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Europe 2022
  • Jake Nagle

Europe 2022

Post-grad trip to Italy, Spain, and France En savoir plus
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  • Début du voyage
    19 mai 2022
    Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    Just around the corner from my hostel
    Beautiful view of rome from Borghese park i stumbled uponChurch on top of the Spanish StepsView from spanish stepsThe spanish stepsStatues like this are a dime a dozen around the city. So cool to walk by so manyThe trevi fountain, it is so beautiful but also always packed. Absolutely incredible placeAnother random fountain in the city, apparently called fontana de moseCircus maximus, an ancient horse racing place. Apparently the stadium here once fit 200,000!A cool rose garden i found that apparently used to be a jewish cemetary until mussouliniDinner - this was all only 13 euroBasilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

    First day in Rome

    19 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    I did much more exploring on day 1 than I thought, considering I did not sleep on the plane at all… but once you start walking around here it’s impossible to stop. Every corner has some historic site, church, fountain, or something else that would be the crown jewel of any other city. Rome is really amazing with so many layers of history.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    St Peters square, designed to be an embrace to visitors. Has an egyptian obelisk interestingly
    It is hard to process the scale of this place, even in person. So. Much. Gold.The ceiling is just unrealSo many of these little domes covered in beautiful artI thought Iacobo was the latin for my name, but apparently its JamesThere is an actual pope embalmed in there!Michelangelo's first commissioned work and the only one he signedOne of the Pope Innocents, justice, and charityAnother embalmed popeThis structure lies over St Peters actual tombMy favorite part - amazing how the stone looks soft. Skeleton with hourglass: death is inevitableWould you believe if I said this is not a painting?It's a mosaic, as are almost all of the "paintings" there

    St Peters basilica

    20 mai 2022, Cité du Vatican ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    This was the highlight of the Vatican for me and easily one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. It is a church built around St. Peter’s tomb at the site where he was crucified. Most of the popes are buried here, most in underground tombs but some are embalmed on the main floor. Pictures don’t do this place justice - it is so massive, detailed and ornate that it is difficult to look at, there is too much for your eyes to focus on. It is more than 2 football fields long and about 150 feet high. According to my guide from the pantheon, most of the building materials were taken from ancient Roman monuments, which the Catholics essentially destroyed because they were Pagan and using up valuable resources. So much of the metal comes from the colosseum, forum, etc. so it is very historically interesting. Most of the paintings (I think all except 1) are actually mosaics which is incredible.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    The Vatican gardens
    Cool floor mosaicThe blue is lapis lazuliThis looks 3D but is all just a painted illusion - unbelievable in personA famous tapestryHall of mapsDistorted by the panorama, but this is Raphael's famous workThe newly discovered raphael-painted woman (left)Another famous raphael workThe thinkerA Van Gogh (pietà)FolonDali (angelic landscape)Bacon (study for a pope IV)

    Vatican Museums

    20 mai 2022, Cité du Vatican ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    This museum is absolutely incredible and has many, many exhibits from all over the world. It was impossible to see everything. I was fortunate to have a guided tour because everything feels very mixed together - you take one turn and the art changes centuries and continents with no warning. I especially liked seeing the work of famous artists like Michaelangelo, Raphael (my new favorite artist, was also a great dude), Dali, Van Gogh, and even Francis Bacon. There was also a large section of 16th century maps of the Italian region (not yet Italy, but apparently these maps were one of the first written references to the area as such) that are incredibly detailed and amazingly accurate. Of course I loved that part! There was also a postmodern exhibit of the artist Jean-Michel Folon that I really liked, it was a bit dark and not what I expected to see in the Vatican. The Sistine chapel is also in the museum which was so amazing to see but unfortunately you can’t take pictures of it. It was a bit weird because they say it is too holy to take pictures but then they make you walk through like 5 gift shops to exit it… strange.
    One of the coolest aspects was Raphael’s “apartment” where he was in residence and painted all of the walls. Originally it was thought that he did all the sketches and his pupils did the coloring. But it was recently discovered - like, literally a few months ago in late 2021 - that two of the figures were painted completely by Raphael. Not sure how they figured that one out. So I got to experience that a little differently than most people who have visited before. Cool little fact.    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    Heiroglyphic obelisk outside PantheonThe dome of the pantheonAn example of one of the drainsRaphaelRaphaels tombTomb of first italian kingPanorama of inside of pantheonOutside of the pantheon on the side

