Is Not Chicago

It´s official: the French Riviera is Phat. It is all you have heard about it: beautiful beaches, ridiculous villas pearched on the edge of cliffs to the ocean, wealth dripping from everywhere. We took a train from Rome to Nice in France en route to Barcelona. We stayed at this great hostel filled with young people and a packed bar that served 1 Euro drinks. We spent the first day on the beach at Nice. We also happened to run into a bocce ball tournament. It was the funniest thing to see all of these old men in matching shirts and straw hats playing bocce at a professional level. This was no fun and games lawn bowling, this was serious business. The center few courts (I guess that is what they are called) had stands around them and areas for the media. It was kind of erie. The beach itself was also great because as usual for europeans, the French have no aversion to toplessness. The only one who wasn´t topless was Derek, because he got an incredible sunburn that makes him look vaugly like a lobster wearing a white tuxedo.
The next day was even better. We took a train over to a small village called Cap D´ail. That is where the really rich people live. There is an amazing beach and a cave you can swim out to in the surrounding cliffs. We then decided (stupidly) to walk down the paths along the sea to the next stop for the train: Monaco. Yep, D-Rock and Dema the Greek rolled into Monte Carlo. Although I wouldn´t say that we rolled too big. The walk was an excruciating two hours in the very hot sun and we were really scrubby by the time we got there. In fact, the last few hundred meters were through this tunnel that I think was only designed for car traffic. It smelled and was very dirty. Derek accidently brushed up against the sooty wall and got black all over his beloved Cubs shirt. To ease his troubled mind, I bought him the cheapest, most touristy “I love Monaco” shirt I could find. I myself was wearing a green hawaiian shirt over my bathing suit, so I didn´t look much better. The walk was pretty cool though beacue we saw all of these villas with their own little paths down to the ocean. I couldn´t decide which one I wanted to purchase, so I have decided to wait and buy one next time. We didn´t gamble, but we did get to see the craziest yachts and cars you could imagine. We feel alright though, because the NEXT time we go into Monaco, we will not be walking, we will be Yachting! We´ll always have the story to tell over cigars and wine when we are dining and living the good life. But at least for now, we will be sleeping on an overnight train to Barcelona! España here we come!

Brian

So Brian once again beats me to telling the stories. I got into London just a little bit ago as I close out my portion of the trip. I went down by the Thames and went up the Millenium Eye (which is the one big thing I didn’t do the last time I was in London for New Years 2000, because although it was supposed to be ready for the Millenium–hence the name–it wasn’t done yet). But it was awesome seeing London from 130 meters up. Then I just wanted around for a while, lots of street performers–some skilled, some not so much.

Now I just have to figure out where to go get some good fish and chips (I refuse to eat the fries with mayo. Even if the Dutch girls put it on everything.) and where the party’s at tonight. Then tomorrow I return to sweet home Chicago.

The hostel here won’t let me plug my camera into the computer, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for pictures, but plan on being a bunch once I’ve weeded through my 500 or so pics.

Peace.

Oh, Rome! I see why people love italy so much, they actually love Roma! The city is so amazing, everything is so close together, it is easy for tourists, and the sights can’t be beaten. I’ll give you a few highlights: Derek being an oompa-loompa after a very american frat-party like pub crawl, me almost getting us kicked out of a hostel after said pub crawl, trowing coins into the Trevi fountain, me being addicted to gelati and having had it for breakfast and lunch the last two days (it is so different from our ice cream, it is refreshing, light, and awesome), the Sistene chapel, the incredible St Peter’s Basillica with Michelangelo’s Pieta, buying a cheap Vatican pen to write postcards from the Vatican, that same pen exploding in the pocket of my only pants a few hours later, crazy Pope pictures everywhere (the new pope being not at all photogenic compared to John Paul), Derek (otherwise known as Mr Wizard) helping me to use hairspray to get the ink out completely, crazy idols at the Vatican museum containing teeth and bones of random saints, being rushed quickly by Pope John Paul’s tomb, climbing like a billion stairs to the top of St Peter’s cupola just because we were standing in the wrong line, seeing the colloseum and imaging how many people died there, commenting on the physique of basically every Italian girl we have seen walk at all above mentioned sights, sitting on the spanish steps waiting for the pub crawl (*see last statement), walking past the Rome Lambogini dealership, more gelati, an incredible meal for Jason the Greek’s last night in Italy before he flew to London, more gelati, eating sandwhichs from an incredible deli next to the trevi fountain, contemplating buying these awesome italian suits with big neck ties and having it shipped home (I just may before we leave) more gelati. Ridiculous. I would come back to Rome in a second. The tradition here is to throw 2 coins in the Trevi fountain, using one to make a wish, and the other to wish for your return. Well, I threw whole euro coins just to make sure.

Anyway, it is down to Derek the Bloody turk and myself. We are booked on a train to Nice, France tonight. I know there is so much of Italy still to see, but derek really wants to make it to Barcelona and I really want to see lots of Spain myself (again the Spanish girls are the prettiest we have seen, followed by Greek, and Italian *Que Bella!) Derek says he has become an expert in the european tradition of staring at girls and not looking away when they notice you. He also has done his hair in a Fohawk which is incredibly popular here. Hopefully he won’t seem like too much of a pervert when we get home. Mullets are also popular as well, by the way. And sometimes you see the Fohawk /mullet combo, which is really something, let me tell you.

