Vienna
Our day in Vienna was not terribly fun. We arrived about midday – we decided not to get a hotel because we needed to take the night train to Venice. About an hour after being there, I started feeling incredibly sick. I started getting cold sweats and an aching body. I toughed it though because we were only there for a day and we had no where to go. We went and saw the famous cathedral in the main town square, Stephansplatz. We ended up eating at a phenomenal restaurant right on the square. I actually had Beef Stroganoff -- it reminded me of home! :D We also, walked our way to the famous Opera House because of the long running history of Opera in Vienna. After the Opera House, we went to the treasury where we saw all of the famous jewelry, swords, and robes worn by the Kings and Queens of Austria. After that we went to the imperial apartments where the Austrian Royal Families lived. They were ridiculous! Everything is made out of gold, whether it is a baby’s crib, a tablecloth, or a sword case. Once we made our way back to the main square, I really started feeling sick. I ended up heading back to the train station to take a nap before our train left for Venice.
Venice
Still feeling very sick. Pretty upset that I can’t really venture around Venice. Luckily I have been fortunate enough to have already experienced Venice to its full potential during high school. So here I am, lounging in the room, falling in and out of sleep trying to rest up for Milan, Florence, and Rome. Dave headed out about 30 minutes ago and we made plans to go grab dinner together at some point later tonight. Hopefully I will be feeling better. He keeps trying to get me to go on a Gondola ride, but they are 80 euro! I told him, it is definitely cool, but I would just ride the public transportation around the city to have the same effect. We leave for Milan at around 11 AM tomorrow and will be staying at Teddy’s place.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Bratislava, Slovakia
We arrived in Bratislava, Slovakia around 11 AM. This gave us more than enough time to cover the whole city. We checked into our Hostel, the City Hostel on Obrachodno street. This seemed to be a pretty big street since it connects their main city center located in the Old Town. The rain definitely followed us here. All day long we were constantly getting rained on. However, that did not stop us from seeing what Bratislava has to offer.
Once checked in, we decided to go see the main sites here: Old Town, St. Martins Cathedral, Bratislava Castle, and Devlin Castle. St. Martins cathedral was way under construction – it is interesting because here, multiple Austrian kings have been crowned. However, there is a huge billboard plastered on the side of the cathedral for a bank in Slovakia – it was pretty bizarre. Bratislava Castle offered a fantastic view of the residential side of Bratislava. Right outside the city there are many parks and forests, which looked incredibly nice. Our next destination was Devlin Castle. We had to take a 30 minute bus out to the castle, however we were able to see views of all of Bratislava, as well as trek around a castle. It was definitely worth the visit. We also visited Old Town, which had a nice little square like many other European cities.
Apparently hockey is a huge deal here and they are hosting the World Championships starting in 3 days! We were bummed because we saw this and immediately said we should go to a game since it would be a cool thing to do at night. Sadly, there were no games but there were a bunch of cool statues of hockey players up. I made sure to snap a photo in “hockey position.”
We are off to Veinna tomorrow at round 9:30 and slated to get in around 11. I wasn’t able to connect to the Internet in Bratislava and is doubtful I will in Veinna. We plan on not getting a hotel for Veinna, and taking the night train from there to Venice.
Once checked in, we decided to go see the main sites here: Old Town, St. Martins Cathedral, Bratislava Castle, and Devlin Castle. St. Martins cathedral was way under construction – it is interesting because here, multiple Austrian kings have been crowned. However, there is a huge billboard plastered on the side of the cathedral for a bank in Slovakia – it was pretty bizarre. Bratislava Castle offered a fantastic view of the residential side of Bratislava. Right outside the city there are many parks and forests, which looked incredibly nice. Our next destination was Devlin Castle. We had to take a 30 minute bus out to the castle, however we were able to see views of all of Bratislava, as well as trek around a castle. It was definitely worth the visit. We also visited Old Town, which had a nice little square like many other European cities.
Apparently hockey is a huge deal here and they are hosting the World Championships starting in 3 days! We were bummed because we saw this and immediately said we should go to a game since it would be a cool thing to do at night. Sadly, there were no games but there were a bunch of cool statues of hockey players up. I made sure to snap a photo in “hockey position.”
We are off to Veinna tomorrow at round 9:30 and slated to get in around 11. I wasn’t able to connect to the Internet in Bratislava and is doubtful I will in Veinna. We plan on not getting a hotel for Veinna, and taking the night train from there to Venice.