    Pantheon

    21 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    The Pantheon was incredible, but not as photogenic as many of the other attractions. The history is very interesting - it was built in 100 something BC (multiple times because it burned down twice in the first few years) as a Roman temple, and was then later converted into a church around 600 AD. Because it was converted to a church it is one of the only ancient Roman structures that wasn’t destroyed. The dome is one singular piece of concrete, it is insane to think they were able to build that so long ago and get it up there (almost 150 feet in diameter). It also contains tombs of the first two (of four) Italian kings from the 1800s, as well as the painter Raphael. I learned that Raphael was basically the first person who advocated to start preserving ancient Roman monuments instead of destroying them, which was heavily influential and changed the way that Romans viewed and appreciated their heritage. Pretty incredible. Fun fact, he was both born and died on Juliana’s birthday.
    The hole in the ceiling allows the sun in and at mid day it lines up with the main doorway. They even had a drainage system in the floor which still works. The floor is the original floor from when it was built. It is the best preserved (basically the only preserved) ancient Roman structure. I had a great tour guide who was really passionate about the history and had a lot of great info!    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    As evidenced by my shirt this was on a different day when i passed by1They had OG ipod touches for the audio tour - historical in itself!

    Colosseum

    21 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    The colosseum was easily my least favorite attraction in Rome. This was in part my fault - I went in the afternoon when it was hot, packed to the brim, and opted for an audio tour instead of an actual guide because I had already purchased so many guided tours in Rome. Beyond that, though, I found it very strange as a tourist attraction. It was a very deeply screwed up place where prisoners, including lots of Jews, were executed for public entertainment, as well as countless animals like lions and tigers. I saw online that over 400,000 people were executed there. I think if we didn’t glorify Rome so much this would be considered a stain on history and an embarrassment rather than a tourist attraction. It is also quite sad that the structure was basically stripped of all of its metals by Catholics in order to build other monuments like the Basilica.
    With all that said, it is still an amazingly impressive structure and it’s wild that it is so ancient yet so similar to modern stadiums. It held 60,000 and apparently could have been emptied in 12 minutes. The structure and design is remarkably similar to what you would see today at a football game. One of my favorite aspects was seeing stones that “fans” had carved their names into thousands of years ago - wild that they have lasted so long. Also, a fun fact: Caesar never would have actually been to the colosseum because it was built about 100 years after he died, despite popular belief.    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    Where the emporer held private games1Great view of the ruins belowThe three colums were the temple of Castor and Pollux

    Palatine Hill

    22 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    I absolutely loved the Palatine hill, in large part for the opposite reason that I disliked the colosseum - I went early (around 9 when it opened), so there were very few people there and it was not warm out yet. The hill has a lot of history behind it - according to mythology, and somewhat backed up by archaeological evidence, it is where Romulus, the founder of Rome, lived. Later it became the site of many emperors’ palaces and the bourgeois neighborhood for Roman senators. It was very cool to think that I was walking where so many of Romes leaders had. They also have a very nice garden up there now. The best part is the unbelievable views of the city you get up there - you can really see everything and you also look right down at the ruins of the Roman Forum.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    1Temple of Antonius and Faustina
    Temple of SaturnTemple of Apollo1Main street of the ghetto"Carcioro alla giuda" - jewish artichokeKosher poke... i guess they arent wrong!Pizzeria Kosher... first thing on the menu was pepperoni pizza!

