Ireland! 9-13—9-21-2017

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Last year I had gotten pretty depressed about life in general, and one of the things that was a sticking point for me was that I hadn’t been overseas since London in 2011. I needed to go overseas again. J has no interest in Europe, he thinks it’s going to be dirty, and he says there are plenty of things still to see in our own country. True, but I have a need. So I said I was going overseas this year, no matter what, alone or together, I was going. And I wanted to go to Ireland. Since he won’t “let me” go on my own, he said he’d go. He ended up inviting his sister Jessica, her boyfriend Pat, and their mom Gail as well. I wasn’t sure how things were going to go, only because I don’t feel that I do well traveling in a group. Though I am of the philosophy that groups can break up, and can do whatever they want, if there is something they want to do that others don’t. So I was prepared to do several things on my own, but again J does not share that philosophy and insisted that we do things together. Ok fine, but that just means everyone is probably going to do a lot of things they don’t want to please the group. In the months leading up to the trip we discussed all the different things we wanted to do, and made a tentative itinerary that would take us from Dublin, north, then down the west side toward Shannon.

Flight + Day 1: Our flights were uneventful, though a little delayed leaving JFK, so we landed in Dublin a little later than scheduled, and Jess and Pat were waiting for us at the airport. We couldn’t check into our Air BnB until 8am, so we stayed at the airport, had some breakfast, and grabbed a cab to our place. First stop after getting our stuff together – the Guinness Store House. Nothing like a Guinness at 9am! The Storehouse was really cool, though maybe a bit pricey. They have a multi story museum about the history and creation of Guinness, including how it’s brewed, their historic advertising, and other info. Included with the ticket is a tasting in tiny little Guinness glasses, and a free pint which you can either use in their special bar where you learn how to pull a pint properly, or at their top floor Gravity bar, which has a great 360 view of Dublin. We chose our pint at the Gravity bar, and it really did taste better than a Guinness at home!

By the time we finished our pints, and checking out the view, it was lunch time, so we grabbed our first real meal at a pub called Arthur’s. It was near by our place, which was in the Liberties neighborhood. I had a corned beef sandwich, which was tasty, though I thought I had read that you really wouldn’t find corned beef in Ireland. With the early morning flights, and the time change which was especially hard on me and J because of our work schedules, we took naps in the afternoon. Jess and Pat had reservations at a fancy 2 Michelin star restaurant, but before that, we all went to meet up with an old friend of Pat’s at The Brazen Head pub, supposedly the oldest pub in Ireland at 1198. That makes it older than the pub we went to in England in 1996, which was 1400 something, pre-Columbian. His friend was someone from college, not an Irish woman, but she lived in Dublin for several years and had a lot of good info to share about places to go. They went off to their dinner, and J, Gail and I wandered over to the Temple Bar area, and to the Temple Bar itself. It was paaacked. Too packed for me, plus I didn’t really want to drink because I was still jet lagged, so I kept leaving them there and going to wander the neighborhood. I never got down to The Clarence, Bono and The Edge’s hotel, but I saw a good deal of the area, and crossed over the Ha’Penny Bridge to the North side of the river, where I ended up getting some amazing falafel because I was starving. Back and forth from the Temple Bar and the street, J was finally convinced to go to one of the many other pubs in the area, the Norseman, with the 2 young Belgians they had met at the bar. This one was more comfortable for me, because it wasn’t so crowded, and we managed to get a table where we could relax. Had a drink there before walking back to our place.

Day 2: Wandered around our neighborhood a little bit while everyone got ready to start the day. Went through the nearby market, which was really like a flea market, with a lot of junk and shoes and knock off Chinese crap for sale. Not super exciting (definitely not a food market). For breakfast we got the traditional Irish Breakfast at a pub nearby – 2 sausages, an egg, 2 pieces of bacon (really, slices of ham), mushrooms, beans, toast and pudding – not dessert pudding, but another kind of sausage, and it was probably blood sausage. It was delicious. Next on the list was Trinity College, specifically the Library and Book of Kells. I was only interested in the library but it’s all one ticket, so we got to go through the Kells display anyway. The library is gorgeous. And the smell of old books, lovely. After that was one of the things I planned to do on my own, the Little Museum of Dublin, specifically for their U2 exhibit. But everyone went, and it  was actually pretty neat. It’s in a small house, 3 floors, and you get a 40 minute “tour” with your ticket – a guide who talks about the history of Dublin. The first floor was an exhibit on the history of pubs, the 2nd floor was history of Dublin itself through the last 200 years, and the 3rd floor was U2. The guide’s talk was fun and informative, and the U2 stuff was great (even for the others). Lots of photos of the early days, plus a pictoral time line of the band’s history and achievements. There was a full size statue of MacPhisto (!) and half a ZooTV trabbie you could pose with. Finishing there, we went to the National Museum of Archaeology, specifically for Jess to see the bog bodies exhibit. Super cool, how these bodies were preserved, so preserved that scientists could tell what their last meal was. That’s CSI shit! There were all kinds of other exhibits but we didn’t spend that much time looking at the rest of the place. Checked out some Egyptian mummies, some info on the Passage tombs, and early feudal Ireland etc.

After all the museums we were pretty hungry. We tried to go to a few places, but it was a weird time where many of them weren’t selling food because it was before dinner. We ended up at a place called 37 Dawson street, and it was great that we did. It was a super funky place, with all kinds of colorful furniture, art, taxidermy, more art, and more awesomeness. The food was good, I had a decent bloody mary. Pat left us to go nap, and we checked out a whiskey store and a tea shop before heading back. On the walk back to the house after, we went by St Patrick’s cathedral, which wasn’t open, but the park was. Pretty church. It started to rain (really, we had good luck, it had really only sprinkled, and for short times) which provided a nice rainbow. Back at the house, J napped too, and us girls just hung out. I had a headache, and none of us felt like going out again so when the boys woke up, they went out for some drinks while we stayed home and went to bed.

