ISTANBUL

Backgammon in smoke-filled cafes. A Turkish bath (featuring a large, hairy Turkish dude). Fresh fish sandwiches straight off the boat. Tasty home-cooked Turkish ravioli. Incredible art museums. These and many other attractions put Istanbul at or near the top of my list of places visited in the past six months.

It was hard not to feel like I'd entered a different world when hearing prayer calls from mosques all about, but in many ways, Istanbul felt more modern then many European cities I'd been too. Istiklal Avenue (above) is a long pedestrian avenue, complete with Christmas (winter?) lights, designer stores, and art galleries. A relatively easy-to-use public transportation network allowed me to get home easily after a long day of walking around the city. Everything (in the central neighborhoods, at least) felt clean, well-run, and pleasant. Now, highlights:

Beautiful mosques

Byzantine Cistern, stored water under the city

Balik Ekmek...

You could walk right up to this boat (actually there are three identical ones in a row) and buy a fish sandwich for $2.50. Absolutely delicious and incredibly fresh-tasting. The most impressive part of the whole deal is these guys are cooking and assembling while this boat is being tossed around, despite being tied to the dock.

(image from National Geographic)

I took a bath in the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, a historic bath pictured above. A Turkish bath is like hot yoga, except instead of having a slender cutie request politely that you hold the stretch for a few extra seconds, a large, fat, hairy Turkish masseuse bends and beats your body while soaping you down. I may have limped out of the bath, but I was cleaner than I had been in 6+ months.

Ataturk Monument, Taksim Square

I stayed in a hostel, but I hung out with a couple locals thanks to CouchSurfing. I went and played backgammon (twice) with one dude (he won), and I also spent one lovely afternoon with a local medical student (why so many med students?) who also had me and a couple other CSers over for dinner with her and her family. And yes, her mom does cook a tasty ravioli and borek.

Next up, a report on being home and a little summary of the trip.

Hanging out with anarchist medical students in Thessaloniki

Some of said students: very intimidating

Last Friday through Tuesday, I had my first couch surfing experience in Thessaloniki, Greece, and it was great. I stayed with Seamos (far right of above picture) and (yes) slept on his couch. My biggest takeaway from all of it was experiencing a bit of the Greek counterculture, the people so vehement in their protests against the Greek government.

In Greece, medicine is a six-year major, not a separate school that you go to after finishing college, and all of these folks were actually younger than me. They definitely had an energy about them -- two of the four nights when I was there, they met in their unauthorized squat on campus to draft up a document about the state of medical education in Greece. One nice guy noticed that I wasn't exactly following their   discussion in Greek, so he handed me some twenty-year-old anarchist punk rock magazines from San Francisco.

We had a good time going out at night. One night, we went to a dubstep concert playing at a squat near the university (they love their squats). Another, to a punk rock show in the engineering building on campus. Allegedly, the police aren't allowed on university campuses, which kind of blew my mind.

Seamos was a great host, making sure I met all his friends and had fun with them. He's a pretty interesting guy, too, friendly, and never afraid to speak his mind. I'll definitely be couchsurfing again. 

A little about Albania (and what I've been doing for the past month)

I've spent the past month working at a hostel in Berat, Albania. Berat is an ancient town, with two 2000-year-old fortresses and very interesting Ottoman architecture (pictured above).


Lately it's been very quiet at the hostel (Berat Backpackers), which has its advantages and disadvantages. Basically I just need to stick around the hostel for about half the day, and have only about an hour of work (or less) spread out over 8 hours (which is a good deal for all the food I'm consuming, for sure). I enjoyed a lot of the socializing with guests, meeting people, etc.

