Paris and south France with Jessica

I've been to Paris once before for 4 days when I was doing a research internship in Edinburgh. The Louvre was absolutely amazing, but other than that I don't have that fond of memories. The people were brusk, there were a lot of tourists (including us), and with the exception of crepes we didn't experience the amazing food France is known for.

This trip was completely different. Besides the fact that I got to see my amazing girlfriend after a month apart, Jessica was pretty familiar with the city by that point and it made a huge difference. Some of the highlights (besides climbing at Fontainbleau) were:

-eating amazing falafel and mediterranean food in the Jewish quarter

-eating at chez gladines, a super cool basque place . We waited a long time and then ordered a good-looking but super simple dish. It was good, but for that wait, we should have ordered the specialty. Still, the night was worth it for the atmosphere and basque beer alone. One bartender and two waiters handling like 60+ people crammed into a hole-in-the-wall. Pretty intense!

-working at KB Coffee shop. Like Madrid, the coffee culture in Paris is pretty lacking, especially if you are a coffee snob who has been living in the Bay Area for 3 years. KB is part of a wave of new cafes that are super serious about coffee. The food was good too, but wicked expensive. It was almost so hip that it hurt, but it was a great place to work while Jess was in class.

-Walking around the park near Jessica's apartment at evening. I think it is called Javel Andre Citroen. Paris can be a really pretty city.



Gare de Lyon



The water fountains at Javel Andre Citroen

We spent the last 4 days of our trip climbing in southern France near Marseilles. Check out my Cal Climbing blog post for more on that trip!

Arriving in Spain

I arrived in Spain in the morning, so I immediately set out for the property rental office where I could pick up the keys to my apartment, lugging all of my stuff with me. From there it was to the apartment, which is housed in a old and somewhat rough looking complex, but actually has all the necessary amenities. I immediately realized that my mattress was less a mattress and more of a sheet covering a bunch of springs; you could count them while they poked you in the back. 

Leaving that for another time, I headed for my school, which is located an hour away from where I live. It is in the suburbs and I opted to live 'closer' to the happenings in Madrid. In hindsight, where I live is still pretty far from where you want to be most of the time and commuting in general sucks up a lot of my day, but whaddyagunnado? The area I live in is actually super pretty, with a massive urban park that runs along the Rio Manzanares for its entire run through the city. It is great for running. Can't complain about that!

The view from Puente Segovia of the nice park near my house

That first day in Spain, I was pleasantly surprised when one of my new coworkers, a fellow climber, immediately informed me that he was leaving for Germany in a couple of days and I could use his crash pad and guide books for the rest of my stay. How lucky is that?! Thanks again to Juan for being so nice!

My first couple of days were spent getting semi settled in and taking forever to get to places because I didn't have the public transit system down (once you get the hang of it, it's actually really extensive and great). I checked out Puerta del Sol, probably the most famous point of interest in Madrid.

Puerta del Sol!

I also live pretty close to the Royal Palace, one of the major tourist draws in Madrid, and walking around that first week and a half I actually took a picture of its backside without knowing what it was. So that was funny.

Even the backside of the Royal Palace is pretty!

An interesting thing about Madrid (at least to me) is that Madrid has a bunch of outdoor climbing structures where you don't have to pay to climb. I visited the oldest one, which is just a bunch of rocks and holds glued to the underside of a bridge arch. What a great idea....

The DIY climbing wall under Puente de los Franceses

That Sunday I went climbing at El Escorial, the only place I could find that was 'accessible' by public transit. You still have to walk for 30+ minutes after you get off the train. It's actually considered one of the best granite areas in Spain, but I didn't get much done without a guidebook and I left my Chaco flip flops on accident. That was a huge deal. Those were my favorite pair of shoes ever. I actually took time out of my day the following Tuesday to train+walk 1.5 hours each way back to El Escorial to try and find them, but alas, they were gone. The upside to that bummer was meeting Mattia, an Italian student studying in Madrid who I've been hanging out with a lot (along with his roommate Giovanni).

The monastery in El Escorial as seen from the climbing area

Before visiting Jess in France I had to buy some replacements for the flops (gotta have those sockless shoes!) and I decided to get some alpargatas. They are the shoes the popular Toms are based on. I don't where them much, but when I do my hipster score goes up by +10!

back in the saddle again...

So you might've noticed... I haven't posted on this bad boy in over three years. Three years?! Yeah well, things have been pretty awesome since I moved to Berkeley. So awesome in fact, that I just never made the time to keep up with this thing. Since I got back from Peru my traveling has mainly been restricted to the American west, and almost exclusively for climbing. Since September I've been living in Spain on a research stay. I know many of you have been wondering why the heck I haven't been posting and I can only apologize. I've been so busy since I got here that I've only now had a chance to breath and write it all down.

As such, here comes a full blown blog dump, starting from the beginning!

The posts are shorter than the typical Casey Zak ramble-fest, but feel free to read at your own pace!