Flamenco guitarist...
One of the smaller cathedrals in MADRID
The famous Prado Art Museum
The Palacio Real or Royal Palace in MADRID
Don Quixote and his sidekick Pancho...
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Pictures from MADRID, SPAIN
Flamenco guitarist...
One of the smaller cathedrals in MADRID
The famous Prado Art Museum
The Palacio Real or Royal Palace in MADRID
Don Quixote and his sidekick Pancho...
Madrid and Home
Well, to all of my fellow reader-travelers, I must sadly inform you all that my incredible European travel adventure has come to an end... After 3 months of traveling around Europe I arrived back in the United States on November 8th.
The experience was simply amazing! I met and visited incredible people; saw beautiful landscapes, buildings, and art; learned about diverse and interesting cultures and histories; listened to, learned, and spoke or at least attempted to speak different languages; ate great food and drank well; and learned more about myself, Europe, and the world.
While it would still be nice to be "on the road" and traveling around, I have to admit that it is nice to be home, be with family and friends, and sleep in my own bed... Traveling for 3 months while living out of a backpack, changing beds every few nights, and trying to navigate foreign lands and languages was beginning to become a bit tiring, both physically and mentally... However, I would not not give up the experiences of the past 3 months for anything. It all was truly priceless....
Before we depart from our "travels" together I am going to recap my final days in Madrid, Spain and then briefly address what is on the horizon...
Madrid is a great cultural city with a interesting mix of old and new. After the end of Civil War and the death of Franco, the new Spain embraced the opportunity to forge a new identity which includes its royal and powerful past and its new and modern identity.
I spent a great deal of time in art museums: the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Reina Sofia. In my opinion, Madrid may have some of the best art and art collections in all of Europe. Some of the well known works I saw were by Velazquez and Goya (both Spanish painters), El Greco (claimed by the Spanish but he really was Greek), Botticelli, van Dyck, Durer, Bruegel and Bosch. Some of the more modern artists were Picasso (I saw his famous "Guernica"), Salvador Dali, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Hopper, Pollock and Rothko among many other famous and lesser-known artists...
Unlike Barcelona, Madrid had more of a "Spanish" feel to it. I wandered around the city and saw sights such as Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real (Royal Palace), Parque Del Buen Retiro, the Templo de Debod and Centro del Sol which marks Kilometer 0 and is the starting point of 6 national highways and from which all distances are measured from in Spain .
I had some very tasty tapas and other traditional or local dishes at a restaurant near my hostel and of course I sampled the local cervezas or canas (beer).
My time in Madrid was very relaxing and a good way to wrap up my travels. On November 8th I left Madrid and flew to Dublin where I changed planes and after a 8.5 hour flight landed in Chicago where my lovely parents were waiting for me.
So what is next for me? Well, as my mother correctly likes to say: "You can take the boy out of Wisconsin, but you can't take Wisconsin out of the boy!" She is right... I look forward to spending the upcoming holidays catching up with family and friends and sharing my experiences from my trip. I will also be taking some time to get out into the woods and hunt. Hunting will provide ample time for me to think about and process my trip experiences as well as give me time to think about the future (I typically spend between 6-8 hours a day sitting in the woods watching trees, squirrels, and little birds, providing me with hours of prime "thinking" time). Shortly after the New Year I hope to find a job so that I can start "contributing to society" and finally enter the "real world."
That's about it for now... Don't be too depressed yet though. This will not be my last blog post. I plan to have one more concluding/summary post within the next few weeks to finalize my travels and experiences.
It was one incredible, once in a lifetime adventure and I hope you enjoyed following along and being a part of it!
Take care and Happy Thanksgiving!
NPL
P.S. See above for pictures from Madrid!
The experience was simply amazing! I met and visited incredible people; saw beautiful landscapes, buildings, and art; learned about diverse and interesting cultures and histories; listened to, learned, and spoke or at least attempted to speak different languages; ate great food and drank well; and learned more about myself, Europe, and the world.
While it would still be nice to be "on the road" and traveling around, I have to admit that it is nice to be home, be with family and friends, and sleep in my own bed... Traveling for 3 months while living out of a backpack, changing beds every few nights, and trying to navigate foreign lands and languages was beginning to become a bit tiring, both physically and mentally... However, I would not not give up the experiences of the past 3 months for anything. It all was truly priceless....
Before we depart from our "travels" together I am going to recap my final days in Madrid, Spain and then briefly address what is on the horizon...
