Prague.......what can I say about it. Nothing but a truly amazing city, I dont think theres one person who cannot have fun in this city even if your not in the city center. I knew this trip was going to be amazing when out of the blue Ryan, Matt and Dean appeared out of no where [these are my friends from Rome], in addition Mary, Anna and Shelia were also staying in the same hostel. In this hostel there were 11 Catholic students. With all our friends in Prague, this trip would be amazing.
One of the best moves we made as a group [Henna, Tuna, Rican, Mad Cow and myself] was to stay in an 8 person room, now this may sounds stupid but if you end up having cool roomates then you wont forget the experience. When we arrived our roommate, who we had no idea was, wasnt in the room so we could meet him. We ended up going to bed before he got home and got up before him but when we got up we all didnt know what to think of him, we thought he was in the military or something because he had neatly folded clothes on the bed in an uniform fashion, he also had tattoos and was a bigger guy, so we didnt know what to think. But he turned out to be a great friend and will be visiting this easter break.
Prague has two amazing features: The architecture and Pubs. During our stay we managed to see the Royal Palace Complex, which houses some amazing churches and complexes, in addition to the ceremonial guard changing, its very similar to the British soliders. We also saw the Fred and Ginger by Frank Gehry, Charles Bridge and alot of other unique architecture which are unknown but are truly unique.
One of the most interesting events that we took place in was the Straupromen brewery tour. Not to mention that this beer is amazing but exploring the brewery was really a pleasure and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Straupromen has a truly unique collection of beer and they ship it nationwide.
Just being around my friends from Rome really made Prague more enjoyable, drinking with the boys and going to a few other places I should not mention, like hot pe pes made this journey amazing. Spring break couldnt of been any better.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Spring Break, Istanbul
Let me just start out by saying spring break was amazing, Istanbul and Prague are two incredible places you should try to visit if your in Europe. For our first journey Henna, Tuna, Rican, Mad Cow and myself ventured off to Istanbul at 4:30 in the morning. Getting to the Istanbul airport wasnt a problem but actually stepping onto Turkish soil was little difficult. Upon handing my passport to customs, and the custom agent telling me I need a visa, scared the living daylights out of me. Now after going through a gruesome, lengthy process of getting a spanish visa I thought I was going to have to buy another ticket back to Barcelona and spend spring break there but lucky their visa is a little different then Barcelona, you can buy one for 15 euros. Unfortunately, our bad luck strike didnt end, Henna or as some people call her Jenna lost her bag, but she was actually really calm and ok with this.
Once we finally got to our hostel things started to turn around. The hostel personel was very nice and spoke fluent english which helped alot and it wasnt that bad of a hostel. Istanbul had some magnificant architecture, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, etc. but the most interesting and unique place to experience while in Istanbul are the Bizzare Markets.
These markets are incredible, you can buy anything you could ever want from spices, jewerly, handbags, clothing etc. and the best part about these markets is there are no fixed prices so you have to hangle the prices down and if you are really got at hangling you can get some amazing stuff for a great price.
In addition to the markets the culture in general is really unique, I felt alot safer and welcomed in Istanbul then in Barcelona. I didnt feel like I was going to robbed just for walking down the street alone. However because Turkey is a Islamic country its really not social accepted to get piss drunk and stumple home, so unfortuantely we werent able to do this is Istanbul but we did drink. However, Prague is a different story...
Once we finally got to our hostel things started to turn around. The hostel personel was very nice and spoke fluent english which helped alot and it wasnt that bad of a hostel. Istanbul had some magnificant architecture, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, etc. but the most interesting and unique place to experience while in Istanbul are the Bizzare Markets.
These markets are incredible, you can buy anything you could ever want from spices, jewerly, handbags, clothing etc. and the best part about these markets is there are no fixed prices so you have to hangle the prices down and if you are really got at hangling you can get some amazing stuff for a great price.
