Travel Journal Excerpts 2

June 17, 2009
New York City

So after my upset at Sotheby's yesterday, I called the Monégasque consulate to see if they had any more of the auction catalogs, and they had a couple. When they offered to send it to me I said, "I'm in town, I can come by and pick it up." The woman responded with something like, "ok, but we don't have an office you can come up to, so when you get here, tell the concierge, and I'll bring it down to you." She gave me the address, and so I headed down.

As I was about two blocks away, Jooj called because she was off of work early, and she was nearby too. We would meet at the consulate. I went to the wrong building at first, one who had a a most confusing address, one that said 564-6 -- this does not mean that 565 is in this building, by the way. But I don't really care that a room full of middle-aged Arabic men were laughing at me. Then, I found Jooj, and we went to the right building, but we weren't without doubts. When we got inside there was no indication of anything that went on inside the building. Everything floor to ceiling was marble with no art work, no personality, just something that seemed straight out of a spy movie. (I am not joking, what came to my mind was the Bourne movies, and Jooj went straight to Mission Impossible.) Oh, how to articulate how awkward it was in that lobby? I don't think it is possible. I went to the concierge who at first seemed to have no idea what I was talking about, then after asking again, he called up, and we waited. Whilst we were waiting, there was the most random group of people coming in and out of the building. I'm sure it is a situation where people live in the building and there are offices, but this was a truly random group of people. A young woman, a young gay couple, an elderly woman, and several people in business dress. The people who weren't in business attire didn't look like they could even remotely afford an apartment in that building, unless they are pulling a Jemaine and living in the utility closets. So strange. But, I got what I came for, and am so excited to bust it out and look at it.

June 20, 2009
Sevilla, Spain

My brother told me that Sevilla was the warmest place in Europe, I would argue that it is the warmest place ever. It was 40 degrees today, I don't even want to know what that translates to. I think it was especially warm because we were outside all day walking around Sevilla. We watched some flamenco, got accosted by some gypsies, and went to the cathedral, which supposedly houses Columbus' grave, but I'm not going to lie, other than the excellent exercise the hike up to the tower was, it was pretty much a bust. The best part of the day was the Alcazar, which is exceptionally beautiful. There were peacocks and ducks running around, and glorious gardens. ... We decided on some lunch, and found a place with a picture of a very tempting, ice cold smoothie on a placard outside, so that was our winner. Ashley and I ordered smoothies, Ashley banana, and I lemon. The waitress looked at us like we were crazy when we ordered that, but those were the only fruits she had that we wanted in a smoothie. The food was awful, just heated up pre-made stuff with no flavor, but we held out hope for our smoothies, that is until they were delivered to our table. Unlike smoothies in the states, dare I say, how smoothies should be, there was no medium for the fruit other than water. She literally juiced a lemon added water and two whole ice cubes, same with banana. Had there been shaved ice or yogurt or sherbet or anything, my lemon choice would not have been so crazy, but as it was, stupidest lunch choices ever.