Iceland was amazing! I would like to go back some day... when I'm rich. I searched for a place to stay a few days before arriving and the best value I could find was a bed in a room with 19 other beds in a hostel for about $70 a night. This actually turned out to be a good arrangement though. When you're travelling alone, it's easy to meet people when there are 19 of them sleeping in your room...
Economically, Iceland is interesting. Everything is around double or triple the cost of the equivalent in the U.S. The entire country has a population of about 300,000, but I read that about 400,000 tourists visit every year. That, no doubt, has a profound effect on the main city and the economy. Reykjavik, despite it's small size, has an abundance of shopping and restaurants and whatnot. The main street, called Laugavegur (which is actually very hard to pronounce), was primarily where I hung out for the first two days. I walked up and down it at least ten times. It's lined with jewelry shops, designer clothing, cafes, bookstores, and lots of tourist shops that sell all manner of overpriced Icelandic trinkets. The popular belief is that everyone that actually lives in Iceland is middle class and technologically savvy. I don't know how true that is, but I didn't see anything that looked like a poor area of the city and I didn't see any homeless people. I did, however, read in a local paper that this isn't entirely true - that there is a significant population of impoverished Icelanders. I don't remember the details, but it was presumably farmers and shepherds and more of a rural problem... Regardless, I wouldn't be able to survive there for long. With all the tourism, the prices were very high.
The language of Iceland didn't come up very often, other than insanely long street and city names. Everyone spoke English first. I have black hair, which I think is a rarity among natives, so that could have been the reason for that. I wish I'd tried harder to learn the language though. I didn't look at my phrasebook at all because of the ease of communication.
During my stay in Reykjavik I collected many tourist pamphlets. I really wanted to take a tour of the island, but they all had only one departure, usually very early in the morning, and they were very expensive. For example, a bus tour to the glacier lagoon on the southeastern side of the island was around 16,000 krona, which is over $230! I was undecided on what I wanted to do. Renting a car seemed out of the question as well, because of the rental expense and the cost of fuel... So I tried to check out some of the city since I seemed to be stuck there. I wandered around to various churches. I went to a cool restaurant/museum/tourist shop called the Perlan on a hilltop overlooking the city with Kelsey (a fellow American that I met at the hostel). I went to some old man's home theater for the "Volcano Show" - two hours or so of volcano footage that he and his father had filmed during their lifetimes. That was actually pretty neat! Iceland has a fascinating history with all the volcanic activity. Read about Surtsey, an island that arose from the sea in 1963 and grew larger over four years of constant volcanic activity. And check out the story of Eldfell, a large volcano that erupted on the island of Heimaey, nearly destroying the entire city!
After exploring the city for a couple days, I had seen pretty much everything I wanted to see, and I really wanted to get out into the wilderness. So, I came up with a brilliant idea... a fairly obvious idea actually, but brilliant nonetheless. I put up an ad on the door to my 20-bed bedroom asking if anyone wanted to split the cost of a car rental and gas and take a road trip to see the geysers, waterfalls, and glacier lagoon. At the hostel, there was an ad to rent a car for a day, unlimited mileage, for 9000 krona ($130). I talked to the Hostel Receptionist Guy (I believe that's his official title) about it and booked it. That night, I took myself out to my one and only nice dinner in Iceland. I wanted to get a fish dinner at Ristorante Caruso, a lovely, very romantic, fantastically delicious restaurant right off the main street. I ordered a screwdriver with Reyka vodka (a very tasty Icelandic vodka that I first discovered at Twin Liquors in the Hancock Center in Austin!) and main course of the fish of the day - trout I think. It was the best fish ever! It was really, really good and I don't normally like trout or whatever the hell kinda fish it was - it was a kind I don't normally like... Anyway, I truly wish that Andrea had been there. I had a very nice, candlelit dinner alone in a foreign country and despite the fantastic atmosphere and food, I was sad because I couldn't share it with anyone. Living the most adventurous, fantastic life you could live would be hell if you had to do it alone... So, I got home, partied with a bunch of U.K. dudes and drank their booze, and then went to sleep.
I awoke and assembled my road tripping crew... which turned out to be a total of three people: me, a French guy named Anselme, and Kelsey. The Hostel Receptionist Guy said that lots of people had asked him about it, but I couldn't find any more of them that morning. Oh well. 9000 krona divided by 3 is still a hell of a lot better than 9000 krona divided by 1 - plus I get to direct this tour now! Wooo! So, we got in our little VW Polo and took off... in the wrong direction. We travelled through this crazy tunnel under the ocean for about 5 minutes, paid a huge toll, decided we weren't sure that this was the right way, pulled out a map, realized we screwed up, sped a lot in a different direction, and then got pulled over by the local fuzz. It wasn't the best start, but hey, I'm not a professional. I had no idea where we were or where we were going. The cop was fairly friendly. I had been doing 110km/hour in a 90km zone - not really speeding that much... I handed him a Texas driver's license and started bawling like a little girl. Just kidding - that only works for women. I did mention that we were lost and sidetracked him into to giving me directions and helping me find my way back - he didn't give me a ticket. He knew that I'd just leave the country and never pay it anyway... He did emphasize that I should "keep my mind on the road!" He repeated it several times, hehe. I told him I would...
The first stop on the road trip was the geyser area - a popular tourist destination. It was incredible! A field of steaming holes that occasionally exploded into the sky. Nothing between you and a boiling death but a thin piece of rope. And not even that in some places - one wrong step and you'd be human stew. You doesn't realize how much America caters to the lowest common denominator until you travel the world. We have "caution: hot beverage" warnings on our coffee, but they didn't even have a "watch out for the open pit of boiling water" sign or a fence to keep you back. Slightly scary, but at the same time, slightly liberating. Anyway, check out my Flickr photos from Iceland for pictures - they say more than I can with words.
The next stop was a bit further away. We travelled for a few hours down the main highway, Ring Road. Looking out the front, rear, or right window, you see mostly wide green fields of lava rock or moss. Looking out the left window you see mountains and cliffs with occasional glacier-fed waterfalls. Every once in awhile, there is a little ranch or farmhouse at the foot of these mountains. I took a few photos of them. Very scenic. The drive was very peaceful, but not boring. You have to stay alert because there are long stretches of road that pass through grazing areas for Icelandic sheep. The sheep are hilarious with their huge fluffy butts and stubby legs. They're like caricatures of normal sheep. And yet, despite their silly appearance, they are amazing mountain climbers. Every once in awhile you will see little cotton puffs halfway up a cliff, and it's the sheep grazing on moss. I have no idea how they get up there. After passing through this beautiful scenery, we reached the highlight, Skogafoss. Again, the pictures in my Flickr account speak for themselves. The colors around Skogafoss area were amazing - such vibrant green on the hillsides!
Our final stop on the road trip was the glacier lagoon, Jokulsarlon. The drive from Skogafoss to Jokulsarlon was desolate - overcast skies with light rain, completely devoid of human and sheep life - we drove through a long stretch of nothing but black lava rock. I want to say it was depressing, but it wasn't really. It was just... empty... Maybe it was sort of fantastically depressing... or impressively depressing. I don't know. We raced to get to the glacier lagoon before sunset and arrived just in time to see the sun go behind the mountains. There were no signs for some reason - we ended up just turning down a gravel path and driving until we hit it. There was only one other car there and it left shortly after we arrived. We were alone... It was so quiet... For awhile, we just stared at it all and took pictures. Then we started skipping rocks and seeing if we could throw rocks onto some of the floating icebergs. The only sounds were the plops of stones into ice cold water... At one point a few other people showed up around the side of the lake - they were the size of ants from where we sat, but it was so quiet that I could hear the crunch of their boots on the gravel. Quite possibly the quietest place on Earth...
The drive back was four hours of rain and darkness. Actually, just before nightfall we picked up a hitchhiker. It was raining and there were three of us - we felt safe in numbers. Besides, I had heard that hitchhiking was fairly common in Iceland and I could see why after just driving across the country. His name was Viktor - he actually e-mailed me after I got back to the U.S. I need to send him a link to this blog. He was a cool guy. He gave us lots of recommendations of bars to go to in Reykjavik and other random info. It was nice just to have some conversation in the car. We ended up driving with him for maybe an hour - I don't remember how long - towards a small town called Vik. He was on the way to meet his family. As it turns out, they had a huge bus, and we just met them halfway. We pulled off the road, turned on the hazards, and just hung out and listened to some music while we waited for them to reach us.
Somewhere in middle of the night, on the way back to town, I decided to see just how dark it really was - we had been driving through black, rainy nothingness for hours. So, I pulled over, turned off the car, and had a moment of pitch black darkness. Pretty awesome. On a road in the middle of nowhere with thick cloud cover and rain, the light pollution was almost zero. Kinda spooky.
We got back at around two in the morning and I slept. I woke up, packed, and checked out my last stop in Iceland - the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is world famous for it's massive outdoor hot spring. I'm not really that interested in spas or homeopathic stuff, but I couldn't leave without seeing one of more popular tourist attractions - and besides, it was fairly close to the airport. I'm funny - on the bus there, we passed a beautiful area with blue water and moss that was very picturesque, so I actually hiked about 10 or 15 minutes back down the road from the Blue Lagoon spa to go take pictures there... Inside the spa, I received a wristband that I used to lock and unlock my lockers. They had a very high tech system: you put your stuff in a locker, close the door, your locker number beeps on an LED display, you put your wristband in front of a sensor, and your door locks. To unlock it, you just put your wristband back in front of the sensor. Once inside, I went into the big pool and just floated around for an hour or so. It was very nice. I can't say that I felt any magical healing effects from the obviously magical steaming blue-white water, but I wasn't really ailing when I entered. It was, however, very relaxing. Afterwards, I took a bus back to the airport and caught a plane back to The States...
That's it. I hope everyone's enjoyed reading this long-winded blog. I hope you folks keep on reading my day to day stuff. I'll try to keep it interesting. It's good to be back, but I hope I can travel again soon.
Herding Cats
I'm writing a referral for my ex-manager and I couldn't resist adding a little personality to it. The rest of the referrals are so corporate... "I think he could herd cats if he put his mind to it" is a pretty good compliment, right? Hehehe. I YouTubed it. HILARIOUS!
Anniversary
Andrea is an amazing girl. She's patient with me. She's extremely generous and thoughtful. She's intelligent - a perfect mixture of nerdy, dorky, geeky, and just plain smart. She's fantastically beautiful, but it's hard to catch on camera unless she's unaware that her picture is being taken. She's got a great sense of humor. She's a bit crazy, but so am I... we like to keep things interesting. I am automatically happy when I am around her, and her smile seems to brighten a few shades when she's around me. We have excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills - we often revert to a primitive system of grunts and noises when people aren't around. She can handle (just barely) the massive amount of affection I give her. After a year, I feel I know all of her quirks and she's aware of all of mine. And after a year, I can count the number of arguments we've had on the hand of a bad shop teacher.
To make our anniversary special I decided to cook her a nice dinner at home from scratch. I asked her what she wanted. She said, "fettuccine alfredo with garlic bread." I asked her what she wanted for dessert and she replied, "chocolate strawberry cheesecake." I told her that I was going to cook us dinner from scratch and she said both of those recipes were difficult and I told her, "I like a challenge!" So, I cooked us dinner. Everything was fantastic! Apparently, I am a really good cook! After dinner, we exchanged anniversary gifts.
She had gotten me a very nice telescope! I told her a long time ago that I've always wanted one. I even took her to an event that happens every Friday at Mansfield Dam called the "Austin Dam Astronomers". But for whatever reason, I just never bought one for myself. She remembered this and did all the research and found a very nice one for me!
I have been very happy in this relationship. I couldn't imagine anyone more suitable for me. I love Andrea very, very much. She knows this. I knew I was going to marry her. In fact, I had told her that I was going to marry her. We had discussed the all the important issues: living together (my house or hers?), future children (they're gonna be really hairy), finances (who gets to be the lucky one who stays home to raise the kids and doesn't have to work?), etc. These discussions were exciting! Only one more thing had to be done...
Yesterday evening, after dinner, I gave Andrea a ring. It had been in plain view in the display cabinet with my rock collection throughout dinner. After she gave me my gift, I got up, opened the ring box, and turned on one of the cabinet lights to light it up. She got up, walked over to it and asked, "Is that for THIS finger!?" "Yup", I replied and smiled. I asked her to marry me, and she said yes!
I'm engaged!
(You can see pictures of the ring if you follow the link at the top right to my Flickr account.)
To make our anniversary special I decided to cook her a nice dinner at home from scratch. I asked her what she wanted. She said, "fettuccine alfredo with garlic bread." I asked her what she wanted for dessert and she replied, "chocolate strawberry cheesecake." I told her that I was going to cook us dinner from scratch and she said both of those recipes were difficult and I told her, "I like a challenge!" So, I cooked us dinner. Everything was fantastic! Apparently, I am a really good cook! After dinner, we exchanged anniversary gifts.
She had gotten me a very nice telescope! I told her a long time ago that I've always wanted one. I even took her to an event that happens every Friday at Mansfield Dam called the "Austin Dam Astronomers". But for whatever reason, I just never bought one for myself. She remembered this and did all the research and found a very nice one for me!
I have been very happy in this relationship. I couldn't imagine anyone more suitable for me. I love Andrea very, very much. She knows this. I knew I was going to marry her. In fact, I had told her that I was going to marry her. We had discussed the all the important issues: living together (my house or hers?), future children (they're gonna be really hairy), finances (who gets to be the lucky one who stays home to raise the kids and doesn't have to work?), etc. These discussions were exciting! Only one more thing had to be done...
Yesterday evening, after dinner, I gave Andrea a ring. It had been in plain view in the display cabinet with my rock collection throughout dinner. After she gave me my gift, I got up, opened the ring box, and turned on one of the cabinet lights to light it up. She got up, walked over to it and asked, "Is that for THIS finger!?" "Yup", I replied and smiled. I asked her to marry me, and she said yes!
I'm engaged!
(You can see pictures of the ring if you follow the link at the top right to my Flickr account.)
Fudge Bombstik
Andrea loves me. One of the reasons she loves me: I introduced her to the Fudge Bombstik made by Blue Bell. It's a bullet-shaped popsicle that contains chocolate and banana ice cream. It's awesome... Just like Andrea.
