around the world in ninety-three days

the hills are alive

2008-10-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

The ride to Salzburg was a treat in itself. We took the scenic route through the Alps and stopped to take some pictures at a lake nestled in the mountains. Driving on the autobahn was also really cool. Being able to drive nearly 160 mph and still see cars on your right fly by you as if your standing still was a cool experience. We arrived at our hotel and sat down to have some lunch outside and took in the scenery. Salzburg is the location where the majority of the movie “The Sound of Music” was filmed and the reasons are obvious. Packed into a small valley surrounded by mountains, Salzburg is treat to the eyes. We only have a night here so we decided to get right to seeing the city and headed to the old quarter. We hiked up a HUGE hill to a fortress that looks over the entire city, the hike was brutal as it felt like the path was so steep that I was going to fall backwards down the hill. After meandering around and having a few beers we headed out for dinner. We ate a café on the street and then headed to the city center to check out the night life in Salzburg. On our way, we met a random guy from Germany and a couple from Austria that we mingled with and decided to go together to have some drinks. What a night. For those of you who don’t know, Jagermeister is made in Austria and it is served in the bars in mini shot bottles. Apparently the “correct” way to take a shot of Jager is to put the cap of the bottle on your nose, put the bottle in your mouth and then cock your head back and take the shot. Well after about 15 shots of jager and buckets of beer we retreated back to the hotel, which by the way I stole a really cool clay beer stein from, and headed to bed, we are headed to Munich tomorrow…

the city of spies

2008-09-23T15:54:00.001-07:00

After going in circles around the city for what seemed like days, we finally arrived at our hotel in Vienna. Our hotel accommodations were incredible. Apparently numerous diplomats, artists, and composers have stayed here. Our hotel room in particular was a reserved room for a famous Austrian composer whos name I cant remember right now, but the room is 2 floors, 2 bathrooms and includes a balcony as well. Not only that but we are right in the heart of the city next to the St. Stephens church with one of the biggest pedestrian roads in the city. We spent the day just walking around the pedestrian side streets and enjoying the city life. That night we ate dinner at a world class oriental restaurant and had some of the best food in my life, the curry I got was so spicey the waitress had to go into the kitchen and get me a glass a milk because I thought I was going to burst in flames. The Austrian wine we had was unique. It was a blend of 3 different types of grapes used to make 3 different types of wines and I had never tasted anything like it before. We got to bed somewhat early which was a nice change of pace considering I had been up till at least 5am 3 nights in a row with very little sleep.

We woke up the next morning finally rested and ready to go. We booked a private tour of the city for 2 hours. The tour was extremely informative and I was engaged the whole time. The city of Vienna itself is very clean, next to Madrid I thought that it was the cleanest city I had traveled to yet. The city itself was beautiful, a majority of the architecture was in the style known as Art Noveu and it stands out. All of the buildings seemed whitewashed with tall pillars towering in every direction; the facades of the buildings are ornately decorated with heads, leaves, and intricate designs. The city design really reminded me of Paris in the style of architecture and colors used throughout the city. One thing that really caught my eye was the public housing project here in Vienna. A famous Austrian artist and architect named Hundertwasser designed these apartment complexes in Vienna and around the world that are just jaw dropping. The architecture is strikingly similar to that of Gaudi but with a twist, all of his architecture incorporates nature. There really is no way to explain it without seeing pictures because it is like nothing ive ever seen before, definitely one of the coolest monuments ive seen in Europe and I highly recommend that you look it up on Google or Wikipedia, the name of the projects is called the Hundertwasserhaus, you wont be disappointed. That evening we went to a restaurant recommended by the reception and it was fabulous, I have yet to be disappointed by a meal thus far with my family, we have gotten very lucky with our choices of restaurants. After enjoying some traditional Austrian sausages and fondue we headed to a bar for a few drinks and then headed to bed. The next morning we packed everything up into our station wagon and hopped on the Autobahn towards Salzburg, once again driving in the city was impossible and the journey took about 2 hours longer than it should of, but once we got out of the city and into the Austrian countryside the ride was awesome. more on that later….

this is family business

2008-09-23T15:30:00.001-07:00

So the trip is winding down and Im headed to Prague to meet my family and nanny of years before. I flew into Prague late Friday afternoon and headed to my nanny’s condo to meet her and my family whom I hadn’t seen in nearly 3 months. The homecoming was wonderful as we ate dinner and caught up. Emma my nanny and her husband Kieran wanted to go out that night for drinks so my brother and I decided to join them. To make a long story short we stayed out till nearly 6am going from club to club and slept in until about 2pm and missed an entire city in the city. For the remainder of the day we decided just to meander through the narrow streets of Prague and just shop and sightsee for a bit. That evening we had dinner on the river which ended up being one of the best meals I had in Europe to date, it was some Czech duck I think, its been a while. Once again we decided to go out and it was a late night again, I swear this city never sleeps, as a bunch of the clubs here are open 24 hours a day.

I am writing this nearly a month after having come home so things are a bit hazey, but I promised everyone (mom) that I would finish it so im gunna finish it. Prague turned out to be one of my favorite cities in Europe. The beauty of untouched architecture, the vibe of the city, the shopping, the food, and the beer are all unparalleled. Prague is one of the few historic cities in Europe that weren’t bombed out during any of the world wars and it shows, everything here is beyond old. In addition to all this, it is also one of the cheaper cities. Granted I was with my parents, the exchange rate and general prices of things here in Prague are way cheaper than a vast majority of the other cities I have visited in western Europe. Just being on the streets of Prague was an experience in itself, you cant help but to gaze over the river at buildings and monuments that are thousands of years old and just be awestruck. Being in the Czech Republic has jumpstarted my interest in eastern Europe, and I hope that I have the opportunity in the future to make a trip to the hidden gems scattered throughout eastern Europe; Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Lithuania etc etc. Monday morning my dad I got a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car. Oh my god what an experience that was driving back into Prague. To begin with, the Czech language is extremely confusing, they use a different character set than us and all of their words seem like they are 20 letters long with all consonants. It took about double the time to get back including going the wrong way on some one way streets, and this seemed to be the common theme for the rest of our journeys via car. Oh well, we hopped in our station wagon and headed into Austria to the capitol city of Vienna, the city of spies.

p.s. some things i forgot....we went to a bar named The Beer Factory that had a very unique idea. All of the tables have beer taps at the table with a computer, and posted all over the bar are big tvs displaying the scoreboard of the tables. It keeps track of the beer your drank and then puts you up on the scoreboard with the rest of the bar, a very fun concept. We also took a tour of prague on a speedboat through the river which was a blast ripping down the river going 40mph and taking in the sights.

odds and ends

2008-09-23T15:17:00.000-07:00

ok ok ok SO IM DOING IT IM REALLY FINISHING THIS BLOG....after Switzerland i arrived back in london for my last week of classes. The last week was pretty uneventful except for one thing, the Great Britain Beer Festival. My buddy james and I headed to this monster of an event and it turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences London. there was literally thousands upon thousands of beers from not only all over the UK but all over the world. It cost 10 pounds to get in and you paid 3 pounds for your pint glass. from there you were free to go to any of the various brewers and get either a 1/4 pint, a 1/2 pint or a full pint of beer. the beers were incredible. not only that but they had other various stands that appealed to drunk patrons as well. there was about 5 or 6 hat stands, solely for the purpose of selling "funny hats" for people to wear. i myself picked up a giant balloon hat that was about 4 feet tall. They had henna tattoo stations, pub gear stations, and t shirt stations. they also had pub games and pub food, i was in heaven. we stayed for like 4 hours and hopped on the tube back to kings cross to go out for the evening, i decided to bring my balloon hat along which got mixed responses, some loved it, others thought it was obnoxious. by the way sorry this is written so shitty, i am trying to get this portion done with so i can get to the other cities that i want to write about. My overall experience with London was mixed. I enjoyed being in a big city but at the same time felt very overwhelmed by the sheer size of London. With the exchange rate being what it is this place is just so expensive that it is depressing, the cheapest beer you'll find in town is a 3 pound pint which still is the equivalent to a 6 dollar beer in the states. I dont think i'll be returned to London but it was a great experience none the less. ok ok ok....onward and upward, im going to meet my family in prague and i am elated as i have not seen any of them in nearly 3 months...

swiss cheeze

2008-08-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

So I flew into Zurich real early, because I wanted as many days as possible to do activities. From Zurich I hopped on a train to Bern and switched there to grab the train the Interlaken. All in all the journey took just under 2 hours. So arrived around 11am in Interlaken and the train ride was simply awesome. You thread through the mountains and end up encircling one of the lakes which has the most amazing hue of blue due to the glacier runoffs that fill it. After hopping off the train I set off to find my hostel, which is listed as one of “Europe’s most famous hostels”. I got a little side tracked on the way there and ended up signing up to do some bungee jumping later in the day, my weekend had begun. I had a little time to explore the hostel before my excursion and I was completely blown away. This hostel is the oldest hostel in Switzerland, over 60 years old, and is built like a traditional swiss chalet. It had a full general store in it, a grocery store, a couple tv movie rooms, a beer garden and restaurant, along with a full nightclub underneath in the basement. By and far this place was the best hostel ive had the pleasure of staying it yet in Europe, its called Balmers Herberge by the way. So after eating some swiss sausages, the van for the bungee jump came and picked me up. On the way there I found out that there was two options, both the same price. You could either do the canyon swing or the bungee jump. Both involved free falling for 270 feet but the canyon swing swung you through the canyon going something like 40mph. I asked the driver what he thought the better activity was and he told me that in all honesty, the kids that had done both had all told him that they liked the canyon swing better, so I heeded his advice. Upon arriving I was greeted with some gorgeous scenery. We were high up in the swiss alps, surrounded by snow capped peaks and rolling green meadows with littered with houses that looked like something out of a fairy tale. The jump was hands down without a doubt, probably one of the most memorable experiences ill ever have in my life. Nothing could ever explain how I felt when I jumped off that platform and fell straight down 270 feet, the only thing I cold compare it to would be when you have a nightmare and you feel like your falling off a building. I swung through the canyon going what felt like 100mph with my feet only about 30 feet above the water. Upon finally reaching solid ground, I once again took in the raw scenery that is the swiss alps and remised on how i wanted to kick it up a notch and go skydiving, unfortunately that would have to wait as it cost nearly $400 to go skydiving in the alps, I’d rather pay 150 in the states and get the same experience minus the mountain scenery. After heading back to the hostel I showered up and headed out to the beer garden to meet some people as I was all by my lonesome. After mingling a bit in the beer garden I headed down below into the night club. The hostel really had a great set up with a nightclub like that, full dj set up deep underground so it could stay open later than most bars in the area, after drinking what seemed like a swimming pools worth of beer, I retired to bed.

I woke up at around 11am, and was surrounded by people in red and white clothes. It was swiss day, Switzerland’s independence day. Because it was swiss day I decided not to do any major activities as I did not want to miss the days festivities. I decided to go for a hike and got some information from the hostel on some good trails to hike. The weather was great and my goal was to get lost in the woods, and I succeeded. After hiking for a few hours I stumbled upon a high ropes park. I haven’t done one of these things since about 5^th grade in summer camp, and this place had five different courses. I came into this thing deathly afraid of heights, and left with a whole new level of confidence. I did all five courses and even the beginner one was pretty challenging. The most advanced courses took a high level of strength and coordination and after about 3 hours of being 70 feet up in the air I was ready to head back. When I arrived back there was pandemonium. It was about 4:30 and people were everywhere drinking beer. They had a GIANT pan set up making traditional swiss rosti (hashbrowns), sausages, and ribs. I went up and changed and came back down and met a group of about 15 kids from the University of Florida, and we organized a giant game of flip cup. This was probably one of the largest games of flip cup I had ever played with nearly 40 people competing. After playing for what seemed to be an eternity, everyone ran down the road about 400 yards to the site where they launched the fireworks, and what a show it was. the swiss really know how to do a proper fireworks show. They lasted for about 45 minutes and then the after party had begun back at the hostel. The scene was crazy in the club and I ended up staying out till about 3am.

That next morning I had to wake up bright and early to go canyoning. Now I had never even heard of canyoning before I went to Interlaken and once I saw what it was I had to do it. You start out by rappelling down a 200 foot wall into this canyon wearing full wetsuits, helmets, and protective life vests. Upon entering the canyon you are met with a fast flowing river with multiple obstacles. The first course of action was about a 15 foot jump into a shallow pool below and you had to be very accurate otherwise you’d either hit the side of the rocks or hit the bottom. The water was FREEZING as it was glacier runoff but the wetsuits did an amazing job of keeping us warm. The canyon presents various elements including a 30 foot jump, FAST naturally formed water slides from the smooth rock, zip lining, and climbing. Once again the scenery of the Jungfrau region was breathtaking, and it was an experience in itself just being there. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures because there was no way to bring my camera into the canyon. After the hour long trek back through the switchback mountain passes I was exhausted and took a little nap before doing the usual routine of the beer garden then metro bar. I had planned on going to bed early but that plan changed quickly when I met a kid from Ireland who ended up buying me beers for the rest of the night.

My last and final day in Switzerland. I had booked a tour to go ice climbing on the nearby Stein glacier and had to wake up at around 7:30am. The weather was looking to be gorgeous as I marched towards the climbing shop to get fitted with my ice axes, crampons, and some warm gear. The drive was just over an hour and like all drives in switerzland, the journey was a treat in itself. When we reached the base of the mountain we then headed on a 30 minute hike to the glacier base where we proceeded to put on our spiked crampons and rope up to each other in the even that one of us fell into a crevasse hopefully the other 4 wouldn’t fall in as well. The heat was intense but the higher up we got the better the cold air felt. This was the first activity that I honestly felt like I could die or be seriously injured. There were some points where we were walking on ice that was no wider than my feet with 150 foot crevasses on either side of me, and the only thing that was keeping me from falling in was 4 other people who probably would have fallen in with me had I taken a plunge. We reached the climb point and set up shop and ate a light lunch. The ice climbing was a surreal experience. You drop down into these 100 foot crevasses and are surrounded by nothing but sheer blue ice. The mountain guide we were with set up 5 or 6 routes for us to do and the harder ones were HARD. Some of them included overhangs that you were literally almost upside down while you were climbing up. After about 4 hours of climbing we made the dangerous trek back to the mountain base and headed for home. I was wiped out and ready to go to bed and it was only 6:00. I decided to read for a little bit and ended up getting to bed early as I had to wake up at the crack of down to catch a train back to Zurich for my flight.

