Day 7; London

Oh Yes! The bliss of sleep!

Today was another great day and it started with a full 9 hours of sleep and that is probably no coincidence.

After we woke up and showered and packed and told Jen (our couchsurfing host) more thank-yous (she really is awesome) we headed to the British Museum (http://tinyurl.com/khvpx). This museum is huge. It should be huge from the way they filled the museum. As England "took over" soooo many countries and dynasties and empires they would then ship all the coolest stuff back to London (Parthenon sculptures, Roman relics, paintings...) and keep them there for their own true citizens. So, the museum has lots of great artifacts, I mean, I got to see the Rosetta Stone (http://tinyurl.com/yugsde)!

Anywho, after cruising through that museum we headed to another, the National Gallery (http://tinyurl.com/5de6dr) where my amazement truly jumped at the site of seeing some great art...and when I say great I'm talking about guys like Da Vinci, Rafael, Michelangelo, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Renoir and Reubens. All the greats. I ate it up like crazy.

We headed on our biggest journey of the evening after that and trekked on out to Camden to try and find Abbey Road. Yes, I'm a dork. After studying numerous worthless maps, taking 2 Underground trains and two buses, we decided to start asking people and it took about the 4th or 5th person to finally give us any kind of good answer. We even got one lady to ask us what it was...(insert British subtitles) "No, I don't know what that is but it's the 2nd time today someone's asked me for directions there...what is it?" Good Grief. Found it. Walked it. videoed it. Loved it...and that's all you need.

I will hopefully have all the videos wrapped up and sent to Newsok.com by tomorrow night for a 1st week wrap-up...here's hoping! :) Goodnight OKC.

(Oh, and I bought one of these today http://tinyurl.com/nsntz3)

Next stop Paris.

Day 6; London

After our good 3 hour "nap" as our night's sleep, we headed out of Jeronimo's apartment and grabbed a taxi to Madrid's Barajas to fly to London.

No sleep on the plane for me as I spent the whole time uploading photos and videos and labels...well worth it.

This whole trip began with the planning around my friend, Doug, and I planning out a 10-day trip and it started in London and went to Paris then Amsterdam, Berlin and finished in Prague. But I expanded it to what it is today. Anyway, I met up with Doug this morning as his flight flew into London this morning. We didnt want to use phones on our trip and just decided to, "meet you at Big Ben at 11:45 a.m.?" and it worked out.

Doug met up with Aimee and I and we marvelled at Big Ben and the Parliment before crossing the Thames river and riding the Eye of London (http://tinyurl.com/pgvntw, http://tinyurl.com/9gerk)

After admiring the great view across London we started on a long trek all across London Central hitting St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminister Abbey and never did see Abbey Road but it is a primary spot for tomorrow.

We went to the Tower of London (http://tinyurl.com/3ohmt) and walked over Tower bridge (http://tinyurl.com/p5gazz).

After that we headed on over to our next couchsurfer's apartment, Jen. Jen lives in Notting Hill (yes, like the movie) and took us to this AWESOME pub that was the place, "Churchill's Arms" (http://tinyurl.com/pycqee) where Winston Churchill gave all his war update radio announcements from 1940-1945. That is the kind of stuff you don't see/find without locals. I love couchsurfing.

I'm having trouble finding some for Paris though. I sent out a couple more requests tonight so I hope to get some good feedback.

Tomorrow we are sure to hit the Abbey Road (I'll be Paul and Doug will be John), British Museum, National Gallery and the Royal Observatory.

Day 5 in Segovia

Wow, Segovia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segovia) has captured me again!!! I have tons of photos and plan on uploading them soon but right now that requires too much effort for my exhausted body.

For now I'll tell you that the castle, the cathedral and the aqueduct are just breath-taking. I had been to Segovia before but for some reason this time was way more enjoyable. I took tons of photos. Yesterday's trip to Toledo was great but Segovia blew it out of the water.

Aimee and I missed the train...again. That's just what happens when you try to plan anything the next morning (11:30 a.m.) when you live in Madrid and everyone stays up till 4 a.m...and when i say everyone I pretty much mean everyone.

Ok, it was kind of a hassle (only because of the late time) getting to my next couchsurfing apartment but a great welcoming we got. We show up to a group of 8 people. One from Mexico, six from France and one Spanish native. All of them are fluent in French and Spanish and can carry on a conversation in English but not fluently. One of the more interesting things about this group is that at this table all three languages are spoken at all times depending on who started the conversation and who was being addressed (Anyone want to go in on getting the Rosetta Stone with me?).

