Sevilla, Spain

I'm going to have to make this one short and sweet. A couple weeks ago, (Thanksgiving weekend) I visited the wonderful little city of Sevilla in Spain. Jordan, Freya (A girl in our program), and I met up with Freya's Carla, who is studying in Sevilla. This was our last and final trip and of course something had to go wrong to mess up my clean streak of traveling. We were set to fly out on Thursday night, but being that it was thanksgiving we ended up taking off a little later than we should have although in normal circumstances we would've been fine.
I'd just like to add that my thanksgiving lunch consisted of ribs and chips washed down with a pint of Guinness with my friend Drew at a pub that claims to have "the best ribs this side of the Atlantic."
Anyways so after lunch I rush back to my room and pack to leave. We thought we still had plenty of time. We took the express train to Stanstead but because of delays we arrived 20 minutes later than we should have, making us literally one minute late to check in to our ryanair flight, which forces check in 40 minutes before takeoff. We were pretty upset but in the end it all worked out, we just had to reschedule our flight for the next night. That night we went to bed early and ended up waking out 12 hours later, so we were very well rested for Spain. Once in Spain we were greeted by rain and our friends Carla and Freya. We went our surprisingly nice hostel and dropped off our stuff before heading out for a crazy Spanish night. They party different in Spain. You do not have dinner until about 9, then after dinner you botellon (Pregame) in a plaza with all the other Spaniards before hitting up the clubs at around 1 or 2. Then you basically stay up all morning and head home with the morning sunrise.

The next day and pretty the whole time the sun was out over the weekend we took advantage of the bike rental system in Spain. Basically they have these bike stalls all over the place where you can get a pass for a week so you can get bikes and ride from place to place. The system was really handy as we covered a good portion of the city in very little time. I'll leave you with the pictures to show the rest of my trip as I am pretty busy right now trying to rush to get everything done before I head home in less than a week.

Malta

Our trip to Malta was a short one but a good one. Malta is a small island nation south of Sicily and "almost" the farthest south you can go in Europe. Evidently it's the most densely populated country in Europe and almost the whole world, although I would have never guessed.
We arrived on Friday night and left Sunday night. Once again this was another beautiful locale that I would recommend going to if the weather is nice. We didn't have so much luck it was kinda chilly, windy, and rainy during our stay which put a damper on the trip. The beaches here are unlike anything I have ever seen. There is no sand, what I'm standing on in the above picture is like a limestone shelf. Its smooth in places and really bumpy in others. From what I could tell you really don't get into the sea, although I did see ladders to go down into the water. Really you'd have to be out of your mind to swim because large waves come crashing in all the time (like the picture below). There are places where the rock had created a "natural pool" that would enable you to relax in a pool of fresh sea water that would fill up every time a large wave crashed in and then would very slowly drain until the next one came. We didn't get to enjoy this because is was a tad too cold and windy.

(Just steeped out of the way in time for this one)

(More "Beach")(Coastline)(One of the more rocky area of shore)

The transportation on the island is pretty cool although we never rode it. All the buses are similar to the bus pictured above. The owners all put in a personal touch of customization through the use of chrome parts, body work, and pin striping. We did however ride in a taxi to and from the airport. It might have been the craziest ride of my life. The taxi's operate on flat rates to and from certain towns to the airport. Of course this seems like a good idea for the tourists but what you get is taxi drivers trying to maximize their economies of scale. Any other taxi driver would take his sweet time driving slow though the scenic route to your destination, not these guys. The drivers we had drove as fast as they can the whole way to our hotel, cutting off other cars, tailgating, taking shortcuts though back alleys, passing though intersections without yielding. It was pretty cool. I'm guessing there aren't many traffic laws them seem to worry about. The drivers were good though I never really felt like I was going to die, I doubted that the drivers wanted to harm their new Mercedes and Volkswagen's. It just felt like I was a character stuck in the video game "Crazy Taxi."

Basically all we did all day was walk around and checked out our side of the island. We really didn't have any idea where we were heading we just kind of followed the crowds and walked along the coastline taking pictures here and there and mostly importantly trying to find some cheap food.

(A park by the sea.)

