worked up.  If you really like it, you'll be just as happy having paid the extra dollar and the dollar to the vendor is worth usually much more to them than it is to you.  If the person ever tells you they are losing money selling to you for that price but they still sold it, they almost certainly didn't lose any money.

Research the airport travel options before you get there

Airport travel to/from rates are always the worst.  Many times there is a local bus for a tenth of the price you would pay a taxi.  

Learn something out of the ordinary in the local language

Speaking English is pretty much universal but its always good to have a few little things you can pull out for conversation starters or just to make the local cash register woman smile.  Ask locals about silly sayings, slang, common expressions and write them down for later. Ghabaht, cachai, si-po, boludo, porteno, dale, enchante, ca chatoulle, eine fliggende kuh, aroy, boguns, merica, chaulo, acha, langes leben, tsuza toima… myriad others 

Learn a few words in an obscure language to deflect hasslers

Very pushy sales people tend to congregate along tourist routes and at the drop off points for attractions. They generally know a lot of english and just a little bit of a few other languages.  They'll start with, "Where you from? America, Spain, (etc)"  Say the name of your obscure country of choice and few other words and they'll look for easier English speaking targets.

Ask people for help

Though most of what you see on the news is negative, no matter where you are in the world people are pretty normal (and that means nice).  Think of them as your neighbors on your street, most people probably wouldn't hesitate to ask a neighbor for advice on getting somewhere or where the closest convenience store is.  Furthermore, you never know when someone is going the same direction and will offer a ride.

In Turkey, my friend Grant and I rented a car and drove cross country to Cappadocia.  En route we dropped into a tiny town for dinner and asked around for a cell phone store.  We bought a SIM card but had no clue how to activate it and noone around knew more than a few words in english.  We ended up getting two guys to Skype call their niece who was studying English in Ukraine.  She translated for us and an hour later we had it working with the help of the two guys, their wives and kids who joined in on the translating, hand waving fun.

Get a SIM card 

Most places it is super cheap to buy phone service locally and worth its weight in cliches.  I have a SIM card for numbers in Thailand, India, Turkey. Spain, Panama, Argentina and Dubai.  All of these have cost less than $20, usually $10.  This usually gives you a month of calling/texting and sometimes a small data plan which is perfect for maps and email.  I don't know how many times this has come in handy and made the trip flexible.  Unlock your phone before leaving.  I used these guys for my AT&T iPhone 5 and was happy with the service (unlockriver.com).

Use your phone for navigating without service #superdupersecret

Even if you don't get a SIM card, your phone can still receive the GPS signal from satellites to tell you where you are.  You can download full map apps onto your phone and navigate around cities without having service.  This one bit has helped tremendously.  Take some screenshots of your destinations throughout the day when you have wifi.  Also, this keeps sketchy taxi drivers honest when you show them where you want to go and that you know can see where you are on the map.  To make it work on the iPhone you have to have WiFi turned on.

Don't plan much / Be Spontaneous

Plans will find you, just get there and be social.  Trust me, it'll work out and your lack of expectations will turn into surprise.  When you don't have serious plans, you have the freedom to do anything.  

Some of the best experiences I've had have happened spontaneously.  Stumbling across the best beer in my life in De Garre alley in Brugges, Belgium, sneaking into an abandoned jobsite in Dubai with a Tunisian guy to eat a McArabia sandwich looking out over the Arabian gulf, trading an incredible meal in a French castle and spending the night sleeping in the car in the Pyranese mountains on the side of the road to make up for the lost money.

Rely on your gut

Body language is pretty universal and you know when things are getting out of hand.  Not only this but just with general travel arrangements and plans, listen to your body when it comes to pacing your travel days and down days.  

A corollary to this one is to make friends. When you're standing in line to buy something or waiting for a bus to come in a sketchy area, start talking to the most normal looking person around, sign talk if you have to.  They'll feel for you and you'll be a less likely target. 

Getting taken advantage of might as well be charity

I take a ton of precautions to avoid being taken advantage of but if you travel enough it will happen.  When it does.. it's charity, move on.  They obviously need it enough to sacrifice morals and the fact that you're traveling to their country usually means you can afford to lose a little without much stress but (in my mind) it means food on the table for their kids or just an evening to enjoy a nice drink on me. Except for that sly Romanian cab driver in Bucharest, who told us the rate was 10X what it was supposed to be and bent us over for an extra $90, I hope he gets a flat tire on the way to a nice dinner.

