Amsterdam

So after a quick 3 day turn around from London, my flatmate and I were off to Amsterdam. I didn't really know what to expect from Amsterdam. The only rumors of the city I'd heard were off the Red Light District, hookers, and coffeshops. We met up with Eddie, a fellow DU, and his friends at the airport. From there we walked the city in search of our hostel. It was my first hostel experience and I wasn't expecting much. We got a very good price for the night which made me even more suspicious. Despite my worries the hostel was much better than expected. Our little group set out into the night to find some good ol' Amsterdam fun. We met up with another of Eddie's friend and bar hopped most the night. We had our first walk through the Red Light District which was pretty strange. The next day we had to move to another hostel for the remainder of the trip. Another pleasant surprise as this hostel had the BEST shower I've had in Europe. We went to the Anne Frank and Van Gogh museums, both of which were very interesting and generally a good time. I'm not a huge museum fan unless the exhibit is quite interactive or something different, but every museum we went to in Amsterdam left me satisfied. The free tour of the city was also something everyone should do. Our guide was Australian Amy and she was great. We left halfway through the 3 hour tour to grab some french fries. The vendors sell huge cones of fresh fried french fries and soak them in mayo and ketchup. Mayo sounded gross but I became mildly obsessed with them. We went on these very touristy but worth it bar crawls in both Leidseplein and the Red Light District. They were fairly inexpensive and you got into 5 or 6 bars/clubs without cover. They also succeed in showing you a good time as everyone was pretty drunk and lost by the time it ended. I never walked so much as I did in Amsterdam. On Saturday we went to the Sex Museum which was incredible. Maybe I'm just immature but the entire time I was laughing uncontrollably and taking pictures. There were some things you just couldn't make up. I stopped taking pictures when I realized no one else was taking pictures. Felt like a weirdo after that but I got some gems. Upon return to our lovely hostel, the Marnix, we found we had new roommates. They were these two guys from Mexico City. The one guy's suitcase had been lost by the airline for a week so he had been in his same clothes for a while. They brought two bottles of the best tequila I've ever tasted so we decided they were cool. That night was blurry (tequila, come on!) to say the least but another great time. The next day we went to the Heinekin Experience. This was the best museum/tour I've ever been on. It was very interactive and marketed Heinekin incredibly. We left and went directly to buy a Heinekin mini keg for the night. Unfortunately we couldn't read the Dutch instructions that said the keg needed to be chilled for 8 hours. We drank foam that night which was very disappointing. Our last day we hung out in our go-to coffeeshop and then walked through this great park. Everything was in bloom and it was 50 and sunny. In the end Amsterdam surpassed my expectations as a gorgeous city with much, much more to offer than hookers and weed. It was a great trip filled with french fries, falafels, museums, and good times. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all and to all a good night.

London

So it has been a month and a half since I updated. I apologize to the loyal fans of this exceptional blog site. I have done a ton in the days since I last posted so I will split it up into multiple posts. The third weekend in February I visited my good friend, Mark McDaid in London. Not having an international phone turned out to be a significant problem on this trip. From the airport to Mark's house I was instructed to take 2 trains and a bus, but he was going to meet me halfway at Clapham Junction, the busiest rail station in Britain. Since I didn't have a phone we set a time and hoped for the best. Unfortunately my plane was delayed about an hour and it took another hour to get through Gatwick's ridiculous customs. By the time I got to Clapham I couldn't find Mark so I took the next train. About an hour later I stumbled up to his address at 2 a.m. Too bad Mark was still at Clapham. It was a pretty exhausting adventure for the both of us but the next day was beautiful out and I was blown away by London. I expected a good time but just walking through the city and seeing the famous landmarks impressed me more than any city I've been to. Friday night got a little wild. Me, Mark, and 3 of his girlfriends pregamed in his house and 4 bottles later were on a train to On Anon. As soon as we got there the bouncer said Mark looked too drunk. We were all drunk but no one was in a bad state so we went to another couple clubs and danced all night. Coming home we got lost on a bus and wound up at Wimbledon at 6 am. A long taxi ride and we were finally home. The next day Mark didn't get out of bed until dinner time but we still rallied and had a fun night at local bars in Twickenham. On Sunday we went to Camden Market. The market was yet another awesome part of London. The only bad part was my choice of lunch for the day. We all decided on these amazing looking fajitas. The guy working the stand decided parmesan cheese was cool on a fajita. Uh no. They were terrible. Considering I didn't finish mine, I love fajitas, and I never ever don't finish a meal should put some perspective on how unappetizing they really were. That said, a bad fajita couldn't ruin this amazing weekend. My host couldn't have shown me a better time and the city was beautiful. The Tuesday after I returned from London was moving day. I decided to move into a shared flat with some people I had met. My other place was closer to school and living on my own I never had to be fully clothed but the building itself was dead and a little depressing. So far the decision has been a success. On Thursday I turned around and flew to Amsterdam with one of my new flatmates, but more about that trip later. 2 songs I've been lovin on are Your Touch by the Black Keys and Walking On A Dream by Empire of the Sun. Hope everyone reading this is doing well. Miss you all and enjoy St. Patty's day.

