EUROTRIP!

capital of CRAZINESS!!!- part 2

2008-08-02T01:38:00.000-07:00

Why I call this mad city capital of craziness? Let me explain here
I have never come across so many insane people in one city in a short three days.

Tuesday the night started out with some simple drinking game with 2 Brits and three other Americans from California, Texas, and Kentucky! Anyhow, the Texan girl was dating the Californian guy and the Kentuckian met the Texan girl in Salamanca while studying abroad. They were all nice and I had a good chat with each one of them especially the Kentuckian since it's rare to run into someone also from that region. She's studying in U Louisville btw.

Anyhow, I saw some tension between the Americans and the Brits after couple of drinks but didn't pay much attention cuz I am always easy going. So I was the middle man. Then we decided to follow the white Brit (cuz the other is black) to a club on the island. The island is located right in the middle of the river Danube.

Everything seemed to be going alright. We joined some hippies at a square for some live hippie concert with handdrums and stuff. It was cool but too much marajuana involved. The girls there were way too young for my taste but the white Brit picked up two of them who didn't really speak any English and went off with them in the woods. So the black one got really pissed off. But we left without him and walked through the woods and finally got to the club. It was pretty empty and not that many were on the dancefloor dancing. But all a sudden the Texan started going to the restroom nonstop, and I thought she might have her period or something. Later on she said she was puking but I still didn't get why until they offered us esctasy. I was like hell no cuz if that's the effects it brings then why the hell should I take it? Oh, before this, the white Brit showed up at the club without the girls and I asked what happened. He told me he went in the woods and "played some football(soccer)" with them but it was too boring so he left. I didn't buy the soccer thing because, well, that is just bullshit. So as we stayed at the club all sitting in a couch, the black guy and the Texan disappeared and I was asked their whereabouts so I told the white guy about it. Then he told me that the black guy was trying with her, in the boyfriend's presence. It just stroke me that the night was not going to end early with these maniacs.

After a while we all got bored at the club so decided to leave. So we went in the woods and the Kentuckian started walking way ahead of us, something like a mile ahead. Then she laid on the ground waiting for us to get there. After we caught up she went off in the woods and started doing carwheels on the grass and in front of some kind of Roman ruins. It was quite amazing to see the ruins at night and it would totally freak me out if I was alone. Then for some reason the Brits were no longer friends with the Americans so decided to ditch them and walked to admire other Roman ruins also in the woods. And they took me with them because they liked me. Anyhow, I wasn't too proud of it since the Americans were high on their asses and didn't know the way home.

So we walked in the woods again after climbing up and down in the ruins without any source of light whatsoever. I don't know how we managed to do it, especially with those quite high and drunk brits. As we were climbing in the ruins the white guy suddenly stopped and tapped on my hands, "there's a cig." "ok? and?" "you see that cig?" I was like, I don't think I'd be able to in this condition. So he restated his meaning again "you see that light?" Then me and the black guy turned to the direction where he was pointing and shit, it was chills to the bones when I saw it. So we said "Hello?"
"Hello..."
"How are you?"
a moment of silence...
"no English"
"hey do you know how to get out of here and get back to the city.. blah blah blah..."
"no English"
"so what are you doing there?"
"no English"
and he was about to talk again and I stopped him because it was apparently "NO ENGLISH!"

So we stepped out of the ruins ourselves and found our way along the shore. It was really creepy because you saw people hiding in the absolute dark doing their own things. Along the way the Brits were freaked out several times when they saw a face here and there and sometimes I jumped because they shouted like the whole island was on fire or something.

After we got out of that mad island onto the bridge, we saw three kids on their bicycles just resting on the bridge. So we went over and asked them what they were up to, how old they were, and etc. They, with very minimal knowledge of english, answered that they were doing nothing but hanging out and were about in their mid-teens. So we told them to go home or find some party but not sitting on a bridge doing nothing. They seemed to be nice until they almost rammed their bikes into us and the white Brit almost made one of the kids fall off the bridge. But it was just a little prank they were playing on us so it wasn't much trouble.

The guys were alcoholics as the stereotype tells you. So they eagerly found a bar on the road but asked for another club so we could go. Instead, the middle aged female bartender gave us some kind of brothel brochures and, incredibly, the guys asked her how much did she cost. I was freaking shocked to hear that and was kind of relieved when she said that she only did regulars and not strangers. As it turned out, these guys were only 19 but had already been to a brothel when they were 17. That is freaking messed up. At that time, it was already about 3 in the morning and I was getting tired. But one last weird thing happened.

A 60 year old hooker showed up and asked us where we were from. After we told her she immediately said "I don't speak English." So we were like why the hell are you here asking us? And she asked if we spoke Italian or German or French or something else. Well the Brits managed to squeeze out some French and German but then she again told us that she didn't speak those languages. WTF? But she just didn't want to get lost but standing right next to our table and smiled weirdly at us. The way how I could tell that she was a hooker is that she wore this really bright color eyeliner, something like greenapple. And the way she was dressed and appeared at this time.

Finally I got tired of all the nonsense I went back to the hostel alone and saw the Americans already sound asleep. Then I was relieved. But later on the next day, they told me they had to call a taxi to come back!

Budapest- the city of craziness!!! (part 1)

2008-07-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

view from the Buda side

this hat is all u need on a hot summer's day

cute girls on the street

One of the big cathedrals in Budapest

if you don't know what exactly you want in Budapest, that might get you lost big time.

For me, I spent 4 hours searching for my hostel because I messed up the address. At first I took the right bus but the wrong direction, then i took the same one back but past the right stop, funny thing is that the hostel never told u what stop to get off at but only the 8th stop to get off so u never know which one is right. so after all that time wasted on public transport, the description led me to one of the main streets and I couldn't find the number wanted because I thought the big street ended at the intersection but actually it ended in the middle of a straight road. it was really weird. but even after I found out about that the door was not the right one because the hostel was in an alley but the description sort of implied that it's on the same main street because it said just walk down to door number 8.

Anyhow, I got really tired and frustrated after four hours and almost tried to sleep on the street or just find another one. but finally i found it and i was relieved. so i didn't do much that night.

the second and third day I simply went sightseeing and talked with some cute girls on the street helping out tourists or trying sell us tickets for the city tour. it was fun to talk with some real locals, some high schoolers and some college goers. I was going to party with them at night but too bad I was already leaving for Prague when they were going there on the weekend.
But I really enjoyed the views in Budapest especially on the hill on the Buda side. I finally bought a ticket from the girls to go on a city bus tour and it was totally worth it because I also got a free ride on a boat on the Donau,or Danube.

And something real funny onboard happened on the bus.
So three Swedish get onboard and see a jacket on the seat so take it to the guide telling her that someone forgot it there. But as it turns out it was from an American family with a Caucasian husband, Asian (most likely Chinese or Taiwanese) wife, and a kid. They put the jacket there to reserve the seat. So when they get on the bus, the wife complains to the husband that someone has already taken the seat so the husband starts whining about it. The Swedes explain how they saw it and took it to the guide and it makes sense to me. But the Americans do not ask for the seats back but sit down. But the husband, who is now sitting right next to one Swede, starts saying bullshit like "Nowadays tourists are just obnoxious and blah blah blah, it was obvious that people save seats with a jacket..." So the Swede sitting next to the husband can't take it anymore and tells him what she did was right and argues on. And the American just doesn't wanna let go so keeps on arguing as well. So another Swede turns around and talks with the Swede sitting next to the American, IN SWEDISH. I can understand a little and I assure you they are not saying anything obscene about the Americans. So now the American man gets really pissed off because he can't understand them. So he goes, "Don't think that if u speak ur language I won't know that you are mocking me, I know another foreign language too, but I'm too nice to use it against you! If my daughter is not present I promise you I'd cuss" At the moment I am thinking that he might be referring to Chinese or Taiwanese ,which I can understand perfectly, because of his wife. And finally the Swede tells him to shut up, he goes, I am this close to smacking you (with the hand doing a measuring gesture indicating how close.) Then the Swede goes (btw, all the Swedes were female),"shut your fucking filthy mouth!" Then the American guy snaps and almost jumps up from the chair to smack her.

I found it extremely funny because if they had swore all in their own language I would understand them all!!! and maybe just tell them what the others were saying against them. hehe

Krakow to Vienna

2008-07-28T06:21:00.001-07:00

On the train there I was in the same cabin as an old Polish man. So at first I thought he wouldn’t have been able to speak English but then he spoke. So it turned out that his family was forced out of Poland in WWII. Thankfully his mother spoke perfect German which brought his family prosperity. Later on, he moved to Florida to have business there. Now he has moved back to Krakow. Usually all the Poles try to move out of the country as soon as possible, so I was curious why he wanted to move back. So he explained the convenience of living in a city such as Krakow. Indeed, it’s got the convenience and great atmosphere everywhere in town. So what brought him to Vienna? He sold something on ebay and according to him that there was no way to mail it via the Polish post. I wasn’t so sure if it was that crappy or just the goods is too valuable. I was guessing both because he wouldn’t have paid the train ticket just for some crap payment. But we chatted for a while until I looked sleepy. We talked about Polish, American politics and present situation in the EU. He disliked the European Union because now inflation is taking place at every corner in Poland because of the Union.
Vienna
Actually my main purpose of visiting Vienna at this time of year was because of the European Cup Final. But the atmosphere wasn’t as exciting as I expected. For one, I stayed in this hostel that was a real ripoff. 22 Euros per night not to mention, the common areas were hot as hell, two computers available for hundreds of people. There were mostly school kids there and no other travelers were in a mood for mingling because the dorm beds were really segregated and no one wanted to hang out at the communal areas. And one last disadvantage was the distance from the city is about the length of the longest subway line on Earth.
Vienna was definitely not ready for such an event because most signs were still only in German and at public viewings there’s only announcements in German. All the hosts only spoke German to the crowd so I, along with the Spaniards, felt really left out.
Regardless, you still feel the atmosphere of Vienna- the capital of a used-to-be great empire and music. There are just loads of street performers and concerts at night. And those salesmen who try to get you to go to one of the “authentic” but overpriced classical concerts featuring only the well-known cheesy Mozart/Strauss compositions. I ran into one and talked to him for five minutes or so because I was actually interested until I saw the price. His attitude immediately changed after I said I was going to “consult my friends” or else he wouldn’t let me go. After I said that he just took back the brochure he had already given me and asked “Are you then interested in Elton John’s concert tonight?” (apparently he was in town that day). But I said no thanks, then he gave me the look of “just go fuck off.”
I basically had no contact with anyone in Vienna whatsoever except when the Final was happening and I was at the public viewing in front of Radhaus (city hall) and this drunk German started speaking to me about everyone being too tall and he was too short so couldn’t see anything. And he also suggested that they should put some elevated benches on the ave so the people in the back could be at a higher position. Funny thing, he carried this all in German but with his intonation and body language I understood perfectly. Although I was for Spain, this drunk guy forced me to jump and sing ole’s for Deutschland.
Finally, the German squad disappointed thousands of fans on the streets. The streets all a sudden came back to quietness when the outnumbered Spanish fans went on chanting and getting ready for a bigger party later on. Those chants echoed in my head. T’was definitely one of the best feelings I have ever had after so many years of disappointment in my beloved teams. But as I turned around and left, I realized it might have been one of the loneliest nights of my life because this great feeling was only kept inside in me without being shared with anyone I knew.

view of Bratislava

Bratislava
The next day I headed to the nearby Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. On the way there I was overhearing some cocky Americans talking shit so the mood was half-ruined although it was funny when they mentioned the movie Eurotrip with the guys going to Bratislava, which was a shitwhole in the movie. And it was described as a place where if you tip the waiter 10 American cents he would quit his job because that’s enough for starting his own hotel. Although the costs there are still low compared to Western Europe, you still need two dollars to buy a Coke or Sprite, so not that cheap either. Later on I got to chat with a lady on the train so understood that Slovakia is going through a phase that all the prices are going up to meet the euro standards so they could adopt the euro. But she also said it was going to be really bad once they adopt the euro because then no one would be able to afford such high costs of living.
Now let’s come back to the city itself. It turned out to be not too much to see besides the castle and the bridge. The town center isn’t bad either although it still got really little to see. But I had some funny experience with the locals because I was once on the street with a map although I had already found my way. But this very “warm-hearted“ guy who worked in the city hall came out to help me with his broken English, oh wait, just right before him, this drunkard also tried to do the same but I said I was fine. Then he pulled an old woman over trying to figure out my way. finally I got rid of them then that city hall guy came out. So after that I wanted to say thank you in Slovakian so I asked how. Then he brought me into the city hall office to ask, I was really confused at the time because I thought he just wanted to borrow a pen to jot it down for me. But it turned out that he totally misunderstood me and wanted some English help from the staff. He thought I wanted to get to somewhere else. Although I tried at least 3 more times rephrasing my sentence slowly and with body language, he still told me to go to the tourist office to ask. Eventually, I just told myself to get out of his sight as soon as possible because he was wasting my time!

