I'm going back! I still can't get over how lucky I am to be able to go to Europe two summers in a row! If you didn't know already, I'm minoring in Italian up at Purdue, and I would love to be fluent in the language. I've got two years under my belt, and I figure that the only way I'm really going to learn to speak the language is if I live and study in Italy for a month.
So that's the plan. I'm heading to the University for foreigners in Perugia for the July intensive language course. I'm leaving one week from today. This could be interesting, I don't have an apartment lined up and the university hasn't received my payment yet. So I might be spending July as a Perugian street bum.
I've got a few rules set for myself this time around. I figure if I'm going to really learn Italian, I've got to leave the english I know and love behind for the month and fully immerse myself in Italian. So heres the plan. The moment I step enter Perugia in Italy, I will no longer speak or write in english. Worst case scenario, at that moment I will be a foreigner with no appartment, with no enrollment, and with the italian vocabulary of a three year old. I know its going to be really tough, but I think it will be a blast (I also enjoy running marathons so maybe I'm just crazy). With that said, when I start posting in Italy, I'll be writing in Italian. You'll have to use one of those online translator deals unless you know Italian that is. But for those who are too lazy to translate, I'll put pictures up too, so at least you can look at the pictures.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Done
Well if you haven't noticed, I have returned from Europe and I've finally got the whole trip blogged. If you are visiting this site for the first time and need to start at the beginning just scroll to the bottom to Belgium (our first stop) and work your way up. Hope everyone has enjoyed following us along our trip!
P.S. I updated the pictures too. You can now click on the picture to see an enlarged version.
P.S. I updated the pictures too. You can now click on the picture to see an enlarged version.
Zurich
We finally arrived in Zurich after going through Liechtenstein by bus and taking a few other trains. When we got to Zurich we exchanged our euros for Swiss francs (the Swiss haven't jumped on the euro bandwagon yet) and we found lockers for our backpacks. Once we left the train station we decided to walk around the city (neglecting to get a map). We didn't take more than ten steps outside the station when we saw these giant plaster teddy bears painted with various costumes apparently sponsored by various companies.
We then took another ten steps, and there was yet another colorful teddy bear smiling back at us. Proceeding our second encounter with our gimmicky, extremely tacky friends we took another ten steps when lo and behold there was yet another bear. Looking up the street there were bears as far as the eye could see.
I thought we might be able to escape them if we just moved away from the train station, but alas it was of no avail. Greg said he liked them, but I saw them for the tacky eyesores that they really were. I'm not kidding when I say there must have been hundreds even thousands of bears, there was spiderbear, superbear, tobelrone bear, olympic bear, ford bear, bmw bear, airplane bear, and on, and on. Lets just say I got real sick of the bears, and that's all I'm going to say at this point about the bears. From this point forward let us never speak of them again. We walked to the lake and then up a road to some churches. The churches seemed, for lack of a better word, dead. There wasn't even an alter or tabernacle that I could see. I assume they still use them, but it sure didn't look like it, maybe it was just a different style of church with things in odd places, I don't know. From the churches we went up to a park and came across some Swiss kibitzer playing chess on these giant stone chess "arena" (well they aren't boards).
There were also some people playing Bocce. We found an open chess "arena" and played a game. After the game we decided that it would be really helpful if we had a map of the city, so we headed back to the train station. We found the tourist information office and got a map, then we headed back to the lake. We found a good spot to swim in a small park by the lake, and we jumped in. Greg forgot to bring extra shorts, while I forgot to bring a towel. Greg decided it was worth it to swim in his boxers, but I think he was starting to change his mind when he realized he wanted to get out and his white boxers were not adequately concealing his dignity. I had no trouble though and after taunting him from the shore for a bit, I threw his towel out to him.
We walked around the park for a bit, and Greg decided he wanted to swim again and soap himself off in the lake. After that we went back into town, saw another outdoor concert band, and then went to a pub that was recommended to us at the tourist info center, where I enjoyed an import (Sam Adams).
After the pub we went back to the park by the lake and played some rummy. It was getting pretty late, about 1:00 in the morning and we thought about whether or not we were going to sleep at all. The night before we arrived in Zurich, Greg and I had decided that we weren't going to sleep our last night in Europe. We had just enough cash to last us the last day if we didn't have to pay for a hostel, and we didn't really want to get out more money and have to exchange it back to US dollars (exchange fees rip you off). We had heard stories from other backpackers who had stayed up all night and we figured it was worth it our last night. We were both getting a little tired and we started discussing where we could rest for a little bit that wouldn't cost anything and yet would be somewhat safe and not too illegal. We thought about the park we were at but around that time a policeman came by in his car and started shining his searchlight around the park and we figured the park might not qualify as a legal sleeping place for the night. Then there were all the random people who seemed to be doing laps around the park at the middle of the night and we thought it might not qualify as safe either. At that point it started to get a little chilly. In my infinite wisdom and foresight I locked away my long pants and my jacket in the train station. Greg also did not think he would need his jacket and so he locked it up as well. We got up from our park bench and started to walk back towards the city center. We sat down on a bench by the river (there's a river that goes by the train station through the city down to the lake) and Greg got out his Mickey mouse poncho to stay warm. We sat there for a while drifting in and out of sleep when we decided that there was bound to be a warmer bench in the train station. We went into the train station passing a few fellow bench sleepers and went down to the lower level where we thought we would be most out of the way. We were walking around when Greg said to me, "those benches look comfortable." At that point comfortable was very relative, and we each took a bench and slept for a bit using our daypacks as pillows. We slept from about 3:30 - 5:30 when people started walking by us on the way to the early morning trains. I got up and looked around and after I woke up a little bit I suddenly realized how goofy Greg looked in his Mickey mouse poncho and newsie hat pulled over his face.
