The End.

The end of my time in London was a whirlwind of trying to fit everything in that I hadn't done.

I saw A Midsummer Nights Dream at The Globe Theatre - "Let him RAWR again!!". So good I was peeing in my pants with laughter. Who knew Shakespeare was such a funny guy? Went to the British Museum for my first and only time. Saw HAIR with the broadway cast. Amazing.Spent 5 days with my favorite person in the world (Lana, OBVI) relaxing, shopping, packing, and soaking up as much London as possible.

Some things I will miss about the UK:


1. Chips.  Fries/"chips" are a much bigger deal in Europe. They are everywhere. All the time. Waiting anxiously for me at the kebab shop at 4am, desperate to absorb the alcohol foaming and frothing in my belly. 


2. Blunt and Blatant Awareness. About everything. From drugs to rape to drunk driving to relationships abuse, the UK stands up to the issues it faces. During every TV show you see at least one advert against cocaine, one ad shedding light on abusive relationships, or one on smoking will show up. I love that they put their issues out in the open.


3. Brick Lane. Vintage shopping. Everywhere.


4. The Accents! I have only been in the US for a week, but my ears still perk up at every American accent I hear. Aka all the fucking time.


5. Last but not least - The amazing friends I got to spend my time in Europe with.

Many more adventures to come...

Scaramoush & Galileo

WE WILL ROCK YOU = hilariously cheesy musical based on Queen songs


Plot: The Killer Queen, with the help of her Gaga Police, has taken over the planet and banned all forms of independent thought, including the creation of MUSIC. However, a Bohemian Rebellion has risen up (led by none other than "Scaramoush" and "Galileo Figaro"), in search of these legendary tools called "instruments"...


Okay that's not my point. The musical was awesome, as I am a huge huge Queen fan, and Shira and I were pretty much dancing in our seats the entire time.


Then, after the cast came on to take their bows, they had one final song to perform - Bohemian Rhapsody obvi.


Except it was weird - a few people had pulled out their cameras and were recording. The rest of the audience, clearly confused, all decided to pull out their cameras too (usually this is forbidden in musicals). Naturally I joined in, and this is what I caught...

I am literally "jumping for joy" at the end of that. In case you didn't catch it, out of the floor came BRIAN MAY and ROGER TAYLOR. (aka the two surviving members of Queen)

Pretty big fucking deal.


Apparently they come back once a year on the birthday of show. This was the 8th year anniversary. So cool!!

And a big thank you to the Sondra, Simon, Stone, and Shira (S^4??) for taking me to the show!! Definitely once in a lifetime experience.

Malta?

When the wonderful Teph Nguyen told me she was going to me in Malta during my last available "travel weekend" abroad, I was confused.


I associate the word "Maltese" with a dog, not with the language of a small island on the Mediterranean, right off the coast of Italy.


But - in the name of friendship and sunbathing on the beach, we decided to go to Malta as our last Eurotrip vacation.

Sweet bathingsuit, Kate.... :)


We picked our hostel because of two key features in its description:


1.  "footsteps away from the sandy beach"
2. "free wireless coverage in all of the rooms"


The fact that it was located in the heart of "Paceville" (prounounced "pacha-ville"), the center of the nightlife district, didn't register much because we weren't planning on going out anyways. 


This is where we stayed:

No, not inside Stiletto's although I'm pretty sure they have beds in there.... But see the door on the right? 


Literally in the center of the nightlife district. Meaning sandwiched by a 3 block radius of strip clubs and ridiculous dance clubs targeting 16 year olds and thrusting 1 euro tequila shot coupons at you like nobody's business.

Hilarious night out. How many of you can say you've been to / heard of Malta? Pick me pick me!!


Another post later... exciting stuffffff...

I hate studying.

DEADMAU5

Wowsers. Last night, saw Deadmau5 at the o2 Academy in Brixton.


"Following a stratospheric rise to the top of dance music’s highest echelons, this electro pioneer heads up a new breed of electronic artistes. Having mastered his trademark ‘deadmau5’ sound and renowned for sporting his infamous ‘mau5head’, fans the world over can’t get enough of the mau5."

The night went a bit like this:


Pregamed. Trekked out to Brixton. Danced. Danced. Danced. Danced. Danced. 


