Odds and Ends

I'm not sure if anyone will actually read this seeing as how it's been almost two months since I last got a blog up. Sorry about the delay...

Luckily my camera was found by the bus company I had toured with 2 days before I left Iceland and they were nice enough to mail it to me to me in the US. So I didn't lose my photos from London and Iceland and hope to have summary posts up from those locations soon. Here is a photo from each with links to the albums in case you just want to check out those pictures:

From London

From Iceland

A Life Update:
I'm currently living back in Charleston, and I've pretty much decided against South America in the Spring. I just got too burned out from all the traveling and want to stay put and settle in somewhere for a while. I'm hoping to find a public-interest legal job in Charleston, which I think could take a while, and I'm not in any hurry to rejoin the working world. If I'm unable to find a job I really want in Charleston after about a year, I'll probably consider doing some more traveling in 2014 (South America? India/Nepal? Africa?) Whether or not I do some more traveling, if it doesn't look like I'll be able to find a job I'm excited about in Charleston after a year or two, I'll probably start looking at jobs in other cities.

How Much Did It Cost?
I was surprised by how often people asked me while I was travelling how much it had cost me. I don't think I'd feel comfortable asking someone else how much they had spent on their travels, but it seemed pretty clear that quite a few people were curious. So, I did the math and added it all up and figured a few of you might be curious as well. The total for all of my expenses - plane/train/bus/ferry tickets, food, accommodation, tours, visas, replacement cameras, x-rays, etc. -- literally every expense -- was a few dollars short of $29,000 for 290 days of travel, a nice round $100/day. I could've easily spent a lot less and easily spent a lot more. I initially had anticipated spending quite a bit more than that, but that was when I was planning to visit quite a few more places/continents. Nevertheless, I was still pleased with that total, and it was probably less than I would've spent had I just spent those 10 months hanging out in Newport Beach or Charleston.

Checking in from Americuh

Very excited to be back in the States and looking forward to seeing all the friends and family I haven't seen in a while. But, in quite a fitting end to my trip, I somehow managed to lose my camera at some point during my last 48 hours in Iceland. I'm still hoping to retrieve it, but won't have any of my pics from London or Iceland for a while (if at all), so those summary posts might not make it up for a while.

Paris

I think the extended title for this blog should be: "Paris - a beautiful city overlowing with unfriendly people and amazing food"

Day 275 - Monday, October 22

My flight on Ryanair lived up to the expectations, with them doing everything possible to get every possible cent from every passenger. It started at the check-in, where about 1/3 of the people had to get out of line and reshuffle their luggage because it was over the weight allowance; even overages less than a pound were not given a pass. Then, in line at the boarding gate, they were strictly enforcing the only-1-carry-on-item rule, forcing all women with a purse and a bag to fit the former inside the latter, and then making sure that all such carry-on's would fit inside the little metallic measuring frame/box. 

One poor girl was struggling mightily to reorganize her bag to get it to fit with her rather large purse/handbag inside, but it was becoming painfully obvious that there was no way her bag was going to pass muster, which would cost her ~$65 to check a bag at the gate (probably more than she paid for the flight). So I did my did good deed for the day and made an effort to fix the notion that Americans hate the French by pulling my fleece out of my bag, leaving plenty of space to offer her for her overflow. She readily accepted the offer. After boarding, the entire 2-hour flight was filled with non-stop efforts to sell stuff to the captive audience. Perhaps most shameless was a swimsuit calendar ostensibly featuring Ryanair employees. Here's betting the models were only employees long enough to pose for the calendar and collect a check.

It turns out my effort to get karma on my side at the airport didn't do anything to shield me from the disdain the French apparently have for (American?) tourists... When I checked into my hostel, I was assigned a top bunk, but when I got to the room, it was entirely empty - clearly I was the first to check into the room. So I went and asked if it would be possible to move to a bottom bunk... And then I got yelled at and berated in what easily qualified as the rudest exchange and rudest hostel/hotel worker I had experienced my entire time traveling. The guy was literally yelling, just because I had asked to move to a bottom bunk. I guess Paris is filled with rude assholes after all because if this guy was the best option to work in customer service at a hostel, I can't imagine what the general population must be like.

