How to stay under budget

-Wake up early in Ravenna and eat the hostel's free breakfast of lunch meat, bread, spreadable cheese, hard boiled eggs and jam. Consider making a sandwich in secret to eat later, but reconsider because in the whole dining room it's just you and Kate. €0

-Take the train, which your pass covers, to Bologna. You walk to the train station. €0

-Hop on a bus to the Ducati factory. Italy never checks for bus tickets, so you don't buy one. €0

-Take the free tour of the museum at the Ducati factory. Touch/pose with the bikes, ignoring the bilingual signs saying not to. Hop back on the bus to the town center. Don't pay again. €0

-Walk the streets, and go in the basilica. Wait for someone else to put 20 cents in the machine to light up the fresco depicting Dante's "Inferno." €0

-Go to crowded pizza place and get two slices of cheese pizza and a can of Pepsi. Ask for Pepsi Light, but shake your heah when the woman says something while rubbing her thumb and forefinger together. Watch Kate eat her artichoke and zucchini slice. €5 total

-Find a gelateria. Have a few tastes of Kate's but let her eat most of it since A) You had twice the pizza she did, and B) You don't feel like gelato. €2

-Go in the first Italian H&M you've seen, but leave because women's clothes won't replace your increasingly hole-y jeans. €0

-Stop at random tent celebrating 100 yeas of Baci candy. Nod and simle as they speak to you in Italian. Take the free sample. €0

-Train it back to Ravenna. €0

-Go to gro sto for sandwich stuff for dinner. €9 total

-With leftover olive oil potato chips and Edam cheese, make world's weirdest nachos. (included with dinner)

-Go to bed. €15

The end is nigh

Today marks the halfway point of our European travels. There will be an extravagant celebration, consisting of a meal that isn't surrounded by bread and hand-held.

We're heading to a small medieval village today, so I don't expect there will be any Internet for a while.

There are, once again, a million people queued up behind me for the computers.

Highway to Hell

All the guide books tell you, 'line up for the Vatican museum early.' So what do we do, like the sheep we are? We line up early (also, we were up early and had nothing else to do).

We wait from about 9 am, get in the place at 11. We ask the guy selling tickets if there is a student discount. There is, but you have to be from the EU, or under 18.
Ticket Guy: How old are you?
Me (lying): 20.
Ticket Guy: 18?
Me (lying more): Yes, her too. Two please.

So we lied to the Vatican to save €5 each. That, apparently, is the price I've put on my soul.

And the worst part, as we leave the museum at about 1 pm, we pass the entrance. There was one guy walking in.

No line.

Under the Tuscan rain

Sigh. We walked about 4 miles through the rain. Then took the bus back (which we totally didn't pay for - suck it Florence train system) only to find that the sun came out 5 minutes later. Sundays suck in Europe because everything is either closed or closes early. Tomorrow, museums are closed, so David will have to wait until Tuesday.

Rome was great. More on that when people aren't queued up behind me giving me dirty looks. I can feel their looks.

Buon giornio

Italia!

After a week of not having Internet, I have Internet (as you may have gleaned from these words), though it is slow and crowded so don't expect much. Budapest was fantastically cheap and a very lovely city. Salzburg was a'ight. Then came Venice, which was a lot of fun except for when I got eaten alive by mozzies (that's what my Aussie friend called mosquitoes). I heard one buzzing around in my room, and no matter how much I thrashed about in the dark, I could not hit her, so I ducked my head under the covers to avoid having her see me.

One problem... I get hot easily and breathing under the covers makes me even hotter. So I tucked the sheet over my ears but just below my mouth. I shaved the next night to reveal about a dozen bites all over my cheeks, which explains the itching. Or is this just an elaborate story to hide the truth about my horrible acne? It's not. She got fat off eating my face.

I saw glass blowers on Merona, lace on Burona, and of course gondolas and tourists on Venice proper. At night, Venice is very nice and empty. Four of us walked the streets, getting lost, and seeing the sights devoid of the throngs that feed the flying rats in St Mark's Square.

