- by the end of the second night of glasgow, we made our way to edinborough
- en route to station, we ate at some kebab shack, where the Turkish cooks gave Winston a frozen / steaming spaghetti dish
- we trained and bussed to Edinburgh, in the middle of the night, which meant we ended up walking aimlessly around town to find our hostel
- we arrived in St. Christopher’s and then we tried to plan, but ended up drinking with a ton of Detroit kids
- we drank TWO 15 people jager trains (we will post the video soon), and we drank tons of cheap beer
- we ended up having a great time, but didn’t plan much we also ran into our hostel mates later when we tried to get to bed
- SAM AND VANESSA – two super cool Spaniards who lived in Gaulway
- Sam is a sweet Spanish rocker dude, who ran vendor businesses (like t-shirts and pins)
- Vanessa was a professional photographer
- they both worked at a really snazzy Spanish restaurant in Ireland
May 13th
-Edinburgh walking tour
- we saw the entire Old Town of Edinborough, like the Edinborough Castle, George Birk, George Harriot school (the inspiration of Hogwart’s school), Elephant house café (where JK rowling camped out to write harry potter), Bobby the dog, a huge outdoor prison, a cemetery (super creepy headstones, family plots, and “scientifically proven” poltergeists, and the REAL NAMES of the harry potter characters...meaning, JK rowling walked around the cemetary and stole some dead people's names.) and most importantly, we ate haggis at this Pig roast place called Oink
- and our tour guide Doug, was a white douche from philidelphia but thought he was a true Scotsman like willie from Simpson’s
- we met Travis, a P.E. teacher from Australia, who also taught snowboarding in whistler
- after the walking tour, travis, leanne, and ethan went to the national museum, police museum
- while Gilbert and Winston trekked up Arthur’s Seat (we'll insert a photo soon)
- we rendezvoused at the bar in St. Christopher’s after napping, and we just played drinking games with Sam and Vanessa
- not only did we learn a sweet counting game (1-21), we drank two Jager Buckets and just got to level 3 (insert picture of gayness of ethan/gilbert sipping the bucket at some point)
- after the bar closed, we headed to opium (FREE COVER), where they played rock music and ethan had to request some good ol’ Blink 182 and sum 41 then the party started
- after taking advantage of ridiculous drink specials (1 pound for whiskeys, gin, and beer), we went to a sick club called Espionage
- on the bottom floor, it was all 30 and 40 year olds, dressed in suits, and sick hiphop/techno music playing
- we thought the club sucked, until we realized there was an upstairs where all the teens were, dancing to 90’s ONE HIT WONDERS!!! (i.e. YMCA, MC Hammer, SWEET CHILD O’MINE, LIVIN ON A PRAYER, OASIS?) WTF MATE!?!?!
- after having a good time, we just walked home, and tried to pass out
May 14th
- after a long night, we thought we would just go to Edinburgh castle until we had to head home
- but being the lazy / cheap shits we are, we only ventured into the castle up to the ticket office (but it was nice none the less) *insert picture
- if it means anything, we tried to sneak in with a HUGE Chinese tour group, and tried to walk amongst them, but the ticket booth was too smart for us
- for the rest of the day, we just made our way back to London
- en route, we went shopping and bought some cheap ass clothing (gilbert got shoes for 12 pounds, and ethan got 3 shirts for 9 pounds) and made our usual “Gregg’s” run (Gregg’s was our go-to pastry shop for brekkie,lunch and dinner)
- unfortunately, Winston left his murse (with our flight confirmations) at some store, and so he ran back to find his bag lying on the dressing room floor. But its okay, because God loved him
- travelling back to London meant bussing, and waiting for our small airplane…(which meant a lot of down time BIG 2 – asshole style)
- we arrived back at Natalie’s house (gilbert’s Sister), by around 10ish, and just passed out
May 15th
- we didn’t want to do squat
-we ended up watching tv for about 4 hours and then eventually decided to sort out some financial arrangements and our London plans we wanted to do a musical, but I think that’s going to wait until we get back to London
- the highlight of this day, was our dinner which was home made lasagna from Natalie MADE WITH LAMB MEAT……it was the first hot meal in a long time…
May 16th
