At the baggage claim carousel, our bags were the first three out. We grabbed them, breezed through customs and made it to the arrival terminal just as Charlene showed up. (For those of you that don't know, Charlene is Grant's superhot friend from High School who came and visited us in New York this past summer).
After hugs were exchanged, Charlene told us "There are a few things we can do tonight," we were about to tell her that we were exhausted and just wanted to go to bed when she finished with, "and one of them is a surprise ACDC concert that I might be able to get tickets and backstage passes to." Charlene, not knowing our taste in music asked "I don't know, is that something that the three of you would be interested in?" We nearly lost our minds. Free surprise ACDC concert? Backstage passes? We decided we had no choice but to rally yet again.
7:54pm: We arrived at Heathrow totally cracked out. We were so tired that we decided that we were going to tell Charlene that we were up for maybe grabbing one drink but then after that we needed to get some sleep.
(Time Elapsed With Only 15 minutes of Sleep: 28h 24m)
See that building in the background? That's a powerplant takes geothermally heated water from the earth and uses it to both heat homes and to convert into electricity.
The whole idea of stopping in Iceland on the way to London had been Grant's idea. So right up until this point we'd been laughing at the irony of the fact that he'd been missing out on all the fun - but the Blue Lagoon was so amazing that it just stopped being funny. Sorry you weren't there to see it with us, Lil' Buddy! We missed you! After we were done up taking pics on the hill, we climbed down, grabbed our car and headed back towards the airport at Keflavik.
The swim also made us totally stupid tired. (No sleep + Warm Dehydrating Bath = Almost Inability to Speak). But we rallied yet again to go outside and climb the big hill that over looks the spa complex.
3:41pm (Time Elapsed With No Sleep: 25h 11m). After lunch we got to the gate with about 20 minutes to spare before our boarding call which I figured was the perfect chance to finally chance to catch a quick nap. Right after Fatty took this picture, both he and Chris fell asleep and we almost missed our flight! We woke up just in time to catch the last boarding call.
It was right around this time that I decided it was time to pull out the video camera and start capturing some of this. I mean, Christ, I'd already failed to capture the lobotomy guy and Smari dropping the C-bomb about his sister - I wasn't about to miss out on any more. I asked him if he minded me filming him talking and he said he didn't. As soon as I started taping, he launched into all these stories about Iceland's crazy nightlife and told us that we needed to come back over the summer and spend a few days. "Don't worry about a hotel." He told us, "You won't be needing one." Hahaha. (Footage coming soon).
Here's Chris and I trying our best to not look cold for a photo. We didn't want to pack a whole bunch of winter clothers that we'd only be using for a half-day in Iceland so all we had with us to fend of the 4°C temperatures (about 39°F) were our light jackets.
Miraculously, he managed to avoid getting a ticket (but he did accidentally lock himself out of the car...Doh!). We thanked him for the tour (it's still one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for me - so Smari, if you read this, thanks again!) and then told him that we were thinking about checking out the Blue Lagoon on the way back to catch our flight but that the lady at the rental car place had seemed underwhelmed when we asked her about it. Smari told us "Fuck that lady. If there's only one thing you could see in Iceland, it should be the Blue Lagoon. Don't miss it. Go there now." That settled it. We bid Smari farewell, and headed for Grindavik.
We were starting to feel a little tired on the plane, but we totally rallied and got a second wind the minute we stepped off the plane (must've been that reindeer meat finally kicking in).
6:40am (local time and still pitch black out). We spent the hour-long drive into Reykjavik betting on what time the sun would rise. Price Is Right rules in effect: the one who managed to come closest, without going over would be declared the winner. It was then agreed upon that the winner would get to make out with Gemma, Grant's hot little sister, (mmmmmm....Gemma) when we stopped at Grant's parent's house in Essex on the last leg of our trip. But then we all remembered that Gemma had a boyfriend. (Booooo).
No sleep yet. (Oh also: at some point during the flight, the three of us watched one of those in-flight TV shows about "The Blue Lagoon," which is an Icelandic Spa Resort built around a huge geothermal pool. Other than exploring Reykjavik, we didn't have any other plans. After watching the video, we decided the Blue Lagoon looked amazing and that we'd try to fit it into our schedule if possible.
And look, I even managed to figure out how to take a half-decent pic of myself, which was no easy task, because it's a big, heavy, digital SLR that you have to hold with a side-grip. (Which is why I've got that weird "looks like I'm pooping" expression on my face.)
We breezed through security and made it to our gate just a little past 6pm (which gave us just over 2 hours to kill). We grabbed a snack in the cafeteria, read a bit and (what else?) goofed out and took pictures. (Chris and I had both just gotten new cameras so we spent a lot of time familiarizing ourselves with how to use them.
Before getting in the cab, we neurotically checked to make sure we had our passports with us for the 11th time. You know, just in case one of us had somehow managed to loose it on the 25ft trek from Fatty's apartment to the street.
