Don't Drink the Water....There's Local Bacteria In It

Frankie Botero!

< ------this guy------ >

Well he decided to get hitched. Take the plunge. Tie the knot. Get married. Hook up the ball and chain. Put his sex life in a locked box. 

So, he needed to have a bachelor party. Since they don't allow Google Glass in strip clubs, we headed to Isla de Mujeres. An island off of Cancun, known for two of the following three things: scuba diving, sea food and loose women. And Mexicans. 

Look at that beautiful fucking color. Isn't it the shit?

Isn't it?

Well we were only there for a weekend, but we managed to pack in at least a long weekend's worth of activities in. And on the very first activity, I was already burned (and drunk). We had to take a boat over from the main land (since an island is surrounded by water) and we sat on top. Done. Burned. Red. Ouch. But in my defense, I'm really white. That's not really a defense.

The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking, swimming and drinking. Also curling up with my fellow bachelor partiers to enjoy the sunset. Awww.

You can't see it, but I'm being embraced by a drunk groomsman

We finished the night with drinking and a good ole game of Cards Against Humanity. The next day, we're up early for taco's and scuba diving.

I'm a little bit sexy and I know it

There were fish. There were sea turtles. There were people puking off the side of the boat. There were near death experiences. There were death experiences. Most of us made it back to shore in one piece.

And then we got back to drinking....and eating. I seriously put on 37 pounds while I was there. This is what I looked like after. This is not an exaggeration at all.

I'm hideous and I know it

I ate so much fucking food. I ate giant sticks of meat. Giant tacos of meat. Giant Burritos of meat. Giant vegetarian meats. And fried bread with sugar on it. And Churros. And this was all the real deal Mexican shit cooked on the street in front of you. So you know it low grade shit you're eating.

But the one thing that I couldn't find...until the very end was Tortas. And when I did finally find and have one, it wasn't even good. It was just a ton of meat on bread. Those Mexicans need to take a lesson from the NYC street vendors and learn how to make Mexican food. Who's with me?

In general, there seems to be a lot of Mexican beers in Mexico....except Corona. It's like the Mexicans got together and decided to ostracize Corona cause its the most popular in America. Dos Equis....no problem. Pacifico....everywhere. Negra Modelo....have another. Corona....oh there's one shop on the other side of the island that has that. But who's gives a shit right? I already have what I need for my picture...

I don't always take pictures on vacation, but when I do, I try to pose so that I can make a cliche caption.

Sunday! The last day of our 2.5 day trip! We rented golf carts and rode around the tiny island. As this was Mexico, and I have problems, I felt obligated to drink and drive. Don't worry, it's just a golf cart. And I couldn't even knock that guy over when I hit him going full speed.

But I did get to pose for some beautiful shots in the beautiful landscape. I am sending these to a modeling agency that appeals to albinos getting over their fear of the sun.

After all that somewhat fun in the sun, it unfortunately had to come to an end. Just like Frankie's single life came to an end. And so, being the good hosts that they are, the Mexicans simultaneously reminded us not to take liquids on the plane and become alcoholics.

What?

And finally, whats wrong with this picture?

If you would like to find out how you too can create a picture like this using just your iphone, email me at itsreallynotthatcool@gmail.com and allow 6-8 months for processing.

Chicago is like New York....Just Smaller, Colder and Cleaner (and nicer)

Decided to take a long weekend back in the homestead. Back in the old stomping grounds. Back where they put pickles on their hot dogs and invert their pizza. You know the place. The place where they decided to build an above ground train system in a cold abyss. The place where they blame all their problems on a goat (ya know as opposed to their lack of skill). You know what I'm talkin about. I'm talking about using 'Da' as a proper definite article (as in Da Bears). I'm talking about it being windy. I'm talking about....well, you know what I'm talking about. Do you?

So on a side note, I took a trip to Chicago this winter. Saw a couple of old friends. Made a couple of new enemies. Saw my reflection in a curved mirror. Stood out on a glass ledge 105 stories up. Saw some funny shit at IO theater. Got drunk in Wrigleyville. Saw the frozen Chicago River. Watched a Badgers game in Lincoln Park. Walked the (not so) Magnificent Mile. I'm sure some other stuff happened too.

 EXTREME CLOSEUP!!!!!

Slightly farther away...

