The plan to get from Rome to Greece was relatively simple. Leave Lucas' place in the morning, catch an 11:15 train to Bari on the southeast coast of Italy that would arrive at about 16:00 giving me 4 hours to get my ferry ticket and relax. To be honest, I had been looking forward to the journey for a while just to have some free time to catch up on my blog, write some post cards and finish a book.
Unfortunately for me, that plan fell through right after step 1. The guy at the ticket window told me that the train at 11:15 was supposedly full, which I didnt really believe at all because there just couldn't be that many people that had to get to Bari on a Monday morning, so I had to get a ticket for a 2:45 train that would only leave me an hour to get from the Bari train station to the port, get my ticket, check in and board. He did tell me that if I just went to the platform of the 11:15 train that there may be a chance they would let me on that train. I really didn't want to risk it so I sat and waited for the platform number to appear on the large display board of departures. Waiting for the number to show up resembled watching paint dry and became especially frustrating when all of the numbers came up for the trains leaving before and after it. After what seemed like days it was 11:15 and then the entire line cleared and there was no longer a departure to Bari. Well, isn't that just inconvenient. I found out later that the train was cancelled due to an unnamed 'catastrophe' on another line...what luck! Now that I had 3 hours to kill and nowhere to go, I pumped out about 12 postcards that i had been collecting along the way to Rome and then boarded my train.
After about 10 minutes on the train the Italian ticket man came around to punch little holes in our tickets confirming that we paid for the train. He marked mine and then started to ramble something to me in Italian that I couldn't understand at all. The only thing I really got out of it was that I had to get off the train at a certain stop he wrote down. I started to get a bit worried since I was going to be pressed for time anyways and I wanted to know what was going on so I went searching the cars for a bilingual Italiano. Turns out that the aforementioned catastrophe had closed a part of the direct line from Rome to Bari so we would have to get off the current train, then get on a coach to another train station to catch the final leg of the journey. This would've been all fine and dandy if it weren't for that 8pm deadline I was trying to catch. All I could do was sit on the bus and stare at my watch as it passed the 6:45 mark when our entire journey was supposed to be over. Naturally, I though my awful luck had followed me yet again and I would have to find a cheap hotel in Bari for the night and catch a ferry the next night. It wasn't even so much the money that concerned me just that I would have practically 2 less days in Athens! Suddenly I started to wish I wouldve just flown. We ended up getting into Bari train station at 7:45 where I sprinted off of the train to a taxi and mustered up my best Italian "Porto Maritima..PRONTO!"
The taxi driver seemed to really enjoy my sense of urgency and delighted in almost hitting about 3 people and getting us killed a few seperate times on the way to the port but, needless to say, I greatly appreciated his efforts. I ended up arriving at the port at about 7:55 where I grabbed my things, threw 20 Euros at the taxi driver, which I was convinced was robbery for a 7 mintue ride but I didn't have the time to argue, and then sprinted into the ticket office. I immediately started pleaded for a ticket to the boat because I knew it was still sitting at the dock. Right as the lady was telling me it was impossible for her to issue me a ticket so late, a group of 4 ran into the door and started yelling for tickets as well. It quickly became apparent that they were also on my train and stuck in the same dire situation. The ticket lady didn't really give us the time of day until the new group's Italian cab driver rushed in and started making a racket in Italian. I have absolutely no idea what he told the woman at the window; all I know is that, whatever he said, it worked and she issued us all last minute tickets onto the ferry set to leave in less than a mintue! In a Titanic-esque fashion, we all sprinted towards the ferry dock. The ferry captain didn't seem to care much that passengers still weren't on board - the 4 of us litterly jumped onto the ship as it disembarked.
Nothing like a minor crisis to bring some random strangers together. We were all relieved beyond belief just to be on that boat and not have to spend a night in Bari. One of the of the people was a girl who turned out to be from Manitowoc, WI and was having a bit of a Eurotrip. In another small world incidence, it turns out she had been staying with Julian at a mutual friend's house in Rome. The other two were a wonderfully nice older couple from Australia who were spending 3.5 months travelling the world. They had started in Singapore, India and were now in Europe before heading to Canada and the US. In fits of mutual excitement that we all made it on the boat, we all had a few drinks, relaxed and shared a bit of our personal backgrounds. It wasnt until I started to get tired from the day of travelling that I realized I only had a deck ticket instead of a cabin and would have to sleep on the floor for the evening. All things considered, it really wasn't so bad...I was just content that I had made it on the boat and I was so tired that I actually got a great nights rest!
After being rudely awakened by a crew member at 6:30AM I headed onto the deck to be greeted by some absolutely lovely views of the Greek Islands. Of course, arriving in the Greek port of Patras didn't mark the end of my journey; I still had to hop on a train to Athens. It figures that, just like the train from Rome to Bari, the train from Patras to Athens also involved a partial bus journey that made a 2 hour ride into a 4 hour spectacle. Honestly, what are the chances that the two trains I needed to get from Rome to Athens were spontaneously under construction?? It was quite a relief to arrive at Hostel Zeus, reunite with guys and get ready to enjoy 5 lazy days in Greece :)
Well, I doubt the lot of you have made it to the end of this so I will cut it off for now haha :) More about the days I spent in Greece and my ridiculous trip home from Athens in the next few days! Happy Mifflin to everyone and see you all in like 30 days
Cheers,
Patrick
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Roma, Roma, Roma
I think it is safe to say that we were all incredibly excited to be arriving in Rome for 4 days of adventuring and gelato eating. Our group had sort of split up when leaving Naples so we got into Termini station at about 8:30pm giving us plenty of time to see some of Rome's most famous sights illumnated for the evening. We made the short walk from the station to our hostel where we checked in quickly. Upon entering our room, Mike and I could only laugh at the cascade of hard liquor and beer bottles that scattered the floor - it seemed as if we had some rowdy roomates who had been around for a few days.
Our first destination was the incredible Treviso Fountain although it probably took us much longer to get there than it should have thanks to Rome's lack of city structure. On the way, we were confronted by a fellow American from Ohio currently living in Greece and were delighted to get to know him for a bit on our walk. Masterfully lit up, the fountain quite literally is a jaw dropping sight. Of course we took a barrage of pictures and then followed suit with tradition which says that if you throw in one coin you will return to rome and if you throw in two that you will fall in love there. With the exception of Party Jon, we all tossed in a single piece of change.
On the way from the fountain to the Coloseum we were randomly and abrubtly flagged down by a random driver who asked us where we were from (since it was obvious that we were not locals). We told him America greatly exciting him and then more specifically that we were from Chicago since nobody really knows where Wisconsin is anyway. His immediate reaction to our description was "yes America, I love it!...Chicago, yes....50 Cent, 50 Cent!" and then he drove off as quickly as he came. The Coloseum was equally brilliant with its soft yellow glow. Like has happened to me so many times on this trip, it really took a while for the realization that I was actually standing in Rome at the Coloseum to set in. At about midnight we decided that enough pictures had been taken and it was time to head home in the shadiest possible way. Of course, we ventured through the same park the next day and it was rather pleasant but at night it left us paranoid.
We planned on hitting the sheets early but our plans changed dramatically when those mysterious roomates of ours turned out to be a group of Germans from Bavaria on holiday. They were seated around a table, decked out in full traditional Leiderhosen with about 3 bottles of vodka open, beer bottles scattered about and a hookah. They immediately asked us to join and we simply couldn't say no. We played thumper and shared some comical cross cultural conversations while they insisted that we drink as much of their alcohol as we could. Needless to say it was about 4:30am before the desk manager of the hostel came in and shut the party down because it was disturbing other guests!
