4/18/09 Reflections

The three and a half months I spent abroad seem like a blur, so many new places and new experiences. People may tell you what Europe is like, but you can never attain any real understanding without actually going there, and I only scratched the surface of the cultural complexities of Europe in my time spent abroad.

My favorite places (most to least favorite)
1 Prague
2 Scotland
3 Sweden
4 Munich
5 London
6 Barcelona
7 Dublin
8 Bath
9 Amsterdam
10 Geneva

Even though I managed to visit so many different places, I feel like there were still lots of opportunities I let slip away, particularly not being able to visit Paris. If there are any lessons I could impart on a future traveler abroad, is is these:
1. Make the most of every minute and opportunity you get in your limited time, time management is key
2. Don't be afraid to try new things, get outside your comfort zone
3. Get out and socialize with local people, and make friends with people from other countries
4. Plan trips out way in advance, it is much cheaper and less hassle

The experiences and memories I acquired in London and the rest of Europe will no doubt stay with me for the rest of my life. My semester abroad has left me with a new appreciation for travel and adventure that I never had before. So what now?

I have been wanting to visit Japan for a long time, the country fascinates me. Also, David Dvorsky talked about the possibility of an internship in Prague next summer, which is something I will definitely follow up on. I felt a special affinity to the city of Prague, almost like I belonged there, which is interesting since I do have a significant Czech heritage.

---
I am glad to once again see my family and friends back home, but I know that it won't be long until I once again yearn for the excitement of London and the rest of Europe. It is kind of weird being back home, everything is just the same as I left it, but it all feels different. Everything has stayed the same, but I have changed.

4/17/09 flying back to Philly

Waking up after only 3 hours of sleep was rough, but I got the rest of my stuff together and got on the coach bus taking us to the airport. Goodbye to the Landward and the time spent there, just memories now.

In a moment of mental lapse upon arriving at the airport, I thought my bags were on Mike's cart since his bags looked just like mine, but my bags were actually sitting unattended next to where we got off the bus. A security officer came over to our group and asked if the bags were mine and gave me a lecture about how I could have gotten the whole airport shutdown and whatnot. My bad, it was extremely careless of me...I guess you forget stuff like that when you are sleep deprived.

The time on the plane ride back to the US seemed to fly by (har har). I watched the Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire, both great movies btw. Andrew's family was waiting there to pick us up, and I fell asleep for almost the whole car ride back to Danville.

4/16/09 GS speaker, O'Neils one last time, new British friends

In the morning we went over to the Duke of York to hear from Kevin Barkow, an SU graduate who is currently working for Goldman Sachs. Kevin wasn't a stand-out student by any means, graduating with about a 3.2 GPA, but he was very determined and used professional networking to his advantage. The GS interviewer knew one of Kevin's past clients, giving him a huge advantage. He now works 60-70 hours per week and Kevin tried to impress home the point of determination and a strong work ethic as key to success in the business world.

For our last night in London, we went as a group to the club/bar O'Neil's. For some reason all the girls have an obsession with the place, but it is mediocre at best. It was fairly crowded, and we had fun dancing the night away. I think I left around 2-3am to head back to the flats.

From London - March, April

When I got back I met a British girl named Claire who apparently had been living across from us for the past two weeks and we never knew. We walked downstairs and I also was introduced to the receptionist Jason, who was also our age. We went back upstairs to my flat and had some great discussions about the cultural differences between Britain and the US, especially regarding word pronunciations and girls. Claire was staying in London for fashion design and loved our "American accents". They were both really cool and we stayed up past the sunrise conversing, I think I passed out sometime around 6am. It sucks that I had only just met my new British friends and I was leaving on a flight in just a few hours. Missed opportunities.

