From Amsterdam to Paris to Texas

I've hit that point on my trip where I'm ready to be some place familar, where I can understand everyone and everything around me, and going to dinner is as easy as pulling leftovers out of the refrigerator... I'm ready to be home :) It was my niave hope and dream to stay in Europe til sometime in August but having been traveling for 2 months I realize that's just crazy. I had a great time with my mom in Amsterdam but the goodbyes just added to my longing for Texas, so I booked a flight and will be coming back on July 30th.

My homesickness put a stall on any motivation I had to write but after spending a crazy afternoon with 3 guys from Mississippi at the Champs-Elysees (the end point for the Tour de France), I found my motivation.

Amsterdam was not my favorite city in Europe, it's overcrowded with rainy/cold weather and the locals aren't the nicest individuals I've met, however the majority speak english so it's easy to communicate. My mom and I took a day trip to Rotterdam to see the Red Bull Air Race (a competition in which pilots must manuever in between tall bouys over the river). Rotterdam is quite different from Amsterdam with its tall and modern buildings but the rainy cold weather was just the same as in Amsterdam. Fromers guidebook recommended to rent bikes and ride out to Haarlem (a town about 12km norht of Amsterdam); it was described as a "scenic ride past dikes and windmills." It was far from it! All it was was a path along the train tracks, past industiral plants. We opted for the "scenic" train ride back. The rest of our trip was spent walking around Amsterdam photographing or lying in our hotel room watching Grey's Anatomy.
My mom headed back home as I continued onto Brussels. The EU's (European Union) headquarters are located in Brussels and it's quite evident by the massive numbers of individuals in suites. I didn't do much there, mainly just walked around.

I was slightly hesistant on wheather I would like Paris (where I currently am). I knew it was going to be a huge city with unfriendly people but I have actually loved my time here so far. I arrived midafternoon and made it to my hostel, which is on the outskirts of town and not the easiest place to find but it works. I jumped back on the massive metro system and went back into the city to get some dinner and see some sites. It was the perfect time and I was able to get some great shots fo the Louvre and Notre Dame. I woke up early yesterday in order to get out to the Tour de France. I ended up spending all day on the Champs-Elysees and fullfilled my dream of seeing a stage of the Tour de France. With a day left in Paris I'm doing the tourist thing and getting on a hop on-hop off bus and will cram as many sights in as possible. After that I'll be on my way to Texas.

A Tower, A Colosseum, & A Thousand Years of History

Italy has been amazing, the people are extremely helpful, the cities are beautiful, and the gelato is to die for. I started off in Pisa, where I climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa, spent an evening at a bar on the beach, took a day trip to the Cinque Terre, and ate pizza everyday. I enjoyed watching the countless visitors do the traditional pose of holding up the Tower (to be somewhat different I stood behind all of them and took a picture of everyone posing). And while it's fun to be able to say I've been to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it actually was not that great of a view. The Cinque Terre has been by far my favorite stop in Italy. Myself and a fellow hostelmate (a lone traveler from Sweden) took the 2.5hr train ride from Pisa to Monterosso and spent the next 5hrs hiking from town to town. We lucked out and just so happened to do the hardest towns first cause this hike was no "easy walk in the park!" The view was abosuletly amazing with the brightly colored towns hanging on the sides of the mountains and the clear blue water crashing against the cliffs below... I hope to come back some day and actually stay in one of the towns. Once we finally made it to the last town, Riomaggiore, we treated ourselves to a swim, gelato, and a margarita (sadly the margarita was nothing like the ones back in Texas). The owner of our hostel took a group of us to a beach bar later that night... another scene straight from a movie. The bar/club had tiki torches throughout the sand, huge couches were spreadout under cabana huts, people lounged around on bamboo mats, and to top it off the moon was brightly shining off the ocean. I found it interesting to watch the way Italians interact with each other; it was very clear most do not have a personal bubble and are comfortable with any gender sitting or standing up against them. I've also learned Italian gusy live up to their sleezy stereotype.

I'm currently on my last day in Rome and even though I've been here for 4 nights, there's still so much more for me to see! I ended up spending half a day at the Colosseum with 3 couples from California. They were celebrating their 25th wedding aniversaries with a trip to Italy. They were missing their kids and I was missing my family so they adopted me as their daughter for the day... I had an absolute blast with them!
I also packed in a day trip to Pompeii during my stay here. It was a sureal experience to wander through the small rough roads and know that it was once a bustling city before the volcano destroyed everything. It was also great to wander through areas of it and be the only person on that road, every place I've visited is usually packed with tourist and tour guides. I did have a funny experience... as I was wandering through the ruins, trying to figure out where I was on the map, an older gentleman dressed as a security gaurd/tour guide came up to me and began explaining my surroundings to me in half italian/half english. I just kept smiling and nodding, understanding about a third of what he was saying to me. He then ushers me into one the houses that was baracaded off and explains the different rooms & textures on the walls. I kept asking if it was ok for us to be in there and all he would say was "it's ok, it's ok," I had to laugh when he tried to put the moves on me! I just smiled and walked out of the house... not many people can say they've been hit on in the Pompeii ruins.

