Ice Bergen

So went back to the hostel took a nap then awoke around 11 to go peruse the city. Bergen, not surprisingly considering its name, is surrounded by 7 mountains and a whole lot of lakes. It is in a fjord so technically its on the ocean but its a ways from open water. Explored the famous fish market where youre probably more likely to hear spanish or basque than you are to hear norwegian. The old city, the hanseatic part at least, was built by german merchants that at the time made up a sizeable population within Bergen. Really cool, alot like the buildings in gdansk which isnt surprisng considering they were both hanseatic. Took a look in the castle which got blow up pretty bad in world war 2 due to an accident. A fishing boat from nazi occupied netherlands was delivering explosives to the german troops in bergen and it blew up, on hitlers birthday...which is why they were so suspicious. But it turned out to be an accident (Otherwise the norwegians would claim responsibility today, but they dont). Within the castle was a museum about the occupation and that was really cool, although I felt like they were hastling the allies in part of it...The germans were using Bergen as a U Boat repair base and of course the brits were bombing it, in the museum it was like they were mad about the fact that norwegian mechanics working at the sub pens were being killed. Im sorry but if ur going to further the war effort youre kind of fair game. If youre really anti german youd be skiing around the mountains ambushing them with weapons the brits were dropping for them, not fixing uboats. Ok no more rant. The hostel people were american students and I befriended them so I ate dinner with them a few times and hung out and watched movies with them in their apartment which was a nice break from the normal hostel routine. The following day I climbed the highest mountain in Bergen named Ulriken, which I think is a pretty cool name. It was a beautiful day and at the top I could see from the glaciers in the inland all the way to the ocean past the archipelago of the fjord. Very awesome. Decided I kind of want to take up hiking more seriously (and camping) back home. Stayed another day and kind of relaxed before heading toward copenhagen via oslo and malmo sweden. Over all I had a really great time in Bergen. Next stop Copenhagen.

Oslo Start

Although trondheim was nice, it was too rainy and cold for me. It was officially my most northern point that i reached in the trip. Apparently they didnt hear that it was summer. So down to oslo i went. Everyone told me meh it wasnt that good, but I liked it. It wasnt like a party town by any means, but its like washington dc, lots of monuments and castles and good stuff to see, lots of free museums too which is a definite plus. Saw the scream (famous painting by norwegian artist) and a couple others, did a viking tour, saw the viking boats that they found preserved, so cool...these things were so sturdy that they look like u could still sail them, even today. The palace was cool, as was the fortress...i think they shot at german ships from it when they invaded in ww2. Cool city, just not for party animals. Only stayed one nite and headed to bergen the following nite train. Got off the train groggy at 6 am and saw a girl holding a sign for a hostel, it said cheapest in town and was recommended by my guide book so i said hey lets go, so she was happy cuz it was cold and early and i was happy cuz i had a bed. Bergen next post!

Trondheim-lich maneuver

Well I took the train from stockholm up through the woods and wilderness of northern sweden. Unfortunately the 2nd class seats were all filled up so i bought a bunkbed onboard...its weird i think if u buy on board u have a better chance of getting one all by urself, which i did while other people were in with 3 or 4 other people. All well. So I slept and woke up every once and while and saw the scenery which reminded me of Maine. Eventually we got to the border station and had to change trains at about 10 in the morning. It was freezing and raining, so cold...but got on the norwegian train and headed to norway. First stop was hell, yeh thats what it was called. And it was cold in hell, really cold. Kept going and got to trondheim, it was cold there too and drizzling but i managed. It had an almost venice shaped layout, with a "grand canal" sort of river winding through diving the old city and the port from all the newer stuff. Surfed the web in the library for a bit then headed out and explored. I had intended on meeting up with some norwegians i had met that were from trondheim but it turned out they got back just the nite of the day i got there so it wasnt happening. Looked around, was reminded of lafayette overlooking the delaware at this one riverbend. Beautiful old church, and some really cool old wharfs that looked alot like the ones in gdansk, maybe trondheim was also hanseatic? dunno. I know bergen was. Well I look about for some more but decide the cold is making me angry (reminiscent of Madrid the first time) so I got on the train to Oslo. I never get reservations which makes the train dudes unhappy but they let me go...which i did again for that. I got to oslo, found a hostel, checked in and headed out into the city everyone told me to skip....

