a return to swimming?

i swam 2,000 yards yesterday (1.83 km) for the first time in about a year. nothing tells you you're out of shape like swimming. i could barely get through 100 yards 15 minutes into my workout. still i'm surprisingly not that sore today which is always a nice feeling.

there are lots of bittersweet things about swimming for me:

• you can't listen to music - which can be boring, but calming since you can't hear anything so it's really a time to think
• you stink of chlorine even a day after you swim (of course if you've grown up with that smell you sorta secretly love it)
• you're going back and forth in a straight line in water - it's boring, but you are semi weightless which is always a great feeling
  

i love mashups so hard

digital music has led to the explosion of audio mashups. and now with youtube and digital video, we have A/V mashups which are amazing. this guy, kutiman, takes all sorts of different videos and combines them together to make original music. it's nothing short of amazing. he has eight songs out right now.

[via youtube's kutiman]

spring break: top 3

dublin: (N and i are in complete agreement)
1. guiness brewery


2. howth (fishing town near dublin)


3. grafton street


edinburgh:
1. cliffs near edinburgh




2. (N) edinburgh castle, (me) pub night


3. (N) pub night, (me) whiskey shop/train ride to london


london:
1. Seeing our friend, P


2. (N) phantom of the opera, (me) marlybone & regent's park


3. (N) london eye, (me) phantom of the opera




amsterdam:
1. anne frank & vincent gogh museums


2. (N) touring the red light district, (me) the nine streets


3. (N) finding the diesel bag, (me) pancakes


N's top 3 overall:
1. anne frank & vincent van gogh museums
2. seeing P and phantom of the opera
3. guiness brewery

my top 3 overall:
1. cliffs near edinburgh
2. seeing P and marlybone
3. pub night and whiskey train ride

a meal with no photos

before leaving for spring break, i made a small filet of chilean sea bass in a white miso paste. it's normally black cod miso, what you find at most good japanese restaurants, but unfortunately there was no black cod at the market.

the sea bass (which also not a good fish to buy for the environment) was the best they had, i thought about halibut, but the texture wouldn't work. the miso paste itself was easy to make, and the fish is normally supposed to sit in the paste for at least 2 days to really absorb the flavor of the sweet miso. but i only had 5 hours, which still worked out fine. it was just more subtle than it might normally be.

along with the fish, i made a cho-gae tang (korean clam soup with spinach). it starts by making a simple clam broth (clams boiled in water). i took our the clam meat pretty early on, in order to prevent them from getting too tough. i let the shells boil away in the water to give it a healthy clam flavor. there was also a touch of beef broth to give it a little depth and some fermented soybean paste (the good homemade stuff). i tossed in some jalapenos to give it some late kick. i strained it all through a sieve and some paper towels to make it a super clear broth.

i chopped up some spinach and blanched it. along with the spinach and the clam meat, i chopped up some mushrooms, garlic and green onions. i tossed them all into the now clear broth and brought it to a boil again and it was ready to serve.

very simple and clean - good for the body with the iron from the spinach and the calcium from the clams. i forgot to tap photos because i was running a little late on time, but next time.

day eleven: flying back home

i know i haven't posted about day ten, don't have time for that right now. but will write it on the plane and post when i get back to chicago. it's pretty early in the morning right now. 7am, all packed and showered and ready to walk to the train station, jump on a train to the airport and wait for 9.5 hour flight back home. not sure i'm looking forward to it, but then again i haven't done much reading on this trip so hopefully i'll get a solid five hours in. add in a couple hours of sleeping and a movie and i think we're in good shape.

on a side note, N has been farting up something fierce. it should qualify as a toxic gas at this point. the windows are wide open, i'd rather freeze to death with fresh air and die with smelly gas.

the whole trip has been an amazing romp around the UK and amsterdam. N and i have shared our top moments on the trips, which i'll compile and post tomorrow. i think we both preferred scotland and amsterdam to london and ireland for their beauty (the mountains and the canals). and on that friendly thought, i'm off.

day ten: amsterdam - the final day

woke up this morning not feeling too terrible. not nearly as hungover than i thought i would. i got up around 11 and N didn't get up until 12:30. he didn't remember much of what happened last night. so we lounge in bed and pieced the night together. we didn't end up leaving the hotel till 3. the weather still wasn't great and i wasn't feeling well. for some reason N slept in his street clothes which was odd. then again we were both pretty smashed the night before so it's not a complete shock.

we pretty much drank a ton of water and watched more tv, the only thing of note was a documentary about jumping great white sharks off the coasts of south africa, california and australia.

we headed out to a pancake place that was recommended in one of our guidebooks. N got the standard american pancakes with maple syrup and a ton of bacon. i got blini's with a goat cheese spread and a side salad. both were alarmingly good food and small (but filling and healthy) portions. we had more water and set off to find a new bag for N. we stopped by zara again to see if they had anything that he might like, unfortunately they didn't. next we headed off to the flagship diesel store (it was three stories - so pretty big), but they didn't have the bag we saw at the other diesel store, my guess is that the other one was in the premium shopping area, half a block down for LV and gucci, etc. so they had the bag which was part of diesel's high end collection (black gold). so we decided we had to walk back down to the first diesel store in order to get the bag. we stopped by at least a dozen stores along the way to the store, but couldn't find anything better than the first bag we found. so we get back to the diesel store and find the bag. the saleswoman was remembered N and we chatted for a while before he got the bag. he was tempted with their watches as well - since they fit the style that he likes - urban fashion - as opposed to strong fashion forward.

after buying the bag we headed back up and stopped by an irish pub for a beer. i was strongly against the idea, but the thought of not having a drink on our drinking spring break trip, seemed outlandish. so i had a murphy's red ale and N had a heiniken extra cold. we both had a tough time putting them back, but i didn't feel as terrible as i thought i might. still i wasn't feeling great.

