Pictures

...of this trip will be forthcoming as soon as figure out how to upload them without losing them off my camera.

So be patient, but don't hold your breath. It's generally a bad idea.

Peace

Happy New Year from Stockholm!

Here's hoping 2007 will make 2006 seem like some drunk puked Jagermeister all over it.

Is that an appropriate analogy to say I hope it's a good year?

I spent my evening trying to get along with fellow travellers and drinking cans of Tuborg like some sort of Danish tralier park resident. It was great, although I couldn't for the life of me figure out why after seven of them I wasn't finding the Germans any more interesting. Then I realized that they are 3.5% alcohol. Bleh! Anyway, I went down one of the rivers that flows through Stockholm to watch fireworks and wow...Swedes love their fireworks. Not only was there quite a state organized show on (no surprise) for at least an hour, but the locals all seemed to have their own fireworks that they were not shy about using. People were shooting fireworks of their apartment balconies. This seemed very safe. Needless to say there are a lot of Swedes walking around this morning with burned or missing hands. There's something few people know about Sweden (trivia for the day if you will) - there are more fake hands per capita in Sweden as a result of fireworks accidents then anywhere else on earth.

First one to "verify" that fact-ish piece of information on Wikipedia wins a prize.

Bristol, England - December 28, 29 2006

My first stop on my little European vacation was to Bristol, England - the hometown of a friend from work, Jo Kelcey. She was very encouraging of taking this trip (I think she's got the travel bug in a big way) which I took to be an invitation to crash at her house.

I arrived at the Bristol bus station around noon on Dec 28 after the flight over to London from Montreal. My friend's mom lives about 15 minutes outside of Bristol in a town called Nailsea, which is very much like a North American suburb, having lots of nice middle-classish two or three bedroom homes and all the amenities that one would need (grocery stores, boutiques, cafes, etc). After getting a tour on foot of Jo's old stomping grounds I needed a nap. This is a common theme to my travels generally, but especially those where I leap over five time zones in an economy seat on Air Canada.

That evening we went out with a few of Jo's mates from high school. It was a nice mix of English and Canadian - we went for curry and I managed to get in a couple of pints at a Royal Oak (no shit, I am a creature of habit).

The next day started with a typical English "fry up," which Jo's mom prepared, consisting of sausage, bacon, potatos, and toast. It was filling. We went back into Bristol for a longer tour of the city in the late morning and walked around some of the various sites. Jo would downplay this tour I'm sure, but Bristol is actually quite lovely in an expected way - the old cathedral, the city civic building, the several streets of cool shops and restaurants are great. We also ascended the Chirstmas steps, which is a huge stairway just as it sounds. Apparently a certain Mr. Christmas (we're checking for verification of his name) was tired of climbing one particular hill and out of concern for his safety, and that of others, in the winter built a large stone staircase. We spent a fun evening in a bar with some of Jo's other friends from various places. I was happily surprised by the cost of such an evening. While it wasn't like happy hour at your local pub, I think we paid under $6 a pint.

Jo and her mom, bless them, got up at a ridiculous hour to get me to the bus the morning of the 30th I slept most of the way (thanks for the travel narcolepsy) and made it to Stanstead airport with no problems.

With that I was off to Stockholm for the next leg of my trip. More to report about that a bit later when there is no one burning holes into my skull for taking all this time on the internet.

Thanks to Jo, Madie, Rudi, and others who got this trip off to a great start. Peace.