Zwolle Continued . . .

We spent our first day in Zwolle getting obliterated. We started drinking at 4 in the afternoon. But because it doesn't get dark until 11:30pm, people in Zwolle start partying at midnight. So, Tommy and i decided to maintain inebriation until then. I don't really remember much of what went on that night. Zach says that he saw me dancing on the bar at the Flying Horse Saloon. Which brings me to the . . . Flying Horse Saloon. FHS is a massive bar with over seven rooms. There are two stories of victorian themed rooms that have a bar in each. This place was perfect for traveling students looking for a good time. They serve mostly cheap domestic beers; like i said, perfect (The euro destroys the American dollar. We're on a budget). Zwolle's nightlife was much better than some of the large cities we visited, including Paris. Because Zwolle is smaller, it's easier to navigate through the town; you just have to sit still and listen for screaming girls and Dutch drinking chants.

Vito's, Flying Horse Saloon, and Dutch Girls in Little Spaces: Zwolle, Holland on a Shoestring

We were told by a plethora of Dutchmen that Zwolle is boring, small, and not worth our time. But we had to go; we had already booked our tickets in advance. Plus, we were meeting up with Jalmar, a guy we went to highschool with, an exchange student. We hadn't seen him in 5 years. Our itinerary was concrete. So, we decided to make the best of it. Besides, we had our space cakes and bottle of scotch; we were prepared for anything - apocalypse and ecetera. Being inebriated makes the time pass quickly.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Jalmar and his younger sister, Ester. I expected zwolle to be a rural community full of farmers and incestuous clutter, but it was actually a perfect picture town. There are over 115,000 people that live in Zwolle. There is even a unniversity. The architecture is mostly old ducth to medievil to gothic. Zwolle is famous for the folly stand between the Germans and some frecnh vagabond. Story has it that a lone frenchmen stood in a field in Zwolle and scared off thousands of German soldiers. He made lots of noise and acted as if he was part of a larger company. There's a statue of this frenchmen in the middle of center square that collects pigeon poop and rust. Zwolle is actually the cleanest place we visited in Europe. Paris was probably the worst; we saw piles of human feces on sidewalks, and the city always smelled of urine, much like rock werchter but without the excuse of musical celebration and adolescent debauchery.

From the train station Jalmar escorted us to his girlfriend's apartment where we would be staying. Jalmar was very excited to see us. He had the whole day planned, which was great. In Amsterdam, because we knew absolutely no one, we had a hard time finding things to do, outside of drinking coffee and window shopping the Red Light District. Jalmar was on a schedule, and he had activities for every moment of the day. He assumed that we might be hungry after our travels, so he took us to Vito's. Now this place was amazing. Vito's is a sandwhich shop in the middle of downtown. Everyone in Zwolle goes to Vito's. They specialized in exotic sandwhiches, and pretty anything you choose is worth the 6 euro. I had the pastrami sandwhich with Kreuton sauce. Amazing. Anyways after Vito's we went back to the apartment and started to drink, Dutch style. They had grolsch beers waiting for us. We decided to introduce them to Bricko the beer bong. We made Bricko in Brussels, in some hardware store downtown. We just made him in the store and left, only paying for the funnel. We went through 0ver a hundred beers in three day with Bricko. Like the Flemmish, the Dutch were scared of Bricko.
to be continued . . .

Dissolving the Rural Romance: The Night Life in Amsterdam and Zwolle, Holland:

Amsterdam: The enigmatic world of burlesque, fantasy, and inebriation. Arriving into Holland, we had our expectations. Everyone's heard the stories, the quixotic Dutch novel. Being a bartender, you hear plenty of college tales of Holland's poster community. We had our expectations. The train station sits near the beach, in the middle of the city. We found a Hotel ten minutes from the central station, adjacent to the Red Light District. Practically across the street from Hunter's coffee shop. So, what else is there to do but . . . have some . . . coffee! We pretty much did that all day, sitting in cafes and drinking coffee, pints of it. We passed out around seven and didn't wake up until 11:00am the next morning. What a sleep! That's about all there is to do in Amsterdam. That's about all we did. We walked through the Red Light District, saw the hookers (50 euro , saw a live sex show (totally not worth it). Amsterdam is fun, don't get me wrong. But it gets old after a while.

Rock Werchter, Leuven County, Brussels, Belgium 2008!

