#and I had no issues with parking checking my bag airport security etc

[lesbiansanemi]

Fighting for my fucking life trying to figure out airport parking rn the website is so confusing about where I can park and what the rates are and whether I can reserve it/pay or not ahead of time

[skz317cb97]

Beach Bum

Felix x Thick female reader

Word count: 7.6K

Synopsis: You tag along on spring break to visit your best friend's brother in Australia. A wardrobe issue forces you out of your comfort zone and into your worst nightmare

A/N: 18+ ONLY! This one is a little tamer than my last fee but I hope you all enjoy it! If you do give it a reblog, like, comment, hit my ask box I'm always up for some feedback! As always warnings and smut below the cut!

Warnings: 18+ ONLY MDNI! Cursing/strong language, mild violence (a punch), fat shaming (not Felix), oral (m&f receiving), cum shot, cum eating (only a little), protected piv sex, praise, body worship, pet names (angel, beautiful etc), guided masterbation (kinda), marking. I think that's everything. This one is tamer than the last few. If I missed something please let me know and I'll add it asap!

When your best friend Rosa found out you had made no plans for spring break, she insisted on you tagging along on her trip to Australia instead of you barricading yourself in your room for seven days. She was going to visit her brother Felix who you had met loads of times. Whenever he was in town he’d mention getting a room and Rosa would argue, telling him that he just needed to crash with you all instead of wasting money on a hotel, understandably so. Naturally when you both were going for a visit back home he insisted upon the same thing. 

“Don’t you dare get a hotel when you get here. There’s plenty of room in my apartment.”  

“Are you sure? y/n is with me, it’s not too much?” Felix laughed sweetly  

“Of course not! I love y/n! She’s more than welcome to stay at mine as well.” Rosa was on the phone with Felix as you drove to the airport. You started blushing when you happened to hear him over the phone. You were possibly the biggest cliche walking on earth, a crush on your best friend’s brother.  

One of the times he was crashing with you and Rosa you’d ran into him coming from the shower, towel wrapped around his waist, wet hair, skin flushed, beads of water rolling down his thin but muscular frame. You quickly apologized and fled, putting your shoes on and leaving the apartment entirely to get a hold of yourself. Felix thought it was so cute how you dashed away. It just wasn’t fair. He was sweet and funny and looked like that. Freckled face, perfect smile, big brown eyes and then his voice! Felix was the whole package and entirely out of your league. What you didn’t know was that Felix was just as big of a cliché as you. He was entirely smitten by you. You were funny and smart and pretty, you checked all the boxes for Felix but he didn’t want to be that guy, hitting on his sister’s best friend. You heard Rosa groan at her brother. 

“Gahhokay okay Lix we’re crashing with you no need threaten me with mom. We’re at the airport now I’ll call you when wheels are down. Love you too. Bye.” Your friend hung up with her brother as you pulled into the long term parking lot. You took a big nervous sigh. You weren’t good with planes, you weren’t good with trips, and you had a flock of butterflies in your stomach thinking about spending the whole week at Felix’s place. Your friend could easily pick up on your nerves. 

“You’re more likely to get in a car wreck than a plane crash.” She tried to reassure you. You scoffed. 

“Lot of good that helps, I’ve never been in a wreck.” Rosa opened her door getting out and bending down looking into the car at you. 

“Excuse but I remember your last ex... if that wasn’t a wreck...” 

“YAH! Bitch! That’s it I’m not going! Have fun byyyye...” She laughed. 

“Get out of the car and get your ass in that airport.” Rosa shut her door as you got out laughing and grabbed your bag. 

“Ooo love it when you go all dom on me like that.” You blew her a kiss and winked and you both laughed harder, heading towards the airport with your bags in tow, ready for your break from school. Checking your bags and getting through security were as easy as expected, which was not at all, but you managed to make your flight still. To say that you were a nervous flyer would be an understatement. Typically you would drug yourself fall asleep and wake up at your destination but your flight to Australia wouldn’t take long so there was no knocking yourself out.  

As promised as soon as the wheels hit the ground in Sydney, Rosa texted Felix telling him you had arrived. He replied back saying that he was already at the airport waiting to pick you both up. You had done an amazing job pretending like you weren’t having the worst panic attack of your life on the plane. Once you were on the ground and got done unboarding it all started to catch up with you. You and Rosa got your bags and she started scanning the crowd for her big brother. You were starting to feel clammy and then Rosa spotted Felix. 

“Ooo there he is!” She started waving at him as you both walked towards him. Just as you got up to him you could feel the blood leaving your face. 

“Whoa, y/n are you okay you look a litt-” Before Felix could finish his sentence your vision went blurry and then you were out. 

“y/n!” Rosa called out worried. 

“Oh shit!” Felix lunged and helped you to the ground softly instead of falling like a sack of potatoes. Felix told Rosa to run and get you some water while he tried to get you to come back around. 

“y/n-ie? Come on... can you hear me? Wake up sweetie.” You let out a soft groan as the lights came back on one by one. 

“There you go. There you go.” You opened your eyes and found Felix’s beautiful face staring down at you. You jumped and scrambled to sit up out of his lap and he shushed you and eased you back. 

“Whoa whoa whoa slow down, just lay back. You fainted, Rosa’s grabbing some water just... take it easy. I’ve got you.” Your face started to burn, he smiled, and you relaxed. Rosa was back with a bottle of water quickly. 

“Here babe drink this.” She handed you the bottle. Felix helped you sit up, you opened the water and took a sip. 

“Are you okay?” You nodded taking another sip of the water. 

“Yea yea I’m fine.” She looked at you unconvinced. You shook your head as you went to stand up, Felix holding your hand and arm helping. 

“Really Rosie I’m okay, I promise.” She accepted your promise with the use of the nickname and you both grabbed your luggage. Felix quickly reached to grab yours. 

“I’ve got this.” You shook your head. 

“Oh Lix you don’t have to I can carry it.” He gave you that warm sunny smile. 

“It’s no trouble really.” You allowed him to take the bag and he then led you both to his car. Your friend Rosa was very type A so the whole trip was planned and had an itinerary. Museums, shows, spa, and of course the beach. The day you arrived you just relaxed after the flight, too tired to do anything other than vegging out on the couch with Felix. As soon as the sun was high in the sky the next day, Rosa started whining to Felix about taking you all to the beach. 

“PPppleeeaaaasssseee. It’s so pretty today its perfect for the beach!” He was trying to talk her out of it. It was mid-day, on a Saturday, during spring break, the beach would be crazy. When you heard her pleading you ran into the kitchen to assist. 

“It really is Lixie come on pleaaaase?!” You leaned over the counter across from him begging and Felix could see down your shirt. He tried not to but your breasts were so big and looked so soft and you weren’t wearing a bra-. 

“Lix?” He snapped out of it and looked at you hoping you couldn’t tell he was blushing. 

“Will you?” He raised his eyebrows. 

“Hmm?”  

“Take us to the beach?” That’s right his brain was catching up again. 

“OH! Uh... yea sure of course.” You and Rosa both squealed with excitement. You gave Felix a hug and he tried to think pure thoughts when your soft body hugged his, your breasts covered only by a shirt pressed against his chest. 

“We’ll go get ready!” Rosa said dashing off quickly. You ran off quickly behind her. You drug out your suitcase and started going through it. You had packed two bathing suits for the trip, a modest one piece with a ruffled skirt attached for the beach and a bikini that you only planned on wearing under a robe at the spa you and Rosa had booked. You shuffled through your luggage looking for the one piece, not finding it anywhere. 

“No. No. Nonononono FUCK! It has to be in here!” You dumped the whole suitcase and tossed articles of clothing everywhere. Felix was walking by and heard cussing, he ducked his head into your room and clothes flew by. 

“Uhh... y/n? Everything okay?” You jumped and squeaked as you turned and saw Felix standing in your doorway.  

“Sorry didn’t mean to startle you. Everything alright? I heard swearing and...” You nodded quickly. 

“Oh yea Felix everything’s good I was just looking for my bathing suit.” He took a step in. 

“Oh! Do you need help?” You stopped him stammering. 

“Uh no! No I found it! All good!” He smiled and back out again. 

“Okay good! We’ll leave for the beach in ten, okay?” You smiled, nodding. When Felix closed the door you started rifling through the clothes again. There was the bikini now where was that god damn one piece. Then you remembered. You switched bags. You had made sure to pack the one-piece in the first suitcase but then you switched the night before to a slightly bigger one in case you bought souvenirs in Australia. You had set the one piece aside and you told yourself not to forget it, but you needed to get to bed and you were in a hurry and clearly you had forgotten it. What the hell were you going to do you thought to yourself. You couldn’t bail, you and Rosa had just begged Felix to take you, you both had just been going on about how excited you were to go.  You sighed heavily looking at the bikini. 

“Fuck!” You threw the two pieces of lycra on and looked in the mirror. You couldn’t be more screwed. This was meant to be worn under a robe for no one’s eyes to see. Not at a beach full of people, not in front of Felix. Two thin straps tied at the neck and around the back of the top, the small triangular pieces of fabric attempted to cover your large breasts and did so poorly. While the top was skimpy it was the bottoms you were really concerned about. You turned looking at your ass. Two more little strings tied each side of the bottoms around your wide hips and led back to a thong, the tiniest piece of fabric that your juicy ass cheeks ate entirely. Definitely screwed. You grabbed a big hoodie and some shorts and put them on over what little bathing suit you had on, grabbed your towel then headed out with Rosa and Felix to the beach. You were just pulling up when Felix hit a bump and the slushy Rosa had to get at the convenient store got spilled on your lap. 

“Shit!” Rosa apologized. 

“Oh babe I’m so sorry! Leave your shorts in the car and I’ll wash them as soon as we get back to Lix’s.” You started to flush. 

“You mean take them off?” Rosa giggled a little as she and Felix started getting out of the car. 

“Well you’re not staying in the car with them so that would be the best option.” You got out of the car, stood behind your door then quickly dropped your shorts and wrapped your big beach towel around you. 

“Race you to the sand!” Rosa took off and Felix started to but then noticed you were just walking behind. He slowed down to let you catch up.  

“It’s so warm today, aren’t you burning up in that hoodie?” You absolutely were but there was no way you were taking it off. 

“No I’m fine.” Felix nodded and didn’t push the subject; he knew you were a little self-conscious about your body even though he thought it was perfect. You all got to the sand and tossed your stuff down.  Felix spread out the beach blanket and set up the umbrellas. You sat down under one and pulled out a book. Rosa looked at you incredulously. 

“Really?” You scrunched your face at her. 

“You know very well I'm a ‘read at the beach’ person not a ‘frolic in the water’ beach person. Go on you and Lix go be water babies and frolic. I’ll be fine here.” Your friend leaned down and kissed your forehead. 

“Love you mooooom!” She shouted as she ran off towards the water. You shook your head as you and Felix laughed. 

“You sure you don’t want to come?” His cheeks were already turning pink from the sun and his freckles became more prominent. You shook your head. 

“Maybe later Lix, thanks.” He smiled and it was brighter than the sun, then he ran off to attack his sister in the water. You laid back and relaxed reading your book. After a while even in the shade of the umbrella you started to get hot. The umbrellas gave you a good deal of coverage. You took the hoodie off and wrapped your towel around your chest and relaxed back again. You closed your eyes, not to sleep just to rest them you told yourself as you dozed off. Cool drops of water were what woke you. They felt soothing on your warm skin. 

“Are the kids having fun?” You asked assuming it was Rosa standing close enough to drip on you. 

“Yes angel” You jumped and Felix giggled a little. You opened your eyes to see that he was standing over you drinking some water.  

“Sorry I didn’t mean to disturb your beach nap.” You shook your head sitting up and when you did your towel came undone from around the top of you and suddenly everything from the waist up was on display. Felix choked on his water and almost spit it out. You were some type of goddess he was convinced. Suddenly you heard a wolf whistle and saw Rosa walking up to get a drink as well. 

“Hot momma!” She called out. 

“Can you stop calling me mom, I’m starting to think you have a kink.” Felix laughed and Rosa feigned laughing along. 

“Oh hahaha, give me a bottle of water while you’re sitting there giving away Victoria’s secret.” You rolled your eyes and tossed her a bottle while you half assed covered back up. At that point what did the top matter. As long as you didn’t have to ditch the towel on the bottom you were fine you could handle it. 

“Come on mo-othman...”  

“Good save Rosa...” Felix nudged his sister. 

“Shut up! Let's get in the water again, you too biatch!” She grabbed your hand playfully pulling as you shook your head no. 

“No Rosa I... I can’t it’s okay go without me.” Her eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips. 

“You know you’re stubborn as hell right?” You smiled nodding. 

“You always say it’s a good thing and that you love me.” Rosa shook her head.  

“No sweetie I always tell you that you’re stubborn as hell and it’s a good thing that I love you.” She kissed your forehead again and ran off to the water. Felix was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. 

“Oh sush.” You told him. His laughter died down and he knelt down sitting on his knees by you. 

“Why won’t you come in the water, are you scared of sharks? Cause they have spotters and it’s been years sin-”  

“It’s not sharks that I’m scared of Lixie.” He looked at you sweetly and waited for you to elaborate. You took a deep breath you could hardly stand the way his soft eyes were fixated on you. 

“I... this isn’t my usual bathing suit and the bottoms well... there’s not much bottoms...” Felix attempted to keep his brain from short circuiting with that information. 

“I’m scared someone will stare or say something... because... you know... I’m... big.” Felix’s voice came out softly. 

“Ohhh, y/n... no. You... I mean... well... I think you look amazing in your swimsuit. It looks really good on you.” You started blushing.  

“If you want we can walk out to the water together, once you’re in the water no one will see anything. It feels really good and you can’t go to the beach and not get in the water.” Felix made it sound so easy and saying that he thought you looked good in your bikini made you feel a little more confident. If Felix thought you looked good it couldn’t be that bad. You stood up and let the towel fall down. You were still pretty much blocked from the strangers on the beach but Felix could see everything and loved it. Every roll and curve of your full body made his heart race. He prayed to god he didn’t get a boner because there would be no hiding it in his trunks. You stood there a little unsure still. 

“Are you sure this looks okay Lix?” He stammered and caught himself. 

“Y-y-yeah! Absolutely you look great!” A shy smile crept onto your face. Felix thread his fingers through yours and you both started towards the water. As soon as Rosa saw you both walking out she started walking up on the sand towards you to meet you halfway. 

“Hey! What the fuck! How did you get her to act like a real hum-” 

“Moooooooo!” You heard it. Felix heard it. Rosa heard it. Everyone in a mile radius heard it. You all turned and standing not too far from you was a frat bro, obviously drunk, and a few of his buddies. When you looked at him he repeated. 

“Moooooo!” The one thing you had hoped wouldn’t happen, the reason you never dressed that way, your worst nightmare was coming true on a beach in front of Felix. The frat jerk laughed and continued on. 

“Oink oink!” You choked out a sob and ran for the beach blanket grabbing your things quickly. The drunk asshole taunting you as you ran away. 

“Oink oink oi-” The drunk dick head was silenced when Rosa stormed up and punched his lights out. He hit the deck and of course, with it being spring break, beach patrol was right there to see it. They started to escort Rosa away for detainment while the frat bros friends tried to help him walk up right but ended up dragging him away more or less. As Rosa was walking off with beach patrol she hollered back to Felix.  

“Lix! Go find y/n! Make sure she’s okay!” He threw his hands up. 

“What about you?!” She waved him off. 

“I’ll be fine get y/n!” Beach patrol cuffed Rosa and braced her head as they put her in the back of a cruiser and took off. Felix quickly grabbed the blanket and umbrellas then ran off to find you. He was relieved to find you sitting by the car, having nowhere else to really go.  Your hoodie was back on, towel around you. You had your knees pulled up and your face was buried in your arms as you cried absolutely humiliated. 

