- Editor's Note:
- I'm so disappointed in myself. I had a rare April Fool's Day opportunity to send a mail to all those who care about me saying something dreadful had happened to me (like being captured and tortured by the PLO or something) and passed it up. What a slacker I am! I apologize :o(
Because of the way it's built, it's not only possible but very common for the locals to walk from place to place in Old Jerusalem via the roof tops. We decided to take to the roofs and check it out for ourselves. "We" consisted of a large group from the Tobasco hostel most of whose names I've forgotten -- it's strange how you can be very good friends with someone while travelling and forget their name within a short time. I apologize to you if it applies -- I remember the people vividly and fondly, just not the names. I must say a big hello to Debbie (not the short one from the other night, but the tall one that reminds us all of most of the best parts of the spice girls ;o), who promised that she would read this site. I would include some of her artwork here except for the fact that it's been sensored by the web public due to its phallic nature :oP (heh). Anyway, the roof was cool. We got some nice looks at those mysterious orthodox jews and their families. Aside from that the day was fairly uneventful. We walked the markets of Old Jerusalem again. They are in very narrow streets clogged with tourists and locals all trying to get what they feel is a good price for things. We went to both happy hours (didn't I mention that there was one from 7-8 and one from 10-11? ;o) and just pretty much hung out enjoying our friends before they left us.
Ah, what's another touristic thing to do in israel? Of course, bicycle around the Sea of Galilee (a.k.a. Tiberious Sea). Lau and I caught a bus around 10:30am and arrived in Tiberious around 1:30. Initially we were disappointed as the town was merely a town, it was hot, and it was humid. We made the most of it anyway and rented a couple of mountain bikes in the worst condition I've ever seen. We didn't have time to do the entire sea, so we just bicycled around and checked out the surrounding area. The last bus left at 6:15 and we were on it, putting us back at the ranch at 9:15. A shower was a must followed by the obligatory happy hour. All in all it was a good day. I don't know what we expected from Tiberious. My expectations were probably a bit higher than they should have been. The countryside was beautiful. If you visit Israel you absolutely must visit the north. It is often overlooked but is some of the nicest countryside that I've seen. That's the beauty of countryside, they keep it away from Jerusalem ;o)
Up at the crack of 11am. The bulk of our friends from the hostel left today. Weird that they all left at the same time -- go figure. Typical nice sunny day -- not too hot like Tiberious. That's what's nice about Jerusalem, it's high enough that it is the coolest city in Israel. See, I knew I could find something nice (and not beer related) about Jerusalem! ;o) We've decided to do the new city again today since Lau needs to buy his bus ticket to Eilat in advance. One nice thing was that we got to watch the local officials cordon off a block and explode a bag that had been abandoned at a bus stop. They don't mess around with bomb scares over here. If a bag is left unattended then they simply call the bomb squad and blow the thing up. After that we walked down Ben Yahouda (sp?) street which is kind of the mall/local hotspot in the new city. We found it a nice place to sit and watch people mill about. A man approached us and gave us a nice price on beer. Normally they sell a half litre for 18NIS but we got a full litre for that price. Not stellar by any stretch, but it gave us an excuse to sit in the square and drink. An aussie from our old hostel (you remember, the New Swedish Hostel...) named Mark joined us for beers in the square and we made quite the afternoon of it. We had to get back to the hostel though so as not to miss happy hour ;o) Now don't get me wrong, I did plenty of other things in Jerusalem that didn't involve alcohol, but I decided not to just sit here and complain about the locals so I'm not writing about that stuff (If you don't have anything nice to say...).
That night, before happy hour, we met two girls that just moved into the hostel named Portia (from Denver, Colorado, USA) and Sorche (from somewhere in Norway). They come into play later so stay tuned...