Budapest
We finally arrived at around 830 in the morning on Monday. The night train wasn’t too bad; we had a whole cabin to ourselves so I was able to sprawl out on 3 chairs. When we got in it was pretty overcast and of course, it started to rain so we had limited options. We decided a bus tour would be the best. We hopped on the bus and saw all of Budapest’s main sites like: St. Stephens Basilica, The Royal Palace and Castle, Fisherman’s Bastion, the Danube bridge, Heroes Square, and the Parliament. Heroes Square was really cool; it was a gigantic square commemorating all of the people who have helped get Hungary to where they are today. The Royal Palace and Castle was also incredible. We were able to get views of all of BudaPest. It definitely would have been more enjoyable in the sun, but we were still able to see and enjoy much of Budapest. Something interesting to note is that Budapest consists of two different cities, Buda and Pest. The Danube River divides the two cities. Buda is on the West and Pest is on the East. Combined it’s pronounced Budapesht, as we learned on our tour.
After our tour it was pouring rain and we decided we needed to find something to do. We looked online and asked the front desk. We decided that going to one of the famous Roman Baths would be a good idea. Baths are one of the main reason tourists apparently go to Budapest. All baths are built around hot springs, and their central part is one or several thermal pools. They are usually complemented with several steam baths and saunas. We went to the Gellert Bathing Spa and it was pretty cool. Of course I didn’t like the fact that they are massive Jacuzzis with a bunch of people, especially old people, hanging out in them. But I toughed it out and swam anyways. It was also pretty funny because they made everyone wear shower caps, so Dave and I were walking around in shower caps for a couple hours. Overall, it was really cool and I enjoyed it. I had never seen anything like this. The architecture surrounding the walls and the fountains that would pour into the tubs were so awesome.
Right now, we are on our way to Bratislava for a day on the town. Tomorrow morning (Wednesday) we will leave to Vienna for the day.
After our tour it was pouring rain and we decided we needed to find something to do. We looked online and asked the front desk. We decided that going to one of the famous Roman Baths would be a good idea. Baths are one of the main reason tourists apparently go to Budapest. All baths are built around hot springs, and their central part is one or several thermal pools. They are usually complemented with several steam baths and saunas. We went to the Gellert Bathing Spa and it was pretty cool. Of course I didn’t like the fact that they are massive Jacuzzis with a bunch of people, especially old people, hanging out in them. But I toughed it out and swam anyways. It was also pretty funny because they made everyone wear shower caps, so Dave and I were walking around in shower caps for a couple hours. Overall, it was really cool and I enjoyed it. I had never seen anything like this. The architecture surrounding the walls and the fountains that would pour into the tubs were so awesome.
Right now, we are on our way to Bratislava for a day on the town. Tomorrow morning (Wednesday) we will leave to Vienna for the day.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Krakow
Krakow, Poland really impressed me. I came in with pretty low expectations considering no one ever really talks up Poland, aside from our friend who we met there, Krys. We got into Krakow around 7:30 PM last Thursday. Immediately, we showered and walked to the Old Town Square. It is one of the largest squares in Europe and it is incredibly cool. Throughout the square are restaurants – cheap too! So we went and ate some Perronis and Polish sausage. The food was incredibly good everywhere we went. I wish we had had this food in Spain! After we ate, we walked around and went to a few bars then called it a night.
Day 2 in Poland we went and saw the Wawel Castle. We woke up, grabbed some breakfast and started hiking to the castle. It was really cool; it is up on a hill and overlooks Krakow. So we went and ventured around that for a while. Hundreds of years ago, they supposedly had a dragon that tortured the people of Krakow for years. Finally, a chemist decided to put acid into a sheep and then lure the dragon into eating the sheep. This worked and he was deemed a hero. So now at the castle, there is the lair that the dragon allegedly lived in. So of course we went and checked it out ;) The rest of our day was spent hanging out in the square, shopping around, and eating great food. It was a beautiful day out and really relaxing. It was nice to slow things down after being on the go for 5 days straight!
Day 3 was by far the most interesting! We took a train to the Auschwitz concentration camp. It was insane, I couldn’t believe I was actually there considering we have learned so much about it in school. It was insane seeing the last remaining gas chambers and crematoriums. It was also crazy seeing the wall where the majority of executions took place. Just thinking about how many people died there is incredibly overwhelming. Auschwitz was just the first camp we saw. We took a shuttle bus over the second concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. You could tell that they knew what they were doing when they built this camp. It was MUCH MUCH bigger and laid out a lot better. The thing is though, not much of this camp actual exists anymore. The majority of buildings are ruins because the Nazis tried to burn everything down and erase the evidence. Pretty much all of the gas chambers and crematoriums are just ruins now. It was still cool to see, and we saw a lot of pictures of how it used to look so we still were able to get a good idea!
