Watch us Run!

Our investigate teams found this video that shows the running from start to finish the day that Nithin and Mike ran with the bulls. If you look closely and in slow motion, you might be able to see us!

Click the photo below to see the video.

Take a Nissan if you want to be driven crazy

Ahhh road trips are a beautiful thing. Last week the 5 trippers rented two cars to embark on an epic journey from Granada, Spain, north to Bordeaux, France then south the San Sabastian and end in Pamplona.

We started off making very good time, we were a few hours ahead of scheduel driving through Valencia, stopping briefly for some Paella by the beach and walk along the coast for a few hours. The next morning we drove to a magical place tucked away in the Pyranees called Andorra. Andorra is a country tucked between Spain and France, which is probably unknown to many people due to the fact that it is one of the smallest countries in the world. The country basically consists of one freeway that is lined with electronic stores and a beautiful mountainous backdrop. All of these electronic stores seemed to have migrated to Andorra for many reasons. I hear electronics love the cool, dry climate, the nice people, and the fact that the Andorra government charges 0% tax on all electronics in the country. So after a lofty 6 hour visit to the country, we continued our journey to France now equiped with a new voice recorder, camera, memory card, 10 pack of CDs, 25 DVDs. Ironically, the one tripper who needed all new electronics and thus was the most excited about our trip to Andorra (Aaron) left the country only having bought a book and a fast food extra value meal (with a beer as the drink).

So, pretty nice road trip so far, right? Its hard to imagine that very soon we would be cursing at French soil and kicking small piles of French dirt. But I digress...

After wasting some time driving in the mountains and hiking the French Pyranees, we finally made our way to Bordeaux. The drive was incredible, we wanted to avoid toll roads so we drove on the smaller rural roads which was amazing. About 70km outside of Bordeaux was started seeing rows and rows of grape vines. Our mouths were salavating, knowing that in a few hours we would be enjoying the previous generations of these grapes, at the Bordeaux fete du vin. Of course the festival was awesome (documentary coming soon) we met some incredibly generious and outgoing french people, tasted some amazing wine, and also went to the most amazing, modern wine bar I have ever seen (which was also quite cheap).

At 9:20 am, 2 July 2006 the trippers began to wake up, sharing incredible stories from the night before, energized from all the fun they have been having the previous few days. They took their time, showering (which, by the way will be the last hot shower we will have available until July 9th) grabbing their last pan au chocolates and eclairs (which I think Brandle has an unhealthy obsession to) before leaving France. Around 12:30 we started to head out of Bordeaux looking for gas stations as we were leaving the city. We first stopped in a small suburb just south of Bordeaux which was a horrible idea since we almost got lost, and the city has absolutly nothing to offer except a crazy van driver who almost backed up into the Nissan (one of our two cars), until Mike laid on the horn, to which the driver of the van stopped momentarily, then continued to back up, giving the poor little Nissan a love tap. Afterwards we headed to a different gas station where Mike was changing gears until our shifter got stuck in one gear. Conviently we were located right next to an autoparts store so Nithin and I mustered up the best french we could think of and headed inside to see if they could/would help us. (around 1pm)Although I had taken many French classes at school, I must have missed the day we covered the vocabulary for ¨We were shifting our car and a gear got stuck. I think something is wrong with the transmission.¨ Among the 4 employees we were talking to, eventually they understood the situation and two of the very very kind employees came out and looked at our car. Deciding, realitvly quickly, that they could do nothing there, they helped us call the Europe car office to see if they would fix it. (Around 2pm?). Phone calls were made, first to the French office, who told us call the Spainish office from the payphone at the mall across the parking lot. We got through and were transferred again and again until someone eventually told us the tow truck was on the way. The next hour and a half consisted mostly of shooting each other with toy guns, eating ice cream and even holding a ¨Chaco Sandal Tan-Off¨ which I´m pretty sure was the first ever sandal tan-off in history.

