My Travels

Wow.  So I am really kicking myself for not starting this earlier, and have so much to catch up on.  I am currently sitting in the dungeon of CAT's Hostel in Madrid Spain, and for the first time of this trip am entirely alone.

First of all, I must say that I am completely impressed by how this trip all came together.  As I assume most people reading this know, I was laid off from my first job as an engineer at Cessna Aircraft... and so were the majority of new hires, leaving us with nothing but time and a measly severance pay.  My last month in Wichita, KS was the best of them all, and although I could not wait to leave just a few months earlier, it was a bit sad to finally get out of there.  I will remember my 7 month stint in Wichita forever, and I would like to say that I will truly miss everyone that I had the pleasure to meet while I was there.  Long story short... I am now traveling with Ramsey, Brandon, and Matt who I met within that last month in the largest city in KS, and we were able to throw this trip together.  It certainly made us look busy during our last few weeks of 8 hour days in the cubes.  Lets just say we turned our lemons into lemonade, and now we get the last laugh as we are enjoying the adventure of our lifetime.  It is very hard to summarize in just an entry how this trip has panned out thus far.  I'm going to do my best.

FLORIDA...
It all began April 22nd on a flight from STL to MIA.  It was a feeling of liberation.  Anytime the beach is in my view I turn into a little kid, and during our first night on South Beach, I began to realize that essentially during this trip, I am one.  With no responsibilities, we do whatever we want, whenever we want... and I love it.  Unfortunately the first night was a short one.  We had the pleasure of romping down Ocean Drive with our fabulous packs (my lovely Craigslist find is referred to as the turtle shell) as we watched all of the luxury cars and well dressed Miami folk pass us by.  

I was bogged down by an interview for Sikorsky Helicopters the next day, so we took a nice early morning drive to West Palm, and I had the pleasure of interviewing for a company that is not hiring.  Don´t worry... I was told multiple times during the interview... "we would just love for you to work here, you are the first on our list, too bad we´re not hiring."  Lovely.  It was actually a fun experience though, and I got to meet up with Kyle, a college friend who is currently working there.  It would be a great opportunity to get to work there, but somehow I get the impression that it is not going to happen...rats.

The next 36 hours were accomanied by:

ramen
"socializing" unsuccessfully
$5 footlongs
getting lost using public transportation
THE GSTRING LOVA on the beach, and many other topless ladies to accompany her
realizing just how heavy my turtle shell really is
slap happiness
the worst shower of my entire life
really bad sunburns
more slap happiness

and then we went to Ft. Lauderdale... for our first Couchsurfing Experience.  It was actually a great one, and I would like to recommend "The French Connection" to anyone who might want a place to crash in the Ft. Lauderdale area.  We stayed with 3 lovely French gentlemen who were very hospitable and happened to live a walk a way from the beach.  We had some nice conversation and learned a bit about French culture.  Apparently we need to eat a lot of stinky cheese when we get to France.  However, I don´t think I´m going to like stinky cheese, so I´ll update everyone once I get the chance to try it.  More summarization...

bad gelato from a place with "the best ice cream in FL"
even more slap happiness
singing on the beach (under a bridge)
eating sand
avoiding the sun at all cost
taking creeper pictures
matt finally arrived!
dinner with the Connelys, it was great to see them :), i hope they told my parents just how wonderful the guys are
making "french" toast for our french connection
and then... departing for the CRUISE!!!!

THE CRUISE...
9 day transantlantic cruise... $370
balcony upgrade... free
laughing hysterically at the dinner table the first night when we realized that we were all laid off and enjoying our first fine dining experience... priceless

We became instant cruise celebrities.  Sometime between the sexy legs competition for the gentlemen (I´d like to congratulate Ramsey for that win), and giving Princess Pop Star a shot every night (Matt took that one, Ramsey and I gave it our best shot night after night and I can´t even begin to imagine how we did not make it... although no one watching could believe that we were truly 100% sober during these performances) people began to enquire about the laid off young kids on the ship.  The average age was approximately 70, so we did stand out a bit.  We also managed to make friends with every single bit of young blood on the ship.  It was absolutely amazing.  The cruise definitely calls for some summarization...

learned some new dance moves... tango, merengue, salsa, even some country line dancing
watched my young gentlemen reel in the older ladies
some swimming
a lot of eating (we got way more out of it than we paid for)
winning $20 on red
hitting up the skywalkers lounge night after night to bust some moves
falling asleep at shows
more eating
making connections
trying unfortunately unsuccessfuly to meet our yacht owner to take us around... although we did meet Alfred our billionaire friend
the AZORES... gorgeous... the pictures sum that trip up, they will be up shortly
trying to sleep on the balcony
"spritzing it up" in the perfume store approximately 7 times per day
and then... we arrived in LISBON...

LISBON, Portugal...
After our 10 days of gorging, we were not quite ready for our 5 euro daily food budget, and watching our Crown Princess depart Lisbon was a bit disheartening as we sat there hungry just 5 hours after stepping off the ship.  As I said, we met great people aboard the Crown... and we continued our 2 day stay in Lisbon with them.  Marcia and Desire (two ladies from San Diego, who were a blast by the way) offered us a stay on the floor of their Marriot hotel.  Haha... all 6 of us, since we also picked up our fellow solo travelers Dave and Spencer along the way.  Basically we walked a lot and learned that taxis are not a bad idea when you are traveling with a group.  The first night was a blast as we somehow managed to hit 3 gay bars in a row (I´d like to thank our local friends that we met for finding them all for us, we would have never found them ourselves considering that you had to literally knock on the doors to get into them.. lets say they were a little sketch).  We made our way back to the Marriot where somehow the 8 of us managed to strategically place ourselves across the floors and in the beds for a nice sleep until 1PM.  How did that happen??  After a little more touring, and some fountain hopping... we were ready to board our night train to Madrid.  Much to my surprise... they did NOT have bunk beds waiting for us.  So... we drank our 4 bottles of 1 euro wine ate our cheese and bread, and enjoyed the train ride, as we tried our best to fall asleep.  Yikes...

MADRID, Spain...
11 hours later we arrived.  It was me, my 5 gentlemen (Dave and Spencer still with us) and no kind of plan.  Walking off the train bright eyed and bushy tailed, we somehow made our way to CAT´s hostel and trucked around for the rest of the day.  Let me say, I wish that I had done a bit more research, because I have not a clue what we saw all day.  I do know that it looked pretty, and we wound up in a Church at one point.  We also had our daily practice at being bums, as we found a few fields to lay in.  I am still getting used to the fact that although people might look like they would speak English... they really don´t and you can´t just walk up to people and start talking... eventually I will learn, I´m sure.  Anyways... last night was fairly uneventful, we tried out the hostel bar, and went to bed.  The guys all left this morning.  I would like to wish Dave and Spencer the best of luck as they go their own ways.  As for Brandon, Matt and Ramsey, they all left for Morrocco, and I will be seeing them again on the 11th.

That leaves me sitting here in Madrid writing this EXTREMELY long post... sorry, I had a lot of catching up to do.  The trip so far really has been lovely.  I am so grateful for meeting Brandon, Ramsey, and Matt, and look forward to all of our adventures to come.  They really do make up a fun group, and after all that has happened in the last 2 weeks, I know that we have a lot more ahead of us.  But for just a few days, I am finally alone... and enjoying it.  Now I really get to do WHATEVER I want... haha, and I just might start out with a siesta.  I would like to say that I really do miss everyone back home, and wish that I had better access to communication.  I hope all is well in the US and now that I finally got this first post out of the way, I plan to update much more often.

Adios.