TravelStream™ news feed for member thedart on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/thedart en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:10:42 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/thedart/3/1234980540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/thedart/3/1234980540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/thedart/3/1234980540/tpod.html Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:10:42 -0500 EUROPE

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Granada, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands

Granada was also very nice. We were right at the base of the Sierra Madre range and took a 15 mile hike there one day. Also saw the Alhambra which was ok. There was lots of Irish bars in Granada and those took some of our time as well.
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Málaga, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands

Malaga was very nice. It's on the east coast of Spain and has really good weather. We stayed at a very good hostel, Casa Babylon. While we were there, on of the friends of the hostel owners had a birthday party there. The friend, Fernando, was an amazing Flamenco guitar player and he and a bunch of other musicians played music all night long.
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Seville, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands

Left Madrid and went to Seville for a few days. Didn't do much here, the weather was rainy and we mostly walked around a bit and just rested.
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Madrid, Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands

We fly from Germany to Spain and spent a few days in Madrid. The highlights of this city were the warm weather, free admission to the Prado Museum, and watching the Super Bowl at an Irish bar and then getting into a fist fight with some Spaniards at 5am. Madrid is a very nice city.
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Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Alex and Jenny took us to Heidelberg to see the Body World exhibit. The guy that started the exhibit went to school in Heidelberg so this was the original exhibit. It was cool, but all the information was in German so I didn't get the full effect. We also went to Heidelberg Castle which was very cool, probably the best castle so far.
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Brussels, Belgium

Alex, Jenny and Bettina surprised us by waking us up at 5am to drive to Brussels. It was fun, the drive took about 4 hours though. We saw the largest cathederal in Belgium and the site of the 1958 World Expo. There, we went into the Atomium, a giant building built to resemble an atom. On the way back, we stopped in tiny Luxembourg to buy some coffee and cigarettes because they're cheaper there.
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Wissembourg, Alsace, France

Drove to France a few times, saw the maginot line, old churches, a castle. It was nice there.
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Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Here's Munich, we got denied entry to several discos because we weren't classy enough I guess. Oh well, we still had fun and saw most the big sights thanks to Dieter, Jonas and Hannah.
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Erfweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Dave left Istanbul to fly home to Anchorage and I flew to Amsterdam to meet up with Josh Reeves, a good friend from CSU. Amsterdam was fun, this time I got to be the guide. We went to the Van Gogh museum which was great and pretty much walked the entire city of Amsterdam. Also, it was really good to see Tessa and Pierre again, they have been awesome letting me and my friends sleep at their house. Josh was just starting his trip to visit some relatives in Germany. I was pretty burned out by traveling at this point, but Josh prevailed on me to extend my ticket, go to Germany with him and then buy a flight to Spain for a few weeks. For the last two weeks, we've been showered with hospitality by Josh's aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa, cousins, and their friends. Erfweiler is a very small town in western Germany, only a few kilometers from the French border. These two weeks have been some of the best times of the whole trip because I was in one area for long enough to relax and Josh's family, mainly his cousin Alex and his girlfriend Jenny, went out of their way to make sure we got to see tons of cool stuff. We went down to Munich for a weekend and visited the Hoffbrau Haus, English Garden, and lots of other things with Josh's other cousins, Hannah and Jonas. Also, we took a few trips to France, Belgium, and even passed through Luxembourg. While Erfweiler is a small town, we still managed to enjoy a few all-nighters at the local bars. Tomorrow, we leave for Madrid with the idea of heading south for some relative warmth since it's been mostly freezing here.
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Selcuk, Turkey

We took a nýght bus from Istanbul south to Selçuk whých took about 11 hours and wound up ýn town at 6am ýn a downpour that ended up lastýng for three days. Selcuk ýs home to the Výgýn Mary's house, the ruýns of Ephesus, and the tomb of St. John, among other thýngs. I'm sure ýt's a great place ýn the summer but when ýt's 40 degrees and raýnýng, there aren't a lot of outdoor actývýtýes that seem too attractýve. There are lots of orange and olıve groves around here and ıt strongly remınds me of Calıfornıa. Somethıng I lıke about Turkey ıs hearıng the call to pray fıve tımes a day whıch ıs sung by Imams out of the mınarets ın each mosque. We stayed a nýce hostel about 2 mýles from town and three from Ephesus. When the weather relented, we walked to both and got to see most of the býg deal sýghts. It's hard to lose perspectýve when you're dealýng wýth such old sýghts but I had a pretty good týme wanderýng around lookýng at lots of pýllars and statues that were supposedly from 500 BC and up. Dýdn't make ýt to Mary's house but we saw ýt way up on the hýll. Managed to read a lot of books sýnce ýt was raýnýng and the hostel had a nýce selectýon to choose from. We're headýng back to Istanbul tonýght, Dave wýll fly to Anchorage from there on Saturday and I'll head back north to Amsterdam before headýng back to Portland a few days later.
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