Day two brought us, and some girls we met up with who are also studyign in London, back to the Coloseum for a proper tour. For me, being inside and reading about the events that took place there really sparked my imagination. I kept picturing what it would be like to fill the giant arena with 55,000 screaming Romans who were watching men fight bears, tigers and, on a bad day, other men. In the first 100 days when the Coloseum was open and event was thrown every day free of charge to Roman citizens and after those days over 9,000 animals were killed NOT including people! Following the Coloseum we traveled to the Roman Forum. It is the largest collection of ruins in the city and was the area where all of the major commerce, religious and buerocratic functions took place in Rome. The size, scale, and brilliance of what remains only leaves you to imagine what once stood. (Another fun fact about many ancient buildings is that, at the height of their existance, many of them were painted vibrant colors which have just faded away over 2000 years leaving the white marble that we see!) Looking down on the Forumn stands Palatine hill, a place also filled with ruins of gardens that shed light onto a society long deceased. If I remember correctly it is Palatine Hill where the city of Rome was supposedly founded according to the tale of the brothers Romulus and Remis. For the evening we enjoyed an authentic Italian dinner and then proceeded to indulge ourselves in 20 gigantic jugs of wine which, despite only costing 9 Euro a piece, we could not finish between the 6 of us. During the attempt to finish these jugs I learned that wine should not be consumed at the pace of beer - it seems fine and dandy when your drinking but after about an hour or two you realize that you have actually consumed twice the amount of alcohol. Just a thought :)
Day number three in Rome took us out of Italy into the Vatican (it is actually its own country with a seperate currency and post system). Having seen St. Paul's in London and the Duomo in Florence, I incorrectly imagined that St. Peter's would be about the same. On the contrary, the level of gradeur both inside and outside of the basillica completely takes your breath away. No detail was left unperfected by the marvel of 16th century engineering. Without 2,000 words it is rather impossible to properly describe the inside of the church so I will leave that to future pictures. As for the outside, it seemed to dwarf its aforementioned cousins. It was also fun to replay the Eurotrip scene in my head and figure out where exactly Scottie came out of to confess his love to Mika haha. Later in the day we would also climb to the top of the dome to view out over the vast expanses of Rome and its 7 hills.
Going backwards a bit, our first trip of the day involved the lengthy line at the Vatican Museum. Of course we took shifts in line in order to get Gelato from one of the most notable places in Rome - it helped a great deal to pass the time. The Vatican Museum holds so many important works of Renaissance art that, by the end of our 4 hour trek through its halls we were all completely exhausted. Only the Louvre seemed to have even more mental stimulation. Although a lot of the works went over our heads since none of us really study art history, we all followed our self apointed guide, Julian, with his Rick Steve's book so we could learn about the importance of what we were seeing. For me, actually seeing Raphael's famous "School of Athens" and, as the grande finale, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel was an amazing experince. I probably spent almost 30 min gazing at both of those works, taking in all the fine details and noting the ways in which they revolutionized art. A long day of learning only leads to a desire to drink afterwords so we all caught dinner, a few bottles of wine and headed to "The Drunken Ship" for cheap pichers of beer and to watch the Barcelona football match. One more gelato run on the way home capped a great day.
For my final day in Rome I met up with my friend Lucas from Madison to stay with him for the night before I had to catch my 16 hour ferry from Italy to Greece. He gave me a tour of some of the less touristy places in Rome for which I was very greatful. It takes some time to get to know a city like those who have lived there for a while and I definitely never wouldve stumbled upon the places he showed me by myself. Original plans to see the Roma game fell through but we still had a solid day and it was good to catch up and share stories from our travels. We returned to the place we had eaten dinner the previous two nights because, unknown to us, it was the favorite place to eat of study abroad students in Rome. Small world. For the first time since arriving I got a decent night's sleep before the long travel day I had ahead. I was actually sort of excited to have a relaxing journey on a train then ferry. Turns out however that, even 5000 miles away from home, I still cannot escape my rotten luck.....(intended cliffhanger haha).
Anyways, I am currently in the process of trying to get back to London thanks to Iceland and its wonderful volcano. I will save the whole story for a future entry but it has been an absolutely ridiculous experience so far! As of now my goal is to get to Paris by Thursday 4/22 at 2pm when I have a coach booked to head up to London. Keeping those positive vibes and fingers crossed :)
More about Greece soon and hope everyone in Europe is getting home safely and those in the Staters are content not to be stuck away from home haha. My story about how I got back from Iceland is an epic so stay tuned :)
Cheers,
Patrick
Our first destination was the incredible Treviso Fountain although it probably took us much longer to get there than it should have thanks to Rome's lack of city structure. On the way, we were confronted by a fellow American from Ohio currently living in Greece and were delighted to get to know him for a bit on our walk. Masterfully lit up, the fountain quite literally is a jaw dropping sight. Of course we took a barrage of pictures and then followed suit with tradition which says that if you throw in one coin you will return to rome and if you throw in two that you will fall in love there. With the exception of Party Jon, we all tossed in a single piece of change.
On the way from the fountain to the Coloseum we were randomly and abrubtly flagged down by a random driver who asked us where we were from (since it was obvious that we were not locals). We told him America greatly exciting him and then more specifically that we were from Chicago since nobody really knows where Wisconsin is anyway. His immediate reaction to our description was "yes America, I love it!...Chicago, yes....50 Cent, 50 Cent!" and then he drove off as quickly as he came. The Coloseum was equally brilliant with its soft yellow glow. Like has happened to me so many times on this trip, it really took a while for the realization that I was actually standing in Rome at the Coloseum to set in. At about midnight we decided that enough pictures had been taken and it was time to head home in the shadiest possible way. Of course, we ventured through the same park the next day and it was rather pleasant but at night it left us paranoid.
We planned on hitting the sheets early but our plans changed dramatically when those mysterious roomates of ours turned out to be a group of Germans from Bavaria on holiday. They were seated around a table, decked out in full traditional Leiderhosen with about 3 bottles of vodka open, beer bottles scattered about and a hookah. They immediately asked us to join and we simply couldn't say no. We played thumper and shared some comical cross cultural conversations while they insisted that we drink as much of their alcohol as we could. Needless to say it was about 4:30am before the desk manager of the hostel came in and shut the party down because it was disturbing other guests!
Day two brought us, and some girls we met up with who are also studyign in London, back to the Coloseum for a proper tour. For me, being inside and reading about the events that took place there really sparked my imagination. I kept picturing what it would be like to fill the giant arena with 55,000 screaming Romans who were watching men fight bears, tigers and, on a bad day, other men. In the first 100 days when the Coloseum was open and event was thrown every day free of charge to Roman citizens and after those days over 9,000 animals were killed NOT including people! Following the Coloseum we traveled to the Roman Forum. It is the largest collection of ruins in the city and was the area where all of the major commerce, religious and buerocratic functions took place in Rome. The size, scale, and brilliance of what remains only leaves you to imagine what once stood. (Another fun fact about many ancient buildings is that, at the height of their existance, many of them were painted vibrant colors which have just faded away over 2000 years leaving the white marble that we see!) Looking down on the Forumn stands Palatine hill, a place also filled with ruins of gardens that shed light onto a society long deceased. If I remember correctly it is Palatine Hill where the city of Rome was supposedly founded according to the tale of the brothers Romulus and Remis. For the evening we enjoyed an authentic Italian dinner and then proceeded to indulge ourselves in 20 gigantic jugs of wine which, despite only costing 9 Euro a piece, we could not finish between the 6 of us. During the attempt to finish these jugs I learned that wine should not be consumed at the pace of beer - it seems fine and dandy when your drinking but after about an hour or two you realize that you have actually consumed twice the amount of alcohol. Just a thought :)
Day number three in Rome took us out of Italy into the Vatican (it is actually its own country with a seperate currency and post system). Having seen St. Paul's in London and the Duomo in Florence, I incorrectly imagined that St. Peter's would be about the same. On the contrary, the level of gradeur both inside and outside of the basillica completely takes your breath away. No detail was left unperfected by the marvel of 16th century engineering. Without 2,000 words it is rather impossible to properly describe the inside of the church so I will leave that to future pictures. As for the outside, it seemed to dwarf its aforementioned cousins. It was also fun to replay the Eurotrip scene in my head and figure out where exactly Scottie came out of to confess his love to Mika haha. Later in the day we would also climb to the top of the dome to view out over the vast expanses of Rome and its 7 hills.
Going backwards a bit, our first trip of the day involved the lengthy line at the Vatican Museum. Of course we took shifts in line in order to get Gelato from one of the most notable places in Rome - it helped a great deal to pass the time. The Vatican Museum holds so many important works of Renaissance art that, by the end of our 4 hour trek through its halls we were all completely exhausted. Only the Louvre seemed to have even more mental stimulation. Although a lot of the works went over our heads since none of us really study art history, we all followed our self apointed guide, Julian, with his Rick Steve's book so we could learn about the importance of what we were seeing. For me, actually seeing Raphael's famous "School of Athens" and, as the grande finale, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel was an amazing experince. I probably spent almost 30 min gazing at both of those works, taking in all the fine details and noting the ways in which they revolutionized art. A long day of learning only leads to a desire to drink afterwords so we all caught dinner, a few bottles of wine and headed to "The Drunken Ship" for cheap pichers of beer and to watch the Barcelona football match. One more gelato run on the way home capped a great day.
