tracy_loo_who | I tried to make this post last week but LJ was down. :P

tracy_loo_who

Back in Lisbon and back at work. Thank you to

sesheta_66,

rogueslayer452,

enablelove,

wook77,

starlitshore (x3), and

kerrikins for the vgifts over the past few weeks! But mostly for not forgetting me even though I've been MIA for so long. ♥

This has been my whole crazy-ass, 17-countries summer: Lisbon → Coimbra → Porto → Frankfurt → Bacharach → Koblenz → Köln → Prague → Munich → Venice → Rome + Vatican → Florence → Budapest → Salzburg → Vienna → Bratislava → Kraków + Auschwitz + Wieliczka → Berlin → Amsterdam → Ghent → Brussels → Guimarães → Lisbon → Michigan → Miami → Haiti → Michigan + Indiana → Dublin + Wicklow → London + Oxford + Windsor + Stonehenge → Paris → Interlaken → Geneva → Lisbon. And summer isn't even over yet.

Already posted pics and stuff from Eurotrip part I so let's talk about Haiti! Which was six weeks ago but whatever. Full stories are or will be elsewhere, so here are some personal highlights:

Gotta start with Lords South Beach in Miami, the delicious gay hotel we stayed in the night before we went to Haiti. It was deliciously gay.

My first conversation with a guy in Haiti happened at the airport in Jacmel where I stayed behind for a while to watch everyone's luggage. He was a customs control officer and he kept asking me why I didn't have a man yet and "If you want to have sex..." What he was really asking (I think) is how people in the U.S. go about hooking up, but that's not what it initially sounded like. :P

Dancing in the rain on the first day.

We visited the Art Creation Foundation For Children in Jacmel several times over the course of the week, and a girl from the foundation came to our hotel with her friend on the last day just to say bye to me and give me three little clay birds she'd made. ♥

The mosaic wall made by the art students, it was gorgeous and they were so excited to show it to us.

The kids' fascination with our cameras and video cameras! They'd immediately snatch our cameras away from us when we got there and run off with them, which was admittedly mildly concerning the first time it happened until I discovered if I so much as walked out to the van the kid would come running over to me to try to give me my camera back.

Rooming with @jenny_ackerman!

Swimming in jeans every day.

Getting yelled at by some random woman for staying up giggling in the pool past midnight one night, and @jenny_ackerman getting upset because I wasn't upset about it. :P

Spending a whole week with my favorite h00r @LauinLA! ♥

All of the other volunteers too, even if they weren't nearly as big h00rs.

The rum punch and fruit punch, mmm.

This amazing corn thing we had for dinner a few times. IT WAS AMAZING.

One boob tree lady! The most profound painting in the world is now in my possession:

Drinking out of coconuts chopped open by little boys with giant machetes.

Misha's friend, Philip, talking about going to an Australian con with Misha which resulted in everyone thinking they were lovers and wanting a "Misha/Philip sandwich".

Friday night, featuring a live band, plenty of the aforementioned rum punch, and dancing with everyone. Even Misha who doesn't usually dance except when drunk, apparently.

Belly-dancing lessons from our resident Russian spy.

Teaching everyone rude and hilarious Turkish gestures.

"I'm not so much into fruit games." - @Rea79, my shark buddy, when asked to play apples to apples.

Random Acts bought boots for the construction workers at one of the work sites (they'd been going barefoot or had their feet wrapped up) and they later told Philip it was like working in Heaven. That floored me, not gonna lie.

Feeling marginally useful at construction sites. :P

We hired some van drivers to drive us around all week, and as we were leaving Jacmel Philip told me one of them had a crush on me, which kind of amused me because I think I know which driver he was talking about and he was cute. We spent several water supply runs trying to teach each other words in our respective languages and totally not understanding anything the other was saying except "Bob Marley" when one of his songs came on, lol.

The bumpy rides in tiny planes to and from Jacmel. :)

Leaving with the certainty that I'll be back someday.

So, IN CONCLUSION: It was stupid and those people were all stupid. - @jenny_ackerman

After Haiti was Eurotrip part II, with my parents. :P

Dublin, Ireland
We flew from Michigan to Dublin, found our hotel, got breakfast, and decided we'd set out to walk around for a bit.

A few steps out the door...
Mother (who has the tiniest bladder in the whole goddamn world): Where's the nearest restroom?
Me: We just left the hotel, mother.
Mother: Okay, I'll go back to the hotel, brb.
Father: *almost gets shit on by a bird*
Me: Welcome to Ireland?

For lunch, we decided to eat in a park.
Mother: Are there any restrooms here?
Me: IDK, dude.
Father: *almost gets shit on by a bird*
Me: That was a much closer call than the first time. Maybe the third time will be the charm, eh?

