these chaps live a bit right
yes so it has been unreal traveling by myself. ive been out with my aussie mates last night and today. yesterday one of them told me about the imperial war museum so i took the tube over there and literally spent about 6 hours just wandering around. it documents all of britains military history along with all of the conflicts in the 20th century. probably the only museum i have ever enjoyed. last night we played aussie drinking contest at the bar. ill let you interpret that for yourself. today i slept a fair bit and then me and three guys from sweden chilled in the hot tub for quite a while and then went and ate chineese food. it was fairly dissapointing. i am sitting at the computer here in the hostel, and directly across the room there is a bar and tonight is kareoke night. that is not how you spell that but i dont care. its ridiculous. anyway tomorrow i am going to go tour the city i expect, possibly with another huge english breakfast and i might day trip somewhere. all my buddies here are leaving tomorrow so i guess ill have to make new friends. anyway back to the party. hasta luego
london bridge is falling down
wow so i made it to london today, good train ride over through the chunnel. met a few brazilian guys on the train that i hung out with. when i got here im staying in an 8 bed dorm, pretty small compared to what i have stayed in, ...with (correction) one kiwi and two aussies. it has been an absolutely ridiculous night. they took me out to quite a few clubs and it has been ridiculous. london is quite expensive seeing as every thing is priced exactly like american dollars only the pound is worth twice as much. i had good day in paris today too, i went to this cemetary on the outskirts of town and saw jim morrisons grave. it was tight. this is the only site that the computer at the hostel will let me access so if you guys emailed me or sent me a facebook message (lee) then i wont get it til i go to a different place. anyway my time is up and im going to sleep. ill holla tomorrow
the last supper
well its saturday morning here, had quite a day and night yesterday. a few of us took the metro to the northside and walked up to Sacre Cour. its a church situated on the highest point in paris. very cool. after that we went and ate at subway again. its so delicious. then we walked over to louvre and down the champs-elysses to the arc de triumph. stopped at the market to get dinner and eat our last meal together in a room at the hotel
beer, wine, bread, cheese, meat...
and then last night, we all went out to have a liter of belgian beer at this place called au trappiste
and then our whole group had a river boat ride through the seine for a couple hours. i took this very tight picture.
so anyway im off to london today via eurostar. everyone else is flying home right now and im about to start going it solo, but im meeting up with a girl from our trip who flew over there yesterday, so i wont be completely stranded. doing it up in london for tonight and tomorrow and then on monday im off to edinburgh. we'll see what happens
ah Paris...
after sleeping 18 consecutive hours from 3PM yesterday to 9Am today, i am finally rested. got around paris a little bit today, took a tour with some of my buddies and then we hopped out on the train and went to the palace of Versailles. it was unbelievable and so huge. we walked around for about 6 hours and maybe saw half of it. heres a few pics from Paris and Versailles. i dont have much time on here, but ill try to do some more pics on here tomorrow and then im off to london. we'll see what happens...
francia!
well we just arrived to paris, i have slept a total of 7 hours over the past two days. quite exhausted, im bout to lay down and sleep for three days. we are staying in the new district of paris in a bunk hotel. it looks like its straight out of 1970s america. Im watching tv right now for the first time since the world cup. its all in french and it sucks but at least its sound. anyway i dont have much time on the internet here so ill keep it short. ill put up some pictures tomorrow. ciao
and there it goes...
well after 4 weeks of being here i guess everyone can see my room. i have lived in a closet for the past month but it has been wonderful. we leave at 630 in the morning for Madrid to catch a flight to paris. its is currently 5:55 in the morning and i have not slept. it has been quite a celebration and hay mas fiestas venir. paris should be a blast and then im off to london on saturday. no more school! i found out my grades today, but i will have to keep carol and jimmy in suspense until they get here so they will keep feeding me money. anyway tonight was awesome and ill try and put up the pictures from paris tomorrow. if i cant, then no one will actually care, but ill do it from london or marseille or maybe not at all. anyway here is my crib im going to get the rest of my stuff into my pack and head for the front yard
oh yea look how happy i look in this picture. day of my exam we had to stay out until 5am. i am very thrilled to be in class this morning.
