Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Damn near ate an entire zoo last night
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
I'm Free
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Will Start Updating More Soon
Monday, July 9, 2007
Screw Work
My tens days sharing that flat ended and I'm back at a hostel. It's far more backpacker-oriented than the last one I was at, which is rather nice, though I do miss having some storage space. Neither the flat nor this hostel have really had convenient internet access, hence the lack of updates lately.
Aside from the work stuff, I am still really enjoying my time over here.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
I AM movin' on up (somehow)
I just got back to the hostel from my try-out shift, and somehow, I got the job. It seems like here, they train you for about an hour and then just throw you on the floor on a pretty busy night (even Teak's usually does more training than that). It was pretty intense. I was awful and quite frankly, didn't think there was any way that I was going to be coming back--I can't count how many times I screwed up. However, I did apparently do something right (though I'll be damned if I know what that was). I'm really not used to the whole fine dining thing. Also, you don't have sections at this restaurant. Everyone just walks around to all the tables and does whatever--pretty weird.
It's been a really long time since I had as bad an urge to get absolutely wasted as I do after tonight, but I'm so tired I'm just going to go to bed.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
I'm movin' on up (maybe)
Monday, June 25, 2007
Found a job (maybe, sorta)
Interviews and the Egg
I ended up going to the Egg at the Wee Red Bar again Saturday night. It was busier than last week, though I did have problems getting in as it is supposed to only be open to members and students. Luckily, I ran into one of the girls I partied with after the place closed last week. Once again, I went to a couple of parties with her, Mark from last week, and a few other people. Luckily, I knew how to get back to the hostel this time. One of the girls, Kate, lives in Glasgow and offered to show me some of the cooler things in the city that I apparently missed when I was there before.
My interview didn't go very well yesterday. The place wasn't as far out there as the first one I interviewed for, but it was still out there. The clientele was predominantly older, and while I would have still taken the job had it been offered, it wasn't really for me (the manager certainly didn't seem to think so either).
Today, I go to pick up my keys for the flat that I'm renting for the next 10 days. I'm about to head out now and start looking for more places that are hiring.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Screw the busses in Edinburgh
The other day, I met this Spanish girl, Isaire (think that's the correct spelling), down at the computers in the hostel. She just moved here and is looking for a job and flat too. Last night, I ended up tagging along with her as she went to check out some flat, and while it didn't work for her, we ended up staying and talking to a couple of the tenants anyway. In line with the general trend I've noticed of Europeans not accepting any attempt at declining offers of hospitality, we were first treated (pretty much forced) to tea, then dinner, and finally desert. 3 hours later, we end up heading out to a pub for drinks with most of the people in the flat, and I'm seriously considering staying there for ten days while one of the guys, Lambert, visits his hometown in France.
I ended up having that first interview today, instead of yesterday, as I screwed up and hopped on the wrong bus, ending up on the wrong side of the coast. The place is 20+ minutes outside of the center of Edinburgh, which sucks, but it seemed like a pretty cool place. The interview went really well, but I need to get some paperwork filled out before I could start working there, so we'll see how that goes. Isaire came with, and we then went to look at another flat that didn't work out. We did kinda decide to start looking for a flat that we could possibly share.
We went for a walk after dinner and I was nearly run over by a bus (I'm not exaggerating). I had the green walk guy and started to cross the street when the bus went ahead and flew into the turn anyway, yelling at me in the process. That was the closest of a few close calls I had today, so I've been left a bit traumatized by the whole thing.
It's about midnight here and I'm trying to decide if I should go out tonight. Tomorrow is pretty much gong to be more of the same--searching for jobs and then heading out to look at more flats with Isaire and some other guy from her hostel.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Blah
Last night, I went to the Wee Red Bar, a cool little place on the campus of the art college here for an indie night. While it was apparently unusually dead as there had been a big party on campus the night before, I did end up talking to a few locals, Mark, David, and Becca. Once the bar closed, we walked quite a way back to their place, and then Mark, David, and myself went to this party at the flat of this cool graphic designer from Canada. The place was so far out there that it wasn't even on my little map, but I somehow managed to find my way back to the hostel (after a 50+ minute walk), and got back just in time for breakfast-3 mini boxes of Frosted Flakes. Oh, how I have missed crappy American kids' cereal!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Who knew . . .
Friday, June 15, 2007
(Finally) Back in Edinburgh
I am, however finally at the hostel this morning, and so far, it looks really cool. I'm going to do some laundry, sleep a bit more, and then start looking for a job.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Back to Edinburgh
I am heading back to Edinburgh, where I might meet up with someone who was staying in the hostel in Glasgow. It's weird, but because it's relative familiarity, it almost feels like I'm heading back 'home' (hopefully it will be for a short time).
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Cyrillic Sucks!
I got up relatively early (considering I got back at 5:00 am) and got some awesome pizza on Kneza Mihaila, a regrettably touristy shopping area right next to the hostel, where I had 5 little kids and eventually their mother come up and ask me for a piece of pizza. Then, I walked around a bit, trying to use landmarks to make sense of my half-useless map and find my way about. Think I'm going to this underground (literally) club tonight. It's pretty damned hot here (though I'm sure not really as much as Phoenix.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Back at the hostel
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Budapest
Last night, I ended up running into these two English guys staying at the hostel and we got trapped in conversation with some rather condescending asshole for quite a while.
