No Time to update

David here
We are currently in the Pyrenee's, the mountainous region of southern France. I have so much news to post but we have to catch a bus.

I have to go.

David Out

P.S. Bored? Read my girlfriend's blog of her Taiwan trip: http://michelle-taiwan.blogspot.com

Quick note from Derek - I'm finally back in my element! The mountains are where I feel at home, and I'm looking forward to a day of hiking.

Beach Babes and Architecture

David here

We have been in Barcelona for two days now, and I absolutely love it. More than Madrid. Our hostel is a 5 minute walk to the beach. Though it is cooler here than some of the other cities we have visited, its still very warm. Yesterday we went to the beach around noon, bringing with us baguettes and sandwich components.

The views on the beaches of Barcelona are very nice. The water looks pretty good too. Derek and I each made a gigantic baguette sandwich, which we followed up with small puddings. We lounged in the sand for a bit and swam in the surf, catching the waves to the shore. The Mediterranean was a little cold, but not nearly enough to keep us out. It was a little rough, and i was a little put off by the paper bags i saw floating in the water, but overall the water was fairly clear and relaxing.

We met a group of three American guys on the beach, whom we started talking to. It turned out they were studying in Toledo, just like our roommates from Madrid. I rattled off some of our roommates names, and was amused to find that they were indeed from the same school. Funny how things work out isnt it?

After a brief siesta, Derek and I set out for old town Catalunya. We took the Metro, which in Barcelona works extremely well. There is a countdown clock on every platform telling you how long, right down the second, until the next train arrives. We emerged from the metro to discover a parade. Im not sure what they were celebrating, but there was a huge croud. The parade was filled with instruments and tall representations (Im not sure exactly what to call them) of kings, queens, and other people whom I could not identify. The hieghts varied, but none were shorter than 8 feet or taller than 12. A person, concealed inside the costume (if thats what you want to call it) carried it through the parade, spinning as they went. The strangest costumes were a pair of pidgeon-type-things. Each had the head and wingds of a pidgeon, but one had the naked chest of a man, and the other the naked chest of a woman.

After watching a bit of the strange parade, Derek explored some of Barcelona and saw some Gaudi architecture. It looks like something out of whoville (if you dont get the reference, I suggest you pick up a copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas immediately). His buildings are curved rather than angled, and stand out from the buldings around them. In general, the architecture in this area of Barcelona is more modern than what one would expect from a region know as Old Town. The wide sidewalks were largely occuppied by small bookstores, each consisting of little more than a canopy, several tables, and hundreds of books. The buildings are not the tall whitewashed stone buildings Ive seen in every other city in Spain, but more like something youd expect to see in an American city.

We went back to our hostel and hung out in the common room for a while. We chatted with a large group of very drunk guys from Austria. A word to the wise guys; never be the first person KOd by alcohol. You may wake up with strange things drawn on your face and other such unpleasentries. One of their number found this out the hard way.

So far today has been mostly a repeat of yesterday. We had sanwiches on the beach and went swimming. The water was calmer, cleaner, and clearer today. We swam out to a set of bouys that were floating about a quarter mile from shore. Even that far out we could still see the sand perhaps twenty feet below us. We relaxed on the beach for a while. Derek discovered it was unwise to doze off while his friend was bored, and soon found himself completely buried in sand.

On a random note, some of you may have noticed some poor grammar when it comes to apostrophes. That is because these keyboards do not have them, so Ive largely been omitting them. In case you were wondering.

Itll be back into Barcelona soon. Thats all ive got to report for today. Please comment! We love to hear from our readers!

David out

It's been a few days since I last posted, and we've had a great time since then.

Granada was less than it could've been but still fun. Tickets to La Alhambra apparently sell out way in advance, so we couldn't get into the Moorish palaces. It was a good walk up though - it was on top of a large hill, as fortresses usually are - and we were able to see Charles V's palace and the alcazaba, a fortified section of the wall.

The night train we wanted to take to Barcelona was sold out, so we found a place to crash that night and booked tickets for a train in the morning. The hostel, called the Makuto Guesthouse, was a nice place. It had a wonderful inner courtyard and they gave us a free drink and crepe each.

Our train ride was uneventful. Barcelona is all the way up the coast from Granada and it took almost 12 hours to get there. The scenery was fantastic, as we passed through both mountainous areas and plains (where the rain mainly falls in Spain). At one point, we thought we saw a field of pot plants, but we couldn't be sure as neither of us have seen them before.

Barcelona has been excellent. The metro system is easy and efficient, and makes travel less of a pain than it was in other places. Our hostel is a while away from the city center (15 minutes by metro) but it's worth it since we're only 5 minutes from the beach. Plus, we get free breakfast and it's just a generally nice hostel.

Yesterday we went for a swim in the Mediterranean. The waves were huge so we stayed pretty close to shore but it was a good time. One thing worth noting is that we observed, on more than one occasion, that groups of teens would spin around in circles for a few minutes before dashing into the water. We couldn't figure out what they were doing.

