2007 Tale of 2 Countries: England vs Brazil

Everyone wraps up 2007 in a different way, so i thought I would add my 2 cents to the mix. In 2007 2 countries England and Brazil had totally different years on and off the sports fields. They played each other once on June 1st at the newly opened Wembley stadium, the game was a 1-1 draw, but Brazil scored their goal in the 90th minute in Injury time, snatching what was surely going to be a rousing England victory in their first game at the National stadium.. The rest of the year went decidely in Brazil favor.. Lets start with the England shortcomings, hang on the list is long!!!

England had a horrible year in 2007 plain and simple. Ricky Hatton the only decent fighter of recent memory from England was undefeated going into a match with Floyd Mayweather Jr in Las Vegas, due to the cheap British pound, they flocked to Las Vegas to support their man in droves. As usual they drank the town dry and made buffons of themselves booing the USA national anthem before the fight. Well after Hatton was knocked on HIS ASS not once but twice in the 10th round, they went out to drink some more, probably try to screw some whores and left the USA with their tails firmly planted between their legs..

Lewis Hamilton was a rookie smash sensation on the Formula 1 racing scence for 2007. Never had a rookie won the Season championship for most of the season Hamilton was winning and beating his teammnate and rival defending 2-time World champion Fernando Alonso. Well during the last 3 races of the season Hamilton basically choked, with his first non-finishing performance, and then an 8th place in the last race to lose the title by 1 point. I must say I knew nothing about Formula 1 before my trip to Montreal during the Grand Prix, but I will do my best to stay in tune with it from the start of next year to see if Hamilton can win the championship and the riches and bitches that will go with it!

A sport I know NOTHING about, the Rugby World Cup was this summer. England which won it won the whole tournament in 2003 were underdogs in 2007, but made it to the finals where they lost to South Africa by a score of 15-6, knowing nothing about Rugby, i'm not sure if this is a close game or an ass-kicking, whatever the case England lost..

I've written about England crashing out of the Euro2008 in the qualifying phase, so not much more to say, other than England is not as good as the players or the fans think, they are like the Chicago Cubs, but not as loveable.

Liverpool, 5 times champions of europe lost in the Champions League final to AC Milan. While Liverpool has many foreign players, they are still an English team

In other news, Queen Elizabeth II became the oldest ever serving monarch at a whopping 81 years old, now in power for 55 years her son Prince Charles is wondering if he will ever be King, I think this year he is going to invite his mom Skydiving for her birthday!

The most talented soul singer to come from England in years, Amy Winehouse while this was her breakout year it was not her first album or first year. Yet she became an international star singing about how she won't goto Rehab, well after seeing her walking in the streets like this i think she needs to take her ass to Rehab, let see how she does on the Grammy Awards coming up in a month.

Ok the good coming out of England, well I have to say they have a bumper crop of large boobied glamour models, girls i dig like Keeley Hazell, Michelle Marsh, Lucy Pinder, Danielle Lloud, feast your eyes on them.

Ok now Brazil had a totally awesome year in sports, finance, and naturally supermodels. Lets start out with Brazilian IndyCar driver and 2 time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves winning Dancing with the Stars. Go go Helio and enjoy that young 19 year old partner of yours

Soccer the national passion of Brazil also had a bumper year, they won the 2007 Copa America, the semi annual competition of all the national teams in South America, beating their rivals Argentina in the Finals 3-0. Also the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, yeah I bet you didnt know they had such a beast, but it was held in Rio and Brazil beat Mexico in the finals for another title. Along with winning the right to host the 2014 World Cup, and starting out their 2010 qualifying campaign with 8 points from 4 games, not the best start but easily in 3rd place with still 14 games left to play over the next 2 years.

Kaka (known to his mother as Ricardo dos Santos Leile) won the FIFA World Player of the Year award, along with a champions league crown playing for AC Milan. While many feel he was not the best player in the world, he won, so whatever the powers that be feel he was.

Outside of the sporting arena, Brazil had a great year in the financial markets. The Brazil Bovespa stock exchange was up huge, while its hard for americans to buy stock in Brazil companies not listed on the US Exchanges thanks to ETFs, the ETF that tracks the Brazil market symbol "EWZ" had a banner year up some 76% over 2007. Starting at 46.85 per share it ended the year at 81.00 per share. Check out the graph and wish you had invested at the beginning of the year.

