**The camera we have been using to take pictures had an unfortunate meeting with some liquid, meaning I won't have as many pictures going forward.

Budapest, Hungary

After our successful Airbnb experience in Prague, we decided to bail on our hostel and get another Airbnb in Budapest. A little bit of research of the area and a little bit of luck led to us ending up in the heart of Budapest, surrounded by ruin bars, restaurants, and gyro shops. Our initial entrance into our apartment, however, was a strange but memorable experience. If you can imagine one of the places where Liam Neeson stormed into in the movie Taken to battle some henchmen and thugs, that’s what our apartment complex looked like. We were immediately confronted by a Hungarian local who spoke no English and who looked shocked that five guys wearing basketball shorts were in his apartment complex. Within a few seconds, more residents of the complex were on their porches yelling something that we couldn’t understand. Eventually a woman who spoke English came to our rescue and pointed out which apartment was ours.

Across the street from our apartment was a sandwich shop called Bors. While the shop itself was very small, it always had a long line, which told us it must be good. When we ventured inside to grab a bite, we quickly realized that this sandwich shop is famous in Budapest. Mounted on the wall were numerous awards, newspaper headlines featuring the restaurant, and even videos of the owners being featured on talk shows. After trying the food, we quickly understood the hype. We went back multiple times during our stay.

One afternoon was spent walking around Budapest and hiking up to the Budapest Castle. We were able to see a complete view of the city from the top, which was astounding. The city itself is large and we could see various monuments, churches, and other important buildings from the top. Another cool experience from the castle was witnessing the changing of the guards.

View from the top of the castle

One of my favorite parts of our time in Budapest was going to the local baths. The baths are basically very large public pools that people can hang out in. The pools themselves, while sort of grimy considering the amount of people in them constantly, were warm and provided a great distraction from the heat of the day. Afterwards, we contemplated going to the Budapest zoo but figured one zoo in Europe is enough.

The most interesting thing we did in Budapest was called an “escape room.” Essentially, we paid to be locked in a room for an hour and a half with the goal of figuring out how to escape. The room was completely white and only had a key hanging down from the middle. After finding hidden doors, solving puzzles, deciphering brail and morse code, and being in a pitch black room with only a black light, we finally “escaped.” It was actually pretty cool having to work as a team to complete all the tasks and figure out how to get out of the room.

A few thoughts about Budapest:

   1.)  Buda and Pest were once separate cities, but became Budapest after a bridge connected the two.

   2.)  A bottle of wine can cost less than a bottle of water.

   3.)  Many bars and clubs are in the old ruins. These buildings are considered historical and cannot be renovated.

   4.)  Professional handball dominates television.

   5.)  The conversion rate is about 300 Forint to 1 USD, which means we were strolling around with 10,000 bills. We felt like millionaires handing out hundreds so casually.

     
                                                  -Kevin Loquaci

Venice, Italy

We heard from other travelers to be prepared for the heat and humidity in Venice. After have already experienced a good amount of hot temperatures in Spain and Amsterdam, we felt like we could handle it. And we would have, if it were not for our hostel selection. Instead of finding a place with some air conditioning, we signed ourselves up for a outdoors camping hostel because it sounded fun at the time. Our research on the campsite led us to believe we would be in little wooden houses big enough for two people to enjoy comfortably. Instead, we were in miniature tents that fit only two beds smaller than a twin with about eight inches in between the two. Besides the 100 degree heat, 60% humidity, noisy crickets and other campers, and beds that left our feet hanging off the end, we were able to make the most out if it with only a moderate amount of complaining.

Our luxury suite

We were only in Venice for two full days, so we had to make the most of our time there. Our first day was spent in the actual city of Venice wandering around attempting to locate the main sites to see and some shade. The San Marco Basilica was an amazing site to see. Despite the vast size of the basilica, the detailed designs of the building made it a work of art. After visiting the basilica, we made our way to the world famous Rialto bridge. To our disappointment, half of the bride was under construction, which made it unable to view in its entirety. After lunch and some authentic gelato, we managed to fit all five of us onto a gondola. We navigated the waterways throughout the city, learned the history of Venice from our gondolier, and even passed by the old houses of Marco Polo and Casanova. In total, we spent nine hours walking around Venice.

