Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Divertiamoci!

This week’s been a great one. The return from Barcelona left me pretty weary, but Matt’s mom and aunt were in town, so it meant it was time to live it up a little in Firenze. Monday night we went to a great restaurant. I can’t remember the name, but I need to because it’s some of the best food I’ve had here. Matt, Conor, and I decided to dress up in our Italian suits. We met Pam and Aunt Trish at their hotel, a great one right along the Arno next to the Ponte Vecchio. They were so happy to see us, especially in our suits. We had some wine and snacks, chatted, and then went to the restaurant. It was in a very old building with nice frescoes all over the walls. I started out with some spaghetti con vongole, which was great, although Matt’s Spaghetti Arrabiati was even better. Then I had some veal for my main course. Ottimo. Aunt Trish kept the wine flowing and we had tiramisu for dessert. It was a great meal.

On our way home, we spotted two girls on Cavour standing next to a bike with a set of Ipod speakers and a bottle of wine. One of them was taking a poll off the bottle, and I said to Conor and Matt, “That’s my kind of girl.” As it turns out, it was Lauran Intinerelli and KZ. So I was actually wrong, because Lauran frequently copies my blog and uses it as her own for her creative writing class. Not cool. Actually, I’m just joking. But we hung out for a while with them and then went back to Sav.

Tuesday was packed with classes, but when those finally ended, we went out to dinner once again with Pam and Aunt Trish to Il Latini. They kept on feeding us more and more food and once again the wine was flowing. We tried a bunch of different pastas and I had lamb, which was excellent. After dinner was over, we said our goodbyes (those two were like mothers to me this week and it was hard to say goodbye) and then headed back to Sav. Everyone was meeting up at Piazza Liberta with a vat of wine. By the time we got there things were already well under way. It was great to hang out with so many kids from the program at the same time for once. Things got pretty crazy and four kids ended up jumping into the fountain. When the wine was finished we planned on going to Space E, but ended up not making it. Too bad.

Hola Barcelona!

The trip to Barcelona with John and Conor was yet another great one. Rather than narrating this one, I’m going to try something different and just highlight the best parts of the trip, the things that stood out most to me.

The City. Incredible, definitely one of my favorite cities in the world. Young, modern, efficient, and absolutely beautiful.

Las Ramblas. The main street was perfect for just strolling through. There were nice shops and plenty of entertainers. The human statue people here were pretty good and I saw some really interesting ones. If you were lucky, you could catch the gymnasts performing. It was this crew of a few guys, led by a dude who looked exactly like A.C. Slater, who did some ridiculous things. This one time, they lined three people up and Slater ran and literally dove over them, flipping in midair and landing with a somersault. They didn’t show that sort of stuff on Saved by the Bell.

The Cathedral. This modern architect was incredible. We visited his Temple de la Sagrada Familia, one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. It’s a church that was started over 100 years ago and probably still has a long way to go until it’s finished. The facades left me speechless. The front one used cubic statues with an enormous crucifix that stared down at you as you walked into the church. The back one had many different statues narrating different thing, and it almost looked like it was dripping down. When this church is finished, it will be one of the most amazing sights in the world. In fact, it already is.

The park. Park Guell, another of Gauti’s works, was a great place to just hang out and look out over the city. He has various buildings, benches, and trails throughout the park that I don’t think any other human being could ever think up or design.

The hostel. Kabul hostel was great. It was right in the center of town, in this beautiful piazza that was filled with people and palm trees. We got free breakfast and dinner, plus some free entertainment…

The Flamenco Dancers. One of the perks of Kabul was that you could go and see a free Flamenco show at the club below the hostel. We went on Friday night and were so impressed that we came back again on Saturday. It was basically a mix of incredible Spanish music (with great singing and Spanish guitar) and a female dancer who moved and tapped to the rhythm. They were talented tap dancers who could also move it pretty well. Plus they were hot. The dance show became our starting point every night.

Futbol. Soccer is life in Barcelona, and I love it. FC Barcelona stuff is everywhere. I saw the stadium, which was huge. Barca played at home this weekend, but unfortunately it was Sunday night.

The clubs. There’s a whole peninsula dedicated to malls and nightclubs. The nightlife is surreal and they do stay out really late. We did a pub crawl on Saturday night, and it was a blast. Plus it fortified my stereotype that the Australian Dream is to come to Europe and coordinate pub crawls for young travelers. Every city we go, an Aussie comes up to us asking if we want to do a pub crawl. And don’t think we aren’t planning on doing one here in Florence soon.

