jakit

Gambling in Goteburg

Erika and I are leaving Sweden in about a couple hours, but I thought I´d dash off a quick bit about our latest adventures.

Yesterday, like I wrote, we went to an art show with Hanna´s aunt and uncle. It was just Erika, Dave, Brian and I since Emily had taken off for Oslo, Norway. This was sad, especially for Erika as I think she started to get sick of hanging with just the guys afterwards.

So we went to the art show without Em, but we still had a great time. Hanna´s family is really very nice and they did a lot to make sure we felt welcome in Goteburg, so we´re going to try to return the favor when the come to California for Greg´s reception in September.

The art show was interesting, but creepy. Most of it was by this artist who examines the psychotic mind. I could only take so much.

Afterwards we took a boat down the river which was very cool. When we got back to the apartment we made a huge pasta dinner and had some red wine. YES! Finally, a nice big dinner with no fish!

We let our belly´s soak up all the good food and then us guys took off to the downtown while Erika stayed home and watched some sappy movie on TV. Like I said, I think she needed a break.

So Dave, Brian and I walked downtown. Even though the public transportation here is really good, we´ve been walking everywhere anyway, because it´s all pretty close.

We ended up at this English pub and had a few local beers. Then we were ready for some gambling. Yep, gambling. The Swedes are pretty cool about this whole concept and a lot of the bars have blackjack tables set up in the corner. So, until about 2am, we played cards.

I ended up ahead about 40 bucks. Brian lost about that much and Dave... well, he lost a bit more.

But we all had fun anyway and met some interesting people from all over. Our first dealer was a Macedonian girl who really didn´t like America very much. Not just Bush, she didn´t like Clinton either.

This confused me becuase it seems like you really should like one or the other. They´re like Hot-Meister and Cold-Meister from that old Christmas cartoon. But apparently she was upset over the bombing of Yugoslavia.

This effected me pretty deeply because usually we debate politics with people who complain about taxes or enviromental policies and so on. But here was a person who was upset about her homeland being bombed.

So we talked about it a little and eventually she warmed up to us from Dave´s charm. But then the place closed and we moved to another bar with a table, but it was not nearly as fun.

Around 2 or 2:30 in the morning we walked home in the pouring rain and went to bed. In the morning Dave woke us up by declaring he was "kicking off an economic crisis" and then emphasizing this statement with a good booting of the chair. Of course I reminded him of the positive outcome of my night of gambling, to which he then gave me the boot.

Then we went to the train station and sent Dave and Brian off on their journey north to Stockholm. We´ll see them next in Paris or Lugano. Or who knows. Everyone just seems to be wandering around the continent and plans are changing all the time. We still don´t know what we´re going to do in July.

After they left we found this great part of town called the Haga. It´s just a few square blocks but it´s full of charm. It´s a neigborhood that dates to 1648 I think, and the streets are all cobblestone. There´s a really cool bath-house that we took a mini tour of.

The whole place has a nice laid-back Berkeley vibe, with little antique shops and used clothes stores. We found this great cafe where we had lunch and I think it was probably my favorite place to eat on our whole trip so far. Just really comfortable with old wood tables and benches with cusions.

If anybody ever comes to Goteburg, make sure to check out this part of town.

But now we´re off, and we need to hurry or we´ll miss the boat... literally. We decided to take a boat down the river and across the sea to Germany. Then we´ll take a train to Berlin. It costs a little extra, but it will be loads of fun. And then train would have put us in Berlin at midnight, which would not have been cool.

The only problem is that the boat has a casino. So at the end of the boat ride, I might be joing Dave in kicking off an economic crisis.

spater...

The Swedish Castle

So here we are in Gotheburg, Sweden. We arrived on Tuesday and I must say that it´s very different than anywhere I´ve ever been.

First off, the sun currently goes down around 11pm and rises around 3am. Also, almost all the people are Swedish, and almost all the Swedes are good-looking. It´s not like Zurich, which was very cosmopolitan. There are a few immigrants around here, but it´s almost not noticeable.

And it´s very chilly here. Not the temperature, but the mood. All the people I´ve met are quite nice, but the Swedish in general are not very talkative. I´ve been told by several Swedes that they are a very reserved and independent people and are used to being alone.

That´s all cool with me, but I sure am longing for the warmth of the Italians in Lugano.

But there´s been a lot of Californian´s here and they are a bunch of warm people. On Wednesday Greg´s parents, Ernie and Michele, took us all out to a restaurant. That was a lot of fun. The fish was fabulous.

Last night was Greg´s wedding. It was in a castle and it was quite fancy. Dave and I were the groomsmen and now all the Swedish woman are after Dave because he looked so dapper in his tuxedo.

Before the wedding, Greg, Erika, Brian, Dave and I all went to a very fancy restaurant for lunch. This too was a fabulous treat from Ernie and Michele. The fish was very good.

There were a bunch of very touching moments but I think the highlight was when Hanna sung a Swedish song to Greg. That really killed me. She did that during the big dinner. The fish was good.

I couldn´t eat much of my dinner though, because I had to give a toast. It was pretty nerve racking giving a speech in front of all these Swedish people I don´t know.