“y/n...” You sniffled and looked up at Felix then started crying again. Felix crouched down and hugged you. After a minute you calmed down and Felix unlocked the car tossing the stuff inside quickly then helping you up and into the car, still sniffing and wiping your face with your towel. Felix started the car and took off quietly giving you some time. He could only imagine how hurt you were, the hurt he felt for you was unbearable and he felt so guilty. He had reassured you that you looked amazing, you did. That asshole didn’t deserve to lick the sand off your toes, you were an absolute angel, a goddess of beauty. After a moment of silence in the car you realized there were two instead of three people in the vehicle. 

“Where’s Rosa?” You asked in a small voice. Felix glanced between you and the road quickly. 

“Oh... uh... well... she got arrested.” Suddenly your problem seemed trivial. 

“W-WHAT?! HOW!?”  

“Well she sort of decked that asshole, knocked him out cold actually, then beach patrol drug her off. It’s spring break, they’re used to fights. They’ll keep her overnight in the drunk tank and let her go in the morning with a ticket. It’s not the first time she’s visited that drunk tank for fighting on the beach so don’t worry about her okay?” You nodded, a little half smile on your face at the idea of Rosa punching that dick head. Felix made a turn in the opposite direction of his place and you were confused. 

“Isn’t your apartment back that way?” He smiled nodding, eyes on the road. 

“It is. We’re not going to my apartment though.”  

“Uh... w-where are we going?” He made another turn. 

“I told you that you can’t go to the beach and not get into the water...” You started shaking your head no. You could not have a repeat of what just happened. 

“No Lix let’s jus-” 

“It’s okay, it’s my secret spot. My own personal beach. I’ve gone there for years and never seen someone else there. Trust me okay?” Your heart was racing with anxiety but you nodded agreeing. Felix pulled off onto the shoulder into some gravel, parked and turned off the car. 

“We’re here.” It didn’t look like a beach was anywhere near there. Felix got out and opened your door helping you out then grabbing the beach blanket and heading for the tree line. 

“Uh Lixie... where’s the beach?” He laughed deeply. 

“Follow me.” He started to make his way through some brush and you quickly followed before you were left behind. When you made your way through the brush line you found Felix waiting on a path. 

“Come on it’s just a little further this way.” You could hear the ocean now, you were surprised how much the tree line blocked it out. You followed Felix up the path and then you came out on a beautiful little beach. White sand, clear water, and not another singles soul in sight. 

“Oh my god Felix! This place is beautiful!” He smiled ear to ear then ran onto the beach and spread out the blanket falling back and landing on his ass. You walked over and knelt down on the blanket too still in your hoodie, wrapped in your towel. 

“It’s okay y/n. You can relax.” You sat down, stretching your legs out and resting back on your hands. Felix shook his head. 

“I mean it’s okay for you to ditch the hoodie and towel.” You sat up again.  

“Oh! Well... I...” Felix’s hand came up and rubbed your back. 

“I think you look amazing in your bathing suit and it’s only me and you. Trust me?” You looked at him and nodded. You took the hoodie off first tossing it away on the blanket then removing the towel that you had wrapped around your waist. Felix’s eyes ran up and down your body. 

“Lixie?” His lustful gaze turned soft when he realized he’d been staring. 

“Uh... yea... okay! Now let’s get in that water!” Felix jumped up and ran for the ocean. You stood, laughing and made your way down to the shoreline stopping before actually getting in. Felix was already out to his waist in the water, he slapped a big splash of water at you and you were sprayed with cool drops. 

“Get in already!” He called after you. You rolled your eyes but you were laughing. He was happy to see you smiling. 

“I’m convinced every time you get into the ocean you regress to a twelve-year-old.” He laughed and splashed you again. 

“Get! In!” Slash, splash, splash. 

“Okay okay I’m coming stop drowning me!” Felix relented and you waded out into the ocean until you were also waist deep. He was standing in front of you with his smile brighter than the sun reflecting off the water. 

“See? Nice isn’t it?” You hummed nodding running your hands gently through the water. Looking down and seeing all the little fish swimming around the two of you. Felix was staring again this time at your beautiful face while you watched in amazement. The two of you waded out a little further and it seemed like the deeper you got the closer Felix was to you. You jumped when his hand found your waist thinking a fish brushed against you, then you realized it was Felix’s hand, then his arm was around you, then both, your soft wet body squishing against his firm bare chest. Both of you warm and sun kissed. You let out a shudder of a breath. 

“You cold?” He asked in that deep voice, pressing your bodies together closer. You shook your head no. 

“N-no...” He was looking deep into your eyes shaking his head no along with you. His face was leaning in closer and closer. Suddenly a big wave came and crashed into the two of you knocking you under water, sending you spinning. When you resurfaced you spotted Felix frantically looking around for you. When he spun and saw you his hand went to his heart and he let out a sigh of relief. You both made your way out of the water and to the blanket to catch your breath and lay out to dry. Whatever moment had been happening before, the wave ruined and was forgotten. After laying there for a minute you opened your eyes and looked over at Felix. He was laying on his back, eyes closed, little content smile on his face. The apples of his cheeks were starting to turn a little red from the sun and you could count each individual freckle on his face. His blonde hair getting fluffier as it dried. 

“Thanks Felix.” He scrunched his eyes and turned his head to look over at you. His eyes met with yours and he sat up on his elbow so he could look down at you better. 

“For what?” You looked up at him and he didn’t think you could be more beautiful. Sunkissed, sea salt soaked hair starting to dry, just beautiful. 

“For bringing me here... for telling me you think I’m pretty...” Felix shook his head and leaned over you, propped up by his arms, one on each side of your head caging you in under him. You were caught off guard, you looked at the two arms boxing you in then back into Felix’s eyes. 

“I don’t think your pretty y/n.... I know you are.” He leaned down and pressed his lips softly against yours then pulled back, looking down at you, gauging your reaction. You touched your lips smiling. 

“Lixi-” He leaned down again and captured your lips between his, tilting his head to deepen the kiss. Your hands slid up Felix’s shoulders and neck, your fingers threading through the long hair at his nape. Your lips parted and Felix took the opportunity to slide his tongue into your mouth. You made out like that for a while Felix getting bold and squeezing your breasts over your bikini top, making you moan into his kiss. His lips peppered down your neck and chest. 

“Lix...” He hummed acknowledging you. 

“Hmm...” More kisses, teeth gently scraping. 

“Lix...” He nodded. 

“MMhm...” You giggled pushing at his chest a little in vain. He was nibbling your neck his ear right by your lips. 

“Lixie... w-we... we can’t do this h-here.” You whispered your voice breathy. Felix stopped and pulled away quickly. 

“W-we... we can’t do what?” You looked at him sheepishly biting your kiss swollen lips worried you’d assumed too much. 

“Well... you know. We can’t... I can’t...” You looked down at the painfully obvious erection Felix was sporting in his trunks.  

“I can’t... take care of you.” You said sweetly. 

“Y-you want to?” He asked surprised. You pulled him down on you again and kissed him, then pulled away nodding, your teeth gently tugging at your bottom lip. 

“Yes.” You said quietly. Felix brushed a little sand off your face and nodded. He got off you and stood up then helped you and rolled up the blanket again. He led you down the trail and through the brush again. When the two of you got into the car the sexual tension was thick. The whole way back to Felix’s apartment his hand was on your leg, fingers gently tracing, sliding higher then squeezing and tracing back down. You had been completely dried off from the ocean but your bathing suit bottoms were most definitely wet. When you got to Felix’s place, he unlocked the door and let you in first. You tried to just... act natural. 

“So did yo-” When you turned to speak to Felix cupped your face and kissed you. You felt like you were still standing on the beach you were so warm all over. He pulled back smiling.  

“We should probably shower the beach off.” You nodded, speechless. Felix thread his fingers through yours again like he had at the beach and started to lead you towards the bathroom. 

“Will you shower with me?” He asked, giving your hand a gentle squeeze when you didn’t respond. You couldn’t help it. You were half in shock. You never thought you would have found yourself in a senario where Felix and you even kissed let alone have sex. 

“y/n? You okay?” You snapped out of it.  

“Yea! Yes I’m fine.” He stopped just outside the bathroom and leaned in to kiss you again. 

“Will you?” You chewed at your bottom lip again and nodded. 

“Yes.” Felix walked into the bathroom and held the door open. You walked in and stood there nervously as he shut the door and turned back to you. You were never good at hiding your nerves and Felix could tell. 

“y/n?” You looked at him a little wide eyed. 

“I-if you don’t wan-” 

“I DO! I do Felix I'm just... nervous. He walked over to you and wrapped his arms around you. 

“What are you nervous about angel? Maybe I can help.” You hesitated, unsure of how to put into words what you were feeling. 

“You... seeing me.” Felix was looking at you with that soft expression again. 

“Angel... I’ve always seen you. I’m crazy about you y/n. Always have been.” Your jaw dropped.  

“What?!” He nodded and pecked your lips. 

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?!”  

“Because you’re GORGEOUS and I didn’t know for sure if you had any feelings for me and I didn’t want to make things weird, you’re my sister’s best friend.” He was looking down and not in your eyes now. 

“I do.” You said quietly. He looked at you again. 

“You do what?” He knew he just needed to hear you say it. 

“I... I’m in love with you Felix.” You said with a shaky voice. Felix kissed you breathless, holding your soft body against him. He pulled away panting. 

“I love you y/n I love you so much.” You pulled him into another passionate kiss. Felix’s hands traveled up your back and pulled at the first string of your top, untying, and loosening it. He kissed down your neck as he tugged at the other string, pulling it slowly until your top fell to the ground. Instinctively you went to cover up but Felix stopped you. 

“Please, don’t.” You put your arms back down around Felix and he started to pull at both strings of your bottoms. He kissed you and completely untied them at the same time. His tongue softly intruding into your mouth and the fabric hit the floor. Felix’s hands never stayed in one place very long, he wanted to feel everything. When he finally pulled his lips away so that you could both shower and breathe he raised his brow a little, a mischievous smile you usually only saw when he was up to something.  

“Do you want to take mine off me?” You flushed but knelt down grabbing the waist band of his swim trunks and pulling down until his cock was free right in front of your face. It was hard a bead of precum on the tip. You resisted the urge to grab it and stood back up as Felix stepped out of his shorts and turned on the shower. He opened the shower curtain. 

“After you.” You laughed and got in, Felix right behind you. He lathered up some bodywash in his hands. 

“Can I wash you?” You nodded. 

“Yes Lixie.” He bit his lip. 

“I really love it when you call me that.” You smiled. Felix spun his finger around for you to turn your back to him. You turned and Felix started to run his hands along your shoulders and back not only washing you but squeezing and rubbing your shoulders and neck. Between the hot water and Felix’s hands you were so relaxed so you jumped when his arms wrapped around you and he started to rub soap on your breasts. When you jumped you pressed into Felix more and you could feel his erection poking you. He acted as if nothing was happening between your bodies and continued to rub his soapy hands all over you.  

He turned you and pulled your hips close his hard cock still prodding you and Felix gripping your ass then rubbing it. He looked you right in the eyes and Felix’s had something in them you’d never seen. Pure lust. His hands ran down your thighs and he started to kneel in front of you, face to face with your cunt. He continued rubbing the soap over your thighs and down your legs, saving the best part for last. He finally ran his hand over your pussy washing you and you throbbed when his hands moved away. Felix pulled your hips forward and water ran down your body washing the suds away. Suddenly Felix’s face was between your legs and he was finally tasting your sweet cunt. You jumped and he put his arms around your legs and held you close as he continued to savor you, slow long licks of his tongue through your slit. 

“F-Felix...” He spread your pussy open and started sucking on your clit, he hummed.” 

“Hmhm” Was all you heard but what you felt when he hummed against your throbbing clit like that it was divine. 

“F-F-Felix!” He sucked and hummed is disapproval again sending more vibrations rumbling through your cunt and then you realized. 

“Lixie!” He was an absolute starved man. He loved when you called him that. He ate your pussy like it was his job. As far as he was concerned it was. You soared into your orgasm, coming on Felix’s tongue, holding yourself up as your knees went weak. He stood up wiping your juices with the back of his hand then kissed you. His hands roaming your full figure again. You pulled away and stopped him with one finger up. 

“It’s time to clean Lixie too.” Felix’s cock twitched. 

“Okay angel...” He ran his fingers down your cheek. 

“Will you wash me?” You nodded eagerly and grabbed the body wash. You gave Felix the same treatment he’d just given you, massaging his shoulders, soaping his chest and kneeling down to do his legs, his hard leaking cock right in front of you. You took both your soapy hands and grabbed it slowly jerking him off. Felix whimpered, he’d been hard for so long and the feeling of your soapy hands sliding up and down his cock was almost more than he could take. One hand traveled down and fondled his balls as you continued to stroke his cock with the other. He thought he was about to cum but then you removed your hands giving him a little taste of his own medicine. He looked down pouting. You put your hands on his hips and moved him under the stream of water, washing the suds of soap from his body. When Felix was clean you grabbed his dick and started sucking on the tip. 

“F-fuck oh y/n god.” He wasn’t expecting it but he wasn’t complaining either. Your mouth felt amazing wrapped around his aching cock. You took more of him and hummed. 

“Hmhm.” You started sliding up and down his shaft. 

“Y/N! Fuck!” You took a bit more of him and hummed again and then he realized what you wanted. 

“Angel! Your mouth feels so good!” You started deep throating him gagging, Felix gently held your head as you suck the life from him. 

“I’m gonna cum angel fuck, you’re gonna make me cum.” You pulled off and stroked his cock. 

“Where Lixie? Hmm?” A hundred ways and places to cum on you ran through his mind he didn’t know what to pick. He looked down as you stroked his cock fast and saw your huge breasts bouncing with every stroke and he moaned. 

“Tits wanna cum on your tits please!” You stroked him and kitten licked the tip of his cock pressing the base of his tip against your puckered lips and rubbed it against them as you continued jacking him off. He let out a soft moan and you aimed his dick at your tits just as the first streak of cum shot across them. You stroked him as his cum covered your tits and started to drip down your body. 

“F-fuck...” Felix was panting. 

“F-feels so g-good angel... keep stroking get it all.” You did as he asked and wiped the last drop of cum off on your chest. Felix looked down at you, he was red and out of breath. You had big doe eyes and wore his cum all over your breasts. He helped you up, cupped your face and kissed you, then washed your chest off one more time before you both got out of the shower. You dried off and you went to go into the room that you were using for the trip. Felix grabbed your wrist and pulled you towards his room. 

“Absolutely not.” You giggled as you followed the towel clad man to his room. He led you in and towards his bed. 

“There. That’s where you belong angel. In my bed.” You laughed and finished drying your hair tossing the towel in a near by hamper. Felix closed the space between you. He ran his hands down your arms and grabbed your hands. He squeezed them and leaned in kissing you. He let go to hold you by your wide hips and your arms wrapped around his shoulders your fingers threading through his hair. You pulled away to get air, your foreheads pressed together, both of you blushing, breathing heavy. One of Felix’s hands came up and two fingers slid into the tie of your towel loosening it and allowing it to fall to the floor, leaving you soft and naked in front of him. He squeezed his cock over his towel already so hard again then pulled his towel off tossing it aside. He cupped your face with both hands and pressed his lips softly against yours and then whispered. 

“Can I have you?” Your heart was racing a million miles a minute. You looked into his eyes, bit your lip and nodded. 

“Tell me angel. Tell me you want me.” You kissed him gently, once, twice, three times. 

“Felix, take me, I’m yours.” He kissed you and leaned you back onto the bed, climbing between your legs. He leaned over to his nightstand drawer and pulled out a condom. He ripped it open and rolled it down his length. You spread your thick thighs wider for him. 

