Salzburg

Pretty easy going day today. Woke up, dealt with crazy roommates, packed up, breakfasted, dealt with crazy keyboards that switch the z and y as well as other stupid ideas, sent parcel, got on train, very easily found hostel and went for dinner after a very hot shower. They play the Sound of Music here every night at 8 pm so it is currently running in the background.
Had a real craving for my home peeps today and it´s making me pretty bummed out. Can´t decide if I want that to go away or not cause if it goes away and I´m not bummed out then I stop missing family and friends. Oh well, this stuff works itself out.
Went and saw the Danube river yesterday in Vienna and played with a friendly swan that wiggled it´s bum when it got close. The night before we had went to the fair and I went of the swing ride that goes up really high. Every thing else was too expensive, except the candy, I got some candy. I didn´t realize how my fear of heights had developed since the last time I was at a fair and I must say that I was kind of freaking out a bit. It was fun!
Going to go to bed now, maybe journal a bit about stuff I´m doing rather than just crazy dreams I´m having, lol.
Auf Wiedesehen

Vienna

Not so keen on some of the art we saw at the MuMOK today. On the first of 9 floors was Viennese art from the 40-60s ish that were all trying to make people think and go against current politics and stuff so it was all really, really disturbing. Seriously. I was exhausted and it just made me cry. I don't like "art" that makes me that upset. Whatever.
We're trying to plan a bike ride along the Danube and I must say that I am pretty excited. The actual process of renting a bike and taking it on a train is probably going to make me angry and I told Eric he had to figure it out because I only care about seeing the river and the bike ride is just a bonus. We'll see what happens.
I very much enjoyed the Belvedere yesterday which is the Austrian Gallery. That place actually had art. All 19th and early 20th century art by Austrian artists and people they liked :D
Going to bed now though because we were up really late last night talking to the new girl in our fabulous room and then the other guy didn't come back until it was light out so the rest of us were up relatively early. I think everyone went clubbing after getting drunk at the hostel bar so I'm pretty sure there were a lot of hungover people who missed breakfast today... silly people.
Hope you're all having a good time, I know we are :D
Ciao (cause I can't spell goodbye in German yet!)

Prague #2 - the Lost Postcards

Prague has been wonderful. We ran into Eric's English tutor from high school and her husband who was Kathleen's high school English teacher (Ruth and Trevor) and we ended up meeting them for dinner and had a really good time.
It's been pretty relaxed here as we don't have anything really that we have to see so we kind of wander around stopping when we feel like it. Although, this morning we have to go to the castle before we catch the train to Vienna because of a mix up in communication and not leaving enough time yesterday.
Anyway, MomDad, Sarah, and Megan were meant to be getting postcards from here (I wasn't here long enough to buy or fill out more...) but at some point after writing on them, stamping them, and writing the address', I put them down and can't find them. Perhaps some nice store clerk looked at them and put them in the mail, but you three (four?) will have to let me know on that one 'cause I'm not that hopeful.
Gotta get going, Ciao

Prague, Trains, and Harry Potter!

First things first. We were stuck in a train station. Italy had know a month in advance that they would be striking on the night of my comfy night train to Prague and yet no one told us until we asked 5 minutes before it left. Which was also 15 minutes before the ticket desk closed which there was naturally a long line for because there were a lot of angry people. Now, we could have stood all night on a different train that left 5 hours later at 1:30 am from the next station, but we wanted a refund for the part of the ticket that we had bought and didn't want to fight Czech train people for it. So, we caught the train to the next station and Eric slept while I stayed up reading cause it was too bright and noisy (and it was HARRY POTTER!). In the morning, at 5:30 the unhelpful Italian man behind the desk told us that he couldn't help us because we had bought the ticket elsewhere. So I cried and we caught a train back to Venice and returned our ticket and got a new one - a process that wasn't easy since that lady was even less helpful, but we figured it all out. Whatever. Talked to a nice guy on the train to Vienna and then switched trains for Prague. What was supposed to be a night train leaving at 9 pm arriving at 11 am turned into staying up all night arriving at 11 pm that night... I was tired :D
So, I bought Harry on the afternoon it came out since we walked past a store and it was done before we got to Vienna. Good times. It was good, won't go into detail though for those who haven't finished. Then tonight we found a cinema and it played in English with subtitles so we got to watch the new movie. It was also good, plus it's been long enough since I read the book that I can't quite place my finger on a lot of the stuff they omitted which made it better I think.
Prague has been good. We went to the Jewish quarter to day and learned lots of stuff. Although, it was pretty sad so we're going to go look at some art tomorrow.
I should get to bed. Ciao (don't know by in Czech so I won't even try)

