Day 7 & 8: Germany, you win.

May 6th & 7th, 2012 ---

... I don't even feel like writing this right now. Aghh. But it's 6:45am on Day 8 and I haven't gone to sleep yet. I'm sitting on a train on my way back to Cologne after partying in Munster till the sun came up. Literally. No point in sleeping now, might as well write.........
......
...
..

Nope...... Cant do it. I change my mind. I may, to quite a surprise, be completely and 100% sober right now, but there's a major lack of function up there. I'll give it another shot later this afternoon.
ZzZzzz....

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Siiighhhh..... Okay.

Well, having already read an intro to what will come, I'll still start at the beginning.

Today was a rainy day and as rainy days usually go, they set the mood for a typically mellow day. Which it indeed was. (The day, I mean.)

We woke around 11:30, got ready and headed out with a few things to accomplish. Apropose, we go! I promised I would try on that dress and today, feeling well rested and so much better, was the day. So off we went to Apropose, with umbrellas in hand.

That morning I had straightened my hair all nice, but of course... As soon as I stepped outside, poof. Frizz. The downside of having naturally curly hair! Ugh! By the time we arrived at Apropose, even Janis was laughing at my #CurlyHairProblems.

I walked in and headed straight to the dress. Of course, being all high end and fancy, they only had one tiny size on the rack, so I found a sales associate close by who went to the back to grab my size and lead me to a fitting room. The dress was so beautiful. It was black satin on top, layers that pleated horizontally until it reached the natural waist where a black belt, encrusted with white crystals sat above the cream-colored satin skirt that had an overlay of puffed out tule. Though I felt a little wider in it, it was still so cute and classy! I did a little spin in the dressing room, opening the door to show the sales associate and Janis who wanted to see it on. After thoroughly enjoying wearing a dress worth €600, I closed the dressing room door, snapped a pic for memory purposes and then changed back to real life clothing. Twas fun!

We wandered around the store for a few more minutes... Where I found the show boutique. Dammit. I was done for. So many pretty shooooooeeeeessss!!!!! Jimmy Choo, Yves St. Laurent, Monolo and Loubtin! Sighhh.... It was shoe heaven. I found a gorgeous pair of Yves St. Laurent platform pumps in a dark beige with cognac-colored piping, heel and toe cap. Obsessed. Absolutely obsessed. With no sales associate in sight and realizing it was my size, I looked at Janis and then just went for it! I slipped it on real fast and then discovered that, as beautiful as it was, it was terribly uncomfortable. Thank goodness! My level of obsession lowered to just a high level of appreciation... So I found a way to part with the masterpiece and moved on... To where I found the latest collection from Christian Louboutin. Beige snakeskin pumps.... Classic black leather peep toe, all of which had the standard red Louboutin sole. I think I let out a small whimper when I saw the price stickers at €695 or higher. One day Louboutin... one day....

By that point, I had to leave my shoe love behind... I didn't want Janis to think I had a problem or anything... It's just a real appreciation of beautifully designed shoes and quality leather... That's all.. Sigh.. We were on our way to MAC so I could grab a few things I had forgotten. On our way, he showed me this little bakery. So adorable, it was painted a light, candy-colored pink and had bench-seating along the corridor wall and small tables adorned with lit tea lights. Walking through the doorway, I looked into the glass cases. I wasn't going to get anything, but after seeing the eclairs, I had to try one! I hadn't had an eclair in years! So I paid for a small one, sat at one of the small tables by the entry... And that's where I met a new friend! With wet, crimped, light blonde hair, beautiful structured face and dark brown eyes... I instantly fell in love. I never found out his name, but he was the most beautiful and affectionate golden retriever! Haha! And you all probably thought I meant a boy! Well, my puppy, Koda would've been jealous. I gave him an ear scratch and pet his wet fur with his head nuzzled against my leg. He was the cutest thing.. I wanted to take him home with me! But obviously when that wasn't an option, it made me miss my little fur ball back home in San Diego!

We headed onto MAC where I grabbed a few things then headed to a bar! Earlier that day, Janis had told me that the Cologne football (soccer) team would be playing a big match against Munich that would be the deciding factor on whether they would be in the first seed or not. Now I really have no idea what that means, nor am I sure I even explained that right, but I knew it was a big game and that the bars would be full of people watching! I wanted to join for the experience of watching a football game with Europeans who are known for their passion towards football! So off we went, dipping in and out of a few places looking for somewhere that wasn't super crowded.