I spent my last night in Prague out with Alex, Jason, and Carrie, this cool girl from Berkley that we met in the bar at the hostel while waiting to head out. We waited a bit too long, though, as the bar that we had planned on checking out, Akropolis, was closing just as we finally made it there. We ended up going to some reggae place instead, which turned out to be very cool.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Last full day in Prague
I think the plan is to head out to Akropolis, some bar/club (?) that the one bartender at the hostel roccommended with Jason and Alex, another Canadian staying in my room. My food is here, so that's it for now.
Prague (and Brussels)
Prague has been nice, but not quite as cool as I had expected. The hostel I'm staying at is amazing, though. Unfortunately, the hostel I'm staying at is nearly completely populated by Americans. I didn't travel thousands of miles to meet people I could easily find down the
road from my place. One of the bartenders here is an Irishman whose sister works at Fibber Magee's, which is kinda cool, in a small world sort of way.
I went to this cool bar the other night, Ujzed, that had this very hybrid Eastern European/ rockabilly feel to it. I am, however, quite ashamed to say that I fell off the bar stool there--not because I was wasted, but because it was a good foot higher than any other bar stool I've ever seen and I had forgotten about that over the course of my one beer there. (I have started to get the beginnings of a beer belly from all the beer I've had over here). I have finally managed to have a few cigars (Cubans, no less) with my Scotches here. Tuesday I treated myself to a belated birthday dinner at a Cuban place with a Macallan 25 Fine Oak and a Cohiba. After the UK, with it's 25-35 ml max shot, it's nice to finally be able to get an almost decent pour of whiskey here.
I visited the Franz Kafka and Communism museums (among others) in the past few days, which were pretty cool. Tried to visit a Jewish synagogue and cemetery today, but it was closed.
It seems that Prague has the most heavily concentrated tourist areas of any of the cities I've been to so far, which is really annoying. I made the mistake of trying to cross Charles Bridge a few days ago, where I had to make my way through a few hundred tourists stopping all over the place to take a damned picture.
Last week, I received word that I was accepted to LSU, and while I'm still waiting on definitive word from Columbia and NYU, I will definitely have to be back to the US by mid-August.
The thing that I miss most about home is being able to get some Taco Bell after night out (which, it seems, is a sentiment shared by several of the other Americans I've talked to). I would seriously pay $30+ for a couple bean burritos and a chicken quesadilla. If I'm able to get a job in Edinburgh, I'm going to have to have someone ship me a big package of burritos and quesadillas packed in dry ice.
I'm writing this at a table on the sidewalk at the Cuban place, smoking a cigar and drinking a glass of Scotch.
I have time for one, maybe two more stops before I head back to Edinburgh and right now, I'm thinking it's going to be either Sarajevo or someplace in Italy (I know what your suggestion would be, Matt).
Well, my cigar is nearly finished and I think that pretty much covers all that has happened since I last blogged.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Manchester and new pics
Thursday, May 24, 2007
More time to blog
Glasgow has been fun--the club nights I've found have been a bit better than they were in Edinburgh (here, 'indie night' doesn't mean 3 year-old emo songs). I'm tempted to stay here another week to see a bunch of cool shows, but don't really have the money to keep spending. Plus, I want to give myself about a week to look for a job in Edinburgh, so I don't really have all that much time left for traveling. We have actually had a couple beautiful days here, though the last two have kinda sucked. The galleries haven't been all that great, though I did see two works at the modern art museum that were really cool.
The whole vibe for my stay here has definitely been different than it was in London or Edinburgh. I've met a couple really cool people here, but far fewer than in the other hostels. The hostel is filled with teens from all over that are here for some conference.
There is no accessible USB port on the computer here either, so the pics are still going to have to wait.
Short Update
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Glasgow
Friday, May 18, 2007
Pics from last night
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Random Night
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
More Scotch!
A Little Disappointment
DSC00218
Originally uploaded by msgacy2.
Yesterday was a beautiful day. Went to a couple modern art museums, ate, and then started off on the hostel's pub crawl again. Didn't seem as cool as the prior night's, so I ended up heading to some bar located just below a hostel where I met up with an Australian, Canadian, and then a brother and sister from NC (I swear, I really am trying to meet people from other nations). We went to a couple of the places that had looked really promising, Cabaret Voltaire and Subway, the former was pretty cool, but packed and I don't think I have ever been subjected to more pungent BO, and the latter was playing emo and had a bunch of little kids jumping around. The actual bar was cool, though. Perhaps other nights there will be more my style. It's pretty overcast today. Have to do laundry, then perhaps go do a whisky tasting, and then I'm meeting up with the group from last night for a literary pub crawl.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
First Day in Scotland
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Computer Problems
Thursday night we tried to get into some club, but were turned away because of our "trainers" so we ended up just going to Cheers next door (definitely not my favorite experience of the trip so far). Yesterday i went to Portabello market (lots of vintage clothing) and then Oxford street and then Oxford Street with Eugene (Eugen), until my knee started to really hurt, forcing me to head back to the hostel. Later, had some dinner at a Pub with Curtis (from Pittsburgh) and then we, Eugene, and this woman from Jersey went to Soho. That is definitely my area of town. Went to some cool (but very crowded) Spanish bar, where there was some "blind" guy who was one of the items on a pub crawl scavenger hunt. Think I might have to try something like that next time I get the opportunity. Later, we went to the Roxy, an "Indie Pop" dance club. They played some good music, and I did dance, but it was still a dance club. I'm really hoping that pubs stay open later in Scotland, which I think is going to be my next stop. I need to try to book a hostel after I finish this post (we'll see how well that goes for my procrastinating ass). Later, I will try to go to an internet cafe with decent computers so I can finally upload my pics.