 My most important duty: restocking the beer fridge

I also cook some dinners for the staff and guests. Here, frying chicken

The country is very strange. It was isolated for 50 years under a dictatorship. The garbage gets thrown in the river. There's a restaurant 5 minutes away run by a dude who used to traffic humans (apparently this used to be the only way to make enough money to start a legitimate business). There are loads of alcoholics. Girls hardly ever leave the house at night. You can tell the young people want to change things but are kind of limited. For instance--dudes will get really dressed up western-style to go out and hopefully meet some girls. But they have to go out to coffeeshop/bars (there are no bars in our style), where there might be five guys for every girl. And then they all go home at 9. There is a 24-hour pool hall/casino in town, which i've been out late at before, but it's filled with old drunks and such (which can be quite fun). There are also the sports books, where young dudes go out to bet on soccer. One of the other workers here is Irish and loves his football, so we've gone to watch a few games in town.

The people are extremely friendly to foreigners, and the scenery is incredible: mountains on 4 sides, with landscape and vegetation that I think can be best described as the Texas Hill country, without the spiky plants, add in olive and pomegranate trees, and various deciduous trees changing to oranges and reds and yellows. All in all, I'm glad I spent a month here. Talking to Albanians and seeing how business is done, I've gotten to see a bit of how another culture functions. Worth it.

On Friday, I'm going to Thessaloniki, Greece, before heading to Istanbul, and I'm planning to couchsurf in both. My flight home is December 7th. 

Knowledge bombs from London to Albania

My brother, a great writer, has a habit of whipping out his iphone and making a note whenever something pops into his head. I've done the same a few times in the past 6 weeks, and this post is a collection of some of these little observations. So these aren't really "knowledge" bombs at all, more "random observation" dollops. But knowledge bombs sounds cooler. Here goes, in chronological order, starting in London.

Camera phone flashes

It's funny to watch people take pictures with their camera phones in broad daylight. The tiny little light turns on, far, far exceeded by the power of the sun. Some might see something about futility and impotence. I just think it's kind of funny.

The London Air

I'm walking through London as the sun sets on a warm august day, and the air is that perfect temperature where you are completely comfortable. But not just that-- there are those small bubbles of air that are just a degree or two different, but still pleasant. So as you walk you're hit with waves of warmth then cool then warmth then cool again.

London and Austin

Walking through London (and other cities) makes me really appreciate what I had in Austin. Yesterday I saw an open-air food market, a nice walk along the Thames with street performers, beautiful parks. So many of the things I relish here were always available in america. Now we just need to get buckingham palace.

Train to Milan

Unfortunately, my train car from cinque terre to Milan has two of the stinkiest human beings on the planet. Two large, fat Italian men. (note: they were later thrown off the train for not having a ticket)

Sophia.

Very interesting place. Love the old soviet feel. The people are pretty friendly. I wonder what takes more courage- the people from poorer countries going to west Europe, or rich ones going east. (note: I later decided, going from the east to the west is scarier)

Music Classics

Listening to old music is always refreshing, but there is often the reminder that it's just not the same--you enjoy it, but not as much as when your whole brain tingled and lit up on every successive listen until your love for it dwindles to mere respect and fond memories.

Different lives

It's interesting seeing people in other countries and wondering about what kind of person they would be if they grew up in America. Goth? Hippy? Engineer? Example: met a family of people running a manufacturing/machine shop in their barn in this tiny village. They spoke English. They made tiny little parts to be used for a variety of machines and furniture and whatnot. Amazing. What if they were wealthy in America? What would they accomplish then?

(somehow, this reminded me of a time, during freshman orientation, when I went to a restaurant in Austin and saw an entire family of goths. Mom, Dad, and three kids, all dressed in all black. How do those kids rebel? Going to the gap (thanks south park))

Long way from home

Just saw a guy in a donkey-pulled cart in a left turn lane 200m from the central train station in the capital of Bulgaria, an EU nation capital. I need to go to India.

The triumphant return of music videos

Well, it's 530 am and I'm waiting on a minibus to take me to Berat, to work at the hostel there. But don't worry! I have Albanian/Turkish music videos to entertain me. I'm not sure what it is that makes the videos so entertaining--the closeups on horn solos, the super shiny shirts, the male lead singers who are inevitably a bit pudgy. Maybe it's the saxophone solo done by the Jonah hill Albanian twin. Or maybe it's the George bush look alike singer who's fond of pleated pants and tie clips. But really, how much more ridiculous is it than American singers in denim vests and suspenders? Oh, and yes the videos do feature cuties dancing.

