I was going to name this post either "I saw the seine" or "it's all the seine to me," but I couldn't remember if it was pronounced with an a or an I. So give me credit for being however clever the properly pronounced pun is.
Paris is amazing (especially the seine). Probably my favorite city yet. We have had no problems with the language barrier, except that I have said "merci" in a rather embarassingly American accent several times. I would like to apologize to my French-speaking constituency for that.
Basically, Paris just has the highest density of cool stuff of any city we've seen. I am writing this while sitting at the edge of a modern-art type fountain with moving parts. Behind it is a cathedral. It's strange, but also kind of elegant. I like it.
It's a well-designed city. Most attractions are clustered around the seine, and the area around it is outfitted with plenty of benches and other resting points. In fact, the bridges themselves draw a bit of a crowd at night - people with guitars, beverages, or sometimes both, which is always funny.
But that brings me to my one complaint: lack of street musicianry. We found a few yesterday, including a particularly talented guitarist that invited cam up to sing with him (he didn't). But we had to seek them out, and they aren't there again today. It doesn't compare to Spain.
Our hostel is perhaps a bit subpar, but the people are so friggin' cool. We had the good fortune of rooming with two English guys who are just about the funniest people I've ever met. They managed to rouse practically the whole hostel into a night-trip to the Eiffel tower. This was amazingly fun and one of the highlights of my trip. Then we returned to our hostel, where kunal and I cleaned up dinner for awhile before falling asleep very late. Hopefully, this is the end of that story.
This post doesn't entirely do justice to prisoan sightseeing, because so much of it we have just stumbled upon, explored, and left. No way I could cover it all in one post.
Also, I would like to add that kunal has been shamelessly filling his blog with lies. I did not trip. This is true because I do not trip, ever.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Ridiculous situations I find myself in, parts one and two
Part one: drenched and wearing a shirt for pants while sitting in a bathroom and waiting for a door to be dismantled while a hotel full of people wait.
Part two: wearing only a bathing suit, stuck straddling an electric fence while several cows and several dressed up operagoers watch.
---
It has ocurred to me that I am probably competing for your attention with my other two fellow bloggers (solemnclosure and travelingcameron [sic], both .blogspot.com). So I did what any good capitalist would do: I opened with a couple teasers that make this post sound much more exciting than it actually is, so that you read my blog instead of theirs.
So Milan. We managed to get through the train ride without anyone checking our eurrail passes, which means we got a free ride to be used later. Woo. If only Milan itself were that exciting. We more or less killed the first day - after the previous day's antics, we were all exhausted. The next day, we went to a museum that was decently cool, but everything was closed except ok Saturdays, which prevented it from being anything too special. In fact, the excitement of the day for me was when the bathroom door lock broke while I showered, having forgotten my towel and pants in our room. Surprise! The first story is exactly what it sounds like.
There was one potentially cool part to Milan, though, which was this door next to the elevator to our hotel that contained stairs down into an underground network of rooms. Unfortunately, my faithful companions decided to turn back after not that long. But I was having fun.
Switzerland, though, is about as cool as any of us could have hoped for. We were met by finch's grandfather at the train station, and he has continued being unbelievable helpful ever since. He brings us bread and jam and honey and butter every morning, and he sometimes makes us other meals, and drives us places. All any of us can really do is gesture frantically at the food and say Danke (and sometimes buy him wine), but I hope the message of how awesome we all think he is is somehow crossing the language barrier.
Our place is a cozy cabin just in the foothills of the alps. We have an amazing view in all directions. Switzerland looks like a bottled water commercial. But just being right there is cool. It's rural yet fairly affluent, meaning you get both architecture and scenery. But mostly scenery. We look out the window, and it's like hello, alps. The novelty hasn't worn off yet.
We have taken it slow so far. We wandered the town of Schwyz, played soccer, visited finch's grandfather's girlfriend's house, etc., then watched a movie and slept. Today was perhaps our most exciting day - we climbed to a nearby mountain peak with a pub on it. Because kunal and I have anti-fear of heights, we stayed up for a bit longer than the other two. Naturally, we took the scenic route back, meaning we arrived significantly later.
