Amsterdam, Netherlands

The circulation in the city is based on modes of transportation I am just not used to. Cars, feet, trams, buses, boats and bikes can be used to get from point A to point B in this city. Those reddish sidewalks that bikers angrily ring their little ringers at me when I stubble on them are dedicated bike paths; not lanes for confused tourists. And these paths make sense when one looks at the bikes. These are heavy, single gear old school gliders that go at a pace somewhere between a stroll and mosey, not fast road bikes or mountain bikes with front shock forks. These are bikes meant for a pleasant ride. All uncharted territory for me since riding a bike in Houston while possible, I wouldn't want my last act on this Earth to be a speed bump for a Hummer.

Amsterdam is an odd mix of sensibility of decadence. The coffee shops here serve a mediocre cup of joe and soft drugs. Eastern European, Asian and African women stand behind doors lit by red and UV light. And African men stand on corners asking with a quick word if you would like something more scandalous. And then a few minutes walk away is some of the best museums in the world, shops full of the latest design and art books, and kids playing schools set in plots of mixed used com temporary architecture. There has been a Royal Architect for the last 200 years. The problems of space and use have been thought through and planned around.

The society here is progressive. I can't think of too many places where the science museum has a display of sexual positions demonstrated by wooden figures. The kids that peeked into the exhibit found the whole thing, and I quote, "gross". That being said, I don't think jackassery is tolerated here. Other then the tourists here with the Cannabis Cup badges proudly around their necks, people seem to have their head on strait.

Spent my time looking at art while I was here. There was a Kate Moss photo exhibit which I thought was kinda silly, but there were still other some amazing prints at FOAM. The Van Gough museum proved that impressionist painting is just not my favorite. It was amusing to hear the Dutch take deep morality questioning breaths while watching a Taiwanese art documentary about betelnut beauties. The Maritime museum has some impressive boats and I even crashed the Ship Repair and Conversion 2006 exposition. Not really my cup of tea, but there was a cool X-ray fluorescence system used to monitor ship engine fluids. Chemical Engineering, yo. And used the thought framework to better understand the batch bioenginering processes displayed at the Heineken Experience. Made the beer taste better, I swear.

Geneva, Switzerland

I was picked up from the airport which set the tone. It was really pleasant not having to deal with all the variables required to navigate into a new city. We had and espresso and I took a walk about the town. I am still having trouble wrapping my mind around how old European cities are. A nap was followed by Mexican food. Is mole influenced by French cuisine good? Yes, but I am still fiending for a burrito from that joint across the street from the Ikea and the funeral home in EPA. Conversation over scotch.

Woke up and used a laptop trying to piece the details of my life together and handle traveling administrative details. Had a tasty lunch at a place named after a Swiss explorer, plotted plans for next summer, went to a talk about climate change. I think I am doing this traveling thing right since I am on the cusp of warm weather and cheap plane fuel. Good thing I can benefit from it now because in the long run we are all screwed. Lake perch with french fries and then we saw Borat. The movie brought out my long hidden lust for Pamela Anderson. Not.

Slept in and then had Ethiopian for lunch. We drove to the local particle accelerator. The tour had a 6 week waiting list so we checked out the 80sque science museum. Making and antiproton beam took a lot of time and effort. The contemporary art museum here is in an old factory lit by fluorescent lighting and with a floor I could not stop admiring; paintings, optical illusion installations and video pieces. Another climate change talk by a Stanford guy who devoted much of the time in the disjointed presentation to his wife's research. Had a fantastic home cooked meal, saw a percussionist that was like a Ywinge Malmstien of the bongos, went to a bar where the wealthy students drink, then to a packed dancehall night. There is money to be made here in dance instruction.

Escargot for breakfast to tide us until we could get to the lake to have a picnic by the ducks and boats. Exhausted from all the effort of eating and lounging, there was subsequent chilling. Back to the bar (I differ from many tourists here since I didn't bring a few million dollars to drop in my private bank) where expensive raers were spun. Went to drum and bass live PA.

