Indiana Jones and The Holy Grail

The one thing we knew about Valencia before we came was that it had a massive aquarium area with crazy buildings and museums. So we set off for the area catching a metro train and walking a fair distance until we discovered it.

Very impressive, huge buildings with crazy designs all surrounded by water and other features. The Oceanografic was cool but mostly disappointing. The buildings and area itself look so amazing that the okay features of the aquarium itself felt like a letdown.

Moving on we decided to check out the science museum and the Indy expo they had on. Disappointed that you couldn't take photos inside because they had everything! Heaps of artifacts from the film like the stones in Temple, the golden head from Ark, the actual Ark, the cross that young Indy gets, the staff of Ra etc etc etc even had the Holy Grail. it was awesome. Plus they had real archeology items and information as well. Very cool expo.

Next day we spent shopping and walking around. We stopped in a plaza at one point to take some photos of a church that looked cool. It had a tower and we could see people up there so we decided to see if we could go up. We claimed if it was under 5 euro we'd do it. So we walked into some entrance saw a sign for 4.50 euro and paid at the counter. We were in a huge church and it looked cool, I was thinking it would be cool to have a look before we climbed. Then the lady tells us that we can do a self guided tour with audio of the whole cathedral and each important section has a number that we enter on our audio thing to hear commentary. She then says the numbers go from 1 to 18 with 18 being The Holy Grail which we can see in a room to our right. Pause.
The Holy Grail!?
We entered this church trying to climb the tower and we ended up finding the Holy Grail? Nice.
The cathedral was awesome, had lots of original paintings and crazy designs everywhere. Even had a saints hand, yep, hundreds of years old and you could see it. Weird.

Did we climb the tower? Yes. We realized that when we walked in the right door was the church and the left door was the tower. Fate led us to the right door and discovery of the Holy Grail, which we had now seen 2 of in 2 days.

Ps: the tower was massive, like massive. And it had steps. The whole way. I nearly DIED walking up.

La Crida by chance

So we turned up to Valencia and got out if the train at about 2. The hotel wasn't far so we walked it and about halfway there explosions start going off. The area we were in was dead, the streets dirty and graffiti everywhere. I thought we walked into Iraq! Huge fireworks were going off in the city just in front of us. Later thousands of people spilled out of the city center on their way home. We had no idea what was going on

Late that day after going for lunch and struggling to find anything open we got home and had a mini siesta. Outside our window we could hear noise and people singing with drums banging. Using trusty Twitter I searched for what was going on and found out at 8pm everyone was meeting at these towers at the top if the old city for some event.
So we got changed and finally got out then it was easy. Follow the crowd. Massive number of people were all walking to the same place do we followed. Along the way we were walking with a matching band, drumming and chanting the whole way. People were dressed up in costume or in colors of their local communities or churches. We got to the Torres de Serranos and I'm pretty sure there was already thousands of people there.
Music played over speakers as dancers hung from a crane dancing over the crowd. The Queen of the festival got on stage and did a speech then declared the Fallas Festival open. Crowd goes wild. Light go off, like all electricity in the area was cut off. It's dark. Then fireworks start going off. It was nuts. Some of the craziest fireworks I've seen.

So that was our random discovery of Valencia on day one. Pretty damn cool and totally unplanned.

The best park in Madrid

Well just when I though Madrid was a craphole we discovered this park. I have to admit it doesn't save the city but it was pretty amazing to see.

It's on the east side of the city and is pretty big. You walk in from the top left corner and walk down an avenue bordered by trees. People were everywhere and the temp was warm
As you get to the top of a hill there is a fountain and performers everywhere. Someone doing a magic show, a puppet show, blowing balloons and playing songs.
Keep walking and a HUGE lake opens up in front of you with boars all over it and a massive feature on the other end of it with huge statues if lions and a tower. The whole side of the lake is full of people walking and people selling fake shit. Look into the lake and you ae huge fish in it and kids throwing cheese and chips in to feed them. Behind you someone is playing some relaxing hypnotic music on some sort of pan?or something, it was crazy.
Walking around to the other side you get to sit on the monument that is there and take in the sights and sounds. To your right you hear the sounds of famous opera songs and walk around to realize it isn't a radio but one guy singing it all. Couples are lying in the shade together, families are watching the performers, people are rowing their boats and the sun is shining.

Great park, and we only saw about 1/3rd of it!
(photos do no justice here)

Meh Madrid

Compared to the last few cities, I don't really like Madrid

It's just a standard big city but with not much at all to do. This is where I've seen the most homeless people do far, beggars, people selling fake stuff and annoying people trying to give you coupons for food etc. also so much police around! Like swat vans everywhere, cars and bikes. It's felt like the most unsafe city so far but touch wood nothing has happened.

