Last Night

So I'm sitting here in Rome, listening to Journey as I try to put everything together in my head that this trip is finally over. It's really pretty mindblowing.

So, in 3 and a half months, we've seen:
Seattle, Portland, Lake O, Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Claremont, San Francisco, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Dartmouth, New York City, Boston, Jaco Beach, Montezuma, Santa Teresa and Playa Carmen, Tamarindo, London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Fez, Tangiers, Seville, Granada, Barcelona, Avignon, Paris, Amsterdam, Geneva, Florence, Munich, Fusson, and Rome.
We stayed:
with Zach, with James and Ben, with the brothers of AXA, with Berger, with Kayte, at Hotel De Haan, at Hotel Lys, Casa Zen, JC and friends, with Weiss, with Kennedy, with Rob, with Bill, with Mackenzie, with the Ouazzanis, at a random hotel in Tangiers, at the Oasis in both Seville and Granada, with Jason and Mark, a random bed and breakfast in avignon, the Bastille Speria in Paris, Hotel Annemarie, with Merten, at the Hotel Relais in Florence, Wombats in Munich, and Freestyle in Rome.
its been a while huh

I'm amazed at this trip in so many ways... what a statement of friendship. Friends from all parts of my past came through to help us, spend time with us, and rekindle the types of relationships we always used to enjoy. We made new friends through and through (dayna arena, liz, pete and emily, the guitar guy at oasis, david, erin and sarah, Jeff and Dan in Tamarindo, and many others...).
At this point I'm going to give a big shoutout to Antal. We did a full third of our trip with him in Costa Rica, without problems and with a ton of good times. Our surfing brother (and teacher) and one of my best friends. Much love brother, see you soon as possible.

One thing I learned about traveling is that you meet a ton of people you're never going to see again, they are just faces that slowly get lost in your memory. You can have great experiences with them, certainly, and they can certainly make things interesting. One of my favorite things to do, though, was to make up ridiculous life stories and convince them of things. On this trip, I was:
- A CIA Agent
- A world class mountain climber
- From Minnesota
- From Texas
- A Porn Star
- 38
- 24
- 18
- A Fluent Chinese Speaker

haha I'm sure there are more too. These are just the most memorable. Great times.

Anyways, I'm going to try to avoid being too emo right now. I have a long day of traveling ahead of me tomorrow, and I'll be exhausted. It will take some time to fully come to grips with all this. I do feel sad to a certain degree, but it's time to come home. I'm really looking forward to my family and friends. I have stories and experiences for a lifetime. To think of the things I'v'e accomplished before my 21st birthday, it fills me with hope for the future. I really believe I can do anything I want in this world, and that the chains that would bond me and prevent me from achievement can melt in my hands if I choose to make them. Some might consider this viewpoint arrogant-- it probably is-- but if you were to say "you don't think the rules of the real world apply to you?" i'd probably say "I don't think the rules of the real world apply to anyone". Our abilities are endless and, so long as we maintain the perspective and priority that values our family, our friends, and our time far more than our money, our possessions, our glorification and gratification, then we can do nothing but limitless good for the world.

which, by the way, is quite a big and amazing place.

