Papaoutai?

Good morning camp! Time for Morning Swim followed by Arts and Crafts.  Nah I’m just kidding. Time for breakfast. I love food.  You could tell it was the last day of camp as all the food was essentially left over from the day before and there was less of it.  Oh well. Food is food.  After saying goodbye to all our new friends and having my parents sign us out from the camp counselor, we hopped in the car and headed to Hilversum. 

It was a fairly short drive(these countries are like the size of Massachusetts) with more awesome views.  I spent most of the time flipping through radio stations.  Did you know they had music in languages other than English? Well they do. In fact, a lot of the music isn’t. Where the heck is my Lady Gaga or Nickleback?!  I can’t believe I actually just said that.  Forget that ever happened. Under no circumstances will I look for Nickleback on the radio. Ever.  I actually found this Belgian artist who sings in French.  I have no idea what he is saying but it rules.  His name is Stromae.  I think he might be my new favorite. After passing the “Netherlands” sign(seriously. Are these people not happy? Actually, I’ve been to Amsterdam. They’re definitely happy), we broke up the trip by stopping at a Swedish staple for Lunch.  IKEA.  I’d never been to one before.  But let me start by saying. They are massive. Like beyond massive.  They also serve food. So you can outfit your house and stay nourished at the same time. Weird.  Martin yelled at me because I didn’t get Swedish meatballs.  What can I say. I wanted pasta. I probably should have gotten meatballs.  I then went exploring for batteries.  My camera died. Which is why I don’t have any pictures of this place.  I guess that means this portion of my trip isn’t real. No photos. No proof. Sucks to suck.  I actually got super lost.  Ikea has to be the most confusing store in the world.  Seriously.  Its like a maze and they make you look at everything trying to find the exit.  I tried acting out the scene from 500 Days of Summer in the store.  But when you’re by yourself it just looks really creepy.  Oh well.  Eventually I found the batteries on the bottom floor and after almost purchasing a new kitchen/bedroom combo set(I really felt at home in the room with a view of NYC on the wall), I made it to the register.  It only took about 8 hours to get there.  From Ikea we drove the rest of the way to the meet.

Hilversum is the European headquarters of Nike.  And the track we were running on is actually on the Nike campus.  RAD! It was real hard to find parking and we kept driving in circles round the Nike campus.  They have a building called Paula Radcliffe.  A whole building named after her! I kinda wish we could have went inside.  I still wonder what a building dedicated to her would have in it.  Probably a bunch of running stuff.  After parking we checked in at the track and I did my typical exploring.  The main thing to note about this meet was the mens 100. Jeff Demps and Marvin Bracey were running.  If you’re a Patriots fan, the name Jeff Demps might sound familiar to you.  He was actually drafted by them last year and then sat on the DL all year. So this year he was like “Yo New England, Ima still play football for you, but I wanna run track too.  And even if you say no, Ima still run track.”  I don’t actually know if they let him go or not after that, but either way he was there.  And Marvin Bracey will forever be known to me as the guy who was the heavy favorite to win indoor and then false started in the heats.  Either way. They were running. And so was I.  I was running the open 400, which turned out to be the last event.  I just sat and enjoyed the meet until then.  At this meet they had more wheelchair races.  On top of that they had paralympic athletes competing in the running and jumping events.  In fact, they were in the same heats as the able bodied athletes! It was absolutely awesome and really how it should be.  The long jumper was jumping farther than the able body jumpers! And she ran a 100 in the middle of her jumps!  In all honestly, it made me real pumped to see how inclusive the meets are over here.  The meet also had a couple youth races for the younger folk.  There were probably 20 5-10 year olds running the 600. They all were from the sponsoring club and had the same uniform on. It was really funny.  The mens 100 was pretty good.  Demps sucked. But Bracey ran a 10.18 and won.  As my favorite Boston Track Announcer would say, “That’s quick.” 

Speedsuit kind of day.

 

 

 

That’s my name in the program!

Finally it was time for my race.  I went to the opposite side of the track to warm up as this meet didn’t have a warm up area. Aha Europe. You aren’t perfect! No. I take that back. You’re still perfect.  During warm up I chatted with Marvin Bracey and his agent a bit.  Turns out he trains with Tyson Gay in Florida! Hell yea! That’s awesome!  Eventually he had to run and I had to finish warming up.  I was in the B heat again. Still keeps working for me!  I don’t have a video of this race, but it’s probably better that way.  The race was pretty bad.  I was super sore from the day before and right from the start my legs just didn’t want to move.  By 200 I just watched everyone blow by me as I struggled to keep up.  It was rough. Can’t win em all! This is the last weekend of back to back races.  I’m actually kind of happy about that.  Racing 2 days in a row is hard.  Side note.  This is the third different language I’ve heard the start commands in.  And this one by far is my favorite.  Its absolutely hilarious.  I’d type it out but I have no idea how to spell the words.  So if you see me sometime just ask and I’ll imitate it for you. Its great. End side note. At this point the meet was over so I did a little bit of a cool down physically and mentally.  Talk about an up and down weekend.  Whatever.  Belgium went well.  Hilversum was for fun.  Two more meets in Europe? Still a success in my book. 

