Let me just start by getting my anger out about the 6 day delay of my flight. Due to 3 inches of snow 400,000 people were stranded at heathrow airport. Yes you read that correctly 3 inches. I was not surprised When I heard that there had been some delays and cancellations on saturday because it was coming down pretty hard, I just never expected 3 hours and 3 inches of snow could cause so much disruption. It was our last night in London so we all went out together the only people worried about having delays were the ones who had early morning flights. Nope wrong. out of the 1,000 + flights that leave from heathrow every day only 5 got out on sunday the 19th. Is the UK even serious? 3 inches of snow!!! What did they all do when it was snowing just call it quits and go get hammered at the pub (British tradition on snow days) Well apparently they didn’t do jack, and after it snowed they must not have tried to remove it because the next day all the runways where frozen over. Hey I got an idea, you ever here of salt? snow plow maybe? hell they could have given me a shovel and the run ways would have been clear in no time. Then they have the nerve to say things like well snow is such an uncommon thing for us. Really? is it that uncommon? last time I checked it has snowed in the UK since the beginning of time. I mean they might not get as much snow as we do back home but they at least get some snow every year right? Luckily I only had a 6 day delay while whole school of kids are stuck here till the 27th while a few others are traveling on christmas day. I tried getting on several other flights but it was extremely annoying staying on hold for 3 hours at a time only to be told theres not a snowballs chance in hell you get out before the 24th or Your lucky your even getting out on the 24th. The way they were talking about the weather you would have thought it was the blizzard of 78’. At least I’ll make it back in time for christmas eve dinner, while others are missing christmas entirely. Congratulations Heathrow airport your are officially this years grinch.Get your act together heathrow, God forbid you get 5 inches next year, but I guess that will just mean the apocalypse is coming because the UK doesn’t get snow.
Now that I’m finished with that rant I’ll end on a positive note
The first few weeks in London where spent doing all of the tourist things museums, markets, other places of interest. However once I started to settle in everything started to become like home. I even had a favorite place for lunch (sandwich shop). I even had daily routines. Class was kind of a joke because I really only had classes on tuesday so that left me the whole week to do pretty much whatever I wanted.
Things I’ll Miss (no particular order)
The tube (best public transportation in the world) Pub culture (better then american bars, mostly because it is acceptable to go every night of the week), Monday nights at Zetland Arms (favorite pub), sloppy tuesdays at sports cafe, random adventures to piccadilly and SOHO. Monica and Paul’s ridiculous comments about Miami. Monica’s late night pasta creations. Getting on the 24 hour bus at 3 in the morning and ending up 2 hours away from my room (maybe not). Not doing “real” school work. Guinness. Real beer (although I do miss my pabst and busch for some sick reason). Going out with co-workers and not having to pay for a single drink. Corny british sayings that make me laugh at how silly the brits really are. one pound and two pound coins that make you feel like you have no money but in actuality you have about ten pounds on you. Getting my lunches paid for me. And most importantly all of the friends I’ve made along my journey. I will probably never see most of you ever again but I will never forget you (sorry to be a downer I’m just trying to be realistic) So if your ever in Boston let me know and If i’m in your city and I don’t let you know then I probably don’t want to see you...just kidding have a nice life.
In closing
I’ve sipped the finest beers around the world, cruised the canals of amsterdam, walked along the historic Red Light District (no I did not get a prostitute). Danced and drank on the beaches of Barcelona. Took a train down the coast of Spain. Sipped sangria and ate tapas rode bikes and watched a Flamenco show in Valencia (Got stuck with an all guy Flamenco group so that sucked). Gazed upon ancient Roman Ruins and fountains. Walked through the coliseum, was mesmerized by Michael Angelo’s Sistine chapel, Saw some dead popes, Prayed at the tomb of St. Joseph, stood in front of the alter at St. Peters. Walked through the streets of venice (Nothing really exciting about venice unless your with a significant other + it rained) Drank and sang Irish pub songs with the Locals and stood at the edges of the Cliffs of Moher now somebody do me a favor and get me a cookie.....