After a few places, we settled at a place where we shared a long table with a few people and ordered some Kolsh beer, the main beer from Cologne (that's great, might I add.) I ordered a Hawaiian calzone as a late lunch and proceeded to watch the game.

Never have I ever been into soccer. I've watched it once or twice with an ex of mine that was from London and always enjoyed supporting his team, Tottenham. But I never really paid attention... I usually was doing homework or busy doing anything that didn't involve watching guys kick a ball around. But this time.... I was in the bar, beer I'm hand, not exactly yelling at the tv.. but let's just say I definitely got into it. And when Cologne lost.... It was soo sad. A few people...the opposition.. they cheered.. But everyone else was pretty quiet. You could definitely feel the disappointment in the air. None the less, it was an absolute blast just being around all the supporters of the local football team!

We went straight back to Janis' apartment following the game and quickly changed and head for the train station. We were on our way to Munster, a two hour train ride away, to party till the wee hours.... Pretty much till we could catch the first train heading back to Cologne at 6:34am.

We arrived at the Bahnhof, hopped on the train and enjoyed a nap mid-ride arriving in Munster around 8:45. When we got outside the train station, there were bicycles parked EVERYWHERE! I couldn't believe it! So many freakin bikes!!! Janis informed me that Munster is the biking city of Germany and everyone bikes here. No kidding! Geez!

Janis & I walked over to a nearby grocery store, picked up some alcohol and while we were in there I noticed a bottle with clear liquid and an apple on it! I grab it and run over to him, "Janis!!! Is this apple water??!" "Yes..." I think he was a bit puzzled why I was so stoked about finding apple water. "Its not carbonated right? Just plain apple water?" "Yes, why?" I explained to him that, Aaron, the guy from New Zealand that had introduced me to The Black Seeds, had told me about apple water once upon a time and I thought it was the neatest thing. He tried to bring me back some when he came back in March but because he couldn't bring it on the plane in his back, he never had a chance. He laughed when I told him how badly I wanted to try it and told me to just water down some apple juice because, surely, it would probably taste the same. Obviously I refused and have been waiting out for this apple water. So when I was in the grocery store i was stoked to find some!

From here, we headed over to Janis' friend Tim's apartment; a fantastically, modern and ikea decorated place. It was a cool spot! We had some drinks, listened to a bunch of amazing house music had a few laughs.... They mainly spoke German so i mainly just drank but they tried to include me the best they could. I didn't mind though, I'm in Germany, wasn't expecting everyone to speak English.

We went hopped in a cab around midnight to a place called Club Fusion. We were seeing a house dj named Oliver Koletzki. When we arrived, Janis' best friend, Jana had put us on the list, so we went straight in and dropped off our coats at coat check. Once inside, we grabbed some drinks and proceeded to hit the dance floor. About an hour(?) later, Jana and her boyfriend disappeared and Janis said he'd be right back having to go find a friend, leaving Tim and I on the dance floor. As the place began to get more and more crowded, personal space was pretty much gone. Everyone around us dancing and having a blast. About another hour had past and Tim gets a few texts from Janis saying he couldn't find us in the crowd and that they were now right beside the DJ on stage! Tim & I immediately went to find them and spent the rest of the night partying up there! It was so fun!

Club Fusion was a really cool spot, the only thing that really sucked - like most places in Germany, you're allowed to smoke in the venue. It was sooooo smokey! With all the secondhand smoke around me the whole night, by the time we left around 5, my eyes were burning and my lungs felt like I had smoked a carton. Breathing definitely felt like a chore. Though the music was amazing and i probably could've kept dancing for another few hours, I was relieved when it was time to go.

Janis and I took a short taxi ride to a small diner a block from the train station, where I had an amazing wrap called a Döner Rollo. Inside was salad, a thin sliced warm meat and tzatziki sauce. Sooooo good! I had drank two bottles of water, I think all the smokey air and dancing made me sooo thirsty, as I had stopped drinking sometime around 1am, and only had about a total of 5 or 6 drinks the whole night, mostly at Tim's. It was nice to be completely sober for the train ride back to Cologne at 630.

The train ride was the lonnnnngggeeeesssttttt train ride evvvvvveeeeerrrrrr!!!! About 20minutes into the ride back, exhaustion hit. Legs, lungs, body aching. Mental function gone. Cigarette smoke embedded into every thread of clothing I was wearing. Janis and I joked how destroyed we felt. Another wild night! Non stop dancing. I literally hadn't sat down till the cab to the diner. I danced the WHOLE night! #LikeAChamp.

