Eurotrip II '09
Jul. 8th, 2009 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedBack from Europe and moved into the apartment! Suppose I'll just repost from twitter again, to save time:
1. In London! At the hostel. Ready to kill my brother for booking something five stops away from anything to save two pounds. (6:42 AM Jun 13th)
2. On the flight over I had the ENTIRE CENTER AISLE to myself!! Sleep >> windows. So far today: Borough Market and 20 of Chekov's 40 Stories. (6:48 AM Jun 13th)
3. Finished up Friday with Portobello Road/Notting Hill/crosstown bus to Bond Street where all the stores played american music EXCEPT Top Shop, which played Lily Allen (2:52 PM Jun 14th)
4. Then I collapsed from jetlag. XD But met some very strange/cool people at the hostel... (l2:58 PM Jun 14th)
5. like the guy who's lived in a different hostel every week for the past year. He has an apt in Camden but it's cheaper to rent it out... (3:00 PM Jun 14th)
6. ..for money against the mortgage. Only 16 more years until he owns it free and clear! (Think he'd be bored living in one place full time) (3:05 PM Jun 14th)
7. For the record, his favorite London hostels are the Clink and the Generator off King's Cross (3:07 PM Jun 14th)
8. God bless my brother. I was pushing for us to go out and he was agreeing but with an air of obvious reluctance/matyrdom... (5:38 PM Jun 14th)
9. ...until I said, what about a gay bar? (actually a gay club) and he perked up. "I love gay people!" (5:40 PM Jun 14th)
10. Otherwise today was two picnics and lots of walking. And yes i did bring water. (5:55 PM Jun 14th)
11. Camden Town on Sunday (or every day?) is like a carnival with the music or attractions (5:57 PM Jun 14th)
12. Brick Lane is Bengali restaurants with scattered hipsters for half a mile, then HIPSTER GROUND ZERO at Vibe 1001 and Rough Trade (6:00 PM Jun 14th)
13. Then another 1/2 mile at lower hipster density to Bethnal G. Recognized a street musician from Carnaby--much more appreciative audience @ BL (6:08 PM Jun 14th)
14. a few tweets back should have read: withOUT the music or attractions (6:13 PM Jun 14th)
15. Met up with one of my brother's friends. Did you know that "scone" has a short o? like "on"? I didn't. (11:04 PM Jun 16th)
16. No web access in the UK since I forgot to bring the right kind of plug adapter, but should have it in Rome. (I'm on the bus to the airport.) (11:07 PM Jun 16th)
17. BTW, we didn't go clubbing. Went to a show instead. The tube stops running at 12:30 so if you go out you have to COMMIT: (12:08 AM Jun 17th)
18. either learn the night bus schedule or stay out until morning. (12:09 AM Jun 17th)
19. Got up early to see art instead. British Museum and Tate Modern. Coming out of the summer exhibition at the Royal Gallery I overheard: (12:14 AM Jun 17th)
20. "Just looking is soooo exhausting." (To understand the humor, imagine a posh accent.) (12:18 AM Jun 17th)
21. In covent garden, the menswear is on the first floor and the womenswear is hidden away in the basement. (12:22 AM Jun 17th)
22. In westminster abbey, notable poets who died before c. 1900 are "honorarily" interred, UNLESS they happened to be nobles (12:25 AM Jun 17th)
23. My brother says that the french are more restrained: there are only ever about 60 people buried at the Pantheon (12:28 AM Jun 17th)
24. Every time a writer goes in, a "friend of the revolution" comes out (12:29 AM Jun 17th)
25. So far in rome: Vatican, Colliseum, Spanish Steps, AT LEAST A DOZEN CHURCHES where you can choose to pray to crucified jesus or baby jesus (3:22 AM Jun 20th)
26. Even the metro is in the shape of a cross (3:25 AM June 20th)
27. In Trastaveri we saw an orchestra playing "opening theme from the godfather" in a church. great acoustics. they are also really cool... (3:24 AM Jun 20th)
28. ...as in, cool when it is 33 degrees C outside. saw more than one local duck inside to text or check phone messages. (3:26 AM Jun 20th)
29. also saw: a procession, and a free concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. garage rock band played Under the Sea (3:29 AM Jun 20th)
30. because it's Caribbean, see? (3:31 AM Jun 20th)
31. The Vatican Museum also has modern art. I feel a little sorry for the artists, sandwiched between Raphael and Michelangelo. (3:33 AM Jun 20th)
32. in pain yesterday but at least knew better than to drink cold things thanks to R. today's a beach day - might see some ruins later on. (3:41 AM Jun 20th)
