Reset search
Post Grad European Tour
  • Cade Pavlik

Post Grad European Tour

A 19-day adventure by Cade Read more
FollowInsightsCalendarShareShareBucket list
Newest first
  • Trip start
    May 13, 2024
  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Travel Day

    May 14, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today has been loooooooong. Our flight to Chicago was nice and smooth. My phone had no connection in O’hare Airport but we ate a quick bite and hopped on our international flight. Cole ended up switching spots with someone, so we all ended up in the same row. We watched movies, tried to sleep, and ate a subpar meal. After landing, we waited forever to get through customs and then had to wait another 30 minutes for Declan and Matthew to get in from Dallas. Thank God for our wonderful Spanish major Matthew. I could not imagine getting out of the airport without him. We were able to navigate the train system, about 45 minutes of riding. As soon as we got out, POURING. We got SOAKED but thankfully our hostel was close. We checked into the hostel and immediately took naps, as we were all exhausted. We all just woke up and are planning on grabbing a snack, walking to the beach, and then exploring. Real Madrid plays tonight so we plan on finding a bar to watch the game. Looking forward to the night!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Barcelona Day 1

    May 15, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    After our nap, we headed to explore the city. We decided to walk to the ocean and saw some beautiful architecture on the way. We also stopped for some street tacos, which were amazing. We then headed back to the hostel to change and find a place to eat. Declan found a super yummy hole in the wall called Casa Lolea. We tried an assortment of local food. We started with their appetizer assortment and then each picked out a couple tapas. I snagged a picture of Declan and Cole’s raw salmon plate. I devoured a tuna and salmon stuffed pepper as well as their cod plate. Cole, Declan, and I shared a bottle on Sangria. John and Freeman had different types of pasta. A great dinner spot! We finished dinner around 10 and John and freeman headed back to get some rest. Declan, Cole and I finished off the night at a lounge, watching some fùtbol and have some Heineken. We got back around midnight and are headed to bed. Today was rather mild, but we have a ton of fun planned for tomorrow! Goodnight!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Barcelona Day 2 pt. 1

    May 16, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Yesterday was incredible. We had such an insane day. I forgot to take a pic, but Cole and I started the morning early with a trip to the gym. The front desk worker was so kind, letting us use the gym for free. Then we went to a breakfast joint called “Gringa” which was an “American Restaurant” that served things like chicken and waffles and breakfast burritos. We met up with the rest of the crew at a coffee shop and planned the day. Our first stop was Casa Batillo Gaudi. Not exactly sure of the significance, but it was beautiful. It was right next to all of shops, so we checked out places like Gucci, Prada, Nike, Lego store, and more. We then headed to a local food market which was packed, but so cool. We all tried different snacks and drinks. It started to rain so we popped into a local bar, grabbed some beer, and waited for our Cathedral tour. More to come on that…Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Barcelona Day 2 pt. 2

    May 16, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    The Cathedral! What a beautiful place! We payed a little extra to get a couple ammenities. We first took a self-guided tour throughout the place. There were sculptures of different saints and angels surrounding the inside of the place. Under the alter was the Tomb of Saint Eulalia, who was martyred as a 13 year old. She illegally declared her faith in front of a king and was brutally tortured in 13 different ways before passing. Her tomb was gorgeous. They were tuning their giant organ, which was cool to listen to. Next, we took a VR tour of the place, which I was initially questioning Declan’s choice to spend extra on it, but ended up being extremely informative as we couldn’t read much of the descriptions within the Cathedral. Finally, we hiked up a long staircase to get to the roof, which was such a beautiful view. My last picture is of the Sagrada Familia. We hope to tour that during Barcelona round 2!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Barcelona Day 2 pt. 3

