China's almost over? Goddammit anyway!

Well I planned on posting once a week. Somehow that didn't happen. I don't really know where the time's gone. All of a sudden we had six days left here and so many things left to do see and eat that Damien made a nice list.

Sitting here now, it's pretty much mission accomplished I think we checked off the last thing, 'great wall' yesterday. So for the next few days, it's taking it easy and cruising Beijing.

It's been a great month, and far too short of a time to really experience China. I'm finally feeling like I got the hang of Beijiing and ready to head elsewhere and now I'm out of time. Ah well, I'm giving serious consideration to doing some projects out here so I'm sure I'll be back soon.

Now then...what have I been doing the last few weeks? Hmm....a lot of eating, a lot of partying, some rock climbing and temple visiting to balance it all out.

On my weird food list we got some serious items accomplished. One of the big items on the list was added by Damien. He wanted to go do Hot Pot on Go Street. Which is the famous hot pot district. So one of his co-workers tagged along and the three of us had a bomb meal. Three different types of broth to boil the food in. One insanely spicy mix, a thai lemon grass flavor that was awesome and original.

Because of the seating arrangement I only had access to the spicy and lemongrass so it was a hotter meal for me. Made worse by the fact that this little 90 pound girl across from me has rated the spice mix a 2 or 3 out of a possible 7. So I had to cover up the fact that I thought some of the sauce was trying to burrow through the roof of my mouth into my brain, that my eyes were crossing and my feet were numb. (I think she was lying though, as I caught her sweating with chattering teeth later in the meal.)

Mmm....good stuff. So as we finish the girl asks if I've tried Bull Penis. And I'm like, well I mean, I had it with lunch and breakfast so I'm good...no, obviously I haven't. With that a half-order of bull is brought to the table.

If you haven't eaten bull penis, I envy you. It is not pleasant. It's chewy it's tough and well, I'm over describing it. So let's just say I had a few bites, and having no need to increase my vitality further I called it quits.

On a different note, it's been pretty funny being compared to different actors/famous people out here. All the locals think I look like a different actor. The girl from dinner said I looked like a bank robber (obviously had to kill her for blowing my cover). Which was funny, but not as good as "Sexy Mr. Bean" which I suppose was a compliment but seriously is there a sexy Mr Bean? That was said to me at a different party and the girl tried to make up for it seeing the look on my face. She said, "it's good. If you were Mr. Bean all the girls would forget about the other one. They'd love you instead."

Ok, now that sounds nice and all, but really are there women across the globe swooning for Mr. Bean? I just can't see a crowd of little girls staring googly eyed at the Bean poster on their walls.

Anyway, I've also been called Sylvester Stallone and sexy, macho man/sexy superman, but these were by guys so yeah...I guess all the locals get a kick out of me.

Back to the food list. Yesterday I had a donkey sandwich. This was a goofy idea that came into my head and wouldn't leave, so yup ate a donkey. I now have power over them which is nice. The taste was somewhere between horse, mule and dirt. I guess donkey is peasant food here and pretty commonly eaten. Chased it down with some warm beer and egg flower soup, hearty meal for two, 2.15$. Not too shabby.

Then the night before last I had some duck neck coated in peppercorn juice. Bizarre texture for sure, plus the peppercorn kept numbing my mouth. It was ridiculous but the plate was in front of me, I had a few drinks and kept forgetting about the damn numbing. Made my glass like one of those novelty dribble glasses a couple of times.

We were at a bar, and the girl Damien was meeting had been nice enough to have a whole spread waiting for our arrival. Two bottles of Chivas Whisky and ten bottles of sweet green tea to mix it with (surprisingly tasty) and a great fruit/munchie spread. She was a very gracious host, too much in fact. We tried to at least pay for her cab home at the end of the night, somehow she ended up buying hers AND ours.

Really nice girl, I felt bad for the friends she brought that had to entertain me. There's a lot of drink pouring customs here, don't pour your own, there's a system of who should be pouring for who, then there's different ways to say thank you. In America, I clink glasses with someone. Here that means, 'hey dude, let's down this thing!'

So yeah, after the fifth or sixth time these guys are looking at me pretty cross eyed because they keep filling my glass, I keep thanking them by cheersing, and we down the damn things. Damien finally interjects and shows me how to say thank you Chinese style. This made everyone happy and kept me from getting wasted into oblivian. Though we did spend a few hours playing the dice game, which led to a lot of drinking, and the girl hosting kept adding more Chivas to my drink...sweet kid. I'm just glad I wasn't Damien, she poured him pure booze.

Well, there's plenty of night out stories, but I should mention some other culture I suppose.

I've seen the lama temple and the drum and bell towers, taken a rickshaw tour of the old area and done some awesome 'antiqueing'. Seriously I have no clue if some of the gifts I bought are actually antique, but hey, I'm just going to pass on the stories told to me.

