Itchy Feet

Thank God we didn’t have Facebook in middle school.

Finally got around to watching Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop. While I still don’t know what to believe (truth? mockumentary? the best street art piece ever?) one thing is for sure - Banksy is hilarious. 

My favorite quotes: ” I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don’t do that so much anymore”

“Most artists take years to develop their style,Thierry seemed to miss out on all those bits” 

Quick update from Prague, while I kill time in my hostel waiting for my flight to Amsterdam.

I heard from everyone that Prague was beautiful, but when you add in snow, Christmas lights and decorations, then it’s just out-of-this-world magical. Courtney and I climbed to the top of Prague Tower, the Clock Tower and Prague Castle for some of the most amazing views- red rooftops covered with snow, castles with lights in the windows, and only a few skyscrapers off in the distance.

There was a picturesque Christmas Market in the Old Town Square, where they had chalets selling mulled wine (Svařák), dough baked and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon (Trdelník) and sausages and potato pancakes. A couple of Christmas trees lined the square and traditional Czech singers perform on stage.

Another amazing part of Prague? Soo cheap. Especially when compared to the monstrosity that is the pound. You can get a pint of beer (in a stein with a handle! perfect for cheersing!) for 33 CZK - so 1.1 pounds or 1.75 dollars. The food was super affordable and our hostel was beautiful and cost far less than any other place I’ve stayed.

Being this far east though was just so different from Western Europe, despite being touristy and pretty Americanized (there was a TGI Fridays, multiple Subways, etc.). All of the bars and restaurants we went into allowed smoking - even the bartenders and waiters smoked while serving you. The food was much heavier and more bizarre than anything I’ve tried and I didn’t speak a word of Czech. That being said, I loved it. I feel like the more you travel, the more you crave the unknown and want to push your limits.

Only 3 1/2 days left in Europe..bittersweet. Heading to Amsterdam for two nights, spending one night in London and then Boston.

(John Lennon wall in Prague)

Aaaand all that lovely London nonsense that will not be missed. 

• the 2 pence coin
• Tube strikes
• Crofton internet
• Creepy men at clubs
• Creepy men on the street
• Creepy men.
• Men on their “gap-yah”
• Topping up
• Pay as you go phones
• The Circle and District lines 
• “Zed” and the general absence of “z”
• Looking right first
• The sun setting before 4 pm
• Piccadilly Circus
• Having to flip your toast
• 25 ml shots
• Lack of Mexican food
• Rude British people 

So I’m leaving London in 4ish days..in honor of this occurrence kitchen 7 and I have compiled a list of what we will most miss about this sillyawesome city (followed by a list of what will not be missed). Enjoy!

• Mulled wine 
• Kitchen 7
• Seeing Royal Albert Hall from the windows
• Hyde Park. And all of the London parks
• Sainsbury’s Basics
• Primark
• Free croissants before eleven at Cafe Forum
• Sandwich World
• Free museums
• Cider
• Pints
• The tube, when it functions properly
• Travelling, cheap and fast across Europe 
• Newspapers and tabloids
• The words: brilliant, bullocks, lovely, quite, cheers
• TEA (with milk)
• MARKETS
• Drinking at any time of the day and week
• Not having real work to do
• London’s bizarre and beautiful architecture
• the Thames 
• Free concerts and infinite amount of things to do in the city 
• Indian food + Bethnal Green
• The view from double decker buses + and the people who happen to look up at you. 
• Camdentown
• Digestives
• And so much more…

I like to think that my trip to Ireland was characterized by autumnal beauty and drinking. We’ll start with the good stuff first.

Dublin was where I (re)discovered these delicious drinks:

Guinness (aka “the black stuff”)

We took a tour of the Guinness factory which was interesting enough, but the highlight was obviously the free glass of Guinness at the end. I forgot how much I love stouts and Guinness is a damn good one. It’s so rich, you could practically have it as a dessert, but it also works so well with meals.

Baileys

I asked for a Baileys and milk at the bar and received a drink from heaven. My friend and I promptly bought a bottle at the duty free shop at the airport. It was an excellent decision.

Irish Coffee/Coffee with Bailey’s

I got a way overpriced one at this bar downtown but it was still delicious. I would expect nothing less though from my two favorite drinks.

Now on to the pretty part. I freakin love fall and there were piles of crunchy leaves begging to be jumped in.

As shown here:

We took a tour of the city our first day which ended in this park called St. Stephen’s Green. It was gorgeous, the weather was perfect and I could have stayed all day. 

On Sunday, we took a trip to the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough (where lykeomgPSIloveyouwasfilmed!) outside of the city. It fulfilled any fantasies I had of rolling hills in the Irish countryside and then some. I always think of myself as a city girl and forget how nice it is to get out of it sometimes. It was so refreshing and a perfect way to spend a Sunday in October.

(Taken from my friend Courtney’s photos because I was using mah film camera.)

Dublin as a city didn’t really stand out to me too much, but I would love to go back to Ireland some day and frolick in the countryside some more.

HEY THERE. It’s been awhile, partly due to my lack of a laptop but mostly because of lack of motivation. Since my last update I’ve been to Rome, Dublin and Paris and explored London a whole lot more. I’m not quite sure where to start, but since I just got back from Paris I’ll recap that and the other two cities later this week.

PARIS

is wonderful. I’ve been twice before (12 & 16 yo) and it was just as beautiful this time, despite the incessant rain. We took the EuroStar from King’s Cross, took a ride through the chunnel and arrived in Paris 2 hours later. It was magical. And also made me question why I don’t go to Paris on a daily basis.