i have to write more, our last night in salamanca was great, it has been an unbelievable trip with too many inapropriate stories to tell. you can imagine them for yourself and dream of our month in salamanca! es la mejor mesa en toda mi vida
the end of salamanca...
ah well monday is half way done here, our last day of class (exams tomorrow), im excited beyond words. ive learned so much but 6 hours of intense spanish a day may be what is causing my ailments. any way we had an awesome last weekend in salamanca. on saturday about 10 of us went to this huge pool with slides and fountains and all kinds of crazy stuff. they sold litres of rum and coke at the pool. we got thrown out of the pool. it was quite a bit of fun while it lasted.
yesterday, we left at about 5 on a bus for our hour long trip to candellario. this is one of the coolest things that i have ever been to. these people have been getting together on sundays and killing bulls for hundreds of years and it was amazing to be a part of it. my thingee will only let me post 4 pictures at a time or i would put up more. anyway candellario is a tiny town way up in the mountains. and yesterday was the fiesta of the town's patron saint (no one i had ever heard of but whatever) so there was the bullfight and then a huge celebration in throughtout the town.
the bullfight begins with a guy on horseback, who comes out and wounds the bull from the horse, which is absolutely incredible. we then gets down and finishes him off with his sword.
they then have other bulls and they get killed by a matador that is on the ground in the ring. these fellows have some serious cajones
the matador here had already stabbed him with his sword, which you can kind of see behind the pole. he then holds out his bloody hand and as a show of respect to the bull
yea so our last hours here. tenemos exams tomorrow and then we leave early wednesday morning on a bus to madrid and then we catch a flight to paris. should be a fun rest of the week, wish we could have seen landis in paris yesterday, but im sure they will still be hating americans just as much when we get there. oh yea we got an email from the US embassy over here telling us to avoid a few areas of madrid this week because of anti-american protests. should be exciting. also yesterday, some amazing girl, who has chosen to remain anonymous to me, took my clothes out of the dryer and folded them for me. truly a good person. thats it for now, time to start packing. i might put up some more pics later if i get bored
casi victoria
floyd landis may have capped off one of the greatest comebacks of all time in any sport. the american reclaimed the jersey today after making up nearly 10 minutes on thursday to get back in contention. its absolutely unbelievable. it will be an absolutely amazing weekend, keep your eyes open.
sooooooo sick
ah well i am back from my blogging hiatus. been kind of busy the past few days. actually i havent i just said that cause ive been too lazy to get on here and write about nothing, but last night was definately worth writing about. if you dont know who Bela Fleck and the Flecktones are then your music tastes are way too far outside the hippie circle. anyway they are a instrumental jazz jam band, and they have a huge following in the states, like they sell out shows of like 10000 people in 15 minutes kind of following. well last night we got to see them in the courtyard of an old castle with 280 people (i know this because i bought the first ticket). so yea it was an unbelievable venue and they put on a show that was beyond words. now this was a pretty traditional concert setting, people sitting down in chairs just listening to the music. leave it to the americans...by the end of the show we have the entire spanish crowd doing the jam band dance in front of the stage with us.
yea so it turned out to be one of the top 5 shows ive ever been too. its not too often you get to see something like that on a friday night in salamanca
after the show went to this english bar called the holy cross and played darts for a while
and of course...5 hours later we see jeff from bela fleck at leonardos (the spanish equivalent of waffle house), he was wasted, we were wasted, and we convinced him to order a chelsea...a sandwich that we just made up and named after a girl. he started talking politics and i do not believe there is a bigger liberal any where in the world. anyway it was pretty cool. we took a bunch of pictures with the band after the show but that can wait for another time.
