ZOMG

CHARLOTTE SMOKED POT WITH ME THE WORLD IS ENDING AS WE SPEAK.

i won't have internets for a while because they're in the basement and our room is five floors up, but don't worry, we can totally discuss this later. CHARLOTTE = HIGH.

i really hope she posts right now.

je n'ai JAMAIS couché avec elle!!1!

on monday we went to notre dame cathedral and climbed the towers. this is me with a gargoyle, doing my gargoyle impression:


charlotte was afraid to go any higher but i went to the very top and took myspace pictures of myself with alllllll of paris. but because my hair was apparently mulletting out, i'll just show you pictures of paris by itself.

that night we went to the louvre, where i was so overwhelmed by the layout i didn't even bother going to places one would deem important; i just hung out in medieval art. that was cool too, though.

yesterday charlotte was sick, so i went out on my own. first i went to versailles, where i walked around the palace for half an hour trying to find the special entrance that my pass got me. as it turns out, it was the regular entrance, and i still had to wait a little over an hour, but i still got to see lots of gardens in the process, so it wasn't too bad. the palace was really pretty, with lots of gold plating. i feel like this image of a grand hall and chandeliers explains it well:


later i went to musée d'orsay, which is an old train station, so very deconstructed and big and cool. people were taking pictures of van goghs with their camera phones, but i thought it best to let the paintings be and let you imagine how they were.

afterwards i walked up to the louvre and through the tuilleries, gardens and fountains that face the louvre. after an awkward encounter with a gypsy woman, i got to the far end and got to watch a young norwegian girls' marching band come through. i didn't understand. i then continued around a traffic circle to the champs elysée, where i ended up on a wooded path and stopped to get dinner at a little kiosk, a butter and cheese sandwich and a sugar crêpe. so delicious, as i sat on a bench and watched trees and pigeons.

afterwards i walked up the champs to the arc de triomph, which was indeed triumphant. also took no pictures, because who really needs those.

after publicly pulling out my french tourisme map, i decided on a route and made my way to montmartre, where apparently the tram to take me to the top of the hill was broken, so i got to walk up fifteen flights of stairs. oh, and i was also accosted by some african gypsy men who kept saying "hakuna matata" and trying to touch my hands and sell me macramé.

but at the top! oh, the top. something like the towers at notre dame, but more majesty somehow. i took a slightly better myspace picture of myself there:


and then i went into sacré-coeur, which was of course magnificent. i love cathedrals so much.

after bumming around the area for a while, i finally headed back to the hostel, where i met our new roommate samantha, who is from baltimore and totally cool and WE WENT TO A CABARET TOGETHER. she was accosted by a creepy old man, and i had the priveledge of not only interpreting for them, but also of hanging out with creepy old man's date. i spoke so much french, progressively more and more with each glass of wine and slice of brie. we didn't make it home until the sun was nearly up, but it was completely worth the long night.

then today we got to brussels. lix, this is for you: what i believe is actually a chain of stores:


these two guys sitting next to us on the train, steve and dan, ended up actually being our roommates here, so we all went on a three-hour walking tour of the city together. we saw a lot of really pretty things that i don't remember the names of, but also things that i do. this is from grande-place, which victor hugo described as the most beautiful place on earth, according to let's go!: western europe on a budget.


we also saw manneken pis, which is like a symbol of brussels or something. that is the pis-ing manneken in the background, and me immitating his grandeur in the foreground. look at that poise.

then we walked to the top of a hill, and there was a giant building with scaffolding, and i'm not going to lie, i don't know what it was called. but look at this beautiful view of the city, completely with clouds and pretty sun:



and we saw the e.u. headquarters!

then we got home and made ourselves dinner in the common kitchen, which cost us each three euro and was far more food than we could handle, so we gave it away to fellow hostel-ers. i found a chi-chi's margarita glass in the cabinet, and thought it was a lovely vessel for my four-euro imported chilean wine. DON'T JUDGE ME IT WAS THE CHEAPEST ONE I DRINK FRENCH WINE SOMETIMES TOO.


oh ps i don't feel like changing the clock on this but add six hours to whatever my posting time is. it's more justified that way.