Bridgetop views

Venice views

Since we felt that we had accomplished everything we wanted to do the day before, the next day we took a boat taxi to a beach outside of the city. We spent a few hours there laying on the beach and soaking in the ocean. We quickly learned that although nudity is allowed on the beaches, having your shirt off less than a mile out from the beach results in old ladies yelling at you to cover up. Lesson learned. We toughed out another hot night in our tents before leaving early morning for Florence.

A few thoughts on Venice:

1.)  Humidity is an entirely new beast.

2.)  The street vendor items of choice are selfie sticks.

3.)  As of now, Venice is the oldest city we have visited. It dates back to the 7^th century.

4.)  The city has virtually zero cars

5.)  More of a fun fact...we stalked professional NBA player Mike Scott as he walked into a Gucci store.
6.) It is the most expensive city of all the cities we have been visited.

                                                  -Kevin Loquaci

Prague, Czech Republic

Our commute from Amsterdam to Prague went flawless. And by that, I mean it went very poorly. The plan was to take an overnight train from Amsterdam to Cologne, Germany, then get on another train that would take us all the way to Prague. Our train broke down in Berlin at four in the morning, leaving us stranded at the train station until we found a new train at six in the morning. Tired and frustrated, we walked to the hostel we had booked thinking the worst was over. We were wrong. When we arrived to the hostel, we were informed that our reservation was actually set for the day before, meaning we forfeited the reservation and had nowhere to stay (thank you Ryan Kisner). Eventually we were able to reserve an Airbnb that was only a fifteen-minute walk away. We settled in and officially began our trip in Prague.

My favorite part of Prague was the authentic local cuisine. In every other country we visited, while we did have a good amount of local food, a majority of the food seemed to be Americanized to some degree. However, every single meal we ate in Prague was authentic and delicious. For instance, my first meal consisted of potato soup and creamy beef stroganoff. Also, it didn’t hurt that a full meal with a couple of beverages was only eight dollars.

One of our day journeys was hiking up to the top of the Prague Castle. After climbing an intense set of stairs, we had an amazing view of the entire city (pictured below). It provided some prime snapchat opportunities. Once we got to the actual Prague Castle, we hiked up another 287 spiraling, and seemingly endless, flight of stairs that provided an even higher vantage point of the city. After trekking back down, we continued to wander the city with no destination but all day to do it.

Other highlights of the trip involved crossing the Charles Bridge and the Lennon Wall. The Charles Bridge connects the old town of Prague with the new town and is covered with religious statues. The Lennon Wall is covered with images and passages inspired by John Lennon. We made the great decision of letting Ryan lead the way because he “knew his way around the city.” We set out for the wall and walked for about 45 minutes before he told us he did not actually know where we were going. After we arrived and experienced the wall, we turned the corner to realize we were literally 15 feet from the location where we started. The rest of our time in Prague went smoothly.

A few thoughts about Prague:

1.) A solid three course meal with a drink can cost as little as $12.

      2.)  Wandering into “locals only” restaurants results in reading a menu in Czech and pointing to items blindly while people laugh.

      3.)  Street performers are everywhere.

      4.)  Prague is the oldest established city we have visited thus far.

      5.)  Beer can be found for less than a dollar.

      6.)  A “meat plate” consists of a rack of lamb, ribs, sausages, duck, potato dumplings, gravy, and can fill up three people. Don’t pretend you can eat it alone like one of our crew attempted to do.   

                                                  -Kevin Loquaci

Amsterdam, Netherlands

       We arrived to Amsterdam early in the afternoon when it was 90 degrees and humid. Our hostel room was up several flights of steep stairs, and consisted of two bunk beds in a 8x8 room, which is not enough space for four guys. To say our first day in Amsterdam was full of complaints would be an understatement. However, the weather cooled down dramatically over the next few days, which raised our spirits and allowed us to fully begin to appreciate what Amsterdam had to offer. Since we were in Amsterdam for a full five days, I will share only some of the more noteworthy experiences. There were some technical difficulties with the camera, so I don't have many pictures of Amsterdam. Here are a few.

