Drinking Across Europe

Amazon Kindle! Best gadget if you are traveling

2011-05-31T13:55:00.002-04:00

Ok this post is not necessarily about beer drinking, but that is something i do hope to post about this summer as i will be mostly in New York City, but the city has opened a number of new beer gardens, some rooftop and some ground level. Outdoor drinking needs a boost in the city as all around the world it seems to be the only way to do it.

this post is about the Amazon Kindle.. On my recent trip i took one, and trust me for long plane flights, long bus rides, long anything in a foreign country when you just want to read something in English this is the device for you. its thin and light, plus it hold more books than you can ever read on a single charge that last for weeks. So if i should like i'm in the bank and a shill for Amazon, well i am.. i dont own their stock as i wish when i first saw an ipod back in 2004 i had bought apple stock. Missed the boat on those but if you want one or were thinking of getting one dont hesitate. do it

Grocery Shopping in Iceland

2011-04-14T15:09:00.003-04:00

So I went to the grocery store today out in the big shopping mall. The store for huge for a New Yorker like me who is accustomed to smallish stores it was slightly overwhelming for the grocery store to basically be like a Super Target. I would say Super Wal-Mart but you know I haven’t ever been in one of them. Note for those exact sticklers, for prices I assumed an exchange rate of 1 USD to be 100 Iceland Kroner. The real rate I’ve been getting from the ATM is about 112, so if you want EXACT prices you can cut another 12% from what I’ve written here.. This is from the Hagkaup which i have no idea what the translates to and google doesn't give me anything good.

Orange Juice 1 liter $3 – Good deal considering how much a glass is at the café
Pretzel Sticks $2 – again decent, good for snacking when I go exploring the city
Icelandic Glacial Water 1 liter - $1.79 – I hope it’s better than Poland Springs, cause this was free from nature at some point
Cranberry Juice 1 liter - $5 – a bit pricey but always a good secondary hangover cure for me. Still at home I am getting 64oz (2 liters for my metric challenged folks) for $2.99 on sale, $4.50 normally.
PowerAde tiny bottle like 10oz probably - $2.69 – Damn I chug huge bottles at home for $1 each. But essential as my best hangover cure.
Pomi Tomato sauce $1 – great deal, I will be making some pasta for sure
Honey Ham $4 for a quarter pound, so that works out to $16 a pound – gotta make sandwiches for the 8hr Golden Circle Trip tomorrow.
Pepperoni - $3.50 for about 16 small round slices – probably works out to $15 a pound
Gouda Cheese - $4.50 for half a pound – not my favorite cheese but the only one I could easily translate
Pesto Ham - $2.75 for 5 thin slices, again probably in the $15-$20 pound range
Bacon $2.40 for 3.5 ounces(.1 kg), per pound this works out to $10. And it aint even oscar mayer
Potatoes - $1.45 for 2, the per pound price is $5.50. Come on Ireland is close even if you have to import them this is crazy.
Onions - $1.15 for a big one, per pound price is $5.50. Damn I’ve paid .99 cents a pound for sweet Vidalia onions at home before.
Box of 20 tea bags – $3.89 – not bad at all, I’m at Café paris right now and one tea bag, and a pot of boiling water is going to cost me $4.

Well despite spending $40 or so at the grocery store I will be saving money since the café I’m at now wants $18 bucks for a sandwich, and that is fairly normal for prices here when eating out. Since I have a great apartment with kitchen I’m staying at, and I’m not a big fan of eating at the most trendy expensive places in town I’m going to cook up a few breakfasts, and easy lunches. This way when I’m spending $8 or more for crappy draft beer I wont feel so bad since I’ve been able to save on the food portion of my trip. I did manage to check out beer prices at the state run liquor stores, the cheap stuff can be had for $1.50 a 330ml (12 ounces for my metric challenged friends), import stuff like Stella and Heineken about $3.50 for same 330ml, I bought a few “micro-brews” that are local for about $3.50 a bottle, they are in the fridge now I will report on them in a later post.

So the beer is a bit more expensive at the liquor store but still affordable, hard booze on the other hand is still downright crazy. I looked at what a 750ml of Jameson costs for a friend who will be here in June and love the stuff, that was $59, and a full liter was $80. I think in the states you can get a liter of Jameson for $25 bucks? No way the taxes make up the rest of that. I mean its farther to the USA from Ireland than to Iceland if my geography classes meant anything.

So overall I’m going to save a bit here, spend a bit there. I guess in the end it will wash out, but no doubt food at the grocery store is a sticker shock to this American. The beer prices of $8 for crappy draft also are a bit Norwegian/Swiss to my travels.. Oh to be back in Bulgaria where the good local beer at the bar is $1.50.

Day 1 in Iceland. I'm a Viking Now!

2011-04-13T19:21:00.002-04:00

My first day or really 12hrs in Reykjavik, Iceland. I got here by taking the non-stop from JFK to Kefavlik airport, the flight was not full at all, on a Boeing 757. I was in economy and must say while its been a year since I’ve been on a plane the seats felt cramped, thankfully I had the middle row to myself. The flight was about one hour delayed due to rain in NYC, well that would be just the start of the rain I would be experiencing over the next 24hrs.

Slept about 2.5hrs of the 5hrs flight, landed in Iceland at an airport that looked like it would be in the middle of Montana, meaning there was NO ONE AROUND. Off the plane in a new york heartbeat and after a short bus ride I was into the terminal, the cold hit me hard at first but now its not that bad, the listed temperature was about 40 degrees. The wetness well that is another story, its been raining all day long, I’m giving my new reebok rainproof jacket a run for the money for sure.

The immigration was probably the easiest I’ve ever had to get into a country and now this is 36 and counting. I mean the last time I went to Canada the border guard asked me since I was driving how many DUI’s I had and the purpose of my trip, if I told him the truth it was to rape and pillage the women while drinking cheap good beer I wouldn’t have gotten in, so I used the old friends and family line. Well for Iceland it was as simple as how many days are you staying.. my answer 4.. after that I never heard or saw from another immigration person, fresh stamp in the passport achieved.

My bags were there before I was even done getting some cash from the machine, at first the exhange rate got me. 1 USD is 112 ISK, lets just call it 100 to be fair, well my jetlagged brain tied to take out 60,000 ISK.. yeah just a bit above my max limit, I don’t need my card canceled on me the first day that I’m here, so I went with the more sensible 10,000 ISK.. but as I would learn that would barely make it for the first day, the roundtrip bus from the airport into the city was 4500, or $40 USD, am I at JFK or what?

Now the not-so-fun started since it was 8:30am when I got to downtown rejkjavik and my place I was staying didn’t do check-in till 3pm. I was able to stash my bags inside and then went to get some tea and croissants, yeah I’m not Iceland I know not Paris.. I wandered about the city for a bit and found the national museum of Iceland was free on Wednesday, so at 11am I checked out the 2 floors, where I was able to pose as an 11th century Viking warrior as such the picture above. City Hall was right on this pond full of ducks and had plenty of English language reading material.

In killing time I found a great place, called the Laundromat NYC. Its café with food and adorned with pictures of various Laundromats all over NYC. Knowing from past travels its not that easy to find a Laundromat when you got dirty draws, my get away from it all idea of a bar where you can hang out when you was your clothes well this place got into my dreams one night, as I went downstairs to piss they had 3 washing machines, not in use and if I was here long I surely would make sure to give them a whirl.

YAY finally check-in time, let me tell you the place I’m staying at Apartment K is one of the best deals/bargins I’ve ever had. For $55 bucks a night, I get an apartment that would make many a people on the lower east side of NYC totally jealous. A sectional couch, full kitchen with a fridge, stove, microwave(how the hell do I use one of these things??), freezer.. nice sized bathroom. Also a 32” HDTV Samsung with good English channels, also a mini-mac hooked up via HDMI to the TV with a ton of movies saved on in, some music also… Very happy with the room and would recommend to anyone, check-in was a bit rough with having to make phone calls all over the place, but once done its all good…

The city of Reykjavik is dead on a Wednesday for sure, after walking about the center city and basically in 3hrs seeing everything and having a good feel for things I have found a few bars that show sports. Watched some of the most meaningless champions league quarterfinals I’ve seen ever. Both teams who were down Tottenham and Inter Milan needed to score at least 4 goals to even have a chance and anything, and both epically failed in that quest. The semi-final between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid will be an epic 2 leg tie, it will be the 4th game between the teams in a 25 day span, talk about re-defining El classico.

Internet is fast here, 11Mbps at the apartment I’m staying and I’m about to try to stream some Rangers vs Capitals at the bar to hope its as fast at the bars. Beer is average at best, I’ve tried Gull, Viking and other local brands and its never cheaper than $6 a pint, and could go up to $9 each.. but then again this country didn’t start brewing beer till 1989, so they still have years to go..

Ok day 1 almost over, time to watch some hockey!

Top 10 Reasons NOT to have the 2022 World Cup in Qatar

2010-12-03T17:12:00.005-05:00

Ok i'm slowly getting over the fact that FIFA and Sepp Blatter are a bunch of corrupt bastards who will host the World Cup where they get paid the best. Its no different than the Olympics in reality. Yet I really thought the USA should have hosted the 2022 World Cup and the fact tiny Qatar got it really struck my nerve. So i have come up with a Top 10 list of reasons why it should not be in Qatar. If you do venture to go, there are things you must bring with you

10) Bring your patience. You think our TSA is bad? Qatar has one international airport and its too small so they are building a new bigger one to open in 2011. So if you think our airport delays are bad, for a country bordering Saudi Arabia home of a majority of the 9/11 hijackers we all should just be nudist to try to get through the airport.

9) Bring your own tent as we are all sleeping in the sand. As of 2009 from the official Qatar tourism website, there are 9800 hotel rooms in the COUNTRY. Lets compare that to the 75,000 rooms in NYC, 100,000 rooms in Las Vegas, heck even Orlando has 80,000 rooms. The Germany World Cup had 3 million visitors (myself included), and South Africa about 350,000. I don’t care how many hotels you build you are going to come up short.

8) Bring your own medical travel insurance. June 11th to July 11th period of 2010 that the world cup was held this past year the temperature in Qatar was UNDER 100 F (37C) Twice (july 4th, an July 8th) And 4 days in a row above 115(45C) degrees (June 18 – 21). Does anyone in the soccer world want a player to drop dead in the heat?

7) Bring your own bottled water. Drink water is more expensive than gasoline, which costs a whopping 22 cents a liter (that’s 83 cents a gallon for my metric challenged friends).

6) Bring your own gas mask. For all my tree hugging green friends out there, Qatar has the world highest CO2 emissions in the world at 55 tons per person in 2007. Look on the bright side its down from 64 tons per person in 2005. Oh btw the USA who is NOT in the Kyoto protocol is a nice 18 tons per person.

5) Bring your own Emancipation Proclamation. Of the reported 1.6 million person population, only 25% of those are natural born Qatari people. The United Nations along with the US State department have said that working condition for the immigrant non-citizens is akin to SLAVERY. As a black man living in America I’m very happy for the Emancipation Proclamation and 14th Amendment to the Constitution and Lyndon Johnson pushing the Civil Rights act some 100 year later.

4) Bring your own 11. The Qatar team SUCKS. It is currently rated 113 out of 205 teams in FIFA ranking, right between the powerhouses of Central African Republic and Thailand. I think if you bring your own 11, you can probably compete with the host country that is going to get the automatic birth.

3) Bring your own Burqa. Women don’t even bother to pack your cute outfits, the clothing of choice in Qatar is the full face Burqa, lets all dress up like Snake Eyes from G.I Joe. So we wont be having any fans looking like this.

2) Bring your own tissues. No Prostitution allowed. I thought it was the worlds oldest business and isn’t this part of the oldest region in the world? The garden of Eden is suppose to be right up the road in Modern Iraq. Ok not that I’m advocating the oldest business in the world, but come on Germany set up drive thru sex huts, I mean that is taking care of the needs of the drunk soccer fan after a tough loss right? In a country that has 2.46 men (aged 15-64 so all fair game) per woman what to do? Oh yeah bring your tissues. But then again if we were holding The World Cup based on male to female ratio it would be in Armenia with its great .88 Men to 1 women ratio and we could all be chasing the Kardashian sisters 4th cousins twice removed.

And Number 1...

1) Bring your own booze. I love beer, there its said. While you can drink in Qatar if you are not Muslim and not in public, soccer and beer seem to go together. Every previous Host of the World Cup has brewed their own beer in the country and was proud to drink it.. lets go thru the list.
1930 Uruguay (Patricia),
1934 Italy (Peroni),
1938 France (Kronenbourg),
1950 Brazil (Brahma),
1954 Switzerland (Feldschlosschen),
1958 Sweden (Falcon, shite beer might be worse than british beer…),
1962 Chile( ChiCha is well I just love that name, Cristal is the most popular lager)
1966 England (Newcastle Brown Ale, not the most popular but I like it),
1970 Mexico (Corona, u get another chance in 86),
1974 Germany(Becks, but oh so many to choose from, u will get another chance),
1978 Argentina (Quilmes, I overdosed on this when I was in BsAs)
1982 Spain (Estrella is pretty good Damm Beer better than the on the street),
1986 Mexico ( Dos Equis the most interesting beer in the world),
1990 Italy (Moretti this time),
1994 United States of America (Budweiser, ughh still the most popular)
1998 France (u again love your Red Wine, but I’ll still have a Kronenbourg),
2002 Japan/South Korea (Ichiban means number 1 in Japanese, nuff said),
2006 Germany(oh I went to this one and drank everything you put in front of me, check the archives),
2010 South Africa (Black Label, I’ve sadly never drunk one of these)..
ok Qatar you got 12 years to start brewing you own beer and start a tradition….

FIFA you CORRUPT BASTARDS

2010-12-02T11:10:00.002-05:00

How the hell does Qatar get to host the 2022 world cup? Out of all the bids for both 2018 and 2022, this was rated HIGH RISK by the FIFA technical committee? reason why, well the heat for June and July is over 100 degrees EVERYDAY of the month. Oh and aren't we suppose to have climate change/global warming worse by 2022.. Also the whole population of the country is less than 1 million people... So you want 300,000 people to travel there, how are you going to house, feed, transport, heck even remove their shit? That is totally unstainable for this small country.. Ok yeah they hosted the asian games a few years back but this is the DAMN WORLD CUP. the games are going to be some 8hrs after USA Eastern Standard Time, so more games in the middle of the night and early morning, thus bad for the fans in countries that give a crap...

Also what sort of host team are they going to field? I guess Budweiser wont bother to try to be a sponsor for FIFA by 2022 as its a damn DRY COUNTRY... Ok this is just a sign of how corrupt and horrible bidding for not only the World Cup, but the Olympic games are, its basically how much money and what promises you can make, i guess beach front villas on the persian gulf for all the executive club memebers is what counts..

A total disgrace for the worldwide game of soccer...

Thanks for everything Amsterdam.. now on to Brussels

2010-06-17T11:40:00.003-04:00

I write this as i leave amsterdam and must say that the city was lovely. Amsterdam has special place for me, as when i was 6 weeks old my mother sat me on her lap for a 7hrs KLM flight from NYC. While i dont remember that trip at all, it was my first international trip of what i hope is a long lifetime of many flights.

The Atmosphere on Monday for the Netherlands game was amazing, much better than the drunken Brits. Things were very quiet in the city on Tuesday but at night we managed to find a Brazil bar to watch the Brazil vs North Korea game, the atmosphere in there was nothing short of electic. From the DJ playing a cheesy "BRAZIL" chant after every chance the Selacio had, to the halftime entertainment of a Samba band marching into the bar and playing there drums as the ladies showed off whatever moves they could in 15 minutes it was great. The game kicked off at 8:30pm, and we got seats and a great view at 8:05, but by kickoff time the entire bar was PACKED and people were even outside watching on a TV in the window, i must say the crowd arrives right on time for these matches here, its not like in NYC where you might pre-game adn get a good seat at the bar for a while before the game starts.

Wednesday was a day to wander around the less tourists parts of the City, i had heard alot about the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam and after a slightly confusing but nice 30 minute walk from the Lesipledein we arrived. Kickoff was approaching of the Spain vs Swiss game and low and behold just 5 minutes before the game we found a real Spanish bar. Real in the sense that 2 guys were wearing Espana shirts. The place said it was closed the kitchen till 6pm, i figured it was just their mid-day siesta but as it turned out the whole staff were the only customers in the bar and they were not going to be working if La Fuerja Rioja were playing. A few San Miguel beers, a nice place of the finest spanish meats and bread, a glass of rose wine for my buddy Paul and we had the first real upset of the tournament. Spain a team that has only been beaten twice in what seems like the last 4 years lost 1-0 to Switzerland. The Swiss a suprise at the 2006 World Cup are off to a flying start in their group.

Later Wednesday night being the americans we are and wanting some english language entertainment we opted to pay 15 Euros for the Boom Chicago improv show at the theatre in the leisplein. I would recommend it to any tourists in town as we got a free beer and a solid 90 minute of decent improv entertainment from the 4 member cast. After the show wandering around the bar on every corner streets, i saw a beer that i had not had before. It was called a Leeuw Bier, and like so many of the nice amber lagers here it was tasty. More interesting conversation with some Dutch football fans with the main topic being if Johan Cruijff could play as well in today's modern game as in the Total Football days of the 1970s. I think that any of the greats in the past could easily compete at todays game, while they dont have the size and speed of todays players, the game is not always about that.

More wandering at night ensued and a cool bar was found. The Mini Bar is a relatively new joint from what i was told. Check it out online at www.minibaronline.com the concept is a cute one, there are about 40 lockers/mini bars in the place. You can buy a key for a locker and like a hotel its your own mini bar. Pull out a little bottle of Vodka and mix it with Cranberry, or take a beer for a friend. At the end of the night your tab is computed or if you are a real baller you just have the send you monthly statements on your credit card. Since i was only in town for a night and not buying a locker, i had the waitress bring me a 3.50Euro Henieken. That price was about the average for a bottle, with a full half liter(US 16oz draft ) running about 5 Euros. With the 400 year Dutch tradition of not tipping, the costs of beer here in Western Europe is not that bad. When you do leave a 1 Euro tip for 2 beers, they treat you like they just saw Jesus come down from the mountain. If in Amsterdam i would recommened checking out the Mini Bar. The Address is the unprounceable Prisengracht 478, its right near a canal like so many other places.

I must say as i approach Brussels on the "slow" High-Speed Train i'm looking forward to the thousands of great beers available there. Compared to the crap UK beer i was drinking my first week, these Dutch and Belgian beers are a marked improvement.

The Oranje Crush in Amsterdam

2010-06-15T06:40:00.004-04:00

Amsterdam is a city that has it all as many of us do know. I came here this trip not for the drugs, not for the sex, heck not even for the beer, but for the Football or as its known back home the soccer. Yesterday got to watch a Netherlands vs Denmark game in Amsterdam with lots of fans dressed in Orange. So far in terms of being in the 2 home nations that i've seen play in person England and the Netherlands, well the Dutch won hands down. Both in terms of attitude and passion of the fans. Whereas in England the backpages of the newspaper all have but promised making the World Cup Final, winning the World Cup, turning Rooney into a player better than Pele, Maradonna, Zidane etc and thus putting all the pressure on the team if they don't exceed beyond expectations. Here in the Netherlands despite my total and utter lack of knowledge of Dutch i surely don't see any headlines about the Dutch winning the world cup. Heck for a team that has been to the final game of the World Cup twice, only to lose they seem to take things day by day.

The game started at 1:30pm local time, it would have been 7:30am back in New York and i know i would have barely been able to get up for the game, much less get to a bar with any sort of atmosphere to watch it. I got seated at the Cinema Cafe outside area on a great closed off street in the RemebrantPlein about 12:30 and watched some of the pre-game, the crowd was thin but then around 1:15pm it seemed that everyone just left from work, home, school whatever they were doing and all showed up on the place. there are at least 15 bars in the area and its closed to cars so a great place to watch and mingle. The bars all had TVs on outside, strangely as is the case with many live sporting events some TVs were a second or so ahead of the others, thankfully i made sure to sit at the one with the exact live feed and not a delay.

The game was rather boring, with the Dutch getting on the board first from an own goal from a Danish defender. He headed the ball away from the goal an it was going wide, but then it hit the back of his teammate and went into the goal. It was bad luck, but a great play by a Dutch player to even keep the play alive and make the cross into the 6 yard box. The second Dutch goal was a bit better with the intital shot coming off the goalpost and then Duyt Kuyt finishing off easily from a few yards out. The Dutch seemed to dominate the game to me with most of the possession and scoring chances. Denmark had one decent chance early in the game but my Arsenal man Bendtner as usual missed an easy header from a few yards out.

The atmosphere after the game was great, despite seeing one dutch fan and bartender get into a fight. Not sure the cause of the fight but the bartender won as he flung a whole tray of just washed glasses at the fan and when the fan was outside he was cut up and pretty bloody. The cops came and unlike NYC didn't drag both people away to jail, just seemed to separate and calm things down. Just goes to show you that in Amsterdam its laid back and anything goes just fine.

Later today i'm probably going to try to get to Amsterdam Stadium and the FC Ajax tour and do the stadium tour. Hope to learn a bit about the legendary Dutch team and their glory. I had a blast after the game talking to fully decked out Oranje fans about their team, past players, other teams, the Dutch legends at Arsenal etc. Always enjoyable to talk to knowledgeable footie fans anywhere in the world.

USA vs England in London June 12th

2010-06-15T06:37:00.001-04:00

So the first big game of the World Cup that i wanted in fact HAD to watch was the USA v England game that was held June 12th. I was in jolly London to watch the game, the number of American fans was well less than you could count on your hand. Watched the game with probably 400 drunken English fans at the Montague Pyke Pub near Leister Square. From my week stay in the UK (Edinburgh Scotland and London) the most consistent thing between the cities was that the beer was utter crap. Even drinking imported beers such as Stella, it seemed not as good as when had in Belgium or even the East Village in Manhattan. I only found one UK beer that i found which was an Inns & Gunn from Scotland.

Ok back to the game, I was not at all worried that the USA went down in the 4th minute, it was a lovely piece of skill by new Captain of England Steven Gerrard, it was a horrible piece of defending by Riccardo Clark, but he has not been one of my favorite midfielders for the USA, and one Gerrard was past him it was up to Tim Howard to do something. While Howard might have stopped Gerrard in a few Mersyside Derbys in this game Gerrad got the best of him.
I thought the USA looked decent in the first half with a couple of decent chances. Clint Dempsey had a header that was stopped at the post, and Altidore had a free header that he missed wide. Landon Donovan was basically invisible the whole game. The eventual goal that Clint Dempsey scored while not a lovely piece of skill on his part like the Europa League chip over Juventus that saved Fulham, the goal did fit Dempsey motto of "Just Do Shit". With a ball that the keepers don't seem to enjoy stopping no problem with taking a 25 yard blast. In fact i've always screamed why American players dont try more long range shots. Yes it was a total howler from Robert Green. The sort of blunder than can ruin a guys confidence for years to follow and i'd be shocked to see him in goal for a dnother England Game.
The 2nd half had stretches where it was dominated by the English. In fact there was about one 5 minute stretch that had me incensed. Riccardo Clark i believe had a horrible first touch to give up an easy turnover. At that point England simply held the ball for minutes, had a few shots on net and earned at least one corner. While nothing came of it, the USA simply has to control possession more and not make blunders like that.

My heartbreaking moment of the 2nd half was when Jozy Altidore beat old ass Jamie Carragher like a rented mule around the outside, cut into the 18 yard box and blasted a shot. Green got his hand on it and then it went off the post. I wanted that goal!!!! While Jozy made a great effort, i think there is something about proven goal scoring assassins like Drogba, Torres, Eto'o, Messi that they simply dont miss chances like that.. I seriously thought we should have had that goal, and a 2-1 victory for me would have turned the 7 quid i bet on the game into 70 quid!!!!
Timmy Howard had to easily be our man of the match he stopped 6 shots in the 2nd half, while a few were great saves, at the same time Emile Heskey had an open shot and put it RIGHT INTO HIS CHEST, you gotta aim for the corners.

At the end of the game i was a grumpy miserable louse, i had not been drinking beer during the game as i was too nervous and really felt a 2-1 victory should have been ours. My friends were trying to cheer me up, but it was only after i started reading facebook posting from English fans and their utter self loathing/hatred for the team, the nation, etc that i finally felt it was a "victory" for the USA team. One point is always better than zero points in your first match.

As I write this i'm speeding thru the Netherlands on the way to Amsterdam for the early Netherlands vs Denmark game. Should be a great scene as for a 1:30pm kickoff time, there are already 4 or 5 Dutch fans all decked out in Orange ready to pre-game.
Glad that in the next couple of days we will get the first games from the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Portugal all the so called contenders, we will see if any of them can destroy a team 4-0 like the Germands did.

World Cup Group Predictions

2010-06-10T05:08:00.002-04:00

Ok with only one more day until the start of the World Cup i figure this is the perfect time for me to do my predictions and pre-tourney analysis of the groups and how the draw is going to work out.. here we go group by group

Group A - I think the 2 teams going to advance from this group are Uruguay in 1st and Mexico in 2nd place. While France has a world of talent, they have not been in good form since the 2008 Euros and with the controversy about 3 of the players screwing an underage hooker still going on back in France at the first sign of trouble that story is going to pop back up. south Africa as hosts are simlply not good enough, remember they got the bid as automatic hosts and would have not qualified on their own given their recent form.

Group B - on paper this is a fairly straight forward group with favorites Argentina taking the top spot but the 2nd spot will be a fight. The greeks can play good defensive form and show up like they did winning th 2004 euros. The Nigerians could get a nice boost from the support from the african home advantage. South Korea is an unknown to me as they did well in 2002 with help from officials and home crowd. I will go with Nigeria as the 2nd team coming out of this group.

Group C - This naturally is the group i will be most interseted in as my beloved Yanks are here. i think by now most British and world fans have to give props to the English based Yank players such as Dempsey, Altidore, Howard and Donovan. Hopefully this cup will have better group stage results than the horrible 2006 performance. Our Defense is still very shaky with Gooch not really having played in 8 months. England to me are not in good form, from injuries and the like. I will go big with an upset here and USA getting 1st place in group and England 2nd place.

Group D - This could be one of the most competitive groups, even more so than the annointed Group G of Death. Germany will be without its leader in Michael Ballack, and top goal scorer Miroslav Klose not in any sort of form. Serbia did amazingly well in qualyfing and have unknown talent in some of their players. Ghana will be without their leader Michael Essien out to injury for most of this season, but might get an Africian boost, we saw how talented they are at the 2006 Cup. Australia while having advanced in 2006 and heartbreakingly robbed by a crappy offical call in the Italy game, did not look good in their warm up against the USA last weekend. I have Germany number 1, and Serbia number 2 in this group.

Group E - The Netherlands are always one of my favorite teams in any tournament, they start out hot but find a way to fade in the knockout rounds, but i think this will be a much better result for them this year. Cameroon had made this tournament and playing on african soil should give them a boost. Denmark making a well deserved return to the tournament but i simply dont know who their players are, and Japan i have not seen ever on the big stage. I have the Dutch in number 1 spot, and Cameroon getting the 2nd place out of this group.

Group F - One of the weakest groups as i dont see New Zealand or Slovakia doing anything ofnote, New Zealand were horrible at the 2009 Confederations Cup. I have Italy going number 1, and Paraguay going 2nd. but that order could easily flip if Italy have trouble early on as they have in past tournaments.

Group G - The much talked about group of death. There will be some great games played in this group. The apparant loss of Didier Drogba for Cote D'Ivorie is a huge blow and at age 32 this was probably his last world cup, his form has been spectacular this entire season and hopefully we will get to see him play at some point. It will be inspiring to the team if he can get out there broken elbow or not. Brazil are brazil everyone favorite to get out of the group and mine also. Portugal has one of the most exciting players in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, but barely made it to the tournament and have been disappointing as a national team. I have Brazil in first, and Cote D'ivorie in 2nd. Gosh i would love to be up in little west africa in Harlem to watch some of the ivory coast games.

Group H- Spain by far is in top form, having won the 2008 Euros and donig well in the 2009 Confederations Cup and brining the same nuclus of a team. Star Striker Fernando Torres has injury problems that have seemed to plague his career but new Barca signing David Villa will fill in just fine with his goal scoring prowess. The rest of the group should not be very good and whoever comes out 2nd will have been in good form. i'll go with switzerland coming out of this group as they did well in the 2006 cup.

Ok my breakdown of the knock-out stages will come a bit later

T minus 3 days and the World Cup Begins

2010-06-08T05:37:00.002-04:00

3 2 1 and we are going live..

Well this blog is about to come to life for what is hopefully a great 2 months. After going to the world cup in Germany in 2006 and attending 5 games, my goal had been to do at least the same for the 2010 edition in South Africa. Despite planning for a while, i found it simply too difficult to manage travel both to and within South Africa, along with questions about accommodations, tickets and security. It seemed to me that people in South Africa were boosting the prices of everything as much as 5 times, while this is common during big international events such as Presidential Inaugurations, Olympics etc it was not the best light for your country to seem to be full of people wanting to retire from making money on the tourists.

