The time to hesitate is through...

In the spirit of seizing the moment, only a couple of days after getting back to Rouen from Barcelona, I was off to London, England, in the company of Anthony, Jordan and Amela. We left Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport on Friday evening on a REAL flight! That's right, no RyanAir discount bullcrap! We flew British Airways (being given a complimentary sandwhich and drink on the way might I add) into Heathrow Airport, and immediately got on the Tube to go to our HOTEL (that's right, not a hostel) which was a Best Western outside of Central London.

Now I should explain that me finally getting on the London Underground is a big thing. Last time I was in London, I arrived at the airport on the morning of July 7th, 2005. This was exactly when the terrorist bombings of the Underground occured, and so when I tried to make my way to the tube on that day, I found it sealed off with armed security guards in the way. So finally, nearly 2 years later, I arrived in London, England, and got on their metro.


We arrived at our hotel and were tired, so we just chilled that night, watched some TELEVISION (something else we'd been missing while in Rouen), and ordered some chicken strips and garlic bread from DOMINO'S PIZZA (again, something missing in Rouen).

Saturday started our touring of London, and we began by heading up to the Thames River, specifically to get a view of Tower Bridge. We also stopped for lunch and had a BAGEL (yes, again, something not found in France) with cream cheese, before getting back on the tube and going to the Imperial War Museum.



The Imperial War Museum was huge,and featured some incredible WWI and II exhibits, as well as a floor entirely for a Hollocaust exhibit. We spent about 3 and a half hours in the museum, but couldn't see everything. Unfortunately, that's when the museum was closing, so, tired, we returned to our hotel for a nap. By the end of the nap, though, we decided we didn't really feel like going out, so we ordered actual Domino's Pizza this time, and again spent a night talking and watching TV.




Sunday was a big day, as we got up and chose to take a bus tour of London. But it's not really a bus tour. Basically you buy a pass and then can get on and off the tour busses at stops around the city, kinda like taking a city bus. We got off at such stops as Picadilly Circus, Big Ben, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, and of course, Buckingham Palace. While a little pricey, it was a great way to cover a ton of ground in a single day. For lunch, we went to Sherlock Holmes's pub, and then after the tour, we went to a nice little restaurant called Red's for dinner. Sunday night we decided to head into central London, and spent a couple of hours walking around the SoHo and Picadilly area, taking in all the lights in the bar/club/restaurant/shop/theatre-filled district.




While on the topic of money, let me say how ridiculous the British Pound is. Geez. Stuff there is priced normally....... until you realize you're paying in pounds. Or over double the Canadian dollar. My God, England. Control your currency.

Ok so Monday was our last half-day in London, and we opted to spend it by visiting the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club, where the Wimbledon Championship is played every year. We went on a full tour of the grounds, seeing the museum, and then the courts and many areas normally accessible only to players, club members, and/or members of the media.

After Wimbledon, we caught the Tube back to Heathrow, and then eventually... after a super long journey marred by delays of transport... arrived back in Rouen after midnight.

So that was London. Next up... umm... haircut tomorrow! But seriously, possibly Juno Beach Friday, possibly Giverny Saturday, and then definitely Disneyland Paris on Sunday! Should be awesome. Oh and next weekend we go to Brussels, Belgium.

Oh ya and the week after that is actually our spring break. All this travelling is right in the middle of classes. Unfortunately, I don't have plans for the break yet, but I'm working on it. I'm also working on hopefully going to Sweden the first weekend in May, and Poland the second weekend. But we'll see, so more on that later.

GO HABS GO! My boys are actually pleasantly surprising me. Would love to be home for the playoff push, but they'll have to settle for my support from abroad.

Before signing off for now, just thought I'd give a shout out to a loyal reader, one Anne Marie Sime. I appreciate your interest in our adventures out here.

Laters y'all.

Dan

Some of the boys got loaded drunk and they ain't got sober yet..

Whoever said "life is a party" would have done well to have been describing Barcelona. What a place.

Last Wednesday, March 14th, myself, Katerina, Heather, Jordan, Anthony, and Nick left good ol Rouen, France for the sunnier and warmer confines of Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is located on the center-East coast of Spain, right on the Mediterranean. It is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the main language spoken is Catalan (kinda like a mix between French and Spanish, with some Italian bits tossed in for good measure) rather than Spanish, though both are very prevalent.

So that afternoon, we took a train down to the airport in Beauvais (outside of Paris), stopping in the city for a Chinese buffet dinner (a real rarity here in France; the people were scared of us I think, and gave us dirty look for being 7 typical North Americans at a buffet). We got on our plane and arrived in Barcelona Girona airport a little after midnight. Girona to Barcelona is like Beauvais to Paris so we next had to take a shuttle bus over an hour to get into the city, and it dropped us off at the bus terminal. Problem was, the directions to our hostel involvfed taking the metro, and the metro was not operating at 1.30 AM. So after trying to get directions in a police station, we decided a taxi was the best choice, and that did the trick for the night.