The Mercado de San Miguel is by far the best feature of the city. The big squares like Sol and Callao are pretty average and there are no main must see city sights that I have come across yet.

Food has been great. Dinner in the La Latina area where I had anchovie tapa and deer loin then of course the market.

We did the Santiago Bernebeu stadium which was crazy. Totally different feel to the Barca stadium but the history if this club makes the tour worth it. All the trophies in the trophy room and especially the wall of players they have had. Gave me goosebumps, Figo, Beckham, zidane, Raul, Roberto Carlos, Cassano, Suker, Owen, Cannavaro, etc etc etc etc. amazing

Next just some shopping, check out the parks and relax before 4 days on Valencia.

Sevilla to Madrid

The time in Sevilla was great.

Walking around the small alleys and plazas that just come out of nowhere was amazing. We didn't do too much on our last day, had a walk around again and went down by the river to the Plaza del Toros. It cost money to get in and the tour was for 40 mins so we gave it a miss and just kept walking to a bridge and then back home.

Highlight was getting some seafood takeaway and eating in a park then walking into a place on the way home and having a tapa and beer for 2 euro!
It was nearly the most authentic tapas we have had with small dish of potato salad and meat in sauce.

Of course we fit in our final siesta on the rooftop which was amazing. Before that we had done a load of washing on the machines, which were on the roof. Final siesta we stayed out there until the sun went down, was a good finish to our Sevilla experience.

Cervezas and food at a sports bar finished off the day while watching the soccer.

Sevilla = beautiful

Sunny Sevilla

Seriously, it's sunny!

The train ride here was awesome and we cut through the whole of Spain pretty much in 5 hours. The scenery was crazy, from snow capped mountain ranges to open fields and run down villas on the side of the tracks.
When we got out instantly you notice the blue blue skies (typical "Europe sky") and that it's clearly hotter than any place we had been before.
We are staying the the Barrio Di Santa Cruz and the streets here are amazing. You can open your arms out and hit both sides of the street.

The other thing you can't help notice is how beautiful just about everything looks here. It's an orgasm for your eyes! The buildings are colorful and decorated, there are orange trees everywhere lining the roads, big open parks, castles, cathedrals, towers, fountains everything!

The place has a laid back feeling to it and the setting helps make you feel calm and just happy. The food so far is pretty good as well!

This is the first place I have truly felt siesta time. The streets go DEAD at around 3 till nearly 6. It's dead quiet and a lot if places close. Today we planned our siesta perfect. First we did the sightseeing including the Catedral and climbing the Tower then onto Plaza De Spagna which is the most amazing open area you'll see!
After this we snuck in a cerveza before coming back to the hotel for siesta in the sun on the rooftop. Rocking a tee after being in Barca only a few days ago is a trip.

Leaving this place will be hard but it was the perfect break in a busy schedule.

Weekend Ramble

The weekend lived up to the hype.

Saturday consisted of visiting the shopping outlets 40 mins out of Barca and then a pretty big night. the outlets were okay, some very cheap stuff but I'm never one for big shopping adventures so didn't buy much at all.

When we got back to the hotel we had a rest then headed out to see what Saturday night in the city would bring. We stopped off first at an English pub just down our street for a pint and watched some soccer and then moved onto yet another English pub. Here we switched it up and got on the Captain Morgan again. All good nights involve the captain. The place was roudy as fuck and considering we were in Spain we though we should check out some local drinking holes. Our adventure then led us past a pizza slice shop (it was around 10pm and we hadn't eaten yet) where Weiss dropped his slice only to spectacularly catch it but then drop it again. He still ate it, 1 second floor contact. We followed the "jimmy plan" which is to go with the flow and the next place we walked into was crazy. Basically a small rock music pub but at the bar they had headphones do you could sit down and listen to the music that was playing. A cerveza later and we moved on again this time ending up at Placa George Orwell and a small local place called Bar Lisa. This place was full if locals with no tourists in sight. Drink of choice here was Sailer jerry and coke. At this point we are muchos boozed and decide to get dinner (midnight). Well, the Spanish do eat late but not this late apparently. Everything was closed! We finally got back onto the ramblas and found a place. We ordered a tapas style meat dish and went nuts. Amazing night.

Sunday was a sleep day. After recovering from the night before we hit up Hard Rock for a much needed feed
Then it was siesta time before we made our way to the soccer.
Wow. 78000 people in the place and words can't describe. The best players in the world on show. The best player in the world scoring 4 goals and the home side winning 5-1. Epic

Next up, sunny Sevilla!

