Finally opening day is here. I was so excited to see that most everyone else on the trip is nearly as fanatical about baseball as I am. Luckily with Mlb.tv I won't miss a BoSox or Brewer game while I'm here. But, I have to first rewind here and tell you all about the past week. It has definitely been eventful so I'll backtrack a bit and start with last week. On Tuesday night I went to see the musical Jersey Boys. It was the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I knew the band before I went in, but had no idea that all those songs that I knew were theres. I have been singing "Oh What A Night" and "Walk Like a Man" for over a week now, and I still can't get them out of my head.
The next night was one of the coolest experiences that I have had here. A few guys and I headed to Wembly Stadium to see the English National Team play Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier. Our seats were in the upper upper deck where the players would look like ants, but to get a chance to see a game like that, a game that important, we were just excited to get in the sold out stadium. As we walked in to pick up our tickets there was a problem however and we didn't have our seats. Instead, because of the screw up they gave us new seats and we ended up in the 18th row, right by the English bench. The game was great. England won 2-1 on a goal by John Terry with 4 minutes left in the game. It was crazy hearing 90,000 people sing God Save the Queen in unison. For me the most exciting part was that David Beckham warmed up and played right in front of me. I took about 15 pictures at the game and 12 of them were of him. I felt like a 16 year old girl, but who cares.
That next night I was off to another musical (Don't really get too many musicals in Appleton, so I figure I gotta do it while I can). This time I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Um, I had seen Joseph before, but I don't remember it being like that. I was definitely entertained, but still it was weird. There was an Elvis, and a country song, and talking snakes, and it was just weird.
Friday morning meant that I was off to Edinburgh. I loved that place. The city, the people, the architecture, and the natural beauty of the rolling hills and ocean were amazing. Kelly and I got into the city at noonish and headed right out to Arthur's Seat. It is huge hill/mountain that over looks the entire city. After the climb up there we relaxed in the beautiful weather, and took in the views. We made the trek back down and I of course fell down and hurt my ankle. When we got down to the bottom of the hill we toured the Scottish Parliament building. The people inside were so nice and they let us go into the actual debating and voting chamber. After a quick nap and dinner I made our plans for the evening. I saw in a tour book about the famous Mackenzie Poltergeist. Apparently there is this ghost that is the most studied and famous in the world that is in Edinburgh. Of course, that meant that we had to go check it out. So, we show up for the tour and they take us into this cemetery and then things got a bit scary. They ushered us into this row of tombs and then locked the door behind us. They then brought us into this one crypts and proceeded to tell us stories about how this ghost has literally injured people by burning them and giving them bruises and after getting is scared to death they had a guy jump out and scream. Kelly and I jumped so high...I thought I was going to die. On that note we headed to the pub to unwind where strangely enough we were the oldest people in the entire bar. It felt really weird drinking with 14 and 15 year olds.
The next day we headed up to the coast and toured the Royal Yacht. It was basically just a huge ship that was Queen Elizabeth's. We saw her bedroom, her car, and the honeymoon sweet where Prince Charles and Princess Diana had their honeymoon. I would say more but, like with all things concerning royalty, it is just easier to show you the pictures. After that, the weather turned bad for a while, so after dinner we went to a movie. We saw Slumdog Millionaire and then headed to the bar again for a couple drinks and to watch the Final Four. When we got up to our room we found that our room was given away. We went down to the lobby to find that they gave our room away. Since there was no where else to stay we crashed in the lounge room for the night. The next morning we complained some more and got a full refund on our trip. It actually worked out well and saved us a bunch of money.