The weather. It was beautiful. Sunny and warm. We even spent some time on the beach on Friday.

The culture. I really liked Spain’s culture, and of all the places I’ve been to, it’s my favorite second to Italy.

Thinking back, I’ve hit up some of the best cities in the world just in the past several weeks. Amsterdam, Istanbul, Venice, and Barcelona. Not a bad list. How’s my life?

Sunday Feb 17: The War of Oranges

On Sunday I woke up and hustled over to the buses. There were two big groups of people: The ones who wanted to go back to Florence, and the ones who wanted to make the long drive up to Ivrea to participate in the Orange Throwing Festival. I hate to admit this, but the bus to Florence looked a little tempting since I was so tired and the trip to Ivrea entailed about 10 hours of driving. But when would I ever get to see something like this?
The ride was a long one, but I got some good sleep. Ivrea is a beautiful medieval town north of Torino. After paying our 5 euro to get into the town for the festival, we walked up the beautiful narrow streets towards the battlefield. Flags bearing the symbols of different districts within the town were hanging from the windows and we saw a few horse drawn carriages full of people with medieval-style helmets and lots of padding. The carts they were in were decorated with pictures and symbols. We arrived in the main orange throwing piazza, which was filled with people wearing the uniforms of their districts. There were tons of crates full of oranges on the side.
And then the first wagon came in! What basically happened during the festival was that a cart full of people would come in and circle the piazza, throwing oranges at the people and getting drilled thousands upon thousands of times by balls of citric deliciousness. I think the basic point of it is to commemorate when the people rebelled and overthrew a tyrannous king. We were playing the role of the townsfolk, and the people in the carts were the old government.
When the carts would come through, I often took cover because it pretty much just rained oranges. As soon as they passed, I’d bounce up and wing my stack of oranges as hard as I could. There was one point where I was in the zone and could hit anything. I remember launching one and drilling one of the cart guys in the helmet and then seeing the exploding orange ricochet straight up about 20 feet.
Of course, when you’re dishing out the pain, you have to be able to take it as well. I got hit once square in the forehead, probably not from someone in a wagon but from a stray orange thrown from someone below. Those ones were the most dangerous because they were coming in hot. I took another one right in the eye and a few others in the chest.
The overall scene was hard to explain. It was quite an incredible sight though. Just a blur of people and oranges. So many oranges flying everywhere. It was pure chaos and I loved it. I think a few of the locals got upset because some of us took a few oranges from the crates instead of off the ground, and they were yelling that we hadn’t paid. I wanted to explain to them that we actually had already paid, but I didn’t know how to say Marshall Plan in Italian.
When the battle came to a close, the streets were filled with crushed oranges. My clothes were filthy, my hair saturated with orange juice, my shoes beyond the point of return. My arm was sore and my head was ringing a little bit. But my heart was still pumping with adrenaline, something I hadn’t felt in quite some time. The Ivrea Orange Throwing Festival was incredible.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Feb 16-18: Venezia

My return to Venice was a glorious one. This time, it was a school trip, the weather was perfect, and most importantly, it was Carnevale. Carnevale is celebrated all over the world, and Venice is the happening spot for it in Italy. When I arrived in Venice I saw why. The city was packed with thousands of people, many wearing fancy costumes and masks. It was an incredible environment.

The busride to Venice Friday morning was somewhat of a letdown because I had such high expectations. It was my first weekend trip with the school of the semester and I was ready to relive the good times we had during last semester's long rides. Instead I ended up on the smaller bus and we ended up watching some strange movie with Jennifer Anniston where she has an affair with Jake Jilenhall. The megaphone that we bought back in Rome made the trip this time, but the batteries were almost dead.

We were staying in Fusina, a town across the water from Venice. Our "campsite" was literally a trailer park, and all the guys ended up situated in one quad together. Even though it was only 2 in the afternoon and we were just getting situated, things were already getting pretty rowdy and we were all pretty stoked about our living situation for the weekend.

After getting moved in, I took the boat into the city to see some of the town and experience the festival. The blue canals were filled with boats and the narrow streets were lined with people. Venice is a surreal atmosphere, and if you've never been there, you need to go. There's nothing else in the world like it. We walked around for a while, went to Saint Mark's Cathedral (which is absolutely incredible inside with many gold mosaics), then got a little bit of food thanks to the one euro hamburger deal at McDonalds. I picked up a bottle of wine for the evening and then ended up sitting on a dock with John and Engel that was tucked away in one of the many canals. As the sky grew darker, we made our way to San Marco for the evening festivities. There were flame jugglers, comedians, and a live band. We danced and had a great time until we had to catch the bus back to Fusina.