Madrid is a great cultural city with a interesting mix of old and new. After the end of Civil War and the death of Franco, the new Spain embraced the opportunity to forge a new identity which includes its royal and powerful past and its new and modern identity.
I spent a great deal of time in art museums: the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Reina Sofia. In my opinion, Madrid may have some of the best art and art collections in all of Europe. Some of the well known works I saw were by Velazquez and Goya (both Spanish painters), El Greco (claimed by the Spanish but he really was Greek), Botticelli, van Dyck, Durer, Bruegel and Bosch. Some of the more modern artists were Picasso (I saw his famous "Guernica"), Salvador Dali, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Hopper, Pollock and Rothko among many other famous and lesser-known artists...
Unlike Barcelona, Madrid had more of a "Spanish" feel to it. I wandered around the city and saw sights such as Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real (Royal Palace), Parque Del Buen Retiro, the Templo de Debod and Centro del Sol which marks Kilometer 0 and is the starting point of 6 national highways and from which all distances are measured from in Spain .
I had some very tasty tapas and other traditional or local dishes at a restaurant near my hostel and of course I sampled the local cervezas or canas (beer).
My time in Madrid was very relaxing and a good way to wrap up my travels. On November 8th I left Madrid and flew to Dublin where I changed planes and after a 8.5 hour flight landed in Chicago where my lovely parents were waiting for me.
So what is next for me? Well, as my mother correctly likes to say: "You can take the boy out of Wisconsin, but you can't take Wisconsin out of the boy!" She is right... I look forward to spending the upcoming holidays catching up with family and friends and sharing my experiences from my trip. I will also be taking some time to get out into the woods and hunt. Hunting will provide ample time for me to think about and process my trip experiences as well as give me time to think about the future (I typically spend between 6-8 hours a day sitting in the woods watching trees, squirrels, and little birds, providing me with hours of prime "thinking" time). Shortly after the New Year I hope to find a job so that I can start "contributing to society" and finally enter the "real world."
That's about it for now... Don't be too depressed yet though. This will not be my last blog post. I plan to have one more concluding/summary post within the next few weeks to finalize my travels and experiences.
It was one incredible, once in a lifetime adventure and I hope you enjoyed following along and being a part of it!
Take care and Happy Thanksgiving!
NPL
P.S. See above for pictures from Madrid!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Photos
Miki (my Italian brother) and I in ROME, ITALY
Trevi Fountain, ROME, ITALY
The Colosseum, ROME, ITALY
St. Peter's, VATICAN CITY
Coastal view of NICE, FRANCE
BARCELONA, SPAIN
Example of Antoni Gaudi's work in BARCELONA
Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia in BARCELONA
Entrance to the "whimsical" Parc Guell in BARCELONA
Emily and I in TALAVERA DE LA REINA, SPAIN. Never too far from home...
View of the mountains from TALAVERA DE LA REINA
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Arrivederci Roma, Hola Espana!
Hola from Talavera de la Reina, Spain! I've covered a lot of ground in the last week so there is quite a bit to update you all on...
But before I dive into the post I would like to encourage all of my readers who are US citizens to vote on November 4th. I voted last week at the American Embassy in Rome, Italy. I've had to go through quite a bit to be able to exercise my right to vote (sign up for an absentee ballot, find a location in Italy to have the ballot faxed to, travel to Rome to vote, and then send the ballot back to the US in time to be counted for the election...) so if you are able to this Tuesday, please go VOTE!
Ok, let's get rolling.... After Salerno I traveled to Rome with Miki where I spent 3 days with him exploring the city. My visit and stay in Rome was very laid back and relaxed as I have seen the city before but I saw all of the "sights": the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castel D'Angelo, the Colosseum, the "wedding cake" monument Vittorio Emanuele II, te Spanish Steps, Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica and many other places. One Saturday in Rome we ran into a national protest or "Manifestazione" of the center-left party against Berlusconi's conservative party. It was estimated that there were almost 2 million people who converged on Circus Maximus to protest and Miki and I found ourselves in the middle of it all! It was an interesting experience and a great display of democracy in action even though the protest will have little to no influence in producing change. Better to try than to not try at all...
