Ten Minutes To Downtown

I met a friend of mine, Brad Gilboe, within the last couple years at some point.  At many some points in fact.  We've got a bunch of mutual friends and always bump into each other in random places.  I think I have more random run-ins with him than any of my other friends combined.  I had the pleasure of joining him for his birthday dinner at a sushi restaurant in Hollywood.  It was a lovely time, and I can now say I've eaten birthday cake with chopsticks.

Do I trust my heart or just my mind...

What better way to welcome myself home than going to a show?  Unfortunately I missed seeing the 'Where's the Band?' tour at my favorite venue, The Troubadour.  For good reason though, I was still in London.  I bought tickets for the Anaheim date at the House of Blues Rules instead.  Despite hating the entire chain of House of Blues, the show was amazing.  The tour featured Anthony Raneri of Bayside, Chris Conley of Saves the Day, Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids, and last but not least, Dustin Kensrue of Thrice.  I invited Brandi to come down with me.  Nothing better than seeing a show with someone you know will enjoy it as much as you.

Anthony's set was great.  He played Alkaline Trio (Good Fucking Bye) and Death Cab For Cutie (I Will Follow You into the Dark) covers.  If I had any complaints about his set, I would have to say I was a bit disappointed that he didn't play more Bayside songs.

Saves the Day songs are always fun to sing along to.  Luckily a majority of the crowd knows the words to out sing Chris Conley.  I have always, and will always love Saves the Day, but christ what happened to his voice in the last few years?  Is it possible for him to become anymore nasally?  Regardless, his selection of songs played were all good choices.

The night before the show my friend Katy and I were talking about Matt Pryor.  She was telling me that she will love every music project he does because he's got that voice you just fall in love with.  I couldn't agree with her more.  I can remember playing 'Something To Write Home About' over and over in my room when I was 14.  Hearing him play gave me the best nostalgia of all of those times.  So much in fact, my eyes watered at one point.  Such a sap!

 

Dustin Kensrue seems to have the same effect on me.  I've listened to Thrice since I was 14/15 and I love the solo record he put out a couple years ago.  I always love when bands stick to their roots and thank their family or supporters who have been there for them all along.  He dedicated the song he wrote for his wife who happened to be in the crowd.  Pretty sure I saw her wipe a tear or two from her eyes.  I don't think there is anything cuter than the fact that there were a couple hundred other people in that room, yet there was still a very intimate moment between the two of them.  He did a few covers, a few Thrice songs, and a lot of solo stuff.  Definitely a performance to satisfy the entire crowd.

During the last couple of songs the rest of the guys came back on stage to join Dustin.  Despite Matt's continuous attempts to cover Miley Cyrus' Party in the U.S.A. they covered NOFX's Linoleum and Jawbreaker's Boxcar.  Such an amazing show to start off the year!

Southern Belles in London Sing

5 Countries in 1 week.  I never thought I'd ever have those words coming out of my mouth.  Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, United States.  I love it!

At the beginning of my trip I wrote down a quote from a book that stuck in my mind.  It knew it would be appropriate to the way I would feel when the end of my trip was drawing near.

"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."

My last day in London seemed to fly by.  In short, it consist of The Ten Bells (the infamous Jack the Ripper pub), Grosvenor Square, last minute shopping on Oxford Street,  and one last tube ride to Heathrow.  It was hard not to be sad or disappointed on my way home.  I fell in love with a city I know I'd like to live in with the reality of having to get a visa to live there.  It isn't the most convenient or affordable to go as often as I'd like.  Nor is it close to my family or friends at home.  So many obstacles making it hard to accomplish a move.  I just need to keep in mind that I had two of the best weeks of my life, and that moving there isn't impossible if it's what I really want.

Random things I loved about London:

• The smell of the tube.  I can't pinpoint it.  Distinct oil/exhaust smell.  
• The biggest escalators I've ever seen!
• British fashion.. I love love love love it!
• How convenient it is to get everywhere in London.
• The fact that they serve curry with their chips (french fries).
• Instead of signs that say "Apartment for Rent," they say "Flat to Let."
• A majority of cars are hatchbacks.  

I'll probably add to that list as I think of more things that made me smile.

It Won't Snow Where You're Going

Just in case you were wondering, France has the best croissants, baguettes, and eclairs.  Extremely disappointed I didn't have a chance to get a crepe while I was there.  Oh well!