3:30pm, we see a tow truck driving around the parking lot, we flag them over, and they start to pull on just about every moving part under our hood. After about 10 minutes they say they will tow the car and we need to call europcar to get a new car. We were having difficulties understanding them, and we never saw any offical papers or anything saying they worked with Europcar, so we were a bit reluctant to have them take our car, without having a replacement there. Half of us stayed there to try and explain that we wouldn´t let them take our car until at least we had heard from Europcar, while Nithin and I ran back inside to make yet another call to Europcar. Well, they said to let them take the car and that just now they were going to send a taxi to take us to the office. An hour passes, we call again and they say they´ll call us back when they know whats going on. No call. Almost another hour passes, and we decide to pack all five of us, and our stuff into the one car we have and we drive back to Bordeaux, mexican style! Oh yeah, and just as we were leaving they finally called us saying that NOW they were sending a taxi, and that we had a replacement car waiting at Bordeaux train station.

It took until 7:30 until we were driving away in our new Volkswagon, because, of course, the lady at the Bordeaux office had no idea we were coming, or what we were talking about.

Well what´s a trip around the world with a few problems?

Taking Risks: Fiesta De Agua

Posted by Nithin Coca

The best things about traveling are the unexpected, random adventures. So two days ago, when I spotted a sign that said ¨Fiesta de Agua,¨ I had no idea what to expect. A Water Party? On the beach?

I grabbed the phone number slip, and headed off to get some Tapas. For some time, I completely forgot about the Fiesta.

Next scene, we are relaxing at the Mirabor San Cristobal, my favorite part of the Albaicin, the old Moorish neighborhood in Granada, admiring an amazing view of the Alhambra (pictures coming soon), with my fellow trippers and Couchsurfer Kat, when we get to discussing what we are going to do that following day.

Before I knew it, we had texted Manolo, and were going to get up the following morning to catch a bus to the beach.

What is the fiesta de agua? Good question. We were on the bus, me, Brandle, Mike, Aaron, and Kat (Mr. Ryan had to drop out due to Moroccan repercussions), when the only other English speakers on board told us we would be drenched with water on the alleys of a small village in the mountains. We had brought no extra clothes (as everyone else on the bus had), nor had we brought a towel, due to a Spanish miscommunication (damn you Ryan for being sick!)

When we got off the bus, we were handed buckets. That´s right, Buckets. Medium sized, blue, plastic buckets. We followed the throngs (12,000 people in total) through a beautiful, green, mountain path toward a picturesque small valley town, the lights glimmering over the clear night sky. This was where the fiesta was taking place?

The crowds were amazing. The streets were packed with students, families, children, grandmas, all with buckets. From the balconies, people with hoses sprayed water down on the crowds, everyone trying to catch as much water as possible in their buckets. ¨Mucho agua, mucho agua!¨chanted the completely Spanish crowd. Within minutes, we were completely soaked with frigid water, but so was everyone else. The energy of the crowds was amazing, people were being sprayed with fire hoses, buckets, even the occasional gutter splash. The streets were running with dirty, warm water, not a single soul in the city was dry, even the hosers on the balconies were not spared the pain.

I could never have guessed when I saw that sign that I would, with 12 hours, be ambushing random people with buckets of cold water, evading super-soakers, and in general having a fantastic time. This experience, one I will never forget, could have been so easily lost had I glanced the wrong direction, had the slip fallen out of my pocket, or had Manolo never texted me back. But most of all, the experience never would have happened had we decided to take a risk. You can never get anything out of traveling unless you take chances.

All I know it...the Spanish sure know how to have a great time!

Our first video

Well, sorry about the delay, but we finally have our first video posted for all of you to look at. I had some issues about finding a website where I could post material with copyright material in it. It ultimatly ended up on youtube.com. I shall keep the links to all of our videos posted on the video portion of this website, located on the left side of the screen.

This was actually shot over a month ago in Sintra, Portugal. It´s a small city, and a world heritage site just outside of Lisbon, accesable by commuter rail. Click the link to enjoy our first video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5J7EMWLgWQ

MrRyan

Travel Time

It´s gotton too comfortable. Now its time to whip out our sleeping sheets, shake the dusts of our packs, and get ready to once again wear sandals into the shower. That´s rights, its backpacking time!

Tomorrow, at the ripe, early hour of 9AM, we shall board a bus for Madrid. From Madrid, after I drop my brother off, and the new trippers get a taste for the city, we shall board a bus for the grand port of Algeciras, onward to Morocco, the first third world country of the trip.