The drum tower was awesome. It was used to tell time and send messages. After a hike up the steepest stairs in China I got there just in time to witness a performance. Four drummers hammering away on the biggest damn drums you've ever seen. I could feel it in my chest, and vibrating through every hair on my body. It was the last show of the day and I'm so happy I caught it. The view from the tower was great as well, I got some good pictures of sprawling Beijing, the mix of new and old buildings. Really interesting stuff.

Lama temple was a temple. Peaceful, a break from the rush but nothing that really resonated. I just went to bless some stuff really and because I felt the need to. I think cathedrals/mosques/temples aren't really my thing so I see less and less of them with each country I visit.

I get a lot more interested now in just absorbing the way of life. I feel like I'm getting it here now. This place is so big, so competitive it's a tough city to be a part of. Everyone scrambling for a piece of newly established free enterprise. There is far more advertising here than you'll see in the US. Far more opportunities to make a buck, but so much more competition so it's a very intense experience. I think the severe cold intensified this trip a lot for me. It's made an extreme place even harsher and I'm glad I got to see that. I'd also like to come back in April which everyone says is a very good time for Beijing. So hopefully in the next few years that'll happen.

Well, I could go on, but just ask me in person, because these blogs get long and I have to go enjoy the last few days, plus I always wonder who reads to the end.

I get back into California on December 22nd. I'll be in the bay through Christmas, I don't know about New Years. Or anything after that.

Haven't exactly decided what's next: got an invite to climb in New Zealand, sweet! Might go to Argentina as it's nice this time of year. Apparently they're giving out tickets to Costa Rica with the purchase of two boxes of cheerios (SO CHEAP) So those are all on the potential list.

I'm contemplating holding a vote, having a party where people throw darts at a globe or challenging someone to a race around the world.

I'm accepting ideas, talk to you all soon.

Great Wall

So I finally did something culturally relevant with my time over here and I think it deserves its own blog.

Today Damien took me to the Great Wall!

Yup, been here three weeks, finally made it out..barely. The morning started out pretty rough. Damien and I have both been deadly sick for about a week. We went out to sushi last week, turns out it was a bad idea. Neither of us have been right since which is a little disconcerting because we really should be well by now.

Anyway, we manned up and took the hour long bus ride without any emergency pitstops. From there another 20 minutes short bus got us to the base.

Damien took me to a section that was more restored and less popular than what most people see out here. It was a great idea as it was deserted.

For a country with a billion people and a city with a thousand skyscrapers. The sudden peace when we started up the huge stairs was really powerful. All of a sudden I was breathing clean air and not hearing car horns, that's a hell of a thing after about a month here.

There are a few chair lifts but we took the long way up. Personally, if I was a Mongolian, the damned stairs would have been enough, no need for a wall. But I guess they had horses, so yeah...they probably weren't sick with chivas and beijing sushi too.

So we finally get on top of the wall and we're completely alone. We can see a few people off in the distance in the more popular direction, (where the chair lift lets the lazy bums off) and since there were people and a bright lift ruining the view we turned and cruised the other way.

The Wall's a lot different than I thought. It's no where near straight. Considering we were in the mountains I don't know what I was thinking, straight would be impossible, but still it was interesting to watch it wind all around us. There were forks and it seemed like one part was a huge circle.

We walked probably a mile of the wall in total. Up and down thousands of crooked and randomly sized stairs, and through a five sentry posts. I had a few beers along the way, cuz really, when do you get the chance to drink a beer on a world wonder? And we got some great pictures that'll be posted at some point.

The peace of it all was the best part of the day, no grabbing me trying to sell me anything, no one honking. We were completely alone on this epic wall, really amazing.

We hit the end of the section that's been restored, and that's as far as you're supposed to go. But I think we err....missed a sign, so we ended up cruising along the non restored section. No barriers and looser gravel made it somewhat sketchy so we only walked up one more tower, but it was really interesting to see the wall in it's completely natural state.

So...yeah. I mean, there's nothing like it, as far as you look you can pick out sections of the wall. Imagining the manpower involved is tough considering the tools and technology of the time. And how the hell they held of Mongolians long enough to get the thing built is beyond me, but hey, good job China!

Alright, well that's about all I can say about the Wall. But let me say, the way down kicked serious ass!

Again thanks to Damien for picking this section. The way down was a freaking bob sled run. He mentioned there was a slide, I didn't think it was the actual way down off the mountain.

We get to the slide and it's a full on curved metal bobsled run. Like the baddest longest waterslide you've ever seen. And to man it you get this little sled with a lever. Push down for acceleration, pull back for brakes. Looking at it I get why they sold me 1 quan insurance at the gate (no lie, I bought 12 cents of insurance...life...medical...dunno) Now keep in mind there's absolutely no one here at the wall and thus, no one ahead of me on the track.