“Lixie...” You said in a sweet voice. He lined up his cock with your wet hole. 

“I’ve got you angel don’t worry.” He slowly pushed in and you both relished every inch of him sliding into you. Felix had the sexiest moans and when he bottomed out he let out a grunt and a big breath. 

“God! You’re so tight, so soft. Feel so good, I always knew you would you’re a fucking goddess, this body... fuck do you know what you do to me?!” Feeling you squeeze him was unreal. He started to set a rhythm pumping into you, your breasts bouncing with each thrust. Felix leaned down and started sucking on one of your nipples still rolling his hips into your plump cunt. 

“Oh my god Lixie MMMmm tell me! Tell me what I do to you!” You ran your fingers through his hair and held on as he sucked a mark on the side of your breast and pulled off.  

“Angel I’ll tell you, goddess, fucking beautiful being, every inch of your body is worth tasting and sipping on your sweet pussy is like tasting nectar from the gods. I can not believe I get to have you, fuck you.” Hips started thrusting into yours harder. 

“Yes Lix right there oh my god!” Felix gave it to you right there, over and over pushing you towards your second orgasm. 

“Is it right there angel hmmm? Is that where you want it?” You nodded. 

“Y-y-yes Lixie mmm harder.” He held your hips and fucked you harder until your cunt turned into a vice grip squeezing him, quivering and twitching as you came on his cock. 

“FUCK! HOLY Sh- that... mmmm.” He started to fuck you faster chasing his high and prolonging yours. He held your tits with both hands as he rolled his hips and thrusted into you fast and hard. 

“Can I cum on your tummy angel, god I wanna blow all over your cute belly. Please?” Words were not easy as Felix fucked you into oblivion. 

“Y-yes Lixie c-cum... cum...” You were softly rubbing your clit still riding the buzz of your climax. When Felix looked down and saw you pleasuring yourself he loved it he thought you made the prettiest face when you came. 

“That’s it baby work yourself up, cum with me. Play with it.” You started fingering yourself faster pressing two fingers firmly against your clit. 

“Yes rub it faster... FUCK I’m gonna cum so hard... you gonna cum with me angel right?” You bit your lip and rubbed your clit faster nodding. 

“Gonna... gonna cum Lix...mmmm yes!” He hummed his satisfaction. 

“Hmmm fast and hard baby I’m gonna cum!” You rubbed your clit as fast as you could and started to cum moaning out Felix’s name. 

“FELIX FUCK!” He pulled out took off the condom and started stroking his cock and moaning. 

“Uhhhfuck!” Cum shot across your tummy streaking again and again Felix stroking fast as he unloaded all over your belly. He moved your hand and rubbed the tip of his cock against your sensitive clit causing you both to twitch and jump from overstimulation. You laid there a little fucked out, Felix crawled up next to you and ran his finger through his cum on your belly. 

“Wanna taste?” You sighed content and nodded. Felix stuck his finger in your mouth and you sucked the cum from it. 

“Mmmmm... Lixie...” Felix’s cock twitched. 

“Hmm we’ll take five, get my cum off you, and then I’m gonna bend you over and really fuck you angel again and again baby I’m fucking you all night.” Your pussy clenched and you pressed your legs together for a little friction. 

“Promise?”  Felix crawled between your legs, head hovering over your swollen cunt. He licked a fat stripe through your slit collecting your cum on his tongue and smiling when you jumped. 

“Oh I promise. To hell with five minutes. Lick that cum off while I eat you good angel. You’re gonna get this cock again.” And he did. Felix fucked you all night long. You lost count of the number of orgasms the man gave you. It made him so hard seeing you clench and ooze for him, he went wild making you cum. Finally when your bodies gave out on you, the both of you fell asleep tangled up in Felix’s bed. 

“WELL I’LL BE GOD DAMNED! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!” You and Felix both jolted awake and upright gripping for blankets, sheets, anything to cover up with. There in Felix’s bedroom doorway, a tad more than shocked, was Rosa. You were so worried that she was pissed at you for sleeping with her brother, you felt so guilty. Felix started to explain. 

“Rosa look w-” 

“To think! I was rotting away in prison and you’re here boning my bestie?” When you heard the lilt to her voice you knew she wasn’t mad. You and Felix may have never told her but the girl is not dumb, she knows when she see two idiots in love. Felix rubbed the sleep out of his eyes more. You groaned and slumped back in bed still exhausted from the marathon of love making you and Felix had the night before. 

“One it was the drunk tank, two I called they wouldn’t let me bail you out. Also no one told you to go Mike Tyson on the guy.” Rosa scoffed as if she’d heard the most ridiculous thing. 

“You think I wasn’t knocking teeth for my bestie?! Do you even know me? Also keep it in mind cause it’s what I’ll do to you if you hurt her.” He threw up his hands. 

“What the fuck, I'm your brother!” She shook her head. 

@acciocriativity @caroline-ds-world @chansynie @ughbehavior @jquellen27 @jisuperboard @fixation-dump @lachinitaaaaa @rinrinndou @bangchans-angel @laylasbunbunny @owo-manii-uwu @armystay89 @b00dyguts @purplenimsicle @caticorn61 @lauraneuuh @channieandhisgoonsquad @minnysproutgriffinteddy @svintsandghosts @the-sweetest-rose @alice05280 @3rachasninja @m0ri-apeuda @eastleighsblog @linoification

“Don’t remind me. Now both of you get some god damned pants on we have an itinerary to keep!” 

Please do not repost or translate any of my works. My blog and stories are NSFW and 18+ ONLY! Minors, ageless, and blank blogs will be blocked!

[jensonsbuttons]

Alright I am very sick and the hamsters are not running but I was watching this romcom and one of the best friends (let’s say Alex, for the sake of this prompt) tells the main character (in this case, George): “he’s like your knight in shining armor and you’re like the stupidest princess I’ve ever met” (ofc Nicky being said knight).

And I think it’s perfect for the big angsty scene of any fic where George is the moron we all know and love and doesn’t realize Nicky is in love with him until it’s nearly too late. Anddd since we’re both suckers for cheesy tropes I’d say a flower shop AU or maybe a teacher AU where Nicky is the teacher of one of George’s siblings 💖

Oh ana i’m so sorry you’re not feeling well :(((( i hope you feel better soon!!!

Oh God......oh man.....oh GOD OH MAN OH MAN THE HAMSTERS ARE STILL RUNNING THO ANA. Like those scenes where they are running through the airport (which like how did you get past security dude???) But yeah nicky is like....slightly mad at George over something small but he’s also mad cause hello!!! i like you!!! and the hamsters are off to the races.

*PLEASE NOTE* i cannot be bothered to actually write this correctly so i’m going back to my roots and basically writing this as a screenplay so present tense and not a lot of “he exclaimed, he said,” etc.

send me an ask with a fic idea/prompt you think i would write!

Alex enters the living and finds his best friend, George, lying on the couch and staring mindlessly at his phone. 

“George, what are you doing here?” George is confused but it doesn’t alter his mood too much.

“Watching funny videos. There’s a cat spinning in a washer.”

“What?”

“The washer isn’t on. Don’t worry.” Alex swiftly walks across the room and plucks George’s phone out of his hands.

“Hey!”

“I meant, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you finding Nicky?”

George huffs and crosses his arms, absolutely defeated and not wanting to talk about this subject with his friend.

“He doesn’t want to talk to me. He’s mad or whatever.”

“You’re kidding. You think he’s mad at you?”

George explodes at this.

“Of course he is! I screwed up! Why wouldn’t he be angry? I don’t blame him if he never wants to talk again.”

George’s voice is quivering at this point. The emotion is just barely peaking through but everyone knows its there.

Everyone knows which emotion it is too: love. The kind of love that is there through the thick and thin. The kind of love where they could be mad at one another but it wouldn’t matter because they still care very deeply for one another and the anger will fade.

George begins to realize this as well. The anger will fade. Their love is strong. IT always has been.

Alex nods his head as his friend goes through his emotional journey.

“Oh my God. I love him. And...he loves me. He’s loved me this entire time.”

George says this as if its news to Alex. It isn’t.

“He’s your knight in shining armor and you are the stupidest princess I’ve ever met.”

“Is this where you tell me to go chase after him?”

Alex checks his watch, nodding.

“Yeah cause school did just get out so by the time you get there, he’ll probably be leaving.”

George agrees, thanks his friend and dashes out the door. He travels towards the school Nicholas teaches at, Williams Middle School. George is nervous the entire time. Shaking, in fact. His thumb keeps tapping an off-beat rhythm on the steering wheel.

The Brit arrives at Williams and finds a parking spot in record time before making a mad dash towards Nicholas’ classroom. The school day let out so luckily George isn’t dodging students. There is a flight of stairs but they’re no issue as George takes them two at a time. He is out of breath as he makes it to his final destination: room 206.

George stands in the doorway and is shocked to find that Nicholas isn’t there. He walks into the classroom and there are no signs (his bag, cell phone, etc.) that Nicholas remains at the school either.

George lets out a sigh. It’s not long but it is full of regret. Just his luck that he figures out his feelings and Nicholas isn’t there.

“George.”

The Brit looks behind him: there in the doorway is his knight. Nicholas.

“Nicky, I—”

“George, I don’t want to hear it.” Nicholas wants George out of the room, actually. He won’t voice this, however, still wanting to remain civil with George.

“No, I think you want to hear this.”

The two dance around one another and switch spots. Nicholas is now leaning back against his desk and crosses his arms as if to say ‘make it quick.’

“I’m a moron.” Nicholas laughs. It’s hard not to laugh at George voicing this fact. The laugh echoes around the empty classroom and sends George’s stomach right up his throat.

“Okay. Sure. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“It’s true, though. I’m a moron.” Nicholas sighs. This could’ve been done over text.

“Is that it?”

“No. There’s a reason I’m a moron. And that reason... “ George stops himself for a moment. No, several. He can’t speak. His heart still wants to jump out of his chest and his ever-increasing heart rate is all that he can hear.

“That reason is that I love you. And... I didn’t know it until now. I kept denying it and I didn’t even think that you liked me and then I knew you got mad at me so I really thought you didn’t like me and I’m just a moron for never—”

Nicholas cuts him off with a kiss. Slow, tender. The kiss says everything that Nicky wanted to voice for the past several months but never had the courage to. The kiss says what George wanted to finish saying. The kiss says everything that they want to say to each other and more:

“I love you.”

[too-cool-for-facebook]

Ghost Adventures!

I had a fun thought experiment while trying to fall asleep.

What if I had “Ghost Powers”?

And not necessarily like Danny Phantom - he could shoot laser beams and stuff, and that’s not what I’m really going for

So what would these Ghost Powers entail?

When I so choose, the ability to:

be invisible

be inaudible

pass through solid objects

fly / float

turn objects & living beings invisible if I touch them; or leave them visible and make them look like they’re floating around on their own

said objects & beings I’ve turned invisible, as long as I’m touching them, retain my power of also remaining inaudible and can pass through solid objects. Once I release them, they return back to normal

*Note on invisibility: What I mean is that photons, instead of bouncing off me, would pass right through me, leaving no shadow. This does bring up the problem of, “But if light doesn’t hit your retina, you won’t be able to see!” Well let’s pretend that’s part of my powers - I can see even though others can’t see me. Also I can hear myself and any object I’ve touched.

What are the limitations?:

If I fall asleep or fall unconscious, I can’t use my powers. Ex.: If I’m invisible and then fall asleep, I will become visible again

If I am startled, I’ll revert back to normal (become visible/audible). (Hopefully I’m not flying in midair when that happens)

My powers are dependent on my energy level. If I haven’t eaten or am not well-rested, my power is diminished, especially my flight, because that takes a LOT of energy

If I touch a person and turn them invisible, they can now see me / hear me, but only as long as I’m touching them

Cats (Felis catus) can always see me no matter what

I didn’t think about this until now, but smell - I don’t think I can cover up my smell, meaning any animals, particularly dogs, would know I’m around

If any part of my body (hair, blood, spit, etc) is no longer connected / contained within the rest of my body, the fallen part immediately becomes visible

I cannot permanently make something invisible/inaudible

I cannot make objects float on their own. I have to physically pick them up, therefore I can only take what I can carry. On that same note - weight does not diminish. Just because something is “ghostly” now, doesn’t mean it no longer is heavy. I can’t pick up airplanes

I can still leave prints on anything I make contact with - footprints, fingerprints, even DNA

I’m still mortal, and still must eat and sleep, and am still susceptible to illness and injury and the range of human emotions

I think that’s about everything I thought of.

So with these newfound powers, what’s the very first thing I decide to do?

TO DISNEYLAND!!!

I myself could fly to California, but that would take a lot of energy. Easier to ghostly enter an airport and get aboard an airplane and let it take me to CA, and then from there fly to the park.

Then I thought about, “What do I do about sleep? I’d have to be somewhere safe because I’m vulnerable when asleep.” So then I came up with: a hotel. For free. All I’d have to do is use my ghost powers to go from room to room until I find one that’s unoccupied and make camp.

But what if someone checks-in to the room while I’m in it? Easy - bolt and latch the door. When they try to get in, it will undoubtedly make noise. And if they’re really frustrated, they’ll probably knock, at which point I’m awake and can turn ghost, grab my backpack, and get the hell outta there.

Now what about the backpack? I was pretty sure (and I just checked and am right) that backpacks aren’t allowed. My solution? Fly up to the hotel’s roof and leave it up there - and then hope like hell no employee is doing work on the roof that day. For added security - putting the backpack in a large garbage bag in case the weather turns foul

Getting into the park is easy: Go Ghost. I could fly in, but that’s not as fun. I want the experience of walking through those front gates.

And as soon as I get in, find an inconspicuous place hidden from view and then turn non-ghost again. Then I can wander the park to my heart’s content. (Def first stop is the Disneyland Railroad. You just gotta).

What about food though? While doing this thought experiment, I concluded that if I can turn things invisible, then easily I can acquire food. If I’m in a gas station and grab a muffin and a bottle of milk, they’re going to vanish and I can just walk through the walls with them and eat them later, disposing of the trash away from prying eyes

That’s a little harder at a theme park. What if I want soft serve ice cream? I could make the bowl disappear, but the ice cream that’s pouring out of the machine would still be visible - and that’s bound to freak some people out. So I’m still going to need money to pay for some things.

So wait, where does the money come from, I wonder? Because if I’m a ghost and can fly, do you really think I’m gonna stick around my job? Fuck no! I CAN FLY! I’m going wherever the hell I want to!

So if I’m not working a job, where do the munnies come from? I guess I could always steal it...

My first thought was just nick it from the nearest cash register, but then I immediately realized, no, that would get the cashier in trouble and their lives are hard enough as it is. So where to get money?

The bank’s always a good place. Just ghost in, grab a stack of 20s out of the vault, and fly away. No more than a stack at a time. Too much gone missing will cause alarm. Also, I could hit every bank in town, grabbing one stack from each. Just make a day out of it.

But then that posed the problem of where to keep the money. If I’m going to my bank and depositing all this cash (while cash has mysteriously gone missing from local banks), I think it’s going to raise a few flags. So maybe only deposit a few handfuls of it at a time, and bury the rest of it in a big mayonnaise jar out back or whatever

But here’s where limitations on my powers could pose a problem. What if I leave fingerprints in the bank vault? What if a strand of hair gets left behind and now they’ve got my DNA? But that’s a long and complicated line of thought, and I don’t wanna ruin my fun, so we’ll act like that doesn’t happen

So back to Disneyland: Money’s not an issue. I can buy food. And I thought, “Ah, you know what? I’ll stop by the Rainforest Cafe!”

But then I realized something that I didn’t even think about - loneliness. I’d be by myself. And wandering around by oneself is relaxing and all, but when it comes to having meals, especially in a place where the atmosphere is the real selling point, I dunno. Eating by myself is just really lonely and makes me sad.