Vin made me promise that I'd take it on our trip and take lots of pictures with the Penis Straw in each country that we went through. (By the way, what's better than the fact that Penis Straw as a giant set of crooked balls?)
Bernie and I had already eaten lunch two hours previously, but John said that since we were in Atlanta, we had to go eat BBQ. He took us to a place called "Daddy D'z BBQ Joynt." "But John," we protested, "we're not hungry!" "Don't worry," he winked, "you'll have room for this."
When we got out of meeting we had some time to kill before we had to head back to the airport and I remember that my good friend (and former ModemMedia co-worker) John McHale lives in Atlanta. I called him and found out that he his work was just a few blocks away from where we were calling from. He hopped in his car and five short minutes later, Johnny was on the spot.
I'm so down with O.P.P. (Other Peoples' Pets). If you're out walking your dog and I see you - chances are, you're getting stopped and like it or not, I'm going to spend some time loving your pooch. Here's a picture of me with what had to be the raddest, happiest, silkiest pit bull puppy I've ever had the privilege of accosting on the street.
From L to R: Shane the birthday boy, Crazy (yes, his name is Crazy), Sammy and me. After hanging out at this place for a while, Shane, who was tired from moving all day, called it a night.
Sammy had just helped his friend Shane move into a new apartment in Hoboken and wanted me to come out there to meet them as they celebrated Shane's birthday. I walked 10 blocks, hopped on the PATH at Christopher Street and headed towards Jersey. Twenty minutes later we were reunited!
This was the best part, I was standing really close to him with my nuts out and all of sudden he woke up. He seemed started to find me standing so close to him and and was like "What's up?" So I said to him enthusiastically, "Nothing, dude! You're rocking the fuck out, that's what! Let's take a picture together!" He jumped up and with like "Ok!" So that's how I turned an "Almost Got My Ass Kicked" situtation into the greatest "You Don't Know You're Posing With My Balls But You Are" picture of all time.
Jamie and I were quick to follow. Mad props to Jamie - homeboy survived testicular cancer was brave enough (or drunk enough - probably a bit of both) to take out his one ball! (Stop looking! You can't tell).
Here's Jamie singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" - and somewhere in the middle of the song, someone just handed me the most memorable children's toy in recent years...The Giant Hulk Fist.
Yay! Amanda Berkowitz stopped by (with a friend of hers whose name I don't remember, sorry) but I think we were all pretty rowdy at this point and we scared her off. (By the way, what's with me smoking?)
And here's my dinner - both plates of it. No, I'm totally not fucking kidding. These two plates represent one meal. What happened was when the waiter was taking our order I asked, "If I'm really hungry, what should I get?" Before I even fishished asking he replied, "Really hungry, eh? Then you're going to want to be having...(dramatic pause)...THE CONQUISTIDOR." Me: "Mmmmm, that sounds good. I"ll have that."
Shorty after we were done eating, Sarah made the mistake of leaving her camera unattended. As soon as she wasn't looking, Grant and I hijacked her camera and snuck into her bedroom to take some pics for her to find the next day. Here's me trying on her coconut bikini top.
Now, most of you probably don't know this about me, but I have a pinhead. No, really. I do. And I guess it doesn't look tiny because when I tell people about it, they never believe me - or at least they don't until I take someone's normal-sized hat and put it on and SHAZAM! Pinhead! Check out Matt cackling at my tiny head swimming in Grant's hat.
Yep, and this one too. (Although, now that I think about it, I think we all might have been singing the four-part back up bit to Aerosmith's "Love In An Elevator" in these last two.)
...and his friend Johann (who you might recognize from the Bizarro Me entry). I was so glad to finally meet this guy. For the last year or so, not a month would pass without someone walking up to me in a dimly lit bar and thinking I was this guy.
Here's me leaning in and making eating noises trying to get Grant to make good on his threat. (I figured worse case scenario, if he actually did throw up, we could just put one of the huge soda-pails in front of him to catch the mess!).
After we polished off the first bucket, Grant was feeling pretty sick. Fatty and I started on the second bucket and Grant was like "Please stop eating you guys. Seriously. I'm so full the sound of you eating is going to make me throw up."
Sometimes those late night food tv commercials can straight fuck your night up. Grant and I were at my house watching tv, trying to figure out what to get for dinner, and all of a sudden this KFC commercial comes on. We both started drooling and were like, "Let's get that (points to TV)." The nearest KFC is up on 14th and 1st (about 20 blocks from my place) so on the walk up, we called the Fatty and he joined us. We got to that KFC only to find it closed early for construction. We remember that there was another KFC on 14th near 6th Ave. Craving chicken, we braved on. As we went up to order, the lady told us, "We're closing - but if you want, I'll give you two buckets of chicken, biscuits and three sodas for ten bucks." SOLD! Cha-ching!
And here's the elusive Johann. People have been mistaken me around NYC for this guy for months. I finally got introduced to him by a mutual friend and managed to get this pic.
