Don't Close Your Eyes

Before I start this, take a look at the trailer for the video project I'm working on. The title is the same as that of my blog. I'm spending a lot of time on it and I think it is going to be really cool once I'm finished.

188 Days Beyond the Atlantic Trailer

Time has gone by quite fast over here. I think the days are shorter in Europe. I think they're only 22 or so hours and there are only 6 days in a week. That's the only way I can explain how it is already April 25th.  It really surprised me how fast my 21st birthday came. It's tomorrow already.

In my attempt to blog and keep people updated on my life, I have failed. And I don't really plan on changing that. This could be my final post, but I suppose it's possible that I'll write another before I move out of my apartment in Torino. After I move out of my apartment I think that I won't have any time to write anything up, nor consistent or predictable access to internet.

I'm about two months behind on staying up to date and there is absolutely no way for me to write an exciting detailed account of what I've been up to. So, I'm just going to do it in list form.

Spring Break:

• Florence for two days. Saw The David, Ponte Vecchio, Marchese Taylor, Piazzale Michelangelo. It was awesome.

• Alicante for four days. Stayed with Brett Gutierrez. Hung out on the beach. It was gorgeous. Played in a 64-team beer pong tournament. Won the whole thing. 1st prize was a cruise to Ibiza. We were so excited. (I couldn't go because the cruise left from Alicante and it would have been too expensive for me to get back there.)

• Ireland for three days. Visited Galway and Cliffs of Moher. It's so green. Beautiful Country. St. Patricks day in Dublin. "Visited" Temple Bar and Guinness Brewery. Drank plenty of Guinness. Delicious.

After I got back from Spring Break I stayed in Torino for a much needed relaxing weekend. The weekend after that, I wrote my most recent blog post as I was taking the train to Aosta. 2 hour train ride from Torino. Went with my roommate Nate. It's absolutely beautiful there. Stayed with my friend Silvia. So much fun. Amazing valley at the base of the Alps. Roman Ruins. Old stuff. Ate Gelato. Saw Mont Blanc, tallest mountain in the alps.

The day after getting back from Aosta, my older brother arrived. We had so much fun together. His arrival coincided (but not coincidentally) with my Easter break. I planned it so that I could skip one class (YES ONLY ONE!) and take 8 days to travel with him.

• Munich for two days. Went to Hofbrauhaus, day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, visited Dachau concentration camp, ate sausage, drank Bavarian beers.

• Zurich for one day. sleepy little town on Good Friday. Not my favorite city in Europe. Wouldn't have minded skipping it for someplace else in Switzerland. Stayed in a great hostel with a terrace roof.

• Next day we took the train to Bern. Cool town. Capitol of Switzerland. Then took the train to Thun or Spiez. Can't remember. Took a boat from there to Interlaken. Stayed the night there. Beautiful.

• Next day went up in the mountains to Murren. It was dumping snow. After Murren we made our way to Zermatt. Stayed in Zermatt that night. Zermatt is at the base of the Matterhorn.

• Next day, Mike snowboarded in the morning. I worked on homework. Around noon we went up to the top of the Klein Matterhorn. 12,533 ft. Mike and I both got light headed at that altitude. Amazing view. Also went to the top of the Gornergrat. 10,269 Ft. If you have a beer at over 10,000 feet you don't have to worry about it getting warm.

• Next day we headed to Lugano. Really cool city. Breathtaking, right on an amazingly blue lake. Unfortunately it was overcast. The next morning we made our way back to Torino.

A day after I got back I had two midterms. Ruh roh! I was so nervous. Studied a lot for them in the time I had. After taking my Italian test, I thought I probably earned a B. For Modern Design I was hoping for a D. I got both tests back the week after that and I got A-'s on both of them. Solid!

