CALLING IT A YEAR....

OK that's it everybody (or... you.. who reads this blog ;) ), this is offically my last day in Europe. Tomorrow I fly home early from Copenhagen to Reykjavik for a layover, and then straight to San Francisco. I honestly can say this was the best time/year of my life and I think not much can compare to it in the near future. I've studied abroad, met a ton of cool people in Stuttgart, and even more travelling around Europe, Asia, and Africa. I've spent so much time here in Europe, and sometimes being the only American at a hostel for a while, that going back to America and not seeing any foreigners will be a brutal and long-lasting shock.

Just to show you, and myself, what this opportunity in Stuttgart as allowed me to do, here are all the places I've been since August 30th, 2005 to August 28th, 2006:
Portugal, Spain, Morocco, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Iceland, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Trivial Facts:
° Counting coming to and leaving Europe, I have flown on a plane 35 times.
° For 1 year in Europe, the only thing that was stolen from me was my iPod very early in Stuttgart at a university party, and that was only because of an unsupervised coatroom.
°Total consecutive days abroad: 364

So to all of you who actually read this thing, I just want to thank you for a great year and a great time in Europe. There are just so many memories that I (cant) wont forget, and so many lessons that I learned that to me it seems sort of an injustice that so few people from America travel abroad. I think to actually be in Europe and know Europeans (instead of just fellow Americans) really opens up one's thinking, politically and also on a basic human level.

So again, thanks for one of the best years!


And to the Americans going on the FLOAT TRIP in September, get ready - this is going to be insane!!

ALSO QUICK NOTE: Denmark Photos are ONLINE! That is the last of my Webshots photos going online. Maybe float trip will go up there too.

København (Copenhagen)!

Ok so I got to Copenhagen from Malmö the other day. It was an awesome ride across the Oresund Bridge. It's the longest bridge in Europe, and on train it seemed like we were over it in 3minutes. It was awesome.
Well anyway, I got to the hostel and started exploring Copenhagen. Of course I remember most of it since I've been here before, but again after two years and travelling alone, you really get a different feel of the city. One of the things that I saw this time that we didn't go to last time was the little free area known as Christiania -- really just an "experimental" town with their own rules and education system, and they covertly (not really so covert) do and sell drugs there. The only unfortunate thing is that they don't allow photos taken. I got about 3 anyway.

Today is my last day in Copenhagen, and Europe in general.. What do you know.. it is pouring rain, and then lightning and thunder, and then it kinda let up just an hour ago, so I will catch dinner, and that's about it. It's really a pity (but of course how surprised am I) that there was a storm on my last day.

I want to come back to Copenhagen again, but next time I definitely want to travel around the rest of Denmark - it seems like a really cool country.

Beer in Sweden.

So apparently a few years ago Swedes had a huge problem with alcoholics, so what the government decided to do was limit the percentage of alcohol in the beer, and raise the cost of the beer.
So now if you go to buy a beer in a supermarket, you can only buy beer from 0.1%-3.5% - so beer makers have to make special beers for sweden so people can buy their beer in supermarkets. 3.5%????
You either have to go to a pub or a government owned alcohol store to buy the real % beers. I don't know where those stores are.
Some Germans in the hostel last night brought back 2 6packs of 2.8% beer. What's the point in that?

7-Eleven

I have seen this for so long here and I still don't get it. There are probably (probably) more 7Elevens here in Scandinavia (mostly Denmark and Sweden, but also Norway) than in America. If you were walking down a semi large street there seems to be a 7 eleven on every other block, or on every block alternating sides. It's so ridiculous.

Ok i Wikipediaded it.. As of the data in Wikipedia....
as of 2004 86 7-11s in Norway
as of 2005 55 7-11s in Denmark
as of 2005 73 7-11s in Sweden (they say so low because of bad publicity)
so.. as of that information there are approx. 214 in Scandinavia

ok fine.. thats not that many, but those are in probably only 6 cities total.

Arrived in Malmö today

So today I took the train from Göteborg to Malmö. Malmö is there on the map if you were wondering. Honestly I had nothing to expect when I came here - I only came because it was right next to Copenhagen.

Why does it always rain in Sweden? I was in Finland for 7 days and it rained half of 1 day, and here in Sweden it rains every single day, usually when museums are closed of course. WTF.

But anyway, Malmö is a very touristy place it seems. I arrived here on the last day of the Malmö Festivalen, some Summer festival here. I have seen more tourists here (probably because of the festival) here than in Stockholm it seems.
As far as the city goes, there are definitely some cool buildings (of course churches too..). Other than that there really is nothing to do here. I went to the castle (museums were closed), went through the large park, saw the middle of town and the older part etc, and now I'm waiting for tomorrow. Time to update pictures.

More Street People!

So yesterday I found one of the funniest street performers/addicts so far in Europe, and I figured for the rest of my trip I would walk around the main streets and keep an eye out for the real strange ones. Well I went back to the spot where I saw the crazy guy from yesterday, but he wasn't doing his thing. He was just sitting there drinking. Oh well.. I waited for 5 minutes. no dancing. I came back 2 hours later and he was gone.

BUUUUUTT! On the way I did find this guy.... I first saw him all the time in Stuttgart of all places, especially during the world cup. He must have made a killing... hes in Stockholm for crying out loud. Here is the juggler-guy-with-crutches-and-football I saw in Stuttgart


On the topic of strange people in Stockholm.

As I was walking down one of the main pedestrian streets, there were numerous people holding up signs for you to read. Usually they were for pubs or hair dressers like these guys..

But then there are other people with different signs that also attract a lot of attention. I saw this guy first when I was looking for the first loony. He stood like that when I first saw him, just staring down the street. I came back an hour later... and he was still there. I finished seeing a movie and checked again and he was STILL THERE!! He is probably 6 foot 5 or something, so he kinda stands out.

And if you can't tell, his shirt reads "The Beast is Revealed. Allah is the Antichrist"
I was the only one I saw who was taking pictures right in front of him... everyone else was taking pictures of his back which read "Allah is the Antichrist"

If you can't tell from the picture, Stockholm is a pretty diverse place... There were a LOT of Muslims not happy about it. Some would just glance and look away, but then there were the ones who would stand next to him and just stare for minutes. Awkward.
It's Scandinavia... so hopefully Iran's president doesn't boycott Sweden for this.

I also saw this store.. just kinda had to add it:

Hah, AWESOME Street Performer in Stockholm

I was in Stockholm today just walking around one of the main pedestrian streets and I hear some wierd harmonica music.. first I thought it was a strange Beatles song way back when, but as I got closer... yeah. just play it. I was biting my lip so hard not to just be laughing while videoing..

Stockholm, Sweden!

Today is my first day in Stockholm. I've been here before but from what I remember, I don't think we saw much of the city. I was walking downtown today and I don't remember ANY of it. Well when I got here this morning around 10, it wasn't raining, but the weather was real bad... And it only got worse. I walked around town and found a place to eat, and then just decided to walk around and look at buildings. It started to rain, and then it was pouring. People were running for overhangs and everything. Then it started thundering, and it started raining even harder. I went to the train station partially drenched, bought my ticket to Göteborg, and as I was leaving it was pouring beyond belief. No one was going outside - just waiting for it to stop. After 5 minutes (I have no umbrella or rain jacket or jacket... its August!) I said F it, and I went to walk to the hostel, which is like 500 meters away. I have never been so wet in my life. Streets were flooded up to my calves, and I couldn't even see the sidewalks at some part. I took a picture or two of a whirlpool where the drain was taking only so much water.
Hopefully tomorrow the weather is better so I can see part of the city I've already missed seeing once.

Lappeenranta, Finland

Quick Note: All my photos from Matti's and Lappeenranta are on my photo site.

So yeah, for a long time I knew that Matti was going to have a party/weekend at the summer cottage of his parents. They own an island on a lake next to the Russian border. I think the only thing that I've seen that could rival it would be a house on Lake Tahoe or places in Alaska. It was really quiet and sunny and picturesque.
But about 15-20 of us (Finns, Swedes, French, Me) from Stuttgart study abroad went there and had a great weekend. There was a lot of sauna'ing, drinking, swimming, and other things that will not be mentioned here. Overall, it was a blast and I definitely had a great time. During the day it was always sunny and warm, and at night we could see the northern lights.

On the 3 or so hour trip back and forth there barely was anything other than trees. There only seemed to be about 4 types of tree. After that Teemu, Janne, Juusi, and Visa helped me get all my stuff to the overnight ferry to Stockholm. After the weekend I was pretty tired (and still a little hung over) and ready to have my own cabin by myself.

Tampere, Finland!

Quick Note: all the photos from Tampere are on my photo site under Finland.
So I was expecting a lot from this place. All I ever heard from a group of Finns in Stuttgart was how so good Tampere was --- I had to go see it.
I was pretty surprised, It was a really nice place. It was interesting how they incorporated nature with the city center. There were trees everywhere, and a 10 minute walk from the center of town brought you to a lake. That's pretty cool. The city isn't enormous, but for Finnish standards it's a good sized city. In Tampere I stayed at Krister's place on his couch (best couch in Tampere :) ). Their school apartments are so much better than anything back home, or Stuttgart for that matter. Huge room, good sized bed, kitchen, patio.. nice. So in Tampere I visited Krister, Perttu, Ville, and Jaakko again after Stuttgart. We had a few good nights there (some of which I don't exactly remember), but I really enjoyed that city and I thought it was more "finnish" than Helsinki as they say.

