Jon and Ryan's Excellent Adventure

[rjbman]

For the last few weeks I have had the great pleasure of traveling abroad around Europe with . While abroad, I tried to keep a written journal but found it was too difficult to keep it up to date at the end of each day... really wishing I had brought a tote or something so I could have written throughout the day. However, I did jot down a quick list of all the stuff that we did day by day, so here's what all we did. I know Jon's got plenty of instant film pictures that he'll hopefully share here too.

I'm gonna save myself and y'all the hassle by keeping the posts to a few days' worth because otherwise this would be a mini novel. I promise you, it involves other care-taggers and plenty of suspense!

Day 1/2
I flew out of Chicago to London Heathrow, arriving at around 10:30pm local time. Jon had gotten in a bit earlier and was planning on meeting me somewhere in the airport. When we touched down, I quickly searched for wifi and thankfully found the free airport wifi, good for a full four hours. I messaged Jon then headed to wait in the Customs line. There were a lot of people, 60 or so off the plane, but it moved very quickly, and within 15 minutes I had made it through.

Jon messaged me saying he was waiting near the exit from the secured area, so I grabbed my bag. It was a North Face Terra 65L in black; I had wanted a bag around 50L-55L, but had only found smaller or bigger and decided to be a bit cautious. When I emerged from the doors, I found him seated on one of those airport benchchairs with the silver armrests. We had never met in person before, just internet chat and videos. To my great disappointment, we weren't exact body twins like I had thought: he had about an inch on me.

Since our hostel claimed not to accept check-ins after 11pm, we had planned on spending the night in the airport, in true backpacking fashion. Combined with the time difference / jet lag it should be easy, right? Mistake number one. We quickly figured out there wasn't really anywhere to lay down and actually sleep, and ended up sitting round a couple power outlets on the second floor of the airport. We both claimed (I might have lied a teeny bit) that we weren't tired yet.

Both of us brought our 3DS and Smash Bros to play, but unfortunately mine was practically out of battery, and the charger wasn't rated for the 220V that European power ports put out. So that was a bust. We ended up watching Terminator on my iPad that I had brought. After an hour or so the floor got too cold so we ended up going back to the main waiting area, where a couple people were attempting to sleep across the airport benches, a challenge with the frequent armrests breaking them up. After the movie ended, we were lucky enough to find two benches with 4 seats between armrests and lay down to try and catch some Zs. That went terribly, so blearily around 6:30am when people started arriving for flights we got up to find some charging ports for our tech.

Round 8 we started to look for how to get to downtown London. We had plans with and and to meet for brunch at a place called Black Cat Cafe. We ended up getting a 7 day bus/tram pass and hopped on the train towards London. We still had a couple hours to kill so we ended up grabbing Starbucks (only because we knew they'd have free wifi, I swear) and then sitting in Finsbury Park for an hour or so before heading on another train.

However, when we tried to get off that train our cards didn't work. The 7 day bus/tram pass didn't include the subways (I had thought "tram" was just a British way of saying train). The agent at the gate explained our fuckup but let us through anyways. Throughout the rest of the day we tried to find a ticket office to plead for a refund, but never found an open one ("bank holiday" weekend or something, like they didn't just follow American Memorial Day).

We met and outside the cafe. It was vegan, something I hadn't tried before. I ended up getting an open sandwich, covered with cabbage, lettuce, mole sauce, and fried tofu atop a piece of toast, and it was surprisingly delicious (seriously, if you're considering vegan, taste is a non-issue).

had mixed days up and wasn't free til that evening, so the four of us wandered around Shoreditch for a while. Me and Jon still had our full backpacks though, which really started digging into our shoulders as the day went on. In Shoreditch we ended up stopping at a couple stores, including an old sneaker shop with tons of cool old Nikes and Adidas shoes with retro 90s decorations and playing old TV shows.

Jon stopped and pulled out his yo-yo. "It's a fixed axle," he explained as he started winding it around his finger. "Allows you to do some cool stuff you can't do with the typical yo-yo." He demonstrated one particular one, a kickflip where he flipped the yo-yo onto the string, then tossed it around in a circle and snagged it again. Meanwhile he's spinning all sorts of tricks and some passerbyers are starting to observe. I give the yo-yo a shot and manage to make it go down and spin, then climb all the way back into my hand. Guess I'll leave the tricks to Jon.

From there we made our way to Aldgate and looked at a couple of excellent vintage shops, including one supposedly uses for flintstone for STORY. Jon and I really wanted to see Dover Street Market too, so we hopped on a subway to Soho. Unfortunately we reached it right as it was closing, so we ended up just heading back to our hostel, Wombats, to check in.

