Chiao From Venice!!!
Sorry about the lack of pics in the last two posts, as the trip is progressing its getting harder to sit down and update everything. So where to start? How bout with how difficult it is to operate a computer when everything is in italian and you have a keyboard with buttons that can do this è § à ° ò ç é £! Crazy foriegners what will they think of next, definately not ice, airconditioning, or free public restrooms. On a serious note though i just left Lucerne a couple of days ago and i have honestly never seen a more beautiful place on this planet. I really wish i could put pics up for ya and i will eventually but not on this post. So close your eyes and picture a beautiful blue lake that you can see 20 feet deep because there is no polution. Now surround your self with flowers up and down the boardwalks with beautiful swiss architecture all around in the most quaint city youve ever seen...wait for it...wait for it! now put the most gorgeous snow caped mountains youve seen in the background and youve got your self a little place called Lucerne. Oh yeah, now picture me with 5 of my best friends on this trip in a pontoon boat swimming and drinking and rockin out to paul simon acapella provided by yours truly...thats right "you can call me al"
So Switzerland, good stuff. Now im sitting in Venice, the one place that i have wanted to see all my life since i first heard of it. Unfortuanetly i think everyone else in the world had the same idea because this is by far the most touristy place ive been so far. the city has a pop. of 64,000 and they get 17 MILLION, THATS RIGHT 17 MILLION tourists a year. So other than the fact that is so crowded it is quite a sight. there are no cars and more bridges than there are in Madison county (i dont even know if there are a lot of bridges there but i figure theres at least a few since they made that movie :) Yesterday was another rough one though. we had to go to this place called the lido which is this amazing beach on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, i know sounds rough. Oh by the way i havent mentioned it but there is some actuall class going on from time and i got a B on my first test!!! SLAM PIG! ok, back to the sea. This thing was awsome it was salty you almost didnt have to swim you could just lift you feet and you would float from all the salt. Tonight should be a kicker though because tonight is the once a year festival in Venice where everyone dresses up in masks and body paint parks all there boats in the Grand Canale and tie them together and have a massive fireworks show, oh yeah, and its actually required that you have a bottle of wine in your hand. I really am serious! our teacher told us today that its considered very bad manners to not bring wine and that even if you dont drink it you should have one in your hand! What a crazy world we live in, again, crazy ass foriegners.
Well, i gots to go get ready for the party now so ill leave you with this: America = Colder, Fresher, Faster, and Less Expensive. Cherish every aminity you have back in the states including organized trash systems to keep your city clean, free restrooms, people that where gloves when they prepare your food, water fountains next to every restroom in America, and most importantly the people you care about. As amazing as this trip is Ive discovered its not really where you are that matters at all, its the people that you surround yourself with and a truly love all of you that are reading this.
LIFES A GARDEN ... DIG IT!!!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Monday, July 10, 2006
Bonjior from Paris!!!
So i've now been in Paris for the last 5 days and leave tomorrow morning for Lucerne, Switzerland. I cant wait for that cause i heard there is lake there surrounded by mountains where you can rent a paddle boat with a water slide on the back. I'm kinda feinding for some swimming action since it's summer and all. Oh yeah, and it's hot as hell here and i've lost about 5 lbs. from all the walking so far (my pants are starting not to fit) Anyway, Paris, what a place! Wine is cheaper than water, the people smell horrid, and i cant tell what they are saying cause i've never taken a french lesson in my life. My roomate and I have figured out the solution though. We can it the French Sandwich because all we do is sandwich our english language with the words Bonjior at the beginning and Merci at the end. It seems to work fairly well most of the time. Except for the shower curtain incident! LOL. Now i have to tell it right. Ok, so a couple days ago I slept in til' 2pm (whoops, the night before was a little out of control) and so the cleaning crew didn't clean the room. So, later i'm just sitting in ther room whatching a little Wimbeldon action when all the sudden some guy that appeared to work for the hotel came in and i though he was there to clean. So he mummbles a bunch of stuff in french to me and I'm like yeah Bonjior...yeah do what ever you need to do...Merci (you see how the sandwich works:) and so he goes into the bathroom unhooks the shower curtain and leaves with it. I'm like hmmm. that was kinda wierd (I mean I'm not that smart, but am well educated) that's a quote stolen from my roomate, but it seemed strange. Anyway, the curtain has never returned and we think it was officially stolen from under my nose now. (good story huh?)
Ok, other than that i can see the Eifel tower out my window which is another good story in it's self. I went to the tower alone from the rest of the group cause i had slept in that day (this is the same day as the shower curtain day) and i decided to go check out the tower cause i couldn't wait for the rest of the group. When i get there i'm pretty proud cause i figured the train system out all alone and i took a ton of great photos. Then, when i get the entrances, there is one on each foot, i see a line of people that looked like it would take about 3 hours to get through at two of the feet. The other two feet look like about a 15-20min. wait. Of course all the signs are in French so i cant figure out why these lines are so short, but i figure Hey, what the hell i'll just jump in the short line. Well, some of you are probably already laughing cause you figured out that the reason those lines are short is because those are the lines for the freakin' stairs! So I walk my ass up i dont know how many flights of stairs, but it took me a good 45 min. of straight stair climbing to get up there. We are talking people stopping all over to catch there breath, kids crying cause they dont want to go any farther, and then me trying to convince myself that i'm 22 and in good enough shape to make it with out stopping. Of course i did cause im competive like that, but was sweating like a pimp with one hooker when i got to the top. The view was amazing though and worth all the effort when i got there.