Day 3: We picked up the rental car, packed it up and headed out of Dublin. Pat took the wheel for the beginning, I was a little scared of driving in the city, and yes, we almost got in an accident immediately upon leaving our rental. He forgot to look right first, and yep, there was a car. haha. We grabbed some lunch to go and headed out to Newgrange – the megalithic passage tombs. Jess was nervous that we wouldn’t get in, as they only allow 750 in per day (or on Saturdays, not sure), but we made it there in time to get into both Knowth and Newgrange. Knowth was up first, and they bus you over to the site where a guide waits to walk the group around and explain the site. Knowth is the bigger of the tombs in that area, but you are not allowed inside, as it’s basically a crawl space. Around the main mound were several smaller mounds, which was neat because the other site doesn’t have those. They also have stairs leading to the top of the main mound which give a great view of the complex and countryside. After Knowth they bus the group to Newgrange, where again a guide explains the site and this time you get to go inside. Newgrange was built perfectly aligned to the sunrise on the winter solstice, they do a lottery for a chance to experience it, but for those who never will, they reproduce the effect while you are inside the tomb, and it was super cool. These are the oldest structures you’ll ever see, as they pre-date the Pyramids and Stonehenge. It’s incredible to see what these early humans achieved without any modern equipment and knowledge. The Knowth tomb was excavated and recreated, but the interior of Newgrange was completely intact and needed no restoration. Awesome, in the true sense of the word. There was another passage tomb we were going to go to, about an hour away, that was not as touristy, and you have to get a key from a pub to let yourself in, but we weren’t going to have time to get there before said pub closed 🙁 So instead we headed the rest of the way to Belfast for the night. Another AirBnb, which was a quick walk to an area of shops and pubs. We went to check out the Crown Liquor Saloon, a pub I had seen online that looked amazing – super opulently decorated, with little snugs (walled in booths with a little door for privacy) which we managed to snag when a group of young girls were leaving and I was standing closest to the door haha. We had some drinks there before moving onto another pub I had mapped, Muriel’s. We were hungry but were too late for food, so after a few cocktails there, we ended up at a brick oven pizza place which was delicious.

Day 4: One of the things I wanted to do in Belfast was the Black Cab Tour, which takes you around the city, giving the history of The Troubles – the conflict between republicans and loyalists/protestants and catholics. While planning the trip I never realized that this was something you had to book in advance. Bus tours I was looking at for Giant’s Causeway all mentioned stopping in Belfast for a few hours, where you could get one of these tours, so I assumed there was a location to go to to catch one of these cabs, but nope. Several companies run the tours, but you have to book it in advance, and after a few calls we were able to book one…but not until 2pm. It was later than we had intended to take it, but there was a marathon that morning which impacted availability. So we went to brunch at a place called The National. Good food, but I was unable to have a bloody mary because it was before noon. Blah. We still had some time to kill after we ate, but J wanted to stay at the restaurant and keep drinking. I had no interest in wasting my time, not seeing the area we were in so Jess stayed with him at the restaurant, and Gail, Pat and I left to wander the neighborhood. We went by St Anne’s Cathedral (but it was mass), and 2 other churches (one abandoned!), went back toward the restaurant a different way, and found the cute, trendy “cathedral quarter” area, full of more pubs and street art. Found a neat bar called the Harp, retrieved the others and had a drink there before going back to the rental to catch the cab tour.

Only he was late…45 minutes late. J was annoyed and ready to give up right when he showed up. The tour was about 2 hours, and takes you to all the major memorials, street art and murals, the peace wall, etc. It’s really quite sad and supposedly, depending on who you have driving the cab, you’ll get a different perspective due to their own personal opinions. Our driver was former IRA, and you could tell where his loyalties lie, but it still seemed like a fair tour, not too one sided. It was interesting, as I don’t remember anything about it really, I was too young. Since the tour started late, we were still in town much later than anticipated and we needed food before leaving town. We happened to be near Crown again, so we went there for dinner. Bad idea, as they were short staffed, and it took forever. Jess was on edge because our car was still at the rental, which wasn’t ours anymore. Finally we were able to get served and eat, and headed out of town. The original plan was to try to get to Giant’s Causeway for sunset, but we also wanted to stop at the Dark Hedges along the way. We got to Dark Hedges right at golden hour which was great. So pretty! We thought we were the only ones there, as when we parked at the little lot, we were the only car. Turns out everyone else was parked at the other end, boo. And the street under the trees is still used, so cars went through fairly often. No matter, it was super cool. After, Pat raced (did I say he drives like a maniac? He does.) toward the causeway to get there in time, and it was a bit scary at times…racing too fast down these super narrow roads surrounded by stone walls on each side, with blind curves. J ended up yelling to slow down, just saying what we were all thinking. And we didn’t make it in the end, but that was ok. We checked into Carnside Guest House for the night, ran into Bushmills for dinner at the Bushmills Inn, then an early night.

Day 5: So I had suggested Carnside because of some blog I had found online that stated it was the closest hotel to the Causeway, a 5 min walk…welllll that wasn’t quite accurate. There was a hotel practically on top of the causeway, where all the trails begin. And our place MAYBE could have been a 5 minute walk to the Causeway visitor center and parking, but from there, the trails begin and it’s still a bit of a walk to the actual Causeway. Google said it was a 45 min walk from Carnside. BUT!! Turns out it’s a working farm with 200+ cows, and a “fun farm” petting zoo type place with goats!! Awesome. So I had the idea to get up and walk over for sunrise, and I figured I’d go alone or with Jess since she is also a photographer, but everyone wanted to go. When we realized it really wasn’t going to be walkable, we drove over to the visitor center and walked from there, around 7 am. And while the sunrise is not as nice as sunset, it was still going to be great to be the only people there. Until we weren’t. Arg! There was a film crew there working with a drone, for what turned out to ultimately be a video about an Irishman who had cancer who now runs marathons. For a while they were just doing test runs but told us when they were ready to film they’d need us to huddle out of the way, which was fine. Besides them, we were the only people there which was nice. The Causeway was gorgeous, unlike anything I’ve seen before. That said, it was also a bit of a let down because it was a far smaller area than I had thought it was going to be. Jess felt the same. We walked over the pillars for a while, lots of photos taken, before the film crew needed us to move. It wasn’t a long shoot, we just hid behind some very big pillars, and it was ok. Walked around the other side of those pillars, taking more photos. It was great.

Back to the hotel I checked out the farm situation. The fun farm has a room of small animals, mostly rabbits and guinea pigs. Then you can keep going to a bar in the back. The door was locked, even though signs said it was open, so I snuck through a bigger barn door and GOATS! And chickens, and baby cows, and deer. They were all in pens, but not like, veal pens. I felt sorta bad though, there is so much land to let them out on. I’m going to tell myself that they let them out, and it was just early morning so they were still inside from the night before. No one was around to ask. Grabbed some breakfast we managed to acquire even though we were late, then we continued our day with the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. We decided to do that first, before Bushmills Distillery, since whiskey and a rope bridge was probably not a good idea haha. Turns out we played it right as the weather was gorgeous while we were there, and got gloomy and sprinkled while at Bushmills. The rope bridge was fantastic! I was super impressed, partly because I had lower expectations for this than for the Causeway. I really just thought it was a rope bridge, you walked over it, you walked back, done. Turns out there is a whole hike leading up to the bridge, with fantastic scenery, clear blue water as if you were in the Caribbean instead of the North Atlantic. The bridge itself is safe, given that 1000s of people cross it each day, and it leads to an island where fisherman used to cast their nets (and then carry them back across the bridge, which used to really just be A rope). It was beautiful. The bridge didn’t bother me, it was fun! The others were a little bothered by it, but I’m far more bothered by standing near the edge of a cliff, which could fail at any time, or where a misstep will send you over, than this bridge. It was great. Highly recommend it.

