Longest Blog In the Entire World... EVER

Ok, so this is the posting (FINALLY) of things I've had on my laptop forever and a day waiting to post. Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. Enjoy reading the novel!!

December 17, 2005
And the European road trip has officially begun. My host family was kind enough to drive me to the bus station this morning to get to the bus to take to the airport, where I’m sitting right now. The weight limit for checked bags, of which you are only allowed one, is 15 kg. I put my bag on the scale here and it flickered high and then low and finally rested on 15.1 kg. At this point I thanked my lucky stars that I had bothered to put a little mascara on this morning, batted some long eyelashes at the rather attractive young airline employee who looked at me, nodded, and spoke the heaven-sent words “Ca marche.” Overjoyed I took my ticket, with a small sense of well-deserved self-satisfaction and continued to security check. I have certainly flown more in the past 4 months of my life than in all my other 20 years combined and this is my third time since October to fly out of Saint Geoirs so I automatically knew that security included taking off all jewelry, belts, scarves, jackets, bags, hats, and anything else that could in any realm set off the metal detector. Unfortunately the girl in front of me was not so keen on these regulations and after setting off the detector three times, each time removing more clothing and trying yet again, I finally got my chance. Then passport check. My passport is starting to look very full, which I am immensely proud of, so I actually had a little chat about my passport and my studies in Grenoble and the trip I was embarking upon with the passport control man. Oh… and did I mention this entire exchange was in French? Point – Dana. And now I sit here waiting for my plane to land so I can get on, cry about how much my ears hurt and go meet Joanna in London. So far it’s just nice to know I’m on my way. But we all know that peace and simplicity simply will not do on a trip of mine, thusly I expect something unexpected at any moment…

December 21, 2005
So we’re all sitting in a train station in Venice waiting for our train to Florence to arrive. It is absolutely flabbergasting that we’ve been traveling for four whole days already. I guess I’ll go back and kinda start from the beginning a little, since I have more time to talk about Munich and everything.
We all met in Munich on Sunday and ever since things have been going rather swimmingly. Munich was wonderful. Our hostel was certainly happening; we even met two guys there and ended up going out to a beer hall with them one night, but all that later. There was lots and lots of snow!!! Since Grenoble didn’t get any snow and I hadn’t really seen anything that really reminded me of Christmas it was so nice to be kinda cold and snowy.

The Christmas market at Marienplatz, the main square in town, was another highlight. All sorts of Christmas crafts and decorations for sale and people dressed up, and local foods and drinks for sale… too bad my backpack is already full, I certainly could have bought some things. There were even some carolers near one of the big churches and the big snowflakes were falling and it was really really cool.
Then on Monday we went to Neuschwanstein, which is King Ludwig II’s pride and joy castle in the Alps. It was actually only built about 150 years ago, but it was built in an old style so it’s really a throwback in time. The train ride from Munich to Fussen was gorgeous, with the Alps getting closer and closer and the snow covering everything… from Fussen we took a bus for a little and then got tickets. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, the busses up to the castle itself weren’t running due to snow and slush. So we walked all the way up. It took about 45 minutes and we were still WAY early for our appointed tour time so we started looking around. Off to one side there was a giant sign and a fence that said “Danger Ahead”. What does this mean to a bunch of 20-somethings? Something really cool must be over there. And we were right. After climbing over the fence and walking through knee-high snow for a little bit we got to the BEST views in the ENTIRE WORLD. Breaking the law was totally worth it.

We're so naughty...

Made it back to the castle for our tour (short and kinda lame, though the interior of the castle is pretty outrageous) and then back to Munich to meet the guys. Oh… Kim’s luggage finally showed up by the time we got back, yay AirFrance.

Eric was from Illinois, studying in Barcelona for the year and just happened to be in Munich on a trip, Erwin was from Stuttgart and living in a hostel while he looked for an apartment. So the six of us headed to a beer hall for a little beer and a lot of good German food. What an experience! Loud, crazy music, people everywhere… service was really really bad and we almost walked out without paying because we had to wait over an hour for our check, but the food was good. Kim and I couldn’t read the menu (all in German and Erwin was trying to help everyone else translate) so we asked the guy behind us what he was eating since it looked so good and he just grabbed a new fork and let us try it and ordered for us and everything… it was great! New friends everywhere.

