Better and off I go I hope...

I don't have meningitis. I might have had mono, but now it looks like I had strep throat. And possilby ear problems in the past. German doctor stated that I had strep, possibly [not likely] mono. I will talk more about that below.

I have improved from the illness down to a 100.5 temperature today. I will leave tommorrow thursday for belgium.

I went to german doctor yesterday for this, and he thougth it was a case of strep throat, or at worst, mononucleosis. I didn't really improve for 5 days, so it was getting pretty depressing. I got new drugs, which after research online, are NOT available at home in the states (FDA..??) but despite the fact its the 3rd antibiotic I've had in less than a week, 1 days use seemed to put the problem at somewhat of a rest so I guess I have to love it.

The most frustrating thing for me was that one of my friends, brandon who is here, didn't really leave vilseck either while I was sick (4-5 days), and he got here a week after I did. So he was content with doing almost nothing in a small town? Argh it was so hard to watch the possibility of seeing munich, rothenburg, whatever, slip you by but I guess it was nice to have the company. And all those are covered by the bavaria pass, a 25 dollar card that lets you go anywhere in bavaria for up to 5 people in 24 hours on any train thats not high speed.

Mauricio used my limitless pass to go to Leipzig for Mexico Argentina (350 euros, over time 1-2 loss) and nuremburg, and today, rothenburg where I was headed last friday if I hadn't started feeling sick that day... argh again.

The point is, gary's personal hell is likely over tomorrow. My thoughts on german health care:

-Very friendly, and more functional. Only a couple of chairs in waiting area to discourage lots of people being around, efficient but busy front desk.
-Slightly and I mean slightly less clean. The nurse when taking a fingerprick blood drop washed, sanitized, and dried both the spot on my finger and her own hands, but did not wear those latex gloves. Well, I guess if you want to touch my mono infected blood you can, but I wouldn't. Everything else was just as normal.
-More straightforward and personal with the explanations. You don't see the nurse first to check your vitals that aren't a big deal, the doctor just calls you in and boom, you explain it and he/she checks blood pressure, etc as needed. A good and bad thing. It depends on your health status and age. In the end, all the normal checks were done, just not twice. Told me to come in first thing in the morning thursday with no appt if no improvement occurred. I was impressed, but wanted to have my file information handy for better reference. Oh well, what are you going to do when on vacation?
-Cheaper. Examination, no insurance = 62 euros. Can't beat that at home! This is from private doctors, public ones are cheaper and have worser conditions than listed above.
-Despite the fact that germans drink 250L of beer a year, and munich residents 350L, they don't seem to have any more or less problems with health. Same with the smoking, lots of it, but little real negative effects shown. If you are a kid, or simply have a pulse by the way, do NOT take this as an excuse to start smoking. Its still bad. Its also a lot of beer, and the government runs the HB here. They take it seriously!

As a person who wants to be a doctor, I found all of this quite interesting. Drugs, were I guess cheaper, 40 euros with no insurance. I don't know, they didn't even care about my regence blue shield card. Take away the exchange rate for germans and its not bad. Its not that the euro is worth more than anything else really its that the us dollar is worth less. Someone who makes $5 an hour at home would probably make 5 euros minus more taxes, so its pretty affordable even though the dollar doesn't equal the euro. I don't know if that makes any sense.

God help me

I am absolutely miserable. I have cancelled all of amsterdam untill later in september or october. I hope to be better by wednesday. I am super sick and very down right now. I hope this doesn't happen to anybody else, and I am going to try and get to paris by friday at best. I have a high temp of 102+ and a pounding headache. If there isn't improvement soon, then I will seriously go insane. Tommorrow barring some miraculous recovery, I am seeing the doctor.

Say a few hail marys for poor gary. This is ruining my vacaction I've waited my whole life for!

PS, if these posts get boring, its because I am logging the trip for my own personal records as well, so just take it as it is. I am trying to make it as readable as possible with a little humor thrown in. It may not be up to Steve Fox's standards, but maybe the flair runs in the family. I dislike writing in journals because it is so slow so I took this up instead. I guess some things never change mom! Pictures, even with 4+ days of nothing now, I still have more than 150 to this point so ASAP I will put them up but the quality is high and its been a more difficult process than expected. I don't know when it will be, but they will be there. Check out alex's blog listed below, its got a flavor of the trip.

