Backtracking//Euro Trip

Alright so, I spent the last week or so traversing Europe with my school's National Honors Society.

We started in Southern France, on the coast of Southern France in Nice. Here they had what I consider the best celebratory habits, marching down the street with genuinely unique costumes to...can you guess it? MGMT! (Note: if you wish to see me dancing on top of a dresser, watch the video.)

We went to Monaco, the most un-fking-believebly rich place I've ever seen, where I lost a grand total of 5 euro while gambling at the Monte Carlo (hooray self control) and saw the most absurdly expensive yachts and cars in the world. In fact, the entire time I pretended that guy from the VH1 show "Fabulous Life" was narrating the experience.

Then we headed to Italy, passing through Milan en route to Venice. Admittedly, I was disappointed to find that the city was not inhabited by merpeople, nor is it sinking at a visibly noticeable rate. It was, however, the most amazing city I've ever seen (unfortunately, there was not much of a music scene)

Finally we crossed the alps to Austria, which was not a notable country save their peculiar religion, which simply replaced Jesus Christ with the demi-god Mozart. That being said, Salzburg (better known as the place where they filmed the Sound of Music) acknowledged Julie Andrews as a sister deity to the pianist. It was not uncommon for the local citizens to drop what they were doing and break out into Do-Re-Mi or My Favorite Things. (Did this really happen? No- but in my head it sure as hell did.) So, as to look less like a bunch of tourists, our group of 50 decided to choreograph a perfect rendition of So Long, Farewell as we exited the city towards Vienna (again, my head..).

Vienna was founded by the power hungry incestuous ruling family, the Hapsburgs, which naturally resulted in a bunch of retarded rulers (no, not like Bush retarded, like, they were actually mentally handicapped.) Nowadays it's more well known for its strong ties with classical music, operas, etc. While that stuffs not really my cup of tea, it's still a huge deal over there. So thats cool.

What was I listening to this whole time?

1		Radiohead		109
2		Sigur Rós		53
3		The Kinks		32
4		The Beatles		15
5		Animal Collective		13
6		The Beach Boys		11
7		The Velvet Underground		11
8		My Bloody Valentine		10
9		Arcade Fire		10
10		Bon Iver		7

Of Note:

Long flights and bus rides to new places= lots of "thinking" music. Kid A and OK Computer shared heavy rotation through the Alps. The Kinks' Lola vs Powerman is my favorite traveling cd, mostly due to the track This Time Tomorrow. Sigur Ros turns any landscape flying by seem like a scene from a movie.

I'm surprised that Tswift isn't up here. I became sickeningly obsessed with the song Love Story. Need proof? Check this out.

Here's some of the other stuff I was listening to

Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros

buy Sigur Ros here

The Tourist by Radiohead

buy Radiohead here