African Heat, Swedish Snow, and all in between

The last month of my life has been has taken me through two continents, seven countries and six different languages. I guess you can say that it has been an eventful month and even more then that it was exhausting. I am very sorry that this has taken me so long to put up a new post but while in Africa the internet wasn't very reliable and since then I have spent my time either traveling or trying to work out the details of my life.

Africa, I guess, would be a great place to start. The best way to describe it would be to say it was an experience. I saw a part of the world that lives a different lifestyle and mentality then we see in the western world. I am not saying that it is bad lifestyle but it definitely takes some getting used to. My flight into Accra, Ghana was delayed by 4.5 hours and i arrived at 1am and didn't have the opportunity to get accommodations for that evening. I ended up staying in an internet cafe for the night and figured I would  work everything out in the morning. By this time I had not slept in almost 3 days and making logical decisions was becoming difficult. It was not a good start to my adventure but I eventually figured out life and got some sleep. The next afternoon I got to meet up with Brian, Craig, and Heather. It was a relief to no longer be alone in this strange world and start my real adventure.

Once my rendezvous with the rest of my friends we found a place to sleep that night and did some wandering around Accra. This was the first chance I had received to actually take in what the town had to offer and I realized at that point that this was going to take some time to adapt to. Sleeping was definitely the worst that first night. I doubt that Brian and I got 3 hours of sleep between the two of us (heat and mosquitoes). The next day we headed west to a small town called Butre. It was a gorgeous little beach hideaway where we would spend the next two days before we headed back toward Accra to Cape Coast. In Cape Coast, we did a Canopy walk. Got to cross something else off of my bucket list and received an amazing experience at the same time.

Last night in Ghana was spent at a monkey sanctuary in Tafia Tome. This may have been one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. We entered the jungle bright and early in the morning at which time the guide called the monkeys out of the forest and one by one we fed them bananas directly out of our hands. The monkeys would climb up on your shoulders and arms while they would peel the banana and eat out of your hands. I can describe this at all and I didn't know it would ever be something I would get to do.

After Ghana, it was time to travel across the forests of Togo and start one of the worst bush taxi rides I would ever experience. We were riding in a van that should have been broken down on the side of the road long ago. As we traveled the 8 hours on a dirt road the window of our van would shift as we went through car sized pot holes and Brian's chair would fall to the ground. a total of 12 hours later we arrived in Benin. Time to experience the life of a Beninese local. Throughout Benin we traveled to Parakou and experienced a chuke crawl that was beer made in a bucket, Abomey and saw the old kingdoms, Cotonou and saw the large markets, and last we headed south to Grand popo in which we had another small vacation on the beach. Overall a great time in benin.

We headed back across Togo to Ghana so that Brian and I could catch our long flights home. Problem was that my flight home broke down on the tarmac and I had to spend another day in Africa, After arguing with the Turkish Airlines manager till 4am i got a change in airlines and a direct flight back up to the snowy forest of  Germany. Not completely true because the snow didn't actually happen till a week later but it was still a shock from the 100 degree weather of Africa. After 2 weeks in Stuttgart and some great trips to the Christmas market it was time to head up north to Sweden.

This was a great change of my lonely lifestyle in Stuttgart. I am now in Sweden with Stina's family and enjoying some great food and lots of home brewed Christmas ale. It was great to see the change of traditions of a Swedish Christmas and all the happiness that fills the house.

I am quite sad that i did not get the opportunity to be home for the holidays and get to be with my family but plans have changed and we should be heading back to the states at the end of the February. Stina no longer works as an Au Pair in Germany and I may have found in job in Sweden tending bar. A lot has changed in the past two weeks but I think for the best. The timing for Germany was not right and my trip to Africa was amazing but was also at the complete wrong time. Many things worked against me staying in Germany but maybe it can happen sometime again in the future.

Merry Christmas!

Burning colors of the forest

The last couple of weeks have definitely had some amazing times. After each long week of loneliness, I get the pleasure of Stina coming into town and visiting somewhere new. Stina and I have decided that each weekend we are going to have a new adventure and place to see. This started out two weekends ago when we went to Freiburg. Beautiful city! The whole city has what you would expect when you think about a German city. Surrounded by the schwartzwald (black forest) which all the trees are rapidly changing into there autumn colors. The town has lots of old buildings that are white with brown trim on slender cobble stone roads. This was an amazing city and a must see if you come to Germany.

