Matt's European Peregrination

Home safe

2006-08-23T12:02:00.000-06:00

Well I'm finally back home. The summer went brilliantly and it's sad that I have to get back to reality. Thanks to everyone for reading this blog and keeping up with my journies. Stay tuned for more of these in the future on future travels. Bye!

Selling out before returning home

2006-08-17T05:51:00.000-06:00

Well as you can see just above this post, there is a new lovely addition to the blog...Google ads! As I begin to order books and shell out money for the fall semester along with spending an entire summer in Europe I have realized that I'm broke. By adding just a small eyesore to my blog I can make some dough so that Google can advertise. While I'd rather not resort to that, my checking account tells me I need to. Sorry!
(Update: Feb. 20, 2007 - I disabled the Google ads due to a lack of traffic. If I travel again sometime soon I will start a new blog and possibly reactivate them, but for now with such little activity, I'd rather keep the presentation nice.)

In other news, our time in Portugal here has been very nice. On Tuesday we went up North along the coast to visit a colleague of Grandpa's, Joao. His family prepared an incredible meal at his beach house as our family joined his for the afternoon. Little Jack was happy fishing in the Lagoon, Maddy laying on the beach, the rest of the family talking with Joao's family and reading and it seemed that for once on our trip everyone was satisfied, imagine that. We told Joao that we might have to come back very soon...maybe sooner than we think...maybe before we leave Portugal.

Anyways, tomorrow is our last day in Sintra before heading into Lisbon. The Grandparents leave for England Saturday morning to visit with the Holts. Sunday morning my mom and Bob take off and I will spend the day with Dave, Clare and the kids before my flight to Milan later that night. Sunday night I will spend in Milan's Malpensa Airport, unfortunately, because this is the most convenient option for me. My flight back to the states is early Monday morning to Boston. After a 3.5 hour layover in Boston I finally will fly back to Denver (safely and with all of my luggage of course), thus ending my 2+ month excursion in Europe. Can't wait to share photos, stories and gifts with everyone! Talk to you all soon back in the States~

Pictures

2006-08-14T05:58:00.000-06:00

Bear with me as I continue to upload my thousands of photos from the summer. I will eventually organize them into albums which will appear on the right hand side of my Flickr page and should be easier to understand the photos which too will all be labeled eventually.

All in Portugal

2006-08-14T05:48:00.000-06:00

Well after flying through the eye of the storm (AKA London Heathrow) and weathering it, I made it to Lisbon without much trouble. I had to be screened three separate times at Heathrow and all I had was a clear plastic bag with my glasses, wallet and passport in it, but I made it safely to Portugal and all 3 of my checked bags made it as well. I do admit it was pretty funny walking around Terminal 1 in Heathrow seeing people carrying only a clear plastic baggy with their essentials in it.
Once in Lisbon, Bob and I had to pickup the rent-a-car and navigate through the small windy Portugeuse roads to Sintra, a small town up in the hills. Eventually, we found our villa and the street that it occupies which none of the locals who we stopped and asked seemed to even know existed. Once we were there it was worth my long boring day of travel. Stepping into the house was like stepping into the 17th Century, with rooms hidden everywhere and pots and such hanging from the ceiling of this old residence. We woke up the Grandparents to say hi and we saw my Mom, Dave and Clare before calling it a night. I was ready for some sleep because of the sheer boredom of my trip. No books, magazines, pens or iPods can really do that to ya. But at least now I know the safety card of the Boeing 737 cover to cover by heart. Oh well, at least we are all here now and I am looking forward to a week of relaxing before I have to go back to 'reality.'

Voyage to Portugal

2006-08-11T07:31:00.000-06:00

Well we are still in Istanbul, but tomorrow we travel to Lisbon. Yesterday as I'm sure many of you heard, a terrorist plot was thwarted in London. Of course there were stict security measures enforced to those flights that did make it out today. Of course too, I fly out of Heathrow tomorrow en route to Lisbon. İ'll let everyone know how it goes once I arrive safely in Portugal.

Besides that headache, our trip here in Turkey has been great. We have: visited the largest and most important mosques in town, taken a ferry ride up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea, walked around the Asian side, visited the Beğoylu neighborhood, seen the Aya Sofia, Whirlıng dervishes, Basilica cistern, shopped at the Spice and Grand Bazaars and more. All in all a great trip, I hope tomorrow isn't too bad, but we will see. Word has it that there are no carry-ons allowed, only glasses, medicine and travel documents in a clear plastic bag, hope they don't lose my luggage again!

Istanbul

2006-08-07T08:04:00.000-06:00

Well Bob and I fınally made ıt to Turkey. Our hotel ıs sıtuated ın a perfect locatıon ın the Old Town, just a few mınutes walk to all the major sıtes. As I type thıs, I hear a very loud Muslım prayer goıng on outsıde whıch occurs several tımes a day at the Mosque next to our hotel and ıs projected through a loudspeaker ınto the streets.

