Journey of a lost Indian, part 3

The deaf dog

Missing Monroe

I woke up this morning to an email from Expedia, and it put a smile on my face. It was an updated itinerary report, stating that one of our layover times has changed. I opened the attachment to discover that we now have an 8 hour break between flights, in Amsterdam. Two thoughts went through my mind at such a speed, that I can't recall which one came first. There was the reminder for me decline any offer to try a Space Cookie, and the excitement of now being able to find out if there are actually as many bicycles in the city as I have imagined.

Fact: Dutch people are known for having flat butts. This picture could explain why.

Fact: Kim Kardashian is not Dutch 

So much has happened in the past 2 weeks since I last posted. Although I have been writing almost every day, it's not until now that I have the opportunity to piece my daily entries together and form them into this blog. And, since I leave for Bali early tomorrow morning, I realize that this is my last submission from Europe, for at least several months.

So, I want to start by explaining a portion of this blog's title, that is,  'The deaf dog'.
Bailey is a very special creature. She is extremely sweet and loving, very patient and intelligent, and she seems to possess a deep and peaceful understanding and appreciation for so many aspects of this life. In certain situations, it makes me think that she has a spiritual intelligence that is even greater than what many humans have been able to achieve. Sometimes when I talk to her, I find myself surprised when she doesn't answer or add her own thoughts- In a voice that I imagine would sound like the Dalai Lama, as an adolescent.
Bailey has been with Simone for 9 years, and I have been with Simone and Bailey for the past 2. In my time with them, I have been to many veterinarians in California for routine check-ups and a few minor surgeries,  vaccinations, and on several occasions I have taken Bailey to a vet for her frequent ear infections. In almost 10 years of Doctor visits, we have never been given any indication that Bailey has any 'defect' or condition to provoke these infections.

4 days after arriving in Europe, we took Bailey to a local veterinarian because she was experiencing itchy and irritated skin. This vet was only 5 minutes from our house, and was operated by a 3rd generation veterinary family that has serviced the villagers and farmers for the past century. At this vet,  you could bring a horse, your cow, chickens or pigs... or even your goat and sheep. I'm sure if you had an exotic bird or even a monkey, they would be able to help you.

Within 60 seconds of having Bailey up on their observation table, I noticed a puzzled look on the doctors face. I began to get really interested as he called over to the Senior Vet to come have a look in our dog's ear. A quick look in both ears, a short discussion in Swiss-German scientific talk, and then he turned to me and said, in surprisingly good English: "Your dog is missing an eardrum."

There's not much more to this story, but I still find myself wondering how a missing eardrum could have gone undiagnosed for 10 years in America. And its not as if it burst and simply disappeared, or fell out at some point... The European doctors said without question, that Bailey was born with this defect. So there is the story of our (1/2) deaf dog.

 Its O.K Bailey, we still love you... It could have been much worse.

Last time I wrote, we had planned to go to visit one of Simone's family houses in Italy. That did not work out, as Simone had visa and document preparations that had to be handled in a far-away city in Switzerland. While she went to take care of that, I went Snowboarding in the Swiss Alps with her brother, Marc and his friend, Ludio. They decided on Davos, which is the highest elevation city in Europe. The resort was called Parsennes, which has 200sq. kilometers of ski trails... that's more area than the entire country of Liechtenstein.

The view from 2600m, and there's still 1 more lift to the top.

Even at the top of the highest peak that I could legally reach, the temperature was almost warm enough to void the fact that I had forgotten to bring a jacket to the ski hill that day. * By legally reach, I mean that traversing to off-trail zones in search of virgin powder is my favorite thing to do on a high-elevation ski hill. I would happily trek through knee-deep snow for a couple hours for the joy of a 10 minute descent through untouched snow... However, part of our group that day has been a safety patrol guide in the Alps for over 15 years- and he assured me that on this hill in the spring-melt season, I would either become buried in an avalanche or get lost and end up somewhere in Austria. Both of these seemed less than ideal to me, so I stuck with the groomed trails and just once, snuck into the restricted border-cross competition area:)