(An old Maserati) (I don't know)

(The old city we never made it to, the walk was way too far)

The Maltese nightlife is a crazy experience. The best part is their were no entry fees so you didn't have to have any club loyalties. If a place sucked or was empty you could just walk out and try the next one. The best part is each place had girls outside handing out flyers for free drinks and 2 for 1s so it was a pretty cheap night for us. We would just keep going outside grab a flyer and head back in. Some clubs were 18+ but most clubs were 16+ so a lot of the people looked like children. Making you think "go home baby" and "where is your mother?" Jordan and I were easily the two tallest guys on the island. Making it very hard to lose each other in the crowded streets. Our last night we happened to make friends with some Dutch bartenders at one of the more quieter bars. We scored a lot of free pizza and drinks out of the girls and stayed up basically until the next sunrise at the bar next door where after everything closes, the place hosts all the other bartenders. At about 6:30 AM we step out of the bar and start our 45 min walk back home. The picture below is proof. I had wanted a morning picture of the bay, I just never would've thought I'd get it by not sleeping. It was good practice for the next weekend, because we heard in Spain you don't go out until after 1AM and you stay out all morning.

(Starting our 45 min walk back home)

(One of the bays at night heading to the clubs)

(Jordan and I decided to take a shortcut through the bay full of yachts below and found this above, some fence hopping was involved.)

(More great night shots above and below)

(Exploring the beach)

Amsterdam

(Trying on some wooden shoes in a gift shop.)

So it's a Wednesday, I got the day off from work and what do I do? I go to Starbucks and fulfill the ultimate cliche. Sip a latte and blog. For good reason though, I have 3 more weekend trips to talk about this one being Amsterdam with Malta and Spain following. Our Internet still feels like dial-up back home if you're lucky enough to connect, making photo uploads a nightmare.

(At the station in Brussels)

A few weeks ago Jordan and I ventured over to a crazy little city named Amsterdam, maybe you've heard of it. Evidently you can do pretty much whatever you want there, it's supposed to be wild. The trip there is an adventure in itself I don't know if you've ever taken it, first, I took a train through the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest... Then, I went past the twirly, swirly gumdrops... And after that, I went through the Chunnel. Once out I was in place called Brussels, really there wasn't much to do there besides eat waffles, which we did. It was still early, so nothing seemed to be open so we just walked around the empty streets long enough to say we've been to Belgium before trying to figure out how to board our next train to Holland.

(Real Fresh Dutch Tulips)

Amsterdam is probably the craziest city in the world you're free to do pretty much whatever, at the same time though everything is regulated so if you were to partake in any adult or otherwise illegal activities elsewhere this may be the safest place to do it. You could basically go up to an officer and say "excuse me do you know where I may find the closest weed shop?" and the officer would happily point you down the block. There are shops for drugs and adult toys mixed with restaurants and gift shops, not to mention legal prostitution. I saw so much stuff over the course of the weekend I don't even know where to begin.

(Canal Tour Boat)

The first thing we did in Amsterdam was find our Hostel the Hans Brinker,which someone best described as "a mix between the movie Hostel and Animal House." The place was packed because there was this large group of British Law students staying there on a weekend holiday party. They were loud, because for some reason their favorite drunk activity is to sing songs, which quickly turned the bar downstairs into a giant dude fest. Jordan and I had to bounce and escape this, we had the city to explore.

(City Plaza at night)

That Friday night I saw one thing I've always wanted to see. So many times have I heard the screeching of tires only to rip my head around and see a near accident that somehow never came to be. Not this time. Here I was standing on a corner slightly lost trying to figure out which direction I need to head when I see a biker heading towards the intersection at a fairly good pace. Then I look down the road to the left to see a car heading towards the intersection as well. I froze like a kid at the bottom of the stairs on Christmas morning when he sees all the presents under the tree. I couldn't say anything although I think I got out an "uhhhhh....." Seconds later screeccccchhhhh......wham! The car meets the biker right in the middle of the intersection, it couldn't me timed any more perfect. The biker goes flying off with the bike still between his legs the car stops immediately. The driver then pops out of the car and yells "you alright?" and the biker responds with, "Cash out of pocket!" Apparently this wasn't his first time. I tuck back into the shadows hoping a fight or something breaks out but really all they did was argue about the value of the bike which was now mangled. After coming to an agreement the driver drives off and I watch to my enjoyment as the biker tries to stomp on his bike to bend it back into drivable shape. I don't know how he was unharmed, I'd say he might be the 2nd luckiest guy in the world at that moment, me being the first since I got to witness the whole event. The rest of the night we just tagged along with all the British kids on a pub crawl before hitting the sack from pure exhaustion.

