Vacation almost over... :*(

Well finally I can update this blog thing.. so much for keeping up with it after Italy.. but I guess it’s better late than never.

So let’s do a quick rundown: Switzerland from July 1 till July 11. Netherlands from July 11 till July 16. Denmark from July 16 till July 19.

So my main vacation started in Switzerland. The first weekend we were in Zurich, there was Zurich Fest 2010, a tri-annual fest. When we first booked the trip, we had no clue this was going on while we were there so this was a very pleasant surprise. On July 1, we pretty much just fly into Zurich and made it to our hotel (Hotel Continental, very nice place). After checking in and getting to our massive room, Thom and I decided to go walk around the area. We ended up at an Italian restaurant for dinner. Despite being in Italy for 6 weeks, I was ready for more Italian food. This is when I got the first taste of how expensive Zurich was. For two pasta dishes, bruschetta , a half litre of white wine, and a water, our bill came out to almost a 100 DOLLARS!!! For this same amount of money, I could have easily cooked at home for over a week. But it was a nice dinner and both Thom and I got a little buzzed, me because I had 4.5DL of wine, Thom juts had a glass and was gone, haha. That night we walked along the river that ran through the center of the city and then went back to the hotel and passed out as we both were very tired.

The next day, we woke up early to catch a tour of the city and then to go to Liechtenstein. Well, we didn’t get a tour of the city thanks to the Zurich Fest. To make matters worse, we were in a bus with one of the most anti-American asshole tour guides in the world. I can take an American joke or two, but this guy was just an endless record of the same bad American and sexist jokes in the world. I won’t dwell on this very much as I already wrote about a page and a half about this schmuck (and sent it to Viator to get a refund of $150, woot woot!). But when we finally got back to Zurich, we walked around the festival for an hour. This festival was merely a street carnival disguised as a festival. Yes it was cool, but I expected more than just drinking and a few carnival games. Oh well. For dinner, more over priced Italian.

Saturday, July 3rd – We woke up and headed straight for the train station to get some breakfast considering this was the only place that we knew would have food for breakfast. This was fine with me since we had some Belgian waffles, sweeeeeet. After this, we walked around the carnival for a little bit before heading to a viewing party for the Germany – Argentina World Cup game. Germany decisively won which was awesome because I wanted Germany to win it all and also because about 30% of the Swiss population is from Germany, so it was almost like being in Germany for the game. Later that day, we watched the Ghana game in the hotel room as we just wanted to relax since we were going out at 10:30 to watch some fireworks. At about 10:15, we headed out to watch the fireworks. We ended up on a bridge where Thom and I separated. I ended up hanging off a trailer and got to see over everyone’s head while Thom was stuck in the middle of the crowd but still got to see them.  We went to bed at a decent hour since we had another tour booked the next day.

The next day, we headed out for Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus. Lucerne was neat to see but we only spent about an hour there, which is all we needed. We then set off for Mt. Pilatus. This was pretty epic because the peak of the mountain was above the clouds and we got to go up there. When we go to the base of the mountain, we took a couple lifts to get to the top. Once at the top, we heard some of those stereotypical Swiss Mountain horns being played by an older couple. This was just so surreal because it was one of the things that I thought I was going to miss while seeing Switzerland. We then proceeded to hike to the top of the mountain (about 100 ft from where we were, but I decided to run up it and was definitely out of breath when I got to the top, totally worth it since the view up there would have taken my breath away anyway. I hiked up another path but it wasn’t as nice since clouds were starting to roll in. We eventually took a Cog Railway down from the top to the bottom. This took about 45 minutes but it was so cool to see everything slowly and from down low instead from the gondolas that took us up. There were cows grazing all over with their massive cowbells.. once again, pretty awesome. When we made it to the bottom, we took a ferry across the lake to get back to Lucerne, another great experience. Finally we made it back to Lucerne and eventually Zurich. We eventually just went back to the hotel, than ate, then back to the hotel, then crashed for the night as it was pretty much just more carnival stuff going on.

Monday – We woke up later in the morning and eventually just skipped breakfast. We went to an American eatery called Sam’s and got some stuff crust pizza, I was so happy to have something truly American (stuffed crust pizza, hooray!). After this, we went back to the hotel to change into swim trunks and went swimming in the Zurich River. I went jumping off a bridge a few times and all jumped off the side. It was nice to do some backflips for once too. The water was about 72 degrees and so refreshing. The current was actually pretty strong too. What many people would do is jump in at the bridge and float down for a half mile and come back and repeat. We didn’t do this because we didn’t trust the people with my backpack with some personal belongings in there so we just floated down like 30-40 meters. Still fun. We did this for an hour or so, then went back to Sam’s for dinner, lol. After Sam’s, we just went back to the hotel to pack for Zermatt.

