whew!

Can I just say that living in London is so amazing it's exhausting? I'm on a train in the Netherlands now, which is this sweet double-decker train. So of course I'm on the top level so I can see the countryside :D Going from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, where I meet a friend. Tomorrow I have the business part of my trip, but today I get to play a little.

This weekend was crazy, Notting Hill Carnival was on Sunday and Monday - supposedly the biggest street carnival in Europe and I can definitely see why. I have never seen so many people in one place in my life. And I am not exaggerating. Hordes of people milling about through the miles of streets that were closed. One of which, was the street I live on, Ladbroke Grove. So that meant and 7:30 on Sunday morning, the part was warming up outside my window!!! Craziness. I actually ditched the Carnival for Sunday, since by 1:00 I'd heard plenty of carribean flair music for one day, and went to a music festival, Metro Weekender, with Alessandra (flatmate). Yeah, London is so big and so jam-packed of stuff to do that the bank holiday weekend had at least 3 major events going on. Not good for the chronically indecisive! The festival was great, we had VIP tickets through a friend so we had somewhere to eat, drink, sit down, good view of the mainstage, and Alessandra got to meet UFFIE, a female singer/rapper she loves, since we were in the 'artist's lounge'. It was more of an indie rock event, but there were also a couple of tents with DJ's, which was awesome, especially because Two Many DJ's was there, who are just amazing. This only continued to feed my fascination with the house music scene. I'm still definitely more into live music, but there's something about the artistry of a good DJ mixing and creating the dance atmosphere that's growing on me. We got into the after-party, but it was before the main band got there, The Streets, and some random dude with a guitar was playing, so we didn't last long enough for the fun to happen there. Plus, I had spent all day in the sun and the couple ciders I drank weren't sitting so well! So, I added one more check on the list of 'places really hard to get into that i've been looking next to my worst' ;) It was some swanky club in Soho where you sit down a table with champagne flutes and glasses, and the waitresses look better than half the people in there.


So Monday, I wake up to more carnival music, and this time, go out amongst the millions and dance and gawk at the costumes. It was really fun! I was exhausted and had to be up early for my flight today so I only lasted until about 6, then spent about an hour walking what is usually a 10 minute walk. When people become a wall, it's a bit scary!

And now I'm here, in the Netherlands, after a stressful morning - I forgot my passport. !!! First time ever. All I can think is that somehow my subconscious thinks it's like a within-the-US trip, it is only an hour flight, and so cheap and easy to get to...however, still an international flight, and I still have to have my passport. sigh. So I missed the flight, went back and got my passport, and then came to the airport and just barely made the new flight. Sheesh. I hope that was both the first and last time I do something as stupid as leave behind the only thing that's absolutely required.