So this is the first of what will hopefully be a series of posts documenting my trip to Europe. First some background. I'm currently a grad student at FAU in the urban planning program and am taking a class called Planning Abroad:Spain. So naturally I'm going to Spain. I'll be in country May 6th-16th, even though, due to the wonders of time zone travel, my first day will be May 7th. The focus of the trip is learning about how planning is done in Spain and as such we'll be meeting up with both government officials and university professors.
This will actually be my second time back in both Barcelona and Madrid and I'm looking forward to going back to my old stomping grounds that will hopefully have the same magic they did during my first go around. Even though it won't be the same without all my tios and tias from the ISA group I went with.
But wait there's more. Instead of coming back stateside on the 16th with the rest of my classmates, I will be heading to Essen, Germany to take part in the 2011 CORP conference. (I'm unfortunately flying Ryannair for this trip. Hopefully this ends up better than my last trip with them which ended up with me running through Gatwick Airport trying to hold up my pants while carrying a photo shopped boarding pass, but I digress.) For some unexplained reason they liked the paper I submitted and the paper will be presented at the conference. The most important part of this whole deal is that I now have a publication to my name, which makes me feel like I have actually accomplished something for the first time in my life. The conference starts the 18th and lasts until the 20th. Hopefully I'll be able to take some side trips into the surrounding area as it will be my first time in Germany.
Here our group breaks up again and three of us have decided that hey, if we're going to the trouble of getting to Europe we may as well make it count. So we decided to take a tour of east-central Europe. Our whirlwind tour will feature stops in Prague, Budapest and finally end up in Munich where we'll be flying back home from May 31st. Luckily neither the Czech Republic nor Hungary uses the Euro so the exchange rates will be in my favor, unlike that bastard euro. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Fun Fact: I will be traveling from the Czech Republic to Hungary on a Portuguese airline, TAP. Ah globalization.
So I think that is a big enough wall of text. Hopefully my future posts will not be so wordy and will be more humorous.
Have a great trip Alan! I hope that magic is still within the city that we were able to experience each day. Best of luck flying Ryanair, you're going to need it. Just remember though, TAP will probably give you food but be the smallest airplane in the world.
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