7/29/93--Day 5 [Frederikshavn Denmark] At about 12:15am we arrived in Frederikshavn. We passed up the Ferries once but made our way back to find most things closed. At this point we decided to rest at a camp for the night. Well, after about a 10km drive we found a closed camp. So, once again we were stuck. We decided to go back to the ferry location. After asking a "guard" and exploring some more we discovered an office. I used my Visa and bought a round trip ticket for about $140. Only about a few dollars more than I figured. At this point it was about 1am so we drove the car to the loading doc. I ate some bread, drank some water and Pepsi before resting a bit--this was a 3:30am ferry! There were quite a few people on the ferry--many children too. Adam exchanged $15 and probably got a decent rate. Besides that we did not do much except walk the ship and watch it leave and enter the harbor. Pascal did not sleep any, I slept about an hour and Adam got 2-3 hours of sleep. So, once again it was pretty much a sleepless night. Upon leaving the station we saw a "customs" person but we were not stopped. Taking E40 to Jonkoping I noticed Sweden had quite a few hills and lots of fog. Currently it is 8am and we are on our way to Jonkoping to see someone we know over the internet. Lets hope he is there when we arrive in about 1/2 hour. 7/30/93--Day 6 [Almost in Helsinki] As I write we are currently making our way via the ferry to Finland, Helsinki. At last entry we were making our way to Jonkoping. I will pickup from there. We arrived in Jonkoping at about 8:50am. I remember this because a few places were not open--like the tourist board. We stopped in the center of town at the train/bus/information location. Before 9:00am we checked the phone booths for phone books but none were to be found. Only at a "tourist" stop shop could we find any phone book. We looked but could not find our friend Daniel Faulk. So, we went upstairs and waited for the tourist place to open. When it did we asked the lady if she could find our friend. She did--and called him as well. Since he was in the shower we called back in 10 minutes. I spoke and wanted to go over his house to use the toilet and shower but he was leaving for the town (where I was) to pick up some friends and also make his way to Finland. No luck then--getting a shower and using some free toilets. 7/30/93--Day 6 [At Assembly] Picking up from talking on the phone to Daniel we made our way to a travel booking place as Daniel Faulk (Lenaid) suggested. Since a lot of people were going it was stated that there may not be any room so we made our way--after asking a few people--to the travel agency across the street. When it opened at 9:30am we got in to book our ferry ride. We discovered that the only ride we could get was on the VIKING LINE. There was 1 car space and no cabin. After considering all the possibilities we bought the ticket. It cost around $85 per person. When we finally left the city it was 10:00am. On the road to Stockholm we met Daniel--they passed us. From there out we followed them to the ferry. We took a small walk once arriving in Stockholm but not very far and did not see many tourist stuff except from afar. It was around 3:00pm when we found where to board and had to wait 1-2 hours till we could board. The "Cinderalla" is a nice cruise ship. Too bad we were too tired to "exploit" all its amenities. Well, I was anyways. The food was quite pricy, they charged me a lot of money for using a travelers check and...Good thing for Daniel and his friends because were able to sleep in their cabin. Not too much happened on the way over--of which I slept most of--and we arrived safely at 9:00am in Helsinki. Upon arrival we stopped at an information center and found a bank where we could exchange money. We got a good rate. I was charged about 20 marks-- $3.50 for $100 in travelers checks. Soon afterwards we ate "donuts" and juice for breakfast. Then we made our way to Kerava--where Assembly '93 was being held. It was quite easy to find since we had good directions from the Future Crews map. There were quite a few people in line waiting to get in, claim a room, and drop off their stuff. We decided to wait, take a walk and finally, near noon, got in line. Unfortunately by that time no rooms were left...or according to what we heard. Well, it worked out that we were permitted to stay with Avalanche...so, at least I did. A ton of people showed up...people with computers...they are everywhere. During the day we visited the whole place and visited with groups...including Extreme, Extend, Epical, Imphobia, Disknet, Future Crew, Renaissance, and so on. There were quite a few drunk people about by mid day. One even hit a monitor, got punched and forced out of the room. Another threw and broke a glass bottle. This seems to be a 24-24 (said twenty four hour twenty four hour) deal with no one doing any sleeping or little if any. That night after missing techno and no introduction I made it to sleep at around 1 am on a hard floor. I did not get much sleep but I figure it will do. Other high notes for the day included talking with Gore, Phil Staz (sp?) who published a book that deals with demos, and a rep (Mike) from Epicmega Games. 