From London - March, April

4/15/09 OB Test, Theater Paper, Bowling Party

OB Test and then turned in the Chandra Paper... it felt good to be done with all of my classwork. After working out at the YMCA I made my way to the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes for our SWSB London Program farewell bowling thing. Unfortunately I got lost on the way there since I went by myself, and I spent an hour wandering around the streets of London asking at least a dozen different people how to get there, most had no idea and I even got directed to the wrong bowling alley. Eventually I found my way there and joined the fun. It was a good time overall even if I wasn't that great at bowling. It was surprising how skilled Davis was at bowling, even after a couple of drinks.

4/14/09 MOB Case and Seminar Final

The days tick by and yet there is still so much I haven't done in London.

4/13/09 last week workload

Doing the work needed for this final week. I can't believe I head home friday, it is a bittersweet feeling really, I miss my friends and family at home, yet I don't want to leave the excitement of being abroad in Europe.

Tuesday: MOB Case Study, Seminar final
Wednesday: Theater Paper, OB final

4/12/09 easter, last day in barcelona

Today was a solo day since Nate and Hannah were doing their own thing. Checked out of the hostel and headed over to MacDonald's for some breakfast/lunch. I decided to start out my adventure by heading to the famous unfinished Sagrada Familia (the holy family church). The church was absolutely gargantuan in size and ornate in stature. The line to get into the church was, appropriately, also monstrously long since it was Easter Sunday after all. The architecture adorning the inside and outside of the church derived its inspiration from patterns found in nature. The ceiling held up by massive pillars that branched out at the top to support the ceiling like a forest canopy overhead.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

Next stop was the Gothic Quarter and Catedral, and the various old gothic buildings in the area. After a while I decided to wander through the side streets in the general direction of the city park. After some walking I eventually stumbled onto the impressive L'arc de Triomf. From there I walked into the city park which featured a random statue of a wooly mammoth and an impressive water fountain display with dragon head statues.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

By this point it was raining pretty hard and my flight time was fast approaching, so I walked back to Catalunya plaza and to a Chinese restaurant I wanted to go to the day before. It was closed for Easter (duh), but I would not be denied my delicious Asian sustinence. I realized I could risk walking all the way to Wok to Walk and back to the plaza and cutting time close for the bus to the airport, or I could get on the bus hungry and always wonder how good the Wok to Walk would have been.

Even though my back was sore from carrying around my backpack all day and it was raining like crazy, I decided that with no risk there can be no reward, and I forged on to Wok to Walk. It was a risky endeavor, but I made it there and back in record time through the endless throngs of people crowding the street. It was totally worth it.

4/11/09 the deep blue sea

Up at 9:30 for crappy hostel breakfast, then back asleep till noon. Met the girls at MacDo for lunch and then put on some sunscreen before heading off to the beach. The weather was decent at first, but it started getting overcast and looking like rain by the time we walked down to the beach. On the way to the beach passing by the harbor were tons of street vendors selling a variety of tourist trap items.

From Barcelona Trip

It has been years since I've been to a beach, and walking barefoot with sand between my toes felt really good, even though there was a cool ocean breeze abound. The ocean view was absolutely spectacular. Attempting to frolic in the water was not very fun, since the water was still freezing cold.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

After getting sandy on the beach we headed over to the Barcelona Aquarium to see some sea creatures. The aquarium was packed with people, mostly grade school age kids. The best part by far was walking through the underwater tunnel as sharks and fish swam above.

From Barcelona Trip

After a nap and shower at the hostel we once again set out for the sea shore, this time trying to catch ourselves a nice seafood dinner. The number of restaurants near the shore was staggering, and we were constantly being interrupted by workers trying to advertise and hustle us into their establishment. We eventually settled on a place and decided to order a 4 person meal of paella. I got to see sea creatures swimming around in the aquarium earlier and now I was going to eat them, how exciting!

Now I am really not much of a seafood fan, and was somewhat intimidated by the giant bowl filled with a plethora of mussels, shrimp, crayfish (scary looking), oysters, and even calamari mixed in between vegetables and rice doused in sauce. However, my fears were quickly abated after sinking my teeth into the first bite. I had never quite experienced these sensations before, as the complex combination of salty seafood set loose a cascade of flavors that danced along my taste buds. Of course I was completely stuffed by the time we were done.

