So, things were going a bit too smoothly, and something was bound to go wrong eventually. I’ve been moving around so much, that I forgot that I would be arriving in Munich on a weekend. When I tried to book some of the hostels, they were all booked up for the cheap rooms. I tried booking for Munich a day later even, but I couldn’t find anything good. I ended up just changing things up and booked a hostel for 6 nights in Berlin. I was still a little mad at myself for waiting so long to book, but once I got the train all settled for Berlin, I was fine. I already have someplace booked after Berlin, so I will just need to make sure I’m good with booking more than a day ahead in the future.
I spent the rest of the day doing some of the things I need to do while in Paris. I saw the arc de triumph and the eiffel tower. I also went back to Notre Dame so that I could go up in the tower. I got some good panoramic views of the city and then grabbed a crepe on the way back to my hostel. Not much else to write at this point in time. I’ve got an early train tomorrow to Berlin and I should get there around 5 pm or so. I will probably spend the first day recovering from all of the running around. I will have plenty of time in Berlin to see the sights, so I can take it easy the first day.
I spent some of yesterday hanging around Madrid, and I actually wish I maybe had one more day there. I don’t think I missed too much, but I could have hung out in the park some more. I caught my overnight train, and since I was cheap, I shared a big car of reclining seats with maybe 12-15 people. I am safely in Paris, and I have already seen the catacombs and the Notre Dame. Both were cool, but I need to go back to Notre Dame to go up in the tower tomorrow. I also decided to spend tomorrow night in Paris as well because I felt I was going to rush it. Gotta go now. I hate these French keyboards.
Hey guys, sorry for not updating as often as I should, but I’m having way too much fun on the road! While Barcelona was awesome, Seville was even cooler. Even though it’s a smaller city, there’s a ton of stuff crammed in there! I also think that since the hostel was slightly smaller, I got to know people better. I’m definitely way more outgoing when I’m traveling, and one of my goals is to translate that to my life while I’m not traveling. I’m not nervous around people, but I just don’t start random conversations with them when I’m home. I know it’s easier to start conversations when traveling becuase there is so much to talk about, but I’m going to try to see if I can improve on that when I get home.
I went up into La Giralda and got some cool pictures of the city. I also walked along the Guadalquiver river for a while and just spent a final relaxing day in Seville. Unfortunately the Real Alcazar was closed on the last day I was in town, so I guess I’ll just have to make it back to Seville sometime in the future. I took a short train to Madrid on the morning of Tuesday, and after dropping my bags off at the hostel (I can’t remember the name now, I’ll post a review of it later when I get home), I went exploring. The one plus side of my hostel was that it was really close to some of the cool sights. It was a short walk to the Plaza Mayor and then I continued on to see the cathedral next to the giant Palace (Palcio Real? I don’t have my notebook/map down here with me). I also went to the Prado since it’s free from 6 pm - 8 pm most nights. It was really cool, but I’m not extremely interested in art in the first place. If it wasn’t free, I probably wouldn’t have gone. Plus, I was really tired, so I don’t think I gave some of the art my full attention.
I took an overnight train into Paris and I arrived this morning at about 9. Unfortunately the train station did not have any maps or anything to give out, so I had to figure out the metro route on the wall. I’ve gotten much better at figuring out metros now, and I arrived at my hostel shortly afterwards (Caulaincourt Square Hotel). I was able to see some of the sights including the Pantheon, Latin Quarter, The Catacombs, and Notre Dame. I will have all day tomorrow to explore more of Paris as well. I will add more later!
I arrived in Madrid early this morning, and I wish I could have staying in Sevilla longer. I saw most of what I wanted to see, but it was such a cool hostel and I had a great time. There are pros and cons to planning a lot of stuff out in advance. If you already buy train tickets and book hostels, then you end up sacrificing the ability to stay someplace you really liked. On the other hand, if you wing it all the time and only plan ahead a day in advance, you´ll pay more for it. The cheap hostels will be booked up and on an overnight train, you might have to pay for the more expensive cauchettes or sleeper cars. It´s a tough call, but as much as I liked Sevilla, I think it´s good that I´m moving on.
My hostel here in Madrid is okay, but nothing really special. It definitely is not bad, it just doesn´t compare to the last 2 that I stayed at. Even though I keep saying this to myself, I really am going to have a more relaxing night in and get a good night´s sleep. I´m not sure how well I´ll be able to sleep on the train, and I want to be well rested for tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will probably spend some time trying to memorize some phrases in French so I can at least get by in Paris. I´m not staying in Paris for too long, and I think I´m going to skip the Louvre. I went to the Prado museum today in Madrid, and since I went at 6 pm, it was free entrance. I guess walking around art museums just doesn´t do it for me. They had some great paintings, and I was amazed at how much detail they could fit into those paintings, but all of the paintings start to run together after seeing so many. Still, it was a good experience, but I just do not think the Louvre would interest me. Instead I´m looking at doing Notre Dame, possibly the catacombs, the eiffel tower, the arc de triumf, and the Latin Quarter at least. I´ll probably research some more stuff that I should see as well. Mostly I just get the maps in the train stations and look and see what cool sights there are to see. This works really well if I have a ton of time to spend, but if I´m pressed for time, it may make it more difficult to see everything.
