Aha, it comes back to me. Theo and I got back to the hostel to discover a new guy in our room. He went by the name of Mark (or Marc?) and came from Tel Aviv. A futures trader by trade (hah), he was spending a few months in Frankfurt in the youth hostel because he likes the place so much. We were talking about business and he was saying that the most important thing about making money was being a spendthrift. "I will do anything for money" he said.
"Oh yeah? Would you go walk outside in your underwear?" (He was walking around in his underwear in spite of the cold)
"For 50 euros, I will do that yes"
I laughed and remarked that I couldn't waste 50 euros on such a frivolous exercise, and then Theo walked in.
Straight away, Mark announced "Hey friend, I have a proposition for you: if you can swim from one bridge on the Main to the next, I will give you 1000 euros. In return, you will give me the exclusive rights to film the episode and I will put it on youtube and make my money back."
"Bullshit, as if you´d do that"
"No, I am not lying. I will go and get 1000 euros from the ATM immediately if you agree to do it. I am rich man, see look, I have 7 credit cards." (and threw the credit cards at Theo)
Theo was seriously considering it "I mean it's not that far, only like 500m right? I'm a strong swimmer, I could do that in 5 minutes max easy!"
At that point I interjected "Dude, you realise the water is about 1 degree celsius - that's as cold as the arctic and people die in 5 minutes in there!"
"I don't believe you, it can't be that cold! I'll go and dip my finger in."
While Theo was gone, Mark expanded on his plan. In addition to the exclusive rights to the video, he would also be able to harvest Theo's organs if he died in the attempt. In this manner, he decided he'd make his money back 100 times.
Unfortunately Mark's grand plan fell through when Theo got back a lot less confident about his chances to withstand either the temperature or the swim (there's quite a strong current this time of year) hahahaha.
After that, Mark bet me 5 euros that he could do 60 pushups. I was very surprised and impressed when he managed 58, especially when Vaki and I only managed 35 hahaha. Theo talked himself down so much that Mark and I both put 5 euros on the table for the same bet and he cleaned us out haha. Some of his pushups were a bit suspect though:P Mark gave the money back afterwards because he decided I was a nice guy and Theo followed suit, so that made things very amiable:)
And because having my whole upper body torn to shreds wasn't enough for me, I went for a run that evening. Frankfurt is a fantastic place to run. There's a path by the Main that stretches for at least 30km, which is very popular with joggers, walkers and cyclists alike. I really enjoyed it. There's something about running in cold air, which is very refreshing. It was also my first pain-free run in a week:) My back hurt a bit at the start, but I noticed the pain wasn't getting any worse, so I kept running and it went away completely:D I managed a good 12-13km (1:00).
That night, we went back to this old style bar that we saw in our guided tour the night before. I had fried potatoes, which were quite good and the others had some traditional german dishes. We were all in a good mood thanks to the beers we had back at the hostel (which are amazingly cheap - $2.50 for a pint - and very nice by Australian standards), so it was a very enjoyable evening. Theo kept trying to talk to these two German girls who were sitting at the table next to us (under the pretense that he wanted their advice for the menu) but managed only to anger the waiter (and it must be said, me too). Before the meal, we were all saying we'd go out on the town with Vaki and get back right on the curfew (2am, which is ok I guess), but after the meal and the beers, we were all quite sleepy.. Theo and I promised we'd get up in two hours, but..it didn't end up happening hahaha.
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