Uplifting Tales

paris je t'aime

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:37:13 -0400

So…. it’s my last night in paris, and I’m typing on an ipad via wireless keyboard. definitely one of the most advanced forms of technology i’ve used. Anyways,
After Lucerne, we trained it to Geneva and met our friend Talia at the geneva Central. We thought that she lived in Geneva… TURNS OUT she actually lives on this awesome mountain in FRANCE! for the next two days, we crossed into Geneva through the French-Swiss border. I actually stood with my feet on either side of the border (ish). That, I have to say, was pretty wicked. So we arrived at night to her welcoming family who cooked-ish a nice dinner for us. We brought them Belgian chocolate not knowing that the average Swiss actually eats 21 pounds of chocolate a year. 21 POUNDS? OH MY GOD WHY DON’T I LIVE THERE? (maybe because if i did i’d be 300 pounds and world famous for consuming 50 pounds of chocolate a year).
Anyways, apparently they eat it everyday, like, they’ll buy a tablet of chocolate and eat it with bread.
WHY AREN’T THEY FAT?

So Talia had prepared us a great room in her great house on her great mountain in her great country. the next morning bright and early we bussed down to Geneva and strolled around the city doing a mini tour a la talia. we found chocolate, we are chocolate. we also had an asian version of mcdonalds. it was a mix of thai, chinese and other greasy delicious stir fried foods. then we found the beach in which the entire city of geneva goes to on hot days. (did i say beach? I mean long boardwalk-turned beach with cool floaty things in the lake and speed boats that whizz by you). THAT was quite fun. we bought some jewelry and were going to watch the Cinema en plain air sur le lac but it would be too late so we hung out at the PRE-FETE (yes, geneva is so cool, it has a party for the party of it’s city). We watched old guys ROCKING OUT to air guitar on stage singing bad versions of english songs very similar to karaoke but just a tad more professional. Then Talia’s boyfriend met up with us and slept over.
The next morning we made sandwiches and caught a gondola up the mountain to the very summit and watch paragliders jump off the mountain over and over again. That too was pretty cool. we hiked a bit then went down because kelly and i had a train to catch to paris. That night we arrived in a hostel called Aloha hostel and were up the next day extra early to get me to the canadian embassy to apply for a new passport. Heaving our huge bags down the champs d’elysses, we pass a cafe in which we see a girl sitting by the open window with another girl having a coffee. i say to myself, wow she looks like that famous actress.. and then: KELLY. KELLY. KELLY. THAT IS RACHEL MCCADAMS. KELLY IT’S RACHEL MCCADAMS. OH MY GOD. etc.
i continue to freak out while kelly is giving me dagger eyes so that i would stop making a scene on the street because Rachel Mccadams could clearly see that there was a 20 year old anglophone going apeshit half a block away from where she was sitting. I WANTED TO TOUCH HER but i didn’t.
after the embassy ordeal, we checked into our other hostel called Oops hostel, which, turned out to be more of a HOTEL than a HOSTEL. Kelly and i danced for joy for about 20 minutes when we found out there was a bathroom IN OUR ROOM. our room was for 4 PEOPLE ONLY. 1 BATHROOM FOR 4 PEOPLE? IT WAS HEAVEN SENT! we both collapsed and thanked god that our last hostel was our best hostel. granted, it was one of the more expensive ones, but not by much, breakfast included, free internet… soft walls… nothing more we could have asked for.
that day we met a nice girl and the three of us found the Musee D’Orsay after a nice snack at a cafe. the nice girl peaced out on us and we navigated our way through the museum tout seul. it was exquisite. after that kelly half ran to Notre Dame along the Seine because she knew of an ice cream place of which made ice cream created by angels. 9 euros later, i will never look at ice cream the same way. Although it was not gelato, it was the purest, most delicate, dark chocolate ice cream i have ever let my mouth discover. two small scoops in a metal bowl complete with almond bisquit was one of the more memorable things (i know… that’s SO lame… but YOU would too). its right next to notre dame.
THEN we met back up with the girl and got a bottle of wine and drank it at the hostel. I think there were other things before that but i don’t remember. the next day it was Pompidou day. we got ourselves to the pompidou center and spent almost 5 hours going through the galleries. WHAT A SHOW. there was a performance piece with 15 girls dressed up as snow white (blanche neige it was called) and a huge banquet table with chandelier and taxidermy animals thrown about the floor and on the table. they were walking around with a-k 47s and interacting with each other but not with the crowd. definitely weird. I also saw the artist Marina something or other that I saw at the MOMA who did a really fucked up exhibition where she tortured herself.. but it was cool.
thennnnn we walked around, went shopping a bit and picked up a baguette and cheese and sat in front of the eiffel tower to eat it. Kelly called up this guy she met in Munich who lives in paris and we all went out to Montmartres to the CUTEST bar in the world. they were so small with this 2 person live band called ZORA who played 2 full sets on acoustic guitars and this woman sang so well… it was perfect. then we went to moulin rouge and were huge tourists. THEN we missed the last metro home and cabbed it. THE NEXT MORNING Kelly had to go back to the train station to see if she could possibly get a ticket from Milan to Brindisi (thats where she is now, i miss her already) before she got on the train. turns out there was 1 ticket left, in first class…. but that was good. THEN we found where I was going to sleep for the next few days. It’s this little apartment owned by a distantly related cousin of mine who is here in paris for a few months. I am SO grateful for this place because it is so nice, and so helpful and i can’t describe how cute it is. theres a fromagerie right downstairs with supposedly the best cheese in paris (I can add a testimony to that). we dropped our bags off and went to the Rodin museum, which was OKAY … we saw the thinker and the gates of hell then shopped around the area that the apartment was in. got sushi… and then i walked kelly to the train station to see her off to italy. it was sad. we mimed through her compartment window filled with seemingly stinky people… poor kelly. the train was 20 minuites delayed so i hope she caught her next one the next morning. Anyways, i got back to the apartment and then matthew came in later and we talked about my trip till 2 am which was nice. today i woke up an hour and a half later than i wanted to because I was going to Versailles today. I picked up camembert from the store downstairs, a baguette and a bottle of water and litterally just walked onto a train to Versailles without buying a ticket… but i had a eurail pass just in case. got to versailles for 12:30 and spent 16 euros walking around napoleons grand palace and the versailles gardens, THAT took 4 hours, and by the time i actually GOT to the castle it was too late to buy tickets cause i wouldn’t have time to get through the whole thing.
When people say VErsailles is big… that’s an understatement. I didn’t QUITE understand exactly how BIG, BIG WAS. To walk the entire thing, (I mean the entire estate would take 12 hours or something. I’m sure of it. I mean, i walked so far I saw sheep!!?!? So there was classical music and lots of americans and lots of italians and lots of asians and lots of spaniards… and it was hard to SEE the chateaux from a distance because of all the tourists standing in front of it waiting for the fountains to go off. I found a quiet spot by the canal (i mean GIANT, MANICURED, POND) and read Jane Eyre and ate baguette with cheese. and ENTIRE baguette with cheese. yes, i am taking full advantage of the parisienne way. i got clausterphobic and hot and decided to leave bit early, got back to paris, metroed it to Notre Dame, caught a free outdoor concert hosted by FNAC, (european future shop), got a free entrance to Notre Dame, got clausterphobic, but got a free organ and choir concert to go with the free ticket into the cathedral, walked to Shakespeare and Company, bought Bill Bryson’s book about his trip to Europe (which seemed so fitting I couldn’t resist), took the metro to Montmartres, walked pretty much the ENTIRE Montmartre area, found a vegetarian restaurant, paid 13 euros for another home cooked meal (I mean this place was the size of this apartment i’m staying at… so very small) complete with lentils and tofu etc then i walked up ALL the stairs to the top of sacre coeur, expected a nice relaxing view, and was surprised to discover the most happening place in paris. Litterally there were 50-100 kids my age and older of every race sitting on the steps of Sacre Coeur. one guy brought out speakers to the middle of the steps and started blasting michael jackson through his macbook. the crazy gangster dudes started to do tricks with soccer balls and one guy actually climbed the lamppost in front of the stairs, held on with one arm, and with spinning the ball on his chin, about 20 feet in the air. Impressive? UH yeah. I have to say, paris is a sketchy place when you’re on your own. everywhere i walked i got: “bonjour moffette, tu t’appelle quoi?” or “ca va? Tu es interesse? Tu viens d’ou?” etc. I was really good at pretending to be parisienne, I walked with a destination in mind, not straying my eyes from where i was going and full on ignored the looks and calls. i heard at one point some guy tried and then he said “Ah bon, tant pis” hahaha.
So then i climbed the stairs down and here i am waiting till tomorrow to go to the airport.

