tin soldiers and Nixon

lifestyle

2010-09-10T00:33:00.001-05:00

If I was a hip-hop artist I would rap about the east coast

eastside for life

haha

2010-03-23T23:02:00.002-05:00

to keep things short

my friends have returned from a road trip to Montreal where they saw Joanna Newsom in concert

Neil Young's world-renowned album "On the Beach" has a track named " On the Beach" on it. You should listen to track 6

a gathering

2010-03-18T11:12:00.001-05:00

Some of the 2010 Winnipeg Folk Festival line-up has been released recently

Got Meaning?

2010-03-14T21:26:00.003-05:00

What is new, friends?

Everyone loves to drink, or at least likes to drink.

The home-brew

A while back, we were given a bunch of wine making gear. Today, after much procrastination, we went out and collected the remaining tools necessary and picked up an entrance level home-brew kit. Everyone loves a California White wine. See you in 5 weeks.

____________________________________

I guess a quick photo-update from the past snowboard trips are in order. Also, a quick shout-out to Mike Hanson and the Michalchuk bros, Steven and Dan. It was nice catching up with you guys briefly this winter. Dan, sorry we didn't cross paths.

photos to come

know snow

2010-01-22T23:49:00.003-06:00

The time has come

I've turned my new truck into a winterized camper

Soon it will be in the mountains... camping

I'm a reasonable man

2009-12-01T22:23:00.004-06:00

These are busy days.

I am working full time now again,

I am also building myself a cool winter truck.

photos soon

snow soon

road trip soon

paycheck every 2 weeks

back country snowboarding soon

_________________________________________________

Here's a silly alteration to an already goofy photo of my good friend, Andrew. I believe it was his freshman year... if you have the time, take a look at his moustache.

new Travis Tait website

2009-11-20T18:21:00.001-06:00

Here is a little shout out to my good friend Travis who got his website up and running today.

Travis Tait . com

Here is one of his photos. I inverted the colors to match the blog...

curly sam

2009-11-19T17:58:00.002-06:00

These are the things I do between my real job and my personal time... in the time that has been wasting away for some time now

I'm getting new glasses soon

2009-11-19T17:49:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple from early spring I think it was... perharps late spring or early summer. Things tend to blend

a makeshift lifestyle (lessons in making a tepee)

2009-10-24T15:23:00.005-05:00

Life as a Studio

2009-10-24T15:02:00.005-05:00

death, destruction, recycling

2009-10-24T14:37:00.002-05:00

The frigid months are on their way

this means snow, snowboarding, large fires, lots of photos, etc....

time to get back into a groove of uploading photos

here are some from early summer

2009-08-17T16:11:00.003-05:00

skaters trippin' west

http://www.thericeblock.com/

hand picked pears

2009-07-15T14:31:00.001-05:00

So much excitement.

Local Shop, Pear Apparel.

Two T-shirt designs out so far, here's the latest (slightly different from the t-shirt print)

Now that things have been thoroughly assessed down here at LSA, it looks like we have given ourselves the go ahead on a LSA mini-ramp(3/4 bowl?).

Rad

- Pear

maybe the best thing

2009-06-01T01:52:00.002-05:00

last night i saw tv on the radio play a show here at the burt theater in winnipeg

probably the best show that i have ever seen

check out their latest album: dear science
latest ep: read silence

coolest musicians ever

2009-02-16T16:34:00.001-06:00

en route to Revelstoke

Rome

2009-02-02T01:15:00.002-06:00

conclusion ---> the best city in the world

to my knowledge

Back to Paris, maybe Spain again in the near future... where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

2009-01-29T16:14:00.001-06:00

Currently: In Rome for 4 days... so far it rules over all other European cities and has so much to offer. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Vatican.

arrivals/departures

2009-01-19T08:01:00.011-06:00

Hanging out in the Oslo/Torp airport still. Found a wireless connection

Had a decent sleep last night and woke up to a solid 8 to 12 inches of fresh. Too bad this glorious snowfall was only good for the eye and not for anything else due to the location.

The new John Frusciante album is "out" and I may be listening to it right now.... hence the new blog title photo and definition of "empyrean".

Hands down best first song to an album ever

Here are some photos from Stockholm, Frankfurt, Oslo and the snow here at the Torp airport...

Stockholm, Sweden

Frankfurt, Germany

Oslo, Norway

Oslo/Torp airport

scandinavian love

2009-01-18T14:03:00.003-06:00

We left Amsterdam and I went from sick to sicker. Of course things only got worse from that point on but we eventualy ended up in Stockholm, Frankfurt and Oslo. We've spent countless nights in airports and have probably lost a few pounds along the way. Tonight we are in the Oslo\Torp airport where they offer free internet with the only charg being having to deal with a sticky keyboard where the space bar throws down harder than the amounts of snow being thrown down outside at this very moment. Basically this Scandinavian country resembles BC with the rocky mountains at 1\8th the size... and obviously way more awesome, possibly awesome enough to say it is nothing even close to western canada.... so nevermind

no idea where we're headed next but so far we've been beating Ryan Air's kilogram challenge with flying colors... still the worst airline ever

lots of photos to come sometime

of all places

2009-01-09T09:53:00.003-06:00

Amsterdam.

I'm super sick right now.
i need some drugs

Could this guy be any more awesome?

thanks for having us

2009-01-05T03:06:00.003-06:00

Amsterdam in 10 hours

whoa

5 days in wonderland and then off on an adventure that words will never be able to describe

7? countries, 11 cities, 21 days
no sleep

Paris, I love you
we've had our goods and bads
but now it's time to go

See you around sometime
thanks for being so awesome

the R.J.S. special feature

2009-01-02T16:56:00.006-06:00

the legendary Ryan Smith special

requirements:

leerdhammer cheese (sliced)
Champion brand baguette
special garlic spread
lettuce (alternate colors accepted)

simple but complicated...

step 1: slice

step 2: layer with cheese

step 3: spread the sauzze

step 4: lettuce installation

step 5: compress

step 6: enjoy

you asked for it

2008-12-25T10:09:00.013-06:00

It's Christmas day and guess what I'm doing?

I'm fixing my Ipod because somehow it won't recognize the 63gigs of glorious music that's on it. I guess that's what I get for trying to plug it into Ryan's Fisher Price computer. At least all of the music is still on the Ipod, all I had to do was free up 50 or so gb's on my computer so I could pull all the tunes off the pod, restore the Ipod settings and then drag the tunes back in. The music is currently on it's way back over, so in about an hour and a half I'll find out if everything went ATP.

Keep em crossed

on a lighter note:

here are some photos from some of our adventures....

carousel and European Union stars

caught in the act

no way! you can't lay there

The birdman session

When asked why he does what he does he responded by pointing around to the people who were all standing around smiling. What a great man.

Notre Dame session

left to right: knob1, knob2

the "12" person elevator

This kid was crying... if I was him that would have been the best night of my life. A giant bubble bath? Ya!
Maybe his mom wouldn't let him play in it.... that's a good reason to cry

the RER moves us from place to place

"what do you MEAN"

I can't get enough of the shape of Ryan's head in this photo

The "Jack's twin brother Jacques" Daniel's session

carousel and European Union stars

Photo update

2008-12-24T12:48:00.004-06:00

These were taken on the day that we ventured to "les bois de Boulogne"...I think it was 2 days ago.

both of these are 5 shot HDRs... enjoy

quand tout le monde est joyeux et les gens dansent

2008-12-24T11:38:00.010-06:00

Aux Champs-Elysées, aux Champs-Elysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées

and that's a fact

So i guess it t'was the night before christmas... consider this an official "merry christmas" from me to everyone that reads this. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and that friends and family have joined you all at this wonderful time of the year.

Haha, all we have here is a couple bottles of rum as our friends/family...

Just a quick reminder for all of those back in Winnipeg that are dealing with the -56 degree weather... it's still above zero here and yesterday I went out for the day in a sweater. That's just payback for me not being able to be with friends and family while all of you can. I love you all

To help everyone get into the Christmas spirit I will display our welfare Christmas tree and a few other photos that may or may not have anything to do with Christmas

just like downtown

the christmas dance sessions

Not-so north end style

Canal St. Martin

the only solution

2008-12-19T07:12:00.003-06:00

I can complain sometimes right?

Besides Paris being one of the most amazing places on earth I'm going to have to go and say that walking around this metropolis is difficult and frustrating. It all starts with Paris having a population of just over 12 million people with 9.6 million living in the urban area and 2.2 million living in central Paris. Sure, they have nicely kept parks and beautiful river banks to walk along, and yes they have one of the world's best metro systems... but when I'm walking through the city on the sidewalk I don't want to walk single file and be rubbing shoulders with pedestrians traveling in the opposite direction. Sometimes when the the streets are so narrow the sidewalks are almost non-existent, so when you run into oncoming foot traffic the only option is to step onto the street and let the others pass. Alright fine, no big deal, it's just common courtesy to let the others pass by right? Most of the time yes, but when you're in Paris you never know when some wild scooter hooligan will come whipping around the side of an oncoming car and rip past the curb only allowing a couple of inches of play. Personally I would rather not take that risk, especially when the streets are wet from it raining every other day. At least the city of Paris had it right when they put up poles around sidewalks to protect pedestrians from out of control vehicles... these are the same poles that bend when a light-duty truck backs into them. It's all about peace of mind.

The only solution to this growing problem here in Paris is to recruit all 12 million people and get them to tear down Paris and start over fresh.

one nation under a groove

2008-12-14T12:58:00.005-06:00

About a week ago we went wandering around La Défense for something to do. It ended up being a fairly interesting trip; we got free Fererro Rocher chocolates so it was totally worth it. After walking around for a while we went into a little "christmas village" where vendors were selling everything from chocolates to area rugs. It really got us in the Christmas spirit.

Yesterday we headed into the woods, well almost. We started off with intentions of going into the woods, and we sort of did except it started to rain so we headed towards some sort of floral garden where we found our new home. We found a wonderful jungle green house where we hung out by ourselves for about an hour and a half... it was a comfortable temperature to relax and enjoy the waterfall and goldfish while the wind and rain were taking charge outside.

in the floral park

Our greenhouse

magic

Ferrero Rocher brainwashing center

Christmas village

2008-12-08T20:23:00.002-06:00

petit party

2008-12-04T13:56:00.004-06:00

Everyday life on Boulevard St. Germain

Bordeaux

2008-12-04T13:32:00.004-06:00

Here are some photos from the days we went to the Louvre and D'Orsay... only a select few made it here.

wonder days

2008-12-03T07:07:00.002-06:00

SNOW

December first, the best day for first snow in Paris

gallery days

2008-11-26T13:57:00.003-06:00

Alright, yesterday Brandice and I went to the Musée D'Orsay. The Musée D'Orsay holds pieces from 1849 to 1914. For the first time I really enjoyed walking around a large building looking at art on the walls and sculptures on columns. I have decided that I like Van Gogh, Manet, Jean-Leon Gérome, Caillebotte and Pissarro... I also realised that I really enjoy landscapes and do not enjoy portraits at all. Basically take what Brandice likes and dislikes and just reverse it... she has bad taste... Not really but sort of

After we went to the D'Orsay we made our way down the river to Napoleon's tomb. It's what you would expect a great leader to have as his tomb; large ceilings, beautiful stained glass and large marble everything. We went there after the sun had set so everything was slightly eery. Apparently it's illegal to either take photos or use a tripod in the tomb because the security guard came up to me and told me to put my tripod away and said I could get a 300 euro fine if the Gendarmerie were to pass by... this was after I took a bunch of photos using the tripod, strange. I think there might actually be a law against using a tripod in there because right after visiting Napoleon we went into the army museum which is in the same building and we were told not to use the tripod in the museum... Does that mean it's illegal to take crisp photos? Bullshit

Today we went to the Louvre. To be honest, I expected a lot more from such a hyped up gallery. I will never say the Louvre was a bad time, I will only say that is was intense; imagine taking in thousands of pieces of the same or similar nature in a span of 6 hours. Either way I had fun and I will probably go back before this trip is over.