- after waking up late once again, we missed our chance at Portobello market (but were able to catch the tailgating and outside view of pregame shenangens at Wimbley Field)
- after that, we skimmed the natural history museum and science museum
- in the science museum, we were disappointed because Gilbert’s Medical exhibit was under renovation, but luckily we were able to catch leanne walk into a glass window because she thought a pharmacy display was real looking like a total tool because it was merely manikins in a panorama
- we got back around 6, with some super market stuff to make some dinner, and watched EUROVISION
- eurovision was priceless - it was chessy, raunchy, talentless, and just completely pretentious
- please youtube any videos of eurovision, and you’ll get a good laugh out of the rickey martin’s and their wicked dance choreography
May 17th
- we finally decided to leave the safe and free confines of Natalie and Kurt’s beautiful home, only to find out that our hostel by the train station was dingy as hell
- to avoid spending more time in the hostel than needed, we ventured throughout the Soho district of London
- we started in Trafalgar square, went into the galley, walked to Big Ben (only to see a Sri Lankan protest), and also Westminister Abbey
- as rain, and when I mean rain I actually mean the slightest drizzle, we began to question our energy and willingness to see the city , so we ran into an Apple store to mooch some internet and decided that china town really wasnt worth the walk?
- ofcourse, it wasn’t, and we decided not to go
- we made our way back to the hostel, and used an internet café to plan paris
- at the café, Winston was fortunate enough to leave his mark by snapping a perfectly good office chair by leaning back
- the store owner thought Winston was hurt, but if anything, gilbert was laughing hysterically
- we finally called in quits in the dingy hostel, to prep for the long day of travel to paris
May 18th
- we left our hostel pretty early to get some beer for breakfast and have a good time at the british national museum
- there is no doubt, that this museum was AMAZING because of the beer, swords were cooler, drinking horns looked so tempting, and sculptures were more majestic
- and for good measure, gilbert tried to touch some sweet wall ruins, only to trigger alarms…soooooo smoooothhh
- after the museum, we grabbed our knapsacks to start our backpacking trip with the chunnel ride to paris
- at first, we thought the chunnel would be a 3 hour scenic ride, only to realize it was actually 2 hours and not scenic at all (mostly because of an vicious big 2 game)
- after realizing paris was an hour ahead, we rushed our way to “our” hostel
- we arrived at another St. Christopher’s at 11 pm, and found out, we completely messed up our booking
- although this was a blessing in disguise, because we were forced to train across town to another hostel, which was RIGHT NEXT to the Louvre, meaning was killer expensive (29 euros for one night)
- so, being the opportunists that we were, we went on a photo frenzy at the louvre on our first night, and were also misled by Gilbert about the arc de triumphe...ie.he had know idea what we were looking at, but was able to act as a tour guide
- by the time we got to the hostel, it was midnight, and all we could think about was making sure our pick up of Naomi and Tiffany went smoothly (which kind of happened?)
May 19th
- after dropping off our bags at our actual hostel (st. christophers), we decided to enjoy the Seine River
- we literally started from the beginning of the river, and walked halfway through champs ellyyees
- en route, we played big 2, took sweet profile pictures, notre dame , ate crepes and French hot dogs, went to the jardin de tuileries (which was magnificient), and then tried to make our way through champs ellysses, only to pass out and just head back to the hostel
- on a side note, at Notre Dame, Ethan ran into some friends from Vancouver. The Bie Family, or more specifically Mr and Mrs Bie were doing a week trip in Paris, and ethan was ordering a hot dog and saw mr bie ordering a crepe
- none the less, our first day in paris was exactly what we wanted, Cheap.
-met our other 4 hostel room mates who were all single travelling dudes, each with an exuberant character of their own. There was Steve, the mid 20s typical Abbotsford kid, very laidback. Then there was Anton, the Aussie personal trainer who was surprisingly a diva and very slow in the head. There was Josh, the Twilight, Jigglypuff-liking logistics major, and then Jordan, the soft spoken Chicago guy.
