Sweden and Beyond

In August I spent 3 weeks travelling in Finland with my girlfriend. We started on the south coast, went up through the middle of the country and ended near the Swedish border. I have never seen so many lakes or been in so many saunas! It was great and here are some of the pics.

I took a ferry from Stockholm to Turku which must be one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world. The trip is 10 hours and winds through thousands of scenic islands.

To see more of the islands once I got to Finland, Sanna and I spent a day island hopping. Here is one of the many small ferries we took.

We stayed in a small cabin owned by her company. Here is the view from the sauna. The water is actually a small inlet from the baltic sea.

After leaving the coast we went inland to her home town of Turenki. Near there her family has a summer cabin on a lake.

Rowing is fun. She is actually fishing and Im doing the trolling.

In Tampere we stayed with Sanna´s sister Heidi ( second from left). Here we are out on the town.

Sanna and I climbed a lookout tower. Notice the trees and lakes in the background...Welcome to Finland.

We went to another island off the coast of Oulu. The island has sandy soil and the forest floor is covered with soft green moss. Cool!

Finland, Finland, Finland...

10 Months of my life went into this project. I pushed back my thesis, cut down the social life, shortened the world travels and even lost sleep. You would think I would know by now the amount of work a project like this takes...and I did. This is the 3rd time I have done a university car project! I guess I know what I like to do.

My role on the team was a "technical communicator" but my duties were pretty much project management. I worked with planning, technical documentation, the overal design, testing, and tons of other things. I had my hand in most things since I was the only one on the team to build something like this before.

In 10 months 27 of us designed and built a race car. We took it to England and competed against 69 other teams from all over the world. We placed 12th and came home happy. It was an intense competition and a great end to a year.

Check out our website for more details: http://web.student.chalmers.se/groups/formula/joomla/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Here are some pics.

We did lots of testing in the month leading up to the competition. I hate electrical gremlins.

To get to England we took an overnight ferry. Lots of fun on the super windy deck.

We redefined the meaning of car camping.

Part of the competition is an acceleration event. Here is Kris lined up for the start.

With cold tires and excessive wheel spin he still put in a 10th place run hitting over 60 mph in 4 seconds.

I got to drive in part of the competition. I drove in qualifying but not the final race.

This is the start of qualifying. You get 2 shots to set a fast lap on a track you have never driven before. Here is our other driver after his run returning to the pits. I was up next.

My buddy Ciaran was there and he snapped this picture of me driving back to the pits.

We finished all the events and were happy with our 12th place overall finish. We were the highest finishing scandinavian team and E85 fuelled car. Go team!

Now I'm locked in my room finishing my thesis

I've become really bad at updating this. Sorry.

About a month ago I went home. Home home as I call it. My sister was graduating from USC and the whole family was gonna be there...except me. Thats when my uncle stepped in and decided to surprise my family by flying me home secretly. I bout the $700 tickets Wednesday and was home the next Monday. The surprise worked well: Mom said bad words, grandma jumped so high she left the ground and Laura was speachless.

I was only in San Mateo for 3 days and in LA for 3 days. I had a chance to see a few friends at home and in LA. Sorry if I missed you. I also made sure to get some mexican food, pizza, and In and Out burger. All things I have been craving for a long time.

The graduation and everything went well. It was great to see the family. It was all too short but thats how it always is. Thanks Uncle Ross!

Here are some fields near Amsterdam on my way home.

Here are the fields near the bay area. I get bored on planes.

Check the leg room on a "real" airline (not ryanair)

Within the first couple hours home I went for a tour of the lagoon with my uncle's friends.

There is no such thing as mexican food in Sweden. I miss real (American) Mexican food!

I miss torturing Molly.

She misses torturing me.

On the way to LA I bought a medium drink. This is larger than an extra large drink in europe!

LA is weird

While in LA I met up with my old roomates Chris, Miles, and Kevin and we went to the pier.

I could not find Pamela

This is weird. Cop on roof?

Chris loves nachos

Kevin and miles love....to finish their drinks

I like the pacific!

There was a farmers market. mmmmmm berries!

I knew I could fill the governators shoes.

My sister's final project.

The Fam

Miss you all!

Heydå

Sanna and I went to Croatia for a week. Well actually 5 days in Croatia and two days in Dublin on flight layovers. We stayed with couchsurfing hosts everynight which was fun and saved us tons of money. The whole trip including the flights cost me $300!! Thats it!