Later, I headed out for some food. With the help of the internet (I certainly wasn't going to ask the guy at reception for a recommendation!), I ended up at Chez Omar, one of many restaurants in Paris that feature couscous in various forms as their primary dish - definitely a first for me. And it ... was ... fantastic: 

From Paris

On the way home ran into real life Ratatouille roaming around the display case of a bakery.

From Paris

Day 276 - Tuesday, October 23

With only 2 full days to see the city, I spent Tuesday checking out the sites...
A 500-year old town square:

From Paris

Notre Dame:

From Paris

From Paris

Luxembourg Palace & Gardens

From Paris

From Paris

From Paris

I hung out in the general vicinity of the Eiffel tower long enough for the sun to set and the tower to be lit up, and I apparently felt the need to take a picture every time there was a slight change in its appearance. It's just so damn iconic...

From Paris

From Paris

From Paris

From Paris

Then I had some fun with the passing cars at the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees

From Paris

From Paris

The Louvre (I never actually made it inside):

From Paris

Finally I sat down for another meal, which featured the greatest piece of cheesecake I've ever eaten. I guess it's more like a mini-cheesecake than it is a piece of a larger cake. I really had no intention of taking a picture of it until I took a bite and experienced the excellence:

From Paris

France may have a lot of rude and pretentious people, and anyone who can't speak French may be scoffed at and treated with disdain, but I'll be damned if Paris doesn't have some of the best food I've had anywhere. I would probably go back to Paris just for the food. In addition to all the great restaurants, there's also amazing bread, pastries and crepes never more than a block away.

Day 277 - Wednesday, October 24

Wednesday, the weather wasn't nearly as nice, but I explored a bit more and took more photos anyway, because that's what tourists do.

From Paris

A black and white photo, because, you know, it's kind of arty and Paris is arty. Me, I'm not really arty, which is why I spent two days in Paris and didn't go inside a single museum.

From Paris

From Paris

From Paris

Day 278 - Thursday, October 25

Thursday, I hopped on a bus to London. Of course there is no road that connects France and England, so the bus was loaded into a railcar to make use of the chunnel, which was an interesting experience:

From Paris

Sevilla

Day 270 - Wednesday, October 17

As I think I've mentioned before, I've found how much I enjoy a location is highly dependent on how much I like where I stay. So despite an original plan that included heading northwest from Madrid and stopping in San Sebastian and Bordeaux, I changed plans and headed south to Sevilla because it didn't look like there were any good accommodation options in San Sebastian or Bordeaux, and Sevilla had several hostels that looked pretty great. I also found a flight from Sevilla to France that actually made it cheaper to go to Paris via Sevilla rather than taking the bus/train along my originally planned route.

When I got to Sevilla, I was pleased to find that the Garden Backpacker seemed like a great spot to spend a handful of days relaxing.

Day 271 - Thursday, October 18

When I woke up on Thursday, it was the first time I didn't feel awful in about a week. I still wasn't feeling great, but definitely better. Unfortunately, it seems the rain was following me around Spain because it rained all day Thursday, so I never left the hostel.

Day 272 - Friday, October 19

By the time I woke up on Friday, the rain had stopped, so I went out and explored a little bit, including catching my first glimpse of Sevilla's famous "mushrooms."

From Sevilla

Friday night was the first time I really went out since Barcelona because it was the first time I really felt healthy enough to do so. And for the first time on my trip, I think Americans were in the majority in our group. Prior to Spain, I had run into very few Americans while traveling, especially compared to other much smaller countries, but in Spain, and especially in Sevilla, there was quite an American contingent.

Day 273 - Saturday, October 20

Saturday was a beautiful day, so after tending to some laundry, I went and explored some more before settling in in front of the computer for about 7 hours of college football. Photos:

From Sevilla

From Sevilla

It seemed none of the Americans in Sevilla were very big college football fans because they all seemed baffled that I'd rather sit in the hostel and stare at a computer screen than go out. Perhaps you agree with them. Well, no one asked for your opinion, did they?