7/31/93--Day 7 [Assembly--Day 2] Today the comps begin and go into Sunday morning. It will be a non stop night. And before I forget, Pascal got a drink last night and locked the keys in the trunk--shit. So, much of the day sixes night we spent trying to get the door unlocked. But to no avail--and I had no sleeping bag, clothes, tooth brush, or anything but what I had on for that matter. So, this meant sleeping on a hard floor with nothing but a jacket for a pillow. We were able to get the door unlocked by the police--this saved 350 FIM which a locksmith would charge. Unfortunately, before this someone attempted to get in the night before and broke the handle on the right size. Hey, but DDT of Accession--a car mechanic--was there and took about a 1/2 hour of his time to fix the problem. Since he did this we took him to lunch to at least repay a little of what he did for us. Ahh, excitement. Since we had leftovers from the Chinese restaurant (220 FIM it costs) we visited we ate it for dinner too. The competitions finally got underway just after 5pm with the PC Music 4 channel and then multi tracked music. There were only average type music--so I felt. I felt Schwing the Swing by Sonic was the best 4 track mod and opossum by Epical was the best for the multi-channel. When we went to dinner we seemed to miss the Amiga Graphics and Intro compo. They are using the 3 light projection TV machine and small text is very hard to read on the screen. Also considering I am about 80 feet away. Ok, soon the compo will begin again. Right now some PC music is playing for some reason. So far they have not kept to their schedule very well. [My ratings of PC demos/intros appeared here. I picked 2 of the top 3 intros and demos.] We missed most of the Amiga intros but I stayed and watched the Amiga demos. There were some amazing ones in the eight or so they showed. 8/1/93--Day 8 [Assembly, Final day--Sunday] After the Amiga stuff they took about a 15 minute break and then started the PC stuff--intros and demos. The intros--all under 100k--were pretty interesting though nothing stood out as really amazing. After the 16 intros the PC demos were shown--I believe. By now it was after 2:00am and I was tired. Since they had so many demos they decided to show the 10 (9 actually) best. They were definitely the best demos ever with four demos being better than the UNREAL standard. The Future Crews "Second Reality" was the most outstanding. From there I felt Saga, then Elements then Optic Nerve. Other people gave Optic Nerve 2nd, Elements 3rd, and Saga the. After the PC compo was over they had some game demo and the PC graphics. By this time I was too tired to stay up for the C-64 demos so I went to rest at 3:30am. At 9:30am I got up, put in my contacts (only put in saline) and went to get a copy of the 64 demos and see who won for the PC and C-64. After wondering a bit, finding Pascal and Adam I went and got my C-64 disks to get copies of the demos/music/graphics. By 10:30am I had found someone with copies of most of the stuff released. He let me use his 64-SX to copy. Unfortunately I noticed many errors and copied over when it was really bad. Hopefully all my copies work. The American demos I brought worked (C-64) a little slower on their PAL computers. Raster routines looked quite awful most of the time though. One of the funny things I noticed about my stay was the size of the soda bottles people bought and drank. Most bottles people drank from contained 1 liter of soda or other related drink. Quite often it was drunk warm. Ice is not used much in Finland. I thought this was weird. The Finnish people also drink quite a bit. There were many drunken Finns at the party. Pascal and I ran out and got Lunch--pizza--around 12:30pm. The Finnish Pizza is much thinner then our American pizza and taste about 1/2 as good. After talking and saying goodbye to some of our friends--including Gore--we left at about 2:30pm. Phil S. who wrote a book that covered demos and part of the demo scene, interviewed me on camera. Though it was kind of impromptu Phil directed the conversation well. We made our way from Kerava to Helsinki without much of a problem and made it in time for the ferry. I wanted to walk the city but it was raining and about 45 minutes till car boarding so no one else wanted to do such--so we just waited. In the ferry we met up with new people and our friends Daniel and Avalache. With no cabin Pascal and I wondered till we found a decent table/chairs where we could stay/sleep. So, that is what we did. Later that night Daniel and his friends came along and we talked. About 9-12 people hung around our TV, 4 chairs and bench/window. Not much more to day. I got about 4-5 hours of sleep. 