Alright, seriously…

i’m flattered some guy would think I’d know of such debauchery, but what the fuck…

Mad about Madrid

So we got to Madrid a few nights ago. couple nights was the first night we properly went out. It was strange how no one seems to really stick around bars all night. Everyone was just outside at the squares/parks, drinking, hanging out, throwing frisbees, toking up, what have you. Even stranger, drinking on the streets is illegal but no one really seems to give a damn.

This was probably one of the more enjoyable nights I’ve had in a while (last one being in Lisbon when went to sing karaoke, cause havoc at the bars/clubs and getting kicked out of the last club). Not because we got hammered, but because I was just sitting there talking politics for the whole night. It was very fascinating to talk to people from Europe about their views of America, and how much we had in common in our trains of thought. It was cool hearing some people on this side of the ocean don’t hate Americans, just the American government. Just like how I wouldn’t assume all the French are pansies, just the ones named Tony Parker (*rimshot*).

Last night me, Nate, and couple people who are kind enough to house us watched the Italy/Spain Euro2008 match at a bar. Good match overall (slow first half) that went scoreless in regulation and was decided by penalty kicks. I was rooting for Italy since the guy who went with us was Italian, but Spain won and the whole bar/city just went apeshit. Jeebus, I can’t imagine what’d happen if they actually win the whole damn thing.

Today wandered around the city by myself. Checked out Reina Sophia (only 3 euro after student discount!). Lotsa cool paintings, obviously the highlight being Guernica by Pablo Picasso. Holy shit that thing was huge, and quite impressive.

Thank god for Basketbawful

In a foreign country where no one gives a damn about basketball and football (a.k.a. - soccer) reigns supreme, Basketbawful is there to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2008/06/monday-afternoon-man-love_16.html

Paul McCartney can kiss my ass

Granted Mr. McCartney, you are a fine musician (though I am unfamiliar with your solo work and am not a die-hard Beatles fan), and holding a free concert in the Kiev city center (along with displaying your paintings which is probably the only reason why you’re holding a free concert in the first place) is very generous of you, but seriously…did you really have to pick the fucking rainiest day of the weekend to hold the concert? Streets were flooding!!

strangeness abound

Holy crap these last couple of days have been very strange. So Nate and I decided to stay another night in Krakow to catch the Euro 2008 game between Poland/Germany. Unfortunately Poland lost. In addition, there were these couple of chicks (well one mostly) that has some major issues and is probably one of the most annoying girls I’ve ever met. She kept on coming up to us (and another Polish-American dude name Nick) trying to get us to go out. Motormouth doesn’t even begin to describe her. After a while we were getting quite annoyed, and when we were at a convenience store loading up on goodies, she decides to come in and start shit with Nick, who just looks over at the cashier and non-discretely makes some inside joke in Polish. This pisses her off, and then off we go again. So as we leave, we all decide it’s best to ditch these chicks. So first, Nate cleverly hangs back, takes some night pictures, and bolts. Then as Nick and I enter an underpass, we hang back a little and Nick bolts left and I bolt right. I find Nate, and later at the hostel Nick finds us. We’ve completed the great escape!!!

Unfortunately the trouble doesn’t end, the crazy chick comes back later after Nick leaves (he left the door unlocked), wakes me up and asks for Nate is. I say I don’t know, she goes on blabbing about how she’s pissed, puts her hand on my face, then leaves. She comes back later in the night, finds Nate in the room (don’t know how she missed him the first time) and all I remember is hearing her trying to put the moves on him. Holy hell I’m glad we got out of Krakow the next day.

So we get on our train from Krakow to Lviv, Ukraine. Since we stayed an extra day, our train ticket was good but our reservations to the sleeper car weren’t. Luckily on our first train we found free general seats. As usual, this train was rickety, not very smooth, and hot. Then it stops in a field in the middle of nowhere next to another train. We go a bit further til we get to the border and pass through customs. Then we end up waiting there for a couple more hours as our train was delayed. We try to get on, unfortunately the train was full. So we ended up paying a conductor 11 euro each to stay in his private cabin, which was really nice of him as I imagine he didn’t have to do a thing for us. We even got free coffee/tea and a chocolate croissant out of it!

We sleep our way to Lviv, get there about 1AM, where we catch a cab to the hostel I booked. Unfortunately the door code didn’t work and we couldn’t get in, so we ended up staying at some dinky hotel for 100 of their currency (about 25 USD) each. Good god these last few days have been exhausting.

