Una noche perfecta.. La Oreja de Van Gogh

I had heard of La Oreja de Van Gogh (LOVG) before, and I enjoyed their music. It wasn't until recently when I discussed with my friend Yarian that there was going to be a concert in Barcelona that I decided to start listening to some of their recent work.

I must say going to that concert was just... a phenomenal thing. We got lost at first, and we got extremely ripped off by a cab driver who took us from the airpor to the plaec he said the concert was for 45 euros. I do not why I agreed to the price, I just really wanted to get there. The price was ridiculous and we got obviously ripped off, but I wouldn't have it any other way. After walking around this beautiful town for a good 30 minutes, we turned around and magically saw a cab driver leave someone off. This great guy knew where the concert actually was and drove us there, to the town nearby. Once we got there, the song I had been listening to all day, Jueves - La Oreja de Van Gogh, started playing. I was just... in heaven. It was the most beautiful song of two people on a metro, and how they would stand in silence, with sometimes a glance, but never some words, until eventually a name is mentioned, and they kiss as the metro goes through a tunnel. It was in memory of the Madrid bombings on March 11, 2004, and to me it was just perfect. The concert went on, and I had a blast.

At the end of it, we went into this bar, and as we were speaking English, this local girl looked over, noticing that I was oddly speaking another language (we were in a completely Spanish town). She looked cute, and we interchanged looks, and after I walked out of the bar, I looked back once more, and we had that final look. Then after buying some food at OpenCor, and figuring out what we were going to get back, we walk back to OpenCor as that is where the cab driver is going to pick us up. In this walk, the girl and I pass by each other, and she asks me in Spanish, where I was from. There was something about her look that simply touched me. She was just beautiful, and had a beautiful persona, that I left the concert in a magical phase. There were many factors to it, but it could have not ended in a more phenomenal way.

And with that, I say good night,
Daniel.

In the forest..

Haha this is me sort of lost in the forest deciding to head back through the same route I took because I had no idea where this forest trail was taking me.



Enjoy.

Second video log.

This is me trying to capture all the things I did that first day.

My first impression of Plitvice upon arrival to Sankorana!

This is the first time I do a video blog, I will post all the ones I did in Croatia, enjoy.



Enjoy.

And I am back!

Croatia was just spectacular. I have a couple video blogs I will post, including one of me in the forest pretty lost hahaha.

First person I met on my voyage was a South African 11 year old who was visiting Croatia. Damian was a great kid, and his parents were just as awesome! Walked around the city walls with them, it was great meeting them :).

The next day I took a boat to Mljet, met some Spanish couples travelling, had a great talk, pretty funny because we were discussing how they left their kids at home and I left my parents at home :P. Made me miss Panama a lot, the island was very similar. Saw them again on the flight back to Barcelona! It was awesome!

Then I took a 12 hour bus ride to the Plitvice National Park :D. I met two Canadians upon arrival there, really cool people, travelling until they ran out of money :) So awesome. cheers to them.

Plitvice really changed me, I stayed with a great guy who talked to me about the Croatian war, gave me a home (as opposed to house) and really really shaped my experience in Croatia. I have no words bu thank you Ivica Luketic! I will definitely try to come back and visit!!

On the way back from Plitvice I met some girl from Minnesota who had come originally to Prague to play some instrument and she came in the summers. She played for churches and many a time in concerts, with other people, it was just awesome how music had transformed her life even though she had majored in Math. Taught her some tricks with the Rubik's cube, all in good fun :).

On the flight back to Barcelona, I met two Finnish girls (Helly and Taina) who taught me some Finnish and we talked a lot. I wish I would have had an apartment in Barcelona and not my dorm so that I oculd have offered them a place to stay since they decided to just chill at the airport and wait until the morning to find hostals. I hate that Onix regulates and watches who comes in. I didn't want to take the risk of getting charged like 200 euros for guests, which is just bullshit. But they were great girls, probably see them around Barcelona at some point. One of them had done some sailing and just randomly helped out a sailor and went all the way to Africa sailing. She went for over two weeks, it just sounded awesome!

I think I might join a sail trip at some point in my life :). I must say, travelling alone definitely has its benefits. I have met the coolest group of people... I can't wait for Egypt! One of my school friends turns out will be in Cairo too, which is so awesome!

I'll post the video blogs at some point, cheers,
Daniel.

ahh the passion.

I love passion, and I absolutely adore people who are passionate. This is what I experienced while watching England play USA.

Just to get it out there, my reason for supporting England was that USA essentially took over Panama in the 1900s to build the Canal for their own benefit, and kept it for over 100 years. The day that really troubles me is January 9th, 1964, known as el Dia de los Martires. Panamanians died that day, and this is the main reason why I cannot support the United States. I have a full scholarship from the Panama government, and I honor them, and their passions to death. I have lived in Panama my entire life, and that is simply who I am, nothing can change that.

Nonetheless, I do respect anyone who supports a team for their own reasons, its the passion of football. I disagree that it should ever get physical, but I do respect any and all who have a passion for something.

cheers, i leave for croatia in a few hours, qk.

Destinations booked. Here we go.

I booked my flight to Croatia and Egypt and I am ready to go.

For Croatia, I am spending the first two nights in Dubrovnik, and then I am taking a bus to the Plitvice National Park lakes, and spending the next two nights there, relaxing and essentially emerging myself in nature. After that I will come back and spend the rest of my time in Dubrovnik, until I fly back to Barcelona on Saturday. I can't wait, it's a direct flight, so it's going to be an awesome trip :).

Woohoo!

Cheers,
Daniel.

Haufbahnhof! Munich was awesome.

I absolutely love Munich. A few highlights:

1. Great metro system.
2. Great idea - Beer Gardens.
3. Great beer.
4. Crazy night on Saturday.
5. Dachau - incredibly intense.
6. This just keeps happening...

So, let me start by complimenting the designers of Munich and their metro system, which cleverly had the main metros all go through the main six stops in the center of the city, horizontally. I felt the idea was great because at any main stop, there were at least 6 metros you could take to get to the main station, the design was excellent, and it was all in one metro stop, not a confusing area where i'd have to go many places. Many metro systems that I have experienced have one main stop where all the metros cross, multiply that by 6, and you have metros all the time, eventually going to different places but for the main stations, most trains would work.

So, the concept of a beer garden was foreign to me. I did not know it, but it is the greatest social creation I have seen which combines beer and interaction. I sat down at my first beer hall and within seconds locals joined us to drink beer. It is basically hundreds of benches and you sit with your 1-liter beer, and your pretzel if you prefer, and drink and chat with random people, or with your friends. They don't care if you sit at their table, and it felt kind of expected for you to go around and meet random folks, it was great. special cheers to Eric, an old german friend which was fantastic and hilarious.

Now, if it was crappy beer, the idea would be ok. It was phenomenal beer. I fucking love Munich for that very reason. A liter of beer was about 7 Euros, so that wasn't too bad. I had way too many liters though.

On Saturday night I had so much fun, it was ridiculous. I partied my ass off with my other Georgia Tech friends we randomly met, it was great.

On Sunday we went to Dachau and it was very intense. 65 Years ago we said NEVER AGAIN when the Holocaust happened, we all said never. Today I look at places like Darfur, and I simply tell myself, what have I learned if this is still happening? I feel compelled to change the world now.

And of course, as we were in our hostel, we ran into about 7 other Georgia Tech kids, some of which were part of the GTL program, and some which were just travelling and partying after graduation. The lesson that keeps coming up, it's a small world after all...