Safe and sound

Merry Christmas everybody!

I am in Rome and the trip has been amazing thus far. Even after a small bought with food poisoning and millions of hours on trains, this is such a rewarding experience. So far, we have gone to Barcelona, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Hendaye, Bordeaux, Nice, Milan, Formia, Rome and Taormina. I cannot wait to see you all again! Not too much longer.

Happy new year, as well!

Cheers.
Dan

Bon voyage.

Good evening, sports racers:

The past few weeks have been pretty relaxed. With classes finishing up, the temperature getting colder and the rain moving in, things settle down a bit in Liverpool's December. I'm finished with class until my exams in January, so I'm taking a few weeks to travel around Europe. It's going to be an odd thing living out of a backpack, especially during the holidays. Each piece of rail I travel along will bring me further into unfamiliar territory. My home will be transient - taking form anwhere I can stop and read a little bit of On the Road before catching some sleep. My plans will undoubtedly change, and I'm exciting to see where they take me. I'll see many of you again in about a month! Be ready.

Current plan of ATTACK:

Barcelona -> Marseille -> Nice -> Venice -> Rome -> Sicily -> Rome -> Vienna -> Munich -> Paris -> Liverpool.

I'm going to try my best to check in to this blog as much as I can, even if it's only a sentence or two. Check ya laterrrrrrrr.

Pints of Guinness Make You Strong

Sometime next March, my roommate Andy, myself and any other soldiers we can recruit will be embarking on a quest of mythical proportions. The Spring Break Hot Dog Tour of America will bring happiness and joy to us brave few... the ones who are ready and willing to eat at least three hot dogs a day from three different cities across the Eastern part of America for an entire week. The HAWTDAWG'08 tour is truly the most exciting trip one could imagine. However, my recent trip to Ireland was a very close second.

Booking a plane for a 6:30am departure allowed us to see Liverpool in all its glory at an ungodly hour. We picked up a cab at 4:30 and headed to Jon Lennon International Airport. The absolute best part about drinking pints of Guinness at an airport in Liverpool at 5:00 am is that there are tons of other people doing the same thing.



We touched down at sunrise in Dublin after a 35 minute flight. We took a bus to the city centre and stopped at a cafe to purchase some much-needed caffeine. As we paid our 4 euro for coffee, Brock and I realized that Dublin was going to be quite expensive for a couple of students on a fixed budget.



After breakfast we wandered around the city trying to find our hostel. We were lost for about two and a half hours, which gave us time to see a lot of Dublin. The city is absolutely beautiful. People actually smile as they pass, the architecture is great, and traditional pubs line every street. After a few episodes of Scrubs at the hostel, we wandered back through the city. We hopped from pub to pub for the remainder of the day, with a few tourist stops in between. We checked out the Guinness Storehouse, but instead decided to take the tour of the Old Jameson Distillery. The tour guide was hilarious and I learned a lot about whiskey... and about how passionately Irish whiskey-makers despise Scottish whiskey-makers. We hung out around the Temple Bar area for the rest of the night, drinking pints of Guinness with the innumerable other tourists.








Dublin was fantastic, but we wanted to check out a smaller Irish city, so the next afternoon we took a two hour train ride to Kilkenny. Kilkenny is a small city built around an old castle. We arrived in the evening and booked a night at a nice bed and breakfast. It even included hundreds of giant spiders lining the walk to our room! After we were settled in, we went out. For a town of around 9,000 people, Kilkenny has a great nightlife. There were tons of pubs flooded with people, live music and of course, Guinness. We watched the England/Austria soccer match at one of the best pubs I have ever been to. The little pub, lined with brick archways, played amazing music through the whole game. Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Meat Loaf, the Ronettes, Prince, CSS... nothing was missing except some Springsteen.








The next pub we visited was full of locals doing karaoke and a bachelorette party. Apparently everyone in Ireland can sing. It was pretty impressive. It was really cool hearing everybody sing along to traditional Irish songs. I wish I would have known the lyrics. At the final pub we went to, we met an archaeologist, a software engineer who had met River freaking Phoenix, and a couple who stayed across the street from us when we were in Vegas in April. The place had an awesome terrace where we almost got thrown up on - but no worries, they had a bucket of water to clean it up. There was live music and happiness all over the place. Irish people are amazing.






