publish mr-worldwide pt 1, and add next/previous in series links

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diff --git a/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md b/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md
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+++ b/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md
@@ -104,677 +104,3 @@ description: >-
         - Culture
         - History
 
-# Munich, Germany
-
-I arrived in Munich late at night on January 14th. My friend Caitlin met me at
-the train station, and walked me over to her house to drop my stuff off. Jetlag
-hit me real good at this point, so I only barely remember her taking me to a
-nearby biergarten to get some food and catch up. The next day we headed down to
-the center of the city, and she showed me around the sights, like Marienplatz
-and the Frauenkirche (one of many famous churches in Munich).
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="munich-victory-gate-2018.jpg" width=4048
-    descr="Siegestor (Victory Gate), Munich, 2018"
-    %}
-
-As we walked and ate our way through the day Caitlin updated me on all of the
-things that I should expect to be different in Europe, like how water is never
-free anywhere, nor are public restrooms; like how many buildings which are still
-used and lived in are older than our entire country; like how people use cash
-instead of card, and get irritated if you make them break a large bill, or they
-just might not do it at all; like how even in a large city like Munich
-everything can still be closed on a Sunday.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="munich-moosach-2018.jpg" width=3036
-    descr="Moosach neighborhood, Munich, 2018"
-    float="right"
-    %}
-
-The thing which struck me most about Munich was how quiet it was. The din of
-traffic is so ingrained into me that I don't even hear it until it's not there.
-And to not hear it inside of a city was very strange. More than sound, there was
-a quietness of life. It didn't feel like people were rushed, with too much to do
-and too little time. People crowded onto the subway, but not with impatience,
-and people walked home from the train station after work without hurry. It was
-like the priorities of the whole culture were different in some fundamental way
-that I could never quite put a finger on.
-
-Caitlin worked during the week, and so I was set free into the City for a few
-days. I visited more churches, ate more food, hung out at the library figuring
-out the next steps of my travels, and just generally wandered around the city.
-
-One snowy day I had lunch with a distant relative on my mom's side, who is an
-artist in Munich. I met her at her studio, and from there we wandered around
-various museums, where she gave me a private guided tour of the exhibits. We
-talked about politics, and about how immigration is affecting it, and about
-Trump (of course), and about art, and school, and our different cultures. She
-told me that Europe had always looked to the U.S. as a kind of older brother,
-but now that image was starting to fall apart, and I told her about the tiny
-house and minimalism movement that is hopefully picking up steam in the U.S.,
-and about my friend who is living in a van and traveling around the country. I
-learned a lot that day, and when I headed back to Caitlin's afterwards I felt
-much more at home in the country and continent than I had before.
-
-A week after arriving it was time for me to continue on. One cold morning I
-hopped onto a bus, rode through a snowy Switzerland, and hopped off into a
-bright and sunny Milan.
-
-## Milan, Italy
-
-My first impression of Milan was: "Wow, this place is sketchy". The streets were
-dirty, old, and covered in graffiti. There were homeless everywhere, people
-selling bootleg clothes in the street, scammers targeting tourists, and a
-general disheveldness which Munich didn't have. But on the other side of that
-coin, Milan is one of the fashion capitals of the world, and everywhere I looked
-there were also beautiful people in expensive looking clothes, driving fancy
-cars, and eating at fancy cafes. Where Munich was simple and wealthy, Milan was
-lavish and disparate.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="milan-street-2018.jpg" width=4048
-    descr="The streets of Milan, 2018"
-    %}
-
-My hostel in Milan was called the Ostello Bello, and was probably the best one I
-could have gotten as my first hostel in Europe. The hostel's downstairs area was
-a restaurant/bar, with some tables reserved for hostel guests. Upon arriving
-they immediately sat me down at one of those tables, where others were sitting,
-and said "this is Brian, talk to him". They did this with every person who
-arrived, as well as giving us free food and drinks, so that every night turned
-into a small party.