Oh, and ridiculous situation #2. So we are in an apartment complex with a farm on one side and a church/opera house hybrid on the other. We get water out of a jug that must be refilled every so often from a spiggot shared with the cows (don't worry, it's clean). Naturally, there is an electric fence to keep the cows in.
We had a load in the laundry, meaning we were sitting around in our swimsuits. The water ran out and it was my turn to fill. But I managed to exit through the wrong door, which then locked behind me. The only way to the water trough was to hop the electric fence. But then it started raining, which caused a few people to leave the nearby (outdoor) ongoing opera. So I had spectators. It turns out I made it back in one piece after all.
Other excitement: our passes were not checked on the trip here, meaning we got a free day trip! We spent it going to lucerne, which was unremarkable (and extremely expensive). But they didn't check our passes again. We will probably spend that one visiting dday beaches from Paris.
Part two: wearing only a bathing suit, stuck straddling an electric fence while several cows and several dressed up operagoers watch.
---
It has ocurred to me that I am probably competing for your attention with my other two fellow bloggers (solemnclosure and travelingcameron [sic], both .blogspot.com). So I did what any good capitalist would do: I opened with a couple teasers that make this post sound much more exciting than it actually is, so that you read my blog instead of theirs.
So Milan. We managed to get through the train ride without anyone checking our eurrail passes, which means we got a free ride to be used later. Woo. If only Milan itself were that exciting. We more or less killed the first day - after the previous day's antics, we were all exhausted. The next day, we went to a museum that was decently cool, but everything was closed except ok Saturdays, which prevented it from being anything too special. In fact, the excitement of the day for me was when the bathroom door lock broke while I showered, having forgotten my towel and pants in our room. Surprise! The first story is exactly what it sounds like.
There was one potentially cool part to Milan, though, which was this door next to the elevator to our hotel that contained stairs down into an underground network of rooms. Unfortunately, my faithful companions decided to turn back after not that long. But I was having fun.
Switzerland, though, is about as cool as any of us could have hoped for. We were met by finch's grandfather at the train station, and he has continued being unbelievable helpful ever since. He brings us bread and jam and honey and butter every morning, and he sometimes makes us other meals, and drives us places. All any of us can really do is gesture frantically at the food and say Danke (and sometimes buy him wine), but I hope the message of how awesome we all think he is is somehow crossing the language barrier.
Our place is a cozy cabin just in the foothills of the alps. We have an amazing view in all directions. Switzerland looks like a bottled water commercial. But just being right there is cool. It's rural yet fairly affluent, meaning you get both architecture and scenery. But mostly scenery. We look out the window, and it's like hello, alps. The novelty hasn't worn off yet.
We have taken it slow so far. We wandered the town of Schwyz, played soccer, visited finch's grandfather's girlfriend's house, etc., then watched a movie and slept. Today was perhaps our most exciting day - we climbed to a nearby mountain peak with a pub on it. Because kunal and I have anti-fear of heights, we stayed up for a bit longer than the other two. Naturally, we took the scenic route back, meaning we arrived significantly later.
Oh, and ridiculous situation #2. So we are in an apartment complex with a farm on one side and a church/opera house hybrid on the other. We get water out of a jug that must be refilled every so often from a spiggot shared with the cows (don't worry, it's clean). Naturally, there is an electric fence to keep the cows in.
We had a load in the laundry, meaning we were sitting around in our swimsuits. The water ran out and it was my turn to fill. But I managed to exit through the wrong door, which then locked behind me. The only way to the water trough was to hop the electric fence. But then it started raining, which caused a few people to leave the nearby (outdoor) ongoing opera. So I had spectators. It turns out I made it back in one piece after all.
Other excitement: our passes were not checked on the trip here, meaning we got a free day trip! We spent it going to lucerne, which was unremarkable (and extremely expensive). But they didn't check our passes again. We will probably spend that one visiting dday beaches from Paris.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Roma
I am writing this at 11pm in an extremely ghetto train station, awaiting a recently-booked 4:30am train to Milan, taking a shift watching our stuff while the others sleep on benches. The story behind this is not going to appear in this blog. Fortunately for you, huddled masses yearning to breathe the truth-feast that is my writing, Rome has left us with no shortage of bloggable stories. Now. Starting from the beginning.
