"Like a dream"

While I haven't been working, I've been watching a consortium of Iraq War documentaries in an effort to be a proper citizen and weave past the pundits, the talking heads, the dumbass slogans and bumper stickers and the politics surrounding what I believe to be the most significant event this country is currently facing. So enough with the blathering and lets get this war justified (or not).

First up is "The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair" released in 2006 with an 86% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yunis Abbas, an English speaking Iraqi journalist, recounts his experience being captured and imprisoned for plotting to kill Tony Blair. As a former and tortured captive of Saddam Hussein, he wasn't exactly a fan of the previous regime. His problem in this move though, is that he laughed when he was first told why he was captured. But why did he laugh? Because it was ridiculous.

Yunis spent most of his time at Camp Ganci, a mid/low level security area in Abu Ghraib that contained 4000 detainees classified as having no intelligence value. Also known for unsanitary living conditions, overcrowding, spoiled food, and inadequate access to health care. But the good news is that they weren't dying. Like many others sharing his campsite, Yunis and his brothers were taken from his home in the middle of the night. "Wrong place at the wrong time" type deal, where an Iraqi male should never be home, like ever. Especially at night.

During his stay, Yunis served as a translator to help preserve peace in the camps. He ended up helping the soldiers who made a conscious effort to help the prisoners. One of the soldiers found it weird that despite Yunis being charged with attempting to kill one of the world's predominant leaders, he wasn't grouped with the same people who actually plotted to kill the guy.

In the end, after a series of riots, attacks from the outside, Yunis and his brothers are released nine months later. The camp commander releasing him says "We don't know why you were here. There was a mistake. Sorry". Camp Ganci was closed sometime later and prisoners were moved to another site known as "Redemption." Huh, how about that.

Here's another take on the issue of false imprisonment, albeit the location in reference is different:


I sincerely hope that Yunis and other prisoners like him are more forgiving than I know myself to be. If an occupying force were to come into my/my family/my friend's house in the middle of the night, imprison me/my family/my friends on charges we would never get the chance to argue against, spit in our faces, torture our bodies, destroy our spirits, and insult our religion, I sure as hell know where I would stand when it comes to that whole "with us or against us" downstream flow of arrogant bullshit.

Pardon me, but my bias is showing.

Pure epic greatness in three parts

Act I: TheA Daily Show with John Stewart





Act II: The Colbert Report





Act III: Late Night with Conan O'Brian

Heroes with spray cans

I recently received Wall and Peace by Banksy, a subversive English graffiti artist, from a good friend (Thanks Trang!) and I do believe I've found my newest hero.

Here are some explanations of a few of his works:

-On a blank wall in a few different locations, he tags "By order; National Highways Agency; This wall is a designated graffiti area; Please take your litter home; EC REF. Urba 23/366."

-Calling the wall separating the occupied territories of Israel and Palestine "the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti artists," Banksy went on a spray painting spree on the Palestinian side with images of paradise behind imaginary windows and breaks in the wall.

-Cows, pigs, and sheep can also be walls.

-Jumping into zoo pens because those places also have walls that could use some decor.

-An Apache helicopter wearing a giant, girly bow at the rotor.

-Fake paintings smuggled into the Tate, Louvre, MoMA, and New York Met. Fake artifacts placed on the walls of various natural history museums.

-Planting shark dorsal fins in lakes to freak out the kids. Good times.

-"People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. People in glass cities shouldn't fire missiles."

-Replacing Paris Hilton's CD release with her face replaced by a chihuahua's head.

And the greatest thing about this guy is that he's anonymous. Effing anonymous! Not to avoid being arrested and being fined thing by authorities, I'm sure he wants it this way to avoid being arrested in another sense entirely. A revolutionary of a different kind whose philosophy fits perfectly with today's urban societies. A Deep Throat who tags awesome shit. A modern artist who doesn't have to explain his work and hide behind through god-awful pretentious interpretations. A true to life V. A Dennis the Menace whose Mr. Wilson is the man.

You have your heroes like Spiderman, Bruce Lee, and Al Gore, and then you have your heroes who change the world with spray cans wherever he damn well pleases. Man, sheer malevolent genius.

Oh, and on the back of the book, a quote by a Metropolitan Police Spokesperson: "There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover."

Indisputable proof that I graduated high school

Sweet!



Who needs an effing diploma. S-M-R-T.

In other news, I'm currently deciding what else to do with this blog until I take my next great adventure. Maybe I'll just bullshit until sparkly gems come out of my ass.

After all is said and done...

... I'm back to where I started, but definitely not in the metaphorical sense. Traveling alone was a great decision and I loved that I left without a plan.

Flying into London sitting cozy in first class was an incredible stroke of luck and kickass omen of the events that were to come. Going wherever I pleased unencumbered by, well, anything is definitely how I want to live. Admiring city history, style, architecture, and the womens... there's just so much soul, beauty, and class to experience in this world. Memorizing bus and metro lines gave my sense of direction a punch to the face, but I eventually got used to it. But then getting lost half the time was part of the experience. Staying at hostels was great. Staying with family was great. With the former, I met people from all over the world and touring cities with these strangers felt entirely natural. With the latter, I finally had the chance to be a proper nephew and cousin by actually existing. And now, reminiscing like this is something I'll be able to do whenever I like. Oh, and two weeks vacation a year is absolute bullshit.

