I´m not actually in Barcelona anymore, but none of the other cities were quite right. I just wanted everyone to rest assured that I have arrived at Phase II of my journey; the Work Exchange. I will retroactively post a couple more blogs on Marseille and Barcelona when I get the chance, but now I am in Vilafranca del Penedes, in the Catalonia region, at the base of the Penedes mountains, Western Spain´s wine country. I´ve already had a lot of it, thanks to my host, Anthony. And he´s signed me up for a food and wine pairing luncheon, and a [View Full Entry]

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My arrival in Spain has marked a different segment to my travels. In France, I had everything planned to the minute, and I´d done so much research, that I had a list of what to do. As far as Barcelona goes, all I knew was I had a place to stay (I didn´t really know where), there are some cool buildings by Gaudi, and they lisp their "s" sounds. That´s hard to get used to if you learned South American Spanish. Therefore, these few days were less about sight-seeing, and more about being in a cool city. Luckily, I´d met up [View Full Entry]

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I have internet access! I'm actually in Barcelona, but yesterday I wanted at least one entry from Marseille. The hotel was really more like a hostel, but at least I had a private room and it was cheap. However, the claimed "wireless internet" was non-existant and I couldn't communicate with the outside world for three days there. Sorry everyone who couldn't get their jackercrackie blog fix! I'd like to start with a list of some notable differences between Marseille and Paris: Dogs are MUCH bigger in Marseille, and consequently, there is much more poop. I'm pretty sure Paris hir [View Full Entry]

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My book on France touted a bakery in Marseille as having the best Navettes in the city. Navettes are named after a little boat ("quit playing with your dinghy!"), and it's a boat-shaped biscuit. with an elongated dimple in the middle (where you would sit, on the boat), and it's flavored with orange blossom. The Four des Navettes was renowned for these little cookies, and they were also supposed to have lavender-flavored chocolates. I forgot to write down the address, so I spent a good half hour walking doggedly down the street, almost giving up, and I found it right at [View Full Entry]

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This day started with a stroke of good luck. I wanted to take the ferry to the Isle d´If, which holds the famous Chateau D´If, prison to Alexandre Dumas´ Edmond Dantes (pre-Counthood), and some non-fictional characters to boot. Judging from the map, I thought the ferry to the island would depart about a mile down the coast from my hotel. Considering how much I´ve been walking this trip (the only thing keeping my weight down), one more mile would be easy. Before I set off for a poorly-researched destination, I thought I´d check out the actual Vieux Port, a few blocks [View Full Entry]

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To continue with my Art-leading-Paris-to-Modernity-while-retaining-heritage theme, I must expound on something I saw at Versaille today. I almost got on the wrong train, but two nice tourist girls, who actually did just that earlier this morning, were kind enough to guide me. You'd think they'd make it less confusing, since millions of tourists flock to Versaille each year. There was an hour wait for entrance tickets, and I can only imagine the crowds in the summer. The most expensive thing I've done since arriving to Paris, I had to take a metro, a train, buy a ticket to the Chateau, an [View Full Entry]

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I'm sure it's been said before, but I think I'm allowed to say it again. Paris is rife with contradiction. I almost think the French secretly enjoy this fact, though outwardly they maintain their respect for their history above all else. Yesterday I went to the Louvre, once a royal palace, now the house of over 35 thousand pieces of classic art. I heard that the Louvre wa overwhelming, that you had to pick one wing per day, and any more would exhaust a normal human. I also heard that it was overrated, that the Musee L'Orangerie is way better (I [View Full Entry]

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I went to the Louvre today...I am way to tired to write about it now. Hopefully tomorrow. There are some new pictures up, and more to come! [View Full Entry]

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As Americans, we have very little sense of "Ancient history", considering our country is 200 years old, and had only been populated by Westerners for 500 years. France gives "old" a whole new meaning. I took it a little easy today, and spent the morning making train reservations for the rest of my trip. That railpass is really the way to go!! I think I saved hundreds of dollars, and once again, my broken french, with the agent's broken english made for a humorous, yet productive interaction. Afterwards I tried to go to the observation deck of the Montparnasse building (some [View Full Entry]

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The travel industry is rife with misinformation. At the beginning of my trip I was hit hard with airline misinformation. I emailed both airlines to make them aware of their mistakes, and demand retribution. Both requests were recently denied. Though they both are glad to be of service under better circumstances in the future. Yeah right. This time, I was duped by a travel book. The Paris for Dummies book has an excellent format, and one of its features is a list of recommended restaurants, categorized by cuisine, price, and district. I wanted to stay close to my apartment, as Paris [View Full Entry]

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