33. there are lots of Americans in Rome but there are also lots of Australians on "winter" holiday. I met a carpenter who is on day 6 of 72... (3:45 AM Jun 20th)
34. ...everyone at the hostel is Eurocrawling and Rome is just one stop (3:47 AM June 20th)
35. You should wear sunscreen to the beach. You should especially wear sunscreen to the beach when you are not wearing sunscreening makeup. Ow. (12:57 PM Jun 20th)
36. In the airport en route to Belfast but thought I'd note that Roman women wear really, really, really cute shoes. (3:31 AM Jun 21st)
37. Cold medicine for 60p. Drugs are so cheap in the UK. (10:30 AM Jun 22nd)
37a. @yinh There was a really cool exhibit in the British museum: tapestries of all the drugs an Englishperson will take in his/her lifetime. (10:38 AM Jun 22nd)
37b. @yinh They were made out of netting with pockets for the capsules, five feet wide and fifty feet long. (10:40 AM Jun 22nd)
38. Don't worry, we took it easy today: rented a car and drove along the coast from Belfast to L'derry. (10:33 AM Jun 22nd)
39. The hardest part of driving on the other side of the road isn't the reversed turns or transmission, it's remembering to stay inside the lane. (10:35 AM Jun 22nd)
40. Tourist stuff in Belfast is extremely well-marked. Dunno if I believe the city is turning around but... (10:42 AM Jun 22nd)
41. I believe that Belfast wants me to believe that the city is turning around. (10:43 AM Jun 22nd)
42. BTW the coast of Northern Ireland is very pretty. If you come here just follow the route marked on the tourist map, you can't go wrong. (10:48 AM Jun 22nd)
43. There's a Seaman's Church in Belfast, with anchors in the stained glass window. My theory is: (10:52 AM Jun 22nd)
44. It's some reformer's attempt at getting those lewd, licentious, morally deficient sailors into church. (10:55 AM Jun 22nd)
45. In Dublin's fair city... there are a lot of internet cafés. (9:14 AM Jun 23rd)
46. Getting sicker rather than better so I'm taking the day off. But it's Pride Week in Dublin! Hope to recover in time for gay karaoke finals. (9:20 AM Jun 23rd)
47. 10pm at the corner pub - be there or be square. (9:22 AM Jun 23rd)
47. At the archaeological museum. Something really feminine about these ancient Irish kings... (8:21 AM Jun 24th)
48. ...in the way they are tied to fertility cyles, and in the way that subjugated rivals are made to suck their nipples (8:23 AM June 24th)
49. Also: there was a shrine to Brigit's shoe! Looked like a size 6. (8:26 AM Jun 24th)
50. Eating Irish stew in an Irish sports bar. Team USA just knocked Team Spain out of the Confederation Cup! Go USA! (1:59 PM Jun 24th)
51. This (=club night in London) was canceled but I was picked up by these sort of sleazy upper management types and somehow managed to have a pretty good time anyway. http://blip.fm/~93g49 (12:36 PM Jun 29th from Blip.fm)
52. Sometimes you can get in cabs with strangers and it will totally work out! Only downside is the story is less fun to tell than I imagined it would be. http://blip.fm/~93ggh (12:40 PM Jun 29th from Blip.fm)
[NEWCASTLE->EDINBURGH GOES HERE]
53. Home! Seatmate on the plane told me the best way to get ahead in corporate America is to be a Yes Man. (8:26 AM Jun 29th)
54. He then proceeded to "that's a good point" everything I said for the next four hours... (8:27 AM Jun 29th)
55. We watched In the Know which is Brit-Am relations done as The Office, and Burn Notice which is domestic spying done as Dumb and Dumber. (8:30 AM Jun 29th)
56. There is a full-sized train conductor's car on the Industrial Scotland floor of the National Museum in Edinburgh. (8:36 AM Jun 29th)
57. Also saw the Writer's Museum. W Scott, RL Stevenson, and R Burns all published their first books at 27-28: readers who are writers take note (8:38 AM Jun 29th)
55. I want to move to Edinburgh! Cold damp weather made up for by fantastic architecture. (8:42 AM Jun 29th)
I realize that some of these tweets are kind of... mysterious... but there are some things I'd rather not write down where my parents might read about them, XD. But some other highlights were:
a. At the Royal Gallery, there was a collage of, on one side, American/Japanese celebrities making the V sign, and on the other, British celebrities showing two fingers. The piece was called: War and Peace. XD There was also a Victorian dress made out of wire in two pieces, which opened up on hinges to reveal a small space lined with mirrors. I thought, wow, a way to literally hide under mother's skirts.
