From Paris, after one bus transfer from 6-7:30am I made it to Barcelona at about sundown. From the bus station I had to walk to my hostel. Even though I didn’t do much I was pretty tired so I checked in and did some grocery shopping nearby and then chilled the rest of the night.

I had the whole following day to explore Barcelona and I first headed to some buildings nearby from a famous architect. I’m sure the insides were cool, but it cost 21€ to get in one and 25€ for the other. With the US dollar losing value that would have been closer to $60, so I wasn’t really that interested in the architecture.

From there I wandered to the old gothic district. The streets were really narrow and a lot of buildings had pretty neat old style architecture. Then I got to the cathedral of the city. Like most cathedrals in major cities, it was huge! Going inside was free, so I wandered around inside and admired the high ceilings, ornate altars, and stained glass.

Then I bought an apple and chowed on it before taking a walk along the beach. The beach was okay. To be honest I expected a little more from Barcelona. It was interesting to see a bunch of nude old men laying out… I guess that’s the European style.

The rest of the day was walking around and seeing a smattering of different monuments and local sights. In one park center I saw some of the protests (people were camping out in the park) in favor of creating a new country around the Catalan culture there. It’s been in the new I guess, but I didn’t know much about it until I witnessed it. I was pretty suprised to find out that there are apparently many small regions in Spain that speak their own languages and have distinct cultures.

The next morning, early, I set out with Alvaro, the driver I found using a ride sharing app. It was cheaper than a bus and much more comfortable. It was nice company as well. Luckily, Alvaro spoke decent English and he explained the Catalan situation and culture to me more. For the first leg of the 10 hour journey we had a French woman and a Brazilian guy, but for the second leg we dropped them off and picked up a Spanish lady. I actually slept probably 4 hours, but when I was awake there was some beautiful scenery. It reminded me of when I was out west towards Utah. We even drove through the “Sierra Nevada,” as they called it.

Malaga was the destination. It’s further south for my journey to Africa. I actually liked it a lot more than Barcelona, though I wasn’t there as long. Barcelona, to me, kind of had a high class attitude that I wasn’t a fan of. Also the sights weren’t that extraordinary either. Malaga was more laid back and just walking around I saw a Spanish Castle on a high with some Roman ruins below it. There were other cool Roman ruins, but the picture didn’t turn out through the display glass. I was kind of surprised by the Roman ruins. It didn’t really occur to me that I might see them there.

Then at night I had a really nice walk along the beach! I took my shoes off and walked along the water, but it was actually quite cold. The harbour was pretty beautiful as well.

The next morning I woke up and Oscar, another ride share driver, took me to San Roque. He didn’t speak any English, so my request to get dropped off closer to the Gibraltar border didn’t get through. So I decided to hitch hike the rest. I walked about 5 minutes to a good spot headed in the direction I wanted to go with ample room for a car to pull off if they did want to stop. Then I guessed all that was left was just to stick my arm out. I did that and tonmy surprise within 5 minutes a car pulled over and a guy offered to take me there. He looked pretty trustworthy. He was a little older, a retired high school principal if you had to make me guess, and he drove a nice BMW.

Then he dropped me off near the border and I walked through. The borders were pretty lax, they just glanced at my passport and that was it. Then, interestingly, you walk acrossed the airport runway into the country. If there is a plane you wait on either side for 15 minutes until it passes. As soon as I crossed the runway it was like being in England! I was on Winston Churchill Avenue.

I wandered I to the city center and ate some lunch in the park. After that I hiked up that big old rock they have there (the Rock of Gibraltar). I saw a Moorish castle and some other old British settlement stuff. It was interesting to see the Gibraltar flag with the British and EU flag flying in the wind. I wonder what consequences Brexit will have on Gibraltar?

Then I wandered further up the rock and found a nice view I was also apparently in a spot we’re Queen Elizabeth had stood. Then I hiked down and crossed back over the runway back into Spanish just as easily as I had came. I probably only spent 2 or 3 hours there, but it’s not a big country anyways.

