So, as most of you know Katie is back in the U.S. today!! YAY! Unfortunately, I am not. Well, fortunately I am still in Dublin, but you get the point. Anyway, today Katie and I went to the airport and got some starbucks, had our good bye kisses, tears you know...Just kidding. It was pretty sad though. Some of you might know that I do not have any navigational skills. This includes tram/bus schedules, metro maps, maps in general. (Thanks GEOG170 for nothing) So, once I left the airport I was officially on my own. Thank god I knew what bus to get on towards the city and was on my way. The only thing that made me feel secure about getting on this bus was that I finally got my cousins old cellphone so now I could call her if I was lost so that was reassuring.
My first destination was of course to the Music store to get the new Coldplay CD and to my surprise a Double Van Morrison CD was on sale right up at the counter. Had to get that. I got a converter so I could charge my iPod and my mac which is coming in the mail soon...I hope. Ireland is tricky because every other European plug is two-pronge while the Irish want to be different and have three-pronge and triple the voltage. This means my iPod might explode. The man who sold it to me was like "Come back tomorrow and if your hair is on fire, I'll know I sold you the wrong type of converter HAHA!" Verrrrry funny Mr. Irish salesman.
I walked around the city for another hourish and then decided to sit down near this pond on a bench in St. Stephens Green Park for the 2 hours that it was actually sunny out. I started reading this Bill Bryson book ( A Walk In the Woods) and was laughing my ass off just like Koolkat did on the train a week or two ago. This caught the attention of David. David sat next to me, wreaking of B.O. and told me how he is a wildlife expert and couldn't help but seeing that I was reading a book about nature. I was reading a book about how Bill Bryson went on the Appalacian Trail so, I guess he thought, "Perfect! A conversation piece." (I fall for it because I'm all chipper about being in Dublin and neglect the fact that weirdos are walking around every city.) He starts telling me about how he knows every species of bird/duck/plant, how he has $400,000 pair of binoculars? who the fuck knows. I keep putting my head down to read and looking at other fellow benchers and they are kinda laughing underneath their breath basically being like haha you got screwed with the regular freak trying to talk to girls. WHOOPI. So, right as I'm about to get up, a HUGE rain cloud looms over head and it starts POURING. Of course I was prepared with a raincoat and umbrella....but, who doesn't have either? Dear David. Oh David decides to huddle under my umbrella, uninvited by me for this rainstorm that lasted over 20 minutes. I got some sense and told him that I was going to go shopping and had to go after about 5 minutes (I'm so good at excuses?) However before this sense got knocked into me I gave him my number because I'm a fucking idiot. So, thats that. Definitely not answering. Sweeeeeet. My first stalker on my first day in a new city/country. Wonderful!
After my excuse to go to the shopping center, I got some lunch and kept reading my book under cover, caught the bus to my cousins house which is 1 hour by bus outside the city and then a 20 minute hike to her cottage. Basically, I need to find a job and an apartment by the end of the week or I will probably go insane or get hit by maniac drivers on the country roads.
Other than David, the commute, and not having a place to live near the city or a job, everything is really looking up for those of you who care! This will be my last blog entry but, I'll keep in touch with all of you ofcourseeee! See you in December for Christmas!
Love Cardee
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Dandelion
So last time we wrote we were clearly lying but now we shall tell you what we have really been up to! Norway was really fun but sooo expensive. We took a train from Copenhagen to Oslo, but missed our connecting train in Goteborg (in Sweden) so we had to take a bus to Oslo. There were these 4 really annoying teenagers next to us and a girl and her bf decided it would be fun to basically hump and grind in the seat next to Katie so she felt really awkward the whole time. Once we got to Oslo, Katies cousins Vivian and Stine picked us up from the bus station and we stayed at Stines place in the center of the city. We slept til like 3 on Saturday, had a feast for breakfast/lunch and then walked around Oslo for like 5 hours. That night we just hung out, watched a movie and made dinner and stuff so that was nice. The next day we drove down the coast to Kristiansand where Katies grandmother and cousins live. We got fed about another 10,000 calories worth of food and watched the Spain-Germany final soccer game which was fun.
Monday we went to visit Katies grandmother which was quite a treat. For those of you that dont know, Bestamor is in fact insane. She can barely walk but decided that it would be a good idea to put on a ski coat and 'swiss walking sticks' which were actually a pair of ski poles, and walk up and around the rough terrain outside her house. Mind you it was about 80 degrees and she looked ridiculous but she was happy and it was really funny. We had tea and ice cream with her friends wooooo, then Katies cousins picked us up and we went into Kristiansand, did some shopping, ate another 7,000 calories worth of pizza and then drove back to Oslo.
Tuesday we met up with Ben and Dave again, drank a 50 dollar bottle of vodka then decided to hit the town. We first went to this Irish pub near Stines house, and laughed when we got inside and the bartender asked for our ID. But then to our dismay and utter surprise they kicked us out, telling us that we had to be 23 to drink there. 23!! What the hell! We were really embarrassed and slunk out. We walked about another hour, almost went into the Hard Rock Cafe but couldnt bring ourselves to go in, so we kept walking until we finally found a place that wasnt dead. Beers there are $14. I'm not kidding, really. $14. It was insane. We had a few beers at one place, went to another place, then went somewhere else and played some pool. We left and tried to find food but everything was closed, which was probably a good thing because drunk food probably would have cost us like $50. We walked back in the direction we thought was Stines apartment, but got utterly lost. We ended up having to call her and get a cab which was $30 for about 3 minutes.