Oh one more thing, I really really really hope I don't have meningitis. That would be atrocious.

oh yeah, go ahead and check out students.washington.edu/asa2

It has some pictures Alex Allen took on the trip. Its his blog, so don't take it too seriously.

Gary Takes a Turn For the Worse

Hey friends, its good to be back to talk about my travels. What have I been doing? Recovering from a nasty illness.

For those of you who don't know, I have an obnoxious problem with ear infections, and I have gone through 3 courses of amoxicillin in the last month and a half, and just as I ran out of emergency drugs which I specifically brought here, it flares up to 102 fever. I missed rothenburg and am cutting 2-3 days out of amsterdam unfortunately, but I have a lot of time, so its not neccessarily true that I am going to miss all of that.

German healthcare is quite good, although I have limited experience with it. Lets put it this way: I was able to have my mom back in the usa phone the doctor who then faxed me a copy of the perscription, and then I picked some Biaxin generic, a hardcore antibiotic for 39 euros the next day. Also, for most basic and medium problems, its possible to just go to the local pharmacy [apotheke] who then takes a look, gives a diagnosis and give you the drugs. Visits to the doctor are only about 50 us dollars at a private facility. Even sans euro-insurance, its really not bad compared to the uninsured back in the states [a common phrase for back home].

The good news is that I got the drugs and the day before I got sick [thursday the 22nd] we went to Nurenburg to watch the US take on Ghana, and ended up scalping tickets for a good price....a price I won't disclose right now. We were only 9 rows from the field. American fans are ok, but its our team so you have to support them, nevertheless go to a game considering we flew all the way here. We lost, and america has no real soccers songs to sing except for USA! USA! USA! The states folks had just 4 shots on goal in 3 games, and lost 2 and tied 1, albeit that was to Italy, a contender, and the US was down to just 9 men from 11 due to redcards. If you don't understand what that means, then I've lost you and have given up. Every kid played fussbol in elementary school for goodness sakes! In all they scored 2 goals, only one of which was by a US player [thanks Italy!!]. But it was a good time, and I am glad to have taken part in the experience. Ghana's chants post game were a bit disheartening. You'd think that the richest country in the world with excess of 250 million citizens could find 11-15 great players but hey thats why the best NBA players in europe come here, the level of play is better here than overseas. Still, its an irritating little aspect to being a USA citizen. I bought an England jersey, which has the rowdiest and craziest fans, so that people won't think I am from here. Once they find out you are ok and not stupid, then its all fair game but its best not to make the euros mad at you before you even meet them, as many rude tourists at Dachau Work Camp did. One man even bragged 'bout his jersey upbringing, which fascinated and disgusted me. To each is own, but in europe do as the euros do. Just don't drink, smoke, or eat too much and try to speak the local language. I was so friendly at the apotheke that they gave me a free little portable radio! Goes to show you just never know.

Its also valuable to find locals that will show you were germans go so you can have a good time. It you are nice enough, this will happen. We met some in munich at the Hofbrauhaus beer hall that were trying to cheer up a their friend who had been dumped, and to boot the girl had made umm.... lets say a disturbing video verifying this fact. Sorry for you squeamish out there, but thats Deutchland... at least I hope not. Anyways, they showed us some of the local scene those of us from back home don't go to, which was really neat. The only thing was that these people dress quite more outlandish and talk closer, but I guess you have to get used to it. I'm still a bit uncomfortable with this even with 4 years of Delta Chi communal showers.

Anyways I have been spending my hours fighting this horrible illness and watching a little Seinfeld on DVD to make me fell at home. Alex's friends were so kind to let me borrow some movies. I have had night sweats and hallucinating dreams and terrible heat flashes. To put it this way, it really sucks to be me right now.

