The city of Sarajevo, the city of the longest siege in modern history. This might be my favorite place I have traveled through despite the small set backs like bed bugs. I found a new hostel after one miserable night with the bugs and now I am in the nicest and cheapest hostel that I have found in Europe. Sarajevo is different than I thought it would be. The people are all friendly, the people speak English better here than they did in Italy, and the city is remarkably safe. Much safer than all the big western European cities. I came here with the impression that I would have to be guarding my stuff and guarding my life, but no. Despite the bleak building shelled and charred, the Muslim Bosniaks, the catholic Croats and the orthodox Serbs are all very welcoming of foreigners. The point I'm driving at is that everybody should take a tour of Croatia and Bosnia. Hope summers are going good!

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

So I am coming up on the last 2 weeks of my epic journey south through Europe. I’m in a city called Mostar in Bosnia that bore the brunt of the war. The buildings are still in rubble and the walls of peoples stores still have huge artillery craters and holes speckled throughout the black charred foundations. The city was laid siege to for 18 months nonstop and the citizens had to live in secret underground bunkers and basements in order to avoid blasts and snipers. So it’s still a scary looking place. Even the cats that live in the dumpsters kind of scare me. I came here because there is a UK prosthetic mission center that I will visit tomorrow.
Now onto a lighter subject. Croatia is my favorite country. In the couple days I was there, I kept living with the British guys and we camped just outside of Split. We all went whitewater rafting, rock-climbing, spelunking, swimming, kayaking and met some pretty girls from Switzerland. One of the most beautiful places i've ever been and definitely action packed. The British guys headed south in Croatia not wanting to leave the beautiful coastline, and I don’t blame them. I will be in Sarajevo still when they meet back up with me though. It’s really been fun, and now I have to catch up on some work. I’m going to miss the easy going beach lifestyle of Croatia, its even more laid back than the Galapagos. Bosnia is just too riddled with tragedy to really relax. The people are too poor and the infrastructure is still in shambles. I really hope Sarajevo is better off. Either way, I really hope that I learn a lot at the Bosnian prosthetic mission outpost, should be a little eye opening. Pictures on the way. Over and out


So today was the biggest break through in my studies since I was in the Ossur factory in Iceland. The political structure that has erupted out of the post communist Bosnia and Herzegovina is soo absolutely interesting. I went to a British NGO that helps out here to learn about the finances, third party payers and welfare, and I came out with a new idea for a new thesis. The bureaucracy is so corrupt here that the large amounts of children here have to pay the authorities to tap into the health fund and then the German company Otto Bock has bought the right to be the sole provider for prosthesis in this country. The people can’t even go to neighboring Croatia to get better and cheaper ser vice because they can’t leave the country without a visa. A prosthetic leg costs more here than it does in the states and the service they get is garbage. I came to Bosnia to study how the people had adapted to the staggering number of young amputees, but instead all I found was how corrupt the government is. The people in a country that can barely feed everybody actually charges more for healthcare, and it has to ultimately come from your pocket unless you can pay your way through the many branches of the government. I’m going to spend an extra few days in Bosnia to figure out how Otto Bock has bought the right to a monopoly in an advertised free market economy. Something just doesn’t make since, and this German company is making a fortune off of cheap components in a place with 6000 child landmine accidents. I’m Sherlock Holmes and I will be here till I figure it out. Till then Ill dodge the landmines and rabid cats.

on to the Balkans

The past two weeks have been smooth backpacking. It has been simple and relatively cheap train tickets heading south from Germany and into the hot Italian sun. Right now I am in route to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently in Split, Croatia, I am getting my first glimpses of the forward progressing people in a war torn region. I came into the Balkans to see how they cope with the recent massive amount of young veterans who are in need of prosthetic care to maintain a young active lifestyle. I have already seen the “warning landmines areas” signs. In Florence I met up with four British guys, and we had similar itineraries heading from Italy into Croatia. I’m actually camping with them and saving a ton of money by splitting a tent with one of them. Split is a cool ex roman city with beaches and cheap fresh seafood. I’m fairly certain that from here on out it will be nothing but 4 dollar meals and even cheaper drinks! Finally!
It is nice camping on a beach right outside of the main city center. By spending no money on accommodation, it’s allowing me to enjoy the city a little more. Although, I have to balance the pros by sleeping on a hard floor in only a light sleeping bag. Life is good, and I hope it is for all of you too.
Adios!