Stocking up in Stockholm

Ok so technically Im in Oslo, but since Im behind on these lets talk about Stockholm. Got into stockholm and after a night of partying on the boat didnt realize we had arrived, we had been there for like an hour in port before I eventually sidled off the boat. Didnt know where to go to get to town, had a map and it looked like I was pretty far away. The finns are smart they know to put the passenger terminal right near the middle of everything, the estonians too, but not the swedes. So I huff it from the port to town since I dont have any swedish kroners, all the scandinavians except for the finns use their own money and not the euro, what a hassle. So eventually get into town and see a hare krishna parade. They are giving out candy and cookies so I tag along and have some fun with them for a bit. They invite me for free food but I decline and head off to find a hostel. Get to one, starving as all get out, and the sign says (all booked sorry). Dejected I go sit in the park and decide which hostel to try next. Something, however, tells me to at least ask inside, couldnt hurt. So i do, and they have a bed! Plus free pasta. So I cook up some pasta, use up whatever free food (left by travelers) that i can find and eat a big ole meal of pasta and cheese. Go on the internet and get worried because Av writes me that her car cut out on I-95 and becky writes me if Ive heard from her. I get worried, go to the sun sentinel online, really had a scare, but she was ok, scary though, she had to push the car off to the side on her own. After all that excitement I went and relaxed and fell asleep in my nook, my bed was like in a cave with no sunlight no nothing, so it was definitely good sleeping. Spent 3 nites in stockholm total, saw the city, got pissed when they wouldnt accept my student ID at this one museum and boycotted it. It was actually pretty hot in stockholm. The guidebook was wrong though, there were not very many free museums! However I dished it out for the modern art and architecture museums, very very cool, saw warhols marilyn monroe and some other stuff by him, not to mention all kinds of other cool stuff...If i forget to mention it later, I also in Oslo yesterday saw the scream by munch and some other stuff by him, I really like his work, madonna by him is really good, and some of the other ones are really sad. Anyhoo, yeh I think thats it for stockholm, reminds me of boca, all rich people trying to be beautiful, whether they are or not...I dont know how they afford their lifestyles but I never see anyone working, weird. Caught a train out to middle of nowhere northern sweden on my way to Trondheim Norway, woke up every once in a while and thought I was in alaska with the forests and waterfalls, very beautiful, had a whole cabin to myself too which was nice. Ok thats all, gotta go to Bergen, ill tell you about Trondheim, Hell, Oslo, and Bergen, next time.

Helsinki in a Blink

So headed over to Helsinki, took a nap on the ferry before arriving..it was a 2 hour ride. Got into helsinki and its alot newer than most of the European capitals since it was founded in earnest until the 19th century, but its still cool. They say that the Finns speak with architecture because nobody can understand their language....thats about right. The main street is like 20 letters long, and some of the words look like they just added vowels next to each other for fun. Like Jaanooriaasiinakissii sorta thing but with the letter with 2 dots over them. Its funny, but I was sorta of used to it because it was the same thing in estonia. I took a look around and was starving so I hit up the supermarket, I never eat out anymore because Ive learned the value of a euro goes much further in a supermarket in europe...got some food then got lost then got found then found the hostel i was looking for. More like hotel. Free full buffet breakfast included and the rooms were huge with no bunk beds, my room only had 3 beds in it, so spread out. It was nice. First nite a guy was snoring so I whipped out my complimentary ear plugs all the way back from spain courtesy of Renfe (Spanish Train Company) and slept like a baby. Woke up and saw all the sites, contemplated getting a free bike but they were not surprisingly almost impossible to find so I walked instead. Basically did the whole city in one day, went to the cool church that looks more like a greek temple, went to the FREE money museum..ha the curator was funny, he was so into money and stuff and I was like the only guy in there because tour groups never go to free museums..so i played around looking at the old money and then played a game where you pretend like youre in charge of the interest rates...I had some serious issues with deflation, like money increasing in value...actually worse than deflation..all well. Then I went to the City Museum which talked about the city all the way from the founding to the present with all kinds of artifacts, very cool. Saw another cool church later that was built into like solid granite, so it was kind of underground, but the dome of it has like glass so it was amazing inside. Hmm what else, walked up the waterside to a park with a monument to a famous composer, but cant remember who, it had like all these big metal pipes as a sculpture that resembled a huge organ. Walked back past the cool art museum, the old olympic stadium (there were kids playing soccer so I stopped and watched), the theater, and then back. Met a couple of Belgian guys that gave me the scoop on the belgian beer scene, so I am totally prepared. The next day I checked out some of the citys supposedly famous works of architecture but wasnt impressed and then happened to meet up with a bunch of Basques that I had met in Tallinn totally by accident at the train station when I was getting my Eurail validated. So since they just arrived I sorta gave them a tour a bit and then bid them farewell, very nice guys btw, hadnt met a basque before them, then I went to my cruise ship and got ready to go to stockholm. Holy crap they love their duty free shops.....