I will write about Iceland soon. I'm lazy. Keep checkin' back.
I will write about Iceland soon. I'm lazy. Keep checkin' back.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh was very green, cold, and wet... I learned a Gaelic word: dreich. It's like a combination of dreary and bleak. Edinburgh is dreich, but I liked it. After getting off the plane, I took a bus into town, got off at the wrong stop and wandered around trying to find the right stop. I was meeting my friend Meredith. I finally found her, and we went back to her "flat". In the following days, I got to hear lots of the Scottish dialect: "pants" means underwear, "up the duff" means pregnant, a "bird" is a chick (as in woman), "slaint" means cheers or salut, and "cheers" means thank you or goodbye. "Take away" means to go (as in fast food to go), "pudding" is dessert, and "tea" is dinner, et cetera.
It was my good fortune that the entire month of August was a city-wide festival in Edinburgh called "The Fringe". My favorite part of it was the arts and crafts. We wandered through a bunch of arts and crafts tents set up in a graveyard and I saw all kinds of amazing woodwork, jewelry, glass, and clothing. Everything was very intricate and seemed very high quality. The Scots appear to take a lot of pride in their work.
Apparently, one of the more popular cuisines in Scotland is Indian food. I don't blame them. Haggis is nasty. I tried it while I was here, and it was better than the haggis I had at my friend Jeremy's "Burns Supper", but it was still haggis. On a partially related note, they have plenty of American cuisine as well: Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc. I generally don't like American cuisine, because it's all cheap meat and molested vegetables and no spice. I smiled a little bit when I walked by a McDonald's that had a window smashed in. I smiled more when I walked by a Starbucks that had workmen out front replacing ALL of the windows because they had been completely demolished by a baseball bat (or more likely a golf club, since this is Scotland). Apparently the Scots don't like shitty capitalist establishments either.
I went on a bike tour of Edinburgh. Andrea and I had planned on going on a bike tour of Munich when we were there, but it was rained out. The tour through Edinburgh was led by a guy named Adrian, and it was pretty interesting. I heard stories about several of the pubs that were named after people that were executed. Read more about Maggie Dickson's, Deacon Brodie's Tavern, and The Last Drop. I drank some Irn Bru, the national Scottish soda - it's kinda like watered down Big Red. And I learned why there were bars over several graves. And also why several windows were bricked up on all the old buildings. Very informative and non-fatal despite the crazy wrong-side-of-the-road traffic.
I also visited the Edinburgh Castle, which was awesome. There was a Prisoners of War exhibit where they held various prisoners including early American "rebels". But even more interesting were the Honours of Scotland (a.k.a. the crown jewels!) Interesting history and very shiny - my kinda exhibit. Another nice bonus was the firing of the cannon. According to tradition, they fire a cannon from the castle at exactly 1 P.M. every day except Sunday so that the ships in the bay can set their clocks. Talk about tickets to the gun show, heh.
After going to the castle, I went to the National Gallery of Scotland. Maybe I was just delirious, but I think this was the best art gallery I've been to on this entire trip. It was a reasonable size - I was able to see the entire gallery in one trip (most galleries are so huge that you end up getting numb to the art and leave because of hunger or boredom.) There were some incredible paintings - the Scottish artists were surprisingly good! I was particularly impressed by some unknown painter called the "Master of Embroidered Foliage". I wasn't able to find any particularly high-resolution images of the piece I saw, but it was amazing - it looked like he used a needle instead of a paintbrush because the detail was so fine. Also noteworthy was the art of William Dyce and Sir Joseph Noel Paton.
And I'll leave you with that. I need to upload some pictures and then I'm going to bed.
It was my good fortune that the entire month of August was a city-wide festival in Edinburgh called "The Fringe". My favorite part of it was the arts and crafts. We wandered through a bunch of arts and crafts tents set up in a graveyard and I saw all kinds of amazing woodwork, jewelry, glass, and clothing. Everything was very intricate and seemed very high quality. The Scots appear to take a lot of pride in their work.
Apparently, one of the more popular cuisines in Scotland is Indian food. I don't blame them. Haggis is nasty. I tried it while I was here, and it was better than the haggis I had at my friend Jeremy's "Burns Supper", but it was still haggis. On a partially related note, they have plenty of American cuisine as well: Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc. I generally don't like American cuisine, because it's all cheap meat and molested vegetables and no spice. I smiled a little bit when I walked by a McDonald's that had a window smashed in. I smiled more when I walked by a Starbucks that had workmen out front replacing ALL of the windows because they had been completely demolished by a baseball bat (or more likely a golf club, since this is Scotland). Apparently the Scots don't like shitty capitalist establishments either.
I went on a bike tour of Edinburgh. Andrea and I had planned on going on a bike tour of Munich when we were there, but it was rained out. The tour through Edinburgh was led by a guy named Adrian, and it was pretty interesting. I heard stories about several of the pubs that were named after people that were executed. Read more about Maggie Dickson's, Deacon Brodie's Tavern, and The Last Drop. I drank some Irn Bru, the national Scottish soda - it's kinda like watered down Big Red. And I learned why there were bars over several graves. And also why several windows were bricked up on all the old buildings. Very informative and non-fatal despite the crazy wrong-side-of-the-road traffic.
I also visited the Edinburgh Castle, which was awesome. There was a Prisoners of War exhibit where they held various prisoners including early American "rebels". But even more interesting were the Honours of Scotland (a.k.a. the crown jewels!) Interesting history and very shiny - my kinda exhibit. Another nice bonus was the firing of the cannon. According to tradition, they fire a cannon from the castle at exactly 1 P.M. every day except Sunday so that the ships in the bay can set their clocks. Talk about tickets to the gun show, heh.
After going to the castle, I went to the National Gallery of Scotland. Maybe I was just delirious, but I think this was the best art gallery I've been to on this entire trip. It was a reasonable size - I was able to see the entire gallery in one trip (most galleries are so huge that you end up getting numb to the art and leave because of hunger or boredom.) There were some incredible paintings - the Scottish artists were surprisingly good! I was particularly impressed by some unknown painter called the "Master of Embroidered Foliage". I wasn't able to find any particularly high-resolution images of the piece I saw, but it was amazing - it looked like he used a needle instead of a paintbrush because the detail was so fine. Also noteworthy was the art of William Dyce and Sir Joseph Noel Paton.
And I'll leave you with that. I need to upload some pictures and then I'm going to bed.
Andrea left...
Andrea is gone. Colon open-parenthesis. I hung out with her in the airport as long as I could... We wandered around, ate some sandwiches, and tried to find a ticket for me to Edinburgh. We checked information and found that there were only two airlines flying to Edinburgh: Air France and British Airways. We walked to the Air France desk and inquired about the price of a ticket, leaving today, for Edinburgh. Eight hundred something euros. Wait? What?! Yeah, EIGHT HUNDRED euros! Hahahahahahaha-NO. I asked about standby. She replied, "This doesn't exist." I asked for anything cheaper, and she just looked sort of embarrassed and smiled at the ridiculousness of their price. So that was one airline down... We went to British Airways and they had a flight leaving at 15:00 for a very reasonable (by comparison anyway) 150ish euros. That's a lot cheaper and faster than a train would have been, so I took it. I asked them about standby too, but they also didn't offer that as an option... I got my ticket and then escorted Andrea to security. I'm an idiot. I stood there and watched her slowly weaving through the line to the security gate. As I watched I got more and more depressed. I should have just said goodbye, kissed her, and walked away, but instead of walking away, I stood there watching...
Paris
We took a train from Frankfurt to Paris. We missed our scheduled one of course, but a helpful customer service guy rerouted us through a different city. The train ride wasn't much as far as scenery, so we entertained ourselves by playing chess on my Macbook and then taking a series of terrible photos using Photo Booth. You can enjoy those on my Flickr site (see the link in the upper right). I've been uploading lots of short video clips to YouTube as well - mostly panoramic shots of various places.
The French have been described as rude and particularly unfriendly towards people who don't speak their language. This is a fairly old stereotype I believe. In our experience so far, it's completely wrong. Everyone we have met has been friendly and helpful - even ridiculously helpful. In one case, we asked the receptionist at our hotel if he had a corkscrew. He spent a few minutes searching, got up from his desk, went to the bar, came back, made a phone call, continued looking through his desk while talking on the phone, and then hung up and informed me that he was sorry, he didn't have one, but his associate at a nearby hotel did! So, I thanked him and walked over to the other hotel down the street to open a 3 euro bottle of wine. Awesome.
The traffic here is surprisingly light - not that many cars on the roads. The weather has been hit or miss - drizzly and cloudy with occasional sun. We have walked and walked and walked all over this city. Crashing out at the hotel by 6pm local time has been the norm the last few days.
Today we caught the Eiffel Tower during some sunshine. It was amazing! It was also more stairs than anywhere else previously on this trip, but the weather was cool (even cold near the top) so it wasn't bad. The tower itself is a fantastic sight to behold. To think that it was built only as a monument - it serves no real purpose - is amazing. The Statue of Liberty that they gave us is nothing compared to what they've built for themselves.
We checked out The Louvre today. I say "checked out", because we were only there for an hour or two. We got there just before closing and we we're kind of museumed out anyway, so we just checked out the sculpture section and a lot of the renaissance art. It was interesting and I wish we could have stayed longer, but our energy levels were dwindling... The Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo were swarmed with tourists. Honestly, there were many far greater works of art to be seen. Those two just have names that people recognize, so they go straight to them and ignore everything else... I personally liked Giuseppe Arcimboldi/Arcimboldo's work.
The French have been described as rude and particularly unfriendly towards people who don't speak their language. This is a fairly old stereotype I believe. In our experience so far, it's completely wrong. Everyone we have met has been friendly and helpful - even ridiculously helpful. In one case, we asked the receptionist at our hotel if he had a corkscrew. He spent a few minutes searching, got up from his desk, went to the bar, came back, made a phone call, continued looking through his desk while talking on the phone, and then hung up and informed me that he was sorry, he didn't have one, but his associate at a nearby hotel did! So, I thanked him and walked over to the other hotel down the street to open a 3 euro bottle of wine. Awesome.
The traffic here is surprisingly light - not that many cars on the roads. The weather has been hit or miss - drizzly and cloudy with occasional sun. We have walked and walked and walked all over this city. Crashing out at the hotel by 6pm local time has been the norm the last few days.
Today we caught the Eiffel Tower during some sunshine. It was amazing! It was also more stairs than anywhere else previously on this trip, but the weather was cool (even cold near the top) so it wasn't bad. The tower itself is a fantastic sight to behold. To think that it was built only as a monument - it serves no real purpose - is amazing. The Statue of Liberty that they gave us is nothing compared to what they've built for themselves.
We checked out The Louvre today. I say "checked out", because we were only there for an hour or two. We got there just before closing and we we're kind of museumed out anyway, so we just checked out the sculpture section and a lot of the renaissance art. It was interesting and I wish we could have stayed longer, but our energy levels were dwindling... The Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo were swarmed with tourists. Honestly, there were many far greater works of art to be seen. Those two just have names that people recognize, so they go straight to them and ignore everything else... I personally liked Giuseppe Arcimboldi/Arcimboldo's work.
Elf
My phrasebook has German numbers in it. Eine, zwie, drei, etc. The word for "eleven" in German is "elf". Andrea knows a little German, so I asked her smartassedly, "if eleven is 'elf', how do you say 'elf' in German?" She paused for a moment. Her eyes shifted up while she accessed her mental translation dictionary, and then she replied, "Eleven." I don't think she even smiled at her own joke...
Day Somethingorother: Apathy
I've decided that daily blogging isn't such a good idea. You just wanna know the good stuff, you don't wanna know everything.
In Germany I watched Night Rider. It was in German. It was followed by Bay Watch... in German. The Hasslehof thing is true.
In Europe, men like tiny dogs and speedos. Ridiculous.
I discovered a beer called Franziskaner Weissbier - it's good! A beer that is good! This is the first time I really enjoyed a beer.
In Germany, we gained back whatever weight we may have lost. They eat like crazy people here. Very good food though. Worth it.
I got all my pictures online finally. I got all my videos online as well. I'm caught up. I'm not blogging everyday obvously, but I will continue to keep track of interesting things and update when I can.
I have to go now, because I promised Andrea I would let her chew on my fingers if she would quit chewing on my laptop screen. She is teething.
In Germany I watched Night Rider. It was in German. It was followed by Bay Watch... in German. The Hasslehof thing is true.
In Europe, men like tiny dogs and speedos. Ridiculous.
I discovered a beer called Franziskaner Weissbier - it's good! A beer that is good! This is the first time I really enjoyed a beer.
In Germany, we gained back whatever weight we may have lost. They eat like crazy people here. Very good food though. Worth it.
I got all my pictures online finally. I got all my videos online as well. I'm caught up. I'm not blogging everyday obvously, but I will continue to keep track of interesting things and update when I can.
I have to go now, because I promised Andrea I would let her chew on my fingers if she would quit chewing on my laptop screen. She is teething.
Picture Update
I gotta go explore Munich right now, but I will get all my pictures and movies up before we go to Frankfurt. Have patience. I'm sure you're all waiting on the edges of your seats. Ha.
Hope you are all doing well.
Hope you are all doing well.
Day 21: Florence
We spent the day hanging out with Stover today. I'm still amazed that I ran into someone I know in the streets of Florence... Inconceivable! We went to some church that we thought was the Duomo and paid an entrance fee to get in. Then wandered around and found the real Duomo and didn't have to pay to get in - go figure. We waited in a long, long line. Italy has many long, long lines. Patience. Personally, I think the fake Duomo was cooler than the real one, except for the cupola. The cupola of the real Duomo was amazing and horrific! The entire dome was painted with a scene of heaven and hell. In hell, demons eat you and stab you in the ass and crotch with flaming torches. It's not pleasant. The artwork depicting the unpleasantness was amazing though. At the very top of the cupola we were once again able to walk around the outside of the dome. The view was amazing. You are going to get bored of the word "amazing" while reading my blog. That's fine. They say pictures say a thousand words, so I took lots of pictures of the amazing view so you don't have to rely on my sad, inept writing to describe what I saw...
