Germany

On June 6th, 2012 the 68th anniversary of D-Day we stormed into Germany.

We woke up at 5:30 in Amsterdam and got on the 6:26 train into Hannover and then Göttingen where Fabian picked us up! From there we hopped on the autobahn and drove at a speed of 140!.. Kilometers/hour (roughly 85 mph, so not that cool) and stopped for some traditional German fast food of currywurst before we finally reached Tübingen and were pleasantly greeted by Fabian's German fraternity brothers. From there we shared a few beers as they tried to teach us some German cheers and other German words. Then we ordered some pizza and were in bed around midnight.

The next day started around 10 AM and was the big day for the Stockerkanner (more on that later). We had a big traditional Bavarian style breakfast made by the pledges of sausages, breads, eggs, tomatoes, pickles, juice, coffee, and wheat beer. Yep beer for breakfast. Anyways as we were finishing breakfast their longtime friends from a Swiss fraternity showed up (who knew all these countries had fraternities too?). From there we set off for the big boat race--the Stockerkanner. This was the main reason us, and everyone else was in Tübingen for the weekend and is a competition between fraternities and other groups on campus. Fabian was able to get us a spot on the fraternity's other boat which gave us a great view of the city, the thousands of other tourists watching the race, and the race itself. The boats are specific to southern Germany but they are similar to the gondolas in Venice. The race was a lot of fun to see and after we hung out for a bit with the racers at the finish line. After that, we started looking for a place to eat. All the lines for food in the city were packed from the event so we took the bus to get away from the crowd to a restaurant in the German country side where we enjoyed yet another traditional meal with an assortment of cheeses, and you guessed it, sausage. Then we went back to Fabian's and right as we were about to go out the door the doorbell rang and it was another fraternity and their guests from a different fraternity from Heidelberg, Germany. Apparently it's an old tradition to do this and ask for beer and hang out with them and share stories. So that happened and then they spontaneously started a ritual, which in Germany involves the singing of a lot of very old songs about their history (like 'when the Romans got lazy is Fabian's favorite). Then we went to bed way too late.

The next morning, which started around noon with a breakfast of wiener schnitzel (not breakfast food in Germany, but it was homemade by Fabian's mother, very good) and bread and butter and nuttella. Then we spent a little while gathering the troops before we went on a boat ride down the river, grilled out, and were able to try driving the Stockerkanner. What did we cook you ask? Sausages of course as well as some chicken. We were in Germany after all. It took longer than planned and when we got back we had to run up the hill (oh yeah forgot to mention that, we stayed on top of a giant hill/mountain again) so that we could see the kickoff of the Germany vs. Portugal Euro cup soccer game. Luckily, Deutschland won! Go Schland!! (that's their shortened version of cheering on their country, kind of like 'Merica!!) So then we had to go out in Tübingen to celebrate with Fabian and his buddies. It was a great night to be in Germany.

Sunday we were feeling a little lethargic, so we got a slow start in the morning. After taking it easy and watching some useless YouTube videos with Fabian's friend, Hendrik, we headed into town for a bite to eat. Fabian took us to a nice restaurant/beer garden along the river called the Neckarmüller where there were guys in traditional lederhosen singing old drinking songs (typical German stuff). Guess what we had for lunch! Nope. It was a salad, but it had sausage in it as well as cheese, onions, and pickles. After that, Fabian gave us the full tour of the town and the castle before we trekked up the hill/mountain to catch more Euro cup games. Once the games were over we ordered some pizza which had some unique toppings and they put in a movie called Iron Sky, which is a low-budget independent film about the Nazi's living in space and came back to attack earth. It was ridiculous to say the least. But after the movie we needed a goodnight's rest and went to bed.

