Off to Paris

June has come and gone, which means my time here is nearly complete. But of course, I couldn’t go out without a bang. To assist me in this, I had cameo appearances from my brothers Robbie and Matthew. They made their first voyages over to Europe to make our own “O’Doyle rules”-style Euro trip.
The first one to arrive was Robbie, who made it to Madrid on June 14. He was in Spain while I worked my last week of school. Let me just say, it was sad to say goodbye to my teachers and students. They were a great group, and made my job both fun and easy. And my favorite class of seventh grade hellions even gave me a little going away shirt and flag that they all signed. I’m really going to miss them.
But anyways, back to the brothers. Robbie got here, but of course my last week of work was also one of my busiest. In my downtime, we were able to explore Madrid, see Santiago Bernabeu stadium, catch many-a World Cup football match (including watching Spain play with thousands of others outside of Real Madrid’s stadium), say goodbye to the great Rebecca Westlake, and enjoy a little Madrid life.
By the end of his week in Madrid, it was time to move on. And move on we did. All the way to Paris. We boarded a plane early Friday morning headed to Paris, where we spent the next 5 days. When we first got there, we took a free city tour (NewEurope tours, highly recommended, in many European cities), walked around the center, then settled in to watch some World Cup action. The next day, we walked around our hotel area before I had to leave to pick my little brother Matthew up at the airport. After getting to the airport and waiting for about an hour, I collect call my house in the US to find out Matthew’s plane from Louisville to Memphis was cancelled and he wasn’t going to arrive into Paris until Sunday morning. Sucks, but I made it back into the city and Robbie and I set out for Notre Dame.
When Matthew finally did arrive on Sunday, we hit the ground running. We bought these museum passes that gave us 2-day access to all kinds of museums in the city, and you bet we put them to use. The first day, we went to the D’Orsay and Orangerie art museums where we saw a lot of great impressionist work, Napoleon’s tomb, Rodin’s museum where we saw his famous thinker statue, and of course the Paris Sewer System museum. Yes, there is a sewer museum. And yes, it did smell terrible. We were also able to enjoy some fine French cuisine along the way, too. Many croissants were eaten. Many a baguette were also consumed. Needless to say, Matthew was extremely worn out after traveling and a full Parisian day.
The second day, we didn’t let up on the museum hunt. We woke up early, grabbed a croissant and coffee, and headed to the Louvre. We got there right when it opened, made it right in, and spent about 4 hours exploring the massive structure. In my opinion, it wasn’t as cool as the D’Orsay museum, but still nice. We got to see the Mona Lisa (which is a lot smaller in person) and many other masterpieces. The sheer size of the museum was overwhelming, so I was proud of us for making it as long as we did. After that, we made our way back over to Notre Dame, but didn’t brave the long line to climb the tower to the top. Instead, we made our way by metro over to Montmartre, an area of the city that is not only the Red Light District, but also one of the shadiest/dirtiest areas we visited. We got some good views of the city from the hill with the Sacre Coure church, saw some pretty bad breakdancers, got asked for money about 85 times, and got to see the Moulin Rouge. From there, we made our way (walking, of course) back into the city centre to go to the Pompidou modern art museum. Weird. It was one of the strangest museums I’ve ever been in. But hey, it was free. We called it a night after that.

Me in front of the Louvre.

Tuesday was our last day in Paris, so we again made the most of it. We took a train out to the Palace of Versailles. We were able to tour the palace, the gardens, and everything else on the premises. It was a huge complex, but we had perfect weather so we saw almost all of it. Oh, and a small Asian woman with a bedazzled neon pink visor almost get pickpocketed in the palace, at which point she started yelling and punching the pickpocketing woman.

Us in Versailles' gardens.
The gardens were awesome, and this is one of my favorite pics I've ever taken.

From Versailles, we made our way back into the city to the Eiffel Tower. After taking a few pictures from outside and taking a break to watch the France soccer match with about 2,000 other Frenchmen on a big screen outside the Eiffel Tower, we made our way to the stop. By stairs. We didn’t actually go all the way to the top because it was a really long line, but we went up to the second of three levels. It provided great views of the city, and allowed us to say that we had climbed the Eiffel Tower. We called it an early night because we had to catch an early-morning flight to our next desitnation: Prauge. But more on that later.

