Avventure Italiane Del Jake

Ow. Switzerland Hurts.

2007-04-04T21:44:00.000+01:00

Doctor: Tell me where it hurts?
Me: Everywhere.

That's pretty much how I felt on Sunday after snowboarding in the Alps. More on that later...

OK, so this relatively unplanned trip turned out pretty well overall. I walked into the train station Friday morning, walked out with my €91,00 train ticket to Interlaken, Switzerland. This was a night train leaving at 23:00 that night, and was the first such train I had been on.

The Train and Spiez, Switzerland

The train ride was relatively uneventful. I went to dinner with my roommate and his friend, and almost was late to the station so I had to catch a taxi. Hopped on the train, met my new roommates for the night and made my bed.

There was a very nice man and his daughter on the train who thought my name was "Kyle" and an Italian Paolo. The first two travelers happened to be from Minnesota, Minneapolis to be exact. The guy was wayyyy overly friendly. I guess I shouldn't complain, but it was almost sickening.

Sleeping on the train was almost non-existant. The train stopping and starting, twisting and turning made it rather difficult to stay asleep. The train staff awoke us at 6:30 to inform us we were nearly to Spiez and gave us breakfast and coffee.

I must say... this is the first time I have actually missed Minnesota's cold. There is something incredibly refreshing about the bitter cold. Maybe its just that the air in Italy is so poor ;)

We waited for our connection in Spiez, and I hopped to the front of the station to take some pictures:

Beautiful. Took the train from Spiez to Interlaken, Paolo gave us his contact information and invited us to dinner if we were ever in the area again. Very nice.

Interlaken, Switzerland and Jungfraujoch

Map
Pictures
I honestly should have spent more time in Interlaken exploring. When I arrived I went almost immediately to my hostel, checked in. I wasn't able to go into my room yet, so I locked my valuables in a locker.

I caught the first train to Lauterbrunnen and spent some time wandering that town:

I wandered North of the town a ways, and saw this:

SNOW!!! All of you people that are enjoying the blizzard this week are laughing at me and I'm sure would be glad to give me more of it, but this is the first time I have seen and touched snow since leaving.

After wandering back, I bought a ticket at the train station to go to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe (at about 11,782 feet). The ticket was 157 Swiss Francs (~$130) but was supposed to be worth it.

Jungfraujoch

Map
The train ride took about 2.5 hours from Lauterbrunnen, with one connection. The entire view up was absolutely gorgeous and overlooked much the valley I had just explored:

My connection at Kleine Scheidegg has having Snowpen Air during the time I was there. The main event was Bryan Adams, who I watched for some time after I came back:

(BTW, I am going to start posting videos I take as well--much more representative)
There were a few vantage points on the way up, the best being Eigerwand:

The top of the mountain featured quite a few attactions including an Ice Palace which featured various ice sculptures in an ice cave:

Including Euro-Mickey :) I left there, and tried the plateau where I first figured out "uh oh, this is not good--you can't see anything." I headed up to the Sphinx Terrace where I took a few videos:

Somewhat redundant, but you get the point. It was VERY windy and VERY cold up there. I didn't stay out more than a few minutes at a time. I also became famous by being on the Jungfraujoch webcam:

I headed out to the Glacier hoping that the entire trip would not be in vain...

I hiked the path for awhile, and then decided I wasn't going to be able to make it to the end and reach the train on time, so I headed back. When I got back to the entrance, they apparently decided that they didn't want me anymore and had turned off the lights. I entered the totally pitch black hallway, having now adjusted my eyes to the blinding white outside. I made it without impaling myself on any sharp objects in the hallway (i felt around the entire time ;)) and they had locked the gate so I couldn't get out. I got around it, ran to the train and headed back down the mountain.

I switched my train ticket to run through Grindelwald so I could see the other side of the mountain. I stopped off in Grund and took some pictures:

Quite a beautiful city. I then took the train the remainder of the way to Interlaken, taking a few more pics along the way:

I found a Thai restaurant to eat after moving into my room only to come back and find out I had been kicked out of my bed and moved. Fine, fine. I met my new roommates (there were 9 of us in this room), one of which had Tourette Syndrome. Interesting. Most people know this to be the people that randomly blurt out swear words at inappropriate times. This was not the case this time, as he made a "oh!" type sound usually when he was nervous. Another wrong perception now corrected :)

I called it an early night hoping to get some decent sleep.

Sunday -- Snowboarding the Alps

I rented the gear and bought the lift ticket from a local shop for 158 Swiss Francs. I grabbed the train again, headed up to Klein Scheidegg and started off down the "beginners" path. Let's just say I fell the rest of the way down.

I began fairly well, made it about an hour without too many problems and then started to take some rough falls. I think I somehow ended up on a Moderate course, so that may have been part of the problem, along with the fact it was warm enough the sunny parts of the trail were slush and the shaded parts were ice.

Pictures:

About 2 hours in I was ready to go home and be done. I had not been in so much pain in a very long time. Every crashed seemed to hurt my newly bruised knees, elbows and ribs. I eventually made it down the mountain, had some lunch and then headed to the train station. I decided I had had enough of Switzerland and just wanted to go home.

I checked at the train station and the only train leaving was at 23:00, another night train. I bought this ticket (another 160 franc) and decided to spend some time in Berne.

Berne, Switzerland

Map
Pictures

I had no idea what to do in Bern. I arrived after the tourist office closed and had not prepared anything. I wandered aimlessly through the streets taking random pictures:

Saw the Einstein Museum, among other things, including this very disturbing statue:

Yes, he's eating babies.

The trip back was relatively uneventful. Overall it was a good trip, but very expensive. Ciao!

Friday Trip to Cinque Terre

2007-03-27T21:01:00.000+01:00

Map
Pictures

1. I'm getting too old for this. OK, I'm just out of shape.
2. This is the type of place that makes you LOVE Italy.
3. This would be great to do during the summer months when it is warm enough to swim in the sea (although I'm sure you fight more tourists and gain quite a sweat from the hike).
4. The towns are beautiful from a distance, but really don't have much content to them otherwise. Finding things to do when you arrived was somewhat of a chore.

Cinque Terre or "Five Lands" is a series of five towns on the Ligurian Riviera. Each of the towns is connected by a series of hiking trails that twist through terraced slopes, vineyards, lemon trees, forests and streams to display stunning natural and human-created (towns) beauty. The area has been protected under UNESCO since 1998, it is that unique. This is, however, definitely a tourist area.

Monterosso Al Mare

I started my journey at Monterosso Al Mare (Above) on the Northern end of the trails. I had decided to start here because it was the typical starting point and had the best directions to each of the trails. I elected to take the usually traveled "Trail 2" which takes about five hours of strict hiking to go from the first town to the last.

I got distracted when I first arrived. I decided to explore the city for a small while, trying to find a few of the sites outlined in the book I had purchased:

I took quite a few pictures of the man above painting the city "skyline" on the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous, regardless of the somewhat chilly wind. Me being the explorer decided to go into uncharted territory. I headed north, opposite of trail 2 and started to hike into the mountains on another, semi-unmarked trail. I had no idea where it was going and followed it for about an hour. I had reached quite a high altitude before I decided that I should turn around and go in the correct direction. I did however get a decent view of the city from the north:

Before going onto the trail, I again sidetracked. I went into the Capuchin Monastery which supposedly was to have a spectacular view of Monterosso Al Mare. I didn't quite find what I was looking for, but it was interesting none the less.

Beginning the trail, I was immediately taken back by the supreme beauty of my surroundings.

Vernazza

Definitely one of the top two favorites for me as far as physical beauty. It also felt very "cozy." Not much to really say, I stayed here for about an hour, had lunch at a restaurant, I wanted to try some seafood, so I tried a "typical" dish. It basically consisted of some fish (I couldn't identify it...) on top of a piece of potato and covered in olive oil. It tasted very good, was just a tad bit expensive. Oh well :)

I went on top of the lookout tower and got a rather great view of the city:

When I was ready to leave, I attempted to find the trail, which ended up being very well hidden. Onto Corniglia I went.

Corniglia

This was probably my least favorite city. Half of it was under construction and I really strained to find ANYTHING to see there. It was the most neglected of the five towns as well. Unfortunate.