-
-It took a while for me to fully break out of my shell and get used to meeting
-people in hostels, but if it weren't for Ostello Bello it might not have
-happened at all. Every night I got to hang out and make friends with people from
-South Korea, Scotland, Argentina, France, Switzerland, and locals from Milan
-too. So despite all the negative things I'm going to have to say about party
-hostels later, I'm grateful for Ostello Bello.
-
-As far as Milan itself, the thing which impacted me the most was the Duomo. And
-boy did it impact me, so much so that I visited it twice. It's the third largest
-church in the world, but my experience of it was even better than when I would
-go to St. Peter's, the first largest, later on. The interior is so cavernous
-that all sounds echo virtually forever, creating a low hum which reminded me of
-the Hindu Om. To think that the words of a book carried such force that, 2000
-years later, people were erecting and maintaining incredible structures like the
-Milan's Duomo in their honor floored me. There's a lot of criticism which could
-and should be leveled towards the Catholic Church, but damnit they know how to
-build a building.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="milan-duomo-2018-0.jpg" width=1292
-    descr="Milan's Duomo. In the lower left, tourists being scammed by a dude with pigeon food, 2018"
-    %}
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="milan-duomo-interior-2018-0.jpg" width=4048
-    descr="Interior of Milan's Duomo, 2018"
-    %}
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="milan-duomo-interior-2018-1.jpg" width=727
-    descr="Milan Duomo's creepy ass statue of Saint Bartholomew, 2018"
-    float="right"
-    %}
-
-Besides the Duomo I also visited some museums and other sights, like the Sforza
-Castle, walking from one to the other as the days went on. Walking became a
-frequent past-time for me during my traveling. Between Google Maps and the
-external battery pack I always had with me, there was never a worry about
-getting lost, and with hostels generally being clustered near the sights it was
-rarely more than a half-hour walk to any given thing I wanted to see. So I got
-used to walking a lot, and taking public transit infrequently, and never once
-used a taxi or rental car while in Europe.
-
-Five days after arriving in Milan I left it, having made many friends and
-having learned a lot about Italy and Italians. I also learned I was spending too
-long at each city: It was almost 2 weeks into my 3 month-max trip (for visa
-reasons), and I'd only been to two cities! From then on I kept to two or three
-days per city, depending on how much I cared about it, with a couple of five
-day-ers when I really needed a rest.
-
-## Ravenna, Italy
-
-After the hecticness of Milan I needed something more quiet. Before leaving the
-U.S. a friend had told me about Ravenna, the once capital of the Western Roman
-Empire and now small Italian city, where some of the world's oldest Christian
-structures still reside. Mosaics retain their original quality over time far
-better than many other mediums, and Ravenna was full of ones from as early as
-the 6th century. While not as glamorous and fast-paced as Milan, Ravenna really
-hit me with the depth of its history. As someone from the U.S., I'm not
-accustomed to seeing anything built before 1500, and yet here were buildings in
-excellent condition which were built a thousand years prior.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="ravenna-mosaic-2018-0.jpg" width=4048
-    descr="Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, 2018"
-    %}
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="ravenna-mosaic-2018-1.jpg" width=727
-    descr="Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, 2018"
-    float="right"
-    %}
-
-Something else which took some time to get accustomed to was using cash (what a
-segway!). By this point in the trip it had become somewhat second-nature, but
-only by way of many mishaps previously. In the U.S. using cash is usually a
-backup option, with credit/debit cards ruling supreme. ATMs never give out bills
-bigger than $20, and no establishment would ever complain about having to break
-a $20 except for maybe the smallest purchases. In Europe the ATMs (or cash
-machines, whatever) almost always give out €50 bills, which absolutely no one
-wants to break except big chain stores. It's a giant pain. I still remember the
-exact location of an ATM in Munich which gave me €10 bills, it was that exciting
-of a find, and I went out of my way to go back to it more than once.
