Paris, France

My last stop! I can’t believe the trip is over. It was really an amazing journey and I thank every for being there to support such a long trip. I had an amazing time and a million experiences, which I was happy to have documented here on this site. I hope everyone enjoyed some stories and I hope to share stories and catch up with friends and family and get to know what you guys have been up to over the last few months. I am very excited for 2010 and the unknown to come! Thank you all for being in my life!

Paris was a very short stop for me. I was upset because the Musee du Louvre was closed on the one day that I would have been able to visit it, but thats ok I will save it for another time. I was lucky enough though to see Eiffel Tower and to climb up it as far as I could by foot. It is a beautiful view up there and a cool way to learn some history and see the beauty of Paris. I stayed at a small British chain hostel called Winston’s St. Christopher. It was really nice and not very crowded so I felt very comfortable there. I enjoyed the last night chatting with a group of very diverse world travelers sharing stories and having laughs. Paris was really nice to see, I think next time I will book a little bit more time there because there is truly a lot to see. Hope you enjoy the few pictures.

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Sweet little 3-day trip to Rotterdam. I stayed in a really nice hostel that is known as the Rotterdam Cube Hostel. This is because the building is designed with all sorts of different cubes. It is called StayOK and is part of the same chain I stayed at in Copenhagen. Rotterdam was a smaller version of Amsterdam just much quieter and more peaceful. I really enjoyed a little slower pace of life after the craziness of Amsterdam. I also went to see another cool music show: Noah D at Club Watt. I was lucky enough to see his first and last show of the tour. I also went to a movie theater and saw "2012", I missed little things like watching movies. Rotterdam was a nice place to relax and a great city to visit.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Amsterdam is a must visit when in The Netherlands. It is a beautifully designed city with canals running almost everywhere making many streets very wide and full of bridges, but also increasing the ability to navigate. Many people live on boats and wake up every morning able to decide which street they would like to live on next. I decided to rent a bike while I was there, which made it exponentially easier to learn the city and travel to places a little bit farther away from the city center.

During the two and a half weeks I stayed in Amsterdam, I was lucky enough to see culture, history, beauty, and music. I visited the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum, which were amazing. Both are definitely in the top 5 museums I visited during this trip. I also visited historical landmarks and plazas including Dam Square, Vondelpark, Rembrandt Park, Red Light District, Rokin, Singel, and Amstel. I went to many art shops and places selling souvenirs and things. My favorite was called Conscious Dreams, which has the best art and vibe of any other shop I found. I saw many musicians while I was there including Easy Star All Stars, Yellowman, Little Boots, Slightly Stoopid, and Barrington Levy. All amazing shows mostly reggae. Really fun big city. Great experience.

Barrington Levy concert

My Favorite Art Shop - Conscious Dreams

Kelly also came to Amsterdam. I am so happy that Kelly came so I could see her one more time before I left. We hung out with Marisa and her friend from Portugal went to a bunch of different restaurants and bars and wandered the city. Time flies in Amsterdam so it feels like the blink of and eye, but I am so glad she came and we got to be together for our first visit to this historical city. I hope she had fun and I think she did.

Kobenhavn, Denmark

This city is amazing. I only stayed for a few days but really loved it. By far the cleanest and most impressively designed metro system, Copenhagen was really easy to navigate. I stayed in a hotel/hostel called Stay Ok Copenhagen. It was really nice because it had private rooms and free Internet as was much more of a hotel than hostel. StayOk is a hotel chain that is known for having good quality for a reasonable price. I visited Copenhagen as a suggestion from a friend and am very happy I went. I liked the vibe in Copenhagen, lots of really cool people.

Lund, Sweden

I was really excited to visit Lund because one of my college friends is doing his masters there right now and it was nice to see a good friend and have a place to stay. My friend Nate is living in a really cool little student community in Lund that is perfect in many ways. The best reason is it is free. Sweden pays for all of his studies he only pays a reasonable monthly rent. He also lives with all people his age, the people are beautiful and friendly, and fun is everywhere thanks to student run student clubs. This was a really nice weekend that I enjoyed a lot, and I think that finishing a college or masters program here would be a really worthwhile and amazing experience.