So the guy says you can get it going better by leaning into the turns and I climb in. Down for fast is all I needed to hear so I jump on and lay the paddle to the metal.

The lanes slick and deserted so I just start flying. I'm switching hands on the brake so I can grab the sled with my other hand and further lean into turns. A couple times on quick dips I got some air and there were a hell of a lot of 'sharp turn brake' signs that I ignored.

To be honest I got nervous a couple times, but meh....when are you gonna get a chance to fire down a deserted sled run from the great wall so I didn't bother slowing up my good time. A couple guards along the track yelled at me, I can only assume slow down but at the time I chose to hear it as 'yeah dude!!'

Seriously if there's been a faster run down that thing in recent history I'd be surprised I hit the bottom, (they have a great red banner you ride through) and had to wait two and a half minutes for Damien.

Unfortunately as soon as we hit the base of the wall it was back to Beijing reality, vendors grabbing our arms and yelling prices, cars and insane traffic. But for just a few hours of peace, it was all worth it.

China Week 2, my prediction....PAIN

Because of my time here in Beijing, I can now say for sure that I'd rather be shot on a warm day.

Everything hurts more in the cold. Life is different. The cold will fucking eat you. You don't stand still outside, there's no 'we'll figure out where we're going once we go outside.' You come up with a plan and execute it.

Last night the plan was to have a quiet night. I'm still sick with bronchitis and we pushed it a little bit Thursday and we have a party to go to in a few minutes so Damien figured I could use a night off.

Obviously since I'm writing a blog, things didn't go according to plan.

We went out for some hot pot with Damien's friend, Michael, who I will be referring to as 'bastard' for the rest of this and maybe all future blogs. Not that he's a bad guy, but he's the reason for my current miserable pain so I kind of hate him. I've actually been plotting revenge all morning.

So we finish the meal and walk back to Damien's after picking up a couple bottles of wine. After the wine was done we decide to go kick around the Chinese hacky sack. These things are awesome by the way, they're like a badmitton shuttlecock/hacky sack, I'm going to bring back dozens.

Well hacky sack goes better with beer so we clean out the mini mart and get a good game going. Drinking in public and in cabs here is legal. So civilized.

The game and the beer finish up after an hour and somehow Bastard talks us into going to a 'chill bar for a couple minutes.'

Damn him.

The club's definitely not chill, we end up shutting it down then heading to a dive bar. Bastard starts talking to some local girls and I'm chilling and impressing them with my 'thank you'. Seriously I say it very well, everybody's impressed, they're always complementing me to Damien.

So the girl Bastard's talking to is somewhat psychotic. She seems normal enough but anytime Bastard gets too close she yells "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!!" and makes this twisted up face. And it wasn't like he was draped all over her, it was if he came anywhere close, he reached out to hand me a drink and she yelled.

Anyway, the reason Bastard is Bastard is because at 5am he orders a round of Tequila.

This is an awful idea.

Unfortunately at 5am in a divebar in Beijing the 'hey that's an awful idea' part of my brain has already passed out and the 'hey....what could go wrong?' section has taken over.

Well here's what can go wrong. Damien warned me about a lot of different counterfit products out here. It's kind of amazing the things they counterfit. Laundry detergent, bottled water, clothes, money, dvds and ALCOHOL.

Yup. Fake tequila. Apparently people die from that stuff. Thanks bastard.

I knew something was off when I took the shot. It tasted pretty much like tequila, but more...raw, more watery? Not like mescal, but like unfinished I guess. Definitely some bathtub brew.

So we wrapped things up around 6 and headed home. I was definitely feeling the effects but the exhaustion was worse and I passed out pretty quick.

This morning the pain began. It was off the charts. I've had some pretty awesome hangovers, this one is off the charts. This is megastorm, species extinction bad. There was of course the mass stomach evacuation, the shakes, and the headache that feels like my brain is trying to escape from an ever shrinking skull. The phrase 'NEVER DRINKING AGAIN' was definitely floated around.

I mean, just 'wow.' Seriously. When Damien woke up I was kneeling on the floor with my head buried in the couch. It was the only position that made sense.

At this point I'd let Trent stick me with an IV, oh man that's a good story if you haven't heard it ask Feroz.

So what's an alcohol poisoned foreigner with bronchitis do? Yup. Rock climbing.

We found this little hole in the wall climbing gym out here. Just bouldering, which is what I prefer anyway, no really set routes, but some good inclines and a vicious overhang. Getting my blood pumping was nice, though I was weak as hell and had to take frequent breaks because of the headache. But hey, climbings like the simpsons, even a bad epsiodes better than no episode.

So that's about that. It's time to shower and do the same damn thing tonight.

Beijing's been great. Haven't seen much but I'm really getting into the rythm of life out here which is much more interesting to me than seeing tourist sites. That said, of course I'll see a lot of those things as well. Just haven't felt the need yet.

Took a few pics, I'll post them at some point. And I'll share more of the life out here in the next couple of days. Just needed to vent my pain.

