Hello everyone, here's the thrilling and exciting conclusion to my tale. It involves sorcery, mythical creatures, an epic journey, and the defeat of evil. Not really, but I like to think it's almost as entertaining as that description I just gave since I'm writing this up nine months after it happened.
When I touched down in London (on Thurs. April 21,2011) it was around 4 pm local time (for some reason London's an hour behind). I call Camy, but this time to actually let her know that I have landed in London, and head over to my hostel on the train. The London underground is a huge labyrinth of escalators, massive amounts of people, connecting train lines to and from anywhere in the city. Thankfully I could ask for directions on how to get around (Hooray for English) and Camy knows the system pretty well. I reached my hostel and began to set up shop. After I checked in I went to the hostel bar where I noticed a sign that caught my attention immediately, Guinness extra cold. If you've been reading my blog at all or know me at all then it goes without saying that I had to try this delectable nectar and it did not disappoint one bit. I could speak at length about how much I enjoy Guinness served extra cold but the show must go on. Camy and I made plans to meet on Oxford st. to do some sight seeing and have dinner when she got off of work. I was tired from all the fun I had in the airport earlier in the day so I just napped until it was time to go and meet Camy. Around 7 or 8 I hopped up out of bed and turned my double decker bus swag on. (That means I took the bus for those who aren't hip to the lingo.) My first time on a double decker bus was also the first time I saw the river Thames, Big Ben, the London Eye, Parliament, Piccadilly square, and Oxford street. (All of which were lit up since it was night time and Oxford street was decked out with Union Jacks flying high above the street along with other decorations for the Royal Wedding.) Obviously this is one of the more memorable rides on the bus I've ever had. Camy and I met up on Oxford street and she gave me a little tour while we talked and caught up. We stopped into a place that reminded me of Dave & Busters for a quick drink and to just sit, relax, and talk. After our thirst for cider was quenched, it was a unanimous decision that it was definitely time to eat. Camy led the way as we walked over to Chinatown to have dinner. Chinatown in London is the complete different from the one in New York. Instead of shops and street vendors there's restaurants and buffets. We walked around looking at sushi places, and various sorts of Chinese and Japanese restaurants until we settled on a Chinese buffet for 6 pounds. It was more like a dim sum than a buffet because you tell the waiter what you want and they bring it out to you until you stop ordering. After a couple of rounds both Camy and I were stuffed and decided it was time to head back out into the London air. Camy decided that we should walk through Soho so I could get a taste of nightlife on Kingly street before we headed our separate ways. As soon as we reached Soho Camy and I ran into a couple of people she knew, which I swear happened everywhere we went. As we're standing and talking to her friends the cast from The Only Way is Essex came onto the street, presumably to go out. Everyone around us was going nuts and snapping pictures except for me. I had no idea who they were until Camy explained that they're basically the British equivalent of Jersey Shore. Soon after we walked back to Oxford street to go home all the while making plans to hang out the next day after Camy finished working.
The next morning (Friday April 22) came quicker than expected as I was awoken at 7 am by one of the German girls I was sharing the room with blow drying her hair. Thankfully I was able to fall back asleep and the day wasn't terrible like my wake up. I got out of bed around 10 am and began texting Camy for ideas of what I should do during the day until we met up. Obviously the first thing on my mind was food and Camy suggested I check out Burrough market for an Ostrich burger. With my lust for food driving me I was ready and on my way within the hour (quite rare for me to be ready that quick). With my newly purchased Oyster card and directions from Camy I set out for the tube. After a quick ride on the train I was immediately pointed how to get to the marketplace from the station. (once again hooray for English.) I was not prepared for just how amazing Borough market was and hopefully how it will always be. The simplest explanation is that it's a farmer's market, but it's easily the best one I've ever been to. There were all types of different fruit, juice, vegetable, desert, meat, seafood, wine, etc. booths in the market. All of the ingredients looked fresh and everything was prepared in front of you. Food as far as my eyes could see, but I couldn't let it distract me from my original goal and basically my reason for getting out of bed in the morning, an ostrich burger. I was having trouble finding the booth and the smells of the market were starting to entice me, but I eventually found the exotic meat section. With my Ostrich burger and smoothie in hand I looked for a space to enjoy my conquest. My throne ended up being the nearby curb but that burger was so good nothing else in the world even mattered at that point. The texture ostrich reminded me a lot of turkey, but it has a very different and really unique taste. On top of that it was garnished with cranberry sauce on the top bun, Dijon mustard (my condiment of choice while in Europe) on the bottom bum, and some nice crisp lettuce. Easily one of the best burgers I've ever had and one of my favorite eating experiences of the trip. With my hunger satisfied I morphed back into tourist mode and headed back to the tube to go to the British Museum. After a nice digestion filled train ride and walk through a small park complete with people tanning in the grass I reached the British Museum. The thing that attracted me the most was the fact that it's a free chance to nerd out and see some really cool historical objects. The most famous of course being the Rosetta stone. There were plenty of other exhibits from ancient Sumeria, Japan and a temporary exhibit which explored how different cultures around the world deal with death. The centerpiece was a glass case lining up the exact number of pills two different individuals took throughout their adult years (if I remember correctly). After two solid plus hours of nerding out throughout the British museum corridors I figured it was time to head towards my meet up point with Camy. I had a little time before she got off work so I decided to go and find the Notting Hill market place. Unfortunately I got lost and sidetracked so I decided to stop and do some shopping for the fam. I never made it to the Notting Hill market place to have lunch and instead settled for the quick route of McDonald's. Solidifying England as the third different country I've had McDonald's in on the trip. After I had finished stuffing my face with English Mickey D's I headed off to meet Camy right outside of her job. I arrived early because I thought I wanted to continue shopping in the nearby stores but due to low funds instead settled for people watching on the corner. I continued to take in the scene until Camy finished work and met me on the corner. The plan was to continue my tourist expedition and head over to Wembley stadium. Unfortunately for us there was an issue with that train line so we had to cancel that plan and hopped on a double decker to Camy's so we could start the night. The plan was to get back to Camy's to meet up with one of her friends, get her car so we could head out to eat dinner and then go on a night tour of the city. We got to Camy's unwound a little bit, had a couple of beers and were overall just chilling. The thing is Camy's friend got a little too comfortable and ended up passing out on the couch. On top of that our little journey towards Wembley and then taking the bus back to the other side of town ended up taking much longer than expected so our dinner plans were already shot. We decided it would be best to chalk this one up as an L and not to set out on a night time adventure because Camy had work bright and early the next morning, but before I went back to my hostel of course we had to eat. Camy said there was a chicken & chips (fried chicken & french fries) place nearby and we walked over to go chow down. After we had our fill Camy drove me back to my hostel and I passed out in a hurry.