So now I'm in Rome (doing as the Romans do). We'll be seeing Kate's mom tomorrow, which is very exciting. I really love meeting up with people. I've done it a lot in the past couple of weeks as fellow travelers happen to be in the same places I am at the same time. I may even see Kerryn (the Aussie who called my bites "mozzy bites") for a third time in Barcelona.

I'm so continental.

(Happy late bday Lisa. Sorry I didn't have Internet and/or wasn't in LA. Hope it was a grand affair.)

D'oh, a deer

So I can no longer say I haven't seen "The Sound of Music." At our hostel in Salzburg, Austria, they played it every night at 8. I stayed away the first two nights, but on the third, Derek was with us and it was always on when he was a kid because of his older sister (much like "Little House on the Prairie," Athena!). So when we came back from the Chinese buffet (quite a deal after a day of no food in the ice caves... that's right... ice caves) at 8:15, we wandered over to where the movie was played and sat near the front.

We didn't mock it exactly, but we managed to make inappropriate comments fairly regularly (it's hard not to... that's what she said). So I sat for 3 hours, watching Julie Andrews prance around Salzburg, singing songs that were vaguely familiar with children who apparently learned to sing in all of 2 minutes and a man who looked a lot like Kevin Klien. Then we returned other people's beer steins to the reception and collected the deposit they had paid. I made €2 just for picking up empty glasses after the movie. See, in Germany and Austria, they charge a deposit for drinks since you can walk anywhere with them (it's like Vegas). At the hostel, it was 30 cents, and a lot of the old people there (and there were a lot) didn't know or care that they could get a refund. I knew. And I cared.

Soak it!

Today, Justin, Kate and I went to one of the famous baths here. It was superfantastic. For weeks I've been sore, tired and ache-y. After a soak in a mineral bath, a 38 degree (all temps are in Celcius on this blog post) tub complete with massaging waterfall, normal swimming pool and 30 degree bubble/whirlpool swimming pool, 80 degree sauna followed by a dunk in a 16 degree pool (which feels ice-cold after sweating in a sauna for 5 minutes), I feel pretty good. That chain was then reversed before a shower and kebab.

Justin (a Kiwi who is currently on a night train to Transylvania) and I (Kate was outside getting sun because it hurt her to breathe in the sauna) met a guy from Budapest (a rotund man with excellent English who teaches at the local university) in the 16-degree pool who told us we had to jump in all the way under twice, then stand with our hands under the water line before going back into the sauna for 5 more minutes then plunging back into the icy deep (it was about waist high actually, but bear with me).

If you didn't Google it, 80 is "rest of the world" code for 176 degrees Fahrenheit and 16 is 65, which, after 176 feels like negative infinity.

It was a nice afternoon of pampering, which will be immediately followed by more abusing of feet, backs, minds and patience while on the seven-hour train ride to Salzburg.

Beauty

I found myself in Europe's largest synagogue today, which makes it the second largest one in the world. After going through the metal detector and bag search I've grown accustomed to when visiting Jewish sights, I heard something seeping out from inside.

Just past the door, standing in the back of this massive room there was an old woman singing. After a few seconds I realized she was just a visitor like me, but her singing filled the hall so that even the tour groups sitting down near the front were turned around looking in our direction. Her song was in Italian. Maybe. I'm sure it wasn't Hebrew and I don't think it was Hungarian, and after a few minutes a woman I imagine was her daughter, who was not dissimilar looking from my mom, led her slowly away.

But her song wasn't finished, and as she walked to the door she continued, in a slightly softer voice and met my eye through the crowd from 20 feet away. She sang to me. For me. I was holding my left elbow with my right hand and my chin with my left as she continued for more than 30 seconds.

Her song lasted for a few minutes and she got applause she didn't want when she left the room, which even with the clapping and resumed conversations was oddly silent without her voice. Her face is already fading from my memory, and I never knew what she was singing or why, but I can't imagine ever forgetting it.

