Lagos, Portugal 12/2 - 12/6

I arrived late in the evening to Lagos, a destination that I chose last minute from the advice of another traveler since everything was closed up for the season in Tarifa, the very southern tip of Spain.  Lagos is a beach town in the heart of the Algarve, that has a great mix of rock cliffs, called "grottos" because of their rock formations and beaches right on the Atlantic Ocean.  Lagos has a strange attraction to it and a lot of other people feel the same way about it.  Many people come here as a vacation destination and never leave.  The laid back atmosphere, great year round weather and affordable economy make it a nice place to set up shop  for a few days or maybe a few years.  Lagos is very much a party place in the summer months.  I spend about 4 days here and became very relaxed while walking around the narrow, mostly pedestrian filled streets and cliff side paths along the Atlantic.  

About forty minutes away by bus is Sagres, the most southwesterly point in Europe.  I was told it was once thought to be the end of the Earth a few centuries back.  I spent a day in Sagres,

a well known surfer's destination, but luck would have it that the ocean was like glass that day.  There was plenty of fishing going on though, it was real interesting to see people fishing right off the cliffs, probably about 300 feet above the ocean.  The fish were biting pretty good, definitely quantity over quality though, as the fish were pretty small.  

From Lagos, I boarded a bus for a five hour sunday drive north to Lisbon, Portugal.  Unfortunately I left the sunshine and jacketless weather behind.  

The top left pic is of a street in Lagos.  The upper right pic is a shot from a cliff side path of a beach in a cove.  The middle right pic is the sun setting on Sagres Point, the most southwesterly point in Europe.  The bottom right pic is a shot of some of the "grottos" in Lagos from a distance.

Seville, Spain 11/29 - 12/2

My last stop in the Andalusia region of Spain was Seville.  I had about 4 days here, one more day than I had planned, but I planned poorly, which was not that big of a deal, Seville is not a bad place to spend another day.  I was reaching my burn out point of visiting the Spanish cathedrals and palaces, but I decided to push my limits and visit the cathedral and bell tower known as Giralda.  I had read that the cathedral was free on Sundays, but that was not true, unless your are a Spanish citizen or unemployed...which I am but I had no way of proving it, damn it!  The cathedral was pretty unique and also houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus.  The Giralda had nice views of the city as well as some interesting displays on how the tower was built and added on to several times through out the decades.  I did not go into the Alcazar, the Moorish Palace, since I did not think it will be anything close to the Alhambra in Grenada. 

The tapas was not free like it was in Grenada, but I was introduced to a great little spot called "Bodega Santa Cruz" where I must have stopped by at least 3 or 4 times to eat some great food and wash

it down with some wine and or cerveza (beer) all at a very affordable price.  Socially, the bull fighting scene in Seville is a pretty big part of their culture, but like most things, the season is done until next year.  Futbol (soccer) on the other hand is still very much in season 
and paralyzes the city whenever a match is on.  I watched the Barcelona vs. Real Madrid match in a city square with many

other people, mostly in silence until there was a big play or goal.  

The first picture is of the cathedral and bell tower, Giralda.  Next to that is Plaza de Espana, to Star Wars fans, it was used as Naboo, in Episode II.  The bottom left is Christopher Columbus's tomb inside the cathedral.  The middle pic is of a worker at Bodega Santa Cruz carving up some presuto before the evening rush.  It appeared that he has had many years of practice at his trade.  The right picture is of a what I think I remember is a Magnolia tree, said to have been planted from a seed brought back by from the U.S. many moons ago.  

In the last post I said I was headed to Madrid the following night.  Well that changed, Lisbon was way too much fun to leave, although I am in Madrid for night #2 right now.  Ill be catching a flight to Barcelona tomorrow morning, it was cheaper and faster than the train.  I have 5 nights booked in Barcelona, I have heard only positive things from there.  If anyone has any questions or wants to learn more about the places I have blogged about, Wikipedia is a great place to begin, or you can always ask me.

Cordoba, Spain

Next stop on the Andalusia route was Cordoba, Spain.  I was not here for very long, about a day total, but I felt that was enough.  One of the main sites to see here is the Mezquita, which is a cathedral that was originally built as a mosque.  You cannot really tell from the outside, but once you enter the cathedral, it is very interesting to see how two religions were once in the same building, not at the same time though.  Cordoba is a nice little city, it is full of narrow, winding streets that you can easily get lost in while wondering around.  The weather was perfect the day I was there, but it was not expected to stay that way, so I decided to catch a bus to Sevilla, Spain the following day.    

