TravelStream™ news feed for member dzarren on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dzarren en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:24:16 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1218035760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1218035760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1218035760/tpod.html Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:24:16 -0400 Europe 08

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Somerville, Massachusetts, United States

Being back in Paris was everything I thought it would be. Its amazing how familiarity makes a place feel like home. We arrived in Monparnasse train station which was really close to where I used to live. With a never ending grin on my face (despite being on little sleep and still being dressed in beer and marker covered clothes) and after making our way through some longish lines at the ticket counter, we got our metro tickets and headed to the hostel. The hostel wasn't the world's greatest as far as facilities, but the location was spectacular. It is right in the 5th arrondissement and walking distance to a number of the bars I used to go to. The street is also filled with little shops and windows where you can get crêpes to go (on of my favorite things in Paris!)

After quickly documenting our sharpied selves, we showered and got settled in our dorm room and then headed out to see the city. Since it was already getting late in the day, and neither of us had gotten much sleep, we decided that it was the day to take is easy so we could regain our energy for the rest of the trip. I took Andrew down to see the street I lived on during my semester abroad (Rue Falguière off Blvd Pasteur). I showed him my old front door (obviously couldn't get into the apt) and we decided we had to have a couple drinks at the bar next door for old times sake. This was the place where I had my very first B-52 shot, and what set the standard. Here, the shot gets lit using a mini blow torch (the kind you'd use for flambée or créme brulée) and then while flaming, you drink it using a straw. The taste significantly better than when you just do the shot normally (how its done in the US) and I think Andrew finally understood my obsession with them. We decided to chill there a bit, so I had a Strongbow (on tap!) and Andrew had a beer. We talked briefly with a guy from a small town near Tour who was in the area on business, and I got a nice wake-up call about just how much my French has lapsed. (I definitely need to work on my pronunciation of "Tour" and also anything dealing with past tense!)

After the brief tour of my past, Andrew and I headed down to St. Michel to walk around and people watch at all the coffee shops. I showed Andrew the streets with all the restaurants with the fixed price menus that will talk to you and try to convince you to come inside. We then walked down the river a ways, and found an British bar (or maybe it was Aussie) that had the Sox game on. We sat down to watch until we realized it was a replay of the game from the day before, and that the Sox lost, so we certainly didn't want to stay to watch that. At this point, my pain was kicking in, and I was having some trouble keeping my eyes open. (My body seems to like to shut down and go to sleep when my chest pain flares...its kind of like I am narcoleptic!) We decided that walking would at least help keep my eyes open, so I decided to take Andrew to see the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. Given the chaos of the store, Andrew couldn't find the book he wanted, but I found a really cute dog to pet while sitting outside, and Andrew had fun looking around, so the trip was worth it. At this point I needed to head back and rest since my pain was really flaring, so we walked to the Metro and headed back. Andrew did some emailing while I took a nap and then we both got ready to go out.

After stopping for what we thought were going to be doner kebabs, and were some other sandwich thing, but still good (even though I had to eat most of mine just using my fingers because the bread broke apart) we headed to the Frog and Princess for Tuesday Student Night. I had forgotten about the weak and/or lack of A/C all over Paris, mostly because I was never living there in the summer. Needless to say, the F&P was a sweat-box and full of a bunch of people that just seemed way too young. After fighting through the crowds for a few ours to get served at the understaffed bar, we decided to cut our loses and head out. I can see how I loved this place when I was in school, but it was certainly no longer a scene that we needed to frequent now that we are older.

We took the metro (we left the F&P in time to catch it before it stopped running at 1am) and headed back to towards the hostel area. We decided we weren't quite ready for bed, so we stopped in at the Hideout for one more drink. Both Andrew and I were wiped out from all the traveling that morning and all the bday fun in San Sebastian, so we called it an "early" night, and headed back to the hostel to go to bed.

Andrew got up the next morning to go on an 11am walking tour since I was supposed to meet my brother for lunch during his layover from Italy back to the US. Of course, the second after Andrew left, I got a message from my brother that his flight had been canceled, so I had the day to myself. I spent some time getting San Sebastian into the blog and decided to head out and walk around the city I loved. I started by making sure I knew where the photo museum was were we would see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit later that night. After this I went and walked down towards the Pompidou and then headed down towards the Tuilleries to see what was left of the Richard Serra installation. To my surprise, after reaching the gardens, I looked up to see a tour group with one really tall member that looked very familiar. Having randomly run into Andrew's walking tour, I decided to tag along. The tour ended at the end of the Champs Elysee by the palaces and Andrew and I decided to walk up the Champs Elysee to see the Arc de Triomphe. We both were too tried to climb all the stairs, so I have left that as a mission for Andrew next time he goes back. Its not a necessity, but watching people try to navigate the rotary is thoroughly entertaining!

We decided to head back to the hostel for a brief nap (once again I napped and Andrew emailed) before going to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit.

