A Few Days at a Time

That's how I have been working things since I left Paris. For Barcelona I had booked 3 days at a hostel without really much of an idea what I was going to do. My original plan actually called for me to head north to Amsterdam. However, I decided I was getting tired of the cold and it was only going to get worse with time and going north. So, off to Spain I went. Within the few days I ended up spending a lot of time with people from as far away as Brazil or India and from as close as Ohio or even Long Island. I had an excellent time there. The weather was warmer and the prices were lower, and I could understand the language a bit. Barcelona is a beautiful city with some very interesting architecture (Gaudi) and some very fun streets (Las Ramblas). Barcelona is basically like one big party. Additionally there are plenty of street performers and plenty of pickpockets. In fact almost half the people I met there were pick-pocketed or were attempted to be. One guy almost had his camera stolen as I was in mid conversation with him, and I didn't even see the guy. Luckily nothing of mine was stolen.

On Sunday night I decided to leave Barcelona for Madrid with a couple of the guys I met. One of them, Julio, studied there for a semester and speaks fluent Spanish, so I figured he would be a good guide. Plus he is also from Long Island and we have a lot in common. To save both money and time we took an overnight bus and arrived early Monday morning. My stay here in Madrid has been great. A lot less hectic and touristy than Barcelona. Its more of a city atmosphere here. A beautiful park, delicious and cheap food, and luckily good weather. Most importantly though, for people who know me... the food.

If you ever happen to find yourself in Madrid and are having some hunger pains and are a bit thirsty, all I can recommend is that you find a small crowded bar called El Tigre. For every drink you order, you are served a plate of food. For example I went with two other people. We all ordered a drink, we were a little extra thirsty so we got the double size beer. This cost us 2.50 each, a fair and maybe even cheap price for a bar. However, with that order we were also served one plate of Paella, one plate with potato's with the most delicious homemade sauce I have ever had, and one huge plate of Tapas. In fact after maybe two orders of drinks yesterday afternoon I was so stuffed that I am still full right now, the next morning. Or perhaps your not thirsty and you just want to see the Spanish obsession with jamon (ham). You should definitely head over to Museo del Jamon. There is ham every where. Super super expensive ham and super cheap ham, ham everywhere you look. Hanging from the ceilings are giant legs of ham, which apparently are taken as a very nice gift to give. So our days in Madrid consisted of visiting either El Tigre or Museo del Jamon, or most of the time both. Afterwards maybe we would relax in the beautiful park called Retiro.

The past few days I have been Couchsurfing again. My hostels were very fun and I met some really really good people who I hope to keep in contact with, but some cheap rest time was needed. Actually Julio's cousin came to visit him and she had set up the Couchsurfing, and luckily there was enough room for me to come along. So I spent Christmas and some of Hanukkah with friends in a home type of environment. No presents, except maybe the Swiss chocolate that I shared with everyone. However, we had an excellent lazy time with our hosts. Doing the normal Christmas type of activities, such as watching three movies in a day. Today is my last day in Madrid, I will be departing from my new friends tonight. I booked an overnight bus to Granada, a city everyone here says is a must see. I have two nights booked in a hostel down there. I don't even know where I will be spending the new year yet. I am just moving on to my next few days at a time.

The Paris Roundup

My three weeks in Paris are coming to a close. I have enjoyed the beautiful city very much. The massive collection of the Louvre deserves all the reputation that it has, its wonderful. I visited the best military museum I have ever been to, the Museé d' Armeé. I saw the magnificent Hall of Mirrors where so much history has been made, at Versailles. I saw, luckily for free, the museum of modern art, which only reaffirmed the fact that I mostly dislike modern art. In the city of Paris, I got to explore the old sections and the new sections, the big sections and the small sections, Paris by night (once in a car, once in a boat, and many times walking) and Paris by day, I had so much time that I even got to explore the no tourist sections. My stay in Paris was essentially made up of having plenty of time. Unfortunately, I think I could have had all the time in the world and I still would not have been lucky with the weather. Rain clouds nearly every day and even some snow. I waited patiently for my chance to see the Eiffel Tower. At first I figured in 3 weeks I shall wait for the perfect clear day. As time went on I just thought hell I will go any day its not completely cloudy, and by this week I said I will go the first day it doesn't rain! Well because the only day that ended up having clear weather was also the only day I left Paris (to see Versailles), I was forced to ascend into the clouds... reminds me of Switzerland. Yet even amongst the clouds the tower and the limited view was excellent. I have no regrets about it, just the way it worked out and it was meant to be.

In other news... I read a news article today that said that the Dollar had its biggest ever one day drop in value compared to the Euro. Last week a Euro was worth about $1.26 and last I checked today its now worth about $1.43 for a total difference of .17 cents. Or Since I tend to take out 200 Euro at a time... it will now cost me an additional $34 each time!!!! What was that? how can you help? glad you asked! If you could just go ahead and fix the U.S. economy... that would be great. I hope I am not asking to much!

In brighter news, (figuratively not literally as the weather is supposed to continue to be cloudy) I am heading to Barcelona, Spain tomorrow. Even though up until this point I have technically had a backpack, I have not been really "backpacking" at all. I have gone from one wonderful host to the next. I have had my own room and many delicious meals prepared for me. Now I go on to share a room with perhaps 10-15 other people, and I have to take care of myself. No more of the feeling of being at home. I didn't bother attempting to couchsurf, at least initially, in Spain for two reasons. One being that its the holiday season and I don't think couchsurfing would be an option. But even if that were not the case I still would have avoided it for a little bit. I need to get out of the "home" environment. I need to meet some new people and be a bit more uncomfortable. I need to do some actual "backpacking".