At both galleries we were allowed to bring cameras in, I brought mine both days and have many awesome photos... I will upload them when I feel the urge.

late November?

2008-11-23T15:46:00.008-06:00

I don't know how it happened but somehow it's already November 23rd. It's nice that we haven't seen any snow yet.

I've been in contact with my good friends the Michalchuks from their home in Calgary and it sounds like everything is off to a good start in the Canadian Rockies. Some of the resorts are already open and some of the more anticipated openings are only a couple weeks away. Probably the one thing I miss the most so far besides family, friends and great food is a solid mountain session with the Bros and the Winnipeg crew.

A few nights ago Ryan, Brandice and I went out to tour the Champs Élysées area and visit it's many high end shops. We found some seriously cool stores like a giant Nike store and a Citroën display room. For those not familiar with the Euro car scene, Citroën is a french car manufacturer. We also saw a Lamborghini shop which we will be exploring later this week. Some of the other neat shops we saw were all high end clothing stores that you probably couldn't step into unless you were wearing Armani head to toe. That evening was the first time that we got to fully experience Les Champs Élysées the way it should be experienced; all the trees along the way were decked with beautiful white-ish blue lights for as far as the eye could see. We are experienced. We were in full exploration mode that evening which is what brought us to a building that assisted us in a view to remember forever. We went up to the roof of a building just off Champs Élysées and discovered the Eiffel Tower only a dozen blocks away doing its strobe light display, it was glorious.

Yesterday evening Brandice and I went to the Père Lachaise cemetery to visit Jim Morrison and hopefully take a few photos. Sadly, we arrived at the cemetery just in time for the clouds to roll in and take away our lighting. We visited Jim and left. We were cold so we went to a nearby coffee shop to enjoy a café au lait, it was the best coffee I've had so far on this trip. If my memory serves me correctly I think that was the night that Brandice, Ryan and I went out to Notre Dame to grab some quick photos and ended up at Hôtel de Ville where those two got a sweet Lion photo shoot session... photo:

genetically modified super peppers from France

This is a view from our ''balcony'' with an HDR touch

Part 2 (of a rad series)

2008-11-20T08:33:00.004-06:00

Brandice and I went out shooting last night for the first time... i guess since we left Winnipeg. She finally got her camera working.

Here are some:

photographic adventure 1 (beginning of a rad series)

2008-11-18T14:18:00.008-06:00

Here is the beginning of a series... These images are all compiled of 5 photos thrown together through a magical program... they are not fake even though they may look it. HDR technology is great, it allows you to view an image in a way the human eye would view the same scene in a live setting... it picks up the highs and lows of every feature giving you this:

steady hand tripod (3 photos)

Notre Dame fountain

the world's most beautiful tree... Notre Dame park

the most awkward window of all time just across the way from our apartment

...things get strange with high dynamic range

2008-11-17T10:54:00.005-06:00

Last night I went to "La Défense" last night via the M1 metro just around sundown...

I also figured out a new digital photo technique called HDR rendering. What you do is take 3 shots (or more) of whatever you want as long as the camera doesn't move during the sequence (via tripod or non-shakesters). Photo 1 should be perfectly exposed, photo 2 should be under-exposed and photo 3 should be over-exposed. You can also use a single shot and over/under expose it in photoshop lightroom, however this method is not as legit as the other and does not produce the same results. Once the photos are uploaded on the computer you go to town and come out with this:

This first photo is done with the first method mentioned...
the following photos were done using the lightroom method.

we need to see some light

2008-11-15T11:31:00.002-06:00

Sheen and I are chatting with each other and we're in the same room

someone save us

how come no one emails me back? show some love

never expect to be sure

2008-11-15T10:50:00.004-06:00

So it's Saturday, I didn't even realize it but yesterday was Friday... the best day of the week.

Sheen and I started off the day properly today... well, for Sheen it was the beginning of the day. I already went out to send some postcards to some family members and I picked up some coffee filters. When I returned Sheen crawled out of bed and I made us a stellar Perkin's style breakfast. It was about 4:30 pm, haha... any objections?

I'm currently chatting with one of the coolest people on earth, Christopher Gottzman. He is in the midst organizing the start of a new magazine and would like me to be an official photographer. I'm stoked. I have serious faith in that man, he will go places.

Here's a photo of Brandice showing her love for pineapples from a photo shoot that we had last week:

cool

how about some fun

2008-11-14T19:13:00.002-06:00

It wasn't intentional to channel Bob Dylan but lately many people have been talking about it.

have a laugh at my expense:

Freewheelin is how i would describe my life right now anyways so whatever

Marseille and back again

2008-11-14T14:32:00.011-06:00

So if you don't know I went to Marseille on the evening of the 9th of November. I spent the first night in the Marseille airport and it was terrible... somehow I slept in on an airport bench...? That day was my birthday... the 10th. I skated the magical Marseille bowl for a couple of hours that day and then explored the city for the remainder of the daylight. That evening I found out that Marseille should never be explored during the night; just looking down some streets scared the french out of me. To finish off the day I went and saw the new 007 flick in french, it was alright... but not really.

The next day was spent exploring; I found out first hand that Marseille is an extremely dirty city... please note the photo of the old man navigating his way through the depths of cardboard boxes. That evening I picked up a bottled of wine and enjoyed it all by my lonesome in my sweet personal hostel room. Note the photo of me enjoying the mandarin orange.

I am extremely excited about the mandarin orange season that is upon us. Everyone get their citrus on.

That brings me to the 12th of November... This day is my dad's birthday, for those who don't know him, he is awesome.

I planned on waking up early and skating the bowl again today but it ended up raining. I still woke up early and went down to the park to take some photos... It cleared up a bit but the bowl was still wet, I didn't dare skating it in fear of breakin ma neck... see photo below.

After the photo session I was scared away from the bowl by a bunch of shitty french girls making sounds that should be illegal. I took a bus to the metro stop and then made it to the main train station where the airport shuttle leaves from. I was supposed to fly home the next day but I decided I didn't feel like getting cozy in the airport for another 12 hours... so I took the next train to Paris. The train left withing an hour and it was awesome; I got to see a glorious sunset over the beautiful country of France and an epic castle placed atop a hill on the corner of a little river. Best 75 euros I ever spent.

It's nice to be back home. It was especially nice to come back a day early even though it sometimes seems like there isn't much to do here in Paris.

hippie street, Marseille

looking out my hostel room window into a scary Marseille street

It's that time of year again everyone... get your mandarin on

a terribly narrow and never-ending downhill metro walk

you could almost swim in the cardboard... it wasn't this bad everywhere but it wasn't good

I enjoy movement

des coques dans un parc!

this guy wasn't as cool as he looks

through the unwashed train window

thursday november 6th 2008

2008-11-07T07:21:00.002-06:00

Today I didn't feel like blogging

Wednesday November 5th 2008

2008-11-05T06:08:00.005-06:00

Perfect:

bitchin

(knob)

Tuesday November 4th 2008

2008-11-05T05:32:00.003-06:00

Today was sweet

Ryan received his package from UPS today, inside of that magical cardboard cube were some of the most amazing things ever. I'd like to thank Ryan's parents for sending out the boxes of Kraft dinner, it's the best!

We went back to the cemetery again today, this time Ryan came along. When we got to the cemetery we looked at a map and figured out how to find Jim Morrison. Even after looking at a map it was still rather difficult to find Jim's grave. So after about 30 minutes we eventually found it and paid our respects. Some dude named Andréa from Italy started talking to us while we were around Jim's grave, he turned out to be pretty cool so we went and found Oscar Wilde's tomb with him, it was pretty rad.

After our cemetery adventure we came home and called it a night.

Tomorrow will be a historical day

monday november 3rd 2008

2008-11-04T11:54:00.005-06:00

Today Brandice and I went to a wicked cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried. We didn't end up finding Jim's resting place, instead we wandered around the moss and leaf covered hills of the cemetery while the sun beamed through the giant trees.

giant spider

Sheen burnt some toast, seriously

sunday november 2nd 2008

2008-11-02T11:49:00.004-06:00

My good friend Alycia posted a link on her blog that took to a great site with some of the funniest comics of all time. Thank you Alycia, these things are great

check it out

90's musicians are always fun to laugh at

Friday Octember 31st 2008

2008-10-31T10:48:00.005-05:00

Happy Halloween to all

today it is rainy and cloudy, not much is going on as per usual... however there are clouds covering the top of the Eiffel Tower and it looks cool. I went to the roof and took a photo so you could enjoy it too

wednesday October 29th 2008

2008-10-30T15:42:00.004-05:00

Today I went out on a solo photographic adventure... I ended up somewhere by the Louvre and Les Champs Elysees... It was cloudy and slightly rainy all day, I was lucky enough to be out around sunset time and witnessed one of the worlds most beautiful sunsets... here are some things to look at

Brandice's so-called "sandwich"

monday october 27th 2008

2008-10-28T06:12:00.005-05:00

It rained again today so we took it easy. Brandice and Sheen went out to buy a hairdryer, a hair straightener and some headphones.

I straightened my hair today and put it into a tail... that's right, for the first time in my life I put my hair in a tail... it's not perfect but give it a break.

the last sunday of october

2008-10-26T19:33:00.002-05:00

Copperfield stopped by for a visit today.

For those who aren't familiar with Copperfield, his real name is Graham and he is the Winnipeg dude that we hung out with in Dublin. He's stalking us and decided to make an appearance at our apartment. That's not true, but he did stop by and scare the shit out of us because only Sheen knew he was coming. So we're all chillin, y'know, minding our own, and then all of a sudden "ding", there's someone at our door. So I panic and hop out the window onto the balcony assuming the worst... the worst being our landlord stopping by for a visit and finding out that it isn't just two people living in their apartment. But no big deal, it was only Copperfield.

Sheen and Copperfield decided to go to the Eiffel Tower tonight while Ryan and I went out in search of somewhere to shoot some billiards... Brandice stayed home.

Ryan and I could only find places that were terribly overpriced so instead we made the best of the night and explored Paris.

When we got home I made some fried apples and french toast and we all watched some episodes of it's always sunny in Philadelphia.

The gang called it a night

saturday into sunday october 26th 2008

2008-10-25T20:29:00.004-05:00

Ryan and I were up late last night so this morning we slept in while Sheen and Brandice went to Versailles. Ryan and I watched some episodes of It's always sunny in Philadelphia and took it easy today.

Ryan and I also got around to putting up the highlight of our apartment...

after much hype, here he is

thursday.october.23rd.2008

2008-10-23T20:43:00.002-05:00

today we did laundry, but that doesn't really matter.

we also put some posters up on the walls, but that doesn't matter either.

today we found the best item possible to decorate our apartment with, it is the most astounding thing ever

photos coming 2008.10.26

wednesday, october something, 2008

2008-10-23T11:52:00.004-05:00

This morning Sheen and I were rudely awakened by the other two that call this place home. It was kind of nice to wake up at a decent time though. After we caught up with our dear friends Sheen and I went to a skatepark, it has a bowl! So we got to skatepark and were extremely disappointed because of the mass quants of little boogers bootin around on scooters or "trottis", if you will, and a bunch of lame rollerbladers. It was sad but we stayed for a while and cleaned the place out a bit... unfortunately the bowl wasn't a proper bowl and it didn't really have a proper transition at all... no vert = a lot of bullshit.

