Came to Salem, and saw a couple small shows. Met some people. Played some pool. Saw some more people. Went to a football game (OSU).
Missed seeing a bunch of people I wanted to see…
Salem-Portland, OR
Centralia, WA
We stopped at Centralia as it was a halfway point between BC and Oregon. We Stayed at the McMenamins hotel there. I’ve been there before and it’s pretty cool. Played some pool. Watched a movie (ok I fell asleep) in the hotel pub theatre, then took Carly to the train station in the morning (so she could go back to Sydney).
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- The greatest No Parkin sign ever!!!
Vancouver BC
After Eric left, Matt, Carly and I went up to BC for one night. It was OK.
Here’s the most important thing I learned in BC…don’t EVER eat at Fatburger…
Second most important: There are lots of homeless people in BC and at least one of them is an amazing artist. I sat with him on the sidewalk for 15 minutes while he was drawing a picture. I bought it off him cuz it was pretty amazing! I’ll frame it.
The best interchange with a homeless (not the previously mentioned artist) went like this:
Homeless dude: “Hi. People have been really rude to me tonight. I just need 4 dollars to get a room at the Y. Can you help me? Anything, even change will help.”
me:Â “I can give you all my change (takes out change). It has some euros mixed in”.
Homeless dude: “I don’t want your Euros”.
me:Â (removes euros and prepares to hand man my change).
Homeless dude: (sees pennies in my hand) “I don’t want your pennies”.
me: (removes pennies and prepares to hand man my change)
Homeless dude: “I don’t want your change” (storms off)
Homeless dude: (walks up to next guy walking on the street). “This guy over here is being really rude to me (referring to me). I just need 4 dollars to get a room at the Y. Can you help”?
Random non-homeless guy: No!
Homeless dude: I knew this would happen! Fucking vancouver! I hate this place!
Seattle, Washington
Landed Friday late at Sea-Tac. Go meet Matt and 2,oh at a pub where they are hanging out with Garret, Lilly (Pete’s sister and brother in law) and Cid. I had met them in Frankfurt once before. They rock and we met them again on the last night in Seattle. It was great to see Eric again as well. I hope to see you in Europe again soon…
Carly came on Saturday and Eric left on Monday. The weekend was pretty much chaos, board games (which I mostly won at 😉 ), a wasted day drinking hard cider, and two buck chuck!
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- Group photo with Garret, Lilly and their friend who plays the drums.
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- Matt reads a newspaper for the first time in his life!!! His heart obviously wasn’t in it.
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- matt has “buy a double big gulp” on his America to-do list…check!
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- 2.oh acting all 2.oh-ish
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- Carly
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- After the Buster Blue show…
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- Buster Blue set list…
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- After 8 ciders….Matt has a secret.
back home….
So I made it back…The day started with Matt waking me up about 50 minutes before my flight to JFK…ummmm…
HA!
This is what happens when you hit snooze one too many times 🙂
Somehow I made it. I had to run a bit, and got scolded by the ticket man, but live and learn??? Probably not!
I slept good, so now I guess I gotta upload stuff…I should probably make separate entries by city or something…
Standby!
at the airport
Theres a whole lotta wind. Planes are still flying tho..
I know what you’re wondering
You’re wondering if I packed…It was the most grueling 4 minutes of my life, but…YES!
San Francesco
I guess it’s the patron saint of Massa day…I don’t really know what that means, but the office is closed due to catholic holiday…Cheers San Francesco! You rock!
I think I have my flat sorted. I’m signing a contract tomorrow and then move in November 1st…Luckily November 1st is also a holiday (day of the dead or something…I also don’t know what that means, but it’s catholic again) which means noone has any excuses for not helping me move 😉
Or at the very least here is your fair warning to come up with a legitimate excuse…
Tuscan weekend!
So Leo invited a few friends to his country house somewhere above Florence. I rode up with Leo and Daniele after work on Friday, and just go back (Sunday). I have not showered for two and a half days (I just wanted to share that).
Saturday we BBQd for lunch and then had proper pizza from a proper pizza oven for dinner. Cheers Daniele!
After he left the kitchen I decided to make my own…yeah that went well.
Today went to some little restaurant out in nowhere…I’m learning there’s nothing comparable to the tuscan experience of driving up some single lane (yet two way) road, twisting, turning and honking your horn on every blind corner only to come to a wide point in the road where 34 cars are parked. You have arrived!
The food shots below are all from the restaurant (cept the pizza oven which is in Leo’s house).
I’ll put more countryside pics on my Italian pic page (link on right – or just http://www.joesquires.com/viva-italia/)…
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- The proper pizza oven.
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- Pomegranate?
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- Polenta with mushrooms…Polenta is sorta like cornmeal, but always made from scratch. Sometimes served soft like a soup or cream corn, and in this case cooked to a solid.
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- Andrea and Simona
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- Giulio
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- Enriqo and Daniele
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- a picture next to a picture of a famous footballer…Leo!
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- Georgia…
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- I’m lost…
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- from a car in Tuscany
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- from a car in Tuscany
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- from a car in Tuscany
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- from a car in Tuscany
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- from a car in Tuscany
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- from a car in Tuscany
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- from a car in Tuscany
Public transport and hot dogs!
I heard someone playing music on their cellphone today, and I was transported back to the S-Bahn. I thought I was in Frankfurt again…The trend has thus far been absent my italian life…I hope it was a fluke.
Funny when a sound transports you to another time and place!
I saw this on facebook…I don’t know who took it, so my apologies, but it makes me giggle.
