That was like 14 years ago.

A few weeks ago, a couple very of exciting things occured. Leah came to visit. She stayed for a couple of weeks. We got all domestic and nesty in my apartment. It was the first time since I got here that things really felt normal. I had to work some of the time because, well, we'll get into it in later posts but my current employers are real A-1 fart bags. The other exciting thing that happened was that we traveled to Croatia together. Dubrovnik, Croatia to be exact.

It sounds familiar for a reason. Croatia had a little scuffle not too long ago also dubbed "war of independence" a civil war might have you. But that was like 14 years ago. Everything is war-free now. Not to mention gorgeous and amazing.

We flew in bright and early on a Sunday morning. We slept about 2-3 hours and lugged our single suitcase to the train in order to get to the airport. I would like to accept full responsibility yet plead complete innocence in thinking we could fit 4 days worth of 2 peoples (both slaves to the unrelenting grasp of clothing and fashion) things inside 1 suitcase. Some people can do it, I admire these people. Leah and I could not. It tipped the scales well over the weight limit and we ended up paying for it. Not only in Euros for an overage fee but in the pain in the ass it was to lug that thing around.

When we landed, it was immediately evident just how amazing this place was gonna be. You could just smell it in the air. It was 7 in the morning and 72 degrees and even though we were exhausted, things immediately turned to great. We took a cab to our first hotel and when we arrived, this is the jist of the landscape we saw.


Dubrovnik is on the Adriatic Sea across from Italy. It has a lot of ancient history. Too much to get into quite frankly. It's been ruled and taken over by several countries and crazies including Napoleon in 1808 and Nazi Germany in 1941. Leah and I thought about annexing it when we got there but decided to just change our Euros for Kuna and then hang out for a few days.

The next four days were filled with a non-stop mix of relaxing and sometimes nerve-wraking adventure. I may or may not have accidently taken us on to a busy highway in the middle of the night on our tiny rental scooter.

Overall, we killed it. We ate good meals, swam in the sea and bathed in the sun. Made friends with both the local feline population of the island and the management at our Hotel. All the while ripping up the island on our scooter and seeing really ancient, amazing sights.

Not Homeless

So this happened a while ago but I feel since I made such a big deal out of it in past posts that it's worth talking about. I got an apartment. It's ridiculously perfect for me and i found it just a week before I had to move out of my other apartment.

It's a studio in the neighborhood called Ehrenfeld. I had my sites set on Ehrenfeld since I first got here. It's very similar in comparison to the types of neighborhoods i've been happy in other cities before. Very multi-cultural, close but slightly removed from the "it" neighborhood and quiet. Lots of Turkish people and therefore Turkish restaurants, grocery stores and "Kiosks" or convenience stores.

My apartment is about 2 blocks from the train, so it takes me about 15-20 mins to get to work by public tranny, or 20 mins worth of biking. Oh, and my landlord is my age and very relaxed. This does mean that I still don't have a bathroom mirror, however it also means he's not gonna come knocking on my door to collect the rent on the 2nd of the month. His name is Giacommo, unbeknownst to him I call him G. He's into hip-hop, insense-burning, meditation and horticulture, as are the several people who come to visit him daily.

Here are a few pics of the place from before I moved in. I assure you it is much more homey now that i've put in a bed, work desk and other niceties.

3 Franc Shoes

Whoa! Two posts in one night. This one is really pic heavy so its gonna be a breeze.

A couple of weeks ago, work sent me to Zurich, Switzerland to do some designy things down there. I kind of became a little smitten in my time there. The only thing keeping me from assuming a false identity and staying there forever, just hucking drinks at a local pub to support myself, is the crazy amount of money it would take to do that there. Zurich is expensive. Even though I was bringing Euros to burn. Fun Fact: Did you know that if you took all the currency held in Zurich's banks and gave it to the homeless they would be rich as hell? I heard that somewhere. It's probably true.

Okay, here are some pics:

This is the entrance to the office in Zurich:


My temporary set-up. Nothing much to complain about. You can see the grapevines in the background, some old-timer kept walking through the courtyard the whole week just looking over the grapes. It was pretty awesome. My Gramps used to have a grapevine. And yes, i grew up in Wisconsin.


The Lake. Took a walk after work with some co-workers to hang out at the lake.