anyway so today i just got up, doing some laundry, and we are going to head to the pool. our last days in salamanca... its going to be ridiculous. ill put up some pictures tomorrow from the bullfight we are going to in Candellario. peace out
a good day
ah well i woke up today and felt almost normal for the first time since i left anniston three weeks ago. only four more days of class left! im pumped. went out and played soccer for two hours today after class, good work out except my throat feels worse than it did when we started. other than that it was a pretty standard day. on the home front, poison ivy invaded russia during the winter, and we all obviously know what happens when you invade russia in the winter. so yes its a very good day because i have claimed total victory over poison ivy and i am winning the battle against my swollen throat. past that im still planning for my trip to the UK and im gonna do laundry again tonight because mine smells like mildew from being in the washer all weekend. i had to put this pic from portugal up because its tight. im out peace
a few more pictures
played beer pong again last night. horrible idea. anyway not a whole lot else is going on. im still sick and the food here still sucks. planning my trip to england right now and trying to decide what else im going to do. the band bela fleck and the flecktones are playing here on friday night and i bought a ticket last night for a bull fight on sunday. should be a good week.
heres a pic from the beach at Guincho that we rode our bikes too. there were at least 20 people out there kiteboarding
this is from right next to Guincho on the atlantic
i saw a ton of people fishing everywhere on the bayside, but not once did i ever see anyone catch a fish
a nice pic from our bike ride
oh what a time
where to begin, where to begin? ill start with wednesday. wednesday we had midterms and then we had an all night celebration. i was doing my laundry, i went out, and when i came back to put it in the dryar, of course its locked. well i am not waking up the priest at 3am, so i come up stairs, pack the few clothes that i didnt have in the washing machine and set out to the train station for our 4am train. well my reservation on the train was in a car full of six non-deodorant wearing spaniards. yea so i slept on the floor of a train again. anyway thursday we get to lisbon at about 11am and then we head out for a place to stay. we had portugese speaking jen with us and she suggested we go out to this little city called cascais that is right on the beach. we did and we talked to the tourism department and the lady there set us up in an apartment for the weekend. very tight. so we went there and then went to eat some good ole portugessian mcdonalds. quite delicious. did the rest of the day on the beach and then went and heard an irishman play americans songs that we could sing along with. it was a good time.
On friday me and middies rented bikes and rode to this place called the boca de inferno. we wanted to go swimming in it but the locals told us that it was suicide so we decided against it. came back friday night and i had one of the most delicious fishes i have ever eaten. it was a codfish in garlic with potatoes, prepared by a south african gent that owns this rooftop restaurant. very tight.
saturday we rode our bikes 10 km around the south coast of lisbon to the atlantic beaches. they were unbelievable. the surf was great and i was going to rent a board but i touched the water and it was like 70 degrees. so instead we just chilled on the beach all day and got sunburnt. came back that night and the south african made us prawns that were also quite delicious. if anyone is ever going to portugal then i will set you up with a good restaurant
sunday we got up and took back our bikes, went and toured lisbon and then got on a train and came home. i would go into more detail but im tired of typing. i got to witness alot of drama between the three couples that came on the trip with me and middies. very hilarious but next time i go somewhere i am not going with whiney girls.
so unbelievable
i lived an absolute dream all weekend. we just got in from the train at like 1 this morning. i will write down the story tomorrow and put up some photos. it was unreal everyone should pack up right now and go to portugal. im exhausted so to bed and ill write tomorrow
say oh yaaaayerrrr
got up this morning and drank four espressos. it was entirely too much. i regretted it for the next four hours. i did, however, ace both my midterms. pretty excited. i just done playing soccer and basketball with a bunch of spanish guys from the university. it was quite hilarious, they are all good at soccer, but watching them play basketball was like watching monkeys (inappropriate phrase here) a screwdriver. i am by no means good at bball, but i might as well have been kobe out there on the court. anyway im bout to do laundry and then pack for portugal. we are meeting up with those guys tonight and they are gonna show us the locales spots, then we are coming back here at 330 and taking taxis to the train station. should be a good time. we have know idea where we are staying in lisbon but this girl jen that is going with us is from brazil and shes fluent in portuguese so weve got it made. im not taking my computer, but if i get a chance ill try to drop a line from lisboa. its gonna be off the chain mayne <--that was not written by me but i guess it will have to stay. im out peace
as if we dont play enough beer pong in america...