Day 20: Florence
Florence was a lesson in patience. Despite all our planning, we accidentally got on the slow train from Roma Termini to Firenze S.M.N. We got on a train labelled "express", but go figure, apparently things labeled "express" or "direct" are in fact not express or direct - they stop at every little town along the way. So, the alleged 2 hour trip to Florence was actually more like 4 hours. Once we go to Florence, we decided to get in line at the Ufizi Museum. We didn't have reservations, so we just had to wait in line. The line took about 3 hours to get through. In the process, we met a nice couple from N.Y.C., chatted it up for a while, sent the dude from the N.Y.C. couple to get some beers, and then drank. Once we got in, we saw about a million paintings of Kate Blanchett. Just kidding. The art was quite impressive - we saw the Birth of Venus among other things. I can't think of any of the names of the other paintings, but they were very, very beautiful. I never considered myself a fan of Renaissance art before, but this museum has made me change my mind.
After the museum, we had dinner in a nearby plaza. By coincidence, we sat right next to some people that had been in the Ufizi line with us. Then, we had some gelato - very tasty. Then, by much, much, MUCH greater freakish coincidence, I was stopped in the street by Mark Stover! !! !!!!!!!!! ! !! I was just walking down the street with the sun in my eyes, eating gelato with Andrea and this dude walked right up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. At first I thought it was someone trying to sell me something, but they usually don't physically touch you. Andrea thought it was a pickpocket, because she's paranoid. But it was Mark - my ex-coworker at Winternals! Insane. Earlier in the week I had chatted with Anthony (another ex-coworker), and Anthony had said I should try to get in touch with Mark because he was somewhere in Europe, but he thought he was Ampsterdam or something. We weren't heading that direction, so I didn't bother... But apparently Mark had decided to go to Rome and then Florence and then somehow he just bumped into us on the street in Florence! Amazing! Ridiculous! We chatted for a little bit and decided to hang out tomorrow. The rest of the way home I just kept laughing to myself at how amazing it was that I randomly ran into someone I knew in the streets of Florence...
After the museum, we had dinner in a nearby plaza. By coincidence, we sat right next to some people that had been in the Ufizi line with us. Then, we had some gelato - very tasty. Then, by much, much, MUCH greater freakish coincidence, I was stopped in the street by Mark Stover! !! !!!!!!!!! ! !! I was just walking down the street with the sun in my eyes, eating gelato with Andrea and this dude walked right up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. At first I thought it was someone trying to sell me something, but they usually don't physically touch you. Andrea thought it was a pickpocket, because she's paranoid. But it was Mark - my ex-coworker at Winternals! Insane. Earlier in the week I had chatted with Anthony (another ex-coworker), and Anthony had said I should try to get in touch with Mark because he was somewhere in Europe, but he thought he was Ampsterdam or something. We weren't heading that direction, so I didn't bother... But apparently Mark had decided to go to Rome and then Florence and then somehow he just bumped into us on the street in Florence! Amazing! Ridiculous! We chatted for a little bit and decided to hang out tomorrow. The rest of the way home I just kept laughing to myself at how amazing it was that I randomly ran into someone I knew in the streets of Florence...
Day 19: Rome
It's so bizarre to see how the ancient cultures interacted with each other! Throughout Rome we have seen bits of Egypt and Greece. There are several Egyptian obelisks around the city. There are Roman or Greek statues containing sphinxes and pharaohs. And there's this huge transition period that occurred when the Christians took over. Almost everything in Rome has been converted to churches. The obelisks all have metal caps on the top with crosses even though you can still see the Egyptian hieroglyphs up the sides of them. There are temples to Greek gods, built using the old architectural styles, that have been converted to churches. Christian frescos and biblical figures are all over the formerly pagan temples - it's funny.
We saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel today. The entire place was covered from floor to ceiling with paintings and sculptures. I can't believe that out of all of that, the only thing people think of when you say "Sistine Chapel" is that one painting of the dude touching the other dude's finger. The chapel was HUGE! It was completely covered with paintings. That one scene was just a tiny piece of the whole picture!
There was an enormous collection of statues on the way to the Sistine Chapel. One section had very lifelike sculptures of animals. Another section contained busts of famous emperors. And throughout the walk were giant stone bathtubs, Roman gods, and other interesting things. Amazing stuff. The amount of highly-skilled man-hours that went into this museum is astounding! From the building itself to the floor-to-ceiling painting, to the vast collection of sculptures - the Vatican Museum's density of awesomeness-per-square-meter was very, very high!
Anyway, you can read more about this day on Andrea's blog as well. I think we're gonna start switching off days blogging. Or something.
We saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel today. The entire place was covered from floor to ceiling with paintings and sculptures. I can't believe that out of all of that, the only thing people think of when you say "Sistine Chapel" is that one painting of the dude touching the other dude's finger. The chapel was HUGE! It was completely covered with paintings. That one scene was just a tiny piece of the whole picture!
There was an enormous collection of statues on the way to the Sistine Chapel. One section had very lifelike sculptures of animals. Another section contained busts of famous emperors. And throughout the walk were giant stone bathtubs, Roman gods, and other interesting things. Amazing stuff. The amount of highly-skilled man-hours that went into this museum is astounding! From the building itself to the floor-to-ceiling painting, to the vast collection of sculptures - the Vatican Museum's density of awesomeness-per-square-meter was very, very high!
Anyway, you can read more about this day on Andrea's blog as well. I think we're gonna start switching off days blogging. Or something.
Day 18: Rome
I got nothing. The bits of my brain that produce blogs are worn out. I started to write, but it was the same stuff that Andrea already said on her blog, so I will once again suggest that you go check out her blog. I will post more pictures though...
Day 16: Santorini to Rome
I flew from Santorini to Athens to Rome today. Upon arrival I was personally greeted by the Pope and we went back to his place and partied and drank screwdrivers.
That would be awesome.
Upon arrival I barely missed the train to town, so I had to sit and wait for half an hour. I got on the train and ended up talking to a Libyan guy for the entire trip - he was cool. I don't really know what relations the U.S. has with Libya, but I think it's one of the no-no countries, right? Well, regardless, he was very friendly and enjoyed talking about his country and his travels.
I found the train that goes to my hotel fairly easily despite the maze under Roma Termini rail station. The bed and breakfast, Roman and Italian B&B is the name I believe, is AWESOME! Very nice room, big shower, wireless Internet, and very secure (three keys: one to get into the building, one to get into the flat, and one to get into the room in the flat. And I have yet to meet a single unfriendly person. The receptionist at the B&B was very nice, the lady in the pizzeria downstairs gave me a free fried mozzarella and rice ball thing - it was good - and all the random people I've had to interact with have been courteous and helpful.
I basically did nothing today. I haven't seen any sites. All I did was arrive, eat, get on the Internet, and go shopping. I felt like pampering myself with real shampoo + conditioner and real bath gel stuff and real bath scrubby thingies. I haven't felt clean until today. Hotel soap and shampoo sucks. I bought some toenail clippers to clip my wicked-long toenails too! It was like walking around with swords sticking out of my feet - which would be awesome if I was kickboxer, but not so awesome for an ordinary bum such as myself.
Then I ate again, just for the hell of it, and finally came back to the hotel to post all these lovely blogs and photos. I chatted with a few you online too. Its nice to hear from my friends. I'm RIDICUDONKULOUSLY excited about Andrea's arrival tomorrow morning!!! I will probably spend all day squeezing her to death until her cute little head just pops right off.
I hope she's wise enough to wear some kind of armor underneath her shirt. Or maybe she'll have a taser - that might save her.
That would be awesome.
Upon arrival I barely missed the train to town, so I had to sit and wait for half an hour. I got on the train and ended up talking to a Libyan guy for the entire trip - he was cool. I don't really know what relations the U.S. has with Libya, but I think it's one of the no-no countries, right? Well, regardless, he was very friendly and enjoyed talking about his country and his travels.
I found the train that goes to my hotel fairly easily despite the maze under Roma Termini rail station. The bed and breakfast, Roman and Italian B&B is the name I believe, is AWESOME! Very nice room, big shower, wireless Internet, and very secure (three keys: one to get into the building, one to get into the flat, and one to get into the room in the flat. And I have yet to meet a single unfriendly person. The receptionist at the B&B was very nice, the lady in the pizzeria downstairs gave me a free fried mozzarella and rice ball thing - it was good - and all the random people I've had to interact with have been courteous and helpful.
I basically did nothing today. I haven't seen any sites. All I did was arrive, eat, get on the Internet, and go shopping. I felt like pampering myself with real shampoo + conditioner and real bath gel stuff and real bath scrubby thingies. I haven't felt clean until today. Hotel soap and shampoo sucks. I bought some toenail clippers to clip my wicked-long toenails too! It was like walking around with swords sticking out of my feet - which would be awesome if I was kickboxer, but not so awesome for an ordinary bum such as myself.
Then I ate again, just for the hell of it, and finally came back to the hotel to post all these lovely blogs and photos. I chatted with a few you online too. Its nice to hear from my friends. I'm RIDICUDONKULOUSLY excited about Andrea's arrival tomorrow morning!!! I will probably spend all day squeezing her to death until her cute little head just pops right off.
I hope she's wise enough to wear some kind of armor underneath her shirt. Or maybe she'll have a taser - that might save her.
Day 15: Santorini
I went to the red beach today. Something I read about Santorini mentioned that there's a black beach, a red beach, and a white beach.
The black beach was the first beach I discovered, because it's the big one that stretches all along the coast of Perissa. The black beach, as it's name suggests, is black. The beach consists of ground up bits of black lava rock - my feet as as smooth as a baby's ass after walking up and down it so much. The beach is lined with shops, restaurants, and bars. I believe this is one of the larger, more popular beaches. It's a cool beach.
The red beach is accessible by car or by boat. I took a ferry to the red beach from the black beach for 14 euro (round trip). It took a good 15 or 20 minutes to get there. The red beach is red - it consists of ground up red lava rock. It's much smaller than the black beach, and it has nothing near it. When I first arrived there, it was nearly empty. There was a path on either side of the beach. Both of them required a hike up the steep cliffs. I believe one led to a parking area. The other one led across a field and eventually to another even smaller beach called Kamassa or something like that. There was a small family restaurant on that beach. I had some lunch there, laid in the sun for a little while, and then walked back to the red beach. When I got back, it was packed! I sat around and played with rocks while I waited for the boat to come back. Too much sun tires me out.
The white beach is, so I'm told, accessible only by boat. I never made it there. I imagine it's made up of white lava rock... Just a guess.
When I finally got back to town, I went home, showered, and took a nap. I woke up from the nap completely fucked! Naps usually do that to me - I sleep for a few hours and when I wake up I feel like I've only had a few hours of sleep - it's awful. I groggily wandered out the door in search of food and something to do... I ended up hanging out with David at Soul Bar and getting pretty drunk. 1.50 euro pints - not bad. The island life has been nice, but it's time to continue my travels...
The black beach was the first beach I discovered, because it's the big one that stretches all along the coast of Perissa. The black beach, as it's name suggests, is black. The beach consists of ground up bits of black lava rock - my feet as as smooth as a baby's ass after walking up and down it so much. The beach is lined with shops, restaurants, and bars. I believe this is one of the larger, more popular beaches. It's a cool beach.
The red beach is accessible by car or by boat. I took a ferry to the red beach from the black beach for 14 euro (round trip). It took a good 15 or 20 minutes to get there. The red beach is red - it consists of ground up red lava rock. It's much smaller than the black beach, and it has nothing near it. When I first arrived there, it was nearly empty. There was a path on either side of the beach. Both of them required a hike up the steep cliffs. I believe one led to a parking area. The other one led across a field and eventually to another even smaller beach called Kamassa or something like that. There was a small family restaurant on that beach. I had some lunch there, laid in the sun for a little while, and then walked back to the red beach. When I got back, it was packed! I sat around and played with rocks while I waited for the boat to come back. Too much sun tires me out.
The white beach is, so I'm told, accessible only by boat. I never made it there. I imagine it's made up of white lava rock... Just a guess.
When I finally got back to town, I went home, showered, and took a nap. I woke up from the nap completely fucked! Naps usually do that to me - I sleep for a few hours and when I wake up I feel like I've only had a few hours of sleep - it's awful. I groggily wandered out the door in search of food and something to do... I ended up hanging out with David at Soul Bar and getting pretty drunk. 1.50 euro pints - not bad. The island life has been nice, but it's time to continue my travels...
Day 14: Santorini
Today was a full day. I booked a tour of Santorini for 20 euro. Basically, I got a bus ride to the port on the other side of the island, then I took a boat to the volcano caldera, the hot springs, Thirasia, and finally I was dropped off to see the sunset in Oia. I missed my tour bus back to Perissa, so I ended up taking the local bus instead. I was fucked over by an Asian couple though. I was supposed to get off the bus at Fira and transfer to another bus. So, the bus stopped and this couple got off, and I got off, and I expected everyone to get off behind me, but then the doors to the bus closed and it left, and there I was standing in the middle of nowhere, not Fira. I walked to a local shop and asked, "Fira?" "No, Fira is down the road." "How do I get there? Is there another bus in half an hour or something?" "Half hour, 2 hours, who knows, it's only 30 minutes by foot." So, I started walking to Fira. It was actually kinda nice, because the moon was full, the stars were out, and there was a cool breeze. After getting to Fira, I caught the transfer bus to Perissa and made it home before midnight. There was supposed to be some big, happening full moon party tonight at the Beach Bar, so I went to that, but I couldn't find anyone I knew there, so I left. I am worn out. I'll have to sleep in and maybe just chill on the beach some more tomorrow, heh. This place is so much better than a big city right now.
Day 13: Santorini
I basically lived the island life today. It was very laid back. I woke up. I went to the beach. I wandered as far in both directions as my tired feet could carry me. I went back to the hotel. I rested. I saw a church halfway up the mountain, so I decided to try to hike up to it. I got high up on the mountain, but could not find the path that led to the church - it's a very sneaky church. So, I gave up because it was hot. Then I went back down to town and grabbed my computer and spend several hours wandering the streets looking for wireless Internet access. In the process I found a tasty bakery run by a nice, old Greek lady. I asked her about wireless Internet access, but she didn't know anything about it - so I bought a pineapple pie thingy from her and ate it. It was good. Then I finally ended up going to the end of town to plug my computer into the network of a local Internet cafe. After screwing around on the net for a bit, I went back to the hotel, dropped off the computer, and went back to the beach... My tan is coming along nicely.