b. The show we went to see at Victoria was The Mousetrap, and we got balcony seats, something that apparently only out-of-towners do. Because my brother only had a pair of shorts on, and because we'd gotten to the theater early, we decided to go buy him a pair of pants. What followed was an EPIC search across the length, breadth, and height of Covent Garden for any pair of jeans for under 30 pounds.
c. The guy at our hostel in Rome more-or-less wrote us four-day plan, and we more-or-less did it in three and a half days and got to spend the last half-day at the beach. Where I was badly sunburned, and then I got sick. XD; But was more-or-less better two days later! Another way we pushed our luck was through compromise: my brother is basically an old man, so if it was up to him we would have been up every day at 6am and in bed by 10pm. And I'm basically a bum, so if it was up to me we would have been in bed every day at 4am and up at noon. So we compromised: asleep by 2am, up by 8am. Which was fine by me, I usually only sleep 6 hours a night anyway. *g*
d. There is not much on Rome here but that is because it was completely overwhelming. I'd heard that Italy has a two major works of art per one person ratio, and after coming here, I can believe it.
e. Coming from Rome, Belfast was actually a lot of fun, because we were able to do and see everything in the one day we were there. This appealed to my brother's (no so inner) completionist.
f. Besides some nice parks and museums, everything fun to do in downtown Dublin costs money: you can go shopping, or you can go out to eat. Food at restaurants is expensive due to, I was told, the high cost of keeping a liquor license. Kind of funny in a town with that many distilleries. Dublin is nice though - even if we were warned not to go there by an Irishman, since Dublin is an international city and not "the real Ireland". (International in the sense of, next to the Indian restaurant is a Chinese restaurant, a French restaurant, and an Italian restaurant.) Alex saw more of the old/industrial town on the other side of the river; I slept to recover from my sunburn-induced cold.
g. Alex and I split up at Dublin - I went to Newcastle (after a short side-trip to London) where I had plans to meet up with a friend from college. Newcastle was amazing. XD It's on the North Sea, you can take the metro straight to the coast. The town itself is like, half 18th century architecture and half shopping malls. Everyone is incredibly friendly and there is a "famous" club scene. Basically what amazed me about this was the HUGE MALL, in the CENTER OF TOWN, filled with NOTHING but bars and clubs. So if you don't like the club you're at, you can just get on the escalator and find another one. Think about the economics of this! Peak club hours are 12am-4am, or only four hours a day, so for clubs to support a shopping mall in the center of town (as opposed to some abandoned warehouse on the edges) the draw must be seriously high, or the rent must be seriously low, or both. Sabina said it sounded like the (Eastern European?) mega-clubs, five floors of nonstop dance music. Except that in Newcastle it's like Halloween all night, every night. XD The main dress is florescent tank tops with pink tutus, but we also saw goths, cats, a policewoman, and a hello nurse. Anyway, I was... impressed? Yeah, impressed.
h. National Museum in Scotland was seriously nice, wish I'd had more time there. Did you know that Scotch whisky is the UK's fifth most important export?
