On the road

So I've been doing some pretty gnarly traveling in the past week and a half, all of it being unplanned, besides my one way flight to Berlin from Bilbao. The girlfriend and I decided to take advantage of our 2 weeks spring break and travel to as many places as possible. As most of our other friends decided to go places warm and full of sunshine, we were going through countries that were below 20 degrees and the ground covered in snow.

Berlin: 18-25 degrees. Ground mostly covered in snow. Stayed at a hotel on the outskirts of the city, making it super sketchy to walk back home at night. Wonder sights and a crazy nightlife. Definitely a place to visit in the summer.

Prague: 30-40 degrees. First time couch surfing (awesome btw, stayed at a dudes house 10 minute walk from downtown. On our last night staying with Gabe, he went on a date brought home a young Czech woman and did some damage as Hayles and I were downstairs, kinda gross but funny). The place they call a magical city, which I believe. Such an amazing town and many historical sights. Best ham ever!

Vienna: 40's in temp. Went straight to the bus station to figured out ticket situation towards Croatia while in line for the tickets, I hear someone call hayleys name. (Weird because we were in the middle of nowhere all alone on our adventures, it was weird enough to hear someone speak English) it ended up being Dylan Opalich a girl from our USAC program. They were on they're way to Prague. Hung out with them most of the day as we toured vienna and got some killer food at a killer place.

Zagreb: 45-50 degree weather (notice the temperature getting warmer). Got to this awesome city late at night. Hayley and I walked in the direction of lights where we hoped to find a hotel. (No one on the streets, pretty scary for 2 young kids carrying luggage. Luckily we found an awesome 5 star hotel, DoubleTree where we stayed the night for 130 Euros, which I didn't mind paying at all. After an amazing night sleep we woke up bought tickets to Dubrovnik that night. We went back to the hotel and swam in the pool, relaxed in the hot tub with some delicious mojitos and awesome view of the city. Check out with at 4pm so we went towards downtown cause we had some time to kill. Did a little shopping (where I got yelled at in Croatian, scary!) and had a super fucking awesome dinner. Went back to our hotel picked up our bags and jumped on the bus at 9pm towards Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik: 57-63 degree weather and no snow on the ground! (Score!) showing up at 7am and taking a cab to Peter Margaretic aunt's apartment (dude is one of my frat bros). Peters cousin shows up around 7:20 with the keys to the apartment. An amazing place with an even nicer view of the town. Stayed there comfortably for 4 nights. Had a whole kitchen living room, tv, sound system, two bedrooms, and a killer balcony. How much you ask?... $50 bucks. Gotta love connections! Party on a couple night, walked a ton on most the days (it's the reward I get out of for hanging out with Hayley, little walking machine) this place being my favorite so far. Monday morning we jump on a bus towards Split, another very popular city in Croatia.

Split: Great sunny warm weather (what we wanted) As soon as our bus pulled in to the bus station in split we saw a sign that said, Split to Italy. So convenient that we also was to go Italy! So we figured out how much and all the details, and as soon as we booked our seats for the ferry, we enjoyed the beautiful city as we had 5 hours til departure. As we mentally try to prepare for the overnight ferry we enjoy the amazing views of the ocean with a nice boardwalk with tons of markets out as you walk every street. Bought myself some Ray Ban shades for 5 euros, score!!
Ferry ride was something for the books. A sweet sit up and nice place. Hayles and I stayed up late playing Jim Rummy (card game) til about midnight in a cafe that was very awesome since I drank 3 euro liter beers all night, and made friends with the Pilipino bartender.
We hit the sack around midnight.
Before I knew it, I woke up to Hayley feeling super sea-sick around 4am. Boat was a little shaky. She needs water!! Shoot, I remembered to pack the Jaegermeister but not the water. We go out to find water, you would think this is an easy task, no water anywhere! Not to mention that there is no one to be found awake at this time!! I finally see a young guy that works for the ferry company, I approach and ask him where I can find water... He stares at me for a good 10 seconds before he starts speaking in god knows what language...
So picture this, I'm up at 4:20am (now) wearing some weird clothes, trying to do some international sign language to some young brown guy, on a rocking boat and a I have a tired girl next to me looking like Kesha, (crazy hair) and if water wasn't given to her we were going to have one stinky boat, assuming her puke wouldn't smell very good..
Finally I some how managed to tell him that Hayley need water.. He ends up being a super nice guy, takes us back in his work office and gives us some of the water that they have for employees.
Back to bed.
One hour later, Hayley is waking me up telling me to get ready and pack my stuff. Are we there already?
Nope. Just gotta prepare for I guess.

Show up to Ancona, never heard of it either don't worry, we tag along with a lady going to the train station as we are. Super nice lady, ends up giving us one bus ticket to get on for free. We show up, keep in mind that we still don't have plans of where we wanna go, all we know is that we have to get out of that boring city. We see Florence on the screen, so we jump on the train for a nice 3 hour ride along the country and arrive in Florence.


