Day 65 March 29th 2009 Valencia, Spain

Today was science museum day! We traveled to the astoundingly modern science buildings of Valencia trying to go through the Aquarium. Unfortunately, the aquarium was closing in 2 hours and walking through requires about 3. So we decided upon the science museum nearby instead. Its called the Ciudad de las Artes y las ciencias and it contains every type of museum and exhibit one could ever want. I particularly enjoyed the science museum and all it’s hands-on activities of science. That night a delicious dinner of seafood paella finished us off and we packed up ready to fly out the next day.

Day 64 March 28th 2009 Valencia, Spain

Today was tour Valencia day. Saw a cool castle, climbed a spiral tower connected to a large church. Just did the super sightseeing deal. The sights were fantastic but even more fun was the evening when Carlos’ friends came over and we all played a game of international kings cup. Now for those lay people out there that haven’t been to college in awhile or are yet to enter, kings cup is a drinking game played with cards fanned out in a circle on a table with a cup in the middle. There are many, many variations to the rules so if mine are different than yours, which they will be, don’t take offense. So each card signifies an activity or game that the person drawing the card has to do. For example: all number 2 cards mean the puller must choose two people to sip on whatever cold beverage may be in their hand at the time. And on it goes: 3 is for me (puller sips), 4 touch the floor, 5 all guys, 6 all chicks, 7 hand to heaven, 8 make a date (you and your date sip), 9 bust a rhyme (puller raps a phrase and others must follow), 10 categories (puller chooses a category of anything and the rest name things in that category), jack is back (person who went before puller sips), queen is questions (this one has tougher to explain rules, consult the internet), king is make a rule to be used for the rest of the game. The reason I give you a quick rundown of the rules is because the hilarity stems from playing with guys who speak good english but are not technical enough to rhyme english words or say different categorical items. So imagine saying, “Yo I caught a fish” and expecting to hear dish or swish and hearing, ”ya then I ate my dinner.” With international kings finished we went over to a birthday party being held for one of Carlos’ friends. A few attempted spanish lessons later and a return for rest.

Day 63 March 27th 2009 Valencia, Spain

Early wake to move our stuff out of the apartment for cleaning. Grabbed a other-worldly kabab and headed off for the brand new Valencia Zoo! Such a beautiful day out, 80 and sunny blue skies. I felt like a preschooler again as we stomped around the zoo checking out all the amazing animals, everything from meerkats to giraffes to rhinos. The monkeys were the best, rolling around with their colored behinds. Big photo opportunity. Zoo adventure concluded, we headed back to hang for awhile at the apartment. That evening we grabbed some dinner and headed over to a park to chill and boteone. Ended up at Cafe Valencia, a loud pub/disco where a company was repping Desperadoes Tequila infused beer, a novel idea to be sure. Got the nightlife fix and back to the apartment for night riposo.

Day 62 March 26th 2009 Madrid, Spain / Valencia, Spain

A bit cramped flight to Madrid then a better jump over to Valencia. Met Gabby at the Valencia airport as she arrived about the same time I did coming from England. The problem was we needed to burn 6 hours at the airport to wait for Ryan and Jess to show up so we could all go into Valencia together. I am pretty good at wasting time now. I’m not sure if its a great skill but when your traveling poor, you trade more time for less money, so I can deal. Ryan and Jess finally arrived and we all took the metro into Valencia. A funny thing happened when we were trying to get out of the station. The Spanish metro works like this: you buy a ticket at a machine, scan it to get to the tracks, get on the train, then scan the ticket again to leave to ensure you didn’t buy the cheapest ticket and ride it for longer. Well us silly non-spanish speaking travelers did not buy the right tickets and thus it was 11pm at night and we could not get out of the metro station because the gates wouldn’t open for our tickets. We must have looked like constipated weiner dogs scrambling around the gates trying to figure out how to get of the darn terminal! Some Spanish transportation official must have taken pity on us because miraculously after 15 minutes of scrambling like this, the gates opened and we all bolted out. Carlos was our gracious host and we stayed at his super nice apartment right in central city Valencia. A good night of sleep was greatly appreciated.

