Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Merry Somers Guide To: Finding The Trust Worthy


Over my years of existence, I've found that 98% of people I come across are not trust worthy.
Why? Because they're human.
The 2% of people who are always able to keep their mouth shut and can honestly respond to demand are aliens.
(The secret is out trust worthy ones)

These creatures come in all shapes and sizes, and are rarely green. Ever look at their neck?... right below the hair line? There's a flashing red light.

Other ways you can spot these rare beings are thru this check list:

1) They don't have dandruff (humans with bad dandruff - so bad there's a pool of it that collects in the back of their shirt collar- are the least trust worthy of them all)

2) Their feet are proportionate to their height. (AKA they are not short and have fat feet.... CLOWNS)

3) If the first letter of their name starts with A, B, C, K, L, R, S, and sometimes M.

Ones that you should be MOST weary of are ones with:

1) Trimmed moustaches - and only a moustache... no other facial hair (especially if they're female)

2) Unnecessarily huge, bulky, extended chins

3) If they have or have once ever had a perm.

Look out for these opposite beings. Both are extreme and unique... and neither are covered by the Discovery Channel.
Only here on The Merry Somers Guide.

Be cautious my friends.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Life Lessons Pt 10: The Guide to THE Euro Trip





Since my last post in March I have: finished school, moved out of the apartment in Vancouver, moved back to Toronto, and visited Vienna, Prague, and now Berlin, and by the end of the week will be in Madrid.

Therefore, been in 6 cities in 5 countries in just over 3 weeks. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life, soon I shall ask travel for it's globally hand in marriage and will live happily ever after galloping into many different sunsets.

But how could you not compare each one of these beautiful places? All so different, different locations, currency, language, history, food..... mmmmmmmmmm the food.

ANYWAY what I'm getting at is this:

While planning a euro trip at home

DO NOT:

1) Pre-pay anything accept hotels n flights n trains.
WHY? : THEY DON'T WORK... and if by some chance it does, you're losing money. You may think you're being all cleaver by paying in Canadian dollars, a head of time, having a great plan, etc..... Well, to your unpleasant surprise, you can show those group passes you payed for online to the museum/ tour bus/ show ticket office, the people will look at you with one eye brow raised, smacking the dated gum on the left side of the jaw, blink once, slide the paper back to you, wave their right hand around a bit and say in broken English... "No good". .... End of story.

2) Do not assume that just because Europe is nicer than North America that the weather will match that.

3) Packing EVERYTHING you might POSSIBLY need into your oversize suit case such as:
a) 6 clubbing style dresses
b) 2 shoe horns
c) 4 oversized purses
... will NOT help you during your travels especially when you're
a) not using them
b) traveling by train
c) needing to either run to catch the train, or attempt to use a WC (European "Water Closet")

BONUS: DO NOT EVER, EVER EVER ...EVER TRY TO REPEAT CATCH PHRASES YOU'VE HEAR IN FORGIN MOVIES YOU MIGHT GET THROWN OUT OF THE COUNTRY (aka my father saying during our stay in Berlin "Das ist gut YA?" to the cab driver, receptionist, and waiter).

but DO THIS:

1) Bring your camera wherever you go.
WHY!? It's your only chance to embrace being a Chinese bucket hatted, map sprawling, fan pack wiggling, binocular groping tourist. And European cities are generally just unfairly photogenic.

2) Actually use a travel book (like a top 10 book), they KNOW what they're talking about.

3) Bring a plug converter... or else you will spend the first half of your trip with massive hair, and a dead cell phone, camera, and laptop... and that might just ruin your plans.

That concludes Merry Somers Guide to The Euro Trip and Merry Somers Life Lessons.

Take what you can from this !

(These are some of my favourite pics from the trip so far)