Quickie Post

2 days ago:
Last full day in Barcelona, and it was great. I woke up at 2 in the afternoon, hung out with my Aussie friend. We went out and got the best tappas out there, stuffed our faces and took about 2 hours eating our meal. Then we got amazing ice cream. Then we saw a couple cool sights. Then we got deep fried Churros with chocolate filling inside. Then I picked up a bottle of Cava for me and the hostel friends. We hung out there at the hostel, then I headed out to a local bar to talk to some Spanish people. After almost getting molested by a gay man, I found some cool people to talk with. Came back for more hostel hang out, and went to bed. It was a day of absolutely nothing, and it was so great....so Spain...

1 day ago: Woke up, got on a train came to Valencia. Met two ladies from the USA on the train, they decided to follow me to the hostel I was staying at. We went out for a late dinner, then went out with a group looking for something to do. That did not pan out so well, so it we resorted to drinking games back at the hostel

Today: Took a great tour of the city with a group and guide (Free) Then did the Tappas tour. This is where they take you around to 4 of the best places for Tappas around the city, and you get a drink and Tappa at each place. The last place loaded us with food, included Valencia´s famous Paella. I went into some wicked 1300´s fortress and pretended to be an archer from the high tower (Awesome) Tonight we will do the pub crawl, and tomorrow I will take the earliest train to Madrid. One day there, then I fly home. Wow...

Wowycazowie

Yesterday was my first ¨Real¨ day in Barcelona, and it was great-

1) Found a HUGE food market place and got some great food to eat, including some fresh fruit.
2) As mentioned in a previous comment, got to see the crazy street performers at Las Ramblas
3) Walked around town and saw some of the sights
4) Got a real appreciate for Picasso at his museum.
5) Stopped into a little place from some Tappas and a glass of Sangria
6) More walking around the city
7) Got word of a football game going on that night, and figured I HAD to go. The subway systems were packed out with everyone heading to the stadium. Barcelona 5, other guys 0, can you imagine the excitement?
8) Went out for some night life, met a group of Spaniards that took me out to their favorite bar, and then to the biggest club in Barcelona. This place was insane--4 different levels, tons or rooms, it was a great time. I got in very late, or early depending on how you want to look at it.

Now it´s one more day/night in Barcelona, then off to the next city!

Espana

Update from last time.

Two days ago it was my last full day in Sweden. I went sight seeing with a Russian I met there at the hostel, which was a lot of fun. Hit up just about everything to see in Sweden, then had my allnighter to catch the plane at 6:30 to Barcelona. I arrived in Barcelona, checked into my hostel and had lunch with a friend I met while I was in Sweden. Walked around town, found some food, got lost. Ya...in Barcelona, here is the problem: There are rarely any street signs, and if there are, most likely they have nothing to do with the map in your hands. Once I found the hostel again, it was lights out. I ended up spending my Friday night sleeping, which was most likely a good thing. I awoke, 19 hours later, ready to start my Saturday (Today) I will find some more food, go to some museums, walk around town, and party with some people from the hostel. Today should be a good day!

Sveden

Okay, so here is the 411...



After the blog post, I booked another hostel and made my way there. The entire time I was trying to internalize a movie quote of all things..."To let that which does not matter, truly slide" Name That Movie!



It worked really well...



I calmed down, found my hostel, and took airport girls advice and headed out to a place to have a Parativo `Spelling´ What is a Parativo? Let me share a secret with you my friend. In Milan they have happy hour from 1800 to 2100 where you order one drink or more and get an all you can eat buffet. Let me just say I ate my sorrows away. Also, I ended up going to bed at about 10:30 and woke up about 12 hours later.

Me Plus two Jersey guys Plus one German guy all went out to see the sights in Milan. We finished that up in about 1.5 hours and found food worthy of my last supper in Italy. On to the bus to the airline where I meet another really really cool local that I chated with for the 3.5 hour trip. Got in cold and lost but managed to find my hostel after a little searching. Dropped my stuff, headed out. Tonight I will do that again and at some point figure out how to get to my airport on time for once. :) There really is not much to do here in Sweden...and yes...the legend is true.

Oi Vey!

Okay, time to blog out some frustration here...

This has been the first real bump in the road.

