Fancy France.

Hola. I am now in Barcelona. Just got up from my siesta actually. Didn't get more than a few hours sleep last night, so it was a beautiful nap time. Now I probably won't be able to go to sleep tonite.. but i feel like thats not a problem in a place like Barcelona. Last night I arrived here after 11 hours on a train from Nice (which I will discuss shortly, because it was so awesome) and immediately was told that there is a massive festival and I HAD to go. Long story short, the metros were open all night, and the bars didnt start to close till 530-6am. So I had a good night. I got back to the hostel at about 630am. The one thing, well one of the things I don't understand, is why the music is the same at every single dance club here. Walking along this row of bars/night clubs near the water you would hear the same stuff in every club. Maybe it wasn't the exact same, but all that euro-techno crap sounds the same. They need some good old rock n' roll bars, like Rockbaren in Gothenburg. I actually met some Swedish people last night that I ended up hanging out with all night, and one of them was from the town neighboring Gnarp and she thought it was hilarious that I went there. Two of the other girls had no idea where Gnarp even was, and they were from Sweden too. I told them about my awesome time there and they thought it was really cool, and even they said that the people up there were good. I agreed. But yea, the bar I was at with the Swedes was the best alternative to the euro-techno dance party clubs they littered the area, it was more of an Irish pub, with a ton of drunk Irish guys. I kept my distance, after my experiences in Ireland, and sure enough my instinct was correct. All of them were staggering around the place, some breaking stuff, and most looking for a fight. Luckily I avoided the scene.

I would like to talk about Nice, France, now. Nice was a mini-vacation for me. I stayed at a little hostel in a single room, figured I would treat myself to some uninterrupted sleep, that was only about a 10 minute walk from the beach along the main strip. I was there for 6 days and went to the beach every day and stayed till the sun was basically dropping. 2 days I got pretty sun burnt so I left a little earlier those days, but that sunburn felt so good. My pale skin got some life back into it. Except my stomach had been itching since I left, from the sunburn, and I am sure I look so bizarre itching my tummy non-stop while walking around. You don't see many people itching there stomach spastically in public very often. One thing you do see a lot of here in Barcelona though (one of the other things I don't understand) is dread-lock mullets.... the worlds ugliest hair style. Basically, the 'fashionista' wearing this doo has short, normal hair in the front/sides and on the majority of their head and then on the back lover 2/3 they have like 2-4 disgusting dread locks hanging down. I have seen about 10-15 of them since I have been here, which is now only about 24 hours. I do don't understand the logic, I don't really want to, I just want to let them know that it looks like the back of their head is pooping. Makes my hair look like I model for GQ or something. So actually, I shouldn't mind at all, makes me look better. Lesson learned right there.

...anyway, back to Nice. The beaches there were mostly rock, which was actually pleasant, till you sat on one funny and you feel you tailbone fracture. Watching people walk on the rocks to the water was one of my favorite spectacles. I actually have a like tiger stripe across my belly from sitting up so much to watch people. Not staring or being creepy, just watching. I did eat a lot of KFC there, because it was so cheap. Nice is not a cheap place at all. Not as wild as Sweden, but its up there. The people in Nice were great too though. I didn't meet many, mainly because I was just in relax mode, but the ones I did were very mellow and easy going. I love the French. I have zero problem with them. France is definitely up there on my list of favorite places. Not just because of the beautiful girls. Walking back from the beach in the evening there would always be different kinda of music being played on the main drag and it was exactly what you would imagine. The kind of music you would imagine in a 1940's French romance film. People would have pianos out, violins, guitars, sometimes even full little bands out there. It always put a smile on my face though. After being in cities and walking non-stop, that little break to just relax, read and sit in the sun was so dreamy. Just what the doctor ordered.