Generic Lake shot with some boats:

Later that evening we came across this gazebo of people havin' a pants-off dance-off. Not true, but they were dancing the Samba I believe. Awesome either way:


On the train ride back I learned that Dave Matthews, carpentry, and homosexuality are not permitted on the train. I had to wait til i got back to the Hotel. To build the cabinet PEOPLE, to build the cabinet I got from IKEA. Sheeeesh. But afterwards I strapped on the ol' rollerblades and showed the swissies what's up.

After the work week was over I decided to stay for the weekend on my own dime. I booked the cheapest hotel possible. It happened to be The Zic-Zac Rock Hotel. Each room has a theme of a famous musician. By theme I mean it's a hotel room with some fricking pictures of a specific musician on the wall. I was pretty stoked to get Jethro Tull. Here's what my room looked like:


Here's what it looked like from the window:






This is what I imagined when I thought about Europe before I got here. Well this and other things, but this really makes me happy:



Saturday morning I walked to Langstrasse where the Flea Market takes place. Walking across Zurich is like walking to school when I was a kid. It was a super short trip but took forever because I just kept looking at things and taking wrong routes on purpose. If you wanted, you could get across Zurich in about 20-30 mins by foot. They happen to pride themselves in their amazing Pulic Transportation system though. So you wouldn't have to.

Came across a sculptors studio on the way to the Flea Market:




And this house:

Flea Market:

Crazy amounts of varying junk and treasures to be found. I personally found a pair of shoes (yes, i needed more) that happen to be my new favorite shoes. Got 'em for 3 francs. They're a pair of canvas dress shoes that I put a coat or three of wax on this last weekend.




For the Drake Street Crew:


George Michael here kept staring at me:


A parting shot of Zurich:


Bye for now!

.........and it don't stop.

Busy, busy, busy, busy x 1 billion. Plenty keeping me occupied including the on-going apartment search. My current lease ends on the 31st. I have yet to find a replacement. Everyday is a fresh set of apartment postings to pour through in German and either run through Babel Fish, or kindly ask my co-worker Maren to please translate. She's been kind enough to do so pretty often lately. Nights are filled with viewings of said apartments which have either been in really bad neighborhoods or some other issue.

Also pretty busy creating a logo for the former employer. Blackbird has opened up a candy shop inside of the space they already occupy. Nicole, the owner asked me to do the logo. I, of course accepted. Ballard, the neighborhood that the store is located is known for its history in fishing and it's shipping canal. So Nicole wanted to go with a nautical theme in the logo. Gnarly old fisher dudes are awesome so that was an easy choice. It went through a lot of phases from inspiration to completion. Here are a few of the stages along with the final result:

Inspiration:



First Incarnation (pencil rough):

Complete coincidence that this looks like the late Billy Mays. Infomercial extraordinaire. Don't ask me how it happened.

And here is a start to the vector drawing. Again, don't ask me why he looks like the recently-deceased Paul Newman. I was not doing this shit on purpose:



Here is one of the finals we chose. Pretty happy with the way the hand-drawn type came out.


If you find yourself in Seattle, head to Ballard for sure. If you make it to Ballard, don't miss out on Blackbird. It's by far one of the best men's clothing stores (and now Candy Shoppe's) in the country.

Work and the walk

Work and life are in full-swing now. Constant challenges, which is great. Playing a much larger role at work than I anticipated. I am currently a designer, occasionally a copywriter which i've always enjoyed a little bit and part-time product photographer. Never should have divulged so much info about my skill set. Lesson learned :) They still haven't tapped me up for any screenprinting or private dancing. I'm retired from both while I'm abroad. So they can ask all they want. It ain't happenin'!

I'll post some work soon. Maybe some copy. No private dancing. I told you once already.

Still no permanent living situation. I'm living in a really expensive furnished apartment right now until the end of August. Renting is a challenge here. There are a lot of loopholes and weird things to watch out for. A lot of the sites that post apartments availible don't charge the person posting the ad, they charge you a finding fee. Which can be pretty hefty. Like 200% or more of one months rent. Most apartments I'm looking at are around 400 euro. Which puts the finding fee at 800 euro or more. I say fiddlesticks to that. Yes fiddlesticks. Asshole. Luckily, occasionaly there are apartments listed as "provisionfrei!" which means they don't charge that fee. I hope to find one of those soon.

