7-minute miles

Typed up at some point during the recent Euro Trip (Blogged about in the previous posts below). Believe it or not, yours truly has actually took a break (albeit a short one) from ranting to write something that can somehow be motivational... Happy reading peeps


We are all different people on this earth , we have different races, backgrounds, experiences and aspirations in life.

Due to the variety in people out there, this smorgasbord means that different people will always have their own ways of doing things, they will probably be influenced by things such as social norms, upbringing and the culture, amongst many others deeper and more micro reasons. I'm not a psychologist, doctor or expert in cultures, so I won't really scrutinize the matter, people do seemingly endless researches and studies into this, so my likited insight on this should be kept to that, I.e. Limited

Motivating oneself and trying to see the more positive side(s) of life is not always an easy or a straightforward process. Some of us have funny ways of doing so, some might go binging (ice cream cravings?), some might surround themselves with positive people and ultimately positive energy, others may spend time alone to reflect on things and regather momentum, while others may indulge in uber cool activities (cool only to them perhaps). Some may punish and agonize themselves to make themselves eager to prove themselves and perhaps the people around them wrong.

Yours truly is one helluva moody and odd individual, so perhaps it wouldn't come as obnoxious or eccentric to me to admit I may do any of the above to get myself back on track (hold on, I actually have a track to begin with? I might...). One recent addition to my list of random sources of motivation would be jogging/running. I never imagined myself saying this, but as boring and mundane as jogging might sound, it is really rewarding to me, especially since I've somehow not only managed to run at a decent pace. With an incline, but I also manage to do a mile in 7-minutes (apparently doing one in under 8 minutes is somewhat challenging). Not bad for a lazy bum/geek like me.

Just so you know...

The previous posts were typed up during my recent trip to Europe (Paris + Barcelona to be precise) in September 2010

Hope it will be an enjoyable read, especially since I have not updated this blog for quite a while

Nou Camp

Last day of the trip, revisited the Nou Camp stadium, this time on the stadium tour rather than a spectator, read about the entire history of the club, truly amazing stuff. Really shows you how massive this club is and gives an inside on to how crucial it is to the 'Cules', not only in footballing terms, but also socially and politically. The stadium (and the club overall) oozes with class and european pedigree so to speak. Too bad the same cannot be said about some of its fans in the Middle East.

*Burp* Olympic

Excuse the vulgarity of this post's title, had the first proper meal of this vacation at a touristic strip on the sea called Port Olympic. It was awash with half empty restaurants mainly (and predictably) serving sea food. A couple of fortunate ones had huge groups of Asian tourists, there must have been at least 300 tourists filling up the two outlets.

Food was great and a fitting end to the afternoon after spending most of the day on that 'hop on hop off' tour of the city, food was good, but nothing to write hone to mom about. Got a couple of decent subset shots from the marina/port before the last of my cameras ran out of battery.

Forgot to mention that I met up with the brother of a very good friend of mine, lucky bastard saw Armin Van Buuren last night at Amnesia in Ibiza! The guy didn't even know his proper name lol! Might see him (my friend that is, not Arnin) later on tonight at some club

Hop on hop off

Eventually found my way back to the hotel, went with a coupla vacationing friends to a club Opium, not my favorite typa place but had fun nevertheless. On an open bus tour around the city and the suburbs. Fun but I'm a tad exhausted and famished! (a breakfast of kitkat, frappé and a single espresso shot wasn't enough I reckon). Managed to find the street that my friends referred me to head to to find camera chargers, sadly couldn't find any of the accessories I needed (or even interesting lenses). Oh well, I'll make do with whatever battery I still have in the 2 dslrs.

Currently in the outskirts of the city, just passed Espanyol's stadium which hosted the 1992 Olympic games. Lots of history in the area.

Barca on and off the pitch

Day 4 - Barcelona

Ok WHAT A DAY! I fell in love instantly with Barcelona as soon as I stepped outta the airport! It is VERY relaxed and chilled out, made me realize how uptight Paris is (I still like you Paris though).

After checking in at the hotel (which by the way made the one we stayed at in Paris seem more like a hostel lol) I ventured into town to one of the malls (glories, or something like that) to try and find chargers for my cameras and possibly tickets to a FC Barcelona game in the Champions League. Eventually couldn't find either an ended up going to an area called passage Garcia or something like that to catch up with some of the peeps. Had a breather, bought some souvenirs and gifts before heading off alone to the Nou Camp stadium. Was an epic experience! Got an expensive ticket and saw them put 5 strikes against a hapless panathanaikos side (did I spell that right?). Was thrilling to see the excitement levels and the passion, even when the Catalans were leading 4-1 (ended 5-1). Making my way back to the hotel now, quite lost to be honest lol!