Also, I'm taking suggestions on how to extract revenge on Bastard.

China week 1

Wow, what a country. Too much to say so I'll give some general impressions and the story of one pretty funny night. I've got a novel developing in a word doc for those who really want to sift through all my ramblings.

I got here at 4am and Damien was ready at the airport to meet me, which was pretty solid. Turns out he'd stayed up all night partying with a friend so as not to sleep through his alarm and miss me or something. We cabbed it back to his place and I got my first taste of Beijing living. Apartments are smaller here, though his is pretty nice. The toilet here's just like back home, which is pretty solid because that's not always the case. We visited friends of his who have 'the hole'. I have not had to hole it yet, when I do I'll keep the experience to myself.

Beijing is crazy huge. It goes on and on. Skyscrapers everywhere and there's no sign of stopping as there's construction every few blocks.

I had a wild moment a few nights ago. Coming back from the subway I took a wrong turn and walked about 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I ended up trying to get my bearings by going up on to a footbridge over an 8 lane highway. Between the traffic shaking the bridge and the huge neon covered buildings everywhere I almost lost it. I was gripping on to the handrailling in complete awe. The feeling will definitely stay with me for a long time. I was completely insignifigant in this huge glowing city with absolutely no understanding of the language to guide me home. Perspective inducing experience for sure.

There is almost no english here. Even ordering food is difficult for me. I have to go to places that have picture menus, or often I'll just eat street food since I can just point at whatever they're cooking and hold up some fingers.

Today I had what looked somewhat like a corndog? It wasn't but it was tasty. A lot of the street food is served on a stick, I haven't gotten too wild yet, they have scorpions and seahorses etc... wildest I've gotten is BBQ squid, tasty. Oh, and chicken hearts.

Damien has to work so I spend most days alone. I've gotten the subway system pretty down and have been able to get around to some historic sites. I got 'tea scammed' in old beijing, but it could have been much worse from what I've heard.

That's the sad thing, when I'm out anyone I've met that is local and speaks English is trying to run a scam. It's a biproduct of the situation out here though, so it's no biggie, I'm learning to smile and keep walking.

The markets are awesome. I've spent a lot of time in them. Interesting new fruits and meats to try. And of course the uh..'imitation' products. I got a great TAG watch and some leather gloves the first day. Today I bought some sunglasses. I'm pretty sure I grossly overpaid as the woman accepted my first counterbid with a large smile. (25 yuan or about 3.40$)

Things are really cheap, we have these huge amazing meals that come out to 5 or 6 bucks. Been eating well, had hot pot the other night, it was awesome.

I've seen a lot of Beijing now. Most of it from the back of Damien's "Den Dou Chaio" or electric bike. It's a great way to see the city, better than bus or cab because I feel like I'm really experiencing it, all the sounds, smells and cold. It's also terrifying as traffic here is nutty, lacks strict rules and is full of honking speeding cars at all times. It's like playing a really big live version of that old video game 'paper boy'. Sometimes it justs seems like people/cars/dudes carrying loads of huge tree branches (no joke) are trying to get us.

The weather's freezing and the air quality's pretty rough. Smoking is prevelant and I'm not too happy about that. In fact I'm taking it easy today because I've developed a cough that's worrying me. I feel about a step away from Bronchitis so I'm gonna lay up for a little and not press my luck.

I could go on forever really because it's just so different here, but who'd keep reading right? Here's a night out that was a blast:

We took the Den Dao Cha across town to have dinner and meet up with Damien's boss for drinks. Along the way I was holding Damien's phone/MP3 player out so we had some tunes. We were cruising along to Modest Mouse's "Bukowski"(thanks Amanda) and "Juicy" By Biggie. A couple of songs by artists who I'm sure weren't envisioning two guys on an electric bike when they wrote them. Definitely not a Bukowski moment.

Dinner was some amazing hot pot, then we met Damien's boss in a small smoky bar decorated with movie posters from America and Italy. Damien's in the film industry, so there was some shop talk and one of the other guests was a local documentary director. He knew the bar owner so we were comped a 50 year old bottle of the local booze.

I don't remember the name, which is fine, because no one should ever seek this stuff out. It's definitely one of the worst boozes I've ever had, and it was sad because the bottle was aged and expensive, and the drink's very traditional. We tried to be polite and had a few shots, luckily they realized it was wasted on Damien and I so they split the rest amongst themselves.

We left everyone at the bar and stopped off at a big dance club. Just Damien, Me and 600 or 700 chinese. Seriously no other Americans. But the DJ's were good and it was a good atmosphere. Since no one spoke English anyway I decided a way to meet some people would be to head out to the dance floor. I started doing some '80's style moves that had Damien in hysterics and the locals in awe. Seriously they were lovin' it, so we hung out with everybody for a while then around 4 that was enough.

