Paradise Re-found

I'm in the mood to bitch. Again.

I've been in Dublin for two days now waiting for my flight back to the US.  I missed my flight a few days ago and they told me that I could leave on Tuesday but I would have to pay the $100 change fee.  So I got to the Dublin airport early today just to make sure.  I went up to the ticket counter and told them what happened.  After checking the systems, they said, "Okay Mr. Carroll, we called you and left a message. blah blah blah... You ARE schedule to be on the plane today but you will have to pay a fee of $450."  Yeah... um... that's SO not happening. 

After a near panic attack, they said that something happened with the credit card I used and the payment was denied.  This was weird because I hadn't used a credit card with the airlines recently.  Then they said, "You are Ryan Carroll aren't you?"  Um... no... completely different person.  I'd hate to be Ryan right now.  They were able to find my name in the system and it was only a $100 fee.  Thank goodness.  I thought I'd be stranded in Dublin a little bit longer.

So I'm going through security...  I've got my carry-on bag and my laptop bag.  After stepping through the sensor thing, they said "We're gonna have to ask you to step to the side for a second."  As they said that they were putting on latex gloves.  OH HELL NO!  I was not in the mood for a full cavity search.  After nearly having a second panic attack in a 30 minute period, they said that they needed me to open up my carry-on bag.  [sigh of relief]  So I opened the bag and they started taking everything out.  I had no idea what they could be looking for.  In there, I had a big bag of coins from different currencies, two DVDs, some plastic cone things that  were used to hold my 'coffee' while in Amsterdam and two lighters.  Those were the only things that I could think would cause a problem.  I was really worried about them finding traces of 'coffee' in those plastic cone containers.  Or maybe it was my souvenir Amsterdam mega blow torch lighter. 

But no.  All of those things were fine.  What caused the problem was my deodorant.  Apparently, my anti-perspirent was more of a threat to national security than a big lighter that could have started a fire on the plane.  I don't get it.  I'll just have to buy more deodorant when I get to the US.  I feel bad for the passengers sitting around me on my flight.  I was in a hurry this morning packing in the dark and just forgot to reapply.

Also I think that the airline companies like to torture the flight attendants.  The only thing I wouldn't like about that job is the security demonstration thing they have to do like how to put on your seat belt.  On this flight, they announced for the attendants to get in position for the demonstration.  Then the TV monitors turned on and they played a video that did everything for them.  The flight attendants just stood perfectly still and did absolutely nothing.  Poor things.

And if there's no smoking on flights, why is there a no smoking light that turns on and off.  They should just have little stickers everywhere instead of wasting money and power on a light that never turns off. 

Okay I'm done bitching now. 

Okay it's very sad.  My flight leaves tomorrow at 9am.  I've got 13 more hours left in Europe (and most of those will be spent sleeping).  I love being here and will definitely make it back as soon as I can. 

Just some random thoughts:

- Even though the Irish drive on the wrong side of the road and speak in a way that I can't hardly understand them, they are extremely nice and friendly.

- Total number of tourists on laptops right now in the TV room of my hostel:  11 (and two are Apples!)  There's no telling how many more are in the other rooms right now.

- Last night and tonight, the TV has been tuned into a channel where they play non stop Simpsons for like 3 hours (utterly fabulous)

- There's a lot of French speaking tourists in this hostel.

Enough posting for now... time for more Simpsons.

Well I had a blast in Berlin.  I went on two of the tours that my company gives (for free of course).   Berlin was just HUGE.  I have been so use to the tiny city of Amsterdam.  I didn't know what to do when I arrived.  But I did get use to it.  Berlin is a great city and very cheap (food and living wise).  I'll definitely have to go back when I have more time.

So I'm in Dublin now.  Drama about the flights.  I think I'm just going to stay here in Ireland and find a job.  Just kidding.  I'm not pulling that again.  I'm just stuck here for two nights until my flight leaves on Tuesday.  So looks like I'm not getting to DFW until Thursday (assuming everything works out). 