Also, we met some Americans at the beach who are studying abroad at a school in Toledo. The same school that we met people from in Madrid. What are the chances of that?! XD

The festival of La Merce is in full swing right now in Barcelona. It's a celebration of their patron saint, I believe. They have concerts and dancing and parades of huge paper mache people called gegants.

Gaudi's work is very evident in Barcelona. We've seen a few of his buildings already and today we hope to see his great unfinished work: la Sagrada Familia.

Next time I post, we'll be in France. Spain is coming to an end. D:

< Derek >

Don´t go to Sevilla

It´s been a few days since our last post and I blame it entirely on
Sevilla. The place is cursed, but to recount that story I must start
where I last left off. Derek´s been able to get some pictures off of
his camera, but I´m still having trouble with mine. This computer
fails.

So last you heard we were heading to a paella party. The party was
great! We hung out with a few of our roommates, enjoyed some
sea-food-rice dish known as paella. I also had my first European
drink, a Sangria. I LOVE SANGRIA!!

There were a group of crazy Australians who were playing a game that
amused us all to watch. Every time anybody spilled someone´s drink,
pointed at anyone, or said the word ¨mine¨, they had to do ten
push-ups. One guy did at least a hundred within 15 minutes.

That night we discovered something that made me doubt the cleanliness
of our hostel; a mushroom growing from the ceiling. We named him Jeff.

So the paella party was Saturday. On Sunday we all went down to a
giant flea market called El Rastro. It was pretty neat. The were rows
of stalls set up in the streets, selling everything you could imagine;
from swords and katanas to dresses to opium flavored incense, this
place had it all. It´s not consistently cheap, you have to watch out
for the good deals (like Katanas for $25). After that we bought
tickets for a bullfight in the evening. Peter, one of our roommates,
suggested a sandwich lunch, so we bought ham, cheese, and a loaf of
french bread and shared a delicious and extremely cheap lunch in Plaza
Mayor.

The bullfight was great. It consists of several parts before the
matador kills the bull. First a groups of men with pinks and yellow
capes tease the bull and get it to chase them. While they are still on
the field, a pair of horseman with spears come on to the field. The
men on the field lure the bull towards the horses and get it to charge
the horse. The horses are blinded and having padding that protects
them from the bull´s horns, so it seems they are unharmed by this
attack. Back before the 1900´s, the horses were not padded and were
usually killed by this attack. Anyway the horseman stabs his spear
into the muscles on the back of the bulls neck. Prongs on the spear
prevent it from sinking very deep.

The horsemen leave the arena and a pair of men come out with short,
flower sticks, with short knives on the end of a joint. Their job is
to stab the knives into the bulls back. They get the bull to chase
them, then as it lowers its head they stab the knives (two at a time)
into its back before leapìng out of the way.

For the final stage of the fight, everybody exits the field as the
matador enters. His costume is flashier than everyone esles, and he
wields a red cape and a rapier-like sword with a curved tip. For a
short while he has the bull charge him, using the red cape as a lure.
He tries to get the bull to pass as closely to him as he can. Finally
the it is time for the death blow. The matador attempts to kill the
bull with a single strike by stabbing his rapier through the neck and
all the way down, so that it reaches the bulls heart. Of the three
fights we saw, only one matador succeeded in doing so in the first
strike. Even with the sword embeded in it´s heart, the Bull takes
keeps fighting for perhaps thirty seconds before it sinks to its knees
and dies.

Typically a bullfight has 6 bulls and 3 matadors, but we only got to
see the first three since we had to hurry to catch our train. We bid
our roommates farewell, and rushed to board the metro. We were to
depart for Savilla shortly, and that is when everything started going
wrong. Due to an annoying series of unforeseen events, we missed the
intended train and had to catch the next one.

We arrived in Savilla at 1:00 in the morning, and found the buses
didn´t run at that time. We set off on the mile-and-a-half trek with
our heavy packs, using a compass and map to navigate. We soon turned
around when we realized north on the map was actually towards the
bottom left corner, and not to the top.

At about 2 A.M. we arrived at Oasis hostel. It looked fantastic. It
had pretty plants inside, bike rental, good-looking computers, even a
pool on the roof. I should note that even in the early hours of the
morning, Savilla is hot. Derek and I were very sweaty and smelly, and
wanted nothing more than a cold shower and to sleep till noon.

It was not to be. We discovered that, despite our reservation, the
hostel was full. Apparently the site had been overbooking people
lately. Lesson learned; Always look for a comfirmation email!!!

We set out to the next closest hostel, which despite being ten minutes
away took half an hour to find. Navigating the cramped, twisted strees
of Savilla is intolerable. Eventually we found it, Hostel Pino.
Exhuasted, we climbed three extremely steep staircases with our heavy
packs (have i mentioned how heavy they are before?) and found our
room... on the roof.

We were in a seperate building located on the roof of the first.
Whatever. At least we had a room to ourselves. I hopped in the
roof-bulding´s shower and found it completely freezing with no hot
water at all. We could have foregiven the hostel of it´s flaws if it
hadn´t been for the key. You cannot open the door from either side
without a key, making it possible not just to locked out of your room,
but to be locked in.