I'm already almost up to date! Last weekend I went to Crete, Greece. I think it is probably the most naturally beautiful and diverse island I have ever seen. You can be standing on one of it's breathtaking sandy beaches (in 80 degree gorgeous sunny weather) and look out across the Mediterranean, then turn around and see snow-covered peaks towering 8,000 feet above the sea level. The island itself is a little bit larger than the heel of the boot of Italy. If Crete were a State in the US, it would only be larger than Rhode Island and Deleware. It's tiny, but it is the closest thing I've seen to paradise.

I went with 7 great friends. We stayed in a hotel about a 5 minute walk from three different sun kissed beaches for about $15 a night. The Greek people are the nicest I've encountered anywhere. It was easily one of the most pleasant, relaxing, and fun trips I've ever had. The food was also amazing. We rented bikes for two days and rode into town and around the island. I wish I was a good enough photographer to truly capture the beauty of the island.

That brings us to now. Today is the day before my 21st birthday and I'm going out to a local pub to celebrate with all my friends here. I've made so many amazing friends over the time that I've spent here. I can't wait to see all my friends back home that I won't be celebrating with tonight. To those of you who would've had a beer with me tonight or tomorrow night, have one anyways, I'm there in spirit. I'll be back in the States before I know it. I'm so thankful for the experience that I've had. I owe it all to my parents for the opportunities they've given me. It's hard not to feel spoiled doing what I've done and what I'm still going to do, but I hope that if I am thankful enough and gracious enough it will somehow make up for the debt that I owe to all the chances, experiences, and opportunities that have been provided for me in my life. It will never be enough, but I'm not going to feel guilty enjoying myself as long as I can. These 188 days are without a doubt an artificial utopia that will expire July 17th. I know that the world is full of challenges. And while I'm not facing them right now, I think that I will be ready to face them when the time comes.

"Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god you say "YES!""

The next chapter of my European adventure starts in 16 days when I move out of my apartment and start my two and a half months of travels. I'm traveling with my friend's Sage and Cory for the first three or four weeks, and after that I'll be on my own for a while. I may be traveling with my roommate from Chico, Brett, for some of that time, but that guy is hard to get a hold of. During the last two and a half months I'll be traveling by train through the south of Italy over to Croatia, then up into Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, and possibly Poland. Then I'll make my way over to Germany, France, Spain, and England. I think a good way to describe my approach is a quote that I liked from a film I saw recently, My Week with Marilyn.

"When my only talent was not to close my eyes"

Stay classy friends.

18(8) Days Beyond the Atlantic

I think it's time to update this blog. I don't have time to write as often as I had originally planned, but I'm going to try to write a few more before this is all over and done with. Before I start rambling, I'm going to get straight to it.

AMSTERDAM PART II

I really only wrote about my first day in Amsterdam. I'm going to finish that up, then jump into Barcelona, Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea, and I might split Spring break off into another blog.

My last day in Amsterdam my friend Cierra and I rented bikes. (She practically bit my head off when I didn't include this in my last blog) Riding bikes around Amsterdam is one of the coolest experiences I've had in Europe. Everyone rides bikes there. Even more so than Davis, Ca. We rode around the whole city and saw things we would have never had time to do if we hadn't been on bikes. I think it was 7 Euro for the three hours that we had the bikes.We saw the largest public library in Europe, a gigantic park on the outskirts of Amsterdam, and we rode past the Van Gogh museum, but didn't go inside. 16 Euro! We didn't really have time to do it. I wish we had.

Ok, Battle of the Oranges.

I actually went to Carnevale in Ivrea the week before Amsterdam. I don't know why I thought it was after, but somehow I got that mixed up in my last post.

This is what the town looked like before the battle started.

The history behind the festival is something that I am not an expert in. But I invite you to look up the truth on Wikipedia. That's the best and most reliable source of information known to man. It's just science.

