Viva La Europa

It was now fall which meant the weather was getting depressing, but I was getting ready for my 3^rd vacation of 2006, my 3^rd trip to Europe with my mom. She loves Europe and since my dad hates to travel long term, I end up being her traveling buddy, which is totally cool with me because I am all about visiting other countries and experiencing their life styles. However, I have to tell you that I was broke and tripped out and not going on this trip would have been a good financial relief for me, but I made a commitment earlier in the year to this so I had to stick with it. This time we were off to Austria, Czech Republic, and Hungary. It was almost a two week trip which is just enough, because then I start to miss the American lifestyle and freely speaking English.

It’s Saturday so I am little lazy about giving detailed information for my global endeavors so I am going to keep this one nice and short and just give you some highlights. We flew through JFK which is a crazy airport and landed in Czech Republic. In both airports we saw several soldiers just walking around with nice AK47’s on their arms. I did not get harassed at the airport because of the clean shaven face, my flawless English and presentation skills when dealing with airport security. The welcoming to Prague was very warm-hearted. I had lots of opportunities to speak Russian in Prague because many people understood it, so it felt like the really old days. We took several day tours of the city, did a lot of sight seeing, walking around, hanging out in cafés and restaurants, going to museums, visiting famous city locations, shopping and checking out the fancy souvenirs. We pretty did this in most of the cities Czech Republic is infamous for their glass so they had an unbelievable selection and of various extravagant of glass works all over the city.

We had a tour bus which took us around the city and from country to country. Our next country was Austria. Our feeling of Austria was that it was a little less warm welcoming than Czech Republic. Same type of activities took place. The architecture of the city was very bold and with aggressive classical sculptures and monuments. We got to visit Mozart’s home and went to a classical concert at the hall where he used to perform. I bought a little souvenir violin with his autograph which plays some of his works, it was a unique souvenir so I had to have it.

The next country was Hungary. Budapest at night was one of the best things about this part of the trip. We took a boat ride on river Danube which splits the city in two parts (common in some major cities in Europe – old ways of building cities) and the scenery was just breathtaking, with the whole city being lit up. Budapest was our tour guide’s hometown so he was all nationalistic about every little thing and poked a little fun on the Americans about finding a McDonald’s to eat. I let him slide on that comment because Europeans are clueless about America other than the negative propaganda they see on TV thanks to the fucking asshole president George W. Bush.

Another awesome part of the trip was driving through the Alps when we were going to another country. We stopped for a couple of hours to enjoy nature’s magic creation. This one part we drove by had a huge lake and mountains on all of its sides with people lodging and being outdoors on the lake. I can’t even put it in words how relaxing it was just to hang out by the lake and breathe in the pure fresh air.

Anyway, I had many trip pictures posted on the web back in the fall which will give you a better idea of how things went. I did not do any crazy partying because it was early wakeup every morning and the day being filled with numerous activities, when night came I was so beat and just crashed. Overall, it was very thought provoking and pleasant experience and I got to spend quality time with my mom, even though we bickered back and forth at times because I can be a spoiled brat who missed his US luxuries. So after that trip my official list of countries in Europe is now

France

Spain

Portugal

Hungary

Czech Republic

Austria

I thinking my next visit will be to Italy, but that’s nowhere in the workings yet….

South of the border

Alright so after recovering from the so called baseball injury I was ready to fly down to the marvelous city of South Beach. It was me and two of my friends just high rolling down in MIA, you know got the nice little A8 pulling in the underground garage on

5400 Collins Ave (Millionaires’ Row). We rented a condo since it was more cost effective, this place was just unbelievable. The place was so big, it was cool just to sit back and chill at the condo and do some drinking and watching Entourage. The beach, the pool, and the Jacuzzi were in the backyard of this high rise so it was just luxury at your feet. The weather was typical Florida humidity, at times it was pleasant outside, but sometimes it was disgustingly humid, so blasting the air conditioner in the car was must while keeping the windows open to for a fresh scent of the Atlantic Ocean. Of course the ladies were looking really pretty 24-7.

