The land of Crumpets and Tea

Hello my fellow readers. Sorry it's been a while, trying to enjoy my last month and a half of being abroad... Anyways, this post will be about...

LONDON! So exciting.

London is beautiful. I could write you a novel on how much I fell in love with this city. From the people to the food to the sight seeing that you can do, I will be amazed if you don't fall in love with London too.

We arrived to London Thursday night around 11:00PM. Since it was so late, my friends and I just chilled at our friends flat where we were staying for the weekend. (Thanks guys so much, your flat was amazing and it was great seeing you all). 

Friday morning we went to Camden market. It's basically a ton of boutique stores and souvenir shops combined with tattoo parlors and some interesting stores that I shall not name all mashed together. On the other side of the market is a bunch of different food options and more clothes. I ended up getting this amazing Thai food for 5 pounds and ate it all. It was delicious. 

After the market we started doing touristy things. Naturally we went to Buckingham Palace. I must say it is a nice sight to see but it wasn't what I was expecting. To be honest, I love the Madrid Royal Palace 10x better but it's still a sight you must see and even take a picture of. We actually got to see the beginning of the changing of the guards as well which was really cool to watch. I am upset I didn't get to take a picture with the guards though since they don't move... ever. Oh well, gives me an excuse to go back.

Westminister Abbey!

From there we went to Westminister Abbey, Big Ben and saw a glimpse of the London Eye. Westminister Abbey was on my bucket list from day one. We didn't go inside because the line was ridiculous but just to see the Gothic church in person where Prince William and Duchess Kate were married, as well where the coronations take place and even burials of the royal family, it was absolutely breathtaking. Westminister Abbey has been something I've wanted to see for a while thanks to the show Downton Abbey which I highly recommend you watch if you like British culture and history. 

Big Ben was very cool to see. It's a lot bigger than I expected and it definitely has more parts attached to it.. By that I mean it is way more than just a clock tower.

Big Ben

That night I had fish and chips like a normal Brit and they were delicious. I definitely recommend eating them and ordering a beer to go with them. You won't regret it.

On Saturday we finished our tourist list. We went to Abbey Road to see the historic crosswalk from the Beatles cover photo for their album Abbey Road. This was a very cool sight to see as so many people came to take pictures and cars had to stop for you to take your picture which drivers must get aggravated with, I know I would. My friends and I also got to sign the wall on Abbey Road... I'm just leaving my mark all over the world while I can. 

Abbey Road. Hi Beatles

From there we went to.... HARRY POTTER. I am the biggest geek for Harry Potter, growing up I got the books the night they came out and went to every premiere of each movie. No shame. So naturally we (I) HAD to go to King's cross and get my picture taken at Platform 9 3/4. I almost bought a wand from the souvenir shop but I already have 1... and I don't need anymore shirts. This was honestly amazing. I wish I could go to Hogwarts, are you kidding? How awesome would that be! Also, they just opened up a new exhibition and there's even a Harry Potter hotel room you can stay at... so yes I will be returning to London in the near future. Not kidding.

On my way to HOGWARTS

To cap off being tourists we attended tea time. This is extremely expensive (20 pounds or more) depending upon where you go but it is well worth it. You pick the type of tea you want and you get 4 finger sandwiches as well as 4 desserts. Not bad for 20 pounds but still it's 20 pounds. I do highly recommend it as the entire meal was delicious and satisfying. Plus you have too if you want to feel like a true Brit.

Tea Time

After that my friends and I just chilled and went out for the night. I went to a pub and food festival with the friends I was visiting and had a blast. Honestly London is so different than Madrid. They like to chill and sip their beer and converse. Madrileños like to pound their drinks and rage till all hours of the morning. 

