Hong Kong, China and Farewell

"Take Leave
the conscious mind

Found myself

to be so inclined

Why sleep

in discontent?

Oh the price

of companionship

My shadow runs with me

underneath the Big Wide Sun

My shadow comes with me

as we leave it all

we leave it all Far Behind

Empty pockets will

Allow a greater

Sense of wealth

Why contain yourself

Like any other

Book on the shelf

My shadow lays with me

underneath the Big Wide Sun

My shadow stays with me

as we leave it all

we leave it all Far Behind

Subtle voices in the wind,

Hear the truth they're telling

A world begins where the road ends

Watch me leave it all behind

Far Behind" - Eddie Vedder

Hong Kong

I only heard good things about HK before I got there... and boy, they were ALL right; what a city! It is one of those places where I would definetly live if I was offered the opportunity.

It has everything that appeals to my senses; big steep hills full of green vegetation, islands, beaches, all kinds of multicultural people, cool bars and clubs, relatively cheap, nice temperature, good food... I could go on and on...

HK was an British colony until not long ago (about 10 years) and although they are part of China, they have remained somewhat independant. There is a border and customs office between HK and China for example, and they have their own currency. It has allowed HK to remain a metropolis and not get lost when it re-attached itself to China. Because of that, they still have a lot going on that the British legacy left them, like driving on the other side of the road, the 2-story buses, and the organization. Being a small piece of territory, and so strategic at the same time, it has a lot of people, so streets overlap each other with bypasses and roundabouts. Many sidewalks, specially around the busy parts of the city are built above ground, so the traffic at street level is kept to the minimum. It also means the city grows upwards, so you encounter countless skyscrapers all over the place.

On the other hand, it has its China part too, with street markets selling pretty much everything you can imagine, stores of all kinds, and massage parlors on every corner. Massages are part of their culture, so is ancient practices like Tai-Chi which I saw some practice on rooftops.

Every day at 8pm there is a lights show on the bay between Kowloon (mainland) and Hong Kong island. Some of the main skyscrapers have lasers, lights, projectors, signs, all dance to this elevator music. Cool, but for one-timer if you know what I mean.

Shenzhen

The part of China I saw was really nice. I mean, it was clearly less opulent than HK, people hardly spoke any english, I saw neighborhoods with unpaved roads, people carrying volumes of stuff I could not believe on bikes, and much more unorganization. I also saw nice buildings, modern malls, and the incredible hotel/resort we stayed in for the World Cup, where service was the most amazing thing I have experienced. It was so much it made me feel bad at times, it was almost as having slaves everywhere. Very uncomfortable.

We went to a local market a couple of times. There they knew a little english. The phrases they mastered where: "my friend", "copy watch?", "cheap for you", "come in my stor", and "give me best price"... this last one since you could bargain everything you bought, usually you would not pay more than a 1/3 of what the original price was. It was mentally exhausting the first time we went, the second time it was much better. They asked you for 900, you offered 200 and then simply left the store right away instead of starting talking through a calculator (where they typed their price and you countered typing yours)... they would ruyn after you, drag you back in the store and sell it for 200. Amazing.

Farewell

People, my trip has come to its conclusion. There are lots of things I would have loved to share with you.. because indeed there are lots of things I haven't had the chance to tell you about, because of time, because my memory fails, or because I didn't think it was relevant. I apologize for that. The fact is that I took the plane and flew all the way from China to Chile, and now I am sitting in my parents' house, once again... and very exhausted. But this time I am not going anywhere else, I am staying here. What will happen now, what will I do, who knows... another adventure begins in the motherland!

I have no way of knowing how many of you read and kept up with me. Just know that if you received the link is because I definetly want to keep in touch with you. I have been VERY lucky to know and have friends in various parts of the world. I am grateful to be your friend.

For all my people in the US, thanks! for many things, but mainly for being my family, friends, supporters, teachers, confidents, angels (you know who you are ;)).. basically my world for 7 years! I will never forget you!

For all my people in Chile, thanks! for waiting and still being "there" even though I wasn't. I am back for good, and we WILL catch up!

Thanks for reading... keep in touch!!

The End

Gibraltar and surroundings

After not having to play competitive golf anymore with Mark here in Spain, we had a decision to make. Either go back to London and stay with his uncle, or stay in Sotogrande (Southern Spain) in his uncle's summer house. Let's say it was an easy choice and weather had nothing to do with the choice.... RIGHT!! So we have been here for the whole week and will be until next Wednesday, when we fly out to London and then Thursday to Hong Kong for the final leg of my trip.
Andalucia, which is how this part of Spain is called, is very interesting as it has its own distinctive culture within the Spanish culture. In general, their accents are much deeper, the people are a lot more dark complexed, shorter, and darker hair. They are also very friendly and easy-going. I'll tell you about some of the places I've visited this past week.

... so, what is a chick like you doing in a place like this??? are you up for some monkey business??

Gibraltar

I am staying about 20 minutes away from Gibraltar. It is a peninsula with a huge limestone rock in it, and it pretty much controls the pass of all the ships from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and vice-versa. It is a tiny pice of land, which is not Spanish, to my surprise it is British! It was given by the spaniards to Britain almost 300 years ago after a war with France. So to get into Gibraltar you actually need a passport and go through a security check. Once you get in, you can feel some of the British aura going around, with the shops, the red phone booths, the cops and their ridicule hats, the bars with the fish and chips.. and of course the language (although most Gibraltarians speak the perfect definition of SpanGlish). They didn't switch the streets to "the other side", but you do find a lot of cars with the driving wheel on the "other side".

Since it is a little piece of land, the British built an airport and its runway in the entrance, on what seems artificial land... or landfill if you may. So there's water all around the runway, and you actually cross through the middle of it as you drive (or walk) in and out of Gibraltar, with some train-like barriers stopping traffic when airplanes take-off or land. Never seen that one before.

The Rock is huge and can be seen from far away as you drive the N-340 / E-15 / A-7 highway. It has a lot of dark green vegetation which looks great with the white background of the limestone. We took a cable car up the top, and to our surprise we found wild monkeys up there.... yes, wild MONKEYS running around everywhere and interacting with people and stuff.. Funny stuff.. I bet they hear the "look it's your brother" joke a thousand times every day.. Must get old.. Unfortunetly it was very windy that day, coming from the south, and it pushed the moisture from the Sea up the steep wall of The Rock creating a misty fog that didn't allow us to see much afar. This fog also turned into a very black cloud, and since The Rock was creating it, it looked (as we drove in) as like the top of the mountain was on fire and it was leaving this column of smoke behind. Really cool! So the fog didn't let me see Africa from up there, but I did see it other days as we drove around the highway. I heard sometime ago that you could see Africa if the day was really clear, which is a lie because you can see it very clearly and very close to you from several points in the highway. It was my luck of course that it was the foggiest when I had the best vantage point up The Rock. Oh well, stranger things have happened.

Tarifa

The southernmost point of Europe (or so they call it) is Tarifa. It is the point where actually the meeting between Atlantic and Mediterranean occurs. About 30 minutes west of Gibraltar, I thought I was going to find a busy port with lots going on. Instead, I found a surprisingly small town with barely anyone in it. You know.. one of those "what in the hell do these people do for a living?!" kind of towns. At the very point where both water masses collide there is a little island with a fort in it, and a little road that takes you there that divides both seas. Mediterrenean looked calm and easy with a couple big cargo ships going out, Atlantic looked choppy and rough with dozens of kite-surfers jumping up and down the waves. Very nice...

