Well, in 4 days I went from having been to 7 European countries, to having been to 9 European countries. How cool am I? (the answer is way cool). My Amsterdam flight was very early in the morning, and I had to wake up very, very early to get a ride from Corinne (bless her little heart for driving me) to the airport in Basel, about an hour and a half away from Zurich. Once it got to about midnight I decided the best course of action was to stay up all night rather than sleep for only a few hours. At 4am we left Corinne´s, drove to the airport, and I got myself all organised and checked in. Waiting for the plane was torture because I started to realise how tired I was, but the flight was pleasant and I got the unique pleasure of seeing the sun-rise over Holland from above Holland. Very cool. The Amsterdam airport is insane! It´s huge and it was packed, and when I went to the info desk to find out where my hostel is I found out there were 2 hostels with the same name and I didn´t know which one Nikki was reserved at! Eep! I took a stab and went to the downtown one, which wasapparently the right one because Nikki was in the lobby! Yay! Now our Amsterdam Christmas adventure could really begin!
Now follows the censored version of our Amsterdam adventure:
Amsterdam was nice. We went to the Anne Frank museum and the Van Gogh museum. I had a good Christmas.
Now follows the uncensored version of our Amsterdam adventure (read at your own risk):
Amsterdam is tits!!! After getting checked in we imediately found a coffee shop near the hostel and (get this) ordered weed off a menu! No matter how many times I heard people say they did this in Amsterdam, it did not prepare me for the incredible awesomeness of doing it in real life! Off a menu! Fantastic! We got baked and did a bunch of walking around the red-light district, then around the china-town area, eventually leading us to get some really tasty asian food. After that there was more walking around the red light district. Nikki was nervous about walking through the main red light streets with all the hookers because ti was now dark out, but I was like "dude, this is a tourist city!" there was a gift shop sandwiched between two hooker windows. How much more tame can you get? What was really interesting was the looks on hte different hookers´faces in the windows. Some looked really excited to be there, some bored, some impassive, some challenging. It was very crazy ans surreal. Afterwards we went back to the hostel for more weed, dinner, and then ventured out one more time to go to the highly graphic "Sex Museum". It had a collection of pornography, ancient sex symbols and statues, mannequinns, cartoons, erotic novelties, and lots of paintings and pictures of naked people. A good way to spend an hour in Amsterdam if there ever was one! Next we returned to the hostel again for our horrible collapse of tiredness at around 11pm. We both were running on little (or in my case no) sleep.
The next morning was Christmas eve day, and we decided to pakc in the majority of our sightseeing because we figured nothing would be open on xmas day. We started the day sober (gasp I know!) in order to go to the Ann Frank museum. It was really incredible to see the apartment they hid in, the original diary, and a ton of other stuff from the family, including video footage of her father after the war (heart-breaking). After a few hours in hte museum, we were feeling pretty heavy, so we decided that the best plan was to commence the hostel´s reccommended "coffee shop tour" and get baked. We went to a coffee shop called the "rock café", which had a really bitchy girl working there. After getting high and playing cards for a bit, we continued with the tour, which took us from North to South Amsterdam through many of the busy roads, including hte posh shopping area. The best suprprise of the walk was when we passed over a bridge and saw a man on a small motor-boat, decked out in ribbons, playing a peddle-powered organ with a foot-pedal, and accompanying himself on hte french horn then trumpet, all whilst boating around in circles. We watched him for many minutes and could discern no reason for him doing it, other than accute awesomeness. It was incredible!
We veered off the tour in search of the Van Gogh museum (a must-see if you´re in Amsterdam and even remotely like art). It turns out that they advertise the off-site museum gift-shop with several signs in giant, red, block letters. You can see the gift shop from a block away. The museum itself is across the park from the gift shop, behind a large building, and with the world´s smallest and saddest sign ever! Because of this and the fact that we were still high, it took us about half an hour to find the museum, even though we asked for directions 3 times. What a terrible system! The Van Gogh museum is really amazing. There are 3 floors of art and one floor with info and toilets, etc. The top floor is all Van Gogh paintings, hung beside info panels with snippets about his life. All the paitings are in chronogloical order, so you can really see his progression as an artist. Favourite painting? Toss up between the sunflower painting (holy friggin wow) and a painting he did of a skeleton smoking a cigarette (that´s just hilarious). The next floor down is paintings from throughout his career juxtaposed with paintings by artists of his time that worked with him or otherwise inspired him. The best thing about this floor was that you could directly see which of his paintings were inspired by whom in his early career, also they had a ton of Gaugin´s work and I friggin LOVE Gaugin! There was also tons of info panels here. The bottom floor was random art that had nothing to do with Van Gogh, but is cool anyway, only by the time we got here the museum was closing, so we had to rush through.
After this it was getting to be late-ish and we were cold and hungry, so we took a tram back to the hostel to make dinner. Before dinner we chilled out in the smoking room of the hostel (it used to be you could smoke weed anywhere, but due to recent laws, there has to be a smoking section in a residential-type building... guess which room was the most popular?). In there we met a boisterous Edinburgh lad and American girl, who told us that there was a Christmas Eve pub crawl happening that night and that we would be fools not to go. Damn fools even! I could not possibly resist the hilarious novelty of going on a pub crawl on Christmas Eve in Amsterdam, so we rushed dinner and then went out of the town. The deal was that you pay 15 euros and get free admission into every bar, a free drink at each bar, free all-you-can-drink shots at the first bar, and shots upon entering most bars. I was excited for the free liquor, because poorness means that I couldn´t afford to buy any drinks at the bars. Unfortunately the shots were really watered down and sugary, and the free drinks were small, so it took forever to actually get drunk. I did, however, fully abuse the free shots rule at the first bar.
We were supposed to be in the first pub for an outrageous amount of time, because the crawl leaders wanted to wait for stragglers to show up. So after our free drinks were done and the shots ran out, Nikki, the Scotsman, an adorable asian named Shumpei, and an Indian guy whose name I forget, and I, decided to deek out of the pub and head to a nearby coffee shop to kill some time. We wound up going to the first ever coffee shop in Amsterdam (the Bulldog), buying 4 pre-rolled joints, and smoking on of them. In a much better mood we returned to the pub crawl. The crawl was awesome and included much drinking and dancing, meeting lots of cool people, and smoking the otehr 3 joints. The 2 coolest things in the night, was when it turned midnight and officially Christmas, white snow-like confetti exploded on everyone from the ceiling. The other amazing thing was at one pub they had fire breathers! The bartenders were just working away, making drinks, then suddenly each of them picked up a torch and a big liquor bottle and blew back-and-forth fire balls for about 10 minutes. It was insanely cool! At the end of the night we followed a brother and sister from Montreal home to our hostel, after getting thouroughly lost first, and crawled into bed.