I am writing right now from Lisbon, Portugal.  The weather is pretty mild, a t-shirt and light jacket is more than comfortable.  I have been traveling for 75 days and have 14 days remaining in my trip.  Ill head to Madrid, Spain via a night train on 12/9.  I hit a bit of a wall and have been taking it easy the last couple of days, regrouping for the last two weeks of the trip.

Granada, Spain 11/25 - 11/28

I decided to tour the Andalucian region of Spain, which is nice for many reasons, one being that you do not kill a whole day on a bus or train going from place to place.  Granada is unlike any place that I have been to or seen, it has everything from an elaborate palace, to people living in caves, to free tapas when you buy a beer and all of this is surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  

One good thing about traveling in the off season is avoiding the lines.  There is usually a day or two wait to get tickets to the Alhambra, an amazing palace and the most visited monument in Spain, but I got my ticket by walking right up to the ticket booth.  Spending four hours in this palace does not take much effort at all.  There is no gold leaf or painted murals, everything in here was carved out of stone, pretty unbelievable.  It is easily one of the most fascinating buildings I have seen in Europe.

 Another unbelievable site is taking a walk into the Sacramonte area of the city, which is a community of people living in caves. 

 You have everything from fully furnished caves just like modern houses to people living in caves just like cavemen.  On top of all this on your way back to the center of town in the evening time you can walk into almost any bar, order a drink for around 1-2 euros and get a free plate of any variety of tapas (small plate of food) that bar is offering that day, its great!  Very economical as well.  Granada was a great!

I tried to post a variety of pictures.  The first one on the right is taken from Alhambra around sunset looking over the city into the Sierra Nevada's.  The first one on the left is of one of the many caves in Sacramonte, note the solar panels on the roof and dog.  There are stray dogs running rampant all over, very friendly though.  The night shot is looking at Alhambra from San Nicholas church.   The bottom left is an example of what inside Alhambra is like, all carved out of stone.  The bottom right picture is taken around sunset.  You can see the snow capped mountain if you look closely, the snow is very new.   

Malaga, Spain 11/23 - 11/25

Running from the wind and rain and in search of the sun, I booked a flight to Malaga, Spain, about as far south as I could get.  There was instant success as soon as I got off the plane!  Malaga is the birth place of Pablo Picasso, so there are quite a few references to him around the city.  I stayed at a hostel called "Picasso's Corner," which was a great place to hang out.  The hostel staff cooked authentic Spanish meals every night and made sure there was plenty of beer and sangria to wash it down with, all at a ridiculously reasonable price.  I walked around the Alcazaba, an old fortress, and then up to the Gibralfaro Castle, which were both built during the 11th century on the same hill.  There were great views of the city and the ocean to be had on the walk as well as a fantastic sunset.  Compared to the colder Central and Eastern Europe cities, it was very refreshing to see mass amounts of people walking around the city at night, which gave it a great feel.

From Malaga, I caught a very scenic bus tour to Granada, Spain.

The first picture is of the house Picasso grew up in, which is now a museum.  To the right is a picture looking down on the bull fighting stadium and the bottom left is the city at sunset from the walkway leading to the Gibralfaro Castle.

Dublin & Northern Ireland 11/11 - 11/23

It was refreshing to enter a new city & country and see the face of my good friend Charlie...especially in Dublin, Ireland.  We dominated Dublin and the northern part of Ireland for about 11 days of non stop fun.  We started off in Dublin with 3 nights and 2 full days, where we got a good snap shot of the city and the people that live in and around it.  We were lucky enough to have made friends with the bartender, Grace, at a great bar called "The Palace Bar."  The Palace Bar has some deep roots in the Irish literary scene.  Grace was gracious (haha) enough to show us around Dublin the following night which was a fantastic tour of Dublin and of course some great Irish pubs.  

Following Dublin, we boarded a train to Belfast where good family friends of Charlie's, Tom & Marie, picked us up and showed us around Belfast.  Belfast is known to most for the ongoing Roman Catholic vs. Protestant conflicts, but is also the place where the Titanic was built.  After Belfast, we then headed farther north to Tom & Marie's house in Derry, which was our home for the next 3 nights.  Tom gave us a wonderful tour of Derry as well as County Donegal over the next two days.  We had some beautiful weather, which lets us get some spectacular views of the northern most tip of Ireland.

