Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

it's been 13 days since i last blogged...

happily, the yankees did beat the red sox, thanks to aaron boone and his dramatic home run. of course, the yankees then turned around decided to completely suck against the marlins. oh well, at least the red sox still haven't won.

cinque terre was awesome. i saw a dolphin chasing fish while jumping through the water. but, i guess it was no big deal. i mean, i see that every day in connecticut... that's sarcasm for those of you who didn't pick up on it. i got to hike some of the trail that connects all five towns, but i couldn't do it all because one of the trails was shut down, and my injured foot wasn't really feeling up to the task of climbing all the stairs between montorosso and vernazza. more importantly i got some cinque terre wine, which definitely kicks ass.

the wine that i bought in cinque terre got consumed in nice. that was the next stop on my trip. nice is pretty boring. the beach is nice, but rocky. other than that, there's really not a heck of a lot to do there unless you want to spend a lot of money on expensive clothing or jewelry. the only reason i was staying in nice was to use it as a base to go to monaco. unfortunately, the day i wanted to go to monaco, there was an accident on the railway and they cancelled all the trains for the rest of the day. oh well.

even though nice wasn't too exciting i met a bunch of really cool people at the hostel. we hung out on the patio and drank wine and beer, and after we got kicked out (the hotel patio closed at 10) we headed on down to the beach and drank there until whenever. it was really cool and i am happy to have met such a great group of people.

from nice i went to barcelona and experienced my first night train. luckily i found a compartment with nobody else inside, so i shut the lights, closed the curtain, and laid out on all four seats so i could actually sleep a little.

i got to barcelona completely unprepared for the next six days.

i met bryan and matt at the hostel, and that's where it all started. on the metro we met lauren. the next day we met aynsley, monique, and jasmine. later that night we met tim and kim. this was the main core of our group.

the stories of what happened are not blog material. i couldn't possibly do them justice here, but i will say that i have not had more fun than i did over those six days. barcelona is serious about having a good time.

after all the drinking games, dancing, pub crawling, and narrow avoidances of the cops, the nine of us are going to have lots to talk about.

now i am in paris. the train ride here totally sucked. come to think of it, the first 24 hours here sucked. the train ride unexpectedly started out nicely. that's where i met rosalyne. we just started talking on the train in spain, and once we got to the border and had to switch trains, we spent the next four hours bullshitting about stuff. oh, yeah, rosalyne is from toulouse, and she lives in barcelona. which means she speaks fluent french, very good spanish, and decent english. me? right. um, i totally have english down. i got a little bit of spanish i can pull out, and even less italian. oddly enough, we managed to have about a third of our conversation in spanish. all while drinking a bottle of red wine. strange. i apparently remember spanish much better when i'm buzzed. once she left, though, things went all downhill.

i couldn't sleep much, and what little sleep i did get was definitely not quality. by the time i got to the hostel in paris at 8:30 in the morning, i just wanted a bed. too bad for me, because the hostel was full. so they sent me to one of their "sister" hostels. i got there about 15 minutes later, and they did have a bed for me, but i couldn't use it until 3:30. so i wandered around a frigid paris being miserable, tired, and cranky. i didn't even care that the notre dame was right in front of me, or that i was wandering up and down the champs-elysees. i couldn't have cared less, to tell the truth. i decided i would go on a mission to find falafel. happily, i found some seriously good falafel. sadly, it was the highlight of my day. i got back to the hostel at 3:30. i discovered that not only did i have to pay 3 euros for sheets, but that the hostel didn't even provide pillows. what a nice touch. after a short cat nap, i met my roomies who told me about our "5th" roommate named "mickey." as in MOUSE. sweet.

later that night i put money in the machine to use the internet. of course, the mouse froze and then i saw the sign that read "USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, NO REFUNDS... (sorry)." apparently they were serious.

the next morning i made it up for breakfast (surprisingly) at 8:45. i went downstairs where i was told they had run out of baguettes. that was the last straw. i went upstairs and complained to the receptionist who told me "there's nothing i can do." apparently there was something he could do, because ten minutes later he returned with some baguettes. it's a good thing because i was about ready to turn that building into ash.

anyway, now i am happy and i like paris. and i also have to pee like a madman, so this blog session is over. more later.