The next day we had to leave for our flight to Ireland at 3pm. Needless to say we felt quite ill, and the trip was absolutely miserable. We had to take a train to the airport, so Stine dropped us off, got us lunch and put us on the quiet car in the train so we could sleep. We had just barely gotten settled in when a girl came up to us, and eagerly asked us where we were from. We said the US, and she was really excited to tell us she was from Minnesota, and quickly cleared Katies belongings off the seat and sat with us. Then a man came up and yelled at us bc it was the quiet car so she was like Its OK! We can just move to a different car!! Reluctantly, we trudged behind her, extremely mad that our 'quiet' journey had been interrupted and we werent going to get to sleep afterall. We went into another car of the train, where the girl, aptly named DANDELION, proceeded to tell us her entire life story, including the mysterious disappearance of her step grandfather, her relationship with her biological father and her struggle between her identity as an American and a Norwegian. We were so uninterested but she was so excited to talk to Americans we had to pretend like we were listening. At the first pause in conversation we both put our headphones on as quickly as possible and closed our eyes. I think she got the hint and the rest of the ride was mildly enjoyable. When we got off the stop at the airport she said goodbye and yelled out 'Have a nice life!!' Thank you Dandelion, thank you.
Once we got to the airport, we checked in and went to the bathroom (finally one that we didnt have to pay for). Aftwards, we took a lazy stroll over to a shop, browsed some postcards and magazines, and sauntered over to another shop. This is when Carla realized to her horror that her skirt had been tucked completely into her underwear the entire time. So while we had been gazing at panoramic postcards of Norway, the entire cafeteria full of people behind us had a nice view of Carlas ass. Awesome.
We had another piggie meal of a baked potato with sour cream and bacon, and got onto the plane. We must say it was one of the most uncomfortable and horrendous plane rides we have ever had. We flew on RyanAir, which was 'cheap' ($110)...and of course we were in the emergency exit row. Our seats didnt recline, Katie didnt have an arm rest, the stupid stewardesses on the plane were basically screaming over the loudspeaker the entire time about alcohol promotions which we really didnt appreciate, etc. It was awful.
We finally got into Dublin around 830 and got a bus into the city. We dropped off our stuff at our hostel and went to meet up with Blake, Phil and Phils friend Martin. Dat was fun.
Today we woke up, checked out of our hostel, walked around in the pouring rain, checked back into our hostel and slept the entire day. We then went out for yet another piggie dinner and walked around Temple Bar and Trinity which was nice. We arent gonna go out tonight because we are going to Cork tomorrow to visit Carlas moms cousin which should be fun. Hopefully we can find somewhere good to celebrate 4th of July. I guess all we can do is drink American Beer?
Katie comes home on Monday so this might be one of the last entries. Tear. But there are many more stories that we will tell all of you and who knows, maybe this weekend will be eventful. Miss you alllllll, Katie will see you soon, Carla wont. BYEBYE!
Monday we went to visit Katies grandmother which was quite a treat. For those of you that dont know, Bestamor is in fact insane. She can barely walk but decided that it would be a good idea to put on a ski coat and 'swiss walking sticks' which were actually a pair of ski poles, and walk up and around the rough terrain outside her house. Mind you it was about 80 degrees and she looked ridiculous but she was happy and it was really funny. We had tea and ice cream with her friends wooooo, then Katies cousins picked us up and we went into Kristiansand, did some shopping, ate another 7,000 calories worth of pizza and then drove back to Oslo.
Tuesday we met up with Ben and Dave again, drank a 50 dollar bottle of vodka then decided to hit the town. We first went to this Irish pub near Stines house, and laughed when we got inside and the bartender asked for our ID. But then to our dismay and utter surprise they kicked us out, telling us that we had to be 23 to drink there. 23!! What the hell! We were really embarrassed and slunk out. We walked about another hour, almost went into the Hard Rock Cafe but couldnt bring ourselves to go in, so we kept walking until we finally found a place that wasnt dead. Beers there are $14. I'm not kidding, really. $14. It was insane. We had a few beers at one place, went to another place, then went somewhere else and played some pool. We left and tried to find food but everything was closed, which was probably a good thing because drunk food probably would have cost us like $50. We walked back in the direction we thought was Stines apartment, but got utterly lost. We ended up having to call her and get a cab which was $30 for about 3 minutes.
The next day we had to leave for our flight to Ireland at 3pm. Needless to say we felt quite ill, and the trip was absolutely miserable. We had to take a train to the airport, so Stine dropped us off, got us lunch and put us on the quiet car in the train so we could sleep. We had just barely gotten settled in when a girl came up to us, and eagerly asked us where we were from. We said the US, and she was really excited to tell us she was from Minnesota, and quickly cleared Katies belongings off the seat and sat with us. Then a man came up and yelled at us bc it was the quiet car so she was like Its OK! We can just move to a different car!! Reluctantly, we trudged behind her, extremely mad that our 'quiet' journey had been interrupted and we werent going to get to sleep afterall. We went into another car of the train, where the girl, aptly named DANDELION, proceeded to tell us her entire life story, including the mysterious disappearance of her step grandfather, her relationship with her biological father and her struggle between her identity as an American and a Norwegian. We were so uninterested but she was so excited to talk to Americans we had to pretend like we were listening. At the first pause in conversation we both put our headphones on as quickly as possible and closed our eyes. I think she got the hint and the rest of the ride was mildly enjoyable. When we got off the stop at the airport she said goodbye and yelled out 'Have a nice life!!' Thank you Dandelion, thank you.