Oh, and danced some more.

Deadmau5 is pretty much considered to be one of the best live dance shows EVER. Its a combination of sick beats and bass and heart-rocking electro mixed with the mos badass lightshow and LED display EVER.


We got there around 10:30 and when they turned on the lights at 3am I thought it was a mistake. 

Time flies when youre a mau5head! (pronounced "mousehead" obvi)

Why will I never be as cool as these people?

Enough said.


Supposedly the end of the world happened already - 

So naturally we raged the night away. But since I'm still here to tell the tale, I just wanted to share how awesome everyone's (except my my own) costumes were / needed an excuse to show the avatar pictures.

The one avatar girl even has avatar EARS. Now that's true dedication.

Also.. ventured out into West London for the first time pretty much ever last night. Supposedly very posh... Free entry before 11. We got there at 11:04. 

But we were way too dressed up to call the night quits. :)


And now I'm having a super-exciting saturday night writing a paper. vom dot com.

THE LAND OF RED LIGHTS

AMSTERDAMMMMMMMM.

Where to even begin?


I went to amsterdam when I was 14 years old...

HAHAHA check out my braces.. hilar.


But anyways - back then, we only spent one day in Amsterdam, and the only things we saw were the Anne Frank house, Van Gogh Museum, and Sex Museum (who decided to take a bunch of 14 year olds to the sex museum? ...)


This time around, I FELL IN LOVE with everything about the city.


Step 1 to falling in love with Amsterdam - renting bikes.

If you've ever been to amsterdam, you will know that neither cars nor people own the roads. Bikes are king. Renting bikes was an amazing way to easily get around the city, feel like a local, and just have some plain old fun. Is it lame that I'm trying to get a bike in London now?


Step 2 to falling in love with amsterdam - THE CANALS.

Amsterdam is almost like a more hip, young, fun, and populated Venice. I went to Venice two years ago and found it outdated and full of old people, with nothing much to do other than a 90 euro gondola tour. Amsteram, on the other hand, has beautiful canals amidst one of the most chill, fun, and bustling cities in Europe. SO amazing.

We did a canal tour which wasn't particularly informative or entertaining, but was definitely a nice ride.


Last but finally not least... clearly my favorite part of amstydam. THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT.


We stayed at The Bulldog, which is not only a hostel, but is famous for being the first coffee shop, as their sign below clearly states.

But not only was our hostel the first coffee shop...


If you walk down the canal from the hostel about - hm, 5 feet maybe? - there's a teeny little alleyway that nobody would ever even notice, nestled right in between two shops. But wait - venture down that alley way and you are on ELITE STREET. Basically the most heavily populated area of red light windows which supposedly has the "elite" girls. I wish I had pictures, but clearly thats not allowed.


AMAZING.


Okay and let me preface this by saying - mom and dad, I promise you have nothing to worry about! But here are the deets on being a red light window girl (aka prostitute) in amsterdam.


The girls have to rent their own windows, and they work in 8 hour shifts. The rent for each windows is about 100 - 150 euros. For the eight hour shift. Thats 150 euros for ALL 8 hours. 


Each girl receives an average of 30-60 customers per eight hour shift. The average customer pays 50 euros for their "services".


Lets do the math here - girl pays 150 euros. girl makes that back within 3 customers. say girl gets 40 more customers that night, girl makes 40 x 50 = 2000 EUROS in profit! And pimps are highly illegal, so these girls aren't paying this money out to anyone. Obviously they pay taxes on it just like everyone else.


But still. Fucking LUCRATIVE.


Other funny things - 

The condomierie - famous for their custom sized condoms.

World's warmest condom.

Our tour guide's joke for this one was... "You don't have to go all the way to Paris to mount the Eiffel Tower!"  hahaha... mildly inappropriate.


The other awesome thing we did was the Heineken Experience.

The original Heineken brewery has been turned into a ridiculous high tech museum / marketing scheme. Its a really cool experience, and is only 15 euros (with 3 free beers thrown in!).

They even have one of those silly motion rides where they "brew YOU" into a heineken beer. Basically taking you through the whole process while jerking you around and spraying water / bubbles at you. Fun times.