-
-So in addition to needing to keep an eye on your cash and get more out
-periodically, you also need to keep an eye out for places which will break your
-bills, and plan accordingly. Before leaving the U.S. I had gotten a debit card
-with free international ATM withdrawls at any ATM, so finding places to get cash
-out wasn't a problem, but breaking it always was.
-
-But by the time I got back home, I missed doing everything in cash, and even
-kept doing it for a while in spite of my culture. While having to find places to
-break fifties was a pain, a little friction to making random purchases wasn't
-necessarily a bad thing. Instead of impulsively buying whatever was in front of
-me, I was incentivized to wait until a better opportunity arrose, generally by
-waiting until I could buy multiple things at the same time, which generally
-meant buying more efficiently because I was putting thought into it. Also, by
-always paying in cash, I had a better sense of how much I was actually spending
-day-to-day. In the U.S. we abhor inconvenience, but in my opinion our reluctance
-to use cash is a good example of how that abhorance can be to our own detriment.
-
-## Florence, Italy
-
-The train from Ravenna to Florence (or, as Italians spell it, _Firenze_) was
-uneventful. Finding the best route between cities turned out to be pretty
-straightforward. There's an app called GoEuro which helps compare different
-methods like bus, train, plane, and taxi/ride-sharing. There's another app
-called Rome2Trio which does roughly the same thing. And there's a bus company
-called FlexBus which I used quite a bit; their prices are good, their buses are
-new, and the UI of their site was made in the last decade.
-
-Florence was by far my favorite city in Italy. On the one hand it was very
-trourist-friendly, and on the other it still retained the feeling of being a
-historic city. I split my time there between visiting museums and churches and
-finding the best/cheapest spots to eat. Before leaving home, a friend had told
-me to avoid any restaurants with pictures on their menu; they're targeted at
-tourists and priced accordingly. So my strategy for finding food involved
-marking off hole-in-the-wall spots in my maps app whenever I came across them
-during the day, and returning later when I was hungry
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="florence-2018-0.jpg" width=4048
-    descr="Florence's Duomo near sunset, 2018"
-    %}
-
-On my second day in Florence I was sitting by the Uffizi, eating a panini, and I
-randomly met an art history student from Madrid who was also visiting Florence.
-Together we went to a bunch of museums, saw the David, and just generally hung
-out. I asked her a lot of questions at the museums, because, to be honest, I'd
-never understood what to make of art in museums.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="florence-2018-1.jpg" width=2688
-    descr="River Arno, and the houses which still stand on it, Florence, 2018"
-    %}
-
-I'd already learned that, even if I could see a picture of something online,
-seeing it in person is way different. In person the colors in a painting pop out
-more (many even have gold leef paint which doesn't really show up in pictures at
-all, but makes a world of difference), there's a lot more detail to be seen, and
-the size of some is absolutely baffling. I also enjoy learning about history,
-and the history of art is effectively the history of the world. So museums had
-become a meditative place for me; I could go to one and just wander, taking in
-art pieces at whatever rate I liked, learning and thinking about history as I
-went.
-
-<div style="text-align: center;">
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="florence-painting-2018-0.jpg" width=2688
-    inline=true
-    %}
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="florence-painting-2018-1.jpg" width=2688
-    inline=true
-    %}
-<p><em>Not pictured, the crowd of selfie-ers behind my trying to get a shot with
-The Birth of Venus, Florence, 2018</em></p>
-</div>
-
-What had always confused me, though, was how to _judge_ art. As in, what makes
-one piece better than another, or what makes one artist better than another? Why
-do some paintings become famous and others remain obscure? What my friend from
-Madrid told me is that there's not really a metric. Some paintings become famous
-for historical reasons, either due to where they were originally displayed or
-some story associated with them. Same for some artists. Ultimately it's up to
-the individual to judge them. There was a painting in the same room as the
-famous Birth of Venus painting which I liked far more, and was happy to admire
-it alone as throngs of other tourists vied for good selfies with the more famous
-piece.
