we've been in europe for half a week now, and i'm already exhausted. we got into london at 6am on the 16th, and immediately found a small, personable hotel. slept some, then went into town and walked around. our hotel was in westminster, so we walked around there -- westminster abbey, big ben, parliament, then up to trafalgar square and leicester square. jm and colin got drunk at night after we watched a euro cup game at a pub. they came home at 3am and jm flipped me off because i wouldn't let him smoke a cigarette in the room.
the next day we split up. jm was hungover, so he slept in. colin went to the imperial war museum. i went to st. paul's and the tate modern, which has a collection of amazing art from the 20th century -- max ernst, modigliani, dali, and a giant spider. i crossed the millennium bridge and got the tube to trafalgar, which was hilarious because it was fucking rush hour in london. needless to say, my tall ass had a hard time fitting.
we sat around at night, then went out walking some. slept and went to the liverpool st. train station in the morning to get a ferry for amsterdam. we had to wait six hours in a burger king for the train to come to take us. didn't leave until 17:30. train to harwich, then ferry to hook on holland on which i slept a bit, then train to amsterdam. we didn't get into centraal station until 2:30, at which point we met up with another backpacker from iowa, a writer major named evan.
we walked around town for a few hours. met up with a stoner dutch piss-head who tried to convince us his name was marcus garvey. got free pints from a durham man who was pleased as punch to meet americans: "america and england together, and everyone else is shit!" his name was jeff, and he stood with us out in the street for an hour, telling us how he hates new york, london, france ("they eat turds there -- turds with garlic!"), germany (his fther and grandfather fought in both world wars), india, australia, etc. etc. the only places he likes are america and newcastle, where apparently women walk around naked.
we stood in a bus stop for 2 hours, talking and pacing around. oh, did i mention i did adderall to stay awake? well, i did. so i smoked cigarettes and talked too much, until we went to our hostel and got accosted by a man fresh out of jail, missing teeth, looking for all of our money.
we slept from noon until this evening, but that didn't stop jm and colin from getting stoned as shit. i've been wandering around town, getting lost. evan made cheese sandwiches. we are staying at the flying pig hostel near the train station, where music is constantly on the stereo, smoke fills the air in the narrow reception room, and people are in and out 24 hours a day.
i'm having fun so far, but i'm also homesick. i get that way easily, and having a girlfriend makes it much worse. this trip has been fun but exhausting and expensive so far, but we're just getting our bearings about being on the continent, beating jet lag, living out of backpacks and the like.
plus, we have italy to look forward to. until then, i'd appreciate ANY emails from any of you. anything is better than nothing, and i want to hear from friends to keep me grounded. write at candycanesammy@hotmail.com.
you are all my children.
- jim
posted by candycanesammy @ 1:09 PM
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