looking for bernard

... despite badly bruised ribs (maybe cracked??), an amputated toe(nail - surgery today for about $35:), massive diesel fume ingestion, and mosquito swarms. oh yeah, i forgot to mention sun burn. i've been peeling for the past week or so. i heard it's been snowing in the pac nw. woulda been a nice change from sitting on the beachs in Caramoan. a few pics below, do a google image search for full gloating effect. told you guys entries wouldn't be as frequent. traveling with family doesn't leave much down time. have been on the go a bunch. past week was in the provinces where they are still cyberspaceless. a night at each of the aunties/uncles houses there, plus a night at my oldest cousin's house. my toe got caught in the floor boards the second night. ... read more

Venice was so beautiful it created a time delay for this journal - so here's a summary of my stay there. I could feel it from the train ride in from the main land, going over the connection looking out over the water I could sense I was going to like Venice. Arrived at the train station walked out and just stood in awe. It was basically like all the pictures I'd ever seen were in motion before my eyes. Luckily my hostel was right across the grand canal, so I checked in dropped off my bags (and the kiddies...) and set to walking. There's really only one main street in Venice, so you can follow it all the way down to St Mark's Square, just follow the signs, cross the bridges, and end up at ... read more

Was convinced to go on the pub crawl last night by the roomies and the Aussies from the hostel across the street. 20eur for an hour of all you can drink wine, beer or spirits, plus a free shot at the 3 bars we went to was fairly convincing in itself - especially when a pint of beer runs 5eur alone (7eur for a bottle of house red was the much more economical option, so being the penny pincher I am, stuck with that most of my nights). Rum and cokes, gin and tonics for an hour set the night off right. Unfortunately, me and one of the other guys in the hostel were planning on a 9am train to Florence (Firenze). I woke up around 630 (because 3.5hrs of sleep is way too much, right?), ... read more

This is the first city where I spent money for a tour, two actually. I paid for the tour at il colosseo and Palentino. The tour for il colosseo was crap, a very long winded tour guided who kept closing his eyes while he spit out adjective after adjective after adjective after adjective to describe one single aspect. After the second stop, I eventually just started wandering off taking pictures and looking at stuff on my own. I kept the group in sight since I would have to catch up to them later to meet for the tour for Palentine hill. If you get the guide who looks like Bob Euker, ask for the next guide. Fortunately, the next part was led by a different guide - a much better speaker, and a lot more informative. ... read more

This city definitely needs more time, but Italy is calling rather loudly. So loudly in fact that I´m skipping Stockholm even though I´ve already paid for airfare there and back. For some reason, accomodations are very difficult to find in Stockholm, and I will actually be paying about 1/3 of the cost to for 3 nights in Florence. A couple days back I went on the free walking tour. We only had about 7 people, so it was almost like a private tour and very intimate. Tour guide was from Modesto, just traveling around picking up odd jobs here and there. Cool guy that showed us where to get cheap (but good paella, 3 euros), 1 eur beers, bag of churros for 1 eur. Good stuff. Met a couple of Australians, a couple of S. Africans, ... read more