Home!

Last time I posted I was still in Rome, and now, approximately 26 hours of train riding later, I am in my home town Neubeckum in north-west Germany!

Well, train riding :). To everybody who is tempted to use the Eurail pass like I do to get around cheaply in Europe, beware there's a couple of catches they don't advertise too much. First of all, if you're older than 25, you have to buy the 1st class version, which is a good chunk pricier. But, the real kicker is that for any fast train, you are obliged to buy a seat reservation upfront. Thoswe can range from 4 Euro (Vienna->Dortmund) to 30 Euro (Rome->Vienna), anf getting them is an art in itself. Because, you can't really get a reservation other than in the city that the train will leave from. For my reservation of Milan->Rome I talked to ticket counter people in Nice (France), Ventimiglia (Italy) and finally Milan. Only there they could sell it to me.

The night train ride from Rome to Vienna was also, well, a bit questionable. Imagine a train compartment that's so small that you have to interweave your opposing neighbor's knees in order not to bang into them. Then put 6 people into said compartment. Then try to get any sleep. And add 3 hours of delays to the already 13 hour train ride, partially because a train passenger had a bed fall on his head, and they had ambulance guys jump over the tracks in a tiny train station to stitch up the guy.
Well, at least the ride from Vienna to Neubeckum was pleasant (and picturesque, since you're riding straight past the Loreley on the Rhine), even though another 12 hours. But, at least this was 1st class with power plugs and stuff, and a good amount of Franziskaner beer :)

Vienna itself was, hmm, rained out, so I didn't see much and no pics for you guys. Well, I went there for the Dream Theater concert anyway, and that was really good! The new drummer kicks ass for sure.

Oh, one more comment. Sometimes people ask me how different the accents are in Germany and surrounding German-speaking countries. Well, Austria was at times so bad that I had to actually ask once whether the person in front of me was speaking German. Which was then met with the (joking) response of "Saupreiss, damischer!", which is better left untranslated :)
Other than that they often use rather antiquated terms for things. The hotel receptionist "ersuchte" (kinda like "beseeched") me to sign the bill in the end, which almost made me expect a horse carriage to pick me up outside (which they of course have in Vienna :)

Well, the next few days will be chilling mostly (with the exception of my dad's birthday), so the next post will probably be from Athens!

Greetings from Rome!

Today is chill day, since I walked my butt off over the last few days, and the Vatican Museum + Sistince Chapel is closed today anyway, so I'm enjoying Rome how one probably should, in cafes and restaurants (and under the eyes of the Vatican!)

My apartment is very conveniently located down the street from St. Peter's Dome (see pictures), which however has the disadvantage that I wake up at 8am the latest because the churches in the vicinity toll their bells. Oh well. The apartments are quite nice otherwise, I have one German TV channel I can watch (ARD, ha) and the other people who are staying down the hallway are pretty cool too.

Thank you to Andrea for connecting with with Elena, my tour guide 2 days ago! I got to see some cool stuff I wouldn't have otherwise (for example that keyhole picture), and of course the pleasant company added to the enjoyment of the day.

So, as of this point, except the Vatican Museum + Sistine Chapel, I have seen most of "stuff one can't leave Rome without having seen". Colloseum, Foro Romano, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza Venezia, Circo Massimo + Bocca di Verita (thanks to Elena!), and yesterday evening St. Peter's Basilica.

Now for a Public Service Announcement: Folks, before you go on a vacation, turn off that TV one night, dig up that moldy manual of your camera and familiarize yourself with it. If a place (like St. Peter's Basilica) says "no flash", then you should really switch off that flash, especially when there's a mass going on in the back part. (aside from the fact that the Basilica is way too large to work with a flash anyway, so all you do is annoy people).

Speaking of the Vatican, or rather the Pope, Benedict really has to work on his public image. If you look at any religious paraphernalia store, you might think John Paul II is still the current pope. At this point I have only seen one small postcard with the current pope. Well, it probably doesn't help if you look like the Emperor from Star Wars.

Well, that's it for now, I might get me some gnocchi now which I haven't had yet.