Even though I was once again woken out of my slumber once again by one of the German girls at
an un-Godly hour, for the most part I was able to sleep in. I figured that I needed as much sleep as possible because I would have no time for it since my flight left at 6 am the next morning and it was my last night in London, I had to go out. The day started off just like the last one with a quick trip over to Burrough Market for an ostrich burger. Even though it took a little longer to get there because I got off on the wrong stop before texting Camy for guidance. I didn't want one, I NEEDED one. To my delight the stand was offering double ostrich burgers that day. I think you know what my order was. If it's good the first time, why not double up? With my belly full, and money on my oyster card I now needed a destination. Camy suggested I check out Camdem market and that she would meet me over there once she had got off work. Sounded like a plan to me so I got up and left the amazing smells of Burrough market behind to take the tube over to Camden. The quickest description of Camden is that it's a large street with an outdoor flea market. There were a mix of stores and street vendors lining the block selling all types of things but clothes were the most popular item. I decided that once again it was time to do some shopping for the fam and started walking through the shops. After about an hour or so I found a tea shop and stopped in to get some. Fulfilling another item on my to do list I finally stopped to have tea time in London. It ended up being perfect timing because as I was finishing up Camy texted me that she would be getting to the train station in a little so I walked over to meet her. After we found each other Camy and I toured the market place together, checking out her favorite vendors along the way. Camden was full of obscure shirts that you would be hard pressed to find any place else and I also received multiple compliments on my dreadlocks. (which I don't have anymore AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH) When we finished shopping we headed off towards Camy's on the bus. After last nights debacle we both decided that nothing could interfere with the plans for tonight since it was my last night and Camy didn't have work the next day. Once we reached her place we both changed (I brought a change of clothes in my book bag) and headed out to dinner. The place Camy had in mind was a Bengali buffet on a street known as Brick Lane, which I hear if you're in London looking for Bengali/ Indian cuisine this is the place you need to start your search. Camy's choice did not disappoint one bit, as had been the case with all of her recommendations. The food was amazing plus I had Camy guiding me on the what to try and what to avoid (not that there was many things that I did avoid). After we completed phase 1 of our plan (stuffing our faces), it was time for phase 2. As we were leaving the restaurant and heading towards the club she realized that we were near the apartment of some of her friends from school. She called them up to see what they were up and we ended up going up in their apartment to kick it for a little. We ended up convincing two of the four people in the apartment to come out with us to show the American idiot a good time. We headed out to our original destination, some bar that was supposed to be having drum & bass/ dubstep night, but when we got there the music was not as advertised. It turns out that tonight wasn't the night for that type of music as it was the next Saturday. We quickly left because the place was dead and wandered around thinking about what to do until Camy contacted one of her friends who was a promoter at a club. It was getting late but he said he could get us in but that the two guys would have to pay (of course). We rode over to the club and after paying the 20 pounds to get in (roughly 31 dollars) we had a good time and I got to cross learning how to skank off of my London to do list. We ended up leaving the club around 3 and since my flight was leaving in a couple of hours I had to start heading to the airport. Camy dropped me off at my hostel and honestly I couldn't thank her enough for showing me such an amazing time. Once I got back in I grabbed my bags (I had packed them that morning so I would be ready to go as soon as I got back) and checked out of the hostel. No time for sleep I had a flight and a train to catch in order to play in our game in about 9 hours. I took the double decker to the London Victoria station in order to catch the Gatwick express train to the airport. I reached Gatwick (Airport 4) around 5 am (Sunday April 24, 2011) just enough time to grab a quick bite and head to my gate. I boarded the plane and immediately fell asleep. We touched down in Toulouse, France (Airport 5) but my journey was far from over. I had to move quickly because i had to get from the airport to the train station in about 45 mins. Luckily the taxi line was short and I was able to make it to the train station and even had enough time to grab some pain au chocolate ( how I miss it). As soon as I boarded the train I set an alarm for an hour so that I would be awake when the train reached Montpellier, the site of our away game, in order to get off. Before my butt even touched the seat I was already asleep with my ticket on my arm rest so the conductor wouldn't wake me as they were making their rounds checking tickets. When my alarm went off waking me from my slumber we were about 10 minutes away from the station. Of course I had to hit the snooze button and squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep. When the train reached the station I got off and hurried towards the taxi stand. Luckily I thought ahead and had Pierre text me the address to the stadium, because without that handy I would have had no clue on where to tell him to go. Instead all I did was show him the text and we were off. Luckily the Taxi ride wasn't too long and I was able to pay for it with the last Euros I had. After paying for the taxi I ran off to the locker room to change and join the team as they were almost done with warm ups. I made it to the game with 30 or so minutes before kickoff, just in time. My teammates were happy to see me and I to see them. Just as I was finishing warming up it was kick off time. The game started off well. We were able to hold one of the top offenses to 12 first half points. The score at halftime if I recall correctly was 12-7. Even though we played really well that day we unfortunately lost again. We knew from the beginning that this was going to be a tough game because Montpellier was at the top of our division. We played hard but in the end their spread no huddle offense wore us down on defense and we had a couple of guys, including myself, playing both sides of the ball. I think the final was 28-13 or 35-13, something along those lines. That wasn't our teams overarching concern though because during the game Killian (starting MLB and OG) went down with a knee injury. Even though we lost him and the game everyone still had high spirits that we would get our first win and not be in the relegation zone anymore. After the game we showered up and got ready to depart, but I was not headed back to Chambery. Greg and his girlfriend Sabrina had invited Killian and I to join them at Sabrina's house in Marseille for a couple of days of sun and fun. How could the road warrior say no to that?
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Leaving on a Midnight plane
Well it's finally here. The day I never game much thought about until now. Time for me to pack up and ship up out of France. First and foremost I'd like to thank God for this opportunity because without he/ she I know none of this would have been possible. Seriously though, I come across an ocean to a completely foreign land staying with complete strangers and I now have forged friendships and relationship that will last a lifetime. It's crazy how life works but I'd like to thank the Marmions along with all of the Chambery Les Aigles players, coaches, and anyone who came to watch us play. Thanks for letting me into your family and I'll never forget any of you because you can bet money that I will be back. The only question is when?
Gros Bisou,
Marshall
p.s. I know I haven't finished the story of my London trip as well as the updates of my last few weeks in France but its my blog so it's my rules. Plus this keeps you coming back for more. :P
Gros Bisou,
Marshall
p.s. I know I haven't finished the story of my London trip as well as the updates of my last few weeks in France but its my blog so it's my rules. Plus this keeps you coming back for more. :P
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
1 week five different airports
Howdy there, welcome back to the sideshow known as my life. It’s been about two weeks since my last blog entry but its for good reason. During that same time period I’ve been in 5 different airports, countless different train stations, spent all of my money, and couldn’t have had more fun while stumbling across Europe. As our English friends would say (insert accent), it was a nice holiday. Just kick back, relax (and hopefully) enjoy my tale.
For a month I’d been excited about this trip because for once I was traveling to meet up with people I knew and not just hoping to meet people as I went. On top of that I had been telling my friend Camy for the better part of a year that I was going to London to visit her so I could see the sights and she could teach me how to skank (popular dancing style in London). So early Tuesday (April 19th) morning (and when I say early I mean still dark outside early) saw Pierre and I heading to Geneva for him to drop me off at the airport for my flight to Amsterdam. Yes I went back to Amsterdam, don't judge me, but when beer is that free flowing and food that amazing can you blame me? However, this time I went back to meet up with Deirdre (lil lost mama in Venice) and her buddy Vinny who is in the same study abroad program. (Quick side note the Big Ten is everywhere, Deirdre is a Michigan undergrad while Vinny is a UW- Madison undergrad.) As I hopped on the plane at Geneva (airport 1) I had an idea of the adventure that lay ahead of me but the more pressing issue in my mind was getting some sleep. The flight from Geneva to Amsterdam is only about an hour but that satisfied my desire for rest. I landed at Schipol Amsterdam (airport 2) half past 7 am. The first thing I wanted to do was put my bag down and explore. My quest for food led me into the more suburban area of Amsterdam to check out a breakfast place with a variety of teas, fruit smoothies, and extreme customization of anything on the menu. Unfortunately it was closed due to construction. As I was in the area I decided not to be a total heathen and have an attempt at checking out some culture. I walked over to the Anne Frank house and just as quickly as I reached it, I turned back around and continued on the journey for food. The line for the house was about three blocks long, sorry Anne but I refuse to wait in a line that long especially when I'm hungry. The journey for food led me into the red light district as I stopped in a typical dutch bakery to buy some pastries and a fruit smoothie and then into a British pub for some pancakes. After spending about an hour wandering through the red light district and the city I headed back to my hostel for a nap and to see if I could get ahold of Deirdre. Our only form of communication was through facebook (thank you technology) because her phone didn't work outside of France. Sometime in the late afternoon is when we were finally able to get ahold of each other and made plans to meet up for dinner. After dinner we decided to head out and bar hop. Not exactly a tough feat in Amsterdam because I don't think you can walk a block without seeing a bar, especially in the red light district. Although we decided to call it quits after the first bar and meet back up tomorrow morning for a full day of fun.
The next day (Wednesday the 20th) we decided to meet up at a little cafe around 10 30 am, which I of course was late to because I misjudged how long the walk would take. Anyway this was just our meeting point and after a couple of drinks and little pastries we decided to head out and get the day started. (side note Amsterdam had some of the best fruit juice ever, not only the freshness but also the quantities and different fruits available. Strawberry juice = crack.) We headed out to rent bikes. I noticed I didn't mention this in my last blog but biking is a legitimate source of transportation in Amsterdam. There are biking lanes everywhere, which as a pedestrian if you're not careful you could be walking in, complete with their own set of traffic signals and everything. There's always a crowd of people cruising around on their bikes traveling all over the city. Amsterdam is definitely biker friendly and we wanted to join in on the fun. Let me tell you this is definitely one of the highlights of my entire time here. Cruising through Amsterdam soaking up the sun on a beautiful day, riding by the canals, and just seeing the city from a different perspective was so refreshing. After we rented the bikes we decided to check out the Heineken brewery which from our location was on the complete opposite side of the city so we embarked on the journey across the city. When we reached the Heineken brewery we decided it was definitely time for lunch and sat down to eat outside at an Irish restaurant around the corner. After lunch Vinny and Deirdre realized that they hadn't brought all their money and left their cameras at their hotel boat (cool right?). The plan was for Vinny to ride back to their hotel get everything they needed and Deirdre to follow me to my hostel which was much closer to the brewery and meet back up around 45 minutes at a place halfway between our places. The plan started off good but somewhere on the bike journey I lost Deirdre (deja vu), who admittedly was not having a great of time biking as Vinny and I were even though it was her initial idea lol. Anyway I turned around to go back and look for D but to no avail. I proceeded with the plan and went to my hostel to pick up some things but I was pretty much without most of my things as Vinny had my book bag. I went to the meeting place a little early, just in case, and paced around for a bit before I decided to just take a load off and sit and wait for Vinny so we could begin the search for D. Luckily for me Vinny and Deirdre showed up because she said she realized she wasn't going to be able to keep up and just rode back to the hotel and met up with Vinny before he left. It was fine with me, especially because I had my book bag back. From then on it was business as usual an we went on to the Heineken brewery tour together (my second time). After the tour the bike rental shop was closing and I booked it back just in time before closing to get my passport back. Vinny and Deirdre didn't make it back in time because their bikes were back by their hotel boat so they had to walk all the way back there and then try and make it back in time. It was of little concern to them though because they were staying in Amsterdam longer than I was. I waited around after I turned my bike in and the shop closed to see what the plan was for later that night, if any. We said we'd decide over facebook and go from there. I went back to my hostel got ready for the night. After finally getting in contact with Deirdre she said Vinny was out in the red light district looking at the girlies and that she was exhausted from the day so she was going to call it a night. Since it was my last night in Amsterdam I decided that Vinny had the right idea and went out to go on and do the same. The ladies in the window were definitely an improvement over the ones I saw the previous week during the day. There were definitely a couple that I had to stop and look at before moving on. After all this walking I decided to head back around 2 am to get ready for my flight the next morning and get some food. On the walk back I was asked by a bald dude with no shirt on underneath his baggy black overalls, which allowed you to see most of his chest area, where, "It was all going down now. In the red light district?" I told him yes and pointed him in the right direction. Just a typical encounter in late night Amsterdam before I finally got some food and was able to try the huge cone of french fries I had seen throughout my time in Amsterdam.