Once we got to the airport, we checked in and went to the bathroom (finally one that we didnt have to pay for). Aftwards, we took a lazy stroll over to a shop, browsed some postcards and magazines, and sauntered over to another shop. This is when Carla realized to her horror that her skirt had been tucked completely into her underwear the entire time. So while we had been gazing at panoramic postcards of Norway, the entire cafeteria full of people behind us had a nice view of Carlas ass. Awesome.
We had another piggie meal of a baked potato with sour cream and bacon, and got onto the plane. We must say it was one of the most uncomfortable and horrendous plane rides we have ever had. We flew on RyanAir, which was 'cheap' ($110)...and of course we were in the emergency exit row. Our seats didnt recline, Katie didnt have an arm rest, the stupid stewardesses on the plane were basically screaming over the loudspeaker the entire time about alcohol promotions which we really didnt appreciate, etc. It was awful.
We finally got into Dublin around 830 and got a bus into the city. We dropped off our stuff at our hostel and went to meet up with Blake, Phil and Phils friend Martin. Dat was fun.
Today we woke up, checked out of our hostel, walked around in the pouring rain, checked back into our hostel and slept the entire day. We then went out for yet another piggie dinner and walked around Temple Bar and Trinity which was nice. We arent gonna go out tonight because we are going to Cork tomorrow to visit Carlas moms cousin which should be fun. Hopefully we can find somewhere good to celebrate 4th of July. I guess all we can do is drink American Beer?
Katie comes home on Monday so this might be one of the last entries. Tear. But there are many more stories that we will tell all of you and who knows, maybe this weekend will be eventful. Miss you alllllll, Katie will see you soon, Carla wont. BYEBYE!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Trouble in Paradise
Okay...so weve run into some trouble in the past few days...so we finally got a bus out of Goteborg on our way to Oslo. Unfortunately, the bus broke down halfway there so we were forced to get out and find an alternative way to Oslo to meet up with Katies cousin. We took our backpacks and started walking along the road, with our thumbs out, trying to hitchhike a ride. After about an hour, a big van with some sketchy looking boys that were clearly on some sort of drugs picked us up. We didnt want to get in but we were completely stranded, so we did. Boy, did this turn out to be a mistake. They started smoking something that we think was crack, and they asked us if we wanted to smoke...we were really scared what would happen if we said no so we reluctantly smoked this mysterious white powder. We were so high that we didnt even know each others names or where we were. Once we were in Norway, we got pulled over and were taken out of the car. This is where we got arrested by the Norwegian police. We couldnt understand what they were saying, so they took us to the police station where we had to stay for a few hours. They realized they had no case on us since we didnt even know the kids in the car, so they said for a small sexual favor they would let us go with no paperwork or trouble. We finally found another bus to Oslo by the next morning, where we met up with Katies cousins Vivian and Stine....
Hello Pam! Glad you are reading our blog. This is what you get for snooping.
Of course, none of this happened. But our lovely friends Jess and Carrie decided to inform Katies brother about our blog, who, when innocently reading of our adventures, was intercepted by Pam (Katies mother) who took it upon herself to read the entire thing. So mom, this was for you! DONT BE A SNOOP!
We actually got to oslo with no problems, had a great day yesterday and are now in Kristiansand in the south visiting the rest of Katies family. We will update you all on what we have actually been doing later because we are about to go watch the European Cup finale....GO SPAIN!!
Love, us
Hello Pam! Glad you are reading our blog. This is what you get for snooping.
Of course, none of this happened. But our lovely friends Jess and Carrie decided to inform Katies brother about our blog, who, when innocently reading of our adventures, was intercepted by Pam (Katies mother) who took it upon herself to read the entire thing. So mom, this was for you! DONT BE A SNOOP!
We actually got to oslo with no problems, had a great day yesterday and are now in Kristiansand in the south visiting the rest of Katies family. We will update you all on what we have actually been doing later because we are about to go watch the European Cup finale....GO SPAIN!!
Love, us
Friday, June 27, 2008
Bernard is on the loose!
So, this fantastic water park was called Tropical Islands and it was very very fun. A free tour bus took us from the train station to the park and we were apprehensive as we approached because we saw no cars in the gigantic parking lot. We thought that it was not going to be as nice as described in the train magazine and got worried. However, once we entered the biodome if you will, it was like entering a magical tropical world! There were three huge water slides that we took full advantage of, three huge pools with hottubs, bubbles and jets, waterfalls and a lazy river. We were like pigs in shit. We may have been the only adults besides the few couples we saw basically banging in the pools but we didnt care and splashed around for about 4 hours until we got pruney and decided to head back to watch the Germany vs. Turkey game.
We got back to our hostel to come across Bernard. He is a stray dog that some how made it inside the building of our hostel. Carla thought it had an owner so she just called it to come over to pet it. The door to our room was wide open and Bernard took it upon himself to run around slobbering all over our floor and decided not to leave. At first we thought this was adorable, but then our room started to smell like shit and there was slobber everywhere we did not think Bernard was cute anymore. We had to call one of the 17 year old Scottish boys to help us remove Bernard. It was in fact Hugh who named him Bernard...not sure what his real name is...but, the name Bernard has a special place in Carlas heart. Oh Beeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhrnarrrd.
