So my laptop was Bricked and I spent a good amount of time trying to fix it. I am happy to announce that the laptop has been fixed through my tireless efforts and with a good dash of help from the Ubuntu Support pages and natural ease of Ubuntu. So my efforts were centred around creating a Ubuntu Live CD which allows you to run Ubuntu from the CD without actually installing it on your machine. Its general uses are to let users try out Ubuntu without making a commitment immediately and also to help you fix your computer. I was hoping to get Ubuntu running again so I could at least use the web and basic functions then from there I could try to fix the computer and if that failed I could install Ubuntu again on the free space in my Hard Drive and then wait until I got home to recover my old files. Turns out Ubuntu is very smart. I got the disk running and made it to the Desktop, I noticed a link to my hard drive and used to to find that I could access my old documents. After this I restarted the computer to find that my problem was solved. As far as I can tell the computer had lost its way when it tried to access my Hard Drive and it did not know where to look, when I accessed the documents when I loaded up through the CD it reconstructed the computers path to the Hard Drive thus allowing me to boot up normally.
So enough tech talk, I actually did things today. The big draw for today was visiting the Archaeological Museum which contained most of the best pieces from Pompeii, things like frescos, it really whetted my appetite for seeing Pompeii tomorrow but I think that if I had to choose now I would go to Pompeii since it would give you a better idea about some of the things in the Museum. After the Museum I also visited the Castle nearby, not as interesting as I wished, it was a castle and the view was good. After exploring the attractions I went back to the Hostel and thats when I fixed the laptop. While finishing up the laptop I met with the new Hostel mate who had just come from Athens and we decided with 2 other people to go to dinner at Sorbillo, one of the top pizza places in the city. I had a really simple Pizza the Margherita, it was just tomato sauce, mozzarella and Basil, its was amazing and the pizza was huge, it was maybe 7 inch diameter and the pizza only costed 3.3 Euro. The thing was amazing, the pizza was super flavorful and very filling, I actually finished the whole thing and it did not need anything more. I would say it was easily the best pizza I have EVER had. Tomorrow the weather should hold fair and I plan on going out to Pompeii so I should have photos and a blog for that tomorrow.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Hazards of Computers
So as you know I brought my computer with me on the trip(wel duh ive been blogging and using the internet). So th hostel I am at has unlimited internet and after taking advanage of it last night to update all my podcasts adn chat wih my mom I put the computer into Hiberntion, when I got up this morning I turned the laptp on to find myself face to face with th Linux (opn source OS i use) eqievalant of the blu screen of death. Now for Linux this looks less like a blue screen and more like a wall of text, imagine your computer got stuck on all he stuff tha appears when it first stated up, all the letters and numbers that you have absolutly no idea what hey mean. So to begin with I did not panic, Ubuntu is very good about having built in help functions that will vluate and fix the problems for you, I started i up and much to my chagrin it gave me the same error. Now I strted to panic, I didn't realize until just then how much I use my laptop, it charges my Ipod which is a sourc of entertainmnt and helps to kep me calm when I think things are going wrong, I store my photos on it, use it to update my blog an get podcasts, stay up to date with news. The single biggest thing that occurd to me was that I have a spreadsheet have been using to kep trac of my money and that is a vry important thing that I was losing. The Hostel has free computers with internet so I immdiatly hopped onto the Ubuntu support forums )one of the best resources for fixing and broken computer runnig Ubuntu). I locateed the problem pretty quick and found that it was that the OS no longer found the hard drive and you could fix it but you needed a Ubuntu install CD, of which I have none, after poking around I found you could do it with a USB drive and went to the nearest electronics store. Now if you know me you may know I LOVE video games, and what do you expect to find at an electronics store...video games, I had to walk through a large selection of everything I ws missing including games that I had missed the realease of and all I could do was drool knowing it was not possible t bu them for a multitude of reasons. I got eh USB drive and I am trying to put on the installer but for now my laptop is Bricked.
Since i'm still in the process of tryng to fix this I wil update the blog whn things change, if they do...fingers crossed.
Edit
So the update is that I tried to make a USB install of Ubuntu and that failed so tomorrow I have to go and buy a disk so I can do a Ubuntu LiveCD adn that should at least give me back the internet and basic computer functions, from there I may have to just leave the other files alone unti I get home or try to find a work around.
Since i'm still in the process of tryng to fix this I wil update the blog whn things change, if they do...fingers crossed.
