Hi, all! I’m back on dunns.us. I’m sorry that I never got that Budapest blog published. Maybe it’ll drop at some point in the next year if I find the time. So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m taking a gap year this year and I’m spending it in Europe. I’m planning on blogging once a week or so, so you can follow along with my adventures.

Syracuse Hancock International Airport

My journey began last Monday, July 1. My parents, my friend Guy, and I departed from Syracuse airport to JFK, where we spent a six hour layover. After a few last-minute gate changes, we made it on our plane to Madrid. I slept pretty much the whole way, although right before landing I found out that the gaming system on the plane has Monopoly. Kinda neat.

Because of the time change, we arrived on Tuesday. Exhausted, we took an Uber to Jesús and Maite’s apartment. They are the family that my brother Jared lived with for a few months during his gap year in Spain. Tired as we were, we decided to go on a walk in Retiro Park in central Madrid with Jesús, the kids, and their dog Hooke (named after Robert Hooke, the physicist who discovered the law of elasticity.) The park was stunning; I’m excited to go on many walks there in the spring when I am living in Madrid with them.

Walk in Retiro Park

After a surprisingly cheap two-course meal for lunch, we headed back to the apartment where we rested until dinner. Two weeks ago, I tried to book tickets for the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, but they were already sold out for the days we’re going to be there, July 21st and 22nd. Tickets open six weeks in advance, but sell out very quickly. Their website updates at 10am local time, so I’ve been checking it to see if anyone canceled their ticket. Luckily, this Tuesday a few tickets opened up and I booked them right away. If you’re ever traveling to Amsterdam, make sure you get your museum tickets right away, because they will sell out.

We spent the morning of July 3rd in downtown Madrid, hitting hot tourist spots like Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, and the Royal Palace. When we got to the palace, we were surprised to see a huge crowd. The Solemn Changing of the Palace Guard occurs the first Wednesday of every month and we just happened to stumble upon it. The spectacle involved 400 soldiers, 100 horses, and some artillery. It was fun to see the soldiers playing their instruments, some from atop their horses.

Plaza Mayor

That afternoon, we left Madrid for Valencia on a high speed train. We spent the evening on the beach, swimming in the Mediterranean. It was perfect. Smooth, sandy beach. Warm, salty water. Beautiful, Spanish city. We left the beach around 10pm and had a late dinner at a Chinese restaurant near our apartment. It didn’t take long for us to adjust to the Spanish meal schedule.

Evening on the Beach

While the rest of the Americans spent July 4th celebrating the birth of our nation or the 100th anniversary of the invention of the Caesar salad, Guy and I spent it walking 30,000 steps around Valencia. Our 13 mile adventure began at 5:20 in the morning when we took off for the beach to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful to see the sun set over the city, and we figured it would be even better to watch it creep up over the horizon of the Mediterranean. We were not disappointed.

Sunrise over the Mediterranean

Someone was in for a big disappointment, however. As we were getting ready to go swimming, a Spanish boy aged 15-23 approached us. His phone had been stolen when he was in the water, and he was pretty sure he knew who’d taken it. He wanted some backup as he went to confront the drunk man who had his phone. Guy and I followed, albeit cautiously, and watched the confrontation. The drunk man said he didn’t have the phone, was being racially profiled, and then started yelling at them in French. Guy and I were not looking to get involved in a fight with a drunk man at 7 in the morning, so we backed away. I saw the kid and his girlfriend leaving a couple hours later and he didn’t have his phone. Womp womp.

Following this incident, Guy and I were much more careful. We put our valuables in a small trash bag and buried it under the sand and then put our towel and bag on top. We went for a nice swim, but made sure to stay near our stuff and watched it like hawks. Public beaches are dangerous. Stay safe, everyone.

After the beach, we got breakfast and then walked to the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (The City of Arts and Sciences,) one of the 12 Treasures of Spain. This complex is made up by an opera house, a science museum, a cultural center, a fancy IMAX-adjacent movie theater, a sculpture garden, and an aquarium. 

Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències

By 10:00, the sun was already beating down, so we decided to start inside with the movie. The movie theater is called the Hemisfèric and they show a bunch of 3D science movies in there. We watched one that was about dinosaurs. To be honest, I don’t really remember it. The early start to the morning combined with the comfortable seats in a big dark room made it very easy to doze off.

Next, the science museum. It was four stories high with exhibits on the history of the museum and the complex, history of Nobel prizes, space travel, and human mind and anatomy stuff. They also had a small animal section with a chick incubator, an ant terrarium, and some beetles. I came to Valencia in 2018 when Jared was on his gap year and I thought we were so lucky because we saw a chick hatch in that incubator. I thought that most of the time it would just be a bunch of eggs and then every few weeks some people would get to see them hatch, but the incubator looked exactly the same as it did last time. A few newly hatched chicks, some hatching, and then a few unhatched eggs. I guess I wasn’t lucky after all. We also saw a big pendulum which was fun to watch.

Newly Hatched Chicks

Finally going outside, we decided to get some ice cream before the aquarium. I love ice cream, especially Spanish ice cream. It was very good. The Oceanogràfic aquarium was also very good. I like looking at animals. I know there are probably moral issues with raising animals in captivity, but I enjoy going to zoos and aquarium. Shoutout: Syracuse is building an aquarium! What a great way to spend 85 million dollars! Anyway, the Oceanogràfic was cool. They had a dolphin show and they did a bunch of amazing tricks. I loved it.