BUMP BUMP

I don't like routine--I like rhythm, the music of life humming to the beat of weekly events, yes, even tv shows. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday bump bump bump bump bump tsts Tcha. Dinners with friends, weekly lunches, fish wrap Fridays, twofer Tuesdays.

The upside of a hangover

Being hungover isn't pleasant--but I still like it sometimes, or at least find some small positive morsel in it. You can be so aware of what's right in front of you, because you actually can't physically take your eyes off of whatever it is--your hands, the blanket, the ceiling. I swear I’ve stared at my hands for 15 minutes before. Really, there’s a lot to see.

On Bulgaria

Bulgaria is a super interesting country, full of nice people, cool soviet relics, and a beautiful mountainous countryside, which was loaded with trees changing color when I went through it. However, I had my first negative experience with HelpX.

I was in a small village (Voditsa) working at a family's house that's run as a campsite/hostel during the summer months. I was doing a variety of odd jobs around the property, like building a fence and shelling walnuts. The village was nice, and the work was alright, but I really didn't get along with the boss, and it got quite cold there (note the snow), and the combination of the weather and the boss got to me. I had planned to stay for three weeks, but I ended up leaving after one, and luckily I got the opportunity to work at a hostel in Albania, where I am right now, happy and warm and getting to socialize with guests. I'll post more on the hostel later.

I think if I had been in Bulgaria in summer or spring, I may have enjoyed myself, or maybe if I just had more time to get along with the boss. But I'm only in Europe for so long, and I didn't want to spend another two weeks unhappy, so I left. The boss took it pretty well, and I'm glad I left early.

I spent a couple days in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, after leaving the village, and I rather enjoyed just wandering around, taking in the city that was somewhat western, but somewhat soviet. The English graffiti was interesting (as above on the main shopping street), and the cheap street food was hard to beat. More photos here.

I then took a bus to Skopje, Macedonia, where I had an afternoon to kill walking around the city, and then headed to the hostel in Albania. I'll be here for another 3 or 4 weeks, then hit up Greece, Turkey, and head home for the holidays (and to finish my applications to grad school).

Italy!

I've been in Italy since October 3rd, and it's been great. I'll do this in reverse chronological order! I just arrived in Milan, where I will be catching a flight to Bulgaria, where I will be working on a farm/campsite for a few weeks. I most recently spent 2 days in the Cinque Terre, which is a stretch of coast with five villages connected by trails. Above is Manarola, where I stayed in a lovely hostel.

I joined my friend Megan (middle), who worked in Scotland with me, and her friend Emily, and we also made a new friend, Ruben, who was pretty much a Belgian version of my old ultimate frisbee captain, Jeff Loskorn (aka DJ). We spent one day hiking the five villages (about 5-6 hours one end to the other), which included walks through vineyards, olive groves, wild areas smelling of wild herbs, and gorgeous cliff views. We ended the day by going down to the water for a swim with "cliff diving" aka jumping off of 12-foot boulders and doing cannonballs. Also included: delicious lasagna and gelato.

Yesterday, we hiked to Porto Venere, which is further down the coast. The hike was quite incredible--everything from clifftop churches to pine forests to stunning views of marble cliffs. Around the corner of Porto Venere is this place nicknamed Lord Byron's Grotto, I think because he tried to land a ship there once (the descriptive plaque was pretty beat up). There are marble cliffs on three sides, a cave, two castles, and blue, blue water. We went for a nice dip before catching the boat back. For dinner -- walnut ravioli and local white wine. You can view my other photos here.

Before Cinque Terre, I went to Florence (by myself). I loved the Renaissance feel of the city, and I had gelato which definitely is in my top 10 desserts of all time. Seeing Michelangelo's David was spectacular, and so was the Uffizi museum.

I had one lovely evening where I went up to the Piazza Michelangelo and watched the sun set over the city.