In theory, if I can turn anyone invisible, I could ostensibly bring someone to California with me. Major problem with that: TRUST NO ONE. As soon as my powers are revealed to ANYONE, they risk being exposed to EVERYONE. You ever seen Death Note? That in my opinion was Light Yagami’s biggest fuck up was revealing how people were being killed. Also (oddly enough a statistic from Death Note), the more people involved in an operation, the more likely it is to fail. More moving parts means the easier it is to break. If I just keep it to me, my chances of safety are increased / risk of exposure decreased

So unfortunately I’m going to have to deal with a lot of loneliness. I don’t even think I’d be able to post things on social media, because then I’m leaving a trail. If all the banks in my hometown get robbed, and then I’m at Disneyland and suddenly the experience a rash of shoplifting (because yes, I’m contemplating jacking that giant expensive snowglobe), a clever detective could put two-and-two together. Still, they’d have a hard time figuring out how I dunnit, but why even take the risk?

But again, we’re getting too serious when I wanted this to be a fun exercise

So I wander the park, I ride the rides, I get my Dole© Pineapple soft serve ice cream at the Tiki Room - and the best part is, I can take all the time in the world. There’s no time limit. I can mosey about as long as I want. As long as I can always find an unoccupied hotel room to sleep in, I’m good.

OH SHITBEES! I DIDN’T EVEN CONSIDER! I COULD STAY IN A DAMN DISNEY HOTEL!

IF I GO TO ORLANDO, I COULD STAY IN THE CINDERELLA SUITE IN THE DAMN CASTLE INSIDE THE PARK!

(Of course then again, I get the feeling they don’t have electricity running to the room at all times, only when guests stay there; which fun fact, that room can’t be booked, no matter how much you’re willing to pay. It’s by invitation only. So if it’s dark in there, it’ll certainly be spooky)

ANYWHO...

I guess that’s all that can be said about this trip. I’m not gonna do a play-by-play of my fantasy Disney trip. It’s just a starting point for a very liberating daydream. Food’s not a problem, money’s not a problem, housing’s not a problem.

Really the only problem is if I get sick or injured. But if money’s not a problem, I can afford healthcare now. So yeah.

And who says I have to stop at Disneyland? I could travel the whole world and see everything!

And it’s not all selfish. Who says I can’t drop a stack of twenties in front of a person who’s homeless? Or a crate of food?

Oh what’s that? There’s a person abusing / beating their partner and/or child? Lemme just phase my hand right into your chest and clench you heart artery and give you a heart attack :) I could go full-on Kira given the chance

A child’s been kidnapped? Welp, yoink! SURPRISE! THEY’RE INVISIBLE NOW! And I fly them back home and drop ‘em off

You get the idea.

There’s a lot I could do with Ghost Powers

[sarahzipp]

Author’s note: This post was written in the summer of 2017. It’s taken me nearly three years to grow the courage to post it publicly.  Time heals all wounds!  I hope you enjoy.

Waving goodbye to Amsterdam, our home for 3 years.

Did you know – moving a family of four and two pets to a foreign country is hard. In fact, it’s a giant logistical nightmare. I did. I learned that lesson, I learned it so hard 3 years ago moving to the Netherlands and muddling through immigration paperwork and not having a bank account because we don’t have a BSN yet (it’s like a social security number) and we can’t paid and we can’t get a BSNt….and so on and on and on. It’s a doom loop. It’s a doom loop in Dutch. But moving abroad has become like childbirth to me, after a couple of years I forget the pain and do it again. And there’s a lot of crying.  And nobody sleeps.

But this time it would be in English, and therefore much easier, right?  We’re only moving about an hour’s flight away, how bad can it be? Besides, we’re seasoned expats, wiser and more experienced now. Step 1 – book flights. Several times a day flights buzz between Holland and Scotland. They’re cheap and plentiful. No problem! Wait, what?  We can’t fly the dog on EasyJet or any of the quick jumpers into the UK. Hmmmm. Look, a fairy! I mean, look – a ferry! They have a kennel. Perfect for a multi-species move. Yes yes yes! Let’s move by ferry. How cool and adventurous. It’d be uber Zipp-like to move to a foreign country by ferry. We shall invade Scotland by sea! Neat-o.

Our previous experience with boats in Amsterdam gave us undue confidence. What could possibly go wrong?

So, we just book the tickets, 2 cabins for us + my mom (who so graciously/foolishly agreed to come visit/help us not commit acts of homicide while we pack and move). Check. Next we book the dog into the pet hotel. Check. Great. Now just notify them we are bringing Kitty as a carry-on (like we did on the plane when we moved to A’dam). Wait, huh? Why is it not allowing us to add the cat. Try it again. What if we depart from Rotterdam? Ugh. Call them. Sprek je Engels? Huh? We can’t have the cat on board without a car? But we don’t want to keep the car. We want to sell it so we can buy a UK car with a right-side-of-the-car-steering-wheel when we get there. It’s going to be difficult enough unlearning how to drive American-like in the UK. Oh, shut the front door! Are we really going to keep an ailing French mini-van with a passenger-side window that won’t roll down and a steering wheel on the wrong side of the car for a 5lb cat? Yes. Yes, that is exactly what we are going to do. Because life. Because family expatting is a series of maddening choices and ridiculous adaptations. It’s a relentless state of absurdity. Because that’s how Zipps do. No creature left behind. Check.

Ok, transport of humans and pets secured. Now what about our stuff? Step 2 – pack up and go. This time around, in the most adulting moment of my life thus far, we hired actual professional movers to pack up our shit. Why not? My employer is paying relocation expenses. Well done, Dr. Fancy Pants. I thought we were well organised. We laughed at how much we’d accumulated in 3 years. Wasn’t it just yesterday we packed ALL of our belongings into 9 Army duffle bags and boarded the plane to Amsterdam? Yeah, we moved our entire family across the Atlantic packed into 9 bags. Nothing more. And one half of those bags was my Ph.D. fieldwork papers. (Fun tip – we precisely weighed each bag by using the scale at the vet’s office where we went approximately 743 times trying to get the appropriate Pet Passport for the dog). Now, the movers handed me the inventory list – 100 boxes. 100 boxes? WTH? No matter, it was all out of sight, out of mind for now. See you on the flipside, boxes of crap. We’re down to the bare minimum. T-minus 9 days to departure. Just a few more issues to tidy up, then it’s time to kick back, relax and enjoy our final week in the lovely city of Amsterdam (stay tuned for a post, eventually to be written, on my deep, warm and conflicted feelings about life in the ‘dam and saying goodbye to my favourite city in the world).

So, we calmly went about packing up our Dutch lives. Er, rather, we scrambled every last minute, failing to find more than a few fleeting moments of peace in our last days there. We sold stuff on a thousand different marketplaces. We patched holes and fretted over which dishes were ours and which came with the apartment, etc. because our skeevy landlord will try to cheat us (separating expats from their security deposits is a hobby of Dutch landlords). I remember the feeling 3 years ago, whilst scrambling to pack up our American lives. Just get to the airport. Once we get checked in at the airport, we can relax. Breath. Panic. Breath. Repeat. 

Delierious with joy over are good choices, smart planning and simple lifestyle. Also pictured: cat that almost ruined everything, twice.

We tried, desperately, to capture the final bike rides and boat rides on camera. Fleeting moments of exquisite presence. We tried to celebrate, laugh, hug, cry and properly say goodbye to our family of expats. We tried to make space for our girls to spend those final, fleeting days with their buddies. Good god, we have been through some shit with these people over the past 3 years. Expat friendships, for big and little ones, are bonded in a crucible. Never forget this place. This stuff has been magical. Breath. Have presence. Enjoy? Pack, organise, DO SOMETHING. Did you cancel the internet service? Pay the parking ticket? How do we forward the mail? Notify the Belastingdienst? Sprek je Engels? 

And that’s when we noticed the cat was missing. Yes, the cat. The cat that caused us to keep the car. The car that caused us to pay a shit ton more for the ferry. The ferry that will take us to Scotland. The Scotland that will distill the whisky. The whisky that will taste so good when we drink it.  But I digress . . . the next few hours were a furious chaos of packing and loading and searching for the fecking cat. The children are weeping for the cat. My mom is organizing a search party while I cooly ignore this tangent of madness, because I am confident the cat is simply hiding. “The cat is missing, mom. Start acting like it!” my sweet youngest daughter screams at me and slams the door. I ignore her and discreetly throw out bags of forgotten little toy scraps that no one will remember so long as they aren’t seen during the throwing out process. Hours later, the cat is found hiding under a bed. I smugly chastise my panicked family. They fail to thank me for my calm resolve.

In spite all of our diligent #adulting, expensive movers and good intentions, here we are, literally running from the apartment with armloads of shit dumped out from random drawers whilst the landlord arrived from the other side of the building for our final check out.

It was like a scene from a Benny Hill movie, I’m sure. Cut to scene – exterior of building, black and white at 1.5 speed: Zipp parents frantically scrambling and stumbling out the front door, arms laden with useless plastic items, while the Landlord calmly strolls in the back door, clipboard and magnifying glass in hand. Cut to shot of kids, pets and granny in the car screaming, crying and flailing wildly.  Cut to Aaron opening driver door, pointing forward confidently and saying: Onward march – take to the seas! (in the captions). Can you hear the music?

People overuse the term, “stuffed in like a can of sardines.”  This is not one of those times.  We stuffed said crap into every nook and cranny of our van. So, there we were; 4 Zipps, my mom, our old dog with bad gas and a cat.  Everyone but the driver had items crammed under and around her feet as well as on her lap/between her body and the door or other passenger. I am not exaggerating. It felt difficult to breath in there. When we finally pulled up to the ferry door, I yelled at my children – “act natural, pretend like you have plenty of room! And for God’s sake, don’t mention the head lice!” I thought we might be over the weight limit or something. I knew we were technically one centimeter over the height limit, although I was sure the massive weight load was compressing us down at least that much.

We love our pets, Nana is losing her mind!

Jonah (the dog) smells funny

Pipsqueak the Mighty

  Maybe if the kids just smile at the check in guy they’ll let us go without any questions. I really don’t know, the whole thing was so sketchy because we weren’t sure if our car was too tall with the roof carrier on top and we were still recovering from some confusion regarding the pets on board (Fun Fact – Our 70lb geriatric labrador was perched up on a stack of luggage in the back of the van so high he could not get out on his own accord. So while we were waiting in line for the ferry (for hours) I had to unload and load him in “gently” whilst containing the stack of threatening-to-spill-out luggage with one knee. It was a long line. He had to get checked in too. My “gentle” level decreased with each outing). For once the gods smiled upon us and no one asked questions. We rolled in and were literally the last car on our platform. After a brief game of where-the-hell-is-the-cat-that-required-us-to-bring-a-wrong-side-of-the-road-driving-car-to-the-UK?, we deboarded the van and checked into our cabins.

My mom has never in 12 years of grandmothering ever chosen to not spend more time with her grandkids. But that night, with her head bent in (what I think was a bit of shame or guilt) she asked if she could have the key to a cabin and stay alone. Without her grandbabies. Yes mom, save yourself.  We broke the Na-na. My mom has never before or since rejected a moment’s time with her dear little grandchildren. I rejected the urge to jump overboard.

Ferry of Doom or Ferry of Freedom?

But we made it. We were on the ferry. Breathe. Deep sigh of relief. Enjoy the ride. It was fun and adventurous to travel by ferry. I highly recommend it. 15+ hours later, with minimal sleep and a deep sense of relief mixed with sadness, we calmly exited the ferry. Just a wee three hour drive to our new home.  Left, left, left. Remember to drive on the left, honey. We inched forward in an endless procession of vehicles exiting the ferry.  Last in, last out. 

That’s when Aaron turned to me, panicked face – “oh shit, we’re out of gas!”  In the mayhem getting to the ferry, we forgot to fill up. OMG. We cannot run out of gas on a ferry or in the border patrol line.  No exaggeration at all, we were on E. It gets worse.  When we finally got off the ferry, there was a line of cars snaking its way to the border gate. We would never make it. This was a trail of tears, eeking forward a car’s length every 5 minutes. It was a minimum hour wait and we had a maximum 15 minutes of fuel. 

One last time, I un-gently unpacked the dog from the back of the van to walk him.  A border agent passed and I tearfully pleaded our case.  “Well, we don’t need a broken down vehicle holding up this line.” He was so kind, really un-Dutch in his kindness and willingness to help. Within minutes, we were ushered around the line to front.  We pulled up to the border entrance window. Wait, oops. The driver is on the wrong side. Ha ha ha! I was in the passenger seat. Let me just roll down the window to hand you the passports…oh, yeah. The window-roller-downer is broken. Ha ha ha. Aaron, if you just pull up a tad, I can open the door. Oops, sorry everyone in line behind us! Here ya go, border patrol lady.  I stepped out and handed the agent our clutch of passports. “Your Visas haven’t yet been processed, so you’ll need to re-enter another time.”  Wait, what now?  We can’t come in?  We chatted. We worked it out. Kindness and understanding from her and her colleagues that I cannot understate. Sorted, as the Scottish say.  She let us through, although I’m not sure we entered 100% legally. 

Bumbling and fumbling, we crossed the finish line to begin again.  Stay left, keep the rubber side down and journey onward. Love, trust and (Gaelic) pixiedust. 

Welcome to the United Kingdom. Mixed emotions.

  Zipps invade Scotland by sea Author's note: This post was written in the summer of 2017. It's taken me nearly three years to grow the courage to post it publicly. 

[withabackpackandcamera]

February 25th, 2020

Day 11: Making The Most of A Layover in Taipei

Last night, very little sleep occurred. With a very early morning flight, I ended up just hanging out in the airport lounge and watching Kobe and Gianna’s Celebration of Life event before boarding for a quick two hour flight to Taipei. RIP Kobe and Gianna. 

And the flight was pretty quick. Once at Taipei Taoyuan Airport, I located the old lounge that I had hung out in the last time I was here hoping that I was right in previously noticing a sign indicating there were private rooms for sleeping in. The good thing was that there were rooms, the bad thing was that they were hotel priced. Sadness. So I ended up going to the back of the lounge and curling up in a chair, where I tried to fall asleep (but with difficulty doing so). I wasn’t too hungry so I didn’t end up eating much of anything while there. I think I was in the lounge for a good 2-3 hours trying to fall asleep but with very little success. I eventually just got up and decided that I should just make moves and head into Taipei. This happened around 9-10am. And sadly for me, on my way out of the lounge, I found some passengers passed out in some comfy-appearing corners where there was enough space to lie down and rest. Man, I should’ve noticed these places earlier! 

It took some time for me to find where the immigration exits were given that I had gone down the complete opposite path, one for a transfer flight passenger, after I disembarked my last flight. I eventually figured it out and made my way to the arrival side, at which time I searched for a bag locker so that I could store my heavy bag. I eventually found a locker to put my stuff in, after which I headed to the Taipei Metro for my ride into Taipei Main Station to transfer to get to the first stop of the day: Yongkang Beef Noodles. 

The ride to get to Yongkang Beef Noodles was very straightforward because I was already familiar with the area and with the metro system. Before I knew it, I was seated at my table without any line to get into the restaurant. What a win! Though I wasn’t very hungry at this point, I thoroughly enjoyed my small, delicious, warm bowl of beef noodles! It wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered it being (probably because I’ve had similar beef noodles since) but it hit the spot and I definitely enjoyed it.  

After I filled my belly, I continued on my short, targeted exploration of Taipei. Luckily for me, this stop in Taipei coincided with beautiful, beautiful weather. The sky was clear and sunny. The temperature was excellent for traveling and exploring. And the humidity wasn’t too bad! I couldn’t have been any luckier! Under the clear skies, I roamed around the Dongmen/Daan Park area, walking through Daan Park once again as I slowly headed in the direction of the Taipei Public Library. I thought it’d be cool to take a look at the library, especially since it was closeby, but it didn’t end up looking all that interesting when I got to it, so I continued on. 

