Home Tomorrow

After about six months, four countries, a bunch of cities and a ton of new friends, I'll be home tomorrow! It's bitter sweet, I loved living here in Bilbao, but I'm so excited to come home.  I couldn't be more excited to see my family and my friends.  24 hours of travel is even killing my mood, it might even be 25, who cares?

Madrid #2

My first time on a high-speed train, it brought us back to Madrid for another night.  Lacey had some distant family that has been living in Madrid and we wanted to meet up with them.  Her aunt took us to a tapas bar where we got the best food I have had on my whole European trip.  The freshest food I have had in six months, fresh tuna, delicious steak and some very good red wine.  It was also great to be with someone that acted like family, it’s a welcome feeling when traveling. We had four stops, in three amazing cities, in only 9 days.  Definitely my favorite trip in the last six months. I was able to share it with a great friend and meet many new ones. 

Seville

The same fear hit us when we got to Seville, the ugly city and this one was also dirty. Lacey and I considered cutting the stay in Seville short, but decided to stick it out.  The hostel there was the most luxurious I had stayed it in Europe, big kitchen, terrace, garden, and showers.  Once we got around to seeing the rest of the city it was actually very nice.  The old town was beautiful and had orange trees everywhere.  It was purposefully designed as a sort of maze, to confuse invading armies and apparently tourists.  We relaxed a bit more in Seville, enjoying the weather and making delicious food in the big kitchen.  About 90% of our trip was spent eating, cooking, talking about or finding food, something I hadn’t been able to enjoy for a long time because of the high costs of Euro food. 

Granada

Another five hours of bus and Lacey and I hit Granada.  I was terrified at first because the area around the Granada bus station was ugly and boring.  I immediately wished we had done a little more research. Luckily, where we stayed in the city was much nicer, and probably the most beautiful Spanish city I had been to.  Granada was what I had pictured when I imagined my trip to Spain.  Small narrow, old concrete streets and white buildings, and Moroccan style shops lining the streets.  In the distance we could see the unofficial 8^th wonder of the world, the Alhambra, sitting in lights on the top of a big hill.  Our hostel was also pretty cool, like being with family you had never met.  They cooked dinner every night, everyone was very interesting, and there was a tree house and many kinds of hang out areas. 

Madrid

Madrid wasn’t as big or as Spanish as I had hoped, but it was a lot of fun.  The hostel we stayed at was really good at organizing things to do for everyone staying there.  We dropped our stuff and ran to meet up with everyone else and run around Madrid.  What we didn’t expect was to meet so many Americans. Seems it was spring break in the European universities and they had all flocked to Spain for a good time.  We met people from all over the states and a couple people from around the world. 

Lacey Comes to Visit

It’s just different.  I’ve made a lot of friends here, people from all around the world, and a few that I really think will last for a long time.  But it just doesn’t compare to my friends from home.  Lacey got to Bilbao a day or two before my birthday and it was exactly what I needed.  Back home I’ve got the some great friends, irreplaceable, and it was great to have one of them come visit.  I was able to show her some of what I’d been up to and where I’ve been for the last six months.  Three weeks and my birthday with one of my best friends was much needed. 

New Year's Eve

After having a big holiday dinner with a Argentinean family that my friend Denn knew in Barcelona, we took off to celebrate the new year.  The fiesta we were off to was in an arena, enormous.  We could hear the music from blocks away and could see masses of people flocking to the party.  It was totally overwhelming when we finally got there, thousands of people, booming music, and flashing lights.  The biggest craziest party I have ever been to.  At the end of the weekend, I had taken two overnight buses, saw the entire city, and slept for a grand total of about 6 hours, but it was completely unforgettable. 

Friends Leaving

At the end of January I had to say goodbye to the best friends that I had made here in Spain, Stef and Denn. These two had traveled around with me and we had some great times.  A bit sad to say goodbye, but pretty cool when I think that if I hadn't made this trip, I probably never would have met them.  It's amazing when someone is only in your life for a short time, but still manages to make life beautiful. 

Sorry about the pictures...

If you want to see pictures you'll have to click on the link on the right of the page, I haven't been able to post any on here for a while.  There you will see every single picture I have taken on my trip, I think it's up to about 2,000.

Paris

The first conversation i had with my roommate in my Paris hostel started with learning that he had helped to rob a bank in Budapest and had been homeless on the streets of Paris for the last four years.  As we kept talking he was actually a cool guy, he'd been all over Europe and spoke four languages, he even threw me a couple beers.  He told me all about the city and ended up being one of the more memorable people on my travels.  I spent the next couple days wandering the city, seeing the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triumph and the Louvre.  I think the Louvre has more Egyptian artifacts and mummies then Egypt and i was able to see the Mona Lisa, which was actually kind of disappointing because it's about the size of a postage stamp.  I made some friends from Australia and Seattle and drank and dashed from a bar with terrible service.  We checked out a Jazz bar that had a piano player and a beautiful french girl singing some french jazz songs. 

London Calling

After a short plane ride and a quick trip on a bus I was in London.  The cold rainy air was a bit refreshing, like being home.  On the way to the hostel I had to flee from the advances of a strange old man, luckily I was wearing my Nikes. After getting my room I was took off to explore the city with some other travelers.  We jumped around the city to see Big Ben, Parliament, and Shakespeare's Globe Theater. After a couple beers and meeting some new people the prejudices of her majesty's subjects began to come loose.  They couldn't stop talking about how ugly my American accent was, how rude! Other than that it was an amazing trip.