Tuesday July 5 – We boarded the train for Visp and then connected to go to Zermatt. Once on the train from Visp to Zermatt, we were pretty much just taking a train through the Alps which was pretty awesome. I have never been blown away by a train ride, but the scenery on this ride was just amazing. When we finally got to Zermatt, we just checked into the hotel and hung out in the area. We had the perfect hotel room. The room was a modern take on a rustic scheme. The walls were uncoated sheets of wood and the floor was wood as well. Doors were of the same material as the walls and actually blended well with the walls.  The bathroom was completely different than the rest of the room. The shower was just two glass panels in the corner. There wasn’t even a dedicated floor for the shower, it was the same floor as the rest of the bathroom, a nice dark slate. The drain was a slit along the wall. The main accent wall was just a solid rock wall, almost like an old stone house wall, this was soo cool. Normally I am not blown away by a room, but the entire hotel room was so amazing. But after looking at the entire room, we walked out to one of our two balconies (we had a corner room). One of the balconies had a perfect view of the Matterhorn. This was the cherry on top of everything. I couldn’t have had for any more other than a nice big flat screen TV.. which we had too!! After being in awe of the room, we set out to see the village. This village is unique because there are no cars aloud at all. This was perfect because that meant that there was close to no pollution at all in Zermatt (the only gas powered vehicles were for maintenance and for being up in the mountains). We registered for paragliding on Thursday. That night, we went down to the wellness area of the hotel and just sat in the sauna and steam room as my back was killing me and I needed some killer heat on it. After the wellness, we went out to get some Italian dinner on the lawn (pizza of course) and then went back to watch the Netherlands beat up on Uruguay, then went to sleep.

Wednesday July 6 – we woke up early to get a great free breakfast thanks to the hotel and set out to go hiking. We wanted to take an easy yet long course so we started at Blauherd (about 2700m in elevation) and wanted to end up at Riffleberg (2500m). Of course, we took a detour to Fluhap (a restaurant at 2800m). All in all, the entire hike was so amazing and took about 5 hours. We could have done it slower or faster, but it was just the right pace. Toward the end of the third hour, we eventually made it to a forest full of pine trees. I have never smelt anything better in my entire life. Not only was the air the crispest air I have ever had in my lungs, but it smelled so fantastic. I wanted to stay there for an extra month, this was definitely one of the greatest points in my life, and yet it was so simple. Upon finally getting back to the hotel, we crashed for a little bit and then got some dinner at the street festival outside the hotel. We eventually watched Spain beat Germany that night and I was wicked pissed. Oh well, shit happens. Later that night, when down in the wellness area, I was mooning all the people who would walk by thinking they could not see in.. well the next day, while walking around, we walked behind the hotel and could see in perfectly.. hahahaha oops. We ended up crashing after the game after the both of us were dead tired.

The next morning, we woke up, ate breakfast and went to the paragliding shop to meet the guys who were going to take up almost two miles high. Once we made it to the top of Rothorn, we set up all the gear, snapped a few photos, and took off. Me and my pilot were the first to take off and we had a rough take off. While we were running, there was a gust of wind that picked us up a foot or two and then it disappeared and we started to crash toward the hill. Right when we touched back down it came back and we were off. I was officially paragliding over the ALPS!!!! This was probably one of the greatest experiences ever, so much better than sky diving because I could actually enjoy the view and not be in an uncomfortable position the entire time. After about 20 minutes of flying, we had to make our way toward the landing point. My pilot asked me if I wanted to make the trip fun and the glider into one giant rollercoaster/swing and of course I said hell yes! This was so amazing as we pretty much did a flip since we were above the chute. I survived the ride, but Thom almost puked and I felt badly for him but I was laughing on the inside, oops, haha. After we landed, we had to head back to the hotel so Thom could rest since he was queasy. After about an hour to hour and half, we set out for lunch. We ended up a nice little place with a perfect view of the Matterhorn.  After a nice relaxing lunch, we set to go up to (Rotenboden) to get another perfect view of the valley and the Matterhorn. We spent an hour up there taking pictures and eventually had to head back because Thom’s tummy was bothering him again. For dinner, we ate at the hotel restaurant where our waitress Lucy told us her entire life story. Everything from how she wasn’t supposed to start work at 8am to how she almost ended up in California with some guy she fell inlove with on vacation to how Thom looked like her dead uncle. This was quite the dinner.. and the pizza was good too!