Verona

I must say that the day trip from Venice was very nice. Getting there took forever, but it was a nice break from the moistness. Here in Venice, due to the water I assume, it is always moist. You walk off the hot train and the moist-ness start sticking to your body. I mean, it is hot as well, so let's mix some sweat in there, but even when it's not that hot... it is still moist.
I had invested €2 in a fan back outside the Vatican Museum and it has definitely come in handy here. You know when you wet your finger before checking the direction of the wind because it feels more, works the same with the moistness.
There is a very impatient boy waiting for the inter-webs.
Verona was also lovely because of the scenery and lack of big things to see. We did go check out "Juliet's Window" though, which isn't even where the possibly-based-on-real-life-Juliet could have been... but it looks kind of right so tourist go there and Verona puts it on postcards.
Ciao

Venice

It is beautiful but I am not a big fan of humidity and it is ridiculous here. We're going to Murano tomorrow, but the rumour is that it is too hot for anyone to be blowing so, while we will get cool glass, we will not get to see any being made... oh well...
We got to see some good modern art at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery which was pretty cool although I do not appreciate video art that has a naked guy filling his orifices with petroleum jelly while hanging from a harness in an attempt to seal off his hermetic energy or some sort of craziness like that. It was a month long exhibit, this petroleum jelly guy and some fat corner guy, who like to tape themselves creating the art cause it's the process and ... blah blah blah, didn't like it...
Yup, it's hot here so we're going to go get on a boat to take us down the stagnant water to St. Mark's Square, which we've already seen at night, but we have these boat passes we need to use so we figured we would go again.
Oh, Lake Como was pretty cool but everything was pretty much closed on Sundays and we were only there for the one day. Plus, it wasn't kayak rental season in the town we were in. It was nice to relax.
More to say once we've seen some more stuff. Ciao

Menaggio - Lake Como

Ahhhh, free internet. So far, every time we're in a tourist information place they charge the most ridiculous prices, but this place offers 30 minutes free for all visitors and I am using it. We had a great time in Cinque Terre. Did the hike on our first day there in about the recommended time. Went swimming in the ocean, not at the beach but at a place where you can jump in off the rocks and just swim, or float and I loved it. I miss the ocean, and here (no matter what silly Americans say) it is warmer then at home because the top is heated by the really warm sun...
The hostel we were at was pretty cool because it was more like apartments with a bunch of beds in them so we were in a five bed room and there was also a two bed room and we all shared a common area and a kitchen. Basically, Cinque Terre is about the hikes and there really isn't much to do at night except watch the sunset so we would all hang out together and we met some guys, Chris and John, from Philly, and Andrew from Sydney, Australia who were in our room with us the first night and then the Americans left and some girls, Mia and Estrid, from Denmark joined us and some guys from Melbourne, Australia, were in the other room and we think that their names were Al and Time (or something like that) and you single ladies would definitely have been fans of Al...
Our second day there, by the way, we didn't go anywhere until noon and then we kind of just found something to eat in one town and I went swimming again in another so it was a pretty chill day.
The travelling to get to Lake Como was quite the day since we tried to get a train to Genova, but the train we wanted to catch didn't go far enough so we backtracked to La Spezia and then caught a three hour train straight to Milan (after waiting for two hours) and then we ran for another train to Como - there were some late-twenties, swiss guys in the cabin with us, but the better looking one had a ring - and then we had to get on a bus up to Menaggio. The bus was late to begin with, and then we caught stuck for half an hour behind an accident. A car had run into a motorcycle and while all the cars and bikes took turns passing by the accident, all the buses had to wait for the ambulance to get the motorcyclist and the police to move the vehicles before they could pass, maybe because it was on a bit of a corner, I'm not sure. Point is, we waited in the hot bus for an extra half hour.
There's some sort of motorcycle thing going on today which is pretty cool. Lots of old Motto Guzzi bikes parked out in the piazza with a bunch of old guys ooo-ing and ahh-ing. Took some photos. Sorry, by they way that there are no Italy photos yet but it is seriously more dificult to do here so those who are complaining will just have to wait.
Oh, and ELTON JOHN was fantastic as expected. He is such a cool old guy. Cool outfit, diamond initials in his purple tinted sunglasses... it was quite the show.
3 minutes left, gotta go again.

