I'm back in London staying at my sister's place, getting ready to leave for my flight tomorrow afternoon, and I can't help but look back on a month spent in Europe, so now it's time for my sappy self-reflecting moment. All in all it was an amazing trip and in all the countries I went to, with the single exception of Germany, I was able to experience a little slice of how local life is in these place from day to day. Was it life changing, probably though it's hard to say so soon, I'll get back to the states and some things will slip back into routine while for others I might just start doing things completely differently without even realizing it. Either way it was a lot of fun and it's a trip I'm glad to have taken, so I'll see all of you again starting tomorrow when my flight lands. Until then toodles.
Note: all of the pictures from the trip are up and are fully sorted so admire them to your heart's delight
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Off to Berlin via train tonight
So now that I'm mostly recovered from my euro flu, only a light cough remains, I'm going to catch an overnight train to Berlin. So I get to spend today stocking up on snacks, and water for the trip as well as some extra batteries for my cd player. I'll be staying in the Wombat's Hostel, it's new and said to be one of the best places to stay in the city, and 17 euros a night is something I can agree with. I'll be spending five nights there before I catch a plane back to London next Sunday, so hopefully that'll give me just the right amount of time to fully appreciate the stay. I've got the rest of the pictures from Italy finally uploaded to flickr.com, though they'll probably remain unsorted until i get back to the states, so if you'd like more info about a specific photo like where it was taken just leave a comment on that photo's flickr page. Talk to you all later, when you hear from me next I'll be in Berlin.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Rockin' it from Holland
I've Just spent the last few days on a wirl-wind adventure around the Netherlands.
My flight landed on Sunday at 9:30 in the morning, and after breezing through customs and then waiting over an hour for my luggage to arrive I then had to come to understand the Dutch train system. I had to catch a train to Bussen, where I would meet up with Thatcher, an old roommate of mine, who was staying with his mother for the holidays. I arrive at the right train station, I'm still not sure how i pulled that off on my first try, and head over to a phone booth to try and call thatcher. After ten frustrating minutes of trying to navigate the European area code system i hear a knock on the glass behind me, and there's Thatcher giggling like a school girl at how I've crammed myself in the tiny phone booth along with all of my luggage. we head back to his mother's house just a five minutes walk away, where i get a warm welcome from his mother. After a brief introduction, Thatcher gives me a tour of the small town by bicycle and we eventually end up in the countryside at the edge of town. We soon headed back as it was starting to sprinkle rain, for a dinner of lamb, rice, and boiled vegetables.
The next morning after a quick breakfast and some goodbyes to his mother the two of us head out to Thatcher's place in Rotterdam, about an hour and a half away by train, where most of the view was occupied by sheep and windmills. A Rotterdam Central Station we caught a cab to haul our luggage back to his apartment. Thatcher had some work to get done so I did some touring of the city, the main landmark being the Erasmus Bridge which is very beautiful bridge. for the most part though the city felt very empty as most of the shops and restaurants were closed, not too unexpected as it was a monday afternoon.
I woke up the next morning feeling terrible. I was feverish with shivers, coughing with a splitting headache and a dry sore throat, I had come down with the flu. looks like berlin would have to wait, so I called thatcher and I ended up heading back to rotterdam, where I've been recovering since.
My flight landed on Sunday at 9:30 in the morning, and after breezing through customs and then waiting over an hour for my luggage to arrive I then had to come to understand the Dutch train system. I had to catch a train to Bussen, where I would meet up with Thatcher, an old roommate of mine, who was staying with his mother for the holidays. I arrive at the right train station, I'm still not sure how i pulled that off on my first try, and head over to a phone booth to try and call thatcher. After ten frustrating minutes of trying to navigate the European area code system i hear a knock on the glass behind me, and there's Thatcher giggling like a school girl at how I've crammed myself in the tiny phone booth along with all of my luggage. we head back to his mother's house just a five minutes walk away, where i get a warm welcome from his mother. After a brief introduction, Thatcher gives me a tour of the small town by bicycle and we eventually end up in the countryside at the edge of town. We soon headed back as it was starting to sprinkle rain, for a dinner of lamb, rice, and boiled vegetables.