Marbella

I've always heard about Marbella. It is one of those "where the celebrities go on vacation" spots in Europe. No glamour or famous people when I visited (except from me of course) and the town looked old to me. Clearly the building boom in that place took place in the 80's or early 90's... I mean, the architecture was very similar in all the buildings, and most of them had clear signs of time next to the sea.. you know, moisture, mold, rust, unkept balconies, and others. That was in the main parts of the beach, of course there were some incredible mansions a little further away with their mediterranean white walls, clay brick roofs villas. I bet that place is uncomfortably packed in summer.

Sotogrande

The house we are staying at is in Sotogrande. It has been a very "strange" week for me in the sense that it is by far the longest I've stayed in a place during this trip. I haven't had to wake up early or do a lot of chores (except cooking for us, which I really don't care, rather enjoy). I've joined Mark in his practice as well as he prepares for the Golf World Cup in China, allowing me to hit balls for the first time in..... forever it seems. I had forgotten how sweet it feels to hit a pure shot.. just magnificent!

... thinking how a pure shot felt like back then...

...and finally... well, for now...

I don't know when I will have something to write about again. At least not before Thanksgiving, so in case I don't have the chance to pronounce myself before then, I want to take the opportunity to say hi to my American friends that happen to read this. Many of you welcomed me in your house for your special family holiday and all of you made me feel like I was part of your families, and I will never forget that. Some of you might actually be happy that I am not there to eat all of your food, I know I have a voracious appettite sometimes, but man! the cooking was sooooo GOOOOOD!!! So Happy Thanksgiving and thank you again for the awesome memories!

Chile... I am almost there, I just need to go check out the other side of the world for a little bit.

keep in touch people!

M

Things and Stuff

"Comes the morning

When I can feel

That there's nothing left to be concealed

Moving on a scene surreal

No, my heart will never

Will never be far from here

Sure as I am breathing

Sure as I'm sad

I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh

I leave here believing more than I had

And there's a reason I'll be

A reason I'll be back"

- Eddie Vedder

I know I haven't written lately... and maybe some of you "missed" me in this time of hiding-ness. If that is the case I apologize. The truth is, not many "exciting" things happened outside the golf course in my last 2 weeks with Felipe, so I did not have the urge to write and tell all of you about anything in particular... but I did acumulate things and stuff that I believe are exciting, so I might as well share it with YOU, my only audience.

The rain was present the 2 weeks after Portugal, in Castellon and San Roque. Those were my final tournaments with Felipe and it was a little tougher on the legs with all the mud, but they were good weeks overall. Valderrama is truly a beast of a golf course; very beautiful and extremely difficult. With olive trees and cork trees everywhere, gentle slopes and views over the Andalucia mediterrenean sea makes this place special. I am glad and very lucky to have been able to see this course.

We stayed in a house inside the Valderrama community. A beach house belonging to Mark's uncle. Gorgeous house... and I had a room all by myself!

I miss having my space.

After Valderrama, I changed bosses. My agreement with Felipe ended, so I stayed with Mark... and Mane of course! He had to play a qualifier stage for the European Tour between Gibraltar and Cadiz, right where the Atlantic and Mediterranean fuse with each other... and I went to carry his bag and help him in whatever I could. Unfortunetly he didn't play good and we didn't make it to the next stage... guess it is the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Yesterday after the round I had time to go and take a walk on the beach outside where we were staying. Somehow I keep forgetting how nice those walks are. The last time I had a nice beach walk on my own was in Florida a little over a year ago. It was not a long one, but I discovered some crazy ants, and how they danced, and got carried away... but that's another story. Yesterday I had a LONG walk in Canos de Meca, and I discovered other cool things. Like these rocks that resembled volcanic stones, with porous surfaces. The waves would drag them on the beach and they would fizzle after the ocean left them behind. It was like they were complaining... or maybe happy?! Anyways, I would pick them up and put them against my ear and I could hear the fizzle... very weirdly interesting.

Not long ago I wondered about the possibility of actually throwing to the sea a message in a bottle and get an answer... and yesterday as I walked I found a bottle that had actually something in it. It was not a message and I don't know if it was thrown in a far-a-way land of mitical proportions... or just a moment ago by the drunk next door. I like to think more about the first idea, even though it is the least likely. There was a feather inside the bottle. I thought it was AWESOME!

The week of Portugal I stopped shaving, and for the first time in my life I grew a beard! an ACTUAL beard!!!! it took me 3 weeks of careful and meticulous cultivation, but I did it! Feels weird.. well, now I trimmed it down to a mexican-style mustache which feels even weird-er-er. I am proud of it though!

As I read back into this post I realize I probably am not making much sense and not talking about the usual stuff I have been before... but in a strange way all these little things that "happen" to me are part of the trip I am STILL having and that are making me feel really good about myself and about tackling the next hurdle when I get back to Chile.

So if YOU think I am going crazy, maybe you are right. But as I always have said, I truly believe you have to be a little crazy to survive and ENJOY life...

If any.. just consider this post and the email as a salutation. Just me saying hi, I am good, I am in Spain and I miss my Conway bed!!

keep in touch people, I miss all of you too!

Mo

Portugal?

The environment turned weird so to speak. After a nice ride in a super fast train from Madrid to Sevilla and a bus ride, I got to Vilamoura, in the region of Faro, south of Portugal. It is a really nice beach and the choice for vacation homes for a lot of Europeans that live further north, British specially. I got the first real sensation I was in a Mediterranean beach town; white houses with brick roofs, soft hills, and pretty dry landscape, with the occasional orange tree plantation, but for the most part the terrain was some sort of light-ish maroon… clay if you like. It was also pretty hot for what I’ve been experiencing on tour. The only “but” would be that is off season, so it was pretty deserted and that made it weird as I said. The restaurants were open, the bars were functioning, the marina was full of very nice (and expensive for sure) boats, it was hot and the weather was nice… but there were few people around.

The course was nice and Felipe played very well the first two days of competition, unfortunetly he couldn’t continue the great play over the weekend. Overall it was a good tournament for him though.

I’d love to say I have stories to tell you all… great anecdotes that happened, awesome and exotic foods I tried, funky happenings in and off the golf course… but I don’t. The truth is that the week went by very slowly, and nothing really happened besides the usual golf routine. Together of course with eating at the apartment me and a couple of caddie-friends stayed at. It all added up to this weirdness I am talking about. Or maybe the fact that my trip is somehow slowly reaching its end is making me chill out and take it easy, not paying much attention to my surroundings. Like a mini-break before embarking in another great and (certainly) uncertain adventure as I re-join life in Chile. I must admit it has been the main topic of my daydreamings lately… about what I will encounter and what I actually will do once I get back, mainly because I have no idea! It makes me scared sometimes, and others happy, as the real limit of the amount of options I have has only to do with my imagination… and my guts to go out and do whatever I decide to do. Yes, scary, but also exciting… I mean… I am very lucky to have this freedom to choose. Guess I am worried about making the “right” choice, which is basically a stupid thing to be thinking about; because there is no “right” choice, right?

…and with that “right” rambling my friends I will leave you this time…. Hahaha!!!

You all be good and take care!

