Things About Italians/Italy...

They have absolutely no idea what a queue is.

The men talk ridiculously loud and are annoying.

Everyone says Ciao, Grazie, and Prego to everyone else at least 3 times during every conversation.

Actually impressed by foreigners who try to speak the language, moreso than i imagined.

Gelato is enjoyed by all at any given time of the day, not just by tourists.

Every menu consists of appetizer/salad, first course (pasta), second course (fish or meat) and dessert. Portions are the perfect size and it is spaced out enough to allow time for settling/conversation. I love this, and wish America wasn't so obsessed with the slogan time is money.

Speaking of time, Italians take forever to go from one place to another. No rush and no cares in the world.

Food. Really good.
Dress kind of silly. And by silly I mean they wear their best ALL the time...theyre just trying to hard in my opinion.

Drink coffee and cappucino. Lots of it.

Drive like drunken idiots.

Own a scooter, moped, bike, motorcycle, or some other two wheeled mode of transport.

Less "tan" than their counterparts around the world...more au naturale.

They socialize.

And lastly, they Believe that family is most important.




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Location:Italy

"The Five Lands"

We awoke to a nosy, agitated French lady who we think was complaining about a phantom alarm she heard in the middle of the night. What a bitch.



After a breakfast of foccacia pizza, we went to the local deli to pick up some fresh prosciutto, salami, cheese, and baquettes to have for after our hike.

Unfortunately, the main hiking trail of the Cinque Terre between the main villages was closed due to mudslides from previous rainstorms.

However, the trail from the town of Levanto (just north of the CT villages) that we were staying in to Monterosso, the northernmost village, was still open. It would take us approximately 2.5 hours to complete the hiking, trekking along the cliffside high above the coast.



The thing I've found out about hiking is that the first 30 minutes will always be the hardest, and will almost certainly be all uphill. When I "hiked" the volcano down in Panama, despite almost all of the hike being uphill, once those first 30 minutes were over, your legs and your body had a chance to get the blood flowing and loosen up.



The same happened during our hike. There were times when I felt like keeling over, puking, and just outright dying for that first half hour, but after that Bryan and I dominated the trails.

The views were incredible as you might expect, and when we hit the summit of our hike, we were able to look out over all five of the villages at once.



We arrived in Monterosso and spent some time on the beach to regroup, and headed off to visit the remaining four villages.








All tucked into little nooks and crannies within the mountainside, the picturesque towns all have a different look and feel to them. Corniglia is perched atop a hill and the only town without direct water access. Vernazza and Manarola are centered around small marinas.







The last photo is of Vernazza, my favorite of the bunch. We grabbed a takeaway dinner and hung out on some large rocks down by the marina as the sun set and blasted the town with incredible color.



My one complaint with the Cinque Terre is that it is supposed to be a "secret," but after walking through mobs and mobs of people (fucking bastards), im not so sure its much of a hidden gem any longer.

One question I ask of myself after every place I visit is: Would I return? For Cinque Terre, I am not so sure. These people have lived a life of seclusion for a long time...yes tourism is great for the local economy, but its destroying the image that these towns are so well known for in my opinion, and like I said, I am not so sure I'd want to contribute to that.

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Location:Cinque Terre, Italy

When weather sucks/doesn't suck!

I departed Florence on a gloomy morning. The weather was not looking up for my excursion to That City With The Leaning Tower, nor for my final destination of the day, the Cinque Terre region of Italy's northwestern coast. It drizzled steadily all morning.

I've concluded that Pisa doesn't in fact have anything of any sort of significance other than the Leaning Tower, except for maybe a decently cool river running through the middle of it. Actually that's a lie, and I blame it on the fact that I was only there for a short while.



Above is my attempt at Pisani humor.

I was in the city for all of 90 minutes, as I had prebooked a train to the Cinque Terre region prior to my departure from the U S of A. Immediately upon my arrival there, the weather turned for the better. Sunshine and 65 degrees.



I'll take it.

I met up with my friend Bryan who is currently studying in Rome at the hostel and we hung out around the town Levanto for the remainder of the day.

After a pretty epic sunset..