Let me just start by getting my anger out about the 6 day delay of my flight. Due to 3 inches of snow 400,000 people were stranded at heathrow airport. Yes you read that correctly 3 inches. I was not surprised When I heard that there had been some delays and cancellations on saturday because it was coming down pretty hard, I just never expected 3 hours and 3 inches of snow could cause so much disruption. It was our last night in London so we all went out together the only people worried about having delays were the ones who had early morning flights. Nope wrong. out of the 1,000 + flights that leave from heathrow every day only 5 got out on sunday the 19th. Is the UK even serious? 3 inches of snow!!! What did they all do when it was snowing just call it quits and go get hammered at the pub (British tradition on snow days) Well apparently they didn’t do jack, and after it snowed they must not have tried to remove it because the next day all the runways where frozen over. Hey I got an idea, you ever here of salt? snow plow maybe? hell they could have given me a shovel and the run ways would have been clear in no time. Then they have the nerve to say things like well snow is such an uncommon thing for us. Really? is it that uncommon? last time I checked it has snowed in the UK since the beginning of time. I mean they might not get as much snow as we do back home but they at least get some snow every year right? Luckily I only had a 6 day delay while whole school of kids are stuck here till the 27th while a few others are traveling on christmas day. I tried getting on several other flights but it was extremely annoying staying on hold for 3 hours at a time only to be told theres not a snowballs chance in hell you get out before the 24th or Your lucky your even getting out on the 24th. The way they were talking about the weather you would have thought it was the blizzard of 78’. At least I’ll make it back in time for christmas eve dinner, while others are missing christmas entirely. Congratulations Heathrow airport your are officially this years grinch.Get your act together heathrow, God forbid you get 5 inches next year, but I guess that will just mean the apocalypse is coming because the UK doesn’t get snow.
Now that I’m finished with that rant I’ll end on a positive note
The first few weeks in London where spent doing all of the tourist things museums, markets, other places of interest. However once I started to settle in everything started to become like home. I even had a favorite place for lunch (sandwich shop). I even had daily routines. Class was kind of a joke because I really only had classes on tuesday so that left me the whole week to do pretty much whatever I wanted.
Things I’ll Miss (no particular order)
The tube (best public transportation in the world) Pub culture (better then american bars, mostly because it is acceptable to go every night of the week), Monday nights at Zetland Arms (favorite pub), sloppy tuesdays at sports cafe, random adventures to piccadilly and SOHO. Monica and Paul’s ridiculous comments about Miami. Monica’s late night pasta creations. Getting on the 24 hour bus at 3 in the morning and ending up 2 hours away from my room (maybe not). Not doing “real” school work. Guinness. Real beer (although I do miss my pabst and busch for some sick reason). Going out with co-workers and not having to pay for a single drink. Corny british sayings that make me laugh at how silly the brits really are. one pound and two pound coins that make you feel like you have no money but in actuality you have about ten pounds on you. Getting my lunches paid for me. And most importantly all of the friends I’ve made along my journey. I will probably never see most of you ever again but I will never forget you (sorry to be a downer I’m just trying to be realistic) So if your ever in Boston let me know and If i’m in your city and I don’t let you know then I probably don’t want to see you...just kidding have a nice life.
In closing
I’ve sipped the finest beers around the world, cruised the canals of amsterdam, walked along the historic Red Light District (no I did not get a prostitute). Danced and drank on the beaches of Barcelona. Took a train down the coast of Spain. Sipped sangria and ate tapas rode bikes and watched a Flamenco show in Valencia (Got stuck with an all guy Flamenco group so that sucked). Gazed upon ancient Roman Ruins and fountains. Walked through the coliseum, was mesmerized by Michael Angelo’s Sistine chapel, Saw some dead popes, Prayed at the tomb of St. Joseph, stood in front of the alter at St. Peters. Walked through the streets of venice (Nothing really exciting about venice unless your with a significant other + it rained) Drank and sang Irish pub songs with the Locals and stood at the edges of the Cliffs of Moher now somebody do me a favor and get me a cookie.....
Let me just start out by saying that Ireland in the best place in the world. If you know anything about me then you know three basic things 1. I don’t like clubs 2. I love country music and 3. I love Guinness. So Ireland is my kind of place. The only club we went to was at the end of the pub crawl late at night and it was hardly a club, Irish pub music is very similar to country, and the Guinness never tasted so good. Since I’ve arrived back in London I’ve been asking myself the same two questions: 1. Why didn’t it cross my mind to study in Ireland instead of London? and 2. How do I make enough money so that I can just pack up move to Ireland? Well I guess I’ll never figure out the answer to the first question but I already have a solid idea on the second, you want to hear it?Lottery boom done simple as that. It can’t be that hard right? I just figure I’ll spend my life savings on lottery tickets (All $300 currently) and I’ll be off living the easy life playing golf at the K club by day and singing irish pub songs with santa, hillbilly rick, and the blues brothers by night (See video Below). Any way on to the trip.
