back in rome.

i got back to rome yesterday in the morning. word to self: do not book flights out of beauvais airport in paris early on a sunday morning. early any morning, rather. the airport is 1 hour away from the city. there are buses that can take you there, but i needed to be at the airport at 8:30am to catch my flight. the first public transport left at 8am. i would have definately misssed my flight. so 125 euros ($162) later and by taxi, i reached my flight on time.

arriving in rome at 10:30am, i got to my hotel(impero) i hate my hotel. don't ever stay at hotel impero. it's in the city center, but on a bad street, and the service here is bullshit. i should have just gotten a room at yes hotel, where me and sara stayed the first time i was here. i arrived at the hotel at 12:30pm. i came to front desk and stand there for about 5 minutes while the staff is eating lunch and yelling at one of the employees to go help me. they told me to come back at 2pm. so i had to do something with myself for 1.5 hours. i asked them, are there any rooms ready. they said no come back at 2. i come back and there is a line of people waiting to check in at the same time. i have to wait 20 minutes for them to get to me. they checked maybe 3 groups of people before me. later i find out there were several rooms open. if they would have just started checking people in sooner this big ass line would not have been there. then once they got to me, they couldn't find my paperwork and told me i did not have a room. the website i booked through sent me a text confirmation, so i showed it to reception. he said,"no that is not ok. you have to have the paper". i think to myself, i am travelling and don't have a fucking printer. he looks through paperwork doesn't find it. 10-15 minutes later he decides to check on their website to see if my info is there. it is. they didn't print the info out. after about 20 minutes i finally get my key. and my luggage is not brought to me. i had to ask them for my luggage.
i get in my room and it's a decent room. the bed is soft, theres a towel warmer in the bathroom, hairdryer, soaps, bodywash, and shampoo. i check if there is internet since the website said there was wireless. the wireless internet doesn't work in my room and i have to pay 5 euros an hour. wtf. then i went shopping. found a pair of brown boots finally! tried them on again the back of the boot is ripped. fuck! cheap ass boots.
after shopping i tried going to open colonna, which is a very well known restaurant here, but it is closed for a private event. it's the second time i've tried to eat there. no luck. then i go to a traditional roman style restaurant. damn was the food good. i had flat bread, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, proscuitto, and tortellini. the tortellini was a bit heavy on salt but still tasty. then i stayed in, since i'm afraid of italian men. they are just so aggressive. i feel like i cannot go out alone here. ciao bella, oh bellisima, ni hao.

so i woke up at 10 this morning. the hotel serves breakfast till 10. i get down to the breakfast room. it is closed. exactly at 10am. who the fuck does that. this hotel is bullshit. and everytime i come back to the hotel at night, i have to ring the doorbell and wait for the guy working night shift to wake up to open the door for me. wtf.

i did my last little bit of shopping and toured around the ancient ruins in the middle of rome. it's pretty much amazing. it is so weird walking through these ruins and being in the middle of a big city. i finally did some damage here in rome. 4 pairs of shoes and a purse. i also tried to go to another restaurant ao roma. closed mondays. ps. all of the cool restaurants close on mondays. the end. i leave for san diego tommorow. my flight leaves at 10:30am. that means i go to the train station at 7:25am. it.s now 3:37am. i havent packed. thanks for listening to me rant. see you at home!

last night

last night i did more shopping after le marais, but i didn't seem to find anything i needed from the st germain de pres area. i stopped inside some shops there and tried on a dress at kenzo. it was very cute, on sale, and the service was excellent. the guy who helped me brought me shoes, styled me and even brought me a bag to wear. i ended up looking chic, but looked a lot older when he was done with me. i stopped at galleries lafayette also. omg! everything was on sale. i wish i would have waited to buy a purse, because everything was 50% off. i am debating giong back to buy some chanel boots. i don't know if i should.

after my shopping, i went to eat at a place called chez benoit, which is the oldest traditional french restaurant in paris. these two americans were sat down next to me. i heard their accent and called them out. we ended up having a lot of similar interests. they work for details magazine, and alberto was originally from east county san diego. el cajon to be exact.

we went out for a drink after dinner. alberto wanted to meet up with an old friend. so we waited for his arrival. turns out he is a model for jean paul gaultier and brought one of my favorite supermodels with him...omahyra. she is the tough looking from dominican republic one with tattoos all over. we ended up going to very exclusive bar and then to a club, both of which i never would have found myself. that was a strange and fun night. thanks guys!

i'm glad i didnt go out the night before. it probably would have just made me tired and last night may not have happenned.

shopping.

i did my damage. and i have no regrets! april 77 and surface to air, i love you.

nightmare.

last night i was thinking about when i was going to see the catacombs. it gave me nightmares about a house which people had a mass suicide and their organs were cut up into pieces, all over the floor, and i was one of the people who had to clean it up. it was quite disturbing. then after the clean up, the space was turned into a cafe. wierd.

