Irish-Roman Bathhouse (Sorry, no nude photos)

Friday was the now-typical blur: go home and nap after work, and party till 4:30am in Freiburg.  Most of Saturday was spent on the couch watching tv and eating schnitzel.  That evening I decided to get myself back into gear and start travelling again.  Baden Baden was next on the list of free destinations!

Quick background of this splendiferous city: around 150 years ago Europe's high rollers would come to Baden Baden to soak in the natural spring mineral waters, and gamble their fortunes away in what was the world's top casino.  There's money here.  Lots of it.

I meandered around the city, images of Scrooge McDuck playing in piles of gold coins flashing through my mind

I couldn't help but notice the way the city seemed to ooze wealth and class.  Take a peek:

Roman-Irish Baths (Described in Detail Later) 

Rather Nice Here

The Modern Baths

Trinkhalle

Fresh Mineral Water (I Definitely Exceeded the Recommended Max. 125mL Per Day)

Classy Shopping District 

Maybach 62 (Base Price ~€ 365,000)

The Casino (Which I Unfortunately Didn't Enter)

Maybach 62 (Base Price ~€ 430,000)

Very Weird Being Alone in a Huge Church

Money, Minus Class

After finding a Doner Kebab place hidden in an alleyway (successfully avoiding spending my considerably lesser wealth on an extravagant dinner), I set off to the Irish-Roman Bathhouse Friedrichsbad to see what all the fuss was about.

Friedrichsbad, Opened in 1877

Stepping inside, I was greeted with the smell of mineral-rich water and a mighty grand double set of stairs.  After paying my 33 euro entrance fee (including an extra 10 for a soap-and-brush massage) I climbed said stairs and strolled into my private change room.

Dress code in the baths is strictly nude, and everything is mixed-gender.  There are 17 steps in the ritual, starting with a shower under what feels like your personal waterfall.  Next, you spend 15 minutes lying in a warm-air bath (54°C), followed by 5 minutes in a hot-air bath at 68°C.  After another shower, you lay down for a full-body soap-and-brush massage, preparing you perfectly (after yet another shower) for the thermal steam baths, where you chill out like never before for 10 minutes on warm slabs of marble.  The next room is a full thermal bath at a warm 36 degrees, and then another at 34 degrees.  

Photo of the Thermal Kinotherapeutic Bath Shamelessly Stolen from the Friedrichsbad Website

The centre of the bathhouse has a 17-metre high dome soaring above the 28°C pool.  They call this the Thermal kinotherapeutic bath.  I like these big words.  Upon exiting the Thermal kinotherapeutic bath, you take another amazing shower, and jump in the cold-water bath at 18 degrees.  Half-regret follows as you feel refreshed but considerably smaller, and you walk nude to the drying room where you are greeted with warm towels.  The huge 16th room is a resting area, where a great number of beds are laid out around the room.  You are wrapped in a towel and warm covers, and drift away in the most relaxed state imaginable for half an hour.  After leaving the room on your own time, there is a reading room with tea and magazines; once you're done, you head to the changerooms and prepare to leave.  

My sensation of absolute cleanliness was followed by putting used clothes on and spending 3 hours on crowded public transportation, then riding a bike for 15 minutes up the large hill to my flat.  I still felt clean when I arrived home - that's saying something.  

Vegetation

A co-worker came to work on Thursday with a fresh look: Hitler.  After going to the hairdresser and asking for a "1930's-style haircut," he proceded to shave his beard into something slightly wider than the classic postage stamp, and came to work wearing a black collared shirt.  His comment: "I'm getting lots of looks from the ladies today"

The next day the 'stache was gone, and there's now a baseball cap stuck to his head.

I came home on Friday to something awesome.  The nice lady who runs the pension had noticed how under the weather I've been this week, and surprised me with this wonderful upgrade to my child-sized bed:

I spent Friday night drawing a picture which I'm not proud of (due to lack of content, I'll share a so-so sketch from January instead) in hopes of getting better for a ski race on Sunday.

Much of Saturday was spent in my fantastic new bed, though I did get out to Villingen-Schwenningen to buy some cheap jeans for work.  It's a bustling, fun city just 10 minutes from Donaueschingen.  Who knows, I might end up living there if I can't find a new apartment in town within a week and a bit..

That night my cold came back with a vengeance and I decided I was too sick to ski.  After sleeping for 12 hours, I fired up the original Rollercoaster Tycoon proceded to waste away my Sunday good and proper.  Time to start booking flights to keep these weekends interesting!

It's Fasching Season!

For the last few weeks the go-to conversation topic at work has been this Fasnet thing.  I'd heard subtle phrases here and there: "costumes," "huge parties," "parades," "hexenball," "everybody's drunk," "SO excited," and the like.  After spending many a night mulling through these clues trying to figure out what they could mean, I had a sudden epiphany: this weekend was going to be awesome.

Such a powerful and insightful prediction!

I talked to Herr Bausch (my boss) and secured a 5-day weekend.  Thursday night rolled around and I hopped on the train to the 8000-person town of Löffingen for Flo and Fabienne's birthdays and the start of Fasnet.  We all got into our costumes and prepared to begin the weekend in style.

A now-hazy night of dancing and colourful outfits ensued, and I woke up on Friday feeling [slightly..] under the weather.  Since Saturday night was to be the biggest event, I took it easy on Friday.