    May 16, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Last but not least, maybe the most insane night I’ve ever experienced. Following our tour, we met up with Freeman’s old school friend Max who spent fourth grade in the US and comes back to visit often. He was awesome! We went to a bar and grabbed some local IPAs and grub. Declan insisted we take a nap at 9 o’clock because the clubs here don’t open until 1. Great decision. After our nap, around 10:30, we went and pregamed with Max, getting buckets of 5 beers for 10 euros. We then had a 30 minute walk to the club, which got us there by 1. The club, Opium, was really fun, a mixture of Spanish and American music. Epic fail on my part, I was very bad at taking pictures from here on out. We all ordered rum and cokes. They poured doubles into a tall skinny glass and gave us a small glass Coke bottle on the side and we mixed it ourselves. We danced until about 3:30. As we begin our walk home, there it was, Casino Barcelona. We couldn’t resist. We started with a little sports betting and then hit the tables. 5 euro minimum on blackjack, 2 euro minimum on roulette, so we all bought in for cheap. As my luck goes, everyone but me left up big. I only lost 30 euro, so not to sad. Fun to see the boys win! We got the boot at 6 a.m. as that’s when they closed. Since it was on the beach, we walked out and watched the sunrise. We finally stopped at a coffee shop at 6:45 a.m. and filled our bellies. Lights out at 7, and up by 10 to get checked out of the hostel. We are all struggling this morning, as we deserve. We are hanging in a coffee shop until our train at 1:30. Some sleep is much needed!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler
    1

    Barcelona to Madrid

    May 16, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Running off of 2 hours of sleep was rough, but we made it to Madrid! We were spread out throughout our train but John and I were luckily next to each other. I threw my sleeping mask on and slept for most of the ride, but when I peaked out the window, the views were gorgeous. Freeman, again, was able to effortlessly navigate the subways to our hostel. We took naps as soon as we got checked in. After naps, we headed to a recommended spot called Gloria Bendita, whose main focus was Iberian pulled pork. It was yummy! After dinner, freeman was chatting with our waitress and mentioned that we recently graduated. Next thing you know, she brings out chopitos, shots! She made us take two shots with a proper Spanish cheers. We took a picture with Daniella, she was awesome! We all planned on going to bed, but we get back to the hostel and they’re hosting a bar crawl with almost 100 people, so everyone but Freeman decided we must join. We met people from all over the world and experienced some cool bars. The crawl ended at 6, but we headed back to sleep around 3. It was a very fun day, with an unexpected ending. We all slept in until around 1 pm today. Excited for the day!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Full Day in Madrid pt. 1

    May 17, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We got a late start, but made the most of today! We started with brunch (at 2 pm) which was yummy. I got salmon, egg, and guacamole toast. After that, we just walked around the city. We toured another cathedral, which was beautiful. The shrine above the stairs seemed to be the stations of the cross. We then walked around the Madrid palace, which had beautiful views of the city. We finished our city tour with local ice cream, which was again delicious. We met another one of freeman’s Dominican Republic friends at the ice cream shop. She was super nice! A fun day in a gorgeous city.Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Full Day in Madrid pt. 2

    May 18, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We had another amazing, late night! We all took naps and then headed to dinner around 9. We had pizzas at an Italian restaurant, which were delicious!! We then headed to an Irish pub for beers and tequila shots. We met up with some creighton study abroad friends of Declan and freeman (I swear freeman knows everyone). At 12:30, we headed to the craziest club I’ve ever seen, Kapital. It was 7 stories and it was packed!! They played a mix of Spanish and English music. We all had rum and cokes, except for Cole who has a newfound love of gin and tonics. Crazy enough, we ran into some Creighton seniors we didn’t know were in Madrid. One of them was the other Creighton Award winner!! They are the ones in the video. We danced the night away and headed home around 4:30. We stopped for kebabs and fries and hit the beds around 5. We again are in shambles as we had to check out by 11. It was worth it though! Such a fun night!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler
    1

    Travel Day: Madrid to Mykonos

    May 18, 2024 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We made it to Mykonos! It was a rough start. We were all running off of 3-4 hrs of sleep. We started our day with coffee and food. cole and I tried subway, but there was really no difference, except way cheaper. We walked around the city for a bit and did some shopping. We then went to the most recommended place in Madrid, Takos. It opened at 1. We got there at 12:30 and there was already a pretty decent line. It was so good, but it almost came at a price. Our flight was supposed to takeoff at four and we did not plan accordingly. The 2 euro tacos almost became we more expensive, as waiting for them made us leave for the Metro around 1:30 and the ride to the airport was around 45 minutes. I have zero pictures from this part, as we had much bigger things to worry about. The train was so packed that we all had to scramble onto different parts of the it. Freeman and Declan do not have international phone plans, so they had no connection. Since we were separated, they did not know where to get off. Long story short, they didn’t get off when they were supposed to, so we had a fiasco getting reconnected with them. So, the train trip turned into over a well over hour and we all thought we were missing our flight. Luckily, bag checks were super short and we made it to our plane 10 minutes before boarding. Talk about an adrenaline rush! Our flight was smooth! We got off on the tarmac, which was a first. We arrived in Mykonos around 10 and our Airbnb host had a driver waiting for us. We went to a restaurant that was a 3 minute walk from our airbnb and had yummy Greek food. We finished the night with Greek beer and a cigar that Declan brought. A hectic day finished with a chill night. So glad we made it!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Full Day 1 in Mykonos

