A Slow Sunday Morning

Greetings all!

So the title says it all. I'm sitting in my room, sorting some 3 loads of dirty laundry for the wash, listening to some jazz, answering emails, and basically bumming around. Who misses me?? Show of hands?? Well, I miss all of you too. As Salzburg decorates for Christmas, I'm filled with predictably wistful, yet nonetheless emotionally comforting feelings. Tomorrow is December 1st, which means I need to begin my third annual Elf-Quote-A-Day campaign in preparation for Christmas. First though, I wanted to share with you some of the festivities of my surroundings to get you in the holiday spirit. Now, try not to be too jealous, because it's a lot less tacky here than it is at home.

These first three pictures are from the Salzburg Christkindlmarkt, while the last one shows a bit of the snow we've had here.

These three are from the Thanksgiving dinner AIFS organized for us on Thursday. We enjoyed parts from Mozart operas in between our courses. For some reason, whoever I handed my camera to that night cut me out of every picture a little bit. Conspiracy? Probably.

These two are from Innsbruck's and Hall in Tirol's Christkindlmarkts. Hall in Tirol actually displays their advent numbers on the building! How quaint.

Innsbruck is quite the cute little town situated between some gigantic mountains. I got some great Christmas presents there, and stole a mug from the Glühwein stand. Oops :) souvenir. If you haven't had Glühwein, you haven't had a Christmas drink. I think I'm going to bring a bunch of the packet mix back home. 

I definitely want to get further out west in Austria before I leave, and the weekend of the 12th might be the best time to do it. We have a 4 day weekend coming up from the 5th-8th, and I am trying to go to Mallorca. Woah. Todes random. It's not too too expensive to fly, and as long as I can find someone to come with me, I am so booking that flight ASAP.

So, preemptively, I am starting a list of things I will miss about here and things I miss about home (this is the Christmas wistfulness coming out):

Things I'll miss about Salzburg:

-Obviously, all the close friends I've made here and all the amazing times we've shared. We're spread too far out across the States and Europe as well, but it gives me a good excuse to travel to California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Poland or anywhere else in between. As Cowboy Mouth cheesily points out: "People may come and go but the truly great moments survive." If Salz had a yearbook, that would be my quote.

-The nightlife. Sorry Georgetown, Worcester (kind of sorry) and even Boston. Salzburg on a bad night still typically holds more promise.

-Traveling and the ease of it. Public transport in the states has a lot to aspire to and I could practically run to Germany from here.

-Walking around a historic city and pinching myself from time to time when I find myself taking it for granted.

-School being really easy. Sorry, it's just not the main point of studying abroad.

-Seeing a gigantic mountain from my window...or any window for that matter.

Things I miss from home:

-Also obviously, my family, friends and everything they entail. The hardest has been wanting to share moments with people from home and not being able to.

-$1=$1

-Being able to exercise in the basement...exercising in general.

-Chicken.

-The top sheet on beds.

-Being able to understand everything that I read.

Okay, time to get down to showering business, finishing some postcards and maybe starting my second of two (yup, two) essays for the whole semester. AssCo should take a hint. 

Until December, I am fondly yours!

Snow in the Mountains

Well, I was trying to nap, but apparently some higher power wants me to remain completely unrested throughout this whole semester and sleep would not come. So what do I do? Whatever any other hung over person in pajamas eating cornflakes out of the box at 3:15pm on a Tuesday would do. Blog.

It's been a while again, so I think I'll make it a good one.

Last you heard were stories from Hallstatt. It feels like ages ago. Today marks the one month remaining date, but since my family is totally awesome and is coming to visit me, I get to stay for another 6 days. That makes my EDA December 23rd for all of you who have missed my cute little face.