Day 61 March 25th 2009 Galway, Ireland

Jumped on a bus to the Cliffs of Moher this morning to do a little sightseeing in Ireland. First off, the bus driver was certainly satan’s chauffeur because we were trucking along one lane roads with oncoming traffic at 50 miles an hour. I don’t get car sick but this ride almost changed that notion. Did have a chance to take in a lot of the Irish countryside and see the never-ending rock walls that extend in every direction for miles into the haze. The cliffs were amazing with straight razor edge walls dropping downward for 500 feet or more. Made for good pictures typical of Irish postcards. Crazy bus ride back to Galway where the girls left to go back to Dublin. Myself, on the other hand, had not booked a hostel for tonight because I had found a little scheme. My flight from Dublin to Valencia Spain was at 7am the next morning and there was a bus that left Galway at 2am and arrived at Dublin airport at 5am. So I would sleep on the bus, paying only 5euros for the bus and use that as my transport + mobile hostel. But I had to kill some serious time before 2am so I walked over to Kelley’s apartment. If you’re reading this, thanks again Kelley! I did laundry and got to watch english TV after quite a few days of hectic travel. I was also living out of nothing but my travel backpack which I had filled to maximum capacity but just under the weight limit so I could take it on the plane and not pay check bag fees. A rainy walk to the bus station and shaky sleep ensued. A bit groggy I arrived at the Dublin airport and met back up with Courtney and Rebecca as they were traveling to Madrid to stay with their friend there. Ryanair is a great airline if things go smoothly, but if bad things happen, they are really bad. The suitcase that the girls were using for the two of them was 8 kg over the check bag limit allowed by Ryanair and they had to pay 120euros! to put the bag on the plane. Just awful. I once again slipped by with my backpack without paying but only because I was wearing 3 layers of my heaviest clothing.

Day 60 March 24th 2009 Dublin Ireland / Galway, Ireland

Early bus across Ireland today to Galway for a night in the western atlantic town. I love the Irish accent. I tried to talk to every Irish citizen I could and I don’t care what were talking about as long as I can hear the accent. It makes me happy for some reason. Too bad Vermonters don’t have much of an accent...”sigh”. Checked into the Kinlay Galway Hostel where I was sleeping in a 4 bedroom dorm. I had no problems in the 8 bed one back in Dublin and lord it was so cheap to stay like that. After dropping the bags off at the hostel, Court, Bec and I wandered down into the main street of town, which really reminded me of Church St. back in Burlington. Lined with shops and eateries of every sort, street performers playing tunes, just a really fun atmosphere. Well the weather wasn’t great so we ended up just cruising from pub to pub and shop to shop. Drink a Guiness, check out some Ireland T-shirts, go down to the water, go to the pub and drink a Bailey’s, you get the idea. That night I met up with Rice classmate Kelley O’Brien who is studying abroad in Galway this semester. We went to a place called the cellar which has 5euro pitchers of beer on Tuesdays. So a pitcher per person it was. It was interesting to hear a whole new perspective of study abroad in a different country than Italy. Back to the Kinlay house for top bunk sleepin’.

Day 59 March 23rd 2009 Brussels, Belgium / Dublin, Ireland

Sent Katie off on the airport shuttle then took a quick self tour of Brussels before my flight left for Dublin. Grabbed a waffle, some Leffe beer, and a meat covered piece of bread. It’s true, Belgian waffles are the best. I also bought some Belgian chocolate from the Leonidas chain store. Tripadvisor.com has been so amazingly useful in finding amazing places in all the cities I’ve been, I highly recommend using it if you are going abroad or even in the US (I think?) Made my way to the airport and jumped on my Ryanair flight for Dublin. The best/worst thing (depending) about Ryanair is there are no assigned seats on your ticket, its just a free-for-all to get to the plane and grab seats. In this way it may seem to the unenthusiastic this a big pain in the butt rush. But to an young traveler like myself who can stand pushing and shoving and a bit of competitiveness and the thrill of the chase, I love the fact that I can get exit row seats every flight without paying a dollar more or needing to be a frequent flier. Katie knows my favorite term for this, the “stick and move” from boxing. I use the legspeed and a bit of freestyle walking to get to where I want to be. So landed in Dublin, checked into the Globetrotters Hostel where I was staying in an 8 bed dorm and grabbed a bite to eat with Courtney and Rebecca who had been in Dublin for 3 days prior to me.

Day 58 March 22nd 2009 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Delicious free breakfast one more time before heading over into inner Amsterdam to find the office of Mike’s Bike Tours. After finding the office we were led over to the bike storage shop on the other side of the street and introduced to our guide, Shaun. Shaun had lived in LA and now resides in Amsterdam giving tours as his full time job. He started us off with a quick history of the Netherlands and Amsterdam including wars, commerce, city-destroying fires and the people of tolerance. Then we were split into two groups because there were so many people there for the tour. Bikes were supplied and we were on our way outside, following Shaun in a 20 person duckling line. It was a bit chilly but perfect weather for a slightly athletic bike ride. We stopped at all different points in the city to chat about waterways, Amsterdam housing, marijuana, the Red Light District, invasion by Germans, Yoko Ono and John Lennon and everything else one could ever want to know about the city. We eventually ended up at a small farm outside the city after seeing a very cool windmill. At the farm we got delicious samples of the cheese the farm produced as well as got to see a quick process of making the wooden clogs that Holland is so famous for. It is very uncommon now to see everyday Amsterdamm’ers in wooden clogs but our farmer tour guide explained to us that a few professions still require the use of the super tough shoe, like farmers to protect their feet from cow hooves. Katie and I both bought a small wheel of cheese from the farm and we headed on our bikes back into the city. Shaun told us about a business in Amsterdam that had been selling nothing but french fries for 60 years so Katie and I went over to check it out. This place was the typical hole in the wall take away eatery but man, their fries were out of this world. I got something called “hawaiian” sauce which tasted a bit like tarter sauce and Katie got the mayo-fries. Both were excellent caloric gut bombs. We picked up our bags from the hotel and headed towards the train station, planning on grabbing the overnight train back to Brussels. That plan was not going to work so well considering there was no overnight train back to Brussels. So we instead took the 9pm train getting into Brussels at 11:30 and had to stay at a last minute hotel one night so Katie could leave back to Florence the next morning.