For my final day in Rome I met up with my friend Lucas from Madison to stay with him for the night before I had to catch my 16 hour ferry from Italy to Greece. He gave me a tour of some of the less touristy places in Rome for which I was very greatful. It takes some time to get to know a city like those who have lived there for a while and I definitely never wouldve stumbled upon the places he showed me by myself. Original plans to see the Roma game fell through but we still had a solid day and it was good to catch up and share stories from our travels. We returned to the place we had eaten dinner the previous two nights because, unknown to us, it was the favorite place to eat of study abroad students in Rome. Small world. For the first time since arriving I got a decent night's sleep before the long travel day I had ahead. I was actually sort of excited to have a relaxing journey on a train then ferry. Turns out however that, even 5000 miles away from home, I still cannot escape my rotten luck.....(intended cliffhanger haha).
Anyways, I am currently in the process of trying to get back to London thanks to Iceland and its wonderful volcano. I will save the whole story for a future entry but it has been an absolutely ridiculous experience so far! As of now my goal is to get to Paris by Thursday 4/22 at 2pm when I have a coach booked to head up to London. Keeping those positive vibes and fingers crossed :)
More about Greece soon and hope everyone in Europe is getting home safely and those in the Staters are content not to be stuck away from home haha. My story about how I got back from Iceland is an epic so stay tuned :)
Cheers,
Patrick
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Naples and Pompeii
This post is a bit belated and does not mention my current inability to get back to England thanks to Iceland and its stupid volcano! Off to Madrid for a few days and trying to catch a train to Paris then bus to London...ahhh!
For the first time since I've been in Europe, I got off of the train station in Naples and was completely underwhelmed. Not entirely sure why Naples gets built up as such a tourist destination (or how I got the impressions I had of it) but the reality is that the streets are rather dirty, littered with grafitti and there is a complete lack of the charm that has made the rest of Italy so wonderful. The dodgy walk to the hostel kept us all on our toes for what we thought as an imminent attack. Upon our arrival at the acclaimed hostel known as "Giovanni's House" which has recently been rated the world's best hostel, a lot of our perceptions changed. We walked in the door to find a nice old man that greeted us with glasses of water and had us all sit around his small computer desk. We got settled, he pulled out a map, a few books and proceeded to give us a description of everything Naples had to offer complete with history, pictures and crime statistics. Turns out that, contrary to popular perceptions, Naples is actually one of the least dangerous places in Italy due to the prescence of the mafia. Armed with 5 colors of highlighters, Giovanni mapped out a tour and showed us pictures of all the things to see in the city of Naples. We all just sat there with smiles on our faces, unable to believe the wonderful hospitality of the hostel owner when compared to some of the places we have stayed in the past. It was also funny how he didn't hesitate to frown upon many of the places around Naples to attempt to sway us to stay within the city. He called the Amolfi Coast, famous for its gorgeous cliffs, villages and tourism just "water and rocks," which, according to Giovanni you could find anywhere: "Naples is a beautiful city." After his historical presentation, he called and made reservations for us at what he called "the best pizza place in Naples" - it should also be noted that pizza was invented there so we had to go try it! After the pizza and calzones we all had, it was hard to not believe Giovanni about his reccomendations. To top off the evening, he brought chocolate around for all of us before bed..what a guy!
For our first full day in Naples, our group split up with a few people to head to the island of Capri just of the Naples coast and a few of us to make an attempt to do the tour Giovanni had given us. The things he told us to do weren't quite as cool as we had built them up to be after his speech but spending the day outside in gorgeous weather and spending a few hours tanning totally made up for. Not to mention we bought a real cheap little soccer ball and showed off our lack of talent in various public spaces around the city. Coming back to the hostel in early afternoon and spending some time relaxing and reading on Gio's rooftop balcony was just what the doctor ordered for me after a week of hiking and travelling. He even greeting us with home made spaghetti pie when we all returned for our day's explorations! The night concluded with another pizza run and a good night sleep since we had to get up real early to head off to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii.
After a short train ride, the first thing on our list was to hike up the volcanno infamous for destroying, and in turn, perserving Pompeii. We got a rather unsteady van about 3/4 way up the summit then set off on foot to the crater. Vesuvius isn't really a lava volcanno but looking into an active crater is still a pretty cool experience. More incredible than the mountain itself were the panoramic views of the surrounding area and the deep blues and greens of the Sea. Positively glorious! A barrage of pictures later, we hiked back down, got on the train and headed south towards Pompeii. Keeping pace with our usual quota of 1 travel mishap per city and end up going backwards before we could get there but it was all in good fun and we made the best of it. Pompeii itself isn't much for exciting to blog about however it was really awesome to see. So much of the city is preserved that you can pretty easily imagine what life used to be like for the great Roman city before the infamous volcano. Remains of the entire city are pretty intact instead of just monumental structures like in Rome or Athens so you can distinguish between the different dynamics that make up a city as a whole. With a map in hand and a little book that gives a brief description of each site we made our own sort of walking tour by having someone read the information outloud as we went. Like I said, not much to write about but still a great day.
From Pompeii we headed back to Giovanni's to grab out stuff, bid him farwell and thank him for the wonderful hospitality. To the train station we went where we hopped on a train for Rome! Of course, our train got delayed almost an hour but we were so excited it didn't much matter. We arrived in Rome three hours later, checked in, and immediately went out to check out the city at night passing by Treviso Founain and the Coloseum, both of which were absolutely glorious all lit up! It would only be the beginning of a few wonderful days :)
Just relaxing in my hostel in Athens at the moment, wishing I had another week here or on the islands. It may just be infatuation but I dare say I am in love with this place after only two days! If nothing else, I now have a wonderful excuse to come back when I have a bit more disposable income...if anybody wants in just let me kno :) I also can't believe that I head back to London in a few short days, maybe even before this gets posted. What a trip it has been!
Talk to everyone soon :)
Cheers,
Patrick
For the first time since I've been in Europe, I got off of the train station in Naples and was completely underwhelmed. Not entirely sure why Naples gets built up as such a tourist destination (or how I got the impressions I had of it) but the reality is that the streets are rather dirty, littered with grafitti and there is a complete lack of the charm that has made the rest of Italy so wonderful. The dodgy walk to the hostel kept us all on our toes for what we thought as an imminent attack. Upon our arrival at the acclaimed hostel known as "Giovanni's House" which has recently been rated the world's best hostel, a lot of our perceptions changed. We walked in the door to find a nice old man that greeted us with glasses of water and had us all sit around his small computer desk. We got settled, he pulled out a map, a few books and proceeded to give us a description of everything Naples had to offer complete with history, pictures and crime statistics. Turns out that, contrary to popular perceptions, Naples is actually one of the least dangerous places in Italy due to the prescence of the mafia. Armed with 5 colors of highlighters, Giovanni mapped out a tour and showed us pictures of all the things to see in the city of Naples. We all just sat there with smiles on our faces, unable to believe the wonderful hospitality of the hostel owner when compared to some of the places we have stayed in the past. It was also funny how he didn't hesitate to frown upon many of the places around Naples to attempt to sway us to stay within the city. He called the Amolfi Coast, famous for its gorgeous cliffs, villages and tourism just "water and rocks," which, according to Giovanni you could find anywhere: "Naples is a beautiful city." After his historical presentation, he called and made reservations for us at what he called "the best pizza place in Naples" - it should also be noted that pizza was invented there so we had to go try it! After the pizza and calzones we all had, it was hard to not believe Giovanni about his reccomendations. To top off the evening, he brought chocolate around for all of us before bed..what a guy!
