Bonjour France and Greggy!!!

I got into Ventimiglia at 11:30 p.m. on the 28th and saw Greg for the first time in over 4 years! It's been awesome to be with someone I know, especially since it's Greg and he lives here in France! We got back to his awesome house in Nice and hung out for a bit with some German friends who had been visiting for some big car race and the Film Festival of Cannes (can't believe I was so close and missed it!!!).
So, to bed and to rise, and in the morning I reconnected with Greg's signature breakfast: toast with butter and jam dipped in hot chocolate in a bowl. Ah, Greg.
Greg drove me around Nice, Eze and the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco, and we lunched/walked by the sea in Nice, and I have to say this: it was very nice. :)
Odd foreign thing: my pizza came with an egg in the middle. Just an over-medium egg right there hangin' out. Okay, Frenchies -- I know we all like to have our special little twists on someone else's original creations, but an egg? That's kinda random. I can't say it tasted bad, though.
Afterwards, we drove the 2 hours through the rolling hills and vineyards of Provence to the Mirabella house in Pennes Mirabeau, about 20 minutes outside Marseille. It is beautiful here. Pool, palm trees, an immaculately clean and nice French home ... and Greg's family, who are incredibly kind and hospitable. Christine (Greg's mom) did my laundry, much to my opposition, and anyone who would do a backpacker's laundry is a kind, kind person worthy of a lot.
A combination of Paco the dog; Christine's home cooked meals and chocolate chip bundt cake and settling into Greg's old room - full of Woodbury High School and Minnesota paraphanalia - has made this girl feel quite at home in France.

I've got a home in Torino!

On the train to Ventimiglia in Italy I shared a compartment with Maria Angela and her 11-year-old grandson Gabriele. Gabriele is just learning some English in school and is not bad at all! They made me promise to call when I come back to Italy in a few years (guess I have to now) and I can stay with them in Torino and not to worry because they would remember me. Guess I smelled that bad. ;)
These people were so nice!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest -- in all its ardor and paradoxes -- than our travels."
-The Art of Travel

Grandma Italia

A small Italian woman whose name I do not know sat near me on the train from La Spezia to Viareggio. We spoke the whole 45 minutes, trying to decipher eachothers' mumblings. But I know this woman, and I call her Grandma Italia because she is exactly like my real grandma.
From the way she holds herself to the look she gets when she decides it doesn't matter that I still don't understand what she is saying after the fifth repeat, she is Grandma to a T. Her eyes have a similar worn and wizened look; her nature strong and social but humble and gentle, too.
She reminds me that I need to call someone I miss a lot.

CT at night

Went last night to an American bar in Monorrosso. An AMERICAN BAR. Ironically, it's called "Fast." Ever wonder what those laid back Italians think of us?
While waiting for Mark, JD and Matty and Cara, the two girls from San Diego State that I also hung out with in Pompeii, I was approached by creepy foreigner #1: Maximo. He had good taste in music but the few things he didn't have going for him were that he was like 35 and that he asked me to join him on the patio while he smoked a cigarette which he then bummed off a stranger. I also made the mistake of telling him I was leaving on the last train into Manarola. When I was waiting for the train I saw him coming, so I went up to a random girl and asked if she would momentarily be my friend and explained why. She agreed immediately and I met yet another friend: Stephanie from Gonzaga University. Thank you, Stephanie!
Being alone, I keep thinking of conversations I wish I could have with the people I'm close to, but something tells me they'll come up again in life. Plus it gives me more of a chance to familiarize myself with all sorts of crazy-mixed-up keyboards, and who doesn't want that skill? You say you can speak 4 languages fluently? Yeah, well I can type 50 wpm on several foreign computers!

Cinque Terre Day 2

Another amazing day! But first -- last night. I walked to my ostello up a huge hill in Manarola and into my dorm to find Whitney, the only other lone female traveller I've met thus far who just so happens to live in Boulder, go to CU and work at my favorite Boulder restaurant - The Med. Ironic that we happened to meet at the Med ... the real Med, that is. So we grabbed dinner and I tried Cinque Terre's renowned Limoncino, which I had one sip of and promptly decided to never drink again. I later learned it's made from grappa, alcohol derived from the skins of grapes and therefore very syrupy and strong. I'll stick with the wine. But so fun to hang out with someone who knows home!