M

killing time so to speak

"Man comes home, finds his wife with his friend in bed .He shoots his friend and kills him.Wife says 'If you behave like this, you will lose ALL your friends"

- just a joke :)

Last Sunday was a crazy day. We finished the Alfred Dunhill Championships playing the last round at St. Andrews... one last walk through the Mecca. Then I ran to et my stuff and jump in the bus to Edimburgh airport. Plane was obviously late, so we landed in Madrid around midnight. I usually stay with these 2 guys from Argentina, but this time they didn't travel with me, so I got stuck with other "friends"... all caddies as well. Supposedly I was staying in a hostal with these 6 "friends", after one of them used all the credit I had left on my cell phone to confirm there was some room for me. But as soon as we got out of the airport, 3 of them jumped in a taxi and the other 3 in another cab... and they screamed an address to me.

Fine, I'll take the taxi on my own... problem was that the address they gave me didn't exist. Then my phone didn't work, could not recharge any credit to it. Found myself an hotel, and next morning I find out through the Internet that my card has been cloned and there are some charges made to it in New York, which blocked it thus not allowing me to credit my phone with minutes. Luckily I had some cash with me and could pay the cab and hotel... and the backpackers hostal I ended up in. I saw the caddies yesterday at the tournament this week, no one asked me anything, they just said hi like nothing happened.

Fishy...

Felipe is not playing this week in Madrid, so I went and tried to see if I could find someone without a caddie for the week, and I didn't. So as I was pondering what to do until Sunday which is the day when Felipe returns.. I get a call, and it is a friend of my brother Cristian who lives here in Madrid. We got together and he offered me to stay at his place, so I am sorted. Plus, it happened to be that my mom was here on a vacation trip with her godmother.. so I had dinner with her that she kindly invited... well, maybe my dad did.

So I'm free in Madrid!!! Ole!!

Posted new pictures on facebook, album europe 3! Check them out!!

St. Andrews

"The way she moves really talks to me... I'm going out of my mind`Cause the way that she winds...is truly divine. She takes her time as she approaches me... Then she gives me the sign as she moves her behind... That only God would design" - Lenny Kravitz

The Old Course - St. Andrews

I reached the golfers’ Mecca this past week.

The Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland is considered to be the home of golf. It is the oldest golf course in the world, and in a sport that is full of traditions and history, this is THE place where all that tradition and history begins.
I absolutely loved the course. Let’s see if I can put this into words.

I was actually excited the night before my first encounter with the course, just thinking about being able to walk around the place. It was hard for me to go to sleep, and very easy to wake up, which I did even earlier than what I had set my alarm. Without even noticing, I prepared myself just like I was going out on a date; clean shave, thoroughly bathed, combed hair, lots of cologne, my best clothes… nice breakfast (soft boiled eggs) and double-teeth brush. If I would have had the time I would have clipped my nails too, but I got caught preparing Felipe’s bag and didn’t have the time. I know… I am a dork.

Imagine for a moment you are in the middle of the ocean. There are no rocks, no reefs, no beaches that interfere with the endless sway of the waves. There is no roughness, or waves breaking into solid walls of earth or sand. They dance around meeting softly against each other, going in very different and various directions. Some waves are big, some small… others come together with sister waves and others all by themselves. All dancing to different songs, like the earth rotation, the currents, the tides or even the moon. Picture a soft but persistent breeze that ruffles this spot in some lost ocean, giving it just that little extra unsettle-ness and variation to the scene, but not enough to break any of the playful wave dance. Now, somehow someway, nature takes a picture in 3 dimensions, puts a cast over this picture and creates a unique mold, of all these waves, of all the dance, of all that is happening in this un-timed milisecond in history. Nature then turns the mold upside down and fills it up with sand, earth, and grass…

That is the place where St. Andrews lays.

Of course the process where this land developed took hundreds or even thousands of years, but the picture that my mind caught of the land as I walked it for the first time was that; nature, or God if you will, carved those golf holes in this specific place. Men just cut the grass in certain areas, dig a hole in the ground and set a tee box where to start playing. There is no artificial movement of earth, no interference whatsoever by men (well, maybe a lawnmower and a hole digger) just what was left there by time and the everchanging world where we live in.

So the holes go up, down, and sideways. The fairways ondulate, sometimes softly, others hard. So do the greens, which are calm at times and wavy and unsettled at others. The waves of pasture were high enough sometimes that would not allow you to see much further, other times it was as calm as a soft day in a lake and you could see way ahead. I felt as I swam through this picture I talked about, through this sea of land as I marched down through it with Felipe‘s bag on my shoulder… and it made me want to play it SO BAD!!!!!!! So many nicks and knacks and cracks and valleys and peaks and breaks … a golf course with so much life in it! It is crazy!

I’ve been lucky enough to see other links golf courses, but this is by far my favorite. I wonder if there are others that are like this one.. I would love to meet her.

Maybe the next time I am in St. Andrews I will be lucky enough to play it… and dreaming even further, maybe play it a bunch of times!

I wonder if the stars reflect on the Old Course on a clear night… just as they do on seas of dark nights. Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to check that out as well the next time. I wonder as well if I am the only one seeing this… after all, I am the golf dork.

Italia

After the last post in this blog, I got a kind suggestion from a good friend of mine. He said “Mo, all you talk about is bars and food, you should go to a museum or a church, I promess it will not hurt you.” In my defense I have to say that being on the road as a caddie is very different than being a tourist. Believe it or not, I have to “work” for most part of the day, and many times the golf courses are not near the big cities we fly in to, so there is little or no time for me to go out and do what many consider the “real” cultural trip, meaning visiting the museums and churches. I often see the other cultural ingredients of the places I visit: bars are open at night, food is always a must.

This time though, my friends, it was different. I went to Italy completely as a tourist, so Bunny, I know you will be glad to know I did visit the churches and museums (some of them not all of course, you need to visit 16 churches a day for a full calendar year to see all the churches in Rome only) and not many bars. I couldn’t get off the food part though. So, anyways, here it is by cities!

ROMA

I did not know what to expect from Rome, maybe some ruins, but maybe the same as most big cities I have been around Europe. After all most of them do have many things in common, at least for me. Not Rome, I loved Rome! History is literally built everywhere in the city. The very first landmark I went to see was the Coliseum. A magnificent stadium built entirely of rock that dates for about 2000 years ago. It is massive, it is impressive, it is hard for me to really fathom myself there back in the day and see that place working. Too bad it is too crumbled up to be still of use. Next to it is the Arco di Constantino, pretty big arch resembling the Arc of Triumph. Then you walk down the Via del Fori Imperiali to reach the monument to Vittorio Emanuele. Huge white-marbled building with a bronze statue of Vittorio in front and a grotesque Italian flag waving in the wind. Pretty but importantly powerful. Right across the street form there the Via del Corso begins, which is the main street in downtown Rome that carries all the big fashion name stores. I walked by very quick as you all may imagine. I can tell you thought that the color of next season is plum purple. Next is the Fontana di Trevi. I am running low of new words to describe the magnificence of the different monuments I saw… the Fontana is a fountain, huge, big, beautiful, with different marble statues all over it. Really beautiful. There the tradition is to throw a coin behind your shoulder into the fountain.. Which I did, one item on the list scratched. Then I went walked through the Templo Adriano, where all that was left from “back in the day” is this front of the building resembling greek columns. A little down the street is the Parthenon, a circular burial church with a big dome. The dome though was open at the very top and never closes. If it rains there are holes in the floor that drain the water. Further west is the Piazza Navona, which is long and slim, like a horse track of some sort. There artists and painters and musicians stand on the street offering their services. Around the Piazza there is plenty of my beloved cobblestone streets and alleyways, all full of little restaurants. Many of them don’t look good at all, but from all Italy, the best food I had was around Piazza Navona, by far. Good pizza and the best Spaghetti a la Vongole I had in the whole trip (spaghetti with mini clams.. Absolutely delicious and my mother‘s favorite. I loved calling her while I was having my second plate of them, what she called me I can‘t repeat for all of you). Also visited the Piazza Spagna, where there is a very long and wide set of steps. There the tradition is for people to sit on the steps and sunbathe. Checked that one off the list. Next was the Sant’ Angelo bridge and castle, next to the Tevere River… more marble statues. And on the other side of the river the Vatican and the St Pietro Basilica. The center of Catholicism. The Basilica, or main church, is very big, and beautiful. Inside you find the Pieta, a marble statue of Mary and Jesus made by Michelangelo. Several domes all painted beautifully, more marble statues, gold statues, paintings… so many things I am leaving out. It is very impressive. Also visited the tombs of the Popes and it seemed everyone visiting there was interested in John Paul’s II and none else. I thought it was too expensive for me to go into the Sistine Chapel, so I didn’t. Sorry Bunny.