    Roman Forum & Jewish Ghetto

    22 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Putting these two together because I went through both fairly quickly (and consecutively) and did not take many pictures.
    The forum was apparently the commercial and social center of Ancient Rome, so it felt very cool to be walking around, and while there are some columns of old temples still standing I didn’t feel like there was a ton to look at. It’s wild to think those are the same avenues where ancient Roman’s spent their time. The place is very surreal and it is hard to believe how old the structures are.
    The Jewish ghetto was very interesting and I went into the museum there as well to learn about the history. Jews became confined to the ghetto in the 1500s as part of the counter-reformation and were confined there for hundreds of years. Interestingly, during the era of Napoleonic wars, the French liberated the Jews (they were big on freedom, at least on paper, at the time as this was right after their revolution), but once the Romans got the city back they sent the Jews back to the ghetto. Jews finally got freedom in the late 1800s and did very well for a time - despite being a small population they were leaders of the Italian wars of independence (Risorgimento) and there was even a Jewish mayor of Rome. Of course that went downhill during the fascist era.
    It was interesting to see the area was very touristic and modern, there were lots of restaurants with names like Kosher, ebraico, gerusalemme, etc. but looking at their menus most served non kosher food and even foods like sushi and poke that are completely unrelated. Apparently a legit traditional Jewish food here is fried artichoke, coincidentally some Dutch guys I met told me that is a traditional Dutch food as well. Doesn’t sound very good to me!    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    View from Belvedere Giancolo, which i climbed with my friends from VirginiaOne of the countless churches I passed byObelisk of Isis1Piazza navona fountainPiazza navona11The national monument, absolutely beautiful and impressive but also fascist eraFriends I made at the hostel!

    Assorted sights and friends

    23 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    On my last morning in Rome I want to make an entry of the sights that didn’t get their own entry as well as the friends that I made here.
    My favorite thing about Rome is anywhere you walk you’ll pass several churches that are far more ornate and enormous than anything you’d see in the states. They are so beautiful and I love the atmosphere in there. It is different than seeing other sites because they are not just historical, they are living and breathing with a mix of tourists and actual churchgoers, priests and nuns. The art is mind blowing in all of them.
    The hostel I stayed at was great and it was very easy to make friends sitting out in the garden at night. I had a great time and it was so fun meeting people from all over - UK, France, Netherlands, Singapore, and Morocco to name a few. It was interesting to compare cultures and the anti-American sentiment I expected was really not present at all. Lots of people told me Chicago was on their bucket list, everyone loves Michael Jordan, and they know a lot about American politics and events and are genuinely interested in asking questions. The only people shitting on America were myself and the other Americans, and everyone else made fun of their own country.
    I made some great friends here and went out with a big group one night. I got close with an American couple a year older than me - who got engaged at the colosseum a few days ago - we did a lot of stuff together and I even switched hostels in Venice to theirs as we will be there at the same time.    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur

    First day in Florence

    23 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Getting on the train here was quite an experience! I went to the station and they had a screen showing all the trains and which gate (not sure what the right word is) they were at. My train was at 12:10 and they didn’t assign a gate until 12:07! I ran there, couldn’t figure out how to get into the gate because they wanted me to scan a barcode, which I never got. Once on the train a family was sitting in my spot and they only spoke French, I was trying to tell them I could switch with them so they wouldn’t have to split up but it was not getting past the language barrier. Fortunately someone else came over to translate and resolved the issue. From then it was a quick and smooth ride to Florence!
    So far I’ve just been walking around the city, it is very pretty, and much much smaller than Rome. I walked around the whole touristy area in about an hour. I also explored some residential areas which were nice and quiet. There are lots of fancy shops here selling jewelry, gold, antiques and designer clothes. I bought a new wallet at an outdoor market. There is a river right through the center and the views on the bridges are amazing. The hostel is also way nicer than the one I was at in Rome. I am excited to explore the city more over the next few days!    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    The Annunciation, Simone Martini 1333
    The Presentation at the Temple, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1342Coronation of the Virgin, Lorenzo Monaco, 1414Madonna and Child, Filippo Lippi, 1460Fortitude, Boticelli, 1475Primavera, Boticelli, 14781Birth of Venus, Boticelli, 14801Madonna of the Pomegranate, Boticelli, 1487View of Port Livorno, Cristofano Gaffuri, 1604 (tabletop mosaic)Madona and Child, Cima da Conegliano, 15041Leda and the Swan, debated as either Da Vinci or one of his students, early 1500sPerseus freeing Andromeda, Piero di Cosimo, 15152nd century roman bustAnother 2nd century statue. Just crazy to think how old that truly is.Adoration of the Magi, da Vinci, 1480Annunciation, da Vinci, 1472Doni Tondo, Michelangelo