Christmas morning we accidentally slept through breakfast and weren´t allowed in the kitchen to make coffee because of after-breakfast clean-up, so I read in the smoking room while Nikki stayed in bed nursing a hangover (ah the Christmas hangover, a classic!). Eventually she got up, we got coffee and a healthy breakfast of cookies, and recorded our Christmas video in the lounge area before getting stoned (not that you could tell from the video). The whole Christmas day was spent in between the smoking room and the lounge area, getting high, watching movies, looking up internet comics, meetings Australians, and eating junk food. Also, I spent the whole of Christmas wearing a santa hat and my batgirl t-shirt (happy batmas). We went outside only once, to go to a coffee shop called "Ben" and get chips with garlic sauce (way better than ketchup!). The night culminated in a back-to-back viewing of the Big Lebowski and Yellow Submarine (guess which one I brought). All in all it was a great Christmas, and I was really glad to spend it with Nikki because she is a dear friend of many years past.
Frig that was a lot of writing! Well, we´re all updated until Christmas and I´ll write the rest later.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
One week in Switzerland! I´ve had a great time staying with Corinne and her boyfriend Sebastian. They´re both cooks and they´ve made really delicious food for me every day; I´m now officially crazy-ass spoiled! I´ve gone to the little mountain near Zurich, and today I went with Corinne and Sebastian to the Alps a few hours away. The Swiss alps! Switzerland is so incredibly beautiful and ADORABLE!!! I really love it here. There are many things that I´ve come to love about this country during my stgay here, and I will briefly list them now.
1) No war, that´s just good times! However, I already knew that about Switzerland, so I will now only list things that I have newly discovered about the country I now love
2) Or real 1) They sell Glüwein at stands on almost every street and it´s so delicious!
New 2) All the houses are short and have big, pointy roofs- even the apartments and hotels are house-shaped with big, pointy roofs
3) They have big, coloured steeples with pointy roofs and clocks on all the churches
4) They sell liquor and porn almost everwhere
5) The country officially has 3 languages- how cool is that? German, French, and Italian
6) The chocolate and cheese is awesome beyond all reason!
7) There are tons of Chirstmas markets everwhere
There are probably more things, but that´s enough for now.
Corinne and her best friend Danica took me to the capital city Bern a few days ago. It is so incredibly cute!!! All the shops are teeny tiny and prefaced by beautiful arches. Most of the streets have really cute below-ground shops that open with cellar doors, and you have to walk down through the entranceway to get into the shops. There´s a really cute clock-work tower in the middle of the town with lots of amazing little fountains everywhere (one has a bear dressed in a knight costume- precious!), and every single street is made of cobblestone and is very narrow! We drove to the city in the evening and we found a market that sold glüwein, but it was crazy busy, so we walked around for a bit and found another outdoor market (of Switzerland is awesome) that was in a square in front of one of the parliment buildings and the church. We bought some glüwein and drank it in front of the parliment building, and then in front of the church. It was great! Afterwards we met up with two of Danica´s friends at a local Sheesha bar. I smoked my first ever hit of sheesha, followed by my first feeling like death from sheesha (god I hate tobacco), and so I´m never doing that again, even if it is cool and exotic and from a giant hookah. Anyway, after that we went to a drum and bass party in a town next to Bern. The DJ was insane, but the party was kind of lame because hardly anyone (excluding us of course) was dancing. How can you not dance to electronic music? After we left and dropped off the girls Corinne and I got back after 5am. I think I did the nation´s capital proud!
Another crazy, cool thing that´s happened in the last week is the other night I went with Corinne to her staff Christmas party. We weren´t told where we were going or what we were doing, we were just told the town that we were taking the train to. On the train her coworkers busted out the plastic cups and wine and we spent the long train ride drinking and talking. Drinking legally in public is awesome! Her coworkers are incredibly nice, but most of the night people were talking German, so it was a little hard to be fully in the festivites. Everyone was very accomodating, though. We arrived in the town and were brought to the house of the friend of Corinne´s boss where we all had a fondue party with tons of wine in a cool off-house room with a fireplace and big, glass doors. Very Swiss-rustic! We spent hours in the room eating the world´s most delicious fondue and drinking, and eventually poured ourselves back into the train and stumbled back to Corinne´s house.
I also had fondue a few nights before-hand at Corinne´s friend´s house. I am so friggin loving this Swiss fondue! It´s so creamy and delicious and traditional! Happy Kendall! It´s been great to try a bunch of traditional Swiss food while I´m here, especially since most of the food has been cooked for me by my Swiss hosts. Man, I love being spoiled! Anyway, that´s a pretty good overview of what my last week has entailed. Tomorrow morning in Amsterdam!
1) No war, that´s just good times! However, I already knew that about Switzerland, so I will now only list things that I have newly discovered about the country I now love
2) Or real 1) They sell Glüwein at stands on almost every street and it´s so delicious!
New 2) All the houses are short and have big, pointy roofs- even the apartments and hotels are house-shaped with big, pointy roofs
3) They have big, coloured steeples with pointy roofs and clocks on all the churches
4) They sell liquor and porn almost everwhere
5) The country officially has 3 languages- how cool is that? German, French, and Italian
6) The chocolate and cheese is awesome beyond all reason!
7) There are tons of Chirstmas markets everwhere
There are probably more things, but that´s enough for now.
Corinne and her best friend Danica took me to the capital city Bern a few days ago. It is so incredibly cute!!! All the shops are teeny tiny and prefaced by beautiful arches. Most of the streets have really cute below-ground shops that open with cellar doors, and you have to walk down through the entranceway to get into the shops. There´s a really cute clock-work tower in the middle of the town with lots of amazing little fountains everywhere (one has a bear dressed in a knight costume- precious!), and every single street is made of cobblestone and is very narrow! We drove to the city in the evening and we found a market that sold glüwein, but it was crazy busy, so we walked around for a bit and found another outdoor market (of Switzerland is awesome) that was in a square in front of one of the parliment buildings and the church. We bought some glüwein and drank it in front of the parliment building, and then in front of the church. It was great! Afterwards we met up with two of Danica´s friends at a local Sheesha bar. I smoked my first ever hit of sheesha, followed by my first feeling like death from sheesha (god I hate tobacco), and so I´m never doing that again, even if it is cool and exotic and from a giant hookah. Anyway, after that we went to a drum and bass party in a town next to Bern. The DJ was insane, but the party was kind of lame because hardly anyone (excluding us of course) was dancing. How can you not dance to electronic music? After we left and dropped off the girls Corinne and I got back after 5am. I think I did the nation´s capital proud!
