Fact: Dan Loves Irish Girls.

Onward to Dublin!

I arrived along with many other Emerson students, Including Jacki, Darylle (not a boy's name), Lippi, Deven and the wonderful Cait and Kristen. JDLD and I went out to chinese dinner and called it an early night. The next morning we had an excellent Irish breakfast at the hostel and then headed out unto the city. JDLD went to find a Jail, and CK and I went to explore Dublin. We walked over to Trinity College and the Temple Bar area and I fell in love - I don't know if you're aware, but Dan is in love with irish accents on a girl.

 Seriously, when Caitlin was on Heroes, I was a very, very happy man. 

Anyways, after spending time on the campus of Trinity College (and briefly considering transfering...), We went to the guinness storehouse where we ran into - who else? Jacki, Deven and Lippi. Darylle had gone off on her own for a little while, but we had planned to meet for dinner and the ghost tour at 8. After Guiness, JDL and I went to get some amazing food at a little shop called the Queen of Tarts. It was phenomenal - Sweet Potato Bisque followed by dessert... ohhh so good. See the pics on Flickr. ----->

After this, we met up with Darylle again and went on a "GhostBus Tour" of Dublin. They took a double deckered bus and a navigator guided us around the city, showing us the most haunted spots of Dublin for a couple hours. Well worth the 20 Euros we spent, we all had a great time. Afterward we went back to Temple Bar to find a good place for a drink. We took in the local flavor at a pub with live music and around 12 headed back to our hostel. 

The next day, I bid adieu to everyone and spent a few hours on my own in Dublin before heading to the airport. Then  I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited and got on my flight and arrived at my hostel in Paris around midnight. 

But more about that later....

Trust me, It'd be impossible to tell you everything.

From Feb 15th to Feb 25th, We went on our first "Travel Break." Essentially we had 5 days as a group in London, and 5 days on our own to find our way home. I chose to go to Dublin for a couple of days, then to Paris for the next couple days. 

As a result, there's no way to tell you everything I did. Thus, I ask that you look at the pictures in my Flickr Account and allow me to simply tell you the most memorable memories. Think of it as that wild drunk night that you can barely remember - it was fun and amazing and all you can really pick out were those bright flashes of recollections. 

Note to family: The above was a metaphor - It may be legal to drink, but i'm still responsible.

Note to Future Employers: The above was a metaphor - aren't you glad I can use metaphors?

Thursday Night- arrive at the County Hotel. Randomly assigned rooms - they are all tiny and we share communal bathrooms on each floor. Emerson really went all out for us... 

*FLASH*

Friday: Museum visits, Buckingham palace and Donor Kabob. All quite nice. But the real fun was at night, when I saw We Will Rock You - a London-based musical centered around the music of Queen. Who saw the lead guitarist of queen play the solo to Bohemian Rhapsody? THIS GUY. 

The story itself was horrible, but the music and choreography was great. 300 years in the future when music is banned is just a horrible, horrible premise. 

*FLASH* 

Saturday Night: Dropkick Murphys concert with Jacki, Deven, Lippi and Linnea. SO GOOD. One of the greatest concerts i've been to - London has a huge punk scene. 

*FLASH*

Sunday: The Tate Modern - saw some amazing pieces and others that shouldn't be considered art. I'm sorry, but a 8 foot by 10 foot canvas painted all one shade of grey is not artistic. Neither is a single florescent light bulb hanging on a wall. They are simple decoration, at best. 

*Blur of fun and excitement*

Monday: Some amazing indian food, and later a walking tour of London's SoHo - we saw Paul McCartney's Assistant! Or... well, whoever works the front desk at his office. Also saw where Jimi Hendrix played his last show.

Tuesday: The British Library, home of the Magna Carta and various other amazing documents. Last time i got this excited for a Library, i was 7 and checking out over a dozen "young adult" novels at a time.  Then we hopped on a plane and flew to Dublin...

but more about that tomorrow. It's getting pretty late. 

Hungary Hungary Hippos

I can't believe puns have become a common trend in this blog. I apologize to the few readers I have.

Allow me to preface this post with 3 (three) rumors I was told about going to Budapest. 

1.Everything in Budapest is really dirty and they aren't very technologically advanced.

2. The Hungarian Forint is 175:1 with the dollar, so everything will be really cheap. 

3. Gypsies will throw babies at you so you catch the baby, then little children will steal all your money from your pockets. 

  And now, Dan's Journey into Eastern Europe. 

We started around 7, leaving Well for Nijmegen and hopping on a train to Frankfurt. Well... that was the plan. We found out that it was going to be 95 Euros, so we decided to go to Cologne instead for 45. Both had a bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport leaving at 2:30 in the morning, so it didn't matter either way. We arrived in Cologne around 10 or 11 and realized 

Hey, Cologne is AWESOME!

so we spent the next few hours hanging out in Germany - seeing some of the sights within a couple blocks, and just having a good time overall. 