May 20th
-picked up Naomi in the morning, split up in teams of two and ran around Gare du Nord train station, where she was found by Winston and Leanne, even though Ethan and Gilbert tried much harder running around with signs. (P.S . this entire post is being written by Ethan and Gilbert).
-walked along the Seine River and visited the Pompidou Museum (modern art with weird interpretations), Musee d’Orsay (Ethan’s favourite museum) insert pictures of crococodile being stabbed and eagle shot down, and the Pantheon (for which we arrived too late and got blocked by a pompous French guard). We had bought a two day museum pass to use and abuse national museums and monuments in Paris.
-picked up Tiffany at night (who arrived 3 hours earlier than expected, but who was found at Gare du Nord via Ethan and the useful walkie talkie!) and then went out for pho at a Vietnamese restaurant. We tried ordering in French but failed miserably. Luckily the guy spoke Chinese LOL (and French and Cambodian too). The pho was delicious, with beef broth here instead of chicken broth back in Vancouver!
May 21st
-woke up early to go to the Louvre Museum – saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, an Egyptian sphinx. Naomi thought they were all replicates but when Tiff asked the surveillance guy, he was appalled at her asking such a ridiculous question.
-went up the Arc de Triomphe and saw a gorgeous view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the backdrop.
-went up the Notre Dame Cathedral and took pictures with gargoyles and Quasimodo’s giant bell. Another gorgeous panoramic view!
-had dinner at a really nice French resturant (similar to Dine Out Vancouver menu)…some of us had escargots, French onion soup,) steak with cheese sauce (all French classics) and then we ALL had crème brulee with dessert. SO good.
-went back to the Arc de Triomphe at 10pm since the Eiffel Tower lights up then and caught some beautiful pictures of Paris from up top, especially of the Eiffel and of Champs Elysees.
May 22
-went to the Eiffel Tower and wrote our names on the Eiffel Tower
-waited in line for 2.5 hours to go up the Eiffel Tower
-the line up took so long that we missed our flight to Barcelona
-ended up paying an extra 95 euros to rebook our to Barcelona
- there was this escelator we took on the way to the terminal and it was bouncyyyyy!
-new flight then got delayed by 2 hours and we didn’t leave Paris until 9:30 pm
-arrived at midnight in Barcelona, and no one knew where our hostel was
-the metro station wasn’t working anymore when we arrived in Barcelona, so we had to take the night bus. When we got on the night bus we didn’t really know where we were going, but we went on anyway…
-the driver was really nice and we showed him the address of our hostel, he didn’t know where it was, like everyone else, and said that he’ll take us to the very end of all the stops, the main station for the metro in Catalunya
-the moment we got off the bus we were in ghetto town
- it took us more than forever to find our hostel
- we were lucky enough to ask around and find our hostel
- we ended up walking for 2 hours in Badalona, Barcelona, looking and looking and looking, and then realizing the next morning we walked past 26 B Alfonso Avenida , Badalona, Barcelona
- check in time at Barcelona Dream Hostel: 3: 00 am
May23
-woke up tired and completely sore
- decided to go into the city center to check out the markets and the metro sytstem
-came up with a code word for sketch situations and sketch people… BABAR!
-Kilimanjaro: café time! First consumption of food in Barcelona, and the waiter totally lied to us. No one tips in Barcelona
-watched some crazzzy break dancers
-listened to some AWESOME Spanish guitar
-had icecream and coffee floats from the 1 euro menu at McDonald’s: the best cheap food in town
-went into side streets which lead to chic markets, winding roads left right and center.
-Gilly bought marmalade
- and everyone else bought a SHIT LOAD from HAPPY PILLS... a candy lovers wonderland
- we all thought we would have gotten maybe 2 to 3 euros worth, hah! boy were we wrong. we averaged at 5 tp 6 euros a bag
- after happy pills we went to McDonalds for the BEST one euro menu ever. Kit Kat icecream, 1 euro. Cheeseburger or hamburger, 1 euro, four chicken nuggets, 1 euro!
- happy pills + mcdonalds equals one satisfying end to our first full day in Barcelona
we will catch up soon, there just isn't enough time in the day when traveling
