What Chris did the last week

Chris recently returned from a week-long trip to the western edge of eastern Europe, and boy was it crazy. The following is a summary of the most important points of interest. It's super interesting, and by that, I mean really long. But who cares. I'll tell you who: not Chris--he doesn't live his life so that you'll be entertained. Now keep reading.

DAY 1: We left London to travel by bus to Stansted airport. My dad would be interested to learn that we were four hours early for our flight, although I'm sure Dad would say that four hours early is actually three hours late. With my travelling partners Ryan Hackett, John Miller, and Will Kurtz, we boarded a discount airline for Munich, in Germany (or Bavaria, as that particular area is called.) We landed, and after too many conversations that started with "Wow! I can't believe we're in Germany!" our group made its way to the hostel a little outside the main area of Munich. Because of a booking snafu, we shared a room with 8 other people, one of whom was (most likely) a Russian mob enforcer. Ryan stole his bed, and Klausen didn't like it.

DAY 2: We got up at 0600, as Ryan, who just joined ROTC, insisted upon calling 6 o'clock. Such an ungodly early rising was necessitated by our very early bus tour that took us out to two palaces in the German Alps: Palace Idon'tremember and Castle Neuschwanstein, or something. The first one was very Roccoco, and so that means that the decorators took paintbrushes dipped in gold paint, went into a room, and just whipped it around until the walls were covered in looping paterns of leaves and such. A little over the top, but still shiny, and I like that. The other castle was the one that Walt Disney based the castle in Disneyland on. That night we made it back and went straight to Hofbrauhaus, which is the famous beer hall in Munich, and although they won't tell you in the history on the menu, the Nazis also got their start there. Hitler really liked their dark beer.

DAY 3: We got up and went to mass with some other kids: Molly, Mike, Amanda, and Margaret. They got a private room in the same hostel, of which I was murderously jealous. After mass, Will and Ryan split off to go to Dachau, which was a concentration camp. Apparently, once you get within 25 miles or so of the camp, there is a line that you cross, beyond which, fun and smiling is outlawed. It's a no-joke radius, with Dachau in the center. Don't laugh, you jerk. Anyway, back in Munich, my group and myself went to the Residenz, which is the palace in Munich. I saw some cool stuff there, although most of the palace was destroyed in some war that took place like 6o years ago. I didn't catch the name of that one. Next we went to the art museums, and I went through all three: the Old, New, and Modern. I'm a museum demon. That night we went to the Augustiner, which is another beer hall, and it was pretty authentic. Sausages consumed by this point: 5.

DAY 4: Got up, had breakfast, and went to the train station, to board a train to Salzburg. We got to Salzburg, put our stuff in lockers at the station, then began to explore. Salzburg was alright; saw a lot of churches and giant fortresses, but not much else. We spent our last few hours in a legitmate Austrian restaurant Salzburg(er King). I ate a great meat sandwich and sliced potatoes. Then we got on the train to Vienna, which was cool. Got into Vienna and navigated to our hostel, Wombats, which in my opinion, tried a little to hard to be "cool." It was the kind of place that would use the letter Z instead of S, like instead of kids, it would be kidz. Because that's hip to the max. Still, it was the best hostel we stayed at.

DAY 5: Got up with grand plans of taking Vienna by storm. Then Ryan got hit by a tram and we had to call it a day. Just kidding--that's just a fantasy I had. We walked around Vienna, and it was very nice: we saw the Lippizaner horses in their morning workout, then we went to St. Stephan's Cathedral, and paid 3 Euro to climb 300 steps to the gift shop. Also, it had some views of the city, but clearly the gift shop was the focus. Then we went to St. Charles Church, or Karlskirche as it's called there, and went inside for some more money. This time it was worth it--we were able to climb up into the grand domed ceiling, since it was being restored, and the scafolding was all up. That was awesome. Then we went back to the hostel, where we again met up with the group from Munich, who was just getting into Wombats. We went out to dinner with them, where I ate Wienerschnitzel. It was pretty good.

DAY 6: Probably the best day of our trip: we went to the Natural History Museum, then to Cafe Central, and then finished off with Aida at the State Opera House. In the cafe I had authentic Viennese coffee in the most famous cafe in the city, and at the Opera I had great seats to a great show, and I learned just how much I hate Opera. We went back to the same place for dinner that we had been to the previous night, and again, more Wienerschnitzel. No complaints about that, though.