The ride home got a little hairy, as the electric bike died about 12 blocks away from Damien's and he'd removed the pedals when he first got the thing. So the two of us tried to glide the damn thing by pushing in unison, that was a hell of a time and eventually I just hopped off and jogged alongside in the freezing dark Rocky style.

A stop off at the market for late night snacks and that was the night.

I'm listing where I want to go and what I want to do with my remaining time so far I've got:

The Terra Cotta Warriors in Shian

The start of the great wall at the beach in shaoyen

Maybe Shanghai

Ice climbing up a waterfall in the Muyin District (I have to organize the tour though because their scheduled trip is the day I leave. I hope I can make this happen)

Ok, that seems like enough for one sitting. Life is good, this place is wild.

Pre-flight jitters

Pre-flight jitters, oh yeah, I’m going to China.

In less than 24 hours (barring delays) I'll be in the air non stop LA to Beijing.

So tonight's the night to stress out. To sit here and go over all my stuff again and again trying to figure out what I'm going to forget. Researching to make sure there's no extra step I'm missing for getting out of the country and into China. This is an important step for me, trust me. Just ask about Argentina and passports sometime...Who knew right?

Tomorrow while everyone's eating turkey I'll be eating a bag of cashews on the Pacific Surfliner train to LA, then it's a quick, (HAHAHHAHAHHAHHA) bus through LA to the airport. In reality I should probably leave now, but I'm hoping for once to just not get unlucky and it should all be just fine.

That's about all that's new in my world. Why Beijing? Because of a good friend who's been living out there for the last few years. I've been promising to head out there forever and there's no time like midnight on thanksgiving to make good on one's word.

I have no idea what I'm in store for, could barely find china on a map and most 100% can not tell you where Beijing is or what it's major exports are. I'm not even sure which dialect of completely foreign to me either way chinese they speak, Mandarin or Szechuan? Is Szechuan the other one or is that the crispy beef? Well hopefully I'll learn that and other interesting facts in the next month.

So keep watching this space, as long as Myspace isn't censored out there I'll be posting updates as much as possible. If it IS censored, you can reach me at natecmurray@gmail.com if you just have to have some attention. It's okay, I miss you too.

Pocket Europa

Well that's it an that's all. Tomorrow we go to madrid and most likely just kill time in the airport until coming back to the bay area, where I will be working as hard and fast as possible to build up funds so that I can enjoy a little time in San Diego before going on to Costa Rica. (Brian, Andrea, Andrew, I'll earn my stay this time, I cook two or three great dishes and I will prep them all for you guys.)

Last few days we ran out of gas. Did a bro er.... bar crawl that was alright. We got to drink whiskey cokes in a plaze looking at the coloseum at night which was nice. But later in the night things got weird, I got denied entrance from a club for being too drunk, which was a bold-faced lie, at that point I wasn't nearly drunk enough. I was speaking spanish though and I think the guy thought I was slurring awful italian. It worked out the guide came over and slid me up.

Spent the last few days cruising around, saw the vatican and did some shopping .Well Feroz shopped I cringed and held my ground. The suits here are amazing, but I know that I don't need a new suit. I had a moment in the diesel store that almost broke my heart, as it was filled with new great designer jeans that I just barely talked myself out of. I actually refused to go back in that store the next day. But hey, I did good. I'm free of the marketing-materialism curse and am completely ready to start my next adventure.

So that's it for action, Feroz is sick, and we've been laying somewhat low. I'm very ready for my next adventure, especially since I have no house to go home to, therefore it's very difficult to get homesick at this point. Though a few nights in a comfy king sized bed sounds like heaven for sure.

Met some great people out here, some travellers who've been at it for a long time, which is inspiring. I'm definitely ready to see my great friends and family for awhile, so I guess coming back to california for a minute won't be so bad.

Brief reflections.

1. Italians hate cold. It's impossible to get ice, to have a cold drink, to sit in the shade without getting yelled at. They hate cold.

2. Italians all have amazing sunglasses. Seriously. And clothing of course, but their shades are just so damned cool.

3. Prague is awesome. Go there.

4. Traveling with complete flexibility is the only way to travel. Booking ahead of time is just no fun whatsoever.

5. Travel. It's awesome. I'm going somewhere soon, actually everywhere, ask me when, we'll go together.

Prague, another done.

Before I start with the travel stuff, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. Really nice to see.

Anyway.

So Prague. Fuck. That place is great. We got up late on day 2, (Feroz sleeps in even more than me. I had to kick him up at noon) and kind of chilled the day away. I think we went to old town, had some kebob and maybe saw a church or two. At 7 we were back at the hostel drinking in the outdoor area, and Feroz went inside to make a beer run. A couple of swedes across the way looked over at me drinking alone and offering me a gin and tonic. That was the start of two action packed days.

