i've kept a semi-daily record of our trip in a sloppy blue travels abroad notebook that i think may have belonged to my dad sometime in the seventies. though three or four interested friends, relatives, and readers may have been curious of my goings on in the mother country, i felt it somewhat rewarding to keep a paper record, a record that won't be destroyed when satan takes over the internet for his own evil purposes. thusly, satisfied as i am with my pen to parchment account, i feel it appropriate to give a somewhat sparse overview of...(wait for it)...(cue the kenny loggins)... EUROTRIPTWOTHOUSANDMUTHAHUMPINSEVEN!!!
i will categorize.
chicago 6.23-6.25:
inspirational chicago movie: high fidelity
inspirational chicago song: a cub's fan last request
inspirational chicago food: beer with dan
we started our fine trip in chicago with daniel bush- murder, friend, lover (?)- staying in his fine (and by fine, i mean gay well put together very nice fine) apartment. being the generous friend, he gave robyn and i the bed. i assume this was so he could check fantasy baseball (wink wink) late into the evening without being disturbed.
dan was a fantastic host. he took me out the first night to a couple hot spots in wicker park where we drank beer and listened to jazz in bars that still allowed smoking and cargo pants. it was nice talking with dan. i have a lot of friends but dan is my favorite. he is my best friend and i would kill for him. i would. i'm not joking. he is the michael collins of chicago. he led us into freedom- freedom being beers by wrigleyville, delicious sandwiches and dogs, giant reflective orbs, beers, and awesome conversation about life, womens, baseballs, and life.
on the way to the airport robyn barfed for the first time on the trip. it was a fitting end to a great beginning a beginning that would eventually turn into the middle... before coroding into THE MUTHAHUMPIN END!!!
london 6.26-6.27:
queen's choice food: fries
queen's nasty ass food: everything else but candy
queen's drink: mineral water
queen's rock: village green preservation society by the kinky kinks
london was a pretty beautiful city. we arrived to horn fanfare (yes, there were flags at the ends of the horns) and jewels from the queen. actually it was a man who called himself a queen, but i figured it was close enough (though i'm not sure what to do with his jewels-- HOOAH!). anyhow, we ended up walking like eight or nine miles because we couldn't figure out how to use the british transit system. had we'd realized the tube stop was five feet from our hotel we would've saved ourselves at least two blisters and one cranky fetus.
our hotel was very nice. the indians who ran it made me think of home (because we too have indians running our hotels). anyhow, london was awesome because we saw a play (which we were late to), because hyde park was nice for running, because it was very beautiful and it reminded me of harry potterland, and because it was foriegn. london sucked; however, because of the exchange rate. when i was a child i used to ask my mother how much i was worth in terms of monetary value. she would always assure me that i was more precious than silver or gold- like jesus. i've since come to realize; however, that after visiting london i'm worth about half a brit.
rome 6.28-7.3:
nero's dish: fine cheese and sweet meats
nero's goblet: peroni
nero's song: when i paint my masterpiece by b. dillin
rome. beautiful rome. though it may have looked like tiajuana, it felt like ... well it felt at least like ensenada. actually, rome was by far my favorite city of the trip. italy in general was pretty cool, but rome was the one place i would move to tomorrow (tomorrow being the day i have to return to reality, so it would actually be pretty nice if things lined up).
our trip to rome started with another crappy travel day. we flew ryan air- a cheap but inconvenient airline that runs all over europe. though the price was awesome, it would have been beneficial to figure out our travel routes prior to landing in each city. anyhow, as i said, rome was beautiful- i'd give anything to have some job that would give me either the time or money to work from the spanish steps a couple times a year.
what was rome? rome was, as i learned, a great place for christians. being a christian, i loved checking out awesome christian sites such as the coliseum, the forum, the spanish steps, and the appian way (the site of this year's WOW festival). all things considered, i loved rome the most and would place it firmly behind los angeles and hawaii as my third favorite place to be in existence.
gay pairee 7.4-7.6:
gay song: perfect day by louis reed
drink: hot milk
paris was cut short because some silly terror man decided to blow up rome. this turned out to be a good thing because we were able to visit a beautiful roman lakeside village. this turned out to be a bad thing, though, because we missed some gay pairee.
the first day, the hotel said we had canceled our trip, so we stayed in the lobby for a while doing nothing and worrying. once everything got figured out, we rested and headed out for the e. tower. the magnificent structure was really very inspiring to me. i was quite intruiged by it and plan on building one myself when i get back.
the next day, we went to napolean's tomb and participated in a very exclusive masonic ritual wherein we ate napolean's hair. it cost us one million zillion euros but it was worth it because we both love napolean so damn much. when the ritual was finished we walked around some war museums and went home to each cheese that smelled like the hill next to stewart hall.
the following day, robyn felt very sick and pregnant (sick because she ate french chow mayne and pregnant because, well, because of the trout swimming in her womb). it was the sixth, which meant it was my birthday, which meant that robyn or no robyn, i was going to treat myself to a birthday crepe, a birthday beers, and the louvre. the birthday crepe and beers ended up being a much more worthwhile investment than the louvre. i went to the louvre, paid my dough, and headed straight to the mona and the venus (getting lost in egypt somewhere along the way). the mona and the venus were comparable to patti smith's horses and that one billy ripken card with the f-word written on his bat. horses is on every top list and everyone name drops it, but if you've ever listened to it, you realize it sounds like the taste of cold nachos. good in theory, but tainted and a bit boring. the venus is similar to billy ripken because the missing arms make it the equivalent to an error card (and not a very good error card because it sucked and was a waste of my damn money).
paris ended the next day after robyn got better and visited notre dame with me. it was lackluster and a little boring compared to rome, but i guess it was good. sort of.
dub.lynn 7.7-7.13:
green music: asstral veeks and nate willet and the mausts.
green movie: michael collins
green beer: guinness, jameson, murphy's, etc.
dublin, our last and final (and the birth of this post) spot, has been very nice. we've stayed with m. and h. kingsley. they, their father, their friends, and their children have been very nice in welcoming us to the beautiful green city and its 800 years of british oppression.
we arrived, rested, slept, and woke. when we woke we put on rain boots and rain coats and headed to the oxegen festival to watch roy seven (sam's band) and nate willet and the mausts rock the irish countryside. the mud was up past our ankles and the rock was good. bands we enjoyed included: daft punk, cwk, the arcade fire, bright eyes, brian wilson, rufus wainwain... and a few others i can't remember. daft p was amazing, cwk made me proud, arcade fire was too hard to see, bright eyes was surprisingly good, and brian wilson was... amazing. honest. though he said a few crazy things, we saw him in a smaller tent and he was really in great form- a far cry from the bridge school performance.
the rest of the trip commenced with a drive to the irish countryside where we ate mussels, slept in beautiful big bed and breakfasts, climbed through abandoned castles, and saw green grass through falling rain.
now it is almost finished, good friend from childhood steven ryan is coming out for drinks and a late night- and after a full day in dublin (though i can't say i'm ready to come back) i am satisfied. good show europe. good show.