(On the canal tour at night)

The next day we walked around a lot more, we walked everywhere, we didn't even want to attempt to try to figure out the train system. We tried to go to the Anne Frank museum but the line was over two blocks long so we skipped it. We did however take a canal tour which was surprisingly amazing, the canals are everywhere in the city so you get to see a lot and the tour boats are fully enclosed and really cool. The drivers are amazing they steer those things better than most people can drive though the narrow tunnels and traffic.

(Canal Tour)

After the tour I witnessed the 2nd spectacle a one armed no legged guy on a skateboard. I feel bad because the guy was severely handicapped but let me just try to explain what I witnessed. First off the guy torso+arm on wheels was booking down the street you could here him from a distance "clack, clack, clack, clack" giving you a nervous feeling as it got louder and louder. I began to check my periphs searching for a skateboarder but couldn't see one in the crowd which made me even more curious about where the sound was coming from. All the sudden I look down and over to the right and see him. He's pulling himself along the path with his right arm and waist placed on the middle of the board. His pace is fast, if he has legs he'd be sprinting. Perhaps the best part and the only reason this was humorous was that he was wearing a long sleeve shirt, with the left arm tied off at his knub. Because of this and his awesome pace the excess sleeve spun around above his head as he tried to keep balance like he was rallying at a football game. I didn't laugh as it took me a while to register what had just happened but now that little skateboarding torso will always be in the back of my mind to be pulled out whenever I need something to smile about.

(This church happened to be right across the narrow canal from the red light district)

We also visited the Infamous Red Light District that night. Not to make any purchases but to see if the stories were true. They are. Scantly clad women adorn the windows throughout the streets and alleyways. You can find pretty much whatever you're into. The women come for all over the world to work here. Short, Tall, skinny, fat, dark, light, beautiful, ugly, real, plastic, and every combination in between. They even had chick-dudes or "its" You couldn't really tell what they were bring to the table and you didn't want to find out so you quickly look away. But these "its" had a bone structure even Arnold Schwarzenegger would be jealous of. It turns out the British are the prostitutes best customers a part of the culture I'm happy I did not take a part of.

(Look closely at the people in the boat, click the photo if you need a better view.

(Couldn't believe me eyes)

You may be sitting here asking yourself questions such as, "who are these black faced people?" , "is this racist?" "What is going on here?" These are few of the many questions running though my head on that lovely Sunday afternoon in Amsterdam. Somehow Jordan and I managed to book our trip to London the same day Sinterklaas arrives to Amsterdam from Spain. Yes I said Spain, not the North Pole like we are led to believe.

(Sinterklaas!!!)

Anyways the black faced character you see is Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), evidently Black Pete is the equivalent of our Elf. Many different stories are passed around one being the Black Pete was a Slave from Ethiopia and that Sinterklaas saved him and brought him to Spain. In return Black Pete became a slav...er.... volunteer worker for Sinterklaas. Other stories say he's from Spain and Turkey but I don't see the resemblance. The Dutch children used to believe that if they were bad Black Pete would come steal them, throw them in his bag, and take them to Spain. I guess Spain must be the most terrible place in the world to the Dutch although it probably has to do with them being in a Catholic war with them a long time ago. Black Pete is depicted as being dumb with googly eyes and nappy hair. All the townspeople participating in the parade wear black makeup on their faces, black curly wigs, and bright red lipstick as well as old Renaissance dress. The town seems to be ok with it. I really don't know what to think about it. The underlying stereotypes surrounding Black Pete are obviously racist even though the Dutch deny seeing it like that. The Dutch used to be Notorious slave traders using their famous Dutch ships that owned the seas so the racism was obviously there at one point. But if they don't see it like that anymore is it still alright? I could just see how children could have their mind shaped by this tradition. I guess if the same thing were to happen with let's say Jewish people and some country paraded people dressed with big noses and stealing money, you know it would never last. I guess my problem is not with the black face paint but with all the other negative stereotypes involved. I'll try to get a video posted on this post next time I find myself a decent Wifi connection.

Ill end with someone humorous. The guy below was spotted rollerskating with his head down, much like it is in the picture, while Jordan and I were sitting in a park. He seemed to be going in circles. I guess this is what happens were you spent too much time in Amsterdam.

(This guy was roller skating and a racing top and a thong at 11AM on a SUNDAY)