Today we saw a lot. In the mornıng we walked through the famous Blue Mosque. After that, we ventured over to the Tokapı Palace and spent several hours explorıng the 'Versaılles' of the East. We then toured the Harum, or the Sultan's prıvate quarters and thıs well defınately worth seeıng. Fınally, we went underground to see the Basılıca Cısterns. These are underground cısterns supported by hundreds of columns buılt by Justınıan. The set up down there was very unıque and extraordınary. There are ghostly lookıng carp swımmıng through the waters, water drıppıng from the roof of the cısterns and lıghts ıllumınatıng the columns. Also, we saw the two mısterıous Medusa head columns before exıtıng.

Wıth 5 days left here we hope to stıll get to the Aya Sofıa, Mosaıc Museum, Grand Bızarre, ferry across the Bosphorus to the Asıan sıde of Istanbul and more.

Greece

2006-08-05T09:03:00.000-06:00

Well it sure took long enough, but finally I'm here in Athens. After my incredible time in Dubrovnik I had almost a day and a half of traveling. At 11pm Wednesday night I caught an overnight ferry to Bari, Italy which took 8 hours. It got a little chilly out there on the Adriatic, but it wasn't bad. Once in Bari I had 12 hours to kill. I went to an Internet cafe for a few hours, got some food and then basically ate and read a lot. Bari, despite being in Italy, is not a very safe place to walk around with 3 bags. The differences between Northern and Southern Italy are astonishing. Basically, the entire South is still run by the mafia and there were a bunch of shady characters that I ran into in Bari-which is situated in Puglia-Calabria, the poorest economically of all of Italy's regions.
At 8pm, I caught a 20 hour ferry from Bari to Patras, Greece (on the Peloponnesis), the 3rd largest city in the country. Our ferry was essentially a mini cruise ship, complete with bars, pools, casinos, etc. I met some friends on the ship, which helped pass the time a little. The end of the ride was pretty as we weaved in and out of Greek islands. Finally, at 12:30pm on Friday we arrived in Patras. From Patras, we had to take a 3 hour train to Athens, but of course we had to wait 3 hours before the next train. Finally I made it to my hostel, which is pretty nice because there is a rooftop bar that has a great view of the Acropolis and is well located.
Today (Saturday), I had a great day in Athens. I woke up real early to avoid the crowds at the Acropolis and I saw the Parthenon, the ancient Greek and Roman cities, and walked around the Plaka neighborhood. I also got a good bit of shopping in which was nice because I had planned to do some here, my final stop traveling alone, so that I didn't have to carry extra things my whole way. Also, of course, I've sampled my fair share of Gyros and Baklava.
Tomorrow I will journey to the Archaelogical Museum, one of the best in the world, and then get to the airport super early to get a visa and eventually catch a 7:15pm flight to Istanbul to meet Bob thus concluding my solo journey. It's been an incredible week and I'm lucky to have had all three types of travel over here: travel with friends, living abroad and traveling alone. I do say there are benefits to all of them and I like them all.
Next up I'll report from Istanbul, hope everyone is surviving the heat, take care...

Day in Dubrovnik

2006-08-03T04:12:00.000-06:00

Well I'm now in Bari, Italy (heel of the boot) in between ferries. I had an absolutely fantastic time in Dubrovnik, Croatia. I took this picture during my hike that I'm about to talk about. Please check out all of the pictures of this wonderful place -sorry they are a bit out of order, there might be some Vienna and Budapest first, but then you'll see Zagreb and Dubrovnik.

The town is incredible. There is literally an entire Medieval town surrounded by 50 foot walls right on the rocky cliffs of the Adriatic. I payed 50 Kuna (10 euro) to wall around the entire old city on top of the walls, very nice. Then, I hiked up to the top of this mountain overlooking the town and I could see Albania to my left and all of these little islands up the Croatian coast to my right. This wasn't even the highlight of my stay...it was actually where I stayed that made the trip. I booked one night at this place, Villa Kaic. Turns out, this guy, Milo Kaic, redid his home and rents out 11 rooms to guests from March to December. He is very nice and so is his family. His son and wife accompanied him to pick me up from the airport on Tuesday night. He actually graduated from Medical school when he was younger but because it is mandatory to do 5 years in the Yugoslav army he had to join the army straight after that. He saved 3 lives during the war and was respectfully discharged early. He told us about Albanian people too, who apparently and vehemently stick to their word for generations and generations if they make a promise to you. This is why many people travel to Albania, not so much for the countryside, but because the people will go out of their way just to help. Also, we learned that Dubrovnik has one of the lowest crime rates in the world...and I believe it. Nothing was locked or anything and the people are very nice and respectful. The room was very nice and it overlooked the pool which overlooked the town. The entire town is up on a hill so you must walk up and down stairs to get to the old city. He let me keep all my stuff there all day no problem: free internet, free laundry, free beer. For dinner, he cooked up this feast for everyone who was staying there. We had chicken skewers, steaks, sausages, Croatian salad and potatoes, it was brilliant. I met 2 Irish guys traveling on vacation and they gave me some good tips and told me more about Croatia. There were lots of Aussies, some traveling alone and one couple. I also met two special ed teachers from London and a family from Norway. It was a great night and Milo made sure I was a little boozed up for the ferry ride so that I'd fall asleep right away. He dropped me off at the port and that was that. All of this for 20 euro, absolutely amazing. I told him I will be back and I really hope I can keep that promise.

