Monday, May 21, 2007

7 Wonders

There's a movement afoot to create a new 7 wonders of the world and apparently more than 45 million people have already voted. I like the idea of the New 7 Wonders and I even appreciate that anyone with an e-mail address can vote for them. The original 7 wonders had their titles conferred on them by academics in ancient times, only one is still standing, and there hasn't been much agreement on what should replace those wonders that have fallen, which means there hasn't really been a list of 7 wonders in well over a thousand years. It's about time there was a new list.

I do find it odd that one of the criteria for the new wonders is they have to have been built or discovered prior to 2000. That opens it up pretty wide, allowing for the inclusion of the Sydney Opera House (built in 1954) among the possible contenders. I'm not saying the Sydney Opera House isn't a fascinating piece of architecture, and I haven't seen it up close so maybe I shouldn't say anything, but it's not exactly awe inspiring. Also, included on the list of candidates are the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, which are, perhaps, slightly more awe inspiring than the Sydney Opera House, but not much.

I would think the candidates would be structures that are grand in scope and have been around for ages. For me the architecturally interesting factor is multiplied exponentially if it's old, perhaps ahead of it's time, perhaps spanning multiple architectural styles and time periods. Having an interesting, and long, history was the main criteria I used in deciding what to vote for. I see the appeal of the iconic, though less historically significant, but I don't think that's what the list is about.

The only two of these prospective new wonders that I've actually been to are Schloss Neuschwanstein and Alhambra. Neuschwanstein is beautiful and has a pretty interesting history, plus it's iconic (of course a lot of people aren't entirely sure Neuschwanstien isn't modeled after the Cinderella castle at Disneyland rather than the other way around), but it's not that old relative to a lot of the other monuments on the list of possible wonders. The day I went to Neuschwanstein was the highlight of my travels on a personal level but from a tourist perspective, Alhambra, was definitely the highlight of my 7 week sojourn in Europe. It's massive and has such a rich history, plus it's beautiful and has been around almost a millennium. So, all of this is designed to get you to go vote for the Alhambra and which ever 6 other wonders strike your fancy. Before you go though, check out some pictures of the incomparable Alhambra:

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Free Will Astrology

"It's about time you got the chance to be knocked on your ass by a flood of positive surprises and good feelings. I hope you're trusting enough to go with the tidal flow, even if it does temporarily render you a bit woozy. Naturally you'd like to know if this giddy surrender will land you in trouble. Is there any chance that you'll have to endure some karmic adjustment at a later date because of the fun you're having now? Here's my prediction: absolutely not. If anything, your enthusiastic cooperation with the free-form dazzle will shield you from any negative repercussions."

That's my horoscope for the week from Free Will Astrology. I don't know if you're familiar with Free Will Astrology but it's the horoscope column from Seattle's alternative weekly, the Stranger, which is now syndicated and has it's own website (www.freewillastrology.com). I've been reading these horoscopes off and on since I was 16 years old. In fact when I was 16 I was a big believer in them, often clipping them out of the Stranger and saving them. I'm less of a believer in astrology now than I was then but these particular horoscopes are usually funny so I still read them from time to time. They are weekly and their weeks always start on Thursday (presumably because that's the day the Stranger comes out and that's where they began).

So, on Tuesday I locked myself out of my apartment, not such a big deal as I have a roommate who said he'd be around when I got home from work. Then I managed to also lock myself out of my car when I got to work. The first was my own absent mindedness, the second was because the car key fell out of my pocket onto the floor of the car. Yesterday, I was in a car accident which was not my fault but for which I was ticketed anyway. Today, Thursday, is my birthday.

Supposing this horoscope is right that I'm about to receive a tidal wave of positive surprises I think I've already had a pre-emptive karmic adjustment for it.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Perfect Moments

I went to Mexico last Friday, just for the weekend. It was an impulsive decision. A guy I met in Munich was getting married and he invited me to his wedding. It meant a lot to me that he asked so I decided to go, I decided I had to go.

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately, as you may have noticed, and, of course, it has been an incredible experience as a whole but what really sticks with me are isolated moments.

In Mexico, at my friend's wedding reception, things were beginning to wind down and I went outside to call a cab. It started raining really hard and I stepped just inside the doorway to get out of the rain. There was lightning and for the longest time I've been terrified of lightning but this time I wasn't. I sort of felt like stepping out and standing in the rain for a while, but I stayed in the doorway. I watched the rain and lightning for a few minutes.

Then I went back inside and back on the dance floor which by that time had thinned out a little and the rock band had been replaced by a mariachi band and everyone formed a circle and linked arms and sang (except I didn't because I didn't know any of the songs). It was a kind of a perfect moment.

I had a few perfect moments like that on my trip(s).

Watching the sunrise in Switzerland was pretty perfect.

In Munich I had a whole day that was sort of perfect. It was the day we went to Schloss Neuschwanstein. I woke up early that morning and walked to the Hauptbahnhof. I was early for the bus so I went into the train station and bought Nussschnecken for my classmates, had a super cute German boy chat me up, and then went to get on my bus. That was the day that I realized I had really found a brother there. After the Schloss we went to the Schrannenhalle and had a few beers and then to an Itallian restaurant in my building and had a few more. Someone grabbed my camera and took a picture of me and my new brother near the end of that night, right at the moment I was realizing that the day had been perfect and that the moment was perfect.


