Hotlanta House Hunting

I joined my parents in Atlanta this past weekend to help house hunt. Here's a short video I shot using my new Flip Ultra. (I'm still learning my videographer skills, and trying to find a way to compress files without degrading the quality so much...)

A Valentine Remembered

On this Valentines Day, I can’t help thinking about how I spent last year’s romantic day. I did not spend it tangled in sheets or in the arms of a lover, but instead trapped in a blizzard on the outskirts of Lake Michigan. As I huddled underneath a plastic bus shelter with an Australian couple and two Texans, I began questioning why I had made the pilgrimage to Chicago in the dismal month of February.

Having wanderlust and a tight budget can prove difficult to someone who wants to see the world, but it hasn’t stopped me yet. I found an incredible deal for 6 days hotel and airfare to The Windy City; the only problem was it was the dead of winter. I dismissed this worrisome detail and booked my Mag Mile hotel room.

I arrived a few days before the storm hit. I spent some of these days walking Michigan Avenue among the new shiny steel and glass facades of Armani and Gucci, and then admiring the wonderfully out of place Old Water Tower; one of the only original buildings that survived the Chicago fire that now stands like a larger than life sand castle. In my mind, its whimsy beckons some to come inside for tea with the queen, and others to kick it down prior to running off for one last splash in the ocean before lunch.

Another night I made my way through several inches of freshly fallen snow to the Navy Pier. The pier was closed but still illuminated, so I walked around the main building and made my way to the famous Ferris wheel. I basked in the electric glow, and wandered around the various rides and statues with my footprints as the only marks in the virgin snow. Walking around this carnival ghost town was like a dream that felt both exciting and forbidden. It was easy to imagine that I was the last person on Earth and the world was my playground.

On Valentines Day, warnings of the coming storm were present so I decided to make my way to Museum Campus to enjoy a day of indoor exploring. I met Sue, the worlds largest and most complete T-Rex and missed King Tut at the Field Museum, watched a man swim with the fishes at the Shedd Aquarium, and finally observed “The Wonder of Water” that was the frozen Lake Michigan at the Adler Planetarium. At this point the weather took a turn for the worse and left me stranded outside of the Planetarium, huddled together with strangers for warmth. Even though the winds were epic and I could no longer feel my face, I could tell I was smiling.

Ever since I was a child, Chicago held some sort of magic for me. Maybe it was the Mother Goose-ish story of how Mrs. O’Leary’s cow set the city ablaze, or maybe it was the idea that out of those ashes arose a new, stronger, more beautiful city. Chicago was a phoenix. It had been burnt down, leaving a playground for daydreamers like Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry to construct their visions. Chicago is an imagination brought to life.

London Calling - Day 3

Day 3
We woke up at 11 am and caught a train to Leister Square. Once there, we walked around the theatre district, weaving in and out of Chinatown, and bought tickets to go see "Avenue Q" tomorrow night for only 25£ each! I've never seen a broadway show before, and I had wanted to see this one for some time, so I'm very excited! With our tickets safely tucked away, we walked down to Trafalgar Square, and went to the National Gallery. This fine art museum is not only free, but chock full of heavy hitters like Van Gogh, Van Dyck, Rubens, Picasso, Seraut, Cezanne, El Greco...you get the idea. After spending over an hour gawking at uber famous paintings like "Sunflowers" and "Portrait of Jane Grey", as well as a beautiful exhibit on German stained glass, we hit the gift shop and then took a double decker bus over Oxford Street. Steve bought two discount "pashmina" scarves, and then we each ate a pasty at a restaurant called Cornwalls. Pasty's are generally meat and potatoes that are wrapped in a pie crust, and were first made so that English mine workers could have a hot lunch on the go. My mom has made them for years, but I never had a true English one until today. Steve had one with bacon, cheese, and potatoes, while I had a turkey, cranberry, stuffing, and veggie pasty. It was...incredible. After scarfing down our pies, we walked to the British Museum. I had visited this museum my first time to London, but was armed only with a disposable camera with a faulty flash, and a complete lack of care that I credit to my then 16 years of life. We saw the Rosetta Stone, dozens of statues of Hindu gods, and enough mummies to keep me satiated for some time. The British Museum is the best museum I've ever been to. The English have raped and pillaged so many lands, that their collections of artifacts are truly amazing. My feet were starting to fall off, so we decided to head home for some rest and some ice cream. Europe has the most amazing ice cream. Imagine this - vanilla ice cream, wrapped in chocolate, dipped in caramel, and then enveloped in another layer of chocolate. All of this deliciousness is wrapped in in a shiny wrapper bearing the name "MAGNUM". Simply incredible. After about an hour of laying about our room, we threw some lipstick on, brushed out our weaves, and walked down the street to a curry house called Masala. I got this giant platter with curried chicken and a bunch of bowls of weird, but delicious food. London is known for their amazing Indian restaurants, so I wasn't surprised when it was the best Indian food I've ever had in my life. I washed it down with a sparkling Stella. The curry was still working it's revenge on my tounge, so we wandered down the street to a pub called Blackbird's, where I put out the fire with a $10 bottle of Becks. The plan is to go to bed early tonite so we can fit a lot in tomorrow before curtain time.

