Sevilla, Spain

Unfortunately, I found this city to be the worst experience of my Euro trip so far. I know losing my camera, traveling books, translation guides, and personal journals contributed mostly to the bad experience (even though I tried to have a good time). I felt so lost without my traveling books, especially because I do not speak Spanish very well and was relying on my translation guides to communicate.

It was also so dreadfully hot that it was so hard to enjoy the site seeing. According to the temperature stated along the street thermometers is was anywhere between 36-40 degrees Celsius which is over 100 degree Fahrenheit. That is way too hot for me even when growing up in the desert of Southern California. My Humboldt skin is just not used to that kind of heat anymore.

I went to a few parks and gardens, sitting under the shade but it was too hot for me to really enjoy the relaxation. All I wanted to do was be in an air conditioned place so I spent most my time shopping for a new camera and trying to find traveling books in English (with no luck). As a result, I stayed in the hostel borrowing traveling books from other travelers, writing as much information down and hope to have better luck in the future cities I go to.

It was pretty expensive to replace my camera especially with the exchange rate but it was worth it to replace the exact model I lost and have high quality photos to remember my trip with. I defiantly learned my lesson the hard way.

Well, I am off to Granada and hope to enjoy this southern (and hot) city of Spain before heading off to Italy.

Madrid, Spain

I had a very relaxing and good time in Madrid. My hostel was pretty fun with a bar downstairs and great Sangria! Unfortunately,I only made one of the museums I was planning to go to but it was the best one in Madrid, El Museo Del Padro. I walk around for hours listening to the audio commentary in English. The paintings and sculptures were amazing. After the museum I went to The Real Jardin Botanico (botanical gardens) and walked around for hours. It was so beautiful!!!

Before I left Madrid, while I was waiting to catch my train to Sevilla, Spain, I relaxed in El Parque del Retiro (Retiro Park) which was one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen (besides Redwood park back home). I walked around the maze of vegetation for hours, got some sun by the boat lake and walked through the Rosaleda (rose garden).

I was very happy that I was able to sit under the shade of the trees and walk around with my bare feet in the grass and was even able to practice my flag poi adding to the many forms of entertainment throughout the park. I found someone playing the violin near an area under the trees in the grass where I could spin to the music and sound of the water from one of the many fountains nearby. That was the first time I have been able to practice since I have been in Europe and it felt really great. It was also fun to watch the excitement from the little Spanish children walking by and others who were impressed as well.

My train was a quick ride but unfortunately this beautiful day ended on a sour note as I lost one of my bags when I got off the bus to go to my next hostel in Sevilla which contained my traveling books and unfortunately my camera :(

I have been really upset about it ever since I arrived and when I could not find it I started crying. Two police officers were driving by and saw how upset I was so they stopped to see what was wrong. Unfortunately they did not speak very much English and my Español es no bueno (no good) so they took me to the police station where I could speak to an international police officer over the phone and file a police report. They were so nice (probably the nicest police officers I have met) and it was an interesting experience being in the back seat of those little tiny European police cars. (Too bad I couldn´t get a picture of it)

I really hope I left my bag on the bus and will be able to find it tomorrow morning when the bus station opens but unfortunately I am pretty sure I left it when I sat down to look at the map to find my hostel. It defiantly could have been worse since I could have lost the other bag I was carrying which contained my passport, Eurorail pass and money. I am trying to look on the bright side but I am still upset because I had some great photos of Madrid on there and now I will not be able to take any more pictures throughout the rest of my trip. :(

San Sebastian, Spain

This stop has been so relaxing and wet as the last three days have been full of pouring rain at the beautiful beach city of San Sebastian, Spain. Due to the stormy weather, these days have been full of laziness at the hostel as my hostel mates and I have been laying around, relaxing and watching movies all day. There was one day where the weather permitted site seeing so we spent the day hiking up to the "Jesus Statue" and relaxing on the beach.

I absolutely loved being at the beach and spent most the day there and hours in the night as well. The beach here reminds me of back home in Arcata but it was a little warmer of course. The ocean breeze and the sound of the waves crashing was meditative and balancing. I definitely needed the relaxation and solitude after being on the go in the main cities of Europe for the previous 2 weeks.

The hostel I am staying at is amazing and very fun. It was fairly small with only about 20 beds and had a community kitchen so I was able to go shopping and cook my own meals which was very nice. The owner of the hostel is Irish which resulted in a very fun and laid back environment. We all had great times.

Now I am leaving this beautiful place to the sunny city of Madrid but I defiantly will return to this city in the future when the weather lives up to its reputation.

Paris, France

I was not planning to go to Paris on this trip but I was talked into it and now I am really glad I spent 2 days there. France is such a beautiful city! I did not have time to go into any museums or attractions but I took a tour and saw very beautiful monuments, bridges, parks, architecture and so on. After the tour, I hung out with my tour guide and a few others from the tour for some really good ice cream. Later on, our tour met up again for a “Pub Crawl” with the same tour guide. A pub crawl is a tour of the main local bars and clubs popular in the area. I thought it would be fun to experience the night life in Paris with a large group of travelers. It was amusing watching everyone get really wasted. We even played a drinking game. I took it really easy though and talked with some other travelers I met from my hostile.

One of the other travelers I met had some of the same interests as me as far as holistic and organic life styles so we discussed the corruption of our health care system and lifestyles as well as the roles politics and society play. It was very interesting!

Since I was not able to find a hostile to stay another night. My tour guide offered myself and another traveler from Australia to stay at his place. It was really nice because we were able to get to know about the Paris life and culture more as well as having some great homemade food. I have not been so full the entire time I have been traveling. Every thing was delicious!

