Well, here you go. I’ve always thought it would be quite fun to do something like that but the idea of orthopaedic trauma thought the best of it. This is the Angel tube stop.
March, 2007
27
Mar 07
Should I be concerned that
Someone found my blog by searching for “acapulco tranny prostitute” on Google?
23
Mar 07
All About Lisbon
Now that I’ve got my head out of my ass from my trip, I’m finally able to sit down and compose my thoughts. I had some drama with my lost books, forgotten sleep meds and my eaten ATM card. I also managed to eat Pizza Hut in country #17 on this trip too, but I think that my quest to become King of Pizza Hut is now approaching Quixotic comparisons.
The weather was flat out perfect. 70s, breezy, sunny – you couldn’t ask for anything else. Honestly. After I arrived, I was on the quest to get books and was sent in the direction of Vasco da Gama Shopping Center to get books. I was quite impressed by the Metro in Lisbon – all of the stations were very cool architecturally and I was sort of geekin’ at the fact that their ten ride card had some manner of RFID on it.
The next day I took a city tour just so I could get some orientation of the city. The first thing we did was take a bridge over the River Tagus, which seemed to me just to get us up close to the large statue of Jesus (a smaller version of the one in Rio). We also managed to get to the Jerónimos Monastery, which had the tomb of our man Vasco da Gama again. To be honest with you, I think I’ve seen enough of the insides of churches for quite some time. After a while they all blend together.
We also did get our prerequisite photo ops in front of the Monument to the Discoveries and the Tower of Belém. We also got check out the Museu dos Coches (Coach Museum), which I thought would kinda suck but actually was pretty neat. It was interesting to check out how insanely “pimped” out they were. I guess if you put something on wheels, you have the urge to bling it out, regardless of the century you’re from. We also got to have some port wine and take a stroll down Belém and Rossio and got to eat some pastel de Belém, which are these pretty cool pastries that were crammed with custard. Mmmm. I didn’t realize that we had them at Rua de Belém, which has been around for 160+ years.
The next day I went out to Sintra, which was the summer residence of the Royal Family (and thus, had Sintra Palace). It was very cool and it made me realize that I need way faster lenses for just this reason – dark areas and not being able to use flash tends to get the blur. We also hit Cabo de Roca, which is the most western point in Europe. This means I’ve hit the western and southern points in Europe. Two more to go! We did also stop at Estoril and Cascais and didn’t get a chance to stop at Boca do Inferno, which is called the “mouth of Hell”, a cliff that has had caves hallowed out by the Atlantic. I was kinda pissed about that, but enjoyed the fact that I got to soak up a nice lovely little ride.
My last day didn’t feature much. I did a lot of walking around the Baixa enjoying the sun, some coffee and port wine. It hit me that I spend my vacations running around and snapping photos in the hope that one sticks. I never actually just sit still, read, try to tan (well, burn) and just enjoy. That was fun in itself. I did throughout the course of the trip try to enjoy local cuisine, such as chicken piri piri. To be honest, it was just ok.
So would I go back? Yes, I would – but I’d want to go with someone and do a proper relaxing vacation and chill. Portugal is small enough that you can do a decent exploration in a full week. The people were super friendly.
A few things: In the main touristy areas, you’d get hit up to buy drugs, apparently since Lisbon is a major transhipment point. One of the guidebooks that I thumbed through said that everything was junk – not like I was going to sample it, but word on the street said so. Also, my hotel had free porn. Imagine my surprise when I was trying to find CNN or BBC News and voila, hardcore fetish action. And I got free breakfast too – all for €60.
Oh, and all my photos are available at the normal spot up on Fotki. I also did put Autopano to use and stitched a panoramic photo of the harbor in Cascais together. It’s around 14MB and is a bit under 24 megapixels.
22
Mar 07
Postcards
Yes, I know – I haven’t written up a trip report yet. I have, however, cleaned up and uploaded my photos, but haven’t weeded out the shitty ons yet. I’m going to have to do that soon. I did sit down and come up with some interesting stats about the postcards:
Countries I’ve sent postcards from: 5 (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Estonia)
Total cards sent out: 170 (crikey!)
Total spent on postcards: 645 Danish Kroners, 156.5 Euros and 135 Estonian Kroon.
The ones I’ve sent out from Portugal should be arriving next week.
I’ll write more later about the trip and start to write photo captions by the weekend.
20
Mar 07
I’m not dead
I’m en route back from Lisbon, chillin’ in the Air France lounge and busting out a quickie blog post. I had a good time, despite having some major fuckups along the way on my part. I have a travel rule: Something forgotten, something lost, something dramatic. Well, I managed to forget my sleep meds, lost my guide book/phrase book on the plane (oops) and managed to have my ATM card eaten on my first day. High five!
