Swedish showers for hours

       We spent Tuesday (6/19/12) like our other days. Wake up, pack up our gear, and ride. We were still in farm and forest areas of Sweden, so of course it’s beautiful. Unfortunately we had to deal with heavy wind blowing in our faces and the gps sent us down a route that added 10 more miles to our day. We weren’t happy about that, but hey it’s nothing to cry about. 

      The good thing about it though is we stumbled onto this town called Atvidaburg. It’s crazy nice there. Everyone is friendly, it has a farmers market, and kids are running around the lake. Did I mention it had a lake? It does. It had a touristy kind of feel to it while it also seemed like a nice community. And all the women there are also hot in case you were wondering. We hope you guys know we are dead serious about the looks of women over here. It doesn’t make sense. More on point, we got to a campground in the middle of the town and found out they had showers and we haven’t had one since we left Rob’s house. We looked for a way to pay so we can get a key to the shower house and sent josh on his way to the tourist info center to pay them. Chris and I sat for 10 minutes talking about how we were going to take an hour long shower and just chill in a nice cozy bed that the Swedish houses (little tiny cabins with bunk beds) have. Josh came back and informed us that we were shit out of luck. So we said screw it and set up our tents anyways after our defeat. The grass field beats a forest floor any day of the week, but the showers were the only thing on our minds. Josh got on his bike to go to the shopping mart and saw that someone propped open the showering rooms. When he told us, Chris got his towel and I’ve never seen a ginger move so quickly. We were kings for a night. We all spent a fair share of time in the showers and I did some hobo laundry in the sink. Life was good.

                                                       Everybody rides bikes here. 

        On Wednesday when walking to brush my teeth a woman came up and started speaking Swedish to me. I told her “English” and she asked very nicely if we stayed, then told me I could pay here whenever we are ready. Everyone here is pretty nice. On the way out of town we lost Chris (again). Then when we turned to find him Josh’s back rack screw broke again.  So I rode off to the hardware store and got him some screws. When I came back Chris was with him and we started our day off at the farmers market and the super mart for some supplies. On Wednesday our ride was a little bit different, in a good way. It was full of lakes. We probably rode by 8 all in all. There is something truly amazing about this place. Hope all of you can see the Sweden like we have and thanks for the read. Next stop Jonkoping. 

Sweden sweet Sweden

So we’ve been on our bikes for the last two days heading from Gnasta to Jonkoping and it’s been the most fun I’ve ever had. I don’t think we ever want to leave. On Sunday (6/17/12) we left Rob and his wife after they cooked us some amazing Swedish pancakes and then we hopped on a train for an hour and a half. Chris missed the connection even though he was right next to us, which gave  Josh and I an hour to explore Gnasta. It’s a small town with an amazing church on a lake. We eventually met back up with Chris and started on the real first part of the trip.

                                                     Maybe kungsangen means hoes.

                                                                     

After Chris caught up and we got on our bikes things got a little sour for a bit. Chris got a new Gps and it lead us on a cool little route ended on a horse trail. It was also raining so the trail was muddy and full of rocks. Not good for riding heavy bikes on. After a hour we finally got onto a good paved road. The rest of day was up and down hills while being surrounded by farms and forest. Skies full of clouds and rain, but we didn’t care. We stopped every hour or so to snack on crackers or bread along with whatever we got from the store that morning, enjoying the view. Nothing could have taken down our spirits. I’m sure there are areas of Washington that look just like the land we went through, but it just felt better doing it here. We eventually rolled into this small town and looked for a place to camp. This won’t sound to appealing to most of you, but we found a patch of woods about 100 feet from some apartments and set up camp there, in clear view of anyone walking on the trail 30 feet south of us. While setting up we also noticed the train tracks on the other side of the trail with trains constantly going over them. We didn’t care though.  It was our patch of land for the night and with the long day of riding we just had, sleep was the only thing we cared about.

