Berlin

aight. finally.  bout to finish my Euro-blogging from this summer.  Next blog post I do will probably be in Belgium.  Well perhaps one after that.

ummmmmm Berlin.
Well my good pictures are mostly of graffiti.  We went on an "alternative" tour. Basically it's for hipsters who feel like they are too good for the regular tours.  We looked too normal.  And while we're at it, a lot of Berlin's nightclubs don't let you in unless you look alternative enough.  So you can't go out dancing in a dress and heels.  You need dreadlocks and like, galaxy print tights or something.  Funny.  Unless you want to go to the REGULAR PEOPLE clubs,  the BORING PEOPLE clubs.  Hahaha.

Berlin is great for getting up close and personal with Third-Reich Nazi type history.  And learning about the Berlin Wall (I also went on a VERY INFORMATIVE tour for that!).

In short Berlin was great. 10/10 would recommend.

 Dancing girl stencils done by Alias.

 Brandenburg Gate

 It took us a LONG time to get a decent photo in this photoautomat.  We looked into the flash instead of the camera. Classy.  Very old machine, black and white prints.

My first kebab! Kebab was actually invented in Berlin, by Turkish immigrants who wanted fast food.

first thing I've written in months and months

I'm going to take you to where the sky falls, where the stars bite cold, where the ocean tastes the shore, leaves, and then comes back for more.  Our bodies were made for dancing, like your hand was made to trace shivers into my spine, begging the feathers to grow.  Flight pulls us toward the moon, like the tides, all silver, filling the sky.

I want to be there when you realize what joy is.  When you fall bone-struck into the wild hymn the wind has been trying to whisper to you since you clawed your way from the womb.  Your wounds are deepest harmonies you forgot about.  Eyes wide open.   Hands empty.

Chords igniting in your veins.

This Ferguson thing though.

Sad and horrible.

Body Cameras needed for all cops.


Eff.

Brain hurts me

Tossing and turning thinking of this nursing home performance.. Dunno why this is stressing me out, pretty sure the old people will love it no matter what.  And I'm a good dancer.  But somehow I keep messing up the suicide dips and other moves I should know by now.... Merrrrr whatever. It will be a good experience. Haven't performed dance in front of other people for over two years now.  Why is this stressing me soooo.... It's gonna be fun.   Hope I don't freak myself out (not like I'm not doing that now haha).  Maybe it's best to just not volunteer to do things that make me nervous.   But then I just coast through life doing nothing but working... Maybe a challenge is good spice.   Let's face it I have no ambition.  I can't believe I'm actually going though with this.  Feels like my first day teaching in Thailand.

Paris

I think I mentioned before that I did not want to go to Paris.  This is based largely on stereotypes that exist in my own mind about French people.  Basically I feel VERY rude for going to Paris without any French-language fluency.  Also, yeah, I think those guys are angry and rude.  And don't like tourists.  I said it.

But hey.  My boyfriend told me he was going there, so I made it happen.  His parents were also with us.  So not quite as romantic as you might think.  Got a nice lecture on cultural differences from his father.

 February till August... finally got to see him again. Holding hands nearly killed me I think.  Overdose.

 Mona Lisa at the Louvre... biggest celebrity in Europe.

 LOUUUUVRE. (next three are Notre Dame Cathedral.)

 We're so cute. Put a lock on it.  (also cliche.)

 Arc de Triomphe.  Paris is just a big art gallery. head to toe.

cute, cute, we are cute.

Valencia

The good thing about the end of my trip was I only stayed with people I already knew.  This saved me from the burnout.

Hitched a ride on blablacar, (an amazing rideshare website mostly for Europe).  My driver accidentally picked up the wrong person.... asked her if she was Amy, she said yes.  Turns out she was a sex-worker.  whoo hooo. They realized that pretty quickly and came back to the bus station to get me.

Valencia.  Had to cut my time here in half because my boyfriend informed me that he'd be in Paris in four days.

Went to the "Bulls in Silla" festival.  Also spent a lot of time on the beach, and practiced Spanish.

My friend Isa, who I met in Thailand, hosted me.

 PAELLAAAA. Best Spanish food. Ever.

 View from our apartment. Ocean.

 (Conversation in Spanish)
"Come over here! She's English!"
"She's NOT English. She's American."
"Well... Same thing. She speaks English."

 Sunset on the lake.

 Sunrise the next morning on the Ocean.

 So basically the bulls just run through the town and everyone jumps behind the bars (in red here) when they get close.

 Except these idiots.

Barca

By the time Barcelona rolled around I was mostly burnt out.  It didn't help matters that my first night spent in the hostel there was interrupted at 3 AM by two people having EXTREMELY LOUD SEX.  

Something very important to remember.  If you can book a co-ed room in a hostel I def recommend it. If for instance someone is listening to music or talking on the phone, you can count on the dudes in the room to yell at them.

When I was in Barcelona I stayed in an all girls room, 16 beds.  Although the loud sex woke everyone up NO ONE except me told them to shut up.  They didn't shut up anyways.  

I still get angry when I think about it.  Drunk people who are also inconsiderate are the WORST.

Anyways! I laid around a lot in Barcelona but managed to drag myself out of bed for a walking tour which was really awesome.  Every bit as good as the Amsterdam walking tour.

(I love walking tours)

 Old school Gothic architecture!

 Where Picasso studied.  Also the heart of the red light district.

Liverpool/Cork

Aight I've been lazy.  It's been like three months since I left Europe and now I'm leaving for India soon SO. We gonna smush some destinations together.

LIVERPOOL.

The only thing you need to know is the walking tour is very boring.
AND.  If you want to meet some locals and dance, go to Bumper. One of my favorite nights of my whole trip was spent there.

The dude on the right was my couchsurf host.  Really awesome Desi, might meet up with him in India too.  The other two are scouses who enjoyed imitating my American accent to much hilarity.  Met lots of interesting characters here.

NOW...

Cork, Ireland.

I went here for the 2014 Salsa Bonanza.  It turned out to give me hope in European salsa dancers.  The setting was very small and low-key, so that I got to meet and talk with most of the people who were there.  Met this Reiki master who had the most energy of anyone I've ever seen.  He was an AMAZING dancer, but he had never had any lessons.

The dancing sessions were ten times better than the ones at the Croatian festival.  Probably because they were ten times smaller.

 European Sensual Bachata Champions...I took classes from them, learned a lot...

This couple taught Kizomba, and their adorable baby would squawk until they picked her up and danced with her in between them.

I am planning to go back to Ireland just for the next festival.  Amazing experience.

I did a walking tour of Cork, that mostly told me Irish people are very superstitious and they have beautiful college campuses.

teraaaaaaa hone laga hoooooooon

well I'm getting ready to leave for India... and I realized I still haven't fully blogged my Eurotrip.  Will do that this week (or try).


Going to be performing Salsa at the nursing home with my dance instructor (if all goes as planned! fingers crossed so hard...).  I've  been trying to get myself up enough to do that for about a year. FINALLY.

Today I'm buying my first set of luggage.  Figured its about time.


OH MY GAHHHH I'M GONNA BE FLUENT IN HINDI.   (Well one hopes).  Everything I've written today has an escape clause.  Man I'm bad at committing to things.