Friday – We set back for Zurich. After a long train ride back, we finally made it. I was so sad to leave Zermatt because I actually fell inlove with the village and want to go back every year if possible. The rest of the day in Zurich, we just walked around our area and ate dinner at a massive outdoor place called Movies. This place was alright but expensive. We eventually just ended up walking back after dinner and then crashed for the rest of the night.

Saturday – Renting Bikes!!! I found out that we could rent bikes for free so we did. We both wanted to go swimming in Lake Zurich so we found a little place about 20 minutes from the city center. At first we did not want to go here cause not many people were here but we eventually decided to stay. When we arrived, there was this woman who was another jukebox of bad stories, her name was something like Seagull (Segal I think).. but she would not shut up either, but it was entertaining for Thom and I. She told us everything, just like Lucy in Zermatt. She told us about how she hates German and was so happy to speak English to her early life to how her hubby cheats on her to how she was dating this one guy who supposedly likes dogs a little too much, another guy who she is inlove with be she doesn’t like his hair. This beach we happened to be at is also a nude beach. The three of us were the only ones who were not nude and this is what this crazy lady was also talking about. One time she said she thought that everyone who was there was gay. Right when she said this, one woman who was laying with a man said “my husband isn’t!” This was funny. Another time, there was this older guy walking around naked (well most of the guys were older), but this guy in particular stood out because of what Segal said. She said that if she was him, she would not walk around naked because his dick was about the same size as her thumb!!!  I couldn’t stop laughing, it was too funny. After a while, we eventually left and headed back to drop the bikes off and had our last meal in Zurich. There was a nasty storm that night, I guess Zurich was sad we were leaving.

Sunday – Heading to Amsterdam FINALLY!!! We landed in Amsterdam 6 and got to our hotel around 7. We then set out to find a pub with a TV to watch the World Cup Final between the Netherlands and Spain. Of course the Orange choked and Spain won.  This was depressing because I wanted the Orange to win, oh well, life goes on, atleast they were not my favorite time.. if this happened to my Colorado Avalanche or Tampa Bay Lightning, I would have been crushed.

Monday – Tour Number 1 – Bike Tour. Woke up kinda early and really grumpy because the room we were in was extremely warm and I didn’t get much sleep and I was wicked hungry. Finally after some food, I was feeling better. We took a bike tour of Amsterdam. Saw Anne Frank’s  house (looks just like any other house, lolol), saw a couple other things.. Also learned that XXX doesn’t mean sex, drugs, and rock n roll like it would in the States, but instead it stands for something along the lines of no plague, famine, or fire.. meaning the city would be safe from all three. We were also told about how they made all the canals and how many of the houses are on wooden posts still. There is one building, the Palace, that has 13569 posts supporting the building.. The rain rolled in early that after noon and stayed almost all day which kinda sucked. Later that night, it cleared up so we walked around. We saw some of the Red Light District (RLD). This was very interesting to see these women on display like toys in a window. Some of them were FUGLY while others were extremely beautiful.

Tuesday was a free day. We walked around a little more. Thom bought a couple books since the mfkr reads like a fiend. I still don’t read because it’s boring, lol. Once again, the rain rolled in later that afternoon and ruined the afternoon. Cleared up that evening so once again, we went walking around the RLD.

Wednesday – Another day, another tour. This time, we started off by going to see a few windmills and also a cheese factory. The windmills were really cool and I would love to go back and see them again. After the windmills, we set off for a wooden clog factory where I bought some that I want to wear to my cousin’s wedding, haha. After this, we took a boat ride and then eventually ended up in Delft where they make the pottery with the blue ink. Actually it’s black ink that turns blue when baked. After Delft, we saw The Hague, the governmental capital of Netherlands. The saying is in Rotterdam is where they make the money, The Hague is where they talk about the money, and Amsterdam is where they spend all the money, haha. After the Hague, we went to Madurodam, a mini version of Holland and everything import scaled down to 1/25 of the original size. The part that sucked about this was it was pouring. Oh well. Eventually landed back in Amsterdam that night, ate some shitty Mexican, walked through the RLD again and then headed back to the hotel. We also went out to see the Seven Bridges (the only place in Amsterdam where there are seven bridges in a perfect row. This was cool cause I took many awesome photos.

