universal phenomenon

ok say it with me now: phe-no-me-non, take your time, it'll come ;)

Considering now I've experienced some of Scandinavia, and thinking of a couple other countries I've been, I think there are some things you'd likely see in most parts of the world:

* the people who are dressed like "what the hell is he/she wearing?!"
* the British or American tourist with the shorts and bright white sneakers
* the stalker guy at the club
* the weird guy at the club (as distinct from the stalker)
* the grumpy service employee
* McDonalds (except in Trinidad, we got rid of them)
* the Indian taxi driver
* the harmless drunk middle-aged man (very entertaining)
* the group of boys having fun messing around
* football fans
* street/road construction
* cute toddlers
* droves of Japanese people with cameras
* people who don't know the meaning of "personal space"
* helpful people
* great food
* a good laugh :-)

Of course I'm sure I'm forgetting a few more but...

A journal of 18 days

Finally I'm back on here :) Here's my trip in a very tiny nutshell, pay attention!

Greyhound - Boston Logan - wait for hours - flight 1 - Reykjavik - delay - flight 2 - Oslo - airport train (surreal, I'm actually 'there' now) - Anne! - bus 1 - Gothenburg - Annika! - now been travelling for 30 hours - tram - Kallebacksvagen - best salmon dinner ever - "catching up on old times" :) - stay on your side of the bed - lakeside breakfast - Swedes tanning on cliffs - Jitex 3 Billdall 2 - Liseborg, Trinidad v Sweden VM 2006 - kebab - Goteborgs-Posten photographer - match drawn! - pre-party - club - home 5am - "beach" 10am (more tanning on cliffs) - my picture in the Gothenburg Post! - finally relax a bit - Hanna! - Liseborg, Balder! - BBQ - more catching up :) - football - day out with Hanna - hjort, balls - dinner - football - head out :(

- bus 2 - Oslo - Aase! (finally) - Sigrid - flight 3 - Bodo - Hans! - Siv - rain :( - midnight clouds - flight 4 - Mo I Rana - Korgen - freezing my ass off, 5*C - Mira :) - fiskeboller - lakes - mountains - waterfalls - Kibsgaard cabin - awesome! - outhouse - cows - flight 5 - Bodo - Trinidad v England - loss :( - Saltstraumen - Kjerringoy - yellow houses - ELK stew - whale - smoked cod - pants down, legs up hahaha - coffee house - Hans' new house :) - flight 6 - Oslo - train - Porsgrunn - BBQ - clarinet - explore Porsgrunn - international festival - Henning cooking - 'student house' - weird sculptures - Grandiosa - circus - train - Oslo - Anne & Stine - Andreas - Trinidad v Paraguay - loss :'( - Viking Ship museum - Kon Tiki museum - Ski museum - apple pie - Oslo Royal Palace - Aker brygge - more rain - game and beer, ein ol til - breakfast @ Stine - souvenir shopping - meatballs! - game and more beer ;) - head out :(

- airport train - flight 7 - Reykjavik - Hildur, Lilja, Hilmar! - Thora! - alcohol - the boob - Rut! - lamb dinner - hot tub - alcohol - club - alcohol - guys - almost getting lost - helvete domu bindi - 6601947 - hangover - Gardabaer - Valthor teasing me - burger with egg - grilled banana - horses - sheep - afvelta (its a sheep thing) - Althingi - Geysir - Gullfoss - attack of the spray - practice - dried fish - hung meat - getting a cold? - yes :( - eve-online - penis mall - time to go :( - delay - skyr - flight 8 - Boston Logan - Greyhound, and here I am.

This doesn't even come close to telling half the story. I'm tired as hell (I got a really bad cold) but it was a fantastic trip. Thanks to all my wonderful hosts, love you all!! ... and see ya soon

More on the Beautiful Game...

Here's an article appearing in Trinidad Express drawing on a National Geographic publication which samples the views of various journalists regarding the World Cup.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=160969068

Enjoy!

T&T!!...We want ah goal!!

taking a break

Hello to any potential visitors!

i'm away for a while, but I'll have SO MUCH to write about when I get back. I'll have to sit down and categorise it before I start. Can't wait!

T&T!!!... we want ah goal!!

American footballer in Norway

This is an interview excerpt sent to me by a friend in Norway, its the observations of an American guy playing in one of the pro leagues there:

He says:
- Vi hadde like mange tilskuere på kampene i USA, men de kom bare for å være tilstede. Her er det intelligente supportere som forstår spillet og som er med og heier oss fram under kampene. Det er veldig inspirerende og morsomt, mener Borchers.

-We had just as many people watching our games in the US, but they just showed up to be there. Here there are intelligent supporters who understand the game and who are with us and cheer for us during the matches. That is very inspiring and funny, says Borchers.


To follow up on a previous post: ESPN have been airing some great commercials about the passion and unifying influence of the World Cup. Gatorade should have a look at those.

T & T!! WE WANT AH GOAL!!

Football Fever

I'm writing cuz I haven't in a while and I don't want this to become something I gradually forget about. So I've been visiting my Brasilian friend Costa (of course we talked about football and who's gonna win the World Cup) and she got me to join a fantasy game on Yahoo. And now I've had a visit from
Fortress Guiness talking about football again so... I guess I can ramble on for a bit...

THE WORLD CUP STARTS IN ONE WEEK!!!!!! Can u beleive it?!? All of a sudden we're in June and here comes the one month we, the people who play football with the foot and the round ball, look forward to with such expectation and excitement ;) So of course Costa thinks Brasil can do it, but thinks they're too laid back, maybe even cocky. I like Holland, and of course Brasil. NOT England, never been an England fan. And it's not helped by the fact that Trinidad are playing against them. As for Trinidad, there's no point in being the stupid fan and saying "TRINIDAD WININ' DE WORLD CUP!!" no sorry, I'm not unpatriotic, simply realistic. As long as we don't go and get completely disgraced i'll be happy. Altho things dont look so good right now as we've lost 2 warm up games...hmmm, that's happened to other teams too though... One of the African countries might surprise, as have happened before with Cameroun and Nigeria, that'll be fun.

So now I'm just waiting for my Trinidad & Tobago scarf to arrive in the mail so I can wave it at the sports bars hehe, there's a huge lime in Manhattan (new york) for the Trinidad v Sweden game, and I'm sure there'll be more after that, no lime like a world cup lime :) So I'll have my scarf and be a proud TRINI! regardless of the result. I love football for that: yes the passion causes fights and stuff but everybody appreciates a good game. You english hooligans need to cool down! someone keyed my uncle's car in London when he put on a Trinidad decal, geez.

I need to go finish picking my World Cup fantasy team. Much strategy involved you know. You get points based on the players stats so I'm gonna have to look at the groups carefully. e.g. I picked the Trinidad goalie I guess he will be pretty busy making saves lol (again realistic) and therefore more points. hehe Maybe I should find a player who fouls alot, I'll collect points for tackles HA..but then i think they minus for fouls :/ This can be figured out...

Till next time... T & T!! WE WANT AH GOAL!!