The whole trip was just high energy and hustle filled with beaches, liquor, night clubs, music, restaurant, casino boats, shopping, fancy cars and feisty Latino ladies, and a serious lack of sleep. I mean the city can definitely come off a bit intimidating from standpoint that if you want to live the REAL South Beach life you better be on top of your game, whether your game is legal or illegal, it doesn’t matter as long as it brings in steady funding for the Cloud 9 lifestyle that you may choose to have. Since I was only down there for a week I suppose I was willing to put the lack of riches in my life to the side and just enjoy the atmosphere and be smart baller on a budget

I guess one thing that kind of bothered me more in relation to a culture shock, was that Spanish was pretty much the first language down there. I mean every where you go it’s just Latinos almost like you are in another country. It was interesting for me to try to remember some Spanish from high school and talk it up. I tired to tune out the Latino folks who pretty consumed the entire clerical and blue collar job market down there and concentrate on the finer things. It was nice to wake up and go to the ocean or look out the window and drool over multi million dollars homes covered with Spanish roofs, whose garages were docks housing lavish boats. The scenery of the city was magnificent. The real estate market is booming down there, there were ocean front high rises being built left and right.

Of course the huge night club scene down there resulted in ridiculous lines to some of these so called fancy clubs. For the really upscale places, if you are not famous you needed to tip the door bouncer to just put you on a consideration waitlist, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Or you needed to bring some girls along to even get in, or you had to buy a fancy ass bottle of bubbly. Pulling girls to get in the club wasn’t a problem, we just had to work some street magic like David Blaine, be vocal and entertain ourselves with female company in line. A lot of them were straight up gold-diggers, asking me if I will be paying for their entry fee and buying them a drink or tow. Me being who I am, I just put on a circus by clowning them and sending them back to the end of the line. Some girls were more down to earth and just wanted to have good time and the feeling was mutual.

There was a lot of partying and crazy dancing, you might have caught some the pics that I posted online it was definitely intense. Honestly though, I don't know if I would move down there to live. Obviously the cost of living is a lot higher so I would have to find a comparable job. It was just a way too humid, temperatures that my body was just refusing to deal with. At times I got the feeling of alienation that I did not really belong there. As warm as it was down there were times when it felt cold on the inside. When I first partied in Chicago, it felt like I was right at home, but South Beach was different.

You need lots of cash and lots of pull to have a fancy life that is comparable to some of the rich locals. This is something that I already knew, but it was one of those things that you just need to go through in your life and say “ah yes I have been there and done that” and move on. Maybe one day I will be back there, who knows.

Ouch

Back in July 2006, another significant event of the year took place. My friend and I were hosting our annual Indians/Downtown party at the Embassy Suites. You know how we do, multiple hotel rooms, multiple bottles of liquor, and multiple amounts of debauchery. We get up in the hotel and just chill, drinking and hanging out. I stayed back at the hotel with a few people just hanging and drinking, while some people took off to the game.

We eventually made our way to the stadium. After a few innings or so I got up to stretch and then…!!! I somehow loose balance clapping or doing some sort of a cheer on those crazy suicidal seating rows and go tumbling 9 flights of bleachers. All I remember is seeing the blue sky and the bottom of the seats as my face and body was physically traumatized and abused by every seat on my way down, just putting dents all over my body. I would have kept falling, but there was a guy standing who played a key role in killing my momentum for all the good reasons in this world. After coming to a stop, I got up trying to observe the surroundings and assess the damage. I felt okay, but then felt blood gushing out of my bottom lip. As half the seating section was fully focused on my heroic fall, I made my way up to my original seats in hopes of watching the rest of the game. Unfortunately, the injury was a bit more serious than I thought.

Andrey, there is a hole in your lip !!! We are taking you to the Indians medical office. I kept insisting that I am way too pretty to mess my face up and that I am going to Hollywood (you know I had to throw a little dramatic humor acting). I think I had them convinced to the point that they wanted me to go to the hospital to fix the mess. My dear friends and I caught a cab to the nearest hospital. We spent about 3 hours there or maybe more, things were kind of cloudy at time. They told me I had broken ribs and needed stitches on my face. I found out later that the ribs were only heavily bruised, happy to continue my 25 year streak with no broken bones. I ended up having 7 stitches on my bottom lip. Paul sat bedside while they were stitching me up and I kept flirting with the hot nurse. Meanwhile in the lobby, Katy, Craig, and Evan were recapping the dramatic experience with a humorous twist from my acting earlier. I honestly was in complete disbelief on what happened. It was complete bullshit, those fucking bleachers are dangerous. I just wanted to get back to game and felt really horrible that my friends were in the hospital instead of drinking and partying.