I chose to sleep and relax the following day as it was pouring in Paris and will be catching the night train to San Sebastian, Spain.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Amsterdam was a blast! I had a very good time but I did not care for my hostile very much or the heavy tourism there. It was so crowded and almost impossible to go to any museums because of the long lines. Other than that, Holland was great!

I was able to see the main attractions I wanted to go to such as the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh Museum and the Hemp Museum. I got really excited in the Hemp museum because they had a video playing in the background discussing the culture of Hemp and it referenced Humboldt County and the town I live in, Arcata. It was so cool to see video footage of my home town because I was starting to get home sick by this point. I saw the beautiful beaches I love to go to, the foot bridge I’ve walked on countless times, and many other places. It was really cool!

The coffee shops in Amsterdam were great and were everywhere! I could not believe how many there were in such a little city. I do not remember the exact number but there are around 330 coffee shops there.

I took a tour through the city on my first day, seeing most the site attractions and received a great history and culture lesson of the Dutch in Holland. On the second day I took another tour of the Red Light District and received another history and culture lesson of prostitution in Holland. It was very fascinating. We also walked through the district and witnessed the prostitutes in the windows and even saw some guys either coming out or going into the rooms.

Amsterdam was very interesting and once again, I would have loved to stay there longer but I was sick of the Dutch ripping the tourists off. Everything was so expensive. If fact, I got really pissed a couple of times because of the prices I had to pay. Can you believe it cost 1 Euro to go to the bathroom in the train station? Who in their right mind would pay to go to the bathroom? Europe is all about taking advantage of tourist, especially Holland. I just do not agree with those practices.

None the less, I had a really great time and met some really cool people. Over all I spent 3 days in Holland and now my next stop will be Paris.

Dassau, Germany

I really wish I could have been able to stay longer in Berlin; however; I needed to move on with my trip. My next stop was Dassau, a small town in Germany where my great
grandfather was born. I absolutely fell in love with this town and if hostels (or other affordable places to sleep) were available, I would have stayed the night there. There were beautiful parks with flowers and trees everywhere. I rented a bike for a few hours and rode it through the cobble stone streets and through the parks and I could smell the aroma from the flowers as if it was still spring.

The locals in Dassau were so friendly and very helpful even though most did not speak English. This was great because it forced me to use my German phrase book more often and I was able to experience a little more of the German culture versus a large German city such as Frankfort and Berlin where most spoke English.

I tried to go to the archive office to see if there was any information about my great grandfather but unfortunately it was not the right office. I would have needed to go to
a different office outside the town and needed more time to find any information. Since I was unable to find a place to stay I was out of luck.

With the remaining time I had, I decided to go to their Natural and Prehistoric Museum and saw some really cool displays of preserved historic wildlife. They even had rooms with beautiful crystals and gems where I saw some of the most beautiful stones and fossils I’ve ever seen. I could not resist buying some for souvenirs and gifts.

Someday I plan to return to this beautiful little town my great grandfather was born and spend at least a week there. Hopefully, I’ll know a little more German so I can actually talk more to the locals who live there.

My next visit will be….Amsterdam!!!

Berlin, Germany

I am having such a great time in Europe. My baggage arrived yesterday and I finally was able to leave Frankfort and took a train to Berlin. I am having such a blast meeting diverse people from all over the world and was able do some sight seeing as well. So far I have seen remnants of the Berlin Wall in East Berlin while learning about the history of the wall from a documentary center. I also walked through "Checkpoint Charlie" and saw the display of historical events leading to the missile crisis and cold war. Germany definitely has an intense history!

I think I want to stay in Berlin for one more day because there is a few more things I would like to see. I will most likely take a tour tomorrow and see more of Berlin before heading to Dassau where my great grandfather was born. I hope to be able to connect deeper with my roots and find more information about my family.

Arriving in Germany

After a long flight I arrived in Germany today, however unfortunately my flight did not go as smooth as I would have liked but I am making the best of it. I had a wonderful time driving to Portland for my departure and Alissa, Della and I stayed in a beautiful hotel with a pond for a view, an indoor pool and spa, a great location and vibrant decor.

Alissa and Della took me to the Airport Thursday morning and the flight was great until reaching the East Coast where we encountered a thunderstorm over Philadelphia. The plane hoovered over the storm for a half an hour before making a detour to North Carolina to refuel the plane. Then the plane took off to hoover over the storm again to wait until it could land. By the time we were able to safely land there were so many planes backed up, we had to wait 45 minutes before a terminal was available. At this point I was 4 hours late from when I was suppose to arrive and fortunately my connecting flight to Frankfort was delayed as well. So I made my next flight but unfortunately my checked back pack with just about everything in it never made the connection.

I was devastated this morning when I arrived and my bag was not here. No clothes to change into and no way to clean up or even brush my teeth. All I had was my passport, money, traveling books, a map and fortunately my sleeping bag. At least I have those essentials. I ended up wasting the whole day in a huge airport where I do not understand the language trying to figure out what to do and where to go. I was not planning to stay in Frankfort and was planning to hop on a train to Dassau where my great grandfather was born and then to Berlin. Instead I am hanging out in Frankfort hoping my baggage will arrive tomorrow on the next flight.

I finally was able to find a hostel and some great food (vegetarian pizza). Ironically, the hostel I am staying at is right across the street from a pond as well. I took my pizza to go and sat near the pond in the grass against a tree to eat. That was the most relaxing and beautiful part of my day, breathing in the cool fresh air while watching the locals feed the geese, ducks and pigeons as joggers and bicyclist rode by.

As dawn approached, I started hanging out with my "youth hostel roommate" and we started to met Europeans from Germany and others from Morocco, drank a bottle a some pretty good Spanish wine and went to a club until our curfew at our youth hostel.

Well, this was a very interesting first experience in Europe and I hope to continue my trip tomorrow. Until my next post....keep me safe in your thoughts!