Last night was fine. Drinking games at the hostel with the amazing wine, then I went out for a bit to kill sometime before my 4:30am train. Switch trains no problem, but it was delayed by about 20 minutes (not good I have a flight to catch) Then I get to the bus station once I arrive in Milan and they tell me the bus is full and I will need to wait. (even though there are no reservations for the bus) I wait another 20 minutes (see where this is going) and miss my flight to Sweden by about 3 minutes. SOOOO Frustrated. After trying every possible option with them, nothing was going to work out. I ended up going to another airport about 2 hours away, and can not work anything out with a single airline. I was lucky enough to run into a girl that told me all the good things to do around town, and gave me a pep talk about why bad things are good sometimes, you know, character building. Okay so that helped out a little bit, so I go back to the train station to think of options with them. Nothing. Fine, I will go ahead and book a ticket for tomorrow, lose out on a day. I prep up my ticket purchase for tomorrow at 11:00am, find a good hostel to stay for the night, then make sure I have covered all my options for how to get the Sweden the quickest way. Nope, I have the best option, I am going to have a nice shower, go out to the recommended place for dinner, sleep in, rest up, get to Stockholm mid afternoon for a good day.

FALSE

I click the button to book the flight, and it is no longer available. So somewhere in between the 8 minutes that I looked around on the Internet all the seats are taken. I find one and only option to get to Sweden, but it gets me there at 11:30 pm. 2 days wasted. I booked it. There is nothing to do in Milan after 2 hours of checking it out, I am determined to make the best out of my situation. So ya...

Update: After this post the hostel no longer has avaliablilty...

Florence x2

So I really really really like Florence!

I decided to stay for an extra day and will actually pull an all nighter and take an Early train to Milan and go directly to the airport to head to Sweden. I heard Venice is nice but it is more of a place you would take your lady friend to for some wine and romance. Florence is great, I am happy to stay another day. Last night I got in and walked around the town. Next was home made Italian food from the hostel owner. We also made a trip to a local wine shop. They make their own wine and fill up bottles that you bring in. Me and the friends I made in about 2 minutes went out and got 20 bottles filled of some epic red wine. We hung out at the dinner table for hours eating pasta, drinking, talking and laughing. Then we were given a tour of Florence night life which only about a 10 percent tourist presence which made the night lots of fun. I turned in early (2:30) to get a good start in the morning.

Today me and friends went out to see some of the churches, the Huge David statue which will rock your world. Then we got some wine to go and walked the streets of Florence. We found a great look out point for a beautiful sunset and finished off our wine and Swiss chocolate. After exploring the rest of the area, we came back to the hostel which is where I am at now. Food is being prepared, including more Italian meet balls and some type of pasta. I will stay out late tonight and get the train at 4 ish to start the Sweden trip. Florence has been the highlight of Italy no doubt!

6 Minute Post :0

I only have 6 minutes to post this so Ill try and be quick... Please excuse all spelling errors :)

Yesterday was great. No order of events:Great pizza and red wine, Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Other random stuff, hanging out with 8 Spanish dudes slash random group of people I met for 2 minutes prior to going out with them. Fun night, long night. next day

Next day I had another morning drink and then set out for the popes crib AKA the VAT.

I get there and see a HUGE line that was one hour plus wait. A wise man once told me, you can get into anywhere you want as long as you have confidence and a clipboard. I did not have a clipboard, but I did have a notebook, and plenty of confidence to make up for the lack of clipness that is a clipboard. I headed to the exit and acted really busy/important. Jotted some stuff down and confidently smiled and waved passed the 3 security guards keeping that area free from intruders. That made the rest of the adventure totally awesome. I beat the system! The places was great, beautiful, sometimes weird, but I really enjoyed it. Headed back home to get ready for the final pub crawl. Got in late last night, but had a lot of fun like always. Now I am in Florence and will be staying until tomorrow afternoon, then to Venice I go!

I heart Rome

All is well! I got a boat to Ancona, and I am happy to report, the very first Italian that I met was named....you guessed it, MARIO! He and his friend Luigi (not really) led me to the bus station which led me to the train station. I got on the train and had a great trip over. I really cool Italian girl sat with me and we had a great conversation. So great, in fact, that we traded documentaries to see. So I get to Rome and quickly find my hostel without a problem.


I have only been in Rome for less than a full day, and I already love it...Last night we got a great tour of the city right before our pub crawl for the night. I had some tasty Italian food, and met some friends that I hung out with until about 3:00. I turned in early to get a good start today. This morning, I had an AMAZING breakfast and believe it or not, a fantastic "capo chino". I am no coffee drinker, but wow...this was so flippin good. Today I am heading out to see the sights, and will report back with more fun and great success.

:)

When In Rome?