*sigh* The last of our friends left today. I helped Debbie set up an e-mail account and send some mail before she headed out and then did a bit of e-mail myself. The day was warm and called for doing very little so Lau and I went back to the hostel, collected whomever wanted to go this time (Portia and Sorche were the only ones interested) and hit up that beer spot in the square in the new city. The conversation turned religious for some reason and it came out that Sorche (that's not her real name, but she wouldn't tell us her real name so I'll use it -- she called me "Happy Hour" for some reason, go figure) is a Seventh-Day Adventist (I was one but got over it). This forced me to tease her mercilessly. It wasn't my fault, that religion is chock full of legalisms so I had plenty of ammuniton. Lets just say that the conversation was oh so enjoyable (for me anyway, and she looked to be having a decent time but that may have something to do with Lau who she seemed to become quite fond of ;o). I don't know what it is about me and organized religion (is there such a thing as disorganized religion??). I find it so tedious and fraught with contradictions. But that's life too, I guess... Anyway, after throwing back a few brewskies we headed back up to the roof for a while (it's a nice place to just relax away from everyone), then on to happy hour (yeah, ok, I'm seeing a pattern as well...).
Woohoo. Woke at 7:30 (yes, that's in the AM) to get the bus. Of course I didn't have to leave so early, but since Lau was headed out I figured we might as well say our good-byes at the bus station. He got his bus bound for Eilat (and ultimately Dahab) at 10am and I got one bound for Tel Aviv shortly there after. Turns out that Portia is headed for Athens on the same Ferry that I am, via Tel Aviv and Haifa as well. Odd that we didn't leave at the same time, I don't know what I was thinking -- except that it was nice to go to the bus with Lau... Anyhoo, the bus to Tel Aviv cost me 18.20NIS and I hit the Gordon Hostel around noon. Nice place, but they lock out from 11am-2pm for cleaning so I could just check in and then had to go check the city out immediately. I must note that Tel Aviv is hot. Ok, not so much hot as it is humid. It's much like I envision hell. I mean really, if hell were a dry heat then what would be the point?? My dorm bed was costing me 32NIS per night (ow!) and the internet worked out to about 1/2 NIS per minute (this would be why I didn't update my site from Tel Aviv). I did check mail from there just to see if Portia had sent me a note. It would be nice to hook up with her since she seemed to be more of a planner than I -- and she had a book on Israel ;o) But alas, it was not meant to be.
I found while walking around that it's legal in Israel to walk around on the street with an open beer -- it felt so nasty ;oP I also got a double espresso take-away for the low low price of 7NIS, which meant I was walking faster ;o) I stumbled into a Tower Records which was remarkably similar to the Tower Records I'm used to in Seattle. Nice that some things remain constant :o)
I met a nice russian girl in my hostel who was learning english from a not-so-nice irish guy. It's funny to hear a russian do the irish accent. We had a bit of a chat, I ate, then dodged out. My roommates were a father and daughter team of aussies who were quite experienced travellers. We chatted for quite a long time until we were all so hungry we had to stop. Their custom is to go out for the evening meal and I chose to eat in (cheaper). I made the typical fare of tuna, tomato, cucumber, and onion all chopped up and mixed together then shoved into a pita. I actually laughed when I was done and had Lau's half left over. Ah well, stick it in a bowl and eat it tomorrow... I walked around town a bit to get the feel of Tel Aviv at night -- it felt ok ;o) I found the phone number for my friend Hadas from Dahab and gave her a call (as she said to do when I got into Tel Aviv). I'll head up to Kafar Sava tomorrow for the tour of rural Israel, it should be nothing less than spectacular ;o)
I almost entitled this day Kafar Sava, but then I didn't (heh). I was awakened at 5:30AMby the girl working for the hostel asking if my name was "Craig". I was too tired to be anything but honest so I said "ummm...uhhhh...yeah...". She told me I had a phone call. I assured her that she was mistaken. She insisted so I went to see who could possibly have called me here. Turns out it was my buddy Tad who had just received my mail saying (foolishly) which hostel I was in in Tel Aviv. Using his amazing powers of the internet he was able to track me down and dialed me up. I was astounded. Aside from the call I made the night before (which took me over an hour to get correct) I hadn't used a phone this century. It was great to hear from someone back home. Perhaps I'll consider using a phone again sometime this year ;o) Right, so back to sleep until a reasonable hour!