The next morning as fun as my stay in Amsterdam had been it was time to move on to my next destination, London. Of course, what should have been a simple trip to the airport was anything but. I had an 11:30 am flight from Schipol to London city airport, not to early and not to late. I got up at 7: 30 am and get to Amsterdam central station at 9:30. Time-wise I'm doing great so I search around looking for the train I should get on to get to the airport. I keep looking at every single schedule I pass and see that trains going to Rotterdam central head to the airport so I see a train leaving to Rotterdam central leaving in the next 5 minutes. I go upstairs and ask a couple if they know if this train goes to the airport, and they respond they think so using the same reasoning I used. I figure its all good so I jump on the train. It was all going smooth until we passed by Amsterdam Ajax stadium. A huge sight and when we got there I knew we weren't going to the airport because I had never seen the stadium in all of my other trips to and from Schipol. I immediately hop off the train and had to go all the way back to central station and then back to the airport. I made it to the airport around 11: 15 not much time at all to run and catch my flight but there was a small window of opportunity, that was completely eaten up by the vastness of the Amsterdam airport. It is huge. The only airport I think that compares to it is Hartsfield- Jackson in Atlanta, but without the tram service. Imagine having to walk through the Atl airport and you'll begin to understand what I mean. Schipol is so big that they have electronic boards with the estimated time it will take you to walk from that point to anywhere in the airport, with some of the gates being 20 to 25 minutes away. I walked all over the actual city of Amsterdam and to get from one side of the map to the other took about 30 minutes. Anywho long story short I had to pay to get on another flight since I had bought my ticket on a little cheap website. (Here's the start of me spending all my money) I called my friend Camy to let her know I had missed my flight and I would instead be getting in around 4 pm as she extended a welcome to London and then called me a silly boy for missing my flight. I sat in a corner by my gate until it was time for my flight. This part of Schipol was unlike any other airport I had seen as each gate had it's own security checkpoint instead of the standard mass security check. I boarded my flight to London City (airport 3) and my invasion on the Brits began.
This is it for now. I'll continue the story in another post. Until then, have a great day.
The next day (Wednesday the 20th) we decided to meet up at a little cafe around 10 30 am, which I of course was late to because I misjudged how long the walk would take. Anyway this was just our meeting point and after a couple of drinks and little pastries we decided to head out and get the day started. (side note Amsterdam had some of the best fruit juice ever, not only the freshness but also the quantities and different fruits available. Strawberry juice = crack.) We headed out to rent bikes. I noticed I didn't mention this in my last blog but biking is a legitimate source of transportation in Amsterdam. There are biking lanes everywhere, which as a pedestrian if you're not careful you could be walking in, complete with their own set of traffic signals and everything. There's always a crowd of people cruising around on their bikes traveling all over the city. Amsterdam is definitely biker friendly and we wanted to join in on the fun. Let me tell you this is definitely one of the highlights of my entire time here. Cruising through Amsterdam soaking up the sun on a beautiful day, riding by the canals, and just seeing the city from a different perspective was so refreshing. After we rented the bikes we decided to check out the Heineken brewery which from our location was on the complete opposite side of the city so we embarked on the journey across the city. When we reached the Heineken brewery we decided it was definitely time for lunch and sat down to eat outside at an Irish restaurant around the corner. After lunch Vinny and Deirdre realized that they hadn't brought all their money and left their cameras at their hotel boat (cool right?). The plan was for Vinny to ride back to their hotel get everything they needed and Deirdre to follow me to my hostel which was much closer to the brewery and meet back up around 45 minutes at a place halfway between our places. The plan started off good but somewhere on the bike journey I lost Deirdre (deja vu), who admittedly was not having a great of time biking as Vinny and I were even though it was her initial idea lol. Anyway I turned around to go back and look for D but to no avail. I proceeded with the plan and went to my hostel to pick up some things but I was pretty much without most of my things as Vinny had my book bag. I went to the meeting place a little early, just in case, and paced around for a bit before I decided to just take a load off and sit and wait for Vinny so we could begin the search for D. Luckily for me Vinny and Deirdre showed up because she said she realized she wasn't going to be able to keep up and just rode back to the hotel and met up with Vinny before he left. It was fine with me, especially because I had my book bag back. From then on it was business as usual an we went on to the Heineken brewery tour together (my second time). After the tour the bike rental shop was closing and I booked it back just in time before closing to get my passport back. Vinny and Deirdre didn't make it back in time because their bikes were back by their hotel boat so they had to walk all the way back there and then try and make it back in time. It was of little concern to them though because they were staying in Amsterdam longer than I was. I waited around after I turned my bike in and the shop closed to see what the plan was for later that night, if any. We said we'd decide over facebook and go from there. I went back to my hostel got ready for the night. After finally getting in contact with Deirdre she said Vinny was out in the red light district looking at the girlies and that she was exhausted from the day so she was going to call it a night. Since it was my last night in Amsterdam I decided that Vinny had the right idea and went out to go on and do the same. The ladies in the window were definitely an improvement over the ones I saw the previous week during the day. There were definitely a couple that I had to stop and look at before moving on. After all this walking I decided to head back around 2 am to get ready for my flight the next morning and get some food. On the walk back I was asked by a bald dude with no shirt on underneath his baggy black overalls, which allowed you to see most of his chest area, where, "It was all going down now. In the red light district?" I told him yes and pointed him in the right direction. Just a typical encounter in late night Amsterdam before I finally got some food and was able to try the huge cone of french fries I had seen throughout my time in Amsterdam.
The next morning as fun as my stay in Amsterdam had been it was time to move on to my next destination, London. Of course, what should have been a simple trip to the airport was anything but. I had an 11:30 am flight from Schipol to London city airport, not to early and not to late. I got up at 7: 30 am and get to Amsterdam central station at 9:30. Time-wise I'm doing great so I search around looking for the train I should get on to get to the airport. I keep looking at every single schedule I pass and see that trains going to Rotterdam central head to the airport so I see a train leaving to Rotterdam central leaving in the next 5 minutes. I go upstairs and ask a couple if they know if this train goes to the airport, and they respond they think so using the same reasoning I used. I figure its all good so I jump on the train. It was all going smooth until we passed by Amsterdam Ajax stadium. A huge sight and when we got there I knew we weren't going to the airport because I had never seen the stadium in all of my other trips to and from Schipol. I immediately hop off the train and had to go all the way back to central station and then back to the airport. I made it to the airport around 11: 15 not much time at all to run and catch my flight but there was a small window of opportunity, that was completely eaten up by the vastness of the Amsterdam airport. It is huge. The only airport I think that compares to it is Hartsfield- Jackson in Atlanta, but without the tram service. Imagine having to walk through the Atl airport and you'll begin to understand what I mean. Schipol is so big that they have electronic boards with the estimated time it will take you to walk from that point to anywhere in the airport, with some of the gates being 20 to 25 minutes away. I walked all over the actual city of Amsterdam and to get from one side of the map to the other took about 30 minutes. Anywho long story short I had to pay to get on another flight since I had bought my ticket on a little cheap website. (Here's the start of me spending all my money) I called my friend Camy to let her know I had missed my flight and I would instead be getting in around 4 pm as she extended a welcome to London and then called me a silly boy for missing my flight. I sat in a corner by my gate until it was time for my flight. This part of Schipol was unlike any other airport I had seen as each gate had it's own security checkpoint instead of the standard mass security check. I boarded my flight to London City (airport 3) and my invasion on the Brits began.
This is it for now. I'll continue the story in another post. Until then, have a great day.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Adventures in the mountains
Howdy there. I don't know what's gotten into me lately. Maybe I'm a touch more inspired to write these blogs than I was before, or maybe I've really been abducted by the Crab People as a part of their unending quest for domination over the world of man.(South Park reference, http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154111/crab-people) Whatever the case may be here's another quick turn around and update of the past two weeks for me here in Euroland.
The first trip was more of a local adventure. On Monday (April 4th) afternoon I took the train and then the bus up to Camp Des Cimes where Caleb works and lives. The camp is somewhere on the outskirts of the city Grenoble, which is an hour away from Chambery. The whole purpose of the trip was to just bro out with Caleb and to go skiing. If you remember I alluded to my skiing adventure in my last blog post. Oh yes, I went skiing for the first time but that's later on in the trip. For pics and vids check out my tumblr at mmalachi.tumblr.com. On Monday after the long and arduous journey on the train and bus, 95% of which I slept through, I finally met up with Caleb and his roommate Sam in the nearby town of Bourg D'Oisans. Monday was pretty chill we back to Camp Des Cimes and chef Caleb whipped up dinner. Pretty good too, I had to tell Catherine when I got back that her and Caleb are competing for my distinguished honor of Top Chef. Of course, dinner wasn't the end of the night we had to drink beer and play video games. No bro out would be complete without those two critical aspects.