FIRENZE

Next stop was Florence. After finding the hostel I was staying, being literally 100 meters away from my nose and walking an hour in the wrong direction… and back… I was ready to know this city that was much smaller than I expected. After walking Rome for what seemed ages to get to the different places, walking through Florence was easy. The Mercato Centrale (Central Market) had all kinds of cheeses (fresh Mozzarella and Parmigiano Regianno mainly… YUMMY!!) cold cuts, fresh meats… made me miss home a little. Outside the market and through the streets towards the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Dome (there is a dome everywhere in this country) there are artisans selling their products on the streets. Leather goods are big, so are some hand-painted wooden tray tables… typical of Florence. Reached the Dome and PAID to get in it and climb the 463 steps to the top. Italians are smart. There is no lift and still they make you pay for going up. The view was gorgeous, but I was still gasping for air the whole time up there. Inside the dome there was a painting representing Dante’s Inferno, you know, the seven “levels” of Hell and Heaven. Really cool stuff. Then there was the Piazza della Signora where a replica of the “David” of Michelangelo stood and a bronze statue of Perseus, holding Medusa’s head among others. Next to the Piazza there is the Uffizi museum, which I went in thinking the David I just talked about was in… and of course I missed it. It wasn’t there. It was in another museum in the city, pretty much devoted to it. I went later and I must say that THAT marble statue IS truly amazing. It is enormous, and the detail spectacular… you can even see the veins popping out David’s arms and hands! Crossed the Vecchio bridge and had a “gelatto” (ice cream) from Florence, the thing you have to do there. Cross another one from the list.

PISA

Pisa is small. If the Pisa tower wasn’t on the other side of the town across from the train station, you would not get to know anything else but the dome (of course) and the tower. Nice town it seemed, but not much going on. The tower is REALLY leaning, even after they have straightened it out a little and secured it. I took the idiot’s picture holding the tower… scratch that off the list.

VENEZIA

This city is like no other. One part of it is main land, the other is the part of the canals. It seems there was a small sort of archipelago out in the sea from the original Venice, you know, a small group of islands, and once they started building houses and buildings there, they just went all in, and built all the way to the edge of the land (or water if you may), having to let just enough room for the water to still be there, in between the islands, thus forming the canals. You can cross the bridge by train or car, but there is only an area of maybe 5 blocks were cars and buses and motorcycles may transit. All the rest is by foot, and very few bicycles, the streets are way to small for anything else. So for example, in the mornings you see men pulling wooden carts with the supplies for the restaurants, or the FedEx guy with a dolly carrying the packages. There is a main canal that crawls through the middle of Venice, so there are bus-boats you can take that take you through the main canal stops and other stops around the main archipelago, and other islands a little farther away. And of course the famous gondolas, that are best suited to travel through the smaller canals. Maps are of little use, it is almost impossible not to get lost walking through the alleyways. It is not a bad thing though, you find hidden restaurants and shops and piazzas everywhere. In one area there’s the main piazza (San Marco) with a beautiful church and dome, and of course a tower. From the top of the tower the view is magnificent, gorgeous, and you can really NOT see any streets down below, it is all just a mass of disorganized roofs with barely space in between them. One of the days I took the bus-boat and went to a nearby island called Murano. The cool thing about the island is that there are artisans that they make glass adornments of all kinds; from ashtrays to chandeliers worth several thousands (of any currency you might imagine). In one of my crazy moments I bought an adornment for my non-existent house/apartment. I just had to. Then I took the bus-boat again to a further island called Burano, and there they made hand-sewn crochets of all kinds, and although the houses were similar than those in Venice and Murano (architecture, and the canals, and the bridges) these houses were different in that they were all painted in bright colors; pink and blue and yellow, green and red. A very special place indeed. Like I said before, there is no other place I’ve been that is like Venice.

VERONA

Verona had more of the same. Old city with Roman walls surrounding the old downtown, with a nice castle (Castelvecchio) and bridge guarding the old entry of the city and over the Adige river, and of course a church with a dome. Here there is another Roman arena, just like the Coliseum, but maybe half its size. The cool thing about this arena is that is in really good shape, and they still use it today for major concerts and events. It is also the city where the story of Romeo and Juliet happened for real. You can actually go and visit Giuletta’s house and her balcony. To get to the patio underneath her house you walk through a little passageway which is full of post-it notes and inscriptions on the wall. They are messages of love to Giuletta or the visitor’s significant others, with public phones as well to call your loved ones all over the world. Once in the patio, underneath the balcony, there is a statue of her and the tradition is that you go and get a picture grabbing one of her breasts… scratch that one off the list as well. Across the river there is a big hill where a Roman theater is still half up, and it is also still used to present plays.

SIENA

Finally it was Siena, a city lost in the hills of central Italy. The smallest of all the cities I visited except from Pisa probably, the city was the same as the others with two main differences; no river crossing the center of the city and it was not built on a plain. This town is on a hill so the streets and alleys are much steeper. Also, the main Piazza is on an incline, so the thing to do there is to lay down on the stone and have a drink or sunbathe. Another scratch to my list. Every August there is some sort of horse race, which I couldn’t find out what was the reason for it, around the Piazza. I saw some impressive pictures of the people and the race around this tilted stage. Missed it by a month though.

And now I have made it back to Scotland and rejoined Felipe for the week. We are playing the Dunhill Championship, which is a pro-am (every professional golfer plays with an amateur partner for a prize on the side of the individual professional tournament) and it is played in three different courses; Kingsbrands, Carnoustie, and St Andrews. Kingsbrands might not be famous, but the other two are, and very much so. St Andrews is regarded as the oldest golf course in the world, and the home of golf… where it all begun. For a golf nut as I consider myself to be, this is my “Mecca“, and I can’t wait to set foot on the course. Might not be able to play it this time, but being here makes me very happy and in a way fulfilled to say the least. I know, I am weird and probably way too much into this golf thing, but I can’t help it. It is irrational and makes no sense, I just love the game.

I will let you know about it soon. Wish us luck! Again, you can follow Felipe on the web by online scoring at

http://www.europeantour.com/ or live broadcasting on http://www.channelsurfing.net/ or the Golf Channel.

