EURO TRIP

Le Mont St-Michel

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:36:20 -0700

For me, Mont St-Michel was kind of like a fairy tale. A very touristy, commercialized, modern fairy tale, but a castle in the sea none-the-less. I drove the stretch from Caen, Normandy to Mont St. Michel, so as the car approached our destination, I managed to snap this shot of the castle, rising up on the horizon. OOOOOWNAAAAAGE.

-AH

Normandy, Les Herbiers, Caen

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:46:38 -0700

We sleep in Brugge for the last night, and I wake up READY to leave this Granny-infested abyss. As usual, I am the first to wake up and I go downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast is subpar to say at the least, but I do end up packing some boiled egg and cheese sandwiches.

The drive to France is long, but worthwhile. The clouds are fluffy, the grass is green, and the fields are golden with wheat. The roads are definitely the nicest we have seen so far, and less crowded; but this moment was sort lived, France is filled with tolls! We end up paying 20-25 euros worth of tolls over the drive (and well over 100 for the whole trip).

Our first stop is Normandy, at the Omaha beach where D-day occurred about 6-7 decades ago. We visit the memorial, which was very educational and commemorated our good ol’ troops. The beach was really nice, and again it hit me: I find it so absurd, that a few decades later, so much has changed. Only about 70 years ago… its crazy. History, AP Euro, all that stuff is coming to life in this trip…

We proceed to eat a glorious little French joint for dinner, in celebration of Aaron’s birthday. First legit meal in Europe. Good stuff.

The next morning is glorious with sunny and blue skies; it will be a glorious day. This is obviously not because of the good weather, rather today (July 2, 2011) marks the first day of le TOUR DE FRANCE!! I am super excited of course, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go to this euro trip! Yet with great days, come great misfortune: I awake with my camera screen cracked. Not the LCD, but the screen covering it, its pretty big. Bleh. Anyways, before Les Herbiers (the end of the first stage), we head to this big and old castle : Le Mont Saint Michel. The castle was quite a beauty, apparently it is surrounded by ocean on the high tide (though it wasn’t today because it was low). Nonetheless, the castle is really cool, but super touristy. As we walk up the steps, there are resturants, post cards, souvenirs… and then after walking about 500 sets of stairs, you have to pay money to go to the very top of the castle; I hate touristy places… To be honest, I didn’t really care for this place— my mind was on le tour! We take a few pics, and I urge my brethren to hurry to Les Herbieres.

The rest is history. We drive into to small town, eat Mcdonalds (I splurge on a big mac meal, today is a celebration bit$%es), hike up to the 750m line (where the sprint usually starts) and watch the race. As we camp out, huge vans and cars filled with advertisements start playing loud music, dancing, and throwing out free crap! I managed to pick up a few packs of inflatables, junk, cap, and gummies— sweet deal! As the sprint comes up, I cream my pants and watch Thor, Cadel Evans, Cav, Frank, Fabian Cancellara, and others hammer it up in a pack of about 20 guys. A few moments later, Andy and Contador are right behind. The end was an uphill finish, and these guys were going FAST. Its hard to imagine how they keep that speed after riding 190km (that’s nearly 120 miles people). It’s the drugs I tell you…

(evans, frank schleck, cavendish in the lead pack!)

(alberto you hurting a little?? haha)

Moments later, I see George Hincapie leading a pack (repping BMC). That’s pretty cool, since usually everyone is up in his GRILL about winning the prologue. I hope he kills the time trials. ANYWAYS, enough bike talk.

(george!)

(wdup mark renshaw!)

Afterwards, we drive around 4 hours to Orleans, our stop for the night before we hit up paris. Upon checking in, we have a good time with the receptionist talking about Truong and his sexuality (LOL). Summation of the conversation= Jerry: this is not the first time the French have dominated the Viets LOL. We of course hit up Mickey D’s afterwards and eat our glorious hamburgers, through a drive-through, without a car, like BOSSes. We eat it at a ghetto train stop, THAT’S HOW WE DO! PEACE ORLEANS, TOMORROW IS PARIS (that’s pronounced PAH-REE!!!) GET IT RIGHT!

BTW: The french love bruno mars (lazy song), and lmfao (party rock)

-Joe

Bruges, Belgium

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:34:00 -0700

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Bruges, a sleepy little rustic town surrounded by gated walls, romantic canals, and Flemish windmills, sits at the top of my list of favorite destinations. The city, with an indigenous population of only 20,000, floods everyday with many times more grampy and granny tourists (I’ll probably join their ranks in the future). Of course we visit Bruges’ ownage buildings and cathedrals in addition to taking the Belgian chocolate and Belgian beer tours to learn about their manufacturing processes.

