Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Thursday November 20- Sunday/Monday November 23/24

Miami hockey swept Michigan over the weekend in two games. Ohio State beat Michigan in football. You can't plan a better weekend!

American Song of the Week: ‘Strangers in the Night’ by Frank Sinatra but redone in the Park Geul by a little Spanish Jazz Trio.

This Week’s Travel Tip:
1) Go To Barcelona
2) Rent GoCars when you go there. You’ll see soon below but these little things are also in Miami and San Francisco. Easily the most fun way to tour a city.

After those few days in Poland I got home Wednesday night, emptied and repacked my bag, slept in my own bed, went to class Thursday morning and then left for Barcelona. Thursday afternoon/evening in order to get to our airport we had a 2.5 hour train ride, 20 minute bus ride, 1.5 hour flight, then a 1 hour bus ride into the center of Barcelona. Burn out is starting to set in quite a bit but it’s okay, we made sure we got a few American fixes this weekend.

Thursday night we headed to dinner at about 10:30 PM and so we figured out this is average in Spain. Everything happens later. Dinner is from about 9-12, and for the livelier crowd the bar scene is big from about 11 PM-3 AM with night clubs staying open til dawn. Back to dinner, everyone grabbed some Paella. Couple of us had a drink at a small bar where we met some locals who, go figure, were more than happy to talk politics. I gotta say, Europe is extremely excited about Barack Obama.

Friday we began our day walking down Las Ramblas. This is a very popular street with loads of stores, venders, people selling birds & roosters, souvenir shops, and street entertainers.

The end of Las Ramblas dead ends into the ocean/harbor. And oh it was a beautiful day…

Friday for lunch we decided to pick up some lunch meat and bread and make sandwiches to eat in the famous Park Geul. Although Barcelona’s main language is Catalunyan, Spanish is very well known. That butcher shop was the first time I got to use Spanish on this trip so all those years in high school Spanish finally got put to use. Anyway, this park was designed by the famous Gaudi, who pretty much is the architect behind the entire city. This was not a park with grass and soccer fields but yet dirt fields with dirt basketball courts. It had the best view over the entire city along with its beautiful architecture. Not to mention the great little music trios that were scattered around this large park.

After our lunch and stroll in the park we went to La Sagrada Familia. This cathedral, designed by Gaudi, has an interesting story. Gaudi died before the cathedral was finished and no blueprints were left behind so there is a large controversy over what needs to be done to finish it, inside and out. This debate has been going on for years and years so it is still not completed.

Friday night’s dinner was Tapas Tapas. We received a menu with approximately 50 starter, entrée, and meat dish choices. Each dish is very small so it’s a great way to try many different types of foods.

Saturday, OSU game day, was the highlight of the weekend. A couple Australians in our hostel told us that they rented these things called GoCars and drove through the city. It costs us 9 euros per person to rent these scooters, equipped with a GPS system and an audio tour guide, for 1.5 hours. I’ve never had so many people laugh, smile, and take pictures of me. We honestly looked ridiculous but it was so much fun.

It gave us a guided 1.5 hour tour through the city and we could stop wherever we wanted and she would pick back up again when we started driving. This is the million dollar idea that I missed out on.

After this wonderful tour we went to the Fresh market and bought some shrimp, mushrooms, and mixed fruits to go home and make dinner with at the Hostel. We were going to get a lobster but this could have turned out ugly.

We went home, cooked a modified shrimp scampi, and followed the Ohio State whooping of Michigan over the internet. We tried to find somewhere showing the game but didn’t have any luck. It was just as sweet a win even not being able to see it.

Saturday night we went to the Dow Jones Bar. This is another great concept that somebody came up with. Thanks Jim for yet another great recommendation. The concept behind this bar is that the more a certain drink is bought, the more expensive that drink becomes. The less a drink is bought, the price falls; just like the stock market. About every hour the market crashes and all drinks fall to a minimum price and the whole process starts over again. They had a channel called NASN where ESPN, ABC, FOX, etc. all stream there games and the channel picks one thing to show. We saw the end of the Michigan St./Penn St. game and then the San Antonio Spurs vs. Utah Jazz. I never thought I’d be so excited to watch my least favorite of the Professional Leagues, the NBA. In honor of being at the Dow Jones Bar, watching college football, and speaking English, I just had to drink a Budweiser; the former Great American Lager.