Shall we post from the road? What crazy adventures wait for us in Africa! Africa! It just makes me all fuzzy inside just to stay that...in four days, we will be in Africa!

Late, but Finnaly, La Alberca Remembered

Time passes differently when you are taking a trip around the world. You of whom have sent me emails understand that all too well, with my horrid response time.

The same goes for those who participated in Pueblo Ingles with me, at La Alberca. I’ve been meaning to put up a post, complete with pictures, commentary, and expert analysis on this site for weeks. Now, a month and a long week since the end of the program, I got the will power and here you go. April 21-28th La Alberca.

22 Anglos, 22 Spaniards. The day I arrived, I was certain there would be no way I would remember everyone’s name by the end of the week.

Three days later, I knew many of you better than I knew some of my best friends.

That was what was amazing. How within one week, a group of people can share so much and grow so close. How, in all my traveling, I’ve never felt so close to the culture and the vibe of the country I am in. The Sevillana flamenco on the last night, I can’t explain what it meant to me in words. All I know is that I can travel around the world for the rest of my life, but I’ll never experience that feeling ever again. Now I truly understand what people mean when they say traveling is a once in a lifetime experience.

La Alberca was the bridge between the first month of my trip, which included family traveling and solo traveling, to the 2nd half, which was all group traveling. And though traveling around Spain, and settling in Granada has been fantastic, it hasn’t been the same. I don’t feel that same connection to the soul of Spain that I had up La Alberca.

Would I do it again? I would love to be back, on day one, and experience that week again, but, at the same time, I know that it was not an experience that can be recreated ever.

Those of you from La Alberca reading this, email me! One of the problems has been that La Alberca has a wrong email address down for me, a email I don’t check that frequently (I know, excuses, excuses). Others, I don’t have your email (or don’t know which of the many encoded addresses on the mass emails is yours).

To lose touch would be to lose a part of ourselves. I changed that weekend, I learned new things about myself and about humanity, some bad, but mostly good. I don’t want those memories to become nothing more than memories, fading with time.

The Sevillana sums it all up with this.

Don´t go away yet. Please don´t go away. Even my guitar is going to weep when saying goodbye to you. The ship is getting smaller as it goes away. And when it gets lost, how big is the solitude.

A Cordoban History Lesson

By Nithin Coca

First, a few facts. Did you know

• For over 100 years, Cordoba, Spain, was the largest city in Europe, with a population of over 1 million?
• That, for over 300 years, it was the capitol of Al-Andalus, a Muslim kingdom that controlled most of Spain?
• That this Muslim kingdom tolerated freedom of religion, and allowed all religions of the book (Judiasm, Christianity, and Islam) to be practised freely?
• That the largest mosque in Europe, a freaking enourmous ediplex, is in Cordoba?

Can´t say I knew any of that before I set of to Spain and began reading about the riches of this country. Cordoba has been out of the limelight for over 1000 years, its population today only 300,000, a city of archealogical digs, ruins, and a deep, troubling yet intriguing history.

But imagine the city, the center of Europe, back in its heyday in 770 AD. The intellectual capitol of Europe, where Jewish, Muslim, and Christian philosophers debated the merits of life, love, and how to best govern a enlightened community. While the rest of western Europe was mired in the dark ages, Byzantine clerics travelled to Cordoba to learn from the brightest.

When you are in a city like Cordoba, you cannot understand it unless you try to understand the history. The Cathedral, formally the Mosque, has changed dramatically over the years. The hunderds of red striped arches now lead to chapelas, and a golden, ornate new dome in the center, highlighted by its 200 meter organ. No place else in Europe can you see the strark contrast between Islamic simplicity, and the overexuberance of the Catholic church in Spain.

The rulers of Al-Andalus, who had their own Caliph, seperate from that of Baghdad. The Caliph lived outside the city in the enormous Medina Al-Zarya complex. On our second day in Cordoba, we took a half an hour bus ride outside the city to see the remains of this once vibrant city, with our resident Anthropoligist, Aaron Tobias (pictured left inspecting the walls).

