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

About the Author: David

So I figure we need an intro to what exactly is going on.
To tell a bit more about ourselves. So here's a start.

Many of you may be wondering why a pair of teenage guys are going to be wandering the expanse of Europe in the middle of the school year. The reason is that we are both in our gap year; our year off between high school and college. After our year off, we will both be attending Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering as part of the class of 2015. We decided to utilize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and explore the great beyond... of Europe.

Just to make sure this is clear, there really are two of us. I am not schizophrenic... In case you were wondering...

Anyways, after 3 months in Europe I (David) will be rounding off my gap year with an internship. I'll be working with a research group that focuses on tissue engineering located in Boston.

So who am I? I am an 18-year-old originally born in the UK, but who has lived in Massachusetts for 16 years. I am a complete nerd; I love science, math, gadgets, computers, etc. I live in a town with less industry than the average pineapple, who's claim to fame is that the poem, "Casey at the Bat", took place in herein. I have a passion for biomedical engineering, and will always be a fan of the Fire Emblem series. I am unbeatable at Super Smash Brothers (and if you want to test that I'd be happy to take you on online).

I love food of any kind, and am rarely without a good book. I am also a cancer survivor (Leukemia) and a lover of animals. I live at home with my mother, step-dad and adorable cockapoo (that's a dog). I also have a pet bearded dragon named Kira. My sister attends UNCW in North Carolina. I have a wonderful girlfriend named Michelle. Anyone interested in Asia should check out her blog, as she will be spending her gap year as an student in Taiwan. She just arrived this morning. I miss her terribly.
Here's the link: :


Well that's a brief summary. Feel free to ask any questions you like; you'll find I'm a very open person.