We finally got to the budapest around 9 am the next day, after a lot of traveling and waiting to travel. Kristen, Cait and I traveled to our hostel, planning to meet up with Billy, Sara, Jen, Zander and Emma later that day or over the course of the week. We checked into our hostel, which was a beautiful, renovated flat, and passed out. We were exhausted. We got up a few hours later and walked around in search of a place to get some dinner. We settled on a Hungarian/Italian place, which was pretty good. We only paid 12 dollars each and really had a great time. 

From here we just spent the night exploring and taking it easy - we knew we had 3 days, and didn't want to wear ourselves out. We made plans to meet the others on Saturday, but then we got lost and they got lost and our phones were dead and ... well it didn't work out.  So once again, we set off to explore some more.  We've never been much for the touristy stuff, but we had heard good things about the Hot Baths, so we headed to one nearby and relaxed for a couple hours. 

Rumor #1-  False. Budapest was a beautiful city (mostly). There were plenty of advanced public transportation systems and everything was fairly modernized.

Now, Cait and Kristen will tell you that the baths were creepy and gross, but honestly, they were pretty nice - the main problem was the prominence of all the old guys. There were alot of old guys. However, it was a beautiful place and we enjoyed it. After the baths we headed out to the Labyrinth in hopes of meeting up with the others again, but that didn't work out either. So, the three of us journeyed underground and explored the ancient caverns. 

They were overrated. 

We went to dinner at a nice little cafe and then headed back to the hostel to clean up and relax a little before going out to the clubs. When we got there, we met our new british friends at the hostel - Tom, Joe, Scott, Martin and Adam. We ended up going out to the club with them, which was really quite fun. There was a place called Mammoth, which turned out to be a shopping mall that gets transformed after 10 pm into a HUGE party. There were PLENTY of hot hungarian women. Mish Mish! One downside, the club was free for girls but 3000 forints for guys. 

Rumor #2 - False. Hungary is NOT cheap.  

after getting back at 4 am, we crashed, then woke up again in 4 or 5 hours to go to a different hot bath with the guys. 

Ok, i take my previous statement back - this Bath was sooo much better. there were over a dozen different rooms, each with baths of different temperatures and sizes - plus there were a few that were outside. Yes, despite a lack of photographic evidence, we spent part of our sunday in our bathing suits out in Budapest in the middle of winter.  On top of all that, there were multiple saunas and steam rooms. It was awesome, and this bath put the other one from saturday to shame. 

only 5 baths? Please. 

After a few hours, we bid farewell to our new friends and got some lunch at a hungarian marketplace.  Which reminds me...

Rumor #3 - FALSE. There was no baby throwing, no thieving children. However, one guy did ask me for a piece of my lunch. I nodded yes because that's just how I am.

 Then we went back to our Hostel and crashed - sleep was a must. Our last afternoon was very relaxing - we made some new friends, got some cheap chinese food for dinner, and went to sleep, knowing we'd have to get up early. 

We traveled to the airport around 6 am and got back to the castle around 6 pm just in time for dinner, which we ate with gusto. Fresh food was such a nice change, and we really appreciated having fruits and veggies again. Note - Hungarian produce looked really nasty. Their diet consists of carbs and packaged goods.  Viva the Fresh stuff!

And with that, our weekend came to a close. Tomorrow we'll be going to London for 5 days, then we'll have independent travel. I'll be in Dublin for 2 days, followed by another 2 in Paris - I'm very excited, and you'll hear all about it when I get back. 

Wow, I'm awesome.  

"Many Of You Have Never Opened Chardonnay Under Fire..."

Geneva,  Switzerland. Land of cheese, chocolate and choppy-chops (knives).

Ok, so we left on thursday night, taking an overnight train to Switzerland. We had a few transfers, but when we finally got to Switzerland it was about 9 am. 

  

 - Hold on, I'm leaving something out. OH YEAH!

It's Carnival here, and that means drunken debauchery among the locals. On the way to Geneva, we had an hour layover in Cologne, Germany. If I tried to count all the drunken people in wild outfits... well I would've needed one of those clicker-things. 

107 *Click* 108 *Click*

anyways, it was a little funny to see - halloween in the middle of winter, in the train station. There was music, and old people making out, and laughs all around. Then of course, they followed us onto the train... all million of them. We sat in the dining car for a little while, then I moved up to first class since 2nd was all filled up - Gen and Jenna were less than willing to join me, thinking I'd get kicked out. 

I Did NOT get kicked out. (Victory!)

Anyways, back to Geneva. We wandered the streets for a while after checking into our hostel, Seeing the UN, a couple museums, some sandwich shops, etc.  

Then we realized we'd done more than half of what could be done in Geneva. In 4 hours. 

