Barcelona

Hey All--
I write you from Madrid. We arrived here this afternoon, after David drove the six hours in a rented car from Barcelona. Barcelona was absolutely beautiful. We walked around the city, saw the Arc d´Triomphe, the Sagrada Familia, the port and bay and some of the old Olimpic Village buildings. We were completely astounded by the size and artistic detail of Parc Guell, a park designed by Antonio Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect. We crazily met up with another group of 5 TU graduates who are also doing a post graduation trip. We had a great time eating an authentic Spanish meal, paella and sangria. It was my first time in Barcelona (I never made it when abroad), and I was thoroughly impressed. The weather was beautiful and the monuments and museums followed suit. Best wishes to all, and news from Madrid and my return to Salamanca is to follow.

Day 8-still in Greece

So, I am coming to you from Athens, Greece. But, nothing to report on yet from here, we started off the day with a drive back to Thessaloniki, and went to the dairy farm of Charilaos, the Greek guy who stayed with my roommate Dave as a foreign exchange student when Dave was younger. We then headed to the site of some ruins from around 400-300 BC, and saw the tomb of Phillip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the great. We also visited a beautiful monastery high in the mountains above Thessaloniki. We then had another delicious Greek meal and headed on the 6 hour train ride to Athens. We arrived here, found our hostel, got some dinner, and now I write you before we head to bed. I will say though, that after 6 hours on the train, I think the Greeks (or at least the discount train customers) could use a solid marketing campaign by a few deodorant companies. Well, hope all is well wherever you may be and my next post might be from Barcelona, where we head tomorrow afternoon.

Days 7 (and the days missed)

Well, the last few days have been mesmerizing and fun! I last wrote from outside Cologne. The next day we walked about the city with Dave's friend Sofie, who just finished her college in Cologne. The day was great, beautiful weather, we went to the Cologne Dome, which is one of the ten largest churches/cathedrals in the world. We made the hike all the way to the top and got some great views of the city. We had lunch (brats and beer of course) in a nice plaza and then had ice cream on the Rhine. We went to the airport early and picked up Jessica, a friend of ours from TU who is studying in England. Late in the day we headed to Thessaloniki, Greece. We were met at the airport by Charilaos, another friend of Dave's who stayed with him about 10 years ago. We were treated like kings, and after eating dinner with wine and ouzo, most of us were trying to figure out how to immigrate here. We borrowed Charilaos' car and have spent the last two days living like retired Europeans...just chilling on the beaches of the Mediterranean. We spent yesterday on the West side of the first peninsula of Chalkidiki, and today on the East. It's been a true vacation now with time spent on the beach, with no worries save maybe where the sun is shining the best. Well, best wishes to all, and I will try to write soon. I write you from Moudania, Greece, just minutes from the Mediterranean.

Day 4...some more Germany

For those who have seen the popular film Wedding Crashers, a fun quote from the movie is "Crabcakes and football, that's what Maryland does." Well, Germany, true to everyone's stereotype, Germany does beer and bratwurst like nowhere else I have ever been. Since the last post, we went to the Judish history mueum in Berlin, and traveled from there to Munich via plane. We had an absolutely wonderful time in Munich. The city was quite beautiful, full of majestic buldings, outdoor cafes, bratwurst vendos (aka lunch and dinner), and some wonderful parks. We were guided through the city by David's friend Nora (who was a foreign exchange student at his high school), who made the trip much easier. We spent our first night like most tourists (or college aged tourists) at the Hofbräuhaus, which is arguably the most famous beer garden in the world. It was a wonderful time, the only downfall being the alarm through which we slept, so we had much apologizing to do to Nora. Now we are in Cologne (another intra-country flght), staying with the Bauer family (David's family hosted two of their daughters as foreign exchange students when he was in high school). The family is incredibly nice, we had a great dinner of schwitzel and beef with mushrooms. Along with some delightful German beer to drink. Not only do Germans make great cars, but they sure have figured out how to eat and drink like kings!!!

Day 3 Dublin to Berlin

Well, last night was quite the rousing time in Dublin. For the non-football (soccer in the US) fans, last night was the UEFA (union of european football associations) Champions League final. Manchester United (from England) faced off against Chelsea FC (from London). The game was tied 1-1 after 90 minutes, and remained tied 1-1 after 30 minutes of overtime. The game was tied 4 penalty shots to 4 after the first set of five penalty shots, but Manchester pulled out the victory on the seventh penalty shot. We spent the game in a pub in the Temple Bar district, the most famous bar and restaurant distict of Dublin. It got quite rowdy in the pub, everyone was civil, but we did see some tears of agony and of pain, as well as three glasses of beer fall to the ground and spill all over in jubilation or frustration. After such excitement, we went to the hostel, slept and arose at 4:15 am for our 6 am flight to Berlin. We have had an amazing day in Berlin, taken in many of the sights (the Branenburg tor, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Memorial), as well as some typical German food and a pitcher of beer for lunch, then some DonerKebabs (an Eastern European classic now spread throughout the continent) and some more German beer for dinner. It was sunny and warm today in Berlin and helped show off how beautiful the city is. Because much of it was damaged in World War II, much of the city is very modern and has quite interesting architecture. Dave's German has been coming back to him in pieces and getting us along pretty well, but the Germans are also very good with English (or at least here in the capital). That's it for now (oh and these darn German keyboards are a nightmare to type with...switching the z and y is just not a nice thing to do to someone). Auf wiedersehen!

Day 2

Well, Day one consisted of walking around Dublin, seeing St. Patrick's cathedral, doing the Guiness storehouse tour and enjoying a Guiness on the seventh story bar with a 360 view of Dublin. We had some fish and chips for dinner and then headed home. Because Dave had been up 28 hours without minimal sleep, Greg 26 with a bit on the plane, and me 21 hours without a wink, we headed to bed quite early (about 8) and all of us slept clear through until about 9 am this morning. We headed to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery tour first thing this morning, and Dave and I became official Irish Whiskey tasters by 11 am. We joined the tour of a Finnish group, so were able to hear the entire tour twice (although we didn't understand a word from the Finnish translator. We also visited Christchurch, Dublin Castle, St. Stephen's Green, the Grand Canal locks on the River Liffey, ate lunch from the Grafton Street McDonald's on the greens at Trinity College. Yes, we got lunch at McDonald's...we had fish and chips last night, have had Guiness and Jameson Whiskey, so totally had a right to enjoy the flavors of home, as well as the speed and convenience of McDonalds. That's about it for the day, Greg is disappointed with the Irish girls (they tend to be kind of rough or tough looking), which I told him he would, Dave and I are just telling him to wait for Greece and Spain. Oh yeah, an 8-10 year old asked Dave and me if we had a smoke at the train station. We did not, of course.

Day One of EuroTrip

So, the trip to Europe with my roommates Greg and Dave has begun. We are currently at an Internet cafe in downtown Dublin, Ireland. We are here because we were an hour early for our hostel check-in, thus we were looking to kill time while getting our bags off our backs. The trip for me started horrendously (my Greyhound bus driver got lost twice, and the supposed 7.5 hour trip turned into a 12 hour marathon). But the flight over went well, got some good reading in, and the flight from Brussels to Dublin was delightful. So far today we made it to our hostel, couldn't check in yet, so had some lunch on the street and then came to the Internet cafe. So, I know not too exciting yet...but excitement is to come.

 (Greg and Dave at the top of the Guinness Experience building)

 (this is the tour worth going on!)

 (Christ Church Cathedral)