In about a month, I'll be a genuine, bona-fide adult. And as an adult with dignity and self-control, I'll refrain from using any cursing in the next sentence. Good night nurse (wink at Terry), this trip has been an experience so far. And by experience I mean eye-opening, shocking, awe-strickening, frightening, breathtaking, you-name-it-ing. I've seen on a whole (pause for a couple seconds to count) 7 countries in the past couple weeks, with 1 more to go before I get back to Ireland. It's like those cartoons you watch where the little guy's holding up a dozen cars on his head and when a sparrow lands on the top, the whole pile of crap topples. No matter how many birds land on the pile, you just gotta lock your knees in and bear the load. That's what it feels like when you backpack for a month. As fun as it is, it's a lot to take in, and you learn a lot about yourself. Here's what's gone down since Madrid. I'm gonna keep it short on all of them, and at the semester will be making either a powerpoint and posting it online somewhere, or maybe by some miracle of God, Shutterfly will hop off of the "I'm going to be a frickin' nuisance and not work on Brendan's laptop" bandwagon that all attempted photo-hosting sites seem to have started. Going caveman and burning an invididual CD with photos and memoirs for all that are interested could be another option. Who knows as of yet. Run-on sentences. They kill me.
Portugal---
Didn't know what to expect here, but it was cool. Everything was cheap compared to Ireland and Madrid, but still not that cheap. I'd have to post pictures because it's hard to explain w
hat it looked like in detail. It's pretty much how I envision Brazil... fast-paced, lots of colors. All the houses had clothes hanging up outside which was pretty cool to see walking down back alleys. Porto's famed port wine might as well have been called "whiskey with a hint of cherry", and I ate the single most disgusting but filling thing ever, a Francesina. Yeah. I ate that. Actually half of it. I couldn't conquer it. Which was probably good seems how it the polar opposite of what a kid with a history of high blood pressure should technically be eating at midnight. Otherwise, we took a riverboat tour, walked around town, climbed a giant tower, saw the view... like I said, pictures are needed. No real interesting stories from this place though. I learned quickly the only way to avoid gypsies ("vendors" to the politically correct) is to deny their existence, because the second you ask what the price is, they shove whatver they are selling in your hand and try and swindle you to the point of sale, or if you are lucky, they actually leave you alone when you exclaim, "NO." or something to that extent. Portugal was good though. We went there basically because RyanAir flied there for cheap, and we got a cheap hostel. But it was a nice follow up from our fun outing in Madrid.Belgium--
A. Brussels: wasn't that great. Well, the Groktmarket was cool. Cool's an understatement. It was gargantuan compared to the center in Bruges, but was also of a different makeup. Lots of Gothic looking buildings. That's about it though. Brussels is a city. You've seen one, you've seen 'em all practically. It was a pain trying to get around the train station because neither Connor or I had the slightest idea how to speak Flemish or French.
B. Bruges: This to the date is one of my favorite places. Best beer in the world, prettiest town on a whole. The town itself is the attraction. Everything I say about this town would practically be a direct quote from the film that I watched and loved so well. Here, I dined on waffles, took a canal cruise, touched the relic of Christ's blood, and nailed about every key site they filmed the movie onm including hanging out in the pub where the crew relaxed after a hard day's shooting schedule. I also had the best spaghetti I've ever had. 3 EUR got me a gigantic plate and a Hoegaarden... probably the best deal of the trip so far. I liked Bruges, very pretty medieval city. The best medieval city in Europe. Looks pretty Danish. Our hostel was cool too, we roomed with 3 Aussie ladies and a couple more who didn't speak a lick of English, so they kind of avoided us. I highly reccommend making a stop here if you come to Europe.
Switzerland---
Gonna be honest. Lake Geneva was nice. Geneva, was a city. A REALLY expensive one. We got off the plane to convert our euro's into Swiss Francs and were happy when we saw that the American dollar was actually worth more than the Franc, but our upside-down frowns subsided when we saw that a sandwich ran around 11-12 Francs. Wasn't too happy with Switzerland. It was cool to see the U.N. Headquarters Building though. That was probably my Switzerland highlight. But the funny part about this stop was: we weren't even IN Switzerland, we were actually in the South
of France over 60% of the time. Our hotel was over the border, and we spent a day in Chamonix, which is basically the Breckenridge, Colorado of the French Alps. That city was gorgeous, but expensive. I enjoyed a day walking around in the Sun, taking a 3 or 4 mile walk out of town and back, and reading a good book at a lodge pub for a while when Connor paid the extra 100 or so Francs to take the tram to the Augille du Midi, one of the highest points in the French Alps. Mountains aren't my thing, I like the Minnesota lake... but this was a neat place, glad I went there instead of bumming around in Geneva gawking at how expensive everything was. Those Swiss and their banks and their money. (Shakes fist).Rome---
Nuts. Awesome. That's all there really is to say. I loved it. The Colosseum and Roman Forum was the coolest thing I've ever seen, and it was surreal going to the Trevi Fountain at night when it wasn't swarmed with tourists, and doing a pub crawl from the Spanish Steps where a group of Germans and Irish took me under their wing for the night, telling me how awesome Obama is or how inferior every other country's beers are compared to theirs. Sorry about the run-on sentence. Coolest place. Not prettiest, but coolest. History around every corner. A map is pointless. Just
walk, you'll find something. I checked out the Vatican on Easter weekend, and I had never seen that many people in my life. Again, nuts. I didn't go in, but will be going back in a couple days to see the Sistine Chapel (biggest goal on the trip). Looking forward to it greatly. I also met up with fellow-ISU and lifelong friend, Brianna Weis, who is teaching music in Rome for the semester. We played some frisbee by the Sant' Angelo Castle and went for a walk before I had to make a run for the airport. A literal run. A sprint. It was basically, I was the last person to get on the plane, 20 minutes before it left. Thanks for that one, God. And Brianna for putting me on the right train. I'd never been more stressed in my life, and am pretty sure it took me till the second day in Santorini to fully cool-off. I'm actually balding/getting gray hair from that. No joke. Rome will be fun when we head back, now that I know NOT to cut it close at an airport or take a Rome taxi home from the pubs.Santorini's worth an extra blog, so maybe I'll talk about that tomorrow. I better get to bed. Please excuse the grammatical errors, I just kind of typed this in a stream-of-consciousness format. Thanks for reading, hope all's well over in the States. Never thought I'd say this, but I miss all of you, and I miss my country. Have a good one everybody. Slainte.