Before Florence, I spent three days in Rome with my good friend from high school Alexandra Gloria. We had a blast. We saw the Coliseum, the Roman forum, a bunch of churches, the Pope, the Vatican, and an ancient city outside of Rome, Ostia Antica. I most enjoyed the Sistene Chapel, St. Peter's, and Ostia Antica. You can see my photos from Florence and Rome here (you'll have to scroll down past some photos from the UK).

Rome was great, but I think I would go back to Florence and Cinque Terre first (CT especially). All in all -- a great trip. Next stop: Bulgaria.

Goodbye Wiston, hello London

Alright folks, the nearly month-long post drought is over. Last week I left Wiston Lodge after a month there. It was a great month, and I'll have a lot of good memories.

From Wiston, I took a bus to Aberdeen, which is a very cool city, with loads of interesting granite buildings. I had about two hours there (enough to walk most of downtown) before catching an overnight ferry to the Shetland Islands, the northernmost part of the UK. Shetland is renowned for beautiful shorelines, geology, and archaeology. I spent a couple days hiking the sea shore (pictured above) and visited a 4000-year old archaeology site.

Above is a tombolo, a sand and shell beach connecting two pieces of land. You walk across the beach from the mainland to get on this island inhabited only by sheep. The weather was pretty incredible too (although windy).

I had originally planned to spend a few more days there, but most of the lodging on the outer isles was already closed for winter, so I decided to go ahead and go to London, where I am now.

I've just been walking around the city a ton and bingeing on museums, which are free (!) here. Yesterday, I went to the British Museum (home of the Rosetta Stone and a bajillion other cool things), the National Gallery (home to a pretty exhaustive collection of western art from 1300-1900), and the national portrait gallery, which has, well, a lot of portraits, some of which are pretty cool.

I also ran across this little gem:

Yes I ate there, and yes it was good.

I head to Rome on Monday. After that...who knows!

some pictures of the grounds at Wiston Lodge

Yesterday, the weather was spectacular. 60 degrees and sunny. I went around the grounds and took some pictures. I'll put a few of the best on here; you can see the rest on facebook. Above is a picture of a large parachute which you can build fires under. the parachute billows and inflates when the fire heats up the air. I've been finding my time here to be almost a summer vacation type thing. It's allowing me to seriously recharge my batteries, and I'll be plenty well rested by the time I start traveling in earnest again.

The Lodge is surrounded by 50 acres of lush forest. Here's a nice example, with a bridge over a creek.

Behind the lodge is Tinto Hill, which would probably be a mountain in central Texas. It's a nice trip for the afternoon, if the weather is nice.

A cool lock.

Songs of the Summer

I've got some tunes that'll stand out from this summer, and here they are. They all happen to be from Charlie. He and his friends run a music blog, relentlessly easy.

first, My Favorite, a mixtape by Blalock. 20 minutes of awesome.
Down in the Valley by the Head and the Heart. Great song, that album has other gems too.
You Yes You by  by tUnE-yArDs. Proving that even bands with dumb capitalization can make awesome music. This live version is definitely worth a watch.
WHALE by Yellow Ostrich.

And, special bonus from summer 2010: It was a good day by Ice Cube. Gotta balance out all that indie with something, and this song= good times.

Catchphrases and Texans

The more observationally astute of my readers might have noticed that the title of this blog is "Witty Catchphrase," in reference to my love of catchphrases. Por ejemplo, here are the big ones from 2010: Don't fight it, Man's gotta eat, Fire up the grill, Cute face, Go big or go home, Give the people what they want.

It's been a dark few months for new catchphrases. In Barcelona, we had "that dog'll hunt," as in, "that'll work." It was best served with a big ol' Texas accent. Unfortunately, after then, I've been severely lacking in catchphrases. I've had two relatively weak catchphrases: "&*!#@$ nettles," in reference to stinging nettles, which were the bane of my existence for two weeks on the farm, and "Europe, man," which was used a lot when traveling with Flo and Caroline (the Austrians). "Europe, man" was always quite funny, but it died after a week. However, all is not lost.