Koln

Arriving into Koln (Cologne) was an experience as I told all of you in the last post. That train ride through the Alps was absolutely amazing; huge proud snowed peaks, wooden-house villages lost in some valleys with dark green pastures rolling through the wind, lakes that showed a furious turquoise color… it was way better than the “movies”.

My parents told I needed to go to the “dome” in Koln and have a coffee sitting down outside the building in a little plaza, since both of them had done it separately at some point of their lives. I thought it was a cool idea, so my first question was how do I find the “dome”. “You will see it”, both my parents said, “You can see it from everywhere”.

So, stupid Mo gets off the train looking for a “dome” of some sort. Walk outside the train station and this impressive church is right there, really tall and all… but my eyes are looking for a “dome”. Of course I am asking around and a couple of people laugh at me. The “dome” was not a dome, first it is called Dom (without and E) and it is this MASSIVE church standing in front of me.

The more I looked at the Dom, the more impressive it seemed to get. This building is huge, and you CAN actually see it from kilometers away, but what’s amazing is the architecture of it. I don’t think it has a “plain” side. It might be about 30 stories high and every inch of that structure has details carved in the stone, or figures, or Christian symbols. Luckily, it is so big that in World War II it was pretty much the only building that was not destroyed in the whole city.. Since it was the landmark that the planes used to find Koln to bomb it.
The tournament was different this week. The motto was “Winners Only”, so they change the entry requirements for the players from the “normal” requirements of a week-to-week tournament, making it hard to get in. There is not a full field, so there is no cut at the half point, which means everyone makes money at the end of the week. It was great to be a part of this tournament, there were some big names of the golfing world out there! I did not like the course that much, but hey… I am just an employee there.

Being in Germany, I was determined to eat some kind of Bratwurst (sausage), so I went in expeditions around the city to find it. Javier (Argentinian caddie who I have been staying with) joined me one night, and we ended up in this German pub, where I ordered my Schweinbratwurst mit Kartoffel.. Sausage and potatoes. You know the symbol surfers do? Where they extend the thumb and pinky finger? Well, my schweinbratwurst was 2 and a half of my “hang loose” symbols long. It was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!!!
Another night I had Felipe invite me dinner, in honor of my newly-acquired 30 years of age. We went to an Argentinian grill and I had an awesome piece of steak… and one beer. The “problem” was that the beer came in a jug so big I needed my two hands to pull it up. One beer was enough if you can believe that.
We finished the tournament Sunday, Felipe played irregular, maybe we can cut on some mistakes in the near future and breakthrough with a win or something. I do believe he is close, but we will let time let us know about it. Felipe left the same Sunday night for Chile, so I was left alone. Moved to a hostel about a block from the Dom and Monday I decided to do the tourist thing and go out walking. The hostel had some maps with walking routes, I chose the purple one of course and off I went. At the beginning of my stay here I did not like Koln that much. Other than the obvious Dom, there is nothing else at plain sight, no big buildings, no green parks, maybe the Rhine river, but that was it. The walk opened my eyes a little bit, since I found some cool places, and some stupid ones too.

In the walkabout I ran into the building where the first “Cologne” was created… thus the name “cologne” we use to identify the fragranced water we use!!! I was feeling stupid again…

A little while after I ran into the 4711 house, which is the home for the “most famous brand of Eau de Cologne - 4711”. I bet you have either seen or smelled this one, it comes in a turquoise and gold labeled bottle? My grandmother used to have bottles of this in her apartment. Needless to say… very old.. HA. Why 4711 you might be asking? Because when Napoleon occupied Cologne he counted every house and this one was number 4711.

Then I saw a tall tower with the head of two horses sticking out… and a museum with a golden Ford Fiesta stuck on top, stretching wings bigger than Goodyear’s
I was feeling stupid AGAIN..

Some towers and walls later (built by the Romans, with pieces that date back to 50 AD), I ran into what was the tallest skyscraper in Europe when it was built in 1925. Nothing fancy, but inside… OH MY! The biggest, coolest, most complete, and amazing record store I have ever been to. I love music and this was (at some point of the afternoon) a little too much to take. I found so much stuff in there that I wanted I felt like a kid that was denied McDonald’s all his life and now when he is 12 he is going for the first time…. I WANT IT ALL NOW!!!

Yes, I did buy some stuff, more than what I should have, but way less of what I could have… maybe someday I’ll be back with a vengeance.

And last night was my last night in Germany, so how could I not go out and say good-bye eating some authentic German food. I asked in the hostel and they gave me a very good tip, walking distance. This time I walked away from downtown and the tourist area, and into the old cobblestone alleys of Koln, to find this restaurant Schrenkenkammer. Water was 2 euros, Cokes were 2 euros, beer was 1.40 euros

My kind of place

I asked the waiter for a big beer, “No”, he said “that’s in downtown for the tourists, we have just beer here”. Ok then, bring me beer. They brewed their own cold colds in there, and they brought them in small tall glasses. “It is better to drink in the small glass, keeps the beer your drinking fresh… you just drink more glasses!”. I liked Jurgen already. Then I proceeded to eat the best schnitzel ever! Pork tenderloin, breaded and cooked perfectly, moist and juicy, with caramelized onions on top and perfectly fried French fries. When I finished eating the plate I had a mix of feelings, you know, sad and happy because I was done. I could have FOR SURE eaten more, but I FOR SURE didn’t need it.

Oh yea! The beer was, in a lack of a better word, perfectly fresh and crisp and refreshing. Sooooooooooo good! (with a Forsh accent)

In the latest news, it has been confirmed that Felipe and Mark are playing the World Cup at the end of November. Which means I will be going to China!! I find that exciting and wanted to share that with all of you.

Off to Rome and Italy my friends… until the next one Auf Wiedersehen!

M

Valencia to Crans to Koln

"You have one life to live; Marx teaches us to blame society for our frailties, Freud teaches us to blame our parents, and astrology teaches us to blame the universe. But the only place to look for blame is if you didn't have the guts to bring out your full self, if you didn't act on your desires, if you didn't take advantage of what was in front of you and live the life that was your potential."

- Joseph Campbell

End of Valencia's stories

So the Tomatina was a disgrace... but Felipe and I got up from the grounds of the defeated and carried on with pride! It took us a couple of days of barbecuing and sitting in his amazing terrace having cold drinks in his "spa" to recover, but like I said, we did it. Saturday we went to have lunch to Felipe's in-laws (suegros), in a town where about 160 people lived. Talk about rural Spain... that place was it! Anyways, Felipe's father-in-law, Donato, is well known for cooking the best "Paella" ever... paella is a very traditional spanish dish, where rice is cooked in a big rounded pan of some sort with different ingredients; seafood, meats, vegetables, etc. Donato made his paella over wood fire and all the ingredients where from his orchard or the hills behind his house.

These were Donato's ingredients: Chicken pieces (including the feet and liver), rabbit pieces (including the head), green beans, "other" beans, tomato puree, garden snails (YES snails!), rice, saffron, and beer.

After paying close attention to the steps in the preparation of the Paella, we sat down and ate. Of course, Donato made me sit down next to him making SURE I ate the snails.

Seriously though, it was THE BEST paella I have ever eaten.

We had some drinks and Donato offered me an authentic cuban cigar, so I smoked the Cohiba with him. Awesome!