we saw a wagamama's next to the irish pub so we jumped in to get a nice noodle bar dinner. we had some fried chicken pieces for a starter, i had a diet pepsi and N had a kirin. he had a beef soba stirfry which came out much sooner than my pork cutlet ramen. i was really looking forward to the ramen broth which would help my stomach ache and dehydration. even though i had been drinking water for 7 hours at this point, i was still dehydrated which is a scary thought. we were thoroughly full at the end of the meal and headed home.

we picked up some more beers for N - a six pack of regular grolsch, i got some gatorade like drink and more water. when we got back i finally connected to the internet and posted the two days i was behind. we watched some more tv and N took a nap as usual. we spent some time packing and getting things sort of in order since we had to get up at 6:45am the next morning we didn't want to rush in the morning to get ready. after N's nap he started pushing through his beers and i was surfing the web and catching up on some reading.

after he finished his beers, we headed back out to the red light district. there was a big group of scottish football fans (read: soccer) and they were out in full force. definitely a few hundred of them. i mean they were everywhere with their kilts and hats and all. we stopped in at the bulldog for a beer for N and then did a couple laps around the area. we discovered we had only been to half of the area and explored the other half. there was a good reason the homeless guy didn't show us the other side, it was mostly men dressed as women. after wandering around for a bit more we headed home. N was hungry again by this point so we stopped by KCF for some late night snacks. we took them to go and watched south park while chowing down. it was the amazing "what what in my butt" episode with butters. N went to sleep almost immediately after eating, which explains why he won't up hung over the next day.

day nine: amsterdam

today could be easily summed up as it was the best of times and it was the worst of times.

got up at nine today and went out for a run in the rain. i wasn't feeling great after all the drinking and eating yesterday. i needed to work it off. and the rain definitely didn't make it easier. although its nice to run in the rain. for the most part it didn't rain that hard so it was alright.

got back and woke up N and headed down to breakfast at 10. the bacon and coffee were good, the powdered eggs weren't. but still not a bad start to the day. we got cleaned up and headed out to the anne frank house at 11:30. it was a slow start but with the rain getting worse around 11, we figured slow was better.

we walked about 10 minutes in light rain to the anne frank museum. unfortunately i didn't listen to the advice of the web and forgot to buy the tickets in advance. so we waited outside in the rain and cold for a good half hour. the museum was extremely moving and sad. the space itself was less compelling than the story. i think i read her diary when i was much younger (maybe middle/high school) i don't think it left a super strong impression on me. N and i were really moved by what they went through and how young she was when she was writing (she died when she was only 13). as we walked back for lunch, we had a conversation about genocide and the recent and current campaigns going on that americans know little or don't care to know about.

it was getting quite cold now and with the rain we were getting pretty wet. it was in the low 40's by this point. i had two tshirts, a patagonia wool base later and a military style shell (for the rain). N only had a long sleeve shirt, a tshirt and a thin zip up jacket. we didn't have umbrella so we were both wearing hats. for the most part it wasn't raining hard, but a constant drizzle.

we made our way to mcdonalds again. this time we both got quarterpounders. N got a chicken sandwich on top of it all. afterwards we walked down the street to Zara. N had never been to one and wanted to check it out. it makes sense that he wouldn't have been in one since none of their clothes would fit him. next we stopped by H&M. N needed a new hat because his cap wasn't doing great in the rain. and it wasn't really keeping his head warm. he tried on hats for a while and looked in the mirror for a long time for each one. it was almost like shopping with a girl. finally he picked a tan paperboy hat which worked well for the rest of the day. he also picked up underwear because he didn't pack enough. it's primarily because he showers twice a day so underwear demand is 2x the normal amount. i thought about making a supply and demand chart to better illustrate this, but realized that would be too awesome and sad at the same time.

i picked up a white hat as well for fun. we left H&M and decided we didn't want to carry this stuff around so we headed back to the hotel which was only a ten minute walk away. we checked email and bought the van gogh tickets online. we dropped the stuff off in the hotel room and took a little break watching music videos. N was making fun of pop music and sat through all of pussycat dolls' "bottle pop" and counted the number of times they said bottle pop. 57 times. so he made his point. of course now we had that sound stuck in our heads for the next couple of hours.

we took the tram down to the museum and saw a giant line for the tickets. we had to pay a little extra for getting them online, but it was worth skipping the long line. the museum itself was amazing. i had a seen a huge van gogh exhibit in vienna last fall, but a few key pieces were missing. the museum had a special exhibit called the colors of the night (the centerpiece being starry night). the museum had piece besides van gogh's works, primarily of artists who were influential in the development of his style. N had a great time except for the floor of drawings (which he doesn't like much at all). we got to much of his famous works: the man with the red hat, his room, self portraits (although not the infamous one), the flowers works (although again not the famous iris one). we saw the hayfield one - i can't remember the name. it always reminds me of a bad dream which is why i love it. i'll have to look it up and post it. the night paintings were stunning of course and starry night was worth the trip on its own.

after we left the museum we walked through the premium shopping area to find a nice weekend duffel type bag for N. his current bag is little more than a gym bag and has two broken zippers. hardly the way to travel. we found an interesting style at diesel, but it was in black and we were looking for something in green. we hit up hermes, tumi and ralph lauren (mainly for me). didn't find anything amazing besides the diesel bag, so we jumped back on the tram and hit the market for more beer. that was the beginning of the end for me.

we had five and seven tallboys a piece. we ate the rest of our deli meat and cheese for a light dinner. unfortunately i may have eaten something that wasn't kosher. but being dehydrated plus a lot of beer plus some funky deli meat did not lead to good things. after dinner and predrinking we walked down to the theater. we got a five euro discount because when asked if i had a coupon, i said i wished i did. so we saved ten euros. we had a few more beers at the comedy show boom chicago and then it was the end of me. i was violently ill even before intermission. and spent most of the second half of the show in the bathroom trying not to die. at some point i dropped my iphone in a glass of water so who knows if it'll work when i try to turn it back on. i'm trying to let it dry out before i try to power it back up. when i was came back out, N was talking to a guy and girl from texas. the girl was living here now and the guy was visiting her. they were ex's. she was trying to pawn him off on us tomorrow so she could look for a job. this whole conversation to me seemed silly in general. i was also trying my best not to puke. after some not so subtle suggestions i convinced N that we should head back.

