Made it to Egypt

I've made it to Egypt. It has only been a few hours, but I have done so much. I met my friend from the law school Stephanie and we've been having an excellent time seeing all of the pyramids. I would write more but we are catching a 12 hour sleeper train to Aswan. When I get better internet connection and more time I will post pictures....there is a lot to talk about and show.

When in Rome...Don't do as Adam

I know it has been a few days since I have posted anything, but Internet access has not been as accessible as before. Nonetheless, I've been in Rome for about 4 days and it has been the hottest (temperature) out of all four cities that I have visited.

When I got to Rome I did all of the touristy things, like go to the Colosseum and the Vatican. One thing I can say is that Rome is probably the most heavily populated American tourist spots in Europe. One thing I hate is that it is overly saturated with tour groups and school kids. I mean you cannot walk five feet without hitting a cluster of fifty people with some extremely perky person at the front holding a colorful umbrella. Then the Vatican, although beautiful, was very crowded. I ran through that place so quickly because the congestion of all the people started to get to me. I did stop at the Sistine Chapel to take in the glorious work of Michelangelo.

My stay in Rome was split between two hostels (just how I planned it out). The first hostel was this trendy place that was geared towards American travelers. The other hostel was some random place I found on the Internet. After I checked out of the first hostel I went looking for the Sunshine Hostel. I started walking in the hot Rome sun looking for this hostel. The area went from a very tourist friendly to this broken down "skid row" type of an area. Who ever knew Rome had a skid row? Nonetheless, by the time I found this hostel it was in a run down building with graffiti all over it (I can't believe that I did it again...I sure can pick em').

So I buzzed the hostel at least three times and no one answered. When I went to the front door of the Sunshine I rang the bell and again no answer. No one would come to the door. I think the place went out of business. I had already walked 30 minutes away from other hostel to walk back. So I was left homeless in Rome.

Next best thing was to start randomly going around to hotels and see if they had any available rooms within my budget....which again is a very low budget. The first hotel turned me down, but the second hotel had one available room. The guy at the front desk, Julio looked at me and said in a very thick Italian accent, "For you 80 euros a night". I told Julio AKA "Jewels" that I could not afford 80 euros a night for a hotel. I told him what my budget was and he affirmed that I would not get that rate anywhere in Rome. He was nice enough to call around to a few places to find me a cheaper place, but no luck. The cheapest he could find was 120 euros a night. He even called the other trendy hostel to see if they had any beds, but they too were completely booked.

So my good friend Julio broke down and said that he has an extra room that they only use in emergencies but the bathroom is outside of the room. So my good friend Julio showed me what looked like the old maid quarters from 60 years ago, but he would give it to me at my quoted rate. I could not complain because I know the going rates for hotels in Rome from my research and I was not going to get a better than that. So we went back to the front deck and before he could swipe my card Julio looks at his book and looks at me and says, "I'll give you a regular room at that rate. I won't put you in that other room". My good friend Julio must have felt some petty on my poor American soul and cut his regular price by more than half to satisfy my weak and pathetic budget. Without Julio I would have been sleeping on skid row.


Just as a side note I almost was deported for making this entry into this blog....or close to it.

While I was sitting in some random Internet cafe around the corner from where I was washing my clothes, the place got raided by the Italian police. They went around and started asking everyone for documentation. It turns out that the law in Italy is that you have to give up documentation (passport) in order to use a public Internet cafe. They passed the law as part of their anti-terrorism efforts. I don't know how it prevents terrorism but they think it does. I think it is worth mentioning that most of the cafes in Rome are run and used by Arab immigrants. They question you as though you were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike for driving the speed limit in a nice car. My inner law student wanted to protest, but I remembered that I was not in the US. I don't know what they were saying to the guy working the place, but I can only imagine exactly what was being said. If you ask me the whole shake down was pure harassment.

Therefore, this will be my only post from Italy. I am going to wrap myself up in my American flag and its Bill of Rights and wait to use the Internet in a more free nation.





The outside of the Pantheon. The only structure in Rome that it is not in ruins. I studied this in Classical Art freshman year at Howard.

The inside of the Pantheon.

She wolf with Romulus and Remus. This is one of the few pieces I actually remember talking about in the class. My professor would always tell us what to check out if we were ever in Rome.

One Chicken McNugget Away From Turning into Ronald McDonald

Some of you who know my eating habits really want to know what I've been eating on this trip. Well, as you can guess from the title a whole heck of a lot of Mr. McDonald´s delectable treats. So far I have been to three countries and in all three of them I have managed to stop into McDonald´s at least twice. There is one on almost every block (good ole´globalization). However, they have not mastered the fries like their American counterparts. Spain has come the closest out of the three, but their fries was little to salty. I know because I eat McDonald´s three times a week in DC.