So instead to get my World Cup Football fix, i am headed over to Europe. The time zone for the games is the same, i couldn't imagine waking up on the east coast of America for a 7:30am Argentina vs South Korea game, both in terms of waking up that early and finding any bar/pub/restaurant with proper atmosphere. In Europe that game will be at 1:30pm and folks will be skipping out of their afternoon from work in order to watch the game and surely in most cities in Europe you will find passionate fans from both countries.

My plan for travel is going to start in United Kingdom, in fact i'm writing this pre-world cup right now from Edinburgh, Scotland. l have read and been told its one of the most lovely cities in the UK but right now its just grey and raining for the 2nd day, not really inspiring an adventure spirit. When the games start on June 11th, I plan to be in at least 5 and possibly 6 countries when their home teams are playing. So far if travel plans go according to plan i will be in London for the USA vs England game on June 12th, and passionately supporting my Yanks, despite whatever bodily harm might come my way. June 14th calls for an early game in Amsterdam to watch the Netherlands take on Denmark. Then after a few days in Belgium who don't have a team that qualified its off to France, plan to be in the South of France, possibly Nice for the final group game June 22nd between France and South Africa, which could be pivotal to see if France makes it to the knock out rounds. Then its across the border to Italy probably in Milano for the June 24th Slovakia vs Italy clash. Right now surely not many people think much of that game and its an early east cost 7:30am, or an ungodly 4:30am California game, but i think that Slovakia will be dangerous and could be a 2nd place team in what is a weak group.

The granddaddy game of the group stage has me flying off to Porto, Portugal to make the June 25th Brazil vs Portugal game that will surely be important to see who gets 1st place and who gets 2nd place in what is considered the Group of Death. Assuming Spain makes it to the knockout stages and beyond i hope to be in the Basque region to watch a potential Spain vs Ivory Coast/Portugal/Brazil round of 16 match.
After that i'll simply be traveling with the World Cup schedule in mind, no flights or busses this time that in 2006 had me missing the Argentina vs Netherlands game cause i was on a flight. This time the travel will be made around the game schedules.

I hope to meet some interesting people, see just how passionate the game is watched overseas and even visit in the off-season some of the great football stadiums such as the San Siro in Milan where so many great world cup and champions league games have been seen by myself.

I hope the readers stay tuned here for what hope to be daily updates on the food, culture, citis, bars and great football games taking place in europe during this world cup 2010 summer.

I know I will be enjoying this year, hope you can enjoy my musing here on the blog.

Made it to Vancouver..

2010-02-19T12:54:00.002-05:00

Hey anyone out there reading, made it to vancouver. Check me out on Twitter
www.twitter.com/DrinkingEurope as i find that the best way for quick updates from the olympics. Today is a slow day, Men's Skelton, Men's Super-G (will Bode Miller choke??) and some hockey games. Hope to take in Latvia vs Czech Republic at 4:30pm local time. Will post a seattle update and 1st day of Vancouver in a bit.. bear with me.. thanks

Vancouver Bound...

2010-02-14T23:31:00.004-05:00

Well in keeping with my love of sports and big events, i'm headed to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver later this week. I'll be there from the 18th to the 26th and hope to take in at least one or so men's hockey games, and speed skating. There will be plenty of beer consumed for sure as Vancouver is suppose to have decent microbrews..

So stay tuned here for hopefully what will be daily exciting updates.

Now the Silly Season Begins

2009-06-03T18:38:00.002-04:00

Now that the Champions League game is over, we can get into all the rumors of who is going to transfer to what team. The hottest and first rumor out of the gate is that Kaka (real name as born Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite) will move from AC Milan to Real Madrid for a whopping 65 million Euros, well now is just a rumor and we have to wait until probably after Brazil's important 2 World Cup 2010 Qualifying games.

Well the UEFA Champions League Final was a great game as long as you were not a Manchester United fan. Wow the first 10 minutes it looked like a totally different game, with a great chance for Ronaldo in the first minute, but from when Eto'o scored in the 10th minute until the last whistle. As an adopted Barca fan for the game, i must say I totally enjoyed it, and have to say the Spanish midfield duo of Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta were amazing controlling the pace and tempo of the game.

This summer there is still some soccer to look forward to, this weekend the first team might be able to punch their ticket to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. If Australia simply win against Qatar then they are in, and the whole Asia group will be wrapped up by end of June.

The Europe group should show some clarity by the end of June with some teams almost locks and some team elimiated.

The USA team have a big 2 games coming up, tonight vs Costa Rica in Costa Rica a place we have never won a game, while we can't book our place until September at the earliest we can go a long way for sure.

Well until then, it will be a bunch of transfer rumors, and wondering if said player is worth that many millions of dollars, pounds, euros. Even in this recession, football is not feeling it and i expect to see some mind boggling numbers thrown around for good, great and even some washed up players.

UEFA Champions League Finals Preview

2009-05-26T20:13:00.003-04:00

Ok well after a great season of Champions League football, we are less than 24hrs away from the final being played in Rome. This has been a season of some brilliant games and great goals in the Champions League this season. As an Arsenal fan, i was hoping that my team had a chance to make it to the finals with a shot at their only silverware of the season but Manchester United spoiled that dream. So in the style of most American sports fans i have to root for the other team, in this case FC Barcelona. This is not a problem as I adore Thierry Henry, in fact he is partially the reason that i'm such a huge football/soccer fan over the past 5 years since watching him with France in the 2004 Euros.
This will be billed as one of the better Champions League Finals in recent years. With Barcelona and Manchester United both having won their leagues and a few pieces of silverware already they are clearly the best teams. The season long argument of who is the best player in the world Messi vs Ronaldo will take centerstage in all the hype and build up to the game. As a neutral observer i will have to say Ronaldo is the best player in the world, his ability from the dead ball/free kicks, along with his use of both feet, head, and other tools tell me he is the best. Yes he is a whiny prat when he is knocked on his butt, never letting his hair get messed up on the ground, as he looks up at the ref for a call going his way but he is still the best. Messi can have moments of brilliance, but he is not a dead ball player, and being only 5 foot something tall he can't outjump defenders and use his head..
THe supporting casts of these teams is where the game will really be won. I think Barcelona is LOADED.. look at the scoring trio of Henry, Eto'o and Messi this season. They combined for 71 goals between them, that is more than all but 2 entire TEAMS have scored, with only Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid having scored more goals as a team than that trio of player. Barcelona will be hurt by the suspensions of Dani Alves and Eric Abidal for sure, but they are a deep squad and should be able to manage for 90 minutes.
The coaching advantage everyone is saying goes to Sir Alex with his years of experience, but i think that Pep Guardiola has the full respect and trust of his team, not saying that Sir Alex has lost his dressing room, i just think this is an even matchup.
I hope everyone gets a chance to watch this game, 2:45 EST in the USA, just before Noon on the west coast, and the evening in Europe.. catch the game..
I'm calling for a 2-1 Barcelona win and a helluva a party that night on Las Ramblas.. whatever the case lets hope for a game for the ages!!!

Best and Worst of 2008

2008-12-31T15:34:00.004-05:00

After a little thought about this past year that is leaving us I thought it would be good to write a Best and Worst list of 2008 in a number of areas. 2008 saw extremes of good and bad in many categories so I thought I would put my mind to it and give some examples of what happened this year that made me go WHOA!!

Best Moment 2008 –
By far the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the night of November 4th, 2008 will live in history for a number of reason. Not just because he is the first African-American president, but because he showed that if you are smart, work hard and stay out of trouble you can do whatever you want. In looking at the history of the past 100 years of Presidents I cannot think of anyone who has been elected who came from less. This is a man who grew up to an 18 year old single mother who had no money, status or connections. Despite a time of hanging with the wrong crowd and doing drugs, he managed to graduate from an Ivy League school – Colombia University and then go on to an Ivy League graduated school – Harvard Law School. The true American dream as the son of an immigrant from Kenya and a mid-western woman. Having only served in US Government for 2 years and state government for 7 years before running for office it is true his experience might have seemed lacking but the people of America believed in him. It was not a black thing, as he manged to get more percentage of the votes in ALMOST EVERY CATEGORY over the last democratic candidate John Kerry did in 2004. It was only the 65+ year old White people who favored Kerry. And for those folks I have a giant F U, most of yall probably still think Black people should use different water fountains, ride in the back of the bus and not be allowed into public swimming pools.

Anyway as good as the night of November 4th, 2008 was, so will be the morning of January 20th, 2009 when Barack Hussein Obama swears to protect and serve the constitution of the United States on a bible used by Abraham Lincoln.

2008 Best Book - Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

In the year that oil prices shot past $100 and up to almost $150 and then crashed with the rest of the global economy down to $35, Thomas Friedman wrote a book talking about how American can re-invent itself as an industrial superpower again with a Green revolution. Thankfully Friedman knows a bit about the subject writing back in 2005 The World is Flat, which if you don’t believe in that after watching one country after another following into global financial panic caused by the credit crisis well then you need to go back and read the book. We are all interconnected as a society now, so any gains that America makes in the Green Energy Technology revolution can help the whole planet that yes is getting Hot, Crowded and is already Flat. A great read for the new year, as hopefully President-Elect Obama and his awesome true freakin GENIUS Secretary of Energy nominee Stephen Chu, nobel prize winner in Physics can help lead us into a true Green Revolution and that $1.65 gasoline will not encourage people to dust off their SUVs and fill them up again.

2008 Best Music Album – Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It

Raphael is a talented cat no doubt, while his solo albums have not had the widespread success that he had as a member of Tony Tone Toni, for music lovers his stuff has hit the spot. From his “gospeldelic sound” on Instant Vintage, to his straight back to the 60s Soul revival on his current album, its always a good listen. I must say as I grow older I not as hip to all the new artists coming out, anyone who tells me that Katy Perry is a groundbreaking artists needs to either be taken out to the woodshed or just given a copy of the last stupid “I Kissed a Girl” song done by Jill Sobule and I’m sure there will be another copycat in 10 years. If you like the sound of the 60s or was not alive and wondered how the 1960’s sounded in terms of black music, check out this release. Note a great talent of the 60s Mr. Stevland Morris aka Stevie Wonder does his harmonic thing on a track, worth the price of admission alone.

2008 Best Movie – Iron Man

Ok yes I’m a comic book nerd, and if was not for my collection of Marvel’s back in the 1980’s I would not be into reading at all. While Iron Man was one of my favorite it was not my favorite book back in the day, that honor would goto Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four or the Avengers. Well 3 of those above have had movies made and were all rather disappointing in ways. Yet for the true Comic Book nerd out there IRON MAN is DA SHIT. Taking his origin as literal as possible and just changing Vietnam with Afghanistan the movie has great acting from Robert Downey Jr, great supporting cast I mean I never thought I would see a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow and LOVE IT. This movie is the best comic book movie possibly ever, and surely my favorite movie of 2008, yeah it won’t win any big-time Oscars, but hell if you didn’t enjoy this check your pulse.

2008 Best Sports Event – UEFA Champions League Final Manchester United vs Chelsea

While my soccer/football allegiances fall to Arsenal, I totally enjoyed the semi-finals and finals of the 2007-2008 Champions League final. Played in the middle of the night on a rainy wet miserable night in Moscow, the game that went to extra time and then penalties featured everything you could want. From a goal by the player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo, to a stupid sending off by the moody Didier Drogba for girl slapping someone in the face. Yet it was the penalty shoot-out that would decide it all, with Mr England Captain himself John Terry with a chance for Chelsea FC to win their first ever Champions League title, well his shot was wide and then Manchester United won it. Overall a great game. Also don’t overlook the semi-final 2nd leg game between Chelsea and Liverpool that went to extra time also that was a thriller. We can only hope for 2009s games to be as good as last years.

2008 Best Technology – Apple ipod Touch 2nd generation

While I do not yet own one of these, having seen and played with one, this is all you need in your pocket. While it does not have the phone capacity, I think the whole sign you life away for 2 years to AT&T/Apple for $120 a month is sort of crazy. For everything else you might need the iPod Touch does it. With WiFi, email, browser, music, video, youtube, and access to the 3rd party apps store which then lets almost unlimited expansion. 36hrs audio playback life and 6hrs video playback, in a package that fits in your hand I must give Apple props for doing it well. I have been an anti-apple person from way back in the Apple 2e days, when my friends had those and I was given a crappy IBM PCjr in 1984. Yet I stuck to IBM, DOS, Windows operating systems forever and never been seduced by the Mac zombie crowd. Well in 2009 that probably will change when I get my first true Apple product (yeah I have own a ipod shuffle before but that does not really count now does it?)

And now onto the worst things that happened this year.

2008 Worst Event – Sub prime Crisis/Credit Crunch/Global Financial Meltdown

It can be called by so many names, but basically the economic malaise that spread from a bunch of overpriced unsold houses in California, Arizona, Florida and other states has spread around the world taking out Iceland in the process along with wrecking financial markets. We living today get the privilege to live through the first ever worldwide recession, and while much of it might be called just Fear, the reality of it is cheap money is gone. The US Government will print up as much as needed, and yet the rest of the world feels safe in knowing it’s the USA printing these dollars and not say Mexico, Brazil or Argentina. In the past financial crisis have been limited to one country or region, but hell this one is worldwide, it has even affected the seemingly untouchable Gulf Arab states as we have watched oil plunge to $40 a barrel from $140 on worries about lack of demand. The US Consumer has been cut off, so therefore has 70% of our economy that relies on buying cheap shit from China. While its good to see 2008 behind us in terms of the crisis, its just the start and anyone who tell you that by the 2nd quarter of 2009 cheap credit will be flowing again might have already had too much holiday cheer in terms of adult drinks. It will take a bit longer, how much longer no one can easily predict but this problem that has taken us 20+ years of easy money to get into is going to take more than 2 quarters to get out of.

2008 Worst Downfall – Eliot Spitzer

As years of being the so called Sheriff of Wall Street, the now governor of New York State took a nasty spill after being caught up in a high end prostitution ring. Well high end if only you talk about the amount of $$ being spent, as the ‘ho he was last caught with certainly was not some worldly, speaks all these languages and fine wine/culture whores her agency said she was. Nope she was a New Jersey run-a-away who featured in Girls Gone Wild videos and then decided to sell her cooch to horny old men who were happy to pay it. The thought of Spitzer spending $4500 bucks and then being able to keep on his black socks while he banged away is more comical than it is sad. Bye Bye Eliot.. Oh and to my peeps overseas, yeah its amazing that American political figures can take a big tumble for this, when you can goto Amsterdam and anyone politican, sports star, or regular Joe the Plummer can get whatever on the menu that you want for 50 Euros and its all good.

2008 Worst Technology – Blu Ray

After a nasty 2 year battle with HD-DVD, it seems that Blu-Ray won. Well there is no winner as despite the demise of the competing format, people are not flocking to Blu-Ray out and out. Reasons could be the cost of replacing your whole DVD collection that you have been slowly building since 1997. Or it could be the fact that hell many people(my sister included)who buy nice big HDTV, don’t even subscribe to HD service and wouldn’t know the extra quality of Blu-Ray if it slapped them across the face. Anyway with DVD sales finally slowing down, and better technology to stream HD images and 1080p into the home over internet/cable/satellite lines I doubt that Blu-Ray will ever amount to much more than a few year fad. And hell other than 2% of the videophile population out there, who can tell the difference between a standard DVD movie up scaled or a broadcast in 720p vs 1080p, not many of us. The extra cost is just not worth it.

2008 Worst Sports Collapse

Either the NY Mets or the NY Jets, funny both teams played at one time in Shea Stadium, it could be that stadium is cursed and many are glad to see it being torn down this year. As a partial NY Jets fan, I’ll have to say the Mets Collaspe for the 2nd straight year to not make the playoffs has to win, but the sting of the Jets losing 4 of the last 5 is still fresh in my mind. Whatever the case, both teams hit the golf course early this year.

Get Some Nikka Costa Funk in yo Trunk

2008-10-14T20:49:00.004-04:00

If you have never heard of Nikka Costa, now its time for your lesson in Funk. She has been a performer all her life, from age 10 being a child star and opening for the Police in front of 200,000 in Chile, to her recent spell for the last 10 years playing rock, soul, funk, blues, you name it. Her new album comes out today entitled "Pebble to a Pearl". I have been listen and watching Nikka in concert since 2001 and since then very few if any live concert experiences has been as amazing. She puts her whole soul into the performance and her band is FONKY.

Her new album released today October 14th features 12 tracks. I must say many of the funky tracks are throwbacks to 1970s sweaty in your momma's basement funk. Be sure to check out Can't Please Everybody, Pebble to A Pearl, Cry Baby, Keep Wanting More for your workout of funk. Pick it up from Amazon for only $12.

She will be performing on Conan O'brien show airing October 16th, and also is on tour till the end of October, if she comes to your town check it out here are a list of some of the remaining dates. All shows are $25 or less for concert tickets, so even in this recession its something hopefully everyone can enjoy.
14-Oct Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
15-Oct Orlando, FL The Social
17-Oct Atlanta, GA The Loft
19-Oct Baltimore, MD Recher Theatre
20-Oct New York, NY Webster Hall
21-Oct Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
23-Oct Boston, MA Showcase Live
24-Oct Burlington, VT Higher Ground
25-Oct Montreal, QC Saints
26-Oct Toronto, ON El Mocambo
28-Oct Chicago, IL Park West
29-Oct Milwaukee The Rave
30-Oct Minneapolis, MN Varsity

to leave you here is one of my favorite live songs that she performs back from the 2005 tour, i shot this with my digital camera in Philly. the song is On & On, from her 2005 release can't never did nuttin'. Still waiting for the day I hear this at a strip club, that girl will be happy cause i'll be doing my best Pacman Jones to make it rain.

John McCain you have lost your marbles..

2008-09-25T23:41:00.003-04:00

I really was trying to avoid ever talking about politics on this blog, cause like religion it totally polarizes people.. in fact your not suppose to talk about either of those things in public.. I would much rather talk about beer, babes, soccer, traveling, whatever.. But now with only 40 days till the US Presidential Election and the so called "greatest financial crisis to hit us ever" in front of us, the news coverage of this event usually has me fuming mad.

There is no way the $700 Billion dollar bailout is going to work, first and foremost the gov't has no idea what to price toxic shitty subprime debt at. The last 2 companies to unload their debt including Merrill Lynch sold it at 20 to 30 cents on the dollar. The banks are still giving it a value of 60 cents on the dollar. The government is going to overpay and the assets will never go up in value. I mean it was just a month ago that Bernanke and Paulson were all saying "everything is fine.. the fundamentals are strong.. so and so was too big to fail but its all good now.." Yet today its all about the politics of fear.. the Iraq War was entered cause of the fear of a mushroom cloud over the USA.. now its the fear of going back to the stone age.. Politics of Fear I'm done with you..
It funny but I'm with the GOP Republicans as to no way to this bailout, but their leader John McCain is so out of it, its not funny anymore. I think the only thoughts in the mans head are the stump speech and lines he has memorized, not an original thought, not an original idea going on up there.. This interview below with Brian Williams below is an example.. when asked the clear question

Brian: Where does that money come from, can it be printed.. are we talking about a hike in takes..

McCain: If we restore our economy and cut the out of control spending, I think we'll be ok. But if we dont do this, the consequences of failure are emornous. So if we get our economy back on track and grow the economy and keep peoples taxes low and cut the out of control spending... Blah Blah Blah..

I screamed at the TV.. ANSWER THE EFFIN QUESTION YOU #$%!*. Oh and don't even get me started on Palin answering about how since Alaska is close its foreign policy experience.. Lady I've been to Russia, I have more experience than you do living next to it...

Yes they are going to print the money, they are working overtime right now at 14th & C Streets SW Washington DC. For those who have never been that is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, actually one of the best tours in all of DC.. But that is where they print the US Currency, and trust me they are working the prints overtime for the next plenty of years to get all that money printed and shipped off to the Fed.. Maybe tomorrow i'll work on a calculation of just how tall a stack of $100 bill uncut sheets would have to be for 700 billion worth.

Ok that venting felt good... now back to regularly schedule talk about beer, babes, travel and soccer.. i promise

Nikka Costa rocks..

2008-09-18T21:54:00.001-04:00

Check out the video for the new Nikka Costa song. If she comes to your town on tour in October, go see her.. you will not be unsatisfied.

Videos from Steve Nash Charity Soccer

2008-06-27T15:59:00.002-04:00

Just a few videos from my digital camera at the Steve Nash Charity Soccer game in Chinatown. Sorry they suck so badly, but that is a combination of my digital camera and my lack of skills.. Hey I had 3 beers watching the Germany vs Turkey game, so i should be forgiven..

First video is my fave of Thierry Henry doing all sorts of tricks and Big Baron Davis taking the ball from him. Baron was the crowd favorite, but mostly cause he was so horrible on the ball, yet he scored a goal

This is just a video of Thierry coming right down the side where I was watching, the speed and skill is just amazing.

Last video for today is the penalty kick that Thierry took. I think it was only about 10 feet away and it was a rocket of a shot, good thing it found the net cause this ball and someone face, i would say the ball would win that battle.

More to follow..

Wednesday in the Park with Thierry

2008-06-25T23:35:00.004-04:00

Today was an all-soccer day for myself. Around the world everyone tuned in to see if the cardiac kids Turkey could keep their improbable run at the Euros alive. Well despite Television problems all around the world, the game went on and Turkey was about 1 minute away from sending it to extra time. Future goat Philip Lamb scored with only 30 seconds left to put Germany up 3-2. He would have been a goat if the game went to extra time and Turkey had won, as he was SMOKED one on one for the 2nd goal that Turkey scored in the 86th minute. I am actually glad the game ended on time, as I would not have been able to hang around the bar for extra time as I had to run over to watch my man crush Thierry Henry in a charity game.

Steve Nash the 2-time NBA all star is a big soccer fan, in fact I heard he supports Tottenham Spurs, which considering he is good friend of Theirry Henry he can't be that much of a Hot Spurs fan. Anyway due to France basically totally sucking at the Euros, Thierry's summer vacation began a bit early and he was able to come to NYC to play in Nash's charity game. The game took place at the soccer field at Sara Roosevelt Park on the edge of Chinatown. Its located between Houston St and Delancy St, and ELdridge and something else. I guess its a spot where folks come to play pickup games all day long. The game was schedule to start at 5:30pm, and I booked it over from the bar One & One right at the end of the Turkey vs Germany game, so I was inside the gates at about 4:50pm, and they probably closed the gates to the crowd at 5:15pm so extra time would have been no good for me.

There were 2 teams, the blue team and yellow team, naturally since Nash was the organizer he put Thierry on his team, but the blue team had the equally talented and trying to show off his stuff Salomon Kalou of Chelsea fame. Too bad John Arne Riise was not there as they could have showed off how to score an own goal in the dying seconds of a big champions league match. Some other players on the blue team were $10 million american teenager Jozy Altidore, Claudio "Capt America" Reyna, Juan Pablo Angel(he must have been hurt as he did not play), Baron Davis the point guard from the Golden State Warrior who must have never kicked a soccer ball before cause his touch was SHOCKING, and a few other guys. The yellow team had Nash's Phoenix Sun teammates Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, the aforementioned Thierry Henry, Robbie Fowler(former Liverpool player), Jason Kidd, Steve McManaman(Liverpooler before my time).

The game started at 6pm, and it was 8 vs 8, so there were a few subs on the sidelines. The place was PACKED.. inside they stopped letting people in and it was 3-4 people deep. Outside the black fence it was at least 8 deep on the street, and as you can see in one of my pictures, the people were literally climbing up and hanging on like 8 feet off the ground just to see the game. The police only numbered about 5 people, so they tried to get people down, but in the end it was fruitless, the NYPD should know if Thierry Henry is in town, you need more force!! The game was very cool, it was played at a high skill level for sure, and FAST.. when you are literally 3 feet from the players its only then that you realize just how much speed the game is played at on the highest level. Everyone was good natured about fouls as they were none, no contested tackles or headers, only 1 50-50 ball i think when Baron Davis playfully bear hugged one of his fellow basketball players. Thierry showed some really cool skills to impress the crowd, including a seal dribble almost to the net, and plenty of step-overs. There was a playful penalty shot that he took that was like a LASERBEAM. The goal might have been 8 feet high but it was very very narrow, the type you would get with a 5 on 5 game of pickup soccer, well he buried it high and tight, it was good he did not miss cause anyone near the net or behind the net would have been CREAMED by the laserbeam of a shot he unleashed. I have a video of it and will be getting it on youtube in the next few days.

The game was free for all i believe, they did have some orange seats, like the ones you take to the beach with the built in beer holder on one sideline for either guests of the players or folks who donated to the Nash Foundation. I've read they do good work and have built a hospital in Paraguay. The website is Steve Nash ORG check it out and if you can on there donate a few bucks if you can afford it.

Ok Pictures now.
Thierry Henry doing some tricks after a dead-ball. Look at the fans literally hanging onto the Fence all around to see

Salomon Kalou was impressive, i guess he wants the whole blog world to say how good it was so he can get a starting spot on Chelsea this year

Thierry and his skinny calfs. I was shocked to realize up close just how small/tiny most of these professional footballers are, yet TH has some muscles on those skinny legs

Leandro Barbosa playing some D, one of my few decent action shots

After the game all the fans basically stormed the field as the NYPD was not in force and there were only about 2-3 organizers, all the players were REALLY NICE and signed tons of autographs and took pictures. Thierry did a little bit of media/interview and then tried to run for the exits but was stopped and i heard signed a decent amount of autographs. Here are some pics from after the game

Claudio "Captain America" Reyna signing for the only 2 Beckham shirts I saw

Leandro Barbosa, who is from Brazil and showed he has a few skills

Salomon Kalou very sweaty and a cute fan. If my folks up in Harlem knew their boy from Ivory Coast was going to be there(he was not mentioned in the NY Times article) I'm sure it would have been more of a mob scene.

Jozy Altidore with 2 girls hanging on to him. He was INCREDIBLY nice, signing for a while, taking pictures, talking on people's cell phone, everything.

Baron Davis, who was a fun guy, but obviously had not kicked a ball in a while

Water break with one of like 3 really cute girls dressed up like soccer players who were handing out vitamin water.

myself and Jozy Altidore. Best of luck with your move to Villareal, the team just gained one new fan, go Yellow Submarines!!

Euros.. win or go home..

2008-06-19T22:41:00.003-04:00

To take a catch phrase from the NBA, its time in the Euros now to win or go home, and so far the first game was a delight. These hot swedish fans are going home now, and man I wish Sweden would have made the World Cup 2006 in Germany as I did not run into 4 hotties like this from any other country. Thanks to the Sun in the UK for letting me "steal" their picture.

Germany vs Portugal a game that I had picked to take place in the semi-finals took place in the quarter-finals due to the upstart Croatian team. I had picked Portugal to win the game as watching the group stages Germany looked a bit shaky and Portugal was like a machine. Well the machine came up against a machine killer, the super duper tall German backline. Portugal missed a ton of goal scoring chances and it seems this is a one-trick pony team with Ronaldo having to do everything, well everything that is but mark his man on free kicks. No way Klose should have been to free he used his head/shoulder/collar-bone to score the 2nd goal. Ronaldo you can throw your hands in the air, wave them however you care but you didnt mark you man. Portugal does not have an out and out scorer, a killer striker, a Torres, Villa, Podolski, or any of the other players in this tournament who have proven they have a thirst for the back of the net. The end of the game looked like a possible Turkey come-back and all was needed was a tie to send it to an extra 30 minutes and then penalties, while it did not happen in this game, i'm sure at some point we will get a total nailbiter 120 minute game.

The Friday game between Croatia and Turkey is not by any means a snoozer, the teams don't have the big name cache as Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany etc but both of these teams have played amazing. Turkey with their comeback kid spirit and ability to come from behind. And Croatia with their unbeaten record and tons of talented players, just imagine if Eduardo was around for these games. I will be watching this one for sure, as i've been watching all the games.

My Heart is still with the Dutch, as I feel they should have bottled it againt Romania, but even their second 11 players were better, plus with Huntelaar in the shop window looking for a big money move you know he was going to do his best to find the back of the onion bag. I watched the Netherlands vs France game at the bar Tonic in NYC that was packed with Dutch fans. There is a chance I will be watching Netherlands vs Russia at the same place as the atmosphere was simply amazing for mid-day NYC but I did not like the service. Aside from the $8 beers, I gave a $20 to the very cute bartender wearing her offical KNVB jersey and she gave my change to an old white bald dude at the bar.. I collected it from him, stupidly tipped her a buck and mentioned to her she gave me change to someone else, she then was like hey look its busy and didnt say sorry.. for sure that was the last overpriced Heineken I ordered from this place.. Yes it was crowded but shit this was before the game even started..
Anyway some pictures from Tonic and other days watching the games will be posted later, good times had so far by the fans

12 Games into the Euros.. thought so far..

2008-06-12T23:15:00.002-04:00

This opening picture is the only good thing I will like about the Italian National Team during this tourney!!