Never put cash in the same pocket as your phone and keep the most valuable things on you

Firstly, because you'll pull your phone out of your pocket, as a habit, and find your money missing later. Second because it's just good to diversify. Split valuables up and distribute them in different places, only  Keep the most valuable things on you.  Try and put money in a chest pocket or zip pocket if you have one.  

When I was robbed in Chile, I chased 3 guys for 3 blocks to get my bag back. I ran after them across the lawn of a casino, hurdling bushes and low fences.  We crossed crowded streets with people slamming on breaks and honking.  They probably thought I had some really valuable stuff in that bag.  Fortunately, luck and some yelling convinced them to drop the bag which I retrieved.  Everything valuable though was in my pockets, my camera, passport, and wallet.  The bag had a ragged map, camera charger and tshirt in it. 

Don't walk around with your passport

You rarely ever need it and just about always a paper copy will suffice.  You do need it when you get a SIM card usually and sometimes an additional passport photo.

Spend time with locals

The people you meet while traveling are 10 times (or 1,000) more interesting and memorable than the monument, palace, castle, or massive statue of a prawn (you can skip Ballina, Australia).  The absolute best stories and memories I have are from the people traveling with or met along the way.  Definitely couchsurf, use meetups.com, hang out with the hostel staff. 

Couchsurfing has led me to random games of ping pong on the roof of a hotel in Dubai, booze cruising with locals around Sydney harbor, road tripping around New Zealand, celebrating Halloween in a small village in Ireland, and intense discussions on communism in Slovenia.  It's like having family and friends all over the world.

Create order

When living out of a backpack, I need a system to stay sane and know when I have everything.  I keep my general day to day needs in a small backpack and try and always put things in the same place.  I have one pocket for paperwork, passport, vaccination proof, insurance copies.  Another for snacks, chapstick, headphones.  I use a small fanny pack to for chargers, cables, small souvenirs, etc.  In my main bag, I have everything separated into separate bags.  One for clean and one for dirty clothes, and a bag for utility items (medicine, rubber bands, zip ties, small sewing kit, lock, etc).

 Other quick thoughts

Have an extra camera battery.  Chargers are nice, but dead batteries always happen at the most inopportune times.

Bring half the clothes you think you need, you'll buy more on the way and the 40th time picking up your bag to change busses/hostels you'll thank yourself.

You can probably get by without a rain jacket/umbrella.  If its a warm, 3rd world country, people magically appear when it starts raining to sell ponchos and umbrellas.  Even then it's usually a serendipitous time to stop in for a drink or bite somewhere new.

Take breaks, you're better off meeting a few locals in a place and having long dinners with them than seeing another 2 cities for a day apiece and moving on.

Be considerate.  You can usually tell Americans abroad from a mile away.

Take lots of notes, you never remember as much as you think you will.

Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any other questions.  A lot of people ask me how I've gotten to where I am, with quitting a job and finding a great work/life balance.  I'm working on a post to share my thoughts on this. 

[clssmitty]

#nerdinout #machinelearning (at c-base)

[clssmitty]

Jungle Forting

We had to leave from the Ranthambore Tiger Preserve by 9 AM in order to make it to the Taj Mahal in time to be super tourists.  The day before in our backcountry safari trip our guide told us about an old abandoned fort deep in the woods that was first built around the 6th century AD and was deserted around the 17th century when the Jaipuri king created another city nearby with better facilities.

We decided it would be worth it to get up before sunrise and hire a truck to take us into the park.  Everyone's reluctance gave way to optimism with the thought of seeing some tigers and panthers in the early morning calm.  

On the way, I felt the tinge of adventure as the cold breeze blew through the open topped truck we were riding in.  Great adventures always begin before sunrise.  It's this defining assertion that always comforts me as soon as I've recovered from the early morning lethargy.  

The truck pulled up to the park entrance gate at 6:15 AM and we waited under the quiet stars while the park men stoked a small fire they had built behind the gate to stay warm.  They let us in a few minutes early and we had the park to ourselves.

