People are still talking about MJ? That was soo 6 countries ago.

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be writing a blog.

When I last wrote, I was up in Sweden. Wow, pretty much the whole continent away. The heat up there was incredible for some reason but luckily there was a beach pretty much in downtown Stockholm. And a beach filled with Swedes is worth the heaightened expense of the country anyday.

From there it was on to Copenhagen for Canada Day. And I thought Sweden was pricey. My first (and last) meal was a $19 shawarma and can of Coke. Incredible! That's like four times the price of Canada. It's not that Im running low on cash, I just flatly refuse to lay down that kind of money for food. Scottish blood in me I guess. My time in Copenhagen pretty much consisted of sitting by the river drinking cheap booze and eating bread. Good thing for multi vitamins.

After a short trip through Scandanavia, Germany seemed massively cheap. I stopped in Berlin for a few days, found some cheap drinks (think free shot of jager when you buy a Euro beer) and why they call it Europe's best party city. Note to travellers: End trip here. Since you get in at sunrise and sleep all day, you're already acclamated to North America time and would have no jetlag. Partying aside, Berlin was a great city. Probably more history was made here in the past 100 years than anywhere else in the world. Think, WWI, Weimer Republic, WWII, Split City, Berlin Wall, Fall of Communism etc etc. The Berlin Wall and the great graffiti were probably the highlights of the historical part. Ill post pics sometime soon I hope.

Berlin was hot as anything so I decided I needed to freeze my ass off and go skiing. Apparently glacier skiing in summer is not warm. I first skied the glacier in Innsbruck, Austria and was quite disappointed. I rolled up to the hill wearing shorts, a fleece and a rain coat (the best winter outfit I have....the rain coat was in case it snowed). Freeying, I either looked super bad ass or like a complete moron (A: Moron). My appearance got a little better when I totally tore the place apart. The hill was almost exclusively intermediate runs and people who belonged on them. I was probably the best guy on the mountain that day, which I've neevr been anywhere near in my life. Next came Zermatt, Switzerland and the legendary Matterhorn. Everyone always claims that Western Canada is better skiing than the Alps, but I really couldn't get a good feel for it since I was stepping from such warm weather. Much better than Austria and was good until it got bad. And by that I mean the after effects. Apparently doing no physical activity, eating poorly and nightly drinking catches up around the 5 month mark.

The slopes led me to Zurich which I always stereotyped as a city of shady banking types. Apparently even there the banks are well hidden. All I saw the entire city was barbershops for some strange reason (and $17 Whopper combos at Burger King). Maybe it's a cover. Anyway, I only spent a night here to go to a Spearhead show and like every show I´ve been to in Europe, it was much smaller than expected. After the show, I met the band, got Franti´s guitar pick, a set list and even got a kiss from Cherine!

Now, for those who don´t know me very well, I´m kind of a nerd. Alright, alright, I´m a huge nerd. So the next day, I took the first train out to Geneva tosee the world´s best particle physics lab @ CERN (I had to book like 2 months ago). I won´t bore you with any details but seeing the Large Hadron Collider is pretty much the stuff a nerd´s dreams are made of and I certainly had to change my pants after seeing it.

I jumped France to make it to Barcelona since time is running short on the trip. Who knew, but the Tour De France was coming into and out of town while I was there (favorite sign: grow some ball(s) Lance and make it eight!). The things you see while casualy walking the street here.Barca´s certainly living up to expectations so far...many bars don´t open til after midnight, lots of public nudity and flowing booze. Do people actually enjoy this place?

While in Barca, I heard that some bull festival´s going on up North. Some Running of the Bulls or other. Definitely something I´ve always wanted to do when I saw it on tv. Talk about great timing to make it to Spain; great wetaher, Tour De France and the ultimate in adrenaline ´sports´ Running with the Bulls!

Pet peeve - internet shops that won't let you upload pics.

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