Ha ha, yes I am in Rome. It’s awesome. Ciao.

And here is a video of a Roman street performer:

So I’ve been in Madrid for a few days now and its been an entirely different experience than Paris. For one, it’s a lot less overwhelming than Paris, in that there aren’t 100+ museums and some monument to something every few blocks. Also it seems more modern in that there are some major streets which follow a straight path, and the area with the sites and activities is smaller and easier to navigate. Also it may have helped that I took one of those hop-on/off bus tours the first day I was here to help orientate myself. And it probably helps that I can speak some basic Spanish instead of just giving the deer in the headlights look when someone starts talking to me in a language other than English.

Also this is my first hostel experience and its turning out pretty good. I had a little bit of a hard time finding the place, as my plane came in at 11:35 pm and I had forgotten the name of the place as I only made reservations two nights earlier. So I had to pay the outrageous internet fee at the airport in order to check my email so I could get the name address of the hostel. Google maps helped me out in giving me a general location of the place but the address was something like Gran Via 59 7°, which I’ve never seen before. That’s OK, I could tell what metro stop I needed to get to, assuming Gran Via 59 was the main address. Unfortunately only some of the streets have signs posted which tell you the name of the street and most buildings don’t have their address visible. Also keep in mind this is about 1:00 am now and the streets are fairly quiet, luckily for me Gran Via is one of the major roads in this part of Madrid. So I finally spot a building with an address, 66, and I can tell that I am on the wrong side of the street, but I’m close to 59! I spend the next 5-10 minutes walking up and down the same block where 59 should be but there is no ‘Mucho Madrid’ hostel or sign… I’m starting to wonder if this place even exists. I ask some guy who wants to give me a flier for whatever it is he is promoting ‘donde esta Gran Via cinquenta nueve?’ ‘Esta aqui!’ and he points to the area I have been walking in front of for the last 10 minutes. So I take one more walk down and I’m still not seeing anything, finally
I notice a ‘57′ over a dark iron gateway, and I know that I’m close! So I walk one store front down the street to be met by a shuttered metal garage door, “but the hostel info said it was open 24hrs..” so I walk past a few more of these closed metal garage doors and find another door like 57 which has a 59 over it.. phew. I find the name of the hostel on the key pad outside (its in 1/8″ letters) dial the number and 20 minutes later I’m finally settled and about to fall asleep.

The place is clean and I’ve met several cool people including a couple who is taking nine months to travel around the world, mostly on train. They left this morning for Rome (that’s where I’m headed next), but will be leaving just as I am arriving. But we went out a couple nights ago for dinner and drinks and had some Spanish drink called Vermouth which was maybe the cheapest alcohol I’ve ever had, probably about 60-70 proof for €1.5. And last night I went out with another guy I met at the hostel, Oscar, to get some authentic Madrileno chocolate con churros, which are churros that you dip is melted chocolate, very good.

Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures of Madrid because they are very anal about not letting you take pictures of anything interesting… although I was able to sneak a few in of an Egyptian temple that was moved here when a dam was built that was going to cause the area where it was originally constructed to flood. So hopefully I can get those posted later.

Also I added a Videos link to the top where I posted a couple videos I took earlier but was really late getting uploaded. I don’t know if they have sound or not, I am having troubles getting the sound to play on my laptop..

I finally made it to Paris this morning, and thankfully the flight to Dublin had very few people and I was able to grab a center row of four seats and make it into a bed for a few hours. It is a little cold here, so I think I may need to get a little something extra to wear. It doesn’t seem to be as bad as Boston was though, I had to transfer terminals there (and almost missed my flight) and it was freezing out. Needless to say I’m excited if not a little tired to be here even if it is a little colder than expected.

I finally made it to an internet cafe this afternoon and had a chance to upload some of the pictures I’ve been taking. I thought this one was fitting.. Tomorrow I start my flight to Paris, arriving at 9:00am the next day… uhg. Hopefully I can catch some z’s on one or two of the four planes I have to take to get there. At least this will be the worst/longest travel day and I can get it behind me. And I should have plenty of time to go through my pictures and make a couple of posts I wanted to make earlier in the week. But I should probably be getting to sleep… right after I take a walk at night down this Seven Mile Beach.

And here are a few more pictures:

I’m still trying to get some last minute stuff done for my trip, but I think I am in decent shape. I am flying to San Francisco and back on Thursday in order to get my visa for India processed in person, otherwise I couldn’t get it done in time.. Still need to get a Typhoid vaccine, still need to pack, still need to buy plane tickets into and out of India (after I get my visa). Still need to make hotel reservations in most countries. Still need to receive my Capital One and American Express credit cards in the mail and let them know I will be using them overseas and still need to get a little bit of foreign cash…

Also there are a few things I still need to buy, but probably nothing I can’t get en route.

Updated on 2008-11-13 at 20:24:06

Well it looks like I won’t be going to India after all. This morning I checked my email and I have a new message from Travisa Outsourcing, who processes the visas for India.

India Visa Holiday Alert – November 13, 2008
You have a made a reservation to apply in person for an India Visa on Thursday November 13, 2008 at Travisa Outsourcing. Thursday is a holiday for the India Embassy/Consulates to celebrate Guru Nanak’s Birthday. Please be aware that no same day processing will be available. …

We appreciate your understanding.

It would have been nice to know that before I bought a plane ticket to San Francisco in order to get the visa processed, you know, like on the website, where it said ’same day processing’ … Oh well. I’ve already got my ticket to skip India and thankfully I didn’t buy tickets into or out of India yet, just in case some crazy thing like this happened.

On the other hand I will now be in Thailand for eight whole days, my longest stop in one place, so I’m thinking about taking a couple of days to go to Phuket as well.