jacobblogs

Tag: europe

  • Milan, Italy: 4/19

    But what about the 18th?

    Yes, I know I skipped the 18th. All I did was travel – and once I got to my AirBNB in Milan, I just wanted to watch youtube videos, catch up on the latest releases from Dropout, and eat snacks. So I did! This was my view:

    Ok, now for the 19th:

    Breakfast was a little expensive (16 euro) but included the coffee and orange juice as part of it, and was tasty.

    I had a few hours between when I woke up and when my plane left for Malaysia (but first, Istanbul for a 1-hour layover). So I left the AirBNB with my luggage and went out to explore.

    I really like how these leaves frame the tower in the foreground. I used the flash turned down a bit to brighten them up while keeping the exposure on the tower correct. Rarely does a photo make me want to use it as a phone background, but I think this one passes the test.

    Public transit is getting easier and easier to navigate (it turns out most of it works about the same, and Google Maps is really quite good at telling you how to get to the right place as long as you pay attention to signs). I’ve now started defaulting to it instead of trying to download a ride-sharing app when I first get somewhere like I did for Barcelona and Boston. Since Lyon though, I’ve taken public transit!

    There was this ancient ruin in the middle of the intersection. It would have made an excellent frame for a portrait!

    A lot of Milan is very 80’s stark, flat, mostly boring architecture (brutalist), but there are ancient buildings and beautiful architecture scattered among the newer stuff.

    Sometimes, newer buildings offer good chances to take ‘liminal space’ type pictures. I don’t know if this fully qualifies, but I like the effect.
    When I took this photo I wished the camera had focused on the building – but in hindsight I like the focus on the fence and leaves better.
    I liked the potted cactus in the window here.
    FISH!

    After a quick bus trip and some walking, I arrived at the Basilica de Santa Maria delle Grazie – an ancient catholic church, which has Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous last supper painting inside. I did not realize until stepping in that it is also still a practicing catholic church, and there was a service going on in a side room (the one that I think had the painting in it – so I didn’t get to see it). There were tourists like myself roaming around quietly in the large stone halls, but also priests (I passed on writing in something that looked like a confessional). Feeling a little odd taking photos, I looked around and then left.

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    Outside the basilica were the remnants of an ancient wall and set of marble pillars, which I took a few photos of.

    I did love the streets of the older part of Milan. Primarily narrow cobblestone and with a lot of of old buildings, there were a lot of tourists and locals alike roaming the streets.

    I also saw another Fiat 500 Topolino! After reading a bit more about them, I learned that they’re a Fiat-branded version of the Citroen Ami. With 47 miles of electric range and a top speed of 28MPH, they don’t technically count as cars – which means they can be driven without a license (or with an easier to get license in some places), and can go and fit places proper cars can’t.

    Another ‘liminal space’ photo.
    A cute little flower shop.

    After the basilica, I decided to head to the central park in Milan, Parco Sempione, which also has the “Castello Sforzesco” (a proper castle!)

    This tiny shop was crammed with books!
    They didn’t seem worried about book thieves…

    As I got closer to the castle, the streets became thicker and thicker with tourists, and I realized that Milan does have tourism – just not so much where my AirBNB was.

    The main front tower of the castle. This one is directly above the main entrance. Judging by the stonework and the style of the rest of the castle I suspect a lot of this tower is newer than the rest of the castle.
    The four main corners of the castle had these round towers. I wonder how thick the walls are? They look quite sturdy, and walking around the castle, I could see both why a moat was effective and how difficult it would have been for invading soldiers to capture or invade, pre modern warfare.
    Contrary to childhood belief, this moat (like most moats) was not filled with water and crocodiles 😦
    More pillars…
    Some of the windows on the sides of the castles were quite large – I wonder if these are more modern additions, since they seem less logical for a solid defense (and was glass actually that good back then? I don’t think so…)
    A drawbridge!
    The real king of the castle!

    After exploring the garden behind the castle a bit more, I headed back to my AirBNB to grab my luggage, and took public transit to the closest international airport (which took an hour – MXP is actually not in Milan!).

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    I really wanted to go into the hole-in-the-wall computer store that had this vintage IBM PS/1 computer, but I only had a few minutes before my bus arrived.

    My flight to Malaysia was in two parts – first, a 3 hour flight to Istanbul, Turkey, where I had a 1.5 hour layover. The first plane I took served dinner and had screens built into the back of each seat, with a bunch of movies included.