8 bed hostel room on the garden level sounds like a terrible thing, but it wasn't too bad. Nice and clean, and the lockers were opened and closed by your specific keycard which was stellar. germ and sknss waited in the lobby while we relieved ourselves of the backpacks. Our shoulders finally free, we headed to dinner at a Vietnamese place called Oi Hanoi. Sadly we reached it to discover it was closed for renovations, so we headed up Brick Lane. This is a truly incredible place at dinnertime... dozens and dozens of restaurants line block after block. Employees outside desperately try to entice pedestrians into their particular one, singing songs of great bargains and special deals for that group. We passed on that though, a destination already in mind. Rosa's was a Thai restaurant. I was the odd one out, ordering Pad Thai to everyone else's green curry. While we were there, we were finally graced with the presence of . When he finished his meal, we found a pub close to our hostel called the Brown Bear. It ended up being exactly the kind of pub expected in England, including a drunken singing Englishman. Since we were beat from the lack of sleep, we headed back to the hostel at around 10pm and passed the fuck out.

Photos!!!

[sknss]

[jrisk]

Damn mr. concise really rounded out that day. Ryan forgot to say but the whole tram != train ticket fiasco was Mistake #2 of the trip. We got Oyster cards later and we were fine for the rest of the trip. I can't believe we carried those backpacks around all that day. We could have easily dropped them off way before officially checking in at the hostel. "Backpacking" is not fun if you have to carry a 23lb backpack around all day.

Like said in his rep comment, we also went to the . We were able to check our bags and walk around the museum in non-turtle mode. (That's what a Brit called us at one point, turtles) It was a really unique and interesting museum. They had cute little exhibits set up to display living room interiors from the 1600s to 1990. They had a really nice garden outside which we walked around. However, they didn't allow picnics so keep that in mind if you ever go to check it out.

I didn't take too many pictures this day. Here's are a few though. One of Ryan, a candid crossing the street and a canal. Click to enlarge! This was the end of a pack that got exposed from me opening the film door. woops. Also, still figuring out my scanner. Despite scanning at 600ppi, these are still pretty low-rezy.

[mc-lunar]

the closest we'll ever get to a germinal fit pic

[rjbman]

Day 3
With the lack of sleep and a hint of jet lag affecting us, we slept til around 10:30. Jon was kind enough to wait for me to get ready, but missed his chance for breakfast in the process. So we skipped a morning meal. Instead, we ended up crouched around my iPad booking our travel plans to Liverpool.

We left Wombats and walked along the river to London Bridge. Given the song, we both were expecting something magical, but to our great surprise it was incredibly generic as far as bridges go. Turns out Tower Bridge is the super cool one. Oops! We reached the London Bridge underground stop and spotted . It's a good thing we were able to spot him, since as far as internet went we were reliant on free wifi courtesy of places like Starbucks.

Instead of waiting for and , we headed into the Burroughs Market. Iliam lead the way, but we discovered a lot of places were closed for the holiday weekend. It was still incredible seeing all the stalls and mini restaurants packed into a few blocks. A lot of the food places were set up with a cart or several in front of essentially a garage for storing foodstuffs and the carts when closed. Germ and sknss found us and we all got lunch. I ended up getting a fantastic chorizo sausage sandwich with greens and spicy sauce, while Jon chose a whiskey ginger burger and "chips".

From there we headed into Southwerk (suth-ark haha). To my immense surprise we discovered there was a recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Admission was relatively high for simply looking around, so we elected to pass and instead walk along the River Thames to the Tate Modern.

This enormous art museum was free, with the exception of a special exhibition. Inside the Tate, there is an immense hall spanning the entire width of the building, stretching from the cellar floor to the top of the building, six stories above. Normally, iliam explained, they would populate the hall with massive works of art. That day, however, there was a publishing show. Dozens of art publishers had set up booths with books available for purchase. We found a lot of really cool books, but neglected to purchase any.

Iliam led the way back into the art section proper. Turns out art is another passion of his; he was super knowledgeable and explained in depth the details of his favorite pieces. Within a minute or two, he had attracted some other listeners eavesdropping on us. When done, he'd turn and speed away, weaving through the heavy traffic like a cloud leaving me and Jon struggling to catch up. At one point he turned the corner and went through a doorway, and we reached it a second later only to find him impatiently waiting clear across the room, a throng of people standing between us.

We left there round 2 and headed north, searching for the elusive and STORY MFG boat. They had a prior commitment and weren't done when we arrived in the area, so we sat down at a nearby bar, the York. I went straight to the bartender and asked for a Coke, then asked if he had any grenadine. "Nope, but we have blackcurrant syrup." I said that sounds great, but it wasn't til he pulled a second glass out and poured the syrup in it that I realized there was a misunderstanding. "No alcohol?" he asked, and I sheepishly shook my head. He added soda water and handed me both drinks. I headed back to the table and explained my error. Sknss was gracious enough to accept the coke when offered. I had paid for blackcurrant soda and dammit I was going to drink it.

