London

Ciao Tutti,
I wrote this while I was on the plane back from London. It was not a bad flight - only 1 hour and 55 minutes. It definitely beats the 20 hour bus ride that my fellow travelers on Bus2Alps had back to Rome from Paris!

I arrived in London late on Saturday night and took a taxi to my hostel. The taxi was so cool - a very old looking black car that was not old at all. The ride to my hostel lasted less than five minutes.

My hostel was an old courthouse that was converted into a hostel. It was a very cool concept. I did not, but you could have paid extra for a room inside an old jail cell. The Internet cafe was in an old courtroom that still had all the traditional courtroom furniture. You could literally access the Internet from the judge's stand! Another courtroom was converted into a movie theater. It was really cool!

Computer Lab

I love that quote

My Bed

My Hostel

 On Sunday morning, I woke up early and walked back to Kings Cross Station where the inner nerd in me came out! I found Platform 9 3/4 and took my picture with a cart going through the wall. For those of you who aren't complete dorks like me, Platform 9 3/4 is the entranceway that all the kids take to get onto the Hogwarts Express in all the Harry Potter books.

 

Afterwards, I started to walk back to my hostel when I saw something that made me feel like i was back home in New York - a Starbucks next to a Pret A Manger next to a McDonalds across the street from a KFC and a Subway Sandwich Shop. I went into Pret to grab a breakfast sandwich before heading back to my hostel to meet my Dad's cousin, David.

I love Capitalism

Prior to this Sunday morning I had never met David or his wife, Joan. When I decided to come to London my Dad asked them to give me the grand tour of London, the city they've lived in or around for pretty much their whole lives.

I met up with David first and we walked down to the Covent Gardens - a shopping area that used to be an fruit and vegetable market. It was in the middle of London's theater district, so it was quite a busy place. We then walked down to a Starbucks for a cup of coffee and to wait for Joan to meet up with us.

 When Joan met up with us we headed for a hop-on, hop-off tour bus they arranged for me. Since my time in London was so limited, they felt that was the best way to see London. We saw Big Ben, the House of Parliament, the London Eye, the London Tower, the London Tower Bridge, London Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Baker Street, Hyde Park, and many other places that I can't remember.

St. Paul's Cathedral

London Tower Bridge

One of the towers on London Tower Bridge

London Tower

Big Ben

The London Eye

A pretty cool picture of Big Ben and the London Eye

There are so many beautiful parks in London

After our bus tour, we took a boat cruise from the London Tower to Big Ben. I took the cliche picture in front of Big Ben and another inside of a Telephone Booth.

David and I in front of the London Eye

David and I in front of Big Ben

Joan and I and a London Phone Booth

 
On our way back to my hostel to get my bags we stopped in an English pub to chst for a bit over a beer, or in my case a soda. After grabbing my bags, David and Joan took me to their house in the suburbs for the night. We went out to another English pub to grab a bite to eat and I tried steak and ale pie. It was really good!


After dinner we went back to Joan and David's house for a cup of tea and some cake. We took a look at some pictures from our family reunion a few years ago which was pretty cool. Then, we all went to bed and I "crashed out" or quickly fell asleep. This morning, David took me for a quick tour of his town - Epsom. It is the home of the world famous Epsom Salts and the well known Epsom Derby. David showed me where the Derby takes place and also took me to a lookout that had extraordinary views of London. The town itself was gorgeous and it had a small downtown area with everything you need.

The Derby Grounds

When we got back to the house, Joan cooked us a full English breakfast with coffee, eggs, mushrooms, pasta, bacon, sausages, and toast. It was great! After breakfast, we drove around the English countryside. We saw a castle, but couldn't go in it because they were filming a movie called "Jack and the Giant Killer." The castle was owned by King Henry VIII - the king that had six wives, beheaded a few of them, and broke England away from the Catholic church because the Pope refused to grant him any additional divorces.  Then, we drove part of the route of the Olympic cycling race next summer. It looks tough! We also drove up Box Hill which is part of the race course and it had awesome views of the English countryside.

View from Box Hill

View from Box Hill

After this, we went to one more English pub to chat before going to Gatwick Airport.  When I arrived at Gatwick, Easyjet's computers had crashed and they had to check everyone in by hand! It was chaos, but the computers were back up after about a half hour. Then, I said bye to David and Joan and sprinted to my gate.

I absolutely loved London. After seeing Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris it was very clear why we get along so well with the British. The British are more similar to the US than to any other country in Europe. We have the same ideals and very similar tastes. I felt like I was back home. I would not say I was homesick, but a trip to a city that spoke English and was familiar to me was definitely welcomed! I definitely need to come back to London. There is so much to do and I barely scratched the surface! Next summer? I think yes.

My hosts, Joan and David, were great. It was so nice to meet family members I had never met before and they were so nice and welcoming. They made my visit to London even more enjoyable than I could have imagined!

I'm back to Rome now where I have three days of classes before heading to Venice this weekend with my school! Not too bad, is it?

I'll update soon. I need to upload pictures once I get back to my apartment and have a decent Internet connection for the first time in 12 days.

Thanks for reading!

Mike

Barcelona

Ciao Tutti,

A week or so ago, my ISC (Italian Student Companion), Silvio, had about ten of his friends over for dinner.  I am happy to report that I was actually able to carry a conversation with them and understand the general ideas of what they were talking to each other about.  We even played the Italian version of the game, Mafia.  This was quite a challenge, but a great and fun experience!