In addition to the markets the culture in general is really unique, I felt alot safer and welcomed in Istanbul then in Barcelona. I didnt feel like I was going to robbed just for walking down the street alone. However because Turkey is a Islamic country its really not social accepted to get piss drunk and stumple home, so unfortuantely we werent able to do this is Istanbul but we did drink. However, Prague is a different story...
Cortes Ingles is everywhere........
Alright so the one thing Ive observed while traveling around Spain are Cortes Ingles. No matter how small or large a city is there are always these department stores in the town. Now if they are small there is usually only one, thankfully, but if it is large like Barcelona there are thousands, one on every corner. Even in Cordoba has a Cortes Ingles. Not to mention the over population of the stores, but the immense prices of the store make me hate this store, even though they have everything in the store I try to stay as far away as possible from this store. You walk in just for groceries, and you walk out with a bag of food and a 100 euro bill.
Southern Spain 2
Alright now here come the interesting stuff, Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granda were my favorite cities that we visited. Cordoba was specially enjoyable because we came there after Madrid and in Cordoba there is an Arabic Bath, which is amazing and you should try to do one if you never have done one. In these baths there are three pools of water: one hot, one warm and one ice cold, literally. Your suppose to go through these pools with some order but I always thought that experiencing things is the best way to understand them, so I just went through them without any order. This bath was truely amazing, im not a guy who likes baths but this was amazing it truely calms, and relaxes oneself.
Sevilla was my home away from home, it had the home town feeling of the states, it was perfect. I dont know if it was the extremely warm weather, beautiful spanish and american girls there, the architecture or our crazy bartender amigo but I like the think it was a combination of all four.
So let me tell you about this Bartender, I really cant remember his name but he was the man, the bar was directly across the street from our hotel so naturally we were drawn to this bar, and one thing that was really cool about southern Spain in General was that you always got free tapas with your drinks so you could kill two birds with one stone. Anyways even though we really could comunicate with this guy well, he always had us laughing and he loved Christie just ask her about it. If you ever go there you have to get the lion steak its probably the best thing on earth.
Granda was also beautiful it had a much more rustic and old town feeling, and the view were incredible. After climbing the enourmous thousand mile hill you had some amazing scenic view of the moutains and sunset. Joe and myself enjoyed this city the most probably, we adapted this notion to go to a bar everyday after sketching, in attempt to finish parts of our sketchbook. This was a great idea untill you got like 5 beers deep and the drawings got a little more difficult to finish but they turned out fine.
All in all southern Spain was an amazing and truely reward trip, Ive experienced some truely amazing things, things that I wouldnt be able to experience else where. Things you need to experience for yourself. Some of the best things about southern Spain was the free tapas, the women and of course the amazing weather in the Feburary when its snowing back in DC and freezing in Barcelona.
Sevilla was my home away from home, it had the home town feeling of the states, it was perfect. I dont know if it was the extremely warm weather, beautiful spanish and american girls there, the architecture or our crazy bartender amigo but I like the think it was a combination of all four.
So let me tell you about this Bartender, I really cant remember his name but he was the man, the bar was directly across the street from our hotel so naturally we were drawn to this bar, and one thing that was really cool about southern Spain in General was that you always got free tapas with your drinks so you could kill two birds with one stone. Anyways even though we really could comunicate with this guy well, he always had us laughing and he loved Christie just ask her about it. If you ever go there you have to get the lion steak its probably the best thing on earth.
Granda was also beautiful it had a much more rustic and old town feeling, and the view were incredible. After climbing the enourmous thousand mile hill you had some amazing scenic view of the moutains and sunset. Joe and myself enjoyed this city the most probably, we adapted this notion to go to a bar everyday after sketching, in attempt to finish parts of our sketchbook. This was a great idea untill you got like 5 beers deep and the drawings got a little more difficult to finish but they turned out fine.
All in all southern Spain was an amazing and truely reward trip, Ive experienced some truely amazing things, things that I wouldnt be able to experience else where. Things you need to experience for yourself. Some of the best things about southern Spain was the free tapas, the women and of course the amazing weather in the Feburary when its snowing back in DC and freezing in Barcelona.