Also Petrobras the national oil company announced the discovery of the Tupi oil field, with an estimated 8 billion barrels of oil, it would be the 2nd largest oil find in the last 17 years. When it is finally pumping oil in 2014 or so, those 8 billion barrels when extracted could be worth over a trillion dollars on the open market. But dont get any idea of invading Brazil, as the USA in a single years uses almost 8 billion barrels of oil, so this would just be a tiny drop in the bucket.

The Brazil currency the Real had one of the best years against the dollar advancing some 17% year to date, while this is great for the country, it makes going to Brazil and enjoying those awesome caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil.. I mean what other country has a designated National Drink??

Brazil also kept their bumper crop of super hot supermodels taking over the Victoria's Secrets catalog and runaway show, gotta give props to Adriana Lima, Alessandro Ambrossio, Isabeli Fontant, Izabel Goulart and all the other hotties. Enjoy

All in all it was a good year for many people, I hope everyone out there reading has a safe and good New Years eve and may 2008 be better for you than 2007.

England demands that Yugoslavia reunite as a country...

Ok its taken me a few days to get all my thoughts together on the disaster in London Wembley Stadium from last Wednesday. I will say i'm sure all bars in the country did a bang up business and no one went to work on Thursday. Basically you can blame the problems on England's national team on many things, but i see as it comes down to the fact nations of the former Yugoslavia beat the snot out of England and caused the loss.


The game itself was a great game, my P2P connection did not kick in well enough to watch till about the 18th minute, by the time that England was already down by 2 goals. While I thought all hope was lost, the half-time substitution of Mr. Golden Balls himself David Beckham can be thought of as saving things. A few points first... What the HELL was the deal with the condition of the field/pitch? for a 1.6 BILLION dollar newly opened stadium the grass looked wrecked, spotty and the cold rain made it play like ice. They love to claim that Wembley is the largest stadium with all the seats covered, ok so great the fans stay dry and the pitch turns into an ice rink. While the first goal was a total disgrace of a goal that Carson gave up, it skipped like a hockey puck at an NHL game. The NFL game was over 3 weeks ago, plenty of time to replace the sod. Next up what is the use of having a lone striker in Crouch if you dont have anyone to deliver the ball to him, it was only when Beckham in the 2nd half could feed him good crosses. Regardless England lost, they are out of Euro 2008, and suspect for World Cup 2010 qualification. Now onto the reasons the breakup of Yugoslavia has been horrible for England.

In 1991 when Yugoslavia broke up as a country and started upon a path towards a genocidal war complete with good old fashion ethnic cleansing it broke into what is now 6 or possible 7 countries(If Kosovo get full independence).

We have Slovenia which feels more like its neighbor Italy than communist eastern bloc russia, I had a blast in Slovenia i recommend anyone to visit there, and if you wanna party check out the nightclub Global and the cute dancing Slovenian girls.

Ok back to thinking after that needless whail tail shot.

Next up we have Serbia which boasts a quality team that qualified for the 2006 World Cup and are no slouch themselves as they did not make Euro2008 but were in a group with Portugal, Poland and Finland all who finished with over 24 pts. As a city the capital Belgrade is a great party city with their barges, but i must say the sight of bombed out buildings that were bombed by the good ole US of A that are still standing years later felt sort of post-apocalyptic movie set.

Bosnia and Herzegovinia is another of the former countries and its capital of Sarajevo is one of the most historic in the 20th century, being the city that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was shot and killed leading to World War I, and the start of a century of war and death. Most people of my age remember it as the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics featuring american Bill Johnson winning the gold medal in the downhill, a virtual unknown at the time he jumped onto the world scene, take a lesson from him Mr. Bode Miller. Sadly Johnson as i recently saw him on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel has gone thru a whole lot of hell in his life since 1984, sort of like Sarajevo. Sarajevo is a lovely city located in the valley with outdoor cafes on almost every street with great views

It was also the scene of some of the worst crimes during the Balkan war. It has recovered and is totally peaceful now, but yet every mention of the country in the news media seems it has to have the adjective "war torn" before mentioning the name. It has totally since recovered and the women of the town are some of the best dressers i saw in all of eastern europe. Great beer and pizza also, worth a visit but a mid-table soccer team.