We went back into Bushmills to go to the distillery since we hadn’t been able to go to Jameson in Dublin, and J was mad about it. We had perfect timing for the tour which takes you through the whole process from soaking the grains to distilling and bottling. The end of the tour gets you a small tasting, and then a free serving of whatever you like (except the 21 year old whiskey, which was 10#). You could also do just a whiskey tasting of 3 , or a fancier expert tasting which took 45 minutes or something (which J wanted to do, and the rest of us vetoed because we had a 5+ hour drive ahead of us, so he was mad, again). They did taste the 21 year old though, and though I don’t like whiskey I can say it was better than the younger ones.

Leaving there, the plan was to get to one of the passage tombs on the western side of the island, that is less touristy and is not part of any official park or whatever. We started our route there, but as it got later and later, and then when Jess realized it required a 20 minute hike to get there, we decided to skip it. I was driving at this point!! It really wasn’t that difficult to adjust, though I had to look both ways many more times since I was always unsure which way the traffic was coming from first, just to be safe. Anyway…J was highly annoyed and mad about everything at this point. He had been pretty miserable, claiming we didn’t do anything he wanted to do. And he’s not wrong, but the fact of the matter was he planned NONE of the trip. For months ahead of time we asked him to find things he wanted to do, and he didn’t. So we didn’t make special time to make sure he got to go to Jameson, and we didn’t spend every night getting drunk in a pub, and he was pissed about it. He was tired of being in the car with crazy driving Pat (amen) and we had a few more hours to get to Galway. So he sorta freaked out. It was upsetting, but we got to Galway and checked into our AirBnb. Our host was ridiculous! She was waiting for us with bottled water and cake, hugged everyone, super super friendly. We immediately headed out for dinner to the Latin Quarter on Quay street, which was very close by. Everyone was pretty tense and uncomfortable but we ended up at an Italian restaurant, which was nice, and J mellowed out. Afterwards everyone went back to the house, and I went with J to the Kings Head pub, since I knew how mad he was about everything, and I had told him over and over that Galway was where he was going to want to be, for pubs and traditional music etc. There was a band playing in back, and it was crowded in the room, but we found a place at the bar. It devolved into an upsetting discussion about how miserable he was, and blahblahblah. It sucks because this is the exact kind of vacation I want. Seeing as much as I can in a little amount of time, moving from place to place. And he hated it, he hated moving every day, hated all the driving (which I tried to break up so he wouldn’t be in the car so much, which is part of the reason why we ended up moving every day, to avoid 5 hour drives every time we moved). He wants to spend every night in a pub, sleep in, relax. I want to see the world. And this is why he should let me go places without him.

Day 6: Our host made us breakfast! It was not something I realized was going to be included with our stay, but it was really nice. (Crepes!) I had booked us a 5 mile hike from Doolin to the Cliffs of Moher with a local farmer who was well reviewed. Given the tense state of affairs, the fact we’d have to leave very early to get there in time, and the soreness of my legs, I suggested we cancel it. We could still go, but on our own time line. It was decided the best thing would be for J to stay in Galway and not go to Cliffs with us. More driving, more miserable, and it was the right play. The drive was almost 2 hours, narrow roads, hair pin turns, etc. It was rainy when we got there, and yeah, he’d have hated it. He got to stay in town, sit in pubs all day, and he ended up meeting this older Irish lady named Fiona and he had a great time. Good. Vacation redeemed. Back to the Cliffs. Along the way we passed Dunguaire Castle, and since we didn’t have a schedule we decided to stop and check it out. It was surrounded by bogs, very pretty. It wasn’t anything giant, but it was nice. Back on the road, over the Burren – weird bare mountains that look like spirals from space. When we got to the Cliffs it was raining..not pouring, but a whole lot of mist and fog, so our view was interesting, and then got worse, but the rain moved out and the view got clear again. Again, gorgeous. We mainly stayed on the trail around the visitor center, which is not all that far. The hike would have been interesting, but given the weather, I’m glad we canceled. We were having a good time until….well…basically Pat got into a fight with a group of trashy Americans. As in, a literal fists throwing fight. It was stupid and nuts, and Jess was rightfully super upset about it, so that led to a quick exit and a downer on the experience. I drove home, and we stopped at a jam shop and a sweater shop, got some jam and sweaters lol. By the time we got back to Galway, it was dinner time, so we found J at the pub he’d been at with Fiona and grabbed some really good Chinese take away. Hung out there for a while, Gail and I went wandering, and eventually we went to another pub for beer and music. J stayed out later, the rest of us went home for the night. J had a good time, and was happy finally.

Day 7: Our last real day in the country, we wanted to explore Galway, since we hadn’t yet, before heading to the Shannon area for our last night. Our host made us breakfast again (fruit and scones), and we headed out to check out the Latin Quarter in the day light, see the Spanish Arch, and check out the shops. J’s new friend Fiona had invited us to her house on our way to Shannon, so after lunch we took her up on that. She made us scones too haha. Made our way to Bunratty Manor, which was down the street from Bunratty Castle. The castle offered a midieval dinner, but we didn’t know about it until we got to the hotel, and it was sold out. Boo. It would have been a neat thing to do. We walked down to the castle anyway, and though we couldn’t go in, we walked around the park, and grabbed dinner at a pub across the street. Early night in, since we weren’t really near anything else, and we had to leave for the airport in the morning.

Flew home the next day, exhausted, but happy. Even if J hated it, I had a great time, I loved everything we got to see, and I would definitely go back.

