All alone...

My travel buddy left today to take catch a flight to Canada.  I don´t feel sorry for her though because she has to get back to Canada to catch another flight to Vegas.  :p  Now that my bodyguard is gone, my chances of being kidnapped/mugged/pillaged has gone up 10 fold.  I`ll have to be on my guard, trusting no one, just like my ma taught me!  I´ve managed to make it this far, maybe I can go another 10 days if I´m lucky.

So here´s some pictures from Kapital, the really nice night club in Madrid.  They have this thing that blasts liquid nitrogen? or just really cold air once in a while and cools everyone off.  They have dancers on stage, and the light and music are superb.  Here´s the aussies we went with.  (More than half the people we met were aussies!  I swear there´s more aussies abroad than there are actually in Australia at any given moment)
But anyways, they were tons of fun.

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We snuck into the VIP section. =p

We lost the aussies, but soon found them on the balcony of the VIP section on the other side

The next day we woke up bright and early to go on this bike tour through madrid.  It was nice to be riding a bike again, and not have to worry about directions.  It´s really easy to see everything in Madrid in one day, as there´s not a whole lot to see, but here´s some pictures.

ok now that the boring stuff is over... FOOD! we decided to splurge on the last day that Theola was here, and went to a well known Tapas bar.  The food was great, and we filled our bellies!  I actually think it was Theola´s first actual meal on the trip.  She´s been surviving off ice cream and crackers.

Paella: Classic spanish rice dish, decked out with mini crabs and mini lobsters!

Breaded mushrooms on the left, omlette type dish sampler.  It´s eggs and fries in each bowl, with a different thing in each.  Chorizo in one, cheese in another, and sausage in the last. mmmmm =)

 So I´m off to Lisbon tonight, so check in with you guys later!

Barcelona, Granada, Madrid

After trying all the computers in the hostels in Barcelona, Granada, and Madrid, I finally gave up and found an internet cafe in Madrid.

On the last day in Barcelona, we met some German travellers and also some Canadian guys from Vancouver.  It´s nice to meet some Canadians once in a while, they were pretty cool guys.  We went to a club called Apollo and had a great time.  The next day we were pretty tired from the night before so we just hung out at the beach all day :)

Granada was amazing! It´s a shame we only had two days there becuase theres so many things I would have liked to do.  On the first day, we went on a walking tour around some of the sites in Granada.  There´s a rich history in this place, with Islamic roots.  The tour guide gave us as much history as he could within the two hours. 

The Alhambra behind me, a citadel/palace.

In the hills at the top of Granada, are caves dug into it where Gypsies live.  Apparently cave life isn´t too bad, since no matter if it´s winter or summer, the caves remain around 17 degrees.  (The second day we were there, it got up to 46 degrees....!!!)  But there isn´t any water and electricity, and it´s pretty grungy up there... 
Theola and I tried to find the caves on the first night,  but we went up north as far as we could and got lost because the area of Sacromonte, (where the caves are) weren´t on the map.  So we gave up and went home.  It´s too bad because I was told that you´ll often find the Gypsies up there flamenco dancing for fun in their caves. 
The next day we woke up bright and early to check out the Alhambra.  It´s a short uphill hike to the top, and it´s really quite magnificent inside.  The architecture is crazy detailed and the hydraulic engineering that it must have took to have fountains and streams all throughout the palace would have been quite advanced at the time. 

We rushed back to the hostel to go onto a waterfall tour.  It was scorching hot in the country side, and it was a long hike, but it was well worth it.  the water falls were beautiful and the cold water was refreshing. 

What can I say about the cats in Granada...  Well.  They´re everywhere you go. They breed like rabbits in Calgary and they have no shortage of food.  (Everyone is always throwing food their way).  You´ll turn a corner and there´s 7 cats staring at you like you crashed their party.  They probably don´t like tourists...

 That night we went on a Tapas tour.  If you don´t know what tapas is, they´re just spanish appetizers.  In most places, if you order something to drink, they serve you tapas for free.  It was pretty fun, we tried some local Granada wine, and ate some delicious tapas.