Helsinki, Finland!

Quick Note: All my photos from Helsinki are up on the photo site. Link is on the right.

So I took a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki (I missed the first scheduled ferry because no body was at the front desk so I couldn't check out). The ferry was really nice - I was expecting something a lot smaller, but it had a huge indoor place and bar and outdoor area to sit.
When I finally got into Helsinki, it was around 6pm and I was exhausted. I decided just to stroll around downtown and find a good place to eat. I found a place, it was ok - but I decided to see Superman Returns that night too. 10€ for a movie? Steep, especially for a movie like that. Some parts were good, other parts were quite bad. So I went to bed after that, and the next day I woke up early (like 10am) to go see Helsinki. What do you know, its raining again, just like in Tallinn. So I walk around town and see Senate Square, and I see some other stuff that we visited the last time we went. I was supposed to meet my Finnish buddies Janne and Teemu later that day, but it was really bad weather and I had hours and hours of time. So I went back to the movie theatre and saw Miami Vice. Was also a good movie, but dragged in the middle. So I met up later with the Finns and we decided to go to some place and get some food... Finland has this McDonald's of their own called Hessburger. It actually isn't that bad. The first one I had had so much mayo that it could barely been eaten. The fries had no salt. Oh well... Then we went on the tram in Helsinki and drove it around to see other parts of the town (the weather was better by then). We went to an amusement park where we rode a wooden rollercoaster from 1951 (scary), but haha... it was better than I thought it was (from the way Teemu was yelling, he did too). After that we went out to a few bars that were serving 1€ beers and it seemed like anyone who was 18 was there. Teemu helped me by a ticket for Tampere for the next day, and that was that.

Tallinn, Estonia

quick note: All my photos for Estonia are up!
First off, I spent a day longer in Riga than what I had planned, which meant a day less in Estonia. I've already been there and I didn't think there was much more to be seen.
I went to the hostel - and it turned out to be the best hostel in the Baltics that I went to. The people there were really cool and just wanted to have a good time. With that being said, we all went out together both nights. There was a really cool group, some aussies, and Irish guy, germans, french, spanish, etc.
As for the sights, I arrived the first day and the weather was pretty overcast- Then it started raining. One night there was a huge house fire on one of the streets -- you could barely see anything, it was awesome.

As for anything else notable... nothing much - the city was pretty much exactly the same as I first saw it.

Updating my blog. . .

I am now going to be updating my blog again -- was a while since I last had time to do it.

Riga, Latvia!

Ok, I think this is my favorite Baltic capital. I've been on a day trip to Tallinn a few years ago, and I still think this one is better.. Not sure. Ill see tomorrow for sure though. Its a compact city center, but its really clean, lots of large buildings, and the people are a lot nicer than Lithuanians. They seem to be doing the most with their new independence after the Soviets screwed them over. I went to a few museums here - they were free! My favorite two were the Museum of Latvian Occupation, and that was a real detailed view of how Latvia suffered under the Soviets, then the Nazis, and then the Soviets again. The other awesome museum was the Museum of War. Free.. and they had so many bombs and rifles and stories of the past 60 some years of Latvia. They ended with Latvia joining NATO in 2004.

Today I went to Sigulda, which is about 60KM away. It has a few castles from the 1300s or something, and I walked around 10 miles up and down hills and staircases in the forest. Im thoroughly exhausted from it. There are some good photos of it. Check it out.

Tomorrow I go to Tallinn. Its a 5 hour bus ride and I have to leave early. If they have WiFi then I can upload more photos to the internet, but I don't think there are that many picturesque things in Tallinn anyhow. Good Luck to me.

See you in a few days

Vilnius!

There are SO MANY English people here. I am in a room with 7 other people, and everyone is English, Scottish, or Northern Irish. Apparently the UK people now can get real cheap flights to Riga, and now start their vacations there and they either go up to Scandinavia or down to Prague. Oh, and at this hostel there were some really annoying people. I came down to use the computer one night, and some people were having some religious conversation. I really could tell that this one girl liked to talk a lot, and sounded like she was from New York. I didn’t want to ask her if she was jewish and from New York (I was more than 50% sure anyway), but within 5 minutes someone else had to ask the inevitable. Well yeah. She was a Jew and from New York. She also went to Harvard. She works for Let’s Go! In Latvia… Now I know why some of the tour guide books just blow… its people like that who write such stupid crap in them. Anyway, it was the (i guess sterotypical) New York Jew talking about religion with this one girl from L.A. who turned out to be a Mormon, and they were both talking to some Irish Catholic girl..... steer clear. Wow that was hard to listen to. The hardest thing about Mormon converts (yeah.. mormon converts....) is to listen to them explain to you why being a Mormon is such a good idea and that the religion is so true.

Vilnius: Vilnius does not look anything like a national capital city. It seems more like some random churchy place. The first day I got here I went to some Jewish museums. Again, museums here seem to be not all that important. The Holocaust museum was some green house behind a minor street. I did not go in it. When I think of Holocaust museums, I want nightmares. I skipped the Jewish museum and went to the Museum of Genocide Victims, which is a museum in an old KGB prison. The last time they were actually used to prison people was in 1989! Most of the rooms still have furniture from when it was KGB property. They even have prison cells in the basement that have not been changed. It was very informative and to actually be in the prison was something that really can’t even register with me. The fact that people were tortured and killed in the very same spot is just unbelievable. Later I visited the Parliament building and the National Library of Lithuania – the building was still new and they still have cement blocks and razor wire on the side of it as a reminder of Soviet tanks trying to come back into Lithuania as they declared their independence. Most of Vilnius is still going under constant reconstruction since their new independence. Maybe we should to back in 20 years and see how rich it has become since joining the EU in 2004. I visited Uzupis, the Drunk/Artist/Squatter republic of Lithuania. I didn’t see many homeless people, but it was something else to be there. It was not like the main city at all. I found the Constitution of Uzupis, the 41 points that drunk people (or on drugs) founded. Really random stuff like “everyone has the right to or not to celebrate their birthday.” I later walked around the main square in Vilnius – again everything was under reconstruction or it was waiting in line. There really wasn’t too much impressive about it. The National Museum of Lithuania again wasn’t too impressive, but beat the crap out of the Polish National Museum. They had a lot about Christian stuff, and a lot of swords and coins from their history about 600 years ago- that was cool. Later I walked up to the Gedimino Tower up on a hill above the town square and cathedral. It was reconstructed after the Soviets left, and the view was nice. Then I later walked up another hill to the three crosses that were supposedly there since the 1700’s, after some Jesuits were killed by pagans. The soviets of course knocked them down, and they were later replaced. Again, the view was better than the crosses, but it gave me some good exercise getting up to the top. As all this was happening, I could tell that the weather was getting worse. Once I got back to the hostel, the rain really started, and then there was a thunderstorm. I didn’t bring a rain jacket or any jacket or umbrella, so I did not want to leave the hostel. I didn’t. Vilnius is a very touristy city as well, although I don’t know why. It seems that the people who go here are all Catholic groups who want to see 3000 churches. I’m not too interested in that, but I guess I picked the wrong part of Europe then. I was supposed to go to Trakai today and see a castle on a few lakes, but it’s Monday now and all museums and that castle is closed, and it’s raining. Not too sure I want to go that far to be in the rain and visit a closed castle. I will be seeing castles in Riga.

Long awaited update from Lithuania I guess...

Just a short note first: I tried to delete my poland album on the photo website so I could do details on all the photos... program wont let me. So... sorry about that - they will have no details as far as I can see.


The updates will be up above this one.

Latvian Photos are up!

I've just updated all of my Latvian photos on my photo website. Address is: http://community.webshots.com/user/markrcpde

I went around Riga and took photos, and today I took an 8 hour day trip to the National Park of Sigulda. It was a great day today- check out the photos.

Vilnius, Lithuania Photos are up!

Ok I have just uploaded all of my Lithuania pictures. These have comments on them. I think I will have to erase my Poland and Austria albums and then put them back up with comments. It takes much longer just to edit the comments on them. That will probably happen within a few days.

I will also be updating stuff from Lithuania (comments and ideas etc.) tonight or the next few days. Whenever I'm bored I guess.

LINK: http://community.webshots.com/user/markrcpde

Time out with blogs and photo updates in Lithuania

Ok -- so apparently when the wireless internet doesn't work in this god forsaken hostel, all the reception can do to help is shrug their shoulders. I will have a lot of updated around here when I get into Riga, Latvia, on the 8th of August.

But quickly.

I took the night bus (12 hours) from Warsaw to Vilnius. I emailed ahead to this hostel here in Vilnius that I would be really late. Like I reserved for the 4th when I would be arriving at 5am on the 5th. That way I could give them money and my passport and then pass out after a night of no sleep on the bus. They said it wasnt any problem at all. Cool. Well I get to the train station here and there are NO street signs at all. Here I am carrying like 60 kilos of luggage while its misting at 5 am after a 12 hour bus ride and I have no idea where Im going. After about 30 minutes (of what should have eben a 5 minute walk) I get to the hostel. The lady at reception has NO idea what Im talking about, about me showing up late. I said I emailed.. she checks the emails.. and she said that her colleague didnt tell here that I would be showing up later. Well Im like.. well Im here. And she says.. well thats not the problem. We already gave your bed away. Here I am exhausted... WTF. So she says I can go downstairs to the kitchen and sleep in the kitchen area until someone leaves for a train ride.. So about 7 30 in the morning I got a bed. Serious bullshit up here in Lithuania.