Sleep-deprived

For some reason I'm quite knackered today, had a very, very eventful evening yesterday as I finally managed to go to a place that was not touristic at all, it was called Quartier Latin, or the Latin quarter I suppose. Went with a classmate from university who is doing her internship in Paris, ironically we never really met properly back in Dubai, but it was quite nice to catch up with a fellow EAHM-er. Turned out there are a few other 'academians' in Paris too now, too bad they could not make it. I took some photos there, finally using my new tripod for that. Used up a lot of battery though in the process, so I really have to find a Canon shop to charge my cams! Well worth it though hope

Just an observation (or two)

Typed this up while chilling (a cooler way of saying waiting for a ride my friends are on to finish) at Disneyland. If I were to describe the park using as little words as possible, I'd probably call it overrated, way too family-centric, bit overpriced and dare I say cheesy. Having said all of the above, it's probably not like that to the visitors of the park and their kids. I should know better especially since I was a huge fan of anything and everything that had to do with Disney as a kid! A lady at a souvenir counter described the park today as "quiet and calm", as opposed to weekends when double the number of visitors would show up. Not bad I reckon
tt-see attractions that you will probably not consider visiting again

That pot

Your soul is a massive pot, fill it up with good ingredients and you shall reap he rewards, mix some rotten additives and the outcome will probably. Well, not the best analogy but you get the drift.

It's probably not an easy feat to know how to take the best actions and make the best of decisions, especially when you are relatively young, but the trick is to embrace change and appreciate mistakes that you commit along the way. It's part of the (often painful) learning curve, rest assured that as long as you learn from these mistakes, then you are definitely on the right track.

Doing the right thing does not necessarily have to feel or seem right.

When the morning comes

Overslept and missed the morning batch's trip to Disneyland, having breakfast and coffer now at a small cafe next to the hotel. Sunny day so far!

Yesterday was quite chilled, went on the river seine cruise before going to the moulin rouge are, was a bit awkward walking towards the place in hat dodgy area (was full of sex toy stores, strip clubs and god knows what else!)

Today's agenda: catch up with the morning crew at disneyland then go to see a coupla friends from Dubai for dinner back in Paris :)

Seine breeze

Caught up with the gang and went on a cruise of the river Seine, was quite fun! Got a few minutes to spare as people refresh and get some souvenirs and warm beverages and such. Was quite a chilly day thus far compared to day 1, don't mind that at all, especially that in less than a week I'll be bearing Dubai's 40+ degree temperatures!

I love the unpredictability of the climate here, was drizzling when we woke up and by afternoon the sun was out with some clouds scattered around the sky (great for the pics!). So far this evening the sky is clear and it is breezy and chilly, loving it!

Having mentioned the pictures, I had a brain fart while packing for assuming that I won't need any camera battery chargers, which predictably turned out to be an ill-fated decision. Now I will have to find the Canon shop tomorrow to make sure I'll still be able to snap away for the rest of this trip. Thanks to Stouts for helping me out with the store addresses!

Bird s**t

Day 2 - Paris

So, another exciting day thus far. Went to Champ-ellisys again after going to the Louvre museum (yes I saw the Monalisa). Quite an eventful day, love the confusion when it comes to the metro stations and the routes.

I probably saw the biggest LV and McdonLd's outlets so far in my life in champ ellipsis, massive! Ended up paying for a yummy (but overpriced) meal at a 'smaller' Mcdo (still was bigger than any branches in Dubai).

Off to catch up with the rest of the gang for a seine river cruise! Not sure what the rest of the night holds for us!

Before I forget, a bird shat on me a coupla hours back, hence the title. Is that supposed to be a good omen?

Clear blue skies

Day 1 - Paris
So day 1 of my small Euro trip has been quite a random one so far... From waiting at the airport for an extra hour or two till the whole brigade on this trip gathered and made it successfully to the same terminal section that we were at, to having to wait for another coupla hours at the hotel we are staying at to get our rooms cleaned (and inspected). Add to that the restauranteur at the Italian bistro next door that turned out to be an Egyptian from "6an6a", aptly announced that right after we settled the bill (very, very awkward, especially since we were typical Arabs making the occasional mean remark). That was followed up with me missing a metro ride as I forgot my fancy tripod at another section of the station. Thankfully I somehow caught up with he rest of the crew back at the hotel and we ended up going to the Eiffel tower after a lot of gesturing and asking around in the French capital's dodgy underground stations. The day is far from over, it's already 8 in the evening and the sun hasn't set yet, eagerly waiting for it to set so we can take some neat images of the infamous tower.

Enjoying the great weather, the clear blue skies, checking out the women (well, not all of them are all that attractive, but it's not bad nevertheless).

Random- Other than the awkward incident with the Egyptian gentleman, an Algerian/north African on one of the metro rides thought we were Israelis or at least Jews lol! I'm proudly wearing a Palestinian scarf :). Love you Falasteen <3

Belated post

This was typed up when I was coming back from Jordan after the quick raving trip (Early August)... Found it on my iPhone when updating similar travel notes on the trip I went on after that (Some updates of that coming up)

Written on the way back from the trip that was mentioned earlier. Have I satisfied my wanderlust? Well, somewhat. Ironic that as soon as I started typing this "As The Rush Comes" comes up on the iPhone's shuffle

New friends? Check. Bad service? Check. Countless chuckles, check. Another rave? Check. Many other things that don't come to my sleep-deprived mind? F*** yeah