It being our last night in Paris, and our second to last night in Europe, we decided to go out for dinner, and found a French restaurant in the St. Michel area with a fixed price menu of 10 Euros. After a nice dinner, some Beaujoulais, and some chocolate mousse, we headed to meet the pub crawl from the walking the tour. The plan was to go to the start of the pub crawl, duck out to go to the Long Hop (my favorite bar when I lived in Paris and the first place I had a Desperado) and then go back to meet up with the pub crawl. After two bars with the crawl, we headed to the Long Hop as planned. However, after arriving there, we met some great people and were having such a good time that we never went back to the crawl. This was also convenient since it meant we were within walking distance of the hostel at the end of the night.

After a night's rest and spending the first part of the morning packing our bags and checking out of the hostel, I decided to take Andrew to see Sacre Coeur. While it was a sunny day, its was also a little hazy, so the view wasn't as clear as I would have liked to show off Paris, but it was beautiful none the less and I think Andrew was happy we went. My chest, however, did not completely agree, and after hiking up all the stairs to the top, I was in a decent amount of pain. So, instead of walking around more of Paris, we decided to head to lunch at the Bombardier, a British bar that I used to go to when I lived in Paris that also has really good food and is really close to our hostel, where we were storing our bags for the day. As is my body's habit when in pain, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open, and after relaxing for a while and having lunch, it became increasingly apparent that I needed to take a nap. (I kept falling asleep at the table...not so good.) After a quick walk around the Pantheon on the way back, we arrived back at the hostel with just enough time for me to nap for about 45 minutes before we had to head to the train station. Since we had already checked out of the hostel, I didn't have a bed and this hostel didn't really have a lounge, so I settled in on one of the wooden benches while Andrew did some emailing and read the paper.

An hour later, and fully restored from my nap, we headed to Gare du Nord to catch our train to Amsterdam.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1217431380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1217431380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1217431380/tpod.html Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:16:21 -0400 Europe 08

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

So much catching up to do...sorry about the novel that follows.

The Pub Crawl on 7/27 was a blast. Andrew, Pradeep, and I met some cool people, including three people from Wisconsin (Joe, Chris, and Courtney) who were over in Spain studying Spanish. Sadly I didn't grab their contact info, but we had a blast dancing and I have to thank Chris for introducing me to one of the best shots ever. Not sure what was in it, but i had gummy berry candy at the bottom! We also met Lisa and Brad from South Africa, who both kicked ass and spent the next night hanging out with us as well. The crawl traveled between 3 different bars, and using the 1st bar as the 4th location. There were some lame contests and I think I remember Andrew trying to limbo at one point. The Wisconsin folks also succeeded in getting people to line dance to some techno song. Weird, but very entertaining! Andrew even had everyone singing me "Happy Birthday" at Midnight.

I am not sure what time we went to bed, but I do know that due to all the dancing, I definitely woke up with a sore left knee the next day. I can say, however, that it was completely worth it! Oh, I should also mention that on the way to meet the pub crawl we did participate in the typical San Sebastian tradition of eating pintxos. These are like small, single bite tapas, that you move around from bar to bar eating. So good and something that should definitely come to the US!! One of the ways you pick a good pintxos place is to look at how messy the floor is, since people toss the napkins and toothpicks on the floor. The messier the floor, the more popular the place, and therefore you know its good. Strange, but its true. I love the pintxos!!

Ok, moving on....
Birthday - 7/28/08
Unfortunately for us (Andrew, Pradeep, and me), it was cloudy and rained for some of the day. (not sure what it is and me being in San Sebastian on the one day of the month it rains!) Andrew, shockingly, decided that we needed to walk around the city and drink and eat pintxos, since it was too gross out to go to the beach or the sculpture garden. The day that followed may have been one where I laughed the most in my entire life! We spent a lot of time hanging out at the bar by our hostel and became friends with one of the bartenders, Borja, who was really cool! He and his co-worker Mikel even came out with us after they closed the bar at 1am. Borja was awesome and definitely helped to make the night. His English was also impressive, although I think we taught him some things! (For better or worse.) Lisa and Brad met up with us at Borja's bar by our hostel around 9pm and after hitting another bar and getting pizza for dinner, we settled at "our bar" until Borja got off work and would come out for drinks. We also brought along a sharpie and I wore my pub crawl shirt from Rome for people to write on. I can say that a lot of the writing did not stay on my shirt! I also remember at some point doing push-ups with Borja in the back of a bar and also having an entire beer spilled on my shorts that I then had to wear for the next twelve hours. (These are now sealed in my bag and may need to be burned! So gross!).

Everyone stumbled home sometime between 3:30-5am, with Borja making sure everyone got where they were going and Andrew and I grabbed our stuff from the hostel and headed to the train station. We then had to train to Hendaye (or something like that) and then wait another 2 hours for the TGV to Paris. Tired, somewhere between drunk and hungover, and both uncomfortable, we eventually made it to Paris around 3pm, and headed to the hostel where after much needed showers and a change of clothes we headed out to see Paris, which I will get to in another blog posting.