-
-I left Florence with a greater appreciation and understanding of museums, as
-well as a good friend who I would be able to visit later while making my way
-through Spain.
-
-## Rome, Italy
-
-Rome surprised me when I got there, though, to be honest, it's not clear what my
-expectations actually were. The city center, aka the tourist center, is
-absolutely _massive_, and all of it is completely tourist-centric. Living in
-Rome must feel like living inside of Disney World. The city no longer exists for
-its residents, but instead has been completely swallowed by the tourism
-industry. Every street corner and storefront is filled with souvenir shops,
-overpriced food, clothing stores with "I <3 Rome" shirts, gelato shops, walking
-tour agencies, bike rentals, "experience" vendors (helicopter rides over the
-Colosseum! Oh my!), shitty jewelry stores, and so much more, all aimed at
-someone who has too much money and not enough time to spend it all.
-
-My hostel was one of the cheapest I could find, but I was only staying two full
-days so it was fine. Seeing all of the sights of Rome in only two days is not
-recommended. The first day I went straight to the Vatican, getting there as
-early as possible to try (unsuccessfully) to beat the line. St. Peters is the
-largest church in the world, but being rushed I wasn't able to enjoy it like
-Milan's Duomo, and a lot of it was closed off unless you wanted to pay more. I
-wasn't able to spend enough time in it to enjoy it.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="rome-2018-3.jpg" width=4048
-    descr="Pope for the day, Rome, 2018"
-    %}
-
-The Vatican museum was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. For starters
-it's huge, with tons and tons of things to see, including the Sistene Chapel. I
-took my time wandering around. After the museum I left the Vatican and wandered
-over to some other sights, like the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Pantheon. As the
-day wore on, and more and more tourists started pouring out, everything became
-impossibly crowded. It was difficult to really enjoy anything, what with
-everyone taking their phones out to capture anything and everything the
-guidebook said to, without really taking the time to take in the thing itself.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="rome-2018-2.jpg" width=4048
-    descr="Did you know that Rome has more Egyptian obelisks than any other city in the world? That's a rock fact. Rome, 2018"
-    %}
-
-This was something I began to struggle with while I was in Rome. It wasn't
-always clear to me _why_ these people cared about these sights, with myself
-being included. My pessimistic self would say that people just want the social
-media points gained by a nice selfie in front of Trevi Fountain, and that the
-tourism explosion which has started in the last decade is driven by that
-narcissism. My more charitable self might say that everyone understands that the
-journey matters more than the destination, and that seeing the sights isn't
-really the point, but rather prefer the adventure taken with friends and/or
-family, and so they snap a quick picture and continue on with their good time.
-
-The reason people travel and visit tourist spots is really only their business,
-and I can't be one to judge. It just seems unfortunate to take an entire city,
-arguably the most important city in written history, and turn it into a theme
-park for the sake of people who don't actually care all too much about it. I
-carried this realization with me for the rest of my trip, that tourism is a
-deal-with-the-devil; it takes the money of people who, ostensibly, find some
-place interesting, in exchange for driving away the original inhabitants of that
-place who made it interesting in the first place.
-
-Later on I would learn that the creep of tourism and the dreaded plague of
-"gentrification" were spoken of as the same thing in popular destinations. The
-problem of wealthy people driving out the inhabitants of a city in order to take
-part in the city culture, which the original inhabitants created, is a global
-one, and one I'm certainly a part of. I moved to Denver because I liked the
-culture of that city, and was fortunate enough to be able to afford to do so,
-but then left only three years later, and was now doing the same in even shorter
-time periods in cities the world over.
-
-I obviously didn't stop being a tourist after Rome, but I made a conscious
-attempt to be a better one. I put down the guidebook (or, in my case, the guide
-app) and tried to explore more naturally, taking in each sight as I found it,
-and learning as much about it as I could. Rather than trying to see a little of
-everything, I would find something which really called out to me and focus on
-that. It's a tough predicament to be in; it's important to go out and see the
-world, to meet people from all different cultures and see all the ways they
-live, but doing so is, often, detrimental to those cultures. It was tough to
-find a balance I was comfortable with, and I'm still not sure a "correct"
-balance actually exists.