DAY 7: Trekked to Vienna's other train station, locked up our bags, and tried to go to some war museum and arsenal. We couldn't get inside, and went around to another entrance, where we learned that it wasn't so much a display arsenal as it was an actual arsenal. That's what the guy with the Uzi at the gate seemed to imply. So we just went back to the train station and got on our train to Prague, or Praha, in the Czech Republic. The train ride wasn't bad, although not scenic at all. We got off in Prague, in a country whose language we didn't speak, although this time, the language wasn't even close to ours. For example: Karluv Most=St. Charles Bridge. Whichawhat? Anyway, we found our hostel, which was initially shady, and then ok, especially since we had a private room. We decided after we had unpacked to go out to dinner, and asked for a good Czech place. The restaurant was good--very good, in fact. Three of us shared a giant tray of meat: duck, ribs, pork roast, and dumplings and potatoes. When I saw it in the waiter's hands, I cried a little; it was so beautiful a meal. We went back to the hostel, tired and glistening from the fat that was probably oozing out our skin, and fell asleep before 10.

DAY 8: We spent a bunch of time on the famous St. Charles Bridge, where scenes from Mission Impossible were filmed. Then we trekked up to the Cathedral and another palace. John and I didn't pay to go in, but Will and Ryan did. Instead, John and I walked to a far park up on a hill, for another spectacular view. Then we sat by one end of the bridge, and took pictures for tourists. We met back up with the other two four hours after we had left them, and went back to the hostel, where we all took naps. We got up later to eat at an Italian place, and then walk around more. We saw Wenceslas square, which is like the Times Square of Prague, replete with porn dealers, which was fantastic. Then we made it back to the hostel, where we migrated to the bar on the third floor, and where I tried Absinthe for the first time. It was gross--like Jagermeister, which I hate, but even more black licoricey. Although it's cool to mix in a burning spoonful of sugar, even if it's just for effect. We went to bed around 1, I think.

DAY 9: The final day was spent walking around Prague, all the while wishing the trip was already over, because it was long, and we all hated each other. We had to kill about 8 hours, but in the end we caved and went to the airport early--about 6.5 hours early. Whatever, there were other kids there, and I learned how to play Euchre. Got on the plane at 8:30 London time. It was a quick flight, and we were back at the flats by 12:30.

Today: I haven't done anything good today, except go to mass at 11:30 and make a good pasta lunch. Then I just spent way too much time writing this travel summary, which you've actually read through. Thanks. I feel special.

Somehow I have to figure out how to put pictures on this thing, so I can illustrate my wondrous tales. Until then, I'll let my words color your imagination. How poetic.

Go away.

Hey there

I'm back. Just got into the flats 20 minutes ago; it's 12:45 at night on technically Sunday morning now. The trip was alright. Saw a bunch of castles, palaces, churches, beer halls, natural history museums, train stations, drug dealers, body parts of John the Baptist, and way too much of Will Kurtz, John Miller, and, oh dear Lord, Ryan Hackett. Now I've got some time tomorrow to unwind, unpack, and recharge for my next fun filled series of adventures, one of which I hope includes me running for my life to the U.S. embassy, waving my passport and screaming, "I'M AN AMERICAN!!!," all of this as I'm being pursued by Russian gangsters. I don't know, it's just one of those wistful romantic fantasies, I guess.

More to come later, and a whole shite-load of pictures, if I ever get around to it. Have a good one.

I'M OUT.

Into the Abyss

Oh, it's you. Well I guess I should let you know that I will be traveling tomorrow, Friday, and will return the following week, by Saturday at midnight or so. Here's where we're going:

Munich
Salzburg
Vienna
Prague

Now try and tell me in which countries these cities are located. And no, it's not a trick question: none of the above are actually countries themselves.

I saw The Woman in Black last night, which is the longest running show in London at 17 years. It's also really scary--some might say downright terrifying. But not me, because I'm not a little girl.

I guess there will be more to say when I get back next week sometime, but until then, you can just imagine all the fun I'm having globetrotting the globe.

Upper Echelon

Saw MacBeth last night. Thought it was alright. The guy who played Banquo got a little ham-and-cheese sandwich without the cheese and bread if you know what I mean. Sure, Shakespearean acting kind of requires that, but even so, forgive me: it was too much. I was okay when he died.