Montenegro just became a sovereign country in 2006 and is technically the newest country in the world, in fact which i saw recently on final jeopardy and I knew the answer, yeah sitting at home doesn't win ya anything so big deal. I have no visited, but have talked to people that the beaches on the Adriatic sea are not as crowded as neighboring Croatia, and that the city Bar is up and coming and shit just from the name only sounds like a town I need to visit. People have described it as the next big thing for beach town, so get in there now and buy up as much real estate as you can. As for a football team they have just begun competing in UEFA, so not sure how well they will fare.

Now comes the countries that caused England to stay home Croatia and Macedonia. In 4 games against these teams England managed to earn 4 of a possible 12 points. The worst game had to be the 0-0 draw vs Macedonia at HOME at Old Trafford. In the span of 5 days in October of 2006, this draw and a loss at Croatia and at this point England should have fired Steve McClaren. The next game was not till March 2007, giving them 5 months to get their shit in shape, but nope.

I went to Croatia and while it was one of the countries I was most looking forward to, I must say I was disappointed. I should have managed to travel the extra miles and gone to Split or Dubrovnik. If you are looking for the fun summertime party, DO NOT HEAD to Pula. I arrived in August and it was full on family vacation season, cars from every country in Europe were in parking lots all over town. The Hostel had an amazing location on the water outside of town, but there were no bars really in easy access for nighttime drinking, thankfully the hostel served big liter bottles of beer . The water was the clearest water i've ever seen, but it was one of the rocky european beaches that I dread. Pula the city was great with its ancient roman ruins.


As for a football team Croatia is a top class European side. Their 3rd place finish in the 1998 World Cup surprised everyone, and they qualified for both the 2002 and 2006 world cups. They are in the same group as England again for the 2010 World Cup qualifying and you have to expect them to be the favorite top seed. A second place finish from England in the group would get them into a playoff. Expect great games between England and Croatia for the 2010 qualifying campaign.

FYR Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) is a country that I did not visit and don't know much about the cities. Its landlocked so no beach action, its capital is Skopje, a city that strangely enough I know in my head as my father has played a song called "Nights of Skopje" before. Possibly on a future trip to Greece or Albania I will stop by this country but as of now I dont know enough to talk about it.

So there ya have it, a breakdown of the 6 former Yugoslav countries and my thoughts. They have defeated all the hopes and dreams of England, looking back this might finally get them a good manager and no longer give spots in the starting 11 to old guys who don't deserve it.. can you hear me John Terry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard???? Next summer the Euro2008 will still be well watched, great games and a blast of a time, even without 50,000 drunken Island people invading the European Continent..

Today is the day for England...

England.. all of England will be glued to the TV in about 3 hours to watch the England vs Croatia soccer match. It costs $24.95 on PPV here in the states, and while I would like to see the outcome, no way i'm paying that so i'm hoping that my chinese P2P bootleg TV hookup works.. BUt one question, Shawn Wright-Phillips??? WHY... you gotta play beckham, he might be old and have lost a step, but he manages to find a way to represent his country at those clutch moments, think Injury time vs Greece..

As for what I expect, I expect England to win somehow, they managed to find a way to pull out a win in there last minute situations, from the Beckham goal vs Greece in 2002, to the win vs Poland in 2006 to make the world cup, they find a way to pull the rabbit out of the hat...

Rooney wont be playing, so you wont have to see this picture... wow the possibilities for the caption for this could be so so many things...

Plus England has to win, so we can have 50,000+ drunken English invade continental europe this summer during the Euro2008.... The other game i'll be watching

Blame it all on Gisele Bundchen!!!!!

The stock market had another bad day today, oil pushed to close to $100 a barrel, Gold closer to $100 and the US dollar continued to sink.. reason why, supermodel Gisele Bundchen and her big mouth..

Seems like Gisele or her agent came out and said she did not want to be paid in US Dollars but in Euros instead. With her currently making some $33 million bucks a year, the 9.1% drop the dollar has against the Euro so far this year, would be oh just under $3 million lost, might be pocket change to the top earning supermodel of the world, but to you and me that could be our lifetime wages! Hell i'm sure Linda Evangelista who claimed to not to wake up for less than $10,000(how bout $10k in loonies you canadian hottie would that get you up?) is wishing she was born about 15 years later, as $10,000 heck I don't even think today's supermodels would bend over to pick that up on the ground, that is one time when if i was walking behind her I wouldn't mind of her not bending over for me!