From Rome I took a train to Nice(Niece), France which was a long day of traveling (10 hours on trains) with a lot of distance covered. The weather was not the greatest but the views along the Ligurian coast in Italy were great. I arrived in Nice quite late a night but managed to find a hostel and get some much needed sleep. The next day (my only day in Nice) I spent it walking, people watching, and catching some sun on the Promenade des Anglais before it began to rain. My short visit to Nice was basically a day of rest during my travels from Rome to Barcelona, Spain as Nice is roughly a half-way point between Rome and Barcelona.
The next day I spent approximately 12 hours on numerous trains to get to Barcelona. I arrived very late at night/early in the morning and went directly to bed. I must say, Barcelona is a great city! While it is in Spain, Barcelona is not "Spain", it is in Catalunya a region that has a unique and independent identity from the rest of Spain. Because of this Catalan identity people in Barcelona speak Catalan which is a mix of Spanish and a variation of French; it is a very interesting sounding language... The weather was not the best during my visit but I tried my best to make the best of my time. I explored Las Ramblas which is a 1 kilometer long stretch of road bulging with pedestrians, flower vendors, street performers and more; I wandered the Barri Gotic neighborhood which is a winding maze of unique old buildings; I climbed Montjuic which is a hilly area in the southeast of the city that has impressive views of the sea and Barcelona, a neat castle and is also where the '92 summer Olympics Stadium is located. The majority of the remaining sights I saw were designed and or built by Antoni Gaudi who was a well known architect and designer from Barcelona who came to fame in the 1870's. His creations are very whimsical and are made entirley out of concrete and tile/mosaic. His most famous creation is La Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral that is still under construction and is not expected to be completed until 2026 or so. I believe construction started on it in the late 1870's... A long time. I also saw Gaudi's homes in La Manza de la Discordia, his Palau Guell, and his impressive and imaginative works in Parc Guell. What I really like about Gaudi's works is that at first glance they look like they are melting or very old, but when you look closely at the buildings' facades you discover creations and sculptures that emerge from seemingly nothing.
Barcelona is an incredible city with a relaxed, Bohemian vibe and a very multicultural and diverse population. I did not know what to think before arriving in Barcelona but I really enjoyed my time in the city and would recommend it to anyone looking for a exciting and interesting travel destination.
From Barcelona I traveled by high-speed train to Madrid and then on to Talavera de la Reina which is located south west of Madrid in central Spain. The train reached speeds of 300km/hr or 186 miles per hour! The landscape and countryside were incredibly beautiful! I think some of the best scenery on my trip (in competition with the Irish and Scotish landscapes). The landscape was very diverse with interesting contours, areas of broad, flat plains that then rose up in to large mountains or dropped away in to rugged canyons. There were very few towns but the towns I saw blended in with the hills they were perched on thanks to their stone construction and muted, earthy colors.
A good friend from high school, Emily, met me at the train station in Talavera. Emily is teaching English language at an elementary school in the city on a grant from the Spanish Government. It is great seeing Emily again and I will visit her until the middle of this week before moving on. Talavera is a small city of approximately 84,000 people and is well known for ceramics. The region around Talavera de la Reina is where Miquel Cervantes based his novel "Don Quixote" and when I was on the train I could easily imagine Don Quixote riding his horse across the countryside. Emily's apartment also has great views of distant snow capped mountains.
Well that is a brief overview of the past week's travels. I am continually amazed at the things I see and learn while traveling and feel very fortunate to have this amazing opportunity. From Talavera I will next travel to Madrid.
Adios y vaya con Dios,
NPL
P.S. Go Vote!
But before I dive into the post I would like to encourage all of my readers who are US citizens to vote on November 4th. I voted last week at the American Embassy in Rome, Italy. I've had to go through quite a bit to be able to exercise my right to vote (sign up for an absentee ballot, find a location in Italy to have the ballot faxed to, travel to Rome to vote, and then send the ballot back to the US in time to be counted for the election...) so if you are able to this Tuesday, please go VOTE!
Ok, let's get rolling.... After Salerno I traveled to Rome with Miki where I spent 3 days with him exploring the city. My visit and stay in Rome was very laid back and relaxed as I have seen the city before but I saw all of the "sights": the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castel D'Angelo, the Colosseum, the "wedding cake" monument Vittorio Emanuele II, te Spanish Steps, Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica and many other places. One Saturday in Rome we ran into a national protest or "Manifestazione" of the center-left party against Berlusconi's conservative party. It was estimated that there were almost 2 million people who converged on Circus Maximus to protest and Miki and I found ourselves in the middle of it all! It was an interesting experience and a great display of democracy in action even though the protest will have little to no influence in producing change. Better to try than to not try at all...