    The remote for the screen popped out and had not only a keyboard, but a gamepad on it – unfortunately, none of the built-in games really took advantage of it.

    Dinner looks not so appetizing in this photo, but it was good, and a pleasant surprise on a flight this short.

    As we flew into Turkey, we flew over a city harbor with a bunch of ships floating in it. This is a terrible photo, but it gives you an idea of the beautiful sight I saw!

    The second plane (from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur) took about 10 hours – this one also had a screen, and they served both dinner and breakfast.

    I managed (with the help of ocean sounds in my headphones, a sleep mask, and a melatonin) to get some sleep on the plane in between meals.

    All for this post!

  • Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 4/17

    Second to last day in Amsterdam! Really, my last full day.

    Breakfast today was at a cute little bakery/cafe that Vince recommended. Our mode of transit was (again) ebike, which led to some less blurry (but arguably more embarrassing) photos where the wind made our hair look crazy.

    De Laatste Kruimel, the place we got breakfast.

    Our breakfast spot was the little balcony above the water in the middle of the photo. As we ate, multiple tour boats passed below us, and more people stopped to take a photo from the bridge I took this one at. I felt like a zoo animal a little bit – it was funny to realize I had become part of the tourist attraction.

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    Breakfast this day was really more of a late brunch – I had slept in quite a bit, so I headed back to the hostel and did the boring, not-blog-worthy parts of traveling (checking in to my plane, booking a hostel for Malaysia and and AirBNB for Milan, planning the next few days).

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    Before another interview I had at 7PM, I wanted to get out of the hostel for a bit – so I took my bike along a river path behind the hostel in Noord (an area of Amsterdam). It was here I saw my first up-close windmill!

    As I biked, I listened to an album of piano music by Philip Glass (titled “Piano Works”), which I happen to have downloaded on my phone – it makes great relaxing travel or biking music, especially when there are pretty things to be seen.

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    A neat bridge. There are a lot of drawbridges across the canals here to let riverboats through – something I also saw a lot of!
    The same windmill, from across the river.

    While there, I noticed this bird helping its mate build a nest, and took a short video of it collecting sticks and bringing them back to the nest.

    After returning to the hostel, I prepared for my second interview of the week. This was also for a technician position, which is technically below what I studied for (I should be applying to work as an engineer too, which I am! But so far am only getting interviews for technician positions… Oh well!)

    This interview went really well and I already have a request for a second interview! The company seems interesting too – they’re a spinoff from Rivian working on smaller EVs (like electric bikes).

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    After this I was pretty tired, but wanted to treat myself before heading to bed, so I returned to the streets on my bike and headed to Secret Garden, a fancy restaurant that had been recommended to me.

    Chunks of watermelon with finely creamed avocado, grated feta cheese, and a slice of red onion on top, to be eaten in one bite. You wouldn’t think to combine these ingredients, but the sweet crunchy juice from the watermelon mixed well with the mild creaminess of the avocado, and the feta and small bit of onion added a nice little kick of flavor.
    Grilled duck breast with some type of cabbage and a sweet pumpkin puree. Absolutely delicous. I want to try roasting or sauteing chicken with pumpkin chunks and some type of green vegetable in a honey or maple syrup based glaze, I think it would taste similar.
    Earl Grey ice cream with coconut based (thick!) whipped cream and pineapple chunks. The ice cream was pretty mild but distinctly earl grey, and I really liked the coconut whip.

    The only unfortunate part of the meal was the price – I left just barely satisfied knowing I would be hungry in the morning, and the total cost was $99… Would I do this again? Probably not, but it was worth the experience once!

    The ceiling of the restaurant had these leaf-shaped lights with (fake?) vines dangling down between them. Neat vibe!

    After this, I stopped by the hotel Vince manages to say hi (since he was nearby and on a night shift), before biking back to the hostel across the ferry.

    That’s all for this day!

  • Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 4/16

    Hi again! Finally gonna catch up on blog posts after almost a week MIA. Travels have been going well, but I haven’t had a chance to relax and write for a bit. I’m now in Malaysia and really enjoying it – post to come, of course.

    This (4/16) was my second day in Amsterdam. Amsterdam intimidated me at first, with all the bikes zooming everywhere and just how packed the city was with tourists (despite not being the nicest season, there were a TON of people there). But after a few days (and renting my own bike) I felt much more at home. I’ll want to come back!

    The bike I rented. It cost me only 21 euros for three days! It was really nice to ride, too.

