In Trips in Europe on September 11, 2008 by Michael Tagged: edinburgh, friends, scotland, travel, wedding
It s been quite quiet on this blog lately – I will try and see if I can catch up with the things I ve been up to.
Pete, Helena, Femi and Graham in front of Edinburgh Castle
Two weeks ago I went up to Scotland for my first time. Femi s brother Pete was getting married with Vicky and I was invited along. I flew up to Edinburgh were I stayed with Femi, Helena and Graham for a couple of days before the wedding. Pete took us around Edinburgh and the picture above shows the guys in front of Edinburgh Castle.
The wedding was held at a nice hotel in Dunfermeline not to far from where Pete and Vicky lives north of Edinburgh. Here is a couple of pictures:
Peter and Vicky as they thank the guests for coming
The couple and their families
Big hats and kilts
It was a really great day with a relaxed atmosphere and good spirit. I thought It was really impressive to see guys in kilts, ladies in big hats or hair ornaments and for the dance after the reception Femi and Pete s parents came in original dresses from Nigeria.
Mr. and Mrs. Oshagbemi and me
As the evening progressed the band arrived and kicked up some dirt and played indie rock music. The young ones danced a lot but I think Pete and Vicky were the ones to dance the most.
Pete and Vicky shaking it
All in all a fantastic day with great people, great food and great fun. I am really glad I got invited.
See the rest of my pictures from the wedding at flickr.
In Trips in Europe on June 10, 2008 by Michael Tagged: lisbon, lissabon, pictures, portugal, travel, trips, weekend
A week ago (before the Euro08) Femi, Mehmet and me took an extended weekend in Lisbon. We didnt really know much about the city before we arrived but we were very pleasantly surprised.
The atmosphere was really nice and everybody seemed like they took it very laid back. We followed suit and took it easy the days we were there. The picture at the top is from Praa do Comrcio (Commerce Square) where they had put up a maybe a hundred plastic trees decorated by school classes. On the picture Mehmet is taking a nap in the forest. Behind him you can see the Arch linking the Commerce Square and Augusta Street. After the nap Mehmet was up again.
All over the city they had these violet trees which we thought were lavender (but please correct us if you can). Here its in Alfama the area with winding roads leading up to the citys castle.
Many of the houses had tiles on the facades and it was impressive to see all the different colors and patterns they have come up with. A lot of the tiles even seemed quite old and hand made.
We stayed at a hostel in the part of the city called Bairro Alto which a quite, sleepy neighbourhood during the day and turn into a block party at night with hordes of people at night.
It was a quick trip but Lisbon is definitely worth the recommendation. After I got back I found this pretty cool pieces:
Lisbon has no idea how cool it is. The city lives in the shadow of Europes superstar capitals, unaware of its own modern charms.
- New York Times
A bunch more Lisbon pictures at Flickr
In Trips in Denmark,Trips in Europe on May 30, 2008 by Michael Tagged: capital, Copenhagen, finland, helsinki, norway, oslo, scandinavia, stockholm, sweden
The Scandinavian trip was great and – as expected – very expensive. Once you are used to Czech prices everything in Scandinavia is quite expensive – especially for alcohol.
Anyways we had a great time and got to cover a lot of ground in the 10 days the trip lasted. We started out with four people Andres (Ecuador), me, Femi (Northern Ireland) and Mehmet (Turkey) here in Copenhagen, King’s Garden in front of Rosenborg Castle.
The best thing about the trip was reconnecting with a lot of friends. In Copenhagen we stayed and partied with Moses, Daniel and the rest of the old IAESTE Copenhagen crew. Went to concert with Sophie who was in Prague last summer. I met my cousin Rikke for some drinks, my thesis buddy Mikkel made a great dinner and my best childhood friend Johannes gave me lunch. Michael, a friend from bording school saw on Facebook that I was coming to town and joined one of the parties and old university buddies Sohl and Corneliussen joined at Christiania.
It was great being back in Copenhagen on some of the early summer days and we did cover some of the touristy spots like Nyhavn.
We jumped on the boat to Oslo and sailed through the night and woke up in Norway. We needed some recouping sleep after Copenhagen and the cabin on the boat was just right for that.
We walked the city of Oslo for the day and met up with Mikkel from my university who showed us Vigelands Parken. After a day of strolling Oslo we took a bus at midnight towards Stockholm.
After a bumpy night on the bus we came to Stockholm very early and checked in to our hostel and went out to see the town. Two more friends from Prague, Murat (Turkey) and Jeremie (France) joined us and for the rest of the trip. Here is a female guard from the Royal Palace in Stockholm, do we have that in Denmark?
We found a cheap cabin on the boat to Helsinki so the whole grouped went further east for a cruise. It took one night in each direction and then we had a day to walk the city of Helsinki. He we are in front of the orthodox church.
Back in Stockholm we met up with Backsell, and Freddy two friends we met in Michigan. They showed us the nightlife of Stockholm and the fashionable Sturaplan in particular.
After 10 days of traveling and partying it was nice to get home.
There is 200 pictures from Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki on flickr.