Medina Al-Zarya used to the the adminstrative, religious, and diplomatic capitals of Moorish Spain. It took self appointed Caliph Abd al-Rahman twenty-five years to build Madinat al-Zahra. The city existed for merely sixty-five years. For nine centuries it slept, forgotten beneath a hard dirt cover. Following eighty years of restoration work, about one tenth of the medina has been excavated, representing one third of the upper terrace: the noble part which houses the alcazar with the caliph's palace and the most important dignitaries' houses, together with the government bodies and military buildings. On the middle terrace, only the mosque has been excavated. The souk was also at this level, together with many gardens with pools, fountains and cages housing wild animals and exotic birds. The lower terrace was devoted to infantry and cavalry housing. Excavation work is still continuing so that we may learn the real beauty of this beautiful, mountainside medina.

How do we know all this? Because me and Ryan were hard at work as historians.

There´s no better way to experience history than to read it when you´re there. Córdoba was fantastic, an lesson into one of the most interesting periods of European History, Moorish Spain. How the relatively tolerant Moorish Spain led to the Conquisition...well, that´s for next week!

For more information about Cordoba, check out these links.
Ayuntamiento de Córdoba - Códoba local Government.
Maps of Córdoba
Turismo de Córdoba

Sunset

This is why I travel around the world. The view of the sunset over the mountains of Granada, from our apartment. Cada Noche!

Windows on the World

The Windows on the World section, in which I post the views from every window that I have stayed in, has been updated. Go ahead, take a look!

Indigo Youth Hostel, Valencia, Spain

The Results are in!

We interrupt this blog for some late breaking news! The Results from the the World Trippers´election are in. Let us not waste time, here are the results.

Granada - 2 first place votes, 1 second place vote
Seville - 1 first place vote, 1 third place vote, 1 fourth place vote
Lisboa - 2 second place votes, one fourth place vote
Madrid - 2 second place votes
Valencia - 1 fourth place vote

No hanging chads here! It´s Granada in a landslide, with 66% of the first place votes, beating Seville´s 33%. As of tomorrow, Granada is the home of portion #1.

Campione, Campione, Olé! Olé! Olé!

Election Night

Recap: The three of us have been traveling from city to city, to find the best place to settle down for 1-2 months on the Iberian peninsula. In every city we have been investigating numerous factors, such as youth population, relative ease of housing, nightlife, cultural activities, touristiness or lack thereoff, and general vibe. Here is the list of cities that are on the ballot as to where we could live.

• Barcelona (Nithin only)
• Valencia (Nithin only)
• Madrid
• Salamanca, Spain
  
• Porto, Portugal
• Lisboa, Portugal
• Seville
• Cadiz, Spain
• Torre del Mar (Ryan only)
• Marbella
• Malaga
• Granada

Tonight! is election night! The three of us will go into a Tapas bar, sit down, all write down our ballots secretly (detailed ballets with no hanging chads) and then choose the city. Where will we live? Check back in 7 hours - that´s right, 7 hours - to find the results posted almost live on this website.

Where will the World Trippers´ be for the next month and a half? Tonight, the long awaited question will finally be answered. Stay tuned!

Scorecard

Haven't posted in a while. But, for those keeping track, here's a list of things that I've lost so far in the trip.

• 2 Tubes of Toothpaste
• 1 Tube of Campsuds
• at least one pair of socks
• numerous important pieces of paper
• my 10 ride Madrid Metropass with 9 rides remaining

In one month, with me being diligent as all hell. But, nothing terribly important. A few close calls, but nothing else. Check back next month for the updated scorecard.

Nithin

Birthday Night

So it was pretty fun to celebrate May day in Madrid. Nithin and I had a serious disadvantage of our birthday coming on a Monday instead of any other night, so we celebrated it on Sunday night, since nothing starts in Spain until midnight anyway and we managed to have a good time. We started the evening with a football (soccer) game between the two smaller of the three Madrid soccer teams. (Atletico and ... someone else, Real Madrid is the big Madrid football team). Despite the fact that it was two of the smaller clubs playing, the place was still really full! It is very interesting to notice the defenses between watching American sports and Spanish soccer because there was really none of the typical American theatrics involved in the game, meaning no band, no cheerleaders, and very very little announcing, however I don't want to be painting the picture that the stadium was quiet by any means. Nearly the entire 90 minutes people were chanting, screaming, and cheering. I think there were two substitutions the entire game. Now all of this may just be a soccer vs. Basketball, American Football sort of thing, but still ... I found it very interesting and fun.

