information that might be cool

oh yeah, I can receive calls too. Right now I am in Rome and will be in Italy untill the 31st. I then head to Turkey. I expect to write up more tomorrow as I have unlimited internet for a short period of time. I guess it could be considered a plus to this extremely difficult to find and far away hostel. More on that later.

country code 39 3486959486

so dialing from us [using a calling card it could be different who knows]

00393486959486

later all

Mosquitos and heat, not what you picture for italy

Don't get me wrong, its great in Italy. Its just very, very, very warm. Although I am starting to get used to it.

This section was dedicated to Milan and the cinqueterres. I came here because of some extended relatives of mine, NiNi and Shabia. They live in Italy, and I stayed with them for 5 days and 4 nights.

Milan is not really nice as one would traditionally think. Its very hot and there are lots of mosquitos, even right in the city, and in the Apartment where I stayed and will stay again this trip. However, and this will interest my dad, it has an excellent Duomo, with some of the largest collumns that I have ever seen, and da Vinci's last supper.

It features a combination of renasainnce style and Gothic, punctuated by lifelike and ubiquitos white statues that loook incredible from the outside. The inside is an enormous structure which accentuates the stained glass and statues from the outside. Although I was waiting to hear back on the pics from dad, I got a few pictures which will be up sooomeday I suppose. This is one of the largest churches in Europe, was free to go in, and I liked it. I spent nearly 2 days walking around milan, and also saw the pinoteca gallery, which features raphael's cartoon for the School of Athens which took the cake, a leonardo, and some others. I also saw a second michelangelo at the Castella, which was unfinished and reminded me of Rodin.

In florence [future post] I really realized the genious of Buonarotti. His work is so much more polished and lifelike than other scultptures, and there are many comparisons to make. I am blown away by 3 artists: Michelangelo, Carravagio, and Raphael. This was really cool to see. The last Supper is housed in an unnassuming looking church, and without reservations, I couldn't get in. I will be back in milan at least twice more for flights, so I will try and tuck it in then. Italy wasn't a united state untill relatively modern times, so each city, the florentines, the venitians, and the milanese were there own city states with their own culture.

Of course, it is also home to designer clothes and has 4 armani stores and more. What can you say about this, well, its not AS expensive as I thought, though certainly pricey. I have become somewhat immune to these prices, and used the stores to escape the heat of nearly 38 C which aint too chilly. Once you go in one, its no big deal, you just do it again, although its a bit nerve racking to see the guy in a black suit open the door for you in your sweaty shirt in front of 2 grand suits, but heck, its a site to see, so I saw it. And the ice cream. Gelato is the best, and every day I have bought a huge cup of the stuff. Its like a thicker, richer, yet soft ice cream which is flavored with just about anything but especially melon and I love the stuff. Nothing quite like it at home.

Shabia invited me to go to the cinquterres for a couple of nights so I obliged for the opportunity, since I had time to spare before my rednevous in Florence. However, there was ANOTHER train problem, so I took ANOTHER regional train dripping in sweat for longer for free, but there you go. The cool part was I met a nurse on the train there [montoporrosso] who informed me about a one year fast track post grad program for nursing. Its high demand and salary for practicioners, and males are needed. This was really cool to hear. Friendly couple from northridge CA who are professors and backpacking [literally in campsites] across france but took a side trip to italy. Once again, I was blown away by the alps despite my extensive trips throughout natural wonders in the USA.

In montoporosso, we went to the beach and a boat ride. I was with 5 italian speakers for almost 5 days and almost lost it towards the end because I couldn't talk with anybody or understand much. Italy was getting expensive and its hard when you spend a long time with tough communication like that. The beach was nice and I loved the boat ride where I saw another chateau and castle, but due to water and heat didn't bring the camera. No worries, they are sending me pics this time! There was a beach party one night and we visited nice areas the whole time. I slept in a beach bungalow and tried my best to communicate. Contrary to popular belief, the spanish was not particularly helpful. The area though is gorgeous and quaint and I would like to return. My frustration with Italian was getting to be a lot though. I was very grateful for these people's hospitality and got some nice pictures and memories. Hopefully I will see them again on my return to Milan

