A Success Story

Well, well, well. The return to the blogosphere. Last time I left you I was just a young, uninformed college kid studying in London. Now, I am a wise sage, having traveled the world for 3 weeks. OK, 3 countries. But still, all kidding aside, traveling through Europe on my own (or at least with only people my age) has put some things into perspective for me, and also helped me grow as a person - I truly believe that. But before I get deep and philosophical on you, let me just bring you up to speed (to a certain extent).

As the title of this entry indicates, the one word I would use to describe the trip would be successful. It was a success in every way it could have been: 1. We avoided any travel mishaps or problems with reservations of any kind; 2. We budgeted the right amount of time in each city; 3. We had a good mix of seeing friends in certain cities and having some time just the two of us; 4. We stayed within our planned budget for spending; 5. We avoided losing anything or having anything stolen from us; 6. The order of the cities we traveled to was perfect - Athens was a great final location where we got to relax for a day on the beach and stay in a really nice hotel; 7. Taking trains throughout Spain and Italy using Mom and Dad's generous contribution of a Eurail pass was infinitely more relaxing and manageable than flying would have been; 8. Perhaps most important is the simple fact that Jillian and I were able to share a 3 week journey that we will no doubt both remember for the rest of our lives.

So generally, the trip was great. Great food, great weather for almost all of it, great sights. All adds up to a great experience. So now I'll delve into a little more detail about each stop. But not too much detail, don't worry.

We started off in Madrid. I have to admit going into the trip I was least excited for Spain of all three countries. Having been to Italy, which I loved, and having Greece as the #1 place I wanted to visit that I had never been to, Spain was kind of lost in the shuffle. So my expectations weren't too high going in. But Madrid ended up being one of my favorite cities of the trip (I'll rank the cities at the end... an exciting moment, I know). We didn't have a ton of time there, but the city was great. It was definitely the prettiest city we saw other than Venice, and that beauty was complemented by interesting and unique sights: the Royal Palace, the Prado Art Museum (I emailed Mr. Black to tell him I saw The Garden of Earthly Delights), Retiro Park, etc. Just lots of nice, picturesque little streets with outdoor cafes and shops. It also helped to have a tour guide from afar in Jared, who studied abroad there two years ago - thanks again for all of the recommendations. Other highlights from the city included: dinner at Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world (my steak was still mooing a bit, but nonetheless a good and memorable meal), churros with chocolate at a famous place, and of course, getting to use my Spanish (came back to me pretty quickly, and was fun to use). Overall just a fun and pretty city, and a great way to kick off the trip.

Next up was Barcelona. As I mentioned, before the trip began I didn't have high expectations for Spain. But Madrid changed that, so I was really excited to get to Barcelona - a lot of people study abroad there and rave about how great a city it is. That said, I must admit it did not impress me. It was my least favorite of the cities, and although still enjoyable and fun (especially with friends like Lauren and Michael there), I found it disappointing. My qualms were threefold. First, I found it to be relatively ugly on the whole. Areas of Las Ramblas (the main street/market area through town) were pretty, and the neighborhood around the north part of it were nice, but on the whole it paled in comparison to Madrid. Secondly, we definitely felt the most unsafe in Barcelona. Although this was undoubtedly due in part to the fact that we had heard many stories of muggings and pickpockets, our hostel was definitely not in a great part of town and the city as a whole felt a bit unsafe at night. And lastly, there just wasn't much to do there. There was Gaudi, Gaudi, and more Gaudi, but not many other sights. Although his stuff is cool, I got a bit tired of it after a while and found it to be a bit repetitive. Don't get me wrong, we definitely enjoyed our time in Barcelona, which speaks to the success of the overall trip, but I just was unimpressed with it as a whole in comparison to our other stops. The food we had was better than in Madrid, but that might have just been the result of better restaurant choices. Either way, we had several really good meals. Patatas bravas were a favorite of both of ours. A good time all in all, but I'm glad we did Italy afterwards, so as to avoid a letdown of sorts.

Onto Venice. It lived up to the hype in terms of beauty - especially at night, the canals and little streets were really pretty. The lack of cars is also nice. We only spent about 1.5 days there, but that was perfect - because once we had walked through the city a bit, there isn't much to do there. There's the church in St. Mark's Square, which is impressive, but outside of the Square there's not much. One of the best parts of Venice is just walking through the streets, and our Rick Steves' Guidebook encouraged us to get lost in order to take in some of the less touristy parts of the city. And we certainly did get lost. The city is impossible to navigate, and I barely even bothered to look at the map (I was the designated navigator on the trip, and was successful for the most part - I like using maps to help get a better grasp of the layout and feel of a city), so at one point we found ourselves in a silent residential area far away from the touristy bustle. But, with the aid of technology, I whipped out my BlackBerry and pinpointed our location. It's amazing to think how different our semester would be without those phones. So the city was beautiful, but VERY expensive, and the food was mediocre. I'm glad we went, but I don't think I'd return, at least not anytime soon.

At this point we were halfway through our six destinations, but only one-third of the way through our 20 days. Big chunks of time loomed in Florence, Rome, and Athens. It was interesting returning to Florence 8 years later, and how different it seemed at this age. It definitely made me realized how young I was and how much has changed for me in 8 years. Florence was great - much more of a town than a city. We spent 2 full days there and parts of 2 more. The food was incredible, although pricey, and the sights were memorable. The David was as impressive as I remembered it, and we also did the Uffizi and Bargello Museums. The Duomo was bigger than I remembered, as it truly is massive, especially in comparison to the other buildings in the city. The view from the top is also spectacular, and I was glad to have made the climb this time (Ben did it by himself last time and woke up very early to avoid the long summer line, while Mom and I slept). Spring was definitely a good time to take this trip, as it was warm outside but not hot, and the lines weren't out of control. Jillian's friend Jamie is studying there, so she showed us around a bit, which was nice. A nice city, and very different from Venice.