For now, at the risk of boring everyone, I am making a list of the evening's running jokes. At some point when I get home and have free internet (this hostel is expensive) I will elaborate:

- Pradeep can't find his hostel again, and spends and hour wandering around instead of a 5 minute walk home.
- Beer? (Rawr!)
- Bear? (Rawr!)
- thorizthos? thautheges?
- Andrew and his tattoos! (I tried to get him to get a piercing, but it didn't work)
- "Yeah, Boyfriends are a pain in the ass." - Andrew (He is clearly still bi-suited)
- Did you say beach? - I said sculpture.
- Did you say sculpture? - I said beach.
- Beach? Beach? Beach? Beach?
- Sculptures fix everything.
- Salt water will fix that...its a family recipe.
- Dirka, dirka, dirka
- Andrew's deformed comb on his bathing suit. (Yeah, it sounds wrong, but I kept pulling on it.)
- "Wait, you're not really cousins?!" - Pradeep to Andrew and I (we've been telling people we are cousins so its less confusing and clear that we are not a couple...it also explains how we fight like siblings!)
- "I am going to France to drink their cheese and eat their wine!" - Lisa
- Upon Borja pulling out some sort of cutter (like what is used for the end of a cigar) to defend himself against Andrew's massive size, Brad yells out "We can make him a Jew!"
- Borja tells us "You should see my eggs!"
- Borja asks Andrew how he picks his nose with suck big hands.
- "I will write a computer program to kick your ass!" - Pradeep to Andrew
- "Its like a submarine. I can't stop imagining it! I can't until after I shower!" - Brad
- Muffins? Do you want to eat my muffin? You like eating muffins, don't you?!

Things that got written on people (other than my shirt):

Andrew:
- Lisa's contact info (email, phone, name) all over his entire arm
- Brad's number with "XOXOXOXO" added
- some sort of cartoon dog on his knee
- the South African flag
- a height chart with names and height lines from me, Lisa, Brad, Pradeep, and Borja.

Me:
- XIV on my left wrist (Borja had XIII on his left wrist)
- Strength on my right wrist
- Hinjew (its what Pradeep and I would have if we had kids)
- Borja's cell (minus the country code which he didn't know.)

Pradeep:
- "Hinjew" on his wrist
- "Suck it up Princess" on the back of his neck
- " July 28, 2008 - San Sebastian" on his arm

Lisa ended up with contact info for Andrew all over her arms and Borja has my website on one side of his stomach, "pushover" on the other and "Hi Mum" on his bicep.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1215390840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1215390840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1215390840/tpod.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:56:14 -0400 Europe 08

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Berlin, Germany

Last night began with a group of us from the hostel (including people from Germany, Israel, the US, Equador, Australia, and the UK) being told we needed to leave and go out and enjoy the night life because we were still sitting and talking and drinking in the lounge around 11:30pm and we were making too much noise. The girls from Australia (Claire, Tamara, and Sarah) were hanging out with their friend from Berlin, so she took as to a bar. Typical DJ spinning the hits, people dancing, and a good bar. The interesting thing about bars here is that they charge you a deposit on your bottles and then you get it back when you return them. This can be anywhere from 20 cents to 1 euro! And it seems to be a great way to keep bottles off the dance floor.

After hearing me talk about my trip to Tresor from the night before, the two guys from the UK, Martin and Vlad T., decided they wanted to check it out, so around 2am the three of us headed to Tresor. (Note: clubs don't pick up until 1-2am here since bars don't even open until 9pm and aren't busy until 10-11pm.) Thankfully this time they weren't carding since neither of the guys had brought their passports. The music was once again spectacular and since I wasn't alone this time, I was actually able to dance and feel comfortable enough to have a few beers. Definitely made the whole experience more enjoyable. The other thing that struck me about Tresor was that for a club in an old warehouse, with what looked to be sketchy bathrooms, they were actually really clean, had TP, and even had hooks on the back of the door for a coat. In fact, most of the bathrooms here, and the city itself, are really clean. Very impressive! I'm not exactly sure what time we left (sometime around 5 or 6 am) but it was definitely light out.

I sleep until about noon, and then got up and headed out to see the Neue Synagogue. Really beautiful, and very informative, although they won't let you take pictures inside and the main synagogue space was fully destroyed and never reconstructed so there isn't tons to see. From there I headed to Zoo station, since I figured as a U2 fan, I needed to see it at least once.

Andrew, Drew, Ashley, and I met up with Sabine (the girlfriend of our friend Anthony back in the US) and her friend Jana. Jana is actually from Berlin, so they took us around a bit and showed us some more of the city. Part of which included a bus ride on a double-decker in which Andrew really couldn't fit!! We swung by the Reichstag, but the lines were still way too long, so that may just not happen on this trip. So we headed down to the water to sit in lounge chairs and drink and relax a little.

Back at the hostel now, probably taking it easy tonight so I am rested for our train ride to Prague in the morning. I have really loved being here and Berlin is amazing. I have had so much fun. Not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. I definitely will need to come back! I am also finding that the more time I spend in Europe, the more interested I am in coming back to live again for a short time. Not sure which city yet, but everything just feels more centered and relaxed over here.
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San Sebastian, Spain and Canary Islands

For Edie's last night, we found a great restaurant with good food at a very reasonable price, which Edie then insisted on paying for. Thanks Edie! Andrew got lamb that literally fell off the bone. From here we headed to the same Irish bar that we were at the night before. We got there still in time for happy hour, which meant 2 sangrias for €6 and some other deal on a bucket of Coronas. Andrew definitely polished off a bucket on his own and almost all of a second one. To our pleasant surprise (at least at first give the outcome), they were showing the Sox v. Yankees game. Another surprise of the evening was running into Marie, Konrad, Chris, and Jonathan from the night before. Apparently they had the same confusion the night before, looking up, and realizing I was gone and not seeing where I was.

