May 4th. Seattle, WA – Vancouver, BC. 4541 km.

Monday morning. We woke up and found a nice little note Marie had left us. We left the flour we’d bought as a gift to the bakers and said goodbye to Cookie and each other. Ellen was going to go back to Portland and would go to Canada later on. Gabe came by and we drove the few hours across the border to Canada. And no, we had never had a fire arm in the car.

We arrived in Vancouver and walked around before we met up with our hosts, Evan and Spencer. The buses said Sorry, there was nice street art and very clever garbage bins.

May 5th. Vancouver, BC. 4541 km.

We started the day with eating Zouvlaki for brunch. Not at Sweet Revenge, though. It was closed. I will avenge them.

Tourists. You gotta love ‘em. The bus driver was really cool and was a bit disappointed when I paid too much for the bus fare. On the bus back home at night we rode for free. I love Canadian bus drivers!

Vancouver has a really pretty harbour and skyline.

Told ya.

And airplanes that land on lakes. I wanna go in one of those, weee (that’s what you say when you’re having fun – you refer to yourself and some other people)!

They’ve got ducks. I like.

And black squirrels! We walked around in this nice big park I’ve forgotten the name of.

And bigger ducks, a.k.a. swans!

More people than I like ducks. These people do. The ducks’ opinion of them was influenced.

We ate at this place where people put up currency on the wall. Some Swedes from Umeå had put a Selma on the wall.

After visiting the art gallery and seen Cockfighter at the local Cinemateque (they had snacks after the film, get inspired SFI) we got all artsy ourselves and took a nice photographing walk.

It was a beautiful night.

Gabe took these great shots with a long exposure time and then Spencer picked us up in his van that made a lot of noise.

May 6th. Vancouver, BC – Calgary, AB. 5523 km.

We start the long drive for someone with nothing to think about by having another Horton’s bagel after saying good-bye to our boys in Vancouver.

Where we at, Gabe? -Lilloet. -Oh.

Apparently this view use to be on a Canadian bill. I can see why.

I’m finishing my coffee. This isn’t a first amendment issue.

Smörgåsbord!

Screamers are back!

Salmon Arm! My favourite village name.

I wonder if Johan S is practising his “semi-trajler” accent in California these days (damn it, he’s in Australia now)…

Banff was beautiful, but covered in snow. That means no go for a hike with a twisted ankle. We kept on truckin’ and slept at a motel in Calgary.

May 7th. Calgary, AB – Winnipeg, MA. 6857 km.

I could drive forever is a good song by Smog. We just drove and drove and late at night met up with Nicole and became her first surfers. She was super excited and had a really old cat. She also had some hamsters, and one of them died. Sad day, yo. Small Deaths are the Saddest, says Múm, I don’t know about that.

May 8th, Winnipeg, MA. 6857 km.

We drove around in Nicole’s targa, looking for “Erotic Bakery”, I am very sad to say we never found it.

It’s Ringo!

Probably the world’s oldest cat.

May 9th, Winnipeg, MA – Sault Ste. Marie, ON. 8241 km.

We took off in the snow (!) and had Tim Horton’s for breakfast (we were hooked on that special caffeine or whatever), lunch at a Finnish restaurant in the middle of nowhere (thanks Lonely Planet!). Felt like being in a canteen. Strange, but good food.

We stopped at a lake where Drifters normally stop too…

Especially Gabe was amused by the Night Danger. We arrive late at a Jodi’s house, she was an aerial student, so were most of her flat-mates, two of them came in all dressed up, apparently they had tried to get into a wedding they weren’t invited to, sneaky! We had some noodles and went off to bed, did you hear me?, I wrote bed, Jodi was kind enough to let us surf her bed and she took the couch. She insisted on it. Very kind soul.

May 10th, Sault Ste. Marie – Toronto, ON. 8919 km.

We overslept and had to leave in a hurry, barely said a word to our kind host, yeah yeah, sometimes you have to be a moocher, ey? We wanted to catch a gig with Dan Deacon (who I saw in Barcelona a couple of weeks after this and he was fun, making dance contests in the audience and whatnot!), but it sold out and we ended up with Dan, our host, at the last day of a Documentary festival that was going on. We saw a film called 65 red roses, about a girl who got a terrible disease but found friends with the same sickness online. Pretty good.