Germinal tells us Bobbin is on the way, so we're instantly on full alert. Soon enough, a bespectacled, bearded man with an immense grin walks in. We all shake hands and exchange greetings. Jon uses his instant camera to snap a candid shot (one of many) of Bobbin. We leave and head down a path to the canal where the boat was docked. Katy greets us, and we all hop onto the boat. It's narrow, and the showroom is quickly crowded even though we're the only ones there. Someone starts boiling a kettle for tea, and they let us explore all the secret new pieces that I think have been announced by now. I tried on two Time Jackets, one in red, and the lucrative original that they are all based on. Jon purchased a scarf, a good buy since he'd wear it most of the rest of the trip. Then we all clamber out to the boat deck and sit to drink the delicious tea that I was later told is from India. I manage to convince everyone to let me get a group shot with everyone.

From there we go out searching for dinner, but the place nearby that we were wanting to try was closed, damn holiday. So instead we went to Chipotle, after hearing that Jon had never even been. Afterwards we wandered to a supposedly good bar hidden in the middle of a neighborhood. It was the epitome of dive bar, with a sign on the front proclaiming they were open from six to late. Inside, dim lights illuminated clear-sealed wooden tables, a jukebox, and of course a pool table and darts board. The jukebox was free, so iliam and I queued up some music to play. In the hour and a half we were there, we didn't hear either of them. Soon, though, the reason for that was evident, as the bartender snuck out from behind the bar to add a song, typing in the code from memory. Iliam and I tried to challenge the pool players to a game, but they were embroiled in the middle of a best of 3. We soon left, and parted ways at the underground.

Photos

[bels]

Yo where was that Twombly? I'd like to see some twomblys

[sknss]

What happened next??

[rjbman]

Day 4

The next day, Jon and I woke up bright and early to do something that we had previously neglected to do: touristy sightseeing. Our target this morning was the Tower of London. As we were leaving that day, we did have to check out of our excellent hostel (Wombats London) and drag our stuffed bags with us to the Tower. Thankfully, the hostel was barely 10 minutes walking distance from the Tower, so we didn't have too far to go.

While it did take a bit of time for us to figure out just how to enter the Tower, we did finally manage to purchase tickets. Before entering, though, Jon sent a snapchat out of the two of us in front of the Tower. He quickly got a snapchat back from none other than , who was also in London. We searched for wifi to try and put a plan together with him, since we were leaving in a few hours. We ended up finding some on the bridge to enter the Tower, so I got an excellent view of the former moat while Jon worked on comms. We ended up making some tentative plans but due to the last-minute plans they ended up not working out before we left. We did end up meeting up with him later, more on that in another post (or several )

Exploring the Tower was interesting, but incredibly packed with tourists. We were tourists too, but it was still a bit of a bother after all the excellent city-dweller activities we had been doing the past few days. The big draw for us was the Crown Jewels, which we really wanted to see before we headed off on our next leg. We did end up getting caught up in the mass of tourists slowly ambling through the exhibit. I was stressing about our timeline, but Jon was relaxed and told me to calm down. We finally got to the big reveal, the current jewels, which they run you through on a movable walkway. Photos were not allowed, but they were impressive.

Our next stop was Euston train station, where we would be shortly boarding a train for Liverpool. Before leaving, though, Jon and I were joining , , , and then were joined by and , who had come in for the day. We all split up to get foods from the various places round Euston Station, with Jon and I getting sandwiches from Pret a Manger, then ducking next door to Ed's Diner for a milkshake. We all congregated back in a small park right outside the station to eat. Sadly, Jon and I had a train to catch within a half hour, so we had to depart very quickly.

We hopped on our first Euro train, riding to Liverpool via Crewe. The ride was fairly uneventful, the two of us trading off between reading on our electronics and gazing out the window at the scenery passing by. It was interesting to me to see how different the English countryside is from the Americans. Coming from the Midwest, there were far fewer cornfields. Cottages dotted the grassy hills, sparsely distributed. It may have just been the change, but I found it better than the country near my hometown.

We arrived in Liverpool round 4 in the afternoon. Our hostel, Hoax, was interesting. Billed, as most of the hostels were, as a very youthful, artsy place, there were virtually no other residents that we spoke with, and almost no other guests entirely. We didn't see much of it the first day though, so I'll leave that commentary til the next day.

