The long awaited update.

Well I'm extremely sorry I had to keep you all waiting for this,
believe me I attempted to deliver an update sooner, but circumstances
prohibit somethings from happening.

WellI left you in Granada, after that I headed back up to Valencia for
a night then flew to Rome. Rome was rather nice, just how I remembered
it but a littlwe better. When I first arrived I found out the Hostel I
booked online no longer existed and spent a good part of the night
looking for another one.

After 3 nights in Rome I headed down to Sorrento, hoping that it would
still remain the medertiranian paridise I fell in love with almost 5
years ago. The weather was absolutely horrid, high winds with a fair
mist pummeling me while I walked, but it was still awsome. I wandered
for I don't know how long taking pictures of the town. I knew I made
the right decision to go back. For lunch I headed to Pompei, not to
see the ruins (one of the tour stops 5 years ago.) But to have lunch.
I remember the best Italian pizza was there so I decided to go back to
the same restaurant. I found it and had a great meal.

After 2 nights in Sorrento I made my way up to Florence, it was rather
nice, I had lots of time to just wander around the city and see the
sights, something which we didn't have the chance for last time I came
through. Walkign up on the hills overlooking the city was beautiful, I
spent a good hour or so on two different days just wandering around
the war memorial area that has been populated with tall skinny trees.

Although Florence was nice I could not find enough things to entertain
me for much more then 2 and a half days, So after 3 nights I headed to
Venice. The main reason I wanted to go to Venice is, I'm sure the same
reason as everyone else, to see the canals. Well I ended up in a camp
ground that my step-sister Ginny recommended to me. The camp-ground
was about an hour away from Venice and close to absolutely nothing. I
spent a total of 5 hours actually in Venice, getting lost in the
streets and taking photos, alot at first, but that quickly slowed down
as everything became the same. I stayed in the camp-ground for 2
nights then headed off to Milan.

Milan was more of a lay-over then anything, I had no extreme desire to
be there, other then the fact that "The Last Supper" is housed there.
For some odd reason I've wanted to see the painting ever since second
grade. I think it had something to do with some cheesy Micheal Angelo
cartoon we watched. Anywho, my hopes and dreams were quickly crushed
when I found out you need to book your ticket 3 days in advanced if
you wish to see the work. I had no desire to stick around in a hostel
that was costing me 19€ a night so the next morning I headed off
towards Switzerland.

Lugano was my first stop in Switzerland. The town itself I don't think
is known for anything. It's in Italian Switzerland, and could very
easily been mistaken as a mediterranian city. The palm trees and teal
waters didn't exactly scream Switzerland at me, but oh well, eh? While
I was there I hit up a Swiss Chocolate factory. It was a good bit of
fun and I ended up buying 2 kilos (Almost 5 lbs) of Chocolate at a
very discounted price. (I'm sending about a quarter of it home. Hunt
down my family if you want some swiss chocolate!)

After two nights in Lugano I took off to Lucern for two more. Infact,
thats where I am right now. It's a very pretty city and has an amazing
sled run for free. I went down the hill today and ended up taking out
one of the run markers. As I headed towards it all I could think was
"I wonder what that's made out of." and then I was pulling my face out
of the snow. Since I was still alive I decided it was some sort of
plastic, but as I walked back to my sled I found out it was a 5 foot
tall 3 inch thick piece of wood stuck, I don't know how far into the
ground.

Well that has been my journey over the last almost 2 weeks, as a bonus
to all of you I have included a link to the photo albums of my trip.
It's missing from mid Ireland all the way to Paris, and thephotos only
take you part of the way through Spain, but there sure is alot of
them, have fun!

=Logan, Switzerland

http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=707191142780963524/l=87130154/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Granada

Well my last e-mail was an adventure, this one I can't garentee to be
quite as interesting.

So we left me somewhere in Spain nice safe and sound, knowing exactly
where I was and where I was going. I´m not to posative as to
absolutes, so lets say we left off part way through Barcelona.

Barcelona was pretty cool. As far as the city goes it really is about
80% nightlife. It was extremely easy for me to nail out pretty much
all the super tourist sights in about a day and a half. But it is
really cool stuff. Gaudi, is pretty much amazing. And this is the
heart of his works. There are a good handfull of just stuff crteated
by Gaudi that you´ll see when you wander around Barcelona. It ranges
from rolling Parks to giant Cathedrals. It is almost sad that so many
of the things he designed weren't completed until after his death. (Or
in some cases, are still being built.)

Trying to escape Barcelona, I ended up getting to the train station
the day that all the seats were full, not too bad of a thing, just
meant I had to wait another night, and the next day I was on my way to
Valencia. When I got there I made my way over to my friend Lorien's
flat. I didn't really know what to expect but I was impressed. She
lives on the 11th floor of an apartment building and you can easily
see the ocean on any given day. Not only this but one of the bigger
streets in Valencia, which splits and runs down either side of an
extremely long park, was right out front. I thought this was a great
place to just lay back and relax a little, which was more or less what
I did. Over the next few days I was able to talk to a real Ashlander,
someone that knew what home was. it was great. After a few days there
I caught the night bus to Granada.

I made it down to Granada at about a quarter to 8, not too bad, just a
half hour late. But I swear the bus driver did everything in his power
to hit each and every roundabout between Valencia and Granada.
Anywhodles, Granada is great, besides the fact that the streets are
just about impossible to navigate with or without a map, it takes alot
of guess work. Well After wandering around and seeing some of the
bigger sights, such as the Alhambra and a Giant Cathedral, that
probably has a name. I was heading back to the Hostel and get grabbed.
The man grabbing me was actually a kid named Julian that I met back up
in Paris. Part of the team Tobin and Julian. We knew we were going to
be in Southern Spain around the same time, but we quickly lost contact
after leaving Paris on Valentines day. It ended up that we were
already booked at the same Hostel. It was pretty cool and We've been
hanging out for awhile.

Well thats all I can bother to write right now, I head back up to
Valencia in tomorrow night on another night bus, and after one more
night with Lorien I catch a cheap plane to Rome, where I start the
Italian leg of the journey.

=Logan, Spain