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.