Of course, being new to Europe, I didn't have any of my own equipment. Quite opposite of what I was used to, as the last time that I had a winter snowboard season in Canada, I was Managing a Ski shop that I had opened with 2 partners. We designed snowboard parks for local resorts and hosted numerous snowboard competitions throughout the season, put on Demos at the hills and even had our own team of local riders. We were also constantly given free products to demo and enjoy for ourselves... Jump forward about 4-5 years, and now I'm borrowing my girlfriends snowpants from her teenage years, 1970 retro gloves, and a snowboard made for a giant person. The best part: I loved it all, and had one of the best days I've ever had on a ski hill.

Yes, the gloves are pink and neon green. And no, the pants did not fit over my boots.

The giant snowboard worked great. The suspenders, even better

Again, so much has happened in 2 weeks that its hard to cover it all, so I'll start with our trips to Zurich. Daniela, Simones close friend, has lived in Zurich most of her life. She is such an amazing person, and between her and Simone, they seem to knows everyone in the restaurant and club scene in the city. Here is a play-by-play breakdown of how events unfolded as we arrived in Zurich:

The first trip:

Purpose:

To party in Zurich at a club where Daniela periodically organizes events.


The 2nd trip:

Purpose:

To attend Daniela's Birthday party in the park, and to fulfill her 6 year old Son's wish list of things to do when Simone and I come to town.


The first adventure started at  Daniela's home, which is directly in the center of Zurich city, on the lake. Simone, Daniela, and myself set out on bicycles, which to many says: Wow, these are active people going out to experience the city like a 'local'. To me, It spoke a different tune. More like 'None of us are driving tonight, so drink up'. And that's exactly what happened.

The first stop was a restaurant on the waterfront, called the red factory. Only a short time ago, it was inhabited by Zurich 'street kids' who were heroin or crack addicts, living in the abandoned work factory. We had a prosseco to start the evening. Wondering why the service was so slow, I asked Simone what the deal was. She replied "You know how I said that the Heroin addicts used to live here?" I said yes.... "Well, now they work here, so it takes a while to get your order"

I still don't know if that's a fact, but it certainly makes sense.



After one glass of Prosecco, we mounted our bikes and headed towards Zurich's bar and restaurant district. Being an observer, I noticed that everyone on bicycles communicated using those cute little bells that I always removed from my bike as a kid. The thing is, in a busy European city, the bicycle bell is an indespensible tool- its a safety device. One quick and friendly ring of the bell is all it takes to get a walking pedestrian to move a step over, or to let a car know that you are nearby. This little bell is all it takes to avoid major collisions on the road

Hate to say I told you so, but you could have avoided this with a little flick of the bell

Now, my bike did not have breaks. I knew it when I started out of the garage at Daniela's... And I was prepared for that. You know what else my Bike didn't have? If you're thinking 'lights', you'd be right. If you said 'A bell', you'd also be right. So here I am, in a foreign city riding a bike without lights, a bell, or breaks, and we are stopping at what seemed like every bar and restaurant to have a drink- before our 9pm dinner reservation at 'Italia'

Win or lose, my battle is just beginning.  Drinking while riding an un-stoppable, invisible and silent bike through Zurich is a recipe for dangerously good times

I made it safely across the bridge, and now we enter the busy part of town. The girls decide that with 40 minutes to spare before dinner, it would be a good idea to check out a Tapas bar and have a drink. I can't object or separate from the girls- my life practically depended on it...They had the lights and the bells, so I go where they go.

It turned out to be a great little place. But the wait was about 30-45 minutes long. Unless you're with Daniela and Simone... They don't wait. I distracted the hostess by asking her all about the wine list, in English. Meanwhile the girls have succeeded in commandeering a table that was currently occupied by about 4 people, but we somehow managed to all squeeze in and make friends. Luckily, the waiter who responded to our signal somehow must have read our minds, because he appeared seconds later with a 1/2L of Red wine, and an assortment of Tapas from the chef's recommendation. Another drink down, and appetizers already taken care of, and we leave the bar with 5 minutes to spare before our dinner reservation.