Day 12: Athens. No, wait, Santorini!
I went to the National Museum of Archeology in Athens this morning. I saw a statue of a siren, which was cool. And I saw a statue of Pan. And I saw a lot of statues of naked men and a few statues of naked women. Ancient cultures are all about being naked - that's what I've learned on this trip. I also saw the famous Mask of Agememnon - there are actually a half dozen or so death masks: the famous one, one of some guy with a big smile and a round head, and a few cool ones with unibrows. The museum was pretty interesting, but I didn't really have that much time to waste, because I found another interesting side trip...
Santorini. I found this island because the Hosteling International website only lists hostels in three cities in Greece: Athens, Corfu, and Santorini. I went to wikitravel to check out Santorini and it looked awesome: nice beaches, good hiking trails, and an active volcano! Rock on! So, I booked a flight and a room for 4 days. I will get back to Athens just in time to catch my flight to Rome to meet my Sweetie!!! I got on the plane, flew for half an hour, and now I'm here on an island in Greece and it's already SO much nicer than being in the city. The sound of the ocean is constant, the moon is almost full, and I was invited to drink some beers on the beach by some Austrailians. I had a fantastic evening just hanging out on the beach at night, talking about random stuff, mostly about how I keep paying too much for everything. People were setting of fireworks on the beach, and the nearby club was playing some pretty good music. My new friends are astounded every time I mention a price to them because they're paying less than half of what I pay for most everything: transportation, lodging, booze, etc. I need to work on traveling more cheaply. Anyway, it was a very nice evening. After I started to get tired, I bid them goodnight and took a short walk on the moonlit beach - unlike most people I don't like long walks on the beach, just short ones. Heh.
I am once again cut off from the world. I have no telephone in my room, nor do I have Internet access. Lame. I will figure it out tomorrow after I work on my tan, hehe.
Santorini. I found this island because the Hosteling International website only lists hostels in three cities in Greece: Athens, Corfu, and Santorini. I went to wikitravel to check out Santorini and it looked awesome: nice beaches, good hiking trails, and an active volcano! Rock on! So, I booked a flight and a room for 4 days. I will get back to Athens just in time to catch my flight to Rome to meet my Sweetie!!! I got on the plane, flew for half an hour, and now I'm here on an island in Greece and it's already SO much nicer than being in the city. The sound of the ocean is constant, the moon is almost full, and I was invited to drink some beers on the beach by some Austrailians. I had a fantastic evening just hanging out on the beach at night, talking about random stuff, mostly about how I keep paying too much for everything. People were setting of fireworks on the beach, and the nearby club was playing some pretty good music. My new friends are astounded every time I mention a price to them because they're paying less than half of what I pay for most everything: transportation, lodging, booze, etc. I need to work on traveling more cheaply. Anyway, it was a very nice evening. After I started to get tired, I bid them goodnight and took a short walk on the moonlit beach - unlike most people I don't like long walks on the beach, just short ones. Heh.
I am once again cut off from the world. I have no telephone in my room, nor do I have Internet access. Lame. I will figure it out tomorrow after I work on my tan, hehe.
Day 11: Istanbul and back to Athens
Today was my last day in Istanbul. A coworker of Andrea's recommended several things to do in Istanbul, one of which was to visit an area called Taksim and have some profiterol at the Ince bakery. So, I used Istanbul's train system for the first time this morning. There were not a lot of options. Basically, you just pay 1.30 lira for a token to get on a train or bus - no transfers, no weekly or monthly passes - I appreciated the simplicity of it.
I was on the train for a while. It stopped frequently and announced the station names. Then it stopped and there was a bunch of gibberish, which usually means that the train has reached it's last top. It's funny because all the locals get off the damn train and all the tourists just sit there and start to look worried. Some guys near me asked, "Taksim?", and I said, "I hope so, I don't know." Apparently it wasn't. We had to transfer to a different train. So, I was walking behind these guys and they were trying to go through the transfer without a token, I pointed and said "jeton" (the Turkish word for token) - the token office was just around the corner. We all went over there and I asked one of them where he was from. "Iraq!", he answered enthusiastically. Then he asked me where I was from... I told him that I was sorry to say that I was from America, and I looked down in shame and said I'm sorry several more times... His smile disappeared and he paused and then just patted me on the shoulder and said, "good day to you", and he and his posse walked off. I felt miserable and angry at my country... Even moreso because I just read that book about how America intentionally exploits other countries by offering to help them upgrade their infrastructure and loaning them tons of money that is used to pay American companies to do work in these foreign countries - basically, we loan them money to pay our companies and then they have to pay us back the money that they already paid our companies. Then the companies build WAY more than the countries need, and the country gets into debt so deep that it can't pay us back. And we use that to put them in a vulnerable position to make them do us favors when the time is right. Or something like that. The point being, my country is a dick.
So, I moped around Taksim and found the bakery. Profiterol is basically chocolate covered, creamy, something-or-other. It was good, but it didn't help my mood that much. I got out of Taksim and took a bus to Ortokoy. I was the only passenger on the bus at first, so the bus driver waved for me to sit up front and then said random stuff in Turkish about things we were passing. I understood not a word, but I saw the sights. Ortokoy, from my experience, was basically a small part of Istanbul on the Bosphorus straight. I took a scenic walk across a plaza by the ocean. It was filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, and it featured a mini-bazaar and a large mosque. I drank some iced tea and then got up and sat on a bench by the mosque while the call to prayer was going out - very peaceful.
After that I got back on the bus, missed my stop, rode it around for an hour, hoping it would come back to that stop, but instead I ended up at the bus depot. The driver didn't speak English, but I managed to communicate that I needed to get to Kabatash, and he indicated that I should join him and other bus drivers and have some tea. Ha! So, I hung out with a bunch of bus drivers and drank tea. Apparently one of them was interested in learning English, so we went over my Turkish phrasebook together and I ended up giving it to him.
I finally got back to my hostel and then took a train to the airport instead of waiting for my stupid "shuttle" that I didn't trust to arrive on time. I got to the airport several hours before my flight and I decided to grow a pair of balls and ask for some of my money back from the "shuttle" service that scammed me when I arrived. For a moment, the manager gave me some crap about how his driver was already in that part of town and I should have called to cancel, and no, he wasn't giving me any refund. So, I told him that his man had pulled me across the airport and told me that no train existed that could take me into town, which was a blatant lie, and that I didn't care where his damn driver was (I doubted he even had a driver on the way). Apparently that was sufficient conversation on the topic, so he gave me 20 euro back out of the original 45. I know most of you would have argued to get even more back, or probably wouldn't have gotten into this situation in the first place, but hopefully you can appreciate how I was actually able to demand my money back. That's a big deal for me. I am not a demanding person.
By the way, Istanbul rules - their airport has free wireless Internet. Fuck all the airports that charge for wireless access! Yay Istanbul!
So, I browsed the net for awhile, took my flight back to Athens, got a hotel room from the agency at the airport, and then missed the last train into town... There were only 4 people waiting around for the train (the rest must have been smart enough to figure out that no more trains were coming). Me, two possibly French people that wouldn't stop making out, and a German lady named Eva. After figuring out that a train wasn't coming and discovering that we were both going to within blocks of each other, we decided to travel together. We took the bus to Syndagma Square and then just walked the rest of the way. I offered to walk her to her hostel, because the area is kind of sketchy, even moreso at night. There are no women out, just a bunch of men, a bunch of skater punk kids, and a bunch of little booths that sell a wide variety of porn magazines and DVDs in addition to drinks and snacks. When we got to her hostel, all her friend were waiting on the steps and they all cheered. She is part of some troup of poi performers - they are in town for a juggling convention. Bizarre. I hung out with them for a little bit and then found my way to my hotel.
I attempted to call Andrea before bed, but had more problems. It's remarkable how important communication is and how we take it for granted. I accidentally threw away the calling card access number for Greece (it was written down on a piece of paper with a bunch of other crap). It wouldn't have worked anyway because the phone in the hotel room was pulse dial, not tone dial, and there didn't appear to be any switch to change it. I was once again without Internet or phone... very frustrating.
I was on the train for a while. It stopped frequently and announced the station names. Then it stopped and there was a bunch of gibberish, which usually means that the train has reached it's last top. It's funny because all the locals get off the damn train and all the tourists just sit there and start to look worried. Some guys near me asked, "Taksim?", and I said, "I hope so, I don't know." Apparently it wasn't. We had to transfer to a different train. So, I was walking behind these guys and they were trying to go through the transfer without a token, I pointed and said "jeton" (the Turkish word for token) - the token office was just around the corner. We all went over there and I asked one of them where he was from. "Iraq!", he answered enthusiastically. Then he asked me where I was from... I told him that I was sorry to say that I was from America, and I looked down in shame and said I'm sorry several more times... His smile disappeared and he paused and then just patted me on the shoulder and said, "good day to you", and he and his posse walked off. I felt miserable and angry at my country... Even moreso because I just read that book about how America intentionally exploits other countries by offering to help them upgrade their infrastructure and loaning them tons of money that is used to pay American companies to do work in these foreign countries - basically, we loan them money to pay our companies and then they have to pay us back the money that they already paid our companies. Then the companies build WAY more than the countries need, and the country gets into debt so deep that it can't pay us back. And we use that to put them in a vulnerable position to make them do us favors when the time is right. Or something like that. The point being, my country is a dick.
So, I moped around Taksim and found the bakery. Profiterol is basically chocolate covered, creamy, something-or-other. It was good, but it didn't help my mood that much. I got out of Taksim and took a bus to Ortokoy. I was the only passenger on the bus at first, so the bus driver waved for me to sit up front and then said random stuff in Turkish about things we were passing. I understood not a word, but I saw the sights. Ortokoy, from my experience, was basically a small part of Istanbul on the Bosphorus straight. I took a scenic walk across a plaza by the ocean. It was filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, and it featured a mini-bazaar and a large mosque. I drank some iced tea and then got up and sat on a bench by the mosque while the call to prayer was going out - very peaceful.
After that I got back on the bus, missed my stop, rode it around for an hour, hoping it would come back to that stop, but instead I ended up at the bus depot. The driver didn't speak English, but I managed to communicate that I needed to get to Kabatash, and he indicated that I should join him and other bus drivers and have some tea. Ha! So, I hung out with a bunch of bus drivers and drank tea. Apparently one of them was interested in learning English, so we went over my Turkish phrasebook together and I ended up giving it to him.
I finally got back to my hostel and then took a train to the airport instead of waiting for my stupid "shuttle" that I didn't trust to arrive on time. I got to the airport several hours before my flight and I decided to grow a pair of balls and ask for some of my money back from the "shuttle" service that scammed me when I arrived. For a moment, the manager gave me some crap about how his driver was already in that part of town and I should have called to cancel, and no, he wasn't giving me any refund. So, I told him that his man had pulled me across the airport and told me that no train existed that could take me into town, which was a blatant lie, and that I didn't care where his damn driver was (I doubted he even had a driver on the way). Apparently that was sufficient conversation on the topic, so he gave me 20 euro back out of the original 45. I know most of you would have argued to get even more back, or probably wouldn't have gotten into this situation in the first place, but hopefully you can appreciate how I was actually able to demand my money back. That's a big deal for me. I am not a demanding person.
By the way, Istanbul rules - their airport has free wireless Internet. Fuck all the airports that charge for wireless access! Yay Istanbul!
So, I browsed the net for awhile, took my flight back to Athens, got a hotel room from the agency at the airport, and then missed the last train into town... There were only 4 people waiting around for the train (the rest must have been smart enough to figure out that no more trains were coming). Me, two possibly French people that wouldn't stop making out, and a German lady named Eva. After figuring out that a train wasn't coming and discovering that we were both going to within blocks of each other, we decided to travel together. We took the bus to Syndagma Square and then just walked the rest of the way. I offered to walk her to her hostel, because the area is kind of sketchy, even moreso at night. There are no women out, just a bunch of men, a bunch of skater punk kids, and a bunch of little booths that sell a wide variety of porn magazines and DVDs in addition to drinks and snacks. When we got to her hostel, all her friend were waiting on the steps and they all cheered. She is part of some troup of poi performers - they are in town for a juggling convention. Bizarre. I hung out with them for a little bit and then found my way to my hotel.
I attempted to call Andrea before bed, but had more problems. It's remarkable how important communication is and how we take it for granted. I accidentally threw away the calling card access number for Greece (it was written down on a piece of paper with a bunch of other crap). It wouldn't have worked anyway because the phone in the hotel room was pulse dial, not tone dial, and there didn't appear to be any switch to change it. I was once again without Internet or phone... very frustrating.
Day 10: Istanbul
Having no schedule allows me the freedom to just walk out of the hotel and literally get lost in the city. As long as I can find my way back before dark, I'm OK. So, today, I woke up and wandered in the general direction of the tall spires I saw last night (while enjoying my Turkish delight). The spires turned out to be part of the Hagia Sophia.
The Hagia Sophia was amazing. It's enormous on the inside and everything is so intricately painted, carved, and mosaic'd. I took plenty of pictures that I will post on my Flickr account. I need to read up on the history of this place though. The people that occupied it seem fascinating based solely on their relics and some of the translated paragraphs that were printed on the walls in the museum area.
After getting my fill of weird new architecture, I left and wandered some more. The next place I found was the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (A.K.A. The Blue Mosque). Despite the fact that the place was filled with tourists, I felt that it should be treated as a sacred place and I didn't bother taking out my camera. It's hard to pull out the camera when other people in the same area attempting to pray - it just feels kinda wrong.
A little while later, I found the Topkapi Palace. It's a huge landscaped area with several buildings on it. The were different sections in the palace to display different aspects of it's history. I saw the treasury and armory. Those guys really liked everything to be jewel-encrusted. It's like someone had an ancient Bedazzler and bedazzled everything. The views from the palace were amazing as well. Standing on a fine marble balcony the sultan was able to look over the entire Bosphorus Straight.