Dinner on the second day was a three-course meal at a hotel with live Irish music and dancing.
Father: One of the desserts is a mouse.
Me: It's "mousse". Haven't you ever had any?
Father: No.
Me: It's good.
Father: It looks like "mouse".
Me: ...Look, when the waiter comes over, please don't order a mouse.

Wicklow, Ireland
So, we had reserved seats for a bus tour of Wicklow, right?
Father: We have a reservation.
Bus driver: No you don't.
Father: No, really, we do. The hotel reserved it for us.
Bus driver: Which tour bus company? Maybe you're with the other one.
Father (while holding the pamphlet): I don't know what company it is.
Bus driver: Nevermind, hop on, we have empty seats.
Me: How is it possible that you said you didn't know what company it was while holding the pamphlet?
Father: It doesn't say!
Me: Yes it does, in huge letters on the very front! Wtf.
Father: Oh.
Mother: How long is this bus ride? Will there be bathroom breaks?
Me: *facepalm*

Despite getting on the wrong tour bus, Wicklow was beautiful and no one slipped and fell down the mountain to their death, although my father had a close call thanks to his sandals. :P

London, UK
It was raining! Surprise, surprise. Parents in ponchos. Very amusing. XD

The HP7 premiere looked wet but awesome.

Didn't manage to get a wristband but I snuck around outside, took a few photos, and apparently just missed Tom Felton walking down this stretch of red carpet:

To make me feel better, some little kid gave me a piece of one of the banners everyone was ripping apart for souvenirs. It was a Slytherin piece. \o/

Oxford, UK
The first thing I did in Oxford was to get a text from @kakapojayne saying she'd gotten me a ticket to the HP7 press screening that evening and that I had to get back to London early. :P

So my visit was cut short but I met up with

olympia_m, who gave me an excellent little tour of the campus, the Harry Potter filming locations, the stuffed dodo, and the Eagle and Child pub which CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien used to frequent, among other things.

We also went to a garden where Tolkien got some of his inspiration from and were stalked by a cat:

Windsor, UK
Went to the castle amidst a huge amount of anticipation and suspense and long queues lined up and down the streets.

Father: Ooh, someone important must be arriving soon!
Mother: I hope they don't take too long, I need to find a restroom.
...
Mother: They're taking too long. Who is it anyway?
Father: Probably one of the royal family. Everyone's so excited.
Guards: *change*

Father: ...That's it? How often does this happen?
Me: Every day, I think.
Father: Are they this excited about it every day?
Me: Probably.
Mother: Whatever, restroom time!

Stonehenge
Me: It was a robot head!
Tumbleweed: ...*rolls*

Too bad I didn't go with any Misha fans. Oh well. On the bright side, my mother bought me a shirt that says "Stonehenge rocks!"

Paris, France
My most memorable experience in Paris was ordering a "salad with cheese", expecting it to be a salad with some cheese sprinkled on top. What I actually got was a few pieces of lettuce and tomato next to a giant plate of cheese. Now, some cheese is okay for me, but in general cheese isn't my favorite thing and I find goat cheese to be particularly vile. There was lots of goat cheese. I was dismayed, but I guess I should've expected it, being France and all.

Anyway, our hotel was only a few minutes' walk away from the Eiffel Tower, so I ended up with loads of pictures of the tower at night. Mostly because I have a Canon camera and the symbol for the night view setting has the Eiffel Tower in the background, which I took to mean my camera was made to take pictures of it. Lopsided. Naturally.

Interlaken, Switzerland
Pretty much the most gorgeous place I've ever been to, violent storms and everything.

Unfortunately it was cloudy for almost all of the time we were up in the mountains (and in fact I got a cool video of the cloud descending upon us), but it was a fun hike anyway and there was bonus salamander sex:

Geneva, Switzerland
We only really came to Geneva so we could fly to Lisbon the next day, but we had an excellent time walking around the lake and parks. It was all very zen-inducing.

Also there was a duck-like thing with a bunch of baby duck-like things on its back:

Showed my parents around Lisbon too and my mother couldn't believe I didn't know by heart where all the public restrooms were. :P

In other news, I have a Wee Baby Sloth necklace. I am very pleased.

Also I can't decide if I find it hilarious that Tom Felton was shown Harry/Draco manips on Conan O’Brien or if I'm uncomfortable with such fandom classics being put on public display to be laughed at. Probably both.

Also also SPOILERY interview but Misha: I have loved doing the intimate scenes with Dean or Jensen over the years the most. lskdjfklsjfskdjsfkjs ship. T__T When does the season start again?

That's all for now, UNTIL NEXT MONTH. :P Just kidding, I'm gonna try to catch up with LJ as much as I can in the next few days.