Notes on this portion of the trip
-An italian waitress told me to not come to italy if I couldn't understand the language. I thought, how rude? Without tourism, you wouldn't have this job! Its the tourists dillemma
-Shabias italian friend developed a major crush on me and I didn't know what to do about it since I couldn't communicate with her. They kept asking me about girls and the more I ignored her or tried to change the subject, the more she wanted to be around me. Must be that fox family charm
-Italy is hot, and as soon as I took a shower, I got hot again
-They kept insisting on paying for me, which was nice but I didn't know how to properly thank them since their standard of living islower and probably won't come to stay with me at my house in the states.
-I was pumped to see brandon and greg the next day
-Italy is more expensive, with pricier entrances to museums and stuff than france or spain. They are not into student discounts
-meeting people on trains is fun if I didn't previously mention it
-Cinquteres are great, and I had a fantastic time.
-Italy is hot and uncomfortably so
-I am buying some Dolce and gabbana underwear, since I can only afford that

Switzerland

Wow this place is amazing, and I really really mean it. I have been to yellowstone, banff, jasper, glacier, yosemite, zion, and the grand canyon but it was re-freaking-diculous. Lake geneva is gorgeous, the standard of living is high, the mountains are devloped yet remote and green, and the money is extremely colorful. Yes, it is the coolest looking money I have seen thus far, though this place ain't cheap but what in europe has been? Granada maybe-

Jon picks me up and I meet his x girlfriend from wisconsin, [frat bro] and his other friend and HIS girlfriend. They had traveled together for the last 2 weeks and were starting to wear a bit, so I came along at just the right time. We started for a Chateau castle and cheese town way into the alps. It was a quaint place, and I went there directly after being picked up from the train station. It was really really nice to be in a cool environment, not so darn hot as it had been nearly everywhere else I had been. Like so many other castles I had seen, I thought it was remote and very nice. How did they build this thing so far from farmable society? I have some nice photos from these mountains that were amongst the most photogenic spots I saw. After that we headed to the grocery store and made pasta.

What a relief after so much travel to be able to:
-make calls for free from his house. Its cheap from swiss to usa and his dad pays for it
-use the internet with all connectability as you saw, and for as much time as possible
-wash my clothes in a machine
-not wear a moneybelt
-wash my clothes in a machine

Now part of the problem is that these people kept arguing and I wasn't aware of the history so that wasn't ideal but I would basically describe the place as a nice house newly refurnished 5 minute walk from the ski lift. Its like whistler on steriods. What a paradise location, and what an expense to own... his dad owns a biotech company in WI which he started, and uses the house maybe 1-2 months a year. This gave me new perspective on goals for the future, with a bmw and <2k kilometers. Yeah thats right!

They went paragliding or something the next day while I hiked around the mountain. I took a local small train and saw peaks, valleys, glaciers, lakes, and cows with real cowbells all over the place. It was great to get outdoors and unless you've spent time in the mountains, its hard to compare to much else. I borrowed a camelback water backpack and took off at my own pace, and saw a lot. I will be coming back to switzerland with a bunch of money, to get a numbered bank acount, and see the outdoors. Swiss are big into freedom of private banking. No Social security number needed, very fascinating. The paragliding was awsome I guess [wasn't invited but hey I will take the free stay] and we had dinner with a family friend. I learned that if I want the benefits of european citizenship, I marry a belgian or swiss or swede or german, then get a passport, get them a US deal, and then divorce in 6 months. What a plan! They gave me some great perspective on education and living in swiss. Europe does have its advantages.

I washed some clothes.

Then I left for milan.

Notes:

-I downloaded and listed to music I like for the first time in over a month
-a sinus infection was creeping up
-I had some beer
-I still missed my close friends
-jon is very educated on wine and cheese, go figure
-I hate washing clothes in the sink it really sucks for long periods of time.
-I liked the swiss money so much I kept a 20 franc bill. Stupid perhaps, but I thought it was worth it for some reason.

A long journey

This post will cover the trip from madrid to switzerland, and hopefully some of the start of italy.

First off, spanish are nicer than the french, and my skills were quite useful. Smoking was smoking as usual. I think the guy yes guy working the hostel desk was hitting on me because he was being a little overly helpful with my spanish learning and kept winking at me. Maybe he was just being nice. We met a nice girl who was studying abroad on the bus to toledo as well.