As for the ferry, it was okay. I immediately fell asleep and it got a little chilly out on the Sea late at night. I woke up with the sun and eventually we made it to Italy. Bari is completely different than any other place I've been in Italy. It's almost like a different country...much poorer and dirtier and I assume much less safe. Apparently the mafia still has a strangle hold on everything down here but it's not the Sicilian mafia like in the past, it's actually the Albanian mafia who run all of Southern Italy and Albania. This goes back to what Milo was talking about. They are very nationalistic and organization and stick to their word...perfect for the mob.

Tonight I catch a 20 hour ferry to Patras, Greece. From there I will bus to Athens and have 2.5 days there before flying to Istanbul. I'll talk to you soon!

Journey to Croatia

2006-08-03T04:06:00.000-06:00

Well, after lots of anxiety and phone calls, my bag finally arrived at my hostel in Budapest. The staff at this hostel have been extremely helpful and I'm relieved to have my bag back. I didn't, however, let this stop me from seeing the city. I climbed up this mountain, Castle Hill, in the morning for some great views. I then walked to Parliament, St. Stephen's Basilica, and the Great Synagogue. I had dinner again on Vaci street, the Pearl St. of Budapest, and hit the sack early to catch the train to Zagreb.
The train was okay. We passed this large lake in Southwestern Hungary that many Hungarians like to flock to on the weekends. Once in Zagreb I threw my luggage in a locker and started to walk around. Again I was unlucky with the weather as it downpoured for over an hour. I still was able to see many sights in the city, which is starting to rival Prague and Budapest as the most touristed city in Eastern Europe. Then I hopped on a bus to the airport to catch my flight to Dubrovnik later that night.

Trip to Budapest

2006-07-31T02:43:00.000-06:00

Today I rode a Hydrofoil boat from Vienna to Budapest. I really enjoyed this because it was fast (80 km/m), they announced all of the sights along the way, the seats were comfortable, and a guy walked around and served food and drinks. We stopped in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia for lunch. It is a very cool town, unlike anything I've seen on this trip.

Now I'm in Budapest, again a very incredible and different city. Tomorrow I've reserved to sightsee all day and I'm excited for that. I also bought my train ticket for Zagreb today so I'm set to go. But, only problem, my bag still hasn't come. I'll play it by ear and see what the news is in the morning.

Leaving Barcelona

2006-07-31T02:42:00.000-06:00

As hard as it was, today I left Barcelona to travel to Vienna. But of course in true Barcelonian form, there was of course some excitement. The day before my flight was scheduled to leave, Air Iberian workers went on strike. Normally this would just affect that airline's flights, but the workers oiled up the tarmack and lit it on fire. This meant that the whole airport had to close. I did however make it to Vienna with only a small delay and long lines. My bags on the other hand didn't.

Now that I have more time and will be traveling I will attempt to update this thing some more, stay tuned.

Anyways, my night in Vienna was alright. It poured rain all night which through my sightseeing plans off, but after being in Barcelona for over a month, it was nice to feel rain for once and tempertatures that reach cooler than 30 Degrees C. Nevertheless, I was able to walk around the beautiful old town area and see the Hapsburg Palace and Stephensplatz Cathedral.

San Sebastian

2006-07-30T11:30:00.000-06:00

Our trip to the Basque Country...

Mallorca

2006-07-16T10:09:00.001-06:00

Mallorca was incredible. We got there early in the morning on Friday. We had the morning to relax and catch up on sleep and then in the afternoon we had a guided tour of the Old Town which included the Arab baths and the famous Cathedral. Then we had dinner at our hotel and we were sent off for the night with GAs from Mallorca. We had a great time and learned how expensive Mallorca is as well as how even though Ibiza gets all of the recognition for its nightlife, Mallorca can easily compete for this title as well.
The next day, as you can tell from the first photo, we went to the beach. This beach was great: very clean, all locals, water so blue it hurts your eyes and finally perfect cliffs to dive off of into the water. The water here is much different than in Barcelona so we enjoyed spending some time in it. We tried to fit in as best as possible and a few guy friends and I played a header game with a soccer ball in the water and we got increasingly better as the day grew later. We then did some cliff jumping which was fun and not as dangerous as it sounds.
The next morning it was time for us to leave, so we jumped back on the short 25 minute flight to Barcelona just in time to see the final of the World Cup. We were at a small bar with about half French supporters and half Italian. I think everyone in the room was shocked and awed about the Zidane send off. I still find it strange that Italy won the WC without playing that well. When we were in Italy, I thought the US outplayed the Italians. Anyways, this concludes the weekend.

#4: Classes

2006-07-16T10:09:00.000-06:00

I am taking two classes, both in Spanish. One of them is a Past and Present History of Barcelona. The other is advanced spanish, which I was pleased to test into because I need this level to receive credit.
The culture class is filled with lots of field trips all over the city. My professor, Lucia, is very knowledgable of the city and is a devout Catalonian. I have really enjoyed this class and I find Barcelona's history more facsinating than anywhere I've studied. If you care to hear more let me know as I would love to share what I've learned with anyone in person.
The spanish class is pretty fun as our Profe, Alberto, is a good and entertaining teacher, and he speaks no english at all. This obviously has been helping us work on our spanish. All in all, I'm very pleased with my classes and the workload is not daunting which is nice because we have so much to do and see while we're here yet we need to take these classes for our degrees.

