Toronto

I'm still in a daze from the weekend. Last week I took advantage of a good Air Canada deal and made a weekend trip to Toronto to visit some old friends. I arrived Thursday afternoon and spent the weekend eating, playing poker, shopping, watching sports, drinking beer, and losing my voice at the Madison Avenue Pub. A number of people (including the customs agent in Toronto) were surprised that anybody would make a four-day visit to Canada from Europe. In my opinion it's completely justified: Canada is my home. I hadn't been there since October and hadn't seen these friends for almost two years. I wouldn't think twice about doing it again.

Cirque du Soleil - Dralion

I've heard many great things about the Cirque du Soleil and yesterday I learned that it wasn't hype. Last night I saw their Dralion show and was left utterly speechless.

It's hard to summarize my thoughts and feelings about the show. It was completely new to me and I have nothing to compare it to. There were obvious references to China, India, and Africa and this became more apparent when I considered the title of the show. A Dralion is a mix between a dragon and a lion.

The show was a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour, music, costumes, acrobats, gymnastics, dance, and humour. It put me at the edge of my seat and I often did a double take to convince myself of what I was seeing. Highlights included a high-flying trampoline act, a rope skipping ten-person human pyramid, and a young woman who effortlessly twisted her body into various shapes while balancing on a single hand. Most incredible was a juggler named Viktor Kee [movie] who raised the bar on what I thought was humanly possible. He seemed to control the gravitational constant with his effortless ability to juggle up to seven balls using different parts of his body all while performing a gymnastics routine. It was nonstop, "Wow!" from beginning to end. The clowns were funny too. One had a haircut highly resembling that of Dilbert's boss.

This circus is too amazing for words and needs to be seen to be believed. It left me euphoric and I can't wait until their next show.

It was another weekend ruined by poor weather forecasting. A group of us planned a weekend hike and overnight in an SAC hut but cancelled due to a poor forecast for Sunday. Sunday ended up having a few morning showers and a beautiful afternoon. I have no confidence in weather forecasts and don't know why I listen to them.

The weekend wasn't completely lost. We still enjoyed a day hike on Saturday followed by a few hours at a waterpark. The heated pools were nice but the waterslides were the most fun. This was my first time in a park like this. Some of the slides were in complete darkness and others required you to slide on an inflatable dingy. My favourite slide propelled you into a spiral path around the inside of a huge bowl. I definitely need to revisit!

It's more incompetence from the Bush administration. From factcheck.org,

A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report from before September 11, 2001 detailed the three most likely catastrophic disasters that could happen in the United States: a terrorist attack in New York, a strong earthquake in San Francisco, and a hurricane strike in New Orleans.

Wow. Let's hope their federal government is better prepared for San Francisco.

I finished a few books these last weeks. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner was recommended to me by the Daily Show and a friend. The book has no consistent theme other than finding interesting correlations that you and I may never consider. The most popular --and contested-- theory is the correlation between the US Supreme Court legalization of abortion in 1970 and the cascading effect it had on crime in the 90s. The basic idea is that legalized abortion prevented "undesirables" from being born who were likely to lead a life of crime. Their absence (or non existence) is hypothesized as the cause for the drop in the crime rate two decades later. The book is a light read and I highly recommend it.

Other books included Digital Fortress and Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. Angels & Demons is the prequel to the immensely famous Da Vinci Code. It even has the same plot. Brown is a great author and knows how to keep a reader reading. I've read all of his books in record time. However, each book has left me with an empty and unsatisfied feeling that I best compare to eating at McDonalds: It's fun to consume but you don't feel so good afterwards.

This past weekend was the perfect chance to bike around Lake Constance. I had a free weekend and the weather was beautiful. For many years I've wanted to do this trip and overnight somewhere on the German side. I left Saturday morning from St. Gallen and met up with my girlfriend in the mid afternoon. We continued around the lake until Meersburg (total 120km) where we searched for accomodations for the night. Nothing. The Germans were out in full force and every hotel, pension, and bed & breakfast along the lake was full. We finally gave up, frustrated, and took a ferry back home to Switzerland.

I sometimes wonder how people can live in Germany. The place is so crowded and every time I go I am fighting crowds. I don't recall ever being on a German highway and not encountering a traffic jam. Meersburg was another example of a country that is too busy for me. Don't get me wrong. I love visiting Germany and I have some great friends there, but I don't recommend visiting unless you have patience and a reservation.