-
-<div style="text-align: center;">
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="rome-2018-0.jpg" width=4048
-    inline=true
-    %}
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="rome-2018-1.jpg" width=1920
-    inline=true
-    %}
-<p><em>All that said, the Colosseum was pretty baller. Rome, 2018</em></p>
-</div>
-
-My second day in Rome I spent at the Colosseum and the Palatino, but I was so
-utterly exhausted and brain-melted I barely remember them. I left Rome
-with a ton of things left unseen, but without any regret about it. Italy itself
-had far too much for me to do in this trip, and I knew I'd be back one day, both
-to Italy and to Rome itself. On the third day I hopped on a plane, flew across
-the sea, and landed in Spain.
-
-## Barcelona, Spain
-
-Barcelona definitely made my list of favorite places I visited. Having come from
-a city which didn't feel like much more than a playground for tourists, it was
-refreshing to be in one which felt more real. Spaniards seemed to be friendlier
-than Italians as well, and my hostel was filled with characters from the UK to
-Brazil to Russia.
-
-There was an architect in Barcelona named Antoni Gaudí, who died in 1926, but
-left an indelible impression on the city. If I hadn't known when he lived and
-died I might have thought he founded the place, he's that ubiquitous. His style
-is completely strange; his exteriors look like something out of Candy Land,
-while the interiors seem to come from a utopian sci-fi.
-
-What blows my mind is that, for whatever reason, they let him build a church.
-
-La Sagrada Familia isn't actually completed yet. Gaudí took it over in 1883, a
-year after it had been started, and worked on it until the day he died. He knew
-he wouldn't live to see the completion of the project, and so laid out the plans
-such that it could be completed without him. The church has been slowly
-constructed using private funds and donations since then.
-
-<div style="text-align: center;">
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="sagrada-familia-outside-2018-0.jpg" width=1080
-    inline=true
-    %}
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="sagrada-familia-outside-2018-1.jpg" width=1080
-    inline=true
-    %}
-<p><em>Outside faces of La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, 2018</em></p>
-</div>
-
-The outside presents two faces, one a mishmash of sculpture which resembles
-melting ice-cream, and the other highly geometrical, both filled with biblical
-scenes and small details. Neither really prepares you for what the inside will
-be like.
-
-<div style="text-align: center;">
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="sagrada-familia-inside-2018-0.jpg" width=1080
-    inline=true
-    %}
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="sagrada-familia-inside-2018-1.jpg" width=1080
-    inline=true
-    %}
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="sagrada-familia-inside-2018-2.jpg" width=1080
-    inline=true
-    %}
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="sagrada-familia-inside-2018-3.jpg" width=1080
-    inline=true
-    %}
-<p><em>The incredible interior of La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, 2018</em></p>
-</div>
-
-I'd been in a lot of churches and cathedrals up till this point. Even when they
-were as mind blowing as Milan's Duomo, they all followed a similar pattern:
-gothic, brooding, ornate, almost dark in a way.
-
-La Sagrada Familia is none of those things. It shirks the gothic style almost
-completely, instead adopting one inspired by natural shapes and patterns. It
-feels more like being under a canopy of trees than being in a building. There's
-light, and color, and organic shapes, like the tree-trunk-like columns and the
-flower ceiling. And yet there's also a geometric pattern-ness to everything,
-which hints at an order and intent for everything in sight, so your eye is drawn
-in to investigate every detail without needing ornamentation to grab it.
-
-It's lucky that I hadn't made any other plans for that day, because I spent
-nearly two hours at that church, walking around, taking it all in, sitting
-and contemplating, holding back tears a lot of the time, not being successful at
-it the rest. This might have been the first building I'd ever felt gratitude
-for. Where the traditional catholic building has, as a foundation, a call to
-authority, this one had a call to nature and humanity. And rather than being the
-crackpot dream of a single person, it had been carried on and supported and
-built by many others long after he had died. It was a reflection of an ongoing
-change in a society which I was grateful to see.
