Backpacking Across Europe

Day 29 - Madrid

2008-07-20T07:16:00.003-05:00

Since we had a hotel with super cold air and were able to basically black it out, we decided to go ahead and sleep in again. Actually, I don't know if it was so much a decision as it just happened. Either way, it was at least 11am before we woke up. We joked that we are acting like traveling recluses, which really serves no purpose. Can you imagine one though? A person that pays thousands of dollars to go to another place and then just stays in 24 hours a day? That would be a little weird, huh?

Anyway, after a breakfast of peanut butter & bread, trail mix, and melba toast, we headed out to get a few things done. First things first, get bull fighting tickets! So, we grabbed a quick metro (and by quick I mean 3 transfers and 30 minutes) to the other side of town. We were pretty sure that tickets were going to be cheap, and sure enough, they were 5 Euro a piece. I was thinking like an American sports fan and assuming that we were going to have nose bleed tickets, but later we found out that they were really, really good.

After grabbing the tickets, we headed to the train station so we could go ahead and book our travels for the next few days. A quick update... at this point Josh and I are headed to Barcelona and then on to Italy. Blake is headed to Barcelona with us for a few days, and then back to Madrid to fly home. So, we had to get various train tickets to and from Madrid, Barcelona, and Milan for the three of us. After 2 hours of waiting (yes I said 2 hours) we finally got the tickets we needed. At this point, though, we missed the free walking tour that we planned on going on. It's actually the same free walking tour company that we used in Amsterdam. Anyway, we missed that because of the psycho train station line, so we decided to go take a look at the botanical gardens.

The price for admission was 1 Euro which was way to steep for me. Josh and Blake payed up though, and I walked around town trying to find a phone card. An hour later we met up and headed back over to the sandwich place. I am sure at this point you are realizing that once we find a place, we stick with it. Not super adventurous, but very reliable. Anyway, we headed over and were happy to see that the beers were 50 cents. We each had a hand full of those, a few sandos, and headed out around 7pm. The bull fight was at 8pm...

...Oh the bull fight. Quite possibly the coolest and most horrible, bloody thing I have ever witnessed. I will quickly describe the process without getting too graphic. Just keep in mind that there is A LOT of blood...

1. 2 dudes come out on horses in goofy clothes and start the process formally

2. The matadors all strut around and act like they are the next big thing

3. A bull runs out and the matador and his 3 helpers all dodge it with their pink cape things.

4. Two dudes on horses come out and the bull charges one of them. At this point the dude on the horse has a huge spear and stabs the bull in the back. This happens twice.

5. The horses take off and then the matadors helpers (who are dressed similarly to the matador) stab the bulls in the back with these smaller spears.

6. The matador grabs his sword and a big red cape and puts on a show, dodging the bull and getting really close to being gored. All this time the matador is just strutting around, acting like he is the most bad ass thing in the world.

7. The matador faces the bull and stabs the bull right in the back of the neck. If all goes well, he kills it with one stab. If not, it's pretty gross, but they just keep stabbing it until it dies.

8. One of the helpers stabs it in the face to make sure it's dead. The bull twitches and dies.

9. 3 horses come out and hook up to the bull and drag it out of the ring while the grounds crew covers up the bloody sand like nothing ever happened.

10. Repeat steps 1 through 9 five more times.

After this we were hungry for some ice cream, so we grabbed some at McDonalds and headed back to the hotel for a night of gory bull dreams.

Day 28 - Madrid

2008-07-20T07:16:00.001-05:00

As I said in the blog entry before, we went to bed, and never woke up again last night. All in all, I know that I slept at least 14 hours or so. I know Blake and Josh both went to sleep at different times than me, but I think they were both pretty close to that number. Anyway, it was a great night of just catching up on some much needed sleep.

By the time we were up and actually ready to go, it was about noon... maybe 1, but who's counting? Anyway, we were up and ready to see the city. So, the first stop on our agenda was to hit the royal palace. As far as my opinion is concerned, it really is a must see. There are multiple really cool things, but my favorite was the Royal Armory. They have so much armor, horse armor, weapons, and cool stuff on display. Definitely worth the price of admission, just for those couple of rooms. Also in the palace is the Royal Pharmacy where blown glass and porcelain containers adorn the walls to make a super nice Walgreens. But seriously, it was cool. Finally the Palace itself is awesome. All the rooms in the entire place are different, so every 30-40 meters you get a totally different feel. It's really quite incredible and over the top.

After the plaza, we were hungry and luckily stumbled upon this great sandwich place. It's a place that serves 100 different mini sandwiches for 1.20 Euro a piece. So, you get 4-6 sandwiches and it comes with potato chips. They have everything from Omelette to Chicken to Anchovy. Everything we got was super good, and it was nice to have an affordable meal fill us up. You know, as Americans we have to be full.

Ok, after awesome sandwich place we headed to the modern art museum which is filled with tons of cool art including works from Picasso and Salvador Dali. It was a great little museum made even greater with free admission after 3pm on Saturdays!

After the museum we stopped by Ben & Jerry's to get our American ice cream fix for the week. I had a cookie sundae with my favorite ice cream ever, cinnamon w/ oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough. It's seriously the best stuff ever. If you can ever find it at a grocery store (which you barely ever can), buy it immediately. After ice cream dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some stuff done. Oh, I forgot to mention... by this point we have decided to stay an extra day in Madrid because we realized there is a bull fight at the the third largest and "most important bullfighting ring in the world" the next day. So, we headed back, got some stuff done, watched a little billiards, and hit the sack.

Back Home Early - Update on Final Posts

2008-07-19T16:43:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone.

I am sorry it has taken me a few days to post since the last one. I know I said that it would be coming quickly, and they would have... the problem is that my small bag was stolen at the train station in Barcelona. While we were waiting for a train, someone came by and swiped it. So I lost most of my valuables. In particular, I was robbed of my passport, eurail pass, money, credit cards, camera, ipod, and a few books. This all happened a few days ago on July 17th. Today is the 19th and I am back home in Dallas.

Josh and I both decided to started making arrangements for our return and as I write right now (around 3pm CST on sunday afternoon), he is still on his way home. Hopefully there won't be too much of a delay for him.

I am still so thankful for the opportunity to travel such a cool land. I was in Europe just over a month, and I feel like I learned so much about myself and so much about other cultures. It was an opportunity to learn and grow spiritually as well. I was able to get to spend a lot of alone time with God which was really nice and really refreshing... I am not going to go in to a ton of detail, as I will expand on my final thoughts when I post my last blog after I get everything else from the last 4 days or so logged.

I do actually have some blogs already written on my computer for the days following Pamplona and I will post those just as soon as I get my computer. I will post just as soon as possible. Keep checking back as I plan on posting the rest soon. Also, pictures from the rest of the trip will be coming soon as well!

Day 27 - Pamplona/Madrid

2008-07-16T13:03:00.001-05:00

Quick Note: I am going to be posting material for the past 5-6 days pretty quickly. Sorry for the delay. Anyway, just keep in mind that there are going to be multiple posts as a time. There are 2 this time, so scroll down... more to come very soon.

We woke up at 7am or so. I should say actually that Josh woke up blake and I at 7am or so. Blake and I begged to stay asleep for a few minutes and then realized that we were going to miss seeing the run, and that's something we wouldn't get to see again soon. So, we all got up and took off up the hill again to the center of the city, where we hoped to get a good spot on the fence...

We arrived up near the run around 7:30 or so, after a slower than usual hike (the night before on the grass didn't treat us very kind) and found that it was going to be pretty difficult to find a spot on the fence. Everyone gets there pretty early, so when we rolled up about 30 minutes before, we were pretty much out of luck.

I did, however, manage to force myself up on to a very small open section of the fence, and Josh threw his camera up to me. I got a few pretty good shots, and got to see first hand exactly what we did. All I have to say is that we are idiots. I know it's one of those things you have to do before you die if you get the chance, but it's just insanity. A bunch of dumb human beings running down a narrow alley away from bulls that want to put a horn right through your stomach. Really, isn't it dumb? Anyway, it was awesome to see it first hand, and I am sure Josh will have photos up soon displaying my excellent photographic skills.

After we watched, it was time to head back to the car, return it, and head to Madrid. We did just that, and jumped on the train about 11am or so...

3 or 4 hours later (can't really remember at this point), we were in Madrid, and so freaking tired. Oh, by the way... at this point we haven't showered in 3 days and we are still wearing the same clothes we started with in Pamplona, red sashes and all. Anyway, we arrived ready to just find some internet and get a hostel. After about an hour of internet cafe time/wandering the streets time, we checked in to the Castilla Hostel II, right off the main center of town, Plaza del Sol.

We thought we were going to head out that night, but instead we all just fell asleep around 6pm or so, and never woke back up...

Day 26 - Pamplona (2 of 2)

2008-07-16T13:00:00.002-05:00

Picking up where I left off...

We left the ring around 9:00am and were super tired. We had only about 2 hours of sleep the night before, and were ready to just chill out. The only problem is that we didn't have a car, were super hungry, and wanted to see Pamplona. So, instead of crashing all together we just drove around the city and saw Pamplona by car.

We headed out to the north part of the city and ended up at a random grocery store. There, we grabbed food for lunch and drinks for the night. Bring cheap backpackers, we decided that we should go ahead and buy drinks. Really it's what everyone does though. Basically at night everyone just has their stash of drinks and carries it around the city. They partying takes place in the streets for the most part, so it's kinda dumb not to buy your own stuff...

So, Josh and I bought 2 big 2 liters of coke and a bottle of rum, and Blake bought some random juices and vodka. Turns out Josh and I made a good decision in comparison to Blake. But we all had drinks for later in the night.