As I understand it, Lady MacBeth is supposed to be one of the Bard's great female roles--maybe the greatest. I didn't think the actress really lived up to the part, but I guess that was because I had expected to see the best production of MacBeth ever put on by humans. After all, it was the Royal Shakespeare Company, and after all, it was in London, and after all, I am a connoisseur of finely staged theatre, so I should know what I'm talking about, after all.

The audience for the show was the best possible audience I could have seen any show with, except the total opposite. Cell phones were going off, people were talking and laughing at inappropriate moments, getting up to go to the bathroom, reading comic books, doing homework, writing postcards, taking naps, playing Risk, eating sandwiches, and all other sorts of sundry activities that audience members should not be doing because they piss me off.

On the plus side (I knocked down the Sun Sphere), two kids were murdered during the play, so that was dark. It freaked the girl out next to me, which especially pleased me, since she only likes musicals.

Tonight we see The Woman in Black for theatre class. Long running production in London, and supposedly scared people almost as much as Pearl Harbor sucked. Horrifying!

After tonight, my tally for shows seen in London will rise to 11; 12 if you count the Taking Back Sunday concert I saw. I am mathematically the most cultured mo-fo in this entire program.

Eat it.

!!UPDATE!!

I realized upon further review that I claimed to be very cultured, yet in the same paragraph admitted to seeing Taking Back Sunday. So don't claim I didn't recognize my obvious oxymoron.

Plus, in case you were wondering at the title of this entry, it describes my current location.

I am better than Mike Beverly*

One Some of my friends recently went overseas to awesome exotic locales and started their his own blog to document their his boring adventures, where he They shares stories of late night rendezvous, trips to world-famous landmarks, and celebrity encounters. does nothing but sit on his big fat ass, doing absolutely nothing blog-worthy and occassionally playing Hot Shots Golf Fore.

Screw them. him.

I am going to force grace everyone else to read about with my awesome life in words for a change. since I can't be there to live it in person.

So, today, I got up at eleven, went to one class, spent an hour on the clock for my job (more to come about that) without accomplishing anything, and have sat worthlessly at my computer ever since. I plan to continue this evening, with a possible departure for mountain dew and/or chocolate doughnuts. did a whole bunch of awesome shit that you couldn't possibly do in South Bend, Indiana, because it sucks there, and is cold.

There, see how much fun that was? Who needs London and Rome any of you wankers when you've got that kind of excitement in anywhere else but Indiana?

*I am not better than Chris Collins, but to reiterate in case you missed it: still better than Mike Beverly.

Westminster Cathedral

So that's where I went today. NOT Westminster Abbey, in case you were thinking that. We had mass at noon, and then a tour afterwards, set up by a priest there who previously lived at Notre Dame. He took us up a huge tower, and then he let us climb around on the roof of the Cathedral, on top of the domes in the ceiling. It was really fun, and surprisingly dangerous. Pictures to come soon.

Made hamburgers for dinner tonight. The English don't have hamburger buns. I hate them sometimes.

I decided that I would really like to go to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park one Sunday, and just rant. To those who don't know, this is a place where people come on Sundays, get on their soapboxes, and start yelling about whatever they want. Most are religious, i.e. "Islam is your mother!" or "I am an angel from God!" My rant would go something like this:

HOLY CRAP! I have SO MUCH HOMEWORK TO DO THIS WEEK! Seriously guys, jeez! Two papers and a rewrite and a bunch of frickin' reading to do as well! Man! And also, stuff here is EXPENSIVE! Do you know what the exchange rate is between the pound and dollar? I don't, but I'm sure it's not good! No sir! But hey, it's a nice city. And another thing: who still actually pretends not to know the difference between Coke and Diet Coke? Liars, that's who. Give me a break, right? (awkward shuffling in place for a while, on my box) So I saw that new Julia Roberts movie. I thought it was alright. (More shuffling...)

It goes on from there for another few hours or so.

I've got some pictures from my trip to Oxford and Westminster. I'll put them up at some point in the future, so everybody, STOP EMAILING ME FOR THEM.

I'll leave you to decide whether or not I was being sarcastic in that previous sentence.

Leave.