Well this story made all the news, on every station from some folks calling her unpatriotic(uhh folks she is BRAZILIAN, she just earns her money and fucks her honey in the USA), to a savvy business woman.. naturally all stories got a chance to show her in her bikini, in her victoria's secret, and hey i'll do the same with a pic of her at the beach.. Just for full disclosure, Gisele is not my favorite supermodel(goes to hockey loving Karolina Kurkova), heck she is not even my favorite Brazilian supermodel, with Alessandra Ambrosio getting that nod.

Yet with that news breaking and the constant talk of how the US dollar has sunken, and boy has it ever sunken. Today we get Gold on a mad rush to $1000, probably wont even stop at $900 an ounce, Oil on its way to $100, and the US dollar setting all time lows against the Euro, Canadian Dollar and other currencies. Oh yeah and the stock market had another %2.6 percent tanking on all major averages. For anyone who travels the pain is HARSH on the currency front. Back in 2006, it was costing me about $1.27 to buy a Euro, today its $1.47 or about 15% worse. Who knows what it will be in 2008 when I get back to Europe.

So if today is the beginning of the end with major banks declaring huge losses, GM posting a ridiculous $39 BILLION dollar quarterly write-down, China saying it will think about holding so much of its foreign current reserves in dollars and move to Euros and other more "stable" currencies, we can think of the day the sky fell, as the day Gisele opened her mouth. She just stick to walking around in her thong, and making ungodly sums of money.

2014 FIFA World Cup.. the winner is Brazil!!!

While it should come as no suprise to anyone today it was made offical that Brazil will host the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I say no suprise as FIFA had a stupid rotation system to ensure that each continent got a chance to host it. So we went from Asia, to Europe, next up Africa and then South America. Yet for the South American bids, no country other than Colombia even put together a real bid, and they dropped out back in April, so it was just a matter of pulling the one name out of the hat that was in the hat. Yet it was made official today.
Now i'm extremely excited for this on many reason. First Brazil is near or at the top of my list of countries to visit. I know I will get there way before 2014, and realistically if things go well, by 2014 I hope to have a vacation home in Brazil, and be speaking Portuguese. Yep its that special of a country, between their smarts to get Energy independent back during the 1970s oil shock, to the bevy of just insanely beautiful super models, to its Football/Soccer tradition, this is a country on that on the upswing. In fact I think i'm going to buy some shares of ticker EWZ, the iShares NYSE ADR that tracks the performance of the Brazil stock market, heck by 2014 at the current kick ass rate of return, a small $1000 investment might pay for your whole World Cup trip.
While the 2010 South Africa World Cup is seemingly right around the corner, heck many nations have started their qualifying campaigns already, I'm just not as excited about that world cup. The 22hr flight from USA is a killer, plus their issues with crime, lack of infrastructure, etc still have me believe that the World Cup will be pulled from there in a few years. While i've recently read that stadium construction is going well, with the poverty and issues that Africa faces, one must honestly think could that money be better spent for clean drinking water, AIDS programs/prevention/drugs, hospitals, education, transportation etc. Yet the USA squad for 2010 is something you can start to take shape in your head now, with players like Altidore, Adu, Feilhaber, Bradley, Howard all having shines recently and only getting better in the next 3 years.
Brazil while the country is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, will also have to do some work. The fact that it is the 5th largest country in the world in area and population, transportation is going to be an issue. Brazil never developed a rail system, and the road system is shoddy at best. The country surely will use this chance at the world cup to start to work on these systems. With a booming growth in exports, they can use better roads and rails, way before and after any soccer games are played. Right now the best means of transportation thru the country is by planes, and with 2 large catastrophic plane crashes in the last few years, even this system is not up to standards.
The distances between potential host cities is LARGE as you can see in this map I made with cities in consideration marked. FIFA will narrow these 18 cities, down to between 8 or 10, but still some trips might be over 1,200 miles between cities and currently taking buses might take up to 2 days for some of these trips. Yet with a soccer-mad nation, and recent success in hosting the Pan American Games, and always in the running for a summer Olympics, I know Brazil can do it!!!

View Larger Map

If Anyone is still out there.. yeah i know it sux...