(Pictured Aaron, Me, Taryn, Karina)
From then started our night which was rushed from the very beginning... As Aaron already wrote about we had quite a full night, the evening prior, so Aaron and I were running on low sleep, and I managed to fit in a 30 minute nap at 10:30pm - haha, I love the Spanish lifestyle. Well, after we all showered up, got ready, and grabbed the metro we were already nearly 30 minutes late for our 11:15 rendeux-vous at the Plaza de Santa Maria, opps.

We managed to meet up with a bunch of people, including my friend Laura who I studied abroad with in France three years ago, however no one could decide where to go... In the confusion, Aaron, Laura and I slipped away to grab the best grec (a Greek sandwich filled with lamb, which can be found ANYWHERE around Europe and I believe in bigger cities in the US, I wish they had them in Kansas) I have ever eaten my entire life! Anyhow, we did manage to jump to a couple different bars, include a really small friendly bar where as soon as we entire with our group of a dozen or so people the owners started cheering, clapping, and dancing around the bar.



(Pictured: (Left) Aaron and Nithin DANCING! (Top Right) Me and Romanian girl (Bottom Right) Me and JB)
We started to slowly loose people, which was sad but then Aaron ran into the Romanaian girl and JB (the French guy from our first hostel). As you may have gathered, we aren't very good at remember everyone's name... So we ended up going to another club (if you could call it that, it was very small), but we somehow got drinks half price cause we knew people there. Only a week in the country and we are already connected. ;) I love going to clubs overseas with Aaron and Nithin because, again, they both started dancing in this tiny little club with people we have only known for a few days, acting like best friends already.

By the time this club closed (3am, keep in mind it was a Sunday), everyone else was going home, and we walked Laura to her Bus stop. Determined to stay out until the sun came up, Aaron, Nithin, and I, set out for another bar we saw earlier, alone, for the first time all night.

However, before we got to this next bar we met some friends who were really eager to show us the best club in town which was open really late. Naturally as travelers we were both open to being social with everyone that we met, but cautious at the same time. This group of kids seemed friendly enough and before I knew it I looked around and Nithin was in a different group talking with two other guys and a girl and Aaron was in yet another group talking with a mixed group of guys and girls. This shot a red flag up in my mind, and then I felt the piece of paper in my back pocket slowly slip out of my pants. I turned around to find another girl just standing there smiling at me like nothing happened. Perhaps I should have been more assertive right then, but I decided to politely start excusing myself claiming that we were really just hungry and were going to a food place down the road and we would meet them later. Oh no, they were too friendly to accept that as an answer so as appropriate answer so as I keep walking away calling to Aaron and Nithin to come, but I only saw Aaron, who looked at me curiously like why was I shunning these nice people so quickly after meeting them? (Keep in mind we had dozens of great experiences with the people in Madrid before this, even late at night). It must have been soon after that, when Aaron found one of them in his front pocket because in the matter of a minute or two he quickly changed his mind that he DID want to go find some food with me. All the while, I kept feeling things in my backpocket gravitating upwards. Maybe I should have let them succeed, and end the night with a valuable map of Madrid. In the bar, we realized that Nithin was still missing, so Aaron, pockets emptied, walked out into the fields, to rescue our friend.

(Picture: Nithin and I outside of the cool bar with cool bartenders)
Reunited we all had another beer, and got to talking with the bartenders who were so much fun and eventually got free shots. Madrid did end up redeeming itself. As we left we saw one of the guys from the group of pickpockets who came up to say goodbye to Aaron and one more time try to reach in his pocket. Amazing...so, we got home safely at 6:30, exhausted and fell immediately asleep a half an hour before the sun rose ... almost made it, maybe next year!

Photos

I'm starting to get a little sick so I'm taking it easy today and will take care of a lot of housekeeping kind of stuff (Laundry, getting money, posting photos and getting organized, as well as sleeping!). Here are a few photos to wet your teeth.




<---A Spanish Plaza







Us with Karina at a Football match.




<---This is Courtney, Laura, (The two girls from Iowa) and Rebecca (The Canadian) at our hostel, the night we watched Flamenco.

