'bout that time...

Rosey and I have only just surfaced, gasping, from the epicurean splendor of the past week.

Many thanks to my parents. Possibly 1 bajillion thanks to be exact.

By mere happenstance, we were able to meet up with them at the exact time of their arrival in Perugia. Rosey and I had arrived earlier, making our way somewhat haphazardly uphill towards the hotel (5 star). We had just stormed our way up the meandering slope and were resting in a hilltop plaza. Gearing ourselves up after a brief respite and readying for some more fantastic hill climbing action, I look over and there is the hotel (5 star) and my parents unloading their car.

The day concluded with a short stroll around the local area, some gelati, matching red spedos and swimming in the ancient underground swimming pool of the hotel (5 star).

The rest of the week was a blur of food, wine and adventures. We visited some of the smaller towns around the area including Assisi and Siena. Mother had the foresight to pack some watercolor paints with her and we made good use of them high up on the castle of Assisi's warrior priest (preferable to aged bishop).

Before too long we moved camp to the small coast town of Riomaggiore which was more or less the perfect place for anyone to leave a perfectly peaceful life. A cliff side trail that we walked one day brought us to a couple similar towns; small, quaint, with excellent wine.

Mother and Father were wonderful companions but unfortunately had to go back to the drudgery of adulthood, allowing the Adventure Kids to frolic in what little remains of their youth and innocence. And sometimes growing up means you have to strike out to find a fortune of your own. Rosey and I, today, will journey on separate paths and reconvene in Amsterdam in mid April. Our parting can only be described as, The Day of a Thousand Tears.

Rosey is kind of a nub and won't update the blog but as of 12:20pm on April 3rd he was alive and well, standing in line to get a ticket to Budapest...or Belfast...dunno.

Anyway, just got into Milan today. It's rainy and cold here. My hostel is in a sort of converted apartment building on the outer urban area of the city. The main stairwell and lobby bear an eerie resemblance to the interior design of Rapture. I just finished a chat with a Japanese girl from Tokyo who's never heard of Haruhi Suzumiya. A dog is tearing the face off of a stuffed dinosaur and reception is playing a techno-remix of Avril Lavigne's "Skater Boy." All in all a rather surreal welcoming.

Interesting Factoid

So we found the "library,f" which is actually a church, converted into another Di Vinci museum (still cool) - the outside of which was featured in Indiana Jones + Last Crusade.

The interior (where all the action happened) was actually a set constructed in a movie studio somewhere outside of London.

So it was more like Real Young Adults on a Failed Attempt to Reclaim Childhood! ...

Venice is the Chronic.

We have now had 3 days on The Floating City. It's Venice: So it's beautiful and picturesque and all other positive descriptions you might expect to see scrawled across a traveler's blog post.

We've done our best to get lost and found again - the former actually being the more difficult. Yesterday we kept going around in circles just trying to make our way across the city. Various streets and ally's kept intersecting with canals where people use boats to get around (it's true!)

Rosey made reference to Labyrinth at one point and I agree. Only there was a distinct lack of David Bowie and his Magnificent Package.

Today we are going to try and locate the library featured in The Last Crusade. X never marks the spot except when you least expect it!

Real kids on a real adventure!

Venice

We are (like right now) in Venice.

More to come.

A Florencia

As the title might describe, we are to disembark for Florence sometime today. We leave Rome convinced that History did indeed take place there at some point.

Of highlights include: The Vatican, Nutella.

We also hit up a Di Vinci museum (for kids!) that had durable - yet fun - models demonstrating the era of engineering he basically created single handedly. In a back room was a large pool showing some walking-on-water ideas. I dropped my sunglasses into the tank and was all sorts of peeved about this. However, the staff at the museum were very helpful in retrieving them. Invoking the spirit of Di Vinci, we were able to construct a sort of net, on a hoop, attached to a long pole. Leaving the complicated technical functionality aside, the awkwardly titled, "pool cleaner," was very helpful in the capture of my beloved $12 airport sunglasses.

We have been having difficulty cooking for ourselves. Adequacy of kitchens aside, it is a matter of value discrepancy. Buying groceries, only to have to do the prep work for our selves later, is simply not a viable option compared to the kebab (pictures to come).

Kebab refers to the large spit of pressed meat pile that rotates vertically in front of an electric or gas grill. The chef will take a knife or electronic device and "shave" the meat off the spit/pile. Meat comes in shreds of chicken or beef. These are then usually placed in a tortilla-like bread product among a variety of "fresh" vegetables and magic sauces. All of this for about 4 euros. The quality ranges from location to location but we'll be damned if it isn't a fine meal for a fine price all the time.

Today! On "The Adventure Kids"...

Today it was pissing out. Tomorrow it's also supposed to be pissing out as well. But today it was straight pissing. And cold. We woke up and scuttled our way out of the Hostel of Epic Journeying (see previous post) (they were booked beyond our reservations). We walked a solid 20 min to our next hearth located near baloney plaza (spelling: not approximate, pronunciation: adequate)

It was only trickling out now so we tried to go see a museum. The metro staff was on strike so I bought a big calzone. I ate the calzone on the way back to the hostel as the rains came heavy. There were still people outside (in the heavy rain) waiting for the metro staff to strike less. We got back and [footage missing or whatever]. Eventually went out to store to buy coffee, nutella and strawberries. Went back. Made eating motions followed by general hanging out and all that entails. Oh, we saw the Colosseum yesterday. That was sweet.

Again, apologies to our fan-base for the lack of updating. They days are going by a steam powered pace.

Our most recent journey began on Monday, the 8th of March, 2010. We left our Hostel late afternoon and made our way to the metro through the wind and snow - whatthefucksnow!? It was an unwelcome and sour reminder of the world we thought we left behind. Just 3 days before we were on the beach enjoying the sun and cold beer. When we emerged from the warm underground we found ourselves among palm trees, heavily laden with the powdery fluff of children's dreams. Sticky, thick and copious. Apparently this was the first time in 4 years Barcelona has seen snow and never so ridiculously abundant. So yes, this means Rosey and I actually witnessed: WEATHER HISTORY.

Our boat (oh right, we took a boat btw) was a ferry/cruise ship. Most of the travelers were staying in cabins ranging from first - third class. Too rich for our blood but they did have a reject-class option. This was a large room with airplane style seating and no windows. I used to pride myself on never getting sea sick but I think it was a window-reliant ability. The seas were rather rough - delaying our journey by several hours and forcing them to close the on-board discotech. To make up for it, they served us a free dinner (yeay!) with fish that would have probably ended up on the floor of the on-board discotech.

We disembarked at 1am in Italy, at a port city I can neither pronounce nor spell, and took a shuttle to the train station. We waited till 5am with some fellow passengers, trying to talk but finding it difficult so we just all smoked outside and got hassled by the cops together. "The ties that bind" as they say. Leaving them at some point we found ourselves in Rome's central rail terminal. It is about this time that we realized the lack of some important information - such as everything relating to our hostel. Got map. Got internet. Spent another 4 hours wandering around a 2 block radius looking for the words "Rome City Hostel." We found it scrawled neatly on a 2in by 5in placard among other residents of a nondescript apartment building. That one's their bad.

We ate. We slept. Aaannnndd that about does it. Pictures pictures!

This snow is 4real.

Our sleeping quarters on board the ferry.

Oh, and one day we rented a scooter and drove all up n' 'round the metrop.