On Tuesday after Caleb and Sam finished their work around the camp we sat down for lunch. More beer was drunk and more video games were played until it was time for Caleb and Sam to head back off to work. Caleb told me they would work for a couple of more hours and then we'd go out and jump in a nearby glacier pool and check out some of the scenery. While Caleb and Sam went off to finish their work I did my usual and hopped onto my computer until it was time to go. Caleb and Sam came back a couple of hours later and we headed off to the glacier pool. Caleb drove and when we reached our destination we had to hike over a couple of nerve-wracking footbridges to reach the glacier pool. Then it was show-time. The only way I can describe jumping in that water is it reminded me of the cold tub at NU but worse because the water was flowing and splashing everywhere from the water fall. It was a fun experience to say the least but I couldn't stand staying in the water for more than 5 minutes. After our lil Polar Bear dip Caleb drove around a nearby mountain pointing out ski lifts, hiking trails, and gave us quick tours of the little villages we drove through. We headed back after the impromptu tour and stopped at the grocery store to pick up food for dinner and of course more beer. For Dinner Caleb made three different pizza's with home made crust and all. The first was a ground beef and vegetable medley with tomato sauce. The other 2 instead of using tomato sauce he used Creme Fraiche, which I can't say without cracking up because of a South Park episode, (http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/360883/cafeteria-fraiche) as the sauce. The first of the Creme fraiche pizzas was a carbonara, which is sauteed onions and bacon, while the second was a tuna and corn mixture Caleb made earlier. For the Cheese it was a mix of goat and parmesan to finally complete these bad boys. Sam said his favorite was the ground beef and veggie medley was his favorite while mine was the carbonara, but all three were excellent. I bet you can't guess what we did after dinner. That's right, we shockingly played more video games and drank more beer.
Wednesday was pretty slow during the day. Just more of me hanging out on my computer until Sam and Caleb finished their work. It was all for good reason because we were having a BBQ later on for dinner, our homegirl Flo, sister of our teammate Xavier, was coming by to kick it, and the British pub up in town was having an event at night. Flo got to camp around 5 or 6 and soon after she arrived we headed up to the mountain to our BBQ site. We had to improvise when we reached the spot because a group of Brits already occupied the prime real estate. We just had to scoot over to the side so everyone could have their space. It was quite an amazing sight we had a perfect view of the mountain range in the distance and we were on the edge of the mountain away from the ski resorts. Our little BBQ was filled with beer, sausage, and acoustic guitar. I learned that Flo could play the guitar and sing. We sat out under the stars for quite a while just enjoying everything until it was time to go to the British pub. The event at the British pub was for groups of friends to make a music video of them skiing/ snowboarding and anything else they wanted to include. They were all pretty good except for the last video which the people who made the video inexplicably decided to rap themselves to the music instead of putting the real track. Hearing a terrible British accent filled (no prejudice from me, it just didn't help their case any because they the sound was awful and they sucked at rapping) remix of the Wu Tang Clan song "gravel pit" is not my idea of a good video. Other than the videos, the bar was pretty fun a lot of Guinness, Drum n bass along with dubstep music filled the bar for most of the night, (not the usual house music which is clearly king here in France) and the British inhabitants made the pub a good time overall.
Finally Thursday came and the day was finally here. We were going skiing. Caleb lent me all the clothes and gear I would need and thank God it all fit me. We headed out around noontime to Les Deux Alpes ski station after bidding Flo goodbye and watching her drive away slowly as tears streamed down all of our eyes. We went to the ski station after loading up on some water and other supplies at a store where Caleb knew the owner. (Caleb knows a lot of people everywhere we go) We bought our lift tickets and started the journey up. We took two different lifts and a train to the top of the glacier. It took about 30 - 40 minutes for us to reach that point and about two hours for us to ski down to the train while Caleb and Sam instructed me on what to do. I'm not gonna lie I was scared speeding down a snow covered peak with two toothpicks under my feet that I don't know how to control. I also fell a million times but eventually the fear subsided and I began to understand the proper weight shifts needed to turn on skis. I was really motivated to learn because I was getting tired of all the little kids just speeding right on by me while i kept falling every 20 feet. (Which, luckily for everyone I gave my camera to Caleb so I have videos and pictures of me falling that I'll post to my tumblr.) We took the train back up to the top again and sat down to eat lunch. After lunch is when I really started to get the hang of skiing. (Which unluckily for me Caleb stopped taking videos before I started actually doing good lol) To compare though it took us to two hours to reach the train, which was the final lift we took up the mountain, on the first time down. The second time down we reached the first lift we took in about an hour and a half. When we reached that point we were all thoroughly exhausted and just went back to ground level. Skiing is a really hard leg workout, I used to just think it was a leisure activity but no it is definitely a workout. Thursday night was pretty much the same except we all went to sleep a little earlier from skiing taking the rest of the energy we had left after staying out the night before. Midday Friday Caleb and I headed back up to Aix Les Bains but of course before we got on the road we had to stop and get a kebab.
The next week on Monday I had a little mini adventure by myself. (April 11th to that Weds the 13th) Well not that mini I went to Amsterdam to see Nas & Damian Marley in concert. I had a pretty nice time enjoyed the concert (despite the fact Nas whispered the final bars on the last verse of one mic) and my stay overall in Amsterdam. Except for the fact that I dropped and lost my digital camera somewhere. I think it happened to me on the way to the concert because I kept pulling my map out of my pocket every five seconds to make sure I was going the right way because Dutch is a very complicated language, especially when you're reading street signs and the sign is supposed to be the same thing but the word looks different every time. Luckily I uploaded my ski adventure on to my computer before I lost it so everyone will get to enjoy that but my tumblr may die after that. I'm looking for a replacement out here though so it may be resurrected one day. Besides dropping my camera I did enjoy my quick trip to Amsterdam. Despite a certain person they didn't like Amsterdam because it was dirty I found it quite nice. The canals, except for those in the red light district, are very nice, the women are tall and beautiful, and the beer (along with all the other vice you may have) is plentiful. I went on the Heineken brewery tour and checked out the red light district during the day. The latter activity I do not suggest unless you are a fan of, how can I put this........ a more mature woman (lol). Even though my time was short I'm heading back to Amsterdam on Tuesday to meet up with my American friends I met in Venezia and then it's off to London on Thursday through Sunday. On Sunday I'll be flying and taking the train to Montpellier to play in our next game and then spending the first half of the week in Marseille, so unfortunately I'll have no pictures to share of that but I'll try and find a way. Until the next time..
The first trip was more of a local adventure. On Monday (April 4th) afternoon I took the train and then the bus up to Camp Des Cimes where Caleb works and lives. The camp is somewhere on the outskirts of the city Grenoble, which is an hour away from Chambery. The whole purpose of the trip was to just bro out with Caleb and to go skiing. If you remember I alluded to my skiing adventure in my last blog post. Oh yes, I went skiing for the first time but that's later on in the trip. For pics and vids check out my tumblr at mmalachi.tumblr.com. On Monday after the long and arduous journey on the train and bus, 95% of which I slept through, I finally met up with Caleb and his roommate Sam in the nearby town of Bourg D'Oisans. Monday was pretty chill we back to Camp Des Cimes and chef Caleb whipped up dinner. Pretty good too, I had to tell Catherine when I got back that her and Caleb are competing for my distinguished honor of Top Chef. Of course, dinner wasn't the end of the night we had to drink beer and play video games. No bro out would be complete without those two critical aspects.
On Tuesday after Caleb and Sam finished their work around the camp we sat down for lunch. More beer was drunk and more video games were played until it was time for Caleb and Sam to head back off to work. Caleb told me they would work for a couple of more hours and then we'd go out and jump in a nearby glacier pool and check out some of the scenery. While Caleb and Sam went off to finish their work I did my usual and hopped onto my computer until it was time to go. Caleb and Sam came back a couple of hours later and we headed off to the glacier pool. Caleb drove and when we reached our destination we had to hike over a couple of nerve-wracking footbridges to reach the glacier pool. Then it was show-time. The only way I can describe jumping in that water is it reminded me of the cold tub at NU but worse because the water was flowing and splashing everywhere from the water fall. It was a fun experience to say the least but I couldn't stand staying in the water for more than 5 minutes. After our lil Polar Bear dip Caleb drove around a nearby mountain pointing out ski lifts, hiking trails, and gave us quick tours of the little villages we drove through. We headed back after the impromptu tour and stopped at the grocery store to pick up food for dinner and of course more beer. For Dinner Caleb made three different pizza's with home made crust and all. The first was a ground beef and vegetable medley with tomato sauce. The other 2 instead of using tomato sauce he used Creme Fraiche, which I can't say without cracking up because of a South Park episode, (http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/360883/cafeteria-fraiche) as the sauce. The first of the Creme fraiche pizzas was a carbonara, which is sauteed onions and bacon, while the second was a tuna and corn mixture Caleb made earlier. For the Cheese it was a mix of goat and parmesan to finally complete these bad boys. Sam said his favorite was the ground beef and veggie medley was his favorite while mine was the carbonara, but all three were excellent. I bet you can't guess what we did after dinner. That's right, we shockingly played more video games and drank more beer.