    Uffizi gallery

    24 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    It was cool to see some very famous paintings and painters at the uffizi gallery, although it is all medieval and renaissance art so I did kind of have to force myself to enjoy it. After seeing 700 versions of “Madonna and Child”, the concept does tend to get a bit old. However, I liked the way the museum was organized - unlike the Vatican museums it was very chronological which made it easy to see the progression of art over the years and how different trends evolved. So on the other side of the same coin, so many paintings of the same things make it easy to compare how the styles evolved. It was very cool to see such old artwork and think about how long ago it was made and how many people have looked at it. Most of the art was 14-16th century but there was also Roman stuff from the first couple of centuries as well. The gallery itself has been around since the late 1700s which is crazy. I noticed that one of the wings in the museum was dedicated by the Pritzker family. There were also some great views of Florence from the gallery as it is several stories above the ground.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur

    Boboli Gardens

    24 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F

    This was an absolutely beautiful place to walk through, especially since today was cloudy so it was not super hot. Somehow it was not very crowded either. It’s kind of outside the touristy part of Florence but I had assumed it to be a big attraction. There were lots of cool statues, fountains, and incredible views.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    11

    Cupola del Brunelleschi

    25 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    Climbing the duomo was an amazing, but a bit scary, experience! The climb was long, narrow, and at times the stairs were in such a tight circle that it was dizzying. The views at the top, both inside and outside the dome, made it 1000% worth it! The view in every direction is just incredible from the top. It was also very cool to see the artwork on the inside up close. There are a lot of similar painted domes in churches around here but I’ve never been able to get so close. I didn’t realize how scary the art was until we were close to it… pretty dark depiction of hell with people-eating demons. It was interesting to see how huge each of the characters are up close, and also how distorted they seem from that angle. It is unreal that artists used to be all the way up there painting and were able to figure out how to alter their art so it would appear normal from hundreds of feet below despite being on a curved surface.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    Profeta imberbe, Donatello, 1418
    1This silver altar took over 100 years and 9 artists to make! 1367-1483This one combined with the previous are 250 kilos11300s choir bookCool stuff from the 1200s, wasnt much info about itOne of Michelangelo's "Pietà"sAnother michelangelo peitàThe third pietà - reminds me a lot of the one at St Peters basilica, also by michelangeloSanta Maria Maddalena Penitente, Donatello, mid 1400sMe wirh Saint Podius

    Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

    25 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    This is the accompanying museum of the Duomo. I went through it pretty quickly because it was small and I’m tired of all the renaissance art. It was cool to see more Michelangelos as well as some Donatellos (now I have seen all of the ninja turtles!) I also had never seen what medieval choir books looked like, that was pretty cool. There are some incredible silver statues there - there were two that the museum said were 250 kilograms together (almost 600 pounds) - the Medici sure did have a lot of money!En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur

    Da Vinci museum

    25 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    I walked by an interactive Da Vinci museum and decided to go in - seemed like a nice change of pace from the museums I’ve been going to so far. It was really cool, it was basically all recreations of inventions found in Da Vinci’s notebooks. It was crazy how much stuff he thought up long before they were actually invented, like the bicycle and parachute, and also how many things he came up with that we still use in virtually the same way from a mechanical perspective. Everything was interactive and you could play with all of the inventions. Since it was so interactive this one obviously translated less well to photos, but it was a nice experience and it was nice to be in an interactive museum. A fun fact I learned is Da Vinci often wrote in mirrored lettering for an unknown reason, but often thought to be to keep his notes private (clearly that didn’t work). Apparently he could do this easily and was also ambidextrous.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    These are called "everydays" by Beeple, he released one a day for something like 5 years1The full collage of them was the most expensive NFT everThis was a looping video - apparently it follows the seasons and the statue decays over time.

