roma

Well its been a while. Last weekend Sheena and I were invited to stay at her friends place just outside of rome. Sheena decided to be nice and pack for us….. lets just say this weekend i’m packing again. She literally packed her life away, we were gone for two days and it weighed more than my backpack for 3 months. Thats all I’m saying.

Saturday we went to the beach all day with her friend Vi. It was pretty nice, except at the end of the day i looked like neopolatin ice cream, a strip of dark, one of red and one light. Yes I burnt and I burnt bad. It’s crazy. Sheena burnt less than I did. She did put on sunblock twice though. I’ve never needed sunblock in my life, so i guess things are bout to change, now I’m a bit worried to go to the beach without it.

Next day we did a quick tour of rome, the colosseum, the forum, st. peters/vatican city – the museum, the fountain di trevi. The sites in rome were really pretty, but it was a really rushed day cus we didn’t have much time. Also if you ever decide to see the colosseum just so you know it pretty much looks the same from anywhere inside no joke, but still a cool experience. This weekend we go back to see the vatican museum with the sisteen chapel and then to pompeii.

Also went to milan the other day….. to be honest milan is my least favorite place so far. The duomo absolutely beautiful, best gothic cathedral i’ve seen. The Last Supper by da vinci pretty cool. In fact I was really lucky to see it. Usually you have to make reservations 2 weeks in advance. I mean cus that just makes sense right? But some lady was gonna go with friends but they couldnt make it so she was selling 3 tickets for 8 euro each (it usually costs 6.50) so not a bad deal at all. The size of it is really crazy, textbooks make it look so small but its an entire wall. I know I know (didn’t you ever take the time to read the dimensions in the book? answer: nope. The only thing is I feel bad for the guy who did the opposite wall, cus people pretty much just ignore his work, but I mean you only have 15 minutes so I can understand. I wonder what he was thinking while Da Vinci was painting his wall “hmm i wonder what he’s doin over there, psst he’s not even applying the paint right!” But seriously other than that not much to do for such a big city(unless you’re gonna shop, but unfortunately I don’t have the money for luxuries such as prada unless its from the guy selling it behind the castle for 10 euro, ps i heard he’s legit haha), and its def a tad more confusing than most of the other large cities.

Unfortunately this may be my last post as I dont know what the internet situation is going to be. Monday I go to prague then berlin for two days, then amsterdam, then brussels, then back to london. This was a last minute decision but I’m glad I’m going to those places cus I have no idea when i’ll get the opportunity again.

Also got some progress done on my travel project. I think I have the design down its all about just tightening it up right now, and I have a couple ideas on how to take care of some of the inconsistencies, then I have to create…. damn production sucks, lets hope I have time for it….

One last note I really have a hankerin for a huge grillout, sausages, hamburgers corn on the cob, beers, they just don’t do meat in italy like we do in the states, and I really need a cookout right now, really been craving it for a while.  hint hint mom

Filed under: Uncategorized , backpacking, italy, milan, rome, travel

florence + pisa

I know I said I would update 2 days ago but…. well….. ok i’m lazy. I know I’ve kept everyone waiting for the climactic ending to the saga of sheena’s week off so I hope you all enjoy.

 

Chapter 1: Firenze (Florence) / ass backwards museum

We arrived in Florence on Friday morning. As always the first thing to do is to make it to the hostel so you have a base of operations, aka a place to throw your crap while you walk around. Being the king of directions as I am we had no problem making it. On our way there we passed the massive duomo, its absolutely impossible to not stop in your tracks when you first see it and look up at its glorious beauty. Also just a point of interest, its absolutely impossible to get a really good picture of the duomo unless you get one from above because of how closely surrounded it is by other buildings.

We walked past the duomo and the ponte vecchio, and made it to our hostel right across from the Palazzo pitti. Was totally shocked that it was actually there, seemed awfully close to the hostel. We made our way up the apartment building and to our surprise our hostel was more a hotel than anything. We were given a room to ourselves a queen bed a bathroom with a shower, cabinets and drawers. It was pretty sweet. Definitely the best deal I’ve ever gotten. Sheena was so enthralled with it she took a massive amount of pictures. I decided that I was going to unpack our bag on the bed. Oh no, can’t do that, Sheena has to take 12 more pictures of the bed, so I have to hide all our belongings from view haha. 

