Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The good times.

I was looking over my posts while I was in Europe and I realized that I never really got to post about my most awesome days there. So I thought I would take this time to talk about them a little bit because if I don’t I feel like my overall impression of my trip would be negative WHICH IT WASN’T! Even though I do in fact HATE FRANCE and I HATE WORKING, it really didn’t affect the rest of my trip which had a lot of amazing moments.

At the very beginning of my trip I took a rental car with a friend out to Stonehenge and it was probably one of the most heinous experiences of my life! I thought the day was unsalvageable, and then we decided to go to Bath. There I enjoyed a 9pc Chicken Mcnugget meal and my surly demeanor began to melt away, because nothing puts me in a better mood than some Chicken McNuggets! As we walked the streets of Bath we noticed there were a lot of street performers singing, dancing and just acting crazy in general. It was like being at the 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica only a whole lot bigger. As we were taking this all in we happened upon this ska-ish (but not really but it’s the easiest way to define them) band. They looked to be in their late teens early 20’s and I really dug their sound! So we stood and watched awhile. That’s when they started singing Estelle’s American Boy. Over the summer EVERYBODY knew I was going to the UK, so every chance they got they would play this song! I have the entire thing memorized by heart and here was a band playing it (and it was odd seeing a bunch of heterosexual boys singing “American boy” verbatim.) I casually mentioned to my friend that they were lacking somebody to do Kanye’s part and I really wanted to jump in! So my friend drops 10 pounds into their guitar case and asks the lead singer if I could rap for them, they agree, start the song over, and I do my very first gig as a street performer right there on a cobblestone road in Bath. By the end of the song we had a pretty decent sized crowd and we got some raucous applause when we were done. We ended up meeting with the guys later and having a few pints with them at a local pub and the day turned out to be a lot more awesome than it started!

Everything about Spain was just about my favorite part of my trip in every way possible! I got a little surfing in, I hung out with some amazing friends, I ate some good food, and I met some interesting people. Nothing really stood out because it was all just so much fun that when I think about it all I can do is smile and it’s all good! Everyday was fun and everyday was different but nothing really stuck out as exceptional because it was all just way better than average on a daily basis.

What guy in their right mind wouldn’t have the time of their life at Oktoberfest!? That week was FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC from beginning to end! There’s not a single moment that entire trip where I felt like the moment could be improved upon. However, the best time I had in Munich had absolutely NOTHING to do with Oktoberfest! The best time I had happened at the Eisbach which is a small stretch of the Isar! The first time I surfed this river wave was back in 03. I had completely forgotten what it felt like to be on a board and have no idea what I was doing, then BAM! The Eisbach happens and I feel like an 8 yr old grom all over again. This time around I had a little experience under my belt and I was ready to tackle this head on. Unfortunately there was a HUGE ASS line to get my chance to ride this wave and I had to wait awhile. The thing about Germans is they are probably some of the nicest most polite people on the planet. Anywhere else you would have the assholes trying to push their way up the lines to get a ride before other people or angry locals trying to bully the outsiders into leaving. Here civility is king, nobody’s acting like a territorial douche, and everyone just wants to share this awesome experience with everybody else. The only thing better than surfing this wave was watching the locals carve it up on these crazy weird fish twin-fin hybrids that I totally forgot to take a picture of! These guys are AMAZING and it’s such a unique experience that you can’t find anywhere else in the world. It was probably the best experience of my entire trip.

And now I am done talking about Europe! I am going to put all my memories in a box and stick it on a shelf to ameliorate for a few years and then go back and look at them again just because the experience was so awesome.

7 comments:

Trevor said...

You saw more and did more in a month than I have in the last 5 years. Sometimes I don't like you because I am to busy hating you out of pure jealousy! You are the luckiest bastard I know and I am glad you enjoyed yourself as much as you did. Who'd of thought there would be surfers in Germany? It just seems wrong.

Anonymous said...

I thought surfing in Germany was completely unheard of. I am trying to wrap my head around this and it just doesn't seem to be happening. Germany is still landlocked right?

Jason said...

Leave it to you to find a surf spot in a landlocked country! You have issues. At least it's not drugs right?

RGB said...

People have been surfing this river since the 70's! It's not like I went to Germany and was dying to surf so badly I grabbed my surfboard and invented river surfing! I saw a couple guys try it and then I wanted to give it a try too and I enjoyed it! Really, it's not as crazy as you guys are making it out to be!

Trevor said...

Also you are a HAM! I can totally picture you faking shyness about not wanting to sing until people start cheering you on. You eat that shit up as if it were toberlarone chocolate! So you are an adrenaline junkie and you're an attention whore! The sooner you accept these character traits the sooner you can grow from them!

RGB said...

Hey Trevor, SUCK IT! Howz about I go and get you another glass of BITCH cuz I don't think you've had enough yet!

Terry said...

Singing in a British band on a cobblestone road is bad ass! I love how you are always so brazen and unafraid to put yourself out there. I would have ran away or pissed my pants. Kudos!