    After picking the bike up, I went to a bakery recommended by Sam (who I met earlier on my way to Lyon), called Bakhuys Amsterdam. Here I got a late breakfast/lunch of a couple of pastries (plus some bread for later), and did the last batch of blog posts.

    A rhubarb soda! It was tasty, and did taste like rhubarb!

    After the bakery, I went to the Rijksmuseum, which is what I’d intended to go to the day before – a museum with ancient to old art and works by masters like Vermeer and Rembrandt.

    On my way, I noticed the hooks / pulleys mounted above most of the old townhouses. I actually saw one being used to raise furniture up to a higher level! It’s neat that these are still in use.

    The Rijksmuseum was sold out – but luckily Vince, a friend I’d met the day before, was able to get me a ticket through the hotel he works for! I guess they get extra spots for guests or something 🙂

    A very regal duck-thing.

    I did accidentally get to the museum only an hour and a half before they closed, so I saw a lot less than I wanted to. But I did manage to see some of the Vermeers!

    Johannes Vermeer’s works hold a special place to me because I read a book called Chasing Vermeer as a younger teen that I really liked. In the book, one of the main characters was the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring (by Vermeer) – which had been stolen. The three actual main characters, kids who became unlikely friends, solved the mystery of where the painting was. It also involved the Robie house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright – so in part, this is where my love of Wright’s designs comes from too. The book had such a way of describing the art (both the house and the painting) that made them seem alive (in fact, in the story, they kind of were). Anyway, it was cool to see some of Vermeer’s work in person.

    Vermeer is known to have had a mastery of light – his paintings often play with it to highlight and contrast their subjects in a very realistic and striking way
    He’s more well-known for his paintings of people, but this one (especially from this distance) looks like a photo, and is of a real place in Amsterdam.
    A sad dog lying at the foot of his deceased friend. This was (of course) made to commemorate the man who died, who was some important person. However, it was the dog who stood out to me.
    An ancient chess set!
    Sometimes I see people like this in paintings and think “Did they really look like that?” This guy looks comically evil, but in a lazy way…
    A scene from (1500s?) Europe. It’s neat to think things used to look like this!
    The windmill is how you know it’s Dutch.
    This one is a scene of Brazil!
    A self portrait by Rembrandt.
    A landscape by Rembrandt. I think the plaque said he didn’t do a lot of these.
    Apparently even the great artists did sketching sheets to practice. There was one of nothing but hands, too.
    I really liked this nighttime scene. Not by Rembrandt or Vermeer, I forgot to note the artist.
    A (very small!) harpsichord! They didn’t seem likely to let me play it 😦

    After the museum, I headed to a nearby Ramen place that had been recommended to me.

    I tried the chicken ramen, but it didn’t seem quite as flavorful as pork based ramen. But it was still delicious!

    After this, I had to go back to the hostel and do an interview, for an Engineering Manufacturing Technician position. The interview went well and it seems likely to progress forward, but afterwards I was a bit frazzled!

    Once I’d calmed down a bit, I took my bike back out via a ferry to get a drink with Vince (and pizza, which we picked up on his ebike). I know this isn’t quite a moped picture, but it might be the closest you get for now, Katerina & Felix!

    0.6x lens at 20km/h on the back of an ebike on cobbled roads while holding two pizza boxes in my other hand in low light lends to an . . . interesting photo!

    All for this day!

  • Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 4/15

    I was tired this morning! I didn’t manage to roll out of bed (and shower and everything) until about 1:30 PM local time. Oh well – again, I’d rather explore well rested than try to cram every last second full of activities and not be able to enjoy it.

    Breakfast was at a little cafe inside an art school that is in the same building as my Hostel. It was a simple chicken panini and a plain latte sweetened with honey – but the panini was delicious, especially the sauce to dip it in.

    There are the WEIRDEST little cars here! Bikes here are what Mopeds were in Spain – everywhere, parked on the sidewalks and anywhere else they fit, and by FAR the most common mode of transport. On the roads, bikes always have the right away – even above pedestrians! You need to watch out when crossing bike paths, because they will not stop for you 😛

    But! In addition to bikes, they have a multitude of 1-2 person electric and gas ‘cars’ that are likely limited to about 45km/hr top speed (close to 30 MPH). These require a different license than normal cars if I remember right, and can be driven on most bike paths too.

    This one is electric
    Citroen Ami, I think. Electric!
    A fiat one designed to look like the original 500! But this is larger!
    This one is gas, and looks like it is from the late 90s or early 2000s.