Random observations as I remember things:

  • Everything in Belfast was closed Sunday morning until after masses were finished. Aside from the few restaurants offering brunch, other restaurants and shops, all closed.
  • The Irish are really the most friendly people of all the countries I’ve traveled to.
  • I guess I cut the entire line waiting to get into the Trinity Library and Book of Kells. There was a security guard at the door to the gift shop/ticket counter/entrance, and a line of people going away from him. Well, I just walked past him and into the shop. He didn’t stop me, didn’t inquire where I was going, he just looked at me and I walked in. I had intended to just ask a question about the ticket, there were a few people inside in line, so I just got in line behind them, and when I got to the counter and asked my question, I just bought the tickets and went in. I didn’t realize that the library and the book were the same thing, and that the line outside was for the whole thing. I had only read about the book having long lines, and I didn’t care about the book, so I didn’t realize the line was for both. But I don’t feel bad, because the line outside was not long, and it was not going to take a long time for them to go in. Also, Pat had walked into the gift shop and up a set of stairs, which turns out go into the library, all without paying or being stopped. So if you feel like cheating the system, you don’t need to wait in line AND you don’t need to pay. Just go in the gift shop and up the stairs.
  • We all got sick with colds by the end of the trip. Boo.
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Europe 2010 – part 3 – Latvia

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Got into Riga pretty late at night, only to find that I couldn’t get money out of the ATM because I was over limit (inexplicably), and once at the hotel I couldn’t open my luggage because my combination lock suddenly had a new combination. Commence extreme frustration and aggravation, trying to call Samsonite (on hold for $3.00/min no thank you), texting Cassie to try to call them, and google searches – finally I found a page which had email instructions from Samsonite on how to figure out the combination. So I now know how to get by Samsonite combination locks.

Our hotel was in a good location in Riga’s Old Town, which was not quite as nice and quaint as Tallinn, in my opinion. They allow car traffic on all the streets, which is not as nice haha. Again it was alot of walking around to see the area, once I was able to get out money from an ATM we visited St Peter’s church and went up the bell tower for a nice view of the city. Near by was the “House of Blackheads”, which I didn’t realize was a museum, so we only saw outside. Next to that was the Latvian Occupation Museum, which was free but took donations. It was much bigger and well done than I was expecting for free. It was pretty moving, as I didn’t realize how badly the Baltic states were treated by the Soviets, and Nazis, and then Soviets again. And it’s hard to imagine it all, being an American and in no danger of being invaded and occupied by another country (although if Canada decided to get greedy, I’d probably be in trouble here in WNY haha).

Grabbed a cab and went to the Riga Motor Museum, which has a pretty decent collection of Soviet made cars, or Soviet used cars (like cars given to Soviets from foreign diplomats like Nixon), including Stalin’s limo, and Breshnev’s crashed Rolls Royce. I don’t know alot about cars, but it was interesting to see. There were wax statues of Stalin and Breshnev in their cars, and I think Khruschev.

That night we got some dinner, hung around a bit, and then headed out for some drinks. Riga has gotten a bad reputation as being full of bars that will scam tourists. There was a list on wikitravel, and on the US Embassy’s website, and again in the “what to do” books we picked up so we had a list to check against to be safe. I had wanted to go to Leningrad, which was Soviet themed, and looked cool from reviews and their website – but was not what was expected so we didn’t even go in. Instead we went to the Transilvania Horror Rock Cafe, which we had found earlier in the day, and is apparently owned by Marilyn Manson’s drummer, Umberto Ferri (but I don’t know who he is). It was a goth-y bar, as expected, with open coffins with skeletons inside for tables, church-y looking furniture, and scary decorations. We tried the national drink, Riga Black Balsam, which is an herbal liquor, very strong and interesting, but I didn’t think it was that bad. We moved on from there, trying to find a few other bars, and bars with people in them, but again, we were out on a Tuesday…no one else was. So the final stop was at Mad House, with only a few others, and then we turned in.

Our 2nd day we pretty much only saw the Zoo. It was small as expected, but it’s always interesting to see animals other than cats and dogs. Grabbed lunch at a place next to the zoo, which turned out to be a pizzeria, then back to hang out before dinner. Spent the night in, since I had to get up at 4am to go to the airport and go home. I had thought about going to a KHL game, the Riga Dinamo were playing, but I couldn’t find out how to get tickets, or the costs (I didn’t want to scalp, surefire way to get screwed), and the timing didn’t work out in the end. Ah well. Next time haha.

All that was left was the long route home, Riga to Berlin (where again, I had passport issues – my passport was stamped in Riga, arriving from Kiev, but not when arriving or leaving Tallinn, and not when arriving in Riga from Tallinn, or leaving Riga to Berlin, and again not stamped when arriving in Berlin. So when in line to check in for my flight to Newark, the lady is looking for the Berlin stamp, and I came out and told her, I came from Riga and no one asked to see it or stamp it…she had a weird reaction to that and I’m just like, this is YOUR airport, you should know what is going on, but she didn’t make a big deal of it after that. Then I had luggage issues, as in Riga they routed my bag right to Newark, and Berlin didn’t like that and rerouted it to Buffalo, but had to go find my bag and retag it, so I was fully expecting it not to show up), Berlin to Newark and Newark to Buffalo. I had a bottle of fanta in my bag from Riga, which I had to get rid of in a bomb proof container, and then get explosive residue tested (where I suddenly got nervous that they could tell I was radioactive haha), but I was clean, duh. 9 hour flight to Newark, cleared customs, but was delayed going home so the layover was about 4 hours.

Home again, unpacking to find my shampoo exploded, and my souvenir for Aunt Carol broke (souvenir bummer #3). It was a great and smooth trip, with no real problems. I have probably 7gb of photos to go through, yikes!!! That’s gonna take a while 🙂 I think I covered everything, had fun but glad to be home with kitty in my comfy bed again.

Riga Photos

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Europe 2010 – part 2 – Estonia

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We flew to Tallinn, through Riga, and after getting a taxi with a friendly and funny driver, checked into the hotel in Old Town, and headed out to the DM baar. Yes a bar dedicated to Depeche Mode. It is unfortunate that we were always going out on weeknights, it being Sunday we were the only people there. No matter, the bar was super cool, playing only DM videos, with photos and information on the walls, and of course, drinks named after DM songs. I had a “dream on” and of course, “personal jesus”. They had souvenirs for sale including mugs and shirts, but we decided not to buy them at the time, because we didn’t want to carry them around. Left to try to find another place for drinks, but…Sunday…nothing was really open. We got some dinner at a place open late in the main square, and turned in for the night.

Old Town is the medieval center of town, a cute cobblestone area, which was walled in, and full of shops, cafes and touristy stuff. We walked around Old Town, saw the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the Tallinn Photography Museum, bought souvenirs, and caught a cab out to the Holy Birgitta Monastery, a monastery of Scandinavian female saints and a convent. It’s all in ruins, with a cemetery in front. Very cool, but it was cold and rainy, so it would have been better in nice weather. Caught lunch at a “sports bar” near by, which was the least sports bar-y sports bar ever. Aside from the KHL game on tvs, and photos of sports on the walls, it was a super classy looking place with a big diverse menu. Not your usual chicken wings and fried food things. Wandered around Old Town more before catching dinner at the garlic restaurant, and then went to the DM bar again to get souvenirs…only to find them closed. They were supposed to be open noon to 4am, but no luck. So no DM mugs for Adr2 and Bliss (souvenier bummer #2).