Changing topics completely, last weekend I went to Barcelona.  I arrived late on a Thursday night and took a train from the airport into the city center.  By the time I got into the city center, the metro had stopped running (after midnight) so I had to take a taxi to my hostel.  My hostel had a 91% review on HostelWorld.com, but I was immensely disappointed.  I did not realize that the hostel only had a common bathroom in the hallway of every floor.  I am so used to staying in hostels that have a bathroom in each room that this took a bit of getting used to.

On Friday, I took a free walking tour to see the architecture of one of Barcelona's most famous architects - Gaudi.  His buildings made me feel like I was in Whoville and a world of Dr. Seuss, but they were really cool from the outside.  It cost upwards of 18 euros to go in, so I decided that the views from the outside were good enough for me.  We also saw a church that he designed over around 85 years ago that is still being built.  It is a very complex church and they say it will not be done for at least another 25-30 years!  That one complex building!

One of the houses Gaudi desgined

Another one of the houses Gaudi desgined

One of the three facades of Gaudi's church - the Sagrada Famiglia.  Only two are finished.  This is the Nativity Facade.

The Passion Facade.  The Glory Facade just started construction.

After my walking tour, I took a hop on-hop off bus tour to see all of Barcelona.  Barcelona is such a spread out city that the bus company had two different lines.  It took me 6 hours to complete both lines, but I was happy I did it.

On Saturday, it poured the whole day.  By this point, I had become a pro on navigating Barcelona's metro and decided to go to the Picasso Museum.  The Picasso Museum was a homage to Picasso's older, lesser known works.  All I knew about Picasso before this was that he painted "Scream," but was very intrigued by his life story.  He moved around a lot and changed his artistic style about once or twice a year. 

After the Picasso Museum, I decided to go to a restaurant to have typical Catalonian food - tapas.  They are basically a bunch of small samples, so you order two or three and try a bit of everything.  I had ham & cheese croquets and something very similar to sesame chicken.  It was really, really good.

Then, even though it was raining, I embarked on my voyage to find Barceloneta Beach.  By this point my map was useless because it was raining so hard, so I decided to follow the signs to the beach - big mistake.  I wound up 3 kilometers out of my way and had to backtrack to see it.  I was happy when I finally got there, though.  It looked like a scene out of 2012, the waves were about four feet high (pretty high for the Mediterranean Sea and I saw the cliché surfboarder walking away from the sea.  It was a beautiful beach, though. 

The Beach

After this, I decided to walk and catch a metro back to my hostel.  After an hour rest, I went to the only bar in Barcelona that was showing the Penn State v. Michigan State game for the Big Ten Semifinals.  I think I managed to find the only empty bar in Barcelona, but a combination of a Penn State win and some nostalgic food like quesadillas and chicken tenders was enough to make my day.

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I loved it!  I woke up early in the morning to walk the "La Rambla", a very famous tourist promenade where artists and cafes line the streets.  I decided to grab a seat and order "Churros and Chocolate" and people watch.  They were so good.

La Rambla

Chocolate & Churros

After that, I took another walking tour of Barcelona.  This one was a tour of Barcelona's historical center.  It was beautiful and reminded me a lot of Rome.  I gained some insight into the history of Barcelona that was absolutely fascinating like the fact that Barcelona used to be occupied by the Romans when it was a walled city (hence why it reminded me of historical Rome).  Also, I learned that the people of Barcelona actually consider themselves to be Catalonian, not Spanish.  They speak Catalonian and Spanish and are constantly protesting the Spanish government for their independence.  I also got to see where the King of Catalonia greeted Christopher Columbus after discovering the New World.  The final piece of trivia I learned was that Barcelona could have built the Eifel Tower instead of Paris, but the government thought it was too weird looking and built an arch instead - big mistake!

The steps that Christopher Columbus was welcomed back on

After the walking tour, I took the metro to Park Gϋell - another one of Gaudi's projects.  It was declared a World Heritage Site a few years ago, so I figured a trip to Barcelona would not be complete without seeing it.  Getting there was a difficult task.  After taking the metro, it was a kilometer walk to a series of eight escalators to take you to the top of a mountain.  At the top of this mountain, you had to walk down hill about a half of a kilometer to get to the park.  By this point, I was exhausted.  It was so worth it, though.  I saw the longest bench I have ever seen and a bunch of other cool looking houses, sculptures, and architecture! 

View from the Park

I think Dr. Seuss used to live here.....

An overhang at the park.

The other park entrance.

On my way back to the hostel to grab my bag, I found a Dunkin Coffee (they don't call them Dunkin Donuts over there) and splurged on the biggest ice coffee I have ever had.  In Italy, I can only get an espresso - they really do not have American coffee.  It was probably the best cup of coffee I've ever had (probably because I haven't had one in so long).  I topped it off with a ham & cheese panini and a chocolate frosted donut with sprinkles - the icing on the cake.

After grabbing my bag at my hostel, I went to the airport and came back to Rome.  In my next blog post (very soon, probably later today), I'll bring you up to date with everything I did this week and weekend, post a few pictures from the past month, and post the bucket list I made of things I need to do while I'm in Rome.

Ciao,

Mike