On Sunday we were set to depart to Budapest, Hungary. However, because the Eurail timetable messed up, we ended up in Prague again! We were told online, at the ticket counter, and by multiple workers on board that the train EC 110 would be going to Budapest. Us and other people, also headed to Budapest, jumped on the train and ended up in Prague. So we got off, spent a few hours there and grabbed a bite to eat. We ended up catching a night train from Prague to Budapest and arrived at 10 AM on this Monday morning. We are about to head out and see Budapest for the day and head to Bratislava, Slovakia in the morning. Love you all!
Day 2 in Poland we went and saw the Wawel Castle. We woke up, grabbed some breakfast and started hiking to the castle. It was really cool; it is up on a hill and overlooks Krakow. So we went and ventured around that for a while. Hundreds of years ago, they supposedly had a dragon that tortured the people of Krakow for years. Finally, a chemist decided to put acid into a sheep and then lure the dragon into eating the sheep. This worked and he was deemed a hero. So now at the castle, there is the lair that the dragon allegedly lived in. So of course we went and checked it out ;) The rest of our day was spent hanging out in the square, shopping around, and eating great food. It was a beautiful day out and really relaxing. It was nice to slow things down after being on the go for 5 days straight!
Day 3 was by far the most interesting! We took a train to the Auschwitz concentration camp. It was insane, I couldn’t believe I was actually there considering we have learned so much about it in school. It was insane seeing the last remaining gas chambers and crematoriums. It was also crazy seeing the wall where the majority of executions took place. Just thinking about how many people died there is incredibly overwhelming. Auschwitz was just the first camp we saw. We took a shuttle bus over the second concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. You could tell that they knew what they were doing when they built this camp. It was MUCH MUCH bigger and laid out a lot better. The thing is though, not much of this camp actual exists anymore. The majority of buildings are ruins because the Nazis tried to burn everything down and erase the evidence. Pretty much all of the gas chambers and crematoriums are just ruins now. It was still cool to see, and we saw a lot of pictures of how it used to look so we still were able to get a good idea!
On Sunday we were set to depart to Budapest, Hungary. However, because the Eurail timetable messed up, we ended up in Prague again! We were told online, at the ticket counter, and by multiple workers on board that the train EC 110 would be going to Budapest. Us and other people, also headed to Budapest, jumped on the train and ended up in Prague. So we got off, spent a few hours there and grabbed a bite to eat. We ended up catching a night train from Prague to Budapest and arrived at 10 AM on this Monday morning. We are about to head out and see Budapest for the day and head to Bratislava, Slovakia in the morning. Love you all!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Prague
So we got into Prague Tuesday morning at around 9:30. We ended up hoping on a train at 4:15 AM from Berlin so we would be able to get in earlier to Prague. Our hotel was called Breniza Pension and it was a total eastern European hotel – incredibly small, no air conditioning, makeshift elevator, etc… But what else can you expect for such a great deal we got for it! We were about a 20 minute walk from Old Town Square, which is basically the center of their city. It has a huge church and an astronomical clock created hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The clock can tell the current time, as well as when the sun will rise and set. Every hour a guy at the top of the church will play a little tune, it’s really cool and peaceful.
We were able to meet up with Nick and he showed us pretty much all of Prague. The first thing we did was check out the Jewish Quarter. This is where they stuck all the Jews and forced them to live (seems like a typical trend in Europe). Everything was closed though in the quarter for Passover, so we just walked around. Next, we crossed the famous Charles Bridge. It’s really similar to La Rambla in Barcelona. There are a ton shops in tents and artists on the bridge. Once we crossed the bridge, we went and checked out Nick’s school and the John Lennon wall. The Lennon wall was a pretty big let down; I was expecting much more. It is supposed to be a wall dedicated to Lennon for his musical work against communism. However, people have really butchered the wall because you are able to spray paint whatever you want on there. Dave decided to lean up against the wall and ended up with some nice fresh yellow paint on his back. After the Lennon wall , we went to the Castle, which overlooks all of Prague and is home of St. Georges Basilica. It was a beautiful view and the walk to get there was just as beautiful. We walked through a bunch of gardens and parks to get there.
The weather was insanely nice, we got there at the perfect time! Yesterday, we rented a paddle boat and cruised around a good portion of Prague. It was a great time and probably the highlight of the trip – it was so relaxing and fun.