Last weekend AIFS took us to Prague. The city was pretty fantastic. Architectural building styles from different time periods stand next to one another on each cobble lined street and souvenir shops stand next to other souvenir shops selling the same crap. It's like that Starbucks joke. But Starbucks in my book is no joke, and I was very happy to find one. Czech currency is strange - not relatable to the dollar or euro - and so when I exchange 50 Euros and get 1190 Kronas, I don't know if I've lost or gained money. All I know is that a tall Mochaccino cost 95 Kronas and a beer cost 30. Starbucks is still ripping people off from behind the Iron Curtain. Saturday in Prague, after a great night sleep on a super comfortable bed with *shock!* two blankets, a bunch of us set off to explore Prague zu Fuß (after the incredibly disturbing Prague subway story one of our group members told us). I navigated us to a Monastic Brewery for lunch - great dark beer - and we got a fantastic view of the city from atop the hill. Next we checked out the Ghost Museum, where I experienced some of the most poorly translated English (except for Polish Kleine Piotr's classic text messages) and some weird sort of haunted basement. Made me wish the Sex Machines Museum wasn't so damn expensive subsequently making the Ghost Museum look cheap.

Saturday night, we celebrated baby Jeff's 20th birthday. Brian, Seth, Scott, Piotr, Machs, Taylor, Jeff and I (ya, the only chick) checked out the 5 floor disco, much to our disappointment. All the guys wanted to leave since there were too many guys. Tut mir Leid, Ich care nicht. Eric tried to make it out with us, but unfortunately, going shot for shot with Polish kids and wodka is almost as foolish as Jess going shot for shot with Kim. Just as she ended up babbling on about drugs and ruining Josh's shoes, so Eric only remembers pre-gaming and then waking up in his room the next morning. Unfortunately, no one's sure how he made it home, least of all him.

Die Manner von links bis rechts: Scott, Piotr, Seth, Eric, Brian, Jeff and Machs

On the way home Sunday, I got to see another world heritage town called Cesky Krumlov. Geoff spent most of the time asking our tour guide incredibly random and personal questions like whether he likes to paint watercolors (that was the opener - he doesn't paint), how many cats he has (none), if he believes in aliens (yes, but we won't be able to prove their existence in our lifetime), which Indiana Jones film he likes best (The Last Crusade), what type of car he drives (I think he misinterpreted this question somehow), what his favorite beer is (Pilsner) and finally, if he has Facebook (of course, and Geoff got his business card too). Basically, Geoff is one of the most hilarious people I've ever met. He brightens up my life.

The weekend prior, Geoff's dad was here and Catherine and Jess and I tagged along on their drive to Zagreb, Croatia...my second trip to Croatia in a month. That's kind of a strange sentence. The hostel we shared was more of an apartment in need of some serious love. I'm not sure how it was a self sufficient apartment though, as it lacked anything that could remotely be called a kitchen. Two bedrooms with low, thin cots and a bathroom with a shower missing a shower curtain. I forgot my towel too. So. Saturday morning, I dried myself off with my sweater I wore Friday, and Sunday morning I dried off with the fitted sheet.

Zagreb was pretty awesome though. On Saturday there was a music festival in the main square and we saw a band that sounded similar to the Ramones or the Clash. We didn't understand a single word, but I swear the lead singer looked like Coop from Wet Hot American Summer. Same haircut too. There were people giving out free hugs, so I took one and it cracked my back. Croatian money is strange too, but everything was much cheaper there and we got a yummy dinner and then went out for drinks. Catherine may or may not have punched a guy and between the three of us, we said JA GENAU far too many times. Still funny though.

Okay, so I may have fallen asleep in the middle of this blogging process. Let's see if I can wrap this one up with a picture. There. I put one in.

PS. There is snow in the Alps right now, ever since last night. The world is really pretty awesome.

Fancy seeing you here...

So now that I've been here for about seven weeks, it's time for me to share with you all the things that are weird about Austria and Salzburg. 

