So here I am sitting back in my kitchen in my apartment in San Sebastian after my 15 day excursion all over Europe, and still I'm sitting here (even though its already been 4 days since I've returned) and still wondering if it was all real. If it actually happened, because in my mind there is no possible way that I just toured all of Europe and experienced things in my life that looking back about a year ago, or even six months, that I would have never imagined myself experiencing. Its seriously UNREAL. The only true word that describes it all.
During the past fifteen days I traveled to 5 countries including:
London, England
Paris, France
Prauge, Czech Republic
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Barcelona, Spain
During this time I not only got to see part of the world but also got to see Mama and Brother Koose in London and Paris, spend some wonderful time with Michelle in her temporarily homeland of Prauge, and cause some trouble in AMsterdam and Barcelona with my lovely roommate Laura. I can definitely be honest when I say that with the help of all my friends and family I definitely made an impression on Europe and I will never forget this trip, and its sure going to be an adventure that is hard to top! I could write you a blog that is about 20 pages long with every detail of my trip but I feel like no one would ever make it through reading 20 pages basically bragging about my how my life is awesome, haha and I just don't have the heart to do that to anyone haha. So in brief I will tell you of each, and if you want the juicy, gorey, awesome details of everything else then I guess your just going to have to ask my personally! : )
London, England:
ABSOLUTELY INSANE! Never in my life have I ever seen so many people in my entire life and been to such a fast pace city but it was seriously awesome. Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Thames River, Big Ben, The Underground, Trofolger Square, Picidilly Circus, Oxford Circus! It was all amazing and I loved the rush of everyone and the bluntness of the british and just the look of the city. It has such an old, classic, yet beautiful and a sort of present personality to it all. I loved it! It was nice seeing my mom and brother and seeing them in Europe was also partly hilarious and comical. I guess I'm just far more adjusted to this place, but hey I have had a 3 month head start. It was also so nice hearing people speak English again, seriously almost music to my ears, and even though i felt like such a tourist, i didn't feel completely incompetent since i could speak the language! haha. All in all it was an incredible visit and i LOVED London.
Paris, France:
Also another great adventure with the kooses, however I must say that I am not a fan of French cab drivers. Seriously, homeboys like to trick you buy refusing to speak English (if they know it) and driving you around the block like 4 times until you finally end up at your hotel. Terrible. But aside from that the city is AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL and has such an artistic and sophisticated vibe. Seeing the Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and Luvre was so much fun and I really enjoyed just being around the Eiffel tower. I had to keep pinching myself because I legit thought that I was dreaming. It was crazy. Its huge, and it was standing right infront of me, and i just really could not believe it. Same thing with the Mona Lisa, I will forever remember the fact and treasure it that I got to see these magnificent places. Also my brother turned 25 while we were in Paris so we celebrated with going on a dinner cruise and seeing the sites of Paris via the water which was a great time. So much complimentary wine it was insane! haha but again so much fun and I could tell that Clinton could imagine no better way to celebrate be a quarter century old. shit, he will probably kill me for that one :) haha. After the cruise we stepped off the boat and we saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up and shiny and it was truly amazing. One of my favorite moments of the trip for sure!
Prauge, Czech Republic:
After a wonderful 6 days with my lovely family I left them in Paris and flew over to Prauge to see my lovely roommate de la Estados Unidos, Michelle, to show eastern Europe what we're made of! I was so glad that we were both bale to visit each other in our respective cities while abroad which made it even more awesome/special being able to share and combine both of our abroad experiences. Her mom was there for a short while with me as well and it was also nice to see mama Houck. :) We partook in a 20km bike ride through the Czech Republic where we ended up at an ancient castle and toured it. Michelle and I were quite proud of the fact that we survived that bike ride, guess even in Europe we are still pretty much badasses! My four days there were spent touring the city of Praha with Michelle and her friends Christie and Jenna which are absolutely hilarious by the way, as well as drinking many mojitos, and beer, and lets not forget about eating fried cheese. Yes, fried cheese. Which is super delicious by the way and basically a delicacy there and tastes like a huge mozarella stick..except it isn't mozarella. haha. We all had a great time at the hard rock cafe as well as going out on the town and crossing paths with a few british guys on a rugby team that were super fiesty and a whole lot of fun to hang out with. I also partook in a dance off against this italian guy which I believe that I rightfully one with putting my Krumping skills to good use haha. It was a great 4 days and I had a lot of fun seeing Michelle and doing what wonder twins do best: Cause trouble. :) also if you ever get the chance, go youtube soldiers lip syncing "Hold It Against Me" ... we watched it a bagillion times and I garuntee that you will not be disappointed! : )
Amsterdam, Netherlands:
So here is where I met up with one of my beautiful and lovely roommates Laura and our adventure together began. Let me just start by saying that Amsterdam is seriously so beyond beautiful I cannot even describe it. The best way to put it into words would be that if my brain exploded out of my body and became a city I would like to hope it would resemble something close to Amsterdam. It has such an eclectic vibe and the mass amount of people that ride bikes is not only unreal but so inspiring. Everything was clean and funky and the canals that run through the city as boats lie docked on the side only added to the beauty of it all. Everyone is so friendly and they sell delicious juice everywhere like it is no body's buisness! It has to be my absolute favorite city in the world...minus Chico of course :). I absolutely fell in love with it. We started our stay off there right by an inpromtu ride on this crazy carnival ride that swung around as it lifted us up to what I believe was like 60 meters in the air and it was AWESOME! Laura and I had such a great time and also inpromptu ended up on a bar crawl with some other great british people that we had met and decided to call me "Alli From Cali" it was seriously like freshman year all over again for a night and it was a great time. They were also very fun to drink, talk, and dance with and now they are my friends on face book so holla! haha. We jam packed a lot of things in only 2 days and went to the Van Gough museum which was so awesome, Ann Frank house which was incredibly moving, and the Heiniken brewery which was a whole lot of great fun. We also spent one afternoon in a park relaxing and even saw a 3D movie one night. Seriously, go see RIO! its awesome. I could write an entire 5 pages alone on Amsterdam, so if you want to know more I guess your just going to have to ask! haha. I am promising myself that I will return back there one day, because I am pretty sure that I left a piece of my heart there and I just can't get over the amazingness of that city. Again, it was UNREAL!