I am not a complete gastronomic bore. Every place I've gone I've tried something different. The food in London was not good. It taste sort of like the back of an old man´s heel (whatever that taste like, but I´m sure London does a great job licking so many heels so their food can taste just as bad). The best food in Paris I found in the open markets right below Notre Dame. I loved walking through there and it was in my budget. Plus, I really enjoyed the crepes and the pastries. Before I left I made sure that I filled up on as much wine as possible like it was going out of style. I was about one glass away from not making it Barcelona.


These are the people I hung out with on the last night in Paris. Most of them were traveling strays like myself, and half of them were Canadian. I was the lone American. They're the reason why waking up for my flight was so hard.

Right now I am in Barcelona and the weather is absolutely great. The first thing that I eat when I got here was paella, which is my favorite dish. I will eat it again tonight and tomorrow until it gets old (which it wont).

The best area to stay in Barcelona is right next to Las Ramblas which is the main strip. That is where all the stores, street performers, and night spots are located. However, that's not where I´m staying. I am a couple of blocks away from it in an abandon building off of a dark ally. The room is nice, but the location is all wrong. Looking at a map it seemed like the best place to stay, but I was mistaken. The streets are narrow and when you go down the side streets you have to hold your nose every couple of feet because of some unspeakable putrid smell.

Here are some pictures from Barcelona.

This is the outside of my hostel. They couldn't even pull together enough money to put up a real sign. Some random guy on the street had to help me find it.

Earth, Wind and Fire or French Revolution

Let me get the boring stuff out of the way first. I went to the Louvre yesterday to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Afterwords I traveled out to Versailles to see the Palace and the Garden. All were very nice and took some great pictures.

I thought that would have been my whole day, but it gets better. When I was walking back from visiting Versailles, I noticed everyone in the bars huddled around the TVs watching the news. I thought to myself, "Wow, the French really make an event out of watching the news." I got to my hostel their TV was turned to the news too which displayed a count down like on New Year's Eve.

At about 14 seconds I turned and asked the guy at the front desk what was going on. He quickly hushed me and informed me that they were about to announce the new president of France. Then the a guy's picture emerged, Nicolas Sarkozy won and half of Paris erupted into cheers. But not everyone in Paris was happy. I asked the guy at the front desk was this a good or bad thing. He responded and I quote, "No. He is like Bush. This is a bad day for France."

There was young lady from Texas, Katherine, who was in the lobby watching the events too. She has been living in France for the past year and is fluent in french. I asked her if she could explain the difference between the guy and the woman, Royal, of the socialist party. She compared Royal to Hillary Clinton and Sarkozy to a short version of Bush. Currently France has reached a fork in the road with whether to be a society that integrates with other cultures or preserve their French heritage. (I'll let you guess who is on which side). There has been an influx of immigrants from previous French colonies in Northern Africa. Plus, their unemployment rate has reached 8%.

Enough with political facts I just needed to set the scene. While Katherine and I were watching the news we saw that there was a victory party going on in the center of Paris. So we decided to find the victory party (We don't party with losers). They had a full out concert in the center of Paris with over 10,000 people. As walked up to the concert, I began to hear Earth, Wind and Fire performing. Sorry, it was not them but a French imitation group singing all American songs in English and just as good as the American performers. The concert was excellent and FREE.

So after we left the victory concert we went back to the hostel. Near the hostel there was a mob of people marching in protest. When I went into the lobby of hostel there was a guy from Ireland named James in and he was just as curious as me to see were the crowed was going. At that point we decided to go join the French Revolution. However, by the time we walked outside everyone was gone. So we started to walk around the streets behind the hostel and eventually came upon a peaceful group of protestors walking around with this tacky piece of blown up plastic. We walked with them until there bad idea of a float deflated and they had no more duck to save it from its many holes.

As we left the peaceful group and walked back to the hostel we notice an angry mob across the street from us and only one block from our hostel. As we walked by them on the opposite side of the street, they began to hurl bottles at riot police who were lined up in their full riot gear. Before we knew it tear gas cans were being shot into the crowd. One of the cans got kicked over near James and I spraying tear gas in our direction. At that point we thought it was a good idea to run.

When I got back to the hostel I went to my room with the three old women. They had saw the whole thing from our room. As we looked out of our window we could see the police attacking the Revolution outside the front door of our hostel. We had to close our windows because the tear gas started to come into our room. The riot police was able to quickly move the crowd away from our building.

One thing I can say is that I learned so much about French politics. Tomorrow I'll be on my way to Barcelona.