...we have to come here and play it too. yes thats right last night there was a beer pong tournament at a bar in salamanca. there was not a single spanish person in the whole place, and when they busted out sweet home alabama i think all of salamanca could here "WAR DAMN EAGLE!" being screamed during the chorus. quite a bit of fun. anyway went yesterday and got our train reservation for our trip to Lisbon at 4:51 AM on thursday morning. theres about 12 of us going so its going to be a blast. today we did the class thing and ate our horrible lunch in the cafeteria and then we just got in from playing soccer with a bunch of the locals. thats all for today, weve got mid term tomorrow so, o'doyle, ive got a feeling your whole family is going down, but for now, i gots to study. peace
something to think about
One of my buddies email this to me today and its good stuff
When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and he had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He sked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."
The professor then pr oduced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, ffectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. Now, said the professor as the laughter subsided, I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else---the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups . Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18 holes of golf. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand . One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked." "It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend." (or for a couple of pints with your friends watching the World Cup in Spain!)
La Copa de Mundo Finale
ah es un dia de muerte por francia. the italians proved too strong for france, and poor zindane had to end his illustrious career with marseille, real madrid and with the french national team by getting a red card and elminating himself from the shootout. of course i am the only person in our whole group cheering for france so it made it even worse. we went to a pub called the Irish Rover tonight and it was a lot of fun. the game was so good even though france lost. we went to the pub like 3 hours early so we could get good seats to watch it. ah its so sad that its over because thats all we have been looking forward to every night. anyway today i completely slept through the tour of avila, which the few people that went said it was zero fun, and then instead we got up and went to the pool again. not a whole lot else besides world cup. we found a really good tapas bar this afternoon though and its very cheap to eat. anyway here are a few pics from tonight at the Irish Rover, we got there early so we could get seats in the balcony
We took this at half time or so when I was still enjoying everyones company
oh well
well we went to go rent cars to drive to pamplona yesterday afternoon after class and the place was already closed, so my group that was going got up this morning at 8 to go get on the bus to go. everyone got up and tried to get me up, but i deemed it was necessary to ignore everyone and sleep through all of this activity until about 3 oclock this afternoon. instead me and few folks went and found a pool and chilled out all day. its was quite a nice break. we walked around the city for about an hour after that and got to see a little bit more. and we found a pizza hut to eat at and it was delicous. we are going to celebrate carter's twenty first birthday in a little while so hopefully ill get some interesting pictures from that tonight. the weekend has been nice, we are getting up and going to avilia for the day tomorrow morning and hopefully go to a bull fight. should be fun. oh yea and i ate some jamon iberico today. shane told me to go out and find it so we went out and got some today and it was very good. otay im out peace
here we go
okay so heres the deal, ive got my clothes, got insulin, and i got additional reinforcements against my long standing enemy and nemesis, poison ivy. class is going pretty good, im learning so much spanish every day, and the nights are absolutely crazy. if you know what today is then you know where we are going for the weekend. watch for me on the news! uno de enero, dos de febrero, tres marzo, cuatro de abril, cinco de mayo, seis de junio, siete de julio SAN FERMIN! lalalala vamos a Pamplona y a Iruna lalalala
the food here continues to get worse. i got sick today and i still dont feel good from the nasty hotdogs we had for lunch. the hours are ridiculous, and it stays light outside until like 1030. past that not a whole lot else going on. ill put up pamplona details after the trip and at some point ill take a picture of my cell that i live in and put it on here. keep it real and cheer por francia
yeah!
got my clothes last night and we had quite a night on the town. this is colins dance called the shaka shaka. quite hilarious