Of course I had to jump here!
All the brothers in front of the Eiffel Tower.

In all, Paris was a great place. It was a lot more expensive than Madrid, and of course we didn’t understand the language, but we still had a great time. There were so many famous sights and amazing experiences we were able to have here, and I’m glad I was able to have them with my brothers.

Finally made it up north

After three straight weeks of travelling, I finally spent one back in Madrid. And man, was I glad I did. The city is just getting nice and warm, and it was great to see it in the springtime. Also, my roommate told me on Friday the 28^th of May that she was moving out on Saturday and not paying her part of the rent for June. It really caught me off guard, and I spent all Friday and part of Saturday upset about this. This meant I was out 390 euros, which is definitely something that I don’t have to spend with expensive graduate school coming up next year. But I can’t dwell on the fact that I had a bad roommate. She has pretty much isolated herself from all her friends here in Madrid, was not re-hired back next year at her school here in Spain like she wants to be, and will be in community college next year while living at home. So Karma has already started to catch up for her.

But after that nasty weekend, I was able to take a 4-day weekend up in León, with Vicki, Becca, and Miguel. Vicki and I went up on Wednesday night, Becca on Thursday morning, and Miguel on Friday. Vicki’s half Spanish, and her mom’s parents live in León. Also, Vicki’s family has an apartment in the city. So we were able to stay at their apartment and explore many different cities.

The first full day we were there, Vicki showed me all around León. It has an amazing castle, some cool other cathedrals and plazas, and a house designed by the architect Gaudí (who designed some really cool buildings in Barcelona). After Becca got there, we went and met Vicki’s grandparents. It was really fun to sit with them and hear their stories. Also, we were able to spend some time with Vicki’s aunt while we were in town. It was really nice.

Gaudi's house in León.

On Friday, the three of us already in town took a day trip to the town of Burgos. It was a little far of a bus trip, but the city had a great riverfront, an enormous cathedral, and a nice lookout point to see both the city and the countryside. We spent the day there, then went back to León to meet up with Miguel and enjoy some typical food from the area.

Me in front of the Burgos cathedral.

Eating some great Spanish tapas and enjoying the León nightlife.

On Saturday, we got a little of a crazy start. The night before, we bought bus tickets to head up to Gijón, a beach city in Asturias for the day. It was a late night the night before, and I thought that the bus left 15 minutes later than it really did. So I woke Miguel and the rest of them up, but only Miguel was ready in time. We ran the whole way to the bus station and luckily were able to make the bus. Becca ended up joining us later in the day, and Vicki stayed in León to visit more with her family. Gijón is apparently a really pretty beach city. Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy and cold the whole day. We took a long nap before Miguel got there, then wandered around the city and braved the beach, Miguel and Becca were two of the few who actually went in the water that day. I put my feet in, but immediately went back and put my sweatshirt back on. It was too cold for the water. We made it back late to León, but it was still a nice day.

The view on the way home from Gijón. It was pretty amazing.

And of course the trip had to end with a little more fun. The bus ride, which was supposed to take 3 and a half hours, ended up taking 5 and a half after we broke down on the side of the road and had to wait an hour for a new bus. Luckily, the weather was nice and we got to see a great sunset.

After the drama of the weekend before, it was a great way to spend my long weekend out of Madrid. Now I have less than 5 weeks left, and predict even more crazy adventures to come!

Back to the beach

To continue my long string of travels, the next Friday morning I took off to Mallorca, a small island in the Belearic Island chain in the Mediterranean. I flew in with Katarina, Becca’s Austrian roommate in Madrid, and Becca joined us later that night. When we got to Palma, the largest city on the island, we spent the day leisurely exploring the coastal town. We saw the famous cathedral and fortress and walked all around the city.

In the city of Palma for the day.

