Amsterdam, London, Paris, Munich

As you might be able to tell, this began the serious party phase of my trip. Because I’m basically doing two days per city, it’s been tough to find time to update the blog. I pretty much have to cover the rest of my trip with this entry so I’ll attempt to be brief.

I’ll start with Amsterdam. First thing I did was head to the Van Gogh museum. My host, Benedicte (Beni), took me there straight away. Of course we stopped at a coffee shop and picked up a joint. BEAUTIFUL.

We spent maybe two hours at the museum. It was really well put together and I learned quite a bit about Van Gogh that I did not know. He did not begin his art in earnest until he was 26. Prior to that, he had been an evangelical preacher. He had a disappointing and tragic life and never knew of the greatness he would eventually attain. I could have spent another three hours staring at the work of this amazing genius. Truly one of my favorites.

That night, we met a couple of Beni’s friends, Famke and Peter, for dinner at their house. Beni loaned me one of her bikes and we went riding through Amsterdam. Biking is so much better than the car you fat, lazy Americans. We had some fantastic soup (Zucchini I think) and a warm pasta w/ tomato, olive and greens dish. Apple pie and coffee for desert. Tasty.

Beni took me to a music bar afterward and we saw some “indie” bands. They were mostly young angst rockers fresh out of the garage. Good thing we had another joint because we might have left earlier. We called it a night around midnight.

The next day Beni had to work, so I walked around Amsterdam mostly in the red light district on the east side. I was baked all day of course. I understand that they are shutting down a good portion of the prostitute rooms so I was glad to see them before they went. Most of the girls were not exactly great to look at. But there definitely was a couple of hot ones. I headed over to the west side to see the “non touristy” part of the Dam. Beautiful town. I’d live here in a second.

That night, I met up with some couch surfers because Beni had to be to bed early for work the next day. I actually met up with a girl from Vegas and her boyfriend from Brazil. I rode the bike to meet them. Around 2am, I headed back to Beni’s, expertly navigating the streets and canals of Amsterdam. I don’t think there are any laws about bike riding completely drunk and baked!

I flew to London the next day. Ridiculously expensive. I met up with an old friend, Laura, who used to work at Disney when I was there. I haven’t seen her in almost 10 years. Laura brought her sister, Rachel, too. First thing we did was to hit the London Eye. As we got close to the eye, I leaned out the taxi to see a large clock tower. I asked Laura and Rachel,
“Is that Ben?”
They both replied,
“That’s not Big Ben. That’s just some clock.”
I said, “Are you sure?”

“Oh yeah. We would know Big Ben.”

As it turns out, the American knows more about London than the girls from Manchester. Hilarious.

We walked around a little bit before going up in the Eye. Of course we got the best view of London. It was great to get my bearings from up there. Gorgeous view.

That night we were going to go clubbing. Because I hadn’t bothered to bring any fancy shoes, the three of us set out shopping. I would have been laughed out of the line of the club if I had not. I got stuck buying shoes for 70 pounds. $140 for us poor owners of the dollar. We were going to meet up with Jill, another girl that worked at Disney years ago. She came with her boyfriend. We hit a bar to warm up and then got to the club. Laura knew some TV star there but of course I had no idea who it was. We had a 90 pound bottle of champagne (stupid) and drank and danced the night away. We ended up leaving when I had to pick Laura off the floor and forcibly dragged Rachel out. Sorry girls… Gotta to tell it like it is!!!! You Brits can’t hold your liquor!!!!

The next morning we ordered room service at 50 pounds. Posh. Laura can’t have it any other way. Off we went to see the London Bridge. We were draggin’ ass from the night before. I made those girls walk around 2 or 3 miles that day. HAHAHA. That night, we had Indian food. I had the Lamb Vindaloo. Scrumtrulescent. We stopped at another bar on the way home. I had a nice Scotch and then we hit the hay. I had to get up at 5am to catch my train. London has cost me more than the entire trip combined. I don’t think I’ll be coming back any time soon. But it was a blast, Laura. Thanks so much.

The next morning, I took the train to Paris. Paris is so beautiful. The architecture and the layout of the city is marvelous. I could live here. My host, Laure, was kind enough to meet me at the train station and ride with me back to her place. She lives across the street from the Louvre. Amazing. I dropped my gear, had a little bite to eat, and then drove to the Eiffel Tower. We walked from our killer parking spot through the park to the tower. We got tickets for 5 Euro I think. We were wondering how it was so cheap. We soon found out that we had tickets for the stairs and not the elevator. Shit. Oh well. I was up for it but I don’t think Laure was looking forward to it. We ended up only going to the second level. It was nothing. Again, starting my city tour with the bird’s eye view is a great idea.

