From Guinness to Gaudí

MSN Messenger: You can now send me text messages through MSN. Yay!

---

INSERT: Ottawa SENATORS, you are awesome! Keep it up, boys!

----

A good time was had by all this past study week, from my first and last pint of Guinness in Dublin with Anne and Essi to experiencing the incredible architecture of Antoni Gaudí dispersed all over Barcelona with Ate. Early on the morning of the 22^nd, Anne, Essi and I got to Blackpool before lunch to take our 45-minute flight to Dublin.

dublin.IRELAND sat.OCT22/05-tues.OCT25/05

After taking the bus from Dublin Airport to Heuston Station in the city centre, we finally arrived to an unexpectedly ghetto hostel. Come to think of it, this past week’s worth of traveling, I stayed in some of the more ghetto hostels, although the one in Barcelona had some good benefits. The Brewery Hostel in Dublin, however, was seriously lacking, apart maybe from the included breakfast and that it was conveniently located near St. James’s hospital (this came in very handy, we soon find out).

I should have known how ghetto it was when the receptionist (an American guy) reminded me so much of this guy I used to know from Waterloo. This was the first time I was gonna stay in a 4-person private ensuite, and I was expecting it to at least be nicer than my past 10-people dorm-type room. It couldn’t have been worse. We get into the room and there’s garbage on the beds, a wet and very dirty towel on the floor of the bathroom, and a gross unflushed toilet. Apart from that, I couldn’t even sit up straight on the bottom bunk, and if I can’t sit up straight, something’s definitely wrong.

Of course we complained and this other guy, who we later learned was from Orillia, apologized to us, somewhat insincerely, and assured us the room would receive a proper Eric Cleaning. He was Eric.

Eventually, we got into our semi-clean room, freshened up a bit, and went walking into the city centre of Dublin. We walked along the River Liffey, which runs through the city of Dublin, dividing the north and south sides, where we ended up at Temple Bar, a trendy area filled with pubs, clubs and restaurants. We decided to have a nice dinner that night, choosing this restaurant called Trastavere in the middle of Temple Bar. The food was good, but it came at a price, we discovered the next day…

After dinner, we walked around Dublin for a while, getting familiar with the city as we got all the way to Grafton Street, this pedestrian shopping street, St. Stephen’s Green, and seeing the Leinster House, which is, I believe, their government building, illuminated at night. After some coffee at this café, we walked back to the hostel, conveniently located right next to the Guinness Brewery and away from the city centre, in the rain.

After breakfast the next morning, we got on the Dublin Tour Bus and took the tour which took us as far as Kilmainham Gaol and Phoenix Park, and running along the north side of the River Liffey.

Here’s a view of the River Liffey from O’Connell Bridge. The next bridge further up is the Ha’penny Bridge, which connects the Temple Bar area, on the left, to the north side.

After going up Parnell Square on the north side, the tour took us back down to the south side, passing by Trinity College, Merrion Square, St, Stephen’s Green, and us, ending up at the Guinness Storehouse. I think Guinness was everywhere even more so than shamrocks, Leprechauns and anything green.

Did you know that the Guinness Book of World Records was also created by the same man who founded Guinness beer, Arthur Guinness, who kept a collection of records? Fun fact.

Of course we had to do the brewery tour, although I wasn’t all that interested in exactly just how much water, barley, hops and yeast was needed to create the “magic that is Guinness.” That’s a direct quote. Coolest parts about the Brewery tour, however, was the entrance keepsake which is this clear plastic circular thing, which I’m assuming is a paper-weight made to look like a blob of water, which actually has a few drops of Guinness encased in it. Pretty fun. Also pretty cool was the free pint you get at the end of the tour, served up in the Gravity Bar, this circular room with glass windows all around, giving a panoramic view of the city and is the highest bar in Dublin.