Excellent unfiltered blondy brewed right over our heads.

But what sets this city apart is not the medieval environment but the isolated romantic spots indicated with kissy hearts on the map authored by locals. Beginning at the northern end of the centrum and approaching the southern tip, fewer and fewer tourists overrun the gems as they become more and more overgrown with isolating greenery. The serenity found in Bruges fiercely competes with Irvine for the location of my future retirement getaway.

The canal lays about 10 feet to the right of my castle-house located in the middle of a forest-park.

Enjoying the river scenery just over that wall with my wife.

-SY

Kinderdijk

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:04:18 -0700

So Amsterdam was fun. Amsterdam was crazy. Amsterdam was ausgezeichnet. But we needed a retreat back to nature. On the way down to Bruges, we stopped by a little place we had only seen in travel magazines. Kinderdijk. I’ll keep my words few. I’ll let pictures do the talking.

-AH

Amsterdam

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:31:00 -0700

I Love Amsterdam. After two unforgettable days here, Amsterdam comes in at a very close second in rankings for my favorite city in Europe (behind Munich for obvious reasons).

The city has an amazing atmosphere that’s different than almost all the big cities of Europe. It has a large diverse population who seem to universally embrace a laid back attitude that seems to me to be a big part of Dutch culture. On a given sunny evening, the streets and canals would be lined up with residents lounging around on park benches, restaurant tables, and home patios, chatting with friends and strangers as they enjoy the day together. Some people eat and drink, some smoke, and others simply read their newspapers. But everyone seems to genuinely enjoy each other’s companies and, most importantly, they seem to truly enjoy living life. That is probably my biggest takeaway from my time in the Netherlands, and something I’ll never forget about Amsterdam.

And let’s not forget that the city itself is very beautiful. Built in a U-Shape formation facing the sea, the city streets are lined with tall, narrow buildings (mainly 3 stories high and 3 windows wide). I didn’t notice it at first, but the tour guide pointed out that all the buildings slant forward as a counterweight for the pulleys installed above every house. Over years of sinking in the swamp, many structures no longer stand straight but are also leaning to the side.

Walking through Amsterdam during the summer day, you immediately notice the lines of trees, adding a beautiful shade of green to balance the clear blue skies and the murky waters of the stone canals. And at night, the picturesque images of the city transform into dark, impressionistic paintings of glowing yellow street lamps casting sparkling rays into the dark rumbles of the flowing water. When it gets late and the streets clear out, you can really lose yourself standing above a bridge, overlooking the scenes that inspired artists like Van Gogh a century ago.

Our time in Amsterdam really flew by in a flurry of activity. Much of the time was spent walking from place to place, in search of something.

Day 1 Highlights:

~Really nice weather

~Met new friends:

2 girls from Toronto

Group of 4 Asians from California

2 dudes from Florida

~Jogging at night, DTPing

~Stayed at Shelter City, a Christian Hostel in the midst of the Red Light District. Literally next door to some window displays …

Day 2 Highlights:

~Bipolar weather with bits of thunderstorms during a hot, sunny and humid day (only time that I’ve ever gotten sunburned during a day filled with thunderstorms)

~Signature Dutch pastries – chocolate and vanilla cakes

~Best meal of the trip so far: Unlimited Spare Ribs at an Argentinian steak house for $13.50 euros. We ate the crap out of this place …

~Stayed at The Flying Pig (uptown), a nicer hostel with AC … I love air conditioning…

I think overall, Amsterdam isn’t just about being a city of tolerance and contrasts in diversity. It’s a city about having/doing what you want, when you want it.

-JY

Berlin, Germany

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:58:00 -0700

Day 11, we decided to take our talents to Berlin. Our stay in Berlin was just like any other other day—admiring local landmarks, appreciating the city’s rich history, and, especially, disturbing the peace. Our hostel this time around wasn’t anything special, but at least it came with the trusty, ‘breakfast included’ deal. With backpacks loaded, breakfast included really means brunch, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, supper, midnight munchies, drunken munchies… whatever other times there are, we’re eatin’ during it, that’s fa sho.

Coupled with a hearty breakfast in the morning was a nice tour in the afternoon. After touring all over town with plenty of time left still to kill, we figured, why not join in on the gay parade bumping nearby? As a result, I got my daily dose of rainbows, pink short shorts, hairy chests, and pelvic thrusts to spare. It’s also only fitting that all the vendor food consisted primarily of hot dogs and sausages the size of my leg. But I gotta say, them Germans know their meat, grilling those bad boys to sweet, wiener perfection.