Wednesday was pretty slow during the day. Just more of me hanging out on my computer until Sam and Caleb finished their work. It was all for good reason because we were having a BBQ later on for dinner, our homegirl Flo, sister of our teammate Xavier, was coming by to kick it, and the British pub up in town was having an event at night. Flo got to camp around 5 or 6 and soon after she arrived we headed up to the mountain to our BBQ site. We had to improvise when we reached the spot because a group of Brits already occupied the prime real estate. We just had to scoot over to the side so everyone could have their space. It was quite an amazing sight we had a perfect view of the mountain range in the distance and we were on the edge of the mountain away from the ski resorts. Our little BBQ was filled with beer, sausage, and acoustic guitar. I learned that Flo could play the guitar and sing. We sat out under the stars for quite a while just enjoying everything until it was time to go to the British pub. The event at the British pub was for groups of friends to make a music video of them skiing/ snowboarding and anything else they wanted to include. They were all pretty good except for the last video which the people who made the video inexplicably decided to rap themselves to the music instead of putting the real track. Hearing a terrible British accent filled (no prejudice from me, it just didn't help their case any because they the sound was awful and they sucked at rapping) remix of the Wu Tang Clan song "gravel pit" is not my idea of a good video. Other than the videos, the bar was pretty fun a lot of Guinness, Drum n bass along with dubstep music filled the bar for most of the night, (not the usual house music which is clearly king here in France) and the British inhabitants made the pub a good time overall.
Finally Thursday came and the day was finally here. We were going skiing. Caleb lent me all the clothes and gear I would need and thank God it all fit me. We headed out around noontime to Les Deux Alpes ski station after bidding Flo goodbye and watching her drive away slowly as tears streamed down all of our eyes. We went to the ski station after loading up on some water and other supplies at a store where Caleb knew the owner. (Caleb knows a lot of people everywhere we go) We bought our lift tickets and started the journey up. We took two different lifts and a train to the top of the glacier. It took about 30 - 40 minutes for us to reach that point and about two hours for us to ski down to the train while Caleb and Sam instructed me on what to do. I'm not gonna lie I was scared speeding down a snow covered peak with two toothpicks under my feet that I don't know how to control. I also fell a million times but eventually the fear subsided and I began to understand the proper weight shifts needed to turn on skis. I was really motivated to learn because I was getting tired of all the little kids just speeding right on by me while i kept falling every 20 feet. (Which, luckily for everyone I gave my camera to Caleb so I have videos and pictures of me falling that I'll post to my tumblr.) We took the train back up to the top again and sat down to eat lunch. After lunch is when I really started to get the hang of skiing. (Which unluckily for me Caleb stopped taking videos before I started actually doing good lol) To compare though it took us to two hours to reach the train, which was the final lift we took up the mountain, on the first time down. The second time down we reached the first lift we took in about an hour and a half. When we reached that point we were all thoroughly exhausted and just went back to ground level. Skiing is a really hard leg workout, I used to just think it was a leisure activity but no it is definitely a workout. Thursday night was pretty much the same except we all went to sleep a little earlier from skiing taking the rest of the energy we had left after staying out the night before. Midday Friday Caleb and I headed back up to Aix Les Bains but of course before we got on the road we had to stop and get a kebab.
The next week on Monday I had a little mini adventure by myself. (April 11th to that Weds the 13th) Well not that mini I went to Amsterdam to see Nas & Damian Marley in concert. I had a pretty nice time enjoyed the concert (despite the fact Nas whispered the final bars on the last verse of one mic) and my stay overall in Amsterdam. Except for the fact that I dropped and lost my digital camera somewhere. I think it happened to me on the way to the concert because I kept pulling my map out of my pocket every five seconds to make sure I was going the right way because Dutch is a very complicated language, especially when you're reading street signs and the sign is supposed to be the same thing but the word looks different every time. Luckily I uploaded my ski adventure on to my computer before I lost it so everyone will get to enjoy that but my tumblr may die after that. I'm looking for a replacement out here though so it may be resurrected one day. Besides dropping my camera I did enjoy my quick trip to Amsterdam. Despite a certain person they didn't like Amsterdam because it was dirty I found it quite nice. The canals, except for those in the red light district, are very nice, the women are tall and beautiful, and the beer (along with all the other vice you may have) is plentiful. I went on the Heineken brewery tour and checked out the red light district during the day. The latter activity I do not suggest unless you are a fan of, how can I put this........ a more mature woman (lol). Even though my time was short I'm heading back to Amsterdam on Tuesday to meet up with my American friends I met in Venezia and then it's off to London on Thursday through Sunday. On Sunday I'll be flying and taking the train to Montpellier to play in our next game and then spending the first half of the week in Marseille, so unfortunately I'll have no pictures to share of that but I'll try and find a way. Until the next time..
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Mommy's Visit pt trois, Paris (This one will be long)
Two blog posts in one week? What's wrong with me? The reality is I need to finish the story about my Mom and Aunt coming to visit because I also need to update you on my adventure of this past week. No hints about it either, only my mom, teammates here in le France, and the people who actually read my tweets know what I mean. As I've done in most of my previous posts I usually take this last part of my intro paragraph to make fun of how much my friends don't read my blog and say I only have a couple of readers. According to the new info passed on to me by my mother I now know that Mr. David Bradford (who is the man, I need to come by and visit you next time I'm up around that way) and a lot of my Mom's co-workers read my blog. Thanks for tuning in to my drivel and stop giving my Mommy a hard time because she tends to snore on long journeys. (Just kidding, don't hurt me Mommy Love you :D) Check out the pics of this adventure on my Tumblr here, Mmalachi.Tumblr.com
On Thursday March 17th (St. Pattys day which will come into play later) my mother, aunt, and me jumped on the TGV (high speed train) bound for Paris. Of course we rode first class like only real bosses can do, actually it was only 10 Euros more than the second-class ticket. Catherine and Pierre dropped us off at the train station and bid my mom and aunt goodbye as this was the last time they would see them on this trip, but will more than likely not be the last time. The train ride from Chambery to Paris is about three hours and if you've never ridden on a high speed train its pretty nice. Comfy seats, quiet smooth ride, and going through the French countryside (which is as good as advertised) is a pretty nice way to enter the city of light. After we got settled in our hotel the first thing we wanted to do was take what should have been a quick walk through the Parisian streets to the Seine river and catch a glimpse of the Eiffel tower. However, what should have been about a 30-minute walk max turned into a journey of time and space. It took us about two hours because Paris is also a very confusing city for us Americans. If you've been you'll understand what I mean, but for those of you who don't I'll illustrate what I mean. Paris as a city is a giant circle, and within this giant circle are streets jutting every which way leading most of the times to roundabouts. These roundabouts accommodate more than just the typical four way roundabout. For Example, the Arc De Triomphe roundabout has 12 different streets that lead into it, one of the more ridiculous traffic events I've ever seen. The other issue with the Parisian streets is that about every 2 or so blocks the name switches without even the slightest warning and all the street signs are on the buildings not posts like ours. In essence Paris has these streets that change the name every two seconds and intersections that lead off into a multitude directions, which makes being a tourist in the city quite hard. I wouldn't have minded this walk so much, because I quite enjoy getting lost in new cities, save for the fact the two evil sisters where cranky because we hadn't eaten lunch yet. They would go on and on about how I was trying to walk them to death and blah blah blah. Luckily Paris has shops on about every block so when they saw something that caught their eye, the whining would cease. Eventually I was finally able to figure out the map and get us going in the right direction, all matters of direction were given to me and they only followed my lead. We finally made it to the Seine River after taking the scenic route and saw the Eiffel tower in the distance, a first for us all. At lunch we decided we wanted to do a river tour at night to see city lit up. After we finished lunch and my Aunt's hunger for shopping was satisfied we went back to the hotel to rest up for the night tour. The night tour was pretty amazing. We got to see the Eiffel tower lit up & up close for the first time, Notre Dame cathedral, all of the different bridges (with people drinking under or along them dressed in green for St. Pattys day) along the Seine, along with the Lourve, and the building the US stole the design from for the White House. After the boat tour and dropping the children back off at the hotel I headed back out into the night to meet up with one of my friends, (Lil) Kati (my nickname for her) who happened to be in Paris for spring break. I met up with her and the friends she was with who happened to be a lot of younger guys I actually went to high school with (can't escape the Belen Mafia, no matter where you are) and had a pretty good time. For the readers who actually have read all my entries up to this point will remember I said that beer is cheap in France. This does apply to Paris in anyway shape or form. Felt like I was back on South Beach handing out 6 to 7 Euros per Guinness, but hey it's St. Patty’s day, I can't not drink Guinness. After hanging out until the wee hours of the morning and avoiding all the guys trying to get me to go into the strip club they worked at (forgot to mention the bar we went to was right by Moulin Rouge and alot of similar type venues lol) I left the bar and made it back to the hotel and fell asleep.