I took the trip to Ireland with my buddy Matt (my Jersey contingency of friends grows even overseas). We left on a Saturday Morning and would come back on tuesday morning(cheapest way to go). Let me just add that we were a bunch of morons because we still went out on friday night for our friend Jills 21st and ended up only getting 2 hours of sleep and had to be at the airport for 7 (about an hour by subway). We did get a little scare when we got there because they announced the Dublin airport was closed due to snow. Luckily we only had an hour delay and then we were off. When we got there there was only about a half inch of snow on the ground and I thought to myself, what a bunch off rookies, seriously a half inch of snow and you go a-wall and shut down your air port. Seriously your better then that Ireland. Any way It was around lunch time and since we only had backpacks we didn’t feel the need to check in to our hostel so we hit up a pub for lunch and a few pints...Well lunch and a few pints turned into lunch and several pints at various pubs (Dublin has just over 1,000 of them and the most per capita in the world) There is literally multiple pubs on every street in Dublin. By about 530 we where feeling pretty good but also very tiered so we headed to the hostel to take a nap and get ready for the pub crawl we planned on doing that night.
The pub crawl was great even though we didn’t get all to many deals like you usually would on pub crawls (Irelands economy kind of shit the bed). Regardless we went to a lot of different pubs some more local than others which was nice. The best pub we went to had live music upstairs and then the basement was your typical college house basement, filled with mostly college kids (some creep was stalking a girl we where with), pool tables, foozball, and the essential ruit table (Irish flag themed table in photos). Although we had a poor performance due to some losers who bounced the ball (c’mon bro bouncing is elementary crap no one plays like that anymore). Regardless the place was still great and when we left the place it started to snow which resulted in a city wide snowball fight, or maybe it was just me and Matt picking off innocent bystanders? well after the last pub we called it a night and headed back to the hostel (snow balls in hand). What we didn’t know was that a few blocks away at our hostel there was an epic snowball fight going on. When we arrived at the war zone some spaniards where ganging up on some poor undersized undermanned opponent, just a blood bath if you ask me. But hey we’re American so we just did what America always does best, come in and wipe out the competition. Silly spaniards had nothing on a couple of Red blooded American boys from the Northeast. I’ve been chucking snowballs since I got out of the womb (and have been doing it intoxicated since that epic night on Presley street) We simply overwhelmed the competition and forced them into surrender they never stood a chance. I don’t even think they know what hit em, one minute they were dominating, the next there getting a high heat fastball to the dome running for their lives. Our duty as Americans was complete and once again America came out on top as she always does. God it’s good to be an American.
Sunday Involved tours of both the guinness and Jameson Factory. As I mentioned before, I love guinness it’s one of my favorite beers if not my favorite so it was cool to get to see the factory. Although the Heineken factory had a better presentation and more things to see and do, the gravity bar atop the factory and pint at the end was all worth it. The Jameson factory was pretty good as well, but the fact that we were not picked to do the taste test at the end involving Jack, Jameson, and Johnny W was nothing short of devastating. After the tours we headed to a pub (Shocking I know). What happened at the pub was arguably the coolest thing all trip. All we really wanted was a pint and some food to eat, but what we got was nothing short of musical brilliance. When we sat down in this rather small bar the guy next to us had a bodhran (irish drum) he started playing and then singing it sounded great but it wasn’t complete. What happened next was breathtaking. The guy started to play another song, and just as he a did a fellow resembling santa clause looking like a G strolled into the pub took a seat and whipped out a flute from his jacket and picked up right along with the song and “you gotta know something, I’m not just some guy it was the music of angels...it was like a combination of fergy and Jesus ” then another guy came along looking like he was from the blues brothers and started playing the drum (although he was off beat half the time). It’s still unclear if these guys even knew each other because after every song they start asking what songs they each knew and which ones they could play. Sadly santa got a call probably from one of his little elves and had to get back to the North pole. I was a little upset because without the flute the music just doesn’t sound as good, but no less then 5 minutes later a man/women (still unsure of the gender) comes in and whips out his/her flute and rips a solo right in the middle of the song. Pure musical Genius that sounded a bit like country so I was amused.
The third day we decided to get out of Dublin and take a day trip to the cliffs of Moher which were awesome, If it were summer 06 (best summer all time) and 90 degrees out I would have considered a jump.The Cliffs and Ireland were exactly how I pictured it, barren land, small towns, animals roaming, and thatched roof houses it was awesome and a place I could consider living in (closer to the city of course) That night we went to a few pubs for pints and to hear some live music again.
Ireland is my kind of place lots of pubs, friendly people, good food, and good music. Now only if I could find a beautiful potato sack Irish girl I’d be set.
So I’m finally getting some free time to write about my 10 day excursion around spain and Italy. The trip took place October 23rd to the 1st of November, and Included 1 night in Bournmouth airport, 2 nights in Barcelona, 2 nights in Valencia, 3 nights in Rome and 2 nights in Venice. In order to accomplish all four cities in 10 days in the cheapest way possible our method of travel would be flying Ryan Air (worst air line ever) to barcelona then train to Valencia, Ryan Air to Rome, train to Venice, and Ryan Air back to London.