These buildings were all beautiful, but they were similar experiences - I felt ignorant. Just seeing beautiful things is nice, but without knowing what you're looking at, it doesn't really make a huge impact. ... I feel that most places are defined more by what their purpose is and what has been done there than by what they look like. So, without knowing the history of these places, I can only appreciate their physical beauty. I suppose that's the benefit of having a tour guide. I wish, naturally, that I could see these places in their full glory - that I could see them when they were in use by the people that built them. That would be truly amazing. Since they are all ancient, I must turn to modern places that currently have things happening in them to experience this aspect of traveling... and I'll read up on Wikipedia later to figure out what the hell I've been looking at during my trip, heh.
I decided to wander around in an attempt to experience modern Istanbul. I had a delicious banana shake and complimentary chocolate covered coffee beans at a very large coffee shop called Coffee World (I later discovered that this was some sort of chain). Inside the coffee shop was a second shop, Chocolate World. I had a complimentary truffle too - very tasty! I walked and walked and walked some more and eventually found myself back at my hostel, Cordial House. It was too early for bed (still light out), so I walked just up the street to a local cafe, the Dervis Cafe. The entrance to the cafe is just a stone archway on the side of the street. Once you enter the arch, you walk down a narrow tunnel and then into a clearing covered by an arched wooden roof with large skylights. It's very secluded from the noise of the city streets. I sat down and had some hot tea and Tavuk Shish (like shish kebob, but chicken instead of beef). The only sounds around me where people speaking in Turkish, backgammon dice rolling across the boards, and some interesting Turkish music. It seems that there are two types of cafes in Istanbul, those with people playing backgammon, and those without. I prefer the cafes with backgammon - they have a similar atmosphere to good coffee shops in America. People just seem to be there to hang out and relax rather than to get coffee... I wish I could bring some parts of Istanbul with me back home...
The Hagia Sophia was amazing. It's enormous on the inside and everything is so intricately painted, carved, and mosaic'd. I took plenty of pictures that I will post on my Flickr account. I need to read up on the history of this place though. The people that occupied it seem fascinating based solely on their relics and some of the translated paragraphs that were printed on the walls in the museum area.
After getting my fill of weird new architecture, I left and wandered some more. The next place I found was the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (A.K.A. The Blue Mosque). Despite the fact that the place was filled with tourists, I felt that it should be treated as a sacred place and I didn't bother taking out my camera. It's hard to pull out the camera when other people in the same area attempting to pray - it just feels kinda wrong.
A little while later, I found the Topkapi Palace. It's a huge landscaped area with several buildings on it. The were different sections in the palace to display different aspects of it's history. I saw the treasury and armory. Those guys really liked everything to be jewel-encrusted. It's like someone had an ancient Bedazzler and bedazzled everything. The views from the palace were amazing as well. Standing on a fine marble balcony the sultan was able to look over the entire Bosphorus Straight.
These buildings were all beautiful, but they were similar experiences - I felt ignorant. Just seeing beautiful things is nice, but without knowing what you're looking at, it doesn't really make a huge impact. ... I feel that most places are defined more by what their purpose is and what has been done there than by what they look like. So, without knowing the history of these places, I can only appreciate their physical beauty. I suppose that's the benefit of having a tour guide. I wish, naturally, that I could see these places in their full glory - that I could see them when they were in use by the people that built them. That would be truly amazing. Since they are all ancient, I must turn to modern places that currently have things happening in them to experience this aspect of traveling... and I'll read up on Wikipedia later to figure out what the hell I've been looking at during my trip, heh.
I decided to wander around in an attempt to experience modern Istanbul. I had a delicious banana shake and complimentary chocolate covered coffee beans at a very large coffee shop called Coffee World (I later discovered that this was some sort of chain). Inside the coffee shop was a second shop, Chocolate World. I had a complimentary truffle too - very tasty! I walked and walked and walked some more and eventually found myself back at my hostel, Cordial House. It was too early for bed (still light out), so I walked just up the street to a local cafe, the Dervis Cafe. The entrance to the cafe is just a stone archway on the side of the street. Once you enter the arch, you walk down a narrow tunnel and then into a clearing covered by an arched wooden roof with large skylights. It's very secluded from the noise of the city streets. I sat down and had some hot tea and Tavuk Shish (like shish kebob, but chicken instead of beef). The only sounds around me where people speaking in Turkish, backgammon dice rolling across the boards, and some interesting Turkish music. It seems that there are two types of cafes in Istanbul, those with people playing backgammon, and those without. I prefer the cafes with backgammon - they have a similar atmosphere to good coffee shops in America. People just seem to be there to hang out and relax rather than to get coffee... I wish I could bring some parts of Istanbul with me back home...
Day 9: Athens to Istanbul
I woke up kind of early, did 2 small loads of laundry for 20 euro - rip off! I had to do laundry though. Then I talked to a travel agent associated with my hotel and booked a plane to Istanbul. I also finally got some poop meds (Immodium) and ate a damn tasty breakfast at the cafe near my restaurant. Bacon, eggs, sausage, good bread, nothing that different, but it was just fresh off the grill and fresh in general. I couldn't think of anything to do to kill time before the flight so I just went to the airport and read.
I finished this book my mom gave me called "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man". It was pretty good. I am basically completely ignorant of politics and foreign policy and well... everything that this book talked about. So, it was good reading it because now I know about the Panama Invasion and Noriega and Iran and Iraq and a bunch of other crap that you are probably shocked to hear that I know basically nothing about. Also, while talking to another traveller at the airport I discovered that I know absolutely NOTHING about Romania. He asked me, "do you know anything about Romania?" And I said, "no." Do YOU know anything about Romania? If so, leave a comment.
I finally got on the plane to Istanbul. When we landed I got scammed into this "shuttle" service to my hotel at the airport. I'm an idiot. It's like I'm that one sheep that always strays from the herd and the coyotes get me. I was told that there was no train into town. And I was told that this shuttle service was the cheapest way to get into town. I was assured that it was the cheapest. I paid 45 euro for round trip service to the hotel on their "shuttle". Then I discovered that there was a train from the airport into town. Then I discovered that my "shuttle" was just some dude driving me in his car - I was the only passenger. Great. Must be a great deal if so many people are buying it, huh? I swear, dealing with these 2nd world countries that hustle you all the time is going to bankrupt me or turn me into an asshole.
I finally arrived at the hostel and played with the free wireless for a bit. I got hungry and wandered outside in the evening to find some food, but most places were closed. I was, however, able to eat some Turkish delight on a moonlight night, heh. I slept in a hostel for 8 euro in an unairconditioned room with 6 other dudes. Other than sweating my ass off, it was alright.
I finished this book my mom gave me called "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man". It was pretty good. I am basically completely ignorant of politics and foreign policy and well... everything that this book talked about. So, it was good reading it because now I know about the Panama Invasion and Noriega and Iran and Iraq and a bunch of other crap that you are probably shocked to hear that I know basically nothing about. Also, while talking to another traveller at the airport I discovered that I know absolutely NOTHING about Romania. He asked me, "do you know anything about Romania?" And I said, "no." Do YOU know anything about Romania? If so, leave a comment.
I finally got on the plane to Istanbul. When we landed I got scammed into this "shuttle" service to my hotel at the airport. I'm an idiot. It's like I'm that one sheep that always strays from the herd and the coyotes get me. I was told that there was no train into town. And I was told that this shuttle service was the cheapest way to get into town. I was assured that it was the cheapest. I paid 45 euro for round trip service to the hotel on their "shuttle". Then I discovered that there was a train from the airport into town. Then I discovered that my "shuttle" was just some dude driving me in his car - I was the only passenger. Great. Must be a great deal if so many people are buying it, huh? I swear, dealing with these 2nd world countries that hustle you all the time is going to bankrupt me or turn me into an asshole.
I finally arrived at the hostel and played with the free wireless for a bit. I got hungry and wandered outside in the evening to find some food, but most places were closed. I was, however, able to eat some Turkish delight on a moonlight night, heh. I slept in a hostel for 8 euro in an unairconditioned room with 6 other dudes. Other than sweating my ass off, it was alright.
Day 8: Athens and the Acropolis
I slept in finally! In a real bed! No schedule. No wake up calls. Very nice...
I climbed to the top of the Acropolis at noon - it was VERY hot - I'm an idiot. Not much to report other than it was lots of heat, lots of walking, and lots of teenage tourists being obnoxious and loud. I went back to the hotel and took a nap after the Acropolis.
Later on, I attempted to experience the Greek night life by going to Gazi (an area with lots of bars, cafes, and music, so I was told), but I was mostly tired and lame and had no friends so I didn't really do anything. Travelling alone in a large city isn't very fun I've decided. It seems that I get lost everywhere I go in Athens. The streets are very sneaky and poorly labeled. And when they are labeled, it's in Greek, heh. I was able to find a big event in Gazi. It was the last day of the Synch music festival. There was a block that was lit up all weird and I heard trance-like electronic music coming from inside. I finally found the crowd (and the entrance), but tickets were something like 50 euro, which I didn't have on me and may not have spent even if I did have it. So, I just loitered near the entrance with a crowd of people and street food vendors for a bit. Then I went back toward the metro entrance and at at some restaurant called Pasta La Vista. Quite possibly the best spaghetti arribiata I've ever had. At least Greece has good food.
I climbed to the top of the Acropolis at noon - it was VERY hot - I'm an idiot. Not much to report other than it was lots of heat, lots of walking, and lots of teenage tourists being obnoxious and loud. I went back to the hotel and took a nap after the Acropolis.
Later on, I attempted to experience the Greek night life by going to Gazi (an area with lots of bars, cafes, and music, so I was told), but I was mostly tired and lame and had no friends so I didn't really do anything. Travelling alone in a large city isn't very fun I've decided. It seems that I get lost everywhere I go in Athens. The streets are very sneaky and poorly labeled. And when they are labeled, it's in Greek, heh. I was able to find a big event in Gazi. It was the last day of the Synch music festival. There was a block that was lit up all weird and I heard trance-like electronic music coming from inside. I finally found the crowd (and the entrance), but tickets were something like 50 euro, which I didn't have on me and may not have spent even if I did have it. So, I just loitered near the entrance with a crowd of people and street food vendors for a bit. Then I went back toward the metro entrance and at at some restaurant called Pasta La Vista. Quite possibly the best spaghetti arribiata I've ever had. At least Greece has good food.
Day 7: Athens
I took a plane to Athens this morning. We got to the airport early because my mother had an earlier flight. When we (Luisa, Ilya, and I) finally arrived in Athens I hung out at the airport for a little bit to keep them company and because I was tire and not quite ready to explore a new city yet. They were flying to Chios, a Greek island... somewhere... in the ocean. After a little while, I got bored and ditched em.
I had spoken to a Greek guy on couchsurfing.com earlier and he said that Syndagma Square was cool and had free wireless Internet access, so I went there because I needed to get online and search for a hostel or hotel. After a short search I decided to walk to some place called "Easy Hotel Hostel". I wandered around for a long time, carrying my full backpack, unable to find this place, and I wore myself out. I've been tired a lot the last few days anyway because I'm feeling sick - probably because my butt keeps pooping out all my precious bodily fluids and nutrients (I have diarrhea!) So, I went back to Syndagma Square and worried a little bit about where I was gonna sleep tonight. I looked up some more hotels, WROTE DOWN NAMES AND ADDRESSES, and then started making calls. Most were full. Finally I found one that was available. I got a taxi, and the driver told me that he could find a better hotel for me that was less expensive, so whatever, I let him. I ended up in a pretty decent place for 60 euros per night - expensive, but not that bad compared to the other places I was finding.
I'm pooped.
No photos today.
I had spoken to a Greek guy on couchsurfing.com earlier and he said that Syndagma Square was cool and had free wireless Internet access, so I went there because I needed to get online and search for a hostel or hotel. After a short search I decided to walk to some place called "Easy Hotel Hostel". I wandered around for a long time, carrying my full backpack, unable to find this place, and I wore myself out. I've been tired a lot the last few days anyway because I'm feeling sick - probably because my butt keeps pooping out all my precious bodily fluids and nutrients (I have diarrhea!) So, I went back to Syndagma Square and worried a little bit about where I was gonna sleep tonight. I looked up some more hotels, WROTE DOWN NAMES AND ADDRESSES, and then started making calls. Most were full. Finally I found one that was available. I got a taxi, and the driver told me that he could find a better hotel for me that was less expensive, so whatever, I let him. I ended up in a pretty decent place for 60 euros per night - expensive, but not that bad compared to the other places I was finding.
I'm pooped.
No photos today.
Day 6: Day of rest.
We did nothing. We took the day off and stayed in our little Western-style hotel in Cairo with the mediocre food. I bought Internet access for the day and finally uploaded my blogs and pictures and whatnot. I got to talk to Andrea on Skype - that was awesome. Skype rules. Oh, and I got another picture of that zebra-assed woodpecker looking bird! It's a cool looking bird.
Day 5: More Luxor and back to Cairo
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Day 4: Luxor
Didn't sleep well, ugh. We met our guide in Luxor. His name is Akhmed. He has the same birthday as me, but he's a few years older. In Cairo, our security guard, also named Akhmed, was only a week or two older than me. I've decided, because of these coincidences, to call myself Akhmed - it's my temporary Egyptian name.
We went to the Temples of Karnak and Luxor. They were amazing! I walked through massive fortresses of stone that have lasted through the eons. In Karnak there are something like 134 huge columns as well as a ton of giant statues, sphinxes, and a few solid granite obelisks. Everything is covered with art and hieroglyphs and the graffiti of the centuries - some of the graffiti has dates in the 1800s on it! Karnak was at one time used by the Romans as a Christian temple too, so there are remains of Christian frescos and some Roman columns and arches as well. Our guide was very informative - I can't repeat all the stories here, but a lot of fascinating stuff has happened here in the last several thousand years... We visited the Temple of Luxor as well. It was a smaller and had some different styles of columns. Both temples still had places where the paint on the columns and walls still had color - that is amazing in itself. Paint that lasts thousands of years - I gotta get some of that next time I paint my house.