        The world championships of beach volleyball was happening in the middle of Dam square, which was located within a minute walk of our hostel. We didn’t watch the matches, but the venue was cool to see and we got to see a few of the teams walking around the streets. We mostly just assumed they were the volleyball players due to them being tall and tan. 

       Our hostel was full of young adults around our age. We made friends with a group of guys from Britain and a group of girls from Australia. It was interesting and entertaining to talk to them. We spent hours talking about the differences and similarities between the countries, affirming and disproving various stereotypes, and attempting to mimic the accents.

       One of the best experiences of Amsterdam was touring the Heineken factory. Heineken, the world famous beer, has its origins in Amsterdam. I was expecting it to mostly be a walk around the factory and a history lesson on the company. However, it ended up being an extremely interesting, entertaining, and interactive tour, and concluded with some free tasting.

       For those who are not familiar with the city, there are several water canals that connect the large city. One day we took a hop on/hop off tour of the city via the canals. Hop on/hop off tours allows you to travel the canals, get off at set locations close to the main tourist attractions, and get back on when you want to go to another location. First, we went to the Anne Frank museum. When we heard the line was three hours long, we got back on the boat and went to the van Gogh museum to get a little culture in our lives. We had some mixed feelings about the museum. We learned a lot about the life of Vincent van Gogh and were able to view many of his pieces of art, which was interesting. However, we were mad that one of his most famous pieces, Starry Night, was not actually at the museum. Afterwards, we had lunch in the park nearby where we witnessed something we all wish we had not. Riding their bikes through the park was a group of over 100 older men completely naked. Funny, but not a pleasant sight.

      On our last day, we committed to waiting in line for the Anne Frank house because it was something all of us wanted to experience. Waiting in line was completely worth it. While we all knew the story of Anne Frank and her diary, touring the house provided a completely new understanding for us. The tour allowed us to grasp the gravity of her situation and gave us a glimpse into her world through her eyes. It was a powerful and humbling experience. As a side note, we happened to be touring her house on July 6^th, which is the exact day the Frank family went into hiding back in 1942.

      We were all sad to miss celebrating July 4^th in the United States, but we tried our best to celebrate abroad by having hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. Also, we were able to watch the US women’s victory in the World Cup Final, which was at one in the morning for us. Thankfully we were able to score four goals in the first 20 minutes so we didn’t have to stay up for the whole game.

Some observations about Amsterdam:
1.) Keep your head on a swivel. The city tram, bikes, and cars come out of nowhere and aren't afraid of pedestrians.
2.) Hostels do not believe in air conditioning.
3.) There are an an abundance of coffee shops, and they sell more than just coffee.
4.) The city is extremely clean and places an emphasis on recycling.
5.) Be prepared to stand in a three hour line for the Anne Frank house tour.
6.) The canals are rumored to be 3 meters mud, 3 meters water, and 3 meters bicycles.
7.) The buildings lean slight forward at the top. Some buildings look like a fake set for a play.

                                                  -Kevin Loquaci

Barcelona, Spain

As we arrived to Barcelona after our 6am train ready to conquer another city, we quickly realized two mistakes. If forgetting to look up where our hostel was located and having to ask several people for (contradicting) directions was bad enough, Dustin Dolby, another world traveler on the trip, realized that we had actually arrived to Barcelona a day before our hostel reservation. The team was rattled to say the least. We eventually found our way to the hostel and were relieved to hear that they had a room for us, despite being a day early. We then decided to find out all that Barcelona had to offer by taking a (much needed) six-hour siesta. Since we were there for five days and managed to do about two weeks worth of activities, it is hard for me to recall everything to write about. I will just share some of the highlights of the trip.

            One of our afternoons was spent touring the FC Barcelona stadium. Although soccer ranks on the lower end of my favorite sports, it was still an extremely worthwhile experience. We were able to view the hundreds of trophies won by the team, learn the club’s history, enter the away team’s locker loom, walk through the tunnel that leads the players onto the field, enter the press conference room, and be as close as possible to the actual field. It is amazing how much the people of Barcelona care about their team and how much they idolize the players. Even though I’m not a big fan, I will admit it was a surreal feeling to know I walked the same steps that players such as Lionel Messi and other soccer legends have stepped.