    May 19, 2024 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We caught up on sleep today! We woke up at about noon and found some coffees and food at a local bakery. We then spent the next 6 hours on the beach that was just a two minute walk from our Airbnb. The views from this place are breathtaking and the water is crystal clear. Cole, Declan, and I swam out as far as we could and we could still clearly see the bottom at least 30 feet down. It was so nice to just be lazy on the beach. We headed to the historic downtown around 9 and grabbed some food from an Italian restaurant. We then headed to some bars and met up with our Creighton friends at around midnight. We found an awesome club that we all stayed at until around 3:30. We all decided to walk back, which was a 45 minute stroll along the coast. We went to bed around 5. It was so nice to no have a checkout time this morning! Another great day!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler
    3

    Full Day 2 in Mykonos

    May 20, 2024 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We started our second full day pretty late, as well all slept in. As soon as we woke up, we got a quick bite to eat and headed to the beach. We hung out there all day, catching some rays and swimming in the ocean. We called it quits at about 7 and got ready for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner on the beach, sponsored by Jen Chisham. Thank you!!! We then hit a bar for a couple drinks, including a toast with a tequila shot for our last night as a whole group. Cole and I took a scenic walk home around 11, as we wanted good sleep before our early travel day. John, Freeman, and Declan hit the clubs and made it home around 2. Such an enjoyable, lazy day! Looking forward to our smaller groups continued travels!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler
    2

    Travel Day: Mykonos to Athens

    May 21, 2024 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We had an early start to our day, with our ferry leaving at 8 a.m.! We started our day with goodbyes to Declan and Freeman. A sad one, as this was goodbye to freeman for awhile 🥲. Wishing them safe travels back to the states! We then caught our ferry , which we were all of a fan of. It took about four hours, but the ride was smooth and the seats were comfortable. We arrived in Athens around 12:30 and headed to our hostile. We booked a super cheap hostel here, and we got what we payed for. It was in a really sketchy area with absolutely zero tourists. We immediately decided to look for another place, as we felt unsafe. We found a cheap airbnb and got that booked, so we felt much better about the rest of our stay here! The Airbnb was right in the heart of the city, a 5 minute walk to the Acropolis! We got moved into our new spot and walked around the city, catching glimpses of Parthenon and enjoying the sites of the city! We caught an Italian dinner, our seemingly go to meal, at sunset. We grabbed some gelato for our walk home. We made plans to get up early and tour the acropolis and surrounding attractions as soon as the opened, so we got to sleep pretty early. What was looking to be a rather bleak day turned into a great one with our airbnb change! We are excited for the sites in the morning!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Travel Day: Athens to Prague pt. 1

    May 22, 2024 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    With out flight boarding at 3:30, we got an early start to our day! We woke up at 7, got breakfast, and then headed to the acropolis. It is so beautiful. The Parthenon and theatre were so gorgeous and very intact. Crazy to think about how old these building are (older than Jesus) and the fact that parts of them are still standing. The location is also insane, as it sits atop the city. The views are incredible. From there, we headed to the acropolis museum to see various sculptures and artifacts from the time. It would’ve been cool to spend more time here, but we had to make sure we made our flight in time. We finally headed to the first Olympic stadium. There wasn’t much left standing, but very cool to see where it all started. We headed back to our Airbnb around 11 and got ready to leave! I really enjoyed this part of our day!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Travel Day: Athens to Prague pt. 2

    May 22, 2024 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    After checkout at noon, we had an hour commute to the airport with a 40 minute metro ride that was packed! We made it to the airport in plenty of time, as our last airport fiasco had us taking no chances. We got to the airport, checked our bags, grabbed some food, and waited for a flight. I took a couple pictures from the plane, the first being of Athens and the second of Prague. Gorgeous! We had to wait for our bags FOREVER, which has us worried about having no clothes the rest of the trip. We got a 30 minute Uber to our Airbnb with maybe the craziest driver I’ve ever ridden with. We found some local pastrami for dinner and then hit a local bar for some cheap Czech beer. We found a local casino and all bought in for 500 Czech dollars (like 20 USD). John and I left with a tiny bit of profits. We called it a night after that! A long, busy, but enjoyable day!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Prague Full Day 1 pt. 1