So we left the hospital around midnight. I came back to the hotel room, hardly being able to walk from the pain in the ribs along with swollen lips and face. After chopping some stories and laughing back on the experience, I said it fuck it let’s go to a strip club, the night was still young. We caught a cab and went to a Diamond’s Men’s club (free passes) and drank some more beers, my good friend Craig was in town so I felt bad and wanted him to have some fun. The next day I was in severe pain which lasted for about two weeks or so primarily because of my ribs. I had to take antibiotics, painkillers, and use a breathing apparatus so that my lungs do not fill up with liquid. The pain killers were awesome and we had some fun times with them over some red wine and Entourage. They enabled me to sleep like 14 hours a night. For the next month, I took it easy to make sure that I was fully recovered before the big South Beach trip.

You know this was just another wild night out. The year before it was wild too, but no one got hurt. I would have to say that it was definitely a turning point on my heavy drinking experiences, but honestly it was just an unfortunate incident because I didn’t even drink that much, I hardly ate anything that day and it just sneaked up on me. I was very disappointed in myself on allowing this to happen to me and loosing control of the situation. That experience has helped me become more vigilant about drinking nowadays.

Of course, I try to extract positive elements out of every negative situation that happens to me. I survived a near death experience which further goes to prove that I have angels watching over me and that this was just a minor disturbance to the ultimate reach of destiny. The whole time I was in high spirit because the people who really genuinely care about my well-being were there for mental and physical support, and could feel my pain while witnessing such a disturbing incident.

When people close to you feel your pain, they help you ease your own pain. They helped me smile and laugh it out.

The Big 25

The second most significant event in 2006 was the celebration of my 25^th birthday. Typically, I am not really a big fan of my birthdays. I usually stay low key and have a small get together with my family just out of the courtesy. I mean let’s face it, you are just one year closer to your demise, how can that possibly be a celebrated and happy event, but you do feel special on this day and all the attention is on you so I can understand why people love it.

25 is a big one, quarter of a century! I had to do something. I put the word out that I will be celebrating up in Niagara Falls for the entire weekend, hotel, liquor, and all the other fun stuff. It so happened that my birthday fell on Easter weekend, so a lot of people could not make it, which I understood. My birthday and the holiday of Jesus on the same night! There was no way I was going to reschedule, it was monumental, and it was a sign that this year was going to be a turnaround year for me. Out of the people that could make it, a very close circle of friends from Cleveland and my very close friend from Chicago came up to Canada to share the special moment with me. I was disappointed about one other person who was supposed to show up, a close friend from high school, but he didn’t really care much for it so I had to get over it and enjoy myself regardless.

We ended up driving up there in separate cars and stayed at the Embassy which is the best hotel out there because of the amazing views of the falls. I got a bottle of Crisy and for the first time tasted the delicious bubbles that every rapper speaks off in their songs. I remember we were advertising the shit out of it by taking pictures like we had stock in that bitch. You know we just chilled all weekend, went out to eat, played some golf, hit up the bars, checked out the falls, hung out at the suite drinking and chopping shit up, walked around on Clifton Hill.

On Saturday my friends arranged a very nice surprise for me by getting reservations in the restaurant and turns on top of the tower that overlooks the falls. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was a pretty awesome experience. I can actually say that there was no major drama that weekend as we all handled ourselves like civilized adults, compared to some of the other hotel parties that I have been part of, it was a definite delight.

On the way back home we watched family guy which made the time go by really fast. I got home and had to drop my friend off back at the airport and then come home for the continuation of my birthday celebration with my family which was actually on Sunday the 16th.

Overall, it was a memorable experience because it was an intimate and modest celebration that included the best of the best out of my life’s relationships. I was happy that weekend, happy to be alive and thriving at age 25 with full support of my family and friends by my side.

Stuff

I am really overwhelmed with life right now, and just trying to find ways on how to deal with all the shit that's on my plate.

2006 Major Event #1 - Carnival Cruise

I haven’t dedicated much time to the blog in the past couple of weeks because I have been tied up with remodeling my new place, but as promised I wanted to recap 2006, so here is the first significant event that happened in 2006. My first official Carnival cruise, there is so much to write about it, but I am going to try to keep it short and sweet just like the way I like my girls, hahaha :)

In the summer of 2006 one my friends from work invited me to go on a cruise with his wife and her family. I have never been on a cruise before so it definitely sounded like a fun adventure and yet another thing to check off from my huge “Life’s To Do List”. We needed to have a group of four people, so a recklessly entertaining group of 4 cool people was automatically formed, Andrey, Katy, Paul and Calin. Living in a small cabin and trying to get along for a week in itself was an interesting challenge and experience ahead of us. We were set to sail on January 1, 2006.

