I AMsterdam

So I'm leaving Amsterdam tomorrow, and have yet to figure out where i'm going to be.  As a traveller, my preparation skills are sub-sub-par.  Oh well, that's what today is for I guess!  

    Amsterdam has been interesting.  Since i've been here before, I can skip all of the traditional sights...I saw the live sex show, i've seen the red light district...and on and on.  What I didn't see last time though was the art (stupid me!).  I went to the Van Gogh museum yesterday, and it was truly breathtaking.  His life story is so beautiful and sad.  And this whole time, I never knew that he cut off part of his ear because he was in an argument with Gauguin!  I didn't even know he was friends with Gauguin!  And his brother Theo supported his artistry, and supported him financially his whole life.  What dedication!  What love!  (mariette, do you want to take this hint? haha).  Anyways, it was truly moving.  

      Other than that, i've just been walking around the city, eating giant cones of fries, shopping at vintage stores (even though I can't close my suitcase), and "partaking" in the local culture.  It's been interesting here though, because i've been super antisocial.  The cannibus cup is going on this week, and it seems to have drawn boatloads of stupid americans.  We're talking about "Like, Braaaaa, I smoked this fat doobie yesterday and I (chuckle chuckle) couldn't fuckin MOVE for 3 hours man!"  THAT kind of american.  Everyone here looks like the skeeziest drug dealer ever.  So I am withdrawing from this hostel and going to do laundry and go to the National Art museum today, which apparently is my dad's favorite art museum ever?!!!  I'm excited.  The dutch masters are some of my favorites!  

    Oh yeah...but mostly i'm just going to try not to think about Thanksgiving, and family, and friends, and how much I wish I was home today.  No mashed potatoes and gravy for me...boo hoo.  But I hope everyone else has a wonderful holiday.  I miss everyone so much.  

Walk like an Egyptian

Salam Everyone!  I just got back from Egypt, and it is SO good to be back in western europe.  Internet connection, clean water, non-creepy men, suitable accomadations, no mosquitos...the list goes on and on.  Not saying that Egypt wasn't amazing.  It was one of the most incredible trips i've ever been on.  I went with a tour company called Topdeck, which is designed for 18-30 somethings, and I met SO many cool people.  I was the only american, and everyone else was from...England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Spain...and more.  But everyone was lovely, and I had such a good time with them.  It's nice to hook up with a group after traveling by myself for awhile (although now it's equally as nice to have a little alone time now i'm away from Egypt.  Why can't i find a happy medium?).  Anyways, I did so many amazing things in Egypt, although my trip started pretty horribly.  My flight to Cairo was cancelled, so I arrived a whole day late for my tour and I got to the group a half an hour before we were scheduled to board an overnight train to Aswan!  So I was very, very close to not being able to go on the tour at all.  Oh yeah.  And the airline lost my baggage.  Awesome.  I had to wear people's generous loaners till my bag arrived: about 6 days into our tour.  I had to buy egyptian underwear!  From a market!  Off a man!  It was really uncomfortable, and he was hella creepy.  He kept suggesting skimpier styles...C-R-E-E-P-E-R.  That spells Egyptian men.  You cannot go ANYWHERE in Egypt without getting hardcore hassled because you're a woman, and not covered head to toe in fabric.  It got so tiring at the end.  I just kept my head down and ignored them all, but it was so frustrating!  I don't know if anyone's been to mexico, but it was like mexico x 1000.  Like, every car honked at you while it passed you.  ok.  Enough rant about the men.  How about a little rant about the little muslim girls laughing in your face, and talking to their friends in arabic, pointing at you and taking a picture of you on their camera phone?  Yes.  That happened multiple times.  Ok.  Beyond all of that stuff, I really did have the most amazing time.  A list of things I did:

camel ride

swam in nile

sailed down nile on a 2 day felucca ride

climbed mt.sinai and saw the sunrise

saw the "original" burning bush

smoked hooka at almost every dinner

snorkeling at a place called "the blue hole"

saw like, 30 lion fish!

scuba dive

hot air balloon over the valley of the kings

saw too many temples to name (more than I needed to see)

quad biking in the desert

held a crocodile!

horse riding on the beach at sunset

saw the pyramids, and went into one

kissed the sphinx

It was so much fun.  Every day there was something new to do.  I had an amazing time.  But it is nice to be back.  I'm now in Amsterdam...heeheehee.  I'll let you know how that goes.  

p.s. I like how in all of the photos i'm wearing the exact same dress.  I swear I changed clothes during the trip!  It's just a coincidence!   

Brighton, my love

So now i've ended up in Brighton, a charming seaside town that I really love.  there's not much to do here, but it's such a nice change of pace from hustle bustle London.  I've just been doing art and walking on the beach and such.  Today was actually quite nice too...I ran by the beach and it wasn't that cold at all!  Brighton has this cute old-fashioned pier with tons of little food and ice cream stands and then a mini amusement park at the end.  It makes me happy because the way everything is designed makes me feel like i'm in a movie from the 20s.  

So the next exciting news....I'm heading for Egypt tomorrow!  Totally random, but my friend is a group leader of a tour going to Egypt.  The company is called Top Deck and it's a tour company for 18-30 somethings, so you know it'll be fun.  We're going all over...Cairo, a cruise down the Nile...the Red Sea!  I'm super excited.  I've never been anywhere remotely like Egypt, so i'm really excited to see how it'll go.  And hopefully it'll be warm too!  Ahhhh...that sounds lovely after freezing for so long in the UK.  It's for 15 days though, and i'm guessing internet connection leaves a lot to be desired in Egypt, so I probably won't be updating this for awhile.  I hope everyone has a great 2 weeks!  I'm going to go ride a camel!  Cheerio!