Before I came to Europe, I was expecting to be greeted by a bunch of America haters, and especially a bunch of Texas haters. Imagine my surprise when I met person after person who loved Texans! I don't think I have had a single person be rude to me because I'm from Texas (perhaps because I haven't traveled to France?). Even though I haven't been finding many new catchphrases, I've been spreading the good news of "yeee-up," "ain't," and "ma'am." I don't really consider myself to have much of an accent, but I'm enjoying dropping a bit of a drawl every now and then.

Reflections on my four kinds of travel

The travel that I've done since June roughly falls into four categories: backpacking, study abroad, activities-based, and volunteering. I'll elaborate a little on each. Who knows, maybe this will help somebody down the road.

Backpacking: this is your standard hostel-to-hostel trip. It's a good way to stay in places on the cheap, you meet a lot of young people, and you can see a lot in a relatively short trip. Charlie and I did Madrid, Switzerland, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, and Brussels in hostels, and we had a great time. However, we met mostly fellow travelers, which included some very cool people and great times, but it got a little tiring after a while, and it didn't feel like anything near experiencing another culture, just seeing the main sights.

Study Abroad: we spent four weeks in Barcelona. The city was great, but I didn't quite get as much out of it as I did when I did 6 weeks of study in Argentina, which I largely attribute to the program (IES), which didn't really do anything to help us meet local students. With only 4 weeks, our time was quite limited. I would say that study abroad is a really great way to make friends, get to know a place, and learn a language, but on this trip, it wasn't quite perfect.

Activities-based. For me, this was playing in ultimate frisbee tournaments. This was incredibly fun. It was an easy way to meet locals, who gave me a place to stay or helped show me around their city. My friend Travis Martin (aka T-Money) basically played in ultimate tournaments through Europe for his summer vacation (with some good old fashioned tourism thrown in). These tournaments usually included camping and food, so they ended up being a good deal money-wise versus staying in a hostel, especially when you throw in meeting locals who can give you a place to stay. Apparently some tournaments let you volunteer a few hours of work for a free entry fee. I'll definitely look to see what other tournaments I can play this fall, and I think I'll come back to Europe one day for another summer of ultimate.

Volunteering: Currently on my second stint of volunteering through HelpX. This is a great way to see cool places, learn interesting skills, and stretch the money while traveling. You put in 4-7 hours of work and receive room and board. Most places looking for volunteers are farms and hostels/hotels, but there's all sorts of things. I've seen a pinball machine salesman looking for someone to assist him as he drives around Spain, a man in Egypt looking for a tutor for his son, and a buddhist cafe looking for baristas.

My education and work so far in my life hasn't really included busing tables or cleaning toilets or chopping wood, so it's good to get a little background in these sorts of really basic things. HelpX, I think, could be really useful to people looking to take some time off. It'd be easy and cheap to spend 3 months in a hostel in Costa Rica or a dairy farm in Germany, if you have the time and want to get away.

In the future, I'd like to try my hand at CouchSurfing, and hopefully geology will continue to give me opportunities to travel as part of my job.

So Ted, what've you been reading this summer?

Great question, Mr. Blog. My summer's entertainment MVP has to go to my Amazon Kindle (graduation present from Mom and Dad, thanks!).

It feels just like reading a book (apparently there's some kewl technology involved), so I have no problem reading for six hours on a train ride, which wouldn't be feasible on a computer (headache and brain melt), and it's much easier to carry around the complete Game of Thrones series on the kindle than in my backpack.

Paid Amazon product placement over: time to get to the actual books I've been reading. First, the non-fiction.

Highly recommended: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. This book tells the stories of ultra-marathoners and a lost tribe of super-duper long distance running Indians in Mexico, but at the same time, it turns conventional running wisdom on its head. McDougall argues convincingly that the solution to our nagging running injuries is a return to barefoot (or near-barefoot) running, rather than more expensive orthopedics. His modern-day studies and examples (Roger Bannister ran the 4-minute mile training with not much more than a piece of rubber between his feet and the track) combine well with a telling of our evolutionary history as marathon-running predators.

