Day 14 - London to Stuttgart

Got up at 4:30am and caught our 5am cab and then jumped on the train from London to Brussels at 6:10am. We pulled into Brussels at 10ish and then caught at 10:30am train from Brussels to Cologne, Germany.
The chunnel train was pretty nice. It was kinda like taking a plane cause we had to be there early (but only 30 minutes) and then had to go through security and customs just like at the airport. Which is fine though because you definately wouldn't want anything to happen while under the English Channel.
From Cologne, we jumped on the 'local' train, instead of the 'express' to Stuttgart by accident. The express didn't leave until an hour after we got to Cologne, so we figured if we got on the train leaving right away, we'd get there sooner. Not the case. The local train stopped at EVERY little station along the way and ended up getting to Stuttgart 15 minutes later than the express. The worst thing about the train we got on was that the only seats we could find were in the 'ashtray'. It was horrible. A whole train car with no open windows, no air flow hardly, and every German smoking at least one cigarette every 15 minutes. I'm positive we were the only people on the train who couldn't speak German too. I couldn't believe that there were parents with children in the same car. It was the grossest 3 hours ever. And on top of that, we had to keep changing seats since we only have a ticket for the train, but not a specific seat unless we pay extra (about 2 Euros), we we'll know better from now on.
After getting to Stuttgart, we called Christian's mobile and he eventually found us at the station. It was pretty awesome seeing him for the fist time in a year and a half. He works for Bosch and was all dressed up and looked alot thinne, saying he'd lost 40lbs since i saw him last. He brought us home in his Volkswagon Golf to his apartment on the outskirts of Stuttgart and we met his girlfriend Anke, who is very pretty and very very nice and welcomed us very hospitably into her house.
We got settled, had a few 'Rothaus Pils' beers adn then we ate. Anke made us a traditional German dish from the region that had some kind of noodles called 'spatzle' with lentils and saiten (sausage). It was awesome and we ate ourselves full which we then followed up with a glass of Ramazotti (an Italian liqueur). We then had a couple more beer and then we went downtown Stuttgart which was way nicer than i expected, especially the main square with the two castles, huge water fountains, and 400 year old church, which was all right next to the shopping district which had tons of bars and clubs mixed in. We went to a Mexican style place that was very classy and we had a blonde German beer while we waited for 11 o'clock happy hour at which point we ordered these HUGE Long Island Iced Teas that were basically pure liquor and sugar with a LITTLE big of Coke for clour for 5 Euro (regular 10 Euro). Rob had the bright idea of pounding them back in one go through the straw (which we of course did) and then ordered two more before coming back to the apartment. They had a mattress and a small, self-inflattable mattress for us to sleep on. I took the mattress cause we're at my buddies place...haha.
Was great to finally get to bed around 2am after being up since 4:30am back in London.

Day 13 - London

We both slept in abit because of the rough night last night. I still can't believe we helped a cabbie change a flat last night...haha. Nevermind that, i can't believe he let us do it in the state we were in. We did the whole thing....it wouldn't surprise me if the tire fell off soon as he got around the corner.
Anyways, we had breakie at the hostel around 11 and were on the streets by 11:30ish. We're staying at the Generator up by Kings Cross. It's a huge hostel with a full cafeteria, laundry, probably at least 100 beds (probably much more) and a full bar with events going on each night. The best part is that they have happy hour everynight from 6-9 (i pound pints of McEwans).
So, we hit the streets with the tour bus pass that we bought at the hostel. We were with the Original Bus Company (or something like that). The pass lets you jump on and off any of their red, open topped, double decker busses as much as you want for a 24 hour period. A bus goes by each of their 60 or so stops every 15 minutes, so jumping on and off was easy. We rode most of the loop getting off at Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and near London Bridge to walk around. From London Bridge we jumped on a boat for a ride on the Thames River that took us from London Bridge to Tower Bridge. The buses and boat were a great waz to get oriented with everything (although it was pretty expensive - 16 pounds) and they all the buses and boat had a tour guide with a microphone who explained where you were and told different stories about each place, so it was worth the money.
We spent the end of the afternoon running around trying to get our Eurail passes validated adn book our train for the next day to Stuttgart to see my buddy Christian and then to Munich (Munchen) for the last two nights of Oktoberfest. Rob also had to get a Simcard for his cell phone, which ended up being a pretty big pain, taking lots of time and costing him alot of money too.
After finally getting everything figured out, we went to Sherlock Holmes' Pub near Trafalgar Square and had fish and chips (only 3 pounds with our tour pass). From there we walked all the way back to our hostel for the night.
We both LOVED London. What a great city. There's so many museums and tours i want to take when we come back near the end of our trip.
That night we were 'supposed' to take it easy and go to bed early because we had a cab coming at 5am to take us to the Waterloo train station to catch our 6am train. We hit a nearby grocery store adn go some bread, meat, and cheese for the train the next daz. After that we popped in the bar for a happy hour pint. There was a beer bong competition going on that neither of us wanted to go in, but of course, me with my rubber arm, Canadian beer drinking pride, and the honour of Clark Hall Pub to defend, i was on stage within minutes in front of a packed bar. There was a big group of Brits and Scots who were all tanked and yelling at me and calling me a wanker while i was on stage, hat backwards (nobody wears hats at all in Europe, so i get stares for the hat alone) and sporting my Metallica tour shirt. I shut them up pretty quickly though when i put down the pint through the giant funnel with the fastest time by almost half (you should be pround Mom!). My time held up and i won the 1 pint competition and then was 'forced' to go back up for the 2 pint competition and came in second! All that hard work, training all summer came in handy! So i won a bunch of more beer adn had not choice but to stay and drink it.
We hung out a bunch during the past two days with an American guy, Chris, from Colorado. He is an exact mix of my two buddies Kevin MacLean (he loves civil engineering; especially bridges and buildings and LOVES to talk about them) and Dave Nielsen (he's from Colorado and is very cheap). The similarities were scary.
I've decided that i don't reallz like English guys (based on not even two days in England). From what I've seen so far, they're either A) flaming homosexual type; or B) soccer hooligan type who have a huge chip on their shoulders all the time and look like they're about two words away from fighting whoever's close.
Anyways, finally got to bed at 1ish for about 3 hours of sleep.