We went back to the duomo, once again amazed by the size and beauty of it…. that was before we went in. So you would think that the beauty of the outside would be matched by the inside, apparently not. I think all the effort went to the outside because the inside was def bare bones, very disappointing. We then decided to go into the baptistery which is right in front of the cathedral. It costs 3 euro to get in, not bad at all and inside the entire dome is a golden byzantine mosaic. Really pretty and made up for the duomo being basically empty. Yeah massive byzantine jesus was very impressive, also I don’t think you’ve made it as a church until you have your giant byzantine jesus, it seems every big church here in italy has one. 

Next we made our way to the Piazza della Signoria, where florence’s multitude of statues are on display, the more famous ones being replicas (originals are in museums… where you can’t take pictures). Some of these include Michelangelo’s David and the Rape of the Sabine Women.

 

After our time in the piazza, we grabbed a bite to eat and checked out the ponte vecchio. Its a pretty cool bridge the most interesting part being that stores were built on the bridge and are partially held up by pieces of wood. The funniest thing being that all these stores that look like they could fall into the river at any point are jewelry stores. I’m joking they don’t really feel like they’re gonna fall over but it is really funny to see the pieces of wood for support. 

From Ponte Vecchio we decided to go to the galleria del accademia which houses the real David along with some incomplete Michelangelo sculptures. The real David was really impressive, even more so than seeing the copy in the Piazza. It’s housed under a dome built specifically for it as well as behind glass that comes up to the base of the statue. Its really inspiring and we sat there and just looked at it for at least 15 – 20 minutes. The other nice thing to see were the incomplete statues of marble he had worked on. They were all in various stages some had most of it sculpted without smoothing while others had maybe a torso and an arm. Really cool to see. I was def disappointed that we couldn’t take pictures, but oh well. Other than that there’s not much to be seen in the museum so really you’re just paying 10 euro to see the David. Was it worth it? Definitely. Do I feel like they’re trying to scam you a bit? Definitely. they know you’ll pay and you do. Also I love that you can’t take pictures but they can sell you a postcard of it and the other overpriced mumbo jumbo crap they have in they’re store. To be honest though it is a lot nicer to be able to appreciate the work without feeling like your in a pool of paparazzi like when you see the mona lisa.

After that we called it a day and went back to our luxurious hostel. Next morning we got up at 7:30 so that we could make it to the Uffizi (home to the birth of venus) when it opened at 8:15 without the long wait. Now heres where the bitching begins so if you don’t wanna hear it don’t read. 

Walking to the Uffizi I’m booking it knowing that the line has to have already started. Florence at this point is practically empty so we stop and take pictures on the Ponte Vecchio, knowing late it will be crammed full of tourists, and by crammed full I mean you can’t walk without tripping over someone, its even more crowded than florence was and florence is full of little streets. Sheena of course makes the comment that its so early no one will be there. Oh how wrong she is and how i knew it. We show up and of course the line is started. Its 8:10 at this point. We’re probably lucky guests number 200 so were about half the length of the building from the entrance. 8:15 rolls around doors open… or do they. No movement. 8:20 and the line starts to move ok were gonna get in until suddenly after moving about 5 feet we stop. The line’s halted. Whats going on. Oh thats right you can reserve tickets so you don’t have to wait in line. What does this mean? It means that for 4 dollars the day of or before you reserve a time to enter the museum. What does this do. This stops the regular line to allow the reservation people in. No it wouldn’t make sense to have 2 doors one for reservations one for the regular line. So every 10-25 minutes the real line moves about 5 feet. Ridiculous. You know how the louvre works. The most famous museum in the world? You know how that works, you walk right in. The line moves swiftly. Everybody’s happy. I don’t understand this museum at all. It’s absolutely ass backwards the way the line works. It took us til about 9:15 to get in. At this point you go through security which consists of 1 security guard and 1 metal detector, now I understand why its so slow because a museum which brings alot of visitors decides hey we only need on entrance and one detector why should we accommodate for all the visitors we have? They’re gonna come anyways whatever. Ridic. The museum itself was nice so at this point the bitchings over. But for real the Louvre you just walk right in, come on now, get your shit together Uffizi. Also I don’t wanna hear any oh you should have reserved then. Fuck that I’m not paying an extra 4 euro to get into a museum.

