day 12 london - malaga

1 june 2009 (editor 2010 - no pics from today in our collective photo inventory)
woke up earlier than the guys so i could wash a load of laundry on "the cut" (which union street becomes). cost 1 pound for detergent, 4 pounds for a wash and then 2 pounds to dry. would've been more economical for combined loads but the guys did theirs while i was at phantom.


also managed to sneak in a quick visit to the tate modern art museum and b-lined through to see works by monet, warhol, matisse, cezanne, dali and picasso.


met up with the guys at the marks and spencer across from the hotel and we switched things up by buying a 10 pound sandwich assortment pack which was really quite nice (especially with the french mustard that nusbaum found at luton airport).


train ride to luton airport parkway was straight forward, as was shuttle bus connection. all in all, about an hour to get there from london bridge rail station. ate the M&S lunch, plus about 4 mandarin oranges each and then tried to spend the remainder of my english pounds by getting an FHM, wired magazine and a copy of the da vinci code.


rich and steve realised they still had 2 tall-boy heinekens and gave them away vs shot-gunning prior to security gate.


once thru, saw that our original 3pm departure turned into 4:50pm so we walked around separately then played cards til 4:30pm. monarch has very little leg space. i was ok, but poor steve.


arriving in malaga, we were met by jason's sister, sherri, and her husband paco. back at their place, we had loads of great food (some kind of dark ham, chorizo, olives i actually liked, bread, cheese, pizza) and beer and wine. fantastic hosts. made a note that when we return to canada, we need to mail them a package with kraft chunky peanut butter, and ingredients to make smores! talked all evening about travel in europe, sports (no more football! ahhh!), food, movies, TV and other culture learning topics.


other:
- heard that an air france flight lost radio contact today...
- learned that picasso was born in malaga, as was antonio banderas (who i do not care too much for... nothing against him... he's just not picasso)
- was told to ask jason about "aruho" (editor 2010 note: nothing obviously related comes up with a google search of this word...)
- what i learned in spanish in high school was true! dinner is eaten at ~10pm, with lunch being main meal, all (or a lot) of businesses shutdown from 2-4ish pm!

day 10 - london

30 may 2009

arranged to meet the guys at 10:30am and so andree and i went for a walk to find hotel room for tonight. no dice. had starbucks, saw globe theatre then went back to meet the guys. started walking and hit sainsbury's (at waterloo station) for brekky and dined in nearby park with a drunk dude who did not like irish people. then walked across millennium bridge to big ben and parliament buildings. guys went to buckingham palace and andree and i hit up westminster abbey - after 50p toilet break. sooooo cool. had poet's corner, so many buried monarchs and learned that 8,000 people can fit in the very small area w/viewpoint of high altar, where coronation and funerals have occurred starting with william the conqueror in 1066. audio guide had totally unnecessary soundtrack. met the guys at trafalgar square. hit up london tickets and andree got us tickets for phantom of the opera :)

got postcards to send to family and then... natural history museum! free! and to get there realised that underground day pass is waaaaay cheaper... at the museum, saw the blue whale, dinosaurs, anglerfish, diamonds and sea-cows who have tits in their armpits. andree then tool me out for a lovely italian dinner (carbonara and risotto) and then we watched phantom. she loved it :)

back at hotel, saw the "cot" that we had requested in the room... they brought us a baby cot. too funny.

then spent ~90 minutes looking for "days of decadence" in hoxton area near liverpool street station, where 6-7 people (very friendly) gave us useless directions (editor 2010 - A on the link represents where this photo was taken, B is the stupid bar). frustrated, we took a london cab back.


guys returned late, pak apparently pissed people off with his drunkenness. he also puked just outside the entrance to the hotel.

day 9 dublin - london

29 may 2009
from hotel to dublin port... slowest cab driver... ever. travelled about 30km/h most of the way... which we had to show him. once checked, also shortest bus ride to ferry. on the highspeed ferry, taught rich how to play euchre and cribbage, in preparation for sometime later on this trip.


arriving at holyhead, (which happens to be in wales), pak let us know platform 1 was our departure point at 1:58p... boy was he wrong. we caught the 11:23a instead, passed lovely countryside views complete with rolling hills, seaside cities, cows, horses, sheep and a castle! euston to waterloo underground cost 4 pounds and then cached map on iphone led us right to the mercure london hotel on southbank. andree just arrived about a minute prior. we went to 508 and ignored the phone call and knock on the door (andree told the guys our room number), and at arranged time of 7p, we couldn't find them, so we went to join the crowd drinking in the sun across the street with bean bag chairs and bathtub fridge. turns out guys went out for drink, and left us a message. we told them we never had anyone call or knock, and that our room was 506 :) (editor note 2010 - sorry boys)

looking for dinner venue took forever. while searching, saw big ben, parliament buildings, london eye, millennium bridge. eventually found pub with thai restaurant on top (which was surprisingly good) with taste of guinness and blackcurrent juice (as per dublin tour bus driver suggestion). andree loses credit card draw.