Edit
So the update is that I tried to make a USB install of Ubuntu and that failed so tomorrow I have to go and buy a disk so I can do a Ubuntu LiveCD adn that should at least give me back the internet and basic computer functions, from there I may have to just leave the other files alone unti I get home or try to find a work around.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Internet: How I have missed thee
Okay to be fair to the title I have had internet but it has been limited to 30 minutes a day so here is another big blog to encompass the past few missing days.
The first day I met with the people from my new Hostel, they are pretty cool people, actually they are all from Australia and two of them are from the same town. The group that came from the same town is two girls (Rebecca and Brigget) and a guy(Jack), Jack and Brigget are engaged, they just got engaged and Jack flew out from Australia as a surprise( they are around 21). The other people are a also engaged and they are also from Australia and they are have been engaged for around 6 months (they are around 26). This first day was really the evening that I arrived in Rome, I went for a walk with my new Hostel mates, we walked down to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum but didn't enter either since the price was expensive and it was the end of the day. The forum had actually closed so we wandered through the streets until we found a small restaurant where we had a drink. I had a Nectarine Juice it was very thick and tasted wonderful. After the drinks e headed back to the Hostel for dinner since the served a free pizza dinner every night at 8:30. After the pizza I went back to my bed and fell asleep since I was tired. Its been weird walking everywhere since I have not wanted to spend money on trains and buses unless I need to and most of the cities have had things close enough that you can walk to the attractions (the exception has been Rom, walking to the Vatican from where I was staying would have been murder). The few times I have taken the buses and metro its usually been cheap(1 or 2 Euros) but if I did that to get everywhere it would add up. As a result my legs have been constantly tired since about a week into the trip, the 30 lb backpack doesn't help either.
So I got up the next morning and ate breakfast with my new set friends before we split off and went our ways for the day, they had decided to visit the Vatican while I decided that I would solo all the big sites in downtown Rome( Pantheon, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum). I arrived at the Pantheon after wandering around the area for about an hour looking for the building, I eventually found a sign and then followed the line on tourists to the building. The Pantheon was free top enter the building itself was cool but I found that most of my interest went not into the main building but into the walls and decorations that adorned them. After the Pantheon I headed to the lines at the Roman forum and waited to get my ticket, the whole price was 12.5 Euro and includes the Roman Forum, Colosseum and Palatine Hill. It's a good deal if you make it to them all which you should. I walked through the Forum first which was not as impressive as one might hope, without the 4 Euro guide its just some interesting rocks with some VERY cool structures as well. Palatine Hill was much more interesting to me, it has been converted into a garden now, but in Roman times it was the most prestigious place for your home to be. The word Palace actually stems from there. The gardens were very pretty and it was easy to tell how the place was the best real estate, you would be right next to the Forum and you had an amazing view of the city, especially without all the high rise buildings that are there now. After the gardens I headed over and entered the Colosseum, it was very cool but it is so run down, you can just imagine how amazing it would have been when it was first built, it has a bunch of holes where there used to be statues and adornments and they ripped all that out to re use the building materials. The place is Huge though and even falling apart you can almost see the spectacle of 50,000 people watching gladiator fight at the center of the Colosseum. After the museums I headed back to the Hostel for the free pizza (hey free dinner, its a great money saver) and then crashed into bed again.
The next morning I decided to go with the rest of my roommates since they were once again going to the Vatican, they had tried to get in the day before but the place had been swamped since the Pope was in town, apparently they saw him do a service and then drive off in the pope mobile. We all went back and to the Vatican and we saw the Vatican, not much to say really it had lots of paintings and it was amazingly designed, I also managed to snap a photo of the Sistine Chapel even though your not supposed too. After the Chapel I went for a wonderful walk with three of my Hostel Mates (Rebecca, Brigget and Jack plus Briggets friend from Rome), anyway long story short we ended up having a meal at a nicer restaurant, I had a bowl of Spaghetti Alla Carbonnara which my dad made (and still makes) often for dinner. I wanted to be able to make a comparison. So dad, you do a pretty good job, the noodles were much more aldanate( under cooked) then I expected and the sauce was much richer then I am used to, it was a smaller bowl of pasta and t really filled me up, it tasted fantastic so it was worth the spendy pricetag. My share of the meal came out to be 18 Euros which is a huge price for me to pay for one meal, much higher then normal but you gotta treat yourself every once in a while right?
Anyway that day also went fast and then I went to bed again.
Today I moved cities and to sum things up quickly I grabbed a train, got off at the wrong stop, got back on again after waiting an hour and a half for the next train. When got to Naples I checked into the Hostel and had no problems. The crime here though is crazy, when you first exit the train station all along the street are people selling things and I reckon that 30% are easily noticeable as stolen goods as as high as 50% are actually stolen, I held onto my bag very tight, I even used the stomach strap though it was not needed.