Man what a great tournament so far, almost every game has been watchable big time for me and thanks to a new hard drive in my DVR i'll have them saved for a while. The coverage on ESPN has been very respectable, i wish they would get rid of that damn ticker at the bottom of the screen, but they have to let us know the NBA Finals are on tonight as if the whole USA does not know about The Lakers vs Celtics (watching as I type this and the Celtics have cut the Lakers big lead in the game to 2 points 73-75).

So far my thoughts of some of the best games. I totally loved and dug the Netherlands vs Italy. As my adapted country for this tournament I was shocked at how many people had not given much props to the Netherlands. I have a thing against the Italian National team that dates all the way dating back to the 2006 World Cup as I was at the USA vs Italy game. I have never seen a team dive so much, cry in pain, get carried off on stretchers so much in my whole life of 1 previous live game before that game. I don't know more than 5 players on Italy yet I do know they are old and play a slow defensive football and love nothing more than a 0-0 tie and taking it penalties. So when the Dutch came out, attacked, pressed and played Total Football I was very happy.

The best overall game of the Tourney probably has been Turkey vs Swizterland, where the host country went up a quick 1-0, the home nation fans were going crazy in the rain and Turkey was looking at their tournament being over with losses in the first 2 games. But they managed to come back and win the game in late stoppage time. With Portugal already having won earlier in the day Turkey knew they needed a win to keep hopes alive of advancing.

Today's game between Croatia and Germany was also a great match. Germany being the betting favorites of everyone before the tournament and opening the first game with a 2-0 steamrolling of Poland it was looking good. Croatia came out soft in their first game against an Austrian team that their own country did not even want to participate and while Croatia escaped with 3 points it was not a display of an up and coming young team. Well in today's game vs Germany it was alright as they played an amazing game, exposed the German flaws and won 2-1 to move to top of the group and basically win the group. Thus setting up a most likely quarterfinal game between Portugal and Germany.

Naturally i'm looking forward greatly to the Netherlands vs France. France has not looked good, and Anelka and Benizema probably will be replace by Henry and someone else. I love me some Thierry but his damn injuries have plagued him for years and we will see if he can suck it up to keep France alive. I know i'll be wearing my 70 Euro (damn those europeans must all be rich!!) KNVB Dutch Oranje jersey and going to the bar in NYC Tonic with all the crazy Dutch fans, just check out this video I found on the web of the fans and this is DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Ok lets see what the rest of Game Day 2 hold for us, but this is captive viewing for sure. I wish I was able to go, but looking at how small the stadiums are, it would have been totally disappointing to be there and have no shot at tickets at all, especially with a dollar worth only 63 euro cents these days.

Euros in Central Park

2008-06-08T12:26:00.002-04:00

While not quite the turn out at the public viewing in Germany, the public viewing in Central Park for the 1st game of the European Championship was a fun time. It was sponsored by the Swiss tourism something and ESPN. They were giving away lots of red stuff, hats and t-shirts for the Swiss, i didnt bother to fight to get one, as well red is not a good color for me. I wore my Orange, and saw one other dutch fan, but it seemed like this damn Bee liked the Orange as it was hounding me all day long. Normally i wouldnt think twice about swatting/killing it, but knowing how the bees are all disappearing i gave second thought to it.

Watched the later Portugal vs Turkey game at a bar with AC, as it was freaking HOT HOT HOT outside, just insanely hot. It was a good crowd, the Bartender put the sound on as while the Yankees played a great game and a great comeback, more people wanted to watch the soccer, can you imagine that?? in NYC.. i guess its just a sign of the times that the Yankees do kinda suck these days.

Today off to a crazy German bar, gotta get there early i know. Here are some pictures from Central Park.

The 2008 Euros are here!!!!

2008-06-06T16:21:00.003-04:00

To say i'm excited about the upcoming Euro 2008 soccer championship would be an understatement. Back in 2004, I watched the France vs England game, where England was leading 1-0 late in the game, in the 3 minutes of extra time, France well actually Zidane managed to score on a free kick and a penalty kick to snatch the victory. I was hooked on this sport soccer. I had not really followed or watched a match since the 2002 World Cup where the USA had a great showing. In the 4 years since, well i've become a total fan of the world game, including a life changing trip to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.. So now on the eve of the 2008 version of the tournament i'm excited for the games to play out.

For those at home not sure what all this hype is about, the Euros are a once every 4 year tournament matching 16 of the best national teams in Europe. This year the big surprise team that did not make it are England. This should not really be a surprise, as well England is just not that good. The English Premier league while the best in the world, has more foreign born players than Brits, this hurts the national team in that one week Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard will be playing with the best in the world during games with their club teams, but when national team duty comes up, getting 11 talented players to play together seems like an excerise in futility.

Ok enough about those over-rated and over-talked about English players, The tournament is broken into 4 groups of 4 teams. THey will play 3 games in a round-robin format and then the top 2 finishers of each group will advance on to the knock out stage games. The tournament runs from June 7th to June 29th, and all the games will be broadcast in the USA on ESPN family of networks. This is a huge change from 2004, where you either had to pay $20 PPV to watch at a bar, or buy the game at home for $24.95.

My predictions for how the tournament will turn out.

Group A - Czech Republic, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey. This should be a fairly simple group to pick. The Czech has a disappointment at the World Cup 2006, not making it out of the group round despite beating the shit out of my USA team in the opening game. Turkey had a very good 2002 World Cup, but i have not watched much of them and few of their players play overseas in big leagues, yet I might pick them as a dark horse team for this group. Switzerland suprisingly had a great 2006 World Cup winning their group and not giving up a goal in the process, yet I don't see their luck carrying on from that tournament. Portugal has to be one of the few teams that can honestly be looked at winning the whole thing. Cristiano Ronaldo is easily the best player in the world, and having a total cracking season, there will be pressure on him to produce, especially if he wants to validate the rumored $150 million US Dollar transfer fee to Real Madrid that is being talked about in the press. I pick Portugal to win this group and Turkey to be in 2nd place.

Group B - Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland. This is a rather easy group to pick. Austria simply SUCK, they only made it as one of the 2 host teams, and are ranked well over 100 in the world, I dont expect them to score at all, and watch teams run up the goal difference in games with them, which will be important as the other 3 teams could easily end up tied in points and need a tie-breaker to determine who goes thru. Germany is the favorite to win the group, and I think will as they are loaded with talent and experience in big time international tournaments. Croatia is the suprise team that is loaded with young talent, they beat England at Wembley to knock England out and make sure Croatia won their group. I'm picking them to go thru in 2nd place but could easily be tied with Poland on points.

Group C - France, Holland, Italy, Romania. The proverbial group of DEATH, every tournament has to have one of these both for the press to soak it up and the fans. This is a hard group for sure. My heart and jersey will be with the Dutch, thanks to some shopping my mother did in Amsterdam last month with an official KNVB Dutch jersey. Romania is a good team, and won their qualifying group, don't sleep on them, the French seems to start out slowly and that first game of the group could be a tough one on the French. They have amazing players, a great strike force but their players are spread all around the world, playing in France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain and all sorts of leagues thus each playing a different sort of football for most of the year and taking some time to gel with their national teams. I predcit the Dutch to win the group, and world champs Italy to go thru in 2nd place. But this group is a total toss up considering its strength.

Group D - Greece, Russia, Spain, Sweden. Could be the easiest and least interesting group. Yeah Greece won the whole thing back in 2004 tournament, but it was hard to be a fan of them, as it was not exciting football to me in the least bit. Russia made it due to England's crashing out, and Russia is a talented team with a bit of confidence and a good coach. Spain is everyone favorite to finally lift the monkey off their back and go far and win a tournament. The team is totally STACKED with talented players but are known as choke artists. After watching their poor showing vs the USA this past Wednesday, they have to be at a low on confidence, and look for them to make it out of the group stages only to crash and burn in the next round. Sweden is a team I don't know much about, and many of their players who i have followed in the past like Lunjberg, and Larsson are a bit long in the tooth. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a stud upfront, but does he have the rest of the team to support him? I'm picking Spain to win the group and Russia to come in 2nd and make it out.

Now that will leave some interesting match ups in the knock out round. Of the teams I picked and if they finish in that order you will come out with the following knock out matches.
Portugal vs Croatia - Should be a good game, but the pressured and experienced Portugal team should win it.

Germany vs Turkey - Easily Germany would win this game, would be an intersting match up considering the tensions between Germans and the millions of Turkish immigrants living in Germany

Netherlands vs Russia. Gotta go with my Dutch, the Orange...

Spain vs Italy. This would be an amazing match, have to say the experience and international pedigree of the Italians win out.

So now the Semi-Finals would be as follows
Portugal vs Germany - Wow a rematch of the 2006 World Cup 3rd place match, one which I watched in the awesome town of Bratislava, Slovakia. Germany won that match but I would have to say everything is falling for Portugal this season with the wicked season Ronaldo is having.
Netherlands vs Italy - Wow another awesome match, I would have to keep on going with my Dutch, plus I have a problem with Italy for their dirty tactics in the 2006 WC game vs my USA.

the Final - Portugal vs Netherlands.. Hard to pick an honest winner, I might have to put the Orange away for this one, as I think it would be Portugal to win the whole thing...

Those are my predictions, and I'm sure they will be horribly wrong, but neverless tune in for some great soccer!!

NHL Playoffs are coming up and my Rangers are In!

2008-04-03T23:07:00.002-04:00

Ok Hockey is a great sport.. Under appreciated in the USA, in Canada it is religion. My team the New York Rangers tonight clinched a spot in the NHL Playoffs. In terms of sporting events the NHL Playoffs could be the most intense, most passionate and hardest to win event out there. There is nothing like a Game 7 double OT game for your heart, after watching one of those in 1994 the famous NY Rangers vs NY Devils you don't want to ever see another one. In fact one of my greatest moments in a bar ever, was in Chicago at Stanley's bar where after a hockey game most of the Chicago Blackhawks team came in, hockey players are down to earth and fun to drink with. On this particular blackhawks team was Valeri Zelepukin who with 7.7 seconds left in said 1994 game 7 scored a goal that took the game to overtime. All NY Rangers fans at that moment hearts sank only to come back to life after Stephane Matteau scored in the 2nd overtime.

This year the Rangers have been slightly struggling going int the end of the season, but tonight's 3-0 win over the rival and hated NY Islanders cliched us a playoff spot. Hopefully our trio of old forwards in Jagr, Shannahan and Straka can give us the best of them over the 2 month Playoffs.

There are still some spots to be decided in the playoffs, and while Sydney Crosby will be there, one player I would love to see on a night-in night out basis would be Alexander Ovechkin. This year he has set the all-time record for goals by a LW with 65 and counting. The Capitals have an uphill battle to make the Playoffs with their last game of the season this weekend, they need a win and Carolina Hurricanes to lose one of their games. If you have not seen Alex Ovechkin and his highlight reel goals, check out this great compilation below.

USA punches a ticket for Beijing Olympics

2008-03-27T18:09:00.003-04:00

Last week the USA finished in 2nd place in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. It was enough to have them be one of the 16 teams to make it to the Beijing Summer Olympics later in 2008. While in the sense of the world the Olympics are not a big deal for soccer, here in the USA we get so hyped up over the Olympics in all aspects a good showing here for the US Men and it would do alot for the game overall. The tournament is scheduled to run August 6th to August 23rd, so they are actually going to be games before the official opening of the games on August 8th. If all goes well with me I hope to be making my first visit to China to goto the games. Since a little kid I've watched the Olympics and loved it and going to a games in progress would be awesome, we'll see how those plans progress as right now airfare is freaking CRAZY to china.

The Qualifying tournament was a total bore, which shocked me. With so many of the USA players being young I thought it was a good look at the future, but in reality the most exciting moment of the whole 5 games was the semi-clothed Streaker who ran out on the field during the USA vs Honduras games, bless you Tiffany Nicole May as you allowed the major media to pick up that the USA was even playing a game, cause looking at the attendance at the games in Tampa you would think no one cared.

The other teams joining the USA at the games will be China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Netherlands, Serbia, Belgium, Italy. The teams will be made up of Under 23 players, with 3 any age players allowed. Brazil is taking this tournament seriously as for their over 23 players folks like Kaka are talked about going to it. The USA has some great under 23 players in Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Eddie Johnson. These games are actually not going to be played just in Beijing but over China in Shanghai and other cities, so scheduling will be tough having to move around.

The one thing I do hope that happens to the USA is that they get their shit together, no need going over there and playing like 11 guys who just met each other in the parking lot.

Get Well soon Eduardo

2008-02-27T15:29:00.003-05:00

This past weekend one of the most promising young talented soccer players went down with a horrible injury. I was watching the game live on the Internet so the quality was not that good, plus the injury was so horrible they choose not to show it on replay. Eduardo da Silva was born in Brazil but somehow has Croatian citizenship. It guess its a case of carpetbagging where in Brazil he had 280 million other people to compete with to get on the national soccer team, but Croatia with only 4.4 million people it would be easier to make the national side. Regardless of what country he plays for, the kid at 25 is a supreme talent. This year at Aresnal he was finally coming into his own and has scored some amazing goals. Check out this one below, chest to head to back of the net. Wait till the 28th second for the best up close replay.

Anyway this past Saturday in a game against Birmingham City early in the game in the 3rd minute, Birmingham defender Martin Taylor was going to get smoked so he went in 2 feet studs up and broke Eduardo's leg.. not just your run of the mill broken leg, but a compound fracture and dislocated ankle. There was initial worry that he would lose his foot as the blood circulation was cut off, but thanks to great sports doctors they were able to stablize him before transport to the hospital. I finally saw the full injury last night watching Fox Football Phone-in and its hard to watch. This picture alone at the top of the page is bad..

Eduardo was going to be the star of the Croatian national team at the upcoming 2008 European Championships, but sadly now he will be out for at least 9 months possible more. And with soccer players making their living with their legs and feet there is worry this could be a career threating injury. So lets hope for a good recovery and the chance to see Eduardo work his magic on the pitch again in the future.

Welcome to Freedom Kosovo!!!

2008-02-19T21:45:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Freedom Kosovo. Only 2 days into your freedom and those Serbs are acting up again and torching villages and U.N checkpoints, oh how things have not changed even when they are suppose to have changed. For those who are not in the know about things, the area of the former Yugoslavia Kosovo which is made up 90% of Muslim Albanians, and a few violent Serbs. Its been a long dispute since the end of the Balkan war and breakup of Yugoslavia and Kosovo was governed by the UN for a while.

On my 2006 trip I never went to Kosovo and in fact never thought of even going there. I went to 4 other former Yugoslavia countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzgovinia).. I met a few other backpackers who went to Albanian and one even who wanted to head for Kosovo. I must say I was totally ignorant about the political and religious issues that surrounded the breakup in the Balkans, and still would not consider myself an expert by any means. Yet I had a sense of the tensions and where america stood in that region.

On my worst ever 12hr train ride from Sofia, Bulgaria to Belgrade,Serbia a ride that was suppose to take gosh like 7hrs. I was in a 6 person cabin with 2 cool girls from Spain and a few people from "the area", as I cant understand spoken or written Serbian I had no idea where they were going. All I remember is in the middle of the night at one of the checkpoints when I handed over my American passport, the man in the group of "others" saw the Eagle on the front of the passport and for the next 10 minutes I assume cursed me out in Serbian, the only thing I understood was Bah American Bill Clinton.. Now I thought Bill Clinton was universally loved, but I've since learned in this current election cycle has a bad temper and not quite the way with words, heck as dirty he has played I'm not liking him anymore.

Anyway during the war in 1999, the USA planes bombed Belgrade on a nightly basis, the buildings still have the scars from 500lbs dropped from F-117A Stealth Fighters.

The Serbs were seen by the Western countries as the enemies as Slobodan Milosevic(you might have heard from him) was doing genocide and killing as many Albanians as he could get his hands on. Anyway some of the crimes committed against the people in Bosnia specifically in Sarajevo were what he was on trial for crimes against humanity for when his heart stopped.

My time in Belgrade was amazing yet. I was there for 4 days, 4 of the hottest days of my trip with temps easily approaching 95 degrees in the middle of the day. The people were incredibly friendly, I went to one of the best museums during my trip the Nicolas Tesla Museum, Tesla being the father of modern electricity. Also some wicked party nights on the Barges.

Along with lazy days spent at the fake lake drinking Jelen Pivo(deer beer) and reading the Day of the Jackel.

So overall I was happy being in Serbia. When I left for Bosnia, people were like WHY are you going to Bosnia, so there is still some hatred/dislike between the countries, something I would learn later while in Croatia and the family of a Bosnian young women would disown her as her boyfriend was Croatian.

Anyway what is going on today in Kosovo is no different than years ago, the small but yet powerful/violent Serb minority refuses to recognize Kosovo, yet the USA, Europe, and the UN have recognized its status as a sovereign country, so what do the Serbs do, yep what they do best resort to Violence and burn shit down. This situation could easily escalate to all out war in the Balkans and as the Nicolas Cage character said in the movie Lord of War something to the like of "I’ll reroute the shipment to the Balkans. When they say they’re gonna have a war, they keep their word.” Anyway i hope before shit gets out of hand we can re-draw the borders, find a way to placate the Serbs, or something.. this world already has one Palestine-Israel situation we dont need another.

As for visiting Kosovo, sure next time i'm in the area why not. I mean a city that already has a street named after a living American President is impressive (Boul. Bill Clinton), usually here in the USA we have to wait till they are dead to name anything after them. I've been told Americans are well loved in both Albanian and Kosovo, this image from the night of freedom celebrations should suffice.. Now i just hope they can brew their own beer.. I dont think this will be a problem as Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Serbia all managed to do so just swell..

This man will win the Daytona 500

2008-02-16T20:26:00.003-05:00

Ok so i'm not Nostradamus with predictions of sports events, not even close. I have quit gambling on sports for this reason and this reason alone, you might think you know it all, but as it said "this is why they play the games" Anyway I'm a NASCAR fan, despite only have followed it for gosh the 7 years since Dale Earnhardt Sr, died at the 2001 Daytona 500 on the last lap, last turn. What a tragedy in terms of sports events, but thankfully in 1998, he won the race after his 19th try. Before that 2001 race my only thoughts of car racing were the Indy 500. This past year while up in Montreal during the Grand Prix, i learned about Formula 1 racing and followed the sport picking up what I could while following Lewis Hamilton and is quest to be the only rookie, only black dude to ever win the Championship in his first year.

Well this year Its all about Dale Jr, he has already won the Daytona 500 back in 2004, but since then has been mired in what one could call a slump. Last year after running a crappy season with the team that his evil step-mother Teresa owns after it was inherited from Dale Sr, they could not reach a new contract so he left the team. He went over to Hendricks motorsports, the team with the 2-time reigning champion Jimmy Johnson, and the most decorated current driver Jeff Gordon (who along with driving fast cars has a taste for fast hot women!). The team is stacked, and while the concept of a team is over-rated in NASCAR, they have the best staff, best facilities, best engineers etc. Basically they are the Yankees of car racing, and while the Yankees have not had the best success in the past 7 years throwing out the highest payroll team i think for the race tomorrow it will work out.

So far this week, Dale Jr has won his qualifying race, and the Budweiser shoot-out, and today running in a car that he owns, finished a close 3rd place in the 300 mile race at Daytona. I think it all sets up for him to win the big Daytona 500 on Sunday. I'll be watching at 3:30pm EST on FOX, i hope you do also. As someone who used to drive a car on a daily basis, but now currently hates the concept of driving (just move to NYC and deal with parking, buses, potholes, car insurance, traffic, etc and you might feel the same).. so yeah I dont like driving, but the thought of bump drafting at 195MPH on the back straightaway of Daytona is like a rush of blood to the head. So i'll be watching, drinking my Bud 40oz in honor of Dale Jr's last sponsor team and hoping no one gets hurt but in the end we have a finish like 2007. Where Kevin Harvick beat Mark Martin by the length of a hood (.02 seconds or 8 feet at the speed they were moving) to win the race, while Clint Boyer finished literally on his head, upside down at 150mph.

Or better yet the 1979 race. This was the first 500 mile race to be broadcast on US TV from start to finish LIVE, and it was worth it. If you don't know the history of NASCAR the 1979 race was won by Richard Petty after the 2 leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed into each other 3 times on the final turn and spun out, letting "The King" Richard Petty come back from over a half lap down to win the race. Oh it was not even over, a donnybrook insued on the infield grass between Yarbourough and the whole Allison family (ok well only really brothers Donnie and Bobby vs Yarbourough).. anyway a great finish spend the 2 minutes of your life below watching the video. Enjoy

Dig a shallow grave and bury the Grammy's

2008-02-11T18:27:00.001-05:00

Well one of my passions is enjoying music, and preferably live music at that. I've been a fan of the Grammy Awards for a mightily long time, i remember as a kid with my father being a member of NARAS(National Academy of Recording Arts and Science.. the folks who give the grammys out), I would get to vote on the awards with him. But after last's night show I'm convinced its done and run its course after 50 years. The TV ratings were some of the lowest in history with a bit over 17.5 million viewers. This is pretty sad figuring that American Idol gets like 30 million average viewers. So what its saying is people would rather watch and vote for the next big upcoming star than watch current established stars. The shows has gone without a host for the last 2 years, but still it runs LONG. This year it was scheduled to run 3:30Hrs and ran about 5-10 minutes over, no reason the show should be well over 3 Hours long. But most importantly to me why the show sucked was the level of performances.

In the shallow grave that I'm digging I want to bury the following artists. You can call me a hater, a cynic, or whatever but I just feel these folks dont have much talent plain and simple. Lets start at the beginning

Alicia Keys - Sorry hon, you are going into the shallow grave. While you have sold millions of albums, won tons of grammy's and are beloved by everyone I DONT LOVE YOU. I think you are a very pretty girl, but a talentless hack. I'm not saying I can sing or play piano, but neither can you. You so called classical piano training is nothing more than banging on the keyboard. Your singing is nothing more than Shouting. And you have a habit of ruining songs when you sing with greats. Look at your performances of my boy Prince's "How Come You Don't Call me Anymore" sad.. Your utter low was singing "Black Magic Woman" with Carlos Santana this past year at the Fashion Rocks show. and this last night's duet with Frank Sinatra, well a dude who has been dead for longer than she has been releasing albums.

Kayne West - You go in the shallow grave also, this is a horrible thing to say about you considering you just suffered the sad death of your mother. But having to watch you "perform" for some 7 minutes last night was the last straw. Between you pissy bitch fits when you dont win awards, here last night they gave you 4 awards now go away FOREVER. Take your lit up sunglasses, and never never despite how much you miss you miss your mom try to sing a song for her/about her/to her again, you sounded like a cow going to the slaughterhouse.

Fergie & John Legend - Fergie you have a slamming body, if someone would to put a paper bag on your head, I would do naughty things to you. But your voice it leaves much to be desired, as least its not as bad as your face which looks like its a tranny who used to work in the meatpacking district. John Legend, where can I begin, well other than the fact I don't "understand" you or your talent lets see.. you were born with the last name Stephens who the fuck told you that you are/will/ever be a Legend, you are not, so please go away NOW!!!!

Will I Am - what to say about you, other than you are now offically more annoying than Sean P "Puffy" Diddy Daddy Combs, and that is a hard task to do. You can't rap, you can't dance you can't do anything, so please join your fellow Black Eyed Pea in the grave...

The only good performances from this year's awards were from people over 60 years of age.

We had Tina Turner (age 68) looking and sounding like a vision out of the 60s.. that 1960s that is.

Aretha Franklin (age 65) proves she can sing anything, from a few years ago when she stepped in for Pavarotti and sang a wicked "Nessum Dorma" that made me cry. Well we know you are the queen of Soul, but you wouldnt be out of place in a Gospel Church.. honey i'm waiting on you to do a country album, you can do it!!!

To keep in the tradition of older is better we had Herbie Hancock(age 67) on a Gershwin Tribute that showed folks like Alicia Keys if you want to be called a piano player what you must do. Herbie baby who does your hair?? can I get their number, cause that was a nice full head of hair you have on your head. Its sad that after you won the biggest prize of the night and I was talking a friend who shall remain unnamed thought you played the Axel F theme song from Beverly Hills Cop, that sent my blood pressure up as we all know you played in Miles Davis's 2nd great Quintet, if you havent heard please go and pick up "My Funny Valentine (1964 Lincoln Center)" could be the greatest live album ever..

Last but not least of the senior set we had John Fogerty (age 62), writer of some of the greatest songs in history including the "Proud Mary" that Tina and Beyonce tore up. He got up there with some septuagenarian's in the form of Jerry Lee Lewis (age 72), and Little Richard (age 75), who added a little, just a litle to his great 2 songs performances. Ahh what folks would pay for a true Creedence Clearwater Revival reunion tour, hell if Led Zeppelin can do it, so can you guys.

Just as an example the performers (young) at the 2007 Grammys included the following, Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, Wyclef Jean/Shakira, Mary J Blige, Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera, James Blunt.. that is more talent times 20, than the hacks they brought out this year.. The only talent in this years youth was Rhianna, Carrie Underwood, and Amy Winehouse.

Brush up your music history with some Miles!!

Sports Orgy upcoming

2008-02-06T14:07:00.000-05:00

Right now since Sunday its been a sports orgy in my world. Yeah other types of orgys would be better but i'm happy with the sports.. Still high of the Giants Superbowl win, i picked up a copy of Sports Illustrated this week while that cover is great, the 2 page photo of Plexico catching the TD pass that won the game is one of the best sports photos ever, seriously... all the players watching and waiting to see if this is the piviotal moment that they battled and gave their blood, sweat and eventually tears over the last 59:25 for is captured in all its glory...

Anyway, why is it a sports Orgy, well today in less than 50 minutes is the start of England vs Switzerland, the best part about it is that since its a "friendly" and England isnt qualifying or playing for shit the game is on regular cable on FSC(that would be Fox Soccer Channel for those at home keep score). Its rare to see an England game that they dont charge $24.95 for on PPV but since they suck, this game is free. Its worth a watch to see what difference if any the new coach Fabio Capello can make..

More importantly for me, and a reason to get dressed up is later tonight at 9pm EST the USA vs Mexico game, again technically a friendly, there is nothing friendly about these 2 teams when they meet. The game will be played in Houston so of the 71,500 or so seating capacity of Reliant Stadium probably 65,000 will be Mexicans. Still I predict the USA to triumph. Still the USA will win, as the USA is 8-0-1 on home soil against our southern neighbors. Probably like a 2-1 game. It will be great to see Jozy Altidore in a real game, along with a newly matured Freddy Adu.. this could be the future at work folks..

Then after the hangover, early on Thursday is the semi-finals for the African Nations Cup. The noon (in NYC) early game is home team Ghana vs Cameroon. Cameroon has not looked impressive so far, giving up a late goal to Tunisia but then eventually beating them, but any team with Samuel Eto'o has to be feared. Ghana will have the crowd and this dude named Michael Essien could be the best player going right now. The later game 3:30 (again NYC time) is Ivory Coast vs Egypt, this will be a quality game, Ivory Coast team is LOADED with talent, but Egypt are the defending champs. I will probably be watching the late game at a West African restaurant as the internet is not always as reliable and i would hate to miss some of this action.

Enjoy the games!!

The best Superbowl ever!!!

2008-02-04T20:46:00.001-05:00

Still recovering from the Superbowl hangover but going to try to sum up an amazing game, amazing night and good time for NY all around. The classic NYC ticker-tape Parade is Tuesday and its something that no other city can pull off, sorry Boston but those stupid Duck Boats are just that, STUPID.

Full disclosure I am a NY Jets fan. I love Gang Green, but for this one day I was a Big Blue supporter. I can easily justify this without being called a fair weather fan for the simple reason of there is not rivalry between the NY Teams. They play each other in the regular season once every 4-5 years. The fans simply don't have ill will for each other. Yet Boston, that city and everything about it folks in NYC hate. The only true rivalry between NYC teams is in hockey, as the Rangers and Islanders really really dont like each other and the Rangers and Devils while not as storied have played some amazing tight games.

I went to a bar with about 7-8 friends, many of whom are die-hard Giants fans, season ticket holders and overall fanatics. The hardest sporting event I ever witnessed on TV that almost gave me a massive heart attack was Game 7 of the 1994 NHL Eastern Conference Finals Rangers vs Devils. To sum up that game Brian Leetch scored an amazing spin-o-rama goal to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Mike Richter stopped everything in sight until with 7.7 seconds left Valeri Zelepukin scored to take it to overtime. Overtime in the NHL is sudden death, so any goal and the series was over, for 2 full 15 minute overtimes my heart rate would race whenever the Devils had the puck. Thankfully Stephane Matteau scored that fluke goal in the 2nd overtime and the Rangers were going to the Stanley Cup.

For this Superbowl game I was worried some of my friends would have the same heart atack. On onto my analysis of what happened in the game.

First off, dont discount the Injury to Tom Brady's foot/ankle/whatever. It was obvious that his mobility was limited, this guy never gets sacked, even when his offensive line breaks down(which doesnt happen often) during the regular season he would have the mobility to evade the pass rushers. Not this time.. For a man used to having a 120lb supermodel on top of him, instead numerous times he had 600lbs of black men on top of him. The same injury issue with Plaxico Burress was true, for a guy who caught everything thrown to him in the Green Bay game in stupid cold weather, he was a non-issue for most of the game, but came up big with 35 seconds left in the game.