Ryan Air
Ryan air offers the cheapest flights possible to nearly anywhere around Europe, unfortunately I was unaware that it was the equivalent to the Fung Wah bus. It may be the cheapest way to travel but you may just lose your life in the process. Ryan Air literally runs like a shuttle bus, as your getting onto the plane passengers who are just arriving are getting off the plane, just like that the plane is off again. I thought planes had to go through a serious amount of checks before even being allowed to take off? Aside from the safety issues they are a real pain in the ass when it comes to carry on bags. I myself fell victim to this on the first flight where I had to pay 35 pounds to have my bag checked. Not because I couldn’t fit the bag in their dumb-ass sizing container but because the wheels on the bag where sticking out of the top preventing the top of the bag from touching the floor, and of course they don’t take cards when they make you check it so you have to run around like an idiot looking for an ATM and then when you give them 40 pounds they can’t make change so then you have to go find a place willing to break your cash. (Ryan Air 1 me 0) Well Ryan Air can suck it because they will never get me again. I had no trouble boarding my flight in Valencia I was able to fit my bag in comfortably due to some careful repacking (Ryan Air 1- Me 1). However Venice was a different story, The air port their may have been the worst air port set up in the world. They had only one security checkpoint open with about 15 people working it with about 200 people trying to get through. However before you could go through the security check point you would have to pass through one more Ryan Air baggage check before being on your way. Just to make sure my bag was alright I had checked with one of the sizing containers prior to getting in line and it had fit in just fine, so I felt confident that I would have no trouble getting through to security. Well Ryan air tried to pull a fast one on me but hell would have to freeze over before I gave them 35 pounds to check my bag again. So what was there little scam to try and get people to give them more money. Well the crafty SOBs decided to put a scale underneath the sizing container. So not only did you have to fit their ridiculous size restrictions but also there absurd weight restriction which airlines usually don’t enforce. Well I had bought a few thins along my journey and I was certain my bag would be over weight. So even though it fit in the container I was still something like 2kgs over weight. So what did I do? Did I pay the greedy money grubbers 35 Pounds? For sure not. I opened my bag, threw on every T-shirt in my bag on, put two pairs of jeans, stuffed my pockets with some souvenirs, and got rid of just about all of my toiletries, and guess what I may have looked like a jack-ass but my bag made weight and the suckers at Ryan Air will never see a dime of my money again ( Ryan Air 1- Me 2) Now on to beggars.
Beggars
Beggars are essentially homeless people or just money grubbers who probably do have a place to live but they still beg you for money. Homeless people in Europe put homeless people in America to shame, these crazy SOBs are proactive in their approach to try and get money from you. Come right up to you get in your grill speaking other languages and saying things like god bless and preaching things about Jesus, trying to put the guilt trip on you to make you give them money, and there persistent no matter how many times you say you don’t have any change for them (even though you got like 10 euros of change in your pocket) they come right back at you 2 minutes later without fail. I felt bad because I did want to give some change to some of them but I’m broke as it is trying to travel around Europe and if you give to one of em your going to have to give to the next guy to and before you know it boom your the one on the street holding a cup begging for people to give you money.Even on the train a guy will be playing some stupid instrument no one wants to hear while his 4 year old daughter goes around asking you for money, it’s just sad really and theres nothing you can do because no one has money to give out these days. They even come into restaurants and stuff just asking for money. Heck one lady even came into the bar in Valencia at 1 in the morning trying to get drunk people to give her money.They Should have given her a couple of them Chuck Norris shots instead, would have kept her warm and fuzzy all night long.