Another crazy, cool thing that´s happened in the last week is the other night I went with Corinne to her staff Christmas party. We weren´t told where we were going or what we were doing, we were just told the town that we were taking the train to. On the train her coworkers busted out the plastic cups and wine and we spent the long train ride drinking and talking. Drinking legally in public is awesome! Her coworkers are incredibly nice, but most of the night people were talking German, so it was a little hard to be fully in the festivites. Everyone was very accomodating, though. We arrived in the town and were brought to the house of the friend of Corinne´s boss where we all had a fondue party with tons of wine in a cool off-house room with a fireplace and big, glass doors. Very Swiss-rustic! We spent hours in the room eating the world´s most delicious fondue and drinking, and eventually poured ourselves back into the train and stumbled back to Corinne´s house.
I also had fondue a few nights before-hand at Corinne´s friend´s house. I am so friggin loving this Swiss fondue! It´s so creamy and delicious and traditional! Happy Kendall! It´s been great to try a bunch of traditional Swiss food while I´m here, especially since most of the food has been cooked for me by my Swiss hosts. Man, I love being spoiled! Anyway, that´s a pretty good overview of what my last week has entailed. Tomorrow morning in Amsterdam!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Tag, Zurich!!!
So... I´m in another country...
Apparently I´ve been a very lazy bitch and haven´t written my blog in awhile, whilst so much has happened! When I last wrote I was just about to leave the house with Cesare and get some southern Italian pizza and wine. The rumour has it that Southern Italy has the best pizza in all of Italy, and I completely agree! Holy crap, yum!!! That night was spent eating pizza, drinking wine, and listening to music. The next morning I got up very early and spent another of my way-too-common full days of traveling. I took a train from Salerno to Roma, which was of course late, because of this I missed my connecting train to Firenze (Florence) where I was heading. Perhaps you will recall, oh devoted reader, that I was already in Florence for a day when I was staying in Pistoia. This is true, unfortunately my day in Florence was spent in the merciless grip of a flu-induced delerium, and the only thing that I remember clearly is seeing the David and feeling like death. So because of this I decided to do Firenze right- plus it was conveniently more or less on my way to Venizzia (Venice). Anyway, I missed my train, but I managed to find one leaving a few hours later, and arrived in Firenze more or less within the scope of reason.
In Firenze I spent the weekend with a delightful couple named Leornardo and Elisa. Leonardo picked me up at the train station and took me to their beautiful house in the burbs of Firenze. That night, when Leonardo had a soccer match, Elisa and I walked around Firenze at night, got some delicious Italian pizza, and the best friggin Italian coffee I´ve ever had (and I´ve had LOTS of coffee since arriving). Then we went to the Michelangelo point, which is a beautiful piazza with many statues and an amazing view of all of Firenze. After that we picked up Leonardo, went out for a drink, and headed back to their place. However, on the way home I was given a special treat, unique to Firenze. We stopped at an all-night pastry factory, where they make delicious pizzas and pastries. You could watch the two bakers making all the amaying Italian pastries, and then order the freshly made pastries for incredibly cheap. It was like food heaven! What an experience!!!
The next day I got up early and took a train into the centre of Firenze. I spent the entire day walking around the beautiful city. I´m so glad that I came back to Firenze! The city is amazing, with so many statues, churches, piazzas, and shops. I´m still pissed that they charge so much for all the churches and museums, but luckily there is so much art around the city that you can get a full cultural experience just walking around for free. That evening I went back to Elisa and Leonardo´s, and Elisa cooked a delicious risotto dinner, with an apple cake dessert, and many bottles of wine. I got to try a really fancy wine from the town beside Venizzia (Venice) and boy was it ever good! I´m going to have some big issues leaving Italian food and wine behind! Leonardo and Elisa invited a few of their friends over and we had a wonderful little party with drinks, music, and pleasant converstaion. So very Italian classy!
The next morning I was suppoed to take an 8:42 am bus to Venizzia, and I was woken up at about 8:15 by Elisa. Hungover and tired as hell from almost no sleep I rush-packed and got dropped off at the train station, with about 2 minutes to spare. I took a train to Bologna, then transfered to a train to Venizzia. I dropped my bags off at the outrageously expensive baggage storage and walked out of the station to see my first Venician canals! Yay! Man, Venizzia is beautiful beyond all reason. There are so many gorgeous canals, boats, gondolas, pizzerias, churches, and teeny tiny little roads. The only sad thing about Venezzia is that it´s barely a real city anymore, and has become almost exclusively a tourists destination. After walking around all the once grand streets that are now just rows and rows of shops it got a little weary after a while. The city is magical though; I really loved walking around and staring at all the amaying canals. There has been record-high rainfalls in Italy this year, so many of the Venician streets were flooded. It was hilarious to see really posh Italians wearing fancy clothes and wellies! Heehee. Also, there were lots of shop-keeps that would sweep the water away from the front of their shops with brooms. Only in Venizzia!
I took a 5pm train to Bologna, arriving at 8pm and having to wait until 11:30 for my overnight train to Zurich. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I stored my bags again and did a speed-tour of some of Bologna´s famous sights. It´s a beautiful city, covered in archways and fairy lights. I´m glad I got the chance to see it before leaving Italy. I got on the night train, exhausted beyond all reason, and was happy to find out I had my sleeper cabin to myself! I had washed my clothes the day before in Firenze, and some of them were still wet (and had been in my bag wet all day) so I pulled out the contents of my pack and spread them around the cabin, then went to bed. It´s very hard to sleep on a night train, especially if you´re a former insomniac, and once I finally got used to the noise of the other passengers and the train I found I would wake up every time the train stopped (which was often) or if the train made a sudden lurch (also often). So my night passed with me frequently waking up, and every time with the irrational fear that I would miss my stop in Zurich! Ah! I woke up in the morning and saw that we were stopped at a large, brightly lit station. I freaked out, thinking it was Zurich, speed-packed, and further freaked when the train started moving once I had finished packing. It wasn´t until we passed the sign saying "Bern" that I realized we still had a while to go. I found a porter and found out it was only 7am, and I had woken up at about 6:30 am with still 2 hours left to go in the trip. My freaking out had woken me up enough to not get back to sleep, so I sat up in my cabin drinking the complimentary coffee and watching the sun rise over Swiss alps and villages. What a sight! Switzerland is so cute, it looks like the inside of a snow-globe.
We arrived in Zurich at 8:40 am, meaning that in 24 hours (almost to the minute) I went from Firenze, to Venezzia, to Bologna, to Zurich, Switzerland. Wow! In Zurich I´m staying with my friend Corinne, but she had to work until 2:30, so I stored my bags at the station and went to the tourist office to get maps and info. The tourist board gives out maps with a recommended walking tour, so I spent my time doing the tour and exploring the centre-ville of Zurich. Zurich is a very busy little city, with many tall church-towers, a beautiful lake and river, and the second most expensive street in all of Europe! Wow! It´s true what they say about Switzerland, it´s expensive as hell! I´m very lucky to have a friend here. At about 3pm I met up with Corinne, went back to her place (very cute apartment with the hilarious eccentricity of having its shower in the kitchen!) and had my first shower in two days. Finally! Corinne cooked us a delicious pasta dinner (she´s a chef, lucky me!!!) and bought me my first bar of Swiss chocolate, which I actually just ate now. Holy crap it was so good! If Italy didn´t make me fat, Switzerland will.