I woke up to our last day in Barcelona feeling crappy. I caught whatever finch had. But I figured, what the hell, last day in Spain, I might as well go for it. We spent most of the day at the beach. Cam and I went for a long swim, while kunal picked up his skirt and ran back to dry land. By the time we boarded the train, I was pretty tired from the swimming and the sickness. We spent 45 minutes or so exchanging magic tricks, and then everyone else went to sleep while I squirmed uncomfortably because I was feeling too sick to sleep. When I finally dozed off, finch somehow managed to sleep-elbow me in the face. I'm not even sure how that happens.
Upon our arrival in Rome, i planned to just crash and take a sick day, but first finch and I needed to hit up an ATM to pay for the (wi-fi-less, by the way) hostel. We found one, and then managed to get ourselves lost for four friggin' hours trying to find our way back. When we finally did, we had just enough time to get yelled at by kunal and cameron, get made fun of by kunal and cameron, and get dinner with kunal and cameron before it was about time to sleep anyways.
I had the good sense to drug up the next morning, and I was feeling chipper enough to go out sightseeing. We did our day of wandering. The trouble with sightseeing in Rome is that all the sights look just about the same - ruined buildings and half-standing pillars. That said, Rome is a plenty interesting city. My favorite quirk is that the ambulences play a tune instead of a siren. It sounds urgent enough, but it's much more pleasant. Also, the locals are awesome. There is an amazing hole-in-the-wall pizza place a few doors down from our hostel called flu-flu's - cheap prices, fantastic pizza, but mostly the owner is just hillarious. Think stereotypical Italian pizzamaker, minus the handlebar moustache. He is perpetually jolly, and he always says to us "eat! Eat! Eat!", makes fun of us for awhile in broken English, and then goes back to happily making more pizzas. We must have tipped him like 50% the first time we went.
The next day (kunal's birthday!) we were seeing the colliseum and forum, so I decided to power through the sick again and see them too. The colliseum was fairly nifty, although the forum suffered from the aforementioned problem of just looking like generic ruins. Story of the day: after the colliseum, we were taking a break in a large dug-out concrete area where an Italian kid (11 years old?) was kicking a soccer ball around. After I knocked it back to him a few times when he kicked it astray, he invited me to play. Anyways, I wasn't trying 100% for fear of knocking the kid over, but he was still pretty good and I was very rusty. Basically, he kicked my ass (and politely said "thank you" every time he stole the ball). I liked that kid. When I had to go, I said "good game." he pointed at our goals and said "10-1!" I was then duly made fun of. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel and celebrated kunal's birthday with a pleasant game of scrabble and a nice early night for all of us.
Today, we backpacked over to the Vatican. Chris and cam were uninterested, so they waited while kunal and I saw the sistene chapel (strangely, they sometimes spelled it like the 16 chapel. I guess whatever they choose is correct). They have it set up like they're trying to sell you something - the signs to the chapel actually filter you through about 200 other rooms first (including an out-of-place but very cool section on Egyptian history) before you reach the chapel itself. Naturally, the battery in my camera died two rooms before the chapel, but I decided to mimic the chapel ceiling and spark life into it with my forefinger. My assault-on-battery worked, and I got quite a few pictures of the chapel.
So we bummed around the Vatican for a few more hours, ate dinner at this Chinese/Italian place (there was an innocent-looking Chinese guy who stood outside and made us feel bad about not eating there every time we passed. It became a running joke), and now we are at a train station. I am definitely still not 100%, but I am starting to improve and it looks like I will have survived this sickness without actually sitting any days out. No promises about the next update - extrenuating circumnstances such as lack of wifi can result in things like this ridiculously long post. Holy crap I have been writing this for over an hour. Alright ciao.
I woke up to our last day in Barcelona feeling crappy. I caught whatever finch had. But I figured, what the hell, last day in Spain, I might as well go for it. We spent most of the day at the beach. Cam and I went for a long swim, while kunal picked up his skirt and ran back to dry land. By the time we boarded the train, I was pretty tired from the swimming and the sickness. We spent 45 minutes or so exchanging magic tricks, and then everyone else went to sleep while I squirmed uncomfortably because I was feeling too sick to sleep. When I finally dozed off, finch somehow managed to sleep-elbow me in the face. I'm not even sure how that happens.
