Pizza and the Colosseum

I don't really like riding Italian trains. Somehow, they're always packed and they always make me pay an 18 Euro "supplement" to ride them even though I have a Eurail pass (Kelley's leftover one, as mine was stolen). Austrian trains however, are the shit. They always have compartment cars, which I love and they're far less crowded. The dining areas are also very reasonably priced and the staff usually aren't rude.

The only redeeming quality of Italian trains? This:

If you don't get it, go play more video games. And sorry about the lack of quality; I don't have my camera or my laptop with photoshop anymore. I'll fix up the pictures when I get home.

So, after a couple train rides, I arrived in Rome pretty late at night. Arriving in a new city is always the most difficult part for me because I don't have a map yet, I don't have hostel reservations, and I'm carrying a pretty heavy backpack. So, on average, when I get to a new city, I spend about 2-4 hours wandering until I find somewhere to stay. It's usually pretty scary too. Once I find a hostel though, I'm fine. They give you free maps, wifi, somewhere to lock up your stuff, options for food, etc.

So I settled in at the Alessandro Downtown hostel. It wasn't bad, just a few minor annoyances like advertising free pizza and then telling everyone at the last minute that it's over at their other uptown hostel. Whatevs, bro.

So I went to bed after some peanut butter crackers, and had a Clif bar for breakfast the next morning. Then I went for a walk, because I prefer it to public transit, to the Colosseum.

So so cool. I learned a lot from the museum area inside too. I'm sure it's all on Wikipedia or something but it's more fun to learn when you're there I guess. Oh, and there's this:

Someone had to ruin it for everyone, Ezio. I guess one too many guards were pulled to their deaths.

After that, I basically just wandered Rome for the rest of the day.

All day it was nice and sunny and warm and good; until I got to the Vatican. As soon as I could see it, the sun went behind the clouds and everything got dreary and darkish.

(Static noise inc)



I think that sun thing is a bad sign right? I waited a while to see if the sun would come out and got some pizza and a beer from one of the wheeled vendors right outside the gate to the Vatican.

It was weird. More like a fried panini than a pizza, but it was pretty good. I do love mushrooms and pizza on all occasions.

Then I went and stood in line to go into the Sistine Chapel and all that, but oh, bummer, I couldn't go in. Apparently the Pope is on high alert for pocket knife wielding assassins, so I was denied entry. Just one more thing Ezio has ruined for me this week, but he's still my favorite Italian.

So of course after I left the Vatican, it was suddenly sunny and warm again. Whatevs. Oh, and at pretty much every major tourist attraction in Rome, there are guys dressed as Gladiators hanging around and charging you a few Euros for pictures.

After wandering for a while, getting lost for a bit, and eating a delicious hazlenut candy bar from a vending machine, I went back to the hostel and went to bed.

Goodbye mom, hello drink week

So I said goodbye to my mom, um, one night? At like midnight I saw her off from Munich's main trains station to the Munich airport to catch her flight in a few hours. After that I went back to the Euro Youth Hostel, where they had let me check in earlier with my mom's passport since my was stolen. There I crashed, since mom and I had been drinking and wandering for a couple hours.

We drank a bottle of wine on the train from Garmisch. Wait no, I drank that bottle of Moscato. Then we wandered the Marian Platz with the two beers she had in her backpack. Isn't she adorbz?

Then we went to the Galleria underground mall/Wal Mart thing and looked at suuuuper expensive alcohol.

Yeah, those bottle are both over 500 USD each.

Then we went to the Hofbrauhaus again and I had delicious white sausage with sweet mustard. Two things I usually don't like! Success!

So yeah, I spent the week in Munich barely doing anything but going to Aldi and drinking at nights with new friends. I met a LOT of cool people that week and was sober enough to remember to Facebook a few of them.

So yeah, also saw a party bus?

And then said goodbye to Munich to head for the eternal city.

Catch Up Part 2: Venice

From here the picture quality is going to decrease slightly because my camera charger was stolen and I'm now using my mom's camera and laptop. Thanks mom! It's my fault really for not buying her a better camera but the Fuji Waterproof is more suited to her needs in Iraq (it's drop proof and more weatherproof than most).

Soooo, I took my mom on a weekend trip to Venice while in between her Arabic classes and I must say, it was pretty spectacular. If Venice were in northern Europe, I would consider moving there.

Here's the view from our hotel window. Does it not make you just want to climb all over the rooftops?!

I totally could've made the jump across the 3 foot alleyway below but my mom probably would have closed the window behind me. But yeah, if the Parisian catacombs were like World of Warcraft, Venice is like, getting dropped straight into Ezio Auditore's body. Or mind. You know what I mean, you've played it. I mean, this is a terrible picture, but check out the dottore mask in the window here. And there were everywhere since Carnivale was going on. People were dressed up everywhere; I just didn't want to stop them to ask for pics.

And here are few more pictures, just because they're pretty and/or climbable.

So yeah, we didn't get to stay long because the train was about 5 hours and my mom had to back for class on Monday but it was all very rad, albeit cold. And a bit expensive but what do you expect? It was fun.