We had planned to go to Paris Disneyland.  Had being the keyword in that statement...  we woke up to a white blanket of snow.  Despite ruining our Disneyland plans, I was so excited!  I hadn't touched snow it over a year.  It made everything even brighter and prettier.  After lunch, we did a bit of shopping at what us Californians would call Downtown Disney.  Took a bus from there to the little downtown area of Bailly-Romainvilliers to send out some postcards at La Poste.

The weather wasn't looking so great as far as our train ride back to London.  An email from Eurostar suggested getting to the train station even earlier in hopes of getting on an earlier train.  To spare the complaining, we waiting at the 20 degree train station for at least 4 hours for our delayed train.  You get the idea.  I think I had enough anxiety for both Eddie and I combined.  I just wanted to get back to London safely.  A weird feeling of relief came over me once we were seated on the train.  A kind of relief you get when you're going home.   I love London.

Another Journey By Train

I dreaded the idea of leaving Amsterdam.  More for the fact that I knew there were only 2 1/2 days left of my trip than leaving the actual city.  Our trek through the slosh was much easier than the day before.  The train ride back to Paris was gorgeous.  It went through Belgium almost the entire way.  Note to self: Plan a trip to Brussels at some point.  I managed to snap a few photos of Brussels from the train windows.  Such an awesome looking city!

Finding our way to our hotel wasn't as easy as I would have liked to be.  I need to spend more time routing out ways to get around next time I go to a foreign country.  After some help from people in the train station we were set on the right metro towards Bailly Romainvilliers  (Pronunciation in French sounds amazing, although almost anything in french sounds enchanting.)  We opted getting a hotel a half hour outside of Paris near Disneyland Paris.  To our surprise, the Marriott there consists of little houses that form a vacation resort in the middle of a golf course.  Our villa was a two story, two bedroom house.  Needless to say, I fell in love with it.

After repeated days of walking around a lot both Eddie and I were pretty exhausted.  We both agreed on a night in, after all our little villa was worth spending time in.  We bought a bunch of food from the little market in the resort area.  I made dinner, did my laundry, and took a hot bath.  How domestic of me!  It was nice to finally get out of the cold for more than a couple of hours, and let my limbs defrost completely.

  

Winter Winds

Amsterdam bound.  I slept most of the train ride right through Belgium.  Exhaustion is slowly catching up. Unlike London or Paris, there was snow in Amsterdam making it feel even colder.  We received wrong directions to our hotel.  Took an unnecessary tram and walked blocks, when in reality our hotel was adjacent to the train station we started at.  To put it in the simplest way, we didn't have the best start in Amsterdam.  Have I described my luggage?  I definitely overpacked, and its extremely heavy.  Eddie has nicknamed it 'The Bulldozer'.  I'll learn for next time though.  I had to lug the damn thing everywhere through the slosh.

Our hotel was amazing again. I haven't had a single complaint about any of the places I booked for the entire trip. Got extremely lucky with that. After getting a bite to eat, we headed towards the Anne Frank House. This is somewhere I only dreamed of going when I was in elementary. World War II has always been my favorite subject in history, and her story always amazed me. Being able to go to the house meant a lot to me. This half of the city also amazed me. It gave off such an artsy vibe. EVERYONE rides bikes and vespas, regardless of how cold it is. Every apartment building and canal on this half of the city was so cute. Some of the buildings seemed like they were leaning. I can only imagine how long they've been there. I'd definitely like to visit at a warmer time and spend time exploring the little shops and art around the city.

I saw a million dessert shops around the area.  Had the best Eclair I've ever had.  Although, I'm sure I could get a better one in France.  I'll have to get one when we go back.  I'm such a sucker for sweets.

We headed to the Red Light District after that.  Definitely more grungy than the other part of town we were in... which was expected.  Yes, I saw all of the coffee shops you can smoke weed in.  Yes, I saw all of the hookers in the windows strutting their stuff.  It's sad that the most talked about things in this city aren't even the best it has to offer.  Its hilarious to see everything in the RLD, but honestly... once is enough.  My favorite part of RLD were the swans in the middle of the canals.  It reminded me of the scene from The Notebook with all of the swans.  Amazing!  Walking around there feels like a weird dream.  The cold got to a point where the only thing that sounded appealing was to sit in our hotel room, so we did.  Got few hours of sleep again.