Ill have more updates again August 8th. Ill reupdate all my Vienna, Poland, and Vilnius pictures to have comments.
Until Then.

My Austrian Roommates in Warsaw

So I moved into my hostel here in Warsaw - I am in an 8 person dorm and I was the first person to move in. The last time that happened I met up with 3 cool guys from Nevada in Vienna. This time is really different. Apparently 7 girls from Vienna (yeah that sounds good.....) decided to take a 5 day trip to Warsaw (why so long only God knows). I asked them where they were from and they said Austria. Now, I've just left Germany hoping to get out of the German game for a while, and look what I have to deal with. You would think having them all in the room could have it's plusses, but really doesn't. They are probably 18-20 and act like it's a slumber party every night. Uncomfortable you know? But the thing is, I never told them that I knew German. ;) . So for three days now I've been just listening to what they're saying, and really it's sad that people can talk about such stupid shit for so long. I just got out of my room for example and they were arguing whether or not the "the" for "Cakes" is "Der Cakes" or "Das Cakes"... If I didn't know German I would definitley be losing it right now.

Here's the thing. I've been giving them small clues to the fact that I know german. They wanted me to sign their shoe (yeah. they're wierd. i told you) and I put Mark, aus den USA. They didn't read it until the next day for some reason and they were like.. whhhatt.? (or it was probably like "Waaaaas?) and then the other day I walked in my room with them and asked them "Wie Geht's?". They all kinda giggled and answered.
But they kinda caught on because I was listening to their conversation one day and they thought that that shouldn't be happening. They asked if I knew German, and I said just a little.
But tonight I said a few sentences in German and answered a few questions which they asked each other in German.. they asked if I studied it in highschool or something. I told them I studied abroad in Stuttgart... and I finished 6 days ago.... HAHA... he look on their faces was hilarious. They had no idea for 3 or so days. They were all in disbelief and laughing, thinking about what they said when I was around.

The reason why I kinda did it was 1, I was tired of German. 2, for the last year I've had to expect that everyone around me regardless of who they were or where they came from understood me when I spoke English. z.B. the Finns don't have that problem for instance --- they told me they regularly make remarks (for example) about the stewardesses in planes when they're right in front of them.. I mean who knows Finnish except for the Finns. So this was the first time that I could actually do it. Kinda fun actually.

Mormons in Poland?

Today I was finishing up a book (The Firm) on a random street (Aleje Ujazdowskie) bench near our hostel when I see two Mormons walking my way. First thought was what the heeeelll?? Why go to a 80%+ Catholic country in Europe to convert them to Mormonism. Kinda a hard sell.. I mean who's gonna convert to be a Mormon?? Well.. Mormonism is a hard sell to begin with.. but this is just crazy(er).
Second thought... Oh god I'm wearing my Cal Poly T-Shirt (in English). I'm sooo screwed. They're gonna talk to me. I just know it.
And then I was reading looking down at the bench and I could see their feet slow down and come to my direction. Yup. Screwed.
They talk to me in Polish as if I look like a Pole, and then I say "English?". and apparently they're from Texas. I tell them that my roommate was a Mormon and I know what they're about and Im not interested but Good Luck, and they leave and do their conversion thing with other peeps.

Seriously.. Mormons in Poland? That must suck. The LDS church says.. hey why not go to Poland and learn Polish and maybe convert more than 10 people in 2 years... make good use of your time... yeeeeahh.. That must suck.

They just better not be in Lithuania. Learning Polish and living in Poland is one thing.. Lithuanian.. wow.

Museums in Warsaw

Ok, so apparently I am spoiled about museums travelling through Europe. I've been to many really great museums that I could spend up to 3 or so hours in.
BUT -- The museums here are just SOOO bad. I was reading through the tour guide Lonely Planet and they pretty much summed up everything. They put in only the best museums for Warsaw and that left me with just a few. I went to the Polish Uprising museum... and yeah... I don't speak polish and that's all that was there. I went to the Polish Army Museum. You think that would be awesome right? Well apparently they have like 20 tanks and 2 airplanes and some cannons out front (which was cool), and inside they just have a lot of information about the different badges and crap for Polish militas and ranks... woooww..
I went to the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF POLAND for crying out loud. I was out of there in less than 20 minutes. It was a good 10 degrees hotter in the museum than outside (so around 85 inside), and the only A/C in the building were fans directed at the "security" guards staring at you every 20 feet. By secruity guards I mean old ladies that make sure you just dont steal shit. Why have technology do that for you when you need to employ another 25% of your population?
I am so done with Poland it's not even funny.

Strange Insect Bite

So about a month ago in Stuttgart I was repeatedly being bitten by bugs, apparently in my sleep. But the second day of this insect attack there was a distinct bug bite on my right foot. It had a small circle, and then an oval red shape around it. It really hurt when I put my shoe on, and a few days later my lymphnode around my left armpit swelled up and it hurt to move my arm above 90°. A few days later the lymphnode went back to normal, and then so did the bug bite, sort of. Well one day about a week after that (3 days before I left for Poland), I thought I got around 13 bug bites on my right foot all around that initial bite. I thought that was strange. Later that night I showed it to my buddies... It turned from 13 bumps to a rash type looking thing. And every day after that it kept growing and growing. Now the rash goes from my toes to the bottom of my ankle. I decided to get some medical attention (yes, despite being in Poland, I know). So the doctor gave me 2 types of antibiotics and some steriods to stop the itching. She said that if it doesn't get better in 4 days then I should reseek medical attention (I will be in Lithuania... even scarier than polish medicine). I just hope that this thing goes away.

So People Actually Read this Thing?

So the other day someone mentioned something that I only stated in my blog. Of course it was about my opinion of the girls' team at the Bierlauf. They ended up getting second. Congrats.

lucky. ;)

Minor problem to the start of my trip...

So, as you know (most of you at least), my last night in Stuttgart was a Pub Golf night. basically my buddies and I ended our night around 7am.. I had to wake up by 8:30. The flight was at 11:05. I woke up at 10. So I missed that and I had to find another flight. The cheapest available flight (connecting in Frankfurt) was to a Polish city named Katowice (or something like that. I still dont know) My first flight, I requested to be in the emergency row. One was available which was cool. I get in the plane, and my seat is missing. Not like oh, its wrong, but the seat was missing. GREAT. Anyway I get to the airport at midnight... and then I have to take a 30 minute bus ride to the train station, and then I took at 2 hour ride to Krakow. I got into the hostel at 3am. -- DO NOT -- go to a hostel alone in Poland after 1am... so many drunk homeless polish people. so strange. Basically I finally got into the place a day late.

Haha ---
I went to a McDonalds the next morning. This is what I learned about McDonalds around the world.
In California their employees are Mexican.
In St. Louis MO, their employees are black (so I hear).
In Germany, they're most likely Turks
In Poland, they're polish.
Just thought that was funny.. Probably because they got screwed over in WWII, and then screwed over by the soviets until around 15 years ago.

7 Days Left in Germany

Finally this German year is coming to a close. I'm ready to get back home to California and end this horrible German system of schooling.
After Germany I will start my month-long travel plan through Poland, the Baltic states, and Scandinavia.
The only thing that I truly am sad of leaving are the people here that I met and studied (read partied and vacationed) with for a year. I will meet the North Americans later after I get back. I'm planning on that, whether it's in California, Canada, Mexico, or eastern USA.

Can't wait to get out of here.

May be last post for a while

I don't think im going on any more trips before I leave Germany. I will most likely keep stuff going well online after I leave Germany though, because I will have time for internet.

Germany plays Italy July 4th. We will most likely watch that game and then start up fireworks and cook American food. Should be good.

by the way, Happy Canada Day.... Not even Canadians could tell me what it exactly was.

World Cup Madness

So - the World cup is a week from over now. There have been some great games and some boring ones as well.

Everyone has "World Cup Fever" here -- its insane. Yesterday Germany beat Argentina in shootouts, today Portugal (I hope the entire country commits suicide) beat England in shootouts.

It's hard to watch Portugal and other countries play. They will dive and fake injuries to give other players yellow cards. Just cheating the game and the viewers.

I still haven't uploaded my last vacation videos. I don't think I am going to. Who knows, I might get really bored one day.

It's July 1st!

This can only mean one thing...

I leave Germany study abroad in 28 days.

Red Hot Chili Peppers!

Stadium Arcadium is a really good album. I'm surprised how 28 songs can all be so good. Usually there are some shit tracks on a CD.... but they're not on this one.

Sending things home, and leaving Germany!

So - I officially as of today have: 37 more days left in Sommersemester and in Germany. After that I have 28 days left in Europe. So I have (as of 21.6.06) 65 days left in Europe before I go home for good. But what I'm really sad/concerned about is the 37 days left in Germany with friends and everything. It's going to suck leaving everyone after such a great year of travelling and learning to not speak German. I am most likely going to go visit some people in the US/CAN/MEX sometime next year when I get a break, but who knows if thats going to happen.

And, with the 37 days left here in Stuttgart, I need to start thinking about what I am willing to carry for a month while on the road to Copenhagen for my flight, what I am willing to send home and not bring with me, and then throw/give away everything else that's not on either list. I don't want an empty room for a month, but if I don't do most of that now, then I will be screwed later on. I need to tell the careperson when to check out my room to get my deposit back, I need to cancel my bank account here in Germany, I need to cancel my internet, I need to cancel health insurance, I need to cancel my phone service, I need to unenroll from University, and I need to take all my finals, and I need to have a good time. 37 days.