On tap, I am visiting amsterdam hopefully tuesday and tuesday night and wednesday, the next night in bruges, the next day in bruges, one more night there [cheap hostel] untill friday when I meet pops in paris, possibly under the Effiel tower. As Humphrey Bogart said, "we'll always have paris". If I change my number, I'll post it here and on facebook as soon as possible. Suggestions are always appreciated and comments. See you all in september except for my Dad and possibly others.

From the Beer Halls of Munich to the Terrors of Dachau

The latest portion of this trip sent me to Bavaria's Capital, Munchen. Home to the Hofbrauhaus, the Deutches Museum, and numerous lion sculptures, it was a fun and exciting place to go.

Alex and Mauricio had tickets to Australia v Brazil, so I hung it solo for a while. We managed to find a last minute hotel for 50 euro apiece, which wasn't bad considering two entire countries decided to temporarily immigrate to Munchen for the weekend. Mo and myself booked a second night at a second rate hostel. I hung out with some Aussies I met on the train and watched at a local pub with them. Then we went to a beer hall and saw the fervor in full swing for the second half. Despite being offered as much as 650 euros per ticket to the game, [in a 6 month old stadium no less] those fools kept em. So we sang and got rowdy but were too tired after the end to celebrate in the streets with the brazilians at night. In bed by 10, it was a long day of walking.

Next day, we took a walking tour of munich and its beer halls, museums, and famous park which is absolutely enormous. Interestingly, there was a large park filled with, naked people. And lots of them. To make this even stranger, they were playing soccer, and it was men, and almost no girls. You'd think they'd be concerned with the ball hitting them but there they were. Wisely, there are no pictures of this. We saw the english gardens and the birth of national socialism, finally a visit to the Dolce and Gabanna store. However, I thought the nakedness in the middle of the city near essentially no body of water.

Finally on tuesday the 20th, I headed to Dachau concentration camp. Words can't describe it, I only took pictures of the churches on the sites because I felt its something that should be seen if possible in person. Then back to Nurnburg. I spent 4+ hours in the camp, and there were many people there. Truly a tragedy. I have an unlimited pass but the Mo man didn't so he left 45 minutes before me and took a cheaper train. I still beat him by 40 minutes despite the head start. I met some nice americans on the train and we talked sports and cities. It was an ultra modern ICE train. The transportation system here can't be spoken enough of, its fantastic! Saw some germans celebrating Deutchland's victory in Nurnburg, and then back to home base. Tomorrow we will be going to watch the USA take on Ghana. Soccer or Fussball as they call it is king. I guess its back to the Hauptbanhauf, [trainstation] again before I head to Nurenburg, Rothenburg, and the ever popular amsterdam.

Rowdy, Crazy, European

I am back in Vilseck, at least for one more partial day.

Here is the story so far: [warning: long]

I arrived in Frankfurt, which is a sprawling metropolitan city. Most of Germany's major medivel and ancient areas were wrecked during the war, and the country was more or less completely rebuilt over the last 60 years. All I have to say about that is that the marshall plan certainly did work, because modern is the way I would describe it here. That said, there wasn't much to see in Frankfurt, and I headed immediately to Nurenburg. [June 13] There, and quite late at night german time, I somehow contacted my friends and figured out the train to get to Vilseck, which is a small military town. A couple of observations:

-Toliets are very modern here. Many are automatic, and they are built into walls even in homes to hide the plumbing, and are also designed to stay cleaner and hide everything that goes in and out of them. Yes, this is a strange comment but you'd notice this too.

-Trains are unbelievably efficient and on time. They have automatic doors, say how long it is untill they arrive, and all work with the eurail pass. The highspeed trains are quite comfortable even in 2nd class. Now and then there is one with no a/c which causes some sweltering conditions, but this is uncommon. I traveled the equivalent distance of Seattle to portland from house to hotel in about 4 hours.

-Somewhat disturbing is the amount of English used. Its everywhere. McDonalds, you name it. Some of the traditional town squares have been overrun with malls similar to Redmond town center. Germans are quite industrial. The men here also wear crazy hairstyles and cropped pants. Very Metro if you will.