Hmmm, I suppose that's everything. My brother has pictures up to Belfast on his facebook - same last name, and first name is Alex, for those of you who know me over there.
1. In London! At the hostel. Ready to kill my brother for booking something five stops away from anything to save two pounds. (6:42 AM Jun 13th)
2. On the flight over I had the ENTIRE CENTER AISLE to myself!! Sleep >> windows. So far today: Borough Market and 20 of Chekov's 40 Stories. (6:48 AM Jun 13th)
3. Finished up Friday with Portobello Road/Notting Hill/crosstown bus to Bond Street where all the stores played american music EXCEPT Top Shop, which played Lily Allen (2:52 PM Jun 14th)
4. Then I collapsed from jetlag. XD But met some very strange/cool people at the hostel... (l2:58 PM Jun 14th)
5. like the guy who's lived in a different hostel every week for the past year. He has an apt in Camden but it's cheaper to rent it out... (3:00 PM Jun 14th)
6. ..for money against the mortgage. Only 16 more years until he owns it free and clear! (Think he'd be bored living in one place full time) (3:05 PM Jun 14th)
7. For the record, his favorite London hostels are the Clink and the Generator off King's Cross (3:07 PM Jun 14th)
8. God bless my brother. I was pushing for us to go out and he was agreeing but with an air of obvious reluctance/matyrdom... (5:38 PM Jun 14th)
9. ...until I said, what about a gay bar? (actually a gay club) and he perked up. "I love gay people!" (5:40 PM Jun 14th)
10. Otherwise today was two picnics and lots of walking. And yes i did bring water. (5:55 PM Jun 14th)
11. Camden Town on Sunday (or every day?) is like a carnival with the music or attractions (5:57 PM Jun 14th)
12. Brick Lane is Bengali restaurants with scattered hipsters for half a mile, then HIPSTER GROUND ZERO at Vibe 1001 and Rough Trade (6:00 PM Jun 14th)
13. Then another 1/2 mile at lower hipster density to Bethnal G. Recognized a street musician from Carnaby--much more appreciative audience @ BL (6:08 PM Jun 14th)
14. a few tweets back should have read: withOUT the music or attractions (6:13 PM Jun 14th)
15. Met up with one of my brother's friends. Did you know that "scone" has a short o? like "on"? I didn't. (11:04 PM Jun 16th)
16. No web access in the UK since I forgot to bring the right kind of plug adapter, but should have it in Rome. (I'm on the bus to the airport.) (11:07 PM Jun 16th)
17. BTW, we didn't go clubbing. Went to a show instead. The tube stops running at 12:30 so if you go out you have to COMMIT: (12:08 AM Jun 17th)
18. either learn the night bus schedule or stay out until morning. (12:09 AM Jun 17th)
19. Got up early to see art instead. British Museum and Tate Modern. Coming out of the summer exhibition at the Royal Gallery I overheard: (12:14 AM Jun 17th)
20. "Just looking is soooo exhausting." (To understand the humor, imagine a posh accent.) (12:18 AM Jun 17th)
21. In covent garden, the menswear is on the first floor and the womenswear is hidden away in the basement. (12:22 AM Jun 17th)
22. In westminster abbey, notable poets who died before c. 1900 are "honorarily" interred, UNLESS they happened to be nobles (12:25 AM Jun 17th)
23. My brother says that the french are more restrained: there are only ever about 60 people buried at the Pantheon (12:28 AM Jun 17th)
24. Every time a writer goes in, a "friend of the revolution" comes out (12:29 AM Jun 17th)
25. So far in rome: Vatican, Colliseum, Spanish Steps, AT LEAST A DOZEN CHURCHES where you can choose to pray to crucified jesus or baby jesus (3:22 AM Jun 20th)
26. Even the metro is in the shape of a cross (3:25 AM June 20th)
27. In Trastaveri we saw an orchestra playing "opening theme from the godfather" in a church. great acoustics. they are also really cool... (3:24 AM Jun 20th)
28. ...as in, cool when it is 33 degrees C outside. saw more than one local duck inside to text or check phone messages. (3:26 AM Jun 20th)
29. also saw: a procession, and a free concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. garage rock band played Under the Sea (3:29 AM Jun 20th)
30. because it's Caribbean, see? (3:31 AM Jun 20th)
31. The Vatican Museum also has modern art. I feel a little sorry for the artists, sandwiched between Raphael and Michelangelo. (3:33 AM Jun 20th)
32. in pain yesterday but at least knew better than to drink cold things thanks to R. today's a beach day - might see some ruins later on. (3:41 AM Jun 20th)