Catch Up

Here's the post where I pretend that all of my procrastination (not updating) over the past couple weeks is just because my backpack was stolen and not because I'm just suddenly lazy any time I'm within 50 feet of a wifi connection.

Time seems to move very slowly here and I'm having a really hard time remembering what happened after my last blog post. It feels like it was months ago. So, for that exact reason and also because I don't want to include a bunch of information about my family's vacation without their consent, I'm going to leave out about a week's worth of activities and instead give a short recap. (However, all my pictures from Norway until last weekend were on the stolen laptop so all I have now are the pics on this blog and the ones I've already uploaded to Facebook.)

We stayed 3 nights at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort (stock photo) and then a week in the Edelweiss cabin "Vacation Village". Apparently, in this context "village" means "place where the bathrooms are 100 yards away through a field of treacherous snow and ice".

And then, I'm pretty sure stuff happened. Um. Wow, I'm having a really hard time remembering things right now. This is my second day in a row of being hungover though. And I haven't had a single drink in over 36 hours. Drinking really does kill brain cells, kids. Obviously. Or maybe it's because I've always had a really bad memory and now I don't have pictures to look at to remind me what happened.

Oh, I remember getting really drunk and then going on a super early tour of a Monastery/Brewery in Ettal the next morning. And I threw up in the bathroom of a cheese factory there. I'm really not an alcoholic but Germans must just buy each other drinks like crazy.

So skip ahead a but, Rob and Kelley went back to the states, while I stayed in Garmisch with the moms. But shhh. Don't tell anyone I stayed with her; I wasn't supposed to I don't think.

From there I took a three day trip to Paris. The catacombs were sososo cool. I seriously felt like I was in World of Warcraft.

(Shameless plug of my youtube video, which oddly enough was recorded exactly one year ago minus one day! Neato!)



I also stayed in a really lame hostel there called St. Christopher's Inn, which has a high rating on hostelbookers.com but I kinda didn't like. The bar downstairs was overpriced and there was literally someone going into or coming out of my room every single hour all night long. Plus it was 25 Euro a night and my room had like 10 Italians in it. At this point, I'm kind of sick of anyone who comes from a romantic language country. Totes don't understand why women have fantasies about French/Spaniards/Italians. Yuck, imo.

I wish I had my pictures.

After that trip I took another 3 or 4 day trip, this time to Florence, Italy. Florence itself was actually a little boring. The architecture was pretty cool in some places and reminded me Assassin's Creed (as I'm sure most of Italy will) but I only spent one night there. The next morning I took an early train to Pisa, and spent about an hour there before getting on a train back to Florence so that I could catch another back to Garmisch. Well, I don't really like remembering this part, but my backpack was stolen on this train so I got to spend the next 15 straight hours in Florence train station, trying to get someone to help me get my bag back. The people working for the station were the most rude and douche-y people I've ever met. I was literally crying and they basically told me to fuck off because bags get stolen there all the time. They wouldn't even call the police for me OR tell me where the police station was. Later that night I took a train back to Pisa to try to get them to help me but they gave the same response. By sheer accident I found an English speaking (barely) policeman outside the station in Pisa who gave me a phone number of a lost and found to call and then left me there at midnight with nothing. I got back on another train to Florence since I couldn't see any hotels in sight in Pisa.

On the train I met a guy who looked like he was either homeless or had been travelling for a lot longer than I had been. I never asked because his English wasn't great. But we could talk about basic stuff. Sadly, my Italian is limited to understanding sheet music annotations. When we got to Florence, he asked if I knew where I was staying yet, and I said I was just going to try to sleep in the station. Btw, sleeping in train stations SUCKS because they are all completely open to where trains come in and so are freezing in February. He said that if you were sneaky, you could get on a train that was already done making trips for the night and sleep a lot better there and so I followed him.

Please note, that I did have my pocket knife on me, and I am (mostly) not retarded.

The train we got on already had two people sleeping on it so he slept a couple spaces down from one and I slept in the area across from him. He noticed that I only had a small hoodie so he let me borrow his super thick sweater (made in Nepal and very warm) as a blanket and eventually ended up giving it to me. Nice.

It was a lot warmer than outside but I still just kinda dozed because I didn't want to get murdered or some shit. But the next day he bought me tea and a delicious warm milk drink with honey it and then I said goodbye to him after getting on a train to Innsbruck. It was all very interesting-frightening.

So yeah, that's most of what's happened lately, but I think I'll split this blog post in two since it's already a wall of tl;dr.

Blog Hiatus

My backpack was stolen off a train somewhere between Florence and Livorno, Italy. It had my laptop, passport, train ticket and a bunch of other stuff in it so I probably won't be updating this blog any more until I get home.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Met my mom on the train (by accident, crazy, right?) to Garmisch from Munich just as it was leaving. We rode that for an hour and a half and got a cab from the station in Garmisch to the military base here.

She had her own apartment in the PLTCE (some military Arabic language course thing) housing so we dropped all the bags off there. Kelley was randomly walking the streets outside the window when we looked out, right before we were about to go looking for her since mom thought she had died in Paris or something. I don't know, they're both weird.