-Its a sort of fend for yourself society. There are railroad stops on the roads, but they are way faster and closer to the rails themselves. So there's less time wasted, but more chance you might run into the train. Also, there are literally no smoking or drinking laws. you can go ahead and booze on the train, in public, nobody cares. Because its more a part of the culture, there seems to be less craziness by college students. [worldcup action is an exception of course]. Any kid can buy cigarettes or beer. I guess its up to his parents to teach them how to be safe and not do stupid things.

-Soccer fans are insane. I mean apple cup at the height of a last minute come behind victory insane the whole time. There were probably 100,000 fans in hannover for Mexico-Angola. All mexicans. 70,000 plus English fans for their game vs trinidad and tobago. Wow. Flags, kids, parents, you name it. Not a whole lot of good looking girls though... Maybe the rowdiness of soccer [football as they call it] is a bit much for girly girls.

-Pictures are coming. I need a computer with access to USB and the internet, which so far has not happened. Don't worry, I have a brand new camera which is quite nice, but its going to take a couple more days. There are some good ones.

Recap of the trip:

Wednesday June 14: We spent the day in Vilseck, a small military town. The US has few western european bases left, but this is one of them. Apparently, there isn't much need for them due to the lack of threat from soviets anymore. But anyway, its like a slice of america here. Subway, grocery store, Bank of America! US cash. All the minorities from the whole community are stationed here. Actually, racism is a bigger problem here than it is in the US. Its a pretty caucasian part of the world. But it was nice to get stuff tax free and extremely reduced. Gallon of water: .41 US. We went to the local swimming pool [schimbah], then to the no name pub to watch Germany take on Poland. There were plenty of Deutch fans here. They have spirited songs for the whole game and sang and yelled the entire time. It was fun to see them, we got some solid pictures too. Basically, we were fighting the jet lag and taking advantage of some simple recoup time before we hit the big scene. It was simple to get a cell phone, all you do is buy a sim card for 20 euro and slide it in to your phone, and boom, 5 minutes later you have a phone. Call me if you want at country [code 49] 015203511069. Omit the zero if calling from the US. Incoming calls are free, and outgoing calls are like .39 a minute, but I have a calling card for calls back home with tons of time. Anyways we [mauricio alex, and myself] hit the sack early and prepared for the next day. I noted that the countryside is somewhat similar to washington style geography, but with german style towns and little squares everywhere. This is like the breadbasket of the nation, and has lots of small farming communities. Also, there are far fewer hills here than at home.

June 15: Took care of some stuff here in Vilseck and met some locals before embarking on the Train to Nurenburg for England vs Trinidad and Tobago. A short train to Nurenburg, the city of the war crime trials and rallies, but is now a progressive and fun place to go. There are still some churches and castle type buildings there that have been restored, sprinkled into the mall type area I mentioned earlier. No later than a minute off the train we saw thousands of England fans going crazy, a full 4 hours before gametime. Huge flags, beer, and banging and singing was the scene. The game was played here, but since we didn't have tickets we headed to the town square where there was a huge beer tent and big screen for thousands to watch. I tell you, you have NOT seen a sporting event until the worldcup. There's really nothing like it. There is almost no announcement during the game and very little stoppage of play. No loudspeaker, just the sound of fans cheering on their squad. Although those brits didn't score untill the very end [when I was surfing through the crowd looking for the exit and was unexpectedly soaked by flying beer and bratwurst] the atmosphere was really exciting. I met people from all over the UK and they were very friendly, if not a bit crazy. It was long and hot, but it was a blast. I look forward to see how US fans act when we come to Nurenburg next week. The city was my first real "european" feel place, and I liked the traditional approach to the town. Many streets were cut off to traffic, but the people here are really keen to walking, which is good for guys like me! I made sure to wear my money belt, but theft isn't a big problem here it Germany. Better safe than sorry.