I fell in love with London. I fell in love with the people (but can you blame me? British accents, sign me up). I fell in love with the atmosphere. I fell in love with the food. I fell in love with it all. London is definitely a place you must visit. It has a lot to offer and they speak English. Yes it extremely expensive and had I not been able to stay with friends, I wouldn't have gone seeing as how it's almost 2x the price of the dollar but if you can afford it then you MUST go. You will not regret it and honestly I think I want to move there one day. There was something about London that makes me want to come back for more and I can't complain. Okay...maybe I can. I just wanted chipotle to fix my craving and it was super expensive.. so I guess I'll wait for when I get back to the states.. Other than that, I can see myself living a happy and content life as a lawyer in London. Maybe not forever but for a while.

Cliché photo booth picture

Always remember my dear readers: "Travel far enough and you might meet yourself"

I am thankful each and everyday I get to share this amazing and wonderful opportunity with you all and that from all of this I get to grow as an individual. I hope you are all enjoying my travels so far as much as I am. It's a big world out there, go see it.

Until next time,

Nicholas Aliquo

München as the Germans say

Hello my dear readers. I hope you are all enjoying your lives and will enjoy this next blog post about (drum roll).... MUNICH, if you couldn't tell by the title.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going to Oktoberfest. Hands down best decision of my life. But more than that I got to explore Munich and a concentration camp... okay I'm getting ahead now. Forget everything after Oktoberfest...

Friday morning my roommate and a few friends of ours left for the airport at 6AM. Our flight took off at 7:30 and we landed in Munich at 10:00AM. Immediately I was both in shock and in love because not only was the airport amazing and unlike any airport I have seen, all the signs were in German.. -_- So for once in my life the couple languages I actually know were unable to help me. If you have never heard German, I recommend you find a German and listen. It is quite interesting and sounds like they are shouting basically.

Any who, we left from the airport and went to the city center. Beautiful. Amazing. Spectacular. I could go on and on. Munich is hands down one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. We climbed their town hall and I even signed my name at the top on a wall. We overlooked all of Munich it was unlike anything I could imagine. The weather was perfect as well. All the stores were unfortunately closed because of a holiday, not like I could afford those expensive stores on a poor college students budget but hey, I just wanted to pretend I could. Here my friends and I enjoyed a mix variety of German nuts and yes they were delicious from the Pecan's to Cashews to Walnuts to everything. They were made right in front of us and the smell was so enticing that you had to walk over and buy some.

Signed my name on the Town Hall

The nut lady making them fresh

From the city center we went to the Residence Palace and it was so nice with the fall leaves. It is basically like any palace you have seen but in Munich so... it's cool. After that we went to the Englischer Beer Gardens. This place was packed. The walk was extremely beautiful and there was music going on. This is where my friends and I enjoyed our first German beers. Note to the readers always ask your friends what is in the beer if you didn't go up and get it with them. My friends told me that the Stein (German beer glass) was full of 50% beer, 30% vodka and the rest sprite just as I was about to chug it. Nonetheless 2 of those and you will be feeling gooooood. Here we also stole some Steins as a memory and yeah I am proud of that. Those things are expensive. Again, college student, do they not understand that?

Residence Palace

Town Hall

Selfie from the top of the Town Hall

After we went back to our campsite and just hung out there with our friends. We had so many people staying there that it was a nice relaxing night plus our tent reservation came with all you can drink sangria and beer so that may or may not have been a plus. Anyways, I made friends with so many people this night especially this one girl who kept making me talk in a Boston accent because she loves Boston so much and a Norwegian who bought his pants in the woman's section... yeah that happened.

First German Beer

Look at all the Pretzels  

THE DAY YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR:
OKTOBERFEST, OR AS I SHOULD SAY THE GREATEST DAY TO EVER BE INVENTED.