Student Club

Antwerp, Belgium

Getting to Antwerp was a mess because there was a workers strike going on the day I arrived which meant that all trains from Brussels to Antwerp were cancelled. So, some other stranded people and I decided to try to haggle with some taxis to get a good price to Antwerp. Most cabbies wanted 50 dollars per person for the 35-minute drive, but we only wanted to pay 20. There were 5 people that all threw in to give one guy a hundred for the trip, but the other cabbies were not having it and started a fight. This was a really intense scene watching these two cabbies physically fighting each other especially because one was greedy and wanted us to pay more per person. I tried to put my bag down in the trunk and one of the angry rejected cabbies took a swing at me but missed. Money and greed are everywhere. Either way, we made it to Antwerp and fortunately one of the other passengers in the cab lived in Antwerp and directed me to a nice inexpensive hotel.
I wanted to visit Antwerp to see a concert that I had heard of and also check out the city, the diamond, the beer, and the chocolate. All were amazing. I really wanted to see an up and coming west coast producer named Noah D while he was on his European tour and I am glad I did. He played at Untitled’s 3rd birthday bash with Mala, Hijak, Sgt. Pokes, and Science. The Belgium scene was very cool it was fun to meet so many young people all coming together for some good music. That show was a very memorable evening.
The next day I went to the Diamond museum. The museum had 3 treasure rooms with an amazing collection of gold and diamonds displaying the immense wealth of the previous owners of such treasures. I really liked two diamond pieces the best, one of which was a broche of diamonds imbedded in gold shaped to look like grapes on a vine, and the second was a group of diamonds shaped to look like a dandelion. The diamond museum was very cool to see especially for the amazing detail and artistic value in there one of a kind diamond collection. During the stay in Antwerp, I tried a bunch of new Belgium beers and even shelled out some dough for some really nice chocolates that were totally worth it. I enjoyed my stay here and would definitely like to come back to Belgium.

Valencia, Spain

Unfortunately Kelly had to leave and go back to school so Mom, Eric, and I journeyed onward to Valencia. Valencia was really cool. We didn’t know too much about Valencia going into it besides that they have a really great aquarium. And wow is it great; I really enjoyed this aquarium visit. My favorite part was the underwater tunnels. They had a tunnel that replicated what it would be like to travel by submarine from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean that I thought was pretty intelligent. My favorite tunnel was the deep-sea shark tunnel though; very cool. I took a ton of aquarium pictures some of which I really like and will post.

We also went to the Valencia Open pro tennis tournament and got to see some really good tennis matches including a match played by Andy Murray. Eric and I somehow were able to keep getting lost so mom dubbed us the infamous alias of “the swamp boys”. Hahaha. We did however stumble on some really wonderful food and were happy to have visited Valencia even for such a short trip. I am so happy I got to spend time with Eric and Mom in Spain I think we all had a good time.

Andy Murray

Alicante, Spain

It was so nice to get to spend time with Mom, Eric, and Kelly all together in Spain. Alicante is absolutely beautiful. I also wanted to see a slightly smaller Spanish city so Alicante was perfect. We stayed in a pretty central area called Plaza de la Puerta del Mar. This was perfect because there are a lot of little markets and shopping, the beautiful coastline, and a small harbor with lots of good restaurants and nightlife. We stumbled around looking for a place to eat the first night we were there, which happened to be Halloween, and landed at a perfect little tapas restaurant thanks to Eric’s suggestion. Luckily it was a big opening night at the restaurant and we ate and drink all night for free. Chef Sabor was the owner and operator and treated us very kindly I think we would all recommend this place for some good food. We all got a kick out of calling him Chef Flavor. Hahahaha
The next day we decided to do a little hiking and climbed Alicante’s famous hilltop castle. The view from the top of the castle was breathtaking. This was a pretty ideal fortress which I’m sure was a perfect castle to defend. Check out some of these pictures of the view. We spent the rest of the day hanging at the beach and went out to a really nice dinner that night for Paella. I really enjoyed the Paella, which I think was the best I had tried during the trip. I think we all really enjoyed this dinner, great gazpacho, vino, and everything. Too bad mom wore the wrong shoes. Hahahahahah j/k
Great little family vaca in Spain. Loved it.