Upon our arrival in Rome, i planned to just crash and take a sick day, but first finch and I needed to hit up an ATM to pay for the (wi-fi-less, by the way) hostel. We found one, and then managed to get ourselves lost for four friggin' hours trying to find our way back. When we finally did, we had just enough time to get yelled at by kunal and cameron, get made fun of by kunal and cameron, and get dinner with kunal and cameron before it was about time to sleep anyways.
I had the good sense to drug up the next morning, and I was feeling chipper enough to go out sightseeing. We did our day of wandering. The trouble with sightseeing in Rome is that all the sights look just about the same - ruined buildings and half-standing pillars. That said, Rome is a plenty interesting city. My favorite quirk is that the ambulences play a tune instead of a siren. It sounds urgent enough, but it's much more pleasant. Also, the locals are awesome. There is an amazing hole-in-the-wall pizza place a few doors down from our hostel called flu-flu's - cheap prices, fantastic pizza, but mostly the owner is just hillarious. Think stereotypical Italian pizzamaker, minus the handlebar moustache. He is perpetually jolly, and he always says to us "eat! Eat! Eat!", makes fun of us for awhile in broken English, and then goes back to happily making more pizzas. We must have tipped him like 50% the first time we went.
The next day (kunal's birthday!) we were seeing the colliseum and forum, so I decided to power through the sick again and see them too. The colliseum was fairly nifty, although the forum suffered from the aforementioned problem of just looking like generic ruins. Story of the day: after the colliseum, we were taking a break in a large dug-out concrete area where an Italian kid (11 years old?) was kicking a soccer ball around. After I knocked it back to him a few times when he kicked it astray, he invited me to play. Anyways, I wasn't trying 100% for fear of knocking the kid over, but he was still pretty good and I was very rusty. Basically, he kicked my ass (and politely said "thank you" every time he stole the ball). I liked that kid. When I had to go, I said "good game." he pointed at our goals and said "10-1!" I was then duly made fun of. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel and celebrated kunal's birthday with a pleasant game of scrabble and a nice early night for all of us.
Today, we backpacked over to the Vatican. Chris and cam were uninterested, so they waited while kunal and I saw the sistene chapel (strangely, they sometimes spelled it like the 16 chapel. I guess whatever they choose is correct). They have it set up like they're trying to sell you something - the signs to the chapel actually filter you through about 200 other rooms first (including an out-of-place but very cool section on Egyptian history) before you reach the chapel itself. Naturally, the battery in my camera died two rooms before the chapel, but I decided to mimic the chapel ceiling and spark life into it with my forefinger. My assault-on-battery worked, and I got quite a few pictures of the chapel.
So we bummed around the Vatican for a few more hours, ate dinner at this Chinese/Italian place (there was an innocent-looking Chinese guy who stood outside and made us feel bad about not eating there every time we passed. It became a running joke), and now we are at a train station. I am definitely still not 100%, but I am starting to improve and it looks like I will have survived this sickness without actually sitting any days out. No promises about the next update - extrenuating circumnstances such as lack of wifi can result in things like this ridiculously long post. Holy crap I have been writing this for over an hour. Alright ciao.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Busy
First of all, yogurt is most definetly a solid. Second of all, horchata is most definitely exciting. And third of all, the reason you get timely updates from kunal only is that I lock my Itouch away after a certain hour of the night. Those of you who know Spanish, go read kunal's Spanish post (solemnclosure.blogspot.com) and you'll understand why. Actually, the whole blog has a fair amount of comedic value.
So anyways. Starting two days ago. Finch was sick, and so the three of us set out on our own after arming him with a baguette and sandwich fixin's. We went to a castle on a hill and the nearby Olympic stadium, and it was easily the most fun sightseeing I've done all trip. We have reverted to adventure-style sightseeing, where we climb things, open unmarked doors, and follow random signs. Anyways, we discovered a vista point with a rather pleasant view of the ocean, and we lunched ourselves. That was the highlight.
There was free entry to a club that night, so we went. The clubbing was fairly unremarkable (except that they coreographed an awesome light show with every song). Kunal and I decided to leave before cameron. This was a bad idea. We first couldn't find our bus stop. So we walked about a mile into the city before realizing we had no idea where we were. So we walked back and waited to find someone from our hostel to follow back. Then we saw our bus go by. So we sprinted after it for about half a mile and got on. Then we managed to overshoot our stop and walk the exact wrong way once we got off. We found the hostel about two and a half hours after we left the club. Upon arriving, we realized we had no idea where cam was. I went to sleep while kunal wrote an immensely exciting blog post about it. Turns out he was just on his way back.