N wanted some burger king, so he went in and got two sandwiches, fries, onion rings and something else. i waited outside. we wanted back and met a south african women who walked back with us for much of the way. when we got back, N tried to have me drink water, but that wasn't working. he ate his food and thankfully N gave me some tylonel.

day eight: london to amsterdam

got up pretty early today. 8:30am (which is alarmingly early if i was at school). got up again before N and went to the library to check my email and shower. woke up N at 9 so we could leave by 9:30. finished packing and left money for the guys whose place we were using (A & R).

because we had so many traveling issues the day before we probably over to the london city airport earlier than we needed to. we walked to baker street station and then took the jubilee line nine stops to canning town out in zone 3. we thought we'd have to get off the tube and walk to the direct light rail to take the train to the airport, but they were connected so all we had to do was walk up to another platform and wait for the train to come. so that was a big time saver. it was a cold ten minutes for the train. we were on an exposed platform on a windy morning. the train itself was smooth and easy enough, three stops and we were in the middle of the airport terminal. it only cost us 2.20 pounds to get from baker street to the airport which was another plus.

we got there at 10:45am for a 1pm flight. so super early. the airport itself is in an industry area right by the water so it was pretty gritty. but the airport itself was great. it was all self check-in only so we got our boarding passes in a minute and went to have some breakfast at the cafe. N had a chicken club and i had a chorizo argula sandwich. another great plus was that the entire airport had free wi-fi. it's where i wrote the previous post, while waiting to board for the plane.

the flight was only 40 minutes on a small jet plane. the seats were slightly smaller than the standard seats which was hilarious because N could fit in them... so he was extremely uncomfortable the whole flight. i took a twenty minute nap which was nice. i have to say BA does a much better job than american airlines. they served us sandwiches and drinks for free on a 40 minute flight. that's unheard of in the states!

once we got to amsterdam we bought a map (the first time we bought a map) and jumped on the train into the city. from central station we had a 20 minute walk south into the city to get to our hotel. the place was a good deal at 60 euros a night for a big room with breakfast included. we walked around after dropping our bags. we found the nines street right behind where our hotel was which was great. i found this great denim stop with hundreds of different kinds of jeans from the states, europe and japan. the area was by far my favorite neighborhood on the entire trip. N and i both thought we could totally live in the area. i actually stopped by a realty window to see how much places in the area were going for. the canals and the narrow streets were beautiful. N found a massage place and he was dying for a massage so he got a 90 minute massage while i continued to walk around and then sat down at a bar across the street to walk for him. i found a model agency which was interesting, i thought about going in and see how the models were in amsterdam, but i already knew they were pretty good on the whole. not paris or milan, but strong. at the bar i finally got to catch up on some reading. i read most of an old copy of the monocle. i have two more left to read on this trip. they'll probably have to wait till the flight back. it's 9.5 hours so i feel like i should have plenty of time for reading.

after the massage, N was starving. i had three beers at the bar so i was pretty full. but we found an argentinean place after searching for a reasonably priced meal for a while (food in amsterdam is pricey). we order chips with guacamole and two steak dinners, which were pretty good if only for a change of pace. N was still hungry so we stopped by the market next to our hotel and got some fresh bread, deli meats, basil and cheese. we made sandwiches for dinner part two. we also bought six grolsch tallboys and six heineken tallboys (for the next day). we ate in our hotel room while watching some tv. N had a few drinks at dinner and another four here. i had two more. so we were extremely full and pretty happy. N almost fell asleep but we decided to check out the red light district instead. we met an old homeless american (at least he said he was) who told us hilarious stories about the place and give us a little guided tour of the whole area. there were loads of people around, lots of guys of course, but lots of tourists: couples, families. it was kind of a weird vibe. we stopped into a bar to grab another pint and then headed home. we watched tv for a while since we needed to sober up before heading to bed.

new posts delayed

i don't have easy access to wi-fi here and have written posts on the netbook without being able to post them. i will post when i get the chance. 

london clouds go away

view from the london eye

*you really need to see the full rez version for the effect

day seven: london - the tate modern and a musical

got up at 8:30 today... pretty early for this trip. took a shower and tried to wake up N at 9, but that didn't work so well. i left to check my internet while he got ready to go. we planned on seeing westminster abbey in the morning and then buy tickets to phantom of the opera and then meet P in the financial district for lunch.

things didn't go exactly as planned. it was the first day on our trip where things didn't go ultra smoothly. we got to the marlybone station, only to realize that we were supposed to go baker street station (which was only a tube stop away, but still) we found the whole tube system to be very confusing, i guess it was constructed ages ago so it can't be helped. it's also generally hard cause of N's height. we got onto the gray line (jubilee) but after two stops (we needed to go three), we were all told to get off. so instead of waiting for the next subway train (the platform was completely packed), we decided to walk from green street (next to buckingham palace) to westminster.

a side note: the vindaloo revenge was definitely causing N problems. he needed to use the restroom no less than five times throughout the day. so just keep that in mind.

so we walked to westminster - only to find a giant long line. we were running short on time and didn't think we'd be able to make lunch with P on time, so we decided to skip the abbey. we jumped back on the tube to leicester square to buy tickets. we got decent tickets for the 7:30 show and jumped back on the tube to monument station to meet P. there was a bit of miscommunication so we hit up a starbucks for a bit to wait for P. P took us to a place nearby called the fine line. N and i had the chicken salad sandwich with fries and P had the burger. apparently burgers in the UK are more like overcooked meatballs more than anything else. we had a pint of carling beer which was great. after lunch P walked us to london bridge where we said our goodbyes. P won't be back in chicago till may, but hopefully we can see him then.

