we are headed to venice in a few hours. rome is so dirty! there is tagging everywhere and trash on the sidewalks. even though its so horribly gross, at every corner there is an amazing piece of history. its weird you can walk down a trashy alley and when you round the corner at the end of the alley there will be an amazing church or fountain. though its extremely dirty here it doesnt smell at all. unlike paris which was pretty clean but stinky. the highlights were the colosseum and the vatican. the day we went to the vatican my friend from drama camp joined us. claire is here for a few months studying. we also spend one very drunken night spending hours looking for her home. anyway i am sure more details are to come. i just wanted to post a short one.
jessica
we started the day by going to the catacombs and seeing the dead bodies. that was pleasant. jessica kissed one. it wasnt so sexy. we then went to the eiffel tower. i went to the bathroom and when i came out jessica was sitting with her arms around her bag looking like a refuge. i guess while i was in the bathroom she got swarmed by gypsies and they tried to rob her with their nimble fingers. bastards. after that we watched some french rap group making a rap video at the tower. they were dressed up like waldo. only in black and purple. we also watched two guys from india doing some pretty sexy poses and photographing each other. after that excitement we went to the arc du triumph, where the french military was celebrating their glories during world war two. i thought it was funy, jessica got mad cause i laughed at them. we then walked down the champs elyssee (?) to the Louvre. we tried renting bikes to ride, but the machines dont take american credit cards. so we were forced to walk. we went to some plaza, the concord plaza, in front of the louvre were 1,300 people were headed during the revolution. the louvre was huge. so much bigger than either of us thought. pretty impressive. it used to be a palace, but now is a museum as we all know. we really enjoy watching euro mtv. they have good videos. although they get a bit repetitive. if i hear anymore bushido i might kill myself. on the way to the louvre, we stopped and had a beer, well i had beer, jessica had wine. i keep wanting to try new beers, but keep getting the nastiest ones. i tried one called desperado this day. it was tequila flavored beer. of course i didnt know that till it showed up. pretty gross.
we arrived at 7:30 and found our hotel so esily. it is by the bastille which happens to be a kinda hip neighborhood. once we showered we walked qround the latin quarter and saw notre dame. on our way home we walked by this street with amazing shops so we have to go back when they are open. we have noticed that there are tons of dogs and bikes everywhere. the sidewalks are filled with parked bikes. it smells like hot farts all over the city of gay pari.
woke up and headed to notting hill, which wasnt far from, our hostel. this is of portebllo road. we stopped at a cool record store called rough trade; saw but did not taste amazing paella, and drank the worst coconut milk in the world.
manuel liked these directions on the floor of intersections becquse he feels they saved his life. the english drive on the wrong side of the road so he didnt know which way to look.
this is jessica sleeping on the train to paris. when we were sleeping and would accidently put out feet on the seats an attendent would come by and hit our feet with a stick. also, take not there are not many pics of manuel because i cannot take a decent picture.
we just strolled around soho and oxford circus. we tried to find carnaby street because jessica likes mods but we missed it. we spent the evening out with bob fintland who took us on one of his famous pub crawls. Picture to come once we have bobs permission.
the walk stqrted at thz tower of london and ended across qnd down the river at the london eye:
us in front of the tower bridge. yes, the london bridge is more famous but this one is better looking.
the globe theatre. i got us stqnding tickets, which was a mistqke becquse ze couldnt stqnd for three hours qt thqt point in the day.
the tate modern at night. so big!
Here are pictures from what we have done so far. Today we went to London Tower, Tower Bridge, The Design Museum, The Globe theatre and The Tate Modern. I know most people already know this, but the English really did behead a lot of people. Our Beefeater took us into a chapel about the size of a four car garage and told us that when they went to renovate the chapel, under the floor they found 1,500 headless bodies. With the exception of Ann Bolyn, she had her head in the crook of her arm, and some King’s brother who they had to sew the head back onto so they could have a portrait painted of him. Out of the 1,500 they could only identify 33. We thought the Tower would be just that. One tower. It was in fact the old palace. The Beefeaters and their families still live there. On Monday the first female Beefeater starts working at the tower. The British woke us up again today. By the British I mean the four Brits that are sharing our hostel room with us. How do they wake us up you say. They slam the door to our room, they let the faucet run for a long time and they hold pretty long conversations. Then they leave for breakfast and come back and hang out in the room for about an hour. Today we decided to just get up when they do and leave. I went into the room pretty late last night and let the door slam, before going back to where Jessica was. The British go to bed around 10:30. That was kind of pleasant.
-M and J
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what a day. it started out with our rude english roommates making a lot of noise and waking everyone up in our room at 8 am. that was pleasant. we decided to go eat breakfast while the british were getting ready. jessica and i enjoyed a wonderful breakfast consisting of bread with jam and butter. i had some corn flakes with non pasturized milk also.
jessica now:
we saw a lot today even though we had a late start due to the time change and staying out late. we saw:
1. big ben and the westminster palace. the palace is now where parliment meets. we took a tour and learned alot but were more confused at the end. she explained a lot about government here but it only let to more questions. we came to the conclusion that the parliment does thing sonly because they are tradition and because it makes sense. the inside was quite over the top.
2. westminster abby. whatever! pretty but we totally didnt appriciate it. we didnt know who almost anyone buried there was. after we had our first pub food and it was good.
3. buckinghame palace. this was strange because londoners were just walking by as if it was nothing and all we could think was”this is a palace and there is a queen inside.” so weird to think someone deserves all they have because it’s their devine right. but most londoners probably dont think this anymore.
4. went to a great bar called jerusalem tavern. we’ve tried beer from this place in the states but being there was so much better. it was tiny a full. i had a grapefruit beer. then we wandered around the neighborhood, islington. it reminded me of los feliz and parts of brookyln.
anyways we cant figure out how to get pictures on this thing. so we are without again. sorry.
we had a lay over in amsterdam and jessica cried while landing there, she was just too tired and excited. we then got our connection and got on the tube which cost 16 dollArs just to get to our hostel. we walked around for a bit and also fell asleep in hyde park (what hippies). we saw a sunglasses hut, how sad! london is not that different than la just older and a lot more expensive. every other store is a gap. we walked for a while then napped in our hostel. woke up and dragged ourselves out. first we found a pub near our hostel called prince albert. it was very english and nice, they played pink floyd. then to soho where we found a bar called freedom, where the lady servers were very nice, especially the one from brazil. then on to the gay bar where the horrid mariah carey was playing. we got out as soon as possible. got a glorious hot dog and came back to the hostel. we are staying at the very tip of kensington garden in bayswater. tomorrow we will see a lot more but today we were too pooped to make a real effort. pictures will come in the morning.
our plane departs in 4 hours. i am all set. i have stuffed everything i could think of in my tiny backpack. i probably have way too much. as much as i have been preparing for this trip i dont know what to expect. my heart is racing i am so excited.
ahh! the other day my buddy, lexi, spruced up my hoodie with a cute panda bear. its very cute. i am gonna miss seeing her everyday along with everyone else at camp. numerous times this summer i hated the kids. i thought they were the biggest brats but yesterday as everyone was saying their goodbyes i was sad to see them go. cody cheered me up when we made foil hats together. his made him look like a swammi.
well i guess the next blog will be more exciting. it will be written in london, hopefully with a pint in hand.