The next day, I took off for Barcelona in order to try and get a train to Geneva as soon as possible. Jon was going to be in Switzerland from only the 16-19, and I left madrid on the 16th, so it was rush time so to say. Now the only night train from BCN to Geneve was booked, and they stupidly have no stand by option, so I waited in line for 3 hours or more on three separate occasions in BCN and Madrid trying to come up with a solution. I vowed to spend the night at the train station if needed, I was going to switzerland no matter what because I had some time to blow and wanted to see the alps. Jon supposedly [later certainly] had a nice house in the mountains and an SUV. The station attendants were not helpful and even in spanish sent me to this line and that untill I finally found an options. Switch 5 trains and arrive 36 hours after I departed first, which was the best at the time option.

The spanish and the rest of the systems all use the German [again they are quite efficient] system to find trains. Of course it can't handle all the options so I decided to go north ASAP on any available train. In the end I switched at Barcelona, Cerberre france on the border, Marseilles, Lyon, and finally geneve to get to Aigle switzerland. This involved staying up for almost 2 full days with no complete meals. When they kept jobbing me around at the stations I was amongst the most frustrated I had been since I potentially had mono. Luckily, I got a chance to make 1 hours worth of calls and talk to my relatives in Milan. But, after meeting some canadians, turkish, aussies, americans from the east coast, brits, and finally jon, I made it.

My favorite part about the whole experience was the train from cerberre, to marseilles, which went from midnight to 5 am. It was literally nothing but backpackers and we had so much fun on the train. I hung out with these hilarious canucks the whole time, and met a turkish fellow who was with his new wife on their honeymoon. He kept trying to give away the spanish wine from the region, sangria because he was so happy to be on vacation with his new wife. I told him I was heading to turkey, and he gave me his number, and offered advice and a place to stay! I told him it'd be awhile but I'd call. Rolling solo like this was really fun just to be around so many students my age and I hope it happens again soon, since it is more infrequent with more carefully defined plans and friends to be with. Still, it had been a long time since I had seen anybody and I wanted to get there soon. I finally arrived at Aigle the next day at 2 pm, having left the previous day at 6, so it was a long time with no break. It was enough time to polish off 500+ pages of books, and I exchanged some with other travelers. This one girl was really nice too, and she loved animals. Its hard to recall all details, I have met so many people from all over the world. However, I thought she was indian, and it turns out she was jewish.

Trains:
-fun, but unpredictable. Get worse as you go south, and booking on full trains is a huge pain. Its a relief to have it figured out. Go regional, and its free with a pass, but hot hot hot and very uncomfortable. I had a nice talk in spanish to an elderly man who was trying to learn it.
-after this, I didn't even want to see a train for another week. When jon picked me up in a brand new BMW x3 suv the next day I was nearly extatic.
-I still am to proud to pretend to be canadian, regardless of whether or not its a good idea
-when in doubt plan ahead. or prepare to wait.
-figuring it out yourself can work as well
-the spanish are idiots when it comes to scheduling, there are only like 4 trains that leave the country each day
-these 18 yearolds from delaware who hadn't started college yet bought some hashish which is similar to marijuana from this dude on the train, and then proceeded to "hotbox" one of the cars. No one seemed to care about this amazingly. Only in europe...

ditto below. SHould have posted that second but whatever

This is a close up of the designs that permeated the entire Alahambra palace. Its really quite interesting.

The ticket

Sagrada Familia, the unfinished yet incredible structure cathedral.

A castle wall, I believe from Toledo. I love these things.

And of course, the obligatory bored gargoyle from the top of one of many notre dames, but this is the famous one victor hugo wrote about in his book. Its one of the most popular pictures one can take, so I had to get it. "the" notre dame isn't the greatest church but it had lots of sweet gargoyles.

more pics

This time I will just post Like five and then make comments. When I get to milan later today, I will try and tell the story of the journey here and also final comments and jokes about spain.




First, its me and mauricio after a long night in Hannover. We were really tired and out late staying at a place an hour from where the game was played. You can see us in our scarves in that shot.

Me and my dad in toledo, looking at a knight in front of a tourist shop.

The alter at napoleons tomb. Very ornate, my favorite. First the arch and now this?