OKTOBERFEST

We got up at 6:30AM which was miserable because I practically froze to death the night before. If you go to Munich at any point in the next few months bring better clothes than shorts and a light weight running jacket and bring a pillow or you will severely suffer. I promise. Caught the bus at 7 with some friends and headed over to the Hofbrauhaus. We didn't actually get into the tent until 9 so you can picture 6 starving college students out in the cold for 2 hours... it's not pretty. Once the doors opened it was a free for all. Literally a free for all. No order, no structure, it didn't even matter if you had been waiting for 2 hours or 2 minutes, you just ran and pushed and shoved. We finally got a table with our friends and ordered our first round. It was amazing. The atmosphere was crazy and people were singing and chugging. YES the chugging. You stood up on a table and chugged your beer. People clapped and cheered you on if you succeeded and booed you if failed. One girl failed miserably so she just poured her beer on her, props to you girl. You do you. Finally I met up with other friends from school at this tent on accident, I was just trying to find the bathroom but I played it off as if I was looking for them. I bought the most delicious cinnamon pretzel I HAVE EVER HAD oh and my friends and I split two bratwurst. So good.

Introducing the hook up couple

Seflie with 4,000 people

Finally around 3PM after about 5 steins we decided we wanted to go on some rides. I bought a killer shirt while we were walking around if I may add. We went on three rides, the Ferris wheel which featured a couple whose sole purpose was to hook up the entire time.. Are you kidding me. They didn't even look out of the Ferris wheel once.. DON'T YOU NEED AIR AT SOME POINT. Anyways after that we went on a ridiculous fast version of the teacups but it was with cars and it was amazing. All the Europeans were laughing at my roommate and I because we kept dancing in our car to the music... It was great music what can I say. Also, outside of the bumper cars my friends and I started to break it down dancing due to the music and people clapped... so you could say we were kind of like celebrities for that split second. After this we went to go into another tent but we didn't feel like waiting so we left and returned to the tent site and just hung out with some friends and enjoyed our last night of camping in that god awful campsite.

These are my friends

The next morning before our flight we decided to be tourists again. We went to the Dachau Concentration Camp and this was a remarkable site to see. I've been to a concentration camp but it's never any easier when you go to a new one. People cry and have to stop half way through to catch their breath and take a moment to recollect themselves. But every time I go to a new one I learn so much more and I learn things I never knew before. This one camp had 20+ other sub camps and this camp alone saw 200,000 people in it's 12 years. It was also the only camp that was open from start to end the entire time in Germany. We got to see their barracks, their shower arrangements, photos of people being operated on for testing purposes, photos of people in the gas chamber, photos of dead bodies on top of dead bodies. It was insane. Being Jewish, it definitely hits me. Even if I wasn't Jewish it would still hit me. The fact that this didn't even happen 100 years ago is something that still gets to me. The events that took place at these concentration camps are unbearable and unthinkable and utterly repulsive but I am glad that I got to see this and read letters of survivors and families who lost or found their loved ones. I highly recommend you come here if you get the chance. You won't be disappointed just teary eyed.

Dachau Concentration Camp

1933-1945

All in all, I am in love with Munich. It is beautiful. Yeah the nights may suck and get cold but whatever I could deal. There would be nothing stopping me from studying there for a semester if I could. The buildings are beautiful, the food is to die for and the people are so amazingly nice. I will go back to Oktoberfest again in the future and I'll make sure when I have kids that they go to this remarkable celebration. You just meet so many people from around the world, it's hard to pass up an opportunity like this.

Now introducing the beer that had vodka: Rabbler

Munich, I will be back. Don't you worry!

Ich liebe dich.

Casual fall photo

Lo Que es la Vida

Hello again. I'm back. I know you are all excited to read this next post!

Let's see what have I been up to in the last two weeks...

I tried a churro for the first time. Heaven. So worth it. Especially dipped in chocolate. It's like a two peas in a pod or a fat kid with cake, they just go together! Yummy!