I took some pictures and when I get back I’ll write out some more about what I did and stuff and stuff. I sent out postcards (50 this time) so happy day. I did take the approach of “shoot like hell and hope one sticks.” And I do have an idea for the next Hawkins 7: Hotties of Women’s Curling. For serious.
12
Mar 07
The suck
In the last 72 hours, I’ve been notified that my Mastercard was jacked and people were running up bills on things like internet porn (who pays for that stuff anyway?) and other crap in Europe. I wasn’t responsible, but it’s still a pain in the ass to deal with and notify the three credit bureaus.
Citibank was on the ball on this one and called me – as opposed to those other times where they’re like “how dare he order dinner from a restaurant down the street.” They’ve redeemed themselves.
I leave for Lisbon in 72 hours. High five!
I’ve also got some mystery illness. My joints and lower back feels like crap and I’m freezing despite the weather being nice. I wish I still had COX-2 inhibitors to pop so I can relax on the couch and chill for the evening. I did go home early, which I felt kinda bad about because I had stuff to do before I went but I did feel like ass.
And now I’m rambling incoherently. Time for food and watching “24″ before bed.
8
Mar 07
Damn Girl Scouts
At least I know that my waistline is expanding to provide Girl Scouts Canon 1D camera bodies and bigass L series lenses.
7
Mar 07
Upcoming vacations
There’s a massive project going on at the office, and it’s more or less going to curtail most of our vacation time from say, Memorial Day to close to Thanksgiving. So for those months, I’ll likely be complaining about the long hours and how the weather is nice but I can’t play. :(
Next week (crikey!) I am off to Lisbon, Portugal. I’ve been reading my Portugese phrasebook and trying to learn something other than “duh” and grunting. As most of you know, I barely have command of the English language let alone something else so my time there will be filled with hilarity.
Odds are, this might be my last chance to send a lot of postcards to my friends, e-friends, stalkers, creeps and fans for a while. So, if you didn’t get a postcard from me from Germany/Estonia, then drop me a note because I’m going to assume you’re not on the list. And if you don’t want one, either because you throw them away (Hi Ready family!) or you’re just tired of them clogging up refrigerator space (Hi Tim!), let me know.
Oh, and “Mystery Girl”, if you wanted me to send you a postcard, give me something other than your email address. :)
5
Mar 07
My billion dollar idea
With all this talk about carbon neutral lifestyles or carbon offsetting, it sounds good in theory. Really – if I knew that I could pay a fee that would actually offset the pollution I cause by flying more than 100,000 miles a year I would actually feel ok about myself and that I’m not polluting the skies because I found a kickass fare to Europe.
However, it seems to me like it’s a Ponzi scheme, you donate money to allay your guilt to some third party that appears out of nowhere with the promise that they will do what they say in an ethical fashion. You’re passing the buck.
(Please don’t think I like to drive SUVs and run over puppies or fly private jets all over the world because I am a smug bastard and love to pollute. I’m all for less petrochemical consumption. Windfarms, more solar and nuclear energy are the logical choices to move forward with. This makes sense for multiple reasons – less pollution and less dependancy on foreign sources of energy makes us stronger from a national security perspective.)
But this doesn’t feel right to me. And of course, me being the sarcastic asshole, am going to announce HawkinsCo, a way to offset your calorie consumption. Like most Americans, we have an excess of calories coming into our pieholes daily. But if you’re like me, you feel bad about it. So my company will help you offset your calorie consumption. You pay me to combat global obesity. $5000 will help you offset 500 calories a day for a month. By writing me a check, I will ensure that somewhere in the world, someone will not be receiving those amount of calories a day. Yes, for $5000, I will make someone starve in order for you to live a better lifestyle. Also, you will receive an added benefit of being “waistline neutral.”
It doesn’t sound right, does it? You’re probably saying – jesus, you’re an asshole for even thinking this because it’s a stupid analogy and doesn’t even make sense. You’re right – I am an asshole, but not for the reason you’re saying. But it does make you wonder if we’re going about this the right way. Yes, some companies that are in the carbon offsetting business are putting up windmills and solar farms. That’s awesome. I am all down with that. However, if I am going to invest money in a scheme, I should be able to have a rate that’s measured on what I actually pollute. That factor should be based on energy that this scheme is providing and a ROI on my pollution as it were. Seriously, if I’m going to offset my tons of CO2, I want to know that my money is being spent on a project that will recoup that fully. But then doesn’t this become a commodity itself? If I pay to offset 10 tons of CO2 a year at x dollars a year, can I resell that to someone else? This brings up a whole set of interesting questions. If you’re bored, look for “carbon neutral” on eBay. You can pay college students money because by being broke and riding a bike, they are offsetting your carbon consumption.
Oh hell, I should just stick to writing about travel and technology. I’m confusing myself. Just send me money anyway.