That's right, it's not a statement, it's a question:

So I had the perfect plan right? Overnight boat to Athens, wake up hit the train and go! Well, my boat decided that it wanted to be 6+ hours of schedule, and I had a choice

A) Wait it out and lose 6 hours
B) Change boats but not know where to sleep when I got to Athens around midnight

The Choice was pretty clear to me. I ended up going back to my old hostel and was able to get on the sofa again no charge. I woke myself up somehow right at 5:15am and headed to the metro to get to the train to get to the boat to get to the train. So now I am sitting here in an Internet cafe trying to figure out which route I am going to take in order to get to Rome the fastest. So far I think I have it figured out, but either way I slice it, I'm getting there noon tomorrow. That does not give me a lot of time, so I am not sure how I will make all this work. On a good note, while I am waiting for the next boat, I will take this time to finally have a Greek salad. I realized that it was on my to do list and I have not to done it yet. Well...wish me luck. Next post should be from Rome!!!!!

Santorini Island PT 2

Yesterday was a very chill day:
1) Found a tasty place for breakfast
2) Coffee with a Greek friend
3) Sleep
4) More food
5) Short time at the bar
6) More hanging out with Greek friends
7) Went to bed *early
------
So now here is the plan:
I will be getting on an overnight boat in a few hours to get to Athens
From there I need to figure out how in the world I am going to get to Rome since now my plans are all screwy because of the weather. If all goes well, I should be there late night 14th or early morning on the 15th. Because of this ambiguety, I don't really know what I am going to do about sleeping. Maybe I'll pull an all nighter because I will be sleeping on the boat/metro/bus/boat/train in that order. Ya, I think I'll do that


*early = 3:00am

Stuck

So remember when I talked about changing plans to go to a different island? I had to pay for another ticket which cost some $$$. The good news, kinda, is that because of heavy winds, all boats going to the island I was trying to get to have been canceled. This is kinda cool since I got a refund, but a bit unnerving since know I need to go back to Athens soon, and it looks like boats for tomorrow will be cancelled as well. In translation this means less time in Italy.

The bright side is that I really like this place and the people in it. Today was an attempted recoop day. I didn't get much sleep last night, so I slept a lot during the day-I am slowly becoming nocternal just wait- After that it was back into the main town to hang out and check out the shops. Grabbed some tasty lamb to eat and headed to the disco. I had some fun, but the best part was when I finally met a group of real Greeks, not tourists or immigrants. I was invited to go with them to this cool traditional Greek bar. I quickly noticed that I was the only foreigner in the place, which made it even more awesome. So tomorrow will most likely be me washing clothes and sleeping. I am starting to get sick, and I am sure a lot of that is due to not getting any sleep. Hopefully I will be able to get to Athens soon in order to finish the rest of my trip :0

The 12th will probably be hanging around here again, which means for the 13th, I need to hop on the first boat out of here. If that works out, I will probably get to Athens around 3:00. Next would be a 6 hour bus ride to get to the port to get on another boat to Italy. (maybe another 6 hours?) then it would be a train ride from wherever i get dropped off to Rome. (Another 6 hours?be getting to Rome on the 14th as planned, but maybe a little bit later in the day. Total we are looking at a good 20 hours of sitting doing nothing, 24 I'm sure if you include down time from vessel to vessel.

I'll just keep going with the flow ;)

Travel Agents...

I gave not posted anything from yesterday or today...here is the deal--

I got a solid 4 hours or less of sleep two nights ago, (had a very fun night so worth it)

Woke up and said goodbye to some of my new friends, some of them I may be seeing again in Italy. Anyway, I went to a travel agent to purchase a boat ticket to go to Santorini *Spelling? one of the popular Greek islands. We booked a ticket that was really soon, but I thought it was a good idea to do so since it was an overnight boat, meaning I could actually get some sleep (omg) and wake up ready to go for a full day of island fun. Joe travel agent said I had enough time to make it to the boat, so we decided it would be a good idea to book boat tickets for my way out of the second Island I wanted to go to in order to get to Italy in time. Makes sense right? So here is the problem. If you are not old, or--if you are young at heart, you might have a hard time sticking to a specific plan all of the time.

