ryanritchie's blog

FUCKING HOSTEL

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:17:07 -0500

no punctuation cuz this german keyboard is tripping. big headache from liters of beer from hofbrauhaus last night. tourist trap? probably. but the best tourist trap ive ever been to. apologies to my girlfriend at home, but holy shit are the women gorgeous here. i always thought of germany as fat old...

VIVA ITALY

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:16:07 -0500

in an internet cafe in venice. this is my new favorite city. last night was the beginning of carnival. it was one of the best things ive ever experienced. people everywhere. drinking. partying. we were part of a large group of gatecrashers who tried to get into the main party but we left when it looked...

VENICE PART TWO

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:15:14 -0500

new internet cafe in venice. still here and still loving it. there are small dogs that roam next to their owners all over this city. they are very well behaved. last night we were walking in the middle of nowhere when we came across a pizzeria. i got a beer and a large slice with no cheese, zucchini,...

MORE VENICE

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:14:24 -0500

ive been to this same internet cafe three times today. chip and taylor are sleeping and said they might not go out tonight. which leaves me wondering what ill do. i just took a much needed nap. we walked the city today. went to san marco square and into some famous church and palace. the architecture...

CIAO

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:13:18 -0500

We left Venice today. I want to see more cities, but I could easily stay there for, well, forever. I am walking with a limp because all of the walking in Venice. The lower part of the right leg is very sore and the back of my ankle is killing me because I am wearing Avila tennis shoes that I borrowed...

PRONTO...

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:12:07 -0500

...is how Italians answer the phone. Basically, it means, "I'm ready. Start talking." I think it's my new motto. Cut the bullshit. Get to it.

Drank Absynthe for the first time last night. Man, could I feel that. I heard it was unlike any other buzz and that is the truth. By 3:30 a.m., my stomach felt...

PARTY MACHEN

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:11:08 -0500

Taylor and Chip are snowboarding tomorrow, which means I'll have time to recap the past few days then. In the meantime, here's my journal entry from two nights ago in Koln (Cologne to the Americans), Germany...

I think it's now Saturday, Feb. 1. But I could be wrong. We (Chip, Taylor and I) are in an...

FLYING

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:09:42 -0500

Back home after what was maybe the longest day of my life. Waking up in Garmisch, Germany at 8:30 a.m. and falling asleep in Long Beach, California at 1:30 a.m. is not something I want to do again.

Here's an excerpt from my journal, written on the plane after something like eight hours of non-stop...

HOME

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:08:45 -0500

Glad to be back in sweet home Long Beach. But not gonna lie and say I'm happy about leaving Europe either. It would take volumes of encyclopedias to write about every aspect of the trip. So I won't. Maybe it will come to me over the next few days or maybe the next few years. Either way, I've got stories...

VENICE

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:07:46 -0500

Journal entry from Venice...
Monday night around 3 a.m. Just walked home from alone from a bar in Venice. Scary and exhilarating. I had no idea where I was going, but I made it. It's amazing how safe this city is. People out at all times, walking, drinking, playing guitar on bridge steps. This city is...

GARMISCH

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:06:47 -0500

First journal entry of the trip.
1/25/08 3:45 p.m. Sitting in a studio apartment on an American military base in Garmisch, Germany. So much as happened already and we have 12 more days. Europe really is that awesome. So far anyway. We went to Munich last night and partied. Nursing a bad hangover at the...

KOLN

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:02:55 -0500

Things I saw on my solo walk through Koln tonight.
A drunk teenage girl ringing the buzzer of every apartment she passed. A drunk teenage boy dressed as a construction worker waiving to people from the steel bar that connects two trains. A lot of people dancing. Teens drinking. College kids hooking up....

JET LAG SUCKS

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:01:32 -0500

Fuck you jetlag. It's Friday morning and I've been up since 7:30 a.m. I laid down for what I thought was going to be a nap at 5:30 p.m. last night, but it easily could have been a full night's rest had I not been woken up for reasons I won't get into. I was confused again when I woke up around 7 p.m....

LONG BEACH

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:58:53 -0500

I have a friend from Italy in town. Yesterday I took her around Long Beach because she wants to move to Los Angeles. I told her she should forget LA and move here instead. I think she now agrees. Although I love it here, I've been kinda burned on Iowa by the Sea for a while now. Seeing the same things,...

SAN FRANCISCO

ryanritchie — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:53:46 -0500

Hopped aboard JetBlue this weekend for a mini-getaway. And by mini, I mean 24 hours. I've never been on JetBlue before, but now I understand why everyone loves that airline so much. I get on and the first quarter of the Raptors/Magic game was on. I watched and didn't even realize we took off or landed....