The first day I met with the people from my new Hostel, they are pretty cool people, actually they are all from Australia and two of them are from the same town. The group that came from the same town is two girls (Rebecca and Brigget) and a guy(Jack), Jack and Brigget are engaged, they just got engaged and Jack flew out from Australia as a surprise( they are around 21). The other people are a also engaged and they are also from Australia and they are have been engaged for around 6 months (they are around 26). This first day was really the evening that I arrived in Rome, I went for a walk with my new Hostel mates, we walked down to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum but didn't enter either since the price was expensive and it was the end of the day. The forum had actually closed so we wandered through the streets until we found a small restaurant where we had a drink. I had a Nectarine Juice it was very thick and tasted wonderful. After the drinks e headed back to the Hostel for dinner since the served a free pizza dinner every night at 8:30. After the pizza I went back to my bed and fell asleep since I was tired. Its been weird walking everywhere since I have not wanted to spend money on trains and buses unless I need to and most of the cities have had things close enough that you can walk to the attractions (the exception has been Rom, walking to the Vatican from where I was staying would have been murder). The few times I have taken the buses and metro its usually been cheap(1 or 2 Euros) but if I did that to get everywhere it would add up. As a result my legs have been constantly tired since about a week into the trip, the 30 lb backpack doesn't help either.
So I got up the next morning and ate breakfast with my new set friends before we split off and went our ways for the day, they had decided to visit the Vatican while I decided that I would solo all the big sites in downtown Rome( Pantheon, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum). I arrived at the Pantheon after wandering around the area for about an hour looking for the building, I eventually found a sign and then followed the line on tourists to the building. The Pantheon was free top enter the building itself was cool but I found that most of my interest went not into the main building but into the walls and decorations that adorned them. After the Pantheon I headed to the lines at the Roman forum and waited to get my ticket, the whole price was 12.5 Euro and includes the Roman Forum, Colosseum and Palatine Hill. It's a good deal if you make it to them all which you should. I walked through the Forum first which was not as impressive as one might hope, without the 4 Euro guide its just some interesting rocks with some VERY cool structures as well. Palatine Hill was much more interesting to me, it has been converted into a garden now, but in Roman times it was the most prestigious place for your home to be. The word Palace actually stems from there. The gardens were very pretty and it was easy to tell how the place was the best real estate, you would be right next to the Forum and you had an amazing view of the city, especially without all the high rise buildings that are there now. After the gardens I headed over and entered the Colosseum, it was very cool but it is so run down, you can just imagine how amazing it would have been when it was first built, it has a bunch of holes where there used to be statues and adornments and they ripped all that out to re use the building materials. The place is Huge though and even falling apart you can almost see the spectacle of 50,000 people watching gladiator fight at the center of the Colosseum. After the museums I headed back to the Hostel for the free pizza (hey free dinner, its a great money saver) and then crashed into bed again.
The next morning I decided to go with the rest of my roommates since they were once again going to the Vatican, they had tried to get in the day before but the place had been swamped since the Pope was in town, apparently they saw him do a service and then drive off in the pope mobile. We all went back and to the Vatican and we saw the Vatican, not much to say really it had lots of paintings and it was amazingly designed, I also managed to snap a photo of the Sistine Chapel even though your not supposed too. After the Chapel I went for a wonderful walk with three of my Hostel Mates (Rebecca, Brigget and Jack plus Briggets friend from Rome), anyway long story short we ended up having a meal at a nicer restaurant, I had a bowl of Spaghetti Alla Carbonnara which my dad made (and still makes) often for dinner. I wanted to be able to make a comparison. So dad, you do a pretty good job, the noodles were much more aldanate( under cooked) then I expected and the sauce was much richer then I am used to, it was a smaller bowl of pasta and t really filled me up, it tasted fantastic so it was worth the spendy pricetag. My share of the meal came out to be 18 Euros which is a huge price for me to pay for one meal, much higher then normal but you gotta treat yourself every once in a while right?
Anyway that day also went fast and then I went to bed again.