This paragraph will describe how lame the rollerbladers and scooterererers were/are... First off, they were like 2 years old, actually, maybe 10 or 12, but they looked super young and had no respect for anything including taking turns our safety. Oh, and some of them were smoking...?! I didn't even think that was possible. They were also throwing things into the bowl, seriously? keep that shit clean assholes.

When we returned from skating we fried up some extremely spicy pepper mixture with some chicken and rice. After supper we went on an adventure to our little peninsula on an island on the river and ate some wicked ice cream. It was still sort of early after our peninsula session so we hopped on a metro and got lost for a while.... unfortunately we missed the last train home so we had to walk for a short distance. When we got back home we watched a few episodes of "it's always sunny in Philadelphia" and then called it a night.

tuesday october 21st 2008

2008-10-21T21:01:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we didn't do much except get groceries and skate... oh, we also got tickets to see Bonobo and some other Djs on November 8th... pretty excited for that.

Today we woke up and it was raining, we had breakfast and hung out for a while until we decided to go for a walk around the Notre-Dame cathedral area. It was a nice walk, the detail on the cathedral is outrageous, it's too bad that so much of the detail has been destroyed though out the years.

On out way back we picked up some ground beef to make some beef/tomato sauce for our spaghetti. Before long we were bored again so I fashioned up some eye patches in honor of our new pirate friend... Sheen and I had a jolly good time... and a photoshoot.

what has two eyes,
beautiful faces,
and should never be messed with?

the day after saturday

2008-10-21T20:42:00.004-05:00

so I guess all Sheen and I did today was skate

For supper I made some killer hot curry honey chicken and with some spicy pepper/tomato sauce and some type of noodles... it was grand

oh! We got bored and I made an awesome Jimi Hendrix stencil... we have a can of white spray paint and we figured a stencil would be the only sensible way to get rid of it.

We saw these three guys get arrested by the police a few nights ago...They got busted by the cop disguised in casual wear on the left.

We spied on them from our windows.

Saturday October 18th 2008

2008-10-18T20:34:00.003-05:00

This morning we made some of the most amazing bacon that I've ever had in my life... I picked up some english muffins from the store and put some cheese, eggs and bacon in them... the breakfast sandwich has been missed.

During breakfast Brandice and Ryan decided that they were going to go to Berlin and Back in one day to see Of Montreal. Sheen and I stayed home.

Sheen and I went out skateboard adventuring again today and then came home only to leave right away to get some ice cream. We got some crazy cheesecake brownie ice cream and devoured it. After the ice cream we each had five hot dogs... silly mix

enjoy some photos from last night's sunset... the Eiffel Tower is finally gold! Unfortunately the Eiffel tower is now back to it's lame blue after being gold for two days now.

Today I also made a new display image for my blog...

unseen heading

2008-10-18T20:24:00.001-05:00

This is a super covert, super sneak attack, riggorama sly spy post whap.

Basically all that means is I made myself an author without the Blogmaster's (Andrew's) permission. Someone press play on Rebel Without A Pause.

ZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

ps - I was up until 10:30am~ last night and watched the sun rise on our roof. It was beautiful.

Friday October 17th 2008

2008-10-18T19:54:00.003-05:00

Today Sheen and I went out to get some groceries while Brandice and Ryan went and hung out in a nearby park.

For supper we had some fried up veggies, some rice and some spicy curry honey chicken... supper was great. After supper we gave up on getting our internet connected and payed the 18euros for a month of wireless connection to some Ozone:Paris company, we have a decent reception in our room and there are tons of wifi hot spots from the same company throughout Paris...

After we got online we searched for a cheap way to get to Berlin so we could see the Of Montreal show... turned out to be fairly pricey to get to Berlin. We didn't book tickets and watched Office Space instead because we were a little depressed about the high cost of travel to Berlin.

Thursday October 16th 2008

2008-10-18T19:47:00.002-05:00

Today Sheen and I went out on a skateboard exploration of Paris...

We left in a direction that hadn't yet explored and ended up getting really lost. Along the way we found some cool skate spots which is where we spent most of the day. Some point after it got dark Sheen and I had no idea where we were so we asked some rad kids for directions to the metro... the kids even walked with us to show us the way to the metro, great people.

Turned out we made it quite a long ways from home today

Wednesday October 15th 2008

2008-10-18T19:45:00.002-05:00

Today we partied

After breakfast we cleaned up around the apartment a bit and then did our own things for a while . At some point I climbed up the hallway wall and sneaked through one of the skylights... then I came in through the roof exit and unlocked the door from the inside so we could have our roof access back. We all took turns showering and then got ready for tonight's concert at the Montmartres/Elysees venue. We were going to see Of Montreal... some wicked american electronic pop-ish indie rock band.

The Show was amazing! Definitely one of the most unique shows I've ever been too. After the show we hung around and chilled with most of the band members and some of the stage guys... the rad drummer invited us to join them in an evening out on the town. We joined the band at a nearby bar where Ryan chatted with the bassist and got us on the guest list to their show in Berlin on the 19th. We were pretty tired after so we took the metro home for the night.

Tuesday October 14th 2008

2008-10-18T07:06:00.003-05:00

After eating breakfast Sheen, Ryan and I went out to find the fabled

giant Paris skatepark. We took one metro until the second last stop and

then transfered onto another metro for 2 stops... we were on the

outskirts of Paris, it wasn't pretty. We went the way we thought was

correct for about an hour and half until we gave up, we were about to

head back when we found some police officers that gave us some

directions... we got lost again for another 45 minutes or so until Sheen

found the skatepark by sheer luck. Unfortunately by the time Sheen

spotted the skatepark we were exhausted from walking all day and decided

it was best to just head home... so we did. Oh, somewhere along the way

we found an amazing wallride spot that we attempted to skate... it was

tricky but we eventually managed to hit it properly.

After me metro-ed back Ryan and I picked up some groceries and went home where I made a pretty gnarly pasta with a spicy

vegetable/chicken sauce.

After supper Sheen entertained us some and we had some fun with the blue fluorescent light.

Sunday October 12th 2008

2008-10-18T07:01:00.001-05:00

today Ryan and Brandice went to mass at the Notre Dame cathedral at some ridiculous hour in the morning. Sheen and I stayed sleeping until eventually I woke up, ate and decided to go out on my own in search of wifi and whatever came up after that. I ended getting my internet on and then getting lost on the metro system... it was fun. I eventually ended up at the Eiffel Tower, I had my camera with me so I took a bunch of photos. Hours later I decided to make my way home on the metro... I purposely took any train that came and got a little bit lost for fun, eventually I took the proper train and made it home.

I came home to the three fools cooking possibly the worst thanksgiving dinner... we'll blame it on Brandice. After supper we went to an internet cafe place and fooled around online for 3 hours... what a scam, but at least I got to chat with a dear friend and send some messages to the other side of the world.

We got home super late and hung out until about 4am... silly us.

Saturday October 11th 2008

2008-10-12T09:47:00.004-05:00

This morning was a little bit rough; I woke up at 10:00 and barely had a shower while everyone else slept. After the shower I fell right back asleep until sometime in the early afternoon. Once we all had breakfast we cleaned the apartment and went out on a glorious walk; we went towards the Eiffel Tower but this time in a new way that we had never been before. Sheen and I skated while Brandice and Ryan walked, it felt good to skate, I hadn't skated since the Barcelona skate day because I hurt my foot somewhere along the way. We ended up at the place where Napoleon's body is "buried", we hung around there for a bit and then carried on. We picked up a Heineken keg for really cheap and metro-ed back home.

Then we ate.

After supper we all decided that we were going to rent bikes from the awesome Paris bike rental program that they have. Unfortunately we couldn't rent bikes because our credit cards don't have the chips in them.... so much for that plan. After we were heartbroken by the Paris bike rental system Brandice and I went out the Pantheon and drank some strange red wine.

Brandice and I just got back home to find Sheen reading while listening to the Beatles and Ryan passed out on the couch. I think I may go out and listen to some tunes on our "balcony" in a few moments and then call it a night.

I have some photos on my camera, hopefully in the couple of days i will have them up.

these guys are takin over my desktop

yay it's Friday again! probably the 10th of October

2008-10-12T08:55:00.004-05:00

Friday October 10th 2008

Today we slept in again... what else would you expect? We eventually woke up and ate breakfast... we had crepes and it was perfect. I made crepes and an amazing granny smith apple/butter/cinnamon/brown sugar mix. After our late breakfast we left home in search of some vintage shops that the other three had visited the day prior to today.

We took the metro and ended in Montmartres, a few blocks from Le Basilique du Sacre Coeur. I will now go into detail about how much Montreal is like Paris; when I was in Montreal I went up to Mont Royal which is basically a giant park on top of a hill that overlooks all of Montreal.... today we were at Le Basilique and it's is pretty much identical to Mont Royal except not as high up... it was almost weird how much it reminded me of Montreal. I guess it makes sense though, the French basically went to Canada and made Montreal... so why wouldn't they make it just like home? All in all it was a radical view.

seeing as it's friday.... let's party

That photo was taken in Barcelona by Sheen... we found a broken down barcelona rental bike and some strange print out of some dude's face... we made the best of it as you can see

We went into some vintage stores and found some cool stuff for cheap; Ryan got a sweet jacket and so did I... I also got a wicked 50s shirt. We travelled around that area for a bit and then went home.

For some reason our roof access was locked up, so instead of hanging out on the roof tonight we climbed out of our window and hung out on the wicked little arched roof awning that we have. It's basically 15 feet total from eavestrough to eavestrough but it's arched, so it's only safe for 3 people to sit on top of... totally safe

Sheen fried us up some amazing food tonight; it was an awesome stir fry with chicken, assorted vegetables and fried peanuts... unfortunately we didn't have any sauce to accompany the veggie/chicken blend and the pasta so we put some shredded gouda and swiss cheese and it was just fine.

That was basically all of our day...

Thursday October 9th 2008

2008-10-12T08:45:00.002-05:00

Today was kinda lame

I slept in while the others went adventuring in the Montmartres area because my foot still hurts and I just needed a day to relax. Eventually I got out of the apartment and went to some police building on a little island on the Seine river to steal some wifi... oh yeah, stealin from the police. After my laptop ran out of battery life and my fingers were frozen I left my spot to hunt down a super nintendo system. I didn't make it far until I got lost, so I turned around and went home.

Tonight was just like the others; good food and thoughts of playing super mario world.

Wednesday October 8th 2008

2008-10-09T08:28:00.006-05:00

Today we woke up pretty late again... I went and phoned my parents at about 2 Paris time, 7 Winnipeg time.. we talked for a bit and Sheen jumped in the phone booth and talked to them too.

We eventually went out to look for a used gaming store so we could buy a super nintendo system with super mario world and mario kart however we never found it... we'll obviously go soon with proper directions. We need some sort of gaming console to get us through the rainy Paris nights.

We left that area towards Les Champs Elysees. We picked up some wine along the way... shortly after we passed by the Louvre, definitely an awesome looking building. The Louvre pyramids are amazing... so different from the rest of the building.

We kept walking along the river and ran into an amazing park with long rows of autumn affected trees and stellar parks benches with the most amazing view... we stopped there and drank some wine until we got kicked out due to the closing of the park.