Screenshot of Video of Dolphin Show

After the aquarium, we walked home through the Turia riverbed park. In 1957, the Turia river flooded Valencia, causing a lot of damage and killing quite a few people. The city diverted the river so that it would never happen again. This left a huge empty riverbed which they have turned into a beautiful public park. Highlights of the park are the Ciutat and Gulliver Park, our next stop. Gulliver Park is where Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver went splat. It’s a fun play park now with slides and climbing ropes and the like. I ended the night off with a nap followed by a paella dinner and then another round of gelato. Right before bed, we realized that we didn’t have our train ticket booked for the next day so panic mode ensued until we decided there was nothing we could do until the morning.

Gulliver Took a Tumble

I’m realizing that I’m writing a lot and I’m finding it difficult to find time to write this while I’m traveling with Guy. We are quite busy walking around every day, so this might not quite be a weekly blog, at least while we’re still traveling a lot. Or maybe I’ll find a way to make it more concise. We’ll see. Once I’m settled in in Paris I should have more free time.

Okay. Three more days of Spain left to recount.

Friday, July 5, 2024: We started off the morning by going to the train station to book our train ticket. It said it was all sold out online, but luckily the worker at the window helped us secure tickets for that night, arriving in Barcelona at 10pm. We snagged them and felt much better after that. We spent the rest of our day wandering around Old Town Valencia. It’s stunning. I love just wandering around. We saw the big marketplace, a few cathedrals, and the Serranos Towers. The top of the towers offered a great view of the city.

The Resemblance is Uncanny

Man Posing in Front of Serranos Towers

I slept and blogged a little on the four-hour train. Then, we arrived in Barcelona. Once at the train station, we hopped on the metro right away because we had reached out to our hostel group chat and had agreed to meet up with two girls from Switzerland to walk around the old town and the beach at night. Unfortunately, we hopped on the metro going in the wrong direction. We quickly realized our mistake, but it delayed us quite a bit. By the time we reached the plaza where the girls were, it was 11:30pm. Still, we had a nice time. It’s fun meeting other young travelers. I enjoy hearing their different perspectives on traveling and the world in general.

Saturday, July 6, 2024: The next morning, we had to check out of the hostel at 10am, so we had to carry our bags around with us until we got to our next stay. We went on a SANDEMANs Free Walking Tour which was quite entertaining and informational. Apparently Barcelona has human tower clubs that compete against each other on festival days.

Human Towers (photo credit: not me)

After the tour, we dropped off our bags at Patricia and Pedro’s apartment. We had their son Lucas as an exchange student years ago and I spent a summer living with them after 7th grade. Such an amazing family. Their other son Pablo let us use his bike pass to rent city bikes for dirt cheap and we were off to the Sagrada Familia, the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. It’s massive. It’s beautiful from the outside, but even more so from the inside where it appears as if you’ve entered a magical forest of marble and colored light. It is unlike any other cathedral or church I’ve ever been in. We went up one of the towers and got a nice aerial view of Barcelona.

Sagrada Familia

Wow Colors

Is that a Forest?

After Sagrada Familia, we found a sports bar to watch the Switzerland-England soccer game. It was uneventful and we left 60 minutes in, just before both goals were scored. We were heading to get dinner with Laura and Carolina, two other friends we knew from Barcelona, when the streets were filled with raging anti-tourist protestors. They were mad because the surge of tourists in Barcelona has led to residents renting out their apartments at very high prices to wealthy tourists, which makes residential apartment buildings both more expensive for locals and noisier and less nice to live in. Naturally, I took a picture of the protestors. I’m a tourist after all.

Touristic Photo of Anti-Tourist Protestors

We got paella on the beach with Laura and Carolina which was very nice. Carolina doesn’t speak any English so I got to speak a lot of Spanish. Our phones died, but luckily Carolina was able to drive us back to our apartment. Still, in the future we will always be bringing our portable chargers.

Seafood Paella (picture actually from Valencia)

Valencian Paella with Chicken and Rabbit

Sunday, July 7, 2024: Our last day in Barcelona, we went to Casa Battló, an early 20th century house designed by Antoni Gaudí for the Battló family. Gaudí did not like straight lines or squares so literally everything in that building is curvy. We followed Casa Battló up with a fantastic lunch at a bookstore/restaurant called Espai Quera. The food was great and the environment was just amazing. One of the oldest bookstores in Barcelona, its collection is entirely aimed at Catalan hikers and rock climbers. It’s a very niche market, so the restaurant was started up a few years ago to help the business stay afloat. 

Espai Quera

#phoneeatsfirst

Facade of Casa Battló

After lunch, we went to Plaça d’Espanya and the Arenas de Barcelona. Las Arenas used to be a bullfighting arena, but was converted into a shopping complex. Next, we trekked up Montjuïc to the castle at the top. The hike was worth it as we got a fantastic view of both the city and the coast. We got ice cream and then returned to Patricia and Pedro’s apartment to eat dinner with the family and watch the Olympic Qualifying Tournament for basketball: Spain vs Bahamas. Of course, Spain won. Viva España! We went to bed early because our flight to Rome was leaving the next morning at 6am.

View from Montjuïc

So yeah, that was my first week in Europe! I’m writing most of this in a cafe in Arezzo, Italy, but you’ll hear about that in the next blog. Bye for now!

- Justin Dunn