We headed next to the center of town to just walk around and chill. We ended up finding these huge mats (kinda like the ones from elementary school gym class) in the middle of this little park area. We crashed on those for about 3 hours or so, and it turned out to be an incredible nap. Once we woke up it was time to head back to the car and eat some peanut butter and bread with chocolate cookies for dessert. We had to get something in our systems, because we knew it was going to be a long night.

9pm... we headed up the hill to the city with out big bottles of drinks. We figured it was just going to be a mad house, and that it was. There are literally people everywhere wearing the exact same thing just partying in the streets. This whole thing keeps up all night long, until about 3 or 4 in the morning at least. Even then, though, it doesn't really completely die down until about 5 or 6. We chose to just hang in the plaza in the center of the city and people watch.

We started wandering around a little later and ran in to some Aussies that were staying in the same parking lot as us. We ended up wandering around the city aimlessly for hours with them, hoping to find a "concert" we were sure existed somewhere in the city. Sadly enough, we didn't find it. Not sure if that had anything to do with the fact that we didn't really know what was going on...

Anyway, we crashed around 3 or 4 in the morning. Josh decided to go to the car, and Blake and I ended up on a random patch of grass outside the city. About 5am we both woke up freezing cold, and headed back to the car to sleep. The next morning we would wake up and go watch the run, and see exactly what we had gotten ourselves in to the day before...

Day 26 - Pamplona (1 of 2)

2008-07-13T05:53:00.002-05:00

So, today is the day we run with the bulls. I am going to do this day in 2 parts, as it's going to be longer than most...

Last I left off, we fell asleep in the car around 3:30am. Well, in order to get to the running area in enough time to scope out the scene of each of our deaths, we had to get up around 6:00am or so. This would give us enough time to get to the main area around 7:00, since we were a good 20 minute walk away...

I have to say that this is the most nervous I have been in a while. I mean, you hear stories and see things on youtube that scare the crap out of you. Already this year one Irish has died. So, it was a little nerve-racking to say the least. Ok, so we grabbed a quick doughnut at a nearby gas station (which would prove to be our little supermarket) and headed up the hill towards the main running area. We got up there around 7:00 or so, and actually ran in to a couple of people we had met in a train station in Milan. They had been there the day before and scoped it out, so they gave us a little advice as we were pretty confused about what we should be doing, where we should be standing, etc.

I will give you a quick rundown of how the whole thing lays out. I am going to copy some text here, since it's better explained from another source...

"The Pamplona bull run takes place at 8am every morning from 7th to 14th July. Runners must be in the running area by 7.30am. The actual run stretches from the corral at Santo Domingo where the bulls are kept, to the bullring where they will fight that same afternoon. The length of the run is 825 metres and the average time of the run from start to finish is about three minutes. The streets through the old town which make up the bull run are walled off so the bulls can't escape. Each day six fighting bulls run the route as well as two herds of bullocks.

The tension builds as the release of the bulls approaches and at 8am on the dot a rocket is fired to confirm that the gate has been opened at the Santo Domingo corral. Runners dressed in white with a red hankerchief around their necks pray to San Fermin then a second rocket announces that the bulls have left. The bulls and the runners then proceed along the route.

First of all they climb Santo Domingo and go across the Ayuntamiento Square continuing down c/ Mercaderes. The most dangerous part of the bullrun approaches as there's a closed curve leading into c/ Estafeta which is the longest stretch of the run. Next comes a small section of c/ Duque de Ahumada which is known as the Telefónica stretch. The last stretch is also very risky as the route leads into a dead end street providing access to the Bull Ring."

I know it's kinda hard to follow all that, but basically the run is about 800 meters, and you have to pick a section, We decided to pick the last section of about 250-300 meters so that we could follow the bulls in to the Bull Ring...

At 8:00am exactly, the rocket fires, and we are just waiting for the bulls to get to our section. About a minute later, we see them coming. Everyone is absolutley frantic, as are we. About 15 seconds later, there they are... the bulls are right there with us, and we are running as fast as possible. The three of us took off, running beside the bulls and all ended up in the ring. Josh actually got hit by a bull. Blake and I went unscathed.

Once you arrive in the ring, it's a surreal feeling. Everyone is going nuts and cheering. You kinda feel like it's a scene out of Gladiator or something. Exhausted and glad to be alive, you just kinda raise up your hands and start cheering with everyone from spectators to fellow runners.

Once the big bulls are rounded up, they start releasing baby bulls, one by one. These baby bulls are still fast and can throw quite a punch. They do have their horns plugged, though, so nobody really has a chance of dying or anything. So, we hung out in the ring, dodged some more bulls, and then around 9:00am, left the ring happy to be alive and well...

Day 25 - Montpellier/Barcelona/Pamplona

2008-07-12T03:55:00.005-05:00

Blake has to be frustrated at this point. He thought we were going to show up yesterday morning. Who knows, maybe he is pumped to get some time to himself in Barcelona. All I know, is that I want to just get there at this point...

...So, it turned out that the 7:20am train we thought we would get on was fully booked (this was a train that required a reservation). We actually woke up at 5:30am to get over to the station, only to find out that this was the case. The other option... an 11:45am departure that would require 1 change in Port-Bou, then on to Barcelona arriving at 6:45pm. Right now, I am writing from the train to Port-Bou. If all goes as planned, we will be in Barcelona in 5 hours or so. I will write more later tonight hopefully...

...We arrived in Barcelona on time, and found Blake fairly easily. We then had to make a decision on how to get to Pamplona. Since it was going to be really difficult to find a train, and expensive for Blake to ride one, we visited the rental car place. They told us that we could get a car for 2 days for about 150 Euros. So, almost without hesitation we went for it. It would be our transportation and hotel for the next 2 nights, so we actually were getting off pretty cheap.

We jumped in the car around 8 o'clock and took off to Pamplona. Everything was cool until we got to the first toll road stop. The guy at the rental car place told us that it would be free, but it definitely was not. We probably spent at least 30 Euro just getting to Pamplona. Thank goodness we decided to take the car one way! On the way, we grabbed weird gas station food and then headed to the center of Pamplona. The whole drive was around 4 hours or so.

Once we got in, we decided to just find a place to park, and then a place to buy our gear for the run. If you aren't familiar with what people wear, it's white pants and shirt and then a red scarf and sash worn like a belt. Anyway, we parked in a garage around 1:00am and then found a stand selling some stuff. When we were driving in to town, the place was still jumping! People party all night long here! More on that in the next blog though... Ok, so we found a place to buy our stuff, wandered around for a little bit and then grabbed the car. We headed out to a random parking lot and all took our places in the car for a big night's sleep. Bedtime (or I guess I should say Cartime) = 3:30am.

Day 24 - Milan/Bern/Geneve/Lyon/Arles/Montpellier

2008-07-09T08:33:00.002-05:00

2 posts at the same time again... sorry.

Yes, we went to all of those places today.

You know, it was all going very smoothly, and we thought we couldn't be touched. Every train we wanted had open seats, and they all were running on time. I guess all it takes is one Italian rail strike to make us feel like a couple of amateur travelers. So I will take it from the top and give you the quick rundown of why we went to 6 cities in 3 different countries today.

It started off pretty nicely actually. We got to the train station in time to board the train for Bern. Once in route, we confirmed with the train attendant that we could, in fact, take a night train from Bern to Barcelona. So, we thought we would spend a day in Bern and see an extra city that wasn't on our original itinerary.

Once we got to Bern, though, it was a much different story. The ticket guy told us that the night trains only run on Mon, Wed, Fri (it's Tuesday) and that even if we wanted to take a night train it was going to be $150 USD even with our eurail passes. So, we decided to take option 2 - free trains with tons of stops. Basically we would have to make a bunch of stops and switch trains 3 times. This would only get us as far as Montpellier for the day, though. We would need to grab the 7:20am train from Montpellier to Barcelona the next morning...

We decided this was our only option, so we got on the first train to Geneve around 2:00pm. After making stops in Geneve, Lyon, and Arles we ended up in Montpellier at 9:10pm. We found a quick, reasonably priced hotel (with free WIFI), headed out for a bite (which ended up being a nutella crepe for Josh and fries and a coke for me), and came back to the hotel. We watched CNN for a while and read some information on the internet about the running of the bulls and then crashed around 1:00am after a long day of traveling. Hopefully soon, we will actually be back on schedule.

Day 23 - Athens/Milan

2008-07-09T08:29:00.001-05:00

We arrived at the Athens airport around midnight, so that's where I will pick up...

After a 6 hour boat ride, a 30 minute walk to the metro/buses, and the hour bus ride over to the airport, we were getting pretty tired... I guess I should start by telling you that we decided to just stay in the airport since we only had 9 hours from the time we arrived until check-in... Ok, so the athens airport is pretty much your typical airport, except it's extremely clean. I am not sure if they remodeled it for the 2004 olympics and have just done a great job of keeping it up or what, but it's really clean and really nice. The only problem with airports, however, is that they don't have beds. So, for the first 30 minutes or so we hunted for a spot to sleep. Finally we found a pace upstairs near the airport chapel away from all the noise, and decided that the cool tile floors would suffice for one night.

We all did different things...

Josh went to sleep and watched the bags. Blake used the free internet to get some stuff done. I couldn't sleep, so I made a hodgepodge of phone calls to my parents, my sister Emily (sorry Barrett, I didn't have your number on me), David, and Matt (my best friend from college). Around 3 o'clock when I finally got tired, I headed up to the sleeping spot we had picked out. I fell asleep in about 2 seconds, and the next thing I knew (about an hour later), airport staff was waking all of us up. In addition to us, there were at least 20 other people or so that were also told to "get up". So, it's 4 in the morning and we are still super tired, with 5 hours before check-in. Long story short, we ended up in 2 different restaurants and finally out in to the main airport terminal area... we slept awkwardly in all these places. I would say that I got about 1 hour of actual sleep. Josh and Blake fared a little better.

