In Deutscheland

I've been in Germany for the past few days, hanging out with my brother Cliff. He made it home early from wherever he was and it's been really great having him around. No offense to the other best friends out there but there's really no one else in this world I'd rather spend time with. We got extremely plastered on Tuesday night and the past few days have been pretty slow and laid back. Tonight I'm heading to Mannheim for a Schnekenhof, which is a German college party, and I'm fired up.

I left Italy on Monday and I was really sad to go. Everything about the experience was awesome: the people I met, the food I ate, the things I saw, and of course the friends I got to see. Kristi and Davide, the couple we stayed with, are two of the nicest people you'll ever meet. They cooked for us, showed us around Florence, drove us to the beach, laughed, played and drank with us. They really could not have been better hosts.

On Saturday, we drove out to the beach town of Tonfano and partied it up. The beaches in Tuscany are pretty wack...the entire beach is divided into 20-foot sections, each owned by a different guy, and you have to pay some insane fee to rent space under one of the umbrellas that he has on his stretch of beach. There is no public beach and it creates kind of a lame atmosphere: rich old people lying around getting tan. If you want to see something sad, look up Tonfano, Italy on maps.google.com and put the map on the "satellite" setting. Look at the millions of umbrellas covering the beach and shed a tear for humanity.

Regardless, I had fun playing beach volleyball with Davide and his friends. One of his friends is a member at one of the clubs so it was cheap for us to get in. Afterwards we went to his beach house and started to prefunk for that night out. The high class beach clubs become high class night clubs at night time. We ordered a ton of pizza and bought a bunch of beer and vodka. When the pizza arrived, there were 16 of us and one table that could seat 6-8 people comfortably. I got my pizza and was going to look for somewhere to sit in the living room or wherever but Davide grabbed me a chair and told me to sit at the table. Everyone ended up crowding around this table, eating pizza, drinking beer and chatting about nonsense. The moment really struck me because I know that back home, the scene would never happen. People would break up into small groups all around the house, watch TV, etc. Basically, the whole moment of 16 people crowding around a small table showed the importance of family and dinner time in Italy. I really liked it and the next time I have a pizza and beer party at my house, I'm going to make everyone crowd around my small dining room table and we're going to have real conversations. Word.

Anyway, that just symbolizes the feeling I had during my entire trip. I loved how much the Italians valued their friends and family and they were all kind enough to make me feel like I belonged in that circle. I will be back in Florence soon, that's for sure.

On Saturday, I'm heading to London for one small poker tournament and one big concert featuring Coldplay and Jay Z. I've never seen either act in concert before and I'm really pumped to see them together. I leave London on Wednesday then 4 of my best friends fly into Frankfurt on Friday and we'll embark on the greatest Western European road trip of all time. I can't wait. I'm really missing home but having them around will help with that a lot.

Here are some final pics from Italy. Holler.

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mi dispiace!

That means "I'm sorry" in Italian. Sorry it's been a few days since the last post. We decided to stay in Florence for longer than anticipated because we're having so much fun with Kristi and Davide. I'm going to miss out on Ljubljana and Croatia and just fly to Germany on Monday. Today we're driving out to a beach town called Viareggio for one night and then, on Sunday, I'm hoping to attend the Fiorentina-Cagliari soccer game. I will have tons of pictures to unload on Sunday night but I just wanted to throw up a quick update before heading to the beach. Go Dawgs!

Buena Notte

This is gonna be a quickie. I just finished watching the US National Team beat Trinidad and Tobago in World Cup qualifying and it's time for bed. Today was an awesome day. Siena was beautiful as always and after a long day that featured a lot of walking, we were treated to a huge home made Sicilian-style dinner. I will let the pics do the talking, life is good. Ciao.

Italian Happy Hour

My first night in Florence was awesome. We went to a bar named Zoe and they have a pretty sweet deal where if you purchase a drink, you get all-you-can-eat from a buffet of different Italian foods. So for 5 Euro I ate 6 plates of pasta and cous cous and bruschetta and salad. Brilliant! The company was really cool too, Davide and Kristi's friends are all really friendly and I enjoyed talking to them about soccer and Italian life and whatnot.

After Happy Hour, where I ended up having 4 or 5 drinks(that's how they get you!), we went to a sweet bar that opens up into a church square. There were people break dancing in the square and the bar crowd was gathered around them, drinking beers and chatting. For most of the night I drank something called a Kir Royale which is Strawberry Cassis mixed with Champagne and is really delicious. I probably had 10 or so on the night and surprisingly, I don't feel awful this morning. Usually that much Champagne really hurts.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera last night but hopefully I can steal some pics from Brooke or Stacy and post them later. Today we are going to Siena for the day. I've been there once before but it's a really amazing medieval town and I don't mind visiting again. I'm going to remember my camera so stay tuned for pictures. Holler.

