Monday, July 06, 2009

the greatest story ever told

well we reach the end, i spent the night with Jordan last night in Lyon, and ill start the end of my tale there. i arrived at the train station and met Jordan and his brother Jeremy. Jordan has a broken arm from some drunken encounter with a fence and concrete, so Jeremy was driving him around to pick me up. We head back to their house and then Jeremy goes to the skatepark while i shower and get ready for dinner. We had an awesome meal of ratatouille and kebabs that his mother made for all of us... but Jeremy wasnt there...
about an hour later there is a phone call to the house that Jeremy has to go to the hospital because he broke his foot. So this sounds like a funny story huh? It was really funny to see them both in matching casts. Whats the significance you may ask? Oh, thats because I am now the only one physically able to drive us around last night. I do not have an international driving permit, nor do I like driving around in traffic identical to the french connection. On top of that Jordan didnt even really know where the party we went to last night was. So it was quite an adventure, but I met all Jordans friends last night and had a good time, and i didnt kill us, which was my main goal. i got up today and we went over to one of his buddies places to eat lunch and then I hopped on the train to Nice. of course this train was full, so i had to pay the fine when i got on, but i did luck into a first class seat.

so here is the story, I met my friend from Mexico in London, went to a stag party in Tallinn, rode a boat to Finland, got lost in Helsinki, went to a dolphinarium in Klaipeda, rode a van from Vilnius into Latvia, had a good train ride in Riga, spent 12$ on a beer in Copenhagan, followed some Swedish to Christiania, rode a train onto a boat to get to Germany, blacked out like an idiot in Berlin, lost a flip flop in the great Czech flip-flop disaster, saw the biggest castle in Europe in Prague, ate a sausage in Vienna, took a 19 hour sauna ride to get to Croatia, cursed the weather in Split, rode a catamaran to Hvar, rented a boat with some ridiculous Canadians, should have stayed longer in Zagreb, fell in love with Buda (even though i may have seen someone die) and went to bathes in Pest, had another good trip to the englishgarten in Munich, jumped out of a helicopter in Switzerland, went to a high school party in Lyon, and now im living up my last night in Nice.

i hope everyone enjoyed a small taste of my travels, this was absolutely the best trip i have taken yet, and it couldnt have been any better or any more ridiculous. traveling alone makes every day a little more interesting, and every night an adventure. there is no better way.
so now i am about to head down to the riviera to try and find Paul Lehman, the piano player at the Hotel Negresco, and maybe play the slots again here and see if i cant luck into a few hundred euros again.

thats all ive got, adios everyone

Saturday, July 04, 2009

and finally my skydive video

Here is the video

click on the link above, its hard to not look like a bitch before jumping out of a helicopter, so for that i am sorry

if it doesnt work go to YouTube and search for skydive interlaken graham

a few pictures






i found a chicks computer i could use, so here are a few pictures. i posted right before this so read that for the highlights of yesterday. i got to cruise around the peaks of those mountains before we jumped. still cant believe it.

Happy Birthday, America

So another 4th of July abroad for me, my 4th in 5 years. Apart from
feeling like an expat, there are several things that help me enjoy
Independence day abroad. 1. Americans use this day as an excuse to
abuse other English speakers, mainly the British and Canadians 2.
Austrailians use our Independence day as an excuse to go even crazier
than usual 3. Loads of deals at American restaurants 4. Dressing like
a patriot (idiot)- people, regardless of nationality, love to wear
stupid looking shirts with American flags all over it 5. The Harley
Davidson summer festival in Interlaken this weekend- should be self
explanatory

So if you hadn't already guessed, I am still in Interlaken. Yesterday
was too nice to waste being on a train, so I went rafting instead. The
river was great, the water was pretty high and fast. You can refer to
my previous post in summer 05 for details of the river. YouTube video
of jump is still not up, but I am going to walk over there today to
see what the deal is. I have been out all morning searching for some
Budweuser, but as of yet my search has yielded zero results. In my
room the last few days there have been two chicks from south Georgia
and a few guys from Texas (and one Canadian that we are going to pick
on), so we are all going to go down to lake today (because I'm
obviously not going to travel on a national holiday) and then probably
get some good ole American mcDonalds for dinner.

Here are a few notes for Tyree (who was with me last time in
Interlaken): backpackers villa is still full of asians goig to the
Jungfrau, I have searched for the little car we rented but have not
been able to find d it for an updated picture, the guiness tent at
funny farm was destroyed in a snowstorm, the bonfire pit is no more,
and Balmers still sucks.

So I guess I have to leave tomorrow, Jordan is going to be back in
Lyon tomorrow, so I'll probably go there, unless it's a lot easier to
go to Nice. I hope everyone has a great day on your respective rivers
and lakes, see everyone in a few days.

Friday, July 03, 2009

I jumped out of a helicopter...

...and had I been able to make any noise I probably would have
screamed like a girl. So I was going to write this yesterday and post
the YouTube video of my jump, but it still isn't up there yet. I will
post the link whenever it's available, the video is awesome, and I've
also got like 20 still pictures.

I left Munich around noon on Tuesday and train hopped all day, and
then of course as soon as I arrived here it started thunderstorming. I
was prepared for this, and I have come up with several fun games over
the last few weeks that involve swearing into the sky as loud as
possible. So I hung out and played pool with an Aussie from my room,
and then for dinner I remembered a small tidbit from the last time I
was in Interlaken. They have a Hooters here. So the Aussie was
immediately down, and just when I thought my chicken wing and baseball
withdrawls were at their worst, I was delivered into the promised land
(I actually had to watch cricket, but since I don't understand it I
like to pretend like it's baseball). So one absurdly expensive Hooters
meal later, I was satisfied and returned to the Funny Farm (my hostel)
to get drunk enough to not stay up all night thinking about
Wednesday's activity. I awoke around 7am, went for a jog, ate some
breakfast, threw up said breakfast, and then played on my iPod for a
couple hours. I had my first glass of liquid courage around 10am and
then I started talking to a chick doing the same thing. Obviously my
skydive partner. You'll see her on the video, she's from Florida. So a
couple hours of AM beers and then at noon they picked us up. 1 hour
and 14000 feet later, I'm attached to the hip of an Aussie named
andrew and the helicopter pilot is screwing with us doing a kinds of
dips and bank turns. I watch Alex and John bail out and then about 20
seconds later me and Andrew do a sick front flip into free fall. The
video will tell the story, and I can't really write down the rush that
comes. The rest of the day is fairly insignificant, it involved a
pool, a massive bike ramp and some awesome Thai food. They brought our
videos over last night and played them on the big screen here which
was very cool. I got up early this morning to write this, and then I
am going to hike to this restaurant on top of the mountain. I'm headed
to Lyon this afternoon for a couple nights with Jordan (if I can find
him) and then to Nice for another vacation before I come home. I'll
try to write an independence day blog tomorrow.