And that was my two and a half month trip in europe. Bordeux seems lifetimes ago. Even Lisbon seems like it wasn’t even this summer. I am so much more comfortable in my own skin. I think that is one of the biggest things I can take away from this trip. I am more comfortable with people, with hard situations, and mostly just dealing with things that go out of hand.

Wanna go to Switzerland? uh.. OK!

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:53:49 -0400

So Ghent and Bruges were FANTASTIC! however we couldve done it by train and been happy. we had this hilarious tour group of like, 50 old men and women from spain and france. our tour guide had to translate everything 3 times… i think we brought the median age down to like… 45. we were that tour group that we normally HATE! we barrelled into this tiny city of bruges and stampeded a restaurant and a boat tour. kelly and i said No Way to the 25 euro lunch and the 7 euro (useless) boat ride and found a french fry place (really? in belgium?) and just walked around. the sad thing is that our tour guide thought that since we were 20 year old girls, all we want is shopping, so he led us to the expensive shopping district of bruges, when all i really wanted to see were old streets and lovely canals… WHICH WE SAW, but anyways. We have some great pictures of our bus tour. definitely a win of a day.

got back around 6 and thought, well.. what do we do now? our train was at 1 the next day… we had a lot of time to kill. so we had dinner of course. navigating the small streets, we found an italian restaurant which turned out to be QUITE the experience. after our meal, they find out were from quebec and the entire staff comes over to talk to us. the kitchen guy was like: “me i want to move to quebec!!” our waiter was pissed we didnt start in french in the first place and left us to talk with a family friend who owns the clothing store next door. this guy turns out to be born in belgium with family straight from sicilly so he spoke fluent italian.. anyways, one conversation leads to another, leads to free water (WHICH IS RARE LET ME TELL YOU) and some free limoncello, then we find out hes a professional singer… however we couldnt believe that this big italian belgium guy who seems to not have many friends because he strikes up conversation with two tourists was as good as he says he was. so we go upstairs to a computer and he shows us youtube videos of songs hes written and the song is being sung by someone with a smoking hot voice.. just theres no video. OK so I believe him… KELLY believes him, but not 100%. at some point he starts singing along to the lyrics.. then kelly starts showing him 90s bands and he starts showing us other music, and that hes going to be on French american idol in paris next year… he was kinda weird cause he didnt seem to notice we wanted to go cause the conversation was boring. but now were facebook friends…

today we tried to find this market in brussels but failed, got more food and caught our long train ride through belgium, luxembourg, france and finally Switzerland. on one train we met this dude our age from Basel, a city we stopped in, and he was nice.. we had long conversation and he missed his stop, but he didnt seem to care.

fact: apparently switzerland has manditory army service? for men only? and that kids finish school at 9th grade and after that its “apprentiship” in anything you want to specialize in (think trade school but more personal? almost like an internship) and then they do army for a couple of years… then those who wish go to university to be professionals… WHAT? so WEIRD. that means that a lot of switzerland are trades people??

maybe thats why its the most manicured, beautiful, on time, and strict country ive ever been to. at least thats what it seemed like on the train because when we arrived it was pouring and we got lost trying to find our hostel 20 minutes away by foot…

TURNS OUT I BOOKED A GEM OF A HOSTEL because its 10 minutes from the lakeshore (lake lucerne duhhh) and its 100% KOREAN. complete with german owner and korean wife and wait for it… KOREAN CUSTOMERS.

breakfast consists of:

1. fried rice with eggs!

amazing! i guess well get typical swiss food in geneva when we go stay with our friend talia… if there IS typical swiss food…

but the place is cute, small, AFFORDABLE, and probably one of the cutest ones weve stayed in.

definitely one of our more RANDOM days.

:D :D :D

Belgian Fries... Belgian Waffles... Belgian Chocolate... check.

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:04:04 -0400

So. what did we do in amsterdam? Well apart from the gigantic Riksmuseum, not so much haha. Actually, the billion dollar exhibit was only showing about a third of their gallery due to renovations. we saw rembrandt, vemeer.. it was pretty nifty but we were so exhausted. We walked around, found a random zombie walk, and checked out some cool coffee shops. we had mexican food, (cause amsterdam is so multicultural!)

One downfall of this city is that it is so english!!! Every person who speaks to you starts in english due to the huge amount of tourists! I haven’t learnt a word of Dutch (Flemmish? See!? I don’t even know the official language!) Granted the city is the most beautiful array of canals and pathways and swans, but I feel the culture is just completely gone! Maybe because it was nearing the football final and the Netherlands were just on a constant high (both physically and mentally… haha…)

So after walking around in the heat, we staggered (yes staggered) upon a concert on a boat on one of the canals. It was pretty funny seeing the whole street just dancing to a bunch of singers on a boat. I think it was a competition. Anyways, we ended up finding the red light district and I’ve never seen anything like it. we were weaving in and out of tiny streets with women (both attractive and… uh.. not attractive) just standing bathed in a red neon light in a bikini in a window. Men would open and close the windows and either go in or keep on walking. then it rained and we found our hostel and fell asleep with the stinky men. We woke up to a day full of activity due to that evening’s final match against spain. Early in the morning we went next door to the sex museum (yes it was next door to our hostel) and THAT was scarring. I thought it would be like New York, with interesting facts about the history and animals…. UHNOT. they managed to make lifesize robotic prostitutes, and put up every pornographic photo from the 1920s till now. By pornographic i mean, women with dicks, anything S&M, 6 foot penis’s…Pretty much anything you can think of was ingraved into our brains forever to stain our memories. After that we found our way to the Heineken Museum, otherwise known as the Heineken Experience. We got drunk and just meandered through the canals. At 4 we had reservations at the Anne Frank House. THAT TOO was another experience. I mean, I SAW her wallpaper, I touched her desk… I walked up her stairs and through their secret room.. It was so sad! Yet another experience to never forget.