Im going ALL-INN in Tallinn

So I amazingly woke up in Berlin to catch my flight at 830 to Riga, I didnt know what to expect from Riga but it was super nice, the airport is great and boy do they love their flowers. The latvia lat (currency) is on par with the pound so just about the strongest in the world, which sucks but whatever. I paid 30 pence for a bus ticket to the center city and went down to Funky Fun Franks Hostel which is right on the river. They had a room and they gave me a free beer so It was nice. Riga is stag party central for the UK which is both a good think a bad one. Party town. The city was really beautiful though, 40% of the downtown is art nouveau and the old moat is now a great park with paddle boats and everything. I went to the museum of the Latvian occupation which included German and Soviet. Amazing, I love history so yeh. Well stayed 3 nites there then caught a bus to Tallinn. Tallinn has alot more investment, lots of really cool new buildings plus a much larger and beautiful old town (called ALL INN). Much more touristy, lots of tour groups from cruise trips, fewer strip clubs and crazy people getting drunk.. Went to the occupation museum here, very different, seemed like more Estonians volunteered for the German army than in Latvia. Beautiful country, would love to go hiking but currently not equipped for such. Gonna catch a cruise-ferry across to Helsinki tomorrow and then onto Stockholm on the 13th.

Berliner for the Fourth of July

Well I finally made it around to getting to Berlin, I tend to stay longer in cities that ive met good people and gdansk was one of them. Two swedish bouncers, looking all tough but really nice guys when it came down to it, plus a couple of other people in the hostile that were cool. One was an older swedish guy, then there were 2 swiss girls, and then there was a norwegian family, and then a bunch of insane scottish guys (i dont really like them anymore), and then 2 kiwis that live in london, and then 2 rockabilly norwegian girls, 2 girls from Penn, and finally a nerdy Harvard guy that writes for Lets Go europe (the guidebook im using mostly). Ok well I was going to leave after 2 nites but stayed 4. The second nite the scottish guys, one in particular, got too rowdy and the swedes tried to break up a fight amongst them. The cops got called and the swedes got arrested cuy they are the ones that look all tough. They got out and the scots paid the bale but they were pissed. Luckily the scots left the next morning. I was convinced to stay, mostly because the swedes wouldnt let me pay for booze, they would go buy polish vodka and we would hang out drink all day and then go out at nite. Really good vodka, and cheap too. Well there was a festival going on near gdansk and beastie boys and the roots and bloc party and bjork were the primary headliners. That nite the swedes went and saw beastie boys but i wasnt really feeling it so i took a little nite walking tour of the city which was pretty nice. I hadnt paid for a room so I stayed up all nite.....Anyways the next day I was going to leave again but the Norwegian girls that had just arrived got me drinking and we headed out with the 2 kiwis, the lets go guy, and an obnoxious aussie that just wanted to score pills. So we all headed off to the festival, it was massive, and weird to me cuz it all at nite, not day bands. The day i went was Bloc Party, Bjork, and LCD soundsystem each with a 1.5 to 2 hour set. All 3 were amaying, Bjork was insanely amazing live, and LCD soundsystem is really great..they used to get alot of play at crush went i used to go. Plus the beer was pretty cheap considering, only 2 euro for a half liter (do some conversion..). Anyways it was great, so much mud it was like woodstock-esque. Argh this is a long entry, afterwards headed back and snuck into the hostel and sleeped illegally...meh, left in the morning (even though the festival went til like 4) and got a train to Szechin, former german city now in extreme western poland. Got in at 1130 PM and had to kill 6 hours before train to berlin. Basically gave myself a nite tour, the city is pretty run down but it has some merit. It sucked that the weather was so drizzy but i managed, took little naps on rock walls every 30 min then continued my tour. Came full circle and caught the direct train so i could at least get some sleep. 1 hour on the train, passed out the whole way, conductor didnt even bother asking me for my ticket. Got to ostbahnhof in berlin at 7 am-ish and apparently the train union is on strike, dont really care though since im catching a plane out. So wandered around a bit, found a hostel around noon in mitte, and then got to drinking and making friends. Eventually went out with 2 danish guys and saw a rockabilly show from a band in new york called O'Death. They were great and it was funny, the venue was called White Trash Fast Food but looked like a pimped out chinese restaurant. Very cool, just not enough room for me to dance...The Danes are so enamored with the music they want to learn banjo and bring back the style to the Copenhagen music scene. So last nite got back, had the best sleep of my life cuz its cold and i was so tired, tonite im going to 'A Twisted Independence Day' festival show thing with a rodeo & BBQ and more bands (Also O'Death again) Ok im out, next stop RIGA!