May 11th, Toronto, ON. 8919 km.

We started the day with walking up to Casa Loma, Henry Mill Pellatt’s castle. Unfortunately that’s where my camera died, so we’d had so suffice with just Gabe’s afterwards, so the rest of the pictures is by him, but I borrowed it occasionally.

After a pineapple break we went to Chinatown and Kensington Market, which was closed and we strolled around, found a bar where a sign said “what people remember is the shit on the walls” and there was a lot of stuff on their walls, we continue to another bar where a tired old gubbrock-band was playing.

May 12th, Toronto, ON – Montreal, QC. 9719 km.

Have you ever been to Niagara falls? I have seen water, it’s water, that’s all. We weren’t super stoked about Niagara, Gabe had seen them before but it wasn’t that much of a detour so we went down there and checked out the water for half an hour and kept on truckin’.

We had lunch in Kingston and arrived in Montreal at night and went out and got ourselves a batch of Poutine (which is French fries with gravy that has big pieces of cheese in it), probably the fattest thing I’ve ever eaten. I have. Once. This is the picture to prove it. I won’t again. I can’t prove that. We met our hosts, Roxy and Julia, the latter had really good music taste. The thing with beer in the States and Canada is not as good though, in my humble opinion. We tried some and considered riding an electric bull. I have lost a lot of sleep because we didn’t ride that bull.

May 13th, Montreal, QC. 9719 km.

We started the day with a HUGE breakfast, I’ve never had so much for breakfast, it included everything, I mean, everything, bacon, eggs, toast, yoghurt and whatnot. Mmm. Then we climbed Mont Royal, which you might have guess is what Montreal is named after. I made a detour.

We liked the city a lot, my favorite Canadian city actually.

But I wouldn’t eat or drink here!

Modern art is rubbish. However, I did find a street-art book where somebody in Stockholm had put up swings around the city. I like that.

We met up with our hosts and went for an art opening and strolled around and had some free wine before we stopped by a cake shop and had the biggest pieces of cake I’ve ever seen. Dual-Layered Carrot Cake, damn it! I want that, NOW! In stead we had pale ale bla bla near the so-called “Bar” (-Honey, I’m heading down to the “bar”). The girls were surprised to hear that I’ve never been to a strip club and we almost took my strip-virginity. Almost, instead we had noodles with peanut butter. Lo-fi.

May 14th, Montreal, QC – Sharon, MA. 10227 km.

We started with REAL maple syrup pancakes at Beauty’s. Delicious, then we drove as fast as we could into the US and Boston. When we were outside Boston we did a 360 on the highway. We drove a fourth of the equator and when we were 40 km from our destination we almost crashed. Luckily no cars were around us so we got away scot-free. We reached our destination, Gabe’s parents house in Sharon, outside Boston. Gabe’s sister had a Sunn O))) t-shirt. They’re one of the weirdest bands I’ve seen live, I watched some of their gig at Primavera, it was like a cymbal stroke then another five seconds later. Kinda dull.

May 15th, Sharon, MA – Boston, MA. 10267 km.

We drove into town and saw the Shepard Fairey exhibition (he’s the guy behind OBEY and the Obama’s campaign). It was really good in my opinion, Gabe didn’t like it at all. He drove me to the train station and we said adieu. I was gonna couch surf with some girls, but they kinda made the impression that they thought it was a hassle having to host me (don’t know why they agreed in the first place) so I walked around for a few hours and took a Chinatown bus back to New York. Checked if Vickie was at the hut, she was not. She had quit that gig, but I did see her a couple of times before I went to Barcelona and Primavera. Here comes a few random shot from my cell phone camera the last week in New York. Enjoy.

Me and Russ was at a rooftop party, you could see both Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, top-notch.

Ben’s restaurant had the best signs. Apparently Natalie Portman was a customer too. Sweet.

A new kind of advertising?

Finally!

Me and Johan went to this great restaurant where you bought meat by the pound, it use to be an automechanic workshop. Cool atmosphere, but damn it, we should’ve gone to Peter Luger after all, ey?