I woke him up and we moved to a more secluded bench closer to the lockers with our big backpacks inside. We slept for another hour or so and then woke up, got our backpacks out, and then headed to a few stores before we had to leave for the airport. We went to a supermarket where Greg got his multivitamin juice he always got, and I found a shop that sold stickers to add to my nalgene bottle (I got a sticker from each country to put on my nalgene bottle, actually I started after Belgium so I missed that one). We went to the park and played one last chess game and then took a train to the airport (after just missing the first one (they have trains every ten minutes though)). We made our flight without any problem and after a little sleep and a couple in flight movies we were back in the states, and our awesome adventure through Europe had come to an end.
We then took another ten steps, and there was yet another colorful teddy bear smiling back at us. Proceeding our second encounter with our gimmicky, extremely tacky friends we took another ten steps when lo and behold there was yet another bear. Looking up the street there were bears as far as the eye could see.
I thought we might be able to escape them if we just moved away from the train station, but alas it was of no avail. Greg said he liked them, but I saw them for the tacky eyesores that they really were. I'm not kidding when I say there must have been hundreds even thousands of bears, there was spiderbear, superbear, tobelrone bear, olympic bear, ford bear, bmw bear, airplane bear, and on, and on. Lets just say I got real sick of the bears, and that's all I'm going to say at this point about the bears. From this point forward let us never speak of them again. We walked to the lake and then up a road to some churches. The churches seemed, for lack of a better word, dead. There wasn't even an alter or tabernacle that I could see. I assume they still use them, but it sure didn't look like it, maybe it was just a different style of church with things in odd places, I don't know. From the churches we went up to a park and came across some Swiss kibitzer playing chess on these giant stone chess "arena" (well they aren't boards).
There were also some people playing Bocce. We found an open chess "arena" and played a game. After the game we decided that it would be really helpful if we had a map of the city, so we headed back to the train station. We found the tourist information office and got a map, then we headed back to the lake. We found a good spot to swim in a small park by the lake, and we jumped in. Greg forgot to bring extra shorts, while I forgot to bring a towel. Greg decided it was worth it to swim in his boxers, but I think he was starting to change his mind when he realized he wanted to get out and his white boxers were not adequately concealing his dignity. I had no trouble though and after taunting him from the shore for a bit, I threw his towel out to him.
We walked around the park for a bit, and Greg decided he wanted to swim again and soap himself off in the lake. After that we went back into town, saw another outdoor concert band, and then went to a pub that was recommended to us at the tourist info center, where I enjoyed an import (Sam Adams).
After the pub we went back to the park by the lake and played some rummy. It was getting pretty late, about 1:00 in the morning and we thought about whether or not we were going to sleep at all. The night before we arrived in Zurich, Greg and I had decided that we weren't going to sleep our last night in Europe. We had just enough cash to last us the last day if we didn't have to pay for a hostel, and we didn't really want to get out more money and have to exchange it back to US dollars (exchange fees rip you off). We had heard stories from other backpackers who had stayed up all night and we figured it was worth it our last night. We were both getting a little tired and we started discussing where we could rest for a little bit that wouldn't cost anything and yet would be somewhat safe and not too illegal. We thought about the park we were at but around that time a policeman came by in his car and started shining his searchlight around the park and we figured the park might not qualify as a legal sleeping place for the night. Then there were all the random people who seemed to be doing laps around the park at the middle of the night and we thought it might not qualify as safe either. At that point it started to get a little chilly. In my infinite wisdom and foresight I locked away my long pants and my jacket in the train station. Greg also did not think he would need his jacket and so he locked it up as well. We got up from our park bench and started to walk back towards the city center. We sat down on a bench by the river (there's a river that goes by the train station through the city down to the lake) and Greg got out his Mickey mouse poncho to stay warm. We sat there for a while drifting in and out of sleep when we decided that there was bound to be a warmer bench in the train station. We went into the train station passing a few fellow bench sleepers and went down to the lower level where we thought we would be most out of the way. We were walking around when Greg said to me, "those benches look comfortable." At that point comfortable was very relative, and we each took a bench and slept for a bit using our daypacks as pillows. We slept from about 3:30 - 5:30 when people started walking by us on the way to the early morning trains. I got up and looked around and after I woke up a little bit I suddenly realized how goofy Greg looked in his Mickey mouse poncho and newsie hat pulled over his face.
I woke him up and we moved to a more secluded bench closer to the lockers with our big backpacks inside. We slept for another hour or so and then woke up, got our backpacks out, and then headed to a few stores before we had to leave for the airport. We went to a supermarket where Greg got his multivitamin juice he always got, and I found a shop that sold stickers to add to my nalgene bottle (I got a sticker from each country to put on my nalgene bottle, actually I started after Belgium so I missed that one). We went to the park and played one last chess game and then took a train to the airport (after just missing the first one (they have trains every ten minutes though)). We made our flight without any problem and after a little sleep and a couple in flight movies we were back in the states, and our awesome adventure through Europe had come to an end.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Innsbruck, Austria
When we got to Innsbruck we had no idea where we were going to stay, but a helpful lady at the tourist information center pointed us to a really great bed and breakfast hostel in the center of the old town center. We dropped off our backpacks at the cafe connected to the hostel and we walked around the town waiting for the lady running the hostel to return so we could check in.
We went to St. Jacob Cathedral, which was beautiful, and then to a nearby park. I made the bold suggestion that we walk to the old Olympic village from the winter Olympics some odd years ago. We started walking in that direction but gave up long before we got there and ended up near a skate park. We watched some skaters practicing their neat tricks and then moved on to watch some Austrian kids practice breakdancing moves. We ran across a climbing wall nearby the skate park and I messed around for a bit and then we made the long walk back to the town center. We stopped for some gelato (the best since Roma), and then went back to the hostel to check in. I tried to make some dinner in the kitchen, but it was somewhat of a challenge. I wanted to cook some pasta, but they didn't have a stove. There was only a water boiler thingamajig that would boil water which could then be poured into something else. I had to keep boiling more water and dumping it onto the pasta in a ceramic bowl. I'm a little lacking in the patience department when it comes to cooking food, so I ended up eating half cooked pasta. While we ate, we met Laura from Canada who was staying in the hostel with us. Innsbruck is a really tourist friendly place, anyone who stays a night there gets an Innsbruck club card which gives you free guided hikes, free guided lantern walks, a free welcome drink at the casino, and other discounts. So we went with Laura to the casino to get our free welcome drinks. We tried to get in at the main desk but the lady just looked us over and said, "You look a little too.... casual for the main floor, but you are more than welcome to enjoy yourselves in the second rate casino downstairs with the slot machines" (or something to that effect). So we went downstairs and got our welcome drink at the bar, Greg then got one chip at the counter for ten euros (apparently the minimum bet for black jack, pretty high stakes for the reject level of the casino).