The trail between Corniglia and Manarola was closed due to a landslide. The alternative route was about 2 1/2 hours long. I didn't feel I had 2 1/2 more hours of hiking in me, nor enough daylight, so I got onto the train to Manarola.

Manarola

I liked this town. It is tied with Vernazza in my mind. It's setting into the side of the rock was spectacular.

I wandered around here for awhile, had some people take pictures of me rock climbing and avoiding the waves splashing against the rocks. I couldn't resist the gelato here and ended up having some very delicious Vanilla gelato here. One funny part of this town was that they parked their boats in the streets:

As the sun was setting, I set off onto the famous Dell'Amore trail towards Riomaggiore.

Dell'Amore Trail and Riomaggiore

Nothing incredibly exciting happened at this point. I walked the trail, ended up in Riomaggiore, and eventually hopped on a train to La Spezia. Here are some pictures, however:

The trip back

I can't have a trip without some sort of travel fun, now can I? I bought my ticket to Firenze in La Spezia and doubled checked that there were no connections. Hopped on the train (which happened to be an InterCity Notte, or night train) and found an empty sleeper cabin to nap in. I awoke a few hours later to find myself in Pisa. After the train had left the station, I decided to ask a person on the train staff whether I was actually allowed to be in the sleeper cabins. It was at this point that I found out the train was going to Rome and not Firenze.

I exited the train in Livorno, only to miss a train to Firenze by literally 15 seconds. I waited in the lobby for the next train to Pisa, which was an hour wait and then 45 minutes in Pisa. The rest of the trip was relatively smooth with the exception I ended up with a huge cramp in my neck for a few days because of the way I slept on the train :) At least I didn't have to sleep on the floor of a train station again.

Random Comment

I had a comment on my previous post Poverty, Making a Difference by a woman named Meagan who works with the ONE campaign. Apparently they saw my post and decided to add me to their list of supporters at http://action.one.org/blog/. Kind of neat.

Update: After some language problems, I finally got through to the people at the cantina in Florence and I am starting to volunteer there starting Thursday. Yay!

Watch this. Now.

2007-03-26T15:36:00.000+01:00

If you haven't already seen "Invisible Children" you need to watch it. It's not a particularly well made documentary, but its definitely impactful. I am trying to plan a trip to Uganda to see some of these areas in the near future.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643

On the same note, there is a great directory of documentaries that are free online here: http://best.online.docus.googlepages.com/

Check them out as well!

I am going to have an update on my weekend trip to Cinque Terre up soon.

Spring Break 2007

2007-03-20T18:18:00.000+01:00

Welcome back to another fun and exciting episode of Jake's overly descriptive travels!

I apologize again for the lack of updates. I have been trying to organize myself lately, get my resume together and enjoy the wonderful weather we had up until yesterday. I got a little bit of color with the sun we got!

Spring Break

What? It’s here already? I have to plan somewhere to go? Uh oh. Actually my plans turned out to be quite good. It was a great experience and journey. I must comment though that the picture quality of this trip was abysmal. I am not happy with the effort I put into them, nor how they turned out.

Table of Contents:
Sofia, Bulgaria
Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czech Republic
Bratislava, Slovakia

Sofia, Bulgaria (Friday March 2nd-Tuesday, March 6th)

Map
Pictures

Other than the travel troubles on the way to the airport, this was by far the best part of the trip. Sofia may not be the most beautiful city scenic-wise, but I was surprised by its cleanliness. The natives laughed at me when I said this, but for a city of 1.5 million people, it is surprising clean and in the main areas (and even most of the back streets) had very little trash strewn about.

Holiday!

The time in which I was there was a huge holiday season for the Bulgarians. On March 1st, Bulgarians celebrate Baba Marta and adorn each other with Martenitsi:

and wish each other health and happiness. These bands, necklaces and other wearable pieces are a celebration of spring and are removed when you first see a stork at which time it is thrown onto a tree. The holiday is primarily a celebration of the end of winter and the beginning of spring.
March 3rd is considered Bulgaria’s Independence Day from the Ottoman Empire and is widely celebrated with flags and other items. I was able to witness a political march, led by the most radical political group in Bulgaria. The ideals of this group, from what I understand, are their strong opposition to the Roma and Turkish population with regard to their reliance on state welfare for their well-being. This group was able to take 21 seats in the parliament last election and the leader has been likened to Hitler in some ways, so to many it is quite scary, despite much of the public’s frustrations with those minorities.

The People and Food

During my visit, I stayed with Ina’s mother, Veselina (Vesi). She is a wonderful woman and very kind. Ina had informed me before going that she did not speak much English, but I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to maintain some very good conversations. Her cousin, Raya, spoke excellent English and assisted when she was able.
We ate a few traditional Bulgarian meals, both at restaurants and at home. Everything was excellent, and I’m re-addicted to Ayran now, a drink made of yogurt, water and salt. It is typical of many cultures in that area and is available at nearly every restaurant. The food is saltier than what I am accustomed to, but overall I recommend all of it, especially the yogurt and cheese (things they are famous for).
We visited a few clubs on Saturday night, which were interesting. Ina had properly prepared me before hand with several phrases like “I don’t want any problems” and “Leave me alone” to avoid any troubles. We had a slight problem getting into one club as they tried to make us pay twice for the cover charge. The people you meet on a personal basis are EXCELLENT, all very nice, however the service you receive at restaurants and clubs is not exactly stellar.

Sites

We visited quite a few very neat sites:

Boyana Church

Boyana Church, a medieval Orthodox church built in the 10th century. It is protected by UNESCO and has been recently restored. The fresco inside (of which pictures are prohibited) were very neat:

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox Churches in the world. We visited on March 3rd which allowed us to see a world famous choir and a ceremony by the head priest, who is adorned in a giant crown and gold. As is customary in a few religions, candles are lit upon entering the church to wish health and longevity to the living as well as mourn the dead:

Russian Church

We also went into a very old Russian Church near downtown.

President’s Office

We witnessed the change of the guard at the President’s Office.

Bulgarian Dinner

We went to a restaurant and ate with Ina’s family (mother, cousin, aunt and uncle). It was a great meal, although way too much food. There were also some entertainers performing for part of the meal:

Raya’s Bunny

And Raya has a very cute bunny.

Bulgarians doing the YMCA at a Club

Vienna, Austria (Tuesday March 6th-Thursday March 8th)

Map
Pictures

Vienna was the first part of the trip where I would be totally alone. I arrived in the Bratislava airport about 45 minutes late (plane delay) and had to try to find a way to get to Vienna. We missed the first bus that left there, and the schedule was pretty much incomprehensible, so we waited for the next. It arrived about 45 minutes later, I bought a ticket and off we went.
The ride to Vienna was beautiful for the beginning and then began to remind me of home. Flat, boring fields with some trees scattered. The only difference was the mountains in the distance. We arrived in Vienna and I had no idea where I was. It was dark, I didn’t have a map, couldn’t speak the language and all I knew was there was a U3 metro next to where I was. I decided to spend about 20 minutes deciphering the metro map and discovered that I could take get a connecting metro and take that to where I needed to go. I got off there again disoriented, but eventually wandered to my hostel, suitcase and all.

The Hostel (Wombats)

Being this was my first hostel experience, I was not sure what to expect. I knew that this hostel would not be typical of most other hostels as it is supposedly one of the best hostels you can go to anywhere. My first impression was good, other than the screaming kids running around (ok, they were like 14, but there must have been 100 of them). I was scheduled to stay in a 4 bed dorm type room and they checked me in on the second floor.
The rooms were pretty much what you would expect. About twice the size of a dorm room with a personal bathroom. One of my roommates was there when I arrived and after the awkward silence of “do we speak the same language?” we started talking. His name was Graham, and was from Wales.

Concert

I had decided earlier that I would check out the “Shakira” concert that was playing in town (Nelly Furtado was playing the next night) and looked up where the concert was held. I offered Graham to come with, but he declined. I walked over to the concert hall, bought a ticket and went to the concert alone. I showed up about 20 minutes after the “official” start, but I think I actually got there just on time.
The opening act was awful. It was very strange songs mixed in a rather unattractive way. Luckily that ended quickly and we had the pleasure of waiting for the opening act to start. I sat on the floor and slept for about 45 minutes while I waited; sounds like a pretty exciting time, eh? I don’t have much else to say other than the concert started, it was good and yes, Shakira does her typical “booty shaking” on stage-the entire time.
I left the concert and went to bed after meeting my two other roommates who were both from Canada.