I'm actually staying at the same hostel (Avalon) that I was in 8 months ago when I started my backpacking trip.  It's a really nice one.  They've got free internet and even free wireless.  I'm hanging out in the lobby (trying not to spend the last 25 euros that I have).  Including me, there are a total of 14 tourists with their laptops in the common room of this hostel.

I'm going to be completely broke by the time I actually make it to DFW.

I've been bored all day and I decided to play around with the MacKiev 3D Weather Globe.  I created a map of all the cities I visited during my backpacking trip:

I'm having the time of my life here in Amsterdam.  I'm definitely not ready to leave just yet but I figure that I need to start coming up with some sort of exit plan.  I'm not wanting to stay for forever (unless I meet the man of my dreams here) but I am hoping to be able to stay here until the end of next summer.  I'm also not ready to come back to the US quite just yet.  I still want to travel the world.

So here's my plan so far: 
- Stay in Amsterdam until July or August. 
- Travel and see a few more cities in Europe (Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, ...)
- Then move to some place in Asia or Africa and teach English there (or even math maybe)

Some of the countries I've been considering are South Africa, United Arab Emirates, China, South Korea and Japan.  I am still just doing some initial research on different programs offered in each country.  So from now until next summer, I really need to work hard on saving up as much money as I can (right now I'm pretty broke).  

So we'll see how this plan actually unfolds.

So yesterday I met veetor at the airport. 

We came back to my house to find the house completely clean and a bunch of birthday presents for me (yay!).  Elien had bought an amazing pie which all five of us devoured.  Then, I got to open my gifts.  My roommies got me a lot of things for the house and my room/attic (a lamp, candles, insense, etc.).  Then I showed veetor around Amsterdam.  I took him through the Red Light District, Dam Square, the shopping streets, the Homomonument, then to an interesting gay bar.  At 7:00, we met two of my roommates at one of the canal cruise places.  Every Saturday they do a special pizza cruise that goes all around the canals for 90 minutes.  You get a small Domino's pizza, a small tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and all the cokes, wines and beer you can drink.  Plus, you get to see this amazing city all lit up at night.  The view of the buildings from the canals is amazing. 

After the cruise, we were all pretty tired and came home and crashed.  Yes we fell asleep around 10pm on my birthday.  But since I'm 27 now,  I'm old and can't stay up that late anymore ;-).  Plus I usually spend all week celebrating so I've got plenty of time.

Today, I have to work.  I'm doing the morning tour of the city.  If veetor isn't too jetlagged, hopefully he'll be able to come on my tour.

The following are about 60 or so of the 200+ photos taken during gay pride in early August.  Most of the pics are safe.  I would only consider a few of the pics as NSFW (but no full frontal nudity on guys... just asses and boobs and bulges).

Just some random pics of things around the city...


Coming up next: Pictures from Gay Pride Weekend

I've taken probably 600-700 pictures in Amsterdam so I'm going to divide them up as much as possible.  If any of them are Not Safe For Work (NSFW), I'll let you know ahead of time.

Most of the following pics are of what I saw on the free tour that I took my first day in Amsterdam.  This is the same tour company that I now work for... so this is what I now get to show to tourists when they go on my tour (plus plenty of other stuff).


Coming up next: Plenty more pics of Amsterdam and The Netherlands

Can you tell by these pics (or lack there of) that  Zurich and Brussels were my two least favorite cities on my trip?

Coming up next: Amsterdam (hooray!!!)

After getting  sick in Corfu, I headed towards Athens.  I was still deathly sick while in Athens and pretty much stayed in the hotel room and didn't see a single thing in the city.  It's okay because everyone told me that the Acropolis was being redone anyway.  They said most of the buildings were taken apart or had scaffolding on them.  So I started heading north to Budapest, Hungary (via Macedonia and Serbia)


Coming up next: Pics of Salsburg and Munich

Coming up next: Pics of Corfu and Budapest

Now that my computer has arrive, I'm going to be posting pics from my European trip.  I've got well over a thousand pics from the last 4 months.  I can't post all of them but I'll try my best.  All of the pics will be safe for work (until I start posting the pics from Amsterdam).