The next destination was a Taipei lookout point off Wolong Street that I had marked on my map last visit but didn’t have a chance to check out. It was a great place to check out on my limited trip to Taipei because it gave me an opportunity to see a new area that I hadn’t previously visited. So I took the Brown Line to get to the area before walking up to the entrance to the park. The trail to get to the lookout point was pretty steep and I definitely wasn’t expecting that. But I braved it and eventually made it to the top after about 10 minutes of walking at a slow and steady pace. The hike was different compared to the Xiangshan Hike that I did a couple of years ago because it wasn’t stairs-hiking but big, steep incline-hiking with some stairs at the end. Once I arrived at the top, I was pretty sweaty. The sun was high in the sky and the temperature was rising outside. Hot, hot. I rested at the top for a few minutes before taking some photos of the surrounding areas and Taipei 101 and heading back down to the train station. 

The last planned stop of the short day was a food stop near the Gonguo station off the Green Line. Originally, I was thinking about going to the old gua bao place that I went to last time on the west side of the city but instead, I went to Lan Jia Traditional Taiwanese Snack, a small hole-in-the-wall type shop known for having one of the best gua baos in town. Lan Jia was definitely marked on my map for last visit too but given its location, I didn’t have a chance to try it. So this was the perfect opportunity to do so and try something new in the process. Once I navigated myself there, I ordered right away without much of a wait and then received my gua bao. Even though, once again, I wasn’t too hungry, I definitely enjoyed the gua bao. This gua bao was made a little differently compared to the one I had last time. It was bigger than the other one, the meat inside was just a tad different (the meat here was shredded fatty and non-fatty pork belly, while the other place had a tender and thick slice of pork belly), and the greens inside were slightly different as well. I’m not sure if it was because of the difference in meat here or that I’ve had a ton of them since but by the end of the snack, I found that I preferred the other gua bao place on the west side compared to this one, though both were good! 

By the time I was done with my gua bao, I was craving some 50 Lan boba to finish off the trip. However, there were no stores closeby and I didn’t have enough time to make an out-of-the-way stop to grab some before heading back to the airport. Sadness. Instead, I just returned to Taipei Main Station and took a second to find things to buy and bring back home. It took awhile for me to figure out where I was walking in Taipei Main Station but once I found my bearings, I ended up grabbing some mochi and pastries for Cynthia at Ijysheng again before rushing out to the train that would take my back to the airport. 

I grabbed my locked bag and headed to security to get through to my gate. Of course, on my last flight of the trip, airport security had issues with my tripod, which they have never had issues with before. So I had to check in my bag and do the whole check-in process again. Ugh. So annoying. But luckily, even with that hiccup, I got to the airport lounge with plenty of time to clean up, shower, hydrate, write some postcards, and even buy some pineapple cakes before boarding my Eva Air flight back to Los Angeles. Luckily, this flight was much shorter than the last one to Seoul, because 1) it was physically shorter in distance and 2) I slept almost the entire trip, Woo! Before I knew it, I was, once again, back home in L.A. after a short, hot, and successful trip to Singapore, The Philippines, and Taipei! 

5 Things I Learned Today:

1. Even though coronavirus hit Wuhan, China and the areas surrounding it pretty hard, I was surprised that not everyone in Taipei was wearing a mask everywhere they were going. Given the situation, I was expecting everyone to be covering their faces no matter their age, gender, etc. 

2. Taipei has such beautiful travel weather in February. Despite the nice weather, it was actually pretty hard to spot anyone in shorts. Everyone was wearing pants or jeans. I wonder why....

3. For old people in Taiwan, daily exercising means walking and hiking up the different hillsides around the city to different Taipei lookout points, which seems to be a piece of cake for them, a walk in the park. All of us young folks probably wish we could all be as fit as these old folks when we get old… We can only strive… 

4. Navigating around Taipei Main Station is still as confusing and difficult as ever. 

5. In this world, there is no such thing as free private rooms to sleep in at airport lounges. But unlike many other airports around the world, Taipei’s Taoyuan Airport is one of the best airports for sleeping as it has a ton of nooks and crannies that you can sleep comfortably in and a ton of space to find a comfortable spot to chill in. Also, the lounges have nice comfortable seats to hang out in as well... they’re just harder to sleep in.

[ushi-la-la]

NJ LT Workshop--2017

I’m back! Please excuse my tardiness of this Recap as I am currently displaced in Philadelphia due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey. Gonna try to do this quick Recap of the LT Workshop in Camden, New Jersey….

My trip began with Hurricane Harvey approaching my city–Houston. I was able to catch a flight out early Friday morning. As my plane departed, I was able to actually view the storm heading towards us before the plane circled around to head North 0_0

As my plane landed in Philadelphia, there was a Philadelphia local news crew trying to interview passengers who were originally from Houston. They came right next to me, but I quickly moved clear out of the way— I don’t like to be recorded on video cameras.  I was able to catch a quick Hotel Airport Shuttle ride to the host hotel: The Doubletree Hotel Philadelphia Airport:

I was able to check into my room early, and I went out to peruse Downtown Philly. A small collage of my outing:

From the top left corner going clockwise:

1.) The DoubleTree Hotel Philadelphia Airport

2.) Citizens Bank Park–home of the Philidelphia Phillies Baseball Team

3.) A view of Downtown Philly

& 4.) I was able to try a cannoli again from Cafe Crema—SO GOOD!!!

I headed back to my hotel room to rest up for the next day for the:

LT Camden, NJ Workshop

Had my tickets ready:

Here’s a pic of the drive into New Jersey:

It only took about 10-12 minutes to drive from the hotel to the High School–all of the traffic was on the other side….hehehehehe

Once my friend & I arrived to the High School (we arrived @ 2pm….doors for VIP opened @ 4pm), we just hung out until it was time to go inside. There was a candy station table that was awesome! Here’s a few pics of the VIP area before LT made their appearance (they were still doing an interview with StopDropDance):

LT came into the VIP Meet & Greet Area @ 4:35pm & were met with a warm welcome from the crowd. They went straight for the candy station…LOL! There was a huge bowl of Extra Large Gum Balls that both Larry & Lau went to first–Lau placed 3 in his mouth, & Larry tried to speak to everyone while trying to chew one gum ball–but someone told him to spit it out. So….he did….& placed the piece of gum on the table they were sitting at…LOL! They talked about events that are happening today–and that they were sorry that they did not get a chance to talk about recent events more (their busy schedules sort of left them “blind” to some issues that’s happening right now). They explained that they want to do more for their fans–more than just dancing. They have ideas that they want to put into action in the near future. I think I remember typing about something like this in a Recap from a while ago….no? Here’s a pic of LT while they were speaking:

I was able to get a quick pic with 2 VERY nice guys–John (IG: @john_stayfly66):

& another pic with Rod (IG: @rod_evant_nyc):

The host committee handed out goodie bags with t-shirts & waters to everyone in the VIP group–a very nice touch. After the Meet & Greet everyone got in line to get photos with LT. We were then told to head over to the gym (about a 3 minute hike) for the Workshop (I opted to skip the photo line to find a good spot in the gym). Everyone who was not VIP were already inside of the gym. I found a nice spot on the riser at the bottom–no need to go up all of those steps…lol. I was then asked to grab some more waters for a few people in the gym–but I had to go all of the way back to the VIP Meet & Greet area to find those waters. When I made it to the VIP area, LT were almost finished with the photo line….so I decided to get my pic with them at the last second. Lau & his crazy self wanted to dance with me…so…I did. I then shifted gears because I knew that so many people were waiting for them to start the Workshop…I told Lau, “Hurry up! You need to be dancing in the gym–not over here! LOL!” Larry started to dance with us, too….but then Lau told me that he “didn’t want to dance with me no more"….silly Lau. Blah. We took our picture & they wrapped up the VIP Meet & Greet…not sure if the pics StopDropDance took are out yet…..?

LT came into the gym about 5 minutes later & were greeted with a dance group that did a small routine right away. LT quickly got their individual groups started with after they warmed up. I was on Larry’s side, so I got to learn his entire routine–just as a spectator, of course (I noticed Larry messed up a few times…LOL!). Here are a few pics of Larry & Lau teaching their groups (notice anyone else in these photos??):

During this time, I was receiving notifications on my cell phone left & right about tornado sightings & flood warnings in Houston…my mind was so not into the LT Workshop (I also got a notification that my flight back to Houston was cancelled). My parents decided to stay in Houston–and that was where my mind & heart were at–not Philadelphia :(   After I was able to get in contact with my parents (they were OK), I started to enjoy the Workshop a little more. After LT completed their routines, they did a small cypher at the end (no video….sorry…my phone had to stay alive so I could contact my parents). They then invited everyone who had After Party Tickets back to the area we had the VIP Meet & Greet. There was food set up for us to munch on…and of course the candy station :D  At this time, I had 2 weird things happen to me at different times while I was eating: I had 2 ladies come up to me separately to ask if LT was still at the school…..I told them yes–they were still here–they were just letting us eat for a bit while they change/etc. I guess they thought that LT was supposed to make an appearance while we were eating…?

About 15 minutes later, the host committee led us through a shortcut back to the gym for the remainder of the After Party. Larry came in right behind us…looking for a speaker to plug his cell/iPad into for music. He found a chair to sit in, but it was not near the outlet that the speaker was plugged into (it had a very short cord). I called Larry over to the side where the speaker was plugged in, he started the music, & began a small cypher round him. Lau came in @ 5 minutes later–but he had his own small cypher around him. Lau eventually came over to Larry’s cypher & they began to dance with each other. There are small video clips of them dancing on IG/etc…I didn’t get to record any of it. They danced for an additional 30 minutes….& then it was time for everyone to go (per an announcement from Security). My friend & I ended up in an area where we got to see LT one last time & gave them hugs (they were en route to Italy)….then it was time to get back to our hotels.

Definitely not one of the best Workshops I attended due to the circumstances, but I will give another LT Workshop a chance…perhaps…Atlanta?

P.S. : Due to the Houston Airports still being reported as closed, I will be flying back to Houston on 9/2/17…..from Boston! Going to stay with family there until things get a little bit better in Houston. Yay!

[2fatturtles]

A long travel day

I had always heard that security to get onto an Israeli plane was strict but I didn’t realize how so until this trip. First of all, we couldn’t check-in and drop off our luggage before 3.5 hours before the flight. So thankfully we found a lounge outside of security in which to pass the day. (Thank you Brian for giving up your complimentary passes to us.) Then when it was time to check-in, we were interviewed for about 5 minutes as to why we were going to Israel, if we knew anyone there, if we had been there before etc. The agent was very pleasant but very thorough, (unlike the cranky one from earlier in the day). Then we passed through airport security and another verification of who we were and more questions before entering the gate area. So after all of this structure, it was kind of funny to see a mass chaotic boarding system (without zones) onto the aircraft. We were in the last row of the plane and managed to find storage for our backpacks before quickly dropping from exhaustion. Sierra unfortunately had developed a bad cold during her stay in Scotland and she was wiped out from that. I was running on about 2.5 hours of sleep from my overnight flight from Canada. I think I slept for all but 30 minutes of the 4.5 hour flight to Tel Aviv.  

Brennan warned us not to get into the left lane at the immigration control at the airport. So we wiggled our way through the crowds and followed a few of the more aggressive travellers over to the right side. It was much less busy in this section and several kiosks were opened as well. So we actually got through the process quite quickly. Then we had to wait for my bag before going for our rental car. By the time we got our lovely Peugeot, it was traffic hour going into Tel Aviv. This wasn’t a big deal except that the car has an automatic detection system if we are too close to another vehicle, so it kept pinging at us. Also for the first time, I have to enter a numerical passcode to allow the key to start the engine. I guess theft must be a big issue here. Sierra did a great job of getting us out of the airport and to the general area of where our Air BnB was located. Then it all fell apart. The road we were being directed to for access to our parking garage was just gone. It is now a big crater with construction equipment and cranes. After being denied access we ended up on one way streets with road repair and construction for a new metro line, so we detoured for miles before we could make a left to get back around to get another go at parking. With the assistance of a lovely security officer at the TLV mall, he pointed us in the right direction to access the tenants’ parking lot. The problem was we needed the fob to enter and Brennan had it. He was in the apartment and we had difficulty meeting up with him. Eventually somebody took pity on me sitting outside the garage door and let me in. Perfect, all we had to do was find our stall (#646) and then meet Brennan at the elevators. It was not as easy as it sounds. First of all there were over 800 stalls and secondly, our spot was near the elevators for the 4C building, not the 4N building in which our apartment was located. Finally we found Brennan but it was an adventure. My fingers are crossed that we can out of the garage tomorrow without too much hassle. The signage is mostly in Hebrew so it is going to be interesting. 

This afternoon we are doing a walking tour of Old Jaffa but first a shower! 

Shalom. 

[love-the-bug-blog]

An Expats Exit Strategy

China 1 - Tourism 0

The following words are an opinion only. It’s meant to enlighten, educate and please anybody who decides to read it. Enjoy…with Empathy.

June 2016

We decided to move from Hanoi, Vietnam to Beijing, China.

First mistake….

August 2016

We left Hanoi to fly to Beijing.

Second mistake….

The best place to begin is at the beginning.

Boarding the plane with a promise of riches, glutenous food and a life of leisure punctuated only by bursts of culture and short periods of teaching English in a popular language centre seemed like an idea sent from the heavens. The phrase “If it seems to good to be true then it probably is” springs to mind.

And, in a nutshell, it was.

We should have known from the second we got on the plane that things were not as they seem. The surprisingly long flight from Hanoi to Beijing started in a regular fashion. Joyous excitement and mild IBS mixed with a dodgy airplane meal and trying to figure out what the lady at the check in counter was gesticulating at when she spoke to us in Chinese for several minutes despite our protests. Being Irish, and naturally positive we nodded with vacant smiles on our faces and decided she was probably just explaining the usual tripe that gets explained at check in desks. Don’t bring liquids through security, your bags are marginally overweight, the country you’re traveling to will suck the soul out of your body etc etc.

Despite us booking our flights directly to Beijing we were forced to land in Guangzhao where we were forced to exit the plane (with all our baggage) and go through customs. At this point it might serve us well to mention that we had a very short layover, somewhere in the region of two hours. Which, in any other country in the world would be plenty to get through customs and make it to the boarding gate with some time for a bathroom visit for the IBS to rear its ugly head. No pun intended.

Customs was/is/will always be a joke. There must have been 300 people lined up like cattle at a mart waiting to get to the customs booths. Only a few of the booths were open and housing some of the meanest looking agents you could possibly hope to come across. Long story short…we missed our flight.

We approached the desk and pleaded our case. We met a young gentleman, lets call him “Bruce”. “Bruce” was of usual Chinese build. 5’ 4” and about 55kg with absolutely no muscle tone on him at all and in dire need of a ham sandwich.

We explained to him that we had missed our flight because of a delay in customs and we wanted to find out the quickest possible way to rebook our flights.

“Bruce” stared back with a blank stare…

This was to become a stare we were forced to grow quite accustomed to over the preceding 12 months .

“Bruce” and his bowl haircut tapped furiously on his keyboard and shouted loudly at his colleagues sitting beside him for what felt like an eternity. He guided us to a steel bench and asked us to wait. Or at least we think he did.

Sitting on the bench thoughts drifted to the collection agent who was supposed to pick us up in Beijing international airport at 10.00pm that night. We took out our phones and found that they didn't work in china. No shock here. One was an Irish phone and the second a Vietnams phone so why would they work?

But Wifi….wifi works everywhere. And especially in an airport. An airport..where people wait for hours for their flight, where access to the internet is quite important and sometimes, a vital necessity.