When Becca got there that night, a German guy named Ulf picked the three of us up in Palma and drove us up to the north of the island to his hostel in the city of Alcudia. Alcudia was much more of a beach town, and definitely a tourist town. There were German and British people, culture, and restaurants everywhere. But the beach was nice, and this is basically all we did there. I didn’t have to work on Monday, so I stayed a day longer than Katarina and Becca. This is where I spent my time until Monday night, when I took a bus back to Palma to fly out.

Becca and Katarina riding in an Alcudia boat.

Jumping on the beach in Alcudia.

Three full days on the beach is exactly what I needed. The weather was perfect, the water was clear and so nice, and I was able to sneak into a beachside resort and set up shop by their pool. It was such a relaxing and great weekend to work on getting my tan back.

Sunset in Alcudia.

Yes, they sold ham and a bike as a combo.

Porto, Portugal

The weekend after getting back from Berlin, I was off again on another excursion out of the country. This time, I left on Friday with Vicki and Becca headed for Porto, Portugal. Porto Is a lesser-known Portuguese city, famous for its port wine and nice blue tilework. We were able to see both of these, and a whole lot more.
Of course, no trip can go without glitches here and there. For this trip, the glitch was pretty big. Our plane was supposed to take off at 9:20 in the morning. When I left my apartment that morning, there was nothing listed online about a delay or anything. After checking through security, I look at the screen and see that the estimated leave time for our flight is 6:20 pm. What?! Yeah, I was not reading it wrong. We went back to the RyanAir desk (the budget airline we were flying), and they told us that the plane could show up at any time and they weren’t really sure why it was so delayed, but we had to stay around the airport and wait. So wait we did. For nine hours, we ate the sandwiches they gave us and the other food I boy scout-edly prepared, slept on the floor and seats of the airport, and had a very Tom Hanks Terminalesque afternoon. By about 6 pm, our plane had arrived and we were on our way. The crew and pilots were called in from being on stand-by, and they had no reason why the plane was delayed so long either. So to this day, no one knows why we had to sit in the Madrid airport for over 9 hours.

Vicki and Becca excited to be sitting in the Madrid airport for 9 hours!

By the time we made it to Oporto that night, the sun was setting and we took advantage of the dwindling daylight to do some sightseeing. We went down to the river and ate a nice meal, saw one of the main cathedrals and the main bridge, then called it a night.
Saturday was our only full day there, and full it was. We woke up early and went ahead and made reservations to do port wine tastings later on in the day. For 3 different wine bodegas, only 6 euros! After getting our reservations set, we went and explored the city. We climbed the Torre Dos Clérigos, a church tower that provided great views of the city. We shopped around the oldest bookstore in Portugal, which had a really cool interior. We did take a little rest though, to grab a coffee and pastry at a Lonely Planet-recommended café.

Me in front of the River Duero.

By the time we had done all that, it was time to head across the river to the wine bodegas. In all, we did three different tours: Sandeman, Offley, and Ferreria. They were all in Spanish, but I was proud of myself for being able to understand all of it (at least of the parts I was paying attention to and not zoned out). At each bodega, they explained the process of making the wines, gave a tour of the barrels, and ended with a tasting of both a white and a tawny port wine. I had never had port wine before, but I really liked it. It is sweeter, and will probably make a few appearances in coming years in my US life. My favorite was Offley, so hopefully I can find it back home.

Becca, Vicki, and me at the Offley wine tasting.

After that, we took a boat cruise down the river to see the city’s 6 famous bridges. It took us all the way to the mouth of the River Duero at the Atlantic Ocean. While it was fairly cold and windy on the boat, it was still a nice tour.
That night, we grabbed some dinner and went looking for a place with wireless Internet so Becca could call her mom on her mom’s birthday. We were headed to McDonald’s for that. When we get there, there are two or three girls outside yelling and being held back by McD’s workers. We look inside and more girls are being held back. For the next 20 minutes or so, we watched a massive girl fight inside and outside of McDonald’s. They were all yelling in Portuguese, so we have no idea what it was about. But it was really crazy to watch, and I’m glad we had not been inside when all of it went down. Luckily, we were able to find another bar to enjoy Wifi and a drink.
Sunday was a little more relaxing, without the crazy amounts of sightseeing. We were able to walk around the city some more, see a really cool park overlooking the water, and walk along the waterfront before having to head back to Madrid. All in all, I was definitely a fan of Porto.

