Jared's Travel Blog

Today I visited Museo del Prado in Madrid, widely considered to be the greatest collection of paintings in the world.

I was specifically looking forward to seeing the collection of works by Peter Paul Rubens whose works I fondly remember from my first Europe trip. I get to the first room of his works and see Saturno, a particularly disturbing work showing a father (the god Saturn perhaps?) taking a bite out of his son´s midsection.

No sooner than I snap my first picture of the Rubens piece, I am approached by a security guard who bursts my Rick Steves-inflated bubble.

Thanks alot Slick Rick.

One of the best things about travelling is the abundance of interesting people you meet from around the world.

Here are a few that stand out

UPDATE: Just remembered a few more: Amsterdam Coffeeshop worker, The Drunken Dutchman and a dude named Bjorn.

I took a night train to Madrid (from Lisboa) last night and got into town extremely tired. I got to the hostel but couldn’t check in yet, so I took a very sweaty nap in Retiro park. Lloyd, Jorge, JP…having any flashbacks to ’03?

What happens when you give a hostel full of budget travellers a 1 Euro all-you-can-drink happy hour?

Yesterday I took a day trip to a town called Sintra about 30 minutes outside of Lisboa. It is known as the pride of Portugal, and it did not disappoint.

Iberian Peninsula, here I am!

I flew from Praha to Geneva, Switzerland and was around just long enough to buy some wicked awesome chocolate and then bounce onto Portugal.

On the bus ride into town I was floored by Lisboa’s beauty. Of all locations on my itinerary, Lisboa was the location I had researched the least so although I had been told it was pretty, I had no idea what to expect. Just around every 100 meters there is some grand monument to a deceased leader.

(I left Berlin about a week ago, but have been slacking in updating the blog. Sorry to my loyal uhhh, subscribers.)

Berlin was the most important city in 20th century history for good reason.

Once the dividing point between worlds – East and West, Communism and Capitalism, repression and freedom, a reunified Berlin is now known worldwide for it’s wicked nightlife.

After stumbling back to my hostel in broad daylight 2 nights in a row, I tend to approve :)

The other night I was hanging out with my with my new friends Lucas (Canadian), Stephanie (German) and Sonja (German) in the Golden City. We went to a jazz club called Reduta (where Bill Clinton once jammed out on a saxaphone) and saw some great music.

We hit up a place called Popocafepetl and meet Alexi, the coolest bartender in Praha. He speaks excellent English and immediately asks us what we want to listen to and keeps the pivos (Czech and Croatian for “beer”) flowing all night. A handful of minutes later my crazy Canadian friend Lucas is behind the bar spitting fire , setting the tone for the rest of the wild night.

A fly on the wall would have heard possibly the most spirited sing-along to Nirvana – “Where Did you Sleep Last Night?”

UPDATE (5/12/07): More Flickr pictures added. Article updated.

In retrospect I should have put the little guy out of his misery, but I wasn’t trying to get bat guts on my shoes.

Before I made the trip across the pond, I knew that Europe was more conscious of the environment than America as a whole, but I’ve been impressed with some of the simple measures European countries have taken to help out Mother Earth.