(dominant one on the right)

On our train ride home, we came across some teens who were having a little disagreement. This one dude in particular was giving his lady friend a piece of his mind. But the best part was that he was doing it in 3 different languages. Starting off with Spanish, rounding out the middle via English, and finishing her off in his native German, it was a wondrous sight. Nothing like shutting someone up in multiple tongues. Different languages, one universal meaning… truly, a beautiful thing.

With the day’s festivities over, we headed home and chilled in the lobby. Before long though, we were approached by a large fella wearing a lei (those flowery necklaces) and a white button-up that wasn’t really doing its job in terms of buttoning. He walked up, eyed us down, and with an accent identical of Arnold Schwarzenegger, asked us, “You like to party?” Course we do. But then he says.. “I like to party. You. Come now. With me.” (!!!!) I didn’t feel like getting manhandled in a dark alleyway that night, so we politely declined the offer. The fact that he began gyrating his hips in our direction and pumping his fist afterward didn’t help either.

After our run-in with the Terminator, we played games all night and eventually peaced out. Well, that’s all folks. Once again, just another typical day in Europe.

-Ph

Day 8 Wednesday, June 22, 2011 At the last moment as we leave...

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:54:00 -0700

Day 8

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

At the last moment as we leave Wein, Dennis convinces us to make a stop at Cesky Krumlov on the way from Vienna to Prague. This turns out to be one of the best decisions we make because I fall in love with this romantic little town. At first I only expected a typical medieval castle, but what I found instead was a sleepy little town with a single winding street with an equally twisted river coursing through. The highlight of the town is the ancient castle, but looks can be deceiving. Upon closer inspection, it appears that someone painted the “bricks” on the concrete walls maybe because they were too broke to renovate the walls with real quarried stone. Nonetheless, the castle offers beautiful views of the surrounding kingdom and sports a pet bear to maul distasteful visitors. Aaron and I stop for a local dessert pastry snack called Trdelnik, the Eastern European version of the doughnut costing 40 Czech Crowns ($3). It’s a lump of dough smashed on a thick metal bar, baked over coals, and slathered with cinnamon sugar. I want to kayak the snaking river but Prague calls and we press forward.

-SY

Prague, Czech Republic

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:11:00 -0700

The morning begins for me at 6:30am; I clean up and head down for breakfast. Dennis, our awesome Aussie chap, joins me after about 10 minutes, and we talk about his travels, from San Fran, India, Cambodia, Egypt, and the list goes on. I pack a few more nutella packets, and the rest of the crew joins me for breakfast. We head out for a 3 hr drive to Prague next (Czech)! Good riddance, I didn’t really enjoy Vienna, though the architecture was pretty nice— the people sucked!

The drive from Vienna to Prague is about a 3.5 hour drive. Dennis tells us that there is a good stop at Cesky Krumlov (sort of a long the way), with some touristy attraction and castles. CASTLES? COOOL LETS GO! Aaron and Stephen take the first shift; Aaron’s getting pretty good a driving manual. The first time he stalled about 5 times a minute (lol). As we leave Vienna, we muster up some DTP and insults to the city—since they did treat us poorly; except for 3 Australians and 1 Viennese lady. The drive is decent, we obtain most of our courage and strength from a special someone, her name starts with a C… yeee. Cheers mate (referencing Derek), we have some footage of us chanting and gaining this inner chi. After driving on these roads, we realized that our expensive 150 euro investment for a Garmin Nuvi GPS was well worth it… the streets are pretty confusing… I honestly don’t think we would have made it without it!

Stephen and Phil believe that the reason the Viennese treated us like trash was because we (in Europe) were a part of some lower class in social hierarchy— like in America (you all know what I’m talking about). I strongly believe its because we didn’t try to learn the language. Before we pull into Cesky Krumlov, I decide to pick up the mini dictionary and learn some Czech—or at least try. As of now, my theory is correct! I think the Czechs liked that we at least tried to learn their language. However, only after we left the area, I realized that I was saying very much, instead of thank you (I left out the thank you, because I thought that was the “very much” part; the language has its sentence structure backwards I guess. No wonder they were chuckling at me… Well the point was, most of the locals were happy to see that we were trying :).

It is hot. It is warm. It is humid. Did I mention it was hot? Anyways, we see some castles, ate some cinnamon bread, and got out of there. The streets were starting to get a little less structured, and the scenery was beginning to look shaggier on the way to Prague. Czech’s use a currency called Crowns, and we end up converting some of our Euros to Crowns— annoying. Having two sets of currencies and coins really pisses me off. We end up stopping at Mcdonald’s for some lunch, and the crew has begun to cave in for fast food. Stephen, Phil, and Jerry all sort of indirectly agreed to not eat fast-food/chain restaurants at Europe, and used to hate on me for trying to get some cheat eats! But the expenses of Europe are starting to tally up (traveling, gas, gps, busses, food etc), and now we go back to our good ole MICKEY D’s. Damn, Mcdonalds is delicious everywhere. Yeah I said it. WHAT!?

