Friday
The flight out was pretty basic. It was nice getting into Buffalo so early...it was the first time I had done so. I wish Erin could have come.

After I arrived, Chris picked me up at the airport. We went to Nig's shop to pick up his dune buggy - at least that's what I call it. It's a Suzuki Sidekick. I love the way it drives.

We got to Lynn's house about 11:45. I called Judy and Lynn at their work and we decided to meet up for lunch. I met them at the credit union and we ate some lunch in their 'conference room'. It was cool. Great Nino's pizza...

Because I needed a haircut, I went over to Burn's in the plaza. I hadn't seen Mike in awhile . It was perfect timing. I waited only a bit to get in the chair.

After the buzz, I headed off to Tom Feeley's for a birthday party for his daughter Devon. I got there around 3:15. It was great to seem everybody. Mr & Mrs Feeley we're there, so was Ann Marie. I hadn't got to see most of them in awhile - probably 5-6 years. Mr. Feeley is still a riot. They both looked great.

There were a lot of kids and stuff at Tom's. Tom's neighbor's, child friends and family. Tony Finaldi and his wife stopped by as well, with their two kids. Hadn't seen Tony in five-or-six years. It was great to catch up. I ended up leaving about quarter past six. I had planned on meeting up with John Dray and Hummel to go out.

I called Hummel and picked him up about 7:30. Dray had to go to a wake, but we met at Checker's on Hertel about 8:15 pm. It was good to see him. He looked great. Mineo showed up about 8:45. The kid is still a concept! Hadn't seen Tommy probably since before I moved to Raleigh. He lives on Grand Island now and still drives a kick'en older car. Mineo always had a penchant to such things; some stuff never changes...

We hung out until about midnight. It was the first time I had ever been to the place. Everybody at the Bridge had always talked about Checker's. I think Tommy Downing used to go there a lot. What's messed-up though, is that you can't smoke in the bar. It's whacked. This will probably be happening in Raleigh not to far in the future...

After we left, I wanted to stop by the Hippodrome to shot some. They had moved from downtown a couple of years prior and I wanted to check it out. I ended up getting to talk to Dick Vallone a bit. Even got to see Jeff Van Buren of all people. Jeff is the one who bought Shooter from me way back in ’94. He was re-starting Shooter and I brought a couple of copies home. It was great to make contact with him and I hope he emails me or something.

We jetted about 12:15 am and on our way home, Mark talked me into stopping for some take out. Slime dogs basically. Buffalo has great food; something I miss. Anyways, I got back to Lynn's around 1:00 am. Lynn and I watched a movie and I crashed about 2:30 am.

Saturday
Mark's wedding ceremony was scheduled for 11:30 am at St. John Vianney. I got to the church about 11:15 am. I hadn't seem some of Mark's family is about 25 years. I took a bunch of photos and since I had never shot a wedding before, I thought I'd make the best use of the opportunity for practice. I got back from the ceremony about 1:00 pm; I had stayed a little bit later to help take some of the group shots for Mark's family.

When I got home, I showed Lynn all the photos I took. Since they're were some people there that Lynn or I hadn't seen in years. It was good to catch up. I got to see the Biemlers for the first time. Mrs. Bacher. Even Mrs. Kelleher. After we went through them, I called Hummell and hung out with him for a bit. Came back home and burned a CD of the images, Also, because it took Erin and I so long to get ours back, I know they'll both appreciate looking at them on their honeymoon. That was the only thing that sort of sucked with our wedding: waiting for the photos.

The reception started at 3:00 and I got there around 3:45. It took place at The Knox Farm in East Aurora. Never had been there either. Mark and Amy had about 60 people. I got to catch up with Peter Canney and his wife, as well as Tom Dougherty and his wife. The food was great. After hanging out for a bit, I left around 6:00. I got back to Lynn's and chatted with her a bit. Called Erin.

