Guiness Time

Sorry for the lack of updates. We are in Ireland now. We thought we were leaving London today but realized our sense of time is terrible and we actually got here yesterday. Thus the lack of connectivity. I promise to post pictures from London (and Dublin) tomorrow. For now, here's the quick rundown of the end of our London time.

Things we did:

Went to Camden markets, home to everything from Goth t-shirts to corsets to giant horse statues. I bought tights and some Indian food.

Did the Camden pub crawl with our friends from Norway. It was not that good since there were not many free drinks and the last bar closed at 1. Although that might have been a blessing in disguise since we had to hop on the ferry the next day.

Blessed the ears of everyone in the Green Man by not singing karaoke.

Heard the worst karaoke I have ever been tortured with, provided by a tiny tone-deaf woman with literally no sense of musical timing.

Watched Michelle have her fortune told by a wasted Welsh lady. Apparently her life is going to be terribly boring.

Visited Platform 9 3/4. We got mixed up because King's Cross is under construction but we teamed up with some equally confused girls from Frankfurt and approached a station worker who said "Platform 9 3/4?" Before we even had the chance to open our mouths. It was amazing!

Got our nails done. I had an awesome pedicure that made my feet feel and look great. Michelle had a bad manicure that made her hands look like they were painted by Barbie. She is currently on a quest for nail polish remover.

Watch the changing of the gaurds which was terribly crowded and boring. Michelle loved it so maybe I was just being a hungry grump.

Things we did not do that we meant to do:

Marry Prince Harry.

Meet any members of the cast of Harry Potter.

Go look at Tower Bridge or the Tower of London.

Pretty successful I think.

We had to take two trains and a ferry to get to Dublin yesterday. The ferry was really swank. It looked like a casino and had a little theater which showed Tangled (first time I've seen it and it is great). Of course, we forgot to write down the name of our hostel much less where it was so we spent an hour wandering around trying to find wifi. We finally found an internet cafe. It was closing but I did some crazy/desperate rambling and made some crazy/desperate eyes and the guy let us use the computer to find our way.

So far Dublin is lovely! We missed our walking tour today because they moved the time up and we didn't know so we wandered around. It started out looking rainy but turned out to be nice. We saw some old cathedrals and ate French Fries outside a pub so we could hear the music (we'll go in eventually, we are just trying to get the lay of the land). We meant to do a pub crawl tonight but we napped to long so we are doing it tomorrow.

More plus pictures tomorrow!

Hipster Markets and "Art"

Sunday, at the suggestion of one of Green Man's esteemed bar tenders, we headed to Brick Lanes Market. Unsure of what to expect, we walked a ways down the a road chock full of Indian restaurants before hitting the brewery-turned-market that seemed to be the first stop of many in this particular destination. All together, the 2-3 block series of indoor and outdoor booths sell vintage clothes, handmade jewelry, screen printed onesies, and pretty much anything else you can image. Especially if what else you can imagine is food. They had every type of food you can imagine. Seriously, pick a country at random and, as long as you didn't pick the US or Antarctica, that country's cusine was represented. We saw Mexican, Spanish, Brazilian, Ethiopian, Mongolian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, and more. After wandering through the booths of clothes and jewelry to work up an appetite, we went for Ethiopian and it was amazing! In fact the only drawback to the market was how extremely full of the extremely hip it was. Even dressed in my new fashion-y get up known as "shorts with tights," I felt out of place in a land full of red lipstick, extreme accessorizing, and see through shirts. Still it was a very good afternoon.
After an uneventful evening, we woke up Monday morning and headed to the Tate, the big modern art museum here in London. Full disclosure: I like museums. I might not be a person who intently studies each and every piece but I like wandering through and checking out the stuff that catches my eye. However, at museums like the Tate there some pieces that I just don't buy as art. You might find the mirror mounted on canvas and hung in a gallery to be an insightful look at the relationship between art and reality but I think it is bullshit. Looking at myself in the mirror is not art, it is a reminder that I need to shower. Anyway, other than the mirror and some other exceedly dumb "art" (sculpture made of a broom and some toilet plungers anyone?) it was a good museum and I was glad we checked it out.
Not sure what we're up to today but I have to go buy a toothbrush because I dropped mine in the radiator.

London

Made it to London yesterday. The trip wasn't too bad although we did end up with a long wait in Brussels.

Thursday, our last day in Amstdam, we went to the Van Gogh museum. I thought it was more interesting than a lot of museums that just have a bunch of painting of people and Jesus because the work was set in chronologically and there were descriptions tying the paintings in with his life and what his influences were. Later, I went to the Anne Frank house, which was obviously really sad. It was weird to be in that space and know all the things that happened there although the annex was actually bigger than I thought it would be. I don't think anything would be big enough if you were stuck there though. At night we went to the Red Light district because "when in Amsterdam" and whatnot. It was bizarre, especially to see the guys who were there to "shop," not just look around like us.