The cashier guy kind of chuckled as he gave Greg the chip. But Greg cleaned up by turning his ten into forty at the blackjack table, I on the other hand lost two euros on video roulette. Laura and I pulled Greg away from the blackjack table before he could lose his winnings and we headed back to the hostel.
The next morning we ate the included breakfast with Laura and another backpacker Tom from Boston at the cafe attached to the hostel. The breakfast was awesome, most hostels give you a roll and a cup of coffee and some butter if you're lucky, but this place served us cornflakes with fresh fruit, a slice of pastry (that normal sells in the cafe for 3-4 euros), plenty of rolls w/ Nutella and butter, and hot chocolate. Afterwards we went to a hat store (I was getting jealous of Greg's hat), but it was too expensive there so we started hiking up the mountains to the cable car. We finally made it to the cable car and took it to the top of the alpine mountain ridge surrounding Innsbruck. We followed a stone laid path to a tourist lookout point and took some pictures and then found a bench to eat some lunch (salami sandwiches). We found a patch of snow and I made a snow angel, and then we decided to start a real hike.
At this point I better point out a big difference between the US and Austria. In the US warning signs usually are overly cautious and often unnecessary (usually so somebody doesn't get sued). For example in the US you might find a sign that says "path extremely dangerous, steep drop offs," which really means "there is a slight down grade and about two miles away from the path there is a cliff that could be dangerous." In Austria you would find a sign that says, "Path dangerous for hikers without Alpine experience and equipment," what they really mean is "If you do not have Alpine equipment and experience you probably will fall to your death off the cliff one foot to the right of the path or you probably will slip on the snow covering the path and not stop until your broken body is lodged in a rock halfway down the mountain." It was a cultural difference that Greg and I learned very well on that mountain. We started off on the only path on the ridge, which happened to have a similar warning sign to the one I just wrote above. The path was about two feet wide with a steep dropoff to the right and mountain face to our left. We made it about ten feet on the path and noticed that there was a sheet of snow across the path.
We didn't have those nifty hiking poles or even hiking boots with deep treads so we decided that with our worndown tennis shoe treads, traversing the snow sheet would mean an abrupt and unintended descent down the mountain side that could only lead to death. Needless to say we were determined to find another route. We turned back and found a one foot wide path that went around the snow sheet and met up with the original path. It was on that one foot path gazing out at the beauty of the alps that Greg tells me he is scared of heights. But he sucked it up and we kept going. The view was amazing.
We kept hiking and came across a flock of mountain sheep with a shepherd and his sheep dog. After about 45 minutes or so we came across another snow sheet, but this one had no handy side path to get around it, and since we were already thinking about turning around, we decided that we didn't want to die that day so we turned around.
On the way back we came across a man with two kids who was way up on the top of a ridge. I got jealous so I decided to climb (why is there a b in climb) up there. Greg didn't want to come so he stuck to the lower path as I forged my own trail up the mountain ridge.
I got to the top and just looked around at the amazing view for a while. I decided I really wanted some pictures up there so I set the ten second timer on my camera, hit the shutter button, and ran/scurried across the ridge as far away from the camera as I could and when I heard the beeping of the camera speed up I turned around and struck a pose real fast.
After that little adventure on the ridge I found Greg below me on the path and I made my way back down to meet up with him. We hiked past the sheep and shepherd again, and almost made it back to the start of the path when I saw that the path split into the one we had taken on the way out and one that went up to another peak. I decided I wanted to take the high route, Greg decided to stay on the lower one. I went up to the top and I could see the start of the path and the tourist look out point, which was on the adjacent peak just higher than the peak I was standing on. The path I had taken ended at the top and I was trying to figure out how to get back down to Greg on the lower path, (it was a lot steeper than the ridge). I yelled down to Greg to see if from his point of view he saw an easy route to take. He told me to just try to get up to the tourist lookout point. I looked up and saw near vertical mountain face that I would have to scale in order to get up, but I thought what they hey, I can do this (I later found out that Greg assumed that the path I had been on continued up to the tourist lookout peak and it would be a simple hike to get up there).
I said a quick prayer and then started pulling myself up the mountain side. I had to check each rock before I used it as a hand/foot hold because many of them were loose. After about twenty minutes of climbing I reached the stone wall encircling the tourist lookout point. There was a elderly German women sitting on the wall as I reached up and grabbed a hold of it. I pulled myself over the wall right next to her.
I'll never forget the expression of shock on her face as I rolled over the wall to safety. She started muttering in German and peered over the wall down the mountainside I had come from as I chuckled to myself and jogged down the stone path to meet Greg. We took the cable car back down the mountain and found a mountain train that took us back to level ground. We went back to the hostel, got a bit to eat, and then went to a nearby mall that had a room full of computers with free internet (I love Innsbruck). We then met up with Laura back at the hostel and set out for the free guided lantern hike. Our guides were an Austrian couple named Heinz and Helga. We took a bus ride to the foothills of the alps and then walked up to a pub/bar/cafe next to a church. There was a fountain near the church that is said to be from a spring that has holy water (I guess people have had cures from it or something like that, I didn't understand the whole story).