Lean like a Churro (get your heads out the gutter)

I got to meet some of my favorite actors. Not sure if you have ever heard of the show Teen Wolf (yes I watch it, sue me) well they had a conference here in Madrid. So my friend and I went and we were lucky enough to get to actually sit right near the stage and even converse with them. We even got a picture taken with one of the actors. To top it off they invited us out with them that night however we didn't make it because the staff rushed us out so they could keep on schedule so we didn't get to exchange numbers or anything to communicate. (Tweeting doesn't work when they have 5,000 people tweeting at them every second, note to self). They were so confused when we spoke perfect English until we told them we were from the states. They thought we flew all the way out here just to see them but were even more amazed when we said we were studying abroad here. That's when things really hit off it and we just kept talking. But it was amazing none the less just to be there. The picture topped it off though. We met so many people from so many different places that flew in solely just to see this and we just happened to stumble upon it. Definitely the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. Hey Teen Wolf or MTV, if you ever need an extra, let me know ;)

Tyler Hoechlin. Such a pleasure

I went to my first ever Real Madrid football game. It was amazing. Real won 5-1 with Cristiano scoring 4 goals. Oh and there were like cops next to my section the entire time. Pretty sure the group next me were either trouble makers or involved in something bad because their section was circled by 20 cops the entire game. They weren't even allowed to move. Sucks to suck. Any who, the atmosphere, the people, the stadium. Everything. I have no words. You must go to a game if you are ever in Madrid. My next goal is to go to a Manchester United game while I am in London :) Also, they do not serve beer in the stadium here, you have been warned. But there are a million and one parties happening on the outside so it does not even matter. They have a million chants and they sound so much better than our American ones but just pretend you know the words and you'll be fine. If you don't take a picture at the game, did you even go?

Selfie with stadium because why not?

Real Madrid, te amo

I went to go visit El Escorial. It was beautiful to say the least. It is becoming fall here and the colors just made it look beautiful. The tour took us 2 and a half hours and we didn't even see it all. The town is cute and it's only an hour from Madrid. I recommend going to visit. It's where the Kings and Queens used to live and most of them are currently buried. Yeah that was freaky. They also have a separate tomb for royal children that died at birth. Never have I felt like so many people were watching me. But it must have been amazing to live in this palace. I would 100% get lost every day but that's fine because I wouldn't want to leave. It was miraculous.

This is the entrance of El Escorial...

El Escorial. So nice

I think that is it for now. It's still amazing to me the things I get to see and do. Still feels like it's all a dream but I am making the most of it even if it leaves me broke. It's truly remarkable and it's far from over.

Next weekend I'll update you on my trip to Oktoberfest when I return. Words can describe how excited I am for that.

Adios amigos!

Yeah, I can be artsy

Madrid, Te Amo!

Yikes. I really suck at this whole updating my blog thing. Rather than make this massive, this will be about my first two weeks in Madrid. Let's begin!

Thursday 5:30PM August 28th, I met my host family. Obviously you can imagine the range of emotions going through my head. Will they like me? Can they speak some English? Are they awesome? Do they only speak Spanish? What did I just get myself into?! Well.... showtime! I was introduced to Veronica and Alfonso and it was interesting. They didn't speak any English to me, but they did to my roommate. (Yes, I am basically the translator between them, but it's okay we are all teaching each other.)  We got to their apartment and I instantly died. The view was beautiful and it was perfect. It felt like home from the start. The apartment is spacious, our bathroom is huge and our room is a pretty big size. It's located in the middle of everything, so we can either take the metro which is super easy or walk. They are super sweet and gave us all the details, showed us where we put our picture on the wall once we leave here and they call us their "niños" because they don't have kids. (Insert AWE here). They know just about everything about anything where we want to go and tell us how to get there. Naturally, we try to listen and we get lost. A 7 minute walk home once from this club took an hour. This wasn't just a one time thing either. HA.

The view from our apartment

Did I mention our room is next to the kitchen? I mean, hello Junior 30. Just kidding, the Junior 30 will be from all the food they feed us.... no joke. They look at you like a deer in headlights if you don't finish all the food or say you aren't that hungry. The food however is amazing here. I don't just mean restaurants, I mean our host mom is an amazing cook. They will make a giant plate of something, they both take an 1/8 and leave the rest for my roommate and I. Not to mention they make 1,000 side plates so if you are still hungry after that, I'm confused. Hence why I joined a gym. Not trying to come back and enter into a fast food eating competition. We have ate so many different types of food. My favorite if you couldn't tell by last post is CROQUETAS. I will learn how to make this and you will all fall in love. I have to say the weirdest is calamari in it's own ink. But I mean if you get passed the fact that it's not fried and you can see its legs dangling on your fork, you'll be just fine! Just close your eyes and try to ignore the squishy-ness when you chew, that's what I did...  sort of. They also love rabbit. I'll be sure to let you all know how that is. But they do serve wine with every meal here. It's every underage kids dream. Well that and the drinking age is 18 here. But we generally have a new bottle of wine to start dinner and it's gone by the end of dinner. Not complaining, it's some good vino.