#3: Catalonian People

2006-07-16T10:08:00.001-06:00

One very popular misconception about the people of Barcelona is that many people think that they´re...Spanish! This is not true. Although Barcelona is technically located in Spain, it is the capital of Catalunya, the small provence (soon to be country?) located in the upper righthand corner of Spain. In fact, the Spanish-Catalonian feud dates back in history longer than any current separation movement in the world. The reason the Catalans don´t get the press coverage that the Basques, Quebecs, or Irish do is because they are peaceful and have had a history of pacts with the Spanish government. Zapatero, the current Spanish PM from PSOE, or the Socialist party, has devolved a lot more autonomy to the Catalans. Catalan is the official language of Barcelona, not Castellano or Spanish. They(/we) have our own flag, government, and military.
Another clarification to make is regarding this aforementioned language problem. Although I´ve come to Barcelona to learn Spanish, Catalan is actually the oldest of the ´Romantic´languages born from Latin. This means that the Catalan language has been spoken longer than French, Spanish, Italian and Portugeuse. I have been doing my best to pick up as much Catalan as possible. The other night I said Adèu, Bona Nit to my Senora, which means Goodnight and Goodbye and she gave me the biggest smile I´ve seen yet. This is because the Catalan language is one of the most important cultural icons of these people. Under Franco, everything Catalan was repressed and today one can see Catalan Nationalism everywhere they turn.
A final note about the people. Several bizarre things--from an American standpoint--occur here. One, every Barcelonan complains about the heat...everyday you´ll hear ´Hace calor, calor calor´over 10 times. Two, Barcelona has a drought problem in the summer so we´re allowed to only shower once a day for no longer than 5-6 minutes, YET, they water the streets for hours on end everynight...clean streets or clean people, hmm? Third and finally, the people hear are very biased towards anything Catalan and they really hate Spain. This means everything from Soccer to food. The FC Barcelona football team is much more than a team, its emblematic of the Catalonian struggle for nationalism and freedom. Even the patch of the club has the coat of arms of Catalunya and of Barcelona. And finally, Catalonians do not like spicy food. Even the slightest bit of spice that we are used to will generally give you an unhappy Catalonian. Also, one final note, as my history class watched the opening ceremonies to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, my professor was in tears and this was her 20th time viewing it or something like that. The pride and nostalga of the locals of the '92 games is very visible for a number of reasons. In many ways the '92 games were remembered as the most successful games ever. The year 1992 is significant for many reasons, but the city of Barcelona went above and beyond to ensure its memory into the international community, and every citizen of Barcelona participated in one way or another.

#2: Food

2006-07-16T10:08:00.000-06:00

So again I apologize for not updating this thing as much as I´d like, the days here fly by so fast and there´s so much to do. Nevertheless, here I am to talk about the food.
Of course if any of you are familiar with the Mediterreanean diet, you know there is lots of oil. This doesn´t sound too healthly, but everything either cooked or dipped in olive oil is much healthier than what we cook with in the States. My favorite Catalan dishes are as follows: Tomate bread (smeared tomatoe on bread), Tortilla de patatas (Potato omelete usually eaten in a bocadillo or sandwich form), paella, mussels, gespacho (Andalucian gespacho from southern spain is had with cucumbers, croutons, cheese and onions, very delicious), crema de catalunya (tastes just like creme brulet, but the Catalonians always want to be different) and who can forget the Kebabs or Falefals. There are many kebab stands around Barcelona that will give you a lot of food for only €3-4. My friends and I have made friends with one of the kebab vendors near the Arc de Triomf.
The meals are generally as follows: a light breakfast in the morning, mid-morning snack, lunch is eaten generally from 2-4pm and is the largest meal of the day, and the entire city shuts down and reopens again at 4, usually tapas are eaten with a drink from 6-7, and finally dinner usually from 9-11. My senora generally eats salad and the first dish of dinner which is usually pasta, some type of mixed caper salad or soup, because she says she´s fat. This is funny because she´s not, but more on that when I write about the people.

Barcelona #1: My Señora/Housing

2006-07-16T09:49:00.000-06:00

¡Hola!

Well I have moved from the hotel into a flat for the remainder of my time in Barcelona. My señora´s name is Sra. Carmen Queralto. We live fairly close to the city center off of the Entença metro stop for those of you familiar with Barcelona at all. To get to class I take the Blue line for two stops, transfer at Diagonal and get on the Green line to Plaça de la Catalunya. From here I have about a 5 minute walk to class.
Anyways, my room overlooks the Jardínes de Montserrat, which is a small park/garden area. There is also a Chinese girl who is teaching/studying here who lives in our apartment, but she leaves July 12th. Dinner is served everynight from 9:30-10, but more on the food later.
My señora is very nice and she will randomly clean or leave me folded laundry. We have talked politics, weather, travel, etc. She definately will speak her mind as the term and concept of PC (politically correct) is not well known. She has lived in Catalonia her whole life so she has taught me a lot and given me advice. It´s crazy to think that she has lived through a dictatorship, it must be so weird for her now to host students from all over the world.

Finally in Barcelona!