Back from Amsterdam!

Hey,

So I went on a weekend trip to Amsterdam this past weekend.
We drove up there for 6 hours to get there Friday night. We partied a bit - the DUTCH (YEAH) won their game that day and so many people were in Orange, it was crazy.
Anyway, we couldn't find any place to stay at, so we slept in the car at 4am until around 11, and then went into town and went crazy. I'm not telling the details of that day but let's just say it was one of the coolest so far. ;). We went to an internet place to see if there was any accomodation for the night, and there wasn't. We chilled the rest of the day around Amsterdam and by 0:30 the next day we decided to head back to Stuttgart right away instead of sleeping in the car and then driving back.

All in all, it was a really fun trip that I can't say anything about on here.

Weltmeisterschaft 2006 (World Cup) in Germany!

So, The World Cup is going strong here in Germany. Tonight we are going to go to the center of town where they play all the games on big screens. It's going to be one of my favorite teams, the Dutch, vs. Argentina. It's supposedly the best matchup as far as skill so far here in the World Cup. GO DUTCH!
But on a more cultural note, a few of my friends and I have noticed that it's the first time that we actually have seen Germans flying their flag. Ever since world war II and even through reunification the Germans have grown up to be unnationalistic if thats a word. They are not proud to be German on the whole. So now with the World Cup in Germany and the German team doing well, we see a lot more pride for Germany and their country than we've seen this far. It's really nice to see.

I went to the Spain vs. Tunisia game the other day. It was amazing! Even though neither team really is my favorite, it was pretty cool to be dressed up cheering for a good team in the World Cup. Beer there was 3.50€ for a .33L cup. Outrageous.. and they only sold Budweiser. A .5L of Coke was 3.00€ Not much better.
Can't wait for the 3rd place match July 8th!

Budapest!

"Do you have anything to declare?"
"yes. Don't go to Budapest."

That's pretty much my summation of Budapest. First, the Hungarian language is so so strange. Like in Italian or Dutch or Portuguese I can sound out words and maybe get the meaning since i know English German and some French.... but not in this place. Not only that, but you have to go to McDonalds or an Irish Pub to get people who really speak english.

As for the sights.... there really isn't much to see. I took some pictures of some statues (East Europeans LOVE statues) - I might not even remember who they are of, but theyre in Gold.

They have a huge park there just filled with the removed statues of Communist leaders. I didn't go to it but I heard it was strange and exciting.

Also, I went to the bar everyday to watch the football games in the World Cup. Hungarian TV sucks so you have to go to a bar with Sky Sports or Eurosport to catch the games. Lots of English people there... kinda good but English people and alcohol .. wow.

Hungarian Border Police!

So, I went from Vienna to Budapest on a train. While on the train, we had to go through two border checks. One leaving Austria and the other entering Hungary. When we were leaving Austria, I got my passport checked and stamped as usual. There was this guy about 5 seats in front of me with some arab looking buddy. Anyhow, the Austrian border police didn't like them. They were checkin the passport over and over, brought a laptop and checked a lot of stuff... made him take everything out of his bag, along with the bottom liner, the sides and everything. Then they made his friend do the same. Then they finally stamped their passports.
As we crossed the border into Hungary, the Hungarian border police came on the train and the Austrians got off. Apparently the Austrians told the Hungarians about this guy, because they went directly to him, made him RE unpack all his stuff, hassled him for seriously 25 minutes while other border police came over.. They then took him away towards the front of the train and I never saw the guy again. WTF. Ive never seen that before!

Back from Austria!

Hey, finally updating again.

So I went to Vienna for the 6th-10th of June. I went alone for the first time on a trip and I liked it a lot. First of all, travelling alone is quite different. I think everyone who has done that can agree with that. In some aspects travelling alone is better. When you travel in groups there always has to be a consensus as to what to see, where to eat, what to eat, where to go out, when to wake up, etc. The larger the group the less stuff you get done with more people needing to decide what to do. When you travel alone, you can do what you want when you want and where you want. That aspect gefällt mir gut. ;). The flipside is that going out and dinner etc. is harder because you are alone. Along my trip in Austria I met some pretty cool guys from Nevada. They were there for their summer Europe trip out of college. We all went to watch the football game for the World Cup and went drinking, eating, and touring Vienna. So I think travelling alone is fun, but it also relies heavily on who you are in a dorm with/meet at the hostel, and what city you are in.

Vienna has a lot of very cool buildings. They are not even important buildings - but everywhere you go, the detail and workmanship put into everything is amazing. I have a lot of good pictures of Vienna at my webshots website. http://community.webshots.com/user/markrcpde
At times I could barely take all the art in Vienna. It's just way too much. I went to an art museum showing Austria's best artists..... now I know why I haven't heard of them.

So yeah - I was going to a bar with the Nevada buddies... and there were like only 5 people in that bar, and when we went in, they were all staring at us. Us 4 entering were looking at each other wondering who they were staring at and why. I ask the guys who they're staring at after about 10 seconds. They say... We're staring at you? Why are you such an asshole?
At this point im baffled beyond belief. So im like Wtf... why? And they say Why don't you say hi to us? We know you from class.... And then it finally hits me. These are friends of my brother from Atlanta. I explain it and they finally get it and then we all have a few good laughs/beers after that. Seriously... who meets their brother's friends from college that they've never met in Europe in a random bar one night in Vienna.

Ill be updating soon.

Ive been busy with school and stuff so I havent been updating the past few weeks.

As a reminder to myself, I will be getting stuff down like:
Austria trip
Hungary trip
Amsterdam trip
Fußball Weltmeisterschaft 06
Dutch Fans
Bret's friends
trying to send things home
39 more days until I leave Germany... :(

10,000 views!

YO.
I have photos of my trips and in Germany on a webshots website. Yesterday the views of my 2,000 photos reached the 10,000 mark. Right now my photos have been viewed 10,054 times.
Check out the photos at this link http://community.webshots.com/user/markrcpde

and, hopefully there will be another 10,000 views.

Eurovision Song Contest

Finland's Lordi singing "Hard Rock Hallelujah" at the Eurovision Song Contest. By the way that's the coolest hat I've ever seen. So apparently this is a pretty big contest, but I haven't heard of it before here. This is a pop contest for 24 countries in and around europe. It was on a few days ago, and with the exception of Lordi, every song was awful. Like it was painful to watch at times. Salmiakki Kossu helped. It's not that the song is good either.. the lyrics are hilariously bad, but the song is catchy.

The funniest thing I think is that before Lordi went on stage, they had a special announcement on German TV telling parents that Lordi was up next and they should decide whether or not to move the children from the room.

HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH! :)

Bierlauf Results

Well, the Bierlauf was a much larget success the second time around. This time there were around 12 teams, when there were like only 7 last time. We all got official Columbus Bierlauf shirts - so that was really fun.
They changed the rules from last time though. Last time it was really just basic. You have the beer and the finish line. This time they added stupid things like a balloon to the bottom of the crate, and if you set the crate down it would pop. If it popped, you got 5 minutes added to your overall time. Most of the balloons were gone at the end. Ryan Scott and I were doing fairly well, but about half way through, ryan put a bottle back in and the mouth of one beer bottle chipped, and the resulting tiny glass piece fell and popped the balloon. After that we kinda just gave up on winning. We took our time and drank the beer.
We were about 500meters from the end when we decided to sprint to the finish. Ryan told us he was going to vomit, and 2 seconds later he spewed beer while running. I made it to the end before I found a bush to throw up behind.
Then there was a party with free bbq and beer put on by the restaurant. It was a very fun event.

Revisiting my Travel Goal

Way back in November I published my travel goal for this year abroad in Germany. My goal was to travel to every european country. (excluding Bosnia and Herz. Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Belarus, the Ukraine, and Moldova). Partly because its hard to get a Visa, and then the balkans have nothing to see and don't really have accessible airports.

I've modified it a bit because I added more countries to visit.
So we've got: Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and Malta

I'm planning on going to (as in I booked stuff) to Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary.

That leaves these countries that I haven't travelled to:
Iceland, Wales, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.

Of this group, I'll most likely visit Greece or Iceland next.

BIERLAUF v.2.0!

For those of you who have read this a long time ago, way back in the first semester we participated in a Bierlauf. It's a fun social activity put on by a student restaurant-bar where teams of 3 compete against each other to run around campus drinking 24 Beck's beers (8 liters total, 2.4liters per person, or 90fl.oz. per person) and a heavy plastic container and see which team can do it the fastest. The first, second, and third teams all win prizes.

Last time, each team had to run 3.8KM (like 2.2 miles) and the fastest time was 38 minutes. My team (me, Scott, and Ryan) won our category of team with 44 minutes.

This time, each team has to run 4.5KM (like 2.8 miles) with the same amount of beer. But this tim there are more teams because it's more popular.
Some teams:
"The Deciders" (reference to G.W.Bush... American team...) - Me, Scott, Ryan
then there is an American/Canadian team: Stuart, JP, and Petar
then there is another American/Canadian team: Dennis, Matt, and Dan
there is also a girls team.. but they probably wont finish.
There are other teams besides these, but those are the internationals.

by the way, this Bierlauf is going to be taking place this Thursday after classes. It might also be raining!! coolest thing!

Next travel trip: BOOKED!