    May 23, 2024 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    We started our day off with some brunch. I grabbed some yummy eggs Benedict with trout. We then headed to the Czech Jewish Memorial and Cemetery. Inside the memorial was the handwritten names of every Czech Jew who was killed in the holocaust. Several giant walls were covered in names. I found the closest name to Pavlik I could, Pavlickova, while Cole found a few Pfiefers as well. We then walked through the cemetery, which is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the world, with headstones dating back to the 15th century. After this, we headed to the Charles Bridge, constructed in the 14th century, that is the oldest bridge over the Vltava River. It was a beautiful arch as you enter and spanning its entirety are 30 statues dedicated to saints and Christ! Very impressive!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Prague Full Day 1 pt. 2

    May 23, 2024 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    After the bridge, we started a massive uphill climb toward the Prague castle. We were rewarded at the top with a gorgeous view on the entire city! Inside the castle walls was also the St. Vitus cathedral, one of the most incredible pieces of architecture I’ve seen. Construction began on this place is 1344, so it is ancient! It is also the burial site of all former Czech kings. The inside was gorgeous, with stunning stain glass windows and art. We had to have walked several miles today, so we earned some loaded fries to end the touristy part of our day!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Prague Full Day 1 pt. 3

    May 23, 2024 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    To cap our night, we went on a Czech Pub crawl, which was pretty fun. On our walk there, we passed by the Staromestske namesti, which is one of the most beautiful squares I’ve seen! It also included Astronomical clock, which was built in 1338 and still goes off every hour. We plan on visiting these places again! We started our crawl at the Drunken Monkey. Our bar crawl consisted of around 40 guys and 0 girls, kinda funny. We made two more stops before capping our night at a club. At the club, we began talking to some local guys and we got on the topic of me being Czech. One of their buddies spoke zero English, but I was told he was from Mnichov, a small village of 400 people, which is where several Pavliks live. I showed him my ID and he immediately lit up at my last name. His friends were able to translate for me, and showed me his best friend on Facebook and said he personally knew around 20 Pavliks! I grabbed a pic with him. Small world! We ended the night with Kebabs and pizza and went to bed around 3 or 4. Another fun night!!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Prague Full Day 2

    May 24, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We slept in after our night out. I forgot to take pictures in the morning, but we didn’t do much. We grabbed some brunch, but then thunderstorms were going on from 1-4 so we just hung out in the Airbnb until they were over. We then went to a mall which had a ton of unique stores and this interesting upside down horse statue. They had a cool elevator we wanted to try but of course it was not working that day. We then walked downtown to see the clock ring. We did a little shopping, like checking out the rubber duck store. We then had a long, uphill walk to our dinner spot, Kuchyn. Our reservation was at 9:15, so we hiked to the top of the hill where the restaurant was at and watched the sunset over the city. This meal was the best food we’ve had all trip. We got their roast beef as an appetizer, we all got chicken as our main course, and we all got dessert. We headed back to the Airbnb and immediately went to sleep to prepare for our early morning. A great cap to a lazy day!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler
    1

    Prague Full Day 3 pt. 1

    May 25, 2024 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We started our day with a 6 am wakeup as we had to get picked up by our guide by 7! We were joined by a family of 4 from Cleveland, and businessman from Singapore. We had an extremely enjoyable group. Thankfully everyone in our was in good enough shape to maintain a strong pace and allow us hike fast. Our first two stops were about a 1.5 hour drive to Bohemian and Saxon Switzerland National Park, where we were challenged with a pretty steep 5 mile round trip hike. This was in fact not in Switzerland, which we initially thought, but still in Czech Republic. All of the pictures are from this spot. Fun fact: some scenes from Chronicles of Narnia were shot here. The natural arch is called the Pravick Gate, which was a really cool landmark. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, but way nerdy. He talked a little too much about things we had no interest about, but he was a super nice guy. He spent at least 20 minutes explaining the 3 types of erosion that have happened to the arch and another 20 explaining how the bugs kill the trees, to give you a couple a couple examples. Anywho, this spot may have been the most beautiful. To be continued…Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Prague Full Day 3 pt. 2