This year marked the 50th year of Hexenball (Hexen = Witch in German) in Löffingen.  However, the Fasnet tradition, marking the end of the reign of the cold, grim winter spirits, has been around for much longer.  We bought our tickets and prepared for another night of madness - the shoddy pictures I took don't do Saturday night justice

 Yes, they had a massive wooden slide in the middle of the party

 Live traditional Fasnet music on stage

Mr. JustAFleshWound had to shave his head the next day

Flo had a habit of wiping his face on everyone he could find

Out until 5am, I woke up at 11:30 on Sunday feeling fresh and energetic!  Jokes, I took the train home to wash the hundreds of spilled drinks off my decidedly displeased body.  Sunday night was another much-needed night of rest, and I woke up on Monday with a righteous head cold.

I got back to Löffingen in time to get into my costume (this time with 5-minute facepaint!) and head to the town centre to watch the parade.  Everyone loves a parade!

So it begins

People innocently watching get kidnapped and hauled out by the witches

Force-fed, abused, and made to drink from stinky moccasins, this poor guy was on display in front of hundreds of people after the parade.  

Apparently he wants to be one of the town's 20-ish witches next year.  Alright.    

 Night-time theatrics

Oh, those witches and their tricks

Being the end of the Fasnet weekend, we all went out for yet another night.  Unlike Thursday, I began the night with a full stomach.  This resulted in a Ben that wasn't out of commission by midnight, though I did need a pizza & powerade recharge at 12:30.  This worked wonders, and I was able to go back to the bar-turned-dancehall to further destroy my lungs and legs.

 Flo once again wiping his face on everyone

A photobomb for the ages!

Being a non-smoker, my airsacs couldn't tolerate the amount of smoke in the air.  Inside, outside, inside, outside, I went from a smoke-filled sauna into frigid winter air countless times that night.  I now write to you with one of the gnarliest coughs I've had in a long time.

Totally worth it.

See ya next time!

Ski Racing and a Taste of What's to Come

Another awesome weekend!

Friday night started in an inconspicuous Audi A3 when a couple Russian guys picked me up to go to the bar.  I took a seat, and after some broken but engaging conversation the driver (who is a local DJ) cranked the stereo.  Then we drove for a bit, talked and drank, stopped at burger king, and went home.  It ended equally as inconspicuously.  Lame ending +1

I woke up early on Saturday morning to hop on the ol' train.  I was off to participate in my first ski race ever!  Special thanks to the Hofmann family for inviting me along!

I'd never been at such a quaint (read: tiny) ski hill.  There was one T-bar and one run, and one race course taking up half of said run.  I geared up and took a few practice laps before donning my borrowed race garb:

A German national team ski suit!  Lookin' [insert word of choice here], I took to the slopes once again to shred some gnar:

I placed mid-pack for the individual competition, and discovered I have a metric shit-ton to learn about ski racing.  However, our group of 4 skiers claimed 1st in the combined time section!

Another lesson learned:  wear more than a T-shirt under a skin-tight ski suit in -15 degree weather.  "Brrr" is an understatement.


That night we went out to a Fasnet (Black Forest Carnival) party in an ancient basement beside a church.  Warm costumes were the name of the game that night, and the frigid temperatures meant a weak attendance.  Entertainment for the night consisted of a decent dance floor and about 50 guys running around in American Football uniforms (apparently a German player was in the Superbowl).

 Ancient cellar ambiance

Dance floor behind some guy I don't know

On Sunday we drove a whole 90 seconds to the toboggan hill near Flo's house.  We built a little kicker and set up a couple boxes for a Sunday afternoon session.

Evidently brilliant people come up with brilliant ideas while packing up (Due to my plans to be able to have children in the future I chose not to participate):

Crazy Germans.  No different than crazy Canucks. 

VIP Weekend

Friday, 1:12 pm (actual time could have been anywhere from 10am to 4pm)

Benny:  "Want to come to a hockey game tonight? I have 4 VIP tickets."
Me: "Uhhh, yes!"

Off to the game we went, and after the [short] walk from the VIP parking lot we walked into the VIP lounge, where we were greeted with a full VIP buffet dinner and a VIP open bar.  This made me feel very important.  

We walked down to the stands and sat down as the puck dropped.  I immediately noticed something out of place, a glaring omission in North American hockey games.  

The top scorer wears a gold helmet!  It was hugely distracting, and one of the better ideas I've seen as of late.  I spent half of the game trying to get a decent picture with my 5-year-old crapmera, and (fortunately and unfortunately) didn't miss a whole lot.
Going back to the VIP lounge for fish, ribs, schnitzel, prawns, and other fine dining selections during intermissions was certainly a nice alternative to waiting in line for a hot dog.  Yessir.  

The next day (Saturday, for those who don't know what comes after Friday) I went to Freiburg with a bunch of friends to help Flo's sister move into her apartment.  Ikea furniture assembly was the name of the game, as well as some good ol' furniture-up-the-5-flights-of-stairs hauling.  

That night consisted of two firsts for me:  my first time bowling in a 2-storey alley, and my first time 7th wheeling.

Sunday was gorgeous outside, so I went for an afternoon walk up the hill in the -12 degree weather.  Little did I know I had these views 5 minutes from where I'm staying!  

 Kiteboarding on the fields!  Something I have to try while I'm out here.

Another town

 Zoomed

 They have these sentry posts all over the place

A doggiedog in the sunset

Yep, I'd say that was a nice way to cap off a relaxing weekend!