June 16: An adventure to North Germany and Hannover. Me and maurico embarked to hannover to see his mexico play. After some train connections we were in hannover in about 4 to 5 hours. No hostels or hotels were left so the tourism place booked us a small room in a local town for 30 euros apiece. We met some mexican people there and it was somewhat of a disaster getting back to town. We ended up hitching a ride with a nice german guy who drove us to the stop. The locals are extremely friendly, and can hack it pretty good with english. I have never seen so many mexicans as we did outside the stadium. Although they were not as exciting to be with as the British, it was fun nonetheless, although the game was marred for them by a tie with Angola. I didn't like hannover as much as nurenburg, it was not as interesting. It was late getting back and I was disturbed to see a bunch of drunk and smoking very young kids. This is a problem that europe is dealing with now. They are progressive on the gay front and with freedom but struggle with racism and smoking. The drinking, as I mentioned earlier isn't as bad as one might think despite the easy access. Also, everybody here drinks 'wasser con gas' which is carbonated water. Drinking fountains are uncommon, but public restrooms are more available than I expected. This town was just destroyed from the massive football party like nurenburg, but the next morning when we left it was cleaned up just fine. I loved the statues and castle looking structures, but am told that nearly all of these are reconstructed.

Today June 17: Came back to Vilseck. Note to my family- we sat on a highspeed train next to a little boy who looked unmistakenly similar to me as I was when I was like 3 or 4. No curly hair, but same color hair and small stature. I would have taken a picture but I thought it might be a strange request, especially since they spoke only german. Played some soccer with the townspeople in vilsck and then I are making plans for the next week. The plan is as follows:

Munich for 2-3 days: See some bavaria and take in the brasil fans as they take over the town. Hitting up a few museums and looking for historical places. This is one of the best large cities in Deutchland.

Rothenburg, an untouched [well as much as possible] walled medival city that was not affected by the war somehow. There is a torture museum here, which I have heard interesting things about. I hope to see some cool local sites.

More friends from home are coming into germany somwhere around here. I think they get in on the 21st.

Nurenburg on June 22: this might be my only chance before I take off for amsterdam, bruge and paris in week that I can actually see the USA play a soccer game, no less so close to home base! I can't thank alex's parents enough for letting us stay here, its a nice way to ease into a foreign land. Using craigslist to score some cheap seats if possible.

Ok that was a long one but theres so much to tell. I am getting those pictures up as soon as I can. I am also reading a ton up on places, and look forward to suggestions. Germany is very advanced, technologically and architecturally. Finally, we are sort of starting slow [its a long trip...$$$....etc.] but I am going on a whirlwind style tour in a week or so, so don't worry that I am missing out or whatever.

Spreikense English?

Arrived safe and sound

I am currently in the small town of Vilseck in Germany. It is mostly a US military establishment and my friend Alex Allen's parents live here and work for the US in some sort of capacity. I took a train from the Frankfurt Airport to Nurenburg, and then from there to here. The trains are quick and relatively reliable, especially with a Eurail pass which I have. Luckily, I was able to figure out a german phone card, otherwise I would be sleeping in the trainstation... I called them up from Nurenburg, and they picked me up at midnight german time. Since I had no other method of communication, it was a good thing that it worked out! Most people here speak English to some extent which is good for me, but it takes away a little bit of the foreign feel. As soon as I have some more exciting pictures I will post them. But it went off without a hitch, I went from vancouver washington to here in about 20 hours, which ain't bad for halfway across the world. Due to the rest I got on trains planes and automobiles I am actually not jetlagged as much as expected, and got a good night's sleep. I am heading to Hannover for some soccer action on thursday, and then to Munich. Look at my itinerary or send an email at garynfox@gmail.com to get a copy or send a suggestion. There are people from literally all over the world here to see their respective teams play, although I have not seen too many people sporting USA gear. Go figure since we lost the opening game...

Well Folks, I leave tommorrow for Germany

Well Everybody, I just graduated from UW yesterday and will be heading off to Germany on Monday. I am pretty excited about the trip. I will be flying out of Vancouver Canada to save a few bucks on the way out, and stopping in london for a few hours before getting to Frankfurt, Germany. Then I will be taking the train from there to Nurenburg, where my friends Mauricio and Alex are staying with Alex's Parents, who work for the US government there doing who knows what. I will be posting pictures and telling a bit about my trip as I am able to, and you all can make comments if you like. So here it goes, the big trip, and it should be a very fun and informative trip. I will miss it here in the states, but hopefully I will come back a better, or at least more focused person.