Looming Large Over London

So there's nothing quite like waking up and finding out there was an active bomb ticking away no more than 5 minutes away while I slept... So that was the reality of my morning today. Good thing the good guys caught on and defused the thing before it went off. Not a good way to cap off the trip.

After going for a brief walk, I decided to walk through Trafalgar Square. I was enjoying a stroll when all of a sudden a hockey game broke out right before my eyes. Being a good Canadian boy, this brought a tear to my eye. Ok, it didn't just break out. It was actually part of the 2'nd annual Canada Day celebration in London. They transformed the whole of Trafalgar Square into a Canadian theme park. Hell, a free concert to boot with Sam Roberts playing will be a good end to a turbulent day in the city.

Just a little hi and hello to let you know Indie is well and good despite people trying to blow up his fun.

Will catch you up proper with all of the events before London shortly.

Stay sexy.

Indie

Ahhhhhhh Amsterdam Part 1

Last I left you, I was in a mad scramble from the personal abode of a hockey club's admin girl back to my friend's and then to the airport. So hurried was I that I completely forgot to mention the lovely Mariella, a very intelligent and attractive Greek girl, not that we should hold that against her, on the bus to the airport. Who knows, maybe I've worked out a place to stay should I ever visit Greece. Now which one of you fellow bloggers is responsible for turning me into a man whore? Hmmm Hmmm Hmmm? Seriously, I hope more men figure out that all it takes is to say hi and just be happy to meet someone.

So I arrived in Holland and a quick train and tram ride later, I was at my hostel in the middle of the bar district and not too far from the museumplein or district as they'd have you refer to it as. I checked in to my room, which I had signed up for as a co-ed shared accommodation for 6, and was a little shocked to find 3 girls asleep seemingly waiting for my entrance to wake them. I figured, hmmm, the guys must be out already. I'll meet them later and we'll have a good night. Wrong. As it turned out, my other roommates were 2 other girls. So me and 5 girls. You'd think that my stars had aligned yet again for me, but alas, no joy.

No worries though, I grabbed my trusty camera bag and after I filled you all in on Helsinki, set about discovering the city. The layout of the city is awesome and everything is planned out by sections, seemingly like they were twinned with a side of a rolling dice, your destination set forth by a chance roll and delivered by an incredibly easy tram system. I went for a walk up the main road in the area where I was and as I did so, I nearly threw my neck and back out as she caught my eye as she walked in the opposite direction. Now girls, you know it's true... you know damn right what thin white pants look like when you put them on... so that's all I'll say on that. She was just incredibly fit and I just said to myself, wow.

Upon returning down the street from my brief adventure, I stopped into the pharmacy to pick up some shampoo and tooth paste. Easy and boring enough, until I went to pay for said items. Once at the counter, I took a look to my immediate left as I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was a rather tall woman standing beside me. At first glance, she looked like Tera Patrick, who for those of you who don’t know, is a very famous porn star. I had an amused and quizzical look about me and thought, nah… Only one way to find out so I allowed myself for ever so brief of a moment to look at her boobs, as they are her natural claim to fame. After just barely noticing her assets, I noticed the sizeable diamond ring she had on. I then noticed her slightly bigger and way more tattooed male companion lurking close by. She and I smiled at each other. She knew I knew who she was, but must have been relieved that I left it at that and didn’t make a scene. Celebrity has never really fazed me before and I wasn’t going to let a porn star change that, though it would have been a reasonable exception. Can’t say the same about the guy lurking about outside as I left though. I knew then that my stay in the city would be an eventful one.

Down the road from the pharmacy, I happened upon a candy shop and a la Homer Simpson, I twiddled my fingers and said aloud, "Oooh, candy". I went inside and what should I see before me but the girl in the white pants. I couldn't help but look again as I set about filling my sweets bag with sour apples, jelly bellies, cola bottles and the what not. This time around I managed to see her face and it was angelic and un-assuming, the heart meltingest kind in my books. She was ahead of me in line and paid for her bag of candy, and I did the same and figured that I'd say something to her since I was there and hell she was just something wow.

