Whoops, in light of all that "heavy" stuff, I failed to mention this coming Saturday. Denmark vs. Ukraine in a World Cup 2006 Qualifying match. Guess who has two tickets...............

So I had an interesting thought last evening after I sent out some photos. They were mostly pictures of futball, going to bars and drinking beer. I sent them to some of the volunteers that I worked with in Nepal, and specifically to Stijn. Now Stijn is an interesting guy. If he lived in the Bay Area, I would definatly call him one of my closest friends. Right now he is in Hanoi. He left Nepal to go Vietnam and do volunteer work until the end of the year, then he is going BACK to Nepal to do another three or four months of work there in a Buddist Monestary near Pokhara. What I realized is that his life is so far removed from this place, that pictures of people partying, something that he isn't really big on anyway. I don't know how I would have felt getting pictures like that while I was in Nepal. Big nights out clubbing are things that just don't occur to you while in places like those. You spend so much time trying to become part of the culture, intergrating, that a night out on the town is the furthest thing from your mind.

Okay, okay, I'll write Ma. I don't know why you're complaining, I've talked with you twice in the past week!!! Oh, I see, this is about the greater good, you'd rather I spent that time blogging as opposed to chatting with you and the fam. So we didn't end up spending the weekend at Mikkel's parents house, but we did have a lovely dinner up there. This past weekend was great. On Friday night we were eating dinner at Mikkel's place without any plans, when we get the bright idea that Karoke would be a fun night. Now I have tried my hand at Karoke before and have concluded that I sing as nice as a goose that is being tortured, but I was pushing hard for Karoke, this is what happens when you get into a good bottle (or two, or three) of red wine. We hit up the local Karoke bar till 3:30, walked home, then I rode home. Next day was a wonderful brunch at the "newest, hippest, coolest, (and a lot of "est" words)" brunch joint in Kobenhaven. And they did have really good food. Saturday night was quite, funny that, out till 3:30, sleep late, stay home that night. Sounds good.
BUT SUNDAY WAS FUTBALL DAY!!!!!! That's right, after vicious rumors of not being able to see any games due to a labour conflict, I got to see FCK, or Futball Club Kobenhaven. I did add the FCK just because, well, it looks like another word, like FCUK, or French Connection United Kingdom a popular fashion company. BUt that is unimportant, what was important was footie, and footie we watched. FCK went down early to 0-1, fought back to tie the game 4mins later 1-1. Went down another four minutes later 2-1, tied it up 2-2, then went ahead 3-2. All in the first half. Second half had the makings of a defense battle on FCK's side and an offensive push on the "other" guys side. That changed when one of FCK's players kicked a defender while he was on the ground. Whoops. Red card. 10 men for the last 25mins of the game. Fortunately our boys held out and won.
This week looks to continue with the relaxing part of the holiday. Dinner tonight with Ole and Ingers (mikkel's parents) friends from Canadia, a wine tasting this coming weekend. 50 Italian wines (seeing me crying in joy?). That's about it for now. See you all soon.

What a great weekend. On Friday Mikkel and Karen(his girlfriend) were having a birthday party for Mikkel. We had a great BBQ in the courtyard of their building. My "expertise" in BBQing was called upon to manage the grill. I havn't BBQed in almost a year, but managed to not screw up pre cooked sasuages. The party was fairly small, on 11. The plan was to go from the BBQ to a club where some really famous DJ was playing and one of Mikkel's friends worked so we could skip the line. Which was good because it was quite long. Apparently parties in Denmark don't really get started until after midnight. We got there at 11, so it was a bit early. We sat and chatted, watched the world go by, I hung out with some of Mikkel's friends, and had a really good time. Around 3:30, I could barely keep my eyes open, for one reason or another, and decided to head home. Taxi back to Mikkel and Karen's apartment, then a short cycle ride home. Lazy Saturday started at 11am. Met up Mikkel and Karen just in time to help finish cleaning up and get some breakfast. Sunday was fairly laid back as well, just tooling around town on the cycle.
This week we head up to Mikkel's parents for his birthday and to spend the weekend. Who's knows whats going to happen between now and then.

Something that I forgot to mention: To get to the island that Kobenhaven is on, they put our train on a FERRY in order to cross the water. I was stunned. It was really weird to get off the train, onto the ferry with the train parked. Ferry for 30mins, then back on board and off to Kobenhaven.
My cell phone number is: 45 41138207, I am not sure what the country code is for DK.

Just one of those things that makes you laugh your ass off no matter what: Walking from downtown Kobenhaven to where MY apartment is, I saw a bicycle from afar that had a bench on the back. I looked closer, is had three wheels. And a cover. On the side it said: Kobenhaven Rickshaw. I was laughing out loud while walking down the street. Lots of stares from the locals. I dont know if they have lots of them here, but, I saw one and got a picture of it. To funny.
Needless to say I am now with the Danish part of my family. What a great reception at the train station, Mikkel, Karen (his girlfriend) and P. We piled all of my things into Mikkel´s car and went to drink tea at P´s place. Which, conveniently, is just above my place. Mikkel got me a cell phone too. Life is good here. Gotta love family. I am not sure what the plans are for this coming week, or next week either, but it will no doubt be a grand time.

Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention. Watched the heats for the 100m breatstroke in Athens. Finishing, in 1:12.25, Alice Shrestra of Kathmandu, Nepal. All 5ft 5in 132 lbs. of him. He was the only one in a speedo.

Hamburg, Germany-TRYING TO HAVE PATIENCE FOR THE BLOODY TRAIN TO DENMARK!!!!! It's five and a half hours away, and hot damn, I can barely contain myself. I am sure that people are wondering where all the damn pictures are, I have over 200 to upload, so they will be coming in the next few days. A short summary: Innsbruck was great, Cam and I parted ways in Rothkeutz Switzerland, he traveling on Alex's EuroRail Pass and I on mine. He was on his way to Luzern, while I was bound for Cham with Fiery Chris Davidson (fieryCD.net-for true adventure). Friend from Cali who started working out here about a month ago. His primary concern these days in which mountains he wants to look at when he wakes up in the morning and dodging the women who runs the hotel he's staying when he has guests that he isn't "supposed" to have, moi. On Thursday I took the steepest cog wheel train in Europe to the top of Mt. Pilatus for some wonderful views of the surrouding areas. I got those for about five mintues before the lightening began cracking and I began the journey down on the cable car. Friday was the summit of another mountain after looking around one of the towns that Chris is thinking about living in. Switzerland seems to have three things that naturally occur: Mountains, Lakes, and mountains and lakes. What stunning vistas. Well, if only the clouds weren't there. It was like going to San Fran on a FOGGY day. Another short summit trip. But it meant another ferry ride. As we were chugging around the lake, a small group of WWII aircraft flew over, neat. Then they did it again, but closer. Cool. Then 15 F/A-18 Hornets flew over. HUH? AIRSHOW. For the rest of the 45 minute boat ride we were treated to a flight show of epic perportions. Barrel rolls, loops, figure eights, etc. Wonderful stuff. Got a few decent shots from the boat. On Saturday Chris and I decided to head to Interlaken for the day. We got up a "little" late. 10am. Not bad, we'd been having some late nights and sleeping in was a good idea for both of us. Took the train down to Interlaken and ended up getting there a little later than anticipated. Like 2:30. We left at 12. Whoops. So, the last train out was at 6:35. What do we have time for AFTER eating breakfast? ParaGliding. What a blast that was. The view was nothing less than spectacular. Chris had my digital camera and shot a few short movies of a "corkscrew", which is just what it sounds like. You spin and spin and spin. It was awesome. The other trick that we did was called a wingover, where you basically pull the wing to turn so hard that it drops to the left or the right and you swing underneath it. The sense of falling was pretty great. Hit the ground at 6:05. Walk cautiously up to the train station, neither of us was able to walk quite straight, get on the train and head back to Cham. This morning started early with a 7am bus to the train station, change trains in three places, and here we are in Hamburg.

Still in Innsbruck for a few more hours. Yesterday´s adventure cries out to be told. SO as I mentioned Cam and I met up with his HS classmate by chance (oh, on a side note, Dave is on his way to none other than Nepal to volunteer with none other than Cultural Destination Nepal, the company that Cam and I were there with! Much advice was sought and given. Gotta love it.). Dave was on his way to Munchen yesterday morning when he decided to come with Cam and I to Fussen to see the Newenstien Castle. This is the castle that was the basis for the Disneyland castle. So we head to the train station, miss the train by about 10 minutes. Okay, well none of us have checked email for a day or two, so we do that, it was freeee in the train station. We get on board the 10:35 train to Fussen. Or so we think. We have to transfer down the line, so at the next stop I ask the conductor which stop we change at. We are on the wrong train, wrong direction. Whoops. We get off, run to the train heading back to Innsbruck. Mind you Dave is going from Fussen to Munchen, so he is hauling all his stuff. We get back to Innsbruck. We have about two hours until the next train, at 13:04. Find a park, sit, read, relax. 12:45 we head to the train station. Get on the RIGHT train to Garmish where we are to transfer. We think it is about one hour away. No, it´s an hour and a half. Okay then. We change in Garmish. Head to Fussen. How Fussen is another hour. The castle closes at 6. It is getting close. We get to Reutte, where we w a i t 45 minutes for the bus that takes 20 minutes to get to Fussen. Arriving in Fussen we scrable to find out when trains go back to the various places we are headed, Dave to Munchen, Cam and I back to Innsbruck. We got to Fussen at 17:05. We ask, when does the next bus to the castle leave? Five minutes ago. Okay. Taxi out to the castle. When does the last bus going to Fussen leave? 18:20. It is 17:30. We have to walk "30" minutes up to the castle and back down. We do it in 15. Run around the castle taking pictures and getting postcards. 18:05 RUN back down to the bus stop. Wrong bus stop. It`s 4k back to Fussen, to long to walk. Taxi!!!! Get the taxi back to Fussen. Drop off Dave. Now it is a 25 minute bus ride to Ruette. It is now 18:45. The last train leaving Reutte for Innsbruck is at 19:10. Taxi, bus, taxi, bus. TAXI!!!!! We hope he drives like a mad man, hell bent on destruction. But no, we get an old man who brakes erradically, drives slowy then quickly, then turns the radio up really load, then turns it off, looks at the sceney more than us, isn´t sure that he is going the right way. We arrive to the train station at 19:09 the train is disgorging it´s passengers, and taking us on our merry way back to Innsbruck. We arrived, ate some wurst (sausages), crawled into bed and slept like dead animals. I would try to describe the scenery between Innsbruck and Garmish, then Garmish and Fussen, but would not begin to do it justice, so patience my friends, pictures will be posted soon.