Ok, so I just booked another trip this morning. We have a week off for some stupid Christian holiday in June. So anyway, with my schedule, I get June 2 - June 13 off.
I had two travel plans in mind. I try to find places that I haven't been to, and then pick either the more interesting one, or the really cheap one.. depending.
The first travel plan was 10 days in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Sarajevo, BosniaHerz, and then Split, Croatia. It was going to be 4 days in Dubrovnik, 2 in Sarajevo, and 3.5 in Split. I hear everyone likes Dubrovnik, but after Rijeka it seems a little too familiar. Sarajevo I just wanted to go to because it's really different.... when are you going to fly from California to see Sarajevo?

The other trip, which I picked, is this:

June 6th, fly Stuttgart to Vienna. 4 days in Vienna.
Train to Budapest, Hungary.
3 days in Budapest
June 13th, fly Budapest to Stuttgart

I haven't been to either of these places, and from what I've read and heard from other people, they are two really cool places (well.. Vienna is better but yeah.)

This will be the first travelling I will be doing on my own. I figure I should at least get a short trip in by myself before I go for a month alone (except for Finland) in August. It'll be fun.


We are also thinking of going back to Amsterdam from June 15 (another holiday) to June 18th, the Sunday. I think we're going to make it work... just have to decide things fast.

Back from Krk, Croatia!

So again, I went to the island resort town of Krk, Croatia with 5 other Finns (them being Krister, Jaakko, Perttu, Ville, and Teemu) -- ah my head still hurts from thinking of all the drinking that we did.
The trip really started when we first had a beer in the airport before our plane was being boarded. We took a little longer than we thought, and before we knew it, we were the last six people on the bus headed for the airport. I was in last place going through passport security, and the airport attendant yelled at me "hurry up Mr. Roberts" - all the Finns apparently thought it was funny because they were not dead last. We all ran to the bus after security.

Once we got onto our HLX air taxi to Rijeka, the crew played us some music. I don't know if it was on purpose, but they chose Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly". I don't think I would choose a song by that name, especially when there are lyrics in it that go "what comes up, must come down", when you're "learning to fly". Anyway I thought that was awkward.

Once we got to the Rijeka airport, we took a 30km taxi ride through the middle of nowhere to our apartment. Once we got to the kick-ass apartment, we unloaded speakers, a laptop, and some vodka. Needless to say, 5 Finns and I weren't going to let a Tuesday night in Croatia go without a party, even if it was just us. I remembered some of the songs the Finns played from the F1 race car drive, but there were many other good ones as well - they basically played 15 Finnish songs for 6 or so days. Anyhow, we went to a bar that night.. or morning, I'm not exactly sure, but what I do know is that I woke up at 10am to blasting Finnish music. awesome? "HARD ROCK, HALLELUJAH" was one of the songs that made it on my "remember these things list"... probably because I can't spell the finnish track names.

Along with having to (well it wasnt THAT bad) listen to Finnish music, I wanted to learn some more Finnish phrases. Jaakko taught me (im guessing here on spelling) hyvä tissit, which means nice tits... Ville apparently also calls breasts in Finnish balls, so when he said "nice balls" in english, he got a few "....WTF?" looks. Still pretty funny.

The first night we kinda broke the glass top to a coffee table, and we reported it to our travel agency person. She was fine with it but we still were going to have to pay for it.

After the first night, we kinda walked around the town and noticed there was a complete lack of things to do. We picked up some 2liter Löwenbräu bottles (yeah seriously... never seen those before), and parked ourselves on a beach for a while. I ate too much at lunch, and along with the beer I decided to make myself throw up so I would feel better. Tuna pizza and beer coming out sucks.

I think after the second night, when we went to the bar again, I was thoroughly exhausted. There was nothing I could do to get energy.. I slept about a day. I don't know exactly which night was which here, they kinda blend together and its really not that important anyhow, but here goes some explaining. One night we went to a bar and they were closing, but Teemu didn't want to leave or something, and kinda got kicked out right before closing time. After that we went to the infamous "Jungle Bar" on the island.. From what I remember that night, I forgot my wallet in the apartment, and after ordering a Beck's, I was like.. "uhhhhh Ville.. do you have any money?" He spotted me and that was all ok. After that, I knew I was just going to be sober at the club/bar, so I basically watched Teemu agressively get the girls to dance with him, and wait for a fight to break out and then help Teemu fight some German dudes ;). In the end, we all went back and had a good time. I don't remember if it was this night or another,... yeah I think it was, but Teemu and I ended up partying until 7AM at the apartment. We only stopped when Teemu wanted to go outside to the balcony and lay in the sun.... but it was after 12 or so hours of partying and I guess he didn't notice that the window door was closed. He kneed it, and it kinda shattered. He patched up his knee and we both figured it was time to go to bed.
During the days we would grab a Kiste of Beck's and lay on a rocky beach and BBQ. That's really about all we did. There wasn't too much to do on the island, and if we wanted to go into a town, the bus fares were outrageous. Might as well just BBQ on a beach.

Aha... also, we had a screaming contest -- who could reach the highest pitch and volume... I of course sucked.. that was given.. What I didn't expect was that Teemu would beat us all so badly. For a Finnish guy who's around 6'3" and works out and plays basketball... he really screamed like a little girl :). One of our neighbors about 100m away started yelling at us in Croatian because Teemu was so good.

We had to get up the last morning at 7:30 to get our taxi to the airport. Everyone was still drunk when we got to the airport, and I kinda threw up there at the airport. outside.. but it didn't stop some security guard from yelling at me:) he should be happy it was outside at all.

Ok, I think that's enough of the stories that I want to tell right about now. There are more, but I think they're better left for us.

Formula 1 Race at Nürburgring (European GP)

Hey!

So I just got back from the Formula 1 race (European Grand Prix) at Nürburging in Germany. I went with a couple of Finnish friends (Teemu, Janne, Krister, Matti, and myself).

The race itself wasn't that spectacular - we were situated on a sloped field with a giant screen, but we could see cars racing by. Ive been to an American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca, but these cars were ridiculously louder.

I was surprised by the fans that came to this race - when you see how the drivers carry themselves during interviews, along with the millions of dollars pumped into the sport, and the global scale that this sport competes on (5 continents), you could expect the fans to represent it.




In the area that our tickets seated us at, there was every American NASCAR stereotype to be found, but not nearly as bad as this guy:

But there were of course 10's of people who could have had the biggest beer bellies I've ever seen. Some Germans brought their own mini kegs instead of buying cups from the vendors. There were people who were covered in tattoos.

Of course there were also the people who flew in from the UK, or drove from France or the Netherlands to see the race - the people who you would expect to be at these races.

In the end, I thought it was a pretty good race. I was rooting for either Michael Schumacher (my favorite since Dan from CA got me interested in the sport), or Kimi Räikkönen (thanks of course to the Finns.) At the end, Michael Schumacher ended up winning, and Kimi ended up in 4th out of 22.
With that being said, I think that was one of my last F1 races for a long time. If I were to go to one any time soon, it would have to be the Monaco Grand Prix.

We went up and back from the F1 race in Teemu's car. With that being said, there's really no car ride that can compare with a 3 hour ride each way filled these Finns. It's a good group of people, and with my complete lack of knowledge of Finnish, a little insane at times. We started with German radio at the beginning of the trip, and there was actually decent music on (that means it was current American music), but then the signal faded out, and we started listening to Finnish music. Leevi and the Leavings was the band name.. it may sound strange at first, but you just have to like a band with such memorable song titles as "Matkamuistoja" and "Kerro Terveiset Lapsille" and "En Ei Olla Niinkuin Ennen", I mean that goes without saying.

The music is what you would think when you say "Finnish folk music", but apparently the genius is in the lyrics (of course that wasn't my opinion). The songs apparently range all the way from drinking a lot, to fucking, to love, to drinking even more than before.

After about 4 hours of Leevi and the Leavings and other finnish music, I had a few favorites that I am going to download in the next few days to add to my collection of "Spanish music that I have no f'ing clue what the words say", and "Bulgarian music that I have no f'ing clue what the words say".

All in all, I really enjoyed the daytrip and am really glad that I went to see a Formula 1 race.

Anyway here is a photo from the Finns waving their flags in front so that everyone behind them had to see :)

NEXT:
Tomorrow I am going to Croatia to the Island of Krk with none other than... 5 Finns.. this is going to be great. I am going with Ville, Krister, Teemu, Jaako, and Perttu.

May 9-14 is the trip.

Google Picasa kicks ass

After taking just a few shy of 2000 pictures since I've been here in Stuttgart, I've only recently learned of Picasa, a free photo touch up program by Google. I know Adobe Photoshop can do all this crazy stuff, but if you don't know how to do it, it gets a bit overwhelming.
Within 3 minutes of using Picasa, I figured out how to make my photos better. Here is one example.






The left side was the original picture that I took of the Bosphorus in Turkey. On the right side is the new touch up.









Here are the Cliffs of Mohr in Ireland. On the left side is the touch up photo, and on the right side is the original picture










It's freggin' unbelievable. Now I might have to touch up all my photos.

Greetings from Portugal's Coast

Deutsche Post sucks.

So back in March I sent my keys back to me from the Stuttgart airport to my apartment here. Well apparently the Airport Guard sent it to the post office, and then the post lost my keys and swiss army knife. I still havent resolved this with our Hausmeister. I have already had to spend 100€ on the key, but I will have to spend more, I'm sure of it.