From Rome I took a train to Nice(Niece), France which was a long day of traveling (10 hours on trains) with a lot of distance covered. The weather was not the greatest but the views along the Ligurian coast in Italy were great. I arrived in Nice quite late a night but managed to find a hostel and get some much needed sleep. The next day (my only day in Nice) I spent it walking, people watching, and catching some sun on the Promenade des Anglais before it began to rain. My short visit to Nice was basically a day of rest during my travels from Rome to Barcelona, Spain as Nice is roughly a half-way point between Rome and Barcelona.
The next day I spent approximately 12 hours on numerous trains to get to Barcelona. I arrived very late at night/early in the morning and went directly to bed. I must say, Barcelona is a great city! While it is in Spain, Barcelona is not "Spain", it is in Catalunya a region that has a unique and independent identity from the rest of Spain. Because of this Catalan identity people in Barcelona speak Catalan which is a mix of Spanish and a variation of French; it is a very interesting sounding language... The weather was not the best during my visit but I tried my best to make the best of my time. I explored Las Ramblas which is a 1 kilometer long stretch of road bulging with pedestrians, flower vendors, street performers and more; I wandered the Barri Gotic neighborhood which is a winding maze of unique old buildings; I climbed Montjuic which is a hilly area in the southeast of the city that has impressive views of the sea and Barcelona, a neat castle and is also where the '92 summer Olympics Stadium is located. The majority of the remaining sights I saw were designed and or built by Antoni Gaudi who was a well known architect and designer from Barcelona who came to fame in the 1870's. His creations are very whimsical and are made entirley out of concrete and tile/mosaic. His most famous creation is La Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral that is still under construction and is not expected to be completed until 2026 or so. I believe construction started on it in the late 1870's... A long time. I also saw Gaudi's homes in La Manza de la Discordia, his Palau Guell, and his impressive and imaginative works in Parc Guell. What I really like about Gaudi's works is that at first glance they look like they are melting or very old, but when you look closely at the buildings' facades you discover creations and sculptures that emerge from seemingly nothing.
Barcelona is an incredible city with a relaxed, Bohemian vibe and a very multicultural and diverse population. I did not know what to think before arriving in Barcelona but I really enjoyed my time in the city and would recommend it to anyone looking for a exciting and interesting travel destination.
From Barcelona I traveled by high-speed train to Madrid and then on to Talavera de la Reina which is located south west of Madrid in central Spain. The train reached speeds of 300km/hr or 186 miles per hour! The landscape and countryside were incredibly beautiful! I think some of the best scenery on my trip (in competition with the Irish and Scotish landscapes). The landscape was very diverse with interesting contours, areas of broad, flat plains that then rose up in to large mountains or dropped away in to rugged canyons. There were very few towns but the towns I saw blended in with the hills they were perched on thanks to their stone construction and muted, earthy colors.
A good friend from high school, Emily, met me at the train station in Talavera. Emily is teaching English language at an elementary school in the city on a grant from the Spanish Government. It is great seeing Emily again and I will visit her until the middle of this week before moving on. Talavera is a small city of approximately 84,000 people and is well known for ceramics. The region around Talavera de la Reina is where Miquel Cervantes based his novel "Don Quixote" and when I was on the train I could easily imagine Don Quixote riding his horse across the countryside. Emily's apartment also has great views of distant snow capped mountains.
Well that is a brief overview of the past week's travels. I am continually amazed at the things I see and learn while traveling and feel very fortunate to have this amazing opportunity. From Talavera I will next travel to Madrid.
Adios y vaya con Dios,
NPL
P.S. Go Vote!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Salerno and the Amalfi Coast
Ciao tutti! I have been in Salerno for just under two weeks now and it has been a great experience for me. I think my language skills have improved some and I know I have a better understanding of some aspects of Italian culture.
Some of the highlights during the past two weeks or so have been sailing along the Amalfi Coast which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Amalfi and Ravello, seeing Napoli (Naples), speaking Italian with Raffaele and Olga, and eating some of the best Italian food ever! Southern Italy is the birthplace of many of the most popular Italian cuisine dishes throughout the world. For example, the use of tomatoes and tomato sauce, certain types of pasta, and many seafood dishes all originated in Southern Italy and Napoli. And of course, I can not forget to mention la Pizza which was created in Napoli! It is perhaps one of the most well known Italian foods in the world, maybe only rivaling spaghetti... I have enjoyed eating pizza, pasta and seafood dishes such as: pasta with clams and mussels; fried anchovies; and octopus and squid. Delicious!