On Sunday we headed up to Edinburgh Castle and toured all the museums in there. We also toured a couple other museums. Again we saw some more amazing sights that only pictures can describe. At around 4 it was time to get back on the train to head to London. Overall the weekend was a blast. The city was amazing, and I had a great time with Kelly. I love traveling, but a lot of times in huge groups there are just so many things people want to do and it becomes stressful trying to make everyone happy. It was great to not have to deal with that aspect and just go with the flow.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Rugby, Basketball, and a little bit of Sightseeing
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know I've slacked recently in the updates, but its been tough to get to a computer. I realized that I do not need one right away, I can get by without for now, but my blogging is going to be brief until I can get home. Anyway, going back since I last updated, Sophie and Carolyn came and visited, we had a lot of fun together, I got to be a tour guide to my adopted home, which was fun. It was also good practice for this past weekend when Emily came to visit. I've done a ton of walking the past few weeks but its been great to see some of my friends from back home.
School has been getting a bit more difficult. Not necessarily harder, but we've definitely had a lot more work to do recently. Papers in two of my classes, a test, and a lot of short reflection and play reviews have kept me pretty busy. Nothing too hard though. One of the papers I got to write about was the issues in Northern Ireland. I chose to write specifically on the schooling problems there. In Northern Ireland there really is no public education system as we think of it. There are protestant and Catholic schools. This leads to built up hatred and fighting between the two school groups. My 74 years of experience of going to Catholic school, and 4 years of experience in hating Fox Valley Lutheran made the topic very interesting to me. I ended up going over the word limit by about a thousand, so I'm going to get down graded, but I really don't care.
As far as traveling goes, I'm off to Scotland this weekend. But last weekend I was in Ireland. Ireland is my new favorite place ever. This history class gave me so much background on Ireland that I was really excited before the plane even landed. Once there, and we checked into our hostel we toured the city a bit and then went to bed pretty early after failing to find a sports bar that would show the basketball games. The next day I got up early, made a few calls, and eventually found the only bar in Dublin that was airing the games. We started touring the city. Walked into a couple of the churches, went to a park, but then the real Dublin tour started. A trip to the Guinness Factory. After the tour taught us how Guinness was made we got to take our ticket stub up to the top of the Gravity Bar for a free pint of Guinness. I am not a big Guinness fan, but this stuff was just delicious. The bar was 7 stories in the air and made of complete glass, so we got to overlook all of Dublin as we enjoyed our free pint. After we came back down we headed over to the Jameson Distillery. After we learned how Irish Whiskey is made, we again redeemed our ticket stub for an opportunity to try some Jameson. Once again, the stuff was pretty darn good. Callie and Emily even got to take part in a whiskey tasting. They were given a shot of Jameson, Scotch, and Jack Daniels and had to decide which was the best. They both voted for the Jameson. After the last tour I headed to the sports bar to watch the basketball games. We spent the rest of the night there. The bar even served Miller. It felt like I was back in the states for a while.
Saturday was more touring but we were told that there was a big rugby match that day. Little did we know how big it actually was. Turns out the Irish National Team was playing Wales in the 6 Nations tournament. If Ireland won the game, not only would that win the tournament, but they would also complete the Grand Slam, something that has been done in 60 years. My knowledge of how rugby was minute, and still is, but I have NEVER, EVER seen anything so intense. By the end of the game I was screaming at the top of my lungs for Ireland...I even started singing their national song. Ireland was winning the whole game, with 4 minutes left Wales kicked a drop-kick to take the lead 16-14. Ireland, then marched down the field and scored to take the lead 17-14. As the clock expired the ref called a penalty on Ireland as time expired. The free kick that Wales was given literally fell about 2 feet short of going through the goal posts as time expired and Ireland won the Grand Slam. Talking to a man who was in near tears, he explained to me that this was the greatest sports moment of his life, and this meant more to Ireland than anything. It was great to be a part of it.
That day we also took a day trip out to the cost of Ireland. The rolling green grass and cliffs that fall into the ocean were beautiful. We wandered and toured some more on Sunday, and later in the afternoon I met up with my friend Lisa who is studying in Dublin. It was great to see her and we got the chance to talk about home back in Madison, and the good ole' days at Xavier.
