Dear Old Stockholm

Words cannot express Stockholm's beauty. If we had one of the buildings that they had here, we'd feel a sense of pride, but the fact is that almost every building is steeped in beauty and history is intense.

My hostel was quite a ways from the Central Station and in retrospect I could have taken the subway, but I decided to walk and it ended up being a good thing. Armed with my Lonely Planet - Scandinavia book, I exited the station and guessed at which way I should go. It turned out to be right. I was immediately struck by how the Swede's have catered to the pedestrian. You know how on the seawall, there's like the pathway for rollerbladers, bicyclists, and pedestrians? Well, that's the way it is here, everywhere! Just simply replace the rollerbladers with car lanes.

Stockholm is essentially a series of islands. My hostel is in the sort of Commercial Drive district of town called Soldermalm. It's full of students and artists. Pretty cool and laid back in other words. I spent much of Sunday night exploring Soldermalm and the next day woke up and went for a run through a great deal of Stockholm to plan my day of adventuring. I started in Soldermalm then to Gamla Stan (the old town of Stockholm), then around the Royal Palace and National Museum, then to Djurgardan (Stockholm's Stanley Park), then Ostermalm (the upscale part), and then downtown Stockholm (the Addidas store was very tempting, but I have not the budget or space in my pack for the 14 pairs I wanted).

It's dawned on me (and in my last travels through Europe as well), that Europeans generally eat horribly. Everything is greasy, with fries, and they seem to live for fast food the likes of McDonald's and Burger King and totally unabashfully as well! Everyone smokes like chimneys and they are constantly drinking. The weird thing is that no one seems outwardly obese. My theory is that they just simply walk or bike everywhere. I think that alone allows them a freedom with their diet. Back home, I've never seen a man in a three piece suit or a woman in high heels on a bike , but here they're everywhere. In Denmark especially. You actually have to be careful that you aren't hit by a bike, there are so many.

Alright, a few observations on the Swedes and I guess Scandinavia in general. I've become pretty capable with translation. Similar to my other short cuts from previous travels (instant Italian is to simply add an "o" to all french words ie vin - vino, bonjour - bonjourno....etc), Swedish is a snap. All you have to do is phonetically sound things out and it's simply English. Valkommen - welcome, alkohol - alcohol, kaffe - coffee, koncerthal - concert hall, museet - museum, choklad - chocolate.....see? easy. The thing that confuses me is why they have to have such long names for the streets? Like, I'm talking 15 - 20 letter words. Can we get it across in 5 - 6 letters? OK now I'm starting to sound American.

EVERYWHERE serves espresso coffees, which is great! Like everywhere! I can get an americano literally anywhere I go.....that's maybe a bit dangerous.

I was at an outdoor patio bar last night and the bartender put on some music.....he chose NWA. I don't think that would ever happen back home.

Swedish cuisine is sort of based on how many regular everyday foods can you bizarrely make into a kind of hot dog (korv or kork - depending on whether it's grilled or boiled). For instance, hot dog (with bun) with mashed potatoes and relish with pickled beets.....rolled into a wrap. Don't be mistaken, the hot dog, not the meatball, is really the basis for all meals here.

Went to a Swedish music store today. Lot's of Hagstroms and Hofners, but the guy at the store just basically handed me over this Gibson L-5 when I asked him about it. For those of you not in the know, this is the $10 000 guitar that they have in the glass case at Long and McQuade and this guy's response to me was, "take it, it wants to be played." Not asking me to remove my belt or watch it, just basically here..... play it!