8/2/93--Day 9 [Monday] Early this morning we exited the ferry and agreed to take a friend of Daniel's home. Since we passed his city on the way. After the 3.5 hour drive we rested at his house. I washed my hair for the first time in 4 days and Pascal took a shower. I also changed all my clothes since they were getting dirty. Now we are on our way to Goteburg to catch they ferry. It is 2:30pm and the ferry leaves at 3:30pm. Hopefully we can make it. It will be quite a long night no matter what happens. We have no place to stay in Germany or Denmark and the car needs to be returned at 4pm tomorrow. Written 8/3/93--Day 10--7:10am (Tuesday) Currently we are traveling in Germany less than 1 hour away from Hamburg (120km). A shit load has happened since then and most was not good. Let me update you. After the long drive from Jonkoping we were pushing the time and had only downed 1 meal for that day so far--there was no time for lunch. Welp, we arrived in Goteburg at 3:15pm, got lost, and finally were headed in the right direction and ready to get on board they ferry but we were too late--the ferry was pulling out. At this point Pascal noticed his waist belt was missing. Unfortunately our stop in Jopkoping ended up costing about 7.5 hours in time. In Jopkoping I washed my hair--mentioning before I would take a shower. Pascal however decided to take a shower though I advised against it because of our time. Anyways, Pascal ended up leaving his most important item (money bag) at Sami's place. After about 30 minutes of figuring, talking, calling (Daniel Faulk--not home), and thinking we decided to go back--a 2 hour journey each way. This meant we would miss another ferry and make the 11:30pm one. We made it to Jopkoping and found Sami asleep but woke him to get Pascal's bag. About this time (6:30pm) we were getting hungry so we attempted to eat at McDonalds. We sat with two girls before making McDonalds since they motioned to us. However, we left after about 5 minutes when they started smoking. Of course McDonald's did not take VISA so we were on our way back to Goteburg having eaten no lunch nor dinner. We got to Goteburg around 9pm and planned on going elsewhere for eating--after parking our car in the ferry line--but discovered were blocked in and the only snack shack would not take VISA. Welp, no money equals an obvious disadvantage. Finally after boarding we got some food in the cafeteria--Swedish meatballs. The cost was around 200 Swedish Krones--a lot! This meal was eaten around 12 midnight, so basically we only ate snacks, candy and breakfast the day before. The ferry lasted 3.25 hours and was once again...on time. I slept about 1.5 hours and Adam about 2 hours. We felt pretty good. I felt ready to drive for the first time (manual). We arrived in Denmark just after 2:30am with less than a quarter tank of gas. Luckily after passing about four closed gas stations we found a 24 hour one. After filling up I drove. I even drove through a city where I had to shift a bit. My driving time lasted about 2.5-3 hours and I stopped in Kolding. Afterwards I rested and woke up when we crossed the board to Germany. For the first time on our trip we got asked for our passports/id's. We had them so after two minutes we were on our way. Now we are approaching Hamburg and will later drive into the Netherlands--it is 7:40am. It looks like it will be another day with little sleep, and little food--maybe lunch. Written 8/5/93--Thursday We made it through Germany with no problems. Pascal even drove 180 Km/H on the Autobaun--that is roughly 110 Mph--the car wouldn't go any faster. We fueled up with the rest of Pascals German Marks (40). We were making great time as we entered the Netherlands. Once again, we had no boarder problems. We got some more gas in the Netherlands and also got lost for a bit. Though it seems like a recurring theme it did not hurt us that bad. Since we were pushing our time we decided not to stop in Belgium for chocolate. Finally, at roughly 4pm we arrived at Pascal's place, emptied the car and cleaned the car with a vacuum cleaner. As for the outside all we did was use a squeegee at the gas station--bugs on the window, on the lights, on the license plate. The car was returned at 4:55, just 2 minutes shy of our deadline but it seems as if we did not get charged. Funny thing is the lady put gas in--when it was full (did not believe us)--and most of it spilt onto the ground with us getting charged. Ugh. Day 11 8/4/93--Wednesday (Back in France) After that 24H day we ate dinner with Pascal's parents and got back to Pascal's old