..we had an excellent seafood dinner of Mussels, Penne with Anchovies, and Sepia (i believe its cuttlefish, which was a first for me) before checking out the "nightlife"(non-existent aka we ended up at the townie bar).



Limoncello^ from said townie bar. Mmmmmm.

Location:Pisa, Cinque Terre

Ciao, Firenze

I have to give props to Italians for this one.

At first I was displeased that my high speed train from Venice to Florence finished the last 45 minutes of the two hour trip speeding through tunnels under the Tuscan hills. God dammit I wanted to see some scenery prior to my arrival.



Yet there I am, standing on a hill perched above the city below looking out onto beautiful countryside sprawling beyond the city of Florence...and thats when I understood. Why tarnish such an extraordinary thing?

Florence is old, charming, and full of crazy dudes in little cars and on motorcycles. Small enough to walk around and see everything on foot in a few hours, but large enough to give you the feel of a city. The narrow cobbled walkways close in on you, and one or two wrong turns in the wrong direction or down the wrong street could end with you being lost for quite some time.



Another thing I must touch on is that Italians are crazy about their churches. The Duomo was nice and all that, but the interior of some of the lesser known ones were to die for. Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance...you can see and understand the history of this city just from walking in and out of these places!

What did I think the best part about my time in Firenze was?

The Food.

A friend from the hostel and I decided to check out a restaurant close to the Uffizi Gallery that was recommended by the hostel. We both figured "how good could this possibly be?"

Well it turned out that we had perhaps one of the best meals of our entire lives at this restaurant!

First Courses: bruscetta and salami cold cuts and mixed crostinis.



Second courses: homeade papperdelle with a duck sauce and lasagna.







Final course: a gigantic steak florentine that was perfectly cooked, seasoned to an uncredible medium rare, and was the icing on the cake for both of us.



I knew I was going to eat well in italy, but seriously, my life couldnt have been better at that moment in time.




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Location:Florence, Italy

Lake Bled and Slovenia

I was overwhelmingly impressed by how much I actually enjoyed Slovenia on the whole. Of course I thought I would enjoy it, but you still need to go there and formulate a final opinion once you've had your fill.

Ljubljana turned out to be a spectacular little city, easily walkable in a day, with a charming Stari grad, clean, easily navigable streets and paths, and a likeness to Budapest that I didnt fully grasp until after I left.

Lake Bled was all I could ever want and than some. And than some more on top of that. Easily a place I could see myself living. A picturesque castle perched atop a cliff, overlooking the most robustly colored lake I've ever seen with a fairytale church on a small island in the middle of said lake! The word surreal is the closest I can get to a word that rightfully can describe this place.




Vintgar Gorge is very close to Lake Bled. It has been carved out through the mountains by a fast flowing stream, and has become a popular tourist attraction for hikers and families alike. Wooden bridges and pathways have been built along the length of the gorge...I'd say between 75-85% of the time you are completely suspended over water.









I also visited another alpine lake, Lake Bohinj. Almost three times as large as Bled but with five times less fanfare. A haven for outdoor adventurers, this place is probably kicking during the summer months. I had lunch in a small village tavern near this lake and it was excellent.

My final excursion in Slovenia was to a town called Scofka Loca. Its town square looked like a postcard right out of the 16th century. Buildings appeared just as they did hundreds of years ago and it was exhilarting to see this kind of preservation.

Other random tidbits:

-Slovenia has done a hell of a job marketing itself as a tourist destination. Signs in ALL towns, not just Ljubljana, are clearly marked in both Slovenian and English, making it a cakewalk to find your way around.

-Some of the best scenery I've seen during my travels.

-The old Slovenian grandmoms reminded me of my own grandmom.

No way in hell people can consider Slovenia "Eastern" Europe. It's as westernized as you can get.


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Location:Slovenia

Ljubljana Creeps Me Out

...but in a good way.

I am staying in a former war prison where people probably died.

I just ate a horse filet. It was good, but still weird.
The old city feels more medievil than Romania, and thats saying something!

The area directly around the hostel has turned into a "struggling" artist community with scary "art" decorating the exterior.