So while Edie and Andrew finished watching the game, I, being upset with the score and figuring it was better for the overall wellbeing of my night to cut my loses, hang out with my new friends. The group also had three new people with them, Meagan (from Texas and North Carolina), Julia (from Quebec), and Steven (from Germany). Andrew and Edie eventually came over and the whole group danced to the, once again, good music with bad transitions. Oddly enough, most songs that were played around 10pm got repeated about 2 hours later. But at least they were good songs.

After a while, the group headed out to another bar. This place was big and had a really cool (although potentially either sketchy or useful) downstairs with lots of nooks and a pool table. Sadly not useful for me, but I definitely saw some other people having some fun since you had to walk through the entire downstairs to get to the bathroom. Andrew and Edie eventually left so that Edie could go meet her cab for the airport and after dropping Edie off at the hostel, Andrew made his way back to the bar.

I am not sure what time we headed to the club, but it was probably around 3:30am. The club was a lot of fun, despite Andrew's disappointment that there wasn't enough hip-hop played, but more reggae-ton and then later in the night some really good techno. I lost Andrew in the crowd at some point (I think there may have been a brunette involved) and Jonathan and Julia also disappeared. Meagan, Marie, Chris, Steven, and Konrad danced the night away along. The guys did a good job of keeping the sketchy guys in the club at bay, which was definitely helpful.

I think the club closed around 6am, and with Andrew nowhere to be found (although I didn't do a great job looking and never checked downstairs), the remaining group headed to get pizza at the some local restaurant. Around this point I got a text from Andrew about where I was and realizing the time, I headed to the hostel to grab my stuff (thank god I packed earlier!), check out, and head to the train station. Sorry mom and dad, but I definitely have had my first drunken train station navigation experience. Andrew and I, having first class Eurail passes due to our age, took advantage of the first class lounge with free food and drinks, and then boarded the train to sleep the whole ride to San Sebastian.

We arrive in San Sebastian, tired, potentially hung over, and ready to relax. (My chest was also killing me from sleeping on the train!) After checking in at the hostel we walked to the train station to figure out the plan for our trip to Paris. A total pain since we can get tickets for French trains in Spain and since we need a reservation for the TGV, we need to finagle a few things. But such is life.

After this we spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach (I actually have a tan which is unheard of for me!) before heading back to the hostel for showers, computer time, and to meet up with Pradeep (the guy we met in Barcelona). We are now headed out to get food and then go on a pub crawl in preparation for the start of bday celebrations at midnight.
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Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands

The other evening, after checking in and dumping our stuff, we went to a bar called Stop Madrid that Edie found in her guidebook. The book said it had amazing sangria and it was no lie. We had a couple tapas and a few pitchers of Sangria and everyone was back to being in a better mood. We headed back around 8pm so that Andrew could pick up his laundry and after a little more computer time, Andrew had found our bar for the evening. We went off in the direction of the bar and in search of a place for dinner. (My attempts at making this a cheap trip by cooking our meals has been sufficiently overruled by all those involved...such is life.) We ate at a great pizza place, which in typical Spanish fashion had good food and really slow service.

From here we went in search of this bar that had beer pong on Thursday nights, but of course Andrew had just looked at the map online and never wrote down the actual address, so we didn`t know exactly where we were going. After a little wandering, we found the bar, only to have it be completely empty (it looked like a club and therefore we were way too early) and have the bar tender tell us that they only do beer pong during the school year, i.e. not until September. (Obviously, Andrew missed that part online!) So we went roaming for another place, only the area we were in was definitely the gay section of Madrid so all the bars were either filled with gay men, or just really trendy. Not quite our scene. We found one that seemed ok and went in for a drink. It was cute, very much the trendy incense type of lounge around bar with low lighting and lots of pillows. While this would have been a fun place to have wine on a girl`s night out, it didn`t quite fit out group, or attire. We decided to head back in the direction of the hostel to see what we could find and by the metro stop was an Irish bar, so in we went. They even had baseball on inside! After a couple of drinks here it was about 12:30am and my sternum had started to flare again so we decided to head back and I went to bed while Andrew and Edie stayed out around the bar for a couple more drinks.

I decided to try to get as much done as possible on Friday so I could take it easy on Saturday and work with everyone else`s schedule since despite what they all say, no one ever wants to get up early with me to see stuff. I got up, had breakfast and headed off for my mass tourist day. I spent the morning at the Royal Palace. So amazing and a definite must see! Some of the roams and frescoes are absolutely stunning and its impressive to think that someone lived (or even lives) in a space like this. I was even able to subtly tag along with a US tour group to get some extra info! The palace also had an armory with all the knights armor and some swords with amazing handles. There was also the Royal Pharmacy, which has all the old jars and things that used to be used by the palace to make the medicine and herbal remedies for the court. Really cool!