Night train to Venice!! Waking up in Italy is pretty crazy. Took us forever to find our hostel since it wasn’t in old-town Venice, but when we were finally all checked in we headed to the Venice you see on postcards for the day. We kept having to remind ourselves that we were really in Venice, Italy. It’s almost surreal because you’ve seen it and know about it but being there is totally different. We learned very quickly that maps and directions are completely useless. It’s best to just wander randomly until you happen upon one of the large yellow signs that point you to either the train station (Ferrani), St. Mark’s Square (S. Marco), or the Rialto Bridge (Rialto). Then you play the “try and find the next sign” game and guess which road the arrow on the sign is really pointing to. Though I’m convinced that whoever put up those signs decided to take the longest way there possible, passing Uncle Luigi’s shop and Aunt Maria’s bakery before dumping you out where you wanted to be an hour after you started.
It’s really hard to describe Venice; pictures just do it a lot more justice. The buildings along the outer edges of the islands really look as if they’re just floating on the water.

View of Venice from the Vaporetti.

From far back you can’t see the foundations or the steps down to the water or anything. It’s an amazing phenomenon that they were able to build on the water anyway. We’re all pretty lucky that we got to see it since it’s sinking rather quickly. The vaporetti are amazing as well. The canals have a series of boats that take you all over, but they’re so slow and cold in the winter. We took one out to another island in the lagoon, Murano, to see the famous glass blowing workshops there and it took over an hour.

Vaporetti are great for people watching, especially the ones that go to the other islands in the lagoon, because then you’re seeing native Venetians. Fur is really big here and apparently the bigger your fur coat is the better. Some of the elderly ladies and their fur coats, fur hats, scarves, and high heels were utterly comical. We had a really long day so we went home early and slept for a very very very long time and finished touring some cute little things and now we’re here and waiting for a train to Florence. Good times, good times.

December 22, 2005
Thanks for hanging in there everyone while I waited to save all this stuff to my camera so I could post it. Internet spots abound in Europe, but my mind never seems to remember to save it all on my camera and take it along in the morning. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures from last time, they were kinda randomly assembled from Mallory and Kim’s cameras but I think it turned out very well. Ok, so Florence. Amazingly enough we were able to hit all the highlights we wanted to see in just one day!! We’re learning really quickly that it pays to be organized and have a list of general things we want to see. And the Rick Steves’ guide to Europe is pretty much our bible. We even had a little “prayer circle” after a reading from Florence 874:1 last night that the wisdom of Rick Steves would be with us in our travels the next day. And I think it worked.

We saw the Duomo… one of Mallory’s friends told her that if she saw anything in Italy it had to be that. I think we described it as “gorgeous”, “massive”, and “weird” all at the same time. The inside is so huge that you end up feeling itsy-bitsy, which is nice for Mallory and I since the average Italian is about 5’2’’ so we always feel like Gulliver in the land of the little people.

After that we ended up getting lost and walking across the river to see some residential Florence and some neat (and not so neat) churches. The Florentines do like their domes and they love to paint murals in the domes. Chiesa di San Frediano in Cestello had some really cool 3-D paintings on the ceiling that gave the illusion of more galleries and windows higher up. The Ponte Vecchio was surprising because it’s hard to tell you’re on a bridge. There are some many shops along the sides and it’s covered over on the top as well, so the only place you can see the Arno River is in the very middle. It was decorated for Christmas and they had American Christmas music playing and it felt very festive. In the middle there’s a statue and the fence around the statue is covered in padlocks. The custom, though it seems that only tourists really partake which is fitting, is that you bring your loved one to the bridge lock the lock and throw the key into the Arno as a sign of your undying love. Funnily enough, there are some combination locks as well… I suppose if you break up at least you can come get your padlock back?

Lock on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

We saw Michelangelo’s David first thing this morning which was a blessing as there were no lines when we got there and almost no one in the museum. He’s much larger in person (and smaller in other ways if you catch my drift) but Kim and I discussed how he was pretty close to the perfect man… he probably cooks well, likes to cuddle, isn’t afraid of commitment, and likes kids too. Too bad he’s made of stone. *sigh* As our last place to visit for the day we walked out to Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s a park on the other side of the river at the top of a hill and has magnificent views of the city.

View of the Duomo from the top of the hill.