• There are tons of bikes around here and everyone seems to love to ride them with their arms folded across their chest. I tried this once and almost fell off my bike.
• Everything closes really early. I used to think making it to the packy before 8 in Connecticut was tough...try making sure you have everything you need for your dinner before 6pm otherwise it's Krainer or Kebaps for you.
• The doors always look like they're not completely shut since there's an extra unnecessary lip that overlaps with the frame.
• The toilets have a big flap that you press in the wall to flush, and there's no tank.
• They speak German...what's with that??
• They actually believe in the honor system. You will hardly ever get checked to see if you have a bus pass or ticket when riding buses or trains, so technically you could ride for free (although you do risk a fine if caught). I rode on two free trains into Munich on my trip back from Neuschwanstein.
• Drinking is acceptable any day of the week and any hour of the day. (This is actually really cool, not weird). I saw a man buying a beer with his breakfast at a rest stop on my way to Croatia at 7:15 in the morning. Made me wonder if I was missing something with my OJ. 
• Find me an ice cube, I dare you. And while you're at it...find me a freezer for my stuff, because I sure as hell can't.
• People wear jackets in 70 degree weather. I meanwhile stick out like a sore thumb in a tee-shirt.
• There are bakeries everywhere but fat people are hard to find.

So, sorry I've been MIA for a while. Rest assured that I've been taking many pictures, writing many postcards, attending class, traveling (Schloss Neuschwanstein, Italy/Slovenia/Croatia, and Vienna), getting too little sleep, drinking too many beers on a Tuesday night, swearing off drinking for a while, getting more sleep, trying to exercise, marrying a Kebap stand employee, trying to cook eggs after my dorm has shut off the power to the hot plates at night, making lists, doing massive amounts of laundry after "missing" my laundry appointment, trying to have nights where I don't pay for a single drink, paying for a few of the drinks first on those nights, visiting museums and palaces and abbeys, riding bumper cars and roller coasters, cooking, missing people and places and time periods and holidays back home and trying to find myself in moments and experiences. 

Can I tell you a little secret?

This semester kicks ass.

Hard to imagine you can go so far in a day

Thank god school decided to give us Fridays off otherwise Ja, Jeff and I would have never made it to Hallstatt. (Well maybe on a Sunday, but that extra day is so key). 

Hallstatt was named a World Heritage site about 10 years ago and you can see why from photos. There are only about 1000 people living in the city, and probably about half the amount of tourists on any given day. I'm going to steal a photo from Wikipedia because, of course - es regnet immer in Hallstatt - it's always raining in Hallstatt, at least when we were there. 

The frequent rain makes it difficult to see the huge mountains in the background. Even just yesterday (a perfect fall day here in Salzburg) I learned of some views from my dorm window so you can imagine this scene with low-lying fog coming off the mountains and me watching with an umbrella in my hands. And gloves covering my fingers wrapped around the umbrella. 

To get to Hallstatt (which is southeast of Salzburg), we had to take a bus - 3 actually. The first brought us to Bad Ischl, a town where no one works at the train station. This makes it incredibly difficult to figure out where we are supposed to go next. We walk into the town from the bus station to find the information center which luckily has the bus schedule...since the bus station didn't. And so, after enjoying some lunch and coffee at the pastry shop, we boarded the right bus, which quickly flooded with school children. Ja and I talked to one particularly helpful girl because we were still unsure if we had to umsteigen or not. Turns out we did, but we didn't find that out until the bus driver was sitting at a stop for some time before shouting "HALLSTATT". We grabbed our things and umsteiged onto the next bus.

This bus was a quickie and we hopped off at the next stop to find ourselves looking at this:

Not bad, eh?

From there we wandered into the church graveyard, where my obsession with foreign graveyards has only been furthered. Best part? Jeff tells me how to use the "Best Shot" feature on my camera. BAM! My pictures are instantly better. Thanks Jeff!

From the graveyard we wander up a path in the mountains to get a better view of Hallstatt and the lake and I take Jeff's photo for his new emo album, due out whenever he pulls it together enough to stop cutting himself.