The sailing has been great and the weather has been just as good, 70-75°F during the day with sun and blue skies. Not bad for nearly November. I think I even have a little tan going...
One of the only things that I did not care for too much was my day trip to Napoli. While I didn't see any mafioso looking guys, well maybe one, or get lost under tons of garbage (the city has had a huge garbage problem for the last 2 years of so, due to the Mafia and the governments inability to respond), I found the city to be very busy, hectic, crowded, and not very clean. If you can look past all that and spend some decent time in the city, I am sure one would be able to appreciate and better understand the Neapolitan culture and lifestyle. Obviously for me, half a day was not enough time...
Tomorrow I leave for Rome where I will most likely post from next. La vita รจ bella (life is beautiful) and I am loving it!
Ciao,
NPL
Below are a few pictures:
View of Salerno
The beach at Vietri sul Mare
Sailing to Amalfi
One of the many little towns perched on the coast
AMALFI, ITALY
A garden in RAVELLO, ITALY
A view from NAPOLI, ITALY
Some of the highlights during the past two weeks or so have been sailing along the Amalfi Coast which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Amalfi and Ravello, seeing Napoli (Naples), speaking Italian with Raffaele and Olga, and eating some of the best Italian food ever! Southern Italy is the birthplace of many of the most popular Italian cuisine dishes throughout the world. For example, the use of tomatoes and tomato sauce, certain types of pasta, and many seafood dishes all originated in Southern Italy and Napoli. And of course, I can not forget to mention la Pizza which was created in Napoli! It is perhaps one of the most well known Italian foods in the world, maybe only rivaling spaghetti... I have enjoyed eating pizza, pasta and seafood dishes such as: pasta with clams and mussels; fried anchovies; and octopus and squid. Delicious!
The sailing has been great and the weather has been just as good, 70-75°F during the day with sun and blue skies. Not bad for nearly November. I think I even have a little tan going...
One of the only things that I did not care for too much was my day trip to Napoli. While I didn't see any mafioso looking guys, well maybe one, or get lost under tons of garbage (the city has had a huge garbage problem for the last 2 years of so, due to the Mafia and the governments inability to respond), I found the city to be very busy, hectic, crowded, and not very clean. If you can look past all that and spend some decent time in the city, I am sure one would be able to appreciate and better understand the Neapolitan culture and lifestyle. Obviously for me, half a day was not enough time...
Tomorrow I leave for Rome where I will most likely post from next. La vita รจ bella (life is beautiful) and I am loving it!
Ciao,
NPL
Below are a few pictures:
View of Salerno
The beach at Vietri sul Mare
Sailing to Amalfi
One of the many little towns perched on the coast
AMALFI, ITALY
A garden in RAVELLO, ITALY
A view from NAPOLI, ITALY
Le foto di Firenze (Florence, Italy)
Here are a few pictures from Florence, Italy...
View of the Duomo from my hostel room.
The Uffizi Gallery.
Me and Giambologna's "Rape of the Sabines", a sculptor and sculpture I did a project on at Lawrence University.
Ghiberti's famous "Gates of Paradise"
The Duomo and Giotto's Campanile (Bell Tower)
Tuscan Villa
View of Firenze
The Arno River and Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) at sunset
A beautiful vista at the end of an incredible day!
View of the Duomo from my hostel room.
The Uffizi Gallery.
Me and Giambologna's "Rape of the Sabines", a sculptor and sculpture I did a project on at Lawrence University.
Ghiberti's famous "Gates of Paradise"
The Duomo and Giotto's Campanile (Bell Tower)
Tuscan Villa
View of Firenze
The Arno River and Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) at sunset
A beautiful vista at the end of an incredible day!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Pictures from Vienna (Wien) and Milan (Milano)
La Scala Opera House by night...
"The Mid-West" in MILANO! [Mike(IL), Nate(WI), Alex(MN),Elena(IA)]
Il Duomo in MILANO, ITALY
Snowy view from my train in the Alps
INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA
Karlskirche, VIENNA
Hofburg Palace, VIENNA
Royal Facade in VIENNA
VIENNA, AUSTRIA at night
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