Ciao Italia!

We said goodbye to Italy yesterday travelling north from La Spezia along the Med coast through Monaco and up to Nice. It was a really nice ride with some really spectacular views of the coast and the little coastal villages. Overall thoughts on Italy are positive - great food, lovely people (for the most part), awesome scenery and some amazing history. But they do seem to move at their own pace and that, especially, takes some getting used to.

So now we're in Nice for until the 31st and so far, I'm not that impressed. It's quite lovely here but there's not a lot to do if you're not a beach person. And with my pastey white skin, I am most definitely not a beach person. The beach is lovely though - much nicer than the ghetto Nice that Bobby, Wendi and I trudged through last November. The hotel is in a great location but it a little "basic" - but right near everything so I really can't complain. I've met up with some of the Ozzies that I was travelling with earlier so it's nice to catch up and see how there trip has been.

With all the Ozzies I'm now almost required to head down under at some point and do a tour. I've met people from all over so I'm all set with accomodations pretty much wherever I go. So maybe that's my next trip...

Next stop is Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. I'll let you know how that goes.

My Dog's Are Barkin'

I've been in a place called La Spezia for two days now (actually a day and a half). Spent the first half day just walking around checking things out. There's really nothing special about La Spezia except that it's a gateway city for Cinque Terre - which are these five small towns build into the hills along the Med coast of Italy.

The thing with Cinque Terre is that it's a 14 km walk (that's like 7 miles) along the hills of the coast to get from town to town. At first I was like, "Screw that! I'm not walking seven miles up hills and over rigged terain just to see some sea side villages." But I've made new Busabout friends and they were all doing it so I sort of went along. Let me tell you, it was absolutely the right decision. The hike was a pain in the arse in some places but the scenery was absolutely worth it. These five villages are just so beautiful and they each have little beaches that you can swim in to cool down between stretches. It was one of the highlights of the trip so far - I took a ton of pics which I will try to upload today (no promises).

I'm going back today just to go to the beach and have a bit of a chill day - as my legs are hurting a bit from all the hiking. Then tomorrow I'm going to grab a train to Milan just to check it out. It's fairly cheap from here, so I figure what the hell. I've heard mixed reviews but it's worth it just to say that I've been there. Then it's off to Nice for three days.

The Scene of the Crime

So I left Rome three days ago and I miss it already. It really is one of my favorite places to visit - so much history and beauty. I have to admit that Italians aren't necessarily my favorite people. They're a little rough around the edges for my taste - always yelling at each other with the hands a flappin'. It can be a little disconcerting. But overall Rome is still on my top 10 list.

Left Rome and have been in Florence for two days now. For those not in the know, Florence is where my Dad had his accident last Novemeber - hence the scene of the crime. I've spent some time walking around today and I actually stumbled upon the intersection where it all went down (or at least I'm reasonably sure it's the intersection). I took pictures which I'll upload here as soon as I get decent internet (Italy and Internet do not go well together apparently).

I saw the original sculpture of David and the original "Birth of Venus" as well as some other famous art. Other than that I have just been walking around taking it all in - it's a pretty city but not my favorite. I probably wouldn't come back again.

On a side note - I've lost my crazy Ozzies. Florence was the last stop we had together before going separate ways. I'll see some of them again in a week or two when I head to Switzerland but for others is was the last time. I'll miss my little friends from down under. They are great people and it was nice to spend time with them. So now I have to find new friends - which really isn't that hard since you end up talking to all the poeple on the bus anyway. It's just a matter of finding people that I genuinely like versus people I can stand for a period of time. We'll see how it goes (either way I'll have people to hang out with and that's what matters).

I leave Florence tomorrow and head to La Spezia which is the gateway to Cinque Terre. I don't even really know what Cinque Terre is apart from a park of some sort - but it's supposed to be very pretty and on the water. So we'll see how that goes. I'm either there for 2 or 4 nights, I haven't decided just yet. I might try to get a train to Milan just to say that I've been there. But I'm sort of lazy when it comes to the planning of side trips so I probably will just stay in La Spezia.

After La Spezia it's off to Nice for a couple of nights and then on to Switzerland (Lauterbrunnen and Lucerne). From there, I might head back to Munich then to Paris and back to Nice to continue on into Spain. Or I might just go straight back to Nice and into Spain and save Paris for the end. Decisons, decisions....

Hope all is well with my peeps back home. I'll post again soon.

Florence

Hi All. I'm in Florence now and Internet access is worse than Rome so don't know if there will be lots of posts or not. We'll see if I can find free Wifi in the city.

All is well and I am going to be spending the day walking around and looking at all the art. I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Birthday Bob

This post is a day early but I'm going to be on the bus all day tomorrow and might not have a chance to post. So everyone who's still reading this boring blog, wish my brother Bob a very happy birthday tomorrow.

Roma

Hey all. Sorry this one is so short but internet access at the hostel in Rome SUCKS. But I am in Rome and going crazy seeing everything again (but going into stuff this time).

I'll right more when I have more time and better internet.

Castle of St. Stinkus

The rest of Prague finished without any major incident. A truly beautiful city – probably my favorite so far (but that will change once I get back to Rome). After Prague we went to Vienna. The guy on the bus told us all about Vienna and how it’s real easy to go to Bratislava, Slovakia from there as a day trip. So the group of crazy Ozzies and I decided we would do that one day while we we’re there.

We met up in the morning and on the way to the bus station I realize that I didn’t bring my passport with me (yes I know I have a habit of doing this). In this case, it turns out I didn’t need it so all was good. We got over to Bratislava and all the signs were in whatever they speak there (Slovakian?). So we just made stuff up (the castle of St. Stinkus for example) until we found a tourist info center that had maps and descriptions in English – though our explanations were more fun. We walked around the city center and saw the old buildings and such (it was really pretty), grabbed some lunch and then headed over to see the castle, which was uphill as these things tend to be. The uphill wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t so freakin’ hot. It was around 32 Celsius (which is around 98 Fahrenheit my Ozzie friends told me). After the castle, we found a cool spot under a tree in a little park and we all fell asleep for about an hour. Then we headed back to Vienna.

Just roamed around Vienna the last day, took some pictures and hung around. It was a great, lazy sort of day. Vienna is really beautiful as well (it’s all really pretty over here – except Berlin). I got some great shots which I will post when I can. We got into Munich yesterday afternoon and it’s been raining since. Don’t know how much I’ll get to see in the rain, but I’ll keep you posted.