FC Barcelona

Camp Nou

During one of our aimless walks around the city, we stumbled into a park that contained the Barcelona Zoo. Seeing as we didn’t have anything to do that day, we decided that sightseeing was overrated and looking at animals that we could see at any zoo in America was a better idea. While we did get to see some big animals such as giraffes, elephants, and hippopotamuses, many exhibits were closed and the tigers and lions were asleep. Strangely, they let the peacocks wander freely throughout the zoo, which seemed to me like a lawsuit waiting to happen. After the zoo we suited up and went to the beach. The water was a nice break from the 90 degree weather.

This was drawn by a gorilla, and is better than my art abilities.

Park Guell was another tourist attraction that called our names. It is located on the top of an extremely high hill that requires hiking up several flights of stairs at basically a 45 degree angle. They even had escalators built into the streets to accommodate tourists (like us, considering we used them). My words won’t do the park justice, so below are some pictures.

View from the top of Park Guell

On our last full day in Barcelona, we decided to walk to one of Barcelona’s most popular points of interest, La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia is an enormous church designed by Antoni Gaudi, a famous Spanish architect. The church began construction in 1882, and over 100 years later, is still in construction. Standing in front of the church is truly an amazing experience in itself. Besides being in awe of the pure size, it took several minutes of scanning the building to realize and appreciate the intense details in the architecture. We toured around the interior of the church, still in awe of our surroundings. Below are some pictures of La Sagrada Familia.

A few thoughts about Barcelona:

1.) People do not shy away from public display of affection.

2.) If the heat doesn’t get you, the humidity will.

3.) Parks and fountains are scattered throughout the city.

4.) French fries are served with pretty much every single dish.

6.) Restaurants aren’t very happy with splitting the check, which is what we try to do at every meal.

7.) Nude beaches are a strange thing to see for the first time.
8.) Some public restrooms cost money.
9.) Buy a fresh jug of water every morning for the day because its hot outside and water costs money at restaurants.

                                                  -Kevin Loquaci

June 24 - June 27

Madrid, Spain

Having a basic knowledge of Spanish made the transition to life in Spain much easier than Sweden. Right when we arrived, we were able to navigate the metro system with relative ease because we could (mostly) understand the signs. After arriving to our hostel around one in the morning, we all immediately passed out. In the morning, we met our hostel bunkmates. We evolved into a very interesting crew. Besides our main group, we gained two guys from America (Anthony and Eugene) and one girl from the Czech Republic (Katka). One of the guys is a professional MMA fighter, which is always a great addition to any crew traveling in a foreign country. They were similar to us in personality, so we all got along great. Katka was a lifesaver for us. Besides speaking Russian and Czech, she is fluent in English and Spanish. During our two days with her, she acted as a tour guide and translator. She showed us some very interesting places in Madrid, brought us to appetizing local restaurants (and explained what the foods were), and taught us about her home country. We spent the first day aimlessly wandering around the city in a very touristy fashion just to see what Madrid had to offer. It is hard to remember exactly where we went and what we saw, but I can say the architecture of the buildings stood out. One place that stood out during this trek around the city was the famous Plaza Mayor. It seemed that at every corner one of us was pointing to something that was noteworthy. Little alleys with local restaurants were everywhere. After returning to the hostel, the team decided a siesta was necessary. Our night consisted of more exploring until we were tired. The next day, we went to El Parque del Buen Retiro. I did not expect there to be so many statues, fountains, and pieces of art in one park. We were all pretty amazed at the place. Below is a picture of the park.

 My favorite place we visited was a historic town about an hour away called Segovia. Anthony and Eugene recommended that we had to tour Alcázar de Segovia, a historical medieval castle. When we arrived to Segovia, we were astonished to be greeted by a gigantic aqueduct, which we learned was constructed as early as the 1st century (crazy).