WITHOUT YOU I WOULD BE COMPLETE

I HAVE A ROOMMATE AT MY HOSTEL HER NAME IS SAMANTHA WE WENT TO A CABARET I SPOKE THE FRENCH AND SHE WAS MOLESTED BY A FRENCHMAN OF ARABIC DESCENT.

MORE STORY LATER.

LOVE YOU!!1!

fandango!

sorry i haven’t written in a while, it’s been nearly impossible to get internets. most recently, our hostel claimed that the internets were all broken, but he also said that i had to return the key to the front desk when i went to bed, but when i went back and asked how i was to lock the door for the night, he gave me the key and told me to keep it. i refuse to attribute this to my poor french.

but before i continue – i MUST talk about the jameson distillery. apparently it wasn’t actually a working distillery, but rather a restored old factory with replicas of processes. this was minimally important, because i was the first person to volunteer for the whiskey-tasting at the end. incidentally, i didn’t have much competition, but i think my enthusiasm was appreciated.

this is me preparing for the five shots. unfortunately, as the scotchman sitting across from me suggested, the object was not to see who would finish their shots the quickest, but rather to discover what was indeed the best whiskey.

look at that concentration.

i believe the competitors for jameson were paddy and powers, both irish, some scottish blend that tasted like smoke (because of the way they germinate their barley using burning peat moss!), and jack daniel’s. shockingly, i found that jameson really was the best. i’m fairly certain it was rigged. but, the point is simply this:

I WON A CERTIFICATE HOW COOL AM I I HAVE A PINT OF GUINNESS IN ONE HAND AND MY WHISKEY AWARD IN THE OTHER AND I’M SITTING IN AN IRISH PUB PREPARING TO GO ON A PUB CRAWL DUBLIN W0000000T.

on the pub crawl, we met two friends. tina, an australian girl traveling alone who attained my friendship by remarking that we were waiting in a very long line and seamlessly transitioning to asking to hang out with us. i aspire to be her. our other friend was a guy that sat down across from us at a table, who was from virginia beach? how does this happen. charlotte took this fantastically arty picture of me with the two; charlotte is regrettably not featured:

i look haggard.

anyway.

the next day (friday) we left for london. the morning pretty much sucked, as my bag was too heavy and my daypack exploded and i had to buy a new one and the lunch in the airport was disgusting and we queued up for our flight two hours before it took off then we were delayed on the runway and stuff and junk and things. but our hostel in london was really cute, and that night we went to the volunteer pub near regent’s park where we met up with some kids from uva doing the same summer program charlotte did last year. they were fun, and afterwards we went back to their dorm to hang out for a few hours. good, wholesome fun. lol.

on saturday i got to sleep in until 10.15, which has come to seem really late. we went to westminster abbey, which was really pretty.

"get one of me and the abbey!"


i really enjoy gothic architecture and all its linear-ness and points. here we have big ben, a large building to its left, and in the background, the london eye. both the world’s largest and probably most ridiculously overpriced ferris wheel!

then we went and grabbed lunch in tesco (<3!)>
i’m a princess!

i then forced charlotte to spin around in circles with her arms flailing about à la sound of music, but i forgot to steal those pictures from her so you’re just going to have to bank on her posting them. it was just a really pretty picnic.

we then spent an HOUR looking for a new battery for my phone, which died, fuck you whatever company we rented from. apparently only one store in all of london sells phone batteries – he was a specialist, after all.

later that evening we went to see spamalot, because charlotte really wanted to. i find monty python generally unamusing, but the show was flashy and therefore mildly entertaining, even though we had restricted seats and could only see about half of the stage.

we got into trouble for taking this in the theater, but look at our cute scarves!

we walked home along the thames, which took about an hour and was beautiful. i have no images of this because i didn’t bring my camera out and charlotte already knew what it looked like, but rivers and cities are always gorgeous at night, so visualize.

we also encountered a spartan war hero statue, and i attempted to emulate:

i think i did a damn good job. i was trying to do the over-the-shoulder job of the shawl that they do, but i’m not sure that i mastered all that.

also, southwark (pronounced suthuck, wtf) cathedral looks like a lego castle. check out those turrets.

yesterday morning we checked out and had time to go to the tate modern, where there was a fantastic exhibit on the growth of cities. did you know that the population of bombay has grown over 1100% in the past century, and london’s only 10%?! probably not! zomg! really though, it was kind of scary.

then we took the train into paris.