The next morning we visited Kilkenny castle. While we were waiting for the tour, we met a woman who was an alumnus of U of I. The castle was extremely beautiful and the tour was pretty entertaining. I'm pretty sure I want to live in a castle when I'm older (that's a hint if anyone wants to buy me a Christmas gift). We walked around Kilkenny checking out the old buildings and cathedrals until our train left back to Dublin.


That night, the weather decided to be uncooperative. The rain, wind and cold forced us to stay close to our hostel. We did most of our Christmas shopping for our families (Tommy and Maggie got some righteous gifts), then headed out to some of the bars we hadn't checked out the first night in Dublin. I wanted to go to Cassidy's but we never got around to it. Every time I walked by it, I thought about the Kerouac novel Maggie Cassidy.

First, we went to a hotel bar where they were showing the Euro 2008 qualifier soccer matches. Poland was playing Belgium with a chance to qualify for the first time. Dublin has a big Polish population, and there was a ton of Polish fans watching the game. They won 2-0 and the crowd went crazy. It was pretty entertaining.






We headed back to Temple Bar, and it was packed again. We met two girls from Australia who were studying abroad in Nottingham, which was pretty cool. We went to a few more bars with some English people we had met, then called it a night. Back at the hostel, we met a girl from Kansas and a boy from Canada who are living in Dublin for a work abroad program. They were really cool and it was interesting to hear an outsider's opinion of living in Dublin. I don't know how they can afford it. Right after someone changed the channel (if anyone knows the ending of Shark episode #14, let Brock know), we took off. The only part of the trip that remained was the part that is becoming second nature - wake up, pack, airport, wait, fly, home.


All in all, Ireland is an amazing place. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys relaxing, taking things as they come and having some drinks along the way. I really can not wait to go back when I have real money to spend, and I'm old enough to rent a car - checking out some of the really small towns would have been amazing.

Giving thanks.

To my wonderful family and friends:

Thank you for being such amazing people. So many people have made my life better in some way or another. If you are reading this, you are probably one of them. For that, I am grateful. I wish I could see you all today; just remember to give me an extra bumpin' high-five next time you see me. I love you all.

Dan
p.s. - Ireland post coming sooon.

It's been a long time, long time.

It's been a mix of laziness and being busy that has kept me away from the blog for the past two weeks. The British weather is finally revealing itself as I had imagined - cold, gray and wet. The wind and rain smothers the city into hibernation, but hopefully we will get a break sometime soon. The weather changes even more often than it does in Chicago.

Anyhow, it's time to fill you in on my Euro Trip 2007 (and a bit of 08). If I had been blogging over the past ten days, here are some of the things I would have included:

One of my best friends from home came to spend a week in Liverpool. Phil flew into London then took the train up. We went straight to one of my favorite bars where we fell in love with Guinness Red. Apparently it's being given a trial at a handful of pubs in the UK... tasty stuff. We hopped to a few other bars and Phil finally crashed after being awake for about 40 hours in a row.

The next night our friend Molly threw a Halloween party, where I unleashed some more zombie upon the world. Everyone had a great time except for the residents of the building across the street... at about 2 a.m. the place decided to burn down (insert "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire..." jokes here). The fire department decided to do nothing to help, so we'll just assume everybody got out safely.

Early the next morning Brock, Phil and I took the train to Bangor, Wales. The three hour trip was great - the Welsh countryside is gorgeously green, hilly and full of sheep. When we got to Bangor we walked around and visited a few pubs. It was hard to decide which ones to patron, since it appeared that all of them had signs painted by the same person. At the last bar we went to, a drunk, neglectful mother sat down next to us and started at Phil. Finally she told him, "I thought you were a girl..." Not knowing how to respond, Phil thanked her. She carried on by telling him that he was beautiful - for a girl or a boy. Then her friend started serenading Phil with "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt. For a second I considered the possibility that our train had exploded and I was actually in hell.



From Bangor, we took a bus to Llanberis. This is a small town at the base of Snowden - the largest mountain in the UK south of the Scottish highlands. It was dark by the time we got into Llanberis, but we had met a girl on the bus who worked at a hotel we could stay at for the night. The place was straight out of The Shining. We watched the Liverpool game at the hotel bar then headed out. Outside of the hotel we ran into a nice girl named Nikki who pointed us towards a few bars. At the first, we met a couple awesome people including a guy named Kev, who later showed us an impressive bar trick.



For those of you who watch The Office, notice the resemblance to Michael Scott of Phil's yelling "yeeeeeahhhh baby".