Berlin

After being in Berlin for 5 days, I can see why lots of people love going there. Hard to imagine that the Berlin wall fell just under 20 years ago. Unless it was pointed out by a tour guide, I would’ve never known I was passing between East/West Berlin. So much history behind the city too with the Berlin Wall, Nazi reign, Thirty Years War, etc… Not only that, 2-3 euro Currywursts/Braughts?? Bumpin’ nightlife?? Hot hookers!?!? Oh yeah… So here were the highlights :

Sauchsenhausen - First and quite possibly last time I take a tour of a concentration camp. Not that it was a bad tour, the guide was fabulous and it was really eye opening. But man…being taking around the camp, shown exactly where and how inmates were killed, where the inmates slept, where there work details were held, it was definitely a lot to absorb. It’d have to be awhile before I have another one in me. Not just eye-opening hearing what the inmates went through, but the evolution of the camp as to how inmates were more efficiently killed, effects of the growing population, the type of people that had to be used as guards, very disturbing stuff. Definitely highly recommended, I remember hearing about all this stuff back in school, but definitely more effective to actually go to a place where this stuff happened.

Holocaust Memorial - A recent (and every expensive) memorial built in Berlin to commemorate victims of the holocaust. At first I was looking at it like okay…it’s a bunch of stone blocks in this huge plot of land. Wonderful. Then after walking through it a bit and hearing the tour guide talk a bit about it’s various interpretations, it became quite provocative. Essentially it’s a bunch of rectangular stone blocks perfectly aligned with each other, that get higher and higher (and the ground sinks lower) as you walk inside the memorial. Some see it as coffins with the death toll rising as antisemitism grows, the growth of Nazi power/antisemitism, stuff like that. As you walk inside and the blocks envelope you, you sense very trapped, lost, not knowing what’s going on, probably similar to how many Jews felt in Berlin as Hitler went from just kicking out Jews to rounding them up. I personally thought the most hard hitting aspect was that as you walk through with a friend, you’re very liable to lose them in the blocks, you might catch a glimpse of them walking along, but you lose them again in an instant, paralleling Jewish people losing friends/families in an instant. Very much worth taking time to walk through this memorial.

Reichstag - Government building with a glass dome on top, I went with a dude I met (whatup Patrick!) during nighttime to take photos. It’s free, and you get a good view of the city! Cool concept for the building in that from the glass dome on top, you’re able to view down into the room where important government people do their business. This represents transparency between the government/people, which is a good thing!

Currywursts/Braughtwursts - Costs like 2.50 euro. ‘Nuff said.

Pub Crawl - Beer, shots, met new people, met a hot hooker on the street (prostitution is legal in Berlin!?), huge club, good times. Except for that chick who was obliterated. C’mon now, it wasn’t even past midnight!

high times part duex

Alright, so moved onto new hostel (Inner Amsterdam) couple days ago, and met a couple really cool Swedish dudes. Found out they smoked, so we toked up the whole day. It was really good, started off on some good high shit at the coffeeshop, met a couple German chicks who were with their parents smoking out for the first time, went to to a club (Escape, fuckin 16 euro to get in!!), ditched the girls, walked around the red light district, smoked some more, got on some downer shit, then bed time. Good club, but not alot of people dancing. I couldn’t tell if one of the German chicks wanted to dance with me or not, I was way too absorbed into the music and a bit too high to do anything about it. I don’t think I’ve ever smoked that much in one day, fortunately they were mixing in the tobacco into the joints (never heard of this, smart thing to do). Otherwise we would’ve been obliterated!

Next day, met up giang, smoked some more, hung out with more people from our room at the hostel, went to red light district again. On way there Giang and I stopped by a McDonald’s, and freaking those 2 german chicks from last night were there! They asked me where we went, since one of the Swedish guys was making out with one and we ditched them. Apprently he told them we just went to the bar, so when she asked me where we went, I just instinctively said we went to red light district, i didn’t know jack about a bar. Mind you I was still high, so it didn’t hit me til later that i fucked up. Ah well, no big deal, got to the red light district and went to a sex show. Kind’ve weird, not all that arousing, but amusing nonetheless. Walked around a bit more then headed back to the hostel. All in all a good trip to Amsterdam. Next time I’ll have to try the shrooms.

first visit to Amsterdam coffee shop

So I decided to check out Cafe Siberie last night and try out some good ol’ Amsterdam weed. Nice, small place with good music, bought a gram of Hindu Kush for 9.30 euros. Sat down next to some nice old Canadian dude, much to his amusement my first joint was poorly rolled. Very different from rolling a cig, and much more difficult to me. So he kindly rolled me a fat one, and I went at it, and we had a good conversation about some stuff. He then left, and I was left alone to smoke. After only what must’ve been half a gram, everything suddenly started slowing down, the music was really getting to me. There was a candle on the table, and I could’ve fucking sworn the flame was DANCING in rhythm to the music!! Holy hell, that kept me entertained for a good amount of time. It was good for awhile, but then just sitting by myself got me to start thinking a whole bunch of random thoughts, and that’s when the paranoia began. All of a sudden, people speaking foreign languages started sounding like they were talking to me, freaky as hell. I don’t remember being that out of it since college. So then I left the coffee shop and wandered around the streets until I got back to the hostel. It’s been awhile since I’ve been that high and thought about stuff that much. Some thoughts I remember were :

Man, those people have been walking in front of me for awhile
I’ve seen this building before!
Oh shit, bright lights! Don’t be afraid…just walk right on…
Mmm…kebab…
I’d do that girl
Shit, there’s alotta people! I hope they don’t know I’m high…
Shit! They know I’m high! Run away!
Uh oh…cops…wait, I’m in Amsterdam…
Fuck…I lost my joint…still had few hits left…
I should go back for the joint…shit it’s too far…
Man I’ve been walking for a while…I hope I know where I’m going
CAR!!!
Mmm pizza…
I’d do that girl too
HOME!!!