Brandice huffed and puffed but she couldn't get the bottle open

We walked down the rest of the park and enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever experienced; the sky was almost every color you could imagine and in the distance was the Eiffel tower and a few dark purple clouds... We were so in awe of the sunset that we almost got locked inside of the park, thankfully someone kicked us out again.

Towards les Champs Elysees is where we went next. As soon as we set foot on les Champs we saw l'Arc de Triomphe down the road and it ruled. Unfortunately there was some stupid airplane show going on down Champs Elysees so we just hustled our way to the Arc. L'Arc de Triomphe was amazing, it's so large and so detailed. We hung out on a bench while Sheen monkeyed around taking pictures of all the people taking pictures of the giant arch.

We took the metro back home and called it a night.

Tuesday October 7th 2008

2008-10-09T08:23:00.001-05:00

Today we went out and tried getting our internet fixed. We went this place called Orange and told them our situation, some guy looked up all of our information and then told us that we had the wrong username and password... so he gave us a new username and said the only way he could give us the password is to send it to us by mail.

We bought some more groceries at the local Champion and walked back home. When we got back I made a radical hot pepper, green pepper and carrot pasta sauce with a bunch of tabasco sauce and other hot spices. Ryan and I ate the pasta and it brought tears to our eyes... it was so good to finally have something hot, it's been way too long. Brandice and Sheen went to an internet cafe while Ryan and I ate.

Before going to bed I went up to the roof and listened to some music and enjoyed the view.

Birthday, October 6th 2008

2008-10-09T08:07:00.005-05:00

Today is Monday and it's Brandice's birthday... Ryan and I made sure to make plans before hand so the we would be up early and out the door before Brandice even woke up... we also plan on getting home at a decent time and getting into bed early so we can make the best of tomorrow.

HA

Actually; this morning Ryan woke up early and went out to get a cupcake for Brandice's birthday gift... She woke up and Ryan had put a candle on the cupcake, it was awesome. We ate an awesome breakfast and hung out for a while while we tried getting the internet hooked up for the fifth time. After we gave up on the internet Sheen went skating while the rest of us went to the Eiffel Tower to celebrate Brandice's birthday by sharing some beers and a bottle of wine.

oh Ryan

Upon return we made some ravioli from a can and ate it with a baguette.

Earlier this week we searched for a roof access but came out with nothing, today Sheen found the OPEN roof access door. To get on the roof you have to climb up a sketchy aluminum ladder which takes you to an attic area where you have lift open a glass roof hatch. After supper we went up to the roof and chilled out for a while. Just when I thought our view of Paris couldn't get any better... now we could actually see 80% of the Eiffel Tower.

full 360 panoramic from our roof session...
unfortunately it won't let me upload anything larger.
If anyone is interested I could email it

I forgot to mention that this afternoon before we went out I went on the roof and took some cool Eiffel Tower photos where a bird swooped in and sat on some sort antenna thing... some of the photos turned out fairly well.

Notre Dame

When we got back down from the roof we watched some of Across the Universe and called it a night.

Sunday October 5th 2008

2008-10-09T08:04:00.004-05:00

This morning was a little bit rough... we slept in and recovered from our night of drinking. It was so awesome to sleep in. We didn't do much before Ryan and I went and met up with our cool french friends to say goodbye to them because two of them were going back to Bordeaux or however it's spelled.

a view from one of our windows... that's the Basilique in the distance
illin along the Seine
window shot
our magical futon

When we got back home we fried up some stellar vegetables and some chicken and threw it on some pasta. After supper we watched Vanilla Sky and went to sleep.

Saturday October 4th 2008

2008-10-09T08:00:00.003-05:00

Today Sheen and I slept in and the other two went out adventuring. After Sheen and I had some breakfast I went out to find a free wifi source while Sheen went somewhere.

We had planned to meet up under the Eiffel Tower after we were all done our separate adventures. After I finished my online work I walked the 45 minutes to the tower and had my mind blown. I didn't think the Eiffel Tower would be that amazing.

Unfortunately I didn't find the crew near the tower so I began walking home. Somehow on the way home I ended up running into the other three, it was pretty lucky. I walked back to the tower with them and we picked up some wine on the way. We ended up hanging out in one of the parks which was a stones throw from the tower. At some point we met some awesome french guys, after about 30 minutes of nonsense and chasing rats around we ran into the french homies again and we had an awesome time in some cool park with a play structure with them. After that we sat down again and chilled, this time with the awesome french trio. Sheen took a good fall and decided to walk home... we left shortly after him. Turned out Sheen wasn't home before us like he should have been because he got lost on the metro system... he eventually came home with mixed feelings about the metro system.

French people rule

their names were:
Jean-Remie
Jean-Baptiste
Jack

Friiiidaaay October 3rd 2008

2008-10-09T07:56:00.002-05:00

OH hey, it's Friiidaaay

Before anything I would like to send my deepest apologies to Marc Deniset. Marc, I'm sorry I could not contact you today on this beautiful autumn Friday... I'll have you know that I did try everything possible; we're having problems hooking up our internet in our apartment.... it has something to do with this silly looking internet box sitting in front of me. I even considered sending a messenger owl but even with time change he wouldn't have made it on time... and the owl only spoke french, not Deniset french. Sheen suggested making a collect call and putting my name as "heeey it's friiidaaay" but it's just too far away to a pay phone and their phone system around here is so fucked up. Deepest apologies, I hope you at least received my telepathic message.

We woke up to our third consecutive day of rain; it didn't matter though because once again we woke up to a view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. We had cereal, toast, jam and coffee for breakfast, it was nice having a proper cup of coffee... none of that instant bullshit.

Today was laundry day; we walked across the Seine river and picked up our internet box at some coffee shop that the landlord had given us shitty directions to. We adventure for a bit until we found a place to do our laundry, it would become our home for the next three hours... doing laundry outside of your house sucks. During our wait time Ryan and went out to get some food, we ended up finding some canned ravioli and a decent baguette at some corner store. I pulled a serious rookie move and sliced my right index finger open on the lid of the can, it went pretty deep and it didn't stop bleeding. Thankfully we were right across from a restaurant and one of the dudes working hooked me up with some paper towel. So for the next two hours i layed on the laundromat chair with my blood soaked hand and put pressure on my wound.

When we got back from our laundry experience I cleansed my wound and bandaged it while Sheen fucked around with the silly internet box and got nowhere. After the shenanigans we all did our own supper thing; I took a baguette, cut it in half and put some tomato sauce, cheese and green peppers on it... after a few mins in the micro it was delicious. After supper Ryan and I booked it down to our local Champion to beat the closing of it's doors so we could get some last minutes essentials.

Thursday October 2nd 2008

2008-10-09T07:53:00.002-05:00

Our sleeping situation isn't looking too good for the next three months; we have three compact self-inflating mattresses and one pull-out futon. Last night Sheen and Brandice slept on the futon and Ryan and I champed the floor... We all woke up with sore backs but it didn't matter because we woke up to a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately it was raining, so we threw on our rain jackets, grabbed our umbrellas and left our home in search of the nearest supermarket. We put our trust in Google maps that we accessed from a street wifi and found out that we were 4.4 kms away from the nearest Champion, the local "safeway/sobeys". The 4.4kms wasn't a huge deal considering the Paris metro system kicks serious ass, the only problem was getting onto the trams during rush hour. When we got back Brandice and Ryan went to get some things that we forgot from the supermarket, only then did we find out that there is a Champion 2 or 3 blocks from us... damn Google maps.

Supper was amazing, I bought red peppers, green peppers, orange peppers, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, chicken and some amazing sweet and sour sauce. Brandice bought some mushrooms and beansprouts, Sheen bought some rice and we made an amazing stir fry accompanied by a beautiful loaf of unsliced, freshly baked bread and a decent white wine. We were full

That was basically all of our day... we did sleep in until late and we spent many hours getting all the groceries to stock our apartment. Tomorrow we will definitely have the best breakfast we've had in 3 weeks.

bonsoir

Wednesday, October 1st 2008

2008-10-09T07:38:00.006-05:00

We left Barcelona this morning at 3:30. We got to the bus station and thought we might not be able to get a bus ticket because the actual vending section of the station was closed. We saw a bunch of people standing outside waiting for the buses so we figured they must have been able to buy their tickets somewhere; we searched and found a little ticket stand on the second floor. We got our tickets and got on a bus to the airport.. Ryan made it on the second bus but it was full so the rest of us went on the third bus.

It's nice to be on the bus when some guy about ten rows up pukes all over the place and urinates himself... I hope everything is going better for sick guy.

THE KILOGRAM CHALLENGE
RyanAir is the big airline here in Europe and they have this silly weight rule that only allows passengers to bring on 15kgs stow away and 10kgs carry on. If you are over these limits they charge you a ridiculous 15euros/kg over... obviously we were all overweight. Everyone else was able to bring their excess stow away weight with them in their carry on however I was already overweight. Thankfully I had the least pleasant woman in the world weighing my bags so she kept telling me "oh, you are overweight, you need to move some weight to your carry on... oh now your carry on is overweight". C'mon lady, I'm fucking backpacking, as if I'm going to pay your absurd overweight charges, especially when the last time we flew RyanAir the nice man checking our bags let us get away with it. So whatever, I was sneaky about it and took some stuff out of my bag, hid it behind the weight counter, weighed my shit again, got weight approved by the asshole and then got out of there. I also gave some gear to Brandice and Ryan, they saved the day. However, after pulling a shitload of gear out of our packs we looked like huge asses with all of our shit hanging off of everything. I had a camera bag, Ipod case, lens case, two pairs of pants, a hoodie and a bunch of other random heavy things hanging off of my little carry on backpack which had a laptop, a camera, a hoodie and two books already inside of it. Silly, if anything, RyanAir is putting everyone at rick by making us do such ridiculous things... at least their flights are cheap. After we shared some unpleasant words about the kilogram challenge, we went through security and made our way off to Paris.

Besides RyanAir being silly, the flight was the best I've ever experienced. We were in the air for the most beautiful sunrise possibly of all time; the shades of red and orange were like nothing I'd ever seen before... ..k, except maybe that one night with PT, DPS and JB.

We landed is Paris and it was raining, but I didn't care, I was so happy to be somewhere where I can speak the language and actually communicate with people. I'd like to take the time right now to thank my parents for putting me through french immersion schooling. I can't imagine not knowing French, it's such an awesome language and it's so rad to hear everyone around me speaking it. We didn't quite land in Paris; we were about 45 minutes out of the city so we had to take a bus. When we finally arrived in Paris we were supposed to call the landlord to our new apartment an hour before we wanted to meet her, however we couldn't figure out how to use the payphones. We gave gave up on the phones and went to the nearest metro station thanks to a kind man who gave us directions. Life is so easy when there are metros. We passed by the metro stop at the Louvre on our way to our apartment, even the metro stop is decorated with art... beautiful. We found our apartment fairly easily however we still hadn't figured out the payphones, so Brandice and I left Sheen and Ryan on a corner with our gear and we headed out in search of... something or someway to use the phones..? After we were disrespected by some pharmacy owner and sent in the wrong direction by some other man we eventually found a kind woman working at some sort of bank who told us that we had to purchase some sort of card from the tobacco shops... so we did that. One more catch, the phone numbers are so messed here... we had a phone number but we didn't know that you had to put a zero in front of the number; we eventually figured it out and got a hold of Mueva, the landlord.

