Finally off to Seattle...

After a great Christmas with my friends and family, I made my way to Las Vegas for my annual 2 days of Vegas with my good buddy Ryan. We stayed at our favorite casino the MGM and played plenty of Poker. I actually made it out of town with some winnings in my pocket, so all in all it was a successful trip.

Yesterday we then made the long drive back to Phoenix where we had one last barbeque before my trip home today. By tonight I should finally be in my own bed after seven full months of traveling and I am looking forward to seeing all of my friends back home.

I made it back to the US...

After a full 24 hours of travel, I finally made it the nearly 10,000 miles or 16,000 km from Copenhagen to Arizona. It was a long day but I was pleased that there were no disastrous delays during the trip.

After a night of catching up with my friends, I headed out the following day for my home town of Kingman. The drive from Phoenix to Kingman takes about 3 hours, but the desert scenery makes for a beautiful drive.















Yesterday, I enjoyed a fantastic Christmas with my family and today I am hitting the road again. My friend Ryan and I are off for our traditional Christmas week trip to Las Vegas. We will make the 1 1/2 hour trip from Kingman to Las Vegas today and then head all the way back to Phoenix on Wednesday... hopefully with some money still in our pockets.

Wish us luck!

Goodbye Copenhagen...

After 4 1/2 months, 15 countries, and many many good times, my stay in Europe is over..... at least for now anyway.


This has been an amazing experience and I am so glad that I chose to spend time living in Europe. I have met so many great people and truly expanded my network of friends globally. In the future, I should be able to travel much of Europe and always have a place to stay.


The last few days have been spent celebrating and saying goodbye to everyone. It has been a blast, but has also been a bit sad. It's amazing how close everyone has become in such a short time. A lot of us have been living together, taking classes together, and traveling together, so the relationships that have been formed are strong.

Everyone is heading in different directions; some back home, some to new countries, and some are staying for another semester. Luckily with so many ways to stay connected on the web, I think we will all be able to keep in touch. And if we are lucky, work out some reunions.


Yesterday was the last day in Copenhagen for a lot of us, so the night started with a big party that then continued at the bar until the early morning hours. Like many of the nights that we have spent together, we had a blast. Tonight there will be one last night out for the remaining students.

We will start by cooking one last dinner together here in our flat which will consist of everything we have left in our cabinets. Then we will head out to the infamous all you can drink Dakota Bar to meet up with the remaining students for the last of the goodbyes.


For all my new friends, thanks for so many good times! I will miss you all and look forward to finding a way for some reunions!

Skol!

Here are the pictures from our last days in Copenhagen.

Last stop... Madrid and Amsterdam

After celebrating with Paul and his friends in Madrid we headed out to our last stop, Amsterdam. It was a little rainy while we were there but it was a good time all the same.

Amsterdam is an interesting place filled with legalized marijuana "coffee shops" and leagalized prostitution. It is not only legal it is open and heavily advertised. In the Red Light District, the women stand in their booths right on the street and wait for customers. It is something that has to be seen to be believed.


Dispite these unique qualities, Amsterdam is beautiful. The entire city has been built on the water and is filled with canals and small tightly squeezed buildings. While we were there we took a 3 hour city walking tour as well as visited a few of the popular museums. One of the most interesting was the Stedelijk Museum, which was filled with non traditional and quite far out "art". It is perfect for Amsterdam. We also visited the Van Gogh Museum and saw the Anne Frank House.

Here are the pictures from the Madrid and Amsterdam

From Florence to Madrid...

After leaving Florence, Paul and I spent the next 4 days trekking across the Italian and French Riviera.

The first day we drove from Florence through Tuscany and over to the Italian coast where we past through Pisa and then made our way up to the Italian and French boarder where we stayed the night in San Remo. On the way we saw some amazing sites including the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and the amazing five coastal villages that make up the Cinque Terre.

Day two: After spending the night in the small coastal town of San Remo, we caught a train to Nice. The train ride was a little under two hours and it was a very scenic ride. We past through many small cities right on the coast as well as some more well known destinations such as Monaco.

We then spent the day in Nice. We were very fortunate because the day was unusually warm. It was about 70 to 75 F all day so Paul and I were running around in T-shirts. There were even a number of locals sun bathing. Sun bathing in the middle of December... amazing.

Day three we woke up and picked up a rental car in Nice. We then made our way down the windy coastal road that makes up some of the most scenic parts of the South of France. After a long days drive we spent the night in a small town off the highway just past France's third largest city of Marseilles. We had a little trouble finding a hotel as we were off the beaten track and neither of us spoke French... it's just all part of the adventure though.