Day 12 - Bergamo/London

Carlos woke me up this morning at 6:30ish and we packed in the dark and headed for a bus stop. We waited forever for a bus, but finally caught one around 8:30 to the airport. We met two girls along the waz on the same flight as me heading back to England after two months of vacation. I'm not sure what it is, but i must somehow attract smart people because Carlos is a law student and the two girls we met, Sophie and Georgie, are med students. Carlos says that he wants to come to Canada sometime soon and go fishing, so i told him that i'd take him. He's going to teach me how to make home made italian sauces via email. There girls were nice and taught me to properlz play sudoku on the plane ride (I'm now an expert).
Finally got to the hostel at 3ish and met up with Rob. We got some food and had aour first pint together then headed to the bar at the hostel. We stazed at a place near's King's Cross called the Generator. We relaxed abit, then headed up for the bar in the hostel. Chelsea and Liverpool were playing, so we bet on the game through the pool being run in the bar, and then drank 1 pound pints from 6 till 9. We got pretty trashed and the game finished 0-0 which sucked because everytime the team you chose scored, we were supposed to get a shot of tequila, so we didn't get any at all (not that we really needed them anyways).
After that, me and Rob went for a walk and got caught in the rain. Which isn't odd for London i suppose. What was weird though is that we came upon a cab driver with a flat tire. Like the good Canadian kids we are, we boosted the car for him and changed his tire because he didn't have a clue how to do it. We got absolutely soaked, but the old cab driver appreciated it so much that it was worth it. Everyone in our hostel thought that we were crazy, but it was fun.

Day 11 - Firenze/Milano/Bergamo

We got up and left our hotel in Fiesole earlz and headed into Florence. The plan initiallz was to try and park downtown somewhere and then find Faye a room for the night before dropping the car off right in the middle of the city. Once we got up closer to downtown though, we realized that finding a place and getting the car back on time was not practical so we attemped to follow the street map that the guz at the hotel gave us, however there were way too many one ways for this, so when we got within a few blocks of the garage Faye pulled over and i walked the streets until i found a route through all the one ways. From there we walked together to the train station and i helped Faye with her bags. We left each other at the train station just before noon and i jumped on a 12:14 train for Milano. The train took about 4 hours because of delays on the tracks.
The Milano train station was very cool with a huge barn or greenhouse type roof (not sure if that makes sense or not), but either way it looked very cool. I wanted to take pics, but i unfortunately and stupidlz packed both my cameras very deep in mz bag. I'm still able to fit all my luggage on mz back which is great (don't need an extra bag yet). Very nice to be able to do that and always have my hands free (George, if you're reading, you'd be proud).
From Milano i jumped a bus for about an hour to Bergamo airport and then from there, another bus to the city. From there i had to take a second bus to my hostel located in Ostello (i think its a suburb of Bergamo).
I had no clue where iw as going and i asked this old ladz beside me if she had a clue which stop i had to take (in my best italian...i know maybe 10 words now). She ended up speaking not bad English and told me that her husband died fighting with Canadian forces in the war and how she'd be more than happz to show me to my hostel and she actually got off the bus ahead of her stop and walked with me the 3 blocks from the bus stop to my hostel, then i guess back to the bus stop, waited for the next bus, and then kept going. I guess not all Italians are rude dicks after all.
I checked in around 7pm and then took a differnet city bus into the old part of Bergamo. Yet ANOTHER medieval fortress town. I'm ALMOST getting tired of them and am looking forward to seeing other parts of Europe. I ate dinner on my own (pizza with fries on it....weird cause i thought the fries were coming on the side) , then back to the hostel and hung out with an Italian guy and an Irish guy, both in my dorm room. Me and the Italian guy, Carlo, fly from the same airport around the same time tomorrow so we're going to make sure each other is up.
There are 8 guys in mz room, the two guys i mentionned earlier, two older Italian guys (40's), two Croatian men (40's) and a 69 year old man from the Netherlands. He told me he spent 2002 travelling Canada (went through Cochrane, but did not remember IF), because he wanted to see the country of his liberators before he died. He remembers the Canadian freeing his town in 1945 when he was 9. He sazs his favorite cheese is Canadian orange cheddar with almonds in it (?) because he remembers a Canadian soldier giving him a big chunk of it when he was starving. Interesting, but i've never heard of cheese with almonds in it (although i told him that i love it too...haha).
Up earlz tomorrow and flying to London to start part 2 of my trip!!!!

Day 10 - Fiesole

We got up at 7:30ish and packed up the car and headed back inland for the Firenze (Florence) area. Faye booked us a room in a villa just north east of Florence near a small town called Fiesole. Faye drove and i attemped to navigate, which worked prettz well until we got to Florence. We had to ask for directions from 3 different people before we found Fiesole, which is basicallz a suburb of Florence, but located up in the hills just north of Florence, so there are some amazing views of the old citz, apparentlz founded by Julius Caesar around 30 B.C.
We got to our place and into our room, which was actuallz prettz shitty considering the online description and the price for the night (over 100 Euro). Then we went for lunch at a restaurant on the mountain that had an amazing view of Florence a few hundred feet below. The service was shittz, but the food (i had potato dumplings with pesto) and the incredible view made it worthwhile. Our lunch was reallz late in the daz (3:30-4ish), and we went for a hike through the forest along the side of the mountain afterwards. The trail we walked was prettz cool and the forest looked alot like a Canadian forest, but with Cyprus trees instead of cedar trees, and of course the fact that it was along the side of a mountain overlooking Florence. The other difference i guess was that instead of the granite outcroppings up north in Canada, all the rock outcroppings were a limestone tzpe stone and we saw alot of old quarries that were used to excavate alot of the materials to build the original parts of Florence. There were also a bunch of ancient stone wall ruins and old caves where people lived hundreds or mazbe even thousands of years ago. It was pretty cool. It was nice too because at the time that we went, there were no tourists at all around, we actually saw onlz two other people during our entire walk (about 2 hours or so). Afterwards we came back here and just chilled all night. This was the first night we've had a t.v. in our room with english news, so we've been catching up. It's been weird having no clue what's going on in the world at all.
I drove to town to trz and grab us some snacks cause we didn't feel like dinner, but nothing was open. So we just plazed some cribbage, drank some vino, then hit the sac.
Into Florence tomorrow to drop off the car and then I'm off to Milano and Faye's in Firenze for 4 days and then to Sienna where she's meeting up with a group tour from Australia for 8 days.