We took a cab to another small pub, where we were one week too early. The following Saturday the place was hosting a pig roast. Total bummer. However, we did meet a bunch of people here. Nikki even showed up with a ton of friends. At that point, Phil was drunk enough to mispronounce all of their Welsh names, which pissed them off a little bit, but amused me.
We spent the rest of the night hanging out with that group of kids until Phil tried taking a nap in the parking lot and we decided it was time to go.



We spent the next morning hiking up Snowden. It was a pretty fun hike and we couldn't have asked for better weather. The landscape is amazing, especially to someone who spends 8 months a year in Champaign. We had to stand our ground against an army of sheep that took control of the path, but we hung tough.



The next night was Guy Fawkes day... kind of like a morbid version of the 4th of July. Guy Fawkes attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliament in the 1600s, for which he was hanged, drawn and quartered. This lovely little procedure allowed Mr. Fawkes to be:

1. Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. (This is one possible meaning of drawn.)
2. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead. (hanged).
3. Disembowelled and emasculated and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes (This is another meaning of drawn. It is often used in cookbooks to denote the disembowelment of chicken or rabbit carcasses before cooking).^[2]
4. Beheaded and the body divided into four parts (quartered).

So what does one do to celebrate such an occasion? FIREWORKS, BITCHES! That's right, fireworks.

Phil and I were on a train towards London while the bursts of pyrotechnics shown from small towns in the distance. We made it to London at 9pm with no intentions of sleeping until Phil left for his flight home at 7am. We sort of just chilled out and followed the crowd through the night. Highlights of the adventure were:

• Meeting an old hippie drug dealer from Orange County who was moving to Israel to buy a farm to build a baseball field on.
• Being followed down several streets in Leicester Square.
• More Guinness Red.
• Taking the tube around the city.
• Meeting a band who was on tour from Austin, TX.
• Hanging out with a Chicago White Sox fan from London.
  
• Being at Paddington Station at 4am with all the other crazies.
• A string of crazy days concluding with me passing out while eating a Snickers bar on the 8:30 a.m. train back to Liverpool.

Shiverpoolin'.

Last night marked the first Halloween festivities of the trip. We met our friends Jane and Bif for an extravagant party full of wizards, pirates, a green guy, burlesque girls and a gorilla. The house has a cleared out basement which was a school about 100 years ago. Probably the creepiest thing ever. The biggest lesson of the night was that however tempting it may be, do not mix ale, wine, lemonade and vodka. It does bad things. Here are some pictures, y'all.

Like a Blister in the Sun

Last Saturday was all kinds of crazy. At noon, we watched the Merseyside Derby at our favorite bar. This is a match between both football clubs in Liverpool (Everton and Liverpool F.C.). It was great game, and Liverpool pulled out a win with almost no time remaining.

That evening, England played against South Africa in the finals of the Rugby World Cup. The atmosphere was just as crazy as the earlier soccer match, though the end result was less fortunate. England lost, and I think they played pretty poorly, although rugby makes little to no sense to me.


We ducked out before any riots began, and a group of us went to one of the classier bars in Liverpool, Alma de Cuba. The club is in a gutted old church, retouched with paintings of Jesus and the rest of his crew. There's nothing like drinking obscenely overpriced whiskey while the Son of God watches down on you. After a while, some Brazilian dancers performed and the J-man made it rain flower petals on the crowd.

After that, we decided to go to a Baa Bar, where we could actually afford to drink. On the way, we witnessed a guy with an intense small-man's complex and accelerated male pattern baldness stomp on a rat. He then preceded to kick it at people for about five minutes. What a nice guy...

On the way home from Baa Bar, we called some friends we made a few nights earlier. They invited us to a party they were throwing a block or two away from our flat. Brock, Molly, Victor and I grabbed all the booze from our flats and headed out. The party was full of mid-to-late 20's hippie types and was a total blast. One of the guys had a guitar and harmonica and played some Elvis and Violent Femmes while everyone else danced. We're headed back there tomorrow for a Halloween party. Brock might be the Todd or Dr. Acula from Scrubs. I'm going to be a zombie River Phoenix.

Sunday morning, we adventured around Liverpool. The city does have some gorgeous places, especially along the Mersey. We even discovered a new sport! It's called 'Canoe Polo' and looks like the most thing since Pogs. Here are some photos from the excursion.