I have read a TON lately

I have read a ton of books to finish my unit/thesis for school.  I read all of these in the period of about one month.  These are not all of the books I read over the course of the semester, some are digital or had nothing to do with education and did not get added to my pile ... yikes.

Stockholm

My couchsurfing host fell through for Sweden so I was left high and dry to find my own way around and my own place to stay.  It really wasnt a problem.  I walked around the old city (Gamla Stan) until I found a hostel.  I lucked out in finding a good one.

I really dont have a whole lot to say about Stockholm because everything I experienced is from my own perception and I dont know many facts about what I saw.  The princess got married and there was a huge festival to go along with it called "Love 2010."

Here is a panorama I took of the Stockholm skyline:

 
It is about 16 MegaPixels big so you should be able to see quite a bit if you download the picture or enlarge it.  The cluster of light colored buildings on the right is Gamla Stan, the old town.

Munich

I didn't plan anything for Munich other than where I was going to sleep.  In my mind Munich is just another big city where I can go to churches and museums.  This is why I prefer to couchsurf.

The night I got to Munich was Germany's first game in the World Cup.  At the Olympiastadium, where the Olympics were held 40 years ago, there was a jumbo-tron set up and thousands of screaming Germans.  Valery (My host), some of her friends, and I went to the stadium to watch the game.  Germany won 4-0.  I also got the Germany flag painted on my face ... when in Rome.

Me, Franzi, and Mario (Valery is taking the picture)

Me and Valery 

Valery lives really close to where the Oktoberfest takes place so I made a point to walk over there.  It isn't very pretty.  There is a big church at one end and a big statue at the other.

Apparently, every Monday there is something called "Blade Night."  At Blade Night there are thousands of people on rollerblades with a police escort riding through the streets of Munich.  Unfortunatly, they canceled Blade Night right before it was supposed to start.  We had already ridden around a bit before so we werent too upset.

I also saw churches and museums and I put those pictures on facebook.  They arent terribly exciting.

Also, the nice camera I was using was stolen at Stansted Airport so there are fewer and lower quality pictures from here on.

Memmingen

Memmingen is a very small town. Very, very small. I am surprised that they built an airport here.

I am staying with a local musician and actor named Martin.  His girlfriend, Stephie, is here as well but she normally lives in Munich.  Martin lives in the oldest house in town.  It is about 500 years old.

The first day I was here, after I dropped Whitney off with David, Martin and I went swimming with his friend from the theater where he works.  I ended up falling asleep under a tree.  The days of not sleeping while traveling with Whitney finally caught up with me.

The next day there was a city party.  It is a sort of founders day celebration.  There was beer, good food and brass bands.  After that we went to an old abandoned airfield where we rode longboard skateboards.  I dont have any pictures of that ... which is good because it was pretty embarrassing

That afternoon we went to a premier of a play at the theater Martin works at.  The girl we went swimming with before was the lead.  It was all in German so I didnt understand much of the dialog but the story was simple enough that I could follow it.

Today, the girl from swimming and the play is driving with me to Munich where I am meeting my next couchsurfing host.

London

This is a place holder until I have time to actually write and go through the pictures from London

Dublin

I am sitting in the common room at our hostel in Dublin with our French Canadian friends, Beatrice and Melissa.

Last night we went down to the Temple Bar for dinner with the Canadians.  We met a family from New Jersey and had a great time talking about travel  and trying to get through some language barriers.

Whitney was very tired after dinner and went straight to bed. I stayed up and watched Irish tv (a show with weird puppets) and helped Melissa practice her English.  Beatrice ended up going out with our waiter for a few hours.

Today we are going to take a bus tour around Dublin.  The New Jersey family was leaving town and had 4 extra passes to the hop-on-hop-off bus tours so they gave them to us.


Pictures coming soon. The internet here is too slow to upload them

Traveling Lite

Im doing a bit of my pre-packing for my trip.  I am leaving on Monday but I have something to do every day until then so I wont be back at my apartment  ... so this has to get done now.

Here is a little inspiration:

This is my backpack. This is the only baggage I am bringing.

This is the large part of what I am putting in that bag.  I haven't done any compression packing on the clothes yet so it will fit in a much smaller space in the bag when I do.  The blue towel (upper middle) is a camping towel that dries super fast, weighs nothing and packs small. It's like drying off with a Sham-wow. The black in the upper right is a cycling jacket that has all the same properties as the towel but it keeps me warm.