For our first full day in Naples, our group split up with a few people to head to the island of Capri just of the Naples coast and a few of us to make an attempt to do the tour Giovanni had given us. The things he told us to do weren't quite as cool as we had built them up to be after his speech but spending the day outside in gorgeous weather and spending a few hours tanning totally made up for. Not to mention we bought a real cheap little soccer ball and showed off our lack of talent in various public spaces around the city. Coming back to the hostel in early afternoon and spending some time relaxing and reading on Gio's rooftop balcony was just what the doctor ordered for me after a week of hiking and travelling. He even greeting us with home made spaghetti pie when we all returned for our day's explorations! The night concluded with another pizza run and a good night sleep since we had to get up real early to head off to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii.
After a short train ride, the first thing on our list was to hike up the volcanno infamous for destroying, and in turn, perserving Pompeii. We got a rather unsteady van about 3/4 way up the summit then set off on foot to the crater. Vesuvius isn't really a lava volcanno but looking into an active crater is still a pretty cool experience. More incredible than the mountain itself were the panoramic views of the surrounding area and the deep blues and greens of the Sea. Positively glorious! A barrage of pictures later, we hiked back down, got on the train and headed south towards Pompeii. Keeping pace with our usual quota of 1 travel mishap per city and end up going backwards before we could get there but it was all in good fun and we made the best of it. Pompeii itself isn't much for exciting to blog about however it was really awesome to see. So much of the city is preserved that you can pretty easily imagine what life used to be like for the great Roman city before the infamous volcano. Remains of the entire city are pretty intact instead of just monumental structures like in Rome or Athens so you can distinguish between the different dynamics that make up a city as a whole. With a map in hand and a little book that gives a brief description of each site we made our own sort of walking tour by having someone read the information outloud as we went. Like I said, not much to write about but still a great day.
From Pompeii we headed back to Giovanni's to grab out stuff, bid him farwell and thank him for the wonderful hospitality. To the train station we went where we hopped on a train for Rome! Of course, our train got delayed almost an hour but we were so excited it didn't much matter. We arrived in Rome three hours later, checked in, and immediately went out to check out the city at night passing by Treviso Founain and the Coloseum, both of which were absolutely glorious all lit up! It would only be the beginning of a few wonderful days :)
Just relaxing in my hostel in Athens at the moment, wishing I had another week here or on the islands. It may just be infatuation but I dare say I am in love with this place after only two days! If nothing else, I now have a wonderful excuse to come back when I have a bit more disposable income...if anybody wants in just let me kno :) I also can't believe that I head back to London in a few short days, maybe even before this gets posted. What a trip it has been!
Talk to everyone soon :)
Cheers,
Patrick
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Chillin in the Home of the Renaissance - Florence
My initial views of the beautiful city of Florence were a bit negative due to the downpour we arrived into and the decrepid state of our hostel, the "David Inn." We arrived at the hostel soaking wet despite umbrellas and raincoats to be checked in by a gangly looking Italian man with one large sideburn. We were trying to stay positive about it but the fact that there was one sink, one toilet and one shower for the 20 people there was absolutely horrible. Moreover, upon showing us around, our less than gracious host introduced the entire kitchen as 'broken.' How the hell is the entire kitchen broken? Nonetheless, we had two days there so we tried to make the best of it.
After another instance as the proverbial 'loud Americans' at an authentic Italian pizzeria, the next day greeted us with sunshine and a laundry list of thins to do and see. Florence is unlike any other city I have every been to. All of the architecture, from the size of the buildings to the classic terra cotta tile roofs give the entire Florence area an unparalleled sense of togetherness and unity. Even the gigantic Duomo at the center of the city holds the traditional color scheme while acting as the center piece for a city most well known for its intellectual role during the Renaissance. Walking around the streets of Florence can be somewhat overwhelming if you sit down and think about what you're doing - just imagining the people that walked through the same streets can be baffling. Notable Florentine inhabitants were not just celebrities but those who helped make the discoveries that shaped the world we live in.
Us guys met up with a group of girls from USC who are also studying in London and got in line to hike up the winding, narrow steps of the Duomo to get a birds eye view of the city. I spent the majority of the clime ducking and thankful that I was skinny. The builders of the dome were clearly under 5'10" and rather fit. Regardless of who they were, it still baffles me how such an enormous and gradiose structure was built by anyone over 500 years ago. Absolutely incredible. The view from the top gave a few of the city that really did its part to try and take your breath away. Again, I strongly adivse anyone to take 30 seconds and run a google search, it will be completely worth your time! For the rest of the day we all wandered the streets and outdoor markets, taking in the sights as we went. We made sure to head towards the Palazzo Vecchio, a large public square and Medici palace filled with some of the most impressive sculptures I have ever seen. There was also Ponte Vecchio, a nearby bridge which is covered with shops and houses similar to London Bridge a few hundred years ago. To end the day we found or selves some cheap bottles of wine and headed up to the Piazza Michealangelo which sat upon a hill south of the river giving a brilliant panoramic view of the city. We spent more than an hour up there passing bottles and watching the sun set. Normally, I dont consider going out to dinner a particularly notable occasion but we managed to find a place that gave unlimited amounts of free wine with dinner to student groups :) Lets just say we took advantage of it - Thank you Pizzaria Dante!
On our last day in Florence we tourned the world famous Uffizi Gallery and its beautiful collection of Renaissance art from some of the most notable artists in world history. Aside from that we took some time to enjoy the gorgeous day before hoping on our train down to Naples where our adventure would continue. I am currently in the last few hours of my ferry adventure (as of when I'm writing this, not when it will be posted) from Italy to Greece and excited to get into Athens for the evening. Along the way I have met a wonderful Australian couple taking a 3.5 month tour of the world who have been kind enough to buy me a few beers and breakfast :)
More to come and I promise I will put up pictures eventually! Hope all is well with everyone and I'll be in touch with a great deal of you once I get back to the UK :)
Cheers,
Patrick
After another instance as the proverbial 'loud Americans' at an authentic Italian pizzeria, the next day greeted us with sunshine and a laundry list of thins to do and see. Florence is unlike any other city I have every been to. All of the architecture, from the size of the buildings to the classic terra cotta tile roofs give the entire Florence area an unparalleled sense of togetherness and unity. Even the gigantic Duomo at the center of the city holds the traditional color scheme while acting as the center piece for a city most well known for its intellectual role during the Renaissance. Walking around the streets of Florence can be somewhat overwhelming if you sit down and think about what you're doing - just imagining the people that walked through the same streets can be baffling. Notable Florentine inhabitants were not just celebrities but those who helped make the discoveries that shaped the world we live in.
Us guys met up with a group of girls from USC who are also studying in London and got in line to hike up the winding, narrow steps of the Duomo to get a birds eye view of the city. I spent the majority of the clime ducking and thankful that I was skinny. The builders of the dome were clearly under 5'10" and rather fit. Regardless of who they were, it still baffles me how such an enormous and gradiose structure was built by anyone over 500 years ago. Absolutely incredible. The view from the top gave a few of the city that really did its part to try and take your breath away. Again, I strongly adivse anyone to take 30 seconds and run a google search, it will be completely worth your time! For the rest of the day we all wandered the streets and outdoor markets, taking in the sights as we went. We made sure to head towards the Palazzo Vecchio, a large public square and Medici palace filled with some of the most impressive sculptures I have ever seen. There was also Ponte Vecchio, a nearby bridge which is covered with shops and houses similar to London Bridge a few hundred years ago. To end the day we found or selves some cheap bottles of wine and headed up to the Piazza Michealangelo which sat upon a hill south of the river giving a brilliant panoramic view of the city. We spent more than an hour up there passing bottles and watching the sun set. Normally, I dont consider going out to dinner a particularly notable occasion but we managed to find a place that gave unlimited amounts of free wine with dinner to student groups :) Lets just say we took advantage of it - Thank you Pizzaria Dante!
On our last day in Florence we tourned the world famous Uffizi Gallery and its beautiful collection of Renaissance art from some of the most notable artists in world history. Aside from that we took some time to enjoy the gorgeous day before hoping on our train down to Naples where our adventure would continue. I am currently in the last few hours of my ferry adventure (as of when I'm writing this, not when it will be posted) from Italy to Greece and excited to get into Athens for the evening. Along the way I have met a wonderful Australian couple taking a 3.5 month tour of the world who have been kind enough to buy me a few beers and breakfast :)
More to come and I promise I will put up pictures eventually! Hope all is well with everyone and I'll be in touch with a great deal of you once I get back to the UK :)
Cheers,
Patrick
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Cinque Terre National Park - The Hike of a Lifetime!
