Brazil

We got to rio last night. The place we were staying at in paraty was really cool. Its like a hostel in the jungle. There is a river that runs right next to it with a couple of those little cable bridges accross it. Our host there, Valmar, is incredibly nice...He constantly offers us beer and lets us hang out at his house and use his pool table. We went out to the town a couple different nights both were pretty fun, although Jeff had a little extra fun the secnd time :) Anyhoo we´re at rio now and are going to stay for new years. We decided not to get a place to stay ´cause we though we´d be up all night anyway. Valmar arranged for us to take a cab back to paraty at lke five in the morning though, and for only 500 rias for all 4 of us. Trust me its a good deal, like $50 each for a 4 hour drive. So that should be pretty amazing.
In paraty there is this crazy waterfall that the local kids slide down. I didn´t get to try but jeff said he kept falling. Ill try when we get back.

Stuck in the fUcKiNg airport

and trying to find enough stuff to do before I go to sleep. Londons hotels seem to have filled up and after walking around to about 15 of them I just decided to say fuck it. They all want like 200 pounds anyway which is obscene. So im going to sleep here and hope I don't get kicked out into the street. lol. I don't think I will though - theres a bunch of people here apperently doing the same thing. I just hope the flights tomorrow arent as full as the hotels, but that would kind of make sense wouldn't it. I guess I should have planned ahead more during Chistmas break. FUCK.

A Belated Thanksgiving...

Will happen at my house in Auburn on Saturday the 11th and anyone is welcome and encouraged to come and eat (hopefully Patty's) Turky ;) Absinth will be smuggled in for after dinner as well, if I don't get pinched. So if your reading this, please help spread the word to anyone who would be interested. -OK- see you guys when I get back!

Oh, and if you want to do the thanksgiving thing, post here or email me at bcool@skyviewart.com or email my dad at rgilliom@skyviewart.com or do all three or just show up. I don't really care.

lAtE

AmSteRdAm

is pretty amazing and a good choice for my last city I think. Its a crazy city - everyone is in bikes and there are canals everywhere. The bike lanes are set up like mini roads (some even have these little stoplight things) and you have to be careful crossing them than the streets 'cause they sneek up on you. Its crazy as well 'cause you see all kinds of different combinations of people riding people taking on phones while riding with know hands and carrying shopping bags (sometimes all at the same time!). And, obviously, the first thing you smell as you get off the train is weed and you sort of never stop smelling it. I wasn't sure on the exact laws but as it turns out its a)legal to buy in the "coffee shops" and take it whereever you want, but b) Technically your not supposed to smoke on the streets, but it is mostly just to discourage people smoking around children and in other unapropriate places. I bought 1.5 grams of wHitE WiDoW last night and it seemed pretty comparable to high end stuff in nOrCaL. But, there's more to amsterdam than stoners. I went to the van gough museum today, which was really cool. Actually, I guess he was a stoner himself (only with Absinth). By the way, Mushrooms are legal here too as long as they're fresh. Apperently the process of drying them puts them in the catagory of artificial drugs in Netherlands law, which is basically that drugs are a health problem anyway. I don't think I'll go there though (mabey just to get a few pictures..(seriously)). Tomorrow I going to go to the Heiniken brewery I think...which is supposed to be a good time. Then, mabey take one of those canal cruise things. I don't know. This is the first place I've found the hostels to be full. The second one I found had rooms (which Im in now) but the flying pig, probably the most famous hostel in europe, was full in both of its locations. I think that's where the big weed parties are anyway so I'm probably better off, being a non-smoker and all.

Prague

was interesting. I only spent two days there really. I took a night train there and didn't get any sleep 'cause it was sorta spooky - the passport people woke me up at like 4 in the morning with flashlights banging on my compartment door, yelling something in Czech. Then the lady and two guys started asking me questions about where I had been and what my profession was...I think they probably like freaken' out the foreigners. Prague was cold all around. The people, place, architechture, and the hostel I was in. I think it could be a fun place (especially at night) but since I didn't really meet anyone there (my hostel sucked) I didn't really go out. I'll go back when I'm with people someday..Now I'm in berlin, and while the weather is colder, the city is pretty cool and the hostel is good so far (its called the circus). I went to a museum today and wandered around town. The pilsner here is amazing!, as is the Bratwurst. I think I'll stay tonight and tomorrow..then go to Amsterdam.

Things are picking up here...

..as the weekend gets closer. The bar here is great. I'm going to skip the skiing 'cause there is only one lift open and I would have to buy/rent all kinds of stuff and buy a ticket and etc. etc. Instead I think I'm going to just take a train up to the highest peak around called junfrauch or something. Everyone keeps telling me to go to prague. I think I probably will on Sunday. There is a building there made completely of human skeletons..cRaZy..a few new pics are up here.

Interlaken

I got to the hostel in the morning. It's a cool town, but the hostel is pretty much empty - probably not much night life here. That said, I went skydiving today..Fucking unbelievable! It was a tandem jump from 12000 feet with a freefall of 45 seconds. Its pretty crazy - you basically do a gainer out of the helicopter (yeah, a helicopter), so for a while you can see it getting smaller really quickly. Then the guide taps your shoulders and you put your arms out to stabalize, and you fall for quite a while..ItS fUn..The view was unbelievable as well, the whole town is surrounded by mountains and there are a few large lakes you can see from that height. The guide told me one of the mountains seen on the way up was the one from the paramount picturs logo -SwEeT- Anyway, there are also some hikes to do around here, so im going to do that as well. The ski areas are only open on the weekends so I'll probably go on saturday, and then head for berlin. It's funny. I was just startng to think the train rides were getting a little old, and to feel like I didn't want to do it much longer, and then you get to a new place and it's totally refreshing. I geuss all I needed to do was jump out of a plane. HeH HeH.

on to switzerland...

and to Interlaken, a mountain town in near the Alps (I think) to do a little snowboarding. The hostel is called the funny farm so it should be interesting. During the summer you can do all the typical cRaZy stuff like bungie jumping and rafting and paragliding - well see what they have now...and what the snow is like. Their website says they have powder right now and mabey I'll get a lucky storm. I sort of ran out of tourist stuff to do in Athens, but I can see why people want to live here, and I definetly want to come back in the summer and go to some of the islands (I here their expensive though). Santorini has a volcano..nIcE