TravelStream™ news feed for member vcruz on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/vcruz en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:00:11 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1219952400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1219952400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1219952400/tpod.html Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:00:11 -0400 Sweden Trip Version 2.0

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Los Angeles, California, United States

This time around I flew Air Berlin and umbrella company LTU. There planes were nice and clean and the food wasn't too bad. Some people I think are very discriminating regarding food, but I have pretty low expectations, so I am always satisfied regarding airline food. My only complaint was the entertainment, was a little slacking, due to only central video panels, and me being on the side it was much harder to watch. And all the movies were romantic comedies which I was sort of sad about. We flew northward going over Iceland and Canada, then finally dipping down in Montana and into California. Some turbulence and babies crying, but because it was an afternoon flight it was okay and we made it in 10 hrs or less and in one piece. Happy days.


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Düsseldorf, Germany

In my first trip to Germany comes at the hands of a 3 hour layover in Dusseldorf Airport. It was rainy when we landed and quite empty for a Monday morning. I followed the signs to the connecting terminal C and was greeted by a young man that was dreadful at English. I thought it was very odd that he would be stationed at that post given that the gate he was watching led to flight leaving Germany and the majority of people would not be speaking German. But I showed him my ticket and he mumbled someting and told me to wait. After a few more of the same situation occured with a few other passengers he finally opened the door to allow us to board the shuttle to the next terminal. In Terminal C, I decided to do as the German do as eat Schnitzel. Unfortunately for me the only type availble was the cafeteria version, which to my shock was reheated, making it utterly bland and soft instead of crispy. So I had bad schnitzel. And fries without ketchup becuase I refused to pay for ketchup and instead ate the fries with the hot mustard they provided me. I ate away and read the book I had on me as I waited for my flight. All in all not to bad a layover, it could have been worse.
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Arlov, Sweden

Ever since the weather turned to being rainy and cold. I have felt the need to eat many Swedish Delicacies. Especially desserts so we headed to Frasetti a large bakery in Arlov. I purchased 4 different types of pastry items and we got a spettkaka for the guests this evening. Spettkaka is a tradition for parties and events in Skane. It is made of egg and sugar much like a meringue and icing is dribbled on it. This period in Sweden is also the time for crayfish, so they even had some crayfish shaped bread, with little raisin eyes. So it kind of looked like a big lobster shaped bread.

Sweets!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1218898800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1218898800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1218898800/tpod.html Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:36:05 -0400 Sweden Trip Version 2.0

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Malmö, Skåne, Sweden

Every year the city of Malmo hosts a big festival that weaves around the different streets of the city center filled with food stands, musicians, and goods for sale. It is much like the Orange County Fair in California, where there are rides and random other things. The coolest thing I saw was a Filipino stand. And of course they sold only pansit and lumpia. Haha. Staffan only knows those types of Filipino food so when he saw the booth he definitely knew what it was. The one thing I learned is that Langos is a fair food. Langos if you don't know about this is a food from Hungary. Basically fried round flat bread, that is topped with cold topping, i.e. sour cream, shrimp, red onions, and shredded cheese. I was really tempted to get one for lunch, because there were so many stands they were everywhere, but in the end I stuck with a Greek Gyro. We walked around and took in the sites. And the funny goods they only sell during the festival. It was a nice sunny day and perfect for walking through the city.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1216555200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1216555200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1216555200/tpod.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:45:20 -0400 Sweden Trip Version 2.0

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Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark

(Twas' the night before and all the folks were a twitter with drinks and sparkling beverages that make you all jitter. Mats and Ina had to head back home to go to France, so they wanted to leave a day early to put nothing to chance. Except there was a problem with the way to go home, the car was locked up in a closed parking dome. Time was a wasted and sleeping aboard couldn't happen on YXI, so off they went for a 200 dollar ride in a taxi)