Pictures:

( direct album link )

EDIT: Oh, as a small follow-up to the bar fight in Nice: I arrive in Rome at Termini train station, and while waiting in line for the train reservation, a fight almost breaks out between a ticket customer and the guy serving him! (the ticket counter guy was poised to use the credit card machine as a weapon before somebody stepped in). And then 5 minutes later I'm witnessing this guy who banged at the window of a driving bus for a straight 20 seconds or so, while running along with it. Crazy. Must be the heat, that's my conclusion at this point.

Ralf

Of slideshows and vibrators

I just learned that the slideshow feature in my posts doesn't show up for everybody!! That is annoying, and I have no idea why. So, I just edited my posts so far and provided a direct link to the Picasa album, which hopefully should show up for everybody. If you still have problems viewing the pictures, let me know!!

As a quick update, I arrived in Rome yesterday, utterly exhausted and sleep-deprived. I managed to sleep about 12 hours last night, and I will probably hit St. Peter's Square soon, now that I got some coffee and cold calamari in my belly. My hostel is right outside the square, which is very neat I have to say.

Where do the vibrators come in? The hostel owner (very nice woman) showed me my room yesterday, and at some point she was looking for a pen in the hallway cabinet.

Her: "Oh, what is this? A lipstick? Hmm, the cleaning lady must have found this and put it there."

Me: "Errr, not sure..."

Her: "How do you open this thing? What a weird lipstick!"

*turns the bottom of the 'lipstick'*

"What on Earth! It moves!!"

Me: "I don't think this is a lipstick..."

Her: "What else could it be?"

Me: "Well, I think it's for women.... you know..."

Her: "Oohhhhhhhhhhhhhh ....... *silence* ...... *blushes* ..... well I knew those things exist ...."

She then spent the next 5 minutes stammering about how the place wasn't "that kind of establishment" and all :)

Cheers,

Ralf

Au revoir, France!

Well, time to check off two more "countries" on my trip. I've spent the last few days in Nice, which as we all know (right? ;) is at the Cote d'Azure in France. And it is very aptly named, i.e. both the city (because it's really quite nice) and the beach (because it's pretty damn blue!).

The only miscalculation on my side I guess was the idea that I would escape the tourism of Barcelona, to arrive at a slightly less touristy spot. Well, once again not so! You walk around and think you might be somewhere in England, with all the British and American English around you. As a result, the local restaurants and cafes don't even bother answering a question you asked in French, it comes straight back in English. Bummer! It's one of the few countries where I actually have a chance to try the local language.

The beach is quite awesome I have to say. It's a pebble beach, but other than that the water is really quite something. And the surrounding scenery is astounding; just sitting in the train you never want to put down your camera (see pictures below!)

In case you were wondering why "countries" in quotes, I also did a half-day trip to Monaco which is just around the corner! Yeah, I know, principality schmincipality, it's almost a country. Well, to be perfectly honest, nothing special in my opinion. Lots of yachts really, and a big casino. It's probably better when you're rich. But to me the train ride there was better than the actual destination.

The hostel I'm staying a is sadly rather "eh". 12 people in a tiny room, and we've had a bad batch of Californian girls who've been getting smashed every single day (probably because they're still under-age in California), and last night they entertained everybody until 3am with their Californian uptalk. Supposedly my next hostel in Rome will have a 2-people room, so hopefully I can catch up on my sleep there.

BTW, I decided to change my schedule slightly and make a detour through Vienna before I go to Germany! Dream Theater is playing with their new drummer on the 27th there, so I'm cutting down on my Rome stay a bit and swinging by Vienna to see that. That way I will also escape the heat a bit earlier, which can be a bit much at times.

( direct album link )

Next stop, Rome!

Cheers,

Ralf

Bar fight!

Quick update blog post, while I am watching the Japan-USA game (still 0:0 at time of writing).

So, I am in Nice (nice!) and witnessed the first proper bar fight in my life yesterday night. Started out as a lot of shouting, then the first fists flew, and as that wasn't enough, they picked up the wicker chairs and started banging the chairs over each others' heads. Incredible! Of course this isn't Hollywood, so the chairs didn't break and people got really injured. There was a guy in the cafe who was bleeding heavily onto the tile floor after the fight.

Other than that, Nice is quite pretty! I will post pictures once I'm heading for Rome.

Adios, Espanya!