Of course it wasn't for very long because on Friday we planned on taking a bus tour and being on one of the first buses to see as much of the city as we could. We bought our tickets at a little Internet boutique around the corner from our hotel and waited out at the stop right in front of it. We rode the Paris L'Open Tour which operates three lines that take you all around the city. The main line takes you to all the major attractions in Paris. You buy the ticket for the day or however long you want, and you're able to jump on and off at any stop as long as you have your ticket with you. We took the bus that ran on the line by our hotel to the major line and started the tour. Looking at the bus route we planned out what we wanted to get off and see because it's not possible to get off at every stop and see everything all in one day. Of course, this plan fell apart once we actually got off the bus and visited the attractions. The first stop was at the Lourve museum. As I've said earlier and will continue to say we are nerds, but honestly it was worth it. The bus company sends a bus by each stop around every twenty minutes for people to continue the tour and we claimed we were only going to be inside the Lourve for 50 minutes - 1 hour at the max because we just wanted to check out the major attractions and continue the tour. Major fail to say the least, I think we spent about two and a half hours in the Lourve and we only intentionally visited 4 exhibits. The rest we saw as we walked to our targeted areas. The only exhibits we went to see were the Venus de Milo, the Egyptian section, the Mona Lisa, and Napoleon III's apartments. The Egyptian section and Napoleon's apartment were my idea. The Egyptian exhibit is what took us the longest by far. The Lourve is a humungous building and to visit every exhibit in the museum would take probably 4-5 days at the least. We're going through the early parts of the Egyptian section and it's little trinkets, statues, different small things and we had already been through about four or five corridors. I was started to get a little disappointed because I hand't seen any sarcophagi. That all changed the deeper we got into the exhibit. Not only did they have about 100 different Sarcophagi, including the sarcophagus of Ramses III, there was actual mummy preserved in it's original state, and actual pieces of pyramids. I don't mean a slab or granite or two either, there was a giant chunk that you could walk in and look around for yourself. Which my Aunt Jackie didn't want to see because she was being crabby from being tired of walking and hungry, but due to me and my mom's constant insistence she finally went to see and her jaw pretty much dropped. We saw all of these things and we didn't even finish the entire Egyptian exhibit, there were still a couple of rooms left but we just had to call it quits before we spent the entire day at the Lourve. The Mona Lisa had a huge crowd of people around but the most impressive thing is just how many people go to see that tiny painting when the entire wing is filled with huge and impressive works of art. The Venus de Milo was pretty packed too but not as much as the Mona Lisa. The walk through Napoleon III's apartment was a walk through life as a true baller. One of the more impressive things was the dinner table sat almost 50 ppl comfortably. After we were finally able to escape the Lourve's grasp we sat down for lunch at a nearby restaurant. Actually we technically sat down twice for lunch because the first place we went, after taking one look at the menu we had to dip up outta there. While eating lunch Caleb met up with us for a drink because he was in Paris for the weekend too. After lunch we said bye to Caleb and went back to the bus tour. Yet you couldn't really tell any of us actually paid for the tour as we all caught the itis and took quick naps on the bus in between the ride from Notre Dame Cathedral and the Arc De Triomphe. We all were awake as we approached the Arc but I had to pretty much drag my mom and aunt off the bus because they weren't truly interested in seeing the Arc up close, but I was. One of the more memorable things about the Arc is the unique traffic situation surrounding it. If you recall I mentioned earlier there are 12 streets leading into this roundabout so there's pretty much a constant queqe of cars in the roundabout. Our bus driver did not seem to care and even with all of the cars already in the circle he didn't stop and was jutting in and out of traffic as if we were in a small car. Not exactly the most calming thing while sitting on top of an open top double decker bus. After checking out the Arc we got back on the bus and finished out the tour. We decided we wanted to check out the Eiffel Tower at night when it's lit up and it turned out to be a great decision because it started to rain as soon we got around the Eiffel tower. After we finished the tour we headed back to the hotel to rest up. We wanted to try and see if we could have dinner in one of the restaurants in the Eiffel tower but of course the line was about 300 people deep so went down the street to the Pullman hotel, which had a nice view of the tower. The Eiffel tower has flashing lights every 5 mins at the beginning of the each hour from sunset until midnight, and it was nice to enjoy this sight while eating dinner. (if I remember what the boat tour guide said correctly) After Dinner we headed back to the hotel and no late night shenanigans for this night because we had another early morning wake up planned.
Saturday was our last day in Paris and we actually didn't spend the day in Paris. We decided to take the train out to the beaches of Normandy and check out a tour of the beaches and whatever else we could get in. Before we headed to the train station we decided to check out the Sacre Couer. A church on top of a hill overlooking Paris with a spectacular view. Thanks to a great suggestion by Caleb I definitely enjoyed, because my mom and aunt refused to take anymore stairs. The trip to Normandy was an experience I'll always remember. If you've never been to a large WWII memorial I highly suggest it. I've now been to Pearl Harbor and the American Cemetery in Normandy and I've teared up at both. It truly is amazing to see the sacrifices made by everyone involved with the war and really just how bloody WWII was. On our tour was a late middle-aged couple from Arizona and our tour guide was a young French guy nicknamed Sly. The first thing we saw was the Pointe du Hoc, where a battalion of Rangers had to scale 100 ft high cliffs on Dday as apart of the invasion effort. Along the ground there are still huge craters from all the pre-invasion bombing that took place to help soften up German defenses along that point that were heavily fortified due to the positioning of 6 anti-infantry guns. The bunkers for the most part are still pretty much intact which is insane considering the bombardment they took, as evidenced by the surrounding land. After the Pointe Du Hoc, which overlooks Omaha Beach, we rode down to Omaha beach and walked around. There are still German guns left there on purpose as apart of the monument and many bunkers are scattered across the hills. It was a beautiful day outside and people were calmly walking up and down the beach, a far cry from the scene that took place on Dday. Even with the craters of the Pointe du Hoc and the guns left on Omaha beach the most powerful place is the American cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place for 9,387 Americans who died not only during the invasion of Normandy but also during the preceding battles and battles that took place afterwards. First in the Cemetery layout is the garden of the missing, where a huge wall lists all the names of the soldiers that are missing in action, a total of 1,557 names. The total number of lives lost is always staggering but when you the white headstones stretching out far out across the cliffs over looking Omaha beach it's quite a powerful moment. We also got to catch a small ceremony where the American flag was lowered and Taps was played over a loudspeaker. After the checking out the rest of Omaha beach we headed over to Gold beach to check out another German encampment where four artillery batteries are still left intact. Three of the guns have sustained pretty heavy damage but one is still in working condition. After checking out Gold beach we headed back to Paris and had our final dinner together in Paris around midnight. Awesome Thai food restaurant named Madame Shawn, which Caleb suggested and it did not disappoint. In the morning I my mother aunt and I took the Paris subway up to the airport. We were all leaving Paris that day me by train, and them on a plane back to Miami. I kissed them both good bye and hopped on the train to continue my adventure here in Euroland. If you actually made it this far thanks for reading all of it, I know most of my friends won't because some still don't even know I'm not in the US and others ask me to update them as if that's not the entire reason I write this blog lol. Until next time.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Mommy's visit pt Deux
Hey Kiddies, here's the exciting conclusion of adventure time with my Mom and Aunt. Before I get into that though, I have confirmation of an increase from four loyal readers to a whopping total of five. Hey Lauren (Pardo, of course, everybody else back up off her shoutout lol) :D.
So yeah I know its been a while since I've touched my blog or tumblr (mmalachi.tumblr.com) but I'd rather take my time and write these entries rather than just shovel some boring drivel out every other week like my mom would prefer. She pretty much wants an update every week. Honestly, I don't think anyone wants that because when I'm not traveling or playing the highlight of my week is if Killian and I reach a new level on the new Zombie map, Ascension. 27 is our current record, in case any of my nerd friends were wondering. However, luckily this is the second part of my mom's visit to France and we did a lot of traveling.
On Monday (March 14th) was the beginning of our adventure. Pierre agreed to take me and the two evil sisters to Annecy to walk around and take in the beautiful day. It was around 65 degrees and sunny so spending a day in Annecy walking by the lake and through the town was an ideal situation. Of course, before we went to Annecy we had to stop and get Kebabs. Even though my mom doesn't eat meat she enjoyed the awesomeness of the vegetarian option kebab. I also introduced my Aunt to the beer Desperados, which is made with tequila and she fell in love. The rest of the week she spent trying to find Desperados and would get semi upset if the place didn't have it. My Mom and Aunt agreed that the Kebabs were awesome and even began to think about if there were any places we could go back home to enjoy this delectable meal. I've gotten to be pretty cool with the guy who runs the Kebab shop as I'm in there no less than once a week, and once he learned that my Mom and Aunt were visiting he gave us some Turkish sweets to try. They were amazing, this was the first time I had them and they did not disappoint at all. After we had finished stuffing our faces along with drinking our wine and beer we headed off to Annecy. On the way there, about a 30 minute drive, both my Mom and Aunt fell asleep. Once we got there they both finally stopped snoring and we spent a great day walking around the city and shopping because of my Aunt Jackie and her need to go into every shop that she sees. I'm not too upset about that though because it led to the buying of my beret, my FB friends know what I mean already. For pics of our adventure and pics of me in my Beret, check out my tumblr, (link above), because me describing the beauty of Annecy lakeside won't do it justice but the pictures do a pretty good job.
On the way back from Annecy my Mom and Aunt realized that Geneva is really close to Aix Les Bains, roughly an hour away by car or train, so we made plans at dinner to get up early and check Geneva out.
