So we went to Karen's bachelorette party in Vegas. Its vaguely coming to me. We stayed at the Alladin, and we had a lot of fun. The first few days were the normal humdrum. Did the normal Vegas gambling stuff, buffets, stole some silverwear, nothing really new. We spent a lot of time sitting around getting ready.

Then we went to Olympic Gardens and they took all my money in exchange for drinks and lap dances for four gorgeous women.

Oh and the rollaway bed had a seatbelt...

March 21 - Day 1

Today I am off to Europe to do some business and then to visit my friend and family in France. I got a cheap air flight to London Heathrow for $ 250 round trip. I then got another leg to Paris, Charles de Gaulle, for another $100 bucks. Pretty damn cheap, wars ARE good for some things.

March 22 - Day 2

I arrive in Paris at about 7:45 at night and try to find my way around the airport. I had been warned to be ready for a long wait through customs because of the French hatred of Americans. So, I went to get my luggage and was getting read for a long wait. The Charles de Gaulle airport is akin to a space station. The zones are controlled and connected by different escalators that are completely enclosed in glass tubes that criss cross the giant round station. It is a wonderful spectacle to travel through the tubes and see all the different levels of the airport as well as other tubes going in multiple directions.

I finally found the correct baggage area and waited. And waited.... the machine finally kicked in and luggage began to surge out of the conveyor. Everyone got their bags except for me, then the machine stopped. I was very sad. But a frenchy came out and kicked the machine a few times and then had to get a key to restart the machine. Fortunately, one bag was left in the machine... my bag. I grabbed it and headed to the customs area. Their a very cute guy sayed hello and looked at my passport, he then said I could go ahead. I said I wanted to stamp in my passport, and so he chuckled and gave me a stamp. I then walked down the corridor where an indian woman asked if I had anything to declare. I said I don't know, so she pointed down one of the two possible corridors to walk down. Did I make a great mistake with my indecision? Suddenly, I find myself outside of the airport on the street where the taxis come to pick you up. Obviously, my customs adventure was much faster than I had expected.

I went to find a way to call my cousin. But, all the pay phones didn't take any coins. SO i had to find a place to buy a phone card. This took me all around the airport on a wild goose chase. Finally, I was able to call my cousin and get directions to her place. She lives outside of Paris in a suburb called Nanterre. I get to the train station for the RER line and stand not quite knowing where to go. Then a very very very cute guy comes up to me and asked if I needed help. DID I! I told him where I was going and he showed me where to get a ticket. We stood in line together for a while and had a nice conversation. Once I had my ticket he said good bye and I was off to Central Paris to transfer at the Chattel station and off to Nanterre. I get to Nanterre and call my cousin again, and she comes out to take me to her place. She lives quite close to the Railway station. We stayed up pretty catching up on old times and looking at vacation photos.

March 23 - Day 3

The next morning, my friend Kai had come to join me in Paris. He was visiting his family in Lubec, Germany. On our way to my cousins from the train station there was a protest against the war in Iraq, so we sat and watched.

He freshens up and we head out to Paris. We first go see the Arc du Triomphe. It was interesting and it had a silly commemoration on the indochine war. Afterward we head out to see the Eiffel tower and we end up eating at a Brasserie called "Ribe" for about two hours. It was nice and quaint though extremely overpriced. We then head to the Eiffel Tower which we have deemed as the worst tower ever. Not only was it smaller than the Tokyo tower and other towers I;ve been to for that matter, but you had to pay to walk up it. Then we find out that there was a way to take an elevator on the other side. However once we got to the first level, we purchased tickets to take the elevator up. But we end having to wait for the elevator for about an hour because the jerk would either not let us on, or expected us to get on when the elevator was so full that it looked like an international can of sardines. Once to the second level, we find we have to wait in an even longer line to take the smaller elevators to the top level. At this point, we were pissed and decided to just leave in order to recouped the losses we had sustained.