This reminds me of that Banksy spoof on Paris Hilton (Scroll down passed the Mitch Hedberg quotes).

I went shopping with Vickie. We saw a man not obeying the rules!

Different kinds of street-art..

Middle class.

In Boulder they have round-abouts, Shelley!

The fraternities aimed for a big crowd. I mean, who doesn’t like boobs?

Scandinavians getting married in the Rockies. Weird.

Is HIV a big problem in Sweden?

I slept well on Gabe’s couch, we went into town and he had to do some errands, I walked around down-town in one of the places in the States that’s suppose to be a bit more alternative, the only thing I saw that was alternative was that the kids in the square all played xylophone. The new cello?

Later we went to Gabe’s AA meeting, which was interesting. An open dialogue among the people there concerning their problems. I kinda wish there was that kind of meetings for people with other problems too. The open atmosphere about serious shit. I like that. After the meeting a girl in the group lost her keys and we were true gentlemen and waited with her until the lucksmith arrived. After that we drove her home and went to a hot tub party. Gabe had a character of a friend that kept asking me questions about Sweden. It was both obnoxious and fun.

May 25th. Zion National Park, UT. 1044 km.

We’re off! We drove through mormon country without seeing any of them.

We passed the gas station “Kum & Go”,

nearby they killed babies,

while I had my double blueberry pancakes.

Gabe drinks Coca-Cola in the States. When he’s in Sweden he drinks mostly juice. I drink flavoured sparkling water in Sweden. When I’m in the States I drink juice.

Around six we arrived in Zion National Park. It sure was beautiful.

May 26th. Zion National Park / Grand Canyon. 1443 km.

We checked into a motell where I did a parody of Marcus’ entry. Figge ended the circle (for this time) in Japan.

We started the day with a hike up to Angel’s landing. It was quite steep at certain places, and people have died up there. Jack-asses.

It sure was tiresome.

Then we tried to drive to the North Rim of Grand Canyon, but it was closed. We had great hamburgers and the most delicious oat meal cookies – ever. Ah. Want me one of them cookies now, damn it.

A quickie at Grand Canyon. Zion was more impressive, but we saw that from within the valley, it’s not the same if you just look from a view point up above.

As Gabe said, the first of many The Big Lebowski references. We had some burgers, some laughs, our fucking problems were over! The In-N-Out was a quick stop towards L.A., where we arrived at two in the morning. Lovely Tara and her friends had left us the key on the patio and we just snuck in.

May 27th. Los Angeles, CA. 2233km.

In the morning we had a nice conversation with Tara and her flat mates. I ended up giving her that Jens Lekman song about vegan pancakes. She was vegan and loved Sweden. I hope to see her again some time. Did you guys read that Filter thing about the pig industry where there was a girl in Halland who came to Sweden and the reporter was the second person who knew who Jens Lekman was – “I thought he was bigger here”. Poor girl.

We passed Empeño Pawn Shop on Hollywood Blvd. No Sobchak securiy, though.

We picked up Gabe’s friend, erm, Callahan! Sorry dude, can’t remember your name… I normally write names down, but failed to do so with yours… First we went to Venice and then to

Mulholland Drive, where we were trying to find a short cut, but a lady on a big fucking horse told us we couldn’t.

So instead we went to Ralph’s and tried the half-and-half. It really tied the day together. That and some nice Indian food.

May 28th. Highway 1 from Los Angeles to San Francisco, CA. 3010 km.

We started the day with picking up an Austrian couchsurfer, Ellen, who we’d been in contact with in the rideshare groups. She had been to Mexico on a hippie bus ride and there met Jonah, who also joined us. I drove like a true man of L.A. and we comforted the two in the back by telling them we’re both professionals. After a short while we got hungry and stopped for coffee and a sandwich. The coffee was terrible. Ellen has strange eating habits so she only ate muffins and chocolate. We stopped by The Hearst Castle, but it would take hours to get up to the hill and see his shit.

It was almost like being in Sideways, rah-rah, rawr!

The world’s most beautiful car, Porsche 356 passed us. It was bliss.

Jonah Lindstrand took this picture…

Gabe was not impressed.