Unfortunately there were a few men that thought we’d like the view of themselves better… but quickly walking away seemed to get rid of them unless Mal yelled the obvious. lol On the way back to the hostel to warm up, rest up, and get some logistical things done we stopped for the world-famous Italian gelato. We had three different flavors and decided that it really is as good as people say.

And now we’re chillin’… or rather warmin’ in the hostel before some pasta for dinner. And tomorrow we’re heading out for Pisa. Since we have an extra day here and not enough to see in a whole day we thought taking the obligatory “I’m holding up the leaning tower of Pisa” photo-op would be fun.
Later that night… Interesting fact really quickly. Tonight at dinner we found this tiny little pizzeria near our hostel and while we were there an American woman came in. We asked her where she was from and why she’s in Italy. Turns out it’s a very Under the Tuscan Sun type story. She’s from Hawaii but she was working too much at her job there and didn’t like it, so she quit and came to Florence to teach English at her friend’s school for a year. How cool is that?

December 23rd, 2005
So I went to the internet today to try and put all of this up, but of course I’m a complete idiot and forgot the connection cord for my camera making it impossible to put anything online. So now you all just get a million more things to read through Christmas. We went to Pisa today to see the leaning tower and guess what? It’s leaning. That’s all the town really has to offer though. The train ride wasn’t too long and when we got there we walked across town to the town in under half an hour and got to the plaza that has the tower and church and everything. Did anyone else not know there was a church there?

The obligatory holding up the tower pose. You end up looking like an idiot to take them, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Interesting fact about Pisa as well… it is nearly impossible to get a group picture in front of the tower. I’m not sure how this happened, but both tourists we asked to take a picture of us got nice pictures of us… but failed to include the tower. Pictures we tried to take of ourselves in front of the tower got random body parts, cut off faces, lots of sky, and very little tower. We also got some really good gelato and a walk through a very cute little market. Kim and I went out to see Florence at night this evening and had some more WAY overpriced gelato, but the city was really lit up with garlands and lights in the alleys and a Christmas tree in the main square and everything.

Ponte Vecchio in Florence at night all decorated for Christmas.

We have to get up at 5am tomorrow to catch a train to Rome so I’m gonna leave you all now. Have a great night!

December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale and all that jazz everyone. Greetings from Rome, Italy where we are actually pretty miserable. Not really sure where to even start, but for those of you that are sick to death of reading all of this and want to throw something large and hopefully blunt at me let me sum it up quickly by saying never ever ever ever come to Rome. Now I’ll elaborate:
We got up at 5 am to get to Rome early because we wanted to make sure we were able to see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel before they closed since they’re closed today (Christmas) and tomorrow for whatever reason. All was going well, we caught the train with plenty of time and were happily asleep until the train fame to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere and we started to freeze to death because the train stopped. After a lot of hand motions, broken Italian, and very slow English we were able to determine that the train was broken down and we needed to go back and catch another train. This meant sitting in a train station for an hour and a half and then getting on a train that was already packed to overflowing. We ended up standing in the aisle for two hours on the entire train ride to Rome. We were separated, Kim and I on one side and Mallory and Jo in the car next to us. Let it suffice to say that each of our cars had rather interesting characters standing very close to us for two hours. By the time we got to Rome it was 11:32 and we’d been on a train for 5 hours. We found our hostel (on the 5th floor of a building) and waited to check in until we realized that the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel were closing in 20 minutes. We ran down all the stairs, ran to the Metro station, got on the train, literally full-on sprinted all the way to the museum (which included a very large flight of stairs) and found out we were 10 minutes late. All the way to Rome and we didn’t get to see the Sistine Chapel. So now we refer to it as “that place we’re not talking about”. We did get into Vatican City however and St. Peter’s Cathedral.

What an incredibly massive building!! The opulence, the marble, the sheer size of it all was truly amazing. We even climbed all 501 stairs to the top of the cupola to get a view of the cathedral from the top and a view of Rome from the top of the cupola. That was fantastic.

View inside the church from up around the top of the dome.
View of St. Peter's Square from the top of the cupola.
The four of us in front of St. Peter's Cathedral. (A few moments later the Aisan man who took this picture wanted a picture of us with his family.)