Finally, Madrid! and my birthday! The turnout wasn´t great, only one pereson showed up, but it was still a blast.  First, we treated ourselves to a meal.  We hadn´t eaten for days, but for special occasions we can make exceptions.  I´m still waiting until I find the next pho restraunt.  After that we went back to the hostel for a siesta, in preparation for a pub crawl, which started at 1AM.  We went to a couple local bars and ended up at the Reina Bruja, a pretty nice night club.  We fiestaed the night away and ended up at the hostel early in the morning the next day.   

Well that´s it! Tonight we´re going to go to the Kapital, a 7 story night club.  There isn´t much to see in Madrid, the best part of it is the night life, so I guess that´s what we´ll do!  This post costed me 2.50 euros, so if you were unlucky enough to read this post, please donate 10 cents to the pho for alex in europe fund.  Cheques will not be accepted, however a steaming hot bowl of pho will.  Only satay beef.

Thanks for reading!

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Barcelona

Last night we learned how to make true cuban mojitos! It was delicious, the receptionist at the hostel used to be a bartender, so he holds daily classes on how to make sangria and mojitos. Afterwards, a bunch of people from the hostel went out to the street fesitvals. There was music, dancing, and fun all night. I'm not exactly what street festival it was, but all the streets were decorated, and apparently one street is voted the best by people. We met a few locals, and the spanish know how to party!
Today I went around checking out the buildings designed by the famous architect, Gaudi. The Sangra Familia, this huge church, has been under construction since the 1800s, and isn't expected to be done until 2026! It was pretty breath taking.

Here's that picture of pho I've been promising. :)

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Paris-Barcelona

I doubt anyone reads this, but if for some unfathomable reason there is, I apologize for the blackout during paris. The computers in paris didn't have the port which allows me to upload pictures from my camera.
We spent 3 days in paris. In those 3 days we had pho not once, but twice! We found a place near our hostel which we ate at the first day. The second time we were crawling on our hands and knees to reach. It was a 6 hour excursion, which led to us almost missing our train to barcelona, me almost being charged 150 for a 1 euro bike rental, and theola almost getting kicked off the train. Needless to say, it was worthwhile, and although the place (pho 14, highly recommended), didn't have beef satay, their regular pho was delicious.

Oh yeah, we also did the regular touristy things, such as see the louvre, eiffel tower, notre dame, meet up with my sister, etc. Ill see if I can post some of those pictures, but it'll probably be of the pho. :)

In the meantime, here's a picture of the beach I'm at which I took from my phone.
Adios!
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Belgium Beer

There's a place in town with over 300 different kinds of beers which we're going to be heading over to after dinner.  But until then, check out this 0.55 Euro beer. 
Pat I know you'll appreciate this.  Cheaper than keystone!

Brugges!

Hey guys!
Yesterday we were supposed to get to Brugges before noon, but we woke up late and the lineup to validate my eurorail pass took so long that we arrived in Brugges around 7.  Immediately after we got off the train, we could tell we weren't in amsterdam anymore.  It's completely different, the architecture is beautiful, and it has a really nice atmosphere.  We found a restraunt for dinner and although the waiter was extremely grumpy, the food was amazing.
The next day, Theola was feeling kind of sick, so I went out to explore the city on my own.  I climbed the belfry tower and although half of the top was under renos, the two windows that were open gave nice views.

mom you'd like the boat tours.  they look perfect for you!

Rainy Bruges :(

We just got into Bruges and it's pretty gloomy, but I this city looks pretty awesome.

Our hostel is pretty neat too, it's more of a small house feel, instead a the big complex in Amsterdam.  Here's a few pics in the lobby:

Cars in Amsterdam

Mmm, they have so many Audis, Mercedes, and BMWs over here!  We even saw maseratis and this strange/cool looking batmobile!  Everyone here drives standard... I was looking inside a lot of cars and I saw one or two automatic transmissions but the rest were manual.

Anne frank house and boats on the canal and tasty apple pancakes

There was a big lineup at the anne frank museum so we didn't go in.

Heineken brewery!

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