Prague

Things are going great so far! Prague is like the exact opposite of our experience at Oktoberfest. I'm just going to say that I seriously LOVE my friends. On Tuesday (our last day at Oktoberfest) we all felt varying degrees of sickness. Regardless, everyone remained in good spirits. It is kind of impossible to not be in a good mood at Oktoberfest. Something about being surrounded by 6000 happy singing germans will do that to you.

We spent most of the day in the Hippodrom tent fighting off marriage proposals. Our table had a reservation so at around 5:30, we had to leave. After two days of drinking, having colds, and/or flying on airplanes, we were pretty much ready to get dinner and head back to the hotel. However, we decided to go for one more stein. After trying to find seats in 6 tents, we were about ready to give up. We wandered into the Paulaner tent as a last ditch effort. Miracously, we somehow ended up with wristbands and at a table with a bunch of awesome people! All tiredness went away immediately and we had a great sendoff to Oktoberfest!

We caught a train out of Munich the next night around 5 pm to prague. we got in around midnight and found our hostel without much trouble. Today, we walked from roughly 9-5pm. Prague is breathtaking--when people say that, they're not exaggerating. We actually had a real breakfast today, at cafe louve, and it was amazing! We walked across the charles bridge to a the prague castle/church and then had lunch and a beer at a monastery. Tomorrow we're getting up for a morning in the jewish quarter and hopefully some shopping.

We have an overnight train to budapest tomorrow night. Jolene, Heather, Tatyana and Shannon leave really early from Budapest on Sunday morning. I might cry when they leave :( They're so much fun! But, I've got another whole week....I should probably figure out what else I should do!

Prague

Great so far! We spent the day wandering around. Tomorrow night we're taking a midnight train to Budapest!

Oktoberfest

BEST. NIGHT. EVER.

Munchen

Everyone made it to Munich and we are alive and well. Despite a travel experience from hell, Jolene Shan and heather were still up for Oktoberfest ! It was insane. Totally insane. We are going back for more today! We have made tons of german friends so far. Headed to Prague tomorrow evening!

munchen

This keyboard is wack. z and y are switched. internet is expensive, so iäm just going to ignore all the errors. i safely made it to munchen and found the ho inn express - my second home. it is about 7pm local time. jolene, heather, and shannon were supposed to get here 5 hours ago. but, bad news. some crayz guz on their plane locked himself in the bathroom so thez had to turn around and go back to seattle. needless to say, thez missed their connection in amsterdam and wont get to munich until 7 am tomorrow. then it is over an hour just to get to our hotel. hopefullz we make it to oktoberfest tomorrow, but iäm not sure if theyll still be up for it. i had 4 emails from jolene today when i finallz got to a computer...all of the subject lines were 4 letter words. lol.

tatyana doesnt get here until after midnight, so i am going to see if i can find some food and i might work out. the hotel is in a residential neighborhood...far away from apparently anything. but it was free!

now i have to go deal with the hotel to make sure that we all can keep our reservation. they werent especially nice earlier, but oh well.

by the way, everyone in town is dressed up! coming through the train station i saw tons of people in authentic gear. our hotel is just a few stops away from the oktoberfest stop. munchen is going to be awesome!

oh and i saw chicago last night in london, and it was awesome!!!

london

Still good! Went on a walking tour today and then wandered around.....a little sick of walking. \i bought 1/2 price tickets to see Chicago tonight! Tomorrow morning i'm going to go for a run (maybe) around regents park and then head to the airport! Can't wait to see Tatyana, jolene, heather and shannon in munchen tomorrow!

London

I successfully and safely made it to London yesterday. Of course I didn't sleep at all on the plane. There weren't even any giant babies around to keep me awake; I think I was just really excited! Riding the Tube and finding the hostel was probably the easiest thing I've ever done in my life--I can only wish that the rest of the trip will be so easy. Upon arrival to the hostel around 3pm, I immediately took a 3 hour nap. Then I went on a pub crawl that was organized by a business associated with the hostel. Drinking with stragers! yay! We went to 6 bars, and for just £12, we got 3 shots, and didn't have to pay cover at 2 clubs. This was awesome, because I also saw two bands and didn't have to go to bars like a creepster all by myself.

The agenda for today involves as much sightseeing as possible. First I'm going to go on a walking tour and then I'll probably try to go see all the places that it misses. I'm Munich-bound tomorrow mornng; so today is really my only main sightseeing day. Plus it is totally sunny!

America

Eurotrip begins in less than 24 hours!!! In honor of my last night in America, I grabbed a delicious dinner from Burgerville in Woodland, WA tonight. OK, it wasn't really in honor of my last night in America--I really just wanted some fries. and a diet coke. and a cheeseburger. I loved it for about 10 minutes, and then regretted it for the next 152 miles back to Seattle.

Tomorrow's (Thursday's) agenda consists of an 8 mile run in the morning and then hopping on a plane in the evening! Nine hours and no stops later, I'll be in London!!!

Plane reading material:
-The last 2 issues of The Economist (to impress the Brits w/ their own magazine)
-A Reliable Wife (got it for free, thought it looked dumb, but then I saw it on the bestseller shelf at Powells. we'll see)
-Little Bee
-The Catcher in the Rye
-Rick Steves' Germany 2010 and various other travel materials

Plane Snacks:
-Kirkland Trail mix
-clif bar
-sleeping pills
-fruit snacks

Plane outfit:
-leggings
-black dress
-flippy floppies
-scarf

My quarter-life crisis

...is making a comeback. Last night, I went to dinner with some of my hired friends, who are aged 24 and 25. They all got carded, and I didn't. I wanted to cry. I'm only one year older! The only other person at the table who didn't get carded is in his 50's. What does that mean for me? Do I look 40?