After that, we drove back to her place and walked along the river to Notre Dame. Beautiful structure and freshly cleaned. I’ve seen so many cathedrals on this trip it’s tough to say which one was the most beautiful. This one ranks up there. Laure had to work after that so I went to the Louvre. I spent about three hours soaking in the art. Honestly, a lot of the portrait work became boring but I enjoyed the sculpture, Egyptian art and in particular discovered that I really like Goya.

It was so unbelievably gorgeous outside, I had to get out in the park. The sunset was stunning and I got some amazing shots from inside the north wing of the Louvre. I strolled around the Jardin des Tuileries and enjoyed the perfect weather and all the people and children and the moment. It’s no wonder this is one of the most desired places in the world.

I was supposed to go out with Laure and her friends that night but I ended up missing them, due to AT&T sucking my ass. I highly recommend getting a Euro SIM card if you’re coming over here. I priced it out and found that for the month, I might even save a little money without the SIM card but I certainly didn’t save any headache. Turns out AT&T is fucking worthless in the States and abroad. I will be changing my service when I get back because I’m over it.

The next day, Laure took me to the Champs D’Elysee and we strolled to the Arch di Triumph. Actually we took the metro because it so far down there. From there we headed to the Sacre Coeur and I strolled around there for a couple of hours. Beautiful part of Paris. A bit of the old world feel. I was going to head back to the Musee d’Oray but it was closing at 6pm that day. It was 5pm already so I went back to the Tuileries. I sat there and wrote in my journal for about two hours off and on, enjoying yet another amazing sunset.

While writing that night, I think I made up my mind to seriously put effort into leaving the US for a while. I’m not sure where I’ll go but I have to go. I’m not sure for how long, but I need some change. Maybe it will be something crazy like Cairo or maybe it will be something centrally located like Munich. I don’t know but a change is coming. I need to learn a foreign language fluently and the only real way to get that done is to move to that country. We shall see. I said the same thing after I went to China……

I took the overnight to Munich. The next morning (yesterday morning) I met my host, Karin Beer. Yes I’m going to Oktoberfest with Karin Beer. She explained to me the Beer doesn’t mean beer, it means berry. I told her it meant beer to me and that it was perfect. She was dressed in her red German dress with thick read high-heel shoes. Off we went.

We visited several beirgartens (tents) and drank and drank and drank. It was a raucous time with the bands playing Ein Prosit and other traditional songs. People are standing on the tables and singing at the top of their lungs. You can’t drink unless you have a place at a table so we went running around trying to find a place to sit in each tent. You always find someone different. I had bratwurst and kraut with my first beer. She told me today that I had 5 liters of beer. I don’t remember that many. I do know that both of us ended up passing out on a grassy hill for some time at the Oktoberfest. The weather was absolutely PERFECT! It is such a happy festival. Parades and amusement rides with everyone dressed in Leiderhosen and German dresses that I can’t remember the name of. Karin will scold me for that because she told me yesterday but I can barely remember how we got home.

Yesterday ended very early out of complete necessity.

Today is my last day of the trip. I’m sitting in a botanical garden in downtown Munich. The weather is again as perfect as you can get. Karin had to work today but will be finished around 2 or 3 so she is going to show me her city. Another day at the Oktoberfest is out of the question. I’m too old for that shit two days in a row.

I fly to Atlanta tomorrow to do a Huey gig. Then to California for two more Huey gigs and then I’ll get to be home. I don’t work for a week or so which is crucial because I’ll need some serious recovery time. I haven’t even seen a regular season football game yet. I’m really looking forward to that. The Cowboys have won their first two games and maybe a third. They played Chicago yesterday but I still don’t know the result of that. Maybe we’re 3-0.

I suppose I’ll write one more entry after I’ve gotten home and had time to really digest this whole trip. It will be no sooner than a week from now though.

Until then….

PS.... I didn't get this posted until Wednesday. Karin and I ended up going back to the Oktoberfest....hahahahaahh. We sat with a bunch of Aussies... I highly recommend that. They had some German snuff and we were stuffing it up our noses the whole time. I think the pictures speak for themselves. At one point, we were all singing Achy Breaky Heart...
I got a little excited and did an Ein Prosit a little too hard..... ooops. You can physically see how progressively drunk I'm getting. Priceless pics!!!

The last shot is of me at 6am attempting to pack and get to the airport. My journey has come to an end. I have to thank Karin immensely for driving me to the airport in Munich. It decided to rain hard this morning. I owe you big Karin. Thanks.