end of backpacking. start of barcelona.

soooo yea its been a little while. the backpacking trip finished up great with stops in brussels belguim, lagos portugal, and another stop back in iceland. ill try to throw up some pics soon but as i dont have a computer at this time..... long story.... it might have to wait alil bit.

barcelona has been incrediable thus far. weather is amazing. city is amazing. the people are amazing. everything is sick. the first couple days were for orientation through our program which got us up to speed with barcelona and everything that would be going down here. moved into my homestay. im living with an older lady who speaks no english which is great as it helps me to learn the language more.

we´ve done a couple day trips to some places along the coast but most importantly went to my 1st barça game. got so hooked up with free tickets that were in the 3rd and 9th rows. crazy. 5 -2 win for barça of course.

what else what else. yea its pretty much just been a vacation since i´ve been here. clase de español from 930 to 12 and then the rest of the day is free. been spending a lot of time at the beach chillin with bocadillos and cervesas. tough life. also playing a good amount of futsal at the spot we found with some locals. surprisingly we can actually ball with them. have def won the majority of the games so we´re helping to give americanos a bit of a better name when it comes to our futbolíng abilities. they were quite surprised.

oh and yea. i love siesta´ing. so yea to sum it up.
siesta. bocadillos. beach. cervesas. sol. parties til 5 and 6 am.

classes start this coming monday so that may change buuuuuut probably not.

going to oktoberfest in munich tomorrow con mi amigo from germany who played with me at northeastern.

update you after that. if i can make it back.

Auschwitz death camp

Another part of my stay in Gliwice Polska was visiting the Nazi death
camp Auschwitz which I felt a strong need to visit. To be honest,
there are really no words to describe this place and what I saw. It is
still an understatement but I will say that it is the most horrific
place I have and will ever see in my lifetime.

Salzburg. Budapest. Krakow. Gliwice. Brussels.

Gonna do a quick recap to get caught up.

Salzburg. Austria.
This was marissa's and I last stop together. The day we got in we hit
up the steigl brewery which was quick huge and had some real solid
brews. While I was there a German guy came up to me because and asked
me if I was going to "the games". It was because I was wearing a
hockey jersey and there just so happened to be a hockey tourney
starting the next day. I of course could not miss this chance so I
found out all the info I could and planned on it for the next day. The
next day I went to eisreisenwelt which is the largest ice cave in the
world. It was pretty epic. Crazy how outside it was pushing mid 90s
and then as soon as you stepped in the cave it was at freezing temps.
After this came the hockey. Such a cool experience as there were fan
sections much like you would expect at a soccer match. OK level of
hockey, it was the top club teams in Europe but it was still no NHL.
Oh and yes, the hooligans from Zurich did start trying to hit Salzburg
fans with their metal flagpoles. No big deal.

Budapest. Hungary.
This was definitely the 1st time I actually felt like I was in a real
eastern European city. Spent the day walking around and napping on an
island in the Danube river. I really enjoyed this city and will have
to go back again.

Krakow. Poland.
Almost got kicked off the train in the way here for not having the
right ticket but worked it out. Met some great people on the train.
One of which was a guy named Mateu from the Spanish island of Mallorca
whom I spent the day with in krakow as we were both traveling alone.
Had quite a good time seeing the city, trying some local foods, and of
course drinking beers.

Gliwice. Poland.
This was so great. Gliwice is the hometown of my good friend Lukasz.
He set everything up for me so that I could stay with and hangout with
his friends and grandmother. I stayed in an extra room at his
grandmothers whom was amazing to me, such a great lady. It was quite
the experience because she didn't speak a word of English but it was
nice because it really showed me that no matter how different the
language is you can really still understand and communicate with
anyone if you try. Most of the time I knew exactly what she was saying
or asking. Had great food prepared by both his grandmother and his
best friend's family, so so good. Saw the town and went out the last
night for drinks with Lukasz best friend Mariusz, his wife Anna, and
Mariusz's parents. Such great people and I can't wait to go back and
visit again.

Brussels. Belgium.
It is kind of strange that I even ended up here but I was quite happy
I got to. I landed in London and missed the flight to Lagos which I
had thought I would buy a ticket to after landing in London. I didn't
feel like waiting around in London so I looked at other options. Ended
up finding a good flight from Brussels to Lagos the next day so I went
and hopped on the train. I got in pretty late having a absolutly no
information on the city or hostels or anything. So I just decided to
get on the metro and got off at a random stop. From that random stop
and some help from a concierge I stummbled upon one of the few hostels
in the city but it was closed. So I was standing there for a few
minutes trying to decide where the best street or park would be to
sleep on when I guy opened the hostel door asking ne what I was doing.
I explained and he told me that he was the owner and had seen me
standing there and looking around on one of his cameras but more
importantly that he had only one bed left but it was mine if I wanted
it. I of course accepted, got settled and then went walking around for
some food and beer. To make this story even weirder, the next morning
I walked down to the lobby and ran into this girl Annik who had been
in my room at my hostel in Munich. Small world. So we talked a bit, I
then ran around the city seeing most of the sites and getting
chocolate, and then we went to the airport as we were both flying out
around the same time.