from london bridge we walked south and then west towards the tate modern. we did a quick walkby of the globe theater, but it seemed too touristy for us. we hit the tate modern for a while, it was great to see some good art on the trip, we'd been to the national gallery the day before but it wasn't the same. i got to see a few rothkos which is always a treat. N had a good time overall which was great. i picked up a couple things in the shop and we headed out towards the london eye. it was sprinkling a little bit when we left the tate, it was the first time we had bad weather the entire trip.

on our way to the eye, we came across a wagamama, a semi fast food, sit down noodle place. N had ate the same amount as me at lunch so he was hungry at 4. i was fine, but wanted to taste it again. so we ordered a couple beers and some duck dumplings and a chili beef ramen. i had a couple dumplings and a bite of the ramen since i wasn't really hungry. N destroyed the rest.

after wagamama, we jumped on the eye and got some great views and photos of the city. the day was cloudy and it had rained recently but the clouds broke just as we got to the top of the eye and the city was beautiful. we had tried to buy a bottle of wine to share (P said it's what people do), but we couldn't find a place. they were also checking bags so it's a good thing we didn't try.

after the eye, we walked back towards the theater district, but found that we had a good hour and a half before we needed to grab some food. so we found a corner pub and sat down for a few pints. N had lagers and i had a local bitter (oak cask drawn). halfway through my first pint, i had said i could drink 2.5 pints in five minutes. N egged me on and said that i couldn't do it. so of course i bought two more pints on the spot and drank them all in 5 minutes. N gave me an extra two minutes, but i didn't need them. as you can imagine i was extremely full and about 15 minutes later i was pretty drunk. N had only had one beer, so over the next hour he had five. before we left we had one more each putting me at 4 and N at 6. we also calculated the approximately alcohol to weight ratio for most of our drinking. N needs to have 1.4x drinks to whatever i am drinking in order to get drunk. this is due to the weight difference between us. this assumes we have the same drinking strength which is for the most part true.

now we're drunk and running late for the show, we head over to mcdonalds which is was N really wanted since the day before. i have a chicken sandwich and he has a quarter pounder. then it was off to the show. we bought mini bottles of champagne for the show which was a crazy idea, N was instantly super drunk after drinking his. it was pretty good so i drank mine a little slower. i managed about 45 minutes into it before i was dying to use the restroom. thankfully there was an empty row behind us so after we ran out to pee we didn't have to disturb anyone for the rest of the show.

the show itself was alright, but a bit too campy for me. it was so amplified, i couldn't tell if they were really singing or not. it only confirmed my love for opera since they really have to sing like mad to get across what they're trying to do. the music though was great, it was the only musical i've seen and the last time i saw it was 15 years ago i think. N wanted to leave to go drink more, but we decided to stay. instead we had peroni's at the bar at intermission and met some locals. a nice middle-aged couple from the suburbs of london.

after the show we took the tube back home. we had to finish the remaining scotch since we couldn't take it on the plane with us. so we drank and watched keeping the faith on tv. we weren't pretty at this point. i don't remember when we knocked out, but it was after midnight.

day six: london's touristy stuff

today we got up at 9:15 or so. we were slow to get ready because we knew it was mother's day in the UK and on sunday things don't really open up till pretty late (i.e. noon!) we headed out around 10:15 or so and walked down towards where P lives. N stopped to get a coffee and we managed to find a great fish and chip shop, but unfortunately it was closed on sunday. we walked down to oxford street (the main street for shopping in the west end) we didn't really see anything we wanted so we kept going towards piccadilly circus and the theater section, we got in line to buy tickets, but with only one window open we realized this would take way too long. so we decided to keep on walking down to the national gallery.

we weren't in the national gallery for long, N got pretty bored, pretty quick. and too be fair we didn't recognize many of the portraits or the painters, so it wasn't as interesting as if it were americans. we were there for less than an hour i'm sure.

after that we sat in trafalger square to get situated and then walked down to big ben and the parliament building. after taking photos of it, (N was in a few - i was in none as per usual). we walked over to westminster abbey. unfortunately it was closed to tourists for church services so we decided we needed to come back tomorrow to check it out. instead we kept walking (we did a TON of walking today) to buckingham palace and saw the guards doing their thing.

afterwards we headed back up towards marlybone so we could find a nice place to eat. we came to a small area north of oxford street and wigmore off james street. we had some good italian pasta for lunch. i had a fresh pasta with mushrooms and N had something with braised venison. he also had two appetizers and gelato for dessert. we also ordered a nice white wine for a change of pace.

after lunch we headed over to the monocle store to check out a travel duffel we had our eye on for a while. unfortunately they didn't have the color we wanted in stock so i just picked up a couple issues i had missed and we left to find a cafe for an afternoon espresso. we found one a few minutes away.

we got back from all this around 4:30 or so. the reason i know this is cause N wanted to rest for a few minutes, which ended up turning into a big nap. i left around 4:50 to the library to use the internet: find a hotel in amsterdam, check for flights from london to amsterdam, etc.
i didn't get back till around 6 and N was still asleep.

we had a long debate over what we should do on a sunday night. there wasn't much going on in the city so we were debating between seeing a movie (either lesbian vampire killers - it's an inside joke or gran tarino). we decided that we'd have indian food and hit the gym at LBS. we had super spicy lamb vindaloo and chicken tikka marsala along with chicken tikka and samosas as appetizers. we had garlic and onion naan and two orders of rice. N destroyed dinner as usual. he had two pints as well. i was keeping off the booze since we were hitting the gym. we learned over dinner than N has napped 4 of the 6 days on this trip
. the vindaloo was probably in the top three spicy versions i've had. we were super full as usual and i had a wicked stomachache from all the spicy food.

we waited tll 10pm to go to the gym. its the third workout on the trip, which isn't bad at all (one every other day pretty much), i'm hoping for one more tuesday morning before flying out to amsterdam and maybe a nice run around the canals in amsterdam.

