6 Weeks - 10 Countries - Tons of Towns and Cities - Priceless Adventure

So, thus ends this epic journey that we did around Europe.  Six weeks is quite a while to be living out of a carryon.  We traveled all over the place, saw a lot of things, met a lot of great people.  We even made a pit stop on the way back through Annapolis to attend a wedding of two really close friends.  What a great experience.  You know something that really struck me while we were venturing around.  It didn’t really matter where we were, the small towns in Ireland, or Prague, or Italy, or Amsterdam, everyone was pretty much the same.  People are very friendly and welcoming as long as you are respectful and welcoming yourself.  It’s funny, no matter where we were, you saw families playing in the parks, kids laughing, young people shuffling off to school, people getting a snack on their lunch break, folks going out to the club with the hopes of not going home alone.  It oddly reminds you of home, but is different enough to make sure you aren’t completely comfortable.  It’s really quite remarkable how similar we all are, yet how different.  

You know what else really struck me, and I’m sure struck Sarah as well.  We went 6 weeks living out of a carryon.  It’s amazing how resourceful you become.  And for the entire 6 week trip, we had about 2 weeks of it planned, the rest we just kind of rolled with it and figured it out as we went.  And only with a few mishaps.  Really, it’s a great way to travel, it leaves you the flexibility to go where you want, and change course if you find something better or more interesting.  

Anyway, enough with the philosophical stuff.  What did I really enjoy the most?  How about the top 5 things that we did over the course of 6 weeks, across 10 countries, and multiple cities, villages and towns? 

5) Barcelona – What an awesome place!  Very fun, and very beautiful.  The people and food are great.  But Italy wasn’t really our cup of tea, but I was really worried that we were getting to the end of our trip and we were just worn out.  Then we showed up to Barcelona and we loved it.  So I guess it speaks for itself. 

4) Edinburgh – I know we had friends here that we stayed with, so that made for a whole different experience.  It was great to see them, but what a cool interesting place.  The history of the city was really fascinating.  Seeing it through the eyes of some locals was fantastic.  Just avoid the deep fried mars bars if at all possible.

3) Munich – I know I know… how can Oktoberfest not be #1??  It was great.  It was such a fun experience and there’s nothing that makes me giggle more than remembering the Germans in their traditional Bavarian dress doing the Macarena.  And the Beer, and the pretzels… WOW!  Awesome!  Great town, and I would love to come back and see it when it’s not completely overrun with drunks, but it sure as hell was a good time.

2) Ireland – I had been to England before.  I was half thinking it would be similar.  But I was drastically wrong.  Yeah, as the lady in the pub in Galway put it, “You don’t come to Ireland for the weather” But the rolling green hills, the people were super friendly.  We had some friends come meet up with us in Dublin.  It also doesn’t hurt that PSU ended up beating UCF for the opening game of the season.  Great place, and it just makes me want to go back to see more of what the Emerald Isle has to offer.  We did so much, and yet there is so much more to see and do. 

And for # 1: Berlin – Odd I know, it’s strange that of all the great places we went Berlin stands out.  Why it was my favorite I can’t quite put my finger on.  I don’t know if it was the way that the history of the place was something that we all lived through.  I don’t know if it was the feeling you get that this city has and will survive anything that is thrown at it.  It gets burned to the ground, bombed to hell, chopped up into pieces and keeps rebuilding bigger and better.  The way that it’s so international without really trying.  It was almost comfortable, to the point of we could actually see ourselves living there.  It’s really strange to feel that way about a city.  There’s such an energy there that you feel like anything is possible.  It’s new and old at the same time.  It’s funny, everyone goes to Paris, or Rome, or London, you don’t ever hear anyone say, “I’m going to Europe to go to Berlin.”  And you know what… I don’t really mind, it’s such a cool place there’s really no reason for everyone to flock there anyway. 

So there it is my favorite places from our trip.  We really wish all of you could have joined us on our adventures.  Hopefully this little video recap will let you feel a little like you were along with us:

Barcelona - Better late than Never!!

Well, here we are… 9 months later.  Unfortunately, I (and Sarah) never finished out the blog from last time.  So, let’s revisit our last leg from our trip, Barcelona.  We’ll start with the trek to Genoa, Christopher Columbus’ birthplace.  We woke up early in the morning in Monterosso, walked our way down to the train and hoped on to head north.  After about a 2 hour train ride, we ended up in the train station in the middle of Genoa.  We had some time to kill so we hit up our last kabob stand that we will see.  We didn’t wander far, but we returned to the train station to get the bus to the airport.  We arrived at the airport, and to our surprise, we’re like 4 hours early for our flight.  I had read the itinerary wrong, thinking the flight left at 6:30, when in reality we only need to be at the airport at 6:30.  So we tried to check in to no avail, we had to return to the desk in 2 hours.  Awesome… where was this time when we were running through Gatwick Airport trying to catch the plane to Amsterdam??  Oh, and you know what made it even better? After an hour or so playing cards and eating airport food, our flight was delayed about two hours, so now we’re in the airport just waiting another 2 hours.  Fun….  Luckily we had half a card deck to entertain ourselves for a while. 