I'll do a better job of keeping in touch, and promise to have many more stories and pictures to tell when I get home. I can't believe I'm home now in less than a month. Granted I am broke and can't afford to stay any longer but still, it would be great to see more of Europe....I guess its my excuse to come back again someday.
School has been getting a bit more difficult. Not necessarily harder, but we've definitely had a lot more work to do recently. Papers in two of my classes, a test, and a lot of short reflection and play reviews have kept me pretty busy. Nothing too hard though. One of the papers I got to write about was the issues in Northern Ireland. I chose to write specifically on the schooling problems there. In Northern Ireland there really is no public education system as we think of it. There are protestant and Catholic schools. This leads to built up hatred and fighting between the two school groups. My 74 years of experience of going to Catholic school, and 4 years of experience in hating Fox Valley Lutheran made the topic very interesting to me. I ended up going over the word limit by about a thousand, so I'm going to get down graded, but I really don't care.
As far as traveling goes, I'm off to Scotland this weekend. But last weekend I was in Ireland. Ireland is my new favorite place ever. This history class gave me so much background on Ireland that I was really excited before the plane even landed. Once there, and we checked into our hostel we toured the city a bit and then went to bed pretty early after failing to find a sports bar that would show the basketball games. The next day I got up early, made a few calls, and eventually found the only bar in Dublin that was airing the games. We started touring the city. Walked into a couple of the churches, went to a park, but then the real Dublin tour started. A trip to the Guinness Factory. After the tour taught us how Guinness was made we got to take our ticket stub up to the top of the Gravity Bar for a free pint of Guinness. I am not a big Guinness fan, but this stuff was just delicious. The bar was 7 stories in the air and made of complete glass, so we got to overlook all of Dublin as we enjoyed our free pint. After we came back down we headed over to the Jameson Distillery. After we learned how Irish Whiskey is made, we again redeemed our ticket stub for an opportunity to try some Jameson. Once again, the stuff was pretty darn good. Callie and Emily even got to take part in a whiskey tasting. They were given a shot of Jameson, Scotch, and Jack Daniels and had to decide which was the best. They both voted for the Jameson. After the last tour I headed to the sports bar to watch the basketball games. We spent the rest of the night there. The bar even served Miller. It felt like I was back in the states for a while.
Saturday was more touring but we were told that there was a big rugby match that day. Little did we know how big it actually was. Turns out the Irish National Team was playing Wales in the 6 Nations tournament. If Ireland won the game, not only would that win the tournament, but they would also complete the Grand Slam, something that has been done in 60 years. My knowledge of how rugby was minute, and still is, but I have NEVER, EVER seen anything so intense. By the end of the game I was screaming at the top of my lungs for Ireland...I even started singing their national song. Ireland was winning the whole game, with 4 minutes left Wales kicked a drop-kick to take the lead 16-14. Ireland, then marched down the field and scored to take the lead 17-14. As the clock expired the ref called a penalty on Ireland as time expired. The free kick that Wales was given literally fell about 2 feet short of going through the goal posts as time expired and Ireland won the Grand Slam. Talking to a man who was in near tears, he explained to me that this was the greatest sports moment of his life, and this meant more to Ireland than anything. It was great to be a part of it.
That day we also took a day trip out to the cost of Ireland. The rolling green grass and cliffs that fall into the ocean were beautiful. We wandered and toured some more on Sunday, and later in the afternoon I met up with my friend Lisa who is studying in Dublin. It was great to see her and we got the chance to talk about home back in Madison, and the good ole' days at Xavier.