The festival dates back to the 12th century, when the Romans were fighting George Washington and his revolutionary army. Caesar had the Yanks cornered in the tiny town of Ivrea with nothing but thousands of oranges to defend themselves with. The Romans crossed over the river into the city expecting the young American General to surrender. But George Washington was a clever man, he knew that if the Romans came in to the city they would be bottlenecked and they could be defeated with their orange ammunition. The Romans sent in wave after wave of soldiers and the city could not be taken. Finally, the Romans sent in all their forces and tried to take the city at full force. They broke through the ranks and George Washington and his last battalion were cornered in a little piazza in the heart of the city. Seemingly out of thin air, Doc brown came blazing down the street in his school bus Delorean. He screamed, "Quick George! Get in! You've got to save America!" So George Washington and his twenty remaining soldiers scrambled to pile into the school bus time machine. Doc Brown gunned it to 88 and the rest is history. George Washington came to America and won the Civil War. That's why we always have fireworks on the 4th of July.

They like to remember the story a little bit differently over here. On the days of the festival they have horse-drawn carriages with about ten people in them that go through the different neighborhoods of the city. Each neighborhood belongs to a different team. When a wagon pulls through your neighborhood, all hell breaks loose. People throw oranges as hard as they can at the wagon, and the people on the wagon throw oranges at all the people in the neighborhood.

The only exception is if you're wearing red. If you wear red, you're forbidden from throwing oranges. People aren't supposed to throw oranges at you either. But, it happens.

The festival was absolute chaos. One of the craziest things I've ever seen. So much fun though. The oranges are left in crates outside overnight. So, sometimes when it gets cold at night, the oranges will freeze. People get sent to the hospital daily.

Aside from the festival, Ivrea is also a beautiful little town on the edge of the Alps.

Barcelona.

Barcelona was such a fun weekend! I got to see Brett Gutierrez for the first time since December. We stayed with Bryan for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. I saw as much of the city as I could. It's a really cool town. My Barcelona trip was my first time in Spain. However, in Barcelona they don't consider themselves Spaniards. They are Catalan. The Catalan culture is very old and complex but when you get down to it they just hate being considered Spanish. Because they aren't. They have their own language, culure, and possibly most importantly, their own football team. FC Barça.

The Barcelona team right now is arguably the best team that they have ever had. Messi, Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Fabregas, Iniesta...come on. I don't want to give the vibe that I know everything about the sport, or the team for that matter, because I really don't. But the team is definitely one of the best teams in the world right now, if not the best. We'll see how they do next week when they play AC Milan at home in the Champions League Quarter-Final. After this week's draw, Barcelona must win in order to move on. They're a very exciting team to watch, and I've seen them play at home.(I have been to two professional soccer matches in my life. One for AC Milan, the other in Barcelona)

Camp Nou, the Barca stadium, is absolutely enormous. It seats 99,354 and is the largest stadium in Europe.

In Barcelona I also got to see some Gaudi buildings, which were amazing. I saw the Sagrada Famiglia and we went and had a picnic in Parc Guell. I also got to meet a lot of Bryan’s friends, which was really cool. They’re all really fun people. The Barcelona nightlife was fantastic. My first night there we went to a bar and a three story discoteca. My second night there we went to a beer hall and a four story discoteca called Razzmatazz. One thing that I noticed in Barcelona right away was how many American students there are there. English is practically non-existant in Torino. It's always a surprise if i hear it on the street. In Barcelona all the bars and discotecas are just flooded with young 20’s college students.

My Barcelona trip was a lot of fun. If you make it to the city I’d highly recommend scheduling your trip to see a Barca game. I planned my trip so I would be there when they were playing a subpar team so I would be able to get tickets. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me. The metro system is good there, it was redone for when the Olympics were in Barcelona in the 90’s. I’ve heard the pickpocketters in Barcelona are the worst in the world. I didn’t have an incident myself, but be careful if you go. Especially around the touristy areas. 

I’m going to try to write my Spring Break blog tomorrow or the next day. I want to try to get it done before my brother gets here on Sunday. So excited for him to get here. We’re spending 8 days going to Munich and seeing four cities in Switzerland. It’s going to be an awesome brotherly bonding trip.