Early Tuesday morning we hopped on a train to Geneva. Now my 5 loyal readers will remember last time I said I'd go more into detail about Geneva and here it is. We took an early train to Geneva and found a nearby place to sit down and have breakfast. Where we realized that we had no idea about where anything in Geneva is but we had goals for the day. The first was to hit the United Nations building and check out a tour. So after asking the people where we ate for directions to the tourism office and wandering around Geneva for about 30 minutes trying to find it, we finally, well I (common theme on this trip) finally figured out the city layout on the map and reached the tourism office. Of course the quickest way to reach the UN is to hop on a bus or tram so we walked back to the train station and hopped on a bus that would take us there. (Walking is another common theme of this trip, which both my Mom and Aunt complained about to no end) Luckily when we got to the UN a lady who was on her way to work directed us where to go because once again we had no idea where we were going. Once we got through security and actually went on the tour it was really enjoyable, if you're a history nerd like my Mom, Aunt, and I are. We got to see an actual meeting from the rafters and check out various meeting rooms throughout the building. The UN has amazing artwork decorating the halls that each of the member nations has donated to the collection. The coolest one though was a Chinese tapestry of a temple(I forget what the name is but its one of the more famous Chinese temples). The cool part was that it was optical illusion and no matter where you stood in the room and looked at the picture the walkway would always be in front of you, following you no matter which angle you looked at it. After the tour we decided to check out the rest of Geneva so we found the tram and went back towards the center of the city. As I mentioned earlier Geneva is baller central. I told my Mom and Aunt about all the exotic cars Kevin, Killian, and I saw outside of the car show last time I was in Geneva. Once we hit Pont Du Mont Blanc they saw exactly what I meant. Everywhere you look on this street you can see evidence of Geneva's wealth pretty much everywhere you look. Pont Du Mont Blanc is one of the main streets and bridges in Geneva and each side of the bridge has its distinct feel. On one side is a bunch of banks, luxury hotels, and of course the cars you see are jaw dropping. On the corner in front of The Four Seasons hotel there were a collection of Aston Martin's, Bentley's, Land Rover's, and the worst cars being Benz's. Most of the cars also had the drivers who were waiting and keeping watch over the car. On the other side of the bridge is the shopping center. Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Vacheron Constantine, all types of ridiculously expensive stores are along this strip. On this side of the bridge is also the old town of Geneva and the Promenade du lac, my favorite part of Geneva. The old town of Geneva is pretty cool, standard old european city but the promenade du lac has been one of the highlights of my entire time while here in Europe. Honestly I love that place, theres the flower clock where they plant flowers to make a clock face and have hands to make it an actual working outdoor clock. The million dollar view though is lakeside. Lake Geneva has a huge fountain that shoots water hundreds of feet into of the air and at the Promenade du Lac you get a front row view of this. I fell in love with that spot and we spent the last hour or two chilling on a park bench just soaking in the moment. Obviously no trip to Switzerland would be complete without stopping in a store to get some Swiss chocolate and we made our stop before we hit the park. When you get a chance go to http://maps.google.com/ and put in Pont Du Mont Blanc, Geneva and check out what I mean.
Wednesday was our slow day of the week. The highlight of the day was that Joe the head coach of the team, a fellow American, invited my Mom, Aunt and I over for lunch at his house in Chambery. Joe served up Raclette which I don't recall if I've ever described this meal but it's one of my personal favorites here in France and it quickly became a favorite of my Mom and Aunt. It's a fairly simple meal: boiled potatoes, a spread of different cold cuts and raclette cheese. The cool part is that in the middle of the table is the raclette machine which will be hard to comprehend unless you've already seen one. There's not really anything I can compare it to back home in the states but for a better idea just go to google images and put in raclette machine and that should help. Anyway there are two tiers to this machine the top one is to keep what ever you want warm, such as the boiled potatoes etc. The second tier is where you put your cheese to melt and once its done melting you scrape it off your personal metal pan to spread over your potatoes and meat. So simple but awesome at the same time. It was a really good meal my Mom and Aunt got to know Joe a little better because they wanted to know how he ended up coming from philly to coaching football in France and vice versa. It went really well and after lunch we went back to Aix to have the final dinner with the family, which was an adventure like all of the previous ones and get ready to head to Paris by train in the morning.
I'm going to make this three different posts because Paris needs its own post. Hopefully I'll do it soon 'till the next time pals :D
So yeah I know its been a while since I've touched my blog or tumblr (mmalachi.tumblr.com) but I'd rather take my time and write these entries rather than just shovel some boring drivel out every other week like my mom would prefer. She pretty much wants an update every week. Honestly, I don't think anyone wants that because when I'm not traveling or playing the highlight of my week is if Killian and I reach a new level on the new Zombie map, Ascension. 27 is our current record, in case any of my nerd friends were wondering. However, luckily this is the second part of my mom's visit to France and we did a lot of traveling.
On Monday (March 14th) was the beginning of our adventure. Pierre agreed to take me and the two evil sisters to Annecy to walk around and take in the beautiful day. It was around 65 degrees and sunny so spending a day in Annecy walking by the lake and through the town was an ideal situation. Of course, before we went to Annecy we had to stop and get Kebabs. Even though my mom doesn't eat meat she enjoyed the awesomeness of the vegetarian option kebab. I also introduced my Aunt to the beer Desperados, which is made with tequila and she fell in love. The rest of the week she spent trying to find Desperados and would get semi upset if the place didn't have it. My Mom and Aunt agreed that the Kebabs were awesome and even began to think about if there were any places we could go back home to enjoy this delectable meal. I've gotten to be pretty cool with the guy who runs the Kebab shop as I'm in there no less than once a week, and once he learned that my Mom and Aunt were visiting he gave us some Turkish sweets to try. They were amazing, this was the first time I had them and they did not disappoint at all. After we had finished stuffing our faces along with drinking our wine and beer we headed off to Annecy. On the way there, about a 30 minute drive, both my Mom and Aunt fell asleep. Once we got there they both finally stopped snoring and we spent a great day walking around the city and shopping because of my Aunt Jackie and her need to go into every shop that she sees. I'm not too upset about that though because it led to the buying of my beret, my FB friends know what I mean already. For pics of our adventure and pics of me in my Beret, check out my tumblr, (link above), because me describing the beauty of Annecy lakeside won't do it justice but the pictures do a pretty good job.
On the way back from Annecy my Mom and Aunt realized that Geneva is really close to Aix Les Bains, roughly an hour away by car or train, so we made plans at dinner to get up early and check Geneva out.
Early Tuesday morning we hopped on a train to Geneva. Now my 5 loyal readers will remember last time I said I'd go more into detail about Geneva and here it is. We took an early train to Geneva and found a nearby place to sit down and have breakfast. Where we realized that we had no idea about where anything in Geneva is but we had goals for the day. The first was to hit the United Nations building and check out a tour. So after asking the people where we ate for directions to the tourism office and wandering around Geneva for about 30 minutes trying to find it, we finally, well I (common theme on this trip) finally figured out the city layout on the map and reached the tourism office. Of course the quickest way to reach the UN is to hop on a bus or tram so we walked back to the train station and hopped on a bus that would take us there. (Walking is another common theme of this trip, which both my Mom and Aunt complained about to no end) Luckily when we got to the UN a lady who was on her way to work directed us where to go because once again we had no idea where we were going. Once we got through security and actually went on the tour it was really enjoyable, if you're a history nerd like my Mom, Aunt, and I are. We got to see an actual meeting from the rafters and check out various meeting rooms throughout the building. The UN has amazing artwork decorating the halls that each of the member nations has donated to the collection. The coolest one though was a Chinese tapestry of a temple(I forget what the name is but its one of the more famous Chinese temples). The cool part was that it was optical illusion and no matter where you stood in the room and looked at the picture the walkway would always be in front of you, following you no matter which angle you looked at it. After the tour we decided to check out the rest of Geneva so we found the tram and went back towards the center of the city. As I mentioned earlier Geneva is baller central. I told my Mom and Aunt about all the exotic cars Kevin, Killian, and I saw outside of the car show last time I was in Geneva. Once we hit Pont Du Mont Blanc they saw exactly what I meant. Everywhere you look on this street you can see evidence of Geneva's wealth pretty much everywhere you look. Pont Du Mont Blanc is one of the main streets and bridges in Geneva and each side of the bridge has its distinct feel. On one side is a bunch of banks, luxury hotels, and of course the cars you see are jaw dropping. On the corner in front of The Four Seasons hotel there were a collection of Aston Martin's, Bentley's, Land Rover's, and the worst cars being Benz's. Most of the cars also had the drivers who were waiting and keeping watch over the car. On the other side of the bridge is the shopping center. Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Vacheron Constantine, all types of ridiculously expensive stores are along this strip. On this side of the bridge is also the old town of Geneva and the Promenade du lac, my favorite part of Geneva. The old town of Geneva is pretty cool, standard old european city but the promenade du lac has been one of the highlights of my entire time while here in Europe. Honestly I love that place, theres the flower clock where they plant flowers to make a clock face and have hands to make it an actual working outdoor clock. The million dollar view though is lakeside. Lake Geneva has a huge fountain that shoots water hundreds of feet into of the air and at the Promenade du Lac you get a front row view of this. I fell in love with that spot and we spent the last hour or two chilling on a park bench just soaking in the moment. Obviously no trip to Switzerland would be complete without stopping in a store to get some Swiss chocolate and we made our stop before we hit the park. When you get a chance go to http://maps.google.com/ and put in Pont Du Mont Blanc, Geneva and check out what I mean.
Wednesday was our slow day of the week. The highlight of the day was that Joe the head coach of the team, a fellow American, invited my Mom, Aunt and I over for lunch at his house in Chambery. Joe served up Raclette which I don't recall if I've ever described this meal but it's one of my personal favorites here in France and it quickly became a favorite of my Mom and Aunt. It's a fairly simple meal: boiled potatoes, a spread of different cold cuts and raclette cheese. The cool part is that in the middle of the table is the raclette machine which will be hard to comprehend unless you've already seen one. There's not really anything I can compare it to back home in the states but for a better idea just go to google images and put in raclette machine and that should help. Anyway there are two tiers to this machine the top one is to keep what ever you want warm, such as the boiled potatoes etc. The second tier is where you put your cheese to melt and once its done melting you scrape it off your personal metal pan to spread over your potatoes and meat. So simple but awesome at the same time. It was a really good meal my Mom and Aunt got to know Joe a little better because they wanted to know how he ended up coming from philly to coaching football in France and vice versa. It went really well and after lunch we went back to Aix to have the final dinner with the family, which was an adventure like all of the previous ones and get ready to head to Paris by train in the morning.