Thursday – Last day in the Dam. We pretty much just walked around all day. We ended up at the Museum Plaza where the I amsterdam  sign is. This sign looks it says I Am Amsterdam because the I am is in red while the sterdam is in white. Pretty much just walked around for the rest of the day, still a very neat city to see.

Friday  - Off to Scandinavia. We arrived in Copenhagen after a couple of annoying plane rides and a bad train ride thanks to some fucking crying brats that I wanted to kill, but I didn’t. That night, we ate at Hard Rock. I got an alcoholic lemonade that was actually tasty (hooray vodka, gin, and rum). We didn’t do anything that night because there wasn’t anything to do.

Saturday – Woke up and took a tour up to Sweden and the Denmark country side. Both were very beautiful. In Malmo, Sweden, we saw the Turning Torso, a highrise that twists 90 degrees on its way up. Other than that, there was nothing to see on Saturday.

Sunday – A city tour which was cool but not for photographers. Also took a canal tour, same thing, no good pictures. After this, we went to see the Tivoli gardens. There were two good things about this: a giant spinning swing like you see at the carnivals but this one went like 75-100m high.. it was pretty awesome to see Copenhagen from that high. The other great thing was the little ducklings that were not scared of people they wouldn’t run away from my camera!!! Other than that, there was nothing to see. For the rest of the day, we didn’t do anything because Copenhagen sucks.

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If I were to rank all the cities I have been to, here is how I would rate them..  Also if I were to live in each city, this is how I would rank them.

Berlin, Zermatt, Amsterdam, , London, Paris, Zurich, Prague, , Florence, Barcelona, Munich, Salzburg, Almafi Coast, Milan, Rome, Venice, , Malmo, Dublin, Copenhagen.

As far as countries, it’s a little different.

Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, , England, France, Sweden, , Austria, Spain, Czech, , Denmark, Ireland.

**Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Netherlands are a very close top 4 and could easily change spots at any time. I ranked Germany the highest because of Berlin and Netherlands the lowest because of the shitty food. England, France and Sweden are nice, but cant compete with those top 4, I wouldn’t mind living in any of those though. Austria, Spain, and the Czech are ranked here for their own reasons (Austria cause its too small, Spain cause of the weak economy and the crime, and Czech cause of the language). Denmark over Ireland because I got to see the countryside of Denmark which is very beautiful. Ireland just seems like a place where all you can do is masturbate and cry.

Catching up again....

Going to make this pretty much shorter and sweet.. well relatively speaking compared to normal....
Italy - Monday: Woke up, took a tour of the city that we should have done during the first week. Headed home to study for two exams the next day.
Tuesday: Took two exams that I didn't do as well as I should have... but the professors hated me cause I knew how to form my own opinion (vafanculo Dr. Sipiora). Later that night, got some good dinner and headed to Christina's for some wifi and to avoid studying for an exam on Wednesday
Wednesday: Took the exam early in the day (FINALLY DONE!!!) then went touring the city. Bought some gifts, watched a soccer game while everyone else went to out to get shitty that night. Glad I didnt go because many people blacked out.. suckas
Thusday - Festival day in Florence. Pretty much just did some more touring around the city, got to sleep in later that day. Got the single best steak I have ever had.
Friday: Woke up early to go to Pisa but there was a train strike. Instead, I went up the Florence Bell Tower to take pics. Also just did a little more touring of the city and bought more gifts. Had a good bye dinner that night and went out for Christina's Bday with everyone. This was fun, but I hate clubbing. Oh well.
Saturday: Well, I didn't go to bed till 7am as I wanted to take pictures of the Florence sunrise and of places sans people. Also found a secret bakery and got some fresh croissants and bread. Ended up sleeping till 2pm, packed a little, got ice cream for lunch and a sandwich for dessert, lol. Ended up at Christina's that night for a little going away get together. This was awesome but sad.
Sunday - Left Florence. Actually was sad to leave the city and my awesome roomie of 6 weeks. But I knew I would see two good friends in Austria so all way good. When at the airport, I meet up with Gimli (Arin from our study abroad program, he looks just like the LotR character Gimli, just younger and more ugly). But we sat down to eat lunch together which made the three hour wait a little bit better. I got my single pizza slice and small fries and sat down where he was watching the bags. He then got up to get his stuff. When he came back, he got two big slices of pizza. He then left and came back with olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and two different things of pepper. When he came back to the table with all this crap, there were these 4 Swedish people sitting right behind him looking at him, then the food,  then him, then the food, then me and then repeat. When he left to bring all the extras back to the bar, they looked at me and said "American?" I quickly responded "Oh yeah". They laughed at him and said that it easily showed. Now not only is this kid ugly, but hes just awkwardly fat. Some people carry their fat well, but others like this kid look like they-have-an-inner-tube-wrapped-around-his-waist fat. They said that he had more than enough room to store all that food. They then asked me where I was from and I didn't have the balls to say the State so I said Canada. Then I ran along with this story for the next five minutes as they were asking tons of questions, lololol. Thank god for being a hockey fan and a Peter Forsberg fan (an awesome Swedish player that I asked a few questions about). When Gimli came back, he actually thought I was Canadian too, poor guy. But to make a long story short, I will never tell people I am American and the Swedish as awesome (and beautiful).