Today I moved cities and to sum things up quickly I grabbed a train, got off at the wrong stop, got back on again after waiting an hour and a half for the next train. When got to Naples I checked into the Hostel and had no problems. The crime here though is crazy, when you first exit the train station all along the street are people selling things and I reckon that 30% are easily noticeable as stolen goods as as high as 50% are actually stolen, I held onto my bag very tight, I even used the stomach strap though it was not needed.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Barcelona and Italy
So today I moved from Madrid to Barcelona and the shift could have goon smoother, I started out early hoping to make the 10:30 direct from Madrid to Barcelona and was disappointed to find that train was full and the only other one was at 12:30. Ouch I had to wait for another 2 hours at the train station and the kicker was that they only had first class seats left for the 12:30, and since the 12:30 was the last train from that location, I would have had to go and find the other train station to depart from or I would have to wait till tomorrow and lose one of my two full days in Barcelona. I went with the extra money, a decision that I am kinda mad at but I did it and I cant take it back. The extra service you get for your money really is not worth it, more leg room, a movie and radio, and a meal, its was interesting to see what the first class is but it is definitely not worth the cost of the ticket. I'm gong to post a photo of the olive oil that came with the meal since it was a hilarious little oil bottle and looked really cute. Anyway I made it to Barcelona and I was immediately confused as I left the building. I ran into two guys who asked if I spoke English and then asked me for directions, I told them I didn't really know and went to go find my way about 5 minutes later the same guys approached me and gave me a sob story about how one of them had lost his passport and they were only like 6 Euros short and if I gave them some money, I stopped him right there saying I could not give away money. I might have come off kind of mean since I just spit it out but especially in retrospect it seems like a con. If you lost your passport you go report it to a consulate you don't try and get money so one of you can go home and get copies of the other guys passport. Also I'm a poor traveler, even if I was fooled by the story I don't have extra money to give away. Back to me navigating the rails, I was super confused by the maps of the rail system and I told myself as I entered the station, “this is gonna be just like Germany” where if you will recall I boarded a train in the wrong direction....well I was right, having misread the map I took a train away from my hostel and when the line ended and I found a map I realized that I had to take the same line the opposite direction to get to my stop. I re boarded the train and I made it to the Hostel no problems from there. The Hostel itself is nice, its in a slightly low end area (lots of graffiti everywhere) but the place itself is very nice. It has a full bar, TV area, Wi-Fi as well as computers for guests to use, nice big rooms and even a Gym for guests. The location is pretty good too, its very near a busy street lined with restaurants and about 10 minutes walk from the cities central street. It certainly feels like a good place to explore Barcelona from and its near to the airport as well. So Barcelona and then onto Italy.
So this blog was written in two parts, this first part came when I had just gotten to the Hostel, the second one I am writing on Sunday morning so I ca complete the story of what happened. So after I logged off the Hostel room totally filled up, we had a group of 3 Greek guys enter as well as another guy from California and the 3 girls who had been in the room before I showed up. The Greeks were doing a small tour of Spain and weirdly enough the 3 girls were from UW (university of Washington, it was great when I told them I was thinking about going to WSU, the schools are rivals) and were doing a study abroad program, two of them are spending a year and one is spending a half year, they had come up from Cadis (where there school was) since they had a longer break from school and wanted to explore Barcelona. We had a great time as a group in the room and at around 1:30 we decided to go to this local bar we were told about( the Greeks unfortunately stayed behind), we spent around 2 hours there and met a friend of the girls who was also in there study abroad program and his buddy. We decided to change bars and find some food along the way to the next bar. We had been told that the next bar was a really chill place that was a hidden treasure but when we got there it was PACKED, we spent all of 15 minutes inside before deciding to go back to the Hostel. We walked back to the Hostel and found some food before deciding that at around 5 or 5:30 we should go to bed, we just got up around 11 so we missed the breakfast at the Hostel but the night was super enjoyable. This Hostel is definitely the best I have stayed at both thanks to a good facilities and for sure the best roommates I have had my whole trip
.