Day four was another day of driving. We left early and made our way down along the coast to the French and Spain boarder. It was another scenic day of driving although it was full of marshy and flat lands rather than the cliffs we saw around Nice. We saw a lot of native birds though including wild Flamingos. We eventually made our way to Perpignan on the French side where we dropped off the car and caught the train to Barcelona.

We then spent the next four days in Barcelona which was amazing. Barcelona is now my favorite city in Spain and was a highlight of our trip.

Barcelona is a very international city that is always active with visitors. There is a popular center called Las Rambles where people are walking the streets all day and even into the wee hours of the morning. In Spain, people don't go to dinner until 9 or 10 pm and the restaurants stay packed until midnight or 1:00 in the morning. We went to dinner at 11:00 pm on the first night and still had to wait to be seated. People then stay out until 6 or 7 in the morning... it is really quite a sight. Of course they also close shop from 2 to 5 pm every day for siesta.

In Barcelona we saw a number of things. Some of the highlights were the Barcelona Coast, the Picasso Museum, Park Güell, Casa Milà, and the La Sagrada Familia Church.

We left Barcelona last Wednesday and took the 5 hour fast train to Madrid. This was another very scenic ride. We took it easy on Wednesday night and then yesterday we took the 30 minute train to Toledo. Again, we were fortunate with the weather and we enjoyed a nice sunny day walking around the city.

Last night was the graduation of the students getting their MBAs here in Madrid so there was a lot of celebrating. Tomorrow we all head out for different destinations; some home for the holidays and some coming back home from other exchanges. Paul and I will leave tomorrow for Amsterdam for our last few days abroad. We will be there until Tuesday and then Paul comes back to Madrid and I head back to Copenhagen. There will then be some celebrating there and some goodbyes and then it's back to the good old US of A.

Here are the pictures from this leg of the trip.

Driving the French Riviera...

Paul and I spent the last few days driving the northwest coast of Italy and the entire southern coast of France. Above is a picture of Nice where we spent a night. We got lucky and the weather the day we were there was unseasonably warm.... about 70 F or 18 C.

We are now sitting in a boarder town in France waiting for our train to Barcelona. We will make our way to Pauls place in Madrid by Wednesday and Ill upload the next round of pictures.

This is a short post because these funny keyboards in France really make it a chore to type. It is amazing what switching a few letters around on the keyboard will do to you. We have adopted a saying though....If it was easy, it wouldnt be Europe.

PS. Ive gotten the comments and emails from you all back in Copenhagen (Chris, Steph, Mikaylee, Laura, etc). Its great to hear from you all and Ill see you in a few weeks! Damn this French keyboard!

Skol!

Prague and on to Italy!

After a great time in Poland, we made it to Prague without a scratch. Prague was a great city with a lot to keep us busy. We spent two days visiting all of the sites and soaking up the great weather. It has been unseasonably warm here in Europe. We have been enjoying temps in the 60s for the last few weeks. We also met up with one of my classmates from Copenhagen while in Prague. He was stopping through on his way to Austria and it was nice to add a thrid to the trip.

While in Prague we saw many of the popular sites including the Charles Bridge, St. Vitus Cathedral, the Prague Astronomical Clock, Old Town, and the Prague Castle. It was a fantastic two days... Prague has an amazing history.

From Prague, we made our way to Rome. We were in Rome for 2 full days and 3 nights. We did some major walking in Rome because there was an amazing amount of things to see. My favorite sites were Vatican City, Colosseum, and Palatine Hill. We had a blast in Rome and were very glad to be there during the off season because the tourists would have been thick. We were able to get in and out of the major sites without much effort, which was nice. While we were in Rome we met up with one of Paul"s roomates and his 2nd rommate"s brother, Jeff and Philipe.

From Rome we hitched a ride with Jeff and Philipe who were driving to Florence. It took us about 2 1/2 hours and was a great scenic ride. Jeff and Philipe left this morning for Milan and then on to the North of Italy to go skiing. Paul and I were able to spend the day site seeing here and tomorrow we leave early to San Remo on the boarder of Italy and France. We pick up a car early tomorrow morning and drive through Tuscany and up the coast of Italy.

That is the latest update and Ill try to post again when We get to Paul"s place in Madrid.

Here are the pictures of Poland, Prague, Rome, and Florence.