THe dude I talked about on the train ride from barcelona to granada. Funny guy

And us, at the game. We were really close to the field, but 100 euro face value better be that way!

swiss bank accounts

This is not about swiss cheese, but it does cover my journey from barcelona to geneva switzerland, with stops in Granada and Madrid and Toledo in between.

Barcelona:
The highlight of this portion was visiting the unfinished, but still spectacular sagrada familia there. A combination of gothic and modern design, it has plans so vast that they intend to build a spire taller than any other complete with a cross that you can walk inside. Not uncommon in this process is the fact that this is a modern day masterpiece, and it has taken over 100 years and it still isn't done. Antiquities are great, but this could be the greatest cathedral in the world if it is ever completed. As we walked inside of it and up the towers, you could see the workers constructing it bit by bit. Even modernized it takes a long time, and I hope to see it completed within my lifetime. If not, then it won't be a new thing for the history of the world. I think that finished it might be the greatest thing I have seen thus far except for the world trade center. We also visited the olympic stadium, the FC barcelona home, and the picasso museum. I think that the olympic stadium was sort of sad, because after the olympics, it basically doesn't have any use. FC barcelona sits supposedly 120,000 topping even UT knoxville and the bighouse. Whoa- I wasn't supposed to go inside without a tour, but I found an open door and took some photos. Picasso was dissapointing for me because it didn't really have any masterworks, and it wasn't that big, and I got there at the end of the day and was exhausted. The street life was amazing on Las ramblas, a pedestrian walkway. I saw magicians, statues that move, and a michael Jackson impersonator, which if you know me, is cool. I liked that plenty, but it couldn't top the Italian worldcup celebration, which was crazier than expected, and this wasn't even Italy!! At least the french lost. Its NOT our fault we can't speak french, and its not individual citizen responsibility for the war in Iraq. I wish those jerks would let it go that they don't rule the world anymore, but hey, I can't change a nation. I couldn't make it to visit my relatives due to time constraints, so I apologize for that. I saw other churches and stuff, but aside from a brief argument with my dad over whether or not it was okay to be loud in hostel communal rooms at night, it was pretty uneventful. Oh yes, the nudity. Much different and more expected than the events in munich, we went to the beach. We went to the beach when the retired age people went there, the younguns came later sadly... However, I discovered that of course, after about 3 minutes, its just not that big of a deal! I really am not sure why it is so at home, but thats just the way it is.

Thoughts and Observations
-My spanish ain't bad! I used it a ton to get around. The people in spain do not speak very much english. My dad doesn't speak spanish and my ability to get around was excellent.
-The trains are poor. Not on time, the station attendant is confusing, and I had a hard time with the whole thing.
-Barcelona wasn't as photogenic as other places
-The Italian celebration apparently wasn't limited to italy

Next, it was to granada. This is the former capital of spain, controlled by the moors until 1492, the year that everybody should know. Now its populated primarily by spanish and students studying in Granada from all over the world, but mostly the USA. We traveled via night train, which was an interesting trip. First, the cabins are pretty packed, so there isn't a lot of space. But, you save hotel fees for a night, plus you knock out travel time during a time which you probably wouldn't be seeing anything anyways, so its a good deal. You can save even more by staying in the regular seats, which I will get to later in the adventure section. Anyways, we met this weird and funny spanish guy that was trying to get me to get some american girls to come and hang out. He also went on and on in spanish about smoking and how he wanted to in the cabin, and it wouldn't work. I am pretty sure he stayed up all night, with an unlit cigarrette in his mouth, saying weird things. It was very funny, and I hope that you all get to meet these interesting people at some point. I used every opportunity to try and do a little more phrases in spanish, and this was no exception. But after getting off the train and arriving [fooling around in granada because the guide book posted the wrong phone number so I booked a different place than I thought] we headed off to do the usual: see the sights of course!