From Derry, Me and Charlie boarded a bus to Galway, where Charlie got his first experience of staying in a hostel.  Galway is a great little town that is very rich in Irish tradition.  It is also a place where it can be sunny and blue skies one minute then pour down rain the next.  Off the coast of Galway are the Aran Islands, where we decided to visit for one day and night before the sideways rain drove us off the Island.  It was also on the island where I sought medical advice for my black tongue, which the doctor jokingly told me it was from drinking too much Guiness (actually from taking Pepto Bismal before I went to bed.  I was treated for a stomach virus.)  We rounded out our trip in Northern Ireland by returning to Dublin for a few more days mixed with history and fun.  Traditional Irish music can be heard seven days a week no matter what part of the country you are in and the style of music will vary every time as well.  This makes for a very addicting night life scene, but bring your wallet if you like to drink.  Just because Guiness and Jamison are produced locally does not mean that they are cheap.  The average pint of Guiness goodness will cost you about 5 euro, which is about $7.50 and a shot of Jamison is not far behind.  I cannot put a price on the memories though, but I can always make more money!  

I got pretty tired of the wind and rain, so I decided to book a flight to Malaga, the south of Spain where I started my trek around the Andalucia region of Spain in the sun! 

The three pics that are side by side from left to right are:  The rocky land of Inishmore Island, the largest of the Aran Islands.  The middle is the northern tip of County Donegal.  The right pic is where "Bloody Sunday" took place in Derry.  

The last pic on the bottom is of Charlie and I drinking a pint in the back room at the Palace Bar, I won't tell you what time it was!

Budapest, Hungry 11/8 - 11/11

I arrived in Budapest, with little knowledge of the city at all but ended up loving it! Unfortunately, it was the one time in my trip that I had a schedule to keep as I was meeting a friend in Dublin, Ireland and I could not extend my stay.  With my late evening flight, I had a little more than 3 days and it was not enough.  One of the main attractions to Budapest are the natural hot spring baths that are scattered around the area.  You can easily spend the better part of a day relaxing and taking advantage of the amenities at one of these baths, as I did.  After spending a nice relaxing day at the bath, I decided to go "caving", which was an evening trip just outside of the city.  I had not idea what I was getting into, but I was craving some adventure so I decided to check it out.  Like I said, I had no idea what I was getting into.  This adventure ended up being a 3 hour expedition of pretty intense crawling,wiggling and sweating through the tightest spaces I have ever been in to.  It is hard to explain through the blog.  I was so damn sore the next day, I almost went back to the baths!  Instead, I decided to walk it off and take in the city.  Budapest is actually two cities Buda and Pest, seperated by the Danube river.  I spent most of my time on the Pest side, but there is a beautiful castle on the Buda side.  Unfortunately, with the shortened daylight hours, I just ran out of time.  I may try to make it back to Budapest before my trip comes to an end.

Vienna, Austria 11/5 - 11/7

From Cesky Krumlov, I took a bus to Vienna, Austria, where I stayed for 3 nights.  Vienna was a nice city, but not a place that grabbed my attention, but still interesting to explore.  I decided to check out the Spanish Riding School on the first day with two other people that I met.  We caught a practice session, which is a school for white stallion horses.  The training session was enough to satisfy my curiosity.  After a long day of walking around, we decided to check out a few local establishments and naturally wondered into a place called the "Bier Factory."  This place happened to be home to the 2kg (approx. 4 lb.) hamburger, a challenge that we, me and 2 other guys, decided to take on and successfully conquer.  

Vienna had a nice open

 air market on Saturday, which was a great place to grab a cup of coffee to warm up as well as enjoy some people watching.  Another site that I enjoyed was seeing the Hunder

twasserhause, it has no historical reference, just an interesting building with unique architectural features.  From Vienna, I headed to Budapest, Hungry.

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Feeling the need to get out of the city, I heard good things about this small town called Cesky Krumlov, about 3 hours south of Prague by bus.  Small it may be, but it is awesome.  Things are a bit slow this time of year, but still a very cool place to visit and take in some great scenery.  They say that if you spend more than 3 days in CK, that you will spend 3 years, I can see how this can happen.  The English guy in the same room as me was there to meet an American friend of his who is in CK for two months on a grant to paint pictures, so we all met up that afternoon at the Eggenberg Brewery.  It was real nice to get a tour of the town from someone that has been there a while to see what the locals do and where they hang out.  What exactly they do is run the shops, I guess, where they hang out, I can give you better descriptions!  Krumlov Castle is closed for the season, but you can still wonder around parts of the castle and much of the surrounding gardens for free, probably what I would have done had the castle been open.  The food was quite good and more resonable than Prague.  I would love to make a return trip in the summer months to take advantage of the outdoor activities.   