Krakow

2008-07-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

old town Krakow

Auswitzc concentration camp

it's entirely sculpted out of salt

Lithuanian American, me, Annabelle

Annabelle and the very tall girl Marleen

Nothing much happened on the way from Warsaw to Krakow. I was reading my Soccer World most of the time and dozing off until this big kid sitting one seat from me asked if he could borrow the mag. So he was with his mother and they both spoke pretty primitive English but still got by talking to me. Although the mother was a bit better with the vocabulary whenever the kid had trouble coming up with the right word. So me and the kid talked about how Poland got eliminated in the European Championship and went on to my journey. Most of the travelers I have come across on the train all ask the same sort of questions so I already had a formula in mind on how to reply.
Then as we arrived at Krakow since I didn’t know the place, I just asked the son and mom to take me to my hostel (not really yet my hostel since I didn’t book anything although it turned out to be one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in.)
It was called Mama’s hostel and had this great atmosphere where everyone chats with everyone. So it all started out with me arriving in my dorm wanting to get out and see the town. But then I was overhearing these two girls talking in Dutch so I asked if they were from the Netherlands. They were quite surprised that I got it right on the first try so asked me how I did it. Well so I explained that I could make out that it was Dutch and one of the girls was freaking tall. Then that girl told me she was actually 189cm (6’2”-6”3”) which was also unusual for a Dutch girl. Many times when she was in public space, people chatted about her height and usually confirmed with her right away by simply asking. And when she went out sometimes, people tried to use her height to find some person in the crowd they described to her because she could see further.
Now another dorm mate came in and she was Scottish. I chatted with her for a while and realized that she went to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, pretty close to Seattle.
Then this German girl came in without saying anything and just eavesdropped. So I greeted her but she still seemed kind of shy or reluctant to talk to us.
Next morning the Dutch girls got up extra early to go in the mountains to hike. But later we went out together and ran into 2 other guys also from the hostel. Both Americans but 2nd generation immigrants as they described themselves. One from Lithuania the other from Uruguay. But that night ended rather early. Maybe because of the rain or something, or I think I was pretty dead after some dancing. Funny thing though, I tried to get in the crowd and danced but got a bit dull after a while so I came back to the girls. Then Annabell (the small half dutch half polish girl) told me as soon as I stepped on the dance floor all the Polish guys surrounded me to block me out of their ladies. Then I remember what Gabriel had told me that Polish girls have the tendency to run away with foreign guys. But it didn’t strike until Annabell mentioned it. But also I always got weird looks from the guys at the club cuz I think I was with the two, if not the best looking, nice looking dutch girls inside.
Anyhow, the next morning I got up quite early but had to wait for the girls to get ready to go the Salt Mine, which was really an amazing site. I thas got several chapels underground entirely sculpted out of salt and about the size of a city. Although it wasn’t as pretty as I thought cuz the salt looked pretty dirty with the grayish color. It is not purified to make the white color. We toured underground for quite a walk but Marleen was always excited about everything. On the contrary, Annabell seemed a bit worn out and tired of the tour guide, although the tour guide had a horrible voice that reminded me of the Chinese reporter in the Family Guy. Her English was quite good but not her intonation. Whenever she made a joke I couldn’t sense her tone so I wasn’t able to laugh. Her attitude wasn’t very nice either when we were waiting to get in the museum. Thankfully we changed guides and this one always wore a smile and was nice and all.
We went out that night too but I was really unmotivated since we ran into those two Americans again and that Uruguayan was trying so hard with Annabell who already had a boyfriend although she probably never told him. Anyway, it just pissed me off that a simple party was turned into a trying-to-hit-on-her. And it was a shame that he wanted attention all the time and the group atmosphere just got blown away. Although I was keeping a nice conversation going with the tall girl.
As we came back from the club there sat the Spanish girl who always smiled at me although we didn’t know each other’s name and such. We seemed to click somehow. Meanwhile, Annabell wanted to go out to watch the sunrise with us but I was too busy chatting with the Spaniard so I said No thank you. After the chat we only exchanged email addresses just for the heck of it although I didn’t think I would see her again.
One other fun person I ran into was a British guy who was doing his research at the hostel. So he studied sociology and was writing his thesis or some sort focused on the British people who choose to get hella wasted and party in Krakow. So he went into bars, clubs, pubs to interview people on why they chose Krakow out of all other places, and by what means they got drunk. And the most funny thing is that he had to do the same as all those people to “get in there” so he could experience it himself. Apparently, he was ladies’ man somehow with what he was doing.
After all these funny events happened, there was one thing left for me to do and it was a very important historical event and site. It was the concentration camp Auswitcz, which was about an hour drive away from Krakow. So I paid it a visit but ended up being very disgusted with whatever I saw there. I was too overwhelmed by all the artifacts and museums which gave you the sensation you would never feel before. There was one room full of glasses from the Jews who were put in the camp and I thought it was hair from all the corpses in the first place. It was because of the quantity of the glass frames that makes you feel so. I hadn’t felt so sick for a long time. I guess you really require a strong mind to visit such a site on your own.

Warsaw with Gabriel

2008-07-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

old town Warsaw

what a collection of his with help from his parents

Gabriel at the cashier of a restaurant

So finally I meet up with my friend Gabriel whom I know from my Swedish course. He really makes a good tour guide cuz he knows a lot about the history of his country although mostly the negative part. It sounds like he just wants to get the fuck out of this shithole since there's nothing really good about it except that the girls are hot.

Well, indeed the girls are really something I would like to mention. I would have to say maybe their features are though comparable to the Swedes but just behind by a bit. But for sure, their jugs are the biggest on average I have seen in my life. It's kinda insane to me that everyone is just so firm and big.

Ok enough with the pervertedness, or normal man talk. Gabriel introduces me to his girl friend and another friend. They all seem to be a bit disappointed with their country but not as bad as Gabriel. So basically what G has been telling me about Poland is that you have to careful with anyone around you because you don't know when they are going to screw u up. like he told me before that don't ever mess with the chefs at a restaurant because they might just add some saliva into the making of your food. Also, sounds to me that all the politicians are crooks, and all the ladies are just going after foreigners. He has also told me that all his foreign friends have had a polish girlfriend at a point in their lives.

But anyway, back to Warsaw. G takes me around in the old town and elsewhere in the city. The old town was actually not that old since it was totally brought to the ground in WWII. But they recontructed the old town with the rubble so the material was actually from the old times.

But G has to take one final exam so goes off and later comes back with his girl friend and a guy friend. The guy friend is hilarious because he doesn't hide when he checks out chicks. One time I was in the way and he just pushes me away so he can see the cabouse.

So one thing that's worth mentioning is the suburbs of Warsaw, which are mainly built up with there concrete slabs, which only have three or four kinds of different shapes. I wonder how they managed to make all these building out of only this many combinations.

Finally, I come to G's house and meet his parents. They are very friendly people, and his grandma made a cake because she heard that some guest was coming. The dog though, is not very cooperative because he's gone through hardship, say getting a stick freakin' penetrated through his throat by the neighbors.

Experience on the train to Warsaw

2008-06-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

First the train was one hour delayed. And it started pouring.

Most conductors don't speak English. So the first cart I got on the conductor took my interail ticket and I thought he would just check it and give back. But he was to keep it so I asked. Then he impatiently said three time "ticket tomorrow, ticket tomorrow, ticket tomorrow!" So I didn't know what to do so went into my cabin. The cabin was quite crowded with four people already inside and all of them were speaking Polish. So I asked the young ones if they spoke english and thankfully they did. They were very nice to me and helped me out a lot. Although the first thing they asked was very crucial. So they asked me where I was going then I told them Warsaw. They exchanged looks and asked "Are you sure you are on the right train?" So I freaked out. "Or I mean the right wagon?" shhhh, I was a bit more relieved. "What do you mean? aren't all the wagons going to the same places?" "No, they split up to three parts when it crosses the border." Then I realized that all of them were going to Krakow and I was the only one going to Warsaw. So they suggested me to go to the conductor and asked. So it turned out that I had to move to some other cabin. and I thanked them for being so helpful and kind and learned how to say thank you in Polish. Actually I realized not long after that what Borat says right before he goes off to some place is exactly that. Chinkui or however you spell it. anyhow, So I went back and forth trying to find the right cart. I asked so many conductors and no one spoke English. I even went on one that was so second world warish with Russian letters written all over it. and I was pretty sure the conductor was either speaking Russian or Ukrainian to me. Then I realized that one was going to split to go to Kiev. But finally I settled down in one of the nice cabins with this mother and daughter. The daughter studied in Brighton, England so her english was perfect. We chatted a bit then finally it was too difficult cuz the beds were too tight together that I couldn't hold the same posture for longer so all of us went to bed.

Iceland-Copenhagen-Berlin funny stories

2008-06-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

Christian and I at the central station

Mette and I at her place

view from Mette's bathroom

Copenhagen's famous hippie area- Christiania

Waking up quarter to five in the morning isn't exactly the thing you wanna do in the morning. Especially when your friend's flight is leaving at 7 and yours is actually at 9 but delayed till 10. Anyhow, that's exactly what happened with me and Christophe. Usually im fairly quick on getting ready but this morning I was slightly slower, and, although Christophe didn't point out, his face told me that you should hurry the fuck up or im gonna kill you.

Anyhow, there wasn't much action until I got on the plane to Copenhagen. Before boarding I got a message from Christophe saying how cool looking his plane was, but he didn't describe in words so it was hard to picture. I basically slept the whole way except for being woken up for breakfast. Breakfast? usually European airlines don't have meals during the flight but I guess you could almost consider Iceland America so...

After meeting up with Mette we strolled on the streets and finally to Christiania where I had almost gone to but the friend I had traveled with didn't wanna get in because she was afraid that she was going to get mugged. But actually it was quite peaceful inside until a bunch of cops came and the crowd just started throwing rocks at them. Most people inside there were stoned, and you know stoned people aren't that aggresive. So we had some beers there, catching up a little, Oh yeah, now Mette is working as a life guard at some beach. She doesn't really have to do much but sitting in the chair, reading, playing on the computer, or something else. And she used to have the craziest laugh you could ever imagine but now since she's quitting smoking pot you can barely hear it.

After that, we went grabbed some indian food and went back to her apartment to drink some more beers and talked about life in general. The discussion went on about how it is hard for Asian guys to take the inititives to talk to other people of different races. She confirmed me that I was doing a great job, well I think as well.

So I said good bye to her the next morning before she went to work and went downtown. I had been searching for the city bike the day before but without any success. But today I had luck. I spotted a chick parking one just outside a shop so went up and took it. So I was on my bike all day till I met up with Christian. He seems to be doing fairly well except for the fact that he still needed inspiration for his thesis. so we caught up, talking about sports a lot, Oh yeah, I was wearing a RED SOX shirt that day so when he came from behind he just shouted, RED SOX suck!! which I didn't agree so much on. But surprisingly enough, despite growing up in Denmark Christian is a big fan in baseball, american football, well and also soccer. And he supports ITALY!?!?! But I actually had a nice surprise for him since I couldn't bring my vodka on board since I was not going to check in any luggage, I gave my Smirnoff to him.

But here comes the funny part
So I arrived at the airport and was trying to check in with the self service machines. But none of them recognized my reservation. So I thought it was just some techinical difficulties with the computers so I went to the counter to check in.
After checking my flight and stuff, the staff told me: "I know why I can't find you in the system... your flight is tomorrow... and the checkin is closing in five minutes so you have to be quick if you wanna change the flight. And you have to go all the way down that way to the customer service center to make changes." So I sprinted there and changed my flight and stuff. It costed me about 50 euros to do so... But I thought," I already told the friends in Berlin and Copenhagen that I am coming tonight so I'd better just fly tonight."

At the security check, actually I didn't tell you that I also had a smaller water bottle of whisky on me. And also I had two bottles of contact solution which I didn't know you could carry on the plane. So right before the check, I put the bottle of whisky right to my stomach and the two bottles of solution between my thighs. so I looked kinda chubby at the crotch. so I took everything out of my pockets as instructed. and successfully went through the security gate but the guard on the other side had a smirk on his face saying "you're not fooling anybody..." because at this moment I already had the bottle head sticking out behind my shirt almost like I was black and had a huge boner. So I just tell myself "who am I kidding..." and took out everything underneath my clothes. And after I took them all out they asked me again if I had anything else, well of course I said no. As the security were checking my bagpack one female one asked me why didn't just put the solutions on the tray because they could go through. I said I didn't know. Then she pulled out a huge bag of white washing powder out of my bagpack and questioned what it was. It was one of the funniest moments of my life- a huge bag of coccaine looking powder right in front of me. I was, for a moment, so worried that I would get arrested because of this bag. But I tried to sound as calm as possible so they wouldn't get all suspicious. "It's washing powder for laundry, you could smell it if you want." "I could smell it from here already," and she gave me a smile.

So I finally went through the security and got on the plane, although I almost missed the plane because of the check too....

After all these disasters, I ended up at Hauptbahnhof(central station) in Berlin. I sent out a message to Viviana who I was supposed to stay with. After a while when I was walking around in the central station, for some strange reason, a very hot blonde waved to me. So I said hi, but didn't know her intension so had this weird look on my face. I think that might have lowered my ability to think because after one hour I still ddin't get the message from Viviana and then I realized I told her that I was coming tomorrow!!! I was so stupid because I had everything planned out but I just screwed it up in my own fucking stupid stinking head! So I got the message from her saying that she's living quite far and would take one hour to get here. So I texted another friend to come to get me since he lived much closer. And he showed up after 15 minutes with two bikes. So finally problem solved...

Iceland in brief

2008-06-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

me in action at night

Christopheat at Geysir

the Blue lagoon

clear lake water in Iceland

This is the border between the Eurasian plate and the American plate

Iceland... hmm... where do I begin?

Let's get to the chase where it's interesting.

Well, the summary of this trip would be seeing beautiful landscape, lots of whale watching, 24-7 sunlight, a lot of jaccuzi and hot tubs, and the ass- technique.

I know all these sound very exciting and I will get to detail just in a minute.

But Christophe and I spent most of the time in the hot tubs, jaccuzis, hot springs, etc.
In the city of Reykyavik, they have 7,8 city thermal swimming pools and lots of other facilities along with them, for instance, water slides!! We have gone into the pools three times within the first two days cuz we wanted to do what the Romans do u know.

That's when Christophe invented the ass technique, which is required for sliding in full speed on the water slides. This means that you basically have to expose most of your ass to be in contact with the slide. if this is not done, you probably would reach the bottom faster by crawling on the slide. But anyhow, it was funny to show ass to the people behind you right before you go off. I think my ass is still quite pleasant to see but some people's got a hairy one.