And then recently I sent Jason (buddy from back home) a package of glasses and shot glasses and a few beers from Prague back to California to him. It cost me 62€ to send it. I went to Portugal, and when I got back, the package was back here. Apparently they dropped my package a few times, one of the beer bottles that was well wrapped broke. The broken beer bottle made the package wet and two liter mugs fell out of the bottom. Then on the returned package they said I did not sufficently wrap the contents inside to protect them.

Thats bullshit. Since when do half liter bottles break from putting them in the post. Its still a holiday today so tomorrow I have to go to the post office and make sure that I at least get 62€ back from them, and hopefully compensation for the two broken mugs. But this is Germany.. who knows what they'll pull.

Portugal!

Im not quite back from Portugal yet, but we are not doing anything tomorrow and we are all done with sight seeing tonight, so why not.

Lisbon:
Lisbon is a great city - its really spectacular. Despite their need for millions (not quite) of statues and monuments, there really are other things to do there. We visited the Lisbon castle, and took a lot of cool pictures of the surrounding area. There were a lot of good buildings built for the ´98 Expo, and we went on some gondolas and into the Oceanarium. I might update a few more things when I remember them. We did so much walking between Amsterdam and Lisbon... my legs hurt! One day we were out walking up the hills of Lisbon for about 10 hours.
In Lisbon we met some cool people at our hostel (one of the 10 best in the world, according to Hostelworld - Lisbon Lounge). It was probably the best Ive been in so far. But we met a pair of girls from the Faroe Islands (part of Denmark, between Scotland and Iceland) - they were real fun, and we also met a girl from Washington. We went out to dinner a few times and shared some stories. I think there is so much to do in the area of Lisbon and south Portugal that I have to come back sometime.

Porto: There is so much construction going on here in Porto. They are finishing up their metro stations at the moment. One line is completely done, and NOBODY uses it. its so creepy. It feels like we are walking through some abandoned tunnels.. There is not so much to see here in relation to Lisbon, but we went to the beach today for a few hours- windy but nice. I have a sunburn across my back from where I didnt reach but thought I did.. kinda funny when I dont lay down or take a shower. We saw some big cathedral here, Sé, and we also visited a pretty large tower. We went to a museum about Port wine... and it kinda sucked. my tourbook said it was free and had free tastings. it cost 2€ and didnt have anything to drink there. We learned more about Port wine on their computers at the museum than from any of their post ups.

Last night I went to Inside Man with Stuart (a movie). It was good, but I fell asleep during it and I dont get it. Ill have to watch it again.
Tonight we are going to Scary Movie 4. Its going to be bad, but hopefully there will be a lot of laughs.

Tomorrow Stuarts friends are coming into town and we are going to go to Frühlingsfest and have a few liters of the good german beer. Can´t wait.

I am going to start booking some hostels and plane flight to Krakow. I am also looking to start visiting more of Germany during this semester now that I know my class schedule. I kinda avoided it last semester.

Back from Amsterdam!

I know this is a bit late, but Im in Portugal now writing it. Ok - so Amsterdam was probably one of my favorite cities in Europe. Wow, surprise there. But there is really no place like it in Europe or the Americas. Going from Morocco, and then three days later to Amsterdam, it was really a fun change of pace to see the two cultures back-to-back.
In Amsterdam (im censoring a lot of this trip of course... why not - Stuart`s line is that we didnt do anything there that was illegal in Amsterdam.. I guess Ill go with that too), we went to the Heineken Experience Brewery - it was a really well put together museum. It went through the history of the brand, it had some cool "rides" like the bottle ride. CLINK CLINK CLINK CLINK :). it was entertaining. When you buy your 10€ ticket, you end up getting .75 liters of Heineken along with a 5€ bottle opener. More than paid for itself.
We went to the Van Gogh museum. I thought it was a really interesting museum, but the way that it was laid out really made it hard to really look at the work without being hasseled by people.
We also went to the Anne Frank Huis. It was hard to really get it in my mind that the wide spread fear of Nazis was so close - that we were in the same house that people hid in for so long and later died in concentration camps. Personally it is still hard to believe.
I am definitely going back to Amsterdam. The city in general is amazing. The canals and the designs of the buildings, along with the Dutch people really make it one of the most welcoming cities I´ve been to.

Final date on coming back to America

I bought a plane ticket to go back to San Francisco for August 28th from Copenhagen.

My school ends July 27th.
I will either purchase a plane ticket from Stuttgart to Krakow for July 28th or August 1st. I am still a little unsure of how cancelling phones and bank accounts goes here - my lease at this apartment ends july 31st, and everything will happen very quickly.

In any case, I've started to assemble my vacation out of Europe. Here it goes so far...
Stuttgart to Krakow
Krakow Poland for 2 or 3 days (Auschwitz is there)
Warsaw Poland for 2 days
Vilnius Lithuania for 2 days
Riga Latvia for 2 days
Tallinn Estonia for 2 days
Finland for 7 days (either in Helsinki, Tampere, or doing some trips in Finland) I think I might be there for my birthday. that will be a little insane. August 18th.
Stockholm for 3 days
Oslo for 2 days
Copenhagen for 3 days
Copenhagen ---- CALIFORNIA August 28th
then there are a few more days left to put in there, depending on my Krakow flight.

I will be at home for a week+, but I need to be back in SLO for school to start and everything. Need a house to live in too... hmmm

More World Cup Tickets!

So Jocelyn told me today that another of our applications for world cup tickets got through!

The lottery that we won was part of returned tickets that people didn't want for some reason or another. The game that we got was June 18 Spain vs. Tunisia in Stuttgart. Wow you're saying right now... but hey.. a football game in the world cup is a football game in the world cup. And we have tickets for two games. Still awesome as far as I'm concerned.
June 18. Spain vs. Tunisia
July 8. 3rd place match in Stuttgart

kick ass

Morocco

Well, I'm never going back to Morocco.

We spent seven days in Morocco. We went from Tangiers to Fès, and then hired a guide to take us into the Sahara, and then to Marrakesh where we flew back to Stuttgart.
Fès was really different. I haven't visted a place like that before. The old Medina was insane. So many people living in cramped quarters where the only vehicles are donkeys. They had an awful sewer system, namely - they had two rivers. one where they got their drinking water, and the other where they threw everything away. And their solution to the foul smelling water and trash everywhere? Build a higher wall on the bridge over it so you can't see it. Wow.

Their food was also OK. We had to make sure that we were not eating any fresh vegetables or tap water. Mint tea was their favorite drink there, along with fresh squeezed orange juice. We had camel meat at some really sketch restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Tasted like cow. A little too much like cow if you know what I mean.

The people will try to rip you off in tourist areas. You have to bargain for everything. Usually we found in Turkey that they offer a price, you cut it in half and then go a little lower for something fair. Here in Morocco it wasn't even close. We would be offered carpets at an initial price of 10,000 dirhams (like 1000€), and then we were like, fuck that... who wants an ugly carpet like that for that amount of money. So then they are still there thinking you want that ugly thing, while we just say that we are not interested. They got all the way to 200€ and we still weren't budging.. They probably would have made a profit if we payed 50€ for it. And then you had to do that with everything, except dinner and lunch.

The people were nice, I'll give them that. The scenery and geology of the interior of Morocco is pretty amazing. Oases, deserts, and mountains. I really thought Turkey was a much better country, more western, and cheaper. There are a lot more sites to see in Turkey as well.

My pictures of Spain and Morocco should all be up tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow - I am going to Amsterdam for a short 3 day vacation.
I get back on the 24th, and on the 25th I go to Lisbon and Porto with stuart until the 29th. 25th of April is their national holiday, so that should be exciting.

Thoughts about getting back to America

I was thinking recently about when I should come back to America. I really want to visit Iceland, and they often have connections from Iceland to the states.

What I am thinking now is:
School ends July 31st.
Travel to Finland and see the Finns for about a week or so up in Tampere or Turku or Helsinki... where ever. Take a ferry to Stockholm and see Sweden again. There they have some cheaper flights to Iceland. Then stay in Iceland for a week or a few more days than a week. Then fly back to America. As far as all my luggage, I will most likely give away or throw away what I dont need, and then I will try to ship back other things. Then hopefully I can do this.

I still need to find housing next year for school, but I think Spoot is kind of on top of that... And registering for classes... hmm, I should look at that sooner or later.

Southern Spain

Well apparently when I typed my last update, I didn´t realize what I was pressing because all the buttons on the computer here are in Spanish, so I think I deleted my post instead of saved it. Ooops.

Anyways, We arrived here a few days ago in Málaga, and that place was pretty cool. The prices weren´t bad, but it was really touristy. We had some Paella and walked around town. We visited a former Muslim Palace and fort, and then we went out to dinner and had some food. That was really all we did there. the next day we bussed to Granada. Granada was really cool. It was more of an international student town, but it still had a lot to see. We spent around 5 or 4 hours in the Alhambra, the Muslim garden and Palace.. After that there were some cathedrals which we saw. I´m not a christian person (as in i dont believe), so seeing these every city i travel to is kinda boring and repetitive. I really just have to ask myself what they could have been working on besides these churches. OH well. Anyways, I liked Granada but I probably wont go back there again. Its ok.
The amazing thing about Granada was that we met up with Teemu and Janne there. I heard from Krister that the two were somewhere in Spain, and that was it. As we were getting off the bus to get to our hostel, I was like... wtf... isnt that Teemu?? Two tall blond Finns among Spaniards... Iknow its easy to spot them, but still it was pretty coincidental. As it turns out, they were staying with a Finnish friend of theirs and they told us about a party they were having on Friday night. It was pretty fun to go there. We all were hungover the next day, and we took a late train to Seville.