If there is anyone still out there reading this blog, yeah i know it has sucked of late. simple reason, no travel this year.. I've been to Montreal twice, and while I have enjoyed some fine Canadian Beers, long with others from around the world, montreal is no Slovakia(where a pint of great beer could be had for about 75 cents) in terms of beer prices. Its not uncommon to spend $7 CAD on a draft beer at any bar, with the current exchange rate the lowest in 30 years, as it now takes about $1.02 US to get a Canadian Dollar... so all the things that have been cheap in the past in montreal, from lap dances to beer are now insanely expensive.. Yet the city itself is affordable to live in, with rents way way below $800 a month...
Anyway, so yeah until I can get to travel more, this will probably be a slowly updating blog.. I do drink plenty of beer while at home in NYC, but I want to write about the same places, same drinks, same folks that make up weeks in NYC..
Yet travel will be coming soon.. Summer 2008 plans are being made for a whirlwind trip starting in Europe hitting some of my favorite countries, and possibly a few new ones.. with stops in the middle east, asia and untimely ending up in China for the Olympics.. that trip should provide many many drinking possibilities...
My current issue before the trip, is with the qualification for the Euro 2008 soccer championships nearing a close, is who to root for to make it, and who to support. The games are being held the month of June in Austria and Switzerland, and with all big soccer tournaments should be a blast. So far the teams that are in are Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, and Romania.. Yet some big name powerhouse teams are on the bubble. England has to win vs Croatia later in November and get help from Russia and Israel. While i would not root for England, if they dont make it, its going to be a rather big story in europe and england.. also the federation is going to miss out on an expected 100 million POUNDS in revenue they would get from the TV, Radio, etc rights. A fun team to support would be Scotland, as they are having a good run of luck, but losing in Tbilisi, Georgia last week was a tough blow and now have to face Italy in Glasgow, but also will need help to get in... Norway would be a nice choice to make it, they have a tough game vs Turkey, and I could root for Norway fairly easily... anyway once the 16 teams are in, a decision will have to be made on who to support...
Alright.. just wanted to write something, so people would know i'm still alive and around...

The Road to the Century Club(100 Countries)

The United Nations lists 192 Member Countries, FIFA the world football federation lists 208 countries. If you average it out you get 200 countries, so by visiting to 100 of them, you can say that you have seen half of the world. FIFA has more countries listed as they break up the United Kingdom to its 4 home nations(England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). Also FIFA recognizes places that while many would say are sovereign nations, under the U.N are considered as commonwealths or other properties, places such as Puerto Rico, East Timor, Macau, Guam, U.S Virgin Islands, Taiwan can all attempt to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, but are not fully sovereign nations. The Traveler’s Century club lists a ridiculous 315 Countries, but many of these are just Islands in the middle of nowhere, yet with their very generous definition of a country they have many members who have been to all 315 countries.. I’m just trying to get to my first 100, after that I’ll worry about the next 100.

Ok so I am going to go with the FIFA list, as well since Soccer/Football is the world’s most popular sport and I’ve seen it played basically everywhere from a beach on Goree Island off the coast of Dakar, Senegal to huge packed stadiums in Germany. Also the FIFA list is grouped beautifully by region, so lets have a crack at where I’ve been, where I want to go and when I think I’m going to get there!! In Alphabetical Order, here we go.Coutries already visited will appear in Italics.

It will take a while to go thru all 208 countries, so some patience please, but unlike the Brackets(which will be revisited sometime soon), this is going to get done at a decent pace. Why? Well cause all summer being stuck in NYC, I’ve been thinking a lot about travel and this is a good way to get my thoughts out..

Today’s Segment is the formally known as the FIFA West Asia Region, or basically to most folks these make up the Middle East Countries.

Bahrain – Ok this small island nation is right off the coast of Saudi Arabia. You might have heard its name in the news cause after Michael Jackson was found not guilty by the state of California but told “Don’t let us catch you in bed with little boys anymore” he escaped off to Bahrain, where he could probably do whatever he wanted with no worries. Bahrain is listed by Lonely Planet as one of the best introductions to the middle east, as its liberal, modern but yet retains its arab heritage. They host the F1 Grand Prix race in early April, and after my recent experience having fun in Montreal at the Grand Prix up there, this would be a great time and reason to Visit Bahrain. With plenty of flights into the airport from all over the region, and currently building a bride all the way to Qatar, that at 28 miles long it will be the longest fixed link in the world. This is a possible destination for me in 2008 if I manage to do a round the world trip. Plus one of the few middle east countries to allow anyone to drink a beer!!!