Barcelona
We arrived in Barcelona around noon time. Who ever would of thought that a subway system could be so confusing, mostly because it was all in spanish, maybe paying a little more attention in Mrs. Ramos’s spanish class could have paid off. The hostel was fairly clean but this hostel had far to many people over the age of 40 and it was called a youth hostel, which is fairly disturbing. I get that hostels provide cheap accommodations but I mean if your 40 and can’t afford to stay in a half decent hotel room or B&E then you should probably skip the vacation. 1. It is just awkward because the majority of people in hostels are students so being 30 years older just makes everyone else uncomfortable and 2. have a little respect for yourself I mean common spend a little extra cash and get a decent hotel room to yourself, that way no one gets the feeling that your some creepy lunatic praying on college students. More on Hostels to follow but for now onto Barcelona. Luckily we were located right outside of Las Rambas street, which is probably the most famous street in barcelona as well as most festive. No where and I mean no Where compares to the human statues on La Rambas (See Photo Album). The rest Of la Rambas was filled with restaurants and small boutiques, you could even by live chipmunks and Rabits on this street. I didn’t even know you could keep chipmunks as pets? The rest of the day was spent walking around the local area and grabbing a bight to eat
1st night
Through our hostel we decided to sign up for a group event that only coast us 5 euros to go to a night club with a free drink once we got inside. Unlike most places however Barcelona Night life doesn’t actually start till around 2 A.M. We arrived at the night club at around 1:30 and were literally some of he first people in there, unfortunately I had not had much to drink before entering the club and the free drink was only a glass of champaign. The club was also pretty cool due to the fact that the beach was right outside and had a deck leading right onto the sand. For those of you who know me you know that I’m not a big fan of night clubs. I just don’t understand them. Are you just suppose to go up to random girls and start dancing on them? To me that just feels awkward and to do that sober is pure insanity. So instead of paying some absurd price for a drink at this rather nice club I decided to work with the small buzz I had going and hit the floor. Well This my friends is where I hit the lottery. I was fortunate enough to “Befriend” a lovely local spanish girl who after a few dances kindly escorted me up to her V.I.P table where I thoroughly enjoyed all of the free alcoholic beverages I desired. V.I.P is about the only way to enjoy a night club. That way you can just chill up in your booth like you own the dam place and if you actually want to dance with some one it’s not so bad because no one is going to turn you down if they know that (or at least think) your a baller because you have bottle service. needless to say I didn’t need to find another girl to dance with,and the fact that her english wasn’t all that great is unimportant because she was a “dream girl” Like 9 out of 10 (probably more like 7 or 8 I was a little drunk and night clubs are dark, but we’ll just keep it at 9 for my sake) Well the night ended and we said our goodbyes and went on our separate ways maybe in another lifetime Tanya just maybe....
The second day in Barcelona was spent on a bus seeing tour. It was a really good way to see the rest of the city and took us to some pretty cool places. I also bought a pair of sunglasses here off a street seller, much to my dismay right after making the purchase I spotted about 10 other street seller actually selling knock off ray bans that looked legit (they where actually probably legitimate ray bans). Any way the rest of the day/night was spent hanging out by the beach and then actually getting a chance to find a bar that had the Pats on which was good.
All and all Barcelona was a pretty cool place although somewhat expensive. On monday morning we went and got the train to Valencia it was only about a 3 hour trip and most of it was along the ocean so it was pretty nice.
Valencia
Of the four places visited during this trip, Valencia was by far my favorite. It’s a smaller city but very clean and a lot of cool bars and cheap food. They even have marble sidewalks in some of the areas. The only thing about Valencia is if you where going to stay there for an extended amount of time it would be in your best interest to learn some spanish.
Our hostel In Valencia was fairly nice and very clean, we also had the luxury of having the room by ourselves the first night. Again we signed up with our hostel to do a pub crawl, which basically is just as the title infers, going bar to bar getting drinks at each one until you basically can’t see straight, good fun. It first started out with just 5 of us but gradually grew to about 20 or so people mostly all college kids, a few Americans, some Ausies and some other strays and of course a hot veterinarian from Brazil. The bars in Valencia are very different from any type of Bar I’ve ever been in. They basically look like a morning breakfast place you go to to get your daily cup of coffee and read the paper (Think little River In but smaller) none the less they serve alcohol and lots of it. Another great thing about Valencia and Spain in general is sangria which is extremely good. The night went as planned and some of the girls had to be taken back to the hostels by friends because they where literally falling all over the place. It was a great night and tones of fun and I was surprisingly not all that hung over the next day.
Day 2 we decided to rent bikes because valencia is pretty small and it was cheap. we rode through the park and went to the beach which was much better then Barcelona's beach.
NIght 2
If you ever get to Valencia you have to go to this small sandwich shop in the center of town it was the best place I ate all vacation small sandwiches for 1 euro and a jug of Sangria for 2 Euros . Anyways through our Hostel we decided to go to a Flamenco show which I had previously conceived it to be a gorgeous spanish women dancing and singing....not the case on this night. Apparently we went on the wrong night and it ended being a couple of guys singing and tap dancing, disappointing, but hey we got some drinks and some food out of it any way probably just should have stuck with the pub crawl again, live and learn. I only wish that during my time in Valencia there was a bull fight in the bullfighting stadium. You bet I’d be there and you bet I’d be cheering for the bull the whole time. Nothing like watching some moron trying to take a bull head on with a couple of swords only to get demolished by the beast, Like what did you think was going to happen if the bull actually out smarted you? But any way Valencia was awesome but Rome was next on the agenda
Rome
Rome is a place that I’ve always wanted to visit so I had to get there sometime during my stay in Europe. It was partly what I expected it to be but also very different then I had thought. MOst of the city is very modern but then you’ll be walking and out of nowhere are just a bunch of ancient ruins that you can only make out to be a couple of pillars and some walls. Also a few of the ruins a over run with stray cats whats up with that? There just down there acting like they own the place and if you know me you know that I despise cats, just pointless snobby little creature who think there better then everyone. So my solution to his would to just take down some the ruins I mean they don’t really look like anything anyway and there just taking up space and housing mans worst friend. Aside from that the Roman fountains where really cool to see as well as the pantheon and Coliseum plus all of the old churches surrounding the city where nice.