On day two we stopped at the local grocery store for some more bread and snacks then headed off. It was mostly forest and some more hills. We would stop throughout the day for pictures and snacks then get back on the road. We went down this huge hill and Chris told us that we would be getting to a bridge soon. When we got to the bottom of the hill we all suddenly stop. No bridge. We might have yelled at Chris a little. We look around and across the water is a small odd ferry. Next to us is a cool little café that I went into for some information. Luckily everyone in Sweden speaks English.  The lady told me that the ferry came in 20 minutes and free! So I ordered 3 deserts from her and sat down with Chris and Josh for a treat with a view of the lake and some islands with little houses on them.

 When we got on the ferry the sun came out and the whole lake came into view. Beautiful is all I can really say.  When we got to the other side we were scared we would have to climb some more hills, but it became flat and full of farm fields. Sometimes you could find little sheds built into the hills like hobbit houses. We kept on riding till we hit a decent sized town and stopped for burgers and pizza.  We are now camped about 2 miles out of that town in the rain. Stinky and sweaty in some woods we stumbled on. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to play the game!

Ps. All women in Sweden are hot.

Stockholm is Seattle's sister.

Thursday was far from the easy day trip we all imagined it would be. the day before, Beau took Chloe, Jon, and I out for one last night to drink together. Thursday was filled with all of us calling each other trying to figure out when we were leaving, who has the boxes for our bikes, finding out that the place we originally thought we were going to get the boxes had them but at a premium price none of us wanted to pay and a lot of panic. Throw on top of that some tears from loved ones and a hangover and you got yourself a pretty rough morning, but we made it on time and with everything we needed. Our flight was Seattle > Iceland > Sweden. We left Seattle around 4:30pm and got to Stockholm around 1:00 pm the next day. When flying over Sweden it looks just like western Washington with evergreen trees all over the place, but its flat.

We were met by Chris' uncle Rob at the airport. Him and his wife are letting us stay at their place for a few days while we get over jet lag and wait out a few days of rain. They cook us food and deal with three grown men napping all over their house pretty well. I've never seen people be so nice to a nephew and strangers. I pretty beat from the plane ride and thought I'd chill around town while Chris and Josh went to Stockholm. After a nap I walked around Kallhall to the local lake and thought about how this is my life for the next three months, Nothing but adventuring and living life at my own pace. As i was walking around the lake though, I noticed that the sun was still pretty high for how late in the day it was.

  So get this, the sun sets here at 10:30pm and raises at 3:30am and never really gets pitch black at this time of year. Yeah, 5 hours of this kinda sort of almost dark is all they get. The next day we all took the train to Stockholm for the evening. The buildings here are tall old and amazing. We have nothing like it in the states. If you head over to the older parts of the town you hit narrow old stone roads with gutters carved into the stone. It was raining pretty hard too, but that wasn't stopping us and or the rest tourist from roaming the streets. We went into an old church that they turned into a museum and stumbled onto a major boat race happening on one of the many waterways that Stockholm is built around. We walked around some more and looking at the menus on the shop windows and found out that it's all pretty expensive here. We decided to pass on eating out in Stockholm and make our way back to Rob's for dinner made by him and his wife. Tomorrow we head out on our bikes for the first time and we are all pretty excited for the journey to really begin and even with Stockholm having some amazing buildings and cool shops, I think the best part of the trip so far has been just walking around Kallhall, spending time with friends and locals not worried about just pleasing another tourist.

    Some weird thing they do with pizza here. Calzone like.

                                                           

ps It's so much like Seattle it rained while we were walking around so my camera stayed in while i took pictures with my phone. Sorry for the bad quality. 

what is bike touring?

"I'm jealous Isaiah gets to go to Europe for three months, but I'm not jealous of his accommodations".