So, thats the Willis tower. You can stand out in a glass cage of emotion 105 stories up. But I wasn't scared. I'm like really tough.

There's a picture from the top. So beautiful. It really makes you appreciate God and how he blessed us with these beautiful things. Amen. However, you see off in the distance that frozen tundra? That's the frozen lake. It was cold. Like cold fo realz. It really makes you question God and how he fucks with us on a yearly basis.

Here is another example of how cold it is...

Brrrrrrrrr

Apparently some kid jumped in the river the night before this to save his cellphone and since there no way out (walls on the sides), he wasn't too happy so his friend jumped in to save him. Then they died.

But a serious question which I have asked many times is: why did they build an above ground train system in a place so cold? Does that sound like a good idea? How did everyone else (in warmer) locations manage to put it below ground, but here they were like...just seems to make more sense to take up all this real estate, with this loud train that you have to wait for outside in the freezing cold temperatures. 

Here's that bean thing that everyone takes an obligatory picture in front of....

Turns out its not a bean....

I actually came to see my friends in Chicago and I'm just realizing that I don't actually have any picture of them from the trip (cause I'm a bad friend). So here are pictures of them from various other times....

 

 

Ah College. We were so young and in love.

I've gotten way off topic. But I think I said everything I wanted to say about Chicago. I lived there for five years and I can't think of anything significant to say. Its awesome in the summer cause of the beaches up and down Lake Michigan. Seriously! Amazing beaches stretching most of the city. And usually the water is even swimmable. So I guess the moral of this story is to go to Chicago during the summer and go to the beach. That, and fear God's wrath.

Thanks for listening...

Matt

Greece: More Than Just The Musical Your Parents Loved

If the question is: Did I go to Greece for two weeks and stop in Istanbul for a day and make friends with an elephant and have my company pay for it all? Then the answer is: "Yes for the most part, but I did not make friends with an elephant."

I know you are excited for me to talk about Greece...

Is that the Acropolis or Parthenon? Continue reading below to find out the difference...

But I'm going to have to start from the beginning of my journey. It started in March. March 18, 2013. The day I started working at AirFastTickets. I'll pause here to give you time to check out the website....maybe book a flight. Email me for a secret coupon.



OK, so really that's irrelevant other than the fact that AirFastTickets is a Greek company....with an office in Greece.....full of Greek developers....yearning for my knowledge and leadership....which my company decided to provide to them.....in the form of sending me to Greece.

So I went to Greece

Which Greek God is that with such chiseled abs? Continue reading below to find out...

But, my boss is from Turkey, so he always stops in Istanbul to see his family on the way to Greece, so, I decided to go with him and check out Istanbul for a day.

NYC -> IST (Although I worked for a travel company, they couldn't get me a flight in Business class.....real classy)

The first thing that I obviously had to do when I got to Turkey was enjoy a big glass of authentic Turkish coffee.

Do you not see how happy I look? That is a smile that only Turkish coffee can create.

From there we ate some foods, saw some mosques and partied it up......

What was really surprising to me was that Istanbul was just like any other modern, westernized city.....with a bunch of mosques in it. I expected it to be very eastern and religious and poor, but it could have been any European and American city (other than the Mosques). The airport was pretty trippy, though. It was a total east meets west culture mix. This makes sense as Istanbul actually straddles two continents (can you guess which ones?). I was actually in three continents in one day....OMG (I checked with Guinness World Records and apparently this was not a record). In the airport I saw this group (you might call it a tribe) of African women carrying their bags on their heads. Some of them were actually afraid to get on the escalator because they had never seen one before.

We also stopped by a couple Bazaars to pick up a little of this and a little of that. They had a whole Bazaar dedicated to pets. PETS! And here was my favorite pet....

LEECHES!!!! Ok, they weren't selling them as pets, but actually for medicinal purposes. Ya know...get out the bad blood. And here I was thinking that this practice had been dis-proven 50 years ago. Silly American doctors and their lack of leeches.