Cinque Terre - I am Fine

Internet= ridiculous prices, therefore, e-mails, pictures, and blogs will be sent/posted as soon as we find something reasonable. Until then, I am safe and having fun and I don't know how long it will be cause we're staying in remote places so you'll just have to be patient and trust my survival skills. Off to Lake Como tomorrow.

Sunflowers (i.e. Tuscany, i.e. Lucca #3)

There are fields of sunflowers.
When I think Tuscany, I think of good wine, cyprus trees, rolling hills with fields on them (for real), corn, wheat, hay, more trees. I had forgotten about the sunflowers. But then, as our train from Rome to Siena, and later the train from Siena to Florence, was whisking us through Tuscany, we kept riding by fields of sunflowers and it was beautiful.
So, naturally, my mission in Siena - other than eating at an amazing restaurant - was to find a postcard of sunflowers because there was no way that my camera could take the perfect shot through a dirty train window. And I found this postcard almost as soon as I decided that it was worth a €0.50 postcard rather than the cheapest €0.30 that was my other choice; there were also some €1 postcards but they looked like the €0.30 postcards, but were closer to a touristy area and were, therefore, a rip off.
Oh, and no one is getting this postcard because it is for me. It is mine, all mine. Maybe I'll show you when I get home.

The Accordion (i.e. Lucca #2)

Eric wants to learn the accordion. For serious. I vetoed that. Are you kidding me. I already knew that, although sometimes it sounds interesting, I do not like the accordion that much - if at all. After spending two or more weeks in Italy, I know that I do not want someone learning the accordion where I will have to be present during practice. I seriously don't like it when people who, in theory, know what they are doing play the things. It's not necessarily the music they play, it's the sound of it.
Today, for example, while I was writing in the piazza, it turns out that I had sat down beside this duo, and accordion and a keyboard-wind-instrument-majiggy (you can read what it says, spell it out, leave me alone). I came quickly to the conclusion that they either only knew 4-5 songs, or they believed, somehow, that these were the songs that people liked to hear. I literally (not figuratively) heard one song at least 5 times. I started to count once it because obvious enough to write about it in my journal (as well as here). My theory was further demonstrated as, after lunch, we walked back toward our B&B and in the piazza where ELTON JOHN will be performing, these guys were playing for some poor people trying to eat. Actually, only the accordion player was playing at the time because the other guy was going around with his hat. The point, really, is that it was most definitely a song I had heard played many times this morning.
Whatever.
Eric is so not learning the accordion!

Elton John (i.e. Lucca #1)

So there is this music festical in Lucca every summer (www.summer-festival.com) and we just happened to decide to come here for the beginning. Last night (our first night), John Legend was playing. Oh, by the way, this is in the piazza next to piazza we're staying in which is about a half a block away. Tonight, ELTON JOHN is playing. And I am going. Just me, Eric didn't want to spend the money, but I didn't care cause it's ELTON JOHN. As you can tell I am pretty stoked, and there is still 3.5 hours to wait :D Oh, and Lucca is beautiful and there is stuff to do here either than sit in piazzas writing in my journal, but I didn't feel like it. We went for a walk earlier to find lunch, but either than that it has been a chill day which is awesome. Had my first Italian lasagna for lunch today and it was pretty darn good for simple grub.
I have decided to break this post up into parts because I felt like it so read on...