Day 9 - Lerici

After our long long long walk yesterday we decided we would sleep in and then spend one more day in Lerici just relaxing adn getting caught up on email stuff, sleep, etc. I was woken to the lady we're renting from very urgently letting me know (in mostly Italian with a few English words) that i had to move our car from the lot that i was parked in NOW or it was going to be towed. Apparently there was a big car rally going on so our card had to go. So she drove me down there (still half asleep), about 1 km from our place, right away and i moved the car and then she drove me back.
Me and Faye then walked the kilometer or so into Lerici and spent the next few hours sitting around, exploring abit, each on our own, drinking vino, adn me trying to update my blog. It turns out though that i've been writing quite abit, so it takes awhile to type it all out. It's especially distracting when the only place in town with internet (1 computer) is a great little bar, owned by a French guy who loves to talk, adn has great vino on tap for cheap. Around 3:30, me and Faye met up and paid to go into the huge castle on the point sticking off the bay that the twon is in. There was a small war pictures art exhibit going on. Faye decided that she's still burnt out from yesterday adn so she left me and went home for a siesta. So right now, i'm sitting on top of the castle walls, looking down over the bay and the town, drinking vino from a juice box (weird, but good) and writing in my journal. I thikn i'll head down to the internet place again and sip some more vino and finish updating my blog, then probably go for a swim.

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Later on that day

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After finishing mz vino on the castle, I went back to the internet bar for another hour to trz and catch up on mz blog and sipped two more glasses of vino from the tap (Clark should get one of those). Again, the ladz gave me a break. Internet is supposed to be 5 Euro/hour, but the first time she gave me 2 glasses of vino an hour for 5 Euro, then onlz 7 Euro for the same thing the second time.
It was 6ish by this point and I still hadn't gone swimming and the sun was just about to set, so I decided what better a time for my first swim in the Mediteranean than sunset during my last night there. The beaches were empty bz this point, so i went down adn ws on of two people on the whole beach in the water. I swam quite a way out to the big break water rocks and then walked back along the rocks.
Back to the B&B, then dinner with Faye around the corner, then home to bed early.
Great relaxing day.

Day 8 - Cinque Terre

Got up around 7:30am and we got ready for our big day hiking the Cinque Terre. For anyone who doesn't know the region, or heard of it, the Cinque Terre (5 lands) is a series of five small villages along what they call the north end of the Italian Riviera. This whole region is very swanky with lots of big boats in the marinas, beaches, adn a gorgeous hilly landscape opening onto the Mediteranean Sea. Apparently George Clooney has a place just a few kilometers down the coast from here. The Cinque Terre stretches 11 km from the most northern town of Monterosso to the most southern town of Riomaggiore. There are trains connecting the 5 towns and roads run into 2 or 3 of them, although the best way to see the area is to hike from one end to another, but not an easy hike at all. We took a ferry from here in Lerici up the coast, stopping in 4 of the 5 towns. There's no stop in the middle town, Corniglia, because its built up so high on a cliff that its not practical at all. We rode all the way to the most northern town of Monterosso and stopped to get a slice of pizza and had a beer out on the street, that we'd brought in our bag, before starting. I didn't really know what to expect at all from the hike. I knew it was supposed to be tough and have great views, but i definately had no clue just how rugged and dangerous the trains were and just how much you actually have to climb, but the unbelievable views made it all very very worthwhile.
The first part of the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza is 'supposed' to take about 1.5 hours and is the hardest part of the hike by far. The first hour of the hike consists of going pretty much straight uphill along ancient steps and on very very narrow ledges. It blew my mind that we actually could hike straight up for that long, although we stopped for lots of breaks. As soon as we got to the top though, the climb was well worth it. I'm not sure if all the pictures that i took will capture even a fraction of how incredible it was, but i really hope they do. I haven't been able to find anywhere how high we climbed during the course of the day, but hundreds of feet up for sure, probably closer to 100 miles straight up (felt like it anyways). The other thing that blew my mind about the hiking was how narrow 75% of the trail was. Most of it was no more than 3 or 4 feet wide (no bullshit), with the outside dropping straight down or very steeply dropping most of the times. There's no way to get medical help up there if someone does slip off (which i'm sure must happen dozens of times a year, but medical help wouldn't matter anyways, because i'm sure 99 times of 100 there'd be no hope for survival anyways. The worst part for us was that we were walking from north to south, but since we were on the west coast, we were always passing people going in the other direction on the cliff side instead of the mountain side, which wasn't always fun and i think it bothered Faye quite abit. Everyone should be very proud of her for doing the trail though! Had i known what it was like, i'm not sure if i would've thought that she would make it all the way from north to south, but she was a trooper. On top of the climbs and the ledges, it was 30 degrees C, which made the conditions even tougher, but she trooped on like a champ, smiling at least 50% of the time. By the end of the first two trails, i was feeling rough, so i can only imagine how she felt. We had the option to train from the middle town of Corniglia to the south end town of Riomaggiore, but Faye wanted to push on saying she hadn't come this far through the two toughest parts to quit then.
The two northern routes were BY FAR the hardest taking us about 4.5 to 5 hours, including breaks, with the last two trails being much shorter and MUCH flatter, taking only about 1.5 to 2 hours. Most tourist only do the two southern trails as the two north ones are too hard. In all, it took us around 7 hours from north to south. WE were both so happy that we did it. After going through breast cancer, chemio, radiation, adn then a heart attack less than a year later, its absolutely amazing that Faye did what she did. She told me that she's sure had she not been training all summer for her breast cancer walk that she's sure she wouldn't have made it.
We got to the last town just in time to find a great table at a bar hanging out over a cliff, 100 or feet above the sea, and we sipped a couple of glasses of the local vino and had the most amazing view of the sun setting across the water. We sat with three Australians about my age and chatted with them over our wine and then found a small local restaurant and dined on octopus and anchovies pulled from the ocean that day.
We caught a train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia at 11ish (only a ten minute ride) adn then had to wait an hour for a 30 minute or so bus back to our place in Lerici.