-
-I left Barcelona with a new understanding of churches, and what they might
-represent, even for someone who's not catholic. They're a space that's been set
-aside with the fundamental purpose of sitting quietly and thinking about things
-larger than oneself. Thinking about one's place in society, or in nature, or in
-the universe, and thinking about how that affects one's actions. Every society
-on earth has these spaces, though they go by different names, and have lots of
-different decorations. Each one of these spaces carries a message about what
-that society has ascribed importance to, and the message La Sagrada Familia
-carried with it was refreshing.
-
-## Madrid, Spain
-
-Originally I hadn't planned on going to Madrid at all, but in Florence I met
-someone who lived there and so decided to spend a couple nights hanging out.
-Going on a tour of a city is one thing, but going with a local is something
-completely different. We saw some of the things a tourist is supposed to see,
-like the opera house, the palace, and whatever this building is:
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="madrid-2018.jpg" width=3036
-    descr="This Schweppes building is called the Edificio Carrión, and is famous for reasons. Madrid, 2018"
-    %}
-
-But more than that, I got to see what it was like to actually live in a city
-like Madrid, as a normal person. A fancy tapas restaurant is too expensive
-there, so we went to a local bar that did it more simply and cheaply. We also
-ate kebab, which is the European equivalent of the corner mexican or chinese
-joint in the states; a place with cheap, good food, open late, run by
-immigrants.
-
-Mostly, we walked around and talked. We talked about colonialism, and oppression
-and guilt, and about the Spanish Civil War and fascism, and about Catalan and
-its desire for independence, about capitalism, and the pain it causes, and about
-tourism and gentrification, and about royalty and aristocracy, and about
-language and culture. Like in Munich, I learned a lot, and felt a lot closer to
-Spain than I had when I arrived.
-
-I only spent one full day in Madrid, and afterwards took a bus, continuing
-south, down to Córdoba.
-
-## Córdoba, Spain
-
-It was on the bus to Córdoba that I remembered to actually book a place to stay
-there. I quickly grabbed an AirBnB in town, though, as it turned out, messed it
-up and it didn't get reserved. So there was an hour there, waiting at the
-Córdoba bus station, where I was trully homeless. I spent it booking another
-AirBnB, properly this time, and eating some bread and cheese from my backpack,
-and watching some birds fight over a loaf someone else had dropped.
-
-This was the first AirBnB I'd gotten in Europe so far, up till this it had been
-only hostels (and one hotel, in Ravenna). While I'd enjoyed hostel life
-initially, especially my first taste of it in Milan, it had begun to wear on me.
-
-What I'd found is that, first and foremost, hostels were trying to hit a certain
-feel. _Good vibes_ were words which I saw in many a hostel description and
-review, though didn't often actually experience. It's in the public
-consciousness that backpacking through Europe, going from hostel to hostel, is a
-journey filled with new experiences, new people, and lots of partying. And while
-that is _true_, a lot of hostels ignore hospitality in favor of playing up to
-that fantasy, to their own detriment.
-
-A hostel's primary goal, like a normal hotel or AirBnB or whatever, shouldn't be
-to provide you with experiences, or help you meet new people, or enable your
-drinking and partying. These are certainly secondary goals it might have, if it
-wants. But the primary goal should be to make you feel comfortable and at home.
-And while the conceit of a hostel is that you are exchanging some physical
-comfort for cost, by having shared bunk rooms and common bathrooms and all that,
-comfort can be established through more than a fluffy bed. Some hostels I stayed
-at got this, most didn't.
-
-If someone feels comfortable in a hostel they'll open up on their own, and
-naturally want to meet the people around them, go out partying, and have cool
-experiences. Or not. They'll do whatever the fuck they want to. But if a hostel
-is too focused on being cool and hip and showing off how good its vibes are,
-it's neglecting the basics, and then there's no partying, and the vibes aren't
-good.