In the morning we found a cyber cafe, where I discovered a charge for
$196.79 on my debit card from a place I had never heard of. I had to
cancel my card, amd file a fraugelent claim. It took over an hour to
get through Bank of America´s beaurocracy. I had to call using skype
on my PSP. Luckily i brought an unactivated back-up card so i won´t be
without a debit card. Most of the calls occured back at the hostel
late at night. We spent the day in the center of Savilla. I saw at
least 6 starbucks within walking distance of our hostel.

About 1 block from our hostel was a place I like to call America. I
call it thus because it was a small plaza with Mcdonalds, Starbucks,
and Burger King.

We rented bikes and niked around Savilla, but the streets are
constantly changing names, making our maps useless and causing us to
get hopelessly lost. The two places Derek had wanted to visit in
Savilla, Plaze dÉspagne and Alcazar, were closed. The first for
construction, and the second for no obvious reason other than it was
Monday.

At around 1 in the morning we went to a flamenco bar. Derek tried a
Sangria, which he enjoyed as well. There was lots of flamenco style
music, but no actual dancing. Nevertheless this was the most enjoyable
part of Savilla. We left with much higher spirits than when we
arrived.

The next morning we were planning on catching a bus to Malaga, a
coastal city where we would be catching another bus to Totalano to
meet up with the farmers we would be staying with for the next few
days. The curse of Savilla prevent our alarm from going off, causing
us to miss our first train. This made us have to catch a later bus to
Totalano. We would be half an hour later. We sent the farmers an email
telling them this, then set out.

The train ride to Malago was beautiful. We passed amazing sites. The
region was covered in hills, and small towns sprung up from time to
time on and around them. We also passed through fantastic cliffs and
valleys. It was pretty cool. All the buildings are pretty much the
same; tall white stone buildings. Stil the trip was enjoyable.

The trip to Totalana followed narrow roads that circled the hills. It
quickly became apparent we were headed into a rarely travelled region.
The people we were supposed to meet were not at the bus stop. We
wondered around Totalana looking for wifi, and recieved only blank
stares from the locals we asked. I´ve never been to a down where
people did not know what the internet was. When the school bus
brought the students to the bus stop (apparently they all have to go
to school out of town), the kids were practically staring us. I guess
tourists were rare there.

The town itself was pretty, situated on several hills and surrounded
by on all sides by hills that bordered on mountains. It´s filled with
stray cats. They´re everywhere in Spain.

We ended up sitting at the bus stop for four hours waiting for the
next bus. We went back to Malaga and, unable to find lodging,
continued to Granada.

We had a fairly long walk to our Hostel because the directions we
printed of from the website told us to get off at Comino de Ronde,
walk 50 meters, turn at the palm tree. We got off at a stop marked
Comino de Ronde 9, then discovered there were a total of 11 stop named
Comino de ronde and the directions hadn't specified which one. It
took as a while to find our hostel, but when we did we were quite
pleased with it. AB Penison or something. For 20 euros each we got a
private room with tv, wifi, and our own bathroom and shower. It
didn't have a common room or anything, but we were too tired to care.

We went put for some tapas at a neat sports bar down the road. The
next day I spent the morning figuring out my debit card and we set out
for Alhambra. We were going to a different hostel that night so we
had to bring our packs.

Never brings your pack to Alhambra. You will be hiking well over a
mile uphill, then back down with it. Hiking downhill isn't as easy as
it sounds.

So Derk said Alhambra was the last great stronghold of the Moors. I
see why. Any army trying to reach it with armored troops would be too
exhausted to fight before they reach top.

There is a shuttle to the top if you want to do that. On another note
make sure you book well in advance.
We discovered that the paid exhibits were sold out for the next 4
days. They let 50 people in every 5 minutes and it's not even peak
season. We didn't expect them to be sold out.

The free part was pretty good. We got an incredible sight of Granada
from one of the walls, and there is a free muesuem. The highlight of
the day wa the free ice cream at the bottom of the hill. Have I
mentioned Granada is really hot?

Without the construction, I'm sure Granada would be quite pretty.
Unfortunately most of the city is being torn up for the metro they are
putting in. The alleys are more welcoming than those of Sevilla, and
with care navigation is possible. There is an active bus system, but
they are liable to drive past stops unless they are told to stop.

The hostel we had booked for the night turned out to have closed down,
so we spent an hour in the evening at pay-by-the-minute computers,
henceforth to be referred to as cyber's. They are everywhere in Granada. :)

We found a place called Makuto Guest house. It's a really laid back hostel with a casual atmosphere. The gave us free sangria and a free crepe each, which we enjoyed in the beautiful courtyard. It's not as secure as other hostels we've been to but there are central lockers if you're worried. The front door opens by buzzer, but rooms are left unlocked. I highly reccomend this place. It's run almost entirely be college students.