Its Gdansk, not Danzig

well I am in the city where world war 2 started when a german battleship bombarded the fortress at westerplatte just north of Danzig/Gdansk. The city is really cool, alot like what I would think Stockholm or Copenhagen would look like, prolly because its a baltic kind of architecture. Went out with a bunch of scottish guys, big mistake, it was fun but lets just say I got back to my hostel but didnt quite make it in. I kinda passed out in the bushes for a few minutes before polish cops were like readin me the riot act, it was all good cuz i was actually at the hostel, just outside in the bushes...I went inside fell asleep and that was that. Im pissed at myself, after all the trouble i went through to get a contact lense case I forgot it in krakow. Well a few days ago I went to temple for the first time in my life, I even wore a yamika (sp?) and everything. It was the main temple synagogue in krakow and im glad i was with the foosball team because i got to krakow right in the middle of the jewish festival, and it was awesome. I saw this amazing jewish rapper from montreal called dj so-called. So fun, especially since it was at the synagogue which has been all fixed up to its former glory. After that I went to Auschwitz the next day. So sad, so many people died, although I felt like the polish government accentuated the deaths of ethnic poles....maybe its just me. They at least had a chance, 90% of the jews sent to aushwitz birkenau got off the train and were immediately gassed and cremated. 1.5 million people died there. Each of the nations that had jews (primarily, although roma and others too) sent to auschwitz were represented by their own exhibits in blockhouses...the hungarian (the country with the most jews that died there) exhibit was the most moving, with italys being the worst(borderline stupid). In many of them I was the only person in there because tour groups skipped them, so that made it more moving. By far the most disturbing thing was the pile of hair, about a tons worth, that the nazis had cut from the women. They used it like wool for textile factories to create cloth, the germans had invoices and everything for it. The shoes left over from the people were also moving as I searched for pairs of the same shoes, some of which were children shoes. Its hard to believe this could have happened only 60 years ago...and that people (regular ss soldiers) could do it without asking themselves wtf. Brainwashed zealots. Mengele was also working here, doing disgusting experiments..Ok I dont even want to go further in detail, its a place that must be exerienced, even if its somewhat touristic, maybe go early or late in the day or off season to avoid the clamoring tourists. Maybe tomorrow to Berlin or Poznan.