This entry is still a bit dated but I'm catching up :) Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes...I'm without spellcheck!
Although I had a great couple of days with random folks in Genoa, it was good to be with a gang again and headed off to the Cinque Terre National Park on the northwest coast of Italy. The park consists of cliffside paths that wind between five seperate villages that are embedded into the clifs and are about as quintessentially Italian as anything can get. I didn't really know much about the place myself but I had heard such good things that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make the hike. Our plan was to hike from the first village to the third village where we would spend a night at the hostel there and then finish the last two villages and catch a short train to Florence to continue the adventure. The weather wasn't perfect when we arrived which, at first, seemed rather unfortunate. The opinions about the clouds quickly changed when we found ourselves hiking up at least 500 uneven and skinny steps to get our way up the cliff side with 35 pound backpacks on! I soon realized that I am not exactly in the best shape of my life. Regardless, it felt great to be out hiking and in the outdoors again. Not to mention, the views of the sea and the mountains we were hiking were absolutely incredible. Even if you were tired and sweating the idea of what the next corner could hold always kept us going. Plus, with our group there were never a lack of picture stops so we were always somewhat rested.
Complimenting the hikes, the time we got to spend in each of the small little seaside villages will not soon be forgotten. Each village seemed to take you back about 20 or 30 years when things were more simple and life was good all of the time (at least in theory). The old square buildings shone brightly in pastel shades of yellow, pink and orange. Without exception green shutters lined every window and closelines were filled with the days laundry. The cobble stone alleys zig-zagged back and forth inbetween a plethora of small shops, gelaterias and pizza places. The locals were some of the most friendly people I have ever met, embracing the large amounts of tourism the get and eager to help out a lost traveller looking for a good lunch or the direction to the next village. I do not have anywhere near the amount of literary skill or descriptive ability to do the villages justice and I highly reccomend that anyone who reads this does a quick Google search for "Cinque Terre"- you will not be dissapointed, I promise!
Between the second and third village, we ran into a few American girls who were on spring break from Barcelona. We shared a few laughs and broke into a few verses of KC and Jojo songs along the hike. Unfortunately, when one girl from Texas Tech tried to tell us about how her school had made a remix of Soulja Boy into "Crank that Crabtree" for their famous RUNNING BACK..we could hold a serious conversation for the remander of the hike haha! It felt great to arrive at the third village towards the end of the afternoon. A long day of hiking seemed like a perfect excuse to pig out on gelato and get an authentic Italian pizza! We also made sure to grab a few bottles of cheap local wine and some Lemoncello, a thick lemon liquor, as if we needed any more assistance in passing out after a long day of strenuous hiking and laughing.
Day two of hiking was supposed to be much less strenuous than the first and we had planned on arriving in Florence by mid to late afternoon. That plan quickly changed when we ended up taking the wrong path from the 4th to the 5th village turning a 20 min hike along the coast into a 2 hour quest up a mountain. It really wouldn't have taken so long but while hiking down into a valley we came across the Sandlot of soccer fields situated 100 feet below a mountain overpass on on the side of a cliff. The field wasn't in great shape but was littered with cones, soccer balls and had two perfectly good goals that proved it had been used recently. Almost simultaneous the inner child of us all ran down into the field, dropped our packs like bags of rocks and started our attempts at playing soccer. The place was so magical, straight out of a movie - it was like the clouds opened up and a ray of sunlight shone on this little field calling us to it for a pick up game even though we are so terrible at the game that the field stands for. We quickly named the playing surface the "Field of Dreams" and spent over an hour there having shootouts and playing 2 on 2, all of us giddy with excitement. We pretended to be famous footballers, pretended to be decent and completely forgot about any of our plans to get to Florence. Like the rest of the Cinque Terre, our little moment is sort of hard to put into words but the time we spend at the "Field of Dreams" really encapsulated everything sports are supposed to be about.
Eventually we did finish the hike and caught a train to Firenza (Florence). On the way we realized we were going to be stopping through Pisa and, in the name of the stereotypical leaning tower picture, we decided to make a stop. The lady working the train told us to get off on the South Pisa stop, so we did. Immediately after stepping off the train it seemed like we had landed in one of the biggest shitholes in Italy. We knew essentially nothing about Pisa but decided that we must've been supposed to get off at Pisa Centrale. Right before we were about to hop back on the train, a random traveller from Texas informed us that we were, in fact, only about 10 minutes walk from the infamous leaning tower. Thankful that we didn't get back on the train we headed towards the tower to take 20 mintues worth of photos and be on our way. 20 minutes quickly turned into 30 and became accompanied by a great deal of rain that we had no way to get out of. We then remembered that we had a train to catch in about 6 mintues, and, after some deliberation, all took off in dead sprints back towards the train station. Dripping wet, exhausted from a half mile sprint with 30 pound backpacks and rather miserable we just made it back to the platform before the train departed for Florence! Getting out of the rain quickly changed all of our moods towards our little adventure and we all broke out in laugher, deeming our sprint the "escape from Pisa!" Another memory that will not soon be forgotten!
I am currently on an overnight ferry from Italy to Greece and can barely keep my eyes open so I will leave Florence for a future date. The story about how I got on this ferry is absolutely ridiculous itself, I can't hardly believe it! All of these things will be coming soon as I still struggle to catch up with the blog. It is surreal that today was my last day in Italy, it went so so fast!
Like always, I hope everyone is doing as well as possible with school and life in general. I'm real sad I can't make Mifflin this year so I need everyone to pitch in and drink the 20 or so beers I would've planned on consuming :) If everyone pulls together I don't think it will be a problem hehe.
Until next time, stay in touch and I will be tryign to call a bunch of people when I get back into London to do some much needed caching up!
Cheers,
Patrick
Although I had a great couple of days with random folks in Genoa, it was good to be with a gang again and headed off to the Cinque Terre National Park on the northwest coast of Italy. The park consists of cliffside paths that wind between five seperate villages that are embedded into the clifs and are about as quintessentially Italian as anything can get. I didn't really know much about the place myself but I had heard such good things that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make the hike. Our plan was to hike from the first village to the third village where we would spend a night at the hostel there and then finish the last two villages and catch a short train to Florence to continue the adventure. The weather wasn't perfect when we arrived which, at first, seemed rather unfortunate. The opinions about the clouds quickly changed when we found ourselves hiking up at least 500 uneven and skinny steps to get our way up the cliff side with 35 pound backpacks on! I soon realized that I am not exactly in the best shape of my life. Regardless, it felt great to be out hiking and in the outdoors again. Not to mention, the views of the sea and the mountains we were hiking were absolutely incredible. Even if you were tired and sweating the idea of what the next corner could hold always kept us going. Plus, with our group there were never a lack of picture stops so we were always somewhat rested.
Complimenting the hikes, the time we got to spend in each of the small little seaside villages will not soon be forgotten. Each village seemed to take you back about 20 or 30 years when things were more simple and life was good all of the time (at least in theory). The old square buildings shone brightly in pastel shades of yellow, pink and orange. Without exception green shutters lined every window and closelines were filled with the days laundry. The cobble stone alleys zig-zagged back and forth inbetween a plethora of small shops, gelaterias and pizza places. The locals were some of the most friendly people I have ever met, embracing the large amounts of tourism the get and eager to help out a lost traveller looking for a good lunch or the direction to the next village. I do not have anywhere near the amount of literary skill or descriptive ability to do the villages justice and I highly reccomend that anyone who reads this does a quick Google search for "Cinque Terre"- you will not be dissapointed, I promise!
Between the second and third village, we ran into a few American girls who were on spring break from Barcelona. We shared a few laughs and broke into a few verses of KC and Jojo songs along the hike. Unfortunately, when one girl from Texas Tech tried to tell us about how her school had made a remix of Soulja Boy into "Crank that Crabtree" for their famous RUNNING BACK..we could hold a serious conversation for the remander of the hike haha! It felt great to arrive at the third village towards the end of the afternoon. A long day of hiking seemed like a perfect excuse to pig out on gelato and get an authentic Italian pizza! We also made sure to grab a few bottles of cheap local wine and some Lemoncello, a thick lemon liquor, as if we needed any more assistance in passing out after a long day of strenuous hiking and laughing.