Our first full day we went to the Vatican (no I didn’t see the Pope) The vatican museum has got some crazy stuff and the Sistine Chapel was awesome to see in person. St. Peters Cathedral was absolutely massive and very cool to see as well.
The Hostel we stayed in the first two nights was fine and we had our own room again. Unfortunately because the third night we where staying was a friday night the price of the hostel nearly doubled. So we decided to book a place at a camp ground just utside of the city. The campgrounds in Europe usually just have small cabins to stay in so it’s not actually like camping but we did know we where going to not have any heat. Well we were dead wrong about what we had imagined it to be. We where literally staying in a tent with bunk beds in it (See Album) Rome is not warm this time of year at all so I pretty much wore everything I had including my shoes and I was still freezing, but hey we paid something like 10 euros for the night so I couldn’t be that upset. The next day we headed to the train station and took a 6 hour train ride to venice.
Venice
Again in Venice we opted for the camping option (Cabin with heat) mostly because for some reason we couldn’t find a single hostel with vacancy that weekend. Well Venice is pretty cool to see but there isn’t much to do really. They have a tone of jewelry shops ( If your a girl and I bought you a gift then this is where it comes from) and Fancy Mask shops which are very serious about there no picture taking policy (I was kicked out promptly because my dam flash went off) but besides that there isn’t a whole lot to do and it rained both days we were there. We where there for Halloween and Venice nightlife is non existent, I think we went to bed around 9.
Overall the trip was a success, no one was abducted, no one died and a good time was had by all. There isn’t a whole lot I would have done differently, I just hope I can win the lottery some time soon or maybe CRich can do some big things and the bean town boys can have a euro trip of their own or maybe Chad Johnson can get off his ass and go to the show already so I have a place to live when I graduate. If theres anything I’ve learned from my internship it’s that I hate office work just as much as I hate working for Costas provisions, so at this point in my life it’s either USMC, Lottery, or being apart of an Entourage preferably one of the second two choices will do.
So It’s been some time since my last post and there is quite a bit that has gone on in the past weeks. The last few weeks have been filled with day trips, long nights, and even a weekend in amsterdam.
Life in London
Life in London is starting to become normal. Besides some of the museums, I’ve seen most of the tourist attractions and London is starting to feel more like a home then some foreign city. Since I only have class on tuesday and just one class on thursday I’ve had to find some things to keep me occupied. Hyde park is a good place to go but only when it’s nice out, I found an indoor golf center which will keep me occupied for the next 30 days (thanks to Groupons), and there is a great old fashion movie theatre a few blocks away. On mondays and tuesdays they show movies for 3 pounds ($5.50) + they serve beer, $6 tuesdays in Woburn better step there game up. I was fortunate enough to go see “The Town” the other night and almost felt like I was back home for a little bit, that was until I stepped outside only to realize I was 3,000 miles away. The food situation has become unfavorable. I’ve tried to scumbag my way through it to save money. I’ve been buying the cheapest things possible from Sainsburys (American equivalent to Price Right) but unfortunately the hamburger meat and sausages I bought for no more then 2 pounds is probably some kind of mystery meat and can not possibly be good for me. So it seems that I’ll have to sacrifice a few more pounds and buy some name brand products to ensure that I do not suffer from malnutrition.
Stonehenge and Bath
The first of my day trips was through FIE (My School) was to stonehenge and Bath (an Old Roman City). Unfortunately I was sick for a few days prior to the trip and was not in the best of shape to wake up early on a saturday and sit on a coach bus for several hours. So my general mood throughout this entire day was fairly negative and seemed to get worse throughout the day due to an unfortunate occurance. Stonehenge although one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world is rather bland and not all that exciting. It only took about 10 minutes to walk around it and theres just not much else to see there. So after about an hour and rather unimpressed it was off to Bath. I was looking forward to Bath and from what I had heard it was an interesting place to see. When we first got there we drove around the city before being dropped off at the Roman Bath house. All the Roman architecture is impressive so I figured I would take a picture of the front of the building, but much to my dismay my camera which had been perfectly fine at stonehenge somehow managed a crack on the bus ride, and you all know the type of crack I’m talking about. It’s the type that turns your entire display screen white and renders the device 90% useless. It’s the kind that makes you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut and can’t breath, all you wan’t to do is take your rage out on someone because your thinking in the back of your head that warranty you paid extra money for is not going to cover a cracked screen for dam sure. I was still able to take pictures the old fashion way via the point, shoot and pray method.I felt like a was in the stone age not being able to review my pictures to see if it had come out good. Therefore If you had seen some of the pictures in my album from bath and were asking your self if I was that incapable of taking a half decent picture you now have your answer. Besides my misfortune Bath was a pretty cool place to see and visit for a day.
