Monday, August 20, 2007

Random Recollections from Europe...

1. a lot of planes, a lot of busses, a lot of metros, a lot of walking.

2. my pack is currently lost in boston somewhere. at least it made it to the US.

3. i had to constantly resist the urge to reach into my bag and check my phone for texts and messages. i didn't even have my phone on me. bad habit.

4. there was a falafel place in london called "just falafs" which i thought was so funny. get it? like "just for laughs"? say it with an english accent. ha, ha, ha.

5. they have this great service in london called "scooter man" where you go out and get wasted and this guy comes with his scooter, folds it up and puts it in the trunk, then drives you home in your own car. brilliant.

6. in notting hill i found the travel book shop from the film, found this awesome mural that is just like the cover of thom yorke´s eraser, and bought a tea set i saw in the window of a resale shop on portobello road.

7. in our search to find a cool place to go out at night we accidentally ended up at gay/lesbian bar as noted by the short-haired woman singing constant craving loudly and the rainbow flag on the patio, but we had already bought drinks at the bar. what are ya gonna do? then we went to this cool club that played indie/alternative rock and where charlotte hatherley was supposed to be guest dj-ing, except it ended up being a hang out for 18-21 year olds. finally we found a good pub (the hawley arms in camden town) that is supposedly the favorite of amy winehouse, pete doherty, kelly osborne, kirsten dunst, etc. no celebrity sitings though. sorry girls.

8. i can kind of speak spanish! yay! (forget about icelandic though)

9. madrid has the nicest airport ever. who knew?

10. we tried this awesome drink in madrid that i love: calimocho. red wine mixed with coca-cola. mmmm.

11. i went and saw some flamenco dancers.

12. i went and saw some art too. at the prado. and the reina sofia modern art museum.

13. we went to the weirdest bar. an irish pub with a disco ball, playing eurotrash dance music, and showing brit pop videos in madrid. with a historical museum in the basement. messed up.

14. people in spain make out in public a lot. on the metro, on the street, at the club. everywhere.

15. my feet were in the mediterranean sea :)

16. visited some works of Gaudi: la sagrada familia, park guell in barcelona.

17. traveling with a picky vegetarian is worst! bagels, pizza, falafel, fries, repeat.

18. iceland looks like you're on the moon. moss covered rocks and craters covering the surface. volcanoes. waterfalls. geysers.

19. in Þingvellir national park, we were sort of on both the american continent and the european continent at the same time. it's where the two continental plates meet.

20. it was chilly and windy in iceland, but the locals were wearing flip flops and tank tops. i had to buy a wool scarf. it's also very expensive there. we bought groceries instead of going out and ate mostly ramen and cheese and crackers.

21. went to the blue lagoon spa. it's created by the leftover water from a geo-thermal power plant the is mineral rich. sounds gross, but it was awesome. like sitting in a giant, natural hot tub that makes your skin so smooth.

22. went into damon albarn's bar in reykjavik. kaffibarinn. it was ok. again, no celeb sitings.

23. saw both the sunset and the sunrise over reykjavik harbor in only a 4 hour span. crazy.

24. everyone our age in iceland is married with like three kids. no lie. it's just the culture there. they are the hippest parents and kids i've ever seen though.

25. saw some icelandic bands at an outdoor festival: vonbrigdi and minus. they were a little hard for me. petur ben was good. and so was ampop (kind of keane-ish, and the singer is pretty hot). tried to see the guy from mum play later on, but missed out.

26. tried some brennivin, traditional icelandic liquor. whoa.

27. good to be home.

i guess that's it for now. i will try to post some pics at some point.

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