Wednesday, December 12, 2007

New Page

So I decided Im going to make this a pseudo political blog around the first day of the year.

I know you're all excited.


Because no one reads.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Hey

Sup.

Later.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Insomniac Writings....

I never want to be strangers again, she says
There are tears in her eyes
And later on when I’m all by myself,
There are tears in mine

We sell our love like it was fresh lemonade
We yell as cars go by
Run up to strangers and we tug at their coats
And plead with them to try

But you, you’ve taken all of my dreams
And melted them to stone
And you’ve skipped them across the water and they’re gone
But you, you gave me nothing at all
But hope when I was weak
And now you’re gone, I played along, and I’m alone

Growing up is just betraying ourselves
We do it all the time
A year ago I was in love with a girl,
Now she’s gone I’m fine

Well here we are together
Well here’s our favorite song
We talked about forever, yeah,
Well maybe that’s too long

But you, you’ve taken all of my dreams
And melted them to stone
And you’ve skipped them across the water and they’re gone
But you, you gave me nothing at all
But hope when I was weak
And now you’re gone, I played along, and I’m alone

And I’m alone, she left me
And I’m alone, tired and weak
And I’m alone, it’s raining, and I’m wondering if I’m happy
Well I’m alone, talk to me please,
And I’m alone, breathe me in deep
And I’m alone, ask me to leave, let’s go grab a beer or something

Friday, June 8, 2007

Back...

Well....

Im back from the adventure. Its weird typing on a keyboard thats familiar and that I can type faster than 20 wpm. But, all in all, it was an amazing trip. AMAZING.

All the people I've met, all the people I've talked to, and hopefully will keep in touch with, it was amazing to meet you.

Thank you for making this trip what it was!!

Patrick

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Czeck

Yesterday, from Wien, took a scketzchy train to Praha (Prague). (Yeah, side note: Didnt know it was called praha. Europe tried to trick me)

Anywho, we got in after our train broke down about an hour late, but still had plenty of time to look around the city. Presummary, it was really surprisingly nice.

When we got off of the train, it was hardcore eastern bloc country. Everything was bland, and boring and I was a little dissapointed/scared.

But then we took the train into the center of the city and oh my God, it was incredible. The parisian look of the city really took my breath away and both chris and I agree the overall feel of the city was much cooler, more laid back, more bohemian than any other city we've been to thus far. It really ranks a close 3rd in our city tour thus far (at the end, I'll give you a run down of my favorites and why)

And of course, we saw the touristy stuff. St. Charles bridge (where the pieces of the chess board were based off of in the 13th century), The Hapsburg castle (Did you know that this was the capital of the Austria-Hungary empire? No? Neither did I.) and the astronomical clock.

The clock. Wow.

MOST OVERRATED THING IN EUROPE. According to our mikes bike tour guide it ranks one on the top three most overrated things in europe (we did them all)

1. The damn clock. Its stupid. At the hour there is a rotating bunch of saints or kings or something for 15 seconds. stupid.

2. The glockenspiel. (Munich) Its really just overrated. Two reaaaaly slow wooden horses joust. OOOOOOH.

3. The peeing boy in Brussels. He's a foot tall, naked and peeing. His sister, squatting. AND peeing.
Nice Belgium. Nice.


So yeah were going back to Wien today and then hanging out with STEFAN!!

he actually got back to me in the NICK of time! Go stefan. were going to get tickets to his play and then go out with the cast afterwards. (for chris's sake, lets hope its in english)

Then leave thursday...


PEACE

Sunday, June 3, 2007

WIEN!



Thats a really cool video to start with. Were at a sweet internet cafe that actually lets you do stuff like that.

Anyway, much better day since I wrote the last post. We had the bachelor party, that of which I will upload pictures in a few moments. Also drove in a 9 man van all the way from München to Wien. Stopped randomly, um, somewhere called Baden something, and rode a bobsled. Yes, a one man, summer bobsled. Some of you may be thinking, wow pat, you dont know how to bobsled. And you hurt yourself.... a lot.... well friends, I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDNT. Ha.

Cool video of that but its huge and ya'll will have to wait for that.

Anyway that was a really cool drive... Sooooo gorgeous. I think if I didnt have a job to go back to I would definately move to munich and work for mikes bike tours... I was talking to that guy about it and I dunno... maybe if I hate my job I'll go ahead and do that.....

Anyway today were in wien, or vienna, which is pretty, but really pretty much like any other city I've been in, I dunno. I guess our family is more from here than anywhere else but I really just had the feeling, like the time I was in Ireland that it was home...

Ha maybe I'll follow brian's footsteps and meet a Europäisch mädchen?


Here are more pictures!



Thats us at Moulin Rouge, pretty simple enough! Right by our hostel too...






There was a new thing we did called "Jump pictures" where we jump and at the apex of the jump you take a picture!!



One of my five maß's at the Hofbräuhaus the first night... thats a litre...