Essi, Anne and I with our pints of Guinness in the Gravity Bar. The view from the bar was amazing. The Guinness, a little less so. One sip, of mostly foam, and we were done. I hate beer to begin with and Guinness is just black death on your taste buds.

That was Attempt One of us trying to be Irish. Attempt Two quickly followed in the Guinness Storehouse gift shop downstairs.

Do Irish people even really wear these hats? It’s probably some joke they play on all the tourists.

After some fun times taking pictures at Guinness, we walked down towards St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Castle (not at all as impressive as some others I’ve seen), and then to Trinity College, where Essi and I took the self-guided tour of the Library to see the amazing Book of Kells and the Long Room. The Book of Kells is the oldest manuscript, with the most amazing coloured illustrations of the four gospels made by monks in the 8^th century. I can’t even describe how cool this was. Enlarged pictures showed the incredible detail of not only each picture but also of all the text within the book. In the upper floor of the Library is the Long Room, about 65m in length, which houses around 200 000 of the library’s oldest books. I wish I could have taken pictures.

We then headed down to Merrion Square, around which are the Leinster House, the National Gallery of Ireland and streets of Old Georgian tenement houses, where you can experience a display of a typically Irish door.

This, we were told, is the most photographed door in Ireland. Why, I have no clue and I don’t think the tour guide did either, but it’s pretty, no? The doors lining the street are all painted in bright colours, apparently because when some royal (I can’t remember who) died, the Queen of England asked the Irish people to paint all their doors black as a sign of mourning, but being Irish, they all painted their doors bright colours. Another thing with the coloured doors was that they helped the drunk Irishmen find their house when they were coming home from the pub.

Anyhow, after a load of door-picture-taking by Anne and Essi, we went to Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre and had supper, during which Essi’s whole body broke out in horrible hives. The night before, she had started itching all over, but had been alright during the day. We quickly took a cab to St. James’s Hospital, with the assumption that it had to be the nasty, dirty sheets she slept in at the ghetto hostel which caused her rash. The doctor assured us, however, that it was not the sheets but the seafood Essi had the night before at Trastavere. Poor girl. Already lactose intolerant and now, seafood was off her already-short list.

I later found out that while in the cab on our way to the hospital, Anne and I were having the exact same thoughts: Goodbye, Backstreet Boys concert.

If you thought that the purpose of this Dublin trip was to see Dublin, you’re sadly mistaken. At least, according to Anne. Kinda embarrassed to say, but this Dublin trip, which happened to fall during our study week, was planned pretty specifically according to the Backstreet Boys Never Gone Tour schedule. Even before buying the tickets, so many bad omens were telling us that we’re not meant to go to the concert, to Anne’s dismay, but Essi lying in the emergency room was the final nail on the coffin.

2 hours later… however…

With Essi’s assurance that she’d be perfectly alright at the hospital and the doctor’s assurance that Essi would be monitored until the end of the concert, this is what Anne saw for the next 3 hours. What I saw was about 9 inches to the south.

After screams of “I love you, Jesse McCartney!” the Backstreet Boys put on a good show for Dublin, although, I’m sure they were a ton better back in the day when they could actually dance. It was a good show nonetheless, although it didn’t help having this giant German girl constantly yelling in my ear “I looove them! Don’t they look so cool?? I loooove Brian! And Nick. But not Hoe-wee.”

An eventful night, but everything turned out well. Essi was released early from the hospital and managed to walk back to our hostel by herself; Anne got to see the Backstreet Boys and left with a free poster she found on the ground; and I got soaked walking for half an hour in the pouring rain to the bus stop. Anne, remember – big GIANT Christmas present. BIG.

Side note: Never, ever call Canada from another country other than in the UK. Collectively, Essi and I spent about £20 talking to family and friends in our respective countries on one phone call each. I guess it could be worse; at least it wasn’t $600+ USD.