Switzerland as a whole ended up being one of my favorite places in Europe. If I had to live anywhere in the united states it would be Colorado, and the picturesque backdrops provided by the swiss alps really reminded me of the rockies. Interlaken would without a doubt be my favorite place in Europe but there is a bit of a bias, the amount of money I spent on activities was astonishing and I feel that had I not of done these activities, Interlaken would have not nearly be as much fun. Switzerland is definitely a place that I will be returning to as I fell in love with the alps. Ok now im in my last week in London, so a few tidbits then off to meet the fam in Prague…..

ze motherland

2008-08-08T03:41:00.000-07:00

so im back, last time i was in northern ireland and this time im doin the republic. I arrived in dublin early saturday morning and headed to my hostel. the hostel was right in central dublin, a block off of o'connel street which is the main strip of downtown dublin. after dropping off my luggage i ventured out to try and find a pub to grab some food and a guinness. now keep in mind when i tell you this that it is about 9:45 morning, i step inside a pub and it is PACKED with drunk people. this is unbeleivable, its not even 10am yet and the pubs are packed. i had my first guinness and it literally tasted like gold. since going to dublin, guinness has been my drink of choice everywhere else afterwards. after eating i set out to explore the town as usual. the shopping here is awesome. stores everywhere lined with irish trinkets, i literally wanted to purchase the whole store. not only that but the clothes shopping was fantastic as well, i did a lot of damage to my wallet in dublin lets just say that. after shopping for a good 4 hours i went back to the hostel to check in. on the wall there was an advertisement for a backpackers pubcrawl and i decided it would be fun to try. the meeting point was on the steps of historical trinity college which is a really cool area and i was greeted by about 50 people in the street drinking. Now i started to introduce myself to some people and more than one person was form michigan. not only that but they were from michigan state. so i started to delve deeper and to my surprise there was at least 30 kids there from michigan state from various parts of europe, all randomly came to the same pub crawl. There were kids from Brussels, Oxford, Cambridge, Trinty, and even some kids that lived in the same dorm as me in London. the barcrawl was a blast, we went to bars around the temple bar district and ended up at a nightclub.

the next day i set out to go see the guinness storehouse factory to go on the brewery tour. this place was really well thought out. 6 floors, all surrounding a glass atrium that forms the worlds largest guinness glass. guinness put a lot of effort into this thing and it feels more like a museum than anything. everything is very engaging and the exhibits were fantastic. and at the end of it i got to learn how to pull my own pint of guinness from the tap. they had a gravity bar as well which was one the 6th floor completely enclosed in glass with panoramic views of the city. i got back to the hostel and met some kids that were actually from michigan state and were staying at my hostel. i went out with them and we went out to see some traditional irish dancing at a pub not too far from the hostel. the dancing was actually a lot cooler than i thought it'd be they more their feet soooooooo fast. oh yea and i forgot. earlier that day i was walking around the trinity college area, and what did i stumble upon but a pub called DOYLES!!! the had my family crest on a flag waving high above the pub and inside there was tons of doyle memorbelia, jerseys, pictures, and coats of arms.

so i woke up early on monday and headed to the train station to catch a ride to the west coast in a little medievil city known as galway. little did i know that i was going during the world famous galway races, which happens to be one of the biggest horse races in europe. this small town of 80,000 has an influx of 60,000 people due to the races. because of this the city was madness. due to a city ordinance, during the week of the races the pubs that normally are required to close at midnight, are allowed to stay open till 2am. i went on a pub crawl with my hostel, and we went form bar to bar around the city and then ended with a few night clubs. it is incredible how many bars and nightclubs here are in this little city. the main eire square is just a circle of ridiculous night clubs and posh bars. i met a lot of people from a lot of different places and ended up stumbling home at around 3:30.

i had planned to do a tour of the cliffs of moher that morning but the tour went till around 6pm and i needed o get to the airport and the bus schedules just didint work out. i was pretty bummed out but i decided that i was going to get at least a little sight seeing under my belt and i decided to do a walking tour. the group was small just me and two other girls but the guy knew his history and i really enjoyed listening to him and learning about the city, as it has a ton of history being on the strategic irish west coast. i spent the rest of the day just meandering around the little shops and watching some street preformers. i hitched a ride to the airport and headed back to london.

i had a BLAST in ireland. the people were awesome, i cant tell you how many people embraced me just for my family name. the food was good, just like englands, and the shopping was great as well. before going to ireland i despised the taste ot guinness, but now i reckon its my favorite beer ive had yet so far and it continues to be my staple at pubs in london. i really dont know how i am going to go back to the states and drink american beer, even the imports taste like shit. i really want to come back to ireland. i would love to go to some of the smaller villages and do some more exploring on the west coast, connemara in particular. When i get home i will be 6 weeks away from obtaining my irish citizenship so i can then apply for my EU passport. it will be a wonderful feeling to be a dual citizen and have the ability to live and work anywhere in the EU, which i have decided is my plan of action after school is over. if any of you out there have grandparents born in ireland and would like some more information on obtaining your irish citizenship, fire me an e-mail, ireland has really lax immigration laws and its a great way to get your EU passport and avoid the hassle of trying to get work visas if you want to live and work abroad.

long time no post

2008-08-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

wow sorry its taken so long guys, ive been doing a lot of traveling and am lazy as well. its been a while since i was in scotland but i will do my very best to give you an accurate depiction of my 4 days there.

we arrived via train on tuesday afternoon which by the way had WIFI ON THE TRAIN! that was my first experience with having wifi on a moving object so it was wonderful, its a shame the rail system in america sucks so bad, not only that but its almost looked at as a second class form of transport. we headed into town and onto the campus of the university. our accommodations were wonderful as usually, everything was brand new, we had our own own rooms including a sink in them as well. we headd back into town to peep the scene and grab a bite to eat. we came to this place in the center of town called "the tron" which would turn out to be our hangout spot for the rest of the trip. after getting a few pints and a burger we decided that tonight we would climb "arthurs seat" which is the highest point in edinburgh and it a huge hill/mountain that overlooks the entire city including stunning views of the sea as well. the actual hike took about 30-45 minutes and the views were awesome. we stayed up to watch the sunset and took in the scenery of the gorgeous scottish highlands. we then proceeded back down the giant mound and into town back to the tron to grab some drinks. the tron was huge, it has an upstairs area on the main level of the street, then downstairs has another HUGE bar area, and then goes downstairs again one more level where it has yet another bar and a dance floor.

the next day we went on a bus tour of edinburgh which sucked because the lady doing the commentary was 300 years old and would not shut up. she even liked to point out the location of the post office and various mcdonalds in edinburgh. so after listening to the old lady blabber for about an hour we hopped off the bus and headed into town. the town is gorgeous and the entire city itself is a UNSECO Heritage point. the streets are filled with touristy gift shops selling everything from kilts to scottish whiskey. we spent most of the day just wandering around the city and getting a feel for it. later that night we went back to the tron as it was the definite hotspot of the city. we stayed there till it closed at about 2 then headed to a rock club a few blocks away. for as old as this city is, the nightlife is awesome, lots of students and young people to meet here.

the next day we headed to loch ness. god damn this place is huge. i really only pictured loch ness as a small little inland lake but i was very very wrong. this loch is massive, nearly 25 miles long with its widest point nearly a mile wide. the scottish highlands are a treat for the eye. our final destination was Urquhart castle which is a castle built around the 6th century right on a point overlooking a big chunk of loch ness. the ruins were pretty cool but the scenery was even better. after exploring the ruins for a bit a group of us decided to jump into the loch ness. this may sound rather uneventful but let me tellyou, this water is about 48 degrees even in the summer and it was FUCKING FREEZING. after swimming around for a bit and trying to find nessie we hopped on a boat and took a cruise back through the loch to head home back to edinburgh. and once again later that night we went to the tron, but this time afterwards we went to a techno dance club which was wonderful as i was craving some house music.

the next day we had some classes and our only item on the itinerary was the royal museum of scotland. the museum was pretty cool, but after being here for nearly 3 monthes museums are starting to get a little old. theres only so many 800 yearold pieces of metal and stone that you can look at before you go crazy. and once again that night, we went to the tron go figure, but i cant complain as the tron is great with 3 levels cheap drinks and the entire bar is filled with students.

all in all i REALLY like edinburgh, its a shame i didnt get to stay for the 4 days of the weekend and next week but i had already planned mt trip to ireland and to me ireland was important because well, come on its the motherland baby. oh and hagis, which is oatmeal cooked in a sheeps stomach is disgusting. probably the first food of a culture that i really disliked, it was nothing special and tasted like dirt. ok off to dublin now....... CHEERS!

blonde hair and blue eyes

2008-07-26T05:10:00.001-07:00

So I arrived in Stockholm early afternoon at around 2, and I am already in awe. I had no idea how much waterfront Stockholm had. Stockholm itself is actually a collection of islands and you can’t go 50 feet without seeing the coast. Even though Sweden is in the EU they don’t use the euro, they use the Kroner which is a task in its self. This city is VERY expensive, even moreso than London. An average meal will cost about 100-120 Kroners which Is about 10 euro to 12 euro. This has got to be the first country that has fit my stereotypes. You know everyone always says oh everyone has blonde hair and blue eyes, but for real they do. You can’t help but gawk at the people who are just pure as hell. Even the men, you get caught looking at them and are like, what the hell do they feed their kids. Not to mention that everyone dresses extremely trendy. And by that I don’t mean your typical euro trends which by American standards are laughable, they dress well. Friday when I arrived I spent most of the day getting my berrings and actually getting some rest, as I was exhausted. The hostel was gorgeous, everything was ikea ironicly and the staff was awesome. One thing that really throws you off is the English speaking skills of the general population. They just did a survey in the past 2 years which came to the conclusion that 89% of the population speaks English, with that last 11 percent being people born before WW2. With that being said, EVERYTHING is still written in Swedish which is really intimidating because it looks NOTHING like English. That night I met a kid from Jakarta Indonesia and we shared a common interest of Nike shoes so we had a long chat and went out for the night wandering around and exploring the town. When I got back I met a kid from Iowa State who was traveling alone as well and we decided we would wake up the next morning early to take a boat cruise, which by the way Sweden is home of the largest archipelago in the world boasting nearly 20,000 islands.

I woke up Saturday morning EARLY, about 7:30 and my friend and I hopped on the subway to the marina to grab a ship to the islands. We checked the itineraries and decided on taking a cruise to one of the larger islands known as Voxholm. The cruise was about an hour and the sceneray was beautiful. It actually really reminded me of northern Michigan. While on the boat I met a lady from Grand Rapids who was in her 40’s and had been traveling by herself for about 2 and a half monthes and we exchanged stories and both agreed how creepily similar Sweden’s landscapes were to northern Michigan. Upon arriving my buddy and I headed to a café that was on an isolated point to grab a coffee and a light snack. The weather was gorgeous and we got lucky because according to the weather forecasts, it was supposed to rain all weekend. We just walked around the island for a couple of hours and explored the landscapes. This would be the absolute perfect place to go camping and if I return to Sweden that is exactly what I will be doing. After hopping back on the hour long cruise through the Swedish archipelago we decided to cruise through Gamla Stan, which in Swedish means “old town”. The old quarter is small yet beautiful. It really reminded me of the streets of Pamplona with its shades of yellow, orange, and red filling the small nooks and narrow streets. After a very long day of walking we headed back to the hostel to rest up. I had planned on going out that night but I met a bunch of girls from germany and decided to just grab some beers from the store and kick it at the hostel, WHICH REMINDS ME BY STORE I MEAN 7-11 WHICH WAS THE FIRST 7-11 IVE BEEN TO IN EUROPE!!!!!! But don’t get too excited, it was shwags, no slurpees and they don’t even stay open 24 hours, so what the fuck? But none the less it was good to be in a 7-11 again which is basically my headquarters back in east lansing.

The next day I got to sleep in and decided to do some exploring on my own. I intended to head to the famous Vasa museum. The Vasa museum is an exhibition on a Swedish warship from the late 17^th century which is completely and perfectly preserved from sinking 30 minutes into its maiden voyage. The exhibition was spectacular, definitely the coolest museum ive ever been to besides the guggenhiem in Bilbao. The ship is MASSIVE, a few hundred feet long, ive never seen anything like it in my life. I took a guided tour which was very informative and spent about an hour after that just reading the different exhibitions around the 5 floors of the museum. The weather was still gorgeous so after that I headed to the open air museum known as Skansen. This place was huge, filled with gardens everywhere and was high up on a hill with awesome vistas of the city skyline. It also included a zoo with scandnavian animals including lynx, wolf, moose, wolverines, and walruses?? It was really cool to see a wolverine outside of Ann Arbor as I have never seen a true wolverine in person. After all was said and done I headed back to the hostel to hang out until my flight later that night. Tomorrow we are headed to Edinburgh Scotland which I have heard nothing but great things about. Cheers!

New York City!! errrr Old York

2008-07-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

ok ok ok so im sorryfor the delay, ive just been doing a lot of traveling and havent really had a lot of time to sit down and write this stuff but here goes nothin.....

