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Rome

I was really tired the first night from a lack of sleep, and I woke up in the morning with the flu. I didn’t get to see the sights, but here’s a picture of a sweet car in front of an embassy.

Florence - What a wonderful city.

I arrived around sunset, and after dumping my bags in my room, I met this guy Tom in the computer room. We were both traveling alone and in Florence for the same duration, so we decided to stick together. We headed to a place called Kitsch for aperitivo (the Italian equivalent of Spanish tapas), but not before Tom found another Brit named Ian smoking on the terrace. So, we three headed down the street to stuff ourselves with food. nom nom nom.

After aperitivo, we headed down to a street filled with bars, and it just so happened we stumbled onto a karaoke bar. A handful of drunk Brits and Americans making the Italian’s ears bleed? hell yeah. At the karaoke bar, Ian gave what must have been the best Elvis impression I’ve seen. Ever. He’s a performer you see? A frontman drummer and singer for a Country Reggae duo in Sheffield. A strange combination, but it works.

Before last call (it’s 2am in Italy), we made it to a Mexican bar, where we ordered a pitcher of margarita in the most obscenely large glass. The waitress was nice enough to take a picture of us three drunkards. Unfortunately, the tequila gave us some nasty hangovers the next day. Or it could have been from the road sodas, tower of beer, bourbon, wine, and rum.

the gigantic margerita

Ian departed early the next day to go check out the Ferrari factory. Rather than spending the day indoors at museums, Tom and I wandered the majority of the city. It was an absolutely splendid day, the sun was shining, and it was warm enough to be out in a tee shirt. We headed up to the top of the town, a hill called Campeggia Michelangelo, but not before seeing the most incredible sight. Occasionally the police drive through streets (duh), but as the police approached where we were standing, all people on the sidewalk selling fake goods picked up all their shit, and began acting as if they were just passing through. As soon as the police had passed, they laid all their things back out.

my partner in crime

scuffling to hide counterfeit goods

the view from the top of the hill

Later on, we had a incredibly fantastic dinner, a few bottles of wine, then a waffle covered in nutella. mmm, la dolce vita is quite sweet indeed. We met up with the others in Tom’s room at a cute little bar, then acted rowdy in the streets.

The next day, Tom, I, the Aussies and South Africans staying in the same room as Tom parted ways, and I headed to the Uffizi museum, I felt kind of obligated to. Fantastic collection, but I wish the captions had more info about the piece than when it was added to the collection.

Venice

Charming, but not nearly as fun as elsewhere. Venice was basically built as the European equivalent of Las Vegas, and it does show through. The city isn’t full of culture and interesting cafes, but rather, souvenir shops, and restaurants. They all look the same making it incredibly easy to lose your sense of direction.

Still beautiful though. I went out and wandered the city, then took the water taxi back from almost the end of it’s route.

friends on a canal boat

view from the water taxi

I stayed at a really shady hostel. does ‘the staff will be hurt’ mean they will be beaten?

I fell in love with Budapest, who would have guessed

I wish I would have stayed 4 days in Budapest and 2 days in Prague, but of course hindsight is 20/20. I’m def coming back if I’m ever in the area. [should be duly noted I’m traveling waaaay in the off season so these cities are much quieter than during the summer. how do I know? I was one of four in my hostel.]

I took the night train to the Hungarian capital, and spent two and a half days there. What a wonderful place. I arrived at my hostel around 10 in the morning, and the owner greeted me with a very warm welcome. She gave me a map, and pointed out a ton of places to go see while I was in town. At first, I was a bit skeptical as the places the receptionist suggested at the last hostel I stayed at were practically tourist traps, but after wandering around the castle area, and eating lunch at what she said was her new favorite restaurant, I was convinced this lady was legit.

On the topic of the fantastic owner, the other guy in my room said that on the previous day, he’d talked with her for at least two hours. She’s seen some really interesting times in the history of Hungary. He told me that she had described the times during which the secret police was quite active, and people would tattle even on their own husbands or wives when they talked badly about the government. What a strange time to be living in.