From Paris we took a train to Brussels. We were really excited about Rock Werchter. RW is an annual music festival they have in Leuvan, Belgium. People claim it's the largest festival in the world. Basically Leuven, a town with a population of about a hundred or so, is filled with over 300,000 people in a four day interim. There are 7-10 campsites, we liked to call tent cities. It was pretty amazing to see. there were thousands of tents aligning the main street, called "Ulicht" or some flemmish word for camp site. Most of the people at the festival spoke flemmish, the national language of belgium. And, of course, we had no clue as to what the hell they were talking about. We met a guy named Sam, from Brussels, that sounded mentally challenged when he spoke English, but apperantly he's a teacher in Midi, Northern Brussels. Plus i don't think we spoke to him when he was sobre. They smoke a lot of pot in Belgium.
Belgium is a very interesting place; the people are very strange. Leuven just so happens to be a famous historical town. During WWII, there was a battle in the fields outside of the city between the Nazis and, well, everyone else. I'm sure we slept on those very same fields. It was a very ominous place. Great place to have a music festival, right? To think, i did a beer bong where maybe thousands of soldiers died. Sort of trivializes the experience. Ironically, the festival centers around this "think green idea." Most of the proceeds go to environmentally safe organizations and what not. But everyone was throwing their trash on the ground. The place was filthy. People were shitting behind fences. Vomit was everywhere. All you can smell is this overwhleming scent of bile, urine, and marijuana. . . . it was a blast! Ha. Well, it was all right. I was sort of dissapointed with everything. The highlight was definitely the music. Some artists to mention that absolutely rocked our cocks off: band of horses (amazing), cool kids(very fun live, they get the crowd roaring), Hot chip, digitalism, kings of leon (one of the best musical perfomances i've ever seen), Jay-Z (was actually amazing, believe it or not), Justice, Sigor Ros, and last but not least Radiohead. We scored some of Belgiums finest spirits and . . . ummm . . . plants . . . for sigor ros, and i have to admit, that was one of best musical experiences i've ever had. Radiohead and Justice were sort of dissapointing. Justice messed up on a lot of their mixes; their transitions were off, and they over-played "we are your friends." Radiohead was, to put it bluntly, boring. I've seen them live, and i know they can rile the crowd. But they chose to play an overly melodic set. What was most dissapointing about their performance was their song choices. They played every song from their new album and about two or three others from hail to the thief, that's it. Seeing as Amnesiac and ok computer are my favorite albums from them, i was let down pretty hard. ALso, they concluded the show with the song "everything," the one song I dislike from the entire radiohead anthology. Ha. O well. On to AMsterdam . . . more to come.

Paris, Rock Werchter 2008, and Amsterdam!

I'm sorry i haven't written in a while; i was at a music festival where there was limited access to the internet. Anyways, first things first: Paris. I have to say, initially the three of us were intimidated by Paris. We've heard the horror stories- the bushisms, the nationalism, the premature Parisian judgment. But everyone was really nice to us(exceptionally nice). our first night was spent lounging, we had to detox; Spain took everything out of me. just imagine a full week of non-stop drinking. we would wake-up and grab beers from the downstairs vending machines(they were only a euro, and they were Amstel cans - sweet deal). Also, they have Budweiser, but they call it "Bud" and it's expensive. Spain was pure madness, so we were excited to relax in Paris. we saw all of Paris in one day, and i must say, Paris is a beautiful city. later that night, we all agreed that we would only have one beer.before you know it, it's six in the morning and Zach is throwing-up, Tommy is missing,and making out with some aussie me met in the hostel bar.one beer led to eight, and so on.to be continued... someone's waiting for the computer.

Asta Lavista Espana!

After a gruelling day in madrid, we headed for Valencia. Madrid, although very rich in history and culture, lacks a certain hospitality that we were all expecting. But Valencia was totally different. even the architecture. and, oh my god are the women beautiful. some People still seem to give us a hard time, but we have made the best of it. we´ve met a plethora of internaional students in the hostels, and have found the best clubs and bars. we are partying a lot. we´re spending about a hundred euro a night on booze. but we have found some alternatives to spending so much. at the local groceries they sell gallon jugs of wine for three euro. we took some to the beach the other day, we we´re passed out by 8. so far the best highlight of the trip was when spain won the semifinals for the eurocup. there was a huge celebration downtown. we decided to join them, and we found ourselves surrounded by thousands of spanish people. they were lighting off fireworks and smoking a lot of hash. these things don´t happen in the states. when the L.A. lakers won the finals a few years back, los angeles citizens rioted the city, looting and setting things a blaze. being here shows that nationalism exists outside of our force-fed american patriotism. parents were with their children until four in the morning, celebrating their countries victory.
i´m off to paris. i´ll get back to you soon.

mile high anxiety

flying to europe was . . . interesting. we tried to get drunk but the stewardess ran out of the free wine. we amused ourselves with the animal guessing game. when we arrived in madrid we were anxious, but drowsy. it took us almost three hours to navigate through the metro. madrid is massive and very confusing. when we found our hostel we were greeted by a young and vexed spanish girl. she was arguing with an aussie about a deposit.she was a babe, but she was not nice. spoke ver little english, and had a short temper. i am out of time at this cafe. i will be on soon. thanks. we just got here, so i am a bit tired.