We slept in an embarrasingly long time the next day, and wound up only doing some communal bone-strengthening and then wandering las ramblas (a crowded and upscale commercial street, and also the home of a lot of sketchy activity). I was rather awkwardly solicited by a prostitute. I suspect it was a pickpocketting distraction, actually, but I got my hand in my pocket quickly and my money (and my dignity) are still in tact.
Finch joined us again today, and we went to a hill with an amazing view on the other end of town. It had a binch of architecture deaigned by a famous native who was appropriately named Gaudi. Much fun sightseeing, and some of the coolest street musicianing I've seen all trip. Many classical guitarists, and this strange harp/steel drum duo that worked surprisingly well. Anyways, my next update will probably be from the (18 hour) train out of here. My how time flies. This trip is so much fun, and also about 1/3 over.
So anyways. Starting two days ago. Finch was sick, and so the three of us set out on our own after arming him with a baguette and sandwich fixin's. We went to a castle on a hill and the nearby Olympic stadium, and it was easily the most fun sightseeing I've done all trip. We have reverted to adventure-style sightseeing, where we climb things, open unmarked doors, and follow random signs. Anyways, we discovered a vista point with a rather pleasant view of the ocean, and we lunched ourselves. That was the highlight.
There was free entry to a club that night, so we went. The clubbing was fairly unremarkable (except that they coreographed an awesome light show with every song). Kunal and I decided to leave before cameron. This was a bad idea. We first couldn't find our bus stop. So we walked about a mile into the city before realizing we had no idea where we were. So we walked back and waited to find someone from our hostel to follow back. Then we saw our bus go by. So we sprinted after it for about half a mile and got on. Then we managed to overshoot our stop and walk the exact wrong way once we got off. We found the hostel about two and a half hours after we left the club. Upon arriving, we realized we had no idea where cam was. I went to sleep while kunal wrote an immensely exciting blog post about it. Turns out he was just on his way back.
We slept in an embarrasingly long time the next day, and wound up only doing some communal bone-strengthening and then wandering las ramblas (a crowded and upscale commercial street, and also the home of a lot of sketchy activity). I was rather awkwardly solicited by a prostitute. I suspect it was a pickpocketting distraction, actually, but I got my hand in my pocket quickly and my money (and my dignity) are still in tact.
Finch joined us again today, and we went to a hill with an amazing view on the other end of town. It had a binch of architecture deaigned by a famous native who was appropriately named Gaudi. Much fun sightseeing, and some of the coolest street musicianing I've seen all trip. Many classical guitarists, and this strange harp/steel drum duo that worked surprisingly well. Anyways, my next update will probably be from the (18 hour) train out of here. My how time flies. This trip is so much fun, and also about 1/3 over.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Barcelona
First, I would like to inform you kind readers that I can (and do) read your comments, but because of the app I use to blog I cannot respond to them. I can (and do) read your comments, but because of the app I use to blog I cannot respond to them. There. You are informed.
Spanish horchata is disappointing. It tastes like plain yogurt in liquid form-not the cinnamony goodness I have come to know and love. I am going to give it a second chance because I am in denial. We bought a liter for the train (didn't get to it last night). This was perhaps fortunate, because we had a last minute oh crap we need reservations for this train. Fortunately, we were only delayed an hour.
Barcelona is basically Madrid, with a beach.
The good: there's a nearby plaza that attracts some rather impressive street musicians. Today there was a band of five horn players and a string bass. They were amazing. I have budgeted myself 3€ in tips to street musicians. Also, the hostel is bigger and more colorful. And the beach moonrise is pleasant. And the people in our hostel seem friendlier. I love the hostel system. Very conducive to self-sufficiency and talking to strangers.