The next morning after a quick breakfast and some goodbyes to his mother the two of us head out to Thatcher's place in Rotterdam, about an hour and a half away by train, where most of the view was occupied by sheep and windmills. A Rotterdam Central Station we caught a cab to haul our luggage back to his apartment. Thatcher had some work to get done so I did some touring of the city, the main landmark being the Erasmus Bridge which is very beautiful bridge. for the most part though the city felt very empty as most of the shops and restaurants were closed, not too unexpected as it was a monday afternoon.
On Tuesday I headed out to enjoy my three nights in Amsterdam, a quirky city that can't seem to decide what it's all about. I checked into the hostel, The Flying Pig, and it was a very cool place, only 25 euros a night with free internet, free breakfast, and a dvd library for the big screen in the basement (a great way to chill out after spending the day walking all over the city). I didn't spend all of my time in the hostel, though I easily could have, I ended up meeting some guys from Perth, Australia and some girls from Los Angeles and we toured the city on my second day there, we saw the museum of torture, rembrant square, ann frank's house, and lots of sinking buildings. It was loads of fun and It all got me excited for my next stop Berlin, Germany supposedly the coolest and hippest city in europe, on my last night in Amsterdam I felt ready to take on the world.
I woke up the next morning feeling terrible. I was feverish with shivers, coughing with a splitting headache and a dry sore throat, I had come down with the flu. looks like berlin would have to wait, so I called thatcher and I ended up heading back to rotterdam, where I've been recovering since.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Photos from Lucca are Up
This was a wonderful medieval city, now you can see it too thanks to my friend Thatcher and his hp Netbook
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Italy in Brief
I'm getting a little behind my actual travels so I'm just going to rush through my week in Italy...
Italian Meals
it is to eating what the marathon is to running, 4 hours for christmans lunch and then another 3 hours for the dinner, both three course meals not including the antipasta or dessert, it's exhausting but in the most flavorful way possible.
Lucca
A medieval city with many towers and shops, though on the day after christmas it was rather empty, probably for the better as I hate crowds, we climbed to the top of one tower that had some trees planted on top, giving it quite a strage look from both near and far. We wandered through one of the main squares and here is where i had some italian hot chocolate, the name is more of a misnomer as this is more like chocolate fondue than your average cocoa powder in warm milk.
Florence
this is one of the few italian cities that i have actually visited before, it is not much different durring the winter other than that it is one of several city that gets way too cold without snowing. There are lots of people, though it's not crowded, and i was able to just explore the city and take pictures (mostly of bicycles, graffitti and allyways)
Chinque Terra
the "five lands" is a craggy shorline national park with five towns and is the most interesting grape growing country I have ever seen
this is truly a place that can only be done justice by images
of which I hope to have uplaoded in the next few days
Italian Meals
it is to eating what the marathon is to running, 4 hours for christmans lunch and then another 3 hours for the dinner, both three course meals not including the antipasta or dessert, it's exhausting but in the most flavorful way possible.
Lucca
A medieval city with many towers and shops, though on the day after christmas it was rather empty, probably for the better as I hate crowds, we climbed to the top of one tower that had some trees planted on top, giving it quite a strage look from both near and far. We wandered through one of the main squares and here is where i had some italian hot chocolate, the name is more of a misnomer as this is more like chocolate fondue than your average cocoa powder in warm milk.
Florence
this is one of the few italian cities that i have actually visited before, it is not much different durring the winter other than that it is one of several city that gets way too cold without snowing. There are lots of people, though it's not crowded, and i was able to just explore the city and take pictures (mostly of bicycles, graffitti and allyways)
Chinque Terra
the "five lands" is a craggy shorline national park with five towns and is the most interesting grape growing country I have ever seen
this is truly a place that can only be done justice by images
of which I hope to have uplaoded in the next few days
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Flight to Pisa, sort of
So we all got up at 5am for our flight out of London to Pisa, on the cheap commuter airline Ryanair, which apparently makes most of it's money selling cheap phone cards and expensive soda mid flight. It was a comfortable flight with great views of the alps and we would be coming in early to Pisa for a landing. However, we soon were told that due to what the brit-pilot called "a strong mist" (in hindsight a bit of an understatement) we had to land in Genova, a town over 100 miles north up the coast from Pisa. We got on the complimentary bus and what could have been a long arduous bus ride, considering the sour mood I was now in, actually turned out to be an amazing drive down the coast, I ended up taking over 70 photos, while the reality started to sink in that I was probably going to have an incredible week living in the Tuscan countryside...