After that, we litterally RAN to Museumplatz (Museum square aka huge park) to get a spot in front of the giant screen to watch the football match. Decked out in orange, we were pushed and shoved for 2 hours while drunken netherlanders screamed their national anthem and attempted to dance to the music being blasted through the field. I think there were over 100 000 people around us. We got some great pictures.. and then peaced the hell out. There was no way in hell I would stand there for another 3 hours with hot, sweaty, drunken youths and watch their team LOSE to the spanish.

We found Leidesplein which is another rather large square, found a sports bar with a surprising amount of seats left and were crowded but in a much better way. there were a group of spanish girls sitting near us and after the game (finally) ended, they had beer thrown on them… ouch.

the whole city kind of went into a weird state after that and kelly and i walked back to our hostel with 300 000 dissapointed angry soccer fans who just kept smashing beer bottles. The next morning we decided we liked amsterdam so much, we booked our stay at ANOTHER hostel just 20 minutes away by foot and got there in the morning. Needless to say it was 300 times better than our “Hostel” and we had this huge room of 16 girls with so much breathing space.. Anyway, we spent the next two days just perusing the canals, kicking back with coffee… watching the swans.. Then we visited the Van Gogh museum, and instead of seeing art, we saw the back of peoples heads. Okay… fine.. it wasn’t THAT bad, I did see more Van Gogh in 2 hours than I have my entire life, but it was just so annoying waiting in a line that moved so slow past all the frames.. Granted it was a pretty SWEET museum, with all his influences and everything!

After that we caught a train to Brussels and now we are eating … again. This is the most peaceful, beautiful city i’ve ever seen and its by far my favorite.

wait. maybe thats because its an exact replica of MONTREAL! Minus the HUGE european union and parliament… It funny to watch business men running around mixed with the general laisser fair population.. Its absolutely lovely here. just walking around takes 30 minutes to see the whole central city and there are so many places to peek into and look around. were staying 2 extra nights because

a) we have time to kill..

b) its surprisingly cheap

c) we love it.

Tomorrow its a day tour to Ghent and Bruges just 1 hour away. we get a bus, a tour guide, and 9 hours to see two must-see cities.

I am quite happy.

We FINALLY made plans to see our friend Talia (remember? from Cinque Terre? No? doesn’t matter) in Geneva. She lives just outside the city center and offered to host us for 2 nights. YES. free accomodation and a wonderful friend to show us her favorite spots in Geneva, Switzerland. So because of this, kelly and I are going to the seemingly ABSOLUTELY beautiful city of Luzerne, Switzerland for litterally a night… sigh.. I would have rather stayed longer.

J’ai trop hate pour tous qu’on va faire!

Settled in Europes Capitol

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:06:15 -0400

We have finally found the backpackers dream hostel here in Brussels. Free internet, breakfast included till late in the morning, free maps, informative desk people… needless to say we are very happy. I’m also currently watching the Netherlands football team on tv arrive in amsterdam via canal boat for a HUGE celebration after losing the game… hahaa…

SO. after we went through the galleries we found ourselves at a riverside bar/club that, instead of flooring, decided to put down sand and turn the whole bar into a beach party, complete with night skies… ahhh… we settled down with our beers and just talked until the metro closed. A cheap taxi ride home and I conclude it was a satisfying night.

The next day, we met up with our american friends again and decided to check out this Market kelly had seen on tv (food network haha). It was called the Rogacki Market. Heard of it? I haven’t. Turns out it was pretty cute in an obscure part of town, complete with weird fish heads and excellent cheese. we bought baguettes and cheese and fruit and sat outside the market for a nice lunch. Then we U-bahn-ed it to a street that kelly and i were again told of that had cool (though expensive) clothing stores and excellent ice cream. Me, Kelly and Hallie left connor in the park and took off shopping as girls do. later we met up for (surprisingly good, though i didn’t have any) falafel and then walked to Berlin’s East Side Gallery.

I was prepared for a MAJORLY graffitied up wall straight from the 80s, but was surprised to find out that just recently, they MAJORLY repainted the entire length of the wall. they got artists from around the world (we found quebec!) to take a portion of the wall and paint whatever they want. Naturally you got “save the earth”, “everyone unite together”, “no more war” ETC but then there were really random ones. Anyways, we got great pictures.

At this point it was sunset so we reposed by the canal and watched the people on the Hostel-boats have parties.

*Hostelboat: (def) Hostel on a boat.

Then kelly and i dashed off to catch our train to Amsterdam. Never in my life had i had such a bad, sleepless night.

At this point, we opted for a seat for the night because to get a bed would cost 30 euros each. uh… no way. so we paid 4 euros each, and the saying “you get what you pay for” really took a tole on us. we spent the night, sitting in a overheated, nonventilated cabin of 6 seats 3 facing 3. two german women and one asian woman who refused to put her luggage on the top racks even after kelly and i begged her to let us put it up. she ended up taking up her whole seat and half of my seat, spreading her legs over her bag onto the other seat where her feet were in kelly’s face. Kelly luckily got two seats and i was squished between two women, however she also got everyones feet.. Ugh. It was horrible. At one point, when i woke for the 5th time, i actually quietly screamed and threw my purse on the floor and woke everyone up. Kelly was gone, and when i woke up she was back, telling me she couldnt take it anymore so she found a spot in the airconditioned handicap bathroom… but i dont think she lasted long.

So sleeplessly we arrive in Amsterdam, only to find that, although our hostel was centrally located, it was a shitbox. Wait. Did i say hostel? I meant CHEAP CRAPPY HOTEL. for 30 euros a night, we got a lazy and probably stoned receptionist who didnt give us any maps, who didnt tell us anything at all. he decided to stick us in a 6 person dorm, but the other 4 people were old, hairy, smelly, stoned men. UGH. they were decent enough, and didnt walk in at 4 in the morning, but they stunk. keep in mind, this room had 3 bunk beds with no room to fit more than 2 people standing. our beds were against the window which could only open a crack and amsterdam was going through a heat wave. I thought i was hot on the train… I have never experienced heat like that. One asshole actually kept his weed on the only small table and smoked in the bathroom one of the nights. brushing your teeth in the closet of a bathroom was one of the more disgusting experiences of my life.

I’ll leave it at that, because i am tired.

REal Berlin

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:23:00 -0400

So. i just wrote 15 minutes worth of stuff and the internet shut down. again.

so the last bit after the pub crawl is a little hazy… maybe because im in AMSTERDAM??

Alright anyway. so after the crawl kelly and i yelled at each other and fell asleep, me at 1 her much later. the next morning we were up for Dachau concentration camp, which was one of the more horrific experiences of my life. our guide was weird, but in a homosexual, kinda sorta likeable way. we lazed through, being blown away again and again by everything we saw, i cannot say its possible to explain.

that night we were on a midnight train to berlin.