Innsbruck, AUSTRIA (not australia)- So I am here with Cameron. Having a blast. After we met in the train station we headed off to the hostel. Checked in, then went out to grab a beer. Innsbruck is set in a valley between some very exposed mountains. A bit like Tahoe, only a lot more bare granite. About 10pm we headed back to the hostel, walked in, and there was a high school classmate of Cam´s from Australia. Well, we were headed to bed, but headed back out to get a drink. Good times were had wandering the streets of Innsbruck. Woke up the next morning and took a tram ride to the top of one of the ridge lines. The slopes were 70% grade. A bit steep, but apparently in the winter people ski it. Crazy. We sat and ate lunch looking over the valley at the Austrian Alps. Dave, Cam´s friend, and I decided that we were going to climb a nearby peak. After about 10m on the peak we both began to question the sanity of the exersise, but being young, and younger, pressed ahead. Some minor rock climbing, pretty hairy exposure, and bright sun, and we reached the top. Well, as we all know, the easy part was over, now we had to head back down. As usual, it was more "fun" than going up. While Dave and I were having our misadventures atop the peak, a glider began dive bombing the ridge line. At several points he was below the point that Dave and I were at and close enough to see to know that he hadn´t shaved in a few days. Dave and I got back down, and we all headed down to Innsbruck. Tomorrow it´s off to Switzerland to see Chris Davidson for a few days then up to Denmark on Sunday. I cannot wait for that part to begin, but unfortunately it also means the begining of the end. This trip has completely flown by, the experiences have been wonderful, the people fantastic. Dave, Cam and I were discussing the fact that we have to think "Now which town are we in?". That is a great feeling.

Dateline Bellagio-Seems that when I think that I am going one place, itturns out that I end up going else where. I washeaded to Nice, never heard from the folks that I wassupposed to stay with down there, so I headed to LakeComo in Italy. Life is rough here. On my first dayin Bellagio I had no less than 7 different kinds ofcheese. Three glasses of wine(i am currently drinking one as i type this, life is still rough). And a nice hotshower. Somehow, these still don't fail to impress. Took the night train from Munchen, ended up in Como at7am. Stumbled about trying to find transportation,got a bus for 2.50E. An hour and a half later I waswalking in the rain with my two backpacks and suitbag. I spent LOTS of time looking for a place to sleep. Or maybe I didn't. My patience had worn thin. Founda nice place to stay and took a long shower. Wanderedabout Bellagio eating cheese, drinking wine. Met somepeople from VA who's daughter lives on Contra Costa inthe Oakland Hills, they think that she shops at thestore. Small world.

I am currently at Aeroplan, the bar near Alex's apartment in Muhchen. It is one of students last night in Munchen. I have had, a "few' beers. There is WiFi here. I only have to walk about 40m to get to the room, fortunately. I had to read this three times to make sure that it had proper spelling. I think that I may have missed a few words. Such is life. Should have pictures up in the next day or so. Really looking forward to going to Denmark. Wish that I had more time there. Feeling dizzy gotta go.
Vicky asked a question, but I can't recall what it was. Oh well.

Sorry for the delay LMK. I am back in Munchen with Alex. We had planned on going down to Lake Como in Italy for a few days, but apparently on the day we were supposed to go, it was Bavarian Holiday Exodous. That plan got canceled. We have just been hanging out in Munchen. Yesterday we did a bike tour. I had my first liter of beer glass in the English Garden. Hobbled back onto the bike, then rode for another hour. Barely. Last night I went to see "Super Size Me". A movie about a man who takes on a McDonalds only diet. Terrifying. In the course of a month he put on 25lbs. He could lose it that fast in Nepal. Maybe even faster.
I often think about what my friends are doing in Nepal. Apparently the monsoon season has been especially bad this year, perhaps they have been showing pictures of Bangladesh and India in the states. Not much else to add. 6 weeks and two days left.