Barcelona, Spain:
After the amazingness that was Amsterdam we set off to Barcelona but not before waiting in like a bagillion lines at the airport and having to pay 30 euro to check our backpacks since you can't carry both a purse and backpack on the plane. TERRIBLE. Arriving in Barcelona went smoothly until Laura and I had to get on the metro to get to our hostel and this weird paint stuff got on our backpacks and we had to keep on going and these creepy guys tried to talk to us and I was so completely convinced they were trying to pickpocket us haha. I just wanted to run away. The quote of the night was "You have no idea how sketchy I feel right now." haha and it was true. After getting to our hostel and sleeping all night we woke up the next day and walked along the beach, ate awesome paella, drank some wine, oh and let us not forget our encounter with the 50 year old portuguese men who sat next to us at lunch and invited us out for beers later...we didn't go haha but it was a great time at lunch. So random. So funny. We also then fell asleep on the beach and later returned to our hostel where we found out it was Sangria night. Seriously, what hostel gives your free all you can drink sangria? AWESOME ONES!!. We ended up meeting a few more british friends names as well as a few canadians and ended up going to a few clubs with them that night! It was a great time and again, after sleeping in the next day we took the adventure to the north part of the city to get our bus tickets only to find out that our bus back to San Sebastian the next day was FULL! UH OH!. But no problem, we had to use two buses to get back but we made safe and sound!. That night we went and got more paella but only after being invited to eat dinner with these 3 Italian guys who were apparently models and spoke very little English. We speak NO italian. So our dinner was filled with a a lot of huh? what? once more? and a ton of laughter. They were like little kids, so rowdy and so funny, and it definitely was blog worthy to put in here.But if you want hte full lengthy detail story, again just ask me. Its pretty funny and rediculous. They kept trying to teach us italian phrases but we had no idea what they were making us say, it was really confusing and funny. That night we also met up with new friends from our hostel that ended up being from California (REPRESENT) and so we had to go out with them Between drinking a few beers and meeting some awesome french people that were part of a bachelor party, dancing with the groom to be ( who was dressed in drag haha... its a european thing), and hitting one of the most famous club in Spain: Razzmatazz we stayed up the entire night until it was time to check out and catch our bus, and I would have not had it any other way! It was awesome, and definitely a great way to end an awesome 15 day trip!
15 days, 5 countries, 4 planes, 2 oceans, 2 buses, and 1 train I had one of the most unreal trips of my life that I will never forget. I could not have asked for better places to visit, better people to meet, or better friends/family to spend it all with. It was such an amzing experience and adventure and it only continues to inspire me to travel wherever I possibly can in the future. Whether it is one county away or one country I am determined to make traveling a more apparent component in my life, and please don't be afraid to join me and come along for the ride, I always end up having a lot of fun some way some how and it is primarily because I always have great people to share the experience with.
I am now sitting in my apartment and my days are officially numbered here. 14 to be exact and if I only knew where the time went I would be able to tell you but in my mind it is still February 5, I have not even been here for a month and I am still trying to get used to speaking Spanish and eating a hamburger with a fork and knife. I guess time really does fly when your having fun, but I know one thing for sure that not only am I sad to see this chapter in my life come to a close but I would never change my experience, travels and adventure for the world. They have become a part of me and have helped shape me into the person that I am growing up to be. Not saying that I am so grown up now but I have seen a little bit more of the world now..its given me a little more experience as I continue to make mistakes, work hard, struggle, and triumph throughout my life. I obviously fully intend on living up these next four days as much as possible starting with morning surf hour with some of my favorite ladies in the morning. San Sebastian is not only a piece of my heart but a significant part of my life that I would never trade or take back. I absolutely love it here and I have to show my gratitude for this place by sharing jut a few more crazy times before I leave.
I hope you guy enjoyed my somewhat brief overview of my travels and I'm not done with this blog jsut yet, I still got 14 days : ). So get ready for just a few more awesome adventures from me, I know they are just around the corner. Missing and loving you all and you'll see me pretty damn soon. GET READY!!!
Much Love,
The Koose
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