With the night essentially free, I thought that I would play in Skulski's tournament they used to have on Saturday nights. Well, I went down there. Turn's out they closed back in November. Going back up Clinton, I decided to stop in Pocketeer. I went in and asked them if there were any tournaments they know of. Turned out that Diane Skulski was now working at the Metropolitan next door. I went over to say hello. They had their tables set up. After playing a couple of games and shooting the shit, Diane convinced me to try to go and find Norm again. I went back down Clinton and rapped on the door a few times. He wasn't there , so I finally gave up.

Now it was about 8:00 and I had nothing to do. I thought about going to Classic, but decided it was too far. I ended up calling John Dray and went to his house on Manchester. We hung out for awhilea and watched the race, went to go see his new house and then came back. I waited for a call.

Earlier, before I had left for the night, Lynn told me to give Tiffany a call later. She'd told me all about her new apartment and was dying to have me see it. I called Tiffany and we decided to meet up after she got out of work.

Her place is on West Utica, right near Elmwood. It's a great apartment. Her roommate's mother is an interior decorator and the place looked wonderful. I shot a bunch of photos of it. I even got to meet her roommate Michael. After seeing the place, we decided to go around the block to Faherty's. I used to go there on the weekends in the day. I ended up knocking them around for awhile. We left about 1:00 am, got a couple of slices on the way back. Even bumped into Todd Sedeegan, this dude I went to college with. Still the same; story-after-story.

I got home to Lynn's about ten mintues of 2:00 am. I was beat. I read the copy of the new Shooter I had and crashed.

Thinking about the weekend, it was great that I ended up having so much time. I got to see a lot of people. Do a lot of shit and wasn't rushed. The only bad thing was not having Erin there...she would have had a great time.

Monday - Travel Day

I took the first flight out of Raleigh at about 7:20 am. Getting through security was actually very easy as I checked out at a kiosk at Southwest. The kiosk was surprisely easy. User friendly.

My layover in Baltimore wasn't bad. Why do you have to walk over a terminal? Baltimore to Buffalo has this. Many times is lower A's. Two minute walk.

I snoozed on the way over. Tried to configure MySql on this Apache server. No luck.

Anyways, I got to Buffalo, called Lynn to pick me up. The only snag I ran into was with my baggage. My one bag arrived, but the ones with my clothes didn't. I was told to come back by 1:00o pm - the time the next flight came in from Baltimore. It turned out fine. I suspect that my bag got scanned. It wasn't lost; just getting scanned. Just a hunch...

Wireless Router Needed
Getting to think that I needed to do so much work, I wasn't going to sit up in that office...I decided to take a chance on buying one and hooking it up. So I called Mark Hummel and went over. We relaxed a bit and decided to kill two birds with one stone...so we drove to the airport, picked up my luggage and went to Circuit City and picked up one. It worked out great....

Along the way to doing these errands, we went to our annual visit to see John Morganti. Mark and I have made a tradition on it..

After I got home, I hooked up the router. The only thing I couldn't get to work was the encryption...So I have it running bareback..... it's nice, I'll be doing most of my work at the kitchen table...

Tuesday
Today started off just how I lik it: coffee and code at the kitchen table. I laid the groundwork of a small web application. Unfortunately, the Mac was a bit flaky with the router, but I did the best I could. After I worked for awhile, I caught up with my old bookeeper and we discussed things about the new corp. We sat around the kitchen table for awhile and chatted before we went to the party at Judy's. I got to see my youngest niece and nephew - Jimmy's children. Little Jimmy is a freshman at UB, Merideth a Freshman at Mount Mercy.

Anyways, we left for Judy's around 6:00 ish I think. The party was a great time. I split the first round of Poker w/Chris and won a few bucks. (Didn't do so good on the the next go-round). Tommy and I played our annual Christmas Chess match. I smoked him handily in about ten moves. (Unfotunately, he's beat me in four in the past). After the party, I had a few in me and we decided to hit downtown for a little bit.

We stopped by the Old Pink Flamingo on Allen St. It was me, Tommy, Denise, Chris, Sarah, Amy Graber and her boyfriend Chuck. We played a few games of pool, I got to see a couple of old friends (that always happens in the Pink) and we took off about 3:15 am. I think I got to bed about 3:45 am - that was the latest I had been out in a long time.