Fantastic day.

ps- if you're going to hike the 5T, don't wear cotton underwear (trust me)

Day 7 - Greve-in-Chianti and Lerici

Got up feeling abit rough, but not bad. Had breakie and then we jumped in the car early enough adn headed for the coast. WE went (i drove), through the outskirts of Florence and then west to just north of Pisa, and then north along the coast. The driving was fine; on teh back roads through the mountains from Greve to Firenze (Florence) adn then on the highway the rest of the way. The highway is alot like the 401 between T.O. and Ottawa, but I spent most of the time in the slow lane, but still averaged between 130 and 140. Got passed by more Ferrari's today than in my whole life to this point. The fast lane is FAST.
It was pretty cool as we got closer to the Cinque Terre region and the coast because of the huge mountains, the views, and the bridges adn tunnels. At one point, we came out of a tunnel going through a mountain, onto a very narrow bridge with no walls, so you could see straight down the 100 foot + drop pretty much, and then drove straight into another tunnel in a mountain. Was pretty cool. If anyone didn't know, again, Faye is afraid of heights. I didn't know she was a very spiritual person, but i heard her say 'Jesus Christ' more today than i've maybe heard anyone say it in one day. At one point she was so terrified that she grabbed my arm as i was shifting to pass someone and simply looked at me and said 'No.'. This was as we were on one of these very high land bridges adn the look on her face told me she wasn't joking around.
Based on advice from a few people, we decided that instead of staying right in the Cinque Terre, we would stay in the sea-side town of Lerici instead, just a few km south of the Cinque Terre.
So we made our way into Lerici where theyre's a ferry running to the Cinque Terre and we found a B&B through the tourist information office. The place is really just a families ground floor, but we have the whole thing and even have our own rooms with king sized beds for only 30 euro each a night. the house is maybe 100m from the sea, but of course, straight up a hill and on the narrowest streets i've EVER seen. I had to make this one lafter hand turn after dropping off our luggage and had to turn up a hill with walls on either side of me and 'maybe' one foot of clearance on either side of me and at a T junction. To make things even worse, i had a car and a motorbike behind me waiting. Itìs impossible to try and describe, but it was rediculous and i was convinced that I was going to scrape the bumper on the wall, but then i stalled the stupid thing, going straight uphill, while half turned and by now the bike was right between me adn wall (idiot), adn he couldnn't move, so i tried going up without scraping the car and without rolling into bikerboy. Not sure how, but somehow it worked out. I'm pretty sure i'm a manual transmission pro now. I've never driven one regularly at home, but all this experience through the mountain zigzags adn the steep, narrow hills through towns force you to get good in a hurry.
From our home for the next few nights, we headed along the coast into the heart of Lerici (about a 1 km walk). This place is rediculously nice. Stretches along the coast with beaches and a large marina, with mountains all around and a large castle at one end sticking out from the point. We sat down at a restaurant along the water and drank local vino and watched the sun set over the mountain islands just off the point adn over the Mediteranean Sea. We explored the town abit and then ate alone one of the side streets at a restaurant and we sat at a table literally 'on the road' (there are no sidewalks in any of these small towns). After dinner and some more vino, we headed for home. One the way home we stopped and watched a live band playing in teh main square along the water. They were all Italian adn they did a 10 minute version of 'Twist and Shout' that was rediculously funny.
Up early tomorrow and catching teh first ferry into the Cinque Terre.