Calamari in it's own ink. Appetizing right?

You would think being in the fashion capital of the world it would be easy to find clothes here right? No. Europeans are highly fashionable, don't get me wrong but their clothes are very different. I have tried four malls and couldn't find any t-shirts because European's like loose fitting necks rather than tight ones in America. Yes loose fit necks are different than V-necks which they have here. They also like skinny jeans and short shorts so that's new. No I will not try that. I fell in love with this store called Pull and Bear and guess what it's all loose fit necks, but don't worry their winter stuff isn't! It's wicked cheap too and I mean I am a poor college student so like nice clothes for cheap prices? Hey now. They dress nice even going to the gym. Really? The gym. I look like a bum off the streets at the gym and they are wearing some nice clothes to sweat in. Speaking of the gym, yeah... we aren't in America anymore. Europeans are very comfortable with their bodies and themselves. By that I mean, naked men and women in the locker rooms everywhere. Basically you are at the beaches here but a gym. The showers only have walls but NO DOORS so it's like a free for all and the towels are so small that they cover nothing, and I MEAN NOTHING. Basically it's a strip club for free but of all the same sex. That's just how comfortable they are here though. It's definitely a culture shock.

School. Yes I am here for school. The building is pretty cool. Nothing crazy and it's 5 minutes from my house. Can't complain. I like my classes and the people in them. I have a feeling this will be a great semester academically so I'm looking forward to learning a lot. The teachers are super nice as well and extremely passionate about the subjects they offer. Our school offers a lot as far as trips, cooking classes, meeting other europeans and even a card that allows us to take advantage on trips. Hello Paris, London, Italy, Amsterdam, Oktoberfest and Denmark. See you all within the next few months! May throw another in there because when will I ever get to do this again? Never.

Fishbowl... of heaven

THE NIGHTLIFE. Wow. Where do I begin. The nightlife here is insane. Never seen anything like it. I know every country has their own nightlife but I'm sorry you cannot top Madrid or Spain in general. The clubs are insane, the music is generally good (and American, go figure) and the drinks are amazing. Pretty sure Europeans just sing American songs without knowing what the lyrics mean, it's quite funny actually. But hey, that's like me with Spanish except I make up the words. They usually offer deals to either get in the club or get x amount of drinks at the clubs. The bars are generally cheap, well at least for shots but I mean what more do you need if you're on a budget. Plus there are so many Europeans and I don't just mean Spaniards at the clubs, that it's basically an international project X depending upon where you go. This is where Europeans dress to impress and just kill it. Beautiful people everywhere and yeah they can dance. Then you find us Americans in a herd and you're like oh... they are American. They'll spot you in a second like the ugly duckling. Especially since Americans are extremely loud and obviously we dress different. Plus we speak English so yeah that's a big give away.

Kapital 1 : Friends 0

My first two weeks here have been amazing. Obviously I've been here longer than that I'm just splitting this up. Can't put too much of a good thing in one blog post! I can get used to this life here. It's amazing, enjoyable and fun all at once. I may get fat from the food (just kidding I will not let that happen) but at least I'll have some European fashion to come back to the states with. And who knows maybe a European girlfriend or some form of royalty? Hey, a kid can dream can't he!

Selfie with the Almudena Cathedral anyone?

HASTA LUEGO.

Are we in Madrid yet?!

Three weeks. Three weeks I have been in Spain. I can't believe it. I've already done and seen so much and my adventure is far from over. Let's do a quick recap of my travels upon arriving in Madrid so far, shall we?