Back to the things I saw and places I went, after the castle and lunch, I headed back to the hostel. The other guy in my room (name is James) was about to head to the caving expedition that the owner had highly suggested if I had the time. I was a bit skeptical (what the hell is caving?) but I went along with him, as he sounded pretty stoked about it.

After a minor mishap involving our payment slip, we met up with another Aussie on holiday and our guide, and caught two buses to the caving area, threw on a jumpsuit and helmet with lamp, and went caving. So what exactly is caving? …you scurry through a cave. simple enough :) It was so interesting in there! I had no idea such hobbies even existed!

The next day, I did more stereotypical city touring. I wandered into a quite impressive church, and by the parliament, but the tours are quite infrequent, and I missed the two for the day. After, I walked up Andrássy Útca, a main road that houses most main attractions. I stopped into the Opera house for a tour, and my lord, that place is damn nice.

Andrássy Útca leads to the city park, which is impressive on it’s own, but to top it off, the park houses a quite nice thermal bath. It was really nice, but if I were to go back again, I would go to the all male one that’s all female on Tuesdays. Supposedly it’s quite special as the baths are all done in a Turkish style. However, the caving guide warned us that it’s become well known for being the gay bath in town, not a bad thing, but it’s good to know what to expect.

Later on, I grabbed a falafel [which was not nearly as good as in Berlin :( ] and headed to the bar the hostel owner suggested. Oh. My. God. That. Place. Is. Impressive. I sat myself down with two Brits who were in town just for a few days to watch the Liverpool football match. [I’d noticed a bunch of people on the streets wearing football scarves, but I didn’t realize they were all in town for the game. I guess tens of thousands came to the city just for it.]  The two were charming lads, one is a chocolatier, and… I forgot what the other did. I think their names were Andy and Stuart, but I could be wrong. After a few rounds of beer, we had shots of pálinka, a Hungarian spirit, more beer, and more beer. Ah, I love Brits, they know how to have a good time. Def giving Bristol a visit like they suggested.

The next day, I planned to go do the tour of the parliament and visit the communist museum, but instead I wandered the city the whole day. I visited market halle, an equivalent to Pike Place Market, a christmas market, and walked down near the river at sunset. It was an incredibly gorgeous day.

As for the city, I’ve been struggling to figure out why it stole my heart. It’s not particularly beautiful, nor is it clean, but it’s got this strange alluring charm to it. I could definitely imagine myself living here for a few years during my youth… sometime before or after Berlin.

a view of the Parliment from the hill

an old dilapidated building

sun setting behind the castle area

the park at night

a view from the Opera House

ack. I’ve gotta learn to blog shorter.

Prague… eh

I stayed in Prague for a few days. It wasn’t my favorite city. I’m not sure if it’s because it had been hyped up by everyone I’d talked to, or because I saw soooo many bogen Aussies among other foreigners, or what, but I wasn’t the hugest fan. I kind of felt like I was being suffocated by tourist luring activities the whole time.

A highlights included the city tour, wandering around the castle area, heading to Karlštejn to visit another castle, and an intense game of Monopoly. The tour guide I had was quite knowledgeable about the history of the city, I had no idea there was so much fighting during the second world war.

Seven Falafels, Art in the Most Peculiar of Places, and a New Hairstylist

I stayed with Lisa in Berlin, ah, I could live here forever, or a few years at the very least.

In case you’ve never been, or haven’t snooped around on wikipedia about the modern history of the city, a short history of Berlin in the past 50 or so years.

post WWII to 1989 - The area surrounding the Berlin wall isn’t the most desirable, immigrants with little money move into the area. It just so happens that many Turkish immigrants fill vacant properties. Falafel and Döner Kebab begin to find their new happy home. Many squats and misc. uses of abandoned buildings pop up, including art spaces, underground experimental clubs, etc.

1989 to ??? - The wall comes down, West Berlin swallows up East Berlin, the city is united, but it’s still hard to convince people to move in, cost of living is through the floor, and thus, artists come in droves, Falafel finds more happy parents. The area around the wall that was once the cheap Turkish neighborhood is now one of the most happening neighborhoods in the city.