Eli Manning while not having a great game, he basically did what he needed when it was needed which is in the 4th quarter. The first TD gave the giants a much needed and deserved lead, the 2nd TD gave them the much deserved win. The fact the Giants had no running game at all, meant it was really all on Eli's shoulders, while I'm not ready to send him to the hall of fame just yet.

Ok enough analysis of the game, as you will read better account from professionals, lets talk about the drinking that I did.. My plan was for 1 pint (Blue Moon) a quarter, so a total of 4 beers, I felt that amount would allow me to think clearly, remember the highlights of the game and not be hung over on Monday. Well I think I had 5 beers instead of 4. After the game the posse traveled uptown to a bar called Scruffy Duffy's that is closing in a few days. It had the feeling of a bar that was closing as the beer selection was limited but they still charged $5 for a freaking Bud Bottle, screw that. Next stop the legendary Yogi's...

Yogi's on 76th and broadway in NYC is one of the best Dive bars in the city. Cheap prices, friendly and beautiful bartenders and country music on the jukebox.. Bad things are smelly bathrooms, but those are tolerable if you are drunk enough. I also liked the $3.25 bottles of Bud, vs the $5 at Scruffys.

Here are the celebratory blue shots for the Giants fans, not sure what was in them, but at this point the night was so good it did not really matter.

Next stop on the celebration tour on the UWS was Bourbon Street, we were shocked that many of the bars on the Upper West Side closed or were empty, thankfully some folks with spirit were at Bourbon Street. The Bartenders were in Giants mood, and dressed perfectly in their Eli Manning and Plexico Burress jerseys. Not sure of their names, it was 3am at this point and not all my functions were functioning properly.

The tickertape parade is tommorrow. hopefully I will have some good stories or pictures to share.

The best 0-0 draw i've ever seen..

2008-01-25T17:15:00.000-05:00

In soccer they say a 0-0 draw is like kissing your sister, well this afternoon's game in the 2008 African Cup of Nations between Mali and Nigeria was the best 0-0 game ever. I had to watch it over the internet using P2P software, but despite a few break ups the quality was just fine. I do think I will be going to Little West Africa for the Ivory Coast vs Mali game on Tuesday January 29th.

Tournament favorites and heavyweights Nigeria are now out of the tournament after losing to the Ivory Coast (ok i know the official name of the country is Cote D'Ivorie) and now drawing again Mali, the Super Eagles of Nigeria only have 1 point and i think have no chance of making it to the final knockout round.

Mali might be one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP per person ranking 166 out of 179, but I give it up to their soccer players for playing with heart and passion. The same passion can be heard in their music, check out any CDs from Malian artists.

They do have what I think is the best soccer jersey in the world, I want one of those as seen up top for sure.

While I thought i was going to root for Senegal in this tournament as its a country I have visited, now I think my spoiler team is going to be Mali. Lets go Eagles!! If you are not watching this years African Cup of Nations you are missing out on some of the best soccer in the world right now. Forget the boring FA Cup, or the Premiership as heck without the African players in England now, the game is boring.. fire up your Sopcast and tune into the African Cup of Nations!!

Weekend at Bernies Part III

2008-01-09T22:38:00.000-05:00

You simply can't make this shit up. Folks if this is not the sign the USA is already in a recession I dont know what other than the 4 horsemen riding through the street will tell ya tough times are ahead..

From the NY Daily News yall Let the man Rest in Peace

So for $355 bucks, folks are now arrested and in jail for who knows what crime. And folks are renting places for $1700 in Hells Kitchen for a tiny space, oh no thank you.

Well I guess since the Screen Writers are still on strike, someone needed to come up with new ideas for Sitcoms..

and the NY Times link All the News that is Fit to Print

But on the real, I would rather talk about sports, soccer, drinking, and hot Czech vs Brazilian supermodels right now I dont have much in that aspect. We are all up into elections, recession, housing crash.. I know that the lil bit of money I have in the stock markets is FAR FAR away from the Financials. They are about to take some massive writedowns in the 4th Quarter 2007 earnings. Like over 10 Billion each for Merrill Lynch and Citibank.. If you bought a house anywhere outside of Manhattan in 2007 its going to probably take you 2-3 years just to get back above-water. Real estate is fucked in most of the country, and then in NYC-Manhattan its the opposite shoeboxes with showers in the kitchen cost $500,000 bucks, hell you can't even get a non-jumbo mortgage for that price..

So as one investment bank said in their 2008 outlook, "There will be blood" (in the streets).. Keep your money closer to your mattress than to Wall Street..

Ahhhh now just looking forward to see if Beckham will get his 100th appearance in an England uniform for the upcoming Feb 6th game vs Swizterland.. but more importantly anyone have picks for the Africa Cup of Nations starting on Jan 20th.. I don't know enough about the other teams, other than I'll root for the Ivory Coast, as i love me some Didier Drogba and got plenty of Ivorians living up by me in Harlem...

2007 Tale of 2 Countries: England vs Brazil

2007-12-31T20:04:00.001-05:00

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...

2007-11-26T22:45:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-11-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

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!!!!!

2007-11-07T18:29:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2007-10-30T16:38:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-10-22T20:02:00.000-04:00

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)

2007-08-01T17:04:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-21T15:57:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-22T15:11:00.000-04:00

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!!

2007-03-14T21:58:00.000-04:00

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..

2006 You Were A Good Year See Ya!!!

2006-12-31T20:28:00.000-05:00

Ok I know I haven't really written much of anything over the last few months. No reason, other than one of the main reasons before this year i've never considered being a blogger. Overall my life is boring, I'm not a good writer, and who would care about the boring mundane details of my life. While I was on my whirlwind trip Blogging was the best way to stay in touch with folks, let people back home know the trip was going well, or in some cases not so well.. Anyway as 2007 approaches I plan on finishing up the country by country reviews of still at least 15 countries that I have not written about. Also hopefully I'll be able to take another trip in '07 that will provide more material for a blog if anyone is interested in reading..

Yet as 2006 comes to a close as with most people its a time to reflect on things of this past year. For sure 2006 was a great year for me, as I was able to take an amazing trip that left my passport with very few empty pages for future stamps, and it doesn't even expire until December 2008, so if I am able to travel as much as I want to over the next 2 years, extension pages will be in order. I am grateful for alot of things things this year, most my all my family and myself in relatively good health.. I saw relatively cause I think my Liver is still wishing it was in Europe where the beer was very pure and the liver was able to process the toxins very well and left my head clear most morning afters. Yet back in the old USA it seems like any beer, even Imported beer is hitting me HARDER than ever.. Yeah it could be cause I'm a year old, a year wiser, whatever you want to call it.

Yet as with all years there are some things to look back on as not so great and want to change for 2007. While Death is not something you can control, the world lost alot of great people this year and I myself was touched by the death of someone who was too young to have made her transition to the other side. So for all the good times, memories, pictures, stories.. For all the great people I met around the world on my European trip who I hope I am able to stay in touch with there are still all those people who have passed us on.. So below I will try my best with the help of Wikipedia to list those who have left us this year.

January 19 - Wilson Pickett, American Soul Singer. While not as well known as many of the other greats, Wilson could sing. Probably best known for his song "In The Midnight Hour", he was one of the great soul voices of the 1960s. Also a great songwriter in his own regard, tunes of were recorded by everyone from Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bruce Springsteeen. Practically a who's who of world music. 1991 Inductee in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. If you want a lesson, check out his 2CD Greatest hits from Amazon for only $19.99. Wilson Pickett 2CD Greatest Hits

January 30th - Coretta Scott King. Wife of the legendary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Ms. King had the duty to be a strong woman and stand by Dr. King's side during the tumultuous 1960's civil rights movement. Also raising their 4 young children after Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. The Civil Rights movement could go down as the most important movement of the last 100 years, and its surely not over yet. Great woman for sure.

March 6th - Kirby Puckett. Minnesota Twins great Outfielder, and MLB Hall of Famer. While never a twins fans growing up, there is something to be loved about Puckett. Standing probably 5"8 inches tall, as almost as wide in girth as he was in height, he was the ultimate competitor. Be it climbing a wall in CF to make a catch, hitting a clutch HR when his team needed it. Elected into the HOF in his first year on the ballot which was a shock to many. When you look at his numbers vs Don Mattingly they are incredibly close, yet Puck won those 2 World Series with the Twins. Youngest ever HOF death at age 45(except for Roberto Clemente who died before being elected but had his 5 year waiting period waved)

May 3rd - Earl Woods. Sure he was only Tiger's father, but he was a US Marine and war hero in his own right. But what should be looked at, is despite the fact his son was a sports prodigy at such a young age, both father and son always kept their diginity. In these days of fathers of 8 year old pee-wee football players being violent against their coaches, ref's, other parents, even other kids its great to see someone raise a child star and both the star and father being well adjusted.

June 6th - Billy Preston. The 5th Beetle, or sometimes known as the Black Beetle. The only person other than the Fab 4 to receive performance credit on a Beetles record. John Lennon wanted to make him a group member, while he never got that in the end, he performed with him during their last ever performance in 1970. Also a FONKY man on his own in the 70s, he played with probably the other most famous group from the UK, that being The Rolling Stones. For some true 70s funk check out his tune from 1972, Outa-Space. Definately check out for only $7.49 at Amazon his Millennium Collection with Outa-Space and You Are So Beautiful on it. Billy Preston Greatest Hits

June 7th - Maria Puppin-Boyd. This was was hard, my good dear friend Maria passing at only 31 years old from Cancer. I've said about as much about Maria as I already can, but lets just let it be known, she was by far one of the strongest people i've ever met. To fight cancer the way she did, always have a positive attitute and never question "Why Me?" well not many of us would ever be able to live with that dignity that she shows. You will be missed always Maria.

Below from (L to R), Patti, Myself, Daniel Boyd, Maria Puppin Boyd, Ingrid. During a dinner for her birthday in 1998.

September 4th - Steve Irwin. Always entertaining, always fun to watch on TV. The Croc-Hunter died young, and considering his line of work, it was a shocking death. While I've been told from friends in Australia this was on the level of a national tragedy, here in the USA while Irwin was on TV, he never fully reach Rock-star status. Yet we all will learn a lesson about swimming above sting-rays from his death.

October 6th - Buck O'neil. One of the great ambassadors for the game of baseball. A great player during the Negro Leagues. The first ever African-American coach in the major leagues, Buck become enormously popular during his latter years. Always in demand for an opinion, as a speaker, or just as a great guy. Sadly he wasn't elected into the baseball Hall of Fame when they elected 18 other Negro League legends. Hopefully the book hasn't closed on his chance to get into Cooperstown. Even if he never makes it, he was instrumental in establishing the Negro League Hall of Fame Museum in Kansas City. A place one day I will surely visit.

October 11 - Cory Lidle. Well anytime these days you hear of a plane hitting a building in NYC, people will freak out and worry the next attack is coming. Yet in Lidle's case it was probably a combination of bad weather and pilot error and nothing of the terroristic scare. Yet from a journey-man pitcher he will now go down in history for alot of people as a trivia question as to where they were, when they heard a plane crashed into an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

October 28th - Trevor Berbick. The only man to ever fight Muhammad Ali(beat him in 10 round in 1981) and Mike Tyson (got his ass knocked out in 1986). I have only seen highlights of the Tyson knockout, never of the Ali fight.

November 9th - Ed Bradley. News commentator and journalist. Overall a legend in the African-American community being one of the few black faces on Network TV in the early 70s. Blazed a trail for all who followed him. Also a great sports fan and jazz music fan and supporter.

December 13th - Lamar Hunt. By far one of the most influential people in USA sports over the last 40 years. From helping to form the American Football League(AFL) and lead for a merger that created our current NFL. To his role in USA Soccer, being a founder of both the North American Soccer League(NASL) and Major League Soccer(MLS) and owner of 2 teams. While he was lucky to have come from a wealthy family and can't be protrayed as a rags to riches story, his contributions to USA sports are legendary.

December 25th - James Brown. The Godfather of Soul. By far the hardest working man in show business. To hear his music, or see his dancing feet was something we all have to have done. I luckily had the chance to see him perform live at the Taste of Chicago in the late 90s, while not in his pure heyday, he still put on a helluva a show. I even attempted to go pay respects to his body when it laid in repose at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem a few blocks from my house, but the crowds were simply too big. Loved by all, Respected by Many, his music is simply the backbone of almost anything you hear these days that makes you want to move your feet and shake your ass!!

December 26th - Gerald Ford. While in many ways I am always shocked at how they make it out when former presidents die that they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. If Ford was that great, he would have gotten more than 49% of the vote in 1976 and beaten an unknown peanut farmer from Georgia. Yet in death he is greater than his 28 months in office. Will always be a trivia question as the only man to be president of the USA without ever receiving a single vote from the public for office.

December 30th - Saddam Hussein. My feeling for the Iraq war aside, the Devil is finally able to get his way with Saddam as depicted in the South Park Movie. I hope Lucifier and Saddam are having a blast down there.. If you have not seen Bigger Longer Uncut, check it out by far my favorite Musical ever! Only $7.49 new at Amazon. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut

See ya 2006! Hope everyone has a great 2007!!!!!

Utah! You go live in Utah!!!

2006-12-11T22:44:00.000-05:00

I have to wonder if that is what Freddy Adu said when told he was traded from D.C United to Real Salt Lake. In the famous words of NBA star Derek Harper when he rejected a trade from the Dallas Mavericks to the Utah Jazz he told a reporter "Utah.. You go live in Utah, I ain't living in Utah!!"

This past weekend I know of one Ghanaian who had a great weekends, and one who might have been scratching his head. Watching the Chelsea vs Arsenal game, it appeared that arch London rivals Arsenal would be the first team to win at Chelsea's home stadium since Jose mourinho took over as coach in 2004. With only six minutes left, Michael Essien of Ghana struck an incredible 35 yard shot right into the corner of the net, to tie the game at 1-1. Later he almost scored the game winner from up close but hit the crossbar. Overall it was an amazing game, check the video of his possibly goal of the year strike below.

Then later in the weekend, USA citizen but Ghana born teenager Freddy Adu, the former "savior" of USA Soccer, former number 1 overall pick in the MLS, former highest paid player in the MLS(at a paltry $500,000 a year, i think the waterboy on Chelsea makes more than that), got traded from his hometown DC United team out to the middle of Utah. Now while initally it sounds like the end of the career for Adu, some things have to be looked at. He will be playing for John Ellinger, who was his coach on the Under-17 USA national team where Adu first came to the attention of everyone. Second the kid clearly needed a new start, maybe outside of the spotlight, and pressure of DC United, he will get a chance to play his proper position as a central midfielder and develop his skills. His skills are obviously not where he wants them to be, as after his 2 week try out at Manchester United, they told him come back kid when you are a better player, no thanks this time..

While I know the kid at only 17 has plenty of time to shine and become a centerpiece of our 2010 USA World Cup team, the future of USA soccer has others to fall back on. Watching a few of the NY Red Bull games I was totally impressed with the play of Josmer Altidore who is also 17 years old. Less pressure on Freddy might in the end be a good thing. No more clashing with coaches, no more not being the best player on his team, no more mouthing off the way a 17 year old can mouth off and piss off team-mate who are old enough to be his father.. just get out to Utah, help them with attendence and jersey sales, help them get a real stadium cause that thing they play in the College Football stadium is simply UGLY on TV.

Best of luck to Freddy in Utah, but I still agree with Derek Harper, "you go live in utah.."

My Music CD of the Year: John Mayer Continuum

2006-11-30T15:29:00.000-05:00

As the year comes to a close, I have to say this year brought some good music to listen to. For the first time in a while, I actually can say there are at least 5 CDs that came out this year that I have totally enjoyed. But yet the best album of the year by far for me, is the new John Mayer release "Continuum". Why? Well its a combination of alot of things..
John Mayer is a great guitar player, simply put. At the same time he manages to write great songs, and had a decent voice. So all around, a complete musician. While most of his fans seem to be women, men should have no problem admitting they enjoy Mayer. His recent CD did not come out till September 12th, a bit after I was home from my Europe trip, which sucks, as it would have made AMAZING music to listen to on numerous 12hr train rides in Eastern Europe.
Along with his great songwriting of his own, he managed to do a cover of one of the most amazing songs guitarwise i've ever heard. From to me the greatest guitar player who ever lived, Jimi Hendrix. Bold as Love has to be one of my favorite of all time hendrix songs, from the colorful images of the lyrics to just the killer guitar work. Its a song that i've never heard Hendrix do it live, yet according to some web sites that list every concert he ever played he played it before. There is an amazing test/demo version on the 4 disc "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" box set, that is suppose to be the 21st take, an all instrumental version. It was Take 27, that we hear on the album that was released..
Anyway check out the amazing live solo performance of John Mayer doing this song below and if you don't have the album, pick it up, you won't be disappointed. Its only $7.88 on sale at Amazon.. check out the link below.

What I will and won't be doing this weekend...

2006-11-17T12:47:00.000-05:00

On this weekends list of things to do, and not to do. Not to do, sorry was not invited to the TomKat wedding in Italy. Not that I really care, as i've already seen Katie Holmes nice cans in the movie The Gift, and Tom hasn't made a good movie in some time, Mission Impossible 3 kinda sucked. Plus anyone getting married in a damn HAUNTED Castle in Italy, even if I got the invite, I might have had to send back, sorry can't make it. Not big on Ghosts, I saw my otherwise cool friend Godfrey freaked the fuck outta his mind on the VH1 show "Celebrity Paranomal Project". The Odescalchi Castle is the site of the wedding outside of Rome. Back in the 15th century dude who lived there, his wife would let younger men come in and violate her in ways which must have pissed off her man, so he killed her in the castle. He would later then violate a bunch of married women and wound up killing their husbands. Imagine if they had a NY Post back in 15th century Italy, I can only imagine the headlines that would scream out..

Ok since i'm not invited to that wedding or any wedding for the matter. I'll be watching sports(again)! If you haven't heard there is a certain big college football game this weekend, Ohio State vs Michigan. Now growing up in NYC and going to a college that was not a Division I, II, or even III school I dont really get into college sports. I was told its cause on the east coast, we have not had a college football team that matters in a century by my west coast cousin who is a USC nut. Yet as a kid I did like Michigan as they had Anthony Carter who caught some amazing passes during his days in Ann Arbor. Well this year for the first time since 1975, both teams are undefeated and this is going to be the game of the season, decade, century whatever. With this being the last game of the Big 10 schedule now for the past few years, it usually decides a bowl birth, championship, but rare have both teen been the "only"(save for Rutgers, Boise State, etc) undefeated teams. I can only name about 2-3 guys on each team, but I'll be watching and probably rooting for the underdog Michigan. Having never lived or gone to college in either state, I can't understand the full level of HATRED between the school and states. I just have to chuckle at stories about how legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes wouldn't even fill up his gas tank anywhere in the state of Michigan. or how Bo Schembechler a former assistant under Woody Hayes couldn't win a national championship with Michigan and this has spawned a number of hate fight songs. In fact he died today, I guess never being able to win the Rose Bowl, ate at his heart for so many years, it gave out today. I'll be watching this game on Saturday for sure. Saturday at 3:30pm on ABC

Other sports to watch this weekend include the NASCAR Ford 400 from Homestead Florida. Its the last race of the NASCAR season and while it appears that Jimmy Johnson with a 63pt lead has the Chase for the Nextel Cup sewn up. Anything can happen.. Jimmy needs to finish 12th or better to assure the spot, even in some ways a 15th place finish with 2nd place guy Matt Kenseth would clinch the tie breaker for him. Basically unless Johnson blows an engine or crashes, this thing is done. Yet its still the last race of the season, and I'll be watching. Sunday at 2pm on NBC.

No major European soccer games on this weekend, while if you get Fox Soccer Channel, you can watch Manchester United, Everton and Liverpool all in action. Last weekends game of Arsenal vs Liverpool was a quality matchup. The big news in european soccer this week is that Freddy Adu is going to have a 2 week training stint with the Manchester United team. Most likely he will be playing with the reserves, so i doubt he will get to show off his skills to the likes of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Louis Saha.. it will be interesting to see what comes about his 2 weeks overseas playing with the big boys, as so far in his YOUNG career, remember he is only 17 and most of us were poppin zits on our faces at 17, but so far he hasnt done much in MLS.

NFL Football as usual is in effect on Sunday here in the states, my resurgent Jets hopefully can at least play competitive against the Bears, I don't expect a win, but hopefully they don't get blown out. Their schedules after the Bears is easy with not having a play a winning team. Other good games to watch for include the NBC Sunday night game of Denver(7-2) vs San Diego(7-2). I know that the ratings are huge for these NBC Sunday games, and they are glad they paid as much as they did to get football back.. Fuck those deperate housewives, I know what I'm watching on Sunday.

RIP to Bo Schembechler, i'm sure you'll be watching on the big screen HDTV up in the sky.

How to waste $51.1 Million dollars

2006-11-16T11:18:00.000-05:00

You want to know how to waste $51.1 Million dollars, well just be Theo Epstein, the GM of the Boston RedSox.. And not its not like the movie Brewster's Millions staring Richard Pryor of having to spend $30 million in 30 days in order to inherit $300 million. Is baseball turning into European soccer where players are moved for gigantic transfer fees? Was Theo on the phone with Roman Abramovich the owner of Chelsea football Club when he was thinking of how to bid for Daisuke Matuzaka?? Roman probably told him about wasting away $40 Million dollars to sign a player like Shawn Wright Phillips only to watch him sit on the Bench and not score a goal in his Chelsea career but making it right by signing Didier Drogba for $45 Million to have him become the best goal scorer in the Premiership, ya know you win some you lose some...

To play $51.1 million dollars just for the right to talk to a player is in many ways crazy, but in many ways like European Football. Now the Red Sox still have to sign Matuzaka to a contract, and guess who his agent is.. Yep Scott Boras, the man who can get the last dollar out of everyone. While at the time the Carlos Beltran contract looked insane, his recent season and leading the Mets to the playoffs and a great season makes it look like a better return on his 7 year, $119 price tag. Word is Boras is looking for a 3 year, $45 million contract. This would make the 3 year, $21 million that Hediki Matsui signed with the Yankees look to be the far east bargain of the century. I can understand keeping it to a 3 year deal, as if this guy proves himself, he will only be 29 and up for a monster 5 year contract. If it doesn't, it limits the Red Sox losses at just short of $100 million dollars.

Just how good this Matuzaka is remains to be seen. Foreign pitchers don't have the track record of performing great in the USA. Neither expensive imports from Cuba, Mexico and Japan or elsewhere have done amazingly well. Possibly a few years with flashes of brilliance, but overall for a full career its been a toss up. Fernando Valenzuela had his brilliant rookie year in 1981 at the age of 20. He went 13-7 seemed unstoppable. Over the next 7 years the Dodgers would let him pitch 96 complete games, of which an amazing 27 were shutouts. Then at the age of 26 he was essentially DONE. After this point only 17 more complete games for his career, only 1 season of over 200IP, and a career record of 60-71, more hits than IP and an ERA of about 4.50 most season.

The fact that Matsuaka is already 26 years old, and has thrown in Japanese baseball about 1400IP to this point in his career is not a good sign for the future. Its going to take him a year or so to adjust to USA Baseball, and having to rely on your fastball to establish strikes early in the count. On top of it, looking at him he looks built like Pedro Martinez, while Pedro has only begun to start breaking down physically now at 34 years old. Roy Oswalt has a similar build, and while he has been a total stud his first 6 years in the Big Leagues, it will be interesting at age 28 if the Astros get their money worth with his current 5 year, $73 million deal. If I was a Red Sox fan, the slight build would bother me. Obviously there is a sense of urgency to do something after not making the playoffs last year, and knowing the Yankees lack of quality starting pitching, they wanted to make it SURE the Yanks would not get him. Well the Yanks will look in other directions and possibly even let our minor league pitching prospect, 20 year old Philip Hughes. My opinion is i'm glad its the Red Sox wasting $51 million so they can go ahead and raise the already league high average ticket prices, instead of the Yanks spending $30 million or so and ending up with another Hideki Irabu.. who it should be noted has more World Series Rings(2) than the Red Sox franchise have in the past 88 years. Along with his 1.7 Billion yen in Career salary.

What I know about Kazakhstan!

2006-11-13T12:34:00.000-05:00

Well like the millions of others Americans I went to see the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan over the weekend. It has made a ton of money, with another $29 million over this weekend, for a total of $67 million and rolling on strong. I'm sure the studio is happy, Sacha Baron Cohen is happy, and even the nation of Kazakhstan is happy despite being portraited in slightly backwards ways. I think the only people who aren't happy are the unwitting "stars" of the movie, who signed release forms for like $150, or $500 bucks for their scenes and now want a piece of the pie.. ahh the American way, don't you love it???

Before the whole Borat takeover I actually knew a few things about Kazakhstan. It being the 9th largest country in the world, larger than Sudan, slight smaller than Argentina.

In sports at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the USA beat Kazakhstan 4-1 in hockey. This would be a huge victory, in fact our only victory in the tournament and show just how much we sucked. We tied Latvia, and lost to Slovakia, Sweden and Russia. So if not for the glorious nation of Kazakhstan we would not have made it to the quarterfinal round(where we lost to Finland).

Also if you follow the annual march through France, otherwise known as the Tour de France, everyone could cheer for Lance Armstrong back in the day but you had to really enjoy the race to root for Alexandre Vinokourov who is one of the most exciting riders. He would attack at any time, any place, mountains, or whatever and even was a guy who would be with the sprinters at the end of the race to win a flat stage. Probably one of the best overall riders of the tour, he didnt compete in the 2006 Tour as his team had 5 of its riders eliminated in the pre-race doping scandal. He was never accused of doping, but at such a late date, it was impossible to enter the race with a 3 person team. He will be 34 in 2007 if he rides the tour, and sadly in the endurance sport of cycling that might be a bit too old to win the whole thing. Still he has had a great sporting career, and possibly the most accomplished athlete in the history of the country, having won an Olympic Silver medal in 2000.

While I was in Europe this past summer, I met a girl from Kazakhstan and let me tell you they look alot different than in the movie. Considering Kazakhstan's location the people are a mix of the Chinese Asian look and Russian. It seemed like the people shown in the movie were poor gypsies from a tiny village. I am not sure if any of the movie was filmed actually in Kazakhstan, I did see in the credits something about a Romanian unit.

I was in Bratislava after the World Cup Final game and talking to the few French fans I saw and she was in that group. Knowing the Borat movie was about to come out, I had to trade currency with her and managed to get myself a 200 Tenge bill(worth about $1.50). It will be a nice collectible until/if/I ever visit the glorious country of Kazakhstan itself.

The movie was funny for sure, in fact there was one particular scene where I was crying, tears literally rolling down my face. Yet was it the funniest movie ever? No.. Was the script stupid... Yes.. Is Cohan a genius at this form of comedy? Yes.. Should you go see it? Probably Yes if your not easily offended.. Remember people the actor doing the jokes about Jews is actually Jewish himself. The same way black comedians can make fun of blacks.. but if they talk about jews or whites its TROUBLE. Cohan can make fun of the jews. In fact from some stats i've seen on the web, I dont even think there are many jewish people in Kazakhstan. I've seen the religion break-down as follows: Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%.

Alright next post for sure, how the USA can regain a world-wide sporting presence.

Has the USA lost its sports mojo???

2006-11-06T14:38:00.000-05:00

Recently I was watching and NHL hockey game, and it struck me just how many of the players are foreign born. The NHL should literally be renamed something like the International Hockey League, as so many of the players are foreign born, and not just from North America countries of Canada and USA. While the Canadian born players are still the leaders both in terms of sheer numbers and in all-time hockey greats, the European born players are catching up. The NHL is already starting to resemble European Football leagues like the English Premiership and Spain's La Liga where players from all 6 continents compete on a weekly basis. For sure the best up and coming young players from the NHL are from Europe, and looking at past draft history that is not going to change anytime soon. All this thinking had me wondering if the USA as a country has lost our sports mojo. While without a doubt we can claim the best players in NFL Football, at the same time we are basically the only country in the world where the game is played. All the others sports that are played on a national basis, it can be argued we don't develop the best players.

The NBA is still dominated by mostly Black, mostly American players, but more and more Europeans and even South Americans are coming to play. While well known players like Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are foreign born and have played major roles on teams winning the Championship, did you know there are 80 foreign born players making up roughly 20?% of the league from 35 different countries. The Toronto Raptors have not 1 but 2 Slovenian players(Rasho Nesterovic and Uros Slokar) from a country of 2 million people smaller than New Jersey.

Yet looking at recent performances in International basketball tournaments it can be said we aren't the best in the world. At the recent FIBA World Championships our team finished 3rd place. True we have won the 1996, and 2000 Olympics, but the 2004 Olympic performance while missing some of the best players due to "terrorism fears" we lost. Who knows if for the 2008 Olympics our best players will go, or claim the long travel to China as a reason for not going. I mean these players are already making untold millions(just look at the Knicks giving Jalen Rose nearly $15 Million dollars to GO AWAY) and they want to spend their summer vacations driving around their fleet of cars.