The Tuscan Sun

The Tuscan Sun
My time in rome was again spent with south americans. My brother from sao paulo brazil, Santos. My time in rome were great times and it seems that two of my favorite cities have been spent with people from the southern hemosphere. Anyways my point is that south amerians are the friendliest people in the world and make good tavel companions. My other friends from Rome were austrailians, and they are making a trip around the world and are doing a tour of the us where they said they would come and visit the carolinas. One of the best perks about this tour is the connections im making around the world. I have places to visit now in Dublin Ireland, Buenos Aieres, Sao Paulo, Perth Austrailia, Zemmer Germany and Munster Germany. Good contacts. I have since moved up north to Florence where I am actually staying in a camping park. I rented a tent and have the best view over the whole city from up in the mountains. Its cheap and near a bus stop so I can take a bus into the city any time I need to. The camping park has a market, bar and pool on location making it the most comfortable place ive stayed at yet despite the tent and sleeping bag discluding my comforts of Copenhagen, Gerolstein and Zemmer where I stayed with people. *Wich I appreciate very much* I realize that I deviated from my original schedule a little bit, but Ill be on track in two days when I head off for Croatia and Bosnia. I hope all is well,
PAZ Stampley

Carolina Panthers... ROME

So I met a woman wearing a pink panther’s hat and a grey panther’s t shirt in the Vatican City today. (By the way, I’m in Rome now.) So I said to her “Carolina Panthers!” and she about screamed “AMEN!” We got to talking and she was using her time in Rome to visit the St. Peter’s Basilica and pray for a good Panther’s season above the bones of St. Peter. This sounded like a good cause so I joined in with her and we prayed. We literally knelt down on the pew and prayed for a super bowl victory, no less. The Wendell’s Packers might have had a good draft this year, but we have St. Peter and the Pope on our team.
So I was feeling good about doing my duty as a Carolina fan in God’s House, and I was walking toward St. Angelo’s Castle and a pidgin pooped from a building corner and it partially landed on my shoulder… Most of it hit the ground in front of me, but I definitely got poop on my shirt. I am now thinking that it might not be a good season after all. The poop on the shirt was a complete disaster because it was my last clean one. I went into a Mc Donald’s and cleaned it off in the sink, looking like a bum while I was doing it, but at least it’s wearable now.
So I am Robert Langdon right now. I solved the Illuminati code. I don’t have an interview until tomorrow so I spent the day tracing his steps from Angels and Demons through all the Illuminati “churches”. It was fun and it was a good way to find my way around the city and see everything on that side of Rome. I also found the prosthetic shop where my interviews are tomorrow, so I was constructive. I have two interviews manana, and afterwards I plan on seeing some of the Ancient Empire part of the city. It seems from my travels that I spend almost as much time in churches or cathedrals as I do in the prosthetic shops, maybe I should have added religious architecture to my studies.
Mother told me yesterday that they went to a restaurant in DC that an Iron Chef founded. I’m beginning to think that I am an Iron Chef. I can cook mean pasta and a couple of hostel bunkmates added dishes and we had a feast tonight. A feast for fewer than 3 Euros. Beautiful.
I’m still sweating a lot, so between a lot of BO and bird doo doo on my shirt, I am now out of clean clothes. Maybe I’ll scratch my plans for tomorrow and do some laundry…
I hope all is well! ADIOS AMIGOS!

Denmark and Berlin

Maria and Micheal














Rudolph and I

Italiana

OHHH THE ITALIAN SUN!!! I'm not kidding. It seems like two days ago I was complaining about the cold and now I'm below the Alps and it is steamy. I arrived in Venice this morning, walked around and got sufficiently burnt. I will also have to wash my clothes more often down here because I was a sweaty mess from just sight seeing today. I spent most of the day searching for an Italian place that I can afford, but of course, I settled for a Turkish Kabob and a piece of pizza (an American food). I am going to cook some spaghetti tonight so that I can have something Italian.
I will be leaving Venice soon for a detour to Milan where I will study some better hospitals than those offered here in Venice. Anyways, all is good and I'm sweating doing some computer work because its still 150 degrees in this hostel. At least there is a kitchen. Papa told me that I would love Italy. I don't know how he liked Italy considering he is always saying how he's tired of sweating and going to move to Maine to run away from the heat.
I hope all is well with every body.