Well, got to go. I’m writing this on a train right now from Torino to Aosta. Going there for the weekend with my roommate Nate and we’re staying with my friend Silvia.

Oh and I need to change the name of the blog from "180 Days Beyond the Atlantic" to "188 Days Beyond the Atlantic". I had to change my return date because Linda Mancuso is coming out to travel with me at the end of the trip. Sorry, I'm not sorry. So excited to try to jam all of Europe through my hippocampus so I can remember it forever. I don't think 188 days quite has the same ring that 180 did, but it'll have to do. Ciao

Si, ho capito niente... + (Amsterdam Part I)

It has officially happened. I was in my favorite local kebab shop, and I got to sit back and watch as Americans struggled to order some Kebabs to go. They figured it out, just like I had. I chuckled as I walked out the door. That was me 8 weeks ago. It took 8 weeks to see that. What? I've been here two months? And it's pretty much nonstop from here on out. I have two or three more open weekends during the semester that I'm not traveling, but I plan on changing that soon. I'm trying to plan a trip to Sicily and maybe another to either Belgium or Munich. Flights to Sicily and Belgium are really cheap right now. I could book a round trip flight to Brussels from Torino for 26 Euro right now ($34).

I've been putting off writing this for too long now. I know there are about two or three people that have been waiting for it, and five or six others that might glance at it. I need to talk about a few things in this post. My trip to Amsterdam (uh oh..), Carnevale in Ivrea, my trip to Barcelona last weekend, and just some finishing thoughts about my time here and life in general.

Before I start, I'd like to mention that there are a few things that I miss from home. I wouldn't go as far to say that I'm homesick, because I'm not. But there are definitely a few things that I enjoyed in the first twenty years of my life that are noticeably absent. Mexican food, All my friends and family, ordering sunglasses from Knockarounds.com (for myself, that is), Chico, going to stores after 8 PM or on Sundays, people picking up after their dogs (they just leave shit on the ground over here. Yeah...gross, I know. I've stepped in one or two land mines already), big apartments/houses, Costco, and Skittles. That list just about covers it. I'm sure there are a few other things I can't think of at the moment.

After writing it out, that seems like a pretty extensive list. But there's so much more that I love about being over here. To start, I love how free and independent my life is. I love living in an apartment in the heart of downtown. I love traveling by train and plane. I love pasta, pizza, and gelato. I love hearing Italian every day and slowly understanding more and more day by day. I love visiting cities that are new to me that have been here for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. I love how easy it would be to book a train or plane ticket and just get away and explore someplace I've only read about in history books or in stories. I was talking to some Italians today and they told me how much they wanted to visit America. To them, it is the ideal, most amazing place to visit. I thought it was funny how much the opposite it is for me. But from spending time over here, I definitely have gained a different perspective of America's place and role in the world as a whole. I don't think I've been abroad long enough to explain it yet, but I'll try to get to that point in the next few months.

Okay, I'm completely off track of where I was planning on taking this blog. I only have a few more side-tangents that I need to take care of.

Firstly, The Temper Trap is one of my favorite bands. I saw them in concert in December of 2009 and it blew my mind. If you don't know them, or don't know them well, get their album Conditions and listen to it all the way through. The highlights are definitely Love Lost, Sweet Disposition, Soldier On, and whatever else that fits your taste, but all the tracks are pretty solid. Ever since that album came out, I've been waiting for their sophomore album, and it is finally coming. They released a track from it called "Rabbit Hole", and I like it. It is definitely a bit different from their last album, but I'm really excited for the new one. It's going to be released in Europe May 21, and a few days later in the US.