Southern Spain
Yeah I know its been a while since my last blog but what can you do its getting alot harder to get lost in Barcelona and the citys we visit. Anyways you would think that with going to southern Spain, I would get lost in a heart beat but I didnt. I shocked myself, I thought for sure I was going to get lost within the first hour but I didnt.
Our southern Spain trip included Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granda, Merida. All the cities were beatiful in themselves but I liked some more then others. I really like Sevilla, Cordoba and Granda and I was nt so interested in Madrid and Merida.
Madrid was too large for my liking, it was similar to Barcelona except that Madrid had the caios of New York which is very overwhelming at times. Every place I went to in Madrid was filled with people. Another reason why I think I didnt enjoy Madrid as much was the fact that my ATM card got blocked by my stupid bank for no reason. However I did have some fun in Madrid the night life there is pretty incredible. Theres a club that 7 stories tall, which is awesome and every floor has a different theme and during the summer they open the retractable roof to the stars. The only downside about this club is theres a high cover and to get a drink you have to play at one booth and then take it to bar and if you try to pay in cash they wont take it, only reason I know this is because I tried it myself and its sucks to get rejected.
Merida was cool in itself, there was alot to see in the city but thats exactly what we did, we tried to crame alot of sight seeing into one day and Im all about seeing all the sights but coming to an end of our trip I just didnt have any energy to see all the sights.
But Im going to write on another page cause I think this one is getting too long....
Our southern Spain trip included Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granda, Merida. All the cities were beatiful in themselves but I liked some more then others. I really like Sevilla, Cordoba and Granda and I was nt so interested in Madrid and Merida.
Madrid was too large for my liking, it was similar to Barcelona except that Madrid had the caios of New York which is very overwhelming at times. Every place I went to in Madrid was filled with people. Another reason why I think I didnt enjoy Madrid as much was the fact that my ATM card got blocked by my stupid bank for no reason. However I did have some fun in Madrid the night life there is pretty incredible. Theres a club that 7 stories tall, which is awesome and every floor has a different theme and during the summer they open the retractable roof to the stars. The only downside about this club is theres a high cover and to get a drink you have to play at one booth and then take it to bar and if you try to pay in cash they wont take it, only reason I know this is because I tried it myself and its sucks to get rejected.
Merida was cool in itself, there was alot to see in the city but thats exactly what we did, we tried to crame alot of sight seeing into one day and Im all about seeing all the sights but coming to an end of our trip I just didnt have any energy to see all the sights.
But Im going to write on another page cause I think this one is getting too long....
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Derive........
So for class we had to do a Derive, its when you basically wonder around a city based off your perceptual senses; it can be geared towards sights, noises, smells, feeling, anything that has an interest to you. Well Ive realized that what I do basically, I just walk around without aimlessly without any agenda, and thats probably how I end up getting lost. I can be distracted so easily by something that fascinating to look at. Just the other day Joe and myself were trying to get to studio from Plaza Catalunya, there are two way both relatively easy to navigate. We decided to take the way via the Rambla, now the Rambla is a main corridor for Barcelona and there are about a thousand side streets, and studio was off one of these sides streets. We thought we knew where we were but we didnt. We ended up walking like a mile further then we needed to walk, it turns out the street we needed to take was the first on the right but when your walking down the Rambla with entertainers and kioskis on both sides it can get a little distracting plus we didnt really know which one it was, we thought we would recognize it but apparently we had no clue where it was. We finally knew we were in the right area so we took a turn and we ended up in this plaza that we had no idea where it was, but there was a map near it, we thought we were saved but Plaza Universitat, where studio is, wasnt even on the map that how far we wondered. The worst part about it was that studio started in 10 minutes and we had a paper or something due at the beginning, we got a little worried when we couldnt studio from the map. But in the end we got to studio, and it turns out that we went back to that plaza the next day to eat and was happy that I was able to say I know where we are, which is a first cause I never do. I guess getting lost is the only way to know the city.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Our Roadtrip
Well, I've decided to dedicate my blog to my lost adventures; no matter what the situation is I always find myself getting lost. I'm not so good with direction in an unknown city, but I'm hoping by the end of these four months this blog will change from the lost adventures to just my adventures.