Today I hiked. I managed to do all but the simplest one, which I will get to tomorrow. I was disgustingly sweaty and needing to dive into the aqua blue of the sea when I finally reached Montorrosso (from Manarola!), and along the way I ran into Carol, or "Mama Gibb" as I referred to her earlier. It is a small world after all. She told me Mark and JD were on the beach in Montorrosso, so I found them, swam, relaxed and had a beer compliments of Mark. Now the sun is setting, and just to brag a little more -- it is gorgeous.

Cinque Terre Day 1

I am exhausted and smell like crap. I walked for hours, took 3 wrong trains and never once got bored with the views here. Just incredible! At some point I've got to get up and eat dinner, but that cannot happen before a shower.

Cinque Terre = dream

Incredible. Loved it. Go now. To Cinque Terre, Italy that is. I was in complete and total awe of that place, and that was after 5 minutes. Let me catch up to before that point, though.
On the train to La Spezia I planned to sleep the whole way considering the night before. Be warned that if you stand near the bar counter in Rome and someone next to you orders 6 shots of Tequila, your face may be grabbed and your mouth used as the complimentary 7th shot glass, sans lime chaser. Anyways ... just before we pulled out of the station a man came and sat in my compartment with me. We said nothing until I asked in extremely broken Italian which dome we were passing (it was St. Peter`s and I am uncultured). I think that was his go ahead; because he moved to sit right next to me in an empty train compartment with 6 seats, getting all up in that personal bubble we Americans cherish so, and it creeped me out at first. But he then started speaking in fairly broken English about how he would like to learn the language better because he would soon be working in Ireland digging up stuff because he`s an archaeologist.
Victor, as it turns out, was a great compartment partner. He knew just enough English to help me with my Italian, if that makes any sense. We talked the two hours until he got off the train. He`s currently excavating part of the Roman Forum and told me that they (he, actually) just discovered some floor or square of Julius Ceasar and that it might be another tourist spot in a few years. If it is, I can say I met the man who found it and taught him some English to boot!
When Victor left, I thought I might finally get some rest. But 20 minutes later an adorable old couple scooted into the compartment and I awoke. Despite my disheveled appearance and giant backpack, I think this woman genuinely thought I would speak fluent Italian. She learned right away that this is not so. But hey, what`s the fun of a language barrier if you can`t try to ignore it? So we "talked" the rest of the 2 hours - only unlike Victor, these folks didn`t speak a drop of English. So with a combi-Spanish/English/Italian knowledge and a lot of laughing, we had one of the most rewarding conversations of my life. There is so much more to speaking than words.

Ciao, Roma! Ciao Cinque Terre!

Where do I even begin? Well, here's something neat: I saw the pope. Neat indeed!
But let's backtrack a bit. Not much, though. I woke up in Rome and forgot where I was. Really. I was confused at first. Maybe it was the King's Cup and High-Low we played in the hostel the night before. But I went to the Metro, caught the train to the Vatican and walked into St. Pete's square to see giant screens of the pope talking. At first I was like, "Hey, they're playing a video of the pope! That's weird!" But then I looked ahead and saw that it was actually him talking. That was awesome. But I guess he comes out every Wednesday. He did an entire Mass, which I am not sure is typical, but then he did a blessing. So, to all of you: "On you and your families, I envoke an abundance of God's blessings of peace and joy." Straight from La Papa's mouth, guys. Feel the warmth.
The Vatican is amazing (I will likely be using that word a lot in these blogs). So in line for the Basilica, I met some people from Denver who were visiting their sister who lives on an army base in Germany. She also knew a lot about the stuff we were seeing, and they invited me to hang out with them all day. It was basically me with who I would equate to the Blodgetts all day. Needless to say, it was an excellent time.
Pope John Paul's tomb was really cool to see, as was St. Peter's and all the other amazing stuff they've got there. But one of the most awe-inspiring things of the whole day was the Gelati. No, kidding. Well, kind of kidding. But the Cupola, which was an incredibly long climb to the tippy top of the Basilica, gave the most vast views of Rome and the Vatican gardens, St. Peter's square, etc. Loved it!

Unfortunately, since the pope was out they didn't open the Basilica until 1, and by the time we were done it was too late to go to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Bummed, but not crying over it. It was an awesome day.

The night before I got to meet up with Andy, which was so nice! We saw the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, about 50 piazzas ... but I do love those little Italian alleys, lined with cars, people and restaurants (one of which served the best plate of gnocchi I have EVER tasted.)
And Andy is an expert of Roma now, so he knew right where to go.