I'll do a better job of keeping in touch, and promise to have many more stories and pictures to tell when I get home. I can't believe I'm home now in less than a month. Granted I am broke and can't afford to stay any longer but still, it would be great to see more of Europe....I guess its my excuse to come back again someday.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Morocco
My lack of computer has given me an excuse to put off writing about a place that is still indescrible for me. Just so different in every way. I started my trip to Morocco on the bathroom floor of a ferry. Apparently our Captain decided that driving through a hurricane was a great idea, and it took all of 12 seconds for me to realize that it was going to be a long trip. Within the first 5 minutes half of the people on board were puking, and I was soon to follow. The trip from Tarifa, in the southern tip of Spain was suppose to take 45 minutes to get us to Tanjier, Morocco. And although it took only a bit over an hour, it felt like 4. Once to Tanjier we looked around briefly and got on a night train that was taking us to the center of Morocco, to Marrakech.
When we awoke the next day, we were in a different world. After going through hell to try and find a hostel we relaxed and began to explore. As we walked into the market a monkey....yes monkey jumped right up on my shoulder. I smiled happily as I got a picture taken. After that experience I looked to the ground to see a couple cobras only a few feet away from me. Anyone who knows me. knows that snakes are about the most terrifying thing in the world to me, but I put aside my discomfort and watched as Kyle attempted to charm one himself. The pictures we got from this were amazing.
Quickly, the food was so delicious. The mint tea was amazing, as were the mushroom omlettes that I got everyday. Nothing beat the freshley squeeze orange juice that I drank about 46 times a day while I was there. It is simply the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.
We continued to explore the city for the rest of the day on Thursday, but we looked for something exciting to do on Friday, the muslim holy day, when most of the city would be shut down. Our hostel suggested going into the mountains. This was the best decision of our trip to Morocco, and probably the most amazing day of my trip. The sights I saw were so beautiful. I was in awe for my entire climb into the mountains, and the tiny berbur tribe that invited us into their homes, the camel ride, and the free meal made the entire day memorable. I wish I could say more, but we all know that I've never been too good with words, so I leave my pictures to do the explaining.
The next day, Saturday was shopping day. I was told that the Market was the largest in the world, filled with alley ways and tiny shops there is something to buy for everyone. With the exchange rate at 10:1, I was ready to make some deals. We spent the entire morning shopping, and it was a ton of fun, I got a few good little keepsakes but spent more time taking in the sights and trying to watch these people rip other people off. Afternoon I went up to the roof of the hostel and relaxed. It was amazing. I fell asleep in a lawnchair and was in heaven. Just me, my iPod, the sun, and 75 degree beautiful Moroccan weather.
Unfortunately that was the end of my trip to Morocco as that night we packed up and got ready for our 730 am flight back to London on Sunday morning. I had never taken a spring break trip before, and its going to be pretty tough to compete with this one....but I'm certainly going to try. I'm thinking Thailand next year, but we'll see how that works out.
When we awoke the next day, we were in a different world. After going through hell to try and find a hostel we relaxed and began to explore. As we walked into the market a monkey....yes monkey jumped right up on my shoulder. I smiled happily as I got a picture taken. After that experience I looked to the ground to see a couple cobras only a few feet away from me. Anyone who knows me. knows that snakes are about the most terrifying thing in the world to me, but I put aside my discomfort and watched as Kyle attempted to charm one himself. The pictures we got from this were amazing.
Quickly, the food was so delicious. The mint tea was amazing, as were the mushroom omlettes that I got everyday. Nothing beat the freshley squeeze orange juice that I drank about 46 times a day while I was there. It is simply the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.
We continued to explore the city for the rest of the day on Thursday, but we looked for something exciting to do on Friday, the muslim holy day, when most of the city would be shut down. Our hostel suggested going into the mountains. This was the best decision of our trip to Morocco, and probably the most amazing day of my trip. The sights I saw were so beautiful. I was in awe for my entire climb into the mountains, and the tiny berbur tribe that invited us into their homes, the camel ride, and the free meal made the entire day memorable. I wish I could say more, but we all know that I've never been too good with words, so I leave my pictures to do the explaining.
