tales of three cities

discussed:
-banal ex-pats party in paris
-live-sex show in amsterdam
-drinking with 20 year-olds in brussels

right now i'm back in lyon after a week on the road, or rather, train. paris wasn't bad -- my friend tom's friend christina and i hung out with friends of friends and randoms, and some of the notable events included free housing provided by a pair of photography students, a surprisingly banal party with fashion students and ex-pats, and a homecooked omelet brunch with a rocker (imagine brad pitt's scrappy kid brother) and his girlfriend. everything else isn't really worth delving into here, with the exception of the party, where i managed to get harangued in both english and spanish by this obnoxious guy from barcelona. "right now i am in paris," i said, in spanish. "no, right now you are EN MI CASA," said the guy. "what i mean to say is, after this i will be in amster..." "no, after this, you will be EN LA CALLE -- IN THE STREET." when i explained what i am doing, which is to say stuyding writing, douche gave me a look like i was the dumbest guy he had ever met. i did manage to get him on the defensive by responding, "what, you don't like books?" to which he stammered around some and then gave some bullshit response that he did but didn't have much time to read, or something equally weak.

after paris christina and i met up with tom and chelsea for three drug-filled and boozy days in the climatically moody city of amsterdam. we smoked "purple haze", bought some "big cocks" playing cards, and ate pot brownies (i forget the name of what they call them there, but there's a special name for those there). one night i was even dragged to a live sex show. writing it down now, it all sounds pretty exciting, which actually wasn't really the case. something weird about the sex show was the music: stevie wonder "as", followed by the scorpions "the rhythm of love". the guy from the act was dressed in a prisoner's outfit -- complete with cap -- and looked sort of like frank black, which, I discovered, is sort of like a giant, stubby penis. the so-called "movements" of the couple were choreographed to the previously mentioned songs and I found it all a bit too surreal for me. the thing is, however, without the sex and drugs, amsterdam is really a boring city -- at least the red-light district. even with the sex and drugs i wandering around the canals finding myself mostly bored and indifferent. the highlight of my four days was probably playing and singing "reptilla" with teenagers from valencia, spain in the hallway of the hostel.

brussels, on the other hand, was a pretty good time -- after wandering around empty streets for about an hour, we found the bar district where we met a large group of 20 year-old americans. in addition to the fun we had drinking, i learned something as well: when you drink with 20 year-olds, you end up drinking like 20 year-olds -- which is to say, i got dizzy and threw up in the bathroom sink, twice.