The next day was, thankfully, not so eventful and was spent shopping around the north side of the city, discovering and buying a ton of stuff at the cheapest store, Penneys. Clubbing shirts for €3.00 and cute purses for €1.00 – you can’t ask for more. We also had a nice late lunch/early dinner at this place called Sorrento’s, just off of O’Connell Street. All shopped out, we walked around a bit more and then headed off to the hostel, and had a quiet early night of packing and internet.

Places I visited in Dublin:

• Trinity College
• Merrion Square
• St. Stephen’s Green
• Christ Church Cathedral
• Dublinia
• St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Leinster Houses
• Guinness Storehouse
• Kilmainham Gaol
• Phoenix Park
• River Liffey
• Ha’penny Bridge
• Temple Bar
• Parnell Square
• Dublin Castle
• The Four Courts
• Bank of Ireland building
• National Gallery of Ireland
• Oscar Wilde Memorial

Tuesday morning, the girls and I parted ways, as I left at 7:00am to catch my 9:50am flight to Barcelona, and the girls caught their flight later that day to London.

----

barcelona.SPAIN tues.OCT25/05-fri.OCT28/05

I arrived at Reus Airport at 1:30pm and took an hour and a half bus ride to the city of Barcelona, passing through the Spanish countryside. I got to Barcelona-Sants station and after being told that I was further from the city centre than I originally thought, I took the tube to Liceu, which is a stop right on Las Ramblas. After a couple wrong turns, and finally asking for directions, I found my way into Plaça Reial, which is this courtyard with a nice fountain in the middle and palm trees scattered throughout, surrounded by restaurants. Our hostel was conveniently located at the bottom right corner of Plaça Reial.

Luckily, I had exchanged some money before I checked in cause the hostel only took cash and I had to pay for mine and Ate’s beds for 3 nights each. Ate was quite set on staying at this hostel cause a bunch of her friends had stayed here before and recommended it. A week ago, it looked like we wouldn’t be able to stay at the Kabul Hostel cause they were all booked, but through some creative internet searching, we managed to book all three nights through separate websites. The location was perfect, right in Plaça Reial, and there were tons of benefits with it. It was also quite social, as their dining room was also the pub at night, and most people just chilled there.

After dropping off my bag into our room, which was not up to par with some others I’ve been in, however, I chilled out in the dining room for a bit, checking out some brochures and waiting my turn for the free internet. While waiting, I also spotted the second good looking guy I’ve seen since I’ve been here in Europe. This one was a little more ghetto than I usually like, but he had a really sweet face. He looked South American, maybe Mexican. Very nice. Apparently, he left the next morning. Too bad.

Anyways, Ate wasn’t scheduled to arrive at the hostel until about 7:30pm, and I had really no choice but to wait for her cause I had no more Euros after having paid for our hostel rooms. It was still only about 6:30pm when I was done with the internet and all that, so I walked down Las Ramblas a little and just chilled by the fountain at Plaça Reial, hoping to spot Ate coming to the hostel.

This is the view of Plaça Reial from our hostel room. So nice, with the patios/cafés all along the sides, and the palm trees scattered about.

At some point, I saw this Asian girl walking in front of me, which I thought was Ate, but she was a little ways away, and with my lack of glasses, I couldn’t be sure. I walked a little closer to her and thought I saw her wearing the blue U Waterloo coat, but the real tip off was the orange backpack she had on. That was definitely a Walmart bag.

So happy to see her, Ate and I checked in and went up to our room for her to get settled a little. As I was collecting the pasalubong she brought in her orange Walmart backpack, this girl in our room asked if we were Canadian, likely cause she spotted my Ontario Health Card that Ate had brought for me. She was from Gatineau and went to Ottawa U, and some of the girls she was with were from Belgium. She gave us some shopping tips, and confirmed what I thought I heard the receptionist say: free dinners at the hostel. Awesome – this is the first hostel I’ve stayed at with free dinners. Usually, it’s free breakfast, if that.