Sightseeing

I spent the entire next day haphazardly sightseeing by foot. My original plan was to find the tourist office, find a walking tour or at least a better map and explore that way. Instead I wandered to anything I could see in the distance. I would walk to one sight, see something else above the tops of the buildings and walk that way. Not sure if that was a good way to go about it or not, as I’m sure I didn’t see many things I would have liked to.
Some of the things I saw:

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Built in the 12th century, this is definitely one of the bigger sights in Vienna. It is possible to climb one of the two towers and see Vienna:

Inside of the church:

Miscellaneous Statues

Monument Against War and Facism by Alfred Hrdlicka in the Albertinaplatz

Opera House

I didn't really get a good picture of this, but this was the statue outside. I tried to find an opera to go to while I was there, but all the ones I found were sold out.

Hofburg Imperial Palace

This is currently the residence for the President of Austria. It at one point also housed the rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire and previous rulers dating back to the 13th century and thus has a fairly important part in history. There is, of course, also a massive garden in front of and behind the palace:

Mozart

There was quite a bit of Mozart-type things around the Hofburg even though he was born in Salzburg and not Vienna. This was a small garden and statue devoted to him.

Parliament

This is a massive building. I sat here for a few minutes to rest before I proceeded.

Votivkirche

This church was built primarily as a "thank you" to God by the then Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after narrowly being saved from a knife attack.
The facade was under construction at the time, so I didn't get a very good picture.

Dance Troop

There was a dance troop performing for tips outside St. Stephen's Cathedral. It was a pretty neat show and I got a few videos of them doing some unique things (at least to me). Lots of flips as well.

Prague, Czech Republic (Thursday March 8th-Saturday March 10th)

Map
Pictures

Prague probably has the most personality of any city I’ve been to in Europe. Graham, my roommate in Vienna was also going to Prague so we decided to travel together. I already had a hostel booked so we decided to find that one despite having been offered a place to stay about ten times from a nice lady who would not leave us alone. We quickly figured out that the metro system is confusing and poorly labeled, but managed to find our way in the right direction. We follow the directions given to us from the hostel and found the place "Kafka's Castle.” Perfect. Now how do we get in? We tried buzzing every label on the door, tried calling the number that was listed there and got nowhere. We were buying random things from street vendors in an effort to get change to use in the payphones (which kept eating our money) so we could talk for more than 30 seconds to the people trying to understand why we didn’t know where the hostel was. We eventually figured out that the directions they gave us were wrong and got new directions from the person at the hostel.
“Take a right, then your second right, and your second left. It’s right there.” Simple enough, we can do that. We followed the directions and ended up in… a piazza. Ummm not quite what we were looking for. A nice man came by and offered to give us directions (we must have looked pretty lost). He told us that he’s never heard of the street but thought it was off the map we had. We started trekking that way and ended up lost, in another piazza asking people where the street was. No one seems to have heard of it. We eventually found a taxi, hopped in and asked to go there. He also had no idea where it was, but found it on the map and dropped us off.
The hostel was nice, the people were nice, but we had a roommate that decided he had never snored before and that he should try it. I definitely used the earplugs both nights we were there. There supposedly was a “breakfast” included, but I guess they don’t start serving that until 11:00am, when we were just leaving. We helped ourselves to some of the bread and jam we found, since we figured at the time that it was a “help yourself” situation.
The first night we were there, Graham and I decided to walk around to find food and see what we could find at night. We saw some of the sights, which I tried to take night pictures of, but most didn’t turn out. We eventually found a bar on an off street to sample some of the famous Czech beer. Turns out that it wasn’t as far away from the tourist areas as we thought. I found myself sitting next to two Americans, listening to Lionel Richie (off VH1 or similar) and another American speak about “In America….” How exciting. Regardless, we made it an early night in an effort to get started early the next morning.
We made it out about 10am the next morning and started by walking towards the river. We could see Prague castle in the distance, so we walked towards it:

We saw a strange array of statues standing on some steps across the streets so we went and investigated. We found out that the statues were a monument devoted to the victims of communism:

We then wandered the castle for awhile, saw the large cathedral and then walked towards the main Prague areas again. We found some parks, smaller spots and look out points:

We climbed down the giant hill we were on, crossed the bridge and explored the downtown area and then walked towards the Charles Bridge. There were nearly countless statues on the bridge, all of which were unique, but with a religious basis:

We then walked and accidently found the “Lennon Wall”

Where I took my favorite picture of the trip:

On our way back to our hostel, we decided to explore a mountain area. We climbed the seemingly endless trail only to find that it would be a great view of the city—except for the trees that are blocking every possible angle. We decided to return to the hostel for a short while to rest our weary feet.

Post Office

After writing my first hand-written letter in years, I marched off to find the post office to mail a package.
As I have found out in Florence, European post offices are much different than US post offices. They have a queue system, you take a number which is designated for the type of service you need and wait. I can handle this, it’s orderly, except when you can’t understand what is written on machine to get the tickets. If you choose the wrong one, they send you to the end of the line to try again. I chose a number, and waited.
The lady I spoke to, well tried to speak to, couldn’t really communicate with me beyond the obviousness of me needing to ship the package. I filled out the customs form, paid for the shipment and off I went. Surprisingly easy, I was expecting worse.

Dinner

Now I’m starving. We ask the lady at the front desk for a typical Czech restaurant. She sent us about 10 blocks away to a bar that happened to sell food as well (I don’t think they have single-purpose places in the city). I ordered something I normally would not order, containing sauerkraut and some other things. It was quite good. I had a full meal, appetizer, main course, desert and beer for about $10. Not bad. I was exhausted from all the walking so I went to bed at about 7pm that night. Graham met our new roommate, who was from England and proceeded to go out to a heavy metal club until 5:30am. I checked out at 8:00am and made my way to the train station.

Bratislava, Slovakia (Saturday March 10th-Sunday March 11th)

Map
Pictures

I again made this journey alone. According to my ticket, I made it to the train station at 8:44, the train left at 8:46 so I narrowly missed waiting another 2.5 hours for the next train.
Bratislava. I don't really know what to say about this town. I think I told someone that it was a "great city if you're middle-aged or retired and don't value your time." I really wouldn't spend more than an afternoon in this city unless you're really into British stag parties. It was a beautiful city, very cozy, but I think I would have rather spent my time in Budapest.
I arrived at the hostel about 3:45pm, checked in and headed to my room. I thought I had booked a single, but it ends up I was in a quad. I managed to wake up my two sleeping roommates who had apparently had a rough night. We introduced ourselves and I found out they were from France.
They asked if I would like to join them for some lunch and a walk around the city. I decided to join them and we found a pizza place in the tourist area of town. It was nice and the food was good. We left there, walked up to Bratislava Castle and took in the view:

There were a few sculptures and things near the castle:

and we stumbled upon the "Yard of Honor" on the west side of the Castle:

The Hillebrandt was holding a digital art exhibit, so we checked that out:

After some more wandering, we decided to find another restaurant. We ate at a Argentinan Steakhouse and then decided to find a club. I stayed there for about an hour or two and then decided to make it an early night and take some night pictures of Bratislava:

The next morning, I checked out of the hostel, stored my bags and walked around again until my flight left at 6:45. I found a few statues:

and the Slovak National Theatre:

Otherwise I walked over the bridge and took some pictures from the other side of the Danube River:

Returning Home

My flight to Milan and busride to the train station were uneventful. Indeed, the last train to Florence had left about 45 minutes before I got the train station. I managed to meet some other people trying to get to Florence, and we decided to go to Bologne and catch the train at 5:30 the next morning. We sat in McDonalds until they closed at 3am and then moved into the train station lobby. Apparently this is not an uncommon thing to do as there were about 100 other people waiting when we got there.
The wait was everlasting. You didn't want to sleep for fear of being robbed, but you didn't want to totally crash the next day (plus you were incredibly tired anyways). The train finally came at 5:30 and I slept my way to Florence. Ah! Home sweet home!

Poverty, Making a Difference

2007-03-12T14:41:00.000+01:00

Poverty
pov·er·ty

“A condition where a person does not have sufficient economic and other resources to live with dignity, choices and power, which support full participation in society.”