Thank you Nate Carlascio for sending me this video, it made my night.
"Rabbit Hole" - The Temper Trap

Alright, after my mini-rant about Temper Trap I don't remember the other side tangent I was planning on writing about. Ok, let's talk about Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was a beautiful city. It's reputation may precede it, but it definitely lives up to it. It totally lived up to any story you've ever heard. I read my friend Bryan's blog about it a few months ago and I've been excited ever since. He described it as "giant theme park for adults," which could not be more accurate. At least from the tourist's perspective. I'm sure that I didn't have the exact same experience as he did, but I definitely enjoyed myself. It's easily one of my favorite places I've visited so far.

I was absolutely exhausted when I got to my hostel at 10 Am on Friday morning. Let me tell you why.

Thursday night, after sitting through class from 2:30 - 8:00 PM, I headed to Porta Nuova to catch a train to Milan with seven of my friends. We got to Milan around 11PM and headed to a restaurant to get some food before waiting for our bus. After that, we headed to a Piazza right next to Milan Centrale (Milan's train station) to hang out until our bus to Milan's airport got there. Now, I've told this much of the story, but now I'll just come out and say it, we didn't sleep this night. I woke up around 9Am on Thursday, and ended up going to sleep around 3:30 Am Saturday morning. Ok, back to Milan. So we hung out in that piazza for a few hours. We passed the time with two bottles of wine and a few hours of an impressive game of charades. At around 3 Am, three of my friends split off and headed to Milan BGY airport. They were headed to Budapest for the weekend, while we were flying out of a different airport to get to Amsterdam. We got onto our bus around 3:30 Am and headed to the airport for our 6:15 flight. I traveled to Amsterdam with four girls, and when I could see that they were all falling asleep on the bus, I felt it was my job to stay up and make sure we get off at the right airport stop. There are two terminals at Milan Malpensa airport, and I don't think it's very easy to get between them. They're quite separated. We got off at the right terminal, got on our flight on time and hopped over to The Netherlands. We got into the airport sometime around 8 Am and headed towards the airport train station. We caught the first train we could to the main station in Amsterdam and walked over to our hostel.

Charades in the Park

So, to get to our hostel in Amsterdam, we took a train from Torino to Milan, Shuttle from Milan Centrale to Milan Malpensa, Flight from Milan Malpensa to Amsterdam Schiphol airport, Train from Amsterdam airport to downtown Amsterdam, and then a ten minute walk to get to our hostel. I couldn't imagine traveling like this if I weren't young.

I'll admit that I did get a little bit of sleep on the flight to Amsterdam. The first time that I've ever slept on a plane. I couldn't manage to sleep a wink on my 11 hour flight across the US and over the Atlantic.

The hostel we stayed at was called "The Flying Pig," and it was awesome. It was right in the heart of downtown and a really friendly place for young travelers to stay. We stayed in a 14 bed mixed dorm. After getting settled, we walked across the city to tour the Heineken Brewery. It was one of the cooler tours I've taken. And at the end they give you two beers.

The Flying Pig Hostel has a bar instead of a lobby

In front of the Heineken Brewery

We napped for about an hour in the afternoon, and then that night we went out to celebrate my friend Ellie's 21st birthday. We explored the red-light district and stumbled into a few pubs around the area. Saying that neighborhood is unlike anything I've ever seen is an understatement. There are (mostly) women in the windows and sex shops and shows with neon signs and promotors urging you to come inside. I even saw a young "woman" (it wasn't really a woman) in a window, holding and a suggestive part of "her" body while trying encourage one of us to come inside. Yeah, she was a hermaphrodite.

We escaped the red-light district and made it to a different part of town filled with discotecas. The nightlife in Amsterdam did not disappoint. Ellie definitely had a fun 21st birthday. I can hardly imagine how hectic my 21st birthday in Prague is going to be. (That blog post is coming in about a month and a half).

The next day we went to the Anne Frank House. It was a very moving experience that I can couldn't possibly put down in words. If you go to Amsterdam, it is something that you need to see.

On a side note, I don't really eat much meat in Italy. It isn't a very large part of the diet over here. We really do mostly eat pasta and pizza. Mostly pasta. Red meat is a very uncommon meal. Amsterdam is a much more Meat-Eating-American tourist friendly place to visit. That said, I was in Amsterdam for three days and I ate 7 or 8 burgers. And I'm not ashamed in the slightest.