Day 274 - Sunday, October 21

My last full day in Sevilla was another rainy day, but luckily I got my clothes from the drying racks on the roof about 20 minutes before the rain hit. My hostelmates and I were not deterred by the rain, and we joined a tapas crawl/tour, sampling some pretty awesome tapas as we jumped around from spot to spot (not exactly the best idea when it's pouring rain outside). A photo courtesy of my American friend, Cate:

From Sevilla

Day 275 - Monday, October 22

A European vacation would not be complete without at least one trip on the legendary Ryanair. So on Monday, I jumped on a cheap flight to Paris, and by "Paris," I mean Beauvais Airport that's actually 60 miles and nearly 2 hours from Paris, but it's a lot easier for Ryanair and other low-cost airlines to sell tickets there if they call it a "Paris" airport.

Madrid

Day 267 - Sunday, October 16

In Madrid I stayed at a cool little hostel which boasted a view onto Plaza Mayor.

From Madrid

Unfortunately it was raining pretty fiercely Sunday evening, so I only managed to venture out far enough to get some food at the nearby San Miguel Market, a popular spot for Madrid foodies, with various food stalls serving upscale tapas.

Day 268 - Monday, October 15

Monday I was still feeling pretty awful, but I had things to see and places to go. So after sleeping in, I went out and explored a bit. My first stop was Citibank to pick up my replacement debit card. Despite some doubts, it was there waiting on me, and picking it up was painless unlike my experience in Barcelona. I wandered around a bit and took a few photos of Plaza Espana and one of the many courtyards outside the Royal Palace.

From Madrid

From Madrid

Monday night I met up with my friend Fiona, who I had met at the very start of my trip in Fiji, for more tapas. Our paths had happened to cross again in Madrid, and it was definitely nice to see a familiar face.

Day 269 - Tuesday, October 16

Tuesday, I still was not feeling well, but I decided to join a free walking tour to see a bit more of the city. I took zero pictures because the tour didn't really go anywhere picturesque and was mainly a 3-hour history lesson - not exactly the best walking tour I've experienced, but maybe there isn't much to see in Madrid? Afterwards, I was pretty worn out, so I got in the Spanish spirit and took a little siesta. After my nap, I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out where I was going to go next, how I was going to get there, and where I was going to stay when I got there. I probably should've gone out and experienced the Madrid nightlife. But with my lingering illness, staying up until sunrise, as Spaniards like to do, seemed like a bad idea. One more photo of Plaza Mayor from ground level:

From Madrid

Valencia

Day 264 - Friday, October 12

When I arrived in Valencia, after some mediocre paella, I opted for bed, hoping some rest might do me some good.

Day 265 - Saturday, October 13

Well, I was really hoping I had seen my last bedbug for the trip, but no such luck. By Saturday afternoon, a handful of large red welts that were unmistakable bedbug bites had appeared on my shoulder and neck, adding insult to injury. But that made it a little easier to rationalize getting out of the room and exploring a little, rather than sit around and rest on account of the flu.

So I explored a bit, and took some photos:

From Valencia

From Valencia

After enough European cities, there is a bit of a ceiling on how excited you can get to see another old important church, which is the reason the highlight of Valencia for me was definitely the City of Arts and Sciences

From Valencia

From Valencia

From Valencia

From Valencia

It being Saturday, I googled "american football valencia" and was excited to see that a few people noted that you could watch games at a place called "Portland Ale House," which is owned & operated by a guy from...yep you guessed it...Portland. It also offered quality craft beers. The combination of college football on an actual TV and a good beer had me salivating. So I strolled up there at about 6pm, when the early games would be starting, only to see that it didn't open until 7:00. That's odd, but alright, I guess I'll come back in a bit. So I came back a bit later, to see a fairly full bar, with all the TVs on some summary of some Spanish soccer team's season. So I asked the Oregonian owner about this issue, and he said they couldn't get american football games at the moment. Well that was a failure. At least Clemson had a bye week, so I wasn't relying on this place for that purpose, otherwise, there might've been some yelling. I figured at least I could get some good American food and a good hoppy ale....Not so much actually, none of the craft ales were available and the only beers they had were the same shitty beers I'd been drinking elsewhere in Europe. I did manage to get a decent burger, but definitely a big disappointment otherwise.

From Valencia

Day 266 - Sunday, October 14

Despite moving beds, I woke up with more bites. Still nothing on the order of Sydney or Slovakia, but still annoying. And of course, I was still suffering from the effects of what I still thought was the flu. But at that point, I'd had a enough of Valencia, and got an afternoon bus to Madrid.