We went to the palace that held queen isabella and ferdinand, the couple who united spain and sent chris columbus to india, making spain the richest nation in the world, untill they refused to get modern and squandered it all. Cathedral as well, which as usual was ornate and cool. Can't count how many churches I have been to, but I try to point out the good ones. Nonetheless, it was interesting. But we came to granada to see the Alahambra, a different and more interesting place than anything else so far. It was an islamic moorish palace with a castle built off roman ruins when the moors controlled spain untill, once again 1492. It had no images of humans, especially not naked ones abundant throughout france and italy, but it was still fascinating. It was incredibly ornately decorated with MC escher-esque tiles and arabic sayings. Turns out while europe was fighting over this and that during the dark ages and nobody could read or do something intelligent, these folks were building these masterpieces. It is so popular to visit here [and a long trip from anywhere in the continent given spains lousy trains] that you need reservations to get there, which we took care of online a few days prior. It had a palace for the sultan, fountains, a beautiful garden, and an awesome castle that overlooks the city. For the non-story aspects of this trip, I do the best to describe this, but you have to see it to believe it, and its hard to relate without my personal context. Try to keep that in mind. There is so much to see and so little time, but not when traveling with my dad. You see it all. The next day [13 july as they say it here] we took it easy.

I went to see the university where my friend alex kerchner studied abroad, which wasn't that exciting except for the fact that I saw the first, yes first public drinking fountain thus far in almost a month in europe. Dad and myself also went to see superman returns [el regreso] en espanol, which I understood and he sort of did. I don't understand why they make a mexican and spanish version, but I could definately detect the spanish lisp in the dialouge. Seeing foreign movies from my perspective is more effective with subtitles than dubbing, but who am I to compain. I will say that they use pretty much the same 20-30 voices and for all such movies I have seen, and have a hard time conveying small, low softtalk in spanish, since they always speak quick and loud. They also shut down the country from 1-5 each day in the afternoon, and stay up untill 4am. Go figure- Now its off to Toledo and madrid.

Madrid: Great city, little time to see it, since I had decided at this point to meet up in switzerland and had to leave quick, as did dad to get to portugal. However, they have the prado museum, which with art history makes for a great little stop. Rafael, valasquez, bosch, tintoretto, caravaggio, titian, others. I loved it as usual, and as usual, seeing it is better than talking about it. Its like the lourve of the south. Picasso did an interpretation of "las meninas" considered to be a great painting. I also spent 4+ hours battling through lines at the inefficient trainstation getting tickets to geneva which I didn't get. More on that later. The next day, we stopped in toledo for the day. This was formerly a big spanish place where el greco, the famous greek rennesaaince painter lived and did his greatest works. Toledo has one of the greatest works I had seen thus far, the cathedral. It had a 300 pound plus gold holder for the communion offerments, el greco, caravaggio [my favorite if you couldn't tell] and more. The alter was out of this world, and you couldn't take photos inside, but I didn't know that and snapped a few. Also, it had a unique hole in the ceiling to light up the place. Frescos, baroque over the top sculptures, and more. Italy may be able to top this but its hard to say at this point. Also there, a grocery store full of only sweet bread as we discovered, a jewish synogogue, and a swingset where I reminiced about the old days back at ferill mcwhirter. Toledo was a good trip, and on the way there we had a nice conversation with a girl studying abroad from california. One thing I have missed so far is girls, so I looked forward to meeting some chicks as time went on. After all, the trip with dad was fantastic and we saw more than I might have otherwise, but you gotta dig the european chicks. We were so tired each night that I didn't want to go out at night, especially sans friends. Hostels, trains, and stations are great places to meet people.

Later, we headed off in the night [chaffage issues on both parties from so much walking] but we saw a spanish band play in the square of madrid. I spoke some spanish and hung out, wasted a little time and then packed for the next stage, to meet up with the frat dudes, who I was starting to miss, you know after so long.

pictures, here they are

This is going to be very long. I am at my friend John Linton's house, a get away cabin in the middle of the swiss alps, 10 minutes by foot to the nearest ski lift. This place is incredible but more on that later. Its my first access to a straight up regular new computer with DSL and everything and no limit. So here is a major picture update, the first for a while, that hopefully will give an idea of the entire trip. Of course, there are more, and more will come but hope this is good enough for now.

These are the alps. I am really glad I came here, in my opinion better than the cascades








This is Gaudi's masterpiece, the sagrada familia in Barcelona. Its been over 100 years since it started, but it should be incredible when its completed. It features combinations of modern and gothic designs.








Napoleons Arc of Triumph. Its big, as you can see and was finished after he died.













For the England, Trinidad game, there were plenty of Germans there, giving a strange salute. Draw your Own conclusions.

Brandon is Very tired from Jet lag. Its always funny when he is tired.
Bruges, is a very pretty city, as you can see. Here is me by one of their churches.

