I'm back now, but I still have a few entries to publish. I wrote this entry about two months ago, so if the text indicates that I'm still in England, that's why. A year ago, when my plans to spend a year in England were finalized, my good friend Megan promised that she would visit me while I was abroad. We decided she should come over during my reading week and travel with me through Scotland. We kept up these plans for a long time, until around the end of April, when she suddenly bailed on me. I was heartbroken, and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Whanne that April with his shoures sote The droughte of March hath perced to the rote, And bathed every veine in swiche licour, etc., etc. So priketh hem nature in hir corages; That longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, ... And specially, from every shire ende Of Englelond, to ST. IVES they wende, The holy blisful LIGHTHOUSE for to seke, That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke. I include the above (slightly modified) excerpt from the beginning of the Canterbury Tales to try to explain how excited I was to go to St. Ives. Chaucer's pilgrims must have been [View Full Entry]

---

---

So, one Saturday I board a plane in Madrid. When I get on the plane, it is about 80 degrees outside. Two hours later when I get off the plane in Bristol, England, it's 32 degrees out. Keep in mind that this was during my "spring" break. I was pissy. Balancing out the frosty chills of English weather, though, was the abundance of warm English hospitality with which I was greeted at the airport. My friend Sam lives in Bristol, and since I was coming back to England through his home city, I planned to spend a couple nights at his [View Full Entry]

---

---

After Malaga, I took a very luxurious high-speed train to Madrid, where I was planning to meet up with Yvette Scorse. I didn't really know Yvette when plans were made for me to stay at her apartment. I remembered her vaguely from the Philosophy intro class I took freshman year (where I also first became familiar with Keri and Laura from my Rome days), but we had never talked or anything. But Leslie knew Yvette, and I didn't want to pay for a hostel so that was that. When I first got into Madrid I had a few hours to fill [View Full Entry]

---

---

Geez, I have been slow about documenting my spring break. Just so you know, I was in Malaga in late March and early April. Malaga was the least famous place on the list of my continental destinations, but it ended up being my favorite. In case some of you have never heard of Malaga, it is a city on the southern coast of Spain in the area where Spain almost touches Morocco. The city itself wasn't really that beautiful--a lot of not so elegant high rises-- and the beach that I went to wasn't the best ever, either, but the atmosphere [View Full Entry]

---

---

While Iwas enroute from Nice to Barcelona, I had about three hours to kill in Montpellier, France. When I first heard about this layover I was really excited. On my flight from Newcastle to Paris I read an article in the complimentary Ryanair magazine about how awesome Montpellier is and ended up feeling pretty bummed that I wasn't going there during my break. So when I was adventitiously given the opportunity to spend an afternoon in this glorious location, I was pleased as could be. But, it wasn't really that great. First, I was really really hungry when I arrived in [View Full Entry]

---

---

firstly, i would like to say that i will be returning to Little Rock at 9:47 on the evening of July the 2nd. Just in case anybody wants to meet up for tacos or IHOP or whatever. Usually when I think of beach areas, I think of places like Hawaii and the Bahamas and Cancun. Now, I'm sure these places are alright in their own way, but I've never really had much of a desire to visit any of them. They're too typical. Too accessible. Too predictable spring break or predictable middle class family vacation for my wild yet highly refined [View Full Entry]

---

---

Watch out, this entry is gonna be long... Where I really went after I left England was Paris. Now, I've never been very excited about Paris. When I think of Paris, I think of food that I can't afford and probably don't want to eat (such as foie gras and escargot) and clothes that I can't afford and probably don't want to wear. However, Paris is kind of a requisite for having a well-rounded knowledge of Europe, so I booked a flight there out of a sense of duty, really. Plus, Kim made it seem not so bad in her travel [View Full Entry]

---

---

Okay so Barcelona was totally not where i went after Newcastle, but I managed to write this entry first so I'm going to publish it out of order. Alright I´m going to try to write this entry while in Barcelona so everything is fresh in my mind. First I would like to say that I´ve been really nervous about the Barcelona stretch of my trip. I´ve heard that Barcelona is really cool, but I´ve also heard that its the worst place for pickpockets in all Europe. When making my spring break plans I wanted to cut Barcelona out completely, but I [View Full Entry]

---

---

hey guys. i am currently on spring break travelling, but in my downtime in the evenings i am going to try to compose some entries about what all i've done. you'll be astounded. my first destination was newcastle, which is about an hour north of york by train. my flight to the continent departed from this city, and since i have a friend who lives there, i figured i would spend a couple nights and have a look around the city. newcastle was nice. it is famous for the bridges on the quayside (pronounced key side) in the river Tyne where [View Full Entry]

---

---