But I did it and it went over really well. I got a bunch of compliments so I felt good. Erika thought my final toast was a bit crude, but all the Swedes said it was perfect, even the mother of the bride. So then I relaxed and had some fun.

At the end of the night everyone piled into this huge bus that was rented to drive everyone home. Dave and Brian were quite imbibed by this time and Dave actually managed to get the microphone from the bus driver and sang a bit of Oasis for us all. I´m not too sure what the Swedes thought of his singing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was pretty heavy to see Greg get married. He and Dave and I had some Hills Brothers bonding moments before the wedding and that was cool. 25 years is a long time to know someone. It made me really appreciate the great friendships I have.

Hopefully Greg will move back to the Bay some day. Then I can also get to know his new bride Hanna better. She seems really cool and interesting but I´ve barely talked to her and since she is the wife of a Hills Brother, that will have to change.

So we all had a blast at the wedding and now we´re just recovering. Hanna´s parents had a brunch today at their house. I´ve had way too much fish.

Dave and Brian are in the room next to Erika and I, and Emily, Greg´s sister, is one door down from them. We´ve all been hanging out and cooking together since we have a kitchen in our room. Maybe tonight we´ll go out to a movie.

Tomorrow we´re going to an art exhibit with Hanna´s uncle, who is himself an artist and a very political leftist. It should be fun.

On Monday we leave for Berlin.

spater...

Good Fortunes

We seem to be riding a nice lucky streak here in Zurich.

Michel and Yasemin decided to come back from their trip early, so we were going to have to sleep in their living room for the next few nights. Which was fine because even though we enjoyed having this place to ourselves, we also wanted to spend time with them.

But then this morning in the building's laundry room, Erika met a woman who lives upstairs who told us that another tenant on the top floor was currently in America for a wedding. He had given her the keys to his place and said that anyone who wanted to stay there while he was gone should feel welcome.

And wow, what a place.

It's as if we were in San Francisco and someone let us stay in their top floor apartment in the North Beach. There's a little balcony overlooking the lake and he has the nicest furniture you can imagine. Plus we're just a couple floors above Michel and Yasemin.

So we consider ourselves quite lucky at the moment.

Last night Toni and his girlfriend Naemi took us to a grand opening party for a new restaurant on the lake. Most of the people there were Italian, and like most Italians, very well dressed. Fortunately, I had just bought a new Italian shirt that I wore, so I didn't stand out too badly.

Afterwards we went back to our friend Roberto's restaurant and I had my first tasting of horse meat. I convinced myself that it was a fine and noble horse that had died valiantly in battle. Therefore, I had no feelings of guilt in eating one of my favorite animals.

So we are living the good life, but the adventures are few. Soon though, we will embark on the part of our trip that takes up north through Germany and Denmark and on our way to Sweden for Greg's wedding.

Along the way we will visit Orloff, the minister for our ceremony. Then we hope to spend a day or so in Berlin before we reach Gothenburg where Greg has arranged an apartment for us. I can't wait to see Greg, Dave, Brian and the Carson family.

As wonderful as everything is though, it also makes me appreciate what we have back home. Our little life on Piedmont Avenue is very European, and we've been telling everyone we meet to come visit us and see what Oakland is really like.

I sent an email to Chris Ferreira asking him to buy a beer for me every Monday night and just set it on the bar where I would be. And every Friday night to set a clove on Jason Parker's table and put a Playstation 2 control buy it and play one game of Virtua Fighter 3.

And I also ask that someone on the Ave buy a Peets coffee for me every once in awhile (small in a large cup with a dash of cream) and then set it on the stoop, sit next to it and talk about nothing for awhile.

But most importantly, someone needs to bring my lucky A's hat, with my Rickey Henderson rookie card in it, to a Thursday daytime A's game. My beloved boys of summer have been in a major slump since I left and we need to correct that. So maybe Blake and Jon can offset that bad voodoo.

Anyway, enough about back home.

Toni invited us to some club tonight where Naemi works. I don't know though, we're kinda' beat and need to cut back on the money spending too. It's hard though, because there is so much to do in Zurich and this town is so damn expensive.

And I didn't pack properly. I brought clothes for traveling, not for kicking it all these hip European cities. So I need to do some shopping to make up for that, and shopping cost a lot of money. Alas, when I am hungry and without wine somewhere in the south of France in July, at least I'll know that I look cool.

That's all for now. I gotta start moving our stuff upstaris.

spater...

Kiss the Swiss

So we’ve been in Europe for one week now and I am sad to report that it is most definitely impossible to buy cloves anywhere on this damn continent. Believe me, it is not for lack of effort that I have come up short. Apparently, the European Union has banned these nasty little buggers. As to why, I don’t know, but it sure makes you wonder. Think about that Jason Parker.

Anyway, Erika and I are in Zurich now and have been for a few days. Paris was way too chaotic for us and we fled after only one night. Don’t get me wrong, it was my third time there and I still think Paris is the most amazing city in the world and I look forward to returning in a few weeks, but the condition we were in when we arrived made the French capital a little overwhelming this time.