The next morning, we got up ready to explore, and that we did, seeing a cathedral and some other nice architecture, as well as walking up La Rambla, one of Europe's nicer streets. We stopped on that street for 1 litre pints of beer (set us back 12 euro a pop), and then the other guys returned to the hostel for a nap while myself and the ladies went to check out La Sagrada Familia, a huge cathedral that has been under construction in Barcelona for 100 years, and still is today.

That night, after enjoying some paella for dinner, and at the suggestion of our hostel reception dude (a half-Israeli Australian!), we predrank then headed to Jamboree nightclub which was a pretty solid 2-story place with slightly expensive drinks and pretty good dance floors. We arrived at 12:30, but the place really only started to fill up at 1:30 or 2, but at that time it did, and we had a good night, going back to the hostel around 4:30.


The next morning, Heather, Kat, Jordan, and I managed to get up fairly early and head out to meet a couple of Kat's and one of Heather's friends from back home. We rendez-voused with them, and walked down to the beaches to see what they were like. They were, well, under a lot of constructions, and the water is cold, but I still got to walk in the sand, and took a quick dip up to my knees.

We continued walking a long the boardwalk, and then opted to go pick the other 2 sleepy boys up from the hostel before going for lunch (shwarma) and doing a bit of shopping. We finally decided on picking up some food at the Carrefour on La Rambla and making ourselves some sandwhiches for dinner, which was then followed up by a trip to the Palais de Congres of Barcelona. The Palais's grounds are covered in BEAUTIFUL amazing fountains, and at nights on the weekends, there is a show with music, lights, and water in the main fountain. It is really something to see. I have a 6-minute partial video of it that I'll post in the near future.


We then moved on to a really chill, very busy bar called the Black Sheep for some drinks. After predrinking and all first, we downed a couple of pitchers really quickly, and my memory of the night kinda stops there. Yep, second time in 2 weeks that large parts of my night are blacked out. I think this one was even worse than the last one, as I don't remember at all arriving at the club we went to, called Danceatorium. But apparently we were on the guest list thanks to Kat's friends who study in Barcelona, and from the end of the night I remember it being a crazzzzyyy place. It was basically a beautiful mansion turned into a club with a huge pattio, many different rooms with bars and dance floors, and the like. A good night of very very drunken fun with a couple of people getting sick (but that's ok).

Despite the crazy night, we were up at a decent hour the next day again. It was Saint Patty's, so after grabbing some lunch at good ol Subway, myself, Nick, and Anthony headed over to an Irish pub to down a couple of Guiness and in the process earn a free hat. The pub was full to the brim with Irish and Brits, and we watched a rugby match between Ireland and Italy in its entirety. We then returned to the hostel for a nap and to meet up with the others, before going back to Black Sheep for some Sangria pitchers. Oh, this was also my introduction to Patatas Bravas. Now poutine may be the greatest thing ever invented, but these things gave it a run for its money. Basically it's some potatoes with some semi-spicy sauce, and sometimes some mayo as well. Wow are they good. Here is a picture you can drool over:
Sunday morning, the girls got up early as they were headed back to Rouen already! The rest of us lounged around a bit, and then decided on another day of exploration. We walked down by the beaches, through a flee market with row upon row of books, video games, coins, and DVDs, through a couple of parks, and then finally through a park down by the zoo which featured an amazing huge fountain, a lake with boats, giant statues, and much more. We also went to a sandwhich place for lunch, where I got to enjoy another plate of Patatas Bravas on the side. Mmm.
At night, we again met up with Kat's friends and they took us to a Tappas bar for appetizers. A Tappas bar means there is basically a buffet of various appetizers that you have no idea what are on toothpicks. You take whatever you want, and then on your way out, you pay 1.60 euro for each toothpick. It was interesting, but I wasn't feeling to daring to try things blindly. We then proceeded to a strange pizza place for the next course, which worked kinda like the Tappas bar. There were all kinds of strange pizza slices in a display case, and there was a set price per slice no matter the kind. You tell him what kind of slices you want and he makes a pizza out of those, putting it in the oven. One of my slices had some corn and bacon on it, while the other had some meatball-ish type things. It may sound gross, but corn is really really good on pizza. North America should get on that one.
The final course was some gelatto from a corner store, and then we were off to try this little underground bar that is somehow related to Frodo from the Lord of the Rings. Its decor was incredible, almost like a Disney park mixed with a rainforest cafe. Trees with faces, fountains, castles... and cheap beer to boot. At this point it was time for bed, as the next morning would be our turn to leave and thus end an amazing trip of good times with good people and crazy partying.