This weekend Stina and I decided to stay in town and see our surrounding forest before the leaves have completely fallen. As it turns out just behind my house is a very large forest that goes for about 3 miles. We decided that this would be a good walk with a small picnic. The leaves have mostly turned color by this time but it still had a great feel to it. We wondered for over two hours through the trails and played on a playground. Turned out to be a very relaxing day in the wonderful company of my girlfriend. That evening Stina and I went up to the local pub that turned out to be mainly english speaking and gave me a small taste of home. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Well the weekend has come to a close and it is now time for me to board a train to the airport. The next three weeks i will be on my African adventure with Brian, Craig, and Heather. I know I will miss somethings terribly but it will be a trip to remember. I will do my best to write as many blogs as possible and I will save most of the pictures to post on facebook when I get back. I hope all is well back stateside and i miss you all. Please comment its always nice to hear from you all. 

The next step in my adventure

I know that I have been horrible in keeping up my blog and I am very sorry for that. Things in my life has been a bit cray I guess its been a little harder to get the motivation to give an update.

Since I have last written on here, I have found a place to move into and get set up. It is an unfurnished room just outside of city center. It will be a small adjustment because I will be living with roommate. His name is Imad. He is a nice guy that doesn't speak a lot of english but I think that will be a good thing for me and will help me learn the language. It will be an experience but I will only be there for 2 weeks before my trip to Africa.

Africa has had a few snags recently, First was the amount of time it took for my passport to get to the States and now they have had my passport for a week at the embassy. This is not my only issue, the are continually changing my flight. It looks like I am now going to be leaving a day early and will be getting back a day later. I guess it is good that I will now get a couple more days in Ghana.

The final big change in my life would have to be the moving of Stina. She has moved in with her Au Pair family. Turns out that the she now lives just an hour outside of the city. We had both expected that she would be closer to town but we are trying to make the best of it. We are trying to set it up that she will come into town each weekend. On the other hand, it means that I will now be living completely alone for 5 days week.




Other then that Stina and I have had a couple adventures. We have attended the Wasen in Stuttgart, which is the schwabish Oktoberfest. It was a lot of fun. Not really what I had expected it to be. Turns out that Oktoberfest was a huge carnival that contains large beer tents. Some other things that we have been up to is having some beers with some new friends, a trip to the zoo, trip to Ikea, and some sight seeing.

Culture shock

Since my last blog, I have not really had many changes in my life. What I have had is a change in how I feel. You may call it culture shock, home sick, or just stress but what I do know is that the excitement of being outside of the states has now warn off and I think the true weight of what I am doing is set in. I knew this was going to happen, it was just a question of when. Since I spent time in Sweden before I came to Germany, I have now been outside of an English speaking country for almost 6 weeks now. As most of you know I love to talk,  my mom has always said "I love the sound of my own voice" so its a very strange feeling for me when I can no longer involve myself in a conversation or figure out how to order my meal correctly.
Last year, when I was in Ireland, I believe, that my culture shock was much less because there was no language barrier. I know that this situation will not last and that I will soon be able to focus my attention on learning the language but for the time being it is making life difficult and sometimes near impossible. Stina and I are doing are best and beginning to make progress in the right direction.
As for the couch surfing and apartment searching, today was a great day. We looked at a room right near where we are staying and it turned out that the guy liked us and I should be able to move in by the end of the month. The rent is rather cheap compared to what we have been looking at and I don't have to sign a contract. We will meet with him again tomorrow and work out the details. This did put us in another bind, we didn't know where we were going to stay for the next month. This is where we got extremely lucky. As we were staying at a couch surfers house he is leaving for a month to Indonesia, we talked to him for a bit and he offered us his place to stay at for the next month. I don't think we could have gotten luckier.
Things may be looking up for Stina and I, keep your fingers crossed for us. As always miss you all and I hope everything is going great stateside, and please leave a comment so I can hear from you.

The Arrival, the excitement, the struggles

As most of you know we have finally concluded our travels and have arrived in Stuttgart, Germany. This has been probably one of the most bitter sweet things of my life. The journey took us almost 26 hours, with the amount of luggage that we decided to bring with us it was just short of hell. We did get a bit luck on the train though. On night train (14 hour trip) we happen to get our own cabin. This was probably the best possible thing that could have happened to us. Since we had so much luggage we took up almost the entire cabin but it also allowed us the chance to each lay down on three seats and get a little bit of shut eye.

  When we arrived in Stuttgart we thought things would be a bit less stressful but that was just an illusion. As soon as we arrived the apartment searching began. It turns out that we got to Germany at the same time as the college students are attempting to get all settled in before there semester begins. So every apartment we go look at it seems that 20 other people are looking at it before we do. The language issue is becoming more and more of an issue each day but Stina and I are doing our best to get it and it is a very slow process.

Couch surfing has turned out to be quite a blessing. We have not had to pay for a place to stay yet since we have gotten here. Also the people that we are staying with have help answer a lot of questions that we have been having. When we first decided to do couch surfing I was very skeptical but it has really helped a lot and the people are so incredibly nice.