Once we had settled in, we met at the entrance to our hostel. Decked out in full Story MFG gear, he was quite an impressive sight. We wandered around Liverpool a bit, with Heck pointing out various places. Eventually, we ended up at a place called Almost Famous for dinner. Billed as an American-themed restaurant, Jon and I were eager to see just what Brits thought of us. Turns out, this restaurant thought of America as almost exclusively what they see from movies. Crazy decorations, and a fairly explicit menu proclaimed our supposed American boisterous lifestyle.

After Almost Famous, we wandered over to a brewpub called Brew Dog, with a bunch of Scottish craft beers. My personal highlight was an IPA called Punk IPA, absolutely stellar. Jon ordered a really great beer whose name eludes me, but it was a superb combination of hops and malt into a beer which made every sip a delight. I swear I'm not writing copy for this company, the beers were really just that good.

Heck walked us back to our hostel, which was a damn good thing as I don't think we'd have been able to figure it out on our own, and we went to bed.

[rjbman]

I do apologize to and everyone else, I'll try to be a bit more consistent with writing these up.

Day 5

Another day in Liverpool. met us around 10 at the hostel. We wandered around a little bit looking for a place to get some coffee. Personally, I'm not a huge fan, but Jon is. So we wandered up Church Street looking for a place. There were a few decent locations, but nothing really seemed great. There was a place named Central Perk, decorated to look like a 90s coffee shop a la Friends, but we weren't feeling it. ended up telling us about a place his friend mentioned, called Golden Square. We went off searching for that, and found it a few streets off Church. The only signage outside was a yellow neon square, with the letters "Ag" inside it. Pardon the British, but brilliant.

Inside, we found the store to be incredibly aesthetic, with light wood table tops balanced by white walls and beat up pipe supports. Overhead, a nest of orange cabling suspended bare light bulbs to better illuminate the cafe. The owner stood behind the counter, wearing a large well-kept mustache. Jon and him struck up a deep conversation about coffee, to which I tried to follow without any real underlying knowledge about coffee.

The owner ended up making us a sample pitcher of a Kenyan coffee, served up via inverted aeropress. It was incredible to watch, a far more complicated coffee-making process than the one I was used to of dumping ground coffee beans into a coffeemaker and hitting brew. We each got a small glass, and I sipped it nervously. It sure did taste like coffee, but it had far more depth and flavor to it than the few sips I had previously tried of standard coffee. It was delicious, but I was concerned about liking it too much; I could tell this was a rabbit-hole of taste that I didn't need in my life. "Can you taste it?" the owner asked Jon, "There's a specific flavor to it, can you tell what it is? It's tomato." Sure enough, I was able to detect the hint of a sweet tomato in the coffee.

We sat around for a while chatting, and ended up ordering another coffee. A barista had replaced the owner, but he made just as good of a brew as the owner. "Give me the least coffee-like type there is," I asked him, clueless as to the difference between macchiatos, flat whites, americanos, and lattes. I ended up trying the flat white, but wasn't quite as impressed as with the Kenyan. Guess I was all coffeed out.

By the time we left, it was past noon already and we were aching for lunch. Our next stop was nearby, a tea and sandwich shop called Leaf. While there was not a lot of seating on the main level, we climbed up to the second level, newly opened. Up there, we got a spot without chairs, just two red sofas surrounding a coffee table. The walls here were lined with bookshelves ten feet high, all filled. A tall ceiling enabled enormous windows that flaxy up the room. We all ordered sandwiches and tea, and spent the next couple of hours doing nothing but relaxing on the sofas and chatting about fashion and life in Liverpool.

The next place we went to was the Tate Liverpool. Located right on a harbor and overlooking the river, the Tate had some fantastic views. The exhibit was called Constellations, and revolved around showing the connections between various artists by showcasing particular paintings. Each constellation had a central piece of art, with influenced pieces branching off. There was a Picasso, a Pollock, and an extremely disconcerting foot emerging from a wall. We took our time and browsed the entire place, emerging into the famous Liverpool rain. They had an artist-decorated ship dressed in Razzle Dazzle, quite a fearsome sight, that Jon wanted to see, so we walked over and around the ship in it's little enclosed bit of water.

We headed up back to Church Street and to a place called The Shipping Forecast to wait out the rain. A warehouse-style bar, it had a long list of beers on tap. We went to dinner at a ramen place whose name eludes me. suggested it, and we sat down. Food was reasonably priced, and we split a liter bottle of coke.