So this aint New York, its Old York, and I love this city. We arrived after a four hour or so bus ride into the English countryside. The city is a lot bigger than I imagined, and is still surrounded by the roman walls, yes the roman walls its that old. York used to be the site of a major roman military installation and the evidence of this is abundant everywhere. The first night that we got there we spent at a local brewery pub that would turn out to basically be our hangout for the rest of the visit. They had about four brews brewed locally and york and they were all amazing. In particular, was a dark creamy beer called Centurion’s Ghost that I doubt I will ever be able to find in the states but who knows, its won a lot of awards so maybe I can find it at some import specialty store. After an early night we headed back to campus, which is beautiful. The whole campus is surrounding a big lake and a majority of the buildings are on water front. It was like going to school on a nature reserve. The next day we had a walking tour of the city. I really enjoyed it was the town was rich in history and the guy knew is stuff. We got to walk along the city walls and then headed into York Minster. The York Minster was HUGE and it too had a ton of history behind it and I really enjoyed the tour. That day we also went to a WW2 museum, which was inside of a former German POW camp from WW2. the museum was huge and I absolutely loved it,. Before then I had never been into a entire museum of just ww2 exhibitions and I was completely engrossed by every single room. That night was a night to remember. We headed back to the same pub as the night before, only this time our professors Jim and Chris were with us. Our professor Chris proceeded to get super wasted and was the drunkest person in England that night. Screaming at the band up front, dancing around the pub, and generally just being hilarious. After that we got some kebabs at our new favorite eating vender, Amigos. Let me tell you how hot this chili sauce was, I was crawling on the ground through the streets of York begging for milk to calm my mouth down, it was hands down the hottest food I had ever eaten in my life.

That next morning we headed to fountains abbey which was a lot cooler than I expected. It was this giant gardens with an enormous ruined abbey in it. The gardens were beautiful and we spent the next 4 hours exploring underground tunnels, climbing rocks, and wandering through the lush green gardens. The weather was great so we were lucky to go to the abbey that day. After that we hopped in the bus for the 4 hour ride home. All in all I loved york, as you know I like London, but I don’t love it. Its too modern and overwhelming but york, very relaxing and I loved the small town feeling. This weekend I am headed to Stockholm Sweden and am super excited. I am going to find out for myself if all the beautiful people really live up to the hype.

tour de belgium

2008-07-14T15:20:00.001-07:00

Where do I start about this wonderful country. I arrived in Brussels early on Friday morning but I was unable to check in till about 4pm that day. So I dropped my backpack off at my hostel and hit the ground running. I first headed to the nearest waffle stand to see what these Belgian waffles were all about. Yes they are amazing. Which reminds me that the national sport of Belgium is eating, you heard me right, eating, but I will get into that in a little bit (sorry that’s a lot of commas in one sentence). After my delicious waffle I headed over to the Atomium which is this GIANT replica of a model of an atom. You can go to the top and get a birds eye view of the city which was pretty cool. After that I headed to one of the most famous cafes in Brussels, Mort Subite. They brew a beer there called Mort Subite which translated means sudden death and is only brewed for that single cafe. The beer was incredible, the Belgians really know their shit. Belgium produces the most kinds of beer in the world, something like 700 beers and the possibilities are endless. Belgium is particularly known for its Trappist beers which are brewed by secluded Trappist monks to fund their monasteries and no one is allowed inside. These beers pack a punch, 9.5% alcohol, a far cry from the watered down bullshit 3.5% we have back at home. The architecture in Belgium is amazing and is known as Art Noveu. I believe that it is unique to Belgium and you cant help but gawk at the endless spires and gothic looking towers that fill the city. I headed to the main Grokt Square where there happened to be a concert going on which was fun, I went into all the various chocolate shops and sampled oodles of chocolates from the undisputed chocolate champions of the world. I spent the rest of the day sampling the various foods, actually just waffles and French fries. Which is another thing Belgium prides itself is its French fries. Belgium must be the about the 4^th country that claims to have the best fries or claims to have created them but let me tell you this, the Belgians win. Its not even a contest, the fries are far superior and you can get like 30 sauces at the fry stands. Brussels most famous monument is pretty ridiculous. Its called Mannekin Pis and it is a small statue fountain of a little boy pissing into a basin. There were all these people there taking pictures of it and I was so confused as how this statue could be the pride of Brussels. I guess it shows the spirit and free spirit of the city. For dinner I had some mussels which were fantastic and I met some Australians at my hostel and we went out for the evening which was a good time because I love meeting random people and getting their travel stories and sharing mine.

Bruges, where do I start? What a beautiful city. I cant put enough words on this page to explain how much I loved this city because part of my love was just being there in the city. Bruges is a small medieval city with canals running through it and is known as “The Venice of the North. Of course I started the day with more waffles and fries and was just in awe of the beauty of the city, pictures cant even capture the romantic cobblestone streets and towering cathedrals that fill this city, I was in love. I headed to the belfry in the city which had to have been something like 800 stairs, more than the St Pauls cathedral in London, once again the view was breathtaking. Later that day I took a brewery tour which was one of the highlights of my trip in Europe as whole. I learned so much, not even just about the process of brewing beer, but the actual history of Europe and how closely tied it is with beer. The beer itself, Bruge Zot, has been my favorite beer ive tried yet in Europe and is the best beer ive ever had in all the world, I really hope I can find a small shop back in the states that carries it because it is incredible. I really don’t have a lot more to say about Bruges which is weird because I loved it so much, but you have to understand that it was all about being there, there is nothing I can write on this page that can explain to you how I felt when I was in that city.

After all was said and done I hopped on a train to Ghent to see what that was all about. Another awesome city. This too was a canal city just not as romantic as Bruges but still very cool none the less. There were 2 or 3 castles inside the city and it was littered with Art Noveu clock towers and cathedral belfries everywhere. There was this stag party there and as I was walking by this guy was so drunk he fell in the canal off of a boat. He was swimming around trying to grab this inflatable raft and let me tell you, a canal anywhere is the last place you want to be swimming in, they are so dirty, but it was funny nonetheless. That night I had a steak dinner, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the first actual steak that ive had since coming to Europe. When I get home I am going to go on a steak binge and see how many filet mignons I can eat in a week. I got back late on Saturday with the intention of just going straight to bed but as always my plans changed on the fly. I met this couple from Arizona State University who were going out to this café called Delirium which holds the Guinness book of world records record for most beers served in an establishment, something like 2025 beers. We had a lot of fun and got back at around 2am and I headed to bed.

That next morning I decided to go to Antwerp. So I hopped on the train and 45 minutes later I was there in the so called “city of diamonds”. As soon as I hopped off the train I decided it would be fun to rent a bike so I did just that and there I was 20 minutes later with a bike. I cruised the city a bit and had a blast, I definitely plan on renting a bike again in the other cities I go to, I would really like to rent a bike and ride into the Irish country side and visit some small villages and such, see if I can find some Doyle’s creeping around J. Once again Antwerp was filled with Art Noveu architecture everywhere, including a small castle right on the river. I took my bike and rode deep into the country, probably about 3 or 4 miles into the fields. I was all by myself and it was such a liberating feeling to know that I was lost in the forest of some random country in northern Europe and I could do whatever I wanted. I took some time just to stop and sit down on the shore of the river and just admire the city skyline, it was such a cool experience. After about 4 or 5 hours of riding my bike I headed back to the train station and hopped back on the train to Brussels, as I had a Eurostar to catch that night back to London. I ran into a little obstacle, as I fell asleep on the train and missed my stop by 4 stops and ended up over an hour outside of Brussels. This scared the shit out of me considering if I missed my train I would not only be out 100 USD for my ticket, but I had a bus to catch early that next morning to York. I ended up making my train by nearly 15 minutes and that was with me sprinting through the city and zooming in a taxi instead of taking the tram. So everything ended up ok.

All in all I had an incredible trip. Ive never felt the way I felt when I stepped off that train into Brussels. I thought to myself, holy shit your in a foreign country, they don’t speak English here, and you don’t know anyone. It was a very scary feeling, but a good scary, it made me feel alive. I was absolutely elated to be able to wander around Belgium with not a care in the world and do whatever I wanted to do, and I did just that. The only thing that sucked about being alone was eating dinner by myself, because come on who wants to do that. But other than that, I had no problem meeting people and I really learned a lot about myself this weekend. I cant tell you how much more confident I am in myself after doing what I did. Next weekend I am headed to Stockholm and I am super excited to see the country that people say has the most beautiful people in the world. I am once again excited to be on my own and do my own thing, and I am definitely going to rent a bike and try and ride around the city and hopefully the surrounding areas as well. We are headed to York right now for 3 days which is a medieval city in the north of England and im actually very excited for it. Any chance to get out of London is good for me because I like the feeling of being back in time in some ancient city. I am not sure if ill have internet but hopfully the university of york will have some sort of place where I can get internet access, if not that then at a coffee shop somewhere in town. Cheers mates!

london london london

2008-07-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh London London London, how I love you so much and hate you so much. Times are tough living in the most expensive city in the world. Its starting to get me depressed but I am holding strong. I have started to accept the fact that no you will not find a meal for under 18 USD and no you will not find a beer for under 5 USD. Now im kinda writing this a week late so the chronology of this isn’t going to be exact but don’t worry ill get to everything. We took a cruise down the Thames river to the city of Greenwich, which is not pronounced like sandwich but without the W. We headed to Greenwich to see the national maritime museum and to see the royal observatory and prime meridian. For all you highschool drop outs out there the prime meridian is the imaginary line that splits the eastern and western hemisphere and is the basis for all time keeping and navigating in the world. The prime meridian was, well, lets just say it was the prime meridian and nothing more. But it was very cool to say I straddled the globe J. The national maritime museum was actually very interesting. Papa if your reading this, and I hope you are, it was actually very informative. They had an entire exhibit on the Battle of Trafalgar with some absolutely incredible displays of personal items of Admiral Nelson. They even had the actual clothes Admiral Nelson wore when he was shot and killed in the historic battle. They also had a great collection of scale models from ships dating centuries back to modern cruise ships, including a 1 billion dollar project that is set to create the worlds largest cruise ship. I also had a chance to operate a state of the art shipping simulator where I proceeded to crash my frigate into the coast of Australia. We stopped in a few pubs that were wonderful as always.

That week we also went to our fist night club which I wish we could do more because I love the night clubs here, people are there to dance and have fun, not creep on girls and get blacked out and puke everywhere. We went to England’s number one club known as fabric. This thing was so far underground it wasn’t even funny. Every time I came out of the bathroom I was in a different room, the music was earthshaking and the club held something like 2500 people. It was an awesome time we ended up staying out till around 4am. Oh yea we went to the National British Museum of history as well which was pretty sweet. As ive said before, I cant stand classical art so it was such a nice change of pace to visit a history museum instead of an art gallery. One of the museum’s claims to fame is that they have the Rosetta stone, yes THE Rosetta stone. Which isn’t as cool as it sounds, as its exactly what it sounds like, a big stone. What really interested me was the great exhibitions on Viking artifacts found as well as about 4 or 5 mummies on display which was sooooo cool. And to top it off was the Parthenon exhibit which is a giant room of marble that is al from the Parthenon, the Greek government is actually in the process of trying to retrieve these pieces as they are a SIGNIFICANT part of the Parthenon. And we saw another play, this time a musical. Im sure you’ve all heard of it, Les Miserables. Let me tell you that I was pretty fuckin Le Miserable. I thought they actually spoke a little bit in musicals, but not in this one, they sang the whole time, I thought my brain was going to explode. But the one thing I have to give them credit for was the production and singing. The production was incredible, I have to give mad props to the behind the scenes crew. The actors were also very good as well, all of their singing voices were superb. But like I said before, they sang the whole time and I thought I was going insane.

We had a overnight trip to Bath as well, including Stonehenge as well. Funny story, apparently I had already been to Stonehenge in 7^th grade but somehow I don’t even remember it one bit?? My mom said I was jetlagged but still, that is a pretty big item not to remember in the least bit. Now I had been to bath before as well but I didn’t realize we stayed there for 3 days in an apartment, I thought we just came for the baths as that was all that I remembered. According to the BBC that day we went to Stonehenge and bath was one of the rainiest days in England’s history, yay for us. We hit up the roman baths which was also really cool even for a second time. It is absolutely mind blowing what the romans did in such of a primitive time. Bath was actually a really cool city, its too bad it was raining all day because everything is done up in roman style architecture and for the first time in England it felt like I was in Europe again. A funny side story, we were at the oldest pub in the town and it was actually very nice, good menu, families eating all around us. I proceeded to enter the bathroom and on the wall I saw a vending machine. Now I figured oh it must be your typical bathroom vending machine, condoms and whatever. No, not this one. This vending machine had: A dildo, an inflatable sheep (use your imagination), and Viagra. Now this seemed very out of place for me in such a small conservative town especially in a pub like this so I had to snap some pics. I came out and told my friends and they both ran in there to see it as well. We decided at that very moment that we had to have a sheep, so we each pooled together 2 pounds for the grand total of 6 pounds and marched into the bathroom for our new toy. Now get your heads out of the gutter, we only wanted this for photo purposes and joking around, the prank ideas were endless. We marched into the mens room and put our money in but to our dismay the machine ate our money. This was not acceptable, so I went to the bar and explained to the bartender that I had put my money in the machine for an inflatable sheep and that it had ate my money. The dude was really creeped out and explained that he is not in control of the machine that the company runs it, teary eyed I retreated back to my table. Later that night we actually came back to the same pub for dinner and the bartender from early was our waiter. When he brought our food out I asked him in a very serious tone, if he had happened to fix the sheep machine. He got really awkward and hastily gave us our food and our waiter switched for the remainder of the night, he was genuinely creeped out that we were trying to have sex with an inflatable animal. After that we had a guys night out with just the boys and it was a good time. We posted up at a pub below a hostel and I met this magician street performer from Texas. This guy blew my mind with tricks. And no it wasn’t because I was drinking, as I met him before I even started. Not only was this guy an incredible magician but he was also extremely educated as well. He could chat about a wide variety of subjects, from quantum physics to early 15^th century Victorian history. We woke up early that next morning to go to a fashion/costume museum in bath which was a huge waste of time as we stayed overnight in Bath for a 25 minute walkthrough of a bunch of clothes, I did get to try on a corset though.