Austria - Finally landed in Austria, happy to be with good friends. Next day went on a Segway and walked up to a nice little restaurant on the mountain with one of Thom's coworkers and her kids. The next day we went up to the salt mines area to go bobsledding. This was just as fun as last year but this time I could record a video, woot woot. The next day we went on the rope climbing and I had to help Thom finish some of the courses as he was too weak to do so himself. For the dinners in Austria, we went to get Italian once, went to the Austria country side for some good local wieners, and the got Chinese where the food came out on a belt that we just picked off of.. soo awesome

Switzerland/Liechtenstein - Finally in Switzerland, so freaking beautiful here. First full day here was OK because of a shitty tourguide. Oh well. Massive Zurich Party this weekend!

Rest of the Amalfi weekend....

Positano on Saturday. This was such a fantastic place to see. The city was built on the side of a very steep hill in south Italy along the sea. But everything there was so picturesque. We first got there at 11am at the top of the city and had to hike down what seemed like a thousand stairs (maybe more like 700 but my knees were hurting toward the end... then again, I hate going down stairs. But the hike was worth it. When we got into town, we set up shop on the beach (which had black sand... wtf? I guess the rocks had something to do with that). But we pretty much just relaxed in the sun for the rest of the morning and early afternoon until 1:30pm when a group of us caught a boat to go see another part of the island. 

We jumped in the boat, all 23 of us, and set off to go cliff jumping. When we got to the spot, there was another boat there so we went further down to the green gratto. This was very cool to swim in this gratto. The water was about 75 degrees and absolutely beautiful. Some of us initially jumped in and others hesitated cause the waves were a little choppy. I would guess that the waves were about a foot and a half or even just over two feet. This is not something that a beginner should jump into, just those of us that can actually swim (or at least keep themselves afloat on their own). What did two noobs do? Jumped in the choppy waters, swam for about 30 feet, then panicked, causing everyone to get out of the water as everyone thought they were drowning and wanted to help. This pissed me off cause I just got in the beautiful green gratto. Oh well. When we got back on the boat, we went back to the cliffs. 

When we got there, many people just wanted to jump once so they went big (to the THIRTY-FIVE FOOT cliff). At first, even I was a little nervous, I can't believe that of the 16 of us that jumped, 14 went to the bigger one instead of the ten footer. But when we got to the top, ToniAnn jumped first and landed a little awkwardly, but nothing that bad. Next was Olivia and she pretty much sat down when she hit the water instead of doing a pencil like you are supposed to from that height. Next was Stella, then some other people, then me. Unlike everyone else who stood at the edge syking themselves out, I pretty much just jumped on a whim. I was actually sitting on a rock the entire time, then I just said "F*** it, I'm going" and just walked off the edge and did  a perfect pencil into the water. The only bad part of entire thing was that I ended up touching the bottom of the sea (about 10-12 feet deep) with my toes. I didn't injure myself, just got a little freaked out. It was so much fun, I went back up. 

When I got back up to see Clint, Lindsay (Snooks), and Angelica. Finally we talked Clint into going. Then it was the three of us. I wanted to go last to make sure those two went and didn't walk down the jagged ledges as they would hurt themselves. Finally after about ten minutes, Lindsay jumped. She landed a little awkwardly but did fine. Then it was just me and Angelica. Thankfully Matias came up cause I wanted to jump again. Once again, I just said F* it, and jumped. Then Angelica jumped. She was leaning waaaay to far forward and her chest took most of the impact. Thankfully she was OK. After Matias jumped, we headed back to the beach. For the rest of the day, we just relaxed on the beach and then headed back to the hotel. That night we had a small dinner and went walking in the downtown area of Sorento. 