Other sports are no better, in Baseball, once thought the dominant sport, in the recent World Baseball Classic we simple sucked. While it can be said the timing of the event was not good during spring training, we lost of Canada and Mexico our 2 north American neighbors. The biggest biding frenzy this off-season is for some Japanese Pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka who few fans have ever seen pitched. The best offensive players seem to come from the Domician Republic, Venezuela or other places these days. We won the Olympics in 2000, but this sport with its limited worldwide appeal is being dropped from the Olympics after the 2008 games, the first sport dropped from the summer Olympics since Polo at the 1936 Berlin Games. Not something to be proud of for the game of baseball as it only became an Olympic sport in 1992.

Golf??? Well you can't really consider it a team game, just as much as Speed Skating was made out to be a team sport at these past Winter Olympics with the controversy between Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick. The recent performance in the Ryder Cups shows the USA either doesn't play well on the big stage, or simply aren't the best golfers in the world. That is the 3rd straight Ryder Cup we have lost and in recent memory have only won the 1993 and 1999 Cups. I don't watch the event anyway as this year the time delay coverage was boring and horrible. While I can understand simple stroke play golf, I have NO IDEA what four-balls or foursomes are other than a potential kinky sexual event!

Hockey, well my favorite sport is being overtaken by Europeans for sure. While I LOVE the Czech players on my NY Rangers, looking at the overall stats of the NHL its clear the foreign born players are the best right now. From today's top 20 in league scoring we find 1 American, 2 Czechs, 1 Slovakian, 9 Candaians, 2 Russians, 4 Sweedes and 1 Austrian. You are telling me the best player in the USA hockey is equal to the best Austrian player?(Thomas Vanek for those not in the know). The recent drafts don't show much promise for American players, in the past 3 NHL drafts, there have been 24 out of 90 players of USA decent taken in the first round. While this percentage of 26% is higher than the current 17.7% of NHL players, wait a minute. Of these 24 players taken, only 2.. yes only 2 have even PLAYED for their NHL team.. Only one of these Phil Kessel has even scored a goal. Yet when you look at the Sidney Crosby, Alex Overchkin, Evegni Malkin, Anze Kopitar and the rest of some of the 1st round foreign born players making an impact now its makes you wonder how many of the 24 Americans are going to pan out.. Watching any of these young players is a treat, last week got to watch the Rangers killed by the LA Kings and this 19 year old Slovenian player Kopitar was all over the ice, everywhere you looked he was in on a play.

So where does this leave the USA? Well it basically means that SOCCER, yes some of your call it football, but that Soccer is the USA's only hope of fielding a team that will compete on an International level to sucess. While this past 2006 World Cup as experienced in person the USA put on a totally embarrassing showing, the future is bright. There are many challenges, and by no means are we about to produce as many quality soccer players as a Brazil, its our nations only hope.. more on this on my next entry as to how Soccer can save the egg on the USA face in International sporting events...

Revenge is a Dish Best Served tomorrow!!

2006-10-30T13:08:00.000-05:00

The UEFA Champions League group stages continue with Matchday 4 on October 31st/November 1st. The match I'm most looking forward to is the rematch of the game October 18th. Yep Chelsea vs Barcelona, this time the game will be played in Barcelona at the Camp Nou in Barcelona. Back 2 weeks ago Chelsea won the game 1-0 on a great goal by Didier Drogba, who has 4 goals in the Champions League, to go with his 5 League tallies to have an amazing 9 overall goals. This week the venue shifts and with some 70,000 or so Barca fans the home team should have an advantage. Its a very important game for Barca as they are tied with Bremen for 2nd place in their group with 4pts. Barca cannot afford anything less than a victory, as Bremen is playing winless and hapless Levski Sofia who has scored 1 goal, allowed 10 goals and is starting their backup 18 year old goaltender.

On Halloween in the daytime, why soccer?? Well the NBA season is about to start up on Tuesday, but early season games don't do much for me and my team the NY Knicks are plain and simply an embarrassment. While it would be hard to be as horrible as last season with the highest payroll at $126million (next highest team was Dallas Mavericks with 97million, but THEY MADE THE FINALS). While the youth movement is slow in coming to the Knicks, I guess there is always hope... NOT.. I expect Isiah to be fueding with someone by January, and this will probably be his only season coaching the team, as he will quit or be fired. Jeff Van Gundy is sitting somewhere glad he quit when he did or else the last 4 years would have aged him 40, and Jeff had not been aging well since being attached to Alonzo Mourning leg in that fight vs Miami years ago.

So back to the sport that seems to draw the most interest for me right now at this time, yet soccer, football if your not in the USA. While I root for Arsenal, and think Thierry Henry is simply a magician with the ball when it comes to big time matchups i'll watch most of them. Chelsea is an undefeated 3-0 in group stage play, only allowing 1 goal. They are also at the top of the premiership in England and all around having a great season. This will be a great game to watch, if you can find it. Its being shown on ESPN Deportes which I don't get on my DirecTV so I guess its off to a soccer bar to try and catch this clash. I expect Barca to win 2-1, but if you read any of my team USA world cup predictions I was WAY WAY WAY off the money. So sports gambling is not a career i'm looking to go into anytime soon.

Help out my Favorite NYC Band!!

2006-10-26T23:38:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone.. Live music is one of my passions along with Travel, Sports and Beer.. When you can combine 3 of those together, we are talking about a PARTY!! Anyway YouTube is having a contest for the most popular underground music video. This band that I've been seeing live for a little bit over 2 years Valeze has an entry. First off Valeze are great on stage, incredible stage presence, all live instruments and talented folks. Second they are freaking cool people, love to drink and party during the afterparty. So right there you have a winner. Doesn't hurt the lead singer is cute and very stylish, so all around they are winners..

Check out their latest music video below, or goto YouTube and watch their video for the song "Go, GO Go" and vote for Cingular YouTube underground Contest
You want to see this video cause it features a bathroom make out orgy with girls kissing girls!! Yeah, now that is a party..

Also you can join their Myspace page at Valeze My Space Page Some upcoming concert dates include
Tonight October 26th in Boston at "The Middle East"

October 31st in NYC at Crash Mansion

November 21st NYC at the Knitting Factory

Country by Country Hungary - Stop the Budapest Riots!!

2006-10-24T16:50:00.000-04:00

After the recent events in Hungary over the last few days I decided to write my country review of Hungary now, instead of going in chronological order. I took a bus from Krakow, Poland to Budapest, Hungary. It was an easy 6hr bus ride, straight through the heart of Slovakia and the low tatras mountains. The bus was the only direct way from Poland to Hungary, as the rail network in Slovakia is not quite yet up to standards of Eurail. Bus are for sure the better way to get around Slovakia, but more on that country during a later post.

I have really wanted to visit Budapest over the past few years. I had heard only good things about the city and country from 2 bartenders who worked in the NYC area over the past years. That combined with the fact the city was located on the famous Danube river drew me to it. I was not disappointed by any means, and my 3 days there hopefully will not be the only time I ever spend in the country. I must say although there has been little coverage of the riots that have taken place over the last month in Budapest, its safe to going in the summertime was the right time to go, as things look a bit dicey right now, with mistrust of the government by the people. I did not see or feel any sort of despair/anger/frustration when I was there, but obviously it has been building for a while and the notion of a corrupt govt doesn't help by any means.

For those who haven't heard about just what has gone down in the last few days, I'll do my best to give a quick recap of events. Monday October 23rd, 2006 marked the 50th anniversary of the anti-Soviet uprising. People were either celebrating in the streets, or protesting the recent leak of a tape of the recently elected Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. In his campaign the PM basically lied about the state of the economy, said he would cut taxes where after he was elected he raised them and announced spending cuts. Gosh looks like he learned his political education from some of our US leaders.. Hey Poppa Bush remember that "No New Taxes" Pledge???? Well the government choose this event to squash the protestors outside the Parliament building, by bringing out the rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas to send the rioters home. Naturally there was some resistance and mini riots in the street. The govt would then claim "Everything is Under control, nothing to see, move along.. keep it moving.." Anyway that is the current situation in Budapest, when I was there in July 2006 it was lovely and while I was mostly sightseeing by day, and drinking by night, I didn't see any signs of the impending trouble.

Budapest is actually 2 cities that are united by bridges across the Danube. There is the flat Pest side, which is larger and has most of the important Parliament buildings, church's, and museums. Then there is the hilly Buda side that is less populated, has a few clubs, the Citadel Castle and a few museums. Its a city of 1.7 million people, by far the largest in Hungary and one of the top 10 in all of the European Union. The currency is the Forint, with a rate of about 200 Ft for each US Dollar. The city is easy to navigate by tram/bus/subway and even walking. In fact my first day sightseeing there I walked all around for about 7hrs, only to get back to the hostel and be topped by an Aussie staying there who walked for 11hrs. He woke up earlier than me I guess. Here is one of the better church's that I managed to find.

I totally enjoyed the sights of Budapest, more so than Prague. It was surely less crowded than Prague, and I was able to just walk without a map or purpose and run into some great sights. I climbed up in the Buda Hills to the top of the Citadel, and the view was simply amazing. Each level you reach and stop for a breather you look and say wow what a great view, it only gets better the higher and higher up you go until you reach the top and the whole city is in view. There is a nightclub up at the Citadel and I was thinking of going, but after walking/hiking/climbing up during the daytime there was no way I was going to do so at nighttime a second time. Yet there is plenty of other nightlife to find in Budapest.

I stayed at a decent Hostel The Aborignal that was located well right off Jozsef Korut avenue which is a main drag that you can catch the 4 or 6 tram. The hostel was average with only 1 bathroom with a shower, but had 2 computers with free internet. The people staying there were not really party people, and no one seemed to stay for more than 1 night, so I mostly hung out at night alone. Budapest has a great transportation system with both underground subways, and above ground trams. The fares are about 185 Ft per ride and I was warned to always pay as they seem to like to pick out black foreigners to check tickets and potentially fine... luckily I bought all my tickets and didn't have any problems. The trams don't run all night, but I got around that by partying till 4am and caught the first tram back home! After being in Krakow and their cool underground smoke filled bars, going to outdoor spots on the Danube was a total blessing in Budapest. On the Buda side of the river, there are 2 cool spots, Zold Pardon and Club Rio right across the street from each other. Zold Pardon is open in the daytime and has a great 2 for 1 happy hour beers for 400 Ft total($2 USD), at night they have 2-3 different music styles playing and its all outdoors. Club Rio is a bit more of a swanky place, and while the beers were more expensive about 750Ft each, and they didn't have any local Hungarian beer on tap, the crowd was better dressed, younger and seemed to be on the prowl for good nightlife.
I must say if any country in Eastern Europe where English was a problem it would be Hungary. While I was told that all the younger people speak english, I ran into a few that didn't speak it too well.

The worst experience regarding language was when I went to the Thermal Baths in the City Park. I bought my admission ticket for I think 2000 Ft($10) and literally walked around the building twice trying to find where to enter. It turned out I should have entered where I bought the ticket, but I only saw a line of women, and thought the baths were separated men on one side, women on the other.. After a 1hr long wild goose chase of running around trying to find where to enter I was ready to give up and totally frustrated but eventually found the way in. The Thermal baths are amazing, inside you have sauna rooms, hot hot hot pools, and then you get outside and they have 2 pool, one COLD, and one Medium to Warm. Even in the dead of winter the natural thermal springs heat the hot pool to over 100 Degrees. A very cool place and better yet they served beer!!!

The city has over 10 thermal/hot baths, and one could basically relax at them all day long and then party all night long, Budapest is a great city.. Plus if you like the cultural side of things, ya know churches, museums, architecture and shit like that, plenty to be seen.. Most importantly LESS PEOPLE THAN PRAGUE. I would highly recommend a trip to Budapest, and if you have extra time try to explore some of the smaller cities in the rest of Hungary, I didn't make it to any, but in my future travel plans I hope to. Towns like Eger, the Lake Balaton area, and Pecs all sounded like cool places from people I talked to during my travels, hopefully i'll make it there eventually.

A picture of the Parliament building, before the protests/riots.

Another view from my walk up to the Citadel

Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona battle of Spain, and other sports to watch this weekend

2006-10-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is to watch sports. This month of October has been a great month for me, with the beginning of the NHL season, NFL getting into full swing, the MLB Playoffs and world series. Even some great NASCAR races, but the grand-daddy sporting event of the weekend will be in Soccer. Yep, rivals Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are going to play for the first of 2 times this season. This game will be played at the 80,000 seat Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. This is for sure the hottest ticket in Spain this weekend. This could possibly be one of the most famous rivalries in all of sports. Yep all of sports here, we are talking about a rivalry between cities. If you have ever been to Spain and met someone from Madrid, they say their city is the best, and the same for people from Barcelona. Barcelona is the capitol of Catalonia, a region that would like to separate from Spain and be their own country. This rivarly has gone on as long as both teams have been around(over 100 years), its about a lot more than who wins or loses the game, its national identity at sake here. The game will be watched everywhere in the World as the roster on both teams includes players from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Iceland, Italy, England. I will be watching it live on Sunday Oct 22nd, 3pm here in the USA on Gol TV, channel 614 on DirecTV.

Should be an interesting game, will this be when Ronaldinho who hasn't been spectacular this season at all finally break out. Who can forgot his last performance in Madrid in 2005, when he scored 2 goals and was CHEERED!! by the away fans. Other questions include what role does David Beckham have with Real Madrid?? Is this the end of his career? No longer on the English national team, and not even starting for real Madrid, will we see Beckham in the MLS next season? The season is still early, only 6 games having been played. Barcelona has not lost yet, and Madrid would love to be their first defeat of the season and it might give Madrid the spark they need to move up in the standings from 5th place. I know GOL TV is not on every cable system, but if you get it, this should be a fun game to watch.

Also on TV this weekend and worth watching The World Series Game 1 & Game 2. on FOX at 8pm Saturday and Sunday nights. While the matchup of St. Louis vs Detroit is not going to win any ratings battle for most watched World Series, in fact it might be least watched, what a story it would be in Detroit Tigers could win the World Series after losing 119 games only 3 years ago..

NASCAR, Subway 500 from Martinsville, Virgina. Sunday Oct 22nd, 12:30pm NBC. What watching NASCAR on a Sunday? Well this weeks slate of NFL games doesnt have any compelling matchups until the Monday night game Giants vs Cowboys. This NASCAR race is on a tiny track, .5 mile oval, so there will be PLENTY of bumping, passing, spin-outs and even a few accidents. But don't worry with average speeds of only 90mph, these guys will hit the wall, go into the pits, fix the car and get back out there.

College Football... While I honestly don't get into the college game, it rules the airwaves on Saturday. Plus if Ohio State ranked 1, and Michigan ranked 2, both can run their remaining schedules and finish undefeated it will be an EPIC battle on November 18th at Ohio State when the 2 teams would meet in the last game of the season for both the Big 10 Title, National Championship shot and total midwest bragging rights. Ohio State vs Michigan is one of the biggest and best rivalries in college sports.

The NFL is usually king of the TV airwaves on a fall weekend, but even NBC does not want to go up against the World Series so no "Football Night in America" this week. Whatever is on, there is a good chance I'll be on my couch with remote in hand watching some sports this weekend! Enjoy

Anyone seen this man lately?

2006-10-18T12:04:00.000-04:00

Talkin about the vampire hunter, Blade himself Wesley Snipes. It seems that Wesley has not paid his taxes for a while and the government would like to take some photographs of him. It seems that from 1999 to 2004 Mr. Snipes didnt file or pay his taxes. He also applied for a nice little $11 million refund for years paid previous to 1999. Know I don't know what sorta crack Wesley was smoking, but he could have been reading some urban rumors about not having to pay US Taxes on any income earned in the USA. There is a sucker born every 7 seconds these days, and people make a living preaching about how you dont REALLY have to file your taxes. To top off the whole shock of not paying/filing taxes but the indictment says that Wesley gave bogus checks worth $14 million to the IRS for his estimated tax liabilities in recent years. Ouch, lets just say this man is in trouble and probably will go down
Maybe Wesley got confused about the difference between Federal and State. Seems that Wesley has not exactly had the best financial advisors in the past few years, in 2003 he had his Windermere, Florida(home of half the PGA tour, and other MLB, NBA players) home sold at forclosure auction. His agents at recently filed a 1.5 million dollar lawsuit against him for unpaid agent fees for recent movies.

To make the story even better, it appears Wesley is on the run. He hasnt made a movie since 2004's Blade Trinity, and tried to enter South Africa using a fake/forged passport in 2005 and was kicked out.. While there isnt a reward that I know of yet, if anyone happens to see Wesley I would call the IRS. I have actually met Wesley on two ocassions at Prince concerts, while he was a nice guy, most of all I can remember about him is just how short he is. Possibly pushing 5"7, but he is a big dude, so don't try to take him yourself, plus he knows all those martial arts moves from his films. I have actually liked Wesley in alot of his movies, but shockingly as many movies as he has made from his big debut in Major League in 1989, he has never starred in a movie that grossed $100 million bucks. Never has been in what is considered a blockbuster film.

I have enjoyed his films, but for himsake I hope he learned a bit about evading the law from his role as Nino Brown in New Jack City, and is living on an island in the south pacific sippin on coconuts, cause his midget self will become someone's bitch at the state pen.
It will be a real life version of his first big acting gig in Michael Jackson's Bad video where the first words Mikey says are "Your butt is mine!!" If you have 10 minutes of your life to waste, check out the long version of the Bad video Mikey and Wesley acting in Bad Video. Filmed at the 8th avenue 14th street A,C,E,L NYC subway station. gotta love those old school turnstyles, even Michael Jackson can evade the fare easily!

6.5 million reasons to love the NY Rangers

2006-10-12T23:24:00.000-04:00

Just as T.O has 25 million reasons to live, I wish I had 6.5 million reasons to buy this Diamond studded bra for Karolina Kurkova, the uber-hottie model from the Czech Republic. She'll be wearing this creation at the upcoming Victoria's Secret fashion show. The $6.5 million Hearts on Fire Diamond Fantasy Bra, weighs 800 carats I have never bought a diamond in my life so I have no idea how many that is, but i'm guessing alot, more than i'll probably ever buy in my lifetime.. Oh why are we talking so much about Karolina, well she is a big NY Rangers fan.

Tonight with so many choices on TV, either Grey's Anatomy, the Mets winning game 1 of the NLCS, what did I watch.. yep the NY Rangers vs Pittsburgh Penguins. Stills trange watching the game and not having John Davidson in the announcing booth, having basically grown up over the last 20 years listening to Sam & J.D it will take me a while to get adjusted to former Islanders(of all damn people) Joe Micheletti doing the games. Who knows former Islanders dont have a good track record on broadway, remember the Fire Trottier chants?

The Rangers lost in a heartbreaking fashion, with damn uber-sophmore Sidney Crosby scoring with 3 seconds left in the game. Good thing its game 4 of the season and not game 84. I was hoping to see the Pengiuns so called super rookie Evgeni Malkin play, but he is hurt. Instead I'm treated to the first ever goals from freakin 18 year old, he cant shave Jordan Staal and Kris Letang. While the Pens I think still haev no goaltending, they do have great young talent. Watch out for this Staal kid, they are going to be a 4 player dynasty in a few years once the youngest kid, now 15 gets drafted. oldest brother Eric last year showed in winning the Stanley Cup in Carolina he is the real deal.. The rangers have hopefully a decent defenseman in Marc Staal currently in the minors.

I do like the makeup of this Rangers team. I usually dont like signing 37 year old players like Brendan Shanahan but he is probably one of the better "power forwards" in the game. We are still taking too many penalties, and Jagr cant be back at full strength yet. I love the fact we have an established 2nd line now with Shannny, Petr Prucha, and Matt Cullen. This is something we couldnt do last year. Lundqvist is not looking at full form yet, but god help us if Kevin Weekes gets more playing time. Yeah I should be supporting the few brotha's playing hockey, but nope cant get into Weekes. At least i'll support the other brotha Nigel Dawes as long as he can stay in the NHL. But overall the Czech connection is still there with 6 Czechs and 1 Slovak.

Back to Karolina, she and my favorite Ranger Petr Prucha are from the same town in the Czech Republic. Not sure if they are an item, but they were seen dining at Jordan's in Grand Central right before Rangers training camp, you go Prucha!! Alright you made it this far you deserve a reward, a little ass shot from the Vicky Secret's fashion show..

Cory Lidle is NOT a Terrorist... RIP

2006-10-11T17:15:00.000-04:00

Life in NYC is always crazy, but today things seemed to get a bit crazier. First the reports come in about a small plane hitting a building on Manhattan's upper east side. 524 East 72nd is a 50 story building.

Today is a grey and rainy day in the city, not the best day to be flying a small plane. First the fears were of terrorism, but eyewitness reports on the ground confirmed it as a small, single engine plane. Ok so now the fears of another Terrorist attack were eased, then word leaked out that owner and pilot of the plane was pitcher Cory Lidle. Whoa.. Right now word is 2 people are dead, Lidle, and his flight instructor. This toll sadly might rise, as after the plane hit a building it started a fire and fire in any high-rise building in the city is a worry. Stories are coming out that Lidle loved to fly, and wanted to fly as much as possible. Sadly Lidle had to leave the Yanks in middle August and put on the Bereavement list as he attended the funeral of his grandmother. From the preliminary reports, the plane was headed up the east river, strange for someone who lives in California, could he have wanted to circle Yankee Stadium one last time before heading home???

What to say at this point. First off Lidle was an average ML League pitcher, but heck the Yankees pitched BELOW average in their recent playoff loss. At 34 years old, he had been in the league for 9 Years playing for 7 Different teams(NY Mets, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland A's, Toronto BlueJays, Cincinnati Reds, Philadephia Phillies, and last stop NY Yankees). To say he was a journeyman was fair, but he had a career record of 82-72, and ERA of 4.57. Not great stats, but in these days of pitching starved teams, enough to earn 3.3million this past season, and a career total of around 17million bucks. Not bad for being "average".

Lidle came to the Yanks as a salary dump/throw-in during the Bobby Abreu trade this past summer. He did manage to pitch a clutch game August 21st for the Yanks during the "Boston Massacre" going 6 innings and not giving up any runs, surrendering 3 hits and striking out 5. Another good performance was his September 1st outing against the Twins again going 6 innings and not giving up any runs.. Was he in the Yanks future plans for 2007, highly doubtful, but he was good insurance to have as a backup starter and his price would have probably been below 5 million bucks.

The ebay effect on Death is a strange one, as someone had listed signed Cory Lidle baseballs a week ago and were set to end in 6hrs before the news broke. There had been no bids on the items. As it write this in the last hour the items have gone from $10 to over $200. Now with someone as marginal of a star like Lidle, I'm sure this affect will be limited to Autographed Items, or game-used equipment. This frenzy seems to happen anytime a person dies, remember the Kirby Puckett effect on both autographed and non-signed items. I have no idea what the final price of the Item will be, but check out one of the balls for yourself Cory Lidle Ebay Autographed Baseball. Also in a sick ebay note, people have now recently listed 4 signed baseballs that will end in a 1 week. If people knew the way to make money on ebay, they would know to list as a 1 day auction, and let the frenzy take over. Even right now a simple Phillies Postcard with Lidle, not even signed is selling for over 50 bucks.. Amazing what death can do to a person's "worth". Yet right now there are 32 items for sale of Cory Lidle, expect this number to double or triple in the next few HOURS. Its a frenzy out there once someone dies..

Athletes die in plane crashes all the time, probably less than the statistical probability considering how much they fly. From golfer Payne Stewart in 1999, NASCAR's Davey Alison in 1993, to entire teams like the US boxing team in 1980. The Yankees have a strange history of players dying in plane crashes, the last active roster baseball player to die in a crash was Thurmon Munson in 1979. Well lets just prey for his family and those of people in the building or the ground who might have been injured or killed. Here are a few images of Lidle.. Rest in Peace...

Country by Country: Poland - A Tale of Two Cities

2006-10-04T00:08:00.000-04:00

I went to Poland on 2 occasions, and each was totally different as the cities are like night and day. I flew on WizzAir from Lithuania to Warsaw on June 9th, the first day of the World Cup. I only stayed in Warsaw for one night before flying on to Germany for the first USA match. Warsaw was basically a pit-stop of sorts, a lot of discount airlines fly in and out of there, but the schedules didn't allow me to change planes the same day so I ventured into town for a night. It was an early morning 6am flight, so I was in Warsaw by 8am and at the hostel. I stayed at Nathan's Villa Hostel in Warsaw, Nathan's villa is about as close to a franchise in the Hostel world as could be, with other locations in Krakow, and 2 in Romania. It was a very nice place, but due to my early arrival and how full it was I could not check in till past noon, so despite wanting to sleep I had to wander around town for a while. This was my first experience with not being able to get straight into a room at a hostel, and was a good learning experience for the future. If you are going to arrive before Noon, don't be tired, hungover, hungry etc as there is a chance it will take a while till you can check in.

To kill time I walked around Warsaw, I must say Polish people are a very religious people and Warsaw has plenty of churches to go and pray. Seems like people would just walk by a Church and go, have a quick prayer and then continue on their day. The city is fairly walkable with some main avenues that you can follow and its almost a grid system, so its easy to walk around and find you way. I must say not much of the architecture impressed me, but this could be since the city was heavily damanged in WWII and had to be rebuilt, not much from the past was left. They did seem to have a lot of statues/monuments all around town, seemingly every few blocks.

This was the first day of a new schedule for me, that revolved around the World Cup, basically for the next month my days would consists of being in front of a TV to watch games, and then going out somewhere at night. I met a cool dude from Namibia and we went out to a bar to watch the Poland vs Ecuador game. Found this place called Tortilla Factory that was run by an american dude from Chicago, nice place with TVs and naturally it was packed with Polish fans all dressed in Red. Poland lost the game and would soon be bounced from the World Cup in the group stages, the mood of Warsaw seemed to change that night. Myself and my friend from Namibia befriended an american and his polish girlfriend, they told us a few places to go and hang out, thankfully we caught a cab with them to the first spot, so we were charged the normal/non-tourist rip off rate. None of the bars would let us in, not sure if it was a racist thing against me, which I felt at the time that it was, or just whatever, but if they didn't want my tourist dollars fine I'd take them somewhere else. For my friend Otwin from Namibia who was a white dude this sucked, his main mission was to get laid. There is close to a 45% rate of infection of HIV among the women on Namibia, so while in Poland on a short break he wanted to get some action. I think he struck out the this night, and since I left the next day, no idea if he was able to accomplish his mission. The cab ride back to close to where our Hostel was, the driver charged us the tourist rate and it was about 3x as much as the first cab ride. It was still cheap compared to a cab in NYC, but still not a good feeling knowing your getting ripped off but couldn't do anything about it.. The combination of not getting into any places, being ripped off, etc left a bad taste of Warsaw in my mouth. Thankfully Krakow restored faith in Poland for me.

The currency in Poland is the Zloty. The exchange rate is about 3 Zl for 1$, and this was the first of what would be a string of very cheap countries. The beers are good and strong, the main brands being Tyskie and Zywiec. Both good golden lager beers. But if you wanna get hammered in Poland, drink the Vodka, its no joke folks, strong and cheap..

I went to Krakow at almost the end of the World Cup arriving on July 3rd, I took an easyjet flight from Germany that was cheap and quick, well worth the cost. Arrival in Krakow was difficult at first, as the main bus/train station is under construction so since the bus stopped at the back of it, I didn't know we were at it and missed it, took me a while to get back to it on the return bus, but the main old town square was easy to find. I stayed at Mama's Hostel which is like 50 meter from the old town square where all the action is. There are plenty of bars right near the town square, along with places to eat, so as a tourist you don't really need to venture too far from there for fun. Krakow is a city of students, with some 120,000 students of a population of 780,000. In the summer a lot of this population is gone but I'm told during the school year, the party rages on at all times of the day or night.

There are plenty of cool places to go in the daytime in Krakow. They have a castle that is right on the river with some lovely views, along with one of the oldest Jewish quarters in Poland. Daytrips to Auschwitz concentration camps are a popular thing people do. I didn't go as I am sure I didn't have the emotional strength to deal with such a place that just feels of death. The other popular thing to do are goto the Wieliczka Salt mines, this was more up my alley, but my time in Krakow was limited. I wanted to stay longer as the city was great, but the bus to Budapest only runs on Wednesday and Saturday and I had to get there by Thursday as my friend from NYC, Kissy was traveling europe and I wanted to hang out with her there. I'll have to get back to Krakow to see all the things I missed.

This has to be one of the nicest old town squares in all of eastern europe, both in the scope of the size of it, being very large, and the fact that while there are tourist destinations right near the town square, a few blocks off it, the prices drop a bunch, and tourists seem to disappear. Plus you see crazy things like these guys on a moving "boat" playing jazz music in the middle of the day.

Also the main museums of the city are right near or in the old town square. One to visit is Czartoryskich Museum which features Leonardo Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine painting. Another must visit is a short walk from the old town to the Royal Castle. This is located right on the river, with lovely views of all sides of Krakow along with a museums that houses various paintings, jewels and all those things you normally find in museums! The view is quite lovely and the day I was exploring was a just picture perfect day

Right on the river on a good day, people spread out on the grass and work on their tans, with Krakow not being located close to an ocean, all these students with nothing to do in the summer daytimes get some sun, a few were swimming in the river, but I opted to sit on a boat/restaurant and just enjoy my Beer.