Come Sunday everyone was pretty exhausted. A friend that was in Madrid for the weekend trained in 3 hours to Barcelona to meet us for the FC Barcelona vs. Getafe ‘football match’. Sunday was a relaxing day with very little sightseeing and some resting for what was about to come. Sunday night we went to the match at the infamous Camp Nou. This stadium holds 100,000 screaming fans. Although this match wasn’t sold out it was pretty close to it, and we still got the feel. It was ok that the final result was 1-1 because I later found out our hometown Columbus Crew finally won the MLS Cup! We were just in amazement at being at this game, which was comparable to being at Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), Yankee Stadium, or Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox). An interesting difference was that instead of booing when upset the fans would whistle. Whistling is much more obnoxious.

We had to figure out what to do to occupy our time until we had to catch a bus in the city at 3:15 AM to take us to the airport for 6:40 AM Monday morning flight. Thankfully our Hostel from the weekend which we had already checked out of let us keep all of our bags there. The girls hung out there as well while Wyatt and I took our friend Tim back to show him this great Dow Jones Bar and hopefully see some American Football. A couple of crappy games were on but it was ok, it was American Football. Then at about 1:30 AM, Sunday night/Monday morning, the Memphis/Xavier game came on. Unfortunately we got kicked out at 2 AM, because the bar was closing, so I didn’t get to see much. Jenni & Scott: I’m really excited to come down and watch a game when I get home! We picked up our bags, walked to the bus station and caught the bus. So here was the schedule:
3:30 AM; take bus from Barcelona city center to Girona airport. 1 hour of sleep
4:30 AM; arrive at Girona, check in, stay awake, write some until 6:40 AM flight
6:40 AM; flight departs. 1.5 hour sleep.
8:30 AM; arrive in Brussels, Belgium airport, stay awake and wait for bus to train station
9:20 AM; bus from airport to train station. Awake
10:00 AM; train leaves, duration 30 minutes. Awake
10:50 AM; switch trains and head to Luxembourg, hardly any sleep
12:45 PM; arrive in Luxembourg City….home, sweet, home
-I would not recommend it but it can be done, and for me it was completely worth it.

Poland...Every Corner Has A Kebab Stand and Every Man Has A Mustache

November 14-19, 2008
Cracow or Krakow, Poland

“You made out during Schindler’s List” -Seinfeld

American Song of The Week: James Brown, “I Feel Good”

This Week’s Travel Tip:
1) Poland is a cold place…bundle up.
2) The greatest card game of all time, Euchre, is a great way to have fun and pass time.
3) Poland is on the Zloty, not the Euro, which has a 3:1 U.S. dollar to Zloty ratio. This saved a LOT of money.

I’m currently taking a history class on the Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler. For this class we took a five day trip to Cracow, Poland and Auschwitz. Friday evening we got into Cracow and immediately started being tourists. We had a guided tour through and around the old city and the beautiful cathedrals of St. Anne’s and St. Mary’s.

St. Anne’s is an important church because it was near and dear to Pope John Paul II. You can’t turn a corner in Poland without seeing something about the Pope. He felt it was very important for the youth to be involved in the church so since Cracow has a large university population he did a lot of work at St. Anne’s, next to the college.

Saturday morning we went to a WWII museum which basically showed us how Poland got run over by Germany. Then after WWII were under Soviet Communist control. In this museum was also the holding cell where Germany used to take in the Poles for questioning. These were not homey holding cells. Most of the prisoners didn’t make it out alive.

We then went to the remains of the original Jewish Ghetto in Cracow where all Cracow Jews were placed before being sent off to Concentration Camps.

For anyone who has seen Schindler’s List we were taken to the original factory and also to a place where an important scene from the movie took place. The factory has since been turned into a museum.

Recognize this from Schindler's List?

