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.

Castles and Carnivores, pt. 2

Being a former vegetarian, and most recently a modest meat eater, I have munched on many animals. This is what I can recall eating in the last two weeks, most of it in France:

steak
duck
salmon
haddock
one small gross shrimp
plaice
lamb
chicken
sausage
bacon and other sorts of ham, including tripe (stomach lining)
sardines (fresh but still smelling fishy)
rabbit
pates of many types
venison

As is apparent, there's still lots of seafood in which I haven't indulged. But hey, I'm not sure if indulging in - enjoying - clams, lobster, shriimp, and the like is possible for me. If I have the full bird, fish, crustacean, critter in front of me, I just can't bring myself to eat it. Don't get me wrong; I really enjoy some meat these days for the taste and healthy feeling, especially salmon, but I'm a meat wimp. Being a vegetarian is pretty easy for me if I'm not eating at nice restaurants all the time. Which is fine with me.

It's my birthday. Weird. This has been such a great travelling vacation with lots of hilarious and interesting moments. So far it's just another good day. Which is fine with me.

We haven't seen any big castles like in France. But we visited this awesome little circular Staigue Fort in an amazing mountainous coastal valley. Sheep, rocks, tree patches, and golden brown and green grasses dot the area. The Kerry Peninsula - it was beautiful. Pictures coming later.

It was also raining a lot, and it is today, but yesterday it was quite nice out while we visited the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast. Seven hundred feet straight down to the ocean, stunning and scary. It was quite windy the whole time we were near the ocean, and sizeable waves were pumelling the coastline in many places.

We arrived in Dublin last night and are chilling at Josh's friend Ross' place. My good buddy Dan has been living in Dublin the past year, and he met us in Cork when we arrived Tuesday. He's returning to Nova Scotia for good tomorrow, and it's great that I just caught him.

(Josh)Well it has been a great time travelling around Ireland. We started in the south in a place called Cork, which was a fun little college town with the famous blarney stone nearby. Stayed there a few nights, checking out the town, market, and pubs. We decided to get up real early one day and finally get our sleep schedule back on track for tourists, so we rented a car and headed up the west coast where many of the most beautiful drives are. We stopped at a few heritage sites, mainly a 5th century stone ring fort where we almost lost the car keys while chasing sheep through the fields.......they were found, which was nice, cause it was raining and we were quite far from the rental company by this point.


We got along after that allright and stayed in a bed and breakfast one night, where everyone seemed to be family, and the guiness tasted better then anywhere else I've had it. Tasting guiness is sort of like tasting wine. It tastes a bit different everywhere, but after the first few you cant really tell the difference either way. Well, not exactly I guess.....but you know what I mean. There was a group of folk musicians at a little pub across the street where we ate dinner. They had an 8 person musical session going which was quite nice, and very good to the ears. They played classical Irish music mostly and also mixed in a bit of Van Morrison and other more modern fare. Overall our most Irish country experience.

The Kerry peninsula was amazing, I have no pictures of the peninsula really, becuase it was a nice day in Ireland, which apparently means it was showers interupted by rain. We got very lucky on Friday the 28th when driving north, the sun shone on us a good bit of the day, and we got to take these amazing pictures at the cliffs of Moher, which are just unbelievable, this picture does no justice at all to what it really is. There was some more amazing scenery, and I have to say to all you golf fans, golf over here is nothing like North America where the focus is on water and trees. Here its all about wind and rough and the lie of the ball. I would love to come back here sometime just for a golf vacation, learning to play the links.