Finally... 9:10 am rolled around and we are able to check in. The whole process was pretty seamless until we got to Milan...

We arrived at the Milan Malpensa airport which is northwest of city center. Since Blake doesn't have Eurail, so he had to book a flight to our next destination, Barcelona. He booked on another airline, though, so he had to get over to another airport. Either way, all of us had to get to central station, so we made our way over to the train terminal at the airport. This is where we found out that the Italian rail system was on strike for the day... Are you kidding me??? Alright, so all we have to do is get back to central station. We grabbed a direct bus (5 Euro each) and headed that way, only to find out that all the trains out of the city were also on strike.

We couldn't find wireless internet, so we headed in to an overprices internet cafe. Here, we found out that to fly it would be super expensive. So, we just check email and headed back over across the street to the train station. Blake took off on a bus for his flight and Josh and I just stood in seperate ticket lines, hoping to get a good answer as to what we should do... After standing in 4 different lines and talking to a bunch of idiots, we were no further along than when we started. We kept getting pushed over to information, and those guys were the worst of all. I seriously wanted to reach through the glass and choke one of the dudes. Anyway, information told us to head outside because there was a bus headed for Barcelona as a replacement. Perfect right? Well, not if the guy tells you to go to one spot and the bus goes to another! So, we missed the bus (freaking information guy!) and the train was canceled...

...after another hour or so of asking around and reading our eurail timetable, we found out that we could connect in Bern, Switzerland the next day and then take a night train from Bern to Barcelona. So, with no other options, we found a somewhat affordable hotel near the train station, hit the internet cafe again to email Blake the updates, grabbed gelato for dinner, and crashed.

Day 22 - Paros/Athens

2008-07-08T15:08:00.004-05:00

Once again, 2 posts at once. Day 21 & 22 have been posted at the same time, so scroll on down...

Around 9am we woke up and took off to board a boat to Paros. Paros isn't quite as large as Naxos, but it's also one of the larger islands. It is actually made up of two different islands, Paros and Antiparos. Antiparos is just a few minutes away by boat, and is where a lot of celebrities big wigs have homes and also is home to some really exclusive hotels and beaches that must be booked months in advance.

Since we had hotels on the other two islands, Paros was a little bit different experience. We actually didn't even go to Antiparos. I guess I just wanted to share that information because I thought it was a cool side note. We got to the port and had a decision to make. We knew we were only going to be on the island for 6 hours or so. We were either going to just stay in town and chill, find a beach and maybe swim, or try again to rent 4-wheelers from someone who doesn't care about minor details like having a drivers license.

We decided to take a small boat over to a beach called Krios. It's a little beach but not crowded at all. We then had to decide whether we were going to succumb to the temptation of getting in the water. It was so hot outside and the water is so cold and refreshing, so it was hard not to get in, but we didn't. The only reason this was even a decision is because we knew that we were going to be spending the next 6 hours on a boat back to Athens, and then spending the night in Athens Airport (I will explain this in my next post). So, we just found a cool little restaurant on the water, had a few beers (Heineken and Mythos, which is a greek beer) and huge slice of watermelon and just camped out for 3 hours or so. It turned out to be a great decision.

After the beach, we grabbed a quick ferry back to the main port in Paros, and found an awesome bakery, where we grabbed what would be dinner on the boat later. I got a piece of chocolate cake and a ham & cheese pie (can you tell I love ham & cheese yet?), Josh got the best baklava any of us have ever tasted & some cheese bread, and Blake got a veggie sandwich that is bigger than my head (which is saying something, because I have a massive head). With an hour or so to kill we decided to grab a waffle complete with chocolate sauce, fresh banana, vanilla ice cream, and fresh whipped cream. It was incredible. After the sugar rush, we boarded the boat and headed back to Athens...

...Once we arrived, it was just late enough to miss the metro - awesome. So, we grabbed the 24hr bus and took the 1 hour+ ride to the Athens Airport, on a hot, muggy bus (I think this was a foreshadowing of the next 24 hours or so) Once here, it was time to find a place to sleep. I will cut it short here because the next day is absolutely exhausting, and I will need to discuss sleeping in the airport, the flight back to Milan, and the Italian rail strike that almost made me lose my mind...

Day 21 - Naxos

2008-07-08T15:08:00.001-05:00

Naxos is the second island on our little Greek island hopping adventure. I am writing on the boat to Nexos actually, listening to Shane Barnard - "Prodigal Me". It's by far my favorite song of his. I feel like I really identify with it. Check it out if you have never heard it.

This part of the trip has proven so far to be a vacation inside a vacation. Sometimes, while backpacking, it gets really tiring. The hostels have been pretty clean so far, but just the constant moving around and having to wear shower shoes and all the other little things that go along with hosteling can wear on you. So, this leg of the journey has been perfect, as we have been able to just chill out and lay on the beach or by the pool and have some relaxing time. Today should be more of the same, as our hotel is on the beach this time! I will write more later tonight...

...Ok, so now I am sitting on the plane leaving Greece, and headed back to Milan. I didn't have time to write in Naxos. I will be writing the next two entries at the same time, so they will be in past tense. I am not really sure why that is relevant, or why you need to know that. It helps me when writing I guess.

Back to Naxos... It was amazing. The largest of the three islands we visited, and the most family friendly for sure. It was different than Santorini, as are most of the other islands, because all the buildings and structures sit lower on the hill. In Santorini, the buildings all sit up top. So, when we pulled in to the port, it was a different look since the city was right there. We were greeted by a mob of people trying to get us to stay in their apartments, homes, condos, etc. - super annoying. More of a rant on that in my next entry.

Our goal for the day was to rent some mopeds or 4-wheelers and take them around the island. When we got the the place we found out that they needed drivers licenses for each vehicle. Since Blake was the only one who actually brought his license, that plan was shot. I guess I didn't think I would need the Texas drivers license in Europe, but I guess I was wrong. So, we just grabbed some lunch at a little place nearby, and then took the bus to our hotel. I had a ham, cheese, and tomato croissant with a latte. Josh did a cheese omelet. Blake had a crepe with chicken and veggies.

This hotel might have trumped the last one, which means it was greatness. It sat right on the beach. All we had to do was cross a little street and we were 10 meters from the water. Since we had no mode of transportation, we decided to just grab a few beach chairs and chill for the rest of the day... Sometimes it's hard for me to just sit and relax, because I always have a million things on my mind, and today was one of those days, so I went and bought some snorkel gear. Only problem - it was youth size. I had to put it on the largest setting to get it to fit, but once I did, I spent the next hour or so in the crystal blue water. I really can't explain how clear and beautiful the water is. And to top it off, we were on a white sandy beach. Really amazing stuff! While I did that, Josh and Blake just chilled out in some chairs that we somehow didn't end up paying for.

After a good 5 hours or so just chilling on the beach, we headed back to town for dinner. This night was a bit of a gamble. We saw in the lonely planet guide that the hot spot in town was a mexican place - Tex-Mex to be exact. In some places in the US, Mexican food is risky. So, Mexican food in Greece... probably the worst idea ever... Turned out to be a great gamble though! The place was really great. I mean, it's no Pappasito's or La Fogata (my San Antonio people know what I am talking about) but it was really good. Very fresh and very light, which you normally don't expect in a Tex-Mex place. Actually, that's really why we eat Mexican food isn't it? Because it's the greasiest, most horribly delicious option. Anyway, I had chicken fajitas, Blake had a burrito, and Josh opted for the veggie version of fajitas which basically used refried beans instead of meat.

After dinner we headed to the center of town to use someone's internet connection and grab some gelato. The place is called Waffle House. It doesn't have bright yellow and black with old ladies shouting "smothered and covered", but it did have an amazing home made waffle cone with really great ice cream! I had strawberry cheesecake, and it was very solid. By the way, sorry if you don't like all the food talk. It's one of my passions so you have to deal with it.

That's it for this day. Paros is the next island...

Day 20 - Santorini

2008-07-05T05:08:00.004-05:00

Two blogs posted at the same time again. Start with Day 19...

The overnight boat ride is where I believe I left off on my last post..... We pulled out on time and headed out for the 11 hour trip... I will back up just for a second. We had an option when dealing with Marios to get a sleeper, or just a seat on the boat. The difference was about 22 Euro, which is about $35. So, being the cheap backpackers we are (who go shopping in Milan), we decided to just get the seat. I am not sure if I would have done it any differently, but it was not the most pleasant experience. Imagine an airplane seat (with maybe just a little more leg room), all lights on, the TV blaring the whole night, and the only laying down option being a dirty floor. That's what we were up against. I tried the seat but just could not get comfortable. So, I grabbed my sleep sack and hit the cement floor. Blake did the same. Josh decided to stick with the seat, and as he explained later, he was "in about 100 different positions in a span of 7 hours or so".

11 hours later... very little sleep and super hungry we pulled in to Santorini. By the way, it's the 4th of July for those of you not keeping track - God Bless America!

Breakfast was a quick stop at a little place in the port. Blake and I did the "special omelet" which was cheese, ham and bacon (not sure what's so special there and I probably don't want to know). Josh did a banana crepe with Nutella. It was all surprisingly excellent.

Ok, to the good stuff... All I can really say is that Santorini is unreal. It's picture perfect. Super white buildings accented with bright, vibrant colors. Then behind the buildings is a backdrop of bright blue water. I really can't describe how beautiful it is, so you will just have to take a trip here if you have not been. I will let you all stay in my vacation home here, which I will be buying just as soon as I can sell enough coffee to do so.