Derek and I didn't get the same room. I ended up sharing a room with the three girls working at the hostel, while Derek's three roomates were in an unconcious snoring competition. Total win.

We left early and spent the entire next day on the Train to Barcelona.
We left at 8 in the morning and arrived at 9 at night. My first
impression of Barcelona: It HAS A METRO! I love metro!

So far Barcelona is great. We found our Hostel easily. It's called
Barcelona Dream house. Its got a great atmosphere, friendly staff, common rooms, free breakfast, wifi, computers (which run on linux), showers, luandry, etc. Derek and I did our first big luandry wash this morning. Our room has six bunk beds with a locker to get with each. The door and individual lockers are opened by personal key cards. Our roommates are a large group of students from Milasia. They are all pretty nice. We went out this morning to a smallish supermarket which sold a good variety of food, but most of its fruit was moldy.

We are 5 minutes from the beach, which is where we will be heading as soon as this post is finished.

Ok well I think this post has been long enough. Congratulations to anyone who actually read all the way through. Ill try getting pictures up tonight, but its proving to be difficult. BEACH TIME!!!

David out

La Corrida de Toros and a Series of Unfortunate Events

We´ve had some interesting events since our last post! First of all, I´ll finish up Madrid.

Early on Sunday we had planned to see the largest flea market in Europe, El Rastro. We also wanted to see La Vuelta de Espana (the Spanish equivalent of the Tour de France), which was finishing in Madrid that day. Both of them were cool, but not the highlight of the day.

We changed our plans for Sunday afternoon and decided to see a bullfight, La Corrida de Toros, instead of going to Cordoba. It was a fantastic decision. While admittedly the bull was probably in pain, it was a superb insight into Spanish culture and traditions. They still carried out all of the rituals during the bullfight, including the macho posturing of the matador and such. I´ll upload a video to YouTube of one of the fights soon.

There were 6 bulls divided among 3 matadors and their teams. Each fight was divided into 4 sections.
Part 0: They don´t actually define this as a part, but I do. This is where the bull is released from the dark tunnel leading God-knows-where. The matadors had teams of picadores that would taunt the bull and then hide behind wooden partitions to tire it out.
Part 1: Horsemen with pikes come out into the ring. They cannot enter the center, so it´s up to the picadores to lure the bull close to the horsemen. The bull attacks the horse, and the rider jabs the pike into the lump of muscle on the bull´s neck. Nowadays the horse has heavy padding and is not injured. But before the early 20th century, it was not uncommon for 6-12 horses to die in a bullfight.
Part 2: A banderillero comes out with two barbed decorated wooden sticks and jabs them into the bull´s neck in an amazing display of agility and acrobatics. He does this 3 times.
Part 3: The matador comes out with his red cape and sword. He taunts the bull for a while with the cape - exactly as you´d imagine - and eventually plunges the sword into the bull´s neck.

So that was a bullfight. We went with our friends from the hostel, but unfortuantely had to leave early to catch a train to Sevilla. This is where a series of unfortunate events began.

We missed our train. Since we were using Eurail passes, we didn´t think we needed tickets. Normally, you don´t - but apparently, this train required reservations. This was the last train of the night according to our pocket timetables so we were stressed out. However, there was 1 more that wasn´t listed, and we were able to get to Sevilla.

We arrived close to 1 in the morning. After navigating Sevilla´s confusing streets for an hour, we found our hostel - where they didn´t have our reservation. They were able to find us a room in a cheap hostel nearby.

The cheap hostel was crap. End of story.

What I Learned in Sevilla:

> What happens in Sevilla stays in Sevilla. Mostly because nobody else cares what happens in Sevilla.
> Streets change names frequently, and the maps don´t tell you that. So the name on the map rarely matches the street sign.
> Sevilla is entirely composed of back alleys and one-way streets with a foot worth of sidewalk.
> 7-way intersections of one-way streets are not uncommon in Sevilla.
> Do not drive in Sevilla. Ever.
> At 2 in the morning, the only hostels with open rooms are invariably owned by old ladies who don´t speak English.
> There are no grocery stores in Sevilla. I don´t know how the locals get food because we didn´t see any.
> There is a helpful train system in Sevilla. Unfortunately, they only travel in a tight loop around the center of the city.
> Sevilla´s main attraction, El Alcazar, is closed on Mondays. We were there on Monday.
> Anything you do in Sevilla will be cursed. Period.

Now, there were a few good parts of Sevilla that I enjoyed very much. One was riding bikes aimlessly around the city. The other was the flamenco bar. There was only flamenco music - no dancing - but it was entertaining anyways. I tried a sangria (don´t give me that look :P ) and it was good as well. Very fruity.

After Sevilla, we were planning on working on an organic farm for free room and board. But we overslept, causing us to miss our train, which caused us to miss the connecting bus, which caused us to miss the car that would take us to the farm. FML. We went to the town anyways, but we couldn´t find the farm and the payphone didn´t work, so we just went to Granada instead.