Before I left, world traveling was always my ideal of how to live a great life. The six weeks I spent in Europe was an absolute reaffirmation. Needless to say, I'm addicted. Of course bouts of loneliness would hit me every now and then when I wasn't with family, but I also appreciated the times when it was just me and my camera. And here's the work I have to show for it. Enjoy and cheers to mortality.

London:


Brussels & Belgium:


Berlin & Munich:


Florence & Tuscany:


Rome:


Switzerland:


Paris, Annecy & Antony:


Barcelona:

The last days

Thursday: Barcelona beaches and parks. Walked the awesome La Rambla again as well. Night train out back to Geneva where I traded travel stories with a Spaniard working man.

Friday: Arrived at effing 5:30 in the morning, took the number 9 bus back to my favorite place in Geneva, and went back to sleep after my cousins left for school. From there it was a day of play.

Saturday: Back to temple in Ecublens to commemorate 100 days since my uncle's passing away. Found out a lot about my mom's side of the family and I'm grateful to have had the chance to listen to the stories I would never be able to hear otherwise. From there it was a quick visit to an uncle's office before heading back to Geneva to shoot a round of pool, lose at multiple games of table hockey, and showing my cousins who rules the ping pong table.

Sunday: Big breakfast, small lunch with the family from Geneva before saying the inevitable adieus. Quick flight back and rested up at the hostel. Afterwards was meeting up again with Michel, who I met at the start of my trip. Glad to see he was doing well. Arranged plans for the next day and walked the night streets of London alone with my D40 and thoughts. Two such thoughts I'll get deeper into another time: if time is money, why are so many people focused on the latter? Also,

Monday: Woke up entirely too early before heading out to stock up on the best shower soap ever. After that was another free tour. Turns out though that the tour had been revamped a bit, so I didn't get to see everything as advertised, but still a good time was had. Also met Ellie on the tour, a fashion designer from Seoul. The two of us ended up walking Covent Garden, Picadilly Square, and other shopping areas before parting ways. From there, I met up with Michael again at Viet Grill. We ate entirely too much with another of his friends before going to a coworker's place to eat and drink some more. Nice quality time with Vietnamese and observing how my peoples fare here in London.

Tuesday: Woke up, made my way to the airport, bought a few books, had a British breakfast, and boarded the plane. No first class this time and I didn't want to press my luck again, but it was an empty plane. I passed on four seats along the aisle and chose two seats near the window as I stayed up all the entire time and watched movies then entire flight, including an awesome Hong Kong shooter called "The Exiled", a Japanese time travel comedy, and the vomit-inducing "Spider-man 3". I landed, met my mom and the rest of my family at the airport, and arrived home.

My time traveling, this time around, was over.

Next up: Thoughts on traveling alone, highlights, pictures, and figuring out what comes next.

Can´t get enough of Switzerland

Blazing fast update before I check out of my room here in Barcelona.

Saturday: Finally met up with Melody despite the ongoing strike. Take that you socialists. Mel and I walked around the Luxembourg Gardens before I took off my own to explore Paris after sunset. We met up and took another walk through the streets of history.

Sunday: Ate a whole bunch with Melody and her friends. Tried to leave Paris for Switzerland but failed.

Monday: Woke up to catch the first train for Lausanne and succeeded! Vegged for the rest of the day with the aunts and cousins.

Tuesday: Zermatt and the Matterhorn! Short train ride that night to Geneva.

Wednesday: Tour through Cologny and hanging out.

Thursday: Hanging out.

Friday: Hanging out.

Saturday: Hike through the woods, bounce house with the best view ever, a hot spring bath that unfortunately did not include falling snow, and big family dinner.

Sunday: Walk though Lake Geneva, tea, and bowling.

Monday: Walked my cousins to school, packed up, and said my see you laters before a night train out to Barcelona.

Tuesday: Woke up to a gorgeous sunrise along the Spanish coast while on the train, slept for a bit more, arrived in Barcelona, and toured the city sites, coastline, eateries, and bars with hostelfolk. Also struggled to find a flight back to London to catch my fight back home. Original plan was to get to Sevilla and fly from there, but tickets would cost me 300 euro. This is because the city is having its holiday season and hostels across the city are shutting down and people are flying out. Lesson learned here is at the very least to plan the escape route. So I looked up flights from Madrid or Lisbon and they ended up costing the same or more. Current and cheapest plan is now to catch a night train back to Geneva and fly out on Sunday afternoon. Third time to Switzerland and I´m happy.

Wednesday: Gaudi Park, tour of Barcelona Stadium (where Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry make their stand) on an off day, hanging out with hostel people, night walk to the top of Montjuic, and more bars. Mambo Tango: best hostel this entire trip.

Next up! Last time through Geneva, remembering, remembering the 5th of Novembering, and returning home.