Our activities for the day consisted of walking through the narrow streets of the city, and then heading off on a 15 minute bus ride to one of the black sand beaches (we chose ???). We soaked up some cosmic rays, and just chilled out for a few hours on the beach. We headed back to the hotel, chilled by the pool, changed clothes and headed off the the northernmost part of the island, ???. Here is where the sunset is at it's prime. Around 8:30 we watched the most incredible sunset I have ever seen (over a beer of course) from a random perch above one of the many unique, small hotels. No fireworks though... I guess they don't care too much about our independence. Pictures of this will be posted in the gallery, so please check them out. There will be a good collection of green doors in this gallery also. I am not sure if I have talked about this yet, but we are taking pictures of every green door we see this whole trip. Green Door Coffee opens soon!!!

Sorry to ramble on this post, but it was such a great day... I will wrap it up. We finished the day with a good, hearty dinner. Hamburger stuffed with Cheese and a side of fries for me. Blake and Josh both had pasta. Heiniken was the beer of choice for this meal. After spending 30 mintues trying to find a cab, we finally got back to the hotel, opened up all the doors and windows, and crashed hard.

Day 19 - Athens

2008-07-05T05:05:00.000-05:00

4:15 comes fast in the morning. Especially when you don't get to sleep until 12:00 or so. I honestly hate waking up that early. For some reason it just throws me off completely for the next half day or so. I guess my body is so used to getting a somewhat normal amount of sleep. It probably sounds like I am whining, and I may be just a little, but it's so freaking early.

By 4:45 we were off to the airport. What a process this easyJet airline is! First we had to check in. Then we had to go drop our bags. Then we had to go to another window and pay for the bags we dropped off (15 Euro each). Then we went back over to the original counter to pick up our boarding passes. Such a run-around. I am not sure why they do it that way, but whatever.

9:50am or so... We arrive in to Athens and find Blake waiting on us right outside customs. Real quick, for those of you that don't know Blake - He is our extremely fun, random, super cool, ADD (way more than me) friend. We were in the same class at Baylor, and he is one of mine and Josh's best friends. I lived with him for our last semester - yes, I was a 5th year, no big deal. So, with our new travel friend in tow, we headed out to find the only thing we really cared to see in the city - The Parthenon.

Friends and family of all 3 of us told us that really we should focus more on the islands and just see the Parthenon and be done with Athens. So, that's exactly what we did today. Before we headed up, though, we had to plan the rest of Greece. To make a long story short, we found a random local travel agent named Marios. Not a mis-spelling. It's Mario with an S. Anyway, Marios (who was quite the Greek character I might add) hooked us up with a 3 island tour over the next 4 days. With hotels, boat rides, trams, etc we are doing the whole thing for around 150 Euro a piece. This is pretty good considering we have hotels on the beach and all the transportation taken care of. We will see how the hotels turn out, but right now I am actually writing from the boat on the way to Santorini and so far so good.

Our schedule over the next few days will take us through Santorini, Nexos, and Paros. Should be a good time. I am most excited about Santorini. From what I hear, it's absolutley amazing.

Sorry... I almost forgot. We saw the Parthenon, and it was awesome. Totally surreal to actually be in such a famous place high above the city. That's about it for now. We are going to be sleeping overnight, and then arriving in to Santorini in the morning around 8am. It's an 11 hour trip. Dinner tonight is PB and bread. We might get crazy and mix in some Nutella, who knows!

Day 17 - Budapest

2008-07-02T15:30:00.001-05:00

Note: I have posted 2 blog entries at the same time again. Read Day 16 first...

Right now, I am sitting... or I guess I should say laying on a train. We are taking a night train from Vienna to Milan, so we can get to Athens. Why? Well, the only night train to Milan that is close to Budapest is from Vienna. And, the cheapest airfare we could find is on EasyJet. This flies out of Milan to Athens. So, this explains our crazy roundabout way of getting to Greece. Don't worry though... this isn't the most out of the way we are going. Soon, we will travel from Greece to Spain and then back to Italy. I will explain more when that time comes, but it's basically so we can run with the bulls in Pamplona. Sorry, back to the task at hand...

We spent the morning in Buda. Yesterday we were in Pest. Honestly, we only spent a few hours in Budapest today, because we had to grab a train to Vienna. Today is pretty much just a travel day. Ok, honestly this morning was just hot and boring. It might sound like Budapest kinda sucks, but it's pretty cool. We just don't have enough time to figure it all out. Also, we really wanted to go to one of the baths (kinda like hot springs) but there was no time for that either.

I will just skip to the train ride. After another grocery store lunch (yogurt, banana, potato chips, twix - the usual suspects) we got to the Budapest train station just in time to miss our train to Vienna. I shouted an obscenity and then we waited 2 more hours. We made it to Vienna just in time for a ginormous slice of pizza and then boarded the 13 hour train to Milan. We are in a sleeper car, but not like the more private one before. This one is made for 4 people. So far it is the two of us, and one other girl from Serbia. Her name is Bilja. I just asked her how to spell it, and she spelled it in German, so the spelling is an educated guess. By the way, I feel pretty stupid because we asked her how many languages she spoke and it added up to over 10.

Anyway, we have spent the last 2 hours or so talking about politics (George Bush & Hillary v. Obama), architecture & urban design (she is getting her PhD in architecture), and business (she wants to be a famous artist and sell her stuff all over the world). Needless to say, it's been fun getting to know someone different. We literally spent an hour with a map of Europe and just talked about which countries hate each other and why. We also discussed religion, entrepreneurship, and where babies come from.

Alright, bed time. I am going to finish up a movie and get some sleep. I am watching "This is England". It's an independent film I downloaded on iTunes yesterday. Hopefully it lives up to the recommendations. Peace!

Day 16 - Vienna/Budapest

2008-07-02T15:28:00.000-05:00

There hasn't been much luck when it comes to easily finding out lodging every day. And there has been just as little luck finding our way from each hostel back to the train station, metro, etc. Vienna was different though! When we arrived, we had a sign pointing us right to our hostel. When we left, we figured out that our hostel was about 50 meters from the train station we were departing from. It was really great considering we were running right up against the wire as usual. So, we boarded the train and took off with a good amount of time to spare.

After about 3 hours, we were in Budapest. This city is much different than the others. It is the furthest east we will be going, and also is the most diverse culture... which brings me to my next point. Honestly, the culture here was pretty boring and somewhat cold. Everyone from tram operators to waitstaff at restaurants treated us like stupid Americans. They didn't even try to speak our language. How dare they! We are Americans!

Anyway, the day was filled mostly with roaming around the city. We saw some baths, ate more pizza, saw a few cool buildings and monuments, at at the grocery store for dinner, and finished the night posting pictures... which was a much needed activity. Other than that, not too much to keep going on about, so I will cut this one short.

Pictures!!!

2008-06-30T16:27:00.001-05:00

Alright, the time has finally come... We are starting the process of posting pictures. As soon as I get my camera working, I will post some videos and different things I have done. We are working backwards, so please keep checking back as photos from the beginning of our trip will be coming soon. After we get all caught up over the next few days, it will stay current.

The majority of our photos will be Josh's work, and can be found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/josh.hargrave.608

Also, the link can be found in the future on the right hand side of the page. Just click PHOTO GALLERY.

Enjoy!

Hello to Josh's blog followers...

2008-06-30T16:10:00.002-05:00

I just want to say a quick hello to all of Josh's friends and family who are following our journey over these couple months. I have been blogging daily, and will continue to do so up until our return to the States. Josh will also be posting from time to time.

The reason we are combining the blog is because Josh is going to focus on pictures, and I am going to focus on writing (and Josh really hates blogging). It just works out better this way. So, please follow along. If you want to catch up, just start at the beginning of my blog. That is where Josh left off!

Day 15 - Prague/Vienna

2008-06-30T14:07:00.001-05:00

I usually just wait until the end of the day to blog, but I have a 4 hour train ride to Vienna today and I chugged 2 cups of coffee before I left, so I thought I would spend a few minutes doing some mid-day writing. Right now, I am riding through the Czech countryside. Right now it's fairly flat, and we are right beside what looks like cornfields. I might be a total idiot, but that's what it looks like. Looks like I am driving up I-35 in the middle of Kansas or Nebraska. Makes me miss good ol' midwest, USA... but that's another blog altogether.

Anyway, today is going to be a great day for a few reasons. First of all, it started off great with a hearty breakfast at our last hours in Sir Toby's Hostel. They have the best breakfast I have encountered so far. It cost 100 Crowns which right now is about $6.50 USD. They had organic, fair trade coffee, fresh pancakes, scrambled eggs, homemade granola, and all sorts of breads and cereal. It was really a great breakfast, and it's all you can eat. I had a pancake, some eggs, granola w/ yogurt, and 2 cups of coffee. Josh had a similar spread, but chose hot tea.

The other reason it's going to be a great day is because today is the Euro 2008 final in Vienna, and that's exactly where we are headed. In a matter of hours, we are going to be right in the middle of the chaos. I can't wait to watch the game with hundreds of thousands of people. It is going to be so fun! Can't wait! Alright, well that's about it for now. I will write more later tonight after the game...