We enjoyed a glass of wine as we watched the sunset over Innsbruck and then everyone on the guided hike went to an upper room in the bar where we listened to an accordion and a guitar player sing traditional Austrian songs for us. The taught us to yodel and they taught us a traditional wedding song and dance.
There was also a traditional Austrian drinking song that they would play about every third song. The musicians were great and it was a lot of fun. After about an hour or so enjoying the Austrian culture we went back outside where we lit our lanterns and went back down the hills/mountain (I whistled the Harry potter theme pretty much the whole way down). We then took the bus back to the hostel and went to bed.
The next morning Greg and I had another awesome breakfast at the cafe and walked around the town for awhile until we could catch a train to Zurich. We listened to an orchestra/band playing in the town square, and I might have been on Austrian TV (I walked behind the band in the view of the TV camera recording the event).
There was an Austrian lady in full Austrian traditional dress walking around with a mini keg of schnapps giving out free samples. We were planning on taking the 12:30 train, which was a direct train to Zurich, but there was another train that left around 11:50 that would get us there earlier but there were a lot of changes we would have to make. At about 11:40 Greg asks me, "do you think we could make the 11:50 train?" After jumping that train to Barcelona I was of the mind set that anything was possible, so I of course replied, "sure." We ran back to the hostel grabbed our bags, and quickly walked to the train station and hopped on the train. We ended up having to make a ton of transfers, including a bus ride through Liechtenstein, but we eventually made it to Zurich (about 10 minutes later than the 12:30 train would have got us there).
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Barcelona
We arrived at Barcelona Sants train station an hour later than we had told Albert, but we were just glad that we made it on Thursday period (after the whole train jumping fiasco). We found Albert (well, Albert found us) after wandering around the train station for a bit. For those who don´t know, Albert stayed with my family for a month last year to study in the US at Brebeuf. Albert took us to his apartment and showed us around the place. We were going to be sleeping in jordi´s bedroom (Albert´s younger brother). Albert´s family wasn´t home at the moment, and Albert had to study for his upcoming selectivity exam (basically a monstrous, 3 day, 8 hours each day exam that will determine his entire future success in life). We decided that we just wanted to relax because we had done so much hiking in cinque terre, so we went to the beaches of Barceloneta. We just laid on the beach for a while, jumped in the water once (it was cold), and after getting a little sunburned we went back to Albert´s to update the blog and to meet the rest of Albert´s family. We went up to the computer room to use the internet for a while when my ma called reminding me that it was my birthday. After using the internet for a while we were called down for dinner. We had keish as the first course, then pasta with red wine, then fruit, then gelato with candles for my birthday. I guess even Catalonian families think its hilarious to use trick candles in people's cakes.
It took me a while to catch on, but I figured it out and put them out with my finger (only got a little burnt). After dinner we went to the palace of Montjuic and on the way we came across a free reggae concert and an incredible fountain show. The fountains were amazing.
The water was lit by lights of various colors and the whole show was coordinated to music. After the fountains we went the rest of the way up to the palace, took a few pictures and then headed back to Albert's.
The next day we took the metro to the Sagrada Familia cathedral. The Sagrada Familia is a cathedral designed by the famous architect, Gaudi. It is the most unique cathedral I've ever seen. It has been under construction since the late 1800's and while probably be finished in about fifteen years. Anyway, we got to the cathedral and then realized that I forgot the battery for my camera in the charger, so we decided to swing back by Albert's to pick it up stopping by the trainstation along the way (Greg forgot his toiletry bag on the train). After finding out that his bag was probably taking a free tour of the european continent, Greg bought some toothpaste and the like, and we went back to Sagrada Familia and paid to go inside. It was really cool to see the cathedral being built.
The design of the cathedral ceiling was made to look like a kind of stone forest on the inside with the pillars being trees and the ceiling being a forest canopy. The coolest part was going up the giant front towers. I felt like Quasimodo.
After Sagrada Familia we went to Pans and Company (a restraunt chain in Europe) and got some sandwiches. Then I went to the Barcelona cathedral, while Greg waited outside (he'd already seen it and he didn't want to pay the entrance restoration donation. He missed out though, the cathedral was awesome. It was really gothic and had this great cloister (courtyard) with palm trees and fountains. In the center of the cathedral was an arrangement of old wooden chairs facing each other in a kind of meeting place. The chairs were used by the knights of the golden fleece.
There was even a plaque that identified the crest of each knight and where they once sat. After the cathedral, I met Greg outside and we went to St. Antoni's market for a bit and then back to Alberts. Albert's father came back from work and took us to Montserrat. On the way Mr. Caubet told us all about the mountain's Catalunian history. Barcelona is in Catalunya, now a region of Spain. A lot of catalunyians view Spain as an occupier and would rather be independent (Catalunyans were persecuted during the Spanish civil war and at various other points in Spanish history). Montserrat is a really unique mountain because it is made of a really unique sort of stone that no other surrounding mountain contains.
At the top of Montserrat there is a Benedictine monastery where St. Ignatius experienced his conversion after serving as a soldier (kind of important for the Jesuit order, which St. Ignatius founded). Montserratserrant is a really holy and special place for Catalunyans partly because it was a sort of refuge for Catalunyan culture during the persecution of the Spanish civil war. Lots of Catalunyan's get married there and have their first communion there.
When we got up the mountain we went to the monastery and listened to the monks sing their evening prayers, which was awesome. After the monk's song we walked around the mountain for a bit and then went back home to Albert's. We ate another excellent dinner and then made a few plans for our next stop on our trip before going to bed.
The next morning we went to Albert's taekwondo exhibition where Albert earned his blue belt. It was hilarious to watch some little kids performing their ninja moves for the audience. One girl that was probably around 3 or 4 kept almost falling over when she kicked or punched or did anything. They also had to give there little ninja criesle crys during the routine and she would always yell after everyone else had finished and were quiet. We met Marta, Albert's girlfriend who sat with us during the exhibition.