We skipped the castle and took a bath in the Pacific instead. I had never swum in the Pacific so it sorta had to be done. It was fucking freezing.

We hit traffic on our way to our host, Jennifer. The iPhone told us we passed Shoreline lake. We came into a mad house. Jennifer’s fourteen year old daughter was cooking with a friend. Add to the equation an Italian Greyhound who’s scared shitless, it was insane. She went salsa dancing while we went to Haight-Ashbury, having some food, some beers and shooting some pool. I liked the independent cinema (that’s their programme I’m reading) and their selection. We first walked into a crowded restaurant where it smelled wonderfully of garlic, put our name on the waiting list, but ended up having steak across the street. We asked the girl at the counter about what’s going on and she went to the other side of the street to get us a newspaper with listings. That’s the kind of thing that makes you fall in love with San Francisco. I bought some road beers, but apparently it’s illegal to drink in the car, so I had to wait until we got to the beach to open up those PBR’s. We warmed ourselves by a fire on the beach and then went back to the house.

May 29th. San Francisco, CA. 3010 km.

We had a slow start, chillin’ and trying to persuade the dog, Gucci, to like us. I didn’t succeed. Gabe and Jonah kinda did I think. I sat in my sleeping bag on the floor with my laptop in my lap until both of my feet fell asleep, then I got up with a jump. Bad idea. I twisted my ankle terribly and fell into a chest of drawers. It hurted like a mad man, but we went for breakfast anyways. The best breakfast – ever. Wonderful scramble and the best banana bread I’ve ever tasted (sorry, Shelley!). Afterwards we realized I needed to do something with my swullen ankle so Jonah, who use to play football knew what I needed – Icy-hot! We wrapped it up and it felt a lot better, but far from good. Anyways, that didn’t stop us from checking the city out. It was really expensive to rent a wheel chair, so I did a pretty good Keyzer Söze impression. We joked about it that now when I was a cripple I wouldn’t have to drive, so Gabe would have to drive all the way to Boston, and there, when we would part ways I would limp away and then just walk away like a “normal” person again, just like in the movie…

Show some thigh, guy!

Don’t you ever obey…

Segways galore!

We never went to the Castro. This tram had some experience of the neighbourhood, though.

What the fuck, is that a car? A go-cart?

Jonah bought us icecream! Gabe was happy. So was I. I was a bit pissed off at myself for not ordering something with chocolate at Ghiradelli’s, though, so I bought a chocolate bar for later.

We walked to the beach and shot some photos at that bridge, The Oakland Bridge? I had great fun with a couple of dogs. Gabe relaxed with his phone with Alcatraz far there in the background.

You’re clear for lift-off! Go!

The US’ most curvy street. It’s insane.

We went up to the Coit Tower, a big fuck-off phallos symbol you can view the city from. Inside they had some paintings on the wall, with working class motives. Here’s a guy grabbing Das Kapital.

We had fun up there in the tower of ms Coit.

We went over to Treasure Island, an old military base that’s just been open to the public the last couple of years.

Then we met up with Jennifer, our host, at a bar that carded little Ellen, but she got away with drinking handed down drinks later on anyways. We played pool and me and Jennifer was down to the eight ball when I won once, I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I managed to win everytime, which made her really pissed off. Good fun. Haha.

May 30th. San Francisco, CA – Portland, OR. 4032 km.

We started the day by gift-wrapping my ankle while getting an oil-check. That’s something people do in the States. Leave the car and they’ll check shit and try to get you to change your safety belts. Yeah yeah.

This is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about. The meditation of driving long distances began. Or I wasn’t driving, I had an ice-pack around my ankle.

We got fortune cookies at the Mongolian grill place we finally found. Jonah was skipping work when he was riding along with us. That makes his fortune way off! My two was kinda spot-on. Or well, at least the first.

We got to our college host kids at eleven o’clock and the party was on the way. I thought, hell, I’ve never been to a frat party so I’m gonna go all in…

Beer bong! Also another bong was tried. Big mistake. I haven’t smoked a thing since I tried cigarettes at thirteen. Made me cough like a motherfucker. For a month. That was really bad in Barcelona, where everybody smokes. Ah! I sounded like a 60-year old with lungcancer. Swedish air cleared that up, though!