Then, Saturday night, Felipe and I went to watch Valencia play their first game of the year in the Spanish soccer league. I hadn't been in a soccer stadium in so long... I enjoyed every minute! and "we" won 3-0. Just perfect!

After the game we went out. Valencia has what they call the "City of Science": a series of buildings near downtown built for cultural purposes. The architect of all the buildings is Calatrava, which I believe is the one in charge of building the memorial monument on ground zero (Twin towers in New York). The buildings are crazy in shape, but gorgeous, representing all the senses. One of the buildings is this long metallic web that hovers over as a roof, but since it is a web, it is seethrough. For summer it is perfect, since it is fresh and you can watch the sky and the stars. Under this roof there is some sort of a park, with bushes and palm trees and cobblestone roads to walk by, and in one end of this park they set up a pub/club with huge candles and multicolored lights everywhere. The setup was amazing.

Switzerland and Crans-Montana

Then it was time to leave for Switzerland. Woke up Monday morning and took the train from Chiva to Madrid at 9am. Since it was a regional train, it stopped EVERYWHERE and it took the train 5 and half hours to reach Madrid, when a normal train takes 3 hours. Again, the challenges of travelling throught Europe. The train left me on the opposite side of Madrid, so I took the subway. An hour later I was on the airport, where (OF COURSE) took the line to check in that had computer problems, and waited a nice hour and a half more to check-in. Took the plane to Geneve, then ran to the train station where I (obviously) got in the wrong track and I missed the train I needed to take to Sierre. I actually saw it go in front of my eyes.

Oh well, I took another one a little bit later, which took a little longer and I had to make a connection (with running included), but took me to my destination, so not THAT bad at the end.

...and there is when, while I rode that train for a couple of hours, that I had one fo those "Mo"ments: It was pitch dark outside, could not see anything, except yellow lights in the sky from time to time. They were not stars, but more like street lights... and I figured it out. I could not see it, but obviously I was going through the mountains, and the lights in the sky were towns, and they were so high I just started imagining how it might look like... and I had that peaceful feeling of how lucky I am for being able to do what I am doing now. Lost (pretty much) in the middle of some mountains I couldn't see, in a country I have never been, sitting on a train accompanied by myself and some good memories of friends and places. I could have been in the middle of the ocean and it would have been the same. At least I knew I was getting somewhere.

I reached Sierre at 11pm, and I was very lucky to find a courtesy car from the tournament that took me up to Crans. That was 45 minutes STRAIGHT up the mountain.

The next day I saw the mountains I couldn't see the night before, and I really have no words to describe them fairly. They were beautiful, the place was gorgeous, and all the environment made the course the most amazing course I've been, maybe rivaled by one I played with my friend/coach/ex-boss Ryke in Hawaii last year. Seriously, the pictures I took don't even make it justice. The view of the valley was incredible, and if you had a clear day you could see the numerous little towns up on the sides of all the mountains. You had to be there to believe it.

Crans is a rich people's getaway town. The stores, the restaurants, the cars, everything there was la creme de la creme. Because of that, I had to pass on the restaurants this time and stayed with my homecooking, so no report of the foods this time.

I do have new pictures posted on my facebook... on the album's "Europe 2" and "Europe 3" for all of you to check out, hopefully the pictures turn out to be good enough.

Then we took the train to Koln (Cologne/Colonia), Germany. Now that train through and out of the Alps was almost as amazing as Crans. Beautiful towns and lakes and snowed peaks and pastures and rivers and creeks. I am in need of more language to describe all these places. I can say that Switzerland is DEFINETLY a place I would LOVE to come back, and if given the chance, I will.

Mercedes-Benz Championship this week. "Only Winners" is the slogan that is displayed everywhere. The players on this tournament are the top of the top of the European Tour, and the field is limited to fewer players so there is no "cut". Should be a lot of fun!

email me people!

Mo

Zandvoort to Valencia

Netherlands!

The trip continued in Holland, or Netherlands, however you want to call it. I thought we were going to play in Amsterdam, but we didn't, the town was called Zandvoort which was 30 minutes away from Amsterdam. It was such a peaceful place! A beach town with plenty of shopping places, a couple of small casinos, and streets that ran in every direction possible, with no apparent organization. It was not a big town so getting lost was not a big problem, but you could definetly take much longer routes throught the streets if you didn't know them, as I found out, after doing some excessive walking around the place. The houses were gorgeous! The great mayority were really old, at least 50 years, and many of them were duplexes (for me those are the houses that share a wall or both walls). They had a small front but had 2 or 3 stories up. At first glance all of the houses might be kind of similar, but no, each house, with it´s little garden in front of it, was well taken care of! Every single one had different things on the porch or the garden; grass, chairs, bird feeders, flowers, fish pools, crazy sculptures, trees, etc etc.. it was really cool. Some houses had names! I saw Betsy, Anna and others I can't remember. I took pictures of lots of houses but I can't show them to you all... the story comes a little later. Anyways, Zandvoort the town was beautiful.

The golf course was awesome, I really liked it. Links style, but with more vegetation than the ones I saw in the island. The weather was crazy too! Every single day of the week was the same: clouds one hour, then hot sun the next, then big gusting winds, then cold rain, then sun again, then rain, then clouds, then wind... every single day. So of course the golf bag was full with equipment to fight EVERY single weather condition... it was heavy people. Felipe played a great 2d round and final round in some nasty weather. Very encouraging!

Tickets to Valencia!

Felipe had a commitment with one of his sponsors in Chile this week, so he went back and I decided to visit my cousin who lives in Valencia-Spain. I woke up from the hostal I was staying in Zandvoort at 5am, walked to the train station, took a train to Amsterdam, had 4 minutes to run from the platform (anden) I arrived to another, barely made it and went to Utrecht. In Utrecht I changed trains again to go to Eindhoven in a minute. Took a taxi to the Eindhoven airport and got to the counter to check in the flight 2 minutes before they closed. There was a direct flight from Eindhoven to Valencia, so it was my only chance, and I barely made it! That is one things about travelling here in Europe, you get "lost" in these samller cities (it is easy to find flights from London, or Rome, or Madrid) and you find the best/cheapest way to get top your next destination and you embark yourself in crazy little trips against time in places where you don't know the language and can't read the signs. It is crazy, scary at times, but mostly fun!! Challenges everywhere :)

So I got to Valencia and it has been awesome. First to catch up with my cousin Felipe (yes, same name as my "Boss"). He left Chile about exactly the same time I left for the US 7 years ago; and then to just chill out in the Spaniard summer. We have been in the beach... I bathe in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, cooked a lot of barbecues, and chilled out in his balcony. His apartment is huge and it lies in a small town outside of Valencia. Spain is full of this little towns, you know, about 5 to 10,000 people. You find everything you need, but they are small and quiet for the msot part. Many of these towns conform the "community" that is called Valencia, not only the city downtown and its surroundings. Chiva, which is the town Felipe lives in, is about 25 mins away.

The other remarkable thing about Spain is the amount of holidays they have. They are the european country with the most free days in the year, and probably of the world. Many are not national holidays, but it is for some of these small towns. Each town has their own "week" of the year when they ahve their own traditional party. The week before I got here it was Chiva's turn. They let a bull loose on the streets, I bet you've seen things similar on tv. But in this case, Felipe was telling me they do something else. After the bull has gone around the town they choose one of them and tie its head to a post, hook some gasoline dripping torches on its horns and light them up! then let the bull loose!!! Animal cruelty anyone?!?? So then people escape from the flaming horned bull... these spaniards are crazy.