Good Birthday and Bad Bristol

Thanks everyone for the sweet birthday wishes!  I hope everyone had a good halloween too!  So, for my birthday, me and a group of my friends went to "Church".  "Why Melinda?  Have you suddenly become religious?"  Helllll no.  Hahaha.  Church is this massive Aussie/Kiwi party that goes on every Sunday in a giant warehouse.  You get free entry if you dress up, so I dressed up in my bumblebee costume that I wore for halloween (see drawing).

Haha.  Anyways, so we went, and it was SO much fun.  All the people I was with treated me really special for my birthday.  So at this party, you buy beer by the threes.  Then they just give them all to you in a plastic bag that you carry around.  Oh yeah, and did I mention this starts at noon?  So of course, we were drunk around 12:30 (pregaming with cider, of course!).  So it's basically this giant party, and they play all these classic songs...ridiculous songs really.  Like, "I would do anything for love", and "Halfway there" and all songs like that.  Then throw in some good blink 182 and other random bands, and you'll get the music selection at church.  I constantly would find myself turning to my friends and screaming "I LOVED THIS SONG IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!!".  So everyone basically gets drunk and sings along to all these songs, and there's a stripper, and a comedian and super random stuff.  Like, last time I was there all of a sudden they said: "And now, presenting...THE FAT MAN!!!"  and this big fat guy in a leotard came out and started singing.  This is the random shit they come up with.  This pic is a shot I took from backstage.  Backstage?  Yes.  I participated in a drinking competition through sheer perseverance.  I really wanted to do a beer race (cause we all know how fast I can chug...not to brag, but it IS the only skill I picked up while at college!  Haha), so I waited around to do that, but they ended up putting me in a challenge thing, that...honestly?  They really didn't explain to us at the beginning of the contest.  So I was the first to go, and they brought me out on stage, and asked me where I was from, and when I said "The States", everyone booed me!!! Hahaha...it's all in good fun though.  So they gave me a beer to chug, and I skulled that beast, then these two bouncers were on either side of me, and they spun me around REALLY fast in a circle 20 TIMES!!!  Not great on a beer-full stomach, I can tell you that.  So finally, after they stopped spinning me, they gave me a long pole, and all I had to do was hold onto it then step over it.  And of course, you can imagine how dizzy I was.  So long story short, I fell on my ass...but so did everyone after me.  Basically, it was just so everyone in the audience could laugh at how dumb we looked.  So at the end, they brought us all on stage (there were 3 guys and 3 girls that competed), and everyone got booed except for the aussies, so they won.  National favoritism?  I think so.  But after I left the stage, I ran into so many people that were like: "Oh, you totally should have won...you drank your beer so fast!"  So I got a little wind in my sails at least.  I was very happy.  It was a fun birthday...aside from being apart from all of my loved ones, of course...De-pressing.  

So, the day after my birthday I left for Bristol, a city in the west of England.  I was SO hungover...obviously.  I for sure should NOT have left on the day after my birthday, but I did.  I had booked my bus ticket to Bristol and my hostel about a week earlier, but not until I got there did I look in my guidebook and say to myself..."So why the hell did I come here again?".  It was awful.  The hostel was a dump and the city was so boring.  I did find this cool bridge though...but here's a clue.  If a bridge is the most interesting thing you can find about a city, it's probably not worth your time.  It wasn't for me.  

Oh yeah, and so for my birthday, I bought myself a leather jacket.  My parents gave me some money and I went to TopShop, this fabulous british clothing store.  It is literally the biggest clothes store I have ever seen.  Even I left feeling like...OK.  I'm tired of shopping.  That almost never happens!!!  But anyways, everyone wears leather jackets over here, and I really liked the ones I saw, so I bought myself a black one (but don't worry, it only has one zipper).  Below is a drawing so everyone can see what I look like now.  Bad.  Ass.  Just kidding.  But the sheet thing has to do with the hostel I was staying at, that left me an angry note on my bed saying "If you don't put on your sheets properly, we're going to fine you 5 pounds".  Bitches.  So you know what?  I didn't put my sheets on properly, and they didn't do shit.  Take that.  You wanna go up against me and my leather jacket?  You're going to lose!  Ok, anyways, I love everyone, and hope all is well in the world of Portland and Seattle (and any outlying regions)!

I was almost a meat pie on the pavement!

So I forgot to mention that on the way to the roller disco, I came SO close to being hit by a car (how about that travel insurance, mom and dad?).  This was caused by a couple factors.  1. I was druuuuuunk.  2.  I looked the wrong way while crossing the street (i've been so careful too!).  3. I was absolutely jaywalking.  and 4. Did I mention I was drunk?  How awful would it be to die in that outfit, right?   I also included a picture of the store called cancer research UK(where i guess their profits go to cancer research), strategically placed next to......SMOKEMART.  Hahaha...i got a chuckle out of that.  An arrow even points to the store!  What???  

   One of my food experiences here: a meatpie.  I've been hanging out with mostly Aussies, and they always go on and on about how delicious meat pies are, so i really wanted to try one.  So finally we found a booth selling them, and i got one.   I feel like most people I know have the sense to not stick something in their mouths that looks like diarrhea in puff pastry.  Not me.  And let me tell you: NOT GOOD.  As if that isn't obvious.