*Funny story: our sleeper cart consisted of me, kelly, a mexican who let us play with his ipad, and some dude who, turns out, actually owns one of the biggest bike tour companies in berlin, amsterdam, barcelona, london… WHOA. so we asked him, whats the best way to see berlin? and he goes: well… im a little biased.. Fat Tire Bike Tours.

So we arrived in berlin, made our way to our hostel in the morning. Nothing special. it was in a cute neighborhood which happened to be actually OUTSIDE the map area. I think we spent most of our time in berlin on a metro or train. their metro system is ridiculous. theyve got U-Bahns, and S-Bahns which all pretty much run in the same direction.

then theres bike, busses, boats, you name it, theyve got it.

so after finding a cute breakfast place, we meander over to the contemporary art museum to see a show with visiting artist… wait for it..,. BRUCE NAUMAN. OH MY GOD. he is a god.

then we fell asleep… i think.

Then the next morning, bright and early we got to our fat tire bike tours where we found out our tour guide was a real kiwi!! A REAL ONE! he was awesome and so informative! we went all over the place on our bicycles. (MUCH SUGGESTED).

on our tour during the beer garden event, we met a woman from the US and a guy and girl from maine. we all became friendly and decided to go to the jewish museum with them after the tour.

BAD IDEA.

for anyone who doesnt know, the jewish museum in berlin is, in my opinion, dedicated to teaching the german population about jews. once again, in my opinion, it felt like they gathered a bunch of jewish artefacts and put them up on display. there really were interactive games teaching people “what is a jew?” im not going to continue, but if anyone who knows anything about the jewish religion decides to go to the jewish museum in berlin, dont go. it was so juvenile and just plain ridiculous. its hard to believe that they make their students do 60 hours of holocaust studies during high school.

we ended up liking our friends from maine so much, that we decided to go out with them that night. the guy actually went to princeton, so not 100% living in maine i dont think… ANYWAY. we finally found this old building kelly and i were told of that was completely and utterly covered in graffiti inside and out. it was converted by squatters into a gallery ish and bar ish place. pretty damn cool nd definitely the epitome of the underground alternative scene in berlin.

BERLIN

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:13:08 -0400

while kelly is in the bathroom getting ready to go, i will continue.

after the baths, we walked around and decided to check out some legit hungarian food. we found a great place right in the jewish quarter. i ordered matza ball soup (YES, I DID!!) and kelly had goulash. i also had something else but i dont remember…

anyhoo our waiter was a cool dude around our age and told us to go a bar called szimpla around the corner, so we went back to our hostel 10 minutes away to change for that evening. our hostel dude (the weird one) was like: hey, where you going tonight? i was like: szimpla! he was like: see you there…

so i told kelly and we were a bit creeped out. luckily he never showed up and i think i found my favorite bar of all time. (For a good time, approved by me: Szimpla, Pest, Budapest, Hungary). think St. Sulpice x a million percent awesome, and throw in some hungarians with a cool outdoor terrace. jaja. good fun. we met a couple from holland who gave us pointers for amsterdam (best “coffee shops”, best bike rides etc etc). then the next day we got on a bus tour of budapest, in order to get to the Buda part, and toured around Castle Hill, got some great shots, saw the danube etc etc. then after sweating our asses off, we went back to the hostel for showers and a Football match with some hostel buddies weve made (including, oh yeah! YET ANOTHER quebecois. like, Parti Quebecois Quebecois. like, he considers himself NOT canadian. kelly and i laughed. he was so confused by the fact that we lived in montreal and were anglophone… oh geez). then after some drinks, kelly and i invited two israeli girls we had just met to go to another bath just across the bridge in Buda, on the border of the danube, and they came, but turned back due to tiredness of walking. (we were like, jesus, if you have one day of touring a city and your too tired to go swimming, HOW THE HELL are you going to survive army training that they were starting in 2 weeks. that deserves a huge L.O.L.) anyways. we found gellert baths and swam around their small but cosy swimming area from about 10:30 pm to 1:30 am (theyre open till 4 am!). it was mostly warm water, but there was a 28 degree one that we liked a lot.

we slept in the next day and we visited the HUGE GINORMOUS synagogue in Pest, which was beautiful. actually it was built to look like a church, but i dont remember why… we caught a train to munich at like, 3 pm and arrived just before midnight to our hostel in munich.

Munich turned out to be quite the cute city, though our hostel sucked, cause it was a really party hostel and we werent down for a huge party that night. needless to say we didnt sleep much and the next morning woke up for a free walking tour of munich. our tour guide was born in munich, raised in vancouver and has been living in munich for 2 years on her own. she was 24 and gave such a cool tour of munich! we saw where hitler gave his speeches, where the white rose resistance went down, we saw Hofbrauhaus which was pretty intense. peoples families reserve their spots by paying the brewhouse and they have their family names above tables so if they arrive and tourists are there, they have the right to kick you out and be like: NEIN NEIN ZIS EEZ OUR TABLE NEIN

anyways lots of leiderhosen later we finish the tour and have a chat with our nifty tour guide Heidi (of course her name is Heidi) and she tells us her grandfather was a military man for hitler. So then were thinking, holy shit, every young person who has family roots here in munich must have had ties to the nazis, because obviously they were the ones who survived!!! we got tingly feelings and then kelly had bratwurst and sauerkraut and i had salad (which wasnt so bad!).

then we visited the “new” synagogue that they had just recently rebuilt. kelly and i actually had to PROVE our jewish status, we didnt realize at the time but when we walked into security and asked to see the synagogue, the guy asked us why? so then i realized, oh shit, you actually have to be jewish. so kelly lets down her long brown curly hair and i tell him we were just recently in israel and are trying to find our heritage by visiting synagogues in countries that our families come from (which is true… minus portugal). so he decides that, yes, we are jewish girls from canada (i show him my giant photocopy of my thefted passport) and we walk down this memorial hall and i actually found a Kellner in the glass (they had lists of names, im not sure if they were dead or survivors or donors…) but there was a Charlotte Kellner which was pretty nifty. kelly found a Durst… even though her name is Derstenfeld. I also found out Kellner in german means barmaid, but thats besides the point.

after that we went back to the hostel in time for a pub crawl and met two girls from california who were pretty chill. one lives in new york AND INTERNED FOR VOGUE MAGAZINE AS AN ASSISTANT.

…to be continued.

Kellner is apparently more german than hungarian

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:06:00 -0400

Oh my so where to start. i know its been a thousand years.