got back around 11 from the gym. we surfed the TV for a while, and managed to find a terrible ashton kutcher movie. N is having a grand time watching it, and i'm trying to finish up this post before watching the first part of another korean movie. the first one was pretty good, finished that today... the english title was "i like it hot" it was about three girls, a middle aged woman, her daugther (who is in school) and their cousin (who is in her mid-twenties. it was sorta a romantic comedy i guess, except it wasn't very romantic, or very funny. so i'm not sure how to describe it. hopefully the next one will be better. it does make me miss korea a bit.

day five: getting to london

woke up at 9 today and managed to drag ourselves downstairs to have a nice scottish breakfast before starting our day. J had to make it back to the airport to she could take a flight down to london and back to the states. we were taking the 12:30 train down to king's cross which put us in around 6:30 at the latest. due to the maintenance the 4.5 hour trip was lengthened to 6 hours. after breakfast and packing up, we took a cab to the train station, J parted ways there by jumping on an airport express bus. we bought tickets, but decided than an hour wasn't enough time to tour the castle so we decided to take the 11:30 train instead. it was a 4 hour train ride before we were to jump onto a bus for an hour. the train ride was great, we listened to music the whole time. I did reading and N worked on his song list, he's making an album!

the two big pluses for the trip were the free wifi on the train (and power plugs for the laptop) and the scotch we bought the day before. we drank most of the bottle between the two of us, within three hours. it wasn't a big bottle, somewhere between an half bottle and a full one. anyway it was amazing, extremely smokey. the taste stays in your mouth for hours afterwards. on the bus ride, N slept the entire time but laying across two adjoining rows. i just looked out the window and listened to more music.

once we got into king's cross (we had to take a short 20 minute train into the station) we realized it was about 5.25 hours and not the 6 hours we expected. so that was good news. we jumped on the underground and made our way to the LBS campus where our friends' had a place for the quarter to crash. they were out somewhere in europe or africa, so we could use the whole place. we had a lot of trouble with the keys, the guy they were subletting from had come by and locked the second lock on the apartment. we didn't have the second key, so we were starting to look for hotels when the house manager had come back and let us in. that would have been really annoying if we had to find an hotel.

N tried to do some laundry and i went out for a run around our neighborhood and regent park. i made it to the zoo before all the scotch from the afternoon caught up with me. that wasn't pretty at all. N really wanted to eat pizza hut for some reason and i had seen one on my run, so we went there for dinner. we had two large pizzas, well i had three slices, N had most of the rest of it, we took half of it back for a snack/breakfast.

once we got back we called our other friend P who recently moved to london for work. we found out his place is only a 20 minute walk from our apartment, so we decided to walk off our dinner and check out the area. we made our way through marylebone and found the monocle shop that we really wanted to check out. we met up with P and his wife's family (who was visiting from the states). we gave P the scotch that we bought him. it was a ben nevis (something that's not super easy to get in the US). it was matured in bourbon casks so it had a peppery fruity finish. he and his family loved it, which was great. we all had a little. afterwards, we headed down to the corner pub and had a few beers. we caught up about london and leaving chicago, the pros and cons of being an american in the UK. we had a few more pints of tribute beer, which N liked a lot and i found a little sweet. N swears it had a grapefruit flavor, but i'm not so sure about that.

in london the pubs close at 11pm so we finished our beers and decided to call it a night. we didn't want to head to a club, instead we decided that we should meet up again earlier in the evening to drink or have dinner. we also decided that we were going to catch a show on monday night. probably the phantom of the opera (it's the only musical i've seen actually, but in LA). we were going to have lunch with P near the river on monday too. the highlight of the night was when P called our roommate C in the US, who was probably in philly or montreal at the time and left him two hilarious voicemails. after the pub closed, we head out and walked back home. we didn't get to bed till 1am or so. N was having issues with the washing machine and i was watching a korean movie on my laptop.

random photos of edinburgh

half hour before sunset in edinburgh

small sample bottles of lots of different kinds of whisky - look at all the different colors

view of the castle from hollyrood

day four: edinburgh

got up at 11:30am, not feeling the best, but it's been worse back in chicago. J had a terrible headache and N is doing surprisingly fine. it was brought to my attention that last night i drank at least 16 beers. N had at least 17 and 5 shots of jack. it was one crazy day.

today we got up late and were even slower to get out. we were out until 1pm after everyone took showers and got ready to go. J didn't even come out. wasn't feeling well at all. she was planning on meeting us at 3pm at the parliament building. so N and i went to a burger place (except i left my map at the B&B so had to run into a nearby hotel to grab another one). we grabbed some burgers and rested up before we walked to the parliament building. it was the first time we didn't have beers with a meal on this trip. J arrived a few minutes late, but we decided instead of heading to the castle. we would climb the giant hill called hollyrood behind hollyroodpalace
. it was a good 45 minute hike up some pretty steep grass in order for us to get up to the top. we had some amazing views of the city and the sea from there before climbing back down.

after the hard hike we made our way to the castle, but got tired and decided to take a quick cab ride.
unfortunately we got to castle a half hour too late so we were turned away. instead we made our way to the whisky store for some scotch. we did a tasting of four different scotches and ended up getting something fruity for our friend in london and a super smokey one for ourselves. it's smoked with peat so it's very intense. at this point J still wasn't feeling well so she went back to sleep. N and i headed out for the train station to see if we wanted to get train tickets to get down to london. we decided to hold off until we knew how much things cost by taking a flight down. due to some maintenance issues the 4.5 hour direct train ride would be a 6 hour, 2 train and a bus ride affair down. i think we still might take it, for the experience and to see the british countryside.

after the train station we headed back to the area we had dinner the night before and had some food a local pub. i had steak pie and N had onion rings, haggis fritters, soup and fish and chips. after dinner we head back to south bridge to have drinks at a live music bar. the first band that was up had some great cover songs and we just sat around listening to music and throwing back some beers. we were pretty tired from the day before and the hiking (even though we sleep 11 hours last night). we decided to head back a little after 10am. on our way back N got hungry again and we found a pizza place that's supposed to be the best italian thin crust pizza in edinburgh. he got two pizzas to go. when we got back J was up and feeling better and had a couple slices of pizza. N had an entire pizza to himself. J and i had most of the other one.