Iraq - Ok this has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Its possible one day this country will be split into 3 countries, Kurds, Sunni, Shia regions. At that point there might be some peace and quiet. Yet there is NO chance I will be visiting Iraq anytime soon. Plus you can’t get a beer there legally as it’s a dry country!!

Jordan – Recently in the news as Petra was named one of the 7 New Wonders of the world. Most of us just know it as a scene from the Indian Jones and the Last Crusade move. Known as a very safe middle east country as all the US News bureaus use Amman as a base and launching point to get back and forth to the USA. Royal Jordanian airlines has joined OneWorld, the alliance that American Airlines is part of. Plus an amazing roman amphitheatre in Amman that looks stunning and still hosts concerts and other events. There is a very good chance in 2008 if I stop in the middle east that I’ll get to Jordan.

Kuwait – This is the poor little country that got invaded in 1990 by big bad Saddam Hussein and started the USA into the mid east hell we are currently stuck in. This is a popular country for US workers as contractors in construction, oil service and other industries. While I have no plans to get here, again it’s a dry country, I did meet a cool American working there on a break when I was in Estonia. While he was making good money and staying at the Four Seasons, the fact there was no drinking and no sex to be had was driving him crazy. Sorry Kuwait for those reasons I think I’m going to pass on ya!

Lebanon – Beruit, Beruit!! From talking to fellow backpackers I’ve been told this is the most happening, party spot in the middle east short of Tel Aviv. Even in summer of 2006 when the war started, at night folks when out in their finest clothes and partied up, I like that spirit. Between the beautiful coast, the stunning women, and good nightlife party scene I will definitely be in Lebanon hopefully sometime in 2008!!!!

Oman – This middle east country looked great on the various episodes of the Amazing Race that its been featured on. Yet it’s a little off the beaten path when you see where it is on the map. Yet Muscat the capital is suppose to be a tourist hub, the the coast has some beautiful beaches on the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman. A little out of the way, so no plans to get there soon, but not ruling it out by any means.

Palestine – FIFA calls this a country with a team that competes(and loses) in Asian soccer events. I think of this as a pawn in the middle east peace process. I enjoy having 2 arms, and 2 legs, so no plans to risk them by visiting Palestine.

Qatar – Doha is the capital, and has gotten recent attention as host of the successful Asian Games and a potential candidate city for the 2016 Summer Olympics. While drinking is mostly banned for local, expats and foreigners are allowed to drink here. While it would probably be more fun to have a Heineken in the Netherlands, or a Corona on a Mexican Beach, its still a beer, and would have to do since there is no local Qatar made beer. If the Bridge from Bahrain is ever completed I would love to ride across that bridge and say yep I was on the longest fixed link in the world. Plus the airport in Doha is a major hub for the middle east, so yeah there is a good chance Qatar will be on my list in 2008. If I knew much about natural gas, there is always a chance of getting a job here. But I think the burning hot summers, and lack of local beer would steer me away from here.

Saudi Arabia – Suppose to be the USA friend and ally in the middle east, I think they still have a very repressive society. Plus no drinking. Sorry not going to support a country that was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers from the 9/11 attack. No plans.

Syria – The USA does not even want to talk to Syria in terms of peace talks as G. W Bush feels they are EVIL doers. I’m not so sure how safe it is here, so going to have to pass on this country.

United Arab Emirates – Dubai! Dubai!! While Dubai is only one of the 7 Emirates that make up the UAE it gets all the love. This is a definitely stop, I’ve never been skiing in my life and there is a good chance the first time I ski it will be indoors in Dubai, while its 122 degree outside. While everyone else goes to Aspen to ski, hell I’m going to Dubai.. Definite stop on the 2008 world tour!!

Yemen – From what I hear still dangerous as a terror hot spot. Yet going to any Bodega in NYC and you feel like you have visited Yemen already. With no plans to join Al-Qaeda anytime soon and it being off the beaten path on the map, I have no ploans to get there righ tnow. Yet I will give Yemen its props for being the link between people migrating from Africa 50,000 years ago went to the Middle East and Asia.