Krakow goes my back

So finally escaped the clutches of my globally represented foosball team. Left budapest, leaving behind anna-leia from switzerland and went to wien (vienna) with aaron from canada and roland from the netherlands. Only stayed one nite there though, played foosball at this pretty chill bar until 4 am with a guy from arizona....its weird the 4 of us (with swiss) had played every combination of teams and we all knew very well how each other played, it was difficult playing with a new guy. I mean in budapest we also played some locals (roland and aaron won but anna-leia and I lost our game by 1 goal) but we were always playing doubles with someone we knew so it was basically the same. Well I hopped on the train to Krakow and now thats where I am, I didnt get to see much at all of Wien but I figure Ive seen it prety well last years so meh. I huffed it through the city which was not fun, but hey every euro saved is a euro earned. Now im in Krakow and prolly gonna go to Auschwitz tomorrow, its raining today so im doing laundry (gasp!). Clean christopher, yeh right. Ill sweat up my clothes in no time dont worry. Ok so after this im gonna head to Gdansk cuz im a history nerd and thats where ww2 started and the reasoning for germany attacking poland to begin with. Then i think im gonna head to poznan and then berlin where im gonna try and celebrate 4th of july at the embassy, they better have something fun going on. Then 6th I fly to Riga, Latvia and my Scandinavian/Baltic leg of the trip begins!

Bratislava and back to Budapest

Well Bratislava was so much fun, the cities that I meet great people in tend to be the best. I met a group of people here plazing foosball (sp?) and they were headed to budapest so i ended up going back to budapest, in order to compensate im prolly just gonna do prague later once im back in germany..ok no time out.

Dubrovniki, Do the Split, and Zagreb a Bite to Eat

Sorry in advance if my y and z are mixed up a few times...stupid keyboard.

Well today and yesterday I am in Dubrovnik Croatia. It is a really cute city that reminds me alot of Venice except no canals and a big wall surrounding the old city. It unfortunately was swarmed and still is to a degree by tourists....Haggled my way into a room that normally goes for twice what im paying....she told me not to tell the other guests and when they ask i say i canttalk about it...Took a bus from Split croatia, the conductor sort of guy was a real prick, he screwed 2 women from england out of like 40 euro because he lied abour the price and pretended to not speak english. What an asshole. Technically we drove through bosnia so i can say ive been there...i regret not being able to go to sarajevo especially after what ive read about the bazaar and the mosques...fricken romania was like a time drain, it took forever to get anywhere there and getting out took like 15 hours to budapest. sigh some other time. Also regret not b eing able to go to belgrade. Anyways... Split was ok, i got a whole apartment for 3 people normally all to myself and basically just caught up on sleep. The city was just ok, i intended to catch the ferry from split to dubrovnik but i missed it cuz it left a half hour earlier than i had read. Before THAT i was in Zagreb which is absolutely amazing. It was the cutest city, I loved it. It had no tourists to speak of, it was small enough to not have to run around like a crayy person and they were having a festival in the streets for free that was really fun, lots of music and shows and performers. Tomorrow afternoon Im flying from dubrovnik to bratislava because i cant waste anymore time, i have to get through prague and poland so i can be in berlin by around 4 july....maybe checkpoint charlie will have something for it? Ok well im out, im surrounded by brits and irish and lots of asians. Cheers.

By single I mean being alone in Europe and not having to do tour group stupid stuff. Just clarifying.

Being single in Europe is amazing.