Florence: such a wonderful atmosphere the second we get off the train, I know it's going to be an awesome place! We arrive right in downtown Florence, with the sun shining and the streets packed with markets calling our names. Were walking around for maybe 1 hour looking for a place to stay, Hayles is kinda a cheapo so were looking for a hostel instead of a hotel. After about 2 miles of walking we find a pretty cool hostel right by the river. 50€ for both of us. Cool, we change, shower, and head to town. Spend almost all day shopping at the markets and had one of the most amazing dinners ever at a very expensive restaurant. Hung over the water and had the best view of the most popular bridge in Florence. Got a little tipsy and cabbed it home around midnight. Woke up early the next morning, met the two other American girls staying in the hostel and made a move on to the train station around 11am. We spontaneously decide to take the very next bullet train towards Venice!! I am soooo stoked!

Venice: showing up with sunny skies and lots of water!
Quick fact about Venice, the city is continuously sinking. Anyways, it's around 55-60 degrees and the place looks beautiful! There are no cars around at all and the taxi's and metro system are boats! Haha pretty freaking awesome! So instead of paying for a cab, we walk all the way to our hotel, which we reserved last minute on hotwire.com for like 50 bucks. The roads are so narrow and it's very easy to get lost, but luckily I have a very special skill of being a bad ass and find our way straight to the hotel.. :) killer place btw, probably the second best Hotel we've stayed at this entire trip.. We drop our bags, clean up and hit the city for some cool shit.
As walk all around, and jump on many boats touring the city. We finally find a really sweet bridge to hang out on, and a really nice restaurant to eat at. While eating, the water was splashing me a little bit by the feet. Yep, that's how close to the water we were. I have a manly killer steak, while Hayley eats some fish salad or something heathy like that. After to delicious meals, a bottle of wine and many pictures, we find a small liquor store, buy some wine and look for a gondola to ride in! (Super romantic I know) I ask the guy how much, he says "80 euros for 30 minutes.."
I respond, "whooa! Can you do 50?"
He shrugs and says "ill do 60"

Bingo! I pay the dude in the weird striped shirt and funky hat and jump on a tiny gondola with a funny tour guide that's been boating around for 30 years. As we pass many beautiful places, the sun is beaming on our faces! Gorgeous day to ride a gondola, we pass a building where Marco Polo was born and another where Einstein did some work.. By the time we get off the boat, I'm buzzed from drinking all that wine. I give the guy a high five on the way off the boat and thank him for an amazing experience. Not so sure what we did later that night, but it probably involved something really awesome.

Woke up next morning, showered and had a breakfast off a balcony with a view of the river/ocean/creek. (I still don't know what it's referred to) that morning we decide to go to Milan so we can fly home for a cheaper price. Two hours later, we are on a bullet train towards Milan.


Milan: cloudy-rainy and mid 50's. After arrival, we have a few hours to spare before our flight leaves so we get on the metro towards downtown. As we come up from the station, we see this enormous cathedral!! White, shining, and beautiful! We later found out that this building was the Duomo, the second largest catholic cathedral in the world! And next to it is a giant shopping mall (Milan is known for the fashion and new clothing lines that start there). We pretty much see the entire city in 3 hours before we have to run towards the metro system to catch a bus to the airport. It ends up being a super easy catch, and about an hour ride from downtown milan to the airport. As we are in line to get our tickets the man asks us to measure the bags to see if they are regulation size to be carry ons. Mine passes, Hayley's should of passed. The worst thing about the trip is this stupid asshole of a guy whole makes us pay an extra 25€ for hayleys bag because it didn't fit by 1/2 an inch!! And it was her wheels that wouldn't fit into this box she had to put it in. So we get out of line, try to take off those stupid wheels, were stressing out, the guy is yelling at us, Hayley is yelling back, hayley is also on her period and stressing me out. I tell her to take a hike and cool down. (Haha you might be wondering who wears the pants in this relationship)
So it's not about paying 25€ that makes me mad, its that as soon as we land in Bilbao at 11:30, we have to catch the last bus to San Sebastián at 11:45, and if hayleys bag had to be thrown under the plane, this meant that they would take longer for here to grab her bag and catch the bus. Essentially, we had a possibility of missing our bus home. We somehow end up getting off the plane and catching the bus back home just in time!! We are really excited to get home cause Nivea is there hanging with Big Tones! We cab it home and jump with excitement for being back home safe!!! Hang out with Nivea all night. And have a great nights sleep with a beautiful girl :)

5 countries, 4 different money exchanges, a boat, a ferry, 7 buses, 3 planes, 8 taxi's, 4 trains, tons of metros, and a gondola later..... We have accomplished everything on the bucket list for the wild 2 weeks spring break.

So moral of, the story is clear.....take every little moment in and cherish it. I now have a little over a month left in Europe and its going by way too fast!!

Go Euro!