The next day, Saturday was shopping day. I was told that the Market was the largest in the world, filled with alley ways and tiny shops there is something to buy for everyone. With the exchange rate at 10:1, I was ready to make some deals. We spent the entire morning shopping, and it was a ton of fun, I got a few good little keepsakes but spent more time taking in the sights and trying to watch these people rip other people off. Afternoon I went up to the roof of the hostel and relaxed. It was amazing. I fell asleep in a lawnchair and was in heaven. Just me, my iPod, the sun, and 75 degree beautiful Moroccan weather.
Unfortunately that was the end of my trip to Morocco as that night we packed up and got ready for our 730 am flight back to London on Sunday morning. I had never taken a spring break trip before, and its going to be pretty tough to compete with this one....but I'm certainly going to try. I'm thinking Thailand next year, but we'll see how that works out.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Do You Hear the People Sing...
It has been a very busy few days for me here. And even know I don't have much time for an update, but I figure quick I'd try and wrap up the last week or so. I promise to you (and myself) that I will get to my Morocco trip soon. Anyway, classes have been really picking up, we've had a lot more assignments, papers, and projects the past few days than ever before, which sucks in itself, and it really doesn't help that I don't own a computer right now either. Other than that though, I have definitely been enjoying my time back in London. Last Thursday i went and saw Les Miserables. I really can't think of a more famous play and although it wasn't my favorite I've seen, I'm definitely so happy that I went. The production was great and the story was amazing. Last week I also went and saw a play entitled How It Ended. It was performed in a theater about the size of the living room back home. And that is no exaggeration. My class was at least half the audience and the play was performed about a foot in front of my face. And although it was short, it was just such a cool experience. This past Friday we went to the park and got challenged to a soccer game by a bunch of British boys. Admitting defeat before we began we agreed to get our ass kicked by them. Funny thing though, as we started to play, we started to win..by a lot. In fact we dominated them. Sure we got tired and the score ended up being kinda close but we won handily. Another funny thing, I am an old old out of shape man. Not only did I have to play goalie at the end of the game, I spent the rest of the weekend in bed because my entire body ached from the physical exercise.
Luckily I finally was able to move again as Sophie and Carolyn got here. I was SO excited to see them. The past few days have been great. I really enjoy playing tour guide to my new home and showing them around the city. Tonight I took them to see Avenue Q. For me it was just as good the 2nd time around, and they enjoyed it so that worked out great. Right now I'm just procrastinating from homework, and getting ready for the big St. Patty's Day celebration tomorrow.
Luckily I finally was able to move again as Sophie and Carolyn got here. I was SO excited to see them. The past few days have been great. I really enjoy playing tour guide to my new home and showing them around the city. Tonight I took them to see Avenue Q. For me it was just as good the 2nd time around, and they enjoyed it so that worked out great. Right now I'm just procrastinating from homework, and getting ready for the big St. Patty's Day celebration tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Spring Break in Spain
I'm sitting here doing my laundry right now and I'm lucky enough to have a computer to use so I figure that now is as good of time as any to start my spring break story.
It seems like forever ago now, but On that first friday we got up and went to the airport to get on our flight to Barcelona, Spain. As we were driving there we still weren't convinced that this airplane was going to be there. We were flying RyanAir which is a discount travel service. We booked our flight and it came to $19. That's right $19 to fly to Spain. We get to the airport and sure enough, RyanAir does actually exist and we were scheduled to leave at 3. As we waited in the lobby for our plane I decide to head over to the airport casino with the 2GBP that I had left in my pocket. Since I couldn't use them at all I put them in a machine and just like that was up 13GBP. I cashed out with £10.