I awoke to an empty room. Turns out my aussie friends had checked out and were on to more interesting points. I cracked open the jar of Skippy Super Chunk peanut butter that I had bought the day before (this was four months coming as well!) and slapped it into a couple of pitas. One pita got a banana while the other got some raspberry jam -- I was in heaven! Don't judge me, this food was some of the best I've had in months! I walked the beach to Old Jaffa (a.k.a. Yaffo). It's pretty nice containing some bazaar like shops and a nice artist's quarter. After looking around there a bit I headed to get a bus up to Kafar Sava to see my friend Hadas. I was thinking that being a tourist I could simply ask some of the locals for directions. Alas, that may be true in another nation but since I wasn't purchasing anything they couldn't be bothered to help me with directions. After walking entirely too far (it would have been shorter had I used straight lines...) I found a nice arabic man who clearly was not israeli that was able to point me to the correct corner to catch the bus (I was sooooo close!). The bus to Kafar Sava took about 45 mins and cost 10NIS dumping me off at Canyon Areem (that's a mall). I had a couple of hours to get to know the mall since Hadas hadn't turned her cell phone on (sorry Hadas, it had to be said ;o). The funny thing about that was when I was in Dahab her friend Sea said that there was no reason to get Hadas' cell number since she never had it turned on anyway. But I couldn't use Sea's cell number because she was out of town for the weekend. C'est la vie. It gave me the opportunity to meet Shirley because when I dialed the phone to get Hadas the phone said something back in Hebrew. I guessed what it was saying but needed someone to interpret to be sure. Shirley worked in a shoe store and frankly looked quite bored so I picked her to be a good candidate for help. She turned out to be quite nice and I'm glad to have met her. I finally hooked up with Hadas at 4:30. It turns out that she had been out sailing with some folks from school and the sail had torn so they were stuck anyway. She went home to clean up and I got to meet her dad. That was really cool because it gave me a chance to see some (fairly) normal Israeli family interactions and see that they are pretty much the same as anyone else I've met. We went and caught some food and then I was back on the bus to Tel Aviv. All in all it was a nice day. If I was on vacation and had my itinerary down to the minute then I'm sure I would have been frustrated, but when all was said and done I had a great time and am glad it worked out how it did.
I got back to the hostel around 11pm and decided to walk the hostel circuit looking for Portia. I had found out that I couldn't get a train from Tel Aviv to Haifa on saturday because of Shabat (sabbath). That would make it difficult at best to get to my boat on saturday. That meant I had to leave on friday -- the 7th -- tomorrow. I worried that Portia didn't realize the same thing. My search was fruitless. I even decided to ask the staff working at my hostel if she was staying there -- what would be the odds of her staying in the same place without me seeing her?? I checked e-mail and paid 27NIS for 54 mins (ouch!) but no note from her. Ah well, we'll just see how things go.
I woke at 9:30 and overheard some brits in the kitchen saying how they loved Jerusalem. I couldn't resist so I went in and introduced myself just so I could get their names and write about them here :o) Theresa is a young english girl teaching american (not english) here. She thought her trip to Jerusalem was amazing and magical. See there are folks here that love the place. I thought it noteworthy that there were differing opinions.
I got a bus to the train station. No worries, I bought my ticket and simply had to get on the train. Right. The ticket is written in Hebrew as are all the signs. Hmmmpf. I tried to match the characters on the ticket with the characters on the signs. No good. Finally I stopped a soldier (there are lots of soldiers in Israel), held up my ticket and just said "help". He said "oh, you're going to Haifa. I'm going there as well, follow me." Wow. Turns out he left Australia 5 years previous with his parents to come live in Israel and had been in the army for just a week. His name is Hal and he's a really nice guy training to be a medic (thanks for helping me out!). We waited for the train with growing masses of soldiers. We were lucky enough to get seats as at least 1/3 of the passengers didn't get seats. On the train we met some more soldiers named Shirli, Taly, and Galia (Galia trains folks to drive tanks) all of which came equipped with the obligatory mobile phone and were quite nice. Galia confessed that she hates computers so I of course gave her my web site and tried to guilt her into (maybe) reading it (hiyas! ;o).