The Museum was actually very nice, it was great to see the birth of venus and some Caravaggio raphael and other renaissance paintings. One of the more interesting works was an unfinished painting by Da Vinci. It was still in its pencilling in phase so no paint had been applied yet, its always cool to see stuff people were working on but didn’t complete. I really liked the museum though. It was probably the best experience I had in Florence. Also just so everyone knows. The Birth of Venus, not as bright as you think, theres def some levels adjustment being done in photoshop in those art history books, still a great piece tho. It’s another museum that I wish allowed photographs.

Here’s some pictures of Sheena and I on the Ponte Vecchio in the morning.

 

Chapter 2: Pisa

If you’ve made it this far then I have to commend you. I shall now present you with the tale of a little city called Pisa. 

We arrived in Pisa later that afternoon. After reading up on it we realized we wouldn’t need more than a few hours to actually see everything the city had to offer. We arrived at the small train station and started making our way to the famed leaning tower. After walking 5 minutes from the train station we come to the realization that its a ghost town. There is literally no one on the street other than tourists sprinkled in small clusters all walking towards the same thing. It was a vast difference between the streets of florence. Also pisa seemed dirt cheap…… my kind of town. On our way we found a gelateria and got 3 scoops for 2 euro, the cheapest I’ve seen in italy. It seems the only things open were gelateria’s and a few cafes. I can’t blame the place for being dead though. It was the holiday and I’m sure no one wants to spend they’re holiday with a tourist attraction in their backyard. Anyways after walking through the ghost town we see the tower. 

It was def a sight to see. Well worth the trip. Sheena was dead-set on climbing it as well until we were told the price. 15 euro. What does 15 euro buy you? 30 minutes in the tower that includes the climb up and down. We kindly declined they’re offer, figuring all we would be able to see from the top was the dead city of pisa. Not to mention the eiffel tower cost 9 euro. I don’t know whats up with italy sometimes. To be honest I’m not disappointed at all that I didn’t climb it and I know Sheena’s not either. I might have paid it had it not have been for the time constraint. Of course we did our holding up of the tower pictures. Then we paid to get into the cathedral. Amazing. Absolutely beautiful inside. Probably the most impressive Cathedral I’ve been in. 

 

yeah it's leaning

 

the entire complex

 

inside the cathedral

 

After that we kinda walked around the site, looked at some touristy shops, and headed back. On our way to the train station, we each got a huge slice of pizza for 1.50 each. Um absolutely great. It was so tasty I contemplated going back for another piece. It was really odd that good food was within walking distance from the tower, seeing as your always warned not to eat around tourist spots. It was really good, and pisa was a really fun afternoon trip, but I wouldn’t recommend staying there for an entire day. I don’t know what you would do. Total time in pisa: 4 hours, just the perfect amount.

Chapter 3: Rimini

Our last day on Sheena’s holiday we went and chilled at the beach in rimini. The beach was quite different than what you would expect. The beaches here are privatized so for the most part you pay whoever owns the part you wanna chill on. Very interesting. Also each plot of the beach has a number and a design reminiscent of the entrance to some sort of carnival. The poster for rimini should give you an idea of what I mean

It was a pretty relaxing end to an adventurous week. 

And that is that. Sorry for making you wait so long, I hope it was worth the wait. This weekend we’re off to Rome I’m sure I’ll have some stories when I come back (I’m sure one of them will be about sheena packing on saturday morning instead of friday night). Also I know i don’t have any photos of Greece up yet but they’re coming just be patient. I’m not gonna make any promises on when they’ll be up because that just means you’ll be disappointed when they’re not there that day. I hope you’ve enjoyed story time today, until next time you’ll just have to get your thrills somewhere else.

-D.

Filed under: Uncategorized , backpacking, david, duomo, florence, leaning tower, michelangelo, pisa, travel, uffizi

greece

I think we got a long one here, so grab a beer, put on your reading glasses and get comfortable. Last Saturday morning woke up bright and early, I had packed everything the night before so there wasn’t too much to do except grab the bags and go. Sheena and I headed off and caught our train to Ancona without a hitch. As always Sheena passed out a good 15 minutes after being on the train and I tried my hardest to stay awake. Arrived in Ancona and bought some food outside the ferry terminal, even though we had packed enough food for two days. I figured it would be our last chance for real food before we got on the boat. We checked in and were told that we had to walk over to one of the numbered ports, which sounded alot easier than it was. Apparently the port doesn’t really care too much for pedestrians as there is only one walkway, and by walkway I mean a white striped line wide enough for one person that cars and semi’s speed through without taking any glance around to see if anyone could possibly be in their way. 