The picture of the bachelor party! The bachelor is the one with the condoms on the horns (if you couldnt tell)



This is the picture of the entrance of the concentration camp.... Probably the most powerful image.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Tag Drei fur Munchen

Day three for munich:

Today we went to Daschau concentration camp. There's really hardly any words that can sum up any sort of reaction to what I saw. How can you simple put a people's struggle of that magnitude into words and still have it do any justice.

Simply put: I know now the depths of human hatred.

Walking through the camp i hardly said any words to chris, much less made any noise. There is so much you read about in books, see in movies, but until you see a room no larger than my whole apartment housing 450 men, you cannot grasp the overcrowding.

I know it sounds like im being a little melodramatic, but really, thats all I really want to say about that.

Bachelor party tonight, that will lift my spirits!

Then Wein tomorrow at some point, don't really know when I'll get to write about that, so peace!

Friday, June 1, 2007

Munich day two

Went to neuschwanstein today for a day trip, that castle is fricken magnificient. Seriously, google a picture of the castle, you'll be floored.

It was cool to do the touristy thing too, not just wander around, because there's a reason that the touristy things ARE touristy. They're cool. Its just amazing to see places like the alps, we were riding our bikes along some picturesque path through the bavarian alps where you could see austria on the other side!!!

Pretty fricken amazing.

Anyway, the rest of munich has been fun so far too, tomorrow we do Daschau, the concentration camp. I really don't know what kind of feelings or reaction to expect, but indeed, should be interesting.

Then tomorrow night is the bachelor party!!!

Hopefully should be a good time... If I have something to do about it...

At the same time i'm wrapping up the amazing trip and its a perfect length, becuase its still enough to see what i wanted to see, but not getting homesick or something. Or getting sick of chris, which pretty fantastically I'm not.

Anyway... OFF TO THE BEER

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Ich Liebe München!

Wow, its really weird but I really really love this city.

Not only is it incredibly gorgeous, but its just a really neat atmosphere. And, this is the weird part, everyone looks related to me. Its quite strange, I turn left or right and boom, someone that looks like me. I totally know for sure that we're from Southern Germany because it just feels like home... Hard to explain but thats the way it is!

We did the mike's bike tour today, which was beyond beautiful. Not as much history here, but the sights were just out of this world. Met some more canadians last night (again...) and had a wonderful time at the Hofbräuhaus, which, albeit touristy, was a grand time.

Took 5 Maß, (Litres of beer), but I was thoroughly schloßd.

Tomorrow were going to Neuschwanstein, the castle that the disneyworld castle was based off of, which should be cool.

I have to say even after not 24 hours, Münich is close with Paris for my favorite city we've visited.

God they drink a LOT here. Hard to keep up.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

See chris's

cr102084.blogspot.com

Ich Sprechen Sie Deutsch!

I speak you German!

Yeah its a bit weird, but its the one thing chris can say.

Well Berlin is very different from what I expected, but at the same time is reallz interesting to see in terms of the contemporary history. We wandered around the first day here, Saw the Reichstaggebaüde and the Brandenburger Tor both of which were pretty sweet. There was a random festival with a band from the 60s who I KNOW I've heard of but couldnt for the life of me name.

Anyway, that was kinda weird, and we, once again, booked a lame ass hostel. No girls. Hell no one within our age group at all. Hopefully Wombats in München makes up for it. It should, it was rated the coolest hostel.

Randomly found a walking tour yesterday when further wandering which was GREAT (and free) which explained pretty much everything I couldnt about German history. The stories about the Cold War were really interesting, as well as the buildings in the dead mans zone that still had bullet marks... It was pretty powerful.

Went on a bar crawl which was interesting, it rained (which doesnt suprise me at all, its rained on us in EVERY city so far.) But met some pretty cool people, but all in all, I think Berlin ranks on the lower half so far of european cities.

Tomorrow begins München!!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarlem

Hey, here's another blog entry from Amsterdam

Nother quickie.

Anyway, went to Haaarlem today (yes, that is how you spell that.)

Its a quiant little holland town, where the people are TALL (and gorgeous). It was nice to have a chill day and just walk around a more moderately sized city that isn't touristy at all, because lets face it, 80% of the people here are looking for 2 things. Neither of which I am.

Well, tomorrow gegen wir nach Berlin! Which is uber fantastisch because I can speak to everyone and understand all the plaques and stuff

Anyway,

PEACE!

Friday, May 25, 2007

Quick Amsterdam

Well I have 5 minutes to write this, so it wont be extensive or anything...

We're at our hostel in Amsterdam, which is a bit different than we expected. We rode in with a group of 3 girls and were going to travel together, so we took them to their hostel, the flying pig (which was booked, we wanted that). First of all, that one was awesome. Cool, chill environment, interesting crowd to say the least, and cheap beer. And other stuff, but becuase of that drug test, no stuff for pat or chris.

Anyway, went over to OUR hostel, which turns out is a christian missionary. Turns out we can't drink anywhere around here. Which, not to say I'm an alcoholic or anything, but come on... its amsterdam.

The sights are a lot cooler here, I really didnt like brussels all that much but bruges and Ghent were amazing!!

Alright, time to go, I will write more later with hopefully more pictures and videos!!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The rest of belgium...

