Moving to a new site

maybe only temporarily or permanently.. depending on if I like it or not.

so until I say differently, I'll be at: http://sporktastic.tumblr.com

Eurotrip: Rome

9/21-Prague to Berlin:
woke up at 7, showered, packed and headed for the airport. Got to the Prague airport around 9:30, checked in and waited for our 11:50 flight. 2 hours later we landed in Roma! Ahh, it felt like coming home! Upon getting our luggage, we boarded a shuttle bus and Mark took us to the Victor Emmanuel Monument (the wedding cake building), Trevi Fountain (here I am wishing for a return trip to Rome!), the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Afterward, we went to the hotel and checked in. The hotel itself is pretty nice but its about 20 min outside of Rome.
At 7, we got back on the bus and headed into town for our included dinner (Gweed overslept!). Penne pasta and chicken.. yum!!!! It was Flavia's birthday so she got a special dessert and we all sang to her. She is too cute. Derek is starting to feel the Contiki Cough. Gross. Anyways, back to the hotel by 9:30 for an early night.

9/22-Rome:
After some much needed sleep, we woke up at 7, showered and left the hotel at 9:15. We rode the bus to Ottiviano metro and walked to the Vatican Museum where we had gelato for breakfast. (Our goal for Rome was for the 3 of us to have 26 gelatos while in Rome for my 26th birthday hehe) Anyways, our Vatican tour was ok. Our tour guide spent a lot of time going over the Sistine Chapel and we didn't see as many things as we did the last time we went there, but nonetheless it was cool to go again. The pope was doing a talk in St Peter's Square that day so we couldn't go into the basilica but we got some "Where's Waldo" shots of the pope.



After pizza and more gelato, the 3 of us rode the metro to Termini station to purchase our Roma Pass (a 3 day transportation pass and entry to 3 sites) and then onto Piazza di Spagna to see the Spanish Steps. It was quite hot in Rome that day so we didn't linger long and made our way back to Ottiviano for more gelato and to meet the group. We got back to the hotel at 5, showered and met in the lobby to fill out a Contiki survey. We left the hotel around 7:30 for the optional dinner show. The food and wine was really good and the show was interesting (some enjoyed it more than others! ahem Derek!) The show ended around 10:30 and we went back to the hotel for another early night.

9/23-Rome:

My birthday!!! Yay! Woke up at 8, showered and left the hotel at 9:15 to catch the bus to Ottiviano metro to Colleseo. A large group of us went through the Roman Forum and then Derek and I separated from the rest and went through the Colloseum with Kristin and Matt (Gweed was being pretty cranky, sorry buddy but you were, and I wanted to avoid the negative energy from the Chloe-Derek situation)

Afterward, the 4 of us caught the metro to get off near the Capuccin Crypt. We found a nice little restaurant where I had some of the best pizza I've ever had in Italy. Followed by more gelato, we went shopping near the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. By early afternoon, we were all starting to feel tired so we caught a cab back to the hotel at 3:30. After a nice nap and another shower, we met in the lobby at 7 to go out for my birthday. Everyone came out!!!! :) The 4 of us took a cab to Piazza Navona where everyone took a lot of last group shots since this was the last night of the Contiki tour. Eventually, we all walked to a small ass pizzeria where it proceeded to take 2 hours for everyone to order, eat and pay. Kind of annoying when your group was done by the end of the first hour. But nonetheless everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me and I got some kind of tiramisu dessert. Yay on the first part; I'm not a big coffee fan so I graciously had a few bites before passing it on to Derek, who is getting worse with his cough by the way (along with Matt and Gweed--what is up with the men getting sick?!) FINALLY, the group walked to a small pub where if you paid 20 euro you could have unlimited drinks for 2 hours. We cheated: Derek paid the 20 euro and then rubbed his stamp on my hand. Genius! Although the dinner pretty much dampened my mood, along with Kristin and Matt dipping out early (Kristin had to get up at 4 in the morning and Matt sounded like he was dying at this point). But we managed to hang out until 12:30 before we caught a cab back to the hotel. Such a bittersweet night. I met some really kickass people on tour that I am missing dearly right now. They almost become your family since you're stuck with them day in and day out for those 2 short weeks. But Derek and I would be lying if we said we didn't have our favorites and we have already made it our goal to make sure we see them again! (you should know who you are! ahem our 4 favorite aussies and lil kiwi ;)