Then it was off to the airport and back to Riga to finish the trip.

Tallinn was nice despite cold and rainy weather. The main city was quite modern and building up and nice looking, and the Old Town was inviting and charming. It had a good mix of new and old, everyone seemed friendly (and spoke english). I enjoyed it.

Tallinn Photos

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Europe 2010 – part 1 – Ukraine

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Here goes….

My flights took me to Ohare, and then Frankfurt before finally Kiev. Uneventful but long, with long layovers in Chicago and Frankfurt. Borispol airport in Kiev is not at all what I expected. I just assumed it was a big modern airport, so when I saw that it had only 2 jetways I was sort of shocked. But an airport is an airport and it works and it does it’s job. Found Dan and Jamie, with our driver from Solo East, Igor, and we were off to our apartment at 22b Mikhailivska St. The apartment was in a pretty good location, up the street from Independence square, the main street of Kiev Kreschatik Street, and St Michael’s church. It was in walking distance of St Andrew’s and St Andrew’s Descent, and St Sophia’s.

Upon arriving and unpacking I discovered my lens was no longer attached to my camera body. 2 pieces of plastic from the lens mount had broken off en route. shiiiiit. So the first night was spent trying to find camera shops or repair shops that would fix it. We weren’t really successful, one place had a lens but it would have cost more than if I got it here. So in the end, we found some super glue and Dan glued the pieces back on. Had to do it twice, but in the end it was a pretty solid repair job, the lens stayed on and worked.

First impressions of Kiev, it’s a massive sprawling city, with a combination of old architecture and depressing Soviet architecture. Like other European cities, instead of crossing major intersections, you go under them, but all of their under intersection walkways contain stores…you can pretty much get anything. Some intersections were “small” and would have just sort of convenience stores, food, drinks, cigarettes, gum, etc. Other ones had practical malls, with furniture stores and souvenirs and anything you would need. Imagine how much nicer American cities would look if our convenience stores and strip malls were underground. The entire underground of Independence Square is a normal mall, with your usual clothes stores and mall stuff. Kinda cool.

2nd day we went off to the Pecherska Lavra, an Orthodox Church monastery. It’s a huuuge place, and we spent most of the afternoon there and didn’t see it all. There are caves which hold old monks, tons of buildings (which we didn’t go in any), and a miniature display that we missed. Very cool place, very pretty. On the way there we walked past and stopped at the Famine memorial, and then after the Lavra continued down the street to the Motherland Statue and War Memorial. By then it was getting dark, so we caught some dinner (I got a drink/shot called a Hiroshima – sambuca, baileys and absinthe…strooooong) and headed back to the apartment. We went out for drinks later, though it was a Wednesday so there weren’t alot of people “out”. The first bar had shots of high end vodka for $9 hryvnia = $1.12!! Score. Stopped at 2 other places, and Jamie had terrible luck at drinks – he ordered a mojito at the first place which had no alcohol in it, and at the 3rd he tried to order a Tornado, which was similar to the Hiroshima, and then never got the drink…I had ordered some food, so when bringing the food we assumed they’d bring his drink, only they brought him a big silver platter…containing food. Beef tournado’s LOL. The perils of language difficulties.

The next 3 days were spent in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town of Chernobyl has about 250 residents, mostly military I think, and you need permission to be there. Visitors are only allowed to go around with a military guide, so when we were in town and not on the “tour” we were pretty much confined to the hotel, or walking to the military building for our meals. The drive to town was about 2 hours, and we began with lunch before heading out to see the actual power plant. We had our military guide, Vladimir, who didn’t speak english, and our tour guide, Sergei from Solo East who did, so it went well. The plant looks really cool and you get pretty close – way closer than you’d get to any plant in the US. You can only point your camera and take pictures of the sarcophagus though, despite the fact the rest of the plant is now decommissioned. Then it was off to the town of Pripyat, which was the closest major town to the plant, and completely evacuated after the accident. Other towns in the area were evacuated and then buried after the accident, but it was decided that burying didn’t really help the spread of radioactivity so they gave it up, and it would probably have been impossible to bury Pripyat with all it’s high rise buildings (some 16 stories).

What can really be said about this? It’s an explorers dream, and when I tried to count all the buildings I could see from the top of the hotel in the main square, I gave up at 40. There is just sooo much, and the tour takes you to the highlights, you don’t even begin to see most of the residential highrises (we climbed to the top of one of them the 2nd day, but it was just to the top and back, no time to see the floors). So the first day I believe we saw…hotel rooftop, bookstore, and hospital. The hospital was huge and sweet, but there is a 4:30 curfew which I didn’t realize, and our guides had gone in to find me haha. In the end, I barely saw any of the main hospital (I guess I had gone into some off wing or even other building haha). We had been told to make a list of what we wanted to revisit for the 3rd day, so that was on the list for sure. I added the bookstore to the list as well, because after we had been there someone mentioned the stack of wrapped postcards still there, which Sergei said I could take. Cassie had asked for a postcard, so I freaked out that I was actually going to have a real postcard to send her from Pripyat!

Second day we started earlier of course, no drive there, and had asked to skip lunch so we had all day (until 4 haha). The first stop was on the water, but I had lagged behind so I don’t know the significance. Then was the music school, which was cool, but again I was rushed out of – I only needed 5 more minutes! We went to the oldest school in town, but we couldn’t go in because one section had collapsed. Bummer too because looking in the windows one classroom had the most amazing, totally sterotypical Soviet propaganda mural. Then a music store, with a bunch of left over pianos, and a 2nd school. Then a very cool athletic center with gym and pool, and climbed the 16 story apartment building to see the view. Next, the amusement park with left over bumper cars, swing type ride, and ferris wheel. After that was another school, which they called a “kindergarten” but was maybe more like American preschool, or perhaps even an orphanage. There were 2 floors, lots of left over toys so it was definitely for young kids (compared to the other school which was clearly a normal school), but there were also rooms of cribs…the cribs make me think orphanage, but I’m not sure a town like that would need such a big orphanage haha. Will have to look up some more history on the town. Sergei had to leave, so he instructed Vladimir to take us to a few other places – the police station and jail, and department store in the main square – before heading back.

By the end of the 2nd day, one plastic piece had broken off the lens. It was still staying on the camera, but it was no longer sitting close enough to the sensors to work super good – lost autofocus to infinity, and sometimes it wouldn’t recognize that the lens was there. Holding it and jiggling it made it usable, so I was able to continue the day and the 3rd day. But after returning to Kiev the camera went away, and I ended up buying a nikon coolpix point and shoot to use for the 2nd week. Lighter and easier to carry for sure haha.

