I’m always looking for a journey… some interesting adventure, some new learnings, or insights. Not always deep, spiritual or philosophical. Sometimes I want to learn silly random stuff. You know like everyday stuff. Stuff like if you sit in upper deck and close to Biz class and if you are charming, you can actually still get served as if you were in Biz class… But I’m not getting to that yet. Below is just a pic of me in the MIA airport on my way to my gate.

Well I made it to FRA safety and man what an non-memorable trip. it appears that after a really tough and long week I was over tired. Yep, even more that I could even imagine. I rarely sleep on planes. But I boarded, got comfy, put on my headphones and some music (August Alsina). I took out my laptop and just so that something was on the TV, I put on a movie. What a waste… I was awaken by the Pilot announcing that we would be landing in 40 minutes… WHOA!!!! Wait, What??? Man I couldn’t believe it. I was completely confused and frustrated. How could this happen. I literally lost approximately 7 hrs or so of my life that I can never, ever get back. This is some BS!!! I mean it was terrible. My laptop was still open, but on the floor laying sideways between my legs, my neck and back felt like I had gotten one of those Indian Stone spine alignments. I mean I think that I have now lived what it would be like to be 130 years old. I stood up slowly and painfully with cracking and popping sounds. All my muscles must have shrunk because none of them wanted to be extended at all. I mean they just objected fiercely delivering pain and sharp pains, oh and yeah, pulsating pain too. So I made my way to the bathroom and thankfully there was no line because my bladder had stretched all the way down my leg in an effort to hold all the processed coffee and water I had drank from hours earlier. I rested my head on top of the ceiling in order to balance and poured at least 30-40 liters into the latrine. Whew… I know I lost about 4-5 kilos in that 1 1/2 minutes. It was a spiritual awakening indeed. Even my would felt better.

So I got off the plane made my way through customs and to the train station and to my platform. Pic below…

I made my way to Siegburg and took a cab to the Kemeha. I had seen the hotel in many of my prior visits to Bonn, but had never been inside. So after checking in and making it up the elevator i was really surprised when I found that everything was red. Yes everything. The carpet, the walls, the doors, the ceiling… I mean everything was red. I was like “Super Cool”. I was axious to see the rooms. The room was very nicely laid out, but nothing specifically special or weird.

I spent a few days in the office with my Boss and Colleagues. It was really nice because we don’t get to see each other face to face often. I took advantage of the 2 days in GHO covering various misc topics and bonding. Lots of emails and lots of work… For some reason I’m always in catch up mode lately. Not sure if this will change., It seems that it’s the new norm. Work load has never been an issue for me in terms of job security. On day 2 I went out to the Mississippi building to have lunch and took a pic of the tower as I passed. No matter how many times I come to DE I always think the tower is pretty cool.

On the way to the CSI building I passed this statue and laughed… Ive seen it before, but since I was in the moment I actually appreciated it. I can think of so many memes for this statue:

• “If I bury my head in this building maybe no one will see me”
• “Let me see what the hell they saying behind my back”
• “I’m going back to my old dimension, they work to much her”
• “Has anyone in here seen my pay raise?”
• “Having a really bad hair day”
• “Up to my neck in work”
• “Whooo… I need to let my ear lobes thaw”

Anyway.. this is still kind of cool. Its always interesting how you see things when you actually are in the moment. Gotta do more of that.

I HATE BEER!!!

But I’ve been trying to try different one and specifically in different places. I always try to try a locally made beer that is from the area or region that I am in. I can blame my buddy Amer and Jhon for this one… This thing was so big. I mean who has that kind of room in their belly. I assume that this is where the term “Beer Belly” comes from. But seriously, why is it so necessary to drink so much volume? I just don’t understand it. Well this one was awful as expected, but not as awful as some that I’ve had in the past. I think by far the Red Horse in the Philippines is the the worst. Even beating our King Fisher in India and the 1665 in France. A little known fact… the best tasting beer to me so far is…

Below is the restaurant immediately in the rear of the hotel right on the Rein River. Best Burgers in DE so far! I mean I went their twice just to make sure that it wasn’t just a fluke. Turns out the second burger was just a good as the first. JB Jon also confirmed this as well. Amer doesn’t eat beef but you could tell he was really enjoying the chicken cutlets. This was a really good spot. Very real axing and the weather was kind to us. People walking, running, and biking on the river along with a nice evening with friends enjoying a beer and discussing life, politics, culture, religion, work, family, philosophy, etc… What a time… Gotta find a way to do things like this more often in my life. Seems that lately I’m always so busy that I don’t have time to live in the moment. Well, I’ll make this more of a priority. I’m fact.. anyone in South Florida want to have a beer this weekend? Let me know…

So on my second trip I had mother beer, but a smaller one. You can see it below. It was a mini version of the Goliath beer that I had earlier. Again, more amazing conversations with very cultured and amazing colleagues. I have to admit that i am fortunate.

Back to the Kameha… This was just one of the many little touches that you could find all over the hotel. They really did a nice curb with simplicity and decor. Super nice.

Even the elevator was red… I was on my way to check out of the Kemeha and check into the Hilton for the remainder of my stay. Man I was soooo full…. Full of ideas, energy, and enthusiasm. In the end all we ever want to do is to be successful and for our hard work to be recognized. I had a full day planned. Lunch with Christiane and Adrian and their families and then Dinner with Amer. All turned out really well. It was fantastic to meet their families and their amazing children.

More elevator shenanigans….