Today - The going rate of Falafel is somewhere around €2.20 (about $3.30) and Falafel/Kebab stands grossly outnumber Bratwurst stands, there’s only one squat left, the city is thriving and has the most unique culture I’ve ever encountered, it’s impossible to walk a block without spotting something artful, and the cost of living? I think my friend Lisa put it the best. “Anyone can afford to live here.”

After a long train ride from Zürich, I met up with Lisa at an U-bahn (subway) stop near her house. Later that night, we met up with a few of her friends, hit up a few bars, and went to a house party. Afterwards on the walk home, we picked up some currywurst and falafel. What’s currywurst? Take a hot dog, cut it up into chunks, and throw it in ketchup mixed with curry powder. Sounds awful, but it’s delicious.

The next day, we went to an art exhibition at Stattbad, an old city pool turned young artists exhibition space. Lisa told me that a few days earlier, there was a huge party there celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, where they had a huge styrofoam dup. of the wall in the pool, and at midnight, a bunch of guys in pink stormed out and tore the thing down with chainsaws. What?

After Stattbad, we had a falafel, and the next day, we visited the Eastside Gallery, the largest standing portion of the wall, though, nowadays, it’s covered in paintings. No pictures of the paintings because I always feel weird taking pictures of art, but here’s an adorable couple sitting on top of the wall. At some point, we ate another falafel.

Over the next few days, Lisa was gone during the day for school, so I went out and visited museums around town, and wandered the city. My fav was certainly the Berlinische Art Gallery. The entire downstairs commemorated the 20th anniversary of the wall, a common theme around the city. Aside from the art galleries, I was really digging the huge murals (graffiti?) posted up on the sides of buildings.

A few days before I planned to depart, Lisa and I were having dinner at a friends house, and we were scheming. Both of us hadn’t had hair cuts in a very long time, and we figured it’s not so difficult, so we may as well try it ourselves. Thus, the next day, after a few beers and a bottle of glühwein, we hacked at each other’s heads with scissors. She had the sweetest rat tail for a day.

And thus, I have a new life goal. Move to Berlin, learn German better than what I picked up in Zürich, fall in love with an artist, eat falafels every day, and fly Lisa in once a month to cut my hair and party.

last few snippets of Switzerland

I keep finding little reminders here and there of my time in Züri. The last few things.

I went to a young artists exhibition in Winterthur. The art was really quite impressive, and it was in a space called City Hall, an old factory with a huge open space on the top floor. At the end of each night during the weekend, they had a small concert. I got to watch Captian Mustachio and his sidekick Pedro (or something like that), some country honky tonk style music. Discovered a Swiss song I really like (see post about Big Zis, is lower somewhere), and the Swissy/Berliner who made the video has some pretty cool pieces. Didn’t quite catch the names of some of the other artists, but it’s not like I have the money to buy their work.

jeff gets excited when he sees paper menus that look like beer.

This goofy googler and I went to a bar called Rimini. Rimini is an outdoor male bathhouse (swimming area) in the warmer months, a bar at night, and an open air market on Mondays. In October, they put up a huge tent made of plastic tarp, and decorate the inside like some sort of crazy 70’s living room: old couches, funky hideous wallpaper, and taxidermed animals here and there, including an eagle perched on a rotating disco ball. Here’s a mink showing some love.

Many central european cities other than Munich have their own small Oktoberfests to celebrate the harvest. Zürich has two. One is on the river, and the other is uhm, in the main train station. I coerced a friend into going on the last night, and it wasn’t very hoppin (9pm on a Sunday is probably not the most interesting time to go to anything) the drunkards down the table from us were making towers from all the mini jäger bottles they had.

a boot of beer (yes, like in beerfest)

Jeff, Stefan (our Swiss Goog intern friend), Ricardo (above) and I went to Bern to grab a boot of beer. (err… two boots of beer) basic rules are

1. don’t put the boot down
2. before you take the boot, slap it with your hand
3. after giving the boot away, slap it
4. second to last person to drink from the boot pays for the next, and of course
5. if you’re playing with jeff, slap jeff after every slap to the boot.