The Ryanair flight from BVA to DUB was chaotic and cattle-like as usual, but the pilot had an interesting intercom annoucement in flight: “Italy have won two-nil in extra time.” This leaves me in a serious predicament as I cannot root for Italy or France. I guess I will have to stick with pulling for Portugal in the consolation match.

Dublin was… interesting, as I had a blister ballooning up seriously (for the first time in my life from walking, I think). We saw some churches and did lots of grocery shopping and park benching, and Alana got to attack another H&M (after devastating the one in the Forum des Halles).

The airport wasn’t that bad, as I got to wash my hair each night in the sinks of the deserted mezzanine level facilities and change clothes each day… so I am feeling almost human even after the super-day of travel. This morning we checked in at 0445 for our 0645 flight, which was fine though stuck on the ground in Dublin long enough to mess up connections for some people.

I was particularly impressed by the purser, who kept track of everyone’s connections and rebooked someone’s from the air. The small sandwich’s red cheddar was also pretty tasty (and well beyond what one would expect for such a short haul flight from a US carrier. But it wasn’t a US carrier, it was LH.

I picked up some Toblerone and Haribo goodies in the duty-free in Frankfurt just to be a tourist for a few minutes. Yum. Frankfurt had a quite strange procedure… I ended up going through thorough (hand wanded, no metal detector frame) security just to get between different concourses on the same terminal. Then… well, the boarding process just confused me. I got on the plane, though.

The long hop was pretty uneventful, although the “snack” served at Charlotte’s lunch time was unexpectedly tasty… I had an extra of it too. Pretty decent mini-sandwich with some flavor in the mustard and some tasty little “pretzel bites” from the UK.

Charlotte’s layover was fairly long even after waiting for over an hour, as a US citizen, to re-enter my own country (that always irks me, since I can get into an EU country in under 15 minutes). It looked like they were taking every X person for Customs inspection, but we managed to escape–though I did not escape a trainee at passport control. Apparently someone with a similar name might be on a watchlist… the trainer suggested that one could ask if I had ever lived in Illinois, but that she wouldn’t pursue it since it was a common name and there was obviously no resemblance. Interesting…

Chinese food and Cinnabon improved the layover. Not cool: to get on a computer with Internet access in the airport, you can pay a mere $15 for the first hour in the business center. If you can afford to pay that you must be doing a pretty good job with your business, but I’d imagine if you are paying that sort of thing regularly you’ll be wondering where the money went soon.

The flight from CLT to HTS was marked by another 45 minutes of tarmac sitting, for which I was thankfully only semiconscious (as now). A group back from a Caribbean cruise in the back of the plane kept me from drifting off with annoying voices nearly on a level with the Spanish school group on the way to Barcelona.

The McKees met us in HTS and my dad met me in Cross Lanes and… here I am, with a fresh Hong Kong student visa newly occupying page 14 of my passport. I don’t even want to think about clearing my bed off so I can sleep on it but that (and getting things together to move to Morgantown on the 8th for three weeks) is an urgent errand.

Am getting carded in Europe all the time… to prove I am under 26 and get a discount.

Trying to move a few photos over to my gallery from Alana’s, so that should be done a few days after I get back.

Unfortunately during that backtrack Brazil managed to blow it for their worst finish since I have been watching. Too bad.

Paris has been nice, though hellishly hot. Our digs are in a very cozy little room on a top floor which gets even hotter. But we have been getting some good seeing in… the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees from Etoile to Concorde last night, the Pompidou, Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, Louvre (outside), Tuileries, and Sacre Coeur today so far, and perhaps a boat tour and the Catacombs in the future.

Crepes are still good. Oh, my, are they ever good. Having a hard time finding citron though.

Alana is getting some of her preconceptions about Paris challenged by a populace which seems to be in an unseasonably good mood on this visit, the free (when did this happen) technotoilets on the streets, and by a National Police officer or two’s stunning charms at Etoile. Also, the tap water is fabulous (or Barcelona’s was bad enough that it seems that way).

Tomorrow begins our odyssey through Dublin and it would not be surprising if I do not make it on the Net before home. Thanks for following along.

We have been shifted from a decently-located hostel kind of near the center of the city (Barcelona, that is) to a couple beds in a nice flat near the Sagrada Familia (and therefore not close to much of anything else, if you have ever been here). We are getting the most out of our transport 10-packs and shoe leather.

The unexpected wonder of the apartment is that it has a grocery across the street and a washing machine within. This is good news, and I am now mercifully ketchup-free. I forgot to try washing the pair of pants that got chocolate on it in Brussels, but there is always tonight.

Barcelona is fantastic, as always. I finally made it to Park Guell and got my obligatory lizard picture. We have done all the typical stuff (Ramblas etc.) but today we wandered around Montjuïc and stumbled into the 1992 Olympic campus, which was pretty neat. The stadium was open, making it about 5000x cooler than Berlin’s.

My travelmate has gotten to the beach a couple times which she has enjoyed, although this last visit left me in a mood similar to hers after an art museum… for various reasons I am a bit of an anti-beach character. Hopefully nothing was taken too personally and we will get over it over dinner (and a Brazilian victory over France would be nice too).