We woke up in the morning around 11 and started to get ready for the day, we had all planed to go hiking in a mountain range nearby, we had to take an 1.5 hour train to get the the location but it was definitely worth it. We actually missed the initial train we wanted at 12:30 and had to wait for the 1:30 train so we went and grabbed a bite at a small restaurant nearby, the food was really good and it was a good choice since we had gotten up to late to get breakfast at the Hostel. Once were there we had to take a smaller train up to the entrance, there was a monastery as well as the usual visitor attractions and we all took a little elevator like thing up to the top of the mountains (they were around 3000 feet above sea level). They had a variety of hikes to good viewpoints from half and hour to 2.5 hours long, we had arrived at like 1:30 and we needed to be back at the elevator thing around 5 and we did not want to miss the last lift since we would have to walk down if we did. The hike itself was very fun with a ton of great views and I was not very long, I was also surprised to see that many of the rock walls had rings in them for attaching a rope if you were rock climbing meaning that rock climbing was not only allowed but to some degree encouraged. After the hike (where I got a ton of pictures) we went back down the the lower level and spent some time exploring the monastery, it had a very cool entrance chamber and they had the usual place where you can light candles, however there were so many candles that when you walked into the candle room you could feel the heat hit you. After exploring the monastery we decided we should head back so we went to find the small tram to take us back to out train stop, we found that there was a HUGE line of people waiting to get onto the tram. We debated how long the line would take and settled on finding some food since it had been like 6 hours since we had eaten our lunch and we had had nothing since then. We walked along the street and looked at a small cafe but it appeared to be out of food so we had to continue on, we also passed a group of stalls that had been set up and we walked through them getting free samples of cheese at every stall, we eventually hit the restaurant and found that it had closed like 10 minutes ago, so we decided we would go back to the initial cafe and get some ice cream to tide us over until we made it back to the Hostel. By the time we had our ice cream the line for the train had decreased unbelievably, we grabbed a spot and ended up waiting probably 15 minutes before getting onto onto the train. The first train ride was short, just down the mountain to the nearby town, but the train was packed, when we got to the lower train station there was a ton of people there too and when the train arrived we could not manage to get seats. This meant we had to stand for the 1.5 hour trip back to Barcelona and since we could not take that after hours of hiking we all sat down around 10 minutes into the ride. After getting back into Barcelona we made our way back to the Hostel and scrounged up some dinner and al take showers (this was around 9:30-10). After that we went for a walk down the streets mainly to grab some simosas at a nearby store and then we continued to walk around for another 45 minutes or so and ended up back at the Hostel where we chilled until around 2 when everyone went to sleep. Unfortunately the girls had to leave to head back to school so they shipped out around 4 in the morning to catch there flight at around 7ands I leave tomorrow morning myself but the experience of Spain was really good. I think that having good roommates really helps to improve the experience, I definitely did not have this much fun when it was just a room full of people who sat there and said nothing.
My second day in Barcelona was spent at two places, the first was the Maritime Museum,a much older style museum with history of Barcelona as a port city and as a Spanish port overall, the museum highlighted the older ships, things like Royal Spanish ships from the 16th century as opposed to the maritime museum in Rotterdam which was more of a modern museum highlighting the development of the port into a modern day port. After the museum I wander all the down Las Rambles which is the biggest street in Barcelona, it had an amazing variety of things, street performers, gift shops, restaurants, flower shops, pet stores(like little stalls selling birds and fish, up to full chickens). It was pretty wild and the street was bustling with tourists. The street was really nice and a great adventure, after that I just went back and had to repack my bag to get ready for the flight to Italy.
The big day arrived and I ended up sleeping in late, I had not been able to fall asleep so I ended up falling asleep way to late and my roommate had to wake me up at around 8, about an hour after I had planned on getting up, I was going t grab a train to the Airport and arrive around hours early so that I would have a hard time missing the plane. After I was woken up I went into a panic mode, shoved everything I still had out into my bag and ran downstairs to check out, I got checked out and started planning. I realized right off the bat that the train was out of the equation, its takes around an hour by train to get to the airport so I had to make a tough choice. I ended up paying 20 Euros take a cab to the airport but it was either 20 Euros for the cab or go buy another plane ticket. I think I choose the cheaper alternative. I got to the airport and it only took around 20 minutes so I made it to the airport with what seemed like enough time to get through the security and check in. Getting my bag checked was easy and barely took 10 minutes, security was also a breeze and took probably the same, I found my way through the airport super easy and made it to the gate maybe an hour before the plane was supposed to leave, I was kinda pissed since I still had all that time and I worried myself through the airport and I still had to wait for the plane. NOT COOL. The plane ride to Italy was good, nice and short and, we got in 20 minutes early. I grabbed a train from the airport direct to down town Rome, the airport was probably the best place I have been so far, it must be all the tourists that come into it but it was easy to navigate and buy tickets. The city was a little harder, I made it out of the station easily enough but I could not find the Hostel I was looking for in the clutter of all the Hotels around the train station, I had to find an Internet cafe and Google the location. I got the directions and found the place, apparently its one of a group of famous Hostels, the place is more like a Hotel, it has free Internet, free breakfast, free pizza at dinner, and the place has a TV room and REALLY nice bathrooms. It is great, compared to some of the places have stayed this is fantastic. I have 3 days including today planned in Rome, then going to Naples/Pompeii, a single day in Pisa and then 2 days in Venice. I am really looking forward to the my time in Italy, its one of the places I have really been looking forward to. I also met my new roommates, I really like them, we went out and explored Rome with one of the girls (there are 3 girls and 2 boys excluding myself) being our tour guide since she has been to Rome around 6 times. It was really great, we didn't enter any of the places but we saw the Colosseum and parts of the Roman Forum, after the walk we all headed back to Hostel for the free pizza they provide as a dinner. All in all, good day.