Day 3 was Pompeii, where I met a "Mama Gibb" and her son JD and his buddy Mark, and 2 girls from San Diego State. We spent the day together giving ourselves a personal tour of Pompeii and it was incredible. If I were Italian and alive in 79 A.D., I'd have lived in Pompeii. For shizzle.

So, I've always been a little skeptical of all those gelato nuts who scream at you if you don't eat it every day, but I will be joining them now. It's delicious.

The night before I left I did a pub crawl with my new friends from the hostel. It proved quite fun, except for the bunch of guys who absolutely perpetuated the stereotype of drunken, careless Americans using Rome as a party venue.

I slept less than 2 hours that night (last night) and was up 6:45 a.m. to walk to Termini station, buy my tickets to Cinque Terre and be on my way.

Right now I'm in this little laundromat that has an internet cafe built into it. Being surrounded by glass, plus the combined effects of dryer heat and the hot Italian sun, I feel like I'm in an oven. But that is beside the point. The point is I am in Europe and that's awesome.

After I found my hostel in London on Sunday, they told me I couldn't check in until 2 p.m., so I wandered the area and came across Notting Hill and Kensington Palace Gardens, and some playground that was so cool that there's a sign telling adults they can't play on it unless they're with an actual kid. It was a big pirate ship. Like a real one! Anyways, London was cold and rainy, which didn't energize me a whole lot, plus I had to haul my gigantic backpack up six flights of narrow stairs. The hostel I'm staying at here in Rome is the same thing (but the stairs are marble ... much nicer). So I checked in to the London hostel, took a shower and slept. I was awoken by a French guy and a guy from Tallahassee talking in my room (yes, theirs too), and later went out to dinner at a traditional English pub with two guys from FL and 2 girls from Melbourne, Australia.
Later, I wandered around some more, finally went to bed but couldn't sleep because some guy was snoring really loudly, then "woke up" at 2:30 a.m., got in the taxi and onto a shuttle that took me to the airport this morning where I flew here to Rome. Today has been amazing. No freezing, rainy London weather, I happened upon the Colluseum (I really did. I wasn't actually looking for it) and went into the Basilica de Santa Frensisco or something. Rome is incredible. Every building I walk by I feel like it's the oldest building I've ever seen. And the traffic... phew! No worries. I've only almost been hit 3 times. ;)

Some things I noted/thought about on the plane into London:
-Exactly how long is the movie Zathura!?!?
-From in the plane, it seems like the white caps in the ocean never go away. I don't get it.
-I always thought airlines skimped on the food. This is not true. However, getting too much of that stuff does not aid the fact that it is still bad food. Do us all a favor next time and use that rock hard "biscuit" with the egg-like stuff for something more practical, like for throwing at Roman pigeons.
-Airplane bathrooms are not so cool as I used to think they were.
-Clouds will always fascinate me.
-My kneecaps went numb from the position I was sitting in. That was the weirdest thing.
-After waiting for the restroom and seeing the luckies in business class, I have decided it is worth the extra billion dollars. No, really.

That's all I got! Oh, except that I taught an old Brit a new word: squash. I used it in reference to fitting my whole name on a line on my landing card, and he stopped me short and said, "what was that word you just used? Squashed? Is that like "squeezed?" Cute.

I am falling asleep. But yay for meeting up with Andy tonight!

Itty bitty living space

I'm gradimatated! And I just spent an awesome week with my family up in Silverthorne where I got to do lots of shopping to prepare for my trip -- which is in 4 days! Agggghh!
My backpack for this month-long trip is roughly the size of a Jansport. Slightly larger. But it's small for a month's worth of, well, everything. We'll see how the souvenir thing works out. Right now I'm thinking pictures are going to be about it. And a shot glass for Macky, of course. :)

Before I go I've got 2 doctors appointments and a list of 27 significant things to do. I'm sure I'll think of more. Ah, clean room. There's one more, see?

Being that it's 2:30 a.m., I do believe I should get some sleep. And hired help. G'night.

My online answering machine

I should be studying

As a first-time Euro-tourist, I've become borderline obsessed with planning this trip (now less than 2 weeks away!). My 2 finals coming up in 2 days are too much for me to be distracted with, and all I really want to do is get ready and go! Unfortunately, failing a class would put a damper on the trip ... and that whole graduation thing I've got coming up. So I guess I'll eventually hit the books. Not too hard, though. ;)