We then made our way to our last stop in Italy - Rome, for three and a half days. I'm going to ruin the suspense a bit with the rankings, and just admit that Rome was my favorite city of the trip. I had been during my previous trip to Italy with Mom and Ben, but only for a day (yesterday Ben and I rehashed what we did that day, and it was an impressive list of sights for a one day outing). I loved it because I felt it brought everything to the table - good food (better than Venice's), the best historical sights of the trip (the Colosseum is simply awesome, both in the modern use of the word and the traditional... it truly is awe-inspiring), and pretty enough (not tremendously beautiful, but I found it to be prettier than Florence, with much more green space). History is simply everywhere in the city, and the sights are incredible: the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain. Endless. We had some great meals there, and it was MUCH cheaper than either Venice or Florence, which was nice. The only negative from our stay in Rome was the bed and breakfast we booked - highlighted by the 20-something resident who sat in the kitchen right outside our room smoking cigarettes (which stunk up our room), the unappealing bathrooms we shared with the family, and the cellphone ringtone which we heard incessantly at night while it was locked in a cabinet. It could have been much worse, but it was not a comfortable stay. Between this stay and the one last summer on the Cape the night before the ferry to the Vineyard, I have written off bed and breakfasts. No good. And by the way, the "breakfast" part in Rome? Packaged Italian Twinkies essentially. But the city itself was great, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

After an epic 36 hour travel "day," highlighted by an overnight ferry, we arrived at our last stop, Athens. We had heard it wasn't a pretty city, and that was true. But we still really enjoyed it. The history there was impressive too, highlighted by the Acropolis and Parthenon (although it took us three tries to actually get up to it - closed one day for a city-workers' strike, and closed at 3 PM the next day because we were unaware the "winter" hours were still in effect). Like I mentioned before, it was a great last stop because it was relaxing. Three weeks is a long time to travel, and we were both a bit tired of sight-seeing. So taking that first day to just go to the beach and relax was a good way to rejuvenate ourselves for the last two days of sightseeing. Our views of the city were also unquestionably helped by the fact that we stayed in a 5-star hotel, courtesy of a special online deal. A great place to get to after the overnight ferry and 4 nights in the bed and breakfast. But the city was nice, with a cool area of shops and cafes, good food, and friendly people. We both agreed we liked the city, and want to return to Greece - but to the islands, instead of the city. But I'm definitely glad we went to Athens this time around.

Now, just a few overall observations before I return to my first point about traveling around by ourselves. The language barrier was not a problem at all - much less so than I remembered from my previous trip to Italy. Almost everyone spoke enough English to communicate, which was really interesting (and sad in some ways). Our detailed research also paid off in terms of lodging, as every place we stayed at was clean and nice (even the room itself at the Rome B & B was nice), for good prices. And upon our return to London, it really did feel like home. Strange. Jillian and I both agreed that we are actually happy we have that late-May exam now, to give us a bit more time to enjoy London.

Which brings me back to the point about putting things into perspective. This trip, and semester as whole, has done that in multiple ways. Firstly, I am old. Jared warned us about this too, that coming back from studying abroad really made him feel old, and he's right. When I come back from this semester I already am down to my last year of college. It's gone by ridiculously fast, but at the same time freshman year seems like a long time ago when I think about it. Funny how that works. While feeling old, I also think like this trip has made me more mature. I like to think of myself as someone who was somewhat mature to begin with, or at the very least not immature (with the possible exception of a childish level of devotion to two professional sports teams), but this trip has brought that maturity to a new level. I have navigated my way through nine foreign countries to this point, and have lived on my own in one for 4 months. Although I am obviously not truly independent from a financial standpoint, life seems a lot less scary now. You know, when I actually have to become a real person in the next few years. The trip has also allowed me to completely immerse myself in different cultures, makings me better able to understand them, which I'm sure will be valuable throughout the rest of my life. And finally, after spending 5 semesters of college apart, spending this semester with Jillian has been incredible. I won't get too sappy on all of you, but we've been really fortunate to be able to do this together. So thanks to everyone who has helped make it happen.

And as I promised, here are my rankings:

1. Rome - for reasons already described
2. Madrid - Good sights, very pretty
3. Athens - Unique city, with good food and cool sights
4. Florence - Fun city, but not very pretty
5. Venice - Beautiful, but not much else - also expensive and disappointing food
6. Barcelona - Just doesn't stack up with the other five.

The top two were clear-cut for me, as Rome and Madrid stood out among the rest. But Athens, Florence, and Venice were all on a similar level, perhaps with Venice a shade beneath the other two. And then Barcelona was clearly last in my mind. I know others who have been to the same cities disagree with me, but there you have it. My rankings.

Other than that, since our return Jillian has been preparing for an exam she has on Thursday, and I've been catching up on the Braves and various other insignificant things. I'll probably get going on a paper tomorrow; it was supposed to be due the 30th, but because of the volcano business (another reason our trip was a success was missing all of those shenanigans) it was moved back to the 11th. But with a trip to Paris coming up for a few days, and an exam also on the 11th, I need to get the paper out of the way. This entry was pretty lengthy, but there obviously was a lot about the trip I didn't mention. So if you're curious about anything else, just shoot me an email. Hard to believe the trip's over... we first started brainstorming for it about a year ago. It was a memorable one, that's for sure.


Well, here's your cultural difference for the week:

The British like to say "nice" for a lot of things: "Oh that ice cream was nice" or "I don't think hot sauce on my pancakes would be very nice" or "That outfit isn't very nice." Or "Putting Drew Brees on the cover of Madden '11 which Zach intends to buy wasn't very nice."