It was close to the half way point during our Europe trip and we were all feeling a little weary. We needed a little rest and relaxation so we headed to Sweden. Sweden is mysteriously not included on the eurorail route but our method around that was to just not buy tickets. The only problem with this is that you are on a train with assigned seats and you will need to move maybe a dozen times or more during the trip from Denmark to Stockholm. This wouldn’t be so bad normally, as long as the people are friendly which they definitely are in Sweden, except for the fact that we had just slept in the park in Copenhagen playing a derivative of bat spin relay and 
we were very tired and slightly perturbed every time someone woke us up. We did try to play a game of chess with a home made chess board and pieces out of paper which was ruined with a single cough. Or was it a sneeze?
(more…)
Blog
-
Laughter Across the Lake
-
Haircut Bets
I have always had this desire to have a flowing mane of hair. Unfortunately with my genetics, that is becoming less likely with each passing day. I have heard that a males hair gene comes from the mothers father. In which case I am going to have a nice shiny head with a ring of hair wrapping the back and sides with outragesouly bushy eye brows. Interestingly, in the last few months I have had a random hair growing from my left eyebrow that is exceedingly long and a different color from the rest of my eyebrow hairs. If I pull it out, it grows back really quick so I choose to leave it in and tug on it in front of people to freak them out. But I digress… the following three part story is about my effort to force myself to grow really long hair.
-
Your Honor
4247 Gorriti Capital Federal Buenos Aires ArgentinaYour Honor,
On October 22nd I made a stupid mistake on my bicycle. Of course I know that bicycles are supposed to ride in the same direction of traffic and of course I know that to run a stop sign on a bicycle is also illegal. The fact that I did both these things at the same time while holding a steady pace of 25mph+ at a crowded intersection in Costa Mesa while riding a bike with little to no brakes is flat out inexcusable. I am not writing to you now to try and argue my case with an elaborate poster drawing of the intersection, by no means. However I do require your help in the most direst of ways.
Officer Dibble seemed to be quite impressed with the rate of speed I could move around town while wearing sandals so he was kind enough to give me the choice between the two violations described above. Dibble was not aware of the cost for either ticket and since I had heard of someone getting a stop sign ticket before, I decided to try something new and go with the ticket described as …”Bicycle operation on roadway, same direction as motor vehicles.” In my opinion far less of a crime than flying into an intersection with blind corners and stray poodles with a bag of chicken bowl bouncing around your left wrist.
I went home and told my roommates about this situation and we argued about the cost and what I should have done. In the end a bet was made. I took the under on a $100 fine and my roommate took the over. Loser paid $100. Several weeks later the ticket came and it was for $118. Shit!
I intended to speak with you then regarding the cost of this fine however there was not enough time before I left for Argentina which is where I am now. I requested an extension online which was kindly given to me however it was only until February 22nd and I will not be back in the United States until May 1st. This deadline came and went and I have been recently sent a scanned image of a “FINAL NOTICE” going to collections type of letter unless I pay $453. I can understand the courts concern for my absence but there is no need to get testy with the fine. I was riding a bicycle and in turn helping our fine city become better. In fact I am tempted to say that you should be paying me money but that can wait for another time.
So in conclusion I am asking for one of two things:
- Can you extend the time it will take until my case is sent to your collections vendor to allow me to come visit you in person at the Harbor Justice center.
- Could you just reduce the fine to $99 and we can call everything settled. I am coming back from a 5 month trip through South America and have been on a fixed budget for a while. $453 could get me to Antarctica and back and that would be a very cool trip. You should come.
I look forward to hearing from you with your decision.
Sincerely and Respectfully,
Luke Ollett
-
Boca Juniors Fútbol Game
One day, a kangaroo, a lemur, and a parrot decide to go to a Boca Juniors soccer game in Buenos Aires. They had heard that a game was being played against a team named Hurucan, a relatively weak opponent. They had also heard that to go to a Boca game without camouflage and a 90 liter backpack filled with all the usual necessities of walking through the amazon, it meant certain death or severe maiming. This story attempts to follow these three through their experience and try to make it clear to the curious gringo of how to enjoy this Experience.
-
Things I Could do Without in Buenos Aires
I absolutely love this city! And with extremely nice apartments in the city and nice beach side homes for around $60k, not to mention the amazing people I have been meeting, I will return to this wonderful place through out my life. However, there are some aspects of the city that just cannot be ignored. I would never say these things are deal breakers, but none the less, they must be respected or fall victim to the horrible consequences.
-
The Most Scared I Have Ever Been
A great question to ask somebody is “when were you most scared?” I find it can be a very revealing story and always interesting. I have heard stories having to do with being underwater for way to long, watching a loved one receive a serious injury, high speed collisions, falls from tall places, animal attacks, waking up from bad dreams, and many more. Interestingly many have to do with near death situations. We are all terrified to die it seems and quite rightly so when we have such a lovely world around us. I will have to elaborate more on my theory on death in a later entry but now is no time for philosophy. Here is the time when I was most scared.
-
How to Not Deep Fry a Turkey
In the last few years it has become very popular to deep fry a turkey in the United States or at least in southern California. I suppose this is due to the fact that we are all getting lazier and claim to be so busy that we do not have the time to cook such splendid feasts anymore like the ones we have been having with Kurt and Jamie the last few years. (Thank you both for the splendid memories.) So my Dad is a pretty good cook, I will admit that he can make a killer roast and a spectacular gravy. And for an English man these are two very important things considering a roast is a national staple food, and gravy is mandatory to hide the fact that the English haven’t used salt since world war II. One Thanksgiving, with the help of my good friend Pat, we attempted to deep fry a turkey and the following picture I find to be very revealing of how it went.
-
Arrecifes Bike Race
The time had come once again to pack up my bicycle and head off into the campo (fields) of the state of Buenos Aires to seek victory and fame in my beloved sport of cycling. The race was early on Sunday so I needed to take a 3 hour bus on Saturday to find a hotel, assemble the bike, prepare, and beat every Argentine I could possibly find in front of me, on the track of course. Heres how it went down.
-
Riding the Wave in Downtown Buenos Aires
There is a phenomenon here in Buenos Aires that I have alluded to in a previous post but I feel that it deserves a little more attention now that I have become a surfing junkie on the streets of BsAs. A lot of people here in BsAs think that I am a little crazy for riding a $2000 bicycle around the streets of a town with roads the width of our highways back home, all one way, intersected with small veins of cobblestone streets, and filled with thousands of taxis and hissing buses that will send a shiver down the spine of the bravest individual when they breath down your back waiting to pick up their constituents and spit you out along the way. Although I save on transportation costs (buses and the subte cost $0.30 and taxis are no more than $5 for a half hour ride), transportation time, and I get some exercise, here is the main reason I love riding around here.
-
How Not to Send Someone to Germany
Something I learned traveling around Europe and will never forget is the fact that it is Never a good idea to stay up all night to avoid staying in a hotel or catching some early morning event like a train or a race. Well this story is a tale of a group of travelers about to leave Sweden on a 6am train and have decided to stay up all night to avoid the ludicrous exchange rate of the Swedish Kroner.