Christmas time in London...

When in Rome...

Rome's amazing, you wouldn't belive the stuff you find just lying on the ground...

that's a 2,000 year old Roman carved brick that I could have picked up and put in my backpack- if it wasn't already filled with fake Rollexy watches and Ray Bando sunglasses...

So they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Well that may be true, but I'm pretty sure I saw the whole thing in one... man it's a good think I'm a walker...

So here's a funny story... there's a post box and souviner shop on top of St. Peter's Basilica (the Vatican), so I thought, sweet, I'll buy a bunch of post cards and bunch of stamps and send a bunch of notes to a bunch of people back home... well good idea, right? Except for two problems: 1. it was freezing cold up there; 2- I could only remember two address off the top of my head. So, Mom and Dad, you and I both are getting post cards from the roof of the Vatican. And everybody else- happy to share some of the left over stamps with you.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

(Charlotte, Chris, Fran, and me)

Even though I don't live in the land of the pilgrims and Indians... I've really got a lot to be thankful for...

I was happily surprised to come home from work today to find my housemate, Charlotte, had made Thanksgiving Dinner for us...

Honestly, I'm so touched! She went online and looked up what an "American thanksgiving dinner" should be. And she got it right- all the way down to the cranberry sauce!

Sure, I miss my family and friends on a day like today, but I'm so lucky to have found such great people to share my time with over here....

Shocking resemblance!?!?!?

Basel part 2: day two

So we packed 5 deep into beef's VW Golf and headed from Basel...
to Bern...

and then back to Basel to meet our special guest...

... and day 3- short trip to Gremany (no idea what the town was called, just glad I made it to Germany)

Not bad, three counties in 48 hours...

deBaselry

Basel, Switzerland

part 1: The first six hours

"Dude, you're in France."

And I've, made my first mistake of the weekend- landing in France, when I was aiming for Switzerland. Five minutes and a passport stamp later and I'm out of France. Fortunately, only a single pane of glass separated me from the bastion of peace and neutrality. Time stamp- Friday, 10pm.

A little over an hour later, we made it to the bar...

Friday, 11:07 pm

Saturday, 12:24 am

Enter the the Beef- three piece suit and all.

Saturday, 12:36 am

It's on!

1:22 am

Okay, so this is where it gets hazy- pictures are really the only memory I have... Seriously who are these people?

1:54 am

2:02 am

Apparently, girls in Switzerland are suckers for the line, "Excuse me, can you take a picture of me and my fellow teenage mutant ninja turtle."

2:11 am

3:16am

XO givin' love a bad name...

3:22 am

Somethings never change... all good nights end at the Kabab Store and I'm happy to report that this will be the last photo ever taken of the Beef wearing that suit...

Saturday, 3:48 am

That was six great hours!

"I went to Cambridge"

I think I'm going to start telling people that, and I'll probably put it on my resume. Because honestly, I feel smarter just having been there... I understand why people say they went to Cambridge with an air of confidence. It's quite a place.
So, I spent this afternoon in Cambridge- talk about a college town. 31 colleges in one small town. Every building is Saint so-and-so college, and King number something university. And a lot of the buildings reminded me of the UW campus. I wonder who copied who.

Life continues to be awesome. I've started to make some pretty good friends, and I've been able to get out and experience the night life. I met the most beautiful Swedish gal last week. She said that she like my last name- said it was a good Scandinavian name. I asked her if she wanted to have it. She didn't think that was funny.

Oh, I'm almost done with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- and I must say it's a good one. I'm really disappointed that I won't be in London next week when the new movie comes out- I'll have to wait to see my girl. Hermione's looking pretty good!

And speaking on young girls- I'm heading to Basel next weekend to meet up with Winner, and perhaps the Beef... should be interesting.

Observation #5

Sending mail from London is even harder than making calls from London. I just talked to my folks and they never got the post card I sent... Which means a lot of you probably didn't either. It's all this pounds sterling crap and red mailboxes with two different letter slots. Long story short, I sent out a ton of post cards the first few weeks I was here and I've only heard of one that made it. If you put your address in my book, you should assume I sent you a card and that I wrote some really funny stuff on it. One of you was supposed to get a card with four scandalously clad women on a red double-decker bus- a real shame to loose that one.

5 Reasons to go to Milan- ...

...

1. Beautiful cathedral
2. Beautiful architecture
3. Beautiful weather
4. Beautiful women

Shit...

Nope...

Crap...

Well, maybe...

Okay, so that was a bit of a wind up. In all seriousness, Italy is awesome and I had a great trip. I got into Milan around midnight on Friday, and spent all day Saturday exploring the city and trying to stay dry. The weather was okay about half the day, and I made the best of it...

On Sunday, I took a 50 minute train to Stresa. A small town on the westside of Lake Maggorie. Now this is what I love about Europe! Tiny littly places off-season where I can just fit in with the locals- yah, in my REI fleece and overside backpack.

The weather was okay, and the pace of the town was perfect! A nice break from London.

Oh, and Reason #5 to go to Milan, or anywhere in Italy- Food and Wine!

Ummm, soooo good!