I pulled up a chair and we all got to talking, when I found out they were from Sweden I was able to toast them in their language which they went nuts for. The cheers I know translates in Swede to 'Cheers for fuck's sake!!' So we all had a lot of fun w- that.

The swedes had a lot of booze and they were sharing it so we really got into it. At some point Feroz and I invited every english speaking person in the hostel to the table and we had about 30 folks from all over the world sitting around having an amazing time. We went out to the five story club again and I discovered again that English people just can not dance. I really want to go back to London and just poke my head in the door of a club. If the girls from the other night danced like hunchbacks the group we hung out with this time danced like spider monkeys from the matrix. It was horrifying and I couldn't find the swedish guys (turns out there were getting robbed by aggressive gypsy hookers at a strip club) so Feroz and I quit at about 4 am.

Check out was at 9am and we were supposed to leave, but that was shot when I heard the front desk guy pound on the door. We yelled that we'd be staying another night and he was fine with that, so back to bed.

I finally got Feroz up at freaking 1pm and we figured since we'd stayed in Prague so long we should actually do some site-seeing. The old town is beautiful, we walked charles bridge saw a few churches a castle and took a great boat ride up the canal. Feeling quite accomplished we stopped off for some traditional goulash. Great stuff.

We'd both agreed that a quiet night sounded brilliant. We'd be checking out at about 8 since our flight to Rome was at 11am and we had no clue where the airport was. Of course the rest of the hostel had other plans.

We got back and went to check the internet which is in the common area-bar. And everyone was waiting for us. The swedes, the aussies, the other aussies, the californians, the norweigens, the english and we added the spanish. It was nuts. We said we couldn't go to the club so everyone stayed at the hostel and partied with us. Somehow we got into discussion about different country's drinking games and decided on an easy one from the US, Kings cup. We had country vs country drinks being passed out non stop. There were songs being sung, shots, dances etc...It was definitely a multi'cultural experience.

At some point I realized it was my birthday and we kicked it up another notch.I got to practice a lot of spanish, and impressed the group from madrid so I'm feeling pretty confident about my upcoming travels. I don't know when the party shut down but I know the hostel staff had had enough of Feroz and I by the time we stopped. Somewhere along the end of the night I cracked my head on something in the room, which had more cabinets than most kitchens, and so I woke up with my pillow soaked in blood. That was an interesting few minutes as I checked my nose and face in the mirror and couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Putting my hat on answered that question. So yeah, in Prague, it's not a party till the pillow's soaked in blood!'

We got up late the next day which was still my birthday, made the plane on time, I found a great site skyscanner.net, very cheap tickets. And we got to rome at about noon. Rome is blazing hot. 35 celsius I think, which translates to something like 427 fahrenhiet. It's blistering. We've been taking cold showers, 2 or 3 times a day and drinking gallons or liters of water.

We couldn't really move yesterday after Amsterdam then Prague it was time for a day off. We found a little apartment room near san giovese for an okay deal and spent some time just relaxing. Watched some Prison Break, good show, I don't speak Italian, but there's enough action to make it enjoyable none'the'less. I can't say the same for italian star trek. So yeah, that was the birthday, spent most of it feeling miserable in an italian hotel room. Still ate well and walked around a little.

Touristed it up today, we saw the colesseum, which I've seen before, but I really love so it was good to go back. We paid for a guided tour, because I wanted Feroz to hear some of the cool stories that happened in those days. The guide was awful though and I had to tell him what I remembered. Still, it's an impressive site to see.

We ended up going on a 2nd tour since it was included, of old rome. And that was great. The guide was hysterical and had some really interesting stories to share with us. I won't go into detail because I've already written so much, but it was well worth it and I'm very glad we stayed for that part of the tour.

Now we've just finished a spectacular three course meal and are trying to figure out how to spend the rest of the evening. There's a bar crawl, but we're both still incredibly partied out so that may wait until tomorrow. It's definitely time for gelato.

Not sure when I'll blog again, but I'm alive for those who were wondering. Thanks again for the birthday wishes. I'm kinda growing old, not up, and I think this will be a very positive year.

Flight Club

You wake up in London. Go to sleep wake up in Amsterdam, Prague, Milan.

Well just when we get comfortable somewhere it's time to go again. Tomorrow morning we leave for Milan, Italy after a couple of awesome days in Prague. If it was up to me I'd probably head down to this town a few miles away for some drinking and rafting/tubing tomorrow, but Feroz hasn't seen Italy so I think that's where we'll be heading. If he ever wakes up we'll make a decision.

Prague has been great. It's got a good old world feel to it, the prices are much lower than Euro-Vegas and the beer's still good. We got in on Sunday, and couldn't really get into much. We were wiped out from a hellish night train. Spent hours cramped knee to knee with some Germans who didn't speak a word of english. They were young though, and even though we couldn't talk we all got along and had some laughs. Maybe they were just laughing at us, couldn't tell.

