http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/SlavicNerd/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from SlavicNerd en-us Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:49:10 +0000 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:49:10 +0000 On the morning of our last full day in France we were very excited to venture a mile offshore from Marseille and visit the infamous fortress and later prison Chteau d'If. The 16th century structure is most famous for being one of the settings of Alexandre Dumas' 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Walking up to the ticket booth along the harbor however we learned that we were lucky enough to have ch http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Marseille/blog-451906.html As I had mentioned we literally happened upon a bus that was leaving for Marseille in 1 minute so in no time we were on our way. The trip itself was uneventful and in perhaps 45 minutes we were dropped off in the city right at the Arc de Triomph yes apparently Marseille needed its own. The oldest city in France Marseille is second populationwise only to Paris. Its port is also the 2nd large http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Marseille/blog-451903.html Our last night in Nice was nondescript aside from an absolutely delicious meal at a little place in the Old Town called 'Le Resto'. I couldn't resist doing the menu given that for around 20euro I'd get 3 courses so I started out with some nice crisp bread with an anchovy pate and an olive tapenade for spreading. Both were excellent. For my main dish I opted for the Ravioli Nioise choosing t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Aix-en-Provence/blog-451898.html Having allocated a decent amount of time to Nice itself we decided on the third day to head to the tiny Principality of Monaco or Principatu de Mnegu in its native dialect of Ligurian a western Romance language. At 33000 people Monaco is the world's most densely populated sovereign country and the second smallest country after the Vatican. It would take maybe an hour to traverse the entire http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Monaco/Monte-Carlo/blog-451600.html The morning of our second full day on the Mediterranean we were once again greeted with a grey haze but soon beautiful blue skies white fluffy clouds and sunshine came through and made for a glorious day. Comme d'habitude we first set out for our morning caf crme and croissant this time at a different little bakery in the old town. These were just almond croissants but the warm and creamy http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Nice/blog-451433.html Once arrived in Nice and thoroughly wanting to die from traveling so long we headed to our hotel 'The Little Palace' just a few blocks from the ocean. I shared a room with Alex and Kelsey while Mike joined his two friends that came in from Paris in the room adjacent. It was a very nice place with one double and one single bed. Starving we ventured out into town and found a place to share two pot http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Nice/blog-451406.html A bit after 3am on Saturday the 31st Halloween morning we 3 American Palau residents got out of bed and gathered our belongings for the day's journey first to Toulouse 3 hours away by bus and then to Nice another 6 or so hours via train. At a quarter to 5 we met our 4th traveling companion at the bus station and promptly boarded our Novatel shuttle. After a little less than 3 hours of halfsl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-451394.html Last weekend marked the annual celebration of the Feast of Saint Ermengol in the Catalonian town of La Seu d'Urgell. It is supposedly documented as the oldest festival in all of Spain La Seu d'Urgell despite only having some 13000 inhabitants holds many festivals throughout the year and attracts people from throughout Catalonia as well as Andorra. It is also important in that the Bishop of La http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/La-Seu-d-Urgell/blog-447559.html My apologies for the lack of update in recent weeks its just that I haven had anything overly exciting to report nor have I traveled anywhere fun. Nonetheless Ill attempt to highlight some of the things that have been going on in my Andorran life for the past few weeks. Life in the Palau continues to go very well and weve all very much adjusted to living here in the Ciutat de Valls. I really l http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/La-Vella/blog-445529.html Well after 3 weeks of living in the prison known as Aparthotel Conseller I am finally free from such pleasantries as water being turned off without notice paying for an internet that worked 1300th of the time and breathing in fumes from the construction that never seemed to cease. After some mild trauma with respects to securing a 4th person for our 4 bedroom apartment Mike Alex and I convin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/La-Vella/blog-440970.html Here's just a quick update from todayLast night we decided it had been far too long since we had feasted so while on a shopping excursion a quick pop into the Casa de Formatge was a nobrainer. I settled on a nice hunk of Morbier Kelsey on a Basque Bleu and Alex on Gouda ldquoLightrdquo which tasted anything but light. I later picked up a halfwheel of Roblechon at Pyrenes. Meanwhile th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/blog-438219.html I sure wish I had my camera coming down the mountain from school today. After this morning's rainstorms the mountains were all covered in an eerie mist I'll have to start bringing my camera out with me more often to catch such events. Anyway...I'm alive and well in the Pyrenees though without too many exciting things to recount. Nonetheless I'll try to enchant you with the details of my day t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/La-Vella/blog-436880.html Day two began with another round of talks this time about security abroad and things of that sort. Breakfast was significantly better thanks to what seemed to be freshly baked chocolate croissants. Molt b. Once done with the official business we again headed out to be tourists. First stop was food though since we had been obsessed with finding a Dner Kebab since arriving in Iberia. Taking Jo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-435668.html After more or less settling in Andorra it was time for a little trip outside the country to Madrid my old stomping grounds Invited by the Spanish Fulbright commission we had in store for us a number of talks geared for all the TA and research grantees throughout the country. Obviously we'd also be meeting said grantees and spending a fair amount of time with them. At 3pm on Monday afternoon we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/blog-435445.html After our first morning of sleeping in Alex Kelsey and I did a bit of shopping first stopping at the Casa de Formatge. This store is as you may have guessed entirely devoted to cheese and has ample free samples. There is also a restaurant on the 2nd floor that offers everything from raclette to fondue to just plain cheese tables. You can even buy a hardcore raclette device that really is jus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/Soldeu/blog-434515.html The next day in Andorra brought an even earlier appointment with which to start the day 7am blood tests. At 630 we met in the lobby to make the trek to the hospital. Now Fulbright had already demanded from us the paperwork from a full physical including blood work and tb test but of course Andorra wanted it AGAIN. No matter that two PPDs within a few months of one another can result in TB symp http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/La-Vella/blog-433516.html Day two started bright and early as we had to be at the government buildings quite at 9am to meet our liaison Jord to start all the paperwork. We had also learned that there were in fact 3 students from Oxford joining us for the first few months and met Rakhi who was also staying in our Aparthotel. Jord was great somewhere in his 30s nicely dressed with a little European scarf and nice shoe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/La-Vella/blog-433357.html Well as you all may have guessed I've made it to the mountains valleys of Andorra. Chris and my last morning together as you may have guessed was rather traumatic but once I shifted my mind to the exciting few days ahead I calmed down and was fine once I got to the bus station. I had maybe 40 minutes to kill at station but by 1015 I was ready to board and seated right in the front row with th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Andorra/La-Vella/blog-433251.html Day two in Barcelona our last full day together started around 10 when we woke up after a hot uncomfortable nightrsquos sleep on a shitty mattress. The plan was to hit up Corte Ingls for a shampoo and soap since I had left my stuff at Insrsquo mistakenly and b get an outlet converter since Chris had left mine in Valencia. Well I had conveniently forgotten it was Sunday when all the s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-432756.html THe next morning we were up bright and early for our train to Barcelona the final stop on our trip together. Ins and Javi drove us to the station at Xtiva some 40 minutes away since apparently the trains to Barcelona only came through there and not Alcoi. The train ride itself was painless though I was irritated to find out that despite our Preferente ticket status we were not sitting in th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-432318.html