    These little cars existed in Spain and France too, but were far less common. Here, I see one every few minutes. The gas ones make the cutest little put-put sound.

    On my walk, I found a man playing “Can’t help falling in love” by Elvis Presley on a saxophone, and stopped to take another (240P) video of him.

    I also ran across an antique store selling tiles from houses rennovated in the 60’s – but these tiles were from the 1600s and 1800s! Quite old – and each hand-painted! Of course, most of them were pretty expensive, but they were fun to browse.

    Though some tiles shared the same design, small differences between each made it clear that these were hand-painted. How cool!

    After this, I walked to the Stedelijk Museum, which is a contemporary art museum (next to several other museums). Entrance for a student (which I feel like I’m close enough to still ;)) was only 10 euro, so I went in and explored.

    After the museum, I took public transit back to (near) my hostel and grabbed a kebab pita wrap for dinner, before prepping for a remote job interview I had at 7:30 PM local time. I think it went well!

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    Dinner! Fanta, water, and a greek sausage kebab pita wrap thing.

    Finally caught up to today 🙂 The next few days might be busy too, so we will see when the next dump of posts happens! All for now.

  • Lyon -> Lille, Lille -> Amsterdam (4/13, 4/14)

    Lyon -> Amsterdam 4/13:

    This one should be quick – most of the 13th and 14th were travel days by train. I stopped in Lille, a little town in Northern France, for the night – otherwise it would have been about 16 hours by train. I’ve found that the slower travel is worth it for me – less recovery time when I do get to my destination.

    While walking to the train station in Lyon, I stopped at a cafe for breakfast, and snapped a few photos along the way.

    A warning about high voltage inside!
    A view across the river Rhone.
    The gates of the Park of the Golden Head in Lyon

    One neat thing I’ve noticed in Lyon – there are cracks in the sidewalks that have been filled in with little mosaics. According to one local I met, this is all the work of a street artist called Ememem (named for the sound his moped makes). He calls this art “flacking” – turning cracked blemishes in the sidewalks into public works of art that are owned by all.

    The one on the left was the first thing I took a picture of in Lyon!

    After a few hours on the train (during which I technically stopped in Paris, but only to switch trains), I was in Lille!

    The trains here are often quite comfortable! FAR more than airlines in the US.
    The train station in Lille was very pretty.
    This is what a lot of “Old Lille” looked like. Cobbled streets with pedestrians everywhere, old buildings, and beautiful architecture.

    I was pretty tired from travel, so I got myself a (supposedly) nice dinner (I don’t know if it was just not something I liked or if this restaurant wasn’t great) of Flemish (local) cusine, and turned in for the night.

    It did look nice at least, and the salad and fries were delicious! The croquets left something to be desired though.

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    Breakfast was a mocha and a delicious breakfast sandwich at an apparently very popular cafe.

    As I traveled on the train, it became pretty obvious as I drew closer to Amsterdam – windmills began passing by every now and then. I didn’t manage to catch any out the window, but I did snap a photo of this cool old warehouse.

    Amsterdam’s train station was also really cool looking! I didn’t have much time to stop though – my next train left in 5 minutes so I had to run to the next platform!

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    After crossing a large canal with a ton of other people on foot and bike, I was almost to my hostel (the red building in the photo below).

    The room in the hostel is utilitarian, but comfortable and quiet. I don’t spend a lot of time in there anyway!

    That’s all for this day! Still no Mopeds 😉 But, I can rent them here! We will see when it happens. I’m a little scared to have that much power on the roads of Amsterdam 😛

  • Lyon, France: 4/12

    Today was more exploring of Lyon!

    The view from my AirBNB was fantastic РI was up on the 9th floor of a high-rise building built up on a hill overlooking the Rh̫ne river, which flows from the Alps down to the Mediterranean Sea.

    My AirBNB also had two persian cats, who were both very friendly.

    Every time I came back to the AirBNB at night, the white one would follow me around meowing – I think all she wanted were pets, since when I did pet her for a few minutes, she stopped meowing (and she had food and water).

    This definitely isn’t as old as real cave art – but was a remarkably good recreation as grafitti near my AirBNB.

    Breakfast today was fast – a cappuchino and a chocolate (not actually a croissant, but that’s what we call it in the US).

    Nearby the cafe, there was a street market selling CDs, Records, Posters, and books/comics.

