I can say that I ended the year 2007 in a very satisfactory way: a very nice tour to some major places in Scandinavia with a very good traveling companion, my pretty Chinese personal teacher, and not only, Han Xu, 韩旭 ;-)
We left Stavanger on the 22nd of December for Bergen and next Trondheim. Trondheim, the place where I lived for about 7 years, was the Christmas goal.. but when I checked the prices for a “direct” ticket from here, it was already crazy expensive! So I checked via Bergen, and with a 1 night stop there.. and the price for 2 people was almost the same!!! So, why not?
Bergen was a nice experience: I had not been there as a tourist in a very long time! And we have been lucky with the weather: big clouds at the horizon, but not rain!
In Trondheim also the weather was nice, even if a bit colder, quite a lot of ice in some parts of the road.. and after a couple of years in Stavanger I was afraid I had lost the ability to walk on slipepry surfaces. But I managed to not fall and crash my big bottom!
We had a great Christmas night with David and Annette and a couple of their friends, with an amazing good turkey!!! Yeah, the turkey probably did not enjoy too much the evening!!!
After Trondheim, we left Norway for Stockholm followed then by New Year celebration in Copenhagen!
Stockholm is a place that I visit extremely often with respect to Aikido, but I enjoy very much the city, the architecture and the people. It was my third time there as a tourist. And I managed to see new things and places.. and especially try new restaurants, both on the cheap side (Thai buffet for less than 80 SEK!!) and more expensive (boar and reindeer in Gamla Stan, expensice but not impossible!).
So after a bit more than 2 days in beautiful Stockholm, we moved to Copenhagen, for the last 2 days of the year, and new year celebration. It was ages since last time I was in the Danish capital, not for work (I have never been there for Aikido, weird, right?)!
There we had a good time in the city, in Tivoli (Han Xu is really brave.. or I am really a coward!! She went alone on most of the crazy rollercoaster there! I.. took pictures, also very good ones..) and it has been really nice watching the fireworks for the new year.. a bright and loud start of 2008!
[pictures will come soon.. but I was so late with the post that it's 2008!!]
Monday, for the first time in about 2 months I was able to practice again suwariwaza Aikido techniques!! Since my last seminar in Vienna, with Endo sensei, in December 2007, I have suffered a quite annoying pain in the right knee. It did not disappeared even with the end of the year holidays break and I was getting a bit worried. Together with that, as reminder of the last year Aikido tour-de-force, I have pain in my right elbow and in the lower back.. 
I am a wreck!!