That is all I can think of for now, but this weekend I am doing my first solo trip of the summer, I am going to be touring Belgium. The plan is Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp. I am very anxious to be doing this traveling by myself because it really shows what you are made of when you get dropped into a foreign country all on your lonesome. Lets hope I don’t die or anything nasty like that.

some videos to share

2008-07-06T05:16:00.000-07:00

sorry the video quality sucks guys, blogspot has shitty uploading i guess

1am in paris, we didnt even know this was coming so it was a pleasent surprise

hangin out watching the tennis matches at wimbledon

bullfighting in sevilla

walking the coast in monaco

wimbledon wimbledon wimbledon

2008-07-05T13:22:00.001-07:00

so london is starting to grow on me. i was kinda turned off at first because its such a modern city and its absolutely massive and the exchange rate is just down right depressing. but im loving it more and more everyday. the people are so friendly, everyone speaks english, and i love the pub food and english beers. i got the opportunity of a life time on friday to go to wimbledon. it was cheap to get in and we were able to watch any of the matches courtside except the big ones. for the big ones they had this HUGE hill with a GIANT tv and an insane speaker system for over a thousand people to watch on. the experience was surreal. i am a huge tennis fan and to be able to go to something like this was out if this world. the place was huge, like its own city. restaurants, bars, everything something like 30 courts. it was my first chance to see a grass court in person and i am in love. i bought a t shirt and i think i might go back on sunday for the finals just to watch them again, as it was only 15pounds to get in. we went to a play at the globe, which is the famous theater that shakespeare performed at and the play was super lame. the globe was awesome but the play itself sucked considering we had to stand up for 2 and a half hours in the yard and listen to people speak in accent so bad i couldnt even understand them. today was saturday and we took to the city. we went to westminster abbey, big ben, parliament, and cruised the thames river. the thames is really cool, such a relaxing place its really what london is all about. we went inside this cathedral called st pauls and it was awesome. you had to climb over 500 steps to get to the top and the view was awe inspiring. other than that things are good, we are planning on going to fabric tonight which is supposed to be the best night club in london and it stays open till 8am, so that should be fun. anyways ill update this thing again soon, we are doing a river cruise on monday of the thames, and heading to york and bath on wednesday to visit stonehenge and the roman bathes. cheers mates

dude give me back the euro

2008-07-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

arrived safe and sound in london. we couldnt take a train because all of the eurrail pass slots were used up because apparently everyone and their brother has school on this monday and i would have had to book weeks ago. we are in central london staying in the dorms. there are nearly 400 msu students staying in london right now and i love it. i have met probably 50 msu kids from different programs and its nice to have such a wide variety of people to talk to. not to mention the internet is blazing fast and we all have our own rooms, the accommodations are fucking awesome. this city is just a sea of pubs, one or two on every corner. ive made it a point to try all of the english dishes and i have to say i havent been disappointed yet. bangers and mash is probably my favorite but i really liked the sheppards pie too and you cant forget fish and chips of course. god the exchange rate sucks here, i dont even know what to do. it is literally more than double the us dollar. we went to the national portrait gallery which was super lame, and then we went to the national gallery which was not as lame, but still super lame. umm the classes are sweet, the professors are super chill and its mostly about the history of crime. all weve been talking about is various forms of execution and famous criminals in british history. we did a jack the ripper tour which was really cool, i got to lay on the ground in the EXACT spot where one of the murders took place. we did a walking tour as well of london, and i really enjoyed it the tour guide was a funny dude and he knew his shit, i really enjoyed listening to him. this is probably the first city ive been to that really doenst feel like a european city, its way too modern for my tastes and it feels pretty overwhelming. im sure itll grow on me, but right now im kind of indifferent to london, ive been here before but this time it just feels too big for me. im a simple guy you know? but have no fear, im sure its just the shock of getting here and ill get used to it, london is supposed to be one of the power metropolises of the world and im not gunna let that get me down. oh yea and the beer is AWESOME. ive made it a point to try and get a new beer everywhere i go, but its turning out to be impossible. this is because every pub has a range of 10 new beers and i feel like i cant possibly try all 3million beers this country has to offer. im still up in the air about what im doing this weekend, i really want to go to belgium, but the hostels i want to stay in are all booked up. i am a firm believer that the amount of fun you have in a place is dependent on the hostel you stay at, especially if your traveling alone. so well see what happens, im gunna try and round up a few people to go somewhere, maybe luxumburg?? but once again i have to reiterate how awesome it is to be living in the dorms, it is just such a nice change of pace. we are going to a musical right now (super weak) but who knows maybe ill like it. oh yea and my independent study for this program i got to pick the topic. i am doing a paper on the most haunted locations in england and i plan on visiting them giving the history and my opinion on each location. ill update this boy soon enough, peep facebook all the pictures are up to date now. and mom and dad i hope your having fun in florida, i miss you guys like crazy and i cant thank you enough for everything youve given me the opportunity to do. cheers mates

oh yea and i went to harrods the other day and tried on some super cool euro clothes. here is a picture of me wearing about $2500 USD in D&G gear. and yes those pants are covered in metal studs.

PSSSSST......

2008-07-01T04:09:00.000-07:00

so here we are in amsterdam. word on the street is amsterdam is famous for its delicious and potent coffee so alex and i decided it would be fun to cruise the canals of amsterdam sampling the various coffees at the various coffee shops around town. Let me first start out by saying, this place is run by crack heads. Everyone looks so cracked out at all hours of the day it is outrageous. not to mention the fact that every person who isnt a tourist there is a drug dealer trying to sell you something shady. I couldnt even keep a straight face walking down the alleys and canals of the red light distrcit without some north african guy whispering PSSSST charlie X in my ear and i would literally burst out laughing because it was the 6th time in 5 minutes that some sketchball tried to approach me. Our hostel was a piece. There was no common area and the place was dirty as hell. The only thing it had going for it was the fact that it literally was IN the red light district. but this came with its downsides, you couldnt sleep. there are people running around screaming till 7 in the morning. the hookers are hillarious. you walk down these narrow alleys lind with windows and it will be all dudes. you get some really wierd vibes in there too, mad sexual tension, and everyone acts like they didnt mean to be there or they took a wrong turn, but everyone knows they are just there to look at the hookers in the windows. umm there really isnt much to do there besides visit the various coffee shops and sample their coffee. the hieneken brewery tour was closed for renovation, the ann frank house had a line a mile long, and the canal tour sucked. but the coffee was really really really really really good. We spent most of the time just walking from coffee shop to coffeeshop just hangin out havin a coffee etc etc. Overall amsterdam was pretty fun, a bit overwhelming, but it was fun. on to london now. cheers!

p.s. talk to me in person and ask me about the real amsterdam :)

nice was nice....but monaco was nicer

2008-06-28T05:59:00.000-07:00

Nice, wow where do I begin. The south of france is so different from Paris I cant even believe it.our hotel is no more than a football field away from the beach and right inside one of the busiest pedestrian squares in town. We walked around a little bit and showered up to get ready to go out. The girls we went with were staying at a different hostel, the hostel we originally wanted to stay at but here were no beds available. Their hostel was incredible. It has been voted top 5 hostels worldwide for 2 years now, and for all the right reasons. The hostel was once a monastery, the common room is right inside where the chapel once was, with all of the stained glass windows still there from the original chapel. The hostel itself looked like a stone village out of Tatoonie from star wars, or maybe a better example would be some stone houses out of Iraq? Either way it was cool, the entire grounds of the hostel was a big garden, with a GIANT brand new kitchen with windows all the way around it that looked into the gardens. We stayed there all night as the beers were 1 euro for tallboyz, everything was so cheap, from the food to the beer nothing outrageous, it really felt like a cozy hostel. We headed back late night and missed the tram by about 30 seconds and ended up having to take a 10 euro cab ride which was no big deal, we had fun. Oh an I forgot, we met this kid from Australia named Daniel who was an incredible person, probably the nicest most outgoing person ive ever met in my life. He has been traveling the world for 6 months and plans to extend it another 6 months to travel all of North and South America. He had some of the craziest stories ive ever heard, even one about seeing someone murdered in Morocco, but if you want to know more about that your going to have to ask me. We really hadn’t planned on going to Monaco because we were told it was only for the rich, but Daniel had been there before and we decided that the 5 of us would meet up the next day to take the 15 minute train to Monaco to see what it was all about. 5 People turned into 13, as we had a giant group from the hostel and decided to take the bus which was cool because it was only 1 euro and only took about 25 minutes. Once again the drive was amazing; it was all through the mountains with the Mediterranean glowing bright blue from below. We arrived in the 2 square kilometer city and I was just blown away. Billions of dollars just sitting in front of me. We headed towards the famous Monte Carlo casino. The cars man, the cars, it was like something out of a movie. Im not even exaggerating when I say this; 8 Bentleys, 2 Ferraris, about 10 Porsches, among about 20 other super high end luxury cars. After taking many many pictures we headed for the beach. In the distance you could see all the trillionaire’s yachts, some bigger than some cruise ships I’ve seen, helicopter pads on them, 6 jet skis with matching crane to lift them off the top and set them in the water, it was surreal. The beach isn’t really a beach, but a bed of millions of tiny pebbles. I actually prefer the pebbles to sand as its much cleaner and laying on them is almost therapeutic. None of the pictures I took or anything I say can ever do Monaco justice. I thought Ibiza was paradise on earth, well move over I found a new one. We spent the day frolicking around the sea and eating ice cream and drinking beer. It was nice to be in a such a big group as fresh faces are always fun to talk to. We ended up staying till about 6ish and then headed back on the bus. We planned to meet up later that night at the hostel but things went a little south. While at dinner the waiter accidentally dumped an entire glass of red wine of my lap, which wasn’t that big of deal as accidents happen you know. What made it a big deal was the way they handled it. Now I don’t know how it works in France, but in the states if you were to dump a glass of red wine all over someone’s clothes, which totaled to about 300$ mind you, your meal should be paid for, MAYBE AT LEAST THE WINE THAT WAS DUMPED ON YOUR LAP. I explained to the waiter that I was not upset with him that I wanted my meal paid for. The manager proceeded to come out and laughed in my face. That is not a figurative laugh in my face either, he literally laughed in my face and told me that it was not a big deal. I kept my cool very well because those of you who know me well know that I am the person that would flip over a table in a restaurant in a situation where I am that angry. We ended up not even eating, which was a huge bummer because Alex ordered mussels which looked amazing, and I ordered the frog legs which looked delicious. They took our dinners away and we left, only after paying for the wine, that the dumbfuck spilled on my lap. We went home to soak my clothes in cold water and to grab a change of clothes and headed up to the other hostel to meet up with everyone. We got lost as hell and just by chance we ran into them as they were walking down towards the beach. This was a godsend as if we would have not seen them we would have been sitting in the hostel bar just drinking by ourselves. We followed them down to the beach which was a story in itself. We had about 16 people drunk singing various songs all the way down there. We headed down to the beach and sat around sipping wine and skipping stones into the French Riviera. After that everyone but us headed back and Alex I walked around for a little bit to find a bar and we sat down to have a drink. We got a good nights sleep that night and I got to webcam chat with my parents which was a treat. We checked out that morning and stored our luggage. We met up with the girls at the merry-go-round and searched the town for some oysters, which was unsuccessful. I did get to try Foi de Gras, which is duck liver and I loved it. We spent the day just walking along the boardwalk admiring the multitude of blues the ocean presented to us. We hopped on the night train to paris which was hands down top 5 coolest experiences so far here in Europe. The train was like one big party. We were hanging with some Parisians and a few soldiers from Senegal. Make sure you ask me about this if you see me, Alex and I had a blast on the train though. We got to Paris right on time the next morning and had breakfast at a little café, right now we are sitting on the train about 3 hours away from Amsterdam. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited we are. This is the Mecca, the place Alex and I have been wanting to go to as soon as I found out about it. I am giddy just thinking about it, our hostel is right inside the red light district and our train is scheduled to pull in at around 2:30. I don’t know when im going to update this next as im not going to even know what to expect once we get there. Its kinda sad that the one place we are looking forward to going to most is Amsterdam for obvious reasons, but at the same time I could care less, I am just bouncing off the walls right now in anticipation for the city. I will update this as soon as I can but don’t expect anything to interesting to read, im trying to keep this blog sorta PG as ive said before and im not trying to post my exploits of Amsterdam on a public internet domain. So make sure to ask me about Amsterdam next time I talk to any of you and ill give you the real story of this city……See you on the moon J