Our next stop is Krakow, Poland. We are going to be meeting our friend Krys, who is from Warsaw. It should be a lot of fun considering he speaks the language and knows the city. We plan on going to Auschwitz and checking out some of the Cultural Heritage Sites that are in Krakow.
We were able to meet up with Nick and he showed us pretty much all of Prague. The first thing we did was check out the Jewish Quarter. This is where they stuck all the Jews and forced them to live (seems like a typical trend in Europe). Everything was closed though in the quarter for Passover, so we just walked around. Next, we crossed the famous Charles Bridge. It’s really similar to La Rambla in Barcelona. There are a ton shops in tents and artists on the bridge. Once we crossed the bridge, we went and checked out Nick’s school and the John Lennon wall. The Lennon wall was a pretty big let down; I was expecting much more. It is supposed to be a wall dedicated to Lennon for his musical work against communism. However, people have really butchered the wall because you are able to spray paint whatever you want on there. Dave decided to lean up against the wall and ended up with some nice fresh yellow paint on his back. After the Lennon wall , we went to the Castle, which overlooks all of Prague and is home of St. Georges Basilica. It was a beautiful view and the walk to get there was just as beautiful. We walked through a bunch of gardens and parks to get there.
The weather was insanely nice, we got there at the perfect time! Yesterday, we rented a paddle boat and cruised around a good portion of Prague. It was a great time and probably the highlight of the trip – it was so relaxing and fun.
Our next stop is Krakow, Poland. We are going to be meeting our friend Krys, who is from Warsaw. It should be a lot of fun considering he speaks the language and knows the city. We plan on going to Auschwitz and checking out some of the Cultural Heritage Sites that are in Krakow.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Berlin
Dave and I made it to Berlin yesterday safe and sound. I don't have much time so I'll give the highlights.
We took it easy yesterday and hung around where we are staying in Warchauser Strasse. The hostel is pretty awesome, it's called Plus Berlin. As for today we rented bikes and rode around all of Berlin from 10 am to 7 pm. We did all of the following today:
The wall
The wall museum
Pariser Platz -- a big square
The TV tower
A bunch of cool parks that we rode through
Holocaust Monument designed by the same person who is redesigning the world trade center
Victory Monument
Parliament building
Just a whole bunch of cool things and a really nice city. Renting bikes was key, we were able to see literally the whole city in a day. We are either going to leave for Prague tonight or early tomorrow morning.
We took it easy yesterday and hung around where we are staying in Warchauser Strasse. The hostel is pretty awesome, it's called Plus Berlin. As for today we rented bikes and rode around all of Berlin from 10 am to 7 pm. We did all of the following today:
The wall
The wall museum
Pariser Platz -- a big square
The TV tower
A bunch of cool parks that we rode through
Holocaust Monument designed by the same person who is redesigning the world trade center
Victory Monument
Parliament building
Just a whole bunch of cool things and a really nice city. Renting bikes was key, we were able to see literally the whole city in a day. We are either going to leave for Prague tonight or early tomorrow morning.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Awesome weekend in Barcelona!
Last Thursday, I went to the aquarium and it was pretty cool. I wasn't overly impressed, but it was still worth it just to get out and do something for the day. I had a good time, especially in their famous aquarium tunnel. You step onto a conveyor belt surrounded by the tank, so sharks, fish, and stingrays are all literally right in your face. At one point, I was a good 6 inches beneath a shark -- it was pretty freaky but definitely cool!
This weekend we really took advantage of the beautiful weather and hung out at the beach all day Friday and Saturday. Also played a good amount of cards and ping pong in the park. The parks here are incredibly nice and well kept. I think our favorite one is Ciutadella, which is right next to our school. There is a Zoo and Nick was in town again so it was cool to see him. We ended up going to Montjuich to catch the sunset which was a nice little hike up the mountain.
As for today, we have been working on our papers that are due tomorrow. I am pretty much finished up with mine. I just need to put the final touches on that and the powerpoint presentation I have to give. Can't remember if i mentioned it, but the project is on the Design museum I went to a couple weeks ago. Then on Wednesday I have a presentation on another Museum. Then the following Monday, I have 3 finals, but they should be pretty easy. After that, I am done for the semester!
This weekend we really took advantage of the beautiful weather and hung out at the beach all day Friday and Saturday. Also played a good amount of cards and ping pong in the park. The parks here are incredibly nice and well kept. I think our favorite one is Ciutadella, which is right next to our school. There is a Zoo and Nick was in town again so it was cool to see him. We ended up going to Montjuich to catch the sunset which was a nice little hike up the mountain.