2006-06-28T08:28:00.000-06:00

Well it took some time to get here, but it was definately worth the wait. I took the train from Nice along the French Riviera to Cannes, then Marseille (a very cool city, wish I had more time there), to Montpellier, and then finally to Barcelona. I arrived in Barcelona at 11pm so I was a little apprehensive to carry around my life on my back and it turns out I had a good reason to be worried. As I was getting onto the Metro, a theif intentionally tripped me and felt up my leg to try and steal money that may have been stored there. Luckily, there was none and my scream scared him away. This is no need to worry though. Barcelona is a very safe town, but like many other European cities, petty crimes like pick pocketing has become quite common. Trust me, I´d rather be in Barcelona at 4am lost on Las Ramblas then on the streets of Detroit. Nevertheless, I was here and after this incident everything was great. ¡Me encanta Barcelona!
The next morning I met my program at a hotel for our two-day orientation. As expected, I was nervous as these things are usually sink or swim. Things went perfectly, probably because of my aforementioned anxiety. Turns out we were randomly paired up for roommates and we had two free nights at a four star hotel in the heart of Barcelona, plus free meals at nice restaurants. My roommate, Joey, is also a CU student and my first friend here in Barca. Our entire program consists of about 30 people, from which about 14 are from CU and I knew none of them beforehand (or that CU was such a feeder to this program). We also have students from: CSU, UT, Northwestern, Harvard, Case Western, Davidson, Texas Tech and a few others. It also turns out that another one of my good friends here, John, was in one of my classes last semester in Boulder, ¡Que ridiculo! This is one of the aspects that I really like about the program, that is, how students from different backgrounds and social clicks who would otherwise never become friends indeed become friends. Also, due to our short stint here in Barcelona, we all have become very sociable to each other very quickly.
Another neat aspect of our program are our ¨Guardian Angels.¨ Once we got over the cult-like names, we all became very appreciative of this aspect. Guardian Angels are local students from Barcelona around our age who take out to meals (payed for by our program) and do different activities around town to help us better understand the culture of Barca. Also, they help us with our Castellano, as they are all at least trilingual (Castellano/Spanish, Catalan, English). Also, my GA, Ares and one other one, Juan Miguel, have taken us out at night become our good friends.
We were all excited to try our first Tapas and Pinxos for dinner the first night. It was great! Our first plate consisted of classic Catalan chorizos or sausages and different types of cheese. Also, the Catalan bread that accompanies dinner is like French bread with tomato sauce rubbed on it, very delicious. The next dish was paella consisting of pasta and various seafood, also very tasty. Also, no Catalan meal would be complete without some Cava, or Spanish Champagne. It´s very sweet and I can´t really say that I love it.
Anyways, that´s all for now, hope you´ll read on as I report back.

Beach day in Nice

2006-06-24T23:25:00.000-06:00

Today I finally had a day to do and see nothing. But of course it was hard to break routine, so I ended up walking around the old town and shopping district of Nice for 3.5 hours! Yikes that doesn't sound very relaxing. But then I came to my wits and hit the beach. If you don't know about the beaches in Nice, well, they're beautiful and stretch for over 10 miles, but there's no sand, its just pebbles. It actually is not as bad as it sounds because sand doesn't get all over everything and the stones become comfortable after a while. Also, the Ironman competition is going on here so there are thousands of people around for that. My closest buddy in Nice is a Brit from Gilford (Southwest London) and he is working staff at the competition so I got to hear all about it. Last night, him and I watched the Argentina/Mexico game at the bar in our hostel. It got pretty rowdy and Argentina won in Overtime scoring a 'Silver Goal.' Anyways, the game was much more competitive than anyone thought. We met some special ed teachers from Texas who were right out of college and on their way to Italy soon so I was able to profess all of our wisdom about the places we went to. Also, 2 other roommates of mine I met and hung out with go to UF actually. They too were on their way to Italy soon so I gave them some tips. They just returned from Barcelona so I heard their stories as well.
The French people I encountered have been very nice so far. I did run into one arrogant anti-American Frenchman, but other than that everything has been tip top...there goes my english friend's vocab rubbing off on me. Of course I can't get the phones to work here but that's a different story. Anyways, time to get ready to go to Barcelona, Au Revoir~

Day 10: Final day in Italy

2006-06-24T01:56:00.000-06:00

Well the end is here, and it comes way too soon as always. Amy and I took a shuttle to Milan Malpensa airport this morning. I had to go get my other bag that I stored at the airport, and then I had an epiphany about this bag. Even though I was conscious about the amount of luggage I brought for months before I even packed, I downsized. See kids, do NOT overpack. My epiphany was that carrying a large camping backpack, a monster duffle bag on wheels and a handbag was too much to trek across Europe with. So, with about 15 minutes until Amy needed to be checked in, I darted around the airport to find a smaller bag. Fortunately I found a good one for a decent price because Milan is so into price and fashion, everything is pricey and nice. Anyways, I then ran over to an area where I could throw everything I wanted into the new bag and give the old bag to Amy to check back to Denver. After humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme and sweating some, we did it.
Amy and I then said our goodbyes and I waited around until her plane left for Toronto. She then flew to Denver, but I found out her/my bag is still in Toronto! We'll wait and see what comes of that. I then shuttled back to the Central Station in Milan to catch a train to Monaco-Monte Carlo.
The train ride along the Italian and French Rivieras was gorgeous. The other people in my train compartment spoke Spanish so we could communicate. We went through San Remo, a gorgeous town on the Riviera. Around 8pm the train made it to Monaco, which looked like a postcard when we saw it from the train.
I then ate dinner in the train station, walked around a bit and stayed away from the casino (20 euro entrance charge). I boarded a train to Nice where I was due to stay the night.
The hostel that I am currently staying in Nice is rather bizarre. It is located up in the hills in a very ritzy neighborhood with nice houses, and then there's our hostel full of hundreds of young kids doing the same thing that I am. Anyways, Nice is pretty and I look forward to going to the beach tomorrow to relax before my voyage to Barcelona.