Only Daniela got a chair at our seized table. Thankfully, the bike seat left my butt numb, so I didn't care where I sat.

This night was so eventful, that I could go on for pages trying to explain all the action. After our Dinner, we headed out to a lounge not too far away and met up with friends. The picture below is the last taken that night- thankfully. I'll itemize the events that unfolded after, without much explanation.. but I think you'll get the idea of the pace of our adventure.

We all ordered the same dish,  but I forget what it was. The wine was good

We were then requested by a friend to show up at a club, 15 minutes after his first date encounter started, to intervene if necessary.  It was necessary, and we intervened.

After that we ended up at the club where Daniela sometime coordinates events. We partied hard until just before closing time at about 3am.

The night got interesting as we ended up at 'The party bakery' to get a shnitzel. I'll never forget the people and the action at that bakery.

Then, we tried to go into The Future. They could not find Simone's name on the lifetime guestlist in The Future, so we did not go.

About an hour later, we arrive home safely. 

The next day we spent in the park, with what seemed like the entire population of the city. Beautiful and sunny that day, it was shown how good weather brings the people of Zurich to the outdoors. With free BBQ grills, clean and safe areas for all ages and complimentary beach access and parking to all, it truly is a success story of well spent government funding.

Still in this Zurich trip was one of my favorite experiences, but it truly is a 'You had to be there' story. The best I can do is to tell you that we (Simone, Daniela and myself) sat at an upscale establishment for a quick bite to eat and drink at a Yatch-club style restaurant called 'Searose', where we had the pleasure to observe a man that I can only describe as a 'Royal European Sea-man'.  If there was such a thing as Tobacco smoking competitions, he would be the undisputed World Champion. I really wish you were there to see it. He made it very clear to us that he was packin' a pretty hefty bank acccount, as he laid out his snake-skin wallet on the table, only inches from where we were eating. This wallet was bursting open with cash, goldcards, and I think I even saw a diamond poke out of the coin section.  It gets even better, when he started to argue with what could have been his sister, or his girlfriend. When I asked Daniela and Simone to translate, they tried between giggles of disbelief. He was telling this girl that he wanted his millions wired to his numbered account- and aggressively reminded her how much he hates to have that much money laying around in cash. That was fun to watch. Oh, one more thing... He was literally lighting one cigarette off another- there was no break in his smoking. The funny thing is, he didn't inhale the smoke. I found that to be very interesting. He was on to us, so I couldn't take a picture... But this one pretty much explains it

The Next trip to Zurick was to celebrate Daniela's Birthday party, and to fulfill her son's wish list of things to do when Simone and I come to town. Top of his list: Take a bath with Simone. My first thought was, this is a very cool kid. Good one.

Also on his list: Penalty shots

Romeo is a 6yr old athlete who is passionate about Soccer, spongebob squarepants, and my 34 year old girlfriend. I logged about 5 solid hours of soccer in the park with Romeo, and he could have continued to play. Between my duties as the grillmaster for the party guests, and taking multiple direct hits to the groin area in the park- I had to finally call it a game and shake hands with the winner. Wish I had a picture of that, but we had an Iphone incident the day prior, as Simones niece unknowingly placed a lock-code on her iphone while playing Ninja-Fruit, rendering it useless to us for the weekend.

Apart from the Zurich trips and Mr Bargetze's wine cellar, the past 6 weeks have been increasingly active for me. Especially since my discovery of the professionally built parcour course in the forest beside our house, and the amazing bike that I have had the pleasure of using while here. I anticipate a serious reduction in red wine drinking and premium bread eating in Bali, so I'm happy that I enjoyed it while it was available to me.

I have to wrap this one up, bed time... Bali is waiting.

Heres a link to our updated picture gallery, it'll be getting additions frequently!

http://s1119.photobucket.com/albums/k627/nativedavid514/