Back to the English speaking world.....yes!

So, I spent four days in my favorite place in Europe, Paris. Always as good as I remembered it being, even beter because I know my way around the city a bit. I didn't do much while I was there, rather I just wandered around, drank coffee in cafes, and really just tried to soak in the city as much as possible. I did go to the top, almost anyway, of the Eiffel Tower. I got some really sweet pix both from below and above. Next if was off to Amsterdam....

Amsterdam was not all its cracked up to be. It was fun, but rather difficult to get around in and it was filthy. The best part about being there was the getting to take the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. That was AWESOME! Being on a boat in the North Sea for about 16 hours was great.

I am now in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the second day here and its been pretty cool. I went on a free walking tour earlier and might go on the "spooky" ghost tour later.

Anyway gotta run. I'm back in the states September 1st.

More sites unseen by you....but seen by me!

Im currently sitting in a hostel in Geneva, it is a beautiful place. Anyway, since my last blog I have travelled to Berlin, Salzburg (Austria), Bologna (Italy), and now Geneva (Switzerland).

Berlin was a great place, super friendly and kind of grungy, with lots of punk rockers roaming the streets. We found some really great pubs and hung out with some British guys till 4 or 5 in the morning. We actually got kind of lost while with them but, it is all part of the adventure. Continuing on. I stood on Hitlers bunker, tried to climb the Berlin wall, had my passport stamped at Check Point Charlie (the border crossing formerly seperating East and West Berlin) and I climbed the Reichstag Parliament building. Along the way I have had to forgo using contractions while typing because the keyboards are crazy over here, like the z and y are switched, anyway point proved.

In Austria I roamed the gardens and spots by the river in which the Sound of Music were filmed and had an amazing traditional meal called Sweinstein, I think.

Bologna was a shorter trip as well and I was sick for half of it, but the Italian food in Italy is truly the best.

I wish I could upload photos, but unfortunately I am still not in a position to do so. I will proudly show them off as soon as I return.

Two weeks to go and Paris, Amsterdam, and maybe Scotland are on the menu ; )
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Denmark....

So, right now I am sitting in Berlin, I know crazy, but I just spent the last week in Denmark. I flew into Copenhagen, still don't know how the chewing tobacco got its name from this awesome town, anyway, from there I spent time in Odense, Skive, and Arhous. It was a great time, I really got to see the real Denmark not just the tourist stuff. We stayed with Tiffany's friend Stig (pronounced STEE) and met his family and had a bunch of authentic food. I also went to Legoland, it was pretty sweet. Tomorrow we are going on a tour of Berlin, we'll see the Reichstag, The Berlin Wall, and many other sites. That's it for now, I'll continue to keep everyone posted. Latr

PS Don't worry Nate Im takin tons of pix, I just can't upload them anywhere yet.

One year later...

Well it's been a little over a year and I'm back in Europe once again! This time I'm going to try to update more often than last time, but we will see how that goes. Anyway, I've bean in Britain since thursday and it's been a blast! I've seen all the sights like big ben, London Bridge, and The Eye. I will have pix when I return but am unfortunately unable to upload them at this point. I hope you all are well.
Cheers!

Photos......Finally!

Majesty!

Okay.......here's the deal! (The Deal is also an rockin punk band ; ))

So, I'm going to try to make this easy on me and on you all. I'm going to update my blog every sunday, unless something truly spectacular happens. But, for the most part check up on "icantspeakfrench" sunday's for some newness.

Not much has happened since the last time I updated. But, I did got to a towne called Aix, France yesterday. Aix is a college town and we visited a school of design there. We hung out with the students and went to a cafe and had lunch for two hours at least. It was amazing! I felt like I was actually starting to assimilate into the French culture a little bit. That made me very happy.

The school we went to was started by a man named Clement. He is a graphic designer from Paris. Some of his clients include, Dolce&Gabanna and Dior. He's very successful but he was also very cool and genuine. He surprised us by paying for our entire lunch. A lunch for 16 people with wine and main courses! Anway, we're going to do something for him when we go to Paris and visit him again.

The nets down......;( Pix to come latr.

Running with bulls is definetely not as safe as running with scissors

Today has been one of those insanely epic days that maybe comes along once a year, and that is if you're lucky. Lets round all this out one thing at a time shall we....

First. Today we went to Arles, France. Not only is there where Van Gogh lived for many years, his crazy years, there is an ancient Roman amphitheatre still being used, and what its being used for is bullfighting. So, that is like the appitizer to a meal that just grows and grows.

The Bull Fight. This was interesting because the bulls really do get killed in this event. I've never really seen anything like this before, but after reading some literature describing the cultural reasons for doing this, how much the bull fighters respect the bull, that all of the bull is used as food, and that the killing is done in as quickly as possible. An experienced bullfighter can do it instantly. I saw six bull fights today, it was crazy.

Running with the Bulls. Yes!, I did run with the bulls! The goal here was to try to stop the bull in the street. So, instead of running ahead of them you run behind it and try to catch the bull. I ran and hurdled over some people who fell and grabbed its side. Both arms around the side of bull with like 15 other guys all being dragged down the street. It was awesome except for getting poop on my pants and hand.

There were also amazing buildings we visited. An ancient cemetary, bath, church, square, and the collesium.


Here is the icing on the cake though. When we got back to the bus to leave a little car was blocking our way. So what did we decide to do? Duh, we picked it up and moved it out of the way. Jay and I and like seven gypsy men moved this car by picking it up. After this one of the gypsy's demanded ten euro from me and i was like no!, i picked up the car too. We yelled a little bit then he went away. We drove home and dinner never tasted so good.
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