In London Woke up nice and late today.

Got up for some coffee and went to Jason and Sara's private park for some sun, reading and writing. Very relaxing.

After Sara returned from her workout, we walked through Hyde Park and went to Lo Sputino for lunch and walked around my old hood. Even visited the Elbow Room, where I used to work.

There were two people who I used to work with who were there. They were not nearly as excited to see me, as I was to see them and the bar. I guess that's what happens when you work at a bar and somebody who used to work there 4 years ago comes back to visit when on vacation.

The place was still awesome and it was cool to see that Sara thought so also.

Jason and Sara are now out rollerblading and when they return, we'll go to dinner.  ¶ 6:41 PM 0 comments

  Lille to London Spent today travelling to London and I am exhausted.

Got up a little after 9 today and went exploring Lille and I loved it. After wandering around for 3 hours I jumped on a train to Calais at 2 PM.

I arrived in Calais around 3:30 PM. Took a bus to the port and got on a Ferry that left a little after 5 PM. Arrived in Dover around 6PM (gained an hour) and took a bus to the train, which got me in to London at 9PM.

That's right, 8 hours of travelling. Seeing the English Channel was cool, but I understand now why more people don't make that voyage. The Eurostar would have taken a little over an hour.

Good to hang out with Sara and Jason catching up for a couple of hours and I'll be seeing them for the rest of the week.

Off to bed in a couple...  ¶ 11:42 PM 0 comments

  Reading List Just an idea of what I've consumed so far on this trip, might post more full posts over at the Angry Chicken for 'What's the Matter with Kansas':

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Joe Trippi - Good book, nothing earth-shattering for me but a good job of pulling together Joe's general thoughts. Trippi goes a bit overboard in expressing his vision - but any movement needs a visionary. If you feel that you don't completely know why or how the Dean campaign happened, read this book.

Bringing Down the House - Don't have the book in front of me so I don't know the author offhand. Good fun book about how a team of MIT students shook the gambling world by counting blackjack.

What's the Matter With Kansas (How Conservatives won the Heart of America), Thomas Frank - Very compelling book about how the Republicans have manipulated the social issues to obscure the fact that they are against the 'average' American. Some great thoughts, some views too extreme for me. That said, I will be recommending this book to some people I know.

Stranger than Fiction (True Stories), Chuck Palahniuk - Palahniuk was the author of Fight Club and one of my favorite writers, and he NEVER disappoints. Not the best thing he's written (that would be Survivor), but compelling nonetheless.

I also listened to the Art of War by Sun Tzu on my iPod. It was interesting, but I probably would have gotten more out of it if the reader hadn't been Joe Mantegna. I kept thinking it was being read by Fat Tony.  ¶ 11:38 PM 0 comments

  Recapping last night in Lille Not sure what's up with the photos, probably some trick that ofoto runs. Anyway, you can now see my photo album HERE.

Went out for a decent dinner last night in Lille. And let me just say that the French made me feel completely welcomed. I always hear these horror stories about French rudeness/haughtiness but my run-ins with this sort of attitude has been extremely rare in France. People repeatedly asked me where I was from and waited patiently as I tried to speak in French, while they knew english.

That said, after dinner I walked home to my hotel. As I walked I noticed dozens of homeless people sitting on the streets with their dogs. While none of them started with me, and they left me alone when I asked. However, I felt unsafe for one of the first times ever in Europe. Or more to the point, I felt like I would be unsafe if I went back out from the hotel (now after 10PM). Remember, I'm a big bad New Yorker, or at least, I know what to be aware of in my surroundings. This time it struck me that where I was from actually made me less safe, rather than more. Maybe my New York-sense was what saved me from a bad situation. Or maybe I was being a punk.

So I went back to the Hotel and actually saw a great movie, Tadpole - with Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter and some young kid. Also saw 8 Mile dubbed in French. Fun!

  ¶ 11:15 PM 0 comments

  Apparently photos aren't loading You may need to right_click on the photos to get them to load, I'll figure it out when Ihave time.  ¶ 6:09 PM 1 comments

  Lille In France now. It was a really short 90 minute trip from Brugge. It's so nice not to be beholden to everyone to speak english again, though my french has been less than stellar.

I got in at 4 and got a room directly across from a beautiful cathedral. I went out to explore and promptly got caught in a storm.

This is a gorgeous city and I plan to explore more fully tomorrow. Assuming I rise early enough, I will then train it up to Calais and take a ferry back to England.

Time for dinner  ¶ 5:52 PM 0 comments

  Brugge Please check out some of my older entries as I've finally been able to upload photos for a few of them

Today is Monday and I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Brugge. Brugge is a small town in Northern Brussels.



Antwerp Station

Backtracking to Saturday night, I ate at a place in Antwerp where I had some awesome mussels. I then went and asked the clerk at my hotel that standby of traveling: 'So where do the kids hangout?'. I followed his directions and went to the Grote Markt area. Which was pretty lively. However, jetlag was settling in and one beer at the bar was sufficient before turning around and heading back to the room. Once in bed, I found it impossible to sleep. I was literally in bed till 4:30 when I fell asleep.

Yesterday, I woke up at 7:30 (on three and a half hours sleep) and got up to explore Antwerp in daylight. Yesterday being the last Sunday of the Summer in Belgium, Antwerp was having a festival. I think the theme had something to do with body and mind. I wandered around and also came upon the Grote Markt (great market) during the day. Everything you can imagine was on sale - including pets. It was really weird seeing pet birds being sold 10 feet away from birds for dinner.

I left Antwerp around mid-day and went to Brugge. Only an hour and a half ride by train. I checked into a youth hostel around 2 pm and was told I needed to wait for my room. I sat down at the bar with a couple of Canadian kids and one of them is a political junkie like myself and we engaged in a conversation over a couple of beers. I then went out and explored town for a little while berfore coming back to the room and napping for 3 hours. Dinner...bed...  ¶ 9:27 AM 0 comments