No joy. No wifi in the airport. No hope of getting a message to the agent who was supposed to pick us up.

IBS decides to say hello again…FML.

“Bruce” has seemingly forgotten about us. He seems to be smiling a lot considering he’s very close to being pulled across the counter.

We sit patiently until I approach him, under strict instructions from my partner NOT to assault him. Which i thought was a bit much.

He saw me coming and quickly resumed furiously tapping on his computer. The cheeky bowl topped fucker!

I stood menacingly over him and asked through gritted teeth what our plan was.

He didn’t blink, he printed off two tickets and handed them to me.

The dick!

We probably would have sat there for another few hours before he would have thought to approach us and hand us the tickets.

He got off with a light verbal warning and we headed to our gate of choice. Hereby known as Hells Gate.

We landed in Beijing nearly three hours late. We frantically debarked the plane and frantically searched for our luggage and then we frantically made our way through the arrivals gate hoping against all hope that somehow the collection agent had pieced together that we experienced difficulty on our journey.

Nope. Not in China.

We were on our own. In a strange country. No phones. No wifi. No internet points.

But hey, this is china. The most populated country in the world. Where 1.6 billion people live and work and travel. An information point will surely be able to help us sort out the predicament we have found ourselves in.

Nope. Not in China.

Not a word of English. This waste become a regular thing throughout the year.

But we’ll get to that.

So there we are, stuck in the Airport, exhausted and genuinely confused. We had no way to contacting anyone. No one knew where we were. What had happened to us? Did they care? Apparently not.

We wandered around for what seemed like hours, up and down escalators, looking for some sign of familiarity that might be our saving grace.

Nope. Not in China.

Eventually we found a nice lady who agreed the let us hotspot onto her wifi and send an email. We did.

And got a response saying the collection agent had left and headed back to the city.

After a long and arduous day traveling we had eventually sorted out our issues and things were starting to look up.

Nope. Not in China.

Our collection agent spoke broken English and was about as pleasant as a sexual education class from your granny. He greeted us coldly and grabbed Emily's bag and walked off through the sliding doors and off towards his parked car where we had the pleasure of meeting a loud, brash American girl who despite being only 22 had 6 years teaching experience under her belt.

After maybe an hour of driving we pulled up outside a dive of a hotel and he gruffly told us to get our as he grabbed Emily's rucksack from the boot and walked crankily towards the reception area.

At last. A hotel with a reception. Someone will speak English here.

Nope. Not in China.

After much moving of hands and sweating of brows and slight grumbles suggesting the IBS was not yet finished we produced our passports and were pointed to an elevator where we made our way to a room with two single beds and a prostitutes business card slid under the door. Classy shit.

A quick shower and a good nights sleep and a full day tomorrow with nothing to do but explore this city looked promising. As our heads hit the pillow we gratefully accepted the sleep that quickly descended upon us as the promises that were made to us overshadowed the disaster of the last 24 hours.

Surely things would get better.

Nope. Not in China.

Now we have the start of this little rambling out of the way we can get down to the nitty gritty of recanting some funny stories and situations have found ourselves in over the past year. They are all as true as can be…unfortunately for us.

THE ‘MY FIRST DAY’ INCIDENT

We joined First Leap. It’s a huge language centre based in China. We requested Beijing because we thought the language barrier and western society might be more prevalent here than in some of the other cities.

We were wrong. Fuck!

We trained for two weeks at the company HQ where we were brought to our nerves end by a group of “trainers” who were barely in their twenties telling us both to smile more. This didn't go down well. The more they told us to smile the more we scowled.

Now, let me be clear, this was my first teaching job so I did find the training helpful but they went about it all the wrong way. Making us teach certain scenarios in front of the rest of the trainees who pretended to be children wasn't as industrious as they probably planned. Either way, we did it. Two long hard weeks and we were ready to step into the fray and impart our wisdom. Needless to say…the training did fuck all to prepare me for what was to meet me.

Now, Emily has plenty of experience. Many years of standing in front of young minds and trying every possible method to try and get them to remember what a Cat is. She was and Is a natural.

Me…No one would describe me as a patient man. Nor would they ever suggest in good conscience that I would make a good teacher. Either way, this was the life I have chosen for the next year.

First day, First class.

I had a Scottish teacher, Darren, rampant closet case who had the uncanny ability to turn his thick Glaswegian accent into a south Californian twang at the drop of a hat and his job was observing me to make sure I didn’t scare the children or make them cry.

So I step into the classroom and see all the children running around and I decided to express my authority as the new teacher in a proactive way the best way I knew.

So gather up all my courage and let a mild roar out of my mouth “Hello everyone, It’s time for class now SIT DOWN”.

I didn't see the kick coming, it was all a blur, all I can tell you is that it was possibly the sweetest hit you could possibly imagine.

BOOM. Some little Chinese fucker spin kicks me right in the family jewels.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Down I go…like a Thai hooker.

I don’t remember who started laughing first but I can assure you it wasn’t me.

I retreated to the safety of the hall to nurse my wounds and think to myself where I went wrong in life.

THE SHOPPING INCIDENT

China has their equivalent of Tesco. They call them Lotus or Lotte Marts.

They are huge sprawling building where you can find all the basics one needs when residing in China. Bread, Vegetables and Washing detergent. All the basics.

Now, we were fortunate to live quite close to a aforementioned facility. Warmly known as “Ram Alley Shop”.

It received this strange yet highly significant name due to the large Ram who is tied to a car outside the alley leading to the shop. This Ram is morbidly depressed and fears for its life on a regular basis. It is tied to the old rusted structure of the car with a 6 foot length of frayed rope. We presume the ram, if blessed with nimble fingers, would tie a knot in the rope and hang himself. Either way, hence the name “Ram Alley”.

The story continues…Emily is in work, I’m home early from a field trip to the Coca Cola Factory with several dozen unruly Chinese children. I’ve decided to surprise Emily with a steak and potato dinner so I hit “Ram Alley” to get the supplies. Obligatory sympathy for the Ram ensues and I hit the market.

I’m wandering around picking up the essentials when I turn into the dairy section and I’m confronted by…and I have no nice way of saying this…A child taking a shit on the floor.

I freeze, mainly because I have never seen a child take a shit..in a bathroom let alone in a shopping centre.

My eyes dart around looking for the bewildered mother who is looking for her missing child hoping that when I point in the direction of the child she will do her motherly duty and take care of the…situation.

Nope. Not in China.

Mother approached, mother grabbed child. Mother exited the area with the child leaving an abnormally large pile of child shit on the tiled floor.

I quickly maneuvered the trolly past it and headed for the checkout still in a state of mild shock.  

Note: They recently built a large wall around where the ram was “housed”. We presume he’s still there. But hope that he’s not.

THE NOODLE LADY “RAIN” INCIDENT.

Noodle lady. Our mother away from home. Not a fucking word of english. Bad teeth. Worse Hygiene. And without doubt the best noodles and dumplings we’ve had in our lives.

She operates a very small and very dirty shop on the way from the Subway stop to our apartment complex and is a vital source of nutrients on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. We work late on these days and most places close in China around ten o’clock. So it provides limited options for cuisine.

Enter noddle lady. She smiles and makes our order most work nights as her small child plays paper, rock, scissors with Emily. He’s learning English in school and spouts random words at us.

“Chicken”…Yes, very good.

“Blue”…Excellent.

But thats about it.

About a month into “dining” there I felt comfortable enough to pick him up playfully throw him in the air. He was about 20kg so it wasn't exactly strenuous.

I grab him under the arms and lightly toss him into the air catching him as he descended. He didn't smile…in fact, he looked in a touch of discomfort. As devilment quickly turned to worry I lowered him to the ground wondering internally if I had hurt the young lad. He grasped at his chest and as he pulled his T-shirt away from his light frame I spot the eight inch scar on his breastbone. A sign of major heart surgery. Oops.

Needless to say I haven't touched the little fucker since as running the risk for manslaughter and spending twenty years in prison for killing a six year old boy with a mistimed game of “airplane”.

FML

Noodle lady has thrown us a few surprises in our time here too mind you. There was the old “cockroach” in our dumpling box. That one is always a classic.

Or quite recently, when we returned home from work with Jack, our large predominantly loud Scottish friend. Noodle lady beckoned.

We ordered and stepped to the door. People can smoke wherever they want in China. It’s shit. So we stepped just outside the door to get some fresh air and stay cool.

Just as we stepped outside Jack asked us did we “feel rain?” in his thick Scottish drawl.

We did.

It was definitely starting to drizzle. We didn't panic too much. It was a warm night and it was only a drizzle. It took us about ten seconds of looking up into the night sky to realize something was wrong.

It wasn’t rain!

We jumped out of the way when it dawned on us.

Right above the noodle shop is an apartment and in this apartment lived a little boy and sometimes the little boy likes to piss off the balcony onto unsuspecting foreigners trying to get fed after a day of teaching.

This is frowned upon in most countries.

Nope. Not in China.

Getting pissed on whilst waiting for dinner is a must do that the guide books sometimes neglect to mention.

Either way, Noodle lady is the bomb. She smile regularly and looks constantly exhausted. She is open at 7.45am every weekend when we are going to work and on numerous occasions when we have drunkenly returned from Sanlitun (Bar area) or from a late night Visa run from HongKong we have found her and her husband standing outside at midnight waiting for a stray customer to get his food or perhaps a late beer.

Our order usually consists of two portions of dumplings and two portions of fried noodles with veg. It costs us 26RMB which converts into about 3.39 Euros.

A bargain.

We leave next month and we have saved all the small coins and small notes that are not worth converting into our currency and we intend to give them to the young lad.

Not the one who pissed on us. The one I nearly killed.

Might get him something nice.

[harrywenttoeurope-blog]

Aug 20/21st

Arrived at the Portland airport probably too early, checked in, and got through security swiftly without any issues. Mom and dad were, as expected, concerned (in a loving way) throughout the process. I walked around the terminal for a bit before finding my gate and sitting for a while, snacking and listening to music and podcasts and anticipating the trip excitedly. I ran into Claire Miller as I was walking back into the mall-ish part of the terminal looking for a journal to write in for the trip (obviously I haven't found one). It turned out we were on the same flight to Frankfurt and Sophia Ahmad was on it too. The three of us talked for a while before we boarded the plane about college, our trips, etc. I had the middle seat on the plane between an American veteran with a long ponytail who moved to Germany after being stationed there 30 years ago and a youngish woman with a lot of make-up. I had nothing to lean my head on and was very cramped and so I couldn't sleep at all on the 10-hour-long flight. During the flight, Samson Brody walked past me on his way to the bathroom and we chatted for a minute. After we got off the plane we got onto buses that took us to separate terminals and so I didn't see Claire and Sophia again, but Samson and I went to the same terminal luckily. We hung out at the airport and observed funny and unusual German people and things and phenomena and he slept across a couple chairs while I sat, delirious, waiting for my flight. It was now late night PST but it was late morning in Frankfurt which screwed with my mental state quite a bit. After a tiny bit of a stressful mix-up I ended up at my gate for my second plane and boarded without a problem. I sat in the same row as a presumably Spanish man who prayed as the plane took off. The middle seat was empty so I had some leg room and slept for most of the flight. In the Barcelona airport I was stressed because I had no wifi and couldn't warn the Nates of my arrival. I ended up boarding a bus to the city center which had a USB charger port and wifi so we figured it out. I got to the hostel and Nate and Nate were making mojitos in the hostel kitchen and watching an uninteresting livestream of the solar eclipse, which was taking place right as I got there. We drank the mojitos in the common room and eventually went out to a restaurant called Can Paixaso (?) which served champagne and sandwiches which were both delicious. We talked to some Swedes who were there for a bachelor party. Then we walked around for a bit in Barcelona and sat at a marina and talked and observed passersby. I felt insane the whole time. We returned to the hostel and went to bed around midnight.

Aug 22

Woke up early because an old woman woke up at 5:41 am and turned on the lights in the room as she got a dozen eggs out of her locker and prepared for the day. I couldn't sleep after she got up so my jet lag recovery would be postponed and today would be a relatively delirious and tired day too. I walked down to a convenience store and bought a Red Bull, water, and a bag of crappy chocolate croissants and then went back to the hostel to read and try to fall back asleep. I was ultimately unsuccessful and so I read until Nate and Nate woke up. They didn't like the croissants as much as I did. We checked out of the hostel and went to Sagrada Familia. We bought tickets for a tour of the place because it was the only option, so we waited through an incredibly dull monologue from the tour guide for about a half hour before getting inside and immediately ditching the tour. While the outside façades and spires were incredible in their own right, the interior was the main attraction. Immediately to our left as we entered, an enormous multicolored stained glass window was being illuminated perfectly by the sunlight. The colors of the glass were reflected on the floor of the cathedral and on a nearby column which was green blue and red in the light. The columns themselves were also impressive. They branched off near the top to mimic the branches of a tree, and were much taller than seemed possible from outside the church. The stained glass around the building was almost shockingly beautiful. Altogether, Sagrada Familia was the most incredible building I have ever seen.

From there we went to lunch (at a Chinese buffet that made us sick to our stomachs) then to the beach, where we swam briefly in the warm sea water. Fish swam around our feet and a little girl with goggles tried to catch them with her hands. 

Then we headed back to the hostel and then to the bus station for our trip to Perpignan. As we boarded the bus, we were greeted by a very sweaty man who spoke with a American Southern accent and guessed that we were English speakers based on our appearance. We found out that he was from Northern Ireland, he had lived in Georgia (the state) as a kid, he was anti-political-correctness and islamophobic and wouldn't stop talking. He went to the bathroom four times over a 2.5 hour bus trip. He also said he didn't trust using the internet on phones because of government tracking, didn't have a place to stay where he was going, and didn't really seem to know where he was going anyway. We theorized that he was a fugitive from the law who had killed several people in the US and had fabricated the Northern Irish cover story. I guess we'll never know. We got to Perpignan and took a taxi to our Airbnb. As soon as we exited the taxi, a Frenchman in his mid-twenties started yelling at us in French as he walked the opposite direction on the other side of the street. We had no idea what he was saying but he seemed angry. We were immediately pretty intimidated by Perpignan and the language barrier in France, and were half-jokingly having second thoughts about visiting Perpignan. We walked to a grocery store in the city center and picked up a baguette, Brie, some noodles and curry, and salad stuff. The baked Brie and bread was the highlight of the meal. I think we went to bed pretty early after dinner.

Perpignan

Aug 23

I woke up somewhat early after my first full night of sleep. I ate several packs of trail mix for breakfast. The Nates got up later and eventually we got up and going. We went to the bus station to figure out how to get to Nice without much luck, then caught a bus from there to a beach called Canet Plage about a half hour outside the city. We grabbed a baguette on the way to the beach and while we were there we swam, built a sand castle, then walked down to a rocky pier where we sat for a while. It was very beautiful and relaxing and the rocks beneath us were foreign and cool looking. We sat there for a long time before walking back to the bus stop, picking up another baguette on the way. We talked about college and our friends at college on the way back. The bus dropped us off right outside the grocery store, so we picked up some food and some beer, which we drank along with our frozen pizza dinner.

Aug 24

Terrible day of traveling on buses. Played fun card games in Montpellier and ate a good sandwich. Got to Nice late and felt bad and irritable. Sat on the beach and skipped and threw rocks into the sea. Ate a terrible chicken sandwich called the "long chicken."

Aug 25

Went to a street market near the beach in Nice, got a nectarine, a chocolate croissant, a beignet for breakfast and a pizza/bread thing for lunch. All were delicious. The croissant was very buttery and the beignet was so soft, light, and sweet. One of the best food experiences of the trip. We swam in the sea and it was a bit colder than in Barcelona but still very fun and relaxing. We listened to the sound of rocks hitting the rock floor underwater and Nate Currie tried to swim out to a buoy and almost got there.

