fancy some chips?

Not crisps but chips, as in fish and chips...ok so they are fries in London and crisps are the equivalent of chips in the states. As one person in England put it: "I go into Subway and order a sandwich and they ask if I'd like chips with that and I say sure, because who wouldn't want chips with their sandwich. well, you can imagine my surprise when they hand me a bag of crisps and I say, "what is this?" They say "chips." I say, "that's not chips, that's crisps, if I wanted Crisps I would've said crisps, right?" I mean they are in England, you would think that they'd know the difference." Oh yeah, we were in london. Went to Yo Sushi...the longest conveyor belt (????!!) sushi restaurant in the world, the abby, the globe, buckingham, and over the thames river a lot. Most of what we went to was closed because it was sunday and a veterans day.

1/2 day here

Once we left Interlaken, we went to Frankfurt Germany, basically to get our fill of protein in the 1/2 day that we were there before flying out to London.

leaving Paris the first time

We were in the Interlaken region as well as the Jungfrau region (which means virgin). This was one of the most stunning landscapes I have ever seen. Interlaken is merged between two lakes of crysal blue water and surrounded on most sides by the alps. There is a glacier in the background and at any given point in time you can see paragliders coasting down from the mountains.

Catch me if you can

So this is my attempt to regain consistency. As a do so I will post pictures and maps (but maybe tomorrow because I am tired.) I am back in the states and internet was getting expensive in other countries so I ceased posting...sorry to the faithful. I had an excellent final week of travel by myself. I met up with Mona in Paris and we toured the Dali museum and went to the Eiffel Tower for the Bastille Day festivities (thanks to SUPERDAVE I know what that was all about) which included a spectacular fireworks display off of the tower coreographed to music. I also had a few interesing occurrences to do with trains and buses and where to stay at night, during which time I made friends with a hotel night clerk who talked with me until the wee hours of the morning about the african congo, paris, modern art, his family and how I was a great desk watcher when he needed a cigarette break. thanks, night clerk for letting me stay in the hotel lobby after the train station was closed and even though the hotel was booked and there was no other accomodation for miles and for letting me take a one hour nap. Then off to London I went the next day on a long bus ride (did you know that you can take a bus to London from Paris even though it goes over the English Channel?) to London and then another to Leicester to meet Chris (thanks for letting me chill in the English countryside with you and the sheep Chris). I have successfully covered every mode of transportation at this point (with the exception of skateboards and mopeds). Chris toured around midlands England with me for 3 days during which time we went to Warick Castle and saw jousting, the Peak district and saw a state house and lots of sheep, leicester in general and i met all of his friends who kept me laughing so hard that I didn't get but about 3 sentences in the entire conversation. I also successfully evaded two sets of bombings and a bout of riots and aparently some disturbances in madrid as well. Safe and sound back home, I find that my spanish tan will rapidly evaporate because I do not want to leave the airconditioned house as the air outside contains 80% of the water in lake Ponchartrain. Feel like I am swimming through the humidity. I will continue to update this with pictures from the trip and a retrospective I am sure. maybe eventually real conversation pieces but since no one really comments ;) I doubt that one. Weddings make me feel older than I should. XX and goodnight to you all.

What's the story morning glory?

HAPPY BASTILLE DAY TO YOU! ok so it was yesterday. It was fabulous though, and I thought that I should extend the celebration on a day. The party was last night at the Eiffel Tower or Tour Eiffel as the French say. They also say a lot of other things but I won't get into that. I was able to ask for directions in French though. I ran into Mona (not lisa although I saw her too), a friend of mine from the states who was studying in Paris for a month. We hung out and went to the Dali museum...my favorite. Dali is one of the coolest most creative and bizarre psycho painters ever in my opinion. Just check out "the dream made from a bee circling a pomegranate a moment before awakening." Crazy. Brilliant. It may be give or take a few words but that is the approximate title. Hey any history buffs out there, what is bastille day all about. I heard something about a prison, I don't know. They put on a good show though. The eiffel tower is where about 1 million + of your closest friends meet and watch the fireworks. They are coreographed to about 7 songs and shoot off of the eiffel tower in spectacular form. Don't worry I have footage. Was there ever any doubt? I am either going to copenhagen or london today so we'll see. the next update will be a mystery destination...ohhh, ahhh. I know. Adieu to you and you and you.

WOAH

So that was a whirlwind and a half. So here,s the progression. From Paris where i spoke none of the language, we went to the gorgeous magnificent country of Switzerland. it was just ok. The mountains, glaciers, crystal clear mountain lakes, crisp weather and they speak all languages...just about. we went canyoning which in a nutshell was awesome. We xent repelling, hiking, sliding and jumping off waterfalls, rip chording and swimming all in water that if we didn,t have our wet suits on would,ve given us hypothermia. The food was great, particularly a soft drink called rivella and swiss fondue. they also make cheesecake with crust on all sides, yum. From there we went to frankfurt for an afternoon and on to london, where we saw nothing but from the outside and ran into a good friend from way back, ryan mahoney. then to Dublin. you,ve gotta see that place. we took a bus tour of wicklow which is the surrounding countryside and wow. it rivalled switzerland something fierce. bea-utiful. Bono lives in dublin. he knows. then we went back to london where we spent the night in the airport and thomas and jenny left for porto and then home. i am now in paris, again, where i don,t know the language and the keyboqrds qre terrible. cqn you tell? Money has been more than tight and things are so expensive some places. Switzerland almost tore apart our friendships and then began to mend them again. It,s hard sometimes. A lot of things were dealt with in a manner in which theyshould not have been and miscommunication, lack of sleep and the elements begin to wear on you. it makes me sad to think about, but the petty things are too often mistaken for important and cause us to exchange harsh words. love to all. pictures are promised soon.

viva le france

ok. so now we...t and jenny and i... are in France. where, you ask? France...they come from france. anybody remember that commercial, with the cute kid? no? it is a classic. this french keyboard however is not. I feel like i am back in keyboarding in 9th grade with JOE...where you been joe?...i have to look at my hands the whole time, my fingers keep going to find the m and the a in their normal places but instead there is a q and a coma/semicolon. A 60 year old french guy from bordeaux and i had a conversation on the train here and it was the worst attempt to understand ever. I pulled the smile and nod out a lot. I do not really know how these things work in France, but if a person invites you to come and visit and go out to a good french restaurant where you could have some good bordeaux wine and stay in the apartment that he owns in another french city, is that a little forward? i think that i will write in the american style for a moment to show you my frustration with this computer. zhere qre jenny qnd tho,qs, they shouldùve ,et ,e by noz qnd i q, tired qnd hungqry qnd need to ship q bqg bqck to the stqtes. yqy. oh and the ws are not right either there is a z there.
the last week in granada and madrid were amazing and so much fun. we saw a flamenco show, the prado, the reina sofia and the tyssen which is the best out of the art museums in my opinion although the prado has classic works. I also went exploring. the value of the trip to madrid would have been lost to me if I had stayed in the overpopulated/ overtouristated puerta del sol the whole time. I made some excellent friends and need once again to empty a photo card. despirately.