10% 15% of Kate's pictures

[Note: Kate added more pictures since I posted this. If you didn't see me with the bones, check it again]

Seriously, there's free Internet and no one here to kick us off. I've been on for about three hours. Kate uploaded a lot of pictures from her camera. By the end of the trip, combined, we'll have about 7000 pictures. Mostly of funny signs and weird European products. Like Snickers Spread. It's peanut butter, chocolate and caramel swirls. Here's pictures from her lens, some of which were taken by me, most of which are of her. Flickr pictures

New Best Chip Ever

(I wrote this months ago, didn't post it, and just found it cause there's free Internet and literally no one here to kick me off the computer. So here it is. Unrelated to travel in every way. My life 6 months ago.)


Move over Nachos. Step aside Frito Honey Barbecue Twists. Good bye memories of Salsa Rios. There's a new king of the flavored chips in the form of Kettle Chips' new flavor, Spicy Thai.

The sweet combination of ginger paired with a spicy red pepper had chip fan Zac Dillon calling them, "ridiculously delicious." Dillon went on to question the chips' location his whole life.

The offbeat taste came about when Kettle Chips, the company known for almost stale- tasting, thick, crunchy potato chips, were dared to take on the flavors of "Thai cuisine's complex balance of flavor.

The chip is already a hit in the Los Angeles- based Allied division of Ascend Media, having been introduced to the company by the third- floor café early Wednesday.

It's availability in places that sell Kettle Chips has it poised to take back a share of the market that had been giving way to healthy, less flavorful snacks.

(Now I kind of want these chips. Sigh. I've been doing that to myself a lot lately. Mostly with ranch dressing and free refills of soda. And Mexican food. Double sigh.)

Zac: Now with 50% more pants

After a week or so of having two pairs of hole-y pants (both in the same, not great place for holes) I went to an H&M in Vienna for some new duds. They're gray, kind of plain, but now I have three pairs of pants and one of them only has the leg and waist holes. Sweet. I still can't part with my jeans though.

I used these new, holeless pants to go to the Opera in Vienna because I'm classy like that. When we went to the ticket counter on Friday, I asked the guy (after asking if he sprecken sie English) if there were tickets for the Saturday show. He said, "There are tickets for 157 euro, 127 euro, and 9 euro partially obstructed."

I immediately, and with the class only a man with a hole in his pants can muster (I had yet to purchase them), asked "How obstructed."

We'd be able to see more than half the stage he said, which is a lot more than half the opera I'd seen in the first 24.5 years of my life, so we did it. By coincidence, the photo from Wikipedia is practically from our seat. Had the photographer looked right, you'd be able to see the stage. Or at least, more than half of it.

The opera was by Puccini, and tomorrow night is La Boheme, but we couldn't justify staying in an expensive town with little to do for an extra two nights just so I could see the opera that we'd heard of (if only because it was the basis of "RENT").

"Manon Lescault" is about a girl who falls in love with a student but then leaves him (between acts, creating a jarring scene change) for a rich man. She then wants the poor kid and the rich man, has them concurrently for a short time (5 minutes probably) then gets arrested and banished to the deserts of Louisiana where she and the kid (who like a whipped moron followed her into exile) die.

Actually, he lives. But the moral of the story is: women should die in the desert? I don't really know. It was cool though because each seat had little screens the size of an iPod that displayed subtitles in German or English on the rail in front of them. I opted for English.

In Budapest now. For dinner I had pork with bacon and croquettes. So good. And cheap. I feel like a millionaire. My dinner was 1590ft (not long, that's their money). I also just bought a bottle of wine that cost 257! I bet it's a really good.

It gets dark early here because we're so far east, but still in the same time zone. It's strange, and since it's Sunday pretty much everything is closing down. Luckily, they have free Internet here and satellite TV.

For more information on the opera house where Mozart debuted "Don Giovanni," click the following link. The Wiener Staatsoper

Freebies!