Brandice and Ryan went to get possession of our new home while Sheen and I chilled out at MacDo because technically there are only two people staying in the apartment... I guess for saftey reasons? Safety would probably make the most sense because to have more than two people in this place would be absurd, thankfully there will be four of us here for three months.. we're going to go mad. Take the interior of a mini-van and multiply it by four... that's the size of our room. Yes! The elevator is interesting also, it's an actual two person and if there are two people in it, they will be touching for sure... fat people couldn't hack it. As for the stairs, completely out of the question... it's just a giant spiral staircase with tiny steps.

Once you're inside the apartment and you accept the miniscule-ness of everything then it isn't actually that bad; the shower and sink are in separate rooms and the kitchen is equipped with basically everything we need but a stove. Fortunately this place came with everything we need to live; we're got cleaning supplies, towels, assorted teas, futon, table and chairs, toilet paper, TV and a wicked fluorescent blue light. As for the view from the apartment, I won't even go into detail; I will only say la Tour Eiffel and Le Basilique du Sacre-Coeur... We unpacked a bit and organized a little before taking turns power napping. I woke up from my power nap and witnessed the Eiffel Tower lit up with 335 giant white strobe lights and 4 high power search lights on top, it was pure insanity. Apparently the Eiffel Tower glitters like that for the first 10 minutes of every hour until 2am in the summer and until 1am in the winter... I cannot wait to see it up close.

I guess that is it, I really wish my french keyboard worked... can someone help me?

bonsoir

Tuesday September 30th 2008

2008-09-30T19:00:00.004-05:00

Skate day

Today we skated hard. We woke up before 11 today and brought our backpacks down to put them into storage for the day. We had breakfast and then left the hostel with Aram to go skate the famous Sants Estaçio bus station benches. Best skate day ever, the benches were so fun to skate and all the people there that were skating were super awesome to skate with.

Ryan

fronstide smith

backside smith

Sheen frontside 5-0

Sheen

note all the broken boards and shoes on top

enlarged section shows proof of the ollie

backside crook (thanks Marc)

front board

i tried sooo many times for this backside tail... never got it, but this looks alright

aram trying some handstands

classy

We skated there for nearly 5 hours and then decided to come home, shower, and figure out our deal as to what we need to do tonight. Turns out that Michael is super awesome and we can just hang out here in the hostel until we need to catch our bus to the airport at 3:15... and he refunded us for a day for the hostel night, sweet. I went with Sheen and we bought a pizza and some coke to tie us over until later.

I just woke up from a wicked power nap, it's 2:10 in the morning and we're about to leave for Paris. I hope everything works out when we get there.

bye

Monday September 29th 2008

2008-09-30T18:46:00.002-05:00

We basically wrote today off. We woke up to the news that the Hostel is shutting down tomorrow and that we have to leave today... oh, thanks for the warning. We were told that we have a room paid for at another hostel down the street for the next two night but instead we decided to bargain with Michael, the awesome hostel running man. Somehow we are able to stay tonight but tomorrow we have to leave, I guess we'll have to spend some more time in the airport. After some bargaining we took it pretty easy, my foot was still pretty sore so I rested it.

Daniel, Mesri and I got kind of bored and needed something to do so we went for an adventure into the ghetto. We weren't out too late, we came back and packed up all of our gear. Tomorrow we're getting up early, meeting with Aram at 11, and going out for a full day of skating.

Sunday September 28th 2008

2008-09-29T18:10:00.006-05:00

Frosted flakes

Ryan doing some work

This morning I woke up and enjoyed a glorious bowl of Frosties and milk... just so everything is clear, "Frosties" are the same as "Frosted Flakes", it's just a euro name. The milk was cold and awesome and the Frosties were fresh, I also enjoyed a baguette and jam. After our late breakfast we took the train to the Parc Guell which is desgined by the famous architect Antoni Gaudí. Apparently the worlds longest bench is there, we sat on it's beautiful mosaic detail at sunset and it was great.

The world's "longest" bench

Once we arrived back home the cooking began. We ended up having cheese and ricotta/spinach tortellini with an amazing parmesan sauce. To top it we had some red pepper and tomatoes pan fried with some seasoning and a seperate chicken and tomatoe mixture on the side with assorted hot spices. Brandice made a salad, we grilled some baguettes and called it a meal. After everyone was full we had a few drinks and cleaned up.

Aram Barazanda on the left and Daniel on the right

Daniel, Barazanda and Mesri (Barazanda and Mesri is their last names)

Daniel, Barazanda, Mesri

The friendliest 19 year old giant, Daniel

We took off after supper in search of the world's most popular construction site, the Sagrada Família. Unfortunately while we were in the near distance we saw the lights go off and we were unable to see the masterpiece lit up. We made the best of it and claimed to return tomorrow night before they shut the lights at midnight. When we got back we chilled in the main area of the hostel for a while and then called it a night.

Yesterday Sheen and Aram decided to do some touchless dancing... here's how it turned out

Sheen decided that they should dance with his fly unzipped

Salut

Saturday September 27th 2008

2008-09-28T19:26:00.002-05:00

Today I woke up before everyone and hung out in the main area of the hostel and drank some tea and coffee, I also had some decent granola bars. We went shopping today and got some serious amounts of food, I decided that I want to make supper for our group and the new friends that we made... apparently supermarkets aren't open on sundays. I picked up a few bags of cheese tortelini and some spinach and ricotta tortelini also. We got some fresh baguettes and got out of there. When we got back we made some fairly impressive vegitarian sandwiches.

After we ate, Ryan, Brandice, Aram and I left in search of a festival at El Prat just a few minutes outside of the city. We had to take two trains and a bus to get there but it was totall worth it. When we arrived it was still a bit early before everything started, we saw a bunch of people rigging up a bunch of fireworks so we decided to hang around. We grabbed some beers and skated in the street until we joined a drum line/parade that lead us to the main party.

It was definitely worth waiting around for; we arrived just in time for a giant display of Spanish firecrackers which were set up on a giant jurassic-park-esque styled arch. Out of the arch came a bunch of people dressed up in dark hooded sweaters and bandanas hoisting pitchforks with spinning firecrackers mounted on the ends of them. It was alsmost creepy when a giant sculture of a rooster came out with about a dozen of the spinning firecrackers on it... definitely nothing like you would see in Canada. The firecrackers were going right off in the crowd, at one point the sparks from the giant rooster were shooting into Ryan, Brandice, Aram and I. The weirdest part about this whole demonstration of fireworks was that they kept replacing the burnt out fireworks with new ones... they just kept on going on through the city.

We came home, I put on some tunes.. and passed out. Tomorrow's supper should be great

Friday Septbember 26th 2008

2008-09-27T08:10:00.002-05:00

oh heeey, it's fridaaay

It was a rad Friday, everyone but Ryan slept in really late today. Brandice and Sheen went out clubbing last night and didn't get home until something absurd like 5 or 6 so they weren't up until 3. As for Ryan, he stayed up all night and found out that he had to wait for a UPS package, he was told that he had to wait outside between 8 and 10:30 because UPS already came by once and couldn't find the hostel. After he received his packaged he engaged himself in a serious adventure... I would go into details but it wasn't my adventure so I can't tell it. It seems like a story that is worth publishing though, so maybe he'll do so... maybe I could have a Ryan Smith feature on my blog?

During the day today I hung around the hostel and did some stuff that I had been putting off for a while, it was also raining so there wasn't really all that much that could be done.

Tonight was amazing; everything started off in the kitchen area where everyone met and started having a few drinks and playing cards. Two days ago Sheen got us on a VIP list for tonight to some local club, so at about 1:15 we all left in a huge group towards the club. Before I go further into details I should introduce three of the best people on the earth: Aram, Aram and Daniel... yes, two Aram's... All from Kurdistan. The really awesome Aram gave me a quick history lesson on Kurdistan, it was very interesting, apparently in 1985 his parents because guerilla soldiers and fought against the Iran government that tried telling the people of Kurdistan that they couldn't continue living with theocracy and they had to switch over to a democracy. In the end his family fled to Sweden where he lived until he decided to leave and work here in Barcelona for a year with his friends. One last note on Aram, he looks a lot like John Frusciante when he has his hair tied back, so rad. Alright, so went to that club and it pretty much sucked so Ryan, Brandice, Aram, Daniel and I left and made our way to another little club just down the way where it was super packed. We somehow found a table upstairs at the little club and hung out for a bit until the place closed down at 3. After we left the club we went down La Rambla which is famous for shit goin down... very interesting street, a lot of things going on... I wouldn't recomend going down that street by yourself, ever. I guess after we walked down that street and found some food we went home, by the time we got back it was probably close to 6am. Awesome night.

Thursday september 25th 2008

2008-09-26T05:50:00.004-05:00

This morning was written off for sleeping in, we deserved it. After we woke up we made a couple of grocery runs, made some food and then left this hostel en route to a sickening skate spot. We Took the Barcelona Metro for the first time to get to the spot, not nearly the caliber of New York's metro system but it definitely does the trick... and it's a million times cleaner than NY's.

We got to the skate spot and it was amazing... it's basically a little park covered in the smoothest cement, speckled with nice shade-offering trees and everywhere you look there's a perfect manual pad with beautiful steel edging for grinding. There were also a bunch of ledges with marble tops, i swear this place was made for skating... and behind all of this there was a GIANT speed ramp that we used for some mediocre downhill jammin. There were a bunch of skaters there that we skated with, they're pretty good... it's really interesting to skate with different people all the time because everyone always has something different and it's cool learning new things from them. We basically spent most of our afternoon there.

I didn't take any photos today,
this one is compliments of Brandice...
We need to go back and do a proper
photo session there before we leave

When we got back from skating Sheen cooked us up some spaghetti and saauuuce for supper, we toasted some baguettes and called it a meal. After supper we chilled in the kitchen area with the hostel crew and Aram and I were jammin to Matisyahu... then we called it a night... I think Sheen and Brandice went out "clubbin", not sure how their night ended.

Stoked on Jeff Barkman's music right now, some hometown sound is nice

salut

Wednesday September 24th 2008

2008-09-24T19:43:00.008-05:00

Some giant open area with the smoothest ground ever, we skated hard here a couple nights ago, it's beautiful at night

Here is where we skated for quite some time with bunches of skaters.. marble is so nice

We woke up at checkout time this morning after a short sleep filled with exciting events like the guy next to me passing a lot of gas and stinking up the whole room. So we "checked out" and hung out in the room for a while until the cleaning staff came and sort of gave us the boot. We moved shop and set it up in the chill/eating area... Ryan, Brandice and I then left to the nearest Consum to get some groceries to make some more sandwiches. After the sandwich session Sheen and I went to the nearby marble coated plaza area and hung out with the local pigeons... we fed them some bread and played with them. Sheen and I probably probably have the bird flu.

This was the entrance to our home in Valencia

poopy time?

photo?

this little guy was great

We made it back to the hostel just in time to leave to go catch our train to Barcelona. For the first train ride of my life I was expecting it to be a lot more awesome than in turned out to be... at least we got to witness a beautiful peach colored sunset over the Spanish mountains with giant wind turbines on one of them... wow.

We got into Barcelona at 10:30 and just barely found our unmarked hostel at about 11... we only found this place because some others were leaving and we asked them. Besides being hidden this place fucking rules, we walked in and were greeted with "welcome to the world"... there are people here from all over; we got some Italians, some Fins, a girl from Israel, a few Germans and some dude from Brazil who is traveling Europe by bike and train... Oh, and some awesome dude named Aram from northern Iran/Turkey/Armenia... he is apparently from a place where they live in the mountains in that area, they have their own name for the area but I can't remember.. I'll ask him tomorrow sometime. Anyways, this is the hostel life that i've been waiting for, and it's cheap!