Alright, I'm now on the train back to Copenhagen and you know what really grinds my gears? This Scanrail pass. No....the pass is great, but no has told me jack about how it works. So, today I totally went by the book. I went to the SJ (Swedish train company....like Via Rail) reservation/ticketing place at the station, made a reservation, paid the 60 SEK because it's a special X2000 train (which apparently is built by Jesus himself and should be respected), and thought I'd done everything right as opposed to when I came to Stockholm, I just jumped on one of these bad boys with no seat assignment as is what every other train is like. So, the ticket is in Swedish and unfortunately my Swedish-by-phonetics method of translation isn't really working. I saw that it said "vagn 6" and "plats 6" amoung other numbers and words. I got a little worried that I didn't know what the seating assignment was, but I figued there would be a friendly train attendant that could help me similar to my last x2000 experience. I got on Vagn 6 (train car 6...this became obvious when the train rolled up) and so I naturally figured that plats meant seat. It turned out I was right but in my nervousness to do things correctly, I sat in seat 9. A nice woman pointed out the difference and as I got up to change, I was mowed down by a woman who was obviously pissed with my incompetence and shouted, "get out of the way!!!" I did and things got even more frustrating when I sat down in 6 and when the train attendant approached, I showed her my ticket (me proud I was doing things right) and she proceeded to chastise me for what I think was not having the right ticket and when I showed her my scanrail pass, further chastised me for not filling in the day I was travelling on (not that that is even my responsibilty!!!!). I'm sure I've confused most of you with this story and it will probably only make sense when you travel in Sweden by train on the holy x2000, but I needed to vent.

So now back to Copenhagen. I've been trying to live on a budget because things are pretty expensive in Scandinavia and I'm told Norway's worse. I might head back to the jazz house tonight, but again I might save some cash.

Picasso's Last Words/Crazy Train

Scandinavia.....awesome. Let's start with today and work backwards. Today I'm in Gothenburg and I'm going to be heading to Stockholm pretty soon. I'm having lunch at an Irish Pub (The Auld Dubliner) after just seeing some ORIGINAL PICASSO's at the museum here. The weather hasn't been entirely cooperating, but I've managed to get in a couple runs out of the rain. Running has really been the best way to see the cities and understand the geography a bit. It's also been helping plan my days. My back pack has been a bit of a pain (maybe it's not sitting right or maybe I'm just a wimp) so I store it where I can or do things that don't involve a lot of walking. But all in all, it's been fine.

Let's back up now to Copenhagen. What a great city. I arrived at the airport, which is outside the city center and I took the train downtown. The hostel was pretty nice with about six beds/bunks and a bathroom. When I arrived, there were two people in the room. Travis and Mia....from Vancouver! I don't know if they plan these things or what; it would definitely be strange if they didn't. Anyways, Travis and Mia live like blocks away from me back home and they were really nice. To start, I went for a run around Copenhagen to get a "feel" for it and figure out where everything is. Hang on, food's here; I'm gonna eat.

Sorry...I'm back and now on a train to Stockholm. This train has wireless internet and instead of looking out the window at the beautiful countryside, I'm geeking out on my laptop. I don't really understand how this Scanrail thing works yet. The travel agent, Georgia, basically told me to just get on the trains and so far, that hasn't been a problem but, this train has assigned seating. I asked one of the workers on board what I should do and she kindly found a seat that wasn't booked, although since she found this seat we picked up some more passengers and the woman now sitting beside I think is pissed off because I think I'm actually in HER seat. It's obvious that I don't speak any Swedish and I don't think she wants to approach the subject in English, so I'm just staying put.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Copenhagen.

I ran around Copenhagen and checked out where I should go later. My Lonely Planet book and a Lee Aaron fan from Sweden, Johan (who got in touch with me through my website as I guess Lee has a link to mine), suggested the Copenhagen Jazz House. I had hung out and had some dinner (meatballs, red cabbage, and potatoes....I thought I'd be authentic) on a patio in the city square before heading to the jazz bar. Everywhere in Europe has a patio, in fact, I took a picture of a 7-11 today that had a patio! Anyways, the jazz club was really awesome. Two levels: a bar upstairs and then a cabaret downstairs where they held the concerts. The concert was....OK. Nothing earth shattering. Not actually a lot of improvising. But whatever. The interesting thing was that A) the joint was packed! B) Beautiful Danish girls dig jazz! and C) They cleared the stage away and the place became a great night club after the show where I hung out until the very wee hours .

I arrived back at the hostel in the wee hours, managed to get a few hours asleep and was promptly awoken from my slumber by an angry hostel manager who informed me that I was way past check out time. After giving me a little hostel-ity, he didn't charge me an extra day, but saw that I was returning to the same hostel on the 30th and that I should be a little more aware. Fair enough.