After the palace I headed to see some art, stopping along the way to get some falafel for lunch. I went to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza first, which had two special exhibitions going on. One of Miro and one of this artist called Arikha that I hand`t heard of before. The Miro exhibit was interesting since I often don`t like his stuff, but found one painting that I really loved. (Sadly it was from a private collection so there were no postcards available and I wasn`t allowed to take a photo.) The Arikha exhibit was also really interesting. This guy had been in an internment camp during WWII were he lost both his parents and ended up working on a kibbutz in Israel. He even, at some point in his adult life, was pronounced dead, only to be brought back to life and eventually come out of a coma. His pastel drawings were incredible!! And his paintings had such interesting brush stroke and emotion. Really cool! The regular collection at the museum was also great and had a lot from the 20th century which is my favorite time period in art.

From here I headed to the Prado, which has a vast collection of some classic masterpieces! I got to see Rubens, Goya, Velazquez, Fra Angelico, Durer, and so much more. Its really cool to see stuff in person that you have heard about through years of art history courses! It was interesting, though, that I had heard how long it takes to go through this museum and how vast it is. While the collection is incredible and intense in the amount of major masterpieces it holds, the museum itself was not as large as I expected. It was big, but not Louvre big. (Better for me since it was my third stop of the day.)

By this point I had been up on my feet for hours, and my chest was was kicking into major pain gear, so I headed back to the hostel to meet up with Edie and Andrew. By the time I got there they had already headed off to meet up with Edie`s friend Matt who had come in for the night, and his friend Patricia, and Patricia`s fiance. Due to the joys of cell phones that you never hear...they missed my message that I was back at the hostel. This turned out to be a major blessing since it let me take an hour long nap, something that I desperately needed given my pain level. (My body seems to just shut down lately when it gets sore.) Edie and Andrew got back to the hostel around 7:30pm, and we all showered and headed out to meet the others for dinner. After a 30min attempt to locate everyone since Matt`s phone wasn`t working, neither Andrew or Edie had gotten the name of the place, and Patricia`s directions were about a block off, we finally found them. Patricia had picked out this great bar, Le Tigre, which brings you free tapas when you buy drinks. The sangria wasn`t as great as some other places, but certainly wasn`t bad, and I got to fill up on tapas of potatoes, mushrooms, bread, and cheese. (there was meat too, but not the kind I could eat.) Full, happy, and ready for the rest of the evening, we left Patricia`s husband who had to work early, and the rest of us headed to a pub crawl we had a flyer for.

Turns out no one else showed up for the crawl, but as a group, we decided to make it fun anyway and we headed off with our leader, William. We started at a great Irish bar, which had good music (although the dj couldn`t transition between songs at all!), good sangria, and since it was still technically a pub crawl, free shots! mmmmmmmmmmm. The place also had lots of TVs with sports...yay more baseball! We stayed here for a couple of hours and had a blast. From here we headed to a dance club, where the music wasn`t great, but I did meet some cool people including three guys who where in Madrid studying Spanish: Chris (from the Netherlands), Jonathan (also from the Netherlands), and Conrad (from Poland). They were also hanging out with two awesome girls from their class, one from England and one from France (Marie). I spent a while talking with them, and when they decided to head to another place, our group decided to go with them. The club the guys wanted to go to would let us in since Andrew and I both had sneakers on, and Andrew also had shorts, so the pub crawl leader took us to another place. It was a little early, and therefore a little empty. They music was only ok as well. The 3 guys decided they wanted to go to a salsa club, so we all headed out. However, on the way there, my group seemed to change their minds, and while I was ready to head off with the other group and just meet Edie and Andrew later, by the time this got figured out, we had been split up in the crowd. Really sucked, but such is life. William, the crawl leader, took us to some other club, but it was too smoky and crowded and after one drink there it was about 5am. We all decided to call it a night and head home.

So now its the next day and we are all slowly recovering from our long night out. This afternoon we are headed to the Reina Sofia, which is an art museum I have been looking forward to the entire trip since it has Picasso`s "Guernica." Can`t wait!! Edie and Andrew are even coming with me!

Added note: Edie`s friends Matt and Patricia are really cool. Major props to both of them, and if they are reading this, please accept my apology for having to deal with "that stuff."
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Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands

Note: Edie can`t put the straw in the hole.
Note 2: I am pretty sure that Andrew is still bi-suited.

We went to the Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia today. Both Andrew and Edie came with me. So cool! The Guernica is amazing, although unfortunately they don`t let you get too close to it. It was also nice to walk around with them and show them the artists I like and some of the ones I hate. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon and it definitely put me in a good mood. They even had a beautiful piece by Alex Katz, which I didn`t know about, so that was a great surprise.