In Haifa I had three train stations to choose from, one of which turned out to be no more than two blocks from my hostel -- I picked a different one. Eventually I was able to find the correct bus to get me over to the other side of town and, to my astonishment, the bus driver not only told me where to get off but actually told me how to get to The Port6 Inn (where I stayed)! I was amazed since israeli bus drivers won't usually even tell me how much it is to ride their danged coach. Oh joy oh happy day ;o) I must say that The Port Inn is the nicest hostel I've ever been in -- and also the most expensive at 45NIS per night (with no breakfast). It's only 2 blocks from the dock where I am to catch my ferry as well, so things were looking up.
It's kind of odd coming back to a place. I wandered by the train station that I had been at months ago and my thoughts drifted to the german boys (what were their names?) and the guy from New Jersey that I had left Athens with. Odd how any bit of familiarity feels nice after over 4 months of travel.
A nice group of folks were staying at the hostel, most of which were taking the ferry with me to Athens (or Rhodes, or Cyprus -- same boat though): Paul (english), Tom (Welsh), Matt (Aussie), Jessee (American, NJ), and Nagel (Aussie). It turned out to be a fun assortment of folks. I hit it off well with Matt and Tom, who had been in Israel quite a long time and were heading for Athens. We found the beer across the road to be fairly cheap and actually somewhat drinkable -- so we drank it ;o) Later that night someone had the sense to ask the guy working for the hostel if there was a nice pub/club around, which there was, so we went and had a blast! Matt and I somehow hooked up with a group of five israeli girls ranging from 19-25 in age (sorry that I don't remember all of your names). One was named "F", which clearly must be spelled a different way. I mean really, who names their daughter a single letter?? Dana is studying engineering, but I have no idea what she's going to do with it. There was also a french guy there with us that, as it turns out, was getting all of his drinks comp on the house -- I wonder what he had to do to get that. Somewhere at the end of the night everyone had gone their own way and I was going to pay for my single shot of Quervo Gold (yum!). It turns out that folks had neglected to pay and the house thought since I was the last one there I needed to pay for them. Yeah right. 140NIS was entirely too much for a shot so I became the stereotypical american (we're all loud and obnoxious ya know) and convinced them that it would be best if I paid only for my drink. They eventually saw my point (or just wanted to stifle me -- does it matter??) and I paid the outrageous sum of 25NIS for a shot. AND THEN!! the waitress informed me that the 25NIS didn't include service and she did service me -- whatever. Service this. All in all, an excellent night :oP
Something went horribly wrong with Matt (the aussie). He felt strangely obligated to prod everyone into consciousness hurl insults at the same time. Ah well, he was punished for it. After getting everyone up and out of bed he collapsed and was sicker than two or three dogs for a couple of days. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy ;o) The weather in Haifa is beautiful. It's sunny but not hot with no humidity. Lovely, lovely :o) I strolled the town on a bit of a self tour and must say that Haifa is definately worth seeing if you find yourself in the country. We popped into the store for some food to take on the boat, then I grabbed a couple of tasty shawerma and some beerverages before hitting the docks at 5:30. We were of mixed spirits as we approached customs. Turns out that Portia showed up for the ship as well (finally reunited ;o). I had a bit of fun with the folks working customs. I mean really, their jobs must be pretty dull normally, why not play with them a bit ;o) Matt taught us all a nice trick. If you ever want to get through customs with no hassles at all simply step out to vomit periodically and they'll escort you right through without a hitch :oP That night it seemed that half the folks were feeling less than stellar due either to previous illness or rough seas. I was in high spirits though and found the evening quite enjoyable. That odd sensation of familarity was with me as this was the same ship I had taken back in December -- Just like home but different ;oP I finished my book and fell asleep at 3:30am. I didn't get a cabin so I slept in chairs, or rather inbetween chairs on the floor :o)
For some unknown reason Portia felt the need to wake me at 7am to tell me that we were in Cyprus. I mean really, they weren't letting us off the boat this time so what was the point. I ignored her and went back to sleep until noon when they served lunch. Lunch was not stellar, I bought two meals consisting of fish and a beef stew like substance and a coke. It wasn't so bad though, and I enjoyed the social atmosphere with Tom and Portia -- who later became ill making the eating experience utterly pointless for her. Now what?? I decided it was an excellent opportunity to relax, listen to music, and sleep, so that's exactly what I did for the afternoon. We got to Rhodes at 1:30 am and I chatted the night away with Matt, who was feeling much better by this point. Sleep found me at 4am...
