nice was nice....but monaco was nicer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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.......

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

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

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

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.