Yo no tenia tiempo para viajar recientemente, tenia clases y trabajo y estaba muy preocupado. Viaje a la isla Ocracoke para cojer olas durante un hurucan. Las olas fueron grandes y bastante perfectos. Pero, voy a tener tiempo la proxima mes para patinar y posiblemente para viajar. Un amigo patinador regresara a Raleigh, pues vamos a patinar juntos. Estoy muy listo para este tiempo libre, despues de un semestre ocupado.

Nueva York

nose manual


Esta ledge esta mas alta que mira.

Crook

El Unisphere

Times Square



La semana pasada fui a Nueva York para visitar mi novia Shelley y mi amigo Thompson. Ambos de ellos estan viviendo en NY por el verano, trabajando por internships. Llegue a NY el 16 de Julio y vivi en un hostel por 3 noches, luego con Thompson en su piso por 3 noches. Me encanta NY, esta lleno de comida riquisima, y todos tipos de sitios para hacer fiesta, tomar bebidas, patinar, y cualquiera te gusta hacer. Comi a restaurantes se llaman: Butter, Bocca, Mad for Chicken, Katz, Shake Shack, Lombardi's, Saigon, varios carritos por la calle, y otros que no puedo recuerdo. La unica cosa que no me gustaba sobre NY fue la puta sistema complicada del metro... Shelley y yo fuimos a la grabacion de la programa David Letterman en Times Square. La ultima dia que estuve alli, Shelley y yo cojimos el metro a Queens para patinar en algunas cosas famosas de la ciudad. Mira, aqui esta las fotos y videos, gracias a la bella y talentosa Shelley.



Aqui esta un video que hice con la grabacion de NY. La musica es Anything You Want by Spoon. Disfrutala tios.

Patin

Este es un post solamente en espanol. Necesito practicar, no quiero olvidar todo lo que he aprendido en espana. Yo patinaba frequentemente este verano con uno de mis amigos Ian de Raleigh. Esta noche, fuimos al centro de la ciudad Raleigh para patinar sin la molestia de la policia. Patinamos por dos horas, mas o menos, sin molestia. Durante el session, cojiamos el nuevo autobus por el centro de Raleigh. Este bus es gratis para todos y traduce por casi todo del centro. Muy bein la noche de patin, y habra mas en el futuro. Buenas.

Back Home

Nate Peifer is back in the United States of America. I made it back this morning dead tired at 1:30 am after a roughly 22 hour trip from Madrid to Charlotte. I sincerely apologize for my lack of frequent updates, but I was kept busy the entire trip. I'm going to split this last entry into a couple parts. First, a continuation of my Semana Santa trip and summary of my last few weeks in Spain. Second, an overall recap of the trip. So here it goes...

Going to Hong Kong, although it was a huge trip, accounted for only half of my Semana Santa vacations. After the 10 hour train-hotel to Seville, I took another train to Lebrija to meet up with Calvin and Brandon. Lebrija is a very, very small town. There is one discoteca (dance club). Calvin found himself in Lebrija teaching English through a program for recent college graduates in the U.S. Calvin was given a choice of which region of Spain he wanted, of which he chose the South, and was put in Lebrija. I think he's enjoying himself there, especially as this is his second year teaching. He has gotten to know many of the local Lebrijans, who were very friendly for the most part. He lives in a sweet house (sort of like a townhouse) with 2 other American guys.

The first day I was there, Calvin, Brandon, and I walked around the town taking pictures. We walked up this hill that gave us a great view of the city. Lebrija was a big contrast to the other cities I have seen in Spain as there were absolutely no tall buildings. There was also no public transportation system. We walked around the town in about 45 minutes. Calvin took us to some good restaurants for tapas (small plates of snack food) and wine. We went out for some drinks that night at a couple local bars, where Calvin seemed to know most of the people.

My Aunt Nina sent me an email earlier asking me about any pottery kilns that I had come across while in Spain. In Lebrija we actually got to meet the town potter and watch him at work. I took quite a few pictures of his work and his different kilns. He had an older kiln and another, newer kiln. He said that he mainly used his new kiln, but that the old one was still functional. We watched him mold about 4 pots in a matter of minutes, he was good.

The next couple days we took trips to Cadiz (beach city in the south of Spain) and Sevilla. Cadiz was a very interesting town, although we didn’t spend too much time there. We got to see a pretty cool beach with a surprising amount of surfers and bodyboarders trying to work with the small, sloppy surf. Seeing this and the small surf in Barcelona made me glad I was up in Santander with the bigger North Atlantic swells. Sevilla was very cool; I wish I could have spent more time there. Calvin took us to a restaurant with a stadium in the back for everybody to sit and eat on. They weren’t the most comfortable seats, but it was a cool layout, very conducive for “hanging out” and “chilling.” The plan for Sevilla was to hang out for half the day, do some skating, see Brandon off on a train back to Barcelona, and then find a hostel for the night. We hung out, did some skating, then went to see Brandon off but realized that he had miss-read his ticket and thus missed his train altogether. So, somewhat dejected, we decided to all stay in the hostel that I had booked that day for Calvin and me. The next morning, I got on a 13 hour bus from Sevilla back to Santander, Brandon got a bus ticket to Madrid and hoped for the best from there back to Barcelona, and Calvin took the short train back to his home sweet Lebrija.

