This was the last entry of my “phase one” when I went to live in Germany for the year with Sarah. In brief, Germany, Konstanz in particular was awesome. I absolutely loved my time there but really slipped up on learning the language as Sarah was so fluent.

The summers were beautiful and the winters were snowier than any snow I had ever seen. We lived a little outside the town, right beside a mental asylum that we had to walk through at night to get home. There’s too much that happened over a year to cover in one post so I wont try. The Christmas, the Christmas markets, the trips to Switzerland, the incredibly creepy version of German Halloween and random trips around Germany when people came to visit. The photos tell most of the story.

For three months I felt “At home”. I felt so depressed when I got back, I thought it would never go away. After being home 3 weeks now, its finally starting to wear off. San Diego feels like one big dream right now. While I’m not and never was a beach person, I miss the beach, I miss the having countless things to do, I miss the parties and I miss knowing that it will again tomorrow without fail.

Oh well, whatever right? At least I’m back with Sarah.

All kicked off when I arrived in Seattle and just hopped on a bus downtown. I arrived downtown and walked a bit to find the HI hostel. Little did I know that this was the ONLY hostel in Seattle. Can you bee-lee dat? I was forced to go to a hostel/ranch on one of Seattle’s many islands. Vashon Island. Made my way to the ferry and across. All patrons have to HITCH A LIFT about 4-6 miles to the hostel. The roads are not lit and the place is the scene of a horror movie. lucky me hitched a lift off a little old lady. A little crazy but nice.

When I arrived, as I mentioned already, the hostel is a ranch. As you can see by the photos, it’s an actual ranch. The dorms and common room are in a converted barn. It’s actually really cool. Met some really nice people here. Most people seem to be traveling alone, so that’s cool. Got free food and the campfire was blazing (And a stinky).

Went into town with some of the others in the morning, to Lake Washington Boulevard. No-one else cared. To anyone who doesn’t know what happened here, it was where Kurt Cobain was found dead (Murdered?). Seemed like nothing ever happened of interest here. Strange feeling.

Now, on to the sightseeing. Hit the Library (Where I made that previous post from) where we planned out our day.

On to the underground (Not the metro) where we did one of the only things that cost money of the day. A nice tour of the Seattle underground. (Seattle as we know it now is actually a city built on top of the old city.) Amazing to see another city underground.

Next on to the Seattle Art Museum, which was closed then on up to Pike street market. (Famous for throwing fish…. long boring story). Walked along the waterfront all day and just panned out there too. Saw the ORIGINAL Starbucks and had a triple late (Laa-tay) there!

Headed up to MONORAIL STATION to catch a… you guessed it…..MONORAIL!

Just caught the monorail to the Experimental Music Project. A famous music thingy. Got to see lots of cool music related stuff like Kurt Cobains clothes and hand written lyrics as well as a load of Pearl Jam stuff and Jimmy Hendrix stuff and loads of other artists.. Pretty cool. Headed up the space needle. Pretty cool structure. Was here since the world fair and they decided to keep it here.

After that, we took the free Seattle bus (Their city center buses are free) to….. HEMP FEST 2006! Met up with some strangers (The Irish accent is SUCH an asset!), got stoned off our tits and listened to some really good bands. (Maybe they only seemed good though).

After a right session, sun burning and munch fest, we decided to make the journey back to Vashon hostel. Pffff.

That night, Jackie the Australian girl introduced me to two Swiss guys who just bought a car and guess what….. were driving down to San Francisco and wanted people to share the gas money and driving time. Although we cannot drive legally here, we jumped on board. (Jackie cannot drive full stop!). SWEET.

The next day, myself and Rebecca (The holy, church going, violin teacher went to town. Saw the aquarium, some more sights and sampled a LOT of different Seattle cafes and bistros. Back to the hostel for a movie, some fresh cooked ….. tuna dinner and some pool with everyone. Spoke tot he lads and had a few beers with them to discuss our trip. Turns out, they are all like me. “Let’s just drive in the right direction and see where we end up. It will work out for us eventually”. Yeay! ROAD TRIP IN THE MAKING.

Next morning, we gathered our stuff, I saw the car for the first time and we were on our way to….. Portland (Which was actually in my original plan!).

Arrived here and found out there is only ONE hostel in the whole city. And guess what? It’s been booked out since March. So I had to find somewhere else. The HI guy told me there was one on Vashon island. So away I went. Got the ferry over and realised that there was no taxi or bus on the island. i had no choice but to hitch hike. A little old lady (A bit weird) picked me up. She was terrible friendly and only too helpful. She dropped me off at my….”Hostel”.

The best way to describe this place is a mix of a wild west film set and a dwelling. I am literally staying in a barn. A REAL barn. it’s really cool though. Lots of dorm beds and lots of other lost souls who didn’t think to book 5 months ahead! The temp here is a LOT cooler than San Diego and at night it’s freezing which made for the most comfy sleep EVER!

Met a guy from New Mexico, A girl from Australia and a girl from Utah. Doing thecity tour today with them so at least I’m not on my own. My age too so its grand.

All three have been to Portland and they said it was shit, so I’m thinking of heading to Canada for a night or two. i’ll see how that pans out with the mnoney situation.

Anyway, I’m supposed to be picking the thing I want to do today so peace out.

After everyone backed out of the skydive Dave O Connell tried to organize, I said fuck it. I’ll do it myself. When I booked it, Jenny said she wanted to do it. So we were all set. We booked ourselves in for the Friday. Everyone seemed to get jealous. One by one, people were throwing me deposits for the jump. Cape May got on board and we got the list up to 20 people!

