Category: Travel

Photos

San Francisco

Yesterday I got back to Colorado from my spring break to San Francisco. I spent the week visiting with Alan, whom I had only seen once since high school graduation. His apartment is downtown just blocks from the Embarcadero, so we had easy access to all kinds of stuff. I got to hang out with a lot of Alan’s salesforce.com and Carnegie Mellon alum friends- lots of rock band, cupcakes, and hot tubs were had throughout the week.

I posted a stream of the more interesting places I visited on my Foursquare account. I particularly liked walking around in the Mission (in the sun 😀 ) and checking out some of San Francisco’s, ahem… more eccentric cafĂ©s (that link is mildly NSFW).

Towards the end of the week, I got to do some more catching up. I spent a day in Silicon Valley with family: Denis and Shana and my cousins Anora and Quinn. The kids have probably grown a foot and a half since I last saw them, so it was really fun to get to play with them. Shana works in HR at Google and took Denis and I around the Googleplex, which lived up to its reputation as a geek’s utopia. I also had a chance to meet up with Jessica, another friend from high school; we all went to Tommy’s Yucatan Restaurant, which is famous for their top-shelf tequila and is where my stepdad proposed to my mom.

So I had really great time overall. San Francisco is my favorite city in the United States and I’d love to find a software job out there. It isn’t making the prospects of living in Boulder, Denver or Fort Collins any less attractive, though; I had a great time there and I’m sure I’ll be having a great time there again regardless of where life takes me.

Below are the photos I took while I was there. (Denis took a couple of them while Quinn’s wrestling skills had me incapacitated.) I should also mention that Alan is way more of a shutterbug than I, and also spends a lot more time taking pictures of actual people instead of my transfixion on architecture and the like. He has a couple of great galleries from my time there: [One] [Two]

Spain

2009 Travel Log

I just finished my last trip of the year. I just realized how much time this year I’ve spent sitting on some form of transportation, and there’s been a ton. Here’s every trip I’ve taken, ordered by transit method:

Air:
Denver-Philadelphia
Philadelphia-Madrid
Granada-Liverpool
Liverpool-Amsterdam
Amsterdam-Barcelona
Barcelona-Granada
Madrid-Dusseldorf
Dusseldorf-Prague
Prague-Frankfurt
Frankfurt-Madrid
Madrid-Dublin
Dublin-Chicago
Chicago-Denver
Denver-Cleveland
Cleveland-Harrisburg
Harrisburg-Cleveland
Cleveland-Denver

Bus:
Madrid-Toledo
Toledo-Granada
Granada-Sevilla
Sevilla-CĂłrdoba-Granada
Granada-RĂłnda-MĂĄlaga
MĂĄlaga-Granada
Granada-Morocco-Granada (60+hours on the bus in a week)
Granada-La Taha, Alpujarras
Granada-Madrid
Prague-TerezĂ­n-Prague
Madrid-Granada
Valencia-Barcelona
Barcelona-Madrid

Ferry:
Spain-Morocco and back

Train:
Granada-Valencia

Metropolitan transit:
Madrid
Granada
Liverpool
Amsterdam
Prague
Valencia
Barcelona (way too many hours in the metro with 150 lbs+ of bags)
Dublin
Fort Collins
Denver

I definitely got around, but I’m looking forward to a more… Stationary 2010.

Travel

On Yesterday’s “Terrorist” Incident

Airport security yet again failed to catch a person’s improvised weapon aboard a plane yesterday. Passengers yet again proved that they aren’t going to let shit happen on a plane in the first place. The cabin of a plane is no longer a viable place from which to carry out a terrorist act.

The American government responded by adding more “security” measures.

I’d feel a lot safer if my government focused on making less enemies in the world instead of treating us all as if we are the enemy ourselves. That isn’t the kind of self-fulfilling prophecy I like.

Spain

A NOTICE

I hereby declare the following things “played out” and thus disallowed from now forthwith:

  1. The “jumping-in-midair” photo pose
  2. Writing tweets about your breakfast
  3. Lisping the “c” in “Barcelona” or the “s” in “España”
  4. The Facebook status “(your name) is.”
  5. “Broseph”

That is all.

Photos

Study Abroad Slideshow

Remember when a family member would come home from some exotic location, strap you down to the sofa, and force you to endure a 2-hour unedited slideshow of their entire trip? Well it’s time to relive those memories all over again!

…except that you aren’t being held captive.

…and I chose about 100 photos from a few thousand.

I threw together the best of my photos  and videos across all 5+ months in Europe. I suggest clicking through the link below the embedded video to watch it in fullscreen HD on Vimeo (assuming Flash doesn’t puke all over your computer, which it does even on good systems.)

Study Abroad Granada 2009 from Zeke Weeks on Vimeo.

So there ya go! You can thank me later for embracing technology instead of holding you against your will.