Talking about crazy, this week it was Bunol's turn, the town right next to Chiva. Bunol does have a worldwide famous party though, you might have seen it on the news; it is called "La Tomatina". Basically they dump 200 tons of ripe tomatoes in the town center, and at 11am they fire a cannon starting a tomato fight, with another cannon marking the end of the fight at noon. With Felipe we made the effort of trying to get there, but we messed up and couldn't get to the actual site. We made it to Bunol, and fought our way through 40,000 people in these tiny streets (Bunol might have 5,000 habitants) to almost the center of the fight, but we couldn't. Instead, someone stole my camera with the Holland and Tomatina pictures from Felipe's pocket in the pushing and shoving, AND we got soaking wet with the water people threw from the balconies. No tomatoes though. We ACTUALLY came back to Felipe's apartment and had one of his friends dump a tomato puree can on top of our heads.

We had our own Tomatina!

If you want to check out the Tomatina check their website. It is absolutely crazy http://www.latomatina.es/

I also posted a video of the "Chistorra Sausage" we cooked with Felipe in honor of my brother Cristian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83wK1Xbbbbg

So I have no pictures this time for all of you, other than the one up here from downtown Chiva. We did buy another camera and I will try to get some pictures for the next time... of Felipe's apartment and his dog "Flojo" (Lazy), he is really sweet.

Oh yea! I turned 30 Tuesday... it is ALL going downhill now people!!

Miss you all!

M

Back In Business!

…and I am back in Europe!

I went to Chile for a little over 2 weeks and it was great. It had been a little over a year and a half since I last visited, so it was super nice to see my family and friends. Not only that but I had a surprise visitor!

Liz, it was AWESOME to have you down there :)

And then it was time to get back into the adventure! I flew from Santiago to Madrid. I had about 6 hours of layover, so I went to downtown Madrid and had some tapas and beer watching the Olympic games. Then to Copenhagen, where I had a 3 hour layover and finally heading to Stockholm in Sweden, my final destination. It was midnight and after 26 hours of travel… the hotel I planned to stay at the airport was full! But I managed to find something else which ended up being right next to the club where we played the tournament, so it worked out fine.
Felipe got there Monday night, so I had all Monday to go out and do the tourist thing. So I jumped in a bus and went to downtown Stockholm. The city is really beautiful, very similar to Helsinki. The city hall was a big brick building overseeing the main waterway of Stockholm, with a huge tower that you could climb up (picture here). I didn’t, the waiting time was too long. Instead I went to “Gamla Stan” - the old downtown. It is a relatively small island; maybe 15 blocks long and about 6 wide. All the roads are cobblestone and it is full of little alleys and passageways, which take you to all kinds of hidden shops, restaurants, coffee shops, museums and a royal palace! I was blown away with it. I stayed there for maybe 3 or 4 hours making sure I walked every main road of the island… I loved that place!! I am going to blame my choices that day to bad luck. There are more than 70 museums in Stockholm, and I found myself in front of the Alfred Nobel museum, the guy who “invented” the Nobel prize there in Gamla Stan. I chose that museum to do my culturization that day and I was VERY dissapointed. There was almost nothing in there! The only thing that actually showed Nobel prize winners was some videos, but that was it. Then I walked into this restaurant that had some catacombs. It was a 700 year old prison. Awesome place, but then again, the food was not good. Tried some goulash soup (meat and potatoes) BUT not good as I said.

After Gamla Stan I walked to Djurgarden; another island. There I saw more museums and the Skansen, a sort of zoo but with buildings from “old” Sweden, basically showing the way things used to be in the old days.

All the rest of the week it was golf tournament time, until Friday! That was my night out in town. Of course I had company, and this time I was soooo happy to see Rebecca, another of “my” girls in the golf team in Arkansas. She and her friend Jonas came for the weekend to hang out and watch the golf tournament. We went out to this club that was all in white… the floor, the walls, the bar, even the DJ’s headphones where white. Pretty cool.

The other cool thing of Sweden is the amount of different cultures that are present here. Of course you have the “classic” swedish… you know, blonde, pale, tall, light eyes, but there are so many other cultures present… imagine there are 30,000 people from Chile only!
Oh yes, we are slowly conquering the world!

…so I’m back in Europe, for quite a while… keep me posted with all of your happenings friends! I love hearing news from everybody!

In Holland (Netherlands) now, wish us luck! You can follow the results at http://www.europeantour.com/ or watch it at http://www.channelsurfing.net/

Peace!
Mo

THE Open!!!

What can I say... I am high on life right now.

To say that I had fun watching The British Open in person would be an understatement... It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Last Monday I drove down from Glasgow to Southport (just outside of Liverpool). Four hours of driving on the "wrong" side of the road, but this time I had some experience so I did awesome! ...Oh well, there was no one else to rate my performance so you all will have to trust me on this one. The drive was beautiful, the Scottish landscape is much like England's, but with less towns around, so you see bigger pastures and for longer periods of time. Rolling hills, fog, sun at times, rain... you name it, everything was going on in that drive. Made it fun!

I finally made it to John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, where I returned the car and was picked up by Daniel Reilly. Danny also went to the Uni of Central Arkansas and I was one of his coaches when I first started working as one, with the guys' team. For those of you who know Danny and haven't heard from him in a while, let me tell you he is doing great! Finishing school here in England, living with his mom in a nice, cozy house, still working out lots, and with lots of projects and business ideas... which of course I cannot disclose! He is doing great indeed.

Danny lives 5 minutes away from Royal Birkdale, the host course for The British Open this year. That monday he literally took me from the airport straight to the course where he plays now, Southport & Ainsdale, which is in the same piece of land where Royal Birkdale is, to play some golf ourselves! Let me tell you why this was so exciting for me (for all you non-golfers). I'll try to be as brief as possible to not bore you guys to death. S&A is a links type of golf course, just as Royal Birkdale (and every course that hosts the British Open) is. They are called "links" because the golf courses are built in the pice of land that "links" (conecta) the sea with the land. So it is basically sand dunes, and scruffy patches of land, pretty worthless for farming or building towns, but perfect for golf! So S&A was my first ever encounter with a true links golf course... and it was very humbling experience to say the least. I absolutely loved it!

On Wednesday Danny and I went to Liverpool for a little sightseeing. So I visited the docks, and the Mersey river, and the Liverpool stadium, and of course The Cavern, the place where The Beatles first started playing. It is literally a cavern... I mean, you go down through some stairs like 3 floors underground to this hole with no ventilation and smelling of booze and sweat. I can't imagine how it must have been when the allowed smoking in there. But there was the stage where The Beatles played and memorabilia everywhere. Pretty cool stuff.

And then it was time for THE Open...

The history of the tournament just floats around in the air. The scruffiness of the course together with the elements (rain and LOTS of wind) made it very hard for the players and so much fun to watch. I saw pros hit "lateral" shots... saw balls roll off the green because of the wind... I was part of a "search" party for a pro who hit his drive in the "bundai" (I always saw that happening on TV, hilarious)... balls hitting people in the crowd... impossible bunker shots (and a couple of those that went in the hole)... crazy greens... crazy lies (where the golf ball ends up resting)... and I could go on and on telling about little things that drove me bananas, but I will stop. I think you all can get the picture.. I was having the BEST time ever!!! Together with the Fish&Chips (fried fish with french fries) I ate around the course I was in golf heaven.