Since Stina and I would go completely crazy if we just searched for apartments all day everyday we do a little bit of sight seeing in between. It allows us to get out walk a bit and see the town that we are going to be living in. It is an incredibly beautiful town that includes many very large parks, forest all around, and amazing architecture. I think once I am completely settled in here I will really like this town. When my stress level has the chance to decrease I feel like I may really enjoy this town and be able to call it home for a while. As always I really hope all is going well in the states and I miss you all. Comment on the like if you have any questions, I hope to hear from you all soon.

Culture night and the next step in our travels

I know it has been quite a while since I have written in my blog, sorry about that. The past week hasn’t really been all that eventful before the last weekend. Last week involved, Stina’s driving test (which she passed) and did a large dinner for Stina’s mother's birthday. All of our other time has been on the internet searching for apartments, jobs, and places to stay till we have an apartment. I knew this was going to be difficult but we seem to be making a bit of progress.

                Last weekend, it was the culture night in Uppsala. This was a long day of interesting things. We started our day with a Swedish massage and a tea tasting. After we completed our massages it was off to acupuncture. It was an experience that was both painful and boring, especially when I forgot that I had a needle in my ear and rolled my head over on the pillow. (Didn't help my sleeping at all either btw) So once we completed that we headed over to the a couple of art exhibits and the house of the famous writer about the cat. Then we ate some tofu, saw a cactus garden, and the garden of linnaeus the father of

grouping and classification of animals. Off to the dungeons, This was really cool to see and it was also the last time it will be open for a couple of years so we were really glad to catch it. The night ended after a couple of fire shows and some beer. It was 12 hours of walking and planning but turned out to be a lot of fun. 

                Since then it has all been packing and traveling. All our luggage made the it a long difficult ride but now that we are down here all is much better. The ocean to the west, crisp smell of salt, and small houses all around. It is almost like being back in San Diego, other then it is much colder here and more wind. It reminds me a lot of the east coast shores but it is nice to be getting back to our journey. 

                 Comment if you like, it would be nice to see that people are actually reading this. 

                 

Finland, Gamla Uppsala and starting to pack again

         As the past couple of days have not been as eventful as the past couple of weeks they have been fun of some gorgeous sites and great memories.

     Late last week Stina took her driving theory test for her driving license and passed! Congrats. While she was taking the exam I got one of my first chances  to wonder the city alone. This turned out to be much more of a task then I anticipated. Turns out that the place I chose to order food no one spoke any English at all. This is a problem because I have been working on my Swedish but its definitely not anywhere close to full sentences yet. So I eventually got what I wanted after quite a bit of pointing and hand gestures. I made my way down to the river and ate lunch on a park bench. Not exactly the cleanest river in the world but it was a nice spot. Once I finished lunch it was time to get lost in town for a couple of hours and see some interesting sites.

        When I arrived home I got the chance to take a little drive with Stina's father to the Old Uppsala. This was the location that the vikings had originally settled back in the 1st century. They moved Uppsala when Christianity took over in about 1500. It was amazing to walk through the small abandoned village. It was a great evening that gave me a ton of history of the area and an idea of actually how old this area really is. Also the viking burial grounds all over were an overwhelming site to see. The viking kings are buried under huge mounds of dirt when they die and the bigger the mound the more important the king.

          On Saturday our adventure began to a new country. To Finland we started but like always with a couple of set backs. We made our reservations incorrectly for the ferry that almost had us left in Uppsala and even worse then that I completely forgot my passport. This kinda put a damper on the trip because we were not going to temp me going on the island because i may not be able to reboard the boat. It was still a really fun trip and had some amazing sites of the archipelago. Its a beautiful trip and a must see if you come to Sweden.



       The last couple of days have been sent purchasing our train tickets to Germany, packing up to move again, and organizing where we are going to stay for out first week in Stuttgart. It has been a bit stressful but now that the tickets have been bought and sunday night we ate at an amazing Thai food place the stress is much reduced and we are now just relaxing as the move south comes closer. We will be leaving to the south of Sweden on monday the 12th and then we will be heading over the canal to Copenhagen, Denmark on the 19th to head down to Stuttgart. We are leaving to Germany a bit later then we wanted to but it saved us a ton of money just to wait a couple more days.

-If you want comment on the post I would love to hear from everyone.

beautiful sights and great company

Swedish Adventures

         So I have changed my mind and just decided to to post all my pictures on facebook which it looks like most of you have already checked them out. I also have a few more from today I will post shortly.