After all the students finished there tests, there was an exhibition with the black belts that was pretty cool. The used numchucks (sp) and bow staffs to break boards and smash apples. Albert had the honor of holding a board and Marta was a little tense for a while. After the black belts did there thing, the sense/master cut cucumbers on the black belt's stomachs using one of those sweet swords (forget the fancy ninja name for them). After the exhibition, Greg and I went ahead and broke a few bricks to show off our ninja skills.
After taekwondo we went to La Rambla again and had pans and company again. Then we went to the Olympic village (on the way stopping at pizza hut for some more food). Then we took the metro over towards the palace of Montjuic, because apparently there is a castle somewhere above the palace in the mountains. On the way we ran into some Leftist protest. There were all kinds of protesters from gay rights groups to communist revolutionaries.
There were Iraq flags, socialist flags, communist flags, gay flags, and some other flags I didn't understand. We were standing right next to the protesters when we realized that maybe these guys weren't so fond of Americans. We decided to skip the castle and head back to Albert's early so trying to look as nonamerican as we could, we walked through the protest and headed back home. We got to Albert's and changed real quick and then headed to a nearby church for vigil mass. After mass we had dinner at Albert's and then headed back down la Rambla to experience the Barcelona night life. We ended up back over at the Olympic village where we tried to get into a fancy casino. We got rejected, because we didn't have our passports on us, so instead we sat at a bar and each tried a corona. We walked down the Olympic village strip and passed by a lot of dance clubs that seemed to be only for people 30 and over. Afterwards we just went back to Albert's for the night.
The next day we went with Albert's family to their apartment in Costa Brava. Albert had to stay at home and study (sorry pal). Costa Brava was amazing. We rented kayaks with Mr. Caubet, Laura, and Jordi (albert's sister and brother). It took a while for Greg and I to get the hang of it (the Caubets were smoking us), but we gradually caught up and splashed them. We kayaked away from the crowded beach and found a great place with some sweet rock islands. We docked the kayaks and swam around for a bit, then found a few good rocks to jump off of. Laura found one that was at least 4 meters high (12 feet) and after she jumped in, Greg and I of course had to try it. We escaped with only few cuts (from climbing back up the rocks) and then we headed back to the rental place on the beach. We laid around the beach for a while and then headed up to the apartment for lunch. We had authentic Catalunyan Paella, which was an amazing seafood dish with shellfish and rice.
We had some traditional wine/champagne with the lunch. and then some ice cream for desert. After lunch we went back home, where we got a picture with the family, and then packed up our stuff real quick and headed to the train station.
We ended up paying a lot to get a night train to Zurich (59 euros€) but it was our only choice at that point (we got to the train station twenty minutes before the train left). The train was nice though (it had better be) and we met two Wyoming guys Jesse and Dan. We tried to teach them Euchre without too much success and then a flamboyant train attendant came and put our beds down and we went to sleep. Hope everything is going well for whoever reads this, leave a comment or two. cya soon.
It took me a while to catch on, but I figured it out and put them out with my finger (only got a little burnt). After dinner we went to the palace of Montjuic and on the way we came across a free reggae concert and an incredible fountain show. The fountains were amazing.
The water was lit by lights of various colors and the whole show was coordinated to music. After the fountains we went the rest of the way up to the palace, took a few pictures and then headed back to Albert's.
The next day we took the metro to the Sagrada Familia cathedral. The Sagrada Familia is a cathedral designed by the famous architect, Gaudi. It is the most unique cathedral I've ever seen. It has been under construction since the late 1800's and while probably be finished in about fifteen years. Anyway, we got to the cathedral and then realized that I forgot the battery for my camera in the charger, so we decided to swing back by Albert's to pick it up stopping by the trainstation along the way (Greg forgot his toiletry bag on the train). After finding out that his bag was probably taking a free tour of the european continent, Greg bought some toothpaste and the like, and we went back to Sagrada Familia and paid to go inside. It was really cool to see the cathedral being built.
The design of the cathedral ceiling was made to look like a kind of stone forest on the inside with the pillars being trees and the ceiling being a forest canopy. The coolest part was going up the giant front towers. I felt like Quasimodo.
After Sagrada Familia we went to Pans and Company (a restraunt chain in Europe) and got some sandwiches. Then I went to the Barcelona cathedral, while Greg waited outside (he'd already seen it and he didn't want to pay the entrance restoration donation. He missed out though, the cathedral was awesome. It was really gothic and had this great cloister (courtyard) with palm trees and fountains. In the center of the cathedral was an arrangement of old wooden chairs facing each other in a kind of meeting place. The chairs were used by the knights of the golden fleece.
There was even a plaque that identified the crest of each knight and where they once sat. After the cathedral, I met Greg outside and we went to St. Antoni's market for a bit and then back to Alberts. Albert's father came back from work and took us to Montserrat. On the way Mr. Caubet told us all about the mountain's Catalunian history. Barcelona is in Catalunya, now a region of Spain. A lot of catalunyians view Spain as an occupier and would rather be independent (Catalunyans were persecuted during the Spanish civil war and at various other points in Spanish history). Montserrat is a really unique mountain because it is made of a really unique sort of stone that no other surrounding mountain contains.
At the top of Montserrat there is a Benedictine monastery where St. Ignatius experienced his conversion after serving as a soldier (kind of important for the Jesuit order, which St. Ignatius founded). Montserratserrant is a really holy and special place for Catalunyans partly because it was a sort of refuge for Catalunyan culture during the persecution of the Spanish civil war. Lots of Catalunyan's get married there and have their first communion there.
When we got up the mountain we went to the monastery and listened to the monks sing their evening prayers, which was awesome. After the monk's song we walked around the mountain for a bit and then went back home to Albert's. We ate another excellent dinner and then made a few plans for our next stop on our trip before going to bed.