Day 9: Trip back to Milan

2006-06-24T01:40:00.000-06:00

Today marks our funal full day together in Italy. The whirlwind of emotions is great due to how wonderful our trip has been, yet how fast it has gone while at the same time how it feels like we have been here over a month. We woke up this morning and explored two other Cinque Terre towns, Corniglia and Vernazza. Then, we finally made it to the beach for a little while. Soaking up the sun we ran into another celebrity from a popular MTV show.
At 3:20pm we caught a train from Monterosso to Genoa. We were both excited to stop in Genoa for dinner as Genoa is the home of pesto and boasts a big reputation for the quality of its pesto on just about every type of food you can think of. We exited the train station in Genoa and searched for about half an hour for a good place to eat. We finally settled on a place right on the water where we could see a panorama of the town as well as all of the boats in the port. The food was amazing! We both ordered tomato and pesto pasta and agreed it was the best we have ever had. So Genoa wins this round. Also, the wait staff at this restaurant was by far the nicest of all the restaurants we went to in Italy.
After a very satisfying last meal in Italy, we took the Genoa Metro back to the train station. I wanted to slip in here how impressed we were with their Metro. It was the cleanest train and station we've seen in Italy or elsewhere. We decided that this system must be relatively new.
We then took a train from Genoa back to Milan. Our train arrived a little late in Milan, but we thought we would be okay late at night because we had already been in Milan and we knew our way around a little bit. Wrong! We stepped out of the metro stop where our hotel was and we were given the directions to walk 20 meters out of the train station and we would see the sign to our hotel. When we got out of the train station we were in a square filled with graffitti and many dodgy characters walking around. To postpone our impending mugging we asked bus drivers, locals, etc. where our hotel's street was located. When all the them had no idea where it was located, we decided to ask a taxi driver. He was very nice and told us where to walk and warned us how expensive the cab ride would be, but at this point we just wanted to get there, so we ate the 7.50euros and made it to the hotel. When we stepped into the cab, we thought it was the Godfather himself, as our driver's Brandoesque physique and large scarface could only lead us to such a conclusion. Bed at last. What a way to end our trip, but of course a crazy whirlwind trip would end in a crazy whirlwind.

Day 8: Viva la Huelga!

2006-06-24T01:23:00.000-06:00

This morning we thought we were clever to wake up at 5:30am to catch an early train, haha were we wrong. As we waited near the large train departures screen in Rome's Termini, we watched our train get delayed again and again until it was cancelled. After some panic, we realized there was a train at 7:15 and would get us to Pisa in time so that we could catch our connection to La Spezia. We were just saying how good and efficient the Italian train system has been...anyways, it gets better.
Once in Pisa, we realize our first train to La Spezia was cancelled. Then we grew more suspicious. I waited in the help line for a while and found out that the Trenitalia workers were on strike for 24 hour- with which I thought might have been in protest to tourists after the 1-1 tie with the US, but this was not funny to the help lady in my broken Italian.
Anyways, we had about an hour in Pisa to figure out what to do. We were stuck between running over to see the leaning tower and figuring out the trains. We chose the latter because of the crazy day we had been having and we wanted to make sure to catch any train to La Spezia because this was also not our final destination.
Finally, in La Spezia, we were thrilled to find out that all trains from La Spezia to anywhere were cancelled. With no other way to get to Cinque Terre, we decided to taxi to the Southernmost Cinque Terre town, Riomaggiore. Once in Rio we walked through the gorgeous, tiny sea town down to the water so that we could catch a ferry to the town we were staying in, Monterosso. Finally all of our troubles had payed off; the ferry ride between the towns was incredible.
In case you don't know, Cinque Terre means "five lands" and they are five small fishing villages only several miles apart and are hikeable by cliffside trail.
Once in Monterosso we checked into our place- a very old apartment-like building turned hotel. The small town was very quaint and there were quite a bit of tourists, but not too many yet. We had dinner along the beach and searched for internet and happy hour specials but decided to just take a freezing cold shower (most of the showers in Italy were cold) and go to bed, thus ending our crazy adventure to the coast of the Italian Riviera.