A couple other quick comments before we move on....this was during the Syrian civil war (I guess its still going on...probably no matter what year you're reading this in) and there were many beggars holding passports proving they were displaced from Syria. I thought that was interesting. That's what was hot on the Turkish streets there. Oh, and get this....we're riding the subway to the airport on our way out. Sitting across the aisle from us is this family with a baby. This guy next to us starts speaking Turkish (or similar language) to them. He starts smiling at the baby and doing baby shit. Then the dad picks up the baby and hands it to the guy. I'm like, I don't think they know each other, so I ask my boss and he's like yeah that's not uncommon for people to hand their baby to a complete stranger. And we're not talking some upstanding looking gentleman. He looks closer to homeless than upstanding. He has stains on his shirt and bad teeth and is just all disheveled. WTF is that? The guy gives the baby back and continues smiling and winking for five more minutes. That mother fucker would be arrested in five seconds in the US for just sitting down next to that family. Bazaar-o land. See what I did there?

And of course no visit to Turkey would be complete without a picture of me pretending to pray in front of a mosque. God bless my sense of humor...

On to Greece....

IST -> ATH

I was in Greece for two weeks, but of course I was there to work. So, most of the time was not spent sight-seeing, but finding and studying odd things about the culture. Lets talk about some of them.

First off, everyone talks about "The Crisis". "Ever since the crisis", "People do [this] since we're in the crisis", "People no longer do [that] since the crisis."    Does anyone have any idea what they're talking about? I hear hear the Greek economy is in great shape.

Next, they have this insane custom....when its your birthday, you buy drinks for everyone else, instead of the other way around. At least they told me that....then told me to come back on my birthday.

Now we'll get to the real crazy stuff....basketball. Basketball is huge in Greece. They have some American ex-division 1 players. Like I said, huge. My company actually sponsored a basketball team there so we sat down after work one day and watched a game. This is what it looked like...

Completely empty!

But Matt, I thought you said that Basketball was huge there?

Well, I didn't lie. Here's what I was told was the reason for the empty arena. This was the first game of the new season and the home team had been in the championship the previous year. They had been losing so badly that the fans rushed the court and started kicking players and doing other shenanigans. As a result, they ended up banning the fans for three games the next season. Banning the fans. So strange.

And then we started talking about opposing fans at the games and they said that they are basically just not allowed. Anyone cheering for the opposing team or wearing their jersey will get their ass kicked, so no one shows up. Can't we all just get along?

I also feel like no one uses horns there. It's pretty much the exact opposite of driving in India. But they do have awful, awful morning shows on the radio. All it was, every morning in the cab, was sound bites over 80s music. It was the most cliche radio hosting ever. And at least once every five minutes they would play the "This is Sparta" clip from 300. Why would you do that?

So that was some weird stuff that happened. Now I'll tell you about the touristy stuff I partook in.

Athens - Gods, Rocks, Gyros, Greek Coffee (same as Turkish coffee), Tzatziki sauce, Pillars

So to answer the questions from waaaay above...

"An acropolis (Greek: Ακρόπολις; akros, akron,^[1] highest, topmost, outermost + polis, city; plural: acropoleis or acropolises) is a settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground—frequently a hill with precipitous sides, chosen for purposes of defense."

So the Acropolis is that whole area on top of the hill and the Parthenon is just the main building up there.

And now you have learned something today.

And as for the nice naked man in bronze above, if you guessed Poseidon....you might be right. And if you guessed Zeus.....you might be right. Cause they don't know which one it is for sure (almost like they weren't real). And of course, as the racist quip goes....all Gods look alike.

Sooooo, the Acropolis is pretty freakin sweet.

Who is that Greek God?

Pillahs (my boy's wicked smaht)

In addition to the obvious mad old buildings, architectural secrets (no straight lines in the Parthenon, pillars are smaller at top, optical illusions, blah blah blah), and a nice hill to walk up for exercise.....this thing is on top of a giant hill with a ridiculous view of Athens.

Take your time. Stare at it for a while. I'll be here when you get back....

So that was nice, huh?

I know you're asking yourself, "Did Matt make it to a Greek island as well?". Yes I did! Even though it was cold and it was the last weekend stuff was open, I fought through it and went to Hydra just so I could report back to you fine people.

How do you get to an island? You take a helicopter. But if you don't have a helicopter, you take a boat. There's almost 100 Greek islands and so they have a fleet of ferries/boats/things that are constantly travelling back and forth between them. It feels like an airport and feels like a flight. Their boats even look like planes (kind of)...