Romanıa-Bulgarıa-Turkey

Well Bucharest....well Im not goıng to lıe ıt was pretty much a dump. They have alot of potentıal, so much great archıtecture and grand boulevards too but communısm really destroyed alot of the 18th century vıllas...ı guess they were too western or whatever, maybe ın 10 years they wıll have gotten theır act together but rıght now ıts just kınd of depressıng. My hostal was really nıce, but as soon as you step out ıts lıke wow. Its almost lıke they are strugglıng wıth theır ıdentıty. Amerıcan musıc and TV ıs pervasıve and most people speak some englısh, large suburban developments and shoppın centers are goıng up outsıde of town but the people dont really lıke amerıca. They even have bbq chıcken shacks everywhere open 24 hours as fast food, but ı have to defend the actıons of my presıdent everywhere ı go. As soon as I tell them I am from amerıca ıts lıke a conversatıon wıll start up ın romanıan about bush and amerıca and ıraq, ıt sucks because ım suddenly assocıated wıth all that. Hell ıve done more to get rıd of bush (by votıng) than they have, so ı dont know why ıts lıke a problem. Anyways, I had to convınce a taxı drıver that bucharest wasnt dırty and that ıt was nıce, even ıf ı knew otherwıse. So I caught a bus to Istanbul a couple days ago, took 12 hrs but ıt wasnt too too bad. Bulgarıa was very mountaınous and forested, we passed a golden domed church ın the mıddle of nowhere that was really beautıful. Got ınto ıstanbul and ıt was surprısıngly chılly consıderıng ıt was hot as hell ın bucharest. what a breath of fresh aır though, ıstanbul ıs so much nıcer ın every way. Alot has changed though, they put up bollards and cars no longer park on the sıdewalks (unlıke bucharest). The tram ıs really nıce and new and yeh everythıng was great, i watched the sunrıse over sultan ahmet mosque and the golden horn as the call to prayer went out. It was cool, ı realızed that ı was never up that early (dawn) when ı was ın turkey before. Went to the grand bazaar and haggled a guy down 500 USD from the orıgınal offer so I thınk ı dıd well. The guy was sweatıng so bad by the tıme we completed the sale. I was fırst customer and they always want to get the fırst sale of the day, almost no matter what, and ı could tell thats what ıt was comıng down to...no matter what. Got a haırcut and shave later on, really good. It was hılarıous they cut my beard before my mustache and ı looked funny wıth a full grown mustache, somethıng ıve never had before (always beard). So now I looke lıke 15 years younger, everyone thought ı was ın my 30s before. Well today ım headıng back to bucharest and then on to belgrade or budapest (way too many B cıtıes). Ok thats all for now

Cinque Terra & Florence

Ok so after La Spezia went to Cinque Terra...so amazingly beautiful. I hiked the 5 hour trail from the first city to the fifth, i definitely like number 2 (in my head and the direction i went, west to east) best. The first hike was really hard and they got gradually easier til the last one was really just walking along a sidewalk. They are built right into the cliffs with step terraces of grapes, olives, oranges, lemons, etc...the trail smells of flowers and herbs and fruits, so good. Plus the ocean is lapping at the rocks 200 feet down, calmly the day I was there but Im sure in a storm it gets crazy. Well left there, didnt have a room so i stayed up all nite just doing whatever and headed to pisa in the morning. slept some on the train and went down to the pisa tower. Everyone says it sucks but i thought it was really cool, it was really ornate and beautiful and oh yeh slightly tipped to the side...who cares right? It wouldnt be famous if it hadnt been a failure so heres to the designer! So got picture and headed to florence.. I gotta say florence has been one of my favorite cities so far.. So much history, so much art, so much walking, so many street vendors. I love it here. I stayed two nites (tonite is my second) at this hostel that has the most incredible breakfast, plus free internet. awesome. Saw all kinds of art today, including david by both michaelangelo and donatello. well prolly gonna go to the main museum tomorrow morning but as it is 2 am now its time to say goodnite, prolly head to venice tomorrow afternoonish, spend 2 nites there about and then head down to rome before.....ROMANIA!

In Italy, Recap of the rest

Ok well I am in La Spezia today. Gonna go to cinqueterra I guess.

In the past few days....Ok so from Sevilla I went to Cordoba, from Cordoba I went to Granada, from Granada to Madrid, from Madrid to Toledo and back. Then I caught an overnite to Lisboa, then I caught a train from Lisboa to Valladolid. Then I caught a flight from Valladolid to Bergamo (near Milano). Then I caught a train from Milano (yuck to that city) to La Spezia. So I saw all the good stuff in Spain (dad...) and now I'm in Italy and going to see whats supposed to be really cool 5 little towns on the ocean built into the cliffs. After that pisa, Florence, back up to Venice, then train to Rome and then flight Rome-Bucharest Romania. Italy seems much more hectic than Spain generally. I saw communist posters here, which I think is funny, its like how many failures does communism have to have before people think "yeh i guess that doesnt work so well" Then again from my experience with the craziness of the train system....maybe a little top-down planning could do them well. Maybe these communist italians are really just frequent train commuters? Ok well I dont really have too much time to chit chat, internet aint cheap. But anyhoo thats the rundown.

