Polar Bear Madness
Anyone interested in a quick dip in the ocean at Centennial Beach's Polar Bear Swim inTsawwassen on January 1st. This is an excellent way to start the New Year in Madness, also an excellent cure for a hangover!!

Polar Bear Swim (A.K.A. Insane dash into ocean)
January 1, Boundary Bay Regional Park (Tsawwassen)
Registration: 12:00 noon, Swim: 1:00pm
For more information or a ride email me: tri_matthew@yahoo.ca

Today is the return of my traveling friend.
Tonight is eight months of repressed drinking with my two best friends Even and Scotty.

Travel, to me, is a way of learning more about, not just the world around us, but ourselves. It is when one travels that one's truest self emerges. One of the best ways to learn more about someone is to take a trip with them.

The Wuerzburg Crew

Pearl of Wisdom...What happens when four Engineering Physics students and one Physics student find an office chair??
Click here to find out!!(Movie by Billy Lau)

Thanks for the laugh guys
Cheers

Berchtesgarden Slide Show

CYCLING IN THE RAIN

Stay warm. Time to get those arm/leg warmers out of the closet (or buy some if they're not part of your wardrobe yet). Gloves, shoe covers, and rain jackets are also very worthy investments. Dress in layers so that you won't broil climbing Snake Hill or freeze going down Centre Street. Remember, if you wear 2 jerseys, you'll have 6 pockets!

Stay dry. Fenders are a good idea. Neoprene clothing also keeps you quite dry. Goretex is great, if you can afford it. Those plastic bags are a cheap/good way to keep your feet dry.

This is the Rue de Rivoli, an extremely long, straight street, that runs parallel to the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre Museum, in Paris, France. Rue de Rivoli is full of activity, awesome shopping and is one of my favourite places in the world.... at least so far! I first found myself here on April 29th, 2003 when I emerge from the seemingly endless staircases and escalators of the Underground into a traffic-congested street thousands of kilometres away from where I started; it was hot and blindingly bright. Never would I imagine that this place…Rue de Rivoli would create a temptation in my life that would draw me back to its origin. A desire to challenge, explore and create…to get away from everything and everyone that I had become so familiur with. Leave my comfort zone. Experience foreign cultures and create new friendships. Live like I have never lived by surrounding myself with everything foreign and unknown.

Favourite Quote from the Olympics

"Everybody has been trying to achieve a freak-of-nature status just a little bit more extreme than the next guy. But when you’re thrown into the village you are suddenly confronted with a cornucopia of ultra-honed bodies twisted by the demands of sport."

The Road Less Traveled Lyrics
Artist: George Strait

There's a road a winding road that never ends
Full of curves lessons learned at every bend
Goin's rough unlike the straight and narrow
It's for those who go against the grain
Have no fear dare to dream of a change live to march to the beat of a
different drummer
And it all might come together
And it all might come unraveled
On the road less traveled

For the road less traveled ain't for the faint of heart
For those who choose to play it safe and never stray too far
Me I want to live my life and one day leave my mark
And it all might come together
And it all might come unraveled
On the road less traveled

I've chosen a pathway I may not endure
One thing's for certain nothing for sure
And it all might come together
And it all might come unraveled
On the road less traveled

For the road less traveled ain't for the faint of heart
For those who choose to play it safe and never stray too far
Me I want to live my life and one day leave my mark
And it all might come together
And it all might come unraveled
On the road less traveled

There's a road winding road that never ends

Hiking in Berchtesgaden (Aug 28 - 29)

By Peter Eugster, Modified By Matthew Harriman

This weekend was a trip to Berchtesgaden, in the Bavarian Alps (near Munich). Evan and his roommates from Weurzburg: Colin, Kung and Peter came. Colin, Peter, Evan and I hiked, while Kung hung around the city and saw the sights (he also slept in the back seat of the car for 2 days because of a lack of hostels). We drove from Wuerzburg down to Munich, where we stopped for an hour or so to walk around. One really cool thing about the car we rented was that it had GPS onboard, so you could type in the exact address where you want to go and it would give you turn-by-turn directions. It even had parking lots programmed in! It literally took us door-to-door, and we would've been pretty lost without it in Munich. We got all the way to Berchtesgaden, and just found a spot to camp on a quiet side road in the forest.

We were up pretty early the next day. We parked the car, gave Kung the key, and took the bus up to the trailhead. The hike up was about 6 hours, including breaks, and had some pretty awesome views. The trail was pretty rough - a lot of it went over hard, sharp, jagged rocks with deep crevasses. Parts of the trail were more scrambling than hiking.



Our destination was Ingolstaedter Haus, at 2132m elevation. This is one of the coolest places I've been. It's remote, and not lift-accessed, so there's no tourists, only Austrian and German hikers. We were the only native English speakers there. Oh, and to get to it you hike over the border into Austria. The actual border is along a ridge that we hiked. Anyways, hiking is very civilized in Europe; this hotel has running water, showers, a full kitchen that serves food and beer, and electricity. So we weren't really roughing it. The only downside was that they crammed 36 people into a room designed for maybe 10, but it wasn't that bad.

.

Next day we hiked down on a different route. We passed another mountain hut, descended through a very steep gulley, and came out just above the Konigsee. The water is amazingly green and clear. It's clean enough to drink - they only allow electric boats on the water. Colin, Peter and Evan went for a swim in the lake (not too cold), and then we hiked into St. Bartholema, a super-touristy town. It was a bit of a shock after being in the mountains all weekend. From there, we took an electric boat into the town of Konigsee, and walked back to the car. The weather had been beautifully sunny all weekend, and all of a sudden it started to pour with rain, and there was thunder, so we were pretty lucky. We drove back through Munich, I was dropped off for more sightseeing and Colin, Evan, Peter and Kung continued on to Wuerzburg because they had to work the next morning.

Athens 2004

Back from Italy and off the Athens. Finally I have a game plan for the next week... off to the Olympics!! Aug.18th - Aug.22nd
I am having the time of my life. Hope everyone back at home is enjoying the last few weeks of summer.
Cheers

Two days before I am scheduled to leave for Germany, I have not yet made an itinerary for my last twenty days in Europe. I am just as happy doing a day's tour from Weurzburg as I am spending a week in Paris. After traveling in Italy with Evan for a week, my next question was, "who's coming with me after this?" I can't go alone! Then it donned on me, that's exactly what I needed to do. Go alone and get away from everything and everyone that I knew. Leave my comfort zone. Challenge, explore and create. Experience foreign cultures, create new friendships, eat foods that I was unaccustomed to eating, live like I have never lived by surrounding myself with everything foreign and unknown.