Ahh the nightlife, while I was there in the summer, probably the worst time as most of the hard partying students were back at their family houses, There was a cool group of Irish girls at the hostel, throw in a canadian guy, canadian girl, danish dudes, and me, and you have the makings of a good night out. As the case in most cities with an old town, all the action is right around it, so staying at a hostel close by makes for easy stumbling home. You just kinda walk where the crowds are headed, we tried a few places, but found the most fun at Prozak located on Dominikanski 6, initially a bit of a challenge to find as its located downstairs. In fact most clubs/bars in the old town are located in basements/downstairs, while this makes for cool interiors blending into the 13th century architecture, due to the fact everyone in Europe seems to chain smoke, these places can fill up with cig smoke really easily, and for a soft New Yorker like myself who hates cig smoke it can be tough.. Still the beer was only 8 Zlot (less than $3), and oh so tasty. At the end, the girls naturally gravitated to the local polish guys, but I must say they have a tough, no nonsense look. There were a few cute polish girls, but I've heard Krakow boasts some of the best looking women in Poland, but that must be during the school year as not many sights were on display. These are crazy irish girls here.

The next day after washing some clothes and nursing off a slight hangover, it was time to move on to Budapest, I wanted to stay longer, but the schedules weren't in my favor, so I'll just have to get back to Krakow some other time, preferably during the university year but not in the dead of winter when its COOOOLD!! Its definitely more backpacker friendly than Warsaw.

Get Yourself some Frequent Flyer Miles FREE!!

2006-10-02T14:36:00.000-04:00

One of the slight "obsessions" in my life is earning frequent flier miles. They have come in handy in the past as I have saved money going to Jamaica for my sisters wedding back in 1999, and even got bumped from that flight so I got a $700 voucher for future travel. I also went on my recent europe trip using FF miles to book my ticket. While I am not in the same level as obesssion now in 2006 as I was in the past. For example on a trip to MPLS in 2001 I switched hotels twice and rental cars twice in just a 3 day trip in order to take advantage of bonus programs. I will no longer do that as sadly your miles these days aren't worth as much as the past. Its much much harder to book flights using miles for the most popular destinations, such as anywhere outside of the USA. You have to book way way in advance, and be very flexible in your dates. So now the order of business for me is to use up most of my miles, before they become totally worthless or the airlines start dropping out of business one by one. I had predicted a slow death for either Northwest, Delta, or United all airlines that were in bankrupcy, but looks like they were able to screw their employees out of pensions and cut salaries and manage to stay alive..

Anyway there are always a few offers out there for totally free miles, and these are the best. I'm no longer going to sign up for various brokerage accounts, credit cards, staying at only certain hotel chains, using certain rental cars, etc.. But if I can point and click my way to free miles I'm all for it..

So here we go
250 Free Delta Miles, just simply click to this link 250 Sky Miles and tell them what you like to do while flying.. sorry joining the mile high club is not a choice

Use this 1000 Miles for Creating a Profile to create a login profile for OnePass dining. You will need a credit/debit card and email address. You dont have to dine at all, but If you do want to earn a decent amount of miles without much extra effort the dining programs of the airline are good.

They have been watered down in recent years as to how many miles you earn, but if you eat out alot, there are hundreds of resturants and bars that are in the program. You dont have to do anything special other than pay for your bill with the credit/debit card you have on file and the miles post to your account. No need to ask or confuse the staff. At the highest level you can earn 10 miles per dollar spent. In the past they have offered nice bonus programs, these seemingly have died down, but I have been able to earn a little over 22,000 miles on American over the last 3-4 years just usually by drinking beer or eating wings, as I'm not a big dining out person.

The Delta program, I have no idea of an expiration date, they may pull it from their site at anytime. The Continental Program is from October 2nd, to Dec 31st, 2006. Miles can take 6-8 weeks to post, so do it now.

Country by Country: Lithuania

2006-09-27T17:26:00.000-04:00

My initial plan was to spend much time in Lithuania, but I enjoyed Estonia and Latvia so much that my trip was cut down to 2 days as I had prebooked a flight to Warsaw for the 9th of June, which was the first day of the world cup. Back at home while planning my trip I came across a deal on WizzAir where tickets were 1 Euro Cent, and then extra taxes and fees. After fees/fuel surcharges and the like the total price came out to be 23 Euros or about $30 Dollars. While at the time this seemed like a great deal, and flying for only 45 minutes versus an 8hr bus/train ride in the end I probably would have chosen to take the train ride. Why? Well intitally at home when booking the trip I didnt think I wanted any bus/train rides over 5hrs, and while this still is a tough amount of time in Eastern Europe, in Western Europe its a breeze. The bus time from Vilnius to Warsaw is listed as 8hrs, and about $30 US. So about the same price as the flight but a much longer trip. I have since learned if there was a nightbus, that 8hr trip is nothing, as you can sleep and save on a night accomidation, have a couple of beers(remember you can drink just about ANYWHERE in europe), put on your MP3 player and the 8hrs is gone quickly. What I opted to do instead was only spend 1 night in Vilnius, which is a wicked party city.. Then spend a whole day wasted by traveling to Kaunas, a city I didnt enjoy, spending the night in Kaunas in a Hotel that was about $25 US per night, as there are not alot of Hostels in that town, spending some $20 US on a Taxi to the Kaunas airport since my flight was at 6am. overall it was much more expensive and time consuming overall to get the WizzAir flight, but I've learned my lesson. 8hrs is not that bad of a trip, and the nightbus/train is your friend to keep your days available for sightseeing when you have short amounts of time in each country. Only use those discount airlines for flights that are much cheaper than the bus/train option, or long long distances like over 12Hrs, especially if those are times in Eastern Europe, where bus/train might be much cheaper but times can be longer than what is listed.

I arrived in the capital of Lithuania which is Vilnius by bus from Riga. It was an easy 5hr ride, on again a modern full sized bus that only cost $12 one-way. Again in Eastern Europe dont buy rail/bus passes for unlimited travel as point to point tickets are almost always cheaper. In fact forget rail travel totally in the Baltics as is the case of most of the "less developed Europe" bus travel is much more efficient than train travel. Vilnius is a city of some 600,000 people and unlike Riga or Tallinn does not really have the same sort of centralized old town with windy/twisty streets. It does have plenty of nice old architecture, rich cultural centers, a very important old jewish ghetto/quarter and most importantly a rockin nightlife. Here is a picture of a church I found lovely

The center of town is a bit difficult to navigate as again streets are not in a grid, but with a decent map you should be able to get around fairly easily. I stayed at the Vilnius Backpackers Hostel which was in a great location, not too far from the bus station, and right off a main pedestrian street filled with Cafes and Resturants. The cost was about $13 US per night, a good deal, the only problem was slight lack of bathrooms, one on each floor, and each floor housed about 12-15 people if full. I only spent one night here, and then traveled to Kaunas for one night there. Vilnius is by far a more exciting city, I found Kaunas to be rather dead and dreary, yet Kaunas is suppose to have more students so during the university year it could be very active, in the summer I found it dead.

Vilnius has some great club/resturants, I was there on a Wednesday night, so it was in a way the start of the party week. Like most of europe things dont get started till much later. I sat at a really colorful nice resturant called Dienos Naktys(no idea what it means) at about 6pm and it was empty, but I was able to enjoy my lunch/happy hour beer. The main beer is choice seemed to be Kalnapilis, a very tasty golden beer, cheap at only 7 Litas(about $2.50 US).
I also found my first microbrew and one of the few in the Baltic at this place named Avilys, I enjyoed their half liter of the Honey Lager, yet I couldnt taste much of a honey taste. This was a nice basement cosy place with supposed great food, it was 11pm at night or else I would have sat outside as it was a bit chilly at night, but the basement was cozy and comfortable for a quick brew.

Only having one night in town, I wanted to try to find cool places, but I was struggling as my guide book has very little info on Lithuania. After I left the microbrew, I found a place called Pablo Latino on Turku St, It is a very very nice joint, with a big upstairs room and then a deck that overlooks an inside Patio. It was closing at 1am, so I only had a bit of time there, but it was funny to see that Salsa dancing is the rage everywhere in the world, even where there aren't too many Latino people as in Lithuania. In fact I only saw one minority other than me, and he was this tall lanky brother, like over 6"5 walking down the street, and looked like he was African. I figure he must be an import on a local basketball team, as Lithuania is HUGE on basketball. Winning the Bronze medals in the summer olympics in 1992, 1996, and 200. They also won the European Championship in 2003, and there are several good/high paid Lithuanians in the NBA including Žydrūnas Ilgauskas for the Cavs, partnering with LeBron James for a solid pairing for the future. Don't be shocked the next time the USA Basketball team disappoints at a world event, it loses to Lithuania and people are like who? where?

Ok back to hanging out, first thing I realize at Pablo Latino that will be a theme for the rest of the night, Lithuanians LIKE TO DRINK, and the women especially can DRINK. At the bar a man/woman couple were doing flaming shots of something, so you know it was strong stuff, she was downing them with no problem.. I leave that place at 1am and head back a few blocks to the hostel, ready to call it a boring night, there are some people there staging to go out to this bar/pub open to 6am. I'm like what the heck, only got 1 night here. We posse up and head out to Prospekto pub right up the street to this big church.

Its good the church is there as after a night of what is going on in the Pub, you might need to run to church when the pub closes at 6am. This is an awesome bar, with multiple floors, there are 2 stripper poles attached to the top of the bar, and these get a good workout, as in Lithuania being a stripper is a job you can make alot of money at, and there are PLENTY of establishments to show your skills you have learned here.
The cover was 10 Litas($3.50 US) for any male foreigners, but seemed to be free if you could speak soem Lithuanian. Beer was well priced, if you could get to the bartender as the place was PACKED this night, I guess being the only place open so late its the spot to goto. The night seemed to start off slow, but when Usher came on, the folks all jammed the dance floor, if Usher only knew he was a big thing in Lithuania he would go there and might not come home. I gotta say not many brothas hanging in Lithuania so you are a HOT commodity, people seem to like what is different from them. And considering they are mostly young, tall, skinny and blond, I was rather different.. I had the skinny and hopefully young part down tho..

Another song that seemed to get the crowd going much to my shock was Tina Turner's "Simply the Best". Maybe its a motivational thing..The music was varied including some Lithuanian pop songs, Lithuanian hip hop and Euro techno trash. Now the drinking, I was sticking with my normal beer, but after noticing people were buying bottles of vodka and drinking it straight. Unlike clubs here in the states with Bottle service that after you get ripped off for a $300 dollar bottle of Vodka, at least they give you free juice and keep it on ice, not so here. You paid only about $20 for the bottle of vodka, but got it warm, like straight out of the case. You had to buy your own OJ, or Cranberry.. so what did the locals do, DRINK IT STRAIGHT WHILE WARM.. I must say I tried as the locals, and couldnt get a sip of this cheap vodka down, without the thought of throwing up all over my new friends and causing an international incident. So in this picture below, that is the bottle of VOdka I am holding up, but no way was I drinking it all night, I stuck with the cold beer.
Oh and for those wondering her name is Jurgo, and like most everyone there they speak PERFECT english, almost rivaling the Dutch. Finally left at closing time, at 5:40am with the sun up high in the summer Baltic sky, the DJ played "One" first the U2 version and then the Johnny Cash version and then it was time to go home and pretend to get some sleep. The next day sucked for a variety of reasons, and while I am sure Kaunas is a nice place, I'm going to skip writing about it, as its a day I want to try to put in my past forever.

As for getting to Lithuania, first off get a good guide book specific to at least the 3 Baltic Countries, Lonely Planet does a good job as someone at the Hostel had this, and while I was leaving the Baltics I spent some time looking thru his book. There are no direct flights from the USA, but check out Air Baltic, who I flew and has flights from London, Germany, Ireland, even Austria to get you to Vilnius. I would say for partying this along with Riga are great.. and oh yeah there is some culture in the daytime, including a statue of Frank Zappa's head on a tall stick.. yeah its strange I saw it, didnt understand it, but oh well..

You Don't Need a Spleen to Play

2006-09-25T10:34:00.000-04:00

But you do need a heart to live.. Wow after a weekend of watching sports this weekend and some great games, gutsy performances and bad injuries. Like any red-blooded American man, I went out on Sunday to watch some NFL football games. Only watched the end of 2nd half of the early games, but there were some great finishes. Watching the Bucs vs Panthers game, I saw Chris Simms run in a touchdown and take a massive hit, and said to myself wow that kid got some guts, he learned well from his dad. Then later in the 4th quarter he was being pounded like a rag doll. Later we would learn he played for some of the game with a ruptured spleen and after the game had emergency operation to take it out. He will most likely be gone from this whole season, and with the Bucs 0-3 no point in him rushing back. The kid has heart for playing the rest of the game in obvious pain, and I hope a full recovery for him, as he is playing on a 1yr 2.1 million dollar contract and was going to be an unrestricted free agent next year waiting for the big payday. Thankfully its not an arm injury so if Drew Brees could get a mega-contract coming off a shoulder injury, Chris Simms should be able to set himself financially for life this off-season. One of the possible side effects of not having a spleen I read was possible Erectile Dysfunction, so glad to read his wife gave birth to their daughter this past off season..

The other world class athlete I know to have his spleen removed was Peter Forsberg who in the 2001 playoffs had it taken out after Game 7 of a series. He missed the whole next regular season but returned for the 2002 playoffs and led all players in scoring, and the following full season had his 2nd best season in his career. So for world class athletes is seems losing a spleen does not end a career.

It reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon moments from a simpsons episode over 10 years ago, as I was in college when watching it. In fact now looking it up, its from Season 4 of the Simpsons, the Episode titled "I Love Lisa". Simpsons 4th Season DVDDuring the cartoon Itchy & Scratchy that is within the Simpsons, it was a valentines day episode where Itchy gives Scratchy his own heart as a valentine. Scratchy learns later he needs a heart to live, and dies before he can reach it. Well any athelete who plays a game or career after losing a major body organ deserves props. Check out the clip of Scratchy's ultimate demise. Warning might not be for kids, but then what the hell kids should be reading this blog anyway??

Also in baseball this weekend, Nick Johnson of the Washington Nationals had a horrible outfield collision with his teammate and broke his Femur in his leg, I hope Nick can come back from this injury, but in todays age of mega-contracts that 3yr, 16.5million dollar deal he signed in spring training is looking really good right now. I Hope the Nationals have not missed an insurance payment on that contract, or else OUCH.. These 2 injuries had me thinking what are the most memorable performances in sports for a player after sufferring a horrible injury, either playing in that game or later in their career. While I am not a list person, i'll leave that to buddies like PaulKatcher who writes some amazing lists for his blog, among my favs are What Your Yankees Jersey says about you I am here writing my first list, not even sure what to call it

Top 10 Gutsy Performances by Sports Athletes

10. Kirk Gibson. Game 1, 1988 World Series. Yes the home run was legendary and will be replayed forever. Yes it was off Dennis Eckersley.. Yes it was his only At-bat of the series.. But it was GAME 1 of the series and also I dont think it was ever revealed what his injury was. He has soem pain in his leg and a bum knee, he had been diving all around the field during the earlier series vs the Mets but what was the injury?? True he was gimpy around the bases, but in baseball you swing with the BAT, only players like Rickey Henderson use their legs to win games.

9. Willis Reed. Game 7, 1970 NBA Finals. Ok even in NY lore this moment of the captain coming out of the lockeroom all gimpy can bring tears to grown men's eyes. I wasnt alive in 1970, so I have no memory of it and my dad was probably playing a concert somewhere that day, and not watching the game so I have no reference point from him. True Reed won the MVP of the tournament, true the Knicks won the NBA championship that season(probably the only one they will win for a while, lets see how long before Isiah is fired), but lets remember folks Reed scored the first 4 points of the game and that is IT. Nothing else after those first 2 basekets. True it was a huge lift for his team, but it was Walt "Clyde" Frazier who led the team that game with 36 points and 19 assists.

8. Clint Malarchuk. March 22, 1989. Just a regular hockey game, but anyone who has seen the video clip(search on youtube i am not going to post here and be responsible for people losing their lunch) with a puddle of blood on the ice after a skate blade from a player accidently cut his Juglar Vein. He would return to play 3 more seasons and have a .500 record, which for a career .500 goalie beforehand meant he was always an average goalie his whole career.

7. Ronnie Lott. 1986 Off-season. One of the hardest hitting football players ever, had many injuries over his career. After multiple injuries to his left pinkie finger and the bone refusing to heal, he opted to have the tip of his pinkie cut off DURING THE OFF-SEASON to prevent any further injury. Now the legend of this story has grown to the point, where people think he came out of the game for a play, went over grabbed a chain saw, hacked the finger off, taped it up and went back out and tackled some players. Not the case at all. Still yet he would go on and play many more seasons, and today if you meet him and shake his hand, part of the man's pinkie is gone.. Still doesnt compare to that rock-climber who cut off his whole damn arm cause it was trapped under a rock, so he could free himself and get to safety..

6. Alex Zanardi. F1 Race Car Driver, Sept 2001. On the weekend after the 9/11 attack when almost all sports around the globe were canceled, there was a F1 race in Germany. During this race a horrific crash happened, where Zanardi was T-boned at 200 mph by another car. His car shattered in half, his body cut in half and he lost something crazy like 70% of his blood. He was given last rites on the track, and rushed by helicopter to a hospital. Somehow they managed to save his life, but not his lefs. Both legs were amputated above the knee, but yet this man continued to have a positive spirit. In one of the best interviews Bryant Gumble has ever done for Real Sports, he visits Zanardi as his zest for life is shown and is amazing. Zanardi drives his boat, swims, plays with his kid and yes even DRIVES. In would later have special legs fitted, special brake/gas controls on his race car and in 2005 he won a race in the European Tour Car Series, more than U or I would be able to do with both our legs. Yes he wrote a book and its pretty damn inspiring. Alex Zanardi

5. Shun Fujimoto. 1976 Summer Olympics. Who?? This male gymnist on the Japan olympic team at the '76 games in Montreal broke his kneecap during the floor excerise. With his team in a virtual tie with the Russians, he went on to compete in the Rings event and on a triple somersault dismount, maintaining perfect posture he earned a 9.7 and the Japan team went on to win gold. During that dismount, he further injured his leg, and years later asked by ESPN if he would do it again, his answer "No, I would not!"

4. Jack Youngblood. 1979 NFL Playoffs. Argubly one of the toughest SOBs to ever line up on defense, this NFL hall of Famer, played in 201 straight games, only missing 1 game in his 14 year career. So would a broken Fibula in his leg keep him out of the whole 1979-80 Playoffs, HELL NO. He played all the games, including the superbowl with a fractured left fibula. Sadly the Rams didnt win the game, he never won a superbowl. While I am not sure how well he is walking today after 14 years in the NFL, you would hope with that courage he would at least have a superbowl ring to attest for his gutsy performance during those playoffs

3. Donovan McNabb. 2002 NFL Week 11. The Eagles were as they always seem to be late in the season thinking SuperBowl before injury diaster sets in. On like the 3rd play of this game, McNabb goes down hard. Test show a sprained ankle and he comes back in the game with it taped up and goes on to throw for 4 TD passes, 250yards, and goes 20 for 25. After the game x-rays reveal a broken ankle that sidelines him for 6 weeks, he comes back for the playoffs but the Eagles cant get it done and lose before making the superbowl. Ahhh despite the pain I'm sure Donovan longs for these easy days, the days before a certain Rush "oxycoton" Limbaugh and T.O came into his life. As brave as his performance was, I am sure while on the table for his operation, he was thinking it was a good thing he signed that 12yr, 115million dollar contract before the 2002 season, and hoping his 13.5million signing bonus check had cleared. His career might have been in jeopardy, but financially he was set.. this makes the last 2 performances on this list even more amazing

2. Byron Leftwich, Marshall University 2002 MAC championship game. In his last game of his college career at Marshall University, Leftwich was trying to lead his team to the MAC championship. He helped his team win 49-45 with a last minute 40TD pass. Now what makes this performance so damn incredible was the fact he played with a broken leg for most of the 2nd half of this game. At some points, he had to have is offensive line carry him down the field. Leftwich would later say, "my leg was broke, my arm was fine.." As a college player making ZERO dollars(at least legally), the fact he would continue to play and possibly jeopardize a future NFL Career is pure guts, pure love of the game, love of his team and school colors. His guts paid off, making him the Number 7 pick in the NFL Draft the following year and signed a nice little 7yr, 30million(or so) contract.

1. Bob Baun. 1964 NHL Stanley Cup Finals. The most coveted trophy in sports, players say they will do anything to win it, play with any injury. Well Mr. Baun showed everyone just how tough hockey players are. After breaking his ankle in the 3rd period of Game 6 of the 1964 Stanley Cup Finals, he would i guess tape it up, shoot it up or whatever and come out and play in the overtime. He scored the game winning OT goal. While I have never seen video of this, so I dont know if it was a Jagresque end to end rush, or just an Esposito like tap in fron of the net. Still he won the game, kept Toronto alive in the series. He would go on to play in Game 7, and the Toronto Maple Leafs won the cup and his name will forever be inscribed on the best trophy in all of team sports. Why a guy would play with a broken ankle, well rememebr in 1964, before the age of guaranteed contracts, many players had off-season jobs to put food on the plate. These guys at these times were playing for their future a spot on the roster next year. Unlike in modern times, when Scottie Pippen can have a migrane and not want to play in a game, or Carl Pavano can in one year deal with injuries to his shoulder, back, buttocks, elbow and ribs.. oh and being a horrible driver. But then I guess Pavano wanted to be known for something other than giving up McGwire's 70th home run ball, stealing $10 million from George Stienbrenner this year and most importantly banging Alyssa Milano

Country by Country: Latvia - so nice did it twice!

2006-09-18T21:32:00.000-04:00

I visited Riga, Latvia on 2 seperate ocassions on my trip. They were almost exactly 2 months apart, so basically at the beginning of the trip, and then right before the end of the trip. The reason for a 2nd return visit, was I enjoyed the city and heck i was in Europe, alot closer than I would be to Latvia for a while, so why not get back again. Plus one of the discount airlines Air Baltic flies to/from Riga to where I had to goto next, Oslo very cheaply. The difference between my first trip early June and second trip early August was noticeable, more on that later.

My first visit I Arrived in Riga from Tallinn by Bus, not even a week into my trip and I learned one of my first lessons about efficient travel, BUY YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE. I walked all thru the construction of Tallinn to get to the bus station and check schedules and prices a day before I wanted to leave to Riga, yet I didnt buy the ticket at that time.. So when I go back the day and time i want to leave, naturally the bus is sold out and I had to wait another 3hrs at the bus station wasting time that could have been spent in Riga or Tallinn waiting on the bus. So in advance when you get the schedule info about when the bus/train/plane leaves buy your ticket then. My ticket was all of 200EEKs, which is about $16 for a 4-5hr ride between countries, it costs about as much to take a bus from Port Authority to JFK airport here in the city, so it was certaintly a good deal. The bus was as modern as any Greyhound/Chinatown bus here in the states and the ride was easy and comfortable.

The arrival in Riga was much easier than in my last stop, this is due to the fact I was staying about as close to the bus station as any place on my whole trip. It was about 300 meters away and simply had to cross the main street. I stayed at the Argonaut Hostel in Riga, which I would highly recommend. It was probably one of my top 3 Hostels during my entire trip. The location was a great factor for sure as it was located so close to the bus/train stations, along with being right in the old town. They had a good security system of a keycard the opened the front door after 10pm at night and also opened your room door at all times, along with small safes that you could put your own padlock on right next to your bed. While I wouldnt call it a bar, they had a fridge where you could buy a beer for about $1 and enjoy in their really nice common room which had free internet access, a 42" plasma TV and lots of couches to chill on, with books, maps, magazines and the like. Also the people were great, both in terms of the ones working there and the folks staying, it was a nice mix of people from all countries and in the evenings everyone would sit aruond have a beer or ten, talk about places they have been or going, trade stories and plan to hit the town at night, and oh what a town Riga is..

Riga is becoming known as the Sex Capital of Europe, or at least the Baltics. While I wouldnt go as far as saying that, it was obvious it was a popular destination for those horrible English Stag/Hen parties and all the debauchary that goes with them, also alot of "strip clubs" are around town, in fact one was located literally right under the Hostel, which made for a great last stop for that last beer you really dont need at 4am when hanging out. The stag parties are really bad, the first time in many on my trip I would experience drunken, costumed, stupid groups of Tourists, in fact they are so bad I am told the local ladies in Latvia basically stay at home on weekends to avoid these men.. Thus Riga is a city where every night you can find a party, so Monday thru Thursday are great nights to hang out. In my trip in June I honestly didnt notice the so called Sex Capital aspect of the town, my 3 nights there were peaceful and I wasnt distured on the street except for this one group of friendly guys hanging outside a place called Mary's that was a strip club and every night when I was coming home they were outside and trying to get me to come in.. I realized I would have been the only customer so I would chat them up and joke with them but realized their club was dead.. Yet in August when I went back, it was a bit more busy and hustling out on the street. Approaced by a few typical tourist scams, and also by men and or women, handing out flyers, trying to get you into their club, some were very pushy, others it was easy to ignore and just keep on walking. I must say in the 2 months I guess since August is high tourist season the activity picked up greatly.

The Old Town of Riga itself is a lovely place, the streets are narrow, few cars drive the town as there is a tariff for driving in the old town. While initally the names of the streets confused the heck out of me as they would change block by block, and no street went straight they all curved, after a few days and once you knew the landmarks to help guide you home, it was all good, I still walked around with a map on me as much as I could. All the resturants, museums, churches, and Bars are located in easy walking distance in the old town. There are also a few main squares where people have stands and sell local products, as with any city if you buy these in the main tourist areas you are going to pay twice or higher the prices than if you were to search out for the same items for sale away from the tourist centers. Here is a view of the Old Town from up high from the Church.

The currency in Latvia is the Lat. The exchange rate close to that of the British Pound, where the dollar isnt even worth 1 lat. In fact 1 US Dollar is about 55 cents(called Sentimes). Because of this and the fact the smallest paper money unit is the 5 lat note(about $9 US), you can have a pocketful of change that is worth something, so dont lose your change in this country. Why the Lat is such a strong currency I have no idea, it could be due to the fact that Latvia has one of the strongest economies in Europe with a GDP growth rate of 8.7%. They plan on switch to the Euro eventually but as of right now no formal plans are set for when that will take place. This could be one of the few countries due to good economy where the switch to the Euro does not make prices go up for the local people.

Bars, Beer and Women, yeah I know what you want to hear. Well lets start with the women... there are lots more lovely latvian ladies than there are men, some people estimate the ratio is about 3 to 1, I wouldnt say that high, but surely on a nice day in the Old Town, there seem to be women everywhere, and young blond women at that. In fact Latvia seems to have more blond women than the few Scandinvian countries that I visited, I never made it to Sweden or Denmark, but the Baltics have plenty of blondes. The women are not only tall and blond, but very nice and speak english, so no harm/no foul for going and approaching and talking to these women.

The Beer, while there are plenty of choices of Western beers, like Carlsberg, Heienken, etc the real action is in the local beers. Saku was a favorite of mine available in many bars, the prices were about 2Lat each on average, so that is a bit more expensive than other Baltic countries, but its possible to find it at some bars for 1.50Lat, still a bargin for a full half liter

The Bars, plenty of them scattered thru the old town, for the best info on the city and a great map check out the City Spy Map available for Riga and a few other cities, you can usually pick these up at Hostels and they fold up in a great size for your pocket, the best reference, and the writers are funny, witty and plugged into the local events. The most popular bar by far is probably Pulkvedim Neviens Neraksta(Nobody Writes to the Colonel) which is a resturant and at night a great club with 2 levels and a minidance floor, this was one of my favorite spots for sure. Located right in the old town, stumbling distance to most of the hostels.
Alright hope you enjoyed the wrap up and I do urge you to visit Riga, if you are ever in the area, a great place for history, and most of all will bring out the party animal in you.

5 Years Later 9/11

2006-09-11T21:20:00.000-04:00

The view of the fallen Towers from right outside my home in Harlem 9/11/2001

Well with today being the 5th year since the attacks of 9/11/2001 I am sure this is the most blogged about topic of the day. Well since now I am trying to blog on a more regular basis being home I will talk about what is going on, and today in NYC it was all about 9/11 remembering 5 years later. I guess this will be my take on the day in 2001 and where we are now in 2006.