As for today, we have been working on our papers that are due tomorrow. I am pretty much finished up with mine. I just need to put the final touches on that and the powerpoint presentation I have to give. Can't remember if i mentioned it, but the project is on the Design museum I went to a couple weeks ago. Then on Wednesday I have a presentation on another Museum. Then the following Monday, I have 3 finals, but they should be pretty easy. After that, I am done for the semester!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Beautiful day
Great day today in the middle 60s. We ended up taking our paddles to class and heading to the park right after our 11 am lecture. We got a few games in and headed to the beloved Jaume I stop to grab some bagels before class.
As I am typing, I am watching the opening ceremonies of the barcelona 1992 olympics for the 2nd time today.
As I am typing, I am watching the opening ceremonies of the barcelona 1992 olympics for the 2nd time today.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Museums
The last week has been extremely busy! I had a final in my International Strategic Management class and it went very well. I am incredibly happy to have that class over with since it was so late in the evening on Monday and Wednesday.
During the week I went to quite a few museums.Last Tuesday I went to the CosmoCaixa science museum. We have to write up a marketing proposal for any cultural attraction so we figured it'd be a good idea to pick one in Barcelona and check it out. It's pretty funny, the Spaniards really talk up this museum, but honestly wasn't that great. They had a pretty cool Dinosaurs and evolution section, a physics area, a sea tank with cat fish and turtles, and lastly they have a section for how the human brain works.
Like I said the museum was ok. They had english write ups for each station so were able to get the whole feel for the museum. There just wasn't that many interactive learning experiences like there is at the science museum in Arizona. There were so many little kids on here too; I felt the museum could have done a lot better job creating hands on learning games.
The next museum I went to was for my Past and Present class. I basically just have to give a report on a museum, so I ended up choosing the Design museum. A little gay sounding at first, however I was really interested in checking out the 3d printed objects and their lab where the 3d architecture and printing occurs. Needless to say, the exhibit was really cool and I was able to watch how these things are made and designed. Being American and "clueless" can get you into a lot of places because Spaniards just think we don't know any better. So I wondered past the ropes and into their lab and at one point was behind a guy designing an action figure that will be printed in 3D. He spoke a little english and obviously said I wasn't supposed to be back here, but I told him how interesting I thought it was and he actually walked me through the basic process, which was awesome!
The other exhibits there were kind of lame, one was a room that had a bunch of fashion tips on what to wear in the 1970s or some crap. The next one was somewhat interesting, just because the idea behind it was so out there. It was a save the environment exhibition. I'll sum it up with one idea that was in the exhibit: Basically, this person wanted to put cows onto a pasteurized ship and they will travel around our earth in the sky freeing our lands from them...Ridiculous
The next place we went was CaixaForum for my class Marketing Cultural Heritage. It had pretty dull exhibitions. One was an art museum filled with famous communists and kind of told a story about the history of communism. The other exhibition was really interesting though. It was a combination of documentary interviews turned into movies. It was crazy to see the production from square 1. They tied in every interview into the movie in someway. It really made you think and I liked that -- it was a big change of pace from the communist art exhibition.
As for the weekend, we enjoyed a lot of sunny days at the beach and a significant amount of ping pong. Having a beautiful park and an endless amount of tables less than 10 minutes away is incredibly nice. You all would be proud of how often I go out and do things here!
During the week I went to quite a few museums.Last Tuesday I went to the CosmoCaixa science museum. We have to write up a marketing proposal for any cultural attraction so we figured it'd be a good idea to pick one in Barcelona and check it out. It's pretty funny, the Spaniards really talk up this museum, but honestly wasn't that great. They had a pretty cool Dinosaurs and evolution section, a physics area, a sea tank with cat fish and turtles, and lastly they have a section for how the human brain works.
Like I said the museum was ok. They had english write ups for each station so were able to get the whole feel for the museum. There just wasn't that many interactive learning experiences like there is at the science museum in Arizona. There were so many little kids on here too; I felt the museum could have done a lot better job creating hands on learning games.
The next museum I went to was for my Past and Present class. I basically just have to give a report on a museum, so I ended up choosing the Design museum. A little gay sounding at first, however I was really interested in checking out the 3d printed objects and their lab where the 3d architecture and printing occurs. Needless to say, the exhibit was really cool and I was able to watch how these things are made and designed. Being American and "clueless" can get you into a lot of places because Spaniards just think we don't know any better. So I wondered past the ropes and into their lab and at one point was behind a guy designing an action figure that will be printed in 3D. He spoke a little english and obviously said I wasn't supposed to be back here, but I told him how interesting I thought it was and he actually walked me through the basic process, which was awesome!