The morning comes:
So after the description of the night before with Mats and Ina trying to get into a locked garage, Staffan and I hoped to fare better it being in the morning and not in the middle of the night. We headed out of the boat while Kalle and Mårten were to take the boat home and we were to drive home. So we walked off to the parking garage and to our great surprise the door was still close. Shocked we stopped and decided to walk back to the boat. And luckily we caught Mårten and Kalle just pulling out the boat. Staffan screamed loud enough to get them back and they moored the boat to where we were standing. And we decided all together to go to the garage to reevaluate the situation. We pondered all together standing at the door and having two engineers with us there were many crazy plans. One involving me trying to go through the gate, unscrewing the gate panels, removing the door panel and shortcircuiting it, etc etc. We headed to another car garage by the same company to try to talk to someone that could help us. Walking down into one garage we found a pay garage where there was a button to push for help. After speaking to an incompetent employee telling him we were in a garage next door and how he said to call him from there, except there was not button and after exaplining that a gazillion times we left and told him to call us if he thought he could help us. We returned to the garage door kept listening for cars to come out and we heard an engine turn on. I got excited except no car came out. (lightbulb) There must be another exit. So Mårten and I left Staffan and Kalle at the door to hold fort and look for antoher entrance to the garage. We walked around and found another door and a possible button to push to open it from inside if we had a 2m long stick to push it. If only MacGyver was with us. Mårten and I returned to the scene and told our peeps about our discovery. Off we all went because nothing was happening with this door. We started opening doors to try to get down into the garage from other ways. We checked the stairs and were level with the garage below but it was locked no go. Then we headed back up into the complex we walked into and lo and behold there was a elevator with a card reader. Staffan pushed the down button suspiciously and we lucked out the door opened. We all went in and hoped the door would open once we got to the garage level. And it opened. It was crazy how they didn't lock the elevator and locked he door. We cheered!! We were in. Now if the car is in this garage. We walked wall to wall without any luck. I left the guys to go investigate the door that Mårten and I found. And they found the car and drove up to me. I pushed the button, and nothing. The door didn't open. Ugh. 2 doors no go. A third door? Then I walked down the garage ramp and saw an elderly couple walking the garage to possibly their apartment. I walked slowly as not to scare them with my hurried and urgent need to get out of this garage once and for all. They told me there was another door, but no button to open it...it worked as a sensor. We just needed to drive up to it very slowly and it would open. Hoorary! We were out. We dropped Mårten and Kalle back at the boat and we headed out of Denmark back to Sweden. After 3 hours of trying to get out the car this morning and Ina and Mats trying to solve the problem the night before we were so excited to be out of Denmark. Viva la Sweden!
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Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark

DAY 4:

Final day of competition started off quite nice with the sun shining and the sky a clear blue. But after reading the weather report for the day I realized that it was going to change. The report stated that conditions would worsen as the day went on and gusts up to 20knots would be blowing along with scattered showers. So I threw on my Pro Rainer sailing gear and readied myself aboard. Even though I have been going home every night during the competition I still felt tired. I was starting to ache and my bruises were starting to show in deep blue and black hues. For some reason I had the idea before coming to Sweden that sailing was relaxing, but competitive sailing is far from it. Fortunately I heal quickly and it's no pain no gain as far as I am concerned. Plus it is fun to compete and be a part of a team again. So I enjoy it whole heartedly. Even with all the bumps and bruises.

We left harbor an hour earlier than the past two days, because they wanted to make sure we had all three races run today. Since yesterday we only got 2 races in and they didn't want any starts after 3pm. So the first start was to be at 10am instead of 11am. That was fine with me the more racing the better. As we headed out we were right in front of the Americans and their slightly larger X41. We kept our sails down and were running on the motor out to the start area so we were going fairly slowly out. So when the American boat hoisted their spinnaker they blew right by. I got some pictures of them as they passed and they waved to me as they went along. The first start went off without a hitch and we were able to start right after the X41s. Because there were almost twice as many X41s as X35s it was more difficult to have a clean start for them. I hated waiting for them to start. My anticipation for the gun to go off made me nervous. I am not sure why, but it always felt better once we got going instead of just circling like sharks around the start line.

