To Germany

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They are playing Of Montreal and the Hold Steady in my hostel right now. Odd.

So Steven did have my passport, as I had his. We had a great dinner with him and some of his Ferrara friends (complimented by the greatest dessert ever (something roughly translated as chocolate salami)). Out the window we were provided with entertainment as three italian high school couples defied physics and managed to all make out in various parts of the same tiny tiny euro car.

Grabbed train to Padua and made a slightly frightening walk down dark alleys to the hotel. In the morn we saw a famed chapel frescoed by Giotto. It has been called the first piece of modern art ever, or at least helped jump start the Renaisance with its humanism. There was a very odd system for entering. A door automatically opens to allow entrance exactly at the reserved appointment time. It promptly closes for half an hour and if you come a minute late you cant get in (the german kezboards transpose the y and z kezs, so keep that in mind as I trz to tzpe correctlz but fail). We were supposed to be at the entrance five minutes early, and had to check out bags, but were not allowed to check our bags until promptlz 10 minutes before our appointment. It just provided unnecessary stress about possiblz being locked out of one of the great pieces of western art (and loosing the 12 euros paid for the ticket!).

Then we checked out the Basilica of St Anthony, near where we slept. Bradley and I have since named him the Patron Saint of the Manarolaz (mostly because we liked his church alot, and also partially because he is in reality the patron saint of travelers - among many other odd things).

We liked Padua alot. I wish we could have stayed longer. It was a fun, chill, pedestrian friendly place. I recommend it. But we had to, in a half day, also fit in.....

Venice. We checked our bags, reserved our night train for later, and grabbed a water taxi for a tour down the Grand Canal. Venice is beautiful (among other adjectives, both good and bad). We saw St. Marks Square and his Cathedral (my favorite square and church on the continent) and wandered. Venice is notoriously touristz and overpriced. You can spend hours trying to find a decent place on some secluded local back street. Its hard not to get ripped off. So how do we stick it to this system...... get McDonalds value meals and eat them on Europes greatest piazza. I literally have not eated at a McDonalds in multiple years. I hate the place. But something about this felt liberating. (Mmmmmm.... I can actually taste the hedgemony).

We considered other sights in the city, but just didnt feel like paying many euros for mediocre art. So we wandered and sat. We sat on the Rialto Bridge. We sat on steps in Piazza San Marco. There, we watched the sun set from somewhere behind and unseen. The dusk settled in around us - shadows crawled up the buildings gradually. The gilding and frescos reflected an orangeyellow hue on the church. All the while, the skys swath of blue above us remained brilliant, but fading. Fellow pedestrains became faceless shadows and the pigeons continued to scatter and feed.

After a wait at the train station (confusion reigned as our platform said that our train destination was Nizza, a city I do not believe exists. Either way, we made it to Munich) we boarded a very nice night train.... clean, smooth, etc. I slept very poorly, but such is the nature of sleeping in such circumstances.

In munich, we checked in, checked our bags, and checked out the city at daybreak. The streets were empty. Again we caved to visiting an American institution: this time, starbucks. I dont feel so bad about this. Unlike, Italy, Germanz does not seem to have a set, local, time honored breakfast system. To not have a pastry and small coffee in Italy would seem like cheating on the country. No such set tradion exists here (at least that I know of in my infitite wisdom of being in country for a few hours at this point). So I downed a venti (needed it after no sleep). The familiaritz of the place was nice. At least once, I could walk into a room and have at least some vague idea of what to expect. Then we gameplanned for the next few days (so exciting).

We hit a museum (best art in Bavaria, apparently). It ran pre-renaisance through about 1800, and was very impressive, actuallz (tintoretto, raphael, et al). My eyes were opened to the Germain\Northern Renaisance.... Durer etc. Then we went to the town square to watch the big noon showing of a huge clock tower where bells ring and figures move for about 15 minutes. It was prettz much a waste of time except for one part where two figures of knights jousting on horses came, and one dude knocked the other off. The bells sounded out of tune and too slow.... like the last few seconds of a music box as your wind winds down. We hit a market square with bussling booths selling goodies of meet, cheese, beer, wine, sausage, bavarian bbq, produce, flowers, etc. This is where the locals come to grab lunch and a prenoon beer (very very common, to my delight). We had (fantastic) wurst and beer (a local helles and weiss). We toured their public park (the largest in Europe) and watched at a part where the river waterfalls in such a way as to make it possible to surf (difficult to explain).

Back at the hostel, we discovered the most ridiculous aspect of any hostel we have been in. you know those bathroom sinks where you push the knob and water comes out for about 5 seconds and then you push again and again? That was the shower. One constantly holds down the knob or pushed is every 5 seconds to keep the water coming. Furthermore, the bathroom lights are on a motion control timer, so every 5 minutes it goes pitch black, and one must exit the shower and wave ones hands around in front of the sinks to single to said motion detector that one is attemption to shower. Were another hosteler to walk into the bathroom to use a simple sink or whater, he or she would have found me stark nude waving my arms around like a loon, partially soaped and shampooed.

For the evening we headed to what is universally considered the worlds greatest beerhall, Munichs Hofbrauhaus.... I will write about that in a minute, but want to publish this so it doesnt get deleted in some the-computer-automatically-turns-off-after-47-minutes accident.

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