Really sorry to delay this more but the new place has a time limit on your Internet (30 min) so I probably wont get chance to upload all the photos.
So this blog was written in two parts, this first part came when I had just gotten to the Hostel, the second one I am writing on Sunday morning so I ca complete the story of what happened. So after I logged off the Hostel room totally filled up, we had a group of 3 Greek guys enter as well as another guy from California and the 3 girls who had been in the room before I showed up. The Greeks were doing a small tour of Spain and weirdly enough the 3 girls were from UW (university of Washington, it was great when I told them I was thinking about going to WSU, the schools are rivals) and were doing a study abroad program, two of them are spending a year and one is spending a half year, they had come up from Cadis (where there school was) since they had a longer break from school and wanted to explore Barcelona. We had a great time as a group in the room and at around 1:30 we decided to go to this local bar we were told about( the Greeks unfortunately stayed behind), we spent around 2 hours there and met a friend of the girls who was also in there study abroad program and his buddy. We decided to change bars and find some food along the way to the next bar. We had been told that the next bar was a really chill place that was a hidden treasure but when we got there it was PACKED, we spent all of 15 minutes inside before deciding to go back to the Hostel. We walked back to the Hostel and found some food before deciding that at around 5 or 5:30 we should go to bed, we just got up around 11 so we missed the breakfast at the Hostel but the night was super enjoyable. This Hostel is definitely the best I have stayed at both thanks to a good facilities and for sure the best roommates I have had my whole trip
.
We woke up in the morning around 11 and started to get ready for the day, we had all planed to go hiking in a mountain range nearby, we had to take an 1.5 hour train to get the the location but it was definitely worth it. We actually missed the initial train we wanted at 12:30 and had to wait for the 1:30 train so we went and grabbed a bite at a small restaurant nearby, the food was really good and it was a good choice since we had gotten up to late to get breakfast at the Hostel. Once were there we had to take a smaller train up to the entrance, there was a monastery as well as the usual visitor attractions and we all took a little elevator like thing up to the top of the mountains (they were around 3000 feet above sea level). They had a variety of hikes to good viewpoints from half and hour to 2.5 hours long, we had arrived at like 1:30 and we needed to be back at the elevator thing around 5 and we did not want to miss the last lift since we would have to walk down if we did. The hike itself was very fun with a ton of great views and I was not very long, I was also surprised to see that many of the rock walls had rings in them for attaching a rope if you were rock climbing meaning that rock climbing was not only allowed but to some degree encouraged. After the hike (where I got a ton of pictures) we went back down the the lower level and spent some time exploring the monastery, it had a very cool entrance chamber and they had the usual place where you can light candles, however there were so many candles that when you walked into the candle room you could feel the heat hit you. After exploring the monastery we decided we should head back so we went to find the small tram to take us back to out train stop, we found that there was a HUGE line of people waiting to get onto the tram. We debated how long the line would take and settled on finding some food since it had been like 6 hours since we had eaten our lunch and we had had nothing since then. We walked along the street and looked at a small cafe but it appeared to be out of food so we had to continue on, we also passed a group of stalls that had been set up and we walked through them getting free samples of cheese at every stall, we eventually hit the restaurant and found that it had closed like 10 minutes ago, so we decided we would go back to the initial cafe and get some ice cream to tide us over until we made it back to the Hostel. By the time we had our ice cream the line for the train had decreased unbelievably, we grabbed a spot and ended up waiting probably 15 minutes before getting onto onto the train. The first train ride was short, just down the mountain to the nearby town, but the train was packed, when we got to the lower train station there was a ton of people there too and when the train arrived we could not manage to get seats. This meant we had to stand for the 1.5 hour trip back to Barcelona and since we could not take that after hours of hiking we all sat down around 10 minutes into the ride. After getting back into Barcelona we made our way back to the Hostel and scrounged up some dinner and al take showers (this was around 9:30-10). After that we went for a walk down the streets mainly to grab some simosas at a nearby store and then we continued to walk around for another 45 minutes or so and ended up back at the Hostel where we chilled until around 2 when everyone went to sleep. Unfortunately the girls had to leave to head back to school so they shipped out around 4 in the morning to catch there flight at around 7ands I leave tomorrow morning myself but the experience of Spain was really good. I think that having good roommates really helps to improve the experience, I definitely did not have this much fun when it was just a room full of people who sat there and said nothing.
