EuroTrip Part II: Italy and Munich

Ahh…yes…so here goes the rest of my blog entry. We arrived in Rome at about 11pm at night. We were immediately bombarded by Italian women begging us to stay at their hostel. They just pointed to a piece of paper and couldn’t speak a word of English. Thinking I was doing us a favor, I had booked a hotel just a few miles from the airport. Unfortunately, the hostel these women were trying to get us to stay at wasn’t the hostel we had booked. However, I thought we could use them to find out how to get to ours. Since the women couldn’t speak any English, Nat somehow ended up on the phone with their boss. He kept repeating “NO! We have a hostel already! We just don’t know where it is!” Finally, he got off the phone. We stepped outside into the Italian night to find buses for 4 Euro that went straight to the heart of Rome. But our hostel, of course, was smack in the middle of nowheresland. We asked multiple bus drivers, taxi drivers, random people, and yes, even policemen how to get to our hostel. They all said it was only a few miles down the road (if they knew where it was at all) but that “You can’t walk! It is dangerous!” Of course, Nat wanted to walk. But Aunt Arlene, you will be happy to know that I refused. Hitchhiking however, seemed a MUCH safer option. So we came up with a plan…we would go up to people and ask if they knew how to get to our hostel and then hope that the directions were so confusing that they would say, “Oh, just hop in and we’ll give you a ride” (but in Italian, of course!). Our plan was not working out too well. I told Nat we should just take the taxi…it’s almost midnight and we need a decent sleep. Then I looked over and spotted some young backpackers and pointed them out to Nat. He took off. And to make a long story short, they gave us a ride to our hostel. I woke up the next morning with some “bug bites” on my face and some on my shoulder. I was pissed but I knew my Mom was always right when she told me I had “sweet blood”…

Our hostel was literally in the middle of nowhere. We started walking past fields and came upon a public pool. We went inside to get some water and asked how to get to the train station. We were told to go “destra, sinistra” but lucky for body language, we understood that to be right, then left. But soon, we seemed to have gone a little too far and assumed we were lost. We yelled behind some gate into some guy’s yard “Hey! Where’s the train station?!?!” He responded, “right there.” Oh. 25 feet further, there it was. We were lucky to find an English speaking nurse waiting there at the station who explained that it’s Sunday so you don’t have to pay for the train because “where could you buy the ticket?”. We didn’t argue with that. Once we arrived in Rome I had to go to the bathroom and had planned to meet Nat right where I left him. Of course every magazine stand looks the same so 30 minutes later, when Nat still wasn’t there, I went to the police (which were right next to another magazine stand…the one I was SUPPOSED to meet at…oops...my bad…). And I STILL hadn’t gone to the bathroom because it cost money and Nat had my purse and…long story…anyway we found a McDonald’s right outside the station and got on line for the bathroom. In front of me was an Israeli girl named Karen who basically became our best friend. After finding the conditions of the McDonald’s bathroom unsatisfactory, we went off together in search of a bathroom suitable for us to pee in. We soon found one. Having Karen around was great! She spoke English AND Italian and she was super cool! She showed us her map and her little guide book and asked if we wanted to go with her to some museum. We told her we only had one day so we had to see the most important stuff. She then went on to tell us how much she loved her little guidebook and had bought it for 4 Euro. Then she looked up at us with these big puppy dog eyes and as if someone had forced her, she reluctantly held out her guidebook and said, “Do you want it?”. Of course not, Karen! We couldn’t possibly take your most prized Roman possession! And that was the last we ever saw of her. Some people just come into your life and leave footprints….or something like that…

Anyway, so we saw the Colosseum, Vatican City, some other crumbled down old things, fountains, ate pizza and gelato and just had a great Italian day. In the Vatican City, I couldn’t get into the church because my shoulders weren’t covered. So I waited outside for Nat and when he came out he thought I just had to see it so he took off his shirt and gave it to me but then I couldn’t get in because my shorts were too short…so we just gave up. You would think I was dressed like some kind of prostitute or something but no, just a tank top and work out shorts…who would’ve thought?!

On our way home that night we saw the Italian sunset and got to bed early. After all, we had a 6am flight to catch (you see why I got us a hostel close to the airport?! :-) to Venice!

