Travelogue

This morning we wnt to mass at Duomo, the third-largest cathedral in the world. The stained glass work inside was just amazing. Sculptures were everywhere and very ornately decorated. We are about to head over to the imitation shopping district at the request of my travel partners (we're far too cheap for the actual Milan shopping district). Then we catch a train for Venice this afternoon. Thanks to quite a few phone calls this morning, and someone else's last-minute cancellation, we are maintaining our track record of sleeping indoors for yet another nice.

Posted by Ryan at 10:41 AM | Permalink

Today was a rest day, spent lounging about the rocky beach of Nice (pronounced Neese, for those of you who, like me, don't speak French). While the city was decidedly less impressive than Barcelona, it was still very enjoyable. At 3 in the afternoon, as I lay on the shores of the French Riviera, eating gelato and watching the blue water, I realized I could be waking up and going to class. Travel is good.

Posted by Ryan at 4:52 PM | Permalink

Barcelona is a great city. This morning we went to the Museo Picasso, which has a huge collection of Picasso's work. The explanations in the museum explained how he progressed from simply an excellent artist as a young boy to a revolutionary painter who invented cubism. There was one exhibit hall which displayed 20-some canvases where Picasso used cubism to interpret a single painting many, many times.

In the category of Big Churches, we visited the Sagrada Familia cathedral today. The church was started by the master architect Gaudi in 1882, but has not yet been completed. The spires are extraordinarily tall. While they run elevators to the spires for scenic views, we opted for the 300+ stairs to the spires for scenic views. The elevator was just too much. Using a new team of architects and computers, they expect the church to be complete within 30 years.

As a note to anyone traveling to Barcelona, the subway here is easy to use and is quite a deal. If you buy a 10 ride pass, each trip is only .50euro.

We stay in Barcelona tonight and then spend tomorrow traveling to Nice, France by train.

Posted by Ryan at 10:49 PM | Permalink

My travel group and I spent over 24 hours traveling yesterday. Here's how it went:
We took a ferry from Dun Laoughlin (pronounced "Dun Leery") to Holyhead, England. Then we took a train from Holyhead to Birmingham New Street, another train to Northampton, and a bus to Euston Station in downtown London. From there we caught a taxi to Stansted Airport, and some hours later, our plane to Girona, where we took a bus to Barcelona. Now we're here.

Barcelona is an amazing city. The buildings are beautiful, and there is lots to see and do. Even thought it is just a Tuesday night, performers line the happening street in the city, Las Ramblas. There are people dancing marionettes to Beatles songs, breakdancing, and throwing weights 40 feet into the air. Tomorrow we are reserving trains for most of the remaining days in our two week vacation period and seeing some of the main sights in the city.

Barcelona is an amazing city. There are people dancing marionettes to Beatles songs, breakdancing, and throwing weights 40 feet into the air.

Posted by Ryan at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Made it to Dublin safely. Going to see Europe. Be back soon.

Posted by Ryan at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By midnight, I was sitting in the middle seat on the first leg of my flight, Salt Lake City to JFK, New York.

As I waited for takeoff, a teenager carrying bags and an armload of stuff wandered down the aisle. Here's how the exchange went:
Flight attendant: Where are you going?
Girl: I'm going to college!
Flight attendant: Actually, I meant which seat.

Thanks to the inflight display on JetBlue's planes, I can tell you that we sped along at 630 MPH for 4 hours. That put me and, thank goodness, my bags, in JFK airport ready to go by 6:00am, Unfortunately, the AerLingus check-in counter doesn't open until 3:00pm. While I waited, I decided to make this my last American indulgence for some time. I ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast and McDonalds for lunch, likely followed by a case of heart disease when I'm eating dinner at 65, but that's for another time.

Let's get ready for part two: the Puddle Hop.

Posted by Ryan at 1:21 PM | Permalink

After two days of preparation and hours of packing, I am about to head off to the airport. I fly on a redeye to New York tonight, then fly to Dublin on a second redeye tomorrow night. Here we go....

Posted by Ryan at 4:15 AM | Permalink

I am pleased to report that everything is normal. I was told that it rains 180 days annually in Dublin, which works out to just about every other day. I checked Dublin's weather forecast and found it should rain 6 of the next 10 days.

I am almost done packing, in the sense that I haven't done any so far.

Posted by Ryan at 3:29 PM | Permalink