After Bath I tried finding a place that might have some highly unintelligent salesperson who might accept my warranty and replace my camera but I had no such luck. Fortunately I had a gift certificate to Harrods so I found a camera there, Unfortunately that meant 6 to 8 delicious meals at any of the various restaurants at Harrods went down he drain. (Thank you Auntie Anne you’re a Life Saver) Now onto more Important issues
AMSTERDAM!!!!!
So most of you are probably reading this blog to find out how Amsterdam was. You’re all probably wondering Is it as crazy as it seems? Is the red light district nuts? What’s the deal with coffee shops? Is it really like how movies tend to portray it? Well sorry to disappoint but it’s not like the movies.......It’s better!!! The trip to amsterdam was more of a last second type trip we (Kelley, Becky, and I) only planned it a week before. We flew out on a thursday after class and after a short delay and a 45 minute flight we touched down just outside of amsterdam. We got through customs easily and then tried to figure out the train we would need to take. This seems like it would be easy but when everything is in another language it tends to make things difficult. Once we figured the train out we made our way to Burger king like typical Americans. After about 15 minutes on the train we where at central station in Amsterdam with no real clue how to get to our hostel. Yet somehow we managed to get on a tram and miraculously find the street our hostel was on. The only problem was that we probably walked by the hostel 5 or 6 times before realizing that a random door next to a restaurant with virtually no sign lead us into our hostel fairly sketchy I know. We stayed in a room that had 3 bunk beds and wasn’t so bad. I had the misfortune of having to climb on the top while some stranger slept below me.The shower situation was a different story. Lets just say there was no separation between the shower-head and the toilet. and the shower curtain doubled as a shade for the window, it was just weird.
The fist day in Amsterdam was a little bit of a culture shock. we spent most of the morning just walking around going to different parts of the city and trying to find our way to some tourist locations. Amsterdam is fairly confusing all the street signs are in german and there are a tone of canals that look particularly similar. Fortunately Amsterdam is not very big and you can walk almost anywhere. The most shocking part about Amsterdam was the amount of bikes there are. Everyone and I mean everyone gets around on bikes there. Every railing along the canals was filled with bikes that where chained to it. They even had there own roads and street signals for bikes. Even more strange was the fact that on the smaller side streets there was no difference between the side walk and road. It was like everyone was apart of traffic even if you where walking, it was accepted, no Mass-holes screaming at you to get out of the way, just had to move to the side and let the cars pass and continue on.
After exploring the city a bit we finally where able to find the Heineken Factory. The tour of the factory was awesome, plenty of stuff to keep you entertained. plus they gave you a beer half-way through and the promise of two more pints at the end of it all.I’m not a big fan of Heineken back in the States but the Heineken over here, well lets just say, “I wish it were winter so I could freeze it into ice blocks and skate on it and melt it in the spring time and drink it!”. On the way back to our hostel we were handed a brochure for a pub crawl and figured it would be a good idea. They offered a good amount of alcohol and a free t-shirt so I was sold.
The Pub crawl was crazy, madness and insane and is probably what you all envision a night in Amsterdam would be like. Just going from pub to pub with a bunch of people your age drinking and having a good time. The clubs weren’t to sketchy and the people who where leading us around where cool. Needless to say the night ended with me finding a Japanese place at 3 in the morning while everyone else opted for late night McDonalds (I got the better of that one).
The last day in Amsterdam was much of the same walking around. We made it over to the red light district early in the day to check it out. It was a bit strange seeing prostitutes in window booths. They really do try and sell themselves by dancing and blowing kisses, which lead me to the conclusion that they are not real human beings and this was in fact fake life. I mean come on prostitution can’t really be legal can it? regardless the red light district was just strange during the day time not all that many people around and just a creepy vibe to it. After that adventure we decided to stick it out and wait in line at The Anne Frank house. (Yes I know, not the ideal place to go after witnessing such shocking events in the red light district) Although the story of Anne Frank always makes you feel like 8 people where crammed into such a small place, the area in which they stayed is much bigger then is usually portrayed. Still for 8 people to stay in hiding for that long is shocking nevertheless. (We could not take pictures here).
Another strange thing about Amsterdam is the coffee shop’s, but don’t let the tittle coffee shop fool you. If you want a cup of coffee this is probably the last place you should go. I don’t even think they sell coffee. I mean if your going to Make marijuana legal don’t go calling the place you sell it in a “coffee shop”. Your just going to confuse the hell out of people, I mean god forbid someone just wanted a coffee but every time they went into a coffee shop and the guy behind the counter was like, “oh, sorry guy we don’t sell that here” you would think you where going crazy, right? My point here is if your going to make marijuana legal just call the place you sell it a smoke shop don’t go confusing people.The red light district is already shocking enough you don’t need people loosing their minds over trying to find a cup of joe. But I guess marijuana is the least shocking thing about Amsterdam especially when things like prostitution, and hallucinogenic mushrooms are legal. Yah thats right hallucinogenic mushrooms are legal, at this point they might as well just say screw it and legalize everything ecstasy, cocaine, black tar heroin whats the worst that could happen.......
