Day 3 or the Day of the Olympic Swim

Today was the start of a love affair, some might say an obsession but I think it’s perfectly natural. Today was my first Church! The cathedral in Barca is completely epic! It’s called the ‘Sagrada Família’ designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. The church has 18 towers: 12 for the Apostles, 4 for the Evangelists, another for the Virgin Mary and the tallest tower represents Jesus Christ. It’s truly epic! Even the pictures don’t show the true scale of the thing. Though it does fit with the epic nature of Barcelona, the city is completely huge!



Today was also the day we had a swim in the Olympic swimming pool. As I’ve said it’s in the 1992 Olympic Village overlooking the city of Barcelona. Belly flops and dives were done by all =)

Day 2 or the Day of Stupid Flipflops

Barcelona is an epic city! It’s scale is incredible so you really need to get a subway ticket to get around. Even with that you have to do a lot of walking. That day we had a wander around the docks area, had a bite to eat at MacDonald’s (it was cheap don’t criticizes).

Then we headed towards the Olympic Village. It was up a massive hill and I made the mistake of wearing flipflops…..ouch!!!
The Olympic village is a very strange place. It has fantastic architecture but is completely empty. It feels more like a ghost town than an area of athletic achievement. We did spot the Olympic swimming pool and people swimming in it so we thought we’d go for a swim tomorrow.

At the hostel we found that we were sharing with more people than expected….
Yes! It’s a duck. Bought as a joke. Lived in a locker. Funny Stuff!



We headed to the new camp to watch Barca play Man City, thinking that Man City would get dicked. Shockingly enough, Man City won 0-1. It was a scary experience walking through Barcelona at night with 80,000 angry Barcelona fans…ah well!

Day 1 or the Day of Lost Luggage!

We flew out to Barcelona today from Bristol Airport. It was pretty uneventful until Fraser lost his luggage. Though we were being sensitive to Frasers’ feelings it was absolutely hilarious! We took numerous pictures of all of our bags, you know, to rub it in.



It did finally get sorted and his luggage would make it to our hostel a few hours later. We jumped on a busy train to the Centric Point hostel where we were staying three nights. We were sharing with 12 other people so it was pretty packed in there. We spent a couple of hours on a roof terrace where we had a few drinks and looked over the city.

We made a trip to the New Camp to buy tickets to Barcelona FC’s exhibition game against Manchester City. 25euros for a ticket! BARGIN!

Once we got back, we played cards with a random Dutch girl. Anuke taught us some important Dutch phrases such as ‘...strawberry on the ass’ and ‘f**king in the kitchen.’ She also hustled us at cards and beat us at schlam(that’s snap for us normal people)!!!! She went out that night and I therefore lost my sharking opportunity, sad times.

Twas the night before...

Yes, after a long period without blogging I'm back! Everything is packed and ready for me to fly off to Barcalona tomorrow. See everyone in a month!

The Golden Ticket

Morning Everyone!!! Just got my Train Ticket in the post!!! I'm very very very excited now! 12 days to go!

I've got my insurance sorted too! Managed to find some "backpacker" insurance so I'm covered for the times I’m inevitably going to get hurt in Europe (I am exceptionally clumsy).

All I need to do now is have a look at backpacks, sort my bank out and buy some more random paraphernalia! :)

no one ever gets the truth from plastic man

Went back to the original website and my Visa card worked! My interrail pass starts on the 21st August so I'll be in Spain by then...very excited!! I got the Global Pass for one month which should give me free rail travel on certain trains across the EU. Now I need to sort out my insurance! I'll do that tomorrow:)

Peace Out!

I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set and I think I need a lear jet.....Money!

Today I tried to sort out my interrail pass! Such a headache! I originally wanted to use www.interrailnet.com. I went thought all of the steps of payment but was declined every time. After calling my bank a couple of times I was told it was because the website didn't ask for the issue number of my debit card. Therefore, I should get in contact with the website...which of course would be difficult. My friends were able to buy their tickets easily on that website though. They appear to be the cheapest too.

With my problems, I decided to go to another website, www.interrail.net, to buy my tickets. This website DID ask for my issue number but the payment was not confirmed for some reason. I tried to call up that website but people are only in the office weekdays. Tomorrow I'll give them a call and tell you what happens. It might be my bank...grrrrr!!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Flight Booked!!!!!!! Yes, we’re jet setting to Barcelona on the 18th August. We managed to get an extremely cheap flight with Easy Jet, about £40 with everything included. We used a flight comparison site to get an overview of all the deals but you have to remember to snap up the bargains while they’re there. The more people who buy tickets the more expensive the flight would get! WE HAVE 18 DAYS UNTIL WE LEAVE!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KIC FM

The lovely people at kicfm are following my exploits across Europe!! Yes, you'll be hearing from me in many countries! Log On to: http://www.kicfm.com/ to find out more!!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

As my title suggests, visiting all of these beautiful places gives me an excuse to buy a sexy new camera. I wanted something compact, quite easy to use and at the right price but, at the same time, i wanted a quality camera. After scouring the internet, i managed to set my sights on a Samsung NV25 HD (look at the picture). I picked it because it had so many features and, like Beyonce, looks very sexy from behind with a massive touch screen. So, I'm going to be taking pictures of every single thing i see to get used to it...hmmmm, difficult!!

Alternative Route 2

Alternative Route 1

My favourite Route!!

Birmingham to Barcelona
Barcelona to Monaco
Monaco to Rome
Rome to Venice
Venice to Vienna
Vienna to Prague
Prague to Berlin
Berlin to Amsterdam
Amsterdam to Paris
Paris to Birmingham

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together!!!

We finally have a rough plan! Well, we have several rough plans…The definite plan is to fly out to Barcelona in Spain. Spend a few days there before our inter rail pass begins and then travel along the coast towards Monaco. Obviously, not staying there long because it’d be very expensive. We then plan to move from France into Italy stopping in Rome. Then we’ll travel up to Venice (somewhere I’m very excited about going) to mess about on the many canals. After a few days of talking Italian, we’ll switch to the much more romantic German language. Wie Gehts? Beautiful! Munich is where the plan gets a little hazy. We’ll probably head north to Berlin and then head west into Holland. We’ll then spend some time in Amsterdam that will be completely inappropriate for this blog. Heading south from there will bring us back into France and we’ll hopefully fly back home from Paris.

Basically we're going to:


Birmingham to Barcelona
Barcelona to Monaco
Monaco to Rome
Rome to Venice
Venice to Munich
Munich to Berlin
Berlin to Amsterdam
Amsterdam to Paris
Paris to Birmingham

DONE!!!

"It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark."

Unlike the title suggests, we've done very little planning for the trip. We thought the unpredicability of the trip would make it much more enjoyable. We've knocked together a really quick plan but that's completely up for change. I'll keep you informed!!