The only day the sun never came out while I was there was on my last day, and that day I decided to Check out Monaco. Perfectly enough, the day I was there was the closing day of the Monaco Yacht Show. Which was great, but made me pretty angry in way. My desire to make it huge was burning there. Looking at all the amazing cars, yachts and the people who owned them just fired me up. There are so many of them too and they make it look as if being a millionaire is but being a peasant. Always really made me realize that you never can dream TOO big. Some of the boats where just ridiculous, easily 10's to 100's of millions of dollars, at least. And after you got really frustrated at how much money those people had, you would turn around to see some of the most exotic and expensive cars you can buy. Amongst a sea of Bentleys and Ferraris, my favorite car still caught my eye; the Maybach 62s. And of course, the chauffeur was sitting in the drivers seat with his little hat on waiting for the bigwig to probably buy or sell a billion dollar dingy. Inspiring, but frustrating. Really made me realize what I need to do. I can't remember where I read this, but the quote had been in my head since I got a glimpse of it; it said "chase dreams, not women." I like that. Anyway, Monaco was still a beautiful sight. I am glad I got to see it. My plan is next time I go there I won't be the kid eating KFC everyday watching people drink champaign and being spoiled like some rare gift from the heavens from outside, but to be one of those over-praised humans enjoying the ridiculous amenities of a place like Monaco. A boy can dream.

Alright, time for food. My itchy tummy is begging for something cheap. Au Revoir!

Europa

Well, again, sorry for being inconsistent with my blogging. If it makes up for it, I am having a great time in Europe. Denmark was alright, nothing really special truthfully. After that I messed up some scheduling, and only got to spend 1 night in Berlin. I somehow double booked Denmark and Berlin at the same time... stupid. The one night was fun there though, and I will for sure make it back there before I depart to spend some real time there. I saw a man wearing a rubber tank top like 5 minutes into my evening and I was blown away. From the little I saw, the Germans are awesome. From there I went to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a good time, I had fun. Spent about 4 or 5 days there and then bailed off to Paris. Paris was beautiful. I really liked the Louvre and standing at the Eiffel Tower was a trip. I never thought I would be there. I met this Australian guy, Julian, at the place I was at and he was super cool so we cruised around together. We had some good laughs, and became locals at a small bar down the way. We went in there my first night in France and I guess we were legendary that night. The next night we showed up and we got handshakes and such and were greeted by almost the whole staff. We were cracking up. They had this Belgian beer there that I love, called Leffe Blonde. It is a real man-soda. They get ya. I think they are about 10-12% alc by volume? I can't remember. They're good though. I highly suggest them. I covered a lot of Paris though, even saw Notre Dame. That was very impressive, even though all I could think about was hunchbacks and how uncommon they are now. I've seen a few, but I was thinking maybe it was more common back in medieval times, like polio or the measles. Is there any correlation between huntchbackism and scoliosis? I've seen a lot of people with lazy eyes in Europe. It freaks me out. I thought I was getting a lazy eye once. It looked like I had one in my college grad picture. I was not happy. Once thing I have realized though is how I never get hassled by bums or street folk anymore... which really makes me wonder. In all truth, not exaggerating on this one bit, a bum seriously offered me one of his beers one day and then proceeded to pat me on the back and then walked away from me having never even spoken to the man. I felt bad about taking his beer, so I told him no. But jeeze, talk about having to take a long look in the mirror after that one. Oh well, I'm havin a good time.

I am now in the south of France, in Nice. Just arrived here today with some luck. I had to battle my way onto the train. They told me all the trains today were full and I would have to take the night train... I called their bluff and found out the train number and all that garbage and ended up sprinting to make the first train and missed it buy seriously about 10 seconds. The doors just closed and I watched it creep away as I turned down the boarding area. I only had to wait 2 hours for the next one and you know I was the first person on that train. I got lucky and only had to move out of someone seat one time. I've had it before where I sneak on a full train and you have to keep playing musical chairs and then you end up just wandering around looking for open seats. In France though they are more strict and my shenanigans don't fly, they make you buy a reservation even once you are on the train. Which is still cheaper than reserving it online where you have to pay handling fees and all that lame jazz. I'm having so much fun seeing how much I can get away with for free. I use my Eurorail pass like its a police badge. I show it to tram operators and bus drivers so sternly that they just get confused and let me on for free. If I could get away with using it in a taxi I would be so happy. I hope no one from the Eurorail company reads my blog and rats me out.

Anyways, I am in Nice for a couple days, then heading to Barcelona, then Madrid to see what my brother dealt with, thennnn to Portugal? I don't know. I want to try to get a boat from Spain to Italy. I think they have them? Maybe a luxury cruise? I would actually rather hop on a fishing boat and work for my travel. That would be awesome. I think thats possible. I am going to look into such things. Alright well, I feel like I have done a good blog. I am going to get some shut-eye and hit the beach tomorrow and get some sun on my pasty belly, and some salt water in my eyes. Goodnight.