The bad: our hostel is inferior to the last one. They close things early. They only offer 10 mins of free wifi per day (meaning my chatting prospects are out for this city)(this won't affect my blogging, because I do the writing offline)(although this has a perk: everyone else only has 10 minutes per day, too). They make it very difficult to store or consume delicious beverages*. Also, there's nothing I'm this city that quite measures up to el plaza mayor. And they don't predominantly speak Spanish here - they speak Catalan, although we can still get around on Spanish alone.
The ugly: Kunal Nagpal
Oh, and I got to ride on el ave! My Spanish teachers have been fawning over it for years and telling us how quick and smooth the ride is**. It was indeed fairly pleasant. I watched swing vote dubbed in Spanish. The movie wasn't amazing but it was fun to follow what was going on and then feel proud of myself.
Anyways, bedtime for me. Keep sending me fan mail, those of you that have been doing so. I'll do my best to respond within my limited Internet time.
*such as orange juice and calcium-fortiied milk.
**this was for deidre.
Spanish horchata is disappointing. It tastes like plain yogurt in liquid form-not the cinnamony goodness I have come to know and love. I am going to give it a second chance because I am in denial. We bought a liter for the train (didn't get to it last night). This was perhaps fortunate, because we had a last minute oh crap we need reservations for this train. Fortunately, we were only delayed an hour.
Barcelona is basically Madrid, with a beach.
The good: there's a nearby plaza that attracts some rather impressive street musicians. Today there was a band of five horn players and a string bass. They were amazing. I have budgeted myself 3€ in tips to street musicians. Also, the hostel is bigger and more colorful. And the beach moonrise is pleasant. And the people in our hostel seem friendlier. I love the hostel system. Very conducive to self-sufficiency and talking to strangers.
The bad: our hostel is inferior to the last one. They close things early. They only offer 10 mins of free wifi per day (meaning my chatting prospects are out for this city)(this won't affect my blogging, because I do the writing offline)(although this has a perk: everyone else only has 10 minutes per day, too). They make it very difficult to store or consume delicious beverages*. Also, there's nothing I'm this city that quite measures up to el plaza mayor. And they don't predominantly speak Spanish here - they speak Catalan, although we can still get around on Spanish alone.
The ugly: Kunal Nagpal
Oh, and I got to ride on el ave! My Spanish teachers have been fawning over it for years and telling us how quick and smooth the ride is**. It was indeed fairly pleasant. I watched swing vote dubbed in Spanish. The movie wasn't amazing but it was fun to follow what was going on and then feel proud of myself.
Anyways, bedtime for me. Keep sending me fan mail, those of you that have been doing so. I'll do my best to respond within my limited Internet time.
*such as orange juice and calcium-fortiied milk.
**this was for deidre.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Last day.
It is our last full day in Madrid.
Transition.
I ran into julia (a girl in my spanish 4 class) randomly in the streets. I didn't know her all that well, but it was still cool. We also finally hit up some museums - a nice art one and the royal palace, which was gaudy but cool. There was one room where the painted figures were interacting with fixtures in the room - more informal than I expected but very cool looking.
But most of our time is spent wandering the city. It is narrow roads and broad sidewalks. Lots of pedestrian traffic. Most stores and things are very small but multiple stories high. Ocassionally there are plazas, in which there is always something going on. There is lots of graffiti, but I actually like it. It is artistic rather than gang related. Some of it is funny - like the palace, they incorporate fixtures into the art. All of it is colorful and rather pleasant. There is also a lot of pro-anarchy political graffti, which is not so optically pleasant but is still amusing. The people here are friendly - everyone talks to strangers a lot more than in America. Living in a hostel is a lot of fun. It only magnifies that sentiment.
Anyways, I'm off to get some horchata (delicious milk, rice, and cinnamon drink) and then do nightly things. Adiós.
Transition.
I ran into julia (a girl in my spanish 4 class) randomly in the streets. I didn't know her all that well, but it was still cool. We also finally hit up some museums - a nice art one and the royal palace, which was gaudy but cool. There was one room where the painted figures were interacting with fixtures in the room - more informal than I expected but very cool looking.
But most of our time is spent wandering the city. It is narrow roads and broad sidewalks. Lots of pedestrian traffic. Most stores and things are very small but multiple stories high. Ocassionally there are plazas, in which there is always something going on. There is lots of graffiti, but I actually like it. It is artistic rather than gang related. Some of it is funny - like the palace, they incorporate fixtures into the art. All of it is colorful and rather pleasant. There is also a lot of pro-anarchy political graffti, which is not so optically pleasant but is still amusing. The people here are friendly - everyone talks to strangers a lot more than in America. Living in a hostel is a lot of fun. It only magnifies that sentiment.