this is charlotte being REALLY excited about our new hostel where we don’t get to keep our keys when we leave the building. LOL!

we had dinner in a café then met up with her friend mica afterwards to go up the eiffel tower.

this is what the eiffel tower looks like.

but the place was completely mobbed, so instead we went to a grocery store and grabbed some snaxxx and sat out on the lawn on the opposite side. did you know that for the millennium paris installed lots of flashing lights but didn’t feel like taking them down, so now they go off every hour for ten minutes and will continue to do so until they burn out? it was pretty. the pictures are no good, so they will not be posted. there is, however, a brief video. which you also may not see. srry.

and then back to the hostel – charlotte was seepies, and i conceded. tonight, i hope, we will go out, and have lots of crazy paris adventures.

sorry about the obscene length of this post, even i’m bored, and unless you’re related to me, you’re not required to read it all. and speaking of people related to me, how about a phone call every once in a while? KTHX. <3

the demon barber of fleet street

the river liffey in all its smelly glory. this is a view from the james joyce bridge, i enjoyed all the buildings in a line.


LOLZ!!1!



ahhhh a gorgeous atrium in the gaol. u2 films music videos here, and apparently the old italian job shot some scenes in here. an example of an all-seeing eye.


ZOMG CHECK OUT THIS WOMAN'S AMAZING OUTFIT WHERE ARE HER FEET.

yesterday was fantastic, though i'm not sure how well last night's entry communicated it. went to a gorgeous old gaol (apparently that's pronounced "jail," much to our embarrassment), and then stumbled upon a former royal hospital-turned-modern art museum.


me with a character from ahh! real monsters!


"this is what we looked like yesterday." -charlotte


gorgeous walkway, now with cranes!


a view from the gardens.

obelisk!

a lovely center courtyard, as well as gardens in the back, and a long pathway through some sort of meadow leading to the front entrance. also totally free, added bonus. though generally not a fan of modern art, there were lots of short films and such that i really enjoyed.

we also took a romp through pheonix park and took pictures with a giant obelisk. how very revolutionary.

then of course we finally went to a pub last night; hence the entry. today's agenda: jameson factory tour and literary pub crawl!

will probably update again early in london. cheers!

STOP FOLLOWING ME

LOL UNIVERSE MY ROOMMATE HERE KNOWS EMMA UTZ UNIVERSE I AM SO EMBARRASSED.

otherwise staying away from sketchy men and the pubs love me none too much. BUT SWEENEY TODD DOES. more tomorrow when i'm not watching my internets time ticking away second by second.

OH AND MOM AND MICHAEL WAY TO CALL ME NOT THAT EITHER OF YOU READ THIS TRYING SKYPE TOMORROW PLZ ANSWER KTHXBYE.

oh and daddy sending you times for academia/uffizzi later so we know when to meet. CU.

star log, day one

haaaaay bloggers! today is our very first day in europes, and i just wanna take naps. we had lunch at an authentic american restaurant, and now we're internet cafe-ing home. i really have nothing to say, except that it's cold and kind of rainy and there are lots of americans here. and some sketchy old men staying in our hostel. LOL! i'll keep you posted! (get it?!?!)

stalk me

in the event that you super-need to reach me, i'm going to have two phone numbers while abroad:

skype - 757-653-5275

you can call that number from any phone in the us, and you'd just pay regular fees to call a 757, so if you call from a cell, it basically costs nothing. that's my computer, though, so i won't always have it on me, but you can leave a voicemail for me to enjoy at my convenience!!1!

cell - 011 44 792 400 8996

this is a uk exchange, so to call you'd have to use a uk calling card (or your own skype!), but i get unlimited free incoming calls, so you're free to use it whenever.

TTYLZ!!1!

itinerary

18-22 june: dublin
22-24 june: london
24-27 june: paris
27-28 june: brussels
28-30 june: amsterdam
30 june-2 july: berlin
3-4 july: zurich
4-5 july: munich
5-6 july: salzburg
6-8 july: vienna
9-10 july: venice
10-11 july: florence
11-13 july: rome
13-14 july: naples
14-16 july: barcelona
16-17 july: valencia
17-21 july: madrid
22-24 july: lisbon

europes!

hey kids!

i'm leaving on 18 june for my european tour with charlotte. so clearly, i had to make the requisite "blog."