We saw so many churches and art museums that you start to blank on the names and the significance. All of the churches were beautiful and the art museums were, well, art museums. However, this was Saturday night’s sunset :)

Sunday was Auschwitz day. It was a 2 hour bus ride from Cracow. Auschwitz actually was made up of two camps: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II or Auschwitz-Birkenau. Birkenau is the much larger camp and also the one seen much more frequently in pictures and movies. We were taken through the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work Makes You Free) gate at Auschwitz I, through the torture chamber of Block 11, the execution courtyard between blocks 10 and 11, gas chambers, and the only remaining crematorium where the dead bodies were burned. There were displays of left behind shoes, suitcases, hair, pots and pans, and other objects that people came in with but obviously never had the chance to leave with.

About 5 minutes down the road was Birkenau or Auschwitz II. This camp was over a mile wide and half of a mile long. The barracks went on forever. It was impossible to grasp the concept that the exact place we were standing was the major site of the death of over 1 million innocent people.

Sunday night we grabbed a Kebab (gyro) for dinner and everyone attended a concert by a 22 year old prodigy that was playing the music of Frederic Chopin. Chopin is Poland’s most famous composer of classical music.

Monday we took a short ride to the small town of Nowa Huta. This is a town that the communist designed and built after WWII just outside of Cracow. The planning behind this city was genius with a town square in the center, easy access everywhere, parks, schools, everything which made the people content. However they left out one thing: churches. The communists built no churches in the town and this caused the biggest uprise from the people. The church was finally built but by this point the communism was on its way out.

Monday evening we made the trip to the town of Czestochowa. The holy place of Jasna Gora is located in the town.I don’t know how to pronounce it either. This is the home of the historical painting of ‘Black Madonna’ and is also a place that Pope John Paul II visited and said mass at over 100 times. The Black Madonna is a symbolic painting of the Virgin Mary that has been in possession by the Poles for over 600 years. It is believed to have been painted by St. Luke so it is incredible how many years it has lasted.

The dinner that night was a traditional Jewish meal of Duck pate, Sabbath soup, turkey, cake, and coffee. It was quite an interesting meal but the highlight was the Klezmer band in the background. The music sounded to me like the Polka.

Tuesday we went to Wawel Castle and learned the history of Poland dating back to about 1100 through paintings. Then went to two more art museums which I can’t even tell you the name of because we got shuffled in and out of them so fast and I, as well as everyone else there, could only take so much of the history of Poland in the year 1100 through art.

Tuesday afternoon was a great time though. We went to the Kopalnia salt mine and received a salt mine tour 100 meters under the surface. They had a chapel made of salt, Pope John Paul II made of salt, “paintings” of the last supper done completely in salt; it was pretty incredible. If you ever make it to Cracow it’s a pretty fun experience. Of course we didn’t leave Poland without grabbing dinner at Pierogi Paradise.

A Salty Pope John Paul II

Overall it was a great experience. Walking out of the gates of Auschwitz was a queasy feeling. It taught us all what we take for granted to be able to move freely where and when we want. There were prisoners that kissed the earth they walked on as they left those gates and we were just worried about what we were going to do for dinner.

Ireland, The 'Ole Emerald Isle

October 31- November 8
The Republic of Ireland and a taste of London

Jerry Seinfeld: When you are traveling on an airplane everything is in little amounts. We’ve got a small problem, there’s gonna be a slight delay, we got small peanuts, we’re gonna be a little late, we’re experiencing some turbulence.

This Week’s Travel Tip(s):
1) This is a repeat but I can’t stress it enough…buy a Rick Steves’ guidebook.
2) Don’t put your credit card in the ATM machine or it will get eaten (Dad and I both know that now)
3) Check what time the parking garage closes so your car doesn’t get locked in…
4) London in less than about three days is impossible. I got an overwhelming taste on Saturday.
5) A National Primary Highway in Ireland is equal to a sub-par two lane state route. Every now and then you get a four lane highway but those are rare.
6) In Cork, Ireland…Stay at The Garnisch House. “Best breakfast in town”
7) To all the Danny Sullivan’s who say “Just go to Galway, skip Dublin”, they’re right. Everybody has to go to Dublin because it’s Dublin, but the true beauty is in the west coast.
8) And I’m sure many more will be scattered below….

American Song of the Week: Johnny Cash and the ever famous “Folsom Prison Blues”. It was great hearing this with an Irish accent.

The Cliffs of Moher are southwest of Galway and Dingle is west of Kilarney.