Unrelated to europe

i graduated from UW officially i just found out.

This may be a mistake to post this, as its not like summa cum laude, but for 4 years and no summers school and almost half of my credits going towards premed, which isn´t a major, and which were significantly harder than the classes that were, I am proud of it.

3.27 cumulative gpa. lifetime member of UW alumni association. I think that was my mom. Thanks for all of your help, friendship and support. Now I can get a better deal on insurance!!

-More to come as it comes up, of course. Just wait untill I leave the old man....

Australians

Austrailians have been the theme of this vacation. I met them first in munich, then in paris, and then again 2 consecutive nights staying in our hostel with 2 different groups of them.

A jolly bunch they are, they like beer, being loud, and lots of other stuff that I like. They have given me many pointers on what to see. Some notes about australia, new zealand, canadia, and other UK commonwealthers:

They are able to work in UK commonwealth countries with a 1 year visa whenever they like. Pretty swell huh? Go to UK, work, travel, see the world. They have told me on several occasions that if I would like to make friends as much as possible, then I should NOT push my american descent, but pretend to be candadian. Bizzare, seeing how I think candians are a joke little brother state of the US, but it seems to work here, as noone likes us all that much.

Anyways, these aussies were chasing around this pretty french quebecian girl who was working at the carcassone hostel, and I got caught up in the mess, realizing early that it wasn´t goint anywhere soon. I think when its 5 on 1 dude to girl especially when she WORKS in youth hostel, your chances aren´t going to be stellar given the daily advances these chicks might get. Regardless, I found myself walking all over creation untill 330 in the moring when then we realized there was a payment problem or something and the hostel booked 7 in a room for 6, and woke up my dad who was staying in the same place. I guess you had to be there but you´d think after traveling for 3 months [they were traveling around the world for a year] they would have a clue when your game ain´t working. Beats me what happened with that girl, but my guess is she went home. Good riddance, a smoker like everybody else here too. Argh the smoking.

Spain is a whole lot more friendly to me than france, especially since my basic espanol isn´t too bad. I am a pro compared to the other places I have been. More on this when more is available, just got here!

-carcassone: like mont st michel, this place is a trip and a half. A real life castle dating back to the roman times, it is an awesome place worth the trip. Me and dad had different tickets getting there, so we arrived at different times. It has a walled city, and is packed with tourists during the day. However, at night its a magical place. The hostel is less than 20 funny dollars a night and is clean and nice. On top of that, we rented bikes and rode out 10 miles or more to these ancient castles in the mountainside and toured those too! I loved it, although the bikes weren´t the best and bruised my hands and behind, it was fantastic to escape the big city and see some truly amazing ruins. I imagined sieges and arrows and kings. It looks like a castle, and it is a castle. If you have ever dreamed of this, as every little boy does, then it is so much fun to see it in the flesh. You can walk in the old moat, climb amongst the drawbridge, walk on the castle wall, and see good looking french girls that hate americans. What more could you want? Rule of thumb, go to the tourist destinations like this at night, where they leave and you can truly check out the sweetness that makes them so popular in the first place. If its good enough for the romans, louis the saint IX, and so forth, then its good enough for me.

Trains. They get worse from germany. A lot worse. Hot stuffy, I hate these trains. I guess that s what happens when you see the best and then move downwards. That said, I have managed to travel all the way to barcelona, sitting on the floor most of the way. My dad got lost and missed a stop, and had to go back. I decided to try and fumble my way through the french and ask "carcassone" badly to make sure I am going the right way. Hope they get better, but as I am told and later experienced, they get worse and slower in spain. Oh well, I guess its part of the trip.

I bought some sunscreen from a french sephora and a towel, so I don´t have to use a shirt at the hostel any longer. We got a hotel in barcelona with an awesome location right by the strip. My spanish has started me in a better mood already, and I think that the trip will get better here, especially as we move away from sites that dad'a'roo has seen. We will rely on my butchering of spanish instead of french at least for the time being.