The morning was rough because our 5 A.M. breakfast consisted of only a few pieces of individually wrapped bread and some butter and jelly and we didn't get to eat again until around noon. We were all extremely low on energy walking around the temples. Luxor is also a little hotter and drier than Cairo. It's a city of only 400,000 compared to the 25 million in Cairo, and it's much further south in a more arid area. I found it much more laid back than Cairo and a little prettier. If compared to Arizona, I would say Cairo is like Phoenix, and Luxor is like Tempe or Scotsdale - a little nicer and a lot smaller.
When we got back to the hotel, I spent some cash and a lot of time trying to figure out my internet and phone card situation. I don't think I really figured anything out. I put $30 on this phone card, but the "local" numbers were in Cairo, which is long distance from Luxor, or in the U.K., which is definitely long distance. Whatever. I used it anyway. I was missing Andrea and I knew she would be worried about me because I meant to call her the day before but I didn't get the chance to... Communication with the outside world is so difficult right now because of the tour - I can't just go off and find a cafe with wireless access because we've got a full schedule every day.
After talking to Andrea, I went back upstairs and got ready for dinner followed by a "sound and light show" back at the Temple of Karnak. The sound and light show was cheesy - lots of over-the-top British voice acting with bad 70's adventure movie music. It was basically a re-telling of all the stories our guide told us earlier but through a loudspeaker system and at night with weird lighting everywhere. It was kinda cool going to the temple at night though. The sky here is so clear and blue. The horizons in all directions are breathtaking - the yellow sand meeting the blue, blue sky... I tried to capture some of it in photos, but they don't really do it justice. Near the end of the show, the city came alive with the Muslim evening call to prayer. I was annoyed because the show was not that interesting to me and I wanted to hear the city, but it was drowned out. I wish I could have been sitting on a dune just above the city, in complete silence. I wish I could have been there as the city came to life to bay at the moon with a cacophony of lilting chants going out over loudspeakers every few blocks... Oh well. Maybe one day I will come back. Or maybe I will find that experience in Istanbul where I will have no schedule... I hope so. The Muslim world has some very beautiful aspects to it.
Masa' ul-khayri (good evening),
Akhmed
We went to the Temples of Karnak and Luxor. They were amazing! I walked through massive fortresses of stone that have lasted through the eons. In Karnak there are something like 134 huge columns as well as a ton of giant statues, sphinxes, and a few solid granite obelisks. Everything is covered with art and hieroglyphs and the graffiti of the centuries - some of the graffiti has dates in the 1800s on it! Karnak was at one time used by the Romans as a Christian temple too, so there are remains of Christian frescos and some Roman columns and arches as well. Our guide was very informative - I can't repeat all the stories here, but a lot of fascinating stuff has happened here in the last several thousand years... We visited the Temple of Luxor as well. It was a smaller and had some different styles of columns. Both temples still had places where the paint on the columns and walls still had color - that is amazing in itself. Paint that lasts thousands of years - I gotta get some of that next time I paint my house.
The morning was rough because our 5 A.M. breakfast consisted of only a few pieces of individually wrapped bread and some butter and jelly and we didn't get to eat again until around noon. We were all extremely low on energy walking around the temples. Luxor is also a little hotter and drier than Cairo. It's a city of only 400,000 compared to the 25 million in Cairo, and it's much further south in a more arid area. I found it much more laid back than Cairo and a little prettier. If compared to Arizona, I would say Cairo is like Phoenix, and Luxor is like Tempe or Scotsdale - a little nicer and a lot smaller.
When we got back to the hotel, I spent some cash and a lot of time trying to figure out my internet and phone card situation. I don't think I really figured anything out. I put $30 on this phone card, but the "local" numbers were in Cairo, which is long distance from Luxor, or in the U.K., which is definitely long distance. Whatever. I used it anyway. I was missing Andrea and I knew she would be worried about me because I meant to call her the day before but I didn't get the chance to... Communication with the outside world is so difficult right now because of the tour - I can't just go off and find a cafe with wireless access because we've got a full schedule every day.
After talking to Andrea, I went back upstairs and got ready for dinner followed by a "sound and light show" back at the Temple of Karnak. The sound and light show was cheesy - lots of over-the-top British voice acting with bad 70's adventure movie music. It was basically a re-telling of all the stories our guide told us earlier but through a loudspeaker system and at night with weird lighting everywhere. It was kinda cool going to the temple at night though. The sky here is so clear and blue. The horizons in all directions are breathtaking - the yellow sand meeting the blue, blue sky... I tried to capture some of it in photos, but they don't really do it justice. Near the end of the show, the city came alive with the Muslim evening call to prayer. I was annoyed because the show was not that interesting to me and I wanted to hear the city, but it was drowned out. I wish I could have been sitting on a dune just above the city, in complete silence. I wish I could have been there as the city came to life to bay at the moon with a cacophony of lilting chants going out over loudspeakers every few blocks... Oh well. Maybe one day I will come back. Or maybe I will find that experience in Istanbul where I will have no schedule... I hope so. The Muslim world has some very beautiful aspects to it.
Masa' ul-khayri (good evening),
Akhmed
Day 3: More Cairo
Today was much better. Honestly, I think the tour company or the tour guides are just unaware of what we want. I guess they aren't mind readers... We told Osama that we wanted some good, local, cheap food, and he took us to some place in the city. We ate a steaming hot (for once) meal that consisted of spaghetti, macaroni, and other things all in a bowl. It was pretty good - much better than the lame Western-imitation buffet crap. I also crossed an Egyptian street for the first time in my life - miraculously, I lived!
We went to the Egyptian Museum and saw everything they found in Tutankhamun's tomb - very interesting and informative. We also saw a ton of statues, hieroglyphs, false pyramid doors, columns, and other ancient Egyptian accoutrements. Anything used or touched by the pharoahs was solid gold or at least covered with gold leaf. They REALLY liked gold... a lot. I don't have any pictures of any of it, because they didn't allow cameras in the museum. The Ka statue of King Hor I is pretty cool though. I AM CORNHOLIO! If you're interested in all the stuff in the Egyptian Museum, check out this link: http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org.
We also went to the Khan El-Khalili bazaar. It was awesome - more so for the atmosphere than the actual items being sold. It's basically a labyrinthine series of shops and alleys filled with cheap spices, clothes, trinkets, and Egyptian art and jewelry. Every shop has someone trying to lure you in. They speak every language it seems - they hawk their wares in English, Spanish, French, or whatever language they think you speak. I probably said "laa, shukran" ("no, thank you") a hundred times. Sometimes when you say "laa", the shopkeepers start singing "laa laalaa laa laa laa" - they hear "laa" a lot, hehe. Towards the end of our trip to the bazaar, we sat down at a crowded but cozy cafe. We had tea, coffee, and shisha with our guides. It was nice - one of the few genuine-feeling moments in the trip. Today I felt that we got to see a little bit of the real Egypt.
We did stop at two more shops, but there didn't seem to be much pressure to buy anything. Either they were more laid back, or I am just getting used to it. The first place was a jewelry store in a small community of jewelers and metallurgists. Very beautiful jewelry, but most of it was Egypt-themed: scarabs and ankhs and more scarabs and ankhs. The second place was a store called "Funky Bros" that sold a lot of made-in-Egypt cotton products. I got a new shirt and some pants for around $30 or $40 each - not that cheap, but they're very nice clothes. I'll wear them tomorrow.
I'm currently on the sleeper train to Luxor. It's getting late and we have to get up at something like 5am local time. I'm going to try to get some good sleep...
We went to the Egyptian Museum and saw everything they found in Tutankhamun's tomb - very interesting and informative. We also saw a ton of statues, hieroglyphs, false pyramid doors, columns, and other ancient Egyptian accoutrements. Anything used or touched by the pharoahs was solid gold or at least covered with gold leaf. They REALLY liked gold... a lot. I don't have any pictures of any of it, because they didn't allow cameras in the museum. The Ka statue of King Hor I is pretty cool though. I AM CORNHOLIO! If you're interested in all the stuff in the Egyptian Museum, check out this link: http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org.
We also went to the Khan El-Khalili bazaar. It was awesome - more so for the atmosphere than the actual items being sold. It's basically a labyrinthine series of shops and alleys filled with cheap spices, clothes, trinkets, and Egyptian art and jewelry. Every shop has someone trying to lure you in. They speak every language it seems - they hawk their wares in English, Spanish, French, or whatever language they think you speak. I probably said "laa, shukran" ("no, thank you") a hundred times. Sometimes when you say "laa", the shopkeepers start singing "laa laalaa laa laa laa" - they hear "laa" a lot, hehe. Towards the end of our trip to the bazaar, we sat down at a crowded but cozy cafe. We had tea, coffee, and shisha with our guides. It was nice - one of the few genuine-feeling moments in the trip. Today I felt that we got to see a little bit of the real Egypt.
We did stop at two more shops, but there didn't seem to be much pressure to buy anything. Either they were more laid back, or I am just getting used to it. The first place was a jewelry store in a small community of jewelers and metallurgists. Very beautiful jewelry, but most of it was Egypt-themed: scarabs and ankhs and more scarabs and ankhs. The second place was a store called "Funky Bros" that sold a lot of made-in-Egypt cotton products. I got a new shirt and some pants for around $30 or $40 each - not that cheap, but they're very nice clothes. I'll wear them tomorrow.
I'm currently on the sleeper train to Luxor. It's getting late and we have to get up at something like 5am local time. I'm going to try to get some good sleep...
Day 2: Cairo
At the end of the day today, I'm left with a lot to think about. First of all, I feel that I was unprepared for the Egypt leg of this trip. When I was younger, I learned a lot about ancient Egypt from my mother and from school, but I have forgotten most of it. I saw the pyramids both great and small, I saw the Sphinx, I saw several temples - and I remembered practically nothing about their history. However, our guide, Osama, was very knowledgeable - he gave us a lot of information about each site we visted. The pyramids were both more and less impressive that you would imagine. The Great Pyramid is truly a world wonder, it's a man-made mountain of rock larger in scale than I thought it would be. But at the same time, so much has been destroyed by time, vandalism, or the government. Most statues are missing from the sites (presumably transferred to museums), and most ancient writing has faded or been replaced with such wisdom as "Mohammed (heart) Julie 2006".
In general, the city reminds me of Mexico even though I've never been to Mexico. That statement is ridiculous, but I don't care. The poverty level is high, and there seems to be no middle class. It seems like there are almost no billboards - presumably, no one has excess cash to spend on the kinda crap that billboards usually advertise. Also, certain shops seem to rely upon an interesting "captive audience" sales tactic wherein the tour companies drop tourists off and you have to sit through a demonstration of whatever product the store sells. As an individual traveller, I probably never would have chosen to go to a "flower essence" shop, a papyrus art gallery, or an oriental rug school. I appreciated and even enjoyed some of the demonstrations. However, I felt guilty after accepting "Egyptian hospitality" in the form of free water or hibiscus tea, and watching a demonstration I didn't even ask for with no intentions of buying of the products. It's confusing because I usually choose where I go to shop and most shops in my country are very low-pressure (other than car dealerships). In Egypt, I am dropped off in a shop and pushed to buy the product. Also, the population is very homogenous - there are Egyptians and there are tourists. When you drive through the city, you see only Egyptians, when you visit anything historical or one of these special shops, you see only tourists. Oil and water.
As I was being led around by our guide today I kept trying to discover what life for a normal Egyptian was like. Where do THEY eat? Where do THEY shop? What prices do THEY pay? Why is there so much segregation? Do they eat out? Maybe the poverty is so bad that only tourists eat out... But there must be some rich Egyptians somewhere - do they just have in-house cooks? I have travelled thousands of miles to visit a different culture and here I am eating mediocre Western-style buffet food (think Luby's or Golden Corral) in restaurants filled with only tourists. And I'm paying US$20 for it. Twenty bucks to wait in a line to slop my own room-temp imitations of American food onto my plate? And yet, where would I be on my own, with no tour guide? He flashes some tourism bureau card and we all walk through metal detectors, each of us beeping, with the guards just waving us on. He communicates to various guards at the historical sites for us. He makes our lives easier, but WHERE DOES HE GO FOR SOME GOOD ARABIAN FOOD? I can't seem to get him to tell me...
This leads me to more questions. He leads us through his city and it's monuments and tells us we must see everything because we will only see them once! Admittedly, this is definitely categorized as a "once in a lifetime" experience, but as a tour guide, I wonder whether this is a wise way to conduct business? I feel like we're expected to only visit one time. I feel like like we're expected to give as much money to them as we can afford on this one time through. And I feel like this world is completely different than the one that the other 25 million people living in Cairo are living in. Would it not be wiser to treat the tourists with genuine hospitality? Give us free perks, but don't make us feel guilty. Show us a good time. I can go to wikipedia to learn about your history, and I can go to a much closer museum in America to see your artifacts. I'm here because I want to live in your shoes for a week. If that means weird food, fine. Yeah, your city is dirty and hot, but I didn't expect anything other than that. Take me into it, not through it. I don't want to feel like a special guest. I want to feel like a fellow human being, a friend.
I gotta say though, those hand-made rugs were pretty sweet, and the 12 year old girls making them seemed happy. Sweat shop? Didn't seem like it. "Egyptian carpet school". That's something I don't have in the U.S. I don't think ACC offers classes on carpet-making. Why is it these small things that leave the biggest impression on me? I feel guilty for not being more impressed by the ancient ruins... But I cannot be anything other than myself - we will just have to learn to deal with it. Show me a great painting and I'll probably find myself appreciating the frame it's in instead...
A few more impressions before I sleep... Our driver is a man of true skill, but the lives of ourselves and MANY pedestrians were endangered today. Egypt traffic continues to amuse and scare me. LA is laid back by comparison. Also, whirling dervishes are awesome! Luisa has pictures. I would have taken video if my camera battery hadn't died.
Check out my links to the right for photos and videos.
Ma'salama (Arabic for "l8r").