As many of you know (and don't know) I have always possessed a strong passion towards solving poverty. I have recently rekindled this interest and am going to work harder than ever (in conjunction with my previous post).

I have now posted banners on my blog and want to give some information to everyone. I plan on devoting a large amount of my time and resources to these causes in the future and I encourage you to do the same if possible.

I will also try to post my PowerPoint presentation on Fargo-Moorhead poverty somehow, but I don't really have a good place to host it. Ideas?

Site: Make Poverty History
Site: One.org
Videos: Make Poverty History Videos
F-M Statistics: Wilder Report

The videos are amazing. Make sure to watch the ones towards the middle, they are the best in my opinion.

To list off some fun statistics to get started, there are over 800 people homeless each night in Fargo-Moorhead. 64% of people living in poverty work full time (2000 U.S. Census).

I HIGHLY encourage you to take a look at the Wilder Report listed above. It is amazing and contains some really interesting information on Fargo-Moorhead living conditions.

If you have questions or want to assist, feel free to contact me.

Soul Searchin’

2007-03-12T10:31:00.000+01:00

I realize that most of you come to this blog to read the Adventures of Jake in Europe, but I’ve decided to take a detour from that. This is a topic of greater personal importance than anything I have talked about previously and I felt that it would be great to share with the many people in the Midwest that share my struggle.

This past week I have been faced with many realizations found by both myself and introduced by people whom I respect very much. It has been very difficult and it was necessary to do this alone. Throughout this entry I will try to give my perception of myself as I have been explained by other people in the past and not my own.

Me, or not me???

Many of you that know me well can attest to the fact that I am a rather difficult to get to know. It is not that I lack openness, I believe that I am just expected to be different than I really am and that confuses people.

I am a perfectionist in many regards, open-minded, opinionated, shy, friendly, loner, outgoing, nerdy, somewhat athletic, conservative, generous, stingy, and many other things. Within recent years I have found that it is difficult even to describe myself. How do you identify with yourself, your emotions, feelings and understand your capabilities if you can’t even describe yourself? How can you possibly be yourself when you interact with other people?

A little background

I was born and raised almost wholly in the small Midwest city of Moorhead, MN. Not to say that it doesn’t have a lot going for it, but it doesn’t have a lot going for it. Living in Moorhead is basically like living in a white, middle-class, overly-friendly, close-minded, Christian, non-progressive incubator. Now I’m sure there are some of you that are insulted, others thinking “what about…” It doesn’t matter, that isn’t the point. I only describe this because it is important later.

As a male in the Midwest I was taught, mostly at school, that emotion is wrong. Showing it in any way is a sign of weakness and could possibly show that you are different and worthy to be made fun of. To cry in school, especially in public, was wrong. As a child I was very emotional. Through various experiences as a child I learned that I should not be this way and tried to correct it, maybe too much. Anger was also wrong, and frustration unnecessary. Happiness is ok, but it’s really just fake because we’re going to over-compensate you for everything that you do.

As Americans we’re taught that it is important to do things logically, that if there isn’t a reason, an action and a tangible result, it’s not worth going after. We’re taught to be business people, driven by the almighty dollar (yes, I’m generalizing). Now what if we feel that something is a good idea, but it doesn’t make logical sense? Then it’s irrational, wrong, and in the eyes of your friends, family, and otherwise a horrible idea that would make you “stupid” to pursue.

An Incredibly Impersonal Business Example

Some of the best corporations in the world were built off of such risk. One of the largest being Bill Gates for example. Why in the world would you drop out of Harvard and spend your life savings to start a company called MicroSoft that makes software for devices that already have stiff competition? Does that make sense? As a result of his risk, he has changed every aspect of our world. He is currently in charge of the largest corporation in the world, as well as some of the largest charitable funds. Seems stupid now, doesn’t he?

Now realistically someone could come back and say “yeah, but my brother Jimmy did the same thing and he didn’t have success.” Good for him. Life is full of adventure, missed opportunities, mistakes, failures and success stories. Not taking a risk is sometimes one of the stupidest things you can do. Life is too short to live “by the books.” Why do the same thing as everyone else? Is that always the best route? Is society training us to be robots following a set path of: birth->school->work->have children->repeat? When do we get to really, truly enjoy life?

Americans are especially guilty of this. People are happy, brainwashed, never questioning, always doing. Often they don’t even realize they do not enjoy what they are doing, merely because they have never asked themselves “is this what I really want and not what someone else wants me to do?”

Yes, it is true that America is one of the most prosperous, successful countries in the world. Why would I attack something so successful and dear to everyone’s heart? Because I can and because it needs to be done. Everything should be questioned, even that of which you are sure.

We are workaholics. We work from the day we are 15 years old (or earlier for many) until we are 65+ for a measly two weeks of vacation per year which is usually spent repairing the house. But the best years of our lives were college and high school, remember? After that it is all downhill, we are doomed to the life that is set before us, predetermined by society. We then decide that risk is silly, that if we do something extraordinary, extreme, even stupid, that we will be doomed to a life lacking success and become a disappointment to *other* people. Notice that it is *other* people… why do we put so much care into what other people think?

Back to Reality

This has a point, really. I am a people pleaser. I was raised a people pleaser by society, that it is not OK to be different, to use your emotions to make decisions, especially irrational ones due to what others may think. I feel that many people in the Midwest are also victim of this problem. It is good to be unselfish, to do things for other people, but when you blatantly ignore, make excuses for or cover up the actions of others to make something seem ‘ok’ it is WRONG, dead wrong. You are hurting yourself, and eventually it will come to haunt you as it has recently come to haunt me.

I cry, I’m a grown adult and I cry. A lot. It recently occurred to me that this is the strongest emotion I have: sadness. This made me even sadder, great, huh? I discovered that I lacked happiness. Why have I never noticed that I lacked this emotion? How long has it been gone? I started to realize that I felt numb. Everything around me was numb and unquestioned-I didn’t even realize why I was doing what I was doing. Something needed to change.

Due to my nature as a people pleaser, I internalize my emotions. Such internalizing has many psychological effects on a person. It can result in the decrease in overall emotional ability(!!), emotional stability and can cause general unhappiness. Prolonged exposure to such emotional stress can slowly cause a mental breakdown you don’t even understand or realize; things just crash over time. You have no idea why you feel the way you do, but you don’t remember anything different.

I don’t openly show sadness, I usually do not openly show anger and I make excuses for peoples’ actions against me, even though I don’t like them. I don’t stand up for myself, I make it my problem. I adjust (fake) my personality, responses, and actions in an effort to appear “normal” to other people. I do this unknowingly, unwillingly.
I don’t think I ever wanted to accept this fact. To make myself vulnerable, to admit that I was a fake. During my struggle with this the past week, it was advised (for an almost totally unrelated reason) that I try to discover myself. During this process I should journal and write about my struggles. This was the BEST suggestion I have ever received in my life! I finally had an outlet for my feelings, my frustrations, and my thoughts. I have tried this many times before, but never to this extent. I believe this is a first step for me.

In the past week I have gained a better understanding of myself. I have gained confidence that I had lost, re-realized my potential and started to get my life back on track. I no longer feel unhappy and in fact am slowly regaining my ability to be truly happy. I have identified and admitted my demons and can now act to remove them. I am going to continue writing a journal, maybe even post some of my thoughts on here (or another, more personal blog). The best way to grow is to make yourself vulnerable with others, show them your weaknesses. Something I feel I have many of.

The struggle to improve myself in this regard, become more of myself is going to be a long one that I will work tirelessly at. If I seem different, that is why; it is likely the true me and not “fake Jake.” I am going to be more upfront, honest and possibly emotional. I am going to pursue my dreams, however irrational and not follow the mold of society. I realize I will have many failures, as well as successes on my journey and that is ok with me.

Thank you to everyone for helping me become the person I am. I truly am happy with myself and not depressed or otherwise.

Blah

2007-03-07T16:13:00.000+01:00

Just an FYI to everyone that I will not be online, nor checking my email for over a week, maybe longer. I need to disconnect myself from everything for awhile and don't want anyone to worry.

