I was sitting in an Irish pub in Barcelona last night waiting for Jake to walk by from using the internet cafe that I am currently sitting in. After a few drinks this guy from Leeds comes up and is asking Jake and I all sorts of questions. He informed us that his biggest dream was to drive across America, eat a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, go to taco bell, crash a prom, and eat a steak in Texas. He loved Eddie Murry and Chris Rock, but hadn´t heard of Dave Chapelle.

Our last night in Amsterdam was great. We had to leave our hostel at 7am in order to make our flight to Barcelona. We took a one and a half our train ride to Einhoven, Netherlands, where we boarded a Ryanair flight which took us to Ginova, a city about 45 miles outside of Barcelona. From there we loaded into a huge bus which dropped us off in the center of the city. We still don´t know if that´s where we are getting picked up from, but I sure hope so.

Yesterday, consisted of about an hour searching for our hostel. It´s difficult with street names in spanish to read a map or get any idea of where we are going. Luckily Jake is an expert at foreign subways stations and has gotten us flawlessly around. We went to the top of a Christopher Columbus monument, and to a place called the Temple de la Sagrada Familia, which is basically the worlds biggest construction project. It was started sometime in the late 1800´s and is scheduled to be finished sometime in 2025. I think it will be worth the trip back in 25 years just to see thing thing completed.

Today, we spent time at the Picasso museum, the temple mentioned above, and an old abandon castle. Trying to tie up our last second travel plans to Dublin, which I´m sure will include more planes, trains, and busses. Aside from not being fluent in Spanish, Barcelona would be a wonderful place to call home. Unlike Amsterdam, there are certain places that you can just see yourself making a life for yourself. I guess there were certain parts of Amsterdam that had that appeal, but not as strong as Barcelona.

Tonight, we are going to try and find some of the clubs we were told we could get into because we are handsome, otherwise, you can´t come in, so we are going to see how we measure up. Hopefully, we´ll be able to leave Barcelona the way we left Amsterdam, wanting just one more day, even hour, to finish up little details of our trip.

Really looking forward to Dublin, I hear the guiness is good there. I trust all of you are keeping it real.

Amsterdam just won’t stop raining and snowing. In between weather breaks we’ve covered a lot of ground. We just got back from an Indian restaurant (same 30 min wait), and the Van Gough museum. Both were interesting. The new hostel we are staying in is the downtown Flying Pig, and it’s sooooo much fun. Right now I’m on a computer next to jake with a live dj spinning records in the back. To my left there is a big lounge area with tons of pillows and tables. This city is absolutely great for people watching. We have a small but inexpensive bar here, so we’ll spend some time here before we head out on the town. The girls from London, Charlotte and Emily have been a wonderful addition to our group, and I can’t wait to meet up with them again in London. I can honestly say that I’ve never laughed harder and for so long than I did with Jake and them, it was really great.

Jake and I have to check out of the hostel by 7am to catch a hour and a half train ride to our airport which will take us to a little spot outside of Barcelona. We’ll have to take another short train ride from there, and we’ll be checking in to a nice (supposedly) place in the heart of Barcelona. Hopefully, it will be as amazing as Amsterdam has been. We American’s have it pretty good as far as CD prices, a new cd costs about 2 times the amount here as it does in the states. I’d have to get a second to have the record collection here like I have at home.

Please note – I’m not using a spell check here, just getting this posted.

I’ve just awoken to the news that the shuttle bus that takes people into town has already left for the morning. This really sucks because what would normally be a free service has just turned into a 7 euro bus ride, and a 14 euro train ride. We did a lot of sightseeing yesterday, and the main part of today will consist of the Anne Frank house, Van Gough museum, and whatever else we happen to come by. This are super expensive in Europe, and the dollar really doesn’t get you very far by comparrison. Tomorrow (Monday) we leave for Barcelona, where we will be staying for two nights until we depart for Ireland. It’s been a pretty amazing trip so far, and I wish I had the time to go into great deal about just how different everything is over here. Service in restaurants is absolutely horrid, most likely because you don’t tip like you do in America, if at all. So, they are in no hurry to take your order and in most cases, like last night, you’ll wait 30 mins in a not crowded place, before you place your order.

Pictures are probably out of the question. At least until some semblance of normalcy resumes with our busy schedules. It rained yesterday, all day long. Our hostel is bout 30 miles from Amsterdam, located right on the ocean. They are teasing us with a bunch of surfboards that will inevitably go unused due to the unfavorable weather conditions. We spent the majority of the last evening in Amsterdam, wandering around and trying to find a more centralized location to stay, which we found for Sunday night, but not tonight.

Our friends Emily and Charlotte arrived about an hour ago, and will be joining us in the next few days of our trip. Today we’ll be visiting the Van Gough museum and the Anne Frank House. I’ll hopefully be able to take some better pictures as the weather has improved significantly.

It’s freezing here in Amsterdam. My flight went well, found Jake in no time, and after a train ride, and a bus ride, we arrived at our home at the flying pig for the next three days. Right now, I haven’t slept for almost 24 hours, due to it being 1pm here right now. The windmills here are awesome, and the buildings all look really different. We’re getting ready to head downtown. I’ll keep you posted and try to take some photos.

My bag is packed and I’m waiting for my ride to the airport. I’ll be completely honest that the upcoming flight is making me so nervous, but what can you do? I’ll be in Amsterdam by this time tomorrow. Keep the dial on the muzzle of bees, and I’ll try to keep you informed of my adventures.