Adventures in Munich

I am sort of regretting putting Istanbul as my final destination. I have eaten at least 1 Turkish Kabob everyday for the last month. It’s usually all I can afford because the dollar is so stinky right now. Let’s see if Obamaman can help me out with that. I’m afraid that by the time I make it to turkey I’ll be all Turkeyed out. Doner Kabob spots should exist in the states, it would make a killing. I find myself counting calories (actually joules over here), but not counting them the way most people would. I’m counting to make sure that I’m not going to pass out from being famined on my long walks to interviews or sightseeing.
Most of my time spent in Germany I spoke Spanish. That’s right, Spanish not German. The coolest people that I have met in the hostel crowds in the past couple countries, I’ve been hanging out with three Argentinean girls for the past couple days. Their English is bad so its pretty comical watching them flounder along in Deutschland. It’s a language barrier that had one of them order a glass of wine instead of pork knuckle. We all have similar itineraries so Ill run into them again soon. Maybe Buenos Aires is the next world destination?? We all went through Englisher Garten and hung out with a flock of sheep and an extremely drunk local who was manning the sheep yesterday. He had the easiest job of sitting under the trees and barking orders at his dog to do all the work. When the herd moved away from him he would get up, curse a little bit for having to move, gather up all his beers and then find a closer tree. I think that Munich tries to trick all the tourists because they have put up an arch just like the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Oh and don’t travel to Munich for the Coo Coo Clock. It’s really unimpressive and there were hundreds of people with their video cameras waiting in sheer anticipation shushing people that might deter them from their Coo Coo Clock experience. Anyways, life has been good and Germans are also very fun and nice people.
Bavaria might be my favorite place that I have visited so far. It helps that I have some new friends and that I met up with old friends. Mike Wendell came down from Vienna to meet myself and couple people from his home town. We did all the Biergartens and it was nice to catch up and remember old times.
I have a night train to Venice tonight so we’ll see how that goes. Unfortunately I’m always asleep on the train rides so I miss all the country side and then become completely surprised when we arrive. I’m kind of disappointed that this next ride is going to be a night train because I’m passing through southern Germany, Austria and then hitting Italy. Probably a beautiful ride that’ll just look like the inside of those sleep covers for your eyes to me. I’ve also finished 2 books so far on the trip, Angels and Demons and A Confederacy of Dunces. Next I have Pillars of the Earth so we’ll see how far I can make it into that novel and a half before the train puts me to sleep.
Adios/Tschuss

Berlin

Beautiful Berlin. Berlin is definitely different than any other city I've been to here in Europe. It has such an interesting and controversial history. The city has only been unified for 20 years and many of the developed parts of city are really new due to the only recent reconstruction after the world war. The East side has a different look to it and can easily be placed under the broad architectural category as communist. The communist street light has a little man with a hat called the Ampelmann, and I thought it was hilarious that he has been turned into a capitalist icon. I took a city tour and we visited Brandenburg Gate, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Hitler's final bunker (which has no sort of marking at all, its just a dirt car park where people walk their dogs to poop on), the Reichstag, the Nazi Book Burning Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, SS Headquarters, the remains of the Berlin Wall, Luftwaffe HQ, and many more places. Very Cool. Today I met with Rudolph for Coffee and he told me of his Pharmaceutical company. Ill write more in a little bit.

Denmark

My stay in Denmark was absolutely amazing. I can only thank the Reindel family for their spare apartment and Maria and Micheal for their hospitality. Copenhagen was too easy to get my needed interviews which left me with plenty of time to enjoy being with my two coworkers from last year in the Galapagos. The International Center of Prosthetics is in Copenhagen and I was able to get all of my interviews for the city in one place! This means that I didn't spend half of my weekend rumbling around the city in a fumbled search for location after location. The bike service also meant that I didn't half to master the bus routes prior to each days search. On Thursday we went to Tvoli gardens which has a number of theme park rides that resembled riding around in a washing machine hundreds of feet in the air. There was a very cool airplane ride that was a WWII fighter and reached speeds of 75 kph. Very cool. Ive been experiencing a sore neck ever since, but it all seems well worth it. Its been a pretty action packed couple days because I didn't have a whole lot of work to accomplish and the two Danes got good discounts on all the cities activities for me to enjoy. On Friday Micheal and I went to a music festival for the later part of the day. The bands were all very good. There was a "give your opinion for a free beer" section of the bar to follow with the general election atmosphere that Copenhagen was going through. I gave my two sense. Danes are extremely liberal. They also seem to take a lot more pride in their democracy than we do in America. Everybody was in a fuss about voting and it seemed like the largest issue was whether or not a first born daughter of the royal family could inherit the kingdom over the firstborn son. Anyways, the festival was very cool. If you want to hear what a traditional electronic Nordic band sounds like follow this link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZqtV48QAmQ

Ill write more about the festival later on because it really was cool and spotlighted a ton of different genres. Yesterday I toured the Carlsberg brewery. The workers were allotted 4 litters of beer for lunch everyday. They have glassy eyes in all of the pictures.