Day 6 - Montepulciano and Greve-in-Chianti

Got up around 8 to a beautiful valley with rolling hills in the background with the sun just slightly hidden by the cyprus and palmegranate trees in the garden. We packed the car and headed the kilometer or so into Montepulciano for breakie and to hit the internet cafe. We left town adn hit the road north for Greve-in-Chianti at around 11am. Faye drove, which stressed me out abit because she can't read the signs, so i'm expected to read them adn tell her where to go, and this usually involves making very quick turns, so its very tough. There are two options with driving 1) she drives, i navigate; or 2) I drive, I navigate.
So anyways, we spent most of the day in the car except for a few small stops. We went from Montepulciano to Pienza (another fortress type town with a characteristic square in teh middle of town with a huge church and a water well). Pienza used to be home to one of the Popes (Papa in Italian; i heard the name Pope Pius the ? kicking around somewhere) and his home was along one side of the square, but of course, we got there during 'siesta' time, so we couldn't take the tour. Italians really have their shit together. They don't open business until 'at least' 9am, then close from somewhere between noon or 1, until somewhere between 2 and 3:30. Sucks for tourists, but great for them.
We brought a lunch of meats, cheese, and rolls during which (sorry for telling this story Faye, but come on, it was pretty funny) a pigeon shit from above us and it landed right in Faye's olives. Not the end of the world. So we threw them out and moved camp over five feet, when all of a sudden I saw a feather drop right in front of me, so I looked up and saw that the pigeon from earlier had now moved over 5 feet as well. Then, in slow motion, I saw him shit again, from about 20 ft up, directly above Faye, accelerating at 9.8m/s^2. I just started to yell as it was dropping and then landed on her directly. Needless to say, she was not all that impressed and when she gets home and reads this, she'll probably want to kill me.
After getting Faye cleaned up, we hit the road west and stoped in Bagno Vignoni, a place with naturally heated baths. Apparently the Romans felt that the baths had some kind of soothing or healing abilities and so Roman Emperors and Popes used to come bathe there. It was pretty cool and we bathed our feet for awhile in one of the baths further down the valley. We were only there about an hour adn then headed north through Buonconvento and then through Sienna. Sienna is ANOTHER fortress type town and then driving/navigating got slightly crossed up here and instead of going 'around' Sienna, we went straight through the middle. Literally. The crazy thing about these fortress towns like Sienna, Montepulciano, and Orvieto is that they mostly go straight up at a very steep angle to the piazza in the middle and then back again. The problem with driving through though is that they were built over 1000 years ago, so the streets are usually not much more than 10 feet across. So fast forward to 2005, and add cars (because there usually aren't any restrictions or laws about driving into town....very weird) adn then add hundreds of tourists. So me and Faye went right into Sienna (not on purpose), driving up, with no room to turn around, hundreds of tourists roaming around, and on top of that, driving a standard up a very very steep hill (think Jacobs' Hill in IF, if you've ever been there). It was stressful, but we made it through fine.
From Orvieto to Montepulciano the day before, the ride was very nice becuase of all of the hills and the characteristic Tuscan style rolling hills, but the drive from Montepulciano to Sienna, on the other hand, didn't seem as nice with everything seemeing more arid or something...not sure what it was, just not as nice. This country is crazy though, because all of a sudden, north of Sienna, everything was gorgeous. WE were now into the Chianti region (very famous for vino) and everything was all of a sudden way more lush. The views from the hilltops were insane and we didn't go for more than 5 minutes without seeing big fat grapes hanging from vines.
We finally rolled into Greve-in-Chianti around 5 o'clock and the only room we could get looked over the main square (which was gorgeous), but at a cost of 90 Euro a night. Again, there was no freaking internet places here, so i haven't had the chance to update my blog since Sunday or Monday).
We found a place for dinner in teh square and split 1.5 L of local rossa vino and ate. I was pretty trashed after the vino and made the mistake of trying to call mom and dad after dinner and probably scared them (let's blame it on Faye being a bad influence).
After a dinner of locally raised chicken and rabbits for me, Faye went up to bed/passed out and i stuck around and talked abit with one of the guys working in the restaurant. Soon enough it wasw decided that i was going to go out with him and his buddies that night, i just had to wait for him to close up so that's when i claled home all drunk and then told mom that i had to go and get even drunker with some local guy (sorry again mom).
So anyways, he took me acros town to some local bar where a bunch of his friends, who also work in the service industry in the area, met up with us. Three of the guys, including the guy i went with, Saed (like on the show Lost), were Morrocans living and working in Italy. So we had a bunch of beers, Budweiser of all the beers in the world. They thought it was crazy that i live somewhere where it snows all the time and thought it was awesome that i play ice hockey. After a few beers, they invited me back to their place to smoke hashish, at which point i kindly said bonne sera and stumbled back to the hotel somehow and went to bed.

Day 5 - Orvieto and Montepulciano

Deciding that since we were living it up in a hill top fortess that we should leave the 6 foot windows wide open all night.....bad idea. I froze my ass off and hardly slept. What stopped me from closing them them? Not a clue. I'm an idiot. Faye on the other hand, got up, found blankets, put one on herself, but none on me.....grrrrr.
So anyways, Faye got up early and took a last walk around town, and i closed the window and finally and Faye gave me a blanket and i slept for 2 hours until 9:30. WE were outta the hotel by 10am and Faye sent me down to the tourist parking lot where we were parked to get the car and drive it UP the big hill into the city so we would save teh bus fare and Faye the walk down. Driving up streets that are as wide as a transport truck (the small way), is very nerve wracking, especially driving a 4-cylinder diesel, manula transmission when you aren't used to standards at all. Anyways, after a few close calls, all was fine, i grabbed Faye and we headed north.
We decided to take a back highway instead of the A1 (super highway) so that we could enjoy the views of the increasingly mountainous region (heading out of the Umbrio region into the Siena region). I definately became an expert mountain driver today. I've never seen so many tight turns and have never gone up and down so much in my life. The back highway was great though with some unbelievable views. It's nuts how many villages there are built on the top of hills and we saw more vino fields and grapes than i could have ever imagined. We stopped along the way and tried unsuccesfully to go on a wine tour south of Ficulle and then eventually tasted some wines outside of Allerona and bought wine right there at the Monrubio plant where we saw many many tractors with grapes in a huge bucket on teh back weighing in and out (just like the chip trucks in IF, but makine wine instead of paper). We each bought a bottle of what we both thought wasw the best white called 'Roio, Orvieto Classico'. Somebody let me know if you can find it at the liquor store and how much its worth (we paid 2 euro....3 canadian dollars a bottle).
From there we slowly weaved our way thoruhg 'San Casciano dei Bagni', 'Piazze', 'Cetona', 'Sorteano', 'Chianchiano', and then finally into Montepulciano, another hilltop medieval town very much like Orvieto. The difference being that Orvieto was pretty much mostly flat once in the town, but Montepulciano is prety much completely built on an angle all the way up to the Piaza Grande at the top of the town. I'm not sure what the height difference is, but i'm guessing 100 ft or so from the top of town to the bottom walls. Very steep.
We couldn't fine a place in town, so Faye eventually (after fighting with the bitches in teh tourist office) got us a place in some ladies basement. After getting very lost trying to find the place, we eventually found it. The old lady came out to meet us but spoke ZERO english. So me and the old lady tried figuring each other out for a good 5 minutes before she muttered something about her only knowing italian and French!!!! Wow! What a difference it is to go from not being able to communicate to understanding each other perfectly. The room was at least 5 times bigger than our room in Rome and at a cheaper price. We each had our own double beds, and to top things off, they live on a hillside looking over a HUGE valley with huge roling moutains in teh background (kind've actulaly reminded me of Judy and Harry's place, but in Italy). Definately the stuff they make postcards out of.
It was at least 5pm by this point, so me and Faye headed into the fortress and all of the way to the top (20 - 30 minute walk from the base= to have a glass each of rossa wine made locally that goes for about 80 Euro a bottle. I bought them both at a price of about 11 Euro total. Very good stuff called Barollo i think.
From therew we had a nice Italian meal with some more vino and then i drove us home. Up tomorrow early hopefully to see more of Montepulciano and finally use an internet cafe and phone. It's been pretty much impoosible to find places since Rome. There definately aren't pay phones all over and i still don't know how to call Canada anyawys. I asked Heather in an email on my first day to send instructions, but of course i haven't had a chance to go online to read them, so i've been screwed. And don't dare ask a local. They're all dicks as far as i've seen so far. I've had more blank stares when i nod my head or smile at local than i had bottles of beer all the way through university (well, not quite). I think i'm going to start sticking my tongue out at some locals tomorrow just to see if they flinch. Dad told me that the French were 'stuck up dickheads'; i'll compare my experience in the future few weeks. Off to the Chianti region tomorrow for lots of good wines.

