http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Waffle/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Waffle en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:04:06 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:04:06 +0000 This is my final entry for this online journal and details briefly the last month that I was in Europe. An hour after Brady left the Dublin Airport for Chicago I took a flight from Dublin to Naples Italy. For a number of reasons including lack of sleep changing of time zones this was the most confusing flight I had taken because after dozing off I awoke and looked at my watch and thought t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-426234.html 3 Countries 2 Continents 1 WeekThis week started with me realizing that my time in Alicante had just ended. However it was exciting start also because after a four hour train ride and an hour on the metro I got to meet Brady at the airport. It has been months since I had seen any family so it was exciting to see Brady. After dropping off our bags we went to a Spanish restaurant for lunch http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/blog-412876.html Hello allJust wanted to let you all know a quick update. I have a more indepth blog started that i will post when i get home in a week but this is to just let you know what i've been up too. I'm doing a full blog post when i get home because I plan on printing my whole blog out in book form with pictures and captions so I don't want to leave out the last month of my travels. Ok quick overvie http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hessen/Marburg/blog-405206.html So the last two weeks have been a little crazy well crazier than Irsquove had the last few months because of all the academic work that Irsquove been doing. During this time I had to do 3 presentations take 3 final exams and hand in two 15 page term papers. This normally would have caused me to go insane if I was back at Marquette but here it was a lot easier for a number of reasons. Fi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Balearic-Islands/Majorca/blog-398970.html As I begin to write this I really have no idea as to how to summarize my second half of my Spring Break travels that took me to seven countries and involved crossing Europe from South to North and then East to West. However I will try to hit the high points but I could never put into writing everything that I learned and experienced.Irsquoll start this blog on Thursday April 16. The rest of http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-395469.html Itrsquos been a while since Irsquove done a blog because I have been traveling for the last two and a half weeks straight. Although I feel like it would take a book to write everything that I saw experienced and learned I am just going to give the cliff note version. My first seven days of my Spring Break I spend on the Camino de Santiago as a trip for my class called the History of the Ca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Galicia/Santiago-de-Compostela/blog-394142.html Viernes 3 de april We left Alicante at 700 am in order to beat traffic. After a 5 hour ride in the bus to Granada we were dropped off at the Alhambra a Muslim palace complex that was built over 800 years ago. I say complex because it was added to over the years before being abandoned and ransacked for 200 years until Washington Erving bought it in the 1800rsquos. Even with many of the pie http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Granada/blog-388574.html Hola amigosIrsquove decided to change the way I blog a little so that it is more interesting for you and more fun for me. Irsquom going to just blog about the trips that I take because the last two months that I am here I am doing a lot of traveling. I also will add random blogs like this one that is just general about what is going on. The big news academically for me is that the day I go http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Alicante/blog-386867.html Viernes 20 marzo 2009 We left the Alicante airport at about 1130pm and arrive in Madrid about an hour later. Since our flight was at 7am we found a quiet corner and tried to get some sleep. If you havenrsquot spent a night in an airport consider yourself lucky Irsquoll leave it at that. Because of time difference we arrived in Lisboa Portugal at 700am and made it to our hostel by wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisbon-and-Tagus-Valley/Lisbon/blog-385358.html Lunes 16 marzo 2009 Class went well today even though I had my history of Spain midterm. The exam was tough and took the whole two hours to answer all the easy questions but Irsquom glad that it is behind me. After lunch I celebrated with a three hour siesta lol. When I got up I decided to go on a hunt for sunglasses because it is getting to the point that it is a required part of the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Valencia/blog-383139.html Yes Irsquom still alive just that this past week has been a busy for me academically but nothing too interesting occurred so I didnrsquot blog.Lunes 9 marzo 2009 During class today the movie studio that I auditioned for called me 3 times. The first two times I was in class so I didnrsquot answer but finally they called me when I was between classes. Unfortunately they had filled t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Benidorm/blog-382015.html Sabado 7 marzo 2000 Today was the day of my big hike that was organized threw the Universityrsquos dept. of international education. I had to get up pretty early for a Saturday to make it to the meeting point by 8am but I did it. the hike I did last month I woke up late and had to take a taxi to the meeting point whoops. This time we took a smaller bus so there were less people which http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Benidorm/blog-379979.html lunes 2 marzo 2009 My six hours of class went well after which I took a 3.5 hour siesta before going to my Tapas class. This was another class that CIEE subsidized so it only cost me 5 Euros for the two two hour classes. Earlier in the day I had asked the CIEE office where the in the city the bakery where the class was taught at. I was surprise to see that it was near my house just on the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Alicante/blog-379447.html viernes 27 febrero 2009 I met the other CIEE students at the Hotel at 9 and after a five hour bus ride we arrived in Madrid. I did manage to sleep and read a little on the bus but seeing that Irsquom 6rsquo4rdquo and the bus seats are smaller here it wasnrsquot the all that much fun. This whole weekend was paid for by my program and included two nights at a very nice hotel Hotel Pas http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Castile-La-Mancha/Ciudad-Real/blog-378887.html martes 24 febrero 2009 I learned in class today that in Espanola you donrsquot capitalize the days of the week or the months so please donrsquot think that Irsquom that bad at grammar. After class I talked to a friend about doing Eastern Europe for my last week and a half after I finish the Camino de Santiago during Spring Break. I hope this works out but otherwise Irsquom going t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Alicante/blog-377090.html Viernes 20 febreromdashDuring this week I have been getting caught up on my sleep which caused me to be awake around 5am but I didnrsquot want to get out of bed until about 7. At school I had my written and listening Spanish Exam. Although I didnrsquot study for it as much as I would have liked I think that it went well. After this CIEE had organized so we could go into an English c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-376277.html hellipDomingo 16 febrero 2009 So I made it to the train station at 230 pm exactly five hours after my parents left on the train for Barcelona. Here I met about 30 other CIEE students and two Spanish helpers Spanish college students that CIEE pays to help us do simple task like buying train tickets and such. The ticket was just 620 Euros they use comas here for decimals and was well wor http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Alicante/blog-375145.html hellipJueves 12 continued I took the bus out to the airport to meet Mom and Dad. I arrived at there at 7pm and their flight was to arrive at 725 so during this time I wrote in my journal as well as people watched because there was also a flight from Manchester England that was arrive at about the same time that caused the airport to be full of British people and English conversations. H http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Alicante/blog-374304.html Martes 10 febrero 2009mdashSeeing that it was Tuesday class was short and sweet. On my way home I stopped downtown to recharge my bus pass. I thought that this would be an easy process but I was wrong. When I got there there were about 5 people in front of me which took about 15 minutes until I was helped. Then the lady said that I could only pay in cash which I was a euro short becau http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Alicante/blog-373023.html Jueves 5 febrero 2009 Although I only had 2 hours of class today it was rough. My normal teacher was sick the day before she was physically shaking in class so we all had to go to the level above us. It was hard because they were about a day ahead of us in terms of material so we were totally lost. Also since the class is small only 13 even with the two classes combined you really ca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Alicante/blog-371963.html