Valencia

Our second excursion with our travel class found us in Valencia in the Southern region of Spain.  A little bit smaller than Madrid with a bit slower and more relaxed vibe to it.  I liked the city, the nightlife, and all the sites. We attended the Museum of Science and Arts the first, which was housed in two unbelievable buildings by the accredited architect, Santiago Calatrava.  Less exciting, but surprisingly interesting, we visited a tile/ceramic factory outside of Valencia and also visited the Lladró factory.  We finished up the factory visits with a well needed stop by a winery on the way back into Valencia. Valencia is another great location in Spain, and the trip was another great break from the daily schedule at school. My plans for the rest of the time are pretty tenuous in regards to travel, but we'll see what I scrape together. I think I have a couple more free weekends lying around....

Valencia (Part 2)

I only got a few minutes at the beach, but it was a nice sight.  The waves were lacking, but I was impressed for the Mediterranean and couldn't help but imagine getting a few lines on the right board. 

Jimmy Came to Madrid

Sunset over the gardens in Parque Retiro

Well its not quite the ocean, but its still pretty nice to look at.

The sanctuary.

I miss CA

So as much as I try to resist, I pulled up surfline today and one of the featured stories was "California Combo-Swells".  I hate my life. I couldn't be happier to be here in Madrid right now, its amazing, but when I see perfect surf alll over CA, especially in Newport and HB, it makes things difficult.  I hope you've all taken advantage of these gifts because I have been incapable and sorrowful at my lack of ocean/wave activity. I miss CA, from the beaches to the homies to my scene....I'm so excited to be here till Dec., but I'm equally stoked on my inevitable return home...

More Italy

Italy

After a boring week of finals I was pleased to find myself on my fall break.  We had Thursday - Tuesday off of school and had made plans to travel to Italy.  

We landed in Rome on Thursday night, late, and made our way to our mediocre hostel.  We were only in Rome for two nights so we were gonna make due with the hostel, but the next morning some friends of ours in the same hostel but a different building, woke up with bed bugs... sketch.

  After we switched to our new hotel, Rome was ridiculous; having only one day there we had to cover some serious ground.  We covered all the basic tourist stops (coliseum, trevi fountain, pantheon, vatican, etc) and made our way through a pub crawl that evening that started at the spanish steps.  The next morning we caught a train to Florence to see all of our friends studying there and stayed for another two nights.  

The food in Florence was incredible, I ate at the best Italian Restaurant I've ever been to and there's pizza, paninis, gelato and tons of other food available everywhere.  Needless to say, I ate my way through Florence, and Italy in general for that matter.  After partying with all our friends in Florence we took off on Sunday for Venice.  

I couldn't help but feel reminded of Balboa as I walked around the streets over bridges and by canals.  I would love to have a place there with a boat and be able to get around by boat all the time.  

I really had no expectations coming into this trip and was pleasantly surprised by how sick Italy was. It has everything from the historic sites and the night life to the food and its amazing climate and countryside.  good times for sure.

Finally

After all this time, I finally succeeded in finding a restaurant that actually serves BURRITOS. O yes, i could hardly contain myself, and these were no European imitation burritos, this was the real deal. Complete with amazing guacamole and salsas, it was a trip I had to make twice during my time in Barcelona...

Barcelona is Buckwild

So last week my school took us to Barcelona, paid for our transportation on the bullet train and put us up in a 4 star hotel in the center of the city.  They call it a "traveling class", but I call it an excuse for me to take a one week free vacation to party with my friends in Barcelona, o yeah and they paid for 2 meals a day, breakfast and a lunch or dinner, drinks included. 

The class lasted Tue.-Fri., but they gave us the option to return on sunday, which everyone chose, and scheduled our return tickets accordingly.  Barcelona has ridiculous night life, from Shoko and Catwalk at the beach, to Chupitos and Piano Bar in the city, we went out hard every night and woke up early to a groggy tour of some really cool places. 

As much as it was a rough wake up it was worth it to really get around and see the sights the city had to offer, instead of waking up at 3 pm to get lunch and hangng out till the party started again, as I would have done otherwise. We saw the Port of Barcelona, Gaudy's famous Cathedral La Sangrada Familia, and took a tour and wine tasting at Cordiniu Winery. 

 Barcelona is to Madrid as LA is to NY, and I love it there. I will definitely be back.