The other exhibits there were kind of lame, one was a room that had a bunch of fashion tips on what to wear in the 1970s or some crap. The next one was somewhat interesting, just because the idea behind it was so out there. It was a save the environment exhibition. I'll sum it up with one idea that was in the exhibit: Basically, this person wanted to put cows onto a pasteurized ship and they will travel around our earth in the sky freeing our lands from them...Ridiculous
The next place we went was CaixaForum for my class Marketing Cultural Heritage. It had pretty dull exhibitions. One was an art museum filled with famous communists and kind of told a story about the history of communism. The other exhibition was really interesting though. It was a combination of documentary interviews turned into movies. It was crazy to see the production from square 1. They tied in every interview into the movie in someway. It really made you think and I liked that -- it was a big change of pace from the communist art exhibition.
As for the weekend, we enjoyed a lot of sunny days at the beach and a significant amount of ping pong. Having a beautiful park and an endless amount of tables less than 10 minutes away is incredibly nice. You all would be proud of how often I go out and do things here!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
The weekend
Very relaxed weekend; I have just been enjoying the sun of Barcelona. On Friday and Saturday we went and hung out at the beach the majority of the day. After the beach, we went and played some ping pong at the nearby park tables. Today I am planning on going to the Design museum -- which has full 3d printed objects -- so it should be pretty interesting!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Montjuich
It was an incredibly nice day yesterday so we headed to another Mountain to check it out. We have now successfully gone to the 3 largest mountains in Spain. This one is called MontJuich. It is beautiful mountain that has a big park leading up the mountain and then at the very top there is a castle. So we went and walked through the castle then hung out in the park for a little bit.
It was really cool because we were able to take a Gondola up to the top of the mountain and see the beautiful views. It was a really quick ride -- I really wish it would have been longer or lasted longer since the view was so nice.
I also picked up some ping pong paddles and balls yesterday. We wanted to hit the courts at the park near us but it is pretty rainy today so we will have to wait for another day.
Sitting in class right now learning about the past and present of Barcelona. Good times!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
London
Day 1
I got in about middle of the day and took a tram from London City airport to Russell Square, which was where our hostel was located. I checked in threw my stuff down and immediately started walking around the city. Getting hungry, I stopped in at a burrito place called Adobe since I hadn't had a decent burrito in forever. This place was incredibly good. It started getting later so I went back to the hostel to find Dave who should be at the hostel. I meet up with Dave and we go out grab some food and head to the pubs.
Later that night arriving back at the hostel around 2. Our room was an 18 person room mind you. We walk into our room to lay down, music is blasting from some kids bunk. Other kids are up chatting, lights are on. We decide that no way we would be able to sleep and be able to see the city. We immediately check out and cancel our reservations for the rest of the upcoming nights. Across the street we find a hotel at almost the same price for the night.
Day 2
We checkout of the Lionsdale hotel and head out for a good English breakfast. We landed at Fullers Pub, since others had said they have good food. Each of us order this breakfast pie -- it was absolutely horrible. The only decent thing was "the chips" aka huge potato style french fries.
Since we didn't have a hotel for the next nights, we walked around Russell Square asking for all the prices. We roam around for a good hour and can't find anything. We finally stumble upon The Beaumont Hotel. It looked pretty nice we but took our chances. Fortunately for us, they were able to cut us a deal and were able to book an nice room for the remainder of our trip, as well as complimentary breakfast.
Next, we saw the London Eye -- this is basically a big enclosed ferris wheel right on the water that overlooks all of London. It took about 20-25 minutes to go on and was completely worth it we got some great pictures from up there.
After that we hunted down the only Chipotle in Europe. It was probably one of the best meals I have had while abroad.
The rest of the day we walked around and got acquainted with the city -- making stops at Big Ben, Parliament, and St. Paul's Cathedral.
Day 3
Today was changing of the guards. So we went to Buckingham Palace to see it take place. We had decent seating for it and were able to actually march behind the guards for a little -- it reminded me a lot of the Wisconsin marching band marching to the Humanities building. After they changed, they started playing movie classics like 007 and Star Wars on their instruments.
We then went to Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. The Tower of London was pretty weird since so many people have been beheaded there. A funny note about the Tower Bridge, apparently many get it confused with the London Bridge. There are actually 2 London Bridges. The one in London, is right across from the Tower Bridge, and the other one is located in Lake Havasu, Arizona.