Anyways, I'm off to get some horchata (delicious milk, rice, and cinnamon drink) and then do nightly things. Adiós.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I hate crabs
So I had a paella for lunch, which was one of the things I was looking forward to in Madrid. It came with tons of seafood, including a whole crab, shell and all. I had no idea how you're supposed to eat crab, and as a result, I wound up exploding it in rather dramatic fashion while trying to open the shell. It was everywhere on me (and nowhere on anyone else. Go figure).
Other than that, it was a rather pleasant day. I still like Madrid. We had a 2.5 hour nap in the park and we did more wandering.
Other than that, it was a rather pleasant day. I still like Madrid. We had a 2.5 hour nap in the park and we did more wandering.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Madrid
Madrid is awesome. Full of quirky shops, parks, statues, and (best of all) street performers. One of them today picked cameron as an assistant for a trick. It was hillarious, partially because of the language barrier, and partially just because the guy was a charismatic performer. He was also insanely good at juggling. I love street performers.
It is also quite fun navigating in Spanish. We stopped by a market to pick up a few basic supplies, and we talked to each other in broken Spanish. I think we pretended it was cultural or for practice or something, but really I think it was because the novelty hadn't worn off yet. We're in Spain!
It is also quite fun navigating in Spanish. We stopped by a market to pick up a few basic supplies, and we talked to each other in broken Spanish. I think we pretended it was cultural or for practice or something, but really I think it was because the novelty hadn't worn off yet. We're in Spain!
This is a list of things that sucked about my flight:
-nothing
The above also functions as a list of services not provided by my kickass on-demand system. Actually that's a lie; it was inferior in many ways to virgin's, but it kept me entertained. I became tired pretty quickly. I remember losing lucidity partway through watching hp2 and deciding it would be awesome if michael Jackson came out of his coffin partway through the funeral and started dancing thriller, and then revealed that it was all a fake and that was how he kicked off his next tour. Actually, I think that is a great idea and I stand by it even while in a completely proper state of mind.
The above also functions as a list of services not provided by my kickass on-demand system. Actually that's a lie; it was inferior in many ways to virgin's, but it kept me entertained. I became tired pretty quickly. I remember losing lucidity partway through watching hp2 and deciding it would be awesome if michael Jackson came out of his coffin partway through the funeral and started dancing thriller, and then revealed that it was all a fake and that was how he kicked off his next tour. Actually, I think that is a great idea and I stand by it even while in a completely proper state of mind.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Hello, Europe!
I am home for another 21 hours, then I'm on the plane for 13 hours, then I'm in Europe for 774 hours, then I fly for 11 hours, then I'm home again. Because 774 hours is kind of a long time, I figured I'd keep the world posted on what I'm up to.
All posts (except this one) will be made from my handy handy iTouch. The good news is, all our hostels have wi-fi, so I can theoretically blog just about every day. The bad news is, it is pretty much impossible to type lengthy blog posts on iTouches without racking them with spelling mistakes. I apologize in advance if this blog is completely illegible.
I will not have a phone while I'm in Europe, but you can still email me at greg@bodwin.us and I will get it. I'm also trying to get an App working that will let me gchat, but no promises.
Anyways, you all have a nice life.
Greg
"Grincheronal" = Greg+Finch+Cameron+Kunal, dubbed the "EU-Crew" by Kunal, in case you were wondering.
All posts (except this one) will be made from my handy handy iTouch. The good news is, all our hostels have wi-fi, so I can theoretically blog just about every day. The bad news is, it is pretty much impossible to type lengthy blog posts on iTouches without racking them with spelling mistakes. I apologize in advance if this blog is completely illegible.
I will not have a phone while I'm in Europe, but you can still email me at greg@bodwin.us and I will get it. I'm also trying to get an App working that will let me gchat, but no promises.
Anyways, you all have a nice life.
Greg
"Grincheronal" = Greg+Finch+Cameron+Kunal, dubbed the "EU-Crew" by Kunal, in case you were wondering.
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