duomo arrigato mr roboto

2008-06-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

Alright so I finally got to Florence. The plane ride was about 2 hours long, I sat next to two young girls about age 8 and 9, who made me feel silly because they spoke better English than I spoke Spanish. I ended up talking to them the entire time because one of them was very scared of flying. The girl asked for my phone number so she could call me on my birthday, and now im not normally into 9 year olds but I made an exception and humored her and said id be waiting for her call on my birthday. I landed in Florence and it felt like it was 100 degrees, and it literally was 100 degrees. Alex met me at the bus station and we started our journey to the hostel. The hostel itself is brand new, no more than 3 months old but it felt more like a hotel than a hostel. We checked in and looked around. Everything was extremely clean, they had an indoor pool as well as a SICK rooftop terrace with 3 levels. We checked into our room and were sharing it with 2 girls from Calgary who we befriended. It turned out they were headed to Nice the same day on the same train as us. That night Alex and I went out to dinner with them and for the first time in 6 weeks I felt like I could actually eat. Everything on the menu looked amazing; Pasta, Pizza, Ravioli, Lasagna. I finally got a satisfying meal, I love Spain and all but god damn if I see another bocadillo im going to jump off a bridge. Everything in Spain was so bland, with the exception of Paella, its like they don’t really eat there. I had some friends form MSU that were studying in Rome visiting in Florence the same weekend as us so I gave them a call and we decided to meet up in town. That night was the start of Florence’s most famous festival, don’t ask me what the name is, but the festival ends with a brutal soccer game of the best youths in Florence which is basically just an organized fight. That night was the Nott’Arno, which means white night. All of the vendors and crafts shops along the river keep their lights on till 3am to light the streets for the festival. It was just a giant party in the street with 100’s and 100’s of people gathered to listen to music, drink, and be merry. We spent most of our time on the Pont D’Vecchio, which is the only bridge left from WW2 as all the other ones had been bombed out by the Germans. After hanging around the bridge, Alex and the girls and I headed over to the Duomo, which in my opinion was the coolest monument that ive seen so far in Europe, except maybe the Eiffel tower. The Duomo was surreal, it looked like a painting. I wish I would have gotten an opportunity to go inside but it was closed on Sundays so I was unable to, but seeing it from the outside was a cool enough experience for me none the less. That next morning we woke up and grabbed lunch, it was literally 100 degrees out and humid once again, so hot to the point where it wasn’t even worth it to go outside. We hung around the hostel for a while, taking in the breathtaking views from the rooftop terrace and did some swimming. After dinner we headed to the terrace to watch the Italy vs Spain game, and my boys Espana took the win to beat those greasy Italians. After having many beers on the terrace and a mojito, which I must say was the second best one ive ever had, only next to the Coconuts club in Rimini last summer, we headed out to find a bar or club that was open late night on Sunday. We were unsuccessful in finding a bar, but we did have a good time wandering lost around Florence drinking our beers. The next morning our train was at 7am so we got about 3 hours of sleep and woke up hating ourselves. The train ride was long and slow. The only train available was an intercity train so had to stop at every city on the way to Nice. We had to change trains in Genoa which was cool because we got to walk around for a little bit and Genoa was cool to be in, and I got some gelato because there was no way I was leaving Italy without getting at least one real Italian gelato. We hoped on the train to Nice which was basically a sweat box on wheels. The ride was incredible. The entire journey was along the Mediterranean sea and the views were awe inspiring. The shear variance of landscapes is incredible. From the rolling hills of Tuscany, to the mountainous coast of the south of France, we couldn’t get any sleepy because we were too busy with our eyes glued to the window. Finally after getting there, which seemed like eternity because it really was like an 11 hour train ride, we headed to our hotel. Im sure you all read my experience in Paris, where I swore NEVER to return to this god forsaken country again, but so far I am LOVING Nice, I will delve into this a little

some marid stuff i forgot

2008-06-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

Ohhh and some side notes I forgot. While we were in Madrid we had the opportunity to visit El Mundo in Madrid. El Mundo is the second biggest newspaper in Spain and they also write about 12 other publications, from golf and art to xbox360 and economics. The coolest part of this was getting to visit Marca. Marca is the WORLDS LARGEST MOST READ newspaper in Spanish. Their website is updated 24 hours a day and gets over 3 million unique hits a day. Pretty much every major athlete worldwide has had their picture taken on top of the huge glass table in the conference room. Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal, Magic Johnson, Michel Jordan, Pele, Maradonna, you get the picture. They even run a radio station which is growing daily. The facilities there were incredible. Everything was brand new, very modernistic furniture and interior design. It was definitely a highlight of my stay in Madrid I don’t know why I forgot to mention it. We also got to go to the famous Prado which is a classical art museum that was pretty cool, but once again as you know I am not a very big fan of classical art and it sort of bored me. And to top it all off was Ritero Park. It is absolutely massive, it deserves its own zip code. There is a giant lake in the middle that you can rent canoes and paddle boats for only like 3 euro. There are also little outdoor cafes inside of Ritero so you can sit down and have some ice-cream and a glass of wine if that tickles your fancy. We did your final project on typography there. And spelled out “Spain…We Love This Place!” All with our bodies in different parts of the park, the project turned out really well and im going to find the finished product pictures as soon as I can, they are hiding somewhere on my computer or maybe my buddy Devin’s. alright well I just wanted to add that stuff because they were important parts of my trip and I don’t know how I forgot to say anything about that but now you know! Ok ok ok enough flashbacks, on with the present!

amsterdam blip

2008-06-27T09:36:00.001-07:00

ok i promise we're not dead yet. i have a ton of things to post but there is no wifi here at the hostel, im going to find a coffee shop with internet sometime soon.....

VaLe VaLe VaLe

2008-06-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

Well the first part of my trip is over, and I don’t think ill be returning to spain for the duration of the summer because I feel like I spent enough time and traveled to enough cities to get a good appreciation for Spanish culture. I have met so many amazing people, and Karl if you’re reading this, thank you for everything. You are hands down one of the coolest people I’ve ever met in my life. The enthusiasm you have for your job and just life itself is so great that it rubs off on other people, including myself. They say that studying abroad is more about the life experiences you gain than the actual academic education itself. This was Karl’s first study abroad trip and I can honestly say if I had the choice to do it again without Karl, I wouldn’t even bother coming to Spain. I feel like I am repeating myself but for all of you MSU students out there especially in the communications department, I highly recommend you take one of his classes, it will change your outlook on a whole lot of things and I promise you will learn more than you expect. Being in close quarters with 17 people for 5 weeks definitely builds bonds quicker than normal. I am teary eyed just typing this, I am going to miss everyone so much, well with the exception of a couple people but ill forget about that for now. I have formed friendships with people that feel stronger then some that ive had for my entire college career. I am so excited to come back to East Lansing and have a whole bunch of new friends to frolic around with. Madrid was an incredible city, you can feel the energy at all hours of the day and night. The people are fantastic, the Spanish language is absolutely beautiful, and the city skyline will have you in awe. I feel like I could go on for days about this city, it has been my second favorite place ive visited in Europe thus far, next to Ibiza of course! Oh yea and of course, I missed my flight on Friday to meet Alex in Florence, but that’s ok I am on the flight right now so I guess ill get to spend 11 days with the kid instead of 12. We will be in Florence for a few days, then off to the French Riviera to do some beach chillin in Nice. From there we head to the forbidden city of Amsterdam, and I cannot think of another person that would be a more perfect partner in crime then Alex, errr well I take that back……maybe Kane. Its going to be a nice change of pace to be in English speaking countries for the majority of this leg of my trip. Ireland, England, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Germany all for the most part speak English. I was supposed to ship my extra bag of clothes to a good family friend in Essex England, but I went to the DHL office and they told me it would cost 350euro. Give me a break, I could fly to England my self and then fly back to Florence for less than that. But on a stroke of luck I found out one of the girls from my program is headed to London, and it turns out she is visiting a friend who is staying in the exact same dorms as me at the University of London. Oh and I almost forgot, we went to the Pacha Madrid on Thursday night which was pretty cool, not as nice as the one in Ibiza but very upscale club and they played house music all night which was fucking great, as I am now officially a huge fan of house music.oh an Well I am about 30 minutes from landing in Florence as I write this. I don’t know what the internet situation will be like for these next 8 days so bare with me on updates. I am so amped to start eating some Italian food, because as much as I enjoyed the Spanish cuisine, if I see one more god damn bocadillo im going to blow up a train station. Well this time its for real goodbye spain, im gunna miss VALE VALE VALE VALE VALE. Which for those of you who don’t know apparently means “right ok yes” and the locals in Madrid will literally spit about 75 vale vale vales at you in 5 seconds. Vale vale vale, im out now ill update this boy of alex and I’s travels as soon as I possibly can. HASTA LUEGO ESPAÑA!

Toe Lee Doh

2008-06-23T17:09:00.001-07:00

so our third and final day trip of the program has come and gone. I didn’t really enjoy Toledo to tell you the truth, same old buildings, different city name. It wasn’t even close to as cool as Segovia. The one thing Toledo is known for, is its swords. Apparently any movie sword prop ever made was made in Toledo, so the streets are just littered with sword shops, from 15 euros all the way to thousands of euros. I really really really wanted to get one but it just didn’t make any sense considering I would be traveling for another 2 months and its kinda hard to lug a giant sword around. There happened to be a temporary exposition there on various devices of torture. We headed to this exposistion and I was pleasantly surprised. There were all your standard torture machines and more, all the explanations were in English and were very graphic, I really enjoyed it. After that we headed back to the plaza mayor to do what we had came to do, the segway tour. Oh man are these things fun. They are so agile and easy to control and you can really get some speed on them. The tour was short but I had sooooo much fun just zooming around on those little things, I wish you could lease one for a year, what a fun way to get around campus that would be.

PLEASE DONT STOP THE MUSIC

2008-06-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

we landed in Ibiza at around 11pm and headed to our hotel. For 23 euro a night this place was a steal, 3 beds a kitchen and a separate bedroom all overlooking the pool area. La Troya was spinning at space that night which was only about 5 blocks away. Space can easily hold 7500 people and was my first taste of Ibiza. We met up with about 5 others at Space and stayed till 6am. What we didn’t know was, this was basically a gay/tranny club for the night. Every club has a different “party” every night so depending on what night you go the music and people can vary GREATLY. The music was trance that night and the trannys were flowin. The scene at the club was pretty funny, and definitely crossed the line into downright weird. The next day we headed over to the fellas and sam’s hotel as it was right on the beach. Let me first start out by saying ive been to tons and tons and tons of beaches in the Caribbean and such, and nothing compares to Ibiza. The water is placid blue and the surf is calm, almost like a Michigan lake. We didn’t do much, as everyone went to bed at like 8 in the morning, but later that day met a club promoter from Seattle who bought us 9 shots at this bar right on the beach, which had beds hookahs, swimming pool etc etc. we ended up getting dinner there and headed back to our hotels. That night we had plans to see David Guetta at Pacha. Now I am not that big of a fan of techno music, but let me say seeing David Guetta live was hands down one of the coolest experiences I have ever been a part of. I had never even heard of him but once he started playing his music I instantly recognized all of his songs. Pacha for those of you who don’t know, was the very first club opened on Ibiza back in the early 60’s. the club is HUGE probably around 4000-5000 people in one room, with about three levels of balconies looking onto the main dance floor and DJ. Everything is done in whitewashed stone straight out of a movie. There are 21 bars and according to a guy we met, they rake in around 600,000 euro a night in drink sales alone. We were right in front of the DJ booth the whole time about 10 feet away from David Guetta. At around 6am we headed back to our hotels. We woke up at about 10:30 and headed back to the beach. This time we headed for Bora Bora, a world famous beach bar. The scene was madness. Hundreds of people everywhere, naked girls dancing on chairs and house music just fueling the beach. The party literally never stops, at 10am the DJs are already out spinning and people are just dancing everywhere on the beach. Our other friends had to leave Saturday night so it was just me and the Sarah’s. The club El Divino as having their opening party that night and it was a nice change of pace. The club itself was not nearly as big as the others that we had been to but it made up for it in style. The club was RIGHT on the water. For some reason there were trannys all on stage again. Its really scarey, these trannys literally look like super models. I don’t know who their surgeons are but I know some girls back at home who should take some tips from them. We headed back once again at around 6am. That next morning we checked out and stored our luggage and set out to explore Ibiza town. The walk was awesome, only about 1.5 kilometer in the sand. Ibiza town on the other hand was not so breath taking. After figuring out that Ibiza town was basically just a bunch of super markets and hotels we set out to find a place to relax for the rest of the day. We found this pool area that was literally on the ocean, one of the most chill relaxing settings I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. After a long day of snoring at the pool we packed our shit up to head home, what a weekend. By far, Ibiza was the most fun ive had on this trip thus far. Im trying to keep this blog sorta PG for the family members reading this but for those of you who know me, make sure to ask me about the real stories of Ibiza, this place is quite plainly, paradise on earth. I am already anticipating going back there sometime in my life, the beach vistas, the water, the music, the clubs, the women, I really would rather be here than any other place on planet earth

AqueWhat?

2008-06-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

So this time we actually got to leave from Madrid to head to this medevil city. The train was only 10 euro and was a 30 minute train ride. We were here mainly to see the famous aqueducts but this city had a lot more to offer than that. When I stepped off the bus it was like taking a step back through time. Everything was straight out of the middle ages. As we began to walk around, there was something to catch your eye at every turn, even the little things. We came across this cathedral where I got some AWESOME photos of the spires as well as some sunset pictures. Once inside, the walls were covered in gold and there were crypts outlining the walls. Very surreal cathedral, I actually thought the exterior of it was cooler than the Segrada Familia in Barcelona. After that we headed for the town Alcazar, which means castle in Spanish. The alcazar is perched high on a hilltop overlooking miles of rolling hills in the distance. The castle itself was pretty anti-climatic but the view from the top of the tower was breath taking. Of course Kaelyn broke her flip flop at the top of the tower and had to walk around in barefeet the entire rest of the day including through the Madrid subway which is a whole nother story in itself. After heading back down to the city we decided to get lunch, and Segovia is famous for its roast suckling pig. Well it was just the 4 of us and it started the rain so we decided to make lunch a whole afternoon affair. We finished 4 bottles of wine, about 4 courses and then headed to the train station. We were in a bit of a hurry as our plane to Ibiza was scheduled to leave that night at around 10, I will update this more as Ibiza was fucking incredible and deserves its own blog all on its own.

so far behind!