As I said before the weather was getting pretty crazy. Or at least the wind was. The first race went all right nothing great, nothing bad. The second race well that was a different story. After the second round of the buoy we had a broach. As in the boat was sideways. Kalle and Gugge were on the wrong side of the boat and were basically in the water just holding on to stay on the boat. Mats, Ina, and Mårten were in the back of the boat trying to right the boat. Staffan and Jesper were in mid deck awkwardly trying not to collapse on each other, while I was on the high side of the boat just holding on. I was very conflicted about trying to help Kalle and Gugge since I was closest to them, but me being half their size saw the folly in that. Much yelling was going on behind me, but I kept to my self and made sure that I was all right and out of the way of whatever they were planning to do to rectify the situation. Maybe after about a minute or two we were back up. Staffan yelled to release the guides and the spinnaker was released and was flying in the air just slapping the air and the ropes were jerking. They fastened the ropes to wench the spinnaker back into the boat. And after all the craziness it was calm again. Because we were already pretty out of the game we took it easy and used the jib as a spinnaker. To do so we needed to have the jib to hang the opposite as it usually does. So Gugge jumped in and basically acted like a human boom. He had to hold onto the metal stays and sit precariously on the railing and hold the rope. It was pretty cool to watch and I don't envy him, but I am glad he did it. Even with the broach we were 13th in that race and glad to finish without losing anyone even though we did lose the red guide for the spinnaker.

(FYI This is a broach http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMrpYyZNpWw&feature=related )

The last race went off without any problems. The rain started to come down and the clouds were hovering over head. We finished in the top 10. So that was nice. We packed it up and turned on the motor and turned around to go back to the harbor. The rain started to get heavy and Gugge and Staffan and Jesper headed below decks. I decided to test my Pro Rainer and its ability to shield me from the elements so I stayed above and situated myself on the side with my back to the water. It was nice just laying out there being nice and warm and the rain pelting me from all angles. I was comfortable and content and I almost fell asleep, but the loud rain kept me from doing so.

After shedding all the wet clothes and having a nice shower I was sporting my white YXI polo and my corduroys to look somewhat nicer for the Gala that evening. We sat close to the stage and shared the long table with an x37 crew from Finland. Before the festivities and food got started I headed over to talk with the Americans. They were all really nice and will be keeping the boat down by Shoreline. They plan on shipping it back to Long Beach and hope to compete in Transpac (Long Beach to Honolulu) next year. They were really nice and welcomed me to join them sailing when ever I get back to California. We got back to the tables and the MC took the stage. He was pretty funny and part of the Royal Danish Yacht Club. Dinner started our with chilled fish, caviar, and white wine. After that we had some meets, potatoes, and various other Danish dishes. Once we ate and had man drinks the awards started. We were not expecting to receive an award, but we did for the best Spinnaker Broach of the competition. The MC started out saying that he saw from the shore a spinnaker flying like crazy from an x35.And didn't know the boat, but once he said it was blue we knew it was us. We cheered and went up to the stage to get our prize of Volvo fridge bags. Funny stuff. We met a lot of sailors from all over Europe and the world, and had a good time.
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Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark

DAY 3:

After a night at home it felt so good to be able to wake up and refocus on the task at hand. Last year when we raced the Scandinavian championships, we opted to fore go going home from Denmark and have the whole crew, all 8 of us sleep on the boat. It was a daunting experience to say the least, due to the large amount of luggage as well as the C02 that built up throughout the night. It was stuffy and crowded. So this change of pace of going home after the first race was a welcome reprieve. It also made me feel more excited to go to the boat and back in race mode. Even though I was away from the boat for a night, sometimes when I closed my eyes, it felt like my body was back on the boat and I was rocking back and forth. It was crazy. Gugge and Tonning picked us up in the morning and we headed back to Tuborg Harbor arriving around 9 with enough time to get ready to shove off for another day of racing.