The next day was pretty much the same routine, which was great, except that this time we bought a waterbus pass and visited one of the islands next to Venice. It was great and the weather was perfect. We danced again at San Marco and then caught the bus back. When we got back we partied in the trailer park.

All in all, the return to Venice was such a blast. It was nice to get back to the school trip routine and Venice is definitely one of my favorite cities.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Bargello



I still need to make a post about Venice and Ivrea, which were absolutely awesome. But since I've been up to my neck in school related activities all week, I haven't had any time to do it. And now I'm off to Barcelona, so it will have to wait even longer. But it will come.

Anyways, this morning we went to the Bargello for my Florence of the Medici class, and it's been one of my favorite tours so far. I saw two of my favorite pieces, Michelangelo's Baccus (a classical depiction of Matt Miller after a night of drinking for free at Joshua Tree) and the one pictured above, Pollaiolo's Ercole e Anteo. It's really only about a foot tall, but the story behind it and the action captured in the statue really stood out to me. When battling Anteus, Hercules must keep him off the ground, for when he touches the ground, Anteus grows in strength tenfold. So Hercules lifts him up and basically squeezes him to death. Pollaiolo did such a great job of depicting the struggle, the agony, and the sheer strength here. It's definitely one of my favorites.

Tomorrow it's time for Barcelona. I can't wait. It's just me, John, and Conor. We're going to need a lot of energy for the nightlife there, and I'm pretty weary from three straight weeks of intense traveling and school, but this will be my last push. Then I have a couple weeks to recoup. I always like to finish strong, so this weekend shouldn't be a problem.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

What makes you feel alive?



A cold, wet grass field in October. Maybe he forgot to mark me, or maybe I was too fast for him. Whatever the case, the ball was sent through and I'm breaking away. Just me and the goalie. Pure freedom. Tiro. Back of the net...

A hot summer day. The river's cold on my legs, but I let my whole body fall into it anyways. A frigid shock followed by bliss. The water's so pure, it seeps into my pours. I hold my breath, go under, take it all in. I even drink it. Perfetto. Right then and there, I am the river...

A chilly night. La fermata. Just waiting for the bus. She smiles. It says a thousand words, words that I don't have to translate, learn, or study. "So, do you miss me?" She wants it just as bad as I do. I lean in...

Il tramonto. The sunset. Nothing but a sleeping bag, my pocket knife, and some bread and cheese. And my best friends. "You know what would be nice right now? A kebab. And hammertime." We laugh. I smile. I can't see anything but the ocean, sky, and stars...

A fantasy. Peace. A burried hatchet. Nothing matters now but love. All else is put aside- greed, envy, power. A world senza paura. No fear.

Then I awake...

Istanbul/Constantinople


Istanbul is not easy to get to. Not too many American tourists book their vacations around a trip to Istanbul, Turkey. Very few airlines in Italy fly there. In a sense, it's a hidden treasure. And that's exactly why we went.

It is one of the most interesting places I've ever been to. Tunisia was a Muslim country, but in Istanbul, you could just feel it more. There were huge mosques everywhere you looked, by the time the weekend was over, I was used to the loud call to prayer. There were just about no women out on the streets...I think that most of them stay inside and work all day. It's definitely a different way of life. The people were very friendly, although most of them just wanted us to come into their restaurants or buy their rugs.

We arrived late Thursday night, so our "Middle Eastern Adventure" didn't really begin until early Friday. Granted, Instanbul isn't really that "Middle Eastern," but it's probably the closest I'll ever get. We started things off with a bang by visiting the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia, which was once a Byzantine Church but then turned into a mosque when the Turks took Constantinople, was the most amazing church I've ever been in only second to St. Peter's. There were many elements of Muslim religion, such as large paintings of script from the Qur'an on the walls. But the things they had painted over from the old Christian cathedral were the most fascinating. There were several large Christian murals from around the seventh century that were absolutely stunning. That church (or mosque) alone made the trip to Turkey well worth it. The Blue Mosque and Sulleymon's Mosque were also interesting, and their exteriors were more extravagant than the Hagia Sophia. That afternoon we strolled through the large market, and much like in Tunisia, the vendors flocked to us, trying to sell their goods. In Istanbul, carpets were the hot product, and they did all they could to try to get you to buy their handmade rugs. That night we went to a religious ceremony called the Whirling Dervish dance, which was pretty interesting. The music was good and the dancers ceremoniously spun around for a really long time. I was pretty impressed with their ability to refrain from either falling over or throwing up during the performance.