As we waited for our flight gate to be released we were joking about how people supposedly don't like Americans over here. An older Irish woman who was sitting next to us chimed in to simply say, "you think it's tough being an American, try growing up here Irish." Since we are all taking a history class on the topic we knew she was referring to the troubles between Ireland and Great Britain. It is a topic that I can't even begin to explain but any history channel buff knows a bit about The fight for Irish independence, the IRA terrorist organization and fighting between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Everyone assumed that peace had been finally brokered 10 years ago between the two sides...that was until last Saturday night. While I was in Morocco still, two men stormed a English military base in Northern Ireland and murdered 2 British soldiers. A group of the IRA claimed responsibility. In class today our professor took the whole 3 hour period explaining the significance, and you could see and hear in his voice that he was worried about what may happen. The IRA bombed London for 24 years, and he lived through it so he was worried about what this may start. After that lecture we get home to see on the news that a bomb plot was broken up as someone from Ireland was trying to smuggle a bomb into Northern Ireland. I promise everyone that I'm safe, but it's been a strange couple days over here in that regard. Anyway back to spring break...
The flight to Barcelona went very smoothly. We landed and after searching for our hostel for a while we got all situated and I set out to find the other half of the group that was in Barcelona. I met up with them and we wondered the city for a while taking in a couple sites. The girls asked me to switch hostels and move in with them because there hostel was a bit sketchy. Since I was going to be traveling with them after Barcelona that made sense, and after all the searching moved hostels again. Just to throw some names out there for you guys. I spent my days in Spain traveling with Suzanne, Kelly, and Molly. We definitely had a lot of fun together. At the end of the night we walked down to the beach and I instantly fell in love. I decided that I'm a beach person. The waves and the sand were just awesome. As you'll soon see I spent a lot of time there. The next day we did some more touristy things. Went to the markets and then went to view the Sagrada Familia. A church that was designed by the architect Gaudi. I'm not even going to begin to try and describe this thing to you. My pictures will have to explain for me because this thing was just over the top amazing. After this I went back down to the beach in the afternoon, I convinced Suzanne to come keep my company and it was awesome. It was cloudy but I couldn't care less.
The next day was by far the best day in Barcelona, we went to the Gaudi Park and it was just beautiful. The architecture and gardens and music and mosaics were all just so amazing. I would love to show you pictures but in probably the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life...I left it at home. We then took a ride up to the top of Barcelona, a place that overlooked the entire city and visited the castle in Barcelona and then went to view the Olympic Stadium for when the Olympics were there in I believe 1992 or 1988. At night again I went back to the beach, this time I convinced Kelly to come along and we relaxed and listened to the waves. The next morning we got up and headed for Madrid.
Madrid was very different than Barcelona. We spent our two days there taking in all the sites. We spent a lot less time in Madrid but two very exciting things happened while there. On the first night the three girls were all exhausted so I grabbed my camera and started wandering the city at night. I got to take some pretty cool pictures when I stumbled upon the castle where the King and Queen of Spain live. This is when things got kinda cool. As I'm walking two police officers with what look like AK-47's jump out and scream at me to stop. I freeze as they explain to me (in spanish which I'm not very good at) that I can't go back here. I then notice a small crowd gathering around the corner I get over there and wait. Eventually I hear someone in the crowd speaking English, I run over and ask what is going on. They explain that the King of Spain just got done with dinner with the President of Russia and they will be coming out soon. I waited with the crowd and snapped some pictures as they exited the castle. I took video of the motorcades as they left and snapped some very blurry pictures of the King and the President. Talk about right place right time. The second thing that made Madrid awesome was getting to meet up with my friend Miguel. Miguel is from Madrid and studied abroad at Madison last year. As luck would have it he lived right next door to me. We became friends over the year but when he left back for Spain I was pretty sure I'd never get the chance to see him again. But, sure enough, a year later we are sitting in a bar in Madrid, talking about all the fun times we had back in the States over a mug of some horrible tasting Spanish beer. I felt bad for everyone who had to listen to us talk on and on, but we agreed to make a thing of this and at least every couple years will get back together for a bit and chat.
