World Cup comes to the Spainiterranian Sea!

Weeks 2 and 3:

Well, after a night on the floor at London airport, we met the Norwegians, flew to Madrid and found our hostel. We spent then next couple days wandering around the city and soaking in Madrid. Madrid was very busy all the time. We went to a bullfight which was…interesting. It was a cultural experience that was more brutal then it had to be as some of the matadors were horrible at their jobs! We had one night out here in which we met three girls from Idaho and tasted the local nightlife. Rumor has it that Tim and Torstein ran to Barcelona and back, while I proceeded to get lost and wonder for miles only to get back to the hostel somehow. The next day we took a train to Barcelona while the Norwegians left for home.

Barcelona has been our favorite place so far. The city is beautiful, very chill atmosphere, the weather was awesome, and the place we stayed at was incredible. We found this place on couchsurfing.com, so it was free for the two nights we stayed. The people that run the place have this villa outside the city that they rent out and organize city tours and things. They use couchsurfing to get people involved, and involved we got! The villa was 25 minutes from downtown, two stories, pool, tennis court, BBQ, ping-pong, an amazing cook, and fun people as well. We spent the first day there hanging out with people from everywhere, and had the most amazing paella ever! The second day, it just happened to be one of the owner’s friends birthday, so they threw her a huge party….and what do ya know? It was Tim’s birthday as well!! So, on Tim’s birthday, we had an all you can eat/drink party at a poolside villa in Barcelona, with 30 of our closest Europe-friends! Tweets!

After these couple days of fun/relaxation, we hopped on a ship to cruise the Mediterranean. The ship was relaxing, food was abundant, the ports were ok (although we took it easy on a couple because we’re coming back to Italy later on), and I saw some old friends from other ships! The one downside was that everything on the ship reminded me of Sam, who I miss so much! In other news, The World Cup has started!!! After waiting for 4 years and spending the last few weeks listening to English commentary about how great England is, we actually got to watch some futbol! We watched some in Majorca, and joined a cruise ship bar-full of Brits and Yanks alike to enjoy the tie. It was a great game, I would have liked a win, but we were happy with the American showing. Today, we got off the ship for a couple more days in Barcelona, and then it’s off to France!!!

D

Emmons' take Europe

Week 1:

It’s been one week in Europe, and I feel like we’ve done so much already. We’ve made a couple ill-advised moves, had some interesting experiences, seen some amazing places, and had a good time.

I landed in London on Monday morning, I met Tim at a hostel on the outskirts of town, we went and had lunch downtown, and then, after a quick catnap, we went to Wembley Stadium to see England play Mexico in one of the last friendly matches before the World Cup next week!! It was incredible! There where t-shirts on every seat that when put on, helped create the biggest English flag I’d ever seen! The next day we walked the streets of London, hung our with Tim’s schoolmates, and saw the highlights of London. We ended the night by seeing The Lion King (show not the movie). The next couple days we spent in Hatfield, relaxed at Tim’s pad, and planned the next week of our trip. We took a day trip to Oxford where we visited the castle, the University, The Eagle and Child (Where Tolkien and CS Lewis hung out with each others genius), and The Turf Tavern (Where Bill Clinton allegedly “didn’t inhale”). To finish off the England portion of our trip, we went to Manchester for the weekend where we walked around, tried not to spend our money, and visited Old Trafford (Manchester United Stadium). Then it was a bus back to London where it’s looking like a sleepless night in an airport and a flight to Madrid awaits us.

England has welcomed me to Europe in splendid fashion, but now its south to cheaper currency, different food, and warmer weather!! I cannot wait