We got into London around 2 yesterday and found our hostel pretty easily. The rooms are on the top two floors over the Green Man pub. The pub is nice and its open 24/7 for anyone staying at the hostel. They serve pizza any time and have cheap pints during happy hour. We mostly hung out yesterday, trying to get our bearings and meeting some other people from the hostel. We met some nice people in the pub but there were also a lot of creeps. One guy sat down beside me, gave me a mysterious piece of fruit (was it an apple? A pear? I have no idea, I didn't eat it) and started muttering about how unsafe America is because of black people. At this point I made serious crazy eyes at one of the bar tenders, who had offered to kick him out earlier, and he came over and told him to leave me alone.

Today we did another free walking tour. We were running late because our metro stop was closed and we had to find another one, so by the time we got to the meeting point the groups had already split up and left. We slipped into one of the groups and were very proud of our sneaking abilities until we ralized that the tour we had joined was in Spanish. We don't really speak enough Spanish for that so we slipped back out, found the other group, and joined them instead. It was a good tour and we saw Buckingham palace, parliment, and Westminster Abbey. Afterwards, the guide showed us to a traditional English pub and I got some fish and chips, so now I can say I had British food.

Tonight is kareoke at the Green Man. So that should be interesting. More on that later!

One of the guards at Prince Carles' house.

Our hostel/pub.

Pretending to be a gaurd.

Buckingham Palace

So many bikes!

It's our last day in Amsterdsm and I realized I haven't posted anything since our first day. So here's the overview of the last couple of days:

Tuesday we did a free walking tour though the same company that did the one in Paris. Our guide was really good, an Aussie who moved to Amsterdam for a girl, and we learned a lot about the history of the Netherlands and Amsterdam. What we learned is basically that they are very tolerant and really like money. Mostly you can do whatever you want as long as you are discreet and it doesn't hurt anyone. The reason weed is "legal" (it isn't actually, they just don't punish people for it) is that they decided it was more important to channel resources into fighting the war on heroin, which used to be a big problem here. Seems logical to me.

After the tour we did some shopping. We discovered in Paris that we aren't really prepared for cool weather, so we were looking jackets and tights to keep us warm. I picked up some tights but was otherwise unsuccessful. We tried to find a groceey store but everything closes at like 6 here so we grabbed a falafel and then headed to Vondelpark. During the 60s, Vondelpark was the site of a huge tent city full of hippies. My dad used to live there so I thought we should check it out. It's a really nice park, full of playgrounds and exercise classes instead of hippies, and we had a nice time wandering around.

Yesterday, we bought bikes and saw Amsterdam the way it is meant to be seen. Everyone bikes here and its definitely the easiest way to get around. The only thing that trumps bikes here are Vespas, which seem to rule the roads in all the places we've visited so far. We went a flea market where I finally got a jacket. We got awesome bagel sandwiches before heading to one of the closest windmills, which now happens to be a brewery. It wasn't open yet, so we road along the canal and back around Vondelpark. The beer, when we finally got it, was good and it was fun to get something brewed locally.

Last night we did a pub crawl. Lots of bars and dancing! It was fun but probably not the best so far. It was a little too big and since we went in not knowing anyone it was hard to meet people. Still it was a good night.

Heading to the Van Gogh museum today. We have our tickets already, so all we have to do today is check out whatever we've missed so far.

Bikes are everywhere here, but you have to be careful to lock your bike up. Not only can it be stolen, a drunk person might come along and throw it in the canal. Whoever tried to throw this bike in must have been extra drunk because they did not notice that the bike was actually locked. 

A typical canal, lined with boats and tall, skinny houses.

On my bike in front of the windmill brewery.

People lying about in Vondelpark.

Amsterdam

This morning, we were up bright and early to catch our train to Amsterdam. Between the easy ticket purchase and how quickly we managed to get ready in time I was worried things were going too smoothly. Apparently the universe agreed. We had to take an RER train out to the station. RER lines are like the metro lines but they take you out of the center of the city and into other zones. We took the RER line to Versailles so we knew you needed a different ticket but the woman who helped us get our tickets for Amsterdam said we could use regular metro tickets (not her fault, by the way, I think there was a bit of a language gap). When we switched from regular metro to the RER line our passes worked fine so we thought we were okay. Wrong. When we tried our passes to leave the metro station they didn't work. And then the SCNF gaurds let us through and then fined us 25 euro a piece. Not even our (genuine) confused tourist faces could get us out of it.