9/24-Rome:

woke up at 9 to check out of our Contiki hotel (more goodbyes in the lobby--so sad!) and took a cab to Hotel Lancelot where Derek and I stayed at the last time we were in Rome. Our cabbie was f'in crazy! After almost hitting a guy's dog he proceeds to get into an argument with him before cussing out a girl for trying to parallel park lol. After checking into the hotel, we caught the metro to Ottiviano, grabbed some pizza and headed to St Peter's for our Scavi tour which takes you underneath the basilica. I think all 3 of us were feeling pretty drained at this point; feel were hurting and Derek and Gweed were looking worse. But we trudged on. After the Scavi tour, we went inside the basilica for some pictures and after more gelato we headed to Castel Sant Angelo. AMAZING VIEWS! I made the boys walk up many steps but wow was it worth it!

Nonetheless, us sleepy Americans caught a cab back to the hotel so we could take a nap before meeting the Aussie girls for a last dinner. At 7, we looked our hotel window to see Hayley and D waiting for us. Bel apparently had had a pretty crazy night on my birthday and was still feeling hungover. So the 5 of us walked to the pizzeria down the street, grabbed some more gelato (our final tally was 27- one to grow on! lol) and walked around the Colosseum for a good hour. It is so pretty at night:

I think we were trying to drag out these goodbyes as long as possible. Unfortunately, it came time for us to head back and do final packing so we said ciao to the girls and walked back. We were so excited to be finally going back home to see our kitties!!

9/25-en route to home:

woke up way too early to catch at cab to the airport. The cabbie tried to rip us off but good ol Rick Steves saved the day. After a LOOOONG 10 hour flight, we connected in Chicago and finally made it back home around 6:30 eastern time, had some Skyline and passed the fuck out. Kitties were so happy to see us, I swear Josie was my shadow for a good week! Derek and Gweed were really sick (both ended up having sinus infections) and I was starting to come down with something myself (I am still struggling with bronchitis-figure that one out!).

But all in all, this was definitely a trip I don't think any of us will ever forget. Contiki is a great tour company and again we met some really great people. We have pictures and memories to last us a lifetime and even if we don't make it abroad again before kids, I am glad to say we ended with a bang.

Thanks for reading all, I hope I made sense in my crazy rambling. Until next time (when its back to normal and boring).. Ciao!!!

Eurotrip: Prague

9/19-Berlin to Prague:
woke up at 7:30 to get on the coach at 8:30 for Prague. STILL feeling like shit. Around lunchtime, we stopped in Dresden, Germany which is known as the "Florence of the North". Gorgeous, gorgeous city. The architecture was beyond amazing and it was astounding to find out that the city had been destroyed during WWII so almost all of the building were post-war. We had about 2 hours to walk around the city, so Derek and I stopped at an outdoor cafe called Piazza Nova, people watched and I tried to eat some pizza. At this point, I think my stomach was hurting because it was practically empty but any smell of food still made me feel nauseated so it was basically a catch-22.
Back on the bus at 1:45 and we finally reached Prague around 3 or 4. We went up to the Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral, which had spectacular views of the city. Many were complaining that Prague looked "dodgy" but it reminded a little of Italy so I felt very comfortable.

After that we drove to the hotel and checked in. We stayed at the Ibis hotel, which is basically a chain hotel. Therefore, the rooms were pretty standard. Small but clean. After a quick shower, we had dinner at 6. A group of us met Mark in the lobby at 7:30 to go for a walk to Old Town. Prague is so beautiful! Again, I can't fully describe the experience in being this places which is why we tried to take as many pictures as possible, but if I could go back to anywhere from our Eurotrip (besides Rome!) it would most definitely be Prague. Anyways, after about an hour myself, Derek and Gweed decided to go on our own so we could get some money and fried cheese-- ok before we left for Europe we watched Anthony Bordain's No Reservations on the Travel Channel where he went to Prague. They have these street vendors that sell the usual hotdogs and burgers but they also a fried cheese sandwich. The boys were so excited about this. I had my doubts so I didn't get my own but I tried a bite of Derek's and WHOA! So freakin good! FINALLY! My stomach does joyful backhandsprings.. normal fucking food!!!! Beyond good food, Prague prices are awesome. For a sandwich and Coke it was 70 czech crowns which basically equates to about 3 bucks. Now that might seem pretty standard for here, but ya gotta realize we were used to paying 8 euro for a damn coke! Needless to say, I went to bed that night feeling much better physically, mentally and spiritually.