Barcelona

A preliminary note: I forgot to mention in the last blog that while in Montpellier, I went to put on my one pair of non-denim pants, and I couldn't find them. I really have no idea where I left them. Last I remember I washed them with some other clothes in Prague (about 2 weeks prior). Maybe I hung them up somewhere and forgot them? Another piece of clothing bites the dust. I'm really good at losing things.

Day 261 - Tuesday, October 9

My first day in Barcelona, the initial order of business was to sort out my financial situation. Apparently I had been misinformed about the inability to send a replacement debit card to Europe, so I had that sent to Madrid, where I would be at the start of the following week. Then I went to a Citibank branch in Barcelona planning to get some cash using my passport and account information. Well, I showed up about 12:30 and was told that because I was in Spain, it would take 2 hours to get any money because they'd have to contact Citi in the US and it was quite a bit of paperwork and verifications. Two hours? Really? This IS a Citibank right? You can't just pull up my account details see that I have money, verify that I am who I say I am and give me some of my money in some reasonable amount of time? ... What's that? Oh, you also close at 2pm for siesta, so you can't give me any money today at all and I need to come back tomorrow so that there's plenty of time to complete the two-hour process? Great. Can I have some Euros for my Swiss Francs? Oh, you can change those, but you charge 20% commission? Sweet. You guys are awesome!

On a less frustrating note, the weather on Tuesday was amazing. I felt like I was back in Southern California, after a cold couple of weeks in central Europe. So I walked down through the famous La Rambla and its hordes of tourists to the beach and relaxed there for a while. La Rambla:

From Barcelona

The beach:

From Barcelona

A few other photos as I explored:

From Barcelona

From Barcelona

While all of Europe seems to be on board with the idea that no one goes out until really late, I think Spain takes the cake, with many clubs not even opening up until 2am, and staying out until mid-morning seemingly even more commonplace than elsewhere in Europe. So I decided to channel my inner Spaniard and joined a pub crawl that didn't leave the hostel until well after midnight, stopping at a couple of bars before getting to the club sometime after 2am. For the umpteenth time, I confirmed that I'm not really a club person, but when in Rome Barcelona. Prior to going out, I think I had the worst beer I've had all trip. And that's really saying something. It probably ranks right up there with the worst beer I've ever had, right along side King Cobra and O.E.

From Barcelona

Day 262 - Wednesday, October 10

Wednesday I headed back to the bank, where for some unknown reason, it really did take nearly 2 hours to get cash. Then I explored the city a bit more. Some photos:

From Barcelona

I came across some kids breaking into the locked up diving complex from the 1992 Olympics that overlooks the city. When they noticed, they proceeded to yell at me for taking photos, forcing me to quickly come up with a spanish sentence easing their fears. I think I was successful; they didn't steal my camera or attack me or anything.

From Barcelona

Perhaps Barcelona's most famous landmark, La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's crazy unfinished cathedral that they are now trying to finish.

From Barcelona

That afternoon I started to feel really crappy. I had been battling cold/allergy symptoms for a couple of weeks, but Wednesday, I was extremely fatigued with a fever as well, so I just took it easy Wednesday night.

Day 263 - Thursday, October 11

Thursday, it rained all day and whatever illness I had contracted was getting worse - fever/chills, nausea, and any movement at all was a struggle. I determined that this probably was not merely a cold/allergies. A prudent person in my shoes would've probably stayed in and rested. That of course was my plan, but after a free dinner at the hostel, mostely due to the combined influence of several healthy glasses of wine and some very persuasive (read: cute) hostelmates, I was convinced to go out. In retrospect, that was probably a mistake.

Day 264 - Friday, October 12

Friday I felt absolutely awful and it had very little to do with the mild hangover. It was crappy weather again, so it seemed like a good travel day. Given my condition, I probably should've just hung out in Barcelona and rested, but instead, I took a bus a few hours south to Valencia.

France - Montpellier

Day 258 - Saturday, October 6

I woke up Saturday in Switzerland knowing that I was checking out that day, but not yet sure where I was going. I knew I wanted to continue south, either to Lake Como or Cinque Terre in Italy or to southern France, most likely Nice. I had tried to do some research into train tickets online, but it wasn't very easy, and by the time I got back from my hike and ate some food, it was late and I was exhausted, so I just went to sleep.