Loooooong few days

Well today I am in Sevilla. Yesterday I was in Madrid. And before that I was in Alicante for a few days. Stayed with Amy (who I met in Barcelona Sants) and her roommates, all from Mizzou. Great people, showed me the sites, went to the beach, drank and carried on. It was a good time altogether. Not much to see there except the castle. Its actually pretty cool to have mountains and beaches in the same place. I climbed up to probably 3/4 of the way to the top of the castle, pretty cool, apparently left over from the moors and then converted. Caught a train to Madrid but then it started to hail (yeh weird) and storm really bad, the train had to stop because the rail lines were swamped ahead. So I had to stay on a train all nite...ce la vie. On the plus side, I got free food and drink, which in my book made it worth the trouble. Got to Madrid and it was cold and rainy and I was pissed at the weather and had like no sleep. I napped in the train station til around 10am and then went to prado and reina sofia museums. From what i could tell those are the highlights of the city, plus i wanted to get out cuz of the crap weather. Saw some great artwork, guernica, las meninas, the triumph of death, lots of dali, miro, picasso, el greco, etc etc. I liked reina sofia alot better than prado. I mean come on, how many pictures of the crucifixtion and the virgin mary can you take! Reina sofia is all modern art, with many different media used, so it was more my style. Well took the 8pm train madrid a sevilla. Got here and wandered around, lost like. My map didnt have where the train station was so i was like wtf. Finally made into the old town and was like man i need some beer, so i got some and felt alot better. Found the pension recommended by my travel book and the guy was real nice, even at 1230 at nite. Got my own room for 20 euro and passssssed out. First nite i paid for a bed mind you, not too bad. I might have rode out my couchsurfing, its really hard because i need internet to ask and i need internet to find out if they say yes later on.. This morning (luckily checkout was noon so i got to sleep in some.....but seriously wtf there were like cannons, yes they sounded like cannons, going off in the morning) It was so weird, but i was like all well, what can you do. Went to the Catedral de Sevilla, guinness world record for largest area in the world for a catedral. I guess its the third biggest but has the largest area. Saw christopher columbus´ tomb and a big picture of saint christopher right behind him. Pretty cool. Met some UF students in the tower, lets just say I could tell they were from UF. Then went to the alcazar, i think they said the oldest palace still in use by royalty. THe gardens were really beautiful.. Now probably going to catch the train to granada since my eurrail is still valid from last nite (travel after 7PM counts as the next day). Alrighty well thats all for now.

Valencia

Well I made it to valencia yesterday around noon, rode a bullet train but couldnt sleep cuz there was a crying baby in front of me. Got here walked around a bit and checked out some sights, followed a brit tour group for a while since they no where they are going. Finally found an internet cafe and got my host´s phone number and gave him a ring. They work at a hostal so I went down there said Hi locked up my stuff and went back out. They had to work til 12 so no point waiting around there til then. I went down to the park that was the riverbed, so cool. It has a little bit for everyone, skaters have a skate park, bikers have a path, runners, sleepyheads like me, lovers, picnics, futbol, everything. I went along it towards the ocean and there is an area called ciutat de las ciencias y las artes. It is so cool, they have these buildings straight out of the future with water features all around them. This compared to the old city that I had checked out earlier in the day, surreal. Well so anyways, went out to a bar last nite, had a belgian beer that was really good, 10% alcohol, then came back went to sleep. They had another couchie (as they call us) that they have had before from australia. My hosts were from new zealand and england so it was a veritable oasis of anglophones in valencia. This morning had a bocadillo and played some frisbee out in the park. Headed to alicant prolly tonite then on to madrid.

