It was never about the football for us. It was never about the unprecedented 3 MVP's or the Super Bowl title. It didn't matter that he held all major passing records. You see, Brett Favre gave the game of football to us. He came in wide-eyed with a cannon for an arm--an old school "gunslinger". His first completed pass came against Tampa Bay. Do you know who caught that pass? He did. That was when we knew there was some hope to be seen in this guy with the oddly spelled last name. Favre? Seriously, it's pronounced "Far-v"??? WTF!?!?! When he [View Full Entry]

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Saturday's British Open round played great for me. A Wisconsin guy had tied the course record and was in the final pairing w/my favorite golfer, Sergio Garcia. I couldn't believe that I might play witness to either's first major victory. Garcia's famed for being in it on the start of Sunday but out of it by the 15th...Stricker's good for getting his name near the top of the leaderboard, but hasn't been a serious threat yet. I was pretty excited for today's round. I spent the first half of the morning camped out at the 5th green in the front row [View Full Entry]

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After Saturday's British Open round (see entry "Steve Stricker!" for details) I had the fun game of trying to find someplace to sleep for the night. I had hoped to be able to find someplace to crash in Carnoustie, rather than heading back to Dundee, but thanks the rain and the fact that the town hasn't heard of eaves or covered entry ways, I was heading back to the church to sleep outside again. I had made friends w/some policemen in Carnoustie and caught them up to speed on my lack of sleeping situation, but they had nothing to offer. They [View Full Entry]

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So I finally made it to Carnoustie. I got into Dundee last night after a 12 hour bus ride! I immediately went to a pub, if only because that was the only type of business open and I deserved a beer after my long day. I supposedly met Andrew Carnegie's great-great(-great?) grandson. Haha, the guy's in his 60's and he's still trying to use the family name:-) After a couple free rounds in the pub I walked around and decided to queue it up for the new Harry Potter book. I got in the queue at 11 and had the book [View Full Entry]

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I'll be honest. There is no fun in celebrating your country's independce day if you're not in that country. I think that is why the 4th of July was nothing to write home about for me this year. I was in Barcelona. I had randomly met a girl from Wisconsin and her American cohorts on the 4th and went with them to a 4th of July party at the Hard Rock Cafe. Seriously, without the BBQ, fireworks and knowing I was getting a paid day off from work, not really much of a celebration for me. Point being--it's better to celebrate [View Full Entry]

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I spent Bastille Day in Lyon walking around and taking in as much of the city as possible. What really intrigued me was the basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, that sits atop a huge hill (that mind you I had to walk up 400 some odd steps the night before to get to where I was crashing) that most people take the Funicular to get to. I got up there late morning and started my visit in the Crypt. The thing with churches and other various religous venues that cater to tourists is how little people acknowledge the original purpose of [View Full Entry]

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here are the gazillion photos i took in Pamplona. There are none from the day I ran, but I'm hoping that a guy I ran with sends me his photos because there are pics of me in the arena. i thought it smart to not take my camera with me, especially with the luck i have... http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=162435618/a=99209882_99209882/t_=99209882 [View Full Entry]

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So it turns out that there were benefits to sitting on a fence for 8 hours over 2 days in Pamplona--the random people you befriended. So yeah, the second day of the running of the bulls found me sitting next to 2 girls who go to Purdue and were doing a program in Lyon over the summer and would be heading to Bourg-en-Bresse the same day as I to watch a leg of the Tour. After 4 hours of rail time, we exchanged info after the run. Fast forward. I go from Pamplona to San Sebastian, Spain. I figured, get there [View Full Entry]

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So other than being frugal with my money, the only thing keeping me from going to a movie theatre and watching the new Harry Potter movie that opened the day before, was the fact that today was the day for me to watch a bunch of cyclists fly by in a middle leg of the Tour de France. It should be noted, that when I initially started planning this trip, it was a planned vacation to go to the British Open. I looked at a schedule online of the Tour and saw that the end of the TDF was the same [View Full Entry]

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...a carnival ride in San Sebastian almost fell on me. So two of the four guys I´m traveling with right now and I were eating our breakfast in a plaza this morning. We would have sat on a bench, but they were wet from the rain, so we set our bags down and leaned against a bench next to a carnival ride with an aluminum small looking type house thingy on the platform. We were going about our business commenting on how a semi w/a ride on the back was trying to squeeze through a really small space when all of [View Full Entry]

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