The week following Semana Santa was review week for our classes. Most of our teachers gave us good study guides and samples of old tests to study. I went out for a few more surf sessions in Somo beach. The weather was getting warmer and I didn’t need booties anymore (still had to wear the wetsuit). That weekend we took an excursion with the group to the caves of Soplao and a couple other pretty cool places. The caves were impressive, but we couldn’t take any pictures of anything inside. So… sorry.

The next week we had another couple days of review followed by our exams on Wed. and Thur. The exams were a pretty unpleasant pill to swallow after 2.5 months of basically avoiding real school work, but we got through them well enough. After our final exam on Thursday, a couple friends and I went out to a bar to celebrate. We drank wine from a Porron (a lamp-shaped glass that shoots wine into your mouth) and then went to the beach, where the girls went for a swim (and they realized it wasn’t quite summer yet). Later that night, we went out to an Erasmus party at a big bar on the beach. Erasmus is a giant European study abroad program that pays students money to study abroad. All of my international friends from Europe were there and I got to say my goodbyes and hang out one last time.

The following day, Friday, I woke up early (about 10 am) to spend the last day surfing in Somo. I met up with a German guy who surfs and 2 girls from my trip and we took the ferry over to Somo. The girls rented boards and wetsuits and we all went out for a surf in some really choppy and fairly big conditions. It wasn’t a great quality day for surfing, but we all had a great time and I sold my board to the German guy after the session. After surfing we went and got some huge ice cream cones and hung out in the city for a little bit. I went home to try to pack and rest a little before dinner, but ended up talking to my host uncle Jesus for about an hour (didn’t get any packing done). I had to rush out for our last dinner in Santander at a really good tapas bar with lots of sangria (a wine and fruit juice mixture). After dinner, a few friends and I went to meet up with my Spanish skater friends, the nicest group of guys that I met through skateboarding. They took us around to a few different bars and we took a couple memory cards worth of photos together. My friends and I were all struggling to stay awake, with the thought of leaving early the next morning, packing, and sleep deprivation weighing heavily on our mental. Red Bull did the trick, however, and we had a fantastic last night in Santander with some of the coolest people I have met.

Saturday morning I woke up at 7 am to pack and head out of Santander by 9 am. We all said tearful goodbyes to our host families and got on a 4 hour bus to Madrid, where we would stay in a very accommodating hotel for 3 days. Madrid was a really cool city, very big and very impressive. Everyone in our group was pretty exhausted the whole time in Madrid, but we still managed to sightsee quite a bit and even go out to some bars on Saturday night. The highlight of Madrid was definitely eating lunch at this small Italian restaurant just outside the main Plaza. We had vague directions from our coordinator about how to find this place, but we made it a mission to find it, and it was WORTH IT. We got to eat in sort of a dungeon room in a secret-looking lower level of the restaurant (probably because we were 6 boisterous Americans) which was really great for us. We ordered 3 pasta dishes, a pizza, and a ‘chef’s specialty’ to split between the 6 of us. All of the food was absolutely delicious, especially the Fiocchi pasta and the pizza. I spent the last day in Madrid walking around with some friends looking for skate spots (there aren’t too many) and doing some more sightseeing. That night we had our last dinner with the group and our coordinator Greta and packed for our flight the next morning. We caught our flight from Madrid to Charlotte (via Newark) Tuesday morning at around 10 am Spanish time (4 am North Carolina time). I didn’t get home until 1:30 am North Carolina time. It was a long day.

Lebrija from the roof of Calvin's flat
Lebrija from the ground. Most streets looked like this one. Very homely.
The craftsman at work in Lebrija.
Pottery and machinery.
The old kiln.
The inside of the potter's shack.
A cluttered oven. Not sure what the purpose of this oven was, maybe Aunt Nina can help me out.

Hong Kong Pt 2

Here are some more good photos from my trip to Hong Kong. This first one is from a cable car ride we took in Lantau Island on my last day, a few hours before I had to catch my plane back to Spain. This was the same place that had the mile-long line when we tried to go on Saturday. This day (Tuesday) there was maybe a line of 5 people, which was really good considering we were on a very tight schedule.
This is Shelley standing in the middle of her school, Hong Kong PolyTechnic University (I think). It's a cool campus with some really cool classrooms/labs for textiles. She showed me one of her classroom buildings for a few minutes.

Here's some food from a Vietnamese restaurant we went to. Shelley of course got hot milk tea to drink.

A view of the city at night during the 'light show'. Several of these huge buildings have special lights that are synchronized together with some very entertaining music. This light show lasted about 20 min and happens every night. Seeing the city lit up at night by itself is pretty amazing, but why not have a nightly light show?

Pork knuckle in noodles. Not the best choice for lunch... but I had to try it.

