Roses, Lambics, And Peter Lorre.

Philly was awesome. Finally got on the road at five of 8 Friday night (it takes so long to get things underway and both of us out of the house.), made incredible time, an hour and a half, found the hotel after some difficulty, hidden in plain sight (it's those damn one way streets!). The Courtyard is actually nicer, I think, than the proper Marriot, and it's in this old City Hall Annex building, so it is all beautiful and opulant, gorgeous architecture, built in 1926, and while not having the charm of The Newton in New York, it was still lovely. Checked in the room, made reservations for Cuba Libre. Took a taxi, had a fabulous meal. Ordered our favourites plus some new appetizers. Nick ordered cerviche, which came out on a plate of dry ice, steaming and bubbling relentlessly. It was quite a spectacle. I got a black bean soup, which was good. It was really quite magical driving up Broad Street, entering the city, the music seeming to accompany the scene perfectly, the City Hall looming above us, all the lights cutting through the darkness. If it had been snowing yet, it would have been amazing. Had our Cuban coffee, got wired, Nick got his Cuban sandwich and I got my Caesar salad with chickpeas and red peppers, the meal was amazing. They sat us upstairs for the first time, and, consequently, we had good service for the first time. Complimented the waitress and got a $10 off coupon good till the end of the month (hope we can get up there to use it.). After dinner, we weaved our way through the salsa dancing downstairs, out into the freezing cold and down to Eulogy. It was stiflingly packed, spent a good deal of time initally pressed into a bannister trying not to spill my Lambic. Yes, they had the Kasteel Rouge on tap, and oh, it was delicious!! I know that beer is fattening, but we were on holiday, and it is, in fact, the only beer that I like or ever drink, so it remained the only thing that I felt bad about ingesting up to that point. I had two, was very similar to champagne drunk. Nick finally got his 120 minute IPA from Dogfish Head, something like 19.5%, and then a couple of 10%'s. Randomly got to talking at the bar, once we were able to get seats, to a guy and come to find out, we had met him the first time we ever came in there in May, before The Kills show. He remembered us more than I remembered him, but he recalled that we were looking for Johnny Brenda's to see a show later that night. What a small world. That sort of thing usually only happens in Baltimore!! Stayed there till last call, then took a taxi back to the hotel, where rather a bit of fun ensued. Hit South Street on Saturday, which was pretty much dead. A lot of shops were closed, a combination of the winter season and the economy. The streets were nearly deserted, too, since it was cold and the students are not yet back from the winter break. Found some cd's at Repo Records--- got a World Inferno cd!! Addicted To Bad Ideas (amazing), and Nick got Glasvegas (Scottish and awesome). Went in one shop while Nick smoked outside, then when I came out, he wasn't there. I called him and he said he'd be right out and wouldn't tell me where he was, then suddenly he appeared with roses. It was very unexpected and sweet, and it took me till we got in line for cheesesteaks to get my bearings. This was where my diet went out the window, but it had been years since I'd had a cheesesteak at all and longer still since I had had one in Philly. It was really good, if messy, but no fat or gristle, which is rare. Walked around a little bit more, but there really wasn't anything to see, so we went back to the hotel to read and watch television till The Raven's game came on. I took a nap, actually. The whole first quarter, things were not going well, then I remembered that I brought my Flacco shirt that Rob got me for Christmas, so I put that on and I swear to God, the next minute we scored a touchdown. It was a tense game, and I have never seen Nick so stressed and pacing. We did win though, right in time for us to leave for our reservations at Amada. This was a tapas place that we had been wanting to try. It was pretty good. My favourite dish was definately the crab stuffed red peppers. Also got a lima and fava bean dish, which would have been awesome if the beans were cooked more thoroughly, but it was still good. Nick got a couple of dishes which totally did not appeal to me, ham croquettes, those sweetbreads, but he also ordered flatbread with cheese and short rib, which was very good. I ate some of his calamari, although it was not breaded, so kind of eh. Broke down and got dessert, although we did split one instead of each getting one. Chocolate hazelnut with hazelnut ice cream. Really fabulous. We took a taxi to South Street afterwards, and as we were walking to Tattoo Mom's, heard a voice call out, "Go back to Baltimore!" It was Jarrod from the Ottobar, who now rents Vic's old apartment up there. We drank the whole night at Tattoo Mom's with him. We learned that in the back room of the top floor you can still smoke there, it was so wonderful, like the old days. We totally overdid it though, both getting completely drunk, but it was lovely because we took a taxi back to the hotel. Wish we could have slept longer. Had to be out of the hotel by noon and we both felt like shit. Because of that, we headed straight back to Baltimore, but we made even better time, an hour and twenty minutes, and then atleast we had the whole of Sunday to just take it easy. It was a very lazy day, which was nice. After Nick went home, I took naps, then got to hang out with Carmin some. Feel so bad that her and Allen just don't get to see eachother enough, their work schedules are always conflicting. Atleast he was able to come over yesterday and she made dinner. Nick came down and we went to Club Charles. Discussed the weekend and upcoming shows (I have no idea how I am going to pay for all of this, but there are so many good shows coming up, how can one pass it up? Not sure how much Gaslight or Frightened Rabbit are.), the football game this weekend (really want to try to bring something nice to Chris' parents'.). Rob met us for a while. He and Angel have broken up, or whatever you want to call it. Ottobar tonight. Will be glad to see Nick later.