Every trip I go on I think about who from home would appreciate this. Ireland stuck out because It is a dear place to many people. This trip made me think of ancestors and my heritage, all my family close and distant, the wonderful people who gave so many great tips on what to do in Ireland, but most of all my Grandpa Holmes, Pappa, who passed away in May 2007. This was a place he always dreamed of visiting but never made it. He was very fond of his heritage and really appreciated his Irish roots. I felt very privileged just to be able to make it there.
-This is a very long one so if you feel like skipping around here is the order: Dublin, Cork, the Dingle Peninsula, Cliffs of Moher, Galway, Connamara,

It’s Friday afternoon in Luxembourg City and I’m doing some last minute things. I went to the ATM to get a little money and inserted my Credit Card instead of debit card. This results in the ATM eating your credit card; not a good way to start a 9 day trip.
So after a five test mid-term week I headed out on Halloween to Dublin, Ireland. A couple other friends who were in Dublin for the night and I went to the notoriously Tourist Temple Bar area and did a little Halloween celebrating in The Temple Bar. I was surprised at how much the holiday was being celebrated by everyone.

Tom and I with Spongebob, and Spongebob's beer

Dad was due into Dublin early Saturday morning so I got a good night’s sleep and met Dad at the Blooms Hotel in Dublin. Don’t stay there. This is when we found out Dad also put his credit card in the ATM so we together are down to our debit cards and a basic student credit card with a very small limit. This made us a little nervous for our week ahead.
We then decided to do the Hop on-Hop off bus tours which are a good way to get around a city but are, in my opinion, not the best way to see the insights of a city. These busses provide audio commentary between sites and allow you to get off and check out a site. The busses arrive in about 15 minute increments which you can get back on and carry on with your tour. Our first stop was the Guinness Storehouse. You don’t actually see the Brewery but yet a redesigned brewery which shows you every stop in the process through unique video commentary and some good effects. It’s still a great place to visit which I would recommend. You also receive a Guinness at the end as part of the tour and go to the top floor where there is a 360 degree view over Dublin. Dublin is not the flashiest city but it is still a great view.

At the Guinness Storehouse

We got back on the bus and headed around town and saw the beautiful city park in Dublin. It is the largest urban park in Europe. At this point Dad was dozing off from the lack of sleep so we decided on lunch and a then a quick nap. We had lunch at the original Brazen Head Pub. Columbus has a few knock off Brazen Head’s so this was cool to eat at the original.

At this point Dad had to take a nap, very understandably, so I headed to Trinity College in Dublin. It is a beautiful school with a few historic points.

The River Laffey in Dublin

The shopping area of Dublin was filled with stores that already cover America (Foot Locker, Tommy Hilfiger, J. Crew, H&M, Ralph Lauren, and many more).
Saturday night we went to the small harbor town of Howth. This is just north of Dublin on the train and has beautiful scenery along a mixture of good and great restaurants.
So after dinner on Saturday night we head out to the real Irish pubs of Dublin. We found an alley and thought this is the best way to find a local place. We wound up at Stags Head with probably the best Irish Band we heard all week and met our first true Irish friends. We were introduced to the great Irish songs of Seven Drunken nights, old Tim Flannery, and Whiskey in a Jar. Listen to these songs and look up the lyrics, you’ll get a kick out of them.

Our favorite pub in Dublin, The Stags Head

Sunday morning we went to the ever popular St. Patrick’s Cathedral hoping to attend a traditional Roman Catholic Mass in dominantly Catholic Ireland. Well….due to the turmoil of Ireland over the years, the government in rule determined if the large churches would be Protestant or Catholic. Well St. Patrick’s and Christ Church are now Anglo-Episcopalian which came as a surprise to us. Dad and I then headed to Immaculate Conception right on the River Laffey. It was ironic because this church was blue and white inside just like the Rams of the wonderful Immaculate Conception Parish in Columbus, OH.

We went and got our rental car, barely made it in time before they closed, and headed into the Irish countryside, driving on the left side of the road. This is quite the experience. After about 25 minutes we needed a mental pit stop to realize that we actually made it out of the city.