Monday morning we were out the door by 8:30 and on our way to Munich or in Germany, München with the guidance of one of Fabian's friends, Toby. Once we arrived there we set off on a journey. Since we didn't have wifi while we were with Fabian we didn't know where our hostel was, but we knew it was close to the train station. Luckily, we eventually found it on the second street we walked to and didn't have to stop at a Starbucks or McDonalds to get wifi. Once our stuff was dropped off and we were reconnected with internet we went out exploring. First stop, whether we intended it or not was the glockenspiel and the town square. A hop skip and a jump later we found ourselves in the Hofbrauhaus enjoying some food and a liter :) We then set off for more sights and sounds walking past the church and through the English gardens (the biggest metropolitan park in the world) then Grant grabbed a kebab and we headed back to our hostel to watch the soccer game and meet everyone else back at the hostel.

Tuesday we woke up at 9 packed up our stuff, grabbed a quick breakfast and set out on an official free walking tour of the city. It was great to learn about the history of the place, like learn the meaning of the name Munich, Bavarian history, how Octoberfest got started (celebration of the kings marriage, turned out that people loved the party) and even some WWII history since its where the Nazis were started and well, unsuccessful in Munich. Anyways after the tour of the city we set off on our own to see the Olympic village from the 1972 Olympics. It wasn't as easy as we thought it would be as it was a lot farther than we had expected--we had walked 4 miles and were still not there. Oh yeah, and it started to pour! We chose that it wasn't worth it and got drenched and became freezing on the walk back. We gathered our things from the hostel and then got on the train towards Prague! (Praha) and got in here around 11:00 PM and just checked into our hostel

Granada, Seville, and Amsterdam

Our plane got into Granada around 7 on Saturday (June 2nd) and we checked into our new hostel, which was another awesome hostel. So once we were all settled we went out to explore the town. As we were walking we got hungry and stopped to get some tapas which was great for 2 euros, but not really filling, so we set out for more food. Of course we ran into a kebab place pretty soon, so we both broke down and got one.
After that we went to explore more of the town - we tried looking for a place to see some flamenco dancing, but the places we ran into needed us to buy dinner, so we decided against that. After, we kept on walking around a little bit more and we stumbled on some ceremony going on outside the cathedral that was complete with a marching band and statues of Mary and Jesus being carried in (this was after midnight with the matching band, and neither of us were able to figure out what it was) but after this it was bedtime so we headed in so we could get the next day started early.

We woke up on Sunday to yet another beautiful day, with highs forecasted to be in the 90s. We left the hostel around 10:30 with plans to visit the Alhambra (which is Arabic for the red one). It was an old fort essentially from the last Muslim stronghold in Spain and it dates back to the 8th century in parts, but it was really cool and is the thing to see in Granada, so we spent a few hours up there (by the way it was all up hill, yay for more walking!) before we headed back into town for lunch. Michael had been wanting to try paella and Grant just wanted anything, so we found a restaurant that suited our needs. Once lunch was finished we had work to do, so we headed back to the hostel and printed out our boarding passes for Amsterdam and made plans on how to get to Seville. Once that was complete we walked around the Cathedral, which was cool and dated back a long time switching between a mosque and a church a few times so the art and architecture was cool. But then we had some time to kill so we signed up for a free walking tour of "the caves" which actually are not caves we usually think of. The caves in Granada are actually makeshift homes that people live in temporarily or sometimes permanently. We started walking and our tour guide took us up a giant hill (I know right, side note: Granada is right next to the Sierra-Nevada's so it is far from flat) and the tour guide talked about the history of the caves, the people that live in them, how they used to keep the slaves who built the Alhambra up there, and that people keep progressively making them nicer, but right now it's all hippies that live in them. Then he showed us what they could look like once they are fixed up further down the hill. It was interesting and gave us some good background information on Granada (and gave us a few more miles of walking) but it went longer than we thought it would so we got back showered and were able to get to dinner by 10PM (totally normal in Spain). Then we walked back and went to bed since we had an early bus to catch to Seville.