Oxford

1. 316.

2. The number of pictures that Pat McNulty took on our 3.5-hour-long trip to Oxford.

Sentence 1 = Sentence 2

If we were to hypothetically do the math, as I am about to actually do, we would see that, on average, he would have to take 1 picture every 40 seconds.

But hey, that's cool, because he was my personal photographer all day. I will post the pictures on my webshots site soon, since you're all eager as hell.

We saw the dining hall from Harry Potter. If a room can be a celebrity, then that was my celebrity sighting for the day.

Oxford is a rather beautiful place. The pictures speak to this--if you put your ear to the screen you'll hear them.

I don't know why I don't have more to say about this. Whatever.

Utter excellence

So I saw a play tonight: Journey's End. It was a WWI drama about British trench warfare. Excellent. Just fantastically freakin' great.

Weather wasn't great today, which isn't my cup of tea, because I don't drink tea.

We did skits today in Theatre class, and I put on an English accent. Not to brag, but my British professor said it was one of the best British accents he's heard imitated in a long long time. Now remember, since I said "not to brag," that wasn't bragging. It's just the truth.

The rest of the skits in that class were absolutely hilarious as well. I'd retell some of the jokes, but you wouldn't get them, because you're a study abroad outsider.

Bye.

Super Supper

So we made a giant joint dinner with the flat of girls next to us--a meal for a total of about 13 people. That's so amazing right off the bat, I'm considering just stopping right now. But I'll continue.

We had:
Bow-tie and Penne pasta
Three kinds of sauces (more on this later)
Caesar salad
Garlic bread
Lots of red wine
Double layer chocolate fudge cake (from scratch)
Cream puffs with rasberries and blueberries, as well as homemade whipped cream.

So I made two of the three sauces. One of them was a simple alfredo with garlic and herbs. Whatever, I know. The other one I'm more proud of: Creamy tomato with yellow pepper, goat and aged cheddar cheeses, as well as a whole lot of know-how. Mind you, I made this sauce WITHOUT ANY INSTRUCTION OR RECIPE.

Here is my recipe for an excellent sauce:

Ingredients:
Cream, about 2 cups
A can of tomatoes
500ml of tomato base
Most of a yellow pepper, chopped
Olive oil, 1/4 cup or so
Minced garlic
Italian seasons and other sundry spices
1 tablespoon tabasco sauce
A big handful of shredded aged cheddar
About the same amount of goat cheese

Melt the cheeses in the cream over a low heat, stirring constantly.

Take that, along with everything else, and mix it in a big-ass pot over low heat.

That's it, fool.

I'm out.

For pictures: Dinner Pictures

Ash Thursday

Today is Ash Thursday, the Catholic Church's celebration in honor of the god Baal. The church has designated this day as a day "just to let your pagan side hang out a bit" to quote a 1923 papal encyclical. Typical celebrational activities on Ash Thursday include blood sacrifice of virgins, ritualistic fire-side dances, and good-luck incantations. While the Church is confident in its stance that Christ is the true savior, it figures it is allowed one day to revel in old ways; in the good old days, as well as give itself a little insurance policy, just in case the pagan gods of old feel neglected and vengeful.

Happy Ash Thursday, Catholics!

!!UPDATE!!

Kevin asked me if the encyclical to which I referred was Rerum Novarum, because he was pretty sure that Ash Thursday was not in there.

Ash Wednesday

Today begins Lent, the 40 days preceding Easter. I am going to go to mass at 6 pm, in about 15 minutes. I've also got my Kevin Spacey play tonight, which reviews have said is ok.

I realized today during macroeconomics that I do my best class work when I can do it during other classes. Case in point: I wrote a bunch in my Philosophy and Literature journal during the aforementioned class. Now if I could only take greater advantage of this new idea and somehow manage to set up some sort of system that allowed me to go to class, but only to do my other work, or play videogames, 'cause I bet if I'm good at videogames now, I would be really good during a boring lecture on gross national product.

On a final note, I'm a big fat fool. (God I sure do know how to beg the question.)