We also met two cool people from the pool. One was a 82 year old grandma living in Iceland for 60 years but was born and raised in Florida. It was funny cuz we thought old people couldn't speak English in Iceland so me and Christophe were always talking shit in front of the elder. Fortunately, we didn't talk much in front of this lady but she just started chatting with us while we were sitting in the same hot tub as her. She spoke English so fluently that I was shocked, especially with a southern accent. But then she explained herself so that all made sense. She comes to the pool every other day to swim 1000m in the morning in the past 20 years. that is just amazing. I think she said that when Christophe only swam 200m and came all tired, but I am not the one to talk cuz I did zero. Although I could argue that I didn't have the goggles.

And the other interesting person we ran into was when Christophe and I were talking of this word STRAX from the telecom at the pool, it means LATER in dutch, so the girl next to him interrupted us and said it means Right Now in Icelandic. Well actualy it means the same in Swedish as well but we didnt know. So we started chatting with her and noticed that she had some ankle protection on. So I asked what happened. Then we found out that she's actually a professional soccer goalie in Iceland and is the starting goalie on the national women's team. So we chatted with her for a long while. And a few days after we regret that we didn't ask for her autograph or anything, not even the name. Cuz it would have been cool if we could party with the whole national women's team. So we saw a passerby and asked him if he knew who the goalie of the national team is. Then he told us fairly quickly because he actually went to school with her. But he couldnt tell us the last name because all the girls have the almost the same last name in Iceland ending with dottir (for instance, andersdottir, meaning anders' daughter).

anyhow, now of course we cannot neglect the details on the geysirs and the landscape. We went on a tour- the golden circle which took us to the most famous landscapes of Iceland. it involved one of the biggest waterfalls in Europe but i thought it was the biggest until I learned that there was a bigger one in the north of Iceland. The tour guide was one of the worst I have ever met. Nice guy, but he spoke English word by word as if he'd had to look up every word he spat out in the dictionary. Some Englishmen described him as a five year old reading a book to a class. we all thought he was just a nice guy who didn't really speak english that fluently until this Austrialian girl told us when she was asking him a question, he only stared at her tits and was totally blanked out from the question. And the most funny thing he said was every mispronouced version of the word "city," he said "shitty." So according to him, Christophe and I went back to the shitty hostel at the end.

Speaking of whales. Bad experiences. First the real whale watching took place after a night out, which means seasickness. I had such a seasickness that I just wanted to ignore any whale in sight. We saw probably some whales including the humpback, and minke whales. But the real whale experience came that night when me and Christophe tried about 20 bars/clubs and only one was filled with hot blondes while the rest were full of whales. I am not insulting them but you would agree with me if you see them for yourself. And It's ridiculously painful when somebody stepped on your foot by one of the whales. So that was quite a disappointment.

I think the night before was better cuz I went out with all the roommates, two aussie girls, one german, one gay guy from san francisco, and Christophe. It would have been so funny to watch myself cuz I was totally drunk outa my ass and at first we were at a gay club. Christophe tried to tell me because Ian (guy from San Fran) got picked up at the gay club. But I was just falling asleep dancing and everytime somebody touched me I came live and started dancing like a maniac again. And that would go on for another five minutes or so then I fell back asleep standing. So I did that for the rest of the night and I was dancing to this one girl who seemed to be interested in me also. But I just fell asleep for a few seconds and the moment I woke up she was already taken. And all the roommates were like WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TIM?!?!

Crazy night out

2008-06-08T02:34:00.000-07:00

Since it's my, Romain's and Behnam's last night out in Stockholm we decided to go out early.

And for the same reason, I suited up in my blazer as Christophe had told me so much good about it.

So we went to this club called Huset, which I have never been to, at 10:30pm, because the beers were cheap before 11pm.

It wasn't as crowded as I expected, but that's a good thing. Although it was way too damn hot inside.

Good thing about the club is that it was filled with girls and not as many guys, and the girls were mostly pretty hot.

So few things funny happened in this night.

first Behnam told me when we had the thanksgiving dinner I was very drunk so when his corridormate's dad entered the corridor I yelled "DADDY'S HOME!!!!", which I denied since I was not that drunk that night and even if I was, I remember all the things that happen during my "unconsciousness."

Then after a while me and Romain went outside trying to talk with some girls. The first girl we picked was a total Bimbo. The second thing she asked was You should buy me a drink. she didn't even say please or anything. typical Stureplan girl in our term.

So after that Romain was still trying to talk to her but I saw no point. So I went in again on the dance floor. It was crowded as before.

After a while one of my nostrils felt wet so I touched it. It was blood. You Gotta Be Kidding ME! bloodynose right in the middle of a club? But it wasn't that bad so I stayed at the dancefloor and try to sniff it in everytime it was coming out. and at the end it clogged so didnt matter. Although it came back again so it wasn't that pleasant.

Dancing on the dancefloor as usual I was looking over all the faces there and suddenly my eyes met with a girl on the little platform in the front. And she stared at me for a while then came off the platform, talked with her friend, and started moving to the music. I knew there was something going on so went over and grind with her for a while before she told me something in swedish and went out the door. I think she said something like I'll be back or something because when I searched for her after a while and she saw me, she immediately gave her purse to her friend next to her and grind with me again. So then I could not let this chance slip outa my hand.

I asked her if she wanted to go to somewhere more quiet so we could talk. Then we chatted for a while and I faced one crisis. She asked me if I had a girl friend I said no. And I asked the same to her she said yeah she had a boyfriend. Lightning strikes.
"BUT HE's in the ARMY right now..."
what does that imply?
what exactly does she want from me?

But after a while we just chatted about bullshit, then she wanted to exchange numbers. because she needed to leave with her friends.

After that I went back to the dancefloor and I thought I got accidentally poked. But then the poking came again so I turned. It was this blonde chick who did that and she gave me a thumb-up. I was like....

But later on I ran into the blonde again and I wasn't sure if it was the same one. But according to Romain she wanted to dance with me. But I was already content enough with one phone number. You know I am very easy to pleased :P

But then these two hottest blond chicks I have ever seen took over the floor. many guys tried to dance with them but couldn't handle their hotness. that included PJ. Samy told me they were too hot for him. Let me describe how they looked.

Perfect faces
perfect boobs
perfect bottoms
black dresses whose skirt is only enough to cover their panties. (but actually it didnt because when they went down on some guys the panties were entirely shown.)

Anyway, it was fun to watch them dance, and quite arousing as well.
One of the guys dancing with them had a piece of ice in his mouth and passed it on to one of the hot girls' mouth. then she did the same to the other girl, then to the guy. Then the guy was about to pass it to the other guy but the other chickened out. After quite some persuasion the other guy finally agreed to "make out."

Actually before all this I was going to sleep because I felt a bit sick so I felt asleep for 5 minutes in my own bed and Romain rang me. I had the phone on vibrate so usually if I was asleep I wouldn't feel the vibrate. But tonight, something amazing happened. I opened my eyes and was not tired at all after five minutes of sleep. I knew something fun was going to happen. Besides, Behnam was about to leave the day after so I'd better get my ass outa my room.

But all this ended really quick when everyone got fed up with the music inside and empty dancefloors. I walked home alone from the T-bana and the sky started to get cloudy and gloomy. BANG! thunder stroke. And I saw the lightening ripping the sky into halves. And when I got to my building door, there was this huge garbage can in the way keeping the door open. For our own safety I removed it and shut the door behind me. little did I know, the next morning I would find out from a corridor mate that the glass on the door was smashed entirely splattering on the ground. And the reason for that seems only to be the nonworking key.

the Chilean version of the Village

2008-05-16T04:26:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the movie the Village?

The real story actually happened in Chile as Misse has told me.

After the 2nd World War, a massive amount of Germans immigrated to South America, which I was never aware of before.

He told me that there are many Chileans who have Latin names but somewhere in their lastnames there appear a Schmitz or Hitler(hehe, just kidding.)

Anyway, he described to me this community in Chile which was entirely self-supplied and rich and totally shut from the outside world. You had to be of German heritage in order to reside in there. But once you have moved in, you are not allowed to move out. The government didn't do anything about this because they were frankly quite rich. So this closed community didn't bother anyone until a half-dead man escaped out of the village and told everyone about- how if you wanna leave, you get shot.

I have heard many crazy things in my life, but this one would be one of the top 10

Wait for it! it's gonna be Legen...

2008-05-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah, a Swiss guy told me that he was almost having a threesome, but, as expected, he was one millimeter close to achieving the goal that every man has dreamt of. So more juicy details come later...

a Latin American who grew up in Sweden...

2008-05-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well, based on a true story

This is one of the funniest stories I have heard in my life

Here's my friend

We are having this discussion about going to bed early in order to gain height. Yeah, that's right, that's why Napolean was so short cause he didn't believe in sleeping; he thought it was a waste of time. And I am telling him how I gained one centermeter first year at college cause I was living off campus and bored at night so went to bed really early every night. Then he says he hasn't gained any height since he was in 7th grade.

That's weird

Then I go on asking him you were this tall when you were in the 7th grade? since he is about 5'11'' now. Man, you must have been the tallest kid in class!

Yeah, but it was sad when everybody overgrew me in the 10th grade...

and he goes on

The thing is that my mom was only pregnant with me for three months...

3 MONTHS!?!?

Yeah, she didn't know that she was pregnant until the 4th month then I was born one month earlier than I should have been... So I was practically only in her belly for 3 months... She was still drinking, smoking, and I think she also did some weed...

HAHAHAHA!!!! But you look pretty normal now!!!

Yeah, when I was born since I was due early they had to inject tons of hormones in me. I think that's how I grew so fast

oh Right!

Yeah even when I was little, kids didn't even wanna approach me cuz I was too big!

ha, I could imagine that, but you are all normal now right?

Yeah, pretty much

The Egg discussion

2008-05-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

So apparently, China doesn't have any brown eggs, while France and Spain have only brown eggs, both which the US, Sweden, and Taiwan all have.

So it actually started with talking with Kiko, the girl from China. Because she bought some eggs from a street market and they were brown. she thought they were fake because of the color of the shell and also the yolk.

So I also went bought some brown eggs at the market then when I was cooking them tonight, Manu(Barcelonian), Jean-Charles(French) both asked me where I got those eggs from. They thought that's the color that the eggs are supposed to look. "Normal eggs" as they called them.

I know you might be bored outa your mind reading this stupid crap. But hey! now you will never know what kind of eggs you will get when you are abroad!

Valborg- Walpurgis night

2008-05-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

the parade

roma and a drunk swedish girl

sleeping on the street

Once a year on April 30th, the Swedes go crazy, drunk, and obnoxious for the whole day. Yes, this is Valborg, a pagan holiday from long time ago.
I am not really familiar with the traditions of the festival but one thing I know is that on this day, there will be huge fires celebrating the spring, or some sort, and people start drinking 10 in the morning until the next day.

Usually, the biggest parties happen in Uppsala since it has got a long tradition on this day, they have boat races, parades and all the student unions called "nations" will be open till 4 in the morning to host big parties with music and dance floors.

So I was all pumped to celebrate this festival and headed up to Uppsala after a morning class. When we got there, we saw huge lines in front of nations because of the Champagne meals you can get in the nations. You have people popping Champagnes all over the place and people eating herrings. What I have heard from Samy is that, well I sort of saw the people in the queues consisting of mainly hot blonde girls, so he told me all the girls were really drunk and he made out with three in one hour at the event.

Anyway, I met up with Clara and got the guestcards for the nations for the night and sat on the lawn chatting with her for a while. Meanwhile, there was this parade marching out of the university library directed by the principal. Apparently this is also the day for the graduates to march down the winding road to complete their graduation. They have almost the equivalent cap and gown but only neater. The caps looked somewhat like the police type of cap you would see in the movies. Anyway, Clara and I had a nice chat and she had to leave for else where so I walked with her back to her dorm and saw her place. It was really new and nicely decorated. You can't really imagine the streets in contrast with this room. Anyhow, I met up with Christophe and the others but only me and Christophe were sober enough to walk around in the city. So we did. Saw lots of people from Stockholm hanging on the streets so we said hi along the way and got some nice surprises- mainly free food.

Nothing happening until when the fire started to happen but we didn't know it was far away from the city center and no one was really motivated to move there. Instead we all got into MAX(a Swedish fast food chain) and had some burgers. People have been telling me how good MAX is because of the burgers. But after tasting them, I feel they are more like the cheap burgers you can get at Lidl (a cheap German supermarket chain). But after I had my dinner we started thinking that it was time to line up for the nation parties.

Actually not much to say about the party because it was quite typical as usual although we had to spend 220 SEK in total to get in one of those. It was a real disappointment although we talked with some girls who had some interesting backgrounds.

Needless to say Samy was his usual self hitting on every single one of girls in the house. He succeeded with some but only stayed on the conversation level. But then he turned into almost a malconfigured vacuum machine that is supposed to suck girls in but turned out to blow/ repel girls away. When you are watching him in action, you will see this crowd filled with girls and a guy named Moses parting the crowd into two.

After getting bored out of our minds at the nation, Christophe and I headed out to search for ways to go back to Stockholm since there was no more trains running. But we ended up sleeping in the chairs of a open-air cafe on the sidewalk for one hour before it got cloudy and cold. Then Christophe spot an open door into a condo so we tried sneaking in and finally found a floor in front of a business that won't open tomorrow and rested on the floor. It was quite intimidating when we heard the elevator running we hoped to God that it wasn't the owner of the business coming in on a holiday. But it turned out to be a woman downstairs who opened the door and asked "HELLO? HELLO?" and we never heard her close the door. Christophe seemed to rest pretty well since he started snoring not long after while I was keeping myself on the toes to listen to the surroundings.

After that we went out of the apartment and went in the station where we saw Samy and some others. That's when Samy was telling us all about his glorious stories but not managing to recall what happened to his forehead.