Day two of hiking was supposed to be much less strenuous than the first and we had planned on arriving in Florence by mid to late afternoon. That plan quickly changed when we ended up taking the wrong path from the 4th to the 5th village turning a 20 min hike along the coast into a 2 hour quest up a mountain. It really wouldn't have taken so long but while hiking down into a valley we came across the Sandlot of soccer fields situated 100 feet below a mountain overpass on on the side of a cliff. The field wasn't in great shape but was littered with cones, soccer balls and had two perfectly good goals that proved it had been used recently. Almost simultaneous the inner child of us all ran down into the field, dropped our packs like bags of rocks and started our attempts at playing soccer. The place was so magical, straight out of a movie - it was like the clouds opened up and a ray of sunlight shone on this little field calling us to it for a pick up game even though we are so terrible at the game that the field stands for. We quickly named the playing surface the "Field of Dreams" and spent over an hour there having shootouts and playing 2 on 2, all of us giddy with excitement. We pretended to be famous footballers, pretended to be decent and completely forgot about any of our plans to get to Florence. Like the rest of the Cinque Terre, our little moment is sort of hard to put into words but the time we spend at the "Field of Dreams" really encapsulated everything sports are supposed to be about.
Eventually we did finish the hike and caught a train to Firenza (Florence). On the way we realized we were going to be stopping through Pisa and, in the name of the stereotypical leaning tower picture, we decided to make a stop. The lady working the train told us to get off on the South Pisa stop, so we did. Immediately after stepping off the train it seemed like we had landed in one of the biggest shitholes in Italy. We knew essentially nothing about Pisa but decided that we must've been supposed to get off at Pisa Centrale. Right before we were about to hop back on the train, a random traveller from Texas informed us that we were, in fact, only about 10 minutes walk from the infamous leaning tower. Thankful that we didn't get back on the train we headed towards the tower to take 20 mintues worth of photos and be on our way. 20 minutes quickly turned into 30 and became accompanied by a great deal of rain that we had no way to get out of. We then remembered that we had a train to catch in about 6 mintues, and, after some deliberation, all took off in dead sprints back towards the train station. Dripping wet, exhausted from a half mile sprint with 30 pound backpacks and rather miserable we just made it back to the platform before the train departed for Florence! Getting out of the rain quickly changed all of our moods towards our little adventure and we all broke out in laugher, deeming our sprint the "escape from Pisa!" Another memory that will not soon be forgotten!
I am currently on an overnight ferry from Italy to Greece and can barely keep my eyes open so I will leave Florence for a future date. The story about how I got on this ferry is absolutely ridiculous itself, I can't hardly believe it! All of these things will be coming soon as I still struggle to catch up with the blog. It is surreal that today was my last day in Italy, it went so so fast!
Like always, I hope everyone is doing as well as possible with school and life in general. I'm real sad I can't make Mifflin this year so I need everyone to pitch in and drink the 20 or so beers I would've planned on consuming :) If everyone pulls together I don't think it will be a problem hehe.
Until next time, stay in touch and I will be tryign to call a bunch of people when I get back into London to do some much needed caching up!
Cheers,
Patrick
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Italian Adventure Begins - A few days in Genoa
Greetings from Italy! Taking it back a few weeks to the beginning of my journey as I attempt to keep up with this.
Bright and early Tuesday morning I left London and headed to the airport to begin my 20 day adventure in Italy/Greece. I decided to leave before the guys I was with in London because by going on Tuesday afternoon instead of Friday my plane ticket to Genoa costed $12 instead of about $100. I figured a few days to relax in Italy couldn't possibly be bad. Having left a slow and steady rain, I couldn't wait to touch down on the Western Italian coastal city of Genoa, a major port city with, as I would later find out, a great deal of history. Unfortunately I was greeted by worse weather than when I left - just my luck!. Not only did I have to find my way to the hostel in the pouring rain but there was a midly serious thunderstorm for the first 3 hours I was there so I found myself stuck inside trying to keep myself busy. Fortunately MTV had some songs in English mixed in with the Italian versions of South Park and Scrubs. The sun eventually came out giving me some time to explore the rolling hills of the beautiful city of Genoa. With a population of 630,000 the city runs along a few miles of coast line and then is terraced along the hillside effectively fitting the city's inhabitants into a relatively small space. I really had no expectactions when I arrived so to see Genoa's beautiful pastel buildings and craggy coastline made me really excited to explore the next day.
While lying in bed reading in my hostel the first night, a slightly older guy came in for the evening who was stopping in Genoa on his way around Italy. We got to talking a bit and decided that we would walk our way down the winding roads towards the city center together in the morning. We winded our ways in an out of Genoa's quintessentially Italian alley ways, shared stories and talked about many rather significant issues. Turns out he was born in a very Catholic, Pleasantville-like, town in central Pennslyvania before moving to Mexico with his parents at a young age. He went to college in Mexico and then moved to Morocco where he has been teaching English for quite some time and converted religions to Islam in order to marry his wife of nine years. We were so busy talking and exploring the historic sites of Genoa that we didn't even exchange names until we hiked around for 6 hours! From religion to politics, international relations, current events and Wisconsin demographics we really talked about every topic under the sun. Turns out Nathan had been to about 70 countries and over 600 cities in his lifetime - absolutely incredible guy to spend a day with. I really learned a lot and expanded my horizons during our hike south along the Italian coast which ended up going for 12 hours and over 15 miles before we decided to take a train home. We really just kept going on the coast and never once failed to be astonished by the views we would come across. All in all, we hiked out of Genoa's city limits and to 3 other villages. Although I don't always like travelling alone, meeting cool people and doing these sort of thigns really makes me enjoy it!
Nathan and I exchanged email addresses and the next morning he was gone before I got up. Fortunately for me I found an equally interesting traveller from South Africa named Sean to venture with the next day. He had just graduated from a college a few hours west of Cape Town with a degree in business and was looking to take a few months off before heading into the working world. He was making a stop in Genoa on his way to a major port city in the south of Spain where he was looking to work on a yacht for the summer. What an incredibly cool way to spend a summer galavanting around on a multi-million dollar private yacht with all of your expenses paid and a free pass to see the world! We spent some of the day looking around the harbor so Sean could try to find a boat his friend was working on that he thought docked in Genoa the previous day. To no avail we eventually ended up looking at some parts of the city that Nathan and I had skipped the previous day to venture down the coast. Just like the day before, we talked about anything and everything under the sun and used each other as direct sources for information about each others' cultures. Having studied South Africa a bit, I always find it enjoyable to get "inside information" so to speak on the current political and socioeconomic situations. After finding a cheap lunch at a local indoor market that involved half a chicken and a roll to make a gigantic chicken sandwhich for 3 Euro, we went back up to the hostel for a nap so we could go see if there was any nightlife on a Thursday in Genoa. There most definitely was not and we ended up wandering around looking for a cheap pizza before catching a bus back up to the hostel. The bus ride home ended up getting invaded by a group of 40 or so secondary school students from Lisbon who were on their way to Florence and Rome for an art history trip. Must be a hell of a way to learn to actually go see the works of Titan, da Vinci, Michelangelo etc. instead of just having to ponder them in a text book.
Finally on my third day in Genoa the sun decided to come out and I headed to the harbor to get a tan before the rest of the gang from London got into town for the day. I used my previous few days knowledge to give them a tour of the notable parts of the city before we all headed to our bed and breakfast early so we could get up and catch an 8 o'clock train to the our next stop, the Cinque Terre National Park for two days of hiking the Italian Riveria! It was good to see familiar faces again but I had an amazing time in Genoa thanks to Nathan and Sean. Yet another series of eye opening experiences thanks to travelling. I may never see either of those guys again but I will definitely hold on to all of the things I learned from the conversations. What a wonderful beginning to my Italian adventure :)
Still trying to catch up with these posts and am a few cities behind but I am trying my best for those who are interested in what I am doing. I am also trying to find time to post pictures on Fbook soon because I really can't properly describe the grandeur of a lot of these places properly with words.
I hope everyone is adjusting back to the grind of school after SB and is getting ready for the home stretch...I can't believe that we will be seniors next year! Anyways, keep in touch and I'll try to reconnect with everyone when the travels slow down in a week or two. Until then I am currently on a train to Rome and will be headed to Athens on Tuesday I believe :)
Stay in touch and more will come in the near future :) Sorry for grammar mistakes!