Ate and I chilled for a bit in the room and caught up until dinner, which was served at an early 8:30pm - early for the Spanish, who usually eat dinner at about 10:30pm. While in line for the cold, but free spaghetti bolognaise, we chatted with this Australian guy, who’s name we never got. I also saw and pointed out to Ate the cute South American-looking guy from earlier. Also while we’re talking to the Aussie, I get a text from Anne and Essi saying they saw Orlando Bloom and Kate Bosworth going into a show at Leicester Square. Yes, gullible me actually believed it and I so wished I was in London at that moment. I would have honestly believed it if they kept playing along, but they texted me back the next day saying they were kidding.

After dinner, Ate and I walked down Las Ramblas and had some yummy gelato, while catching up with what was going on back home and here in Lancaster.

While getting ready for bed, we discovered that the showers did not have shower curtains, to our surprise. Ghetto. Each stall, however, was strategically placed so that it was possible to get in and out without really being seen naked by everyone in the bathrrom.

The next morning, we walked down Las Ramblas after breakfast at the hostel consisting of bocata, a baguette with ham, and some tea. The breakfast was definitely a lot better and fresher than the dinner. We walked down Las Ramblas, which is this tree-lined pedestrian street filled with cafés, street performers, shops and wandering pedestrians, ending at Plaça de Catalunya which links the Ciutat Vella with the grid-like streets of Eixample.

From Plaça de Catalunya, we hopped on the Bus Turístic and first took us up Passieg de Gràcia, on which are Domènech i Montaner’s Casa Lleo Morera, Puig i Cadafalch’s Casa Amatller and Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Battlò. We also passed by another one of Gaudí’s famous creations, Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, in which Gaudí apparently avoided all straight lines when designing it and, consequently, it looks like it’s melting. We came back to properly visit La Pedrera on Friday morning, but at this point, we were headed for the famed Sagrada Familia.

This was the best picture I could take, but pictures don’t do it justice. Every aspect of this unfinished church has so much attention to details, from the carvings on the outside to the ceilings inside. I have a ton of pictures from La Sagrada, so check those out to get an idea of the incredible architecture.

Ate and I decided to have lunch around La Sagrada, and after walking down the nice pedestrian street Avinguda de Gaudí, we settled at this small café and had some decently-priced tapas, although they could have been better. We had a Spanish omlette, shrimp in garlic, and grilled cuttlefish. It could have been better, I think.

Afterwards, we hopped on the tour bus again and got off for some more Gaudí at Park Güell, named after Gaudí’s patron Count Eusebi Güell. Gaudí’s main source of inspiration, nature, is amazingly displayed throughout this park.

Ate and I, and many other tourists, at the front entrance of Park Güell. Also, if you can’t tell from the picture, we were blessed with beautiful weather for our entire time in Barcelona. It was about 23-25°C the whole time. It was awesome!

We spent a good part of the afternoon walking (or hiking, according to Ate who was going to wear her sandals, before I advised her that Park Güell is more like Algonquin Park than Silverbirch Park) throughout the park. There were so many artistic and architectural elements all over the park, as well as a great view of the city of Barcelona.

Ate and I enjoying the architecture and the weather in Park Güell.

After walking through most of the park, Ate and I got back on the red line of the tour bus, and took it all through the north of the city, passing by Sarrià, a small town which became a part of Barcelona in 1921; the Monestir de Pedralbes, an example of great Gothic Catalan art; Palau Reial-Pavellons Güell, a royal palace standing on either side of Avinguda Diagonal; and ending at Francesc Macià, a square in a shopping and business area, where we hopped on to the blue line of the tour bus, which heads to the south of Barcelona.

The bus headed down south and we got off at Plaça d’Espanya, where two Venetian towers stand on either side of the Avinguda Maria Cristina, which is the gateway to the park Montjuïc. At the end of the avenue, on Montjuïc, is the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) Palau Nacional de Montjuïc.