... I am writing again from the train. This time we are on the way to Budapest. I would have finished the blog at the end of the night last night, but it ended up being a little later than I thought, and I was also pretty tired. Alright, so we got in to Vienna, and were pleasantly surprised to see a sign for our hostel right outside the train station. We stayed at Westend City Hostel, which was very centrally located between the train station and FanZone, where we headed to watch the game. After a quick check-in, it was about 4:30pm or so and time to start heading toward the main area where everyone was hanging out and getting ready to watch the game. By getting ready to watch the game I mean people were drinking lots of beer. We decided that it would be a good idea to just grab a few beers at the mini-market before we headed in to the FanZone, and drink them on the streets (We weren't breaking any laws because it's legal to do this in Austria). It was a good idea too, because in the mini-market they are about 1.50 Euro. In the FanZone, they are 4.50 Euro. So, we grabbed a quick bite (McDonalds for me and Pizza for Josh), had a couple of drinks, and headed in to the craziness. The place was getting full hours before the game, and they had everything from games to music to food and drink. It was a great scene with all the Spanish and German fans being cordial for the most part.

The game started around 8:45 and lasted about 2 hours. I really loved just being in the middle of all the fans and experiencing true passion for sports. You don't see it as much in the States, and I can't really put my finger on why. It might just be the fact that it's so many people with so much passion for their country, paired with so much passion for the sport. Anyway, it was really a cool event. If you didn't watch, Spain won 1-0. Josh and I then had to do the walk of shame back to the hostel, as we had decided before the game to buy German flags and wear them around as we rooted for Germany. Bad decision I guess.

After a quick stop for pizza (yes, that's 2 times for Josh in about 6 hours if you are keeping score at home) we headed back the the hostel, and found that our room was about 100 degrees. So, we went down to the lobby, grabbed a fan, and made the best of it. Just for the record, falling asleep sweating is not the greatest feeling in the world.

Day 14 - Prague/Kutna Hora

2008-06-29T08:55:00.005-05:00

A quick note... please read the blog right before this one. I have posted 2 at the same time. So, read Day 12 before Day 13...

If you aren't careful, it's easy to just spend your time in the city everywhere you go. I think my favorite thing about traveling to new places is getting outside the city and exploring the culture and landscape a little more... Which is exactly what we decided to do on this day. After a quick check with the front desk of Sir Toby's Hostel, we decided to go to a little town about an hour south of Prague called Kutna Hora. The main reason we decided to go there is because it houses a very unique and totally random Bone Church. What is a bone church, you might ask. Well, I haven't ever been to any others, but this one is a church surrounded by a graveyard, which houses bones of 40,000 different human beings. Everything in this church that isn't wall is human bones. For example, the center of the church has a chandelier which is made up of every bone in the human body. Obviously, the fixture uses multiple bones of the same type, but the cool part is that it uses every bone in the human body... and it's a chandelier. Pretty interesting stuff. I would recommend it to anyone traveling to Prague for a few days.

I would not, however, recommend spending a lot of time in the town. We walked around for a few hours, thinking we might stumble upon something cool and we ended up just getting tired and bored. For example, we sat on this bench for about 30 minutes or so, throwing rocks at a dead bird. Then, when that got old, we noticed that there was an ice cream cone next to the bird. Josh decided that the bird would look much cooler with a waffle cone on it's head, so he made sure that happened. Then we threw a few more rocks at it....

We got back to the train station just in time to jump on the train before it took off back to Prague. Just in the nick in fact.... anyway, we must have boarded the wrong train, because we stopped every 5 minutes or so. It took an hour to get to Kutna Hora, and about 2 1/2 to get back to Prague. Not sure what we did but that tested my patience a little bit. Luckily the iPod was charged enough to get me all the way back... that reminds me. One thing I have been doing on this trip is just listening to my iPod randomly. Right now I have 2416 songs on it, and I just am hitting random whenever I get on a train. Obviously I will skip songs, but it's been really nice to just have anything pop up. I may sound super dorky right now talking about this, but it's something I have been doing a lot and I really like it. I think I will keep it up. Right now I am listening to "Lovers Side of Town" by Joe Purdy. Another quick note. If you haven't ever listened to Joe Purdy, do it as quickly as possible. My friend Laurel introduced me to him a little over a year ago, and I have been hooked ever since. Great chill music.

Ok, what a rambler I am... After we got back, I grabbed a quick shower and we headed over for a late dinner at the pizzeria next door. Turns out that we had one of the best pizzas I have ever had. Since Josh is veg these days, we split a cheese pizza. It had mozzarella, gorgonzola, parmesan, and one other. It was really incredible. Top 5 pizzas I have ever had. Maybe top 3.

After dinner, we headed back and talked with some friends we made a few days earlier in the hostel kitchen. They are from Santa Barbara. The connection there is my sister who goes to Westmont. Turns out, this guy is the son of the chaplain at Westmont. Once I get around a phone, I am going to call Emily and tell her about it. Another Santa Barbara connection is my dear friend Cara Sanders. They didn't know her, but I thought I would give her a shout out... we talked to them and another random Aussie named Dan for a while, then headed down the the little downstairs pub with Dan to grab a bedtime brew. We sat down and then were joined soon by a group of other cool people. Some from Australia, some from the UK, and then a few others from the States. I talked to a girl from Kentucky for a while named Christina. She was a very naturally pretty girl. She graduated from St. Louis University, and now lives in Austin in the Winter, Chicago in the Summer, and takes a month off during Christmas. How great is that? Anyway, we talked for a while and then I headed off to bed without getting any of her info. Mistake? Possibly...

Day 13 - Prague

2008-06-29T08:49:00.005-05:00

Our hostel in Prague was Sir Toby's Hostel. It was definitely the best one I have stayed in, and I think Josh would agree that it was pretty solid. The place is 4 stories tall, and also has a basement which serves at the breakfast area in the morning and the bar at night. The next floors are all different types of rooms. Some are 8-10 bed rooms, and others are as small as 2-5. For those of you that aren't familiar with Hosteling, it's basically whatever you want to spend for convenience and comfort. So, if you are a light sleeper and just want a night by yourself or with one other person, normally you can get a 2 bed room. I really prefer staying in something larger though. First of all it's cheaper. Secondly, it's just a lot more fun to hang out in a room with other new and different people... If this trip has taught me anything so far, it's that I want to continue to grow and appreciate new people, ideas, and cultures. I think that back in the Texas Bible Belt, it's easy to get used to being "normal" or being around people that are "normal". This trip makes me want to step outside that box even more than I already do when I get back.

Alright, so back to Prague. We woke up around 10am or so, wandered over to the local supermarket and grabbed some random breakfast foods. I had a banana (like I do pretty much every day), an apple, a small loaf of bread, and a breakfast bar. Josh did basically the same thing. I think he might have gone crazy and grabbed some yogurt. After breakfast we headed off to the Prague Castle. On our way we wandered through the cool medieval streets (all uphill). It is really cool to be able to wander through a city that has been, for the most part, completely preserved though the years. It's just a different feel when you can be in a place where all of the buildings are still in tact, and the history is so preserved. Ok, the Prague Castle is really a sight. It sits up above the main part of the city, and is so intricate. I wont bore you with the details, but just know that it's pretty incredible. Once I get my dang camera connected somehow, I will upload pictures of it. Another option that will be coming very soon will be a site that Josh is going to upload all his pictures to. Once it is set up (hopefully soon) I will direct everyone toward it. Sorry, I am getting off track. Prague Castle houses one of the coolest churches I have ever seen. The architecture is incredible, but the inside is what is amazing. The stained glass is just really amazing. Again, pictures will be available soon.

After Prague Castle, we resorted to doing what we are really starting to do best... wandering. We covered most of the main part of the city during the next 3-4 hours. Let's see... I am trying to think of something exciting for this day, but honestly it was just sightseeing. Kinda boring honestly. I will just skip to dinner, which was easily one of the best parts of the day. We wanted to grab a good meal since we have been eating randomly for the past while. So, we thought the best option would be to find some internet and look up a good place online (because we have the computer now!). Turns out the only place we could find with free wifi was the local KFC... that's right, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not a cool coffee shop or cafe. Thanks America. Anyway, we looked up some places on Frommers and found an Italian place pretty near by. It turned out to be a really excellent decision. This place was great, and now rivals the Vietnamese in Berlin as the best meal so far. For me - 4 cheese penne pasta with chicken. For Josh - spinach and cheese ravioli. We paired that up with a few Pilsner Urquels each, and it was a great meal. Then we waited an hour for the check. Freaking Italians...

Day 12 - Berlin/Prague

2008-06-28T03:45:00.004-05:00

So I said in my last post that it was the last full day in Berlin. Actually, we ended up staying a little longer than we thought today. I mentioned that we were waiting on the computer, and that it had, in fact, arrived. The only problem is that they didn't drop it off. They kept it at the main post office in Berlin because there is a tax on incoming goods. It's an EU tax they use to make sure people aren't shipping in goods for cheap. So, in an effort to completely plagiarize another person's blog, I am going to give you the story how Stephanie told it...

"However, the morning they left we went to pick up their laptop. Ryan had it shipped here because they realized as they went that for what they were doing, it was needed. It came, but because the value was written as $2000 they wouldn't deliver it (due to the 20% tax that the EU puts on all such shipped items). I had warned them ahead of time about this, but somewhere in the chaos of it all, the message was lost. So the German Post was definitely holding the computer hostage.

It just happened to be about an hour away from where we live by public transport, which wouldn't have been so annoying if we hadn't made the trip 1 1/2 times due to my failure to accurately read the hours of operation on the postal slip. So, yesterday morning we began our second trip there, to find out that the U4 had been shut down and was not running past Schoneburg, and so we had to go back the way we came, catch another line, and head a different direction to end up at the same point. I got out my phone and alerted the GPS to our whereabouts, except that I am not really good with maps or directions, so I walked us in circles. Every time I asked anyone where we should go, they directed me through the park, including the man at the city hall with the bushiest eyebrows I had ever seen and a fantastic collection of ear and nose hair - as well as the transvestite who thought I was hitting on her man when I asked for directions, so she sent me the opposite direction that we were supposed to go (once again, through the park.) Thankfully, Ryan was smarter than all of that and said, "Hey Steph, I think it's this building behind us."