The day itself for me started as many days back then did, I was not working at the time, so I would wake up whenever my natural body clock had me waking up, on a Tuesday this was about 9am since I rarely go out on Monday nights. I woke up and turn on the TV around 9am and naturally went to the Today show, the first plane had already hit the towers and I kinda woke up thinking this was a dream, then within a few minutes of watching the 2nd plane hit and I was like oh damn.. What they tried to do in 1993 with a simple truck bomb, they are going to accomplish today with large airplanes. Yet despite the terror going on in lower manhattan there was no immediate terror or worry for me. I remember calling a buddy of mine in Jersey to tell him to Turn on the TV and watch. I knew my mother was working at an elementary school right across the street, one of my sisters was at City College even further up in Harlem on 138th street than me, and my other sister was in the Bronx at the time at her High School. While my father lived downtown on 19th street, he doesnt have any business near the WTC, so I wasnt initially worried at all about him. Like many others I was tranfixed on the TV, the phone rang every once in a while I remember getting a few calls from former work collegues in Chicago asking me what the hell was going on. I got on the Internet as DSL was still working despite many phone and celly;s going down, seems alot of people were on AOL Messenger and people were using that to communicate they were safe and wondering how to escape Manhattan as all the bridges and tunnels and subways were closed off.

As the day went on, and both of the towers Fell and the death toll was going to be extreme, first reports had 50,000 people working in both buildings when they were full. Well thankfully the Towers each stood about 1hr after being hit, which allowed plenty of people both in the Towers and in the surrounding area to get out of town. One thing about Lower Manhattan/Financial District, and I knew this from working down there as a summer Intern years before, was that all the buildings are PACKED in one tiny area, so alot of people worked in that little area. Thankfully a majority of people who could escape did, and sadly most people trapped above the strike zone had no chance to get out and perished. Yet on that day I never got a chance to mourn, never got sad, and dont think I cried. Why? Well my main concern was "How the hell am I going to find a job now.." knowing that the economy of NYC which was already fragile after the internet company crashes from 2000 and 2001, and the stock market that had taken a bit of a nose dive were going to be in the shitter. I had been searching for work for about 2 months pretty full time, and in fact about a week before 9/11 actually mailed a resume and cover letter to a Storage Area Networking company that was based in the tower, not sure if it was South or North tower, but I do remember it was on a high floor, like the 90th plus floor, which as we all know was a doomed zone.

Once everyone in my family made it back from work, we watched TV at my place since I had the biggest TV and was home all day. I know my mom cried, my sister was shocked and had to walk from the Bronx to Harlem, and my other sister kept on saying "remember this day, this is going to be the day that changes your generation.." boy was she ever correct in that regard. The news reporting was full of confusion in the first days that followed as the missing presumed dead numbers went as high as 7000 people. The city below 14th street was basically shut down for a week. In the end i think the offical count at the WTC turned out to be 2,749 people killed. From watching today the names/ages of the people I was shocked at how many young people, in their 20's and 30s were among the dead. The future almost totally wiped out, I read today the average age of the dead was 39 years old. I also remember the first time I went anywhere near downtown was a week later to see a band David Kolker that always played on Tuesdays, play at the Baggot Inn on West 3rd street. Walking from the subway stop at Sullivan Square you got out and usually could see the towers right down 7th avenue, instead you saw a pile of smoke, and could smell the smoke.. The Baggot Inn is located right next to a fire house, and walking past that firehouse, it was filled with flowers and candles, considering their proximity to the towers, it was no suprise that they lost some men on that day, I believe it was 2 or 3 members of their squad.

The Healing process took a while for sure, but again for me I didnt have the anxiety attacks, fears, or worries that most people had, I just needed a job. Well in February I managed to get a job at the time so my wait was not as long as others. As it turned out I didnt know anyone directly who was killed in the attacks, while this does not mean I was excused from grieving, it did make the whole incident less personal for me than for people who worked in the area or lost loved ones. My sister did have a friend from high school, whose husband is a photographer and rushed to the area to take pictures and perished when the towers fell, so in some ways eevryone in NYC was way less than 6 degrees of seperation from knowing someone who perished.

5 years later it is embarassing at the status of the rebuilding. When Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans called the site a "hole in the ground" I clapped and agreed wit him. That is exactly what it is now, when people come to NYC to visit and want to go see Ground Zero, I tell them how to get there and stay home. I have no desire to go there until it is a proper memorial and not some construction site. Between the in fighting of the politicians, insurance companies, private developers, governors of 2 states, congressman and city council members using the WTC rebuilding as a political way to get more $$$ for their area its totally sickening what is going on. The fact that 5 years has passed and all we have to show in a rebuild 7 WTC building that is still without any tenants to rent out. Its obvious that office space is not needed, there is plenty of other office space in NYC. This is a burial ground people, of the 2749 victims, I read more than half of those people NOTHING human was recovered, zip nadda no human remains of the people. The intense heat and fire basically creamated these people, they were the dust that fell on the site. Just like other mass grave burial sites from Pearl Harbor to the Titanic, it should be left as a final resting place. Dont build 10 million square feet of office space on the site where 2749 people died, while I dont believe totally in ghosts I know there will be some bad vibes and haunting spirits in whatever building are built. Turn the whole 16 acres itno a memorial site, a nice memorial site, even if it costs $1 billion dollars, the price tag that Gov. Pataki balked at years ago. He also said in 2003 that by 2006 the Freedom tower will be completed and topped off at 1776 feet, well its 2006 and its still a hole in the ground.. I dont buy the whole if we dont rebuild, it shows the terrorists that they won... I dont buy that argument at all..

As for the immediate aftermath of the attacks the War in Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with the illegal war in Iraq.. hmm where to begin. While initally I might have supported the war in Afghanistan, word is coming from there now that that Taliban is regouped and stronger than it was when we first attacked 5 years ago. They are attacking more, more organized, more money from a banner drug crop, got plenty of weapons and now are attacking the USA at a higher rate..

So what exactly have we done in 5 years, other than introduce the word "Daisy Cutter" into our vocab. We havent gotten Osama, we dont even know what the leader of the Taliban Mullah Omar even looks like much less how to caputre/kill him.. The world standing of the USA is about 5 notches down, between our secret prisons, not sticking to geneva convention, Abu Grave prision torture pictures, CIA eastern european torture cells, whatever.. As for the war in Iraq, well that was BS from the start, a way to steal their oil and get rid of Saddam, son G.W Bush finishing off what his daddy couldnt do in 1991. That war sickened me from the beginning and now in 2006 its worse than at any time. Average of 2 american soldiers dying each day, 100 Iraqis dying each day, the country on verge of Civil War, oil output down from pre-war time, the country having no interest in "Democracy" or any other american imperialism we try to impose around the world. Basically the world has had it with the bully americans. While I would like to support the troops, I just simply cant. I know they are just following orders, but when the orders are Illegal and totally tearing a country apart how can you just blindly support that and tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree. While it does pain me every time i read or see a 22 year old Marine getting killed over Bush's war for oil, the term "support the troops" is something I have a problem with. I dont support the commander in chief or his decisions, so how could I also support the troops.. I dont buy into that "they are fighting so we can have our freedoms at home" well Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11 as Bush has said, but yet he tries to find a way to tie it into the whole war on terror as if we dont get them there, they will get us here stuff.. whatever..

I think we need to worry about our problems at home and not in Iraq, Katrina taught us about protecting and providing for our own. We have an immigration problem, we have Health Care costs out of control, Bad Economy, Climate Change, Energy Policy needed.. The $$$ being spent for a war that cant be won, just isnt worth it, so yes cut and run, get out, bring the troops home, admit we messed up Iraq worse than any backwards dictator could ever do and bring the troops home.. Bin Laden is chillin in a cave watching CNN on a 50" TV now and will be for a while. While i know if we leave the chance of Al Qaeda getting stronger and planning another attack yes will be greater, we will just have to strengthen our defenses, our human intelligence, electronic intelligence whatever, but its not like we have caught him now after 5 years, who knows if we can catch him if given another 5 or 10 years.. Yes in the years while the USA has been spared from attacks other cities like Madrid and London have been hit and hit hard. While in a sick way, I expect NYC to be hit again sometime in the future, I dont dwell on that in going about my day to day business.

The future has lessons for each of us for sure, and 9/11 might have woken some of us up to these things. From now on, we should hug our loved ones a bit longer, call that person you havent in a while, end dumb grudges with friends/family.. as in todays world you never know when the next earthquake, tsunami, hurricane or whatever is going to come along and take someone away from us..

Country by Country: Estonia

2006-09-08T10:45:00.000-04:00

Ok I am going to try to write a country by country recap in the next few weeks/months. Since I didnt have a laptop while I was overseas it was hard to do more than 30 minutes to an hour at a time at an internet cafe so I was not really able to put all my thoughts on the blog. I did manage to keep a diary/notebook of thoughts, but looking back alot of these posts were written after a few too many Beers, so it makes it almost unreadable. I am going to start off with Estonia, as while it was my 3rd country(UK, Finland first), I spent 3 nights here so I have something substantial to say about it.

For those who dont know where or what Estonia is, It is located way way up north in Europe, Just south of Finland and East of Russia. That is the flag for those of you who want to see such things up at the top of the post. The capital city where I was is Tallinn, and the population of the city is 430,000 of the 1.4 million people in the country. The language is more a mix of Finnish than it is of Russian, who were the main occupiers of the country over the past century, yet the Country has a long history way before the russians took over in recent memory as it was been taken in the past by the Danes, Swedes, Nazi's, Russians you name it!

I arrived from Finland via a Ferry. The Ferry ride was 3hrs, yet the distance covered was only 18km, so basically a person could walk as fast as this ferry was moving, yet the reason for the slow boat was was SHOPPING. Finland is so damn expensive that tons of Fins come over to Estonia and buy up as much Beer, Wine, Spirits, Cigarettes, Perfume, whatever they can legally carry back. Waiting for the boat at the Helsinki port the best sight was when the boat arrived from Estonia and every man, woman and child were each carrying on a rolling cart the allowed 5 cases of beer. I can feel them knowing a beer at a pub in Finland is about $7.50, whereas the same beer in Tallinn is about $2.50. The boat was was nice, as it had plenty of shopping, a casino, places to eat. I was actually having a slight hangover, so I didnt do much on the boat but lay there and wish it was moving faster and not in a circle. This thankfully was the first and only a very few early hangovers, by the 2nd week my liver was working overtime and I didnt feel after effects, in fact I was like a functioning alchie.. able to stay up all night and drink and sightsee or travel by day.

The Hostel I stayed at was the Old Town Backpackers. This was initally a bit of a struggle to find. Seems the Hostel has moved their address from what was posted online on their website and also on the booking sites. So I arrive and at this time my backpack was heavy and uncomfortable, it would later basically be like having another arm and I didnt feel it at all walking up hills, in the heat. So after making my way, the LONG way from the port to the Old town, i came upon the old address. I rang the bell, knocked on the door, threw rocks at the window, anything I could do finally someone opened up and told me "sorry hostel moved, other side of town.." I was able to find it on my map, but it felt like a long hike. Upon arrival things calmed down a bit, I was staying in a room of at least 8 other people, but it was thankfully a large room, unlike that crap in Amsterdam. I think the cost was about $15 per night for a dorm bed, definately a good deal and about average for my overall Hostel cost.

So what were my expectation of Estonia, well every article I have read about it boasts of it being a party city, the new party place in the Baltics. Take this New York Times article as an example. I must say I wanted to goto this famous Club Hollywood, but never managed to get there during this trip. While I did have fun hanging out, and had met a few people in Finland who were living in Tallinn, so I had people to hang out with, overall I didnt feel it had the top 10 most beautiful women in the world as Maxim Magazine claimed, nor was it a big Party Capital.

The Beer, yes the most important thing.. The bar The Hell Hunt, had an amazing selection of beers on tap. Everything from Belgium, Estonia, Dutch, German to even Miller Lite. The cost of these were about $3 to $4 each, which at the time I thought was a greal deal, but I would later learn when I got to Eastern Europe $4 will buy you a round of Tequila shots. The local favorite beers are Saku, or A Le Coq. Both are very good golden pilsner type of beers, very refreshing. Cost were about $2.75 each, and without feeling pressure to leave a tip, a very good deal. The music in the bars was typical western Hip Hop, I didnt get a chance to experience any Estonia pop tunes at least at the bars I was at.

Food, They have their own fast food Hamburger chain, which is actually based in Finland its called HesBurger, I ate there on a rainy day, and must say it was great soak up the beer in the stomach from last night food. A whole meal of a big burger, coke and fries was less then $4, cant beat that at all. As for a real Estonian meal, I cant say that I had one during my time there, but considering its proximity to the ocean, I have a feeling it would have been fish and sadly for me probably uncooked fish and I aint down with Sushi, so the HesBurgers were just fine.

People, the most famous Estonian from a goole search is Supermodel Carmen Kass While I didnt see any girls like her walking the streets there were plenty of cute girls, but more of the blond/blue eye variety. As fro foreign tourists, there were a few, but early in June it still seems like a dead period for tourism as the city seemed fairly empty. The old town streets are a maze, but after a few days you can manage to get around and not too lost by using the old town city hall square as your reference point. I met an intersting American guy who was working in Kuwait doing oil rig/drilling whatever and was on his vacation and decided to come to Estonia he claims for both the weather and women, he was an interesting texas loud kind of guy, while not someone you would want to travel with, surely someone having a few beers and watching a game was fun with.

Overall Estonia is a very nice place, but by no means the party capital of Europe in terms of late nights or lovely women, the lovely women award would later be awarded in eastern europe and the late nights are better surely in other places. But I would not rule out Estonia as a stop either on the way thru the Baltics, or if you are on the way to St. Petersburg Russia as it seemed alot of people at the Hostel were on the way to or from.

Below here is my favorite picture of the old houses vs the new construction boom going on in Tallinn. Taken from the top of the Old Town City Hall which is about 300 feet high and you gotta walk up a tight circular stairway to get there.

Wrapping It Up

2006-08-28T11:20:00.000-04:00

Ok my self imposed one week of doing nothing is over. I have yet to unpack, unpacking is always the least favorite thing to do when you get back from a trip. Also due to the fact that I basically wore the same few shirts and jeans for 11 weeks many of these items are going to be retired for good. Sadly my white USA soccer jersey, that didnt get much wear during the world cup, due to the USA speedy exit, it got some wear afterwards as I couldnt let it goto waste, it has a few unknown stains on it, so it too might be retired. No worries as with the poor performance of the USA team, I'm almost embarassed to wear it outside of a match. I will NOT be buying a 4 star Italian jersey whenever they come out as I am still digusted at the way the Italians played,and while they are the champions, and I went to 3 of their games, a fan I am NOT.

Just a few interesting overall stats that I sorta compiled on my trip

Total Countries Visited 22. In Order. England, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Norway

Total Cities Visited or at least drank a beer in. 43. London, Oxford, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Jurmala, Vilnius, Kanaus, Warsaw, Krakow, Essen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Mainz, Mannheim, Nuremberg, Kaiserslautern, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Luxembourg City, Barcelona, Prague, Salzburg, Budapest, Bratislava, Bucharest, Brasov, Constant, Varna, Sofia, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Pula, Rovinj, Ljubljana, Bled, Oslo

Different Currencies Handled. 16. British Pound, Euro, Estonian Kroon, Latvian Lat, Lithuanian Lita, Polish Zloty, Czech Kourna, Hungarian Forint, Slovakian Kouran, Romanian Leu, Bulgarian Lev, Serbian Dinar, Bosnian Marka, Croatian Kuna, Slovenian Tolar, Norwegian Krone

Cheapest Beer by far was in Bratislava at the 1 Slovak Pub. Homemade good beer for 18 SKK(currently 29 SKK to 1 USD), so it was about .60 cents. Most expensive Beer was in Oslo, where it was 60 NOK(currently 6.28NOK to 1 USD), making that beer cost $9.75, and it was only .4L(about 13.5 Oz).

Total Money spent.. well I didnt keep an IRS audit count, but it was about $4000 to $5000 for the lodging and transportation for the 11 weeks. I was able to keep an avg budget of about $400 per week. My World Cup tickets were paid before I left, and airfare back and forth over the pond was paid using Frequent Flier miles.

Total Beers drank. I dont even want to think about it, still letting my liver slowly recover!!!

Overall the trip was great, I did get a bit homesick in the last 2 weeks, and hurting my knee and hobbling around like an old man during the last week was no fun. Also towards the end dwindling bank account funds made things tough especially when I was in expensive countries like Norway and England. Overall I am addicted to the backpacing lifestyle where you have no schedules, no plans, you just wander like a rolling stone.... I will be coming back next year if plans work out and i will be hitting those far off countries that seemed out of reach to me, but now after doing the trip once, I realize nothing is really off limits, unless its Kosovo with landmines buried in the ground.

Pictures are being added to my Fotki site each day, I am about 75% done, so check some of those out. Also videos will be slowly added to my YouTube site, so check with out. In the next few weeks I am going to go thru my diary and try to give you a country by country recap of places, and I have a few other posts, so thanks for reading and if you stick around, more props to ya!!

Home Sweet Home

2006-08-18T08:35:00.000-04:00

Those words have never been so good to say. I write this to you from my own computer in my own home with my cat fighting for chair space. The last 2 weeks of the trip I was feeling some bits of homesickness, but it didnt really get back till I got to London. I had a minor injury back in Riga, and by London my knee had swollen to the size of a grapefruit, with pain.. it made for walking difficult, i was moving slow.. VERY SLOW.. Now after spending a night in my own bed having crazy dreams any pain or difficulty i have in walking doesnt matter.. Anyway due to lack of good constant internet access while overseas I still have many more posts, tons more pictures and videos to post.. so stick around this blog is far from over..

The Ryanair Ripoff...

2006-08-14T15:01:00.000-04:00

I am currently someone in Norway, i cant even say Oslo, cause it was a 1hr 40 minute bus ride to the airport. I am flying on Ryanair, the main English based discount airline for the 2nd time on this trip. Previously I went from Germany to Barcelona on them, and at that time realized the little scam they have. They offer tickets at really cheap prices, in fact I think my Germany ticket was about 40Euros roundtrip, in Germany you cant even go 3hrs on the Train for 40 Euros. But the airports they use are not connected to the main rail system, so you have to take these airport busses to the airports. Well as it turns out the airport busses cost about as much as the flights. Same case with this Oslo trip, the bus to the Norway airport was 140Kr, or about 24USD, once I get to London I will be in Stansted where its another 25US or so to get into central London. I know that Ryanair has to have some sort of deal with the bus companies to get a kickback from them..

I have totally enjoyed my time in Oslo, for near the end of the trip my Host was amazing, and I got to goto the Football match yesterday totally VIP. Sitting in seats on the 50yd line, with free beer and hotdogs. In fact you cant get beer at the stadiums here, but if you are VIP the beer flows and flows freely. In no other country do the words FREE BEER mean so much as Norway. Over the course of my time, the avg price of a beer at a bar was 9 or 10 USD. And that wasnt even for a full half liter, but for .4L. London is a great city, but honestly this time of year not looking forward to it. I have some crappy arrival and departure times and with the whole terror threat at the airport I know its going to be a tough ride home. But I will be home before weeks end, sleeping in my own bed and that sounds appealing in itself.. See you from London

still here.. but ready to be home

2006-08-14T08:27:00.000-04:00

sorry for lack of posts, but been busy in Oslo.. went to a football game yesterday and the home team won, it was a great time.. now worried about london and trying to get my itinery detials and learn what i can and cant take on the plane.. sorry for short post, but i really really am ready to come home...

Black People invade Norway!!!!

2006-08-11T07:29:00.000-04:00

Well i made it here to Oslo, my 22nd and last unique country. I will be flying to London on the 14th for a quick stopover before coming back to the USA. Saw the news yesterday and not exactly the best time to be flying from Heathrow back to the USA. Hopefully in a week things will have calmed down, or else I guess I will have to get on the plane basically butt nekkid to avoid extra security screening, especially with all the stamps in my passport from this trip. So far Oslo has been lovely, strange to think this city only have 550,000 people, less than Riga, but i am sure more people know where Oslo is than Riga..

As for the title of this post, within 2hrs of arrival last night, I saw more black people in Oslo than I honestly did in all of the last 4 weeks in Eastern Europe. I counted at least 8 folks from the guy at the airport cleaning the toilets, to folks walking on the street. I think combined in Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania I might have seen a total of 8 folks. I guess the high standard of living draws peeps to Norway. And a high standard of living is needed as this is an expensive city. In fact its ranked this year as the Most Expensive City in the world, and I can attest to this fact after only 12 hours here. Dont believe the stuff about Moscow being the most expensive city, that survey was based on a business traveler and what sort of per diem he gets from his company. For a backpacker or other traveler dont come to Oslo unless you have a nice trust fund. thankfully my friend who I am staying with has a lovely apartment in center olso with a great kitchen that I will be using ALOT over the next few days. Also she has connections and managed to get free tickets for this big music festival on Saturday, some of the performers include Beck, so hopefully will get to see that and I belive that Nikkas husband, Justin Stanley is playing guitar with Becks band, so that should be nice to see..

Prices, ok this is no joke, the bank machine the smallest amount you can take out is 200Kr, and at 6 to the dollar, that is like 33 bucks. I am in the downtown tourist area for sure, but should a Greek Salad cost 20bucks.. should an omlette cost 15bucks, even subway seems high at 8bucks for a footlong sandwich. This is total sticker shock, fruit at the open market is expensive.. I have had my first beer in Norway last night at the apartment, but going out to buy one, I am sure its going to be the most expensive beer of the trip, probably clocking in around 8 to 10 bucks.. coming from Bratislava where I had a beer for 66 cents, this is the total other end of the spectrum. This is going to make England seem damn cheap. But the city is lovely and very walkable with lots of parks, green space, flowers. I have been snapping away pictures filing up the last of my memory card... Ok actually at a place with 30 minutes of free internet use, so let me make the most of it, as at the cafe it would have been 30 Kr, or about 5bucks for half an hour... Bring your wallet to Oslo for sure..

7 More Days..

2006-08-10T11:20:00.000-04:00

Whoa just typed a short post and it disappeared. I guess free internet at the airport isnt the most reliable, so let me try again. \Yep only 7 more days before I head back to the USA. Only one more country left, which is Norway and I am at the Riga airport right now about to head off to Oslo. Norway is crazy expensive so not the best choice for the last country on your trip, but thankfully I have a free place to stay and I am bringing as much duty free alchie as I can carry from Riga. Last night I was planning on staying in, but all of a sudden folks showed up in the common room, beer was served, stories of other travels told and then we possed up and headed off to the bars. Went to a place called Casablanca where I had never been. Cool joint with a live band in the basement, small stage but managed to cram 8 people up on there. 2 sax players, 1 trombone, keyboards, drummer, bass, guitar and DJ. Only caught about 30 minutes of the set, but its always nice to hear live music. Then it turned into a Dance party and they played some good stuff, Mikey Jackson, Stevie Wonder.. I asked for Prince, but no luck.. i guess I would have had to go back to my favorite strip club under the Hostel for Prince.. ALright dont want to stay on here too long, gotta go raid the duty free store of Vodka.. See u from Oslo.

Riga Redux

2006-08-09T14:21:00.000-04:00

Ok so back in Riga, Latvia. I must say its strange to be in a city for a 2nd time on this trip, but due to the cheap flights and just overall beauty of Riga, it was an easy choice to spend a few days here. Didnt post yesterday as it was a long day, I went to Jurmala, which is a beach town about 30 minutes away, I must say the beach was very nice and despite the not exactly burning up temps people were out. It is a SAND beach, something I was longing for in Croatia and never found. The Baltic sea was actually not too cold, but the only problem with going in to swim is that the water is very shallow until far far out, so I only soaked my feet in. After that met a few cool British dudes and their Latvian tour guide, and went to the Water Park. I must say I felt like a 12 year old kid again, going on water slides, it was a total fun time. Didnt get back to Riga until late and then went out to party. Riga is really a great party city, while I feel it has changed a bit in the 2 months since I have been here, regardless still a good time can be had. During the week, more of the lovely local ladies are out, as they avoid the Brit stag parties on the weekend, yet in August it seems that the street pimps are being alot more aggressive about trying to get you into the strip clubs and stuff. Also the locals seem a bit restless as 2 girls were fighting over who knows what, maybe someone bumped each other. I gotta give the Latvian girls credit, or they watch alot of black films, as one girl went straight for the hair pull and grabbed on tight. Yet unlike Black girls, they dont have weaves here, so no hair was pulled out and thrown on the ground.

Tomorrow I am off to Olso, Norway, the last unique country on my trip and it will be number 22. Things are winding down, less than 10 days left before I arrive back in the states. While in many ways I am ready to come home, I do love this backpacking just wandering like a rolling stone lifestyle.

Another All Nighter!!

2006-08-07T19:10:00.000-04:00

Ok made it to Berlin, as nice as the ICE trains are, it sucks when they are late, and my train from Munich was about 40 minutes late. Since it got in a little before Midnight and my flight tomorrow to Riga, Latvia is at 7am, there was only one decent option.. F the Hostel and pull and all nighter. I couldnt think of a better city then Berlin. Why I have neglected this city amazes me. Right now I am at a place called HOE, to call it a bar or club would be wrong, its more like an experience. Its a 5 level building with each floor a different type of Vibe. Right now I am on the top floor on a damn iMAC using free internet while other people smoke up and get high at the coffee shope. On the 3rd floor is an art gallery with some pretty cool stuff, on the 4th floor a red tinted lounge, I would have hung there but it was all guys.. On the 2nd floor is a pretty decent sized bar-club with music.. and to top it off outside like all german places there is sand, so they probablz call that the beach... ok on my first becks, going to hang till at least 4am, not sure what time the sun comes up but i would like to get a few picture of the berlin wall and some other sights, but who knows how i will feel then... more from Riga tomorrow, as I will be at my favorite hostel with free internet, maybe even a few pics of the recent time..

Kidnapped!!!!!

2006-08-07T09:24:00.000-04:00

Ok.. well that is a dramatic title, it should be more like Stowaway. Sorry I havent posted the last few days, but I found 2 cool american girls who were driving in a big typical american SUV and I became a stowaway. We were staying at a house in croatia, in Zagreb up in the hills/mountains, and they didnt have internet access there. But they did have their own working farm, complete with Chickens whose eggs we ate each morning, remind me to get tested for bird flu when I get back, apple tree, grape vines which produced a cheap but deadly white wine, also fresh strawberry and grape jam. Overall it was a great 2 days, getting out of the Hostel lifesytle and to see how Croatian people live. So while I didnt enjoy Pula, Croatia much at all, when given the chance to spend a few days speaking english, telling all my stories from this trip and past trips and seeing how the real Croatian people lives, I jumped at the chance and stowedaway in the backseat of the Jeep for a few days..

Right now spending a few hours in Munich, Germany, its been alot of travel over the past few days. A 7hr trip from Zagreb to Salzburg, Austria which has the honor of being the first of a few repeat cities. Got to Salzburg last night late at night and the hostel I wanted to stay at reception was closed, found an internet cafe and looked up another one with 24hr reception and managed to get a dorm bed there. It was raining, in fact for the 3 days in a row, and now 4th country it rained yesterday, after pretty much great weather all summer this has been a downer. It rained in Croatia, it rained in Slovenia, then Austria and even today in Munich for a bit it rained. So in my 3hrs here in Munich went to the BeerGarden and had some bratwrust, sauerkraut and a liter of Hofbrauhaus beer.. now walking around and finally found cheap internet, 1.20Euros for 1Hr.. very good price, but I have a train to catch in 30 minutes, so I wont even be on for an hour. Last night it cost me freaking 2.20euros for 10 minutes just enough time to find a hostel to sleep in. WHile its great to be back in Western Europe, no more passport checks, back to 1 currency the Euro, at the same time the prices are steep and the Euros just disappear from the wallet.

Alright going to be on a 6hr train ride, but it will be the ICE, which is probably better than coach class on a US Airline. Going to Berlin and then have an early ass 7am flight to Riga, Latvia.. Riga will be the 2nd city that I have a return visit to, its just a 2 day drinking pitstop on the way to Oslo, where I will spent 4 days.. and then the trip is over.. in someways I am definately ready to come home, but in otherways if I had the money I would definately stay here another month and try to hit the few countries that I missed.. But watch out Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, Greece as DrinkingAcrossEurope the 2007 edition will hit you and hopefully hit you hard... Talk to you from Lativa!!!

I am alive..

2006-08-06T16:05:00.000-04:00

i know no posts for a few days over the weekend, but i am alive.. trying to find a room right now as its late and raining.. more later

Blackjack....

2006-08-03T15:52:00.000-04:00

Yep.. today currently in Slovenia, in fact in Ljubljana and this is country 21. My initial goal was 20 countries and now I managed to pass that, and in the end will be adding one more Norway to the list. The countries that I have missed, watch out as I am addicted to the backpacking lifestyle. Next year the countries that I have not hit, watch out as I am coming to drink your beer.

Ok Pula, Croatia was a total bust, but Ljubljana is amazing, I wish I had spent the last 2 days here. Pula was not really a backpackers destination, as it was more families and really a car city. Where the hostel was you had to take the bus into town and the bus stopped running at about 11pm, and taxis were hard to find and like everything else expensive. I basically drank beer at the hostel, on the beach looking at the stars each night.. yeah I know sounds tough, as it totally could have been worse, I could have been bored and stranded in Bucharest, the sheete-whole that is was and will be for years.

