spain

i love spain. i love speaking spanish and i love spain. it´s beautiful and i´m meeting great people and i´m never going to work for a corporation again. i ran into a deloitte & touche office in madrid and made a gasp. boo!

hot, hot, hot

i´m stinky. i have mosquito bites all over. i´m homesick for my cat and my kitchen, and sometimes, just wish i was in my bed in my boyfriend´s arms with the ac pumping.

but WHATEVER! i´m in spain! i´m unemployed, but i don´t think of it like that: i´m traveling, having an amazing experience and meeting some amazing people, seeing great art, great historical sites, trying new food, laughing, crying, and seeing so much. i´m so lucky even though i´m a stinky sweaty backpacker right now.

what is new york

i was listening to krs1 analyze hip hop and started thinking about all the people who i've met recently and their reactions to me being from new york. and i've started thinking, what is new york?

"have you ever gotten mugged?"
"wow that's really crazy. it must be pretty scary."
"it's dangerous there, right?"
"do you ever go to twilo?" (honey, that club closed too long ago!)
"where you in the world trade centre when it happened?"

i have to constantly assure people of the safety of new york, tell them how i live alone and have been lucky to never have anything happen to me but it's not like it's super scary and there are guns everywhere. they're also surprised i don't talk like a thug and carry a gun. this is the image new york exports of itself.

but the world trade center...so many people ask me about it and when i tell them i work down there, they say, "what's there now? have they started rebuilding? it's just a hole, right?" and i tell them about how the tourists piss me off taking photos of it. i'm not taking photos of any destruction here. but the sensitivty--no one has said, "i hate americans," but i have heard, "i hate bush" or "your president is horrible, i'm sorry"--he's not my president.

viva la cuidad de nueva york en europa!

ibiza

what can i say, but all the rumours are true. women wear bikinis to clubs, the music is amazing, and you´ll take a nap, hit the beach, and do it all over again.

thursday:
chris and i take the ferry. exhausted and beat, we arrive at our hostel, hostal valencia at nearly nine. we dump our stuff and immediately find some grub--cheap pasta and pizza. we get a ticket for amnesia´s opening at cream (35 euros) and get ready. chris wants to get there early, i want to wait later. the clubs here don´t open till midnight, i´m not arriving at 12,30!
amnesia is amazing. paul van dyk is amazing. i dance my butt off, and meet a spanish guy who tells me he loves me. i repeatedly tell him about trevor, and finally ditch him. i meet a group of guys who may or may not be gay and dance with them.
every so often, usually when the music is about to pick up, they will blast co2 into the crowd and you can´t see anything and it´s such an amazing intense experience. and the lights are flashing and everyone is jumping and screaming and when you finally see everyone again, you just scream, ¨YES!¨
we close the party out, and take a cab back to the hostel around 730. chris goes out with my new friends to the after party.

friday:
i sleep for so little--3 hours. the guys in the pool downstairs are loud, so i join them. i eat biscuits and we talk about england, my travels and clubbing. very cool. i suddenly need a nap and run upstairs and sleep another 3 hours. chris wakes up then, and begins talking about pascha. i´m so tired i can barely keep my eyes open. i look like hell.
we go to cafe mambo and eat an overpriced dinner to wicked good music. drink amazing sangria. after, we watch the sunset. i get shivers, and i´ve never gotten shivers over a sunset before. everyone claps and it´s so amazing to see how pink it gets, how it disappears so fast at the end. we meet up with robbie, who hasn´t slept yet from last night.
i go back to the hostel to nap, but i can´t. chris comes back and after hanging out with the guys downstairs, we go to the west end. drunk brits are all we see. it reminds me of a frat.

saturday:
chris leaves early, and i have a room to myself for a change, which is wonderful. i lounge around nude and miss luna. i walk around san antoni, then get a cheap spanish lunch. after i go to the beach and listen to some boring guy talk about how he hates his job, and meet these crazy brits. one of them was stung by a jellyfish on fri, and the other one is bugging out. i ask steve, who was stung, ¨did it hurt?¨he tells me he peed on himself, which supposedly takes the sting out. okay.
i go to the pool and swim around and read sandra cisneros carmelo in the shade. it seems to quiet. i go watch the sunset again at mambo cafe, and meet up with the crazy brits.
i take a shower and head out to privilege, the biggest club in the world. it´s pretty crazy there and i dance like nuts, though i´m tired. i keep getting guys trying to dance with me and it´s so annoying. they don´t get the back to them; i have to yell.

