France, Brussels and Amsterdam

I failed to mention in my previous post about a key happening on the journey from Barcelona to Chateauroux. There was a french guy sitting directly behind me who was the loudest breather I have ever heard in my life! On top of that, he breathed through his nose and to add more insult and thus maximum amplification of sound, he had a nose the size of an small-medium apricott. I almost lost it. Not even my iPod could fully block out the sound of his breathing. Luckily that was only a 4.5 hour journey.

In Chateauroux, Audrey and I drank a lot of French wine. There was one local wine called Touraine which I really enjoyed. In addition, I ate so much French cheese and fresh baguette to last me until my next time in France. I never knew cheese could be so good. Anyway, I went to her school and met some of her students and teachers. Then, for about 25 minutes, I played piano for the music teacher who is a blind french man. He played for me as well. What I found most shocking and impressive was that he played classical music. I feel that Jazz is easier to play when blind because one can just improvise (i.e. Stevie Wonder\Ray Charles). Whereas, with classical, one has to read the music and all the corresponding details that accompany the notes. He played the 1st movement of the moonlight sonata and just missed 1 note. Other than that and the cheese and wine, we went to a nice dinner where I had a french steak or ''boeuf'' as they call is.

Brussels was good. We went to the Grand Place and has mussels and frittes (freedom fries with mayonaise). We then proceeded to walk around and view the entire city while eating Belgian waffles. We decided not to do any museums as they take time and since we were only in Brussels for the day, I wanted to see the city. We also saw the Mannekan Piss, which is the little statue of the boy peeing.

Amsterdam was ___________ (fill in the blank). But in addition, there were 16,000 crazy Scotts because of a soccer match between Scotland and Holland. As you can imagine, tons of Kilts, drinking, and singing. I learned a few Scottish soccer songs but mainly, they just sing whatever comes to mind.

Pictures: coming...

Pictures

I haven't figured out how to share multiple albums. I followed the Snapfish instructions but it's not working. if anyone has any advice, please let me know. Here is a link to each of the albums...the best i can do for now.

Seville - http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=255709894/a=159650618_159650618/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Cordoba - http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=255709895/a=159650618_159650618/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Granada - http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=255709896/a=159650618_159650618/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Madrid - http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=255709897/a=159650618_159650618/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Barcelona - http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=255709898/a=159650618_159650618/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Spain - Barcelona

Barcelona was different from every other city I have been to in Spain. It doesn't have all the touristy museums and palaces like all the other 5 cities. Instead, it has areas to see like the Barri Gotic (Gothic Neighborhood) and a famous street called La Rambla which has lots of stores and a market. Gaudi is the famous architect here who designed their cathedral in the Barri Gotic and the Sagrada Familia which is still being built. They expect this cathedral to be finished in 2026 but we'll see. It is ridiculous. So bizzare with lots of colors and latin words like "Sanctus" everywhere. Eventually, there will be 12 towers for the 12 apostales. I arrived on Sunday and because it was the Semana Santa (holy week) end and a sunday, everything was closed. I walked around the Barri Gotic and found the ancient sinagogue my aunt, Andi, had told me to visit. It was tiny but very freaking old! they gave a little tour of it and they told us there were only 5,000 Jews in Barcelona. however, not all of those are practicing. he said there still is a lot of anti-semitism and the media is very anti-israel/america: classic europeans. I walked around a bit more and got solicited for sex by a pretty attractive woman. She said, "let's F@#$!" to which I responded with a unbelievable look on my face. She then said, "habla espanol" (speak spanish?) so I said yes. then she said, "bueno, vamos a follar" which is the spanish version of the above. I told her I had to meet my friends so she said "so let's do it before you meet them." I said no thanks and she said you're welcome and I walked off. Very funny and first time that's happened to me. I heard Amsterdam is even worse so i guess it was just a warmup? then went back to my hostel where I met 4 girls who were from UNC in North Carolina doing a semester abroad in Madrid. they gave me some advice. then I met 2 more girls from Notre Dame. we went out for dinner and a drink after. The next day, I went to another free walking tour of the main areas. I learned a lot. For instance, a little plaza i wandered into looked like nothing so i left. the next day on the tour, i learned that in that same plaza, Gaudi's chapel that he liked to attend every sunday was there. In addition, Franco told Mussolini to bomb a school opposite the Chapel to get at the parents fighting against him in Barcelona. Finally, on the wall connecting the two, there were bullet holes from the firing sqauds during the Spanish Civil War. I then met up with the girls and a friend I ran into from Madrid and we went to see the Sagrada Familia. Afterwards, we went for a light dinner and had another drink and walked around. After seeing all the cities in Spain, I have to say that Madrid is my favorite, followed closely by Seville and then Granada. I liked them all but if i had to choose, that would be it. Now, after 5 trains and 13+ hours on them, I made it to Audrey in Chateauroux, a small town 2 hours south of Paris.