After avoiding getting run over we came upon our port number and sitting there was what looked like a cruise ship. The ship apparently holds over 1000 people has multiple bars, a club (pretty laughable as its really only a circle in the bar with purple lights that maybe fits 10 people and plays some pretty old hits and by old i mean like what would have been playing in clubs in the early 90’s…), a buffet restaurant, a sit down restaurant, a pool, and a bunch of rooms. Luckily enough for us we hadn’t booked a room so we got to sleep on the luxuriously comfortable deck. Oh yes we slept on the deck, we weren’t about to pay another 100 euro each to sleep in a bed. 

Even though we had to sleep on the deck it was actually a pretty nice ride, the sea was beautiful and the half jar of nutella I ate was delicious. Oh yeah nutella is def my new thing, its so good and I don’t care how ridiculous I look eating it out of a jar with just my finger. The next day we made it to Athens after a short stop in the shit hole of a town called Patras. Athens is amazing. It’s a much more modern city than I thought it would be. The metro system has a massive amount of subways, buses, trams, taxis etc, in fact it felt very similar to how barcelona was with ancient ruins scattered around the city. 

 

We made our way to our hostel (only 5 minutes from the acropolis) and then went on our search for some food. I was adamant that we had to find some gyros to eat, and that was all I was gonna eat while I was in greece. The first place we happened upon seemed a bit pricey 8 euro for a gyro, from what I had read online they should only cost about 3, so I decided that we would keep hunting for them until we found some at a reasonable price. A half hour later we still had no luck, Sheena’s stomach was rumbling and I was forced into going into the expensive gyro place. The woman spoke broken english to us and almost seemed offended when we didn’t order what she had suggested to us. We ended up with a plate of gyros each which is a pita layed flat with pork or chicken on top of it with tomatoes, onions, and, tziki sauce.  To be honest it wasn’t that great. After leaving the restaurant we spotted people walking around with regular looking gyros rolled up and eating. I still couldn’t figure out where people were getting these. 

Next day I was still craving for a real greek gyro experience, but we went and did the acropolis first as we knew it would get jam packed in the afternoon. We made it to the base of the acropolis and bought our tickets for 6 euro each. To our surprise this ticket not only got us into the acropolis but all the other major sites in athens. So for 6 euro as a student you get to go to the acropolis, the temple of the olympian zeus, the roman agora, the ancient agora, and the theater of Dionysus. It was a pretty sweet deal. The one thing about seeing the ruins though is expectations. Everyone has this picture of things still looking in pretty decent shape, at least thats the image I had in my head that while things would be weathered they would still be a decent amount there, but they’re called ruins for a reason. Some of the descriptions are pretty funny, you’ll see half of one column and the descriptor board will say something to the sort of temple of ares. In honesty though everything we did see was truely amazing and I’m really happy we went. The Parthenon was beautiful, the agora was amazing, the height of the remaining columns of the temple of zeus was really cool and the shadows created by it had a weird crazy effect on the columns and I can only imagine the effect it would have had if all 100 or so were there. 

After wandering through the acropolis I finally found what I was looking for… real gyros! OH they were worth the wait. I think we really just didn’t understand what we were looking for before. Basically almost every other restaurant will have a take away window by the counter where the cooks sit behind and the waiters grab food. A pita gyro from any of these places costs about 1.70 and it fills you up. Funnily Greek gyros are a bit different than what I was expecting. They are actually made with either pork or chicken (chicken is usually  a little more expensive). It’s on a pita thats been grilled, stuffed with the meat, onions, tomatoes, tziki, and fries. Yes they put fries in theirs. I have to say the best pita gyro I ate was the last, absolutely amazing, just perfect, flavorful deliciousness, the best gyro I’ve had in my life.