The 3rd day we only had our military guide, a different guy named Evengi maybe? He spoke ok english, good enough! The problem was that he was coming into town from outside, and the bus was late for some reason, so we didn’t get “on the road” until 11 instead of 9. After breakfast Vladmir took us around town to kill time, to the town sign, a park, and to see the harbor with rusted dead boats. When our guide made it, we started by stopping at what he called a “fish factory” near the cooling towers and cooling pool, then a real factory in Pripyat. He was funny, because he said officially the factory made small plastic parts for cassette tape recorders, but unofficially he didn’t know what they did. And it did seem like a rather huge and strange place for just making plastic parts. There were posters about radiation, that didn’t seem like it was just because they were near a plant. Ahh the secretive soviets! We left town and stopped at the bus station, and then train station which was REUSED!!! An abandoned and radioactive town has a train station that was reused into a work shop. Crazy! The last stop was his “secret location” that most tourists don’t see, which was a sort of small vehicle grave yard, and included a derailed train. We then headed back to Chernobyl and home, an hour early 🙁 We didn’t get to go back to the hospital and bookstore and I’M SO BUMMED I COULDN’T GET THE POSTCARD FOR CASSIE!!! GAAAH (souvenir bummer #1).

So my overall impression of the Exclusion zone – clearly awesome from the explorer/photographer perspective. It was great to see, but the work that still needs to be done is overwhelming. The environment and nature is flourishing, they said there are wolves again, wild boars, and a wild horse population (and cats haha), but it all needs to be cleaned up still. I don’t know if/how that will ever happen. It’s beyond me. Pripyat is a dream of course, but I was sort of surprised that it had been scrapped. Sergie explained that under communism you waited in a line for 4 hours to get a toilet – it was so difficult to get what you needed – that despite the contamination and the danger, people went in and took everything (it was not always as secure as it is now). If you expected apartments and buildings to be just as they were left in 1986, they really aren’t. In one sense it is a freeze frame of 1986 but it is not the perfect untouched place you might expect.

Back in Kiev, hung around the apartment, and I took a walk up to St Michael’s and St Sophia’s real quick (it was cold), before Dan and I went out for some food and drinks. We were leaving Kiev for Tallinn in the afternoon, so we went to St Andrew’s (which you can’t go in because it’s being restored) and did some souvenir shopping at the booths along the Descent (cobblestone hill down the side of the church).

So what I saw of Kiev was cool, it was very inexpensive, Chernobyl was clearly awesome, but I did lose my sunglasses somewhere in Pripyiat haha (good thing it was gloomy and rainy most of the trip).

Kiev Photos

Chernobyl Photos

Posted in: International Vacations, Vacations \ Tagged: , , ,

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random list of europe trip observations
1. only 1 hotel had sheets on the bed. the others were just a fitted sheet with a comforter. why don’t europeans use top sheets?
2. with so many dogs they really need pooper scooper laws, dog crap all over is unattractive
3. berlin is amazing but they have a graffiti problem, and not in a good artistic way.
4. berlin was built on a swamp, and does still smell like swamp gas at times
5. james bond movies are pretty terrible. especially in german
6. suicidal squirrels! as seen on german mtv commercials
7. i probably wouldn’t return to london as a tourist any time soon. shows not included.
8. i think i’ve seen all i wanted to in cologne, and would not return soon, shows not included.
9. i would stop by gent if i was near by for a day to see the castle and things i missed
10. i’d stop by brussels for a day if near by, since i really didn’t see much of the place
11. i would not return to amsterdam, shows not included.
12. i’d absolutely return to berlin asap.
13. so far recordings of london 1,3,4 and amsterdam 2 which i’m getting cuz i missed “the fragile” grrr
14. the trains, trams and subways of belgium, amsterdam and berlin i suspect are losing alot of money. you don’t run your ticket through a scanner like in london, or toronto, or NY, you just are expected to buy a ticket and have it in your pocket i guess. and by the end of the trip my conscious didn’t bother me about it anymore and i stopped buying tickets to use the U and S Bahns in berlin. there was also no reason to have bought any train/tram tickets in gent or brussels either. even our side trip to lede on a Belgian train they never looked at our ticket. amazing really.
15. just because i’m skinny does not mean that A. i will move for you at the rail or B. you are allowed to spread out all over your airplane seat and into my personal space
16. belgian waffles are the best food ever. and stroopwafles (sp big time, gotta find out what they’re really called). and aside from that the only “ethnic” native food that i ate during the trip was italian haha
17…Trent’s Berlin2 Speech *couldlistentotrentallday*

18. bikes. bikes everywhere. more bikes than people. i almost got ran over by one that came out of no where in gent. and they’re all old bikes, like my mom rode in the 50s when she was a kid. didn’t see any nice new bikes at all. maybe they all get stolen…
19. the continent seems to not believe in take away beverages. it got tough to find a place with paper cups to take coffee and tea to the queues. especially brussels. or even bottles of water. at one point sue and i bought water from the bar next door in brussels…in glass bottles that the bar tender let us take outside as long as we brought them back…and unlike in the states where there is always a gas station or convenient store to buy bottles at, there were way fewer over there.
20. my uk cell phone bill is 163$ hahahahahahahahah
21. i am tired of airports and museums and looking at my pictures of the Dom
22. oh yeah, on the plane in gatwick, taxing to the runway we pass an airplane with the engine on fire. yeah they have a huge fake plane that randomly starts on fire so firemen can practice putting them out, like the fireman training facilities here. i thought it was pretty neat, but for anyone who didn’t realize it was a fake plane…scary.

things that happened while i was gone
1. voted to remain on the CTRC board and remain secretary
2. voted onto the toke committee at work, and today voted in to be…secretary. hahaha
3. i missed hockey
4. i missed kitty
5. bono has nice short hair now, very pop era. and apparently he was in berlin on sunday LOL and he looks really cute again.

Posted in: International Vacations, Vacations \ Tagged: ,

I return, to the only place….

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Home again. I must say that I’m really sick of airports at this point. Gatwick was annoying, as they wouldn’t let me take 2 bags through security checkpoint. It would have been nice to be told this fact before I checked my suitcase, as I would have put my laptop in it. But no, I had to go and check my bag with my camera in it. Fantastic. That created even more stress than normal when we landed in JFK and waited for baggage. It finally appeared much to my relief. I was already planning out my screaming match with Delta when my camera either didn’t appear, or appeared broken. Phew.