We watched the game at a Irish bar called the Happy Pig and split a piggy cheeseburger. We are probably starting to resemble that little piggy right now but thats okay because were fat and happy and thoroughly enjoyed that little piggy cheeseburger with fries. Germany won in a really close game which was awesome so we went out to celebrate in the heart of Berlin. We went with two boys from our hostel one who knows Phil Han which we bonded over how sweet he is and this Canadian kid. We ended up going to this place that Katie has seen on T.V. which is this huge 5 story building with graffiti all over it and sand on the bottom floor. Here is where we came across a version of Coldplays Clocks TANGO style. It was weird. Carla danced Katie felt awkward and didnt. The trains in Berlin stop running at 1 and dont start running til 4 am so the Canadian boy had to leave for home around 6 am so he convinced us to just stay out til they started to run again. After a delightful turkish meal we went to the train station fell asleep on the floor and then got on a train in the wrong direction. Luckily, some nice German girl told us we were going to wrong way so we got on the right train and made it back around 530 am. The sun was out and we were exhausted-drunk.
We had to check out at 10 so we got up and went to go see the Berlin Wall which was pretty sweet. Then we met up with Ben and Dave in the Berlin train station and we all took a 7 hour train ride to Copenhagen and drank rum and cokes the whole way. We had a ferry ride in the middle which was very enjoyable as well. We played cards, watched some movies on Bens iPhone, read (Katie was crying because she thought her book was so funny...apparently the people around us did not share the same joy), etc. it was very nice. We arrived at 1030pm and hit the town.
Once again Pam and Roy pulled through and got us an awesome hotel right in the center of everything. We went to a bar and had cheap jager shots and beers. Then Dave steered us to a place called the Australian Bar which had sand in it too...that was cool. By the way, everywhere we go in Europe they play the song cottoneye joe and we cant figure out why they like it so much its from like 1999 and wasnt even good then? Anyway, coming out of the bar Carla tripped infront of a whole line of people who laughed at her...luckily she was not hurt. Those bastards. Afterwards we had a nice piggy meal at KFC with mashed potatos, gravy and a lot of chicken.
Today we woke up and had a nice piggy lunch at Rosie McGees that consisted of chicken nachoes and another piggy cheeseburger and fries (Just kidding) We got on the train and are now in Sweden and missed our connection to Oslo so we have to take some bus that will arrive late tonight. YAY. Sunday we are going to visit Katies family in southern Norway so that should be fun.
We will write again soon!
We got back to our hostel to come across Bernard. He is a stray dog that some how made it inside the building of our hostel. Carla thought it had an owner so she just called it to come over to pet it. The door to our room was wide open and Bernard took it upon himself to run around slobbering all over our floor and decided not to leave. At first we thought this was adorable, but then our room started to smell like shit and there was slobber everywhere we did not think Bernard was cute anymore. We had to call one of the 17 year old Scottish boys to help us remove Bernard. It was in fact Hugh who named him Bernard...not sure what his real name is...but, the name Bernard has a special place in Carlas heart. Oh Beeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhrnarrrd.
We watched the game at a Irish bar called the Happy Pig and split a piggy cheeseburger. We are probably starting to resemble that little piggy right now but thats okay because were fat and happy and thoroughly enjoyed that little piggy cheeseburger with fries. Germany won in a really close game which was awesome so we went out to celebrate in the heart of Berlin. We went with two boys from our hostel one who knows Phil Han which we bonded over how sweet he is and this Canadian kid. We ended up going to this place that Katie has seen on T.V. which is this huge 5 story building with graffiti all over it and sand on the bottom floor. Here is where we came across a version of Coldplays Clocks TANGO style. It was weird. Carla danced Katie felt awkward and didnt. The trains in Berlin stop running at 1 and dont start running til 4 am so the Canadian boy had to leave for home around 6 am so he convinced us to just stay out til they started to run again. After a delightful turkish meal we went to the train station fell asleep on the floor and then got on a train in the wrong direction. Luckily, some nice German girl told us we were going to wrong way so we got on the right train and made it back around 530 am. The sun was out and we were exhausted-drunk.
We had to check out at 10 so we got up and went to go see the Berlin Wall which was pretty sweet. Then we met up with Ben and Dave in the Berlin train station and we all took a 7 hour train ride to Copenhagen and drank rum and cokes the whole way. We had a ferry ride in the middle which was very enjoyable as well. We played cards, watched some movies on Bens iPhone, read (Katie was crying because she thought her book was so funny...apparently the people around us did not share the same joy), etc. it was very nice. We arrived at 1030pm and hit the town.
Once again Pam and Roy pulled through and got us an awesome hotel right in the center of everything. We went to a bar and had cheap jager shots and beers. Then Dave steered us to a place called the Australian Bar which had sand in it too...that was cool. By the way, everywhere we go in Europe they play the song cottoneye joe and we cant figure out why they like it so much its from like 1999 and wasnt even good then? Anyway, coming out of the bar Carla tripped infront of a whole line of people who laughed at her...luckily she was not hurt. Those bastards. Afterwards we had a nice piggy meal at KFC with mashed potatos, gravy and a lot of chicken.
Today we woke up and had a nice piggy lunch at Rosie McGees that consisted of chicken nachoes and another piggy cheeseburger and fries (Just kidding) We got on the train and are now in Sweden and missed our connection to Oslo so we have to take some bus that will arrive late tonight. YAY. Sunday we are going to visit Katies family in southern Norway so that should be fun.