But, I've been staying on the army base here for a couple weeks, some of it in a cabin, some in the Edelweiss Lodge & Resort, and some on hard concrete floors. I've been exploring Garmisch a lot, and even though it's not that big, it's pretty rad. Very traditional Bavarian and huge ass mountains on every side.

My first week in Garmisch, I went sledding here:

on this:

It was an awesome four hour adventure of high speed sledding down a 14 kilometer ski run. I met another army brat named Patrick and we kept riding the gondola up to the top to get in as many runs as possible. We did stop by the restaurant at the top for a beer before the last two runs though. Yeah, German ski resorts have restaurants and bars all over the place. Fucking bomb.

Two days after that even I went back up to Munich to pick up Rob from the airport. I stayed at the Euro Youth Hostel again (still awesome) and hit up one of the Augustiner Breweries for a couple beers. I sat down with two old German guys who spoke a bit of English and had fun talking to them for a while. Apparently they've been coming to those same two seats every week for over 20 years! One recommended the Augustiner dunkel (dark beer) and so I got one of those and I have to say, it was like an even tastier Amber Bock. Hopefully I can bring home some of it.

The next morning I went and met Rob at the airport at 9am. We almost got arrested on the train from the airport to the central train station though. I thought you could buy tickets on the train, but apparently not, and it's a felony to ride without a ticket. The crazy looking old ticket woman made us get off and called the polizei. They showed up a few minutes later, took our passport info and told us that they would have to take us away if we didn't pay the 80 Euro fine. So we paid it and got back on towards Munich. Super dumb. It was kinda funny though because the two cops looked exactly like Seth Rogan and the lady cop from Super Troopers. Rob and I wanted to get a picture but didn't want to get in any more trouble. So instead, just pretend that these guys are slightly more European and standing on a train unloading platform.

But yeah, after that little incident, I took Rob to the Marienplatz and the Hofbrauhaus again

(cause I really dig it) and then we bought 39 cent beers from the underground shopping district

and as we were drinking them, we stopped nearby a statue to listen in on a tour that was passing by. The tour guide was telling her group about the statue of Juliet and how if you give her a flower she will give you good luck in love, relationships and sex and so Rob rushed over to the flower vendor a few feet away and paid a Euro for a small flower.

After that, we climbed the 400-something steps of Saint Peter's Church tower to see the views of Munich. Worth it.

After Rob bought a Cuban cigar, we left for Garmisch and went to a huge liquor. Apparently Garmisch's is actually pretty small but it's one of the biggest I've ever seen.

Premixed cap'n and coke

9 Euro mini kegs

And huge ass bottles of liquor

Afterwards we went out for dinner and back to the hotel.

I really, really like Munich.

My first full day in Munich was jam packed with super neato stuff. I woke up pretty early and had a buffet breakfast at the hostel for 3,90 Euro and it was tasty as could be.

Then I went for another walk down to the Marienplatz to see everything in the daylight. When I got there, they were having some kind of faux coronation for the German holiday 'Epiphany' where apparently two young-looking adults get crowned king and queen of something and dress up in all white and gold and there was a stage and weird costumes and dancing. I'm not sure what it was all about really.

I'm not sure if that was a dance or if they were legit pointing at something.

I kinda hung around there for a while because of all the music and craziness on stage, plus the glockenspiel goes off at 11am and noon and that's pretty cool to watch.

Walked around a bit, saw St. Peter's Church, other plazas and stuff.

And I got lunch at this huuuuuuge underground shopping center/mall thing? It had everything inside. Everything ever. I should have taken pictures. Instead I got lunch and ate it at the hostel. And then I accidentally took a nap.

But not before getting my kinder eggs.

So after my way-too-long nap I went down to the hostel bar with one of my roommates, who was also travelling alone. And after a couple beers we went to get some food at Munich's famous Hofbräuhaus, which inspired the drinking song "One, two, drink!" It is also where Hitler's National Socialist Party held it's first meeting in 1920.

Expensive, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and history of the place. You aren't seated by anyone, you just find an empty seat at a table (usually with others) and sit down. The tables have names of people hundreds of years dead scratched into their surfaces and you just get a really traditional Bavarian vibe in there.


The next morning I wanted to see the so-called English Garden and spent about 40 minutes walking there in the dark to hopefully get to see sunrise in the park. However, I think I only saw about 2 hours worth of sunlight the whole time I was in Munich because of the constant snow and cloud cover. Luckily I love snow enough to not hold a grudge.

I only scratched the surface of the English Garden because I was meeting my mom at the central train station in couple hours, but it was a cool place.

There was a Japanese style tea house near the front.

And all the bridges over the creeks had locks all over them. I looked at them and realized they all had names and initials all over them, always in pairs.

Oh yeah, and then there were surfers. These two dudes and this chick were just surfing in this liitle man made swell that was there specifically for the purpose of surfing in. Righteous.

I gave them the thumbs up and then booked it to the train station. ...Where apparently they paint new trains to look like really old ones? I would have just preferred the old ones.