Jim Franko
Adventures of a metalhead!Einherjar
My name is Jim, I'm 27, and like most of you on this site, I crave adventure!
After wandering around various countries for the past couple of years, I came across this page. It will be a good place to showcase my future buffonery. Maybe I'll update it with past experiences as well.
This sight needs a massive upgrade: As of July (June?) I have three more entries to throw up: Aberdeen Scotland, Newcastle UK, and Ijmuiden Netherlands. Stay tuned! I'm sloooow with putting things up.
-Even more updates are needed after a computer crash (gah!). As I type this (jan 29) I'm sitting in Annaba, Algeria. Also have to put up some info from travels in Olbia and Cagliari Sardinia Italy. Cagliari rocks...you'll see once the entry is up. heading back to Toronto/Ottawa in mid feb as well....it never stops!
Travel Blog Posts
Exploring the Granite City
Published: May 6th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Aberdeenshire » Aberdeen
May 6th 2007
Ah Aberdeen, the granite city. I spent a good three days wandering around this pretty city, admiring the old granite buildings and nice parks. Tons of cool looking churches were everywhere, and a lot of the stores I passed had interesting names like “The Snuggery”, or “The Cheeky Monkey”. I pretty much saw everything a tourist could see in this city with exception to most of old Aberdeen and the university district. Seeing places like Castlegate and the Mercat Cross make me realize how young Canada is. Taking a stroll throughout downtown on streets like Union make me wish I lived closer to a city as well. Everything is made of granite it seems, and I was lucky to have two good days of bright sunshine to make everything gleam. One day of rain turned ... read more
April 10th 2007
I'm typing this all after the trip was done, so my memory is shaky at best. Plus my laptop died in which I already had a nice long entry already written out. Ah well. It has been a few years since I've wandered around Norway, and this nation is still amazing. After a long flight in, I finally landed in the outskirts of Stavanger to spend the night. Sadly I never did get any time to venture forth into the city, and the crappy weather made for very little pictures. Typical countryside though I saw which reminded me of home. The highlights though were finally, after 2 long years, grabbing some melkesjokolade (milk chocolate bar) at a local store. Ahhh how I missed chowing down on all the foreign treats I used to gobble up ... read more
Good times are always had in Edmonton.
Published: November 18th 2006North America » Canada » Alberta » Edmonton
November 10th 2006
There is snow is Edmonton already yet the temperature is a nice -5 degrees. I guess this is what I get to look forward too in a month's time once I'm back home. Unless I'm off again somewhere else. My time here was spent hanging out at my grandmother's house and exploring the wonderous West Edmonton Mall. I've been here many times already, and I'm fairly familiar with the city of St. Albert and the western part of Edmonton where the giant mall takes its name from. Downtown however I've yet to seen in my previous visits, so I finally puttered around when the weather was half decent. It was a good visit as my dad showed my some of places he grew up, schools he went too, and other hangouts that were still around. As ... read more
November 5th 2006
Jasper is alot like Banff; both are ski havens and have far too expensive stores. The view is ridiculous here, with more highrise mountains in every eyefull, yet the town seems a tad smaller than Banff if that is possible. The food here is amazing, and the place is quite perfect to being a totally lazy skibum. The Whistler Inn provided the night's accomadation this time, and it was great. Smack right in downtown (is there one?) with a view to kill. A most memorable meal came just a few doors down at the Jasper Brewary Pub where I feasted on some more tasty meat. Yeah, I can't really get enough of the stuff, and plus since it was a brewary, I had to wash it all down with 2-6 glasses of beer. The candy and ... read more
Sightseeing around the National Parks of Banff and Jasper
Published: November 16th 2006North America » Canada » Alberta » Lake Louise
November 4th 2006
The first stop after leaving Banff, besides the hearty breakfast of artery clogging proportions, was Lake Louise which is one of the most famous sites around Banff national park. Featured is a spectacular view that can be seen on various stamps, papers, currency and other canuck approved things. Besides the site of the vast lake and the overshadowing mountains, Lake Louise is know for the imposing Chalet. Another place for the rich and famous to hang out, this monster of luxury has quite possibly the best view any hotel could ask for. The gift shop/museum inside is not meant for poor folk such as myself, as some of the more exquisite jade and other semi precious rock carvings are sold at a bank draining price. Sometime I'll grab one I'm sure. Legally I mean. The drive ... read more
November 3rd 2006
The National Park of Banff is a place everyone should visit once in their life. Sure there is nothing but mountains, trees, crazy waterfalls, more mountains, awesome ski hills, a bunch of wild animals, and expensive stores, but damn this place does it all well. If you are like me, being of the poor stock of low brow human swine, Banff can get intimidating. Good thing I went during the off season when hotels are now reasonabily priced at under 100 bucks, versus the normal 300 dollar deals. Being a tourist ski town, everything seems to be marked up by about 100 percent. Granted a lot of the things you find in stores and restaurants are very good quality. You want overpriced Jade? This is the place to go. You want some of the best nature ... read more
November 2nd 2006
I'm here in Calgary, the first leg of my Alberta trip, to visit the sites and meet with my cousin before heading off into the mountains right next door to hopefully get lost. Ah Calgary, home of tasty dead animal meals such as bison, elk and yummy moo cow. Land of the Canadian cowboy, crazy right wing oil tycoons, and not as cheap as you might think goods. I swear Nova Scotia has cheaper everything, from booze to food. Sure the gas is low priced and there isn't as much tax, but damn, 10 bucks more for a bottle of rum? Where was I now...oh yes, the food. The Bison, or Buffalo, is a strangly cute and furry lump of an animal that makes a very tasty burger as I experienced in a brewary pub called ... read more
October 20th 2006
Back once again to Pointe Noire in the Congo staying at exactly the same safehouse/hotel as I was the last time I ventured here. Not much has changed in a few months besides the food which seems to have gotten much better. Maybe all the meat I was eating was tasty because it was freshly killed? Or maybe it was because it wasn't loaded with chemicals. Bah, either way the grub was good, and the fruits are still fantastic. Head down any street in the city and you will come across some vender hawking their wares. There were these tiny ugly round greenish orange things that when bitten into would blow up in a juicy waterfall, oh man were they good. This time around though I had a few troubles along the way. Chief of which ... read more
September 24th 2006
Well things have slowly been improving as I got back my luggage! Well half of it as a good chunk was stolen. Clothes, my gameboy, shampoo and other various knickknacks were pillfered at I'm assuming. Oh well, life goes on and at least my camera wasn't taken! Note to self: take electronics with you on the plane next adventure. So the job is/was boring. Just watching giant oil companies mess up the surrounding waters with pollution and trying my best to stay out of the lumbering machines way. The one good thing about being out about 10km offshore while working is I seem to attract a lot of dolphins and other cute critters of the sea. Almost everyday I would spot a bunch of dolphins playing about, or some whales slowly plodding along besides the boats. ... read more
August 28th 2006
A huge amount has happened since I left my little slice of paradise in Nova Scotia. Yup, one big giant wad of crap to be precise. Where to start, where to start…. Ok, first off some airport or airliner lost my luggage. Could be in Paris, or maybe it is somewhere in New York, but knowing my shitty luck it is probably on its way to Japan or something. So I arrive in the Congo again only this time I got nothing. Well, a couple of books, one change of clothes, and some gum. No toothpaste, clothes, gameboy, magazines, shampoo, and all the other important junk I need. So yup, there you go. First things first I guess. At first I spent a day in Paris trying to figure out if my bags are around, which ... read more
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