then went to meet steve's friend nicole at carpenter's arms, and drank first on patio with birdcages and hanging plates and paintings... i had a guinness :)


andree and i left and caught the last subway

day 8 - dublin

28 may 2009
five goals for today
1. visit kilmainham gaol
2. do laundry
3. find socks and sandals
4. demolish chinese buffet with the guys
5. super mac brekky


1 done, 2 (no-self laundromat) not done, 3 done, 4 pending (only 4:51p right now), 5 no dice


kilmainham gaol was super cool. all leaders of the 1916 easter uprising were imprisoned here and executed. all seeing-eye design by john howard who's reform philosophy consisted of separation, silence and supervision. prior to that, chatting with dublin bus tour ambassador, learned how he remembered the days of animosity towards english people, but how rapidly it has changed with dependency on tourism etc.

also drove by wellington monument (obelisk for duke of wellington who defeated napoleon in battle of waterloo (1815). the mural on the obelisk is apparantly cast from metal from melted cannons used in that battle.


search for self-laundromat failed miserably, but oh well. now waiting for dinner time... rich just got back from picking up laundry (service-laundry) and they got screwed. 8.60e each for tiny laundry loads. rich is mad, but not too bad, i bet steve flips... yeah he was pretty angry. lucky he didn't pick up the laundry. dinner was good, and then we figured out that monday is bank holiday so we are out for groceries early tomorrow morning prior to departure. oh yeah, at the gaol, the "slop bucket" for both human excrement and to serve food... yummy :(


watched britain's got talent where "2 grand" got thru (grandpa and girl singing duet)... i called that. also, napped, woke up, saw 8:01 on watch and freaked... but it was pm. not the next morning.


hit up fitzsimmons bar and had more guinness, plus rehashed febo on bulldog night.


then abrakebabra! finally. life in dublin was complete.

day 7 - dublin

27 may 2009
about 10 hrs of sleep later, we got up and packed our stuff to get transferred to bigger room.

got simple brekky at grocery store then got dublin bus tour pass. figured out trip to london with irish ferries with a trip down to the port, and cab ride back was with very informative and chatty driver. he let us know about UEFA cup final between FC barcelona and man u, and irish ties to manchester.

then the touring began! hit trinity college (nice, but whatever), dublin castle (same) and then chester beatty library (realising that buddhism is based on what one dude thought) and guinness storehouse at the st.james gate original brewery site.


1759, arthur guinness signed 9000 year lease for land and water for 45 pounds a year! original signed doc is on display...

in the 360 degree dublin view gravity room on the top floor, i think i have begun to acquire a taste for the draught that pa loves so much. i also beat pak and nusbaum with the pint. at souvenir store, got pa a t-shirt and guinness chocolates. the off to the a pub "the auld dubliner" to watch the game where barcelona wins 2-0!


following that, internet research to figure out spain portion. andree, also online, books us a trip to hawaii!

back at hotel, we blow a fuse when we plug in rich's power bar (w/surge protector). the engineers remove the protector and we can now power all our 110V electricals! (editor 2010 - with the use of the dual voltage adaptors of course - and even though it worked beautifully, we were a little weary and so placed the electricals in the ceramic washroom just in case things caught on fire...)

day 6 amsterdam - dublin

6 may 2009
woke up with ample time to pack up and get some pancakes for breakfast. went to a place with a discount for i amsterdam cardholders and got clog keychains when we left (which i didn't want so i left it there)

took our last "free" tram ride to centraal station, then another train to schiphol airport. for lunch, we finished off the prior days bread, meat and cheese and nusbaum dared me 5e to eat the remaining spinach in one mouthful. so i did...


some canadian guy watched this feat of greatness and gave me his last 1664 beer to wash it down. twas good :)

customs guy at schiphol gave me a hard time for not getting a "departure" stamp from paris in january. security checks in AMS also happen right at the departure gate, and we also were not told about the gate change for our flight.


in dublin, we caught the citybus into town instead of the airlink and saved about 10e between us all... equivalent to a meal of great self-made sandwiches from the supermarket!


in town, whilst the guys checked-in, i dealt with my watch battery, and had a nice conversation with the shop owner who hated dublin. how unfortunate. proceeded to try and find u2 at various pubs, but ended up at cassidy's.


tried calling emily, mom and dad, and dave and family and managed to speak to pa for a bit. he reminded me to be safe and that guinness is from dublin :)


went to bed quite early, probably still knackered from bulldog night and also febo cuisine.