Day 7: Rome

2006-06-20T13:25:00.000-06:00

Ciao from Roma...
We woke up early so that we could fit everything in that we wanted to see. We arrived in Vatican City around 9am, and the line to get into the Vatican museums seemed like it wrapped around the entire country. About 1.5 hours later we made it in. The crowds were intense and the inside of the palace was even more so. It got to a point where we were a little overwhelmed as every room was so spectacular and almost too much. The highlights though were the staples: the Raphael room and of course the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was quite talented indeed.
Next, we walked around the inside of St. Peter's Basilica, which again was a bit overwhelming. After walking around the whole thing and around the rest of the piazza, we went back to the hostel for a nap. We checked out some of the major clothing shops along Via del Corso, including the popular Diesel and Zara stores. Our travel book said that we could get some good deals at these stores, but it was quite the contrary. It might be me, but 200euros ($250) for an item of clothing is a little much.
This afternoon, we strolled along the old Roman Forum, up to Palatine Hill, and of course we did the Colosseum. Sometimes we forget how spectacular some of these sights are because we are barnstorming Italy at such a fast pace. With this in mind, we sat amongst some ruins and took it all in. Also, today is a special day for us as we celebrate our one year anniversary...we are quite lucky to be in such an incredible place for this occassion!
One more note...we have been sampling the pizza in every town we visit, so far we have: #1 = Milan, #2 = Florence, #3 = Venice, #4 = Rome. With only a few places left we are looking forward to including some more variety in our diet. This is not to say that the food here isn't great, because we have enjoyed it. Tonight we did the low budget meal: foccacia, cheese, salami, fruit and wine.
Anyways, we have to catch a train at 6am tomorrow to Pisa, and then tomorrow afternoon we will be in Cinque Terre and we will finally have some down time to hike a little and relax on the beach, can't wait!

P.S. - In all seriousness, we are at a Internet/Laundromat (quite popular in Rome) and the England/Sweden game is on tv and Joe Cole just scored an amazing goal for England. Hope everyone is watching the World Cup back in the states. (pictures soon)

Day 6: Trip to Rome

2006-06-20T13:09:00.000-06:00

This morning we left Florence to train to Rome. After checking out of our camping village, we met two CU kids who were just checking in and who also were doing the same trip as we were but reversed and we happened to cross paths. They gave us some good advice about Rome and Cinque Terre. Also, Amy ran into a high school teacher from Rocky Mountain High School in Ft. Collins; our world remains small.
We got off our train and walked through the massive Roma Termini to our hostel, which quite possibly may be as old as the Colosseum. We have 3 roomates: a crazy Aussie, a Portugese guy and a Spanish girl. They're pretty nice, but the Aussie is from a small town and is a little nuts, but he keeps making us roll on the floor laughing with his stories and accent. We also hung out with a nice British kid last night who made us both laugh harder than we have in a long time (if you've seen the movie Snatch ask us about him!)
Once we were settled we took off to see some sights. We visited the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona. The Pantheon was our favorite by far. We were both awestruck by the grandeur and beauty of this structure. I must admit we dined at the ubiquitous McDonalds next to the Pantheon; irony at its finest.
Come nightfall, we were pretty tired so we were content with just hanging out with the Brit and the Aussie in our room. The Aussie talked our ears off and we were more than ready to hit the hay. Until tomorrow, Buonsera-

Day 5: Florence

2006-06-19T13:03:00.001-06:00

We were surprisingly productive today after the amount of vino that was consumed the night before for the football game. We arrived in town early so that we could get in the massive line for the Uffizi art museum, Florence's best collection. Luckily, we made reservations for 3:30pm later in the day.
Since we had the time to kill, we walked through the gorgeous Piazza della Signoria and over to the impressive Duomo, which has the world's 3rd largest dome behind St. Paul's and St. Peter's. The marble and intricate adornments on the outside of the church were incredible. Unfortunately, the dome was being restored so there was some scaffolding.
We then waited in line for about an hour to get into the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David...definately worth it. I will post my illegal picture I snapped of David when I get the chance (no pics allowed in the museum but like everything else in Italy they are very lax when it comes to enforcing it).
Next, we made it over to the leather district to shop a little and to see the Chiesa de Santa Croce, where many famous Florentines are buried (Galileo, Michelangelo, Macchiavelli). While we managed to escape the damned pigeons in Venice of all places, them fellers got us in Florence aka we were pooped on. But just as the Ponte Veccio in Florence escaped the Nazi bombs of WWII, we were unscathed by their attacks and continued on to...the Ponte Veccio!
This bridge is incredible and right now ranks as Italy's most impressive in our books (with the Rialto in a close second). After strolling around the bridge area, it was time to visit the Uffizi.
We spent about two hours walking around the Uffizi. We saw Bottichelli's The Birth of Venus, many of Da Vinci's original drawings and sculptures and Rafael's angels. I almost snapped pictures of all 4 ninja turtles (the actual guys, not the turtles) in the Uffizi corridor, but couldn't track down Donatello (he was always the least impressive anyways).
We then went to the Piazza Michelangelo to watch a magnificent sunset. I hope the pictures turn out and many of you may get a blown up and framed one for xmas so watch out. Pics will be up as soon as I can get them up.