So in Cinque Terre, after the whole “hostel sucks” fiasco, kelly and i woke up late only to have missed one of the only busses to the train station. so we thought the only thing we had left was a cab. so we ask our asshole hostel dude to call a cab. 3 minutes later, we realize that this american guy we had met the night before actually had a car and was leaving soon. he told us we could bum a lift to the train station. SWEET.

but oh wait, we had just called a cab, who then showed up with 12 euros on the meter insisting we pay for a ride we werent in. kelly puffs up and says no way in hell so he drives away, we get into americans car and are off to the station to take us to Padova. This guy is nice, but not the smartest dude. hes been travelling for 3 months, he was 26 and was going for 6 months working on the side to make some income. we get to a gas station to ask directions, and as this guy is backing out, we hear a thump, and lo and behold, he had smashed this tiny bumper lamppost. at this point kelly and i are thinking even if we waited for the next bus 2 hours later, we would have been there faster. we wait around with american dude while he gets his files out of the car and has to pay a damage fee and the gas station guy is throwing his arms in a “woes me!!!” kinda italian passionate way and were sitting there like lumps just waiting for this fiasco to be over. then we did a good luck dance because at this point it seemed to us that bad luck had been following us everwhere… ugh.

finally we get to the train station and arrive in Padova that evening after many transfers. our hotel is booked (thanks mom) and we are shown a really great italian restaurant. the next morning bright and early we whizz off to venice and store our packs in their communal lockers.

Venice raped our wallets. (or my imaginary wallet. i didnt have anything at that point). ITS SO DAMN EXPENSIVE. i knew it would be beautiful thanks to seeing pictures of it my whole life, but seeing it in person was something ill never forget. it was amazing. there were no streets. people ACTUALLY had boats as personal cars and they had public “parking”. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. obviously we get to Murano late in the day and miss the glass blowing exhibitions which is one of the only things we really wanted to see. just eating and getting a souvenir was SO EXPENSIVE! but its venice, so i told myself to shut up (again) and just think that “how many times am i in venice?” yeah. so that worked, not so much persuasion was needed to convince myself. we left venice after a nice bus-boat tour on the grand canal at sunset and took a sleeper train to Vienna.

if we thought venice raped our wallets, vienna destroyed them and left them with not even the threads holding them together. Like i said it sucked because i had to replenish all my stolen goods in the most expensive area of our trip. but enough about money.

Vienna was nice. we were persuaded by men in white wigs and tights to see a mozart strauss concert. poor kelly, all she wanted to do was go to standing opera, but the opera that was going on was wagner 5 hour long heavy duty stuff. Granted, it was 5 euro, but standing for 5 hours wasnt my cup of tea.

23 euros later, we were sitting in an elaborate concert hall with gold and statues and satin listning to a small orchestra of musicians in wigs and tights play the typical things that audiences can whistle to. The Blue Danube, carmen etc etc… It was fun, but definitely overrated. we made a good time out of it, and danced all the way back to the hostel. the next night we arrived in BUDAPEST and got lost on our way to our hostel. in the end, it was centrally located, had amazing facilities, amazing staff and we stayed an extra day! we slept in the first day and without even thinking twice, ran to szeychenyi baths just outside the center of Pest.

*fun fact: budapest is made up of two cities on each side of the Danube. Buda, and Pest. I highly recommend everyone go to both, for it is one of the most amazing, safe and beautiful cities ever. also, due to communism, it is also one of the funniest cities, because of how far behind they are. Ok, fine, theres an H&M, Zara, etc, but walk 5 minutes out of the city square and youve got hilarious advertisements for movies that came out 5 months ago.

ANYWAYS.

the baths were an experience. this was the largest, oldest one in pest and it was geared towards the younger generation. HAHA maybe 10% of the people there were under the age of 30. i have never seen so much saggy skin sitting in mineral enriched water or swimming around in outdoor pools. it was fun and we stayed hours and hours dunking ourselves from hot sticky saunas and jumping into 18° C pools right after to shock ourselves (yes were CRAZY!)

….to be continued

guttentag munich

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:02:00 -0400

i put on leiderhosen today and drank beer at 11 am

CANADA DAY! (didn´t do anything).

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:29:36 -0400

internet as a right in finland? i like the sound of that!

shnizelbox? GUTTENTAG

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:51:00 -0400

so we fell in love with venice, after a long long hot day walking the ´´streets´´ and seeing the major sights… though we didnt go into the giant basilica due to our legs and arms showing. oh well. we took awesome pigeon pictures in st marcs square (there was an indian dude throwing corn kernals and it was like crack for pigeons and they flocked him to the point that you couldnt see the ground so i ran in and have many pictures of pigeons on my head and our feet)

so yeah then we got to murano glass blowing area too late to see the actual glass blowing… sigh… of course… but had plenty of gelato. we fell asleep on the train in venice and woke up on the train in vienna! definitely a cool feeling. italy raped my wallet (probably because i had to replace all my stolen stuff… in the most expensive city in italy…) but vienna turned out to be a no problem day. we love vienna. despite its heat wave, we saw so much. we arrive with 3 pounds of laundry and spent 2 hours waiting for it to finish. then after not showering for 48 hours, we got a metro to the town center smelling delicious and toured around. I WALKED IN MOZARTS HOUSE.

its called mozarthaus. Ahaahhahah i stepped where he stepped and saw his original compositions!!! we saw Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele at the Leopold Museum (AIEEEE SO COOL). we were lucky because Leopold himself died yesterday so we got free passes (oh.. thats not nice…) anyways. wtvr.

were saving klimts ´´The Kiss´´ for tomorrow at the belvedere museum as well as the sigmund freud museum. only noe night in vienna, so we have to make the most of it. (im sorry anna.. i lost your moms recommendations)… our hostel is pretty sweet, we have clean clothes, and we saw a mozart strauss concert in a HUGE konzerthaus after eating typical viennese food. (waitaminute… thats meat… so yes kelly enjoyed two slabs of beef while i ate eggs and i think…potatos. yes for cholesterol.. mmm…)

kelly is loving the german. we cant get enough of the advertisements for shnizle. they have shnitzle in a box. AHAHAHA

so thats it.

TILL BUDAPEST.

Guttenachte!!

the second 48 hour day.

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:24:10 -0400

So little did we know that this train ride would be one from hell. we got a train at 5:30 from barcelona to cerberres, the french border, and from there we would have to get a train to nimes, and from there to marseilles, and from there to nice, and from there to monaco, and from there to ventimiglia, and from there to genova, and from there la spezia, where our hostel was. we got to cerberres right on time and it was supposed to leave at 8:30. at 11:30 it took off. fucking french strike assholes… and on our train was actually a girl going to strasbourg who we had met at the barcelona festival who also had her bag stolen that night! weird. so we end up in Nimes train station at 1:30 am instead of at 11 pm and the station was obviously closed. we had no time to buy tickets obviously. so no place to stay, nowhere to eat, all we could do was put our things down in front of the ticket booth and wait for them to open. OBVIOUSLY A SECURITY GUARD COMES DOWN AND TELLS US THAT, IN FACT, WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SLEEP IN THE STATION. were so tired that nothing surprises me anymore. we set up camp right outside the train station, and are about to go to sleep when we hear and see hobos drunk with dogs just down the alley from us. LO AND BEHOLD they saunter over to us and start sspeaking slurred french to us. the security guard sees this and realizes how much of an idiot he is for kicking out two tired, hungry, innocent girls on the street. he puts us in the waiting room and at 6 : 30 we are up and ready to buy our tickets to marseilles. BUT UH OH, OF COURSE, the french train system sucks and it was full with reservcations. we begged the conductor to let us on his train and he did (for free, thank god, there are nice people in the world) and we sat under one of the tables in the food area of the train. yeah. same thing happened in marseilles, when we had no way of getting to nice, but paid on the train for a ticket. after that, it went a bit more smoothly and arrived 30 hours after leaving barcelona, in la spezia at 11 pm. no way of knowing where the hell our hostel is in this tiny town, we hail a cab who tells us that is 20 EUROS TO OUR HOSTEL??? no other option, it takes just over 6 minutes, a 7 euro cab ride no doubt, but because we speak english he tripled it. we get to the hostel that kelly was so excited about because it was the last thing in cinque terre that would take us for 2 nights. thought we reserved fora 4 room dorm with a bathroom ensuite for 19 euros HELLS YEAH. we get there and this asshole italian itells us its 112 for 2 nights for 2 people. what? in the end, he insisted we reserved for a 4 person private room and made us pay for the 2 beds that werent in use because “baby, you donta undestanda, it is too late-a to reserve for those-a bedsa.. i am right. you are wronga.” kelly yells at him, they fight, and we go away paying double what we should fora room that is the same one as a 4 person dorm.