My plane took off from NYC and arrived in Barcelona on Monday, August 18th. It was a smooth ride with some vino (thats wine in Spanish), music and a TV so I could re-watch suits starting with season 1 (I just want to be Harvey). There was a small infant on the plane that kept crying and screaming for about 4/7 hours we were on the plane, so you can imagine my hatred for children at this moment in time... but that's besides the point. Immediately when we landed it was so hot. It was about 97 degrees and I wanted to die.

From Barcelona we went directly to Tarragona where I saw a water festival. 100% the best start to my adventures in Spain. It was so much fun and I got drenched in water (if you didn't put that together) all while enjoying some nice sangria. We also saw the roman amphitheater, basically like the roman colosseum but not as big. Here I fell in love with my new favorite dish, Croquetas. No joke I eat them everywhere. I ate an entire plate one night. Just croquetas. Ask me if I care? Nope. They are like mozzarella sticks but 10x better.

My view in Tarragona

From Tarragona we went to Barcelona, definitely one of the most beautiful cities and my favorite at this point. Barcelona is indescribable. The people are so nice and they are all beautiful. The food is amazing and the clubs are unreal. We went to this club called Opium and I promise you I will be going back. I fell in love with a new clothing store called Pull and Bear. Thank god they have five of them located in Madrid (Am I European Yet?) While in Barcelona we saw the Dali Museum (it's cool if you're into art, but I am not), and we saw La Sagrada Familia, which was designed and partly built by Gaudí (AMAZING, you must go see it). I also recommend staying at Hotel Lleo because, well, it's in the heart of Barcelona and it rocks.

Hotel Lleo view of Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia. Must see. GO INSIDE

Next we went to San Millán in Zaragoza. It was a monastery and yeah it was cool but the guy spoke so fast in Basque (different type of Spanish) that I made up the tour and information as I went along (#American). We only stayed here for a day so it wasn't miserable. Thank god.

HERE COME'S MY FAVORITE CITY. Bilbao. So amazing. So beautiful. So cool to see. We were there during Aste Nagusia (their biggest festival) and it was so crazy. They hate American's so beware, or just don't be American. If you find Hotel Nervion, to the right of it is a place to eat (also on the right) you can't miss it. They have the most amazing sandwiches for 5 euros. Ate there two nights in a row out of my three nights here (no shame right?) I could write an entire essay on Bilbao it's just so perfect. The fireworks are amazing, the Guggenheim museum is ridiculous and it's just so beautiful to walk around. Also, they love to dance here and you have to try to learn it because it is so fun.

Selfie Game on Point. BYE ELLEN

Finally we went to Salamanca. It was nice here. Our hotel wanted us to freeze to death but besides that, you can't go wrong. Also in every hotel, their breakfasts are the same. Eggs, toast, multiple juices, chocolate donuts, some weird coffee machine, multiple types of sausages and eggs. Did I mention eggs? Didn't think so. Salamanca is full of bars and clubs and people trying to get you take a deal and go to their bar. But don't believe them and don't get sideswiped. Ask them to speak english or leave. You will see 100 of them on your walk to any bar and they will all approach you.

I had lunch in Portugal one day! Yup. Just lunch. How cool is that?! Well actually to beat that, I went to Paris one day just to go to the beach. Yeah, the beach. European beaches > America. Actually European everything > America. You will see topless women and men in speedos here, don't say I didn't warn you. Oh and get a crepe. They are to die for. #FatKidProblems

We went to other places in between but these were the main parts. The parts I enjoyed and liked for the most part. There are cathedrals everywhere. I repeat everywhere, and I saw one to three in every city I went to... oiye.

A castle in Burgos

And yeah. That was my Pre-Madrid travel. It was an awesome experience, full of a lot of bread, expensive water and it being so hot outside that I will come back looking like a Victoria Secret's model probably from sweating so much. I'll be sure to post more frequently especially about my time in Madrid so far because well, Madrid is even better.

On our way to France

 Hasta Luego Mis Amigos!