Markus at Austin: May 2006

Roadtrip California + Las Vegas Part 1

Hi yall, this is the first update off our Roadtrip to Cali. Pics still to come....

Like every good road trip, ours started the night before departure with goodbye wings at Pluckers and Dollar Beers @ Cain and Abels. But first, Thomas and I had to move out of our apparment. Thats when we both realazied how much stuff we still have left to bring back home to Germany. Will be interesting to see how things work out in two weeks.

On wednesday we flew in to San Diego where the first surprise was the weather. Beeing used to the Texas heat, Cali so far is quiet cool. The sky was quiet clody, definetly not a good beach day.
First we were off to the rental car office. While crusing around in search for the AAA we realized something on the transmission of the car is broken, thus, we had to exchange it later on the day. Afterwards, we visited all of San Diego´s Beaches including one with seals covered all over. At night we saw the Mavs loose in Game 5. So after the game we went back to our room quite dissapointed.

Next day we visited San Diegos main attraction Sea World. We saw Shamu, took a rollercoaster ride and attened all the other animal shows. In the afternoon we drove up the coast to Los Angeles southern beaches Newport, Huntington and Long Beach (where we had a greece dinner).

Friday we had a very long day as we visited our second national park. Joshua Tree National Park is packed with cool looking trees. We went for a short hike to the largest trees of the park and afterwards we drove to all the main sites. Since the park is located in the desert between LA and Las Vegas the temperatures hit 100. Then we experienced LA´s traffic, when it took quite a while to get even close to our motel, located in East Hollywood. After watching another disapointing Mavs loss and having dinner, we closed the night with a midnight stroll around Hollywood Boulevard's main attractions, the Chinese Theater and the Star Walk.

Saturday the weather at the coast improved. Therefore, after a short morning visit to downtown, we drove through Beverly Hills and walked up and down the boutiques at Rodeo Drive, before finally arriving at some of LA's top beaches at Santa Monica and Venice. We relaxed a little while in the sun and took some bad ass pictures of Steffen the new Baywatch Trainee. The last hours we drove up highway nummber one, which impressed with its stunning views. Late surprise this day, was a group of dolphins we only spoted because we got lost while looking for our motel.

NBA Playoffs

Hi,

yesturday I went to see playoff basketball in San Antonio. Its round two, and the Spurs are playing the Mavs.

Of course the stadium was sold out (around 19000 people) and the atmosphere was cooking. As the Spurs were falling behind the crowd was freaking out. " Fuck you ref" and "Ref you suck" where all over the place. At the end Dallas won by around 20, with me beeing one of the few guys in the crowd satisfied by the result.

Afterwards we went for some drinks to the Riverwalk. Next day we woke up quite early and had Tacos for breakfast which I never had before. On our way back we stoped at the outlet mall, which they meanwhile call San Marcus. No wonder why ;-)

Birthday on a Monday

Hey,

tell you there is nothing worse than having birthday on a Monday. Even Austin is dead on Mondays. Lucky Thomas sacrificed himself to drink a couple of beers with me poolside late afternoon, before the guys convinced us to go downtown to round it up.....

Free flights to St. Louis

Hi,

the title says it pretty much why we were going to St. Louis. Surprisingly there was more to see than we first thought and I guess there would have been even more (breweries ;-)) if we werent the hole time at the home of Budweiser.

But from the start. The trip started with a Thursday night at 6th street, or should I better say, was to start. Watch your self what happened.

Well, tell you, it was a huge strom. People came in the Bus and took their clothes off, sitting there, of course freezing their ass of in boxers. Nobody could pick me up at the stadium where all bus service was stop for almost an hour.
Finally we made it downtown and from their at 3am torwards the greyhound station.
Arriving in Dallas a homeless guy showed us where beer at 7 am is available. Thus, at the airport, we had a few "Ärmelbeers", cuz drinking in public is not allowed.

Then off to St. Louis, nothing surprising there. More "Ärmelbeers" and then off to the Ahnheuser Bush Brewery were everybody is supposed to get free samples of beer after the brewery tour. Well, forget about the tour and forget about two, than you know what happened two afternoons in a raw.

We partied quite a bit on Friday. As St. Louis spans over two states night clubs open till 1am and 3 am in Missouri, but 24 hours in Illinois. So we fought our way through until we were finally denied access.

Next day, the arc. Im still amazed that this thing stands after a storm. Downtown afterwards, then brewery. Nothing new there. At the night we went to a couple off pubs in the quater our hostel was located. They had quit nice outside areas with fires and funny games. Luckily we made it around the gay area there.

Nothing special happened on sunday, exept that our pick up, forgot what "Automatisch" means. How else can you explain it took you 50 min to the fing greyhound station when you only live 5 min away??????

Rolling it up

Hi, so the Germans are on their way to get all the different spots marked off once again before they leave. So yesturday was Cain & Abels night. You definetly have to take advantage of their reasonable beer prices and next creditcard bills and some caclulations revealed Steffen and I had recordsetting 20+ beers each. Well, dont be suprised, yall should know beers like water over here (at least for Germans).