Blog update

Florence and venice need work, other than that it's pretty updated. I am hoping this post will make it easier to catch up on all the cities I've been to recently without having to scroll through everything. Oh, and I wanted to tell an ice cream story from my time at the Minnemas in addition to all the city sight-seeing updates.

Starting with Saturday, the 12th of July I was in Antwerp Saturday and Sunday. Monday night I spent in Lucerne, Switzerland. On Tuesday, I traveled to Italy to spend two nights in the lake town Como. From there I went to a large harbor city Genova. After a quick early morning train ride, I arrived in the Cinque Terre on Saturday, the 19th.

Not far south from the Cinque Terre is Pisa, so I spent a couple nights there. Florence was the next big stop. After that well-planned route I decided I needed to go back up north to see a few cities and I loved Verona. And just going a little west I arrived in Venice on Saturday, the 26th.

Currently I am in Siena, and it is Wednesday!

Verona

Verona was wonderful! I wish I had more pictures of the beautiful city, but I only took a couple and they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

The first day there I wasted so much time getting to my hostel because I kept doing Sudoku puzzles. When I finally arrived to my hostel to my surprise they had a piano. That night I played until midnight and I had a bunch of people in the room joining in on the fun. Many of them knew some of the songs I was playing so they were singing along. We happily sang through three verses of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and then we stumbled through the fourth, and then I attempted the fifth. I guess there are sixteen total, but I'm sure that many would've worn out the song. They also knew a little Regina Spektor and ever since I have had Fidelity stuck in my head. Which is much better than having the new Coldplay song stuck in my head because that was there for a long time!

One girl asked if I could play Fur Elise. I used to always tell people no and that I never liked that song. However, it gets harder as the years go by to say that to people who really do love that song. And after a few years, I started to learn how to play it unwillingly. So I played what I could for her and then she wanted me to teach it to her. The funny thing is she didn't even speak English. Her friend translated for her that she wanted me to teach it to her. We tried playing it anyway.

The next day I received word that the opera that night was Bizet's Carmen. I had to go! I love Bizet's Carmen and the ticket prices were pretty cheap, €22.50, not bad. It was such a lovely evening! Upon entrance to the amphitheatre there are candles you can take so you can join in the tradition. Since 1908 (I think was the year) it has been tradition to light candles during the first act. The picture actually came out a lot brighter than it really looked that night. It was cool to see the many candles. The music was wonderful.

Juliet's balcony. I don't know if that means it was used in a movie or what... (After a comment I thought I would research the balcony.) Just so you know, I wasn't questioning who Juliet was, but I was questioning if in fact she is a fictional character then what is the purpose of saying this house and balcony belonged to her. It seems that the suspicion arosed over the years that the house belonged to the Capulets because of the owners many years ago that were named Capella. Suspicion turned into belief of many after the 1930's when the house was renovated and a balcony was added. Here is where I found some of the info on it: the Casa di Giulietta.

Pisa

I like this one where you can see everyone doing the same pose of holding up the tower.



I went to Pisa pretty much only to see the leaning tower. I camped out and found that Italy does have mosquitos. Until Pisa, I was thinking the weather was very similar to Idaho's but without mosquitos. After Pisa I haven't been able to get away from the mosquitos.

Some graffiti in Pisa. It looks like someone likes Groningen, too.

Cinque Terre

I recently found out I've had my days mixed up for awhile. The Cinque Terre is very small and very popular, so I thought it would be best to visit on a weekday. When I got there it was unbelievably crowded. Still though, it was beautiful. I took a little break because I thought the crowd would thin out. Luckily, I was right. Around dinner time all the crowds were eating and nearly on their way out, and the rest of my exploration through the villages was pretty much crowd-free, apart from when I was in the center of the village of Vernazza. I took a swim in the sea. I actually thought it would be a good substitute for a shower. I didn't bathe in it or anything, but since I had been hiking around all day, I thought a swim would really cool me off and refresh me. I didn't smell fresh after my swim though.

The villages were very adorable and it would've been very nice to spend more time there. It would have been amazing to be there without all the crowds. It has the good mixture of natural beauty with small Italian-village charm. By the way I visited on a Saturday, which probably made it much more crowded, but I thought I visited on a Thursday, or a Tuesday, I can't remember.

Genova

I went to Genoa without knowing anything about it. It is a very big city and it is on the Mediterranean. Well, actually it is on the Ligurian Sea, all this time I have been calling all the water around Italy the Mediterranean, I am learning.

I met some Italian guys one night. I was walking around looking for a place to eat and I wandered into this place where some people were spending their evening chatting away like old pals (well actually they probably were old pals). Only one of them spoke English, his name was Pino. I had a lot of fun hanging out with them. To go with my dinner I ordered milk and they kept laughing that I ordered milk, they would say, "Vino! Vino!" They wanted to know how my dinner was and even though it was obvious by the plastic container and lid that it was a microwavable dinner, I said, "Magnifico!" And I told Pino to give my compliments to the chef. They laughed.

Pino wanted me to meet his friend Chichi who has traveled all over the world and is proud that he only knows how to speak Italian. We were outside when Chichi was approaching and Pino told me to say, "Ciao, Chichi! Como estai?" When I did, Chichi was very befuddled and just stared for awhile. Then Pino started laughing and Chichi could tell we were joking with him. Pino told him I was Americano and then we talked about traveling for quite a while.

I saw my Italian friends the next day and they gave me their email addresses and the address of the bar so I could send a postcard from Greece and America. I also had dinner again and this time instead of milk I had Vino! :)

By the way, I cut my hair recently.

Como

Como was the first city in Italy I visited. I stayed a night in Lucerne the night before but there is no point in writing a blog because I left my camera in a locker even though I had a picturesque morning walk along the lake. Well, back to Como. It was a beautiful train ride from Switzerland to Italy, right through the alps. I was glad I did it in the daytime to see it all, instead of a night train like my original plan.

Como was right on the lake. I pretty much did nothing but relax by the lake my whole visit in Como. I was reading a book my friend Jana loaned me when I saw her in Paris. The book is called Three Cups of Tea and it is about a man, Greg Mortenson, who after trying to climb K2 decided to start building schools in impoverished villages of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. It took me awhile to get going on the book, but I pretty much read the whole thing on the train ride to Como and then in Como. It is a very inspiring and informative book!

Como was a great place to stay for a first time in Italy. I had pizza, gelato, wine, grapes... It is nice to be somewhere that all the food I love is so common!