Overall the food in Spain was just amazing. They serve tapas there, which are basically bite sized foods. You order like 7 or 8 of them and you get to try so many different foods. I managed to have cod, potatoes, lamb, chicken, ham, tuna, and steak all in one meal. And it only cost me about $12. They also have Sangria in Spain. I drank it with dinner all week there, and had it back in the states when Miguel and the guys made it for us to try. I still have no idea what is in it, but it is just delicious. I know for sure there is Red Wine, and about 35 pounds of sugar, but have no idea on the other ingredients.
Spain was a blast. The beaches, the food, the people, the sites, Gaudi, all of it was just so cool. There is so much more to tell but the pictures will have to do that (if i ever get a computer).
That next morning we woke up and I headed to Tarifa to catch a ferry to Morocco. I'll have to save that for my next post though because my laundry is done and I'm exhausted. I'll just say though that I'm going to have to do a lot more traveling if I ever want to see something as naturally beautiful as Morocco.
It seems like forever ago now, but On that first friday we got up and went to the airport to get on our flight to Barcelona, Spain. As we were driving there we still weren't convinced that this airplane was going to be there. We were flying RyanAir which is a discount travel service. We booked our flight and it came to $19. That's right $19 to fly to Spain. We get to the airport and sure enough, RyanAir does actually exist and we were scheduled to leave at 3. As we waited in the lobby for our plane I decide to head over to the airport casino with the 2GBP that I had left in my pocket. Since I couldn't use them at all I put them in a machine and just like that was up 13GBP. I cashed out with £10.
As we waited for our flight gate to be released we were joking about how people supposedly don't like Americans over here. An older Irish woman who was sitting next to us chimed in to simply say, "you think it's tough being an American, try growing up here Irish." Since we are all taking a history class on the topic we knew she was referring to the troubles between Ireland and Great Britain. It is a topic that I can't even begin to explain but any history channel buff knows a bit about The fight for Irish independence, the IRA terrorist organization and fighting between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Everyone assumed that peace had been finally brokered 10 years ago between the two sides...that was until last Saturday night. While I was in Morocco still, two men stormed a English military base in Northern Ireland and murdered 2 British soldiers. A group of the IRA claimed responsibility. In class today our professor took the whole 3 hour period explaining the significance, and you could see and hear in his voice that he was worried about what may happen. The IRA bombed London for 24 years, and he lived through it so he was worried about what this may start. After that lecture we get home to see on the news that a bomb plot was broken up as someone from Ireland was trying to smuggle a bomb into Northern Ireland. I promise everyone that I'm safe, but it's been a strange couple days over here in that regard. Anyway back to spring break...
The flight to Barcelona went very smoothly. We landed and after searching for our hostel for a while we got all situated and I set out to find the other half of the group that was in Barcelona. I met up with them and we wondered the city for a while taking in a couple sites. The girls asked me to switch hostels and move in with them because there hostel was a bit sketchy. Since I was going to be traveling with them after Barcelona that made sense, and after all the searching moved hostels again. Just to throw some names out there for you guys. I spent my days in Spain traveling with Suzanne, Kelly, and Molly. We definitely had a lot of fun together. At the end of the night we walked down to the beach and I instantly fell in love. I decided that I'm a beach person. The waves and the sand were just awesome. As you'll soon see I spent a lot of time there. The next day we did some more touristy things. Went to the markets and then went to view the Sagrada Familia. A church that was designed by the architect Gaudi. I'm not even going to begin to try and describe this thing to you. My pictures will have to explain for me because this thing was just over the top amazing. After this I went back down to the beach in the afternoon, I convinced Suzanne to come keep my company and it was awesome. It was cloudy but I couldn't care less.