My € 85,00 ($110.00) Cab Ride in Rome

2007-03-03T17:51:00.000+01:00

So let’s start off with my week. A complete lack of sleep, I’ve been stressing over midterms for classes that I don’t need as well as putting myself in a multitude of emotionally stressful situations. So I figure, what the heck, spring break… that should be fun, right? Should be easy:

1. Get on a train from Florence to Rome (~€33,00 for the fast train, €14,00 for the slow train)
2. Get to the airport in Rome (~€8,00 bus ride)
3. Get on flight (€61,00)
4. Arrive in Sofia

Not too tough, right? I guess I left my head somewhere else. The train ride, which I delayed to only necessitate sitting in Rome for about 3 hours instead of 6, was full except for first class tickets. OK, fine, I’ll pay €58,00 for the train, I don’t really have much choice if I want to go, do I? Also being smart I figure “I’ll get my ticket with a connection to the Airport that way I don’t have to worry about that when I get there.”

I purchase the ticket, sit in my first class seat next to a woman who apparently had just gotten done raiding the gothic Gucci and Louis Vuitton (I didn’t see any bag, jacket or item that didn’t have a designer label), was a germophobe and I believe spent about half of the trip putting on makeup. Lovely, I’ll try to get some sleep. Oh wait, they offer you peanuts and water every 30 seconds, and then come around to check your ticket. Screw the sleep idea. I have also found that first class really isn’t that comfortable. What a joke.

When I arrived at the Rome train station I figured I would get my connecting train, smart, right? OK, get there, sit down, relax, got to the airport in no time. Now I need to find out what gate my flight is at so I can go through security. Looking at the monitors….. nothing. At this point I’m freaking out thinking “where am I? Did I go to the wrong airport? Where is a sign that I can look at? OK they don’t use signs here.” I pull up Microsoft AutoRoute and figure out that, yes, I am indeed at the wrong airport. Great.

I find the nearest taxi driver, ask the price to go to the other airport, some confusion, but the answer was €40,00. That sucks, but it could be worse. I walk inside to see if I can find some personnel to ask for alternatives. They direct me to the taxi booth, which informs me that the ride will cost €85,00. Ummm what?!?!?! That’s not exactly a cheeseburger and coke. I argue a bit that the taxi drivers outside said €40,00 which apparently is only into town and since the other airport is out of town, that would be an incorrect fare. Great. I have two hours until my flight leaves and I’m stuck 30km away from the airport I need to be at.
With some reluctance I agree to the fare and hop into this gigantic Mercedes van, which is where I sit now, in 5mph traffic, 40 minutes into the ride and no sign of the airport yet. I know its exit 23, but where the heck am I??? I’m starting to actually believe that this is a €85,00 fare and I’m not just being ripped off. Lessons of the day:

1) Know that Rome has two airports and they are very far away from each other,
2) pay attention to what airport your flight is at,
3) get more sleep,
4) don’t be a moron.

I guess the good part is I will never make this mistake again. At least I afforded myself plenty of time for such stupidity.

This will not be my only taxi fare in the next week. I was really hoping for somewhat of a relaxing, moderately cheap trip away from all the things I do not like about this program. So far I just want to go back to Florence, sleep and forget about this spring break thing.

Overall one-way trip to Sofia cost: €204,00 ($268.26). For that price I should have just flown from Florence.

Update: Taxi drive time: 53 minutes. Time remaining to catch flight: 78 minutes.

Update 2: I’ve decided this is the longest day of my life. It seems as though an eternity has passed between all the events today.
When I arrived at the airport the departure schedule showed a flight leaving to Sofia with a different flight number at 7:30 with no flight at 8:25. Since it was 7:05, this was a little scary. I waited impatiently to check my bag where the woman told me there were some problems so it was pushed to 7:30/7:40ish. I then stood in the long line for security the entire time thinking “it’s 7:25, I’m going to miss the flight.” The actual gate was a mess as well. According to the display they were boarding for Sofia, however in reality they were boarding for London. Long story short, our flight was delayed and we left 40 minutes late.

Update 3: I'm actually in Sofia now, but I'll update later!

Spring Break Plans

2007-02-28T09:16:00.000+01:00

Our spring break is from March 5 - 9, so here are my (almost finished) plans:

March 2 - 6	Sofia, Bulgaria
March 6	Plane to Bratislava, Slovakia
March 6 - 11	Explore Bratislava, Prague, Vienna and Budapest (please give me suggestions, I don't have much time this week to look into all the options)
March 11	Fly back to Milan from Bratislava, sleep overnight in the train station
March 12	Take the first morning train back to Florence

Comments

2007-02-26T08:52:00.000+01:00

I've enabled anonymous comments on the blog (didn't realize they were off) so feel free to leave comments.

Another Weekend

2007-02-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

We started midterms this week (huh? I have classes for 2 months longer, and I've been here for 1...) so things have been a bit busy. I am also not traveling this weekend to allow myself to catch up on school work and just relax a little bit.

Request: if there are any pictures that you find on my Flickr that you particularly enjoy, please let me know. I am trying to find out what people like.

Spring Break Plans (March 2-11, 2007)

I am still doing research on this, but have some of it figured out already. Basically it is going to consist of flying to Bulgaria on March 2nd, visiting Ina's relatives and seeing Sofia and then flying to Greece mid the next week and traveling around some of the islands and Athens, finishing by flying to Rome or Milan on March 11th. Should be a very interesting and fun trip!

Last weekend (February 16-19) was rather busy. I'll outline each of my trips below:

Siena, Italy (February 16, 2007)

Pictures
Map

Our one class trip for the semester was to Siena and San Gimignano. Siena I'm sure most of you have heard of at some point and as well as being vicious rivals with Florence since the Middle Ages, is most famous for its yearly horse race: Palio. This race involves ten horses from the seventeen Siena contrades (or neighbordhoods). Each contrade is named after an animal and has their own colors, celebrates holidays together and overall "sticks together." The event is VERY competitive and thousands of people come to watch the 45 second event.

Siena is also home to "La Basilica Cateriniana di San Domenico"

This church has a few rather strange properties: first, it holds the head of St. Catherine as well as her thumb, both of which are on display within the church--creepy. Her body is actually buried in Rome, separate from her head and thumb.

Of course no Italian town would be complete this it's own Duomo...

This Duomo was rather interesting. It is one of the only churches to be done in black and white marble inside and due to a planned expansion it was to be the largest church in Italy. However, the black plague struck Siena in the 13th century and construction of the expansion was halted, only later to be turned into a parking lot:

Inside:

Piazza Del Campo in Siena:

This is where the thousands of people gather for the Palio.

There were some really beautiful flowers outside of a flower shop, so I took some pictures:

As well as some fruit outside a shop:

San Gimignano, Italy (February 16, 2007)

Pictures
Map

Also on our class trip was San Gimagnano.

San Gimagnano is one of the only areas in the Tuscan area that produces white white: Vernaccia. The town itself is home to 14 towers that can be seen as you approach the city. In the 13th century, this town was home to over 70 towers belonging to churches and family castles making for a fantastic skyline. In the 13th century, almost all were destroyed when the Medici family (I believe??) declared war on this area and destroyed many of them.

There is a fabulous view to be had from this city, however, as it over looks some of the Tuscan valley.

There are walls surrounding most of the city which can be climbed.

The city also (supposedly) has the best gelato in the world... however, the store that claims this (and the people who have had it agree) was closed for construction during the time we were there.

Milan, Italy (February 17, 2007)

Pictures
Map

Ah, Milan, the fashion capital of the world (and the 2nd largest city in Italy). Definitely a major industrial city, but it has some charm. Ervis and I made the trek from Florence by train to Milan and then headed to the Duomo area where one of the largest shopping areas is found.

Above is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the oldest shopping malls. It is home to shops of many of the world's top labels, Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. It's a pretty neat shopping center and also has a place to wish for good luck:

The floor mosaic represents arms of four Italian cities, Milan - red cross on white ground; Rome - the wolf, Florence - the lily; and Turin. - the bull. Follow tradition and spin your heels three times on the most "delicate" parts of the bull. Legend says that revolving three times on one leg placed exactly in that position brings good luck and fortune. Of course we tried had to try it...

Next we visited the Milan Duomo...

The facade was under construction, but we entered the church (which happens to be the second largest cathedral in the world)...

The Cathedral was very nice, but after seeing so many of these already they tend to lose their "amazing" feel. It had some very nice stained glass, and a creepy statue which apparently is the most prized piece of art in the cathedral:

Otherwise, did some shopping (mostly at Zara who still had a ton of nice clearance items) and then hopped on the train to go to Mantova where we were staying.