Today we did the rest of Belgium in a bus tour where the average age was about 75. Still, it was well worth it, we got to see Ghent and Bruge, both of which are really old cities with lots of character.

There is this one bar in Bruges that has been open continuously since 1515. Thats just unfathomable the amount of generations of families that it has gone through...

The rest of the city looked like a mini belgian version of venice, which got chris and I into talking and planning our NEXT trip :-) To the south of Europe, spain, portugal, italy maybe greece!

Could be a pipe dream but still...

Au Revoir!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Belgian Beer

So I didnt know if anyone knew this, but the beer here in belgium has close to 4x the alcohol. Makes for some interesting evenings!

keyboard here suyck just wanted to put that out there

So brussels hasnt been as exciting as the rest of our trip so far, but i think its good to have a chill place before the craziness of amsterdam...

Saw the royal palace, the grand place, and a lot of random things... For example there's a really really old bar that you can sit in and play chess!! Which is pretty schaweet.

Tomorrow is the trip to bruge and ghent, a full day bus tour, and then the 24th off to amsterdam...

Monday, May 21, 2007

Picture time!!




Were at a three hour layover, so i uploaded some pictures

Enjoy

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Versailles

Well, now that it's 835pm its still raining. Hasn't stopped all day.

So out of the entire trip its NOT been raining only one day. Which was nice, because we did a lot of the trip in that day.

So Versailles was today which was nice becuase it was inside, but unfortunately, i had just a short sleeve tshirt in the rain and had to buy a 10€ Umbrella from a store. Then Chris bought one for 4€ from an illegal vendor. Foiled again!

But versailles was pretty cool, Chris and Rashel (one of the new friends) both made fun of me because as we walked into a room I would say something like, oh wow thats the Bernini statue of Louis the XIV and then the audio tour would say the same thing. They both gave me some sort of weird look like wow, you're a nerd. Happened at least like 15 times. But some started following me because I was a better tour guide than the one you had to pay 20€ for. HA.

Thank you $100,000 education!!
And my unnatural addiction to the history channel.

Well, tomorrow we're off to brussels, which should be exciting, a shorter train ride.

Send over some comments! I enjoy reading them!

Day two in paris

Well, still here at the amazing hostel and guess what?
It's raining again!

Damnit.

Yesterday was really nice at least, it was sunny and 75, which was perfect for our walking around day. We did the lourve, the Notre Dame, Luxembourge palace, along with some very random places...

Today hopefully will be Versailles, and because its inside hopefully the rain wont matter because I have a feeling its an all day type rain.

Anyway, quick one today, long one tomorrow...

Au Revoir!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Paris

Here we are in paris!

Only have 30 minutes, so the pictures are going to have to wait... hopefully at some time I can get some pictures up before we actually get home. Currently, we're staying at our wicked nice paris hostel, Hostel Calaincourt. Or something Like that, I really have no idea how to spell in french.

Anyway, Flew in Thursday morning without a hitch, and made our way to our frankfurt hostel with no problems whatsoever. My german skills were sketchy at first, but it was quite amazing how the fluency came back by the end of the day. Frankfurt was kinda neat, better than the bland 'bankfurt' that I had be warned of, but still not as cool as cities to come I would assume.

The train to france was pretty cool, we met some new canadian friends who went with us, but have since parted ways. Still made the 6 hour train ride more enjoyable.

Paris so far has been gorgeous, it seems every step along the way there is another famous landmark or gigantic church. There has never been a more confusing city as far as directions are concerned, its quite frustrating. Went to the Arc de Triumph, but didnt go inside because it was like 20 euro which we didnt want to spend to take a french only tour....

Today is the Lourve and the Notre Dame, both of which I'm really excited about! Tomorrow is Versailles, which I'm also really stoked for, but I have no idea how to get there, so that will be an adventure in and of itself. After which, we are going to Brussels which I hear will be more laid back and hopefully we can catch up on some sleep first... Even though the hostels we've stayed at have been gorgeous.#

Until later...
Ciao!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

On my way...


So I just bought a new car! woohoo!

2007 Wolfsburg edition Jetta

I have pictures :-)




Anyway, on my way to get chris after I write this, all packed and good to go!!!!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Beginnings

Here we are!

It's currently Saturday, May 12, and I'm writing from my apartment, planning out the trip that I'm going to leave for on wednesday. All of my updates, including some pictures, will be on this instead of emailing mass emails, becuase who really wants to do that? Me? No.

Alrighty, well, here is the itinerary so far:

Leave wednesday from Chicago at 730pm for Frankfurt!!

May 17: Frankfurt
May 18: Paris
May 19: Paris
May 20: Paris
May 21: Brussels
May 22: Brussels
May 23: Brussels
May 24: Amsterdam
May 25: Amsterdam
May 26: Amsterdam
May 27: Berlin
May 28: Berlin
May 29: Berlin
May 30: Munich
May 31: Munich
June 1: Munich
June 2: Munich
June 3: Vienna / Interlaken
June 4: Vienna / Interlaken
June 5: Vienna / Interlaken
June 6: Vienna
June 7: Fly out


So there we are!

CAN'T WAIT!!!