The next day we saw Pompeii and everything it had to offer. It was so epic to see a city that was built before Christ even was a thought. Just everything that Pompeii had before Vesuvius decided to screw the entire city over was pretty awesome - raise sidewalks for crossing the streets, sliding doorways brothels with pictures above each room stating what you would get in that room, and just so many roads to make it actually a bigger city for that time. After seeing Pompeii, we were going to go to Vesuvius to hike it but mother nature axed that idea with thunderstorms. Thankfully we got back into down earlier Sunday because I would have hated walking around Florence with God knows how much in camera equipment on me. Finally home

I know I added this late, but lets just pretend that I posted this last week. Thank Buddha for a good memory.

Weekend in Amalfi

This actually started off on Thursday. I actually made it to Italian class on time for once on Thursday. This was nice because I was late (by like 2-5 minutes) for each class prior, but really the nice part was that I missed the rain that was coming. About 10 minutes into class, we could hear that nasty rain outside and decided to look to see how bad it was (mainly because Matias still wasn't in class). But when we looked outside, there was actually HAIL!!! Pretty exciting for me cause I have only seen hail one other time in my life (in MA when I was in kindergarten (which is a German word) woot woot). But after Italian, in Cinema, we actually watched a really good movie. Probably the only other movie in Italian Cinema that I actually liked.

After getting my quiz back (got a 92! woot), I headed back to the apartment to pack and eventually made it to the train station with the other guys. We ended up jumping on a bus and started driving down to Amalfi. I was lucky enough to sit next to Rosetta (/sarcasm.. she is nice and has a crush on me, but the favor is not returned at all). But basically after 2 hours, we stopped at the single most expensive rest stop I have ever seen. I picked up some gummy bears, ate a sandwich, and also come some cookies. After this we continued for the hotel. When we finally made it there (5 hours later and God knows how long on a curvy road), we made it to the hotel. I guess I am the type of guy that does get car sick, atleast when I don't drive. I think this is Nana's fault cause everytime I would ride with her, I would feel sick (miss ya Nana!). I found out that I was rooming with Mark and Clint - both good guys, then again, all the guys on the trip are tight.

Woke up the Friday morning @ 8:10. We were supposed to meet everyone at 8AM to depart for Capri. We rushed outta the room (by rush, I mean took our sweet time, about 20 mins). We ended up meeting everyone at 9am at the boat and made it to Capri with everyone. We immediately took a tour around the island and went into the Blue Gratto. This was cool but very over priced. The guide into the Blue Gratto asked for a tip but he sucked and got salt water on my lens so we didn't tip him.

Next we went up to the main part of Capri where all the shops are. I was actually left behind by the group as I was trying to get my ticket and no one waited for me. This was bullshit because I would have waited for someone, especially if I knew someone still had to get their ticket (thanks Rob). I eventually caught up with everyone, but I still thought it was kinda dick on their part. We eventually walked down to a beach. This beach was very rocky (thankfully smooth rocks that were about the size of a big toe and not sharp pebbles). We went into the very refreshing 75 degree water. This was AWESOME as I missed cool salt water, haha. But the cool part also was that there were many big rocks in the water that we jumped off of. I must admit, I am by far the most hardcore of them all when it comes to jumping, I definitely have the most jumping skills (woot woot) and was showing off (my amazing farmers tan).

We eventually made it back to the main part of the city where I got a lemon slushy (Capri is known for lemons) and then we headed back to the boat back to Salerno. On the boat, I had to fix someone else's camera as they didn't know what they did (hooray for simply fixes like sliding something). When we made it back to the hotel, I took a nice long awesome shower with shampoo and conditioner from the Rome hotel. We ate spaghetti for dinner and then everyone went out. I decided to stay at the hotel as I hate going out to get drunk.

Anyway, off to bed. More later.

Ciao.

Week 4-5 recap

Well I will try to remember as much as I can from this week.

Monday: Made a tomato sauce and gnudi (gnocchi minus the potato) in class, the chef also showed us how to make homemade pasta which reminded me of the Worcester days when Mum made easter ravioli for us. Had a big salad for lunch and then went to Christina's for dinner and stole her free fast internet. 

Tuesday: Woke up late and picked up some fruit on the way to Italian class. In Italian Cinema, we watched Nuova Cinema Paradiso, by far the best movie in the class so far. We went to get Mexican that night (argh!) and had the worst service ever. The food wasn't all that great either.