So umm that was basically the cliff notes version of what we did. I could have included all the other stories of what happened, so in condensed version for the fact that this blog is serving primarily as my own journal...
- shaking a bum's hand
- prostitutes trying to pick us up
- shwarmy
- the cab driver's vomit bag
- chicken balls. don't think of meat balls.
- souvernir shops don't like tourists
- the countless sketchy people in barcelona. creepers.
- and of course, the beautiful, sunny, 16-20 degree weather.

As I'm sure it's becoming obvious, I don't have too too much time to write or put thought into this right now, but enjoy the pics, and know that I'm having an amazing time out here.

Viva Europa.

Dan

How long will I be waiting?... Until the end of time...

So... I don't have too much to update but I haven't written in a while, so I figured I'd put a few things on paper before they get too too old.

Last Saturday night, Heather, Kelsey, Nick C., and I decided to go to the mall in town to see a movie, and based on the choices of what was playing in English, ended up going to see Dream Girls. It's... ummm... a musical. The story behind it is a good one, but there's... well.... a lot of singing... and they even talk in song sometimes... so ya. When we got back, John reminded me that there was a lunar eclipse, so we all went outside to watch it. I also got to meet John's lovely girlfriend Erin who was here for a bit visiting. Highlight of the eclipse was undoubtedly one unfortunate, confused young lady watching the show from her dorm room window while talking to us down below. After looking up at it for a little bit, she turned down and asked, in all seriousness, "So what is it exactly? Some kind of asteroid?" Hah.

Then on Sunday, myself, Chantale, Heather, and Kelsey went to Paris for the day as the first Sunday of every month is free museum day (meaning it's free to get into pretty much all the museums). We started off at the Musee D'Orsay, which, for those who didn't know, is an impressionist art museum. We spent 3 hours doing pretty much the entire museum, seeing lots of Degas, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Matisse, and other such artists' pieces of work. Included in the collection was the series of 4 paintings that Monet did of the Cathedral of Rouen. I actually felt a glimmer of pride in seeing them there. Well hey, that is OUR Cathedral after all. We LIVE in Rouen, France. It's where we're from. Represent, yo.

After that, we moved over to the Louvre for another 3 hours of museum touring. We started out by seeing the Napoleon appartments, which were very ellaborate and fancy.
Other stops in the Louvre included an Ancient Egyptian section, and the Code of Hammurabi. Then finally, tired and hungry, we exited the Louvre by the Holy Grail (aka the inverted pyramid), which is in a mall-type place (they don't show you that part in the movie or mention it in the book The Da Vinci Code). We decided to do dinner at the Caroussel du Louvre food court, where I was able to get some delicious chicken nachos (it's a real North American-style food court, with restaurants of pretty much all types of food. oh and to clarify, nachos means chips with all the toppings. cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, etc. otherwise they're just called tortilla chips. hey, you learn something new every day.).

Oh oh, also in the Louvre, we saw these little statues. And ummm, they taught us that Coppertone actually stole the idea for its ads from some ancient art. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Louvre statues and the Coppertone baby. See if you can tell which is which. I know it's tough for me.

After that great day, and a crazy train ride home featuring getting scared by opposite direction trains and discussion of aliens, it was back to Rouen and back to school.
I had an exam in International Marketing on Monday which went pretty well. Then Tuesday I went into town myself to do a bit of shopping, and opted to spend the night chat chitting in cafet ango.

Wednesday meant a morning class, and then at night, Heather and Nick S. came by and we booked Barcelona. Oh right I hadn't mentioned that yet eh? So next Wednesday, myself, Heather, Nick S., Jordan, Anthony, and possibly Katerina and Alicia will be going to Barcelona, Spain for about 5 days. Barcelona is supposed to be really cool, and they're all good people, so I'm very much looking forward to it. I'll be sure to come back with pictures and stories to share. And oh, we're flying RyanAir again, so wish us good luck.

Then last night. Ah Thursday night. What a time. Myself, Heather, Kelsey, Chantale, Stephanie, Katerina, Alicia, and others went to a house party at the place of a French student here. That after pre-drinking quiiiite a bit, of course. It was amazing. There were tons of people, lots of alcohol (free of course), some decent music... So much fun. But I'm gonna try not to go into more detail, because the more I try to think about last night, the more I realize that I don't remember parts of it. Like for example how we got there. Or what I was drinking all night at the party. And I usually remember everything, so this is a new one for me. But I do know I was enjoying myself, and that we couldn't find a cab home so we walked it up from the train station. Oh and that Heather and Kelsey were dancing on a table and then it broke. The walk home is not that bad. Half an hour or so, the beginning is up hill, and it was like 3.00 AM, but other than that, not a bad walk.

So that brings us to now. Not much goin on. I'm definitely gonna take it easy today, try to get some studying in for my one exam next Wednesday. I finished my first 4 classes that I'll take out here (well other than that exam), so starting from when we get back from Barcelona, I'll only have to be taking 2 classes, and both of them are on Tuesdays! I can't wait!

Rightio. That's all for now chaps. Have a lovely morning/afternoon/night.

Your man Dan.