And here we are. We´ll be seeing La Alhambra today - watch for it in a later post. Tonight we´re taking a train to Barcelona. Hopefully things look up from here!

< Derek >

Exploring Madrid

Blog post

We took a walking tour of Madrid today and saw some interesting sights!

> The oldest restaurant in the world, where Spanish royalty has eaten
> A working nunnery
> The only public statue of the Devil in the world
> A bar made entirely out of ice , including everything inside - cups, chairs, etc (we didn't actually see this one)
> Madrid's main square (Plaza Mayor)
> Kilometer zero - the exact center of Spain
> The outside of the royal palace
> Statue of Miguel de Cervantes, writer of Don Quixote de la Mancha

We also heard some cool stories about Spain's culture and history along the way. 

One thing that I forgot to mention yesterday was my experience with Customs at the airport. I had to fill out an information card similar to the one I did in the UK, but when I gave it to the officer, he glanced at it and stamped my passport. It was a much more subdued process than the rigorous series of questions in England. 

The room we slept in last night had a number of Irishmen in it. They came into the room very drunk at 4am, turned on the lights, and started talking loudly. Luckily I mostly slept through it :D but I guess you can expect to meet a few of those types of people at hostels. 

Spain is interesting in that the streets are buzzing with people until 12 or later, and the true nightlife doesn't start until 1 in the morning. 

EDIT: It has been a day or so since I wrote the first part of this. Our new roommates (to replace the Irishmen) are some cool American kids in a Study Abroad program at a school in Toledo. 

We also went to a modern art museum and saw Guernica, a very famous painting of a the chaos and pain in town being destroyed by bombing during the Spanish Civil War. No photos allowed, so you'll have to Google it. 

Churros here are very different from the American version. At home they coat the churro in cinnamon and sugar; here it's just sticks of fried bread, but they serve it with a container of hot melted chocolate. Mmm!

< Derek >

*because of lack of computer access this post was intended to be added yesterday, so time referances are
a day off for the first half of it.  Also this is David, even though the post will be on Derek's account


Have you ever been woken up at four A.M. to a pair of drunken Irishmen in your bedroom?  How about four of them?  Because that's how I woke up in the early hours of the morning.  Not an experience I'd like to repeat.

Thankfully they checked out this morning, though they lost their deposit after leaving late due to intense hangovers.  Other than those four nuisances, Derek, and myself, there are two other people share room 25.

One has yet to leave the bed, so far as I can tell, save for once when I saw him heading for the bathrooms.  He sits on his bottom bunk on his netbook all day.

The final roommate is the polar opposite.  I have only seen him once; early this morning while he was still asleep.  He spends his time out.

I have a tip for anyone visiting Madrid; watch out for cars!  It can be hard to tell sidewalks from roads at times, and they are often the same thing.  We've been in the middle of a plaze when we realized we were also in the middle of a road.  And drivers here don't stop unless they have too.  Mopeds and motorcycles are far more common than cars, since pedestrians and traffic make driving a car impossible.  Also, police vehicles are everywhere, even places where there are no roads.  They have trucks, cars, mopeds, and even dirt bikes to reach every part of the city.

We went the plaza mayor yesterday.  It's this cool courtyard-type-plaza with lots of markets.  It's also filled with street performers, who are often just people walking around in costumes with jars for the coins they collect.  Winnie the pooh, Mickey Mouse, and the fattest spiderman i've ever seen made an appearance.

Last night Derek and I decided to head out in a random direction until we found something interesting.  We ended up in front of the department of justice or whatever it was called.  We then succesfully navigated back to the hostal without incident.  We went out at about midnight, but you wouldn't have known it was past 8.  All the bars and restaurants were open and full, and there were people out walking everywhere.

After a rude awakening, we had a free light breakfast of corn flakes and orange juice.  Then we went on the hostal's free walking tour of Madrid. Though it was free the guy said he was open to tips, so we each gave him a couple of euros at the end.  It was a good tour, and I highly reccomend It if you happen to stay at a Cat's Hostel.  On the tour we saw tons of Madrid's best sights.  Palaces, cathedrals, the world's oldest restaurant, prostitute hangouts (it's legal here, though pimping is not), markets, and lots of other cool things.  We also saw key couple spots, which me really miss my girlfriend.

After a very light lunch, which for me was a hotdog-looking-thing and a weird green strawberry-like-fruit, we had a brief siesta before heading to Madrid's famous park.  We spent most the time there looking for the infamous devil statue, which is the only statue of the devil openly displayed in public.  The park was filled with statues, flowers, and couples, which made me miss Michelle even more.  Eventually we succeeded in our task.  It took us a a long to find it.  The park is massive, 400 acres or so I'm told.  I'm pretty sure we walked most of the perimeter.

Ok so now time has magically moved forward as you were forearmed it might.  We met our new roommates last night.  They are a group of American students studying in Toleada.  There are 2 boys and 4 girls.  They're all nice and cool people.

This morning we went to raino Sophia or something... It's some bug museum.  I'm not the artsy type.  The museum is massive.  We were supposed to meet our roommates there, but we only found half of them as they had split into smaller groups.