Hostels: cheap and meet cool people. Fun, like delta chi.
Hotels: quiet and cramped, but safer and nicer. Its a nice little mix. The one in carcassone was awesome though interms of hostels, and so was bayeux, it was inside a castle like building! The girl working the desk must have been 14. Also, the family operating the place made a guy clean up after he pulled a frat move and threw up somewhere in the building. THis was in Bayeax. Scariest part, I think my roommate was hitting on her that night, but thankfully she didn´t speak english and that dude justly failed.

Bits and pieces- met norweigians that like american policy, learned where the easiest girls are supposedly in sweden and greece, and am pumped for the sites in spain. I am debating taking a side trip to morrocco, africa which is close to spain. Then "we will always have paris" dad!

Also looking forward to meeting my relatives in milan, so I can recharge the batteries. A few weeks off from now, but I love meeting new people and they are pumped to meet me. If you are waitng for crazy fraternity style stories, they still haven´t happened yet, but I will elaborate to the best of my ability when it does. And I am sure it will, mind you there are 9 of my bros from uw here across europe as well. THey are tearing up berlin, where italy one the world cup today. Will see them in florence in a few weeks. Ok that was a lot, but now you know more. I have been having some great times with dad as well. We are having some great times and discussions. He even drank a beer today.

Paris and Carcassone and castles

Paris: what a trip that place is. There is so much to see, and so little time to get it all in. There is a Paris musem pass that allows you unlimited visits with short lines to all 70, thats right 70 participating museums. We got it for 2 days and it let us into like 6 a piece. I went to the-

1. Cluny, which contains medeval art
2. Orsay, art from 1848 to 1912 or so
3. Lourve, which has everything before 1848, including antiquity art and lots of art not from france
4. Napoleons tomb
5. Notre Dame top of tower
6. St. Chapele church used to house crown of thorns
7. Rodin, an early 1900's sculptor [modern day michelangelo? personally I don't think so]
8. Armory museum. This contains fancy armor and cool stuff that dudes like

Thats a lot. The best: lourve, of course. You get to see carravagio, leonardo, michelangelo, raphael, botticelli, David, Durer, up Close. That is awesome. I loved this place. Its enormous and you won't have enough time to get it all, but it is sweet. Call me biased but I vastly prefer this place over impressionists. I just like it more, and I saw all that other stuff at the Orsay. I also took art history last quarter of college, so I have a great knowledge of this art already, which adds to my interest. One thing I couldn't believe is that you can just go up and touch the paintings. Well you shoudn't, but you could. Its amazing you can get so close to the ORIGINAL works. Commentary on D day: go see this yourself. I guess thats all to say. The bayeux tapestry is a trip. Its a see it to believe it thing. And the lourve is worth the hype, despite the tourists. The trick for big name sites, go early or late, on time will result in a mess. I also dug the gargoyles of notre dame.

Also saw champ ellseee, the triumphant arch, and napoleons. Its HUGE to say the least, and he was a very successful and egotistical guy. The armory has knight jousting armor swords and guns. Its every kids fantasy. Gotta love that neoclassical architecture. It is really cool. Next entry: Carcassonne, the castles, and gary's night adventures chasing around people who work at the hostel.

The french:

-not as friendly as germans.

-want you tospeak french

-are formal, but not genuninely

-looking forward to spain. Ole, and to barcelona. I hope italy beats those suckers in the wc final.

the latest: D day, paris , and more

This is the arc of the last leg: Bruges to Paris, to Rouen, Caen, Hon Fleurs, Bayeux, Omaha beach, Point Du Hoc, Mont St. Michel, and Back to Paris.

Paris is a gigantic site. It includes the arc de triomph, lourve, Notre Dame [a bunch of these] many impressionist museums, and much much more. It in itself is a huge project. I don't know if it would be ever possible to see it all, the lourve alone has 30,000 items in it. What a place. Its a zoo, esepecially when the French team reaches the semi finals and finals respectively in the world cup. Then its a huge celebration, with honking, rioting, yelling, and general celebration. Thats before they get really sauced, at which point it becomes a scene of complete maddness. I have videos of them rocking the cars and chanting something that I can't seem to figure out completely.

Rouen is the city famousfor the cathedral impressions made by monet. At night, they light up the whole thing using a giant projector and due Lichenstein and monet interpretations right on the surface of the cathedral to eerie music. I liked this a lot. It has timbered houses, 4 cathedrals, and a medeival feel.