Recommended: Those Guys Have All the Fun by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. An oral history of ESPN? Aw yeah. For someone who loves ESPN, this interesting history of ESPN was quite entertaining. The beginning of the book is great, and the middle section is pretty good, but the end of the book starts flagging when it transitions from the story of a growing business to an account of pretty much every controversial thing that happened at ESPN over the last ten years. Hearing about every time an ESPN anchor said something he had to apologize for wasn't quite as entertaining as the rest.

annnnnd now: FICTION.


Highly recommended: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. AWESOME book. It's a slightly fantastical tale about a dude and his lost cat, his love life, and the Manchurian War. The whole movement of the story is good, but a few individual scenes (the Lieutenant's Manchukuo stories and the dream sequences) really push this one over the top. This book reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, another of my favorite authors, with its own style of magical realism. 


Highly recommended if you have loads of free time to kill: the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin (now a major HBO TV program!!!!). The series is technically called "a Song of Fire and Ice," but now that the HBO series has started, everyone will know it as Game of Thrones. Plus Game of Thrones is a much cooler title to begin with. The first three books are awesome: fast-paced, war, incest, etc. etc. Big things happen to compelling characters. Things stall in the fourth book when the focus shifts to two boring things: court intrigue and running around in the countryside away from or with bandits. However, the fourth and fifth books are still good, just not as mind-blowingly awesome as the previous ones. I have high hopes for the rest of the series.



I read some other books, but those are the ones that made the final cut of greatness. One final note: in an effort to make myself blog/write more, I will be doing one blog post each of the next four days. Even if it's just a picture of me sticking my tongue out at you, I will have four more posts.

back in Scotland

Hello intrepid readers, I am currently at the wonderful Wiston Lodge in southern Scotland (picture from their website). This is another place I found through Help Exchange, and I'm really enjoying it here. The lodge is on a very beautiful 50 acre wooded property, the work isn't strenuous, and the food is good. There are about 10 other staff and volunteers who live on the property, and most are British, though there is a girl from France and also one from Taiwan.

My basic schedule is 7 hours a day, 4 days a week, though that 7 hours includes lunch and a couple breaks. Two days a week I do housekeeping, the other two is either work outdoors or with the groups doing various activities. So far, I've done houseekeeping and grounds work. I have three days off in a row next week, so I'm planning to go on a little trip, but I haven't decided where yet. The possibilities: Glasgow, the far north, northern highlands. I'm thinking of going to the far north (beautiful scenery, loads of ancient viking sights to see) because it will be getting colder soon!

The Lodge is a charity that mainly does work with "at-risk" children. They do various activities with the kids that mostly consist of outdoors sorts of things. There's a ropes course, a canoe lake, fire starting, bridge building, those sorts of things. I haven't helped with any activities yet, but I think I will be a bit next week, which should interesting.

Also, I have now loaded more pictures onto facebook, which you all should be able to view: PICS

Belgium: the stakes have been raised

Spoiler alert: this story includes homemade wine, police, and lots of waffles.

Charlie and I left the farm last Friday and went into Brussels. It's a cool city--multicultural and very friendly. That weekend, we had an ultimate frisbee tournament where all the teams camped out at the fields. There was a party friday night, delicious food all day friday, a beer race that Charlie's team won on Friday (because the actual beer drinking was secondary), and more games on Sunday. Charlie's team won the tournament and mine got last!

Belgium is awesome: their specialties are beer (most delicious I've ever had), waffles (ditto), fries (double ditto) and chocolate (yum). After the tournament, we went to a music festival with a Belgian/Mexican couple we met at the tournament, and then the next day we grabbed some beers with a bunch of Belgian frisbee players. Tuesday night we spent at the parents' house of two of the frisbee players. They cooked Thai food with vegetables from their own garden and served us wine made by their grandfather in Italy. It was an idyllic house in the countryside that was mostly built by the father. We traveled there with some Austrians who we met at the tournament, and we have been road tripping with them since. Our goal: Amsterdam by Friday night (left Brussels on Tuesday).