Another strange thing about visiting Amsterdam was that it was the first time in six weeks that I had been out of Italy. It was the first time that I didn't have to try to speak Italian to the locals. In fact, speaking English in Amsterdam will get you much further than speaking Italian will. I don't mean to say that I'm fluent in Italian, or even close to it. But turning off the switch in my head to say, "Ciao", "Buongiorno", "Grazie", and "Per Favore" was very difficult to do.

It is around 12:30 here in Italy on Thursday night, and I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this blog the way I had planned. I think I almost got enough out about Amsterdam, but I still definitely need to write about Ivrea and Barcelona. Those were both really fun trips that I'll try to make fun to read about. I'm going to have to put those off until next time. I might try to pick up where I left off of Amsterdam. I've really only talked about half of the trip. I need to be on a train at 7:50 tomorrow morning to go meet up with Brett in Milan and then take a train down to Florence to meet up with the one, the only, Marchese Taylor. Haven't seen that girl in ten months and I'm really excited. That trip marks the beginning of my spring break. I'll be traveling for about ten days. I'll be in Florence for two days, then flying over to Alicante, Spain, until Thursday. Then I jump on a plane up to Dublin for three days.

It's going to be an exhausting/exciting ten days. I plan on laying out on the beach all week in Alicante. Allora, time for me to start my spring break. Ciao!

PS. One last thing. I've started working on a short film that I'm really excited about that is going to be a documentation of my travels. It won't really be finished until I get back to the states because I'll need all the footage of Europe that I can gather. It was so much fun to start editing what I already have this week. I was getting a little bit down on myself earlier this week, and working with video was exactly what I needed. Editing video has always been cathartic for me. It has always been something that I can just lose myself in. It felt really good. Made me miss taking CDes classes at Chico. Ok, time to get to sleep. Buona notte tutti!

Full Speed Ahead

Sorry, This might be a short one, because I'm tired and I don't want to write this in more than one sitting. I feel like I lose my flow if I do.

I titled my last post, "Let's pump the brakes." What an inaccurate approach/expectation to my experience over here! I understand now that any attempt to slow down to smell the roses is completely futile. I've been here 39 days now. That's about 22% of my total time here. These past 39 days have gone by faster than any period of 39 days I've ever experienced before. And I know that there's no slowing down. All I can do is thrust my head out the window of this screaming, accelerating train and try to notice a few important cities, sites, and moments as I pass them by.

I've traveled the last four weekends. So far I've been to Milan twice, Cinque Terre, Verona, and Venice. Venice was amazing. It was very very cold though. It was unlike any city I've ever been to. The city is built on over a hundred islands. There is a confusing network of bridges, pathways, canals, alleyways, and piazzas that are devoid of any organization system known to man, that is guaranteed to get you lost.  I definitely got lost a few times. It's easy to turn down an alley you think you recognize and all the sudden you have absolutely no idea where you are, or which direction you came from. I pride myself on my directional abilities, but for the first 24 hours I was there, I had no idea where I was going. It was exciting trying to navigate a city without any discernible pattern or organization. However, somehow I always managed to make it back to my hotel.

Carnevale was going on during the time I was there, so the city was flooded with tourists. Most of the tourists flock to Piazza San Marco. It's the center of the festival, but right on the sea. I'm sure you've seen it before. The opening scene of The Italian Job was shot there. Because of Carnevale, I was expecting the city to be exploding with life at night. My expectation didn't exactly align with reality. I went out to dinner with about thirteen or fourteen of my friends at a restaurant near...the river. I couldn't take you back to where it was because I really have no idea. Venice is an expensive city. The Venetians know how to make money off of tourists. If I recall correctly, I believe our group rang up a bill of about 350 Euro. Such a crime. After dinner we left the restaurant and searched for a sign of nightlife. We found a piazza with a DJ playing, but without any dancing to be found. So we invaded the piazza and claimed it for USAC**. Over the next few hours people started to follow our lead and we turned the sleepy Queen of the Adriatic into a bumping hotspot. Unfortunately, the night was cut short. Anything too noisy for the locals gets shut down around midnight. So we set out to explore the city and make our way back towards the hotel, which was on the other side of the city. We got lost a few times, but made it back eventually.

