I just had some wine called glögg with Malin; you put almonds and raisins in it. The day was quite successful overall, but I’ll share just one story. This morning, Ben was supposed to catch a bus downtown at 9:00. I woke at 9:00 because of drilling in the room next to me, wandered into the living room, and saw Ben asleep on the sofa, shoes on and otherwise ready to go. His plan had been to stay up all night, although I said goodnight at 5:30, so “all night” wasn’t going to be that long. Somehow, he ended up on the couch and crashed. He had to be at the airport by noon, and reaching it required a 45-minute train ride downtown followed by an 85-minute bus ride. The timing was impossible; …

Howdy, all. Kelvin checking in. I’m writing this shortly after Casey on Ben’s computer, hence the legible keys. I’ll give a rundown of the day; while it will be similar to Casey’s, it will also be different. I woke up quite early, around noon. No, wait. Casey woke up quite early and then shook me awake because I was out cold. I had leftover peanuts for breakfast while sitting in the kitchen, drinking espresso and talking with Ahyan about life in Stockholm. Jeez, that stuff is strong.

My future posts most likely won’t be so long. I’ll try to tell only the best stories, but today was one long good story, so it might be the exception!

This entry may be brief because I am writing on a PowerBook with an unfamiliar keyboard at Ayhen’s apartment. Our flight was enjoyable, and there is plenty to record, but I also want to rejoin Ben and Ayhen’s conversation. We left Portland at 7:30 in the morning and flew to Cincinnati at 10:30. A woman named Carson was sitting behind Casey, and we exchanged smiles. After arriving in Cincinnati, we found some food and saw her again. We slept through part of the long onward flight and watched Elf. At one point Casey noticed that Carson was on the same plane. When we reached baggage claim several hours later, I finally introduced myself. She was also studying at SOU and planned to be around Frankfurt …

It is 11:00 p.m., and my flight leaves tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. I finished packing, though. Hurrah! I made copies of my passport, I am eating my last meal, and I am ready to go. I just have to call my parents in the morning to say one last goodbye and send a few emails. Give me a mission, simple or hard, and write in the guestbook! I don’t plan on being homesick (sorry, y’all), but every hello will make my day better. Talk to you from Europe.

The flight back was just fine. In St. Louis, I called my friend Sarah from New Zealand, and after arriving in Portland, I transferred this 50-page journal to my computer. Two days later, I started working, but more happily than ever before! If you have any questions or want any tips, please go ahead and ask. There are certainly things I wish I had known, and the next time I go back to Europe, I will not repeat some of the same mistakes. One thing I will admit: those two months changed my perspective on everything.

[I wrote the following in the U.S. to sum up my trip.] I finally arrived in Munich and quickly caught a train to Venice. I met Christy in Venice early in the morning, and we wandered around all day. She showed me her hostel, which was nice but expensive, and then the rest of the city. I was surprised by how dirty Venice seemed. I had imagined a romantic city, and although the canals were amazing, it did not feel especially clean. Not Amsterdam dirty, but not exactly pristine.

It has been a week since I last wrote in the journal, so you can imagine that I have not had much time. Let me take a few moments to record what I have been doing. I no longer remember the exact days, but I will write about the events as I recall them. Let’s start with leaving Prague, a beautiful city. After spending a wonderful few days there, Ana and I caught an afternoon train to Berlin. We arrived late that night and, after getting somewhat lost on the S-Bahn, found the Generator hostel. It was huge, but check-in went smoothly, our room was comfortable, and we fell asleep.

I am in Prague. Hurrah! After leaving Falun, I headed towards Malmö, but a fire on the railway forced the train to stop in Lund. I then took two buses to Malmö and consequently missed my train from Copenhagen. The staff member in Malmö would not provide a hotel voucher because I lacked a reservation, even though I had tried twice that day to make one and the Swedish system could not connect to the Danish system. I met a woman from Berkeley who was very nice. She had a reservation, so she received a hotel room.

These have been the longest three days of my life, and I have a few stories to tell. I suppose I’ll start on the 25th. July 25: I made two decisions that day: first, to see the Tour de France, and second, to go to Greece a few days later. At 7:00pm, I was at the train station making a reservation for Paris when I ran into Nicole, whom I had met on the pub crawl. She had just graduated from Stanford. Lucky her! I got her email address and also met Ash and Sibyl there.