The Morning After Friday Night

We had a great time Friday night, and as I mentioned earlier we ended up at Hell’s Kitchen. I was a little tired by 4am, but right before I left the club a beautiful girl across the dance floor caught my attention. I don’t know what happened from 4am until 6am, but somehow we ended up in the Porsche driving around Stockholm singing to Romanian music. By the time we were playing Swedish music it was after noon, and even though I was slurring my words and using them incorrectly I was completely sober (well at least my BAC was 0). We picked up her friend a little later and took a Saturday drive out to the Stockholm archipelagos.

Friday night in Stockholm

OK, Thursday night was a little bit of a bust, but Friday night… now that’s a different story! Jon (who cameos in this video) and I met up with all our friends who are living there and did it up right. We started at Anglais in the Scandic Hotel, then hit an outside bar, then Undici, and finally Hell’s Kitchen (with probably a couple more bars in between, but it gets a little hazy).

Russian in Stockholm

I’m fired up to make it to Stockholm. I’ve been here a couple times before, and I’ve had a blast each time. That’s mainly due to my good friend Jon who, as it so excellently happens, is in Stockholm this week also, and is letting me stay at his great apartment in Solna for a week! Here’s a photo of the inside.

Jons Apartment at Rastavagen 5 Solna Sweden

We went bar hopping my first night in town and met a beautiful Russian girl who had been living in Stockholm for several months but unfortunately was leaving for Moscow early the next morning.

On my way to Stockholm

On my way to Stockholm I saw a bad wreck, found a hotel deal in Copenhagen for a night, and saw the sunny Swedish countryside… all at 110 mph again.

Love Parade 2007 in Essen

I arrived a day early for the famous Love Parade where over 1 million European techno fans come to listen to the best DJ’s in the world. I stayed at Hotel Petul, which was sterile and small, but had very new rooms where everything was designed to perfection. The young staff in the morning and day were very nice and hip, and so was the older man who worked nights (he drove a Viper).

So here’s video from the parade:

Prague

It’s sometimes difficult to find someone cool to hang out with on a solo trip, so I tried using MySpace to facilitate the effort. In Prague, Snezana answered a message of mine, but said she didn’t have time to hang out and that I should come by her souvenir shop anyway. So I did and convinced her to come along with me for a drink or two.

You may not know this yet, but I have some strange connection with Serbians who have traveled a bit. Sure enough, the only person who responded to my Prague message was a Serbian. Weird…

Auschwitz

I visited Krakow for a couple days, but didn’t get any video – or any photos to speak of either. Krakow was alright though. It has small, maze-like discotheques every 100 meters in the basements of all the buildings around the center of town. I would recommend Club Cien as the best nightclub.

After two days in Krakow I drove to Auschwitz and experienced the most moving sight I’ve seen on my trip yet. (The Colesseum and the Sistine Chapel ranked next.) Of course this little video probably doesn’t convey anything of what I experienced but here it is anyway:

Bratislava

I decided to stop by Bratislava for a night on my way to Krakow. I met some South African travelers, and had a couple Slovakian girls show us the clubs. The next day I ran around inside the museum in the castle.

Vienna Bicycle Ride and Music Film Festival

Thursday was a really great day. I went on an 8-hour bicycle ride with Renata (a Slovakian concert pianist) along the Danube (Donau in German), to the Strandbar Hermann, through the city, and finally to Vienna’s Rathausplatz Music Film Festival.

Passage Night Club in Vienna

My Mom is going to like this one: all of Vienna was closed on Wednesday, my first full day there, for the Christian holiday Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary. Tuesday, the night before, I found a couple good bars at Stephansplatz, including the upbeat Wein & Co. Bar. You might think that not much would be going on the weeknight after a holiday, but I decided to try my luck anyway, so I cruised down to Museumplatz. Since the aesthetic qualities of Viennese inhabitants are a little lackluster I found a couple Slovakians to hang out with. After drinking a bit at a bar in the Museumplatz we made our way down to Passage nightclub, which is housed in an old metro station. Everyone had a little too much to drink and I broke a glass lampshade at the apartment where I ended up.