I'm going to make this three different posts because Paris needs its own post. Hopefully I'll do it soon 'till the next time pals :D
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Mommy's visit pt un
Howdy there friends. I know I've been neglecting my blog and haven't kept you up to the second on my excursions. Fret not, it's all for good reason. For the sake of the slower crowd, I'll remind you that this past week and a half my Mom and Aunt Jacqui came to visit. I'd just like to mention quickly before I get into all those yummy details that the day before my mother and aunt arrived, Thursday March 10th, Pierre took Kevin, Killian, and I to the Geneva auto show. The spread of car's was amazing inside and out. Having spent so much time in Mia and Chicago I thought I had seen balling. Bentley's, Aston Martin's, Ferrari's, Porsche's have become kind of old hat, but the sheer amount of these luxury cars is what the really amazing part. So to all of my friends that want to marry rich you may want to take a trip to Geneva, chances of it actually happening are much higher there. I'll go more into detail about Geneva later though.
On Friday March 11th my Mom and Aunt landed in Paris and took the TGV (fast train) to Lyon, which is about an hour away. Pierre drove while I rode along to pick them up from the train station and bring them back to Aix. We're in the middle of the packed Lyon train station and Pierre's worried about how we're going to spot them because it's packed. I tell him not to worry that we'll spot them easily because they'll be the only ones dressed as if they're climbing Mt. Everest. He laughs and of course, thinks I'm just teasing them until he spots them coming down the ramp from their train. He points them out to me and immediately starts laughing because I was right. They both have on huge coats, knit hats, scarves, every piece of cold weather gear except for snow boots. I won't tell you the temperature outside so they can save some face, but just know it was definitely easy to spot them. Of course they were tired from their Atlantic crossing so we took them to Aix to meet the family and rest up.
I've mentioned before how amazing I think the Marmion's are and how grateful I am to be staying with them. Now both my Mom and Aunt witnessed their kindness and loving attitude firsthand. Throughout their entire stay we all got along very well and it was refreshing to hear from both sides how much they really liked each other and got along. I really feel like we've gained some french "cousins", if your not from Mia you probably won't understand what I mean by that. Anyway let me recap the first half of the visit. You see that, I proactively split this blog entry into two maybe three different entries because I care about all four of my readers. :D
The highlight of Friday was definitely dinner. Dinner with the Marmion's is always lively and a great time. Things were definitely kicked up a notch when three things were added. Mom + Aunt + Wine = the Charlie Sheen definition of winning. This is where everyone truly became comfortable with each other and the dynamic was really amazing. There we all were, two families who were recently acquainted but it seemed like we had known each other for years. The food, as always, was amazing. Catherine is truly a master in the kitchen. She made tartiflette which is a dish comprised of potatoes, onions, ham, and cheese. It's one my favorite dishes and is a specialty here in the Savoie region. Catherine even made my Mom a vegetarian, onion free tartiflette so she could try it too. That's love ain't it? Dinner went on and we all had a very great time.
On Saturday was the Carnaval in Chambery in which our team, Les Aigles, was marching in. The theme of the parade was countries from around the world and each group represented a different country. Of course, they picked us to represent the US of A. Pierre asked Caleb and I to carry the American flags throughout the parade route. First off, I had so much fun in that parade and I wish I could find some pictures to show you but I gave my camera to my Mom. About midway through the parade my Mom and Aunt decided that they wanted to go shopping so I don't have very much evidence to put up on my tumblr. (http://mmalachi.tumblr.com/ )Needless to say, Les Aigles put on a show for the crowd and Caleb and I were huge hits because of our exotic status as Americans, especially with the ladies. The only problem is that these girls were no older than 13 or 14. Honestly, if I were back in middle school I would've been the man with how many young girls hit on me. I even got a request at the end of parade to dance with a pair of young ladies. I had to respectfully decline this request though. I know, I know I'm a heartbreaker.
On sunday was our game against the Cannoniers. For which, a new level of excitement was in the air around the house because my Mom, Aunt, and Catherine quickly discovered they were going to be partners in crime at the game. For those of you who've ever sat near my Mom and Aunt at a game know exactly what I mean. The rest of you will soon understand. To say that they were the three loudest people at the game would be an understatement. They were complete hooligans, but it was awesome. Catherine had her trademark trumpets and was screaming in French. My Mom and Aunt on the other hand were their usual selves screaming out all types of things at everyone on the field and at one point my Aunt Jacqui even screamed out tire-bouchon, which means cork screw in English. Of course everyone was laughing at the trio of hooligans and their great quotes. My personal favorite is when it hit halftime my Aunt Jackie yelled out, "It's halftime, do they want us to do a halftime show?" The game was hard fought but unfortunately we lost 8-3. Which is a true shame because we were unable to get our first win and our OL/DL coach Phillipe donned a dread-lock wig the whole game to emphasize the "Marshall touch". Hopefully soon we can get that first W and begin our winning ways. After the game my Mom and Aunt got their first and only taste of McDonald's in France. After the game we just all chilled out at the house. In our next adventure I'll bring everyone up to speed on the second half of my Mom and Aunt's visit in France.
On Friday March 11th my Mom and Aunt landed in Paris and took the TGV (fast train) to Lyon, which is about an hour away. Pierre drove while I rode along to pick them up from the train station and bring them back to Aix. We're in the middle of the packed Lyon train station and Pierre's worried about how we're going to spot them because it's packed. I tell him not to worry that we'll spot them easily because they'll be the only ones dressed as if they're climbing Mt. Everest. He laughs and of course, thinks I'm just teasing them until he spots them coming down the ramp from their train. He points them out to me and immediately starts laughing because I was right. They both have on huge coats, knit hats, scarves, every piece of cold weather gear except for snow boots. I won't tell you the temperature outside so they can save some face, but just know it was definitely easy to spot them. Of course they were tired from their Atlantic crossing so we took them to Aix to meet the family and rest up.
I've mentioned before how amazing I think the Marmion's are and how grateful I am to be staying with them. Now both my Mom and Aunt witnessed their kindness and loving attitude firsthand. Throughout their entire stay we all got along very well and it was refreshing to hear from both sides how much they really liked each other and got along. I really feel like we've gained some french "cousins", if your not from Mia you probably won't understand what I mean by that. Anyway let me recap the first half of the visit. You see that, I proactively split this blog entry into two maybe three different entries because I care about all four of my readers. :D
The highlight of Friday was definitely dinner. Dinner with the Marmion's is always lively and a great time. Things were definitely kicked up a notch when three things were added. Mom + Aunt + Wine = the Charlie Sheen definition of winning. This is where everyone truly became comfortable with each other and the dynamic was really amazing. There we all were, two families who were recently acquainted but it seemed like we had known each other for years. The food, as always, was amazing. Catherine is truly a master in the kitchen. She made tartiflette which is a dish comprised of potatoes, onions, ham, and cheese. It's one my favorite dishes and is a specialty here in the Savoie region. Catherine even made my Mom a vegetarian, onion free tartiflette so she could try it too. That's love ain't it? Dinner went on and we all had a very great time.
On Saturday was the Carnaval in Chambery in which our team, Les Aigles, was marching in. The theme of the parade was countries from around the world and each group represented a different country. Of course, they picked us to represent the US of A. Pierre asked Caleb and I to carry the American flags throughout the parade route. First off, I had so much fun in that parade and I wish I could find some pictures to show you but I gave my camera to my Mom. About midway through the parade my Mom and Aunt decided that they wanted to go shopping so I don't have very much evidence to put up on my tumblr. (http://mmalachi.tumblr.com/ )Needless to say, Les Aigles put on a show for the crowd and Caleb and I were huge hits because of our exotic status as Americans, especially with the ladies. The only problem is that these girls were no older than 13 or 14. Honestly, if I were back in middle school I would've been the man with how many young girls hit on me. I even got a request at the end of parade to dance with a pair of young ladies. I had to respectfully decline this request though. I know, I know I'm a heartbreaker.
On sunday was our game against the Cannoniers. For which, a new level of excitement was in the air around the house because my Mom, Aunt, and Catherine quickly discovered they were going to be partners in crime at the game. For those of you who've ever sat near my Mom and Aunt at a game know exactly what I mean. The rest of you will soon understand. To say that they were the three loudest people at the game would be an understatement. They were complete hooligans, but it was awesome. Catherine had her trademark trumpets and was screaming in French. My Mom and Aunt on the other hand were their usual selves screaming out all types of things at everyone on the field and at one point my Aunt Jacqui even screamed out tire-bouchon, which means cork screw in English. Of course everyone was laughing at the trio of hooligans and their great quotes. My personal favorite is when it hit halftime my Aunt Jackie yelled out, "It's halftime, do they want us to do a halftime show?" The game was hard fought but unfortunately we lost 8-3. Which is a true shame because we were unable to get our first win and our OL/DL coach Phillipe donned a dread-lock wig the whole game to emphasize the "Marshall touch". Hopefully soon we can get that first W and begin our winning ways. After the game my Mom and Aunt got their first and only taste of McDonald's in France. After the game we just all chilled out at the house. In our next adventure I'll bring everyone up to speed on the second half of my Mom and Aunt's visit in France.
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