Wednesday

I dragged myself out of bed about 9:30 and I was already late. I had told Keith from Audax that I would meet him for coffee and was supposed to be there at 9:00. Anyways, I got it together and took a drive over to his place. I got to see Johnston - who looked about 15 years younger and spent awhile with KK. They have their offices on Millersport.

Since I was out that way anyway, I decided to stop in and see Steve at Latko. Spent some time there with him and Annette. Karl Malazzo even stopped by. Of course I got a Maybeck's sub just for old time sake. The bottom line though, was that I was hung-over. It wasn't too bad, but it sucked either way.

After that, nothing extremely eventful. I worked on the web app off-and-on throughout the day. Spent a bunch of time at the kitchen table with sis - what else is new? We took Tommy to the airport.

Thursday
Got up early, wrote code and picked up Erin at the airport. While picking her up, I bumped into a fellow I used to work with at the Peace Bridge. That was pretty easy, I also like how short term parking (30 minutes or less) is free. Good deal.

Erin and I just went back to Lynn's and hung out for awhile. I had spoken with Edwards earlier in the week about a trip to the casino. We were supposed to rendevous with him about 2:00, but it got pushed backed to like 3:30 pm. Something with his doctor. Anyways, instead of going to the casino, we ended up at this sports bar on Sheridan. His friend Greg from the NiteCappe owns it. Mark and I played a little bit, ate some wings and Erin and his wife just shot the breeze. Interesting all around. Since we had to get back for dinner at Lynns's we cut our visit a bit short. We were back in West Seneca by 6:15 pm.

After dinner, Judy stopped by and just like old times they talked, and talked, and talked.

Friday
Erin was pumped to do some shopping, so after a lazy morning, we went over to the Galleria and she hit Kauffmans. We only stayed a short time and she didn't see anything she wanted. The next stop - of course - was Wegman's. Erin has fallen in love with that store. So while we were in there, we ran into Dad of all people. He was with Bill. It was nice to see both of them. We shot the breeze for awhile. I really got a kick out of that.....so did Erin....

Lynn made this great dinner. We were supposed to go visit Maryann, but she had come under the weather, so we improvised. After dinner Judy/Charlie stopped over. We exchanged gifts. Yada, yada, yada.

Saturday
The thing about this trip that has been the most enjoyable was the fact that we haven't been rushed. It was been a great pace. Just like the other days, the morning was lazy. I did what I normally do in the morning, Erin slept in and did her thing. We had arranged to meet Dad at Judy's at 2:00 pm. We got there about 2:25. It was a nice visit. He gave Erin and I the wedding band we talked about. I took some photos of him with Tiffany's cell phone camera. After an hour-and-a-half or so, we all left.

Since it was New Year's Eve, we all had dinner plans at Ilio DiPaulo's in Blasedell. I had never been there before. The food was excellent. It was myself, Erin, Judy, Charlie, Lynn and Nig. It was a nice dinner. We got out of there about 11:15 or so, and headed over to the McKinley Park Inn. (Never been there either). Anyways, we ended up never even going in and ended up at the Nite Capp on Abbot of all places. (Again, never been there either). Ringing in the new year was alright. The bar was not crowded at all. There was this old drunk that they threw out just as we were getting there. It's that kind of bar. Erin and I played some pool.

The vacation ended on Sunday, with Erin and I flying out at about 6:30 pm. We got home in about 11:30 and crashed. I had to work in the morning...or so I thought....

Erin's grandmother Thelma turned 90 years old on Nov 9. Erin, myself, Jim, Kathie, Kirk, and John and Gena Bartimac went up to Harrisburg for a party. We caught a flight out of RDU on Southwest. What we supposed to be uneventful turned out to be amouck in snags.

All was going well at RDU. Lolly-gagging around with Erin after we both checked our bags, Erin always insists on carrying cash. I love my debit card and swear by it. Who really needs cash nowdays? Anyways, she always insists on it, soooo I agreed to hit the ATM. Turned out that I left my card in the machine. Thankfully, a customer service desk was about two-feet away and someone turned it in. I noticed it missing just as we were going through security and quickly bolted to see if it was still there. My biggest fear is that the machine ate the card. All turned out well thankfully.