finally we sleep, but no time to sleep in, bcause the first train to the first town in cinque terre leaves at 9:30 am. dduh. cinque terre is made up of 5 unesco world heritage site villages that are buily off a cliff and they took every means possible of making it the most expensive place in the universe for rich. we meet two very nice people, a girl from switzerland who was travelling with this guy from australia and we spent the whole day together travelling from village to village. it turned out to be a nice day, just not as nice as we thought it would be. we were invited to geneva to spend some time with her, which would be lovely.

now we are in Padua after another 6 hour train, fresh, clean and ready to take on venice and vienna and budapest.

shitstorm

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:02:59 -0400

So the bus terminal is where our trip took a downward plunge.

the 4 of us had bought our tickets to toulouse for 35 euros (eurrail pass? what for?) and were taking turns sleeping waiting from 9 am to 3 pm when our bus was supposed to take off. so kelly goes to sleep around 1 pm behind the benches where we were sitting in front of the ticket booths where people were lining up. german took a walk for coffee and scotland is reading next to me. my back is leaning on a vending machine and all of a sudden i get a tap on my shoulder and this guy is telling me to look at my sweater. i look and theres this disgusting horrible stuff on it that looks similar to bird shit. im so confused so he tells me, look theres more! so i get up, my knapsack is next to my feet, and i have to take off my sweater to analyze what the hell is on it, which needs two hands… so he tells me, look up! saying something in spanish that there are birds or something telling me to look at the ceiling so im like: wtf? birds? and this other guy pops up out of nowhere and gives me kleenex with a smile. so im still in the same spot and thank him for his kleenex and im standing there and they leave and im still trying to figure out what the hell is on my sweater when it dawns on me that my knapsack is not near me anymore. i flip a shit and yell where the hell is my knapsack. germany comes back, scotland gives me a terrified look, kelly is stunned. i start hyperventilating and run after where i saw the men take off and realize, that, yes, they took my bag.

it was the weirdest sensation, having half your body realize you have nothing left, while the other half is trying to wake up as if in a bad dream or trying to realize that this is, in fact, not happening, and that kelly took it to sleep on or something. i fly to the security guard and thats when i start crying and he realizes what happens but doesnt move and then germany takes off down the escalators peeling around for my bag, kelly is still shocked, and scotland is pacing. i have no idea how i was still speaking when the security guard took me down, said somethign about a taxi to the police station, brought me to a booth in the bus area and im inconsolable, on the ground, snotting on the shoulder of another security guard AND THE FIRST ONE PULLS OUT A FUCKING CIGARRETTE AND NO ONE HAS MADE A MOVE TO HELP ME. im yelling at them about security cameras, and the woman offers me a bottle of water, and theyre giving me directions to the canadian consolate, but at that moment, i dont give a shit about my passport (i knew there were photocopies at home, and ill get it from the consolate), what was going through my mind was the 2000 dollars worth of stuff in my knapsack that in one second i did not have with me anymore. things (obviously material things) that i valued so much were gone. i couldnt deal, couldnt think. kelly snaps into action, and actually gets the whole thing under control. i dont know how the hell it wouldve been without her. scotland found info on all consolates in europe (i dont know how he did that, he was amazing) and kelly grabbed a cab to the consolate. of course, barcelonas public holiday and the CANADIAN consolate is closed. our cab driver was one of the most generous people ive ever met and was our personal conductor for the entire day, free of charge. 2 hours is spent at the police station filing a useless report because this happens every day 6 times a day. they even knew who i was talking about when i described the guys. they even finished my sentence when i said birdshit. ive never cried so much in my life. we found a hostel way up in the mountain and relaxed that night. the next day was spent at the consolate where we met 4 other people who had their passports stolen, in so many different ways!

that night we managed to find a train to Cinque Terre

Hi again (i just wrote for 20 minutes and it dissapeared)

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:48:33 -0400

ill start again, dont think i dont want to cry. yes im alive.

SO. ill start from granada and continue until this moment now.

Kelly and i stay an extra night in granada, tour around during the day eat some arabic food, buy cheap jewellery, and that night we find out about flamenco dancing. for 19 euros wed get a bus to and from the caves and a free drink. DONE. we meet 3 guys and a girl from miami florida (2 of whom filmed hulk hogans show and a bunch of tlc stuff HOLY COW so cool) and we meet the woman from bc and the 7 of us get some tapas and run to catch the bus to flamenco. although full of anglos, it was such an experience seeing real flamenco dancing! in the caves of Granada… apparently you can just squat in a cave with wifi and no running water.. (all you need is internet of course?)

then we decide that we arent tired on a sunday night and find the one nightclub thats open, which turns out to be crazy drunk people dancing to salsa music by themselves or with people of the same sex… hmm… awkward though it was, we had a good time and got to bed super late. the next day we bus it to barcelona, and happen to bump into the girl from our hostel in granada who HAPPENS to be from montreal! WEIRD. so we make dinner plans (that we didnt keep) and check into our super cool hostel in the middle of the gothic district. our dorm is about 10 beds but its so cool, because each bed is like a tree house, complete with curtains and a ladder! were unpacking and accross from us are two friendly australian guys so we start talking (usual, where you from, how long, till when…) and we decide to do a bus tour of barcelona the four of us. we see everything, including one of gaudis houses that he built by himself!!! so cool!!! expensive and fun, we go to dinner and for a drink and then kelly and i go to bed early cause the next day we wanted to hit up Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia. Anyways, for some reason we didn not see any gaudi sculptures in Parc Guell… only architecture… hmm… and sagrada familia was WAY too expensive to go in, but so awesome to look at. ive never seen anything like it before (except for a cathedral in Belem, portugal…) BUT ANYWAYS. we know about the giant barcelona festival that night so go back to shower and get to the beach by 9:30 ish and its still quiet. the party gets going by 10 pm and what a party. ive never experienced or even heard of a party quite like barcelonas. there are 2 year olds lighting firecrackers (or should i say bombs?) fireworks are exploding everywhere and you actually have to watch where you step. kelly almost got her hand blown off trying to pick up a panda toy which turned out to be a firecracker that exploded seconds after she walked away from it. the family who lit it LAUGHED AT US. JESUS CHRIST YOU HAVE A 2 YEAR OLD AT MIDNIGHT LIGHTING FIREBOMBS AND YOUR DRUNK.