We went into the small town of Kilkenny with the famous Kilkenny Castle and park. This is a great small town that is home of the Smithwick’s (pronounced Smittick’s) and Kilkenny beer breweries. At the top of the hill in town was yet another beautiful church. This was the beginning of our habit to stop and check out the cathedrals in each town. Ireland sure knows how to build beautiful churches.

We walked around town, had a great dinner and then went to retrieve our car. Well, on a Sunday night in Europe things close early. Our parking garage locked up at 7PM with us standing outside at 7:30 looking in. We went to the pub at the bottom of the hill and asked if we could use a phone. One of the three men in there said he had a cell phone, looked at the number we needed to call, and realized it was his neighbor John Ryan who needed to let us out. What a great Irish name and only in a great small town does this happen. We still however had to pay the 25 euro fee, thought maybe this guy could get us off the hook.

We got on the National Primary Highway, basically a step below a two lane state route, drove through Waterford which is a huge glass producer, and headed to Cork. My mom’s side of the family, The Kegley’s, we believe are from Cork. Even though I didn’t get to meet any distant relatives it was still neat to see where they came from. Upon arriving into Cork we stopped at a chain hotel, Jurys Inn, and somehow got the manager to recommend us a Bed & Breakfast. The Garnish House was his recommendation because as he said, “I guarantee you it has the best breakfast in town.” Well he was right, the breakfast was amazing. Monday morning while eating breakfast we found the lady we thought was the owner. We asked if she did own it and in a witty answer she responded with, “I guess so, but mainly the bank owns it.”

Dad and I with Johanna at the Garnish House

We left Cork, crossed the river on the ferry, and went to Cobh. This is the small town where the Titanic last touched land, where the majority of Irish Emigrants left from, and of course the location of another Roman Catholic Church as the locals say.

Main St. in Cobh

St. Colman's Cathedral

We left Cobh, back over the ferry and into Cork again to see the University College Cork, When traveling in the U.S. our family typically stops and checks out the college we are driving by. Just a little thing we have always done so UCC just continued this tradition.

On the way out of Cork we grabbed lunch at the famous ‘chip shop’, Jackie Lennox’s. You were right Jim, great fish ‘n chips and it a great bang for your buck.

In front of Jackie Lennox's

Not far from Cork was the small harbor town of Kinsale which was home of the Charles Fort. This was used throughout history against the Spanish for the Irish to defend themselves. It’s amazing to think that people lived here year round and for years upon years. But as we learned throughout the trip, Irish people are very proud of their culture & heritage and not so fond of others trying to invade this.

Monday night we made the drive directly to Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula. Most of this was made in the dark but along the way we stopped, in the middle of nowhere, and saw the most beautiful starry sky you could imagine. There were so many stars together an entire section of the sky was lit up. We made it into Dingle, checked into a small hotel right in town, grabbed a quick meal and pint, and it was bed time. Dingle is popularly known as a great place for Irish music but with it being outside of tourist season the night was quite quiet. As Dad said earlier in the trip, “I think we’ll be fine taking it easy on this trip, you’ve been burning the candle at both ends for 2 months now.” Don’t know where this saying came from but it’s a good one. By the time I got out of bed it was Tuesday afternoon in Dingle and we headed out to the Dingle Peninsula.

This is everything you picture in the Irish countryside. We saw sheep in the hillside, Irish men in their rubber boots repairing their fences, stone walls up and down the hill sides, cliff edges leading to the water, and most of the time not another soul in sight.

We left Dingle after grabbing a new Irish CD of ‘The Dubliners’ and headed to the small town of Doolin via the Bunratty Castle and Durty Nelly’s Pub.

The Bunratty Castle is supposedly similar to Colonial Williamsburg except it has a traditional Irish town built inside it. The castle was closed so we missed out on this exciting adventure but still made it into Durty Nelly’s and had some Guinness, Smithwick’s, and our first taste in Ireland of Oysters on the half shell. They were excellent. Durty Nelly’s claims to be the oldest Pub in Ireland. Don’t know if this is true or not but it was a good pub.

