Stephen’s Travels

Well, I decided a couple days ago to make my way even further east before heading west. So here I am in Budapest, Hungary.

At least one of the 2 people that casually read the random things I write are thinking Eastern Europe? Why? Well here is why:

First of all, There must be something good about an area if everyone is fighting over it all of the time. Secondly, it isn’t communist anymore. Thirdly, Why not.

So far I have trekked around quite a bit, seen some new things. St. Stephen’s Cathedral was very nice, thought I need to make my way back at night. I am going to go to the communist statue park tomorrow to see all of the old statues of Stalin and Lenin and that whole bunch. There was also another really great church called Matyas church, I didn’t go inside but it was crazy/cool/interesting on the outside.

Ok last but not least, I uploaded all my pictures until my new ones from here. so go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevesearer for that

have a great day,

Steve

Right now you may be asking yourself, “…Self, what is Stephen Searer up to these days?”

If I were nearby, and you happened to say it out loud, and I happened to hear it, I would probably say something along the lines of, “Well, (insert name here) the proper question is what aren’t I up to”

When I first arrived in Prague 4 or 5 days ago (I’ve lost count) I started to see everything. I even purchased a guidebook that told me everything about everything here. It’s been wonderful and I have even found myself answering people that ask questions at certain monuments which I am familiar with. It is really a lot of fun.

In case you didn’t know, I was here last summer for several days. Specifically, I was with a group from Cal Baptist touring Holocaust sites as a supplement to the course I took the previous semester. However, it was a much different purpose than my latest one, which was to learn everything about the city. Hopefully I can convince everyone I know to go to it. After all, I think its the most beautiful city in the world.

So I’ve toured and looked at probably 10 or 15 churches, toured Prague Castle, the National Museum. Which was so much fun by the way. I am not a big fan of looking at rocks by an means, but there was an excellent mineral collection. They also had some wonderful collections of taxidermied animals (I apologize if that is spelled wrong, I meant stuffed, but that sounds likes they have kids toy collection) Anyways, it was so much fun looking at birds, snakes, bugs, fish, whales, bears, dodo’s and countless others.

Tomorrow I am planning on touring the Jewish quarter again as a tourist this time, and I will probably make it up to the Loreto near the castle. Most people that are reading have no clue what I am talking about so do a little homework on Prague by going here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague

Prague has had the most beautiful rose gardens yet. Really breathtaking. I uploaded some more pictures but only a few because it was messing up the internet cafe’s connection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevesearer

For my favorite photos of the trip go here and click on them to make them bigger:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevesearer/tags/favorite/

Well, thats all for now, sorry about the lack of new pictures.

Stephen’s my name,

I love you all,

-Stephen

So it has been quite a while since I last posted anything and a lot has happened. Barcelona was simply an amazing city. Our first hostel was right in the heart of the city, the old Olympic grounds were very nice although they seem to be falling into disrepair as of late. Our second hostel there was in the mountains and a ways from the city. It still turned out alright, I was able to see an amazing sunset and an even more spectacular sunrise from the tallest point in the city.

From there we headed to Nice which was a very nice city. Not much to see sights wise, but it was nice to relax some on the rock beaches. Sigh…there was hardly any sand, very unlike California.

After Nice, we made out way down to Rome to pick up one of my good friends Aimee from the airport. Once she flew in we were going to spend about 10 days together all throughout Italy. We explored Rome pretty well, saw the Capuccin Church, The Vatican, and of course all of the old Roman ruins. I am leaving some stuff out, but we saw a lot and our feet took a beating.

After Rome we headed up to Florence for a couple nights and saw the spectacular church there. The view from the top was simply breathtaking. Saw the David, it was great.

Went to Milan and it was probably the worst city as far as seeing things goes. The tickets to see the last supper are sold out for several months in advance. Which was a bummer because it was really the only thing to see there besides their cathedral.

From there, we went to Venice and walked a lot and ate a lot as there isn’t much else to do. It was definitely my favorite city in Italy because of it’s atmosphere and the awesome time I had with Aimee. Followed closely by Rome and Florence of course.

I am heading up to Prague for about a week or so then heading across Switzerland to Holland for a quick flight to Heathrow in London before I leave on July 10.

I am not all the way up to date with my pictures but I did get up to Barcelona uploaded.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevesearer

pics of me:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevesearer/tags/me/

I will work on uploading the rest when I get to Prague.

leave some comments

Steve