So I caught up to her just outside the front door of the shop and just said outright and not even knowing if she'd understand what I was saying to her, "excuse me miss, I just wanted to let you know that you had caught my eye and I just wanted to let you know that I thought you are absolutely stunning." You'd think my next thought would have been, shit what have I done, but that actually didn't happen. Her face lit up even more than it had been before and she said back to me, "wow, thank you, I'm really flattered by that, you completely made my day". Actually, she had just made my day, but that's neither here nor there. She asked where I was heading and upon me telling her, she said that she was going in that direction to catch the tram to her ailing mother's. So we walked and talked for a little bit. Actually I think I floated over on a thin cloud layer. We said our goodbyes, exchanged no more than smiles and I found out that Dutch people kiss cheeks 3 times to send people off.

Later that night after I had let myself come down from the bliss that Roseanna had sent me about with, I caught a bite to eat and made my way in to the infamous Red Light District. From what I had seen of the rest of the city, I thought to myself that Amsterdam's reputation as being a complete gong show wasn't deserved. That was until I ventured into the streets and more so the alleys of the infamed district. Holy God. This place is an absolute zoo and a world removed from the norm that's for sure. I still can't get over window shopping for hookers. Like think about that. I wandered pretty much all of the alleyways and thought to myself that some of these women were way too good looking to be hooking out of a display window. Then I saw some of their co-workers who made me almost lose my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I honestly think I walked by one window and said aloud to myself, "now Jimbo, that was a dude".

Seriously now, they pay rent for the window and room space. Girls or guys like that must surely lose money plying their trade. Cause if they actually do enough business to pay the rent, I am going to lose it. (again) The area is truely something that you all have to experience for yourselves if you haven’t yet already. Live blazing red adverts for live sex shows, porno shacks lining pretty much every corner. Temptation was everywhere and anything you could ask for was available to you. Walk by drug dealers offering in broken french-english if you wanted eggstazy or coken amused me at first but then quickly became annoying. I even had to resort to playing the dumb Asian tourist with the camera out, pretending not to understand English…

Ok, I hear you all moaning now, pictures, pictures pictures… I will do my best to upload a few tomorrow. No promises though as I am on a borrowed computer. But for now, that was only day 1. I have to still clear some more haze and figure out what the hell days 2 through 5 did to me.

Quote of the night...

"Come here, talk to me. where are you going?"

"I'm just going for a walk"

"You go to a forrest for a walk, you go to the Red Light District for a fuck!"

Till later, stay super,

Indie.

Hey Now Helsinki.

Hello Helsinki, at least that was what I said when I got off the plane. I don't know what it is but in Scandinavia so far, there has been an absolute breath taker waiting in line at the baggage carousel. It's the perfect way to welcome someone to the city that's for sure.

So I found myself in Finland, not knowing what to expect. Having been to Stockholm and finding out that the sun doesn't hardly ever set, I knew I was in for long days. That was all fine and good for me as I had to fit a lot into the two days that I was going to be visiting. This time out though, I had no guide to show me around. My friend Kirsi, was supposed to have been there, but after I had planned my trip, she was sent out to a work trip in West Africa. She was nice enough to leave the keys to her apartment with a friend and he met me at the train station when I arrived and set me about on my way. She had an amazing apartment too.

After I got settled in I did a quick tour of the city. It's small enough that you can literally walk around it in an hour. Suited me just fine and I got to take some good pictures without the hustle and bustle of a tourist crowd. Now Steph if you're reading this, this is akin to your story about borrowing your friend's digi-cam. After I got home and settled in for bed, I wanted to put some clothes away into a proper cabinet instead of having it bunched up in my backpack. I opened the bedside cabinet and happened to find a small plastic bag... The contents of which were pleasurable... Again, in case this is read by my friend, and in all likelyhood it will, let's just say, "you go girl, at least you know how to have fun with yourself". I always thought she was so prim and proper. I even refer to her as the definition of a lady. Oh how I should have known. :P

So the next day, I set about going to Hartwell Arena to visit the home rink of my favourite Finnish hockey team, Jokerit (team logo above). I thought I'd go and pick up a souvenir from their team store for my brother as one of his favourite players is from Helsinki and played for that club before going to play in North America. To my shock and dismay, the arena was closed and the shop barren. I called the number for the store that I had been given in town. I nice sounding girl named Riikka answered and I explained that I was a crazy Canadian on a hockey sojourn and was looking for something to bring back to my brother. She told me to come into the arena office and she would see what she could do.

