• Friends from around the world
• Italia
• France
• Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague
• Vienna & Munich
• España
• Dublin

If you don’t want to wait on me to go through the pictures and add them to the journal (where they’re in context and make sense / have stories behind them…) you can head over to my picture site and see them all! My pictures are located at http://pictures.benmurrell.com – check it out! Quick warning though: I took a lot of the same pictures, especially in dark places. This is because I didn’t figure out the high-ISO setting until about half way through the trip, so I was struggling with holding the camera really still during long exposure times. I’d just keep taking them until I was happy with the picture… which is why you’ll see several of the same basic picture in a row. Also, it took me a while to perfect taking pictures of myself Enjoy!

The transcriptions are backdated in the blog – I’ve set the publish date for each post as the actual date I wrote the journal entry. This just means that you’re not going to see the transcriptions showing up at the top of the blog – they’re more towards the bottom. For a quick listing of all of the entries, you can view the EuroTrip 2009 Journal category.

Interesting facts about the flight from Barcelona to Dublin: in Reus (where my flight left from) my visa section got looked at for the first time ever. They kept asking a lot of questions about why I had no entry stamp so I told them where I came from and when I came to Europe and stuff like that. It didn’t make sense to them that Italy wouldn’t stamp me upon arrival. They finally let me through and I got my first stamp in my passport. Then when I got to Dublin, I was asked the first time “what is the purpose of your visit?” I told them I was flying back to the US on Sunday, so they gave me a 24 hour visa. Woo, another stamp! Also, I almost missed the flight, which would have been an expensive mistake. The train didn’t leave as regularly for the airport as I thought and I didn’t check the time table beforehand. The flight left at 2:05. I got to Reus at 1:30. Got a taxi to the airport, which got me there at about 1:45. Checked my bag literally a minute before it shut down, and lined up for RyanAir’s visa check stand which took forever because of the people in front of me. No line at security – I made it to the gate at 2:00 and got on the plane at about 2:08. Phew. But I made it!

Anyways, I had an amazing time in Barcelona – it may end up being my favorite city of the trip. I met back up with Andres and Chris who I met in Berlin, I had great roommates, and I met a lot of really cool people every day. The only downsides were the constant stream of drug dealers and velocitutes in the streets at night… And the guys on the beach saying “fanta agua cola cerveza beer”, “coco coco coco”, “massahee, massahee”, and my personal favorite, “dadu dadu dadu dadu dadu dadu dadu” (this one remains a mystery to me). The velocitutes are the super aggressive prostitutes of Barcelona. Mostly they’re out to pick pockets – they grab everyone that walks by and are super annoying. Same with the dealers – they’re also out to steal your stuff and are quite agressive about it. In one night I had my butt grabbed/slapped by a velocitute and had two dealers double team me with a high five let’s dance move by one while the other wrapped his leg around mine. I made it home with all of my stuff thankfully… Unfortunately on my first night one of the guys on the beach with us during the Dia de San Juan festival had his pants stolen, and my Argentinian roommate had his wallet stolen (which he promptly recovered by breaking the guy’s nose – lost the cash in it but it still had the cards and stuff).

I’m sad to go home tomorrow – I’m looking forward to it, but I’m having the best time of my life here, and there is still (after 39 days) so much to see and do, so many people to meet, so many things to try… This just means I’m going to have to step it up back at home

I leave at 9:20 Dublin time and get to NY (JFK) at 11:55. I have 4 hours there, then I leave for KC and will land at 6:30. My job starts at 8am on Monday. Yay?

On the train, I met Felipe from Brazil on the train – we were sharing a room. He didn’t speak English, so we spoke exclusively in Spanish for about an hour – He’s from Brasilia (the Capitol of Brazil) but is living in Spain. He said I know a lot of Spanish compared to most people from the US that he has met. He also cracked some McDonald’s and Coca-Cola jokes on Americans, but I thought it was funny! We talked about a lot of random stuff – where we’re from, what he’s doing in Spain, about America and how people seem less friendly/personable there, and about Brazil, about Rio de Janeiro and its crime. This really brought the Spanish back – I had been using it a bit in Seville and Granada, but this really gave me an opportunity to practice, and it was good!

Funny story – the night before, I was a bit congested and slept on my back which apparently made me snore. When I woke up in the morning, I remembered a small girl pushing me and telling me that I was snoring – oops! It was so distant that it seemed like a dream… I asked Ilya about it later and it was her! So I woke up to a small Swedish girl beating me with her sheets from across the aisle (we were both on top bunks). She cracked me up when she retold the story – “I looked for anything I could throw at you, but I couldn’t find anything, so I rolled up my sheet and hit you with it. After one time, you stopped for a second. Then I hit you again, harder. I was so tired, I’m so sorry for being a bitch! Then I hit you again and you woke up” this is the part I remember… she said “Sleeping on your back is not allowed! You are snoring! You need to roll over!” So I did – hearing her describe it was hilarious though, how I was “so obedient” – ha! I had her teach me a bit of Swedish for that one, so I can now say hi and bye in the language that I still can’t identify!

