Since last I bothered you all, I have traveled from Paris to the Netherlands and Sweden by train. Because so much has happened in the last week, you should all expect this to be a long e-mail, so I am sorry ahead of time. You are more then welcome to just goto the picture index if you want, you impatient asses.

Lets start off with the trains here. I arrived at Gard De Nord in Paris, AKA The North Train Station of Paris, and got my ticket. The train to Holland was a high speed train, AKA TGV. As most of you can assume, I was dying to get on a high speed train. SPEEEEEEDD!!! Anyway, I go to the first conductor I see to get on, and he says this is not my car, and to keep walking. Here I am, thinking, "They have assigned seating on trains?" Well yes, in fact they do. They have you in a certain car and seat, much like a plane. On with it, I get my seat, and am just checking it out. Very cool these trains are. We get going, crawling out of the station and into the amazing French country side. Crawling in these trains is around 70-Mph. Twenty minutes later, we are in the middle of the country, moving at about 140 to 160-Mph. This may scare some of you, but you can hardly tell. So much so that I sat and wrote a letter for about an hour. Un-fffing real...

I arrived in Utrecht, Netherlands that night to stay with an old friend and his family. Bart picked me up at the station with his 10 month old Son Micha, who I have grown quite a liking to. We hung out for the night and had a great meal his wife Birgit made. Their house is in a very nice area of Utrecht, and is just one of the coolest homes I have been in a while. The next couple of days, Bart showed me the Dutch countryside, which is a must see. The little towns are so unique in every way, every town you goto, you see something you have never seen before. On the second night, Bart and I went to the centre of town to have a few beers at one of the bars. When were leaving the house, I thought we would be taking the car into town, but we left out the back door, and got on the bikes. This was strange for me, but cool in every way. When he got mine out, I said, "Bart, this is a girls bike. " Laughing, he said to me, "Dan, they don't judge here." He was right, they don't. Everyone rides bikes here, everyone. In Town, we road around these amazing canals. Looking around, you notice that there are Bars and shops right on the lower level of the canal, they make use of every little space in these cities. If any of you come to the Netherlands, make sure you get on a bike, I think is was the best way to see these cities. This was one of my favorite times in Holland. Bart and his Family are great.

After the weekend, Birgit was too kind enough to give me a ride to Amsterdam, where I spent the next two days. Checked into my hotel, I put my ass to the pavement. Walking around, you can help but be astonished by the canals. The only place I can ever compare to this would be Venice, but the canals are the only thing that these two places have in common. Amsterdam is clearly a tourist haven. Guy's walking around with beers in their hands, higher then the clouds over head are an every day sight. This however was not what I was there for, I was probably the only American there that was not stoned. The buildings look like they were made out of ginger bread, and have been standing for far to long, Leaning here, and tipping there. Many people live on house boats on the canals, and man do they take pride in their house boats.

Walking all days was starting to wear me down, so I start heading toward my hotel when a small walkway crossed the one I was on and caught my eye. There were a lot of people on the path, so I decide to join in. After about four steps, I realized what this was. The ohh so famous Red Light District. To use one word, it would have to be scary. From all day walking the city, I had just gotten used to seeing nice cloths and fancy bongs in all the windows, now I am seeing women, in very little lingerie. Some of these chick were OK, but most were a bit manly. Needless to say I made myself look. This felt morally wrong, but I am here to see the places I visit, so at this point I can say that I saw Amsterdam, Sober.

Now on the train once again, headed to Sweden to see my friends Hanna and Frida. Leaving Amsterdam at 7:00PM , going to Duisburg Germany, then an overnight sleeper train to Denmark, and then finally a train to Goteborg. I get on the second train in Germany and get to my car. I am on the top bunk of a six person sleeper with one other person at the time across on the other top bunk. About 20 minutes into the ride, I am addressed with the acceptance of the snoring coming from the fella across from me. OK, I can handle this. Threw on the headphones and passed out. An hour goes by, and another person is now in our car, on a lower bunk, it is now about 1:00 AM. He gets settled in and passes out. After an hour, I am in a sleeper car for the next 7 hours with two men I have never met that have decided to compete for the European snoring championship, these two are talented. This one the headphones can't even phase out. An hour and three pillows later, I am asleep until about 8:00. Thank god for pillows.

In Sweden at around 2:00PM the next day, I almost walk clear past Hanna who is standing at the station waiting to pick me up. I could not recognize her, and she did not recognize me. I think she looks great, Amazing is a better word, and I look like shit, but hey, what can you do, I just woke up from a shitty night sleep (The sleep had nothing to do with it). We get to the place that she and her boyfriend Robert have in the middle of the city, and let me just say, the Sweed's live well. This apartment is unreal, and from what they both told me, a good one, but not the best. I spent three days, just walking around and hanging out with Hanna, and getting to know Frida's new baby Sol, classic Swedish baby, blond, dazzling blues eyes, and enough energy to kill her mother.

Having not seen these two for 6 years, it is amazing to see what they have been up to. This is the most time I have ever spent away from friends, so it was fun to see where they come from and how they live. You know, you meet people and they tell you where they are from, and you just take their word for it, "I am from Sweden." "Really? Cool." and that is that. From now on, I want to know where that is instead of making up some bullshit fact that I read about their place of origin. I am very happy I made it up there to see them, I had the best time hanging out.

Well, I am now on my way to see a friend in Germany, and then will be going to Switzerland for a few weeks to rip up some euro snow. I hope you are all well, and enjoy the pictures. //db