We had a brief siesta.  For lunch I bought a heaping handful of cherry tomatoes and like 8 of the wierd green fruits.  It cost me €0.68.

We just got back from a brief outting.  We had some delicious chouro i think it's called.  It's this fried dough thing that you dip in hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate is more like chocolate fudge.  It's delicious.

Tonight we have a paela party.  I have no idea what it is.  We'll ne sure to tell you all about it tomorrow!

Bye for now!
David out

Bienvenidos a Madrid

David Here

We made it. We are currently in our Hostel in Madrid in the bar, where the computer´s are. Unfortunately we don`t have any access to the USB ports, so you`ll have to wait on that.

OK first impressions, starting with the metro. We took the metro to a stop very close to our hostel. It was quick and easy to use, surprisingly clean, and appear at every stop (the ones we saw anyway) about every two minutes. They are, however, extremely crowded and stiflingly hot. Also very smelly. That`s another thing, Spain has not caught the memo that cigarettes are bad for you. Everywhere smells of cigarettes and almost everyone you see outside is smoking.

We found our hostel very easily. It´s called Cat´s Hostel and I am extremely impressed. Our room has 5 bunk beds and ten large lockers. The beds are reasonably comfortable with blankets and sheets and pillows and all that. The hostel has a decent bar, free breakfast from 8-10, computers, wifi in the rooms. clean bathrooms with showers, and washing machines with dryers.

To get into your room you have to have this watch-looking thing. Everyone has their own which is specific to their bed. To get into the dormitory area of the hostel, you must hold your wrist-key up to a scanner, which unlocks the doors. On your room door there is another scanner. Your locker has one too. Everybody`s wrist-key works on the first door, but only people from your room can open that door, and only you can open your locker.

One thing though, when you are looking for hostels, sign up in advance. the first two we tried were already full.

Ok so what`s the area like? We`re about a quarter mile from the metro station. Within a few blocks of our hostel we have seen dominoes pizza, burger king, dunkin coffee (which is dunkin donuts), at least 7 other hostels, many bars, an enormous ¨sex shop¨, several farmers markets, tons of cafes, 3 or 4 arcades, and many magazine stands, which aren´t afraid to put X-rated material right out in the open. Industry is centralized around the metro station, and the farther away you get the more the buildings start to become apartments rather than stores.

The streets are so narrow that you have to be careful not to be decked by wide wing mirrors. Oh and water, we´ve been told not to trust european water. So we´ve bought bottled water. Unfortunately european bottled water has lots of things in it, like chloride, salt. calcium, etc. Its not a lot, but to me it makes the water taste foul and undrinkable. In Spain we bought Bezoya water, which isn´t too bad.