Wednesday night we decided to try "wild camping," which may be mildly illegal. After having a picnic dinner in Ghent, we pulled off the highway and found a secluded little area. We set up our tent and played a German card game, then went to sleep. At 8:30 the next morning, I hear some people talking, then hear "bon jour, guten morgen, hello." our tent gets zipped open, and eight (!) Belgian police officers are staring at us in the face. We give them our passports and pack up our tent. The nice lady police officer tells us we're not in big trouble, but we were still sweating it a bit. After heading back to the car, they just say, "don't do it again, and have a nice day. By the way, do you need driving directions to Brugge?"

The answer was no, we knew how to get there, but thanks a bunch! It was good luck for us, but reflected really well on the Belgian police. Next, we went to Brugge, had another delicious waffle, then drove up the coast. We had a little picnic on a beach in the Netherlands. Afterwards, we found some wifi and decided that we wanted to stay legally in a building that night. Hostels in Amsterdam run at about 30 euros (45 dollars) a night, but we found a hotel just outside of the city for a little bit cheaper, so the two Austrians and us are staying in a hotel room and living it large tonight. Tomorrow we go into Amsteradam to play another camping ultimate tournament this weekend.

Finally, a little about the Austrians. We're traveling with a boyfriend and girlfiend, Flo and Caroline. They're both 23 and super chill. It turns out that Flo had already hosted one of my best friends Travis Martin after they met at a tournament a month ago in Hungary. Small world. Charlie leaves on Monday, and I go to Scotland to work at Wiston Lodge for a month.

working in Belgium!

Charlie and I've been working on a vegetable farm in Belgium for three days. It's been pretty nice so far: hard work 7 am - 1pm, then munching hard, then nap, then dinner, then chill with the other workers, then sleep. The farm is organic, and most of our work has been weeding in various variations: with this rolling wheel thing, with a hoe, with a different hoe, by hand. Yesterday we also harvested some gherkins (yes they're not just tiny cucumbers).  The farm is run as a CSA -- community supported agriculture. The members of the CSA receive a box with some delicious assorted vegetables each week. 

A few observations:

After having my hands in the dirt all day, I now truly understand the meaning of "scrub up." Someone once told me, "you're a white collar worker if you wash your hands after the restroom. You're a blue collar worker if you wash your hands before going to the restroom.

Organic farming is hard work. 

Raw zucchini is better than cucumber (what now cucumber lovers)

quick update--Madrid, Pamplona, Toledo

Hey yall, unfortunately I don´t have time for a full post with pictures and everything. I finished up my studies in Barcelona. The class ended with a whimper, as our teacher is pregnant and got sick and was unable to teach the last classes, so we just took a quiz then our exam. On the whole, my time in Barcelona was really fun, but it felt more like 4 weeks of extended tourism with some Spanish classes thrown in, rather than a true study abroad. I didn´t really meet any locals, but that´s ok. My Spanish did improve, and I had a great time taking in one of the greatest cities in the world.

We (me, my brother, and some friends from the spanish program) left Barcelona and headed to Madrid. Our first day there, we mostly recovered, but also did some walking through the city center, which is very cool. Then, we went to Pamplona, for the San Fermin Festival, which includes the running of the bulls. Charlie and I both ran with the bulls, which was great. It was over before we knew it, and we were never within 6 feet of any of the bulls, so I didn´t feel like I was ever in danger. The whole festival was a lot of fun, a great party.ç

Yesterday we went to Toledo, which is a medieval city outside of Madrid. Very neat city. Pictures soon, hopefully (at least a facebook album link).

Tomorrow we are going to a 4 day music festival, FIB http://fiberfib.com/
It should be a ton of fun. Afterwards, we are flying to Switzerland, then off to Berlin, then to the low countries.

Hopefully after my hikes I have some energy left to make some sweet detailed posts, but no commitment or anything!

Blues bands in castles and magical fountains and picturesque beachtowns, oh my!

Featured this week: more sights! Above, the "magical fountain," a beautiful lights/fountain display that changes with classical music every Thursday and Saturday night. The real life equivalent of music visualizers. Awesome. 

