Dear Velinski Family...

Have a great time in Hawaii...Don't get stung by jelly fish..and sucked up by any Hurricanes...Also...word to the wise, don't fall into a volcano...

Brian

Mass Confusion

So, after my last post...too many people were confused on what was going on in my situation.

So I'm going to lay it out simply.

I am NOT signed by any team at the moment. I am currently training with as many teams as possible. By training, I essentially mean "try-out." With each team I say that I am training with, I am attempting to impress them enough to win a spot on their roster, and receive a contract. The problems I have been having are that I am either too old...many teams have a rule stating they can only have 3 players on the roster that is 23 or older, (I turn 23 in Dec) or that the money is simply not enough to create a comfortable situation. Each new team that I train with is another opportunity to get seen.

I hope this helps,

Brian

Comment!

After hearing that the comments were never working, I looked around a bit on the site and found what was wrong...EVERYONE can post now, not only members...you can choose anonymous and comment and leave your name at the bottom.
Sorry about everything!
brian

Sleeping Beauty

Apart from soccer, I have been able to go out and see Germany from a tourists perspective as well. This past Tuesday, my aunt and I traveled to lower Bavaria once again and visited the Nueschwanstein Castle of King Ludwig II. This castle, which was basically created in homage to the great German composer Richard Wagner, who King Ludwig widely admired is an incredible sight. And yes, If it looks familiar, it should. It is the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle that is erected at California's Disneyland. The trip, due to construction took about 2-2.5 hours to get down there. Regardless, it was a great stop and something that I am glad to have seen. The tour takes about 30 minutes and you get to see the 16 finished rooms of the castle. The place is huge, but actually seems relatively small on the inside. The architecture and things inside are amazing and created in incredible details. Of the 16 finished rooms, you see the kitchens, the kings bedroom, his man-made cave...which I wish I had one of, the singers hall and more.








It's crazy to think that this guy just kept spending money to essentially create a dream world. The castles owner and creator is not without mystery as well. After spending the families entire fortune and creating a huge debt for the family, he was "declared" mentally insane to remove him from the thrown and was found "drowned" two days later farther North. The family didn't waste too much time "grieving" as they opened the castle to public display just 6 weeks later. The area is a huge tourist area and people from all ends of the world are everywhere to be seen.
Anyways, here are some more facts about the castle:

1. Neuschwanstein means "New Swan Stone". The name of the castle derives from one of Wagner's opera's character, the Swan Knight.
2. The Neuschwanstein castle was built for only one person – the King Ludwig II. Neuschwanstein is so immense though, that in some days it is visited by up to 6000 tourists.
3. Ludiwg slept only 11 nights in the castle
4. Ludiwg was Richard Wagner's patron, and many rooms of the castle were inspired by Wagner's operas. Despite of this, Wagner never visited the castle, as he died before its completion.
5. The castle is one of the most photographed buildings in the world, even if photography is not permitted inside of the castle.
6. There is no throne in the castle, as the Throne Hall was not completed before Ludwig's death.
7. The Sleeping Beauty Castle’s design in Disneyland was inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle.
8. Fourteen carpenters worked for more than four years to make the woodwork in the bedroom.
9. Despite its medieval look, it was built in the 19th century, and it served no defensive purposes.
10. The original name of the castle was New Hohenschwangau Castle. It was renamed as Neuschwanstein castle just after Ludwig II's death
11. The designer of the castle was Christian Jank. He was not even an architect but a theatrical designer.
12. In 2012, the Neuschwanstein Castle will appear on a €2 commemorative coin.

On our way home, we past through the town of Landsberg, which as mentioned in a previous post is home to the prison where Hitler wrote his book, Mein Kampf...here's a pic.