The first part of the train ride here was excellent. We went to the station in Amsterdam and this woman, seeing our state, must have taken pity on us. She hooked us up w/ first class tickets for cheaper than 2nd class. The tickets came w/ access to the first class lounge. A posh empty room stocked w/ FREE booze. We made good use of our time in the lounge and got on the train w/ a nice buzz. It was a sad few minutes when we had to give up the recliners for the cattle car.

We survived though and like I said hit Prague. Sunday was uneventful, after the nap nobody wanted to party. The hostel was dead, the town was dead. We sat around w/ some of the workers till 3 and called it a night.

Yesterday we did a half-assed site seeing job. Just walked around in intense heat, saw the charles bridge, an opera house? and had a few beers, which definitely could have been colder.

When we got back to the hostel we got ready to go out. Went downstairs and found signs of life! There's an outside area where you can sit and drink here,*and a cheap supply of beer* and there was a large group of Canadians living well. They had a case of beer and huge plates of pasta and sausage. We were starved for other people so we dragged up a chair and sat with them. They're the ones who are heading to the rafting town today actually, they'd been on a similair play it by ear schedule, had tried to get to rome twice and somehow ended up in prague.

Well they were fun, but I was feeling pretty social so I just started grabbing any english speakers who were outside. Feroz followed my lead and we started a good sized party. After a few more rounds, Feroz, me and this Peruvian Daniel decided to go to a big club near the charles bridge. Everyone else stayed but promised to come out tonight.

On the way to the club we ran into a pack of english girls and a utah morman from the hostel and we ended up at the club together. Daniel and the mormon are on each other instantly and Feroz and I are left to entertain the english, and we did a hell of a job.

Fact about english women: they absolutely can't dance. Not even a little. We wanted them to leave us alone but their friend had removed Daniel's shirt, (it's always the mormon) and so they weren't leaving her.

These girls were so impressed by anything we did on the dance floor that I got a kind of ridiculous idea. A quick discussion w/ Feroz led to a dance contest that really, you just should have seen.

We had a kind of soultrain line up thing going, and we got these girls doing the shopping cart, the sprinkler, the skateboard, the downhill skier....yeah I may have made that one up, but we did it. It was fantastic.

No matter what we did they loved it, I was going completely dumb just trying to figure out something that these birds wouldn't like. But I guess when your main dance is this shoulder swinging,head bobbing, finger snapping kind of thing the sprinkler looks like ballroom.

Well at some point Daniel got his shirt back and the three of us went up to get drinks. We toured the rest of the club, 5 floors, and safely avoided the english for the rest of the night. A 3am walk home w/ a stop for some food and here I am.

I'm dragging pretty hard today, fighting a sore throat and cold that has been coming on for days, and honestly I think I'm a little partied out. We're supposed to go somewhere with the rest of the crowd though so I'll have to suck it up.

Off to take advantage of some free laundry and a nice cool shower. See you soon everyone.

Strangers with Candy

Alright we're about to catch a train out of Amsterdam to Berlin/Prague. I think Feroz and I are both pretty done with this place.

Mom you may want to skip this entry (it's not that bad really). Oh yeah, mom's on myspace. Add carrie. put her in your top 8. She's cool.

So we got into Amsterdam yesterday, or the day before or something. And we were basically homeless. We had some friends who were supposed to be in town but we couldn't get a hold of them and the hostels were full. So we sat and had a couple of beers. The beer here is excellent. It's amazing, and strong. But they treat it so bad. After England where the bartender would take a few minutes to poor you the perfect beer, we were a little surprised to see the barkeep here pull two foamy beers and then wipe the tops off with a butter knife.

Glass washing also leaves something to be desired. The dishwashing system is a tub of COLD water that sits next to the bar. The bartender dunks the glass for a few seconds and presto. Yeah, this doesn't remove lipstick stains. Found that out first hand.

Anyway, after a few hours on the cold and rainy street we decided to get a room. We found a pretty nice set up with two beds and a private shower. This is a very gay friendly town, and the hotels were nice enough to offer a lot of one bed set ups, and one guy even said we could push the beds together. Awesome.

But I needed time apart so we slept in seperate beds.

After getting set up we turned on my phone, and it works out here no problem. I have no idea what the bill's going to be, but it was nice to get a hold of Feroz's friends.

We met them about a mile away from our hotel and proceeded to serious partying. We closed down a few bars, drank everything Holland threw at us, including some awful 12 year dutch gin that tastes like cheap tequila.

So at the end of the night, I've probably had a little too much fun and this guy comes up to me w/ a red chunk of something or other. Turns out it was E. He's like, 'hey man, let's take this!!!'

I'm like 'What? E huh? Gee what could go wrong? I'm in!!!"

Feroz is smarter than me.

He saved my life and took the damn drugs and gave them back to the overly friendly guy. Yeah. I don't do E, and after all the drinking there's no doubt it would have made me horribly sick, so good one Feroz. And bad Nate, no candy from strangers!

