http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Spartan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Spartan en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:09:14 +0000 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:09:14 +0000 During Andy's final week of classes in Madrid our friend Christine came over from Chicago. We spent a few days in Madrid and then her and I SJ headed up to London for a week This left Andy plenty of time to study up for his big week of finals We took a short flight from Madrid to London and quickly realized the difference in temperature. No more 100 degree days... much cooler around 70 and a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-429034.html Steph and I made our way to my favorite town in Spain Valladolid. After a 7 year absence it was time to get reaquainted with the city where all of my ideas about traveling got started. As Steph and I headed north through the heart of Castilla y Leon it was like a complete time warp for me ... possibly for Steph too but she was sleeping during the entire time we were in the train. In 2002 I co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Castile-Leon/Valladolid/blog-423509.html For the last 2 weeks we have been very lucky to be living in our favorite city in Europe... Madrid It is nice to unpack our bags and get settled in one place for awhile. We are staying in a dorm on the campus of La Universidad de Complutense Madrid. It is a beautiful area We each have our own spacious dorm room complete with a full bathroom and air conditioning. Three meals a day are provided f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-420280.html Two weekends ago we went to Pamplona with our University group from Madrid to partake in what is the most unbelievable cultural event in the world. The actual festival is called San Fermin a week long celebration from July 714 every year to honor the patron saint of Pamplona San Fermin. The main event of this festival is el encierro the running of the bulls. The running of the bulls takes plac http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Navarre/Pamplona/blog-418436.html One last stop in Eastern Europe.... Ljubljana Slovenia. Yeah we cant pronounce it either We took the scenic train ride in from Croatia and were greeted with our first big rain storm of the trip. It is always nice to get use out of the ponchos we brought We quickly found our hostel which happened to be an old prison converted into a hostel. Interesting concept but it seemed OK so we stayed http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-418424.html After 3 weeks of being in big cities and urban life we took a vacation from our vacation and headed to what we are sure is one of the most beautiful islands in the world...... Krk an island in Croatia. This seemed to be a popular vacation destination for Croatians Italians and Germans. It was no easy task to get to the island. 10 hours on the train a 2 mile hike up hill followed by 2 hours on http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Istria/Krk/blog-416209.html Hungary awaited us on our next leg of Eastern European travel. A short train ride from Bratislava got us to Budapest around 1pm and after checking into our hostel we started exploring the streets of Budapest. This is a very cosmopolitan city in comparison with the last 2 Eastern European capital cities that we have been in ... there is a ton going on and a places to eat and shop abound. People http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/blog-414480.html For our next stop on our backpacking adventure we made our way south by train to Bratislava the capital of Slovakia. We found out quickly that the trains in Eastern Europe operate a little slower than trains elsewhere. But we arrived safely and only a hour late. Bratislava is one of the more random stops on this trip as we really didn't know much about it or what to expect. But I guess that is w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovakia/Bratislava-Region/Bratislava/blog-413770.html We officially have landed in Eastern Europe starting out in Prague Czech Republic. Our plane from Belgium got in around 5pm and after finding our hostal we made our way to a restaurant to taste the fine Czech cuisine. Dumplings pork sauerkraut beef goulash and apple strudel.... just what our stomachs were searching for. After eating we made our way to the main downtown square which was jam pa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-413665.html Well on our way to Prague we had a 6 and a half hour lay over in Brussels Belgium. So we thought ... instead of waiting around and falling asleep in the airport why not take advantage of the time we have and explore the city. So we caught a train to downtown and made it to the center of Brussels. Our main goal was very simple find a place where we could have some excellent Belgium waffles. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-413122.html On Thursday we flew out of Granada up to Northeastern Spain to visit Barcelona It is very different from every other Spanish city we have visited. First of all the common language there is not Spanish but Catalan a combination of French and Spanish of some sort. It seemed odd to be in Spain and not speaking Spanish Our first glimps of Barcelona was walking down the popular Las Ramblas stre http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-413607.html Ding ding. Phase 2 of our European adventure began last Sunday as the Sparta group took off for home. We spent the rest of that day with Sarah Vanessa and Whitney in Madrid. We discovered the perfect Sunday morning activity.... row boating in el parque del buen retiro like Central park of Madrid. There is this huge pond in the middle of the park and you can rent a row boat so we did. Team Bec http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Granada/blog-412101.html During the second half of our tour with the students we saw a lot of Andalucia and also some of Castilla y Leon and Madrid. They cannot go back home and say they didnrsquot see much of SpainIn Andalucia we were treated to a hotel within walking distance of the Mediterranian which is always nice. We were able to swim and enjoy taking in some rays After some solid disfrutando in the MED we ma http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/blog-411820.html One of the great adventures of this trip with the group was getting to go on an excursion down to Morocco Africa. We took our bus to the border of Spain then a ferry to cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Africa. Then bus again to get through the border patrol. This was very interesting and seemed a bit chaotic. We all had to get off the bus and get checked to make sure we didnrsquot have Swine http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/blog-411812.html One of Spainrsquos most beautiful towns Toledo was our next stop on our way through Spain with our Sparta group. We were there for about 5 hours enjoying the medieval streets and the great views that this city provides. The town was just completing their large Corupus Christi celebration so we got to see the reminents of that. We went through the cathedral of Toledo which is the 10th larges http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Castile-La-Mancha/Toledo/blog-411805.html Hola de Espana Well we have been in Spain now for a solid week and a half. We have been touring with a group of students from Sparta high school through Madrid and the south of Spain and we have been so busy we have not really had time to blog. So our mission now is to get you caught up on what we have been doing so far.We left for Spain on June 12th and arrived at mid day on Saturday June 1 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-411177.html We arrived on the Emerland Isle on Sunday night. After a few flight delays we were wondering if we were going to get here but we did. No overnights in the airport like last year We took a bus to Galway on Monday and belive we have landed at one of the most festive places in Ireland If it wasnt obvious by our huge GREEN plane with a countdown to St. Pat's day then it was here in Galway. That wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Galway/Galway/blog-300369.html We have been in Munich for 3 days now and it certainly has lived up to its claim as one of the most fun cities in Europe. Probably our favorite activity was taking a 4 and a half hour bike tour around the city where we learned a lot about the history of Munich and went to a biergarten which is a must while you are in Germany. The bikes we took out were pretty interesting. Imagine your first bik http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-299051.html We went to Berchtesgaden.... we hiked.... a LOT.... it was BEAUTIFUL... we stayed with a German family.... enjoy the pics http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Berchtesgaden/blog-299037.html Guten tag We arrived in Austria on Monday after a busy day of travel. We had breakfast in Paris France and lunch in Munich Germany and we ended the day with supper in Salzburg Austria. The Austrian food we had was very hearty and delicious and fun to try and pronounce. Schweinsbraten Pork and dumplings for SJ and a solid weinerschnitzl for Andy deep fried porkSalzburg is a very small c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Salzburg-State/Salzburg/blog-297144.html