So far it was raining all day in Ljubljana(pronounced LOO'Be'yanah). Yet on arrival I didnt have culture shock, as I had a reservation, a Map, and it said it was only 10 minute away. I missed the first turn off, but doubled back and found the place. Very chariming Hostel, with free Internet(YAY), sadly only 1 bathroom, so I must make sure to drain the snake before I come home from partying tonight. I have just learned the places dont really get going till 1am almost, so its 10pm and probablz for a beer and power nap.. Catch ya later

I am a Drama Queen

2006-08-02T08:28:00.000-04:00

No way around it, I am a big time Drama King-Queen whatever. In the end naturally things turn out well, why I was so frazzled yesterday could have been sheer exhaustion. Anyway I have to give the city of Rovinj a chance, as when I was walking around waiting on my bus, I realized it was very beautiful. Also overrun by tourists, cars in the parking lot from every country including some from Croatia, but mostly from other places. this is a vacation spot for families, not really for backpackers. I do feel a bit out of place here, and plan to escape to Slovenia tomorrow depending on train schedules.

Pula itself is also overrun with tourists, yet the Hostel is cool. Its located right on the water, in a rather secluted bay, while it is a good 300m from the main road and at nighttime that walk can be trecherous its all good. The water is about the cleanest water I have seen in a while, U can easily see down to 7 or 8 feet. Its not too cold either. Today has been a bad weather rainy and cloudy day, so the beach idea is wiped out. The other beach problem is no sand, there is no sand here in almost all of Croatia, its rocky beaches, not comfortable at all on your feet, a pair of Acqa Socks is essential and I dont have any, so it will be just watching the water, dont plan on going in and twisting an ankle or something.. No idea why this side of the Adratic Sea doesnt have sandy beaches, as the Italian side definately does.

Interesting conversation once I got settled, being the only american here, lots of questions about NYC and america. it was a group of Croats, Slovenians, Germans, Greeks, French, the usual mix of people. One Croat was getting on my nerves telling me how there are 200,000 gangster in NYC, and how he wouldnt be able to walk thru the bronx without being killed. I guess watching too many of those hollywood movies, I tried to talk to him, but when he started going on lumping all Americans into the policies of G. W and our Govt, it was time for me to move on, it was a helpless case..

Well I am normal for today, i have alot of travel coming up between now and the 8th when I have to be in Berlin for a flight, so we might have a few more days of arrival shock and drama queen, so stay tuned and wish me luck

Ayan needs your support and thoughts

2006-08-01T13:26:00.000-04:00

no one ever said travel was easy, but today has been simply horrible.. after the overnight bus 8hrs from Sarajevo to Zagreb was not ideal, i arrived fairly refreshed and happy. Two other americans who i had been seeing on and off since Belgrade were on the bus, so we walked around and had coffee in the morning.. then I took the 130pm bus to Pula, all along it was going well, the view was just fablous passing thru little towns on the adratic coast, going up and down in the mountains.. well it all went down hill when at the last bus stop I asked, is this Pula.. and the bus driver laughed and was like hahaha Pula was 2 stops ago.. U are in Rovinj, now I am sure Rovinj is a nice town, and it has to be since its damn packed..I even asked about a private room, or some sort of accomidation here and it was all full up... anyway so the bus back to Pula is not for another 3hrs at 10pm, once I get to Pula, no idea if the youth hostel will still have rooms available.. i am tired, hungry, been in same clothes for about 24hrs and if it wasnt for finding this internet cafe i was about to sit in the town square and have a good cry... i guess now i will have some food and definately some beer and hope when I get to Pula, if they freaking tell me I am in Pula that I will be able to get a bed.. I hope Pula and the roman ruins rock... I go thru ups and downs all the time when I am traveling, and mostly on arrival I have shock about the new surrounding and stuff.. but i think i just have been on a bus too damn long in the last 24hrs.. also worrying about wasting every extra penny doesnt help.. mom get back from montreal and save your son..

Doesn't feel like a Million..

2006-08-01T06:49:00.000-04:00

the title refers to the number of people here in Zagreb, definatly not my bank account, which as I near the end of the trip is getting closer to Zero, too close in fact.. so if you havent bought me a beer or donated and were thinking of doing so, this would be a perfect time. I have a flight back to NYC on the 17th of August, and I would prefer to avoid sleeping in parks or bus stations until then, so while I dont want to get down and beg, or worse call out folks who have been reading everyday and not donated.. but the choice between the street and calling folks out, I will be hollering.. ok enough about the costs of traveling, how about the stress..

The bus ride overnight was 8Hrs, honestly 6 of that was spend weaving thru side streets and down residential streets, dirt roads and what not in Bosnia to get to the Border. Once across the Border into Croatia, we were on a nice smooth paved 2 lane highway and it was a breeze. I guess this is the difference when countries receive tourists dollars. Zagreb is a very nice city, I tried to do the city walk tour as given out by the tourist office, but there is so much construction going on here, it was tough to see everything.. Had lunch at a straight up Croatian place, the little mama lady was cooking and no english menus, so it was point and nod.. The first pot she opened up didnt look too good, so I was hoping what was behind door nubmer 2 was better, it was, an awesome beef stew with potatoes and fresh soft bread.. All for 20Kn(about 6 bucks, its 5.6KN to the dollar), definately it hit the spot.. havent had my first beer yet, but I am rushing off for another 6hr bus ride to Pula..Pula is on the water, when I get there I am going to want to jump in, after being on buses for some 14hrs in the last 24hrs... ok I am tough, I am off.. sorry for short post, but i need to get my bag from luggage storage and buy a ticket..

Inside the Mind of Ayan...

2006-07-31T13:31:00.000-04:00

Its a scary place to be, inside my mind that is. First off I am leaving Sarajevo and its been a really lovely city, I know you would all like to see pictures, but as is the case with alot of places Internet access is iffy at best, so its like log on, post and move on, no time to loiter. Hopefully I'll get to another cool Hostel with a computer or access. I am about to get on a nightbus to Zagreb, Croatia then spend the day there before moving on to Pula croatia on the coast.

Ok this is some of my thoughts as I wrote them down on paper from Friday the 29th while in Belgrade, Serbia.. just for exchange purposed 66DIN to the Dollar
6pm.. at Insomnia Cafe, located on Strahibjica Bana which is a street with 20 something bars, this place looks very nice and trendy with a full english menu. The interior is fancy, comfy couches outside on the street and cool jazz playing, good place for a happy hour beer. the Pivo is the MB brand, and at 150DIN a little pricy for this town, but still cheap in the overall realm of things. Ok just went inside and only 1 toilet so that is a bit of a drawback. Watching the crazy drivers park any and everywhere they want, these people honestly must not need a license or have to pass a test to drive.
6:25pm. talk to the girls next to me, they speak good english YEAH. Olja is the name of one of them and she tells me a bit about Serbia and the people, good conversation. Typically offer to buy them a drink, beer or otherwise but as seems to be the case here in eastern europe its not done, and they politely refuse. Ok lets ask for the number.. She gives me the cell phone number and says, yeah sure I'll hang at the barge parties tonight, even tho she says at age 25, her best party days are behind her..
7pm. leave after 3 beers and walk back to the Hostel, we will see if this pans out tonight.
8pm.. Making steak and potatoes for dinner at the Hostel, damn this hits the spot, offer up extra food to roomates, they enjoy. I should have cooked more often on this trip as it gives me a feeling of being back home, very cool.
10:45pm Showered and ready to hit the town for my last nights, its friday night should be a good night. Text Olja simple message and decide to hang out at the bar around the corner Bar Central for a bit
11pm. Arrive at Bar Central.. this is the only bar i have been to that has reserved bar stools, but I managed to find a seat and order my beer. This is the LAV beer, cost is 120DIN, good price for a place this swanky and nice. The music is typical american fare, the bar is nicely decorated I like this place.
11:20pm Oh yeah my theme song from europe, "Love Generation" by Bob Sinclair comes on, I swear I have heard this in every of the 17 countries so far, without a doubt. Gosh the glasses at the bar break easily, the bartender lights taps and it broken glass everywhere..
11:35pm.. Wow 2 total birds just walk in, dressed to the 9's and sit down. Interesting to see what they order. Gosh this place will make you feel like an old man as one is not looking even 18 years old. Ok now the 3rd miniskirted girl comes and joins them, this should be interesting. Yet these must be good girls as they are wearing catholic crosses around their neck..yeah right...
11:42pm.. Ok now some boy shows up for the 3 girls, typical double cheek kisses are exchanged. Gosh what a bad buzz cut this guy has, I guess male hair salons have not made it to Serbia yet.. Ok drinks up, looks like champagne and cranberry juice?? and then something red in a tumbler glass for the other girl..
11:48pm Ok just ordered my 3rd beer, and I havent been to bathroom yet, this is not a good sign knowing your bladder, you are going to end up having to rush somewhere to pee, lets go to bathroom now and piss a pint out.
11:52pm Ok last beer is here, this is an Lasko, guess they ran out of the other one, damn I am drinking this place dry. Hmm the girls are looking tasty and the miniskirt is so mini you can see who goes commando and who likes vicki secrets, she goes for the match red undies with the red dress, nice fashion choice.
12:03am No idea what song is playing but its a tight soul/house music groove
12:05... Ok another bathroom trip, the seal is broken now its going to be constant trips
12:20.. time to leave and hit the barges, no SMS message back from Olja yet, I guess being stood up, oh well
12:25am waiting on tram, it does run this late???
12:35am.. ok no tram, wait music coming from the fortress, maybe I'll stay close to the hostel tonight..
12:37am.. wow that was easy, just follow the people into the park and found one of the underground bars in the park. This one is called Basement, very nice right next to the tennis courts. too bad the music is crap, wonder where the bathroom is... Ok suppose to be some celebrity DJ playing tonight Marko Nastic, but I am not impressed, maybe I will goto barges.
12:50am Got a cab, hopefully he knows where I want to go and doesnt rip me off..
1:10am hey text message, ok its the message of being stood up, she was sleeping and didnt hear the phone, now her friends are gone and she is staying in, oh well win some lose some, there is still beer to be consumed
1:45am At the Exile Barge on the Sava river. I dont like this place, didnt like it the night before, just went to pay for my beer with a 1000DIN note and they look at me like its a gold brick, its 10 freakin euros, what do you mean you dont have change??? what kind of bar is this. The music is so so, the LAV was 150DIN, standard price I guess, alright find some change... Gosh this place is pretty laid back, dudes just smoking weed out in the open.. ok bathroom time.. Damn how can I place only have 2 bathroom and one of them has 2 people in there doing whatever.. ok they are done with their sex act, damn that girl is staff here, what a slut.. let goto the next barge as it looks like they are letting people in...
1:55am back at Freestlyer for the 3rd time in 4 nights, at least the music is decent, I dont like the beer choices with no local beers, Becks is 180DIN.
2:20am People keep on throwing shit in the river?? Why??? Its already the dirtiest river in europe probably try to keep it clean...
2:35am Ok now the staff guy just emptied an ashtray into the river, does anyone care??I am not saying I am mr. greenpeace cause I have peed in all sorts of places, but damn its your country keep the river clean. Dont anyone tell me America is the worst pollutor in the world, its these Serbians..
2:48am Girls asks me, what they hell are you writing down all the time, I explain to her, I wouldnt remember all these lovely thoughts if not. Nice girl, speaks english, whoa she has 3 kids and is out on a Friday night??? what gives?? ahh divorced, doesnt get child support, i wonder who is at home taking care of the kids..
3:10am Ok getting less crowded, now I can move around freely without worrying about starting a riot by stepping on somesones shoes...

Hey gotta pause here as I need to eat and internet time is running out.. to be continued till 5am...

Sarajevo Comes alive..

2006-07-30T11:27:00.000-04:00

Today was going to be the post, inside Ayan's mind, which I thought would be funny, but last night was a fun night here in Sarajevo so I thought I would post a few observations about it. Like other towns on Saturday in the daytime, it was sleepy here in Sarajevo, but when the sun goes down the people come out and the party starts. Sadly I couldnt get into the party mood as I was still dead tired from the all nighter and then straight to the bus ride from Belgrade. I had to quit at 2am, despite trying to IV myself with 3 straight Red Bulls.. First off Sarajevo Women are probably the best dressed I have seen yet in Europe, they are all dressed to the 9's for sure, but more importantly they have nice, in fact super nice shoes. I have learned you can tell over here what class girls are from the types of shoes they wear, and definately was around the higher class last night. Went to 2 very popular places, the City Pub, and Central Cafe, Central Cafe might be a cafe by day, but at night its an all out bar. City Pub was more like a normal bar but with good music, heard from TTD and others. Funny as fly as the Sarajevo women are, the men arent up to their standards, I swear there must be no male hair salons here, cause everyone has the same buzz/crew cut for their hair. I guess its better than the NJ Mullet action, but still its not the most flattering. The French and Italian men have these Bosnian men beat, and that really isnt too good of a thing

Another strange thing here in Bosnia is that you cant order drinks directly from the bartender, at least when I do i get bad stares and while he will give me the drink, I have to pay a waiter. I would go by their rules but with the slow service and not speaking the language to shout out at the waiter, I just goto the bar and deal with the wrath that way. The people out at the bars are young, probably too young for the bar, but they are there smoking away and drinking tonics and soft drinks. Makes it hard to try to hit on women, as anyone over 25 already has kids, but they are still out on saturday nights and still looking fly.

This city is just the right size, after coming from 2 million population of Belgrade. We are set in a valley that is lush green, with tons of houses up in the hills, this makes malibu or the hollywood hills look tiny in terms of number of houses but naturally those Cali houses are bigger and more expensive.. Had some amazing food here, so Curtis dont worry no McDonalds here, had a Cevapi, basically a plate of grilled sausage with bread and onions. It was amazing and that plus a beer was only 4 KM, or about 3 USD. This makes those donor kebabs seem like total crap, more Cevapi!! The trams are a bit expensive here with a ride being 1.60Km or about 1USD, still cheap, but coming from belgrade where it was a few cents, this is more expensive. But I still buy the tickets, all the trams over in europe are on the honor system and you get on and are expected to validate your ticket. I have been a very good boy, with the exception of a night bus in Budapest. Its a good thing cause today the inspectors were on the tram. The only city with a protected public transport is BUcharest where you need to go thru a turnstyle, even in german its on the honor system and assume you punch your ticket.

As for a history lesson I went to the Franz Fernindad plaque where the arch duke was shot and killed back in 1914 that eventually led to the start of World War I.. are we at World War 3 yet?? I read something about a bunch of kids dying in an isreali attack, ahh better i guess not to read the news... Alright at a cool internet cafe, not the cheapest, but they have Skype and IM, and since 2morrow I have tons of time to kill before my night bus to Zagreb, Croatia I will be able to do my inside my head post and maybe even a few pictures. Its not the cheapest place, but for a good computer with normal keyboard its worth it.

Arrival Shock...

2006-07-29T11:42:00.000-04:00

Ok here in Sarajevo and todays arrival shock could have been the worst. I stayed out all night last night till 5am and partied figuring I would just sleep on the bus, it worked out fine, as I thought I was going to take an 8am bus, but there was a 6:15am bus that was leaving, so I got there just in time and got my seat. For the first 3 hours slept peacefully, then it was the border crossing, this was actually one of the easier ones, only taking a total of 30 minutes to get out of Serbia and then seperate border guards to let you into Bosnia. In Bosnia the ride was lovely, when I could keep my eyes open, it was lush green mountains and valleys, the bus went thru a few mountain in tunnels and even did one harrowing mountain climb that reminded me of the tour de france.. speaking of which, damn how damanged is cycling as a sport, you thought baseball was bad with the roids, cycling is just filthy dirty... Anyway the ride was great, went thru some small bosnian towns, and eventually got to Sarajevo, now upon arrival I asked the only english speaking person on the bus, an Aussie if this was the last stop, he was like yeah.. To call where we were a bus station was being nice, it was more like a dust bowl, with a roof and a few buildings. It was total arrival shock, no tourist information office, no money exchange, but naturally lots of shady cab drivers waiting to take you..

I fended off the cab drivers, it was burning hot and I was wearing my same jeans from the night before, threw the backpack on and started off walking.. After about 1km, I saw to the right something to resembled civilazation, found both a bank machine and internet, used the internet to check location of Hostel and in talking to girl at Internet Cafe realized the bus station we were in was in New Saraejo, everything else is in old.. it was so far so I had to take a taxi, I asked how much it would be and she was like oh about 8 USD, I was like damn.. my ticket for a 7hr trip from Belgrade was only 20USD, my accomidations for the night is going to be 12USD, and the damn taxi is 7 freakin bucks.. I asked if there was anyway to take the bus/tram and they seemed to explain in bad english, no you would have to transfer too much..

Thought of other ways of getting to the old town, and even after seeing a Police car, figured if I got arrested I could get a free ride to jail, maybe even a meal, shower, or whatever.. thought about what it would take to get arrested but not deported, figured if I pulled out my dick and peeded on a statue that might do it, and I did have to got the bathroom, but then again this is europe and after going to the beaches and seeing what some people are wearing, public nudity might not be enough to get arrested.. So just dealt with the damn budget busting cab ride and took it all the way across town..

Finally at the main old town square and walked around in a circle for apparently no reason, as the tourist office that books hostels was like 10 feet away in the direction I did not look. Their website was really nice and slick, but this was basically an office where they book you in other hostels, not a hostel itself. anyway handed over my last 20 Euro note and paid for 2 nights, then was told its 5 minutes by foot.. everything in europe is 5 minutes away, its like people in LA who say oh it only takes 30 minutes with no traffic, but when the hell is there no traffic in LA??? So after a hike up the steepest steps ever and down what looked like abondonded and bomed out building, came to a shack that serves as my hostel, at least I have a key and the door locks, so some decent security, but I think I should be worried more about stray animals up in the hills than about robbers.

I was sweated out like a pig, and after the shower and change of clothes I felt human, then the weather changes and the afternoon thunderstorm rolls in.. I have actually learned to expect this of any city located in a valley, and this is the same, the valley is lovely but you pay the price with bad weather in the middle of the day.. ran inside to eat Pizza.. yeah I know Curt eat the locals.. but after not having eating in over 15hrs and being on a 7hr bus ride I was in no mood for mystery meat.. Then walked about the town a bit and felt more human..

Doesnt look like its going to be a big social town on a saturday night, but then again Bratislava was sleepy by daytime and came alive at night. Prices are about the same as the last 3 countries I have been, so that is good considering my dwindling bank account.. shout out to CMG who even without pictures left a very generous donation... you should have your pictures now, after all this anticpation I know they can only disappoint, so sorry about that..

One thing I have noticed is this is the most muslim, almost downright turkish country I have been to. Many turkish mosques, turkish music, more damn donar kebabs, I swear I never want another kebab in my life.. Also seen alot of people with headscarfs and vails, first time in this region for me. Not sure where I am going to next, but probably to Croatia, but not the beaches, too expensive for me, but a stop over in the big city of Zagreb. So far after the arrival shock, its been decent, we will see what the night has to offer... upcoming assuming I have decent internet access a few good posts, stay tuned...

the NSFW Post.. in demand and its here now..

2006-07-28T06:17:00.000-04:00

OK F it.. no password.. if you cant see them now, something is wrong with your machine.. just goto my main album page, last photo album.. i hope fotki doesnt cancel my account..

EDIT.. as of 205pm EST the album is fixed.. sorry my bad, i made it private and you have to be a fotki member to view them.. now its changed so any perv out there can see.. after all this anticipation, i hope you enjoy them... password is name of this website.. EDIT again.. its 530am here, just in from another drunken night.. password is name of website with no dot com.. so its D R I N K I N G A C R O S S E U R O P E if that doesnt work for you CMG, your playa card is going to be revoked!!!!!

Ok for all the people specifically CMG who have been bugging me, it took forever, the upload speed here is slow, but the pictures are up 15 of them. It should have been more, but I didnt want to be arrested as a dirty perv in Bulgaria. The last thing I need is a woman going to the police saying "uhhhh there was a guy taking pictures of me topless.." "well what did he look like.." "oh he was black and skinny.." "yeah we have seen him around town, we'll find him ma'am no problem.." I guess next year I'll be more bold..

These are NSFW, if you are looking at them at work and get fired, dont blame me, but since I dont have a job when I get back to the states, I guess it might be good, I can take your job.. oh yeah the password on Fotki is just the name is this blog, you shuold be able to figure it out.. The NSFW pictures

Enjoy and remember good porn isnt free, so if you want click on the Buy Ayan a Beer button and help out the cause!!!

Giving Props Where Props are Due!!!

2006-07-28T04:44:00.000-04:00

Spent yesterday getting a good walking tour of Belgrade. When I get home I am definately going to need a foot massage or two for sure as these dogs have walked a long time. One of the best museums I have been to was the one to honor Nikola Tesla. Now I almost dont want to call myself an Engineer, despite laboring for 5 years to get a piece of paper saying I have a degree. In school we learned that some laws and units are named after people, Volt, Ampere, etc. I knew of Tesla's name but honestly had no idea to scope of his work. The fact that I am typing this and you are reading this, while he did not invent the computer, nor did he have the idea for the Internet before Al Gore, the work that Tesla did at the turn of the century simply changed the face of society. For a good background on him check out his Wikipedia entry here Nikola Tesla

Basically to give you a rundown, he has patents for modern AC electric current, power distribution, AC motors, Radio Transmission and even the basis for remote controls. So just think about all those things you do in your life from the time you wake up, and basically Tesla's work helps it. From taking that first piss in the morning and being able to flush the toilet and get running water to brush your teeth, that is due to the fact pumping stations have motors.. And trust me after pissing in some holes in the ground here they call bathrooms, I respect the ability to flush. From turning on your TV with the remote control, those are high frequency waves shooting across the room. Starting up your car, that is a motor.. Anyway the depth of his work was amazing, and like most genius he was a bit crazy, or you can say eccentric. And for all that he only got the 100 Dinar Note(worth about a buck fifty)

Later in the day, I did something that might keep me in Belgrade longer than I should.. I bought a book, in English.. The Day of the Jackel, went to the city park/lake/beach and read it. While the lake here is nice, the beach itself is made of tiny rocks, so not comfortable to lay out on, there are some lounge chairs on one side, and people were going in the water. I might go back there today and just chill out.. So far 5 chapters done in the book, probably the best $1 I have spent here, as now on those 7hr bus rides, I have something to take my mind off of things, other than worrying if there will be street signs in the next city I arrive in. Naturally had a few beers, there is a beer called Jelen Pivo here, that has the logo of a dear head, very good stuff and naturally cheap.

In taking the bus across town to the beach you see some sights that just make you in awe. On the main avenue, the same avenue the US Embassy is on, there are about 4 building that are totally bombed out. The structure of the building is still standing but there are bomb/rocket holes. These are from the 1999 NATO/USA Bombing of Belgrade, its almost like instead of tearing the building down they are leaving them up for a F U, we are still here despite your efforts. It was a really striking sight, I have never been to a true war zone, but just seeing these buildings I cant imagine what Baghdad or anywhere in the middle east looks like now.. When you see on TV the pictures of a building in rubble after being hit by a 2000lb USA bomb, it is one thing, when you see it in person it is surely another thing..

Last night was a sort of chill night, instead of heading to the barges for raging parties, we went to a small bar near the Hostel with a few people and they were playing live music. Nothing to write home about but a simple 5 piece cover band, fronted by a women singing. It was nice for a change from the eurotrash Techno music to actually hear something live. Tried then to goto one of these famous Underground bars I read about in the NY Times piece a year ago, but nothing was open, summer is really not the best time here to party. Its hot and locals manage to get away to the coast so while the town isnt deserted like NYC, it surely is more empty.

I am staying one more night here, things are cheap and at this point of my budget, cheap is good. I am thinking of traveling with some other american folks to Sarajevo, Bosnia. If so that would be one more country visited, if not then I'll be off to Zagreb, Croatia and then Slovenia. Trip is almost coming to an end, i just counted to days and while I have been telling people its a 10 week trip, in reality it will be 77 days in the end, so 11 weeks.. Have a good weekend everyone

Hit the button... no not that button!!!!

2006-07-27T02:48:00.000-04:00

Well thankfully last night at 4am when I hit the wrong button, I was not in a bunker in North Korea and starting a war, it was just the night tram. But lets start at the beginning of the day. It was hot again in Belgrade, after my first day of wandering around in the heat, yesterday I decided to chill out at the hostel for most of the day. I did take a 2hr walk around the fortress near where we are staying and it was a good walk, including time at the Belgrade War/MIlitary Museum. But it was about 34 degrees, so I lasted only 2hrs before running back inside. Thankfully the hostel has AC, one of the first and few ones I have been in that has AC. It also has a huge mp3 collection, huge DVD and Video CD collection, so sitting around drinking beer and watching the best of South Park episodes is not a bad way to waste time, with a group that includes Aussies, another American from NYC, Dutch, French girls who have walked from Sarajevo to here, Italians who cooked spaghetti alla carabonara, and what not. Definately one of the better hostels in terms of staff and fun crowd, I am already done with my 2 nights I booked in advance and with the cheap prices here I might stay another 2 nights.

The Belgrade War Museum was eye opening, basically this region of the world has been constantly at war for 4000 years and has been conquered by EVERYONE. Currently the people are very happy that they are their own country, even recently kicking off Montengero into their own country. I was not suppose to take pictures, but since I was the only person there I did and some are really cool showing weapons from all the way back to now. I now have a better understanding of the city, the nation and how much conflict it has endured over the years. The fortress is very cool, its is a lush park and just walking around you find things you didnt know where there including a Cinema Cafe that shows movies and films on a big screen with a simply amazing view of the city from up high. Managed to have an afternoon beer there. Also food-wise yesterday was good, between the Italian guy here cooking everyone a meal, and also going out to buy basically a heart attack on a plate, it was ham, pork and cheese melted inside of a crusty bread bun, delicious for sure. Hopefully I will put back the belt size I have lost since traveling around here..

Nighttime was the righttime, at first it looked like it was going to be another missed night. Tuesday night we went out in a posse of 9, and the first place we went to was empty, only stayed 1 round. Then walked over to another of the barges parked on the Saba river where all the fun is, it was starting to get crowded about 1am, and some of the people were having fun.. I guess I was in a cranky mood, cause when I ordered a beer and payed with a 1000 DINER note(about 15 USD), they told me they didnt have change and wanted to charge me more for the beer since they were short, finally they got the extra change, but again the principal of that pissed me off. I couldnt imagine going out in the city and paying with a 20 only to be told sorry you drink will cost twice as much cause we dont have change.. Around 1:30am I decided to leave on my own to search out some places I had written down, well I struck out, walking all the way across the old bridge to the city only to find all the places closed.. In the summer Belgrade nightlife is very hit or miss, alot of people are on vacation and away, so places that are rocking in the fall/winter are vacent and close up. So last night knowing what I knew, after we struck out the first time and it was pushing 1am, the posse had dwindled in size and I just wanted to goto the Sava barges. Took a cab over there and thankfully met a cool Serbian guy, at first I was reclultant to go with him, but the place was playing good hip-hop and it was packed they werent letting anyone in. He managed to talk to the staff and got our posse of 6 in. AN hour later, when I was getting into my groove listening to Jay Z, Snoop Dogg, Tribe, and assorted Hip-Hop, the other 5 wanted to leave well I knew my lesson, when you find something good stuck with it.. So I stuck with it till closing time at 4am. Definately had fun, and the local guy has my email, so maybe he will contact me and let me know where the good party is, cause you simply cant trust the guides or internet sites, everything changes on a daily basis and having a local is the most helpful.

Trying to figure out my next destination, I really do want to goto Croatia, but with the prices here so good and already after 7 days in Varna, I am the 3 shades darker that I wanted I might just hit Zagreb for a day, but hostel availabilty is tough and then head to Slovenia. My italian friend is away and having problem with his dads health and in Silicy, so he might not be able to meet me in Trieste which is tough as I wanted to see him after 2 years, but naturally his family is more important than just having a coffee and drink with me.. But if Belgrade heats up on Thursday night, I really have no reason to leave as I am at a cool hostel and the cheap prices is helping my budget, as I am dreading just the 1 day in Germany, and while in Oslo I have a place to stay, knowing a beer at a pub is 9 bucks versus the 2 or 3 bucks here, the longer here is better. Alright enjoy your day, I got in at 4:30am and its 9am, so its back to sleep for me...

Oh yeah as for the button story, so after leaving the club/barge I knew I could walk home, but I saw the trams running on the bridge so I went to the tram stop. After about 4 empty ones passed by without stopping I asked the guys at the stop what the deal was, they said the main depot was close and the trams were just leaving to goto their first stop to start their routes later on. I asked if anything was running and they were like its hit or miss.. so as I start to walk off to go over the bridge the tram stops, we all pile on. Now this was not the number 11 that would have dropped me off right in front of my hostel, but this was the number 7. I asked where it went and they said well for me, just cross the river and then get off.. So it crosses the river and I am standing at the door waiting for it to make a stop, I guess since only 5 of us were on it, the driver wasnt stopping unless it was requested.. so I asked the guys how to get off, they said push the button, well in most other cities pushing the red button is to ask for a stop. So I push the red button the guys scream no not that button the black button well its too late, turns out the red is the emergency stop button, the tram screeches to a stop, the lights go out, and then the door opens.. I am like oh damn I broke it, but thankfully after I stumble off, the tram keeps on going.. So its not broke and I have learned my lesson...