After that terrific start to the day, our trip was rather uneventful. We reached Amsterdam around 3 and were greated by cold rain. I really need to buy a jacket. After the initial coldness of it all, we discovered that Amsterdam is actually really cute, even when it's gloomy out. We checked into our hotel and did some wandering before getting delicious Indian food at last.

Tomorrow we are going to check out the city via another free walking tour. I promise to have pictures in the next day or so but now its time for a much needed shower!

Au Revoir Paris!

Just a quick post on our last night in Paris! Sorry there are no picures. My camera is all packed.

Yesterday we went to Versailles. Since there are no pictures, I will just tell to imagine how fancy and super decorated it is and then triple it. It was nice but probably not worth the mass amounts of money we paid or the long train ride. The crowds in the palace were insane and made it all feel really rushed and claustrophobic. It was cool to see the art and the places where they escaped when the palace was raided during the French Revolution.

The plan last night was to go on a pub crawl with Emma and Lydia, a couple of the girls we hung out with on Bastille Day. After a long day of wandering around Versailles in the cold my cough was pretty bad and I was really worn out so I decided to skip it and sent Michelle on to party for the both of us. I was bummed but Cat Deeley (who is awesome) and the dancers of So You Think You Can Dance kept me company until I took some cough syrup with codine and passed out.

Today we were supposed to meet Emma and Lydia in Montmatre for lunch and then go to d'Orsay, an Impressionist museum. As you could probably, guess things did not go as planned. Let's face it they never do. Emma and Lydia didn't show up (we guessed that either we mixed up the times or they overslept). We wandered around the area looking for something to eat and were momentarily over joyed at the sight of Cafe Indiana, which we thought might have Indian food. Imagine our disappointment when we discovered it served Native American food. That's not even a thing. The menu appeared to consist mostly of quesadillas. We settled on Thai, where I got sushi and some sort of weird curried vegetables. After lunch we continued to wander. Most of the stores were closed but I bought some flats, which is good because I needed closed toes shoes I can go out in. The area was really cool so we ended up skipping the museum and just walked around a bunch. I think we both needed a more relaed day and there is supposed to be a lot of good Impressionist art at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Somehow we accidentally wandered back to our neighborhood and headed home for dinner (tomato and cheese sandwiches, how new).

We thought we would have to spend our entire evening at the train station getting tickets for tomorrow but it went remarkably fast, so we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower to see the light shows they do at night. We got there at 8:30 and the first show isn't until 10 so we did some more wandering and hit up some souviner shops, mostly to keep warm. Of course everything is covered in the Eiffel Tower. There was even a cow shaped like the Eiffel Tower for some reason. We did see a light show, although it was less of a show and more a bunch of lights blinking really fast. I was sort of underwhelmed.

That's all from Paris! I'll be back when we hit Amsterdam where we are going to the Heinekin museum. Apparently they have a ride that demonstrates what is like to be a Heinekin (or something). Pretty excited to become a beer!

Bastille Day Blunders and Other Parisian Adventures

Going to make this quick because I'm still battling a cold I picked up during the first week of the trip and that means it's bed time.

Yesterday morning we did (yet another) free walking tour. Our guide was from Philly and it was weird to hear such a familiar accent explaining the sights and history of Paris. We started in the Latin quarter and saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and a lot of the Seine. It was a good tour that helped us get a feel for the city and brush up on our French history. Since it was Bastille Day we decided to check out the fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. Some girls from the tour invited us to watch with them at the top of Montmarte. We were hoping to miss the crowds, but the hill was still pretty crowded. We had a picnic of bread, cheese, and wine as we waited on the hillside for the fireworks to start. Fortunately there was a lot to keep us entertained, including bongo players and a guy who balanced a soccer ball on various part of his body while climbing light posts and stuff. Unfortunately, a large tree entirely blocked our view of the fireworks. Weird that half of Paris seemed to also make that mistake. Still, it was a fun way to celebrate Bastille Day.

Today we went to the Eiffel Tower, promptly decided that the crowds were more than we could handle, and spent the rest of the time leading to 6 wandering up the Seine. We were waiting for 6 because after 6 on Fridays the Louvre is free to anyone under twenty-six and we wanted to take advantage of this policy. We walked and sat and stumbled on a random carnival right outside the Lourve (is it always there or was it just for Bastille Day? We may never know) which we wandered around. Then we spent a couple of hours in the Louvre checking out the Winged Nike (my all-time favorite statue), the Mona Lisa (and its massive following), and the rest of the massive collection. Even though it was the Louvre, I somehow didn't expect to recognize so many of the paintings and sculptures and was surprised when I kept having Art History flashbacks.

Tomorrow we check out Versailles! More later!

Sun setting over Paris.

Mona Lisa and her groupies.

The Eiffel Tower. Obviously.

Bastille Day picnic. The building behund us is Sacre-Coeur Basillica.

In front of the Lourve.