TravelStream™ news feed for member crystal on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/crystal en-us Copyright ©2012 TravelPod.com Thu, 04 Aug 2005 19:22:23 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1123086300/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1123086300/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1123086300/tpod.html Thu, 04 Aug 2005 23:22:23 +0000 Study abroad in Rome followed by an adventure in Greece, Eastern Europe, and a visit to Madrid.

Last days in Europe - Madrid, Spain

Madrid, Spain

The end of our trip has come and gone. The last few days were alot of fun and I hated to leave and am sad to realize that I won't be seeing Michelle again until Christmas! But she's going to have an amazing time in Spain and it feels so good to be home after 2 months abroad. So a few highlights of our last few days there... On Saturday we took a little trip on a train to Toledo which was the origianl capital of Spain. It was a small old little town about an hour away and we really enjoyed the day there. The big highlight is the huge historical church. Click here for more pictures of Toledo We went back to the hotel and took a nap before our big night at the club because we were told it's not even worth showing up before 1:00. So, we went out to dinner at about midnight and did some drinking so that we wouldn't have to pay hefty prices for drinks at the club. Click here for more pictures of the evening On Sunday, we went to a huge flea market that they have every Sunday. It was blocks and blocks of vendors and we got some cool stuff. That evening, we went to Retiro Park which is the large city park in Madrid. Every single sunday people come and play free music all over the park starting at noon. There is a large classical monument by the lake where hundreds of people gather starting at 8 to play drums. There was such a great vibe there and we hung out there for a couple of hours, bought some very cool jewelry and were very entertained. Click here for more pictures of the drums and the park Monday was our last day in Spain. I was dying to go to the Prado Museum to see one my favorite paintings by Hieronymous Bosch called "The Garden of Earthly Delights". BUT the museum was closed. That was the one thing I counted on doing in Spain so I guess I'll just have to go back! So we decided to take a city tour on one of the double decker buses to recap what we'd seen and see some of what we'd missed. At the end of the tour we went to the Reina Sofia Museum and saw Picasso's "Guernica" painting which was amazing. Especially when it was displayed with an entire room of his study sketches and paintings and photographs of the progression of the painting. We finished off the evening with a couple of pitchers of Sangria at a little tapas bar. It was a good way to end our trip. Click here to see some of the city tour pictures Click here to see misc. Spain photo's
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1122650700/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1122650700/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1122650700/tpod.html Thu, 04 Aug 2005 19:29:17 +0000 Study abroad in Rome followed by an adventure in Greece, Eastern Europe, and a visit to Madrid.

Meeting up with mom and Michelle in Madrid! - Madrid, Spain

Madrid, Spain

Hey there! So we´re in Madrid finally! Seeing mom and Mitz has been wonderful. Michelle had her first orientation with the school she´ll be teaching at today and she´s more excited than ever. She met a couple from Colorado that she hit it off with right away (of course)and we´re going to a cocktail happy hour with everyone from her school tonight so we get to meet alot of them. I´m so happy for her! So far we´ve taken it pretty easy. It´s nice to be able to settle into one place for a week! We went and saw the Royal Palace during the day. Click here for more Royal Palace pictures We saw a genuine flamenco show last night. Dancers, singers and guitar players. I've finally added some of the pictures that came out. Anyway, I love Flamenco even more than I always have and am even more determined to take Flamenco dance lessons. Shocking eh? Click here for more pictures of the Flamenco dancers Eating all of this foreign food is really catching up to me. I´m now on a pretty steady diet of bread, water, sandwiches, wine (of course) and other simple foods. I´m having to give up beer for a while after all our time in Eastern Europe and a complete splurge on Paulaner in Germany! I´m dying for a huge plate of Nachos and smothered burritos. Chris has been thinking about his breakfast burritos! ;) Well, just wanted to give a litte update. I don´t have many Spain pics this time but I will next time with more stuff to jabber about! Crystal
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1122212400/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1122212400/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1122212400/tpod.html Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:20:03 +0000 Study abroad in Rome followed by an adventure in Greece, Eastern Europe, and a visit to Madrid.