Like you previously read, I attempted to blog, but i just couldn't put together an interesting sentence, nor did I want to. Stoked, was I, when we finally pulled into the Cologne Bahnhof. Janis and I got back to his apartment in record time. I immediately jumped into the shower... there was no way I would be able to sleep feeling as gross I was feeling. After a nice, long, warm shower... Feeling refreshed, I hit the pillow, emailing my parents to let them know I got in okay and checking my mail. I ended up laying in bed wide awake.

'Seriously?'

Partied all night till the sun rose, exhausted train catching for a grueling 2 hour train back to Cologne and now I can't sleep?!

Okay, Germany, you win. Now let me sleep.

I finally passed out around 10:30am waking up around 1:30.

... It is currently just after midnight, I'm still in my pajamas. Today was an epically lazy day with nothing but a little packing, writing, listening to music, face booking, picture uploading and eating some super bomb pasta Janis made.

Today was needed. Off to Lucerne, Switzerland tomorrow!
I'm staying in my very first hostel! Wish me luck!

Till next tomorrow,

Goodnight!

Alice & Olivia Dress at Apropose

Yves St. Laurent Heels

Munster: Bike Capital of Germany... no kidding!

Apple Water!

Soccer game at local bar in Cologne

At Club Fusion in the DJ booth!

So much rain!

Day 6: The city of love!

May 4th, 2012 ---This morning was rough. Having been setting my alarm every morning for 10:30, my internal alarm went off at 10:29. Awesome. I managed to toss and turn and fall back asleep till about noon, but the hangover that proceeded to take over my life for the day was not so welcome, but expected with the type of night we had had.

We slowly got ready, Janis making me some epic eggs for breakfast, and then decided to head out around 2 and spend the day wandering through Cologne.

The streets of Cologne are adorable. Though a large amount of the buildings are covered in graffiti, there are little shops and cafes everywhere, typical of most places in Europe.

We walked to the Starbucks around the corner for a tea and then kept on our journey. We were headed to the Dom. On our way, Janis showed me one of his favorite stores, a concept store called Apropos.

Apropos is a large high end store. When you first walk in, you walk through a long corridor, painted in a bright magenta pink. You walk up a few small steps and find yourself in a large naturally lit courtyard with a bar/cafe to your left, all with white tables, chairs and bar stools, complete with a large shiny disco ball. To your right, a store within - the handbag boutique. Walking through the courtyard, you end up in the main area of the store. Rows of racks with only a few pieces of clothing hung them. One, specifically with a gorgeous satin & tule dress on it.

I walked up and admired it, promising to come back and try it on when i was feeling a bit less like I had just been hit by a vodka bus. So we left the store and continued on to the Dom.

The Dom is an exquisite cathedral in central Cologne, right outside of the Bahnhof (now if I could just get the pronunciation down, eh Janis?! Haha!) (for all others: the train station). It is made of sand stone and covered in black filth from years and years of pollution in the air. However, there are some parts of the exterior that are very clean and white from the ongoing restoration. Being one of the 6 million people that visit the Dom every year, as Janis just told me, we headed inside to take a peak around. The doors were tall and slender, with large lion knockers. Once inside, I was blown away with how high the ceilings went! The main sanctuary room had tall columns lining either side connecting the arched ceiling. High up on the left side over hang an enormous silver organ. The one thing I was surprised about, unlike ,at of the churches Ive been in through out the years, this one didn't have as much color as the rest. It was very dark and muted, very quiet.

While in the church, Janis explained that normally we would be able to walk around the whole cathedral but unfortunately while we were there, there was a small service going on and we would be restricted to the lobby area and up to where the pews began. So we spent a few minutes inside, saw as much as we could and then headed out, walking around past the Dom and towards the Hohenzollernbruecke Bridge that crosses one of the busiest waterways in Germany, the Rhine.

When we began to make our way across the bridge, it was hard to miss all the padlocks hanging from the fence that separates the walk way from the train tracks. I asked Janis what this was all about because it reminded me of Pont des Art in Paris (that I hadnt had a chance to see). He explained that lovers come from all over the world to hang a "love lock" on the bridge to profess their undying love for each other and then they throw the key into the Rhine below. He also explained that when making the bridge they had to take in account the weight of all the locks, in terms of the architecture, because there are thousands of them going all the way across the bridge.