For some reason I thought that I would be good to go… I left with only my black pullover only to find that Germany wasn’t going be nice to me. It got very cool. Down to the high 40Fahrenheit and that pullover kept getting thinner and thinner. So we stopped and and sat outside of a restaurant and I had a cappuccino and German fish soup. It was really tasty, but over the top salty. I am a bit salt sensitive, but this would have been salty by anyone’s standards. I killed that soup. It was warm and that’s all that mattered. The cappuccino was mediocre at best but i smashed it too…

It was great just chillin there and people watching. They had alive rock band about 60 yards away that for me sounded like drums, guitar, and yelling. Evren thought eh drummer had rhythm, the people dancing were apparently dancing to something else that they had heard back when they were infants. Amer was great company and a great conversationalist. We chatted about our childhoods and some of the interesting things we had experienced. We then decided that going for Indian food was a good idea.

The food was really good and honestly the best I had in Germany so far. It wasn’t India spicy which disappointed us a bit.What was also interesting was that the natives would ask for Naan as an appetizer and eat it by itself. Well guess what, Amer and I rejected the rice that they brought to the table that we didn’t order and we ate the traditional way. We got our hands dirty and as I said, it was really good. On the way out of the restaurant I took a photo of the guy making naan and also took a video clip. I learned that in order to make Naan you have to have one of these ovens and they are mostly in restaurants and not in homes. In homes they typically make Roti.

Back sat the hotel the following day I ordered the salmon and was really relieved to see green veggies. In Germany it seems that’s most veggies are roots and salad is the Prefered green item that they consume. Lots of sour krout and mashed potatoes… Generally potatoes at least 2-3 times per day seems regular around here. But I was happy to devour the salmon and veggies which was the dish that was most like what I was used to at how one. It was delish!

Was driving and took a picture of this random building. No real comments on this one.

While at Siegburg I took a quick snap of train that had some really cool graffiti on it. I’m always a bit torn about graffiti. I mean even though some are amazing and you can tell that these folks have talent, I ain’t so happy about them tagging random things that aren’t theirs. Anyway… It was really cool to me.

I made it to the airport via ICE train from Siegburg to Frankfurt, got through security and sat for breakfast. Which was focaccia salami & cheese sandwich, a cappuccino, and some fresh juice. These guys (below) were sitting across from my table and I took this random photo of random people. Now I don’t know these people at all, but here is what my imaginative intuition has ascertained:

The guy on the left facing us is Bert. Bert owns and ice cream shop in holland that’s been suffering a bit due to a milk shortage. His ice cream is supposed to be organic so he cant use the powdered stuff. Sitting next to Bert is his wife Helga who has been really frustrated because her online business sales have been dropping for years. Bert keeps telling her not to worry and to be appreciative but she is really getting perturbed because she doesn’t like that he is always pretending to be happy even though she knows that the bottom is falling out. What Helga doesn’t know is that a the gentlemen in front of her, Isaac who happens to be her childhood friend has already gotten another supplier for the milk for Berts ice cream shop. This is why Bert is so happy. What Bert doesn’t know is that that Helga and Isaac had been intimate when teenagers. Not to worry, there was no actual sex, but certainly some very intimate touching. It was experimental and didn’t actually go beyond the two specific incidents. Once in Ms Claes’ class during a movie about the Spanish Inquisition. It was harmless tit for tat genitalia grabbing and childish giggling. The other time was in the back of Dr Dross’ laundrymat. That one actually involved a tongue kiss because neither had ever kissed before and wanted to at least try it so that when they did kiss someone for the first time, they would be more confident. Helga gaged and threw up so it killed it for both and they still suffer from kissing PTSD. Bert still wonders why his wife only like to peck instead of tongue kiss.

Sitting next to Issac in the black jacket is Turk. He doesn’t like to be called by his real name which is “Deander Ismael Carmichael Kurt”, which if you take the first letter of each name spells….. well you know. So for many years he asked to be called by his last name Kurk, which somehow turned into Turk which again is what everyone calls him now.Turk was fired from a security firm because he left his weapon at the playground of an elementary school. He isn’t sure why they made a big deal because the only weapon they issued him was a night stick or billy club. The specifics aren’t so clear and he wont really share much but what is known is that one kid ended up with a large contusion on his elbow and another had a bruised rib. Its said that one kid tried to act out a recently seen episode of Cops. But we still don’t know. Either way, Turk makes everything into a security topic. Even now he swears he can see behind his back and that he has already sized up everyone wishing a 100 yard radius and he has memorized the names of every restaurant on the way to the gate. No one believes him, but they all nod just to get him to shut up. Turk doesn’t at all like Simone sitting to his right because Simone has an issue. He seriously has an issue. He cannot say anything without announcing himself and speaking in the third person. I know that you might be a bit confused so I will give you an example.

“Simone says that Simone is hungry as hell and wants Simone to get Simone some McDonalds.”

You see.. Thank kind of stuff will make anyone crazy. The other challenge is that Simone really likes Turk. And I don’t mean like as a friend. Simone wants Turk to have his children. Turk often finds Simone staring at him with this weird kind of geeky “I want to ravage you angrily” kind of look. But Turk literally has no idea. Now Isaac knows because he and Simone got drunk one day at mass and Simone spilled the crackers into the Holy water. While apologizing profusely he said the following:

“Simone wants to have Simone to kiss Turk in the mouth”

Isaac pretended not to hear it and they both went to confession for drinking 2 liters of wine that was meant for communion. Seems that God forgives, but the church didn’t allow them in the back anymore.

OK, there is allot more, but I’ll spare you all the details….

Ok… so I was so excited to be boarding the flight and finally making my way back home I had to take another “See ya next time Germany” pic.

So since I had a 9 hr flight ahead of me and I just didn’t feel like working I decided to draft this blog post. I hope that you enjoyed it.

#LiveYourLove

#DoLifeNow