After dinner we went to the train station where they have a Christmas market and got some Glühwein (which is the same thing as the Italian Vin Brule) with a couple of Corinne´s friends. Then we went to a bar for a traditional Swiss drink that´s like a mix between beer and lemonade, and not too shabby at all. After that we went to a Swiss club. It was really nice, but at this point I was on the brink of zombie-ness with almost no sleep in 3 days and so much traveling. We came back and I promptly passed out and slept forever. Today I woke up late, ate delicious pasta leftovers, watched a movie, and ate that amazing chocolate bar. A nice relaxing antidote to all my whilrwind traveling!
Apparently I´ve been a very lazy bitch and haven´t written my blog in awhile, whilst so much has happened! When I last wrote I was just about to leave the house with Cesare and get some southern Italian pizza and wine. The rumour has it that Southern Italy has the best pizza in all of Italy, and I completely agree! Holy crap, yum!!! That night was spent eating pizza, drinking wine, and listening to music. The next morning I got up very early and spent another of my way-too-common full days of traveling. I took a train from Salerno to Roma, which was of course late, because of this I missed my connecting train to Firenze (Florence) where I was heading. Perhaps you will recall, oh devoted reader, that I was already in Florence for a day when I was staying in Pistoia. This is true, unfortunately my day in Florence was spent in the merciless grip of a flu-induced delerium, and the only thing that I remember clearly is seeing the David and feeling like death. So because of this I decided to do Firenze right- plus it was conveniently more or less on my way to Venizzia (Venice). Anyway, I missed my train, but I managed to find one leaving a few hours later, and arrived in Firenze more or less within the scope of reason.
In Firenze I spent the weekend with a delightful couple named Leornardo and Elisa. Leonardo picked me up at the train station and took me to their beautiful house in the burbs of Firenze. That night, when Leonardo had a soccer match, Elisa and I walked around Firenze at night, got some delicious Italian pizza, and the best friggin Italian coffee I´ve ever had (and I´ve had LOTS of coffee since arriving). Then we went to the Michelangelo point, which is a beautiful piazza with many statues and an amazing view of all of Firenze. After that we picked up Leonardo, went out for a drink, and headed back to their place. However, on the way home I was given a special treat, unique to Firenze. We stopped at an all-night pastry factory, where they make delicious pizzas and pastries. You could watch the two bakers making all the amaying Italian pastries, and then order the freshly made pastries for incredibly cheap. It was like food heaven! What an experience!!!
The next day I got up early and took a train into the centre of Firenze. I spent the entire day walking around the beautiful city. I´m so glad that I came back to Firenze! The city is amazing, with so many statues, churches, piazzas, and shops. I´m still pissed that they charge so much for all the churches and museums, but luckily there is so much art around the city that you can get a full cultural experience just walking around for free. That evening I went back to Elisa and Leonardo´s, and Elisa cooked a delicious risotto dinner, with an apple cake dessert, and many bottles of wine. I got to try a really fancy wine from the town beside Venizzia (Venice) and boy was it ever good! I´m going to have some big issues leaving Italian food and wine behind! Leonardo and Elisa invited a few of their friends over and we had a wonderful little party with drinks, music, and pleasant converstaion. So very Italian classy!
The next morning I was suppoed to take an 8:42 am bus to Venizzia, and I was woken up at about 8:15 by Elisa. Hungover and tired as hell from almost no sleep I rush-packed and got dropped off at the train station, with about 2 minutes to spare. I took a train to Bologna, then transfered to a train to Venizzia. I dropped my bags off at the outrageously expensive baggage storage and walked out of the station to see my first Venician canals! Yay! Man, Venizzia is beautiful beyond all reason. There are so many gorgeous canals, boats, gondolas, pizzerias, churches, and teeny tiny little roads. The only sad thing about Venezzia is that it´s barely a real city anymore, and has become almost exclusively a tourists destination. After walking around all the once grand streets that are now just rows and rows of shops it got a little weary after a while. The city is magical though; I really loved walking around and staring at all the amaying canals. There has been record-high rainfalls in Italy this year, so many of the Venician streets were flooded. It was hilarious to see really posh Italians wearing fancy clothes and wellies! Heehee. Also, there were lots of shop-keeps that would sweep the water away from the front of their shops with brooms. Only in Venizzia!
I took a 5pm train to Bologna, arriving at 8pm and having to wait until 11:30 for my overnight train to Zurich. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I stored my bags again and did a speed-tour of some of Bologna´s famous sights. It´s a beautiful city, covered in archways and fairy lights. I´m glad I got the chance to see it before leaving Italy. I got on the night train, exhausted beyond all reason, and was happy to find out I had my sleeper cabin to myself! I had washed my clothes the day before in Firenze, and some of them were still wet (and had been in my bag wet all day) so I pulled out the contents of my pack and spread them around the cabin, then went to bed. It´s very hard to sleep on a night train, especially if you´re a former insomniac, and once I finally got used to the noise of the other passengers and the train I found I would wake up every time the train stopped (which was often) or if the train made a sudden lurch (also often). So my night passed with me frequently waking up, and every time with the irrational fear that I would miss my stop in Zurich! Ah! I woke up in the morning and saw that we were stopped at a large, brightly lit station. I freaked out, thinking it was Zurich, speed-packed, and further freaked when the train started moving once I had finished packing. It wasn´t until we passed the sign saying "Bern" that I realized we still had a while to go. I found a porter and found out it was only 7am, and I had woken up at about 6:30 am with still 2 hours left to go in the trip. My freaking out had woken me up enough to not get back to sleep, so I sat up in my cabin drinking the complimentary coffee and watching the sun rise over Swiss alps and villages. What a sight! Switzerland is so cute, it looks like the inside of a snow-globe.
We arrived in Zurich at 8:40 am, meaning that in 24 hours (almost to the minute) I went from Firenze, to Venezzia, to Bologna, to Zurich, Switzerland. Wow! In Zurich I´m staying with my friend Corinne, but she had to work until 2:30, so I stored my bags at the station and went to the tourist office to get maps and info. The tourist board gives out maps with a recommended walking tour, so I spent my time doing the tour and exploring the centre-ville of Zurich. Zurich is a very busy little city, with many tall church-towers, a beautiful lake and river, and the second most expensive street in all of Europe! Wow! It´s true what they say about Switzerland, it´s expensive as hell! I´m very lucky to have a friend here. At about 3pm I met up with Corinne, went back to her place (very cute apartment with the hilarious eccentricity of having its shower in the kitchen!) and had my first shower in two days. Finally! Corinne cooked us a delicious pasta dinner (she´s a chef, lucky me!!!) and bought me my first bar of Swiss chocolate, which I actually just ate now. Holy crap it was so good! If Italy didn´t make me fat, Switzerland will.