Next, we went to Harrods which is a gigantic store with literally anything you could ever buy. Everything from clothes, to sports, dogs, art, furniture, food, and much more. It was pretty crazy walking around there. While we were there we had some of the best milkshakes known to man.
Day 4
We went and checked out the National Museum, which was incredibly interesting since they had so many artifacts from many different cultures. After that we went on a bus tour the rest of the day and got off at a lot of stops to take pictures and warm up. It was pretty cold, but we toughed it out and sat on top. The bus tour was awesome -- it took us literally everywhere we would want to see, as well as some good information behind everything. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Day 5
Woke up and headed to the airport for my flight home.
Overall, London was great and definitely one of the better cities I have gone too. One complaint I have is there Metro system or "underground" as they call it. It is way too small and takes so much time to get onto each train. Not to mention it is about $3.50 per ride, which is incredibly expensive, just like the rest of the city. Another last thought, is that I really didn't feel like I was in America at all like I thought I would have. Many people living there do not speak english, nor were english. I was pretty surprised about this.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
London
After I finish these midterms I will be heading to London for the week. We have Friday and Monday off from school due to some Carnival like an hour away from Barcelona. We thought it'd be a good idea to travel during this time. Looking forward to seeing London, it is a place I have always wanted to go, but haven't been to.
School and Amsterdam
Sorry guys! I have been very busy studying for midterms. I had one last Thursday for International Strategic Management -- it was pretty tough. I then had 4 midterms today! I have taken 3 so far and all have went pretty well. I am waiting to take my last one which is in 2 hours, but should be pretty easy.
Anyways, Amsterdam was incredible. I was not expecting what we saw. I was expecting a more run down city. Possibly because everything is legal there, so I was expecting it to be shady, but it wasn't at all -- actually the exact opposite.
Amsterdam looks a lot like it is right out of a movie. Every street I turned on to I felt like I was walking straight through Hollywood. It is incredibly beautiful, especially when you walk over the canals. What was crazy about Amsterdam is that everyone rides bikes -- it is the most biked place in the world. We almost got ran over quite a few times, but by Saturday we were good to go and understood it was actually necessary to respect bikers.
We went February 18-20th -- ended up staying at a nice hotel located in the Leidseplein district. This was right in the middle of where we wanted to be. The Van Gogh museum, "I AM AMSTERDAM" sign, and Heineken factory were all within walking distance (15 min or so). We were conveniently located next to all of the big bars as well.
The Red Light District was unlike anything I have ever seen before. All of these girls were just sitting in the windows awaiting customers. What I found interesting though is that it seems like many of the Dutch people must not demean the profession. The two times we walked down the street there were a ton of children on the street, as well as old couples. The old couples seemed as if they were evaluating each prostitute
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sevilla
This last weekend we took a trip with our school to Sevilla in the South of Spain. My friend Brett is studying abroad there so it was awesome to go there and know what to do and not to do. It is a total college town so everyone is so young it was a good change of pace from barcelona.
On Friday we went to the cathedral, it's the 3rd biggest in the world and were able to see all across the city from the very top. This is where some of Christopher Colombus' remains are buried. I have actually visited it before the first time I was in Spain. Then at night we went to the river and hung out with a bunch of Brett's friends and some of their spanish friends as well.
Saturday we headed to Cordoba for the day. It wasn't anything to special and to be honest, I would have rather spent the day in Sevilla, but what can you do? We went to the Mezquite, which is an incredibly large Mosque.Then we pretty much walked around for a couple hours. Saturday night was pretty fun we got to watch the badgers on the computer upset #1 ohio state at a bar called Phoenix. After that we headed to a popular street for bars and it was a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of Mifflin street Block Party so it was really cool.
Overall, great college town!
On Friday we went to the cathedral, it's the 3rd biggest in the world and were able to see all across the city from the very top. This is where some of Christopher Colombus' remains are buried. I have actually visited it before the first time I was in Spain. Then at night we went to the river and hung out with a bunch of Brett's friends and some of their spanish friends as well.
Saturday we headed to Cordoba for the day. It wasn't anything to special and to be honest, I would have rather spent the day in Sevilla, but what can you do? We went to the Mezquite, which is an incredibly large Mosque.Then we pretty much walked around for a couple hours. Saturday night was pretty fun we got to watch the badgers on the computer upset #1 ohio state at a bar called Phoenix. After that we headed to a popular street for bars and it was a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of Mifflin street Block Party so it was really cool.