As we strolled along, it was absolutely beautiful to see all the locks. Different sizes, colors, types of locks. Some were engraved, some written on with sharpie, some with ribbons or flowers... It was so touching! Some of the locks had multiple locks attached for families...the first having an engraving of a wedding date, then newer ones attached each time a child was born. Another ones saw and fell in love with, was a lock that I'm sure was placed by couple that lived near by. It had their names on it "KD und Seph" and a date of "9 Aug 2003," attached to this lock were 10 or more other locks engraved with the names of cities. I can only assume that whenever they went somewhere in the world they came back and put another new lock on the bridge alongside their own. There was Berlin, Tahiti, East Coast, West Coast, Australia. It was definitely the neatest one to me.

We carried on across the bridge, seeing a few couples attaching locks, until we passed 3 teenagers. I don't think they were much older than 15 or 16. One girl was standing with her iPhone taking a picture of the other two that were standing beside the wall of padlocks. What made seeing this special, was that the other two, a girl holding a rose standing with her boyfriend. They were holding hands, smiles on there faces and posing for the picture. It was absolutely adorable. It began a conversation between Janis and I about how simple and exciting teenage love is. It's like, you don't ever have to think about distances, money, life responsibilities, anything that seems to complicate or get in the way of something really great when you're an adult. At that age, all it takes is a boy or girl holding your hand to make you feel on top of the world. I know some of those feelings, like the butterflies and excitement when someone special calls, never gets old... But I'm sure everyone can relate and understand what I mean in some way!

When we finally got to the other side of the bridge, some 15 minutes or so later, having been sauntering pretty slowly in our sorry hungover states, we decided to head over to the Triangle Tower.

The Triangle Tower is actually a tall round building with an observation deck in which you can see all of Cologne. Arriving at the top, and sitting along the glass walls were several watercolor artists painting the Dom, bridge and horizon. Definitely tugged at a few heart strings having not painted in years and recalled the last time I was in Florence where I bought a sketch pad and few pencils and drew here and there along my trip. Janis had never been atop the Triangle Tower before, so we both took some pictures then he pointed out places throughout Cologne, like the Stadium, his school, a "beach" bar along the Rhine and a few other cool places. As we walked around the observation deck, I heard this man by us explain that Cologne reminded him of Toronto. Of course my ears perked up when I heard Toronto and I asked them if they were from there. They explained they were from Montreal and then made a few hockey jokes, complete with an "eh" here and there. I love my country. Fellow Canadians make me laugh. It took the last few years living in San Diego to realize but I've found that we fit the stereotypes to a tee, and frankly... I think it's hilarious.

We headed back down the tower and decided at this point we were absolutely starving. Janis had told me earlier that there was a really great Schnitzel place by his house, called Oma Klienmann, that is incredible. So off we went to get some schnitzel!

On our way, I kept seeing these trees decorated with steamers and ribbons and hearts. They weren't actually in the ground, they were just tied to lamp posts, leaning against walls beside doors... in very random places! Janis explained to me, that when someone is in love and wants to express their love, they decorate a birch tree, usually put a heart with the persons name on it and the get it as close as possible to the persons doorway or window as they can! Hooooow adorable is that?! This city is so full of love! Pshhhh! Paris has nothing on Cologne, with their birch trees and love locks! Anything else Cologne?! So cute! I wish North America had such beautiful traditions, like these, to express love! And don't even get me started on Valentines Day, that doesn't even count!!!

Anyways, when we got to Oma Klienmann, we managed to be able to sitar a table with a time limit of an hour and a half. The table, among almost all the others, had reservations set for them! Busy place! We got the menus, of course the whole thing in German and complete gibberish to me. Janis started going down the list of what everything was until I stopped him and said, just order me whatever you think I'll enjoy with a side salad! No sense in having an entire menu read to me! Haha

So, he ordered my meal which arrived shortly after and it was the biggest piece of schnitzel I have ever seen!!! It took over the entire plate, slightly hanging off one side. It was incredible! I decided to take on the challenge and I almost finished the whole thing, but the last several bites were torture. Absolutely painful. I had made it soooo close to the end but I just.couldnt.do.it. (Especially with the hangover stomach ache I already had.) haha

We finished up, paid the bill then headed back to his apartment where I ended up sitting and writing while he took a nap. We were supposed to go out again, but after about an hour or two of relaxing, neither of us wanted to. Perfectly content, we opted to stay in and mentally prepare for the adventures we had planned for the following night!