2008-06-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

days so i am behind about 4 blog posts, Segoiva, Ibiza and Toledo. I have a LOT of really cool videos from Ibiza and stories to share, i've just been backed up with school shit and planning for these next 9 days of traveling and then heading to london. I am meeting Alex in Florence on friday afternoon and I am super pumped for that. I will start uploading and blogging as soon as i get out of this piece of shit hostel in Madrid.

a special guest

2008-06-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

well it looks like a i have a special guest coming to join me. for all you that know mr galambos, he will be joining me on the 20th in florence up until july 2nd. we will be doing florence, nice, amsterdam, and then he will be joining me on the first few days of my program in london. in other news coming with alex is my 15 country unlimited eurrail pass which will allow me to jetset on whim instead of paying these bullshit 70-90 euro train tickets. I am super fucking pumped considering i was about to travel alone for 8 days in between my programs.

We are headed to segovia tomorrow morning and this time kaelyn and i are actually in madrid instead of sevilla. We hit up the Prado today which was pretty neat, i myself am not a big fan of classical art but theres no way you can deny how cool it is to be in the presence of masterpieces some from the first century AD. We leave for Ibiza tomorrow at 10pm, i am so excited. Our hotel is right on the beach with a few bars and a pool too. Its me and the 2 sarahs in our hotel room and then we are meeting about 5 other people over there.

fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me....fool me thrice, im a fucking idiot

2008-06-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

welp for the third time we decided it would be a grand idea to try and book a train ride home the day of, and for the third time there were none available. oh no big deal, kaelyn and i booked one for 8am for the next morning, wed only be a little late for class. after i dropped 75 euro on a train ticket (which reminds me i am a complete idiot for not getting a eurrail pass. I thought you could just get one when u got here, but apparently you can only get them in the USA, so i think im gunna get one and have it shipped here, because so far the VAST majority of the money ive spent has been on train tickets. Ok back to dropping 75 euro on a ticket, as we walked out the door kaelyn remembered that we had to be at the train station at 9am that next morning for a field trip to Segovia. so we quickly went to the bus station and the only bus available was one at 1am. So instead of a 2 hour train ride, now it is a 6 hour bus ride. we thought everything was all good so we headed back to the hostel, and prepared to watch the bullfight later that evening.

Let me first say, they take this shit pretty seriously. i felt like i was at the superbowl or something. we rolled with like 6 other kids from the hostel and tried to scalp some tickets. it was about 20 minutes before the match and we got THIRD row tickets for over half off by haggling the guy. these were basically court side seats at the staples center. We had to buy some treats for the game, cigars, cervezas, peanuts, candys, sunflower seeds and we headed to our seats. on the ticket there was 3 matadors and 6 bulls, so 2 each. these bulls are BIG, REALLLLLY BIG. It is amazing how graceful these guys are. They stand still as stone as this giant bull comes charging at this cape. I stayed for 4 bulls and then decided to leave, it wasnt as horrific as i was expecting. To any of you who have the chance, you must go see a bull fight, it was a very enlightening experience.

Now onto the bus ride. This so called 6 hour bus ride, turned into an 8 hour bus ride. we arrived in Madrid at 8:45, and the train was scheduled to leave for Segovia at 9am, so bascially we were fucked. No more than 5 minutes after getting off the bus did my phone ring and I was told we were not going today due to the rain, HALLEJUAH, WE ARE SAVED. so we headed back to the hostel and kicked it for the rest of the day.

In other news my travel plans have changed. I will be arriving in Florence on the 21st, I will be there for 2 days, then head to the south of france, for sure nice perhaps Monaco and Canes, then i will head to amsterdam for 3 days, then on to London from there. yea yea i know i said id never go back to that silly country but i guess the south is supposed to be different, plenty of beaches, naked women, crepes, and baguettes to go around. ok ok make sure to check facebook plenty of pictures from sevilla, very chill ass city. oh yea and i am finally getting a eurrail pass, either 5 countries (Italy, France, Germany, Benelux region, and Ireland) or the unlimited, my parents havent decided yet but i will let you all know once i find out. ADIOS AMIGOS, AND AMIGAS.

in the garden of eden

2008-06-07T12:33:00.001-07:00

well im in sevilla right now, and its hot as fuck like 90 degrees. we got in late last night at about 1:30am. Kaelyn and i are st eveything is super modern the staff is amazing and ive already met a ton of cool ass kids. Today Kaelyn and i strolled the town shopping and sight seeing. we visited this castle called Real Alcazar, it was beautiful. The gardens within the castle walls were incredible, it was never ending. There are orange trees all over the city which is really unique, i feel like im in a garden at all times. we are staying at this hostel with a pool on the roof, it is insanely nice. We also visited the largest worshipping Cathedral in spain which is also the third largest cathedral in the WORLD. The streets are so windy ive already gotton lost about 46 times. We were walking around for about 9 hours today so i just got back to take a load off my feet. The rest of the hostel is out doing Tapas and we are waiting right now for them to get back to hit the bars and the clubs.

MAAAADRIIII MADDDDRIIIII MADRIIIIII

2008-06-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

wow this city is fucking INCREDIBLE, i thought barcelona was my favorite city, but man madrid is just over the top. We ended up getting in at like 4pm and decided later that evening that we should go out. I had some friends from school here visiting so we ended up goign out with them in a huge group. Funny story, at the first bar i was at, we were ordering rounds for eachother. one person would buy 3 beers and 3 shots then the next and so on and so on. the third one, im not even drunk, for some reason we get shots of SCOTCH. now i dont know about most college kids, but i know i for one am not a fan. So i take the shot and it went down the wrong tube or some shit, and i proceeded to projectile vomit all over the bartender and the bar. whats even funnier is i didnt even get kicked out, the bartender gave me a look straight out of happy gilmore (grizzly adams) shaking his head and i continued to hang out! we stayed out till about 3 and headed home, this city is so clean, well lit, i love everything about it. Tonight we are going to Pacha which is a super club with like 6 floors that originated in Ibiza. We got some real Churros and Hot Chocolate today which was so fucking chocolatey i thought i was going to throw up. Our hostel is pretty small but it has the perfect location. I just booked a hostel for Seville tomorrow, Kaelyn and I will be there till sunday, and the hostel we are staying at has a rooftop pool so im pretty pumped, i am gunna bring my laptop to Seville for shits and giggles as there will be WiFi access so expect another update soon.

heres a picture from my hostel terrace, which is pretty badass the fact that we have a terrace!

2008-06-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Pamplona. I’m writing this on our bus as it leaves for Madrid. Pamplona has been an awesome experience. Some things I’ve noticed since I’ve been here, and this isn’t just exclusive to Pamplona, or even Spain, some are about Europe as a whole.

1. Ham- Boy do they love their ham here in Spain. I’m telling you every single possible food item here besides for seafood has ham in it. There are giant hams hanging in Tapas bars all over Spain, or Pinchos as they call them here in the Basque region. It’s not the ham like we have at home either, It’s like cold bacon, I laaaph it, it’s graate. (Bruno Reference anyone?)

2. The Women- Where do they hide all the ugly women here? The least attractive women I’ve seen here is at least a 5 by American standards. Everyone here from age 18-60 is just insanely good looking. I maybe saw 5 people this entire time here in Pamplona that I would even consider overweight. Maybe it’s just because I’m a sucker for dark hair and dark skin, but seriously the women, man. I need to come back here after college and find my Spanish seniorita.

3. Trust- the trust level here is pretty absurd. No bars here even start tabs with an ID, they just trust that you’ll pay. And even when you do pay, half the time they just ask you what you had. This is unheard of in the states as people would be flying outta Ricks without their tabs left and right.

4. Hairstyles- I could write a book on the hairstyles here. And it’s definitely not just Spain. The mullets here flow like the salmon of Capistrano. And not just dirt mullets. I’m talking perfectly manicured salon cut mullets, the red necks in the states would be drooling. Also I love the shaved sides look on women, a little throwback to the Third Reich.

5. Red- What’s with the color here red in Spain? Call me crazy but there are NOT that many people who rock red gear back in the states. Here EVERYONE WEARS IT! I can’t figure it out. Red scarves, red shoes, red jeans, red shirts, and red purses (and clutches!). I’m not hating on it or anything, but a very interesting observation.

6. Book train tickets IN ADVANCE- Don’t even try to “wing” it. It’s not worth it. This goes for any aspect of the trip. So far I have discovered that yea it seems fun to kind of just travel and live one day at a time, you can’t do this its going to cost too much money. You need to book train tickets and hostels in advance, and not just expect there to be tickets when u get there. I’ve already learned this the hard way. Oh yea, and don’t miss your trains, these tickets are not refundable like airplane tickets, I learned that the hard way as well (Hello Barcelona!)

7. MAP YOUR HOSTEL BEFORE YOU BOOK IT- Don’t just think the hostel with the best rating or cheapest price is the best place to say. My friends learned that the hard way when they got a 10euro a night hostel that was in the fucking mountains and it cost just as much to actually get into downtown Barcelona as it would to stay in a more expensive hostel closer to the city.

Well I’m done ranting for now, I can’t think of any more keen observations to share with you guys. I got a phone call from my mom about 15 minutes after I posted that I wanted to go to Morocco this weekend. My parents were there three years ago and told me that she didn’t want me to go because of how unsafe it was, I’m going to take her advice so I think I’m going to do Lisbon on the coast of Portugal this weekend, which she highly recommended. I’m going to look at train tickets and hostels as soon as I get in Madrid. WHICH REMINDS ME!!! We have internet in Madrid at the hostel we are staying at for the next 2 weeks. Oh I am so excited to be able to just sit down for 5 minuets at a time to check the news or my e-mail. It’s amazing how much you take the internet for granted when you don’t have access to it at your fingertips. Apparently the trade off for this is no access to a kitchen during our stay in Madrid. Looks like I will be eating a whole lot of sandwiches and eating out a lot. I think my favorite part of being here so far is just trying different foods, wines, and beers. I try and order something different every time I go out, and I always ask the bartender to recommend me a drink. Ok but really I’m done ranting now, ill post again tomorrow after a full 24 hours in Madrid. Ciao!

what to do.......

2008-06-03T07:10:00.001-07:00

well i have to pack all my shit up tonight to head to madrid tomorrow morning. i am right now weighing my decisions on what to do this weekend. I really really really want to go to Morrocco in Marrakesh but i am a little worried about getting suicide bombed, i am also considering Lisbon. IF all else fails i would like to do Sevilla or Salamanca, or maybe even stay in Madrid i dont know. I am about to upload all my pamplona pics to facebook so look for that and while your waiting check out this video my proffessor made from our trip to Bilbao

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWwDuLEw74E

second times a charm

2008-06-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Our train to Barcelona was scheduled to leave at 1am and we arrived at this station well ahead of time. The train ride wasn't bad i snored the whole time and kept everyone awake but myself. I also fell asleep holding an open bottle of wine and dropped it all over the floor. After sleeping the majority of the trip, we arrive arrived in Barcelona at around 9am. Our hostel didn't allow us to check in until noon so we put our stuff in the luggage room and got to creepin around La Rambla. The hostel itself was unbelievable. it was right inside Plaza Real, THE party plaza on La Rambla. The name of the hostel was the Kabul Backpackers hostel, i highly recommend you stay there if you are ever in Barcelona. Everything was very clean and the the staff was great, and the common area and bar were awesome, i met a lot of really cool people. Friday we walked La rambla numerous times and then headed towards the beach. We didnt bring bathing suits so i decided if i was goign to spend 10 euro at a supermarket on a bathing suit, i was going to get the smallest most outrageous bathing suit that they had. i would have pictures but later that night Kaelyn deleted ALL the pictures from my camera. luckily i had a lot already on my computer so i only lost the ones from that day. The weather was great and the beach was packed, we walked the coast a bit it was a lot of fun. we headed back and bought some chocolate and bottles of wine and sat in the plaza just chillin drinkin wine. until the police came and told us that if we wanted to drink in the plaza we needed to buy it from a bar in the area and not a bottle from the super market. We stayed in the hostel until about 2am and then headed to the plaza to a club and stayed there till about 4am. It was just me Kaelyn, Marzi, and Katie that night as the rest of the people with us chose to go to a music festivale in Barcelona, i opted out because it was 70 euro and not really my taste in music, but the others said they had a fucking blast and were out till about 5:30am.

We woke up the next morning and headed to Segrada Familia, which is a giant temple designed by the famous artist and architect Antoni Guadi. I had been to Spain when i was like 14 or 15 but it was really cool to see the temple again, the architecture is simply amazing. After that we headed to Gaudi Park which i had been to before, but it was cool to experience it again. We then went home and got ready to go out for another night in Barcelona. The seafood there was awesome i had tons of Paella and little seafood critters. That night we stayed in the Hostel till about midnight this time we had all 11 of us, only 4 of us were staying at Kabul the rest were at 2 different hostels a ways away. We were hanging out with a kid we met from Sydney and met some guys who worked in Barcelona. They took us to this place called Ice bar. Everything was made of ice, down to the glasses. They gave you big fur coats, furry mittens, and a big rooskie hat. It was litetterally 23 degrees in there, we took a lot of good pictures. After that we headed home and While getting a piggy back ride, Kaelyn fell and got a concussion, mad props on that.