As we neared the fort the driver stopped the truck to point out fresh tiger and panther prints on top of the previous days tire tracks.  Everyone got quiet as we drove another 100 meters or so before getting out.  There we were, all alone, in the open, a football field away from where a tiger had been in the wild only hours before, with a mysterious set of stairs leading up to the spired walls of an ancient fort on the plateau in front of us.

We climbed the hundreds of stairs up in the early morning grey.  I was amazed we were the only ones there, us and the hundreds of peacocks, parrots and potential feline company. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to wonder as we had to return in 45 minutes.  I got tired of tagging along with the group and set out on my own to see as much of the fort as possible.

The views were incredible, and unimpeded, a wide vista looking out over the central Indian hills.  As I got further into the fort, I found a desolate lake with an ancient prayer temple jutting out.  I walked up to find an old local man bathing in the water.  I moved past the lake and got to the back side of the plateau to see donkeys and a few people stirring to their mornings work.  What I thought would be an uninhabited area ended up opening up to a shanty town of people living in the back crevices of the fort.

I climbed up an old tower outpost to look over the town.  All of the houses merged into one covered by sheets of scrap metal, tarp and plastic.  Off in the distance were literally hundreds of peacocks and other assorted birds feeding around a solitary cow.  The sun rose slowly and I snapped a few shots, grateful for such an pure moment.  I trotted back to join the group and took a shortcut through the woods, imagining what it must have been like to live here in ancient times, when I heard the shrill cry of a feline.  I looked up and there it was, a fierce and majestic tiger, staring at me.. face to face with my own uncertain destiny.

I snapped back to reality, there was no cat, but there could have been and no one would have known what had happened to me.  I climbed up a wall to look out over the valley and saw the group at the upper basin of stairs waiting for me to rejoin them.  I took a deep sigh, this is why I travel.

[clssmitty]

About time for a checkup... $75 for a ridonkulous amount of testing in Delhi #medicaltourism

[clssmitty]

Tourism

We chartered a bus and driver and 13 of us travelled across northern India from Jaipur to Delhi with a stop at the Ranthambore Tiger Preserve and Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  I've seen more forts, monuments, buildings, waterfalls, and other "must see" attractions than I care to remember in the past 5 years.  They all end up looking and feeling the same after a while and what I've realized the most over time is, it's the people you are with when you see interesting sites and what you learn and take with you about the local people and their culture.  

In a world where photos are cheap, quick and easy, everyone wants a photo of or with something seemingly noteworthy.  To me this has been more interesting to capture, especially  having an absurd amount of photos of myself in front of whocareswhat monument.  Seeing people seeking out the perfect shot,  cajoling their children to get together and smile so the moment can be captured forever, seeing two friends embrace for a photo or a bunch of old men sitting on the curb with apparent disinterest while a presumed son takes a photo, it is all beautiful.  The group of kids that accosts you, selling their carved marble wares, or just wanting a photo, and the old man selling his "elephant bone" necklace.  The people trying to make a living off of the relatively wealthy visitors. These are the more interesting views I've been taking photos of in the past couple of days.  

[clssmitty]

Tourism

We chartered a bus and driver and 13 of us travelled across northern India from Jaipur to Delhi with a stop at the Ranthambore Tiger Preserve and Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  I've seen more forts, monuments, buildings, waterfalls, and other "must see" attractions than I care to remember in the past 5 years.  They all end up looking and feeling the same after a while and what I've realized the most over time is, it's the people you are with when you see interesting sites and what you learn and take with you about the local people and their culture.  

In a world where photos are cheap, quick and easy, everyone wants a photo of or with something seemingly noteworthy.  To me this has been more interesting to capture, especially  having an absurd amount of photos of myself in front of whocareswhat monument.  Seeing people seeking out the perfect shot,  cajoling their children to get together and smile so the moment can be captured forever, seeing two friends embrace for a photo or a bunch of old men sitting on the curb with apparent disinterest while a presumed son takes a photo, it is all beautiful.  The group of kids that accosts you, selling their carved marble wares, or just wanting a photo, and the old man selling his "elephant bone" necklace.  The people trying to make a living off of the relatively wealthy visitors. These are the more interesting views I've been taking photos of in the past couple of days.  