My second day in Barcelona was spent at two places, the first was the Maritime Museum,a much older style museum with history of Barcelona as a port city and as a Spanish port overall, the museum highlighted the older ships, things like Royal Spanish ships from the 16th century as opposed to the maritime museum in Rotterdam which was more of a modern museum highlighting the development of the port into a modern day port. After the museum I wander all the down Las Rambles which is the biggest street in Barcelona, it had an amazing variety of things, street performers, gift shops, restaurants, flower shops, pet stores(like little stalls selling birds and fish, up to full chickens). It was pretty wild and the street was bustling with tourists. The street was really nice and a great adventure, after that I just went back and had to repack my bag to get ready for the flight to Italy.
The big day arrived and I ended up sleeping in late, I had not been able to fall asleep so I ended up falling asleep way to late and my roommate had to wake me up at around 8, about an hour after I had planned on getting up, I was going t grab a train to the Airport and arrive around hours early so that I would have a hard time missing the plane. After I was woken up I went into a panic mode, shoved everything I still had out into my bag and ran downstairs to check out, I got checked out and started planning. I realized right off the bat that the train was out of the equation, its takes around an hour by train to get to the airport so I had to make a tough choice. I ended up paying 20 Euros take a cab to the airport but it was either 20 Euros for the cab or go buy another plane ticket. I think I choose the cheaper alternative. I got to the airport and it only took around 20 minutes so I made it to the airport with what seemed like enough time to get through the security and check in. Getting my bag checked was easy and barely took 10 minutes, security was also a breeze and took probably the same, I found my way through the airport super easy and made it to the gate maybe an hour before the plane was supposed to leave, I was kinda pissed since I still had all that time and I worried myself through the airport and I still had to wait for the plane. NOT COOL. The plane ride to Italy was good, nice and short and, we got in 20 minutes early. I grabbed a train from the airport direct to down town Rome, the airport was probably the best place I have been so far, it must be all the tourists that come into it but it was easy to navigate and buy tickets. The city was a little harder, I made it out of the station easily enough but I could not find the Hostel I was looking for in the clutter of all the Hotels around the train station, I had to find an Internet cafe and Google the location. I got the directions and found the place, apparently its one of a group of famous Hostels, the place is more like a Hotel, it has free Internet, free breakfast, free pizza at dinner, and the place has a TV room and REALLY nice bathrooms. It is great, compared to some of the places have stayed this is fantastic. I have 3 days including today planned in Rome, then going to Naples/Pompeii, a single day in Pisa and then 2 days in Venice. I am really looking forward to the my time in Italy, its one of the places I have really been looking forward to. I also met my new roommates, I really like them, we went out and explored Rome with one of the girls (there are 3 girls and 2 boys excluding myself) being our tour guide since she has been to Rome around 6 times. It was really great, we didn't enter any of the places but we saw the Colosseum and parts of the Roman Forum, after the walk we all headed back to Hostel for the free pizza they provide as a dinner. All in all, good day.
Really sorry to delay this more but the new place has a time limit on your Internet (30 min) so I probably wont get chance to upload all the photos.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Not a Blog Post
So this isnt really a real post, I just wanted to tell everyone who is reading that there will be a small wait for the next few blogs, I have a mega blog*so far its looking to be around 2,5 pages maybe more) for all the days I have missed already written but the wireless here does not agree with my lapyop and wont let me connect so I will be posting the blogs when I arrive in Rome (hopefully) basically dont expect anything from me here until the 13th, so until then, bye bye
Friday, October 9, 2009
Museums
So today was definitely the museum day for Madrid, I checked out probably the two biggest in the city. I started at the Museuo Del Prado, it housed a ton of paintings (over 3000 the brochure said) and was fairly interesting, I say fairly because there are only so many paintings that one man wants to see. Anyway the paintings were fairly old, lots of paintings of old royal families and the likes. There were also paintings of scenery and some of animals, lots of dead animals heaped over tables. They were very interesting but I was struck by something while I was in the museum. The back of the brochure had all the paintings in the museum that were considered masterpieces and I noticed this about halfway through and I realized that without that piece of paper telling me they were masterpieces I would never have know. So then what makes them so amazing if they dont stand out to me, I just saw a painting, maybe a little better then most but I didn't see them and go "ohh thats a masterpiece". Just a thought.
After making my way through the Prado I went to the nearby Museo Reina Sopia, it was much more modern art and I though that I would really enjoy it but the art did not really resonate with me. I spent around an hour wandering through the museum before heading to the small garden they had in the middle and relaxing for another 15 minutes. I found that most of the art seemed very boring and I went through very quickly and did not care to much, there was the occasional piece that would catch my attention but for me at least it was not worth the cost.
