Seville

While in Marseille, we met a guy who told us that he "arrived in Sevilla at night and spent only a few hours there but even at night walking through the streets I could tell this was my favorite city in Europe." With a recommendation like that, how could we pass on that city? Plus my friend Mike Skoda, whom we ran in to in Stockholm, had been spending the semester studying abroad in this city. We only spent 2 nights in Sevilla, Spain but they we're well worth it.

Spending two nights really means only one full day of touring, so we rented bikes. There is a lot to see and do in this smaller town and we we're only able to do so much yet I am still satisfied with our visit there. At night, Mike took us out where I ate my first helping of authentic paella and my first authentic sangria followed by a night of bar hopping.

Sevilla is a must see Spanish city.

Highlights:

Lisboa

Hands down, Portugal is the vastly overlooked European must-visit gem.

I would nickname Lisbon, the capitol city of Portugal, the San Francisco of Portugal. Besides (even ignoring) the direct replica of the Golden Gate bridge, it is a port town with many hills and trams. With interesting history, great nearby beaches and cheap prices everywhere I vastly regret not spending more time in this awesome country.

On the other hand, I thought knowing French and having a very basic (I can't stress just how basic) of an understanding I have of Spanish, that I would be able to understand maybe, perhaps, conceivably a little bit of Portuguese. I was of course wrong to think that. In fact, I even lacked the ability to hear it spoken and translate the oral language to how I thought it could be written. And of course this goes the other way around when attempting to order something that was recommended to me and written down on paper.

And once again, I cannot stress how cheap things are in Portugal. The best meal I have eaten on this trip was the chicken dinner I ate out alongside a beer only ran me 7 Euro. To put this in perspective, sometimes a Coca Cola alone in a restaurant in Italy can cost 3.50 Euro.

Oh and we hit the 'largest casino in Europe'. Watch the video to find out how we did.

Highlights:

Madrid

As the tour continues we find ourselves back in the south where we can finally get some sun and warmth, a good way to wind down our European trip. It will be two weeks before we return to Munich, the city we started and the city where we will end.

One word -- Tapas. As we we're told, the story behind tapas starts in the 13th century. The poor people only had so much money could only afford either food or beer. Guess what they chose? Correct. Incidentally the poor people of Spain we're malnourished and drunk and so the king of Spain declared it national law for any restaurant or bar who served beer to also serve some food on top. The Spanish verb 'tapar' translates to 'cover'. Today the law no longer exists but the tradition does. Wherever we bought beer there was also a tapas served alongside, something as small as chips or as large as chorizos, breads, patatas bravas, chicken wings.. We ate a lot of little food in Spain.

Coincidentally, we spent Easter in Spain. While I have no personal affinity Easter, being that the national religion of spain is Catholicism, the Spaniards take the holiday very seriously. You may have heard of their world famous Easter processions. Each church has it's own procession, all of which are on different days. The procession is essentially a large parade with a marching band and an incredibly heavy altar. The processions march for hours all through the city. It is a very large honor to take part in the processions, so large that spectators at one procession cried and embraced when the rain forced the procession to go no further than the church's doorway.

And for those who are trying to travel cheaply, the Euro goes far in Spain.

Highlights:

Stockholm

Before I write anything else, if you have not read the 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' series, do so. The reason why I mention this is because the book is set in Stockholm and even before arriving into the city by train, I recognized names of Swedish cities along the way. Also, the books are great, beyond great. And have really interesting characters.

I've always found the expression 'the world is a small place' to be kind of a lame one. Perhaps that is because I have never been in a situation with coincidence that simply astounds me. This all changed in Stockholm as we we're walking down the street looking for our hostel and we run into not one but two friends of mine from college. It turns out they we're even planning on meeting a third friend of ours the following day. It was awesome to hang for three days with those guys. You will see a lot of them in the video.

Time in Stockholm was spent wandering the old town (Gamla Stan), watching the guards change, visiting a zoo with animals indigenous to Sweden and traditional Swedish architecture. We also made a trip to Uppsala, a smaller town one hour away. We ate Swedish meatballs, but they we're prepared by us in the kitchen in our hostel. Not quite the down home cooking experience I had hoped for, but money would not permit.

Highlights:

Berlin

Berlin is a must-visit in Germany (if you didn't already feel that way). You can feel just how recent ago the city was divided. Remnants of a deep history linger everywhere alongside evidence of progression. From the major cities we have seen thusfar, Berlin is a city where I feel I have not seen enough.

During the days we spent our time roaming the streets, seeing museums, monuments, parks and eating the street food. By night we spent time with young Berliners, cruising the bars and the internationally renowned nightclubs. And we ate currywurst, a Berlin tradition and it was simple and phenomenal.

The music for this video is by a band named Scratched Surface and is a band from which we befriended the lead guitarist in the hostel we stayed at in Strasbourg, France. His name is Jens. He is cool. What's up man?

Highlights:

Haltern am See

Our visit to Haltern was a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of the large cities that we continue to explore.  This quaint little German town gave a real insight into the people and the culture of their country.

Haltern is where we met up Hendrik, my (Corey) exchange student from high school.  From traditional meals to high school plays (which included drinking and sexual jokes), we acted the part of a local, 'natürlich'.  With clean clothes and good spirits we enjoyed ourselves.

We would like to thank the Boesing family and Hendrik and we hope that we see you again soon (not another five year break, bitte).

Highlights:

Amsterdam

All the myths about Amsterdam are true, they really do have the best waffles and french fries in the world. Despite what one may think, Amsterdam has more to offer than a night in the red light district. In fact, it is a very normal town with less than normal rules.

As a tourist, you can visit museums from the Van Gogh museum to the Anne Frank house, tour the Heineken brewery, shop the market, see windmills by bicycle etc. Or you can grab a coffee at one of their many coffee shops, often the coffee is bad. Don't mistake the coffee shops for cafes, who actually serve good coffee.

Oh and we walked out of the casino with €140 in our pocket (roughly translates to $200).

Highlights:

Nancy

Because of the kindness of friends we met in Athens we stayed two nights in the smaller town of Nancy. We spent time there relaxing, talking, walking, eating, joking, drinking, rapping (some of us with names that start with the letter 'E'). One night we had a traditional french feast of cheeses, breads, salads and wines. The following night Claire made some of the best onion soup I have ever eaten. Don't tell her that i'm telling you this but the secret is to add a little curry. We would like to thank Claire, Erika, Megan, Nandy and others who put us up and put up with us for the entire weekend.

Highlights: