ally-cat

hey everybodies, im writing from amsterdam. we left at 7am fri morning on the bus. first we stopped in the city of canterbury for a couple hours and we went thru the canterbury cathedral that all the peeps used to flock to (as in canterbury tales). when we went in, there was a sign that had the rules posted via pictures (ie, a camera with a red slash thru it to say dont take pictures). one was a pic of an ice cream cone and a drink can to mean no eating in the church. kristie was standing kinda far away and w/o her glasses and she goes “no painting?” and i was like “what?” and she points to the sign. she thought it was a paint can and the ice cream was a paint brush! then on the way back to the bus we stopped by the toilets and there was a rat in the bathroom! some people that worked there were trying to catch it and it kept running thru the diff stalls. kristie and this other girl went in the mens bathroom instead cause they were scared of it 😛

we were orig sposed to take a ferry over to france, but instead we ended up going via the channel tunnel. the bus drives into this container car on a train and then rides on the train thru the chunnel, arriving in france. we arrived last night and checked into the hostel. then the tour guide (its a bunac trip) lead us all thru the red light district to see the hookers in the windows. afterwards we all split off to do our own thing. kristie and i went and had pizza at a little cafe with these 6 other girls and then just headed back to the hostel to go to bed (it was past midnight by then).

then this morning we got up for bfast and the group did a bus tour of the city before going on to a small fisherman village about 20 mins away. there we bought touristy stuff, had lunch, and went to a cheese factory to see how cheese was made. after we got back into amsterdam we were let loose to do whatever. kristie and i went with those girls again to the house (it was a warehouse/store actually) where anne frank and family lived for the two years that they were in hiding. afterwards kristie and i walked around a small bit, but its really cold and iwndy and drizzly outside so we decided to come here for an hour before going to the movie theatre. after the movie well prob get dinner and then go hang out in a coffee shop before bed. in the morning the group is leaving to head back to england, but on the way we are stopping in a belgian chocolate shop and a french hypermarket.

ok i thought milan was great…it has nothin on venice!!! i LOVE VENICE. too bad we just missed mardi gras by a couple of weeks, that woulda been cool. today is gorgeous.venice is gorgeous. i wish i could buy everything. our hostel is right on the water!! that gorgeous mediterranean blue water with this spectacular view right from my bed!!! it was so easy getting into the city and finding everything for once. i bought meds at the pharmacy yesterday so im not sick anymore and everything is fantastic. thats all for now…this internet is crazy expensive!!

milan is awesome!! but im sick :(((( no time left here (internet cafe), was just stopping in.

bonjourno from florence!! its only day 3 and i have so much to write about, but all that will hafta wait till im back in the US and have the time to type it all. we’re doing and seeing so much! exhausting but great. rome was beautiful – great architecture, blue skies…when we woke up in florence it was pouring (word?) snow and even sticking to the ground a lil…we walked to the bus thru the woods in the snow…lovely. it stopped snowing by the time we were in town, just leaving everything cold and gray. but the buildings in florence are too pretty to notice. the streets of florence are what i think of when i picture the tiny italy alleyways and stone streets. the hostels (esp the one in rome) SUCK BIG TIME, but oh well, i can tough it out. i bought a GUCCI (prob fake) purse from a street vendor for only 7 euros after talking the guy down from 40. i have no interest in it being designer or not but its pink with a buckle and very cute. the haggling was the best part cause it was fun! tomorrow morning we are going to a museum and then catching the train to milan where all the designer stores are (kristies paradise). then sunday we leave for venice for 2 days then returning to rome to fly home to london. very busy week. the worst part about it is that every other day we enter a new city and hafta figure out the transportation system all over again which is very frustrating. love and miss everybody! ciao!

UGHHHH!! i just wrote this whole entry then accidentally hit a button and lost the whole thing!! i hate computers!!!

oh, mayoor made me tea. how nice.

does anyone even read this anymore ?

its been snowing since saturday. not like sticking to the ground or anything but every once in awhile there will be a light snow. some of it stuck to the picnic table last night and kristie, darren, and i had a snow ball fight. pix to come. today is my last day at work. i went to lunch at the pub with craig and martin (daves dad) and martin bought my lunch which rocked since im so skint.