tmw we're saying bye to J and checking out the castle quickly before we jump on a train (hopefully not one that has 2 connections) to london.

day three: edinburgh

we got up super duper early in dublin in order to catch the first flight out to edinburgh. it was quite cold out and extremely foggy. it had a great atmosphere to it, the way you'd think dublin would be in books, dark, cold and foggy. the lights were casting a very strong yellow hue.

we got to the airport via taxi and waiting in line to checking. unfortunately ryanair only allows one carryon, so we both had to check in our duffels. i had to keep my laptop with me of course. we rushed through security because we thought we were running late (as it turned out the flight left a bit later than planned so we were fine.) but also because N really needed an exit row to be comfortable. ryanair's seating operates like southwest, so we got in line very early on. thankfully N and i got an exit row.

surprisingly i slept for most of the one hour flight, while N read. yup read at 7am. once we landed we headed into the city on the express bus which took us to waverly station (the second largest station either in the UK or outside of the london ones, i can't remember). anyway from there we walked just until we found a mcdonalds. we were so hungry he had to eat something. and we needed coffee. N got enough food for three people and i had the standard sandwich, hashbrowns and coffee.

after eating we made our way down to our B&B which was recommended by the NYT. it was farther than i had hoped it was. a good 20-25 minute walk from the center of town. the place itself was beautiful with a lot of care put into the furniture. the house has a backyard with a little garden and across the street is a large park.

as soon as we got here, N took a three hour nap. i did some more research on edinburgh and points of interest and then decided to go for a workout. i ran for a good half hour and then did prisoner squats and push ups in the park. when i got back from working out, N was still asleep for another hour before i had to get him up so we could head out.

we headed back toward town to get some lunch. we had a few hours to kill before we'd meet up with J. we hit an italian deli to have some sandwiches. N ordered an app, sandwich, milkshake and of course three beers. i had a sandwich and the beers.

after lunch we headed over to a nice dept store, because we heard there was a great view of the city. we sat at the bar and had budvars for a while enjoyed the afternoon sun and of course the view.

we stayed here too long, because we were supposed to go to the national gallery, but we drank for too long. we decided to find the restaurant where we wanted to have dinner and then headed back to pick up J. things were getting a bit cold so i picked up a military green shell jacket at H&M. oh and we got more beers to drink at the B&B when we got back. J had 2, N and i each had 3.

we headed out and walked back up to the city and climbed calton hill to get a view of the entire city. it was just before sunset. afterwards we headed down to mussel inn for dinner. we had an insane amount of mussels, which was great. and of course more beers. after eating like crazy we headed over to a neighborhood bar. there were no tourists there at all, it was dark and all wood. we had some great beers. i had a cask ale which tasted amazing and N had a stout beer. J and N did shots of jack for the rest of the night, with N doing beers in between shots.

we were out till around 12. and while walking home got a bit lost (we were drunk). we decided to jump into a cab and get home quickly. once home we pretty much passed out immediately.

day two: dublin and howth

so we started behind schedule a little bit. this morning N didn't get his wake up call and wasn't ready to go at 9:30 as planned. i woke up at 8am and wrote the earlier blog post, did some web surfing for our day etc. but after a 20 minute delay we were off to the races.

the city yesterday seemed off, and we realized that for a national holiday things are normal, today the city seemed much more alive, with loads of normal people doing what they would do on a wednesday. we walked past temple bar and grafton street (the areas we were at the night before and they seemed soo much better, more real. i'm not very verbose right now... super tired really, so bare with my simple descriptions.

we headed towards the guinness storehouse (their factory). we decided to walk because it was a beautiful day. it was a good 30 minute walk to the other side of town, but worth it. we managed to see lots of little side streets that had great character. when we got there, we bought tickets and did our own self guided tour. you could tell that guinness spent a ton of money on the tour, everything was really geared towards the customers. one interesting sidenote, we tasted roasted malted barley, which tastes great... after tasting that a few times, the taste of roasted barley definitely came through in the guinness we had later. we rushed through the second half of the tour to get to the gravity bar, the bar on the top floor of the storehouse that overlooks the rest of dublin. it was beautiful up there, especially with our guinness. unfortunately, after your first guinness (which we had before noon), you have to go down one level (which is still really high up) to buy more, the first one is part of your admission price, but to avoid overcrowding at the gravity bar they sent people to other bars in the building.

we were pretty hungry at the time, having not eaten breakfast or lunch, but we decided to have a few more pints before we head out. long story short, a few turned into more than a few and we were there and feeling great for a couple of hours. by two something we were loving life, but starving. so we decided to head out and get some food.

on our way back to grafton street for some food, we bumped into R! who we totally didn't expect to see... what a small world. R and his fiancee were heading over to the storehouse. i guess bschool and beer go hand in hand.

so we finally walked back to grafton street (with a bathroom break in the middle at some random pub). we had more guinness and N had chicken tenders and a quesadilla of all things. i had Shepard's pie. we had a super late lunch at 3ish and headed back to the hotel to change and get ready to head out of town.

we got directions and the lowdown to howth (rhymes with both), which is an upscale fishing village on the edge of town. we took the commuter train (twenty minutes) and walk around for a good hour and a half. soaking in the salty air and the green hills. the area looked like how ireland should be. windy, green, sea air, small towns. we found a house where yeats lived in for three years and made our way back to the town to grab some seafood for dinner. we had dinner maybe 3 hours after we had lunch. which i thought was very funny.

i had super fresh fish and chips - very light and not oily at all. N had a seafood risotto. no guinness there, so he had Heineken. took the train back into dublin and home by 8:30. we were both falling asleep on the train. i'm sure N is already long asleep. i needed to check some stuff for scotland and decided to write this before heading back over to the UK. we need to be up at 4:20 to take the cab to the airport, so tomorrow will be a pretty exhausting day. then again N will still get 7.5 hours so he can't really complain. i'm hoping to squeeze in six.

no really plans for tmw, we're meeting J at 5pm so until then, not sure what we'll do. i'm sure we'll keep ourselves busy.

dublin photos

still on the plane

first guinesses in dublin!