Still A Vagabond

Game Day Police --------------------->



Sorry for the lack of updates...just wanted to wait till everything was sorted out. SO the last week or so has allowed me to probably be the most productive since I have been over seas. I have become a tourist and getting some high quality training in. Last Monday, I had my first training session with FC Ingolstadt 04 II of the BayernLiga. The club is relatively big here and the first team was in the second division of Germany before being relegated last year down the the 3rd League. A drop like this may not seem like much outside of the playing level aspect. But after talking with players that I met at training...The club basically lost 1/3 of its revenue from last year and nearly 6 million dollars from just TV rights. Terrible time to go down especially with the economic situation. The first day of training, everything was far and beyond more professional than it was at FC bad Kotzting. They had Nike training wear, a masseuse, locker rooms, press area, fully funded arena, high class coaching and facilities and all the amenities that a club with professional money would have. Training went well and Incorporated a lot of vertical movements and ball work. It was good to get this type of training in and allowed me to become a bit more confident. I felt that I showed pretty well and was glad I had the opportunity to train in an environment like this. After training, My cousin (master ball boy) talked to Coach Albesinger and wanted to just find out any potential information about staying on or whatnot. In Germany, when clubs are created, they must designate if they will follow a U-23 rule. What this means is that the second team of any club must only have a maximum of 3 players over the age of 23 on their roster at any time. Unfortunately, I turn 23 in December, so the chances of a player in my position getting taken by a team with this rule are pretty slim...especially as a GK. Anyways, he let me know of this rule, however said that there might be a slim chance near Christmas or so. Nevertheless, he said to come back the following Monday and Friday for training. It wasn't full steam ahead, but we had a small glimmer of daylight with this opportunity. Regardless, it was an opportunity to get high quality training and possibly open the door to other opportunities. Once again, everyone here was incredibly nice and very friendly...it also makes it easier when the people aren't giving you the cold shoulder and not talking to you. Everyone just seems to look out for eachother. Mondays session was another good one, regardless of the near 100 degree temperatures. My aunt and I left Konnigsbrunn to complete the just over 1 hour drive around 2 for the 3:45 session. We wanted to leave ourselves sometime for any driving mistakes or traffic we may hit. We arrived in Ingolstadt around 3:10. After waiting patiently, no one had shown by 4 in the afternoon. We wondered what was going on and doubt of training began to set in. We finally saw Jan, who is the equipment guy there and he let us know that practice didn't start until 5:30...great communication by the coaching staff. So my aunt and I drove around the actual town of Ingolstadt...which is actually really nice, even though we got to see very little due to traffic. Practice finally came around and got another good session in. Friday turned into a small "family trip" with my cousins family and turned out to be a good little voyage. The 5 of us packed into his car and headed off once again to meet the guys for training. Training went well and the coach asked me to come again the next day for a small training match. We were still trying to read this guy to figure out if he was interested or he just needed another body. Regardless, I knew I needed the match play and opportunity to get used to it a bit again and opted to head out to training. The game was alright, lower pace and seemingly some players didn't want to be there. Felt as though I got hung out to dry on too many occasions...that happens when there are 6 breakaways and a PK in 30 minutes ha. A good session nonetheless, and we headed home after seeing any opportunity of staying on thrown away due to this U-23 rule. Overall, the trip gave me more confidence and belief that this dream could become a reality given the right chance.
Saturday brought some more news. Christian let me know that within the next week, I will be headed up to the north west region of the country to train with FC Shalke 04 II. Shalke is one of the more well-known in Europe relatively speaking, especially in Germany. It will be a great opportunity to train at an even higher level. There are still talks with a team from Burghuasen as well..so we will see what the future entails. Hopefully something can get sorted out soon or at least more opportunities show themselves. My brother-in-law Marlon, who is another one of the great people in my life that are helping me out when in reality they really don't have to be...so thanks...let me know that a friend of his is on the verge of being able to get the assistance of an agent for me which would be a huge help also.
I guess the comments haven't been working on the pages. So if anyone wants to leave anything...either find me on Facebook or e-mail me at BByrne@luc.edu
Talk to you all soon.
Brian

Updates Tomorrow, Videos Today

Here are some videos from the castles that I'll talk about tomorrow.

Enjoy

Bree-Yon

I'm good at stalling cars.

Today, I awoke to the sound of too many military jets flying around here. However the funny thing is the difference between the sound of a military jet and a commercial airliner is not distinguishable by much...the acoustics in this place need to be fixed. Anywho, today was a day of adventure. The day started off like every day before: wake, sit, internet, sit, contemplate going back to bed, downstairs, b-fast, do something. Today, that something was a planned trip to Munich. After traveling on possibly the slowest trambillo (spanish vocab), my aunt and I finally arrived in Augsburg after 40 minutes to yet again get on another mode of transportation...the train. It costs $40 for 2 people to go from Augsburg to Munich (Basically Arlington Hts. to Chicago) and back...crazy money! SO after waiting in line for a it we decided to just get something to eat and wander around Augburg again as I did the first day I was here. We got some food and coffee and proceeded to find our way to the city center once again. The tall left clock tower was the next mountain to conquer. You have to take a small little round about stairway to get to the top, about 70ish meters. What's really interesting about this, besides being real vintage construction is that there are multiple pictures of the town after it was hit from an allied bomb raid. The "before and after" pictures were everywhere and you can see some of them here:

Pretty interesting stuff, but maybe the coolest thing was the guy at the top of the clock. He was this really nice older gentleman who just had a really

nice and calm persona about him. We began talking and he told me of how he left Germany for a full year...actually from June 5 until June 4 at 6 P.M. the

next year. He left for the United States and bought his own car here for cheap, lived with family, worked at two different jobs while living in places like L.A. and New York. He just got up and left and took care of business...crazy persona and a great story...I only wish I was able to do something like that, but this whole trip is a blessing in itself. Anyways, after I got home, my aunt and I were pretty tired so we relaxed a bit until my cousin Simone came over from work. We quickly decided to go to McDonalds for dinner and I drove. The thing is, the car is manual and I have NEVER driven manual before. Never...I was stepping into a situation that was completely virgin for me, driving in a foreign country, driving in a car thats the length of my body...and the minor detail of not having automatic gear shifting at my disposal. After starting fairly confidently the car died...then died again...andddd again. The drive to McDonalds is 3 minutes long...having my car stop 4 and having my family laugh at me was even better..ha. We ate, and then hoped

back in the car for some more driving lessons. I actually began getting the hang out it and by the end I had it down pretty good. Too my credit, taking away the small little things that I have to get used to that are much different from automatic driving, I feel as though I did pretty well and with a short amount of more practice I will have it down pat, but it's nice to have the help of my family by my side. In the soccer world, tomorrow is another big day with another tryout of sorts with another team. To be honest, this could be the last light of day that I see in Germany so I am hoping and praying that I go out there and just open an eye or two. Wish my luck and I will hopefully talk to you all soon.

Peace, Love, Jo Bros...

Brian