Cheers,
Patrick
Bright and early Tuesday morning I left London and headed to the airport to begin my 20 day adventure in Italy/Greece. I decided to leave before the guys I was with in London because by going on Tuesday afternoon instead of Friday my plane ticket to Genoa costed $12 instead of about $100. I figured a few days to relax in Italy couldn't possibly be bad. Having left a slow and steady rain, I couldn't wait to touch down on the Western Italian coastal city of Genoa, a major port city with, as I would later find out, a great deal of history. Unfortunately I was greeted by worse weather than when I left - just my luck!. Not only did I have to find my way to the hostel in the pouring rain but there was a midly serious thunderstorm for the first 3 hours I was there so I found myself stuck inside trying to keep myself busy. Fortunately MTV had some songs in English mixed in with the Italian versions of South Park and Scrubs. The sun eventually came out giving me some time to explore the rolling hills of the beautiful city of Genoa. With a population of 630,000 the city runs along a few miles of coast line and then is terraced along the hillside effectively fitting the city's inhabitants into a relatively small space. I really had no expectactions when I arrived so to see Genoa's beautiful pastel buildings and craggy coastline made me really excited to explore the next day.
While lying in bed reading in my hostel the first night, a slightly older guy came in for the evening who was stopping in Genoa on his way around Italy. We got to talking a bit and decided that we would walk our way down the winding roads towards the city center together in the morning. We winded our ways in an out of Genoa's quintessentially Italian alley ways, shared stories and talked about many rather significant issues. Turns out he was born in a very Catholic, Pleasantville-like, town in central Pennslyvania before moving to Mexico with his parents at a young age. He went to college in Mexico and then moved to Morocco where he has been teaching English for quite some time and converted religions to Islam in order to marry his wife of nine years. We were so busy talking and exploring the historic sites of Genoa that we didn't even exchange names until we hiked around for 6 hours! From religion to politics, international relations, current events and Wisconsin demographics we really talked about every topic under the sun. Turns out Nathan had been to about 70 countries and over 600 cities in his lifetime - absolutely incredible guy to spend a day with. I really learned a lot and expanded my horizons during our hike south along the Italian coast which ended up going for 12 hours and over 15 miles before we decided to take a train home. We really just kept going on the coast and never once failed to be astonished by the views we would come across. All in all, we hiked out of Genoa's city limits and to 3 other villages. Although I don't always like travelling alone, meeting cool people and doing these sort of thigns really makes me enjoy it!
Nathan and I exchanged email addresses and the next morning he was gone before I got up. Fortunately for me I found an equally interesting traveller from South Africa named Sean to venture with the next day. He had just graduated from a college a few hours west of Cape Town with a degree in business and was looking to take a few months off before heading into the working world. He was making a stop in Genoa on his way to a major port city in the south of Spain where he was looking to work on a yacht for the summer. What an incredibly cool way to spend a summer galavanting around on a multi-million dollar private yacht with all of your expenses paid and a free pass to see the world! We spent some of the day looking around the harbor so Sean could try to find a boat his friend was working on that he thought docked in Genoa the previous day. To no avail we eventually ended up looking at some parts of the city that Nathan and I had skipped the previous day to venture down the coast. Just like the day before, we talked about anything and everything under the sun and used each other as direct sources for information about each others' cultures. Having studied South Africa a bit, I always find it enjoyable to get "inside information" so to speak on the current political and socioeconomic situations. After finding a cheap lunch at a local indoor market that involved half a chicken and a roll to make a gigantic chicken sandwhich for 3 Euro, we went back up to the hostel for a nap so we could go see if there was any nightlife on a Thursday in Genoa. There most definitely was not and we ended up wandering around looking for a cheap pizza before catching a bus back up to the hostel. The bus ride home ended up getting invaded by a group of 40 or so secondary school students from Lisbon who were on their way to Florence and Rome for an art history trip. Must be a hell of a way to learn to actually go see the works of Titan, da Vinci, Michelangelo etc. instead of just having to ponder them in a text book.
Finally on my third day in Genoa the sun decided to come out and I headed to the harbor to get a tan before the rest of the gang from London got into town for the day. I used my previous few days knowledge to give them a tour of the notable parts of the city before we all headed to our bed and breakfast early so we could get up and catch an 8 o'clock train to the our next stop, the Cinque Terre National Park for two days of hiking the Italian Riveria! It was good to see familiar faces again but I had an amazing time in Genoa thanks to Nathan and Sean. Yet another series of eye opening experiences thanks to travelling. I may never see either of those guys again but I will definitely hold on to all of the things I learned from the conversations. What a wonderful beginning to my Italian adventure :)
Still trying to catch up with these posts and am a few cities behind but I am trying my best for those who are interested in what I am doing. I am also trying to find time to post pictures on Fbook soon because I really can't properly describe the grandeur of a lot of these places properly with words.
I hope everyone is adjusting back to the grind of school after SB and is getting ready for the home stretch...I can't believe that we will be seniors next year! Anyways, keep in touch and I'll try to reconnect with everyone when the travels slow down in a week or two. Until then I am currently on a train to Rome and will be headed to Athens on Tuesday I believe :)
Stay in touch and more will come in the near future :) Sorry for grammar mistakes!
Cheers,
Patrick
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Canvey Island and London Monopoly Pub Crawl!
Bonjourno!
Admittedly I have a little catching up to do on reporting my adventures to the world (better known as the 20 people who will read this) so I am going to go backwards a few weeks to the beginning of my 5 week spring break now that I have a bit of time on the train from Florence to Naples.
When you dont really have any school work on a weekly basis, you don't get quite as excited or antsy for breaks as you do when the work keeps piling up but, nonetheless, I couldn't wait for Easter holiday to start so I could head to my mate Grant's house on Canvey Island in the south of England. It was absolutely wonderful to be free of dorm style living and go to a place with couches, real beds, real food, 40 inch flatscreen TVs and, crucially, ESPN America! Despite being in England and experiencing new forms of culture and sport I ccould not help but be overjoyed that I could finally catch some of the NCAA tournament on something better than a shitty stream to my laptop. For me, it was also very interesting to be able to make a rough comparison of family structure, house size, neighborhood layout etc.. between what I am used to in the U.S. and someone in England. Studying abroad does a great deal to expand your horizons but for the most part you are either at university or travelling so you don't get a chance to see what day to day home life is like. For example, having Grant take me to the all-boys grammar school he attended and show me through the halls filled with kids in full suits really opened up my eyes to a way of doing things vastly different from the highschool experience that I had and that shaped who I am. Such differences in the underlying structure of society really explain some of the differences between UK and US cultures and people which are much, much different than most people assume just because we speak the same language. To be honest, the language is different in many more ways that most would think. There have been plenty of times where I have not understood a word of what someone was telling me in plain English!
Side Note: The 40 year old man across from me on the train wistles and grabs his glasses every time a girl walks by so that he can get a better view of her when she passes. He also just winked at me when a rather attracitve young woman walked by...awkward. Got to love that Italian 'charm.'
Grant introduced me to all his friends the evening we arrived and the next couple of days were filled with a grand tour of Canvey Island. All of the locals insisted that it really wasn't that cool, which I suppose is natural to think of where you come from. From my pespective, I thought it was pretty remarkable to be on a seaside island and experience all of the things that they have grown accustomed to doing every day. I suppose that is the joy of traveling. It helps you fight the complacency we all develop towards the places where we live, even if those places are spectacular in themselves. Aside from all of the places I am getting to see, people I'm meeting and things that I'm doing, one of the biggest benefits of studying abroad lies in its ability to alter my perspetive on the world and everythign that I have known for the last 20 years. I don't know how long the new found worldview will last once I get back into a routine but I am certain that I will never see all of the things I used to take for granted quite the same. I digress.
