Ac10 Genova Genoa

... so forth. Upon our maiden voyage out of Munchen to Luzern (Lucerne) we quickly noticed that the city streets are shared between many forms of transportation. There are trucks, cars, scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians, along with golf carts and 4-wheelers. Anything goes. You can license anything that moves. All of this movement is sharing the road with large fast electric trains running down the center of the street. Much like our light rail ...

... br>so the woman behind the desk in the hotel last night seemed to have a fascination with everything american. but the strangest things at that.....
she kept going on about american cleaning products (specifically floor cleaner) and deodorant. and then her mom came by and couldn't stop raving about penny loafers. very odd. but they were nice and since she thinks i am now her new best friend we got a discount on the hotel.

Embarrassing isn't it? The bird (Jamie) speaks the lingo, FLUENTLY, in the 2 countries we've been to so far. And how do I get by? By attempting to communicate with the locals like Terry Scott in an episode of "Terry and June", where they holidayed in France for the week!! Communication menthods being, speak slowly and shout. My word, that was a funny episode! They don't ...

so left avignon today with thoughts to head to cinque terre, but due to traffic jam only made it as far as arenzano. found a cute pensione and jason was getting sick of driving so seemed like a good place to stop. tried a few others but was like walking through a sad run down old people town so didn't make it more than 5 mins there. well, happy hour time now, so will write more later....

All of my photos have now been updated with titles and captions, if you're so inclined to read them.

I am heading to Nice tomorrow and trying my luck at a hostel. They call it a "mixed room" which I think may mean boys and gals together. Eben, Jen, is that right? We'll see. Maybe I'll keep the emergency siren Lucy gave me with me ...

... I forced myself to do stay that long! I still hadn't picked up batteries for my 'exhausted' camera, so when I arrived I walked all around the downtown area. Actually, when I arrived I had to sit on a bench for 5 minutes figuring out where the town must be, because NOBODY was on the streets. So then I got to the harbor, and it's cute. And Gucci and Prada and Dolce and all their friends were right there ready to empty your bank account. But that was kind of it ...

... and the front day pack. At least it make me something people move out of the way for.

Spent most of my time getting lost on a bus. The average hostel I stayed at was at the very top of town and required 2 buses to get there. Was a nightmare trying to work out where to get on and where to get off. Ended up having to get elderly Italians to walk me to the right bus stop.

The hostel I stayed at is a dodgy chain ...

... with streets like via Garibaldi, a boulevard full of exceptional palazzos. One of the architectural features of Geno are the black and white striped buildings. One of the most impressive that we saw was the San Lorenzo Cathedral, with incredible carvings and imposing, but friendly looking, lions. Everywhere we walked seemed really interesting. One time, we came out of the alleyways, that ...

... a couple of minutes and we figured that would be ok with us. Within the next couple of minutes, 4 or 5 other groups showed up, none of them having reservations like we did and he took them all to their rooms before us. Oh, I was getting so ****** off I couldn't stand still. After all of the other groups were brought to their rooms, it was finally our turn. All of the other groups were directed to go down the hill, but instead, we went up. We were ...

... any good. She also apologized unnecessarily for insufficient English to explain the situation further. At that point, she said that we could just buy another number. Since it was rather expensive the first time, I was about to balk, until she pointed out that it was just 10€. Less than 25% of the price from the U.S. We blinked and said, "Okay!" Ten minutes later, the phones worked, we'd added time, and were on our ...