N's jumbo breakfast for lunch

my fish and chips


two down, undisclosed number left to go

day one completed: dublin

so where was i? right.... we came back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. we were drinking the carlsbergs and getting cleaned up. at least i thought we both were, instead i wrote my blog post and continued drinking and took a shower only to find that N was asleep the whole time. but he quickly caught up.

we managed to get a few tips of where to go (to avoid most of the tourists) the temple bar area is apparently totally overrated. so we headed out towards the temple bar area to check see what the fuss was (or wasn't) all about. the area was definitely not our scene. first off it was really touristy, very expensive and filled with drunk college kids. we stopped at one bar for a quick beer and moved on to grafton street (further south from temple bar). we found a couple nice bars and ended up at one for a while. we switched away from guinness at this point because it was so heavy. i don't remember what we were drinking, i almost want to say it was bud light, but i wasn't ordering the beers so i don't know. up till this point N was definitely behind, but managed to catch up (or so he says) at this bar.

by this point we were starving and left the bar in search of a decent place to eat. we were told that there were some good italian places in the area. we managed to find one and ordered a deli meat starter, a bolognese and a prosciutto argula pizza. oh and more beer. peroni for me thank you very much. the pizza was great, it was pretty big (i only ate half of it, N at the other half and his pasta). it reminded us of the pizza at omaggio's that we used to eat all the time last year. we're still bummed that it's closed now.

after dinner we needed to find a place to drink some more. we found a nice "corner" pub that had an older crowd. the bartender was an older gentleman and we grabbed another pint of guinness. at this point we were losing steam i think. to be honest things get a little blurry around here... i think we only had one drink here and then left, but i'm not sure to where exactly.

i do know that it wasn't that late - maybe 10pm, but we pretty tired. i forgot to mention that earlier in the day N committed his first old man act - he fell asleep immediately after a video was turned on and the lights were dimmed. hilarious.

anyway - so it was around 10, and we were making our way back to the hotel. and we came across burger king. yes the BK lounge follows us even to europe. so we hit the BK. no cheesy tots, but they did have these jalapeno poppers which were great. N managed to put down a lot more than i could.

after our BK break, we found a store to grab some powerade (thank god, i think i would have died without it). and knocked out for a good 8 hours.

agenda for today: guinness storehouse in the morning, irish breakfast for lunch, and visit a nearby sea town.

day one: dublin continued

from here on out, i can't guarantee the quality or specificity of our adventures. there are a multitude of reasons for why this is the case... and i won't comment on them... see the above statement re: no guarantee of quality.

we arrived in dublin and made our way to our hotel but it wasn't ready for us, so we dropped our bags and made our way to get some food. the hordes of people who were surprisingly not drunk were making their way to the parade. we decided to go with the flow with the hopes of finding some decent irish food for lunch. we had missed breakfast so we were starving.

we managed to find a place called Flanagan's, which was on the main parade street, the place was empty since everyone was watching the parade. the only neighbors we had were also americans who were stopping for lunch spread out across two tables. N had the jumbo breakfast for lunch (which included beans, two sausages, ham and chips - read: fries), i had fish and chips with a side of vegs. we had two pints of Guinness to wash it all down. the meal was great and the Guinness wasn't bad at all. :)

after lunch we headed towards the old jameson distillery to check out irish whisky, which i hadn't had much of over the years. the tour itself wasn't all that interesting, anyone who know anything about making alcohol (or read a wikipedia entry about it, knows just much as anyone who would have gone through the tour), but the great part of the tour was that we were volunteers to do a tasting to compare scotch, irish whisky and american whiskey. we tasted johnny black, jameson and jack daniels... the differences were pretty astonishing. nothing puts things into contrast than drinking things side by side. N still preferred the scotch. i think the clean finish of the jameson was nice. i think the 12 year version would have been more complex (the 5 year just didn't have enough depth).

we walked back towards the hotel by taking the river pathway (we got lost a bit trying to find a distillery in the first place). thankfully the hotel had our room ready, but they didn't have our two twin room ready... instead we go two separate doubles!!! so i'm in my own room right now, nursing a carlsberg and write this before we head out to the pubs and enjoy the rest of the evening.

tmw - with any luck we'll head out to Guinness' storehouse and see how it's made. i'd love to make it out to the irish coast, but that may be asking for more than we'd hope.

i'd post photos, but that requires more coordination than i can muster at this point. so that might be after the trip.

day one: dublin

the flight over was surprisingly easy. it started off great with C's recommendation that i apply for united's status match. i dropped an email to united's customer service over the weekend with the hopes that i would get my status upgrade on the back leg of my trip, but they processed it monday morning and by the time of my flight (monday evening) it was ready go to! so free upgrade to economy plus (which cost N, travelmate and partner-in-criminal $90!).

we had a few pints of beers to grease the wheels before take-off, which really took the edge off, except i had to really go to the bathoom when we were on the plane and had to hang out until 15 minutes after takeoff. besides that the rest of the flight was cake. had the chicken dinner and popped some simply sleep and waited for the sleepy time to hit me.

twenty minutes later i was out cold. i guess i'm getting used to sleeping on flights (it used to be that i could never sleep. on my flight to and from korea for my summer internship, i didn't sleep either way - then again it was business class and i was pretty comfy and had lots to read). actually thinking back to those flights, it didn't sleep to combat jet lag more than anything else.


in any case, slept for 4 hours, just in time to have some yogurt and coffee before touchdown. one weird thing that always happens is my arms fall asleep when sleeping sitting up. my circulation must not be very good, since my hand almost always goes numb... i woke up a few times only to have to raise my hand straight up in the arm in order to have the blood drain. so just imagine me half asleep
- with my arm fully raised, trying my best to go back to sleep.