Finally we ended up back at the hostel. We figured we'd give the bar a try, and arrived to find it empty at 8pm. We all ordered drinks, and I asked the bartender for the Jenga box sitting on the game shelf behind the bar. We played Jenga, with Jon possessing a killer flick that was miraculously able to take out pieces that were firmly locked in. Every so often, even with our talent, the tower would come tumbling down. By the time we bid good night to round 10, the bar was already beginning to clean and mop the floors. Jon and I went up to our rooms to relax some, but we finally found someone else staying at the hostel, and she was sound asleep in our room. Instead, we grabbed our tablets and headed out to find the lounge. It ended up being directly beneath the bar, with a stairway that we could have taken right to the lounge. Bright, pulsating lights illuminated an otherwise dark dance floor. Loud music set a fierce tempo, and there was a second bar. However, thi bar had been completely emptied clean, and the dance floor / "lounge" was as empty as the bar. There was a TV, and we tried to hook it up to the hostel wifi to watch Netflix, but was unsuccessful. Trying to ignore the loud music, we pulled up Brooklyn Nine-Nine and watched a few episodes, and around midnight headed up to bed.

[jrisk]

Damn, how the heck did you remember all that specific stuff, Ryan?

Let's jump back to 5/25/15 (Day 3) for a second and enjoy these quick snaps:



I just want to say that Bobbin and Katy were fantastically gracious and inviting. T'was utterly charmed from the moment we met Bobbin in the bar to having tea and waving goodbye. Bobbin noticing my Dana Lee shirt was pretty neat. So thankful for the opportunity to meet you two and will remember this day for a long time!

[jrisk]

Day 4 - 5/26/15

Here's a few pictures of us at the Tower of London and a couple extra. Definitely glad we got to see some touristy stuff.



Leaving London was a bittersweet feeling. Felt like we were leaving way too soon since we only just met some people! 2nd to last picture was of me and Ryan heading to the train. Last picture is of Ryan trying on Heck's hat right outside Almost Famous (picture is misdated). If I remember correctly, the beer I had at Brewdog was the Alice Porter. It was really good. I didn't realize how popular Brewdog was until later on our trip when talking to another American about our time in Liverpool. Definitely glad heck brought us here. Also, Ryan, remember how Brewdog kept playing the blue Weezer album? I think it started up the third time before you finally got up and asked the bartender to change it.

[jrisk]

Day 5 - 5/27/2015

Yes, this morning, I was on a mission to find good coffee and the Golden Square was exactly what I needed. Rob, the owner, was a super cool Berliner. He actually brewed up a few single-origins from a roaster called Casino Mocca for us to sample. I first asked him to brew me up a cup of the kenyan in the chemex but he convinced me to try the aeropress. Great body yet still a refined clarity. I'm kind of frustrated that I can't find Casino Mocca's beans in the states. I might have to take up Rob's offer and ask them to proxy me a couple bags.

I don't think I got any instant photos on this day. It was a pretty wet and cloudy day with not too many opportunities to get great pictures. Here is a picture of the foot for and a picture of the razzle dazzle ship.

[rjbman]

Day 6

It was our last day in Liverpool. met us at the hostel, and we headed off for breakfast at a place recommended by a Tinder match of Jon's (he beat me to a match in Liverpool). I found it very flattering that they were hitting it off, he asked if she knew any good breakfast places in town, then took us there instead (love).

The place was called East Ave. Bakehouse, and was a beautifully modern bread and breakfast. I got a English bacon sandwich. While it was starkly different from American bacon, it was still quite good in its own way. I ended up Instagramming the picture (and got called out by for using my phone at the table), and it was instantly liked by the shop. Looking up in surprise, I met the eye of the waitress behind the little bar section, an iPad in her hand. I smiled at her, then turned back to my food. I choose to believe she smiled back at me.

Jon had an itching for coffee, just like every morning, so we headed back to our favorite coffee shop ever, Golden Square. The owner recognized us again, and while he didn't hand us out a free pitcher, he and Jon talked for a long time. We sat and enjoyed our coffees once again, then Jon and I tried to figure out some more plans ahead of schedule. The sad reality that we discovered was that while it was far more enjoyable to not have everything set in stone and planned out, prices were higher last minute or simply not available. We had planned on a trip to Berlin, but found that European geography wasn't necessarily our strong suit, a good train taking roughly 10 hours from Paris to Berlin and not eligible for our train pass.

When we had finished our coffees and made an effort to cement our near-future plans, we headed back to the brisk Liverpool air. It was about time for us to depart, sadly. We stopped at a cafe chain named Gregg's and got some sandwiches. When we reached the train station, we stood for a couple minutes trying to locate a good candidate to bug to take our photos. After the photos, we thanked for an absolutely incredible time and for being such a great host, and boarded the train back to London.

When we arrived in London, we had plans to meet up with , who we had missed earlier in the week. We got together at DSM, and he started energetically explaining his cool abroad program that had enabled him to be in London when we were. We found out that he was also going to be in Paris the same time we were, leaving London the day after us. DSM was quite the experience; so many good designers and dozens of more runway-style pieces. Undercover, Visvim, Nike, Craig Green, Thom Browne, Rick Owens, and of course CDG were all fondled. Adam mentioned a couple fashion parties he had gotten invited to, and offered to take us.