After dinner we went to the train station where they have a Christmas market and got some Glühwein (which is the same thing as the Italian Vin Brule) with a couple of Corinne´s friends. Then we went to a bar for a traditional Swiss drink that´s like a mix between beer and lemonade, and not too shabby at all. After that we went to a Swiss club. It was really nice, but at this point I was on the brink of zombie-ness with almost no sleep in 3 days and so much traveling. We came back and I promptly passed out and slept forever. Today I woke up late, ate delicious pasta leftovers, watched a movie, and ate that amazing chocolate bar. A nice relaxing antidote to all my whilrwind traveling!
Friday, December 12, 2008
We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog...
Ciao everyone! Well, it's almost that time of year, the christmas time. My plans are fully settled on going to Amsterdam for three days with my dear, old OSSSA friend Nikki. It should be jolly holidays for all, although I will desperately miss my family. Once again I need to remind everyone that under no circumstance is anyone allowed to buy me a present. The only material thing that I need in this world is a new camera (or my old one back, sigh). However, if anyone wants to give me money for the holidays, I'm way too broke-ass to feign indifference in this matter, and would welcome that gladly.
No one is in any way required to send me anything, but if you want to send me xmas money, you can send it c/o my Daddy, who is in charge of depositing my xmas cheques. His address is below:
(address removed)
And happy holidays!
No one is in any way required to send me anything, but if you want to send me xmas money, you can send it c/o my Daddy, who is in charge of depositing my xmas cheques. His address is below:
(address removed)
And happy holidays!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The good, the bad, and the goddam depressing
Okay, terrible news must come first, because I can't stop thinking about it anyway, so I should bring it up, up front. My camera has been lost from me. I don't know if it was stolen (likely, because Napoli is a hot-bed of pickpocketing) or if it just fell out of my bag somehow (I was going through my bag on the train, so this could also happen) but I didn't even friggin notice until this morning that it was gone. I had it right up until the evening yesterday, when I took a picture in a cafe, and after that I didn't think to look for it until I was packing for Pompei today. I feel like there's a lump in my throat that can't dissappate, and whenever I think about all the photos I've lost my stomach ties in knots and I feel like I'm going to hurl. So yeah...
My first night in Salerno (2 days ago) was really nice. The weather was still beautiful, so my host Cesare took me on a walking tour of the city after dinner, showing me the many sights and telling me all about the rich history of the place. He's lived here most of his life and knows the city inside and out, so I learned a lot about it. At the end of the walk, we went and sat by the sea and ate gelatto. It was very peaceful and lovely.
The next day I got up early, and was going to take a train to Napoli, but there was a problem with the regional trains between Salerno and Napoli (trenitalia seems to have many problems) so I took a bus instead. I first took a wrong road and instead of walking through the touristy part of town, I was immediately thrust into the shipping yards part of town, which was filthy and a little sketchy. It was really interesting, though, and I walked around there for a bit before heading back towards a main street. The rest of the day consisted of three things over and over: me getting lost, me figuring out where I was, and me looking for a warm pair of boots to buy. I got lost and found through a good half of the city and saw many beautiful suqares, statues, an amazing church with a carved-rose ceiling, and a castle! Unfortunately it was both rainey and windy as hell, so I was combatting the weather with my flimsy umbrella for the betterpart of the day, but I still saw a lot of great stuff, and I finally found a pair of decent boots, yay! The shopkeep assured me that the boots are both waterproof and snowproof, and they have infinitely better treads than my old, crap boots, so I'm very glad to have them. At the end of a long, tiring day, I was meant to take the 6:42 train back to Salerno, but the trains were still having issues, so I had to take a bus half-way, then a train. Both were majorly delayed and I didn't get back to Cesare's until about 10pm. I was pretty much dead to the world by the time I got back, so the rest of my night consisted of pasta, a foo fighters dvd, and trying to learn a note on the guitar (Cesare is a guitarist).
This morning I got up early, realised the devastating news about my camera, and instead of going right to Pompei as I had originally planned, I spent hours with the police and the train customer care people in a vain attempt to track my camera down. Of course nothing turned up, but I feel good that I've at least tried my best (including scouring the flat, the neighbourhood, the train station, and several trains). After that ordeal I finally took the train to Pompei and was greeted by horrible, terrible rain that lasted the rest of the day. Despite the rain, and thanks to my new boots, I still had a great time walking around the huge and beautiful ruins of Pompei. The place felt incredibly holy, and had a huge energy all around it. This was amplified by the fact that there were almost no tourists, so I was alone in the petrified city for most of the afternoon. Sadly the undertow of my sadness about my camera kept threatening to pull me emotionally under my sorrow and away from the beautiful town I was walking through. I think I did okay, all things considered, and I saw many beautiful ruins. I had to keep reminding myself that these things survived a volcano, because some things were incredibly well preserved.
After Pompei I took a train back to Salerno, checked in with the police and customer care again (no dice) and came back toCesare's, where he is playing 60s california beats on electric guitar, and I am writing this blog entry.
My first night in Salerno (2 days ago) was really nice. The weather was still beautiful, so my host Cesare took me on a walking tour of the city after dinner, showing me the many sights and telling me all about the rich history of the place. He's lived here most of his life and knows the city inside and out, so I learned a lot about it. At the end of the walk, we went and sat by the sea and ate gelatto. It was very peaceful and lovely.
The next day I got up early, and was going to take a train to Napoli, but there was a problem with the regional trains between Salerno and Napoli (trenitalia seems to have many problems) so I took a bus instead. I first took a wrong road and instead of walking through the touristy part of town, I was immediately thrust into the shipping yards part of town, which was filthy and a little sketchy. It was really interesting, though, and I walked around there for a bit before heading back towards a main street. The rest of the day consisted of three things over and over: me getting lost, me figuring out where I was, and me looking for a warm pair of boots to buy. I got lost and found through a good half of the city and saw many beautiful suqares, statues, an amazing church with a carved-rose ceiling, and a castle! Unfortunately it was both rainey and windy as hell, so I was combatting the weather with my flimsy umbrella for the betterpart of the day, but I still saw a lot of great stuff, and I finally found a pair of decent boots, yay! The shopkeep assured me that the boots are both waterproof and snowproof, and they have infinitely better treads than my old, crap boots, so I'm very glad to have them. At the end of a long, tiring day, I was meant to take the 6:42 train back to Salerno, but the trains were still having issues, so I had to take a bus half-way, then a train. Both were majorly delayed and I didn't get back to Cesare's until about 10pm. I was pretty much dead to the world by the time I got back, so the rest of my night consisted of pasta, a foo fighters dvd, and trying to learn a note on the guitar (Cesare is a guitarist).
