TravelStream™ news feed for member spoonieluv on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/spoonieluv en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:09:28 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/spoonieluv/1/1216137180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/spoonieluv/1/1216137180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/spoonieluv/1/1216137180/tpod.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:09:28 -0400 Europe: Couchsurfing and Railriding through the Old World

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Pompei, Campania, Italy

Pompeii-how does an entire city and ruins go "missing" for so long and become forgotten? It was once a massive trade capital on the sea, and then yea, it gets fully buried by Mt. Vesuvius, but wouldn't you think that there would be records or word of mouth, "tomb" raiders, or something! I don't know....

It's really cool to see though. Massive ruts through the streets, still in-tact frescoes on the sweet houses, sexual frescoes still above the brothel rooms, in-door fountains, rocks slammed into the streets that acted as crosswalks to get over sewage, and most innovative for such an early civilization, full-on piping! Unfortunately, however, the piping was all lead and they were slowly poisoning themselves through their own brilliance.

Then we bussed it over to Sorrento, which is a gorgeous cliffside city. We came around from the corner from way up high on windy roads, how the bus drivers can handle these epic roads and thin city lanes I have no idea. We saw a quick woodworking display and checked out their inventory, incredibly nice stuff.

Then we got on a speed catamaran and all shipped over to Capri. Wow. Capri is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. Perfect blue seas, parked yachts all around the massively high corner cliffs, expensive shops, sweet walking paths. Excellent photos to be had on Capri Island.

Back on the ole' giant cruise ship after another taxing day of tourism, and a perfect sunset to be seen over the Island we had just come from, Capri. The next day was at sea on our way to Mykonos, so we partied hardy at the club that night with our new Mexican chica friends, and then my brother and I did the cruise's wine tasting the next day. Formal night was the next night too and I rocked my tan Thailand suit through it all. Top notch.
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Rome, Lazio, Italy

We started in the long lines to get into the Vatican Museum. We finally got in and made our walk through the paths and all the Vatican ways, through the frescos, passed one really cool painting of what I deemed, "the medieval stiffarm," and into the Sistine Chapel.
Thanks to a sweet tourguide and his previous introduction to the Sistine Chapel, it was awesome. Wow, absolutely the most beautiful man-made thing I have ever seen. To think that Michaelangelo basically conceived all that in his head, without much help, is insane. And he never signed anything (except his first painting ever) because he felt that he was inspired by God. The creation is genius and amazing. It took him something like 5 years to do that entire roof--WHAT A BADASS!! I loved the Sistine Chapel.
And on the entry wall there is, "The Judgement." In which he depicts how that will go down. Its cool to see how he did "sign" this painting, because Michaelangelo's own face is drawn into the flabby skin of the skinned guy near the middle. Also, his babysitting Cardinal enemy is depicted in the lower right hand corner with donkey horns, a tail, and a snake biting his woo-hoo. Such good background info. This painting took him 3 years, and he spent 8 years of his long life masterpiecing that one chapel!! Also, its where the Pope is chosen, so thats fun to think about.
Then into St. Peter's Basillica, which is absolutely massive. Wow. To be on top of St. Peter's bones, and to see The Sorrow. So cool, and so big, and...wow.
St. Peter's Square is cool too to imagine where the Pope first emerges. Its all so big and makes up so much of the smallest country in Europe.

Rome (specifically, not including the Vatican) is sweet too. I really wanted to spent days here, but I only got the allotted 6 hours or so. Rome in 6 hours is just unfair!! We went to Trevi Fountain, and anyone who knows me knows that I flicked a euro into the fountain from, not trying to exagerrate, maybe 750 meters away. TRUE STORY!! Haha....For lunch we talked with some sweet old people about video games and sci-fi. Then we hit up the Colisseum and took the appropriate flexing pics and what not. I couldn't really imagine what the Colisseum would have looked like in-tact (I really wanna see Gladiator again), but its crazy to imagine how much blood was spilled there all in the name of good ole' sport (and maybe religion). Cheetahs, and elephants (maybe), and crazy animals and such. Also the Colisseum has been raped of all its metals to provide for wartime purposes, so there are tons of holes all around (gypsie holes??), shame.

