Into the great wide open

Sorry guys, the hostel here is playing the entire Tom petty catalog so I'm a little jacked up on petty tunes. I never realized how he makes me think of America....

So I'm in Barcelona now! As i mentioned before, it took allll day to get here. We almost missed the last connection which, coincidentally, was the last train of the day to Barcelona. That would have been a fun night...but I got here in one piece, and I found my hostel pretty easily. Turns out it was in a residential area, like an apartment turned into a hostel. Not sketch at all haha...

I spent the first couple days just walking around and exploring, not necessarily going to any of the renowned buildings or museums or anything. I did go see the magic fountain, which is a really cool fountain that goes off synchronized with music every night. But of course the night that I decide to go it is also the opening of the European Olympic games. 3 hours later I finally got to see the fountain in action, and it's def cool.at the hostel, I met a columbian girl who lives In Normandy, France, and is open to let me stay in her spare bedroom for a month, maybe in November, which would be perfect. I can save some money and be in a place to learn French, which is def something i want to do if I have the opportunity! I'll update you on that when we get in touch again.

Today I woke up, grabbed a smoothie, and went down to the beach. I'm def burned, I just got so excited to be on the beach! I came back and had a nice siesta before showering and getting ready to go out. Tomorrow I'm going to the Picasso museum, which I've heard is really good!

I love how late everything starts here! The hostel that I'm staying at now (the apartment one was only the first 2 nights) has a different club each night that they offer free entry for, and everyone leaves the hostel together to go there. They LEAVE the hostel at 1:45am. Yeah. That is why these people need siestas! Tonight I'm going to the pub crawl, then tomorrow I'll probably go out to the club-of-the-night. I had such a relaxing vacation week in Nice, so I'm excited to go out like every night that I'm here! 

I'll write again in a couple days after I've cultured myself a little, to even out my drinking stories. :)          

Au revoir Nice

Today is my last day on the Riviera, I'm heading to Barcelona tomorrow! While I've been here I have: laid out on the rocky beach of Nice, taken a day trip to Cannes, snorkeled in Antibes, had a run in with the French police (turns out they're not as liberal with male nudity as they are female), read a book, and just hung out relaxing.

I definitely want a summer house here when I grow up and become super rich. (don't worry Craig, I'll let your family rent out my house for a discounted rate) it's so beautiful and the people are pretty nice as well. Everyones on vacation, which made it really easy to slip into vacation mode and relax.

Something I have learned in my travels so far: twilight brings people together. Like a week ago I decided to rent New Moon from iTunes, so I downloaded it and everything then I couldn't find it!! I figured maybe you couldn't rent movies on the ipad like you can on your computer. A couple nights ago i was playing around w my ipad and I found it! So me and two aussies I met decided we were going to watch it in the dorm room, so we put the ipad up on a railing and sat in our beds and started watching. Then two other room mates came in, both from Sweden I think, and they sat on their beds watching it as well. Then the Dutch boy from our room crammed in the beds as well to watch it. It was a multicultural slumber party in here thanks to Twilight. Doesn't matter what language you speak, turns out everyone can communicate team Edward or team Jacob.

Sometimes I have trouble communicating where from the states I'm from. Saying "above California" doesn't work, because then people just nod enthusiastically and say oooooh California! They miss the whole "above" part. Then they assume I am used to hot weather, which we all know I am not. I think Oregon should change their state slogan to "Oregon: the state in between California and where they shot Twilight" because thats pretty must how i have to explain it to foreigners.

Alright well tomorrow I'm on a train at 8:35am on my way to Barcelona. The direct train was fully booked so I'm taking 4 different trains to arrive in Barcelona at 10:52 pm. Yes, that's 14 hours of travel. :) but from what I hear it's going to be totally worth it!! Let me me know if you have any recommendations on what to do while I'm there!

