London Part II

Sweet ferris wheel and view!


The British speak funny.




The Prime Minister's House!!! The White House looks better...

OYE!! Are you from London?

Next stop on Fall Break. London. First and foremost, I love this city. The culture, the people, the architecture, you name it, I love it. Fish and chips? Pass the tartar sauce. Care to sojourn to Fortnum and Mason to purchase some local novelties? Sign me up, Winston. Honestly, is it possible for me to live in this city full time?

Anyway, this is also the first time I have ever stayed in a hostel. The entire time I was walking there I kept thinking about getting put in a box while a slept to be swept away to some Eastern European bloc to be dismembered by some rich, masochistic guy who eats salad with his fingers. (See "Hostel" and you'll understand). Well, contrary to popular belief some hostels are quite nice. Especially this one in particular. The first night I didn't talk to anyone in my room of eight except an Italian couple who helped me find my way back from the Underground station. However, the second night I met a guy from Nigeria who was one of the nicest people I have ever met. Furthermore, the facilities were actually comfortable. I thought I would be under a dripping pipe the whole night and when I get there I not only had a bed, but sheets too! WOO!

Long story short, the hostel experience didn't end up involving any physical mutilation and I learned a lot about Nigeria a long the way.

As far as the rest of London: Harrod's was awesome, I'll go back when I have a couple million to blow on sushi and go-karts for my kids. I also did the London Eye (the biggest ferris wheel in the world!) and did all of the usual sites like Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, Parliament, Big Ben, Parliament...(Get it?)

Pictures yay!

Vienna Part III

Is it just me or are all the pictures in this post screaming at you,"THIS IS AWESOME!!!"?

Vienna Part II

Some notes about the pictures:

Austrians seem to have an affection for Blazing Saddles with their own classical interpretations of Mongo punching one of the Johnson's horses. I swear I saw probably 20 different representations of horses being punched by a half naked guy (seeing a theme here, I'm starting to wonder about these Austrians) throughout the city and you can see one below. Also, as you can see from the picture of my friends and I we decided to "frat hard" and wear our letters to Sean Brown's. We blended into Austrian culture by mispronouncing every famous site and discussing the pure badassery of the U.S. in relation to all other nations in the world.

Finally, despite widespread rumors that I am so incredible that I can now fly, the picture of my feet above the Vienna skyline was actually taken from a giant rotating swing at an amusement park. Unfortunately, they strapped me in pretty tight so I am unable to confirm or deny the flying rumors. Tune in later for more info.

And so it begins...

FALL BREAK!

Or as Italians say with their broken English, "You do holiday?". My plans for the break: Vienna, Austria to see Kaulin Mckowen and Ryan Briggs. London, England to see Carolina and Marius Mostert. Manchester, England to see Casey Zmudzinski. Finally, Leicester, England to see another B&B friend, Anthony Lazarus. To put it mildly this week was about as epic as it gets. So let me begin chronologically.

Vienna

Right when I arrive Kaulin makes me an egg sandwich. He would make a great housewife. We proceed onwards to the sites. A big church (yep another big church, Europeans love this stuff), the national Library, their parliament, and finally the best part...Schönbrunn Palace. Known colloquially to us as Sean Brown's House (much easier to pronounce and it also sounds like a rapper lives there). This place was massive, I could drive my car through the house and not even scratch the paint. In fact, if I owned the home I would probably put a car inside just to save me the 20 minutes it would take me to get from my bedroom to the bathroom if I were to walk. Honestly, what kind of a boss was the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II? A major one if you ask me. The guy loaded the property with pheasants and geese so he could shoot stuff from his balcony. How awesome would this life be? Wake up at 10am to breakfast in bed delivered by Austrian super-models, then go out on your balcony for a morning hunt! But, wait there's more, you feel a gurgling in your stomach so you hop in your hummer and drive across the house to your bathroom. In essence, your life would be a lot like this guy. Opulence, I has it.

Here are some pictures:

P.S. Austrians loved jacked naked dudes doing manly things just as much as Italians FYI.

YO ADRIENNE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmPRHJd3uHI

MMMM Bologna, Italy delicious.

The second weekend of October I had absolutely NOTHING to do and my Bike(ampersand)Build buddy Adrienne was like, "Hey you should totally come visit me for the day!" so since she, like totally, guilted me into it I made my way on the train over to Bologna. UUGGHHH I mean I just spent 68 days hanging out with her now she wants to hang out more?!?!? Can you believe this chick? When I got to the Bologna, I was FORCED to go see a beautiful view of the area from the tallest tower in the city followed by a delicious lunch. Then, Adrienne had the nerve to take me to the oldest medical school in the world that had an operating table dating back to the 11th century (BORRING). Finally, we went to one of the best modern art museums in Italy (More of the same UGH). Overall, it turned out to be a pretty crummy day.


Just kidding Adrienne, Bologna was awesome. You owe me a visit to Florence!

Pictures YEAH!

Perugia Chocolate Festival!

The weekend of October 15th was the Perugia chocolate festival in (you guessed it) Perugia, Italy!! This sounds really exciting, but it really was pretty tame. I was half expecting to see people jumping in chocolate, people building chocolate igloos, etc, and what do I get!?!? None of that! Although I did get lots of free chocolate so I guess that's a great plus side. Anyway, the pictures capture pretty much everything you need to know.



Ok honestly, how do you get into this profession? Do you just wake up one morning and say, "You know what, it's been a long time coming and I think I'm going to make the jump. It's time to dress up like a silver person and be the subject of public mockery." I mean really, was this guy abducted like that chick from "Taken" and then forced into a life of servitude in a brutal carny ring? It's possible.

EDIT: He looks white in the picture, but he was more silver in person.

One of my favorite places

I realize that I haven't given much insight into things about Florence so here is one of them. I LOVE the secret bakery here. It goes like this: you go out for the night (bar/club/choir practice/bible study), then when 12am rolls around you go into an alley off the Piazza of Santa Croce. And you knock on this door. It opens you say what you want and the guy comes back with melting hot donuts, croissants, and pizzas. This is like the perfect reward for spending money too much money when you go out at night.

That is all. When all of you (mom) come to Florence I'll show you the site.