This morning I got up early, realised the devastating news about my camera, and instead of going right to Pompei as I had originally planned, I spent hours with the police and the train customer care people in a vain attempt to track my camera down. Of course nothing turned up, but I feel good that I've at least tried my best (including scouring the flat, the neighbourhood, the train station, and several trains). After that ordeal I finally took the train to Pompei and was greeted by horrible, terrible rain that lasted the rest of the day. Despite the rain, and thanks to my new boots, I still had a great time walking around the huge and beautiful ruins of Pompei. The place felt incredibly holy, and had a huge energy all around it. This was amplified by the fact that there were almost no tourists, so I was alone in the petrified city for most of the afternoon. Sadly the undertow of my sadness about my camera kept threatening to pull me emotionally under my sorrow and away from the beautiful town I was walking through. I think I did okay, all things considered, and I saw many beautiful ruins. I had to keep reminding myself that these things survived a volcano, because some things were incredibly well preserved.
After Pompei I took a train back to Salerno, checked in with the police and customer care again (no dice) and came back toCesare's, where he is playing 60s california beats on electric guitar, and I am writing this blog entry.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
All roads lead from Rome
Ciao from Salerno! I am now in the south of Italy, and man is it ever beautiful here! I'm snugly sandwiched between the mountains and the sea in this beautiful little city. The night before last, after I last wrote my blog, I took place in the most dleightful social custom: an Italian dinner party. Giovanni had a dinner party for about 8 of his friends, and I was of course welcome to join them. We had pasta, frittata, carrot salad, a traditional vin brulé (from Milan) where you heat wine and prepare it like cider, a traditional fruit-cake type dessert (also from Milan) and chocolate. My goodness, will Italy ever make me fat! Dinner was delicious, and Giovanni's friends were really nice (a different group of friends from the night before), and they all made an effort to speak to me in English (thankless English pig that I am, not knowing their language). After dinner, wine, Italian martini (a drink made from wine, sugar water, and something awful), and dessert, we all sat around for a while talking, then played a big game of clue. I now know the Italian word for revolver, very useful! Anyway, it was a wonderful night.
Yesterday I left Giovanni's pretty early, dropped my stuff at Antonio's, and set off on my own for some more Roman sightseeing. I started at that fountain again, because I wanted to see it in the proper daylight. I also finally found out the name- Fontana di Trevi, and I spent awhile juststanding and absorbing its beauty. After that I really rocked Roma, walking to the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, the Palazzo di Giustizia, the Castel S. Angelo, over the Ponte S. Angelo, and finally back to San Pietro square, where I actually went inside the church this time! Words cannot possibly describe the lucious, dripping decadence of the church, so I will just say gurble, gurble, gurble. That is the sound of me being reduced to a stumbling, drooling idiot from absolute beauty overload. This is by far the most opulent church I've ever seen, and it knocked me flat.
After all the sightseeing I fed into my horrible gelatto addiction, and walked down some random roads eating my gelatto and being one with the city.
That evening I returned to Antonio's, and we were supposed to go see a one man concert show, but when we got there all the tickets were sold out. So instead we walked over to the University area, and went to a bar there. It was a cool atmosphere, and they played great music. Afterwards we were hungry, so we went and got pizza, then gelatto. I have a serious gelatto problem, and I refuse to seek help! This morning I had to wake up pretty early because Antonio was heading to morning work. I took a train to Napoli (Naples) then transferred to a train for Salerno, about an hour south-ish of Napoli, and very, very beautiful. I met up with my new host Cesare, and I'm at his place now, about to make some pasta dinner. The train ride wasamazing, because it was a beautiful sunny day, and I got loads of mountain, sea, farm, and orchard views on my ride.
Yesterday I left Giovanni's pretty early, dropped my stuff at Antonio's, and set off on my own for some more Roman sightseeing. I started at that fountain again, because I wanted to see it in the proper daylight. I also finally found out the name- Fontana di Trevi, and I spent awhile juststanding and absorbing its beauty. After that I really rocked Roma, walking to the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, the Palazzo di Giustizia, the Castel S. Angelo, over the Ponte S. Angelo, and finally back to San Pietro square, where I actually went inside the church this time! Words cannot possibly describe the lucious, dripping decadence of the church, so I will just say gurble, gurble, gurble. That is the sound of me being reduced to a stumbling, drooling idiot from absolute beauty overload. This is by far the most opulent church I've ever seen, and it knocked me flat.
After all the sightseeing I fed into my horrible gelatto addiction, and walked down some random roads eating my gelatto and being one with the city.
That evening I returned to Antonio's, and we were supposed to go see a one man concert show, but when we got there all the tickets were sold out. So instead we walked over to the University area, and went to a bar there. It was a cool atmosphere, and they played great music. Afterwards we were hungry, so we went and got pizza, then gelatto. I have a serious gelatto problem, and I refuse to seek help! This morning I had to wake up pretty early because Antonio was heading to morning work. I took a train to Napoli (Naples) then transferred to a train for Salerno, about an hour south-ish of Napoli, and very, very beautiful. I met up with my new host Cesare, and I'm at his place now, about to make some pasta dinner. The train ride wasamazing, because it was a beautiful sunny day, and I got loads of mountain, sea, farm, and orchard views on my ride.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Look out Pope, here I come!
Ciao from Roma! So, I completely underdescribed my hideous round two with the flu, because at the time I was still sick and I didn't want to sadden/horrify my loved ones until I knew for sure I'd be better. I was really, really sick. At one point I was shaking all over for over an hour, and at another point my temperature was like, 104 or something. It sucked even worse than Stephen Harper's medicare policy (oh yes I went there) but I'm better now, yay!
I spent another day clinging to life in Pistoia, and then the day before yesterday I was good to go, and so I did. I took a train to Firenze and transfered to another train to Roma (Rome) and got here insanely late. I'm doing a bit of couchsurfing host-hopping right now. That night I stayed with an incredibly nice Italian bloke named Antonio, and for the next two nights I'm staying with a different Italian named Giovanni, then on Monday I'm staying one more night with Antonio. The reasons for this are complicated, but they do make sense. Anyway, after crashing at Antonio's, yesterday morning (first day of sun since I've arrived in Italy) Antonio and I went to the local market to get vegetables and pasta, then back to his place where he cooked me a really yummy pasta lunch. I honestly can't get over how flavourful and delicious the olive oil is here! The olive oil in Canada is like motor oil in comparison. Right, so after lunch we did a little sight-seeing. I saw the city gates, the famous fountain of something, something, the famous statue of something, something, loads of statues actually, the old Rome-home of our good pal Muessolini (sp?), and the very famous Roman Collasseum. Holy wow! It's so big and beautiful and fairly well preserved! We got 3-flavour gellato and ate it in front of the collasseum. Pure bliss!