More Pictures

First off, I just want to say THANK YOU for all of the comments and the emails. It really makes me happy to hear from everybody! If you have any questions about anything, always feel free to ask!

I have put up my second set of pictures on facebook. It covers Switzerland and a bit of Paris. For those of you without facebook, you can click on this link to view the pictures http://s405.photobucket.com/albums/pp136/travelingstu/Europe%20Part%202/?albumview=slideshow

I have been spending some time in the so called Latin Quarter of the city. A student section filled with small crowded streets and lots of cheap food! Also there are several very small and very disorganized bookstores selling used English language books for very cheap prices. The books are literally piled everywhere possible. Some of these stores look like they will topple over if too many of the books are removed. However, I was able to sift through and find a couple of cheap books to replace my already finished 700 page book called "The Decline and Fall of the British Empire". One replacement is the 1500 page mega book titled "The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich" (between these two books I think I will have a pretty good idea of how to run an empire and keep it from failing, you know just in case the opportunity ever arises). I also picked up the much easier and shorter 250 page book titled "The Long Walk". It is a true story about a couple of guys who walked a 4000 mile journey from Russia to India in order to escape the Soviet Secret Police. The interesting thing about these books is that they are both the 1960's version of the books even though much newer versions have been printed as recently as 2006.

Everything else is going great. Tomorrow I am most likely going to visit Versailles and hammer out a few peace treaties in good spirit.

Holiday's in Spain

Yesterday I booked my plane ticket from Paris, France to Barcelona, Spain. I will be leaving Thursday, December 18th aboard an EasyJet flight. The plan is, although as you know I have no real plans and anything can change at any moment, to work my way around Spain for Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, and whatever other holidays are being celebrated during this time of the year. I won't divulge the details of my plan, because then where would be the anticipation for my future posts?!

This means however I will now be spending a total of close to three weeks in Paris. When I first told my generous hosts that I would be spending one to two weeks more in Paris than I originally anticipated, they looked at me like I was crazy. Crazy for even thinking that it would not be O.K. and crazy for even thinking that one week in Paris was going to be enough time. So I am becoming a temporary member of Paris. I have mastered the Metro, and even started to get a bit of a grasp of my way around the city. In my first week I have visited more than enough places that would satisfy the average tourist, but luckily I am having the opportunity to experience much more than that! From strolling around the various parks and side streets to spending a night enjoying a few drinks and playing pool with some local people.

My only qualm with this beautiful city has been the endless amount of people trying to get money from me. In Italy there were gypsies and others asking for money, but with generally little harassment. Here there have been multiple times were people have physically grabbed me to try to donate money to them or purchase something from them. It is quite frustrating as I try to walk around the streets, and has therefore lead me to avoid the touristy areas even more! However, this has been on a relatively small scale compared to the general population. Unlike what I have heard from some people, I have found most French people to be very kind and friendly!

According to Google I have been receiving many more views of my blog than I thought I would. Either there are several people constantly clicking to check for updates, or I have some more people reading than I thought. I did learn I have a couple of international readers. So this is a shout out to anyone reading this, I hope I am keeping you entertained enough to continue to do so! I want to thank everyone who has been continually emailing me, and people like my dad, Aubree, my Aunt Carol, and others who have been continually posting in the comments section.

One final request, out of curiosity, I wish to see how many people are actually reading this blog... and of those people how many get this far down in the post.... So if you have the time and are willing to put in the little effort to write a comment in the section below AND/OR send an email to travelingstu@yahoo.com I would greatly appreciate it. It can be anything, thoughts, ideas, criticisms, I want to hear it all and have my curiosity satisfied!

ONE

Thursday, December 4th, was exactly one month since I left New York. It was terrible weather, so to celebrate my one month I went to visit a couple of guys... in their final resting places. I stopped by Jim Morrison and Napoleon and spent the rest of my day visiting the best military museum I have ever been to, Musée de l'Armée.

However, as exciting as visiting a couple of dead guys and learning about all the death and destruction wars cause, I have also decided to make a little list. The list of things I have noticed in the 3 countries (not counting Ireland as my stay was so short) that I have spent time in during the last month... This list will most definitely change as time passes. Additionally this list is completely biased based on my personal views and what I actually got to experience in each country. It is also lacking many things and not really properly done at all, but on that note...

The List:

Italy: Cheapest Country, Smallest Cars, Most stylish people, Best food!, Easiest Language to Understand, Least Organized, Most Unique Culture, Most Interesting History (Tie)

Switzerland: Most Expensive by far, Prettiest Country, Most organized (almost to much so), Least Unique Culture,


France: Biggest Cars, Prettiest City (Paris), Best Wine, Prettiest, but most difficult language to speak and understand, Most Interesting History (Tie), Best Museums

I am sure there is much more, but I just woke up and thats all I can think of right now...


To end though, I would like to share an email my grandpa sent me... It reminds so much of how I sometimes try to communicate with other people while traveling;

I was in Paris in 1945 where my buddies & I wandered to a farm house on the outskirts to pass an hour before the troop train left for Germany. They picked me to ask the farmer how to get back to the train because they knew I had 3 years of high school French. I couldn't remember, so I made all kinds of train sounds instead. When we finally got back, I remembered that train is spelled the same in French as English, but pronounced differently. What an embarrassment. Miss you, Grandpa