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hiya, heres my official report:
Okay, gang, here it is! Or at least, here it starts-
Sweden- i flew into stockholm and huing out in a cell-like cheapo hotel room all night. Stockholm is about a million people,
remarkably clean and 'safe', very modern and metropolitan. Bjorn took me on a tour of the city, saw lots of statues and the
castle where the king lives( he's just a figurehead )
Next day, the tattooing began. I did lots of good stuff. i was able to speak a little bit of swedish, but not nearly enough.
thankfully, most of the swedes were happy to speak english with me. And those swedes really like to party.
Everyone was pretty curious about America. So I hope i gave them a good impression without letting them think that i support
our foreign policy at all. The swedes are sure a bunch of good looking people. all the girls are blonde n beautiful. It became
surreal. A beer in a pub will run about 6 bucks.
One things Swedish people do well, is stand in line, quietly, patiently. Strangely unlike their viking forefathers, the
swedes are a relaxed, quiet, well-behaved folk.
Taxes are super-high, yet civil benefits are dwindling. There seems to be a complacency among them in spite of this.
So then I was off to Prague, Czech Rep. via Gothenborg Sweden, on a 4 hour hellish train ride.
I arrived in Prague late, and was given the old-run-around by a cab driver. Prague is a massive city. It has tons of really
old buildings as it was barely touched by war over the years. Very few Czechs speak any english at all, so be prepared, because
Czech is a really strange language. So I drank a bunch of absinthe. It was fabulous.
Next day i took a walk around. I saw lots of old pointy churches. Ate some really good food and drank a lot of really
good beer. About a buck or 2 each in a bar.
Didnt really feel as safe or as welcome as in sweden. more poverty and desparation here among the locals. Hordes of tourists.
The place was kind of dirty, signs are posted clearly on buses and trains: beware of pickpockets. I dont mean to down the
place. it was pretty cool, maybe just not my thing.
Then I couldnt get the rental car, as I'd planned. Luckily, I ran into an absolute angel at Dvorak car rentals, who got
me on a train, bless her.
I was happy to cross over into Austria. Ah deutch. Ich spreche kleine deutch. However, after learning a bit of swedish,
my german was pretty rusty. As it turns out, not many Austrians speak english at all.
(and the reason here is that their TV, our tv shows, our movies are dubbed into Czech, or german, or whatever. In sweden,
they watch out movies in english with svensk subtitles, so they become really proficient at english.)
Some jerk at the Bahn-Hof tried to send me on the wrong train out into the middle of nowhere(i guess just because im american)
But anyway, i woke up early and made it to the big metal show a day late. the train ride through Austria was amazing. gorgeous
high mountains with castles nestled between. It looked like sherwood forest or something.
The metal show was Fuckin Killer. Moonsorrow was better than expected. I met a great Bosnian Austrian chick, an Austrian
Swede, and tons more of people from all over. Though i think i was the only American guy in the place, except a couple of
the bands. Loved It!!
Then I missed the last train home, ugh! waited 4 hrs, for the 1st train. got back to the hotel, no time to sleep, checked
out, caught another train from Vienna back to prague. i got to the airport 8 hours early, waited for the plane, got back to
gothenborg at 4 am, took a bus into town, but you cant check into a hotel at 4, unless you wanna check out at 11. so i had
to wait til 12 to get into a room.
52 hours since i woke up. I slept for 14 hours.
By then i was pretty worn down, all my clothes were dirty, and im down to the very last of my kronors. I hung around in
goth for a while, then flew back to stockholm. i was able to see Pirates, (with swedish subtitles) the night before i left.
It was a Great Trip! Fuck yeah dude. I learned a couple of things:
I shoulda brought a friend. There were so many miracles to share. So many frightening moments...
Shoulda planned better- dont rent a car, take trains.
Shoulda brought more comfy shoes, more money.
The craziest thing- Of all these great places I went, all the cool places Ive been, my favorite, most happy place, you're
gonna love this.......
Ukiah
So thats it buddies, next up is Scotland. Im hoping to do Helsinki and Reyjavik in the same trip, and I'll definitely
go back to Sweden, now I got fans there. I'll do Austria again too, but 1 trip to Prague was plenty, thanks.
Thanks for all your thoughts n hopes.
Love you guys
Joe
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