Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

it's been 13 days since i last blogged...

happily, the yankees did beat the red sox, thanks to aaron boone and his dramatic home run. of course, the yankees then turned around decided to completely suck against the marlins. oh well, at least the red sox still haven't won.

cinque terre was awesome. i saw a dolphin chasing fish while jumping through the water. but, i guess it was no big deal. i mean, i see that every day in connecticut... that's sarcasm for those of you who didn't pick up on it. i got to hike some of the trail that connects all five towns, but i couldn't do it all because one of the trails was shut down, and my injured foot wasn't really feeling up to the task of climbing all the stairs between montorosso and vernazza. more importantly i got some cinque terre wine, which definitely kicks ass.

the wine that i bought in cinque terre got consumed in nice. that was the next stop on my trip. nice is pretty boring. the beach is nice, but rocky. other than that, there's really not a heck of a lot to do there unless you want to spend a lot of money on expensive clothing or jewelry. the only reason i was staying in nice was to use it as a base to go to monaco. unfortunately, the day i wanted to go to monaco, there was an accident on the railway and they cancelled all the trains for the rest of the day. oh well.

even though nice wasn't too exciting i met a bunch of really cool people at the hostel. we hung out on the patio and drank wine and beer, and after we got kicked out (the hotel patio closed at 10) we headed on down to the beach and drank there until whenever. it was really cool and i am happy to have met such a great group of people.

from nice i went to barcelona and experienced my first night train. luckily i found a compartment with nobody else inside, so i shut the lights, closed the curtain, and laid out on all four seats so i could actually sleep a little.

i got to barcelona completely unprepared for the next six days.

i met bryan and matt at the hostel, and that's where it all started. on the metro we met lauren. the next day we met aynsley, monique, and jasmine. later that night we met tim and kim. this was the main core of our group.

the stories of what happened are not blog material. i couldn't possibly do them justice here, but i will say that i have not had more fun than i did over those six days. barcelona is serious about having a good time.

after all the drinking games, dancing, pub crawling, and narrow avoidances of the cops, the nine of us are going to have lots to talk about.

now i am in paris. the train ride here totally sucked. come to think of it, the first 24 hours here sucked. the train ride unexpectedly started out nicely. that's where i met rosalyne. we just started talking on the train in spain, and once we got to the border and had to switch trains, we spent the next four hours bullshitting about stuff. oh, yeah, rosalyne is from toulouse, and she lives in barcelona. which means she speaks fluent french, very good spanish, and decent english. me? right. um, i totally have english down. i got a little bit of spanish i can pull out, and even less italian. oddly enough, we managed to have about a third of our conversation in spanish. all while drinking a bottle of red wine. strange. i apparently remember spanish much better when i'm buzzed. once she left, though, things went all downhill.

i couldn't sleep much, and what little sleep i did get was definitely not quality. by the time i got to the hostel in paris at 8:30 in the morning, i just wanted a bed. too bad for me, because the hostel was full. so they sent me to one of their "sister" hostels. i got there about 15 minutes later, and they did have a bed for me, but i couldn't use it until 3:30. so i wandered around a frigid paris being miserable, tired, and cranky. i didn't even care that the notre dame was right in front of me, or that i was wandering up and down the champs-elysees. i couldn't have cared less, to tell the truth. i decided i would go on a mission to find falafel. happily, i found some seriously good falafel. sadly, it was the highlight of my day. i got back to the hostel at 3:30. i discovered that not only did i have to pay 3 euros for sheets, but that the hostel didn't even provide pillows. what a nice touch. after a short cat nap, i met my roomies who told me about our "5th" roommate named "mickey." as in MOUSE. sweet.

later that night i put money in the machine to use the internet. of course, the mouse froze and then i saw the sign that read "USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, NO REFUNDS... (sorry)." apparently they were serious.

the next morning i made it up for breakfast (surprisingly) at 8:45. i went downstairs where i was told they had run out of baguettes. that was the last straw. i went upstairs and complained to the receptionist who told me "there's nothing i can do." apparently there was something he could do, because ten minutes later he returned with some baguettes. it's a good thing because i was about ready to turn that building into ash.

anyway, now i am happy and i like paris. and i also have to pee like a madman, so this blog session is over. more later.