Well, I tried to get to valencia yesterday but all of the trains were full, so i got a ticket for today at 9. I didnt really know what i was going to do so i just sat in the train station almost the whole day doing absolutely nothing, waiting for them to kick me out or something. So i was sitting there eating my cheap crackers and a girl that looked distinctly american walks by where im sitting looking like a lost puppy. She wanders around the train station aimlessly for about a half hour before i get up and ask her if she speaks english, dont want to be presumptious after all. She does and she is american and is lost. Shes studying in alacante down the coast and is meeting up with some of her friends from U Missouri that are studying in Italy but got an apartment for the weekend in Barcelona. Since I have nothing to do and I know the city reasonably well to help her, I help her get to the apartment, through 2 metro transfers and a starbucks. Finally we find it, its real nice and im thinking hey maybe i can get a floor surf for the nite. I go in and there are 25 people in there, craziness. Theyre all very nice but I felt like a sweaty hippy that was dropped into a frat-sorority social. Well after a bit everyone heads out to party and the ¨3 amigos¨go buy like 20 bottles of wine (wine is really really cheap here) and everyone goes down the road with their bottles drinking merrily. We ended up down by the harbor where there are a string of clubs, it was cool, all of the music was really lame american music, but we partied anyways. So I ended up getting no sleep, the 3 amigos passed out way early and stumbled back to the apartment and everyone else tricked back around 6 or 7 am. when i got back i was laughing so hard with the 3 amigos, they are so fricken funny i swear. They were only slightly affiliated with the rest of the crew from missouri and it was easy to see. So went down to the train station, got on my bullet train, slept somewhat then wandered valencia for a bit before taking a well deserved siesta in the park that as far as I can tell was once a river...

Adios Barcelona!

Well today I leave for Valencia, Barcelona has been great. Yesterday was kinda a sleepy day, but towards the end it got better. Went biking with Pedros roommates bike. Riding with so many people on the sidewalks is not easy. Went to a museum that was free but very very cool. They had on display photographs by an american photographer. Then came back to the apartment and there was like 10 people here, introduced myself, tried to speak spanish as much as possible. One of the guys said he was going to try and move to Miami to do hairdressing so I told him to marry an American porque no necesitas una visa. He laughed and said it was a good idea. 3 of the guys including one of the roommates turned out to be italians from Sardinia. For some reason I was understanding their itaian much better than the weird catalan-spanish that everyone uses here. Its so mixed I get confused. So they were going to eat and go to a jam session so I tagged along. The roommate said he has never had an english conversation so I basically tried to talk to him in spanish and he tried to talk to me in english. He was probably better at english than i am at spanish....The jam session was pretty tight, like 5 saxophonists a pianist a guitarist and a drummer just playin jazzy kind of music. Well thats basically it, hasta luego

El primero dia de Barcelona

I ended up writing 8 pages in my paper journal, unfortunately I doubt that this will compare in length. I arrived at Barcelona airport at 9 around 0830 which for everyone in the US is 0230. I got my backpack and headed out, got a tren and ended up getting off at the main train station rather than riding it a little further into town (accidentally...) So there I was in the normal part of town, cero turistas. I went into this parc, i think it was called industrial parc, it reminded me of the failed parks of America....grand hopes and plans but no real return. People still used it somewhat, but I doubt it was what its planners expected. So I got my bearings and head southeast towards the old city. The newer old city had great architecture, traditional rectangular blocks with wide avenues (sometimes diagonal to the normal street plan). It is always great to see the majority of people walking or on bikes. They have bikes that you can borrow and ride around and return to a different borrow area, and people love them. Alot of times the sidewalk or sidewalks are wider than the actual street. Well anyways, I had the busiest day of my life, I saw nearly the entire city, all on foot, then met up with my couchsurf at 2000 (10PM). He is very nice, we went out to a really cool bar/restaurant/club with one of his friends and the dj that he knew. We ate, danced, had alot of fun, and left at 0130. I crashed so hard, I was out like a light, and didn´t wake up until 1330 when he was back from work during siesta. He lives in a beautiful apartment right in the old city where everything is walking. In fact hes on the biggest shopping strip I guess, which has apartments over it. When people think of living in Europe this is the kinda place they think about.

First Post

Well still in America at this point, packing and getting ready. Pretty nervous right now, but ready I guess. First stop is Philadelphia and then of to Barcelona! Pictures will be up of Barcelona in a few days on my picasa site, til then.....Cheers!