We settled in at the hostel and then left in search for some place to party and/or pick up some beer... apparently Barcelona is like the rest of Spain where everything shuts down way too early, we couldn't even find a MacDo that was open. So we came back home and shut it down for the night... the showers are great here also... except the fact that when you open the shower doors it's basicaly fair game so you gotta be quick to grab the towel and your underwear or else you will be seen... I can't imagine the scene during peak shower time...

Oh, so that giant party that was apparently going down here in Barcelona ended today and we totally missed it. Or I guessed Barcelona missed out on us.

really into the remixed version of Thom Yorke's The Eraser... what a spectacular album

Tomorrow we skate.

Tuesday September 23rd 2008

2008-09-23T14:02:00.008-05:00

Sheen and I made it

to the moon

today,

but before I go there I should fill you in on what happened before said event:

We woke up and experienced the worst breakfast ever... C grade corn flakes never tasted so bad, that's all you need to know. Sheen and I dealt with shitty petit dejeuner and then headed in search for the local skate shop so Sheen could get a new deck. After Sheen picked up his new deck we skated towards the skatepark.

We took the coolest route possible; it was basically a bunch of mini plazas in a low laying dried up canal with huge bridges passing over it quite often... I don't know how else to explain it other than that.

Once we got to the park I got my mini-ramp fix in a true cheese & cracker style mini-ramp...

It felt so good to finally hit some proper transition. Obviously we got rained out... it started raining just enough to make everything impossibly slippery. Whatever, we took off and ended up in a place we never thought we would end up in...

At first glance you would swear you were on a different planet, but actually all of this crazy architecture exists in Valencia, Spain... I don't know how to explain any of this stuff; I'll just claim that we went to the moon and I'll let the photos do some talking.

After we were experienced we left that crazy place and went to the grocery and got some baguettes and ice cream sandwiches and pounded 3 sandwiches each. After that quick snack we had a quick power skate and then went back home where we ran into the other two. Ryan and Brandice apparently went to the modern art museum today... they claim it was good. We took care of business and then settled down in the chilling area to watch a movie but got kicked out because it closed at 1am. We waited it out in our hallway for a bit and Brandice left to go to sleep. Then there were three... we wanted to finish watching the movie but had nowhere to watch it because the roof area was closed for the evening, the chilling area was closed and there were people sleeping in our room. We found a room on the top floor that was open and empty for some reason... super strange considering all of the other rooms are booked full... Whatever, we sat in there and finished watching the movie Sour Grapes... it was different

Tomorrow we are going to Barcelona... it just so happens that September 24th is their biggest party day of the year... who knows what will happen to us.

Currently: really missing a Julie Hogue chicken soup/stew... either would be great right now

To all: if you are reading my blog, or I should say creeping my blog I will have you know that you should not be afraid to comment on it. Doesn't anyone wanna talk to me?

That is all

God speed space cadets

Monday, September 22nd 2008

2008-09-23T03:29:00.005-05:00

I found Sheen last night, turns out he was fine. He was hanging out in some giant open area covered with the nicest, smoothest marble I've ever skated. Last night I decided I would go out exploring on foot, I then went outside to do so... I made it about 50 or 60 paces and realized that the ground was just too smooth to not skate. So I went back and got my board and skated some disgustingly nice marble ledges/manual pads with some locals. Then I ran into Sheen where I convinced him to go get his board and join me in an evening/early morning skate. Sheen came back with his board and we skated hard for a couple hours. Everything is so well lit up here at night and the skate scene is so unique. The marble ledges that I mentioned earlier are actually in some neat little plaza directly beside a cop station, however the cops don't say shit unless it's 3:30 AM and the locals are trying to sleep... it's weird too, whenever a cop car drives by all the skaters just stop and stare it down... it was the weirdest thing when it first happened because it just happened out of nowhere and no one needed to say anything.

This morning the group and I left the hostel in search of a grocery store; turns out that they're a lot harder to find around here. Once we finally found a store we bought a ton a food and found a park nearby and ate til we could not eat anymore. I ate too much, here's how it went: started with an ice cream sandwich that Sheen bought, then some awesome sugar coated mini-pastries, then a whole grain baguette sandwich which had way too much cheese and meat on it complete with lettuce, mustard and some weird garlic spread. Then I had some great cookies that Sheen bought and washed everything down with a nectarine/grape juice of strange consistency. Oh, and before that I had two kiwis and a nectarine and half of a warm, freshly baked baguette from the store's bakery... it was fresh so it had to be done. Once we were done eating we walked back home and I passed out... probably due to the stupid amount of food that I ate.

Unfortunately I cracked my board last so after I woke up from my sleep I set up my beautiful new Sk8 blank deck.

I'm totally done carrying this guy around Europe, now I can skate it

Once that guy was all set up Sheen and I went out and skated with the group of locals again at the marble ledges which are honestly a stone's throw from our hostel. Brandice and Ryan came along and chilled. After we were done skating, Ryan, Brandice and I went and hung out in a park somewhere in the city. Turns out we got lost on our way back and we had to track back to the park a few times to keep trying new ways home... we ended up finding our way obviously.

Once we got back Sheen, Ryan and I got kicked outta the kitchen/chill are because it was apparently closing down so we went up on the rooftop and chilled out before calling it a night.

My gang is crazy

they R killers
so I stay quiet
and pay my bills

That was the best board I ever owned, RIP Mark Gonzales deck

see you tomorrow sometime

SUNday September 21st 2008

2008-09-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

So I changed the colors of my blog today... that's all I did, all day long. What do you think of the changes?

That was a lie, there was more to the day... but honestly, are the colors too much to deal with? Whatever

Anyways, last night I took my mattress off the god-awful bedframe/boxspring mess and moved it onto the balcony which is just barely wide enough for it. What an awesome sleep... the Spanish breeze was flowing into my pyjamas all night long... haha, YES! Besides the noise from the street below I have no complaints... well I guess the mattress could have been better but whatever, i'm used to sleeping in a basement in Winnipeg.

We woke up and checked out of the Pension Portugal (dont ever stay there) and walked the single block to the bus station where we caught a bus to Valencia, Spain. Wait, before we got on the bus Ryan and I went to the local corner store and picked up some mini pizza things on baguettes... apparently corner stores here have awesome mini-bakeries.. damn those little guys were good. We got to Valencia and had to walk for 1.5kms to our hostel in the craziest of heat... no big deal for us though, we're backpack pros now. It was so nice to arrive at our hostel where things actually make sense... no more of this crazy weird crappy hotel bullshit. We have proper beds and breakfast is included, there is also FOUR solid wifi connections... After we settled in and put our gear in the lockers we left in search for some eats.

On our adventure we ran into some local skaters skating this insane spot with wicked wooden benches... i swear i've never skated a bench that grinded so well... and it was wood? So Sheen and I threw down there for a bit and then we continued on our search for food. Apparently everything closes down here on Sundays, it's sorta like the laws in Manitoba except they aren't even open at all... so all we had to chose from was convenience store bullshit, expensive cafés... or MacDo... we obviously went with the latter. After polishing off the meal with an orea McFlur we got outside and it was raining, it was beautiful. The walk home in the rain wasn't too bad because it was so damn hot and the rain cooled things off nicely.

We got back and watched a quick docmentary and then Sheen struck up a conversation with a cute french girl... after we chatted for a bit Sheen decided he was gonna go with her to meet up with her friends at a bar where they will apparently teach him some french... that may be the last we see of Sheen, god speed. Who knows, maybe he'll fall in love and i'll have to be his best man in a couple of weeks.

So far things are looking great for our three months in France... so far I can understand their crazy french and the french girls that are staying here are beautiful...

I guess that's today in blog form

peace

Saturday September 20th 2008

2008-09-20T17:29:00.002-05:00

As I sit here and enjoy my glorious snickers baaarrr and this beautiful Amstel cerveza I will enlighten you with a story about today's and maybe some of yesterday's events...

If yesterday actually happened here's what went down:
As a group of four, we left our hotel room in search for the Alicante castle. Once arriving at the base of the castle we went our separate ways, Sheen and I went up the road in hope of someone giving us a lift up and Ryan and Brandice scaled the mountainous slope upwards to the castle. So Sheen and I walked up to the top and realized that the walk up wasn't nearly as far as it looked. On the way up we could see the other two hiking up the hill, however once we reached the top they were nowhere to be seen... we found out later that they thought they had to pay to get into the castle so they just walked around the base of it and tried to climb it's walls to get in for free... little did they know that Sheen and I just walked right in and there was no charge at all. The view from atop was glorious, obviously... the Mediterranean still blows my mind.

this one is for Christopher G... WHITE MARBLE dude! smooth like butta

view from our balc

this is just how we do

Pb sandwiches in Alicante... ohyeah

What a guy this guy is

Ah, this morning... WOW what a start to a day... hah. So, this morning we wake to someone opening up or hotel room door, turns out it was one of the office guys who has a creepy shaved head and a lack of common sense. Here's what he walked into: Since the beds were the most uncomfortable of beds ever we decided to take them off the sketchy bed frame/spring deal and put the mattresses on the floor and link them together...
matress party

After sleeping in til noon or so we left this terrible sauna and found some cold milk and cereal at a nearby grocery store. We came back home and had said cereal in the hotel room cups... damn it was good to have proper breakfast. Too much milk made me feel sick so I slept it off for a bit and then Brandice and I made our way to an Internet shop to make some skype phone calls home. Then we hit the beach with all we had... it's so unfortunate that old women are allowed to go topless on the beach. Yikes.

We got back and made some awesome peach jam and peanut butter sanwiches and topped it off with some canned ravioli. After the meal Sheen and I went and skated some niftly little interlocking brick bank that seemed almost made for skating... it was great. On the way back we picked up some more beer... that brings me to now where I sit on the balcony with a nice cold Amstel and a snickers bar surrounded by the other 3 fools. Tomorrow we're outta this place en route to Valencia, Spain.

Brandice workin it in the dress that she found on the street

this is how the old folk do it in Alicante... they ill on the plazas near the marina reading the paper and shoot the shit

The marina in Alicante... whoa

hasta la mañana

Friday September 19th 2008

2008-09-20T05:16:00.000-05:00

Today was the least interesting day thus far... as far as we are concerned it never existed... there was never a September 19th 2008. EVER... not even in Alicante, Spain.

Not even worth a goodnight.

Thursday September 18th 2008

2008-09-19T04:59:00.000-05:00

No idea as to what we're doing today... we have plans on going to Alicante, Spain, however we have no idea how we're going to do so or where we're gonna stay when we get there. Whatever... we packed up and left our nifty little hotel room and champed it down through the plazas towards the bus station. It really sucks carrying packs in places where round-a-bouts are popular because you usually have to go all the way around just to get to the other side.... sure miss the good ol fashioned North American intersection. We ended finding a bus to take us to Alicante at 3:00 so we went to the grocery store to pick up some food to make some sandwiches.. when we got back with our goods we crafted the world's best sandwiches... let me tell you all about them; start it off with a fresh baked baguette, throw some garlic mayo and mustard for sauce, slice up some random moon shaped cheese, layer on the smoked meat (which we assume was beef), then comes the lettuce and tomatoes... yikes.