Adios Barca, Buongiorno Firenze!!!

Just a quick post before I head to the airport and try to buy my ticket to Florence. I'm not usually so last-minute about things but there's a non-stop flight that leaves at 3:30 PM and arrives at 5 PM and I've been unable to purchase the ticket over the phone or online. The website seems unable to take credit cards but I talked to someone at the Barcelona airport and they said I can come in today and buy the ticket in person. Wish me luck.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful. I woke up pretty late after being up until 6 AM for a Fantasy Football draft and wandered the city for a while. I hung out with my buddy Tim, who is here getting his MBA, from 6-8 and we talked about cool travels we've done. He's done a ton of great stuff and just came back from Cuba which is a place I want to see really badly. I realllllly want to go before the embargo is lifted and it turns into the Bahamas or whatever. After that, I went out with a bunch of poker media and we drank until 4 AM. Those guys are amazing, I have no idea how they do that every night and then work the next day. Very impressive.

I'm fired up to get back to Florence. It'll be fun staying with locals and having them take us to the best restaurants and whatnot. I'm not sure what the Internet situation will be but I'll try my best to update when I can. Here are some random Barcelona pics I took yesterday, hope you enjoy them. Peace.

Busto in Barca

Today was one of the more painful poker days in recent memory. I lost a huge pot early with AA against AK and then just blinded out the rest of the day, folding hand after hand for 6 hours. My table was extremely loose and aggressive and I just couldn't find a single decent hand. I ended up finishing around 90th place with 72 getting paid. Blah.

Sometimes when I'm card dead, I try to change the music that I'm listening to in hopes that it'll change the card karma that I'm receiving. Today I listened to:

Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Thursday - Full Collapse
Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
Hot Hot Heat - Make Up the Breakdown
Taylor Swift - Fearless
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Rise Against - Siren Song of the Counter Culture
Weezer - Blue Album

I lost the AA hand while listening to the KoL CD so that's never getting played again. Hot Hot Heat is my go-to CD when I need a good rush of cards but even that failed. I was really calm while listening to Taylor and JEW and that felt nice. Rise Against came out once I got under 20 BBs and I ultimately busted to Weezer. I think I need to listen to more Rap while I play poker, maybe that'll help. On day 1, my iPod was dead so I just wore my headphones for the noise-canceling feature since it was so loud in the Casino. Maybe I'll give that another shot.

After busting, I came back to my room to shower and I noticed that a big $215 WCOOP Tournament was starting on PokerStars so I logged in and started playing. That was a huge mistake because I'm tired and tilted and I am playing terribly. I really just want to go out on the town but I think I'm going to stay in tonight and hit it hard tomorrow. My buddy Tim is going to Business School here in Barcelona and he flies back from summer break tomorrow. Hopefully he knows where to go on Monday nights and I'll have some good stories and pics for the next blog.

On Tuesday, I'm flying to Florence to hang out with my friends from school, Stacy and Brooke. We're all staying with our friend Kristi who came to Italy 4 years ago as an exchange student and never left. She lives with her boyfriend, Davide, who is one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm really stoked for the 3 days we're going to spend there. Male readers, stay tuned for pics as these are some of the prettiest gals I know.

After Florence, things are up in the air. We might go to Ljubljana, Slovenia but there is also talk of visiting some of Stacy's cousins in Austria. If they end up doing that, I might just head to Germany to chill for a week before heading to London for more poker. I'd really like to see Slovenia and head into Croatia but it's their trip and I'm just tagging along for a while. Anyway, that's the latest. The next post should have pretty pictures and entertaining anecdotes. Holler.

Loving Life in Barcelona

I gotta say, it's been a good couple of days. In the tournament today I ran hot and feel like I played pretty well, ending up with 135,000 chips, good for about 20th out of the remaining 250 or so players. Nearly 500 started and there's a long way to go but I'm feeling pretty good.


Purple Euros are so gangster.

My buddy Howard did a little write-up about me in the Pokerstars Blog and a beautiful woman named Rebecca, who I just met today, interviewed me for Card Player during the second break. It's good to have friends in the media!

Yesterday ended up being a pretty epic day. Around 7 PM I met my buddy Matt at his hotel and we went to my favorite tapas place, called Txapela.



The food, location, and sangria are all primo at Txapela. The octopus and squid dishes were amazing and the Prawn, Bacon and Mushroom tapas might be my favorite thing of all time.












