Well what to talk about...
Since we've last met, I've been in Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, and The Netherlands. I spose I'll start mit Spain.
So we were in Spain for a week and stayed at probably the coolest hostel ever (Residencia Malaga Backpackers) in Malaga. It was only 7€ per person per night and left you leaving quite satisfied as well as with lots of questions like, Why are half the people in this hostel older than my parents? Or why is an old Englishman with his Russian wife staying there? Or why can't any of the hostel employees speak Spanish?...I mean we were in Spain. It was very nice of them to sprinkle my bed with tobacco leaves though! It added that nice touch that most hostels nowadays just don't have. But all in all I would definitely stay there again!
Most of the Spain nights were filled with a little drinking on the beach. I mean 5€ for a 6 pack of wine? Who wouldn't turn that down? There were usually a group of Spaniards playing parkour into the beach sewer drain for us to watch.
The days were filled with walking. LOTS OF WALKING. If I ever hear anyone at GV complain about walking between apartment complexes I'm probably gonna throw a burrito at their left eye. Why left eye? I don't know but I do know I will always have a burrito on me as soon as I'm back in the states. So yes back to walking. I chose not to pack my "tourist dad walking shoes" because I didn't have that much room and more importantly, the whole "tourist dad walking shoes" thing kinda clashes with the bum/dirtbag look I've been trying so hard to achieve since I've been here. Our first day trip was to a city near Malaga where we attempted to take a gondola ride up a mountain but it was sadly closed. So we walked all around the city and I almost bought some yellow pants at a Spanish flea market (I know, big day for Ry-Guy). Our next trip was into the city of Malaga where we climbed up to and old Roman fortress and Spanish castle. Aaaaannnnnnd it was awesome! What wasn't so awesome was the lack of toilet paper in the bathroom way up there. I think Spain has something against toilet paper because that wasn't the first time that happened there. The next trip was to a city close to Malaga where we explored the Nerja Caves, saw the Balcony of Europe, and most importantly, climbed massive rocks on the beach. I probably could've just stayed and played on the rocks all day but eventually we had to walk for two miles down the highway so we could get to the caves. Tourist dad shoes would've helped with that one. The caves were pretty cool except that you had to stay on a set path and there wasn't a student discount. I think I would have been happier climbing beach rocks. The rest of the trip was spent eating Spanish Taco Bell, drinking cheap wine, and trying to figure out who actually worked at our hostel and who just kinda lived there for whatever reason.
From Spain I had a solid 8 hour break before I was picked up by my former high school exchange student, Mau, for some gnar shredding in den Alpen with him and his family. The snow there was absolutely perfect! For some reason though nobody would ever leave the marked paths (silly Europeans), which left tons of untouched knee deep powpow for me and my shredstick! It was probably as close to the film Art of Flight as I'll ever get. I also got to eat a schnitzel the size of a hand towel (I know, weird object to use as a size reference, right?). We stayed in an alpine farmhouse way up on the side of a mountain. No internet or TV but it had one of the best views of the town below and there were mountain hiking trails right behind it! I was also able to teach Mau and his family how to play euchre in about ten minutes. Deutscher sind schnelle Lerner!
From the alps I was dropped off at the Munich airport to pick up my visiting friends, Sam, Tyler, and Brad for Eurotrip 2014! We did some hiking around Munich to start off the trip. We went to Andechs monastery which is basically a hike through the woods to a monastery/brewery. We got some brewskis and Tyler bought a 20€ pigs knuckle <-----just so you don't forget that decision Tyler. The next day we went on a hike in the Alps and lots of selfies were taken.
From Munich we went to Prague and walked through some shady parts of town because we didn't wanna buy public transportation tickets. During the day we walked all around Prague and saw about ten people doing the fake statue thing and about ten more making giant bubbles. As cool of a town as Prague is, you can't walk more than 20 feet without someone trying to get your precious crowns. What baffles me is why they would target four shabby looking backpackers as people who have money. If I'm not even gonna spend my precious Czech crowns on making myself look somewhat presentable, why would I spend them in your fancy shmancy restaurant? What I did spend my precious crowns on was some cheap, unhealthy food and pregaming material for the clubs. The club we went to on the first night was by far the coolest one. It had weird metal parts and neon lights everywhere as well as beer for $2! The club on the last night was...well I'd tell you what that club was like but within five minutes of being in there I was looking at my dinner on the floor and on one of the two jeans that I packed. Thanks to Sam for paying my cover with her precious crowns though! On the cold walk back to the hostel I realized both my wallet and Ipod weren't in my pockets. I sullenly stumbled on the night tram back to the hostel and thought about how screwed I really was without those things. However, both my Ipod and my wallet were back at the hostel where I'd left them earlier before I went out. Silly Ryan!
Then it was off to Berlin. Clearly, we hadn't had enough of the clubs in Prague because we went out the clubs in Berlin on our first night there, from which Tyler and I didn't return until 8AM the following day. Between dancing like a dumb American on the floor, talking to a man with two kids about Ukraine (auf deutsch!), meeting the German Ron Burgundy on the U-Bahn, pretending we were in the Jason Bourne movies as we snuck through our hostel at night, and creating a two hour improv radio broadcast on a bridge, it was a fabelhaft night! We walked some more the next day and saw all the sites in Berlin. The next day, Brad, Tyler, and I rented bikes and rode to the abandoned Iraqi Embassy to former East Germany. Papers, beer bottles, and a post-apocalyptic feel were everywhere. We explored, smashed some bottles, and journeyed back to the hostel. We stayed up until our train at 4 the last night and headed off to...
Amsterdam! If you ever go there, I have some tips. First, if it looks like a one way street it is a two way street. If it looks like a sidewalk, it is a bike path. If it looks like a two-foot-wide curb, it is a sidewalk and don't you ever leave it! Bikes have to right of way over anything and they also don't seem to have any rules. If it looks like a ladder, it is a staircase. If the building looks like it is leaning, it is (Amsterdam is built on a giant swamp basically). And lastly, if it has a red light hanging in front of it or it says "coffee shop", well you should already know what that means. Amsterdam was probably the coolest city to walk around but also the most difficult to navigate. If you ever think you know where you are there, you're wrong and you need to stop lying to yourself. On the last day, Sam and I went to the Anne Frank house. What I really didn't think about until I was there was the constant darkness they had to deal with. All the windows were blacked out and the lights dimmed. Between that and the cramped space in there I don't think I could have lived there. It truly puts thing in perspective to actually be in the annexe.
And now here I sit. Brad, Tyler, and Sam flew back this morning and I have unpacked and am about to repack for Vienna. I am enjoying every last bit of having my own room, clean clothes, and some down time before more traveling. If you made it this far down the page I'm honored to be a distraction in your day. High five your computer for me and I'll do the same.
Put sriracha on everything
Ryan
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