[clssmitty]

Tourism

We chartered a bus and driver and 13 of us travelled across northern India from Jaipur to Delhi with a stop at the Ranthambore Tiger Preserve and Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  I've seen more forts, monuments, buildings, waterfalls, and other "must see" attractions than I care to remember in the past 5 years.  They all end up looking and feeling the same after a while and what I've realized the most over time is, it's the people you are with when you see interesting sites and what you learn and take with you about the local people and their culture.  

In a world where photos are cheap, quick and easy, everyone wants a photo of or with something seemingly noteworthy.  To me this has been more interesting to capture, especially  having an absurd amount of photos of myself in front of whocareswhat monument.  Seeing people seeking out the perfect shot,  cajoling their children to get together and smile so the moment can be captured forever, seeing two friends embrace for a photo or a bunch of old men sitting on the curb with apparent disinterest while a presumed son takes a photo, it is all beautiful.  The group of kids that accosts you, selling their carved marble wares, or just wanting a photo, and the old man selling his "elephant bone" necklace.  The people trying to make a living off of the relatively wealthy visitors. These are the more interesting views I've been taking photos of in the past couple of days.  

[clssmitty]

#stillwedding #turbantime2014

[clssmitty]

Anything But Boring

It's human nature to normalize to your environment.  The traditionally dressed people, 3 wheeled rickshaws and general disorder start to seem normal after a few days. I try to take a step back and put myself in my high school self's shoes to appreciate these unique moments.

In the past couple of days, I haven't had to do that.  I went to the biggest flea market in Goa, a ruckous assortment of beautiful people selling all sorts of bags, jewelry, clothes and other trinkets.  In walking through a guy hassled me to buy his hand made drum.  I told him I wasn't interested and threw out what I thought would be a nearly insulting offer of 3 dollars for his drum, a fifth of what he was asking.  I piqued his interest with this and after some laughter filled haggling I bought a little hand drum for $5.  

Unfortunately this tagged me as a sucker for drum buying, and from then on, anytime someone saw me and had drums to sell they would harass me to buy their drums offering trades for the one I had and trying to convince me to buy an extra for a friend.

The same day I sent a couple of travel friends who came down with a bad case of travel sickness off to the hospital to get intravenous antibiotics and listened to the harrowing story of a young Australian guy who naively got himself into a Nigerian drug dealers mansion under the guise of helping him to ship jewels illegally into Australia.  They befriended him in the streets and wooed him with the thought of quick cash.  He was flipping out when he returned to the hostel because they had tried to take him to the post office just before, to ship the jewels and he felt in over his head, as he should've.  So he changed his name on facebook and decided to skip town the next morning.

Now I'm in Ahemdabad, the industrial capital of India, and have spent the night learning Bollywood dances in the backyard of my friends place with about 20 of his cousins and spent the next day dancing like a wild man through the streets outside the city on the way to the wedding ceremony. Life is anything but boring here.

[clssmitty]

Anything But Boring

It's human nature to normalize to your environment.  The traditionally dressed people, 3 wheeled rickshaws and general disorder start to seem normal after a few days. I try to take a step back and put myself in my high school self's shoes to appreciate these unique moments.

In the past couple of days, I haven't had to do that.  I went to the biggest flea market in Goa, a ruckous assortment of beautiful people selling all sorts of bags, jewelry, clothes and other trinkets.  In walking through a guy hassled me to buy his hand made drum.  I told him I wasn't interested and threw out what I thought would be a nearly insulting offer of 3 dollars for his drum, a fifth of what he was asking.  I piqued his interest with this and after some laughter filled haggling I bought a little hand drum for $5.  

Unfortunately this tagged me as a sucker for drum buying, and from then on, anytime someone saw me and had drums to sell they would harass me to buy their drums offering trades for the one I had and trying to convince me to buy an extra for a friend.

 The same day I sent a couple of travel friends who came down with a bad case of travel sickness off to the hospital to get intravenous antibiotics and listened to the harrowing story of a young Australian guy who naively got himself into a Nigerian drug dealers mansion under the guise of helping him to ship jewels illegally into Australia.  They befriended him in the streets and wooed him with the thought of quick cash.  He was flipping out when he returned to the hostel because they had tried to take him to the post office just before, to ship the jewels and he felt in over his head, as he should've.  So he changed his name on facebook and decided to skip town the next morning.

