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.

I'm movin' on up (maybe)

I had another interview today that resulted in my landing a 'try-out shift' tomorrow night. It's at Atrium, an upscale place that has twice been voted the best restaurant in Edinburgh--a bit of an adjustment from dirtwoods. I also (finally) picked up the keys for the flat, though I unfortunately had to go over there twice as no one was there the first time. Consequently, I haven't had the opportunity to move my stuff over there yet--I'll probably just wait until tomorrow.

Found a job (maybe, sorta)

Today, I finally went into this place where I've been meaning to apply for a few days, and I scored a 3 hour, unpaid 'tryout' shift on Friday. I know it sounds a little sketchy, but at this point, whatever. I 'move' into that flat tomorrow, though I'm not really looking forward to the actual moving part. It's been pretty nice not really having to pack up for for the past week and a half (though I did have to change rooms here a couple days ago). I also went ahead and booked a week in another hostel for when I have to leave the flat. That's really about it. I've had another pretty mellow day today.

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.

Screw the busses in Edinburgh

I'm still in the process of looking for a job, having submitted well over 20 CVs to various bars around here. So far, I'm not having much luck, but I'm not too worried (yet).

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.

Blah

This was going to be short anyways, but since I already wrote it out once before Explorer took a crap on me, it is going to be especially so. I've decided that I definitely did not give myself enough time to find a job, so I am going to try to reschedule my flight for the 27th at the earliest. If I don't find a job by then, I'm going to have to head home as my credit cards are not holding up all that well, especially not in the UK. I walked around New Town today, and though I only found one place to hand in my CV, I did send out at least seven through email today. Later tonight, I am going to go to what I believe to be (and have pretty much been told is) the biggest dive in Edinburgh, as they are hiring right now.

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!

Who knew . . .

Looking for a job sucks. So far, I've turned in 4 CVs (yeah, bars here expect CVs from applicants), and am about to go back out and hand in a few more. I'm starting to think that it's going to take longer than I gave myself, so I'll have to call the airline and see what I can do about my ticket.

(Finally) Back in Edinburgh

Had another relatively hellish trip. When I was booking my flight back to the UK, some Brits assured me that there would be trains running to Edinburgh all night. I assumed that they knew what they were talking about and didn't bother to double check to make sure that I had time to make it from the airport to the train station to Edinburgh before things stopped running for the night. I got to King's Cross Station about 3 hours after the last train of the night to Edinburgh had left. I ended up spending a total of 6 hours in very cold, damp train stations this morning.
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.

Back to Edinburgh

I´ve spent the past two nights in Zagreb, which has been a decent experience. The people here are definitelz nicer than in Budapest or Belgrade. My first night in, the owner was absolutely no help with info on places to go, or even how to get into the main part of town. All she had to help me was a small map showing the locations of other hotels and hostels (which I seriously considered using), and a map showing the ?bars?around the hostel. Of course, they consisted of a cafe that was closed at that point. Last night was better as several people were having a joint birthday BBQ--I ate a lot of meat and then later, we went to this big party on the football field outside the student dorms.

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).

Cyrillic Sucks!

Got into Belgrade last night and went out with a couple of the people from the hostel and some some girl who lives here. Went to get snacks and then to a pretty cool club/boat on the river for a while. Met some locals who showed me around a little bit (and pretty much forced me to smoke a couple Lucky Strikes too). Went to this cool park, Kalemegdan, which is right by my hostel, but because the street signs are all in Cyrillic and my map was in Latin, navigation was pretty much impossible. It ended up taking me 40 + minutes to make my way back to the hostel.

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.

Back at the hostel

Just got back from Szimpla (again). God, I love that place. Met this cool couple, Simon and Veronica, a couple running a business flying people from the UK into Hungary for dental work. Played foose (?) ball for the first time and scored the winning goal. Tomorrow is my last full day in Budapest before I head over to Belgrade. Still haven't decided where I'm headed from there as I've had a hell of a time trying to arrange transpo from my preferred places back to Edinburgh.

Budapest

So far, Budapest has been a bit mixed. I have definitely met some friendly people here, but also some of the rudest that I have yet encountered. I spent yesterday walking around with Dee from the hostel in Prague and Kate. We went to check out the castle and then Kate and I checked out a Cathedral, but today will be my first day really exploring the city on my own. I have spent the last two nights at Szimpla, which has to be my favorite bar ever. It has that chill, Casey's sort of vibe, but a good mix of nationalities hanging out there, and the actual building itself is awesome. It is down some small side street in a rather dilapidated building with this awesome central courtyard with two bars off to either side and a nice terrace above.

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.

Last full day in Prague

Today is my last full day in Prague and it has been quite uneventful. Got back to the hostel around 4:00 this morning and then went back out to this afterparty for the White Party (some upposedly 30,000 person rave) at 8:00. I had started off the night on this pub crawl organized by a couple of Americans who have been over here about a year and a half. It was about as exciting as I had expected, but I did meet a few cool people, smoked a couple cloves (first time in about a decade), and then broke off and headed out with Jason, this Canadian lawyer staying at the hostel. I've been hurting a bit today and was just going to take it easy and do my laundry. Unfortunately, the laundromat had closed by the time I finally made it there. Right now, I'm just at this cool coffee shop, Coffee and Cigars, having an espresso and dinner.

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)

I've been in Prague since Monday and will be leaving for Budapest on Monday, where it so happens that I will be meeting back up with this one Aussie staying in my room here. Was in Brussles for two days before, which was, for the most part, a big pain in the ass. I didn't bother checking train times before I booked the flight and ended up seriously screwing myself: my flight was out of London Heathrow at 2:00 pm and there were no trains out of Manchester early enough to get me there on time, so I had to leave at 10:00 pm the night before. There was a 7 hour window between my train into one station and the first one out of it, which I figured I could wait out there. Unfortunately, the station closed as soon as I arrived, so I walked around for a bit and then waited in a nearby outdoor bus station for a couple hours, but started to get a bit concerned for my safety by 2:30 or so. I decided that I should go ahead and just buy a ticket on a bus for at least part of my trip. Found a bus headed to the airport and while they didn't have any tickets to sell me, they went ahead and let me on anyway. Tried to tip the driver for the free ride afterwards, but he wouldn't accept any money. I got to the airport around 5:00 am and waited for my flight. Finally got into Brussels and walked around for a good two hours before I could find the damned tram to my hostel. When I finally got on, I had some guy try to pick my pocket, but either he wasn't particularly good at it, or my tight ass jeans made it really difficult. I finally arrived at my hotel about 9:00 pm (that's 23 hours after I left Manchester), which was located in a ghetto primarily inhabited by (what appeared to be) Middle Easterners who weren't particularly fond of me. I went out to get a snack and within 2 minutes had some guy shouting (I think) "I'm Bin Laden, I'm Bin Laden" at me. Needless to say, I didn't go out that night and made sure I was back at the hotel before nightfall the following day. The central part of the city was very cool, though, and very pedestrian friendly: very wide sidewalks and all the major streets had wide, tree lined medians with walkways making them resemble small parks between the two directions of traffic. I stopped and had a few beers at some sidewalk cafes there.

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.