N didn't sleep as smoothly as i did, but i'm sure he'll make up for that tonight after all the drinking. we're waiting in london for our next flight to dublin, which boards in 15 minutes. more later.

just watch this

i don't have anything else to say.

roasted bone marrow - it's what's for dinner

from flickr - roasted bone marrow with toast and parsley salad

while this trip to the UK and amsterdam isn't about the food (besides some good fish and chips). but one thing i am looking forward to eating is roasted bone marrow. it's something that isn't impossible to get here in the states, but isn't that popular. it's not a rich man's food - although these days i think it's making a surge as a delicacy. i first saw it on anthony bourdain's travel show where he visited the UK and had what looked to be just amazing marrow. my guess is that it will be super rich and fatty, much like foie gras but with the beef undertone.

psuedo-science + typography = awesome!

click for larger version

so to add to my love for typography, science and mashups, i stumbled upon this... a periodic table of typography. i'm not sure why this is so interesting - maybe the whole being an ibanker has something to do with it. if you haven't seen american psycho with christian bale, the entire scene about their business cards is both a classic and full of truthiness. looking at card stock weight, paper color, font, emboss and of course font are critical. and while this is less important these days for cards, we definitely look at other shops work and disect their decks to the same level of scrutiny...

"they mixed arial and times roman all over the place - that's just sloppy."
"their paper is just too thin... you can see through to the next page."
"their paper is too shiny - if i need a mirror i'll buy one."
"their formatting is totally inconsistent - that's just unprofessional."

anyway - getting back to the typography. it's awesome - i need to read up on the history of it.



[via why me design]

USB keys!

so press releases on these usb drives have been coming out over the last couple weeks. i think they are great for the main stream audience. you can put them on your key chain and they blend right it. a great little gift for people who don't have a convenient usb drive.

as for me, i have my usb on a little dongle on my cellphone. not to mention i usually don't know where my keys are so this wouldn't work for me.

[le Cie key product page]

Vietnam 2008

from the top of the hotel bar in hanoi

the legendary tiger beer, so good, i want one right now

the french influenced hanoi train station

outdoor food market in hanoi

why don't we have more coke ads like this in the US - i'm missing out on so much

old lady

halong bay

halong bay with boats

stained wall with stamps (couldn't figure out what the stamps meant)

after my summer internship in korea, i flew down to vietnam for a week with my kwestmates from morocco. we split our time between saigon and hanoi (although i posted more photos in hanoi than in saigon). we wanted to spent some more time in the central and middle part of vietnam, but didn't have time due to people's flights out - we all left at different times. M and i ended up spending too much time in hanoi, but that was already.

the two highlights of the trip were the food and halong bay. we sprung for the deluxe version of the overnight bay cruise and while we had a big debate over whether it was worth it. it was definitely the right choice. the accommodations on the boat were the best we had the whole trip - which was funny. the food was amazing - lots of fresh seafood and the views were stunning. the hardcore a/c didn't hurt. oh and we went sea kayaking and M hated me after that. i'm not a good kayakmate.

the food was just so great - i'll post photos of just food soon - just thinking about it now makes me want to go out and eat some food. not just pho - although i would love that right now too.

to photograph or to not photograph that is the question

a few people know that i'm considering winding down my photography efforts and moving onto new activities. those who have always known me to take photos, they believe it is bizarre that i would just decide to give up shooting. even those who have known me before i started photography (i.e. my family) think it's odd that i would give it up, especially since only a few months ago i was considering shooting more after i finished school. but i think it may be time to shift my focus onto new endeavors.

but first a quick recap: photography became a main time commitment after junior year in college. that's when it started getting a bit crazy. pretty much since then till now, it's been the majority artistic outlet, before that time it was the classic visual arts: drawing and painting. over the years music has taken more and more time - mostly classical music (going to prague and austria for thanksgiving is a good example). oh and there was a year or two where paper making was an interesting hobby. if i went back to it i think i'd be much better today. but i'd like to visit japan first.

i'm not sure where i'll go next - i've always had a love of furniture, but i need a shop to start that... and that won't happen for a while. design is intriguing in general - specifically product design - a trip to the nordic countries and japan (design meccas) over the summer would be amazing, but the summer travel list is already so crowded - but more on that in a future post.

i've thought about other random things like typography. but i'm already weird enough as it is... creating my own font will only waste the little social capital i have.

any thoughts?

i won the mac n cheese battle by default

without the onion, garlic, bacon topping

with the topping

so we had a mac and cheese battle last week, but it turned out not to be much of a fight... with everyone so busy with work and papers, i was the only one who made a dish.

the cheese was a mix of mild cheddar and a little colby. i used the tyler florence recipe, which starts with a rue base and whole milk. it has an onion, garlic, bacon topping which is awesome. i added bread crumb as well to add a little more crunch.

i wish the cheese had more kick to it, so maybe all sharp cheddar will work better the next time around. a little parm cheese might work as a topping as well since it has a strong nuttiness to it. at least the decent stuff does anyway.

all in all it wasn't a bad dish. i wish i had more of it before everyone devoured it.

i want to live in a shipping container

so not many people would say that they want to live in a shipping container, but i would love to, even if they didn't look as nice as these. the idea of living in a pre-fab shipping container, might seem a bit low brow to some, but for me i think there's a modern quaintness to it. there is something for a compact and movable residence that has some appeal to me. i think it would work well in urban and country environments. what i'd like most is to convert a warehouse into a giant loft, but that will have to wait for a while. i have the idea in my head, but i fear that by the time i have a chance to create this place, it will seem too much like a bachelor pad (which i don't mind at all, but i figure i'll be married by then and it'll be a problem for the family). in any case - you have to love the creativity and the extended use of shipping containers as a residence.

[via gizmodo]