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Published: July 15th 2009
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Colosseum
Old and big Sorry for the delay in updating the blog...I've just been too lazy to write...
My friend T.T. flew into Rome and met up with me on June 29th. We'll be traveling together until the 19th of this month. We've been getting around by the Euroline bus pass which is much cheaper than a train pass. They are long trips but it works out because they're overnight so we don't have to pay foraccommodation. Well, there is an exception that I will get to later...
I was more than a bit worried about spending 3 weeks in cities, especially when I had to take day trips out of Rome after only being there 3 days. I'm just not a big city person. But it's worked out surprisingly well. We've varied ouraccommodations so that we have stay in hostels sometimes, but mostly hotels with our own room, which gives us extra luxury at no extra cost. As long as there's a park to picnic and people watch in, I'm happy. Here are the highlights for the cities we've been in.
Rome
I saved the two biggies for T.T., Vatican City and the Colosseum. The Colosseum was old, big, and impressive,
Wine in Lyon
wonderful memories like most buildings in Rome, but it just didn't hold much meaning for me. The best part was watching the guys dressed in roman costumes sucker tourists into taking pictures with them and then turning into jerks when they ask for money or make you delete the pictures. TheVatican was the same, except more opulent and beautiful, but again, not much personal meaning. It actually rather pissed me off because I can't even imagine how much money the church spent on this excessive stuff while people suffer all around them. I should also not that I was reading Foreskin's Lament at the time, which I highly recommend, but kind of makes it easy to hate religion. The best part was sitting on the steps outside watching the attractive guards in their funny costumes.
Lyon, France
We went here because the bus went here, so we didn't really know what to expect except good food. I loved their public transit- extensive metro, buses, trams, and bike sharing. We basically vegged out, walked around, and ate and drank occasionally. The 4 years of french I took so long ago escaped me completely, but it wasn't a problem. My best memory is
Park in Lyon
So french and beautiful of our time in the huge, beautiful park, eating bread, fruit, and cheese, drinking a bottle of wine, reading, and watching children play and young couples make out. From then on we have been averaging at least 1 bottle of less than 3 euro local wine per day. Life is good.
Barcelona
The night trip we wanted to take here was sold out, so we ended up arriving at 3 am. We had to wait for the office to open at 6 so we could book our next trip, so we spent a few hours sleeping on a well lit sidewalk. It was really rather comfortable with the sheets T.T. brought along, although we got some stares. We stayed at a hostel close to the beach, which was a good idea. We went to thePicasso museum, on a free walking tour, and to some other sights, but we mostly drank sparkling wine and sangria on the beach. I actually loved some ofPicasso's early work, before he went all crazy and cubist. He made lots of simple, aptly titled sketches and prints, mostly featuring prostitutes. I think my favorite was a print titled "fat hairy couple with little dog" which
Our picnic
All day with fruit, bread, cheese, wine, and a trashy book. was exactly that. On the walking tour, we saw wherePicasso lost his virginity to a prostitute, and other interesting historical tidbits about sex, drugs, and death. The thing that made me lovePicasso was that he was friends with this artist ( Manaroe or something) that did that crap that's just a line and a dot or something equally as simple and boring. They hated each other's art and whenPicasso was asked to do something more like manaroe, he did this silly doodle to mock the man, which eventually became his most publicly displayed work. I quite liked the Gaudi architecture everywhere, especially the mosaic stuff. WE went to a huge food market which was wonderful except for the meat counters which featured entire skinned heads of calves (and I've seen the cooked product on menues in Italy and France). Oh, and it is also legal to be nude anywhere as long as you wear shoes. There's a famous guy called elephant man who walks around the streets naked andtattooed, but we never got to see him. There were a few nudes on the beach, and I also went to topless for a bit. When in Barcelona...
Paris
Unfortunately, Paris
Piccaso
I love that guy because of this. was experiencing crappy weather when we visited, and it was rather cold and rainy or overcast. We stayed a bit outside of the city in a hotel, but the metro is great so we could get everywhere easily. We went to the main tourist places- the Louvre, Eiffel tower, Notre Dam. The Louvre was huge and impressive, but pissed me off because art is so silly. I just don't understand how certain works can be so famous when others are so much better than them. Alex, my brother, could could do better than many of them. My favorite painting by far should be the most famous. Just check out the picture, it's just so random and silly. The main theme of the art work was naked people dying. And there's quite a trend with the women subjects to just have one breast exposed.
We waited in ridiculous lines and went to the top of the Eiffel tower. eh. It was okay. But I hated that area because there's a guy every 5 steps shaking a giant ring of Eiffel tower key chains at you saying 5 for 1 euro. I am not exaggerating about how frequent or annoying they were.
Gaudi
mosaic ceiling I wanted to buy one so I could stab them in the eye with it so they would stop jingling their crappymerchandise in my face. I dragged T.T. to an erotic museum that had 6 floors of exhibits. It was actually a legit place with artifacts from ancient cultures, info about brothels inParis, silent black and white porn, etc. One of the best museums in Europe for sure, if you're tired of the same old stuff. We also went to Versailles , the palace and gardens, which also felt like a great injustice because of its obscene opulence. I suppose the gardens were nice, they were just too manicured for mytaste.
Nudity of any kind doesn't phase me in the least now. Not that it did much before, but I'm so used to seeing it in art and in person here. Americans are so silly.
Berlin
Germany is clean, sunny, and cool, and full of bikes and trees. I'm in love. The hostel we are staying in is near a wealthy suburb and is actually in a forest. You have to hike in. You can see why I'm in love. And there's Riesling and beer gardens and surprisingly lots
market in Barcelona
I spared you the more meaty pictures of great vegetarian food. We've been doing a lot of aimless wandering, but today we went on a free tour and learned lots of history, which was pretty interesting. As I'm usually not much into history, I didn't realize how recently the wall had been opened and how it all happened. But I won't write all that. We've met some great people in some cities, but here most of all. There's this older Australian guy that is so sweet and tells T.T. and I stories about his wife (who is into sustainability) andballroom dancing. The one bad thing is that the bus trip we need to get to Milan is booked until September , so we've been forced to be unsustainable, environmentally and economically, and to fly there tomorrow night. And we made a rash decision to be cheap and to avoid paying for a room we weren't planning on needing, and just sleep in the airport because our flight gets in around midnight. It's better than a sidewalk. But now I'm greatly regretting that decision because I want to stay here longer, and we should have just stayed another night and flown out on Thursday. Oh well, too late
Theme in the Louvre
Many painting and statues of people reacting to be impailed by arrows by rolling their eyes. now. I'm determined to get on a bike before I leave.
Milan is next, and we got a deal on a 4 star hotel there. My last bit of luxury before I go back to the farm life. Hopefully I'll have some free time and some more adventures to keep you all entertained with my updates!
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anonymous
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http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/275842 Not saying you need "lessons in love", but if I had found this before you hit Germany I'd have let you know. Unless perhaps this is the musuem you found... I'm glad you liked Germany so much. I'd actually heard that they don't understand vegetarianism which is strange because as a nation they are very into environmentalism. Your summer sounds so epic.