Friday, December 26, 2008
From Camden Town to Spamalot
Had a lazy morning on tuesday ended up not going anywhere until about 11:30.
We hopped on the tube, yet again (this is constantly a reacurring theme in london), and went to see St. Paul's Cathedral. Sadly the only place you can take picturesin the building is the very top and anywhere that no one else can see you. after paying the entrance fee, £8.50 for students, it took about a half hour to get all the way to the top of the building to see the nice view. Three Hundred steps up and down is alot of work even for someone as young and spry as me, and the staircases weren't exactly hadicap accessible, geeze the American Disabilities Act spoils me too much. After exhausting myself , not really, we walked around the block to the Old Bailey, you know that building that got blown up at the begining of "V for Vendetta", well it's the "old" courthouse that's been in use since [put some rather oldish date here, they'll never check] , and it's quite nice but rather boring 'cause I didn't see any of those funny looking, wig wearing lawyers. Oh well, down to the tube on the Northern Line to ...
Camden Town, if the Haight-Ashbury had a bender in Tijuana it would comeout looking something like this. It's a market that spralls from the street across a canal and down into some reused horse stables probably once owned by the queen, like everything else in london. Lot's of food stalls and stands with the same posters, belt buckels, hats, and handbags. You have to really go digging to find the cool stuff, like rasta stall run by a jamacian with an accent that had sounded like it had been dragged through scotland for a bit before arriving in camdentown. Or the stall run by what looked like two ex-russian mobsters, that would make you try on something by force if you seemed to have even the most fleeting intrest in it. The place is definately a step above the Haight because it doesn't seem to attract any hippie-dippy, heroin shooting, dread wearing drifters, which after spending a few years in San Francisco you grow pretty tired of everytime you want to get something that you just can't find in the mission district.
and Spamalot, well all I can say is that this is an awsome, amazing musical for anyone who enjoys monty python and/or musical theatre Definitely the best spoof of the genre that I've seen yet, listening to the soundtrack just doesn't do it justice, this is a show you really have to see live to appreciate.
Next Post: The Flight to Pisa (sort of), and an italian christmas
Update: I'm sorry, i've gotten a bit behind and my photos aren't uploading from the computer at my sister's in laws house, so for now i'll only have text updates until I can find a internet cafe
We hopped on the tube, yet again (this is constantly a reacurring theme in london), and went to see St. Paul's Cathedral. Sadly the only place you can take picturesin the building is the very top and anywhere that no one else can see you. after paying the entrance fee, £8.50 for students, it took about a half hour to get all the way to the top of the building to see the nice view. Three Hundred steps up and down is alot of work even for someone as young and spry as me, and the staircases weren't exactly hadicap accessible, geeze the American Disabilities Act spoils me too much. After exhausting myself , not really, we walked around the block to the Old Bailey, you know that building that got blown up at the begining of "V for Vendetta", well it's the "old" courthouse that's been in use since [put some rather oldish date here, they'll never check] , and it's quite nice but rather boring 'cause I didn't see any of those funny looking, wig wearing lawyers. Oh well, down to the tube on the Northern Line to ...
Camden Town, if the Haight-Ashbury had a bender in Tijuana it would comeout looking something like this. It's a market that spralls from the street across a canal and down into some reused horse stables probably once owned by the queen, like everything else in london. Lot's of food stalls and stands with the same posters, belt buckels, hats, and handbags. You have to really go digging to find the cool stuff, like rasta stall run by a jamacian with an accent that had sounded like it had been dragged through scotland for a bit before arriving in camdentown. Or the stall run by what looked like two ex-russian mobsters, that would make you try on something by force if you seemed to have even the most fleeting intrest in it. The place is definately a step above the Haight because it doesn't seem to attract any hippie-dippy, heroin shooting, dread wearing drifters, which after spending a few years in San Francisco you grow pretty tired of everytime you want to get something that you just can't find in the mission district.
and Spamalot, well all I can say is that this is an awsome, amazing musical for anyone who enjoys monty python and/or musical theatre Definitely the best spoof of the genre that I've seen yet, listening to the soundtrack just doesn't do it justice, this is a show you really have to see live to appreciate.
Next Post: The Flight to Pisa (sort of), and an italian christmas
Update: I'm sorry, i've gotten a bit behind and my photos aren't uploading from the computer at my sister's in laws house, so for now i'll only have text updates until I can find a internet cafe
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