A couple of notes: I haven't had a good opportunity to make phone calls, check the internet, or wash my clothes. Its been the sink and a little detergent I brought for that. Crude, but it works.

Honfleurs: a port city, reminds me of friday harbor. Not much to say about it, but pretty.

Caen: didn't see much except for the ww2 museum again, awesome, but details are best left if you actually visit it.

Bayeux: Home of the tapestry. I loved the tapestry, telling the story of william the conquerer [formerly william the bastard] as he took england after prince harold broke his promise. Made in 1077, its pretty awesome. I also met some people from norway and south dakota. The noreweigan dude was the first guy i have me that supports bush and his policies. I don't really care about that stuff too much but I thought that was fascinating. The town was unhurt by the war and really has a special feel. But not compared to....


Mont st michel. Wow, the COOLEST place I have been to so far. Reminds me of a place disney would build or something. Its an abbey suspended completely on an island. We stayed in the small town of Pontorson, about 5 miles from there [rented a car for this leg a fiat no less]. I loved this church, there was a harpsichord player inside, strange music, and an awesome view at the top, for which my camera went dead right then. I can't say enough about it, although there isn't much history, it is a must see in my opinion. Then we had dinner with some chick who was recently divorced. I couldn't tell if she was hitting on me or my dad, but she definately was interested in somebody!

We also ran into one of dad's tour guides from 2001 on the island. That was a coincidence.

Normandy beaches: visit these. A modern day pilgramage, I think its something that we should see. You see the crosses all lined up there in a row, and they go on forever. I looked for some that perished on june 6, and found some from washington and oregon. I'd comment more, but I think its a check it out yourself kind of deal.

About the french:

-More formal than germans, and in my opinion, not as friendly in general, although that my just be the parisians.

-Smoke a lot, but maybe less than germans, its hard to say

-Has a million churches, all of the same basic form.

-Dirty air

-All french cars. nothing special, they are just french cars!

-Eat a wide variety of foods

-Have extremely cramped stairways, and no ice or a/c. You get used to it though. Mcdonalds is everywhere

-Seemingly don't use the interne as much. The phones and terminals are less common than in germany. Less modern if you will. Subway is great but less clean than munich.

Commentary to come on: D day beaches, Lourve, notre dame, and other musems. I am in full out musem mode. Suffice to say, seeing a da vinci that close is amazing. Same with the michelangelo slaves. I was pumped about the lourve, hope that the impressionists will be as good, but I doubt it. We also saw some firethrowers and skaters jumping off huge ramps. NEXT- to carcassone, the medival city, in southern france. Go eurail pass!

Au revoir, to the next step

Paris, the city of heat

I became well again, and took off from Nurenmburg to Bruges, and from there to paris.

I stopped in Cologne, Germany by accident, but it turns out they have a really good cathedral there so I stopped anc checked it out. Supposedly contains the bones of the 3 magi, but I thought the place was reconstructed like nearly everything else in the country. I was wrong, the planes were circling it nearly the whole war to avoid its destruction that cost many pilots their lives.

After that I headed to brussels and then Bruges for the night [thursday june 29]. I found the hostel there after meeting some guy from atlanta who also stayed there. Its one of the nicest cities I have seen in a long time. It has a michelangelo, 3 major churches, canals, and lots more. I got lost wandering around and due to my sickness, did not stay up late that night.

However, there was a concert in the town square which I checked out. Everybody was dancing to the cover band, which I believe was a christian group of some sort. Flemish was spoken and unlike in germany, most didn't know good English and it was somewhat difficult to get around without those skills. I got up early the next morning to head to Paris.

In Paris, after fumbling around, I met my dad by the Eiffel tower. Their transportation system is a bit inferior to the German in my opinion, so it took more getting used to and there was less English all over the place. However, this didn't stop us from seeing Notre Dame, 2 other large churches, the historic quarter, and some performers in the streets.

The next day, saturday, we went to Chartes, and saw the tour. This is a completely original cathedral with all 11/12 c parts. The bell tower was a little scary, but then we went on to see Versailles, the most ornate place I have ever been, the Arc d triumph, the lourve, and the 5th avenue sort of street that has fancy cars, honking, and clothes. Portugal and France won their games, so there was massive rioting and celebrations in the streets, making it hard to sleep. When I get a chance I will elaborate more, but I don't have much time.