Hola Barcelona

Barcelona is amazing.

Just a 1.5 hour flight from London this city has made me finally feel like I'm back in Europe. It'd been 7 or so years since I have!

The weather is a bit warmer here, either that or it's just because the sun is shinning. The hotel is great with working shower pressure and foods beds.
The first thing we did was head out to la rambla and check it out which turned into a walk for hours across the city. The greatest thing about just walking around is you discover the most random things. Example, we found our 2nd hotel and then took a random left at some cathedral. Next thing we are in a street market that sells antique everything. From stamps, used postcards from the 60s and even original stock purchase slips from 5 decades ago. Next to this market we hear noise and discover a bunch of street performers doing some crazy urban breakdancing.

That night we decided to go for diner, Spanish style. This meant waiting till at least 10pm which we soon discovered was probably even too early. When in Spain, have tapas. This was a good idea but two guys who have no idea how to go about this was something to work out. Eventually we did and we got about 10 dishes of different things. Tapas is a great invention. We finished off the night by going to a place in this placa sitting outside near the heater and polishing off a bottle of Rioja at midnight.

Barca is an awesome city full little streets with an unbelievable amount of restaurants.
The weekend should be good.

Leaving London

Well it has felt like I haven't stopped moving since I got here! As soon as we landed and got on the train jimmy was here and we went and got beers at the pub for the soccer. Since then it has been non stop pretty much.

Yesterday we checked out the Tower of London ( didn't go in) and went up Tower Bridge. We then aimed to visit the British Museum but got lost and decided to go into a pub for a rest and a pint. The pub (Fitzroy Tavern) turned out to be awesome with only local beers and one organic wheat beer led to 3 more followed by Thai food next door. After rushing home to do my Uni timetable we caught up with Mitch in a pub near Oxford Circus.

Today we went out and finally saw the British Museum. Amazing place! It's completely massive and has a huge amount of world history in it. Highlights we're seeing the Rosetta Stone, the Egyptian collection and the Ancient Greek collection including the Parthenon marbles. It's crazy to read ancient Greek marble and be able to recognize words etc.
Finally we caught up with Ducky and his girlfriend for drinks and then dinner at an Italian resteraunt. Was sad to say goodbye to him and not really sure when well see him again!

London has been so much better than I thought and there is so much more to see when I come back, one day!

tomorrow I go to Spain, hectic!

Seeing London & catching up with ducky

After a boozy weekend we finally got some sightseeing in and caught up with Nath.

All 4 of us had breakfast at Blackbird ( chicken burger for the win) then Jim left to go back to B Fast and we set out with Ducks to Westminster station.

From there we took in Big Ben, houses of parliament, Westminster Abbey, Downey Street and as the sun set enjoyed a view of the Thames (whic is a lot bigger than I thought)

As night started falling, at 5:30pm!, we started a massive walk down the embankment eventually reaching Temple station and traveling to Tottenham Square. From there we used the last of the energy we had to see a bit of Oxford Street and have a beer at some average pub.

It was a huge day and considering we were hungover from the night before ( bottle of wine in bed while watching roulette) I think we made a good effort of it.

Touchdown London

It's the morning of the day after we got to London.
Crazy travels so far included 25.5 hours of flying and airports and 50 hours of not being in a bed.

Landing in London and experiencing -6 outside Heathrow was an experience! Hands going purple and flashbacks to Boston and New York.

Training into London was cool, immediately was overwhelmed with the Brithishness of the buildings and surrounds.

Catching up with Jimmy and doing soccer at the pub was a very London way to start a Saturday followed by a huge night randomly in Clapham Common (Alaxandra Pub and Bison and Bird). The night was sponsored by Captain Morgan and we hit it till we couldn't anymore. Training home was one of the highlights of the night with Jimmy going on a rant about graphite and helicopters while eating a kebab and chip pack.

Today will be slow. Sightseeing begins Monday officially.

Tomorrow

Leaving tomorrow. After booking tickets nearly 9 months ago finally time to hit Europe.
Even though I packed my bag a day ago, today I re packed and now I have a weird feeling I'm either taking too much or not enough of the stuff I'll need. Don't really have that much room to add things I buy but I guess I'll work it out.

The last night always feels weird. Like you know it's the last time you'll sleep in your bed for 4 weeks and the next time you go to sleep in a bed it will be over the other side of the world in freezing temps! I always get a short lived feeling that I want to stay and that tomorrow could be a normal day

Either way I know I'll be pumped as soon as I get on the plane. Listening to music, Tobolowski Files podcasts, reading my new book and hopefully enjoying the in flight entertainment should keep me going.

It's about to get cold!