So I left Copenhagen and took a train to Helsingor (not to be confused with Helsingborg which is my next stop) to check out the famed Elsinore castle, where Shakespeare's Hamlet takes place. This was my first castle experience and it was pretty sweet. Although, inside was kinda strange cause it was basically a Danish maritime museum. I thought it would be a little more....kingly? or even Shakespearey....but whateva. Maybe I expected people to be avenging their father everywhere. It was still pretty cool.

I then took a ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg, Sweden. They're right across from each other and I'm not sure why the names are so similar. You would think it might make things confusing, "Hey where you going?" "Helsing..r..." "Wha?" "Helsing..r..." "Wha?"

From Helsingborg I caught the train to Gothenburg. This was the only stay at a hotel. I really didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be really nice. The Hotel Opera and was really close to the train station so I didn't have to lug the backpack too far.

My impressions so far of Scandinavia? Pretty cool. The fact that most people speak English has been a bonus, but I've been trying to learn a little of the languages. People kind of know somehow that I'm english speaking before I say a word though. Perhaps it's the dark hair or something. Maybe I'm unescapably Canadian.

Being on my own has been fun too. I guess the only drag is that I won't be in any of my pics.

More to come....

I'm on a Plane, I can't complain

I'm on the plane. And typing in my online journal....ok "blogging" (why is that word so hard to come to terms with?). I'm over Scotland (the motherland!!!!) and if you ever get the chance, fly Scandinavian air! You know how Westjet has the TV's and the satellite imagery of plane. Well, this plane has that AND cameras on the exterior of the plane that you can actually look down and forward without having a window seat! Plus, obviously, they have wireless and plug ins for laptops, so I can geek out even more! Why can't we put this peanut butter and chocolate together on the airplanes back home?

In other news, I met Tom Jones' band at the Chicago airport. They were on their way to Niece but their gig got cancelled. Naturally, I found them at the bar.

Chicago, Chicago, that wonderful town

Crazy. I come off the airplane ready for my 8 hour layover here at O'Hare and I run into Vancouver trumpet player extraodinaire, Bria Skonberg. I thought I was in for some travel; she was in France and Holland for the last 2 weeks, flew back to Van yesterday and was at the airport with me early at 5 am (although we never ran into each other until Chicago) to fly on to Virginia for a Jazz Party. She's pretty heavily involved in the Trad Jazz scene and by the sounds of it, kicking ass.

I must say that it felt good knowing that Vancouver jazz musicians are travelling the world, entertaining the masses. Vancouver has some of what I consider the greatest talent on earth musically and I'm proud of my musical brothers and sisters. Seeing Bria in Chicago and knowing that 7 other Soulstreamers were invited over to Europe is a great testament to our scene.

Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man

Ok, it seems that the philosophy blogs are proving to be quite the undertaking. I have been contemplating "The Good Life" a lot and I have drafted an essay sized blog so far on the subject; however, it's not ready for public consumption yet (I haven't been on a blog hiatus, I've just been deep in thought!!! My mom's even chimed in on my blog absence....hi mom!). My point is, the philosophy will be up soon but not yet.....we have bigger fish to fry today.

Today, I'm on vacation. Yes, I've taken a few little trips here and there over the last 2 years, but nothing major. The last year and a half has been probably the most significant in my life. I have undergone huge changes emotionally, mentally, and physically. More over, the last 4 years have been the most tragic and challenging ever. This trip is kind of an exhale of all of that STUFF.

I'm currently at the Vancouver Airport awaiting my flight to Chicago which then connects to Copenhagen, Denmark. With the time change, I arrive in Copenhagen tomorrow local time 1:20 pm. I'll spend the day and night there staying at a hostel (my first hosteling experience). Massive Attack and The Cardigans are in town and I might check that out as well as some of the many jazz clubs (hear that Vancouver??? MANY JAZZ CLUBS!!!). The next day the plan is to head to Hilerod to see Hamlet's Castle, then a ferry over to Helsingborg, Sweden and I'll improvise a little here, maybe down to Malmo or something, but eventually I end up in Sweden's second largest city Goteborg (also pronounced Gothenburg). The next day I'm off to Stockholm for a couple days, back to Copenhagen for another night, and on to Oslo for a night before meeting up with Soulstream to head to Hamar.

I'm sure I'll be reporting back more today as things occur to me like.....how come I'm layed over in Chicago for 8 hours???!!!!!

Bye everyone (and mom)