    May 25, 2024 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    After our first stop, we had a short drive to our next stop that was still in the same National Park. We had a yummy lunch in a super small town. Cole and I had really good locally caught trout. We then had a super steep descent to the Kamenice River, which was incredible. We had a short hike to a 30 minute boat ride down the river, where I got some really great pictures (the first 3 are from there). The hike back up was BRUTAL! it was so steep and we were soaked after we finished it. Next, we had an hour drive to our final stop, the Bastei Bridge, just across the border in Germany. It was by far the easiest and flattest hike, as we could almost drive up to it. The bridge used to connect to an ancient castle that has since been destroyed. You can still see remnants of the stairs that led to the castle. The views from the bridge were amazing! I had to include a pic of our guide giving another long lecture on why the rocks were different colors. We then had roughly a 2 hour ride back to Prague, which had us back home around 6. We immediately left for food as we were starving. We had a fancier dinner in the main square that was really good. We capped the night by meeting our high school buddy Joey at a local pub, who is also on a graduation trip. We shared a few beers and some stories from our trips. Really great to see him! A really fun way to cap our time in Prague!

    I also realized I completely got to give Shiela Roeder a shoutout for our dinner on Prague day 2! Like I said, it may have been our favorite meal of the trip, and she both recommended the spot and sponsored the meal. Thank you so much!!!    Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    Travel Day: Prague to London

    May 26, 2024 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Pretty boring day today! We started our morning with Starbucks around 8, then caught a 40 minute Uber to the airport. We have found that crazy driving is the norm in Prague! We got to the airport around 3 hours early, got our boarding passes, checked our bags, then waited about 2 hours until our flight. We had another smooth flight, but we found that I made a tough mistake when booking. I booked the much cheaper flights, but they came at a cost, as we flew into London Stansted, which is about an hour and a half drive outside of London. So what we thought was going to be a shorter travel day turned into a long one! We caught a bus into London that took an hour and a half, and then hopped on a train that took us to our spot. So about an extra 2-3 hours of travel. My bad boys! We dropped our bags in our Airbnb and headed to the closest food, which ended up being a super highly rated Italian restaurant. We all got pizza. We then did a little walking around, and then headed back to our Airbnb to do laundry, as all our close wreaked. At around 9, we headed to get dinner number two at a local chicken chain called Nando’s. We all went to sleep around 10:30, as the traveling was exhausting. Looking forward to our full day tomorrow!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    London Full Day 1 pt. 1

    May 27, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We started our morning, like usual, with coffee and breakfast. We then met up with John and I’s good buddy Eddie, a soon to be senior Phi Delt who just finished a full year abroad at London School of Economics. He was kind enough to be our tour guide for the entire day! He first took us to a market with a bunch of different lunch options. We then walked across a bridge that gave us a view of what seemed like the whole city. We then headed to a bar balcony, where we could watch street shows and drink cider beer, which tasted exactly like apple juice. After that, headed to the Buckingham palace to catch a glimpse of that beautiful area. We then walked through Hyde Park and the Kinsignton Gardens, where we got a beer by “duck lake.” Finally, headed to the newer part of London to check out the business district and the Tower of London.Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    London Full Day 1 pt. 2

    May 27, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Next stop, Tower of London. This place was awesome. We showed up around 3:30 and it closed at 5. So we kinda did a speed run. We first walked through the kings living quarters. Next, we walked through a tower which displayed the history of their weaponry. This also included a pretty chapel for some reason. We then checked out the gorgeous Crown Jewels. No pictures allowed in there unfortunately, but the amount of gold and jewels in their was absurd. So gorgeous! We had about 10 mins left, so we scrambled through the room that displayed their methods of torture, which was something. We then finished out this adventure with a picture in front of the London Bridge. I wish we had more time, especially because tickets (and really everything here) were super expensive. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our time here!Read more

  • Cade PavlikPost Grad European TourTraveler

    London Full Day 1 pt. 3

    May 27, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We took a break after London Tower and regrouped around 8. Eddie took us to another hidden gem, a courtyard with different food and drink options. We all got burgers and split a big pitcher of beer. At around 9:15, we headed to a rooftop bar, which had a sweet view of the city. We all got complementary aperol spritz. My first time having one and I enjoyed it. We then headed back to Eddie’s place, passing Big Ben on the way back. Eddie’s place was incredible, the top floor of his building with gorgeous views. We all bought some beer and just hung out on the balcony. We then bought tickets in advance to a club that Eddie had never been to, but heard it was a great Monday spot. We showed up, and it was definitely not our crowd, so we turned back around and called it a night. Really fun day with a good friend we hadn’t seen in a year!Read more

  • 2025© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Help Center
  • Legal notice