Just outside the bus station at terminal 1 there was a wicked mound of cement shaped perfectly into a giant bank that SHOULD have been skateboarded, however the whistle bearing security whistled me away from doing so... that's so pathetic. Whatever, we got on the bus and began our 5 hour ride to Alicante. The country of Spain is weird, picture a desert with a little bit of shrubbery growing randomly with some casual cacti here and there... and this is all taking place on mountains, or maybe you could call them giant hills... either way I've never seen anything like this place or anywhere that lacked so much green. Along the road there were a whole lot of run down and busted up old-school houses and a lot of little farms where they were growing some sort of trees... I'm guessing for some sort of fruit picking.

We got into Alicante around 9 and searched around for an hour or so for the cheapest place to stay... apparently hostels don't exist here so we found a cheap little hotel room with a pretty wicked little balcony overlooking this interesting little castle city. Apparently all cities around here evolve around castles.

Tomorrow should be a wicked day, we're going to go take the walk up the million stair stair set to the top of the castle and hopefully make it to the beach after.

Adios

Wednesday September 17th 2008

2008-09-17T18:31:00.002-05:00

Oh Spain.... !!!

We slept in today for one of the first times and it ruled... we woke up to the most awesome sunlight beaming into our second floor hotel bedroom windows. I was the first one to get up so I did some laundry in the sink with the detergent that was given to us while in the Cork hostel. Laundry was definitely needed to be done... you would understand if you smelt the pair of green socks that I speak of or even if you saw the faces of Ryan, Sheen and Brandice after each of them took turns smelling the disgraceful pair. After hanging our garments on the railing and basically anywhere we could find we split into groups and peaced out. Sheen and I went to the Alcazaba Castle which is about a 20 minute walk from our room and Brandice and Ryan went to the beach.

This is a half-assed-quickly-thrown-together panoramic of Almeria from atop the castle

Sheen and I got to the castle and got in for free because we’re apparently allowed to because we’re Canadian... figure that one out. The castle kicked some serious ass. When we first walked up and into the castle we came out into a beautiful little courtyard full of perfectly trimmed shrubbery and neat little marble edged ponds which had awesome little streams that flowed down the center of the stairs into them... Then there was this nifty little pond thing with perfectly symmetrical trees placed exactly opposite of each other on all corners... so neat. I should point out that the castle is the highest point in Almeria and it overlooks the whole city. We got to highest point and snapped a good collection of photos and realised that the Spanish heat had already began to annihilate us so we got the shit outta there and headed home.

Sheen wasn’t feeling that well today so he decided to stay back and rest, I headed towards the beach with my skateboard beneath me. The skate to the beach was amazing; I skated through the plaza in the middle of the street on the smoothest of white marble tiling you can ever imagine... it was even slightly downhill towards the beach. On the way I even got to skate past the skate park which also holds a mighty fine view of the sea. Even the sidewalks here are smooth; one push on a skateboard get’s you places you would never imagine. I met up with Ryan as I was on my way the beach, he had enough sun for the day... as for Brandice, I met up with her on the crazy red and white swirly brick walkway in front of the beach and we took a quick splonge (there it is again, Marc) in the sea to cool off.

Tonight we went and got some pizza at the local Pizza Hut, it must have been terrible for our server having to decipher our C-grade Spanish. We were still hungry after the pizza and decided that cooking some of our leftover spaghetti in the hotel sink was a good idea... sure the water was hot enough and yeah the noodles got soft enough but the flavor and lack of any sort of sauce was plain disgusting. Never again will we cook anything in a sink.

We don't know where we're going to end up tomorrow so I don't know when the next time will be when I update this thing...

The sun is getting to my brain, I should probably rest it...

buenos noches para todos

Tuesday September 16th 2008

2008-09-16T17:09:00.001-05:00

Airport life is the worst...

Our flight to Almeria, Spain left at 9:25 this morning and we got at the Dublin airport at 9:30 last night so you can only imagine my life for 12 hours. Basically the highlight was sleeping on the green MacDo bench and waking up to feast on some Macdo bacon and egg McMuffins and some hashbrowns. So after the worst time of our lives we went to check in for our flight and were surprised to find out that some of our packs were overweight... Sheen's pack was fine but Ryan was 3kgs over, Brandice was 7 over and I was at least 8 over... i say at least because I kind of cheated the system by holding up my pack while it was on the scale... Somehow though we managed to get away with not paying the stupid charge of 15euros per kg over. After being told about the overweight charge we tried to pull some gear out of our pack and move it into our carry-on gear but for some reason the RyanAir guy was super nice about life and decided to just not charge us for anything and not even mention it... I hope you have a great life Mr. RyanAir, you rule. We then flew the most gorgeous flight of our lives into Almeria. We landed at their airport which is only hundreds of feet from the Mediterranean Sea... WOW what a view.

We definitely lucked out with finding a place to stay here in Almeria because all we did was take a bus to the city center and just walk wherever the strange Hostal signs directed us... by the way, Hostals definitely are not the good ol' hostel that we've been used to.. So we found this cool little place on the main strip which offered a room for four for 60 euros a night with A/C and it's only a 20 minute walk to the beach. Not only is it a short walk but it's the most beautiful walk i've ever experienced... picture St. Anne's road with the most beautiful plaza ever running down the middle of it with the most insane marble sidewalks, palm trees and fountains you've ever seen... and not just for a few hundred feet... probably just under a kilometer.

We set up shop in this rockin little place and busted ourselves down to the beach to enjoy our first ever splonge* in the Mediterranean Sea... it was everything that you would imagine... there was even a topless girl in the near distance... Spain rules, in it's own strange, but amazing way. After our little swim we grabbed some quick sandwich food, some fruit and some beer from a grocery store on the sea front and tooted back to the room where we made some life-changing sanwiches and sipped our 6-for-3euro Heinekens. Tonight wasn't to eventful after that, we're all pretty tired from life and Sheen isn't feeling well... We called it an early night.

Before I close down shop I need to mention the amazing skate spots that we've already seen... this place is insane, it's weird to think that some of the spots we've seen aren't made to skate... Oh, and another weird thing, almost everything closes here between 2 and 8pm due to their siesta time... weird shit i'd say... but atleast they make up for by raging hard all night.

The next two weeks in Spain are gonna be tough; I've never had to deal with life not being able to make proper conversation with other... should have continued studying spanish in high school... damnit.

Buenos noches... or somethin

*splonge = a Deniset french term meaning swim

Monday September 15th 2008

2008-09-16T09:03:00.000-05:00

Monday September 15th 2008-09-15
We woke up to the sun today... I didn’t think that could happen here, but it did. We hit up the toast and jam with coffee/tea at about 7:30 and went back to bed... unfortunately I ate way too much toast and jam and I felt ill, I had a tough time falling asleep. We check out at ten but decided to stay in our room for a couple extra hours until the cleaning staff came in and gave us the boot. We moved the party into the lounge room of the hostel until we had to leave to catch our bus back to Dublin. The Bus ride was shitty, there were three super annoying Irish girls sitting behind me and one to the side... it’s a damn good thing I had two seats to myself and I had a fully charged iPod. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good Irish girl accent but not these fools... as if I want to hear them gossip about their friend trying to stay at another friend’s apartment for free... tools. I had a splendid MacDo strawberry shake to take me away from Cork, the shake was accompanied by some above par fresh fruit and a ciabatta loaf. After 4 hours or so of trying to sleep in every position possible we arrived in Cork where I took the most relieving pee of my life. While debating on how to get to the airport we over-heard some security dude giving directions to the airport via Dublin transit which is 4euro cheaper than taking the god damn bus Eireanne or whatever it’s called... I’ll call it the bus-company-run-by-big-assholes because basically all the bus drivers we had so far were just that sort. So we walked down the street and grabbed a 41 to the Dublin Airport. The Dublin airport sucks except for skateboarding.... Sheen and I went on a glorious skate adventure and found some killer manual pads and some rockin downhill parkade jams. After we sweated harder than ever we found a nice little green bench in front of the closed up MacDo on the second floor where we spent a few hours having the worst sleep of our lives. Whatever, atleast we had MacDo breakfast to look forward to.
So excited to get off of this giant isle covered in fenced off everything, security cameras, right-side drive cars, weird toilets, over priced everything and reckless drivers who drive on the wrong side of the road... I’ll come back here someday though... the countryside is totally worth it.
Spain in less than a day, gnarly.

Sunday September 14th 2008

2008-09-14T18:41:00.000-05:00

It's Castle day! Yeah, it totally is...

After a crappy sleep due to being in a room with the world's loudest snorer, I woke up to the sound of church bells coming from somewhere off in the distance. I can't believe that the snoring sound was coming from a human, that shit can't be healthy... I was almost ready to hop out of my bunk and flick whoever was causing that unholy sound in the eye.... Whatever, breakfast sort of made up for the lack of sleep; it was the same old toast, jam and coffee or tea routine that we had already adapted to. After a quick breakfast we made like frogs and hopped down the obviously soaked streets to the bus station where we found our fully loaded bus to Blarney Castle.

We arrived in the town of Blarney after 15 minutes of standing on the bus and holding on for our lives... i would like to add now that the bus drivers, actually, all drivers here are on the loose. The Blarney Castle is located right in the town of Blarney, I'm gonna guess that they built the town around the castle, so we didn't have far to walk... I shouldn't have to tell you that it was still raining, c'mon. The Blarney Castle was amazing, everywhere you looked there were things engraved into the walls, there were even dates that I saw as far back as 1874. We climbed up the narrow stairwell to the top where the legendary Blarney Stone lays built into a wall.... apparently kissing this stone gives you eternal good luck. After we all made passionate love to the stone we went back down to earth where we found the most amazing terrain, I will compare it to a tropical forest for now. Basically we were surrounded by amazing mini waterfalls, lucious forests, strange super-rubarb and obviously the squishy ground. We found the wishing steps where you apprently have to walk up and back down backwards with your eyes closed in order for you wish to come true, so we did just that. I forgot the mention that Sheen and I lost the other two during our adventures do we did most of the castle ground exploring by ourselves... after we finished touring the site we were definitely nothing but a couple soggy mops so we got out of there and grabbed some soup and a baguette/croissant. After the quick bus ride home we grabbed some more pizza from the store and walked back home... uphill. My right shoe has some sort of mysterious cut right in the middle of it on the sole so I had a wet right foot all day, it was awesome to get out of those and into something dry. I will also give a shout out to my awesome family that purchased a kick ass rain coat for me before I left, it definitely saved the day(s).

This is my second attempt at creating an HDR photo... still not too sure how it works yet

I forgot to mention that you had to be on your back leaning backwards with some serious tilt to kiss the stone... this is Sheen slipping the stone some tongue

After supper I slept for a few hours and then we gathered in the kitchen for a quick last minute pizza before the kitchen shut down for the night. I guess that brings me to now where I sit here with a Snickers bar and a capuccino uploading todays photos. Tomorrow we're heading back to Dublin, unfortunately.

It would be for the best if the snoring person in our room didn't snore tonight.. acutally, it'd be best for them not to because tonight I may take action.

Cheers, as they say here

Saturday September 13th 2008

2008-09-14T18:01:00.000-05:00

This morning we enjoyed our last breakfast in Dublin at our less-than-awesome hostel because today we headed out of the capital on our way to Cork. We boarded our bus at the bus station at 12:30 and took off to enjoy the great views that the Irish countryside has to offer. Everything is just so green, I could go on about it but it would not do it any justice... it's just beautiful. There were a whole lot of sheep chillin out on the rolling hills, they have some sort of little shrubbery that they hang out in... it looks like a little tree shack... very different. A lot of cows here too, y'know, just grazing around.