From there, we went to Adam's residence, where he graciously allowed us to drop our bags off so we weren't stuck with them all night. Jon discovered an old piece of clothing of his, an EG longshirt that he had sold (think it was to ) and that had eventually reached . I fell in love with it, and he let me borrow it for the night. We headed to meet at a Lebanese tapas restaurant called Lazeez. The food was excellent, but we had a rough time with the service. We were in a rush to get to the parties so we didn't even argue the added gratuity for fear of having to wait another half hour.

The first stop was at the Nudies store. The place was packed with fashion folks, but I think it was fair to say that we were one of the better-dressed crews. The drinks were free, so we all grabbed some and chatted amongst ourselves. All too soon, however, the drinks ran dry. Of course, we left and headed to the next party. Located at a vintage shop, they too had ran out of alcohol far too soon. fawned over their pieces with some of the staff while we browsed, but eventually they kicked us out.

We wandered around the neighborhood (whose name eludes me) until we found an open bar, decorated in striped wallpapers with soaring ceilings and glass chandeliers. After grabbing drinks, we sat upstairs for a while, then headed towards the Underground. Jon and I had planned to take a bus out to the airport we were flying out at 6am the following morning, Luton, at 12. After taking some fun night pictures, however, we realized how close we were cutting it, said our goodbyes to , and took off running. It didn't help that the Underground station that we got off at, only 2 blocks from 's place, was effectively 140 stairs with no other way of getting to the street. Jon and I beat up, which was understandable as he was wearing Birkenstocks. When he reached the top, he took his shoes off and ran with us barefoot to his place. That was about when I realized how out-of-shape I was, when I was out of breath before running the 2 blocks to his place. Once there, we quickly grabbed our bags and headed out, but at that point it was 11:45pm and our bus was leaving in 15 minutes, clear across London.

Once we finally reached Victoria Station, we found the actual bus station to be incredibly difficult to find, and finally found it at 12:15. I'm pretty sure that our bus was delayed and just pulling out as we arrived. Regardless, we fretted for a while until we managed to convince a bus leaving at 12:30 with a different route (but stopping at Luton) to let us on. That bus ride was one of the worst; no landmarks in a foreign place, tired as fuck yet knowing you can't fall asleep lest you miss your stop. I knew Jon was also probably doing the same, but I was so tired that I was worried he was the same, and going to fall asleep. It didn't help that the stops had Luton listed first, but there were 2 stops beforehand. I was confused whether we had fucked up and missed it. Finally, we pulled into Luton, and Jon and I grudgingly departed the bus.

Sorry about the lack of photos, my phone died pretty early on in the night.

[jrisk]

#tbt to when we were in rome.

[rjbman]

Day 7

It's 12:30 in the AM British Time. Jon and I managed to not fall asleep and miss the Luton Airport stop, but we were exhausted. We searched the airport for a nice place to crash; unfortunately by 12:30 it seemed all the remotely comfortable spots (benches with armrests even had been occupied). The next best thing, we decided, would be some outlets to charge our dead phones. Searched the whole airport, and managed to find a lone outlet right near the bathrooms halfway hidden behind a rubbish bin (English word, not mine. It's a trash can!). So Jon and I leaned up against the wall, trading chargers and trying to rejuvenate our phones' batteries. I tried to sleep but it was hard: seriously, the floor was very hard and not conducive at all to sleep. Huge florescent lights flaxy up the entire airport, of course all still on at full power even though it was now 1 AM. I swear, Luton is trying to stop people from staying there overnight; it was even worse than Heathrow.

We passed the time, restlessly on phones and tablets or trying to sleep. Finally around 4 the place started to wake up again as fliers began to arrive for the very early flights. Ours was at 6, but we still had two hours to kill. Luckily, we managed to snag a bench in the newly opened coffee shop in the airport. Jon fell asleep for about 45 minutes, and I woke him up about 5 so that we could get through the gate. I had a checked bag as I had looked at the carry-on size allowed and mine was slightly over, but I decided I was going to try to see if it'd fit in the overhead cabin since it'd help us be able to get through the airport quicker.

Our flight was painless, EasyJet. They didn't hassle me over my bag, and the slope of the top of the backpack worked perfectly with the overhead slope so it didn't get noticed. Short flight, and a level of normal far greater than I had been led to believe budget airlines possessed. From Charles De Gaulle it was a 40 minute ride on the RER into Gare Du Nord and the city, where luckily our hostel, St. Christopher's, was a few blocks from the station. We had chosen the location due to being there currently, on his own Eurotrip.

