When we last spoke, I only mentioned how I had a difficult day of travel... Now I will explain why.

I decided, since Allison was going to be busy with school, that I should do a little traveling by myself for a couple of days. She would be taking a school sponsored trip to San Sebastian, and I could simply meet her there in 4 days. In the meanwhile, I figured I could maybe learn how to surf.

The day begins at 6:30 in the morning, at which time I awoke and rapidly made my way to the train station. Without breakfast, or for that matter even brushing my teeth, I was on my 7:00 AM train and headed west. So far, so good.

I ordered a tortilla con queso on the train, and soon found out that the spanish have an entirely different idea of what constitutes a tortilla. There was definately cheese, but where I expected a flat, circular, flour consistency treat, I received an egg like, sponge consistency meal. This seems to be one aspect of traveling, eating food that for some reason or another, isn´t exactly what you had in mind.

Several hours later, 6 to be accurate, I got off the train, grabbed some bread, and quickly boarded my next train. Here is when the day really starts to go downhill...

On the first train, the conductor had written on my eurail pass. Unfortunately, the manner in which this train conductor did so, made my pass look as if I was trying to cheat. This ultimately resulted in the next train conductor, who I might suggest was kinda an asshole (excuse me), telling me that my pass was "no valido" among other things in spanish that I could not understand. I tried my hardest to communicate with the guy, using words like escribier (to write), or esta valido (it is valid), but that was about the extent of my conversation with the guy.

Angrily, he said passport. I showed him my passport. Then, he tried to take my passport and eurail pass, an action, which I was not going to allow. The Eurail cost 700$, and I would go kicking and screaming if anybody took that away from me. The passport was my ticket back to the US, something that is worth more than money. I grabbed the pass and my passport back, and action which regrettably, he did not seem to agree with. He walked angrily away from me, and hit a button near the ceiling of the train.

So, let me tell you, the brakes on trains are good. The train stopped so fast that I went flying and luckily landed in a seat, and not some other passenger´s lap. I was being kicked out of the train, and not even at a train station. I had to make the 4 foot jump from the train down to the tracks.

So here I am, in the middle of Northern Spain, walking to the nearest train station. I was hungry, tired, and pissed off. Frustratingly, what poor lunch I was having, the bread, was left on the train in all of the commotion.

The train station I found myself at was disserted. Nobody worked there, the doors were locked, the clock on the outside of the train station looked as if somebody had thrown a rock through it, and obviously didn´t work. Luckily, the one thing this station did have, was a timetable. Unfrotunately, the one thing I didn´t have, was a watch.

After fully looking over the time table, I found that about 4 trains a day stopped at this train stration. I sat in front of this train station for an hour and a half waiting for 1 of the 2 remaining trains scheduled that day. Eventually a 16 year old girl arrived, and in broken spanish I found out that this town had 3,000 people, and was mainly a farm town. I looked around, and I saw only but a couple of houses. From where I was, it seemed as if it were a ghost town.

Time passes, and eventually a train arrives. I had no choice, I was going to Pamplona. 1.5 hours later on a train, which luckily, I didn´t get my pass checked on, I arrived. Now I had some decision making to do, so I checked availability for trains going to San Sebastian (full), and then I checked trains going back to Barcelona (full). It looked as if I had no choice, I was staying in Pamplona. Now, if you are ever planning on going to Pamplona, don´t. The town really isn´t that impressive, and their only draw is the running of the bulls.

During their 15 day festival, which I was so lucky to arrive at, prices apparently are jacked up 300% and availability is scarce. I quickly realized this, and was facing a serious problem, I didn´t really have a place to sleep. After some quick investigation work, I found a bus station, and caught a bus up to San Sebastian.

Another 1.5 hours later... So now I´m exhausted and hungry in San Sebastian. Even worse, the weather is ugly, and I find out that there are no campgrounds anywhere near the city and hostels are full. The campground I was planning on staying at was closer to France, and I obviously hadn´t made it quite that far.

After a couple of quick talks, one with my mom, and one with Allison, I just gave up. I booked another bus from San Sebastian to Barcelona, a 7 hour bus ride that leaves the bus station at midnight.

So there you have it, I spent the night on a crowded bus, with my hat pulled over my eyes, and arms crossed so that I wouldn´t be touching the person to the left of me. I had my bag tied around my feet, with my passport and credit cards in it. After maybe 3 hours of sleep, I arrived in Barcelona. 24 hours of traveling, and I ended up exactly where I departed from.

So there was my day. As you might imagine, this took a little bit of wind out of my sails. Since then, I have been reading, relaxing, and taking full advantage of the cheap internet to organize my life.

Moral of the story? I´m still trying to figure that one out...

Since then...