Then I got on a bus to another port city where I am now sitting waiting for a boat acrossed to Africa. So next post I should be in a new continent and in Morocco!

I was able to get in a little excursion to the Berlin Wall Memorial during my 2 hour bus layover. It was kind of odd. Just a small little park with some plaques and pictures. You could walk along the path of the wall, but some places did show much besides the sidewalk and some new historical markers. There was, however, some more original segments as you can see in the picture above.

Then it was back on the bus after a quick two hour bus transfer. I’m glad I was able to make it to the Berlin Wall and back. On the bus I sat next to a really nice German guy who was studying in Paris. His English was really good and he helped me make some plans for seeing Paris. It’s odd how asjusted I am for the road at this point. I was able to sleep soundly through the night for 8 hours or so without waking up. I felt refreshed as we pulled into the Paris bus station.

First thing I noticed in Paris was the traffic. The German guy had told me how condensed and packed the city was. Off the bus I headed first to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I really liked it’s awesome gothic architecture. That baby had some nice flying buttresses. Inside was spectacular as well. I liked the dark colored stained glass and there was just so much nice stuff in there. The whole inside was ornate and beautiful. It also made you again marvel at it’s architecture.

Next, I continued my tour by walking toward the Louvre. There, as I was starting to notice everywhere in Paris, there was some serious security. Lots of army and police patrolling with heavy weapons and then airport-like security to get in. Sure wasn’t the best situation for me to have a giant black backpack on all day.

The Lourve is absolutely huge and to really appreciate it I think someone would need a couple of days. It’s so huge I got lost a couple times and everytime I got lost I ended up seeing something new. I wandered through the halls and eventually, at the end of one of the biggest, came to the Mona Lisa engulfed by visitors. Pretty neat to see such a renowned piece of art in person. The other painting in the collection above is a summary of it felt like to be at the Louvre. Only downside is that in costs 15€ which is over $18 thanks to the falling value of the US dollar recently.

Then after the Louvre I took the metro North to one of the highest points in the city. There I enjoyed the view and walked around the shops. The prices in Paris are astronomical compared to what I was paying in Thailand, and are even high by US standards. To cut down on my expenses I ate cold hotdogs and a baguette for lunch at the Louvre. I went, by metro, then to the Arch or Trimuph built for Napoleon’s victories or something like that. Then I was headed to the Eiffel tower, but not without picking up a dinner of canned sardines, a baguette, and some cookies which still cost me over $6.

Seeing the Eiffel tower was really cool, but I was actually a little underwhelmed by it. I think it’s hard for things like that to live up to the standards set for them. In the park near the tower I sat in a pavilion on a bench ready to feast on my sardines and baguette when I made friends with a couple of Afghani refugees. They were there enjoying some food in the sight of the Eiffel tower as well. They offered me water, yoghurt, and clemtines making sure I wouldn’t go hungry. It was really interesting to hear their perspective of Americans and then of countries allowing them in as refugees. There was a part in the conversation where one of the Afghanis was talking about how he hated all the Pakistani tourists that come into Afghanistan and how it’s bad for the country. I was pretty confused why this was a bad thing. If anything it should be good for the economy I thought… A little later in the conversation I figured out tourists was mistaken for terrorist, and then things started making more sense. After my main meal I shared some cookies with the guys there and they asked for a picture with me and then I got one with them as well. Always interesting to meet people from places where you assume there might be some tension or at least some political differences.