A great, mellow and enjoyable night with much needed sleep and recovery time!

Day 5: Do as the Germans.

May 3rd, 2012 ---

10:30- I woke to my fantastic alarm, that I love so much. Again, laid around like a bump on a log for a while. Then began packing.

This mornings predicament: carrying suitcase down 6 floors without falling, dying or other on said mission.

Having realized that my suitcase was actually much lighter without my toiletries, I opted to take them out for the trip down the stairs. I zipped everything up, rolled the bag down the hallway and then stopped at the top of the first step and just looked down at the circular stairs ahead of me.

Back in San Diego, I'm a member of 24hr Fitness. I go almost every day, sometimes twice a day, and for the last little while I've been trying to do more weight lifting and such to gain a little arm muscle.. which I've always really lacked! Yes, in such a weakling. Haha So thank goodness I've been hitting the gym because I had to turn that suitcase on its side, pick it up and with it under my left arm, my right hand bracing the underside, I headed down the six floors - stopping just once around the 3rd floor to get a better grip!

By the time I made it to the bottom, I was so proud! It definitely wasn't as bad as I had thought! I slipped my suitcase to the side of the stairs in more of discreet area and then headed all the way back up to grab my purse, bag of toiletries and small bag with my book, headphones and other small things for the train ride.

When I reached my suitcase, I quickly unzipped it, three my toiletries in and got on my way. Threw the little court yard, small corridor, large entry way and out the door to the street. As I stood street side for a moment, I pondered whether I should take the metro or catch a cab.

With it being a beautiful day and the cabs being unusually cheap in comparison to North America, I decided it would be nice to catch a cab to see Paris one last time on my way to Gare de Nord.

I grabbed the first passing taxi on the corner of Ave Bosquet and Rue de Saint Dominique, the nearest cross streets of the apartment. We drove over the Siene, through the bustling streets of Paris. If you hadn't heard, drivers in Paris are crazy! There are no lanes, every one drives where ever they please, every one cuts every one else off and then you have mopeds zipping weaving around all over the place.
I could never drive here.

We arrive at the Gare de Nord and as the taxi driver pulls off to the side, a police officer immediately walks over and begins to write him a ticket. Why, I'm still unsure but I guess it just wasn't the place to stop. Needless to say he was pissed and said something in French to the officer and the officer signaled him to go. We move a little bit further down the road, the driver I believe was still in the wrong spot because he was checking his mirrors and constantly looking around to see if the officer had spotted us again. So I quickly paid my fare, grabbed my bag and headed inside for a quick lunch.

My first cheeseburger and fries in quite a while. It was great! I sat at the first floor restaurant, Cowans(?) or something like that... read my magazine, ate lunch and then after paying the bill I looked at my train ticket.
The whole thing is in French. Awesome. .. Of course not surprised. But what car am I going to and what seat am I in?
I head to the ticket booth and the woman, kind of rudely, shows me where on the ticket it has the information I'm looking for. I walk over to the main waiting area and wait, staring up at the departures board eager to find out which platform I have to head to.

By this time the train is going to be leaving in 25mins... Seriously, still nothing? .... Leaving in 20 mins..... The French really know how to leave things to the last minute. ....15mins, the train is scheduled to leave in fiiiiffffteeeenn minutes! What the hell?!
Suddenly the departures board begins to whir as the entire board changes and my train is fourth from the top with the platform number for the Thalys train being number 10. I was lucky to have been standing right beside it.

I was in car number 7. So thinking it would be at the furthest end of the platform I booked it down there. When I realized I couldn't tell where the numbers were located and I was approaching the end, of what ended up being a smaller train then I thought, I asked one of the men checking tickets where car 7 was.
"Down that way." He points to where I just came from.
Great. I thank him and head back the other direction.
When I get to the door, I pick up my suitcase, store it in the luggage area and find my seat a few rows up on the aisle.

The train ride was enjoyable. I listened to my music, read my magazine. When I arrived in Brussels, where I was transferring to Cologne, I hopped off the train and found myself walking behind some guy about my age with a skateboard strapped to his backpack. On the skateboard, a half maple leaf with the word "EH?!" drawn in silver sharpie. At first glance, I didn't think anything of it.
Whoa, wait a minute... !
"Hey! Are you from Canada?!"
"Ya, I am"
"That's awesome! I am too! I noticed your skateboard.."