The Aqueduct of Segovia (Shout out to Bulls)

  Once we navigated through the little town, we arrived to the castle only to find that it was closed on that day to the general public (just our luck). Although we couldn't actually go inside of the castle, simply being in its presence was something worthwhile. It was hard for us to fathom that people actually lived, and died trying to live, inside of its walls. Instead of touring the castle, we decided to go inside the enormous and breathtaking Segovia Cathedral, the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain. It is hard to describe in words the interior of the Cathedral, so I provided a few pictures to due it justice. The detailed paintings, intricate statues, and golden arches made it something we had never seen before. We also took a little detour and explored a little chapel that was supposed to be off limits to the public. After getting caught, the only form of punishment was a stern glare. It was worth it. After spending a great deal of time in the Cathedral, we returned back to Madrid. Below are more pictures of Segovia (we seemingly forgot to take pictures of Madrid).

Segovia

The Cathedral in Segovia

Segovia

We had a duel with a castle guard. He died an

honorable death. 

An illustration of Jesus' death

Inside of the Cathedral

More from inside the Cathedral

 A few noteworthy things about Madrid:

1.) There was graffiti on almost every wall of every building in the city.

2.) Similar to Sweden, it did not get dark until pretty late at night. This meant we would normally be eating dinner around 10:30 or 11, which was definitely a hard adjustment for a guy who is used to eating dinner at 5.

3.) A beer is cheaper than a glass of water at most places we went.

4.) There are interesting (and strange) pieces of art everywhere.

5.) Locals find it amusing when we spoke Spanish, but also appreciate the effort.

6.) Siestas are a must for functioning throughout the day, considering our average bed time was after 2 in the morning.

7.) In America, most crosswalks provide a countdown that tells a person how long they have to cross the street. In Spain, there is simply a green figure that eventually starts to flash when time is almost up. However, the times vary depending on the street, making it impossible to know exactly how long you have. This resulted in our crew sprinting across the street trying to avoid becoming roadkill. 

8.) Burger King is never too far away.

                                                  -Kevin Loquaci

June 22 - June 24

Welcome to Kevin Loquaci's European Travels Across Europe. With law school beginning in early August and my inevitable quarter-life crisis approaching in a few short years, I decided to plan a post-grad campaign around Europe. Alongside five of my closest friends from Cal Poly, I will be traveling to seven countries in about a six week span. I will share my travel experiences, random anecdotes, and other thoughts about each location.

Stockholm, Sweden

After an exhausting ten hour flight, the crew arrived in Stockholm excited to get the trip started. We checked into our hostel and then set out to grab a bite to eat. Below is a picture of our hostel.

 After wandering around for a little, we naturally decided that McDonalds was a safe bet for a quick lunch. At this fine local eatery, we encountered our first embarrassing cultural barrier to overcome: how to open the door. After standing in front of the entrance for a couple seconds dumbfounded, we almost gave up hope and began to turn around when a local rescued us and opened the door for us. It was at that moment we realized language barriers were something we would have to overcome. We stood inside for a couple of minutes not understanding the menu and trying to not be the first person to embarrass themselves while trying to order. The rest of our time in Stockholm involved wandering aimlessly, in the rain, around the city admiring the architecture and observing the various sights. The historic small towns with cobblestone streets and medieval buildings and churches were pretty amazing to experience. We were only in Sweden for one night, so it was a quick turn around back to the airport. Below are a few random pictures from our time in Stockholm. Josh Birnbaum, one of the fellow European explorers, sacrificed quality face time to be our personal photographer.

The Three Musketeers 

City Views

The Longest Park Imaginable

Norrmalm in Stockholm

        A few thoughts about Stockholm:
1.) The sun does not set until midnight and rises at about three in the morning during Summer. It a strange experience coming from America where the sun is always set by 9ish and does not rise until around five or six during the summer. Seeing as this was my first time experiencing this, it was hard to convince myself that it was late at night and time to sleep, so I managed four hours of sleep.
2. ) There are people consuming beer at all times of the day. We would see people at ten in the morning enjoying a casual beer. It seemed as if all business people, both men and women, would have a beer or two during their lunch break.
4.) People ride bikes everywhere.
3. ) I would not recommend getting pizza at the airport...

                                                  -Kevin Loquaci