Rome:













Look, Danielle!:

We arrived in Venice around 8:30am. By 9:15am, we were done. Venice, it’s true, is a beautiful city. It’s unique, it’s exquisite, it’s lovely…but it’s not FUN. After getting over the cool factor that there are no streets here, only rivers, and no cars, only boats, there’s just nothing else to do but eat and go into little shops where they sell glass things and masks. Just shopping and eating which two poor Jewish kids can’t afford to do…so we did what anyone in our position would do…we slept on a park bench…for 4 hours. We did have some delicious pasta for dinner and then sat by a river. There were two girls sitting near us…they looked about 18 or 19 and were obviously American…and they looked…a little bit…bored. We looked around and realized that everyone looked bored. We looked at each other and had the same thought. No one here is having fun! So, again, we did what anyone in our position would do, we went around interviewing people on “The Truth About Venice”. I’m sure Nat will post some videos since they are all on his camera. We then were so pissed we didn’t think of doing this earlier because it was really fun! So we went to the train station to wait for our night train to Munich. At the station were 2 hippy guys strumming their guitar and singing horrible songs with a sign that said “1 Euro for us to stop singing”. I told Nat to go offer them a “business proposition”; tell them you will join their band but they have to give you half the profits (which were a hefty…none.). So he did and they agreed and Nat broke into “Hit me Baby one more time” or at least what he knew of it which was basically “Andd I….”. But in any case, he got a loud applause and it was quite funny!

Finally, we hopped on the night train. We found out we had really cool neighbours (a girl and a guy who were cousins too!). But our suitemates…not so cool. They thought it was “cold” in our bunk when I was basically dying of heat pouring water on myself. So I just turned into a total bitch and said, “Well I’m gonna pass out so I’m leaving”, stormed out, and sat outside. HAHA. Luckily they got off soon and I could lay in the air conditioning for a bit. Ahhhh. I showed Nat all the new bug bites I had…on my hands…arms…legs. He said, “Marissa…there are no bugs in here.” And then I realized…these weren’t bug bites! I had the plague! I’m a leper! Ughhh. But once we got back to Nat’s place and I googled a bit, I realized I had hives! Whewww. I treated my hives, took a shower, and slept. My time in Munich was very relaxing. I slept in everyday. I watched episodes of Desperate Housewives. I went to Dachau concentration camp which was a quite hectic, though. Just to stand in the crematorium where the ovens are and see the pictures, it’s just so weird. No matter how many times I learn about the Holocaust or see a picture or see a movie, it still shocks me and gives me chills. Munich, on the other hand, although it has a bit of a dark past, is a beautiful city! I definitely want to go back there someday!


If a woman has her bow tied to the right, she is taken. If it's tied to the left, she might have a boyfriend...she might not...you might get lucky...you just don't know. If it's tied in the middle, sorry...she's taken (or she's 5)! (PS. Look at Nat in the corner!):

"Work Sets You Free" (gates at Dachau):



Ovens at Dachau:






Someone put beer cans in his hand:


After I had my fill of pretzels and German people, I hopped on a plane back to Heathrow. But once I got to customs, I was interrogated. I was so nervous. The customs agent asked me so many questions but I finally got through and home to Donovan. I don’t think I can leave the UK again because I definitely won’t get in! I am still recovering from my “mini” Euro-trip but had a great time. On Monday, Martha and Graham come! I’m so excited! More stories to come! Cheers everyone!

Cousins take on Europe: London and Paris

Hi everyone! I can't believe Nat is letting me blog on his blog---so exciting! Instead of doing one huge blog, since I love pictures I'm going to do two. Here is the first one---

I don’t want this blog post to uncover Nat’s deepest darkest secrets but I must say, after spending 10 straight days with him, I have found him to be…kind of…sort of…a little bit of…normal. Of course, when he made me grab his forearm and say “truth and honor” in a British accent when I left Germany, I thought this hint of normalcy was merely the side effect of an exhausting trip. And by exhausting, I mean walking 30 miles a day in the blistering sun. In fact, I got so exhausted that I broke out into hives; something I’ve never done before! At first, I thought they were bug bites! But as my hives scab, my somewhat non-existent tan starts to fade, and I sit here in a blue sundress I bought in Paris, I begin to take my head out of the clouds (just for a moment) and realize exactly what I’ve just experienced…