Lovin' Prague - Prague, Czech Republic

Prague, Czech Republic

So, we've been here a couple of days now and it's our favorite city on this trip by far. What's so great about it? There's tons more to do and see and it just has more energy and the energy is more upbeat. It's rich with architecture, the weather is nice and COOL and the beer is fabulous. I'm sure there's more but I gotta get going right now. I'll add more later...
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Checking in from Berlin - Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany

Hey all! Well, we whipped through Prague for 4 days and just buzzed into Berlin on the train. We really liked Prague as I mentioned. I´ll add a little more fun and excitement to the Prague story when I have a chance to download. So, we´re only in Berlin for the day. We´re going to run around and soak in as much of it as we can before we get on a plane for Spain tomorrow afternoon! Soon we´ll be partying it up with Mom and Mitz. Sounds like they´re definately getting a good head start on it! Talk to you soon! Crystal and Chris
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121951280/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121951280/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121951280/tpod.html Sun, 24 Jul 2005 13:39:47 +0000 Study abroad in Rome followed by an adventure in Greece, Eastern Europe, and a visit to Madrid.

Slovakia - Bratislava, Slovakia

Bratislava, Slovakia

We only spent one day in Bratislava and then missed the night train by about 10 minutes and had to sleep in the train station yet again! It's all part of the adventure. We really liked Bratislava and had one of the best meals ever there. It was gnocchi with a local type of goat cheese and bacon. Chris and I were both in heaven over it. Anyway here's some pics...
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121848320/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121848320/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121848320/tpod.html Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:49:47 +0000 Study abroad in Rome followed by an adventure in Greece, Eastern Europe, and a visit to Madrid.

Budapest - Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, Hungary

Hey all! We're getting ready to leave Hungary to hit Slovakia for a day. Our time here has been nice. There's not much to do here other than hang around and soak up the culture and ecclectic architecture, which by the way is very rich although very beat up since they've been beat down in war over and over again in their very complex history. The highlight of my trip was visiting the baths. I went to the largest complex called Szechenyi which had about 20 different pools of different temperatures plus a large olymic sized pool. Some were outside and some were inside and they're all fed by a natural mineral spring. I also got a massage which was a great treat! ...Okay so we were walking out of the hostel this morning all packed and prepared and the lovely Hubgarian hostel girl informed us that we paid for another night. After checking our schedule we realized she was right. So we had another day here! At first we were wondering what the hell was left to do but we decided to rent and ride bikes for 6 hours and tour the city a little more. We had a great day except when chris got stung in the tongue by a bee-ish type bug. He's okay now. We topped the day off with 4 shots of Absinthe. Wooo! So TOMORROW we're going to Bratislava! They have Absinthe too.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121440560/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121440560/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121440560/tpod.html Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:02:28 +0000 Study abroad in Rome followed by an adventure in Greece, Eastern Europe, and a visit to Madrid.

Breeze through Venice - Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy

Yay!! Topher has arrived! He had luggage issues in Rome AND we partied too hard so we didn't get as much time in Venice as we planned. We were both really eager to get to Eastern Europe and decided to head to Vienna Early on the 16. Venice was pretty cool, but too much hype I think.
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In Budapest - Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, Hungary

We got into Austria yesterday evening and explored a little then drank beer into the early morning until we were able to sleep. While all you Coloradoans and Ohio kids were getting ready to go out partying, we were sleeping on a hard, dirty train station floor. Our train for Budapest left at 6 am this morning. So, it's Suday in Budapest. Not much to do here on Sundays. We're going to go exploring in a few minutes and in our next couple of days here we should have some very cool adventures to share with you!
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121527380/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121527380/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/crystal/europe_2005/1121527380/tpod.html Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:28:26 +0000 Study abroad in Rome followed by an adventure in Greece, Eastern Europe, and a visit to Madrid.

A night in Vienna - Vienna, Austria

Vienna, Austria

We got into Austria in the evening and explored a little then drank beer into the early morning until we were able to sleep. While all you Coloradoans and Ohio kids were getting ready to go out partying, we were sleeping on a hard, dirty train station floor. Our train for Budapest left at 6 am that morning.
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Trip to Greece - Athens, Greece

Athens, Greece

So, we arrived late in Athens on Wednesday the 6th. So many people told us that Athens was awful! I think these people were expecting a city of white marble or something. We loved Athens. Parts are gritty, others are charming but the place is full of character and life. During the first hour after we arrived, more people smiled at us, spoke kindly to us, tried to help us, joked with us and were simply nice to us than the entire month I spent in Rome! The guys are much hotter in Greece too. Check out the pictures and i'll tell you more...
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