The island was full of little cottages, winding alleys, donkeys and cats. So many cats. Get that shit under control. There are no cars allowed there, so everyone travels by donkey (or cat if they can train them). There is seriously a never ending maze of alleys between all the houses....seriously. Although cold and lonely.....the island will always have a special place in my heart (tear)

That's all I got. There's nothing more to say. Special thanks to Athena, Zeus, Poseidon and Hermes for showing me a good time.

And I will leave you with a picture of this glorious towel that I know you all are very jealous of. I am making this picture quite large to allow for full inspection.

Jamaica we have a bobsled team

In a remote part of the world, I once heard the phrase "a picture is worth nine words". I did not believe this until I took this picture in Jamaica several years back....

I think its clear what nine words this encapsulates; "Welcome to Jamaica and have a nice day....mon".

When my buddy Ethan says he wants to go to Jamica and I can get a discount for an all inclusive resort for $59/night through my company, it doesn't matter how white I am; I'm gonna go. So thats what happened this past May, 2013 (the year of our lord). We stayed at the Riu in Montego Bay. We were greeted by a nice lady handing out a cup with half sugar and half rum (my dentist was not happy). And from that point forward, not a waking hour passed without consuming some sort of intoxicant. There were red drinks and green drinks and shot drinks and  Red Stripe (hooray beer), and they were all included so we kept drinking them.

We made lots of new friends from all over the world. 

And we played with them in the pool. 

Everyone was not our friend however. In fact some people were not nice at all. That's cause they were local Jamaicans trying to rip off the white man. Which I can't blame them for considering how much money we have and how little they have. But, it still doesn't feel good. 

So, there were these locals at the far end of the beach at our resort who hung out there everyday (although they're not supposed to) and rented jet skis. So one day, I says to Ethan, "lets rent those jet skis". So we get hammered and walk over to the jet ski renters. We negotiate with them for a while and using our Hebrew instincts work out a price for one hour each. So we're riding around and having a grand old time, but after 30 minutes one of the dudes comes out and tells us its time to come back in. We argue for a while. I use my best Jamaican accent. But we eventually come back to discuss. Once we get back to shore they kick us off the jet skis and start making claims that we only paid for 30 minutes. I totally should have seen this coming as everytime I've bought something from locals in the Caribbean there seems to always be some kind of rip off. We argue for a while and yell drunken things, but to no avail. I'm still wearing their life jacket, so I tell them I'm keepin their life jacket. Yeah! I showed them. They said they didn't care, but I could see them holding back tears.

So we walk back down the beach to our resort and the dudes are down there chillin. They come up to me and tell me to give the life jacket back. I say no. He tries to grab it. I slap his hand away. He cocks back to punch me, but looks around at the resort people and back off saying "I'm going to find you on the street and get you." I tell him that he can't touch me cause I'm wearing a life jacket (see what I did there). But I quickly become terrified as I realize this isn't the US...its Jamaica. Mother fuckers get killed here. My fear is intensified by a local Jamaican guy walking by telling me that I shouldn't be doing that shit here cause there's no rules in Jamaica. So, for the next half an hour, I'm pretty scared for life, kicking myself for doing that. But, I talked to the staff and they tell me that no one touches tourists down there cause thats what they rely on. And in the end, he did not find me on the street and kill me. Whew.

Another good story happened that night. We took a taxi to one of the night clubs in the town. And by night club I mean Jimmy Buffets MargaritaVille. Yes! Actually it was really hard core and packed with people. There were prob more Jamaicans there but I assume they were there for the white peoples money. So we dance. We drink. We dance. All of sudden this tall beautiful Jamaican girl comes up and starts dancing with me. I think to myself, "wait this doesn't happen to me". But we dance for a while and do some talkin. At some point I say we should take a picture...

Yeah...my hair looks messed up. After we take this fabulous picture. She says (imagine this in a Jamaican accent), "ya know its customary in Jamaica to pay $20 to take a picture with someone." Can you believe it? That seems really expensive for a photo. But hey, that the rules. So I obviously paid and went on my way....I'm kidding. But I was pretty dissapointed cause I thought she liked me for me (tear).