♥RG

French Riviera

So I left London feeling like total crap thanks to my cold. (which now that I'm thinking about it makes sense, I did run around Amsterdam one day in the pouring rain in shorts and a tank top) London itself wasn't expensive, but getting in and out of london was the most I've spent on travel aside from my eurail pass. Even with my pass, to get to London the booking fee was at least 100 euros, and they limit the days and train times that eurail passes are good for. Getting out of London, If I wanted to use my pass to leave I would have had to wait another3 days and still pay like 70 euros which I didn't want to wait for, especially since I had booked a hostel in Nice, France already. Bleh. Honestly I just wanted to get out of there!

The train ride was a total of 9 hours down to Nice, and thanks to standby seats and babies I didn't sleep more than a combined 30 minutes. The funniest thing about the train ride though, was that my college french teacher was a couple rows behind me! It is such a small world! She was coming to Nice for a couple weeks to take some classes on teaching French, I guess to stay current. 

Nice has turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered. I never thought id be so happy to be in a place where you sweat just sitting down in the shade. It's like a detox. My throat started feeling better right away and all my other symptoms disappeared, it was great! I went to the beach for my first full day here, and I posted pictures on Facebook. This place is BEAUTIFUL! I got a beach towel and just laid in the sun for an hour by the sea. Sidenote for anyone who has never been on vacation with me: I have a tendency to sit in the sun for hours on my first day of vacation trying to achieve the perfect dark tan. All that happens is I burn like a lobster and then I'm super grumpy and uncomfortable the rest of the vacation. It's practically tradition. You would be happy to know that I limited myself to an hour of sunbathing, which was perfect because I still ended up a little pink. (this polish skin doesn't understand sunshine) 

Later in the night I went out to dinner with a group of new friends, and then we grabbed a few bottles of wine and went down to the beach. We laid on the beach for a bit and then went in for a midnight swim. No big deal but it was so pretty out at night! On the way back to the hostel I walked past one of THE best conversations I have ever overheard. Ever. There were 3 American guys and 3 French girls. The American guys were just tell the girls what they were studying in school. They said they were computer science majors, and the girls literally started giggling and in flirty voices were like oh you guys are soooo smart that's soooo cool. If I didn't think the girls would have found it suspicious, I would have high fived those guys right there. I mean they weren't bad looking, but they weren't particularly attractive either. And they had girls giggling and flirting because of their computer science degrees. Hahahahaha

So the awesome thing about Nice is that I'm so close to other small beach towns. I can take a short train ride (like 30 min or less I think) to Cannes or Monaco, which is what I'm planning on doing the next couple of days. I don't know where I'm going after this, but I don't think it will be too far away from here!           

Ps: what day of the week is it? Nevermind, I don't even care!

....and on to London!

So Amsterdam....among the things I did while there, aside from walking around and exploring was to visit the anne frank museum. It's really cool, it's a tour through the actual house that Anne frank hid in as well as her actual diary! Since I'm pretty sure everyone knows who Anne frank is and has read her diary, you can imagine how powerful the museum is.

I did visit the red light district on my last night in town, which was crazy. Definitely a must see in Amsterdam....it's so crazy that there are so many prostitutes! There must be a market...but it was def a culture shock.

I'm now in London for the weekend, which has been really fun. I went out for drinks next door to the hostel last night and met some people. I started to get a sore throat on the train from Amsterdam to London, and I woke up this morning feeling really sick... :( I went on the free walking tour today for about 4 hours, which gave me the perfect opportunity to see all the hot spots and listen to some history as well. I came right back to the hostel afterwards and bought tons of water and put on my stretchy paints (duh I brought my lululemons) Im about to take some aleve and read my book until this headache/body ache goes away. Ps I have read 3 full books since I've been here, which is probably more than I read (for fun) all through college. Don't judge me that 2 of the books were Chelsea Handler books :) they're still books!!!!

Tomorrow I'm going to the train station to see when I can get a ticket to Nice, my next stop. From there I'll be ready for Spain :) I'm hoping to feel better enough for the pub crawl tonight, but I may have to put that off till next time...

First impressions of Amsterdam

Ok guys I made it to amsterdam! I got to my hostel, checked in, and then went out to explore...I definitely have some first impressions...