Since there is sunlight until 9pm over here, we still walked around Seville that night, and then yesterday the Semana Santa started. This is an Easter ceremony in Spain where people dress up in KKK-like uniforms and perform the Passion of the Christ through the city streets. It was really interesting to watch, but they do this for about 12 hours a day for a week. Kinda loses its novelty after... 5 minutes. So I stayed in last night because I didnt want to see the black uniforms in the night. Kinda dark eh. anyways, its interesting, but I think I would rather be in Seville during bullfight season. I am not really a fan of Christian processions that block up all the traffic in the city. Ok.. so the city. Seville is my favorite city I think so far. I will have to come back here during some other time though to get a better picture of the city. Barcelona is a close second. I do like Mallorca more though, but just because its an island in the Med, and the prices are cheaper.

Ok so we are about to take a bus to the port city of Tarifa. We will spend the rest of the day there and then tomorrow we are going to Morocco. I will hopefully be able to update in Morocco, but if not ill write some stuff down, because Im sure we will have a lot of stories.

Travelling with different people really changes your perception of a city, and a country. Some people travel together better than others... it´s just the way it is.

SO UPDATES:
I have added some more vacations to my vacation list.
April 18: Get back from Morocco
April 18-20: Frühlingsfest in Stuttgart
April 21-24: Amsterdam
April 25-29: Lisbon and Porto, Portugal
May 1: School Starts
May 7: going to Formula 1 Race: Nürburgring ( i think thats how you spell it. dont know for sure)
May 9-14: Rijeka, Croatian coast

I need to look at my school calendar for holidays, and then I can add a few more.

Turkey

Ok, So on the subject of not knowing of what to expect from a country, lets talk about Turkey.
I brought 2 rolls of toilet paper with me, along with some anti diarrhea medicine. That's just how uncertain I was.

ok. so here was the trip.
Me, JP, JP's little brother Andrew, Lillan, Chris, and Hugo started all out together in Istanbul. We spent a few days there seeing the sites. At first the weather was crappy.. kind of drizzly at night. Then it cleared up. Istanbul seems like San Francisco but not as rich or liberal (but more muslim eh). It is really a nice city. The enitre Aegean cost of Turkey is probably Central California to Southern California weather. It was really nice to feel climate like back at home after being in Stuttgart freezing my ass off for a few months.
After a few days, everyone but me and Chris went off to Athens. Then they did their thing.
So Chris and I booked a tour to
Selchuk (free day)
day trip to Ephesus
day trip to Pergamon
Pamukkale and Heriopolis
Antalya free day
day trip to Termessos

Selchuk was a cool town. Not really touristy compared to Kushadasi in the port. It was a great place to start day trips though. We were there on the 29th of March, the day of the total eclipse over Antalya. It was said that between 1 and 2 million people came to Antalya just for the eclipse. We were in Selchuk, not far away, so we barely missed being in the total eclipse area, but it got as dark as sunset there, and then after a while it got bright again. It was pretty cool even though we werent in totality. The turkish kids there were kind of stupid. They wanted to see the eclipse so they would burn something under a shard of glass and then look though the glass at the eclipse. Wouldn't be surprised if 100 Turkish kids became blind that day.

Ephesus was really nice. The weather was perfect for the rest of the trip after this, and we got a lot of good photos because its still the low season and there aren't many tourists there.

Pergamon was nice too. Both Chris and I have been to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and we knew what the Alter of Zeus looked like before we went to the actual site. That was really key for us I think. Right now its a a field of stones with some trees in it. The theatre there in Pergamon was really neat too.

Pamukkale was kind of a let down I think. It was invaded by German tourists and the site was so destroyed by earthquakes and stone thieves (to make other buildings later in time) that there wasn't all that much to see. The natural springs there were kind of cool, but they limited what tourists could go into, and the water wasn't that warm, and the thing kind of hurt my feet. waaaah. I know. The hotel we stayed at in Pamukkale was the best... they had a cool pool, but they didn't have hot water for some reason.

Antalya was pretty sweet too. Very big recent tourist boom made that city what it is today. (thank the Germans for that one too) - its got some nice things, not insanely touristy like Istanbul, but the geography and climate, and people really make me want to go back.

We took a day trip to Termessos - that was probably my favorite tourist trip to ruins for the entire vacation in Turkey. It was only discovered again in the 20th century, and most of it hasn't been excavated yet. The theatre view of breathtaking for lack of a better description, and it was really just amazing to be able to walk through the forest of small trees and shrubbery that grew since it was abandoned centuries ago. The city is located over 1000meters above sea level near Antalya.. They were a rugged group of people up there. Alexander the Great couldn't conquer them, and the Romans had to compromise with them and make them an independent ally rather than a province or subject city. The photos are really cool. (I ran out of batteries so some of the photos were pretty much like turn camera on shoot and shut off before it automatically turned off on its own. Ill see how they look when I put them up.)

As far as visiting Turkey again, I think 100% that I will. There is really just so much to see there that it takes more than one trip. We really only saw a small part of the country, but from what we saw we were more than impressed.

Next - Spain for a few days, then Morocco. I will be back April 18th.

Zagreb

OK... Zagreb. I have to admit I had no idea what this place would be like before I went. I mean... All I know of Croatia is they have a certain type of sausage that I can't spell.

But - Zagreb was a really nice capital also. The weather there when we went was really nice. Just a shirt and pants weather. We took two walking tours throught he city and saw a lot of cool buildings and sites. The hostel we stayed at was sttttrange. It was way out of town next to a building that was either barren or being built. Not sure. The busses there were ridiculous. About 5 of 20 bus stops actually had the bus stop name on the signs. Otherwise they just had "bus stop" in croatian on signs. So when we were looking for our hostel, we kinda missed it by like 7 stops, and then we took another bus backwards and missed it by 1. Then we had to find that place. It was pretty hard to get there in the dark. Once we figured that part out, it really wasn't all too hard.
Would I go back to Croatia? Maybe for 1/2 day in Croatia and then 1/2 day in Bratislava again or somewhere in Slovenia. Who knows.

Next... TURKEY!

Bratislava

Bratislava - If you haven't seen Eurotrip, just imagine what kind of city a capital of a country with a name like "Bratislava" would look like.

Next... Zagreb.

joking...

I really actually liked Bratislava. The old town part was pretty well put together, the Castle was OK..... and it looked like a pretty cool small riverside chill out in the summer. On the other hand, when you get out of the old town, you really see how much Bratislava was constrained by communism. Check my photos for proof. Bratislava was actually more expensive than Zagreb I think - it might just be that they hike it up for tourism, and outside of the touristy old town its dirt cheap. In any case, I wasn't about to be kidnapped by some ex-communist man with a thing for iron fists.... wait that came out wrong.

changing subjects......

ZAGREB

Prague

Ok I'm back from Turkey and I'm finally going to update about the trips. These next three might be a bit short but thats what happens when you pile up "work"

Ok - So Prague was probably my favorite city from Prague, Bratislava, and Zagreb. The city was surprisingly clean and most all of the buildings appeared as if they were freshly painted. If it wasn't so ridiculously cold, it would have been a much better trip. Prague is definitely a city that I am looking forward to going to again. The food and beer there was really cheap, and it wasn't half bad either. The hostel we stayed at was supposed to be a party hostel, but apparently that is the exact opposite when you stay during low season. We were probably one of the few groups at the hostel who wasn't living there for an indefinite amount of time. (they were kind of crazy too...) We (me, stuart, and ryan) met up with Alex for his final goodbye of us before he went back to Canada to get a real job. We had a few good nights in Prague... 1kilo of chicken wings, side of potatos and cheesy gravy stuff and a liter of beer for like €6. that was probably my favorite part of the trip. Heh.
Absinth. If you don't buy the real stuff you just get pretty drunk (140 Proof) pretty fast for pretty cheap. Eh - not that I'm complaining or anything.

Next.... Bratislava

oops.

So yeah - I got back from Zagreb the other day and now I'm leaving to Istanbul later today. I didn't upload any photos yet, and I leave for the plane in 4 hours. I haven't even started packing yet... Absinth hits hard. ok well I need to get a haircut right now and I have to start packing. I might update a bit and talk about Eastern Europe before I go, but I'm not certain. So yeah. Last night we went to Troll and JP's little brother Andrew drank the 5 liters.. he did it really well too. I stole a ceramic Mass and now I have one to send home. Got to go.

Naples Part 2

So I think we left off before we were going to the Island of Capri.
It turns out that the weather reports were actually correct, so the trip to Capri was the highlight (weather and travel) highlight of our trip. Capri was amazing compared to the homeless/trash/dog crap ridden city of Naples. Although it really reminded me of Catalina (an island off the coast of Southern California), it was a nice trip. The water was really blue, the sun was shining, and it was a really just a good fun day.

The next day, Alex left us to go to Rome to fly to Budapest. Ryan and I decided to make a day trip to a resort town on the coast of Italy called Sorrento. There really wasn't much to do there because we were in the off season, but again it was really mountainous with sharp drops, which made the views pretty cool. It was a mix of sunshine and drizzle rain, but again it was much better than the first two days.

Our last full day, Ryan and I went to the Amalfi Coast, which apparently in the summer time is ridiculously filled with tourists. The coastline here was even more steep than in Sorrento, and the roads were tiny.... We were in a big bus for about 40 people and it was really fun in a death defying sort of way to traverse it; sometimes having to back up on it so cars and other busses could get past us. We took about a 10km walk along those roads, sometimes almost getting smacked by side view mirrors. Once we got to the small bus station there it started to rain and we took the bus back and ened our trip. We went out that night to an Irish pub with some Aussie girls and some british people. Good times.