Omelets and chocolate cake at brunch killed all ambitions for working out and yoga. So we relaxed, did a little work and continued to read my book set in New Foundland. Tasty roasted vegetables and tequila were consumed. Talked about how the internet can create strange situations.

I said goodbye to my gracious hosts in the morning and then visited the UN. For all its faults and limitations it is an organization whose mission I support. For example the tour guide mentioned in passing that education is a fundamental human right. Damn right it is. One last meal of fillet of fish with my host and then checked out shoes and headed to the airport ready to be a tourist again.

Barcelona, Spain

From my brief time in Barcelona it seems a cool city. And I say that in that it might be one of the best cities in the world to live and hang out in, an idea seconded by many of the folks I have met here. It has the all night hustle and bustle, the art and music scene and the mixture of folks that make a cosmopolitan city. But again, like Prague, I felt I had to write off this place in order to maintain health and sanity.

Stayed at a small hostel. Is it rude to invite folks to dinner as a group and then expect people to play musical chairs just so a clique can sit together? Not that this would normally phase me, but I kinda like meeting people and trying to understand where people come from. That and I was quite comfortable in my chair. Still, the staff at the hostel took us out a couple of night and I did meet some people whose company I enjoyed. Even though we did hang out in another hostel while we were there. Gotta see how the other half lives.

Went to the MAC BA while I was there. I do not understand exhibitions about the life of an artist? Why would I care to look at the envelopes that some dude used to write other folks? This is detritus and recyclable materials and not worth the price of my admission ticket. While museums are the place to freeze a moment of time in the form of a piece, the displaying in hallowed grounds of things that don't even bring context is just silly. This is my way of saying I didn't feel the exhibits there. Instead I just sat by the water and enjoyed the beautiful weather I had there.

What I did kinda feel was the Gaudi work. His work is kinda silly in it ostentation and scale, but I have to give it up for execution of vision (even though a lot of it is unfinished). The Casa Batllo is a surprisingly practical and livable residence. One could throw a phat party in here. The Sagrada Familia was detailed and fantastic, but I only saw it from the outside at night. And the Parc Guell is a great spot to see the sunset over the city. Barcelona was a rest stop and unfortunately I want more time here. I think I shall be back.

Zaragoza, Spain

I saw Kraftwerk!

Violadores del Verso, Chemical Brothers and Derrick May were good too.

Valencia, Spain

Saturday morning and I roll into the in the country's biggest college/beach/party town with my Australian friend at 6am after a long stop-filled 10 hour overnight bus ride with no reservations for a place to stay. No bed, no clue, but the night shift at the hostel we wanted to stay at is ending and the clerk at the desk offers to let us crash at his flat. Oh, yes.

We sleep for a while and then wake up for a guided tour of the city. The Mediterranean is just as I remember it being; big and green. The old part of the city with small building is in endangered of being leveled for condos near the beach. The quickening cycle of gentrification is present in modern cities worldwide. Lunch at a university campus cafeteria which was perhaps the best value for a meal I have had so far in Spain.

There are a lot of universities in this city that rise up like huge Lego blocks educating the masses. But the masses seem like they just want to throw down. This is the ferry port to Ibiza. The place is bumping at night, the clubs here must be sweet (there is a Pasha here) and the live music I imagine is pretty good. It reminds me of Austin, if only by the sea and filled with Spaniards. This is the kinda of place where cute girls skateboard to the corner store to get another 2 liter bottle of cheap beer. We went out with a few friends before the exhaustion hit us. I was in the back seat of a small Volkswagen with an Australian and a Pole with the Spanish guys up front were singing and clapping to Manu Chao. Oh, yes.

