Jeremy's Best of the Best

What you've all been waiting for. . .

Best Guinness: surprisingly, or maybe not, the Guinness Brewery, Dublin. Very cold, smooth, and enjoyed with a great view of the city.

Best Halloween costume: Kissing Booth - a frame with drapes - worn by a young guy at a Dublin bar. Why the best? He was kissing a girl for 4 of the 5 minutes we saw him.

Worst Cheese: L'Amie de Chambertin, Burgundy. This cheese smelled so strongly and so rancid, it also wins the "Worst Smell of the Trip" and perhaps "Worst Smell of My Whole Life" awards.

Funniest Moment: When Tom broke the silence while we were dealing with an angry French woman at 3am in Paris.

Best Wine: Josh's Burgundy Grand Cru, best aged until 2015, that Julie and Paolo accidentally drank.

Most Exhilirating Moment: Jumping in the western Ireland ocean on a cool, windy day. Dan and I even went bare bummed.

Most Stressful Moment: Driving into Paris to return the rental car to Gare de L'Est. Contrary to what I mentioned in my first blog entry, there ARE traffic jams in Paris.

Best Coffeeshop: Amnesia, Amsterdam. Dark, cozy, good drinks, nice people, boardgames available.

Most Kid-like Experience: A day on the Dutch beach with Cate and Leon. It was unusually warm, sunny, empty, and beautiful.

Best Meal: Chateau Beaugency, Loire Valley, France. Josh and I savoured a most balanced, rich, colourful, tasty dinner, next to the Loire on a stormy night.

Most Primal Moment: Chateau Severgny, France. Watching those 75 hounds devour chicken guts and skulls in chaotic, violent fashion.

One Final Baguette

Well we made it. It was fun and exciting, tiresome and lazy, new and old, crazy and weird. I have to say I had a great time all around. There is so much we did and all of you have read about, and so much still to do the next time around. I cant believe how fast it went of course......I remember thinking or even saying to Jeremy the first few days that the first week is always slow, and then after that we wont know what happened. I think that is the best way to describe it and seemingly what actually did happen.

We Stayed in the Dam until Thursday morning where Jer met back up with me. Ross and I went out on the town wednesday night with the intent of staying up until about 6am so Ross could go directly to the airport to catch his flight and I was just preparing myself for East Coast time.We made it fairly late, but around 5am we were back in the room looking tired. I told him if he fell asleep I wouldnt be able to stay up to wake him.....he mumbled something about having 9 alarms set and then I called the front desk to make sure they would call at 6am. I vaguely recall waking up around 9am, looking over seeing the room phone off the hook and Ross resolutely snoring. I laughed, and then he awoke to my jeers. As I was falling back asleep I think he said something like "I found a flight later today for only 65Euros......great ime going back to bed"

That was our last night in Amsterdam. I blame the bartender who gave us all those free shots for Ross's missed flight, and I would like to thank him also for his uncompromising charity.

Jeremy and I went to Brussels in Belgium for one night on our way back to Paris. The trains are so easy to use and much faster then driving. Brussels was interesting, I would like the chance to explore it more one day. We arrived in Paris on Friday afternoon, helped Julie put some of the furniture in her newest apartment and toasted to the end of one trip and the beggining of the next.

I am in Foxwoods now, back on American soil. Ime playing poker on Monday, and if I can make it through day three on Wednesday and to the final table, I expect any and all to come up and join me here Friday night. Well I just jinxed myself there......ahhh I hate being superstitious anyways. Whatever, its %50 skill, %30 luck, and %20 cohones......ime feeling good about it. You can watch online at www.cardplayer.com I think. Foxwoods World Poker Finals.

Thanks for coming along with us, it was alot of fun and we appreciate everyone who enjoys this. We havent quite decided what to do now. I kinda like this blog thing, so it is possible I will start my own rant more just about my life and maybe some poker stuff. Have fun and keep in touch!

A Tale of Two J's

Amsterdam was indeed all everyone claims it to be, as Josh said. What a city. The plethora of bikes is really quite something. It's quite similar in that respect here in the smaller city of Delft, where I've been for two days. There are separate bike lanes on most roads, where separate street lights signal green/yellow/red in the shape of bikes. Commuters return home with their briefcases strapped onto the backs of their bikes. Groups of teenagers roll past from school, biking next to each other and chatting. I had the pleasure of being part of that today while Leon, Cate, and I toured the Delft countryside and then the city. The countryside was dominated by fields, sheep and cows, marshes, and canals. There are also many concrete paths, reserved for pedestrians and bikers, that traverse it. Take a close look at the picture and you'll notice my bike's wheels are quite small. This is Leon's amazing gizmo that folds at several joints into a manageable package so you can carry it on trains and the like. Cate got one as well. They work pretty well, too.

Delft has this tunnel where grafitti is tolerated, and therefore rather encouraged. Some of this art is amazing! I would love to see someone in the process of designing a piece, just with cans of spraypaint. Do they use other tools? The detail and crisp lines tell me they do, but I'd love to know the actual truth.

Yesterday we visited the Dutch beach. It's quite close - maybe a 45 minute tram ride, passing through The Hague on the way. We were so lucky to enjoy a warm, sunny day on the ocean. . .in November no less! I was barefoot and lightly clothed the whole time, dipping my feet into the water, which wasn't all that cold. We spent the whole afternoon along the water and in the dunes, and watched a beautiful sunset before heading back to The Hague for a nice Turkish dinner.

Josh and I meet up tomorrow for two more days in Belgium and France before returning to the U.S. It's been a great month travelling around western Europe. So many good times, so many good visits. I'm pooped, in a good way.

To Amsterdam and Beyond!