Matt and I ate a ton of these tapas, drank 3 pitches of sangria, and the bill ended up being 42 Euro. Matt lost the credit card roulette and the only thing better than tapas and sangria is FREE tapas and sangria. Thanks, Matt!

From Txapela we took a cab back to my hotel and drank some wine while trying figure out how I could get money to buy into the tournament. I talked to my buddy Jason Mercier and he had some extras so we went over to his hotel to pick them up. He was grinding with a friend and much to my delight, they were bumping Taylor Swift in the room. If you haven't heard the Fearless CD, you're really missing out. Brilliant stuff.

Anyway, after finishing the bottle of wine, we somehow ended up in Jon "Fatal Error" Aguiar's room where I acted like an ass for a while and ultimately passed out on the floor. He woke me up at about 1:30 AM and told me he was going to the club to meet some girls from his hometown of Boston. I was in the mood to party so I decided to shake the sleep out of my eyes and join him. We went to an awesome club called Razzmatazz which is a giant warehouse with 6 or 7 different rooms all playing different types of music. The cover ended up being 15 Euro because there was a live band and the girls were pretty upset about that. Luckily the 15 Euro also got you a free Red Bull and Vodka and once I bought a round of tequila, we were all best friends. The girls ended up being really cool and we had a blast. We stayed in the main room for most of the night where the live band was playing and I did my usual dance around and go crazy act. Finally, around 4:30 it was time for bed. Here are some pics.



Spanish Girls <3





Boston Girls <3





I woke up at 11 AM this morning fresh as a daisy and went to the Casino to register for the tourney. I feel like the key to conquering jet lag is to get a good 6 or 7 hours of drunk sleep on the night you arrive and you'll be golden from there on out. Holler!

The tournament starts again at 12:30 PM tomorrow, check the PokerStars Blog and Cardplayer pages for updates and please send good vibes. I'm going to end with a random picture from last night where God only knows what I was thinking. 3 Kilos of Nestle Quik!

Brandon está muy cansado

Well I made it to Barcelona safely and without major incident. I am, however, extremely tired and would love to crash hard. Instead, I'm going to head out for dinner and drinks and try to stay up until 11 or 12 tonight. That's the best way to avoid jet lag, crashing at 6 PM would do me no good.

I forgot to mention that part of the reason I passed on the $600 Business Class upgrade is the fact that I got a sweet Exit Row seat in economy. I had my legs fully extended the whole plane ride and it was glorious!





I think you get the point. My neighbor looked at me funnily as I took pictures of my stretched out legs but I don't really care. The Barcelona Airport was really dead when I got there, surprising for a Friday afternoon.



My hotel room is really sweet. I booked it on Hotwire and at 80 Euros it's a freaking steal. It's called the H10 Marina and it's about 10 minutes walking from the Casino. I'm going to post a few images and then get out of here. Tapas and Sangria are calling my name.







Next time, I'll have something more exciting. Holla!

Barcelona Bound

I'm sitting at Gate S11 in the beautiful Seattle-Tacoma airport and I'm feeling a giddiness that I haven't felt in a while. Maybe it's because I haven't been abroad since May, which is a really long stretch for me. At any rate, I have a feeling that this is gonna be a great trip.

The trip will look loosely like this:

9/4-9/8: Barcelona
9/8-9/10: Florence
9/10-9/11: Ljubljana
9/11-9/13: Zagreb
9/13-9/15: Budapest
9/15-9/17: Frankfurt
9/17-9/24: London
9/25: Four friends arrive in Frankfurt
9/26: Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart
9/27-9/28: Munich for Oktoberfest
9/29-9/30: Prague
10/1: Wiesbaden
10/2: Rhein River Cruise
10/3-10/10: Road Trip through Cologne, Amsterdam, Belgium, Paris, Luxembourg, and Kaiserslautern.

I will try really hard to keep this updated and keep it fresh with pics and whatnot. If you want to keep tabs on me, check back often! The more comments I receive, the more likely I am to keep blogging...I'm kind of attention whorish like that.

Anyway, I'm boarding the mighty Lufthansa 491 from Seattle to Frankfurt in 20 minutes. I've flown this flight a million times and it's a relatively painless 10 hours. They offered me an upgrade to Business Class for $600 and even though Business Class is heavenly, times are tough. Using the "a penny saved is a penny earned" mantra, I will be earning $60/hour while roughing it out in economy class. Not a bad wage in this day and age.

I'll holler back once I'm in Barcelona and will have a few pics. For now, I'll leave you with the song I've been listening to all day.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in Barcelona...see anytime I hear this tune I just start drifting awayyyyy...and all I wanna do is go back.