We also finally visited la Sagrada Familia, the church that Gaudi designed. Parts of it were tacky (for example, "Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus" on the bell towers of one of the facades), but on the whole, I was supremely impressed by the building. My favorite part was the facade with the stations of the cross done in a sort of cubist sculptural style. Very powerful. The interior was also breathtaking:

 

We also visited the MNAC, the national museum of Catalan art. They had some very cool stuff, including the piece above with two zombie-looking smiling corpses.

Saturday Charlie and I went to Sitges, a beautiful beach community, and Saturday night, we went to a huge free music festival at Montjuic, where we listened to a blues band in a castle, among other things. They sounded remarkably American.

Seeing sights in Barcelona

Things in Barcelona have continued to be awesome. We did a bunch of sightseeing around Barcelona last week: Parc Guell, FC Barcelona football stadium, Montjuic, Montserrat (pictured above), Barrio Gotico, plus went to the beach and went out at night. Oh, and today is my birthday: 23, or the second anniversary of my 21st birthday, as my friend Jen likes to say. Pictures and tales of adventures below the jump. If you want to see a lot of photos, check out my album on facebook. I believe I've set it to be public, but comment below if it's not. Right now it is pretty incomplete, but more should be loaded soon. 

The good times continue

It's been a great week, with visits to Parc Guell (by Gaudi), Montjuic, the soccer stadium, and the beach. Tonight is St. John's festival, a huge summer solstice celebration. Tomorrow we have off, so I may just have a chance to post some photos.

Visit to Rupit

Yesterday we visited the medieval village (now tourist village) of Rupit, which is two hours north of Barcelona by Bus. The city was pretty cool, but the huge cliffs surrounding it were even cooler. 

We spent about half an hour walking around the city, and then we headed out for a long (but not super strenuous) hike. Pictures after the jump.

What a night!

We don't have Friday classes, so last night we went out to take in some nightlife right by the sea. I didn't take my camera, but the girls did (as usual), so I have taken the liberty of snagging a few of their photos from facebook. 

There's a string of bars/clubs/discos by the beach. The first place we went into had very expensive drinks and lots of dudes in their 30s wearing sports coats, so we left and chilled on the beach for a while. Lots of guys walk around selling beers for 1 Euro each, so we bought a few and just chilled for a while. The moon was full, the temperature was 68 degrees, and it was paradise. 

Eventually, we found a few pretty cool places (lasers included for free). We had some fun times dancing, then we went and chilled on the beach for a little while longer, then caught the metro when it reopened at 5 (late night, yes indeed), caught the sunrise, then slept hard. Tomorrow, we're going on a little field trip out to the village of Rupit. Apparently we'll get to do some hiking and eat some good food.

Hello, Barcelona!

Well, I've now been in Barcelona since Tuesday, and it has been a blast so far. The wifi (pronounced "wee-fee") is now set up in our house, and now I have an adaptor for my computer charger, so expect more posts now!

We're in a homestay with a lovely grandmother widow who loves to talk and can really cook. Charlie and I have a room to ourselves, with our own private balcony, from which the photo above was taken. We're taking class at the IES center in the city center. Our class is pretty good, and our teacher seems like she'll be great over the next month.

Two days ago we went on a tour of "modernisme," the Art Nouveau architectural movement in Barcelona from around the turn of the 20th century. Pictures after the break

Goodbye, Austin

Well folks, I have now officially left Austin. I am at home in San Antonio now, and on Monday, I fly to Barcelona. I'll be doing four weeks of study abroad, and then I'll travel through Europe until mid-December. I'll be making plenty of posts on here to keep yall updated on what I'm doing, and I may throw in a "thinking piece" every now and then as well.

If you're wondering about the title of this blog, I originally wanted to call it "Ted's Excellent Adventures," but then I found out it's been done before. Then I thought, well, what about "that dog'll hunt," or "don't fight it," or "ain't no thang," or "man gotta eat." But really, why name it after a single catchphrase when in three weeks I'll be onto the next one? Entonces, "Witty Catchphrase" it is.