Switzerland/France (cheese, wine, chocolate)

By the time I get around to updating this I usually forget all the interesting details. Switzerland was the tits. Went with a New Zealander named Steve. We stayed at his friend Monique's house. And by house I mean her host family/ nazi slave driver's place. They were in Paris for the week and she had some horror stories about the kids and mom. She had decided to leave while they were on their vacation and move in with her Dad in Wales. Anyway before they left she said a friend would be painting the house all week and NO ONE was supposed to stay in the house. Of course Monique failed to mention this until we arrived. Between dodging the painter we took tours at CERN (biggest particle accelerator on the planet), the UN, and drove to the tallest peak in Europe, Mont Blanc. Our tour guide was a physicist named Bill Murray. Bill was a guy who probably couldn't tie his own shoes but new how to smash electrons together to try and find antimatter. I could tell he was running numbers in his head the whole time. The perfect tour guide for the occasion. On the tour some annoying Asian guy who thought he knew everything (he knew nothing) asked how far the other detection site was. Mr. Murray calmly answered 27 over pi kilometers away. It didn't register to me that he meant the circle was 27 km in circumference so the diameter was 27/pi (obvious right?). I thought he was talking about some town. After the tour we had a fondue dinner. I've never eaten so much melted cheese in my life. I paid dearly for this the next day but the dinner was well worth it. We rented a car but missed the bus to the airport to pick it up so we hitchhiked. I didn't think the 3 of us had a chance, but 5 minutes later we were sitting in a French girls car. It was my favorite part of the trip. We got the car and drove to Chamonix/Mont Blanc. Deciding it was a good idea to sleep in the car, a Fiat Panda, we went out in Chamonix and had a blast. Everyone was down to party and the bars were real cool. All three of us were pretty drunk when we realized it was 20 degrees and the car was the size of a microwave. Next time I'll pony up the cash and get a hostel but oh well. Anything for the adventure. The drive back in the morning was gorgeous. We drove through mountains for hours and along the coast of Lake Geneva. We stopped at a couple bakeries and chocolate shops along the way. I've never had so much good wine, chocolate, and cheese in my life. After we returned the car we spent some time in Geneva and saw the sites. We went in this fur coat shop and I thought it was a good idea to put on a 26,000 dollar fur coat. The owner of the place was about to call the cops so we bounced. Every store we went in to, the workers just stared us down until we left. For good reason I guess since everything was ridiculously pricey. Anyway me and Steve took a midnight bus to the airport and slept there until our flight at 5 a.m. Taxis were about 40 euro so we decided to skip it. Paid off since I spent the extra cash at the Duty Free shop on cheap Absolut and Swiss Chocolate. All in all it's good to be back in the CPH. Apologies for the book of a post.

Copenhagen Round 1

Well clearly this blog is a self fulfilling prophecy. I knew I wouldn't keep it updated often so apologies for all you people dying to know what's happening with me and my super interesting life. Copenhagen has been amazing so far. The people are awesome and as friendly as they come. The Danish class I am taking is also fun, but the language is impossible. They only pronounce half the letters in the words which makes learning the language hard. Not too mention the Chicago accent I'm told I have makes me sound ridiculous speaking Danish. I'm excited for real classes to start so a bunch of German kids can't snicker at me saying Hi my name is Patrick in Danish. Nah the kids in my class are awesome, we laugh so much it makes the lessons bearable. There are 3 Germans, a Russian, a New Zelander, a Canadian, a Lithuanian, a Polish girl, 5 Americans, and 2 Italians. Lots of different languages being spoken all the time but they all speak great English too. Last night was the first International party at the Student Bar and almost everyone went. It was awesome seeing all the shy kids in class let loose a little. I of course let loose a lot and succeeded in being the funny dancing American. Needless to say today's class smelled like a brewery. Everyone was useless and with our test a week away the teacher wasn't too pleased. We tried to explain to her that it was inevitable and in my case she was pretty darn lucky I made the trek to hear her babble for 3 hours. Stories are always a side effect of going out so here goes. I got super lost and wandered the streets of Copenhagen for about an hour last night. I actually enjoyed it until I realized how tired I was and I was probably walking farther away from my place. I lost all dignity and called a cab. The bar was awesome and as always I was a dancing fiend. I blew the Danes away with my dance moves. I left in search of fast food and realized 24 hour McD's are purely American. I just wanted a damn McChicken so bad. No wonder everyone in Denmark is in good shape. They can't gorge on fast food at 4 in the morning and they zoom around on bikes all the time. Unfortunately my favorite part of bikes, seeing insane bike accidents, rarely happens. Nothing is funnier then seeing a guy get trucked by an Asian girl flying to class in CU. Oh well you can't have everything. I have been putting off my homework for about 5 hours now so I'm going to have to get on that. Hope everyone enjoyed their X-mas breaks.

