GOOON Sqwad takes Barcelona

After my lovely weekends in Wales and Morocco, Sarah and I few down to Barcelona to meet my two best buds, Granger and Henry. It was truly a weekend to remember.

Sarah and I flew from of Eindhoven to Girona and took a bus down to Barcelona. We had some issues with the hostel that we were going to stay at. By issues I mean it got shutdown by the government. Fortunately the hostel that go shut down booked us in a different hostel, which turned out to be much nicer, for the same price!! Sarah and I arrived at around 10pm on thursday and Henry and Granger were already there. It was great to see them. For those of you who don't know, Henry was my roommate freshman year. He's the homie. We had a four bed room to ourself and shared a kitchen and living room with three other people, two spaniards and an Aussie. They were all really nice. Thursday night consisted of visiting the irish pub around the corner. How authentic of us!

On friday we decided to explore Barcelona a little bit. We made the short walk to the Sagrada Familia. It is a pretty darn big church.

After this lovely sightseeing adventure we spent the rest of the day indulging in authentic tapas and sangria. Yum!

oh yeah… and 5 liter drinks...

After a long friday night, we slept in a little on saturday. We spent the day walking by the water and exploring the La Ramba (?). The highlight of the day was meeting my former au pair Mireia. It was awesome to see her. She took care of Sam and I when we were 5 and 7. It had been almost 13 years since I had seen her. It certainly didn't feel like it. We met her for a few beers before heading to her home to meet her family. We had pizza and looked at some old pictures she had taken when she lived in SF. She even remembered my aunts and uncles! It was really really nice to see her and meet her family. They are truly lovely people.

Of course she remembered Granger and the Tripps.

Her oldest is the same age as I was when Mireia took care of me!!!!

We spent sunday exploring more of Barcelona, we ended up climbing a mountain in search of some castle. We couldn't find it but we found a great view of Barcelona.

Overall it was a great trip. Barcelona is a great city. It reminded a lot a San Francisco and I hope I will be able to return in the future. 

Hope all is well with everyone. I only have 3 more weeks here!!! Im not ready to leave yet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

DUing a Tripp to Morocco

Hey everybody!!

Last weekend was amazing. My friend Cassie and I managed to meet my best bud Granger down it Morocco. It was a great experience. We spent a lot of time in transit, but it was all worth it to get down to Africa.

Our journey, while relatively short in distance, was long in hours and had a few bumps. It all began with 3 hour train ride from Maastricht to Brussels National Airport. Our train left at 11pm and we made our first transfer successfully somewhere in Belgium. When we got off the train at our next transfer point we realized something was drastically wrong. The train station was a ghost town. 1am…1:15…1:30… we weren't freaking out because our plane left at 6am so we had plenty of time. After a while we gave up, thinking we were relatively close to the airport we got in a cab. After a 60 EURO!!!! cab ride we made it to the airport. We had a few hours until check-in so Cassie decided to get some shut I while I indulged myself with a few self-ies.

After being up for almost 24 hours it was time to board our flight. Fortunately I just zonked out for the entire plane ride, occasionally head-butting the guy next to me. I don't think he liked me very much, but oh well.

We stepped off the plane at around 9am and it was sooo nice to feel the warmth. The last few weeks it has been really cold here in Maastricht. As we tried to clear customs we ran into our second speed bump. Immigration would not let us through because we did not have the address of where we were staying in Morocco. Before you yell at me for not being prepared for this, we didn't have a place to stay, Granger was going to set it all up for us. Anyways, Cassie and I sat confused and lost wondering how to get through. After multiple failed attempts to explain our situation we realized that the internet is never far away. Although we didn't have cell service Cassie was able to turn on her roaming and we managed to get an address of a hotel. So basically we lied to immigration in order to get through.

We had a few hours to kill before our scheduled meeting time with Granger. Cassie and I took a taxi to our meeting point and proceeded to wander around a palace and through the markets of Marrakech. To me it felt like a combination of China and Kenya.

Market alleyways. 

After a few ours of wandering and a nice lunch at a Moroccan cafe we literally just ran into Granger. It was great to see him, I had gone over three months without seeing him. That is the longest amount of time we have spent separated in 20 years. Weird. 

The rest of the day consisted of exploring old palaces, drinking tea on the terraces overlooking the city, exploring the markets and sitting on more terraces. I became a huge fan of terraces in my time in Morocco. We ate snails, played with snakes and watched Cassie get hit on by Moroccan men. 