So public transit here is really easy. And free today since they are (still) celebrating 2nd place world cup. Which by the way, i didnt even realize it was ok to come in 2nd or 3rd...and that its something to celebrate. Hasnt anyone ever told them that if you aint first you last?! Anyway, it was free and easy to get to my hostel. I think the Portland strreetcar drivers should take lessons from these tram drivers...Sorry to keep making references to harry potter, but the tram driver must have thought we were on the night bus or something, I almost threw up from the stop and go. But we did get there super fast...

After stashing my bags I went out to explore, basically just following the people and lights. Holy hell let me tell you what I found. And I'm gonna preface this by saying I now love this town and feel more at home than I have in any other city this trip. First off bars for days, with outdoor seating and looooud music. Keep in mind this is a small European street that is flooded with people under the age of 30, probably 80% wearing bright orange. Everyone is clearly drunk or high,wearing very little clothing, and chowing down on burger king. Yes, in the middle of this picturesque bar street, there is a BK (open late of course) with probably 50 people inside and out chowing down on whoppers. The streets were littered with little orange flags and beer cans, and I was offered free shots by multiple clubs as I walked by. How do I say this in an appropriate way? This place was like walking into a frat party at 11pm and realizing that the party is well underway, yet everyone seems to want to you get drunk as quick as possible to catch up. Its an attitude of, "were drunk, but we wish you were too, so come join." People were making out in the street, and I'm pretty sure i saw a woman puke and rally in an alley. These are my people.

Now I may be eating my words later, but these Danish guys look like total bros. Frat boys, and they're all tall. Although I'm only in Amsterdam for 3 nights, I have a feeling this wont be the last time i see this place. I've been here for mere hours and I'm already getting sad about the prospect of ever leaving.

I'll be walking around tomorrow taking tons of pictures :) ps Keith and Katie: get excited!!

Paris Part 2 & the World Cup

So I finally got back to Paris! Since I've been here before, I didn't feel like I had to go to all the tourist spots again, which left plenty of time to hang out. I ended up in a shitty part of town the first two nights thanks to last minute bookings, which ended up not all that bad cause I met some cool people. Instead of rushing from museum to museum, I walked leisurely around Paris with no watch aka no sense of time and no purpose.

Sidenote: I thought I was going to miss my blackberry more, and sometimes I get the urge to send a text, but its also really really freeing to know that no one can get a hold of me and ruin my fun. As if one of my jobs is going to call and ask me to come in, or someone is going to remind me of a school assignment due tomorrow. Nope, not gonna happen :)

I decided last minute that I wanted to watch the world cup game at the Eiffel tower (along with everyone else and their mom). I got in, got a spot on the lawn, and then drank 2 beers while waiting for the game to begin. I sat next to this really nice young couple from Saudi Arabia that were fresh off a cruise and we chatted while waiting for the game to start. Let me tell you a couple things I learned at this world cup thing... 1: spain fans are legitimately crazy. 2: people take this game way too seriously and 3: security really isn't a good as it should be.

About 70 minutes into the game Spain fans got a little bored and decided to light some shit on fire. At first it was the occasional firecracker, which would result in the SWAT team (yes in full gear) to chase them through the place and tackle them. No big deal. Then they started lighting these crazy red sparklers and throwing them over the fence into where I was sitting. There is only one way I can explain it. Remember in Harry potter when everyone was having fun at the quidditch world cup then the death eaters started shooting their signals outta their wands? Yeah. That's what this was like. The first one was like ok, kinda scary that this ball of fire came right at me, but they have good security around here. Oh, another ball of fire? Sweet. Again? This time almost lighting the beer stand in fire? People started freaking out. Then the SWAT team was everywhere. yeah, you would have thought that voldemort was back. Dont worry tho, things calmed down for like 5 minutes. Then, everyone on our side of the lawn started getting up (blocking our view of the screen) covering their noses and mouths, and running away. Hmmm. One more gust of wind and we quickly figured it out: teargas. Those Spanish bitches had our eyes watering and mouths burning as we gave up our spot on the lawn to run to another part of the crowd. I watched the end of the game standing up in the back, and then got to watch Spain fans go freakin crazy when they eventually won. Longest night ever, and in my opinion, that sport is definitely not worth it!