Then afterwards I met up with Giovanni and went the his place. He lives with 2 roommates in this giant, mansion-style flat with marble-style floors and huge gorgeousness everywhere. Giovanni drives the world's cutest car! It's this teeny Italian number from the 70s and I'm in love with it! We got in his cute little car and drove to a pizzeria to meet some of his friends for dinner. Here's how the Italian dinner breaks down. We got there around 9, but had to wait for everyone to get there until about 9:30. Then at 10 everyone was ready to order, but they won't take your dinner order until after you've eaten your appetizer (if you're getting them, which we were) so we only ordered apps first. After that, we all got our pizzas ordered by about 10:30, and we didn't finish eating and talking until well after 11. Then everyone ordered dessert, so dinner wasn't actually finished until after midnight. Then we all left the restaurant together and it was another 10 minutes so everyone could kiss everyone else goodbye on the cheeks before we all went our seperate ways. As you can imagine, this is a very, very different experience for a Canadian. To us, dinner is more like a race than a meal. After all that time eating, it wasn't long before I was ready for bed.
Today Giovanni walked around the city with me and was my own little guide for sightseeing. He studied the classics in school, so he knows loads of history, and I got to hear about all the statues, arches, monuments, and ruins we saw. We went to the collasseum, because I wanted to see it in daylight, and luckily today there was sun again. For lunch we went and got fallafels in the Jewish district of Rome. After that Giovanni had to split, and I took a bus to St. Peter's square. Now that's one heck of a square! The church is huge, and the surrounding buildings have about a million statues. Unfortunately the cue for the church was huge, so I didn't get into the church, but I did get to see the outside. More unfortunately, they charge an absolutely outrageous price for the Vatican Museum, so I'm debating whether or not to go. Although I woukld like to see the Sistine Chapel. Hm, we'll see...
I spent another day clinging to life in Pistoia, and then the day before yesterday I was good to go, and so I did. I took a train to Firenze and transfered to another train to Roma (Rome) and got here insanely late. I'm doing a bit of couchsurfing host-hopping right now. That night I stayed with an incredibly nice Italian bloke named Antonio, and for the next two nights I'm staying with a different Italian named Giovanni, then on Monday I'm staying one more night with Antonio. The reasons for this are complicated, but they do make sense. Anyway, after crashing at Antonio's, yesterday morning (first day of sun since I've arrived in Italy) Antonio and I went to the local market to get vegetables and pasta, then back to his place where he cooked me a really yummy pasta lunch. I honestly can't get over how flavourful and delicious the olive oil is here! The olive oil in Canada is like motor oil in comparison. Right, so after lunch we did a little sight-seeing. I saw the city gates, the famous fountain of something, something, the famous statue of something, something, loads of statues actually, the old Rome-home of our good pal Muessolini (sp?), and the very famous Roman Collasseum. Holy wow! It's so big and beautiful and fairly well preserved! We got 3-flavour gellato and ate it in front of the collasseum. Pure bliss!
Then afterwards I met up with Giovanni and went the his place. He lives with 2 roommates in this giant, mansion-style flat with marble-style floors and huge gorgeousness everywhere. Giovanni drives the world's cutest car! It's this teeny Italian number from the 70s and I'm in love with it! We got in his cute little car and drove to a pizzeria to meet some of his friends for dinner. Here's how the Italian dinner breaks down. We got there around 9, but had to wait for everyone to get there until about 9:30. Then at 10 everyone was ready to order, but they won't take your dinner order until after you've eaten your appetizer (if you're getting them, which we were) so we only ordered apps first. After that, we all got our pizzas ordered by about 10:30, and we didn't finish eating and talking until well after 11. Then everyone ordered dessert, so dinner wasn't actually finished until after midnight. Then we all left the restaurant together and it was another 10 minutes so everyone could kiss everyone else goodbye on the cheeks before we all went our seperate ways. As you can imagine, this is a very, very different experience for a Canadian. To us, dinner is more like a race than a meal. After all that time eating, it wasn't long before I was ready for bed.
Today Giovanni walked around the city with me and was my own little guide for sightseeing. He studied the classics in school, so he knows loads of history, and I got to hear about all the statues, arches, monuments, and ruins we saw. We went to the collasseum, because I wanted to see it in daylight, and luckily today there was sun again. For lunch we went and got fallafels in the Jewish district of Rome. After that Giovanni had to split, and I took a bus to St. Peter's square. Now that's one heck of a square! The church is huge, and the surrounding buildings have about a million statues. Unfortunately the cue for the church was huge, so I didn't get into the church, but I did get to see the outside. More unfortunately, they charge an absolutely outrageous price for the Vatican Museum, so I'm debating whether or not to go. Although I woukld like to see the Sistine Chapel. Hm, we'll see...
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuscany
Ciao! Greetings from the beautiful and famous Tuscany region of Italy! Since I last wrote many things have happened (as usual). The last time I wrote was Friday, and that night my host Maria Jose (MaJo) and I went to the local grocery store to get food and wine and made some very delicious Italian-style pasta, then sat around eating, drinking, and talking. The next day MaJo called a French friend of hers and the three of us went to a local weekend market where they sell tons of fruit, vegetables, cheeses, and olives that are both insanely delicious and very cheap. We loaded up on tons of food and then made our way back to the flat for lunch and to unburden ourselves of the bags we had accumulated. After lunch we went to the yearly international arts and crafts fair. Although, I soon discovered that it was more like the international sell everything fair. They were selling clothes, furniture, art, food, appliances, jewlerry, everything! I got to look at lots of pretty things and I tried my first real Italian gellatto- so delicious! After a bit the enormously huge building absolutely crammed with vendors became a little overwhleming, so we only stayed for a few hours. MaJo's french friend went home, and we went back to the flat. Hanging with the two girls was hilarious because I would speak to her french friend in french, I'd speak to MaJo in enlgish, and the two girls would speak to each other in Italian! It was like a little language festival. Same with MaJo's roommate, who is also french.
After cooking another delicious pasta dinner, we grabbed some wine, and got ourselves all fancied up to go to one of Milano's famous and ultra-swanky disco clubs. The place was completely packed! Everyone was all dressed up and absolutely trashed! it was a cool experience, but not really my scene, although it's very Milanese, so of course I had to experience it!