Since Nat landed at 11pm at an airport that was an hour from our house, I picked him up in a cab since Donovan had to get up at 4am for work. The cab ride there was unenjoyable as I felt obligated to force conversation with the young Pakistani driver. But once we arrived at the airport, I saw Nat right away and we hopped into the cab and back to our house. We spent the next day in London. We saw the London Eye, Big Ben, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Picadilly Circus, Covent Garden and the London Dungeon. Everything was pretty much as we expected except for London Bridge. We all know the song “London Bridge is falling down….falling down…falling down…” Well, as mean as this may sound…I don’t think it would be such tragedy. London Bridge is the most boring, normal bridge ever. TOWER BRIDGE, however, is awesome! We came to the conclusion that the guy who designed London Bridge had brilliant marketing skills and the guy who designed Tower Bridge thought that his design would speak for itself…but unfortunately…it didn’t. But that’s ok…because now we are going to try and spread the truth about Tower Bridge—it’s awesome! And London Bridge—it’s not!

I’m not sure how often the changing of the guard is but we got there approximately 30 seconds before it began. Impeccable timing!

London Dungeon is kind of like a Disney ride…you wait in line for 3 hours and then go on rides and live actors scare you. It was fun though! As we arrived back at our train station, in typical London fashion, it was raining. We got to sleep around midnight or so and three hours later, we were up! We had accomplished London in a day and were ready to take on Paris!

London Bridge (booooringggg):


Tower Bridge (awesome!):


RIP Princess Di:


Soldiers at Buckingham Palace:


Big Ben:


Buckingham Palace:


Cute little girl scouts at Buckingham Palace:


London Eye:


We arrived in Paris around 8:30am. Our first task was to buy tickets for the train to get into Paris central. Of course the machine that you buy tickets from only took change. And the change machine didn’t take anything bigger than a 10. After getting some random people to exchange our money, we put it all in the machine. The machine then told us “money time-out”…and it broke. After finding a worker and getting our tickets, we finally got on the train. Our first stop was Notre Dame Cathedral. Afterwards we just wandered around the streets, not seeing many people. Apparently, Paris is a pretty “late” city. We wandered around some more…and some more…saw the place where they have the Tour de France, some other monuments, some parks, got some snacks, and wandered around some more. We finally ended up at the Louvre Museum. We saw the Mona Lisa, among some other famous works of art…all pictured below.

After wandering through the museum in a haze we found ourselves sitting at a computer clicking through pages filled with French. We looked at each other and realized that we were using this French computer as an excuse to sit down. We then turned our heads to the right and saw a leather couch. So we sat…an hour later, I opened my eyes and realized I had just taken a nap in the Louvre. I looked over at Nat who was still sleeping. Before waking him up, I of course, took this picture...

Feeling refreshed we started to make our way to our hostel. Our hostel was beautiful. It was called Aloha Hostel and was painted in bright colors (pinks, greens, oranges…) and was very clean. We had two Italian roommates (a young couple). We ate dinner at the “Pasta Bar” a quaint little pasta restaurant where you eat outside. Of course accompanied by little chiwawa dogs. Cute little dogs were everywhere in Paris. I’m pretty sure Paris is the city of the cutest dogs. Every shop has a dog and every person is walking a dog. Nat said he never noticed dogs until I pointed them out. He said I had a 6^th dog sense…and well, yea I kinda do. I just love dogs and I can’t help it. Paris is also the city of pink toilet paper (I guess white isn’t good enough for the French). When we got back to the hostel, I hit my bed and was out cold. The next morning after breakfast we went to the Eiffel Tower. We climbed to the top and it was really really cool. Whoever said the Eiffel Tower was over-rated was over-rated themself. The Eiffel Tower is under-rated!

As in most touristy places, there are Indian guys who sell illegal souvenirs made in China which undercut the pricey gift shops by a lot! I bought a few Eiffel tower keychains from them and a lighter for Donovan. They carry around big silver metal rings and hang the keychains from them. A few minutes later, I heard what sounded like a stampede…and jingle bells at the same time. Sprinting past us was about 20 Indian guys with their keychain rings followed by police men on bikes. It was pretty hilarious.