This is Avinguda Maria Cristina, with the Venetian Towers at the entrance, taken from the front of the MNAC. The next stop off the bus was the Anella Olímpica, which was the main site of the 1992 Olympic Games. Beside the stadium is the Palau Sant Jordi and the white communications tower.

The rest of the blue line tour took us by Fundació Joan Miró, a collection by the Catalan artist; the World Trade Center on the old port; the Colom-Museu Marítim, where the Columbus monument stands and is the opposite end of Las Ramblas; Port Vell, the old port filled with shops, restaurants, cafés and vendors; and the Museu d’Història de Catalunya.

We got off at the next stop, Port Olímpic, the Olympic Village during the 1992 Olympics. Ate and I walked down the marina, where there are restaurants, shops and cafés that line the beach. We couldn’t exactly find where the Olympic Village was, but the docks and the beach were beautiful, especially at sunset.

We finished off the blue line tour, through Parc de la Ciutadella, Pla de Palau and Barri Gòtic, ending up again at Plaça de Catalunya, where we got some groceries and other food pasalubong from the department store El Corte Inglés.

We made it back for dinner at the hostel, again of spaghetti bolognaise, and Ate and I went walking down Las Ramblas again, veering off to some side streets and looking through some shops, before heading off to bed at the hostel.

Thursday was a little more relaxed with the sightseeing, as we spent most of the day shopping down Passeig de Gràcia. We first walked through La Boqueria Market just off of Las Ramblas, which was a big market with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meats and fishes for sale. We didn’t buy anything, but Ate and I had a good time looking at all the half-dead-still-flip-flopping-around seafood.

We then walked passed Plaça de Catalunya towards Passeig de Gràcia, and shopped at a few stores, namely H&M, and passing by and taking proper pictures of Casa Lleo Morera, Casa Amatller and Casa Battlò, before having a nice cheap lunch.

As planned, we went to La Pedrera, but decided not to take the tour then, and continued to shop a bit more, and then head over to Barri Gòtic and then Parc de la Ciutadella. On our way to the Parc de la Ciutadella, we went through Barri Gòtic, passing by the Palau de la Musica, which I wanted to go into, but it wasn’t open to the public at that time; the Catedral, which we also didn’t go into cause there was an entrance fee and the façade was under construction; the Museu d’Història de la Ciutat; and Santa Maria del Mar.

We took some pictures by l’Arc de Triompf before walking around the Parc de la Ciutadella. After a while, we finally found the famed fountain of the park, which was made the trip worth it, as the park wasn’t all that impressive.

This fountain seriously looked like an oasis in the desert that is the Parc de la Ciutadella.

We walked towards the harbour and walked through Port Vell towards the IMAX theatre by the aquarium, hoping that we’d be able to see an IMAX movie. Unfortunately, nothing was showing at that time, and it would have probably been in Spanish or Catalan anyways, so we headed to the mall Maremàgnum for, yes, some more shopping.

We went back to the hostel afterwards to rest and fixed up our stuff, before heading out for a late and nice dinner. Ate and I decided to go back to El Corte Inglés to get some pasalubong before going to a café on Las Ramblas for our nice dinner.

After getting a bunch of Spanish sweets and Filipinos cookies (not Filipino cookies; cookies that were named Filipinos. Strange, no?), we chose this small restaurant called Café Lirica on Las Ramblas for dinner. Of course, we were going to have paella. We had one order of paella and some calamari, and we were not disappointed.

Mmm… Look at how good this looks. Paella is rice simmered in saffron and, in this case, seafood, but it can be in any kind of meat or vegetables. Ate and I had a nice time, eating yummy food and having a nice conversation. After dinner, it didn’t take much for the waiter to convince us to get a dessert, so we got this ice cream pie thing, that was just alright, but it topped off the nice meal and got us all nice and full for a good sleep that night.