That frazzled me a bit. I went through security and caught up with Erin. We chilled for a bit before the flight - which was late! This was the second time a SW flight I was on has been late. SW is known for on-time flights. Go figure. The flight was completely full. Basically a puddle jump.

We arrived in Baltimore, and scratched our heads for a bit at the baggage claim because of a typo, of all things. Like in other things, Erin talked me out of it...

In any event, it was a successfull rendevous with Kathie and Grammy. Off to Mechanicsburg we went. I was about an hour's drive or so.

A cool thing we did on the way was stop and visit Erin's grandfather's gravesite. Curvin Thompson passed away in 1991. I snapped some shots of this.

I took a lot of photos along the way. Still practicing. The more the better. Anyways, we are all staying in a house right on Bethany Village property. It's great. The interior was fantastic. It felt just like home.

We had some time to kill before dinner, so Erin and I went for a litttle spin in Grammy's Jetta. This beauty in returning to Raleigh next week. A car swap that's too sophisticated to describe here is happening and Erin will be it's new owner.

We got back and sat around a bit before dinner. I attempted to download the photos for the camera and started having some issues. It turned out that I had to jurry-rig the flash memory card to get it to work. The Nikon is somewhat tempermental; thank God it's the Academy's. I'd be pissed if it were mine.

Anyways, Jim, Kirk and the Bartimacs were going out to dinner with us. Erin and I had ate there last year; a restuarant called Colhane's. We all got there and the rub was to surpise Grammy - she didn't know the Bartimacs were coming up. So we all sat around waiting for our table. John and Gena made there surprise entrance. It took Grammy just a second for it to click in, but once it did she couldn't beleve it. Here was the look on her face:

We had a nice time during dinner. I had tenderloin and shrimp. Dinner took about an hour and a half. A good time. We all went back to 'the house' and had cake and let Grammy open her presents. I ranked on her about 'being on the Internet' It was a dramatic role-reversal I had been waited for - I pounced as soon as I could..

Saturday
Jim always raves about the Farmers Market and this little diner. So myself, Jim and J/J Bartimac went in tow. To describe the place wouldn't do it justice. A picture is worth a thousand words. It was a greasy spoon, but it was great, down-home diner food. These are always the best places...I offered to go back everytime when were in town. After our eats we headed off to the farmers market. It was alot like the Broadway Market in Buffalo, but seemed to have a greater variety of foods. I snapped some photos of the place. Wasn't too bad. I read a little bit of the history about it as Jim, John and Gena were picking up some things.

That took us to about 9:30 and time to head back. Jim took us the back way, of course and showed us some landmarkds along the way. No sooner were we back home, that I left with Erin again, this time to pick up everything for the party in the afternoon. Balloons, decorations, stuff like that. Of course, I did try to 'fix' the camera by going into BJ's for a new card. I tested it right on the spot, and determined it way the camera. No money lost, just time. I was disappointed. Riggingg it to work sucks; my thumb hurts too. Erin and I helped set up at Bethany.

We got back, hung for a bit and got ready for the party. Going to change, I noticed that I had actually brought Erin's pants instead of my own. Real bummer. Since I wanted to look as spic/span as possible - especially for all of the people I was meeting - I shaved what I was calling a goatee. It was hardly a try; more of a joke than anything. Looks like I be wearing my brown cords one mo time...It was fine, noone would notice....

The party had a good amount of grammy's friends, as well as a lot of people that I had heard Erin talk about. It was good to finally meet some of them, especially before our wedding next May. We wrapped up about 4:30 and came back to the house. Unfortunately, all of the photos from the party that I took never came out.

I especailly was a little beat and grabbed some quick shut-eye. For the rest of the eveining, I basically spent it defending myself from spirited attacks by Ms. Bartimac. At one point she basically labeled me a geek. (Something I'm sure I'll never live down).