However, the rest of the city is extremely modern, clean, and interesting.

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Location:Ljubljana, Slovenia

Train Rides

I dislike trains with 6 person compartments that give people like me absolutely no leg room. One of the few things I am somewhat picky about when traveling. Thankfully the cabin wasnt full.



The country is beautiful with Incredible scenery. The train chugged up mountainsides, allowing myself to look out onto valleys below,  as towering cliffs were perched in the distance...'twas quite the rush.



About 2 hours into the trip, everyone had to hop off and catch a bus to the next train station because of construction on the tracks. A slight road-block, but I only ended up arriving a half hour late into Ljubljana because of it, so it wasn't a big deal, with the exception I was stuck in the middle of 25 screaming pre-teens close to the back row.

Once that fiasco was over with...Slovenia might even take the cake over Austria in terms of scenery.



Time to go explore!

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Location:Vienna-Ljubljana

I was in Vienna?

My urge to stay in Budapest as long as possible, coupled with that 6am bedtime on Monday morning meant there was no way I was getting to Vienna anytime before 3 o'clock. I could have caught the 12pm bus, but that would have caused rushed goodbyes to new friends and extra aggravation that I didn't want to deal with.

So I hopped on the 3:00pm and off I went.

I arrived in the city around 6pm, basically relegating myself to 90 minutes of daylight for sightseeing. I took the metro 2 stops and walked through the Inner Stadt (inner city) to my hostel...which was much farther away then I imagined or had planned, but I was at least able to see the old town before dark!




During my walk, I stopped for a quick bite to eat. I had a bratwurst. It was delicious.



Continuing on, I noticed there was much more diversity in Vienna then in Budapest. You find that a lot of Eastern European countries are very homogeneous, but Vienna was definitely much more cosmopolitan.  However, the women in BP are still hands down #1 in my book.

Quick Tangent. The Vienna Subway smells like popcorn, and the streets near all the major sites smelled like horse poop. I didn't see any horses. I saw horses, so that part made sense, the popcorn smell however, did not.

If you like high end fashion, designer flagship stores, and boutiques, you'd love Vienna.

The buildings and things to see are massive structures, moreso than I was anticipating. Hofburg Palace, the Rathaus, Schonnnbrun Palace, the Opera, the Museums...grand scale fit for royalty, which oh yea, it was.



Its 6:20am at the moment. I was going to attempt to go see The Other Palace at sunrise but I think that will be pushing the time limit I have...must catch an 8am train from Vienna Meidling Station to Ljublana, Slovenia.

I am going to be staying in an old prison baracks that has been converted to a hostel, so if there was ever a time that I was going to be butt-raped or re-live any portion of the aptly named movies Hostel and The Human Centipede, this would be it.

It really is a shame I had so little time to explore such a huge city, but definately worth a second trip sometime in the future.

-E

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Location:Vienna, Austria

Raging

Everyone from Carpe Noctem having an awesome fucking night!

Good times

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Location:Budapest

Weekend Recap

Let me preface by saying that this weekend has done nothing but enhanced my unhealthy and borderline psychotic emotional attachment I have with this city. Budapest is an amazing place, and I happily would recommend a visit here to anyone.

Luckily, I did not suffer a case of Jet Lag. I arrived at my hostel, Carpe Noctem (can't say enough good things about them) to discover my two extremely hungover german pals Flo and Dom just awakening from their slumbers. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to the Turkish Baths for a relaxing afternoon. (pictures are Dom struggling and Oktogon facing Hero's Square)







My old roomate from my Corvinus days Corey arrived around 630pm; we gathered him and the four of us headed over to one of our old stomping grounds, Trofea Bar and Grill. Trofea is basically what we would call a buffet, just with Much nicer food. However, Trofea takes the buffet concept to a whole new level...in addition to all you can eat food, there is all you can Drink beer, wine, and champage.

Holla.

After dominating the restaurant, we hopped in a cab to Godor Club for some more drinks with the rest of the hostel, however my night ended somewhat early because of a whiteshoegettingstuckinmud incident :(. Sadzees.