From this path, the view is incredible, despite the weather. We stand over a waterfall that we saw when we first got off the bus and finally we find a more suitable lookout point in the form of a gazebo.



The three of us set our cameras on a timer and figure eventually one of us must have gotten a good shot. Mine's not so bad.

From the path, we journey back into the city, looking for information on the ferry to take us on our train to Linz, northeast of and therefore east of Salzburg. At this point it is raining a bit harder. Ja and I run into a cat, a bit shy at first but then my day is made when it hops up onto my leg as I was squatting down to pet it. I picked it up. And held it. And it felt like home. Jeff meanwhile, not liking cats, is patiently waiting while Ja and I flip out for a little bit in front of the tram Kasse that brings people up the mountain into the salt mines. 

From there, we come to meet some ducks playing in the incredibly fast current of one of the lake's tributaries. I wish for a tube.

We meander through the lower part of the city. I buy a few postcards and we stop in at a general store where Jeff gets a traditional Austrian hat.

This is Jeff waiting for us after we had to use the €0,50 bathrooms. :(

I tried one on too, but it was too large, so Ja photographed me in a children's sized hat. Sadly, it fit. 

We board the ferry that we thought we had missed and scoot across the lake. Despite the now thick raindrops, I step outside for a bit to take a picture of Hallstatt from the water.

After further transportation confusion (theme of the day), we catch the train to Linz, famous for music and...well actually I don't know. You see, we didn't get there until 6:45 and by then we were all pretty ravished. It was dark out when we exited the train station and so after a little back and forth with orientation, we walk down the main street which seemed to have every kind of store (including a watch store with watches costing more money than I have budgeted for my whole semester) but no restaurants. Finally we find one, a beer hall naturally, and we go inside for a fantastically rewarding meal and a bottle of wine. Jeff gets a quick lesson on wine etiquette. Thankfully, it wasn't poison; it was actually quite delicious!

We literally run to catch the 9:15 train home to Salzburg. Bye Linz, you're probably really nice but we were just too hungry and wet to care about seeing anything besides food going into our bodies!

Probably the strangest train ride home. I thought back on some of the trips I took from Boston to Worcester and the creepos I encountered there. This guy took the cake. Drunk and high off his ass this large black guy oscillated between English and German, speaking mostly with Jeff. He repeated himself constantly, didn't respond either accurately or at all to anything we said and once Jeff turned him down for some  - earmuffs - euphamism: "male bonding time", he quickly became hostile and told Jeff, "Ich schlage dich einmal, du gehst zum Krankenhaus". Roughly, "I hit you once and you'll go to the hospital." Greatt. 

Finally, we arrived in Salzburg (without Jeff having to fight the guy) and got off the train to see drunk teenagers riding around on machinery with Stiegls in tow, three wasted old Scottish men in kilts trying to walk, and a lady pushing around an empty airport luggage cart. Oh god, get me back to my room. 

Overall though, a fantastic day, and now, 3 days later, people are loving the story about Jeff attracting gay guys. If that doesn't constitute a good experience...well then I don't know what does.

The strangest two week vacation

All the walking doesn't stop. In fact, it seems to be all I've been doing since I've arrived in Salzburg. I've walked on a panoramic trail to the Hohensalzburg Fortress twice, once in the rain and once in the sun. I've walked to the Bräu Haus, but that was never begrudgingly. I've walked down the majority of the Gaisberg...well slipped mostly, wet roots are not safe to step on. I've walked back and forth to German class every day - a 50 minute round trip. I've walked to buy a bike, failed, and walked back. I've walked down 4 flights of stairs everyday to leave my building because the elevator only goes up from the first floor (All ya'll logistical peeps are gonna tell me that doesn't work. Trust, it does. There's only a button for the elevator on the first floor). I've walked to and from Hellbrunn, about 6 miles. I've walked and walked and walked, and it's all beautiful. 