The flight was uneventful and they fed us the entire time. It was like as soon as they picked up the last food and drink they were bringing us more. Peanuts and a drink, then another drink, then dinner with a drink, and another drink, and then ice cream and a drink, then pizza and a drink right before landing. The flight back home was 7.5 hrs, I was glad to have bought a book at Gatwick, seeing as I didn’t sleep on the plane.

JFK was 1000 degrees inside, walking through to baggage pick up, through passport control and customs, then rechecking my suitcase and finding the gate, I was sweating more than at the shows. It was seriously ridiculous. When it’s warm out, turn off the heat. Delta tried to bump me off my flight to Buffalo for a later flight, but I was beyond done with flights and airports and Delta, so no way. I was getting home when I was supposed to.

Mom picked me up at the airport, and I got to see Kitty for a bit before going home. I’m pissed because I left my mom’s Atomium snow globe in a bag I thought only had garbage in it in the London hotel room. Grrrr. Also, the tulip bulbs I bought were not confiscated by the USDA, so at least I had that for her. Of course, I didn’t tell customs about the tulip bulbs hahaha.

Now I’m back to my old habits…wasting time on my computer, procrastinating what needs to be done, like unpacking and sleeping and transferring photos from the laptop to the desktop. Depressed and no motivation. Blah. Home.

The trip is over, and now what? I’ll check in here from time to time, and keep it for the next trip 🙂

Posted in: International Vacations, Vacations \ Tagged: ,

you kant…always get what you want – Berlin shows

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Berlin shows 1&2

Getting to the venue the first day was ridiculous and I don’t even want to get into it. So frustrated and pissed and got there “late” and just…terrible. The show was awesome. PoPo opened instead of Ladytron and they were…interesting. Far more entertaining to watch, but it all seemed somewhat chaotic and off to me. The 2nd show they seemed much more organized and smooth and I liked it better.

Pretty standard set for this leg, with Big Comedown, and the new songs. Was next to Vanessa at the rail in front of Aaron. Didn’t get messed with too much so that was good. Unfortunately during Burn we had a crowd of photographers in front of us. Great show though I can’t really say why and what made it stand out really. It made me really not want to go back home. Trent confirmed the 2nd new album and said they’d be back in Europe again soon, so… that’s nice. Hehe.

After the show a bunch of us went to Hard Rock to celebrate Mandy’s birthday. About 10 minutes after we get there “The Hand That Feeds” video comes on. And we’re all totally retarded staring at it intently as if we’ve never seen it before, and rockin out, as if we hadn’t just heard he song in the show haha.

2nd show I scalped a ticket, and queued all day. It was…interesting. Sue and Kim and I got accosted by this guy on a bike. We were talking and he just appears and in German asks us what kind of music NIN was. So we talk about it, and then he starts speaking basically perfect english – about how we’re Americans without guns. Which led to “hey I didn’t vote for Bush.” And suddenly he’s off for about a half our about how Bush and his cronies planned and carried out 9-11 themselves, how he has all this proof that he collected on the internet and he starts pulling out cds and giving them to us, then asking for a few euro because he was trying to sell them. He just goes on and on about all this governmental conspiracy stuff. Now the strange(r) thing about it was that so much of what he was saying fit into the Year Zero concept. And once we finally got rid of him we started talking about how much of a coincidence it was, and that maybe that was planned to happen. Instead of USBs found in venue bathrooms this guy was part of the Year Zero ARG and maybe these cds he gave us – 3 different ones – are the next step in the game, leading to a new website or song. It just seemed too weird. So I took mine down to the internet cafe and took a look. No it was really just crazy conspiracy theory stuff. However one CD that Kim took was called “Final Solution to A Hitler”…final solution being a song that NIN played sometimes in the summer…and then we’re at the rail before the show, and they play final solution over the speakers…Maybe it is something afterall. Probably not, but just too many coincidences. At least now I have a rather unique souvenir hahaha.

I made the decision to try to change my flight home and stay on the tour through Vienna. Didn’t seem like it was going to work out but I tried, and tried more after the show with no luck. And I didn’t get to hear The Fragile or We’re in This Together…you kant…always get want you want.

The show…was weird. I didn’t notice it being all that bad – the sound to me was fine and normal. However they were having technical difficulties with the lights. They wouldn’t come on at the right time, or not come on at all. The first verse of Something I Can Never Have was in darkness, with Trent eventually getting a flashlight and shining it on his face until the lights came on hahah. After Closer, which was oddly cut short – the end piano notes just stopped – Trent said he had spent the day driving around the city and that it was beautiful, and that he came to the show ready to kick ass and beat us all into submission. But that they were having technical difficulties and they were all pissed, and they were going to take a minute to regroup and then beat us all into submission. Well…it didn’t really happen. The lights continued to be sort of late in coming on, so they weren’t matching up to the music, etc. I know that it’s annoying, but things could have been worse hahah. Set was pretty standard, no Last, but got the frail/the wretched and la mer/into the void which I was glad to see again before I left.

The shows have been so much fun, queuing included, and I really don’t want it to end. The experience has been so less stressful and much more mellow than the experience in the US. I definitely will be back for more shows in Europe. I had much more fun and everyone was in a better mood than in the summer. I am very very glad that I came and not just for having met Trent. It’s for having met everyone else, and spending more time with S and V and just…being a part of something. It feels like it was all sort of special – for some reason. Which is awesome 🙂

Posted in: Concerts, Nine Inch Nails \ Tagged: , , ,

Berlin!

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So Berlin…

We left Amsterdam for Berlin late on…whatever day it was, Thursday, and arrived at Tegel in the evening. It was the most ridiculous customs experience ever. Basically, the way Tegel is set up, you get off your plane and you are right at your baggage claim. Convenient. Then everyone just walked out. There were 2 police/guards standing at the exit and they did not look at a single passport, did not ask a single customs related question. Nothing. You just walk out and you’re outside and getting a taxi. It was easier than traveling to Canada pre 9-11. I couldn’t quite get over it.

We stayed at the East Side Hotel which is directly across the street from the East Side Gallery – the largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. Very cool. The hotel had all sorts of related art, and our floor was filled with photos of Trabants. Score! Haha easily amused.

On Friday we decided to take the 4 hour walking tour given by New Berlin, which starts at the Brandenburg Gate. It was really the best thing to do, as you walk by all the major attractions in the area – the Gate, Reichstag, Holocaust Memorial, Hitler’s Bunker (an apartment complex and parking lot were built on top of it), a portion of the Berlin Wall, which is itself, oddly fenced. Went by the old Nazi Air Force headquarters, which then became a center of the Communists and scene of a massacre of protesters in 61 (i think). It has a wonderful mural of the ideal socialist life haha. Fabulous. Then Checkpoint Charlie which is wonderful. Just so fantastic. I got my passport stamped with the old CCCP and East German stamps and they write up a fake visa for you. We went through some beautiful square surrounded by French and German matching churches and the philharmonic concert hall. Then to another square with St Hedwig(!) catholic church and Humbolt University where the Nazis held their book burning. Ended at the Museum Island where the guide told us how the Berlin Wall fell completely on accident. Great story and I must look up the press conference on youtube.