The next day was by far the best day in Barcelona, we went to the Gaudi Park and it was just beautiful. The architecture and gardens and music and mosaics were all just so amazing. I would love to show you pictures but in probably the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life...I left it at home. We then took a ride up to the top of Barcelona, a place that overlooked the entire city and visited the castle in Barcelona and then went to view the Olympic Stadium for when the Olympics were there in I believe 1992 or 1988. At night again I went back to the beach, this time I convinced Kelly to come along and we relaxed and listened to the waves. The next morning we got up and headed for Madrid.
Madrid was very different than Barcelona. We spent our two days there taking in all the sites. We spent a lot less time in Madrid but two very exciting things happened while there. On the first night the three girls were all exhausted so I grabbed my camera and started wandering the city at night. I got to take some pretty cool pictures when I stumbled upon the castle where the King and Queen of Spain live. This is when things got kinda cool. As I'm walking two police officers with what look like AK-47's jump out and scream at me to stop. I freeze as they explain to me (in spanish which I'm not very good at) that I can't go back here. I then notice a small crowd gathering around the corner I get over there and wait. Eventually I hear someone in the crowd speaking English, I run over and ask what is going on. They explain that the King of Spain just got done with dinner with the President of Russia and they will be coming out soon. I waited with the crowd and snapped some pictures as they exited the castle. I took video of the motorcades as they left and snapped some very blurry pictures of the King and the President. Talk about right place right time. The second thing that made Madrid awesome was getting to meet up with my friend Miguel. Miguel is from Madrid and studied abroad at Madison last year. As luck would have it he lived right next door to me. We became friends over the year but when he left back for Spain I was pretty sure I'd never get the chance to see him again. But, sure enough, a year later we are sitting in a bar in Madrid, talking about all the fun times we had back in the States over a mug of some horrible tasting Spanish beer. I felt bad for everyone who had to listen to us talk on and on, but we agreed to make a thing of this and at least every couple years will get back together for a bit and chat.
Overall the food in Spain was just amazing. They serve tapas there, which are basically bite sized foods. You order like 7 or 8 of them and you get to try so many different foods. I managed to have cod, potatoes, lamb, chicken, ham, tuna, and steak all in one meal. And it only cost me about $12. They also have Sangria in Spain. I drank it with dinner all week there, and had it back in the states when Miguel and the guys made it for us to try. I still have no idea what is in it, but it is just delicious. I know for sure there is Red Wine, and about 35 pounds of sugar, but have no idea on the other ingredients.
Spain was a blast. The beaches, the food, the people, the sites, Gaudi, all of it was just so cool. There is so much more to tell but the pictures will have to do that (if i ever get a computer).
That next morning we woke up and I headed to Tarifa to catch a ferry to Morocco. I'll have to save that for my next post though because my laundry is done and I'm exhausted. I'll just say though that I'm going to have to do a lot more traveling if I ever want to see something as naturally beautiful as Morocco.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I'm Home...but Computerless
Hey everyone, I'm back from spring break now, and I had the time of my life. I was able to see and do things that I never thought I would ever get to do. I would love to tell you all about them right now, but as you may have heard, my computer decided to go and die on me. So rather than steal a friends computer for a couple of hours to write everything down on here right now, I'm just going to wait for a bit and write about all of it when I buy my new computer. It will probably be a few days still but not a whole lot I can do about it right now. All is going well over here and I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things in terms of classes. Talk to you all soon.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Just Checking In
Hey everyone, I'm on spring break right now in Morocco. It has been just amazing. I don't have time to talk about it all right now, but coming to Africa has without a doubt been the most amazing experience of my life.
I promised Mom and Dad that I would check in as soon as I got here but I can't get a phone to work, and even if I did I'd imagine that it would cost about $50 to connect a call. I'll be here until Sunday and will talk to all of you soon. So don't worry, I promise I'm alive and safe.
I promised Mom and Dad that I would check in as soon as I got here but I can't get a phone to work, and even if I did I'd imagine that it would cost about $50 to connect a call. I'll be here until Sunday and will talk to all of you soon. So don't worry, I promise I'm alive and safe.
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