Day 4 - Rome and Orvieto

Me and Faye got up early, had breakie and checked out of the hotel, then jumped on a train from Termini to Fiumicino Airport and picked up our rental car from Avis. By 11:15ish we were on teh Autostrada Roma and then north onto the big Autostrada heading in a big circle around Rome. A couple of hours and a couple turn arounds later, we made it to our first stop, a small town called Orvieto whcih is pretty much right between Rome and Florence in the Umbria region. Orvieto is a town of about the population of Iroquois Falls (the old part of Orvieto anyways), but is very unique becuase it sits on top of a huge hill and then whole city is completely walled in. We got to Orvieto around 2 and found a place to park overnight and then caught a bus into the old part of town. The hill up to the parking lot was very steep and whinedy (spl?) and gave a gorgeous view down into the valley. This view I guess was too much for Faye though, who was driving and who turns out is afraid of heights, because she had to pull over and let me drive because she couldn't handle looking down while driving.
Anyways, we parked and jumped ona bus that dropped us off in the Piazza Duomo (Piazza means square i think cause there were a bunch of 'piazzas' in Rome too). Anyways, we got up to the middle of the city and i was blown away. We were in a pretty big piazza in fron of the gigantic Duomo E Cappela Di San Brigio which is 'one of the greatest Gothic buildings in Italy'. Amazing looking church.
We had all of our baggage with us so from there we headed straight to look for a hotel called 'Posta' which was recommeded in my guidebook 'The Rough Guide to Europe', which has been great so far. We found the hotel easily enough, got a double room, then hit the streets. The town is spectacular. Exactly what you would expect from a city that is 3000 years old or so. The streets were again completely cobblestone and are wide enough for one car and one pedestrian (most of the time room for a pedestrian anyways, if not, you step into one fo the doorways carved out of the stone buildings), churches everywhere, adn just simpley an 'old' feeling that makes you really feel like that if there weren't cars, you'd have stepped back 100 years in a time warp. Tourists were everywhere when we got there, but by the time 6ish rolled around, the streets were bare of tourists and packed with locals.
So we got settled, walked abit, had a beer and i had a 'wild boar panini' (local specialty) in teh Piazza Duomo )the square with teh huge church= and then went on a tour of the underground tunnels located all over the teh city. The tour was 1 hour long and cheap (3.5 euro) and took us under the city into 3000 year old tunnels built for use as a place to grind olives in cooler temperatures adn then expanded into temples and mines. The second set of tunnels we went into had small windows built into the cliffs of the city and had hundreds of bird coops dug into the walls. Apparently they were built as pigeon coops, cause pigeons at the time were a source of food for the locals and so the people who owned the caves were very rich as a result of selling pigeon meat. The tunnels were also apparently used in the 1940s as air raid shelters during the second world war. Apparently pigeon is still a delicasy in teh area, although the only ones that i could find were live and sleeping in the holes in the walls across the street from our hotel windown. Our room had a huge (at least 6 foot high) set of windows that swing in and have small steps along the wall that let you hang your head out the window (and upper torso) in true european manner. We slept with the windows wide open and it made it feel surreal staring out the window at the thousands of year old wall across the street.
After the tour of the underground we wandered around the town stopped for the odd beers and then went out for a really nice authentic italian meal (i had vermicilli ribbon with minced hare) where we had a bunch of wine with dinner followed by sheep cheese with honey (another locally specialty), followed by expresso (basically five Canadian coffees condensed into 2.5 ounces), and then two glasses each of about 4 ounces of straight zambuka. Needless to say, i was a bit buzzed and Faye was pretty trashed (although she won't admit it). We came back and played some cards ebfore bed, during which we got sternly asked by some British dick next door to keep the noise down 'its almost 11:30 for god sakes!' (i blame it on Faye being drunk and loud).
Off to Montepulciano tomorrow. Hopefully i'll be able to find a phone or internet cafe to use cause they've been sparese.
Oh yeah, almost forgot! When we were on our way out of Termini Station in Rome, i was at an automated ticket maching trying to figure out how to get tickets to the airport when a lady with a baby (Faye thinks she had a midget, not a baby on her shoulder...i think Faye was still drunk from the night before) was trying to get me to give her money, but i told her no and then she quicly moved on to Faye who was behind me trying to read over my shoulder adn Faye gave her some change. Didn't think nothing about it till we got on teh train and noticed that her backpack where she kept her cash and everything else was unzipped and she was missing 200 Euro ($300 Canadian), but none of her cards were gone, thank god. Apparently its a well known gypsy trick to distract someone with a baby and then someone else pickpockets you; lesson learnt.