We will write again soon!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Hup Holland, Gay Sex and Deutschland
Hellooooo! We are in Berlin now for a few days but we have to finish talking about our week in Amsterdam.
Friday we decided to just stay in...we went to this American bookstore and got some books, Katie read 5 Harry Potter books much to Carlas disgust, and we just chilled out before Saturday night. Saturday was the big quarterfinal match between Holland and Russia in the European Cup, so we went with Carlas cousin Jochem (pronounced a very weird way) to this place that was essentially like Bentleys for dinner and drinks while watching the game. It was a really good game and went into extra periods, but then Russia scored 2 unmatched goals and Holland lost...everyone was really pissed but we just went out with Jochem and his friends and raged. We went to all these shitty bars but they were really fun, got hamburgers out of this weird vending machine that is like a wall of heated windows, and you just put in a euro and then open this little door and take the burgers out. Genius. After that we wandered around to all these different bars, and then Jochem dropped us off at the night bus at Central station. We had taken the night bus before so we knew where to get off, but it was 4am and both of us were so tired that we decided to take a little 'nap' on our way. Well, its about a 15 min ride from Central Station to our stop, and we woke up at about 5am and realized that we were veryyyyyy far from where we were supposed to be. Katie asked the guy sitting in front of her where the Hogeweg stop was in relation to where we now were. He laughed, and said 'put it this way...if your stop is in the East Village, we're in the Bronx.' Great...Carla went back to sleep and Katie sat up for the next 45 minutes praying that the bus would eventually turn around and head back into town. The man told Katie not to get out of the bus because a. we were in a really bad area and b. it was in the middle of fucking nowhere. Finally around 545 we got back to our stop and got back home and went to bed. Our original plan was to leave Amsterdam on Sunday but we decided to just wait one more night and leave early Monday morning. So we just hung out Sunday, had a nice dinner with Carlas aunt and uncle and then left for Berlin Monday morning.
We got to Berlin around 530, and made it to our hostel by about 630. The hostelworld website said that our hostel 'couldnt be more centrally located' but that was a damn lie. We are way out the S-Bahn far from walking distance from essentially anything, so that sucks. The hostel is pretty nice though...but anyway so we get to our room and there is this Swedish kid named Thomas sitting in there with a bottle of WODKA, as they call it here. Katie was checking her email at the time, so Carla started talking to Thomas and he told her the most pathetic story ever. He was from Sweden but had lived in Australia for the past year, where he met his German girlfriend and had been dating her for 7 months. They decided to move in together in Berlin, so he went back to Sweden, got all of his stuff, said bye to his parents, and came to Germany. Much to his dismay, 3 hours before he arrived, she dumped him. Poor kid!! Carla didnt know what to say, but he seemed to have a pretty positive outlook on life despite the fact that he just got dumped. He told us 'she was just a possibility, but now she is not a possibility anymore, and i will find another possibility!' We commended him on his attitude, and told him we would hang out with him and have a fun night. In comes Hugh and Mark, two absolutely precious 17 year old boys from Scotland. We felt like we were hanging out with our little brothers, but they were really cute, and one of them reminds us of the boy from the movie Notes on a Scandal, if any of you have seen it. They convinced us to go with them to this other hostel called Wombat, which apparently had cheap drinks and a rooftop bar with good views, so we just agreed to go and check it out.
It ended up being pretty fun, there were lots of people there and we played pool and stuff, and might we add we won 2 games against teams of boys. HA. This is also where we first met STEWIE. He was a beligerent Aussie, of questionable age, who insisted on buying us shots of jaeger and forgot our names like 2000 times throughout the night, and ended up just calling Carla Claire the whole night. He was really entertaining though. The trains stop running at 1am so we just got beds at this hostel and slept there since it was really late and we didnt feel like dealing with any more night bus bullshit. We got split up since we made the reservation so late, so Katie got put in one, normal room, while Carla was stuck with a room full of dudes again. They were this group of uber-republican George Mason kids, and of course the entire room ended up in a heated political debate for awhile. Eventually, everyone 'fell asleep' except for Carla, which is when it started. She was on the top bunk, and felt the entire bed start to shake. She was very confused because the entire room was full of guys except for her, and no one else had come into the room. She then remembered that upstairs two of the George Mason boys had been awfully friendly with each other, and she was horrified to realize what was going on in the bed below her. Although she never saw anything or heard conclusive evidence of the hanky panky going on, she knew it was happening. She is currently still recovering from the ordeal.
Today we woke up, got a train back to our hostel and slept til 3. Then we went and walked around central Berlin and got a really fattening dinner of Chinese food. We are about to go back home, do laundry and sleep more, as we have a full day ahead of us tomorrow. We are going to go to the Berlin wall, then the thing that we have been looking forward to for the past few weeks. On the train one day we were 'reading' this magazine in German when we came across this article with huge pictures of this GIGANTIC indoor waterpark, complete with wave pools, waterslides, etc. We thought...WE MUST GO HERE. We were really sad when we found out it was near Berlin because we didnt think we were going anywhere near here......but now we are here and we are absolutely definitely going to this thing tomorrow. We couldnt be more excited and dont care that we will probably be the oldest people besides parents. WHATEVER. Okay well we will write again in a few days....miss you all!