The next morning we went to Albert's taekwondo exhibition where Albert earned his blue belt. It was hilarious to watch some little kids performing their ninja moves for the audience. One girl that was probably around 3 or 4 kept almost falling over when she kicked or punched or did anything. They also had to give there little ninja criesle crys during the routine and she would always yell after everyone else had finished and were quiet. We met Marta, Albert's girlfriend who sat with us during the exhibition.
After all the students finished there tests, there was an exhibition with the black belts that was pretty cool. The used numchucks (sp) and bow staffs to break boards and smash apples. Albert had the honor of holding a board and Marta was a little tense for a while. After the black belts did there thing, the sense/master cut cucumbers on the black belt's stomachs using one of those sweet swords (forget the fancy ninja name for them). After the exhibition, Greg and I went ahead and broke a few bricks to show off our ninja skills.
After taekwondo we went to La Rambla again and had pans and company again. Then we went to the Olympic village (on the way stopping at pizza hut for some more food). Then we took the metro over towards the palace of Montjuic, because apparently there is a castle somewhere above the palace in the mountains. On the way we ran into some Leftist protest. There were all kinds of protesters from gay rights groups to communist revolutionaries.
There were Iraq flags, socialist flags, communist flags, gay flags, and some other flags I didn't understand. We were standing right next to the protesters when we realized that maybe these guys weren't so fond of Americans. We decided to skip the castle and head back to Albert's early so trying to look as nonamerican as we could, we walked through the protest and headed back home. We got to Albert's and changed real quick and then headed to a nearby church for vigil mass. After mass we had dinner at Albert's and then headed back down la Rambla to experience the Barcelona night life. We ended up back over at the Olympic village where we tried to get into a fancy casino. We got rejected, because we didn't have our passports on us, so instead we sat at a bar and each tried a corona. We walked down the Olympic village strip and passed by a lot of dance clubs that seemed to be only for people 30 and over. Afterwards we just went back to Albert's for the night.
The next day we went with Albert's family to their apartment in Costa Brava. Albert had to stay at home and study (sorry pal). Costa Brava was amazing. We rented kayaks with Mr. Caubet, Laura, and Jordi (albert's sister and brother). It took a while for Greg and I to get the hang of it (the Caubets were smoking us), but we gradually caught up and splashed them. We kayaked away from the crowded beach and found a great place with some sweet rock islands. We docked the kayaks and swam around for a bit, then found a few good rocks to jump off of. Laura found one that was at least 4 meters high (12 feet) and after she jumped in, Greg and I of course had to try it. We escaped with only few cuts (from climbing back up the rocks) and then we headed back to the rental place on the beach. We laid around the beach for a while and then headed up to the apartment for lunch. We had authentic Catalunyan Paella, which was an amazing seafood dish with shellfish and rice.
We had some traditional wine/champagne with the lunch. and then some ice cream for desert. After lunch we went back home, where we got a picture with the family, and then packed up our stuff real quick and headed to the train station.
We ended up paying a lot to get a night train to Zurich (59 euros€) but it was our only choice at that point (we got to the train station twenty minutes before the train left). The train was nice though (it had better be) and we met two Wyoming guys Jesse and Dan. We tried to teach them Euchre without too much success and then a flamboyant train attendant came and put our beds down and we went to sleep. Hope everything is going well for whoever reads this, leave a comment or two. cya soon.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Cinque Terre
We arrived in Cinque Terre after sleeping in the train for most of the trip. When we got at the train station we started to get worried that we wouldn´t be able to find a place to stay. Everyone along the way had told us that you really needed reservations because the hostels filled up really quick. We tried to make reservations the previous couple of days but without a credit card number you couldn´t make online reservations and the long distance phone calls here are extremely confusing to make through pay phones (finding one that works period is a challenge). So when we got there we were sort of worried that we would be sleeping on the rocky shores of a small town in Cinque Terre, and to top things off it was pouring down rain. So with images oVenicece (wandering for hours looking for a place to stay) fresh in our mind, combined with the rain, and the fact that the villages in Cinque Terre are built vertically umountainsns, we got of the train in a somewhat worried state of mind. We stepped out into the rain and within seconds some olItalianan lady walks up to us with an umbrella and said "ostello, ostello, mama Rosa, follow mama Rosa" with some other Italian/English babble. Greg and I looked at each other and said, I guess there's no harm in checking it out, she seemed nice enough. So Mama Rosa leads us to her lair, I mean ostello which consists of many rooms with somewhat translucent walls built into a house at least a couple hundred years old. Mama Rosa led us by the rooms and kept pointing at each one saying "people there, people there", while I kept wondering to myself if those rooms actually were inhabited or whether it was all some devilish ploy by Mama Rosa. I´m not sure what went through our heads, probably a combination of the rain and lack of reservations, but there was a kitchen and the bathrooms at least had toilet seats, so Greg stepped up and said we´ll stay for one night. The money changed hands and a deal was a deal, and Mama Rosa vanished almost as quickly as she had appeared off to catch another unsuspecting backpacker to add to her family ("famiglia, famiglia, we all famiglia"). Perhaps because of the poignant odor of Mama Rosa that seemed to permeiate the entire hostel, we just wanted get out of the hostel and not think about it until we had to return that night.
So after securely bolting our bags to the beds, we left and set off to hike to the various villages despite the weather. The rain let up pretty soon and we soon forgot all about mama Rosa as we enjoyed the awesome hike. Cinque Terre is on the coast of Italy and is made up of five mountainous villages, connected by train and foot paths.
It was possibly the most gorgeous place I´ve ever been. There were a few funny parts of our hike. At one point we were on a mountain that was really close to another facing mountain... face where the path continued. I told Greg I was going to run ahead and he should stay and take my picture. I started running, at which point Greg started yelling "run faster, run faster", at which point a rock reached up and grabbed my foot hurling me to the ground (I tripped). I guess you had to be there, but it was really funny at the time.
Along the way we also came across these crazy mountain carts. Apparently fearless vineyard farmers ride these things up the mountain side to collect their crops. The plastic chair upfront doesn't even have a seat belt, pretty sweet. At one of the villages we stopped and got some paninis. We watched a pickup beach soccer game while we ate.
