Paris at last

I will try to write a quick message on the French keyboard, which i am not used to. I talked to Aalborg U; and they were cool. it seems like a nice school. *

I camped out my night in Aalborg, and wouldn:t you know it, there was q storm. Not too much sleep that night. next day i took q bus to Hamburg with a bunch of internationql students, chinese and ukrainian. we passed through kiel and it seemed very happening. World cup fever i guess; anyway, short time in Hamburg and on to Brussels, which i wasn:t overly impressed with. Mqybe it was the time of day or something but it just seemed inordinately boring for a city that size; slept all the wqy to Paris, got to the hotel; they were awesome. And so far Paris is living up to expectations: I;m off to the airport to get Corie now!

Radio Europe

Here I am in Aalborg and already I'm very impressed. I tuned into the radio and the first song they played was a remix of the Baywatch theme! Almost as good as London radio; they spend much of the day making prank calls to German people and getting them to translate rude things like "I want to cover you with cream and lick it off". Classic!! They were pretty jazzed about the game with Sweden despite the horrendous screw ups, mostly because they still get to play Ecuador.

Its a good thing I got out of London though, because in one day I managed to completely ruin my budget and will have to cut out food on the later days of the trip to compensate. It was a nice day and I stayed awake except for a couple of cat naps in Hyde Park.

Last night was a blast, sleeping at Stansted for the second, and hopefully last, time in my life. The number of transient backpackers trying to get a bit of sleep there is quite amazing, and so are the number of alarms that go off on a regular basis. I was so tired though that I did get a few hours of sleep and woke up realising that I'd slept past the opening of the check in counters. Big mistake. Ryanair seems to afford the 1 pence flights by reducing the number of check in personnel. So I spent a lovely morning fighting back throngs and protecting my turf in a mass of humanity to put the Titanic to shame.

Then this morning I checked out Aarhus, where it was pissing rain, and then I passed out on a train to AAlborg, and here I am searching for somewhere to stay tonight.

Halifax

I've made it as far as Halifax. Currently I'm staying in Tantallon with JnD. Its been really good weather and the Oilers won last night, so I've been feeling a good vibe so far. I saw a lot of Halifax today, including C and I, though I(he) was feeling a bit under the weather. Too bad, so sad. Hamilton was interesting, and it seems that I got out of there just in time, as there's a horrible heat warning there right now. J is doing well, going to Heidelberg in August to study for three years. J has changed a bit, but is definetely the same guy underneath. Hamilton pretty much lived up to its reputation, on the main drag downtown it features a porn shop, a 24 hour bingo parlour, pawn shops, a dollar store, and payday loan stores. My cabbie told me they named the airport after the biggest crook in Hamilton's history. Isn't that always the way?

Heading out

My long awaited trip is beginning tomorrow. I'll begin with a visit to J in Hamilton, before heading to Halifax on Saturday. I'll be visiting J and D as well as sundry others in Halifax before finally hitting London. It'll be fun to see Halifax again, even if they don't have craps anymore. I arrive in London at 4AM which is midnight in Halifax, so basically that night will disappear for me. I'm probably going straight to Hyde Park and be a vagrant for a while, sleeping until they kick me out. Depending on how much energy I have, I'll see what I can do. Then I'm flying out of Stansted the next morning at 6AM, so I'll have to sleep there. I'm flying to Aarhus, then I'll have to transfer to Aalborg and go for a series of gruelling interviews at Aalborg U. By then I predict that I'll pretty much be a babbling lunatic (more so than usual) so no doubt I'll impress them enormously. On the 23rd or 24th I'll catch a bus to Hamburg, and then another to Paris in time for Corie's flight from Shanghai at 5PM on the 25th. So for that first period I'm subscribing to the school of frantic, city a day travel, which we all know is the most fun. Fortunately we have the "perfect hotel" in Paris. No really, that's its name, so I can sleep for a week there. Its located in Montmartre, and my parents stayed there during Euro 2000 when France won the tournament, so I'm hoping for a repeat. (NOt bloody likely with the way they played against the Swiss)

Summer in Ottawa

I've been enjoying summer in Ottawa, since its been unusually nice; no smog alerts, hazy grey skies, humidexes in the 40s, or brownouts. My Dad has almost moved, and my belongings are now all officially out of Hillcrest. I'll just need to work out what to do with them, and decide what to bring with me on my trip. I've never had to pack so lightly for such a long period of time. I officially have "65 litres" of space, but will have to keep it less than that for the stuff I pick up en route. My itinerary is pretty much set now: A quick trip to Halifax, then out on the 20th, one day in London, 2 in northern Jutland, down to Paris until July 1st, and then biking from there. Probably I'll strike east toward champagne, Verdun, Alsace, then south toward Besancon, down toward Lyon, and then as far south as I can get, hopefully into Provence, depending on weather and time and money. Then I'll jet back to Copenhagen to visit the family, and then back to London for the return to Canada on the 6th of August.

Mapping

This is a map to find where we used to live. Nobody cares I realise, but this is from Google Earth of Daegu/Taegu, including our old haunts. (some anyway) We lived in Beommul, in the south east of the city, and spent most of our time there and in Jisan, or down the famous country road. Siji and downtown were our satellite hotspots.