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?

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!

So, to catalog my adventures: I spent June 1st in Nice (which is mostly in the last post), then I went out with the Australians/New Zealanders/South African again. I ended up leaving my hostel to go to the common area of the hostel I stayed in the previous night becuase the hostel I was in (Hostel Meyerbeer) was pretty dead. Had an interesting night that involved swimming, being approached by countless drug dealers on the beach, and watching a fight almost break out between the Aussies and some rough guys that went dumpster diving for bottle weapons. I took off after that and headed to my hostel but on the way I was propositioned by a prostitute. When I got into the hostel, a rat ran over the edge of the stairwell and took a 10 foot fall then kept on running. My key wouldn’t open the door to the floor, so I wandered around a bit and found a homeless lady sleeping in the stairless then booked it back to my floor and kept on trying the key. Eventually the door opened and I got to sleep for a few hours before the train to Paris.

On June 2nd (Tuesday), I tried to catch a 6am-ish train to Paris. It turns out they only allow 20 people with the Eurail passes per high speed train in France. Pressed with not going to Paris, or coughing up 115 euros for a ticket to Paris, I paid the 115 and caught the (EMPTY) train to Paris. Granted, it filled up as the train made stops, but I estimated the train could fit around 800 people and it was nowhere near full. Definitely felt ripped off by the pass at that point.  I checked into my hostel in Paris, then set out for the Eiffel tower. Ended up climbing the stairs to the 2nd platform (as high as you can go on the stairs) and took a lot of pictures, then came back down and rode the metro back to the hostel so I could catch the 7:00 dinner. At dinner, I met a few people and we all ended up going out to the Eiffel tower to see it at night and to see it sparkle. Didn’t end up making it till around 12:30, but we laid out at Trocadero with some wine and basked in the view. And it was cold (I have no warm clothes with me). After the tower, we went to some bars but didn’t really find anything and wanted to go back and get to sleep. The girls I was with wanted to stay up all night because their flight left at 7am, but everyone else was really tired so we caught a cab back and ended the night then.

On June 3rd, I did the free walking tour of Paris. Saw most of the sights in the main area of Paris (I never made it out to the Moulin Rouge / Montemarte district) including the Louvre, the Champs du Elysses, le Arc du Triumph, Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, etc. After the tour, I ran out to the catacombs then went to the Louvre. After the Louvre, I walked all the way down the Champs du Elysses to le Arc du Triumph which ended up taking a really. really. really long time (it always looked like I was almost there, but it is so massive that it was really hard to judge). Along the way was the location of the Guillotine during the French Revolution. After the Arc, I hit the metro back to the hostel and met up with another group and did the Eiffel tower trip again.

On Thursday, I went to Versailles and spent the day out there, then made it back to the Hostel in time for dinner and did the Paris pub crawl. A group of people studying abroad from Michigan State University also did the crawl that night and it ended up being pretty crazy.

Friday, I caught the train to Amsterdam. Spent Friday and Saturday in Amsterdam and decided I had had enough and went to Berlin.

Got to Berlin on Sunday around 11:30pm after one train got cancelled and one train got delayed 65 minutes. The upside of this was that I got to have a Belgium waffle in Brussels, Belgium. Ended up checking in right behind some guys that I hung out with the whole time I was in Berlin. Spent 4 nights in Berlin (through Wednesday night) and then caught a train to Prague. Had a 6:30am train, so I didn’t go to sleep and just stayed up all night hanging out with people and doing Kareoke with people from all around the world. Turns out the train going to Prague isn’t very comfortable, and I didn’t get much sleep as a result. Picked up some Czech money from the ATM… $2000 to be exact. The ATM spat out 2 $1000 bills. Yeah, pretty awesome. It’s like $100 USD though. Czeched into my hostel around 12:30 and it has been raining basically since I got here (which is why this post has gotten so large). I’m only staying here two nights so I need to get out and see/do everything there is to do in Prague - hopefully the rain goes away soon.

So, an overall view of my trip so far: Rome -> Venice -> Milan (ugh) -> Florence -> Cinque Terre -> Nice -> Paris -> Amsterdam -> Berlin -> Prague. (Or Roma -> Venezia -> Milano -> Firenze -> Cinque Terre -> Nice -> Paris -> Amsterdam -> Berlin -> Praha, if you will.) And coming up next: Vienna -> Munich -> ??? -> Dublin. I’ve got a return flight out of Dublin on the 28th that will put me back in KC at 6:30pm on Sunday night so I can make it to my first day of work on the 29th at 8am

And, finally. My health insurance ran out on June 1st because I am no longer a student but I hadn’t started my job. I picked up some temporary travelers insurance last night that covers serious illness and stuff like that, so if I get sick I get to live again. Yay.

Now that I know my trip is extended, I have downloaded hostel info for even more countries. Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Paris – I’ll be spending 3 nights there, then moving on to Amsterdam. From there, I want to go through the central Europe area and hit Berlin/Munich/Prague/Vienna. I don’t know how long that will take, but if I have time/money I will fly to Greece and spend some time there, then fly to southern Spain and work through there. Like any other plans I have though, they’re not official until I have booked the hostels/tickets… so things may change. Starting to wish I had sprung for the global rail pass and not just the pass for France, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland.

Last night I hung out with a bunch of Australians and New Zealanders. It was funny to hear them say “Hello ladies” because I am used to hearing Elliot say that with an Aussie accent. It was fun!

Today I spent the day out on the beaches of Nice. The Mediterranean is cold, and it wasn’t very hot today but I still took a swim!

The first hostel I stayed at was run by two people and they were really friendly and helpful. The second hostel felt like a hotel, but was actually cheaper… both rooms I stayed in had their own bathroom/shower, were air conditioned, and had flat screen tv’s in them. They had a cool bar at the top of the hostel and you could see out over all of Florence from up there.

Anyways, I need to work on finding a place to stay in Cinque Terre – I should have booked yesterday. Yesterday, there was a lot of availability for the weekend, but now there is nothing. Hostelworld is only showing 2 hostels there, so there may be more, or there may be cancellations… and I read on wikipedia that there are a lot of cheap apartment type places you can rent for the same price as a hostel.

I’m in Florence right now, and I’ll be here one more night. I think I am going to head to Cinque Terre which is a bit south of Genova. If Garmin extends my start date, then I may stay in Florence an additional night depending on how the rest of this day goes (I plan to rent a bike and explore some of the destinations that are a bit further away from the center of the city).

Anyways, I’m having a really good time here in Europe even though I still haven’t managed to break out of Italy – the people are great, the food is great, and there is so much history all around you. If I trek towards Cinque Terre, that will put me near Nice, France which has nice beaches and is on the way to both Paris and Barcelona by train.

Ciao!

Enough with the doom and gloom, I had a blast in Rome and Venice over the last few days. I would post more, but I am running out of time and I wouldnt be able to write enough in the time I have left. I have met a ton of people everywhere I have gone. I am really looking forward to Paris! After that, depending on whether or not I am coming home on Sunday I want to go to Florence and to Barcelona. I will probably spend a few days in Paris though because I want to visit Versailles also.