Now I'm in Ahemdabad, the industrial capital of India, and have spent the night learning Bollywood dances in the backyard of my friends place with about 20 of his cousins and spent the next day dancing like a wild man through the streets outside the city on the way to the wedding ceremony. Life is anything but boring here.

[clssmitty]

A Goan Glimpse

I don't know if hedonism is the right word for it but life in Goa is pretty good. Goa on the southwest coast of India was a haven for hippies in the 70's and has left the area with a flavor of western hippie meets traditional India.  I've sat in nearly the same place to watch the sunset the past 4 days in a row at a nice beachfront cafe called Curlies.  It's located at the far south end of the beach in Anjuna separated from the other beaches by two large rock outcroppings. Local traditionally dressed women peddle fresh coconuts, pineapple and watermelon hacking them open infront of you with a machete to enjoy.  Old tattooed, sun streaked and sometimes thonged (not sandals) hippies (mostly old men) wander leisurely down the beach during the day and sometimes join in on a game of paddleball or frisbee.  One pair stuck their frisbee on the roof a local bar shack today as my friend and I dwelled over the fact that the olds here are more young in mind than most. 

It's not all good though, there are subtle signs of your location in a developing country.  Young children occasionally come by to sell bracelets or beg.  Packs of stray dogs roam and claim part of the beach from other dogs and on the road you dodge religiously entitled cows strolling freely.  As 5 o'clock rolls around, ambient/chill music with Indian flair provides for a backdrop as people wonder in to sit and watch the sunset.  Depending on the night, the music escalates as people trickle in for an evening beachfront rave party lasting until the next morning if you wish.   

In a day here, I might spend $25 including hostel next to the beach, a scooter, incredible food, and drinks at night.  The weather stays between 65 and 80 F day and night. The past two days were spent between a beach restaurant with wifi about 20 feet from the water and a health food cafe up the street run by a hippy Israeli couple. The cafe, Artjuna, might just be my favorite cafe in the entire world but I'll post some more on that later.   So for less than the cost of a decent dinner in the states, you can live at the beach with perfect weather, have transportation, 3 restaurant meals a day, nighttime drinks and parties on the beach. 

Here are some costs for perspective:

Scooter $4 a day

Nights stay $7

Incredible breakfast of poached eggs focacia toasted whole wheat tuna tahini hummus and cucumber salad and coffee $4

Beard trim and exfoliating facial massage $3

30 minute massage on the beach $5

Fresh coconut off the tree and hacked open with a machete to drink the water and eat the meat $.50

32 oz cold beer on the beach $1.50 

Typical Indian curry/briyani on the beach $3

Lastly, I'm thinking on how we look at quality of life in the US and on lifestyle design. I've picked up a couple of projects doing software work over the net in the last couple of months earning American wages.  Where international financiers chase exchange rate discrepancies to make money from arbitrage, it's tempting to stay longer for the purchasing power and resultant lifestyle arbritrage of earning american wages and staying in paradise.

[clssmitty]

Just doing some reading about free market economics #hinducow

[clssmitty]

Kerala backwater beauty #india

[clssmitty]

Four seats to myself all the way to Abu Dhabi, luckkkkyyyy

[clssmitty]

52 more pages of fun times

[clssmitty]

15 Blankets, a Gay Bar, and a Goat

My friend Jeremy flew into Barcelona to join us for a couple of weeks across Spain, Germany and Greece. We had a two part journey from Barcelona to Munich with a stop in Paris and change onto an overnight train.  Since Grant and I are traveling under a group rail pass our seats are automatically placed together.  Unfortunate for Jeremy this meant his were close to us but not together.

When we arrived on the train leaving Barcelona, we thought everything was great.  We were on the second level with nice views, and Jeremy's seat was just across the aisle from us.  Jeremy's bad luck seemed to compound maybe by chance or perhaps in payment for his blunt manner of interacting with the locals.  For instance, while waiting for the first trains departure, a well dressed woman walked by whom Jeremy stopped and asked, "Is there wifi?"

She responded, "I don't know, I don't work on the train."