        As most of you have seen from the pictures the last week has been a lot of sight seeing. My feet have been having a great time adapting to the all the walking but it is a must if I am going to be living a life without a car. We have seen almost all there is to see in Uppsala in the past week. Actually I think we saw all there was to see in the first two days. Uppsala is a very small university town that most of the population is made up of students which means bikes everywhere a huge problem with bike theft. I lock my bike up like crazy and just hope for the best. Speaking of bikes mine has turned out to be quit a headache and nothing but problems so far. The derailers are completely out of alignment and I have gone through two flat tires already, fun time half way to Ikea (delicious meat balls btw).
 
         Downtown Uppsala has one of the most gorgeous cathedrals based on gothic architecture and most of the kings of Sweden have been buried inside. Another part of Uppsala that I got to see today was Gamla Uppsala (old Uppsala) which is where the viking graves are located in these huge mounds. I went with Stina's father while Stina was in class. I had a great time and got a huge lesson on the history of Uppsala and the vikings.

            Stina and I also had an adventure to Stockholm this week. Wonderful time in a viking museum, picnic in front of the castle and I road a lion. In the old town of Stockholm we wondered around in some small shops and a few little art galleries. Very calm and relaxing day of site seeing but we will have to make a return trip because we were unable to see everything. 

            The other stuff that has been going on a crawfish party, cheap beer with some friends at the student organization, Stina's driving school, and some family dinners. All in all it has been a great week and I have been trying to work my way into the Swedish culture and trying to pick up a little of the Swedish language while I am at it.

long travels... happy reunion... and great food

I know it has been a few days since I have written in here and even worse it has been a few very eventful days. So this may end up being quite a long blog but I hope it will get us completely up to date. Also I am going to find a website here soon that will allow be to post all my pictures to so that it will be a little easy to read this blog and go through pictures separate website. I am planning on all that getting taken care of in the next couple days.

My last few days in the states consisted of sleepless nights, packing of boxes, and visiting friends. This turned out to cause 48 hours of staying awake and being exhausted almost beyond functioning. My final day before I left i had the opportunity to do a trapeze lesson with Kinzie. It was tons of fun and it actually turned out that i was pretty good at it. Following the trapeze lesson I enjoyed one last dinner with my parents before it was an all night pack and clean session. I worked extremely hard at it but was still sure i wouldnt get it all finished. Until a blessing came and my friend ashley showed up and helped me get right back on track. At 4:30 the next morning I left my house for the final time, my nerves were going through the roof but didnt even compare to the amount of excitement surging through my body unable to imagine the unknown ahead of me.

The Airport was a stress and experience of it own. I spent over a half hour working with the lady behind the check in counter trying to arrange my baggage as she attempted to deny my bags and charge me all the fees over again. It took all the power in my body to not get upset and I was almost positive that my luggage was going to end up on a plane to Japan or something worse. Luckily I got to the airport extremely early. After a 9 dollar sandwich for breakfast i boarded my plane and the journey began. Felt a slight fear in the air due to a weather delay over Miami as an early effects of hurricane Irene. Soon landed in Miami completely surrounded by Germans. This got my nerves in a bundle because i then realized that my German skills are definitely not up to standards. This also stuck me in the airport with my second issue of the trip. I was almost forced to purchase a return ticket home... may have put a damper on the whole trip. I worked it out with the ticket agency and convinced them that i was only traveling. The next flight was delayed but we were soon on our way.

Berlin was just uneventful and i was soon boarding a plane for the 3rd time that day and working on my 20th hour of flying. As i landed in Sweden, i entered the baggage claim my very heavy bike bag actually blocked the belt from moving and caused a huge back up of luggage so i was kinda embarrassed to grab it.    But just 2 minutes after the baggage issue i had the amazing and long awaited pleasure of Stina's huge smile and hug. The bags didnt really fit in the car but we made it work and the meeting of the family over dinner was soon to come.

I know this was a very long blog and kinda boring but hopefully i will soon get better at writing these and the will come a bit more often. I hope all is well back in the States and i am looking forward to hearing from you all.

Just before i leave!

     I am now in my final days before I leave. I have one more weekend with my family and friends before I take my 22 hour flight to Sweden. I have 2 layovers on my trip, one in Miami and one in Berlin.
     I must say that my nerves are starting to get to me and I think the extent of the move I am about to make is starting to become apparent.  I am having so many mixed emotions about the move I am not sure which way to feel. I am moving away from all that i know and all my family and friends but I will be starting a new adventure and the opportunity to meet new people. Also in europe i will finally get the chance to be with Stina.
      Well i have a couple of things to say about this blog since this is the first post, I can just about promise you that it will have many spelling and grammar errors and probably may not all make sense all the time. It is just a place to put down my thoughts and give me a connection back to the states. I want people to be able to see what I am doing and where I have been going. I will be trying to update it at least once a week and let everyone know whats happening.
       Hope you all enjoy!
P.S. I never like to reread what i wrote because then i will change something that i wanted to say originally. So this will add to the comedy of the blog i hope.