Archive for July 8th, 2009

The words following are a selected account from the Balled of the Boot: a story of a young man searching for a pair of boots in the wide world. Starting in Bosnia and continuing through Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, and Belgium to its end in Koln Germany.

The actors in this ballad are:

Mr. Berger – Our Hero
Mr. Ludy – Customer care and Quality assurance (Savior)
Mr. Bruce – Wise man and guide from Mr. Berger’s home in the USA

Our balled begins with Mr. Berger singing and dancing down a mountain from a quiet overlook in Sarajevo, Bosnia. His joy was cut short however when unbeknownest to him his beloved and trusted boots began to Fray and separate. As Mr. Berger finished climbing down the hill and made the kilometers long trek back to his hostel he began to feel a little bit of a breeze on his toes. Unsure of what could be the cause he inspected his shoe to discover that the leather upper of the boot had begun to Fray and was separating from the solid Rubber Sole.

Worried and unsure, Mr. Berger contacted his father immediately and asked him to contact the wise man Mr. Bruce. Mr. Bruce contacted the manufacturers and made sure that the warrenty on the trusty boots was still good.

Unable to continue hiking with his boots coming apart, Mr. Berger searched Sarajevo from top to bottom seeking Resin and Epoxy. He found what he saught and carefully glued the frayed and separated materials back together using the inner magical Goretex sock as a backing to make sure they wouldent separate further.

With the decay of his boots halted Mr. Berger continued his journey across Croatia and into Slovenia before crossing the terrible mountains and forests to reach Budapest Hungary. In Budapest Mr. Berger was contacted by another representative of the Fabled LOWA boot company. They told him that LOWA was a german company and that he could find a replacement once he Reached Germany. Strengthened by the news and with his temporary fix holding his boot together, Mr. Berger continued on through Poland and into Czech to visit the famed city of Praha. From Praha with a fresh coat of Epoxy Resin he made his way into Munich.

But LO! In Munich his pleas for help went unheard and the great treasury of boots was kept closed to him. In this time Mr. Berger again called out to Mr. Bruce and the fine young woman from the Fabled LOWA. They found for him a man who would take up his cause and fight the great bureacracy of the Giant. After much deliberation contact was finally made with Mr. Ludy. Mr. Ludy, a Mage of Quality assurance for the Fabled LOWA asked Mr. Berger for Photos of his boots and a detailed description of what had happened. These provided Mr. Berger made his way to Hamburg leaving Munich and its high walls behind. It wasn’t until Mr. Berger reached the Netherland and entered Amsterdam that Mr. Ludy was able to craft a solution to his problem.

The sage wrote out a very specific Email and included contact information for Mr. Berger, Proofing his claim and authorizing dealers to directly replace the boot instead of sending it to the LOWA HQ and having it mailed back (taking anywhere from 2-6 weeks).

This done it was time for Mr. Berger to head out on a new adventure, to seek out LOWA distributors that had his size and make of boot. Mr. Berger searched high and low in Amsterdam, Antwerpen and finally found one in Koln.

Mr. Ludy then authorized the exchange of Mr. Bergers shoes and an Upgrade to the LOWA Renegade GTX MID for all the trouble caused to Mr. Berger.

Mr. Berger’s faith restored in the quality and strength of the LOWA Brand, as well as his commendations to the great Mr. Ludy who went far and beyond to ensure his customers satisfaction, our ballad ends with Mr. Berger sitting happily with two fresh, unbroken boots wrapped around his little toes.

So happy,

So exciting, a true Legend.

Antwerpen is a large belgian arts community on the northern border about an hour from Brussels. It has a significant diamond culture and is home to some of the most concentrated diamond shopping I’ve ever been exposed to.

There is also a very strong and thriving orthodox or Hesidic jewish population living in Antwerpen. I arrived at the central station and wandered down to my hostel just a few hundred meters away. For the first time in my stay I had a dirty run in with bed bugs, which is part of the reason I stayed only one night in Antwerpen.

The city itself is beautiful, full of wealthy buildings, a port culture including a thriving red light district with very bold inhabitants – one chased me down the street trying to sell – and wide open pedestrain walkways down to the water and port.

I enjoyed my walks through the main shopping street, and continued my search now three weeks in the making for a pair of replacement boots for my LOWA KODY GTX MID boots which had a defect and needed to be replaced. I found much to my discontent that the closest distributor to antwerpen that carried my style of boot was approximately 120 kilometers away.

That quest put on hold I wandered through the Diamond districts of Antwerpen and enjoyed the beautiful displays and strong Jewish culture. Each shop came complete with orthodox jew wrapped from head to foot in solid black, with a belt line tinged white by their prayer shawls and long curls coming down from a partially shaved head concealed by a wide brimmed black hat. interesting the level of separation from the rest of the community. Automatically singled out by their appearance they were insiders facing a wave of shopping outsiders.

A strange phenomenon to witness.

I finished the day and then returned to my bed, to be eaten alive (18 bites) before leaving early the next morning for Koln.