Spain - Madrid

I arrived in Madrid on thursday evening and was very excited...simply because I was spending more than one night in a place. Luckily, I was spending 3 nights in a great hostel with some cool people. I met a guy who´s my age. he lives in dallas, went to st. marks, my rival high school, and is starting his first year at UT San Antonio med school in the fall so we might even be classmates. friday morning, I went on a free walking tour of madrid. it lasted 3 hours and was great. however, about 5 tour guides who claim to have a certification were heckling us and telling our guide, who didn´t have a certification, that we were "ignorante" and he was a "guia falsa" (false guide) among other stuff. they were very loud and the one woman wanted to fight some people. funny stuff. eventually, they left and the tour got better. that afternoon, me and a guy i met from new jersey went to the Palacio Real and the Plaza Mayor. Both were really cool and it would be kinda nice to live in a palace as ornate as that one. We went into the Real Farmacia (Royal Pharmacy) and I saw the grossest medication I have ever seen...Esperma de Ballena - Whale Sperm. I don´t know what they used that for, where they would apply it, etc, all i know is it freaking gross. after that, we sat at a bar and had sweet vermouth. pretty good but not my favorite. that evening, we got a few beers at "alimentaciones" (little store) which were 500mL for 1 euro. We then went for a Tapas tour in which we went to 3 different bars, ordered a drink (beer then wine then sangria), and got a tapa (small portion of local food) with our drink. Overall, a good time. The next day, we went to the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofia Museum and the Parque del Buen Retiro (Park of good Rest). All were really good but as far as the museums go, I prefer the Prado. It has more classic and religious artwork where as the Reina Sofia is all modern art ranging from Picasso to Miro. That night, we had more beers from alimentaciones, then had a 10 euro dinner which included a beer, loaf of bread, a starter, a bowl of paella, a steak salad and fries, and a desert. I was stuffed and it wasn´t a great meal but we were hungry and it did the job. Then we played drinking games at the hostel with sangria and I went to bed around midnight as I had to get up in a few hours for an early train to Barcelona. I am now in Barcelona and am leaving tomorrow morning for France so I´ll post my time here in a few days. peace ya´ll

Spain - Cordoba and Granada

In Cordoba, I decided to only spend the day there and get an evening train to Granada. I took the bus to a local square and walked down to the famous Mezquita (mosque). That was really cool seeing as it has a built in cathedral right in the center. Check out the pictures when I get a chance to post them. It was cool because I was there during a church service so I sat in the pews and prayed to Jesus...not really but it was an experience. I even thought about taking communion and then I decided that some lines are better un-crossed...don´t want to go to hell if it in fact exists. I then went to the Alcazar where Ferdinand and Isabel said goodbye and wished Columbus good luck on his journeys. The gardens were also nice. In the Juderia (Jewish quarter), I went to an old sinagogue, apparently on 1 of 3 left in Spain, looked at some shops and markets and went into a torture museum of the methods of the Inquisition. For lunch, I bought a roll, some cheese and sat in a park and read my book for about 3 hours. Then I went back to the gardens in the Alcazar and read for another hour just relaxing. I finally went to another touristy tower called La Calahorra which was lame but gave a great view. Then I took a train to Granada at 7:09pm