In Austria, the going rate for Internet is €2 for a half an hour. Yesterday I found myself in the Austrian equivalent of a Best Buy and saw a display of Macs. Goodie for me, I thought, I finally get to touch a Mac again. Then I thought, this may have the Internet. It does. Sweetness.

So this blog is brought to you by the letters F R E E. We also just booked our hostel in Budapest and found out what time the train will take us there (11:52 seems like a good choice).

I'd also like to ask how much people think I look like this man:


I'm not being super arrogant or anything, and I don't really agree, but in the last 2 months I've had three (3) people tell me I look like Colin Farrell. First was the wonderful Frank Long, or FLong to his fans. But I blew him off because Frank always says nice things to people. Then in Raleigh, one of the groomsmen's girlfriend's, apropos of nothing, asked if I was Irish because I look like Colin Farrell. Finally, yesterday (or zesterdaz since the Austrian kezboard is like the German one) this British guy, Sam, we were hanging out with, leaned to his friend and asked "doesn't he look like Colin Farrell?" His friend thought so too.

Country Roads, Take Me Home

David is shocked that the band is playing a John Denver song. "To a place, I belong." West Virginia? How do they know this song? Those blond kids in the back. Gorgeous German people. They're all 15. They told me I was old. I mean, I know I am, but ouch German kids. Ouch.

Wanted: Beer drinker

Must be able to drink several of these, talk to locals, Prost to everything (including once to USC - if only to hear a Trojan give a hearty "Go Bruins"), tip too much, and sing along to all songs, in English and German. Basically, Zac found his calling.

Someone wants a new job

Beer maid wanted. Must be able to carry 17 of these steins at once, speak German, and not mind drunk people when you are sober. Basically, Kate need not apply.

Your town's name here-er

In Berlin we drank Berliner Kindl. A great beer that cost 65 cents for a half liter bottle at the gro sto. We went to Dresden with a friend from Berlin and at first joked, then actually found and drank, Dresdener. Munich of course has Muchener, so we were looking for Fussener. Neuschwansteiner is the closest thing, and assuming it doesn't break in my bag, I can show you the bottle in December. Or in two weeks since I'll be seeing you in Italy, Merryl.

Not really laughing...

More like scoffing in the face of danger. At least I think it said danger. I don't really speak German.

No dragons though

Castle Neuschwanstein (Lisa, translate that please) just outside Fussen. This was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland. Ludwig, the king who commissioned it, was crazy, but he had a nice house and was king, so that's more than I've got going. We met someone at our hostel and hiked about an hour up the Alps to get views of the valley below. We were incredibly lucky because the next day was raining like no one's business.


T

Freedom

These are some shots of the East Side Gallery, the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still standing. For nearly 20 years local artists have been decorating it with murals, messages and whatever else they feel like. This is the side of the wall that faced the east and amazingly,the locals just walk by it without looking up. Notice your world people, it's the place to be.

Aussie Aussie Ozzy!

Hanging out with Aussies in Berlin, they took us to see an Australian rap group they heard about. Once at the club, they found out it was the Hilltop Hoods, the biggest rap group in Australia. On stage with them, they had a string quartet, which gave them an amazing sound. All the Aussies I've met since (which is a lot) are jealous that we saw them in a small venue for only 6 euro. I really love Berlin.

He's still cute, Colbert

Despite warnings from the Colbert Report, Knut is still cute. You may recall his story from last Christmas at the Berlin zoo. He's such a ham.

Berliner Kindls!

This was us on the pub crawl in Berlin, waiting for the U Bahn train, which we would ride but never pay for. On the right is Nicolas, a guy we met on our bike tour. With ruffled hair is Rachael (original Rachael from Melbourne) then with Kate are the Irish boys from Cork, aka, the boys-aka, the lads. Tall in blue is Chris, in white is Jon, and in Orange, I'm not lying, is Paddy O'Conner. The boys were great times, and the reason that I had an Irish accent at the end of the night. The four of us were planning on clubbing until 6 am. I think we only made it till about 2. Not pictured: New Rachael, David, Liz, Lawrence, Kylie and others.