I hope everything is going well with everyone. I enjoy getting the comments letting me know what is going on at home as well.
Here is a close up of La Sagrada Familia at one of the entrances. On one side (this side) all of the figures are really blocklike in appearance. On the opposite side, they are more realistic looking. I have so many more pictures of this place that you guys will get to see at the beach or when I upload more of them. I might not upload a ton of pictures because all the directions are in Spanish on the computers and I don´t want to accidentally delete all my photos.
Hope you guys are enjoying the posts. I just finished breakfast out on the terrace of the current hostel I´m staying at (Samay Sevilla Hostel) and I will be heading to the train station soon to book a reservation for my ticket to Madrid. After that I will look at more of the sights Sevilla has to offer. I´m going to try to go to the top of La Giralda today and get some nice pictures of the city. I´m also going to go to Plaza España which is supposed to be very nice as well.
You can see the cranes in the background. They started construction in 1882 and there have been many setbacks along the way. It is supposed to be finished in the next 15-20 years or so.
Hey guys, I´ve been so busy seeing everything, I´ve neglected this blog. This will be a pretty quick post since I have a lot to do today, but it will definitely be longer than the last one.
Barcelona was a ton of fun. I arrived early in the morning around 8:30 and was not looking forward to the jet lag since I couldn´t sleep a wink on the plane despite having both seats to sprawl out on (what luck!). I picked up a map and took the bus to Plaza Cataluna. I proceeded to walk in the wrong direction on las ramblas and had to turn around and walk even further to get to Kabul. I finally found it, but I could not check in so I tossed my bag into the luggage storage room and started exploring. I walked down towards the sea where they have a cool stretch of las ramblas called la rambla de la mar. I took a ton of pictures as I was wandering around. I eventually made it back to the hostel to check in where they put me in a 2 bed dorm rather than the 8 bed dorm that I signed up for! I ended up paying the same price and I got a lot more sleep than some of the people I talked to in the bigger dorms. Even though I was jet lagged, I was drawn in by the happy hour deal of 2 for 1. €3 bought me 2 liters of beer. Yes, you really can´t do much better than that. I ended up getting pretty drunk and meeting some cool people in the hostel. The next day, I took a metro to the train station to reserve my seat for my trip to Sevilla. After that I headed to La Sagrada Familia and La Padrera which were both really cool. I wanted to head to the Park Guell, but I was exhausted and never made it there. I need to head back there when I get back to Barcelona the day before my flight. On the last day in Barcelona, I relaxed on the beach for most of the day and just generally enjoyed myself. I went with a guy I went out to a couple bars with and some girls he knew from his dorm. Aside from the asian women asking to give you €5 massages every 3 minutes, it was awesome. The water was cold, but it was very sunny so it was nice.
I arrived in Sevilla yesterday and even though I was tired from the early wakeup, I went around and saw a lot of the sights. I went to the Cathedral and La Giralda. I checked out the bullfighting ring and took a tour. There´s a fight today and I´m torn about going. On one hand, it´s a once in a lifetime thing to do and it´s not really that expensive for the cheap seats. On the other hand, hearing the descriptions of the bullfights, you´re basically going in there to see a slaughter because they weaken the bull so much before the matador finishes him off. I need to go now because I want to reserve my train for Madrid for Tuesday and hopefully see if I can reserve an overnight train from Madrid to Paris. Not sure if I can do that here at the Sevilla station, but hopefully someone will speak English and I can find out. Luckily I´ve remembered a bit of Spanish from high school, so I´ve been alright so far. The real test will be France and Germany where I know even less!
The title pretty much says it all. I didn’t actually see a bullfight although I could buy a ticket tomorrow to one. They’re supposed to be pretty brutal though, so I may pass. I’ll post more pictures later.
Yesterday was spent mostly on the beach in Barcelona. I went with this one guy I had met the night before and a couple other people. It was really fun, and the sun was out most of the time. Now imagine you´re relaxing at the beach tanning or trying to sleep. Now imagine asian women with mickey moust tshirts coming up to you every 3 minutes asking if you want a massage for €5. Then a guy comes around asking if you want any temporary tattoos. Then another guy comes and tries to sell you beer or soda. You get the idea. It was still a fun time, but the water was extremely cold. I don´t have many pictures of the beach because it was topless and I don´t think you are allowed to take pictures. I pretty much relaxed the rest of the night since I had an 8 am train to Sevilla this morning.
I took the high speed train this morning first to Madrid and thn to Sevilla. Luckily I can atually understand some Spanish because as we were pulling into the Madrid station, they mentioned that the train was having some problems and we had to switch trains if we were going to Cordoba or Sevilla. I got into Sevilla around 2:30 his afternoon and I missed the hostel because I was on the opposite side of the street. I found someone who was able to call the hostel for me and I finally got checked in. I really like this hostel because it feels much more relaxed. Kabul (in barcelona) was like a frat party and was a great way to get into the swing of things, but I still need to recover from jet lag so this will be a nice time to catch up on sleep. This place has free internet as well, and I think I´ll actally be able to upload some pictures later tonight. I´m going to go make something to eat now, so I´ll try to post some pictures either tonight or tomorrow.
I will post more later, but I gotta run. Just letting everyone I`m having a great time so far!
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