Alright, so now it’s finally come time for us to check in, so we walk over to the desk, and the lady decides to weigh our bags, and they’re over weight.  She won’t let us carry them on.  So now what?  We’ve only got these bags, we aren’t checking anything in, it’s 100 euros to do so.  Well… here we go… pull out all the clothes you can and put them on.  So here we are, the middle of the Genoa airport, pulling out three pairs of pants, six shirts, jackets and everything else we can fit onto our bodies.  Go back to weigh the bags… and we’re under weight, looking like someone from Antarctica in the middle of a hot day in Italy, but we made it through, laughing at each other’s waddle the entire way through security.  They check our bags for weight one more time before we get on the plane and then wedge us into our seats on the cheap flight we booked from Genoa to Barcelona.  Mind you, wedged in is putting it lightly, these seats were close, and the guy in front of me was basically sitting in my lap.  

We land in Barcelona, it’s about 1 AM.  Try to get the train into the city, no dice, it stops running at 11PM.  So cab it is, into the city, exhausted from traveling all day.  Get to our hotel and check in.  Lesson learned, when in Barcelona, the hotels aren’t that expensive so spend a little more, a cheap hotel is just that. Uncomfortable beds, crappy showers, thin walls, etc.

The next morning we walked down stairs to see what our included breakfast was, and it was disgusting, that’s exactly what it was.  So, we left to catch another one of the New Europe walking tours.  That was great.  We learned a lot about the city, Saw the very steps where Christopher Columbus first told the king of Spain of his new found riches in the new world.  We saw the new artsy areas of the city, and ended right near the zoo.  It was really great.  

Something that Sarah still won’t let me live down: Walking around, we keep seeing all these yellow and red stripped flags.  Our tour guide proceeds to tell us that these are the flags of Catalonia.  Apparently she is a big fan of flags, and there is going to be a vote for Catalonian independence.  (How are we always around during these succession votes?) Well, I walked up to her and said, “Don’t worry you’re not weird, I like flags too. But what are all the Catalonian/St george’s cross flags doing around?”  This is the flag of the city of Barcelona.  And to this day, Sarah will still say to me, “I like flags, do you like flags?” in a voice similar to “there’s something about mary” – I like Baseballs.

After the tour we caught the train, which getting around Barcelona was really easy, up to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s most famous work.  A chapel that has been under construction since the 1860’s and is still going.  In fact they just finished closing in the ceiling last May.  Crazy to think, but I guess as far as huge European cathedrals go this is relatively quick.  It’s a beautiful building, very interesting architecture and unbelievably ornate.

We also went to Gaudi’s Park Güell to see his vision of a rich gated community.  It’s pretty cool, look a little like Whoville, but very interesting none the less.  We also went to see one of his famous Apartement buildings that he designed.  We showed up and well, it was being renovated so we at least got to see a printout of what the building looked like.  They covered the scaffolding with a printout of the building.  I guess that’s one way to do it.  That night we had tapas at a very good restaurant and went back to the hotel.  

The next day we woke up and wandered up the street to the market on Las Ramblas, the main street right through the center of town.   The market is fantastic, lots of lovely fruits and vegetables and lots of dead animals.  The ham is to die for, Iberico ham is the best ham in the world, and they serve Iberico “snow cones”.  Very tasty.  

We ventured out to the Olympic village, from the 1992 Olympics.  Funny, we ended up in like 5 Olympic host cities, (London, Berlin, Innsbruk, Munich, Barcelona) and only visited one site of them.  But this one was kind of special, because it’s really the first one that I paid attention to, you know with the Dream Team and all.  So we walked through the Olympic stadium, and the village, saw the torch, it was really pretty neat to walk in those footsteps.  

We went looking to try and get into a restaurant that was suggested to us by a friend from Spain.  Apparently, this restaurant is rather famous, it is run by the guy who started the small plates movement. The place is called Tickets and anyone who is anyone in the restaurant world, knows this place, well anyone but us.  We walked up and asked about a reservation, and the girl looked at us like we had three heads, “When did you book it?  We’re booked up for 3 months.”  Oh, Ooops.  So we went to the bar next door and sat trying to figure out where to go.  While we texted with our Spanish friend back in the states, we were talking to the bartender about where to get a bite to eat.  All along we should have gone into this little dive bar, the bartender works at another place right down the road, that is wide open, and just our luck the owner of the place is sitting at the end of the bar getting a drink before going in for the evening shift.  

We went to dinner with our new found friends and they took care of us, and the food was amazing, and right next to this super expensive swanky place, but way less popular, and probably way better.  The pulpo (octopus) was great!!

After our venture to Barcelona, I was super excited to eventually sometime in the future make a trip back to Spain to see more of the country…