At the end of the tour it started to rain. We went off to find Zoo Station. Unfortunately Zoo is actually Zooogischer Garten so no signs had the abbreviation. One good thing is one sign was for the U2 train and had the station name. Good enough I guess.

Then to the Victory column, the set of the “Stay (Faraway, so close)” video. It was weird to see it in real life, it looked like a prop. Climbed up to the top. No more stairs for me for a long long time now. It has a great view, too bad it was raining. It, like the Cologne Dom, was filled with graffiti, and some was U2 related. I wanted to add song lyrics from Stay but I just couldn’t. So in the underground walkway I added “Rock and Roll stops the traffic” hahaha.

From there in the rain and darkness we went to see Hansa Studios. Rather unremarkable but I had to. Ate at the restaurant next door, then back to the Reichstag and BrandenburgGate to see them lit up. Things were crazy in the area because they were setting up for the Europafest celebration of 50 years of the European Union.

The American Embassy is being built in Pariser Platz with a sign explaining. I was looking for it to say the construction was being done by Halliburton but alas it didn’t.

Before going to the venue on Saturday we walked along the wall across the street from the hotel on our way to the station (and yes I totally just got “into the void” in my head), to go to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Very cool amazing place, great stories about escape attempts etc, but a bit overpriced and very crowded.

And I ate french fries out of a vending machine. In one of the stations they had hotdogs and sausage in vending machines and another machine with french fries. They cook them in the machine in 45 seconds and come out into a cup like coffee vending machines. They were actually really hot and quite good. Let’s say I’ve had plenty worse from real restaurants. I’d definitely have them again haha.

Then the shows, another post.

I attempted to change my flight home from Tuesday til Sunday or Monday so I could keep on the tour through Vienna. But Delta sucks and they wouldn’t change me. If I could have found a cheap way home I would have just “missed” the flight home and gone on with all the girls, but the cheapest price for a new ticket was 1700$. We had a whole plan involving “losing” my passport and telling the casino I wasn’t allowed to leave Germany until I got another one blahblahblah. The travel that I’d need to arrange to get to the next cities was cheap and would have worked, there was just no way for me to get back home. Very depressing, I really don’t want to leave.

So, Monday checked out of the hotel but my flight didn’t leave for London until 7:45 so I had all day to see more of Berlin. I wanted to go to the Franciscan Monestary ruins, and I did, but they’re closed Mondays. So I just decided to wander, and I wandered on past the Berliner Dom, so what the hey, I went in. Very different, and things kept saying it was a Protestant church – but dear lord it was the most elaborate ornate looking non-Catholic church I’ve ever seen. Very different from the Cologne Dom, but very ornate in its own way. You can go all the way up to the top of the dome and get a good view of the city from there. I approve haha. More wandering, and I wandered past the German Historical Museum. David had mentioned there was an exhibit on the Art of Propaganda that he was going to go to, while I had decided to go to the monestary ruins. But since I ended up walking by and had time to kill I went to see it too. I love propaganda so it was very cool. Showcased propaganda from WWII from Germany, Italy, USSR and US. More wandering and I remembered the car in Hard Rock so I went out back that way, took some pics of the U2 trabbie, and went to the half ruined church that got bombed out but was left that way while they built a new church next to it. (Woah some movie I put on has Charlize Theron and Johnny Depp, and he’s apparently evil?…hot but weird tho, and Clee Duval)

Got a cab to Tegel and wow I hate that airport. It seemed neat when you arrive, but not when you depart. Language wasn’t an issue so much as just the way it’s set up. There aren’t long rows of check in desks for each airline, like American airports – there is a check in for each gate, and every airline can use it depending if they have a flight leaving that gate or not. So I was confused that I couldn’t find a British Airways checkin station, I had to ask, and you just check in at the gate you’ll be leaving out of. Ok fine, but they wouldn’t let the London flight check in until the flight before was practically off the ground. Once I checked in I figured, I’ll go sit at the gate. Except you can’t go to the gate until it’s your flight. But there are no signs, and I’ve never seen it set up that way before. So I try to go through security and this guy starts yelling at me in German. And I say I don’t know German and he’s still yelling in German, and I again say DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH. He just keeps yelling and saying “pass”. Wtf. I go back out the door I went in and there is one of the police/guards in this little booth and he speaks German to me and again I’m like, ENGLISH! So he finally does start speaking in english, and he tells me you can’t go to the gate until it’s your flight, and when you do he has to check my passport. That’s fabulous, there’s not a single sign saying that the booth was a passport check or that I had to show anyone anything.

Ok fine, so I don’t go to the gate, but now what the hell do I do. There are no lounges, or even big spaces with chairs. There are occasionally little nooks with chairs. So I end up sitting on the floor in front of the check in for the gate, cuz I have no where else to go. Finally I go to the passport guy again, and he’s flipping through it looking for my Berlin stamp. Except I don’t have one because as you recall, no one looked at my passport when arriving in Berlin. But I didn’t say anything, and he saw the Düsseldorf stamp so I let him assume that I came from Düsseldorf haha. The whole thing was incredibly frustrating and irritating. The theme so far of traveling in Berlin I guess.

On the way to the airport I actually saw a Trabant driving on the road. That made me happy.

Flight was delayed but not badly and Glen picked me up at Heathrow to bring me to Gatwick, which was much appreciated. The cops walking around Heathrow all were carrying huge automatic weapons – rifles or something. It was pretty scary. My London hotel for the night gave me a room with 3 beds, 2 of them bunk, 5 pillows and still no sheets. Why don’t they use sheets in Europe? Could have used this room when Alex was with us, there is at least room to walk.

Berlin Photos

Posted in: International Vacations, Vacations \ Tagged: ,

try and tear me down

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I am in a netcafe near the venue. I still need a ticket for tonight but Iäm not worried. Damn german kezboards. I just wanted to say I am *this* close to not coming home. And the more I think about it the more I can work it to stay until Sunday. I probably won’t but I want to more than anzthing. Not looking forward to the forthcoming depression. I should go get back in the queue and find a bathroom. Later.

 

(of course nin played “the fragile” at Amsterdam2 :P)

Posted in: International Vacations, Vacations \ Tagged: ,