    Centro di Cultura Strozzina

    26 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☁️ 86 °F

    I went to a very interesting, albeit very small, digital art exhibit at this museum. It was all about NFTs and featured some very well known (and absurdly rich) NFT artists, one of whom, Beeple, I gave a presentation about in one of my classes recently - he sold the most expensive NFT ever for 90 something million dollars. It was a cool and trippy exhibit that was video and audio based. It was pretty interesting and another nice change of pace from the kinds of museums I’ve been going to here. Pretty wild to think most of these NFTS sell for hundreds of thousands but you can just go look at them and take pictures in a museum.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    1I love these illusions that make the ceiling art look 3DThats not creepy...1Couldnt find info on this one but thought the menorah was interesting1Napoleons bathroomThis was apparently "Cosimo 1 [medici]'s favorite dwarf" - lord knows what that meansStatue of victor hugoThe piano concert - imagine if Shin's recitals were here

    Pitti Palace

    26 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ⛅ 88 °F

    This is an huge palace that was the residence of The Medici, Hapsburgs, and even Napoleon over the course of history. I breezed through most of the art because I’m frankly getting tired of it, but it was super cool to be in a real palace where so many rulers have lived. It was a really beautiful place overlooking the gardens where I was yesterday. One of the coolest things was Napoleon’s bathrooms - just funny to think that he actually took baths in there. There was also a live piano concert happening in a beautiful ballroom which was cool to see. They had a nice mix of art from different areas and also an interesting exhibit about Dante and his theories of metaphysics, heaven, and hell.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur

    Galleria dell’Academia [David]

    26 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☁️ 90 °F

    When I booked the ticket for 17:00 I made the American mistake of translating that in my head as 6:00 rather than 5:00 - which I realized around 5:30 while on the other side of town. I looked it up and the last entry was at 5:45 - I damn near ran all the way there and got in the doors at 5:43 and they were nice enough to still let me in. Close call! The museum was pretty small other than David and since I barely had time I basically just looked at the statue. It’s really amazing in person, I didn’t realize how huge it was, and the detail is just incredible. It’s so unreal how these sculptors were able to make texture and tiny details with a hammer and chisel. It was tough to get good pictures - the statue is huge and several feet off the ground so there isn’t a good angle. But at least I have proof I saw him! Pretty wild to think this is the worlds most famous statue.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    Whatever this is, it puts fanta to shameA typical "street" around here - i guess the real streets are the canals!View of Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute across the waterThey have lots of murano glass stores all over

    First day in Venice

    27 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    Venice is such a cool city - not only because of the waterways, but because the place is just so old. It feels like it is in another century. The buildings are ancient and the “streets” are mostly cobblestone alleyways. Because of that, and also the fact that Google maps does not seem to know where half of the bridges are (and to get from point A to B you are generally crossing several bridges), this is the most difficult city to navigate I have ever been to - but that makes walking around pretty fun! It’s a really beautiful place and there is a ton of art exhibitions around right know because the Bienalle is going on right now - an art event every other year where every country sends an artist to make an exhibit. Pretty cool. I only had time to check out one exhibit (not formally part of Bienalle, like an off-broadway kind of vibe) of Spanish artist Antoni Clavé called the spirit of the warrior - it was pretty dark abstract art based on his time as a soldier and POW in the Spanish civil war. There was also another exhibit at that place called vampires in space that seemed super cool but I only got to go in for a second because they were closing. It was free so I may go back later. I got some amazing seafood pasta for dinner - of course seafood seems like the thing to eat here.En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    This was an argentine artist
    This exhibit was a maze of dirt with various things like stairs sticking outThis looks like one of the characters from Don't Hug Me I'm ScaredI really just don't knowHuman organ sled pulled by giraffes?