We looked at our map and realized we had pretty much seen everything we wanted so we decided to find the “Bastille” monument. After we took a picture we sat down on a bench and realized…we needed a nap. We found some church, sat in a pew, and slept for an hour. It was great. Afterward we made our way to Nat’s friend’s apartment, a gorgeous place in the middle of Paris. She and her friend and her friend’s cousin were there and we all went to a restaurant to eat crepes. The “hole in the wall” place we went to had apparently the best crepes in Paris. We were not so impressed. But in any case, I somehow convinced Nat to actually take public transport (the train) back to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night and then walk to our hostel (not far from there) afterward. Mind you, the rest of the day that we weren’t looking at Bastille (approximately 5 minutes), taking a nap in a church (approximately an hour), or climbing the Eiffel Tower (approximately 2 hours), we were walking. I had blisters on my big toe, blisters on my pinky toe, blisters on both my heels…but no hives yet so I was in pretty good condition. Anyway, the Eiffel Tower at night was even more impressive! There is a video of the light show below…every hour it happens!

Bar in the Eiffel Tower:

Check out that bird!:



At the crepe restaurant:




View from Nat's friends' window:



Bob L'sponge:


French music festival:



Me on top of the Eiffel Tower:


Dogs everywhere!


My butt inprint from sleeping at the Louvre:



Nat napping at the Louvre:











A statue with a broken arm:


Yummy French deserts:


The refuge from the Tour de France (a week prior):


Notre Dame window:


Notre Dame Cathedral:



Video of the Eiffel Tower night light show:

We went back to our hostel, not sure of what time we were leaving for Rome the next morning. Turns out, our flight was scheduled for the next EVENING! We had an entire third day in Paris. But we had done everything! So the next day we took it easy, laid in the Eiffel Tower park, wandered around some more, found an air conditioned mall to wander in, took our bus to the airport and flew Ryan Air to Rome! Paris—could be done in 1 ½ days…we had to stretch it out to 3 days…but 1 ½ could have sufficed.

Our Roman adventures began pretty much the second we landed…the next post will reveal the scandals and experiences in Italia.

# 23

Yesterday I was paid the greatest compliment a man can recieve - "You look like Don Mattingly with that mustache."

I just needed to get that out there into the open.

Check back soon for part one of my cousin's bound to be picture-centric report on our European adventures, and don't forget to go here to read my version, which I will be posting within the next few days.

Did Ya?

Journalism class, sophomore year of high school. Danny Roy is in the back, his infectious laughter overpowering the suffocating presence of Jim Brown. I'm to his right, near Paul Duval and Ricky Medina. Ryan Paxton's girlfriend is there, along with many other faces, each faded into the oblivion of memories long forgotten.

Class was highly collaborative, and over the course of the year many of us became quite good friends, if only in-class friends. There were both more athletes and more free time in J-1 than in most of my other courses, and with the first ten minutes devoted to reading the newspaper we obviously got caught up in many discussions involving sports. I recall one of these more vividly than the rest.

Ricky Medina and I were talking about baseball, or more accurately, home runs. I was about 5'4" at the time and tipped the scales somewhere just south of 110 lbs, so I had yet to hit a ball out of the ballpark, even in batting practice. But I was starting to grow and had just begun to hit the gym, and in my mind the dinger was imminent. I promised to let him know as soon as I went deep in a ballgame.

Well Rickey Medina, I did it. I hit a two-out, three-run, game winning home run on Sunday to give the Boars a 7-4 win. And although we lost touch long ago I'm here fulfilling my promise. Let's just hope this blog pops up the next time you're bored enough to Google yourself.


Oh, and I'm currently on a mini Euro-Trip with my cousin Marissa. She will be guest posting on my blog for the duration of our trip, and I on hers. Come check out my version of our adventures at www.futurerissstar.blogspot.com. And of course don't forget to enjoy her less skewed, less interesting version right here.

Bumper Cars

I went on the bumper cars today and it was INCREDIBLE.