Florence (ahh, fixed)

Won't let me title it (bastard application) but I'm in Florence and will fix that another time.
Florence is, in a way, more relaxed then Rome still. Just the atmosphere of the people. However, we are staying around the sites and the train station and there is this market by us, so there are crazy hawkers like you've never seen and they exhaust me because I do really want the soft leather briefcase/messenger bag that the nice lady claims that her husband makes, but I don't particularly have the energy to haggle the price down to something reasonable, even if that is still way more than I should be spending.
I did buy myself a pair of berkenstock sandals though. They have more styles than orginally and they are a pair of thongs that I am going to become quite partial to. They were also more than I should be spending, but my feet are tired of socks, as I had a slight suspicion they might become, but my $3 Superstore flip-flops start to dig into the side of my foot, although the rest of my foot felt better... whatever, it's a long story.
The train ride to Siena (a day trip between Rome and Florence) was beautiful, although it would have been much better in a car or something cause trains keep moving. And Siena was pleasant but I wasn't feeling well although the place we went for lunch was to die for. First great meal we've really had in Italy. So far, the food was not quite comparing to Greece. We also had awesome vegetable soup today in Florence.
So the Uffizzi and Accademia, although what they are known for was awesome, were a bit of a disappointment. Had to make reservations so there was no crazy line and so they both cost a ridiculous amount. Whatever. More tomorrow I hope. Gotta go

Rome for Real

Ok, seriously. We did so much on our first day here that we kind of petered out fast. So, the Coloseum, Roman Forum, Capital Hill Museum in one day. The second day was out to Vatican city and stuff, but by the time we wanted to climb to the top of the dome, the line was super huge so we decided to come back another day. Then yesterday, we pretty much decided to take it easy cause the National Museum lady was a cow, so we left and went to the Villa Borghese (land-park area) and chilled until our reservations at 3 for the Borghese Gallery which was pretty good art (sculptures by Bernini and other paintings). While there, I saw an ad thing for other galleries so today we went to one part of the National Gallery (everything here has 2-6 locations...). And it was good! I've decided that I really like paintings etc by da Cortona, and Bernini was a pretty cool guy. There was some good stuff by Caravaggio there as well. We actually got in free because of some holiday-kind-of-celebration-thing which was cool because the palace it was in was under construction so not all the art was out, but we basically saw what we went for. There was a ceiling frescoe there by da Cortona and, while the Sistine Chapel is impressive in size and stuff, I honestly liked this stuff better.
Funny story this morning. So, we decided to go back to St Peter's to climb the dome, knowing that we'd have to go early, but we were tired and didn't leave until after 9:30 or something ridiculous (Eric's fault) and by the time we got there (decided to try any way), I remembered that there was a viewing with the Pope at 11 this morning and what time was it? 10:45... so while there was no line to climb the dome, the line to get into St. Peter's (securtiy bull-crap)curved through the zig-zag set up and was already past the entrance to the piazza and working it's way back towards the building... so we didn't go. Oh well.
Gonna do a day trip tomorrow in Siena on the way to Florence. We made reservations to see the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence (highly recommended, skipping lines is cool) and I wrote down the reservation number and the times we go in... but I forgot to actually write down the days. I'm pretty sure which days, but we need to call them tomorrow and check cause, ya, pretty sure we need to be in one of them the next day.
Oh, celebrated Canada Day with pasta and wine. Eric had pizza. Technically, it's cheaper, but I seriously needed something other than pizza cause he orders it everyday. Seriously.
And, check out the comments on my Naples day. Any one read that? pretty sure it's spam, whoever Ricardo or whatever is, lol.

Rome

Rome is awesome... I have two minutes, come back tomorrow... Internet harder to find here then you'd think.
Been to lots of things: Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Monument thingy, Capital Hill, Borhese Museum... ok, time's up and Eric is distracting me