33. there are lots of Americans in Rome but there are also lots of Australians on "winter" holiday. I met a carpenter who is on day 6 of 72... (3:45 AM Jun 20th)
34. ...everyone at the hostel is Eurocrawling and Rome is just one stop (3:47 AM June 20th)
35. You should wear sunscreen to the beach. You should especially wear sunscreen to the beach when you are not wearing sunscreening makeup. Ow. (12:57 PM Jun 20th)
36. In the airport en route to Belfast but thought I'd note that Roman women wear really, really, really cute shoes. (3:31 AM Jun 21st)
37. Cold medicine for 60p. Drugs are so cheap in the UK. (10:30 AM Jun 22nd)
37a. @yinh There was a really cool exhibit in the British museum: tapestries of all the drugs an Englishperson will take in his/her lifetime. (10:38 AM Jun 22nd)
37b. @yinh They were made out of netting with pockets for the capsules, five feet wide and fifty feet long. (10:40 AM Jun 22nd)
38. Don't worry, we took it easy today: rented a car and drove along the coast from Belfast to L'derry. (10:33 AM Jun 22nd)
39. The hardest part of driving on the other side of the road isn't the reversed turns or transmission, it's remembering to stay inside the lane. (10:35 AM Jun 22nd)
40. Tourist stuff in Belfast is extremely well-marked. Dunno if I believe the city is turning around but... (10:42 AM Jun 22nd)
41. I believe that Belfast wants me to believe that the city is turning around. (10:43 AM Jun 22nd)
42. BTW the coast of Northern Ireland is very pretty. If you come here just follow the route marked on the tourist map, you can't go wrong. (10:48 AM Jun 22nd)
43. There's a Seaman's Church in Belfast, with anchors in the stained glass window. My theory is: (10:52 AM Jun 22nd)
44. It's some reformer's attempt at getting those lewd, licentious, morally deficient sailors into church. (10:55 AM Jun 22nd)
45. In Dublin's fair city... there are a lot of internet cafés. (9:14 AM Jun 23rd)
46. Getting sicker rather than better so I'm taking the day off. But it's Pride Week in Dublin! Hope to recover in time for gay karaoke finals. (9:20 AM Jun 23rd)
47. 10pm at the corner pub - be there or be square. (9:22 AM Jun 23rd)
47. At the archaeological museum. Something really feminine about these ancient Irish kings... (8:21 AM Jun 24th)
48. ...in the way they are tied to fertility cyles, and in the way that subjugated rivals are made to suck their nipples (8:23 AM June 24th)
49. Also: there was a shrine to Brigit's shoe! Looked like a size 6. (8:26 AM Jun 24th)
50. Eating Irish stew in an Irish sports bar. Team USA just knocked Team Spain out of the Confederation Cup! Go USA! (1:59 PM Jun 24th)
51. This (=club night in London) was canceled but I was picked up by these sort of sleazy upper management types and somehow managed to have a pretty good time anyway. http://blip.fm/~93g49 (12:36 PM Jun 29th from Blip.fm)
52. Sometimes you can get in cabs with strangers and it will totally work out! Only downside is the story is less fun to tell than I imagined it would be. http://blip.fm/~93ggh (12:40 PM Jun 29th from Blip.fm)
[NEWCASTLE->EDINBURGH GOES HERE]
53. Home! Seatmate on the plane told me the best way to get ahead in corporate America is to be a Yes Man. (8:26 AM Jun 29th)
54. He then proceeded to "that's a good point" everything I said for the next four hours... (8:27 AM Jun 29th)
55. We watched In the Know which is Brit-Am relations done as The Office, and Burn Notice which is domestic spying done as Dumb and Dumber. (8:30 AM Jun 29th)
56. There is a full-sized train conductor's car on the Industrial Scotland floor of the National Museum in Edinburgh. (8:36 AM Jun 29th)
57. Also saw the Writer's Museum. W Scott, RL Stevenson, and R Burns all published their first books at 27-28: readers who are writers take note (8:38 AM Jun 29th)
55. I want to move to Edinburgh! Cold damp weather made up for by fantastic architecture. (8:42 AM Jun 29th)
I realize that some of these tweets are kind of... mysterious... but there are some things I'd rather not write down where my parents might read about them, XD. But some other highlights were:
a. At the Royal Gallery, there was a collage of, on one side, American/Japanese celebrities making the V sign, and on the other, British celebrities showing two fingers. The piece was called: War and Peace. XD There was also a Victorian dress made out of wire in two pieces, which opened up on hinges to reveal a small space lined with mirrors. I thought, wow, a way to literally hide under mother's skirts.