-
-So I was tired of party hostels, as I began calling them, having just been in
-one in Barcelona a few days prior, and instead spent the night in what turned
-out to be a brutally cold old building which had neither heat, sealed windows,
-or cooking device with which to make a hot meal. Which is what I get for being
-a snob, I guess.
-
-In the morning I visted the Mosque/Cathedral of Córdoba. This site has had the
-odd history of having originally been a church, having then been converted to a
-mosque when the Moors took Spain in the 700s, and then converted back to a
-christian church in the 1200s when the catholics took Spain back, and has since
-been designated a cathedral. It retains much of the Moorish architecture, but
-with a church in the middle, and is an utterly fascinating place which I
-neglected to take any pictures of.
-
-## Granada, Spain
-
-This was probably one of the most interesting places I visited while traveling.
-Granada was once one of the most important Moorish cities in Spain, then briefly
-became a Jewish state, and then the seat of the Nasrid dynasty (the last Muslim
-dynasty in Spain), and then eventually went back to being a part of the Catholic
-empire. During this time it also had a large influx of Romani, and out of this
-mishmash of culture it became one of the birthplaces of flamenco.
-
-My bus got in at night, but I was lucky enough to catch the last public bus from
-the bus station towards my hostel. It dropped me off in the Albaicín, an old
-Muslim quarter in the city, where the houses retain the old architectural style
-and the streets are narrow and winding. From there I walked uphill a ways to
-the Sacromonte neighborhood, the traditional home of the Romani in Granada. Here
-the people had dug out caves in the side of the mountain, and made them into
-homes. My hostel was in one of these caves.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="granada-2018-0.jpg" width=1329
-    descr="The view from my hostel, Alhambra on the left. Granada, 2018"
-    %}
-
-The hostel was small and quiet, overlooking both the Alhambra (the castle on a
-hill, built by the Nasrids) and the rest of the city. The guys running it
-were chill; the owner was Dutch, and the other was Scottish. The Scott had come
-to Granada to live and study flamenco, and it was obvious from how he spoke
-about it that he was completely in love with the art and the people. On one
-night they took me out to a "real gypsy bar", as they called it.
-
-The flamenco artists in town, the singers and guitarists and dancers, make a
-living performing for tourists, but this bar is, according to my guides, where
-they go after the shows to hang out. There was no music in the bar, but, as the
-night went on, three or four cliques formed up naturally, each around a guitar
-player and singer, with dancers circling around, the rest clapping to an
-indecipherable rhythm. The Scott knew the names of a few of the people playing,
-and told me that it was at gatherings like this that the musicians tried out new
-things and pushed the art further. It was the "real" flamenco.
-
-After that we got kebab and went back to the cave.
-
-Sacromonte is situated on the face of a valley, with the Alhambra being on the
-opposite side. So to get to the Alhambra I had to venture down to the valley
-floor, where Granada proper is, and found a very familiar tourist district
-filled with all the crap I'd seen in every other city. The Alhambra itself was
-interesting, but also packed, and I hadn't realized they only sell a limited
-number of tickets per day to get inside the castle, so I missed a lot of it. So
-I went back to the peace and quiet of Sacromonte.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="granada-2018-1.jpg" width=1329
-    descr="Sacromonte and the valley below. Granada, 2018"
-    %}
-
-Being uphill and difficult to access by car, the Sacromonte was, in many ways,
-warded off from the wave of tourism which has swept the world and sucked the
-heart out of its cities. Only those willing to carry their bags 20 minutes
-uphill could disturb it. I found the absolute best spot possible, with benches
-overlooking the Alhambra and the city and the sunset, sitting and drawing for
-hours, and was only disturbed by one or two couples sharing the view in all that
-time.
-
-I had originally planned to head back to Munich after Granada, but after talking
-with a lot of people who told me I _had_ to go to Portugal, I booked a bus to
-Lisbon at the last minute and set off. And damn I'm glad I did.