9/20-Prague:

woke up at 7 and some breakfast. Left the hotel around 8:45 to walk to the bikeshop for our bike tour around Prague. We got to ride around the city for about 2 hours. Again, Prague is f'in AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL! Here we are at the John Lennon wall:

Afterward, while everyone else went on the optional lunch cruise, Derek and I walked to the Hotel UPrince and ate at their rooftop terrace restaurant. Ah, the views!!! And the food was excellent-Derek had pork tenderloin and I had grilled chicken. It was so nice to be able to spend some alone time with my husband. Don't get me wrong, we fully enjoyed meeting new people and hanging out with the group but it was nice to take a break and just be with each other if only for a few hours. After lunch we walked around the city and did some sovenir shopping. We got back to the hotel around 2:30 and took some much needed naps. I finally got my marathon 3 hr nap :)

We woke up at 5:30, showered and headed out with the group for our Pub Crawl, but not until after we all enjoyed more fried cheese sandwiches. Anyways, the Pub Crawl was 20 euro and included unlimited alcohol for an hour and a half at the first pub and a shot each at the next 2 bars and also a tshirt. So we get to the first bar and they only have sizes small and medium for the shirts. I felt so bad for the guys!!!! The beer was TERRIBLE, the wine was watered down (so I heard) and the only shots they had were absinthe and vodka cranberry. so we basically struggled to get through 2 beers there. At the 2nd bar, which was beyond creepy our shot was straight vodka. Um, no thanks. I got some czech beer.. man they like it skunky. After an hour there, we headed to another bar which was actually our favorite for the night, however again all the included shot was stupid vodka. But the place had a great atmosphere and they had Budvar (Budweiser) so I was a very happy girl for that hour. The third bar was eh, and by that point we were starting to get bored. But Hayley wanted to check out the superclub so a reluctant Derek joined the group of us and we managed to stay for a half hour lol. Around midnight, the 3 stooges left and walked almost all the way back to the hotel. It was cold and I was starting to get worried since none of us really knew where we were, so we caught a cab back the rest of the way. Apparently we were only about 8 blocks away lol, but better safe than sorry. We called it a night at 1:30. The next day we would be off to Roma!!!

Ok so this next pic needs an explanation: when we reached the Pub Crawl bar, the Contiki group met a brother and sister from Ireland. Apparently this was their 4th night on the Pub Crawl and they were having a jolly old time at every single place we went to. Beyond the fact that the Irish have god awful teeth, you couldn't understand a word they were saying and they loved to riverdance to techno. Long story short, when you have a large group of people like ours, you tend to get in herd mode and make fun of the outcasts. It may be mean, but if you were there you would have been dying laughing with the rest of us! Anyways, here they are with me, Hayley and Kristin:

Eurotrip: Berlin

9/17-Amsterdam to Berlin:
Ok so I hope you remember my last post, but just in case you don't, here's a quick recap of our last night in Amsterdam: a)female time b)asian food c)shit ton of beer and d)random shots.
Alright, well on the 17th I woke up at 7 feeling tired, but overall ok. I walk down to the lobby eat a piece of bread and smoke outside with Bel. After getting back to the room for last minute packing, I start to feel nauseated. I proceed to have a really gross and stinky 20 minutes in the bathroom. Now, we have an 8 hour coach ride ahead of us to Berlin so I start to get a little worried about my stomach. The time to leave quickly approaches and my worrying grows into full on freakin out. I'm crying and begging Derek for us to get off the bus and just catch a cab all the way to Berlin. Why am I freaking out? Well, beyond the fact that I'm on a bus with 35 other people, you are not allowed to use the restroom on the coach. What if I HAVE to go? Again, crying hysterically lol. Derek finally tells Mark the tour manager the situation and Mark assures me that if an emergency comes up, they will pull the bus over asap. This is little consolation. If only I had listened to my bestie Amanda back home and had packed Immodium! Not a moment too soon, an angel in the form of Aussie Jess gets on the bus and offers me said magical pill. Gratefully I take 2 and try to calm myself down. We finally depart around 8:30 and head towards Germany. I think I passed out within the first 20 min. We stopped for our first pitstop around 10 at a gas station. I feel a tad better and get off to use the restroom (#1) and grab some water. The more I talk and walk, the more the nausea creeps back so I skulk back to my seat and pass out again. Lunchtime finally arrives and we pull into a McDonalds. I happily order a McChicken and really wanted some fries but in fear they would upset my stomach further, I settled for just the sandwich. Yea, I could only half of it. This is not good. I walk across the street to a gas station (where they play Metallica "Nothing Else Matters" lol) and get me some much needed Powerade.
Back on the bus, I proceed to immediately pass out again. I wake up a few hours later to find us at a deadstop on the Autobahn. The need to pee is great and many are grumbling the same. Mark decides this is the perfect opportunity for mingling and blahblahblah so we spend the next hour or so doing such. After what felt like another lifetime later, we finally pull into a rest area. I am STILL feeling like crap. I ask Jess for 2 more Immodium. God love ya girl. After peeing and grabbing more liquids, I go back on the bus and again sleep. FINALLY, I wake up and it is dark outside. Mark announces we are finally in Berlin. Ok, we were supposed to arrive in Berlin around 5. I look at the clock and it says 9. Judas Priest what a fucking a traffic jam! I sit up and take in the lights of Berlin--much like here at home in the US folks. Nothing really special. We pull into this shady parking area and we are at our hotel. I can't even remember the name of it right now, but its dark and it looks old so everyone is a bit creeped out. We get our room keys and immediately head back down for the included dinner. God, I don't know if it was because I felt so bad but the food was terrible. I tried to eat at least something and afterwards we headed back up to the room so I could relax and go back to bed. WORST DAY OF THE TRIP FOR ME :(