That sunday we missed our train that left at 7am....considering we went to bed at 6am it was hard to stay up. Everyone missed the train except for 2 people, but Kaelyn and i missed the next train at 8am and our only choice was to take the train at 10pm that night. It turned out to be a blessing because Kaelyn was feelings the effects of her conussion pretty bad, dizzy, puking all day etc. I did a bunch of walking around here and there as it was a nice day to be on the Rambla. We chilled all day in the common area after checking out and I met some fellows from Ireland that had a great story for me. They were at the music festival all weekened and the one kid was wasted at around 4 in the morning. He was walking around trying to find the exit and stumbled into the VIP area. The guard told him No, you must exit the other way and pointed to a spot nearly a mile away. Seeing as the kid had already walked around for 45 minutes wasted he was in no mood to walk that far. So he pulled a George Castanza and started grabbing his knee saying his knee was really messed up and he just wanted to exit to his friends car which was 50 feet away from him. Ok ok ok said the security guards who only spoke spanish as he fake limped around. They took him to wha the thought was the exit which turned out to be the medical area with paramedics. Keep in mind he was FAKING that his knee was hurt so he could go through and exit he wasnt supposed to. The paramedics begin to check him out and start performing all these tests and checking his reflexes and balance etc. They then proceed to take him into the ambulance. While in the ambulance, one of the paramedics pulls out a giant 6 inch needle which he intends to stick in the back of this kids knee. the guy freaks out saying no no no i just need a ride to the parking lot please i dont need a shot. This kid goes from leaving the festival to faking a knee injury that almost leads to a giant injection. So the staff drives him out to the parking lot and drop him off, but he doenst know where his friends car is so he has to fake limp for a mile and a half around the parking lot as the paramedics watch him to make sure hes ok. Funny story, i think George would have taken the injection though. All in all it was an AWESOME weekend, i absolutely fell in love with Barcelona. What a chill town, the nightlife was incredible the foot was awesome and i just felt relaxed to be there. We head to Madrid on wednesday and i dont know if i have any plans for this weekend, im trying to figure something out. I am maybe considering a trip Portugal but I kinda wanna stay in Madrid for the weekend to experience what is known as one of the most fun and engaging cities in Europe.

p.s. one of the girls we were with named Katie, tried to take a nap at 1am in my bed before we were headed to the clubs. My buddy Tom and I decided to go up and pick up the mattress and move it into the elevator while she was still sleeping. We moved her into the elevator and hit the floor 1 button. We ran downstairs and the door opened to 2 security guards saying what the fuck? as Katie woke up saying, where am I why am i sleeping in here??? I decided to snap a pic as you can see here:

the week in brief

2008-06-02T03:44:00.000-07:00

Well this week was only a three day week, we had one of our biggest projects due, a giant infographic of the running of the bulls which I stayed up till 5 in the morning trying to complete and still didn’t even get it done, damn I wish I had the internet late night. We have a big group going to Barcelona this weekend, about 11 of us. I am staying in the Kabul backpackers hostel, which is one of europes most famous hostels. We are taking the night train Thursday night and are set to arrive Friday morning. We are leaving Pamplona soon and I am sad but at the same time excited. Pamplona is a chill city compared to the sprawling metropolis that is Madrid. Im not a big city guy so its nice to be able to walk from one end of the city to another in under an hour. That being said, Madrid will be awesome. I will make a post for Barcelona as soon as I get the time to write it, it will be a long one as I have a lot to say….. Hasta Luego

raise your hand if u've ever been eiffel towered

2008-06-02T02:54:00.000-07:00

we arrived in Paris at around 7am, and it was a welcome change. The train was horrible I was coughing the whole way and the seats were uncomfortable and a bunch of other shit. There were 6 six of us and 3 of us were in one hostel and 3 were in the other. My hostel was in the red light district about a block from the Moulin Rouge. We had to pay for the previous night even though we didn’t stay there and I called the hotel to tell them that and they indicated to me that I would be able to check in before check in time at 10am because I had already paid for the previous night. Nope apparently not. For whatever stupid reason we had to get changed and shower in a hall way and wait 3 hours before we could get our room. The croissants were good though!

At around 10:30 we headed to meet the others at Ze Louvre. This place is absolutely massive, I was pretty blown away. The city of Paris itself is badass. Its like New York or Chicago but with old school architecture. We headed in and started exploring. The one exhibit that really stood out was Napoleons apartment. They had completely deconstructed Napoleons actual apartment and reassembled it in the Louvre, it was beautiful. The biggest problem was that all the descriptions of art and artifacts were in French, so I never had any idea what the hell I was looking at. I got to see the Mona Lisa, a lot smaller than I expected. All in all the Louvre was a very cool experience, but also very boring. After ze Louvre we headed to buy berets so we could make fun of French people. We got a crepe too, so delicious. I don’t understand why there aren’t any crepe stations around here, I need to tell Conrad to get to work on some crepes. We went shopping and I bought a pair of really nice gray dress pants for 25 euro, and actually that was the first thing ive bought material wise so ive been good on curtailing my money usage.

That night we headed over by Notre Dame to a very busy street with tons of restaurants and bars. Every little spot had a person outside, most of the time the owner, trying to convince you to come in. we came to this greek restaurant and this guy was just smashing plates everywhere screaming OPA! He said to us, free cocktails for you on the house! And then he proceeded to smash a plate in the middle of the street. Once we sat down the scene inside was even more lively. Almost immediately one of the greek guys from the restaurant grabbed Marzi and Kaelyn and took them to the middle of the restaurant and started dancing, soon women from all over the restaurant had arms linked and were dancing to traditional Greek music. I tried escargot for the first time and looooooved it. The greek guys started doing more tricks, including lifting a table completely off the ground with his teeth. He then pulled Kaelyn to the center of the restaurant and sat her on the table and lifted the table with his teeth, pretty awesome. Oh yea and another taste of French manners, Sarah asked the hostel front desk worker very nicely IN FRENCH if he spoke English, he responded in English with, “NO BUT I SPEAK FRENCH”. Sarah asked him if he could recommend some restaurants with traditional French cuisine that would be cheap to eat. To which the frenchie responded, “HUH HUH, MACDONALDS, OR PIZZA HUT HUH HUH HUH”. Give me a fucking break. The common theme here seems to be either people are very very nice and accomdating, or just downright dickheads.

After dinner it was getting close to midnight so we started to head towards ze Eiffel tower. With French champagne in hand we got off at our metro stop and got our first glimpse of the tower lit up. As we approached the tower we were literally MOBBED by stupid vendors trying to sell shwag ass Eiffel tower key chains and other dumb stuff. They would NOT go away, literally like 6 of them would not leave they wont take no for an answer. Then some frenchies rolled up and started harassing the girls. This was pretty obnoxious because all we wanted to do was pop some champagne under the tower and these retards would not leave us alone until we started making a scene and a bunch of French soldiers approached us and the people dispersed. The tower is incredible, so much bigger than you could ever see in a picture. The trip to Paris was worth it alone solely for the Eiffel tower. As we were walking away at around 1am, the tower started going nuts. For 10 minuets straight, the tower was sparkling with thousands of led lights it was a sight to behold.

We then headed to the metro to try and head to a club, but we missed the last train by about 2 minuets. We got another taste of French manners as no cab in fucking Paris would pick us up, they would literally just drive right by or laugh at us when we tried to get in, god I hate this country. We ended up splitting up and Kaelyn, Marzi and I went to a bar near the Bastille that is open 24 hours a day. After a few nasty shots and some delicious blonde beer, we headed to a club down the road. What a bunch of creeps, or should I say crepes. Literally dozens of guys were straight trying to molest the girls and would just be constantly spitting French even after repeated statements that none of them spoke any French, but that didn’t slow them down. Literally had to drag them out of the club as guys were just grabbing them and trying to pull them inside, I thought people in spain were direct, they don’t have shit on the French. After that we headed home and had to wake up early for a train that left at 10. We went to bed at like 530 so we didn’t get much sleep. We literally made our train by maybe 90 seconds. The train ride was much better as the seats were bigger and we could actually talk. I met a Serbian fugitive who told me stories of the civil war in Serbia and some scarey ass stories hes been apart of. After finnaly getting back into Pamplona, my wallet got stolen IN THE BUS STATION IN PAMPLONA, go figure it happens after im already back into town. It wasn’t that big a deal, all I had was my debt card and about 50 euro, I was more pissed about losing the actual wallet more than anything. Finally after a long day we got home and just relaxed. What a long weekend, I am exhausted.

im trying to catch up!

2008-05-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

sorry for the lack of updates, all the blog stuff is on my laptop so im gunna post them when i get a chance to get some wifi. Im gunna post all the stuff from paris etc. Im headed to Barcelona tonight for the weekend and here is some stuff to look at while im away!

heres some videos
http://www.flickr.com/groups/msu_spain/pool/

photos from the guggenhiem
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69945729@N00/sets/72157605310744605/

first day of class
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69945729@N00/sets/72157605162485256/

karl had the pleasure of putting me sleeping as the cover of the album.....ill update this more soon!

the taint of europe

2008-05-25T16:16:00.001-07:00

let me start out by first saying, EVERYTHING THEY SAY ABOUT FRANCE IS TRUE. Fuck those rude arrogant mother fuckers. I will never step foot in that stupid fucking country so long as I live. And I hope to god some stupid Frenchie comes to the USA to ask me for help and I can laugh in his face and tell him to go eat a baguette. I will delve into this more in a bit. We started by taking a bus to San Sebastian which looked absolutely bueatiful but we were only there for a short time. We then took an hour long communter train to the French city of Hemendaya to get to our high speed train to Paris. Once in Hemendaya the drama begins. We get in line for the information booth slash ticket booth with our French cheat sheet in hand so we could try and speak to the ticket person. We asked him very nicely in French if he spoke English to which he responded tha the didn’t. A lady in line behind us helped translate for us so we could get the tickets. What a cocksucker, I wanted to strangle him. He was the biggest dick head ive ever met. First it takes about 30 minutes to even get our tickets and this guy tries to overcharge our group by over 200 euro. And halfway though the whole ordeal the stupid fuck switches to PERFECT ENGLISH. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH FRENCH PEOPLE, WHY DOES EVERYONE PRETEND LIKE THEY CANT SPEAK ENGLISH. Finnally after the dude overcharged us so much we decided that it was way too much extra money and that we were just going to go back to Pamplona. We went around an located an internet café to check the price of trains and planes to Paris, we even tried to rent a car and we were going to drive it to Paris, we found out that our hostel had a 48 hour cancellation policy so there was no way we could cancel the reservations. We headed back to the train station to purchase our tickets and this time around we got a very nice person. He helped us out and didn’t try to overcharge us nearly 400 american dollars. He toldus to walk across the border into

spain

for cheap food to eat. It was kinda cool that you can just stroll into Spain from France on foot, and we took some pictures of us right on the border. Oh yea, and our plan was to take the highspeed train and arrive in Paris Friday night before 11. Since we chose just to wing it, there was only first class available and the only available train was the night train which meant we would have to suck it up and pay for a night at the hostel without staying in it. We ended up staying in the shithole of a city Hemndaya from noon till 10pm. When we got on the train the seats sucked and it was a long ass ride with not very much sleep. We sat in the back with some backpackers from Florida, but couldn’t really chat that much because every person on the train kept giving us dirty looks just for talking , oh well tomorrow ill be in Paris hopfully things will be better, I hope to god that Parisians aren’t more rude than the Hemndayas.

"best european media class ever"

2008-05-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Thursday was an awesome day in class. Karl our professor was assigned the task of lecturing one of the universities classes on European media. But Karl does what Karl wants. So instead he brought about 150 euro in markers and crayons and some mural paper and we headed out into the hallway to make a giant mural. It was a sight to behold, about 40 kids from all different countries working on one mural. There were no guidelines, people were tracing each other and drawing pictures it was so much fun, the kids from the University said it was the most fun they’d ever had in a college class. The evening was just spent chillin in the apartments because we had an early train to catch to Paris the next morning. We went to this little bar with some of the kids I met the night before called Las Portales, it was again a tiny little bar but the scene outside was even better. People were just partying in the plaza drinking bottles of wine and yelling. Which reminds me, the booze here is so unbeliably cheap .You can get a bottle of wine from the Navarra region for 78 euro cents, and it tastes better than anything you could ever find in the states. 6 packs of Heineken are only 3.50, suck on that Teddidinho. Oh yea and the other day I was at the University’s gym for the first time and failed to remember that here in Europe they measure things in kilograms, not pounds. So I thought to myself, what the hell why do these weights only go up to 20, and started tossing some plates on the bench. I laid down to bench and took the bar off and literally crushed my chest, I felt like the biggest idiot this guy who worked there had to save me. So just an FYI next time you ae in Europe lifing weights, 20 pounds does NOT equal 20 kilograms, biiiiiiiiiiig difference. I went to the grocery store and bought fresh bread, mozerella, ham, and pepperonis and made some amazing sandwiches, while I was at the grocery store I noticd something, a bunch of the workers were wearing roller skates and would skate around the store helping people and restocking shelves, pretty funny. Well we are headed to PARIIIS tomorrow so it should be an interesting day. I had no interest before I came here to even step foot in France but I guess it is kinda stupid to come all the way over here and not go there.

new friends

2008-05-25T14:27:00.001-07:00

Wednesday was the UEFA finals Manchester versus Chelsea and according to the locals it was supposed to “make the superbowl look silly”. Maybe we were in the wrong spot but there was no one out. We started with some pitchers of sangria at Hemmingway’s favorite café and then moved around the Plaza Castillo to find a bar to watch the game in. The game was actually really good as it went to a shootout. After that everyone went back to the apartment except for Kaelyn, Sarah and I. We headed to the casino bar from the other night and stayed there till about 3:00. We were walking home and we heard some bass bumping like a club was real close. We saw this door with glowing blue lights flashing and approached it. When we opened the door ther was about 20 students in there going absolutely nuts. Everyone cheered for us when we came in, it was a really small bar probably the smallest bar ive ever been in. we stayed there till around 4 and here is the best part, during closing, the bartender took everyone’s drinks and started pouring them in plastic to go cups. So everyone went outside and we were partying in the street for another 45 mins. I started talking with some of the people and found out they were all in the same study abroad program but from different countries. I made a few new friends and got some numbers so I could hopfully meet up with them later in the week.

cute PIX!