I don´t have much else to say for now. I´ll let Derek take over from here

David out

~~~~~~~~

Today has been exhausting but rewarding. For those of you who said tl;dr to some of our other posts, this is the first time that we´ve been truly on our own. We were staying with David´s family for the first bit of our trip. But now we´ve finally realized the extent of our independence!

We took a flight out of Gatwick Airport to get here. It was a very cheap flight, and we got what we paid for. The whole plane was cramped cattle class, we were sitting at the gate for an hour, and they charged us for drinks. Oh well.

...I feel like I overpacked since my pack is damn heavy. Heavier than any hiking trip I´ve ever done, certainly. But aside from a few guidebooks that I decided to leave in England, there´s nothing that I´d leave at home given the chance.

Madrid itself has been wonderful so far. My Spanish is a bit rusty XD but workable. The locals seem friendly and we were able to get around fine. I got a few clementines for 40 cents (that´s Euro-cents, not US cents) and ate them for a light lunch. Our hostel is nice, despite its looks - the building itself is old enough to have been designated a historical monument or something like that. I was very impressed with the key system as well.

I´ve wanted to come to Spain for years - and we´re finally here! I can´t wait to explore the city. Photos will be up eventually.

¡Hasta luego!

‹Derek›

London Raid

Derek: Hey all - just wanted to do a quick post on the trip to London that we took today. It was a fantastic day, even though the weather was cloudy and dreary (typical London weather, actually). The Tube, London's metro system, was fast and efficient, but the trains were small and they ran very close to the wall, giving the impression that you were in a tube. Just another example of simple naming conventions, I guess, seeing as towns are named things like Harrow-on-the-hill.


Anyways, one of our main attractions today was the London Eye, which is a 480-ft Ferris Wheel on the River Thames. It was very expensive, but well worth it, since we were able to see most of the city from the apex. The picture above is of us in front of Big Ben - from a few hundred feet in the air. We also saw Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and various other sights.



We took a walk over to the Tower of London, famed for its past of torture and imprisonment. I'll let David talk more about that, but it was very cool to see the actual carvings of prisoners on the walls.



The independence we have here is wonderful, and I'm sure it'll only increase as we head over to Spain!


<Derek>


Hello! David here! We had a great trip to London today and I've got a bunch of pictures to post! So let's start with the journey to London, the train. Trains in England are fairly inexpensive and easy to catch. They can get you anywhere, but they are fairly cramped and crowded.


















Upon arriving in the city, we found the skyline dominated by our destination; the London Eye. We took tons of pictures from the eye. Blogspot seems to work on and off on this computer, and at the moment the captions feature is not working, so you'll have to grin and bear it, or as the English say, have a stiff upper lip.


Ok so here we have the London Eye. A circuit takes about half an hour but gives you a fantastic view of London. It's well worth the pricey £19 we payed. That's about $31. While riding we calculated that the eye, on a busy day, could rake in as much as £200,000! Next to that is the Houses of Parliment and Big Ben. We'll post more pictures from the eye on picasa.
















Next we visited the Globe Theatre. Unfortunately they were sold out for tickets for the day so we moved onto the Tower of London.



The Tower has been used for many things, but it is most notorious as a prison. It was generally used for high profile prisoners, often bishops, dukes, and rival monarchs. Now before you mock the poor quality of these photos, I should note that we weren't exactly supposed to be taking pictures at all, so most of these images were taken with the camera inside my sleeve.



Here we have the entrance to the Tower. Next to that is the Scavenger's Daughter, which was a notoriously cruel torture device that compressed your body. It was said to crush a person so badly, blood would leak from their eyes, ears, and nose.

So if you want any more pictures you'll have to rely on picasa. Blogspot is, quite frankly, being a major P in the A about getting these pictures up, so this is all I'm wiling to put up with for this post.

Anyways the Tower's been around for nearly a thousand years, with various parts being torn down and rebuilt every few hundred years. It's pricey but worth it if you can afford the £18 entrance fee, or about $30. If you ask for student price they may give you £2 off, but you might not get this without a student card. Also, the cost includes a £2 "voluntary donation" that most people are unaware they are making. To save a little extra coin tell them you're a poor college student and can barely afford the expensive fee without a hidden "voluntary donation" thank you very much... or something like that anyway.

OK I'm going to load photos to picasa.

Tomorrow we probably will have nothing to report, but Thursday we shall truly be on our own in Europe, as set out for Madrid.

Stay tuned! And if you're bored in the meantime, check out my girlfriend's blog about her gap year in Taiwan!

http://michelle-taiwan.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!

Follow comment and do whatever else people do on the internet...

actually...

just follow and comment

David out

Edit: The link to our Picasa Web Album is http://picasaweb.google.com/103364498072441154285/Eurotrip?feat=directlink

We're in ENGLAND!!!

David (left) and Derek (right)

So our first true joint post is direct from the United Kingdom!  We are staying at my (David's) Grandmother's house in Northwood, near London.  We call her Kiki.  We are in a quaint English village, a perfect place to luanch a surprise invation. 

We woke up today with a fantastic English Breakfast.  Most of it you would find in an American breakfast; eggs, bacon, suasage, tomotoes, and mushrooms.  The toast is actually fried toast, grilled in bacon fat rather than heated in a toaster.  And to finish, what could be tastier than a lovely chocolate croissant? 

A real English Breakfast

Un Croissant Chocolat

Today we performed a surveillance mission, exploring the nearby town.  Being the protective type, Kiki took us to a pharmacy and supplied us with diaherrea remedies, just in case.  We also exchanged some currency.  Quick tip; never exchange currency at an airport!  You will get ripped off!  We got a rate of 1.65 USD to the Pound in town, whereas we would have payed about $1.75 per Pound in the airport.  It may not seem like much, but when you exchange a significant amount of money it really is a lot.  And if anyone wants proof that we are truly in England, what could be better than a double-decker bus?

The pleasent village of Northwood

Derek got in the way...

Here's Derek with some drinks we can now legally buy

We had a round of scrabble this afternoon.  I thought that, for the first time in my life, I would defeat Kiki.  Using all 7 tiles and a triple word score, I rocketed ahead.  Despite this I proceeded to draw only vowels for the remainder of the game and lost by a single point.

Tomorrow we have a more exciting trip planned, so stay tuned and don't be discouraged by our quiet first day.  I now hand over the reigns to Derek, for his own input on events.

~~~~~~~~~~

England is fantastic! Unlike David, I've never been outside of North America, so this is a cool experience for me. The cars are on the wrong sides of the road, and all the crosswalks are labeled "Zebra Crossing"! (I'm going to keep a running list of strange terms for you all.) We arrived yesterday after a long plane flight to find that we had wasted an entire day on the plane. Even though the flight itself was only 6 hours, we spend 2 hours in security beforehand and a half hour with customs and immigration afterwards. Plus, England is 5 hours ahead of America. So we left the hotel at 5am and arrived at David's grandmother's at 8pm.

As David mentioned earlier, his grandmother is called Kiki. She's a very sweet lady and has done a copious amount of travelling herself - so she has been giving us all sorts of tips for our trips. Also, her cooking rules :D our breakfast was great, and the fried bread was exotic and delicious. It's good that our trip is starting at her house, since we'll use it as sort of a home base to start testing the water in London from.