monday night was Vday and Kristies Bday. Kristie and Canadian Laura went to Bennihannas (sp?) for dinner. They got a several course meal since the restaurant had a valentines special menu for that night. i spent the night at home watching videos 😛

we’re both kinda glad its our last week of work, its starting to suck for both of us. at Digress (the club kristie works at), all the old employees that shes friends with have left, and they have a psycho witch new manager. at goodmusic, ed (the big boss) seems to be on some kinda warpath. he moved everyone around in the office again, altho this time it was to my benefit cause now inge and i sit in the same room together and thats a blast. john ended up with no desk at all (he already didnt have a computer), so we built him a desk out of cardboard boxes (see pix in misc section). the worst bit has been with the phones. for one day ed had all the customer calls redirected to my desk only, and all other calls redirected to johns desk only. which means someone has to sit at these two desks at *all* times. for me thats not so hard since inge and i sit together, but for john it means when he wants a break, either james or i hafta go sit in there. but since he has no computer, we literally have nothing to do but sit there. so while john was at lunch the company was paying james to sit there and read the paper. later when he went to the store, i had to go sit in there and had nothing to do but cut out paper hearts and decorate them with markers. ed got really mad that john left this second time, and when john came back in, he *screamed* at him. i mean he actually yelled so loud just out in the hallway when john first walked in that everyone in the company could hear him. sooooo not appropriate. since then weve heard that this is johns last week. there was actually a ton more comany gossip flying on friday, but im not gonna get into it all here since most of you dont know the people im talking about anyhow.

saturday kristie and i ran a couple errands and then went to dinner with emily, laura, laura, rod, and a few other people for american lauras birthday. we went to this vegetarian restaurant in Soho. to get there from piccadilly, you walk down this street that has all these strip clubs with girls (and guys that look like girls ;p ) standing in the door beckoning people in. when we were leaving there was a guy standing behind something on the sidewalk peeing. it was a fairly busy street with people walking u and down the sidewalks and cars occasionally, and there he is just standing there taking a piss. as we got closer we discovered that the thing he was peeing was in fact a urinal! there was a large, plastic multi-sided urinal in the middle of the sidewalk to pee on in front of the world! (pix in the misc section). anyhow, we were all really worried about going to this vegetarian place for dinner, esp me cause im such a picky eater. it turned out pretty good, tho. i had a veggie burger (supposedly made of chickpeas and red peppers, but it wasnt at all spicy) fries, french bread, and a smoothie. the burger was pretty good cause it was soft similar to a medium cooked hamburger. in england you cant order a hamburger cooked less than medium well cause its against health regulations. kristie got an asian stir fry. we both liked our food, but its not really a place wed go back to.

And Happy Valentine’s Day!

last night was kristies bday party. after spending half a day getting glammed up, we met up with everyone (kristie, me, emily, mayoor, chris, darren, mark, martin, shane, nigel) and went to dinner at a place called Slug and Lettuce in Leicester Square (no idea why youd name your restaurant that). its like a sorta upscale bar/pub that serves dinner and cocktails. they took forever to bring my order cause i requested the chicken without the tomato sauce on top but it was pretty good when they finally brought it. afterwards we went to Tiger Tiger down the street in Piccadilly Circus. definitely a much better experience than last time (nasty greek guy). the place is huge but we spent most the time up top where the R&B and pop type music is played. Shane and Nigel disappeared in the first hour (apparently they were tired and had to go get their beauty sleep), but Laura, Laura, and Rod met up with us at the club. Also, this girl Mayoor has been seeing, Vimmi, came. around midnight chris got thrown out (still havent heard the story on this one), and mayoor and his chickie disappeared to go meet up with chris somewhere. darren and mark spent most the night wandering around chatting up birds (theres a pic of darren and some chick in the gallery). before i forget, i spent the night drinking a cocktail called a sunshine. i dunno if itd be in my bartending book to try out when i get back home, so heres the recipe: vodka, white rum, orange juice, sprite, and passion fruit juice. kristie and i had some great milk drinks at slug and lettuce as well. i think mine was baileys, kahlua, creme de menthe, and cream. hers was something like creme de banane, creme de cocoa, and cream? probably missing an ingredient in that one. they had a whole list of cream drinks which are my fave.
kristie, laura, laura, and rod did a lot of dancing, and the music was all the stuff Kristie enjoys, so i think she had a really good time. at 3 kristie and i got a mini cab home (by this point everyone but lauras and rod had disappeared…where did darren and mark go??). while we were waiting for it to pick us up, we got these hot dogs (kristie says they were really bratwurst cuz they werent hot dogs) from a street vendor outside (please dont tell me what was in it…ignorance is bliss).

PS – I think Kristie is really a demon cause i just had to edit the red eye out of every pic she was in…I think Emily is a demon-in-training cause she had a lot, too.

pix are up in the gallery