Monday morning started at 5:45 so we could catch the bus to Seville, Kansas City's sister city. With no hiccups we made it to Seville around 11 and got all checked in to our new hostel, complete with a rooftop pool with a view of Plaza Encarnacion, which had a really unique building at the center, but our stuff got dropped off and we had a lot of stuff to see. First stop, the cathedral where we went up in the tower (which is replicated in Kansas City) and saw a great view of the city. Next stop was the Real Alcazar which was an old palace from the Islamic era in Seville and had cool gardens, with peacocks. Then we headed to the Plaza España for another set of cool architecture. At this point we were hot and tired so we gave the pool a quick test. It felt great for a couple of hours and then we made our sandwiches and we were deciding if we should go to bed at this point since we needed to be up at 4:30 to catch a plane to Amsterdam, but our roommates (from Wales and England) who we had just met convinced us to go out and see more of the city. So we made it back to the hostel around 1:00 AM and were close to the first ones in bed, and when we woke up everyone still wasn't back! Oh Spain.

Tuesday we flew into Amsterdam (which was really the city of Eindhoven, thanks Ryanair) and we took the bus to Amsterdam which should have been an hour but there was a major car crash so it actually lasted about two and a half hours.

Amsterdam, what can I say about Amsterdam...How about I have never seen so many bikes in my life! Seriously though, they had a parking lots for bikes! Once we got there we found a hostel and quickly went out to see the city. So we put our stuff in the room and headed off for the Heineken Experience (the Heineken factory), which was a really cool brewery. It was probably a cooler tour than the Guinness factory, the beer is just not as good (personal opinions). Then we headed off to see the Anne Frank house, which was interesting and not what either of us were expecting. Then we walked back to the hostel and got some kebabs on the way. We are walking everywhere again, have to get in our 10 miles a day (rough estimate). After dinner we walked around and observed the red light district, which was funny, weird, and something that is completely different. We also saw more of the city and walked around Dam Square (the city's main plaza) before heading to~11:30 where we were the... Last ones in bed.

The next morning we were up at 5:45 to catch the train into Germany and meet Fabian!

Barcelona

Getting into Spain was quite hectic. Our last train in France ended up running 20 minutes late, which then made us late for the train from the Spanish border into Barcelona (it worked out ok though because the whole train (well a good majority) were going to Barcelona so they held it for us) and customs was just looking to see if we had a passport - literally everyone just held it up and walked by the guard (i.e. things that wouldn't fly in the US) Anyways onto Barcelona, the capital of Catatonia and the home of Antoni Gaudi.

I wish we had a month to spend in Spain! But since we don't we had to do Barcelona in 2 nights. Our train from France pulled up to the station about 7 or 8 (and i yelled to the cab yo homes smell ya later, looked at our kingdom and we were finally there... Sorry) and we had to find where our hostel was before we could do anything else so we set off on the metro, subway. The directions said that it was a 10-15 minute walk from the station. What they didn't mention was that it was all up hill, and that our hostel was literally on the top of a mountain. So after the up hill walk and the 8-9 flights of stairs (with our backpacks don't forget) our stuff was dropped off and we were both starving. So we webt to Las Ramblas to see the city and grab some food. We came across a seafood place that was delicious (and at 10 PM we may have eaten a little to early) but after getting a brief view of the city we set off for Grants favorite bar when he was in Barcelona, which ended up being a total flop :( (turned out there was a major music festival in town that drew all the young people away) so we headed back to our hostel on top of the mountain and made friends with some people in our hostel.

The next morning (Friday June 1st) we set out early since we had a lot to see. First stop tour guide Grant took us to was Parc Guell which was designed by Gaudi and was where he lived until he died. It also offered great views of the city and a good start to the day. From there we saw the Sagrada Familia which is considered to be Gaudi's masterpiece and has been under construction since 1882 and still won't be finished for another 25 years. From there we walked towards the beach stopping to grab some lunch in the park, which was near the zoo and the Barcelona Arc de Triomf, and the fountain in the pictures. After lunch we made our way to the beach and hung around the ocean to relax for an hour, then we were back on our way to check out some Gaudi (Casa Batllo) buildings. As we crossed the street to see one Michael noticed a guy wearing a Kansas shirt and then realized it was two of his best friends from high school. After talking to them for a few minutes we parted ways, and went to see another Gaudi (La Pedrera) building that we actually went in. He designed the whole building without any load bearing walls so the occupants could rearrange it as they pleased. Cool. After that it was dinner time again so we grabbed something quick on our way back and then trekked up the mountain to our hostel where we showered and got ready to go out. Try #2 at the black sheep, lame again. Oh well, we walked from there about 1.5-2 miles to chupitos, and had a drink there before climbing the mountain for bed.