If Thursday was nice and relaxed, Friday was the exact opposite. After waking up late, breakfast, and check out, Ate and I took the tube to La Pedrera to get one last tour in before we had to leave for the UK that evening.

We spent a good hour and a half walking through the apartment, the attic and the terrace of La Pedrera, which is currently the headquarters of Caixa Catalunya’s Social Work division. The apartment of La Pedrera displays corner-less rooms and recreated as an apartment of the beginning of the 29th century. We then climbed up the stairs to, first, the Espai Gaudí. The Espai Gaudí is an exhibition of Gaudí’s innovations through drawings, models and audio-visual presentations in the attic of La Pedrera. The next and final stop was the roof terrace, which was full of architectural elements of staircases (badalots), ventilations towers and chimneys.

This is Ate and I on the roof terrace of La Pedrera beside one of Gaudí’s structures.

Side note: So, did anyone else notice that the Canadian flag on my bag is upside down? Cause I only noticed a couple days ago. This is what you get for frantic sewing half an hour before I had to leave to catch my flight back in September.

Speaking of being frantic, we had spent more time at La Pedrera than originally planned, and we scrambled to get to the Port Olímpica by tube to get some souvenirs before heading back to the hostel to pick up our backpacks. At this point, it was already almost 2:30pm when we got to the hostel, and it was going to take a little while to get to the bus station, to take our bus to Girona Airport.

It doesn’t end there. We get to the bus station at 2:55pm and, with my luck, you can’t buy the bus ticket on the bus; you have to buy it upstairs. So while Ate waited at the bus with our stuff, I ran (seriously ran) up the stairs to discover the longest line in the world for tickets. I knew I couldn’t just patiently wait in line or I’d miss my bus, so I pleaded with the people in the front if they’d let me cut in cause my bus was leaving in 5 minutes. The first lady wouldn’t let me through, but these two girls who looked like backpackers were nice enough to let me through. Turns out there’s a separate window for buses to Girona, and 3 ticket windows later, I finally got a ticket and ran down to catch the bus. I had 2 minutes to spare.

After checking in for our flight at Girona, Ate and I had an early dinner, and took our 6:00pm flight arriving at Blackpool at about 7:30pm. Slightly delayed at immigration and then again at the baggage claim, we just made it to Squires Gate to catch our train back to Lancaster.

Places I visited in Barcelona:

Plaça de Catalunya

Casa Battló

Casa Amattler

Casa Lleo Morera

Casa Mila / La Pedrera

Las Ramblas

Barri Gòtic

Catedral

Gran Teatre del Liceu

Ciutat Vella

Port Vell

Colom-Museu Marítim

World Trade Centre

La Sagrada Familia

Park Güell

Sarrià

Monestir de Pedralbes

Palau Reial

Futbol Club Barcelona Stadium

Francesc Macià-Diagonal

Plaça d’Espanya

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Anella Olímpic

Palau Sant Jordi

Fundació Joan Miró

Port Olímpic

Parc de la Ciutadella

Pla de Palau

Santa Maria del Mar

Museu d’Història de la Ciutat

Palau de la Música

La Boqueria

Plaça Reial

Casa “Les Punxes”

Arc de Triomf

We arrived earlier than expected at Lancaster and spent the rest of the night going on the internet, unpacking my stuff, packing Ate’s bag and talking to Mom and Dad.

The next day, Ate and I walked through the shops on Penny Street in town and shopped a bit. We went through these side streets that even I had never been to. We also had a nice lunch at this Chinese buffet, Bamboo Garden, and we stuffed ourselves good. I’m definitely going back there. It’s the closest thing I think I’ll get to home cooking, although, despite what I look like, I am not Chinese.

Again, overestimating the time we had, we got back to the halls a little past 3:00pm, which is apparently too late to call a cab if you need one for 3:40pm, so we had to walk all the way down to the taxi place by KFC, and poor Ate, who we discovered this past week is not cut out for backpacking, was dying from the heavy backpack I packed. Needless to say, we missed her 3:40pm bus to Preston. We chilled out at the train station until 4:30pm, when she caught the next bus, and we said our goodbyes in the rain. Thanks for taking all my stuff, Ate. You’re awesome!