From the museum we went to the Plaza de Espana, which had a great fountain, and we got some crepes and sangria at a place near there. Now we are back to pack our stuff before heading out for Edie`s last night in Spain. (Got to pack now since we are all leaving early in the AM and want to make sure we don`t forget anything.)

p.s. Starbucks is everywhere and I think thats evil. (Andrew and Edie have both bought coffee there, but I refuse.)
p.p.s. Although I should be honest that I have definitely gotten iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts while here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1216931880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1216931880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dzarren/1/1216931880/tpod.html Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:12:01 -0400 Europe 08

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Madrid, Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands

We had a wonderful afternoon lounging by the pool at our spectacular hotel. We all had mojitos and Edie and I split a smoked salmon and pasta salad that was excellent. While I think she was "drunk" on the amazingness of the 5 star hotel and the day in the heat, and pool, and the 2 mojitos, when I said we had to thank Jeff (Andrew´s brother) for the hotel, Edie´s response was definitely, "yeah, I know I haven´t met him, but tell him I love him and if he were here he would certainly be getting laid." Although, given the crop of people we saw walking around later that night, that might have been more of an issue than we thought...but we can get back to that.

After the pool, we all took showers (can´t get enough of a good thing) and went to have a drink in the hotel bar since we got two free cocktails for staying there. It took a while to get ready since the blow dryer may have been the weakest ever (sad for a 4 or 5 star hotel) but I was determined to look cute. I was on a mission tonight! (Sevilla just seemed too beautiful to not make out with someone there!) At the bar, Andrew finally got the martini he had been craving since the start of the trip (no one had made them properly up until now), I had a kir royal, and Edie had another mojito. My kir royal definitely went straight to my head since we had been out in the sun all day and hadn´t eaten that much. From here we headed to Edie´s hostel to check her in and were hoping to meet some cool people to go out with. However, the hostel was pretty empty. We did have a nice, and cheap, shot at the hostel bar before heading to a tapas place for dinner. This was another amazing highlight of Sevilla...tapas!! The food was amazing, and even without eating red meat, I was able to find enough other options to try a bunch of things. We had cheese. duck pate, some chicken thing with almond sauce that was incredible, tomatoes, some tuna on bread thing, and then Edie and Andrew split some meat dish, not sure what. We also all shared a bottle of wine.

From here we headed down to the water to find a bar that we had heard about before. The walk was a little long, but it was nice out and the streets in Sevilla are all small and winding and so cool to navigate. The city is really just exquisite!! We all had more mojitos. They were good, but certainly not the best of the trip. One of the waiters was cute, but since he was working, Edie and I decided it wasn´t worth the effort and that we would find me a boy elsewhere. We headed across the river to a part of the city that was filled with people. Tents lined the water selling everything, and the streets were packed. Sadly, I think Edie and I walked up and down about 3 times and maybe saw one attractive person there. Talk about bad luck. Amazing hotel, on a mission, and absolutely no one attractive, and thats not even from a picky standpoint!! Definitely was kicking myself for not bothering to spend time on the waiter from the place before. We did run into a few of the "jailbait" kids from Nahant, and Andrew met a girl name Angela was was really nice. (The women were certainly more attractive than the men!) Angela invited us to go with her and her friends to a club. Edie and I wanted to make one more lap, so we agreed to meet Andrew there.

On our way to the club, two guys came up to us and tried to start talking to us. We decided to pretend we didn´t speak any English and didn´t know what they were saying. Its sad because after about 5 minutes, they still wouldn´t stop trying. I mean...what is that?!! We eventually found the club and Edie asked the guy at the door if the tall man (while holding her hand up above her head) was inside. The bouncer pointed to his knees and asked "with shorts" we said yes, all laughed, and proceeded inside. Before Edie and I could get a drink, Angela´s friend were ready to leave and head to another club. After her friends took off in the cab without waiting for all of us, Edie, Andrew, Angela, and I headed to the same club. Her friends were already inside by the time we got there, and given our sneakers and shorts, Andrew and I were both not allowed to enter. (Edie and I think Angela´s friend took us to this place on purpose since they knew we wouldn´t be able to get in!)

After saying a proper goodbye and swapping info, Angela reluctantly left and went into the club, and Andrew, Edie and I got food and headed back to the hotel. We were so close to the hotel that it just didn´t make sense to try to get Edie back to the hostel, especially since all her stuff was still at the hotel. So we snuck her into the room, and she definitely got stuck passing out in the crack between the two beds.

We got up in time to check out around 11am and headed to the train station to go to Madrid. The train ride was uneventful. After arriving in Madrid, we hang around for about an hour while Andrew and I waited in line to get our tickets for San Sebastian. With all tasks completed, we headed to the hostel. The subway system is great and the hostel seems fine and clean, but a little too quite. There´s no bar, and I am not sure how social of a scene it will be which is a total bummer. Andrew has headed to drop off laundry while I do my blog and Edie is emailing. Tomorrow we will head to see the sites. Probably taking it easy tonight.