I woke again at noon (coincidence? I think not). Panic struck me as I thought we were in port with everyone disembarking, but alas it was not the case. We got into port around 4pm. I got up and had a lovely shower (actually it was quite nice in fact). I found that I was starving (this is not a food obsession, it was just time to eat!) so I went up on deck and made my specialty -- that's right, tuna, tomatoes, cucumber, and onions in a pita. Ok, this time I didn't have pita but this other stuff that they told me was pita. When you unfold it it's a very thin disc of bread that is about 2 feet in diameter. Kinda tasty though as it had a somewhat garlic flavor. This time I ate the whole thing instead of saving some for Lau. Let him fend for himself ;o) (ok, that's a joke because he's in friggin Dahab right now. Try to stay with the group people. And we're walking, we're walking... ;o) During the feed I met a couple of french Canadians (from Quebec) named Agathe and Lorrie, and a german named Judith. Pretty nice girls and headed for the same hostel I am. That would have been nice except for the fact that I didn't follow them close enough and had to find my own way to the hostel. No worries, the greeks are very friendly (compared to israelis -- no offense to the israeli folks readin this page ;o).
For some unknown reason I feel compelled to mention that Ouzo may have been a possible contributing factor in loosing the girls. I had about 2/3 bottle of ouzo and about the same ammount of sprite and didn't want to carry it so... Right, so I drank it about an hour before we docked. Anyone out there ever have acutal greek ouzo. It's not like egyptian ouzo. Wow. I may do that again, but probably not when coming into dock in a (relatively) new town. Possibly if I had a guide or something. I did find my way to the hostel by 8, which is really quite good I think ;o) No worries folks, it's an adventure!
I had dinner with some folks from my room in the hostel (hiyas Spiros!!) and then hooked up with a group which had the afore mentioned girls in it, a couple of kiwis, and a guy from Quebec. We wandered the town looking for a club but came up empty, then settled on the steps of the hostel for a chat. Man that ouzo lasts a long time... ;o)
I woke at 10:30 and was going to go on a walking tour of Athens with the folks from last night but alas, it was not meant to be. As I came downstairs the lovely woman behind the desk informed me that I was checking out today. I was confused as I had just woken up and said that I had intended to stay another day. She said that there were no beds and that I would need to go. I said that was ok, that I could go if I needed to. At which point she came up with another bed and said that I needed to (finally) purchase that HI (hostel international) card -- the one that I paid for a month before leaving the states and never received. I said ok, I could do that at which point she told me to switch rooms and do it later. No sweat, I switched rooms and came back to pay. She said to go get breakfast first. No problem still. I got breakfast and didn't find the people I was going to tour with. Dang. So I went back to pay for the HI card and she asked if I was just staying the one more night. Ayep, that's my plan -- to which she said that I didn't need to buy the card. I was somewhat confused but no worries, right? :o) The day lay ahead and I am unfettered. I did a bit of a self tour of the fish market, the meat market, the vegetable markets, various streets and alleyways and then came for some web action. Hey, I caught up! I'm outta here folks. The evening beckons and I'm kinda hungry. Hasta la taco! :o)
After e-mail I went back to my new room (that was part of the deal of staying one more day, had to switch rooms). Turns out I was roomin with these two guys I had met the night before, one of which had just bought a brand new hair clippers *grin*. I stepped out onto the balcony to be as obnoxious as I could be to some chicks who happened to be out on their balcony and then went in to cut my hair. After I cut my hair "down to the wood" as my esteemed collegue would say I went down stairs with the two guys I was roomin with, kiwis I believe. They are carrying around a rugby ball to take pics of everywhere they go. Interesting lot those kiwis... Right, back to the street. As they meandered towards the hostel cafe for beer I noticed a group of around 20 or so folks coming out of the hostel lookin for a good time -- three of which were the chicks from the balcony (I'm sooo in!). Turns out they are all social workers (I found out later). Either they had no idea who they were dealing with or needed a case study for the evening, not to worry tho, in any case they took me with them. Turns out that they weren't heading to a club/bar after all (doh!) but to a nice restaurant instead. Man some of these head shrinker types are unstable, which means alot coming from me ;o) After clearing up a minor altercation at the dinner table I joined the larger group for some full on partying social worker style. Ok, ok, so it wasn't that bad. We had some genuine greek music to which some genuine greeks (and geeks) and myself danced. It was kinda cool. They all called me "Bob" because some woman who was not "Mona" said that that was my name. It's interesting being someone else ;o)
As the evening waned (after 2am easily) we decided to swing our collective heard like head homeward. I opted to skip the cab in deference to walking -- what was I thinking?? Ah yes, the wine ;oP I did get back. Turns out it wasn't that far and was actually a beautiful night for a stroll. I actually beat the folks who took the cab back to "close" to the hostel, from which point my journey began. Sheesh, you would think that being a mere 3 indirect blocks from the hostel would lend some sort of familiarity, but alas no. It must have taken me an hour to go those last three blocks. Yes, I did ask for directions, a couple of times. I guess it didn't help. I was destined to walk the streets of athens in the wee hours of the morning. On the up side I met a nice woman older than my mother that was sure that I wanted to look at naked women. No, I didn't go! (c'mon, give a little credit here folks) :o) My bed found me tired with morning nigh on its heals. I dove in and slept as fast as I could...