Mantova, Italy (February 17-19, 2007)

Map

Mantova is about a 2 hour train ride east of Milan. The original plan was to go back to Milan the next day, but after determining how close we were to Venice and knowing that Carnevale was happening there, we decided to change our plans.

We stayed at a friend of Ervis' apartment. Mantova has that 'small-town' feel to it. The stay was incredible and the hosts were overaccomadating. Unfortunately the only languages they spoke were Albanian and Italian so Ervis ended up translating, or at least doing most of the talking. They did have satellite TV, which received channels from the Balkan area so I had the opportunity to watch a few Bulgarian TV channels (Zdrave and Evrope TV).

The next day we bought tickets to Venice and hopped on the train.

Verona, Italy (February 18, 2007)

Pictures
Map

On our way to Venice, we had a train switch in Verona. Verona as some of you may know is the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It is also home to the "Arena" which, built in 30AD (!!!!) is the third largest in Italy. I have to claim that this is the oldest man-made place I have ever been to.

It was quite an amazing site even though most of the upper ring was destroyed in an earthquake in the 13th century.

We then ventured to see if we could find the supposed "Romeo" and "Giulietta" homes. After some struggle, we were able to find Romeo's home:

Not very exciting, two signs:

*yawn* boring.

Giulieta's home was so exciting we walked right past it without seeing it:

The inside of the tunnel leading to the supposed "balcony" (now restaurant) is lined with notes professing love between various couples:

It is also good luck to rub Giulieta's right breast:

(I swear!) Nothing bad (or particularly good) has happened to me yet, so I guess it worked.

Venice, Italy (February 18, 2007)

Pictures
Map

Beautiful city, streets full of water, please advise.

OK, I lied about nothing particularly bad happening. My train story to follow is not anything of a "fun time." Since we decided to drop off in Verona for two hours on our way to Venice (I could only recommend about 45 minutes so you can see the Arena, skip everything else), we hopped on another train to go to Venice. On the way there, we could not find a place to sit other than in the aisles. Not exactly a pleasant trip since every 30 seconds someone was trying to walk past you. When the ticket inspector came around, I figured I was fine since I had bought the ticket to Venice and validated it. He then informed me that because the ticket was for a Tren Ordinare and not intercity, that I would need to pay a supplement.

I thought to myself "ok, no big deal, should be a few Euro." Ervis had lost his ticket in Verona so he had to purchase a new one for E10.50. When the inspector informed me that the total was "dodici euro cinquanta" it took me a moment to figure out that it was E12.50 for the "supplement" and not a "few Euro." I paid the man and then wondered why I ended up paying over E20 for my ticket and Ervis paid only E10.50. Oh well.

We got into Venice over a bridge to the city as the train station is on the island. WOW, what a beautiful entrance. The water is a magnificent blue/green color and all the boats, etc make an absolutely gorgeous view. When arriving into Venice, we got out of the train station, noticed that there were a fair number of people, but nothing to be alarmed about (due to Carnavale, which is an event that happens every year in Venice and usually brings thousands of people).

We crossed the bridge to enter into the main area of Venice and started our walked towards Piazza San Marco. We soon realized why many people take the public water buses. Twisting throughout tiny, crowded alleyways, we followed what seemed like thousands of people towards what we were hoping would someday be San Marco (in all honestly we really thought we were following a bunch of tourists into some secluded area of Venice to be robbed or something--the route didn't seem to make much sense and never seemed to end).

We finally made it to Piazza San Marco only to discover that we were not the only ones that wanted to be there

Now, I have seen hordes of people before, but this was INSANE. I am not surprised that Venice is sinking at 2.5" / decade, it probably sinks quite a bit with all these people standing over this swamp they call a city.

We didn't stick around for the concert in San Marco and decided to head towards the shore, along the way we saw quite a few characters:

The side facing the Grand Canal was great. Still full of people, especially over the bridges, but at least you could breathe.

OK, maybe not. From the shore you could see quite a few boats and ferries boating people around. Across from San Marco was Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore:

Shortly after we left there and went towards the Venetian Arsenal.

Caught some pictures of more Carnavale participants:

(This is Ina's favorite picture I think of all time...) and ran into some locals having their own, more private celebration:

As well as some dances:

After some small purchases, we made our way back to the train station, a few hours ahead of our scheduled train (7:49pm). We had to make a connection again in Verona to go back to Mantova. We got back around 5:30, so we tried to catch the 5:51. We waited at the binario for the train to come, they made an announcement (in Italian) that the train would be 5 minutes late. We waited, about 10 minutes later a train showed up showing "Verona" on the side (it was a massive, double decker train). A few people asked if this was going to Verona, since it appeared to be, we said yes. We looked at the sign for the Binario and it said it was going somewhere else and was not departing for another 25 minutes. We asked the police officer if this was going to Verona as it indicated and he said no, but offered no assistance.

We tried as hard as we could to find a train official with no luck. We finally found the conductor, who when asked if it was going to Verona, said no (even though it STILL said Verona on the side on the LCD). We determined after looking at the train schedule on the board that we had somehow missed the train. The next train was the one we were planning to take originally and was leaving in two hours. We decided to look around for a little while longer around the train station area and took some night shots from the bridge:

We crawled back into the train station about 7:05 whic at this point was incredibly busy with people wanting to leave Venice. We looked at the board and saw that a train was leaving at 7:07. We RAN across the station to see if we could catch the train, saw it was still there and tried to get in. Now this is where I wish I would have had my camera out. I have NEVER seen a bus, car, boat, train, or anything as full as that train was. There was not a single bit of room in any car for myself and definitely not for myself and Ervis. We stood there in disgust as the train rolled away.

We went back to check the boards again only to find that we had misread the original train schedule (since it was Sunday) and there was not another train to Verona until 9:09pm. The last train departing from Verona to Mantova was 8:40pm, which we needed to make unless we wanted to sleep in the train station. Long story short, we eventually found that we could take a Milan train that was going through Verona, get off there and catch our train to Mantova with about 5 minutes to spare.

Bologne, Italy (February 19, 2007)

Map

OK I can't really count that I've been here, but we stopped here for a few minutes on our way to Florence from Mantova.

Flowers!

We now have flowers blooming in our garden! Spring is here ;) (well at least in Florence)

Seriously now

2007-02-15T06:19:00.000+01:00

This will be another VERY long post. Take an afternoon off for this one. For those of you who do not need to know what ive been doing every minute of my life for the past 3 weeks, just ignore this one.

Why can't I just post updates on a normal basis? My efforts will be increased....

I'm somewhat frustrated with blogger: since coming to Italy, the entire site has been in Italian, which isn't horrible to get around with but I like seeing English. So what do I do? I select 'inglese (Stati Uniti)' and I still get Italian. *sigh*

Update: I found how to get it to stay in English.

It has been a busy few weeks since my last update. I'll describe my experiences below:

General

My Italian is still lacking. I somewhat blame this on myself and not taking as much time as I would need to properly learn the language. We've discovered and expressed frustration to some of the people at the school (CAPA) that there are far too many Americans and tourists in Florence. I can walk down a street on any given day in the downtown area and not see a single Italian. The town is overrun with tourists: mostly American and Japanese and thus there is very little reason to actually learn the language.

I feel that a large majority of my time right now is spent doing homework. For the classes I am in, there still seems to be much more work than I expected. It makes me look back at my past experiences at NDSU and wonder how I did a full-time job and school at the same time.

I've been somewhat avoiding the night life for the past few weeks since I feel that I have somewhat fallen behind in a few of my classes and need to spend some time catching up. I haven't really seen that the nightlife here is all that great anyways--I could go to any town in America and see the same things I see here at a reduced cost. I'm going to try adventuring out of the downtown area when I get a chance, see if it is better there.

Ina brough along my new lenses so I have been taking some pictures with those. They are great to have and have allowed me to take some better pictures. Ina also bought me a webcam so anyone that has Skype can now video chat with me :)

I cooked Thai food (Basmati Rice w/ curry Salmon and Chicken) for my roommates last week. I tried to make it as mild as I could and it seems that it was still too spicy for a few of them. I guess we'll have to stick to things less spicy.

