Adam325

I wasn’t sure if my 3-hour flight from Tokyo to Seoul would warrant any food, but apparently it was deserving of a full meal. Gotta love international flying. After landing at Incheon and going through immigration and customs, I called my friend, Brian, who I would be staying with, and told him I was on my way. But first I needed to stop at an ATM and withdraw some money. However, when asked how much I wanted to withdraw, I was not given any “Fast Cash” options, which are very useful when you haven’t researched the exchange rate of the currency you are about to withdraw. Luckily, there was a currency exchange right next to the ATM, and I was able to lean over and determine that it was a little over 1000 won per US ... read more

As I waited for the train at Kyoto Station I was almost positive that I was waiting for the right train, except for one detail about the sign. Before taking any public transit in a foreign country it is not enough for me to find the train that says my destination, but I must also rule out every other possibility as well before I commit. In this case, everything on the sign for the train made sense and was in accordance with where I wanted to go except for a symbol next to the car spaces. The platform numbers basically told you how far out from the center of the platform you could stand and expect to be in front of a car when it arrived. For example, trains that are 12 cars long extend through ... read more

After an 11-hour flight out of Los Angeles, I landed at Narita Airport outside Tokyo. From there I would have to take a train for over an hour more before reaching my destination. As I looked out the train window I saw mostly farmland at first, but the population density quickly increased before exploding as the train entered Tokyo. By the time I arrived at Asakusabashi station, it was already dark, but the map the hostel provided was very good, and it didn’t take me long to find the Anne Hostel. After checking in I promptly fell asleep. As expected, I woke up early the next morning, and set out to explore the center of the Asakusa area, which was just north of Asakusabashi, a sub-division of Asakusa. As I walked down the streets towards the ... read more

The bus ride from Tarifa to Seville was pretty short. Although I wasn’t sure if one of the prior stops was Seville, there was no mistaking it once we arrived. Many richly decorated buildings stood on the streets as we rode closer into the city. The bus station was about a 20-minute walk from the hostel. I checked in and sat down in the common room to take care of some business. After a while I was asked if I wanted to join a group for some drinks in the park, to which I accepted. A group of about 15 walked to the park which was comically close to the bus station where I had just arrived. There I engaged in conversation, somewhat routinely, with the Australians, Canadians, and random people from various other countries. Of ... read more

I first heard of Valencia as a good place to visit when I was in Budapest. From there I found that many would agree. Since it seemed to be a good stopping point on my way to the southern tip of Spain, I decided to give it a try. I arrived in the afternoon and walked toward my hostel. I had seen from the map that I would be crossing a long stretch of park into the inner city, or old town. Once there, I saw that the park was actually a bit lower than the surrounding city, and had bridges crossing it at consistent intervals. Looking at the map, I thought it was as If there had been a river here at one point, perhaps that dried up in time. I would later learn that ... read more