I said the Eiffel tower was underwhelming, but that was only during the day. Luckily I planned on coming back at night, and when I did it was beautiful! When it’s lit up it’s much more beautiful in my opinion, and now I see what all the hype was about. On the hour it also does a dazzling light up show where it appears to be sparkling from bright white LEDs lighting up all the across the structure. It was on this visit that I decided to brave security and enter the area under the tower. For anyone reading this who’s visited in times past, bit never used to have to go through security to do this. Since the Paris terrorist attacks there has been a border set up around the base and strict security with army and police patrols. After another airport like security screening I got in, and decided to save my money and just look from underneath rather than buying s ticket to go up. I figured the best view was of the tower, not from it.

After that I headed on the metro to my bus station. I was desperately cold since it was about freezing and I had ditched my winter coat in Budapest where it was 60° at the time. I should have kept it, but I didn’t expect the unusual cold for this time of year. Regardless, the station wasn’t that warm since a lot was open to the outside. So I headed for anywhere warm and I found a mall with a huge food court open late. To get in there, I once again had to go through security. I waited at the mall for about an hour and a half before catching my bus to Barcelona.

Once again, I was super blessed to have some amazing experiences in Paris even with only 15 hours to explore. I plan on actually staying a couple of nights in Barcelona just to sleep in a real bed, but I also have to figure out traveling in Spain as the popular bus service doesn’t serve further south and traveling is appearing to get expensive. I got myself signed up for a ride sharing app and should be able to hitch a ride further south to the straight of Gibraltar so I can get acrossed to Morocco!

Spent 3 nights in Poland. First night was on a hostel on Katowice. The next morning I got up early to tour Auschwitz. Fittingly, it was gloomy and rained the whole time I was there.

I got there around 8:30am and there wasn’t an English tour until 10:30am. So I decided to take it on by myself. I pretty much followed the Polish tour guides just so I had a general path to hit all of the camp. Luckily most signs were in English so I had some context when exploring. On a train ride, even before I decided I would go to Auschwitz, I read Night by a Holocaust survivor (Ellie Wiesel). I was really glad I had that narrative in my head because it made the camp come to life. I think without reading that book many things wouldn’t have resonated quite as much.

I had a lot of friends ask me how it was and how it made me feel. Honestly, I expected to be a little more somber afterwards. There were something, like seeing the room full of human hair they literally harvested from people, that hit me pretty hard. However, for the most part it was pretty cleaned up and seemed a little removed from the horrors that once happened there. At least in my perspective after seeing the Killing Fields in Cambodia (https://www.wildboom.us/2017/10/15/cambodian-adventures-part-1/). There I saw piles of human skulls and even saw bone fragments still in the grass…

After going through the first camp I took a shuttle bus from that camp to the other main camp that was constructed once the original Auschwitz camp was filled. The other camp was huge… There were horse stables (designed for 52 horse) everywhere that were used to house around 400 prisoners. You could see these stables almost as far as your eye could see. This camp also had a replica train car on the tracks were the prisoners first came in.

After I finished at Auschwitz I hopped on a train north to Leszno, Poland. Here my friend Z picked me up at the station. We are friends back from working together at CMU. He came to the university from Poland on a track scholarship. I guess for a time he was the fastest man in Poland in a certain event. Everyone at Central called him Z because no one could pronounce his real name, Ziemowit.

It was a real chill visit and I spent two nights on the couch in his living room. It was really fun to see his son! His wife was pregnant while he was in his last semester at CMU and I remember him trying to work extra hours to provide for his family. I remember thinking how hard that must have been to be on another continent while your wife is pregnant. So it was a joy to see them all together and happy!

I didn’t do a whole lot with Z besides talk and catch up since he was on daddy duty all day. He did go to the mall with his son and played with him at a play park. I also have to say Polish KFC is much better than American KFC. They have some really awesome chicken sandwiches and they had a promotional Oriental menu as well.

Now, I’m on a bus to Berlin. In Berlin I have a two hour wait before I transfer to another bus to Paris. I intended on meeting up with some of my German friends from my high school foreign exchange program, but with my poor planning we were unable to make it work. Instead I’m going to see if it is possible to get to the Berlin Wall quick during my bus layover.