In general, the city reminds me of Mexico even though I've never been to Mexico. That statement is ridiculous, but I don't care. The poverty level is high, and there seems to be no middle class. It seems like there are almost no billboards - presumably, no one has excess cash to spend on the kinda crap that billboards usually advertise. Also, certain shops seem to rely upon an interesting "captive audience" sales tactic wherein the tour companies drop tourists off and you have to sit through a demonstration of whatever product the store sells. As an individual traveller, I probably never would have chosen to go to a "flower essence" shop, a papyrus art gallery, or an oriental rug school. I appreciated and even enjoyed some of the demonstrations. However, I felt guilty after accepting "Egyptian hospitality" in the form of free water or hibiscus tea, and watching a demonstration I didn't even ask for with no intentions of buying of the products. It's confusing because I usually choose where I go to shop and most shops in my country are very low-pressure (other than car dealerships). In Egypt, I am dropped off in a shop and pushed to buy the product. Also, the population is very homogenous - there are Egyptians and there are tourists. When you drive through the city, you see only Egyptians, when you visit anything historical or one of these special shops, you see only tourists. Oil and water.
As I was being led around by our guide today I kept trying to discover what life for a normal Egyptian was like. Where do THEY eat? Where do THEY shop? What prices do THEY pay? Why is there so much segregation? Do they eat out? Maybe the poverty is so bad that only tourists eat out... But there must be some rich Egyptians somewhere - do they just have in-house cooks? I have travelled thousands of miles to visit a different culture and here I am eating mediocre Western-style buffet food (think Luby's or Golden Corral) in restaurants filled with only tourists. And I'm paying US$20 for it. Twenty bucks to wait in a line to slop my own room-temp imitations of American food onto my plate? And yet, where would I be on my own, with no tour guide? He flashes some tourism bureau card and we all walk through metal detectors, each of us beeping, with the guards just waving us on. He communicates to various guards at the historical sites for us. He makes our lives easier, but WHERE DOES HE GO FOR SOME GOOD ARABIAN FOOD? I can't seem to get him to tell me...
This leads me to more questions. He leads us through his city and it's monuments and tells us we must see everything because we will only see them once! Admittedly, this is definitely categorized as a "once in a lifetime" experience, but as a tour guide, I wonder whether this is a wise way to conduct business? I feel like we're expected to only visit one time. I feel like like we're expected to give as much money to them as we can afford on this one time through. And I feel like this world is completely different than the one that the other 25 million people living in Cairo are living in. Would it not be wiser to treat the tourists with genuine hospitality? Give us free perks, but don't make us feel guilty. Show us a good time. I can go to wikipedia to learn about your history, and I can go to a much closer museum in America to see your artifacts. I'm here because I want to live in your shoes for a week. If that means weird food, fine. Yeah, your city is dirty and hot, but I didn't expect anything other than that. Take me into it, not through it. I don't want to feel like a special guest. I want to feel like a fellow human being, a friend.
I gotta say though, those hand-made rugs were pretty sweet, and the 12 year old girls making them seemed happy. Sweat shop? Didn't seem like it. "Egyptian carpet school". That's something I don't have in the U.S. I don't think ACC offers classes on carpet-making. Why is it these small things that leave the biggest impression on me? I feel guilty for not being more impressed by the ancient ruins... But I cannot be anything other than myself - we will just have to learn to deal with it. Show me a great painting and I'll probably find myself appreciating the frame it's in instead...
A few more impressions before I sleep... Our driver is a man of true skill, but the lives of ourselves and MANY pedestrians were endangered today. Egypt traffic continues to amuse and scare me. LA is laid back by comparison. Also, whirling dervishes are awesome! Luisa has pictures. I would have taken video if my camera battery hadn't died.
Check out my links to the right for photos and videos.
Ma'salama (Arabic for "l8r").
Day 1: Crossing the Atlantsuck and Cairo
What a long day of travelling. I've spent an unknown number of hours in airports and on airplanes - some of them I was conscious, some of them I was not. Sleeping on planes sucks, even with all the right equipment (you know, like one of those inflatable neck pillows). I think the air pressure is all wrong or it's too dry or something - I kept waking up with a dry, swollen tongue and a sore throat.
JFK airport in New York city sucked also - terrible food. On the plus side, all of the planes I've been on seem to have TV screens with movies and games and GPS-enabled maps so you can see how close you are to your destination. Also on the plus side, Air France ruled - they give you damn good food, bread, cheese, wine, whatever, all complimentary. I made some half-ass sangria with some orange juice and red wine!
Flying over the Atlantic was boring as you may have guessed. No scenery. Oh, and it was also in the middle of the night, so you wouldn't have seen anything if there was scenery. Flying into the airport in Paris was cool. I saw the Eiffel tower from afar, and the city was laid out in weird triangular blocks instead of square blocks like most cities in the U.S. Maybe that was just in the part of Paris that I flew over, I dunno. The Paris airport was ridiculous. We landed, got out of the plane and loaded into a bus parked nearby. It drove us past all these terminals under construction. Then we waited and waited and waited for a bus to take us to the terminal we were supposed to be leaving from - the plane had started boarding 10 minutes prior. It finally came and took us right by where we got off the plane in the first place. Then we went through the boarding gate and sat on another bus for 10 or 15 minutes before we finally got onto the plane. "C'est la vie" is the expression I believe...
The flight from Paris to Cairo was scenic. We flew over Greece and several Greek Islands. I was unconscious on and off. When the plane came into Egypt I noticed that all the towns surrounding Cairo were laid out in this weird clumped-together blob pattern. Interesting. Egypt (around Cairo) was much greener than I was expecting. As the plane circled to land, we saw the pyramids and everyone "ooo"ed and "aww"ed. They are big. Really freaking big. I'm going to see them on foot tomorrow. Very excited. ... We got off the plane, met one of our travel guide's reps at the airport, got visa'd, and got taxied.
AWESOME taxi ride! Egypt is like Ecuador (or Mexico so I hear) as far as the driving goes. Tons of tiny, dinged-up cars swerving around with complete disregard for lanes, safety, and pedestrians. It was night when we got the taxi ride, but most people drive with their headlights off. The swerving and near collisions are punctuated by flashing the headlights and various horn honks from quick triple-beeps to a few heavy long beeps when you come close to smushing a scooter or small car. Also there are people lining the roads. They are all running around through traffic like the hardest level of Frogger. Women, children, old people, and crazy people pushing carts are walking around not only in traffic, but across the street while cars dodge them going 30mph. It's insane. Also, all the cars have tons of weird neon flashing lights and bright glowing colors. And some of the "cars" are wagons pulled by donkeys. I'm totally gonna hit up a local Egyptian auto parts store and ship myself some neon crap. The cars are all brands that don't exist in the U.S.: Peugot, Fiat, Opel, and other crap I don't recognize at all. I saw one Chevy truck. And the best part...
In Egypt they don't have traffic lights! Here's how a four way stop works: traffic is moving at a steady pace down one street (30-40mph). Traffic on the perpendicular street edges closer and closer until they're about to get T-boned and they start honking and flashing lights. Finally, a slight backup in traffic going down the first street will cause them to slow down enough where traffic on the second street just pushes through. People hit the breaks hard and honk a lot while traffic from the second street starts streaming though. The intersection is also immediately flooded with pedestrians crossing in all directions including diagonally. If only my camera wasn't in my bag in the back of the taxi van. We only went through one real intersection like this - the rest of the time was just a slow but steady weaving through packed streets.
I don't have any pictures today, but I will get plenty tomorrow. And I will make sure we take a taxi back into town at night sometime to get some good video of this craziness!
JFK airport in New York city sucked also - terrible food. On the plus side, all of the planes I've been on seem to have TV screens with movies and games and GPS-enabled maps so you can see how close you are to your destination. Also on the plus side, Air France ruled - they give you damn good food, bread, cheese, wine, whatever, all complimentary. I made some half-ass sangria with some orange juice and red wine!
Flying over the Atlantic was boring as you may have guessed. No scenery. Oh, and it was also in the middle of the night, so you wouldn't have seen anything if there was scenery. Flying into the airport in Paris was cool. I saw the Eiffel tower from afar, and the city was laid out in weird triangular blocks instead of square blocks like most cities in the U.S. Maybe that was just in the part of Paris that I flew over, I dunno. The Paris airport was ridiculous. We landed, got out of the plane and loaded into a bus parked nearby. It drove us past all these terminals under construction. Then we waited and waited and waited for a bus to take us to the terminal we were supposed to be leaving from - the plane had started boarding 10 minutes prior. It finally came and took us right by where we got off the plane in the first place. Then we went through the boarding gate and sat on another bus for 10 or 15 minutes before we finally got onto the plane. "C'est la vie" is the expression I believe...
The flight from Paris to Cairo was scenic. We flew over Greece and several Greek Islands. I was unconscious on and off. When the plane came into Egypt I noticed that all the towns surrounding Cairo were laid out in this weird clumped-together blob pattern. Interesting. Egypt (around Cairo) was much greener than I was expecting. As the plane circled to land, we saw the pyramids and everyone "ooo"ed and "aww"ed. They are big. Really freaking big. I'm going to see them on foot tomorrow. Very excited. ... We got off the plane, met one of our travel guide's reps at the airport, got visa'd, and got taxied.
AWESOME taxi ride! Egypt is like Ecuador (or Mexico so I hear) as far as the driving goes. Tons of tiny, dinged-up cars swerving around with complete disregard for lanes, safety, and pedestrians. It was night when we got the taxi ride, but most people drive with their headlights off. The swerving and near collisions are punctuated by flashing the headlights and various horn honks from quick triple-beeps to a few heavy long beeps when you come close to smushing a scooter or small car. Also there are people lining the roads. They are all running around through traffic like the hardest level of Frogger. Women, children, old people, and crazy people pushing carts are walking around not only in traffic, but across the street while cars dodge them going 30mph. It's insane. Also, all the cars have tons of weird neon flashing lights and bright glowing colors. And some of the "cars" are wagons pulled by donkeys. I'm totally gonna hit up a local Egyptian auto parts store and ship myself some neon crap. The cars are all brands that don't exist in the U.S.: Peugot, Fiat, Opel, and other crap I don't recognize at all. I saw one Chevy truck. And the best part...
In Egypt they don't have traffic lights! Here's how a four way stop works: traffic is moving at a steady pace down one street (30-40mph). Traffic on the perpendicular street edges closer and closer until they're about to get T-boned and they start honking and flashing lights. Finally, a slight backup in traffic going down the first street will cause them to slow down enough where traffic on the second street just pushes through. People hit the breaks hard and honk a lot while traffic from the second street starts streaming though. The intersection is also immediately flooded with pedestrians crossing in all directions including diagonally. If only my camera wasn't in my bag in the back of the taxi van. We only went through one real intersection like this - the rest of the time was just a slow but steady weaving through packed streets.
I don't have any pictures today, but I will get plenty tomorrow. And I will make sure we take a taxi back into town at night sometime to get some good video of this craziness!
EWT2K8... er... EWT2K7
There's only one week left before Evans World Tour 2008 or "yoot-too-kate" as I pronounce it. Prepare yourself for high-res pictures of inane things, rambling blogs, and um... I dunno... other stuff. The drama du jour is me trying to change my mom's ticket from Cairo to Tel Aviv - a week before we leave, she noticed that her flight is arriving too late and she is going to miss her group, so I'm trying to get ahold of the travel agency that I used to book everything and get em to help me change it.
Also, I had to mow the lawn this morning. That was pretty dramatic... particularly for my sweat glands.
Also also, I went to my girlfriend's friend's (btw, Happy Birthday again Amy! Wooo!) birthday party this weekend and there was this butterfly hanging out by the patio lights - it was late too! it was like 11 or midnight or something - not a normal time for butterflies - and I got it to crawl onto my hand and it was trying to lick me with it's weird butterfly curly tongue-probe-amajig so I poured some beer on my hand for it to drink and it drank it, and then I totally gave the butterfly some butterfly kisses - you know, where you lightly brush something with your eyelashes - I have witnesses, it was awesome! ... I'm slightly worried that the butterfly was male, therefore making me a homosexual. Meh. So be it. I like butterflies.
And it's okay to be gay. Hehe.
I gave a butterfly butterfly kisses! Hahaha! I crack myself up!
UPDATE: Wow. You know you're out of touch when you get the year wrong. It's 2007, not 2008. I guess this is EWT2K7.
Also, I had to mow the lawn this morning. That was pretty dramatic... particularly for my sweat glands.
Also also, I went to my girlfriend's friend's (btw, Happy Birthday again Amy! Wooo!) birthday party this weekend and there was this butterfly hanging out by the patio lights - it was late too! it was like 11 or midnight or something - not a normal time for butterflies - and I got it to crawl onto my hand and it was trying to lick me with it's weird butterfly curly tongue-probe-amajig so I poured some beer on my hand for it to drink and it drank it, and then I totally gave the butterfly some butterfly kisses - you know, where you lightly brush something with your eyelashes - I have witnesses, it was awesome! ... I'm slightly worried that the butterfly was male, therefore making me a homosexual. Meh. So be it. I like butterflies.
And it's okay to be gay. Hehe.
I gave a butterfly butterfly kisses! Hahaha! I crack myself up!
UPDATE: Wow. You know you're out of touch when you get the year wrong. It's 2007, not 2008. I guess this is EWT2K7.
30
Andrea stayed up till midnight last night so she could see me physically change from being a 20-something to a 30-year-old. It was like that scene in Indiana Jones where the dude drinks from the wrong Jesus-cup.
Pretty rad.
Pretty rad.
Coffee
Every morning I drink two cups of coffee: one with milk and sugar, and one black and bitter.
I traded in this Crate&Barrel "Sushi for Two" set I got at Christmas for a French press coffee maker. I've always kinda wanted a French press. It seems like the purest way to make coffee. No filters, no machines with uncleanable internal parts. Just boiling water, stainless steel, glass, and fresh ground coffee beans. Awesome.
So, every day I make coffee. I haven't got it down perfect just yet. I always end up with a cup and a half or so. So I make the first cup with milk and sugar, enjoy it, and then pour the remainder for my second cup so as not to waste it. And now it's kind of become a tradition.
I didn't used to be able to drink black coffee, but now I enjoy it.
Things are always changing.
I traded in this Crate&Barrel "Sushi for Two" set I got at Christmas for a French press coffee maker. I've always kinda wanted a French press. It seems like the purest way to make coffee. No filters, no machines with uncleanable internal parts. Just boiling water, stainless steel, glass, and fresh ground coffee beans. Awesome.