I had a lot of perfect moments in Granada.

The day I got back from Barcelona I walked around Granada, went shopping, saw the Cathedral and then met up with a friend and went in search of a bowl of gazpacho. When we found it I couldn't believe how perfect that moment was. I actually stopped with the spoon halfway to my mouth just to enjoy the moment. Which kind of freaked out the guy I was with, but I couldn't help it. It had turned into a really great day despite having started out as one of the worst of my trip (that morning in Barcelona my suitcase had broken). The Gazpacho turned out to be excellent, but it was the company that made that moment so perfect.

I had a few perfect moments alone (like the sunrise in Switzerland for example), but it was actually often the company that made the moments perfect.

In London I sat at a sushi bar in Paddington station and ate sushi and drank ten glasses of fizzy water and laughed, and laughed, and laughed, with the friend I'd been staying with there. That was another perfect moment that was certainly a result of the company more than anything.

Occasionally I have random impulses to become like a hermit. Lately I've also thought about divesting myself of possessions and moving to Europe (I've even looked at jobs in Dublin, London and Hamburg). The trip made me appreciate solitude a lot more, it increased these impulses to withdraw from human contact, but there are all these perfect moments and most of them are perfect because of the people. I guess it turns out I'm a people person.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Essen und Trinken

I've been back home for a few days now and have indulged myself in one of the things I missed most: mole poblano enchiladas. So, it's time to start talking about the food in Europe. I've mentioned it briefly before and the gist is that some of the food was good but a lot of it wasn't that great. I did have one food experience that was surprisingly good though and that was black pudding.



As you might imagine, black pudding is the black bit in this photo, which, by the way, is a proper English breakfast (bacon, sausage, eggs, bubble and squeak, mushrooms, and black pudding). You probably don't want to know what's in the black pudding, especially if you plan on ever eating it, but trust me it's actually kind of good (and must have loads of iron which is nice for me as I have an iron deficiency).

In Ireland they served a proper Irish breakfast which also had white pudding. I suspect that the terms black and white pudding were just coined to avoid saying that the breakfast comes with all the above plus sausage, sausage, and sausage.

I had a couple of other really great food experiences in Europe. The tapas were good. Of course the best tapas I had were in Germany (at a really great Spanish restaurant called Alhambra) and Ireland, not in Spain. The curry was good in London. And there was one really great restaurant in Munich, just up the street from where I was living, that served all sorts of food and it was all fantastic. The best was this salad with goat cheese and pumpkin seeds.

What was really great in Europe was the beverages. The juice and tea in Spain. The whiskey in Ireland. The Pimms in London. The Jagermeister and, of course, the beer in Munich. I also have to add the tequila in Mexico to this list. Normally I hate tequila, but that tequila was really good.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Fear of flying

Anyone who's taken a 7th grade science class knows the basic scientific method. First you formulate a theory and then you test it. Really test it. Not a test that's designed specifically to prove the theory but a really hard one. One that's practically designed to disprove the theory and if it doesn't disprove the theory, well, then it's a pretty solid theory.

Take my theory that 9 flights in a month and a half would cure my fear of flying by getting me so used to it that it would seem routine to me. The theory seemed pretty solid after 5 flights when I no longer needed to take Dramamine and by that 9th flight (all 10 hours of it) I was perfectly calm. The theory needed a test though and it got one.

What would you think would be the perfect, scientific method approved, test for this theory? Try putting me on the second smallest plane I've ever been on and flying me into a lightning storm.

You'll be happy to hear that the theory survived the test pretty well. I don't know that my fear is entirely conquered. My palms did get a little sweaty while flying through the lightning filled clouds over Puebla tonight; seeing the fires that I can only assume were started by the lightning. I didn't feel like I was going to puke though. So, I think I may finally be past the worst of my fear of flying.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Little things

I'm back at home now and I'm thinking back on my trip and the oddest things are coming back to me, little things.

I know I've talked about the great guys I met in Munich, about the beer drinking, and the English garden, and my first Jager shot, and conversations about love and faith, and I've said just how great they were, how they were gentlemen and yet also total guys if you know what I mean, but here's a story I haven't told:

It was our last night in Munich, at least our last night all together in Munich because the Swedes were leaving the next day. We were sitting around a table outside at the Schrannenhalle trying not to get morose about the fact that it was our last night. The topic turned to how much weight we all were bound to have gained after two weeks of drinking wiess beer by the liter (or half liter but no one ever had just one). I swear to God it was the boys that brought up the topic of weight gain. I participated in the conversation. The truth was I'd actually lost 4 kilos while I'd been in Munich and I said so. They were a little surprised and it lead the talk to exactly how much they all weighed. One by one everyone asked each other how much they weighed, except for me. Not one of the boys asked my weight. These boys who gave me so much shit about...everything, allowed an entire conversation about weight gain and loss to pass by without once asking my weight. It's weird the things you remember, the things you hold onto. These boys were absolutely the coolest and there are tons of stories I can tell to illustrate it, but this is the one that comes to mind.

Speaking of weight loss I've actually lost around 5 kilos even though, after Munich, I went on to London and Dublin where I ate a mountain of the greasiest food possible.