The players were really good. Then we went to the last village where we got some gelato and listened to some awesome street performers play music, the bassist was amazing. It was getting late so we took a train back to the second village (we were staying in the first) to look for another hostel. The hostel there was booked for the next two days so we went back to the train station along the way meeting two other travelers who were looking for a place to stay. We hesitantly said that Mama Rosa probably had more beds, so they came with us. The next train wasn´t coming for another hour so we decided to just hike back to our hostel. It was a cool hike at night.
We got back to Mama´s to find the gathering place was full of people, we each made a sigh of relief (at least those rooms really had people in them). Everybody was joking about how they had been lured in by Moma Rosa at the train station. We cooked some pasta, talked for a while and then went to bed. We had decided that since we had made the hike (I haven't really talked about how long it was, it was long hike (over five hours), especially with wet socks) we were going to leave early for Barcelona. So the next morning we took a train to La Spezia. At the train station a helpful ticket man wrote us up a route to get to Barcelona using a night train that night. We walked around La Spezia, got our last Italian gelato, and stocked up on baguettes. We then took a train from La Spezia to Genova. Our train to Genova was running really late, and we started worrying that we were going to miss our 16:55 connection to Nice. Some other American backpackers on the train were in a similar situation and we mutually determined that we were screwed because no other trains went to Nice according to our little train schedule book. Our train arrived at 17:10. We jumped off the train and walked quickly to the ticket counter to try to figure out if we could get a refund for our couchette reservation and how the heck we could get to Barcelona. We waited in line for about five minutes or so and then finally got to the counter. I explained the situation to an old italian man wearing glasses and a mustache. He just looked at us with a bored expression on his face and said, "Ventimiglia, 17:17, platform 11". I looked at my watch, 17:18. We proceeded to run to Platform 11. A guy behind us was also trying to get to Nice, and he shouted after us, "do I need a ticket", we just ran, and yelled back, "I don´t know". We ran frantically through the train station following the signs that pointed to platform 11, knowing that this was our only hope of getting to Nice that night, and in turn Barcelona. We crossed paths with an escalator which was miraculously empty of people so we sprinted up it. I turned the corner and I saw the platform and a beautiful train sitting upon the tracks with its doors closing right in front of us. The doors were shut when we were still fifteen meters away. The wistle blew as I ran up to the doors with Greg trailing not far behind and holding on to a sliver of hope, I yanked on the handle. Surprisingly enough the door slide open and without hesitating I jumped on. Greg got one hand on the bar when the train lurched forward. Greg ran along side the train about four steps and then leaped on dropping his baguette in the process. The door closed (almost crushing Greg) and we were on the train cramped into a little doorway with an old Italian man giving us two thumbs up and wearing a huge grin on his face. We just stood there for a moment laughing in disbelief at what we had just done. We still didn´t know if reservations were required for this train, but we were on the train and that was all that mattered at the moment. We put a lot of distance between us and the car we dove onto (not knowing if we had broken some law by jumping a moving train) and we found two seats and sat down for the rest of our trip to Nice. We then took a night train from Nice to Port Bou and Port Bou to Barcelona.
To the poor soul we left behind at the train station looking for a ticket: We extend our heartfelt condolences.
So after securely bolting our bags to the beds, we left and set off to hike to the various villages despite the weather. The rain let up pretty soon and we soon forgot all about mama Rosa as we enjoyed the awesome hike. Cinque Terre is on the coast of Italy and is made up of five mountainous villages, connected by train and foot paths.
It was possibly the most gorgeous place I´ve ever been. There were a few funny parts of our hike. At one point we were on a mountain that was really close to another facing mountain... face where the path continued. I told Greg I was going to run ahead and he should stay and take my picture. I started running, at which point Greg started yelling "run faster, run faster", at which point a rock reached up and grabbed my foot hurling me to the ground (I tripped). I guess you had to be there, but it was really funny at the time.
Along the way we also came across these crazy mountain carts. Apparently fearless vineyard farmers ride these things up the mountain side to collect their crops. The plastic chair upfront doesn't even have a seat belt, pretty sweet. At one of the villages we stopped and got some paninis. We watched a pickup beach soccer game while we ate.
The players were really good. Then we went to the last village where we got some gelato and listened to some awesome street performers play music, the bassist was amazing. It was getting late so we took a train back to the second village (we were staying in the first) to look for another hostel. The hostel there was booked for the next two days so we went back to the train station along the way meeting two other travelers who were looking for a place to stay. We hesitantly said that Mama Rosa probably had more beds, so they came with us. The next train wasn´t coming for another hour so we decided to just hike back to our hostel. It was a cool hike at night.