The next day my plan was to take a train to Venice for the day, but sadly I missed my train, and it was freezing outside, so I spent the day indoors with MaJo, cooking, reading, and talking. I can't get enough of this Italian food! I now understand why it's so famous. It's not the recepies, but the indredients! The food is all so fresh and delicious that you can throw anything together and it will taste amazing. I have a fear that Italy will make me very, very fat!
On the next day (Monday) my plan had been to take a 3 hour train-ride (changing trains once on the way there) to Pistoia, a beautiful city in the Tuscany region of Italy, near Firenze (Florence). However, after about an hour or so, the train broke down in some little town and we had to wait for TWO AND A HALF HOURS for them to bring a new engine so we could continue on our way. At first I had no idea what was going on, because the man in my compartment who spoke English left, and at one point most of the people got off the train after they made some announcement. I finally found a very nice german girl named Maria, who spoke English and informed me that all the passengers going to only Florence were allowed to take another train, while everyone else waited. Lucky for me Maria was really nice and cool, and I kept myself much occuppied by talking to her while we waited. Unluckily for me, I had no way of getting a hold of my new host Manuel to tell him I'd be very, very late.
I eventually got to Pistoia, got a hold of Manuel, and made it to his house. That night he took me to a climbing gym where he often goes and I did my first ever real wall-climbing! It was very exciting, but boy was I ever sore the next day! I think I will need lots of practise if I want to make a habit of climbing. Yesterday I got up very early when Manuel had to go to work, and took a train to Firenze to wlak around for the day. Firenze is incredibly beautiful, with loads of churches, museums, and statues. Unfortunately they have the audacity to charge a lot for every attraction, including the churches! So I mostly walked around and looked at the outsides of all the famous buildings. I did, however, pay to get into the Gallery of the Academia, an art gallery that holds many of Michelangelo's famous statues, including the statue of David. Wow, just wow. That statue is so incredibly amazing! It definitely deserves its renown. It's really, really big, and perfectly preserved. I stood there, mouth agape, for quite awhile basking in its excellence. After the gallery I went to a restaurant and had a fabulous lunch of real Italian pizza. So good! Sadly, though, the whole day was (weather-wise) miserable and rainy, and I was once again walking around for hours in wet boots with cold, wet feet. Apparently in the last week Italy has experienced more rain than it ever gets this time of year. I took the evening train back to Pistoia a little early so that I could walk around Pistoia for a bit, which is also very beautiful with loads of churches. I then met up with Manuel and he walked me around some of the most famous churches in Pistoia. It's so great staying with people who really know the area you're going to! However, after being in wet boots all day I was feeling really, really sick (lame) and we went back to Manuel's where I could drink tea under many blankets. Wanting me to still get a good Italian experience, Manuel showed me an old, famous movie from Italy, which was really hilarious.
This morning when I woke up I felt like absolute death, so I opted to stay inside for the day. I will probably do the same tomorrow just in case, because if I'm traveling to Rome (where I'm heading next) I want to be healthy enough to lug my huge bags around. I really need to get waterproof boots or something, because this being sick nonsense is absolute crap. Luckily, though, Manuel has a record player and the complete disc-ology of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan, so the day wasn't at all a waste since I was listening to amazing music on vynel. Now I just need to make a speedy recovery and continue my travels.
After cooking another delicious pasta dinner, we grabbed some wine, and got ourselves all fancied up to go to one of Milano's famous and ultra-swanky disco clubs. The place was completely packed! Everyone was all dressed up and absolutely trashed! it was a cool experience, but not really my scene, although it's very Milanese, so of course I had to experience it!
The next day my plan was to take a train to Venice for the day, but sadly I missed my train, and it was freezing outside, so I spent the day indoors with MaJo, cooking, reading, and talking. I can't get enough of this Italian food! I now understand why it's so famous. It's not the recepies, but the indredients! The food is all so fresh and delicious that you can throw anything together and it will taste amazing. I have a fear that Italy will make me very, very fat!
On the next day (Monday) my plan had been to take a 3 hour train-ride (changing trains once on the way there) to Pistoia, a beautiful city in the Tuscany region of Italy, near Firenze (Florence). However, after about an hour or so, the train broke down in some little town and we had to wait for TWO AND A HALF HOURS for them to bring a new engine so we could continue on our way. At first I had no idea what was going on, because the man in my compartment who spoke English left, and at one point most of the people got off the train after they made some announcement. I finally found a very nice german girl named Maria, who spoke English and informed me that all the passengers going to only Florence were allowed to take another train, while everyone else waited. Lucky for me Maria was really nice and cool, and I kept myself much occuppied by talking to her while we waited. Unluckily for me, I had no way of getting a hold of my new host Manuel to tell him I'd be very, very late.
I eventually got to Pistoia, got a hold of Manuel, and made it to his house. That night he took me to a climbing gym where he often goes and I did my first ever real wall-climbing! It was very exciting, but boy was I ever sore the next day! I think I will need lots of practise if I want to make a habit of climbing. Yesterday I got up very early when Manuel had to go to work, and took a train to Firenze to wlak around for the day. Firenze is incredibly beautiful, with loads of churches, museums, and statues. Unfortunately they have the audacity to charge a lot for every attraction, including the churches! So I mostly walked around and looked at the outsides of all the famous buildings. I did, however, pay to get into the Gallery of the Academia, an art gallery that holds many of Michelangelo's famous statues, including the statue of David. Wow, just wow. That statue is so incredibly amazing! It definitely deserves its renown. It's really, really big, and perfectly preserved. I stood there, mouth agape, for quite awhile basking in its excellence. After the gallery I went to a restaurant and had a fabulous lunch of real Italian pizza. So good! Sadly, though, the whole day was (weather-wise) miserable and rainy, and I was once again walking around for hours in wet boots with cold, wet feet. Apparently in the last week Italy has experienced more rain than it ever gets this time of year. I took the evening train back to Pistoia a little early so that I could walk around Pistoia for a bit, which is also very beautiful with loads of churches. I then met up with Manuel and he walked me around some of the most famous churches in Pistoia. It's so great staying with people who really know the area you're going to! However, after being in wet boots all day I was feeling really, really sick (lame) and we went back to Manuel's where I could drink tea under many blankets. Wanting me to still get a good Italian experience, Manuel showed me an old, famous movie from Italy, which was really hilarious.
This morning when I woke up I felt like absolute death, so I opted to stay inside for the day. I will probably do the same tomorrow just in case, because if I'm traveling to Rome (where I'm heading next) I want to be healthy enough to lug my huge bags around. I really need to get waterproof boots or something, because this being sick nonsense is absolute crap. Luckily, though, Manuel has a record player and the complete disc-ology of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan, so the day wasn't at all a waste since I was listening to amazing music on vynel. Now I just need to make a speedy recovery and continue my travels.
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