After my first beer, I mentioned to our waiter that I was a little concerned that he didn't card me. He explained that it was because I was so confident during the beer-ordering process. Maybe all that Oktoberfest training for the past few weeks is paying off! I had a delicious belgian-style golden ale from Chicago called "goose island matilda." One of the other ladies DID order a pomegrante-flavored beer. Next time mr. waiter, just check everyone's ID so that my insecure little brain doesn't run wild.

Hair and Philosophy

I normally have ridiculously curly hair, but the nice people at Vain* straightened it for me after I got it cut yesterday. I got some good comments today at work:

my boss : "what's up with your hair?" me: "It's straight."

hired friend #1: "you look like you should work at disneyland." me: "excuse me?" hired friend #1: "well, your hair is just so perfect and cartoonlike."

hired friend #2: "I didn't even know you were here for like 2 hours. I thought we had hired a temp or something."

hired friend #3: "Your hair is so big! You look like you could be on TV!" me: "Is that a good thing?" hired friend # 3 "Yeah! You could totally anchor the evening news."

I don't really know what to make of all that.

Unrelated: This article about Atlas Shrugged got my brain turning a little bit. If you've read the book, check out the article and tell me what you think. Warning - it's long. Just skim it.

Personally I think the philosophy in Atlas Shrugged focuses more on how institutions created by man (governments) to re-distribute wealth not only are ineffective, but are ultimately immoral. While she might have been a total athiest, I think her philosophies were more of an attack on governments as opposed to religion. I think the Christian fear is that her philosophy can be viewed as putting the pursuit of money and self-interest above all else. Christians would say that the love (unbridled pursuit) of money is the root of all evil; God should be pursued first. I think it is too simplistic to say that Ayn Rand followers would screw everyone in their path in pursuit of the almighty dollar. None of her characters did that -- they used their skills and gifts to meet the needs of society (e.g. rail transportation). Yes, they were compensated, but not at the expense of others.

If one can agree that Ayn Rand's grief was with government as opposed to religion, then it follows that "liberitanism" (ignoring the degrees within it) and religion can co-exist in America. If our country didn't separate church and state, then it wouldn't work. For example, if Christianity was the official religion of the US, the Ayn Rand's philosophy would be just as much of an attack on Christianity as it is government.

If you're still reading, thanks for sticking around. The title of this blog IS "The Flaming Patriot," y'know. It can't be about silly dolphin conspiracies and happy hour ALL the time. Don't worry, discussions about Flash Mob and the Seahawks are forthcoming.

*These hipsters can cut hair. Check them out. I also highly recommended Seven. (not hipster--they have a DJ that spins JT)

Economics

I liked this article.

Home Buyers' Tax Credit: More Harm Than Good?

I'm much too tired from FLASH MOB practice to come up with a funny rant about how policy makers don't understand how supply and demand work. If a market is over-supplied, you're not going to create sustainable demand by giving a few people a little bit of cash to spend. Helllooo....the housing market crashed because too many people were buying subsidized houses. So now we'll do it again?! If the government has to give you money to entice you to buy a house, that's a sign that the market is still out of balance and you should run for your rental in the hills.

Enough. If you don't know what flash mob is, check out this performance in Seattle earlier this year :)

Dolphins

Back up Taliban. Yeaaahhh, even you Osama. Move it!

Back in 2007, the Seattle media reported that the U.S. Navy intended to bring dolphins up to the Puget Sound in order to protect us and our ferry system from swimming terrorists that might try to invade us. Or blow up the aquarium.

Now, I didn't have a blog at the time...but I had plenty to say. Trained dolphins patrolling the Puget Sound, shooting terrorists before they can scuba their way up the ship canal into *omg* Lake Union? Apparently, the Navy in America's Finest City (San Diego) has been training sea life to protect us since the 1960s! Not smart human race...hasn't anybody seen Planet of the Apes?!?! Incidentally...Charleton Heston was a past president of the NRA, and we're training dolphins to use guns....

Earth loving seattlites didn't love the fact that the government was talking about exposing sun-loving dolphins to the frigid waters of the Northwest. Luckily, the crazies had plenty of time on their hands to form protest clubs and knit some warm clothing for the dolphins. Don't worry, all the homeless people in our city have plenty of clothes to survive the winters.

http://www.knittingfordolphins.com/ (seriously, check this site out. amazing.)

Today's Seattle Times brings this the dolphin issue back in to the limelight. I can only hope to see some knitters kick it back up a notch.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2012662209_pacificpdolphins29.html

Personally, I think that there's much more going on than meets the eye. Why is Washington the only state getting a fleet of attack dolpins? How come they're all trained and housed in San Diego, the last major city before the mexican border? Why isn't Oregon getting any attack dolphins? Isn't it interesting that this is all happening now that the TERMINATOR is the governor of Callyfornia?! Hasta la Vista, Oregon! Once we have a fleet (flock, gaggle, pod?) of killer dolphins patrolling our coastline, WaCal will control the whole west coast of the US! Watch out Alaska, we've got an eye on you and your natural resources too.

In the meantime make sure you're adequately armed the next time you think about going swimming in the ocean. Stay classy, San Diego.