Day 3 - Rome

Wow! What a long day. Didn't sleep great last night, guess I was too excited about seeing Rome; might also have been all the dam noise out the windor, or the thunder storm. I stayed at the Friendship Place Hostel on Via Milazzo which is aprently a busy part of town (being right close to the central station (Termini)). Got out of bed @ 8ish to pouring rain which cleared up by 9. Said goodbye to my roommates and told the owner that i'd know if i was staying another night by noon so he let me lock my bag in a spare room cause check out is at 10am. Took off for Termini to meet Aunt Faye 'by the bus' at 10' which sounded like a good idea until I saw all the flipping buses at Termini and of course the PEOPLE! So i picked out a spot right in the middle of everyting and made myself look as touristy as possibly (not har) and stick out as much as possible (not hard either). Faye found me no problem. We hugged and then decided we'd find me another place for the night closer to her place so we grabbed my bag from my hostel and ended up working a deal for me to spend the night in her double room at the Hotel Papa Germano for only 10 Euro extra. So i dropped off my bag and we grabbed my first italian cappuccino. 6 ounces gave me such a buzz that i felt drunk. From there we walked. Then we walked some more. We pretty much walked straight from 11:30am till 7pm. It was freakin' awesome though. We walked basically from Termini to the Santa Maria Maggiore to the Colliseum, around the Colliseum, past the Arco Di Constantino, around the Roman Forum and past Circo Massimo (Circus Maximum), then through part of the Roman Forums, then northwest part the Canpidoglio or the Ara Coelri (not sure of the name), then around the Piazza Verezia (several times), then lunch, then up into the church dedicated to Caterina de Siena, and then into the Pantheon, then a quick stop for gelatos and then i convinced Faye to heard further north past the Palazzo Chigi and up to, and all the way up, the spanish steps. Walking up the spanish steps i had to tell Faye for the second time to 'Grow some balls, throw them over your shoulder, and let's go!'. She was a trooper all day though i have to admit. From there we walked all the way home and relaxed for awhile before heading for a 3 hour dinner at the place on the same street as our hotel (our table was RIGHT on the street). After dinner Faye crashed and i walked a German girl from Hanburg who i'd met before dinner back to her hostel (never let ladies walk alone at night....especialy in Rome, although i was shitting myself all the way home alone).
The day started on a huge hilight for me when i got to see the Colliseum. I've been waiting for years to see it and it didn't disappoint. It was amazing (i hope i don't over use that word in the next 3 months....probably will)! I was in utter awe and speechless. Me and Faye sat down across the street and had a Stella Artois (beer) each. What a way to have my first drink in Europe. Perfect.
Walking through a part of the ruins of the Roman Forums was amazing as wella dn i definately want to go back with Rob and take a tour inside the Colliseum and see all of the Roman Forums.
The monument a Vittorio Emanuelle II (whoever the hell he is) was prety impressive too. Everything here just seems to be so oversized...except the streets. Whcih bring me to my next topic...driving. All of the roads here are soooooooooooo narrow and basically all cobble stone too. And ppl park everywhere and ANYWHERE. I've never seen so many scooters in my life either. The drivers are all nuts and there are basically no cross lights for walking. You just have to walk out where its painted, like the crosswalks at Walmart, and hope the cards stop. Although what usually happens is the cars, buses, and scooters will just swerve around you. Its crazy, but as they say 'When in Rome....try not to get yourself killed'. It's insane, but i love it and can't wait to come back with Rob. Its 2am now, we leave Rome early tomorrow for the Tuscany region. Our turn to swerve around pedestrians.....

Day 2 - London and Rome

Landed at Gatwick Airport just south of Rome at about 7am. Turns out there were two other Queen's people on the flight and soon enough we were all together getting out luggage together. There was Andrew Titus and Maureen (Mo) something (a girl who just graduated from commerce). Titus had people meeting him at the airport and was heading to Glasgow for grad school and Mo was moving to London and looking for work. Lucky for her (bad for me) that we met up cause she had a rediculous amount of stuff and wouldn't have been able to do it on her own i'm sure. We took the Glasgow Express together for 13.5 pounds to Vic Station then she jumped in a cab and i took a 2 pound tube rigde to the Liverpool Station across the downtown (took me my third ride to finally get the right direction). Met up with a French chic at the Liverpool Station and we caught the Stansted Express (14.5 pounds) together which ended up being a bus instead of a train cause the tracks were closed for some reason. Got to Stansted at 10:45 and the French chic took off to catch her flight. I tried getting on the 12:30 flight to Rome, instead of my scheduled 4:35, but they were dicks and were going to make me pay an extra 100 pounds to do it. Here's my notes for the next 5 hours at Stansted that i wrote to try to keep myself awake by doing.

11:00am - so i'm sitting here by myself till i fly out at 4:35
11:32am - tried using the calling card that Heather gave me, but apparently i'm an idiot (can't figure it out)
11:46am - sitting here by myself, listening to my ipod and playing sudoku
12:05pm - apparently i'm an idiot (i can't do the easiest sudoku puzzle)
12:31pm - more tired than i've ever been in my life....didn't sleep at all on the plane
1:00pm - head bobbing and trying to stay awake...if i fall asleep now, i'll miss my flight and probably get all my shit stolen
1:04pm - want to sleep so bad it hurts
1:05pm - i am slowly going crazy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, SWITCH!
2:00pm - at least another 9 hours till i'll be in bed at the hostel in Rome
3:00pm - longest 4 hrs of my life...heading bobbing very hard
3:05pm - bought a travel pillow...thinking too much about sleeping
3:10pm - just bought a coffee and two Red Bull
3:20pm - crazy going slowly am i, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, SWITCH!
4:00pm - boarding time.....off to Rome!

Yeah, i was pretty fuckin tired.