Famous people I've seen

Quick note on the famous people I've seen in London thus far:

1. Dustin Hoffman: We were both seeing a production at the National Theatre. He's a very short man.

2. This guy who was in Snatch, Robbie Gee: I was just walking down the street, and there he was. And I am 148% sure it was him, because I am never wrong about these important things. Here's a link to his profile on IMDB.
Robbie Gee

3,4,5. I will be seeing Kevin Spacey, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Steven Weber, who was the main character in that Shining remake on TV in '98, also one of the two main characters in the televsion show Wings--I'm seeing this group tomorrow in a production of "National Anthems" in a south bank theatre, the Old Vic. That should be neat.

6. Your mom and/or your hot sister

Later.

Going to class

Hey ya,

I'm just about to go to class.

Just so you know

C ya.

!!UPDATE!!

Oh wait, no. Nevermind.

!!UPDATE!!

I'm back from class.

Italics and today

By using italics, I can make things seem really important, even if they're not.

I plan on using this useful tool to tell you all about my adventures in London. How do you like that? (bold!)

I went to mass today, 11:30 am. All of the group responses were sung or recited in Latin, which I thought was dead, but apparently is not.

The superbowl is on tonight, and if I had been so inclined (aka cared), I could have purchased a ticket to watch it in a local pub at a price of 10 quid (pounds). That's eighteen red white and blue and green American dollars. Eighteen.

Nope.

In da Pub (The new track from 50 pence, not kidding)

Pubs in England are all frickin' great. What an excellent system for drinking beer and other sundry forms of booze. They have such great character. When I come back home, I'm going to open an English style pub with some crazy English pub name, like The Marble Peacock, and the beer will flow like wine.

Forget investment banking; pubs is where it be.

C h r i s

Tate Modern

Hey Neighbor,

Today I got up early--just in time to catch the 1:15 tube to the southbank of the Thames, and the Tate Museum of Modern Art. That sure was a neat place, and I saw a few paintings that I recognized from my days as suave international art thief. Weather was nice as well; overcast but a nice breezy temperature. i think that when God decided to create January, he started in the midwest, but by the time he hit the east coast, he got bored and left to make a sandwhich, then instead of finishing the job, he watched reruns of Chips (or cHiPS).

I also decided that I really need to get out more and see the sights, even just in London. Saturday's are good for doing that, so next Saturday, I might patronize the Natural History Museum or an Art Gallery or a McDonald's--on that last one, I'll just make sure to find an out-of-the-way one.

Pizza and Tomato Basil soup for dinner, as well as a bowl of sugared Soylent Green for dessert. That stuff sure is good, but they don't put the ingredients on the back. Oh well!

Until later...

To expose a liar

I am about to write about a situation I've recently stumbled across. Mind you, I might sound like a vengeful jerk, but hey, I do love exposing liars.

I will try to keep this as factual as possible, because it's so obvious that I'm right.

Well tonight around cards and chemical cider, a fellow student described how her film was to be shown at the Notre Dame Student Film festival. She also mentioned another student's film, and I happen to inquire as to the plot. She described it like this:

There's this guy and he keeps seeing this black thing, and every time he turns his head to look, it moves. And he gets freaked out. And then he sees his wife and a man in bed (or something like that) and closes his eyes, but when he opens them, he has killed them.

Now I admit to taking some liberty with this, but the basic points are there: The blob that you can't see because it alwasy remains on the edge of your vision, and the dead cheating wife and lover, killed by the main character, but unknowingly.

This is, to the smallest detail, the plot to an obscure horror/sci-fi novel called Fear, by L. Ron Hubbard. The same author was responsible for inventing Scientology, putting El Nino into effect, and creating the first jar of peanut butter and jelly. Everything there is true except the last two.

Anyway, I emailed him, and he seems like a good guy, but he said he had never heard of the book (In which a man is followed but exactly such a flitting creature, then ends up killing his cheating wife and her lover but only realizing he did it after the fact). I will not say that he is lying to me, especially since I only know the plot on second-hand knowledge. However. my suspicions have been aroused. Yeah aroused, so what. Grow up.

I'll let you know what happens, whoever you are.

Something better

Hey,

For anyone that cares, I will try and update this thing as often as I can. I'll start now.

I plan on going out tonight to some pubs/clubs and just dancing. No girls tonight, just me, a floor, some euro-shoes, probably some alcohol, and the spirt of the music as it courses through my veins. Right on.

Otherwise, we'll see where the night takes me.

On another note, today I broke my own personal record for days in existence. Woot.

Cya