sunday:
leave the club around 6am, and chat with these hyper brit girls on the bus. walk back to my hostel, amazed at how little sleep i´ve gotten. i take a shower, pack up my stuff, eat the amazing complimentary breakfast, and am on the road before i know it.

i love spain

i love valencia. it's awesome, amazing. i love speaking in spanish, eating spanish food, drinking sangria, meeting people, going to the beach, and having seista. i've met so many awesome people, and not just backpackers. my friend asked me if she'd like valencia. i love it but she's more into touristy stuff. if you like meeting people and chilling, great. i'm psyched. but seriously, you need to know some spanish or you're screwed. all my friends here don't speak spanish and they're like, "if you weren't here, i'd be screwed." spain is awesome! i love spain, i want to move here.

sweating in paris

i have several hours before my train to valencia and i spent the morning with my friends--lindsey, drew, marco and dania (who i went with last night to the eiffel tower, to see it sparkle! the lights blink and you lay down in the grass with a bottle of wine and the whole world seems magical) went to sacre coeur and took photos. after ate some amazing ice cream, took photos at the moulon rouge, and stood on top of this fan thing that cooled us off. it's seriously like 90 here and super humid and i stink and i'm sweating. i already checked out of my hostel and wish i could shower. before i go i'm going to wipe down in the hostel bathroom (the showers are in the rooms at this hostel) but i dont want to do too much today. i'm sweating like a pig right now and miss my air conditioning. france is filled with sexy glamourous women who don't sweat, and i'm certainly not one of them.

stinky sweaty backpackers unite!

saying goodbye is always lovely

it seems the night before i leave a city i always seem to have a fabulous time and then i don't want to go.

the night before i left reykjavik i went to the symphony and heard some amazing, absolutely lovely music.

the night before i left london i went to hear grooverider at his weekly drum n bass party, danced my ass off, met all these amazing people (who bought drinks, a plus when you're a backpacker) and had one of the best nights ever.

and the night before i left paris, dania, lindsey, drew, marco and i went to the eiffel tower. we watched it twinkle and shared two bottles of wine--ghetto but fab. we reclined on the grass and shrieked at how beautiful it was and took photos. and now these people are going to ibiza with me!

i love the way you meet so many people when you're traveling. i do miss my bathtub and cat tho.

paris

hot
sweaty
humid
skirt sticking to thighs, shirt to back of shoulder blades
expensive--too many euros
messy hair
long walks
bonjour merci au revoir
eiffel tower overpriced art museums friendly strangers
hostel roommates
push button showers

feeling better

i'm going to go out for a nice french dinner at some random but seemingly decent place after this, eat a pastry, try to find v's bday gift and wander. i was so down and i am still missing my home but i have to remember: this is a trip of a lifetime and i'm not going to blow it. i'm looking forward to a few weeks where i can spoil myself with a hotel. london is too pricey for that.

hating france

right now i am at this internet cafe trying to figure out the keyboard but i want to go home
i miss nyc and luna and trev and apt and friends and fam and i was stupid to plan a trip so long but i do not miss work i should ve just quit and written but i really miss my home i hate my hostel and hostel living is annoying

clubbing in london

i went out on a friday night to a rave in 'the cool part of town' as my french friend said. judge jules was there and he was amazing. danced so much, but i hated the stinking like smoke part. i danced my little heart out and i love judge jules--see him if you can.

pickup line used on me: 'do you have a boyfriend 'cause i think you're cute?'

another pickup line: 'do you want to sit down and me to get you some drinks? or we can go someplace else and drink?'
me: 'no thanks im having a great time dancing and i'm gonna stay here.'

i deserted those losers quickly and danced my little heart out.

last night i went to grace, grooverider's weekly drum n bass party at herbal, this chill bar. grooverider was fucking amazing. maybe it's because i miss trevor, or maybe it's because the drum n bass scene here is fucking awesome, but i have been totally infatuated with dnb lately. anyway, it was great. i ended up meeting this group of people who was dancing in the same area: (and they bought me drinks thank goddess b/c i'm low on the pounds here! 8£ left, can i last till tomorrow am?) this portugese guy who was telling me how fab portugal is (i think i'm gonna go tho he clearly won't be there as he lives in london now), and this bizarre girl, and these two guys originally from chile. i had so much fun. we danced and it stunk like smoke--cigs and pots and chemicals that i don't know what they were.

pick up line used on me: 'do you want to snort a line of mdma?' [i didn't know people snorted lines of that! ugh!]
me: 'no, i'm good.'
him: 'how 'bout a cig?'
me: 'i think i'm gonna dance now.'