So the night continues and Ethan gets waaay too drunk and takes a cab home on his own. I decide to leave at around 4AM and as I walk outside the club, I notice that I'm pretty much the only white person left. And then I'm mobbed by tons of locals. Cab drivers, prostitutes, people selling stuff. They start arguing with each other and working out deals...like a prostitute and a cab....or a necklace and a prostitute. You do the math. I'm just looking for a cab home, but obviously I can't pass up the prostitute and cab deal. I can't afford to not do it. Kidding. So the cab drivers start negotiating with me and with each other. All of a sudden one of them says, "I'll let you drive". Mind you, its 4AM, I'm hammered and their steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. Great idea! FYI - I decided not to take his offer.

Other than drinking heavily and partying and trying not to get killed by locals, the other thing we did was go snorkeling. We went on this catamaran with a bunch of peoples and did some quality fish seeing. The highlight of that trip? The drinking...

So really, what I am trying to say is that we're alcoholics and I am going into rehab and this is my goodbye.

Another thing about Jamaica...they really hate the gays. On our snorkeling trip, the camera guy didn't like the fact that two guys were travelling together without any girls (I guess I didn't really like it either). Every time we tried to pose with like an arm around the other, he would take are arms and have us do like a fist bump instead. So we tried to get more and more hugging pictures.

So, good trip. But next time I would like to go someone place not so alcholy. Maybe somewhere in South America with some hiking and seeing cool stuff. We'll see. And feel free to reach out if you would like to go with me and appear on this awesome, ridiculously popular blog.

In case you were wondering...yes, we were the two whitest people in Jamaica.

Hello 911....Yes, there is a giant man burning in the middle of the desert

Yes, that's right. I couldn't stay away. I had to go back for round 3 of Burning Man. And this time....the desert won (I'm not really sure what that means...I just thought it was a good opener). Things got a little crazy this time...a little too crazy, if you know what I mean (prob not). And somehow I ended up going for a week. Yes a full seven days of dust, love, dust, things appearing to melt when they shouldn't be, partying, dust, tits, heat, cold, man tits, and the craziest, trippiest art of all kinds you can't even imagine. Do you understand now? Do you? Do you? No? Then perhaps this giant octopus car shooting flames out of its tentacles will help.

Starting to make sense? Good.

This time I went with people I didn't even know (friends of friends) cause its just too damn hard to find someone cool enough, that's willing to go from the east coast (yeah, I'm talking about you). But as always, the Burners (those that attend Burning Man) are the nicest people out there and things worked out amazingly.

You can't tell, but she's pinching my nipple hardcore there....

We stayed at the hoolihoop (sp?) camp and despite having a week, I still couldn't get it down. But there were lots of other peoples who were frickin amahzing...

 Oh yes....there was fire!!!

I hear fire looks cooler when you're on drugs....can anyone confirm this for me?

It really is impossible for me to describe what its like being out there....people are just so giving and so creative. Everywhere you go, people are giving shit out for free (nothing is for sale...its all gifting. Damn hippies). Alcohol, ice cream, pancakes, grilled cheese, massages, advice, body art, hugs, and love. People spend their entire year making crazy amazing massive artwork.

This entire thing is made out of zip ties....hah

And of course there is the man....                                                                             And the man burning....

But there's also just freedom. There's no authority telling you what you can and cannot do. Which may be a bad thing, cause I might drink a lot and climb up on a really high structure....

Gonna say that's not safe

And it's hot. And dusty. And there's not exactly the opportunity to clean yourself. And it's hot. And if you're extremely white and wear suspenders without a shirt (fashion statement), this might happen..

This is my artwork contribution

I actually got an even crazier sunburn on the front

No, that's just body paint

So, I'm just riding around on my bike and I come across this guy with a sign on his bike that says "Body art anytime/anywhere". So I says...."Where's anywhere?". He says "Right here". He breaks out a stool. Breaks out a shade umbrella. Breaks out a suitcase of body art tools and just goes to town on me. It's funny cause we're just sitting in the middle of this intersection getting body spray painted and people just ride by without even thinking twice about it. It's just perfectly normal for this environment.

One of the art projects was Wall St. Just a bunch of huge empty buildings. Not that cool.

Then they Burned It. BURN WALL STREET! Viva la revolution!

Despite everything, I did manage to survive the week. But I am forever changed....mostly because of the acid flashbacks. I'm not ready to give up though. I feel confident I can go back for round 4 and do something stupid enough that I will never return from the desert. Hooray! So, please come back in one year's time to read if I am still alive.