*Yawn* I woke at 9am, honest to god folks! Check out was at 10am which I made no worries. The plan today is Italy. I caught a train for 2980 DR (like 10 bucks) at 12:15 to Patras, the port from which I'll catch that once hellish ferry to Brindisi on the tranquil (yeah, right) shores of Italia. The train boasted a lovely woman from Argentina going by the name of Karina. We hooked up at the hostel trying to find the train station together. Ok, I just needed to know which way to turn out of the hostel to find the danged train station, it's not like I'm totally inept or anything. I found my way from the train station to this hostel once when I first arrived in Athens. Now with my extensive knowledge of the city I should be able to locate the elusive center of public transport without a hitch -- just so long as I turn the correct direction out of the hostel ;o) And as fate would have it we did in fact locate said train station straight away, so there! We got dumped off in the lovely port town of Patras Greece (blech, pteuey, don't go here if you can avoid it) where we whiled away the hour and a half by scarfing down mass quantities of food (no, neither of us had eaten yet that day and the time was getting to be 3:30pm). A nice stroll (with packs for at least a mile) got us to the ferry bound for Brindisi Italy by 5pm. Talk about your double takes. This ship is a stunning 5 Star Lines vessel and more of a cruise ship than a ferry. I decided to play tourist for some unknown reason and shot lots of pics of this beast. It's so funny though because this will be all that folks see of the ships that I took (thus far) and it's the nicest by a long shot of them. During my passage I met some folks from Minnesota that actually sound a bit like the folks in Fargo (they didn't think that the folks in Fargo talked funny *giggle*). There was also a large-ish group of kids (gack, I'm getting old!) bound and determined to have fun (gotta hate that). Turns out they had an uneven number of folks playing the games they had going and needed another girl (ahem). Most of the time we played a game that gave us a certain number of letters and each team had to try to come up with the largest "valid" word. On a couple rare occasions we played a game where one team picked a bunch of random numbers (integers). Then the game master dude would take a time out and make a number up by performing simple operations on the set of numbers (add, subtract, multiply, or divide using each number only once or not at all) -- the first team to get a formula that would make the correct number (or as close as they could come to it) would win that round. At first the girls weren't so happy to have me on their team, then we got to the math *big grin*. Must I spell out who won? I thought not ;o)
Turns out that this luxury liner shows a movie nightly. Oddly I had never heard of the movie but had seen the kid starring in it. It's called Space Raiders and is best viewed with beer. If you don't have any beer handy and are being bodily forced to see this film then I might suggest a blunt head trauma of sufficient magnitude that you may only remember parts of this masterpiece. Sleep graciously found me between the chairs on the floor.
Note to self: Wash sleeping bag!