    Tintin was popular here – but that makes sense, Tintin is from Belgium, not far away.
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    Afte this, I went to a cute antique sovinour store and picked up a couple of trinkets for friends back home. They had vintage postcards from Lyon – much cooler in my opinion than most new ones (if less usable as postcards because of already being used :P)

    Next up was the Mus̩e Cin̩ma et Miniature Рa museum in Lyon with several floors of props used in movies (a lot of which I recognized!) and then one floor of little miniature scenes crafted by artists of the museum.

    My camera does not do well in low light, and most of the museum was darkly lit. Most of the props look better in the movies anyway. However, I did see some from movies I enjoy a lot, particularly from Wes Anderson’s films – there was a whole room dedicated to his work, with props from the Grand Budapest, Isle of Dogs, Astroid City, and others.

    In an adjacent room was a short film showing some behind-the-scenes looks at how Astroid City was filmed and the props it involved. I really enjoyed seeing this – Anderson’s team creates a 3D model of most of the world the film is set in, and then builds as needed at different scales. The train from Astroid City was about 1/10th the real life size, for example. Of course things that humans interact with, like the diner, are real size.

    After a few other stops including a (currently non-functioning) animatronic from Alien, I headed up to the miniatures floor.

    This whole scene, titled Apartment of the 80’s (translated from French), was about 1x1x2′ width x height x depth. These chairs are about 1.5″ tall!

    This was honestly the more interesting part of the museum for me – a lot of the movie props were kind of gross looking and were much better in the movies…

    I wish this place existed full size!

    But the miniatures! I had to stop myself from taking a picture of EVERY single one.

    Some of the scenes were just still life
    Some looked out of a dungeons and dragons world…
    Others from an older time…
    Or a long-forgotten space.

    After the museum, I slowly meandered back to my AirBNB on foot, and took more photos along the way.

    This is the closest to a Cybertruck they have in Lyon. Good thing – it would not fit on the roads here.

    Sorry for the long delay between posts! I’ve been remarkably busy since leaving Lyon. Amsterdam is great – I’ve rented a bike to explore the city, three days only cost 21 euro!

    More posts to come – I’m sitting at a bakery hoping to write just a few more before I continue exploring 🙂

    Still no moped – maybe I will rent one tomorrow?

  • Lyon, France: 4/11

    Today’s travels (4/13) have me headed from Lyon to Lille, both in France. Tomorrow, train schedules willing, I’ll finally be in Amsterdam – but to be honest, I’ve loved my time in Lyon and am sad to leave.

    There are gonna be a LOT of photos in this one, since I spent most of the 11th walking around the amazing Parc de la Tête d’Or – or “Park of the head of gold”. According to Benoit (pronounced like Ben-whee), a local I met, legend has it that Louis 16 buried a head made of gold shortly after this park’s construction. Digging is, of course, forbidden. Wikipedia’s version of the legend says that Jesus’s head is supposedly be buried here. I guess legends change source to source, maybe that’s part of what makes them legends 😉 Either way, the parcel of land has been named this since before 1530!

    One of the (many) attractions of the park is a section of botanical gardens. There are several very old greenhouses full of plants, and of course I explored them.

    The parc was full of people jogging, lounging, exploring. Many were locals, though I could tell some were tourists like myself. It seems a popular place – the largest parc in Lyon, and apparently today was pretty sunny compared to the last few days. Everyone was out!

    The greenhouses created some almost sci-fi shapes, which I enjoyed photographing.

    While next to the one on the left, I also snapped a selfie in the reflection of the glass 🙂

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    One of the coolest greenhouses had carnivorous plants! Not a lot of Venus Flytraps, but a TON of other types. I was really into carnivorous plants for a while, so I recognized a lot of these.

    Sundews like these have long slender leaves with little hairs on them. Each hair has a glob of sweet, sticky sap to attract and trap insects. Once trapped, the leaf slowly curls around the insect to digest it.

    When I had sundews, they tried to flower often! The flower must rise far above the plant, so as not to eat the pollinators 😛

    Pitcher plants like this rely on their deep “pitchers” to catch prey and slowly digest them. The pitchers evolved to make it difficult to escape the slippery walls once an unwitting bug falls in.

    There are SO many different species, and this greenhouse had a lot!

    The pitcher plants took up most of this greenhouse, and their flowers were beautiful!

    Butterworts like these look harmless enough, but their wide flat leaves are like flypaper – sticky, sweet smelling, and hard to escape once landed on! They also tend to have pretty flowers.