other:
- friendliest customs guy in dublin... ever
- didn't pay for trip from airport to city centre
- realized that sneaking third person into days-inn would be impossible

day 5 amsterdam

25 may 2009
most of today has been a bit of a write-off :)

however, we got a lot accomplished with visits to rijksmuseum, van gogh, rembrandt house (while the guys did heineken experience), amsterdam historical museum, a canal ride and what looks like will be a quiet night (thank goodness...)

rijksmuseum was my first intro to rembrandt: the detail in focal points of some of his work is simply breathtaking. saw "the nightwatch" and was stunned to learn that someone had trimmed it to size to fit a specific wall in it's long history. outside was a massive "i amsterdam" installation and we all climbed up on it for pics.

then van gogh museum... wow. the history pf his life, the letters to his brother theo (art dealer in paris) and seeing the texturized paintings leading to the last "starry night" was so cool. lucky it was there on-loan from the MOMA in nyc. inspired by rijksmuseum visit, i then ventured off to rembrandt house to see the very nice house he bought to paint in. saw cool demo with etched prints, and the studio rembrandt used, with presumably accurate furniture placements (including his easel positioning). meeting up with the guys, we went to nemo (science museum) only to find it was closed on mondays (although has speed dating going on... at 3:30p). as rich said, "come on out unemployed single people and ... meet... other unemployed singles".

then the amsterdam historical museum to learn about the origins. amsterdam gets it's name from the first dam (now dam square) that went across the amstel river. old townhall also has now become the palace!

we then hit the canal ride to experience amsterdam by water. saw the old wooden locksystems and passed by anne frank house.

rest of the night was recovery...

other:

- thunderstorm at night

day 4 amsterdam

24 may 2009
to feel like dutch folks, we rented bikes near dam square and rode all over the place, with no real sense of direction. there is no readily apparent logic to the streets etc., so suffice to say, we crossed many different points in amsterdam, multiple times.

the bikes we had were back-pedal brakes which none of us have used since grade 7, and made cycling thru the bustling city all the more challenging. as such, today, i was the one almost hitting pedestrians, bikes, cars etc... or getting hit by the latter two. near the end of biking, i saw an old school windmill so we went in that direction just to help fulfil the stereotype. sometime after purchasing the "i amsterdam" card, we got completely lost trying to return the bikes, but luckily got in with 5 minutes to spare.

off then to anne frank house in the evening, but first a picnic dinner along one of the canals very close to 267 prinsengracht. anne frank house was simply amazing. seeing the bookcase entrance to the secret annex, the blocked windows and the diary excerpts on the wall tell a sad tale. i got choked up when i saw the markings on the wall recording the height of the children as they grew while in hiding. at anne frank house i got postcards to send to mom and dad, andree, emily and dave/kate/ben/hannah.

we then made it to an internet cafe and i managed to IM with dave and family, and andree.

... then the stupidness ensued. bulldog cafe, 12e and purple haze. things that i remembered that night: milkshakes, febo wall-meat challenge, febo change machine, soccer guy (editor 2010 - i think it was this guy - i do not entirely remember), dude at pub under pancake corner pushing hard, keuken=kitchen, cowboy boots on this block only and some incident at mcdonalds that i don't recall because i was too busy taking a pic of myself.

day 3 paris - amsterdam

23 may 2009
another slow start, but we made it to gare du nord to catch our thalys train. prior to that, nusbaum left a killer bomb at andree's - ugh.

train is nice as hell with food galore, wifi and cool seats. steve is eating everything that comes even though he isn't even hungry... just like the chocolate cake in vegas... don't let it beat you.

on train, managed to fire off a few emails, facebook a bit and chat with andree via fring/skype

arriving in amsterdam, one of the first things we experienced whilst looking for the washroom in amsterdam centraal station, was the smell of weed... ah holland.

this city also marks the first time we had to find our way around... sort of felt like the amazing race, asking random people questions... FYI pretty much all dutch folks (here at least) speak english. oh, and they are pretty crazy tall... and the talent is amazing here.

our room at nh amsterdam centre in leidseplein (lied-spline... not led zeppelin) was nice, but had 2 single beds on hardwood, so the middle crack would've been dicey to sleep on for third person. however, given our advanced education, we managed to push the 2 beds together against a wall and cram in a chair and bench between the beds and other side of wall to wedge everything together. then the hunt for coffee... which turned into beer. oh well.

we had dinner at some common venue (well, more common meal type) called a "rijsttafel" which is indonesian banquet-like. rich didn't tip and we learned later on that this was an uncool thing to do to someone who serves consistently, unlike at a bar.

then we met up with daan who did an exchange at schulich and his brother thomas who we went out with and learned tonnes about amsterdam, holland, canadian stereotypes (from south park) and dutch culture. best part of the night was the club we went to (trouwe)... used to be an old newspaper press. in lineup, i took my cap off thinking it was too casual. guys in front of our group were not let in because they were dressed far too trendy (nice shoes, collared shirt, jacket)... i put my cap back on :)

felt like a miniature person in the club. they are all crazy tall.