We walked up to a park overlooking the city and sat on a bench for a while and soaked up the view. Then we walked back down to the beach and sat near the end where a bunch of French teenagers probably around 30 total were hanging out in this cove and jumping off of cliffs into the water. I sat and watched them for about a half hour while the Nates closed their eyes and sort of slept. Then they got up and I told them about the backstory that I'd observed/constructed with the teenagers and they started watching too. Nate Raphael was especially interested. Our favorite characters were a guy in blue shorts with frosted tips who did the craziest jumps and liked to push people off the rocks into the water, a couple of younger kids (14ish) who walked past us onto the rocks where one of them did very good looking backflips off the high rocks and another did the same but had to work up his nerve for a long time to do so, and a girl who arrived semi late and was thrown in the water against her will and was clearly mad about it and left soon thereafter before returning, walking past us with a friend of hers. We laughed about how involved we were in the story of these teens and how much we knew about that girl's last 30 minutes. We probably watched them for a little over an hour before heading back to the hostel where we drank some beers, ate dinner, and played cards in the hostel's bar. We went back down to the beach at night and threw some more rocks, then Nate Currie and I said goodbye to Nate R. for a few days and went to sleep.

Aug 26

Nate Currie and I woke up early to go to the airport and it all went smoothly. The take off on the flight provided good views of Nice and the clouds above it and France on the way. We landed in Zurich and took a train to the train station which put us in a good place to see a bit of the city. We walked around the river/downtown area and bought fruit and pastries for breakfast and ate them right down by the river. Zurich has a lot of thin pointy clock towers and there are a lot of boat police in the river. 

We walked down to where the river opens up into a larger body of water and walked through a flea market where people were selling vintage clothes and things. Mom would have liked it. We made our way back to the train station and caught a train to Lucerne and then to Interlaken. The train to Interlaken took a while and went slowly through the foothills of the Alps but it's fine because I had podcasts to catch up on, which sort of served as a tether to my normal life throughout the trip, but also as an unpleasant reminder of the stability and comfort of home which I had begun to long for at times. We arrived in Interlaken and walked kind of a long way to our hostel. We picked up on the fact that there were more people in Interlaken than usual because of a big Swiss traditional festival called Unspunnenfest which only happens every dozen years or so. As a result, there were a lot of old Swiss guys at our hostel. We decided to go to the lake in the evening and somewhat haphazardly jumped on a bus that we thought would take us there and got off when we thought we were close. It turned out we weren't close at all so we walked for about 45 minutes through farmland surrounded by very tall and nearby mountains and the smell of cow dung in the air. It was a pleasant walk despite our sense of being lost. We finally made it to the lake after a long time and the only apparent access to it was a private beach of a hotel. So we walked past the sign that said "Private Beach - Unsupervised - Please go to lobby and pay for access" in a bunch of languages and sat down on the very nice lawn right by the water. Nate swam for a couple minutes and I sat and watched the sunset and he joined me as we watched a few boats go in and out of the hotel's docks. To say it was picturesque would be an understatement. It was as peaceful as any sunset I've seen. As the sun disappeared behind the mountains in the distance, we started to walk back hoping to catch a bus. Of course the buses didn't run that late and so we walked a very long way to the other side of town to our hostel. We made pasta with pesto and bacon and it was good and we ate a lot of it. Went to bed.

Aug 27

Woke up excited to see Switzerland but realized about a half hour after waking up that about $200 in cash had been stolen from my wallet. I was very mad and sad and it made me want to be at home away from the stress of traveling. After a while of being mad and Nate being sympathetic, we went to the other lake on the other side of Interlaken via a long bus ride and hiked to a waterfall. The water fall was very big and would have been a bigger deal in the US but there seems to be a ton of waterfalls in Switzerland. There was an old Swiss-looking hotel with a perfect view of the falls that probably costs a lot of money to stay at. I ate a nectarine and a banana and we watched the waterfall and an Indian family take about a thousand pictures in front of the waterfall. The hike there and back took about 3 hours total. As we walked past people on the hike, they either greeted us in English or in Swiss German, and when they did that, we had no idea how to reply. It seemed like everyone was saying a different thing and it made us laugh a lot.

We made something for dinner again at the hostel and had a good talk for a while about the uncertainty of post-college life. I can't remember if anything else happened.

Aug 28

We caught a bus, a train, and a tram up to Gimmelwald where we found our hostel right next to the cable car station. The hostel was completely empty besides a couple from Washington who arrived at the same time as us. The view from the hostel blew the views in Interlaken out of the water instantly. We got settled for a little bit then went on a hike to a place called Chichbalm. This was one of the best moments of the trip. The hike ended in a huge grassy valley with a creek running through it, and with a huge rock mountain face with a waterfall at the far end. On either side of the mountain face were smaller, but still enormous and steep lines of mountains which were mostly grassy and forested at the bottom. Behind us was a view of the largest mountain in the area, Jungfrau, framed by the valley. The sun beamed down through the clouds onto the face of the mountain at the end of the valley and the snowmelt from the waterfall rushed down the center of the valley. I rinsed my nectarine and filled my water bottle in the creek and Nate and I shared some delicious Haribo peach gummies. We sat and soaked it all in silently, and I felt a strong urge to listen to some music, so I put on headphones and listened to "Hold On" by John Lennon and "Godspeed" by Frank Ocean among some other songs. At one point I turned around and saw that Nate had walked off toward the waterfall. I sat alone for a while listening to music and was awed by the scene around me and the combination of the two almost brought me to tears. I felt very grateful to be in that place, and felt that every bad thing about the trip had been worth it for that moment. I felt very grateful for my parents and a bit sad that they'd never had the chance to explore Europe the way I was. Eventually I went to go find Nate, and the walk was deceptively far. Though the valley was in fact huge, it felt very intimate, and I was surprised when I finally spotted a small speck on the ridge of a rocky hill near the waterfall that ended up being Nate. He had walked off to try to reach the bottom of the waterfall and was also listening to music. We hiked back to the hostel and shared our awe with what we'd seen.

At the hostel we made pasta and dressed it with Swiss cheese that we bought at a self service store, of which there are several in Gimmelwald. It was pretty good considering the very simple and arguably mismatched ingredients. We ate it out in front of the hostel where there were several couches and tables with views of Jungfrau and the surrounding mountains. A black cat bothered us for food for a while and eventually stole a piece of pasta, then we played Jenga on a picnic table. We did laundry, and I wrote postcards and organized my bag and then went to bed.

Aug 29

The view from our bedroom window in Gimmelwald as we woke up.

We woke up and took full advantage of the free breakfast offered at the hostel, then found a good hike, longer than the one from the day before, and set off. It required a lot of steep uphill climbing on the way up but Nate and I took it surprisingly quickly. 

Eventually we reached the ridge of a mountain and a point with a 360 degree view of the alps. We could see Gimmelwald way down below, down in front of a wall of white-capped mountains headed by Jungfrau, which sat behind the rocky black cliffs of Schwarzmonch. Behind us and to our right, we could see the valley that we hiked through the day before. Below us to our left was a field of about a hundred dairy cows. Though we were hundreds of feet above them, if not over a thousand, we surprisingly could hear the constant ringing of the bells around their necks. We sat on a bench on this outlook for a while and ate lunch and wrote our names in a journal that had been left for visitors to sign in a wooden box that sat under a metal cross. I don't think many people went up there relative to the amount of people who hike in that area, as we didn't run into anyone in that spot during the hour or so that we were there.

We began the long walk back down to Gimmelwald, walking through the dairy farms we had seen and heard from above.

It took a long time to get back, and when we did, we packed up and returned to Interlaken where we got food for dinner and sent our postcards and hung out til bed. I finally got some reading done, which I'd been meaning to do because I had been enjoying the beginning of it when I read it in Barcelona.

Aug 30

We got up early to catch a bus to a train to another train to another train to Milan. Milan was a real city not focused on tourism at all. We walked from the train station to a kind of dirty and ugly park where we sat for a long time and I read more of my book. Then we took a subway train to the bus station where I read more before we got on a bus to Florence. We walked from the bus station to our hostel and on our way walked past Il Duomo which was just about the only thing I recognized in Florence.

Every touristy thing in Florence is very concentrated geographically and our hostel was in the middle of it all which was nice. We hung out and waited a little bit for the free pasta dinner at the hostel which was tasty and then met with Nate Raphael and walked around the city for a bit. We were joined by a guy we met at the hostel named Connor who went to Lincoln High School and was there for a night. He had graduated from USD and was going to live in Irvine and work as an accountant. We realized that Florence was probably the most touristy place we had been on the trip. Every business was a gelato place or a pizzeria or a panini place or a souvenir shop or a t-shirt store. There were a ton of street vendors selling all kinds of crap everywhere, as there had been in Barcelona and Nice. Soon we went back and went to bed.

Aug 31

We woke up and went to the Uffizi gallery, a museum that had a lot of Renaissance art including paintings by da Vinci and Lippi and Caravaggio. I only recognized a few paintings and sculptures from art classes. It was cool but a bit underwhelming. More background knowledge and context would have been nice, but tours are annoying. I enjoyed seeing the paintings I recognized, and I liked a few that I'd never seen. 

Then we went out walking again, and ate very good pizza at Gustapizza which had been recommended to us by Nate who had been told by our globetrotting friend Andrew that it was very good pizza. It was very good. We sat with a South African couple from Washington who were on a cruise around Italy. Then we kept walking and ended up at castle on a hill where we sat for a while on a bench in the shade and talked about the trip so far and the school year ahead. Then we walked back to the hostel and hung out there for a while. I texted with my mom about my insecurities about the trip and she was very helpful in listening to them and quelling them to some degree. Eventually dinner time came around and we talked with 3 guys from New Zealand with whom we got along well. We talked about the nicknames of their national sports teams. The rugby team is the All Blacks, the soccer team is the All Whites (they were impressed that I knew these two names), the basketball team is the Tall Blacks, and the badminton team is the Black Cocks (as in shuttlecocks). All the names are plays on the All Blacks, as rugby is by far the most popular sport there. Later we met with Nate Raphael at what was supposed to be a jazz club but was instead an unmarked building. Apparently the jazz club had closed. We were with a bunch of people from Nate's study abroad program, most of whom he didn't really like and seemed annoying. After sitting in a very crowded bar that clearly and weirdly catered to American college students studying abroad for a few minutes, we walked to the hostel.

Sept 1

We woke up and walked to Il Duomo where we would spend most of our day. First we walked up to the top of the dome up some insanely narrow and claustrophobic stairs which were built for the construction workers who built the church. It was crazy and funny. We finally reached the top after a while. The view was good and Nate and I laughed a lot at all the people taking selfies and posing for pictures. This was a theme of the trip.

We then went down and went into the baptistery across the street from the cathedral which had a cool painting on its dome that I'm pretty sure I knew from art history classes. I think it was cooler than the fresco painting on the dome of the main cathedral. Then we went and found some lunch at a panini place that was delicious. It was the perfect type of meal. We stumbled upon it, it was cheap, very good, exactly what we wanted, filling, and seemed as authentic as possible in a city that seemed to be a caricature of itself in response to tourism.

Later we met up with Nate Raphael again and went to get gelato at a place where Nate had been before. It was very very good. I got strawberry flavor and stracciatella. Nate Currie got lemon and coconut, both of which looked exactly the same but tasted very different which made for a funny and interesting experience for him. Then we walked to a park in a faraway part of town (similar to the Milanese park from a few days before) and sat on a bench and talked for a while before going our separate ways for dinner. We talked with the Kiwis again at dinner and were going to hang out with them that night but Nate Currie got news about his stepdad having a brain aneurysm and he wanted to stay within range of wifi for updates so I ended up just hanging out with Nate Raphael in a plaza near my hostel for a while. Nate Currie was never in bad spirits at any point during the trip except for the few minutes when I talked to him after he got that news. And even then he wasn't short with me, just sad. I admire his positive attitude because it seems completely genuine and not contrived. I hope I was as good and easygoing a travel partner as he was. Nate Raphael and I talked for a long time about the trip and our respective states of mind and his relationship with his girlfriend. After an hour or two I said goodbye til December and went to bed.

Sept 2

We woke up and went to the bus station and caught our bus and got to Rome and went to our hostel and checked in and then walked to the Pantheon. By then it was about 6 and the Pantheon was closed til 6:30 so we found a place to eat and had pizza and focaccia and it was good, but not as good as the pizza in Florence. But it was our first meal at a real restaurant and we ate outside in the street in a real European kind of manner which was nice. We returned to the Pantheon and walked in and looked around then sat down on a church bench thing (a pew? I don't know) for a while. The dome and the oculus in the center were very impressive and beautiful especially considering how old the building is. 

Then we walked down to the river and walked by a bunch of shops and bars set up in canopy tents and carts right by the river. It was a nice time of night. It was (and continues to be) fun to think about how long people have lived in Rome. We saw the exact location at which Julius Caesar was murdered at some point in the evening. We walked home and went to bed.

Sept 3

I was awoken by a phone call at 6 am about a fraudulent charge on my debit card and I was mad and sad and wanted to be at home again and I was up for an hour talking to my parents and the fraud checker people and it wasn't fun. I went back to sleep and woke up much later. We walked down to the Coliseum and found out it was a free Sunday so we got in free. It was pretty cool but sort of underwhelming because I lacked background knowledge. It made Nate and I want to watch Gladiator. We walked around and found a panini place where we ate lunch. It was good. The waiter guy didn't seem to have time for our non-Italian-speaking selves. We walked back to see the Roman Forum which was underwhelming as we had literally no context for what we were seeing. We didn't spend much time there and walked up to a huge white building nearby that seemed important. I still don't know what it was but we sat for a while. We were both very tired. Then we walked back to the hostel and hung out for a long time. I caught up on writing this stuff and we made a bad dinner but who cares. Then I went to bed.

Sept 4

We woke up and ate bananas for breakfast and then walked in a sort of roundabout way for about an hour to the Vatican. We walked up the main avenue from Castel Sant'Angelo to St Peter's Square and looked at the church for a minute and then walked around the right side to the entrance of the Vatican Museums. We were approached by about 3,000 street vendors and people selling guided tours and things like that on our way there. We walked into the museum in a breeze and marveled at our luck/skill getting into tourist attractions without waiting in lines and without paying too much. We walked up a spiral walkway which curiously featured small displays of various wooden boats and canoes from around the world shown in photos and small scale models. Then we tried to visit a few of the museums which seemed less important and popular than the main features, but they were closed, so we went to the main features instead. First was a gallery of paintings from around the Renaissance not unlike what we saw at the Uffizi. This gallery featured famous painters like Raphael, Caravaggio, and even da Vinci, but made less of a fuss about it than the Uffizi did, which reinforced my belief that it was a better museum. After that first gallery we were both hungry for lunch so we ate at the Vatican Museum cafeteria which was disappointing and made me think the Vatican could do much better and made me realize that cheap and good food could make up for an expensive admission price (at least in my mind) and that that would be a good business idea, I guess in case I ever own a museum. After that we saw some Egyptian art which was cool and made me want to retake or at least attend some lectures from the first art history class I took in college. Everything after this seemed to be a lead up to the Sistine Chapel, as there were signs everywhere directing you towards it and people were clearly following them en masse. People behave so strangely in museums and touristy places. Some people act like there is a competition to see who can get pictures of the most paintings or sculptures in the least amount of time, some people turn the art into a background for a photoshoot, some people just take long and terrible videos moving from thing to thing every second as if anyone (including themselves) will care to watch it later. Watching people's behavior with cell phones (especially taking selfies) seems to me to be a glimpse into their personal insanity. I feel so embarrassed for anyone I see with a selfie stick or taking an obvious selfie, and when I take my phone out to take a picture, I'm embarrassed of myself. So that's basically why I didn't really have any pictures taken of me on the whole trip. Sorry mom and dad, the one with the jenga blocks will have to do. Anyway, this picture taking frenzy was a source of slight frustration, frequent bewilderment, and a lot of laughter for Nate and I. We saw the Egyptian art, then we moved on to more lavishly designed halls which had rows and rows of ancient Roman busts and sculptures, a few of which I recognized from my classes. I'm sure they're all very interesting and are worth a lot of money, but when there are that many all lined up, it's hard to be interested in any of them as they’re all so similar.