Our hostel wasn't anything special, but we had a four-man bedroom to ourselves. It was just me, John, Matt, and Conor, and we spent each night like a bunch of thirteen year olds, throwing stuff at each other, staying up late talking about nothing, and just having a great time. I loved it.

Saturday we accidentally slept in a little, mainly because we were on Miller Time (relying on Matt's faulty alarm clock), but we hit the road early enough and headed down to the water to try to see some of Istanbul by boat. A guy who spoke no English whatsoever approached us and, using nothing but old business cards and advertisements, convinced us to pay him to take us around the Bosphorus on his boat. We negotiated a decent enough deal and hopped on board. It was a great day out, fairly warm with no clouds in the sky. The Black Sea looked clean enough, but in some parts there were thousands of jellyfish, as far as the eye could see. Needless to say, I didn't do any swimming this weekend. We cruised through the bay, seeing many extravagant palaces and mosques. We actually crossed into Asia, adding another continent to my list.

After the boat ride, we went and got a Turkish Bath. The place we found was over 300 years and supposedly one of the nicest ones in Istanbul. Wearing just a towel and some very uncomfortable wooden sandals, we walked into the large bath, which was basically a very big humid sauna. It was a large stone room with many pillars, surrounded by marble sinks. We washed ourselves and then relaxed in the hot room until four big Turkish guys came in. I received a very rough massage in which the man cracked many parts of my back that had never been cracked before. Afterwards he brought me over to one of the sinks, washed my hair, and said, "Good massage, good tip, okay." Though it was a good, I didn't consider what had just happened a massage, because he mainly just beat the crap out of me for 10 minutes. I walked out of that Turkish bath more relaxed and refreshed than I had felt in a long time, and it was a great experience that I'm glad I did.

The next day we killed some time by walking around town and checking out some of the shops. We went down into an old Roman cistern, a dark underground reservoir with many old pillars. There was still some water in it, but there were many strange large fish swimming in it. It was a really cool place, kind of eerie in a way.

Our trip home was a little bit shaky because we got to the Milan train station too late (just like our journey home from Ireland) and there were no more direct trains to Florence. So we ended up taking a late night train to Bologna (the night trains are no fun at all) and then sleeping in that station for a few hours. We finally arrived in Florence at 7:30 a.m. after literally 14 hours of traveling. I walked back to my pensione, took a shower, and then turned around and headed right to class. It was a rough day.

Istanbul was an experience like no other I've had this year and I'm really glad I made the trip. This weekend it's off to Venice to party it up at Carnevale. Non vedo l'ora!

Notes from Istanbul
  • The people were very friendly. Most of the time, they just wanted us to come to their restaurants or buy their rugs, but they were still good sports even when we turned them down. Many of the guys we met were Kurds from near the Syrian and Iranian borders.
  • The Kebabs. Since many of the kebab places up here have "Istanbul" or "Turkish" in their names, we figured that this would be the Kebab Mecca. The kebabs in Istanbul were decent, but they didn't use the red and white sauces they use here, so they're missing something. But the meat's definitely better there and you can't beat the prices. Plus one time we had one with mashed potatoes in it...interesting and outstanding.
  • The call to prayer. Five times a day, loud speakers would blare the voice of a man singing verses the Qu'ran throughout the city. It was captivating and a strong reminder that we were in a very Muslim country.
  • Traveling with Matt, Conor, and John was awesome and I really feel like they're my brothers. We got along very well and I can't even put into words how fortunate I am to have such great friends.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Super Bowl Sunday (Night)


Yesterday I missed the States more than usual. Super Bowl Sunday. My stomach instinctively craved chips and guacamole, pizza, hot dogs, and a nice cold beer. It was easy to put the world of soccer aside because all Italian games had been cancelled due to a violent incident that occurred between Palermo and Catania earlier that week. And though I wasn't at home to watch the game in usual tradition, I was still ready for some football.

It's tough to get excited for a game when most of your knowledge of the year in football is based on ESPN articles. But I had seen the Seahawks/Bears game, and I knew that as long as Rex Grossman was taking snaps, it would be an eventful game. His decision making is mind-boggling, and every time he takes pressure from a pass rush, it turns into a big game of flyer's up, with Bad Rex blindly heaving the ball up for anyone to grab. You have to love the guy for keeping things so unpredictable.