9/18-Berlin:
Woke up at 7:15 still feeling yucky, so I skipped breakfast. The group of us walked to the Ubahn (underground/subway) where I bought me a pack of peanuts and caught the train for our historical walking tour. Those pack of peanuts lasted all the way through Rome.. thats how sick I was ppl :(
Our tour guide for the walk was very good. Quite passionate about Germany and the 3rd Reicht. We saw many of the sites, including the Cathedral, the Old Museum (pictured below),

Brandenburg Gate, the Parliament Building, and the Holocaust Memorial. This was not what I was expecting. I'm not sure what my expectations were exactly but nonetheless it is quite a random abstract display. The tour guide let us spend a few minutes walking around and break for a quick lunch and bathroom run.

The only think I could stomach was a croissant. The smell of Derek's hotdog was strongly putrid, but I'm glad he enjoyed it. We then continued the tour which took us to the site of Hitler's underground bunker, the remains of the Berlin wall and Checkpoint Charlie. At this site, the tour ended and we were free to do whatever we wished. Derek and I decided to join Gweed, Matt, Jen and Chloe for some shopping. We take the ubahn to an area where they say there's good shopping. Upon realizing it is merely a shopping mall and with growing tension between Derek and Chloe, the 2 of us decided to leave and go back to Unter den Linden (a street with lots of sovenirs and craft shops). We meandered for a good hour, witnessed a protest, practically saw the whole Berlin police force and found some really cool sovenirs for family members. Around 3 we caught the ubahn back to the hotel to relax a bit before the night's activities.

We left the hotel around 5:45, caught the ubahn to Joe's beerhall. Again, my stomach is still upset so I settle for the typical American meal of cheeseburger and fries while Derek tried lots of yummy looking sausage and drank a large quanity of beer. After Amsterdam, I decided that I wouldn't really drink again until Rome lol so I decided to stay sober for our night in Berlin.

After dinner, we caught the ubahn to meet our tourguide from the morning tour who would also do our "Eye Spy" Berlin tour which presumedly covered more on the Stasi police and the days of the Berlin wall. It was pretty neat to look into a preserved area of No Man's Land but the night quickly turned into shit for me. Physically I was drained and because I was sober, my nerves were a bit on edge. I said some hurtful things to Gweed (although I'm not sure he really remembers.. if he does he's a dear and has already forgiven me) and was pretty antisocial for the duration of the night which included the group going on a hunt for clues to find bar after bar. (Basically it was nothing but a pub crawl). Our Aussie friend Matt is starting to get sick and is coughing all over the place and leaves the group when we get to the "superclub". I wish we would have joined him. Terrible, terrible, terrible. That's all I can say. Derek and Chloe have a "fight" and he declares he is no longer hanging out with her for the rest of the trip. Awkward. We finally leave on our own at 1:15 and decide to take the ubahn back since we have a daypass that lasts til 3 am. SCARY!!!!!! The trains were only running every 15 min and with it being Saturday night, there were a lot of drunk punk rockers and bums. I prayed and prayed lol. We finally got back to the hotel at 2:30! (should have only taken 15 min tops) and I went to bed in a very sour mood, thankful that we were leaving Germany in the morning.