With dark roads and a scary drive ahead, we decided to make our way on this Tuesday night to the little town of Doolin by the Cliffs of Moher. We somehow made it into Doolin safely, checked in quickly to a very vacant hotel in a very vacant town. November is definitely not tourist time in Ireland. Doolin has a traditional Irish pub, McGann’s, that is popular amongst travelers and locals that is well known for its great Irish music. Here we met locals and travelers from the U.S., listened to great music, talked politics just like everywhere else we had been and experienced a traditional Irish Lament for the first time. This is when one person steps forward and sings a beautiful hymn that is usually in honor of the history and tough times of Ireland. This was a popular part of the Gaelic tradition. The old man singing was as Irish as could be.

Listen to this, even though you can't see anything you get the effect from the audio.

Wednesday was Cliffs of Moher day. Although it was a foggy day the Cliffs of Moher were still the Cliffs of Moher. It was great but I can’t imagine what it would have been like had it been clear out. We still got the full effect especially when a worker told us that 5 or 6 people have already died this year falling off of the Cliffs; some accidental and some suicide.

As George Costanza would say, "the sea was angry that day my friend."

Wednesday night we made it into the great college/industrial town of Galway. This is a town with of course a beautiful church, many pubs, great Irish shopping, many pubs, easy access to the Connamara and Cliffs of Moher regions, and many great pubs. We heard many times before this trip that Galway should be anyone’s home base for Ireland and travel from there. This is very true. Galway is a town that you can spend many nights in and easily travel to many beautiful sites. Our first night in Galway, Wednesday, we went to Monroe’s Pub, saw more election results, watched a great soccer match of Manchester United vs. Celtic, and listened to yet more Irish music. Manchester United is a traditionally dominant team from England and Celtic is a typical underdog from Scotland. All of these fans were rooting for Celtic. The Irish people seem to have a bond with Scotland and are not very fond of the British.
For all the young ladies, and gentlemen who want to know a good gift for a young lady, the harbor part of Galway is the Claddagh region. Ring a bell? These are the popular rings worn by females, and in Ireland males, that show one’s relationship status when they are in the single or dating stage. If the point on the heart of the ring is pointing towards one’s own heart then their heart is taken. If the point of the heart is pointing away from oneself it shows that their heart is open, or available.

When looking for a hotel in Galway we wanted something close to town. Thanks to the recommendation of Mrs. Nicole Thompson we went with the Jurys Inn. These are safe hotels, Holiday Inn like, that are good if you are unsure. However I would still recommend a B&B whenever possible: physically or financially. I was very spoiled this week. I’m used to staying in a 10 person dorm room with one hallway shower while on this trip. Thanks Dad.
Thursday we drove out into the Connamara region. Here we found the last piece of what makes a complete trip to Ireland: sheep running free in the roads.

Notice the color markings in its back. This is done because in open areas like the Connamara region there are no fences anywhere so the sheep are sprayed different colors to show what owner they belong to. The Connamara is not what you picture as Ireland. It is very brown and extremely rocky but still a beautiful region (the towns of Clifden and Roundstone if you are staying out there).

Connamara Region, from Galway to Clifden

Thursday night Dad and I met up with our German friends whom we met the day before and bounced around a couple pubs before ending up at The Quays. Here they had a late night band that played some good covers. We were allowed to do this because we made sure we heard plenty of Irish music throughout the week. Writing this makes me miss the Irish Pub music already. Our friends form Stuttgart, Germany spoke excellent English and were very interested to learn a little about the U.S and Dad learned a little about the great region of Luxembourg/Germany. On the way home Dad had his first Kebab, a European necessity for fast food, and we hit the hay. Got up Friday morning, did some shopping and headed to the Shannon Airport outside Limerick about 90 minutes from Galway. Dad flew back to the U.S. and I headed to London.
Ireland is a must see beautiful place that has the nicest people you will ever meet. I heard this before coming to Ireland and it is completely true, even if they take your peanut butter at the airport.

I’ll keep London very brief because everything I saw and took pictures of you have all seen and heard of before (Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, etc.). Here is my spiel on London: it’s a must do. The sites are limitless, the theatres go on forever, the parks are beautiful, the sporting teams are some of the best in the world, the markets with shopping, pubs, and restaurants are everywhere and all can entertain for hours. However England is still on the pounds which is dominating the dollar right now so I would give it a little time before adventuring to London. It’s a must do though and you need at least 3 days.