Right now I just arrived in Berlin, and I am going to go out and see the city before everything closes down. Tschuss

Signs

A little out of order

ossur my research topic


London Eye over the horse training grounds











Alexander, Opa, Oma and Marion
Danish fort

Mobile Bathing Club morning breakfast

Trier

thats my backpack

DOM

According to a Time poll, Danes are the happiest country in the world. I can see that. They also love to bike. There are highways built for nothing but bikes and on these all traffic rules apply. There is also a free bike rental system for tourists/me. All I had to do was insert a coin into the bike and it unlocked itself from the rack and when I return it, it will spit the change back out to me. Having a bike to get to both fun and work places is actually making expensive Copenhagen a little cheaper. It also helps that I have a free place to stay and a stocked kitchen.
My friends here took me out to see a what they called truly danish movie. Might have been the worst movie Ive ever seen, but I usually don't like horror movies so I'm kind of biased. It was just a little absurdly over the top. Anyways, its all good times here in Denmark, research is smooth and I'm enjoying biking with bike traffic lights and more total bike road area than car road area. Again, I could see myself moving to Copenhagen if only it was warmer. This whole wearing jackets in the summer time is killing me. I should have brought more warm clothes. One rain jacket just isn't cutting it. It's actually hailing outside right now. It just never really gets to be summer in Scandinavia, but everybody is happy and still has a good time. Kind of amazing. I hope everything is going good in the States! Farvel!

Copenhagen

For those of you that don't know exactly what I am doing in the EU, it's essentially urban camping. Zemmer was a great break away from the sleeping bag on bunks eating from a tupperware with a fork and spoon combination called the "hobo-tool". Now this urban camping is also coupled with the occasional fancy dinner and I have managed to stretch my funds in order to do as much as physically possible in each destination. I work about 25 hours a week between online research, setting up appointments and visiting hospitals and factories interviewing patients and doctors to understand the process of getting the mechanical components involved in prosthetics from the factory and into the patients hands or on their feet/lackthereof. The funding and such seems to be the biggest topic of not only my own excursion but also the funding means and needs of the active patients in each area.
I arrived in Copenhagen last night and was greeted by some of my coworkers in the Galapagos at the main station. It was about an 12 hour train ride in which I didn't have a seat for the majority of the trip, but it was a good enough deal that I couldn't complain too much. Maria, one of my housemates of last summer has set me up with my own apartment in the bottom of her building with a foosball table and everything. The kitchen is nice, and I expect to use it often to escape the high restaurant prices.
This morning, to start the day, I went with Micheal Sorensen to participate in a extremely weird university tradition started by his close friends. They call themselves the "Mobile Bathing Club". They start each and every morning early with a swim at some random place in the Copenhagen area. Last week was the palace fountain, but luckily this morning it was taken at the main harbor which is a little more normal. It is summer, and the water was too cold to spend more than a couple seconds in (very silly tradition), I don't even want to think about how they manage when ice is over the water and snow is on the ground in January. They all start every day with one shot of vodka and a jump into the frigid water followed immediately by hot water and homemade cake. This all starts everyday at 7 for those that can make it, and has a certain tradition about it. Then they dress in the public bathrooms and go their separate ways to work or class. It was the strangest way to jump-start the day, but I was more awake at 7 in the morning than I have ever been. Micheal and I went around town and he showed me some tourist spots, and I figured out how to get to all the work related places that I have to visit. Tomorrow will be the first round of Copenhagen interviews.
Unfortunately I can not do the most touristy thing possible in Copenhagen, visit The Little Mermaid Statue. From what I've heard and read is that people from all over the world have traveled to see it, but unfortunately a member of the Hell's Angels blew a large part of it recently with a hand grenade. Too bad. In the heart of the city is a large hippie/Hell's Angels community that the police has simply given up controlling and has allowed them to try a communal living hippie heaven experiment on 45 hectares south of the main station. They are self governing and self sufficient, but have recently been making violent protests across the city so I expect the city to step in during election time. Maria has informed me of all the Copenhagen gossip. Its dinner time here, so I will let you digest a very exciting 12 hours that I have been in Denmark. Tschuss