I had previously posted a few pics back in Dublin.  Click here to see that post about Dublin.

Okay so far I've always talked about how wonderful Amsterdam is... blah blah blah...  Now I'm gonna talk about the bad stuff here.

Complaint #1: It doesn't stop raining here.  
Amsterdam is like the Seattle of Europe.  Did it bother raining during the 2 weeks while I was deciding to stay or not?  Nope.  But the day after my flight left - torrential down pour.  And giving walking tours of the city isn't fun in the rain (except the tourists might pity me more and give me a bigger tip).

Complaint #2:  On average, the Dutch are the tallest white people in the world.
Why is this a bad thing you say?  Well I can't find a pair of jeans that will fit me.  Having only packed for the summer time, I only have shorts with me and it's already getting cold in The Netherlands.  I wear a 29" length in pants (but usually just get length 30).  Well most of the pants here are 32-36.  These dudes are huge!  And yes I've tried the women's section but it's not the same. 

Complaint #3:  The gays are worse here.
Just to clarify.  If you haven't ever noticed, the gays tend to be somewhat superficial at times (as deep as a puddle).   Being on the heavier side of things, I found this to be only a slight problem.  Now in Europe (esp The Netherlands), the gays are super thin and they all dress really nice and fashionably.  I've never been more self-conscious before in my life.  But this has led me to have some very rude experiences with some of the locals.  But I'm still looking. 

Okay I think I'm done with the complaints.  I'm sure there's something else but I forget.

Lemme just start off by saying that I make a HORRIBLE first impression.  And sometimes the second impression usually isn't that great either.

So I've been looking for jobs here so that I could have some spending money and stuff.  When I first got here and when I was in Munich, I took a free walking tour with this company (they work off tips).  My tour guide here was James who had moved here to be with his Dutch girlfriend that he had met in NY.  Since then I've become friends with him and we hang out occassionally and stuff.  Well he mentioned to me that they are looking for more tour guides and he gave them my number.  With my teaching background and theater and singing, I figured it would be a perfect way to make money.  

So I got a call from the boss man today and he told me to meet him at a cafe near my apartment.  So I go and he's there with two other guys with the company.  Being that tour guides are basically entertaining tourists, they are looking for crazy wild people.  Well I was just the opposite.  It was 3-on-1 and I start doing my shy, introverted stuff.  Not good.  I had a funny story prepared and everything.  But he instead asked me to tell a joke.  Hell yeah... I LOVE telling jokes.  But for some reason I couldn't think of any.  I blanked.  Rainman would have done a better interview than I did.  Needless to say the interview just went horribly, but for some reason they told me to start training as a tour guide.  So I've got a job... well sort of.  I've still gotta learn all the stuff and have them approve me.  

Anyway... I've never been able to figure out why I'm like that.  VERY shy and timid at first and then little by little I let my ahir down.  :-)  Even with friends sometimes  I can be crazy acting and wanting to be the center of attention.  I just have to get to know the person better.  I get especially crazy with Tori and Sallye when we hang out.  Example with Tori: During Christmas time, we would hide in the trees outside of Kroger and jump out at people as they walked by.  Example with Sallye: After telling her a funny story in the middle of Target and her almost peeing herself in the shoe section, we then proceed to sing "The Sound of Music."  I had a hard time convincing Sallye this past year that I am a shy person.  Well with her personality she doesn't give you a chance to be shy.  

Anyway... I have had this problem affect me several times in my life especially when jobs are concerned.  I can't figure out how to just let go and be me.  Maybe I haven't figured out who the real me is.  Or maybe I am worried that people won't like the real me when they see him.  Low self-esteem.  Who knows.  It's just one of the many things I've got to work on.

But anyway... I've got a job!  That's my news.