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.

This is my new 2004 Kona Jake The Snake. Never buy a Kona!!