Just please, a bike, eventually.

Today is exciting because it's finally nice out. I think we've had one nice day here besides today. Otherwise the weather has averaged around 50 degrees and drizzly. It might even get up to 70 tomorrow!

So many things to write about, and I'm completely lacking the brainpower to do it, so instead I'll give a sentence or two about some funny pictures.

The Augustiner Bräustübl: Tasty beer + expensive prices = a good time nonetheless

A view of Altstadt and the fortress from the footbridge.

The panoramic view from the hike

The fortress from behind.

OMG Bergs. The alps.

Heyyy look! It's me! And my favorite statue! In the Mirabellgarten!

Another view of the Mirabellgarten

Out to dinner. From left my roommate Ja, Kristen, Jeff ruining the picture, and Jeff's roommate Jon.

Cool! A mountain view from atop another mountain (Geisberg)

I wasn't the first person to verbalize the Misty Mountains LoTR reference, but I may have been the first person to think of it.

A view from the bell tower at Hohenwerfen.

The Birds of Prey show. Hawk up! Norris would be so stoked to see this.

Sweet.

The trick fountains at Hellbrunn.

Jeff, Scott, Ja, Andreas, Matt and Liz getting owned by the table and stools. 

A bunch of us decided to walk up to see the hunting lodge and cave theater, which I unfortunately couldn't capture because my camera died. From left Geoff, Ja, Liz, Jeff, Sarah, Taylor, Me, Scott, Jered, Hillary, Jon and Jared.

Last night at Shamrocks...an irish pub in Austria. Taylor, Scott, Seth, Seth's friend Florian from Berlin, Liz, Jeff and me :)

Bis Später!

Willkommen nach Salzburg! (via London/Munich)

The morning after Picadilly Circus, we took a tour of London. I hopped on a bus (a coach actually) filled with a lot of kids destined for Paris. Sightseeing brough us to statues and buildings, soldiers and Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Parliment and Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral (unfortunately, there was no feeding of the birds - forget tuppence, it'd probably be £5 a bag considering how expensive London is) Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and Covent Square. 

A few of us stumbled away from the bus after the tour in search of food (being starved has become a regular occurance, nay reality, ever since my flight to London). After munching on a "pasty" (short a) and exchanging money in the lingere section of a department store (awk), we set off to find the British Museum. We found it an hour later and popped in for a bit, but honestly, museums not being my thing, I sat down after a while. My feet were mad at me. 

I split off from the group on the underground, returned to my room, blogged to you lovely folks about my previous night, shut my eyes for a bit, woke up to some cartoon blaring next door, got panicky that I wouldn't be able to meet up with anyone else from the group for dinner, decided to go write a postcard in the park, and found the post office closed. Luckily, people started trickling back into the hotel after their free evening and finally Kristin, Jeff and I made our way to an Indian buffet (I checked Mom, it is "eat as much as you'd like". Sounds better than "all you can eat" huh?) 

Afterwards, I had to make good on my promise to Dave to try to visit his bars. Jeff agreed to come along with me and we rode the underground to Putney Bridge to find The Bricklayers Arms. After getting lost a few times, we finally found the place. And Dave, let me tell you...you are going to be so depressed that you weren't there. Not only were you right about the "who the hell are you?" stares we'd get upon entering, but you weren't kidding about it being one of a kind. Jeff and I just happened to stumble upon one of two annual beer festivals held outside. Roughly 30 beers were on tap, all of them I'd never heard of, and although some kegs were already kicked (we got there around 10pm) the guy pouring never led us in the wrong direction. 

We each had two and somewhere around the second we decided it was a good idea to stay up the whole night, rather than get a few hours sleep before our 5:15 departure for Heathrow. Idiotic? Maybe. Worth every step? Definitely. 