One good thing, though was I learned the basics of penaucle. I had never played before. Myself, Jim, Kathie, Grammy, John, Gena and David (Kathie's brother) played. It was fun.

We tried to get to bed early, as we had to get up about 5:00 am and be out of the house by 6:00 am to make our 8:55 am flight in Baltimore.

The Amsterdam

My incoming flight was long and overall horrible.

It started off with Tommy and Chuck missing their connecting flights because of delay at Heathrow. I myself had to run to get my connect on EasyJet. The only way I got on was by pleading with the supervisor. It worked out well. But it was extra to have to deal with people that way. Britains want to help you. Aren't proad of it nessarily. But will help you in a bind.

I ran to the Flight from Amsterdam. On the way over it dawned on me that we were late. And my connection was soon. Strange airport. foreign land. different culture. I raced through that airport. I located were to get my ticket and there was no liine. I might make this afterall.

I got to the check-in and heard the news. The flight had closed three minutes earlier.

Huffing and puffing, I got to the gate and finally onboard. I snoozed the whole way. The same as I did on the flight over. I go into that later. Some flight.

I arriving in Amsterdam (A) on time - ten minutes of 1:00 . It was very easy and clear through the airport. I just loved finding the 'carraiges' for luggage. I had discovered that Tommy's original flight was scedule to arrive in 3:00 minutes. The airport will be our rendevous.

I waited and they didn't show. The carraige was empty, with the clerk gathering bags that didn't connect with their owners. Kind of like that mystery black sock that comes out of the washer occasionally.

I resigned they weren't coming. Decided to proceed to the Rendevous. Our rendevous location was maken in haste moments before we both boarded our respective flights.

I needed to go to Centraal terminal. Went through customs. commuted. found the train. Get to A Centrall roughly 2:00. I lockered my luggage. and was offf to Caffe Espirit.

It was supposed to be 250 yards from the bus station. It ended up being about 2.5 kimoeteres. All urban, mind you. Still.

Street names didn't jump out at you. Long story short - I got there. Somewhat confusing since I came up the street on the side of the Espirt store. The cafe was on the other side. Took my 40 minutes to figure that out.

I waited. Nothing. Do I stay here? Leave? What if they show up? Tag in a foreign city.

Before we left I had told him to rely on email. Interent isn't everywhere here, but there are internet cafes.

I checked my email. Got a message from Tom he'd be late. Phew!!!! Then I did some work. Emailed Erin. Fixed Kirk's problem. Checked Academy Email.

I estimate that I had about an hour and half to they would mostlikely arrive. Got something to eat. And wanted to get back in the vacinity of the rendevous.

Checked some stuff out but not really too much. Just wanted to meet.

They finally arrived. 7:00 pm. I found them. They were with a bum.

We decided to get a hotel. We were all bunk from traveling.

Let's just say getting the hotel was an experience. Tommy had the idea of going to one of those Hotel Infor places. They are wheelers ans dealers.

We ended up getting a nice room. It was small. Modern. Secure. Perfect hotel. We checked in. Arranged the room. All showered. And decided to check out the redlight district.

The Redlight District.

Chuck wanted a beer. Tommy and I wanted to get stoned. Finding a place to do so turned out to be quite an adventure. Hemp isn't plastered everywhere. Actually no where. It's in the district, but we were amatuars. We ended up at a place called the Grasshopper. Upstair a night club. Downstairs a coffee shop. When we asked, we needed to be directed. That's how non-obvious it was. Atleast it seemed.

They didn't have menues here. We missed it on our way in. You had to press a button to see the 'menu'' We considered our options. Cannabis and hash. Various prices. I didn't know what to get.

Tommy chose one from the list and went first. A short dialogus ensued. I went next. Not knowing I asked the purveyor for a suggestion.

"Mild or strong"

"Strong"

"Grey Hazel Red"

"Fine. Gimmie two grams.'.

Anyways, we had to role a joint. None of us had the skills. Chuck gave a valient inital attempt. Then Tommy. I failed too. We ended up quering the waitress. We bought a pack of these cone type things. They worked perfectly.