From there it really seemed like we were on a one way track straight to the Sistine Chapel. We walked through a great big hall that was pretty incredible and had a very colorful ceiling with religious paintings on it. The walls were lined by huge, painted (kind of cartoony) maps of Italy. There were a ton of people in the hall and you could feel them pushing to get to the main attraction. Everyone moved in one direction at a constant, trudging-and-picture-taking pace. It would have been very cool to have time in to really soak it in but the current was moving too quickly and forcefully to really see it all or even realize that you weren't seeing it all. Oh well, next time.

We breezed through some chapels painted by Raphael and his students, now fully under the spell of the "Sistine Chapel ➡️" signs. We practically sprinted through about half of the contemporary art portion of the museum before I noticed a Salvador Dali painting and realized we should see it all so we walked back to the beginning of it and were glad we did. It was a much more varied collection of paintings than the Renaissance stuff we'd seen in the Uffizi and the first part of the Vatican. 

The Sistine Chapel immediately followed the contemporary art. No cameras nor phones were allowed to be used in the chapel, and the guards intermittently announced over the loud speaker (very loudly): "Silenzio. Silence. No phones. No cameras." People would be pretty silent for about 90 seconds and then would forget about the command and begin to chatter quietly again and after a few more minutes the guards would make another announcement. The chapel was pretty incredible and it was hard to believe that I was there. The paintings were all great, but of course the one I knew (The Creation of Adam) was the one I focused on most and was most impressed by. I wonder in moments like those whether I'm interested in the given thing because it's popular or if they're popular because people tend to be interested in them. Probably a bit of both, no way of knowing really. Anyway it was incredible to see that painting in particular partly because of how famous it is, but also because it really is incredible. The images of God and Adam and the position of their arms, hands, and fingers are evocative. Of what? I don't know, but they strike a chord nonetheless. This, too, made me want to take art history 204 again, because before the first lecture of the course even began, the image of the two hands in this painting was projected onto the screen, and then over the course of the lecture, the professor, Jeffrey Hurwit, tied that painting to cave paintings of hands and used that connection to hypothesize on the purpose of art or something like that. Great stuff. Anyway we stayed there for a while and soaked it in and that was basically the end of the Vatican Museums for Nate and I. We walked back around to St Peters Square and got gelato which I ate in 8 seconds and then told Nate I could eat one thousand more if I was presented the opportunity. I really believe I could. Then we waited in line for about a half hour to go into St. Peter's cathedral which was unavoidable because it's free to go in and there's always a line. We passed time by betting on coin flips. 

A bird pooped on my leg. It was going to happen at some point with the amount of birds flying around in these cities. I wiped it off on a wooden barricade thing. St. Peter's was pretty cool, incredibly big and very lavish. Nate noted how eclectic it seemed and I agreed. I wasn't blown away by it, and I'm now worried that Sagrada Familia ruined all churches for me. Colorful stained glass is too cool. Nate and I agreed that if we built houses, we would include some Sagrada Familia-style stained glass. We walked back to the hostel and it took a long time but we saw some smaller, slightly less touristy streets so that was somewhat cool. We ate dinner at a place called Ristorante Santi where they had 3 courses for €10. I had penne with arrabiata, chicken, salad, red wine, and tiramisu. Everything was good except the salad didn't have dressing and I don't really like red wine. Nate and I sat next to an Australian couple who were nice. We talked about Oregon and Australia and American politics and problems with higher education in the US and gun safety laws in both countries. Luckily they were much more left-wing than our bus ride companion from Northern Ireland/Georgia. When they left, a single man with a vape sat down at their former table. He had gray hair and was stylish in a way that older men in the US never are. A woman and her mom came up to him and asked him for a picture, and he graciously obliged, and Nate and I exchanged looks of confusion. It was soon apparent that he was a famous Italian actor. The women who worked at the restaurant (everyone was related and the grandmother was the chef evidently) were talking to him or trying not to act excited as they served him or Nate and me. I saw that he was reading a script on his phone which I thought was funny because it's what you would guess an actor would do. Anyway I don't know who he was and I probably never will. We went to the hostel and watched Angels and Demons which is a bad but entertaining movie that takes place at the Vatican and in Rome mostly so it was cool to see. Then we went to bed.

Sept 5

Woke up and ate checked out of the hostel but left his bags in the room so we could walk around and get some breakfast. So we walked around and got some breakfast. A dry and not very good but good enough pastry at a cafe, and of course, a nectarine at a street market. Then we walked to the Villa Borghese Gardens and sat on a bench across the street from a man playing trumpet along to famous songs which played from his speakers. He played "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" which reminded me of Deer Hunter, "The Girl From Ipanema," which reminded me of Suzy, and "Más Que Nada" which made me want to listen to samba. We talked about our thoughts on travel and our trip specifically, and about life in Eugene, which we are both looking forward to. We walked back to the hostel after a while and said our goodbyes. Then I walked to a grocery store and bought pasta, pesto and gummi bears. I hung out at the hostel basically all day except for a brief venturing out for gelato. I watched Point Break on my phone and enjoyed it. That's about as exciting as it got. A girl from Seattle was talking to a guy from Mexico and a guy from Australia in the common area while I was there writing about the previous day and I almost said something when she said Seattle is cooler than Portland but based on what I'd heard her talk about I decided I wouldn't enjoy the interaction at all and just bit my tongue. I packed up my stuff in preparation for the morning and went to bed.

Sept 6

I woke up in the dark and got all ready and checked out and walked to the train station two blocks from a hostel and from there caught a bus to the Ciampino airport about an hour away from Rome. The sun was rising as we drove south and it was pretty nice. I waited in the airport for a while and then got on the plane and then landed in Belgium and got on a bus to Brussels and then walked to my hostel from the bus station. The walk took a while and it was through what I would assume is a bad part of town. There was nothing nice or cool or interesting about it, especially after having seen so many similar places in Barcelona and Perpignan and Rome. I got to my hostel and hung out and did laundry and watched a movie and did basically nothing all day. I probably should have gone out and gotten food and seen the city a bit but my fears got the best of me. Without any back up if I ran out of cash or lost something important, I decided, or rather felt, that staying safe and secure inside was worth more to me than seeing a bit of Brussels, which I feel bad about but oh well. Maybe I'll see it tomorrow. Not looking forward to tomorrow, but it's basically the last stressful hurdle of the trip so that's nice. I just need to get through tomorrow/tomorrow night and I'll be having fun with Sawyer in Copenhagen.

Sept 7

I woke up and checked out of the hostel and passed the first part of the day in the hostel's common area reading, listening to podcasts, watching movies. Eventually I walked to the bus station and took the bus to the airport. I ate some french fries which were good at first, but at the bottom of the cone, there wasn't any salt on the fries and the ketchup's General Tso's-esque flavor got kinda gross. I passed time in the airport reading, listening to podcasts, watching movies. There were a lot of people in the airport doing the same thing as me. I ate a delicious waffle with probably too much Nutella on it. At around 1 am I found a place on the ground where I laid out my towel and rested my head on my backpack and put a t-shirt on my head to make it darker. I slept for maybe an hour or two it's very hard to know for sure.

Sept 8

I got up and going around 3:30 am. When the waffle place reopened at 4 I got another waffle, this time without Nutella. It was so good. Eventually I made my way over to the terminal from which my plane was taking off and waited there til I got on the plane. The flight was very brief. I got to Copenhagen and managed to take a metro train to right near Sawyer's apartment. I found wifi and communicated with him and then walked around for a while til he was ready to meet up. I walked around his neighborhood, and through a park, and ate a really good jelly donut from a grocery store. It was raining and kind of cold in Copenhagen. It was like being placed right into an October day in Portland or Eugene. The park could have easily been a park in Portland. The city reminded me more of Portland than anywhere else on the trip. There were hip little shops selling records and clothes and coffee and beer, and I wondered how they stay in business. Sawyer and I met up and hung out at his apartment place after eating a kebab durum, which was kind of like a gyro, but the lettuce, meat, creamy sauce, and fluffy bread combo reminded us of a taco bell chalupa. We talked about each of our last 3 weeks for about an hour til sawyer had to go to class. Then I walked to my hostel and checked in. I met a kid from Seattle in the hostel and we related about the weather being like home. I took a brief nap and later Sawyer biked over and we walked around the neighborhood, which was apparently the place to be in Copenhagen. We ended up at a cafe place where Sawyer's RA-kind-of-guy works and we each got a beer and stayed there and talked for a long time about our respective traveling, our lives in general, our friends, and Sawyer's mom, who works at the Hawthorne New Seasons as a full-time cashier now. Then we walked around and found a pizza place that was good and pretty cheap. Then we walked back to sawyer's apartment and hung out there for a little while talking to each other and then talking to his roommate-type people for a while. Eventually I walked back to the hostel and went to sleep.

Sept 9

Woke up and ate breakfast at the cafe that runs the airbnb/hostel I stayed at. Then I walked over to sawyer's and we hung out then went to a museum along with a friend of his from his apartment named Sean/Shawn/Shaun. It was a cool museum there were a bunch of Matisse paintings and Picassos, and a whole lot of Danish art. It was raining pretty hard on the walks there and back. We walked back to Sawyer's place and hung out there for a long time, avoiding the rain, eating, and listening to music. Eventually it was somewhat late and I borrowed Sawyer's bike and went back to my new hostel where I checked in and went to bed.

Sept 10

I woke up and had to check out of the hostel again because I changed rooms in order to avoid paying a bunch of money. So I checked out and stored my bag in the luggage storage and then sat outside the hostel and did stuff on my phone for a while until sawyer was done doing some homework. Eventually I biked over to his apartment and got another kebab durum for lunch. Then we started walking in the general direction of the soccer stadium. It was a long walk made longer by our navigation mistakes but that was kind of part of the plan. We saw parts of the city neither of us had seen before which was cool. We saw actual individual houses which I hadn't seen anywhere in Europe except in Switzerland. We talked the whole time we walked about school and living in houses as opposed to apartments/dorms and a bunch of other stuff. Eventually we made it to the soccer game. The fans of FC Copenhagen were a bit less buttoned up than the typical Dane that we'd seen in sawyer's neighborhood or the neighborhood I'd been staying in which is called Norrebro. We sat in the general admission section, which, like at Timbers games, is the section for the diehard fans. The fans were similar to the Timbers army in their passion for the team and their constant singing, and I think that the teams we saw were comparable to MLS skill level, maybe a bit less skilled, but the FC Copenhagen fans lacked the air of wanting to be taken seriously which is so present in the Timbers army. Anyway, there was a guy screaming and leading chants over a microphone and loudspeakers out in front of the crowd. He would boo and lead chants which seemed to be specifically targeting players on the other team which was funny to sawyer and I. People were allowed to smoke cigarettes in the stadium which was annoying because a lot of people were taking advantage of that allowance and since everyone in Europe smokes they don't really try to keep the smoke away from people around them. Nonetheless the game was very fun and it ended 4-3 with FC Copenhagen winning. None of the goals were all that spectacular. Sawyer and I spent the whole game observing things and joking around and laughing a lot. At the final whistle, FC Copenhagen's coach made a run all around the field looking out at the fans as he ran and jumped and pumped his arms beckoning the crowd to cheer. The crowd was into it and it was cool to see.

On the walk back we took a more direct route but still were looking at things and talking and taking our time. We talked about how the Beatles are really good and maybe underrated. We got to sawyer's apartment and hung out in the kitchen/common area and ate dinner and hung out with sawyer's RA guy who is Danish and also went to the game so we asked him questions about things we were curious about. Then the other students in his apartment started coming back (also from the game) and we hung out with all of them as they made dinner and stuff. Eventually I parted ways and said my goodbyes with sawyer and walked back to my hostel where I got checked in again and got ready for bed and went to sleep.

Sept 11

I woke up lazily and realized this was the first morning of the trip on which I had no reason to get going quickly at all. I had no hostel to check out of, no concrete plans to attend to, and no traveling companion to keep up with. It felt nice. By the late morning I was up and going, and I walked down to the canal area of the city where the famous colored buildings from all the google images are. It was the most touristy thing I'd seen in Copenhagen, which was among the least touristy places I'd been on the trip. I think Copenhagen, Gimmelwald, and maybe Interlaken are the only places I visited where I could imagine being happy living in. I walked to a place with a bunch of "street food" in a food court place near the canals. All the food seemed fancy-ish and expensive. I ate a very good sandwich and fries.

Then I sat outside the food court on a bench and looked at the river or canal or whatever and listened to Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter for a while in the rainy windy cold. I walked back toward my hostel and picked up food for later and a train ticket on the way. I hung out at my hostel for a while watching movies and then at sunset walked down to what they call a lake but is more like a reservoir and sat on a bench and looked at the clouds, the city, and a pair of swans cleaning themselves on a small dock. I walked back to my hostel after a while and ate my food and got all situated for the early morning up-and-at-em.

Sept 12

I was very very disoriented for about 5 seconds after my alarm awoke me at 4:15 am. I must have been sleeping deeply. I got all my stuff together in the hostel and went to the common area to eat my banana and donut for breakfast. Only the front desk clerk person was awake in the hostel. I headed out for my walk to the metro station about 30 minutes away. It was still pitch dark outside, and the streets were largely empty. I saw only two other pedestrians on the whole walk, along with a few cars and bikers. I made it to the metro station with no problem and the train came about two minutes after I got there. I got to the airport and got through security and got to my gate very smoothly. I was among the first couple people at the gate, and felt like I should have just slept in for a little while longer. Oh well, better safe than sorry. I listened to podcasts and stuff while I waited, and walked across the terminal to watch the sunrise.

Soon after the sun rose we boarded the plane. I had a window seat next to a married couple. The flight felt a little longer than I wanted it to feel. But soon enough we were in Reykjavik and I was once again waiting in an airport. I exchanged my leftover euro and got enough money back to get some food, but I waited til later to actually buy it and eat it. I kind of slept for a few minutes laying across some seats in an empty section of one of the terminals there where I hung out for a long time. Eventually I got food and made my way to my gate after going through what I think were customs. I don't really know, but they stamped my passport. I bought more food for the flight once I was in my terminal, which was reserved for American connecting flights and was packed with people. Not a very economical use of space in the ole Reykjavik Keflavik Airport. Getting to my gate was pretty ridiculous. Five or six flights were all boarding within 30 minutes of each other in the same dead-end section of the terminal, and everyone was kind of lining up for their gate and kind of just walking through the crowd at will. There was a lot of confusion but eventually I got to my gate. From the gate we got on buses which took us to our plane, but once we got to the plane, apparently the crew had to check around the plane for safety or something and so we were all packed on this bus with no seats just waiting for like 10 minutes with no fresh air. It was very claustrophobic and I was starting to go insane was getting urges to react violently to the people bumping into me and such. Luckily we got off the bus before I could act on those urges and I got into the plane and my seat, another window seat. I sat next to another married couple. The husband was very obese and after take off, the flight attendants moved them to some other seats because there was an open row or something. So I got all 3 seats to myself. That made the trip much easier and I was able to lay out and stretch my legs and all that. I slept for some of the flight and watched a movie and it went by relatively quickly. In the last half hour I looked out the window at the Puget Sound, the Columbia River, and eventually Portland, as the plane landed and my journey ended.