We stopped along the way at some gas station where they had a Wimpy burger shop... it's basically a B-side MacDo with these crappy little burgers... with a name like Wimpy Sheen and I obviously had to try one of their burgers... the name says it all

We arrived in Cork at about 5:30 and found our hostel... it was fairly close but it was basically all uphill... no big deal for us fit fools. The Kinlay House Hostel RULES, this place is so great, the rooms are awesome, the people are so friendly and we have a solid wifi connection... rock on Kinlay House. Oh! After we settled in we picked up some stellar pizzas from some A-side Wal-Mart and baked them in our hostel's oven... We didn't do much today because we were all pretty worn out from the days before, all I did was do some bloggin and make some phone calls home. After a good online session I passed the keys off to Sheen so he could do some online work and I departed on my own towards the nearest place in Cork to get a coffee... After a decent walk in the never ending mist I found out that everything closes too damn early hear so I found a MacDo and got a surprisingly gnarly cappuccino and some fries... sorry, chips. I made my way back to find Sheen still goin at it internet style... we realised that we didn't have any plans for tomorrow and that Ryan and Brandice were out cold; so made some plans and booked a bus ticket for 5.60euro to Blarney castle. After a succesfull print-out of our ticket confirmation from the super friendly front desk homie, Sheen and I decided to go grab some late night MacDo... we're such slaves to the fast-food industry... but Irish beef is just to damn good.

To sum up Ireland so far: Dublin, the capital, is kind of a piece of shit and everyone is kind of funny looking. Cork, the second largest Irish city is amazing and everywhere you look there are very attractive Irish women with the most amazing accents... However, the rain just won't stop, and if it does there will probably still be a light mist comin down... what the hell

Another soggy goodnight... hmmm, I feel like i forgot to mention something from today...

Friday September 12th 2008

2008-09-13T13:33:00.000-05:00

Friday September 12th 2008
Today was weird, we woke up early and had some breakfast, it was ok. I wasn’t feeling well so I went back to sleep. I woke up and went down stairs to be greeted by another fellow Winnipegger... his name is Graham. After we chilled for a bit we headed into the Temple Bar area and just basically ventured for a bit, we checked out the Dublin Castle, it was pretty disappointing. On our way back we picked up the required components to make spaghetti and meat sauce. During the whole adventure I had been searching for a wifi spot and didn’t find one until we were about 50 paces down the street from our place... so I stopped there and took advantage of Richardson123 unprotected network... thank you Mr. Richardson. When I got back in the food was just getting started. After we feasted on our amazing spaghetti dinner which was enjoyed with a giant Stella I hopped out the window into some strange and moss-filled little cache which led into a dark and dirty tunnel which Sheen named the garbage tunnel. We stayed out of the tunnel because it was most likely rat infested.

After our heavenly meal Sheen, Ryan and I walked down the road to take advantage of Riachardson123 again so we could book out bus to Cork and our hostel there for tomorrow. We then skated for a few minutes and went inside for a quick power nap. After we woke up from the nap we supposed to go out in a large group to the pubs but we ended up waiting way too long for everyone and got impatient. At this point I should probably mention our Dutch friends Leslie and Eleka... not sure how to spell her name. Anyways, Leslie is a super awesome gay man from Amsterdam; apparently there is a huge shortage of living space for Amsterdam students so the Dutch threw together about a thousand sea storage containers and retro-fitted them with bathrooms, shower and kitchens... so yeah, he lives in one. So radical. Back to our evening; the two Dutch got impatient and left towards the Temple bar pub area... we couldn’t find Brandice so the three of us headed out as well. We travelled through the mass filled streets for a while but couldn’t really find a place to chill so we checked out the Czech Inn... it was exactly what you would expect. So we left that scene and went back to the Temple Bar area and somehow ran into the two Dutch folk. They apparently weren’t having much luck either with the pub thing so we decided to be cliché and check out the Temple Bar. Once in the temple bar we were definitely impressed, despite the 5euro and some change for a pint a Guinness it was actually a pretty cool scene. Also, the Guinness was like no other Guinness I’ve ever had.... it was actually good. After we finished our pints we trekked back to our home where we found the once-again-drunken Brandice... such good entertainment. I threw down a quick peanut buttered half-toasted bread and called it a night.

just a quick minute here now... but actually later

2008-09-12T11:35:00.000-05:00

hey..sorry it took so long for the last few days but Dublin blows and i havent found much for wifi... Either way, once we get outta here and i can get a solid connection near some power source i will upload some of the glorious photos that i have on my notebook. Hope life is goin swell in north america!

A Day to Remember

2008-09-12T11:08:00.003-05:00

Thursday, September 11th 2008-09-12
Last night/this morning I left this sad excuse for a lobby and went out with my camera towards the river. Near the Temple bar area is where most of the excitement was, but I found a few places that were fairly appealing...

This is my first attempt at HDR photography... not quite what i want, not sure what exactly to do yet

On my way back from this little excursion I ran into three of the nicest Irish people ever; Rocco, Derek and Michelle. We conversed for a bit and we had little photo shoot... well, Rocco and I had a photo shoot, he showed me some of his model looks. The Rocco looks that I can remember were “moist”, “sexy” and “constipated”... great people. After my adventure I came back home and slept.

We woke up at 8 for breakfast which was basically white bread, butter, an assortment of jam, tea, coffee, berry juice and the mysteriously vibrant yellow liquid. It did the trick. After breakfast we went to the world’s shittiest art gallery, the Irish museum of modern art. Don’t ever go there. We were super bummed out after the gallery so Ryan and I picked up some beers and Sheen and Brandice picked up some wine. I love that Stella Artois is domestic beer! We traveled for a while in the misting afternoon until we found a chill park to hang out in. Unfortunately the Irish police, known as Garda, came and told us we couldn’t drink in public and we could be arrested. The Garda left and we continued drinking and we started up a little game of foot bag... turns out we suck. At some point we got home where I took a nap... when I woke we headed towards the famous Temple Bar, however we didn’t end up making it there because it was already getting pretty late so we postponed it until tomorrow. We grabbed some BK and headed home.

Rainy, slightly shitty Dublin day

wednesday september 10th 2008

2008-09-12T11:08:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, September 10th 2008
I lied about the sunrise, it wasn’t over the Atlantic. We landed in Dublin at 5:30 and we hopped on a bus towards downtown which is where we experience our first Euro sunrise. We made it to our Hostel way to early so we dropped our gear off in the luggage room and made on our way. We stopped at some little corner store where I got a breakfast sandwich and the others got some bread... They sure don’t make breakfast sandwiches here like they do at home... hash browns, sausages, bacon, side bacon and an egg... it was a beautiful thing. We travelled for a bit and found a cool little open area where we skated for a couple hours. First Euro skate was great, tons of fun. After that we walked aimlessly for a bit and found a little fruit market where we picked some apples and bananas. We got back to our hostel at noon and we slept until 10:30. Sheen and I went out for a bit to take some night shots after we woke... we didn’t find much and now i’m sitting in the lobby of the hostel and i’m fully energized... I may head out again shortly.

tuesday september 9th 2008

2008-09-12T11:07:00.000-05:00

I woke up at 9:15 this morning, or so I was told by some lady sitting in the hall waiting for the bathroom to be free... I woke everyone up and told them what time it was and then I had shower.... when I got out of the shower I realised that I was mislead and it was actually 10:45, fifteen minutes before check out time. So I woke everyone up again and we got our groove on and packed the shit out of our backpacks... we were all very unimpressed, especially when psycho air conditioning French bitch came in and shut the air off. WHAT THE HELL WOMAN!!!?? Maybe if you were in here the whole time and had hostel seniority over us then MAYBE you could try pulling this, but c’mon, as if we want to sweat while we’re packing. Good riddance to her and her weak methods. Despite a beautiful sunrise earlier that morning it was definitely pouring rain outside, obviously. We managed to get a little bit of chill time to watch the first few bits of Home Alone 2 before we realised that it was already 1pm and we had an intense amount of Subway travelling ahead of us. So we got the shit outta there and champed NYC’s magical metro system for one last time right to JFK international. One complaint: Those crooked asses made it so that you have to pay 5 dollars to take the Air Train from the metro to the terminals... what the hell is that all about? I would also like to state that the JFK is probably comparable in size to all of downtown Winnipeg and then some. We made it through security and all the bullshit you normally do going through airports with no problems... I even managed to get a smile or two out of the security people... apparently they aren’t all assholes. We got on the plane and I immediately fell asleep, I woke up was greeted with a surprisingly tasty and filling chicken dinner complete with cheesecake and fresh salad... I was very impressed, even more so when the man I asked for water remember about me and returned in 10 minutes with a one litre bottled water... thank you sir!
And today ends at some point over the Atlantic Ocean.... tomorrow should start off nicely with a sunrise on the Atlantic. Bonsoir

Monday, September 8th 2008

2008-09-12T11:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, September 8^th 2008

Today was the day. We started the day off by splitting up in two groups of two; Sheen and I as one and the other you can figure out. Brandice and Ryan headed off to the Museum of Modern Art while Sheen and I screwed off towards South Manhattan in search of the fabled Magnolia Bakery so we could mack some cupcakes. We were short for time however, because we had to meet up with our insignificant others at the NBC building in Rockafellar plaza to pick up our tickets for Mr. Conan O’Brian’s infamous late night show. So we quickly champed it onto a southbound metro and almost immediately found said bakery... it’s located in a super cool little area called SoHo, almost comparable to Winnipeg’s Osbourne village. Upon entering the bakery Sheen and I were blown away by the high quality looking cupcakes, and their outrageous price tag... Three American dollars for a cupcake?! C’mon! We hummed and hawed for a bit and then decided on an assorted 9 cupcakes... 4 of them being these ones called red velvet... The name describes them to a T. The red velvet cupcakes were indeed the deepest blood-red coloured food I have ever laid my teeth on; Beautiful. We decided that the price for these rich and extremely filling little gems was actually fairly reasonable after we had finished them up.... they were perfect.

If you have ever seen the Conan O’Brian show you’ll know exactly awesome my life was tonight. You’d never know it but the size of Mr. Conan’s stage and audience area is way smaller than you could imagine... if I had to guess it would probably be about 75 feet wide and about the same deep, not including the stage where the guest band performs.... Unfortunately we had some shitty guests on the show... Howie Mandel was there, he appeared to be on cocaine or something. Some American Olympic medallist was there also, she was pretty boring and a big dink... y’know, the usual: oh this is so great for me, I go around everywhere and everyone is like “OMG!!! You’re that Olympic medallist who has a giant photo in Times Square and on the Wheaties box” blah blah blah good for me. Perfect, thanks for comin out Nastia and being the worst Conan guest. James Lipton popped in for a bit and basically saved the show... what a great man. OOOH Conan, you are so great. He finished things up with a very properly delivered song featuring the band and himself singing “this is the goodbye song that you never see on tv” Wait.... there was also some band named Bon Iver that played on the show... they were ok.

After having our lives changed forever by the most amazing man on late night tv Ryan and I went on a 60+ block power walk to get in some last minute shopping while Sheeny and Brandex went and got some food and headed back to the hostel. I got some seriously slick pants.

The roof party was bumpin once again tonight and we met up with Michael from Germany, he told us many glorious things to do while in Europe including getting really messy at Octoberfest and some good ol fashioned European football. After all 40 glorious ounces of malt liquor and being beaten up earlier today from our intense power walk I was totally done and I passed out harder than ever on one of the hostel’s living room chairs... at some point I made it up to my bed... what an awesome sleep. I woke up at 4:45 to a beautiful sunset and I realised I hadn’t brushed my teeth yet so I hopped from my bed and did just that.