**USAC is the name of my study abroad program

On my second day in Venice, I ventured over with some friends to the glass blowing sector of the city. Venice is famous for it's glass. It was so cool. I saw a guy blow this amazing glass horse. It took him maybe a minute to make. I've never seen glassblowing in person, so it was a really cool experience for me.

On our way back to Torino from Venice we stopped off in Verona. Verona is probably most famous because it is where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes place. The town was actually really cool. If you were to imagine what a classic little Italian town would look like, it would be Verona. I was only there for about two and a half hours, and I was eating lunch for over half of that time. From what I saw, it seemed like it would have been a really cool place to explore. I wish I'd had more time there.

Juliet's Balcony

This Monday marks the beginning of my sixth week of class. WHAT?!? How did that happen? I have a final this week in my Intensive Elementary Italian course. And I have a midterm in my Modern Design class. I forgot that I was over here for class, I thought I was just on vacation. Non importante. Quando parlo italiano, tutto i ragazzi e le ragazze capisco. Non è vero, ma molto divertente per me. Ciao Americani, Google tradurre queste frasi. Il mio italiano non è perfetto, ma non c'è malle. Dieci minuti per scrivere questo in italiano.

Ok, I think I'm finished with this post. I'll throw in some cool pictures and call it a night. I'll have more insightful stories next time around, I promise.

Let's pump the brakes

I've almost been here a month. This is going by way too fast already! 27 out of my 180 days are already behind me. That's 15%

In my last post, my debit card had just been cancelled. I just got my new debit card yesterday. The week and a half in between was a little stressful. It was a challenge to figure out how to stretch the few Euros I had in cash to last until the unknown arrival of my new debit card. But, that segment of my trip is over, and hopefully never to be repeated. Knock on wood. Now that the dust has settled, I think it's safe to say that Bank of America sucks. They suck at allowing me to access my money. Which is the sole reason that I'm trusting them with it in the first place, right? Now I've got a new card. I'll be content with them until the next time something goes wrong, which will probably be in about two months. Did you know that B of A will only let you put a 90 day notification on your account saying that you're out of the country? Hey guys! I'm living over here! After that 90 days is up, I need to call to remind them that I'm still over here. In the case that someone else truly gets my card, I really hope they'll be as swift to shut down my account when someone else is using it as they are for me.

Two weekends ago I went over to Milan for the day to see a few sights and to watch Ac Milan play Cagliari. Milan had a few sights worth seeing, and it was definitely an amazing experience to see a Serie A Italian soccer game. The stadium they play in holds about 80,000 people. The stadium was surprisingly dirty and plain though. We sat on newspaper because our seats were crusted with dirt. It was very different from going to sports games in America. You go to watch the game. Nearly all the vending and decorations that I'm used to seeing at Giants games was absent. The stadium was truly gigantic and the game was very exciting, I'll definitely give it credit for that. Oh, and it was absolutely freezing! We were on the top row of the second deck and the wind was howling in from the Northern side of the stadium. During the day I went to see Il Duomo di Milano, which is one of the largest gothic cathedrals in the world. It took about six centuries to build. From front to back, it is the length of about 1 and 2/3 football fields. It was absolutely enormous and pictures really cannot capture it.