Prague is ghetto. The walls are graphitized up, the city looks old, and the kids hang out together like hoodlums, it sort of reminds me of Compton. Prague is blazing hot, and it started to rain after we check into our hostel (St. Christopher’s again). We end up buying breakfast at check in, since it is a little cheaper (which includes a full breakfast of protein and the good stuff (oj, meat, cheese etc.). For you American gluts, its luxurious to have protein during our trip in Europe!!! Our roommates were pretty cool, a gay guy(?) from Connecticut, and 2 Irish people. Aaron and Stephen have dinner with the gay guy, and Phil, Jerry, and I chill in the hostel— since it is raining outside and we don’t want to spend too much money (meaning we have to get some Crowns…). The hostel is freaking nice (St. Christopher’s), with automatic blinders, doubled windows, air-conditioning, nice bed/pillow, and nice everything…

As Phil Jerry and I are chilling, we start talking about our roommate about his sexuality. We come to a consensus that the duder is gay… We agree to keep from using derogatory words just in case we could be offensive. Within a few minutes, Truong calls Stephen a faggot. Nice. 10 minutes later, Truong is playing Jerry’s pokemon blue and then realizes that his rival is named HOOMSEX and cries out. Our friend stops talking to us…

The next morning we wake up early for the all you can eat breakfast. There are hashbrowns, bacon, meats, cheese, yogurt, cereal, milk, oj, and fresh fruit. This is seriously the best breakfast you can get in Europe. So, of course being the ravenous wolves we are, we eat a load enough to feed an African village, and then pack enough for the rest of the day (lols). AYCE breakfast turns in AYCE all meals. Holla! We proceed to take a walking tour of Prague, in which we hit up Old town square, Church of St. Nicolas, Charles bridge, Prague Castle, and the Jewish District (a few synagogues). Most of Prague is really touristy—which I don’t really enjoy. Not to mention we saw like 5 couples getting married (how original!), though the area is pretty nice. Every city we have visited thus far did not have a loads of tourists (more backpackers than tourists), but Prague is definitely tourist saturated— bleh.

Carrying crowns and Euros is starting to get annoying, I haven’t bought anything in Czech except for Mcdonalds, and don’t plan on converting any of my money… Not to mention that we are REALLY low on cash right now. We only withdrew 100 Euros at Munich, and could not withdraw any money in Austria and Czech. Struggling… thank goodness for AYCE “breakfast.”

The night passes and we meet some Swiss duders. Fabian Cancellara, of course they knew who he was! Prague was alright, I’m ready to leave; we are out of money, out of clothes (haven’t laundered since Vienna, and that was a half load…), and the roads are crappy. I think so far, I like Germany the most; the streets are well designed, the community is super biker friendly, and it seems more high tech. Off to Berlin, yayz! Heil Deutschland!

-josie bear

Addendum to Day 7

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:59:00 -0700

Day 7 June 21, 2011

Vienna sucked. Everything and everyone here sucked. Yet one redeeming angel resides in this God forsaken city: Mikayla, a 70 year old native Weiner woman who caught us time-stamping the hell out of a train ticket. “BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! That’s how you do it.” says Joe punching the ticket over and over. She pauses right in front of the escalator and parrots us in a German accent “that’s how you do it?” Speaking in fluent English, she turns and gives us a quirky look. “We do things a little differently in Vienna…” Mikayla continues to explain to us at great lengths about the metro, autobahn, and vignettes in Austria. She is the kindest woman to grace the world since Mother Teresa, the greatest woman to ever walk the earth since the Virgin Mary. Thank you and God bless you with a thousand blessings Mikayla.

-SY

Days 6-7, July 20-21

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:44:00 -0700

After two glorious, unforgettable day in Munich (greatest city in Europe), we sadly depart for a new city and a new adventure. Leaving Munich (Munchen in German) we head eastward into the Bavarian countryside—the promised land, the land of milk and honey, aka beer territory. As we drove along the windy roads, I immediately knew that this was probably going to be the best part of traveling through Europe. Fields of gold and green as far as the eyes can see. The bountiful land providing the four vital ingredients of the German—and the man’s—way of life: wheat, barley, hops, and water.