Well, last day in Barcelona, or Spain for that matter! And just in case you are planning to mail me "that's not how you spell España!", well that's how you spell España in Catalan, the obscure language they speak here. Just when I thought I had figured out some basic Spanish words (adios, calle, avenida), it's all different again (adeu, carrer, avinguda).

Well, Barcelona is quite nice, even though very touristy. And full of just-out-college kids whose main aim is to get as drunk as possible on La Rambla, the main strip of Barcelona. I got persuaded one night by 6 Welsh girls and one American guy to go out on said La Rambla, which included dancing to a lot of Europop (including a very catchy tune whose sole lyrics consist of "Barbra Streisand". Look it up, it's by "Duck Sauce"). Sorry, no pictures, my cellphone had conveniently died right before :)

Lots of problems with theft though here, which sucks because you're constantly clinging to your belongings. While waiting to get a train reservation (more on that) I even had a 5-year old kid trying to get his hands on my phone, all "jokingly" of course (haha, I'm a kid who wants to play!), but the mother was watching the proceedings from afar, and I'm sure that once the kid had his hands on my phone he would have made a run for it, the mother protecting him, and me not wanting to desert my big bags. Kinda sad that 5-year olds get reeled into this.

But yeah, the train reservation. I don't necessarily want to drag out stereotypes here, but damn, I'm not particularly surprised the country's economy is in shambles. All I needed was a seat reservation for the trains to Nice, but believe it or not, I had to wait a full 3 hours to get that. They had a number system (with an old guy whose job it was to pull the paper ticket from the machine and hand it to you), and then you look at the display and realize that the current number being processed is 513, but you got number 692.

BTW, stereotypes are amazing how well they work. For the majority of people you can almost immediately tell where they're from. Over 40 and leathery skin? Spanish. Pudgy? Either American or British. (if girl, and also wears pajama-looking clothes: clearly British). Oh, and of course: Sitting with beer at cafe, arguing with waiter over bill items? German!

Hmm, what else? Flamenco! I went into a Flamenco bar and I have to say, very cool. I always thought that Flamenco was mostly about guitar music and stern-looking women who wave their arms a lot, but not so! I never knew about the whole tap-dancing element to it. I uploaded a video, see below in the pictures.

Other than that, I did of course most of the touristy stuff (Sagrada Familia, Montjuïc etc), haven't made it to the beach yet though, and I might not after all. Maybe I will go to it in Nice. There's also the problem that you can't really go alone, because your stuff will get stolen if you leave it alone at the beach.

Tomorrow is travel day to Nice then, which means today I will stay in the hostel and prepare stuff (laundry etc.). I'm also wicked tired today, and I don't feel like going anywhere anyway.

Cheers,

Ralf

( direct album link )

Hola! Como estas?

It's my last day in Madrid, so I might as well make a quick blog post and post some pictures! (they have free Wifi at the place I'm staying :)

Madrid is quite nice I have to say! BTW, whatever comment I had made about the cool temperatures, that only holds in the morning. Once afternoon comes around the temps are scorching! As a result, yesterday was spent mostly in museums: The Museo del Prada (lots of paintings, most notably one called "San Bernado y la virgen", which had me double-take once I realized the painting wasn't scratched), and the archaeological museum. After that I spent the evening watching the abysmal Germany-Japan game in an Irish bar. I guess one of the benefits of being a dual citizen is that I can shamelessly root for the US now. Go USA! Today's game against Brazil was really excellent, and well-deserved.

Well, now for some pictures:

(direct album link )

Til next time! Next stop is Barcelona.

Ralf

First blog post!

Hi everybody,
this is my official, finally here, first, real blog post. Long in the making, I know, not like those imposters down the screen.
Well, first and foremost I want to thank all of you who showed up at my various going-away parties. If well-wishes are accumulative, this whole trip should be a breeze for sure. If it isn't a breeze, I will track down the well-wishing fakers once I get back.

Not much to report yet, I arrived in my hotel in Madrid.
First time for me in Spain, and 3 things already stood out:
1) The weather: It's supposed to get as hot as Boston today, but unlike Boston, at 10 in the morning it's still very cool!
2) The footwear: Very Roman (I'll try to get a picture of them)
3) Hmmm ... the women ;)

For now, I will lie down a bit and maybe watch TV. Great, the only German channel is QVC. WTF.
More to come later!