After the game I wandered around the Latin quarter with some people, and ended up in a very familiar bar....turns out Joe and I were there 2 years ago. It made me realize how awesome that trip was, and how that week is how I will always remember Paris. Nothing I can do will ever top it, and I wouldn't want it to. I remember Paris as I saw it 2 years ago: my first time to Europe, by myself, meeting the coolest people from all over the world. It was that week in Paris that made me want to have this trip so badly, and that's when I began planning my return to backpacking. Fun fact: the bar we went to 2 years ago has tons of photos that people gave to the bartender to post up. Most of them are passport photos, some new & some clearly very old. The photo of Joe, signed "Jim bob and maryjane" on the back, is still up there from when we drunkenly put it up 2 years ago. <3>

Frankfurt: the real city of love

So turns out Frankfurt doesn't have much to do.

After watching Germany lose I went back to the hostel and pretty much fell asleep. Good thing I was so Tired, I only woke up s couple of times thinking there was an air raid going on. Turns out it was just really happy Spanish people. If that is what a night of partying sounds like for winning a soccer game while in the opposing teams country, I don't think I could have even handled it if Germany had won....

I woke up at like 6 am yesterday ready to go, and ended up spending the day exploring Frankfurt. Not too much to explore. My new friend and I passed by Germans drink wine from a wine stand on the street at like noon, and of course joined in. I wish I had a picture of the glass, they're not messing around with their pours, he filled the glass all the way to the top! We walked around the rest of the day, joined in at a little kid carnival (they had bouncy houses!) and took a paddle boat out on the water. Sidenote: swans are huge!!!

I had already decided earlier in the morning that I was going to push up my departure day and leave for Paris today instead of Saturday. So yesterday was my one and only full day in Frankfurt, which is perfect cause we pretty much saw everything. It was the perfect day to be outside, it was so sunny and warm!! Just like how Portland is when we actually have beautiful days. Around 4pm we stopped at a corner wine shop and grabbed a couple bottles of rose for the park. Finding a wine shop in franfurt is not hard by the way, they have them on every corner. And I really mean every corner. Everyone has to be drunk on wine all the time to sustain all those businesses. Right? Anyway, killing 4 bottles of wine in a park with cute American frat boy was a great, although very very hazy, ending to my one day in frankfurt.

Now I'm on to Paris!! My train leaves in 40 min and will put me in Paris at 1pm. This is the best vacation ever by the way. Ever.

<3>

Day One

Lesson number one: Navigating German trains is way easier when you're with your German speaking dad. Somehow, still trying to figure that one out, I made it to downtown Frankfurt and quickly walked to my hostel. I'm sweating, my back hurts, and i want to rip these boots from my feet since it's so freakin hot here compared to Portland!! But I did get myself a Becks and Its slowly starting to sink in where I am. Umm Germany!!! Check in is officially at 2pm, and it's only 1:30 here so I stashed my bag in the storage room (where I was pleased and surprised to see a travel pack even bigger than mine) until I can get to my room and change into, brace yourself, SHORTS! Can't wait to clean up and explore-- then watch some soccer! I didn't sleep more than 2 hours on my flight out, so I'm gonna be so ready to sleep tonight. Next time I fly out here I am sooooo paying double for a sleeper compartment thingy. I ended up next to a man going to Greece to visit family who apparently didn't own a pair of headphones, so we all got to listen to his movie all night. Super fun! That brings me back to those sleeper compartments....I pretty much stared at that section with longing for 9 hours. But that's over, and I'm here in the city and ready to go out!! And you know what i realized on that plane ride? Chances are even tho I'm not in Munich, these pubs are gonna have some bomb pretzels! Woooo go Germany!!!

I am so ready for the next 5 1/2 months!