The next morning we decided we had enough time to check out some more sights, so after breakfast we went to Plaza España and the National Museum of Art of Catalonia which was cool and offered great views of the city and was a good place to end our trip to Barcelona. So we rushed back in a mad fury to grab our bags (running up and down the hill to the hostel wasn't fun) but we made our flight and are now in Granada!

France

Bonjour, from France. After the day of jumping on and off trains we got into Paris around 8, and we had to search the city for a place to stay the night. Luckily we found a good deal on a place pretty close to the train station. From there we dropped off our stuff and went to see the city of light at night. We walked down the street and the Eiffel Tower was less than 2 miles away. We saw it all lit up, but we were tired from the long day of traveling so we called it an early night.

Sunday morning we woke up early to see Paris. First stop, go up in the Eiffel Tower. Check. Next take a boar tour down the Seine River, passing by Notre Dame, the Louvre, the statue of liberty,and a whole bunch of other important stuff. Once we were back on land we pointed ourselves at the Arc de Triumph. Seeing it made us quite hungry (or maybe the fact that we hadn't eaten yet and were walking around all day) do we grabbed some ice cream. Delicious. Then we needed to get some tacky tourist pictures somewhere so we set off for the Louvre where we could hold up the glass pyramid. Once that task was completed, we had to make our final stops as we were running short on time before we caught our overnight train. So we went to see Basilique du Sacre-Coeur and got a great view of the city while having a choir sing for us (and all the other thousands of tourists). Just down the street from there is the Moulin Rouge, so we grabbed a quick picture there, grabbed some sandwiches and headed for the train station.
The overnight train was quite an experience, maybe not a great one but it was an experience. We made friends with the [drunk] girls behind us, and made fun of Paris and Parisians with them (oops).

When we got to Cannes in the morning Kevin was there waiting for us. From there he took us to his school, and walked us past the film festival (which was being torn down) on the way (it was at least a mile and we still had our backpacks on) but once we were there we were able to shower and rejuvenate ourselves, and finally grab some breakfast. Since it was pentecost, everyone didn't have classes and we were able to meet all of Kevin's friends as we took the ferry out to an island where we walked around, went swimming, and had a cigar. When we got back we grabbed a kebab, and went back to the hotel early since Kevin had a final the next day. So we got back and figured out texting and calling through the wifi and called it a night. Side note: our hotel room had no electricity for the first two hours we were there and we couldn't figure out how to lock the door so we put a shelf in front of the door for the night.

The next day we finally had a chance to sleep in! Then we went on a run along the beach! (possibly a mistake with how much walking is ahead of us) but we grabbed some lunch at the Carrefour (Walmart haha) and set off for the 4 mile walk to the train station to buy tickets into Barcelona and the hit the beach up. Kevin eventually met us there and then we went to grab some pizza at a close restaurant. Went back to Kevin's room for a beer and the got some chicha with a bunch of the students in Kevin's program. Then we made the 2.5 mile walk back.

The last day in Cannes we met Kevin on the beach at noon, had some lunch and went swimming in the Mediterranean sea. Then we walked up to an old church that had a great overview of the city. Then we headed back to his school, and stopped to get some crepes on the way. Once we got back we played some ping pong before the American students had to go to their farewell dinner. So we hung out and grabbed some food with a few of Kevin's friends before they all came back and we had 7 drake students in his dorm room. Then we had to say goodbye to Kevin because we had to catch the morning train into Barcelona!

Au revoir France,
Hola Spain!

We actually just got to Granada.
The post on Barcelona will come soon!