So we get in and register to wait. That's right, register to wait. Then we waited. Then they called us up and told us that the tax would be 250 Euros. Josh maintained stunning composure the entire time (this is true to character as my cousin Jessie likes to refer to Josh as the most peaceful person she has ever met), but I could see Ryan starting to calculate the extravagant cost of convenience. Ryan and Josh then did what they do best, discuss why it will work out and why even if the worst case scenario happens, everything will be OK... They call our number, 63. That's when it started. I explained that they were backpacking, had the computer shipped, it was obviously not worth $2000 but as Americans we write this kind of stuff for insurance purposes. They then told me that this was stupid and they should have known EU tax laws before they shipped, and that the American system is stupid. I then explained to them that as stupid as it is, that was no less the case and that it made little logical sense for two guys backpacking through Europe to send for their laptop to pay $400 in tax on it so that they didn't have to go to an internet cafe and so on and so forth. After a lot of back and forth, they charged the minimum tax (47.25 Euros) and we were on our way. Let me just say I was dealing with the two most patient men I have ever encountered in my life, and I was grateful."

So, that's the story of the shipped computer. This story and many other great little excerpts can be found at cricketjohnson.blogspot.com

The rest of the day consisted of jelly donuts for lunch, a 4 hour train ride to Prague, peanuts for dinner, and our first night's stay at Sir Toby's Hostel in Prague. I will talk more about the hostel in the next post. I think this is long enough.

Day 11 - Berlin

2008-06-26T17:48:00.005-05:00

Today was the last full day we are to have had in Berlin... You know, sometimes I don't know what tense to write these things because I can be writing a day later, but I still want to act like it happened that day. Anyway, if my tenses are messed up, that's why. Alrighty. Now that we have squared that away. Last full day in Berlin... it started off much like the other days. It was pretty chill for the most part, but we did wake up fairly early. Stephanie was watching their friends little boy for the morning, so we woke up on the couches pretty early. Don't think I am upset about it though. Sleeping in is a luxury when backpacking, and we had already done that enough.

For breakfast we made some great stuff. Steph brought home potatoes, eggs, bread for toast, and bacon. I helped her in the kitchen (one of my passions), and we made a pretty tasty little breakfast. Hash browns, cheesy eggs with fresh tomato, bacon, and toast with apricot jelly was on the menu. Everyone enjoyed it, and the 2 vegetarians (Josh and Stephanie) enjoyed the meal without the bacon. You know, as a quick side note... I am really impressed with the whole veg lifestyle. I will definitely not be participating any time soon, but it is really impressive.

After breakfast we headed down the the post office to grab my computer. Luckily we didn't read the slip that was left at the door, which mentioned that the post office is closed at noon on wednesdays. We had already been heading that way for about 30min (it's an hour each way), so needless to say, we were all a little frustrated... So, what do you do with that frustration? Eat gelato! We went to Stephanie's favorite place in Berlin and grabbed some fresh gelato to calm our nerves.

After the wild goose chase and gelato we headed back to get ready for the Germany v. Turkey game. The fact that Berlin is the largest city in Germany, paired with the fact that Berlin also houses the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey in the world, made this a really big event. We attended of course. Not the game. We went to this huge gathering where thousands of people were watching on multiple projector screens. It was a crazy scene. I mean, it gives me chills just thinking about it. It's what I am all about. I love the sport and the competition so much... so it was great to be there for the game.

Germany won 3-2! It was a great game. They scored at the last minute to win, and everybody went insane. It really was a perfect ending to the game. After we left the streets were crazy. Flares, singing, shaking cars in the street, etc. Absolutely nuts! I will post video soon, but I actually got on top of a car with some other random German guy in the middle of this crowd of thousands. It was intense. Like I said, I will post video when I can figure out this stupid camera. Dinner was late night pizza for me and falafel for Josh. After staying up and telling Stephanie how much we were going to miss her and her we got to bed. I think it was after 3, but I am not certain... Overall, a great last day in Berlin!

Day 10 - Berlin

2008-06-25T05:43:00.003-05:00

Originally we thought we would be in Berlin for only 1 day. There are a few factors that we didn't see before arriving here though. The main issue is the fact that my computer still hasn't arrived... Ok, this is super weird. Literally just as I was typing that, the computer arrived. I am not joking. WEIRD! Ok, other factors for an extended stay include a free place to stay, amazingly cool people to hang out with, and the Germany-Turkey game tomorrow night!

Today was a pretty chill day for the most part. We stayed last night at one of Stephanie's good friend's place. We slept in for a change, and then made our way over to her place which is in the same cool neighborhood. Since Stephanie didn't get off work until 3 or so, the majority of our morning / early afternoon was filled with pastries for breakfast, catching up on emails, blogs, etc and watching episodes of season 3 of The Office. I am pretty obsessed with that show, so it was a great afternoon. Once Stephanie got back, we took off to grab a cup of coffee at an awesome little place called Bonanza (www.bonanzacoffee.de)

The reason I liked this place so much is because they have a very similar vision as ours. They spent about 3-4 years just researching, practicing, and training before opening up. Our timeline for Green Door Coffee is much faster than that, but they seem to have the same goal, at least coffeewise... To make a truly great cup of coffee! Our vision, of course, stretches even farther than that. We also desire to create a community and culture that adapts to our vision of being a green, organic, and sustainable business... So, it was a great little place with an even better flat white. Please take a minute to check out their website. You will see a picture of them working on the machine we are most likely going to use (Synesso).

What else, what else, what else..... next, we moved on Mauerpark. This is a really unique place that is covered in graffiti. It's hard to explain without actually seeing it, but the park is right next to some remains of the Berlin Wall (Mauer = Wall). You should take a minute and wiki Mauerpark. It's a really cool place where graffiti is quite the art form.

Just about the time we left Mauerpark, I was feeling the caffine from the coffee kicking in. I am not sure if I mentioned this, but they made an amazing flat white. For those of you that aren't super familiar, a flat white is the New Zealand / Australian version of espresso and milk. It has proportionally less milk than a latte, which I think makes it a little better. Ok... enough of the coffee talk, because I am sure there will be more in the future.

The final stop for the night was an incredible Vietnamese restaurant called Monsieur Vuong's. We ate here with everyone (7 of us total). I can't really put in to words how great this place was, but it was by far the best meal we have had... yes, even better than the peanuts I had for dinner on the train to Berlin. You basically have 2 options which change daily. Last night was either pork with rice noodles or chicken with rice. I did chicken, and was not disappointed. Josh did the same dish, but they did tofu for him. A few of us paired that with some white wine, and it was pretty dang perfect. Alright... after dinner we came back to the apartment for a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit (which I totally dominated) and then hit the sack. Josh and I are now staying on Stephanie's newly acquired couches (newly acquired meaning earlier in the day). I had the small couch. Apparently I am short... who knew. Bedtime = 2:30.

Day 9 - Berlin

2008-06-23T16:16:00.001-05:00

I didn't talk at all about the night train in my last post, so I will do that real quick. We opted to take a sleeper car, which basically means we pay a little bit more (even with a Eurail Pass) but we both got full beds in a separate area on the train. The space isn't big at all. It had just enough room for a sink, 2 beds, and a little bit of floor space to move around. The beds are actually stacked and the room fits up to 3 people. We, however, got the place to ourselves because the 3rd bed hadn't been booked, so it was a little more spacious and a lot less awkward than it could have been.

After an 10 hour ride that was only supposed to be 8, we arrived in Berlin. Of course Josh and I hadn't contacted Stephanie in enough time to grab directions, so once we got to the train station, we had to wing it. Immediately the internet cafe was the next stop. I got an hour and had recieved an email from Stephanie saying that she would come meet us. We arrived late, though, so I had to email her back and wait for her response. Luckily she has a blackberry (because what church planter doesn't have a blackberry), so it was a quick process.

We took a quick tram over to where she and her team were helping a family pack up for a move back to the States. We were happy to help them for an hour or so, and then we headed off to lunch, which the family was happy to provide for us. We ate at this great Indian restaurant. I had chicken with peanut sauce and josh had fish curry. Both were exceptional. It was probably the first really good, hearty meal I have had since arriving. After lunch, we headed back to Stephanie's place to drop off our stuff, and turned right around to go back out for a walking tour of the city...

Who was our tour guide you might ask? I will tell you. One Stephanie Johnson. you might ask, is she also a tour guide? Well, at this point I guess you could say that, considering she gives about one tour per week (this is according to her obviously). Honestly, her tour was really amazing. We went on a walking tour in Amsterdam and this was just as informative and definitely more entertaining. Some interesting highlights include... waving at all tour buses no matter what, extremely loud human siren sounds (I will post video soon), and a group picture with a statue of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. We also some some cool historically significant sites such as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews and the Reichstag.

After the amazing tour, we showered up, grabbed a bite at an awesome pizza place which had a signature with fresh mozzarella which is one of my favorite things, and headed out for a night on the town. I guess I should explain who we is real quick. Stephanie always has visitors and right now she has several guests from the states whom we are hanging out with. They are all girls and include various friends, family and coworkers... Ok, we went first to a beer garden (the oldest in Berlin) and grabbed a quick beer before they closed. Next, we stopped at a more trendy bar where we grabbed some cocktails. This would be the point in the night where Josh hit a glass of beer which broke and somehow cut one of my knuckles while also soaking April, one of the girls we were out with. It was a funny moment, though, and the bleeding stopped soon enough. After drinks, we grabbed a quick bite at a local late night food place (honestly not sure what I ate, but it included some sort of hanging cooked meat, lettuce, tomato, and some white sauce. It reminded me of a gyro. Maybe it was a gyro. Who knows. 3:00am or so was bedtime. Another day in Berlin awaits tomorrow... which is actually today because I am writing it the next afternoon.