Those are snakes around my neck!

For dinner we ate traditional food at the nightly market located in the main square in Marrakech. It was awesome! There were so much food and so many people to look at. At dinner we decided that rather than spend the night in Marrakech we were going to take the train to Rabat, where Granger lives and studies. We took the 9pm train arriving in Rabat in the early am. We crashed at Granger's apartment, which is the smallest most awesome place I have ever stayed. 

We arose the next morning and wandered around the city of Rabat. It is a beautiful city. Granger brought us to his host families home to have lunch. I was able to meet Mama Fatima and the whole family! It was amazing. There were the nicest and sweetest people I have ever met. And they cooked us an amazing lunch followed by tea on their terrace. It was an awesome experience, one that most tourist don't get when they visit Morocco. 

The afternoon was full of walking on the beach and enjoying tea on the terrace of a waterside cafe. It was freakin' beautiful.

view from the cafe

At night we decided to visit a Moroccan club. Ill leave out the details, but it was a fun night. Ask Granger about it!

Unfortunately we had to leave the next morning. We took the 11am train back to Marrakech to catch our flight. BUT to pass through security we needed an address for where we stayed. Of course we didn't write it down. Fortunately I remembered the name of a different hotel, we wrote that down and they let us through. 

We arrived back in Brussels at 11pm and there the next train was at 4:47am so we had another night in the airport. I managed to catch some shuteye this time. (We weren't the only ones sleeping at the airport.)

We finally managed to arrive safe and sound back in Maastricht at 8am. 

Overall it was an amazing trip. I am jealous of the amount of time that Granger has spent in Morocco and the relationships that he has made. I hope that one day I can return!!

The wedding date is not set yet. But these are some of our options for our wedding invitation. Let me know which one you think we should use!

It is now 3:30am here so I have an excuse for all they type-os this time. I have spent all night reading about the French election system. I have to get up at 6 to practice my speech! As of today I have one month left, freaking crazy man.

Catch ya'll soon

Why am I in Wales???

Hey everyone! As always, it has been a while. I hope everyone is doing well.

Since my last post I have started two new class. The first one is, a comparative government class is super interesting to me. We are studying/comparing/contrasting the workings of the US, German, French and Dutch governments. My second class, Dutch Art History, is also interesting. Obviously we have been studying Dutch art. This block is going to be a lot less work than last block, which it nice. It give me more time to travel the world.

My pub quiz team, the OsamaQuizLadens placed second in our pub quiz last week scoring a 47/60. We have another quiz tonight so wish us luck!

I just got home from a great weekend in Wales. I met a welsh kid, Jack, in my class last block and he converted me into a Swansea city football fan. Anyways, I went up to his home in Swansea this weekend.

Jack and I flew from Amsterdam to Bristol on friday afternoon. Jack's dad picked us up at the airport and drove us to their home in a suburb of Swansea City where I met Jack's bother and sister and their significant others as well as jack's mom. It was pretty late so we didn't do much.

I was woken up with a home cooked full Welsh breakfast on saturday morning. It was amazing! After breakfast we drove into Swansea and toured the city. It is a nice city, right on the water.

On saturday night, we watched the Welsh rugby team play South Africa. Obviously it got pretty intense. After the game, Jack's neighbor was throwing a Denali party. There was amazing indian food and lots of beer, song singing, dancing on tables and fireworks. I got to know Jack's parents and their friends very well. All in all it was a great night. All I can say is that the Welsh like to drink.           

Fireworks!!

A groggy sunday morning was met with another Welsh breakfast and tea. At 2pm we headed down to Swansea to catch the game. Jack's father, who splits tickets with his firm, was nice enough to let me take his ticket to the game. The seats were amazing, they were in the front row right behind the dugout. We were literally feet from all the players. It was really cool. It was also an amazing game. The Swans were down 2-0 at half and took a 3-2 lead in the 86th minute only to concede a goal through a penalty kick in the 95th minute on a BS call! Regardless of the outcome it was a great time. 

Because I am a life long Swansea City fan, I purchased a jersey.

After a great weekend it was time to come home. But while at the airport I realized I still had thirty pounds to spend. So I went to the the duty free store and bought chocolate... a lot of chocolate. 

Anyways, it was a great time and I hope that I will be able to return sometime in the near future.

Thats all I got for now. I have a few adventures coming up so keep checking in!!