So, tomorrow I leave for Prague, Bratislava, and Zagreb. I should be back on the 21st of March.

Naples, Part 1

Ok, well Naples is going well. The weather was crap for the first two days. it was about 13 degrees but it was raining a lot. We basically just walked around the city and saw it. It looks like mexico. The traffic here is awful. Rome is chaotic because everyone does what they want on the streets, but here there is so much more traffic and so many more cars than Rome. So they have traffic jams everywhere in the city and then they just honk and honk... the scooters and mopeds weave in and out of the sidewalks because its faster. Ambulances are stuck in the middle forever. The city as I said is really dirty and pretty dangerous I think. Cars have devices on their steering wheels that resemble a tire boot.
2 days ago we were thinking of going to Pompeii, but when we got outside it was raining so much. Instead we went to the Archaeological Museum of Naples that housed many of the original things in Pompeii. Everything in there was only in Italian, so we got some audio guides. Those were crap. They probably had only 10 different things explained through the guide.

Two nights ago Ryan got really drunk and we went out with a bunch of Aussies and Canadians from the first hostel. Everything was closed and we found a place and had a beer. Ryan woke up at around noon the next day.
Yesterday we went to Pompeii and the weather was actually really good. It was more than 10 degrees and it was sunny outside. We spent about 3 hours at Pompeii and saw a lot of the ruins and a couple of the bodies that the ash made holes of. Some of the ruins were amazing, since it was destroyed about 2000 years ago. But a lot of it was just what you would expect. It was actually a huge city - hundreds of acres.
Last night we moved to a different hostel, the Hostel of the Sun. There we met more Canadians and Americans. We went out to dinner and got some drinks and brought them back to the hostel. At about 1am Alex and Ryan and a canadian Natalie wanted to go out. By then they were drunk enough to want to go out at 1am (exactly). So I was debating going out or not - Ryan was really drunk again. I said I would only go out if we went to a bar and not a club, and that was fine with them. So we were walking to some suggested places and they were all closed again. We knew where an Irish pub was and that too was closed. On the way to that though there was a club. I wasnt in a good mood, Ryan was slapping cars as they drove by... but it was already 2am by the time we showed up to the club and they werent letting anyone in anymore because it was so late. In any case apparently (i already started walking back at this point so i didnt see any of it) Ryan (acted) drunk so they would let him in (?), and they didnt like that and they pushed him back to the street, and then another guy pushed him and then they hit him in the face. Then they went back to the hostel. What a great night. glad i went out. (no). In any case Ryan is sleeping in the main room of our hostel where he passed out still.. its 11am.

Today we are going to the Island of Capri - the weather is really nice. Clear skies but its only 8 degrees. Might be windier on the island.

Tomorrow it should start raining again so I dont really know what to do. We were thinking of climbing Mt. Vesuvius - there is a train station and they say its only a 1.6km trek to the crater. But it could be snowing up there so I dont know what we will do. Amalfi coast?

Then there is the day after that. No idea what to do. I will update how that went

Köln und Fasching!

KÖLN: The parties there were huge. They don't dress us as well as Americans do at Halloween, but it's spread over about a week, full of parades and everything from small villages to the heart of Köln. The parade on rose Monday (i don't know.. its a catholic holiday) was huge. If you were to watch the entire thing standing in one spot, it would have taken about 4 hours. It was really fun to experience, and everyone was having a fun time even though it was lightly snowing. The beer and Döner definitely helped keep everyone warm. The traditional Fasching music is a bit strange. Corny but the songs get stuck in your head even when you're not trying. There was some homeless guy who was standing next to us when we were watching the parade. At first he was really close to Stuart and yelling incomprehensible things, and I thought that was hilarious. Then he moved over to me and I was almost stuck between him and a parked trailer. That was scary. He was so wierd! But yeah - if it wasn't for the snow and the cold, I think it would be a perfect holiday tradition thing.... I'm going to try Mardi Gras next year I think - see how that one goes.



So - That's about it. I think those are all the details that I can think up now, but I'll be heading to Naples, Italy (and places like Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii and Herculaneum) from March 5th through March 11th. I'll have some more stories and such by then. Again I will be uploading my pictures onto my picture website at:http://community.webshots.com/user/markrcpde

Milan and Torino Olympics!

Ok so here is my update from the Olympics and Milan

Milan: Milan was a cool city to be in... for about half a day. The coolest thing they had there was the Ferrari store, which had 5 stories of Ferrari things you could buy. I bought a Ferrari hat (€30,00.... shirts were around €70,00!) They have a huge cathedral there that took 600 years to build - it's enormous on the inside but really I think the Barcelona Cathedral is much better, even though it isn't even done yet. Milan is so expensive... A coke at a Café on the main street runs about €5,50. seriously what is up with that. When we were in Milan our final night, we figured out that it was a law that markets had to close at 10pm, and we couldn't find any beer for card games or anything -- so we went to McDonald's and ordered 10 beers for 4 of us and took them to go. I don't think any of us have ever done that, and I don't think the people at McDonald's ever saw that before either. That's pretty much the highlight of Milan.

Torino: Torino isn't a really good city. In the Summer I think it would be a nice place to walk and see minor tourist attractions. They have the Shroud of Turin there, and Da Vinci's Last Supper, but both of those are by appointment only.. and on two days a week only. Too much work. The Games were really cool. The Canada vs. Czech game was awesome, even though we were in the last row of seats. The stadium was really small so we still actually had good seats. We had some beers and some vodka with a group of about 15 Canadians before we entered the arena, and it really was a fun atmosphere. We brought a €0,74 liter of boxed German wine and got it past security (which was more thorough than an airport). Canada was up 3-0 by the second period I think, and everyone just got really rowdy. The Czechs got 2 goals but Canada ended up winning. After that we all went to a bar and everyone there was practically a Canadian or was rooting for the Canadians. Good atmosphere. Scott, Alex, and I went to another bar after that and then to a club/bar. It was amazing the number of Olympic athletes that were up partying until like 3 in the morning. Germans, Canadians, and a few Americans were there (from what their uniforms and badges said). Scott and I stayed up until 5:30AM or so and went back to the Torino train station to go to sleep. We didn't have any hotel accommodations because it was too expensive for our group. When we got there, the waiting room was practically full. We could barely walk across to the other people in our group and get our sleeping bags. We went outside the waiting room and parked about 30 feet away from it. Woke up at 7 or so to go to the snowboarding the following day. Snowboarding was pretty cool. I haven't seen it before, and Scott ended up getting a sunburn the sky was so clear. We were all sitting there watching the Olympics with t-shirts on. Pretty strange feeling. It turned out that two Swiss brothers brought home their Gold and Silver - and we were OK with that. There was only one American in the competition and a few Canadians. After that, we just bummed around Torino the rest of the day. They have this place called Sponsor Village, where its just a bunch of fun stuff - like 3D movies, free diet coke and you can practice your slap shot or learn how to do curling or go in a snowboard or bobsleigh simulator. The Eurosport people were there with a giant screen, so we sat down and watched the Olympics from there for a few hours. Later that night, we stumbled upon a huge square where Ricky Martin was playing for the Olympics. None of us were too impressed. That night we went to the same bar to watch Canada vs. Russia, but there were Champions League matches going on. After the game ended, they had some live music and about 5 of the American Hockey team showed up at the bar and were hitting on all of the girls. It was pretty funny to watch. Since we were all tired from the night before, we decided to go to sleep at about midnight. We went to the train station, but apparently there was this huge asshole security guard whose job it was to supervise the waiting room. Scott and I sat on our sleeping bags in the corner. The guy game over and said (they wont speak English because they're asses) that we had to sit on chairs. We were like "screw that guy" - and then we went to our place the night before. Then about 30 minutes later some police came over and sort of tap/kicked our feet and told us that we had to either leave or go to the waiting room. So we decided to go to the waiting room. We tried not sitting in chairs again and the guy came over. We tried to sleep in the uncomfortable chairs - didn't really work. About 6 in the morning his shift changed and then we finally tried laying down in the waiting room (this place was really spacious) and it worked.... until 9am. Then the police came and kicked everyone out of it who didn't have a train ticket. We walked around town and went to the city and stuff, and then we went to the finals of the men's freestyle aerials competition. We were on the floor of it where the jumpers stopped and waited for the scores. We practically were on the big screen one out of every three competitors. There were a lot of Americans there and also Canadians. It was an OK competition, but the American got screwed because the judges emphasize doing a perfect landing and how the trick is done, instead of relying on the difficulty of it. Some Chinese guy won it... his difficulty points were like 4 and 4.1... the average for first jump were 4.4 and 4.6.. the American was leading and tried a 4.9 (the highest in the competition) but didn't land perfectly... so he lost. That wasn't cool. Anyways, we boarded our bus to the Oulx train station, then went to Torino, then connected to Milan. We got back in Milan about 1:15 in the morning and went to bed right away. The next day we had all day in Milan - but it was raining and had shitty weather. We didn't do much there. We boarded our plane the next day, arrived, and i had 30 minutes to pack before going to Köln (cologne) with Stuart (from Washington) to visit his former host family and enjoy Fasching. At the Airport we saw about 4 people from the Canadian hockey team... Still not normal for me to see athletes like that eh.

So on to Köln.