So here are some pics from my workplace and a couple from the neighborhood. I haven't gottan as trigger happy with the camera as I planned but that will change. Promise.

Alley-way on the way into work. So euro-mantic.

Further into the alley this is the actual building. Renovated factory of course. That's how all the creative types do it.
View from my seat. The designers are set-up in the loft of the building. Which is awesome except when it's hot outside.

This place is right across the street from my apartment. Pretty entertaining to watch people stop and check out the merchandise inside. This guy is chowing down on something while he's checkin' out the lubes. Guarantee he's eating some sort of baked good or meat in tube form. Just sayin'....they love that shit here.
Oh, and those darn Beach Boys are up to no good again. This is right outside my apartment. Which technically means my neighborhood is run by The Beach Boys. I can accept that.

One Month Later - Backtracking

I would apologize but i really don't have an audience yet. It's been a month since my first post and I haven't told more than 3 people that I even started this thing. So......i'm not sorry. I will give a excuse though. Most if not everyone who knows me is aware that I have Crohn's Disease. If you don't know what that is............you're on a computer......google that shit, don't make me write it out you lazy bastard. Sorry. I didn't mean that.

For the first month here, I had what they call a "flair-up" from the Crohn's for the first time in quite a while. The stress of quitting my current job, driving across the country, flying to another one and starting a new job really got to me. Oh yeah, and I got into a car accident two days before I was supposed to leave Seattle. Honestly I think the giant straw that broke the camels back.

Posted below are some rad pics of the results of the boom bam crash:








Before this I had never been in a serious or even semi-serious car accident. This one involved a drunk Bentley owner passing me on the left going atleast 35-40 mph AS I WAS TURNING LEFT. I was clearly signaling, clearly not thinking that I was about to be passed on the left hand side. Caught me off-guard to say the least. A special little thank you goes to Leah, Carl and Haley for accompanying me in the E.R. that night. One of them joined me in the bed for a nap while we waited for the doctor. I'll let you guess who. Nope, not all three sicko.

The flair-up I mentioned earlier is starting to subside finally and things as far as my health are returning to tolerable. Lots more energy to blog now. Because that's so what I should be spending my energy on...........more to come real soon. Promise.

First Post

Okay.

What to say in my first post........ Let's start with why this blog exists in the first place. If you're reading this, you're probably a friend, or at least an acquaintance or my Mom and Dad. You probably know me well enough to know that I am not the type to start a blog. I don't like to "toot my own horn" as they say. But I'm also pretty bad at staying in touch at letting people know what I'm up to. So this is sort of necessary.

A typical conversation with a friend that I haven't seen in a while might go like this......

Me: Oh hey Friend.
Friend: Oh hey Billy.
Me: How are you? It's been a while.
Friend: I'm pretty good. It has been some time now. How are you?
Me: Swell. Hey, are you still in that post-bluegrass cover band?
Friend: I am. It's really starting to take off. Jeff Bridges came to one of our shows last month. What have you been up to?
Me: Congratulations. Oh you know, the usual..... think I might be selling the 'ol puppy farm/blanket factory.
Friend: I didn't know you had a puppy farm/blanket factory.
Me: Really? Yeah. It started as a puppy factory then there became this surplus.........yada, yada, you know the rest. I'm just tired of the amount of puppy poo really. I was gonna start a baby food brand but I decided to hang it all up instead.

Okay, so back to my point. I moved to Germany lately. You might not all know that. I got a job with a 1-year contract attached to it. More about the company and my sweet job will follow. For now let's talk about where in Germany. Cologne, Germany. I'm gonna try to add a map below. Wish me luck.



Success!!

As you can see. I am pretty close to some cool shit. (Sorry for the swearing but get used to it. It's gonna happen a bit in this blog) Paris is an 8 hour train ride, Amsterdam about 5 hours and I cut it off but Berlin is NE about 8 also. You all know how I love me some romance, legal weed, and big fallen walls. (It's okay mom and dad I only really love two of those things).

I think that's about enough for the first post.

On a more serious note:

I love and will miss all of you.

Plain and simple.

Now watch the video below and sing along if you know the words.