----

The last few days were spent cleaning up and doing laundry, apart from actually going to classes. Highlights, technologically speaking, of the last few days would have to be discovering my free minutes on my phone (and actually talking to people on the phone unrestricted), having something to watch on my laptop – Ate brought me Lost dvds (I have Season One of 24, but I can’t bring myself to start watching it cause I know I'd be hooked and have to watch them all in one day), and the ultimate – I hooked up my laptop to the internet at the library. Yeah, I’m a nerd, so sue me. I’m from Waterloo. I stole internet from the school, ooh.. rebel.

“I’m an international student. I didn’t know better.”

----

Friday night was Ana and Anna’s birthday party at Anna’s place in town with a bunch of the international students and some of Anna’s friends. Anne and I had spent the day shopping for presents (some for Ana and some for ourselves), and chilled out with everyone for some drinks and snacks before heading off to – yes, you guessed it – Toast.

Here’s one birthday girl Ana, myself, Anne and Essi at Anna’s place before a little Toast. After having been gone for a week or so, it was nice to get back to Toast, as we arrived with 10 minutes to spare to get £1.00 drinks. Music was good and everyone had a good time. Especially the Anas.

“Remember, remember
The fifth of November…”

Although we didn’t exactly remember the 5th of November, we were told that it is this celebration all throughout England that celebrates Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. Apparently, from what I understand, in the early 1600s, a group of conspirators, one namely Guy Fawkes, plotted to blow up the houses of Parliament by putting gunpowder underneath it. But the plot had been discovered and it never happened. So, every 5th of November, there are celebrations everywhere to commemorate this occasion with fireworks and bonfires.

So yesterday, after Anne and I cooked lunch (yes, I said cooked – my first time since I’ve been here) Ana, Anne, Essi and I headed into town in the afternoon and walked through the shops. We didn’t exactly find the events and things that were going on especially for that day, but we met up with Essi’s friend, Ollie, and he explained the holiday to us. We went to a pub at the bottom of Lancaster Castle and had some drinks and fun talks before going back up to the castle for the fireworks at 8:00pm. The fireworks were pretty nice, and the music playing was a nice touch. Afterwards, we saw some of the other girls, and then Anne, Essi, Ollie and I headed off to, first, The Friary, for a drink, but it was too crowded, so we left and tried The Lounge. Nice place, but we couldn’t get a seat, so we finally settled on Hustle. It was a pretty funky place, that was decorated all retro-70’s, with its pink, yellow and orange psychedelic walls. We had a good time, just making fools of ourselves, and ended the night at about 10:00pm, when Anne, Essi and I had another apple strudel and movie night, watching Spanglish.

---

Tomorrow night, I’m taking a train to the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, where I will be spending the night in order to catch my 7:00am flight to Rome on Tuesday morning. So excited for Italy! Especially since I’ll be meeting up with Jen. Someone familiar! We’ll be in Rome from Tuesday till Friday, when we head off to Venice, passing by Pisa on the way. At least, that’s the plan.

The following w-end will be spent finishing off my London touring, clubbing, clubbing and lots more clubbing. Or so I’m told. We’ll see how that goes.

Still got one more week at the end of November available for a trip, so that is still in the works. Also gotta book flights to Berlin, then to Heidelberg and then back to London on Dec22/05. I can’t believe how fast this is going! I’ll be home in less than 2 months! Crazy!

---

Food for thought: What do you think about this pick up line (or as they say here, chat up lines)?

To an Asian girl: Hey there, can I kiss you? You probably taste like sweet and sour noodles?

To a German girl: Can I kiss you? You probably taste like schnitzel.

Personally, I would give points for creativity.