Love you all more than I can possible describe,

A

wow so its been a while since ive updated this

but here goes

Amsterdam was wild, the red light district is truly indescribable and certainly one of the weirdest places in the world. Literally window shopping for girls who are trying to get you to sleep with them. It was slightly uncomfortable. Hard to believe that only three weeks prior we had been in Morocco, a muslim country! things wouldnt fly so easily there I dont think.
Quick story from Amsterdam:
Dallas and I are riding on the tram, the police board the tram and demand to see our tickets. I had yet to see anyone buy a ticket, people just get on and sit down, yet somehow everyone but us magically produced tickets. I tried to explain that we were travelers and we didnt realize, and that we would happily buy tickets now, but the officer saw that we were american and didnt like that. He said, "what, where in the world is there free public transportation?" I said, "Our city, Portland, has a free light rail". He said, "Thats not how it is in New York", I said "I dont care how it is in New York", he said "38 Euros. Now." It sucked.
Other than that though, Amsterdam is great. They have this incredible donut type treat called an Ollie Bollen that are only served in December, and they are FANTASTIC. They are doughy and covered in powdered sugar that inevitably gets all over you as soon as there is one wind gust. The city is also quite small and very walkable, so we were able to see pretty much all of it. Its all built around canals and the ambience that the water creates is very cool. We saw the Rembrandt house, the Van Gogh museum, and the Anne Frank House. Anne Frank was the most powerful for me... being there connected me so strongly with her experience. The simple fact that I stood where she stood, I looked at the stairs she looked at when the SS stormed the annex, made the experience incredibly moving. Rembrandt and Van Gogh are cool museums, but you really need to go to the Anne Frank house if you are in Amsterdam.
Then, we rolled to Geneva where we met up with my good friend Jon. Jon has been working in a thinktank based around foreign aid for developing countries. Its exactly what Jon wants to do, but the hours were long so unfortunately we didnt get to see him all that much. The first night we came to his place, got a kebab, and slept. SIDE NOTE: Im becoming addicted to Kebabs END SIDE NOTE. The next day we were going to take a train to Gruyeres where the views are supposed to be incredible, but we woke up too late and missed it. It was okay though, we walked around Geneva, did a little shopping at the xmas markets, and then came back and relaxed. Jon was working all day, but eventually he came home, we got another kebab, and went to a hookah bar where we chilled for a few hours. It was actually really fun and relaxing.
Observation: Im amazed at how much Ive been able to use my Moroccan/North African Arabic. Literally every single country in Europe has been full of opportunities for me to converse in Arabic. Its proved to be way more useful than it would originally seem.
The following day we grabbed a train to Florence from Geneva, stopping in Milan. First, the train trip from Geneva to Milan is one of the most beautiful things Ive ever seen-- glacial lakes, snowy peaks, small villages... switzerland at its absolute best. Milan, however, is terrible. The train station was aweful... we had a 4 hour layover between trains that we managed to cut to 2 hours by catching an earlier train to Florence. Glad to be out of that place. Florence is awesome, our first night we basically just walked around, grabbed some awesome pizza/calzone, and crashed. The next day, we walked around more, saw the Duomo, saw David and the Museum of the Accademia, had amazing Gelato, then met up with Tom and went back to the apartment hes staying in where the party was just starting. We ended up partying all night with Tom and his friends, as well as Jasons girlfriend Jadie. Lots of fun.

Okay thats all for now, im going to meet up with Tom and Dallas at Toms apartment, Ill try to hit you up one or two more times before I come home. Less than a week now! Amazing.

Love
Andrew
PS I got this awesome incredible notebook thing. Youll see it.

Hollllaaaaa from Amsterdam

more like gangstadam right
k yea whatever

anyways, so we said bye to France today and rode the train into Amsterdam central. I'll give the France rundown now:
Day one of France- We walk around the Champs Elysee, check out some cool stores, check out the Arc de Triomphe. Then, we get picked up by Marie (Dal's old nanny) and brought to her house to have dinner with her, Pascale (her husband), and their 4 year old daughter Clara. Delicious food, good company, my French got way way better. Then, unable to find a hotel with any availability, we ended up in this little shack of a place. Didn't really matter, I crashed hard, and then we moved to our nice hotel, located at Place de la Bastille, the next morning.
The next day we did some more shopping, walking all the way up and down Rivoli street. Then, we went back to Marie's place for another incredible dinner. (Note: day 1 was quiche, amazing. day 2 was lamb with scalloped potatoes. Guess what Mom, I ate them. They were good. No promises when I get home). Then, that night, Pascale took us in his car on a driving tour of the entire city. We saw the Moulin Rouge, the Champs Elysee, the Notre Dame, the Magdeleine (sp?), the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, and ended up in Montmarte at the Sacre Couer with a view of the entire city. Really awesome. Also, Pascale is Parisian so to have a guided tour like that with someone who's lived in the city his entire life is really incredible.
We got back at about 1:00 and crashed hard again. We had planned on the Louvre the next morning, but waking up at 11 we decided to postpone it. Instead, we walked across to the Notre Dame where we enjoyed its grandeur, before continuing on to the Latin Quarter where we grabbed some lunch next to the Jardin de Luxembourg. We then headed back to the room for a bit, before hitting Rivoli once again.
Our last full day, we got up at 815 with breakfast in bed, and hit the Louvre from about 9-12. We saw pretty much as much as you can see. My favorites were Hammurabi's Code, Liberty Leads the People, and the two-part David Slays Goliath. The huge last-supperesque Marriage at Cana is cool too, as is the Mona Lisa, of course. After the Louvre, we checked out the Tuileries, then walked down Rivoli again. Then, we took the metro up to Montmarte, walked around there for a while, got dinner, then enjoyed the view from Sacre Couer (which was much clearer this time). Finally we rolled home and got some sleep.

