Today > Monday

Nothing great about today except that it's not Monday. I wish I had something nice to say but I don't. FML.

Right now you'll have to make do with the first batch of pictures from my recent trip to London and Spain. I put them on flickr (instead of kodakgallery) because I wanted to be able to link to them directly from here and not have to send you an email invitation. It's especially useful for the people that visit this space that I don't know very well. Which, judging by the google analytics data, is most of you.

If you do decide to browse the flickr photos, be sure to read the comments. They may (or may not) explain why I included a particular picture. Photos that I really enjoyed will show up in this space for further review.

Photo for THIS post was taken in our room in Madrid. Both me and Ze Newbs were a) glad to be on the last leg of our journey, and b) glad that our trip from Sevilla to Madrid was about as easy as it could have been. And I thought it was funny to get a picture of him coming out of the closet, as it were.

London / Barcelona / Sevilla / Madrid: see you there

Lincoln said, and it was later relayed to me, that it's 'not the years in your life, but the life in your years'. That might sound cliche and tired to you, but it speaks to me, and it's one of the reasons I planned this trip. 

Juuust about to head down to the airport and catch my flight overseas (waiting on my ride), and, if I'm honest, I'm pretty effing pumped about it.


Wanted to get the word out about my current favorite jam. I've been wearing this one out the past couple weeks. This is it:

Julian Casablancas - Out of the Blue

And I was introduced to this just today: Mumsford and Sons - Little Lion Man

Next post is from Foreign Lands. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading.

REPOST - but this time with a photo

Got some funny feedback on this post (it's one of my all-time favorites), so I decided to dig into the archives and re-post it in it's entirety here, and also add a photo that captures the overall excellence of the experience.

Photo was taken after I got back from traveling all day. to nowhere. I'm waiting for the cab to take me back to a hotel, where I will sleep for about 2 hours and get up and do it again. In the rundown below, it's between steps 9 and 10.

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gave up urban for the sticks - humid times in Foz de Iguacu

writing to you now from a janky internet connection in the city of Foz de Iguacu. it is in brazil.

new place = new faces and new keyboard. we are all portugese all the time now, so maybe i~ll get used to it. the apostrophe key has swapped with the tilde. so that~s sweet.

here~s a brief rundown of the last 24 hours.

1. wrap up my last night in BA with my new international friends. we stay out late. i get up early to check out and go to the airport.
2. i go to the wrong airport.
3. i pay for another taxi and go to the right airport.
4. i don~t have a ticket because they canceled my flight.
5. they re-book my ticket. i get on the plane.
6. plane hits weather in planned destination. re-routed to nearby airport. after 2.5 hours in the air, we land, disembark.
7. wait 3 hours in airport so small it feels like we stopped by someone~s house unexepectedly, only to find they have stepped away. but it is an airport.
8. We fly back to Bs. As. why not? no explanation is offered.
9. as soon as we land, they tell us they will fly us back to our orig destination if we wish. i say, yeah, lets do it. get my ticket, splash some water on my face, use the bathroom, and the plane LEAVES WITHOUT ME. on the ticket it said it would leave at 1030, it leaves a HALF AN HOUR EARLY. i had no issues throughout the day, but i got very angry at this point. its now midnight. i~ve been doing airport song and dance for 12 hours, and i~m no closer to my destination than i was at the start. i did get to visit posada international airport. i don~t recommend it.
10. i get a hotel room in BA, but i don~t get there until 1. my wake up call for my early flight is at 5. i get to airport on time, but my morning flight is 2.5 hours late. so i catch some z~s on the bench.
11. board plane, fly, land in FdI. OUTSTANDING! i need a map. i ask the aggressive tour booking guys if they have any maps. just the one on their desk. of course. so i ask the rental car companies if they have any maps. surely avis provides their customers with a map when the rent them a car? how else would they know WHERE THE HELL THEY ARE GOING? sorry, Avis says. no maps. That was good for a laugh, anyway. thanks, avis. way to try harder and lie to my face.  i ask the hertz guy, he apologizes, says he has only a photocopy, will that do? i say fine thanks, i~ll take it. so he gives it to me. then he says, i forgot we had brochures too. here you go. and he gives me 4 brochures with maps in them. for free. literally, un regalo, a gift. restoring my faith in the human race one good deed at a time. it lasts exactly 12 minutes, which is how long it takes for the cab driver to try and give me the shaft.
12. cabbie works overtime trying to sell me on a hostel he gets a kickback from. i say, great. i~m going to the hostel i told you about. you might remember it because ITS IN BRAZIL, and the hostel you are trying to sell me on IS IN ARGENTINA. this goes on for about 12 minutes. i say no thank you. no thank you. etc. so the asshole ignores every word i~ve said and tries to pull into the parking lot of the hostel he is selling me. we had a tense moment in the car when i alerted him to the fact that i did not appreciate his sales strategy. and i finally made it.