We decided to go (out?) in style, so we booked a stretched limo for the (return?) trip. I was physically sick the night before. Went to the pictures and couldn’t even remember the film, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Anyway, we arrived and the shits were a plenty. A PLENTY. Being the organizer, I nominated myself to be first up and out. Didn’t play out that way (Thank God). The tandem masters decided that.

After 5 mins training, we were kitted out in our harnesses. I was on the second of four flights up. I was so concerned about the heavy heartbeat I almost faked a sickness.

After the first 5 landed, and seeing the expression on their faces, I knew what had to be done. Walking across the airfield was an experience or feeling I don’t want to ever feel again. Myself, Bunter, Reegan, Karl and Brendan all boarded. The shitty ass plane took off and all of a sudden…..the nerves went. It was peaceful. My Tandem Master was the coolest guy ever. Making jokes all the way up. “Oh god, I’m so hung over…I think I’m still a little drunk”. Legend. It actually made me feel so much better.

Three loops around and 13,500 feet up and we were strapped to our guys. The door opened and it was judgment hour. Brendan went first and watching him fall our of that plane at that height was horrific. Reegan went next, then Karl, then my turn to waddle up the plane. My Tandem Master the shithead… “Oh shit…. this strap is broken!”. I freaked. “Only joking mate….lets get off this plane.”. Waddled over to the edge and something clicked in my head. Something that I doubt is supposed to click. Maybe it was the common sense switch. “Ready…Set…ARCH!” I threw myself out the plane in a backward (Unintentional) flip. HOLY good fuck. My stomach was back in the plane for about 8 seconds and then all of a sudden…..it was like hitting water as we leveled out and accelerated to 120 miles per hour downward. HOLY FUCK. It was the most amazing feeling EVER. EVER. NOTHING like what you think its going to be like. Not like a rollercoaster AT ALL. Freefalling for another 65 seconds was just pure class. My TM was doing all spins and making me “Swim” through the air. Quality. Surprisingly, because we were up as high as we were legally allowed go (Why do things like this half arsed?), the ground never seemed to come very much closer.

After the min and a bit freefall, the chute opened and we were dragged back up. What a strange feeling. Obviously. Then…..peacefulness. Pure quiet. Had a deadly chat with the TM….he showed me were he lived and pointed out the sites and Mexico. Did some scary ass spins and after 6 mins we came in for a landing to the cheers of everyone. Speechless for about 10-15 mins. Watching the next two batches absolutely SHITTING themselves waiting was so funny. But I was so so so jealous. I gave Jon the money to do his jump so I couldn’t afford to go again. Oh well. The other 10 went up and no-one backed out. We all went back to hodads in our limo for a “Sky Crew” meal and to talk about it. Good times. Good times.

My only regret….. Not getting a video.

I have now found my new drug. Planning to cancel my trip to San Francisco and do a solo jump at some stage next week. Can’t fucking wait. Can’t fucking wait.
To anyone who has never done a sky dive, Add it to your list of things to do before you die. Seriously. You will not regret it. (Unless you die).
Peace out.

Anyway, had a deadly time when Sarah came down to OB and met all my housemates and her family for a week. Think she kind of freaked out a little when we first arrived as there was a regular cliff session when we got back and she had to meet about 50 people all at once. By the way babe, everyone was very impressed that you remembered most of the names so quickly.

Went to some parties, went out on the rubber tubes, and drove a speedboat. Sarah likes driving boats. Went to some more parties and just chilled for a bit. Hit Tijuana and had the banter. Everyone misses you babe, but especially me.

Horrible affair at the airport. I shed a little tear.

Anyway, since then, U.F.C left and we got a few new housemates….from SWORDS! Lots of people have left and more keep taking their places. Uploaded a rake load more photos

Trip to Vegas with Sal, Mo and Bren was absolutely amazing. After meeting with Bren and Mo in LA, we decided one morning to just book the feckin flight and head up. Someone just wanted to gamble while someone else wanted to take lots and lots of photos of wildlife.

Se we booked the flight. Myself and Sarah stayed in the Venetian, mo and Bren stayed in the Bellagio.Vegas is absolutely amazing. Exactly like what you see on TV only more tacky. I have no idea how anyone could stay for longer than a week here. We did the works, went to the hotels/casinos, played some poker, went to see a Cirque du Soleil show, got really really rat arsed drunk on the free booze (I think?) and even traveled a little outside the city to a strip club where Sarah got her first proper lap dance from a proper stripper.

Got a dress from Helena and Aiso, Helena and Michelle did our makeup. Creepy looking. As you can see from the photos. Some deadly costumes (Camel Toe Julie was the funniest). Banter went on until 9 PM when we all headed down the beach for the fireworks.

Such a deadly traditional american fireworks show. Beach was packed and we all had the craic in costume. From the Santa Cruz beach, we could see the fireworks from here all the way up to La Jolla. Amazing. Got some videos of it which will be available soon.

Headed back to ours where I got back dressed into normal clothes and I became a man again. Everything after that is pretty much a blur. Woke up in a room FULL of people who didn’t know where they were or who they were there with. Funny and sad at the same time. All in all, best 4th of July ever. Would definitely do it again.

They tried to talk the bouncer to let me in but it was just too busy. Queuing was useless. So they all came out. Sarah was absolutely hammered and while we were waiting for the others to come out of the offie, she followed a dog down an alley. We followed her down and she was speaking to some weird americans. They invited us back to a “Private party”.

We had nowhere else to go so we decided it was the right thing to do. We ended up at a weird semi outdoor rave! There was two DJs playing and Paul Okenfold was there. I said hello and had a deadly night. Ended up staying back in Linda vista with Fergal, Qualon (I dont know how to spell that), Sarah, Jemma, Aoife Mark and Una. They made me breakfast in bed the next day. The 4th of July!

(It was nights like this that remind me why I should update this blog more often, these are somehow nights that I forget)