other:
- rich gets screwed by thalys
- slight drizzle during 1st round of drinks with daan and thomas
- daan and thomas laugh at canadian cel rates
- nusbaum moves in for a pic to demo how he is not so tall here
- daan and thomas drink like fish
- almost get hit multiple times by rampant cyclists
- red light district has a section for the ugly girls

day 2 paris

22 may 2009
late start to the day, but hey... we're on vacation so it's all good. started off with a nice brekky filled with buttery goodness in the croissants, and then headed to gare de l'est to sort out train tickets to amsterdam. 2 things...
1. the customer service at the SNCF place kinda blew. dude who was helping us had a colleague come by and they exchange pleasantries ... wtf. for 20 secs or so while we waited
2. eurorail pass that we paid $1000 for does not include the lines to amsterdam. so we had to pay 54e extra each! i got angry and momentarily entertained the idea of punching someone. i did not.

then off to versailles! holy line ups. for tickets and to enter the chateau. only realised later that admission was only necessary for chateau... garden is free. had an awesome picnic by the ponds with pate, rillettes, cheese, bread, oranges, saucisse and individual bottles of merlot. after a short stop back at andree's the guys headed out to hit the eiffel tower and andree and i met up with them "at the base"... bad idea. forgot how stupid big it is, and how much busier it would be at this time of year.

we took the route along some bridge that leads to the tower and hit it at first twinkle :).

leaving, we took the metro, but were impatient ticket buyers so we jumped the turnstile or entered thru the exit. we committed our first crime in europe. some dude did the same before us, but into an exit only area so he had to run down an up escalator... idiot.

dinner was prix fixe, and we had to relocate ~5m to get all the menu choices due to some singer at the restaurant.

then we went to an irish pub and drank, made fun of some girl dancing, and proceeded to grill each other with personal questions.

other:
- me, "sian... girls name. wales"
pak and andree, "what, why after a whale?"
- house league vs triple AAA (editor note 2010: this has something to do with girls - ask pak)

day 1 vancouver-toronto-paris

20-21 may 2009
today the european extravaganza began and i met up with the boys in toronto. managed to find a nice swarovski necklace for andree and watch about a billion movies.

AC note: their on-flight announcements come across crazy loud if you have your headphones on so beware. we all nearly blew our ear drums because of that.

played a few 3 player games of scramble on the iphone and obviously i came out the winner, and on the train (RER) into the city from CDG, i told the boys we might have to beat the shit out of some people if we saw the jerks who might've stolen andree's jewellery bag in january.

upon arrival, we dropped stuff off at andree's and then realised that we had more similiar clothes. pak and i both had camouflage shorts.

had a light meal and wine and then checked out l'arc de triomphe. guys then went gallivanting and andree and i just went for a walk.

dinner at refuge des fondues consisting of plenty of banter that included the server. rich, andree and steve then decided to race up stairs to sacre-coeur. apparantly andree cheated with a deliberate false start, and then rich yakked outside of one of the world's most famous churches.

then we went inside sacre-coeur, and rich asks, "little buddy... if i drink holy water, will i feel better?"... awesome. to make rich feel better about puking (pre-yak) because he was conscious about the church's proximity, andree and i fabricated the "line" in between church property and the rest of paris.

other notable happenings:
- andree greets us with white chocolate little schoolboys (petit ecolier biscuits)
- nusbaum busts out the man-purse
- realization that "bars" do not really exist in paris
- the steve's have the exact same north face jacket
- steve nusbaum, "i don't like girls"
- something about a "safe word"
- rich loses the first credit card draw
- andree wipes out without going very fast... in her apt
- i realise that i left my spare camera battery and charger at dave and kate's. luckily, rich uses same battery: can use his charger
- bumped into jesse from 95-96 3rd kwak days

one year late - but still fun to read

hello all,

so i was a lousy blogger last year when pak, steve and i went on our european travels, but i did keep a journal and managed to write in it everyday during our trip. some of you may have tried to read my handwriting in the tiny photo i took of a journal page with my iphone (and then uploaded)... yeah, that was not going to work. so i quit.

BUT, one year on, i am typing up my journal so that you can all follow along, a year after the fact. this is more because i have lately been reminiscing about last year (ask andree, steve, pak or maureen... how many times have i said, "a year ago, we were in vegas", "a year ago (insert whatever i got up to a year ago)".

so here we go... the interesting thing will be seeing how long i manage to keep this up :)

posts will start may 20-21 (the day i departed vancouver and arrived in paris) and the plan is to post all journal entries, embedded with some pics that i took over the course of the two or so months.

stay tuned and enjoy

hugs,
steve