Granada - Last night, I was on the bus going towards my hostel that I hadn´t booked yet when I saw an American girl. We started talking and realized that we were both going to the same place. However, she told me that the place had moved and sure enough, she was right. So she saved my ass. We got a room and went to a bar and had a beer and tapas. The next morning, went to the Alhambra Palace together. It was enormous and we spend about 3 hours there. Then we went to the Albaicin (Moorish quarter) which was up on a hill. It was quite a hike to get there but we got to the top. Great view of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada mountains covered in snow behind. Then I went back and chilled for a bit before getting on a 6pm train to Madrid. I am now at my hostel in Madrid and it´s really nice. I´ll spend 3 nights here and then off to Barcelona.

I´ll post the pictures of everything when I get to Audrey´s place in France

Spain - Malaga and Seville

I´ve been in Spain since Monday and originally I was supposed to fly into Seville. Unfortunately, I booked my ticket through American Airlines who booked a ticket through Iberia who bought 40 seats on the flight which is run by Click Air. Long story short, Iberia somehow cancelled my reservation even though there were seats available on the plane and I was holding my paper ticket in my hand. So instead I took a later flight to Malaga which is about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Seville. So here´s what I´ve been up to.

Monday (16th) Night - Malaga - I arrived and took the bus to the main road. I found a really shady hostel...one that looked like I might be taken away in the middle of the night to some warehouse and never seen again. Luckily that didn´t happen. Instead, I landed up walking around the main square, had a beer at an outdoor bar, and met 3 arabs who were atheists. We were chatting in Spanish for about an hour and then they wanted me to come with them to a club about 15 minutes away. Seeing as it was midnight and I had to get up at 6am, I told them I would meet them there (they really wanted me to go), and intead I went to bed. The next morning I took a 7am bus to Seville

Tuesday (17th) - Seville - Got to my hostel and it was really nice. They had computers to use and the rooms were great. I had a room with 3 other people but since I arrived in the middle of the day, they weren´t there. So I went off on my own to all the sites. I walked to the big Cathedral which was massive! It has 44 chapels and was made to be so incredibly ridiculous and ostentatious for a reason. That reason was to make future generations think the original builders were in fact crazy. I bought a big loaf of bread for .35 € and had that for an early lunch. Whilst I was in the cathedral, I somehow met 2 Americans: about a 45-year-old mother and her 20-year-old daughter who was studying abroad there for the semester. We landed up walking through the rest of the cathedral together and then had lunch. Had tapas and paella and sangria, and the mother paid for it. Then I had a tiramisu ice cream which she also paid for. I highly recommend this type of travel seeing as it is the cheapest. We then went to the Alcazar (Royal Palace) which was nice. I picked an orange from the myriad of orange trees there and when I ate it several hours later, it was incredible. Anyway, at the palace, the girl asked how big my memory card in my camera was. I took it out to check and then I tried to look at my pictures, they were gone, erased, borados. I made a quick run through the palace again and re-took all my pictures there but lost the ones from the Cathedral. It´s not really a big deal seeing as I wasn´t in most of them and you can see them all in a book. I went to a flamenco show that evening which was cool. Before the show, there was a guy playing classical guitar and singing with a pianist playing and a poet reciting his own verses. Very relaxing and cool. When I got back, I met my roommates who were already in bed. The one was a Korean guy and the other 2 were a couple from Canada. Long story short, they said "ey" and "aboot" so many times I almost lost it. The next day I took a train to Cordoba.