Anyway, knowing that we'd be staying a whole 'nother day, we decided to take it easy and explore the streets. We found some cool cathedrals, winding streets and basically we enjoyed our days out. The next day we went into the older part of the city and explored more, before Jenna and I had to get back to Amsterdam for a special Sunday edition of my Visual Society class. 

For Class, we went to Amsterdam's photo-museum, FOAM - where they were exhibiting the works of two american photographers - Taryn Simon and Wee Gee. Wee Gee was a prominent photojournalist from the 30's and 40's, specializing in crime scenes - his name derived from his almost paranormal ability to get to the murder scene, often as soon as the cops did. His pictures were pretty amazing - but personally I preferred Taryn's. She did a collection of photos of places across america that were hidden or forbidden to enter. Among many others, she took pictures of the CIA headquarters, a nuclear test site in Nevada, and a Zoo where they had an inbred white tiger. There was even a letter from Disneyland politely declining her entry to the underground tunnels, stating that they wished to preserve the magic for everyone.  Furthermore, her photos were so vibrant, so colorful and full of life... it was truly impressive. 

to see more of her work, go Here

From here we traveled unto the coveted "Red Light District" of Amsterdam, learning about prostitution at a center devoted to education about the sex workers industry. No Dad, it was NOT first hand experience. 

From here, I took a train back to the castle and arrived around 8 o'clock, just in time to go out again for carnival at the linden. I was dressed in a costume of my own, of course, and I looked damned good. 

Overall, another successful weekend. 

Don't forget, Dan's adventures in Hungary next week - same Dan Time, same Dan Channel. 

(Time and Channel subject to change.)

 

Don't forget to comment!

"Brew-Jehzz" "Brooj" or "Breh-heh"

Soooooo Part 2 - Bruges. See above for possible pronunciations, depending on your dialect. 

We took a lazy morning for ourselves on Saturday, getting up around 9, going out at 10. For those of you giggling at the idea of 10 am being a lazy morning for yours truly... Shush. 

We started by walking around, snapping photos and playing tourist - we went to the Market square and the Burg, another open area nearby. We used one of our hostel maps to find the oldest bar in Bruges, dating back to the 16th century, but they were closed for holiday until february. (Frowny Face) still, we found a decent place for lunch, Only 1 euro for a bowl of soup and about 6 for a HUGE bowl of spaghetti bolognese.  I wasn't hungry, so the soup and a coke was all i needed. 

Side note - There's NO way to get a free drink in europe. Seriously, they don't do the American free glass of water thing. It's pretty frustrating for a poor college kid. 

Anyways, from here Cait, Kristen and I decided to try to rent some bikes to see more of the city. Thaaaaat didn't work out. We ended up walking for half an hour to a place that was closed. From there we blew off the idea of bikes and walked through a nice little park area. We ended up in a residential area and suddenly thought

 "Hm! Waffles would be awesome right now!"

So we whipped out our trusty map and followed it to De Straat, where there were supposed to be many waffle stands. They claimed the smell wafted into the open air a block away. So away we went. On our journey, we stopped at a little bakery, got some pastries. I know, pastries on the way to waffles? we laughed too.  We moved onward to find a cool looking cathedral being renovated. We went inside, and got weirded out by some room in the back that looked like it came from the Da Vinci Code. They had several strings hanging from ceiling to floor with white feathers attached to them, and some sort of diagram of a face and numbers and regions of the face in the front of the room - overall, very strange. From here we left, stopped again at a little fruit stand where we found some AWESOME apples - Pink Lady and Kanzi, I believe. When we finally got to our destination, we found that we had been deceived. there were NO stands to be found. 

We did, however, find a place called "Sweet Bruges." For the record, never ever ever ever go to a restaurant with the name of the city you're in and expect something authentic. The place was full of tourists, we were ushered to a table and given menus. The waffles were twice as expensive and when we finally got them, they were nowhere near as good as the first waffles we had purchased.

 The metaphor that best fits is that the first waffles we had were like true love - it was authentic and left me with a warm feeling inside. Meanwhile, these waffles were like watching a chick flick - the "Love" was crunchy, overdone, and halfway through, I only kept going out of an obligation to the money I had spent. 

After our Lame-ffles, we met back up for dinner at 6 with Jenna and Genny. We ended up at a sorta-italian place, the food wasn't too bad. After all this we decided to go back to the hostel for a little, because we heard the nightlife didn't really get going until about 11.

At around 10, we headed out to some of the bar/clubs near Market Square. We ended up having a great time at one called Cathedraak, which had 2 levels, semi-gothic decorations and was clearly sponsored by Bacardi. Our numbers grew as we found more emerson people, but dwindled again later. Eventually around 2 we headed back to the hostel and went to sleep. 