London fun story

2008-04-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

I took a free guided tour in London. This tour is organized by a group called http://www.neweuropetours.eu/ . It's really cool cuz the guides live off tips so you are not obligated to pay unless you think they are good.

Mine was pretty cool cuz he told us a lot about strange things happening or happened in London.

This one is my personal favorite.

There's a lot of written old pieces of law of London. One is that if a pregnant woman asks a policeman for a restroom, if the policeman can't find her a restroom within 100 yards(or something like that), he/she has to give his/her helmet/hat for her to take a leak in it.

Isn't that just insanely foolish? Sadly, the city is going to abolish these obsolete rules in 2-3 years...

What a Shame!

CRAZY weekend to Tallinn, Estonia (Eestii)

2008-04-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

at a nice restaurant in downtown Tallinn

the old town

The crew

If I tell you a story involving porn, laughters, cigars, tons of booze, and lacking saliva, you would probably wanna hear it.

So here's the story.

So we all got on the boat to Tallinn, well, Tallinn isn't really the focus here since most people just stay on the boat the whole time and drink and do tons of other crap.

So we did

Well, the story basically doesn't get better until on the way back, aside from that Samy had made out with an Italian girl for 4 hours and was outa saliva because of that, when Lowin suggested that she would race anyone without clothes on (still got the underwear) in the hallway. So our German roommates from Linköping were totally on about it. And then one thing led to another, Lowin decided to order porn for the room and everyone could chip in. At the end, only 5 of us including Lowin were willing to chip in because it was for the whole 24 hours.

So we did

We turned up the volume to the max so the corridor could hear us and left our door open.
Meanwhile, we were playing blackjack just to pretend that nothing is happening except that. And every time anyone passed the hallway we would try to get them in to play blackjack with us. But finally there was only one volunteer who enjoyed the whole night with us.
But you can never enjoy people's faces more than the passing girls'. So funny to watch them frown at the door when looking in with this wanting-to-laugh-and-join-but-embarrassed look on the faces. One American girl heard the background music but not the moaning stopped and asked, "What band is this? It sounds pretty cool!" and came in to watch. But she was quite open-minded so just reacted by saying "Why didn't I think of ordering porn?" Many guys popped in several times just to watch for a few sec and left. They dared not stay because they were cowards. I am saying this because many of them popped in at least 3 times and said "This is gross" but came back every time for more.

Enough of that

So it's also my first time smoking a cigar which made me feel cool. Romain bought some from the boutique store and lit one up. I was also interested since it seems like every cool guy in the movies has to smoke a cigar at some point of his career. Wanting to be cool I inhaled deeply into my lungs. But then Romain stopped me from doing that cause you are not supposed to suck the air in deeper than in your mouth. So I took some more and it didn't really feel much except that you feel this tickling/burning feel at the start of your throat. As drunk as I could ever be, I tapped at the tip of the cigar to get the ashes off, burning my finger tip at the same time. Romain got a shocking look on his face and questioned what the fuck I was doing. I didn't really know. But the burn was quite mild, nothing serious.

Tallinn was a nice town but...

it was rainy when we got off the boat. By we I mean Lukas and I because the others were sleeping like logs and Julie and Mathieu already went off without us. So as first-timers, we decided to head off ourselves to take advantage of the time. Nice medieval walls and structures all over the place. Not so many people walking nor shops opened. So that was the deal and the rain got harder and harder so we found a nice little cafe for breakfast. Interesting enough, as I started talking to Lukas, although he's a pretty quiet guy, he told me about a sport called Orienteering.
This sport has only two components. first, a map of a forest, second, a compass. That's all you need for the sport. It's cool that I think he's the first guy I have met doing this sport. It requires quite much of sense of direction and an adventurous mind. Oh, by the way, Lukas is a guy from near Zurich who had already workstudied for 4 years and now is on his bachelor's degree.

Anyway, Tallinn was much to see but the weather didn't really permit us to do so so we headed back onto the boat.

Trip UK- the people

2008-04-05T00:50:00.000-07:00

Angelina and Palon at the bar

One of the most important aspects of traveling, in my opinion, is to meet the locals. I hadn't done so much of that during the travel in Spain and Portugal except that my friends from there showed me around.
But this time, since I was at the UK, and as you may know, English comes from there! So I talked with many locals and some impressions had been made.

In general, the UK gave me three freakin's
1. Things freakin expensive
2. Dialects or Accents freakin confusing
3. Driving on the wrong side of the road freakin' drives me nuts

yup, that might be the impressions to many. But I mean c'mon! what's wrong with these Brits?

oops, actually many Scots hate the term British because that sort of excludes them.

It was funny how when I was in Scotland people were more like the English are arrogant and have been picking on the Scots for generations. While the English is like Scotland is our backyard watch dogs.

So I traveled first to Edinburgh, then up to Loch Ness, down to Liverpool, London, then to Plymouth in the South. During all this time, I have talked to Scots, Liverpudlians, none of the Londoners, but people from other parts of England, some Irish, and some Welsh.
Before going I was not able to tell the different accents from different parts but now I have got the basic idea of how the accents work.

The hardest and most difficult accent I have come across is Scouse (they call it a dialect of the Liverpudlians). It was just so amusing to listen to because you basically understand no shit at all except listening to their melodic intonation. And the thing is that all the Liverpudlians have a very strong accent while it varies from person to person in Scotland and Ireland. Some Scots and Irish almost speak as plain as North Americans while some still have a very distinct accent.

Scottish accent has words that kinda stand out the most. They roll their tongue for r's, the OU sound in Now or About sounds like the O sound as in BOAT, and DAY sounds like DE.

Interesting people I have talked to are three Norwegian girls, a Spanish guy, 2 Irish, 1 Welsh, and finally some English, and an American from OC.

The Norwegians just sat beside me during the musical Les Miserables and so I heard them speaking Norwegian then I started asking them in Swedish. When they heard what I was speaking they totally changed their attitude... from a stranger to almost a friend. Anyway, finally didn't end up hanging out with them after the musical because they kinda tear up because of the musical.
The Spanish guy I just met randomly at a breakfast at the hostel. He was just sitting alone so I invited myself to sit across from him and started talking with him. He just traveled to Iceland and really enjoyed it. now he's studying in France. we ended up sightseeing together for the whole day and hung out at a bar afterwards. And that's when we ran into the couple- Irish guy and the English girl. The Irish guy was a musician so of course he deserves a girl, although he didn't speak too much. The English girl ended up chatting with us the most although we started talking with the Irish first. But the girl was extremely nice and gave me her number just in case I needed anything. She told me it's really hard to meet people in London so she was glad to find me and the Spanish guy. And She was psyched about going to Spain for exchange in the future so was polishing her spanish with Palon(the Spaniard). So that was the night at the bar.

One other funny story when I was trying to ask for directions on the street of Plymouth then I ran into this guy with a backpack and some blankets tied to bag so I assumed that he was a traveler and asked him. He ended up walking with me to the coach station since he had nothing else to do. So we began chatting and he was saying all the time that he wanted to get out of this Shithole. And saying that he had to sleep with all his back wet cuz of the freakin' weather. Apparently he was sleeping on the street and had to catch the train to somewhere everyday to work. I was just cracking up inside cuz he was just so much of a character. Whenever he cussed and complained he opened another cracking doll inside me.

Finally I met the guy from OC (Orange County) and found out that we were both traveling alone on the same day and had some common interest sights to see but just got to know each other at night when I was watching soccer on TV in the hostel. He tried to find the Wimbledon Stadium but didn't manage to when it took me a very long time to finally find it myself. Then he showed me a video on his camera that he recorded Ronaldo's goal against Aston Villa. It was amazing! although I don't like Ronaldo's cockiness. And we just ended up chatting about almost anything so the night turned out to be not so lonesome.

St. Patrick's night

2008-03-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

PJ- Pierre-Jean

Ever since pubs started advertising for St. Patrick's day I wanted to go out and have a real Irish night.
Although I planned to have sauna with Christophe and some other friends, we finally decided to meet up at Zinkensdamn to be at Southside pub.
It was good atmosphere and all because they had a live band, which sucked like no other since they probably started drinking in the morning already, and we were accompanied by two Irish- Laura and Timmy. Samy and Pierre Jean were also there. They actually went to O'Connell's first in Gamla Stan.
So I got to talk with Samy about two nights before when he and I were dancing with these two Swedish girls. I thought it was amazing that night because actually a freaking hot blonde Swedish wanted me that night. I was mentioning that to every of my friend because I was quite pround of myself. At first I was just dancing to myself near the girl and was not looking straight to her. But then she poked me and gave me a look that said Hey I am your god damn target here! where the fuck are you looking to? So I started dancing around her and put my hands around her waist but then she suddenly grabbed them and put them somewhere more important and rubbing her body against me. Not long after that, I was very turned on but she left with her friend. But later on we met on the dancefloor again and she accidentally stepped on my toe and gave me a very big Sorry. She looked straight into my eyes and I thought I was floating on top of the world.
But you know, as usual as a pathetic Asian, I did not do shit. I let her fly away. But at least I was a little happy that night because maybe there's some girls out there who could really appreciate me.

But I was wrong.

It turns out it was all an Asian's pathetic dream. That girl was fucking drunk, according to Samy. He told me that the girl was so drunk that she sort of attacked him from behind while Samy was talking to the friend of hers and 2 seconds after she was making out with the floor.

Dreams shattered.

And it proved to me again and again that those blonde girls are just extremely stupid.

Here's another one.

While PJ and I were standing in the Irish pub 2 girls came over and asked his name. You know if you want a girl to hit on you like that you have to be at least good looking and freaking tall. I don't really know what happened with the 2nd girl but the first one was totally high or something. So she came over and cut directly between me and PJ while I was talking to him. Well, I was like, you are kinda rude but I don't really care.
So she talked to PJ for a bit and turned to me and asked PJ who I was. So she greeted me as well and started a very interesting conversation with me. She went "Your friend is a very good looking guy. But I am more after a guy who I can actually chat with." I frowned "what do you mean?" "This guy can't talk! He only knows France!" I was thinking to myself- yeah like you can talk? You can't even say French! But I went " What?!? YEs he speaks English and he speaks it good!" So she went back speaking to him again and came back to me "But he doesn't wanna talk about politics with me!"
"What politics?"
"American elections!"
"Well then why the hell are you talking to a Frenchman about American politics?"
"I was just testing him"
"Go talk to him about something else!!"
So there she went again and immediately came back to me
"But all he wants to talk about is flowers!!!"
So I couldn't hold it anymore so I went straight to PJ
"So what did she ask you?"
"She asked me what flowers do I like..."

And I just can't believe how stoned the girl was. It must have been some kinda crack she was on. But soon after that PJ got so pissed off at her that he tricked her outside and came back alone again.

But about ten minutes after that, another girl came asking his name. Funny shit, she spent 10 minutes what PJ's name was because it's French.

But the conclusion of the night is that I should stop fantasizing about Swedish girls and the T-shirts and hats they gave out at Southside were awesome.

The super DUO in the battle field

2008-02-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

They seem innocent but veil their most devious feel of supremacy underneath.

Many have fought them, or to be more precise, fought for them.

Little do they know, one out of 50 accomplishes the mission.

There are two warriors I know in person, good friends of mine.

One is named Romain and the other called Samy.

Hundreds of slaps in the face, painful rejections have occurred... but they have never given up their hopes.

They believe the more you try the more chances there will be.

Romain in the mid, Samy at right

Swedish girls are hard, fierce, and unpredictable.

Last night, another tragedy took place.
Samy tried having a picture with a Swede but Norbert accidentally broke the camera of the girl.

But Norbert walked away and disappeared so Samy had to deal with the Swedish girl and some of her unreasonable guy friends.
So finally he almost got beat up by the guys thankfully that the security guard stood out and resolved it. But Samy got a punch from behind out of nowhere from a swedish guy.

Careful my friends... It's a battlefield we are talking about here!

few comments on sex equity in Sweden

2008-02-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

The whole world knows that Scandinavia is probably one of the most libral states on earth, especially when talking about sex equity.

They make too big a deal out of it, in my opinion.

couple of months ago I posted a news about the feminists proposing going topless in swimming pools. Well, as a guy, there isn't that much to lose in that situation although I just suppose they have too much free time on their hands.

Today, again a issue that no one would ever give a rat's ass is that they are turning all the underwears in the Swedish hospitals into unisex forms.

So I got to question... Is that really necessary?

Linköping Adventure

2008-02-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

How big do you think the 5th largest city in Sweden would be?

If I tell you that I only know one guy from there, and I only stopped by in town for lunch, And I ran into him. Would you believe me?

So yeah, that's what happened. 4 other friends and I wanted to see how Linköping was like so dropped by for 2 hours.
And after 30 minutes in town, we walked out of the "famous" cathedral and started reorienting ourselves to downtown.
Suddenly, I saw Jowan walking down the street so I told my friends that I knew this guy. They made fun of me because they had the attitude that says "Yeah Right! You know everyone!" So I started calling Jowan! Jowan! But he didn't hear me so I went up to tap on his shoulder. And he turned around and looked surprised and greeted me.
And my friends were standing there with their jaws dropped.

Funny bicycle meter story
And we saw this meter that tells you how many people in town rides a bike per day and how many per year so we decided to take a picture of it. Then a guy biking by stopped and looked really serious at us. He told us that it was not very polite to take a picture of someone who doesn't want his picture taken... So we told him that it was for the meter... not for him (like how much we would want his picture)
REMEMBER TO CLICK on the box above!

The difference between the nationalities when asking a question

2008-02-12T03:46:00.000-08:00

I have picked up a habit of saying NO? when I finish a question. I have figured out where it came from.
Generally, the Latin speaking people like to add that at the end of a question. Manu, Gemma from Barcelona in my corridor always add that. And also my French, Swiss French friends always do that. But you don't find it so common in the Germanic languages. I know at least in English, people say more often RIGHT? at the end. Well, some others say Isn't IT? too but that doesn't really count.