I slept remarkably well. I feel that at this point I can perform most bodily functions (including sleeping) wherever necessary. Nice how that works out ;o) We were up and off the boat by 10am, rather 9am with the time change. We walked the streets of Brindisi as the unruly mob that we were. You'd think that they'd put the danged docks next to the train tracks or provide a shuttle service or something. Sheesh, it's not like anyone goes to Brindisi for any other reason or anything. My ticket to Rome cost me 80.000 lire. That comes out to like 30 bucks or something I think. It's not too bad when you compare to prices elsewhere. The train pulls out at 10:56 -- no worries whatsoever. Plenty of time of dice up some tomato, onion, and cucumber and wrap it in a monster sized pita-like substance (two in fact ;o). That chick from Argentina, Karina, is headed for Rome as well as two Mexican chicas that we picked up on the ferry named Anna Luisa and Citlali (aka Almira), and a stunning broad from Chile name Fran that looks like Meg Ryan would if she had been Chilean (something I might suggest, heh). Fran decided not to get off the train in Rome but to continue on to someplace close to Nice but supposedly nicer (rofl). Those of us remaining (that would be myself and three others, read back up the page and figure it out if you're confused ;o) finally found a hostel to stay in at 6pm called Pensione Mancini. It's really clean and costs the standard 30.000 lire per night (like 10 bucks -- this seems like alot to me at this point, but I'll be beggin for prices so low in a couple weeks!). The three chicas and I wandered Roma a bit, grabbing some pizza by the gram and even some of that ice cream that's supposed to be so great -- I was unimpressed (have they ever tried Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream??? How can you hope to compete with that?). Sure, we also saw the Trevi Fountain, the Colloseum, junk like that. I'd already seen it and they were staying longer to get better looks at it. The walk was nice though, and the city is nicer than I remember it now that the majority of the scaffolding is gone (remember that it was early December when I was in Rome last so preparations were in full swing for the Pope's homecoming party for the catholics). We finished the night off with a few arabic lessons for the ladies (go figure, me teachin arabic, heh). The weather was pleasant, the company fine, and the city magnificent. Time to call it a day before something goes completely awry ;oP
Morning found me bright eyed and bushy tailed eager for the adventures of a new day and anxious that I had slept as late as 8:30am! Riiiiight. The only truth there is that morning did actually find me -- the bastard! I drug my long thought dead carcass out of bed at 8:54am (that would be the target 8:30am with three smacks of the snooze button) and made it out of the hostel by their unreasonably early check out time of 9:30am (what were they thinking??). On my way to the train I purchased and ate most of some of the worst pizza I've ever had. No worries though, if you were supposed to enjoy breakfast then they would have put it later in the day (heh) ;oP The thought for the day would be Venice. That thought, when in Rome, will generally cost you about 80.000 lire (round 30 bucks again) towards a 4 1/2 hour train ride through some very lovely countryside. I bought. My train pulled out at 11am. The day is overcast but nice. I decided to occupy myself by catching up on some much needed sewing -- that's right, sewing. A seemingly nice elderly italian woman cheered me on as I marked each milepost. First, and most heroic, came the threading of the needle. Is there some international law that I don't know about that requires the eye of the needle to be exactly the same diameter as the thread you want to put through it? There's gotta be a better way... I sewed the button from one of my small back pockets onto the spot on my large side pocket that had just lost a button -- coincidentally the same size button (score!). I also closed a hole that had been growing near that very same pocket. Finally, just so you won't think I only sew pants, I'll note that that danged elastic strap that holds my money belt won't be slipping out of the tensioner any time soon either. Very satisifying once done, but frustrating enough that I don't really want to do it again any time soon.