-
-## Lisbon, Portugal
-
-Sometimes called the San Fransisco of Europe, Lisbon is a city with beaches,
-historical buildings, perfect weather all-year round, earthquakes, and a large
-orange-red suspension bridge across a bay. Unlike San Fransisco, it's an
-affordable place to visit and the people who live there haven't been priced out
-by tech companies ([yet][google-lisbon]).
-
-Part of why I liked Lisbon so much is that, while tourism is an absolutely huge
-industry, it didn't really feel that way. The Baixa district, where my hostel
-was, was certainly an area just for tourists. But it wasn't very big, and once
-outside of it you find yourself in somewhere like Alfama, which has been a
-blue-collar district since the Moorish invasion, and retains its winding
-cobblestone streets and narrow alleys. If you look at the skyline of Lisbon you
-won't find any highrises or office buildings, just 4 to 5 story apartment
-buildings and churches. It's a city meant for people to live, first and
-foremost, with business being secondary. And so, despite being the biggest city
-in the country, and 9th most visited city in Southern Europe, it still feels
-quiet and cozy.
-
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="lisbon-2018.jpg" width=1772
-    descr="The facade of a museum I was too poor to go in. Lisbon, 2018"
-    %}
-
-Another part of what made Lisbon stand out to me was the hostel I stayed in, and
-the people I met there. The hostel was _homey_. There was a small dining area
-with a single long table, a small living room with couches and chairs
-arranges in a circle, a decked out kitchen that anyone could use, and free
-sangria every evening. Rather than focus on partying and yolo and whatever, the
-owners focused on making it a home, where people would cook and eat and talk and
-hang out together. So that's what we did, every night, and in the mornings we'd
-meet up one more time to eat unlimited free pancakes from the kitchen. It was an
-amazing time.
-
-While I was there, a museum had an exhibit devoted to M.C. Escher, the Dutch
-artist known for his tesselations, fractals, and generally paradoxical work.
-Escher had always been an artist I was aware of, and a year prior to this I had
-read the book _Gödel, Escher, Bach_ by Douglas Hofstadter and become even more
-interested. So I couldn't pass up the chance to see his work in person. And boy,
-did it leave an impression on me.
-
-Having traveled to Córdoba and Granada in his early twenties, Escher was
-impressed by the Moorish architecture, specifically the tesselating tile
-patterns they used in decoration. He began trying to replicate their work, and
-ended up following what amounted to a mathematical investigation of geometry, in
-the context of art. The museum presented his work in largely chronological
-order, and, in seeing the progression of his ideas over decades, it really
-struck me both what a genius he was and how dedicated he must have been to have
-spun his wheels on the same problems for most of his life.
-
-<div style="text-align: center;">
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="lisbon-escher-2018-0.jpg" width=513
-    inline=true
-    %}
-{% include image.html
-    dir="mr-worldwide" file="lisbon-escher-2018-1.jpg" width=341
-    inline=true
-    %}
-<p><em>Tesselations, paradoxes, and tricks of perspective, Lisbon, 2018</em></p>
-</div>
-
-For the rest of my trip, even through Asia, I would spend my time doodling
-tesselations of my own, trying to find the tricks that Escher found which let
-him make such complex images. I would find some, but certainly Escher still has
-the leg up on me.
-
-Having traveled most of Southwest Europe at this point I flew back to homebase,
-Munich, to recuperate and figure out what my next steps would be. I left Lisbon
-promising myself that I'd be back, even considering finding a way to live there
-one day. While my life plans have since changed, it's not something I've totally
-ruled out.
-
-[google-lisbon]: https://econews.pt/2018/01/29/from-google-to-amazon-technological-companies-are-moving-to-portugal-why/
-
-## To be continued
-
-In my next post of this series I'll tell the story of the second, and longest,
-leg of my European tour, where I go to Belgium, the UK, Scandinavia, Prague, and
-Berlin!