It's worth mentioning that we didn't actually buy the bottle of wine seen above. The immigration guy who stamped my passport said, after he heard we were from America and in our gap year, "Oh, so you're coming over here to spend 90 days drunk in Europe, are you?" (Add in the British accent in your mind.) I laughed and told him that we wanted to see more of Europe than the floor. XD

That's about it for now. Keep following us - we'll be moving to the Continent in a few days!

<Derek>

Packing for Europe

One of the hardest parts of planning so far is deciding what to bring. Once we're over there, some items will be harder to find - especially those you have to order, since we won't have a mailing address most of the time. In case you're interesting in going on a similar trip, I'm going to post a list of what I'm packing on the blog.

By the way - this is Derek speaking. We're going to have to put our names in post titles or something to make it easier.

First of all, I'm putting everything into my big backpack and a smaller daypack. No suitcases or anything like that. A duffel bag may be necessary for the plane (just to avoid having our packs torn apart by the baggage handlers) but we'll see.


My two packs: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JmpkewQhbgAINjtO0z2jaQ?feat=directlink

Clothes: Most All of what I packed is moisture-wicking (made of a synthetic material like polyester or polypropylene). Wicking clothes dry easier, don't wrinkle, and compress well. This is in contrast to cotton clothes, which hold moisture in.

Also, my clothes are very plain. All solid colors, no brands or logos. My plan is to look less like a tacky tourist and more like a respectable world traveler.

~~~~~~~

5 pairs of wicking convertible pants (they zip off into shorts)

Gore-Tex pants (act as rain pants and are also warm)
Waterproof wind shell
7 wicking tees
3 long-sleeve wicking shirts
7 pairs of socks
1 pair of wool socks
7 pairs of underwear
2 fleece sweatshirts
1 sweater (in case we run into anything more formal)
Mittens and hat

Edit: I relented and decided to bring my Olin CW shirt, which is not wicking or plain but does show Olin pride. :D

Important documents: These are what will allow us to travel and keep us from being deported. I keep them in a money belt, which is essential unless you enjoy being pickpocketed.

~~~~~~~

Passport

Insurance card

SS card

Train and airplane tickets

Debit card

Copies of each of the above (kept in a separate place)

Sleeping:

~~~~~~~

Down sleeping bag - very warm.

Sleeping bag liner
Tent - Camping is cheaper than hotels or hostels.

Shoes: I don't know how I ended up packing 4 pairs of shoes. Seriously. This is nonsense.
~~~~~~~

Flip flops
Down booties
Hiking boots
Sneakers

Small Misc Items: Various things that I packed that will come in handy somewhere along the way but do not add much weight to my pack.

~~~~~~~
Guidebooks, maps, etc

Length of paracord - very strong and extremely useful.
Reusable water bottle
Cup
Fork and spoon - for impromptu picnics

Compass

Swiss army knife

Journal and pens - I want to remember this for the rest of my life.

Soap

Spare contacts and glasses

Duct tape - Don't even think of leaving home without it.
Headlamp
First aid kit and Ibuprofen
Toiletries
Foldable bowl
Matches and lighter
Sharpening stone
Bug spray

Collapsible umbrella
Sunscreen
Whistle
Compact microfiber towel - very absorbent
Gifts for hosts - We're staying with David's family at some points and I decided it would be apropos to present them with small, distinctly American tokens of my appreciation.

Electronics: We're nerds. Don't give me that look. XD. All of these are in a waterproof drysack just in case.

~~~~~~~

Camera and memory card

Tripod
iPod Touch - My connection to home. When I can find wifi, I'll be able to use it for Facebook, blog updates, and Skype. Plus it's entertainment on plane and train trips.
Mini microphone - for Skype

SPOT - GPS tracker that we'll use to send word to our parents that we're either OK or in need of help. Will also contact emergency services if necessary.

Extra batteries

Various chargers and cables

Don't forget that European outlets are 220V and 50Hz whereas America uses 120V and 60Hz. Their plugs are also different. We have converters for all of that.

All my gear laid out: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/t5HHisD6sYXphuSgsD2aFQ?feat=directlink

That post was a little longer than I expected - and there are probably a few things I forgot to mention. In any case, hope this helps.

<Derek>

3 DAYS LEFT!!

David Speaking
It's September 9th and commence our invasion in 3 days!
Needless to say I'm ecstatic! I've been busy contacting the relatives of mine we shall be bunking our travels. For the most part though, we shall be relying on youth hostels. I don't have time for a long post so I thought I'd post a quick itinerary of the first few days of our trip.

We are arriving in London on the afternoon of the 12th. For we will be staying until the 15th just outside of London with my Grandmother. We'll probably have a few raids on London, but nothing too brazen yet. On the 15th we report to my uncle's house, further south. On the 16th we depart for Spain and will be landing in Madrid, where our journey truly begins.

Well that's all I have time for right now!
Thanks for reading! Get ready for the trip of your lives... well of our lives anyway.