I don't know if that has something to do with the attitude or the confidence in one's self or what. But it is certainly an interesting thing when you talk to a different national next time

a Bit of memory from Portugal

2008-02-12T03:36:00.000-08:00

Now I just realized why I really liked Portugal and said the people are friendlier than Spaniards. This traces back to the time when I was in Porto.

I walked into a very tiny grocery store on the streets and the owner was on the phone crunching on some chips. So I walked around and found what I wanted and went to pay.

Then he dropped the phone and calculated how much I had to pay. And then he said something that amazed me:
"Oh, I am being really rude, I should've have asked you if you wanted some chips! Would you like some?"

So I was looking at him thinking to myself," Are you serious? that's your bag of chips and you can do whatever the hell with those! How can people be so nice here?"

It was not very big of a deal to say things like this but he said it! It certainly higher my impression on the Portuguese.

Desert of the Day- Semla

2008-02-11T15:45:00.001-08:00

Swedish- Semla or Semlor in pluralThis desert is popular in this time of year and is usually enjoyed with a cup of tea or coffee. It's basically a bun sandwiching fresh cream and almond paste. It's usually not very sweet unless you have a big bite of the almond paste when eating. I have had two of these for lunch one time because they are so delicious!

Man of the Day- Daniel Wickström

2008-02-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

Only the word ENERGY can describe this guy. He doesn't know the word tired unless he is sick. He's the guy who never stops running, playing European football, gets tired of the things he enjoys.
Also a very sincere friend you can ever ask for.
This guy is going to be math teacher but still acts like a child. He owns a PS2 and plays soccer games and karaoke games. I guess these facts are not as interesting as what he's told me today.
"I hope I will get the candy factory job in Midsummer and work on the Red day(one day after the Midsummer's day)"
"Why would you wanna do that? You should just go out and party because it's midsummer!" I replied in confusion.
"You know you get twice the money if you work on the Red day?"
"Oh really?"
"And the best thing is that you don't have to work!!!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Because you can put your shift through the candy company on the Red day when you get twice as much"
"ok so?"
"Then the factory is actually not open on that day! so even if you want to go into the factory you can't!"
"So you will just be sitting home and drinking beer while getting paid twice?"
"Yup! and it's 150 SEK per hour and I will sign up for a 10 hour shift or something!"
"Oh wow," I think to myself, "This country is full of opportunities for people to get real lazy but amazingly enough they still maintain it so far so good!"

change of album

2008-02-07T06:38:00.001-08:00

Well, I have been posting pictures here on my blog but finally decided that it's
was too much pain in the ass so now go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/timerakkle for my photos!

Do I look like I am easy?

2008-01-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

Many times in my life I have wondered why strangers like to "make fun of me?" I guess my face just says that I am an easy target and I would not get angry even being made fun of.

Incident1. Location: Seattle
Walking on the street. All a sudden one car drove by and rolled down the window. A girl pulled a gun out aiming at me and Pat. Water (or some sort) got squirted at us.

Incident2. Location: La Rambla, Barcelona
The "Ronaldinho" pickpocket trick done on me

Incident3. Location: La Rambla, Barcelona
The unbelievable Indian clerks cussed me out

Incident4. Location: Allhuset, Stockholm
A girl came over and pushed me away trying to dance with me. After some closeups, she took a picture of my confused face.

Incident5. Location: KTH, Stockholm
2 Swedish blonde girls running towards me and circled around me. I thought they were hiding from each other with me being in the middle but then they started grabbing my ass. I had a bad day so I just assumed that they wanted some innocent looking stranger to satisfy their mischievous minds.

Incident6. Location: Santiago De Compostela
sitting in the train station, one guy came in front of my face and farted.

And there are numerous other incidents that either some stupid person jump in front of me giving me a funny face or some ugly pranks. I don't know, Maybe I am just paranoid or just too serious.

Before going home

2008-01-24T12:24:00.000-08:00

Before going home I had to return to Madrid to fly out from there. So I used the last days to enjoy and refresh the bits of memory of Spain and Portugal...

The four new contructed skyscrapers in Madrid- going to be a hit in the coming years

The symbol of Madrid- a bear reaching for cherries

A special ceremony at the Royal Palace

Salamanca

2008-01-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

Salamaca is a college town- that doesn't mean the city is out of order! It's still well preserved and the students blend together with all the ancient monuments

the shell house

Plaza Mayor

Burgos at night

2008-01-24T12:17:00.000-08:00

I have seen the same kind of them twice... I wonder what the significance of a man pointing to a skull is...

And another piece of art I don't get... What's so special of this hand?

I went up to the castle mountain at night and no one was around... got a very good photo of the city although it was a bit too chilly and scary up there

Burgos

2008-01-24T12:13:00.000-08:00

used to be one of the attractions, now it's a bank

The famous hero Sid

The famous Burgos Cathedral from the outside. way too many pictures taken inside so I am just going to skip them

Bilbao

2008-01-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

The whole city is filled with public art from bridges to small decorations on the streets

The Guggenheim museum- famous for its architecture but has the worst collection I have seen in years

Santiago de Compostela, Galicia

2008-01-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

Galicia is situated in the northwestern part of Spain. It has its own language and under the Celtic language group. Galego is another official language of Spain besides Catalan and the Basque language. Many people have asked me what city I like the most on this trip, this town is definitely one of my top choices because it feels so different from the rest of Spain and somehow catches my heart. The parks reminds me of Scotland and Ireland from the movies.

Inside a museum

The famous Cathedral/Church of Santiago

Porto- a wine city

2008-01-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

all the signs of the wine cellars in the area

wine boats

in the wine cellar

look at the years of those wines!

Porto, Portugal

2008-01-24T12:01:00.000-08:00

The Poets Hostel in Porto

still hillly

Bits of Lisbon

2008-01-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

The final Euro 2004 was played in Sporting Lisbon's home field

Castle in the sky

unique train station in Lisbon

Sintra, Portugal

2008-01-24T11:58:00.000-08:00

Sintra is just a small town close to Lisbon, It's right on the coast to the Atlantic Ocean. Beautiful architecture and the green are its attraction

Those chimneys pop from a famous monestery but we didn't know back at that time so just assumed it was a factory

see that castle?

Here we are at the castle

American Canadian I ran into in Lisbon

Lisbon

2008-01-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

cool street art with fake manikins

a very hilly city

Cordoba

2008-01-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

ancient watermill

the famous Mezquita- hundreds of pillars inside the church

Sevilla 2

2008-01-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

Plaza Espanya

It's only a guy beneath the manikins using his hands and feet dancing crouched

The crazy three king's parade- a candy throwing festival

The aftermath...

Sevilla 1- Alcazar

2008-01-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

The old bath

To Sevilla

2008-01-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

You believe this is a train station?

The Ave- high speed train throughout Spain

Cathedral of Spain- largest Gothic Cathedral in the world

That night at a free Flamenco Sevillana style- only singing and music in the beginning, later a volunteer got on the stage and danced with the host.

Madrid 5- after New Year

2008-01-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

freaking long line before the Prado- took me two hours to finally get in...

Parque de Retiro

crazy balloon Xmas tree

New Years Eve 2- crazy party

2008-01-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

WEll, basically, it's just a collection of drunk and stupid people so take your time to enjoy these!

Most of these people are Carlos' friends

New Year's Eve 1

2008-01-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve was spent with Carlos' family in the suburbs of Madrid. His family was very delightful and VERY WELL DRESSED LIKE THE REST OF SPAIN on new years eve

His Grandma and I

delicate cusine

His family

A huge kiss from Carlos after the countdown

Madrid 4- more!

2008-01-24T11:34:00.000-08:00

near the Royal palace

Inside the Cathedral

Carlos and his Grandma's textile shop

Mile 0- All the roads in Spain extend from this point

Madrid 3- Santiago Bernabeu

2008-01-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

trophy room

shoes of Raul

a bunch of showoffs sitting on the bench all happy

Madrid 2- busy streets

2008-01-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

inside a museum of ham

Plaza Major

Don quixote

another trend on the 31st of Dec- wig wearing

Madrid 1

2008-01-24T11:26:00.000-08:00

A very nice Spanish girl showed me around the town. She's amazingly speaks unaccented English and almost perfect Madarin Chinese. Hanging out with her was my fortune

Mayte and her sister at tapas

The delicacy in cutting ham

Chamartin station with an LED waterfall wall

the decorated streets

Toledo and Madrid

2008-01-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

Toledo in fog

bridge over into the city

the Prado

Another good shot of the Prado

Park Guell

2008-01-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

look at the small grafiti on the upper right corner

Camp Nou

2008-01-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

The aisle going onto the pitch

Tibidabo

2008-01-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

This is the other high hill in the city of Barcelona, you have a church, TV tower, and an amusement park at the top

And I was wondering how the hell did the driver got that car in that position!

Barcelona 5 or something...

2008-01-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

plaza Catalunya

at the harbor

Sagrada Familia in daytime

2008-01-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

The work by Gaudi is extremely stunning during the day. I have never seen anything close to this in my life. It seems like the whole church is growing on its own. It's just cannot be described by words.

bits from here and there Barcelona

2008-01-24T11:05:00.000-08:00

Aww~~

the city from above

the sunset and the harbor

Sagrada Familia at night

Christmas day lunch

2008-01-24T11:02:00.000-08:00

This took place at Manu's sister's place

YUM YUM! Roast lamb in da house!

Cagatio- a traditional in Catalunya where you have a piece of wood with a face drawn on it. The kid beats it and the parent keeps on hand under the blanket where the wood "lay" presents from

another night out in Barcelona

2008-01-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

Freaking awesome car that's falling apart in every piece

What's that look Xavi?

Well, that's self-explanatory enough

club Fellini on La Rambla

Christmas dinner in Barcelona

2008-01-24T10:51:00.000-08:00

Very hospitable family of Manu, prepared a super good dinner for the special day of the year

Manu's mother, older brother, Papa, Manu (from left)

Oldest sister of Manu, his niece, the Brazilian tenant, the other older sister of Manu (from left)

Manu, me, brother in law, cute little niece

Filled Calamari- it was so good!

Christmas eve in Barcelona

2008-01-24T10:48:00.000-08:00

The streets of Barcelona were filled with Xmasy atmosphere. It all extended from the plaza of Catalunya to every corner.

Another one by Gaudi

The spanish Papa Noel (Santa Claus) at their biggest department store franchise- El Corte Ingles

Barcelona 3

2008-01-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

The genius of Gaudi is exposed to the public to the maximum extent

La Pedrera

The interier

the model of it

on the roof at sunset

Barcelona 2

2008-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

Manu was supposed to get me in the game of Barca- Real Madrid but finally didn't because of some factors... But instead we went to this bar just right next to the stadium to watch the game

Turned out to be a pretty bad game anyway...

The crowd going home from the stadium

CATWALK- used to be Manu's favorite club but it had changed...

This Transvestite is the shit! look how great we look together! (at Catwalk)

Barcelona 1

2008-01-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

After that crazy night Manu had to play in this game... unfortunately the only match I saw in Spain... if you even consider Catalunya part of Spain...

Nice shot of Manu's freekick

Inside the grand Cathedral in Barcelona

Standing in front of the manikins at the souvenir shop

in front of Camp Nou

on the way to Barcelona

2008-01-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

I almost didn't get on this boat because the stupid ticket office is miles away from the actual departure dock. So I went straight to the boat and they almost made me rush to get the ticket in 20 minutes before departure. Fortunately, I finally got on the boat and met thses horny old men...

One of the old guys there requesting me to take photos of girls' asses

Want a beer dude? one of them...

Manu in action at the club... right after my seven hour tiring journey and one hour trap in the harbor after arrival in the pouring rain...

One of his college mates who's studying in Chicago and speaks almost perfect English

Mallorca!

2008-01-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

It's supposed to be a big resort in the summer but now it's just the locals who are there

Plaza Mayor

The cathedral of Palma de Mallorca

The deserted beach and resorts

some weird alcohol in soccer shoes

Valencia 4

2008-01-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

The bullring

the Central station

Xmasy

nice photo of the plaza again

Valencia 3

2008-01-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

The city of Artes and Science (Ciudad de las artes y las ciencias)

An argentine I stayed with in the hostel, reminds me of Mr. Bean for some reason

nice pose in front of one of the buildings in CDLALC

No photos! but I kept it anyway

2008-01-24T10:20:00.000-08:00

The gate to FC Valencia

Plaza de Virgen

A Christmas market nearby

the famous tapas! as you can see, it composes of the esential bread, some wine (although the glass is empty...), and some exquisite food!

Valencia1

2008-01-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

streets of Valencia

skyline of Valencia

The tower

my trip to Spain and Portugal

2008-01-20T07:19:00.001-08:00

Hi my friend,
just got back from Spain and Portugal two days ago. Many have asked about the trip so i figured the best way not to tell each one of you is to send out a summary of my trip. Well I'm gonna do this in a simple Q&A manner so it's easy to browse to the part you wanna read about

1. Where exactly have you been in Spain and Portugal?
Valencia-Palma de Mallorca- Santa Ponsa (Mallorca)- Barcelona- Madrid- Sevilla- Cordoba- Lisboa (Lisbon)- Sintra- Porto (Oporto)- Santiago de Compostela- Bilbao- Burgos- Salamanca

2. Do you speak Spanish or Portuguese?
Hola! Gracias! Obridgad! would be my best tries.

3. How was the weather like?
Unfortunately, as always, I had extreme bad luck- aside from the almost two weeks of sunny weather in Barcelona and Madrid, the rest was windy and rainy and freezing. The first day I arrived in Valencia it was the coldest day in 5 years.

4. So you traveled alone?
Yes, for the most part. Except that I stayed with the family of my dad's friend's in Madrid and most of the time with Manu (my flat mate) in Barcelona. The rest I traveled alone or with the people I met at the hostels.