And so began our walk back to the hotel. Since our map of London was of no use (Putney Bridge was too far South) it never made its way out of the hotel. My sense of direction was "go up" (North, for those of you who know I always have a mental map in my head) and Jeff's was, "go East". So we did both. We walked past bars and people, closed shops and cars; we were all over the place really. Our second good idea came in the form of a bottle of white wine purchased about 1/3 of the way into the walk. The nice man in the liquor store even uncorked it for us! We forgot cups though, so you can imagine how classy we looked. Every now and then we'd stop and ask for directions, and most people would laugh when we said Hyde Park. I guess we weren't too close...

Around 3:30am we decided to call it quits. 5 minutes from our destination by taxi, we paid the man (in Pounds and Euros) and I crawled into bed at 4am. 

Zombie-like, I dragged myself to the bus a mere hour and a quarter later and was in and out of sleep en route to Heathrow. After a small breakfast of granola, yogurt and OJ, I boarded the flight to Munich where I slept uncomfortably for an hour. Upon arrival, we were met by another bus and a 3 hour ride (including traffic) to Salzburg. Our dorming information was handed out. All I wanted was food, and I could barely savor my Mozartkugel (a small chocolate that Salzburg is famous for) as it was my lunch. Finally we arrived. 

My new roommate Ja (who is from Thailand and goes to school in Wisconsin) and I got into a taxi, and I tried to say our address to the taxi driver. Linzergasse 41 bitte. Through my fatigue, it didn't sound so good and so I had to pass the paper up to the front of the car and point at the address. Yeesh. We checked into our building, which is actually a dorm as well as a youth hostel, and I barely managed to unpack. My shower refreshed me, and I was quite excited to use Ja's blow dryer as my hair has suffered since my first shower in London. I plugged it in, hit the switch and bam! Out goes the power. Greeeeat. Dinner was a blur, I could barely eat without feeling nauseated and I didn't talk much. I wearily came back to the room and fell asleep at 8pm. It was fantastic.

I just flew in from JFK...

...And  boy, are my feet tired! I have pounded so much pavement in the past 40ish hours...

The flight went smoothly...I sat next to Kristin from UVM and we chatted for a bit while playing with the TVs and trying to get them to work. Which they didn't. Dinner was served around 8ish. Then around 10:30 it was time to try sleeping, but the air hostesses thought it'd be a good time to sell duty free things and get into an extensive conversation about perfumes with the passenger in front of me. Chanel no. 5, Dior, A&F has a new fragrance that can only be bought in the states! Criminal! I put on my iPod and fell asleep for maybe 30 minutes.

And so it was that I flew out of a sunset and into a sunrise. All in a matter of 6 and a half hours. Flying over England was beautiful in the early morning hours. All the lights from the sky look like tiny orange crystals against the lush green land. As we approached London, fog set in over the city and I don't even know how the pilot found the strip. 

2 am EST - up 18 hours : 

From the tarmac we were shuttled to the terminal. While walking to customs, we met up with Aaron, also from UVM and Jeff, from somewhere that I don't know yet. The customs woman was curious about my trip and I was flattered by her interest. Then I realized that was her job. 

3 am EST - up 19 hours:

The four of us make our way down to our luggage and out into the meeting point. I felt like a runner finishing a marathon. People were thronging, pushing against one another and holding signs with names on them. And then, like Stephano Baldini, our JFK group was broadsided by a large Greek (Italian?) man in a suit, bade to follow him, whisked into an elevator and packed into a VW van for the scariest car rides of my life.

3:45 am EST  -up 19:45 hours:

We arrive at the Park Hotel and can't check in yet. Instead, myself, the JFKers, and a few other new arrivals take off to find a coffee shop for some breakfast (It's now 8:45 am in London).  After some coffee and a croissant, we go for a stroll in Hyde Park, which is across from the hotel. I fed some funny ducks my crackers from the plane.

6:30 am EST - up 22:30:

We return to the hotel to a lobby full of students waiting for their rooms. It is first come, first serve based on our initial arrival time in the hotel. There are a lot of us, and about half are going to Paris for the semester, as AIFS combined the two semesters on the London stopover. 