well, rome didn't go exactly as planned. i was supposed to leave on tuesday, but ended up staying 2 extra nights. on the pub crawl, i met 4 cool people, who all ended up being in my room, and we all spent the next couple days together. on wednesday, 2 of them split, and on thursday, myself and 2 sisters headed down to sorrento.

sorrento kicks ass. especially when you have an apartment in the nicest part of town with 2 double beds, a kitchen, private bath, a small grove of lemon, orange, and lime trees which has a small path leading to a balcony with a view of the entire mediterranea sea and mt. vesuvius, and it costs you 20 euros each.

however, i recommend not renting a scooter unless you have a chance to practice somewhere. we rented them, and the girls promptly fell off in the middle of an intersection. about 15 minutes later, we went up a hill and needed to turn around. the road was extremely narrow, and there was a large truck blocking most of the road, so i couldn't see if any cars were coming down the hill. i edged out, and it appeared to be safe, but some car came out of nowhere and i ran into the side of a stone wall. i fell off, and the bike flipped on top of my leg. the girl who was on the back flipped over the top of the bike. i was the only one who got hurt, and somehow, i escaped with only some scrapes and bruises. against our better judgement, we got back on the scooters (except for the girl who fell off twice, she took the bus back) and headed back to the apartment.

after regrouping, we checked out pompeii, which was really cool, and the next day we went to the top of mt. vesuvius. again, i have pictures and it's much better to explain in person. the next morning we took off for the isle of ischia.

we got to ischia, dropped our shit in the apartment, and headed to the beach where we chilled for a couple hours. then we found the thermal pools and spent the rest of the day there until we watched the sunset.

yesterday morning the girls headed to florence, and i spent the entire day traveling. i got to la spezia, stayed in a totally dirty hotel, and got up early this morning to get to cinque terre, which is where i am right now. it's five small villages on the coast of italy where you can hike from town to town. so far it's been really beautiful, but now i am doing laundry and checking the internet, which is something i haven't been able to do for days.

anyway, i'm here for a couple days, and then it's off to southern france. i'll write more when i can, but for now i have to go back to the place i'm staying at. i hope you're all well and i hope the yankees beat the fucking red sox.

later...

ok, some weird things about europe. you have to pay for everything. no, i mean, you have to pay for EVERYTHING. want some water while you're having dinner? that'll be about €4. what's that? tap water? nice try... oh, and you'd better ask for still water or else you're going to get the bubbly kind. which is fine if you're sitting down at a restaurant, but even the vending machines sell mostly sparkling water. it sucks when you're super thirsty and start chugging water that you think is flat... and it's not.

that's not all though. need to take a piss at the train station in rome? you better have 60 cents on you. need a plastic cup for that wine you're going to drink at the hostel? 20 cents. how about a packet of ketchup? 10 cents. i'm surprised they don't charge extra for napkins.

and now for something completely different... italy really needs to invest in toilet seats.

let's see, what else...

ah, yes, street names. silly me. when i got here i assumed that if you find a street, that if you go straight on that street, that you continue to BE on that street. of course, this is not true. in most places in europe, the street names change all the time. sometimes every block. sometimes they go away and come back. sometimes they turn without telling you. it gets a little frustrating, to say the least.

what about street numbers? right. again, i had this crazy idea that numbers would be sort of like at home. you know, odds on one side, evens on the other. not quite. some places have numbers go up on one side, and down on the other. ok. that's a little different, but at least it's a system. some places have numbers that change with every new street name. some have numbers that continue on, even though the street names change every block. one city, venice, has a lovely system of putting groups of numbers wherever the hell it feels like, so as to give you a false sense that you actually are starting to understand what the fuck is going on, only to shatter that hope upon the realization that the numbers just jumped from 2000 to 1400 for no apparent reason.

italian men wear red shoes....

if you come to europe for 2 months, you WILL be beaten into submission by the constant barrage of mcdonald's at least once. shortly thereafter, you will feel both comfortably satisfied, yet at the same time thoroughly disgusted.

when you're on a budget, it's amazing how cool the free things are, and how overpriced and unsatisfying the expensive sights are.

most of the time i have no idea what the date is or what day of the week it is.

lastly, toursits are really fucking annoying.