    Biennale (Arsenale) - part 1

    28 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    The biennale was… interesting, to say the least. A lot of very, very weird modern art. It was cool to see but honestly just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. It was also hard to keep track of which artist was which in the main exhibition. I spent most of the time wondering what sort of drugs the artists who made these were on and how they got so much funding. Seriously, some of the exhibits looked like what you would get if you gave a homeless person a few tabs of acid, a hundred thousand dollars, and told them to get to work. I’m definitely glad I went, it was a very interesting experience with art ranging from cool to terrifyingly disturbing to just plain weird. The only thing I can say for sure is I didn’t understand any of it. Fortunately for you, dear reader (and future me), the weirdest shit were the video exhibitions which I cannot upload here - but I can certainly send you an example, just ask :)En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    An old pawn shop in the ghetto

    Walking tour of Venice

    28 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    I had a great walking tour after the Biennale and got to see a lot of the northern area of the city (Cannaregio). We spent a lot of time in the Jewish ghetto, it was very interesting and apparently the first ghetto in history and the one which all the others were modelled after. Because they were confined to such a small space they built vertically, making some of the world’s tallest buildings at the time (like 1600s). Apparently this was a good place for Jews to live (relative to other European cities in the counter-reformation). The guide had a lot of interesting info about the city and took us to some less touristy areas that were a lot quieter. In the last picture is an interesting building that if you look closely is built on top (in front of) a church - apparently this is a relic of when the Austrians took over and tried to modernise the city by straightening the streets (they only succeeded with 1).En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur

    Boat tour of Murano and Burano

    29 mai 2022, Italie ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    I did a boat tour with some of my friends that took us to the islands of Murano and Burano off the coast of Venice. It was pretty cool, Murano didnt have much going on at all and felt like a ghost town but we saw a glass blowing demonstration that was very impressive. The dude whipped up a glass horse in like 30 seconds. Burano was small but super cool with very colourful buildings and lots of restaurants. It was cold and dark today, like 55 and overcast and super windy on the boat so we didn’t enjoy the time out on the lagoon very much. Burano was definitely the highlight!En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    Plaza Espanyol, one of the main plazas here
    One of the main boulevards here, el ravalTheres tons and tons of cool statues around hereInteresting park by my hostel, covered in graffitiThere is clearly a huge graffiti culture here. It seems more professionalA memorial to argentina on the calle de la republica argentina

    First day in Barcelona

    30 mai 2022, Espagne ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Barcelona so far is an awesome city with a very, very different vibe from the other places that I’ve been to so far. It is much more metropolitan and modern - Venice felt like travelling into the past, but Barcelona in many ways feels like travelling into the future. If I dropped you in the middle of one of the streets here and told you that you’re in New York, you’d believe it, especially with the concentration of American restaurants here - even places like dunkin donuts and five guys that I haven’t seen elsewhere in Europe. I think a big part of the reason it feels that way is unlike other cities here it is absolutely designed for cars over pedestrians; there are massive avenues and roundabouts all over the place. It’s clear that there is a small old city in the center and a massive, modern urban sprawl built around it. It is absolutely enormous, as I learned when taking in the views from the bunkers up in the hills, and feels a lot like an American city except it’s way safer, much cleaner, and the public transportation is better than anything I’ve ever seen - fast, simple, and covers just about every square inch of the entire metro area.
    The first day was very chill, I met up with Anabel (friend from college who moved here for a year after graduating) and we did some exploring. Then we got some food and drinks and took them up to meet her German friend Leila at the bunkers, which is a very popular spot up in the hills with great views of the city. It was packed with young people, lots of music and really great time. The views of the city are just unreal, it’s so cool to see the entire sprawl of such a big city (5.6 million metro area pop) from above.    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur

    Castell du Montjuïc and Arc de Triumf

    31 mai 2022, Espagne ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Anabel and I took a cable car to the top of Montjuïc, another famous mountain here on the opposite side of the city from where we were yesterday (i.e. the Mediterranean side). More incredible views. The cable car was super fun and there’s a castle at the top that is amazingly maintained. It’s been used more as a fortress than an actual castle and there is still different weapons there from all the different centuries where it was used as such: from cannons to WW2 anti-aircraft turrets. Really an awesome place to see. I don’t know much about the arc de triomf. We also saw a cool park in the city that had some nice fountains and even a little canoeing area. This city has parks everywhere. Very green place.
    One of the things I’ve found most interesting is the mix of Catalan and Spanish - I’ve never been anywhere that speaks multiple languages. I’ve heard much less Catalan than I’ve expected, and whenever you go into stores or restaurants they talk to you in Spanish. But public signs, official things and some of the ads are in Catalan, especially for things like ISPs or apartments that are only really for people who live here. It almost feels like if the ad is using Catalan, it’s as a statement that they’re in touch with the city. Super interesting. There are Catalan flags everywhere and I’ve seen a lot of posters and things about anti Spain protests.    En savoir plus

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  • Jake NagleEurope 2022Voyageur
    My quick lunch in Zaragoza
    Was weirded out by how much graffiti was on my train!It was even covering a lot of the windowsMe walking on the side of the highway from the station into PamplonaWas feeling very disoriented on this walk - still not sure if this was for people or carsSeems like a roman wall to the city? Or maybe more recentPamplona is known for bullfighting and the running of the bullsHot dog pizza? Must be typical Basque cuisineThe city was really pretty and very green.How have Americans not come up with this yet?!This was the ciudadella de pamplona... dont know what it is, but cool!Some guys were bouldering one if the walls

    A few hours in Pamplona

    1 juin 2022, Espagne ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F

    Today has been a travel day where nothing seems to go right! My original plan to get to San Sebastián was to take a train from Barcelona to Zaragoza, spend a few hours there and explore, then take a bus from there to San Sebastián with a very quick layover to grab a snack in Pamplona. The journey started with me missing my train in Barcelona - in my defense, I had no idea that there would be a security line or passport control, as there had been neither in Italy and I didn’t think there would be a difference between the two countries. Fortunately I was able to grab a ticket for the next train half an hour later, but that was just a waste of 50 euros. Once on the train, I decided to check where I would find the bus in Zaragoza. I knew the stop was outside the city in a place called ciudad de transportación, so I was planning to take a quick cab ride over. I plugged the address into maps and realised it didn’t match the map that came with my bus ticket - after a while of confusion, I realised it was in a DIFFERENT ciudad de transportación - one that was 3 hours away from Zaragoza! I still don’t know how this was possible as the ticket I bought was clearly labelled as being from Zaragoza to San Sebastián. I freaked because I had no way to get to this bus stop and I couldn’t buy any other train or bus tickets online - if I use my card on a Spanish site, it makes me input a confirmation code that gets sent to Dad, but this was all happening at around 4 AM Chicago time. I hated the idea of paying 50 more euros for another last minute train, so I downloaded an app called BlaBlaCar that some guys at the hostel had recommended, which is kind of like Uber for long distance trips, except much cheaper - it’s almost like hitchhiking, if you’re doing a long drive you post it on there and people can basically join you and split gas money through the app. It seemed a bit sketchy but I had no other option - since the payment was going through an app I wouldn’t need any codes from Dad. Once I arrived in Zaragoza, however, I checked the ticket booth for how much a ride to Pamplona would be, and it was only 15 euro, but I would have less than an hour to go into town to find wifi and cancel my BlaBlaCar and get back to the station. I walked into town from the station, ate lunch embarrassingly quickly, cancelled the ride and got back to the train just in time. Once in Pamplona I spent way too long on the phone with capital one trying to make sure this problem with the verification codes wouldn’t happen again, but I still had time afterwards to explore the city. It was super nice out and it was a really beautiful town. It had a similar modernity to it as Barcelona but was not crowded at all and had absolutely no tourists - I didn’t hear English once. Now I’m finally on the last leg of the trip: up in the mountains on a bus to San Sebastián!En savoir plus

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