[[Commentary]] Granada is one of the few cities in Spain that still does free tapas. As you order drinks, they progressively bring you better and better food. And it’s good – not like chips and salsa… like real food.

The last post I wrote, I wrote from Prague. That was 10 days ago. I will briefly describe what I’ve done and where I’ve been since then (yay iPod keyboard).

My path was: Prague, Vienna, Munich, Seville, and Granada. In Prague it rained basially the whole time I was there. I went out on a pub crawl and met a local who gave me a tour the next day (thanks Zuzana!). That night I went out with the same guys from the night before. The next day I left for Vienna by bus. I got there around 5 or so, and met My roommates then I met some more people in the bar at the hostel. We ended up going to a club called Chelsea which was really cool and packed. Ended up meeting a local who gave me a tour after we left at 6 (thanks Julia!). I slept till 3 then got up and went out to get some schnitzel. When I got back I ran into my roommate Simon and we decided to go see an opera. It ended up being a ballet, Anna Karenina. It was good, but I had never read the book so it was hard to follow.

After Vienna, I caught a train to München (Munich). On my first day I walked out to the Oktoberfest fairgrounds and saw the giant Bavaria statue. I walked home then it rained. I met some people from Florida, then some people from KU that I had run into in Florence. Went to the hofbrauhaus with them, then came home. The next day, I went to Dachau, then ran into some guys I met in Prague. Hung out with them and some aussie girls, then went to the hofbrauhaus with them and a guy from Munich.

On my last day in Munich, I went on a bike tour of Munich. It stopped off in the englisch gardens at the Chinese pagoda… Good times. Afterwards, I did laundry and ran into some guys I met In Berlin. We did the hofbrauhaus (again) then went to the kultfabrik club area which ended up being pretty lame. Got back at 4ish and slept till 7. Got up early cause I had a flight to Seville at 1145. Got to Seville around 5 and checked out the giralda tower. Went to a tapas bar and then a flamenco show, and then to some bars with a guy from Uruguay and 2 guys from France who were cruising in their yacht around Europe. The next day in Seville I went to all of the sights.

After Seville, I went to Granada. And this 10 day post just went to 8 or 9 because I’m tired of typing on here! More to come later!

[[break]]

I arrived, checked in, and showered. I came out of the shower with pants on and met Dana (from Dubai) and Kendall. They were going out to a club that night and invited me along. I went downstairs, got a kebab, and met Ilya (Eeevra, from Sweden) and Margaux (from Paris). They were friends that met in London. I chatted with them while I ate, then went back to my room. I met Oliver (from Munich) – he was going to come with us also. I went down, had dinner, sangria, and sangria (somewhere in the middle, I met people from Edinburgh who confirmed that my name is indeed Scottish) with Oliver, Dana, and Kendall. I tried to get a group to go get tapas and then the club – I ended up forming a big group but it had “pink shirt Brian” (annoying guy from New York who was trying way too hard to act alpha) in it and the girls didn’t want to be around him. We split off into a smaller group (Me, Oliver, Dana, Kendall, and Natalie (from NY)). We went to a bar and got free shots but no tapas. The power kept going out there, but it was still pretty cool. Afterwards, we went to a club about 2 blocks from our hostel called Granada  10 (it used to be a movie theater) at about 2:00am. No one was there. We stayed anyways, and around 4:00am it was finally getting good. Danced with the girls, got really tired around 5:30am and walked home – while I was there I talked with Oliver a lot about Spain and Munich.

[[The next day, Oliver said that people were still lined up to come into the club when he left at 6:30am - and that the sun was up by then too. Jeez people!]]

I came home, met my dormmates, and then went on a tapas tour. I got mini-eggs (Quail) and ham and peppers and sangria. I met Hanna and Annie from New York while having tapas, then went to a Flamenco bar with the group. I had more sangria and watched some Flamenco dancers. Afterwards, I talked to Hannah, Annie, and some Aussies. Even later, I went outside and talked to Katherine from Vancouver who will be in Kabul in Barcelona when I am. In the same group, I met Thihaud and Matthew (from France) who own a yacht and were cruising along the coasts of France, Spain, and then into the Mediterranean down to Morocco. I also met Andres from Uruguay. We all went out to some bars afterward but it was mostly young (15ish)  Spanish kids. We got a cab back, and I went and booked Kabul in Barcelona when I got back (There is a festival in Barcelona on the day I’m arriving, so I wanted to be sure to have a place to stay). I eventually got to sleep around 4:00am.