In front of Il Duomo

Inside il Duomo

AC Milan vs Cagliari

3 - 0

In the last week, the Earth's axis has tilted in a way that has placed Europe at the top of the world. Europe is the new North Pole. Santa has packed up his workshop and called U-haul (the reindeer are on their 364-day holiday, Christmas was over a month ago!) to move on over to somewhere in Central Europe. Now that Europe is on top of the world, it has launched from a mild winter to a harsh one. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. Only a little. Earth's axis may not have shifted (Yet! It's 2012!), but it is definitely very cold in Europe. Right now Europe is in the middle of one of the harshest cold snaps it has had in a long while. It snowed in Torino all last week, which was something new for me. I've never lived someplace where it snowed. It was fun...for about a day. Then I realized how much it sucked. It's way too cold all the time. I have a bunch of widgets on my Mac dashboard that show me temperatures of different locations. I have one for the location of each of my roommates back in chico. I'm in Italy. Brett is in Spain. Trevor is in Costa Rica. Nate is in Chico. Today's high temperature in Torino: 36°. Alicante, Spain: 50°. Chico, California: 66°. Heredia, Costa Rica: 77°. Who made the right decision? I can't wait for it to be summer. It's very cold over here right now. I just did a quick google search and now the death toll is around 400 over the past couple of weeks. Most of the reported deaths are homeless people, which is very sad. I feel very lucky to have a place to stay.

 - - On a side note, I was walking down Via Roma yesterday and there was a man walking in front of me. Let's call him Salvador. There was a homeless man sitting with his dog (which was wrapped in a blanket) about half a block ahead of us. Salvador started to slow and reach into his pocket as we approached the homeless man. I kept walking ahead, but I turned around and watched Salvador as he walked towards the homeless man and his dog. The dog started barking viciously as Salvador got closer. Salvador put a coin or two in the homeless man's hat. The dog kept barking as he walked away. Made me think.

This blog has been taking me a while to write. I've written it over the course of three days, I just can't seem to finish it! Last weekend, Bryan Steele and his buddy Reid came and stayed with me for two nights in Torino. We had a blast. It even stopped snowing when they got here. On Saturday, I traveled down with them and my friend Cory to the Cinque Terre. We stayed in Riomaggiore and it was absolutely deserted. There were only locals there. The Cinque Terre is not really a wintery place to visit. Most of it closes down in the winter. But it was still amazing to see, and we got to stay there for much cheaper than we would have if we had gone in the summer. I hope that I'll be able to go back when its warmer. I think the best way to describe the weekend was, "I feel like we got dealt a really good hand with nothing in the pot." Which was fine with me. I had a blast, and the photos are phenomenal. The first night we got there, we picked up a few Birra Morettis and climbed out onto the rocks to watch the sunset.

We were only able to walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. From Manarola we took the train to Monterosso al Mare. There was a lot of damage from the flooding that happened a few months ago. If you haven't heard of it you should go check out videos on YouTube. It's really scary. We went out to dinner our first night there at a little restaurant on the water called La Lanterna. It was delicious. I had Pesto Gnocchi and a plate of pasta. I thought that was a good meal, but the meal we had our second night somehow managed to eclipse it. We went shopping on Saturday so that we could make dinner Sunday, and we went all out. We found these delicious sausages at a shop in town and we picked up 3 bags of pasta. Cory, Reid, and Bryan cooked up an amazing feast, and we did just that. We feasted and talked and told stories for about 3 and a half hours on Sunday.

THIS is Riomaggiore. When I did a google search for my last blog, I accidentally posted a picture of Manarola. What an amateur.

View from my apartment in Riomaggiore

Lunch in Monterosso

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately and I was absoulutely exhausted after I got back on Monday. My train back to Torino was delayed for about an hour and a half due to electrical problems. We were stuck in the middle of no where. The Italian train system is notorious for their tardiness. But we made it back to Torino eventually. And that's what matters.

Ok, well I've got class in a few minutes now, and I think I've dragged this blog out long enough. Until next time, Ciao.

Shout out to Mom! Thanks for all the help, I know you were stressing about me starving or getting stranded somewhere in Europe.