Stephen’s Travels

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

I dont know if you know what doner kabob is, but eating it all of the time makes my day. I have found two different kinds; lamb or chicken. Basically think of a big piece of meat that spins around, which they shave pieces off into a pita or onto a plate. It’s usually greek food I think, but the places we have been going are arabian. Anyways, its tasty and cheap. As far as tourist attractions go, there aren’t too many here in Madrid. We went to the Museo del Prado yesterday, they didn’t have any Rembrandt paintings anymore, but they did have Raphael, who is fantastic. They also had a very large Goya collection, who is a very famous Spanish artist.

It has been hot, around 95F, or 34C everyday. Not deathly hot, but hot enough to not make me nearly as adventurous during the day. I believe the plan today is to go to the botanical gardens and to the park for a little bit. As I mentioned before, knowing some spanish has been coming in handy for understanding. For instance I was able to tell a brasilian where the bathroom was because we both knew some spanish.

Our next stop is Seville then Barcelona. Oh, I also found a Real Madrid energy drink to add to my collection. Today is a good day. haha

Bye bye for now,

Steve

blah blah blah….

We are in Madrid right now. The weather is great, subway sandwiches are great, and our spanish is not so great. Well, it´s better than our french was. I can understand fairly well, but speaking is atrocious. Shaun is good at saying tengo el gato los pantalones, which I´ve been trying to tell him means that he has a cat in his pants. But he likes saying it.

I wish I could update some pictures from the last few days, but I have not had a chance to get the pictures from my camera at these internet cafes. Anyways, the plan is 4 nights in Madrid, 2 in Seville, and another 4 in Barcelona. Then we make our way along the south of France toward Rome.

Um, I can´t think of anything else. Bye Bye for now.

Stephen