We woke up on sunday, got some breakfast at a very nice (but overpriced), authentic place. I got some crepes, but the waffles were really, really good. Not as good as brussels, but very good nonetheless. Afterward we hopped on our trains/busses and made our way home by 4. 

Overall, it was a great weekend and we're all looking forward to more adventures. Next week I'll be headed to Geneva, Switzerland!

Belgians really know Waffles

This weekend marked our first weekend out in Europe. Technically, our weekend started on Wednesday with American Night at one of the nearby bars. We got the chance to hang out, drink (responsibly) and really bond as a group. Then, after my one class on thursday and dinner at 6, Kristen, Cait, Genevieve, Jenna and I hopped onto a bus to Venlo, and then a train to Brussels. After arriving at 12:30 am, we realized that their "Tram" was no longer running. After being pursued by a crazy lady -  "Is Capital, Is Capital!" - we ran up the escalator and hailed a couple cabs nearby. One spoke english, so we had the other driver follow him and we arrived at our first hostel around 1. The 5 of us shared a room, but unfortunately there had been a 6th guy asleep when we arrived. We got ready all stealth-like, but no one could have anticipated the super squeaky bed frames. poor sleeping guy. 

Fast Forward to the next morning.

We went into the city pretty early, walked around and experienced the culture. We went to see the Manikin Pis (Peeing Boy) Fountain, which is exactly what it sounds like. The legend is a man lost his child in a crowd, only to find him peeing on a fire at the city walls. Supposedly it was set to burn the entire city, but in putting it out, the boy was a hero. It's a pretty awesome story, even though I doubt its truth. 

But the best part of this street was right next door, at a little waffle stand, where I tasted the most amazing Waffle ever. Really, it was like heaven - Warm and crispy and soft and fluffy inside.... ooh so good. From here we continued to walk around, we gazed at the Grand Palace, which is now a super-ritzy hotel, and eventually got some overpriced sandwiches for lunch. 

Later, we headed to the chocolate museum for 4 euros - it was pretty interesting, definitely worth the money, and we even got some free chocolate out of it. We spoke to a chocolatier who taught us how she makes pralines. Yum.

Anyyyways, we walked some more, saw a few cathedrals, and then headed to the Atomium - a giant Atom built for the world fair in the 50's - be sure to check out the photos to see it, as well as the view from the top. 

From here we took the train out to Brugges and checked into our hostel. We were all very hungry, and eventually settled on an amazing Greek place called "El Greco." Oh man... so good. I almost want to go to greece JUST for the food. Afterward, we went out to a bar, tried a belgian beer, then called it an early night around 12:30. 

To Be Continued.

In the Bathroom, European.

It's the first monday after arriving the Castle, and already I can happily say that everything is amazing.

Now, a quick recap - On Thursday I woke up in my swanky boston hotel room at 4 AM, after passing out after a small soup and pita chips dinner at 6 the night before. I chilled, talked to Kirk since he was the only one online at the time, and eventually got up and ready for everything. A little before 9, I lugged my 100+ pounds of bags to the lobby of Emerson's Little Building. 

    "Luggage" finally makes sense to me. 

Anyways, from here, we sat around hearing about what exactly was going to happen in the next 24 hours. Then we got a 90 minutes to take care of some last minute things, so I decided to walk around boston a bit. I stopped in for lunch at a place called B. Goode, a specialty hamburger place on Newbury street. Everything is handmade, and it was pretty good, although I don't think I'd get that particular burger again. It certainly wasn't as good as 5 Guys. 

After that, we had a brief time-killer lecture about Anne Frank and Edie... Edie something. The name escapes me and Google isn't helping right now.  Anyways, then we went to the airport, got on the plane, where I promptly fell asleep. Thank god I was still on Israeli time, it saved me from jet lag. 

After another 3 hour bus ride, we arrived at the Castle gates and it finally hit me - I'm in Europe! 

The last few days have been a mix of orientation, meeting people/socializing, getting accustomed to our new home. It's a freakin' castle. When I got here, I didn't quite know what to expect, but its truly amazing. I think I'll go take some pictures between my classes tomorrow, just to capture the essence of the Kasteel in all its glory. 

Oh right! Today we had our first classes. I woke up at 9, got showered, got a small breakfast and went to Art History: Renaissance at 10. It's amazing how Duckers (the Duke) is able to make it all so clear and engaging at the same time.  Then after lunch at 11:30, it was time for Literary Foundations with Karen Lindsay - another very cool teacher. She clearly knows what she's talking about and loves her job and what she teaches, which is always awesome to see. Then after a 15 minute break, it was time for Intercultural Communication with Chester Lee. This class seems interesting, but I don't feel like Chester is as knowledgeable as Rob and Karen were. Still, the class isn't pointless.  My only other NEW class is Visual society, which I have for 3 and a half hours tomorrow - fortunately there's a break for dinner from 6:15 - 7:00. 

So that's my life right now. American Dan is ready to see the world.