Friday we decided to just stay in...we went to this American bookstore and got some books, Katie read 5 Harry Potter books much to Carlas disgust, and we just chilled out before Saturday night. Saturday was the big quarterfinal match between Holland and Russia in the European Cup, so we went with Carlas cousin Jochem (pronounced a very weird way) to this place that was essentially like Bentleys for dinner and drinks while watching the game. It was a really good game and went into extra periods, but then Russia scored 2 unmatched goals and Holland lost...everyone was really pissed but we just went out with Jochem and his friends and raged. We went to all these shitty bars but they were really fun, got hamburgers out of this weird vending machine that is like a wall of heated windows, and you just put in a euro and then open this little door and take the burgers out. Genius. After that we wandered around to all these different bars, and then Jochem dropped us off at the night bus at Central station. We had taken the night bus before so we knew where to get off, but it was 4am and both of us were so tired that we decided to take a little 'nap' on our way. Well, its about a 15 min ride from Central Station to our stop, and we woke up at about 5am and realized that we were veryyyyyy far from where we were supposed to be. Katie asked the guy sitting in front of her where the Hogeweg stop was in relation to where we now were. He laughed, and said 'put it this way...if your stop is in the East Village, we're in the Bronx.' Great...Carla went back to sleep and Katie sat up for the next 45 minutes praying that the bus would eventually turn around and head back into town. The man told Katie not to get out of the bus because a. we were in a really bad area and b. it was in the middle of fucking nowhere. Finally around 545 we got back to our stop and got back home and went to bed. Our original plan was to leave Amsterdam on Sunday but we decided to just wait one more night and leave early Monday morning. So we just hung out Sunday, had a nice dinner with Carlas aunt and uncle and then left for Berlin Monday morning.
We got to Berlin around 530, and made it to our hostel by about 630. The hostelworld website said that our hostel 'couldnt be more centrally located' but that was a damn lie. We are way out the S-Bahn far from walking distance from essentially anything, so that sucks. The hostel is pretty nice though...but anyway so we get to our room and there is this Swedish kid named Thomas sitting in there with a bottle of WODKA, as they call it here. Katie was checking her email at the time, so Carla started talking to Thomas and he told her the most pathetic story ever. He was from Sweden but had lived in Australia for the past year, where he met his German girlfriend and had been dating her for 7 months. They decided to move in together in Berlin, so he went back to Sweden, got all of his stuff, said bye to his parents, and came to Germany. Much to his dismay, 3 hours before he arrived, she dumped him. Poor kid!! Carla didnt know what to say, but he seemed to have a pretty positive outlook on life despite the fact that he just got dumped. He told us 'she was just a possibility, but now she is not a possibility anymore, and i will find another possibility!' We commended him on his attitude, and told him we would hang out with him and have a fun night. In comes Hugh and Mark, two absolutely precious 17 year old boys from Scotland. We felt like we were hanging out with our little brothers, but they were really cute, and one of them reminds us of the boy from the movie Notes on a Scandal, if any of you have seen it. They convinced us to go with them to this other hostel called Wombat, which apparently had cheap drinks and a rooftop bar with good views, so we just agreed to go and check it out.
It ended up being pretty fun, there were lots of people there and we played pool and stuff, and might we add we won 2 games against teams of boys. HA. This is also where we first met STEWIE. He was a beligerent Aussie, of questionable age, who insisted on buying us shots of jaeger and forgot our names like 2000 times throughout the night, and ended up just calling Carla Claire the whole night. He was really entertaining though. The trains stop running at 1am so we just got beds at this hostel and slept there since it was really late and we didnt feel like dealing with any more night bus bullshit. We got split up since we made the reservation so late, so Katie got put in one, normal room, while Carla was stuck with a room full of dudes again. They were this group of uber-republican George Mason kids, and of course the entire room ended up in a heated political debate for awhile. Eventually, everyone 'fell asleep' except for Carla, which is when it started. She was on the top bunk, and felt the entire bed start to shake. She was very confused because the entire room was full of guys except for her, and no one else had come into the room. She then remembered that upstairs two of the George Mason boys had been awfully friendly with each other, and she was horrified to realize what was going on in the bed below her. Although she never saw anything or heard conclusive evidence of the hanky panky going on, she knew it was happening. She is currently still recovering from the ordeal.
Today we woke up, got a train back to our hostel and slept til 3. Then we went and walked around central Berlin and got a really fattening dinner of Chinese food. We are about to go back home, do laundry and sleep more, as we have a full day ahead of us tomorrow. We are going to go to the Berlin wall, then the thing that we have been looking forward to for the past few weeks. On the train one day we were 'reading' this magazine in German when we came across this article with huge pictures of this GIGANTIC indoor waterpark, complete with wave pools, waterslides, etc. We thought...WE MUST GO HERE. We were really sad when we found out it was near Berlin because we didnt think we were going anywhere near here......but now we are here and we are absolutely definitely going to this thing tomorrow. We couldnt be more excited and dont care that we will probably be the oldest people besides parents. WHATEVER. Okay well we will write again in a few days....miss you all!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
It's Okay, We're with The Bridge!
HOLA. Since our last post, we have done a lot of exciting things here in Amsterdam. The next night we spent in bed watching a movie called Threesome. We were a little skeptical at first, but it ended up being a really funny/weird/comedic performance of the 1980's. When Carla's aunt came to check on us she asked us what we were watching. Ofcourse we didn't want to sound like we're sex fiends, so we just said "I don't know." This is when she proceeds to pick up the remote control and go to the T.V. guide page and find out what it is called and what it is about. We felt like we were 10 years old sneakily watching some R-rated movie or some shit it was just horrible. "Okay girls, it's called Threesome." We replied with the "Ohhh okay we didn't know." Meanwhile there were sex sounds coming from the T.V. because two of the characters were about to do the nasty. This all in all was a terrifying moment for Carla. She just shruged it off as best as she could.