We watched the game at Red Gartner, a large American bar down by Santa Croce frequently infested with East Coast kids wearing Red Sox hats. They were there in full force as usual, pretending to be die-hard Colts or Bears fans after studying some stats or reading a few John Clayton articles on espn.com. We had reserved a section for Gonzaga students in a large booth with a view of a couple small TV's, and the set-up wasn't bad. However, SKY Sports had some strange coverage going on, with the dude from Miami Vice doing the play-by-play and none of the actual Super Bowl commercials. At first I was worried that I wouldn't have a good Super Bowl experience, but then there was an X-Factor: Girls with pitchers of beer. It's probably the greatest situation you can have. A girl buys a pitcher for her and her friend and they end up drinking about an eighth of it. You find yourself left with the responsibility of not being wasteful. It might as well have been a keggar.

Anyway, the game was ugly, neither team played well, and Peyton Manning won the MVP by default. Still, all the fumbles, interceptions, and kick-off returns kept things exciting the whole way through. I made it back to my pensione around 5 a.m., got a little sleep, and made it to school the next day extremely tired but satisfied as well. It wasn't a bad Super Bowl at all. However, it won't come close to next year when the Hawks are there once again and I have all the resources for a good Super Bowl feast (Safeway and girls that like to cook) at my disposal.

It's back to studying for me, with two big tests tomorrow. Hopefully they go well and I can put all my energy towards getting ready for Instanbul this weekend. Ciao!

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Porto Venere


After a long wait, I was finally reacquainted with the adventure of the outdoors this weekend. All the city traveling and siteseeing has been fun, but I was itching to get back into the open where there would be nothing but ocean and stars to look at. So Friday morning Matt, John, and I headed to the train station and took the usual route to the Ligurian Coast. Liguria is a beautiful region with a steep coastline, and of course, Cinqueterre. Porto Venere was just south of the last town in Cinqueterre, and many people we talked to had raved about it. I had set up the trip earlier in the week with the school's travel guide, Peter, who is extremely enthusiastic about that region.

We got to La Spezia around one and then it took us a while to find the bus to Porto Venere. When we finally did, we ended up accidentally getting off at Le Grazie, the town just before Porto Venere. This was not a bad mistake, however, because we found a quiet little port town with a nice harbor and some amazing sailboats and yachts parked there for the winter. After exploring this town for a while and then realizing we were in the wrong town, we hopped back on the bus and went over the hill to our actual destination. Porto Venere was of course even more unique. Colorful narrow buildings stood above this little harbor. A large mideival castle and a dramatic bluff towered above the small town. It was much like any of the villages in Cinqueterre, but for me, it had a more unique, friendly vibe. The island that we planned to camp at, Palmaria, was very very close by. In fact it was just an easy swim. If we didn't have our bags, we might have considered getting there that way. Instead, we wandered around for a while until we found a traghetto, a small ferry that shuttled people to and from the little island. For two euro, we had a round trip ticket to our hotel under the stars.

We hit the trail pretty hard because we wanted to find the best view soon before the sun started setting. We winded through some green forests until we reached the top of the hill, which had some old military buildings that had long been abandoned. We headed in the direction of the ocean, finding several old gun turrets and bunkers that had been built into the hillside. We went down a smaller trail and found the perfect campsite. It was on top of a large turret above a cliff where you could see nothing but sky and ocean. We broke into our food supply. Mine was pretty simple: rolls and cream cheese, with a cheap candy bar for dessert. This sunset was yet another incredible one. There are some beautiful things that you don't appreciate nearly enough while they're in your presence. This definitely wasn't one of those. I savored every single sound, sight, smell, and sensation of that night. To the right I could see Porto Venere getting ready for another lonely evening. To the left I could see a lighthouse on the small island next to Palmaria. Straight ahead I saw the bright colors of the sunset and watched as the water and sky merged together. I watched the seagulls flying below us as their black sillouettes intersected the orange stripes of the horizon. That sunset was my paradise.

The stars eventually came out, but they were accompanied by one of the brightest full moons I had ever seen. There was very little darkness and I had to find a shadow in order to eventually fall asleep. John, Matt, and I talked for hours about nothing and finally dosed off around midnight. That's when the wind started to kick up, which made things very cold for me and my thin sleeping bag. But the morning sun came soon enough.

The next day we hiked around the island, exploring various trails and catching different views of the ocean. Virtually the entire island was covered with old military bases and gun turrets from WWII. It was pretty interesting for exploring. After that we boarded our ferry back to Porto Venere. We explored the beautiful town, which was very quiet and peaceful at this time of the year. We sat down for some tea at a little restaurant right on the water and then had lunch on the tiny beach. Then we eventually made our way onto the bus, then to the train, and then back to Florence. We all agreed that we'd be back to Porto Venere before the year came to an end.