The overall day was okay for me, I grabbed a snack before I went to walk around the town a little, its very nice, the streets look cool and there are a LOT of tapas places everywhere. Also during the day theree were fighter jets that flew over the city, I am fairly sure that they flew over the city like 4 times, it was cool.
So ends my time in another city im moving on to Barcelona tomorrow and then I spend saturday, sunday, and Monday there.
After making my way through the Prado I went to the nearby Museo Reina Sopia, it was much more modern art and I though that I would really enjoy it but the art did not really resonate with me. I spent around an hour wandering through the museum before heading to the small garden they had in the middle and relaxing for another 15 minutes. I found that most of the art seemed very boring and I went through very quickly and did not care to much, there was the occasional piece that would catch my attention but for me at least it was not worth the cost.
The overall day was okay for me, I grabbed a snack before I went to walk around the town a little, its very nice, the streets look cool and there are a LOT of tapas places everywhere. Also during the day theree were fighter jets that flew over the city, I am fairly sure that they flew over the city like 4 times, it was cool.
So ends my time in another city im moving on to Barcelona tomorrow and then I spend saturday, sunday, and Monday there.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Madrids Royal Palace
SO my big draw for today was the Royal Palace of Madrid, the palace contains the main rooms for the old royal family, a reconstruction of the medicine house, and an armoury. I first visited the medicine house, it had been destroyed during a fire and had to e rebuilt. It contained all of the instruments and materials for creating medicine, it had reconstructions of all the glasses and pottery with labels for all of the medicinal supplies that it would have contained. The rooms displayed to some degree the changes of the medicine through the years. The rooms also contained all the tools used for the medicine. That was a pretty small part of the whole Palace area but interesting that it was contained within the walls of the Royal Palace, guess the kind gets the best healthcare. Next I hit up the main Palace, it was the residence of the old Royal family and as you might think it was crazy. The main entrance was this huge with the family crest right in front of you as you walked up the stairs and above on the ceiling was a huge painting. I got to see all the main roms, bedrooms, dining room, the parlour like area. They all had huge chandeliers that got more complex the closer you got to the living room. They also had a room filled with silver that the royal family had used or in that same style. The best room for me was the Porcelain room, its walls and ceiling were made completely of porcelain with intricate designs in porcelain done to cover the cracks where pieces met. The whole room was so amazing and felt really fragile.
After the main palace I went to the armoury, it was a mix of swords, lances, maces and various pieces of armour, mostly plate mail with some ornamental pieces. They also had early guns, they were mostly large pieces of wood with the firing mechanisms attached to the wood. The stuff was cool but not the bst ive seen and the whole collection was pretty small, speaking of small so was the price tag it was 3.5 Euros, very cheap. I think they may have given me the student discount which I do not qualify for, for those of you wondering why not you need an international student card to get those discounts and for that you must prove you are a full time student, which I no longer am.
So after the cheap royal palace I made my way over to the nearby church, literally right next to the palace and paid 6 Euros to see the churches museum, mostly old churcy stuff, lots of garments and ceremonial staffs with LOTS of gems in them and they were mostly made from silver. The church also offered a great view of the city from the top of its tower, I took some photos but two of the four sides lacked viewing posts and all the sides had a nice plexiglass divider so you could not get closer then 5 feet from the edge. This made getting the photos rather hard but I did try.
Unfortunately for you reading the blog both the inside of the royal palace and the chuch museum would not allow photos so I am afraid I cannot show you the very wonderful things I saw, safe to say though if you are in Madrid, the royal palace especially is a must see.
After the main palace I went to the armoury, it was a mix of swords, lances, maces and various pieces of armour, mostly plate mail with some ornamental pieces. They also had early guns, they were mostly large pieces of wood with the firing mechanisms attached to the wood. The stuff was cool but not the bst ive seen and the whole collection was pretty small, speaking of small so was the price tag it was 3.5 Euros, very cheap. I think they may have given me the student discount which I do not qualify for, for those of you wondering why not you need an international student card to get those discounts and for that you must prove you are a full time student, which I no longer am.
So after the cheap royal palace I made my way over to the nearby church, literally right next to the palace and paid 6 Euros to see the churches museum, mostly old churcy stuff, lots of garments and ceremonial staffs with LOTS of gems in them and they were mostly made from silver. The church also offered a great view of the city from the top of its tower, I took some photos but two of the four sides lacked viewing posts and all the sides had a nice plexiglass divider so you could not get closer then 5 feet from the edge. This made getting the photos rather hard but I did try.
Unfortunately for you reading the blog both the inside of the royal palace and the chuch museum would not allow photos so I am afraid I cannot show you the very wonderful things I saw, safe to say though if you are in Madrid, the royal palace especially is a must see.
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