28th of January

Norway and the Filipino Mafia

I spend a month in Norway with the wonderful Michelle Ortiz. The month was spend relaxing, enjoying the snow, eating great food and in general having a lovely time!

Now don’t get me wrong. Norway is a great country! Very nice people, fantastic nature, a calm and safe place. A nice change in scenery after the craziness of Asia. But this is not what caught my attention during the past month. It was hanging out with the Filipinos that really moved me 🙂

Michelle herself is Filipino, and she has a lot of friends in Norway that are also Filipino (I call them the Filipino mafia 🙂 ). So naturally I got to spend a lot of time with… you guessed it: Filipinos 🙂

And to cut a long story short: They rock! I have yet to see a Filipino that does not smile and laugh all the time. These people has to be the most happy people I have ever met in my life! Always so full of joy and laughter. These guys knows how to enjoy life!

And I don’t think its just me that has been lucky and ended up hanging out with some particular happy Filipinos. During my past 4 months of traveling, naturally I met a lot of other travelers, and we talked about our previous adventures. And I have met several people that all told the same story: When they went to the Philippines they where so surprised about how happy these people are!

And my amazement doesn’t stop here. Not only are they a smiling, laughing, happy bunch of people – also they show so much hospitality 🙂 Let’s just say that I was not very often hungry in Norway 😉

So here is me saying thank you to Michelle for a lovely month, thank you to Norway for providing the venue and thank you to the Filipino mafia for all your hospitality, laughter and giggle 🙂 A special thanks to Angel Salinas for her imitation of British accent: Priceless 😉

And do notice all the smileys in this blog post – smiling is contagious 😉

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29th of December

Merry Christmas from Denmark and a Happy New Year From Norway

With flight tickets as cheap as they are – the world is really becoming a small place! So ya… I decided to surprise my family and pop by Denmark for a week – a slight detour from my India adventure 🙂

Also, I think I am becoming a softie on my old days – as there is a very special woman in my life – Michelle from the Philipines, who lives in Norway currently. Being away from her for 4 months made me miss her terribly, so what happened is that I decided to fly home to Europe and spend christmas with her and her sister, who lives here in Denmark.

We spend christmas with her sister and her brother in law, at his familys place. They have never met me before, and it was nice being reminded that it is not only in Asia that hospitality exists. Danes can be extremely hospitable as well – particular once you break the ice with them. Initially danish people can be rather cold on the surface, and typically it is the outsider that has to take the initiative to start conversation and break the ice (however this was not the case with Michelles brother in laws family!). I felt like I had known them for years already! Completely down to earth and very easy going people – who knows how to cook very well 🙂

After christmas I showed up at my fathers doorstep the 27th of December without him having any idea of me being in Denmark – he was quite surprised to see me 🙂 Michelle and I are currently relaxing at my fathers place, enjoying great Danish food (“Stegt flæsk rocks!”). Tomorrow we head off to Norway to celebrate New Years in Oslo, along with the filipina mafia (a huge bunch of filipina au pairs 🙂 ). I think it will be quite a sight, a giant danish guy – sourounded by tiny filipinas 🙂 After new years, my plan is to spend the month of January in Norway with Michelle, after which I am heading off to Thailand for two months.

Now Thailand is going to be a bit crazy – I will spend two months in a Muay Thai training camp, practising thaiboxing – but I think that is a topic for another post 🙂

So here is a very merry christmas and a happy new years to all of you!

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