I'm hoping to make it to more of the sights tomorrow before I jump on a night train to Amsterdam, where I get to see my mom... WHOOP!!! By the way she was the one that picked to meet in Amsterdam :)

Interlaken: My New Home

I spent most of my 4th of July in Bern, Switzerland... not a bad place to be! I arrived early in the morning, the streets were still quiet and deserted, shopkeepers were slowly getting their stores and cafes ready for the day. While there was no yolding in the streets it was clear I was no longer in Spain and I was now in a traditional Switzerland city. Since it was the July 4th I set out to find the US Embassy in hopes of taking my picture with the American flag. To my dissapointment it was well hidden behind a large steal fence.
Interlaken was a quick train ride from Bern and the most beautiful ride I have taken while being in Europe. I happened to meet 2 girls from the UK while waiting for the ferry to Iseltwald (a small town of a couple hundred, 30mins from Interlaken, set on Lake Brienze) where I was stazing for the next 3 nights. We ended up becoming instant friends and spent most of the next couple of days together. We were slightly thrown when we wlked into our rooms at the hostle to fin the "bunk beds" were actually small pads on the floor seperated by planks of wood (you are literally about a foot away from your neighbor)... needless to say it was an interesting few nights!
The 3 of us took teh ferry into Interlaken the next day in hopes of catching some of the Nissan Outdoor Games. It is a 5 day event in which 5 teams comprised of the top extreme sports athletes and video production crews (including photographers, videographers, editors...) compete to create a 5 minute video of 5 extreme sports (base jumping, rock climbing, mtn biking, hang gliding, and kayaking)... talk about intense shooting and editing!!! We didn't actually get to see any of the extreme sports take place (we went to the wrong area of town), we did watch the many thrillseeking tourist paraglide into the park was ate lunch in.
Later that evening we finally found the main stage of the Outdoor Games, just in time to catch a white German rapper doing his rendition of "I'm Bringin Sexy Back," followed by German rap songs... priceless! After the "amazing" performance the videos that the teams made were showcased to the audience, they were incredible!!! I'm going to try and find a link so everyone can see these videos cause there are no words to describe them, I had chillls the whole time I watched them. I found out later that normally the athletes recieve awards for their performance but due to a horrible accident during the base jumping portion in which the wind turned on one of the guys and threw him in the cliff killing him, the other athletes decided to continue with making the vidoes but opted out of the awards portion.
I fullfilled my thrillseeking by going canyoning the next day (it a combination of repelling, jumping, sliding, and walking your way through canyons)... it was AMAZING!!! I came out with a couple bumps and bruises but nothing to keep me from doing it again.
I'm in Zurich at the moment and (as long as there are no more train strikes) I'll be heading to Pisa, Italy tomorrow.

Guten Tag!

p.s. the computer I am using has different keys for the "z" and "y" so I appologize if some of this is misspelled!

Final Days in Spain

I realized spontaneously going to Morocco is not the safest and smartest decision. I also learned that traveling there alone is quite expensive, there are very few hostels in the different towns and they charge you for all the beds in the room. So, Morocco will have to wait til my next trip :)

Instead I came up with the bright idea to take a train to Granada for the day, walk around Granada for a couple hours, then take the night train to Barcelona... it didn't work out as well as I planned. I arrived into Granada to find a tiny little station under construction which ment there was no place to lock up my bags, so I tightened my bag and started walking into town to find a place to eat. I ended up eating at a fancy cafe (not realizing this until I sat down and saw the menu prices), I ordered what I thought was a ham sandwich but ended up being a basket of bread and a plate of pieces of ham. It ended up being a pretty good "sandwich" but definitely not worth the 11 euros I paid for it. After I had made it through about half my meal I noticed one of the waiters holding what looked like a pig leg, he was tilting in a way that made it look like a tap handle. I thought "what a cool tap handle, it looks so authentic" then I realized it was an actual pigs leg and that was where my lunch had come from... good thing I don't have a weak stomach!
After lunch I was going to try and suck it up and walk around with my pack but just as I left the cafe the sky darkened and I could hear thunder in the distance. Go figure, I haven't seen rain since being in Ireland, but since I'm wandering around with my backpack it decides to rain. Thankfully I made it back to the train station just as is started to pour! I spent the next 6hrs sitting in the train station watching people coming and going and listening to a mix of 90's and Spanish music playing in the small snack bar.

I made it into Barcelona early in the morning and spent the day walking around town. I stopped a the beach to take in everything that was happening: a group of guys was showing off their skills on "a mans jungle gym" (as Tim Taylor would call it), a pair of gymnast were trying out their latest moves as people cheered on from the boardwalk, a team of lifeguards were rescuing a swimmer, and of course the women laid about topless... just another day at the beach.
I found a fruit and meat market off the main street and loaded up on fresh fruit, I don't think I've ever tasted fruit this good, too bad I can't take any back to the States with me! I also found a "Pita House" restaurant (for anyone who doesn't know I live at Pita Pit in College Station), I stopped in for lunch today. While it wasn't the same as Pita Pit, is was actually one of the best meals I've had since I left the States!!!