This was the scene for endless miles on our way to the first stop of this miniature roadtrip: Fucking, Austria. On the way, we passed through hundreds of small villages scattered in-between the fields of crops. It’s pretty interesting to see that every single house we passed seemed to be built in the same style. Simple line patterns complemented the bright colors of orange, white, or yellow paint. Every house looked new and medieval at the same time—with solar panels on top. It appears that our beer money has been very good to the Bavarian farmers.

After taking pictures next to the town sign and a very interesting bronze sculpture, we headed deep into the mountains for Hallstatt, Austria. Hours of driving through forests and mountain tunnels would lead to a hidden gem—a tiny medieval village overlooking a gigantic lake, tucked deep inside the mountainside. Talk about a scenic place to eat our packed lunches. There we were sitting on the lakeside eating our ham and cheese sandwiches while feeding the ducks … a scene straight out from a Lord of the Rings backdrop …

With 5 hours on the road behind us, we finally arrived in Vienna (Wien). It’s true what they say, Vienna is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Now I can finally understand why millions of Asian people want to go to Vienna every year. While there wasn’t exactly a whole lot to do in Austria, there was definitely a lot of things to see. Among the best parts of Vienna:

1. The Schonbrunn Imperial Palace of Maria Theresa

~Most beautiful palace I have seen so far

~incredibly huge acres of gardens, mazes, sculptures, and a zoo

~we climbed to the top of the terrace to get a nice view overlooking all of Vienna

2. The Stephansdom Cathedral at Stephanplatz

~Most beautiful church in terms of interior

~the inner columns were covered with a colorful array of designs created by projectors and the tinted windows

3. Parliament building (and surrounding area)

~the inner city were filled with buildings after buildings made in the same elegant and classical style

~a defining part of why Vienna is one of the most scenic and beautiful cities of Europe

Highlights from Vienna:

~Stayed at Eurocity Youth Hostel for two nights

~First night stayed in a room with a creepy, angry French guy

~Second night met a really cool Australian man (Dennis) in his 60s. He shared with us many stories about how he traveled the world

~Met a really nice Austrian old lady named Mikaela at the metro station

~First time doing laundry in Europe!

~Best meal of Europe so far: Kebab sandwiches at a food cart near our hostel

Overall, Vienna was a very interesting city to say the least. It’s definitely one of those places that you’ll remember more for what you saw, rather than what you did. Next stop, Prague!

-JY

Days 4-5, July 18-19

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:10:00 -0700

So we land in Munich, and the difference is immediate. White people everywhere. English nowhere. After a couple hours of searching for a rental car, we finally get one from a company called Sixt; the storefront looks like the devil’s booth. No joke. We get to the car, a Ford Fiesta…free upgrade. Only problem is, it’s fully manual. None of us are avid manual drivers, and much stalling ensues. Couple that with trying to get to our hostel while reading signs like Stranzenberg, Straβenhẚuser, and Breitenfurter Straβe, we had an adventure. Needless to say, because of sleeping only two hours in the past 30+ hours, upon reaching the hostel, we KTFO…from 3 straight up till 9pm. We finally get up, explore the rainy town, and call it a night.

The next day is full of good starts. AYCE eggs, ham, and bread+Ziploc bags=breakfast and lunch in one. We go on another of the Sandeman’s free tours, see a few sights, meet few people, yadda yadda yadda. After the tour, we start the evening off right at a Bierhall for a .5l mug of Augustiner Dunkel beer. GOOD SHIET! Feeling good, we walk around, watch buildings fall on us (We’ve got a video,) see some Tibetan monks doing glottal singing, and walk through Munich’s birthday festival. We take a quick nap, and head off on something called the “Beer Challenge” tour. The “challenge” starts us off with a shot of Jagger, and another .5L of Augustiner Hell(“Hell”=light) beer. We quickly learn that there will soon be a light beer named after the small Austrian town of Fucking (pronounced like “booking” …we’re gonna go there tomorrow by the way). Light beer from Fucking…you connect the dots. Anyways, first stop on the beer challenge/pub crawl/bar hopping is the Hofbrauhaus, only the TRULY happiest place on earth. Here we start off with another 1L of great beer. Next stop, another Augustiner pub, another liter. Next stop, another bar, another .5L. By this time, we’ve met way to much beer, but have also met the biggest BAMF ever. From downing bottles of Jagger to traveling Europe solo for months, to having AK47s and pistols pointed at his head, to getting swiped at by a grizzly bear, he’s done it all. But I digress. By this pint, I mean point, we’ve had had way too much to drink. So obviously, the last top treats us to another free .5L and another free shot of Jagger. For the sake of simplicity, let’s just say what happened next was one of those “just had to be there”/”wish you were there” sort of things, but a teaser includes: riding motorcycles, embarking on a white -castle mission for bratwurst, drop-kicking bikes and trashcans, leading people through a fountain, buying out a Burger King, and a helluvalota DTP. Yeah. Wish you were there.