It would also make me incurably smug in Paris tomorrow afternoon. I can’t wait.

I think that should tell you all you need to know.

After about 15 hours of sleep last night, A. decided that she did not want to pay the 8 euro for the Mezquita in Córdoba. Personally I think it’s worth it once, so it works out for me since I have seen it. She is missing out though. As a result we took a bus straight from Sevilla to Granada.

So here we are in Granada, ready to queue for hot hours at the crack of dawn tomorrow to try to get into the Alhambra–by the time I thought of trying to reserve it online it was too late, but they save some tickets for the day of entry. We went up to the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaicín (old Arab quarter) for a stunning view of the Alhambra (with Sierra Nevada backdrop) and then somehow came down in a very different direction. We seem to be alive somehow.

That trip marks our last significant bus travel (except for the hike out to BVA near Paris) and the last travel that had not been pre-booked.

Food is cheap here and so is the Net–both good things.

http://community.webshots.com/user/alanaeuropetrip2006

We checked out, went to the post office, and then day-tripped off to Toledo and rode the cheesy but effective zocotren. Food prices off the beaten path were fabulous. The cathedral was expensive but cathedralrific.

After a little downtime in a park (with working water fountain!) we trekked back down to the bus station and got back to Madrid. Went to the Reina Sofía for a bit, had some Doner Kebap, and now we are internetting for a bit before our 23h night bus to Sevilla. That should be a pack of fun, with 5h arrival. Hopefully we will be up to enjoying the city on arrival.

Weather is classic Spanish. Warm but bearably dry and incredible in the evenings.

Hasta pronto.

Things have hit a new low as far as the not getting deathly sick of being around each other 24/7 but there may be improvement after a park conversation… I sure hope so. Got some lazing to do then hopefully some plaza will still be lazy and nice on a Sunday evening for some unwinding.

Looks like we will daytrip (yeah, I know, ugh) to Toledo tomorrow since A. seems to like the really old buildings and such (which Madrid is rather short on). We booked the bus tickets to Sevilla and the later train tickets to Barcelona so I think all our remaining travel en route is booked, and that is something of a relief.

The weather is a little warm but absolutely gorgeous.

Cat’s hostel is very high tech but a bit partied out for my taste… at 17.30 someone was still sleeping in the room. Do not get to see much of Madrid that way.

The painting I had been wondering about for the last two years in the Prado is called Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, by Goya. I’m putting it here so I won’t forget it again.

OK, big line and I have been on for around my 20 mins. Until we meet again.

(love this belgian keyboard)

So to avoid typing much… AMS Centraal is lousy. Schipol airport is a great alternative. Rotterdam is cold at 4 am. Ah, English mode… now to avoid looking at keys.

Luxembourg was very… Luxembourgy. Lots of Grand Ducal pictures, with the country shutting down or setting up for the national birthday party the day after. Neat castles, scary thousand-year-old tunnel systems, nice bridges and valley views, and so on. All that and a train station full of (potable!!!) water fountains.

The Bauhaus inn rooms in Bruges are right over the bar, which is a bad thing at night. Bar is a bit overpriced for food and drink… I may never get to redeem the drink voucher provided on check-in.

Bruges is very pretty and medieval (is that right? I hate spelling that one). The belfry was back-breaking but the churches have provided nice opportunities to relax.

The 2,70 euro for a cup of pasta was fantastic… we might see a 4,50/kg pancake place later. Good ice cream but hard to find. And now that I’ve covered the important food groups (chocolate is a little out of my price range, but I’ll try some of that / waffles / fries in Brussels tomorrow), a little rumination.

The parts of semi-northern Europe I have visited so far have been nice… safe, clean, etc. But tomorrow evening, if all goes well, I’ll be in my old stomping grounds in Madrid (a bit grittier, a lot hotter, and so on). It will be interesting to see how they compare.

I will also be delighted to throw away my Eurail pass after we get to the Brussels airport. What a pain… everyone wants to stamp it, forgets they stamped it, isn’t sure if the dates are marked correctly (they are, not rocket science), wants a passport… It saved a lot of money for this routing, though.

Actually I don’t much feel like ruminating right now. Without a notebook the opportunities (?) for intense introspection are not there, but since I’m blogging in public I should not be publishing those anyway. Traveling with another person is not impossible, but it is easy to get on each others’ nerves. Functionally during long night train rides it isn’t much different if you are solo or have a travelmate who puts on the music, starts writing, and shuts you out for a few hours… but everyone needs a break some time, and without that sort of thing the atmosphere might end up more on the poisonous side. Good or bad, I don’t know. I guess in a couple weeks I’ll be able to tell you whether Europe works better alone or with a friend, but I will probably wuss out with “it’s different.”

To preview, tomorrow involves an early train and grazing in Brussels on traditional Belgian street food (and I still have not had a Hoegaarden during this trip, sadly) followed by a flight from BRU to Madrid Barajas, a ride on the Metro system, a check in at Cat’s hostel, and hopefully a heck of a good time in blistering-hot Spain summer.