Saturday morning was a blur. Corey was pleased he found his way back to the hostel. Flo and Dom had disappeared sometime during the night but were back as well. (The picture is of Oktober 6 Utca; Claire, Hannah, and Erica's old street)



Lunch at my favorite ramen and dumpling restaurant, some sightseeing with the guys and our new pal Sabrina, and a trip up to the Buda Hills rounded out the afternoon.

Sometimes in life, I wish I was required to wear tracking mechanisms and to be followed by cameras to document how nights like how Saturday night unfolded. The hostel organized an EPIC pub crawl, 5 bars in all, four of them being some of my favorite from my time here. Well, smart person that I am, decided a liter of Vodka was a proper pregame for this crawl. Woops. I disappeared after the second bar. I'd love to tell you the details of my 2-3 hour expedition through the city that night, but some is not at all appropriate nor do I remember all of it. I was found face down on the hostels common room floor and woke up at 7am in THE WRONG BED.

I get a kick out of myself sometimes.  But it was nice to let loose and realize that I still remembered how to party with the best of them.



After some more sightseeing on Sunday, I said goodbye to the German guys and Corey, and was talked into taking a ride on the Jager Train. The picture speaks for itself.



The Jager Train was at Carpe Noctem's sister hostel Grandio Party Hostel. Underneath the courtyard was a Cave Bar, and it was open mic night. Sabrina, our new Aussie, Canadien, and English friends, and myself were at first somewhat skeptical about how much fun a Sunday night would be, but those hesitations were quickly extinguished.



Without a doubt one of the funnest nights I've ever had. Open Mic turned into "lets pick four random people from the audience and have them play incredible music", beat boxing, Hungarian folk/pop/techno with fiddle/violin, and some pulsating techno to cap off the night.



6 am on Monday morning, instead of waking up for a work week which I have become oh so familiar with, became everyones bedtime and a great cap to the weekend!

---------------------------------------------

Currently, I am sitting on a bus on my way to Vienna. I have never been, but truthfully I had such an amazing weekend and it brought back a lot of good memories, I could care less about Vienna right now. I did everything I could to figure out a way to stay, but from a logistical standpoint I just couldn't get it to work out.

Too any of you from Carpe Noctem, host or guest, if you happen to come across this, you guys were awesome and I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. My new home away from home in Budapest.

Thankfully, the hostess on my bus right now is unefffingbelievably gorgeous, so I am just going to stare at her until my arrival in Vienna to lift my spirits.

Frankfurt Airport Sucks

Highlights:

Met a former spy for the CIA at at the bar named Michael who could speak 6 languages.

Delayed departure, and for once it wasnt Philly Intl's fault.

Gay canadian flight attendant hit on me, admired my shoes, very interested in where I was going, what I was doing, and who I was visiting. He also gave me free alcohol. A secondhand compliment? I think so!

Arrived in Toronto with a half hour to spare, breezed through customs as I was hearing my name being called over the intercom for final boarding, sprinted to my plane only to find it smelled like child poo. Sigh.



Watched The Tourist on in-flight on demand. I figured out the twist 15 minutes into the movie.



And of course, Frankfurt airport still sucks. If I wanted to walk five miles from one terminal to the other, well...I don't know what I would have done! But dammit, that is the last thing I want to do after an overnight flight without much sleep!



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Peace out USA

Leggggoooooo!


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Location:Philadelphia INTL

Packed and ready to go

All im taking..


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Another year, another adventure..

2011 has brought with it more responsibilities than I can ever remember having.  Full-time job, student loans, car payments, my dog...everything short of paying rent (however close that may be on the horizon).  

Yet somehow, I've managed to find the time and money for an 11 day excursion back to Europe, trekking through Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, and Italy, meeting up with old friends here, there...hell, everywhere. 

My route ill be taking, from right to left...

Budapest, Vienna, Ljubljana, Lake Bled and the Julian Alps in Slovenia, Florence, Pisa, the Cinque Terre on Italy's coast, and finishing in Milan.  I'm expecting a good time, and many, many late nights.  

Wondering how I am fitting all of that into 11 days? Yea, me too...

Here's hoping I can re-discover my blogging legs.

-E