That could have been a little twitterish had I only posted one sentence, but I hate twitter more than I hate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I hate that bitch, so let me give you a little bit more of a post.

There is one thing here in Germany that I think is absolutely ridiculous and bothers me incredibly:

They don't have air conditioning here, and that's okay, because it rarely gets above 80 degrees. Because of this people need to keep their windows open, which is also fine. This is not the problem. The problem is that despite having an abnormal amount of bugs and insects flying around, THEY DON'T HAVE SCREENS. I don't even understand it. It's completely nonsensical and pisses me off.

Anyway, look forward to something a little longer and more creative in the next week or so and an interesting look at my upcoming mini Euro-trip.

A Minyan of Gentiles

I promised you a few stories about Jason's stay in Germany. Here goes:

Jason arrived on a Thursday evening, a few days before the Boars were set to play an away doubleheader on Sunday. That night we wandered around Munich and stumbled upon the Hofbrauhaus, where we dined. Since I had Saturday off, and because I'm a baller, I already had a date for Jason on Friday night. The plan was to meet up at 11 PM with some nice young ladies at the Americanos Bar, home of Picture Book Style II.

Two stops before we were to get off the train, Jason and I were confronted by the train police, who really aren't police at all. Neither of us had tickets, of course, and we did a pretty good job of playing ignorant. I had alerted Jason to the possibility of being stopped and had prepared him for the proper course of action, but when the train police took us to the real police I almost lost him. Usually the train police simply input your false information into a little machine. These train police did not have a little machine, and therefore had to take us to the real police, who apparently did. I told Jason to stay calm, and after about 45 minutes of the German Police trying to scare us by talking amongst themselves in German, we were let go, our only fine being that we had to buy the ticket we should theoretically have purchased in the first place. We left the station and asked for directions to the bar, only to find out we got off at the wrong stop. Our real stop had been 4 stops earlier, and had we gotten off at Ostbanoff instead of Hauptbanoff we never would have run into the fake police.

We had a good time at the bar and expected a ride home, but when it was time to go at 4 AM we were left to get home by our own devices. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, as I would simply drive. But this is Germany, I don't have a car, the train stops running at 2:30, and we were out of money for a cab. So we hitchhiked.

Ha! Gotcha Mom! We didn't hitchhike, although I wish we had. Instead, we spent an hour and a half falling asleep at the train station while waiting for the 5:30 AM train home.

Over the course of the next week or so Jason and I had several mini adventures. We went to the English Garden and saw the river surfers. We visited the Dauchau Memorial and wrote a script for a short sketch comedy film. I put two completely opposite things in one sentence and attached them with an and. We watched You Don't Mess With The Zohan. Allow me to expound upon one of our other adventures.

One night - I believe it was Wednesday night - Jason, Kacee and I went out into Munich to really do up the Hofbrauhaus. Jason and I had merely stumbled upon it the first time and were without cameras, so he desperately wanted to go back. Within 20 minutes of our arrival we had made about 13 new friends. There was the father and son from Buffalo, the three buddies from Ireland, and the eight college exchange students from various parts of the U.S. We had a phenomenal time, and when the Hofbrauhaus closed at midnight we had a minyan of gentiles following us to Max and Moritz, a bar we were not allowed into even though we had spent 30 minutes looking for it. After Captain Steroid refused us admission to the worst club in Munich and our followers began to dissipate, Jason and I followed a few of the exchange students back to their hostel bar where we stayed for a little while before catching the last train home.

The next day my coach was fired, and while I went into the city to support him and Kacee in their attempt to forget, Jason met up with one of our friends from the night before. I had a good time in my role as adult supervisor, but I had to leave early to meet up with Jason, who was leaving early the next morning and needed to get home at a reasonable hour. At the appropriate time, I called Jason and planned to meet him at the train station to catch the next train home. 3 minutes before said train was set to arrive I called him again, and 3 seconds before said train was set to depart I saw him sprinting down the corridor, yelling at me to "GET ON THE TRAIN!" I did and he did and we were both ecstatic that we didn't have to spend another evening at the station.

On our way home he taught me the Johnnie Walker, which I will not explain except to say that it is probably the coolest thing ever.

Sorry for the delay, the length of the post, and its general lack of focus. I promise better next time.