This staircase (in the middle of the picture) has a tv screen on every step, which makes the effect of one big tv screen from the street. I think it was showing ads for some apparel company.

A very intricate carving that was on display outside a fancy store we walked past one day.

The view from the 15th floor of the biggest mall I will ever see in my life. Each floor was filled with all kinds of different shops.

A good shot of the city during the day and a huge cruise ship docked in the harbor.

Shelley being scared standing on the edge of the 15th floor of the biggest mall I will ever see.

Some cool lights hanging down from the ceiling of the biggest mall I will ever see.

The mall had escalators that took you up 5 floors at a time.

Pig intestines that we bought from a street corner chef. Not bad, but not particularly great either.

Fried sushi roll from KFC in one of the malls. We had to see what Asian KFC had on their menu, and decided that we had to try this. It was delicious.

Another mall we went to had an indoor ice skating rink on the 5th or 6th floor.

Some really cool escalators in a different mall.

Here's some more skate footage from a skatepark that we found in Hong Kong. It was really hot and humid that day, but fun to skate on the other side of the world.

Hong Kong

From April 8th - 19th I traveled the globe for Easter Break (Semana Santa in Spain). I took a flight with good old RyanAir to Barcelona, where I skated around for the day and ate like a hobo (a burger and cookies for lunch and cookies for dinner). I stayed in a hostal and the next night took 2 planes, from Barcelona to Munich, then to Hong Kong to visit Shelley. The total trip from Barcelona to HK took 15 hours. Shelley was kind enough to meet me at the airport and be my designated guide through the massive city.

The culture shock I got from the first few days in Hong Kong was much stronger than from Spain. Shelley has been telling me for a while now that Asians are going to take over the world soon, comments that I sort of brushed aside until I actually walked around in Hong Kong. The city is amazing. Everywhere we went in the city seemed to be bustling with people of all walks of life, from fancy businessmen selling real estate on the sidewalk to street vendors shoving stuff in your face to packs of kids and adults staring at their PSPs (portable video games).

Here are some highlights:

One of the many corner stands of food. This one had all kinds of meat, from fried intestines to big fish balls.
Eat Together restaurant: a chain restaurant that makes really good handmade noodles.

Shelley holding up some roasted corn and ... chicken kebab I think. Both were delicious, especially after a 4 hour hike.
Shelley on top of the mountain (Dragon's Back). It was really windy up there.
Striking a pose on the mountain with a good view of the Pacific Ocean.
Pointing to the new world. In the background you can see the trail along the 'spine' of the mountain, hence the name Dragon's Back.
Buena vista de la playa.

I was pretty excited about that rock, and representing NC State.
This is the end of the line that we found when we first tried to take sight-seeing cable cars to popular Lantau Island. The following pictures show a nice panoramic view of the line.


In the front of the line was an entirely new line that lead up some stairs and into another humongous line that you can't see. We learned that it gets kind of crowded here on Saturdays.
A good shot of Hong Kong (Mang Kok I believe) at night.
Some good noodles with fish balls.
More good noodles with meat.
Shelley and I on my first night in the city.

Traveling Man

I am currently in the middle of Semana Santa, Spain´s Easter break. I just got back from a 5 day trip to Hong Kong to visit Shelley. My plane from Hong Kong was 16 hours, overnight. Right now I´m in an internet cafe in Barçelona waiting for a 10 hour overnight train-hotel to Sevilla to visit my friends Calvin and Brandon from Ocracoke. They are both teaching English here in Spain and Calvin is living just outside of Sevilla.

Covadonga, Llanes, Leon, and Salamanca

Plaza Mayor in Salamanca. This plaza is from the 18th century and is one of the main attractions for both tourists and Spaniards. It's basically just a big flat plaza enclosed by this 4 story building/wall with lots of shops and restaurants along the bottom. It was constantly filled with people while we were there, during the day and most of the night. by the way, we had some of the best kebab wraps of our entire lives in salamanca at these restaurants called doner kebab, so delicious. 

The weather in Leon and Salamanca was quite odd. We were in Leon for 2 days and each day was really warm, with temps in the middle 70s. At night, however, it would drop to the 40s (not 100% sure but it was cold). Then when we went to Salamanca, it was cold pretty much all day and night. We even had some random bouts of hail and snow while in Salamanca. That didn't stop me from taking my skateboard out one day, and without too much searching I found a really small skate park and had a short session in the hail. 

This is the view from our room on the 7th floor in a really nice hotel in Leon. 

This is part of our group at the top of a mountain trail in Covadonga. Covadonga is an area in Picos de Europa with some really big lakes surrounded by huge mountains. It was pretty warm that day ( i was wearing a t-shirt and pants) but there was still snow on parts of the trail we walked on. In this picture (from left to right): Gonzalo and Greta (our teachers/group coordinators), Emma (Greta's daughter), Lauren, a professional photographer from Asheville (Greta's friend), somebody being blocked by a bookbag, and Nadia.

One of the Covadonga lakes.

A great view from the trail in Covadonga.