Day 8 - Brussels

2008-06-23T15:39:00.003-05:00

For those of you that think Brussels is the greatest city ever, please be prepared to move on to the next section of this blog. I am not going to sit here and bash it, but honestly, it kinda sucked. I am willing to say that maybe I had a bad experience or maybe it's just the fact that I don't enjoy walking through piles of trash... one or the other.

Alright, so we woke up around 9:00, just in time to grab the 2 pieces of bread, 1 slice of american chesse, and corn flakes that were provided for us. I am not complaining, so please don't think that. I am super thankful for any free food, and this breakfast was no different. So, filled with carbs for the day, we started walking... and walking... and finally decided we would take the Metro system which was free since nobody ever checks. So, equipped with our map, trusty compass compass (which we use all the time by the way), and a never ending metro pass we found ourselves in city center about 3 hours after we left the Hostel. Not an efficient morning. Anyway, once we got there it was time for a few more carbs, so we grabbed Belgian waffles. They started at about 3.5 Euros and went up from there. It's funny because we are both sitting there just calculating what kind of effect adding strawberries or chocolate will have on our bottom line. I decided that chocolate was worth the investment. Josh decided that it wasn't.

Next we wandered around the city. Pretty ordinary. We found a park that we thought would be super cool. It was right next to the Royal Palace. We thought, awesome, a cool big park. We can just chill here... maybe read or journal or something... The minute we got in there, piles of trash everywhere. In fact, the first fountain we got to was literally filled with trash. So, we left and headed off to other parts of the city. Among the sites were a cool square like the one in St. Mark's in Venice, a little statue of a peeing boy, and a really cool indoor mall.

After the super exciting fun day we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our belongings, waited 3 more hours, and grabbed the night train which would take us to Berlin, where our fabulous tour guide and friend Stephanie, would make us move furniture 45 minutes after we arrived...

Day 7 - Amsterdam / Brussels

2008-06-23T15:18:00.002-05:00

Alright, I am writing day 7, 8 and 9 posts right now, from Stephanie Johnson's place in Berlin. I will do my best to keep current from this point forward, but trust me, I have been trying. Ok, a quick note about something that is going on that I haven't addressed. Before I left, I was debating on whether to take my computer (a brand new macbook I got before I left) and at the last minute I decided not to bring it. Well, the minute I showed up in London without it, Josh wasn't too happy about it. In typical Josh form he was super cool about it, though. I knew right away that I had made a mistake, as I too was regreting it. I mean, it's pretty obvious that it's hard to blog randomly from random places without a computer. Ok, so the point? My computer is on the way. It is being Mailed to Berlin. So, we wait until it shows up. Originally we were only supposed to be here 2 days, but it might stretch out farther now.

Alright, Day 7... Meetingpoint Hostel in central Amsterdam was not the best sleeping environment. For example, I woke up for the first time at some point in the middle of the night to a horribly smelly guy wandering in late. His stench was a mix of BO, weed, and alcohol. Then, just when it smells bad enough, the dude decides to let out a horribly loud fart... please keep in mind that this dude was 3 or 4 feet from my face. I know that's super gross, but it's just an example of the night of sleep I got. So, I woke up, and Josh and I put our stuff in the luggage storage and took off to a free walking tour of the city. The dude that took us on the tour was really awesome. He is a student that goes to the university of Amsterdam and is one of the bunch of tour guides they have. Alright, so it was a super informative tour and was probably one of the cooler things we did in Amsterdam. It was quite a walk (about 4 hours), but totally worth it.

Ok, so after the walk, we were pretty tired and decided to just take it easy. We spent some time walking around a bit more, went and grabbed our bags, and took a train to Brussels around 6:00...

8:45... we arrived in Brussels and were lucky enough to have a pretty quick and painless transit system that took us only a few blocks from Van Gogh Hostel. I realize now that I spelled Van Gogh wrong in the previous blog. I don't really care too much, but for those people like David who care about grammar, I am sorry. Alright, so we arrive at the hostel, which was super nice. It was clean and we finally were able to sit and chill with some cool people. We met some folks from Philly, a girl from Columbia, and a few others. We all stayed up until late playing pool and sampling Belgian beers.

2:30am... bedtime.

In Berlin - New posts soon!

2008-06-23T03:59:00.002-05:00

I will be posting for the last few days later on tonight. An update though... Brussels is really dirty, the Y and Z are switched on the German keyboard, and I am now in Berlin. More coming very soon...

A Quick Note from Brussels...

2008-06-22T04:54:00.002-05:00

I knew there would be a day when I would have trouble finding a place to post and that time has come. I am sitting in a random internet place in a sketchy area in Brussels right now and the keyboards here are way different so its taking me a while to even type this. I will post Day 7 and 8 when I can find a normal keyboard. Stay with me daily readers... I will be back on track later today or early tomorrow.Wow, that just took 15 minutes.

Day 6 - Amsterdam

2008-06-20T17:07:00.002-05:00

As this day draws to a close, I am sitting here at a computer terminal at our Hostel. Last night we stayed at Lucky Lake Hostel. Tonight is Meetingpoint Youth Hostel. Two very different worlds to say the least. This place is located right in the center of the craziest part of the city, and I guess you could say it has a little bit different smell... and by different smell I mean it smells like I am locked in a car with Cheech and Chong. It's crazy how much people smoke here, but more on that in a bit.

So, I started the day off actually getting some sleep. I probably slept 12 hours actually. So, I my system is stay awake 48 hours, and then sleep 12. It's working ok, but I would really appreciate a normal sleeping schedule, so I am crossing my fingers that tonight I break the trend and just get a normal night. Ok, so woke up around 10, left the hostel by 11:30 after a surprisingly hot and fairly clean shower. We headed back over to the metro, then came to Meetingpoint to check in and stow our stuff for the day. Next was the tram to the museum area... that process only took abot 2 hours. 30 minutes to find out where we were supposed to freaking go, 1 hour more taking the completely wrong tram, and then another 30 to finally get there. All I have to say, is it wasn't our fault. You can blame the horrible visitor center guide for that. She was nice, but not very helpful to visitors... which is her job... anyway...

We got to the Vincent Van Gough and payed 10 Euro to get in and another 4 Euro for the audio headphone tour (Right now the Euro is about 1.6 to 1 US Dollar) At first I was a little anoyed that I was paying another 4, but it turns out that it was a great decision (which I credit Josh with). I really enjoyed my time there, and it was so cool to be able to see up close how many amazing works Van Gough did in such a short time. For those of you that aren't familiar (like me only a few hours ago), he did the bulk of his artwork for 10 years or so and he did over 800 paintings, plus tons of writings. Huge bad ass. Huge bad ass who killed himself in his mid thirties, but nontheless... Anyway, it was a great exprience, and by far the most history I have taken in while here.

I guess I forgot to put this post in order, as I forgot lunch. Lunch was grocery store food. Ham and Cheese sando, apples, doritos (which I am finishing right now actually), and twix for me... I know very american. Josh opted for pesto pasta, cheese and crackers, and a couple plums.

After the Museum it was pretty much wandering. We walked all the way back, so I bet we got a good hour and a half walk in on the way back. I need to lose a few, so sometimes public transport isn't going to happen. Need to keep active. Anyway, tonight we ventured over to the Red Light District which was completely sureal. We were the a couple of minutes and that's all it took to get the idea. This place is like Vegas on crack. It's really insane. No worries parents and people who care... I am sticking to my values.

Ok, so for dinner Doritos for both of us. I think Josh may have had some cheese and crackers. Hopefully I will be able to write about some great restaurants soon. Alright, 3 minutes until I get kicked off. Until next time...

Day 5 - Amsterdam

2008-06-20T03:34:00.002-05:00

I am writing this on the morning of DAy 6 actually, and that's because we don't have a computer anymore. So, this one will probably be a little shorter than the others, simply because as it stands right now, I have exactly 11 minutes left, and I am trying not to have to spend another dollar. Ok, so what did we do yesterday...

Well, for me it was another night of barely any sleep. We had to take a flight to Amsterdam at 6am, which meant not much sleep anyway. I, however, was again unable to fall asleep for longer than 30 minutes, so again I just stayed up and utilized the last few hours I would have with a computer that doesn't take coins. After Josh was up, we headed off to Liverpool St. to catch a bus out to the airport. We took RyanAir, which I think is pretty cool. It's an airline similar to Southwest. It's actually super efficient, and they load passengers from the front and back of the plane. So, we boarded fast, got to Eindhoven even faster... 45 minutes total... and then had to find a bus, to take us to a train to Amsterdam. Once there we had to take the metro to another bus and finally arrrived at our Hostel. We stayed last night at a place called Lucky Lake Hostel which is about 30 minutes from City Center. It's a great little place. The only weird thing is that it's a bunch of little trailers for 2 people. So, Josh and I shared a bed in this tiny little camper which was maybe a little akward. All in all, though, it's a nice place. We are actually spending our second night at a Youth Hostel down right in the mix of things near city center. So, that should be a whole different experience which I will write about tomorrow.