Wednesday: Cooked some desserts in class which were wicked good. Came home to nap, lolol. That night, went over to Mandy's apartment but before we went over, Jake put on a ton of cologne and I got sick because perfumes and I don't get along.

Thursday: I wanted to kill Jake cause I had to miss a class. I made it to the other class though. We watched another stupid movie (the Postman). Actually it wasn't bad, just it really did appeal to me. Came home and went to bed that night. Also went to 4Leoni again! This place is awesome.

Friday: Slept for 12 hours cause I was sick. Really didn't do anything that day other than watch the movie for my film class and write my review on it. Tried to go to bed at a decent hour, didn't fall asleep until 2:30

Saturday: Woke up at 3:30 sick as hell. Took some Advil and Aleve. Started to feel better and decided to go on the weekend excursion to the Tuscan country side. This was stupid because we spent a total of 6 hours on a bus, toured a small castle, got a few pictures, had a crappy lunch, tasted a few sips of wine, went to another small fort, got a nice view off Tuscany, then went home.. NOT WORTH IT. Watched the USA-England game with some friends and went home and to bed early that night

Sunday: Woke up after 12 hours of sleep again (I love this sleep thing). Worked on a paper for class. Jake went to Pisa so I was alone all day (FINALLY!). I went to some Giubbe Rossi place that was recommended by my cooking class teacher and it sucked. I got a Ravioli dish that was drowned in butter. That night, I went to an Irish pub to watch the Germany-Australia match. Tried Guinness for the first time and actually liked it (got a second pint in the second half). Came home and went to sleep.

Monday: Made some more tasty food in class. Came home and pretty much just rested cause I was still sick. That night, went out to watch the Italy-Paraguay game with Christina and friends at an outdoor viewing party along the river.

Tuesday: After another good nights rest, went to class and gave an oral presentation that I bombed. It sucks when of the 7 other students in the class, only 1 is also learning a second language while everyone else already speaks English and Spanish. Not Fair!!!! Oh well. Italian Cinema was alright again, nothing special. That night, went to an Osteria with Christina since neither of us were formally invited to a birthday party for some bitch. We actually had an awesome dinner even though it was raining. Our waiter was cursing up a storm and gave us free champagne, lol. "Com'e si dice 'lightning' in Italino? fulmine.. and this, this is fucking rain!!!" hahaha. So awesome. But that night, I came home, worked on another paper that was due the next morning. I didnt go to bed till 1:30. Woke up at 2:30 coughing and wanted to leave Italy that moment because I missed the States and Walgreens and actually having a home that as medicine. But I stole some of Jakes night time cough meds and went to sleep. Bastard deserves it for getting me sick.

Wednesday: Cooking class we made some desserts again. This time we made a truffle (with too much cream so they didnt come out right) and biscotti (which had way too much nuts). After class, normally I am not hungry, but this time I was so I got a big ol salad at Cuco again. The Chef there is awesome. He and his assistant were helping me work on my Italian communication skills. The assistant can speak pretty good English but the chef is just as good in English as I am in Italian so it was cool. I got some good recommendations on where to eat from him too. Now I am finally caught up on my blog, I can edit some photos!!!

For the rest of this weekend: AMALFI COAST!!! My 7D is going to get a TON of pictures. Hopefully I can go cliff diving too!

Until then..............

Roma - Giorno 3 - Destinazione: Ovunque ma non qui (Finalmente)

Day three finally arrived and that meant we were finally going back to Florence. We woke up at 7:30am (once again, 3.5 hours of sleep). Ate breakfast and set off to see the capital city again.

This time we started out at the Spanish steps. Once again, I was underwhelmed as I expected more with it being so famous. Afterwards we set out to see a few more monuments including the Trevi fountain where some girl from our group slipped in and got yelled at by the cops and also a few piazze. The biggest thing we saw the Pantheon. This was actually really cool minus the scaffolding on half of the building. The Pantheon is still used today as a church but there is also a massive dome on top. The dome has a big hole in the middle symbolizing god always watching over his followers. This hole is actually open thus exposing the inside to some elements. Our tour guide said one of the coolest things he has seen is the Pantheon being exposed to snow and some of the snow coming inside. While here, I also snapped a ton of pictures of people looking up at the hole but no one took any for me (one offered at the beginning though, thanks Clint). After the tour ended, a few of us got lunch together and I broke a glass (not my fault that the weak glass couldn't survive a fall from 2 inches). 