anyway, as for my trip... florence was awesome. it is really really beautiful, and i found some great cheap wine. gotta love tuscany. i saw the major piazzas and churches and all that kind of stuff, but i refused to pay €8 for the uffizzi gallery or €6 to walk around boboli gardens in october. instead, i walked up the hillside, behind the gardens, up a some super narrow back roads. it was the perfect day for a random walk. plus, no tourists. bonus. after a while i went over to fort belvedere to get a view of the city. i showed my youth card, and asked for a ticket. the woman looked at me and said, "i have special price for you -- free." i looked at her strange, and then decided to take my ticket quickly and quietly. so that worked out quite well...

on saturday i left florence and came to rome. which is where i am now until tomorrow (tuesday, i think...). rome is unlike anything i've seen. all the ruins and stuff is totally crazy. jesus christ, there are buildings that were around before people were able to swear by saying "jesus christ!" i'd tell you all about the pantheon, trevi fountain, etc., but i have pictures and you'll all see them. ultimately though, rome rocks. except the metro. it's definitely the most ghetto out of any metro i've been on.

so... time for me to go on a pub crawl. €15 for a bowl of spaghetti, 4 beers, and 4 shots at 4 different pubs in one hour. sweet. peace out.

craziness and more...

so my 26th birthday was totally radical. i use the word "radical" because everywhere in freaking europe they are wearing 80's clothes and the girls all have joan jett haircuts, and it really sucks. but i digress...

i felt much better on my birthday, so i got to the beer tent at oktoberfest around 2 and stayed until 8:30. i had a kick ass time, to summarize very briefly. after 4 liters of beer, i strolled out with a beer stein under my hoodie, and a free souvenir to take home; even if lugging that glass around is heavy and taking up space in my bag. it's ok, it will be worth the trouble! for those of you who have never been, oktoberfest is ridiculous. there are 12 beer tents which each hold about 9000 people, plus another 2000 outside in the beer gardens. so you're literally talking about 130,000 people at any given point in time that are getting wasted. by about 7 pm everyone is standing on the tables singing and dancing. i got to the hotel around 9 and slept until about 2 am when i woke up with a hangover. a couple hours later i got back to sleep, and woke up in the morning feeling fine. so i went back to oktoberfest. but, no, i didn't drink more. i decided to ride a couple roller coasters instead. after that i headed out of munich for innsbruck.

innsbruck is a small city of about 150,000 people, but has a student population of about 25,000, so i had a blast. i got there at night, met a couple guys, and went out to the bars. the nightlife in inssbruck is great, and the girls are incredibly beautiful. not as beautiful, though, as the alps. shit. the next morning i took a gondola to the top of the alps, and i could have stayed up there all day. it was one of the most awesome things i've seen, ever.

i went to lucerne later that day, and i'll say this about switzerland. it's expensive as fuck. lucerne was nice and all, but i liked innsbruck better. i didn't stay in lucerne very long the next day.

i went to interlaken. still in switzerland, but AWESOME. the most beautiful place i've been to. the hostel was great, and i met so many cool people. i also went canyoning. that means i was jumping off cliffs, sliding down waterfalls, and repelling down rock faces. not kidding, i think that may have been the most fun thing i've ever done. skydiving is close. i'm not sure. but canyoning is definitely up there. honestly, i wish i could have stayed in interlaken for the whole 2 months. it's THAT nice. plus everyone at the hostel spoke english. not just spoke it, like they were indigenous to an english speaking country. even the people who worked there. weird.

i left interlaken for venice, which is a beautiful city, but kind of boring for a single guy. i walked around and checked everything out. and of course the boats are the public transpotation, so i basically got a tour of the city every time i wanted to go somewhere. but 2 nights was more than enough time there. especially since my lame ass hostel had an 11:30 curfew. i hate that bullshit.

not sure where to go next, i had to choose between croatia, bologna, or florence. croatia was my favorite option, but the logistics were difficult, so i opted for bologna. of course, i didn't feel like walking around the city at 8:30 at night trying to find accomodations, so i just stored my shit at the train station, went to an english pub, and figured i'd see what happened. maybe i'd stay up until 6 am and go back to the station and take the early train to florence. as it turned out, i met these girls and ended up drinking with them until 2:30 in the morning. then one of them told me i could crash on her couch. that was very cool. somehow this kind of stuff seems to work itself out... (knock on wood).

anyway, now i'm in florence where my internet time is about to expire. so i have to jet. to be continued...