Spanish Fun

I apologize for not updating the blog for quite some time.  Ever since leaving Florence, it has been quite a busy trip, especially with the addition of Brian Botsford to Team America... who we met up with in milan and then headed to Ibiza.  The island of Ibiza is famous for its nightlife (clubbing) and great beaches.  We arrived in Ibiza late monday night and checked in at our hostel around 10 pm.  Hostal marino by far has been the greatest place to stay.  The rooms were really inexpensive but very comfortable and the hostal had a pool, ping pong table (which we played everyday on), great food (we had every meal there for the entire duration of our trip), and an amazing and friendly staff.  Even though we we quite tired monday night, we were told by everyone that it was a must to see Tiesto at Privilege.  For people who do not know who Tiesto is, he is the number one dj in the world and Privilege is the largest club in the world... with those two facts, we were expecting the greatest night in our entire lives.  Tiesto put on a great show but to what people talk about, it didnt live up to our expectations.


Tuesday- All day we were at the beach.  The water was really nice as well as the women who for some reason were not wearing their tops (love the spanish culture).  Hanging out at the beach all night caused us to be pretty wiped out so we decided to stay the night in to catch up on some sleep and get ready for the upcoming week... more importantly (Deadmaus on Thursday)


Wednesday-  Team America heard from the workers at our hostal that fishing was a great experience on the island.  We went to the docks and arranged to fish around the islands of Ibiza.   To our dismay, the only fish that we were catching were sardines and small brehm fish.  I caught a fish and did not realize that I had until I reeled it up on the boat.  We concluded though it was nice to get out on the water and check out the other islands.


Thursday- All day was dedicated to the pool and resting/preparing for the night of Deadmaus, who is a well known dj that is famous worldwide and quite a favorite to Americans.  Team America had an amazing night, but come Friday, we were ready to move on to more Spanish travels.  Bubba, Pat, and I flew to Barcelona for the night and the plan was to meet Likens in madrid then following day.  Even though we were only in Barcelona for two days and it pretty much rained/thunderstormed the whole time, the city was really neat, especially camino las rambles (pretty much the main street of the city).  We explored the marina and the beach and it was nice for us southern california boys to get a whiff of the ocean air again.... pretty much rejuvenated us.  


Saturday-Wednesday--- All members of Team America reunited in madrid and rented an apartment for a couple days.  Even though there were a lot of usd kids in the city, they are all required by the school to live at a host house, so we were not able to stay with them.  madrid was quite the city and it was amazing just to walk around.  Some of our favorite places were Plaza mayor, Puerta de Sol, and the retiro (park).  The retiro is a huge park in the city that has an amazing rose garden and even peacocks roam some of the areas.  I was fortunate one night to run into one of my older brother matts friend Brian Van Scoyk.  He met us at a bar called Fabrica in which you sit at a table that has a keg tap in the middle and you serve yourself and then pay at the end... pretty much the greatest idea ever but the most dangerous for Americans studying abroad.  


The highlight of madrid was going to the Sunday Bull Fight.  It was quite an intense show and they slayed about 5 bulls, but it was great to watch a part of Spanish culture and history.  The matadors had really neat and detailed outfits and were very serious about their bull fight performance.


The most impressive thing about madrid Team America concluded was how beautiful the local women were.  By the end of the trip, we were tired of seeing sooooo many of how potential wives that we were happy to get out of Spain and move on to Paris, France.  


I am beginning to really miss all my friends and family back in the states, but it has been great meeting new people from all around the world.


hope all is well,


Alex

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck

Florence, Italy (September 9th to September 13th)

After Cinque Terra, Team America cruised back to ms. clio (our beautiful rental car) and headed off to firenze (florence), italy.  We have been staying at Anthony Pavlovic and Nick Agnellos apartment here (two of our LXA brothers from usd studying abroad out here.  Thursday and Friday entailed cruising around Florence checking out all the tourist sites and then going out to dinner with the usd crew and having  quite the night life with everyone.  We went to Dantes the first two nights which was a good italian restaurant, but the reason why we went because its all you can drink wine... and lets just say that there were  a lot of americans there.  Saturday was the most excited day because a large group from usd cruised with Team America for wine tasting in Chianti, Italy.  The day involved walking through the vineyards and olive fields of Chianti checking out the different types of grapes and olives to make wine and olive oil.   We had a afternoon feast trying out wines at an italian villa on one of the vineyards.  A little trivial about Chianti--- supposedly the background of the mona lisa is Chianti.

Florence has been a great time and we thank the usd florence kids for taking us in and showing us a great time.  Nick Agnello, Anthony Pavlovic, Gino and Henry.... thanks for giving us a couch to pass out on.