more info on rural brazil, waterfalls, and the effect of loss of sleep on one's disposition in tomorrows issue. im off to shower so i don~t hit a new pb on the INOASq. [Ed. 'In Need Of A Shower quotient']

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That concludes a record number of posts for one month. I had a lot of nothing very much to say.
Thanks for reading.

I guess that's a good enough reason

Headed to Foreign Lands next week.
In getting my stuff together for the trip (read: thinking about getting my stuff together) I was reminded that the original impetus was when I sent Boston Zach a list of the fifty best places to eat (and where to eat them) and said, "let's go". He suggested Spain, because we could leverage our limited knowledge of Spanish and also two of the fifty were in Barcelona. And Spain is cool and neither of us had ever been there. So that's fun. 

After reviewing the list I realize that I still haven't made it to Fosselmans, an issue I aim to rectify this weekend, and also that the world's best BBQ is available via mail order. Something to look forward to when I get back.

My bbq taste, like my taste in music, is unsophisticated. But the experts agree [ed: article worth the read, so click through if you have time], so at least I know it'll be good.

Long-time readers will wonder what I'm doing eating Texas BBQ when I generally don't eat red meat or pork. I'm making an exception, because if you're only going to eat it once in a while it should be worth it.

Interntational European Summer of Love Spectacular Tour of Epic Awesomeness and Total Domination is less than two weeks away

Interntational European Summer of Love Spectacular Tour of Epic Awesomeness and Total Domination (IESoLSToEAaTD for short) kicks off in 8 short days. Last time I left the country I had everything packed, sorted, and booked weeks in advance. Lists were made and remade, contents organized, itineraries prepared, etc. This time is a bit different in that it's less than two weeks away and I've, umm, decided what bag I'm going to take. Beyond that, all I know is I'll be in:

• London from 8-12 September. 
• Barcelona from 12-? September
• Somewhere else in Spain ?-?
• Madrid from ?-22 September

Weather? No idea. Where staying? Enh, with friends in London but not sure yet about Barca/??/Madrid. Is that important? Nah.

What are we doing?
Attending Arsenal v. Bolton on 11 Sept
Maybe catching Atletico Madrid v. Barca in Madrid on 18 Sept
Maybe catching Real Madrid v. Espanyol on 21 Sept
And also watching this in person: http://www.steephill.tv/vuelta-a-espana/
Sightseeing and general touristing (Tate Modern; Museum of Natural History; Picasso Museum; maybe the Dali museum outside Barca; and a couple superb museums in Madrid that I forget the name of)
Carousing

I am pumped to be traveling with Boston Zach, because he sends me emails like this:
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i love it when i read beach and bar in the same sentence. especially when one appears right after the other as in, "In summer, Barcelona's party scene migrates to its beach bars..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/aug/08/barcelona-beach-bars-clubbing-spain
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Just to be clear: Bar research > lodging info