Overall, great college town!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Mount Tibidabo
On Sunday we went up to the mountain that overlooks a good amount of Barcelona. It was a fantastic hike and completely worth it to get to the top. Unfortunately we didn't get to see as much of it as we wanted so I think Dave, Mark and I are going to go back so we can hike some of the offroad trails. It's funny, when we were hiking up we saw a good amount of cactus and it reminded of Arizona :)
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Barcelona + Classes
Classes are now in full swing -- like i've told a lot of you I have setup my schedule pretty nicely. I have class for 10 hours a day on Monday and Wednesday, however I have no class on Tuesday, 1 class at night on Thursday, and 1 Friday morning.
My classes are usually 2 hours long and we will take a 15 minute break somewhere in there. Past and Present in Barcelona is so boring, as well as Marketing Cultural Heritage. It feels a lot like high school which kind of sucks. I don't mind Spanish at all or Intentional Marketing. Both are pretty good classes, the professor for International Marketing reminds me a lot of grandpa, older guy who has a bunch of experience and knows literally everything. I think my favorite class is International Strategic Management. It's taught by some dude from Britain or Australia, I don't really know. But he uses a lot of case studies and makes the class incredibly relevant to all business practices.
I am incredibly sick of staying up all night and sleeping during the day -- i feel like such a slob, it is a lifestyle I could never live the rest of my life. I don't get why many Spaniards would rather live their life during the dark, opposed to getting up early and just working straight through the day. Different values on life I suppose. They seem to be very family oriented here. Many students in my classes, who are Spanish, still live with their parents, not because they can't afford to live elsewhere, there is just not much point they say.
Last night we went to something-negra and they literally give you a huge boot of beer and a tap for it. It was a pretty sick place and will definitely be going back there.
My classes are usually 2 hours long and we will take a 15 minute break somewhere in there. Past and Present in Barcelona is so boring, as well as Marketing Cultural Heritage. It feels a lot like high school which kind of sucks. I don't mind Spanish at all or Intentional Marketing. Both are pretty good classes, the professor for International Marketing reminds me a lot of grandpa, older guy who has a bunch of experience and knows literally everything. I think my favorite class is International Strategic Management. It's taught by some dude from Britain or Australia, I don't really know. But he uses a lot of case studies and makes the class incredibly relevant to all business practices.
I am incredibly sick of staying up all night and sleeping during the day -- i feel like such a slob, it is a lifestyle I could never live the rest of my life. I don't get why many Spaniards would rather live their life during the dark, opposed to getting up early and just working straight through the day. Different values on life I suppose. They seem to be very family oriented here. Many students in my classes, who are Spanish, still live with their parents, not because they can't afford to live elsewhere, there is just not much point they say.
Last night we went to something-negra and they literally give you a huge boot of beer and a tap for it. It was a pretty sick place and will definitely be going back there.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Malaga, Marbella, Morocco, Grenada
So this last weekend I was able to check out the south of Spain and Africa. It was a lot of fun! To begin with we flew into Malaga, rented a car and was able to travel freely (one of my friends is from polland and has his drivers license for Europe). We drove from Malaga to Marbella, a beach city in Costa Del Sol. We were gonna hang out there the majority of the weekend, but it wasn't as cool as we expected -- still had pretty nice weather though. We decided to try our luck and go to Africa on Saturday.
We drove to a port city, Algercias, Spain and took a ferry from there to Africa. We arrived at their brand new port and took a taxi into the city of Tanger. It was a cool experience, but I can say we will not be going back any time soon. The people there were only out for themselves and the haggling was beyond ridiculous. I have never been so annoyed of other people in my life before. Guys would come up to you and just not leave you alone. Since it was a dead time during the year we stuck out like even bigger sore thumbs.
On Sunday we decided to drive to Granada, which was about a 2 hour drive from Marbella. We were able to see La Alhombra, which is a Muslim palace. This was my second time there, but it was amazing to see again. We arrived back at around 1 am that night. Unfortunately missed the Packers game but it was good to see that they won! What a shame I am across the pond.
We drove to a port city, Algercias, Spain and took a ferry from there to Africa. We arrived at their brand new port and took a taxi into the city of Tanger. It was a cool experience, but I can say we will not be going back any time soon. The people there were only out for themselves and the haggling was beyond ridiculous. I have never been so annoyed of other people in my life before. Guys would come up to you and just not leave you alone. Since it was a dead time during the year we stuck out like even bigger sore thumbs.
On Sunday we decided to drive to Granada, which was about a 2 hour drive from Marbella. We were able to see La Alhombra, which is a Muslim palace. This was my second time there, but it was amazing to see again. We arrived back at around 1 am that night. Unfortunately missed the Packers game but it was good to see that they won! What a shame I am across the pond.
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