It was time to follow up the salty dinner with a sweet desert, and we found a gelato place not far away where for only 2,70E we got a large gelato cup with two different flavors. I got strawberries and cream and it was glorious. Being a fat kid can be a lot of fun.

It was dark out so we headed to some random bars off of La Rambla for a few drinks. We ended up in some kind of touristy bar that had us sitting around a wooden barrel with two candles on it. At some point I got the brilliant idea to put out the candle by turning my empty pint glass upside down over it, thereby suffocating the oxygen supply to the candle. Despite my impeccable scientific proposition, I had left one variable unaccounted for, ie the couple drops of beer left in my glass.

Upon inverting the pint glass, the candle intstantly erupted into a huge sizzling fireball that reached halfway to the ceiling. I feared that I would have to help one of my friends stop, drop, and roll, but luckily no one was hurt. Well my feelings were hurt since the ENTIRE bar looked at our table to see what the hell had happened. Oops. I looked down at the now burnt out candle. Hey I was still right after all!

4/10/09 mountains, castles, pubs, and prostitutes

We headed up to Montjuic by cable car and the castle up at the top was quite impressive. On one side was the massive city of Barcelona spreading out as far as the eye could see, and on the other side was the beautiful pristine blue ocean trailing off into the horizon.

From Barcelona Trip

Next, we walked down through the mountain park towards the Olympic Stadium and saw some interesting buildings along the way. For dinner we went to Spain's equivalent of Applebee's (Happy) and I ordered a lamb curry meal and a water. Of course they brought out carbonated water that tasted like crap in a glass bottle that I had to pay for. Dicks.

From Barcelona Trip

After a nap and shower it was time to head out to TravelBar for their infamous 1 Euro meal, which for the day was a moderately tasty pasta + chili. While waiting for the pub crawl to start an entire rugby team, obviously hammered and very loud, came into the bar, but after causing a commotion they were told to leave before the pub crawl even started.

The pub crawl was very cool and they had this game where you had to find your "partner" who had the same piece of paper catchphrase as you, and mine was "Not Tonight Princess". I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world including some guy from London who reminded me of my friend Leslie, some guys from France, a guy from Toronto, some girls from Cali + Jersey, and a couple of cute Welsh Girls.

Nate and Hannah left before going to the final club because Nate was feeling sick, so Jackie and I soldiered on. I danced with some random girls for a while but it wasn't working out so we left and tried to navigate our way back through Barcelona's sketchy nighttime streets to Jackie's hostel. We finally got there past 3:30am and I made the long walk back to my hostel alone.

I had the brilliant idea that my return trip would go much smoother if I avoided all the guys trying to sell beer in the middle of the La Rambla street by walking on the far sides of the street. Genius. Little did I remember is that the edges was where all the prostitutes hung out. Less than 5 minutes into my walk back a short dark skinned lady of the night had her arms on me and was complimenting me on everything from how I was dressed to my manly physique.

Now as much as I love ego-stroking it was starting to get a little ridiculous when she would not leave me alone after I made it very clear I wanted nothing to do with her. She must have seen my dismissiveness as me trying to negotiate her cost of services to a lower price... so she proclaimed that since she liked me I could get a blowjob for "only 10 Euro". Damn, the girl really knew how to drive home a sale (I guess in her line of work you have to get good at it). However, my resolute principles were not swayed by her hard bargain.

Instead I proposed a counter offer, of "if I give you the 3 Euro in change in my pocket will you leave me alone?" Big mistake. That was the equivalent of throwing bread crumbs in front of a pack of seagulls... once they know you have food they are never going to leave. Of course she continued pressing for more and telling me about how bad it was for people who had to work the streets. That sucks, but I won't be swayed by your jedi mind tricks.