Alright I am typing way too much here is what went down
1) Missed the boat by 2 minutes
2) Had to pay for a second ticket which totally messed up my plans since it was a faster boat getting me to the Island by 2:30 in the morning instead of 7:00
3) So now that means I need a hotel right?
4) But the boat was leaving in just an hour, and it was strongly suggested that I get on ASAP
5) So now I am headed to a place without having a place to stay right?
6) And what time was it again?
7) Ya...
8) Also, did I mention that I decided to go to a different island after Santorini
9) Rendering all the other tickets we booked useless...
10)A slightly costly mistake that I will learn from for sure. I'm glad this is the worst thing that has happened so far
---
*wtf so what happened!?*
I get to the island at 2:30AM
I meet someone from Brazil having the exact same problem not having anywhere to go
We decide we will hang out and just see what happens, so we start walking aimlessly
Literally, two minutes later some guy comes up in a shuttle offering a hotel for 10Euro a piece.
We now have a place to stay
Come to find out it is right next to the hostel I booked for tonight so we checked in there, and headed for the beach just a couple meters away. (ooooh Metric system, look at me I'm so cultured)
Got some tasty seafood and relaxed on the beach.
Then, rented a moto and have seen almost all there is to see already. The sights....beautiful...
The plan is hit the disco tonight, but not too late-use to moto for a couple of hours in the morning, hop on a boat to Makinos, another favorite island. After a night there I will need to get back to Athens, then directly to another port to go to Italy. YaaaY Italy!!!! I am feeling really loopy right now, I know you can already tell. It is because I am hungry. Greek Salad? Euro? Other things I can't spell? We shall see...

Quick Update

So like I thought, last night was not a topper but it was still a lot of fun!

1) National Museum
2) Nap time
3) Dinner with an Aussie friend
4) Roof top bar fun + out to a club
5) Met more random Aussies on the way to the club, and am now going to meet them on a Greek Island today.

So ya, I will be taking a boat ride to either Mikinos or Santarini, I don't remember which one we said we would meet at :0 either way I am going to have fun and meet more people

Also will most likely meet some cool people in Italy. Should be fun!

Wowzerz!

I am going to keep my expectations for this trip in line by saying that I am not sure I will have a day that tops this one! Pretty good seeing as that was my first day on the trip. Ya...twas amazing.

What happened?

1) I said the weather was looking glum but it ended up turning the corner, beautiful day
2) Walked around town to get a feel for how everything works and what the culture is like for a local here
3) Checked out the AMAZING Acropolis and surrounding ruins. Wow (yes I took pictures)
4) Happy hour at the hostel. They have an awesome rooftop bar that overlooks the Parthenon. Met some really cool people from Australia, England, and the states
5) Going out to a club with new friends and others from the hostel. Danced my buns off and had a Great Time doing so
6) The Switzerland Crew: Somehow I ended up mingling with a ton of people from Switzerland--really fun loving people. The best part was the fact that they thought me and my "dancing skills" were a thing of legendary proportion. So if you are not falling off your seat laughing right now, that means you have no idea what these "skills" are like.
7) Getting to bed at 5:30 in the morning.

What a great day!

Greece!

It is funny how quickly you can make friends when you and the other person in question both have no idea what they are doing. On the way out of the airport, I ended up meeting two really cool people: One from Argentina, and one from Malta. First time travelers to Greece for all of us, and had an interesting time finding our way to our temporary "homes." After a late night walk to my hostel, I arrive to find out that I booked for the next day, and did not have a room for the night.

Awesome...

Good thing the hostel staff is way cool: They let me crash on the sofa for free. :)

I am really glad I am a bit well traveled already since it makes relating to people around here very easy. Today I think I am off to the museum since the weather is not all that great, but plans change as fast as I make them!

I am still promising pictures!

4:32

This is how much time I have left here on this Internet terminal: London Airport.

So what is the plan for this adventure. In short, there really isn't much of one. As most of you know, I actually barely purchased plane tickets some...3-4 days ago? Sorry my days are really messy right now. I traveled through time to get here, so after a 9 hour flight and hour 5 of my 8 hour layover, I am all messed up. Thankfully I have a skill known as narcolepsy, so I should be okay ;)

Yes, I just got suckered into putting in another Euro for 5 more minutes on the computer.

So back to the..."Plan"

I am starting out in Greece (6-7 Days) then to Italy (6-7) Over to Sweden (3 days) finally to Spain (6-7 Days) I don't have much in the way of plans once I get to all of these places, so if you have suggestions, please let me know! So far I have multiple requests to try out the wine from each place, take lots of pictures, and get in lots of trouble... The only difficult one of these being the pictures. Shoot me a comment and we can add to the list!

More to come, and eventually, pictures WILL be a part of this blog.

Welcome!

Stay Tuned!