Some words on France:
1) I probably ate 8 bowls of french onion soup in 4 days. So good.
2) the bread in France is second to none.
3) If you try to speak French, they may give you a hard time occasionally, but its all good.
4) Didn't see any real anti-semitism, although Pascale did note that historically they have put the Jews, Gays, and other "unwanted peoples" in this random back corner of the city.
5) Metros everywhere are not hard to use.
6) mom, i was amazed at how many of the dishes we used to eat at home are actually french!
7) most of all, the city of Paris is grand. The buildings are grand, the food is rich, the language is classy.

In fact, France was so fashionable, I found myself wanting to be more and more f ashionable. those who know me know that I am perfectly at home in my PJ pants at a nice restaurant or that I rarely dress up for any reason. Get this-- I bought a scarf. I know, right?

Anyways, I'll let you know how Amsterdam goes. After that, we have Switzerland and Italy and then we are gone! Less than two weeks, who knew.

Love you all
A

PS poker's going well.

Vive le France

First, Barcelona. Holy god in heaven, a constant party. Went to sleep after 5 pretty consistently. Good Lord.

it was actually great to see Cook, he's doing great... I think he's really come into his own in College. His friends were cool too, I stayed at his flat for the first few nights, then treated myself to a dope hotel down the road. Dal stayed with Mark at his really awesome flat a little further away in the city. Basically, we woke up late, enjoyed a late afternoon walk around the city, grabbed food and naps, then continued the party. Chaos.

One hilarious and disturbing story from Barca- So Cook took Dal and I to Park Guell, the incredible city park designed by Gaudi (Gaudi was this incredible architect who basically went to town on Barcelona... hes responsible for Barca's really modern look and totally artistic image). Anyways, we're up on top of this mountain looking out over the city, when Dallas says "Hey guys, I could swear there is a naked guy in the bushes right over there". We all kind of laugh at him and brush it off, when a minute later, sure enough a fully naked man walks into plain view out of some bushes in the park. Then, he proceeds to start playing with himself aggressively in front of everyone there while we all stand there with our jaws dropped. Suddenly he seems to notice that we all see him, and he darts back into the bushes. I managed to get one picture of the guy, its pretty hilarious... just like bigfoot style. See if you can spot it in the pictures I uploaded today.

Anyways, so after a raucus night of partying last night, Dal and I woke up at 7:30 (yikes) and caught a bus to Avignon in France. Unfortunately we were both so sick and hungover from the night before and lack of sleep that we didn't get to see much of the city, just a cool little christmas market that was set up with lights and what not. Maybe we'll see some more of the city tomorrow before we hop on the TGV to Paris.

PS my french is terrible, but people speak arabic here a lot so that works.

anyways, just dropping in, check the new pics and vids and stuff

much looove
A

PPS less than three weeks left, how crazy is that.

the Spain roundup

First, a goodbye to November and a welcome to the last month of our trip. We've got only 23 days left, unbelievable to think how long ago I was in LA with Zach and Jori, San Francisco with James and Ben, Dartmouth, even Costa Rica with Antal was almost a month ago. what a crazy ride this is

Now, we've done and seen a lot so here goes. We rolled into Seville and hit up this hostel that got awesome reviews, a place called Oasis. We show up, the place is filled with young people socializing. The whole setup is beautiful, so we get our room, relax for a little bit, then walk around Seville a little before crashing that night. oh yeah, before we crashed, i freestyle rapped with this guy downstairs for like 40 minutes, we had a nice little crowd of hostelers watching, haha.

the next day we checked out alcazar, the old palace and cathedral in Seville. Really breathtaking, its the 3rd largest cathedral in the world, which, while not as impressive as the 2nd or 1st largest cathedral in the world, is still impressive. We climbed a tower and looked out over the whole city. Then we came back, lay down in the sun under the statue of Velasquez (sp?) for a little bit. Then, later that night, we went to this awesome underground bar and flamenco show. We drank the best sangria i've ever had with some girls we met there (including one named Dayna Arena, hilarious i know but anyway). The flamenco show was incredible though, it was a guitarist and an older man singing. He was so passionate about the music, sometimes smiling and singing playfully, other times nearly screaming with anger or sorrow or whatever the song was about. A really unforgettable experience.

The following day we walked along the waterfront and just chilled for a while before going on a tapas tour and back to the flamenco show where they had a woman doing real flamenco dance this time. Very Cool.