Added notes:
Ian - Not sure if you´re reading this, but the young guys from the hostel in Barcelona, I think these particular guys were British, definitely spent a lot of time both in the hostel bar and when walking around, dropping their pants. I thought of you. Thought you´d want to know! :)

Also, extra thanks for Edie for bringing Sudafed...totally saving my life!!
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Barcelona, Spain and Canary Islands

So we spent our first night in Barcelona at a couple of bars with a few people we met at the hostel. Annoyingly, a lot of the kids here are just that, kids, so I think we all feel a bit old, but whatever. Edie and I decided to be 23 for the night, just to cut the difference for a bit. There was definitely one youngin´, Dylan, who took a bit of a liking to her. So cute and innocent. We had him going for quite a while on the walk to the bar, trying to guess what her previous job was. When he eventually found out that she had been an officer in the Navy, he was really surprised. Very entertaining! He also spent about 30 min today talking with Andrew and I trying to clarify the rules about bringing wine into the US. I think he´s 19. I also think that Edie and I made have seriously shocked him with our straight forward conversations about sex that we were having at the bar. (topics being discussed were things like sex tapes and anal.)

Anyway, after some great mojitos (not quite as good as Milan, but definitely in my top 5) and a few more hours, Andrew went off with some girl, I sent Edie some back with Dylan since he claimed to know how to get back and she was tired, and I stayed to hang with my new Aussie friend Pradeep, who may actually be joining Andrew and I in San Sebastian next week. After closing down the bar around 3am, Pradeep, another Aussie name Mick, and I all walked back to the hostel by way of Burger King. (Gotta eat before going to bed and it was the only place open on the way.) We also played "count the prostitutes" and I think we got into the 20s, which is sad because the hostel is not that far up Las Ramblas. Mick even got the courage to go ask about prices and was informed that for €80, both he and Pradeep could get a girl. I think Andrew got in around 6am that next morning, not sure.

Edie and I got up the next morning in time to get free breakfast and attempted to ready ourselves to do some sightseeing. Still tired from being out late the night before, we decided to do a bus tour, and went around the whole city before going back to see both the Gaudi Cathedral (not called that but I can´t remember the real name right now) and Park Guell. We met up with Andrew at the hostel just after happy hour, to discover that he had once again met a girl, Angie, who we spent the day with. I guess she is from the US and knows a bunch of his friends. Andrew had already eaten, so Edie, Pradeep (same guy from last night who we ran into at the hostel lounge), and I ditched him and headed to the Black Sheep for tapas and sangria.

After some GREAT sangria, we headed back to the hostel bar since Pradeep had an early flight. He claimed he was going to have one beer and head to bed, but that never quite seemed to happen. After all three of us has two 1 liter beers, the hostel bar was closing and we headed off to the "shot bar" (can´t remember the real name). Along the way we ran into Andrew on Las Ramblas, who was heading back from that bar, but agreed to return with us. We arrived only to be told that they were closing in 5 min. So we did our work quickly, down 3 different shots: B-52, Irish coffee, and one other. (I´ll add the name when I remember it...I just know it was sweet and kind of weak.) But the bar was fun and actually lit the necessary shots on fire, which was really cool. Sadly my camera battery decided to die, so I don´t have many pics, but I think Edie got some.

From here we headed back to the hostel, and went to the club next door called Jamboree. It was smoky, and dark, and sweaty, but the music was pretty good, and the four of us (Pradeep was still out and having fun) spent the rest of the early morning dancing. I think we left the club to head to bed around 4:30am. Knowing that we had to check out by 11am, we had planned to sleep until at least 9:30 or 10am, but got woken up around 8:30am by a group of young British kids that were staying in the room and had had all of the their stuff stolen (wallet, passport, etc.) from out of their pants pockets while they slept. (The thief even took their locker key and raided that!) Thankfully for them, the guy got caught sometime last night in the bathroom at the hostel and today, after some time at the police station, the kids got back all of their stuff!

So, even more tired today than yesterday, and with me having completely lost my voice, Edie and I decided to have a chill day while Andrew went sightseeing. We went to see the synagogue (oldest known one in Europe and just recently rediscovered) and then went for a walk, stopping to have AMAZING tapas at this place called Bilbao. We walked around some more after, Edie bought some earrings, and then tired and with my sternum starting to flare a bit and my knee aching, we decided to walk down to this movie theater by the water and just see a movie. We saw the Hulk. The movie was good, and it was nice to relax. Resting my voice also did some good. :)

After the movie we headed back to meet Andrew for happy hour and to get our bags out of the luggage room by the required time of 7pm. Now we are just hanging out and killing time until we head to Seville on the night train. Can´t wait to check in to a four star hotel tomorrow!!! (Thanks to Andrew´s brother Jeff for this amazing gift!!)

Added note from the other day...major props to Andrew for using his Spanish and successfully getting our tickets for Seville from a teller that definitely did not speak any English!
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Seville, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands

Its been an interesting last 18 hours. After leaving the hostel and getting to the train station to find out that our train was delayed, I ended up getting pissed off at Andrew for being a drunken idiot at the train station and forcing me to play the parent. I know I am maternal and all, but I really hate that!