5. Ok the most important question... Did you enjoy the trip?
Well, tough one. I really did enjoy it, for the most part. But since it's my first big trip alone, I had come to some difficulties that I wished that someone had traveled with me alongside. Overall, it was very great experience although language barriers in Spain were the things that discouraged me every now and then.

6. What town was your favorite?
Tough one again. All the cities were different and you can't really compare them like that. Most of the cities in Spain are a combination of the modern and the ancient. Personally, I have found that Santiago de Compostela somehow very attractive. I also liked to walk the streets of Barcelona and admired the architecture along the way, strolled in the Prado in Madrid and be overwhelmed by all the art there was.

7. Impressions of each city
Valencia- polite people with exquisite paella (although I never tried it there)
Mallorca- lazy tourist information receptionist, whatever I asked they always pointed to the same direction that "everything was behind THAT BUILDING"
Barcelona- probably one of the most chaotic cities in the world
Madrid- people from Madrid have this special capital pride in them without knowing it themselves.
Sevilla- The Andalucian Flamenco passion city
Cordoba- enough for a day visit
Lisbon- the next potential big hit tourist attraction
Porto- Go for the free wine tasting! with amazing Bifana! a spicy pork sandwich
Santiago de Compostela- great blend of the modern and the old
Bilbao- nothing that I had imagined the Basque capital would be like. rule followers- people actually wait for the green light to cross the street! And I was expecting to see some weird looking Basque people but all I heard and saw was Spanish.
Burgos- Amazing cathedral with the hint of blood sausage
Salamanca- full of college students, I guess great for partygoers

8. Interesting people you met?
The middle aged supermarket cashier Argentine, Valencia- stayed in the same room in the hostel of Valencia. didn't speak a word of English who reminds me of Mr. Bean for some reason. We hung out and had fun chatting with each other using our invented sign language.
Ernesto, Valencia- an Argentinian American from San Francisco. ready to move to Valencia who used to teach English to foreigners. open minded but not enough to become gay. At least that's what he said to the two middle aged gay norwegian guys we ran into on the street.
A crew of middle aged horny blue collars, on the ferry from Mallorca to Barcelona- guess the equivalent red necks from Spain. sat and chatted so loud during the entire journey. very friendly and invited me to their snacks and beers. Only one truck driver knew how to speak a bit of English. he told me he's better at French, German, or Russian (apparently learning Russian from a very hot Russian girlfriend of his). Horny because once they saw a decent ass of a woman they urged me to take a picture of it because I had a better camera. And apparently Asians are famous for their "photo taking skills." Had their email addresses down so I could send those to them although the pictures were long deleted and the addresses were lost.
The Two gay Norwegian guys, Valencia- found out that they were gay after they had got married and had kids- poor wives and kids
Mayte, Madrid- a pretty, diligent girl who's double majoring in Economics and Law in a top university in Madrid. a Spanish native speaker who has amazingly no accent in English, and has been learning Mandarin Chinese for 6 years. Been to Taiwan twice and, if my hearing wasn't bad, Taiwan is one of her favorite countries. Asked why learn chinese she told me she just feels like it. Showed me around in Madrid and had a good time together.
Emma and her sister, Sevilla- met at the hostel in Sevilla. They grew up in Colorado but now have immigrated to New Zealand. Emma now lives in Christchurch and her sister studies in Scotland. we went to the three king candy throwing madness together and waited there for 2 hours for it to start.
Nice guy who let me hitchhike, Barcelona- It was pouring rain like no other and windy as hell. I was stuck at the harbor and had to walk 4 kms over a bridge to the city side. So I saw this car coming and thumbed. it stopped immediately and I went over to ask if he could gimme a lift and if he spoke english. God blessed, he spoke fluent English though was still apologizing for his english.
Alex, a Chilean immigrant hitchhikee, Santiago de Compostela- I was wandering in the streets lost searching for a place to stay one o'clock in the morning. This guy drove by 3 times and kinda made me suspicious. But finally it turned out that he wondered if I needed a lift to somewhere so dropped me off at the nearest open hotel.
A "claimed to be Brazilian" bastard thief, Barcelona- This SOB pickpocketed me and was so shameless that after I fought him for my wallet back, he was "making sure" that I was calm and going to "take it easy"
A bunch of South Asian (most likely Pakistanis or Indians) SOBs, Barcelona- They cussed me out at their own souvenir shop and tried to throw me out of it. The cuss was the most insulting one I have gotten since I was born.
Alexis, Lisbon- When I arrived in the city of Lisbon, I was clueless of where to stay. Thankfully that she took the same bus as me and turned up at the same metro station I got out at. So I walked over and asked her if she spoke english. of course she did- she's from NYC but immigrated to Toronto, Canada 6 years ago. Lisbon was her last stop and before going home. She went to the Sahara Dessert before coming to spain. She said she spent the new years eve in the middle of the dessert which was the most amazing moment of her life. She's very friendly and talkative. I had good company while in Lisbon thanks to her.
Weird guy from New Mexico, Lisbon- actually in my opinion he wasn't weird. I had some good conversations with him. He was weird according to Alexis and the Hostel manager. He came in the 2nd day I was staying at the hostel and the manager told Alexis that the other hostel had already call in to warn the manager about this guy. And Alexis herself felt that he stared at her weird and was giving weird vibes to her. I think he was either extremely horny (because I think he only stared at girls weird), or stoned all the time because his motion was kind of way too slow. Although this lucky bastard got in Real Madrid- Barcelona football match in a box seat for FREE!!! He told me that he just happened to party with the right crowd and the guys had the box covered. Really lucky... you know how much a normal seat would cost? at least 200 EUROS!!! imagine how much a box would cost.

I have met tons of other people but the conversations were rather brief. Most of the spaniards I have talked to were friends of friends'. But the trends I see in the people are: 1. lots of Argentinians 2. Americans are immigrating out of their country 3. Spain is the one of the last countries you wanna be in if you don't speak the language 4. on the other hand, the Portuguese are quite good at English and don't expect them to understand Spanish.

9. Suggestions for the people who wanna visit Spain and Portugal in the future?
1. LEARN SOME SPANISH BEFORE YOU GO!
2. trains are generally more convenient than buses. every train station has a tourist information which is quite helpful when you arrive in every city.
3. don't expect the transport to be easy from Spain to Portugal, or the other way.
4. to avoid the crowd you should visit the Iberian Peninsula in the winter but will miss all the beach relaxations.
5. put your important belongings at least in your front pockets. in a money belt is even better.
6. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT SO READ IT CAREFULLY!
This pickpocket trick is now international after talking with some people. It's well known in Spain as the "Ronaldinho trick" and France as the "Zidane trick." If someone approaches you trying to show you a football trick, especially putting his/ her foot between yours and kicking between your legs really rapidly and hard, DONT LET THEM! and examine your belongings after if they have already done it to you. That's how I got robbed and how I reacted quickly enough to fight back for my wallet.
7. not necessary to book beds in low season. this way you can find a more center-situated hostel in a city.

Thanks for reading my update on my trip.

Belated Happy new YEAR to EVERYONE!

truly yours,
Tim Lee

the Spanish and Portuguese impressions

2008-01-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

Each region of Spain and Portugal has their own character.Many of the impressions might not be true because of my personal views.Well that involves that...
1) I dont speak a damn word of Spanish (but I am good at guessing and picking up single words)2) I am Asian
3) I am a freaking Asian boy
4) I could be paranoid sometimes

PEOPLE
Well, generally, I have found that the Portuguese are more reserved and polite than the Spaniards. You can always hear the Spaniards talking loud on the street, in the restaurant, anywhere. But the Portuguese dont seem to have the same quality.

Perhaps influenced by some Portuguese people I have talked to, I feel, in general, the Portuguese are more friendly to people. One of the reasons I think is because they speak pretty good English. A lot of times when I was with Alexis (an American Canadian girl who rescued me in Lisbon) she thought the people didnt speak a word of English so tried Spanish with them. BIG MISTAKE! sometimes they get offended by that you know! Because their English level is so far ahead of the Spanish standards.
It's sad when you cannot communicate with people exactly the way you want. The English in Spain is pathetic but I don't blame them. Everything on TV is dubbed into Spanish and they don't really feel the need of speaking English. Whereas Portuguese don't have that PRIDE which halts them from learning another language. You really feel that people are more down to earth when it comes to meeting with foreigners. I am not saying the Spanish are not down to earth. But they are definitely down to earth when you speak their language or have some spanish friends who speak english or who have a friend that speaks english.
In many cities you will find no other place that speaks English than the tourist information centers. Well, techniquely, people understand some vocabulary if you speak extremely slow and with a spanish accento. So I suggest the one who wants to travel to Spain at least know some basics in Spanish or have some companions who speak it. Or else, you'd better not just burst out speaking English to people when you see them. That is considered kind of rude in Spain.
Interesting enough, I have found the old people more helpful than the young. At least five times on the street in different towns, I was holding a map trying to orient myself. All those times I was helped by some Spanish old man who didn't speak half a word of English. But they try very hard to help me. They also could just babble on and on about god knows what.
However, I think one reason that they don't speak english is because they are afraid of making mistakes. Because whoever I asked if they spoke english or not always replied "just a little bit..." that shows a lack of confidence.

Last but not least, let's talk about the girls. well first you have to know that most girls on the Iberian Pennisula smoke. And they smoke A lot! So don't expect their breath or voice to be very pleasant if you will. Especially their voice is not very pleasing to the ears since they have been smoking since they are in middle school (well, I saw a bunch of middle schoolers smoking outside the campus many places I went) and they really talk loud. So I guess those things are the nicest contribution to the vocal cord. BUT, compare the spanish chicas with the Portuguese ones, the Spaniards to the Portuguese is as the Portuguese English to Spanish English. I don't know, for some reason, the Portuguese girls just looks so plain. They are not bad looking nor good looking. But you totally lose your interest in them.

CULTURE
Eats late- lunch is around 2-3pm
Party late- you don't really go out partying until 3 am then party till 10 in the morning
Shops open late- don't expect to see shops open until almost dusk
Uncertainty is their middle name- don't expect them to tell you one thing for certain until an hour before

Transport
the Metro- generally they have a pretty decent underground and bus system in major cities and towns.
the Autobus- the Autobuses run between cities, these are not any cheaper than the railway, but more time options and flexibility. Also, sometimes the railway doesnt connect some cities in which case you must take the autobus to get from one to another. Although I would not suggest these unless you know some spanish and are ready to take some challenges. Anything could happen on the trip. One time my bus almost broke down in the middle of the high way but somehow the bus driver managed to dragged the dying engine to the final stop. And one other time we had a girl pouring puke in the back of the bus. And no one could do anything. It started out sounding like someone had a bucket to throw water on the floor. And it kept on going for some minutes. Thank god the puke smelt like strawberries so I didn't follow her lead.
the Renfe- this is their railway system. It's usually pretty clean and punctual and not too expensive. Although if you were to ride the AVE, which is the high speed train, it might cost you quite a fortune. There's several advantages if you ride with Renfe. It's on time (usually), every main train station has a tourist info (which the bus stations don't have), and you probably would run into less strange people on the train.

Well, these, of course, are just impressions. So don't take them too seriously!

FOOD
well both cuisines are excellent but there are some subtle differences...
Spanish-famous for Tapas, Paella, and different small regional foods. The ingredients are generally pretty acceptable, but there could be some strange things that people daren't try. The tapas usually involves a lot of potatoes, pork, jamon (ham), and eggs. Bell peppers and other common veggies are widely used as well. The Spaniards don't really stand the spicyness so nothing is spicy at all. The paella tastes something like jambalaya from Cajun cuisine but without the spicyness. I have personally found Spanish food pretty salty. Oh, and there something I can't miss out, Churros con chocolate. Their hot chocolate is extremely thick, it's as if they just melt the solid chocolate straight into liquid. It goes very well if you dip the churros in the chocolate but too sweet by itself.
Portuguese- even more salty than Spanish, which makes it horribly salty. The portuguese are famous for their pastries. The custards are amazing and so are other little snacks. You will see a very big difference in a portuguese town and a spanish town when you see loads of people standing in Pasterias (places that sell pastries) having their feast in Portugal while the Spaniards prefer tapasterias. One dish you can't miss while in Portugal is the BIFANA!!! It could be very very spicy for some but I loved it! well, it's like a hamburger but with some sliced pork cooked in spicy oil and spices. It's also pretty cheap to have so I highly recommend it.

Spain and Portugal itinerary

2008-01-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

WEll, to give you a basic idea of the places I have gone here's the table of it.
Stockholm-Valencia (by Ryanair)
Valencia
Palma de Mallorca (by Air Europa)
Barcelona (by ferry Iscomar)
Madrid (by bus)
Sevilla (by AVE high speed train)
Cordoba (train)
Lisboa (Lisbon) (night bus from Sevilla)
Porto (Portuguese national train)
Santiago de Compostela (bus)
Bilbao (bus)
Burgos (bus)
Salamanca (bus)
Madrid (train)
Stockholm (Ryanair)

and there are, of course, stories to come shortly

Worst day of my life

2007-12-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

So here is how it went...
I was just walking down La Rambla in Barcelona at night and spotted one souvenir shop so decided to go in to have a look with a bit of intention of buying. But I had had bad experience in the morning with one indian clerk at the door. He was sleeping the floor and I was about to enter. He stopped me and asked me if I could come back later since he was sweeping. Well, I thought, that makes sense so I turned around and left. As I was leaving I heard him saying that ¨You can come in if you will buy something, but if not, don´t come in.¨ So I was a little ticked to hear that. But I wanted to check out the prices so I decided to try another shop on the same street. So I went in one that didn´t seem to bad. I got in, strolled around, and went up to the jersey section. I was checking out the tag to see the price but there was none. One indian clerk standing right by me spotted me so asked me what I wanted in a very unpleasant voice. So I just told him I wanted to know the price. So he explained three kinds of prices and said ¨Hey, hurry up! it´s closing!¨ So I just mumbled ¨What the fuck...¨ because it was the exact same attitude I got in the morning. So then he got really fired up. ¨HEy fuck you china, go fuck yourself!¨ So I turned around and asked what? ¨It´s fine, I am not from China¨ Then he kept on going ¨just go fuck yourself ok? fuck you.... XOXOXO¨ over and over so I got very very mad then started cursing at him too. And he was giving me the fingers and all those. Then two or three other clerks came about to throw me out. Then I walked out on my own.

and that´s not end of the story....