crazy spanish people.

so we end up meeting up with our australian buddies who bring along with them some british dudes and swedish girls and we all hang out at the seaside till 6:30 am, when i told kelly: “shit kelly its 6:30! our trains at 8!!” so we peace out after having a weird random conversation with an american dude who was telling us to calm down and enjoy life… anyways. we get an hour of sleep and run to the train station panting when we finally get on. we meet two guys travelling together, one from scotland and one from germany and were all waiting and waiting for the train to leave. 20 minutes later a woman walks on and tells us its cancelled… so we go to check to see if theres a bus to Toulouse (where we were heading) and meet 2 sisters from california travelling to paris in the same pickle as us. we hike it to the bus station and find out that the train isnt moving because the one before it had crashed and killed 12 people. (DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? BECAUSE PROBABLY THERE WERE 12 CRAZY DRUNK HAPPY SPANISH PEOPLE RUNNING ON TRAIN TRACKS CELEBRATING THEIR CITY.) crazy damn spanish people!

granada

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:20:00 -0400

for those who think that all i do is update my blog, YOU ARE WRONG. THANK YEW.

HOKAY. yesterday kelly and i missed our train to granda due to stupidity. our train left at 5 pm to arrive here at 10 ish so we left around 4:10 to get the metro to the train station at which we arrived 2 days early. we arrive with 15 minutes to spare and run around the damn station looking for our train. it is obvs not there so we ask stupid customer service WHO TELLS US WE ARE AT THE WRONG STATION AND THAT THERE IS NO TIME TO GET TO SAID OTHER STATION WHERE OUR TRAIN WAS DEPARTING IN 10 MINUTES. the next train was the next morning at 9 am.

our hostel was booked for that night (the 19th) and if we arrived the day after we would be charged for a room for which we did not sleep. i panicked and once again kelly stayed calm. my head was going: omg, we have no where to sleep, were losing 20 euros, we have no way of getting to the alhambra the next day for our reservations at 3:30… PANIC MODE.

kelly smartly asks for a bus and after half an hour of being sent from place to place, we go to the tourist office who tells us that there is a 5 hour bus ride leaving in an hour to granada.

16 euros and much time-bending later, we are on a 6:30 bus to granada and the ride there is one of the most beautiful ive ever seen. we got here for 11:30 pm and had half an hour to catch our reservation. more time-bending occured and we got to our beds, were handed free sangria and met more quebecers. (actually kelly and i had a room of three beds, the third bed belonged to this guy from quebec city who was really surprised to see us sleeping in his room)

today we got MORE FREE BREAKFAST and a FREE 2 hour walking tour of the most beautiful city ever. We loved granada so much that when we got back to the hostel, we cancelled our next night in barcelona and were staying here another night to watch flamenco dancing in caves and tomorrow were hitting up the hot springs and shisha bars. (yes there is arab influence… due to hundreds of years of moor inhabitance.. i learned that today WOW)

we managed to make our reservation to the alhambra at 4 instead of 3:30 and i walked around with a dead camera. HONESTLY THE ONE TIME MY CAMERA DECIDES TO DIE ITS DURING OUR EXPENSIVE TOUR OF ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN STRUCTURES IN THE WORLD.

there are many jumping photos on kellys camera. i have no words to describe the mind blowing experience. everyone must visit the alhambra (and the Pena Palace in Sintra.. just saying it takes the cake in beauty).

we met a woman from bc, had good paella with her and now were going to get ready for flamenco WOOOOOOO. this clears up my, so far, not amazing impression of spain.

Gracias?

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:09:17 -0400

So… i miss portugal. For some reason Madrid did not turn me on 100%. I mean, ya, its MADRID! its a wonderful city, but something about lisbon made me feel so comfortable… though that might be the apartment and the two weeks there but ANYWAYS.

So kelly and john came back after i worried but didnt leave the hostal. we had a splendid day together, walking around, drinking coffee and sitting in the plaza mayor. like i said we shared paella and continued to graze throughout the day. at around 6, we decided to head to the Prado because from 6-8 (close) its free. stupidly however, we arrived at 7 because kelly and i are once again retarded and forgot to turn our watches back an hour after arriving in spain from portugal. WOW EPIC FAIL.

so we didnt get to see a lot since its HUGE. after that we still hadnt figured out our watch situation and thought it was 8 pm when it was really 9 pm and we were so confused about why we were so hungry!! so we found a great bar with free tapas with every beer and somehow managed to find a table and watched the soccer game with all these spanish people. after sitting and drawing in Puerta del Sol square (where every young person of madrid congregates to pre drink and-or shop), john left to catch a train to his family and kelly and i found a great dinner place with a terrace. turns out we were the only english speaking people on the little pedestrian walkway (full of tables and restaurants) and, funny story, there was a table across the street with a bunch of older men sitting and eating tapas so kelly and i order our dinner and all of a sudden the waiter from the other restaurant (think about 70 years old?) gets my attention and starts speaking in fast spanish to me so i kinda understood what he was saying after he pointed to a man from that table who looked at me and winked at me. our waiter who was a young guy (probably younger than us) started laughing and seemed to have a good time translating the fact that this man (and apparently all of his buddies) wanted to kiss me????? then the 70 year old waiter grabs his heart and asks to take my hand… so this whole time im refusing with confused looks on my face or giggling (because how can i not) and kelly told me my face turned bright red. needless to say it was a bit embarrassing because neither of us spoke spanish and the table on the other side of us started talking with our waiter who was proabably explaining the situation to them and they were laughing. we were not amused. that lasted an hour and every time the waiter came out he grabbed his heart and looked at me.

AWKWARD.

so anyways yeah, spanish men are really keeping up their stereotypes. if you´re a decent enough looking woman, they will say ola, or wink or whistle. its super weird. when kelly and i went to a club with our hostel tour, i accidentally made eye contact with this spanish dude standing against wall just watching people and when he saw me, he too grabbed his heart and said “me corrazone aiiee” and tried to get me to dance. LIKE WTF. (julie im having a heart attack. hahahahaha)

anyways dinner was delicious despite the awkwardness.

the next day bright and early we caught our free breakfast and went straight back to the Prado, this time paying 4 dollars and spent another 2 and a half hours looking at morbid drawings of jesus. UGH i wanted to die. i mean, Goya, Degas, Velasquez, monet, El Greco, ONE Rembrandt, WAS AWESOME AND MIND BLOWING, but enough jesus.

so we were starving after (luckily i had nuts with me, SCORE 1 POINT FOR ALI BEING RESPONSIBLE) but still hungry, found shitty overpriced resto. then we went across the steet from the Prado to a museum called Thyssen-Bornemisza, expecting about the same thing as the Prado… LITTLE DID WE KNOW OUR BRAINS WOULD EXPLODE OUT OF THE COUNTRY OF SPAIN.