Anyway, we start heading back to the hotel and end up completely lost. We walked for probably an hour and a half in the wrong direction, out into rural amsterdam before finally hailing a cab who got us back to the train station. At that point we started walking in circles and finally paid a homeless guy to take us to our hotel. The best part is I have no clue how this prick found our hotel in 2 minutes w/ my description.

'DUDE....we're staying in the hotel w/ the really small beds..."

Feroz; "yeah..and there's a bunch of stairs."

'Yeah, stairs, and small beds...you know it?'

Homeless dude: "yeah, I take you there."

Of course he does it and we give him 5 euros and go pass out at 7am.

3pm day two we finally get out of bed. Lounged about ate some great food and then went out to see what amsterdam's famous for.

If you don't know the redlight district is full of....well...women with serious self-esteem issues. It was a kind of crazy experience. We walked down and it was a trip. Kind of like going to the pound, you just want to feed and cloth them, talk some sense into them, but instead we went and had a few more beers.

Now you've gotta be wondering..dammit Nate you're in amsterdam why haven't you been high the whole time?

Well I'll tell you. It's cuz we're light weights. We don't smoke, don't really like to smoke and if we do we're done after a hit. I have no moral problem with weed, I think it should be legal. My problem is it's too damned strong.

So yeah, we got high as hell last night. And ate every dutch munchie we could get our hands on. And the dutch have a bunch of great munchies. Ended the night around 4 430, woke up a little while ago feeling like absolute hell. I'm still completely brain dead and Feroz is amazed that I can put words together well enough to write this.

It's pretty much time to go, so I'll check in again after we leave the next city. Current plan is train to prague which stops in berlin. We'll probably hang there for a day or so. We're not too sure of anything right now.

And we're off

Well, London's been good but it's time to really get rolling.

Since Feroz and I are both windmill enthusiasts we thought one of the most important countries to see on this trip would be Amsterdam. So in about an hour we're leaving his family's place and hopping a flight.

London's been good. We did a site seeing pub crawl of central london yesterday. Drank next to Big Ben and the EYE OF LONDON. Seriously people around here are very impressed by ferris wheels.

That's been about it for London, we're off the beaten path so it's been tough to go out at night. We've spent time with his family which is great, though they've almost killed me with kindness. Seriously.

So here's what happened at the start of the trip in more detail:

We got in to customs and because Feroz's family was picking us up at the airport we didn't have their address. There's a form you have to hand in at the border and we left that spot blank. The agent did not appreciate this. So she starts grilling us: 'how long will you be here?' 'where's your return ticket?' 'where else are you going?' 'how are you getting there?'

Unfortunately Feroz and I decided not to plan this trip at all, so we're looking at her a little bleary-eyed and confused and she starts getting more intense 'how much cash do you have in your pocket?' 'what will you do if the family doesn't come?

Really bizarre questions just designed to screw us up. At this point she says she can refuse us entry if we can't get more proof that we plan on leaving England. I'm thinking that if this is how the English are, I'm ready to ship out today so I don't think that'll be a problem.

But after taking a page of notes on us and constantly berating our planning skills she stamps us through.

We get to Feroz's family's place and they are just wonderful. Unfortunately they're a little too wonderful. They just won't stop feeding me. I'm not trying to be rude so I eat everything set in front of me. That means for lunch: A huge amount of pizza, some lamb and rice and baked beans. Yeah, that's a great combination for someone who spent the last 17 hours traveling and hasn't slept in longer. Top it off w/ a cup of black tea filled with creme and I'm feeling great.

We take a nap and get up, and of course it's time for dinner. At this point I'm in the bathroom trying to do some push ups or something just to burn a few calories. I am completely terrified to go down and eat.

Dinner is two plates of amazing lamb curry. It was very good, but it was amazing that I could keep any of it down. Unfortunately I couldn't for long.

Yup. Ouch. I had to sneak off to the bathroom a few times. My best efforts to channel those hot dog eating champions just didn't work out. But nobody found out and everybody's happy we came.

For last night Feroz taught me a few tricks and I was able to eat substantially less. Still way more than I'm used to but at least I didn't feel like passing out.

Alright, we're off to the airport.

Next blog will have much more interesting content.

Here Safely

Got into london after a sleepless cramped flight on virgin atlantic. The seats were smaller than southwest's, plus I lost the rock paper scissors match for the aisle seat. Ouch.

I'm absolutely exhausted at the moment. This will be short. Haven't seen anything yet. Almost got denied entry to London which was interesting. We were about to have to turn around to the states or go through some uncomfortable but somehow still polite english interrogation. Anyone who knows my travel luck will get a laugh out of that, it's just always something.

Been with Feroz's family the rest of the day. I have eaten. And eaten.


Details later. Foolishly enough London let us in, trouble starts tomorrow.