Granada, Spain

College towns Spain style are pretty damn cool. Especially if they come with centuries and centuries of history. The palace of the Alhambra watches over the curved alley ways of the city. It is like the streets in these old town are designed to confuse tourists. Or just perhaps just invaders... some might argue there is little difference. The palace was a squatters camp for a while and now takes in 6600 heads a day at 10 euro a piece. The cash cow says moo.

I stayed at the Oasis hostel. There are some hostels that can trap a person and I stayed an extra couple of night because I enjoyed the company I found there. The last day we went up to the Sierra Nevada mountains for a little stroll. I am sitting in an outdoors restaurant in river valley in Spain drinking beer and eating salad and egg soup with a Willie B hipster, and English Pagan chic and an Australian party girl. Oh, and a couple of more Australians... there are always a bunch of Australians. Very chill time here and I'd love to have a drink again in the future with any one of them.

The graffiti in this city is the best I have encountered in the world so far. Walking around the city, it is everywhere. The hostel guide walked us to a graffiti wall with some brilliant art pieces. Hard to believe it was just spray paint. The area above the hostel had some nice work, but the signs saying "violent daily muggings" (in English) and "the police will not protect you" hanging from people's balconies made me a little wary as I snapped pictures with flash in the dark.

Granada is known for its tradition of a free tapas with a drink. Good thing I didn't go out so much. Well going out here means being out after 2am. I just didn't have the endurance. I learned the hard way that the siesta before the fiesta is a must.

Gibraltar

It is a big rock. Really, this town? This city? This country? is a series of of streets at the bottom of a big hunk of limestone. It is kinda pretty look at and apparently there are tourist biting monkeys on the rock. I don't know since it was pretty foggy and I couldn't be bothered to pay 9 pounds to see the apes in the midst. The appeal of this place is location. On a clear day one can see Morocco. As military strategic positions go, this is money.

Walking the streets this place seems like what I imagine England looks like. The walk from the Spanish border crosses the airport runway. And then it looks like you are in the middle of the projects. Much of the housing here seems government subsidized, if you ignore the high rise condominiums blocking the old machine gun ramparts. Lots of these new properties popping up and some of them even have space for my 50 foot catamaran. I have been wondering where I was going to dock that.

In the five minute walk from De Linea da Conception where I was staying you go from Spanish town to Brits. Plenty of pubs with the Manchester United game on the tube, high fashion stores and funny accents. But if you listen closely some of the word are Spanish. And there is the air of Africa that permeates deeper then the women in burquas who can be seen on the side streets. Money here is in financial services, ship repair, on line gambling and the smuggling of cheap cigarettes and booze. Talk about a place full of contradictions. There all these tweaked out little rides bumping broken beat on the street. How can a place only about 8 square kilometers have a car culture?

Cadiz, Spain

The idea here was to find a cheap place to by the water where I could relax, meet some travelers and plot my next steps in Spain. My favorite part of traveling of season is that I don´t have to plan ahead and things fall together. I bused into Cadiz, walked across town to my hostel and found it in the process of being completely gutted for renovations. My second choice was booked and I ended up spending 4 days of housing budget on two. My favorite part of traveling off season is that I don´t have to plan a head and things magically fall together... Except for my lack of planning causes them to fall apart.

Cadiz is a port town where once three fourths of the wealth from the Americas to Spain flowed through. It fell off of late, but does OK as a port/tourist town. The cathedral here is huge and during service the priest´s words are magnified and given weight by the room reverb. I won´t get even into how nice the pipe organ sounds. In Spain people leave the house at night to take a little ramble about town. That explains all the little plazas and cafes for people to meet up. It also explains the sense of community here. If people spending their evenings walking around their neighborhood instead of watching TV, you are bound to meet neighbors. I kinda like that part of life here.

I have one month left and I think it will be a good time for this journey of mine to end. What I am really wanting right now is a computer, internet, a few pens and a printer in a configuration that looks something like an office. There are plots I need to enact and balls that need to start rolling for school and jobs in the US. If I could have two solid days of this and then have plans to meet up with friends in the evening, that´d hit the spot. When talking to folks about this trip they would always tell me there would be a point where I would get incredibly homesick. They were right.