The next day, we went on a canal ride and went to a really good cafe afterwards. We shopped a little bit and we bought Holland shirts which you will see in the pictures. The only bad thing about wearing bright orange shirts here is that people come up to us and speak Dutch and us being stupid Americans are just like no no, we don't know Dutch. And then they wonder why we have the shirts...it's a big mess. We went to Carla's uncles to watch the game for the first half and then went to a pub for the second half and around the Red Light District. For those of you that don't know, the Red Light District consists of streets with windows and girls in them half naked. They lure the men in and then bang them....sweet huh? Well, the ones we feasted our eyes on were no pretty sight let me tell you. More than one were quite hefty and the rest were just plain hid thinking they're sexy. We went into a dead Irish dive bar and met a nice couple from America (The guy was a gemologist hahaha) and a nice guy from Melbourne who we ended up hanging out with the rest of the night. We forgot that the night bus runs once an hour, so when we got there really high we had just missed it. So, we walked around holding hands in our Holland shirts and just said "Nay" which is how people here say no. We didn't want people to think we were lost etc. because Carla was very uncomfortably high. After we waited for an hour we got the night bus home.
Yesterday we went to the Van Gough mueseum which was really awesome and then walked around a bit. We were really excited for the bridge to play that night. We got ready, and took the tram to go see them. We weren't really sure what to expect but we knew we were going to yell something along the lines of "We're from Baltimore." We finally find the bar and it's completely dead and they are in the back room with about 5 locals listening to them play. We had come up this whole plan on how to meet them/ hang out with them earlier that day but considering we comprised 20% of their listeners this was no hard task. Their manager and friend were at the only table so we talked to them and explained how we love the bridge etc. We tried to get all the locals to dance which were 5-6 80 year olds with missing teeth but failed. Finally when they got more booze in them they started getting up and dancing as best as an 80 year old can. Yay!
We were pretty much the life of the party and the manager said it sucked that not a lot of people were there because they were playing really well that night. We felt like it was a private concert or something which is sawweeeet.
Afterwards we ended up going to another bar with them and hanging out with them til dawn when they had to catch a plane back to the states. Carla kept saying, "It's Okay, we're with the Bridge" and when we walked over an actual bridge she said, "The bridge is walking over the bridge." She thought this was quite witty but, everyone just laughed at her.
Today we basically slept all day, had a nice Indonesian dinner, and topped that off with a little Love Actually. Katie is currently on the third book of Harry Potter re-reading so she can finally read the last ones.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to some more museums, walking around, maybe smoking some doobies as Carla's sister so nicely put it on the phone while Carla's mom was in the room. (Thank you for that one.) We're staying for the Holland vs. Russia game on Saturday and then departing from here on Sunday. Germany, Belgium, or Sweeden....not sure which yet.
We hope everyone had a good time at Bonaroo if you went! We want to hear the stories:)
The next day, we went on a canal ride and went to a really good cafe afterwards. We shopped a little bit and we bought Holland shirts which you will see in the pictures. The only bad thing about wearing bright orange shirts here is that people come up to us and speak Dutch and us being stupid Americans are just like no no, we don't know Dutch. And then they wonder why we have the shirts...it's a big mess. We went to Carla's uncles to watch the game for the first half and then went to a pub for the second half and around the Red Light District. For those of you that don't know, the Red Light District consists of streets with windows and girls in them half naked. They lure the men in and then bang them....sweet huh? Well, the ones we feasted our eyes on were no pretty sight let me tell you. More than one were quite hefty and the rest were just plain hid thinking they're sexy. We went into a dead Irish dive bar and met a nice couple from America (The guy was a gemologist hahaha) and a nice guy from Melbourne who we ended up hanging out with the rest of the night. We forgot that the night bus runs once an hour, so when we got there really high we had just missed it. So, we walked around holding hands in our Holland shirts and just said "Nay" which is how people here say no. We didn't want people to think we were lost etc. because Carla was very uncomfortably high. After we waited for an hour we got the night bus home.
Yesterday we went to the Van Gough mueseum which was really awesome and then walked around a bit. We were really excited for the bridge to play that night. We got ready, and took the tram to go see them. We weren't really sure what to expect but we knew we were going to yell something along the lines of "We're from Baltimore." We finally find the bar and it's completely dead and they are in the back room with about 5 locals listening to them play. We had come up this whole plan on how to meet them/ hang out with them earlier that day but considering we comprised 20% of their listeners this was no hard task. Their manager and friend were at the only table so we talked to them and explained how we love the bridge etc. We tried to get all the locals to dance which were 5-6 80 year olds with missing teeth but failed. Finally when they got more booze in them they started getting up and dancing as best as an 80 year old can. Yay!
We were pretty much the life of the party and the manager said it sucked that not a lot of people were there because they were playing really well that night. We felt like it was a private concert or something which is sawweeeet.
Afterwards we ended up going to another bar with them and hanging out with them til dawn when they had to catch a plane back to the states. Carla kept saying, "It's Okay, we're with the Bridge" and when we walked over an actual bridge she said, "The bridge is walking over the bridge." She thought this was quite witty but, everyone just laughed at her.