Next stop, Fucking, Hallstatt, and Vienna, Austria.

-AH

Day 3 June 17th-18th My friends call me the command center. The compass-wielding map-reading...

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:42:00 -0700

Day 3 June 17th-18th

My friends call me the command center. The compass-wielding map-reading navigator. The general rallying the troops to make the most of every precious moment. The evaluator and executor of the will of the wolf pack. This our third day in London.

It’s 9:15 and the mxhunter wolf signals for the pack to rise, groom, breakfast, and break camp. Our tardy team member who we illegally snuck in to share a bed with me rises and immediately begins the morning procedure. Breakfast was the same as the previous day: toast with jam, cereal and milk, and orange drank. We dine then pack it up nice, filling our bags with tens of slices of bread. While hurrying through the underground as a complete pack, we mistakenly take the wrong transfer (for the third time since we got to London), setting us back one stop in the reverse direction and making us late for our rendezvous with our friends for the free tour starting at Hyde Park, the whole way bastardizing the British accent trying to pronounce buhhruhhh (Burough).

After arriving fifteen past 11 and hurriedly talking with the free tour coordinator, we head in the direction of Buckingham Palace to catch the changing of the guards at 11:30 am. Along the way, we see our friends deliberately lagging behind an already overcrowded walking tour group hoping to catch our chronically tardy pack. Outside the palace, we observe certain animal rituals, such as mounted beasts and the passing of the mounted high guard. Fanfares and marches emanate from the palace grounds as we walk away to rejoin Dave, our tour guide, across the street.

Dave tells us the story of multiple break-ins at the palace, the most notable of which was the story of the 1982 drunken Irishman: Fully inebriated, he breaks in through the windows of Buckingham Palace and the security guard inexplicably shuts down raging security alarms. While strolling through the palace and admiring the décor, the hungry drunken Irishman breaks into the kitchen, only to find all the food stowed away in locked cabinets. Undaunted, he discovers the wine cellar and emerges with a most expensive bottle of wine. As he explored the 750 rooms of the palace drinking wine, he inevitably stumbles into the queen’s room, at which she sounds the silent alarm to no effect. Instead of panicking, she diplomatically begins chatting with the drunkard, during which he requests a cigarette. At this prompting, the queen decides to call the front guard to bring up a smoke while alerting her security forces that a stranger had just wandered into her room. Of course the Irishman was evicted but only changed with theft of exquisite wine, there being no laws against breaking into the palace at the time.

We head over to St. James Palace, the old royal residence, passing through a lot consisting of 30 black and white Mercedes Benz S320s, the c-c-c-combo broken by a couple BMW’s and shameful Mazdas. After walking by Trafalgar Square, Dave shares with us some of Churchill’s golden victories: A woman said to Churchill “If I were your wife, I’d poison your tea,” at which he replied “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.” Another woman commenting on his bacchanalian habits said “You’re drunk,” at which he replied “You’re ugly. But at least I’ll be sober in the morning.” We finish the tour in front of Westminster Abbey and a statue of the great emancipator, Abraham Lincoln (celebrating 100 years of peace between Britain and the US). After tipping Dave according to our gratuity, he takes us over to The Monk Inn, an underground pub serving £5 meal deals. There, we finally get to sample “Sausages and Mash,” the favourite homemade meal of drunken Englishmen from last night. It was pretty decent (tasty breakfast-like sausages with hearty onion gravy) but England is not known for good food.

We leave with the ambitious plan to hit up three tourist attractions in less than 2 hours so we can make it back into Westminster Abbey to attend service and see the inside for free instead of paying £18. We take the Underground to London Bridge and the Tower of London. I don’t really know the difference except that people were imprisoned in both places but one of them seems to be part bridge and the other one part castle and dungeon. The Underground then takes us to the backside of St Paul’s Cathedral where we go around to the front, sneak in as people begin seating for mass, then rush out to make it back to Westminster Abbey before 5. We get there at 5:10. The doors are already locked for service so we stay outside and take pictures in the rain.

The command centers agree to head back to St. Christopher’s Hostel for free Wi-Fi and to plan out the night: the guys chill while the girls eat and whatever “get ready” means. The dudes end up showering in anticipation of another 40 hour day, eating nutella bread, and sleeping in a dark cinema room while waiting for our friends to come back. Feeling a little bored, we head across the street to the grocery store and try some 1 liter British spirits: Peroni, Bulmer’s (apple and pear cider), and Carlsberg (280p for 4). Peroni and Bulmer’s pear cider were delicious; dirt cheap Carlsberg and Bulmer’s original apple cider sucked. Originally, we wanted to visit the Ministry of Sound (1984 anyone?) for clubbing, but since we couldn’t reschedule our shuttle to Stansted airport located in the middle of nowhere, we opted to stay local instead.