7 am EST - up 23 hours:

A room!! I unpack my stuff a bit, wash my face, change, brush my teeth, and head upstairs to meet Hillary and go to the Globe! We end up leaving closer to 1 pm, but we make it just in time for the start of The Merry Wives of Windsor. For just £5 or £6 (I don't remember, things are seriously hazy at this point), roughly $10-$12, I got a Groundling ticket and was able to stand on the ground (duh) and watch the show. My back hurt but the play was fantastic and thoroughly entertaining, so obviously it was worth the trip.

12:55 pm EST - up 28:55 hours:

I make it back to the hotel with 5 minutes to spare before the welcome reception starts. I run upstairs for a shower, can't figure out how to get anything but the hand-held shower head  and cold water to work so I deal, try to dry my hair and throw on some make-up and I make it downstairs by 20 after 6 pm GMT. Snag the last glass of red wine.

1:30 pm EST - up 29:25 hours:

Mingle, mingle, mingle. Salzburg or Paris? Paris. Oh, nevermind. Groups start peeling off in search of dinner. I invite way too many people to dinner, run upstairs to grab a sweater, fall up the stairs, recover, grab my sweater, and go outside. I can't find anyone I was talking to and instead JFK (minus Kristin), Brian M., Brian S., and some girl I didn't meet  and I start walking towards Queensway Street for dinner. 

2:30pm EST - up 30: 25 hours:

My innate ability to find a good pub emerges and we walk into The Kings Pub (or at least I think that's the name). Food! (Finally, since the  wine on an empty stomach wasn't a good start). I order a Hoegaarden and the glass is too big to fit my hand around. Carmen, who I introduced myself to on the walk to dinner, orders a Pims. We're already getting along great when she drops the P bomb. Paris. Bummer.

3:45 pm EST - up 32:10 hours:

We stop back at the hotel and upon the recommendation of the bartender, hop a bus to Piccadilly Circus. Imagine Times Square, with less traffic, less bright signs, more narrow winding streets and people all over them drinking. 

Figuring we can't go wrong unless it gets too expensive, we make our way into The Yard and Loftbar. Carmen spots it first. There's way too many guys here for a straight bar but the boys are making their way up to the bartender, oblivious. We let them know, and they are mature about it so we stay for a drink. I talk with Brian M. as I watch him get checked out from behind. 

(From left: Jeff, Brian S. Brian M, me, Carmen and Aaron)

From there we cross the street and silently and unanimously decide to wander in to a sex shop. The last straw for Brian M. (with the gay bar a very recent memory) comes when I point out the Ass-Master. Back out on the street, we are wandering, but not aimlessly. I think I find the White Horse! No, it's not, I may be drunk but I still sort of know roughly where I am. 

We walk into another bar (please, like I even know the name) and they have TIMOTHY TAYLOR'S LANDLORD!

I buy one because Dave demanded it. Delicious. It tastes like grapefruit. Carmen orders one and so does Aaron. A promoter tries to get us to go into a club, ladies free, guys £5. We debate for too long, but just long enough when your drunk.

Brian S. talks to this guy:

We don't go in. Instead we pop into one more bar. The bar closes at 11:30...I think, so we can only order a half glass. Brian M. and I share a Guinness and we move onward. 

After much debate, we climb onto the right bus and run into a jovial homeless black man singing show tunes. Brian M. and Carmen strike up a conversation with him. After we get off at our stop, we try to find a packy, wander into a gas station, realize we should have done this earlier, and walk back to the hotel. 

8:30 pm EST - up 37:05 hours:

Back in my room, we're talking about god knows what and I'm musing about forgetting playing cards. Kristin comes back to the room and we call it a night, a hectic, exciting, tasty, gay, funny, completely and simultaneously exhausting and thrilling night.