    A few more pictures from the greenhouse:

    The parc also had a free zoo! I didn’t walk through the zoo, but I did see a couple of zoo animals and a number of resident parc animals.

    Duckling for Josh
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    As I continued to wander the parc, I discovered a large lake (well, I knew about it from Google Maps) in the middle of the parc. This is where I found most of the geese in the gallery above – but as I walked, I heard piano music and singing drifting across the lake (Zombie, by the Cranberries). I made my way around (eventually) and found a public piano with a crowd of people gathered around.

    I took a video – but be warned, this is a digital camera from 2003 – video technology on consumer digital cameras was . . . not great. The sound is fine, but it is actually 240P quality.

    Sometimes when I’m walking around a new area taking photos, I see things that I like more for the texture or color than the photo itself. Here’s a collection of these types of photos:

    Besides the main attractions, the park was also filled with various little structures – benches, wells, grounds houses, and more.

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    There was even a mini train around part of the parc!

    I did not have time to explore the whole parc – by 5PM, I was able to check in to my AirBNB (I wanted a break from 16-person rooms), and I’d been walking since 11AM!

    A few more photos from the parc and my walk to the AirBNB.

    After resting and unpacking, I went back out for dinner (Tacos – but totally different than in the US, more like burritos with kebab/gyro filling) and went to a parc with a view over the city for sunset.

    Sorry Katerina and Felix, no mopeds in this post. This was before you sent me Moped money! Mopeds are way less common in Lyon than they were in Barcelona, but I’m sure I’ll find one to rent before the 19th. I did try the rental bikes in Lyon though, and they seem to be the fastest way for short distances (besides a car, if you can find parking, maybe).

    That’s all for now! Posts for 4/12 to come 🙂 I may not make a post for today, if there isn’t much to see – after the train, I plan to be lazy in my Airbnb in Lille for the rest of the day and go to bed early.

  • Barcelona -> Lyon: 4/10

    Today was a travel day! My route would take me from Barcelona-Sants (a train station here) to Lyon, France, where I would take a couple different trains spanning most of the day to get there.

    I did have time for a quick breakfast at the closest cafe – one that was clearly themed for American tourists. Their food was a little pricier, but it was still delicious – the omelet and smoothie both, and the cortado I had was also tasty.

    After that, it was a quick rush via the metro to my train station, where I arrived ~15 minutes early, then waited nervously for the sign to update and show me which platform to go to (mine was Cerbere).

    We finally boarded the train and I was on my way!

    I discovered that taking photos was hard – first, the windows are somewhat dirty. Next, we are speeding along quite quickly – quite a bit faster than cars on freeways here go! Google says around 320 km/hr for high speed trains in France, which I think I was on (that’s about 199 MPH).

    Most of the landscape was like this, but occasionally nestled in the hills would be the ruins of a grand ancient building.

    Lastly, I didn’t always get a window seat and sometimes that meant I didn’t want to be the one American tourist reaching over people to take a photo of the (for them, very normal) sights.

    So – enjoy this small collection of blurry photos from the first leg of the trip 😛 (This is the Spanish countryside, we aren’t in France yet at this point.)

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    As I rode this trip, I noticed another english-speaking tourist about my age sitting across the isle from me. He was reading a book about the social history of artificial intelligence and took out a film camera to shoot a few pictures out the window, so figuring I’d get along with him I struck up a conversation towards the end of the trip.

    Sam is from London, and is on a little several-week trip of his own via train around Europe. He was also on the next train I was on, so we decided to sit together (I sweetened the deal with the promise of Uno).

    While changing trains, we also met Laila, who’s been studying abroad in Madrid since January, and is from California! They were happy to join our little crew for Uno, so we found a booth with a table on the next train and played Uno, talked about public transit in the States VS in Europe (Europe wins by a landslide), our travel experiences, and our future plans and hopes for work (none of us want to find ourselves locked into a corporate job that keeps us there because it pays well, but also, money is important for quality of life . . . )

    Laila also taught me how to say “Parles-tu anglais?” (Do you speak english?) – something that has become extremely useful in the last 24 hours, and also a majority of my French vocabulary (aside from “Oui” (yes) “Non” (no) and “Merci” (thank you)).

    At the next station, we all had different trains, but we exchanged WhatsApp contact information, and I got a selfie of us all before we parted ways.

    Train friends!!! Hi Laila!