so we started with the jesus paintings blah blah blah THEN BLAM A DEGAS DANCERS ORIGINAL. THEN MONETS FOGGY BRIDGE AND MANET AND JESUSFU¡KFSDOSFNISFNM

thats not the best part. so every room we step into our feet go numb with awesomeness. i didnt think it could get better than a homemade video of monet painting. so we leave and are about to exit when i notice a room near the gift shop with modern looking art. so we go back and enter and i swear my brain juice re-exploded all over the museum floor because i walked right into a Salvador Dali AND GEORGIA OKEEFE AND FRANCIS BACON AND lichtenstein among SO MANY OTHER HEROS.

kelly and i are freaking out but kelly runs ahead of me and says, ali, you have to see this. i enter the next room and litterally collapsed against the wall because hanging in front of me is one of my favorite Mark Rothko paintings. it was HUGE. it was GlORIOUS. I sat in front of it for 20 minutes and cried no joke. ask kelly. there were tears on my cheeks.

if there is a word for suprised x 100000 thats what i was.

after that we were exhausted, so we helped ourselves to amazing gelato and made up our faces at sephora (OH GEEZ YES I KNOW) and decided not to take pictures with the random mickey mouses standing around Puerta del Sol…

we got back to the hostal just in time for the tapas tour which in the end cost 9 euros (SHIT I WASNT EVEN HUNGRY) but we met about 10 quebecois, two calgary girls, a couple pf americans and 2 girls from germany. there were more but that was our group. they took us to 3 tapas bars where we had a pretty good time talking about montreal (super weird. i travel 3000 miles only to wind up spending the night with girls from longeuil).

then afterwards they insisted we join them on the pub crawl so ANOTHER 10 EUROS LATER we were not drunk, we had shitty cheap drinks, but we danced a little with our crazy german friends and the nice montrealers. we were supposed to go to 3 “bars” and then one nightclub, but the bars turned out to be nightclubs for us (i actually have no idea what a nightclub is because kelly and i left around 1 due to boredom, aching shoulder pains on kellys part and having to wake up early the next day). they were totally shwasted. it was definitely an experience that kelly and i said we were glad to do ONCE. spanish people are very clicky and not so inviting ….

so yeah. today led us to the Reina Sofia museum to look at more modern art … which turned out to be a Picasso/dali museum BECAUSE THEY WERE EVERYWHERE. I EVEN SAW PICASSOS HUGE GIANT GUERNICA AND DALIS GIRL AT A WINDOW. BRAIN EXPLOSION AGAIN- also Miro paintings were everywhere and I died and went to heaven. though we were so tired it almost went over our heads.

we found a restaurant that was a fusion between la belle province and typical spanish food… ew. but got great coffee now were rushing out to find our train to granada.

I think i might be museumed out. but that cant be possible… UH OH. but nothing can beat the amount of FUCKING AMAZING ABSTRACT EXPRESSION I SAW

im still in shock. i need to go repair my head.

ciao!

ola madrid

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:14:31 -0400

so after a ten hour train ride (no beds this time), we finally arrived in madrid, annoyed, hungry and tired, obviously because we never slept.

currently i am using the free internet access in the hostal (which is amazing) because I have no idea where kelly is. we had met early this morning before check in, a guy from wisconsin who turned out to be actually pretty cool and is travelling alone. thanks to kelly, we became friends and he studies media at U of W… including film and some animation! sweet eh? hes here on 6 months teaching english to spanish kids (mmmmanna????) and took a couple of days to madrid

so we missed the free walking tour from the hostal and tried to find them but got lost so we had coffee then we walked around and got hungry again so we found a great square and had….

drumroll

PAELLA

and 3 dollar water. never again. was yummy. then we got back to the hostal about to go to the prado museum and i said i cant wait to take a shower, so they said, TAKE ONE NOW!

so john (dude from wisconsin) lent me his towel because apparently im an idiot and forgot one, now i have to buy one but they supposedly went to the park to read and write in their journals but now theyre not back.

hmmm….

gonna go find them somehow

Photo

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:55:33 -0400

this is where my grandma was born

beach in the algarve

all algarve

Forca Portugal!

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:40:17 -0400

It is the FIFA World Cup!!! The streets were dead tonight due to the entire country of Portugal locking themselves in their living room watching the game. Even my family had a huge decision to make: «Do we buy the sports chanel or not?» they told me. Kelly and I went back to a restaurant where I had amazing bread and egg soup (yes, it was delicious) and kelly saw the picture of me eating it and wanted to go (ill post the picture). I think ive been to most restaurants more than once here. EVEN the Fado guy recognized us AGAIN and started a chit chat with us last night about our origins. He was not impressed by the fact that I do not speak fluent portugese… Anyways at the restaurant our meals took extra long to get served because every time Portugal scored a goal our waitresses would run out on the streets hugging everyone and watching the replays on the outdoor screens set up in nearby bars. It was pretty funny actually.

So yesterday, we went to the beach for a few hours and I decided I would not need sunscreen. I am never making that mistake again. I even brought it with me. Today was spent taking care of our sore bodies. We downloaded Sex and the City 2 and sat together while rubbing aloe on each other. (We are so lucky to have this laptop).

Its sad that this is our last night in portugal. to celebrate today we left for a couple of hours to go eat lunch (duh…) at the Braseleira on Rua Garret and I ordered ONCE AGAIN IN SWIFT PORTUGESE our favorite things: pasteis bacaillau, pasteis camarao and pasteis de natas. aka. cod pastry, shrimp pastry, cream pastry. I figured the best way to say goodbye was to eat a lot of pastry… no? Ill regret that tomorrow.

I bought a book today (an english one!) though it is definitely not on my top 10 summer reading list, i figured a 10 hour train ride to madrid involves a good amount of reading. that and a sketchbook i purchased plus a journal im keeping… ish. were leaving tomorrow at 10 pm to arrive in MADRID at 10 am! We have reservations at a hostel call Posada del Huertas WHICH JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE 10 minutes from the train station and right smack in the center of the bar district of madrid… oops ;) today we also made our reservations to a hostel in granada thats 10 minutes away to the alhambra which is the main reason we´re going. Kelly made a point that spending 3 hours on a train to seville from madrid is not worth it for half a day so we ended up decided to spent an extra day in madrid instead. I guess the Alcazar will have to wait until the next time i go to Spain… which is sad but maybe we´ll day trip from Madrid to Toledo not so far away! after granada we reserved 2 nights in Barcelona! At that point our trip is really open water and Im extra nervous. I want to book our France hostels now, seeing as we have a laptop at our disposal…

Anyways today i also just found out a have a visa bill of 500$ dollars… i almost fainted and then i bought a purse… so I think i have a problem.

other than that it hurts to walk because my shirts rub against my stomach and back and kellys poor poor thighs….

I think portugal won the football game tonight but im too lazy to look that up.

ciao! next time i write hopefully ill be hot and sweaty in Spain!

this blog is turning into a: «lets see how many ugly awkward...

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:29:27 -0400

this is my favorite animal

this blog is turning into a: «lets see how many ugly awkward faces ali can make»… ill try to tone it down

before belem and the coach museum. «GUYS BE SEXY» kelly actually...

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:18:00 -0400

before belem and the coach museum. «GUYS BE SEXY»

kelly actually tries… and ali strikes up a double chin