Hostels Are Not Made for the Young at Heart

Okay, yesterday I checked into my hostel in Paris and it was the first time that I had slept in the same room with other people. I know it is not the glamorous way to travel, but if you had my budget that is where you would be staying.

Anyway, when I got back to my room after my long walk to the Eiffel Tower (I will tell you that story a little later....keep reading) and the Arc de Triomphe, I was greeted by my roommates. All three are women, but please do not get any ideas because it is far from "Girls Gone Wild". They are from China, South Korea, and Boston. The women from China and SK are about 30 with Botox. However, the woman from Boston takes the cake (notice I have avoided the phrase "young ladies"). In the first five minutes of meeting her, she informed us that she is almost 60 years old! Being 60 was not the bad part, it was that she would not shut up.

In keeping with our friendly meeting,we all decided to go to Eiffel Tower to see it at night (I know I agreed to go back). On our way there way stopped to get some food and the Korean woman claimed she got an urgent phone call that she had to go back to take. The Chinese woman decided to follow her back. Yeah you got it, they both bailed on us like they had it timed.

So the "grandmother" from Boston talked and talked and by the 6th time she mentioned that she went to Harvard and told me about her divorce, I was hoping one of my friends would call with an emergency (Erin where were you when I needed you). She is a very nice person, but I cannot do motherly figure for the next three days. So, for today, I will be like the Korean woman and avoid her like the plague.

The point is, leave the YOUTH HOSTELS to the youth.

**** All of the women do have names, but I am really bad with them but perfect with ethnic origins*****

Briefly, I decided to go up the Eiffel Tower the cheap way, I walked (I am on a tight budget). The walk up is not for the "out of shape". About half way up to the first observation level there was a hold up on the stairs. There was this five year old girl who was screaming and crying because she could not go up any further. For one it seemed like she had one to many animal crackers in her previous 4 years of life plus she seemed scared. What made it worst is that her parents were literally dragging her up the stairs as though there was a million euros waiting for them at the top. Then a couple who passed by me turned to each other and said, "They must be Americans".

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.......

How Not To Speak The Language

Before I get to my first experience in a non-English speaking country, I must briefly tell you about yesterday.

My cousin Faye put me in contact with her cousin Alisa, who has also traveled the world. She was very helpful in showing me around and providing me with a little bit company. I kind of made my last day in London my cultural day with art galleries and a play. I went to the Manet to Picasso Exhibit at the National Gallery. Then I went to this awful play about Olaudah Equiano. I don't even want to waste your time explaining all the things that were wrong about it. Note to self, when "African Snow" comes to DC, SKIP IT!

For the past week I've been trying to learn some simple french travel phrases. Simple things like, "Do you speak English". I had brought a phrase book from Borders and downloaded a couple of podcast lessons to listen to on my Ipod. I was practicing these phrases on the train ride to Paris and the flight to London.

When I get to Paris I went immediately to the subway desk to buy my ticket. This was my moment to show that I was a true international traveler. When I got up to the desk the words that came out of my mouth were, "Do you speak English". Now, the first rule in speaking to someone of another language is never ask them in your own language if they speak your language, they will never understand.

Needless to say I walked away felling like a fool, but I learned my lesson. The phrase is "Parlez-vous anglias?"

My First Glimpse

I finally made it London yesterday after a very good flight on Virgin Atlantic. I must say, I don't know how they are staying in business because there was literally one person per row. So I laid out across four seats and slept the whole flight. I kind of laughed knowing that there was someone sitting in first class who paid five times what I paid for a little "extra space".

When I got to London I did what any responsible traveler would do, I followed everyone else (sheep). I figured between the guy sitting in front of me and the posted signs I could figure out the airport. The only exciting thing at the airport was seeing a guy make a commotion at customs after being denied entry. So I did what all the rest of the nosey Americans did, we stared. I thought to myself, "please get louder and throw your hands up some more, then they're really going to let you in".

Once I left the airport I was excited to see my first glimpse of the London scene. When I checked in at my hostel I dropped my bags and quickly made my way towards the underground. The underground was not that hard to navigate. I figured if I can do subways in NY and the metro in DC I would be okay.

My first day consisted of me walking aimlessly throughout the streets of London. I stumbled on a few places like Buckingham Palace and Westminster. I'm going back today to check out the changing of the guard. For the most part the weather is very nice day. I did the typical American thing and ate at MacDonald's. Plus, I now understand what some homeless guy once told me when he said that Starbucks is taking over the world. Because they are.

Tomorrow I'll be in Paris. Can't wait.

This is Alisa and I with some random child from California who wanted to be in the picture with us.