Eurotrip: Amsterdam

9/15-Paris to Amsterdam:
We woke up at 6 am :( dropped our bags off to Hans at 7:15 and the group walked to Gare du Nord station to catch the train to Amsterdam. After a short 3 hours and beating Gweed at War twice, we got to Amsterdam shortly after noon. Once there, the "Lawn Zombies" set off for food and other local fare. We ate at this weird pizzeria/steakhouse where we all had cheeseburgers that were definitely not made of beef lol. We found a coffeeshop called "Pick up the Pieces" which ended up being the exact same coffeeshop that Derek and I had been to when we were in Amsterdam last time. Most of the afternoon was full of giggles and munchies, and wondering around town to try and find the Anne Frank Huis. We ended up meeting the 3 Aussie girls instead (D, Bel and Hayley) and went to another coffeeshop called "Free Adam" where some of the girls ate special cake. Once we left there, Derek and I did some sovenir shopping and we all caught the coach back to check into our hotel at 4:30.

Our hotel for Amsterdam was Best Westerm Blue Square.. wow! Super freakin nice! Derek and I were beyond tickled when we saw a normal size bathroom and comfy pillows AND clean sheets! (our last visit to Amsterdam was a bit shady hotelwise). Anyways, our included dinner was at 6:30 which consisted of a fairly good buffet. My stomach seemed to adjusting well to Holland food. Caught the coach at 7:30 to the Red Light District where most of the tour group experienced a live sex show. To be honest, I was disappointed. Nothing more than standard boy/girl! lol, I think most people were quite relieved when we finally left just to escape the boredom. After that waste of money, we just caught the coach back to the hotel for an early night.

9/16-Amsterdam:
Woke up at 7 am (are you seeing a dreadful pattern here?) and left the hotel at 8:30 for a small town outside Amsterdam called Edam. What a cute little town/village! We went bikeriding for a little over an hour which was really cool. Got a group picture here:

Also went to a cheese and clogmaking presentation--interesting. Derek and I bought a wheel of pepperjack cheese-yum! Afterwards, the coach dropped us back off in Amsterdam. A group of us ate french fries (Amsterdam has the best french fries!!!) and walked to the Anne Frank Huis (apparently we were only a block away in our futile search the day before lol). Anne Frank was pretty depressing. You weren't allowed to take any pictures and many of the rooms were bare with exerpts of her diary written on the wall or on casings that held other artifacts relating to the Franks or the Holocaust. The house was in a very old building and the stairs that led to where they hid were quite steep! Derek and I realized we needed a pick-me-up so the 2 of us along with Gweed and Jen walked about 20 minutes to the Heineken Brewery. We did the 2 hour tour which ended up being a lot of fun and it also included about 2.5 beers each. Derek and I decided to buy a little sovenir: our own personalized bottle of Heineken :)

After quickly (in 15 min!) drinking 2 beers, we caught the tram back to Central Station. Trams/buses can be a bit odd in Europe when it comes to actually paying for them. We got on the tram, tried to pay but were waved off. When we reached the destination, there was no place to insert coins or money so we just got off! That also happened to us when we were in Rome 2 years ago.. I dunno, like I said its just odd. Derek and I ran into the train station to buy Charlie some Belgian chocolate and then caught the coach back to the hotel.

After quick showers, we got back on the coach to go to dinner at the Sea Palace, a floating Indonesian restaurant. Alright, I have to stop here to explain a few things. A) It is female time for me. If you don't know what that means, you're dumb. B) Me and Asian food do not generally mix. I almost always puke or have the shits. C) Remember I've already had basically 3 Heineken.

Anyways, we eat at this restaurant where I try almost everything (because I have a good buzz from the now 5 beers I've consumed) and am quite excited to get on our canal cruise that features unlimited drinking for an hour and a half. And I literally spent that hour and a half drinking as much beer as I could (when I wasn't spilling it on my husband's shorts or Jen's camera). The original plan before going out was that Derek and I would return to the hotel after the canal cruise to get a good nights sleep, but oh no, drunk and happy Jessica insists that we go out with everyone else. So we ended up walking to this bar/club called Players which was basically empty when we walked in. When the bar found out we were from Contiki, they gave us all a free round of shots and were pretty lax about what we did for the rest of the night. After a reluctant shot of Sambuca, I switched to water for the remainder of the night. However, that did not stop me from pole dancing and making a fool of myself. Ah, my wonderful husband.. who was completely fucking sober. How he put up with us.. I still don't know. Well, finally around 12:30, he was ready to go so me, him, Matt and a pissed off Chloe caught a cab back to the hotel. This was the beginning of the Derek-Chloe disaster. Gah. Anyways, when I got back to the hotel I was actually feeling pretty sober and went to bed with no worries and looking forward to the next night when we would be in Berlin...