We found a place that offers a kilogram (2.2 lbs) of Gelato for 6.50 Euros. Since even a small container of Gelato is usually 4 Euros, this is a great deal and we've bought about 2 kilos for the five of us so far.

And now onto the trips and visits:

Fiesole Hills & Monte Ceceri

Pictures
Map

In January CAPA offered a hiking trip to an area just North of Florence: Fiesole hills. We took a bus and then hiked around some paths until we reached Fiesole. The view of the city was amazing. Ina and I also made a similar trek when she visited and loved it. The pictures are self-explanatory for the most part, its just a great view. In addition to almost being ranover by cars about ten times, Ina and I also entered an old monastery and picked up some Gelato while we were there.

Madrid, Spain

Pictures
Map

Ina had the opportunity (or rather *had* ;)) to go to Madrid for a week during the last part of January and early February. This was a perfect opportunity for us to get together during my absence from the US. I flew out of Florence on Friday and set my return date for Tuesday morning as I was planning to spend my birthday with her. Ina's flight arrived about an hour earlier than mine so she was nice enough to wait for me at the airport ;) She didn't even recognize me when I got out of the baggage area. In her defense, I was wearing clothing that she had never seen before--I had bought a long black pea coat in Florence and she had never seen it before. I don't think I'll ever let her live that one down. She actually said that when she was peaking through the door to the baggage claim that she saw a tall blonde guy with a pea coat and wished thought that I would look good in such attire. :)

Our hotel room was tiny (barely room for the bed) and had a very awkward shower. There was a opaque piece of glass that covered about 1/3 of the shower and didn't do much for keeping water from splashing all over the bathroom floor. Overall the hotel was nice, and had internet which we used a few times to check email and call people.

The weather during the time we were there was rather miserable. It was not nearly as cold as Fargo, but was windy and cold (about 30f) and raining through part of the trip. The first night we were there we were trying to find our way around the city and get something to eat. We found this task to be more difficult than it should have been. We were given some very poor directions from the lady at the desk of the hotel and ended up far away from the Metro (subway system) that was going to take us to Sol, the main commercial area of Madrid. We eventually found a Metro entrance and quickly learned how to use it. We made it to Sol, walked around for a few minutes without much luck and finally found a place that was offering a salad bar buffet of some sort. We sat down there and it ended up being a full buffet (first and probably the only buffet I'll eat in Europe) with salad, pasta, pizza, some spanish food and lots of desert. Since this was my first experience interacting with anyone there and found out quickly that I am already very accustomed to saying things in Italian and many times found myself saying grazie rather than gracias. Over the few days I was there I changed my habit and ended up actually having the reverse problem when I got back to Florence. On the way back from the restaurant, we actually got lost (partially due to bad directions again) and Ina ended up with frostbite on her face.

Saturday we had to ourselves again so we did some sightseeing and shopping. We didn't really plan our sightseeing very well so we just stumbled upon things. We saw some very nice churches and courtyards.

I was trying not to be too disruptive taking pictures, but this was a beautiful church.

Das Popeski

Late Saturday, Ina's coworkers arrived so we went back to Sol and tried to find something to eat. We at a Turkish Kabab restaurant (it was about 3am there) that was barely even open. We had to sneak under the door that was half closed.

Sunday we decided to take the Madrid Vision tour (by bus) around the city. It was again freezing cold and driving around in an open-top bus is not exactly pleasant. We did get to see some neat things and then try to wander and find some place warm to have coffee. We found a coffee place that only offered half of the menu they advertised and then couldn't even make that--but it was warm! Ina and I decided to try the "old Madrid" tour and ended up sitting on the bus for a few hours conversing rather than seeing the sights.

Sunday night we adventured downtown yet again, found a Thai place and ate there. We then decided to try and find some of the Madrid nightlife. Got invited by some bouncer into a club where we stayed the rest of the night.

Monday was my birthday and the rest of the people had meetings all day so I slept in (until 10:00!!) and then left with my camera to do some shopping and explore. I am convinced that Madrid does not have any clothing stores for men. I think I found one or two mens clothing store and about 100 womens. Ina and I did find some good deals at H&M later and I bought a striped jacket, jeans, a shirt and some other miscellaneous things.

For lunch I wandered into an Indian place. It said 'abierto' on the door so I figured they were open. I went in and was very confused: it was dead silent, there were barely any lights on and there was absolutely no one there. I thought about just leaving, but I really wanted the food (I already knew what I wanted) so I wandered around to see if I could find someone. I finally heard someone in the kitchen so I yelled at them and tried to use my little spanish to ask if they were open. He didn't seem to understand what I was saying and didn't know what I wanted. Another lady came out who happened to speak some English. She asked what I wanted (very rudely I might add) and I said I was wondering if you were open. She still didn't seem to understand that this was a restaurant and I might possibly want something to eat so I started to edge towards the door when she said no. After some more hassle, I eventually ended up eating there.

After leaving the restaurant I decided to get myself lost (not really on purpose) and just wander around. I ended up in what I would call some sort of China town with import/export shops EVERYWHERE. I stopped into one because I saw some cool stuff (of course for women) in there. I bought a couple of things for Ina and left. I took some pictures of some things around a residential areas and as I was taking a picture of this sign:

a man approached me (rather angrily it seemed) and started talking to me in Spanish. It seemed he was asking me what I was taking pictures of and I said the sign. He took a book out of his pocket and motioned for me to take it. I was hesitant, started to grab it and then he pointed on the book to "Cuba" which is where he was from. I said I was from the United States and then from Minnesota. Another gentleman approached us, who I found was from England. I talked to him for a few minutes and then we parted ways--interesting.

We went out to eat at this rather nice restaurant in Southern Madrid near our Hotel. We all ordered Paella with seafood. The company, appetizers and wine were awesome and overall it was a very good meal:

I left early Tuesday morning (6am) and due to conversation, I never really slept. The taxi ride to the airport was interesting with the taxi driver feeling it necessary to go 175km/h (~110miles/hour) and take turns at about 100km/h (60mph)-he did get me there alive and on time so I guess I can't really complain (although it was 25 Euros=$33). The first flight was from Madrid to Milan and that went smoothly. I got to the Milan airport and had about a 2 hour layover--I sat and did some reading until it was time to board. Everyone lined up, stood there until the plane was supposed to leave and then sat down-it would seem the plane was delayed (although they never said that).

Two hours later they made an announcement that we were all to go to the information desk and see what was happening. Rather than make an announcement to everyone, they talked to the 4 people in front that were able to get there faster than the 75 other people. At this time many flights outbound from Milan were cancelled and rumors were that flight control went on strike. They decided to put us on a bus and drive us to Florence. I was slight upset because I was to arrive at 11, I had class at 10:30 and was going to take a taxi to get to part of it and then I had two classes later that afternoon that I had not planned on missing. The bus left about 1:00pm and we arrived about 5:45pm, just in time to have missed all of my classes for the day. What a waste. Due to this fact, I have multiple absences in a few of my classes and a reduced grade (it is unexcused since it was travel related). *sigh*

Ina's Vist to Florence

Pictures

Ina with her trip also was able to fly to Florence for a few days (Friday through Monay originally but she extended her stay to Wednesday). I planned to meet her at the airport and then take a taxi back to my place with her. I ended up getting somewhat lost in NorthEastern Florence since the bus that I needed to connect with to get there stopped running 2 hours earlier leaving me basically stranded with a map and no idea where I was. I ended up calling a taxi and taking it to the airport. I would have been late, but Ina's flight was 25 minutes late so it worked out. When we got back to my place, we ate and then went down the block to Plasma (the club in the first post). It was definitely a lot better than any of the other clubs I had been to, but we didn't stay. We went to another new club downtown, Dolce Zucchero, and stayed there about 20 minutes before we left to walk by some of the major sites (Duomo, Santa Croce) and then go home.

Saturday was a day of walking. We walked to around, saw the sights: Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Santa Croce, Piazza Della Signoria, Uffizi (outside), etc. We ran into my roommate Taylor on the street and decided to go to mass with him at the Duomo. There was supposed to be an english service at 5pm, but we found out it wasn't in the Duomo, it was in another, smaller church. There was a service in Italian at 6:30 so we decided to attend that. It was a very neat experience. I don't think I could have possibly understood the priest even if he was speaking English because the entire area echoes so much. It was also the first time that I had been inside the Duomo which is by far the largest church I have ever seen in my life.