Had to jump in Porto, too!

Adventures with Bethany and Dustin

It has been a long time coming, but it’s finally time for me to write about some of my past adventures. We’ll start with my adventures with Bethany and Dustin.

Dustin and Bethany have made guest appearances on my blog in the past. They met Jordan and I in Madrid, and then I met them in Copenhagen for a weekend getaway. Bethany is on the same type of Fulbright grant as me, only in a town outside of Berlin, Germany. They have been in Germany since the beginning of September without a trip back to the states. After 8 months of being friends in the same continent, we finally all made it to each other’s towns. From May 6- May 9, Dustin and Bethany visited me here in Madrid. The next weekend, I spent four days visiting them in Berlin.

Dustin and Bethany arrived in Madrid at the perfect time. The rain had finally ceased, the sun was shining all day long, and the blazing Spanish heat had yet to arrive. And while they were here, we definitely lived the Spanish life. We took many relaxing siesta-esque breaks in parks around the city. We went to all the major Madrid sights, including the Prado, the Reina Sofia, a lunch menu of the day at the Ham Museum, and the Palacio Real. And we also took a day trip out to the city of Segovia. Although it was my third time to Segovia and the weather was foggy and chilly, that city is still one of my favorites in Spain. In all, I think they got a very accurate depiction of the Spanish life and the city of Madrid.

The three of us in front of the aqueduct in the city of Segovia.

Four days after they departed to go back to Berlin, I made the same journey and met them in Berlin for four days. While it was sunny and nice in Madrid the week before, it was also sunny and nice in Berlin… that same week. When I arrived, the weather was cloudy, rainy, and fairly cold. The first day, we endured the rain and waited in line at the Reichstag (Parliament building) to make a journey up to the top dome. It provided some really cool, free views of the city of Berlin. We then made our way over to one of Berlin’s many museums to see the Ishtar Gate and the Pergamon temple. It was really cool to get to see some of the history that Berlin had on display.

That night, we made our way back out to their town, Frankfort (Oder), a city about an hour west of Berlin that is right on the border of Poland. It was nice to get to see their “box” of an apartment, which really was just one room that was as tall as it was wide and long.

The next day, we went back into Berlin. I got to visit the Berlin Olympic Stadium, which was a great experience for me, especially with my future aspirations to work for the Olympics. From there, we went back into the heart of Berlin for a typical German lunch. We did some more sight-seeing in the city, including with the Berlin wall remains and Hitler’s bunker, before heading back out to Frankfort.

Of course I had to jump in front of the Olympic Stadium entrance.

Me in front of the Berlin Wall remains!

The next day, Dustin had a weekend ultimate frisbee tournament in the city, so Bethany and I stayed out in Frankfort (Oder) for the day. We walked all around the city, giving her a chance to finally be a tourist in her own city. We also crossed the river over into Poland! It was cool how easy it was to just cross a bridge and be in another country with a different language, currency, and culture. We had an amazingly cheap meal in Poland and bought some sweets at a market before making our way back to Germany.

Across the German border, into Poland!

On my last day in Germany, Bethany and I took a train out to Oranienburg to see the remains of a concentration camp. While the camp was a small one where not many people died in the grand scheme of things, it was still very powerful to see where so much brutality occurred. Bethany had not been there yet either, so it was nice for both of us to visit. From there, we went and met Dustin to watch him play in his last German ultimate frisbee match before heading into Berlin for some Subway and a movie. From there, I said goodbye to the two of them to make my way out to the airport. They had only one week left in Europe before heading home to the states, which made me really jealous.

After spending the night out at the airport on Miguel’s borrowed sleeping pad, I boarded my 7 am flight and headed back to Madrid. This definitely made for 2 great trips with 2 great people.