So when we arrived we were escorted to this rooftop terrace in South Madrid for a BBQ and party. Yes, another party. The only strange thing about this BBQ and party is that it started at 11:30 p.m. It is now just baraly past 1 a.m. and we were just given some homemade cake. Yes, I love Spain.

Well as this party starts going strong I am off to bed...plane to London at 7:35 a.m. and we have to leave by 6:15. Exactly what I need right now, no sleep. :) Oh well, I can sleep when I get back to OKC.

Day 4 in Toledo

Toledo, Spain, is one of the oldest cities in Europe. This is my 2nd time to go there and seeing their cathedral is well worth even a second trip (http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/3598005855/).

The main cathedral, The Cathedral of Saint Mary Cathedral (http://tinyurl.com/rdy3uz) is alone worth the reason why I missed my train back to Madrid. With the cathedral and the Alcazar (http://tinyurl.com/otyumz) right in the center of the hill-top city it was easily worth the 15 euros roundtrip on Spain/Europe's high-speed train (http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/3598030167/). The 30 min 150ish MPH trip flew by without a care but the only problem I had is that it didn't leave at 5:35 p.m. instead leaving at 5:30 p.m. meaning we missed our train and were "stuck" in Toledo for another 2 hours waiting for the next train.

No problem in Spain though as we found 4-5 cafes open within 2 blocks awaiting our arrival.

Now that i'm back to the apartment I need to join the discussion on what are night plans are. Tiene un buen fin de semana amigos. Haste Luego!!

-CBC

Madrid Day 3

This morning 2 of my American friends, Aimee Freyman and Jason Opheim, arrived in Madrid. Jason was a previous roommate of mine and it was Aimee's first time here. Apparently jet lag doesn't apply to either of them as they were both anxious to hit the streets of Madrid and see the sites.

We went to Paco's (technically called Bar Collette but we call it Paco's because that is the name of one of the owners and we love him quite a bit; Paco and Tony, Paco is the one on the left with older brother Tony on the right) for an amazing lunch of Paella and Sangria/Mahou and then hit up many of the tourist hotspots.

Visiting many of the previously mentioned sites again, I also added the Museo del Prado to the list today (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prado).

Here in about 20 minutes, a group of us are heading up to the Templo de Debold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Debod) where we can see stunning views of the sunset...(http://tinyurl.com/ogp57v)

We don't really have any plans after that but I'm sure we can find some.

-CBC

Madrid day 2

I finally fell asleep at 2:30 a.m. last night (jet lag is weird) but slept til 11:45 a.m. Boy did I need that. I got 4 hours of sleep the night before I left because I woke up early to do final packing assesments etc. and I got between 2-3 hours of off an on sleep on the overnight plane to Madrid and then when I arrived I walked around all day visiting various sites...I was exhausted. A very happy exhausted though :)

After rolling out of bed and getting all my essentials (Euros, digital camera, video camera, iPod and keys) I put on one of my many white t's and headed out. About the time I reached Plaza Espana, (http://tinyurl.com/r58o48) I realized my iPod decided it was going to play a joke on me and not work for the time being. "Oh, that silly iPod," I said to myself and took the headphones off, alleviating part of the typical tourist stereotype and headed up Gran Via (http://tinyurl.com/pq7xd5).

I took a short detour into popular clothing store H&M an quickly realized the summer line for men's clothing consisted of pink t-shirts with a v-neck cut. No thank you.

From H&M I headed over to Spain's famous Plaza Mayor (http://tinyurl.com/oxjrx6) and couldn't resist the taking photos of the famous plaza. I might as well have been holding a sign that read, "I don't speak Spanish, I am a tourist and come play music next to me in hopes I'll give you some money."

After walking through the plaza's beautiful arching entry/exits I headed down to the Grand Opry house and directly behind the opera was the palace (http://tinyurl.com/qklzh6).

Some photos of these places as well as the dominating pizza I made back at Angela's apartment and a gigantic advertisement of Hugh Laurie (star of my favorite TV show "House") can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/. Enjoy.

Just arrived in Madrid!!

My 9.5 hour flight is officially over. My computer says 5:59 a.m. but here it is 12:59 p.m. and sunny and beautiful. I met up with my old roommate here and am sitting at Cafe Ojala (Cafe Wish...somewhat). We just ordered some canas (half pints) of Warsteiner and patiently awaiting my first genuine tapas in 14 months. The people all around me are speaking in the very passionate way Spainards are acustomed to and I'm so giddy that I'm writing this with a smile on my face looking like the typical American tourist.

I just turned the camera function on my computer to on and went outside and took this photo, http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/3588984324/ and came back inside and took this one, http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/3588177379/

I will take some video throughout the day and shoot them over to www.newsok.com as soon as I can (probably tonight or tomorrow morning).

Adios!

-CBC