Day 4: Trip to Florence

2006-06-19T12:53:00.000-06:00

Today we trained to Florence. This train ride was much nicer, we had plush seats and we actually sat next to each other. The trip was roughly two hours, with the train only making one stop in Bologna, the so-called food capital of Italy.
Once in Florence, we bused from the main station to our Camping Village, which was situated up in the Florentine hills next to the Piazza Michaelangelo. We slept in small tents with two uncomfortable cots, but the view made up for the lodging inconveniences. Once we were settled, we went into the city to prepare for the huge Italy/USA world cup match. We bar hopped a little and found a bar with mostly Brazilians (?) first. We left after a drink and an Italian red card and went to the Piazza Michaelangelo, where the game was projected onto a massive screen and about 5,000 Italians were present. The place erupted after Italy's goal and you could hear a pin drop after the own goal. The largest roar, however, was after Pablo Mastroeni was ejected after the terrible red card the referee gave, after much Italian persuasion. It was funny seeing the Italians cheer for a call in their favor after their history of referee nagging in past World Cups.
(Pictures will be up ASAP).

Day 3: Venice

2006-06-17T01:56:00.000-06:00

Well we had a very busy 2nd day in Venice. This photo is the highlight of the outsider's trip to Venice: the Basilica San Marco and its infamous pigeons. We took the public gondola #82 down the Grand Canal to get here, passing the Rialto Bridge and many other incredible Venetian sites. As you can tell by the picture, this square was terribly crowded with people, yet somehow we ran into our British couple from the train! Small world...
We then went to the Rialto market, a open air market filled with fresh fish, fruits and vegetables and prepared an ensemble and we were shocked that it only cost about 3 euros for about 6 lbs of food. We took the ferry to the public gardens commissioned by Napoleon to enjoy our meal.

By late afternoon we managed to get lost on some of the back roads and after about an hour of climbing bridges and traversing small streets, we found our bus station again. This became a really nice tour of Venice by the end of it.

Come early evening, we strolled around and caught another great Italian sunset. Tomorrow, Florence...Arrivederci!

Day 2: The trip to Venice

2006-06-16T10:39:00.000-06:00

Ciao!

Today we woke up early and strolled along the fashion district of Milan. Despite the lack of beauty within the city of Milan, the people and the shops in this area made up for it. I think the four Armani, 2 Dolce & Gabana and Prada stores made enough income alone to help Milan remain as the bustling economic center of Italy. It also helps to have former PM and Italy's wealthiest man, Silvio Berlusconi, as a resident.
After this window shopping (cheapest item was 300euros), we checked out of our room so that we could catch our train to Venice. 2nd class trains in Italy are full of luggage and people. We were crammed in together, but we met a very nice British couple on the train, who were definately weathered travelers, but more on them later. The train made several stops, including in Verona where an Italian lake and Juliet's balcony are located. The aforementioned Brits alerted us that parts of the new James Bond film were shot on Lake Como, one of the Italian lakes that we flew over. The countryside began to get prettier when we were in the region of Venice as well.
Finally, after roughly three hours of stopping and going, we made it to Venice, and it was definately worth it! Venice is by far the most beautiful city that I have ever been to. The train station abuts the Grand Canal which we had to cross to catch the shuttle bus to our Camping Village. Our accomodation was essentially a small trailer home, but we had AC and a bathroom, so no complaints.

Day 1: Milan

2006-06-16T10:12:00.000-06:00

Well, we finally made it to Italy and it was definately worth the wait. After flying into New York, we thought we could train into Times Square and grab dinner, but later we found out it was $14/person one way to Penn Station, so all we got was a lousy photo of the NY skyline from the airport. We then left America at 11pm on Alitalia. After popping our sleeping pills we woke up to a nice Italian breakfast and a magnificent view of the Swiss Alps from the airplane. Finally, we landed in Milan.
Once in Milan we were just a short walk away from our hotel which was situated a mere 100 meters from Milan's Stazione Centrale. Our place was very nice with a magnificent window that opened onto Via Tomale, a major Milanese street. By now it was 2pm and we wanted to start experiencing Italy, so we bought a Metro pass and visited Milan's Duomo (see photo), the 3rd largest church in the World. The architecture was stunning and it only got better when we went inside. In fact we ran into Marg Helgenberger--better known as the Strawberry Blonde from CSI--walking around the Duomo with her extremely Italian-looking boyfriend.
After seeing the Duomo, we found a little hole-in-the-wall pizzeria off the main drag. Our cook and waiter spoke no English so to kill the awkwardness he projected a 5x10 foot image on the wall of the World Cup game that I tickets to (and unfortunately decided to sell them): Saudia Arabia v. Tunisia. Oh yeah, and the pizza margherita was amazing. We then checked in for the night so that we could sleep off our jet lag and get an early start for the next day.

Welcome to my blog!

2006-04-18T21:46:00.000-06:00

First Official Post to My European Blog

2006-04-18T10:11:00.000-06:00

Greetings family, friends and web visitors!

I will be posting photos, stories and other tid bits during my time in Europe this summer. As I see it, I can combine my experiences, technological knowledge (or lack thereof) and communication skills to document and compile my trip this summer (without sending lengthy emails every week). I will provide you all with the link to my blog and I hope you will check it periodically throughout the summer. I will also keep a written journal which will be for the more personal and psychological aspects of the trip (no pun intended). Stay tuned, I will begin posting within the next month as I prepare to pack for the journey and also as I plan out some of my side trips.

Feel free to leave me comments and any feedback (this should be easy to do).

P.S. - Tonight is the first official step in my experience abroad. I will attend the orientation for my study abroad program held on campus for all of the students from CU-Boulder who are also in my program.