Ok, back to Portland. We went out to climb a tree, I did not since my foot was fucked. But when the opportunity of skinny-dipping in a pool we had to break into had arisen I was all for it! Then one of the college boys offered his bed. Kind dude slept as his girlfriend’s.

May 1st. Portland, OR-Seattle, WA. 4315 km.

I started the day with skyping my nephew Melvin, who was having his, hrm, seventh?, birthday. I’m lousy with years and shit. Unfortunately my sister hadn’t managed to get their webcam working, but I guess he got to see me at least. But I think the gift I’d already left him before I left, My Neighbour Totoro, the world’s cutest movie, was more appealing, though. Haha.

Then we had breakfast and I wasn’t as hung over as one would think. We had a great breakfast at Fat City with two of the guys.

Ell(k)en liked my pillow.

Next time. We didn’t get to see much of Portland, we didn’t know where to go, so we drove around for half an hour and then left for the airport, where we dropped off Jonah, who had finally decided to go home for work. And then we were just three.

Are you gonna pitch in Tillicum?

We came to Seattle and ate a great meal at Gabe’s friend Katie’s restaurant/micro brewery. Ale just ain’t my thing, but I tried it anyways, it was brewed right in front of you, I mean you gotta try, right? The salmon was delicious. And cheap. Katie knew how to get things cheap. So she got a big tip instead. Win-win-lose. The third being ‘the system’. Yeah. Her restaurant was right by the market.

Then we went to The Nunnery, Cookie’s house. Cookie is a friend of Shelley’s. This is where me and Ellen spent the next couple of nights. We walked right into baking and shaking. It was a nice atmosphere. I later learned that Marie, the girl holding out her hand, liked Mirah and you know what I think about people who like Mirah – they’re all gorgeous people. Gabe left for Katie’s and Cookie came around and some of us walked over to this roof party, but none of us were really in party mood so we soon returned.

May 2nd. Seattle. 4315 km.

Me and Ellen finally slept like kittens, then had a discussion about oat meal. She doesn’t put water in and put it in the microwave. She uses oat meal like it was müsli. Weird Austrians…

Me, Ellen and Cookie went downtown and checked out the weird library. It was pretty cool and Cookie found his book. Yay.

We met up with Gabe and everybody had a different choice of food. I used my bandage roll thing to take pictures…

Gabe went to see Katie and the rest of us had coffee at Capitol Hill, this beautiful place called Bauhaus. Me like.

Then we went to Cookie’s friend’s house and played rundpingis! That was shocking, that people would play this very Swedish sport in Seattle. And when you wanna be Rog – choose Rogue…

No buses, so here we are waiting for a taxi. Gabe was hanging out at Katie’s restaurant and there he met Evan and Spencer, who was on a trip exploring the micro breweries in Oregon and Washington. They were from Vancouver, where we had a lot of trouble finding a couch to surf, so they offered us theirs, totally outside the CS system. Nice.

May 3rd. Seattle. 4315 km.

The day started with Marie making us french toast, something I actually hadn’t eaten before. It was delicious. We talked about music and stuff. Then Ellen and I went to Fremont where we found a Lenin statue and a very sad Han Solo towel.

After that we took a bus down to the Space Needle and that weird music museum thingie (the pink building). Outside you could take “a duck”, sightseeing on both land and water. Nice.

We chilled at some park.

Don’t touch the trees, they’re art, damn it!

We walked down in the harbour. It was a very pleasant day.

Never forget your salmon heritage!

It WILL hurt!

My luck? We went shopping for Couchsurfing presents and we decided to do mix cds and get the nunnery some flour. They did a lot of baking… The blank cd’s wouldn’t burn though, so I uploaded the mixes at petal.se/temp/nunnery. When me and Ellen were out looking for blank cd’s and dvd’s (for her pictures) I convinced her that we should try at the porn shop, they might have blanks. Not Very likely, but hey… So we went in and asked for DVD’s, you know, if you wanna make your own… Haha.

The weekend ended with all of us watching Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It’s a funny little movie, and even though it’s a musical I quite enjoy it. Shortbus is better, though.

To be continued… (I’ll post the rest of the trip when I’m done sorting it all out.)