The rest of the day was filled with seeing the other sites i mentioned previously, the agoras and the temple of zeus. That night we went up to the tallest part of Athens which houses just enough room for a small restaurant and a church. There we saw the sun set on Athens and it was really pretty and relaxing. The funniest part about that “mountain” is that the restaurant is really nice and has amazing views of the city but all the people that come up mob around the edges where there are tables and start taking pictures rendering that part of the restaurant useless. I also pointed up to Sheena because I wanted to go up to the top with the church and the guy thought I was asking for a table haha. 

The next day since we had seen all the sites in Athens we decided to just relax. We walked around the open markets where Sheena picked up a few souvenirs then after that we went to “The Mall” yes its called The Mall. On our train ride there we also got to see the 2004 Olympic complex which was really cool. Now I have yet to see a real mall in Europe so I was shocked when I walked in and it was bigger and nicer than any mall I’ve seen before. We walked around for a bit and then went and saw The Dark Knight. I can’t believe I had to wait so long to see but it was definitely worth it. Great movie. Heath Ledger totally stole the show with his performance and made the movie what it was. Also I got free huge popcorn and huge soda at the theater because I didn’t have cash to pay for it and they didn’t take credit card so they gave it to me for free. The weird part was they took credit card for the tickets but not the refreshments.

After the movie we ate at a place called goody’s which was actually pretty good just got a sandwich and fries and a soda plus once again things turned in our favor when we weren’t charged the real price and got our food on the cheap. 

Next day it was time to head back to Bologna so we took the train to Patras where we explored the city for a while. Interestingly we saw a large group of people jumping the fences at the port. Apparently these are immigrants from other countries who have stowed away from Africa and the east to Greece and are now trying to get into Italy. It was weird actually seeing it in person, I don’t think I’ll go into discussion here as I don’t know enough about the situation to make any comments but it was just crazy to see.

Also we ordered some hamburgers in Patras which was really weird because they give you a plate with two hamburgers with cheese and bacon on it and then fries on the plate and some small pieces of pita, and lettuce and tomatoes, no bun. You eat with a fork and knife and layer the stuff on your fork it was pretty fun and good to eat.

We hopped on the ferry home later that day and made our way home. That was athens. Friday and Saturday we went to florence and pisa. I’ll update with those hopefully tomorrow, I’m just a bit worn out from recounting athens. It was a great week though and I would def do it again.

 

I’ll be adding pics to this post later today so check back soon.

-D.

Filed under: Uncategorized , athens, backpacking, boat, bologna, Europe, ferry, greece, gyro, gyros, italy, olympian, parthenon, patras, ruins, sun set, travel, zeus

updates tomorrow + pisa picture

Heres a pic of me holding up the leaning tower of pisa like I’m some kind of tourist or something. Will be updating tomorrow until then enjoy looking at all my strength while I hold up this massive monument with one hand.

Filed under: Uncategorized , backpacking, italy, leaning tower, pisa, travel

long trip ahead

I decided earlier this week that since Sheena had next week off I’d hold off on going to greece until then. Its been a really nice time in bologna, the food is absolutely amazing. I can def understand why its called the fat of italy. The best part about it is that most meals only cost between 4-8 euro, not to bad from what I’ve seen on my travels so far. Also italian pizza, is pretty delicious. I’ve heard from alot of people that the food in italy isn’t that great, undercooked pasta, gross pizza, and mainly I’ve just generally been warned to stay away from the touristy places bc they don’t really give a crap if your getting good food or not you’re a tourist. I’m happy to be staying in bologna far from touristy central, in fact the bolognese pride themselves on their food and when they ask you if it was good they generally sound concerned. Not the biggest city in italian but it does sport over 500 restaurants, if you saw how big the city was you’d be shocked by that number. Its no wonder they are called the fat of italy.

Anyways back to the topic, so tomorrow we leave for greece and as you may have guessed, packing has not yet begun…… shocker…… right sheena. haha. This trip to athens is definately gonna take a toll on me, the ferry alone is a 22 hour ride. That gets us into patras where we take a train to athens. We’re in Atens for 3 days, which means if the gyros are good i plan on getting my fill of them. Funnily enough I read that in greece gyros are actually made with pork or chicken and not lamb. Also they put french fries in them. It’ll def be an experience, can’t wait to see the acropolis and all the other ancient greek sites in the area as well. Better get packing. One last thing though. The other day I was in a music store here and heard this singer Rokia Traore, she’s really talented and I suggest everyone check her out. Be back in bologna in a week with updates on the greece trip.