We got back to Mama´s to find the gathering place was full of people, we each made a sigh of relief (at least those rooms really had people in them). Everybody was joking about how they had been lured in by Moma Rosa at the train station. We cooked some pasta, talked for a while and then went to bed. We had decided that since we had made the hike (I haven't really talked about how long it was, it was long hike (over five hours), especially with wet socks) we were going to leave early for Barcelona. So the next morning we took a train to La Spezia. At the train station a helpful ticket man wrote us up a route to get to Barcelona using a night train that night. We walked around La Spezia, got our last Italian gelato, and stocked up on baguettes. We then took a train from La Spezia to Genova. Our train to Genova was running really late, and we started worrying that we were going to miss our 16:55 connection to Nice. Some other American backpackers on the train were in a similar situation and we mutually determined that we were screwed because no other trains went to Nice according to our little train schedule book. Our train arrived at 17:10. We jumped off the train and walked quickly to the ticket counter to try to figure out if we could get a refund for our couchette reservation and how the heck we could get to Barcelona. We waited in line for about five minutes or so and then finally got to the counter. I explained the situation to an old italian man wearing glasses and a mustache. He just looked at us with a bored expression on his face and said, "Ventimiglia, 17:17, platform 11". I looked at my watch, 17:18. We proceeded to run to Platform 11. A guy behind us was also trying to get to Nice, and he shouted after us, "do I need a ticket", we just ran, and yelled back, "I don´t know". We ran frantically through the train station following the signs that pointed to platform 11, knowing that this was our only hope of getting to Nice that night, and in turn Barcelona. We crossed paths with an escalator which was miraculously empty of people so we sprinted up it. I turned the corner and I saw the platform and a beautiful train sitting upon the tracks with its doors closing right in front of us. The doors were shut when we were still fifteen meters away. The wistle blew as I ran up to the doors with Greg trailing not far behind and holding on to a sliver of hope, I yanked on the handle. Surprisingly enough the door slide open and without hesitating I jumped on. Greg got one hand on the bar when the train lurched forward. Greg ran along side the train about four steps and then leaped on dropping his baguette in the process. The door closed (almost crushing Greg) and we were on the train cramped into a little doorway with an old Italian man giving us two thumbs up and wearing a huge grin on his face. We just stood there for a moment laughing in disbelief at what we had just done. We still didn´t know if reservations were required for this train, but we were on the train and that was all that mattered at the moment. We put a lot of distance between us and the car we dove onto (not knowing if we had broken some law by jumping a moving train) and we found two seats and sat down for the rest of our trip to Nice. We then took a night train from Nice to Port Bou and Port Bou to Barcelona.
To the poor soul we left behind at the train station looking for a ticket: We extend our heartfelt condolences.
Roma (Part 2)
Sorry this has been a long time coming, there was no internet in Cinque Terre, but now that I´m at my good friend Albert´s house in Barcelona I can finally fill you in one the past few days. On monday we spent our last day in Roma. We slept in a little and woke up with a puddle forming in our room. Our room sits just barely below the bathroom, which has shower doors that don´t close very well, a combination that led to our roomates´ stuff getting soaked (ours was just out of reach of the puddle). We headed off to the Vatican museum. We waited through a huge line and finally got inside to buy the tickets which we purchased at a second story ticket window. I reached into my bag to pull out my baguette so I could find the coins I had put in there. A coin somehow came out with the bag, fell to the ground, bounced directly through the one inch gap between the floor and the railing glass and landed on an Italian woman´s head who was accompanying her wheelchair bound husband. I didn´t know what happened to the coin until I heard the guy behind us say "your coin just fell and hit that lady!" I am convinced that fate was somehow working against me in that line. I felt bad for the lady, it looked like it hurt, and I really was at a loss of what to feel/do, so after looking behind me to make sure that no police officer was racing up the stairs after me, I quickly made it through the ticket line with Greg.
We saw lots of beautiful art, which told a lot of history. Saint Sebastian seemed to be a favorite subject, he was always the man with arrows sticking in him (he was a martyr). There were also some really cool paintings of the assumption and the coronation of Our Lady. We wandered for hours in the museum with signs at every corner saying "Sistine Chapel ->" and only after passing through a "modern art" section we finally arrived at the famous Chapel. It was amazing, it probably would have been more amazing if the guards weren´t constantly yelling "no foto" and "silencio", but it was awesome nonetheless. After the Sistine chapel, we went back to the hostel dropped off some gaterade Greg had bought on the way to the Vatican (it was weighing him down) and headed off to see the coliseum again.
We walked by the one island in Roma, then we split a kilo of pizza (benissimo). We then went to the park at the top of the spanish steps hoping to get a good picture of roma at sunset. The sun was too high when we got there so we walked around the park and noticed that thera lotre alot of movie equipment. We followed the line of trucks and found a movie set with camera crew, actors, and director at a beautiful cafe/villa.
We watched them film a scene and then found out the name of the movie (orgoglio 3, I looked it up and orgoglio means pride). We went back to the edge of the park with the view of the city and discovered that the sun doesn´t really set over the city, and the pictures didn´t really turn out all that great, so we did what we did every other night in roma, we went back to the Trevi Fountain. We hung around the fountain for a while and then headed back to the hostel. On the way back we came across Becca and Jean again (with some new guy Nat).
We got a quick picture and told them about our travels since we had seen them last and then we ended up back at the hostel for bed. The next morning we woke up with another even bigger puddle in our room getting our (new) roomates´ stuff soaked and then caught a train to Cinque Terre.
We saw lots of beautiful art, which told a lot of history. Saint Sebastian seemed to be a favorite subject, he was always the man with arrows sticking in him (he was a martyr). There were also some really cool paintings of the assumption and the coronation of Our Lady. We wandered for hours in the museum with signs at every corner saying "Sistine Chapel ->" and only after passing through a "modern art" section we finally arrived at the famous Chapel. It was amazing, it probably would have been more amazing if the guards weren´t constantly yelling "no foto" and "silencio", but it was awesome nonetheless. After the Sistine chapel, we went back to the hostel dropped off some gaterade Greg had bought on the way to the Vatican (it was weighing him down) and headed off to see the coliseum again.
We walked by the one island in Roma, then we split a kilo of pizza (benissimo). We then went to the park at the top of the spanish steps hoping to get a good picture of roma at sunset. The sun was too high when we got there so we walked around the park and noticed that thera lotre alot of movie equipment. We followed the line of trucks and found a movie set with camera crew, actors, and director at a beautiful cafe/villa.
We watched them film a scene and then found out the name of the movie (orgoglio 3, I looked it up and orgoglio means pride). We went back to the edge of the park with the view of the city and discovered that the sun doesn´t really set over the city, and the pictures didn´t really turn out all that great, so we did what we did every other night in roma, we went back to the Trevi Fountain. We hung around the fountain for a while and then headed back to the hostel. On the way back we came across Becca and Jean again (with some new guy Nat).
We got a quick picture and told them about our travels since we had seen them last and then we ended up back at the hostel for bed. The next morning we woke up with another even bigger puddle in our room getting our (new) roomates´ stuff soaked and then caught a train to Cinque Terre.
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