I get a lot of questions about what exactly Josh, Chris and I will be doing over the next 3 months. Bike touring can be anything from paying a touring company to carry all of your gear for you as you ride on a predetermined route and will cost you about $600-$2000. The way we are doing it though is by putting large bags on our bike and filling them with everything we will need to live for three months. Sleeping bags, tents, clothes, and little things we will need here and there. The guys and I will be camping most of the time. Some people hostel and hotel jump but we are roughing it. There also wont always be camping places, and when that happens we will have to stealth camp off where no one will see us. I think its illegal but who knows. The nice and also somewhat common way of free camping is also just walking up to a farm and asking the farmer if you can pitch a tent on his lawn. Kind of nervous about that part. We will shoot for about 60 miles a day, but it can vary. Wind, Weather, hangovers and women can all make our rides a little bit shorter. The good thing about our trip is that its for three months, which gives us a lot of freedom for our rides. As of right now we have destinations, compasses, and two wheels to take us there, hoping we choose the right routes. I've never been on a bike tour so i cant really tell you what its going to be like or what it will feel like being in a foreign country unable to communicate with everyone we come in contact with, but there are plenty of other people who have so here are their videos for your to watch and see what I'll be doing.



Hoopdrivers. A christian group of young men doing a 2 and a half month long tour of europe.

what is bike touring on a deeper level.

So hope that helps some of you understand what I'll be doing for the next 100 days. In 24 hours I'll be on a plane off to Stockholm (i hate planes). Thanks for the read and dont forget to play the game for free booze. Share this on face book and say a date and time in between June 14th and September 17th and if your the closes to our first accident ill send you a bottle of local brew of beer or wine.

Tips for Travel. WIN BOOZE!

When I tell people that I’m going on a trip, they feel they have to give you some advice. Some of it’s helpful and nice. Some of it’s funny and not helpful. Thought I’d share the good and not so good help people toss my way. Also read about a chance to win free booze at the bottom of this post!

-Watch out for pickpockets.

I heard this one so much I decided to research it. In America, pickpocketing is a “Dying art”. No one wants to learn it because in the states getting caught is a good way to screw up your future. Not in Spain though. Some places in Europe if you get caught as a minor you get a slap on the wrist and you’re sent on your way to go screw over some more tourist. Those kids grow up and train more kids and they grow up and train more kids. I also found out that they will razorblade your front pockets and your backpack to get things out of them. Pretty ballsy.

-Bring your travelers checks. And your credit card…. And your cash..

Everyone tells you to bring a different form of currency. Some people will tell you that cash is good, while some with tell you you’re dumb for even thinking of carrying cash on you. Debt cards will get charged extra for using it in stores and from what I hear using it at an ATM will charge you more than casino ATMS will. The most commonly agreed way is prepaid visa cards. I leave in a week and I still don’t know what I’m bringing.

-Bring sandals.

Every seen a hostel bathroom? Enough said. The movie Hostel shouldn’t have been about Americans getting tortured. It should have been about people showering in small disgusting showers with other people in the room.

-DON’T STAY IN HOSTELS!

How did such a bad movie convince everyone that hostels are dangerous? Maybe a little uncomfortable and unclean, but I hear a ton of jokes and warnings about hostels. It gets funny after a while.

-Baby wipes.

I’ve been told that baby wipes will make it so you don’t offend people with your smell when you backpack and tour. We won’t be showering everyday but we will be biking 40+ miles a day. I stink after 30 miles. I don’t want to imagine what 3 days of 100+ degree heat and no showers will do to me and I’ve never washed myself with a baby wipe, but from what I’m told I’ll become quite friendly with them.

-Be safe!

I have every intention of coming home with all my fingers and toes. No one plans on being unsafe. I think it’s a slightly odd thing to tell people, but don’t worry guys. I’ll wear my helmet and turn on my lights. All you moms out there can rest easy.