So I went back to the hostel and sent every friend to boycott those stupid souvenir shops on La Rambla then went out to a Jazz club. After an hour of jazz, I still couldn´t get those disgusting faces out of my head so I decided to revenge. I decided to go pee on their door just to ¨piss them off.¨ So stupidly enough, I went back on that street after 3 hours of the incident. ¨I have to be careful since there are many other indians on the street selling stuff,¨ I told myself. ¨They might look out for each other...¨ So I was wholy concentrated on this business. but GOD KNOWS what happens next!!!!

A 30 year old guy looking sort of like a hobo approaches me so I try to walk away from him. ¨China? Japanese? my friend? Wanna smoke some hash my friend? I have some top fine goodies...¨ ¨No, thanks, I don´t smoke,¨ I reply. But now he starts talking about nothing to do with anything. ¨Where are you from my friend?¨ ¨not the ones you mentioned.¨ ¨Oh, cool, I am from Brazil, you know Ronaldinho? the best football star in the world. you know his tricks?¨ At the meantime, he puts one of his legs between mine and starts kicking them real hard on the inner side of the legs. It starts to hurt a little but I think he may be just high so don´t bother to think to much. Then he takes his leave and throws back¨yo enjoy barcelona my friend.¨ So I am quite confused of his intention.
five seconds after I feel my pocket and realize it is empty. So I turn around and spot that junkie. He is still freaking strolling down the street looking into my wallet. Now I get out of my mind and dash to him in a millisecond and jump on him and grab my wallet off his hand. He still won´t let go. Then I start beating his arms and stuff so he gives up trying holding the wallet. But now almost every falls out on the floor. He and one other guy start picking up the change and cards. I grab back the cards. Extremely shameless, he asks ¨Is there a problem my friend? have you lost anything? I am just trying to help you, you have everything now?¨ as he tries to hand back all the coins he collectd off the floor. ¨Just get lost you SOB...! I hate Brazil, ... Don´t come near me you psycho...¨ Then I check my wallet to make sure all my cards are still there. Fortunately, he only took the cash and picked up the coins, and it wasn´t much. So I walk away from the streets with flames burning in mind.

First days in Spain- Valencia

2007-12-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

So everything went well from the flight to Valencia to settling down in the hostel... although I didn´t see my roommate the first night until late at night when I was already in bed. Since I didn´t have my glasses on I only saw a shadow of a middle aged man with a mustache getting in bed.
The next day I was awake early so I could see more things in the city. The city made me feel at home in Taiwan. Some places feel like the old town in Chia Yi and Taipei. It is definitely different from other European cities. So nothing special happened. I went on Plaza de la virgen and also the church at the plaza. It was dead serious in the church. I went into a chamber with 10 monks citing some sort of holy book. They didn´t seem to enjoy though although they sounded like the budhist monks reciting in rhythm.
So I tried to talk to Walter, the roommate, but he only speaks spanish. We started a conversation without any background of either spanish or english but we still sort of figured out what we were saying to each other. So I found out that he´s from Argentina and was traveling around in Europe alone. He has some friends in Spain but he´s soloing now.
Then an Argentinian American came in and started speaking both Spanish and English to us. He´s sort of a character in terms that he was quite talkative and stuff. We had a nice conversation and he came in just right in time to translate for me and Walter. Such a coincidence that he speaks both languages. He claimed that he was destined to come in to rescue me from being in hell.
So this guy was originally from Argentina and had lived in places such as NYC, Denver, and San Fran. He claimed that he´s partially Basque so he´s unibrowed. But then he started talking about how he got two phone numbers from a Brazilian and Venuezuelan. And he had been saying that he thought Valencia is the place for him to settle down at because he had found the people very polite and nice and less chaotic than the southern spaniards.
Anyhow, we ended up hanging out at Radio City, a nightclub in downtown, for a bit and just chatted all the way back to the hostel. On the way back to the hostel we ran into two gay Norwegian guys who thought that we were lost since we had a map in hand. So they started talking to us then they asked me something in Norwegian cuz I told them I study in Sweden. I just replied how long I had been studying in Sweden and so on. They seemed like nice guys. So Ernest, the Argentinian American, asked them how they found out that they were guy to begin with, they told us that they had both been married. They were in their late 50´s by the way. Both had ear piercings. So they asked us if we were together looking for the bar then we were like no, we were just friends. Although Ernest is from San Fran he doesn´t quite seem to agree with the idea of being gay. So when he was asked if he would be gay he was reacting quite strongly but the gay guys simply asked how do you know being gay isn´t in if you have never tried it? Well, that´s always a good question but you know what a straight guy would answer in that case. Anyway, after we parted from those gays Ernest told me that they were hitting on him since one guy was touching him the whole time. I was like come on that´s normal for guys besides they were a couple. Then he told me how he´s always been hit on by weird group of people say gays or old women.

The next day, I went to 'La Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias' which means city of arts and science with Walter. We actually had fun despite the fact that we understood no words from each other. But we got by somehow. We went into Museo de las Ciencias Principe Felipe and the science experiments there were cool but a little bit too much. My legs became so sore at the end but Walter just kept going.
Later that day, we parted on the bus and I went alone to all the famous sites. I went to Plaza de Toros (bullring), different cathedrals and the central station. They all vary a lot from the downtown area. the area near Mercado de Colon was really high classy more like european style whereas the rest of the old town is more like old and run down. The city is just so different everywhere and even at the central station it´s like standing at a big metropolitan city.

That night, me and Walter went to get some tapas at the corner a block from the hostel. I already went there once before and really liked it. we ordered some food and beer and just sat and chatted with the spanish-english phrasebook at hand. It was really funny to hear some questions popping out of his mouth because he wanted to know really explicit stuff that I would never share with a person I barely know. But it was great fun and we seemed to understand pretty much everything we discussed. So he is not married but has three kids. 2 boys and one daughter. He´s working at a shopping mall sort of thing as a cashier. He said that I should enjoy life since I am still young but the rest was kind of too explicit that I was kind of like ARE YOU SERIOUS?

MY CORRIDOR

2007-12-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I know it's a bit too late to do this but since half the people in my corridor are leaving I would like to honor them in some way. I will miss them. I am also going to include the ones who are staying, so no one is left out!

Maria- German
Used to live with her boy friend Miguel from Colombia. Ever since he started working in Munich in October, she has been down. She is leaving tomorrow for good because she has to go home to finish things off there... I really enjoy her company because she's always a little bit off beat but in a good way. We kid around a lot so it feels like we were old friends. She plays the guitar very well and sings with a deep voice. We have always talked about the first time we met when we were a corridor away from each other and didn't really get a good look at each other. But then we turned to very good friends in the end. She reminds me of Good Bye Lenin because she's from East Germany and her parents are kind of like the parents in the film. I plan to visit her in Berlin and Naumberg. and She plans to visit me in Seattle.

Oh (Ninja)- South Korea
She's a character. cooks dinner 3 in the morning, baking 4 in the morning, and asks questions that no one cares about. We have not had a real conversation besides answering her questions because she's always in the room. She's a good person I believe but it takes a while to adjust to her style of interaction.

Stephanie and Ivar- Sweden
One of the sweetest couples I have ever seen. Lots of times I just tell them to go get a room because they carry out serious actions in the kitchen although I have just been kidding around. Stephanie is majoring in nursing and I am very sure that she will make an awesome nurse. Ivar is a music producer/ lyricist/ joker/ sweet lover... although he's in his early 30s, he makes you feel young. Apparently, he's pretty successful in his business.

Caisa- Sweden
One of Stephanie's best friends. Big and cool girl. Her boyfriend is from Shanghai who also lived here last year. She speaks Swedish with the southern accent, not that I could make out the difference. Whenever I see her she's always positive and inspired. We don't trust each other's cooking that much hehe.

Mikaela- Sweden
An extreme horse lover. She can't spend any second without her horses. She personally thinks that ball sports have no attraction because the ball does not have feelings like the horses. So she's never played any ball sport. Too bad that she's not fitting in Stockholm since she thinks the people are cold here. She is moving back home and going to Linköping for school.

Anders- Sweden
Really positive guy, always making people laugh. Even if people don't laugh, he laughs himself. Rises early, Goes to bed early. He's the guy to go to when you have any kind of problems. He has studied chinese, and is fond of history. Likes to chat about anything, Goes to the gym everyday. He's the right kind of persons to marry if you are looking for a responsible guy so please call him immediately!

Milda- Lithuania
Very bright girl who is working and finishing her studies. Also always wears a big smile on the face but I rarely see her. She speaks perfect Swedish and English so she's pretty well off in the corridor. Also, a crazy dancer who rocked the party in September 4 in the morning still.

Daniel and Linda- Sweden
Very nice people. Daniel is always very hyper and active. According to Sebastian, Daniel is the fastest and nervless person he's ever seen. He owns a PS2 and challenges people for Singstar and DDR and FIFA all the time. HE's going to be a math teacher and I believe he's going to make one of the best teachers because he's pretty good at explaining stuff and is very patient. He has a heart of a 12 year-old. Linda could be quite quiet at times but is very passionate about the things she likes. She's going to be a Swedish teacher and also Spanish I think. She sings very well and hooks me up with Swedish music which I am listening to right now.

Manu- Spain
He came in as a boy who only spoke Spanish and Spanglish to a long haired guy who speaks Spanish and English and very little Swedish. He's very willing to learn everything and is very friendly. He's from Barcelona and is proud of it too. Although not as proud of Catalan as other Catalonians. He plays stunning football and cooks Tortillas Patatas. Uses the word Exisido meaning Exquisite in english all the time.

Sebastian- France
Typical super horny French guy. He seduces every girl he sees. But I suppose he's pretty damn good at it too. He plays the numchucks and is good at Tae kwon do I hear. He's pretty good at languages too. He speaks Swedish, Spanish, English besides his own mother tongue. He's pretty trustworthy too if you are not a hot girl.

Malte and Irena- Sweden and Serbia
Very peaceful people. Irena acts almost like a mother caring this and that. Malte, me, and Daniel often play FIFA and Irena often has to come to the room to ask Malte to have dinner so he would give up playing. Irena is currently working in Norway making big bucks and Malte is moving to downtown near the centralstation and KTH within walking distance. He expects Irena to make tons of money so they could both pay the rent together.

Funny thing is that we have many couples in our corridor and we are definitely one of the happiest corridors in Lappis. I will always miss the laughs and good times we have had... But I will carry on the mission of being a fun member of the corridor!

football story from Half Fin half Spaniard

2007-12-11T14:19:00.000-08:00

I was watching the football match between Real Madrid and Lazio with this friend of Sebastien's.
I was joking to her how hot Casillas was. But then she told if I had met him in person I would change my mind.
So she told me the story how he met the Spanish team when they came over to play Sweden.
She stalked them to the hotel they stayed at and tried to sneak up with a couple that actually stayed there.
And when the door opened, she saw the whole spanish team waiting in front of the elevator. But she was speechless because it was such a shock.
Then she saw a security guard coming to block the elevator. Then she heard the most hurtful words from Casillas. He was cursing how the fans should just get lost.
But then she got the chance to talk to Sergio Ramos and Cesc Febregas so she was happy.
I wish I was there to see the stars myself.

Talk with Nima

2007-12-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

Nima, this kid, is really something.
I ran into him randomly in the library when Behnam (Iranian German) was making a copy of something at the front desk. So the guy who was making the copy started speaking something that didn't resemble anything. But Behnam replied stuttering. So I got curious, I asked Behnam about his origins and he told me that he was originally from Iran.
But what got me curious is that the guy also spoke perfect English and Swedish when dealing with different clients. So I went to the front desk to ask him about his identity.
From then, I often randomly bump into him on the street so we exchanged numbers.

But last night was the real time when I really got to know him.
So I invited him to the building party in Lappis since he doesn't live in Lappis. He came then we started chatting. We shared lots of common thoughts about almost everything. And also since he had been to Spain before I wanted to ask him about it for my trip to Spain. Then with his enthusiasm he told me one of the craziest journeys I have ever heard.
He hitchhiked the whole way around in Spain and they were some scary experiences. For example, one time they got picked up by this single guy who didn't speak a word on the ride and as they were thanking the guy for the ride, the guy told them that it's fine because he wasn't going anywhere anyway, he was just driving the road because he had nothing else to do.
But the craziest part still has to be when they camped on the beach in Barcelona. Although they got many warnings from the locals that NEVER CAMP on the BEACH. and they also went to the police to ask. They said it was illegal. But they were almost broke so had to find a place to camp. They didn't buy all those warnings and still went on camping on the beach. So at night they snuck in a part where no vehicles could ever get to at the beach. But about 2 in the morning, something extremely noisy was coming towards them from above. They couldn't see what it was since they were in the tent and they also locked the tent with a lock. so his travel mate pulled out a knife, slashed the tent, then jumped out of the tent. It was like a monster tractor making a huge circle around their tent. And that was all it did. I was guessing it was some kind of warning for not camping at the pot field since Nima told me people were digging out drugs from the sand around them too. But then, it started pouring from the sky. so he was getting really went since he didn't want to go in the tent to sleep just to watch out for himself and his buddy. Then people who were fucked up started looking for a shelter and, of course, the first thing they saw was the tent. Then they started trying to squeeze in but Nima locked the tent and tried to stop people from the outside by saying that it was already full inside. Meanwhile, he saw a couple making love on the beach. and that wasn't just it. Two passersby stopped right beside the love making couple and observed and studied them from different freaking angle.
Another short story was about that when they got to Paris by hitchhiking, they went to a one star hotel somewhere. and it was definitely the shittest hotel he's ever stayed in in his whole life. The room was run through by freaking pipes that were as thick as a tree trunk. And the bathroom was shared. the best part was that you couldn't get into the bathroom if you go in straight because there was no room for you to turn around at all if you want to do some serious business. And this one counterstaff there was seriously from one of the National Lampoon's movies. Nima and his friend arrived at the hotel, and the receptionist was him. When he tried going down to the lobby 3 in the morning he was still there. the next morning when they went out it was still him at the counter. When they went out the day after it was still him. He had worked for like 72 hours straight when they left Paris. And they asked him how he managed to do it, he just simply said "I like my job."