We then head to Notre Dame. Kai and I started walking up from the Metro station when I hear Kai make this very disgruntle noise. I turn around and see him man handling this little french kid. Kai grabs him and takes his wallet out of the boys hands. The boy gives us a "fuck you" and runs off. Pick pocketed in Paris. Fortunately, Kai got his wallet and money back. Notre Dame was a nice church, and we got to see mass because it was sunday.

Afterward we wander around for a while and see the gay quarter, see the Hotel de Ville area and the museum of modern art and eat at a Himalayan restaurant that had a great Mango Lassi, finally home and sleep.

March 24 - Day 4

Today we woke up in order to see the Louvre,

the Moulin Rouge,

La Defense and other french crap. The Louvre was a wonderful museum., though it was simply to big for us to see in one day. So we rushed to see the ultra famous things such as the Mona Lisa and the Venice de Milo. The egyptian exhibits were closed, which was a pity because those were what I really wanted to see. After that we head to Latin Quarter and La Marais.

We did a lot of walking today and Kai was still a bit edgy from the pick pocketing incident the other day.

March 25 - Day 5

We are off to Amsterdam today. We catch the train and transfer in Brussels. On the next train, we meet up with this Lesbian couple from Walnut Creek California. One of them grew up in Oakley. They were very interesting. Once in Amsterdam, we go and find a hotel using the hotel reservation service at the Station and get a great deal on a hole in the wall in Central Amsterdam.

We wander the streets of Amsterdam and see all the shopping and plan our next day.

We end up going to the Sex Museum which was really funny. It was pretty much a giant building with displays of a variety of porn and historical sex toys. Things such as porcelain and ivory dildos and a variety of movies and wax sculptures of sex symbols. The top floor had a animatronics display of Marylin Monroe and a photographer that got "aroused" by her.

We then head down to the red light district. This was the most interesting experience ever. Whores stood behind doors of glass along this street with neon read light lighting them up. The sat or stood and winked at guys walking buy in hopes that someone would buy them. There were also live sex shows to see if you wanted to pay a price and one place had a special banana trick that it touted.

March 26 - Day 6

We wake up, which has been a great ordeal for me, and head out to Barney's for breakfast with a big fat joint. So we had a great american breakfast and then buy two big fat joints. Extremely cheap and extremely strong.

Now we are high and ready to see the Sites of Amsterdam. We start out by going to the Anne Frank House. This was a very well orchestrated museum. The storefront was restored and the walk through the museum had excerpts from the diary which brought you into the life of the Franks as you journeyed through the house. Everywhere you walked were personal items of the people who lived there as well as quotations from Anne Franks Diary. The museum made me very sad. The next thing we had decided to see was the Homomononument.

This "monument" was very small. In fact We missed it a few times ended up walking in circles trying to find it. When we did find it, all it was was triangular dock like structure jutting over the waterway with some dried flowers on it.

From here we start the long trek to the Van Gogh museum. As we walk around the town, I see a lot of signs with quotes on it, forgetting that I had left the Anne Frank House since I was still high, I was wondering why Anne Frank was saying all the things she was saying and also was wondering why and how she had so much to say about the internet and american fast food. It took me a while to realize that Anne Frank wasn't talking to me outside of the museum.

Once we got to the Van Gogh museum, we were pretty tired. We went through the museum very quickly but I was impressed in the ability to see my favorites. Afterwards, we grab a bite to eat at "Lunchroom Hannibal". I had some nice Schnitzel. Then we headed to the Heineken Experience. This was the best deal and best experience EVER!!! You pay 7.50 euros and you get to learn about the making of Heineken. First you go through a recreation of Amsterdam so that you get into the mood of the country. Net you take this very small elevator up to the top floor which has this very strange song that makes you think that they are going to tell you something, but then it just stops and dumps you up stairs. Then you down another corridor and see a Hologram through a window of the guy who invented the beers secret recipe. We then got to go on a ride that simulated the experience of being a bottle of Heineken in a bottling factory. Then we got to see mock ups of the brewing process and got to the first bar. At this bar you get one free beer. After the beer we go to the more esoteric areas of the experience. First is a trivia quiz of the beer making process and then you can also go on a virtual ride on the beer houses horses (Sorta like the Budweiser horses, but black). Then there is also a tribute to water done by a multimedia show and a cool audio/video experience where you sit down in a chair and use joysticks to put together images and sounds. After this you get dumped into another bar where you are entitled to another two beers! Finally you get a free gift at the end of the tour which was a Heineken tin with a Heineken glass in it. So for 7.50 euros you get three beers and a tin and a glass and the experience. Best Experience EVER.