The day was gloomy and the clouds dark. There was no sign of blue skies and the wind was howling. The first race went off with no problems and the X41 start was clean, so we started off on a good foot. The rain came down in droves and didn't stop until we were done with the first race. We finished 11th of 15 boats and edged another Swedish boat at the finish line which was sweet. Lucky for us the rain stopped after the first race long enough so we could eat our lunch in between races. The second start came off with lots of problems. The X41s had three restarts before they had a clean one. Once they cleared we started. It was raining hard during this race and my feet were soaking in my shoes. We had a good race and were neck and neck with the boat from Spain when all of a sudden at the end right before the finish line they took down their spinnaker. And we breezed right past them. There must have been a misunderstanding on where the finish was on their boat, because they wouldn't have let us go by uncontested otherwise. Lucky for us sucky for them. Because the X41s took forever to start the second race there was not a third race for the day. So we headed back into harbor soaked to the bone.

We headed back home that evening and attempted to dry some of our gear. And slept soundly after a long day.
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Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark

DAY 2:

The second day for us would be the first day of competition. After a quiet night on the boat I was excited to get to the sailing. The weather was sunny and I grabbed my yogurt and granola breakfast and sat topside and ate away. We were five on the boat with Mats, Ina, Mårten, Staffan, and I so we were waiting for Kalle, Gugge, and Jesper to come aboard. The Tuborg Harbor was located about 45 min away from Lomma. You have to cross the Öresund Bridge and drive up through downtown Copenhagen to reach the area. It isn't too bad considering some teams came all the way from Australia, Hong Kong, and even America!! So we lucked out as far as the location of this race. The Gold Cup last year was held in Mallorca, Spain last year, so sailing about 2 hrs to Denmark is pretty sweet to get to it. I have no idea how long it would have taken us to get to Spain, but I am pretty happy I didn't have to do it. Once the guys got on board they had to go weigh in. We were hoping that we weighed in under the maximum so I was a little nervous when they went to weigh in. Luckily we weighed in 20 kg under. Woot woot.

Once we shoved off it was so great to see all the different boats leaving the harbor. You can just read the sails and see they came from so many different places. From Spain, Finland, Italy, France, Norway, and many others. It was pretty exciting to see all the other crews and watch as we were checking each other out as we would be tacking back and forth. I think sometimes the other crews thought we should have been in the family sailing the way we looked ..not as pro looking. But we still rock nonetheless.

The races started out all right we seemed to be just getting going slowly. We were 12th then 11th ....then during the third race we were 8th. So I thought it was great improve through the day. Each race was about an hour each and we headed out around 9:30 and came in around 5pm. Long day of sailing.

Staffan, Jesper, Gugge, and I headed home while the others stayed on the boat. We learned from last year that 8 people on the boat not so nice. So over the sound we went from Denmark to Sweden then to a warm shower and a nice bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1216215480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1216215480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vcruz/1/1216215480/tpod.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:29:30 -0400 Sweden Trip Version 2.0

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Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark

DAY 1: Lomma, Sweden to Tuborg, Denmark

Today is the first day of the Xyachts Gold Cup in Copenhagen Denmark. Even though it is not considered the first day of competition a reception and kickoff party was to be held in its honor, so we decided to bring the boat over for registration and also to enjoy the party. The day started out not to early and we left Lomma Harbor around 10am in the morning. Mats, Mårten, Staffan and I took the boat across the strait that separates Sweden and Denmark in about 3 hours. We first took the boat to Skovshoved Harbor, because that was where it was first listed where the X35 boats were to moor, but were informed later that it was in fact Tuborg Harbor that we were suppose to moor at, which was a great thing because otherwise we would have to take buses back and forth to go to the race office and fulfill the registration. This was my first time in this particular harbor and boy was it impressive. It was newly built and it was just shiny all over. New apartments, new docks, new clubhouse, it was pretty spectacular. And plus it is named after a beer company that had huge bottles of its product flanking the entrance to it. It was quite amusing. Ina met us once we had docked and settled our x35 among the other boats and we unloaded our things and situated the car. I was really excited to park our boat right by the American flag because I had read on the lists online that there was expected to be an American crew competing in the x41 race and I was curious to meet them and see where they were from. They had flags from all the countries that were competing all 20 of them. It was great to see all the different flags on the back of each boat and here all the different languages being spoken. Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Danish pretty much blend into one so that wasn't anything new, but I heard Spanish, Italian, and French being spoken as well as I weaved among the boats. Lucky for me English was the official language of the competition so I wasn't left out as far as the ceremonies and other festivities went. After settling in we headed over to the race tent and checked in our boat. We received a bag with goodies and our race number of 84. After that we dropped off those thing back on the boat and headed off to be weighed. There is a max weight of the crew on board and we were trying to be under that as much as possible. We approached the weighing area and it was amusing to watch the people trying to strip down to their underwear to get down in weight. To my surprise the people ahead of us in line were the American crew. They happened to hear me speaking English and they started talking to me. And I was dumbfounded when they told me they are from Long Beach, CALIFORNIA!! What a small world it is when the only American crew competing in this whole international competition come from your hometown over 10,000 miles away. What are the chances!? I had assumed they would come from the east coast or something, but know they came from the good ol LBC. I spoke with the wife of the skipper and she was laughing because as we were speaking the crew was told that they were 13kg over the limit so they would have to sweat it off and re weigh in the morning. Whodathunkit. Haha. Because we were not a full crew we were not sure about our exact weight, but I weighed in at a nice 48.1kg hopefully giving enough leeway for the guys that were coming tomorrow morning.

After the weighing drama we walked around the tent and looked at the various displays. We weren't sure about what to do about food tonight, so Mats suggested we just grab some of the sausages they had at the tent and we ate those most hungrily and waited for the reception an hour later. The reception was pretty sweet and they served us champagne mixed with bols blue curacao to toast the beginning of the competition. I think we all had at least 2 glasses each. Even though we had our very light sausage dinner it was compensated by the light refreshments, that we turned into not so light, by repeated visits to the tables for cheese, fruit, and vegetables. Full and a little tipsy from blue champagne. I slept soundly on the boat anxiously awaiting the race to come.
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Lomma, Skåne, Sweden

Staffan had traveled up to Stockholm for the weekend so it was just Mats, Ina, and I at home. When the weather is good they normally go out for a bike ride around Lomma before dinner. So I wouldn't be left out they asked me to join them...since otherwise I would be home alone. At first Mats volunteered his old bike...but because of our height difference I didn't feel that comfortable riding it. Then we found Staffan's old BMX bike in the garage that was fine except that it needed air in the tires. The valve for the tire was not the normal type and needed a special connector for the pump. Mats tried many types of pumps...and after all of that he ended up taking it to the gas station for air. Much like Goldilocks trying to find the right porridge I finally had a bike that fitted me and we were off.

Mats is quite amusing to follow because you need to give him some distance otherwise you may end up running right into him or into a pole or possibly a tree. If the first turn onto a path parallel to the rail way was any indication of our circuitous route I knew I was in for a crazy ride. I rode behind both Ina and Mats for most of the way, not because I was slow, but more so because I had no idea where we were going. Our first destination was the Lomma Church about 3 or 4 km away. Then we rode down next to a stream through some bumpy terrain and crossed this wooden bridge which I wasn't so sure about. Then we headed toward the beach and onto a path that ran parallel to it. That is when it got crazy. The path was about 12 in wide and the surrounding flora was over knee high the whole way. It was curvy and bumpy and probably could have been fun had I had ridden it a few times before, but this being my first time, each curve and jump sent me holding onto to the handlebars for dear life. Once we had crossed the tumbly bush track we made it to the Habo house and stopped to look at the water.

We took the easy way back....but my behind reminded me the next day what had transpired.
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