Tyska Kyrkan i Gamla Stan- German church in the Old Town

2007-12-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

It's almost too weird that when you step inside the church you only hear German choir singing in the middle of Stockholm, You are in the German Church.

My first impression of the church is not very good. The doorman who stands behind the doors is handing out programs to the ones who come in for the German concert. And I knew about the concert. But the first thing he says to me when he sees me at the first sight iss "No Sightseeing!" Then I go "I am here for the German Concert!" Then he hands me a program. Actually I am still quite mad about it because just because I look Asian, and younger than most of the people there (almost all in their 70's) it does not give him the right to treat a attendant like this.

But the music is ok after all. The choir and the organ are not in sync lots of times but it is good overall. It feels Christmasy when they sing the german version of Hosianna.

But it is some nice time. And Melanie shows up right in the beginning of the concert. She's a French girl who I know through Christophe. I just ran into her in the Xmas market in Gamla Stan and I told her about the concert. I am surprised that she shows because she said she was going somewhere else so probably couldn't make it.

But after I ran into her, I went into a crystal store. The crystals there were all really pretty. But all a sudden I started recognizing the Chinese characters on the warning signs. They did not look Mainland Chinese because they were the Traditional. And the store manager looked asian so I asked her where she was from. She was quite friendly so she went "You have three chances to guess where I am from." So I went from Hong Kong, then China, then Taiwan! But none of them was right. So she revealed her identity. She was Thai. Then we just started chatting about random stuff like when did she move from Thailand to Sweden, etc. And she was complimenting the Taiwanese people because she thought we are international. "Anyhow, I enjoyed the conversation but have to run to the concert so I will see you!" Then here I am inside the church.

You really want a Swedish woman? think twice before you fall in love with one...

2007-12-09T09:05:00.002-08:00

You know, I was told by this American professor never to fall in love with a Swedish girl. Well, in his case, it's more different because he is married to a Swedish and now he's forever stuck in Sweden.

But after reading two articles regarding Swedish females, I am really starting having doubts...
One is about two freaking crazy ass bitches beating the shit out of a poor guy on the street (sorry about the language)
read more on
http://www.thelocal.se/9281/

The other one talks about that there are more kids living with single dads than single moms.
The divorce rate is quite insanely high in Sweden. I was first encountered the question "Are your parents married?" when I first got here by a Swedish girl.

read more on
http://www.thelocal.se/9328/

You really want a Swedish woman? think twice before you fall in love with one...

2007-12-09T09:05:00.001-08:00

On the dogsleds

2007-12-01T03:09:00.000-08:00

In the far north of Sweden,
on a dogsled
The Danish old captain speaking, he's about in his 60-70's
" you see that young dog over there?
There is a story behind that dog.
He's named after a hero dog called Belcho from Alaska.
I was there for quite many years. And there was this legend
dog who rescued the whole village by bringing medicine to the town
of a deadly disease. So a small village in Alaska was out of contact with
any others in Alaska and was infected by a very rare disease
that can't be cured by normal medicine. So they ordered Belcho and
his dog fleet to the nearest town to ask for help. Then they did and Belcho
didn't live long afterwards."

" So you name your dog after Belcho?"
"exactly," replies the Captain with a Danish accent.
"So what brought you to Sweden since you are from Denmark?"
"It's a very long story, but basically, I was a sailor for 25 years before a
huge storm hit the coast of Demark and my town was entirely under water"
"Wow!"
"Yeah, and I moved to Greenland for a while"
"Was it like Lappland?"
"No, it was much less trees and more ice,
but it was a whole new experience.
Then I continued on to Alaska for some dog sled races,
you know my dogs are not trained for tourist purposes but for racing.
And It's also good for traveling in the mountains.
Once you take them out in the mountains they really help you a lot.
for example, during the nights, if you feel cold in your sleeping bag in your tent,
you just drag one or two dogs into your tent to sleep with you then it's very warm.
Sometimes the tent is too small and I have 3 dogs with me and it becomes really crowded."
"Interesting..."
"Yeah, they are all like my buddies."
"But how do you maneuver the dogsled by only yelling out orders?"
"Oh, there are some leader dogs among the team, and they follow the orders and lead other ones. There could be more than one leader dog in the team and don't necessarily have to be in the front of the team. Although you wouldn't want the naughty ones go in the very front as well because they would just cause you trouble."

It's amazing how much the huskies understand what the captain is saying. I think they understand better Swedish/Danish than I do! They stop when the captain wants them to and start, turn to the right, turn to the left. They will even stop if they have not received the order on a unfamiliar route. It's amazing!

Swedish women want to go topless in swimming pools

2007-12-01T02:42:00.000-08:00

Here's how liberal, or crazy to some, it may sound to people.
It's about some Swedish women fighting for their rights to go topless in swimming pools.
Their argument is that if men can go topless in Swimming pools why can't they?
Also, some men comment that it's ok if they are pretty ladies who go topless but not so good if they are ugly.
So the women who run for the campaign say that men can go topless no matter how they look.
Actually to my opinion I can't see why not.
They can go topless however they want, but the only holdback I have is that maybe some conservatives would argue that they wouldn't want their kids to go to swimming pools anymore.
But I really can't see why not it cannot be realized.
Read more on: http://www.thelocal.se/9263/20071130/

Spanish New Year Countdown

2007-11-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Have you ever imagined people count down for new year before it actually happens? Ok read on.
So I am just about to prepare for bed and Manu msns me saying that there is a party in the laundry room in Lappis. I am not very sure what he means by a party this time and the laundry room. I am not sure if my english has totally lost it or he is making jokes again. So I go out to his room. He opens the door all dressed up and says yeah people are counting down for new years in the laundry room now.

Ok then, the time has really past by fast since I have not noticed that tonight is new years eve. Then he tells me that we have to go count down with the crazy spanish crowd in the laundry room.
Then I realize that the countdown is just symbolic and not so much for the new years. You know, spaniards just like to find excuses to party.

So I go with Manu to the laundry room and everyone is there! They have a laptop set up for the event and are giving out grapes. The spanish tradition to count down is to eat a grape every second for the last 10 seconds of the countdown. So here it goes, 10,9,8....1 There is actually a countdown for last year's Spanish TV program on the laptop and every second is recognized by a ring of a bell somewhere in Spain. After the countdown, everyone greets each other with joy and hugs. Too bad I don't know that many Spanish girls so can't get that many warm hugs.

JAG TALAR SVENSKA!!!

2007-10-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

The conversion from English to Swedish is the following,

step one. swap everything with a c for the k sounds to a k
step two. change the endings of verbs into era
step three. change the adjectives' endings from ive to iv
step four. many words have e's in english as an ending but remove them when you are in Swedish
step five. in -> i, on -> på
step six. and when you try to speak, try to stress the ending of each single damn word!

There you have a complete idea how swedish looks like?

weird and stupid advertisement here!

2007-10-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, I will let you judge.
I went to Lidl(a cheap German grocery store) yesterday, and I saw this ad at the door on the brochures and on the window. It was ham on sale, 20 kr off. So I thought to myself that I could make the fried cheesy ham thing that Manu made a while ago. So I got it and paid for it then realized that it was not on sale! What the f? So I went to take a look at the ads again, shit, the ads is for next week?!? this week just started but you have the ads for next week on the windows and at the door?! I seriously don't get how the Swedes think, or maybe Germans in this case

Stereotypes of a Swede

2007-10-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

Men
1. clothing- really fit jeans, dark fit jacket in the winter, pointy leather shoes, no sweatshirts, tend to wear stuff that's dark and fit
2. hair- gel your hair straight
3. figure- usually slim, tall, blond, blue-eyed
4. been to Thailand

Women
1. clothing- really fit stuff as well, high heels, grey top that shows half of your breasts but goes below your bottom, like stretchy things that a pregnant woman wears, dark pantyhose
2. hair- blonde, straight, long
3.figure- slim, nice bust, a bit tanned, blue-eyed, super long legs
4. also been to Thailand, or at least wants to go to Thailand

Saturday and Sunday nights- Oct 14, 2007

2007-10-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

It wasn't such a pleasant weekend to me and my buddies...
Saturday night, we went to a sports bar to watch the semi in the Rugby World Cup with the usuals. It was France vs. England- not even kidding. Ever since history began, those two nations never had peace. so did the night.
The first 3 minutes was a disaster for France. Some French player made a huge error. he let the offense go past him because the rugby ball was bouncing irregularly. so E had a touchdown. I went with the French crew so I was for France, well... I never liked England anyway so...
But then France came back and lead for quite a while until the last 10 minutes, the english team crushed the dreams of the home team. It was a nice play though, I have to admit. Although Shabo (this shaggy famous french player) went on the field trying to assist the team. It was in vain. My buddies were almost crying after the game while the english people are dancing around in the pub.
While watching rugby, I was also looking around, well, as usual. Saw some nice looking swedish girls also staying but only chatting with some guys. But something amusing comes up. this girl from America, first by her accent then she tells it herself, goes right in front of me, listening to these two british "gentlemen" speak. then she goes right in to start a conversation with them. I think this girl is desperate. oh, it was an american sports bar btw because everything on the walls were all from boston. Boston RED SOX, CELTICS, THE ICE HOCKEY Team and so on and so forth. I also Magic johnson's autograph on the wall on a picture of his presence in this bar.

Then here comes sunday night. we had 9 players so had more than enough to sub. But the games were horrible. So many misjudges, and uncalled fouls. And also people getting pissed at each other. I was one of them. there was one guy in the first game who slide tackled all the time and hurt many of our players. He got me some times but I got really mad at him after seeing him doing it over and over. So when I was on the side, I called him son of a bitch. then after the game, he came to me and asked me who the hell I called son of a bitch then I went YOU. He really got the guts to come back to ask me cuz we had the whole team there and he came alone. So I just kept on insulting him because he played really dirty and I thought he deserved it. But I apologized at the end because I was a woos.
The second game it was even worse. Samy, Thijs, and Chritophe almost had fights. It wasn't pretty. But the calmest player was Thijs. I admire him for that because he knows how to calm down and the rest don't.
We were leading in the beginning but we kept making errors to let them score. And our mentality just snapped so it wasn't any hope either. But oh well, life is tough.

IPHONE!!!!

2007-10-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

Freaking iPhone cost me so much for the stupid Swedish toll - 25 percent of the original value!
But here comes a sweet picture of it so all of you can stare at it and hate yourself for not being able to have it!
In comparison, my old shitty siemens is a piece of junk although i paid probably 1/10 the price of an iphone for it. But check out that huge screen man... aren't you tempted too?

another small corridor party- Sep 23, 2007

2007-10-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

you like this thing? man?

french girls never stop!

Sushi continued- Sep 22, 2007

2007-10-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

men's talk

eat time

what are you looking at!?

Sushi dinner- Sep 22, 2007

2007-10-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Steph!

Everyone pitch in making sushi.. hey Hyo Jung you don't like to be in pictures do you?

Spiderman! Christian likes to play around but not help!

Random collection of photos

2007-10-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Maria(corridor mate, Berlin, Germany) made an awesome cake but she said it would a failure

that's Steph's (corridor mate, Swedish but half South African) outfit to Milda's (corridor mate, Lithuanian I believe) costume birthday party

race cars at KTH

Stadion

Skansen2- Sep 13, 2007

2007-10-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

the way to blend into nature... ha, no actually I forgot what the grass on the roof is for...

some kinda bell tower thing

Skansen1- Sep 13, 2007

2007-10-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Traditional Swedish structures under a very good weather condition

I have smiled so hard in a picture in a real long time! Good Capture

futsal! Sep 9, 2007

2007-10-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

An international friendly tournament!

Sangria party at Sundbyberg! Sep 9, 2007

2007-10-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ana, WE have an awesome time drinking your wine!

Manu, your face is unbeatable

Corridor party continued... Sep 8,2007

2007-10-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

full of people... 200 plus tonight!

gee...

this is the kitchen...

What's your comment on being the 200th?

Our corridor party- Sep 8, 2007

2007-10-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

The duo in parties!

warming up

The Swedish mates!

Gee... look at all the coats I got one night from friends...

KTH chapter parties- Sep 5, 2007

2007-10-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

at Vehicle engineering chapter, they have the head of a truck on the wall!

After the trip... what's left? a story to tell...- Sep 29, 2007

2007-10-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is our neighbor's room... they couldn't stop banging on things the whole night long!

AFter the trip everyone is fucked up like this one...

But there were stories left to be told...
I was drunk at 10 pm the first night on the ferry... throwing up all over the place so everyone admitted that I had the medal for this trip.
But personally, I think Roma, who chipped one of his tooth at the first night, or...
Pierr-Jean who got smashed into his own puke on his bed by Basti's pushing the whole bed up, or...
Jolien and Samy together knocked over the puke box off Basti's hands and the puke got spreat all over on everyone and the floor, or...
whoever made a legend on the ferry claim the prize