Tweaked, we ventured out to see more the redlight district. We happened upon a place and bought a couple of rounds of beers. It started to kick in. Who knows where we were. We ended up leaving for more fun. Crazy thoughts were going through my mind. Then again, its the first time I had partook in a while.

Overall, It its a very interesting place. Something I did not know existed. Probably the best scene of it's type I have ever been too. There were hundreds of extremly small cafes and lounges. Eateries. Cafe's. Clothing. All there. What was the most fascinating, however, is that some

Very interesting place. It's crazy because if you need it to be or mellow it is, if your more the observant type, you can do that too. I felt our group represented all of this. Actions confirmed my suspicions.

James Brown - An American Originnal.

As Tommy so pointed out: Sixty years of funkk.

To put it mildy, it was some show. Never had been in a venue like that before. The bar was right in the main performance hall. It was rockin. Tommy was the only person wearing sunglasses.

He didn't play for that long - about 90 minutes. It get's progressively fuzzy. I remember the end. Getting lost. Part of the ride home, and then this:

Under the influence of some concoction, I came back an keyed this in. It's rambling, twisted and somewhat censored. What happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam. . I was having a grand ole time...

<---Deleted and Censored----Sorry:< >

Berlin Train

This is very interesting experince. I am on the train to Berlin. We were initially supposed to go to Bremmen, but missed the train by about five minutes. We himmed and haughed on buying tickets for 55Euro. Things are very expensive in Amsterdam.

We had heard that the train is laidback as far as souveniers from Amsterdam. If you know what I mean.. We have a little bit on us and I'm wigging.

We know that its only a fine when b eing caught. It supposedly is not worse than that. We have stoped now and am waiting for something.

I was nervous earlier. T & C have the ball. I am just thinking. I hope it isn't a hassle. We had asked around

The whole train trip to Berlin went pretty smoothly, although I didn't really have a seat. Getting over the border was really a problem. The Police just walked through the train and spot checked. Tommy and Chuck drank bottles of wine. We played cards and sat in between cars . I was the first one without a seat. Tommy and Chuck later joined me when they got booted.

In Berlin, we got off at the Zool-somethig and walked to bit. We needed to find Propeller Island City Lodge. Tommy has supposedly made a reseavatin. Chuck knew where it was from the map.

We found it but never got to stay there. There was no reception and the hotel had been converted from an apartment building. It would of been cool, but was sort of fucked up. We needed to fin d a hotel room.. Dojing so was an adverture.

We eventually found a place called the Park Inn at AlexanderPlace. We stayed there to nigghts..
Aftern we dropped our shit off,, they wanted to find a nightclub. I needed some food. It was late. this had been the worse day of the trip. Traveling sucked.

We happened upon a small nightclub and went in. Very young crowd. Much American music. I took off and got some food.

We got up the next morning around 11:00 am. We decided to stay another nite. We took the subway to go to see the Brandberg Gate and some other sites. Chuck really had everything mapped up.

After the subway we walked and got our first site of the Berlin Wall. Parts of it were restored others original. Chuck wanted to get a rock from the wall for his rock collection. I pounded on the wall witth a piece of robar to get my chunck.

We then decided to try to find a new camera. We found a shopping center and maill. I got something to eat and looked at the shops . We found an electronics stores and found Tommy a camera. They did not take Visa so Tommy and Chcuk withdrew cash to cover the purchase.

We left the mall and caught some more sites. We stopped to eat and plug in Tommy's camera to charge it so he could use it. I ost $5E in a casino that was acrss the street.

Live 8 was playing in Berlin and we decided to go check it out. It turned ouit to be really fun. There were thousands of people. We had beers, shot photos and listened to music. I even hackey-sacked with some European dudes.

Walking out of Live 8 we took a bunch of photos of the Brandonberg Gate and some other stuff along the way. It was getting dark out, so my digital camera could only do so much. One of the sites was what Chuck was referrring to as the 'Death Star' Got to see it up close and personl.