Then we decided it would be a most excellent idea to eat and we checked our guidebook for a good place. Unfortunately the restaurant took us to the cleaners. Lunch cost us our food budget for all of Rome, which was certainly not a pleasant experience, but it did force us to cook our own Christmas dinner here at the hostel with our newfound Australian friends, one of the perks of this leg of the trip.
Christmas Eve Kim, Jo, our Australian friends and I headed out for midnight mass. I’d found an english speaking cathedral so we headed there to take mass. Since neither Jo nor I are Catholic we thought it would be easier to understand if it was in English. But somehow the cathedral that has cards advertising it as “The home for all English-speaking Catholics in Rome” had mass entirely in Italian. A little frustrating since even the born and bred Catholics we were with didn’t totally understand what was going on. And the poor nun on the organ had absolutely no sense of rhythm. She kept changing the beats, making it completely impossible to sing along with my favorite Christmas carols, but Kim and Jo and I had already had a mini caroling in our hostel room, so I still got to sing Christmas carols. After mass we walked home through a lit and ringing Rome which was very cool indeed. Merry Christmas.

I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.

Yesterday we were hoping for a better outlook since we’d since we’d had a good night’s sleep and it was Christmas after all. Rome didn’t have the same ideas. We expected things to be closed since it was a holiday, that wasn’t a big deal at all. But things that were supposed to be open to the public were closed… like the Roman Forum which was another big disappointment. And we walked forever and ever and ever and ended up getting lost 4 times. And there was no metro, so our plans to get back quickly were completely foiled. And all of the sights we saw, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum… none of them lived up to our expectations.

The four of us in front of the Colosseum
The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain (down)

Everything was a letdown. I don’t know if it was because these things were truly unimpressive, if we were all just in a foul mood, or if we had such grand romantic ideas of these sights of Rome that they could never live up to our expectations, but by the end of today we all decided that Rome sucks. Pardon the language… but that’s really the best word to describe it all. Don’t come to Rome. It smells like a truly offensive baby’s diaper, there are terrible beggars absolutely everywhere, people almost accost you trying to get you to buy things on the streets, it’s nearly impossible to navigate, people will and do rip you off for money at any opportunity, it doesn’t feel particularly safe at all, the crowds are bad even in the winter on Christmas day. Oh and did I mention the rain yet? Yes. No dreaming of a white Christmas for us. It rained all day… and not just a little. It absolutely POURED all day. And the temperature, while not as cold as some of the other cities we’ve been in, was cold enough to make it truly truly miserable. When we got back to the hostel every article of clothing we were all wearing was so drenched that it had to be hung up to dry and 8 hours later most of it is still wet. My passport and tour book… both of which were tucked securely inside my bag, next to my body are practically ruined they’re so wet. At the moment they’re on the top bunk under the heater trying to dry before we leave tomorrow. It was the worst Christmas EVER. Until we got back to the hostel, where we made our own fabulous Christmas dinner feast and watched movies and talked and hung out for hours upon hours. That made it feel almost like Christmas, but I still missed being home more than I thought I would. For not feeling like the holidays I really wished I was home. I don’t think I’ll be missing another Christmas with my family for a long time.
Tomorrow we’re off to the Cinque Terre, where we have our own apartment waiting for us in Riomaggiore. We had originally planned on taking a later train and getting to the town in time for dinner. Halfway through today we all decided that Rome was so horrendously awful that we’re taking one of the first trains out of Rome tomorrow morning. Lesson learned? We detest Rome. And this is coming from all four of us. I guarantee that neither Mal, Jo, Kim, nor I will EVER recommend Rome as a destination to anyone we truly care about.
The Cinque Terre should be a nice relaxing break and we have absolutely nothing planned for the entire time we’re there. Hopefully I will finally get to post this and all my pictures online… it’s starting to get ridiculous!! I hope everyone at home had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to New Years’! I get home in 15 days!!! Oh, and I got to talk to my family on the phone Christmas Eve and guess what?! They’re all coming to the airport to pick me up!!! That’s really exciting to me… whether or not I actually say it to them, I’ve missed them a lot this semester and it’ll be nice to be home. Well early to bed and early to rise to get the heck out of Rome and on to the best parts of this trip (read: back in France (Nice) in 3 days). Keep in touch with e-mail and comments everyone. Hope this wasn’t too much to read… and congratulations if you really did read all the way down to here. You deserve a medal or something when I get home. laters!