We had a good laugh until the next stop where we changed trains leaving a similar seating situation, though a little more cramped and with an open seat next to Jeremy.  We got off the train to take in the scenery and stretch and returned to find a mother and her newborn baby sitting in (...you guessed it) the seat next to Jeremy.  She asked in half understood spanish if she could take the window seat to which Jeremy obliged.

Much to Jeremy's liking, the baby began crying before we left the station and he looked over at us in disgust.  It was looking to be a dire train ride until a glimmer of hope emerged for Jeremy.  A young man walked up and looking confused at his ticket asked the woman if she was in the correct seat.  She asked which car we were seated in and realized she was in fact in the wrong seat.  Jeremy's eyes lit up with hope. A moment went by and the man said if she didn't mind, he could just take her seat in the other car.  Jeremy's face sank as he muttered "no, no that's ok." to the dying moment of hope.

We had another laugh and I drifted off into a nap.  The baby began crying again and I awoke to the mother breastfeeding the child and a glance of Jeremy's perturbed face.  A brief snooze later and I awoke again to the mother having trouble mixing the baby formula for the meal.  She handed Jeremy the bottle and began spooning the mixture in as he held it.  He screwed the lid on and gave it a shake.  Another good laugh ensued.

We had quickly booked a hostel on the way out of the 80 degree weather of Barcelona at a place called The Tent in Munich. When we arrived it was raining and 45 degrees and The Tent was an industrial looking steel and plastic hangar.  We walked over to the outdoor check-in counter and paid for one night.  The worker asked if we had sleeping bags and when learning that we didn't handed us a grand total of 15 blankets, five for the each of us.  

We cringed thinking about the cold night after our marginal night of sleep on the train and walked into the building.  We found over 100 beds in the large room.  We looked at each other with question questioning eyes, and Jeremy glared at me and proclaimed, "Chris, I come here for 2 weeks for vacation to party and have a good time and you book a freezing cold tent 20 minutes outside of the city!?"

We went to the customary German beer halls to prepare for a cold night.  

The next day we checked out and found a hostel in the city.  After a nice German lunch we were waiting for our checks to come when Jeremy finished his beer.  As is customary when Jeremy finishes a beer, he pumped his chest out and his arms spread above his head, elbows bent in a flexing pose.  

What he didn't notice though was our nice waiter walking by with a cup of coffee for the family sitting next to us.  Jeremy's elbow hit the plate at the perfect time, launching the cup into the grey plaster wall. The cup shattered onto the floor and the dumbfounded waiter and family grimaced at us.  I gave them an open mouthed, teeth clenched, sorry look and the waiter left promptly to get another coffee.  We continued to wait for the check as an older woman from behind the kitchen came out and scolded Jeremy in German while pointing at and scrubbing the wall.  We paid and left promptly.

We toured around Munich and learned that open wifi was not as common in the city due to the strict rules regarding internet usage and access.  This left us touring around looking for a bar or cafe with wifi.  After exhausting our half hearted will with a few failures and unencoureaging locals, we found an "interesting" looking bar with a free wifi sign.  I must interject that the previous night we had stumbled across a peculiar bar where a guy standing outside was overly friendly and a little touchy.  We assumed it was a gay bar and with, I regret to say, homophobic eyes looked at the bar in front of us in the same way.  It was after all painted all white and a pink logo and decorations.

We questioned each other on how everyone felt and Jeremy stepped off and said "Screw it guys, I'll go in and ask."

He walked in to the bar and we timidly followed.  Inside on the right, unseen from out vantage point outside was a group of 4 very straight looking men, one of whom was a 6'5" and 350 pound juggernaut.  We didn't really notice them until Jeremy uttered the "Is this a gay bar?" question to the bartender.  The bartender and his 4 Albanian friends guffawed in laughter answering no and obviously heckling us as we sat down.

We ordered some beers and awkwardly sat trying to get the wifi to work.  It never did work for us but was apparently worked for the Albanians.  The juggernaut came over to our table and suggested we watch a video about something relating to gay bars in his country.  It turned out to be a group of men standing in the country watching one of them have sex with a goat.  We shuttered out some laughs as the whole group burst out again.

We quickly finished our beers and left.