After dealing with some physically pushy Spaniards that couldn´t seem to decide what compartment they were in on the train, Edie and I got settled into our room with Eli (sp?) and Laiya (sp?) who are both the same age as us and from Switzerland. Andrew came by and all of us, along with a few other Americans we picked up along the way who were from Seattle but living in Munich for the year, we headed to the cafe car for a few drinks. There was a group of young Americans already there and as it turns out, they were all from Nahant, MA and had gone to Swampscott High School! So crazy! We didn´t know anyone in common since they were all 17-19 years old, but it was definitely cool to talk with them and try to play the name game anyway! Edie and Andrew went to grab dinner in the actual dinning room car while I had drinks with the kids from Mass, the two girls from Switzerland and the two guys from Seattle.

After more wine at dinner, Andrew decided he needed a cigarette (I don´t know if I have mentioned this before an apologies to any of his people reading this that he doesn´t want to know...but he has certainly turned into a bona fide smoker on this trip. Total pain for me since I am allergic to it!). Anyway, since there was no smoking on the train, Andrew decided it would be a smart idea to open one of the doors to the outside of the train and smoke out it. A move that attendants on the train didn´t like and also one that got me yelled at since I was traveling with him and therefore "responsible" for him. Total pain. But I guess I should have figured what I was getting myself into.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we arrived in Seville sometime around 9:30am. After getting out tickets to Madrid for tomorrow (thank you again to Andrew for his Spanish skills) we hoped in a cab and headed to our hotel, Hotel Alfonso XIII. Got to love staying at a 5 star hotel after a grungy hostel. So nice!! We have a tub, bathrobes, slippers, pool, chandelier in our room, everything! Even free internet! With all this niceness, we took the rest of the morning to shower, relax, and I did a little laundry in the sink since I finally have a place to let some stuff dry. After showers we headed to grab a quick bite and do some site seeing. The two major sites in Sevilla are the Reales Alcazares (palace) and the Catedral y Giralda (3rd largest church in Europe). The palace was amazing and has really interesting architecture with sculpture and tile work that combine different styles and have a lot of Islamic influence. Anyway, a definite must see. The place also has immense gardens which I could have roamed around in for hours. (Don´t worry Dad, I got some photos of the rose garden for you!) The Cathedral was also cool, but more similar to other sites I have seen that the palace, so the palace excited me more.

We are now back at our spectacular hotel to relax and use the pool. Not sure on the plans for the evening, but with this place to come home to, it doesn´t really even matter.
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Milan, Italy

Just received the email from Drew and Ashley on their memories of their week with us in Berlin, Prague and Vienna. Here is a lot of the funny stuff that either I forgot about, or missed because I wasn't there. Enjoy!


Berlin
- We arrive and Ashley immediately notes that Andrew smells awful
- Andrew apparently forgets how to estimate time, and we are horribly late meeting Dorothy
- Apparently, from evidence at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the Germans are adamantly against hiring people to proofread translations into different languages, leading to one of the most painful afternoons of reading of my entire life
- Drew actually speaks Spanish, is named Diego, and lives in Cancun based on Ashley's insistence that he is shakier than a Mexican space shuttle
- Andrew and Drew make the worst choice in the history of beer at the local grocery store
- Ashley buys magic spray, which is either children's candy or oral sex in a canister
- Apparently eating out in Berlin at a restaurant with only 8 customers but 40 tables is designed to take 3 hours
- Andrew almost started a fight with a double decker bus driver
- Guy from Hostel says. "It's like having a minty pole in my mouth"
- Andrew loses his patience while "leading the way" back to Hairy Mary's Bar
- Drew takes bottoms all the time

Prague
- We arrive at the train station, Boyink thinks he is being hit on by girl that asks if he speaks Czech, until Ashley points out that her pimp was disappointed that she didn't get Andrew's business
- The omnipresent Go-Go Club Sexy
- The guard definitely stared at Ashley's ass
- Andrew most certainly is bi-suited
- Ashley chases pigeon, pigeon wins the battle
- The valiant and courageous Drew and Andrew kill a bee at lunch
- Drew and Andrew can't make their boat go faster than two 8-year old girls
- Drew and Andrew get invited onto the high school kids' "party boat"
- People in Prague around 1200 were REALLY short
- Andrew gets left at the altar by two Quebecois, in the most painful way possible
- There are only 5 hot Czech girls seen in the entire first two days in Prague
- The nicest bathrooms in Prague were actually in a project
- Drew orates his manifesto on lesbianism
- Ashley is a pole, and Drew saves the day by buying shots and screaming
- Ashley gets a money shot (from a sandwich) in an outdoor mall
- Ashley may be pretty, but she's still a flounder to the artist
- Andrew starts a fight with a slow "tour group"
- Andrew goes on a long forced march to hang out with some girl who won't have sex with him and evidently doesn't believe in bringing keys with her
- Apparently the walleye syndrome is a big problem in the Czech Republic

Vienna
- Boyink's extracurricular activities mandate that all hotels leave out pamphlets discouraging child sex tourism, and detailing reasons why it is NOT ok

Added email from Drew received on 7/21/08:
"I just found the picture of the German guy who sat WAY to close to Boyink on the double decker bus with other seats available. I forgot that Andrew is an absolute magnet for creepy old guys who want to tap their foot twice in a bathroom stall. This warrants mentioning."
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