I got buzzed into the arena and made my way down to the office. I was greeted by a lovely girl who tried her hardest to find someone and something to give to me to take home from the hockey club. In the end though, her efforts were for naught. I was disappointed so I setted for the next best thing. If I couldn't get something from the hockey team, I'd just take one of their employees instead. So I asked her if she had plans for later, and she didn't so I had myself a date. Long and short of it, is that we met up had a nice walk about the city and then made dinner at my friend's place. We started up a movie and then got called out to a park to chill out with some more of her friends and have a few drinks in the open air.

The night or morning ended off at about 4AM. My flight for Amsterdam left at 9:30AM... So at 6 I made my way back to Kirsi's to shower up and tidy up her apartment before I left. I was aiming to be back at the train station at 7:30 to catch the shuttle to the airport. Things ended up taking a little longer and I ended up missing that one and reset my aim for the 7:50 shuttle. I ended up missing that one as well and was a little concerned because the next one departed at 8:10 and wouldn't arrive at the airport until 8:45 leaving me a grand 45 minutes before scheduled take off time.

By the grace of God, I made it onto the plane. I promptly fell asleep a short time after take off and splet pretty much the whole flight over. I woke up in time to catch the landing as opposed to my arrival in London when I realized we were landing when the thump of the wheels woke me. A train and tram trip later I arrived at the hostel and that's where I will leave you. There will be plenty of stories to fill the next blog whenever that happens to get written.

Happy in the high times or happy in the high times,

Indie

You Had To See It For Yourself.

Why Planes Crash - The best free videos are right here
So hellooo from Stockholm! Tomorrow I actually leave for a quick few days in Helsinki, but first the news up until now. As is tradition for me, I was not completely prepared for this trip as I was essentially packing my ass out the door when it came time to leave for the airport. Hell, I didn't even feel as though I was even on vacation. My mind was not into it yet. I'd just that day, finished working 20 of 22 days in a row and a total of 26 out of the last 32...

In the end, it looks as though I may have over packed but oh well, I'll survive. The flight over to London was great as I had a nice girl named Chelsea sitting beside me. Too bad, or lucky for her, I spent most of the flight sleeping while she drank coffee and watched movies. We also had a stewardess serving our section of the plane who looked like she would cry if she was forced to smile. Sad but funny at the same time. Damn just wasted material for a 5 pt'er.

I had to transfer airlines and as a result terminals to catch my connector to Stockholm. After I picked up my big travel sack, adorned with very large and obvious Canadian flag, I sweated my way about 15 minutes through a labyrinth of tunnels to get to my departing terminal. Once there, it all seemed easy enough. I checked myself via the automated process and all I had to do was drop off my bag at the counter. That took much longer than it looked like it would seeing as though there were only about 15 people in front of me.

There was an English fellow about in his mid thirties who was lined in the queue just behind me. I thought I'd be nice and make some small talk about the delay. He agreed something to the like and then stood back. I was in the middle of thinking to mysel.. "wake me up before you go-go" What the f... The dude starts singing something that sounded like it was straight out Wham or Duran Duran's track list. I looked quizzically from my spot in line and was oh so close to blurting out, "easy there Simon, you should have stopped with Ordinary World (or maybe sooner) ".

The flight to Stockholm was a breeze as again, I spent most of it sleeping. When we landed in Sweden, I thought I was hallucinating because I thought I'd heard the captain say that the local temperature was 30 degrees Celsius. WTF, I just knew that couldn't be right. How ever would the reindeer make it? Sure to his word though it was. I'd heard the stereotype about gorgeous Swedish women before I arrived, but it couldn't be completely true. Well, I was wrong. All I will say is that she set a very high standard for the rest of this trip and that's saying a lot. At the baggage carousel of all places too.

I was picked up by my friend Christian whom I haven't seen for 6 years in China. It was very much like old times again. We went out the first night within a few hours and proceeded to have a night out in the posh part of town with all the beautiful people. They were tall, their hair was long and perfectly blonde, their skin was glistening and their eyes crystal blue, their looks were easily model calibre. That was just the men!!! The women were more than their equals in that department but good God were they some of the most vapid bunch of self-attributing worth whores out there. Note the distinction from attention seeking fame whores. Those we like around here. I guess that was the price of going out in that part of town. My mind hurts, but my eyes are singing.