Well we've made it to our main last stop of the trip. We arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday, and by Friday evening our group had grown to 10 people. Our cousin Julie and some friends, Jeremy's friends living south of here in Holland, my Swedish and Irish Friends. It was a Jolly group for a day or two, and now they have all left save for myself and Ross. Jeremy I have even split up for a few days. He has gone off to stay in the less urban area of the country with his friend Leon from Acadia. I am staying here with Ross for three more days, as there is a fairly large poker tournament happening this week here in Amsterdam which I will try and win into. It would be a good warmup for Foxwoods, and could be alot of fun, and even less likely, it could be profitable. :)

It has been an a amazing time so far here in amsterdam. It feels like the most progressive multi cultural, racially mixed city I have ever been to. The variety in people here is most evident when playing the language guessing game, there are always about 8 very probable guesses, yet I feel like anything is always possible. This also seems to make this a city of the world, where dutch is likely the most widely spoken language, but still not a majority over the many many others. You dont nearly feel like you are a tourist here as much as in other cities where accents can say so much.

The city appears so safe and free, and there is a certain very proud and happy feeling the locals and inhabitants seem to possess in everything they do. Anything goes, and everything does. There are way more bikes then cars, and there are way more taxis then other types of cars. It is a common sight to see two people on one bike, just giving the other a lift somewhere. Great feeling having a city that is much more bike oriented with few of the traffic problems dealt with on a constant basis in nearly every other large European city we have been.

I never quite thought about deeply the nature of the politics or atmosphere that has prevailed in this corner of the world for the last 500 years, but there is a reason that it has stayed true to its ideals. One cabby explained it as seeing everyone else being too far left or too far right, and that the Dutch like to keep themselves in the middle. It sure seems to work on many levels here, and the majority of these city folks appear much happier then the average compared with other large cities Ive been to.


Well in this city weve been tourists ourselves and sights for others. We made it to the Van Gogh museum and the Heineken Brewery, toured the canals the coffeeshops and the the clubs. Overall a great experience. Ill write more before I leave hopefully, or maybe Jeremy will add his own bit from the countryside. We are gonna try out Belgium for a day before we head back to Paris for our Saturday flights. Cant miss this flight, I might have to play poker on Sunday with jetlag. I cant wait!

Oh my oh me, I'm twenty-three

My birthday was a good night for all and a funny one for me. I lived up to the Irish way and went all out. I spilled some drinks on my new shirt that night and generally had jolly "hey it's my birthday!" chats with people.

Josh has always been a generous person, and he bought me this real nice corduroyish soft-cotton beige shirt. I'm kind of a dirtbag at heart, or at least I used to think that, but even people like me can appreciate fine apparel. You just have to find your style. and i'm feelin that shirt.

Earlier in the evening we went out for a sweet birthday dinner. Josh's friend Jack took us to a nice place and treated us well. Josh even got a little candle put in my rich chocolate cake and the whole restaurant sang happy birthday to me. it was a nice feeling. i realized that at josh's birthday we hadn't sung joyeux anniversaire in paris - what was i thinking? maybe we were just having too good of a meal. the older brother always knows how to look out for the younger.

I had only tried Guiness a couple times and I really didn't like it upon our Ireland arrival. I never would have thought that I would gain a taste for it. Its subtle carbonation, smooth slightly creamy quality, balanced taste. The Irish know Guiness like the French know their wines. Guiness claims that it has 300 taste testers who each month visit every single Guiness tap in the country to ensure satisfactory quality!

I find this goat-depicting article hilarious: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40091

Dublin...Birthday, Halloween and More Beer

(Josh) So it was Jeremy's Birthday on Saturday. Coincidentally two friends of our good friend Ross, were celebrating their birthday that very Saturday night by renting out the back of a club here in Dublin. We went to the party, had quite a good time, gave into temptation and stayed out a good bit, but not quite so late as my bday. That was a good thing, and I think everyone got started a bit earlier here then they do in France anyways.

I had a very good time that night, met alot of the friends of Ross and Jack and their friend Luach we have been hanging around with mostly. They have all been super friendly and great to us, not to mention the locals have been more then helpful and accomodating at all times.

As you can see with this one picture from Jers bday, halloween is a week long event here in Ireland, possibly just another excuse to party. We had no costumes sadly, but I would like to give a shout out to the guy with the best costume we saw on halloween. He was wearing a kissing booth.......yes thats it. Ingenius would be the best way most men could describe it. Except if you find yourself in the wrong bar a little too late....hmmm, be careful out there friend.

Also on Halloween here, the whole city becomes basically a warzone of fireworks being shot from every other backyard in town. Fireworks are illegal here, and everyone makes a trip up to Northern Ireland I guess once a year to stock up and get ready for the night of Hallowed Eve. I dont think I saw one single trick or treater, but I did hear many explosions that sounded like something louder then a bottle rocket, and saw many kids a running. I guess not being in North America we didnt quite feel the halloween the way they do it here, and we didnt have time to get costumes. I really didnt think they celebrated it here, but even France is doing it now.

So its been a good week, I've enjoyed Dublin Immensely, the food isnt nearly as bad as I was expecting, The weather has been surprisingly good and relatively dry, and the people are just so friendly(although I did read about a few dangerous encounters....but seems to be relegated to certain unlucky confrontations). Thanks to all ye Dubliners who have been so good to us along the way, please come visit sometime in North America.

We made it to the Guiness brewery which happens to be the number one tourist attraction in Dublin, the tour wasnt so great, supposed to be a new one by January, but the beer and the view of Dublin at the end are very worthwhile. Cool just to be there, think its my favorite beer. Tasted the best in the brewery and in this one little pub we found.