2008-05-21T08:12:00.001-07:00

just a few pictures i thought i'd share....

heres a pic of the campus at the university of navarra

the scenic old quarter of downtown pamplona

the city hall....a rocket is launched here to start the running of the bulls and they are released from their pens about 50 feet from where this picture was taken

SENEGAL CAN YOU HEAAAAAR ME

2008-05-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

So much for an uneventful night. We went to our first Tapas bar, or Pinchos as they call them in the Basque region here in Spain. It was relaxed and actually it turned out to be a famous bar. It is right on the street that the running of the bulls takes place and is located right on the famous corner Estrella. This corner is famous because it is when the first stretch of the run ends and the second begins and has a 72 degree turn that causes many of the bulls to fall down. The walls were littered with the most amazing black and white photos of the festival over the years. Including a picture of Ernest Hemmingway WASTED laughing hysterically with is shirt off holding a man in his arm who had just been gored by a bull and looked more dead than alive. I tried Sangria for the first time here in spain, what a deee-wish-is drink! It tastes like fruit punch and you can literraly feel your self getting slower after each sip because its so potent. After we were finished with our Pinchos and Sangria we headed to the famous Plaza Castillo. It is famous because Ernest Hemmingway wrote the majority of his literature in that very Plaza, stayed in the same hotel every night, drank him self stupid everyday at the same Café Iruna that I was chilling at. There is even a life-size statue of him leaning on the bar inside. We headed inside to this small bar that was playing dance music. We got a taste of a drink from Pamplona called Callimocho or something which is a 50/50 mix of red wine from the Navarra region here in Pamplona and Coca-Cola, so tasty. We stayed for a bit, but this guy who must have been at least 40 would not stop harassing the girls with us and so we decided to leave.

We left and half of us chose to stay out and have a couple more beers. In Pamplona everything closes early except from Thursday to Saturday and we kept asking locals for directions to a bar that was open, finally we found one that was open and we went inside and it was a very different scene. Every single patron of the bar was black, which is so rare because I have yet to see more than 4 black people here in Pamplona. The bar was a little bigger than your average dorm room and had maybe four bar stools. They had a bench in the front which consisted of a piece of wood perched atop 3 kegs. I started chatting with one of the guys there and found out it was a hangout for people from Senegal. Being the curious person that I am I inquired more and it evolved into a full blown conversation in Spanish for well over an hour. He was the first person from Senegal that I have ever talked to and I was the first person from America that he had ever spoken with. So we shared stories of culture, music, women, sports, everything. They are extremely fond of our rap music; Tupac, Nas, DMX, Wutang, Kanye. He spoke 3 languages, French, Spanish, and his native tounge of Apto or something of the sort. It was amazing that I was able to communicate with him so well, my Spanish is getting exponentially better every day here, the improvement is incredible. Just watching TV in Spanish does wonders for your vocabulary. A bunch of the guys were in different hip hop bands, and they rapped for us and I got their numbers because they frequently hold concerts at this Bob Marley bar here in Pamplona. Im pissed that I forgot to take any pictures with them, but I will meet them again and have another opportunity to snap some pictures.

first day of class

2008-05-20T05:24:00.001-07:00

The University of Navarra is about a 15 minute walk from our apartments. We met up at 9 and headed there for 930 class. We met with the dean and got our usernames for WiFi and got a lay of the land. We got a tour of the communications building, very cool. The actual design is a giant cube, 3 floors, very modern looking. I made the mistake of not eating breakfast before we headed over there and was basically struggling to survive during the whole tour and shebang. There was an American there that worked for the international program and he gave us some good advice about which bars and clubs to go to in the city and where to find free WiFi here in the city, it is actually very prevalent. We headed to the cafeteria where I finally got some grub and then headed to the computer lab where I proceeded to surf the internet harder than ever before. Its really sad how addicted I am to the internet, I feel like a crack head scratching my neck trying to find WiFi. Oh well, I got a lot done, I booked my hostel in Barcelona for the weekend after next, and there happens to be a giant electronica festival that weekend so it should be a great time. I also booked my hotel in Ibiza, which I am so stoked for it was only 25 euro per person a night and this place has a giant pool bars the whole kit and caboodle, so I absolutely cant wait for that.

People are talking about going to France this weekend and I think I might join them, they are trying to go to Paris but I would really like to see the south of France, in particular Nice and Marseille which is on the French Riviera. I have a couple of girl friends in London who I might talk to about going to Nice this weekend with them instead of Paris. After all was said and done I came back to my apartment and took a nice long siesta. Which before I forget, they take very seriously. From the hours of 2pm – 4pm no store is open except for restaurants, and it is a special time to relax and no business is done. So I came back and took a nice nap, actually the first real sleep ive gotten here, the city is pretty loud at night it was a rough night last night. Im trying to figure out my railpass situation for when this program is done. It is so confusing because there are so many passes, unlimited travel in one country, regional passes, 3 4 and 5 country passes and for each of those there is many different options on how to use it. I think im going to get a 3 country pass of Italy, Germany, and France. That way I can fly to Florence take the train to Germany where I want to see Munich and Berlin. I have a good family friend that is staying just outside Stuttgart right now and we talked today about meeting up for a night or two in Munich as she is only a 2 hours ride away. Everyone is out grocery shopping right now and Im pretty sure that we are going to cook some dinner and head to some bars, I need to get some beers in me so I can sleep a bit easier, I feel jetlagged still a little bit. Well im anxious to eat dinner, I will update this thing tomorrow morning if anything special happens tonight otherwise ill take it easy for the night. Adios.

sunday sunday sundaaaaaaaay

2008-05-20T05:19:00.001-07:00

Well we only have two keys for three people so I got shafted and locked out of my apartment and had to sleep on the couch in the girls room. It was actually pretty fun a bunch of us stayed up till about 5:30 just hanging out. The next morning I woke up around noon and everyone was still sleeping, actually everyone in the girls room slept till about 7:30 pm, and my roommates slept till 4:30. One of the girls was awake so we decided to try and venture into town to get some food. Wow what an ordeal. First of all like I said before nothing was open. We stepped into this Irish pub waited for like 10 minutes to try and order only to find out that they don’t serve food until 7pm. So we proceeded to go across the street to McDonalds. After eating my 9$ value meal we headed into town, it was about a 25 minute walk. The downtown area is very pretty, exactly how I pictured Pamplona. Here where im living at, everything is very modern like a normal city, but as you venture into town and enter the old quarter where they do the running of the bulls its like a step back in time. We walked around for about three hours just exploring and actually found a really cool plaza. It was the size of a football field with a giant stone gazebo like structure that had to be hundreds of years old. Surrounding the plaza was about 10 bars, kinda like Campo de Fiori in Rome for those of you have been there. We went and visited the Plaza Del Toros which is where they run to during the running of the bulls festival, I am very excited to see an actual bull fight it should be very enlightening. After wandering around we headed back to the apartment and got ready for dinner.

All of us in the group went to a hotel down the street to eat dinner on MSU’s tab and it was pretty good, not very Spanish, but good. After that we headed back to the apartments to talk about some study abroad stuff for the trip and then opened a bottle of wine and hung out till about 3. Im laying in bed right now and we have class at 9:30 tomorrow and we get a tour of the University of Navarra where we will be studying for the next two and a half weeks. Apparently there is a dress code there and were told not to wear sneakers or athletic shorts? What the hell, we had no notice im not trying to throw on a button down and dress shoes at 9:30 in the morning to go get a tour, so who knows what will happen because I didn’t bring a lot of very dressy clothes. Oh well tomorrow should be fun I need to go to bed now. Adios

loud americans

2008-05-18T09:19:00.001-07:00

Interesting night. We started by having some cocktails and wine over at the girls room and went out around 11:30. We tried to find the center of town where you would think everything was poppin but we had no luck trying to find “downtown”. So we settled for the first establishment we could find that looked like a bar. Obviously we were your typical drunk Americans, the loudest people in the bar, we were catching a lot of dirty looks from locals who didn’t take to kindly to blacked out college students. The beer is fantastic, but expensive. I only had four or five beers but it was more than enough, the beer is strong as shit. The first bar we were at closed at around 2am and we headed across the street to another one till about 3:30. I spent only 20 euro, which is really good I guess but not with the exchange rate, what is that like 35-40 dollars? Apparently Sunday is a big deal here, as in NOTHING is open. I was hoping to go buy some eggs and bacon and a cell phone but it looks like I wont be able to do that. We have reservations at 8pm for dinner and that was the earliest they would seat us. Its really interesting how late they eat here, you will see little kids running around at like 11 at night, I would love to know how late those little kids sleep in. Well im going to wander around town until I find some food, and maybe some internet. Im fiending for some ESPN and some CNN right now, and all they have on tv is horse racing, Spanish anime, and handball tournaments. Hasta Luego…..

welcome to pamplona

2008-05-18T09:18:00.001-07:00

Here is a photo from my window.

Wow, just arrived in Pamplona. What a cool city. Its just outside the Pyrenese mountains so there are rolling hills everywhere. The city it self is very clean and our accommodations are out of this world. The girls are staying in what I would call a 5 star hotel and there is three of us guys posted up in this BRAND NEW apartment with a view of the city. Our plane to Pamplona from Madrid was delayed about two hours and I ran into Karl our professor and about four other students. After getting settled in we headed to the grocery store to pick up some food and liquor. Man o man, 97 euro cents for a bottle of the best red wine ive ever had??? Are you kidding me. My backpack got soaked in transit and all my stuff smells like a wet dog. To make matters even sweeter, apparently Europeans don’t use dryers? News to me, but I wish I would have known that after trying to look for dryer sheets for 25 mins at the super market. Also there is no febreeze here, everyone loves febreeze you can spray it on anything how can you not have that here. We were all starving so we picked up some frozen pizzas, wine, and a liter of vodka at the super market. Im gunna be taking tons of pics and im going to post select ones here and then link the galleries. Its Saturday night so you know what that means, first night out on the town. Should be interesting to see how drunk I get and how much money I spend, definitely going to be a learning experience. Well im about to shower, which reminds me, in the shower there is a GIANT opaque window that you can open up. So hypothetically I could be completely naked just chillin in the window. The window is massive, like from my knees past my head, so ill definitely be clowning up there. Stay tuned……

Buenas Dias!

2008-05-17T03:27:00.000-07:00

Just touched down in madrid, airport is nothing fancy but you gotta love the goofy euro fashion styles. I swear people here will wear their armani sunglasses inside even if the lights went out. Just had my first taste of some spanish Cafe or coffee. talk about a kick in the mouth, this shit at the airport puts starbucks to shame. Its pretty overwhelming being in a country where no one speaks english as their primary language. You always see other languages posted on airport signs back in the states, and you never realize how helpful it is until your trying to navigate through a giant airport with 12th grade spanish. The flight here wasnt too bad, i popped a sleeping pill and basicly dont even remember the flight here, i woke up to the sound of the captain telling us to prepare for landing so i am rested and ready to go. The flight to pamplona is only an hour so im gunna try and snap some pictures out the window if i can of some spanish landscapes.

I should arrive in pamplona around 2pm which will give me ample time to set up shop in my apartment and explore a bit, i have no idea if there is WiFi at my apartment so i will see what i can do to update this little mug once im in Pamplona.

Adios

goodbye usa

2008-05-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Welp, first off i cannot believe how much stuff i could fit into that backpack. If i didn't pack like such a jackass i could have easily fit my entire suitcase into that backpack, but you know you need to have at least three pairs of nikes and 97 t shirts when your traveling the globe. I had just enough space, and i can actually fit my laptop into that little man purse of a backpack. Which reminds me; hip hip hoorray for HP, i shipped them my computer on monday, and they had it back to me thursday morning, so it looks like i will be able to bring it after all.

I am leaving for the airport in 90 minutes from this post, I will try to update this with pictures from Madrid when i land there but i dont know if they will have free Wifi, regardless i'll write some shit down and snap some pictures.

See you all in 93 days.

so much to do

2008-05-13T23:40:00.001-07:00

Friday is fast approaching and I feel overwhelmed with things to do and people to see. The AC power port on my laptop broke the other day and I had to send it in which means I won't have my laptop until the 21st at the earliest. To make matters worse it will be around 150$ to ship it international with a date range of 10-20 business days. My brother came in the clutch huge by telling me he'd let me take his laptop abroad and use mine for the summer when it came in the mail. Mad props on that Conner. I still have mad bills and parking tickets to pay before I leave and it seems that something new is always added to the list of things to do.

My plane leaves at around 5:30 on Friday and I arrive the next day in Madrid at around 11am. I then fly into Pamplona ending up there at around 1:15pm. Tomorrow I am heading back up to school to bid my final farewells to the homies still posted up in east lansing. I will update with some pictures on the bags I decide to use. Im thinking of bringing a good medium sized backpacking backpack and then a medium sized roller bag. I think im going to use a daypack as my carry on so it will be very small not big enough to fit anything major except my sketch pad, ipod, water, pencils etc etc.

Travel Itinerary

2008-05-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a pretty accurate calendar of where I will be for the next 93 days, I am hoping to stick to this unless something pops up that catches my attention.

May 16 - May 29: Pamplona, Spain
May 23 - May 25: San Sebastian, Spain
May 30 - June 1: Barcelona, Spain
June 4 - June 11: Madrid, Spain
June 10: Toledo, Spain
June 12 - June 15: Ibiza, Spain
June 17: Segovia, Spain
June 18 - June 20: Madrid, Spain
June 21 - June 23: Florence, Italy
June 25 - June 28: Berlin, Germany
June 29 - July 3: London, England
July 4 - July 6: ?????? 4th of July weekend
July 9 - July 10: Stonehenge / Bath, England
July 11 - July 13: No Plans yet
July 14 - July 16: York, England
July 17 - July 20: Amsterdam, Netherlands
July 22 - July 28: Edinburgh, Scotland
July 31 - August 3: Dublin, Ireland
August 4 - August 7: London, England
August 8: Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 9 - August 12: Prague, Czech Republic
August 13 - August 14: Vienna, Austria
August 15 - August 16: Salzburg, Austria
August 17 - 18: Geneva, Switzerland

welcome

2008-05-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

beginning may 16th i will be leaving for ninety-three days to travel and study around europe. I am going to try and update this blog every day of my trip with pictures and stories. stay tuned...