places i've missed

sure i was in europe for 3 1/2 months, but i missed some places. i want to go back to revisit some of the places i missed. here's where i'll go my next trip to europe (in addition to england, berlin, and italy, which i need to spend more time in):

• bratislava
• krakow. it was between here and budapest, and as my grandma's family is from budapest, i chose there. i loved budapest, but now i want to go bk to krakow.
• finland. it seemed to be too time-consuming to get there, but now i wish i went there
• bergen. i went to oslo, but i want to see the fjords at bergen.
• tuscany and umbria. i cut this portion out of my trip to go to croatia. now i want to go wining in the tuscany/umbria region. i'm hoping i can persuade trevor to go with me--he loves wine. me, i started to love wine on this trip. in italy and france, wine is cheaper than juice or soda.
• scotland. it looks really beautiful; i want to go.
• portugal. i cut out this part due to lack of time. i want to go.

i know i'll be traveling more. i just got roz hopkin's THE TRAVEL BOOK (published by lonely planet) and am picking out my next place. i'm thinking my next trip will either be latin america or russia/india/nepal/tibet. i want to go treking in nepal and tibet, and need someone to go with me. t doesn't sound so into it; anyone want to go? in india i'm most interested in dharamsala!

jobs

i can't seem to start looking for a job. i've been cooking, and unpacking, and writing up my travel articles, and naming all of these zillion photos i took, and seeing friends and family, and redecorating my apartment. i got an email about a job as an archivist, and i think i'd need a bit more experience. anyway, i read the email and it says "13 paid holidays, and 13 sick/personal days." i couldn't find the information about the vacation days, and then i realized, the 13 days probably apply to sick and vacation. are you kidding me? that is absurd! i hope it is wrong. i can't apply. i can't get a job with no vacation time. i don't know if i can work for a place where i have no vacation time. i always run out of vacation job. countless jobs i've called in sick when i needed a mental health day or a day off, because i used my paltry vacation days.

i don't know how to even start looking for a job. i dread the process. i'll start looking later this week. until then, i'm writing the tales of my summer. i'll keep you posted when they're published so you can check them out.

missing europe...itchy feet

i've been looking through all my photos and writing up some articles tonight and getting sad...i'm missing traveling, i'm missing europe. dancing with some crazy brit, jumping up and down when the co2 cannon blasted off, in ibiza, while chris screams, I CANT BELIEVE THIS, or getting on brett's shoulders during gay pride to try to find everyone while we're all drunk on cheap beer and sangria, sweating sangria out, or eating baguettes and cheese, baguettes and cheese, baguettes and cheese in paris, or having a bbq in amsterdam and drinking loozas and vodka at the dj bar while joe attempts to explain the benefits of chilling out and spending three weeks in amsterdam high, or dancing to lauryn hill for free in stockholm, or eating a bbq at a club in berlin before dancing to music i've never heard before in my life that is better than any american dj has ever played, to laughing about australian geography with rocky, to eating lots of sweets with kate in budapest, to that crazy time in cinque terra, to omgod, hanggliding in interlaken and gaping at the beauty, or dancing like crazy in zurich's street parade, to eating way way way too much in italy, to the fat stray cats eating ziti in venetian streets, to new york reminiscing in florence, to the crazy accomodations in dubrovnik, to steps, steps, step, and amazing food in amalfi, to the pizza in amalfi, to what can i say about roma, to the salads of greece and the beaches...and watching eurotrip (recommended by trevor)...and realizing the best time of my life , well, it was last summer, but i can leave it as that, but i think i'm going to make each and every day of my life as good as that was...and i will continue traveling...

now that i'm back...

so i'm back. i got home less than a week ago, and am still settling into my apartment, trying to organize way too many photos from my trip, and writing for bootsnall. there's so much, so i'll simply tackle it in bullets.

• arriving home was a shock. being here still is. i keep saying euro instead of dollar, and so much american english is a bit of a shock.
• i'm really enjoying all the food in my house, and cooking, and eating. it's so much nicer. plus, organic nearly everything!
• i went to a family party where shouting was the norm, and after, my sister and her boyfriend slept over. her boyfriend made killer omletes in the morning.
• venessa, my friend from co, has been here all week. it's been fun going to museums and cooking and hanging out.
• i saw le tigre. one word: brilliant. they were awesome. they left the stage during new kicks, and came back dressed in these white outfits with NO WAR all over them. i danced a lot with venessa.
• venessa and i got flashed by some pervert in a black explorer. he was masturbating in his car. i went to the police station around the block, and by the time we went back, he had booked. the cop told me to get the license plate if i could, and we saw him several blocks later, got the license plate, and called 911. they were very nice, and i hope they catch him.
• i went to the moma, and i'm going to the guggenheim today--as if i didn't see enough art museums this summer.

it's weird being back, and sooner or later i'll need to look for a job, but now, i'm still settling in.

i am home

so i'm home, okay? okay? so i just went out for a drink and listened to some boring trendster speak way too loudly, and so i have to find a job, and so now i have to wash dishes? it's still not too bad.

i saw a job paying way too much as an archivist for the natl archives here in nyc...will i get it? maybe not. maybe i'll just keep bouncing around for a bit. have to write my articles i owe for bna....

it's nice to be home but i miss being on the road.

traveling

After reading The Beach and traveling all summer, I realize, I cannot stop traveling. There are too many people to meet and places to see and experiences to revel in and there is a whole world out there. I refuse to let myself be kept behind four walls, doing something I hate. There is so much out there, and I demand to experience it.

The Beach by Alex Garland

I read the most amazing book two nights ago. A fellow backpacker put it down for a few minutes, and let me read it the rest of the night. I finished it in a few hours (because I read like mad), and it's amazing. So go out and buy it new. It's called The Beach by Alex Garland. Run to your nearest library, bookshop, or here's the Amazon link for you lazy ones. It's an amazing travel novel. This English guy is in Thailand, when a crazy person in his hotel gives him a map to a beach he knows nothing about. After seeing the man kill himself, Richard and a French couple set out to find this beach, which involves a 2 kilometer swim in the open ocean. There they find a commune, which is paradise, but which turns ugly. It is a page turner, and amazing book. Please do yourself a favor and read it right now. It's brilliant.