Eventually I made it back to my hostel where a group of other people my age were going inside... Freedom! Of course she protested and said that I should go with her, but I was steadfast. I firmly pushed her off of my arm, looked her in the eye and said "good luck", then walked inside without looking back. On the bright side, at least I had 10 more Euro to buy me breakfast at McDonald's in the morning.

4/9/09 Easter Break in Barcelona

On the Gatwick Express train Nate found a return ticket in the tray table for the Stansted Express that I could use and not have to pay the ~13 pounds, maybe my luck is getting better? After landing in Barcelona we realized it was really sunny and hot out, but the nice weather was just a tease as it quickly turned overcast.

Our hostel was located just off the famous main street, La Rambla, which was quite the sight to behold. La Rambla was covered with swarms of people, there were open market pet stores on the street and people dressed up like painted statues and famous characters like Edward Scissorhands.

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

From Barcelona Trip

We got to the hostel and learned to our dismay that the hostel wouldn't take credit cards and wanted the payment to be in cash. So much for our plan of covering that part of my expenses with Nate's credit card. We walked to the bank on the other side of the main street, La Rambla, and hoped beyond hope that my atm card would come back from the dead and magically work. It has an option for savings account and colored Euro bills come out, muchos gracias! I guess my luck is getting better. Ironically, I end up covering Nate's hostel fee.

We meet Hannah and her friend Jackie at the Catalunya plaza and walk with them to their hostel, which is in a somewhat sketchy looking side street off of La Rambla. We wandered around looking for food and I stumbled upon what may be one of the greatest finds ever, Wok to Walk. It was full of terribly unhealthy and terribly delicious Chinese food, and I ordered a container of noodles and beef slathered in sweet and sour sauce.

At night we went out to see some nightlife, and hit up MyBar and TempleBar for a few drinks. There was some unintelligible creeper guy who got hilariously thrown out of the one bar. Walking back to the hostel at night was kind of sketchy, as there were guys standing on the sidewalk selling beer cans out of 6 packs, not to mention that there were prostitutes on street corners whistling as you walked by. Little did I know this was only the beginning of my experience with how sketchy Barcelona could be at night.

4/8/09 Class, Nightmare losing my wallet

Everything seemed to be going well, I was getting packed and ready for Easter Break in Barcelona, and I decided to go get a few groceries for my last days in London. I got my groceries at Sainsbury's, checked out, headed back to the flat, and then my world turned upside down...

Back in my flat I realized that I didn't have my wallet on me. I went back to the store and asked if they had picked it up, but it was nowhere to be found. While fumbling at the checkout trying to hold all my bags and pay for my food at the same time, I must have somehow dropped my wallet on the ground and someone picked it up.

At this point it hit me like a ton of bricks... I was in a foreign country with no way of getting to my money and had all of 5 pounds on me in cash. Even though I still had my Bank of America ATM Card in my room, it didn't work at any ATM I had tried in London. I had a flight booked to leave tomorrow. I felt so utterly horrified and helpless.

Of course I called my mom and let her know what was happening and she offered to wire me money to a bank in Barcelona. I then spent forever trying to get through to BAC to see if they could fix my card somehow. And after realizing that you can't call a 1-800 number from outside the US and getting transferred through like 3 different departments, I finally got to a person who said he was unable to help me since the ATMS don't let you select a savings account option. Effed.

4/7/09 Class, Savoy Theatre for Carousel

The musical Carousel was a little tacky at certain parts (the ending) and the musical numbers were over the top (its junetime?), but overall it was moderately entertaining.

4/6/09 Back to London

4/5/09 Stirling Castle and William Wallace Monument

Today I headed out to see the sights at the Stirling Castle, which was an important power stronghold in Scotland during medieval times.

From Scotland Trip

From Scotland Trip

Next I headed out to the William Wallace monument and climbed up the hill and then all the way up the narrow staircase on the inside to the very top. Standing on the top of the tower was breathtaking as the wind was whipping from all sides and the view was spectacular.

From Scotland Trip

From Scotland Trip