Here is the pic of me when i got to the top and did a little cool down:
Last night was definately and experience too, cause it was World Cup Final game between Italy and France!!! If you dont know soccer is called futbol here and it is taken like a religeon. Even the police cars yesterday were flying flags and yelling crazy french talk over there loudspeakers. So we spent all day at the Palace of Versi and the Church in Chartes pronounced (Shart)yeah that's right shart! Those of you that have seen Along Came Polly know I had a lot of fun with that one yesterday. Oh, and speaking of Sharting when we were in the church on our tour some smell crept in from hell in the form of a liquid that seriously had people dry heaving and gagging and running for the door. Normally, i would think that's funny but it was so bad that i couldn't even laugh at the Shart jokes cause i was concentrating on not puking. Beautiful church though, I've never seen anything like it in my life, kinda overwhelming at first (even without the smell). So back to the game, we got back to Paris about an hour before the game. (to be cont.) i have to go to dinner righ now!
So i've now been in Paris for the last 5 days and leave tomorrow morning for Lucerne, Switzerland. I cant wait for that cause i heard there is lake there surrounded by mountains where you can rent a paddle boat with a water slide on the back. I'm kinda feinding for some swimming action since it's summer and all. Oh yeah, and it's hot as hell here and i've lost about 5 lbs. from all the walking so far (my pants are starting not to fit) Anyway, Paris, what a place! Wine is cheaper than water, the people smell horrid, and i cant tell what they are saying cause i've never taken a french lesson in my life. My roomate and I have figured out the solution though. We can it the French Sandwich because all we do is sandwich our english language with the words Bonjior at the beginning and Merci at the end. It seems to work fairly well most of the time. Except for the shower curtain incident! LOL. Now i have to tell it right. Ok, so a couple days ago I slept in til' 2pm (whoops, the night before was a little out of control) and so the cleaning crew didn't clean the room. So, later i'm just sitting in ther room whatching a little Wimbeldon action when all the sudden some guy that appeared to work for the hotel came in and i though he was there to clean. So he mummbles a bunch of stuff in french to me and I'm like yeah Bonjior...yeah do what ever you need to do...Merci (you see how the sandwich works:) and so he goes into the bathroom unhooks the shower curtain and leaves with it. I'm like hmmm. that was kinda wierd (I mean I'm not that smart, but am well educated) that's a quote stolen from my roomate, but it seemed strange. Anyway, the curtain has never returned and we think it was officially stolen from under my nose now. (good story huh?)
Ok, other than that i can see the Eifel tower out my window which is another good story in it's self. I went to the tower alone from the rest of the group cause i had slept in that day (this is the same day as the shower curtain day) and i decided to go check out the tower cause i couldn't wait for the rest of the group. When i get there i'm pretty proud cause i figured the train system out all alone and i took a ton of great photos. Then, when i get the entrances, there is one on each foot, i see a line of people that looked like it would take about 3 hours to get through at two of the feet. The other two feet look like about a 15-20min. wait. Of course all the signs are in French so i cant figure out why these lines are so short, but i figure Hey, what the hell i'll just jump in the short line. Well, some of you are probably already laughing cause you figured out that the reason those lines are short is because those are the lines for the freakin' stairs! So I walk my ass up i dont know how many flights of stairs, but it took me a good 45 min. of straight stair climbing to get up there. We are talking people stopping all over to catch there breath, kids crying cause they dont want to go any farther, and then me trying to convince myself that i'm 22 and in good enough shape to make it with out stopping. Of course i did cause im competive like that, but was sweating like a pimp with one hooker when i got to the top. The view was amazing though and worth all the effort when i got there.
Here is the pic of me when i got to the top and did a little cool down:
Last night was definately and experience too, cause it was World Cup Final game between Italy and France!!! If you dont know soccer is called futbol here and it is taken like a religeon. Even the police cars yesterday were flying flags and yelling crazy french talk over there loudspeakers. So we spent all day at the Palace of Versi and the Church in Chartes pronounced (Shart)yeah that's right shart! Those of you that have seen Along Came Polly know I had a lot of fun with that one yesterday. Oh, and speaking of Sharting when we were in the church on our tour some smell crept in from hell in the form of a liquid that seriously had people dry heaving and gagging and running for the door. Normally, i would think that's funny but it was so bad that i couldn't even laugh at the Shart jokes cause i was concentrating on not puking. Beautiful church though, I've never seen anything like it in my life, kinda overwhelming at first (even without the smell). So back to the game, we got back to Paris about an hour before the game. (to be cont.) i have to go to dinner righ now!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)