Our hostel was in Montmartre which was badass because it was

a) around the corner from the Moulin Rouge

b) around the corner from the bakery with the best baguettes in Paris. No seriously, it won the award of best baguettes in Paris. And since Paris is known to have the best baguettes in the world, I clearly had the best loaf of bread on the earth.

c) around the corner from Sacre Coeur, a gorgeous church with equally gorgeous views of the city

(me and the msot wonderful baguette in the world at the top of the Sacre Coeur)

Other highlights of the weekend included a delicious meal at this small restaurant called Le Jardin d’en Face where I had duck and a delicous dessert.

My favorite meal of the weekend was at this trendyish brasserie called Bar du Central. I got the most amazing, cheesy, savoury onion soup ever and had half a bottle of the best wine of my life. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

My top non-food related highlight would have to be seeing Notre Dame while Sunday mass was going on. We ran inside of the church through the pouring ran and the inside was like this calm, beautiful oasis. I have actually never seen a Catholic mass before, but hearing it in French and seeing all the ornateness of the ceremony was incredible.

(this photo doesn’t do it justice - my camera takes horrible pictures indoors)

I wish I had brushed up a bit on my rusty French before I left, but I knew enough to understand most signs and things and to speak the basics.

Here are some of my other favorite pictures from the weekend. I took a lot in B&W because it was so cloudy and it worked so well with the rain, cobblestones and Gothic buildings.

These locks covered the bridge over the Seine. The tradition is to write you and your lovers name on the lock and throw the key into the river, locking your love forever.

The beautiful Sacre Coeur.

The trees change color in Paris too, apparently.

Eiffel Tower shenanigans.

C’est tout. :)

I’m leaving for Rome tomorrow morning (eee!) so I had to do a post about Edinburgh before I got too far behind. Besides, I think the delay is fitting considering Edinburgh’s history of not finishing things (i.e. their half-finished national monument pictured below)

I’m not a big fan of play-by-play rundowns so here is my concise version of Edinburgh, all 100% accurate of course.

1. Edinburgh smells like soup

It’s true. The whole city, although the scent is stronger in some areas than others, smells like a beef stew. It’s a pretty comforting smell I think, but my friend thought it smelled like vomit so there’s that…

2. There are more ghost tours in Edinburgh than actual ghosts

Because the city is so old and castle-y and graveyard-full, there are a ton of ghost/vampire/zombie tours that take you around the city at night and into the cemeteries and various other spookyscary areas. We succumbed and went on a tour because it was cheap and you got a free pint and “torch”, aka a tiny keychain flashlight. No ghosts were spotted, but it was pretty scary how cold I was walking around with no coat.

3. Haggis is not baddis

It was actually pretty tasty. We got it in a pub and it was seasoned and tasted like some kind of sausage I guess? The fried haggis we saw in the shop earlier did not look as good however. This shop, located in the Grassmarket, also offered other fried goodies such as “fried king rib” (why is it king? how do you fry a rib? questions that should probably not be answered before consuming), fried cheeseburgers and fried Mars Bars.

4. Edinburgh has the most epic castle in Britain

Okay so I have not seen many castles yet but this one was pretty damn epic. It had  all the classic castle qualities: it was enormous, had turrets and some kind of wall thing and looked over the city from a huge cliff. The views from the top were gorgeous and well worth waking up at 7 am for.

5. Every stag and hen party in the whole of Scotland happens in Edinburgh

(Stag = bachelor, hen= bachelorette)

During the two hours we were in a pub in the Grass Market, we saw at least 5 hen or stag parties in the pub. They were basically large groups of girls all wearing some a pink sash that says something like “Helen’s Hen Party 2010!!!” and maybe some kind of theme - like baseball shirts and socks or whatever. It was bizarre but our tour guide told us later that the Grass Market is the most popular place to come for hen or stag parties. 

Well I hope I didn’t disgrace Edinburgh too badly with this post. It really is a beautiful, incredibly old and interesting city. During the couple of days that I was there, I got to know the city pretty well because it’s so walkable and has many more recognizable landmarks than London, which is so sprawling. It was great to see another part of the UK and to get some fresh Scottish air (and whisky).

Now off to Rome to gorge myself on everything that is good in the world: pizza, pasta, gelato and espresso.

My last post brought about some mixed reactions so I thought I would elaborate a bit more.

I’m a flats, beer and chill music kind of girl. So when I end up in a high heels, vodka shots and drum n’ bass kind of place I’m slapped in the face with culture shock.

Don’t get me wrong - I like to dance, throw my hands in the air and get a little crazy sometimes - but I like to do that without worry about creeping guys . And don’t even get me started about the price. I really, really hate paying a ridiculous cover charge only to be ushered into a bar where I can pay for even more ridiculously priced drinks.

My biggest problem with clubbing though is that it somehow induces short-term amnesia aka The Vicious Circle of Clubbage (see diagram below). Its like they sprinkle magic club dust on me when I leave that makes me forget my terrible experience.

Instead I try to follow the law I call the Trifecta of Awesomeness.

• No cover, ever.
• Cheap, delicious, strong drinks.
• Good live music.

It’s not a difficult equation but one that many places have trouble adding up. Luckily I’ve found one bar in Camden (The Flower Pot) that has done this.

Now that I’ve officially established myself as a club hatere4lyfe, I’m going to go take a disco nap, pre-game and go out to Club Egg tonight (hey we get entry and a drink for free!). And the cycle continues.