After playing some games and having a blast, we rush over to the Underground at 11:50pm to make our shuttle bus at 1am. During the ride we exchange funny first impressions with our friends and say bittersweet goodbyes. Halfway through our ride, trouble starts. The rails gets backed up, arrivals at each station get delayed, and before we knew it, we only had 20 minutes to make 8 more stops when the rail system shuts down for the night. The round of hugs we gave our friends happened in a blur and then we were off, racing out of the station and down the street with fully loaded backpacks and duffel bags.

We stop momentarily here and there to check the compass and make sure we’re heading north. From our stop, we had to travel over a mile in less than 15 minutes. We don’t make it. Barely reaching Hyde Park from the station, we give in and hail a taxi. There weren’t any passenger seats in the front (only room for baggage) so the five of us pile in the back and tell the driver to book it to Allsop Arms (a bar) at the corner of Marylebone and Dorset Square for us to catch our EasyBus shuttle. Luckily the driver slams the petrol pedal and rockets us over to our bus. We see the lights flashing through our sweat-steam covered windows and the driver says he’ll cut off the bus if it tries to take off without us. Since we’re in Europe (the land of no tips), the driver returns our gratuity as we hurry off the cab and into the bus at 1:15am.

An hour later, we arrive at Stansted Airport, literally in the middle of nowhere in an expansive concrete scene somewhat reminiscent of the vast Guild Shipyards of Dune. Everything is transparent. The walls are made of polished glass and smooth concrete and the floor of the abandoned airport looks like a gathering grounds for the homeless. Sleeping travelers are strewn all about on restaurant benches, under terminal displays, and just out on the open floor. After finishing off our bread and last encounter with our precious Nutella jar, we pitch camp in a little corner with a power outlet labeled Staff Only and suck the airport dry as we top off our electronics with free British electricity.

We watch a few of our videos to pass the time till the airport wakes up. Finally, we as we pass through airport security outfitted with automated tray circulators, Joe, Phil, Aaron get raped by airport security, losing our Costco-sized containers of nutella, contact solution, toothpaste. Instead of people-movers getting passengers to the proper terminals, an automated monorail type shuttle ferries us to our proper terminal. Pretty cool. We get to the abandoned terminal staffed with one reception lady so we proceed to disturb the peace a la Lil Wayne as usual. Other people arriving wake us up from our individual bench beds so we get in line for first-come-first-served seating. There’s no walkway connecting the gate to the plane. Instead, we head down the stairs, out the door, onto the tarmac, and into the plane on a mobile staircase like Obama climbing into Air Force One. Onboard the non-propeller plane (whew) we finally take a break and pass out for the three hour flight to Munich. We made it to the end of day 3.

-CC

Day 2 was relaxation day—a time to collect our thoughts. We woke...

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:46:00 -0700

Day 2 was relaxation day—a time to collect our thoughts. We woke up all groggy and had the best breakfast ever, both because it was delicious and, more than ever, ‘cause it was free. There’s nothing like 10 slices of the whitest bread and wheatiest cereal to recover from 48 hours of non-stop action. It didn’t stop there though. Afterward, everybody musta stocked up on an entire loaf’s worth of bread for lunch and enough butter for 2 heart attacks.

At around 11am, we hit up the British Museum and got ourselves reacquainted with world history, courtesy of tour guide Jerry and his silver tongue. However, it’s important to note that our team abides by one guiding doctrine: disturb the peace. No matter where we go, our presence does not go unnoticed… and the museum was no exception. I’d never seen so many headshakes by old British ladies. But I digress. We explored the currency of olden times, perused bone daddies from Egypt, marveled in China’s finest china, and worshipped Africa’s shamanistic totems.

After enough culturing of our minds, our bodies and bellies eventually needed rest and replenishment. Breakfast’s bread became lunch’s bread, with our daily fill of carbs more than satisfied. Filled with that much carbage, we couldn’t help but retire to our sleeping quarters. Hours later, we decided on further enlightening ourselves at Tate Modern, a shmorgus-bord of modern art. We walked in amateurs and came out professionals. Finally, it was time to complete the team, so we met up with Aaron after he landed in London and proceeded to venturing in London’s famed Kensington Gardens, despite it being after hours. The view of the lake and full moon within the gardens was gorgeous to say the least.