After that we head back home and fall asleep. We sleep for most of the day and head out to eat later that night at an Indonesian place. Along the way, Kai got attacked by a bum asking for money. Poor Kai attracts crazy people.

March 27, 2003

We woke up in the morning and checked out of our hotel and headed to the train station. We ended having to make strange reservations because we were to late to catch the direct train into Paris. Instead, we had to transfer out of Antwerp and then to Lille and finally to Paris. Once we left the station we headed to the Post office to send some postcards. We pass by a floating chinese restaurant on our way and spend the rest of the day in the city until the time our train had to disembark.

March 28, 2003

Kai and I were going to head out to Normandy today but we woke up a bit to late. SO we went to get train reservations and do some shopping instead. We end up somewhere in Saint Germaine des Pres and eating at a Cafe Marco Polo for the afternoon. We then head down to Montparnasse and watch a DareDevil in french. Its one of those movies that doesn't require you to understand the lines in order to understand the show. Afterward, we head back home and make it an early night so we can wake up extremely early the next morning.

March 29, 2003

Went to the city of Bayeaux today in Normandy to do a quick D-Day tour of the region. It was a two hour train ride which was pretty uneventful. Once at the station we book a reservation on a guided minibus tour and headed to the city center since we had time before the tour started. In town we had lunch at some hotel restaurant. Kai ordered the sausage, but it came out as a giant hamburger patty or pate. Kai doesn't like pate. We then head back to the station and go on our tour. The tour had a bunch of Americans. Two guys that were surfers, a guy from Kentucky studying in England, a group of three studying in Luxemburg and a family of four from who knows where. The guy from Kentucky and the one of the surfers were sorta cute.

Anywho, we get to see Gold Beach, Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc,

and the American Cemetery.

All of which was really cool. They recounted the happenings on D-Day and we got to see lots of German guns and craters. The cemetery was also avery interesting because of all the unmarked graves it had. The weather was pretty weird. It was foggy the whole day which made the sites extra eerie.

After that we headed home to Paris.

March 30, 2003

This morning we head to Disneyland Paris. Now many things went strangely this morning. Firstly, we woke up very late because we were all very tired. Secondly, we found out that Day LIght Saving time happened so we had lost another hour. But, we all got our stuff together and finally got to the train. Once there I was blown away by the beauty of the front of the park. The Hotel was built on top of the front gate - turnstile area in the stile of the Coronado in San Diego. It was very nice. When you go inside the large pink castle with stained glass windows was breathtaking!

We went straight to the rides. Indiana Jones and Le Temple du Peril.

This ride was different than any of the other Indiana Jones rides in the other parks because it was a roller coaster outside of the temple instead of a jeep ride inside it. And for the time we visited they made it go backwards instead of forwards. It was very cool. Space mountain was cool as well because you get shot through a giant tube through on the side of the mountain and then get brought inside where there is a roller coaster in the dark.

The roller coaster is much faster and has loops, unlike the other space mountains.

Under the castle, their is a sleeping Dragon that you can wake up! and the stained glass windows and tapestries tell the story of sleeping beauty.

All in all a great park that needs to be visited again.

March 31, 2003

Last day in Paris, so I had to go shopping. Kai and I went to buy more postcards and get his train reservation for Madrid. Then We had a quick lunch and headed our separate ways the the day. He went back to my cousins in order to make reservations in Madrid for a place to stay. I on other hand, needed to shop and headed to Val d'Europe where there was a large mall and outlets. I shopped like crazy and headed back home. I met up with Kai and got Pizzas for dinner. After dinner, we said goodbye to Kai because it was time for him to catch his train to Madrid.

Soon I will be home... Yah! oh, I saw this ad in the RER station:

April 1, 2003

On my home...........