And I was still kind’ve high when I woke up this morning. I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve smoked some good stuff, I’ll have to try again today and hopefully the results will be better.

lost in translation

So I was sitting down having a cigarette, when another guy comes up asking for one.  So I roll him one and he asks me something.  I immediately give him the shrug and “no parlez francais”.  So then he pulls out a pen & paper, and I pull out my French dictionary/phrasebook, and we make our futile attempt at a normal conversation.  It took us 30 arduous minutes, we exchange names, find out that he’s Moroccan and I’m Chinese, note that the beach/sea are beautiful, good weather, lots of girls, note the cafes in vieux nice, and that communicating is very difficult.  Really nice guy and we had some laughs, and when we finally parted ways, I felt like the language barrier fell on top of me and knocked me out cold.

nice/eze/monaco/cannes

So I’ve been staying in Nice the past 5 days. First couple days was spent just walking around Nice checking out the contemporary art museum, Vieux Nice (old Nice), the open market, and definitely the beach. The beach was definitely interesting, I’ve never been to a rocky beach before. No sand…just tons of round rocks. Surprisingly comfortable though, took a few naps there right around some topless chicks.

Also met some really cool at the hostel I was staying at, some Canadians, an Aussie, and a Chinese dude. It was great just buying beer at the next door liquor store and just hanging out, talking. One night we were walking back from the beach, and found a perfectly good, comfortable couch just laying out on the street. Who would do such a thing!?

Of course we also had to hit up Wayne’s Bar, the most touristy bar in Nice. It was fun, good live music, jam-packed, girls dancing on tables.

3rd day I went to Monaco. Got to catch the Monaco Grand Prix (though I was later informed it was more like the event leading up to the real Grand Prix). Oh well, whatever the hell it was I caught, it was still pretty sweet. Tix were ranging from around 100-200 euros. Not cool…fortunately there’s a hill to far away from the course that you can go up and see just about 3/4 of the course. Holy hell those cars are fuckin loud!! I know absolutely nothing about cars, racing, etc…but even from the nosebleeds it was pretty cool. Came back to Nice, hung out with people from the hostel and went out. They were all within the 19-21 range or age. It was fun, but definitely very odd changing my mindset to theirs. Felt very much like the old man, but oh well, my sexiness is still intact and that is all that matters. And damn…how the hell did our room get so trashed.

4th day - Eze Village. Have to thank Grace for telling me about this place, cuz it was pretty damn sweet. It’s this village that goes all around this hill, really old style, quaint little shops, outdoor cafes, a pretty cool church. The best was definitely going up to the exotic garden at the very top. It was 5 extra euro, but well worth it. The view up there was freakin awesome, and the floral stuff around was really cool too. There were also these statues of chicks that were scattered all over the place that made for good photos. Overall very, very cool. Came back, some new guys in the hostel room now, went out and got some wine, drank, shot the shit, good times. Thank god for 2-3 euro bottles of wine.

5th day - Cannes for the film festival. When I got there, everything was set up or getting ready to be set up. The red carpet in front of the main building was cool. It was nuts how many clubs/restaurants/stages were being set up along the beach. I walked around there, unfortunately I had no idea where/how to go about getting tickets, or if general public were even allowed (people going in and out were all journalists). So I walked around the beach most of day, definitely a nicer beach than Nice. It’s actually a sand beach. And definitely more hot, topless women suntanning out. The worst though is when you come up on those 80-90 year old guys/girls that literally look purple and leathery from all the tanning they do. They’re freakin like living, walking California raisins!! Walked back to the film festival area, and look like people already started crowding around hotels/red carpet trying to catch a star. Cameras were rolling with reporters in fancy clothes, the clubhoppers were already starting to pop out. Unfortunately I was tired from all the walking, so I headed back to Nice. Right when I get back, the guys (new people, 3 Americans (fuck yeah!!), and a Korean chick) told me they’re going to Monaco to gamble at Monte Carlo. Very nice!! Got there, everything was nice and lit up, the ridiculous cars were all lined outside, definitely felt like I was in a Bond movie. Get to casino, freaking 10 euro just to get in the part where the card games are going on! Fuck that, and being that I refuse to play slots, video poker, any type of machine really, I just watched the others play. For a few of them it was their first time, and it was funny seeing them being scared at first, then slowly getting acclimated, then full on addiction.