During all of this time, my left Achilles had been killingg me. I had never had this happen to me. I felt that I was getting old.. I wan't looking forward to anymore walking.

We go back to the hotel and I immejdiately crashed. My achilles was killing me.

To Copenhagen

We got up at around 10:30 am. Me earliest. Our mision was to find a car rental agency to get to Copenhagen. I found Sixt Car Rental. They turned out to be the cheapest. My achilles was still sore, but a bit better.

We found Sixt pretty easily by taking the metro. Chuck drove. Our goal was to drive to Copenhagen via the Autobon. The autobon stretches through the German countryside much like I 40 does. What is interesting is how fast everybody goes. The speeds ranged from about 60 MPH to well into the 100s. We had rented a Volkwagen Polo. It was very similar to a Golf and he had it going about 96 MPH. Some cars were passing us going maybe 125 - 150 MPH. It was an interesting experience.

Our drive was pretty uneventful. The route was very well marked and easy to follow. We got a chance to drive through Hamburg, Germany for a bit. since it was Sunday, however, many things were closed.

What really shocking on the trip up the Autobon was the price of gas. They had it displayed in liters. It turned out costing me approximately about $70US to fill the tank. We argued if the price was correct. Was this for reall? It was an unexpected expense....

Our next unexpected expense was the ferry. We had to get a connection from Germany to Denmark. The only way on the route we chose. Turned out costing us about $65US to cross. It was a 45 minute ride. You get out of your car after you park. Upstairs on the deck there are shops, a caffe and shit like that. Sort of like a mini airport concourse. There was a duty free shop. We went outside on the deck and got some pictures of the ferry.

Aftter almost not finding the car, Copenhagen was about another 35-40 minutes, maybe less. We got into the city center at around 10:30. The sun was just starting to set. We drove around for awhile and checked the prices of about 10 hotels. After even considering a hostel (turned out it was full) we decided on the Best Western Quality Inn. We discovered that when we arrived, the summer season is always very crowded. Several hotels we checked we're booked solid. Our hotel had free web-access, a big room and was pretty cheap. Overall, this room was the most convenient of the whole trip. Our Berlin hotel was nicer, but not as convenient.

We finally got into our room about 12:30 am. Tommy and Chuck went out to a nightclub and I decided to stick around the hotel to write my paper. It was due in a few hours and I had Internet access... I never completed the paper because there was no USB port on the machine that I saw. It was the first paper in the IMC program that I had been late on.. Things about money were on my mind, so was Erin and I just crashed.

I had trouble falling asleep, but eventually did. As I tossed and turned waiting to fall asleep, I notice the sunrise out the hotel window. What was cool is that it was only 4:30 am.

The next day I got up about 10:30. I showered and got breakfast on the street and walked around myself a bit. The hotel was pretty busy with people coming and going. Checking in and out. Tommy and Chuck got up in the early afternoon. Tommy's goal was to find and laundrymat. We asked around and jumped in the car and found one. Tommy did his laundry and planned to me us back later in the day. chuck and I took the car and decided to go see the famous little mermaid and some famous castle. The car made it easier. I drove the whole day. We eventually went back to the hotel room and parked the car. We walked around the city for another few hours, taking the train, taking a lot of photos, and grabbing dinner.

We found Copenhagen to be very expensive. A simpl cup of coffee - served in an espresso cup -- was like $4.00 US. Chuck and I's simple bufffet of pizza and salad cost us over $40 US. Everything else was proportional.

We met Tommy back in the room around 7:30 pm and decided to venture out again to some other parts of the centrum. Many of the streets resembled Amsterdam very closely, but didn't have as much 'grit'. Copenhagen is absolutely beautiful. I tried to take as many pictures as possible.

We did that until the sunset and returned to the room at about 11:15 pm. I knew that I had a flight to catch the next day, We ended up hanging out in the hotel room for awhile, smoking, talking shit, life. I made sure I was ready to get out of there early the next day.

Travel Day
Getting to the airport was a breeze. I checked in easiliy and went to my gate. I had purposedly tried to tire myself for the flights back to the US.