  

So I’m introducing a fun game anyone of you can play (if your older than 21). It’s pretty easy and you can do it once for each post I make. All you have to do is go to the bottom of the posts and hit “share” for Facebook. Post a comment on your link of a date between june 14^th – sep 17^th including a time of day. If your comment is the closes to the first accident or crash we have I’ll send you a bottle of local booze. If we are in Germany and I crash on june 27^th and you have the closes time and date to my crash I’ll ride to the store and ship you a bottle of amazing German beer. If I’m in France I’ll send you a bottle of local wine, so on and so on. Good luck and thanks for reading. If you have any questions send me an e-mail at thatamericanboy@gmail.com  

A boy and his camera. Learning to shoot with a DSLR

“Take lots of photos!” “Oh you’re going to have so much fun! Make sure to take a lot of photos and send them to me!” If there is one thing everyone tells me when I say I’m going to Europe, it’s to bring a camera and take thousands of photos. So I did a little research and I decided to take up photography and make this blog as an easy way to deliver them to you. Only thing was the few times I touched a camera they were disposable or compact point and shoots and the few days I spent on google it said the way to go were DSLRs (the fancy ones). I once “dated” a girl who was in to taking her camera everywhere and taking shots of everything, but that was as close as I got to them. So being the confident person that I am, I went out and got a Nikon 3100 a mini Polarized tripod and a book on digital photography. Figured how hard could it be. Very hard, I found out. The book was full of things like F stops and shutter speed and ISO charts, things that went right over my head. I just dropped $550 on equipment I had no idea to use. Pictures came out to dark or all white with a little color. There is an Auto mode that’s helpful, but if that’s all I wanted I could have gotten a $80 compact camera.  Luckily one of my co-workers Brad Wall came to my rescue. He spent some time with me showing what to do with shutter speed and F stops when it’s sunny out and how to adjust them when it’s not. He taught me how to take the camera off auto and to put on manual which makes it so you can add some personal flavor to your shots. He even took me out on his day off to the beach to take some shots that really helped me out. He turned my mistake in thinking that I could do anything without the slightest problem and gave me a hobby that I fell in love with. Editing on the other hand I picked up pretty easy with some help from the book I picked up. I now have a much deeper appreciation for photographers after this experience. Takes time to master and it’s not for everyone, but this boy loves it. So I hope you all enjoy the Photos of my trips later to come  and remember if your even slightest interested in photography send me an e-mail at Thatamericanboy@gmail.com and aske me about it or ask a friend. See if they will show you their camera and take you out shooting. Thanks for reading and if you have anything you’d like to say leave a comment under this post. 

What is that?

  When Chris and I first decided to tour Europe, I thought I'd just need a bike, a tent, and maybe something to cook with. I was pretty naive about the biking world. Like many of you out there, if someone mentioned Ortlieb panniers, it would've sounded like gibberish. I had no idea what i was in for. Chris told me that first I would need to be fitted for a bike- which was confusing, because I didn't need to get fitted for a bike when I was younger. Kids just hop on whatever bike they get and ride off happily, but it's a little different for adults. In order to ride long distances without putting too much strain on your body, you have to find the right size frame for your height. I went into Gregg's Cycle in Alderwood and nervously asked if I could get fitted for a bike. The salesman sat me on a few $3,000 bikes that weighed as much as my left shoe, and figured out that I ride a 56-58cm frame. A few weeks later, i went back and bought a 2010 Redline Conquest Sport for around $500. I'll be honest with you- I bought it mainly because I had ridden a Redline 355 as a kid, and riding this bike brought back all of those fun memories. I know it's a stupid reason to buy a bike, but screw it. Life is full of choices, some of them good and some of them bad. This one turned out to be a good one. I went into Gregg's Cycle every two weeks, to talk to Anthony and Dan about bike touring and riding. They taught me everything from clip-in pedals, to $150 bike shorts, to low rider front racks. They listened to dozen of dumb questions I had and guided me in the right direction. If it weren't for them I'd be lost, and I know the next 3 months will be a lot easier because of them. I also went into Bicycle West for a few things and they were also very helpful. I really can't thank the local bike shops enough for what they have done for me and Josh. If anyone is thinking about biking for any reason, I recommend going into your local bike shop, finding out your frame size, talk about what kind of riding you want to get into and get yourself a bike. If anyone has any questions about getting into biking, or touring, or anything really, go ahead and leave a comment below this post or send me a message, and I'll try and answer to the best of my knowledge. Happy riding and hope to see you on the trails!

Greggs Cycle website

Bicycles West

                                                                     "Sexy" - Abraham Lincon