Got into Rome by way of a super budget flight...no tv's, no food, but you could 'buy, whatever you wanted including Britney Spears perfume. Met a guy, 'Sharoose' (i think). I suck ass with names. Ayways, he's an architect student originally from Bombay, but going to Cornell and live in Rome now doing an exchance and had been in Rome for a few weeks so 'kinda' knows his way around. I followed him through a shady looking customs office at Ciampino airport and then jumped on a different bus than they advise the tourists to take, but is apparently, and was, cheaper, but had alot of very rough looking people on it, all of whom were starting at me. The bus took us to a very sketch and scary looking Metro station where after the bus left, turned out that the station was closed and there were no other buses in sight. There were about 6 groups of guys just hanging out, lots over fires they'd made in garbage cans, and as soon as they saw us come back up from the station started yelling shit at us in italian. I pretty much thought the trip was over right there. We just kept walking and started heading towards where the buses are supposed to pick people up but nothing was around at all. One group of guys (all big and black), started yelling at us more and then started walking over towards us. I think this was about the point that i shit myself. I looked at my little Indian guide and he told me not to say nothing and said that in a sec he was gonna run....SHIT! Just as were turning to run, a bus came flying round the corner with nobody in it, slowed, opened the doors, we jumped in and the driver drove off laughing and saying something to us in Italian that we took as 'bet you were happy to see me eh???'. The bus took us all the way downtown to the Termini Station which easily could have been mistooken for Compton, L.A. My new friend then apologized for the tenth time and left me at Termini. So there i was, alone, not knowing where the hell i'm supped to go, but pretty happy to be alive. Termini at night was pretty wild with everyone wanting to talk to you, or wanting you to buy something, or wanting them to go to their place where its 'very nice, very nice'. Thankfully, if you ignore them, they will leave you alone pretty quick. 20 minutes and lots of turn arounds later, i finally found my hostel which was in even sketchier than right around Termini and had pretty much the scariest looking death trap of an elevator i've ever seeen. It was barely big enough for me and me alone, and you had to close the doors manually and then pray that you actually can get out without a scene of 3 or more italians with guns and knives taking your shit. Once up the elevator, someone on the outside pulled the doors open and led me to the hostel. The half Indian, half Italian owner tried swindeling me, then finally gave me my room. After showering and chatting with my two British, Swede and Aussie room mates i decided to brave it outside to try to find internet or phone. The phone place i found was weird as hell and finally after having an American guy show me how to use the phones in the little glass booths i called Heather and left a msg for Mom and Dad (both very quick). I only brought 5 Euro with me being pretty sure i'd get mugged. So then then back to the hostel and to bed right after hanging out with the 4 extremely drunk Aussie girls in the next room. Finally to bed, 32 hours after waking up in TO the night before. Went out like a light.

Day 1 - Toronto and Somewhere Over the Atlantic

After a great party at Russ and Colleen's Friday night and breakfast with Matt and Meg and Russ and Colleen, Heather drove me to the airport and i left Toronto at 5ish, and then into Montreal for an hour and a half, and then headed out over the Atlantic Ocean for my first time. The plane was packed solid, but keeping with my good luck lately, i had one of 4 empty seats on the plane right next to me, so i had the two seats closest to the window all to myself. By the end of the 17th in North American time (5am in London), we were probably somewhere between Iceland and Ireland.

Almost time to go

Its Friday. 8 days till i leave for Europe. I'm excited, but more nervous i think in a weird way. Been too busy here too to even really think about it. Defended my thesis a week ago Tuesday. Was really really nervous leading up to the date, but turned out to be pretty easy. The defence involved doing a 20 minute presentation to 5 professors (3 from the department, 2 from outside of chem eng) and then being grilled for 20 minutes by each prof. Ended up being more of a chat then really being grilled, then i left the room, they chatted things over, and then invited me back in and they all said congratulations, etc. They each gave me a page with changes that they wanted made to the thesis, so i've been working on those for the last two days. I definately did not get to them right away after finishing cause i was too happy to be done and was only erally in the mood to party....and as much as possible. The whole lab went out for beers the afternoon after i finished my defence to the Grad Club and then back to my place for bbq and beers for the rest of the night. The next night we had a 'Neal's finished' party at my place. I bought a keg and me and 30 of my closest friends packed her down. The next couple days i just hung out and finished packing all my stuff and put it into storage. I was lucky enough to get hooked up with a friend's sister who has a whole empty basement for me to put my stuff in. I was going to put it into storage for $75 a month till after xmas, so instead i put it in this girls basement for a case of beer and a $100 gift certificate to a good restaurant here in Kingston. When i went over to the girls place i found out that she has a 5 foot python! Pretty wicked. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and play with it. I've never held anything like that before...it was a bit creepy, but more awesome than anything. Friday, me, Heather, Kelly and Sean, George and Becky, Lori, and Heather's brother Sandy and his girlfriend, Lindsey, went to Heather's cottage north of Montreal. Me and Sean rode together so that neither of us had to listen to the girls all the way to Montreal. We got there late Friday night and pretty much just partied all weekend, played in the water a bit, took some boat rides, and listened to tunes. Everybody but me and Heather and Sandy and Linds left Monday and we went to Sue and Ric's (Heather's godparents) that night for dinner. Me and Heather left the next day.

So now i'm living at Heather's place as i'm unemployed and homeless. Its a pretty awesome feeling actually. I've been spending my days working on my thesis corrections and my manuscripts that i'm getting published while Heathers at school. Then she comes back and makes me dinner. :) Just like a good girlfriend.....haha.

Heading to Toronto tomorrow to buy a few more things for the trip at the MEC co-op adn spending the night with Russ and Colleen. Back to Kingston Sunday and finish up last minute things for the trip and with my school stuff until Wednesday, then back to TO on Thursday probably, party downtown Friday night, and out on Saturday at 4:30 from Pearson.

Been talking to Faye abit about our initial plans for the first 10 days of my trip with her in Italy...i'll follow up later today with our tentative plans.