Take our jet lag, combine it with frantically making last minute arrangements, add me not sleeping the final two days in order to finish Leisure and you can see why we were a mess when we arrived at Charles de Gaulle. And Paris is no place to be a mess in.

We did have a few fine moments before we departed however. I bought a cool pair of pants as we strolled along the Champs Elysees and we enjoyed a tasty meal at this charming little vegetarian restaurant in the Marais (well, I think the meal was tasty, all I really remember is the organic wine). We also met some friendly people, like the woman who owns the Ermitage Hotel up on Montmarte.

Yet, when all is said and done, Paris was hard.

The night we left we were sent all over the place by countless French train officials who didn’t seem to care one way or the other what we did. Right before we got on the train to Zurich we asked a guy behind the counter if we needed to do anything with our Eurail passes before we boarded. He told us just to get on and so we did. Then when the guy came around to check our tickets, he started to punch one of them and then got distracted and launched into some other topic of interest at the moment, thus leaving our tickets untouched.

So when the train finally crossed the border into Switzerland and the Swiss official came around to check our tickets, we received quite a scolding. He very sternly informed us that we were supposed to validate our passes before we boarded the train in Paris. We pleaded ignorance and told him that the French guy had said just to board.

He was having none of that and showed us exactly where on the ticket it instructs you as to how and when to validate it. Obviously this guy was quite familair with the old blame-it-on-the-French routine.

He then said that the penalty was 50 Swiss Francs (about 35 dollars), but that he would let us off the hook this time. He filled in all the appropriate information and went on his way.

I can’t describe just how good we felt at that moment. In Paris, no one even noticed our existence unless we were blocking the door to a cafe or something. To actually have someone acknowledge us, even if we were being busted, was quite the nice welcome.

So here we are in Zurich for Michel's wedding. On Saturday night we went to the reception. The actual wedding was a small occasion at city hall a few days before.

The reception was a very laid back and comfortable affair. The dinner was in a four hundred year old building that was once used as a winery. Everyone brought a dish so it was a sort of pot-luck deal.

Some people dressed up in suit and tie, while others were more casual. In fact, the older people were far more casual than the younger ones. But everyone seemed comfortable regardless. Yasemin’s family is from Turkey so we danced to some great Turkish music after dinner. Then there was desert, cigars and some amazing Italian sweet wine.

We saw Cello there. He's the guy that Jon Farber kissed when he dropped the bread in the pot at the Fondue party. Cello wouldn't admit it, but I think he misses Jon.

The night before I met my first non-relative Horvath. Toni, another old friend of ours, has a girlfriend who happens to be one of the Tribe. Very cool.

As far as housing goes, our first few days here were spent at an apartment in the suburb of Schlieren. But now we’re at Michel’s in a very cool neigborhood in the heart of town. We’ll be here for the rest of the week while he is off on his honeymoon in Turkey. And while Zurich may not have the romance, beauty and grandeur of Paris, it is a far better place for us to re-cooperate.

And yet it is also very charming. I was here two years ago and found it nice then, but now that I’ve spent some more time here, I’m really in awe at the quality of life these people enjoy.

Previously, I had thought that the Swiss ability to live so harmoniously came from stacks and stacks of rules. But Ironically, I think there are probably far more rules to follow in the freedom-loving USA. People here just naturally behave civilized so the need to impose order is a minor need at best. Only once have I seen a police officer since we arrived.

The best example of the Swiss character I can think of is probably the public transportation system. Using trains, trams and buses you can easily get anywhere in the city and it’s surrounding environs.

But the most incredible part is that it all works on the honor system. You buy a ticket from a machine on the street, put it in your wallet and board the tram. Supposedly a guy comes around every once in awhile to check and see if you have a ticket or not, but I have yet to see one.

However, as much as I admire this, it also drives me batty. We must have spent about 50 bucks so far on tickets and I can’t help but think it was all wasted money. Alas, that’s the American in me rearing his ugly head.

Speaking of ugly Americans, the Europeans seem to be ever on the ready to launch into a little speech about the evil-doings of our government and the utterly moronic image George W maintains on this continent. Though I mostly agree with everything they say, I do find it a little silly to hear all this America bashing coming from someone wearing a pair of Levis and smoking a Marlboro while listening to Madonna mp3s on their Macintosh. But hey, I guess that’s the world today.

Anyway, I’m fascinated by this place. Everyone we’ve met has been friendly and eager to practice their English with us. They all seem to be very proud to be Swiss, yet without expressing any kind of nationalistic pride. Just a sort of sense of accomplishment, I guess, at being a country made up of Germans, French and Italians that all happen to get along with each other.

And each one of those cultures seems to contribute to the other so that they are not actually German, French or Italian, but instead Swiss-German, Swiss-French and Swiss-Italian.

But as much as I like this place, we came to Europe for the romance and adventure, not to live a normal, daily life. So I’m a little anxious to move on and see Budapest, Lugano and maybe Greece, Turkey or Morrocco. To leave the Germanic cultures and go somewhere more exotic.

That’s all for now, I’ll write more soon. We’re off to wander through the park.