Anyway, see you all in France!! Don’t forget to comment on the blog (although the trip is awesome, I do have brief moments of homesickness between gelatis). Jason will be putting up pictures soon. See you all in 2 weeks!

Brian

When the stars start to shine lika you a had too much wine, that’s a Napoli! Naples is one of the most confusing stops on our whole trip. It is a beautiful but dirty old city with like 3 or 4 crumbling old castles, great seafood, with the ocean on one side and Mt Vesuvius on the other. It was our stopping point for a trip to Pompei and Vesuvius. but Naples is incredibly hard to navigate if you haven’t booked in advance.

First of all, we are stupid. We arrived at the train station at like 11 at night with no clue where to go and no knowledge of Itlalian. Unlike most other train stations we have encountered, the Naples station is in a horrible part of the city and very scary at night. The wierd part is that there are luxury hotels for business men all arouind it. We cabbed to the only hostel in Naples on the other side of twon to find out it was full. We ended up having to go back to the station and stayed at a 4 star hotel that ended being almost the same price for the 3 of us as the hostel! It was nice to finally have a real shower.

We only really toured the city when we went out to dinner the next day. We went big! A young cab driver took us to this great restaurant, went in to see if they had a table, sat us next to these dutch girls, and told the restaurant to take care of us. They ended up bringing like 6 different antipastos, an expensive but great wine, and great pasta. We ate like kings. We paid for it, but it was worth it.

What they say about Italian hospoitality is correct. On the train ride to Pompei, which is like 40 minutes outside of Naples, this old italian man was awesome. This Canadian couple was standing next to us carrying the biggest backpacks I have ever seen (the Canucks tend to do that, and they also always have Canadian flag patches on there stuff — the freakin’ hosers). Anyway, there were open seats next to the man and he told the Canucks to sit down. Well, he actually kind of yelled at them in Itlaian to sit down, and they were a little scared so they didn’t. He was mad that they wuldn’t accept his offer. So he told everyone else on the train what he thought. Finally they did sit and he offered them some of the pastry he was eating. Manga ! Manga! They didn’t eat so he yelled again. He was happy when they eventually did, but i think he was ready to start with us.

Pompei was amazing! It is so large, with so much to see. As at most Italian sites, they have audio tours you can take which are a bit confusing but cool. There was a camping place near the site where we should have stayed and where the archaeolocial project I almost joined stays. We toured the site in the morning and then took a bus to the top of Mt Vesuvio, the volcano that buried Pompei in AD 46 ( I think). Well, we took a bus almost to the top. We had to hike up a very steep path for about 40 minutes before we got there. It was hard but worth it. The only problem was that by the time we hiked down, the last bus of the day had left! You should have seen Derek talking to every person with a car there, regardless of nationality, trying to hitch us a ride. He should be a professional mime. He almost got us a ride with these French people but I think they got scarded when he tried to explain that we took the BIG bus here, not the small one. I don’t really know what happened, but they drove off quickly. We eventually got a ride in this tiny volvo along with two other stranded people from a father and son from California. Jason was very comfortable in the trunk. The driver was in the Navy and stationed in Italy, but he apparently knew no italian or where the train station was. We ended up driving around these small towns on the cost: Torre del Greco and Encorino (or someting) and were totally lost for hours before we finally found the station. It was highly uncomfortable, but at least we got to see these little italian towns.
We stayed at the 4-star place one more night (because we couldn’t book a place in Rome on-line because they were all booked for this weekend due to a wine festival – we eventually got one when we got there though) —and then took a train to Roma!…

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long time since our last posting. We have been in transit a lot lately. We are actually in Rome now, but I will try to put up a couple of posts about our adventures.

Corfu is an island on the west side of Greece. It is beautiful with Venetian architecture and huge piazzas where the entire city seems to walk and drink coffee at night. Corfu is also basically backpacker party central. Every able-bodied British, Australian, American, Italian, Spanish (oh Spanish girls are ridiculous) budget traveller somehow finds their way to this one hostel there called the Pink Palace. We stayed there two nights which was long enough to forget there is an outside world. There were actually people that stayed there so long they ended up working there. There was of course a booze cruise involving cliff jumping, sea cave exploring, swimming, and excessive boozing. Unfortunately the girl to guy ratio on our particular trip was like 5 to 1, so we refer to the experience as the dudes cruise. It was fun none the less. This hostel has rooms for 900 people and throughs a party in its own banquet hall every night. Drinks were 8 shots for 5 euros. Ridiculous. they are able to afford that buy mixing very suspicious alcohols together and by going sparse on things like towels and working toilets. That has been the general trend for the hostels we have been in since greece. Greece was so easy to find a place –you would get off the ferry at whatever island and anyone with a room to rent would come meet you at the boat. Sometimes it was a bit frantic, but it was always cheap and nice (if you don’t mind not flushing paper down the tiolet, yeah that is how it is all over the country).
After Corfu, we took a very long ferry across to Brinidisi, Italy. From there we took a quick train to Naples…