Ryan

Spain at last!!!

It is here. Finally, after three tries of going to Europe I have made it to Spain! As some of you may or may not know, Spanish was my first foreign language and as of yesterday the total time I have spend in a Spanish speaking country was one day (Mexico on a cruise). So today, I finally get the chance to flex my spanish speaking muscle except *poof* I don´t think I made any sense to the first person I talked to, heh. Oh well, a few Sangrias later I felt much more at ease and my spanish skills are starting to come back to me!

Anyway, last night was a blast, we went out to a few bars, and then at 1 am a bunch of people from the hostel went out for "mexican night". Ahhh good times, I ended up hanging out with some girls from Iowa, and a cool 38 year old guy from San Francisco as well as dancing with a cool Romanian girl all night, and even Aaron was dancing all night, ohhhh that Spanish beat - no one is safe! (Even though they just played South American or US music all night). We all came home around 5.30 this morning and it felt like we left EARLY! I even woke up at 8 am, ready to go see the city, but no one else was awake... Sorry no pictures yet, since I´m using the hostel´s free (oh yeah!) internet. This hostel is so far soooo much better than the last one in Dublin. Adios!

Speaking English for Food

Sadly, this will be my last post for a week. I know, how will you ever survive?

As many of you know, I got accepted into a unique Teaching English program in Spain. Basically, what they do is take us all via bus to some small historic town about 4 hours from Madrid, put us up in a decent or nice hotel room, give us free food. And all we have to do in return? Participate in games and activities to help Spanish businessmen learn english. Basically, all I have to do is speak english for a week. I know, taxing.

Here´s the link for any of you that are interested. http://www.vaughanvillage.com

So no posts for the next week. But don´t cry, Ryan and Aaron are joining portion one in a few days, and they´ll (hopefully) fill you in on their whereabouts and adventures! On the 28th the three of us meet up, and then the fun really begins.

Paella Valenciana

Posted By Nithin Coca

One piece of advice...don´t go to Valencia, or any part of Spain outside of Andalucia, on Easter Weekend.

Valencia seems like it would be cool. Its pretty, lots of bars, restaurants, famous paella places, not touristy at all, yet large. Beautiful beaches.

But on Easter weekend...everything, and I mean everything, is closed. Most of the bars, all stores, many restaurants. The few that are open have been booked in advance, as me and an Australian found out yesterday after being rejected at 10+ restaurants on a strip known for having the best paella in town. We thought everyone just hated us, but they were rejecting everyone, even Spaniards. All the restaurants were crowded and, strangely, understaffed, so they wouldn´t let anyone else eat even though many of them had some open seats.

Tomorrow I take the slow train to Madrid. I did get Paella, eventually, at a restaurant on the other side of the beach. Then had Spaniards stare at us cause we were the only ones eating food on that entire half of the beach. Ahh, traveling. Hasta Luego!

Barcelona Redux

Posted By Nithin Coca

It was almost 3 1/2 years ago that I first stepped foot into this small, not entirely Spanish corner of Spain, Barcelona. I remember the day vividly - our train arrived in the evening, and our hostel was far away from the city center in a shady neighborhood. The only eatery we could find, a Tapas bar, was run by a mean middle aged man who apparantly didn´t speak English, French, or Spanish, claiming he only knew Cátalan. Oooo, see how I made the á! Yay for español keyboards!

The next day was possibly the most hectic day of my life. We got up at 9AM, saw all the famous sites of Barcelona, ate 3 meals, then went out till 5AM. We had no place booked that night, so at 5AM we tried sleeping on the beach, the metro, and a hostel (different one) sofa. Each place kicked us out. Then the day only got weirder.

So today, I was back in Barcelona, the first city on this trip around the world that I have visited before. And possibly the only, with the exception of Paris on Bastille Day, and Bangkok, the only re-visit of my journey around the world. Today was much more relaxed, since I´d seen more of the sights, I only tried to see everything in a new light. I spent a few hours at the Sagrada Familia, walked around the Barri Gothic, chilled on the Ramblas. Its 10:14PM right now, so ít´ll be a few more hours until the night life starts to pick up.

2 1/2 more months on the Iberian peninsula. Adios!