The night shot is Krumlov Castle from down below in the town.  The guy leaning over the fire is cooking the food that we are eating in the picture below it, very good as you can imagine.

Prague, Czech Republic 10/28 - 11/03

Often referred to as the "Golden City", Prague was like Krackow on steroids.  A much bigger mid-evil city that was virtually untouched by WWI, very beautiful.  I arrived in Prague on 10/28 from Frankfurt by train and bus which offered great views from the windows.  Prague is a pretty popular destination in Europe, so the hostile was pretty crowed and lively, which made for some fun times.  What also made it fun was that my sister Angela meet me in Prague after her week of work in London for 3 days in Prague.  Prague is known quite well for the Prague Castle, which sits high upon a hill.  To get to the castle, you can cross a couple of bridges, but the most well known and used is the St. Charles Bridge.  The St. Charles Bridge has many statutes, street artist vendors and great views which make it a place that you can spend an endless amount of time at.  Me and Ang did a day trip from Prague to Kutna Hora for a change of scenery, where the  Cathedral of Our Lady, or Bone Church as it is called, is the main site to see.  The church has chandeliers, pyramids and sculptures made out of the bones of over 40,000 people, its pretty amazing, yet creepy at the same time.  The exchange rate also makes Prague a nice place to stay, it is pretty affordable to eat, sleep and drink in Prague.

Frankfurt, Germany

I pinned myself in Northern Poland and was looking for a change of scenery, so I looked for a cheap flight out of Poland, which was Frankfurt, Germany.  Frankfurt was not on my list of places to see, but why not check it out anyway.  Frankfurt was pretty interesting, its a financial hub where more people commute into the city everyday than actually live there.  I stayed in a nice hostel in an "interesting" part of the city.  It was here that I saw someone shooting up with heroin for the first time in my life.  The hostel was located in the "Red Light" district as well as across the street from a methadone clinic, still a nice hostel to stay at though.  Sachsenhausen, a neighborhood in Frankfurt, across the river from the city was a nice place to spend a day.  I toured the architecture museum and wondered around the town, trying out some apfelwein (apple wine).  Frankfurt is making a strong effort to be a "Green" city, especially with their high rise buildings.  Check out the picture to the left and the statues below the columns that appear to be holding up the building, pretty cool.

Gdansk, Poland

I headed farther north from Warsaw, about as far north in Poland as you can get to the city of Gdansk.  Gdansk is a harbor city on the Baltic Sea know for amber washing up on its beaches after storms.  From the amber, beautiful jewelry and sculptures are made, as well as dinosaurs in the movie Jurassic Park, lol.  I was welcomed at the train station by my friends George and Arty's Aunt Mary and Uncle Andrew, who were my wonderful hosts for my stay in Gdansk.   They live in a small island town, about a 15 min walk to the beach.  They showed me around Gdansk and two other neighboring cities, which have a lot offer, especially in the warmer months.  There was a  pretty significant language barrier since only Mary spoke English, but very little.   It was amazing how we managed to get by though.  They arranged for a friend of theirs, Magda, who spoke English to accompany us for one day.  I had a great time in Gdansk.  Pictured to the left is an old grain tower locatedin Old Town, Gdansk.  To the right is the Malbork Castle, which was severely bombed out in WWII, but later rebuilt.  It was very foggy the day we toured the castle.  This was the end of Poland and the great hospitality that the people of their county offer.

Warsaw, Poland

I headed to Warsaw after Krakow, which was quite a big difference.  Warsaw has much more of a big city feel, much more commerical, but still has some old time feel as well.  I had one full day in Warsaw, so I tried to make the most of it and I think I achieved that.  I spent most of the day in the Old Town section of Warsaw, which was 80% rebuilt after WWII, but its hard to tell.  The buildings look as if they have been there for over a hundred years.  Warsaw did have some damn good Polish pastries, not as good as my mom's though.  Joe Biden was also in the city at the same time, so there was much more of a police presence around.  Much more than what was needed.  Since Warsaw is the capital of Poland, there are a lot of historical references and monuments through out the city.  The night shot is at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers  Warsaw was nice.