I have a hat because I can't sleep in the airport when it is bright, so I put it over my face.  I am also wearing my barefoot shoes.

The folder has my passport and all the confirmations for my trains and flights. This information is duplicated in my iPod and the black notebook.  Everything else is just there to feed my techno-addiction

Bring On The Learning Revolution!

The man is a great speaker and a great advocate for education.  If you haven't read any of his books you are truly missing out on a great insight.

(I didnt feel like setting up my camera, so I just used my webcam)

I have only read this book of his, unfortunately.  It is called "The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything."  If anybody would like to buy me a birthday or any other holiday present, his other books are at the top of my list

Scrap Box

Jenn took me to the Scrap Box in Ann Arbor yesterday on our way to the local couchsurfing meeting.  She needed supplies for the summer camp she is teaching and I just like to build things so she thought I would like it too.

I found a tub full of Altoids tins.

Im going to bring two along with me when I travel next month to hold the types of money I am not using.  I will have to go between Crowns, Pounds and Euros.

The third is holding an old iPod that I use as an external hard drive.

I also found some picture frames and old National Geographic magazines.  One of them had this cool advert in it so I cut it out and put it in the frame and it looks nice.

How to Make The Perfect Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich

... or in this case, Peanut Butter & Honey.  This way keeps the jelly from soaking through the bread or making a mess in your lunch box.

Cover both one side of each piece of bread with peanut butter.

Put a big glob of Jelly, Honey, Marmite, Nutella or whatever. Do not spread it around.

Put the two pieces of bread together and push the area around the crust together, making a bit of a pocket.  Enjoy!

In Preparation:

It is not often that I buy books, I am a very cheap man.  After seeing this book recommended in another good book that I read (and bought) recently I thought it might be worth checking out.

What I found was a man who shares many of my ideals and sense of adventure.  What I havent found yet is new information that will help me at all.  I guess if I hadn't already done the barely planned backpacking around the other side of the world I might get more from the book.  I still have about 50 pages to read, we will see what that brings.

Very nice marketing!

Im not quite sure how I feel about this email I just got from Easyjet.  The marketing is clever but I imagine it could piss some people off.

Mozart in Blue

This project is something that I have been meaning to do for a while but whenever I have time the weather doesn't permit me to spray paint outside.  Finally, today, I could. 

I saw something similar to this a few years ago (apartment therapy? Maybe?) and thought it was really cool

This is what I started out with.  The picture was kind of a last second thought, so I didnt really get a good one.

After a few coats of paint, this is the result.

I really like the way it turned out!

My van is dead...

... Long live my van.

My New Baton

Hurray, my new baton just came in!  It is balanced and it is made of a pretty green rock!

Naturally, I had to take some action shots with it. You know,take it for a test drive

As per usual, Mozart just wasnt having it! I showed him!

What Were You Thinking!?!?!

People throw out the coolest things! I was driving up to my apartment not too long ago and I saw a red leather suitcase sitting near a dumpster. This is not the sort of thing you see everyday and, while I love my current luggage, I need bagage with SOUL!

I opened it and let it air out on my balcony (just in case). There doesnt appear to be any sort of damage to it, there is no smell, and all the parts work.  Right now I am keeping a good chunk of my music in it ... kind of makes me wish I was going to be doing some traveling soon.

My Burnt Guitar

At the lovely "Manwich Meal with a Dessert Fork" meal I went to yesterday for work as a thank you to everybody who donated in our last fundraiser I got into a conversation about fun, little, creative projects that I have done.  One that came up was the guitar that I caught on fire with spray paint, so I decided to put it up here even thought it isn't a recent project because IT IS SO FREAKIN' COOL!!!!

This is us making it.

This is the guitar hanging on the wall of my apartment. I couldn't find anything cheap that was specifically made to mount a guitar, so I modified some coat racks and a telephone (curious?)

The Creative Urge

Yesterday, I was a little restless. Then, something awesome happpened! My hall light burned out and I had to change it, giving me a light bulb to play with.  I hollowed it out and am currently trying to come up with ideas of what to use it for.  This one isn't big enough to put a beta fish in, as I have done before.

Also, my Mozart action figure decided that he didnt appreciate my antics.

Don't mess with Mozart unless you want to get ch'ch'ch'chopped chopped and Screwed

I've finally done it!

I found the perfect layout for my small room ... I just need to find the right lamps because there isnt any built in lighting *grumble*