I'll admit though that most of the ladies were doing their mother country proud. About doing their actual mothers proud, I'm not sure of that. They also have this thing with the high school graduates all getting little sailor's hats as a sign of their graduation. So it was a bit of a site seeing scores of these good looking (albeit high school) girls running around in their white outfits and their drunken male friends in tow. Yes, at times I felt dirty. Damn this getting older thing.

There is one thing though that I can not get over at all about this country. On the first night, I was sitting outside on the porch enjoying a beer with Christian when I noticed that the sun was still up. I swore to myself that I had recently looked at a clock and it had said 10PM. Turns out the sun doesn't fully go down until well past 11PM here. That was odd. Imagine my shock then when upon exiting a club at just after 3:30AM, the sun was already well on its way to coming back up! I have a picture of a clock tower just before 4AM and it's almost broad daylight!!!

The city of Stockholm itself is beautiful. I encourage you all to get out here at some point. Some of the design and architecture is grand and very eye catching along with some of the other sights. I do have to wonder though what attributes, beyond their genetically blessed looks some of these girls have to offer and what they expect from the world. There were two drop deads outside a soul and groove bar last night and Christian asked them about the white outfit one of them was wearing and if it had anything to do with graduation. Mind you they looked a bit older but it seemed within reason to ask. The blonde's response, "um, move on". Seriously. I bet there are few of you ladies who may have started swinging upon hearing that one. I thought about the old headbutt to the perfectly shaped nose, but I thought I'd be the loveable Canuck and leave it be. But seriously...

Ok, sleep needs me, or vice versa... Will catch you sexy bitches later.

Till Next Time

Hey all, I'm off to Sweden!
Catch you soon from Stockholm.
Crash, how far is that from G-Town?

A 5 Point Post

The good: I'm going on my trip in a few days. I will have worked 20 out of 22 days by the time this Thursday comes along. I finish work at 5PM and I'm on a plane to England at 11PM. Doesn't leave too much time to pack or even get ready for it but so it goes. I think I'll finally realize I'm on vacation when I arrive in Stockholm. There's just been so much going on with everything over the last year and a bit that this little journey should be good for the soul. I've decided to make traveling a priority in my life. Best way to fix a mushed up heart is to fill it with whatever the world can offer. Next up after this, surf camp in Costa Rica. But first up, Europe and I'm sure there will be more than a few sights to get the appreciation for the finer things in life back. Any one want to take a guess as to which country will have the nicest ladies? Ok Crash, no biased answers here.

The bad: Wondering what the hell it is I'm doing with myself. So goes the woes of the 20 something, but really, I just feel kind of out of touch with what is going on out there. I look around at some of the other people I grew up with and I see them and equate their lives to our respective ages and I just don't feel like I'm at the same place with it all. Sure, I have a career, doing exactly what I wanted to do. (how many people can honestly say that) Said career carries with it immense responsibility, hell people's lives are literally in my hands at times!!! Yet being all that as it is, I still just don't see myself as a 27 year old. The ex once told me she sometimes didn't see me having the job I did, because I acted a lot like a 6 year old. Seeing as how she was working with kids that age at that time, she'd know. In a way I was glad that I didn't carry the job home with me and that she could see beyond the uniform, but did it mean more? I've always held the belief that as you grow up, you should never lose your inner child, but at what point does being an adult take hold? Bah.

The funny: I haven't seen a professional sports coach lose his mind quite like this in some time. This is impressive as much as it is embarrassing, but still a good laugh.

The sad: Fuck the sad for once. There's too much of it and I got really put off by something that happened the other day. So for at least one post, there will be none of it. I have had enough. Angry and down is not who this half full half pint is. Grumble grumble grumble.

The down right odd: Police in Naron, Spain pulled over a man in an electric wheelchair who was traveling "at considerable speed" down the highway linking Ferrol with As Pontes, in the northwest of Spain. First off, I'd like to know what a considerable speed is for one of those things. I can just imagine the possibility for after market kits to soup those babies up... The man, who is TETRAPLEGIC and drives his wheelchair with his mouth and chin, had apparently become lost while looking for a brothel. Seriously. Like is there feeling down there? Maybe this part of the section should have fallen under the sad portion of the post, but I guess we as humans all have our needs. But C'MON... Maybe in Spain the ladies are more courteous and compassionate, but are they that far ahead that they have wheel chair accessible brothels?!?!? That'd be something. But then again as I typed that out, I found this from 2001. Steph, this is another reason why I love the Aussies.