Hmmm, what to do on a train after the sewing is done? I read a bit in my Lonely Planet Italy guidebook about Venice. That wasn't very interesting so I switched to a lousy science-fiction novel I had been trying to get through. That was danged near unbearable so I switched to looking out the window at the increasingly northern scenery. Wow. Northern Italy is something to behold. I don't want to wreck it for you, but suffice to say that there are green hills and trees and rivers and stuff. Really nice. Coming into Venice I noticed a sharp increase in the water to land ratio (that would mean more water, less land). My mind changed instantly as I became aware that Venice was my new favorite city. It's just like the Venice you've heard about: narrow windy streets, boats instead of cars, lots of canals, old buildings, junk like that. I got an opportunity to see alot of it as I tried to find accommodation. Turns out that spring break was on and other folks had heard that Venice was a nice place to visit. That's all well and good, but I need a place to sleep! The hostel I had planned to stay in was the biggest in the city, and they had nothing. The less than friendly dude working at that hostel called a couple other places for me (with a bit of persuasion), but "everything" was full up. I tell ya, I'm getting tired of someone telling me that there's absolutely no place to stay in a town. There's always someplace to stay in a town, you just have to look harder for some of them. Turns out I ended up at a place called "Archi's Rooms" for a mere 32.000 lire per night (again, like 10 bucks). It was clean enough, central, and I didn't actually see any bugs or rodentia crawling around ;o)
Being as it was my first day I did the typical thing I always do, that is dump my packs and head right back out into the fray. The day was nice, if a bit warm (most of y'all would love it) and I wanted to get a better sense of the city before my hardcore tourism set in. The woman who rented me the bed recommended a chinese restaurant as good food for a good price, so I headed over there and got some good food for a good price but left still hungry (I had a plan to eat more later). The next place of interest that I happened upon was a jazz bar with a japanese bar tender -- now there's something you don't see every day in Italy! I had been told to try the two drinks that italian locals are liking these days: a bellini and a spritz. The bellini was frankly disgusting. I think it was made with grapefruit juice and dry wine or something (blech!). The spritz was nicer but comes in such a small glass that I would have to dub it a girl drink -- sure they taste nice but you'll only go broke drinking 'em unless someone else is buying ;o) Well, with that out of my system I was free to step into a hosteria that I walked up on. Now I'm thinking that a hosteria would be like a hostel + cafeteria type thing: cheap prices and lots of food. I must be honest and say that the prices weren't that bad, and the house red was, well, italian wine so what can you say ;o) My only complaint would be that the food sucked and the portions were small. That will be the story will eating in Venice I'm afraid :o( On a more liquid note, the final stop of the night would be an irish pub that I specifically hunted down. It was a decent enough place, and I "didn't" sit with three italian guys. I guess I kinda sat with them, but we didn't share a languange and we were at seperate tables, but we did communicate a bit as the beer went down. All in all a pleasurable experience as my first day in Venice. Back at the ranch I saw that someone wanted the bed I had staked out. No worries, I collapsed on a different one.
I was awakened at 10am as the folks that were sharing my room left so that the new folks (4 friendly Koreans) coming in could get the space. No big deal, 10am isn't such a bad time to start the day. First things first, the shower was cold. I don't mean kinda cool, I mean really friggin cold. Fine, I called it brisk and made the best of it. There was a clown outside my hostel saying things that appeared to be obscene to a family yet they were all laughing. Italians must have a different sense of humor ;oP I bought a 24-hour boat/bus pass. This pass allows me to step onto any of their busses (which happen to be big boats) and ride as much as I want for 24 hours. Sounds like a good way to see the city. I rode that around a bit and ended up in this massive plaza with a huge church in it which would be the Piazza and Basillica di San Marco, respectively. I must say, it was pretty spectacular, and I was totally churched out by this time. The high point of my visit came while near the Piazza San Marco as I stumbled upon the Hotel Danielli. Ok, so it's not Versailles or anything, but it was pictured in the film Only You with Robert Downey Jr. and Marissa Tomei (nice one, in my opinion). After that what can be done but to spend too much on lunch and then wander the town and watch people. I decided to top the day with a bit of e-mail (12.000 lire/hr) at which point an electrical storm wandered through and flooded the streets. Now a sensible individual would have stayed out of the downpour until it let up a bit but I hand't seen much rain in like 4 months so I would be the moron walking around and getting soaked to the skin. A nice bar (tiny) drew me in with its classic american music (and I had to pee) so I hung out there for a few hours and drank beers with a nice brit couple that was seeking shelter from the elements. Turns out they were on holiday and felt behooved to buy my drinks. I protested with all my might (ok, maybe not all of it) but to no avail -- they insisted. At any rate, the conversation was nice and the room was warm. What more could you ask for? I had to look for alternate routes back to my hostel as some of the streets I had taken before were over a foot under water by the time the rain let up. I stepped into an internet cafe to check mail one last time and then was off to bed.