    I had about an hour before my connecting train arrived, so I wandered around Narbonne (the town we stopped in) and found someplace to grab lunch. The waitress’s answer to “Parles-tu anglais?” was a quick “non” – so I fumbled through Google translate and showing her my phone’s screen until she procured a simple baguette ham sandwich and an orange juice for 6,85 euro. I think by the end we were both relieved to have survived the interaction!

    The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. I did not have a window seat so I wasn’t able to grab a lot of pictures – but I did snap this one of the golden-hour countryside through the water spot stained window.

    Lastly, there was this really cute little dog on the train. I really wanted to pet it, but I wasn’t sure if that would be ok.

  • Barcelona, Spain: 4/9

    Barcelona, Spain: 4/9

    I’m currently in Lyon France, but more to come on yesterday’s travels soon 🙂

    Barcelona has started to feel easier to get around. While I still don’t know much Spanish or any Catalan (though I am told Catalan is less commonly used), things no longer feel completely alien to me and I feel confident getting around.

    My first goal for the day was to get coffee with Declan, a friend I’ve known for a couple of years. They used to live in Portland, but moved in September to Barcelona for a graduate program in stop motion filmmaking, which cost them a whole $10k (for tuition). Walking to the coffee shop would have taken over an hour, so I finally braved Barcelona’s public Metro system. After a few fumbles (trying to put the ticket in the wrong way, then going the wrong direction for a stop till I realized I was getting further from my destination), it was easy!

    I kept using the metro system and (I think) ended up taking it a total of about 6 times over the next day and a half. It was clean, fast, easy to navigate, and felt pretty easy despite not being able to understand any of the announcements.

    I forgot to get a selfie with Declan 😦 but I did snap a photo of this vintage scooter! It looks a lot like a clone of the Vespa P200E.

    Most of the scooters in Barcelona are newer – a lot of the rentals are even electric! I wonder if the trend towards newer ones is for safety reasons, maintenance, or some other reason.

    Declan showed me their school’s studio where they’ve been working with their classmates on their final project – a stop motion movie about a little clay boy inside a cave created from his mother’s body. They showed me the puppet itself, and the different heads, expressions, and such that can be swapped or moved – and then the actual set itself. I wish I’d taken photos, but I was too busy to think of it.

    I also got a closer photo of the tower I saw yesterday. This wasn’t a great photo, but I wasn’t really in the mood to try very hard.

    After parting ways with Declan (they’re a busy grad student!) I headed to Parc de la Ciutadella, a large park with a bunch of old buildings (including a couple of greenhouses), a fountain, and a pond that you can paddle around on with ducks (for 30 minutes, after paying 7 euro).

    The fountain in the parc.
    A close up of one of the griffins guarding the fountain.

    There I met up with Ronan, a friend I made while in Barcelona. I thought when I met him that I’d found someone who could show me around – but it turns out he’d just moved from Ireland two weeks before! So we decided to explore more together.

    At this point my camera died, and I hadn’t been able to charge the backup battery – so the rest of the photos from today are on my phone.

    Josh had recommended La Boqueria, a street market in the (Gothic quarter?) – one of the sections of Barcelona that is very old, so we went to check it out after we finished walking around the park.

    The gothic quarter was really cool – a lot of what you imagine when you think of old europe – narrow cobbled streets with shops on all sides and buildings leaning in over the top. A lot of it was pretty touristy and crowded, but nonetheless neat to see.

    Once in the market, we both started to get a little hungry (it was past lunch time). There was a lot of seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, and empanadas.

    There were a ton of stalls with fresh juice in small plastic cups for 2.50 euro each – after hunting for a bit, Ronan and I found one selling them for only 2 euro, and we each got one. I got a strawberry coconut. I also got a spanish sausage empanada, and a bag of (deliciously crunchy) green grapes.

    After this we checked out a nearby cathedral that was an easy walk:

    At this point we were both a bit tired, so I went and checked into my hotel for a small rest.

    The hotel had a pool on the roof – the view was great, but the pool wasn’t heated, so I didn’t get to go swimming.

    Dinner was a couple more empanadas I picked up from a nearby stall on my walk back to the hotel, and then I turned in early since tomorrow was my next travel day.

  • Barcelona, Spain: 4/8

    I have (two!) more days in Barcelona – I wanted to get some proper sleep, so I extended my stay by booking a hotel with a private room instead of a shared room with 15 other people. The cost difference is significant though – the hostel only costs about $30/night!