The meet offered to pay me some money to help for gas. Rad!!!!! It took me a while, but I finally found where I could get that paper.  In the prize winning tent.  It was actually super awkward, because after handing me my envelope, they looked at the results assuming they would pay me for what I won in the race as well. I politely said that I didn’t have such a good race and they got the hint that I didn’t finish top 3. Awkward… Oh well. Still got paid! Boom! Martin and I quickly exited in hopes to leave our races far behind us(he didn’t run so well either).  From the meet we turned in the car and then we checked in to the hotel, where I got my usual Platinum upgrades.  Typical.  At this point we were super hungry so we decided to head back to Amsterdam for food.  After more struggles with train tickets(Seriously no Visa Cards?! Or Cash?! What is this shit?!), we made it to Amsterdam.  We just walked around a bunch more trying to figure out where to eat.  After like 3 hours we settled for Halal.  I’d never had it before, but it was delicious! Not sure what I ate but it was good! I also got another waffle.  It was just as good as the first one I had.  I wish I could eat one everyday(Also. Whenever I hear Belgium waffle I think of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY9iCKMMCL4 lol.). 

The next day we headed back to Sweden. Except our plane didn’t leave until 9 at night so we had the day to explore.  After having been to Amsterdam twice already we decided to hop on a train to the coast for a nice visit to Den Haag.  Den Haag was really interesting compared to all the other cities I’d been to on this trip.  It was super modern, with office buildings and sky scrappers and everything, but it still had its really old churches, streets and apartment buildings dispersed throughout.  It was really weird, but really awesome.  We spent a good portion of the day just walking around and exploring the city.  I did my best Dad on Vacation impression and took a bunch of awful pictures.  Here’s a few of them.

 

  

The outskirts of Den Haag are located on the North Sea. That can only mean one thing. Beach Season.  I’ve been prepping for this since last Beach Season.  Justin. Lets put your lifting programs to the true test.  My time to shine baby. And by shine I mean force everyone to wear sunglasses.  Let me tell you. The true measure of a man is in his watch and spike tan.  Mine is prime right now.  Not quite man status but pretty dang close.  Getting out to the beach meant taking a tram.  And that my friends, was an experience.  First off. And the most important bullet point.  Everyone and their brother’s uncle twice removed wanted to go to the beach today.  Second.  The trams themselves are pretty small.  They do come every 5-10 minutes, but they fill in about 30 seconds.  This means war.  After missing the first tram, I did everything short of hitting a baby to catch the second one.  Actually.  I just used my slim body to squeeze in between people.  But picture me fighting a war.  It sounds way cooler.  Finally I was able to just barely make it on.  I was the last one on and actually had the door close on me.  Whatever. To the beach we go! It was a really hot ride to the beach as everyone was super close together and it was hot out.  I probably got some sort of disease. Or pregnant.  Most likely a disease.  Though I’d rather not think of that.  Once we arrived at the beach we decided to get some lunch before catching some rays.  We chose this Italian restaurant with nice outdoor seating to people watch.  Semi bad choice.  The food ruled.  The server was awful.  I know I’m probably spoiled in America with service and that I sound stuck up saying that.  But this guy was just rude and not friendly.  Even Martin agreed.  Oh well.  Food is food. 

After our lunch we walked out onto the massive pier that went out into the water.  It was pretty run down and had graffiti everywhere.  But there was a tower connected to it with the most insane view of the beach and city as well as the sketchiest bungee jumping I’ve ever seen.  I’m down to bungee jump, but this thing was for sure a death trap.  I actually thought it was closed and no longer in use until later in the day I saw someone do it.  Godspeed to them.  From there we went to catch some rays out on the beach.  Well Martin did.  I forgot my SPF 85, so I left my shirt on and tried to take as much cover as possible under absolutely nothing.  I got burned.  I always get burned.  Also.  The whole topless/nude beach thing actually exists.  Its not made up in Eurotrip.  Well what happened in Eurotrip is probably made up.  But the nude beach existing part isn’t! And neither are these pictures.

 

I’m willing to bet money some high rollers hang out there.

 

Never been in a sea before. Now I have. Boom.

From the beach we began the long journey back to Sweden.  First the hour train ride back to the hotel.  Then grab our stuff.  Followed by another train to the airport.  Then through airport security(Side note. Airport security over here is super easy. You don’t even need to take your shoes off! DUDE! USA why u so strict?! End side note.) Little bit of a wait for the plane and then the 2 hour flight to Stockholm.  Ok so it wasn’t super long like my trip from the US, but I was tired and everything feels long at that point.  On the flight I sat in the emergency aisle. That only means 1 thing.  Well more than 1 thing but only 1 thing that matters.  Leg room. Lots of it.  I was pumped.  The flight attendant came up to me to give me instructions and when she asked if I was able to help in the case of an emergency I wanted to jump out of my seat and scream “Hell yeah I am! I’ll even run into a burning building to save your child, or fake being a doctor to save a dude having a heart attack if it means I get to sit with all this space!”  Instead I just sat and said yes.  They probably would have removed me from the plane and accused me of terrorism or something if I said any of that stuff.  No way I’m losing this opportunity. 

At 11 we arrived in Stockholm and headed to our hotel as our train didn’t leave until 6 AM. I’m still tired just writing about it.  Anyways.  I would call this weekend a total success.  Adventures were had.  Fast times were run. Not so fast times were forgotten. Friends were made.  Beach Season commenced.  And I’m still beyond amazed that I’m over here doing all this stuff.  Definitely rad.  So on that note.  In the words of Dwight K. Schrute “I am fast. To give you a reference point I am somewhere between a snake and a mongoose…and a panther.”