b. The show we went to see at Victoria was The Mousetrap, and we got balcony seats, something that apparently only out-of-towners do. Because my brother only had a pair of shorts on, and because we'd gotten to the theater early, we decided to go buy him a pair of pants. What followed was an EPIC search across the length, breadth, and height of Covent Garden for any pair of jeans for under 30 pounds.
c. The guy at our hostel in Rome more-or-less wrote us four-day plan, and we more-or-less did it in three and a half days and got to spend the last half-day at the beach. Where I was badly sunburned, and then I got sick. XD; But was more-or-less better two days later! Another way we pushed our luck was through compromise: my brother is basically an old man, so if it was up to him we would have been up every day at 6am and in bed by 10pm. And I'm basically a bum, so if it was up to me we would have been in bed every day at 4am and up at noon. So we compromised: asleep by 2am, up by 8am. Which was fine by me, I usually only sleep 6 hours a night anyway. *g*
d. There is not much on Rome here but that is because it was completely overwhelming. I'd heard that Italy has a two major works of art per one person ratio, and after coming here, I can believe it.
e. Coming from Rome, Belfast was actually a lot of fun, because we were able to do and see everything in the one day we were there. This appealed to my brother's (no so inner) completionist.
f. Besides some nice parks and museums, everything fun to do in downtown Dublin costs money: you can go shopping, or you can go out to eat. Food at restaurants is expensive due to, I was told, the high cost of keeping a liquor license. Kind of funny in a town with that many distilleries. Dublin is nice though - even if we were warned not to go there by an Irishman, since Dublin is an international city and not "the real Ireland". (International in the sense of, next to the Indian restaurant is a Chinese restaurant, a French restaurant, and an Italian restaurant.) Alex saw more of the old/industrial town on the other side of the river; I slept to recover from my sunburn-induced cold.
g. Alex and I split up at Dublin - I went to Newcastle (after a short side-trip to London) where I had plans to meet up with a friend from college. Newcastle was amazing. XD It's on the North Sea, you can take the metro straight to the coast. The town itself is like, half 18th century architecture and half shopping malls. Everyone is incredibly friendly and there is a "famous" club scene. Basically what amazed me about this was the HUGE MALL, in the CENTER OF TOWN, filled with NOTHING but bars and clubs. So if you don't like the club you're at, you can just get on the escalator and find another one. Think about the economics of this! Peak club hours are 12am-4am, or only four hours a day, so for clubs to support a shopping mall in the center of town (as opposed to some abandoned warehouse on the edges) the draw must be seriously high, or the rent must be seriously low, or both. Sabina said it sounded like the (Eastern European?) mega-clubs, five floors of nonstop dance music. Except that in Newcastle it's like Halloween all night, every night. XD The main dress is florescent tank tops with pink tutus, but we also saw goths, cats, a policewoman, and a hello nurse. Anyway, I was... impressed? Yeah, impressed.
h. National Museum in Scotland was seriously nice, wish I'd had more time there. Did you know that Scotch whisky is the UK's fifth most important export?
Hmmm, I suppose that's everything. My brother has pictures up to Belfast on his facebook - same last name, and first name is Alex, for those of you who know me over there.