    Today, I started with breakfast at another cafe. I’ve been enjoying ordering whatever new coffee sounds interesting in the moment – this time it was a cortada (coffee and steamed milk, about a 50/50 ratio). I added a packet of sugar, and it was very enjoyable.

    Breakfast!

    Alongside the cortado, I got toast with eggs, cheese, avocado, mixed greens and tomatos. Plus, a glass of fresh orange juice – this has been a menu item every place I’ve gone – I think it is popular in spain. I’m not complaining!

    As usual, the breakfast was delicious, and I think this one was also around 15 euro. I think I tend to pay more than average (my research indicates 5-10 euro is normal), but I’m eating a larger breakfast than is typical (I think a pastery and coffee is more normal).

    After breakfast, I returned to plan the next leg of my trip in more detail and do laundry. The hostel has a washer and dryer, but they cost extra money – almost 10 euro for a wash and dry! That’s quite pricey, but the convenience is hard to beat, and I won’t need to do laundry again for at least a week.

    Speaking of the next leg, here’s the plan. Thursday around 11AM, I will board a train and spend the next 6 or so hours on my way to Lyon, France. I chose Lyon primarily because it was along the way and made the train ride not too long. There, I stay for an evening The next day, I will take a train to Luxemborg and stay there (the capital is the same as the country). Finally, on Saturday, I will take a train to Amsterdam.

    Training all the way back down to Milan would have taken too long and I would have had to leave Amsterdam earlier than I wanted to – so instead of spending less days, I ended up getting an economy ticket to Milan, which should allow me almost a week in Amsterdam! Going down by train would have taken at least 4 days if I wanted to not be travelling for more than 8 hours, so it made sense to me.

    After breakfast and logistics, I walked to Basílica de la Sagrada Família, an unfinished church from the 1800’s. It towers over everything nearby, and tourists swarm its grounds. I didn’t go inside – the lines and ticket costs didn’t seem worth it, but I did shoot a few photos.

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    Among the tourists there was a man blowing huge bubbles, and there were kids running underneath.

    I wonder how he was making money?

    I also shot a few other interesting things along the way…

    I couldn’t tell if this was an advertisement for something, or … just there.
    This stained glass covered multiple apartments within this building, probably an area a couple hundred feed wide and 4 stories tall!
    This tower is familiar to me! I used photos of it in an example for the “Tower building” activity I created for kid’s after school maker clubs. I didn’t think to wonder if I would ever see it in person!
    A view of the camera from up on top of the hill behind the city.

    After the basilica, I decided to head up the hill behind the city, where a large parc had multiple trails and good views of the city (the photo above was from there).

    This was a (closed) museum in part of the park.
    You can see how insanely tall the bascilica is compared to everything around it!
    I liked the colors of the tiles on this house. In this part of the hill, there were a few full houses (which were quite old) that I realized were single residences, not apartments! I wonder what they cost…

    The rest of the photos aren’t anything super special, so I’ll put them in a gallery with notes in the captions.

    Mopeds are VERY common here. You can’t walk anywhere without seeing a dozen!
    I liked this red flower on the windowsill.
    This lock was keeping cars from driving into the parc on the hill.
    I haven’t seen many tuk-tuks in Spain – which surprises me, given how much smaller the vehicles are here, and how popular mopeds are.

    Barcelona takeaways / culture shocks / impressions so far:

    Probably the biggest culture shock so far is how common smoking is, and how few restrictions there are on where it is done. It’s very common to see someone smoking at a cafe outdoors, or sometimes even inside (though this seems discouraged). My cab driver who picked me up from the train station was smoking inside the cab as he drove me! I didn’t realize that the US’s laws around not smoking close to buildings weren’t the norm – nor that a general public disgrace towards smoking wasn’t everyday either.

    This city is SO easy to get around! If I had a driver’s liscence here, I could rent a moped off any corner and get around easier than anyone in a car. Walking is super easy (definitely easier than driving), and I hear public transit is good – but I’ve been too afraid to try it yet.

    Food seems to all be fresh and high quality – maybe this is just where I’ve gone, but I think adjusting back to the US might be challenging…

    Anyway – Barcelona is now on my list of places I will consider living and working. It has its problems – high rent from foreign landlords buying properties to rent exclusively to tourists is one, but there are a lot of things to like here.

    Lastly – I just had the best mango I’ve ever had! It did cost about 5 euro, but I think it was worth it. Below are the before and after photos.

    Did you know you can eat mango skin? I thought they were toxic until a few months ago. They are kind of bitter, though.

    All for now! 🙂