So at the end of today's list we listed 12 countries, with 5 of them hopeful for 2008, so far off to a good start. Thats all for today folks, next up the East Asia Zone.

What You Need to Know about David Beckham

Ok so Beckham-mania is hitting our shores. While I don't claim to be any expert on soccer/football, I will say that I've enjoyed watching Beckham play in the past, and seeing him in the MLS is going to be great. I'm not about to become a Los Angeles Galaxy fan cause of him, but if the game is on, I will watch it..
For those out there who have no idea or don't care about Beckham, here is a bit of information about him..
He is 32 Years old as he comes to America. While in Europe 32 might be considered over the hill/on his last legs yet the last big soccer star to invade the USA, Pele was 35 when he came to the Cosmos. Beckham has been playing professionally for almost half his life, and in the premiership since age 20, yet there is still life left in his legs i'm sure. Things you will not see while watching Beckham includes any use of his Left Foot, he is solely a one footed player. You will also not see him use his head on a ball ever. What you will see are some of the most lovely, on spot, crosses using his deadly Right Foot. Also some amazing Free Kick goals, if I was a goalkeeper in the MLS right now i'd be dreading being the first one to give up a Beckham free kick goal, as its going to make every highlight reel from now to eternity.
Sure there are more complete players, faster player, heck some might even say better looking player.. but you can't deny this guy is good, not at all past his prime. It was just last summe, he was collectively saving England's ass against Ecuador in the World Cup, with one of his trademarked wicked free kick goals. He gave everything in trying to beat Portugal, but it was those penalty kick idiots like Lampard and Gerrard who could not find the net.
The hype is unreal in the states, and don't expect him to score too much, as its not his game, he is not a pure striker like a Drogba, or even Theirry Henry will score more than Becks.. but man oh man those Corners, Crosses and Free Kicks are wicked.. just check out any of the thousand of YouTube compliations..

250 free American AAdvantage Miles

Ok.. i know blog updates have been less than few and far between. But its weird to not be traveling this summer, so I have no idea what to say.. Anyway if you are reading this blog, i'm sure you enjoy travel... So here is a way to kick another 250 miles in your American Airlines Aadvantage acount, not much, but it might put you over the hump for a free ticket.. Just fill out this short 3 page survey(alot of optional fields). Takes 8 to 10 Weeks to post so be patient..


Free 250 American Aadvantage Miles

Bracketology: My Version 32 Countries, 1 Winner!!

Hey all.. I'm back after a rather long lay-off, the reason was nothing bad, just basically I didnt have anything to write about. When I was in Europe it seemed like each day was a different place, different people met, new beers, etc so there was always something to write back. Yet now back in a normal boring NYC life, not much to write about except thinking about where to goto next.. Yet with March Madness upon us and everyone thinking about filling out their Brackets, I decided to do my own Bracket. I'm not much of a fan of college sports, I honestly dont watch either Football or Basketball except for their respective championship games, as a pro sports fan I just cant get with it, and have problems with the fact the teams are making so much money but if a player takes $50 bucks from someone they are branded an evil person and criminal.

So for my version of Bracketology i've decided to rank 32 countries and get down to one winner. I've been more than blessed to have traveled alot of the world, while I know for sure there is more to see as heck i've never been further west of California for the mean time I'll take the 22 Countries visited on my 2006 Europe backpacking trip and throw in another 10 countries i've visited at some point in my life.. Stick em in a Bracket and away we go. I've ranked them based on the only equal issue I could think of which is population. While this is not always the most fair reason take in point Canada with its population of some 30 million gets ranked 9th overall in population. Whereas a great country like The Netherlands with 16 million people gets ranked 11th, yet the population density of the Netherlands is the highest any any place I visited while Canda with a whopping 3.2 people per square mile ranks 219 out of 230. Anyway the easiest I went with was by population...

I will do my best to have at least 3 posts per day. Criteria for determining who wins is strictly in my warped mind, so it could be anything form number of topless beaches, to the quality of the beer, from the most picturesque country to the dirtiest beaches, I hope you find it enjoyable and stay tuned..

Up tomorrow the first 2 matchups. Number 1 Seed Russia vs tiny 32 Seed Guadeloupe, along with 2 Seed Germany vs 31 Seed Luxemborug. Here is the entire Bracket stacks up..