After dropping our bags at the hostel, we headed out to see the city. We had been planning with and (spoiler: they are awesome) to meet at the Bastille metro stop, but arrived about half an hour early.

Aside: the Parisian metro system is fantastic; there are stops every few blocks in any direction and about 15 lines. Each train runs about every 3-5 minutes so even if you arrive just as one is departing there is another one coming very shortly.

Anyways, we had some time to kill so we found a Starbuck's (only because we knew we'd be able to find chargers and wifi, swear! Jon would have gone to a 3rd wave place if we had phone batteries left). Jon actually left to go on a short walk around, while I stayed and tried to look at some maps. There was a cute Starbuck's employee stocking the pastry shelf as I relaxed. After she finished she came out to look, and asked me something in French, to which I properly mumbled something about not speaking any French at all. She chuckled and apologized for taking me for French (I was flattered). "How does it look?" she asked. "Good." I might have blushed a bit.

Jon returned and we met up with and . Our first stop was some world-famous falafel. explained that there were a few falafel places in that neighborhood that all claimed to be the best one. She had her own opinion, so we tried that one. It was falafel, for sure, and it was amazing. We ended up wandering around looking for a place to eat, before led us into a courtyard of sorts that was apparently just a public park (super neat, they had a lot of random small parks in Paris).

After lunch, we went to a couple stores in rapid succession. Muji, which had two adjacent stores: one for clothing and one for everything else. Uniqlo, of course, where I picked up a pair of the mustard yellow socks that Jon had already brought with him for the trip and that was currently wearing. Nike Lab was cool, they had some neat pieces but I couldn't really buy anything (I was tempted on a pair of shorts though). I had never been to any of those stores so that was really fantastic to see them all.

Of course, with being the famous Bless model, we knew we had to go see the Bless store. It was unbelievable, all sorts of cool Bless designs up on the walls. It was difficult to tell where Bless merchandise ended and decoration began. They even had the famous blanket, but it was folded up beneath some stuff so we didn't take it out. I ended up buying a super cool bracelet that was striped natural leather and reflective tape, with "OF COURSE NOTHING ELSE THAN ANOTHER ADDITIONAL SOMETHING" on it. tried on some fantastic shades too.

We went to another store (my journal helpfully read "another store" so I think that's all that can be said. They did have some neat stuff, including some great fashion magazines whose names elude me, and a wrestling championship-sized belt. This store was located in the midsts of a marketplace, with stalls set up all over the streets. We started browsing a stall filled with clothes, and ended up discovering an old Bless pajama set (circa no. 21?) for 20€ and a Raf jacket for 50€. While me, Jon and Ques all wanted the jacket, none of us had space in our bags to fit a full jacket in, so reluctantly passed. , without such a restriction, happily bought the Bless set.

From the market we went to the Bless exhibit. While the store was focused on buyable merchandise, the exhibit was purely for viewing (and in some cases playing). There were a set of pillows that looked like rocks, and some pillow-looking rocks. The standout was a gigantic hammock made of square felt pillows. When I sat in it and started lazily rocking, music started to play! The different pillows had sensors in it to allow you to change pitch, and the speed of the swinging controlled the music's tempo. I know it's one of a kind but I would love to have this thing in my backyard.

After the Bless exhibit, we stopped at a cafe to get a drink. taught me some French (~"je vous dre un coca") so I could order my drink in French. The Coca-Cola was real sugar, and delicious.

Alas, after the cafe, we had to say goodbye to , who had to catch a train back home. , Jon, and I headed back to the Gare Du Nord area. We all grabbed food from a schwarma place around the corner from our hostel. Afterwards, we bought a bottle of wine each (it wasn't 750ml, more like 375ml) and headed to Canal Saint-Martin (as seen in Amelie). Once there, we realized none of us had a corkscrew. Luckily, there was a group of people setting up for what looked like a nice dinner on the canal, and we borrowed their corkscrew. Then, we sat, legs dangling over the water, sipping on wine and watching the sunset.

[jrisk]

I honestly didn't take many pictures because my phone was always dying. SORRY! Should also mention that I almost didn't make it into the Nudie party on day #6. Magicman told the bouncer the group was four people and I was the last person. to be real, that party sucked.

Also, that awesome coffee shop we went to in Liverpool is . Damn. :/

Here's a couple instant pictures I took before we left Liverpool and some from that night. The last picture is probably why we missed our bus.

[rjbman]

Day 8

This had to be one of my favorite days. We started off the morning right, with free continental breakfast at the hostel. The French, or the hostel at least, really seemed to love Nutella. The default breakfast was baguettes and heaping sides of Nutella, along with juice, milk, and coffee.