after grooverider finished and the party was over (2am, things here close early, esp pubs), we went to this other party and danced to house and techno till 4am. i caught the n35 immediately (luck) and got dropped off right in front of my hostel. exhausted, i crawled into bed stinking of smoke. i had such a great time, meeting all these new people--people were just striking up conversations all over the place. one of the chilean guys was helping me practicar mi espanol. buena. estoy cansado. me gusta bailar.

american embassy

observation from my journal which is filling up so fast:


the only building with bars on the windows in reykjavik: the embassy of the united states.

directly across the street, a poster in the window: no blood for oil

having a fab time

at a cheap internet cafe, everything is wonderful. went to the imperial war museum, the national portait gallery, the british library, and am loving london. i'm at a dodgy internet cafe right now, watching buses and tourists and brits alike go by, thankful to be here. i feel so free--liberated from my job and all rules. my rules? a club tomorrow (judge jules), another sunday (grooverider), museums, running along the thames, meeting travelers. london is a lovely city, and i find it less in your face than nyc. been going to the theatre, writing, walking around too much. i love this feeling of absolute freedom.

bad dream far from home

last night i had this complicated dream, but all of the sudden, there was a wind storm. i found myself holding onto stranger's hands to prevent from being blown away, and then i found this skinny girl and was like, 'us skinny girls need to stick together or we'll blow away.' so we were holding hands and suddenly everything went black--we were on the street and it was still windy and chaotic and i screamed, 'what's happening?' and suddenly my old roommate marie appeared and said rather joyously, 'the world is ending of course!' and i was mad because she was happy because i don't want the world to end. it was chaos, running. when i awoke, i was shaking, and wished i had little luna to keep my company. alas, i'm far from home.

enjoying the city, loving the countryside

arrived in london on friday night, late. amazed at random conversations on the train, with an icelandic man about iceland, with a man from a country in africa whose name suddenly escapes my mind. loved it. comfy subway seats (which is probably why the mta is way cheaper) and london, well, it's just bustling and urban, like new york, but less in your face, less intense. it seems as if it were designed with tourists in mind, and there seems to be many more tourists--or is this because i am currently traveling?

on saturday went to the british museum (lovely; i do have some photos of me posed with statues of nude men, which i'll post when i can), the dali museum (pricey but i do love dali, and i got to see venus with the chest of drawers, the mae west lips couch, and the lobster telephone!), and the national gallery. my favorite painting ever is there--jan van eyk's 'portrait of giovanni arnolfini and his wife' (there are varying titles for this painting)--i stared at it three different times and the guard noticed my infatuation--we got in a huge discussion about it, as i have studied it on several occasions. then went to eat at a lovely little vegetarian kitchen, yum.

have been up to marilyn's house in lancaster; lovely. andrew, marilyn and i have been hiking (seeing some andy goldsworthy sculptures in nature), eating (oooh, lovely cheeses and breads for dinner with good olives, pickled walnut chutney and sliced apples), taking photos--it really is lovely up here. i'm so relaxed and wil in fact stay until tomorrow; i don't want to leave at all.

but soon, paris; tomorrow, the world.

the toilets in iceland are awesome

the one thing i can´t get over is the toilets in iceland. in every place i go, they´re different--no traditional handle, but this pump thing that you lift up and let drop, or you push one button or another one (i guess depending on what you do in the toilet). this country is so unlike anything--the landscape is rocky and dirts and grass in between. i´m in the capital city, and the driveways and parking lots and sidewalks are often dirt or gravel. there´s so much green space. the city layout is so confusing--i spent 3 hours looking for a building and never finding it. but the icelandic people are wonderful--helpful and friendly.

after i arrived at my hostel, i dumped my bag next to the bed and grabbed my swimsuit and went to the geothermal pools next door. i swam a few laps in the large lap pool, then hung out in the warmer big pool (with two waterslides, a wading area, a small section, and a big section where the kids hung out). then i went to the hot tub, where i relaxed with a bunch of icelandic people. the best part is this big circular hot pool where you lie down with your head on the outside of the circle and your feet in the middle--it´s very shallow. i relaxed there with my eyes clothes for forever.

i feel so free. free from the corporate world, to which i shall never return. what more is in my future--i´ll soon find out. i love this land of no question marks on the keyboard yet ö and þ and æ and ð. i love this land where people speak 8 languages.

and yes, i shall come back. in time, with the northern lights.