We rolled into Granada the next morning, checked into the Oasis in Granada, and immediately walked up to the Alhambra. The palace is unlike anything I've ever seen, religious motifs from different centuries, different religions, different rulers. Architecture from the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Andalusians, Christians, even Persians-- and everywhere, always, running water. The lower end of the palace is filled with fountains which are fed by the various water systems that run through the rest of the palace down to them. Pools are always filled with fish. And the view from the guard tower is a full 360, way above the city. One of my favorite things we've done.

Then we flew into Barcelona yesterday. In true barca fashion, last night was ridiculous. We drank some wine with our homecooked dinner at Jason's flat, drank a 6-liter whiskey and coke among myself, Jason, Dallas, and Mark. Dal and I convinced this really beautiful girl that, like her, we were from Minnesota and that we went to Franklin High in St. Paul. Then, I convinced her that I work for the CIA. haha, its not lying, its flirting. At 4:30AM Jason and I decided to head home early, a little tired from the travel but slightly upset to be going home at such an early hour. Barca is crazy. I have no idea what time Dal and Mark went back.

So thats where I am now, lying in bed at Cook's flat, its 11:30AM and my head is bumping. oh well, the price we pay.

So now some speculative things-- I'm trying to figure out what I want to do next summer. Obviously my financial situation has an important impact on that, but assuming I'll be okay, what do I do? Here are some options I've come up with:
1) Internship/Job
Pros: Steady Income, resume building
Cons: waking up early, having to do something when somebody tells me
2) Trip Part 2
Pros: See more of the world, Russia/Turkey/Croatia/Greece/Egypt/Israel, have fun
Cons: i'm already tired from traveling a lot, kinda want to chill out for a while. plus, I only speak arabic and, other than in Egypt, I won't be able to communicate well (Russian, Turkish, Croatian, Greek, and Hebrew are not my specialties).
3) Learn a language or 2 somewhere
Pros: Love learning languages, wouldn't mind getting started on Chinese. Also, there are language centers in interesting places all across the world. Could potentially live in Sevilla or something while I learned Chinese, random but cool.
Cons: Not sure I want to travel anymore (see above) and maybe want to do something productive or be around my friends.

Anyways, let me know what you think

love and happy december

Andrew

long summarizing post and update

Holla

First, thanksgiving in fez was awesome. We ate at my favorite restuarant in the world (Dar Tazi), and it was awesome. We also visited the Sufi Platemaker, saw a bunch of cool stuff, etc. I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving wherever they were, especially my family at home, as this is the first time I've had thanksgiving without them! Also, it was great fun explaining thanksgiving in arabic to my moroccan family.

Then, after fez, we rolled north by train (by 5 hour train) to Tanger, which matched all previous accounts I had read about it. Basically, Tanger is infested by hustlers, people who offer you useless things and then try to guilt you into things. My advice is not to ask anybody anything and never to listen to anyone. Gee, what a great place to be. If you asked someone the time, they'd probably say, "It's 7:00, and don't forget what I just did for you, telling you the time and all, you used my help, give me five dollars". So yeah, Tanger, while cool in location, sucks in personality, and we ate dinner last night and then rolled to the ferry this morning.

The ferry, in my mind, was supposed to be this beautiful and relaxing trip across the most famous strait in the world. Instead, we left 3 hours late, and hit rough seas causing widespread sea-sickness. Pretty gruesome. Got some cool pictures before the waves got bad though.

We arrived in Algeciras on the Spanish Side about an hour ago, and we catch a bus to Seville in about 45 minutes. That'll be another solid 2.5 hours, but whatever, I look forward to settling my stuff down and chilling for a bit.
Oh yeah, and I lost my hat that I bought in London somewhere in the same bus station where I sit now. Really frustrating. I liked that hat, plus it was L40, oh well.

anyways, just eager to get settled in somewhere,
Andrew

KnrejA il Maghreb

so after a few months, im finally back in morocco. so far all is going to plan, we arrived last night and a good tagine dinner at Ten Years in the Ville Nouvelle, then crashed at Hotel Olympique. today we hold on, a bunch of arabic highschool girls are picking up on me at this internet cafe. they got my name on skype, and they are all flocking around the piece of paper. it is hilarious. anyway, back to my journal entry.

today we walked down to the medina and went to my old house, where as expected, we were invited in for tea, then lunch, then to spend the next three days sleeping there. so cool, we have a place to stay, eat, relax, etc. we then walked around the talaa kbira for a while, came back for a late lunch, then came here. awesome day.

quick note on edinburgh: the royal mile is awesome. Eat at the Mitre Bar. We ate there three times. For three consecutive meals.

quick note on life, from our last night in london: sometime the magic is there, and sometimes it isnt.

see you soon
ML
A