So, every day I make coffee. I haven't got it down perfect just yet. I always end up with a cup and a half or so. So I make the first cup with milk and sugar, enjoy it, and then pour the remainder for my second cup so as not to waste it. And now it's kind of become a tradition.
I didn't used to be able to drink black coffee, but now I enjoy it.
Things are always changing.
Three Movie Reviews
Hot Fuzz. It ruled. Go see it. I'm not gonna prattle on about the details. Either we have similar taste or we don't.
Also, My Super Exgirlfriend got a bad rep from somewhere, but I watched it anyway, and it was hilarious with only a few totally cheesy moments.
I also had some of my cousins over to watch Idiocrasy again. I love that movie. Thank you again, Andrea, for getting it for me. Mike Judge is awesome.
And in other movie news, I was thinking about expanding my DVD collection, and I thought, "Dude, I need Big Trouble in Little China! It's a classic!" And then a few days after thinking this, I was in I Love Video (my favorite movie rental/store in Austin) and I saw it for sale! Totally got it. Totally gonna have a Big Trouble in Little China movie night complete with takeout Chinese food.
By the by, the billboard out front of I Love Video had this fantastic quote today:
"A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer. -Mitch Hedburg"
Hehe.
Also, My Super Exgirlfriend got a bad rep from somewhere, but I watched it anyway, and it was hilarious with only a few totally cheesy moments.
I also had some of my cousins over to watch Idiocrasy again. I love that movie. Thank you again, Andrea, for getting it for me. Mike Judge is awesome.
And in other movie news, I was thinking about expanding my DVD collection, and I thought, "Dude, I need Big Trouble in Little China! It's a classic!" And then a few days after thinking this, I was in I Love Video (my favorite movie rental/store in Austin) and I saw it for sale! Totally got it. Totally gonna have a Big Trouble in Little China movie night complete with takeout Chinese food.
By the by, the billboard out front of I Love Video had this fantastic quote today:
"A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer. -Mitch Hedburg"
Hehe.
First Week of Freedom
Well, I'm unemployed. It's never as glorious as it seems. I spent the first four days in bed with a fever. Tonsillitus again. Went to an otolaryngologist. Getting tonsils removed at the end of May. I wish I didn't have to wait so long, but my mom insists that I do it during her summer vacation so she can be here to take care of me. Spent the first healthy day installing Andrea's ceiling fans. They look good. That makes a total of 4 ceiling fans I've installed in my life - pretty good number - do I smell a new profession? Ha. My business cards will say: "Need a ceiling fan installed? Shit, I'll install it anywhere. Ceiling. Floor. Car. I'll make you hella breezy for cheap." Just went grocery shopping finally. One of the rules of unemployment is that you don't eat out all the time. I did good - 64 items for $71.39. Yes, lots of Ramen and Maruchan Instant Lunch cups, but there was some hearty food in there too... like "appetite pleanin'" Ranch Style beans with "Real Western Flavor" - no joke. Sure is busy the first week... Ex-coworkers only hadda call me twice so far - it's nice to know you're needed. Heh. Gonna go mow my lawn-from-hell now. Damn winter ryegrass. I hope some regular grass survived so I don't just have a dirt yard this summer.
L said...
Hope you're feeling better now!!
4/11/2007 9:26 AM
Kelly said...
American Angel says "Be a superhero! Your superhero name is now WINDMAKER!" Which doubles as a fart joke, which is why it's perfect for you.
4/12/2007 4:19 PM
L said...
Hope you're feeling better now!!
4/11/2007 9:26 AM
Kelly said...
American Angel says "Be a superhero! Your superhero name is now WINDMAKER!" Which doubles as a fart joke, which is why it's perfect for you.
4/12/2007 4:19 PM
Spring
Every year around March the appointed leader of each species of tree sends a message to all of its kin. How the trees appoint a leader is a mystery -- perhaps it's the tallest, or the oldest, or the one with the most squirrels -- I have no idea. But every year the winds carry these messages: [A gust of wind] P. Tree: "Alright trees, has everyone got their tree watches?" [A flurry of gentle breezes] Trees: "Yes!", "Yeah!", "Natch.", "Affirmative.", etc... [A slow but steady gale ending with a burst of wind.] P. Tree: "Good. Let's set Spring for exactly 24 hours from now. Synchronize on my mark... ... ... Mark!" We don't ever notice this, because these short messages take days to transmit, but I assure you, this is happening. I know because I got up the other day and it was like a calculated terrorist attack of the color green! Everything is exploding. Spring rules!
andij19 said...
very poetic
3/15/2007 1:10 PM
ilya said...
i'm so jealous. In new york we saw a similar message start to be transmitted and then someone greater than trees said "Fuck you, trees! i'm going to make it snow 2 days after it was 70 degrees! Get your buds back inside!"
3/16/2007 8:06 AM
andij19 said...
very poetic
3/15/2007 1:10 PM
ilya said...
i'm so jealous. In new york we saw a similar message start to be transmitted and then someone greater than trees said "Fuck you, trees! i'm going to make it snow 2 days after it was 70 degrees! Get your buds back inside!"
3/16/2007 8:06 AM
Well met, World!
#include
main()
{
cout << "Well met, World!" << endl;
return 0;
}
Finally, nerd humor and dork humor collide. Thanks to Andrea for the inspiration.
Evans Tucker said...
Here's a neat little link to all the "Hello World!" you can stand...http://www.roesler-ac.de/wolfram/hello.htm
3/12/2007 8:07 AM
Andrea said...
thats right...i am so smart...i am so smart...s-m-r-t...i mean s-m-a-r-t
3/14/2007 8:33 AM
main()
{
cout << "Well met, World!" << endl;
return 0;
}
Finally, nerd humor and dork humor collide. Thanks to Andrea for the inspiration.
Evans Tucker said...
Here's a neat little link to all the "Hello World!" you can stand...http://www.roesler-ac.de/wolfram/hello.htm
3/12/2007 8:07 AM
Andrea said...
thats right...i am so smart...i am so smart...s-m-r-t...i mean s-m-a-r-t
3/14/2007 8:33 AM
Wheel of Lunch
This is a great idea. I will use it often.
Anthony said...
Holy smoke we ran across this yesterday around lunchtime. woot.
3/22/2007 12:53 PM
Anthony said...
Holy smoke we ran across this yesterday around lunchtime. woot.
3/22/2007 12:53 PM
"Rugged Swag"
Well, apparently chain wallets are cool after all. And Nordstrom is selling the chain, by itself, for $125. If they will admit that rolling up the cuffs of your pants is cool, then I will finally be back in style. I knew they'd figure out what's really cool eventually. Of course, in 2 years, they'll say that bell bottoms are cool or go through some other nonsensical retro backlash. This is why I don't pay attention to style. And also because they have tried to say that oversize sunglasses, acid wash jeans, and anorexia are cool - I have to disagree. The big glasses remind me of insect eyes, the jeans look like you spend a lot of time sliding around on your ass (makes me think of dogs butt-scooting around on the carpet), and the anorexia implies heinous body-image/masochism issues, which turn me off. I actually do kind of appreciate my jeans even after I tear em, but it's like a scar: it's cool because of the history and the story behind it. Pre-torn jeans are, to me, the equivalent of people just cutting themselves on purpose to get cool looking scars. ... That's a very extreme example, but not too far from the truth. The same people that focus on "cool" torn jeans and all that style bullshit are the people that cut themselves to get fake tits implanted and faces lifted and fat sucked out. Sick culture. You can keep it. Either way, I get a little kick when style does start coming around my territory. It's nice to see "rugged swag" A.K.A chains coming to Nordstrom, heh.
ilya said...
I don't know, Evans, i think you're a little extreme. i can see the positive aspects of anorexia, for example, in that people who suffer from it require less material for their clothing and making people in sweatshops of Bangladesh work fewer hours. Isn't that how it works? Therefore, we can think of the cultural glorification of anorexia as having a humanitarian aspect to it.
2/26/2007 1:24 PM
Andrea said...
In response to Ilya's comment -- why would working less hours in the sweatshop due to anorexic clothing be more humanitarian? the people in the sweatshops need to work more hours so that they have enough money to feed their family. If anything...plus size clothing is more humanitarian.
2/27/2007 9:46 AM
Evans Tucker said...
You guys are hilarious...I think we should handle humans like deer: go find areas where they're starving and then kill a bunch of 'em "so they don't get overpopulated and starve". "It's for their own good."If they put air conditioning in the sweatshop, would it become just a shop?
2/27/2007 10:04 AM
ilya said...
I don't know, Evans, i think you're a little extreme. i can see the positive aspects of anorexia, for example, in that people who suffer from it require less material for their clothing and making people in sweatshops of Bangladesh work fewer hours. Isn't that how it works? Therefore, we can think of the cultural glorification of anorexia as having a humanitarian aspect to it.
2/26/2007 1:24 PM
Andrea said...
In response to Ilya's comment -- why would working less hours in the sweatshop due to anorexic clothing be more humanitarian? the people in the sweatshops need to work more hours so that they have enough money to feed their family. If anything...plus size clothing is more humanitarian.
2/27/2007 9:46 AM
Evans Tucker said...
You guys are hilarious...I think we should handle humans like deer: go find areas where they're starving and then kill a bunch of 'em "so they don't get overpopulated and starve". "It's for their own good."If they put air conditioning in the sweatshop, would it become just a shop?
2/27/2007 10:04 AM
Heads or tails...
Hah! I guess the answer to this question tells you what kind of man (or woman) you are.
Andrea said...
so what kind of man are you then??
2/22/2007 11:13 AM
Evans Tucker said...
Well, "FWAP FWAP" is a pretty big turn off...I'd have to go with a regular mermaid."Look over there!! Is that a motorboat?!" Hehehe...
2/22/2007 11:51 AM
Anthony said...
man, this is super wierd. Is it me or does that mermaid look like anime? That may explain a lot.
2/23/2007 4:23 PM
so what kind of man are you then??
2/22/2007 11:13 AM
Evans Tucker said...
Well, "FWAP FWAP" is a pretty big turn off...I'd have to go with a regular mermaid."Look over there!! Is that a motorboat?!" Hehehe...
2/22/2007 11:51 AM
Anthony said...
man, this is super wierd. Is it me or does that mermaid look like anime? That may explain a lot.
2/23/2007 4:23 PM
Video Love
I've found a lot of videos recently that just make me happy. They are good. They are GREAT! There are here: Terp 2 it - The Advice Anthem (See more stuff by Chris Trew here, he's hilarious) Cox + Combes - Washington Beardyman - Kitchen Diaries (more Beardyman) Paul Robertson - Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 I'd like to give credit where credit is due. All of these other than Beardyman were played at the always awesome Alamo Drafthouse on either Open Screen Night or Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Film Festival. The Alamo Drafthouse is my favorite thing about Austin. This city has a lot of amazing stuff going on, but nothing tops the Drafthouse.
Valentine's Day / Andrea Bought a House!
I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day. Mine was great! Andrea made me some "cowboy pasta" - it's some Rachel Ray recipe. That bitch is annoying, but she can cook - Rachel Ray I mean - Andrea is not annoying and she can also cook. Anyway, it was a very good meal, and a very nice evening... I had fun making a card for Andrea. I've never made anyone a card before. I was kind of dreading going to Randall's to get a stupid-ass Hallmark card or something, and then Mark sent me a link to the Valentine's Day junk on FARK.com. Hilarious. I printed out a card, sketched some random things, and wrote a nice message. I was so proud of myself... Did I mention that Andrea is painting a freaking painting of me? I love this girl so much. She's painting me a painting... of me... !!!!! It's this silly idea I had in my head that I told her about and she just decided do it! Ha! I didn't think it'd ever be anything other than an idea. Anyway, on to the big news: she's buying a house! My woman is a homeowner! I'm a little jealous - it's a very nice, brand new house. It's 1800 sq/ft, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, backs up to a greenbelt, etc. Check out this video that her brother made. I'm very excited for her! She's moving in this Friday. ... I don't really know what more to say about it. Big news. Awesome!
Rice-A-Roni
The San Francisco treat. My girlfriend Andrea (or, as I like to call her, "SweetieTron 2000") and I went to San Francisco like... a couple weeks ago or something. I haven't written about it because, you know, like... whatever. ... OK, that's my best attempt to emulate a Californian. I'll stop now, because San Francisco was nothing like I was expecting. I met no one who acted like this. Also, my idea of California being "72 degrees all the time" was shattered. I had to go to Macy's to by a new coat because I hadn't packed for cold, wet weather. In fact, the only stereotype the held true was that San Francisco has a large gay population. They have gay in spades. The city reminded me a lot of New York City, particularly because there were so many parallels: Union Squares, ethnic provinces (Chinatown, Little Italy, etc.), big city parks, excellent public transportation (buses, subways, etc.) In fact, I would say that if you dropped me in San Francisco or New York and didn't tell me which one, the only way I would be able to tell would be because SF isn't flat, and it has weird electric buses that have arms reaching up to power cables that are all over all the roads. Also, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is far superior to lame ol' Central Park in New York. The Dutch Windmill was awesome. The trees were awesome. It's a very pretty area in general. The suburbs (about 20 minutes from the center of town) are more like the image I had of California with the beach, the town homes, and the steep ass-and-leg-mutilating hills. There was no reason for this trip other than just to travel. It was very nice to just go somewhere with ST2000. I'm glad that I got to meet some of her friends too. They were very friendly, entertaining people. I'm slowly getting to know this mysterious California girl that I'm dating, hehe. I'm excited about future travel abroad with my broad. I'll post pictures of this trip soon.
Andrea said...
babooon head...that trip was pretty miserable what with the tonsilities and back injuries...but it was nice to have a vacation with yous. :)
2/07/2007 2:05 PM
Anthony said...
'sweetietron 2000?' dude.
2/13/2007 8:41 AM
Evans Tucker said...
You're just jealous cuz you didn't come up with it first.
2/13/2007 8:50 AM
Andrea said...
babooon head...that trip was pretty miserable what with the tonsilities and back injuries...but it was nice to have a vacation with yous. :)
2/07/2007 2:05 PM
Anthony said...
'sweetietron 2000?' dude.
2/13/2007 8:41 AM
Evans Tucker said...
You're just jealous cuz you didn't come up with it first.
2/13/2007 8:50 AM
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