Paris Street

Walking around in the Jewish/Hungarian/Gay area. We found pink toilet paper.




This kid was hilarious, he was playing soccer with his grandfather in the park. I like Paris because old people and toddlers can leave the house and play, wheras London seems to be populated with middleaged men in overcoats.

Paris Walkin

Horse on the way to the arc de triomph

nap outside the Grand Palais

Arc de Triomph...there's a whole series, it's coming.

Alice Yorke, Lisa made this one happen for you. I wish you well on your Merrymount Stage. I think it's an omen that we foudn this store full of colorful glassware, lamps, and whirlygigs.

Mecca

First night in FRANCE

We went to a bar, of course. It seemed to be an irish bar. Amanda did not want to leave, ever.



Even when the flower guy was there! I was terrified. One thing I will say, Parisian flower-seller dudes seem a lot better of in terms of health and happiness than the Florentine flower-sellers. People actually made eye contact with them. Also, I didn't see any sad gypsy kids trying to sell flowers at 2 in the morning in Paris.

We are silly tourists.

THE BUS RIDE HOME.

When it did come time to leave, we took a night bus home. Amanda was all for getting a cab, but, no, night bus. It probably took longer to get on the right bus than it would have taken to walk; it was crowded with drunk people and lurchy and smelly.

But had we not taken the night bus, we would not have overheard French/Arab Drunk dude with Earring chat with Sassy French-Speaking German Girl, and completely fail to pick her up. And completely fail to notice that she was making fun of him in front of the entire bus. It was like third grade, it was awesome.

And then he moved on to Amanda, who does not speak french. that's ok, he would admire her golden hair in Spanish. She just repeats, drunk and two years out of any spanish class, 'No. No.' He points at her necklace, which is a cross. He thinks he's reaching out to another christian, or something, but Amanda pulls it together for a 'NO. QUIERO. HABLAR. CON. TU!'

It was perfect. And then it was our stop, or close enough. And that was the end of that.

Pisa/Florence

Ice cream truck 100 yards from big white famous tower. Give the people what they want.

It Leans.

Pretty, Florence. Very pretty.

Yeah, I'd probably save the Pont(e? I don't know.) Vecchio from bombs too.

Bye Florence!

Faces at Boboli Gardens

that bitch.

Big Face

Slidey Brenz.

You can't really see it here, but these big Mentos-shaped rocks had a dip in the middle so you couldn't sit on the edge, you slid in. It was kind of fun, but not relaxing. Especially for Lisa of the Wonky Knee.

Also, I found a 5 Pfennig from 1984 near that particular rock-Mentos.

Boboli Gardens

Lisa: So, the story behind the Duomo is, that the architect was this guy and he wanted to make a dome on top of the church. But nobody said it would work, it would cave in. So to prove his point, he had a challenge contest to see who else in the realm was a better architect, and would make the design for the Duomo. The challenge was to stand an egg up on its end and make it stay.

Me: Does this involve salt?

Lisa: No. He takes an egg and smashes it down onto a plate, so that the end buckles in, and then it stands up. The End.
The Lisa D. Tour of Italy: Hey, let's go to a really pretty place...it was probably a medici palace, because every frickin thing in Italy is a medici palace.

And so, the view of Florence from the Boboli Gardens. A Medici Palace.



Lisa and Cal(l)i(e).

Pretty.

Florence at Night

Sometimes you have to go to a scottish pub in italy to get a really nice car bomb.


That magical pig. Will you bring me good luck, or wealth, or love? No one remembers, because you are only visited by drunk people.



Like monkeys at the zoo, looking back at you.

New shoes for Lisa's poor feet...the boots were never seen again.

Eeevil Sergio and his cool friend, in the plaza.

Lisa needed a break. Her knee hurts, guys.

Or maybe she was just looking at this.

London things

We went to Nando's like four times. This was the only time in daylight.

RFH'ers: Remember that time english teacher and ear-puncturer Mr. C told us he had a brick with his name on it at the new Globe theater?

That's not true, as far as we could tell.

The lady behind the desk explained that a brick in the wall, which costs but $10, doesn't have names carved into it. Furthermore, no 'C....' was listed in her book of the flagstones in the courtyard which cost Six Hundred Dollars!

A sum which, obviously, a mere high school teacher could not afford.

But Japan can.

lobsterphone at the Tate. More enjoyable than the slides.

Pub Quiz, with enrique and Itesha, and Sabine's hands.

Late Nights

Lisa in her shopping cart wheelchair. This enterprise was abandoned after I accidentally dumped her out of it for about the third time. We got high fives from strangers, though!

Did you know you're not supposed to sell alcohol after 11pm in London? true. This was on the Great Beer Search.

We found wine! And an old-man hat! (not pictured)

What do you do once the nice gents at Great Portland Street Food and Wine sell you some beer? Bring it back to the computer lab, of course, and make Mark play some music.

A ship! Near Nando's. Apparently it got climbed...

Londontown

After visiting the Nando's afterhours french/polish birthday party...and watch J. stomp on half full bottles, then climb on top of the bathroom to dance...we got on a night bus.

A night bus of delights.

Sitting on the top of the bus = seeing amazing views of the river and city and feeling every lurch and bump of the ride, every swing, every near-miss of overhanging branches and lampposts. And before descending for our stop, we met Jeremy, who was drunk and covered in ketchup and who charmed lisa with his accent. and ketchup.





If you can't change it, you have to stand it, as Ennis del Mar once sort of said. Lisa could not change the brokenness of her knee on our pre-dawn trek back from south London. But there was a shopping cart for bringing her home. And I stood on it.

Lisa is good to know for many reasons, not least of which is her ability to trick foreign-born restauranteurs into giving her lifetime discounts for talking to them and taking an interest in their culture for 10 minutes. Brick lane is the place for indian/bangladeshi food. And Spice Brick Lane is the place to say Lisa says hi.

My Camera:

Lisa's:

Oh, were you in London?