Sometime in December there was some minor drama that took place in the tight friendship triangle that we run, and honestly I was up in the air about going and dealing with the shit for a week. However, I wasn’t going to let some minor static come in between a great possibility to bond and have fun together, so us being the mature adults that we are, we worked it out. We took off to Ft. Lauderdale on New Year’s weekend. We were down there the whole weekend hanging out at the beach and the hot tubs, bike riding, going to bars and restaurants. To cap it off we had an awesome New Year’s celebration in several of the night clubs right after a delicious Cajun dinner

On Sunday we boarded the ship. And when we got close to it, the ship was just ridiculously immense. It was like a city on water. I was like how the hell did they build this thing?! The first couple of days were confusing and getting lost was not a hard task to accomplish. Once I picked out my popular spots and studied the map, things got easier. While at sea, I pretty much just chilled to my maximum capacity, by eating scrumptious and various breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes, laying out in the sun, gambling, getting massages, hitting up the gym, the sauna, the hot tubs, the steam room, drinking, watching Texas beat USC in the middle of the Atlantic ocean while sipping on a strawberry daiquiri, enjoying the gorgeous sunset and ocean views. There was no limit to the relaxation and the food we ate. At night it was a bit creepy looking out in the ocean in the pitch dark, at times wondering what would happen if I jumped overboard.

Our stops were in Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Montego Bay. In Bahamas we laid out on the beach and played volleyball with the locals and tourists. In Grand Cayman I got to pet some sting rays while walking around in the middle of the ocean and hit the waves on a jet ski. In Montego Bay I drank cheap beer, tore up the waves in a sick ass wave runner, and refrained from purchasing the numerous drugs that were offered to me. Montego Bay was a bit dirty, but I still managed to have fun and bring back some fine Jamaican rum. We also did some sight seeing and visited different shops on all of of our stops. At night we committed gluttony to royal dinners with limitless appetizers, entrees, and deserts. Then it was either of to disco, drinking, cigar lounging or just hanging out.

Overall it was probably the most relaxing vacation I have ever had and was the first vacation where I went with my friends. It was definitely an exciting experience living together in a small ass room, bonding on the ship, spending time together, and just enjoying ourselves with as little drama as possible. Next time I will probably bring some walk talkies so it easier to find people. I would definitely recommend a cruise as must for anyone who has never been on one. I am hoping to go for another one in 2008.

Happy New Year !

As you know it is my favorite holiday and celebration time of the year. To me it’s like your final chance of the year where you can really appreciate and reflect on all the good things that happened and commemorate all accomplishments that you and your loved ones had. Of course, don’t forget about the unfortunate things that happened and learn from them and realize that they didn’t kill you and that you will still get another chance in the New Year. I suppose for me 2006 was a mixture of awesome, good, decent, and bad, events, but overall I think it was a very fulfilling, learning, and maturing year filled with personal and business related achievements, situations, and lessons which helped me grow. To give you more insight about them, I will probably dedicate the next several blogs to the most significant events of 2006.

I try to keep my celebrations filled with variety
2004 - Family parties
2005 - Spy Bar Cleveland
2006 - Ft. Lauderdale FL
2007 - A sick party over Paul's new house. We had a damn good time, the whole weekend was just delic

I would say that the second half of 2006 made 2007 probably one of the most long-awaited years that I have had in a while. And no I do not have any bullshit New Year’s resolutions; nevertheless it should be a very interesting year. It will be a year where I finally move out into my new home, a year at the end of which I will almost be done with my second degree, a year in which certain people might not play a major role in my life anymore, a year where new people might become part of my life, a year where more aggressive and strategic career decisions will have to be made, and of course I have to save room for surprises, oh and the new Sopranos, Weeds, 24, Entourage, and NipTuck, can’t forget the shows that keep me going.

You probably received a drunk phone from me wishing you all the best in 2007, and if you didn’t it’s probably because my cell phone battery couldn’t handle any more congratulations, so if I missed you, HAPPY NEW YEAR !