Greetings everyone,

All we can really say for not updating the blog is that we are sorry... The internet has been rediculous, 8 euros for an hour. We figured that anyone reading this would rather we eat than update the blog. Nevertheless, prepare yourself for a novel.

We have accomplished quite a bit. As you may have seen, in the last update there were some pictures of Allison with some other girls. These were other students at Willamette University who were traveling with family throughout Europe. Both of the girls, Jordyn and Grace, are in Allison´s sorority. We spent the afternoon together, which consisted of some quality wine (2 euros), some quality food (3 euros), and a boat that we found floating near the beach (0 euros).

The Italian coast was quite relaxing, beautiful, and was well needed. One of the most scenic spots on our trip has been the hike from village to village over the mountains, through vineyards, overlooking the mediterreanian. This hike was actually pretty difficult, taking us over 4 hours to finish in the heat.

From Levanto (the italian coast), we traveled by train to Pisa simply to see the leaning tower. The iconic tower is actually pretty cool to see. The town of Pisa, is not. Better than the tower, were the cliche tourists. Nearly every person, literally 100´s, were all taking pictures acting like they were holding the tower up with one arm.

After 2 hours in pisa, we jumped a train to Florence. Once in Florence we booked an overnight train to Brig, Switzerland. We had 4 hours to see Florence, and had every intention to see as much of it as was humanly possible. We ran madly through the streets, seeing nearly everything except for the statue of David (closed). We even had time to find a restaurant that was supposed to have the ¨best Italian food in all of Italy.¨ Unfortunately, when you are dressed like you have been traveling all day, good restaurants don´t always seat you. Lucky for us, the Guiness bar a couple of doors down does not discriminate.

This bar was an interesting place. So we are in the heart of Italy, and we go to a Guiness bar (irish), which was run by chinese people. Quite the combo. Anyhow, the bar turned out to be a great deal. We bought our overpriced beer (5 euros), and they provided us with a buffet of free food! Although we were upset about the restaurant up the street, this turned out to be a decent way to spend the evening.

After our 4 hour whirlwind tour of Florence, we jumped the train to Brig where we had every intention of staying in the town of Zermatt, at the base of the legendary Matterhorn. After a short night in the train (5 hours of poor sleep), we arrived in Brig only to find out that the tickets to Zermatt, which is only serviced by a private train company (50 euros each), we reluctantly found another place to go... The #1 candidate ended up being a small town with a big reputation, namely Interlaken.

This town is a thrill seekers dream. Located right in the mountainous Jungfrau region, local adventure companies allow you to fly off cliffs (6,000 feet worth of paragliding), bungee jump from bridges (450 feet), sky dive over the alps (14,000 feet high), or slide down and jump off of natural waterfalls. Basically, whatever your thrill is, and you have money, you can do it here. Although we were tempted, we chose to go hiking (free).

The views were absolutely amazing. The alps are really not that tall, both Mt. Ranier and Mt. Shasta are significantly taller. Nevertheless, the mountains are literally straight up and down. Small little mountain towns are located in some of the most scenic vallies, with green fields, white glaciers, jagged ridges, and wild flowers everywhere. From village to village, you can hike with well maintained and well marked hiking trails. Among these trails you see old ladies, with hunched backs, sometimes beating the young people up the mountain side.

From Interlaken we went to another Alp hotspot, this time in France. After one of the most scenic railroad rides in Europe, we arrived in the small ski town named Chamonix. Although for the most part it was a torrential downpour, when the sun came out we were at the base of the beautiful Mt. Blanc, the tallest mountain in all of Europe. Furthermore, we were within a couple hundred meters of a giant glacier that looked as if it was going to hit the town.

This place is truly amazing. The ski park is known throughout the world as being one that is dangerously good. France doesn´t really care what you do with yourself, so they don´t really care about "out of bounds." Consequently, several inexperienced and unintelligent skiiers and snowboarders die every year from avalanches and cliffs. Some of the worlds best skiiers and snowboarders in the world call this place home. It is definately a place that I wouldn´t mind visiting in the future.

From Chamonix, we went to Avignon, the former home of Allison´s mother for a semester. Avignon was the home of the "Franco Vaticano" for some number of years, and as a result, it is a walled city with a beautiful cathedral in the heart of the town.

It took only 1 day in Avignon to see nearly everything there is to see there, and once again, we were on our way to Allison´s home for a month, Barcelona. So that is pretty much what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. Allison has a very nice apartment in the heart of the town, and has started her language intensive program.

After dropping off Allison for her study abroad program, I had a bad experience traveling. But as for now, I am going to leave you with a cliff hanger. Sometime in the near future, I will fill you in on my horrible day of travel in lovely Espana (no worries, I´m safe).

Adios!

PS. Pictures next time too!