house where we retired around 10pm--and we were (at least Adam and I) tired. We slept just over 12 hours. Breakfast consisted of cereal and Bread with chocolate. I also took a shower for the first time in 5 days. We watched some of the intros, a demo, played the music then left for lunch at Pascal's house. The night before for dinner they had beef, pigeon, pizza, and rabbit. I tried the pigeon and rabbit but simply thinking about what I was eating made it difficult to eat such food. Similar food was for lunch so I did not eat much then. Once done we went to Pascal's's sisters to finish watching the Assembly '93 stuff. Near 4:00pm it was decided we should leave for the beach- -well, the channel actually. It took about an hour to make it to the beach where we could see topless women. We parked and walked, and saw a few topless women but not many. Pascal and Adam kept saying intelligent and nice conversation, etc, etc. I thought the "sand hills" were interesting. We climbed, walked and ran a few of them. The water was very cold--68F. After pissing around--and I did take a piss in a bush--we left and went for ice- cream. I had something like a sundae for about $6. It was pretty good. Afterwards we got some post cards while Adam & Pascal grabbed some interesting magazines. By now it was nearing 9pm and we went to another location to eat dinner. I had fries, a ham & cheese on toast with cheese on one piece of toast. For a drink I had Liptonic--ice tea with lime in it. When done we took a walk along the nice river before seeing a monument and heading aback home. Back at Pascal's we figured out what each person spent to determine who owed who. Well, it ended up that Pascal owed me about $90, while I owed Adam $35. So, after pushing some of what Pascal owed me onto Adam we each felt satisfied we broke even at $40-$50 donated to Pascal for letting us stay with him. We finally turned in around midnight. Day 12 8/5/93--Thursday (Time to Leave) Pascal woke me up--as requested--at 6:30am today. I was able to pack everything except my disk--they were over Pascal's sisters place which was locked. So, oh well. We expected to leave at 7:30am but after getting gas, packed, visiting Pascal's other house it was more like 8:00am. What a shitter. Anyways, we made it to the airport at 10:00am--only 10 minutes later then I wanted--even though we got lost and had to back track. Thankfully Adam and Pascal waited till I checked in and learned where I was to go. They also decided to wait till noon in case I missed the flight so that was a bonus. At the airport there was a ton of security. In fact I was asked for my passport at least 5 times. They also asked me if I accepted any packages, what I had and such. It seemed to be very secure...maybe too much. They don't seem to trust anyone. In fact, I ran into trouble with one guy wanting to see my # from my moms airline card. Luckily I got past that. Finally, after all the shit I made the flight--seat 37A--the penultimate seat. No matter, I made it and that is all that counts. Too bad I'm back near some smoke. Welp, I will be glad when I'm in the US. The movie for todays flight is The Sandlot--a movie I really want to see so...Excellent. Written 8/26/93--Final Comments After the 8 hour flight I was glad to be home where toilets are free and everything cost less. Going to Europe just makes you appreciate the US that much more! After I got off the plane I cleared Customs quite easily--no one in line "US Citizens." In fact, it seemed like most people on the plane were foreigners. After exchanging my money--paper only--I checked in and went to gate to check in (one stop flight). The plane was so full they started offering travel vouchers to people! During my wait I visited McDonald's and got some good ole American food. Come boarding time it looked hopeless--after everyone had boarded I still was not called. Once I was sure making that flight was impossible I quickly walked to where another Continental flight that was going to Miami. I got there with about 10 minutes to spare and made the flight. When I got off the flight and walked towards the baggage claim I was surprised to see my parents. Unfortunately my bag was in Fort Lauderdale so we went there to collect it. So, I made it up and back without too many problems. Once again, I am thankful. The demo disk mag I worked on (Mayhem) was released August 23rd. I also worked on a Demo article for DDJ for a week. If I'm luckily I'll get a few bucks there. [Never got printed, never got any money.] It was an exciting trip. A few good memories, a few new friends and a journal to remind me of our journey. One more small vacation to Universal Studios in Orlando this weekend and from then on I must really plan--strictly business. [I had no job at the time.] Oh, sometimes I do see myself caught in the THREE BOXES OF LIFE...