And to top the day all off, we bumped into 2 suave London local fellas on our bus ride. They’d just come from a jolly time at the pub, accompanied by 2 British babes of their own. It was only after the girls got off at their stop did we hear the amazing line, “have a good life”. Fella #1 wishes farewell to the hunnies using this line and turns back to us and says “What’s more polite than saying, ‘have a good life?’. I’m never going to see them again anyways.” We proceed to ask them for good eateries and find out unless we’re willing to dish out about 30-40 pounds (50-65 bucks), we ain’t gonna find anything good. Supposedly, Yorkshire pies, pudding, and toad in a hole (sausages and mashed potatoes) is where it’s at though!

Like I said, day 2 was a time of reflection and museums. In fact, it’s actually forgotten from our memories for reasons that can’t be explained. But it’s all right, we got the rest of the trip to piece together the details. Till next time, cheers mates!

-P

Let the blogging commence… Day 1, June 14th-15th Long...

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:22:00 -0700

Let the blogging commence…

Day 1, June 14th-15th

Long flight. Derek Kim (one of our SOLDIERS) drove us (Joe, Stephen, Jerry) to LAX like a boss at around 1:00pm Pacific Time. As always, our good friend Truong (Phil) has not gotten his passport yet, and has suffered a delay to “receive” his passport to around 2:30pm— of course this means 3:00pm. Our flight is at 5:30pm and it was seriously 50/50 that Phil was going to make the flight, but in the end he did. Aaron would be flying in a few days later due to some previous conflicts.

We chow at burger king for our last meal in America, ha ha.

As we arrive on the plane, Virgin Airlines, we notice that the flight attendants all have British accents, and our first DTP (disturbing the peace) moment occurs. Stephen tries desperately to trade his seat for a seat near Phil, Jerry, and I which consequently are sitting pretty close to each other. He fails. During this struggle, his large backpack is colliding with an old lady’s face, and she proceeds to enrage.

The flight was long. The food was sub-par to say the least. The entertainment was well… entertaining. We had access to games, news, movies (I watched tales of a turtle and owl guardian movie lols), and of course music (caught up on the Bieber fever). All of us slept for a total of 2-3 hours on the plane, and we finally arrive at Heathrow airport.

After checking in and picking up Truong’s luggage (of course, the only one to check in his bag), we proceed to find, excuse me for better use of words, “where the hell we are.” We ended up meeting this (not yet known) awesome group of girls of whom we have been having the pleasure to hang out with these past few days from Arcadia. Awesome. They (Melody, Lisa, Michelle, Laura) were backpacking, we were backpacking, they were asian, we were asian, and we were all hitting up London for a few days; it was going to be fun.

We end up taking the underground train to London to our hostel along with the other group, yet tragically we ended up getting ripped off by a man in a Turban; he offered us 5 pounds for a single ride ticket, when the day ticket is 6.40 pounds. Really? Our first mistake in Europe, and a tragic waste of 5 pounds. ANYWAYS, we find that this group of girls are quite similar to our group of guys; they have a COMMAND CENTER (Melody), as do we (Stephen). Let me explain, the command center is a central piece to any sort of organized centurion. Command center usually leads a, for lack of better word, “disabled” group of peons. The command center is about 98% correct in judgement, and has an idea of what is going on—usually. We found this rather intriguing: live on proud you command centers.

After checking in our hostel, we meet up with the girls to hang out, and check out the Picadilly Circus, and the Covent Market, which we watched a man perform some tricks, mostly boring, but was pretty entertaining in the end— see the pictures.

We of course hit up King’s Cross 9 and 3/4, the Harry Potter wall thing.

After this, we had dinner at a pub with some pretty crappy fish and chips, hung out at the Eye, and the London bridge, and then in Soho during the night. Yeeeeeeeeee

On the walk/bus ride back to our hostel, we met this drunk guy named Bobby, which had a lot of love/hate for us Americans; it was super amusing. I think we have some footage of it.

That is all for day 1.

-Joe

Europe Trip

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:20:04 -0700

Hello family and friends,

We (Joe, Stephen, Phil, Jerry, Aaron) are going to start a blog (try to cover as much as we can) about our Euro-Trip who have recently graduated from college. We plan to cover England (London), Germany (Munich, Vienna, Berlin), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Belgium, France (le Tour, Paris), Spain (Madrid, Pamplona (running with the bulls), Valencia, Barcelona, Monaco), Italy (Venice, Rome, Florence, Genova, Milan).

For financial and other reasons, we decided to cut out Sweden and Greece (sadly). The trip will be from June 14th- July 28th 2011.

I should start packing :)

Stay tuned! An epic group of people will result in an epic adventure :)

-Joe