Day 57 March 21st 2009 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Up around 9am to grab some comp-breakfast and head over to the Vincent Van Gogh museum for a tour of amazing art. The theme was “Stars and Nighttime” with the main feature piece of course being “Starry Night” by Van Gogh. A free audio listener was included so Katie and I perused leisurely through the exhibits, getting the info on each one. I’m not much of an art guy but seeing the comparisons between all the works on the subject of night was really fascinating. Potato Eaters in particular captivated my attention for quite a while. Van Gogh tour completed, we decided we really wanted some straight American lunch food. Off to Hard Rock cafe it was. Overpriced, of course, but still hit the spot. Pulled pork sandwich for me and a big burger for Katie, plus two Heineken of course. Back to the hotel to watch German television and rest for a little bit. Dinner at the Satellite bar to watch ‘Nova basketball in the NCAA tourney.

Day 56 March 20th 2009 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Katie and I went down to a delicious breakfast served free with the room then proceeded out onto the streets of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is like a combination of Burlington Vermont/ Venice Italy and maybe Paris or some funky eclectic jazz bar. It really is a city unlike any other. Katie wanted to find a pair of retro sneakers in one of the many many shoe shops that abounded on every street. If everyone in Amsterdam suddenly lost their shoes magically one day, everyone in the city could be refitted with a new pair within an hour tops, that’s how many shoe shops there are in Amsterdam. Eventually we ended up at our first tourist destination, the Heineken Experience Brewery. Because I had done some coupon clipping we got in with a discount and got a green rubber Heineken bracelet to boot. By the time Katie and I got out of the museum, all we could think or drink was Heineken beer. Forget television advertising, buy everyone a plane ticket to Amsterdam for a tour of the brewery and the world will drink nothing but Heineken! Great beer, lots of fun seeing the history of the company; all around a ticket to liquid happiness. We left in a state of slight euphoria a proceeded to have a delicious lunch of hamburgers and mayo-fries. Lunch was cheap and right after we stumbled upon the famous I AMsterdam sign/sculpture right at the top of the Vondelpark. Many pictures were taken. Some more wandering, checked out a dolphin-themed store, dinner was good although a little on the sweet side and a restful night of sleep.

Day 55 March 19th 2009 En route to Brussels, Belgium then Amsterdam, Netherlands

Very early flight today from Ciampino airport to Brussels Charleroi airport. Katie was arriving 3 hours after me in Brussels so I had some time to burn until she arrived. I ended up finding a grassy spot outside the airport in the sun and took a nice nap against my backpack. I thought about asking to test drive some of the rental cars as a way to spend some of the time but decided against that. Did I mention that Brussels is French? Or they speak French at least. But I wasn’t expecting that, come to think of it I’m not sure what I expected in Belgium except waffles. So Katie arrived and we caught a train onwards to Amsterdam which ended up being quite humorous and a bit worrisome because we couldn’t figure out for the life of us whether we needed to change trains somewhere to get to Amsterdam or just stay on the train we were on all the way there. The conductor of the train didn’t seem to know either because one voice came on saying there was a change needed then 5 minutes later another voice came on and said this train is direct to Amsterdam. So we just literally hung on to our seats and hoped when the train stopped we would be in Amsterdam. Well we did have to switch trains eventually and finally made it to Amsterdam Centraal Station (2 a’s in Dutch). We jumped a cabbie and made it to the Hotel de Paris, a fine 3 star hotel establishment right next to the hub of Amsterdam, Leidseplein Square. We hopped over for dinner at the Satellite Bar and Grill where the TV screens are endlessly playing all sorts of sports from Irish rugby to the NCAA March Madness which I appreciated greatly as the Nova Wildcats were making a run to the final four. A burger and Heineken later and it was travel weary sleep time.

Days 52 - 54 March 16th- 18th 2009 Rome, Italy

Strong concentration required these three days to hammer out 5 midterms. I actually like when midterms are packed closely together because then I can stay in a study mindset for those days then emerge victorious. If the exams are spaced out too much I tend to wander and not study as much. St. Patty’s day interrupted this study mindset on Tuesday shortly. A few Irish carbombs and then back to the notebooks. Wednesday night I packed up my super hiking backpack like Tetris level 35 to make sure I had all that I needed for my upcoming 4 country/ 5 city 11 day Spring Break travel-a-thon.