Message

 Netherlands

Brian Danos, 28 July 2008
 Netherlands Eindhoven

Holiday Time!

So it’s summer in Europe and that means holiday time!(and horrible weather here in Holland) Basically the entire office country takes 3 weeks off. As always, an interesting phenomenon but when you get to partake in that first hand it’s pretty damn cool. So instead of doing it like a typical European and taking 3 weeks off all at the same time I am doing it American style and taking 3 weeks off – just over 7 weeks. I have just returned from the first week of that journey so details of that are below as are the plans still to be completed in the near future.

It all began a few weeks ago when Juan, Brian, and I decided to book a weekend trip to Prague. So no holidays had to be used and we got to party in the former gem of Europe. (I say former because during summer in Prague the ratio of tourists to locals is 9 to 1) It’s still an amazing town with a party scene that’s hard to top and culture to boot. We left on a Friday night after work and got in later than planned but still managed to find a nice bar to help us get acquainted with the local scene. Saturday was all about the sight-seeing. Charles Bridge, the mini Eiffel Tower, the Jewish Ghetto, etc. Great town for just walking about and getting lost in the old town streets. Then it was time for dinner with some friends Juan and I had met when we were in Copenhagen….they took us to what had to be one of the best steak houses ever with the best view of Prague to match. After that we hit the local beer hall, the local absinthe bar and pretty much everything in between. For me, Sunday came and went as by the time I managed to get out of bed I had to rush to the airport to catch my flight.

The next weekend (last Saturday) Brian and I went to Cologne to catch our flight to Croatia. We really had no idea what to expect out of the recently war torn country but to say the least it exceeded both of our expectations. We flew in Split and walked off the plane into blazing sun and about 90 degree weather. Perfect. Over the next 6 days we went from beach to beach, rented scooters, rented a boat, hopped island to island and just generally hung out in paradise. The people are sooo chill, the sights are out of this world and the weather could not have been better. I hope you all get a chance to go and check out the pics – http://picasaweb.google.com/brian.danos/CrotiaJuly2008 There are some in there that I am pretty proud of. And to top it all off I managed to not get sunburned – and I even came away with a little tan.

Next on my hit list – Iceland. You might be thinking what the hell? Iceland? Trust me – it’s going to be awesome. It’s not a big hunk of ice like you might think – that’s actually Greenland. I know – how could they have screwed that up so badly? But I plan on taking full advantage of the situation. There are thermal baths, a coast to die for, good adventure sports (hiking, biking, diving, etc), an incredible club scene and did I mention Icelandic women? I am pretty sure I can have fun there for a week.

Now comes the question to the masses – I have one more week of holiday that I am looking to go some place cool with. I have pretty much narrowed it down to the following locations – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (and Belarus if visas work out) or Turkey or Portugal or Romania, Moldava, and Ukraine. So if anyone has some sort of preference or recommendation let me know so I can get this thing planned.

Last but not least – I am still working here but I am in the process of talking to lots of people about new jobs. The first thing Philips has asked me to do is move back to USA and move to Connecticut but I told them I do not want to do that – coming home is not something on my immediate radar. So now we are looking for jobs here in Europe and the rest of the world. As things get clearer I will keep you all posted as I am sure my current job situation is keeping you up at night.

As always for those inclined please give me a call at anytime at 404-795-0167 or if you feel technologically advanced enough skype me (briandanos).

Drop me a line and let me know how you all are doing when you get the chance.

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