A shot of me and Gweed on the canal cruise:

Berlin next folks.. until next time Ciao!

Eurotrip: Paris

Are you ready for some epic posts? Since I'm taking the time to write them, I fucking hope so! :)

9/12-Paris, Day1: After a two and a half hour train ride, we arrived in Paris around 4:30 at the Gare du Nord train station a bit bewildered. It was quite busy and it seemed we were right in the middle of a shady or "dodgy" (as the Australians call it) area of town. But Derek's penal GPS system led the way and after 10 minutes of my heavily communicated doubts, we arrived at All Seasons hotel, our home for the next 3 nights. We dubbed it the terminator hotel, since it had this creepy robotic script on everything. The rooms were pretty small, but that's pretty standard for Europe. After a nice shower, we headed down to the lobby at 6 to meet our Contiki tourmates. After meeting our tour manager, Mark who gave us an orientation about everything, we all walked to a nearby hotel for our included dinner which included duck (and I was surprised that I quite liked it!) After dinner, we boarded our tour bus (and met Hans our driver) and took a night city tour of Paris. Wow! I understand why they call it the "City of Lights".. everything is simply beautiful! He let us stop at the Eiffel Tower for some pictures and Derek captured this masterpiece:

I know, our Nikon is f'in awesome. Anyways, we got back to the hotel around 10:30 and a group of us (3 stooges=me,D and G, plus Ryan, Chloe and Kris )decided to walk across the street to this little bar for some drinks. After a couple hours, Kris headed in and we had to walk a drunk Chloe back to her room. Upon returning, we met and sat with the 3 Aussie girls (D, Hayley and Bel) along with Garett. Around 1:30 we decided to call it a night.

9/13-Paris, Day2: We woke up around 7, showered, had breakfast (which basically consisted of cocoa pebbles) and got the coach at 9 to Fragonard Perfumary. After a snooze of a tour, they tried to sell us some expensive perfume which I think everyone declined. Afterward, we caught the coach and got dropped off near the Louvre. The group today was the 3 stooges, Chloe, Matt, Kris, Ryan, Jeera, Flavia and Melanie and we all walked to the louvre to see the Mona Lisa, which is basically overrated (in my opinion) but it was something we said we had to see so now we can say we saw it.

After a very expensive lunch (Paris is insanely expensive by the way!)--Gweed's pathetic excuse for a coke was 8 fucking euro!, the 3 stooges plus Matt walked down the Champs Elyses to the Arch di Triomph (I'm not double checking my spelling, so if I'm butchering these, I apologize!) Now the Arch is surrounded by this crazy roundabout where they say an accident occurs on average every 20 min or something stupid like that. We sat at the Arch for over an hour and NOTHING HAPPENED! Uggggg, disappointment lol. Around 3, we decided to catch the metro back to the hotel.. Wow, our first time on a subway system! I was quite surprised with how clean it was--Paris did have the cleanest metro that we saw in Europe and after a few times, it was quite easy to navigate and use.

That night, we left the hotel at 6 for Moulin Rouge. We got there a bit early so we had a few drinks at O'Sullivans right next door. The show itself was quite fun. I'm really glad we did it. The food was pretty good too. We sat with Chloe, Matt and Kris which the 6 of us would briefly be dubbed as the Lawn Zombies but that story comes here shortly. Anyways, each table got 3 bottles of wine and a bottle of champagne. (Gweed tried wine and LIKED IT!) Needless to say, we were all pretty lit up once the show was over and we headed back to O'Sullivans. The night was filled with more drinking and dancing (and with some people puking) and we discovered Kris' obsession with Cars (the animated movie) and Mater. Around 1, the 5 of us cabbed it back to the hotel. In bed by 1:30 am!
Blogger just fucking deleted my Moulin Rouge picture.. so anyways.. moving on..

