Before leaving for extended travel, add someone back home on your bank account and ask for a duplicate card if your bank offers the option. I lost mine somewhere between Greece and Spain, and although fortunately, there was no fraudulent activity on my account, it was a nightmare to replace! The banks in Madrid close at 2PM, are only open M-F, no one speaks English, and even though I have Citibank, international branches cannot access each others’ account information and operate as separate banks. Therefore, resolution required a lengthy phone call to the US, which can be tricky and exp [View Full Entry]

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One word to sum up Oslo: Expensive. By far, Oslo is the most expensive city I’ve ever been to, including London. A dorm bed at the Sentrum Pensjonat, where I stayed, cost over $50USD/night, without breakfast; a hotdog and drink combo, $10USD; 1 way on the city bus $6USD; 1 hour bus ride to the airport $36USD. I was well pleased with where I stayed as it was a few blocks from the train station, the receptionist very nice and helpful, free wi-fi, and a constantly cleaning custodian. My roommate was a computer programming professor from Hong Kong, who was there [View Full Entry]

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I flew into Stockholm late Wednesday night/Thursday morning and took the airport express bus to Stockholm Central Station, near Anja’s house. Anja and I met in Singapore, where we lived next door to each other in the dorms at NUS. We have kept in touch ever since and she’s one of those friends that always feels like no time has passed since the last time. She’s one of the most sincerely sweet people I know, and her boyfriend of 3 years, Emil, is just as good. The first thing that struck me was how expensive Stockholm is, relative to the rest [View Full Entry]

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Today is my last in Spain and it has been a whirlwind in every sense of the word! I have totally neglected my chronicling for the past two weeks, so I’m going to attempt a summarized account of my time here now. Here goes… I’m going to quote my new Brazilian friend, Yuri, in saying, “The best of Morocco was the airport upon arrival and then the airport upon departure.” We met while waiting to check into our Easyjet flight at Casablanca airport. It all began over a jar of peanut butter after he and his two Hungarian travel partners sat [View Full Entry]

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We left a rainy Ibiza on Wednesday, getting into a rainy Madrid in the late afternoon. Still feeling under the weather, we took it easy and went for a walk to El Corte Inglais, where Trace had business, and past the Real Madrid stadium, which is impressive and holds an entirely urban position among the car and foot traffic. Since Trace had a final on Friday, I left her to her studies on Thursday, and walked down the boulevard with a tree-line pedestrian walkway down the middle, to the row where all the museums are. My aim was to actually set [View Full Entry]

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**See Last Days entry [View Full Entry]

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We managed to sleep the solid hour flight to Ibiza in Easyjet’s non-reclining torture chairs. A taxi took us to our hotel, which being a block from the beach with our ensuite room equipped with a kitchen, was quite a deal! We spent many a meal in front of the Eurocup games in our spacious room. Good find, Trace! Ibiza was, as one would expect, full of tourists, though not yet very crowded with them, to our relief. The mornings started out overcast and chilly, but the sun was always out by noon. We took it easy the first day and [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, a very hungover Mel was ambitiously taken on the grand tour of Madrid, by foot! We left Tracy’s after 2PM and walked and walked, stopped for tapas, then walked and walked some more. The weather was perfect for it: sunny and mild, unfortunately, my health wasn’t in quite so ideal a state. We wrapped up the day in the gorgeous and expansive Retiro Park to watch Trace’s roommate play football. They didn’t winL Once we walked back to Tracy’s, it was after 9 and we only had time to have another quick meal (and a couple of coffees for me) [View Full Entry]

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**Start on entry: 18 July! On my first night, after a dinner of finger foods and vodka tonics on Tracy’s terrace, we hopped on the metro to the La Latina district to join Sofiqa and Ally, two girls from her program. Yuri and Pierre, Tracy’s recent French conquest, met us there and we spent the night bar hopping and in search of an adequate club to see us through the early morning. Well, the club idea fell through, but I got a great tour-by-night of La Latina and hopefully burned off some of the booze in doing so. From what I [View Full Entry]

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After a long, refreshing slumber, Steph and I woke up with the resolve to give Morocco a second chance and approach the day with an open mind, untainted by yesterday’s impressions. We started off on a good foot and after a lovely courtyard breakfast of French bread and hard boiled eggs, courtesy of our guesthouse, we ventured once more out of the confines of Dar Limoun for the streets of Marrakesh. Our first destination was the rose gardens, which were quiet and lovely (though noticeably out of place in the North African climate), but took up only an hour, including the [View Full Entry]

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