Seville, Spain

A twenty minute ride through a completely open border (just drive through) is all it takes to get from one culture to another. I took the train from Badajoz into Seville and eventually checked into a little single in a hostal. I then decided to repay some sleep debt and save the sights for another day.

Central Seville is all winding alleyways and passages that have hidden plazas with cafes and outdoor tables every few hundred meters. Food here is good with Iberian ham, gazpacho, paella and a host of other tasty tapas. I am trying to adapt to Spanish culture but am taking my time as I eat now at noon and 6 vs. 3 and 9 like they do here. One step a time.

My problem here is the everyone speaks Spanish. That isn´t really my problem. The problem is that I don´t. My Spanish is limited to what I remember from those year invested watching Sesame Street and ordering from Mexican restaurants. I seem to be doing OK with the basics on the road, but little things like getting a SIM card for my phone leave me nodding and being very confused. Want to reach out and touch someone? Hit my hip at (34) 67.134.1089. I can´t even say thank you right. I say gracias instead of Gratia's. Sesame Street gets the blame for that one.

I slept and chilled the first day here and then slept in the next. That was unfortunate since when I finally got out to see the sights, they were all closed for All Saints Day, a Spanish national holiday. And it wasn´t only the sights, the laundromats were closed too so I took a stroll with a sack full of dirty dirty clothes. More underwear was purchased.

In the rain the last day, I checked out the Alcazar which was an amazing residence built through the centuries and religions. I would definitely winter there. There was a brilliant garden that had a shrubbery maze and an platoon of gardeners maintaining it. Would have strolled it further except I grabbed a snack of spinach and garbanzos, headed to the bus station and set off to do the one thing I didn´t get to do in Portugal... sit a little while and listen to the Atlantic.

Lisbon/The Alentejo, Portugal

That was fun. One of my best mates from freshman year at school flow into Lisbon. If you can´t find a Portuguese person to roll with in Portugal, find a Brazilian. And if you can´t find one of those find an American who speaks Brazilian Portuguese.

Lisbon is cool, chill and cheap. The wealth of the New World flowed one way strait into the streets here. This place was once was an epicenter of world power. These folk ran the seas and sucked valuables and ran over cultures from lands abroad. The mighty fell off a little bit. This place is one of the less rich countries of the EU. People can be seen that are disfigured by disease. It all makes me think considering that I have citizenship in two former British colonies.

Bairro Alto is this hip, high rent neighborhood we stayed in full of bars, boutiques and restaurants. The food in Portugal is great. I stood at a pasteleria sipping a bica (espresso) and enjoying a snack of cod cake. I ate meat and potatoes at a restaurant decorated in leather and smoke where the waiter locked the door after we entered. I drank vinho verde (young sparkling white wine) in a fado club, reminiscing. The problem with food this good, rich and inexpensive is that one can overdo it. By the end of the week we literally stuffed ourselves sick.

A car was rented and we headed east to the Alentejo region. Nothing makes a man feel like a man like cruising through the country side in a very small little Kia, listening to cheesy eurohouse, on the look out for wineries and castles and discussing love, feelings and life. Yeah, serious dude stuff went down.

We stopped in Evora, Evoramonte, Monsaraz, Estramoz, and Elvas. It seems like things change very slowly in these towns. And perhaps they should considering these are places with town walls and Roman aqueducts. There are even Celtic megaliths here. Yes, all the megaliths are big rocks, but some are huge. Why were they rolled up hills and what purpose did they serve? I wanted to picnic on one, but my fiend thought it was sacrilegious. Folks sacrificed virgins and stuff on these things, and all I wanted to do was eat a little more bread, cheese and wine. Speaking of which gotta get a line on vinho verde when I get back state side. I have a feeling trip is going to give me strange, hard to fulfill culinary cravings.