Anyways, Adam, Chris and myself decided to take a road trip, yea I know how can we get lost with three capable people in the car, well when I'm giving directions to Adam from a map when I basically have no idea where I am except somewhere near Barcelona's Airport, its quite easy. European maps are alot more different then American maps, they are alot less precise and more vague; theres like fifty thousand major roads that lead you all over the place [well thats the way it looked like to me] so we just decided to take the road the looked the best. Oh yea, theres not just one name for the roads there's like three, so it can kind of get confusing.
Our goal was to drive along the coast while we still had light but like I said the roads were a little confusing, so we ended up going in reverse - taking the moutains there and the coast line during the night. Driving there we only made a couple wrong turns, but ended up taking some unique backroads, which was fun. We wanted to drive as far south as we could in a couple hours, our orginial destination was Valencia or something but we settle for Zaragottha; it ended up taking us about an hour and half to get to the airport when it should of taken us twenty or thirty minutes [ we went the wrong way and missed a few trains a couple of times, but whose counting].
We ended up arriving at Zaragottha around three. It was one unique city, it was much more remote and quite then Barcelona. Since we didnt have alot of time to explore the city we just settled on eating at a restaurant on the water. After we ate we took the way we wanted to see during the day. To our luck it started to rain a little, and these roads were not the roads you wanted to be going downhill and forty kilometers an hour; these roads were on the edge of a cliff with a very long drop to the bottom and it turned every three seconds. Driving these roads was an adventure, thank god that I wasnt driving, we would of probably of died. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip, it was really beautiful.
Anyways we got back to Barcelona safely, but the fun didnt end there. Driving in the city is a little harder then thought to be; there are alot of one way streets and drivers who cant stand American drivers. We manged to make some illegal turns and got quite a few horns blown at us while driving, but ended up making it out alive and it was a great experience with the boys.
Anyways, Adam, Chris and myself decided to take a road trip, yea I know how can we get lost with three capable people in the car, well when I'm giving directions to Adam from a map when I basically have no idea where I am except somewhere near Barcelona's Airport, its quite easy. European maps are alot more different then American maps, they are alot less precise and more vague; theres like fifty thousand major roads that lead you all over the place [well thats the way it looked like to me] so we just decided to take the road the looked the best. Oh yea, theres not just one name for the roads there's like three, so it can kind of get confusing.
Our goal was to drive along the coast while we still had light but like I said the roads were a little confusing, so we ended up going in reverse - taking the moutains there and the coast line during the night. Driving there we only made a couple wrong turns, but ended up taking some unique backroads, which was fun. We wanted to drive as far south as we could in a couple hours, our orginial destination was Valencia or something but we settle for Zaragottha; it ended up taking us about an hour and half to get to the airport when it should of taken us twenty or thirty minutes [ we went the wrong way and missed a few trains a couple of times, but whose counting].
We ended up arriving at Zaragottha around three. It was one unique city, it was much more remote and quite then Barcelona. Since we didnt have alot of time to explore the city we just settled on eating at a restaurant on the water. After we ate we took the way we wanted to see during the day. To our luck it started to rain a little, and these roads were not the roads you wanted to be going downhill and forty kilometers an hour; these roads were on the edge of a cliff with a very long drop to the bottom and it turned every three seconds. Driving these roads was an adventure, thank god that I wasnt driving, we would of probably of died. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip, it was really beautiful.
Anyways we got back to Barcelona safely, but the fun didnt end there. Driving in the city is a little harder then thought to be; there are alot of one way streets and drivers who cant stand American drivers. We manged to make some illegal turns and got quite a few horns blown at us while driving, but ended up making it out alive and it was a great experience with the boys.
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