After a nice lunch, we were walking around and eventually made it back to the hotel after 4 hours. We then just hung around the hotel until everyone had to go to the train station to head back. I was extremely warm on the train as I had the sun beating down on me and Jake was sitting next to me. We finally made it back to Florence and Jake just wanted to stay at home for dinner and ate cereal while I went out to get some food and also enjoyed a half liter of wine. I was quite high to say the least. I actually went to bed at a decent hour last night too thanks to that wine (12:30am!!)

Roma - Giorno 2 - Destinazione: Ovunque ma non qui

I woke up at 6:45am on Saturday morning with just one alarm going off. For me, this is a miracle. I guess it makes sense since we were going to the Vatican that day. Every morning, like most people, when I wake up, I go to the bathroom right away. In Europe, especially in Italy, almost every bathroom has a bidet (an ass cleaner). Well, being right next to the toilet, I was bound to look at it. My wonderful(ly drunk as hell) roommate Jake decided to leave a gift for the maids in the bidet - let's just say when you consume that much alcohol and the same night you have pastas, hams, tomatoes and other stuff, it's going to end up looking like an omelet. It was quite nasty but thankfully did not smell as I would have punched that kid in the nuts. I went down to eat breakfast for 7:15am. I saw a few other students down there and we ate together. Rob and I went back to our rooms after breakfast to wake up our roommates (Rob actually ended up waking both Mark and Jake up, both were still drunk, not even hung over). In the end, only Jake made it down in time to walk with the group to the metro to the Vatican. Mark and Matias had to catch up later on (right before we entered the city actually, lucky for them cause they would have had to pay their own way in).

We eventually made it into the city and, of course being the awesome Catholic that I am, the first word I said was 'fuck' just because I could. We took a guided tour through out the City. We saw many painting and statues. Nothing extremely famous, but still some amazing stuff. I took many pictures of them and will post them on my flickr eventually. We started off seeing the painting and then the statues. Before the statues though, we were in this field with a giant globe in the center. Now the Italians are very lax when it comes to keeping people out of places they don't want you to go (now if they really don't want you there, that's different). There was only a chain in the way of the people from touching and spinning the globe. Some people (with the bad influence of the tour guide, haha) decided to go and spin the stunning spherical statue. Then after some statues, we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel. Personally, I was underwhelmed by the entire thing as there were too many tourists and I thought that it was going to be much bigger. Plus I hated the fact that we could not take pictures (legally).  Not even two minutes into the viewing, I was yelled at by a guard for taking pictures. This did not stop me of course. Many people were also asking me to snap pictures of them looking at the ceiling and of course I did cause I am a nice guy. After the Chapel, we set out to view St. Peter's Basilica. Personally, I thought it was a selfish and too arrogant of the Catholics on what they did to this beautiful building. Not only did they make it a tourist trap, but it didn't even feel like a place of worship. This is another reason why I sometimes hate being a Christian, let alone a Catholic.

After seeing everything the Vatican had to offer, a group of us set out to eat some lunch. We made it to this one little place near the Vatican. It was honestly the single worst Italian meal I have ever had. The waiters were rude and sneaky, the food was worse than Chef Boyardee canned food, and the prices were just too high. After eating that shit, we set out to walk toward the hotel cause some people wanted to nap. We saw a few sites on the way, but nothing all that spectacular. A castle that we didn't go in because people didn't want to pay and a square (Piazza del Popolo) that was underwhelming. After the Piazza, the rest of the group wanted to head back while I wanted to go up on the hill to see what was up there. You would think that a few people would want to have a view of the city from up there, but no, everyone wanted to head back. Once again, I was alone in Rome. At the top, there was a great view of the city and a very beautiful park. After spending about 30 mins up there relaxing, I decided to head back to the hotel and nap as well.

For dinner, the primo piatto was a pasta dish with a white sauce and sausage. For the secondo piatto, a bit of chicken with potatos. Our dolce was an ice cream dish with mints. Over all, the dinner was the best part so far. Also, for dinner, I initially sat with Evy (don't know how to spell her name) as she was sitting alone. Later on, Stella and Zim sat with us and we had a great dinner conversation.

Later that night, Jake and I met up with some of his friends who were back packing. We saw the trevi fountain at night which was amazing and also went to see the Colosseum at night too. While at the Colosseum, we took some photos of us jumping. There was one photo that I was actually so high that I was halfway out of frame, haha. I guess this white boy still got ups. This was probably one of the best nights on the entire trip and it was so simple yet fun. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 2:30 and went to bed at 4am.