After showing me a good night out as well as the seaside towns of Leigh-on-sea and Southend, it felt like my five days at the Johnson residence flew by and I was off to London to spend some time with the Wisconsin crew before heading off to Italy/Greece for 20 days. London never fails to be exciting and, for whatever reason, the city really makes you feel at home and a part of it regardless of where you are from or who you are. It might be the internationalism of the city in general - there have been many times that I remember being on the tube and being surrounded by ten or twenty people, none of which were speaking English to each other. Another reason for the general comfort may be the increasing number of people I know in the city and can hang around. There are Wisconsin kids at multiple London Uni's and now my friends from Warwick who live there or near by and now some of Grant's friends who live and work there. In a really incredible small world experience I actually ran into a kid from Lithuania who I play on the basketball team with on the tube in rush hour. Its hard to fathom the chances of me being on the same line, at the same time and getting in the exact car as he was..crazy!
Upon my arrival the lot of us went to the car park across the street from the apartment and played a spontaneous game of pick-up soccer using dumpsters as goals in between rows of cars. It is safe to say that we are really a disgrace to the game and all of its glory but we had an amazing time - ended up playing for 2 hours and even got a English kid who was walkign by to join us. Anyways, my days in London inolved me doing some more exploring of things I hadn't had time to see in past visits. I also finally gave in and bought myself a fashionable coat. I could no longer stand feeling like an outcast in every city I was in due to my lack of a proper attire. Plus it was half-off thanks to an 'end of season' sale! I had to admit it but I am doing a bit of conforming to European fashion - I now have a button up coat, some adidas sneakers, a array of scarves, a few skinny ties and aviators to top it all off. I'm not sure how I feel about it...
On Saturday, the whole crew banded together for what would be one of the most epic day drinking episodes I have ever partaken in. The event - Monopoly Pub Crawl. To give a little background, the idea revolves around the original Monopoly board game which uses streets of London instead of the American version. The goal is to go to and get a drink at a pub on every of the 26 streets. It may sound simple but given the geography and that pubs are only open from 11 to 11, it actually must be a well planned and thought out undertaking since time only allows for about 10 minutes per pub (you have to visit two per hour including transportation time between them). We left at 10:30am dressed in silly looking hats determined to finish all 26. 12 hours and the equivalent of just over 20 beers later we were the last people to be served at pub number twenty-six before it closed! We were on schedule earlier in the crawl but as the drunkness set in and some McDonalds runs had to be factored in I think it is needless to say that we got a bit off track as the day progressed. One of the more fun days I have had in a while. I insist that we all need to organize a Madison version for welcome week this year now that we are all 21!
Like with my time on Canvey Island, the days in London went by much too fast and before I knew it, Tuesday morning rolled around and I hopped on my $12 Ryan Air flight to Genoa, Italy to hang out for a few days before the whole gang showed up on Friday. Reports on my adventures with an English teacher in Morrocco, a South African graduate looking for summer work on a Yacht, hiking in the Cinque Terre National Park and Florence in the next few days. I'll try to keep this as current as possible and check Fbook for pics if your interested :)
I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and Easter and, like always, stay in touch!
Cheers,
Patrick
Admittedly I have a little catching up to do on reporting my adventures to the world (better known as the 20 people who will read this) so I am going to go backwards a few weeks to the beginning of my 5 week spring break now that I have a bit of time on the train from Florence to Naples.
When you dont really have any school work on a weekly basis, you don't get quite as excited or antsy for breaks as you do when the work keeps piling up but, nonetheless, I couldn't wait for Easter holiday to start so I could head to my mate Grant's house on Canvey Island in the south of England. It was absolutely wonderful to be free of dorm style living and go to a place with couches, real beds, real food, 40 inch flatscreen TVs and, crucially, ESPN America! Despite being in England and experiencing new forms of culture and sport I ccould not help but be overjoyed that I could finally catch some of the NCAA tournament on something better than a shitty stream to my laptop. For me, it was also very interesting to be able to make a rough comparison of family structure, house size, neighborhood layout etc.. between what I am used to in the U.S. and someone in England. Studying abroad does a great deal to expand your horizons but for the most part you are either at university or travelling so you don't get a chance to see what day to day home life is like. For example, having Grant take me to the all-boys grammar school he attended and show me through the halls filled with kids in full suits really opened up my eyes to a way of doing things vastly different from the highschool experience that I had and that shaped who I am. Such differences in the underlying structure of society really explain some of the differences between UK and US cultures and people which are much, much different than most people assume just because we speak the same language. To be honest, the language is different in many more ways that most would think. There have been plenty of times where I have not understood a word of what someone was telling me in plain English!
Side Note: The 40 year old man across from me on the train wistles and grabs his glasses every time a girl walks by so that he can get a better view of her when she passes. He also just winked at me when a rather attracitve young woman walked by...awkward. Got to love that Italian 'charm.'
Grant introduced me to all his friends the evening we arrived and the next couple of days were filled with a grand tour of Canvey Island. All of the locals insisted that it really wasn't that cool, which I suppose is natural to think of where you come from. From my pespective, I thought it was pretty remarkable to be on a seaside island and experience all of the things that they have grown accustomed to doing every day. I suppose that is the joy of traveling. It helps you fight the complacency we all develop towards the places where we live, even if those places are spectacular in themselves. Aside from all of the places I am getting to see, people I'm meeting and things that I'm doing, one of the biggest benefits of studying abroad lies in its ability to alter my perspetive on the world and everythign that I have known for the last 20 years. I don't know how long the new found worldview will last once I get back into a routine but I am certain that I will never see all of the things I used to take for granted quite the same. I digress.
After showing me a good night out as well as the seaside towns of Leigh-on-sea and Southend, it felt like my five days at the Johnson residence flew by and I was off to London to spend some time with the Wisconsin crew before heading off to Italy/Greece for 20 days. London never fails to be exciting and, for whatever reason, the city really makes you feel at home and a part of it regardless of where you are from or who you are. It might be the internationalism of the city in general - there have been many times that I remember being on the tube and being surrounded by ten or twenty people, none of which were speaking English to each other. Another reason for the general comfort may be the increasing number of people I know in the city and can hang around. There are Wisconsin kids at multiple London Uni's and now my friends from Warwick who live there or near by and now some of Grant's friends who live and work there. In a really incredible small world experience I actually ran into a kid from Lithuania who I play on the basketball team with on the tube in rush hour. Its hard to fathom the chances of me being on the same line, at the same time and getting in the exact car as he was..crazy!
Upon my arrival the lot of us went to the car park across the street from the apartment and played a spontaneous game of pick-up soccer using dumpsters as goals in between rows of cars. It is safe to say that we are really a disgrace to the game and all of its glory but we had an amazing time - ended up playing for 2 hours and even got a English kid who was walkign by to join us. Anyways, my days in London inolved me doing some more exploring of things I hadn't had time to see in past visits. I also finally gave in and bought myself a fashionable coat. I could no longer stand feeling like an outcast in every city I was in due to my lack of a proper attire. Plus it was half-off thanks to an 'end of season' sale! I had to admit it but I am doing a bit of conforming to European fashion - I now have a button up coat, some adidas sneakers, a array of scarves, a few skinny ties and aviators to top it all off. I'm not sure how I feel about it...
On Saturday, the whole crew banded together for what would be one of the most epic day drinking episodes I have ever partaken in. The event - Monopoly Pub Crawl. To give a little background, the idea revolves around the original Monopoly board game which uses streets of London instead of the American version. The goal is to go to and get a drink at a pub on every of the 26 streets. It may sound simple but given the geography and that pubs are only open from 11 to 11, it actually must be a well planned and thought out undertaking since time only allows for about 10 minutes per pub (you have to visit two per hour including transportation time between them). We left at 10:30am dressed in silly looking hats determined to finish all 26. 12 hours and the equivalent of just over 20 beers later we were the last people to be served at pub number twenty-six before it closed! We were on schedule earlier in the crawl but as the drunkness set in and some McDonalds runs had to be factored in I think it is needless to say that we got a bit off track as the day progressed. One of the more fun days I have had in a while. I insist that we all need to organize a Madison version for welcome week this year now that we are all 21!
Like with my time on Canvey Island, the days in London went by much too fast and before I knew it, Tuesday morning rolled around and I hopped on my $12 Ryan Air flight to Genoa, Italy to hang out for a few days before the whole gang showed up on Friday. Reports on my adventures with an English teacher in Morrocco, a South African graduate looking for summer work on a Yacht, hiking in the Cinque Terre National Park and Florence in the next few days. I'll try to keep this as current as possible and check Fbook for pics if your interested :)
I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and Easter and, like always, stay in touch!
Cheers,
Patrick
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