Tomorrow, we are driving up to meet with Brian Botsford (our fourth member of Team America) in milan and then heading off to Ibiza for five days.... wish us luck

-Alex and Team America

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.  ~Cyril Connolly (that one is for pat)

Cinque Terra, Italy

walking from monterosso

Team America finally left the great place they call Lugano and took ms. clio (the name we gave our rental car) down to Cinque Terra.  It was about a two hour drive which seemed pretty low key.  We are kinda winging it with the directions (which i am pretty famous for doing) but we have got to all our places pretty sufficiently.  Our phones all have google maps, which has been pretty clutch.  We arrived in Riomaggiore, the most southern city of cinque terra.  Parking was pretty tough and backing up the really steep hills with a manual rent a car was quite tough.  We paid for two nights at the hostel, which was quite pleasant. It was a two bedroom hostel apartment that could sleep about 8 people.  The first night in cinque terra involved taking the train up to monterosso for dinner.  We based dinner on Likens idea of walking up the street and hopefully running into a man who takes you up the hill and cooks an amazing dinner (which Likens did with his family about 4 years ago).   We actually/fortunately found the local italian man and had a fantastic dinner looking over the city in monterosso.

corniglia

The second day of Cinque Terra involved Team America trekking all five cities.  We once again took the train up to monterossa and walked all the back to Riomaggiore.  The hike was quite intense (lots of stairs), but it was amazing walking through all the cities along the mediterranean.  We passed by a lot of tourists and it was pretty funny how many renditions of hello we heard.  When we finally made it back to Riomaggiore, we were quite burned out and decided to go to a local market and picked up fettucini, pesto, and some cheese and wine and cooked dinner back at our hostel.  The cinque terra area is famous for its pesto... which was so dank.

Cinque Terra was definitely a touristy place, but each is fascinating to visit and a great trip if you have about 2 days to kill in Italy.

-Alex

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.  ~Steven Wright

map of cinque terra

Lugano, Switzerland

Likens posting on Louises balcony (Lake Lugano)

The first weekend of Europe has been such a great, relaxing, and eventful start for team america (Andrew Likens, Pat Driscoll, and I).  When I arrived into the milan malpensa airport, Likens and Driscoll where already there to pick me up in our rental car to cruise up to Lugano, Switzerland.  We have been staying with Louise Dunlea, my former baby sitter and still current neighbor from Altadena.  She works for Reef and Vans in Lugano and has quite a job.  Her apartment looks over Lake Lugano and monte bre, which is quite the location.  Our first night was pretty low key which was nice to cure Pat and Andrews jet lag......  we cruised out to downtown Lugano for some fine wine, great italian pasta, and some night caps at the local bars (Lugano is in Switzerland but being so close to the border to italy everyone speaks italian).  

Team America swimming in lake lugano

Saturday involved renting boats and cruising around Lake Lugano.  We were with a couple friends of Louise's, including my bud james petrie who I met when I came to visit Louise two years ago.  The lake water was absolutely amazing and it was really cool swimming around the lake drinking beers, eating dank sandwiches, and listing to some great music.  Later that night, our boating group took a train out to Locarno for a wine festival near one of the Swiss castles.  Our group consumed about 30 bottles of wine which led to a great night filled with great stories and lots of dancing.

We had a late start on Sunday, but was well needed.  Two friends of Louises from New York, michael and dawn, came on Saturday to stay with Louise and eventually became part of Team America.  We made breakfast burritos which was so clutch because I have not had mexican for about a month and lets just say, I creamed my burrito with guacamole.  In the afternoon, Louise drove Team America to one of the dams in Locarno, which they call the goldeneye dam because it was in one of the james bond movies.  There is a bungee jump there and it is the second largest in the world (around 700 feet).  just being on the bridge give us the creeps so ventured more into into the mountains and stopped at the river to go swimming.  The water was extremely cold, but it was very refreshing and really clear.  We also did a little cliff/rock jumping which ended to me jumping off a HUGE cobblestone bridge.  Dinner involved grabbing risotto in the mountains near the river.  Its hard to describe the atmosphere because it was so breathtaking, but we were in the high mountain above Locarno where everything was so green, the air was crisp and cold, and the food was so bomb.

Hope all is well, Team America cruises down to Cinque Terra next then off to Florence.

-Alex

I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.  ~Mark Twain

quick update

Hey team,


Just wanted to check in.  Can't download any photos from Victoria Falls because I am using the hotel's computers.  The falls can simply be summed up by calling them "God's creation"....simply wonderful.  The call the falls "smoke that thunders".  Yesterday Moffat and I went to Chobe National Park where we took a boat ride and land rover throughout the wetlands where we so close to bamboons, tons of elephants, crocodiles, water buffalo, zebras, wart hogs, giraffe, etc. 


Last day in Africa seems so weird to me.  I am going to miss the land, the people, and especially Moffat who was been my travelling buddy.  Getting to Switzerland is going to take about 26 hours, so I hope I can use my layover time wisely and not go crazy.


hope all is well,


Alex

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.” -Robert Louis Stevenson