We did make it to Dublin this week in time to relax a bit and prepare ourselves for Jeremy's birthday. We are crashing at my friend Ross's place. I met him and another fellow in Berkeley a few years ago and finally had an excuse to get over here to this side of the Atlantic. We did take a dip in the Ocean on our little voyage up the west coast. This side of the Atlantic is much warmer then Nova Scotia or the north Pacific for that matter, but its possibly only this time of year due to the warmth of the summer jet stream. Overall it really doesnt get that cold here i guess as they dont get snow, but the cold rain chills me to the bones unlike much drier colder weather I am used to.
We have seen a few rainbows already, but as I missed the Dublin European Poker Tour event which I was thinking about playing in, it has been difficult finding the pot of gold. Probably better to wait for Foxwoods anyways which will be a much larger prize structure and is only two weeks away anyways(http://www.foxwoods.com/Gaming/Poker/Tournaments/WorldPokerFinals.htm). Gonna be back to work on Nov 13th in Connecticut, but its only proper, I cant stay on vacation forever. Because without a job, there would be no such thing as vacation! Right? All a matter of perspective I guess.

Josh's B'day

Well, I want to say thanks again to everyone for all their loving support and comments on my birthday. I guess 25 is another big one in a way, but I cant remember really why..........oh yeah now my car insurance is cheaper.....what a day, I must be that much more responsible. I knew it! I woke up and thought "Wow, I feel so responsible. No wonder 25 is the limit, those damn 24 year olds have nothing on me! Iresponsible kids!"

So now that I am officially a responsible adult, I guess Ime gonna have to make a few changes. No more gratuitious nights on the town, no more taking my health for granted, no more singing in the wee hours of the morning. Hmmmmmmm, maybe singing will have to stay. Or maybe just humming, we can compromise a bit here cant we?

It was fun to be in Paris for this day of all days. You only gte to turn 25 once, so why not in Paris? The city where I had my first beer, where I learned to ride the subways, dodge tourists and generally avoid late night confrontations with strangers. It is a city of history and art, moral sacrifice and emotional hysteria, where the old meets the new and cultural crossover.

The city seems quite similar to what I remember. There is an emphasis on good living and common decency on the simplest levels, yet you often see very rude encounters happening everywhere you turn. Politeness is common in almost eveyr interaction, but at the wrong time of night, the waiter can have an air of disregard strong enough to seem rude, while talking to you through his nose. Maddening how these clashing viewpoints can occur. But at the bottom of it all, is a sense of being Parisian that I think permeates the way everyone here interacts and lives. They love their Wine, yet hate the full work day. The canals offer beauty, yet are at the same treated like a personal city garbage dump. The money is not something to be attained through any means like the U.S., but it is still a deciding factor for everyone because how else could you afford eating out in this city everyday? The traffic seems neccesary, yet a large group of people have decided to risk life and limp daily dodging it on their motorcycles breaking every law you would think they have. We have tried to comply to this difficult set of rules, and in the end often failed miserably, but sometimes on a momentous occasion, we have been succeeding greatly.

This town is almost over for us on this trip, we have overstayed our welcome. We have terrorized the maids with our late wakeups and room changes, the restaurants we have closed down on a regular basis, and the locals dont appear to have become used to our brash yet seemingly well timed movements. Overall, I am, ready to get into Ireland and see some old countryside again before we terrorize another city. Oh wait did I say terrorize, dont think I can use that word in this day and age! ill get myself and all my kin locked up for words like that. May have to stay here in Europe forever, avoiding the secret police who are keeping the great nation of the U.S. safe from terrorism...........again.

My birthday was fun, we cruised the town, and I saw alot of things that brought back many memories. My birthday party in itself was great. My best friend Geoff came with us to Paris on Friday. My other cousin Tom arrived early on Saturday morning. My cousin Julie, her boyfriend Paolo and some others joined us for dinner on my birthday on Saturday quite late. We found ourselves in a few different establishments over the course of the night and ended up drinking beers at 7 in the morning when one place finally kicked us out. It was good times all around, and I felt surprisingly good the next afternoon when I woke at around 2pm. Kinda like getting a good nights sleep in Halifax time wise. Thanks again to all who called and congratulated, the next update will be from Ireland.

"Never get too old to forget what its like being young"-Joshua Ewing, 2005