travel time

yesterday i arrived in london. to get on my train to paris. as i was waiting in londonthis man sat down right next to me. i didn't think anything of him at first, but then this girl came up to him and smiled. she must have known him. he kept saying you her, "what do you want? i don't know you. what are you doing?" then they walked away for a bit. he walked back and sat down and started to talk to himself. i still don't know what was up with that.

then i got on my train to paris. as i arrived in gare du nord, i see a fight break loose. a girl was beating up an old man. i couldn't understand what was going on there either.

then i did a little shopping, had some sushi, grabbed a drink and went to bed.

today i got up at about noon. went to do some shopping. i dunno how i ended up spending 2 hours inside colette. it pretty much is awesome. it's too bad i couldn't afford most of the things there. i ended up getting a dress and some music.
i went to chatelet/les halles and got a pair of boots, skincare products to last me a year, and a new sim card for my phone.

tommorow i will do more marathon shopping. april 77, surface to air, rue du charlot, and most likely st germain de pres. i will also try to fit in le catacombs as well as visiting the school of couture.

leaving reykjavik

this morning i left reykjavik. now on my way to paris. my eyes hurt. i didn't get to bed until 1am and woke up at 4:25 am. i didn't even party last night. i just went on a tour, went out for dinner, had a drink, and came home to pack up my stuff and to get ready for paris. my room is finally booked. my flight and train also booked. i shuold have gotten my tickets for paris ahead of time. at one point it would only cost me about $90 for reykjavik to paris. because i waited till last minute, it would cost about $600. i am not paying that much for a one way ticket. so i found ways around it. i flew into london. took a train to london city, and took the chunnel into paris. which i cheated the system by saying i was 25 to get a discounted ticket. total travel time from when i woke up. 12 hours. shitty.

yesterday i went to the post office to send some stuff home. hotel leifur erikson did it again. such great service. i asked if they had a box handy. they sure did. i also asked if they could mail out my postcards. they said yes. they also had breakfast ready for me this morning when i came downstairs at 4:45am. breakfast is normally served between 6:30-9:30.

on a tour to gullfoss and geysir. we drove from the european tectonic plates to the north american tectonic plates. that was strange. we also saw a beautiful water fall. then i went to a icelandic restaurant and had raw puffin, whale, and deer pate. i didn't like much of it. puffin was sort of mushroom texture. whale was like steak. and deer pate tasted like old dry pate.

waking up in reykjavik

it was tough for me to get up this morning at 11am. maybe it's because i was chatting till 3am. maybe it's because i've been used to waking up in the afternoon after staying out way too late. maybe it's because it's been dark until 11:30am. either way i had to get up. i missed breakfast, which ends at 9:30am. i got up, showered, left the hotel at about noon. today i tried my hardest to do some shopping. it's nice that all of the boutiques are on my street, as well an intersecting street. it makes it really hard for me to get lost. anyhow, i walked outside and somehow a swarm of asian tourists wearing their tourist uniforms surrounded me. you know, the puffy parkas, the hiking shoes, the wire rimmed glasses, and all in neutral colors(blue, khaki, white, and sometimes orange). i think to myself,"oh god, i hope no one thinks i'm with them.

first stop was 12 tonar, a local music store with a record label. the guy working was very nice. i asked him about icelandic music so he openned up some shrink wrapped cds for me to listen to and even made me some espresso. icelandic coffee isn't the best. but it was the thought that counts.
then i stopped at a place called fish and chips. you can imagine what i ate. and damn was it good. organic, freshly fished out of the ocean this morning, cod.
i proceeded to go shopping for clothing. some of the stores i tried to visit ended up being shut down. i walked through almost every single boutique in reykjavik. i ended up with a purse and a few scarves. no clothing. i was very suprised since all of the window displays look so cool. i think icelandic clothing is just not my style. a little too crafty looking for me, a bit too nineties, or some things looked like i can make it myself.
so i stopped in another music shop. this one belongs to the former sugar cubes. of course the guy managing had good taste although the store is known to be called "bad taste". i got a few records and the sugar cubes box set on vinyl. i can't wait to get home to listen to my new finds. the guy managing also tipped me off to different cafes with live music. thanks guy!

after shopping, i got hungry again and stopped at this little coffee shop on my street. i met my first gay in iceland. he was the owner of the coffee shop. he was not icelandic, but his husband is. he made me a crepe and a chai tea. both pretty damned good. wifi food and tea. what a perfect combo. and he was soo nice. i think i'll go there tommorow.

i also booked a tour to see aurora borealis. and here i am, stuck with like 20 asian tourists. i felt like such an outcast, even though we are all asian. then some tourists from other countries showed up. i felt normal again. these asian tourists keep blowing my cover. and the booking agents think i'm with them. can't they tell i don't have the tourist uniform on?
so i paid 49 euro to go on this tour. it was a bust. no aurora borealis. i think all the photos of it were photoshopped or maybe someone mad a mistake while developing film.