I got a decent spot on the 18th hole the final day to watch the Open come to an end. I fought this old lady for like an hour to keep my spot... she kept pushing me aside! But I came all the way from Chile.... or Arkansas... or Poland, Spain, Finland, France, Scotland, Germany or WHEREVER to watch the winner lift the trophy and I was not about to give my spot away!!! And I won!!!

Monday I went with Daniel Haughian (my friend from Manchester) to play in Wales! a true links course called Royal St. David's. The course was so much fun, and the place was gorgeous. There was a hill next to the course with an authentic medieval castle overseeing it. Cool stuff. I will post the pictures on my facebook as soon as I can.

And now my friends, I have gone to Chile.... yep, that's right. I came down to renew my passport and spend a little time with my family and friends before returning to the golf scene in Sweden with Felipe the week of Monday August 11th.

My cel phone in Chile is +56-99-291-8968

So the adventure halts for a couple of weeks. I will keep everybody posted when I return to my travels. Please keep me posted on what is happening with you!

see you soon!!

Mo

Loch Lomond and the Future!

"be happy while you're living,

for you're a long time dead"

- old Scottish proverb

Ok, lots to update so let's start with Scotland!

Loch Lomond-Glasgow

Loch in Scotland means lake, so accordingly, the course where Felipe played hugged this beautiful lake about 30 minutes away from Glasgow. Sharp hills/mountains surrounded the lake on all directions with patches of trees and bright green pastures where hundreds of sheep and some cattle (ganado) grazed constantly. The water in the lake was crystal clear with an occasional little island here and there. In one word, the place was gorgeous, very tranquile and easy-going. Lots of camping sites and little boats (and others not that small $$$). We stayed in some log cabins actually, very cozy (acogedor). The course was equally stunning, by far the most beautiful I have seen on this trip. Sooooo green and majestic. I would love to get the chance someday to play in it. The weather helped us out too. Overall, the United Kingdom is NOT well known for their superb weather conditions, but except for Thursday and maybe parts of Friday, the whole week had the sun bathing us most of the time. I'm telling you, it's hard to put into words how beautiful that place is.

The tournament didn't go very well for us. We missed the cut so we didn't play on the weekend. The good thing about it is that I got the chance to get out of the golf scene and get to hang out in Glasgow! and of course it was WAAAY better than "normal" because I have a friend who lives there, Ilona. She played for my university in Arkansas when I was also a player so it was great to see her again after so many years!! We went bar hoping Friday night and I had my share of scotches (hell, I'm in Scotland!!). We ended the night dancing at a nightclub. Except for one of the bars that was set up as a theater to watch sporting events and movies, all the rest and the nightclub were pretty small. I guess it's because there is not a lot of people in Scotland maybe?! I asked SEVERAL people if they knew Scotland's population and nobody knew! not even an approximation! funny.. I think at least.

I took the train from Loch Lomond to Glasgow that Friday, about a 45 minute ride. My brain re-opened on that trip. For 2 or 3 weeks I've been immersed in the golf tournaments without really going out to know places and as I rode the train and saw the landscapes and farms and sheep and cows and the river with a boat graveyard, it dawned on me... I love travelling. I always had the thought as I travelled that I needed to take notes of the places I visited, landscapes I saw, even if it was a split second looking out of the train window to a nice pasture.. so that in the future, whenever I came back to that place I was going to be able to remember it and talk about it. Well, that's pretty idiotic... as I saw the boat graveyard I realized I am trying to imprint those images in my brain to have them NOW... I probably will never visit again most of the places I am going to. I am living the experience now and not preparing for the future experiences. I am doing what I love to do, travel and golf, now and it's awesome.

I don't know why I am talking about this here, but I felt like it, so sorry if I bored you with my philosphical moment... hahahahahaha

Saturday Ilona showed Felipe, Loreto, Pato (a friend/psychologist travelling on tour), and me around Glasgow. We went to have lunch and of course I wanted an authentic Scottish meal!! so we had "Haggis, Neeps & Tatties" with Irn Bru and some scottish beer. OK.. translation: Haggis is the meat; neeps is Turnip (vegetable, algo asi como rabano); tatties is mashed potatoes (pure de papas); Irn Bru is just a soft drink (bebida). You mix the haggis, neeps and tatties and eat it... SOOOOOO good! Of course I started asking questions; what is actually the "haggis"? it was ground beef for sure, but what was in it? it tasted different. Ilona didn't know for sure so we googled it. Get this, haggis is a mixture of: sheep stomach, sheep liver, sheep heart, sheep lung, beef suet, onion, salt&pepper, and oatmeal..... hmmmmmm.... and what the hell is beef suet??? google again had the answer: dry protective fat of the sheep's kidney.

YUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Might sound disgusting, but hey! it was good!!!! In fact I am craving some now as I write about it!!
I also tried a Scottish steak... really really good. But I stay with my haggis, neeps and tatties the next time I go back to Scotland.

The Future!

Well people, it seems I will continue doing this adventure for a little bit longer! My original deal with Felipe ended last week in Scotland, but he offered me to continue as his caddie for the rest of the year... so I am officially extending my travels around Europe and maybe (hopefully) the world for a while!! The next tournaments I will be going for sure are:

Aug 14-17 SAS Masters, Stockholm, SWEDEN
Aug 21-24 KLM Open, Zanvoort, NETHERLANDS
Sept 4-7 Omega European Masters, Crans-sur-Sierre, SWITZERLAND
Sept 11-14 Mercedes Benz Championship, Cologne, GERMANY
Oct 16-19 Portugal Masters, Vilamoura, PORTUGAL
Oct 23-26 Castello Masters, Castellon, SPAIN
Oct 30-Nov 2 Volvo Masters, Valderrama, SPAIN

Now I am at THE OPEN championship in Southport, about to attend as a spectator to my first ever major. The next post will be about the experience with links golf!!!

keep in touch people!

Mo

ps. for some reason I couldn't upload pictures this time. I owe you!

Back in London

Did I mention the summer in England is just great? Don't mind the 10 degrees (about 50 F), the rain and the wind and everything else is just perfect!

The golf course is nice, located in a London suburb (Kent). Nice rolling hills with native grass dancing in the wind like oacean waves... very poetic. Again, other than the golf course and the hotel we didn't do much. Loreto, Felipe's wife came though... and she brought some pisco!!! (chilean liquor). So we watched the Wimbledon final drinking some piscolas (pisco vs. coke)... you just can't beat that!!

Sco'ishh!!!

And now people, we are in Glasgow! Scottish Open. The British Open is next week, so a lot of big time players are here as a "warm up". Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Adam Scott, etc etc etc... the course is BEAUTIFUL, very green with gentle slopes. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous; big hills with sheep pasturing, the lake (Loch Lomond) with pristine waters (you can see the rocks way in the bottom) that the course "hugs" its holes, the clouds that let the sun shine really bright sometimes and bring rain 20 minutes later... reminds me a lot of the south of Chile. We are staying in a log cabin too where RV's (casas rodantes) and camping tents have space too, so that definetly helps with the relaxed atmosphere.

We start thursday at 7:50am. If you want to follow our scores go to http://www.europeantour.com/ and if you have the Golf Channel, they usually show the tournament very early in the morning.

Keep in touch people!

Mo