England - Part 1

So I arrived in London around 6:00am last Friday from Johannesburg. Unfortunately, there were no other seats available for me other than a middle seat. So I decided to take a page out of my older brother's book and buy an African sleeping pill. I slept for about 7 hours of the 11 hour journey. I spent the late morning and early afternoon with my English aunts and their friend, then I met up with my cousin Robert in London and we went to a pub. We had a few drinks before meeting up with his friends in a place just outside London called Clapham. I learned very quickly that English beer is much heavier and stronger than American light beers but overall it was a good night. The next day, I went to watch Rob play rugby, then he and I went to his old boarding school, Oundle, which is about 2 hours away from London. We met up with my other cousin, Andrew, and my aunt and uncle, Tess and Don, at a pub for dinner where I proceeded to eat the largest meat pie I have ever seen. The next day, we went back to Oundle to watch Andrew play a field hockey match and Rob play another rugby match. Then we went back to Harpenden where they live and had some really good Indian food. On Tuesday, I went to Birmingham to visit my other cousin Michelle. She showed me the university and we went to workout for a few hours as well. Then we went for a "curry" (more Indian) where I ordered a Lamb Vindaloo. It was incredibly spicy but I loved every mouthful. I am now obsessed with Indian and am very excited for tomorrow night as I will be ordering another Vindaloo. Yesterday, I left Harpenden for London to see my other aunt, Frances, and my cousins, Olivia and Timmy. Last night, we went to watch Olivia play a concert with her orchetsra. They were very good and it was nice to finally see Olivia play as I have heard about her talents from my grandmother, Jill, and the family for pretty much my entire life. Today, Frances and I went to pick up Tim from his boarding school, Eaton, and we are going to have lunch and hang out before I go with Olivia and her boyfriend to a jazz concert in central London. Tomorrow, we are going to watch Tim play a concert with his orchestra at Eaton and Monday, I leave for Spain for 8 days, starting in Seville.

Pictures

so here is a link with some pictures that I took in Cape Town. I think you have to make an account to view them but it only requires your e-mail and password and maybe your name. These aren't all the pictures since Lauren and I usually only took 1 camera on our adventures. I'll let ya'll know what i've done this week in England before I go to Spain on the 16th.

Picture Link: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=255634659/a=159650618_159650618/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Cape Town

So I arrived in Johannesburg after 2 lengthy flights and went to the American International School in Joburg (AISJ) to meet up with my friend Lauren. We went to a dinner for all the student teachers she is with from New Jersey. Saturday, we woke up early and got on a plane to Cape Town. We arrived at the airport, got in a cab and went to our hotel called The Hyde in Sea Point. It is very new and very nice and in a good location. We put down our bags and put on our swimsuits and headed to the Clifton Beaches. We chose Beach 2 which was really nice a relaxing. That night, we went to a restaurant called La Perla where Lauren had a sole filet and i had ostrich. Sunday, we hiked up Table Mountain which took about an hour and 45 mintues. It was very hot and a lot of fun. Sunday night we went to Camps Bay and had dinner overlooking the ocean, then went for a walk on the beach as the sun went down. Monday was kind of a rainy day so we went for a run on the pier and then went to the Waterfront to the aquarium. After that, we had lunch at a place where I had more African game (Eland, Springbock, Wildebeast, and Gemsbock). Springbock was by far the best. Monday night, we went into the city to Long Street to see a friend named Russ and his band perform. He's a tall lanky white guy who plays the sax but he also raps now. His music is a mix of Jazz and Hip Hop so it was very unique and cool to listen to. Tuesday, we went to Robben Island, which was very interesting. We saw Nelson Mandela's cell and learned a lot about the island like how it used to be a leper colony before it became a prison. Our tour guide was probably the best part as he had one of the most ridiculous voices. We had a good laugh about him for the rest of the trip. After the island, we went to Camps Bay and just lay on the beach for a few hours before having dinner with one of my cousin Richard's friends. Wednesday, we rented a car and I took Lauren to the wine country. We had a really nice lunch outside on a patio with a beautiful garden and a little view of the countryside. Then we went for a cellar tour/wine tasting. Wednesday night, we went back to Camps Bay and lay on the beach while the sun went down. We then had a nice dinner in a restaurant overlooking the sea. And that was my trip to Cape Town. I must be honest, if I was not doing the whole medicine thing, I would seriously consider doing something international where I could be in Cape Town for a while. I am now in London with the family and am about to go for a short 4 mile run to watch my cousin Robert play rugby. I'll try and post more often seeing as I will have more regular access to computers from now until the end of my trip. Overall, an amazing start to the trip...