(In all seriousness it wasn’t like people where tripping on drugs all over the place at least I didn’t notice.)
The last night we were there we decided to head toward the red light district to see it in a “New Light” and besides there where a lot of good pubs just outside the district. Night time is a completely different place in the RLD there are tons of people everywhere and it was apparent that the prostitution places or whatever they’re called save their best for night. I never really felt unsafe tho but don’t get me wrong I was still completely sketched out by the prostitutes. It was even stranger to actually witness a “john” actually go into one of the booths, not to mention that a lot of the booths seemed to be occupied, what a perverted world we live in. Again leading me to the conclusion that this is all “Fake Life”. After that we had a few drinks and took it all in and called it a night because we had an early flight the next day.
In conclusion Amsterdam was a crazy, fun, strange and beautiful place. The canals that filled the city where beautiful especially at night when all of the bridges where lit up, it was like something out of a movie. (I tried to get a picture at night but my new camera is not as advanced as my last one). To all of the young adults out there reading this I would strongly recommend getting to amsterdam if your ever in Europe. It is everything you’ve ever pictured it to be and much more.
My Next Trip will be Dublin in two weeks followed by my week long adventure at the end of the month in which I will be “Backpacking” to Barcelona, Valencia, Rome, and either Nice or marseille and possibly Prague.
Well my head is still spinning. Currently sitting in Hyde Park trying to take it all in. The first few days have been non-stop, filled with orientations, tours, and late pub nights. There is so much to do here and see I'm starting to think that four months isn't nearly enough time for everything. I don't even know where to start.
Fortunately where I am staying is in the kensington area which is an extremely wealthy area. I've seen more Ferraris, Lotus's, and Maserattis in one day than I have seen in my entire life. I've also been meeting people from all over the US and making a lot of friends. I have an awesome class schedule which gives me 4 day weekends for the entire semester and only 3 classes on tuesday and one on thursday. I'm starting to think that this is the best decision I have ever made. The pubs here are unlike anything back in the states. “It is a place where the beer flows like wine, and Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano”. I am curious to see if they are as packed on monday and tuesday as they have been since I arrived thursday. I also did watch a “Futball match” at one of the pubs and I still don’t understand the brits fascination with such and uneventful game, yet I’ve never liked the sport and I probably never will.Tonight a group of us are going to stray away from the pubs and head to SoHo to find a club. Apparently There is some type of hip- hop concert going on in one of the clubs. Even tho I am not a big fan of hip-hop I am curious to compare the American scene to the british scene. I really just hope we make it back. The tube system is fairly complicated and I don't think any of us will be in the right state of mind to navigate a bus route back to kensington. The bus routes thankfully run 24 hours and our oyster-card (charlie card, Metrocard) is unlimited. A 24 hour bus schedule is something we should probably in the states, it would eliminate the need to ditch cabs in malden after a night in boston, but hey thats half the fun anyway so maybe not. So stay tuned it looks like I’ll be doing a lot of site seeing the next week and I am really anxious to get back to camden which is like canal street x10 and barter with all of the merchants.
P.S- Congrats to SHU football and my roommates their first win of the season. Also To my Boy C-Rich Tough loss but you played well on the big stage.. yes I still watched from 3,000 Miles away.
The summer is finally over and here I am sitting cramped on a flight to London For the Fall Semester. My entire summer was spent trying to save up enough money so that I could survive on my own In a country where the American Dollar is almost worthless. I managed to work nearly fifty hours a week at a job that gives new meaning to the term “back breaking” and still I feel as if I it was not enough. My flight left Logan Airport at approximately 7:45 pm on september 1st and will arrive at london Heathrow airport at approximately 7:25 A.M on september second. the flight is only about six hours and needless to say I will be extremely jet lagged with no sign of sleep in the near future due to the busy orientation and move in schedule. I still do not know who my roommate will be or even if I have one, I guess that is only a minor detail considering I do not know a single person enrolled in the same program as me. Fortunately I doubt it will be hard to make friends here in London especially after a few pub nights. I guess it would be smart to try and catch a nap for a few hours before I arrive, but I’ll most probably end up watching Hot Tub Time Machine (Virgin Airlines is sweet). Just a Quick shout out to the Sacred Heart Football team and my roommates JMO, Jeb, Linny, Matel, and Zack Good luck Friday and bring home that ring......... Stay Tuned