Zemmer

I spent the last two days in the huge sprawling city of Zemmer. I was never told how small it actually is, and I found that the Reichertz's store is where the town revolves around. Everybody knows them since they are the only store in the town now that two old ladies stopped their butcher shop. It was very nice staying with the family that is the Piggily Wiggily for the Zemmer region. Constant BBQs and continental breakfasts. It seems all we did this weekend was eat and drink. AMAZING. The kids played soccer in the yard, and we just ate and ate and ate all types of german meats cooked outside. Last night I went out with Katja and Britta to a Horse Festival. The strangest thing, but very fun. There was a very talented band playing Southern Rock songs sometimes with German dub but for the most part they were just songs like Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. The people all knew the songs and we all sung along which was really surprising and comical. The bar was made out of hay bails and I should have brought a cowboy hat. Thank you Katja and Britta, it was very fun meeting all the people of Zemmer in a genuinely American atmosphere, and yet it was very German because "bitte ein Bit" was the phrase most spoken.
Today, I took a trip down memory lane so to speak or Waldstraste for those who had visited 15 years ago. I saw my old house, and visited with Oma and Opa who didn't know that I was in town. We surprised them and then the neighbors all came over. Just about everybody that I had heard stories about ended up in Oma's dining room. This was followed by more BBQ and a nap. I think I could definitely get used to the summer weekend life in Zemmer. Food, Drink and actually a 90 year old great grandmother visited us today. I'm actually very sad to be shipping off to Copenhagen in my next stage of studies. The weekend unfortunately is over.

Deutschland! I have arrived in the beautiful town of Gerolstein home of Gerolstein Wasser thanks to Britta. On the way there, I missed my train in Cologne, but it was a great excuse to visit the Dom. Held back for three hours I was simply blown away by the size of this Cathedral. The Dom might be the most impressive building I have ever seen, and the fact that it was started in 1268 makes it even more amazing. From there I trained across the hills and woods that lie between Cologne and Trier. Britta met me at the small cement pad that makes up the Gerolstein train station and from there she gave me a tour of the small town. The town is a hodgepodge of ethnicities; she told me that by 2011 there will be more immigrants (Russian, Thai, Turkish and Dutch) in the town than Germans.
From her house the view is absolutely amazing. Her house has a completely open view looking down into the valley surrounded by green mountains and topped with spinning windmills. The town is below and is mostly made up of white square houses with different color roofs, and even a small castle can be seen from the window where I sleep. Her eldest daughter just learned a couple words in English so I tried to talk to her, but she was too shy and went back to fooling around with the bubble wrap with her brother. The window view makes all of the internet work that I had to do today organizing meeting times with doctors and prosthetists a lot easier, and it didn't help that my browser temporarily switched to German. Anyways, we are off to see the city of Trier where Britta works and hopefully Ill be able to get some more work of my own done there also. Later on today we will surprise Oma and Opa because they do not know that I am here in Germany, should be fun. Ill keep you updated on the going ons of this weekend since I have the chance to catch up with old friends before heading off north to Copenhagen in my health-care rat race. Auf Wiedersehen!!

Netherlands

It feels good to be in a country that walks on the right side of the road. And by right I mean both the direction and as in correct. I can't even count how many times I almost stepped into traffic blindly looking the wrong way amazed by the tall red buses and even taller brick buildings. I went for a run over to St. James Park and around the palace two days back. While running, it was even more confusing to cross the road listening to my headphones and automatically looking over my left soldier while concentrating on the run. On my last day in London town, I decided to strictly be a tourist walking around the city with my huge backpack on visiting the likes of the National Gallery and the Science Museum. Yes, you read that right, I went to an art gallery, and it was actually very cool. Since Iceland, I haven't been able to find Wifi except at pubs where I feel extremely lame sitting there with a computer trying to get some work done. Especially yesterday due to the finals cup being played and everybody getting extremely rowdy in support of Manchester United. I couldn't even find a seat in a pub because they had been reserved for days in advance. Since Barcelona won that match two to nil it's probably a good thing that I got off the English Isles.
To get to the mainland Europe, I took a train to the town of Harwich and then boarded a ferry for an overnight trip across the English Chanel. From there I took a train through the Belgium countryside, through the windmills and sheep farms into the Amsterdam Central Station. ACS is one of the oldest stations in the world from the mid 1800s, and looks more like a castle than a station. Amsterdam is too focused toward tourists and a couple otherwise illegal activities, but despite, it is a very pretty and organized city. The canals form a perfect grid, and the overall city is a cleaner and better smelling place than London. From the short time I've been here, I am afraid that this city is simply crawling with hippies. Well, it is time to go see the city. I appreciate the emails from somebody, it is nice to hear from everybody!
Cheers!