-D.

Filed under: Uncategorized , athens, backpacking, bologna, greece, gyros, italy, rokia traore, travel

Venice, romantic?

I should think not. Unless you call showering in your own sweat and getting lost in the myriad of streets and waterways that dead end, romantic. Venice was actually alot better than what I had feared. It’s a beautiful city and getting lost is expected and kind of fun. Oh the things I had heard about venice….. where to begin. Stinky, hot, smelly, dirty, but you have to do it its venice. I’m really glad I had such a bad image of the city beforehand. I didn’t really think it smelt bad, in all honesty it was very much like any city, theres spots that smell but its only for about 10 seconds as you walk past. The houses were gorgeous. the peeling away of colored paint and windows lined with hanging plants. It had a lot of character which was cool, and even though every building leaned just a bit and cracks lined the walls it was really pretty and only added to the image of the city. I would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling. The one thing people were right about though was it was hot, but then again all of italia is hot. Unbearably hot at some points. To be honest I can’t really see any of italy being romantic in the summer. I could def see it in the fall when it cools down more, but right now its just so hot. 

 

We got on the train at about 8 in the morning and started reading the book on venice. The first thing we see ” Tip: don’t visit venice anytime between July and September as it tends to be hot and packed with tourists” Haha. ps the book was right. The plan when we arrived in venice on saturday morning was to follow the map that Sheena had in her italy book and hit all the big sites and make our way to the Piazza San Marco. After about 3 minutes in the city we realized there was no way that was happening. In case you didn’t know the map doesn’t really show everything in venice rather it gives you an outline of the major streets pretending that they all connect nicely and that you should have no problem getting where you want. We quickly learned that the map we had was almost useless. The best way to get around is to follow the yellow signs that lead you to the rialto and san marco. Even these signs can be confusing as well since the names will randomly change on you and soon your down dark empty alleys with spray painted arrows wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. Eventually we got our way around and we saw the bigger sites. The palace, san marco square, the basilica, the pigeons, the rialto, the grande canal, the market, the gallery at the academy. To be honest some of the prettiest parts of the city were the areas where we got lost. We were virtually the only people in the area and the canals separated the sides of the street, little bridges and peoples clothes hanging, it was really nice. It didn’t feel touristy when you got lost and thats such a nice feeling. It was a really great day but it definitely wore us out and we caught a train home about an hour earlier than we planned. The funniest part is on the train we were looking at our pictures and they don’t convey how many people are really there and how hot it is, they’re just really pretty looking. It was a really good trip though and really glad I went.

 

After the exhausting Saturday we had, Sunday was def a day of rest. We slept til about 12 then walked around bologna. Went up one of the due torre. Theres 498 steps to the top and it looks and feels as if the steps haven’t been changed at all since it was originally built in the 13th century. The tower itself slants slightly (what doesn’t in italy?) and half the stair cases feel like they’re ready to collapse on top of on another as they creak while you climb up them. Also I just wonder who was the guy who said you know what build me a tower, no rooms, no real place to stop, i just want a tower with steps, and then at the top make a balcony so that only me and 5 of my friends can chill up there comfortably, no no no, i don’t want enough room for 7 people only 6. Seriously i couldn’t see more than 6 people fitting at the top. Also who decides to stop at 498 steps, it just seems like an odd number to choose, why not 500? oh well we climbed just under 500 steps, man 500 would have just been a better number. oh well. The view at the top was probably the best you can get of bologna. From there you can see the other half dozen towers that were built around the same time and the church in the hills. It was def fun to get up and down the tower and see it all, except for the part where I got stuck behind Sheena going down. For real I’m practically running down the steps and she sitting here taking one step at a time like she’s 98 years old. Haha it was really funny. Then we got gelato, as is a staple of Sheena’s italy experience. Then we walked around a bit more, went to a medieval museum, and saw some churches. It was a pretty good weekend. 

 

typical venice canal

 

palace column

 

 

aww someone was worn out from venice

 

 

Until next time,

D.

Filed under: Uncategorized , backpacking, bologna, grande canal, heat, hot, il due torre, italy, rialto, saint mark, san marco, travel, venice