We ended up chatting on our way inside the terminal. Turns out he was from Edmonton, backpacking for the month and headed to Amsterdam. He was a nice guy, seemed younger than I but we shared our stories then headed to catch our trains.

I waited an hour before boarding my next train to Cologne. Aboard the train, I was lucky to have the whole row to myself, so I parked it by the window, leaned against the window and the back of my seat, with my feet up on the chair next to me and took a nap. When I woke, I freshened up in the bathroom, and before I knew it I was in Cologne!

I jumped off the train, headed down the stairs where I was met by Janis with beers in hand! Stoked!

Last July, my old roommate Sydney unfortunately had to move back to Arizona and do we had to hunt for a replacement. After several interviews, we fell in love with a girl that stopped by named Natalie. She was bubbly, outgoing, and soooo excited about our house. It was the first person that really showed so much excitement about our house, which we thought was fantastic because we really love our house too!
There was only one catch, her boyfriend would be coming to live with us for 3 months at the end of September.
We debated because we weren't sure if we wanted a guy living with us that we had never met. What if we don't get along with him?

After a few discussions, we decided 'what the hell? Why not! It's only for a few months!' And Natalie moved in a few days later.

September rolls around and in flys Janis from Germany!

With Natalie beginning to work more and myself being home a lot, Janis and I developed a really nice friendship. We would chill and watch tv together while I worked on homework and he was on his computer; he would give me advice on guy problems, life problems, whatever. And we would all party together too! It was a lot of fun!

Janis headed back to Germany in December, and sadly Nat & him ended their relationship a month later. When I booked my trip to Europe, I asked Natalie if she would be okay with me visiting him while I'm in Germany. She, of course, had no problem with it at all since we had all been friends just a few months prior. So I hit up Janis on Facebook and we planned for me to arrive in Cologne this first week, stay with him and he would show me all around Cologne!

It was fantastic and quite relieving to know I'd be seeing a familiar face on my journeys! So when I arrived, we hopped in a cab, got back to his apartment and that's when the drinking commenced!

We decided to go to the Black Seeds show. I had told Janis about the opportunity earlier, an after checking them out, he was stoked to go see them. So we filled up a water bottle with Redbull and vodka, cracked a beer and headed out down the street! In Germany you're allowed to drink on the streets! (I love this city already!)
We grabbed a cab, who told it was cool to have our drinks in their and headed to the venue called the Underground.

The Underground is not really underground. You walk through an arched entry way into a courtyard, the trees strung with lights and tables with benches scattered in the area. We head to the open door of the venue, you can hear the band playing in the background and head up to the bouncer. I tell him I'm on the list, to which he checks then stamps the insides of our wrists.

We head in, grab drinks then push our way to the front of the stage and dancer the night away!

After the show and 2 encores later we head outside where Barnaby & Ned come out and meet us for a drink. We end up sitting outside for a about an hour chatting with them and another friendly group of fans, smoke a few cigarettes and pass around a joint (Ahh! Yeah! I know! To my family reading this: when in Germany, do as the Germans? Haha! Definitely won't be made a habit, might I add..)

After many, many drinks and laughs, a change of scenery was needed for all. Barnaby & Ned tell us they have to head over to the hotel to drop off their stuff then they wanted to meet up with us somewhere else. Janis suggests a place called Club Subway that was in relative walking distance to his apartment. So the band heads to the hotel and the group of us hop in two taxis and head to the club.

When we arrive, Janis & I are starving and decide to head to the McDonalds near by. We get there, order our food and then shortly after are met by a few of the people we were with. Mind you it's 2:30 in the morning, we've been drinking since I arrived at 8:30... Needless to say, we were both a little tipsy... I never thought I would say this, but McDonalds was bloody fantastic at that moment.

With food in our stomachs and having sobered up a bit, we headed back to Club Subway! When we arrived, we walk down the stairs (a basement club) and suddenly appears Barnaby bouncing happily around the dance floor and seemingly stoked on life! Haha

We all drink and dance and party till about 5am when we decide it was time we headed out. The group we were with had all left by then, except for Barnaby & Ned, whom we said our goodbyes to then drunkenly stumbled back to Janis' apartment and passed out around 5:30am.

What a night!

Gare de Nord Train Station in Paris

Janis & I at the Underground for the Black Seeds

Ned Ngatae of The Black Seeds

Barnaby Weir of The Black Seeds