Alright other than the little camper, I don't have anything else really funny to tell about. It was a pretty chill day, since we were tired from no sleep. Went to bed pretty early, to gear up for all the stuff we are going to go see today. The only meal other than Bagels for breakfast yesterday, was at this place called Wok to Walk. It's a really cool stir fry place that makes everything super fast to go. It was excellent. I had chicken terriaki and I am honestly not sure what Josh had. Alright, 2 minutes until I get kicked off... I better go. If there are any grammatical errors in this post, please excuse them. Alright, off to the city...

Day 4 - London

2008-06-18T17:08:00.003-05:00

Great news... at least for me - I finally was able to sleep longer than 4 hours! So, now that I am caught up on sleep, everything should feel a little more normal. Alright, so what I did today... well the day started of course at the bagel shop again. I know I have eaten there a bunch, but it's super cheap and in London that is extremely rare. For example, my breakfast the other day with gratuity was 8.5 pounds, which is $16 and change US. This morning, I had a apple pastry and Josh had something similar and it was 80 pence total, which is about $1.50. So, bagel shop, then to the Underground to head towards an area called SOHO.

The main reason we are in Europe is just because we want to see new places and take a "holiday" to travel. There are other small things, though, that we want to accomplish here and one of those is checking out some coffee shops in Europe. I mentioned before that Josh, David and I are going to be opening a coffee shop. We are going to be opening it up at the end of the year, and have already done a good portion of the leg work (business plan, established relationships with vendors, etc). Once Josh and I get back, David will be about a week from getting married. After that, it's going to be full speed ahead opening up the shop. So, all that to say... while we are here we want to see some coffee shops and get a feel for what they are like in this part of the world. I know I keep saying this, but I will be posting pictures just as soon as I can get my camera hooked up and working... and these pictures will include some coffee shops.

Alright, so in SOHO we found a few really great places. While in the city, all I have mostly seen is your basic chain type places and of course Starbucks. Most of them are overpriced, and none of them really serve a great cup of coffee - unless you think Starbucks is great coffee... Anyway, today, was quite the opposite. We found some really great places with really great coffee. We went to 3 places total. First, before we got to SOHO we stopped at a place called Scooterworks. Aparantly this place was created by someone who loves Vespas and really scooters of all kinds. It was alright, but definately not the best. Pretty interesting place actually... the walls look like one big scooter ad. Next, was a trip to what had the best atmosphere. Sacred Cafe (www.sacredcafe.co.uk) is owned by a couple Kiwis (New Zealanders) and the place definitely has that feel. The place has two floors and a great patio area outside the front doors. We were able to chat with the owner for a little while and talk about coffee for a little bit. This place was awesome, though, and I would recommend it to you next time you are in London. It's worth the trip from wherever you are. The third place we went had, in my opinion, the best coffee for sure. It's a place called Flat White (www.flat-white.co.uk) This place is also owned by a couple of Kiwis. They actually own 2 different shops in SOHO. It's a great place, with great espresso, and once again, extremely friendly owners. Check out the website if you have some time. It is such a great place.

Alright, I will make the rest quick since I just rambled on about coffee. We grabbed a bite at a local British restaurant. I had one of the best Cheeseburgers I have ever had, and Josh had some pretty rockin' Brocolli Bleu Cheese Soup. Water to drink of course. Don't think I have mentioned this, but I am going to try my best to not drink any soft drinks while I am here. Finished the night watching Euro '08 in a bar close to the house, and then headed home... well to Nick's home, which is where I am right now. I am going to bed early tonight because we have to be up around 3am to catch our plane to Amsterdam. My next post will be from there...

Day 3 - London

2008-06-18T06:04:00.000-05:00

Today was a day filled with sightseeing and roaming around the city. The day started with a very early morning for me. In London this time of year, the sun starts to rise very early. So, when 5am rolled around, the sun automatically woke me up. It's weird, because normally I can sleep through anything. I guess if it's not dark, I can't go back to bed. So, seeing that my 4 hours of sleep was all I was going to get, I went for an early morning jog. Concerned that I might lose my way, I decided to stick to one main road. Off that road, I found a great little park to finish my run in.

20 min later...
Yes, 20 minutes is about all I could handle after a night of Vietnameese food, beer and football... I arrived back to find everyone else still asleep. I decided to kill a few hours on ESPN.com, and once everyone was up, we went to the bagel shop for breakfast.

Today we said adios to Nick. He is off to go sailing with his new boss off the coast of Italy... must be nice. He does have to wear a blue blazer and khaki shorts the whole time though, so maybe not so lucky. Anyway, after parting ways, we made our way to central London. We walked down the Thames river for a while, and just before we arrived at the Tate Modern Museum, we came upon a crowd of people. After a few minutes, we realized that they were all looking at a dead body. You heard me right, a freaking dead body. Apparently a car had been found at the bottom of the river with a dead body in it. It had been decomposing for a while, so it was pretty nasty. I will post pictures as soon as I get them.

Next was the Tate. It's a great modern museum filled with works by Picasso and the like. After leaving there, we wanered over to St. Paul's Cathedral. Lunch on the steps of this great building was grocery store fare. For me - Chicken Caesar Wrap, a banana, and chocolate chip cookie. Josh - Veggie pasta, banana, and yogurt.

Hyde park was next. That is where I wrote most of this blog entry. Huge amazing park where I was most impressed with the rollerbladers weaving through cones. Although it was probably the most dorky thing I have seen, it was very impressive. If I can get video of these guys, I will post it. After Hyde Park was dinner. Pizza for me and Fish & Chips for Josh. After that, we came back and crashed pretty early. It was a long day. Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight, although I am nervous that 5am will wake me up once again...

An introduction, Day 1, and Day 2

2008-06-17T00:34:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone. Greetings from Europe. If you know me well at all, you know that sometimes I have a tendency to procrastinate. So, it should come as no surprise that I have taken a few days to get this blog set up. It is now ready to go, though, and I have every intention of writing on it as much as possible. For those of you that don't know what I am doing, I will tell you right now. I am traveling around Europe for the next six weeks with a good friend, Josh Hargrave. We are roommates in Dallas, and also are going to be opening up a coffee shop when we get back with another great friend David Johnson. I am going to be keeping all of you up to date on what we are doing, what we are eating, what random things are happening, and hopefully will be posting as many pictures as possible. If you would like to take a look at Josh's blog at any point, go to joshhargrave.blogspot.com

So, without further ado...

June 15, Day 1 - The trip across the pond
I am going to combine days 1 and 2 together in this posting since the basically ran together. From here on out, I will do my best to post every day or at least every other day. So, today was an interesting and exhausting day. Since my flight was leaving at 6:00am, I decided that it would be a bad idea to even try to sleep. So, I got a nice American fast food meal (Jack in the Box in case anyone is wondering) around midnight, and then finished packing. Of course, I had all night to get to the airport, but somehow decided to arrive about 45 minutes before an international flight. Anyway, boarded the plane around 6am, and I was off. One nice thing about having a job in the past where I traveled is having hoards of miles. So, I went ahead and booked the flight on business class. This turned out to be an excellent decision for a number of reasons, but mainly because the seats turn in to beds.

Once I arrived in London around 12:30am, I referred to the directions Nick (my American friend in London) gave me before I left. I was told to take the tube in to the city, and then go from there. One problem... the tube was closed. So, after doing a little research, I found that I had only one option... the bus. Having only 2 credit cards and a passport, I was screwed. The buses only take cash, and I couldn't find a money exchange. Finally, I found a place to get some cash, and once 1:30am rolled around, I was finally on a bus to Central London. After finally finding my way to Liverpool street, the only other thing I knew was to find Swanfield Street. Since I had no map, and it was 3:00am by now, it was getting fairly ridiculous. Luckily, I randomly ran in to a construction worker who happened to have a huge map of London (thank you God for that random blessing) who was able to point me in the right direction. So, here I was, a 25 year old American dude, walking down the streets of London with a brand new, huge North Face backpack on just asking to be robbed. All I knew at this point, was I needed to find Nick's place pretty quick. So, after a few stops along the way to hotels and convenience stores, an hour of wandering, and a pay phone call to Nick I arrived. Safe and dead freaking tired, I said hello to Josh and went to bed for a few hours.

Day 2, June 16
Today was a pretty chill day by most accounts. It started with a brunch at a place called Giraffe. I am not sure how many of you are reading Josh's blog, but he is, at least for the time being, a vegetarian. I, however, am definately not, so I went with the tortilla with cheese, chorizo, black beans, and avocado. Josh got waffles.

After a good breakfast/lunch, we made a trip to the key cutter, so Nick could make us a copy of his key (which of course didn't work when we got back to his flat later on). After the key cutting adventure, I opted for a long nap, since I had only slept about 5 hours in the past 48 or so. After the nap, we had dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant. Nick and I had beef and Josh had rice. We all shared some veggie spring rolls, and the best thing on the menu - fried squid. I know it sounds awful to some of you, but it was amazing. After dinner, we went to Watch a Euro '08 match at a bar nearby. If you don't know this about me already, you will soon learn that I am a pretty big sports fan, and even more so, a Soccer fan (Football over here). Anyway, I am thrilled that our trip fell right during one of the biggest tournaments in the World - Euro 2008. Basically, the 16 European teams that qualified, compete in a tournament which concludes on June 29 in Vienna, Austria. I am pumped about this, because we are going to be in Vienna on that day. It should be an amazing time, but I will wait until then to write any more about it.

So, after a few beers at dinner and a few more at the bar, we were feeling pretty saucy. Next was a trip to a 24hr bagel shop to sober up a little bit. This place sells, in addition to great bagels, tons of amazing pastries. For those of you that know the Czech Stop in West, TX - just imagine that but a lot smaller without Dr. Pepper or A&M and UT paraphernalia. After a good Apple Turnover and some cheesecake we are off to bed.