9/14-Paris, Day3: we woke up at 7 am, showered, had our cereal and boarded the coach at 9 to head for the Palace at Versailles. This is where Marie Antionette lived. Derek, Gweed, Matt and Kris all had massive hangovers so we decided to skip the palace tour and walked to the center of town where there was a farmers market. We decided that we wanted to have lunch under the Eiffel Tower so we bought some bread and jam and started to walk back toward the bus. The bread did not make it back to Paris lol. After chilling on the bus with Hans for a bit (Chloe bravely took a train to Versailles and met us), we headed back toward Paris and were dropped off at the Eiffel Tower.

Us minus K went to the very top and it was fucking AWESOME. Soooo glad we did it! Anyways, while waiting for the elevator to get back down, Chloe starts singing this random zombie song, "There's a zombie on your lawn". Long story short, it was a long standing joke that carried for the rest of the tour and thus why our little clique was called the Lawn Zombies.

Afterward, we caught the metro to Galleries Lafayette, a huge shopping mall. After the boys and I discovered it only contained designer clothing (a Marc Jacobs peacoat was 4500 euro!), we walked to a nearby cafe and just chilled and waited for the girls.

At 6:30, we caught the metro to the Latin Quarter and bought some sovenirs and took some pictures outside Notre Dame.

After a rude frenchie refused to let me use the restroom (even after my offer to pay!) we walked to a quaint little pizzeria and and ate pizza for dinner. We headed back to the hotel around 8:30 where I tried to use Chloe's laptop to check Facebook but the wifi was not working :( Our decision to not bring our phones was killing us. We spent the rest of the night packing and gearing up for Amsterdam!

Eurotrip: London

Yea, yea, I know I've been slacking. Vacation and sickness trumped blogging. But here I am, about to stampede you with Euro stories. I was a big fat nerd and kept a travel journal for the trip just so I could tell you as many dirty details as possible. So lets go back almost a month to September 10: Departure Date. We woke up early and finished packing. My mom picked us up at 11 and we met my grandparents at Beef o Brady's for lunch. Got to the airport around 1 and departed home around 3:20. A quick flight to JFK.. only about an hour and a half. Their airport is f'in confusing! We had a 4 hour layover so me and Derek chainsmoked for about a half hour and then had some really expensive BK before departing at 9:30. Seven and a half hours later we landed at Heathrow at 9:30 am local time to a very cloudy day. Heathrow was extremely easy to navigate and we decided to cab it to the hotel. Cabbies in Europe are insane. Beyond the fact that we're driving on the wrong side of the road, they squeeze into these little spaces that you think cars are not meant to go. After a long and winding trip, we finally arrived at Luna & Simone Hotel, our home for the night. We were too early to check in so we dropped our bags and walked to a nearby pub and drank Staropramen, a Czech beer. Very skunky, but the boys enjoyed it. Around noon, we were finally able to check in to our room. 3 small twin beds in a tiny ass room. Oh and one bathroom. Fuck me. To make matters worse, all 3 of us had upset stomachs due to diet and time change. Needless to say, it was a stinky 24 hours lmao!

Most of London was spent on the Big Bus tour. We rode around London for about 5-6 hours and practically saw everything (except Buckingham Palace because the boys were being big whiny douchebags) Here is a pic of Big Ben and the Eye of London:

I wanted to shop in Harrods (a hugeass department store) but again I got whimpering and complaining so we basically rode around on the bus all day, had shitty fish & chips and tried to not kill each other. We got back to the hotel around 6 and the boys immediately passed out. I knew this was a bad idea, but after watching tv for an hour I drifted off as well. I woke up around 8, feeling like absolute dogshit. Having no water for 12 hours makes Jessica a very crabby girl. So after a tearful half hour of trying to wake up Derek, we finally walked to the local convenient store and grabbed some waters and ate some crackers courtesy of the "Books and Crackers" bag we made Gweed bring. After long showers, we all passed around midnight.

On Sunday, we woke up at 8 and headed down for the included breakfast. I think we were all pleasantly surprised.. it included eggs, very yummy bacon, baked beans (which I declined), toast and tea. After each of us took another trip to the bathroom, we checked out, took some pics by the nearby phonebooth and caught a cab to St Pancras train station. We had about an hour and half to kill before our train left for Paris so we walked across the street to King's Cross station and took our pictures at Platform 9 3/4. For those of you who are ignorant to the wonders of Harry Potter, this is how Harry got to his wizard school, Hogwarts each year. Anyways, around 12:30 we boarded our train!