London Calling - Day 2

Day 2
We woke up early today, got showers and headed to South Bank. We walked around this industrialized area for a while, until glimpsing the London Eye. We made our way over to it, bought tickets at 15£ each, and boarded the world's largest Ferris wheel. The London Eye was originally constructed to be a temporary monument marking the new millenium, however became so popular and maintained backing from British Airways, that it still stands today. The wheel is comprised of large rooms encapsulated in glass, and rotates at one mile per hour, never stopping. On a clear day, visibility is about 30 miles out, however today was not such a clear day. Haze hung in the air with a vengance and wouldn't clear enough to even get a good shot of Big Ben or Parliment. It was still worthwhile though, being on such an amazing piece of machinery, not to mention it got us out of the freezing cold for about 25 minutes. After the Eye, we walked around past County Hall, the London Aquarium (which is the largest aquarium in Europe) and the permanent Dali exhibition space that I visited in my previous trip to London. We then bought tickets for a boat ride down the Thames, and tickets for the Tower of London. We boarded the boat and sat on the roofdeck for optimal touristing. The boat ride turned out to be an awesome decision since we saw a lot of things that I had wanted to see, but didn't nessecarily want to visit. We saw the reconstructed Globe theatre with the only thatched roof in London, the Tate Modern, the Queen Mary ship, Cleopatra's Needle, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and the first all green phallic building built which is appropriately nicknamed "The Gerkhin". We also learned some fun facts along the way.

Fun fact #1- The original London Bridge was dismantled stone by stone and moved into the desert of Arizona. The London Bridge that now spans the Thames is a replacement.

Fun fact #2 - The Thames is owned by the Queen and no advertisments are allowed along it's banks. The only building to get away with breaking this rule is a company called OXO that apparently makes bullion cubes. They constructed their building so that there is a large tower with lights spelling out OXO vertically, and therefore constituting a form of advertisement.

Fun fact #3 - The family that owns Unilever soap is RICH! They have a ginormous building along the Thames that I can now only refer to as "The house that soap built!"