I'm catching the night train tonight for Bern, Switzerland and will be spending the next several days in Switzerland... may be try some hang gliding or some other extreme sport :)

Goal!!!

It just so happened I timed my trip in Spain just right! On my final night in Sevilla, Spain was going head to head with Germany in the championship game of the Euro Cup and was looking to break their 44 year losing streak. As most everyone knows, football is more than just a sport over here, it's more like a religion and I learned very quickly how "religious" the Spanish are with their team. Walking down the street the day of the game all I could see was red and yellow. Everywhere I looked someone or something was sporting the Spanish Flag, there were flags in store windows, draped over peoples backs, hanging out car windows... it was a sea of Spanish flags! On my way to meet some friends to watch the game I ran into groups of "soccer hooligans," fully painted in red and yellow, screaming and yelling as they marched down the streets, tourist were quickly snapping photos as they watched in aw. It was incredible to see how the whole country gets so immersed into the sport, every restaurant and bar had TVs set up, shops closed early... it was if the whole city shut down for this one game!
Sadly I never made it to the bar to watch the game, stupidly I didn't drink enough water that day and got heat exhaustion (kind of sad a Texan can't handle the heat in Spain) so I spent the evening in bed trying to recuperate. It was fun to hear the game unfolding as I laid in bed, I could hear when Spain scored and I new exactly when they won... the whole city went in an uproar. People were running up and down the streets yelling at the top of their lungs, there was continuous honking well past 2am... it was total ciaos!

Lagos, Portugal

I spent 2 nights in Lagos, another small beach town on the southern shore of Portugal. It reminded me a lot of Port A. (in Texas), it´s where all the Portuguese go for summer "holiday." The hostel I stayed at was great, we would all go out to dinner every night at 7:30 to the local hot spots. Apparantly chicken piri piri is a local favorite but I never got the chance to try it, hopefully I´ll be able to make it back here.
The train ride into Lagos was one of the more interesting train rides I´ve had on this trip. I had some smelly guy trying to hit on me and kept motioning for me to lay my head into his lap... I finally got up and just stood at the back (it was a packed train so there was no other seats). Unfortunatley there was no direct train to Lagos so I had to change trains in Tunes, Portugal. From the looks of things, trains coming through town where the excitement of the day. All the older locals were just sitting on the benches sipping on beers and watching the crazy travelers wait for their next train.
I spent most of my time in Lagos at the beach or in the hostel trying to escape the intense heat of Protugal. But I couldn´t leave Portugal without trying some crazy sport so I went sea kayaking along the coast. I had a blast, we went into caves and along the cliffs. I´ve been kayaking before but it was nothing like this... I´d do it again in a heart beat though!
I´ll be spending the next couple of days in Sevilla, Spain then I´m heading south to Morocco. This trip is about me testing myself and stepping out of my comfort zone... going to Morocco will definitely be a test for me!

El Banco!!!

I am actually now back in Spain. Portugal flew by so quickly that I never had time to sit down and write about it. Cascais was a great town. The hostel I stayed at was about 20mins outside of town, tucked away in a small village on the side of the mountain with a great view of the Atlantic ocean. It had once been a house that was recently converted into a hostel. This was probably the nicest place I`ve stayed at; 2 kitchens, 4 huge bedrooms, laundry room, bar-b-q pit, outside shower with an amazing view, plasma tv´s, patios overlooking the ocean and moutains... and I only had to share this with one other traveler. George, the manager of the hostel, was incredibly nice and made me feel right at home (which is kind of hard when your thousands of miles from your real home). It was a nice break from the constant begging and smell of urine that was everywhere in Lisbon.
George, Bill (a fellow traveler from Canada), and I spent the afternoon sitting around talking on the back porch... the sun doesn´t really set until about 10:30 which can really throw you off if you`re not used to it! Later, Bill and I ventured out to find and ATM and to show you how removed from everything we were the directions to the town with the ATM went something like this: follow the cobble stone road along the creak til you see a dirt road on your right, follow the dirt road up around the hill and you´ll come into a small town with a bank. Well, we never made it to the bank and aftter and intense conversation with a local guard about where the "el banco" is, we gave up and went back to the house. Thankfully there was a small "grocery store" (it´s a single room with a couple shelves of food) near by, so we got pasta and sauce and made some spagetti and spent the rest of the night sitting around watching movies.
We took the bus into town the next day to get beach towels and swimsuit. I love the layed back feel in Cascais, everyone walks around in swimsuits and beachwear. Our bus trip back to the house was pretty interesting when the bus driver wouldn´t sell us a ticket. He kept talking to us in Portuguese, we gave up and waited for another bus. The next driver tried to do the same thing but we assured him that we were on the right bus and we knew where we were going.
I spent the next day and half relaxling around the house, watching movies, snacking on Frosted Flakes, and walking the beach (unfortunately it was too windy to surf)... it was a great 3 days!!!
I knew I was back in Lisbon when I got off the train was immediately hit with the small of urine. As I sat in the train station waiting for my train to Lagos, the constant begging began again, one guy even called my several vulgar names in English and Portuguese when I refused to give him anything. I will definitely not miss this when I leave!