Today we basically slept all day, had a nice Indonesian dinner, and topped that off with a little Love Actually. Katie is currently on the third book of Harry Potter re-reading so she can finally read the last ones.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to some more museums, walking around, maybe smoking some doobies as Carla's sister so nicely put it on the phone while Carla's mom was in the room. (Thank you for that one.) We're staying for the Holland vs. Russia game on Saturday and then departing from here on Sunday. Germany, Belgium, or Sweeden....not sure which yet.
We hope everyone had a good time at Bonaroo if you went! We want to hear the stories:)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Holland ATCHA
Wow, we're big tools. Anyway, we woke up around 5 am yesteday morning and took a train to Berlin. We got the sleeper train so we could lie down which was nice until four 17 or 18 year olds ruined our hungover slumber. The only thing Carla wanted was to lie down, not smell cigs or alcohol and not be disturbed. The complete opposite happened. We thought we were golden but after 2 stops our luck changed.
4 German boys thought it was funny to peak into our closed curtain room and when they saw that we were lying down thought it was funny to jump on board and sit on Carla lying down. While one kid put his head on Katie's shoulder, 2 more came in and WREAKED of booze and cigs....fucking awesome. Not only was the room now completely packed with 6 people and 6 huge bags but, we are almost positive they were saying sexual german references towards us for which we had no rebuttle because we do not speak German. They talked for awhile when we clearly were trying to sleep, forced Carla to sit up when she was so happy to lie down in a train because she can't sleep straight up like all the other seats on the previous trains we have taken. As one by one started to fall asleep, one of the boys (name unknown) took it upon himself to use Carlas leg as his very own pillow and proceeded to pick his nose, stretch his arms, and snuggle onto Carla's lap as if he was in his own bed. Carla did not feel like arguing so she just let it happen...whatever.
These boys were in a group of about 15 probably on some highschool field trip so their teacher or coach or whoever came into our train room and started screaming at all the boys to get their asses up. One refused who was on Katie's shoulder..his name was Petey. So, now we hate that name. Their teacher or whoever screamed in German for about 20 minutes until Petey got his fucking ass up and out of the train. We were so happy. We shut the curtains to the max and slept the rest of the time to Berlin.
On the second 7 hour ride from Berlin to Amsterdam there were rare technical difficulties and they kicked everyone off at this stop that was in the middle of nowhere. We sat in the drizzling rain for an hour until they sent a new train. Carla realized that the train did smell kinda smokey but, didn't think anything of it. Good that we got off that caboose.
We finally arrived in Amsterdam around 730 and were greeted by Carlas uncle who owns the 420 cafe. We walk to his place which is directly above it and before we enter he says, "Do you want a spliff first? or freshen up?" This was awkward for Carla.
We showered, had dinner, then took the tram to Carla's aunts place. We met up with Alex and two of his friends from ND and had a really fun first night at a couple of bars. Not sure what we're going to do tonight or the rest of the week except for THE BRIDGE on wednesday which shall be grand.
Holland is doing really well in the European Cup so, we're going to stay for the Quarter final match on Saturday. Apparently it is going to be more insane than it already is here...so that will be fun. Well, thats all I suppose!
P.S. Katie can finally walk on her foot, it is still bruised but, all is well on the footfront. Once again, we're big fucking losers. BYEBYE.
4 German boys thought it was funny to peak into our closed curtain room and when they saw that we were lying down thought it was funny to jump on board and sit on Carla lying down. While one kid put his head on Katie's shoulder, 2 more came in and WREAKED of booze and cigs....fucking awesome. Not only was the room now completely packed with 6 people and 6 huge bags but, we are almost positive they were saying sexual german references towards us for which we had no rebuttle because we do not speak German. They talked for awhile when we clearly were trying to sleep, forced Carla to sit up when she was so happy to lie down in a train because she can't sleep straight up like all the other seats on the previous trains we have taken. As one by one started to fall asleep, one of the boys (name unknown) took it upon himself to use Carlas leg as his very own pillow and proceeded to pick his nose, stretch his arms, and snuggle onto Carla's lap as if he was in his own bed. Carla did not feel like arguing so she just let it happen...whatever.
These boys were in a group of about 15 probably on some highschool field trip so their teacher or coach or whoever came into our train room and started screaming at all the boys to get their asses up. One refused who was on Katie's shoulder..his name was Petey. So, now we hate that name. Their teacher or whoever screamed in German for about 20 minutes until Petey got his fucking ass up and out of the train. We were so happy. We shut the curtains to the max and slept the rest of the time to Berlin.
On the second 7 hour ride from Berlin to Amsterdam there were rare technical difficulties and they kicked everyone off at this stop that was in the middle of nowhere. We sat in the drizzling rain for an hour until they sent a new train. Carla realized that the train did smell kinda smokey but, didn't think anything of it. Good that we got off that caboose.
We finally arrived in Amsterdam around 730 and were greeted by Carlas uncle who owns the 420 cafe. We walk to his place which is directly above it and before we enter he says, "Do you want a spliff first? or freshen up?" This was awkward for Carla.
We showered, had dinner, then took the tram to Carla's aunts place. We met up with Alex and two of his friends from ND and had a really fun first night at a couple of bars. Not sure what we're going to do tonight or the rest of the week except for THE BRIDGE on wednesday which shall be grand.
Holland is doing really well in the European Cup so, we're going to stay for the Quarter final match on Saturday. Apparently it is going to be more insane than it already is here...so that will be fun. Well, thats all I suppose!
P.S. Katie can finally walk on her foot, it is still bruised but, all is well on the footfront. Once again, we're big fucking losers. BYEBYE.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