Sunday we took the bus to Fiesole Hills. As I said earlier, there isn't much to describe, it's just a cool Italian town with a spectacular view. This was one of Ina's favorite places. And of course, we had Gelato:

Monday we had more plans: I had class in the morning so Ina met with me at the Duomo at 10:00. We entered the Duomo and took pictures and then bought tickets to climb to the cupola. WOW. What an experience. If you are ever in Florence, you must do this. It gives a spectacular 360 degree view of Florence:

as well as being able to more closely see the artwork of the Duomo ceiling:

We also ate Sushi for lunch!

After leaving the Duomo we tried to inspect some other museums (all of which are closed on Mondays). We then headed up to Piazzale Michelangiolo just before sunset. I would recommend trying to do Piazzale Michelangiolo and the Duomo at sunset. You can get some amazing pictures from both:

Tuesday we investigated some of the local museums: Academia and Uffizi. There were no cameras allowed at either gallery, but we were able to sneak some pictures. The final, real, 15ft tall statue of David is shown at Academia:

Along with 'The Rape':

which is a very interesting piece because it was done such that there are infinite viewpoints (because the people are wrapped around eachother).

Uffizi offered many statues as well, but none that compared to these two. The Uffizi is massive and you could spend hours looking at every piece that is held there. We did manage to take some pictures of some Leonardo paintings as well as "The Birth of Venus":

We sat down after basically an entire day of walking and had REAL cappuccino:

and then went and saw some "wildlife" near the river:

Ina unfortunately had to leave Wednesday morning ending her Italian adventures...

Pisa / Lucca / Viareggio

Pictures: Pisa / Lucca & Viareggio

Last weekend I traveled by train to Pisa, Lucca and Viareggio.

Pisa (Map) you all of course have heard of and possesses the Leaning Tower of Pisa:

The site of the tower was interesting. There were a crazy number of people there, most of them making the usual "holding up the tower" pose:

I thought it was just as much fun to throw the tower in the trash:

Overall pretty boring, just basically was there to take pictures of the tower and the river:

Lucca (Map) is a city which still has its defense walls in tact:

We arrived there at night so I don't have very many pictures and our experience was somewhat short. The most exciting thing we found was this hole-in-the-wall chinese restaurant that gave us enough food to feed a mouse and left us more hungry than when we got there.

Viareggio is an Italian sea city (Map):

When we arrived there was a carnival at the city which lasts from February through the end of Lent. I could not believe how many of the citizens and visitors were dressed up. I can't believe that it would be possible to get adults, teenagers and kids to dress up in America for anything the way that they dressed up here. The carnival was gigantic, and although we didn't go into it (13 euros to enter), it made finding the sea much harder as it seemed to take up half the sea shore.

The view from the harbour was great. The Alpuan mountains as a backdrop against the city, people surfing, and sailboats and yachts made for good scenery. The beach was gigantic and seemed to stretch forever. It wasn't quite swimsuit weather, or it would have been nice to take a swim.

When we were there, the polizia arrested a few illegals that were selling knock off sunglasses and paintings. You see these people everywhere, but this was the first arrest we had seen.

Boboli Gardens

Pictures
Map
My roommate Ervis and myself decided to hike through Boboli Gardens yesterday. Boboli Gardens is a large garden in Florence that was laid out for the wife of Cosimo I de'Medici in the 16th Century. It is seated behind Pitti Palace. The garden is a large 11 acres just south of the center of Florence (with a spectacular view!).

I plan to go back when I have time and the flowers have started to bloom.

A Well Deserved Update

2007-01-31T13:34:00.001+01:00

Well I now have been in Italy for a few weeks and have not updated. I wrote this a few days ago, so I will have to put in another update as I have since gone to Madrid, Spain for the weekend. Expect more frequent updates in the future, I have just been very busy. So far It has been an interesting adventure and I have learned quite a bit.
I stick out like a sore thumb in Italy. Blonde guys? Nahhh they just don't exist here. Taylor (my roommate) and myself are about the only two Blonde guys I've seen. Blonde girls are even fairly rare and are pretty much just tourists. A few of the blonde girls on the trip have said they have gotten nasty stares from some of the other Italian girls. Fun times.
Talking to Italians that know little to no english, with my little bit of Italian is sometimes entertaining and frustrating. Casual conversations with Italians are definitely a learning experience and it seems that both parties end up learning something. Simple conversations are pretty much the limit. Dealing with vendors at a shop, you can sense their frustrating when you ask them "Parla Inglese?" I can understand their frustration, but right now, it's the best I'm able to do until I learn more Italian (or struggle with what I do have).
The price of items here varies wildly. It has become second nature to me now to figure out the price of an item in dollars from Euros (right now, multiply by 1.3). Hopefully the dollar picks up something in the few weeks, but I'm not holding my breath. Pasta is of course really cheap: 1kg (2.2lbs) is about €0,74 ($0.95). Clothing is similar for the most part, with the markets of course being fairly cheap. Wine is very cheap with a $10 bottle costing about €3 here. It is pretty common at most bars (cafes) or shops throughout the city as well. It is interesting to see kids smoking in the streets as well.
I've talked to many of you in the past week. I have tried to be as prompt in answering the emails as I can, however internet access is hard to come by here, and with the 7 hour time difference, responses will usually take a day. For those of you who I have not talked to, I will try to give as thorough an update as I can.

The School

The school is not exactly what I had expected. They show in the website a grand staircase that looks rather nice. We go to school in an old alleyway in a building that when you walk into it feels like a jail. The actual classrooms aren’t too bad other than a few days have been somewhat cold.
The teachers are somewhat insane. I have more busy-work here than I have had most of my nine semesters at NDSU, basically a ton of reading, presentations, papers, daily quizzes, the works. I think the worst part is the attendance policy: miss 2 or more days and your grade drops one letter. I think we’re going to start a petition and have everyone sign it, since it is U of M dictating this policy. I understand why this policy exists, but we’re not in high school anymore and we need to be accountable for our actions, not hand held.
On that note, I am missing two classes next week on my trip to Madrid. Yay for flight schedules.

The City

The city is absolutely gorgeous and up until the past few days the weather has been spectacular. When we got off the plane in Rome, it was nearly 70f and it was far too warm to wear jackets. It is a bit cooler in Firenze, but we have had a few days around 65f. Most days are overcast, with a little bit of sunshine here and there. This week we are down to 35f, rainy and somewhat windy (there is no comparison to the wind in Fargo, but the humidity is different here so I think that tends to make it feel a little cooler).
The cobblestone streets are interesting and sometimes a pain to walk on, not as much for me, but for those that attempt to wear heels. You do find yourself stumbling occasionally over some of the stones that are ajar.
I have not had a chance to see many of the indoor places, but have done quite a bit of sightseeing around the city and its surrounding mountains (or hills). I think by far the two coolest places have been Fiesole Hills and Piazzale Michelangiolo. I want to go up to Fiesole Hills at night and overlook the city lights from there. If you have not seen my pictures, please check the Flickr link on the right side of this site. The view from the inside of the Duomo and the Duomo tower look as though they would be excellent so I am waiting for a clear day to climb the 900 stairs (or however many).

Preparazioni

2007-01-02T18:17:00.000+01:00

9 days to go...

I suppose I should start doing something with this blog.

It has been difficult the past few weeks to even begin to prepare myself to embark on this adventure. Trying to plan everything is impossible and it barely even seems as though it will even happen.

I recently have found out where I am living in Florence (from here on Firenze) and with whom:

MAP

The link shows where I will be living in relation to the school (from here on CAPA). CAPA is located Southeast of the Duomo and North of Santa Croce. It also seems that I will be living in a rather lively and busy area of Florence as right down the street is a club called "Plasma."

Looks very classy. I am not sure I would feel comfortable walking in there the first night, even if I could afford the cover ;)

Even the bathrooms look nicer than most bars in Minneapolis....

See more pictures here...

I also have discovered my class schedule which seems to be somewhat of a dissapointment. I will have class everyday, Monday - Friday. Friday is only until 10:00 so it will be possible to catch a mid-afternoon flight or train somewhere if wanted, but I was hoping to not have class on either Monday or Friday so I could more easily travel for a few days. We'll see what happens when I get there though.