Copenhagen

I arrived in Copenhagen on the 1st not knowing where I was living or if anyone was meeting me at the airport. I didn't have a phone or any Danish money. Pretty well prepared otherwise. I had a terrible hangover and probably looked like a bum who hadn't shaved in a week. The night before me, Mark, and his two crazy girl cousins went to a club called Earth in Derry. We waited in the "cue" for about an hour before getting into the most crowded place I'd ever been. I was fairly sober and so was Mark. He had planned on not getting drunk because of the long ride we had at 5:30 in the morning the next day. Well I warned him that wouldn't last long and sure enough 4 or 5 Goldschlager shots later we were both feeling a lot better about the night. We lost his cousins immediately but found our Ulster Project friend Catherine and her friends. We basically took shots in between songs as we danced for 4 hours. Not a good idea when I was flying the next day but I slept the whole car ride with Eamonn (Mark's uncle) and Mark. Eventually on my own in the Dublin airport I felt completely lost. The place was a zoo because they had gotten like 2 millimeters of snow and had canceled tons of flights. 2 mm! It was a joke. Every worker in the airport was too hungover to be helpful and I waited in hours of lines but finally got on my flight. Again I slept the whole time and after I got my bags I went to leave and this girl was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. Her name was Nina and was awesome. She had my key to the apartment that I had no clue was reserved for me until July. Once I unpacked and got my apartment set up I was once again lost. Still no phone, no internet, no money etc so I did what I do best, I slept. I slept from around 5:30 pm to 11:30 am the next day. I guess I needed it. Then I explored the city, got a cell phone, outlet converter and groceries. After that I had nothing to do and no one to talk to so I read a 500 page book. Seriously all I did was read for hours. Now it's Sunday the 3rd and I'm in an Internet Gaming Facility. Didn't know they existed but it's the only place with internet. It's filled with criminal looking guys and a handful of 7 year olds playing World Of Warcraft. So scary so I'm gonna end there and get the hell out of here. Pretty boring first days in CPH I gues, but class starts tomorrow so hopefully I'll have more interesting stories.

Jetlag+Hangover=Bed

Title explains most of whats happened the first day in Derry. The folks I'm staying with are amazing. I get asked if I want tea or a cookie about every 30 seconds. They are just about the nicest two people I've met in a while. Not much has happened in Derry yet but meet Mark's family, eat GOOD food, and go to Christmas mass in a beautiful, old cathedral. Honestly, the food here has been amazing so far. Mark's aunt is the cook for the priests at their church and I think they are spoiled if they eat what she makes everyday. So much for corned beef and cabbage (see photo above for my xmas meal).

First Post/Flight

So I made a blog and it isn't very much like me to let people know what's going on in my head so we'll see how it goes. I guess I'll start with a story from the flight. Probably pretty typical but this wasn't any ordinary flight. Started off pretty boring and when I found out you had to pay for alcohol on international flights now I wasn't expecting much fun. Thanks a lot Bin Laden. The Hangover was the inflight movie btw. Anyway I was cursing Delta when a guy in a suit sat down next to me speaking in the ugliest sounding brogue I've ever heard. I couldn't understand a word he said to me for the first 10 minutes. I told him my story and he handed me his business card. Brendan Keyes Soccer Academy. Turns out the guy was an MLS soccer player for years and now had a management and soccer training company based in Houston. He also had a son, Cam, who sat in front of us. He bought me my first couple beers before us 3 and another rowdy Irishmen, Rory, decided to "stretch" our legs in the back. Rory and Brendan proceeded to flirt with the 60 year old flight attendant and hand me and Cameron free beer after free beer. Before I knew it they were singing rebel songs and stealing mini bottles of Courvoisier. We stood in back of that plane for about 3 hours drinking Courvoisier cokes and crappy Michelob Ultra before I hit a wall. I went back to my seat and passed out. When I woke up 2 hours later, Brendan and the crew were still drinking in the back of the plane. They had successfully pissed off the entire flight and had convinced Cam to break into the unopened liquor cabinet. The flight attendants finally realized that 4 grown men/boys/cavemen/whatever they were calling us could not have possibly gotten so drunk off a couple of beers. After being immediately ushered to our seats, the head flight attendant grilled Rory and Brendan about where half the liquor for the following flight had gone. She had no clue that both were carrying about 4 bottles each in their pocket. They realized that neither guy was gonna crack and the distraction had gone on long enough. Now seemingly home free and with a couple of drinks left Brendan decided his company needed some advertising and the best/easiest kind was to drop as many business cards in the aisles as possible on his many trips to the bathroom. Finally the cuter flight attendant of the bunch had had enough. She had taken most of the ridiculous comments in the first place and was sick of picking up Mar-Key cards of the floor. She took Brendan to the front of the plane with Cameron and their carry-ons and I didn't see them again, but before he left he told me to call him when I was in Dublin and we'd continue "the craic". Needless to say I was hoping/very concerned that this flight was a preview of my days to come in Europe. Hope all is well in the States and their might be more later on.