Jon had done his coffee research, and so we headed out to find an espresso place called 10 Belles. It was supposed to be only a block or two across Canal Saint-Martin, a 10 minute walk or so. Unfortunately, even with Google Maps at the ready, we (read: me) managed to get lost and went around in circles before finally spotting a small wooden sign declaring the store. The cafe was tiny, with 3 stools inside, a bench and four chairs outside. I had never had espresso before, and didn't plan to change that. So Jon bought me one anyways and I gave it a try. I didn't like it near as much as the Kenyan aeropress we had in Liverpool, at Golden Square.

Jon now fully caffeinated and awake, we hopped on the Metro (it might have been the RER actually) to go south across the Seine. Our plan was to traverse the river and see everything along the way. Right at the train stop, there was a park called Jardin des Plantes full of wonderful flowers and other plants. There was a zoo too, but we decided to skip it. We decided to move on, but discovered that when I urged us to keep going past the exit almost immediately after we entered, I had urged us past the only other exit in the park. Whoops.

Our next stop was the magnificent Notre Dame cathedral. On our way there, however, we discovered the love lock bridge (Pont de l'Archevêché), but as we discovered there were actually more than one. It was overwhelming seeing just how many locks had been put on this single bridge, had to be in the thousands. When we reached Notre Dame, we discovered admission was free! but the admission line stretched across the full pavilion, at least an acre or two. Reluctantly, we only admired the exterior.

Around the time in the pavilion, I did lose Jon for about 10 minutes. Normally, this isn't a huge deal, but when you're in a foreign country without cell or data connections, it can be a bit stressful. I found him walking around the side, no harm done. We decided to get some lunch, and just stopped at a sandwich food cart right on the side of the cathedral. We trekked back to the Seine and ate on the riverbanks. Then, we continued our traverse.

We weren't really sure what we found next, but it appeared to be either a playground or a massive art structure (or both, kids were playing on it regardless). There was also a gigantic wooden whale along the banks. Getting a bit thirsty, we spotted a water fountain, and filled our bottles. The water turned out to be sparkling! I can't speak for Jon, but it definitely thrilled me.

Finally, we had approached the king of all Parisian monuments, the Eiffel tower. This, too, had massive lines (don't visit Paris on a Saturday and expect to get anywhere), along with a cost. Instead, Jon and I camped out in the Park and took a nap. It had been a long walk. Near the tower, they were putting a tennis tournament on. The tower itself had a gigantic tennis ball suspended in its structure.

We headed back towards the nearest Metro station, which was still a good hike across the Seine and past the Grand Palace. We had made plans with and the newly-arrived-in-Paris to meet at Le Bouillon Chartier, a supposedly fantastic restaurant over a hundred years old. Indeed, when Jon, , and I arrived, we found there was a line that stretched out from the courtyard entrance to the street and into an established (with ropes!) queue a la banks outside on the sidewalk. But there was no sign of . We ended up latching onto the restaurant's wifi, weak as it was, and tried to get news. He kept assuring us he was on his way, he was on the Metro (his place was about a 15 minute walk from Chartier). By this time, we had reached the front, and the French host told us he could not seat us until all of us were present, which we understood. As we waited longer and longer, he kept walking by and asking "Where is friend?" in a pseudo-rude manner, it was great. Finally, showed up; turns out the train had broken down and he had to wait for a second train, then the transfer took forever. We still gave him a bunch of crap because of how close we were to his hotel.

The food at Chartier was amazing. Prices were unbelievably cheap, only about 10€ for steak and fries. bought us a bottle of red wine to go with it. The food arrived ridiculously fast. Seriously, this place was the best. We were quickly hustled out to make room for new guests. With full stomachs, we tried to figure out what to do next. I can't remember who suggested it, but we decided that the best thing to do would be go see Sacré-Cœur, Sacred Heart [Church] on the top of Montmartre. This started off just fine, with gently sloping lanes, but they grew steeper and steeper. We ended up taking some stairs we found on the side of the hill, and probably went up three sets of about 50 stairs each before reaching the top of the hill. There was a great outdoor bar there, and some food places were still open too. The church wasn't too far from where we had emerged, only a few blocks. We got a lot of great pictures. There were a ton of people shilling Heineken; literally trying to sell Heinekens to the passerbyers.

After we enjoyed the excellent view of Paris from atop the hill, we started to look for a bar. About one flight down the stairs, we found a small hole-in-the-wall place called Tagada. A dimly flaxy interior featured wooden tables and benches. In the back, there was a small area for drinking. We asked the bartender to pour us a good beer, and he obliged. We topped off the night with a special necknom video (unpublished). It was a great end to a great day.

(apologize for images but I spent like 30 minutes fighting Imgur, they've been compressed to squares somehow)