Waking up not knowing where I would spend the night made me a little anxious. Below is more info than you wanted as to how I ended up deciding on Montpellier, France. Feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you don't care...First, I ruled out Lake Como, because I was already short on time for seeing Spain and France, and it looked like it would probably be similar to Interlaken, except not as pretty, with smaller mountains. So then I figured I'd go to Cinque Terre (five coastal towns on the Mediterranean coast of Italy that are linked by coastal trails and supposed to be beautiful), but then I saw on wikitravel that several of the coastal trails were closed due to mudslides and such. So I scrapped that idea. That left the south of France, so I went to the train station planning to investigate the cost to get to a few locations in southern France, thinking Nice would be the closest and cheapest destination, and allow me to get there in time to watch the Clemson football game later that night. Well it turns out the trains to Nice through Milan (the most direct route) were full, so I would have to go through Geneva and Lyon, which would involve getting to the French coast and then going east, the opposite direction of where I eventually wanted to go -- southwest, towards Spain. I looked at train times and costs to a few locations in France and ultimately decided that Montpellier seemed like a less touristy classic French city on the way to Barcelona, with a cheap hotel/hostel that had a communal computer for watching the Clemson game, which would start about an hour after I got there. Done; let's go to Montpellier.

Me: "One ticket to Montpellier, please. Oh and is it okay if I pay for it partially in cash (I wanted to get rid of the rest of my swiss franks) and the rest with a credit card"
Tkt Agent: "sure no problem"
So I handed over about $60 in Swiss Francs. Then I went to grab my debit card out of my bag. Small problem: it wasn't there. Ugh, you have to be kidding me! I frantically searched my entire bag and all my pockets while people waited and stared. It wasn't anywhere. I started to think about where it could be and decided that I almost surely lost it in Murren the day before either when I bought a train ticket with my card at the kiosk or on the train taking off or putting on my fleece with it in an open pocket. They said they could hold my ticket to Montpellier for me while I went back to my hostel to double check it wasn't there. So I ran back to the hostel, rechecked the room, rechecked my main pack with all my clothes, and I definitely didn't have it. After my passport and ipad, this was probably the one thing I could least afford to lose. It's my only ATM card and only way of getting cash, and I only have one other credit card, which I hadn't used in 8 months and might not work. Ugh, how do I keep managing to lose stuff.

Back at the hostel, I was running out of time before my train left, so I frantically called Citibank to cancel my card and find out about options for sending a new one to Europe (and got a customer service rep who was clueless, so I had to hang up on on him, but he deserved it). Then I called Chase (the bank for my one other credit card) and informed them that even though I hadn't used the card much, I was in Europe, about to buy a train ticket, and I absolutely needed that transaction to go through without a problem and to not block any upcoming transactions. They seemed to understand this much, but said there was currently no way to get a cash advance using that card, and then I ran out the door, hoping I wasn't going to miss my train.

I got back to the station with a little time to spare, was able to purchase the ticket they were holding for me, and got on my train 4 minutes prior to departure. While the swiss trains were the same standard trains I was used to from train travel elsewhere in Europe, when I got to France, I guess I ended up on the TGV high-speed train to get from Lyon to southern France, and it was a little crazy as we zoomed through the countryside at ~200 mph (~300km/h).

I got to Montpellier around 8 and found that my hotel was quite a seedy looking place in a very seedy part of town, but all was okay, because they had a computer available with a good internet connection that would allow me to watch the Clemson-GT game and some of the other college football action from Saturday, which I proceeded to spend the next 4-5 hours doing.

Day 259 - Sunday, October 7

I was only planning to spend two nights in Montpellier before moving on to Barcelona. So Sunday was the only full day I had to see the city. Like many other cities in Europe, much of the city was closed on Sunday and the streets, squares, etc., were largely empty. A few photos as I explored:

From France - Montpellier

From France - Montpellier

From France - Montpellier

From France - Montpellier

From France - Montpellier

From France - Montpellier

From France - Montpellier

From France - Montpellier

Day 260 - Monday, October 8

I hopped on a bus from Montpellier around midday to Barcelona, and for the first half of the trip from Montpellier to the border, the vast and neverending vineyards was overwhelming. Virtually every time I looked out the window it was grape vines in all directions for as far as I could see. Pretty neat.