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Saturday, July 05, 2008

Living in a land that never get dark

Hello again,
I knew the sun would be up for a long time while I was here, since we are pretty far north, but I had no idea what it would be like. I want someone to guess what time this picture below was taken









I'm sorry for the lack of captions once again, but it is aproaching midnight once again, and I didn't pay 1400 dollars to sleep in and sightsee the back of my eyelids, so its up early again tomorrow, although not as bad as today. Today was the one day that we had to go to the dog show, and we were up at 5 am. Taz the greyhound got 4th place out of 50 something, so mother was happy. We are off to take a steamship ride through the archipelago tomorrow morining, and the forcast calls for rain. it will be interesting. More captions and pics to come tomorrow. I hope everyone had some fourth of July fun for me, because I didn't see a single firework or stars and stripes. Good night from the land where the sun never sleeps, it only naps for an hour or two.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Trying to figure out Stockholm


This is the building where our apartment is, but alas we don't have a balcony. We are on the fourth floor on the other side of this building. Any guesses at to what time this picture was taken? 22:30, or 10:30 pm for you who don't jive with military time. The apartment is a one room flat, probably 10 x 15 feet, with quite possibly the smallest kitchen I have ever seen, along with a bathroom to follow suit. It has been nice not staying a hotel though.


The whole of "old town" was paved with cobbles, and since I know the majority of my readers are cyclists, you can understand why I took these pictures

For the few readers who may not enjoy the self inflicted torment of that cycling has to offer, there are races in europe that are conducted almost excluesively on the flat and even surface that these wonderful stones have to offer

This is a square in old town with lots of neat looking buildings. After I took this picture, I saw lots of postcards with this exact image on them. I knew I had an eye for the photograhic genious.


Notice the tiny streets with lots of people miling around eating ice cream and sifting through loads of tourist crap.


This is inside the royal palace, what the locals call "the castle". Through the arched door is the state hall, which is still used for royal functions. Inside they had placed paintings of all of the monarchs that have rulled over the years. (aparently this is not their usual home, but due to construction had been placed here temporarily. At the far end of the hall was a solid silver throne made for one of the queens in the early 1700's, I tried on more than on occasion to sneak a picture of the throne, but just when I would think the coast was clear to steal a photo, an employee would surface and give me the evil eye. They didn't allow photos anywhere in the palace, those bastards!

This was the palace cathedrial which sat just oppostie the picture above, with just an impressive an archway to its entrance. This was the one place that people didn't seem to mind people taking pictures. Pretty impressive alter

This is looking back towards the entrance to the church, and that has to be one of the most impressive organs I have ever seen!


Paintings on the ceiling and the tops of the walls, sweet sauce


Notice the ornate work above the windows


God forbid (pun intended) I leave without the required self portrit




This was taken deep underneath the palace, in the armory, where they had a meeker selection of armor and weapons, and lots of clothing from the 16 and 17 century. The carriges were truely impressive. Pictures weren't allowed here either, but there were not employees around down here, leaving me free to steal as many photos as I could muster, without the flash of course.


This photo is of the central train station connecting Sweden to the rest of Europe, it is only a few hundred meters from our apartment.
This trip has been interesting so far, the people are very nice and speak english very well. Getting around has not been that difficult, although figuring out the metro system was strangly difficult. The weather has been great, mid 70's during the day and 60's at night. Good bye for now.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I'm off to Sweden!

Hello all,
I'm off again on another international dog show adventure. The destination this time is Stockholm Sweden, duration 9 days of getting lost in another country who language could not sound more foreign than our native english.




Since my last post forever ago, Lots in my life has changed. I'm not even sure where to start. For those of you I haven't talked to in awhile, I'm officially done with UNC and out of greeley and with a degree to boot. Below is a picture of my Nursing school graduation with my parents.


My flight is boarding so I will post from Sweden, I hope all is well with every one.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Vegas for my birthday...Yes Please!!

Since I was forced to put off my Vegas plans this summer, due to my inability to swim secondary to my crippledness, My girlfriend, Lova and I decided to go to Las Vegas for my birthday last weekend.

We flew out of the Fort Collins - Loveland Airport aboard the plane above.


Our plan was delayed for almost 6 hours due to president Bush's little stop over in Vegas the day before. Apparently he shut all of the air space down over all of Las Vegas, creating a big back log of air traffic. I am holding Brian personally responsible for delay his boss caused and the consequential missing of my birthday dinner reservations, Brian - you bastard! Because of this delay we got to sit in the spacious terminal at the FNL airport, seen above.
We tried to make the best out of the wait, the presence of good company helped to pass the time. That and the constant mocking of others

The first of many required self portraits, patiently awaiting take off, notice its dark-long delay, damn you brian.
The prodigal city layith upon the horizon.

The Mandalay Bay
Here is the hotel where we stayed, it is located right next to the Luxor and Excabilar. It had 9 or 10 restaurants to choose from, a lavish outside pool area which was closed, huge casino, shark aquarium. Our hotel room was very nice, we were able to fanagle a strip view room with a plush bathroom complete with lcd T.V in the bathroom and big screen in the bedroom.

This was one of the restaurant was at the Mandalay, as you can see it was one of WolfGang Puck's. It was Italian food and it was fabulous. We split two different dishes; one was prime tenderloin and arugula salad, and the other, a hand made ravoili with artichoke hearts and goat cheese, and to round out the meal a Nappa Vally merlot from 2002.
This was the view from our room on the 16th floor at night looking up the strip

I love gambling

Unbenounced to us there was an UFC fight at the Mandalay on Saturday Night. This brought some interesting folk to our hotel leading up to the fight.


Other Hotels
Here is the egyptian sphynx from the Luxor. This was the entrance to the Luxor from the mono-rail that went between the Luxor-Excaliber-Mandalay Bay.

Here is the monorail pulling in to take us to the Luxor from the Mandalay

Self portrait in front of Excalibar, I got caught by another tourist taking this pic, mildly embarrissing

View of Las Vegas from one of many pedestrian bridges over the Strip, it is my understanding that pedestrian and car altercations are fairly common here in Sin City


As you can see here is the MGM grand, if you are an animal lover, steer clear. They have real lions in the hotel that seem to be on as many downers as elvis was before the end. People were crowded around the glass like they had never seen captive lions before, as if zoo's didn't exist.

This is the Trump Tower, all condos. This was taken from the taxi stand at the Wynn. Trump tried to build a casino and the govt said yeah..no!

Here is the Luxor, taken from inside the monorail.

The Wynn...So nice!



Inside courtyard at the Wynn


High scale shopping for the high rollers


This is the best looking suit i have ever seen, from Alexander McQueen

Here is the show that Lova and I had the opportunity to see on Saturday night. It is playing at the Wynn and it was hilarious.


Another self portrait


Here is a picture of Lova and I both looking fantastic. We had a great time and I can't think of anything I would have rather done for my birthday, thanks baby.