• In General:
  • too many mullets
• London:
  • fantastic public transportation (do not take a cab from Heathrow to Canary Wharf)
  • excessive signage, everywhere
  • problem with people peeing in the streets
  • brutal exchange rate, don’t stay there for very long
  • terrible weather
• Munich:
  • pretzels are pretty much the best thing ever. they’re even made it into pretzel sandwiches (with lettuce/tomatoes/cheese/etc)
  • radler (lemonade beer) is not too bad
  • people drinking beer at 10am
  • amazing park with nude sunbathers
  • saw the alps and a castle nestled in them (swuheet)
  • unicycles for sale in grocery store!? madness.
  • on the autobahn via Lufthasana mercedes shuttlebus
  • def come during oktoberfest i think …
• Brussels:
  • 2004 beers in one bar. Molson Canadian sells for $17 CAD/bottle.
  • for the centre of the EU it contains quite a few dilapidated buildings
  • chocolate shops + free samples = heaven
  • fountain of a little boy peeing … um. taken way too far in terms of tourist items (eg: suckers? — sucking on a little peeing boy?)
  • algonquin’s waffles still beat belgiums. THOUGH TO BE FAIR, they do make different kinds of waffles which are sugary and good …
• Amsterdam:
  • Lots of hippy-types
  • Lots of Bicycles
  • “Hear the bell, run like hell” (referring to the trams)
  • Crazy-awesome architecture, leaning buildings, steep stairs, canals
  • Red light district is … it’s own thing … it’s so … different. FYI: blue lights are for trannies.
  • Extremely distinct city, so different from others
  • Old/Downtown Amsterdam (wherever we were) has a hell of a lot of crazy one-way streets, combined with the trams + bikes + scooters = madness.
• Nice:
  • beautiful city, Mediterranean is CRAZY COOL
  • very laid back
  • dog feces in the streets = very gross, very prevalent
  • 1 euro to use their transpo system = SO COOL. SOOO COOL.
  • EASY daytrips to Monaco/Cannes/Antibes … best part? 1 euro by bus.
  • terrible airport in a pretty cool location
  • (daytrip) Monte Carlo is expensive, pretentious, safe, and very pretty
• Paris:
  • cannot believe how much there is to do/see
  • the louvre is so much bigger than i imagined. mona lisa = meh.
  • have never seen so many penises and breasts in one city (through statues + paintings)
  • felt much more expensive than london for the basics
  • indian restaurant that doubled as a crepe place = unparalleled awesomeness
  • went with people to a pho place, girl who was with us spoke mandarin with the waiter because he understood it better than english + french. loved that! speaking mandarin in a viet restaurant in paris :D.
  • pastry shops are not as prevalent as I thought they’d be, if you want awesome pastry shops — hit up munich
  • catacombs = creepy, make me want to explore the parts that are closed off to tourists
  • hostel had mojitos. WOOOOOO! Expensive, but so worth it.

— eurotrip, retrospective

Yay! Booked my last hostel. DONE AND DONE. Everything is booked. Trains, flights, hostels. DOOONNNNEEE. 

This is good … since it’s July in EIGHT DAYS. It feels like yesterday when I was saying “good god! it’s June!”. Eep. Canada Day is a stat holiday, right? RIGHT?

— eurotrip

GASP. I have cards. A big box of cards.

Also: today I recieved my first tangible piece of anything which verifies that I am, in fact, going to Europe in August. TRAIN TICKETS FROM BRUSSELS TO AMSTERDAM. Via UPS express (GREAT. Forced to pay $23 to get two-day shipping). Nice! Everything else is online/printable. It kind of freaks me out (but at the same time it means I’m not screwed if I lose the ticket)

— eurotrip, photos, work

omg! OMG. OMG. shit.

and the funny thing is? my parents are actually encouraging me to go backpacking through europe slash live there for half a year since all their colleagues have done this they have now concluded it is the quintessential canadian thing to do. so how can i boil down 2 weeks of europia into some travel tips for us before i forget? .. here goes..

1. people in the service business need to be constantly reminded that a) you, the tourist have infinitely more money than them, b) live in a bigger house, c) you, the tourist, have a bigger horse. indeed they seem to sometiems “forget”they are in the service business and therefore must be constantly told to “respect my authority”

2. it is ok to hit, pinch, slap, yell obscentities at pickpockets. like actually they are ruthless. and THEY HAVE FAKE BABIES and they attacked mother so i was all EHHHHHHHHHHHH “go fuck your mother” in italian

3. everyone speaks english or french

4. you will never take a taxi. all transport can be doen by foot, metro or rer or tgv. we walked all over paris as the villa‚ was central location and all major sites are close to each other.

5. bars are gay with piss as a beer can be priced up to 10euro in some joints with 5 being the norm. however a bottle of wine is like 3 euro in the grocery stores.

6. there are black people everywhere! and they are as dark as the night so when you are walking around the eiffel tower or champ d’elysee and sudennly the night starts moving do not be alarmed it is merely an african brother trying to sell you some kitsch

7. everything is for sale in italy, even the pasta making grandma. by the same token, everything costs soemthing. sitting fees go from 2-7 euro in restaurants. this concept is gay with piss.

8. washrooms are some risky business

9. i dunno about the 4k! seeign as how our vacay cost aroudn 10k for 4 ppl incl 8 day tour of italy with tour company, villa rental in paris (marais district aka distrcit of orthodox jews and gays) 4&5 star hotels, eating out 2x / day and also‚ incl airline tickets (fly zoom! so cheap!) . i can get some more numbers and incidentals but ehhhhh it seems to be quite feasible to do europe in a cost effective way

10. monaco is just the most awesome place in the world. i loooooove monaco. i love its formula car racing, monte carlo and all of its excess and its turquoise water. nice also does not dissapoint.

11. it has to happen! hasta siempre eurotrip 2008!!! best time? probably spring because stuff gets closed during the summer because europeans go to switzerland for vacation therefore no friendly locals only black people hawking shit.

=D i am jetlag. will post better later. i am also very itchy! my gondola driver was dreamy and theres something about paris that makes surburban life seem bland. i leave saturday!

— europe, eurotrip