Rome was really cool, and Ive always wanted to go there. I need to go back and actually get a feel for that place.

Back on the boat
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Pisa, Tuscany, Italy

Directly from Florence, we took a bus to Pisa.

I'm pretty sure no one would go to Pisa if they didn't accidently build that tower on soft ground and it leaned. There isn't anything else there really. We did climb up to the top of it though, which was cool to say I've been there. And of course I took the already-done tourist shot of me holding the tower up. My initial are also somewhere in the area...
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Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Florence was epic in a very marbley way. So much marble. Seriously...you turn left, and there is a giant marble church. You turn right, and there is another marble church. You go straight, and there is an even bigger giant marble structure. It was....overwhelming??
We went into the Accademia and saw David, which I thought was really cool. I didn't realize how big he is. Except, is especially in comparison to his hands, his pee-pee is pretty tiny! Lex, Matt, and I figured that it is because he just got done fighting a massive Goliath beast, and he didn't want it to bite it off and all of his mental power/blood was devoted to his brain (hence, brain over braun)...

It started raining insanely hard, and we spent our few hours of allotted free time in a pub drinking beers. The pub actually flooded and the staff was WASTING huge rolls of toilet paper to dry it, instead of using a big of mindpower and elbow grease to bucked it out or do something creative, that was frustrating, but what can one environmental tree-hugging American do?? I finally broke down and bought an umbrella off one of the fortunate vendors who sold umbrellas that day instead of fake paintings, but I got for more than half the price of my brother, so thats all that matters. I love haggling....
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Marseille, Provence, France

So we got onto the Emerald Princess for 12 days including 10 European/Mediterranean cities. This is one hell of a way to travel. It was a perfect way to "get my feet wet" for the rest of my trip, and I got to see a ridiculous amount of places really quick. Unfortunately, cruises only stay at all these sweet places for, at the most, 12 hours usually, so I didnt get a real feel for a bunch of them, but I have been none the less, and have hit up all the touristy tourism there is to be touristed.

Out of Marseilles, we went to Avignon (du Provence--everywhere in the county of Provence, they cant say a city name without mentioning that its in the county of Provence, I guess they are REALLY proud), which is where the French pope lived after the Great Schism. It was pretty cool, with a bunch of churches. There were impromptu street performances EVERYWHERE, so much so that it was very annoying, but Matt and I saw a really sweet funny dude do a really though out act with a bunch of props right next to the biggest church. That was sweet.

Then, in the same day, we went to Le Pont Du Gard further inland. This is the largest remaining intact section of Roman aqueduct. It was really cool. I hiked up into the high cutties and got some good camera angles. Le Pont Du Gard, du Provence, was awesome.

Back on the boat
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Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands

We drove into Barcelona from Cap d'Agde and made a day trip of meeting Stephanie again and then seeing the Sagrada Familia. I did a report on this sweet Baroque church in 10th grade so I was stoked to see it and never for some reason imagined that I would. Its pretty sweet and will probably never even get finished in my lifetime.
Barcelona and Spain are awesome, and I can understand a decent amount of what people are saying. I am definitely going back to Spain soon...
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Cap d' Agde, France

We actually flew into Barcelona, and met Cristoff (Lex's old school friends) at the airport. We stayed at the hotel he has always stayed at when he is in Barcelona. The next day we went out to lunch with the Frenchie's and their daughter, Stephanie, who I hadn't seen in at least 7 years. Then we drove to...

...our family friends place in Cap d'Agde in the south of France. Over the course of maybe 4 days, we boated around the Mediterranean, going through what they call, "Dickland," Europe's largest naked preserve, seeing tons of balls, too much shaft, and very few proper boobs. We partied with the kids at the nightclub Amnesia, my only pick-up line being, "do you speak english?" We gambled at their casino and stayed at their hotel....those Frenchies are awesome kids...
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