Our boat tour ended at the infamous Tower of London. The Tower of London is an ancient castle in London that has been used throughout the centuries as a place of imprisonment and torture. Some of the famous people to come to an end within it's walls include Anne Boylen, Queen Jane Grey (who became a queen at 16 years old, and served only 9 days before getting the axe), the two princes murdered by Richard III, and the dude Braveheart was based off of (no...not Mel Gibson). We took a tour guided by a true Beefeater named Phil. He told us how many people were not actually killed within the castle, but up a hill named Tower Hill. Prisoners were marched up the hill behind the Tower and were greeted by spectators thirsty for blood/entertainment. After the beheadings, the bodies were carried back to the chapel within the castle walls to be dumped uncerimoniously in unmarked graves beneath the chapel floor. The heads were kept, placed on spikes, and displayed upon London Bridge as a warning to others.
Phil also told us several gruesome stories, including the death of Anne Boylen. Anne was French and wished, when her time came, to be beheaded in the traditional French way, which is with the body upright and the axe hitting the neck in a horizontal stroke. Henry sent away to France for a proper executioner, who turned out to be so good that he killed her in one fail swoop. When he bent down to pick up her head, her eyes were still scanning the crowd and her lips were still murmuring in silent prayer.
Another story was about Charles III's illigitimate son that suffered the bloodiest execution in London's history. The executioner wasn't the most precise, and needed five swings of the axe, and eventually a hand saw in order to sever the head. Once the head was off, officials realized that he hadn't had his portrait professionally painted, which is customary of Royal's children, illigitimate or not. They then sent for the surgeon in order for him to sew the head back onto the body and prepare him for his portrait. The artist painted the portrait in a record 12 hours and his body is the only one to have been buried with it's head in the ground's chapel.
As if the stories and thousands of bodies stashed in corners weren't creepy enough, ravens circled overhead constantly. The ravens are said to have been good luck. One king once said that if the ravens were ever to leave, misfortune would befall the castle. Because of this forewarning, a raven keeper is kept on the premises in order to ensure the numbers of ravens stay sufficient.
Phil also told us about his post as a Beefeater, candidly admitting that he has no idea where the name "Beefeater" came from. He told us that in order to hold the post, he had to serve in the Royal Airforce for a minimum of 22 years, reach a corporal lutinent status, and earn certain medals.
After our tour was over, we wandered around the grounds, looking at the crown jewels including a 540 carat diamond from India that was showcased in the handle of a sceptor. We then walked through other towers and even got to see the torture racks. After our bloodlust was quenched, we exited the Tower and took some pictures of Tower Bridge lit up at night while it was opening to let a ship pass. We then made our way back to Earl's court and had a dinner of Chicken Kiev and Kronenberg 1667, and bangers and mash and screwdrivers at the Earls Court Tavern. After dinner we shopped at a corner market for drinks to accompany our budget Pop-Tart breakfasts, and went back to the hotel to relax. I stayed there until I decided to come to this infernal internet cafe where I have sat for the last 3 hours typing this and trying to upload my pictures onto Flickr. Soon I will shake the sleep out of my ass and make my way back to the hotel. Cheers!

London Calling - Day 1

Steve and I arrived at 10 am London time. Our plane landed in the middle of the tarmac, and we were ushered off of it, down rickety metal stairs, and into preheated buses that drove us to the terminal. After collecting our luggage, we took the blue line to Earl's Court, found our hotel, and then slept like pigs for four hours in our coffin sized room. At about 5 pm, we woke up, showered and went for dinner at an Irish pub down the street called O'Neill's. Steve had traditional bangers and mash, while I had a delicious baked potato the size of my head, covered in cheese, and a pint of Peroni. Never had beer tasted so good! After dinner we walked back to the tube, and subwayed it to Piccadilly Circus, which is the Times Square of London, complete with tacky Sony and Coca Cola electric signs.
We snapped a few pictures of the Statue of Eros basking in the electric glow, and then walked up to Leichester Square, where there was a Christmas Carnival in session. We ate donuts that tasted of funnel cake, and walked around watching people ride merry-go-rounds and tilt-a-barfs.
After we had enough of second hand thrills, we walked down Charring Cross Road and stopped briefly to listen to a street performer sing songs from the Jungle Book. We decided that we, in fact, did not want to talk like him or walk like him, and we continued on past the National Gallery and ended up in Trafalgar Square. I had made it a point to see this particular square, since it is currently housing London's Christmas tree. I was slightly dissapointed to see that it was total crap.
No one does Christmas like New York City! Sorry Europe! Not only was there a lack of Christmas awesomeness, there was also a lack of pigeons. I know pigeons are viewed as a general plague in most cities, but to me, they're symbolic of Trafalgar Square and it was kind of sad they were nowhere to be found. We then decided we would try to find a bus to take us back to our hotel. After waiting an interminal amount of time for a bus that never came, all the while freezing our bullocks off, we decided to walk back to the tube station. When we finally made it to the subway platform we saw a horde of people waiting for the train. The train pulled up, already packed to the breaking point. I stepped back, feeling nervous at the deep and endless ocean of flesh in front of me. Londoners were completely fearless venturing into the void, pushing first with their fingers, and then disappearing completely leaving only a faint sucking sound behind. After waiting for the next train and seeing it was no less crowded (it was 11:30 pm!!) I braved the blob composed entirely of human parts, and made my way back to the Hotel while Radiohead's "Packed Like Sardines In A Can" played in my head on loop. Once back at the hotel, we got into our pj's and watched a Christmas video countdown with such classics as "Christmas My Ass!", while cartoons demonstrated seasonal Kama Sutra-esque positions, such as "The Earmuff" and "Putting Up The Christmas Tree" in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Oh London, how I love you!