We stayed all five nights in Pula which is on the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula. The plan was to stay with a couchsurfer in Pula for the first couple days and then go up the coast to stay with another host in Porec. At the last minute the guy in Porec canceled! We were quite worried about where to stay because there are no hostels in that part of Croatia and hotels are expensive. We ended up staying all five night with Dave and his dog Riley. Dave was a chiropractor from New York who just moved to Croatia. He was super nice and had a sweet apartment overlooking the water. Dave had free time so he showed us around and even adjusted our backs! It felt great. I recommend it.

Here was the view from Dave's place.

Sanna and spent most days exploring the coastline.

As you can see, the water was amazing!

There were almost no tourists so we had this beach all to ourselves

After so many months in cloudy Sweden I promptly fried my feet in Croatia.
Sunblock was really hard to find for some reason. I guess Croatians dont burn.

Here is Dave and Riley; our gracious hosts.

A mile from Dave's place is the 6th largest Roman arena in the world

Dave adjusted my back and neck. It felt great. I didnt know anything about chiropractic work but Dave filled me in and now I can say SEE ONE. Thanks Dave!

There are lots of old cars in Croatia...and older car cover methods.

While exploring a national park we found the coolest bar EVER!! Here is the sign.

and the seating

and the swings

And the ping pong table

and the bar

Can you read the sign? Thats right, SELF SERVICE!! The taps face out! You pour your own drink and put the money in a bowl. Now that is trust!

The bar also had a slide, merry go round and lookout tower. It a bar for the kid in all of us. I loved it.

With Dave driving we were able to explore some of the beautiful coastal towns. Check out the boat parking at this harbor.

Sanna ordered some ice cream and got this:

Cool huh.

We went on a cave tour. Super cool and creepy.

There was a rare species that lived in the underwater lake.

While you are waiting for the cave tour you can ride a donkey. Not my thing but sanna was all about it.

Overall it was a great trip. Thanks for everything Dave!

It's been wayyyyyy tooooo long since I've updated anybody on what I have been doing. I guess the answer is not much. I have not left Sweden and have taken few pictures. Most of my time has gone to my thesis and formula student. I sent in job applications to Lotus Cars and Renault Formula 1 but got rejected. I think it might be hard for me to work in Europe due to work permit issues...crap. I have been spending time with a Finnish girl and that has been...read on for more info.

This blog will have no plot. It is just pictures and comments from my past three months in Sweden.

When I returned to Sweden from my winter trip I moved into a new apartment. It is much smaller than my old one and does not have the great view like my last place. The good thing is that it is $100 a month cheaper. Here is my view:

I have 162 square feet which includes a bathroom, kitchen, mudroom, bedroom, office, dining room,....not really. I can sit on my bed and touch the desk, stove, fridge, sink, and bathroom all at once. Cool huh!

This was also waiting for me when I moved in:

Sanna had bought me all the best candy from Finland and even black licorice vodka. Finnish people love black licorice flavored everything. I don't. She is trying to convert me to the dark side but it wont work!

Oh yeah, this is Sanna:

Sanna Rocks!
Attention male engineers: This is what engineers look like in this part of the world!

The weather in Sweden has been uncommonly warm so we only got a dozen days of snow. I rode my bike to school every single day. Including this day:

All bike shops sell studded bike tires for the hardcore bikers. I didnt have them though...

The snow melted fast and March was the warmest in Sweden for over 100 years. People were in shorts and sandels. Then on Easter is snowed again. Crazy.

Here is an interesting bike I spoted a few weeks ago. Its like west coast choppers meets the Beverly Hillbillies.

How often do you see the rescue diver responding to a ladder truck call?

Have you ever seen a mutant bell pepper? Weeeiiiirrrrrddddd!

What is this for?

Can you guess what the most popular car companies are in Sweden? Do you know which car color is the 2nd most popular in Sweden?

I went for a walk in the neighborhood around my place. If these pictures do not say Sweden then I dont know what does:

My university has two campuses and one is on the other side of the river so you get to take a ferry. I like boats

There was a ski/snowboard jump competition a week ago at the university. I went to it in 2004 and there was a huge snowball fight. This year it was so warm there should have been a swimsuit competition instead.

Moosies are big!

I am going to Croatia with Sanna to get some real sun. Round trip tickets from Sweden for $75!!!! If you are lucky I will post some pictures of our trip soon.

Bye for now

Mike