Thursday, July 12, 2012

July 4th-July 12th: Paris, Zurich, Interlakken/Interlaken

WANTED: APPROXIMATELY 11 SOCKS

SUSPECTS ARE WHITE…SORT OF AND HAVE HOLES WHERE THE BIG TOE WOULD GO

AWARD: MY TEMPORARY GRATITUDE


Seriously…where did my socks go?


Okay. It’s been a while once again.
This time I have a good reason.
I was EXTREMELY sick.
It had to happen at some point-like throwing up in public-it is a milestone.

Sickness usually gets a bad name but it has a nice way of simplifying things.
While traveling my mind is frequently racing:

Where the hell am I? Am I going out enough? Am I seeing enough sites? Is there a God? Should I really be traveling at all? I’m about to be 24! One foot in the grave! Am I gaining weight? Why did I major in Musical Theater? Is it spelled Theater or Theatre? Etc. etc.

When sick, at least the kind of sick I was, all these woeful musings become one simple objective:

Don’t. Shit. Your. Pants.

For two days I could barely move.
I wasn’t even able to do my day trip to Luxembourg. WHICH WAS WHY I CAME TO EUROPE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Why did I get sick?
Well, to point to one cause would be oversimplifying it.
The top 2 are:

1. I ate French fries three times in one day in Belgium

2. I went to a pubcrawl Friday night in Paris…and then Saturday night…and then stood in the rain for an hour trying to hail a cab (because the subways close)

I was fortunate, however, that my illness started in the most convenient place possible.
ON THE TOP FLOOR OF THE FUCKING EIFFEL TOWER.


Enough of that.
Paris was, initially, lovely.
The best experience truly was the croissants. People exaggerate a lot of things (like the Leaning Tower of Piza. It should be the Slightly Slanted Tower of Piza) but French croissants are out of this world.

I went to Versailles, which was absurdly gorgeous and equally absurd in general.

Went to Café Deux Maggots (that’s the name…) where my grandparents used to have coffee when they visited Paris. I ordered what I thought was a cup of hot chocolate…but I think I just got a giant cup of melted chocolate.

Didn’t do Moulin Rouge because the signs said you had to be dressed up and I am not going through that again (see Milan)

Lots of stuff…and then sickness struck and I remained in a reclining or sitting position for 48 hours.

THEN. I decided to I would have to take a day off Zurich. There was no way I could travel with my nearly imploded bag but the hostel was booked.
I went Super Saiyan.
Didn’t eat for 6 hours.
Went for it.
Made it!
Hostel Room was on the 5th floor.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
15 minutes later.
Alternated between reclining and sitting for 24 hours.
Only yesterday was I able to move enough to check out one museum in Zurich.
(And it was good! There is one exhibit where a tongue pops of the wall when you walk by)
I went to one restaurant and I had this exchange towards the end of the meal.

Me: Oh, could I just have a glass of water before I go?
Attractive Waitress: Bottled or tap?
Me: Oh, just tap.
AW: Large or small?
Me: Oh, whatever. Wait. Why?
AW: They’re different prices.
Me: Oh, no. Just the tap water please.
AW: Yes. What size?
Me: The tap water…costs money?
AW: Yes. Sorry.
Me: …small then.
AW: Okay it’s just like a 1/8 liter glass.
Me: …FFFFUUUUU-

And then I blacked out.
I woke up to the most expensive, smallest, iceless glass of water I’ve ever drunk/drank/bibo/bibare/bibavi            (LATIN!)

Apparently Zurich is home of THE MOST EXPENSIVE STREET IN THE WORLD. And I was on it.

Now I’m in Interlakken. I’d say I’m one day away from full recovery. I’ve signed up for paragliding tomorrow and canyoning the day after.
I added a day here and took a day off Toulous because this place seems like the bombdotcomslashawesome.
I’m not going to do sky diving because…I’m a loser.

So then Toulous for two nights
Barcelona
Madrid
Granada
Lisbon
Dublin
Galway.

That list is a lot shorter than it used to be.
I’m okay though. I can’t wait to get back to work.
Grace and I are going to publish a book. Robb and I are going to take over New York…and I’m gonna be in a buddy cop comedy/drama with Daniel Day Lewis.

:(@)-,
I don’t know what that face means,
Gianmarco

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