Le Tour. Semi-Homelessness. Running on fumes

So today I got up super early and headed down to the Champs to get my spot for the Tour's final stage. I got to The champs a little before 8 and asked where the best place to find a spot was. Unfortunately I went to the opposite side that I wanted to, but in the scheme of things it made no real difference. Originally i wanted to be on the other side of the finish line, but all the areas near the finish were by invitation only, so that wouldn't work.

I found a spot right after the forbidden zone and settled in for a long day of waiting. I don't think I have ever just sat somewhere and waited for that long willingly, but I was good with it. I realized as I sat down that I forgot my kindle in the hotel so I had nothing to read. I quickly went to the nearest newsstand and bought a National Geographic to read.

The hours seemed to be ticking away quickly, and I was glad that I got there early because I was right near the podiums and had a front row seat. I had a little snack that I packed with me and promptly fell asleep leaning on the barricade. I made a conscious effort not to lie down. I didn't want to look like a complete homeless person, so I just sat there for an hour or so. When I awoke there was an older lady standing with each of her legs on either side of my body having a conversation with the people next to me (probably wondering if I was homeless or not.)

Another couple hours went by and finally the sponsor parade began to roll through. It was just endless cars swerving about on the Champs blaring techno and shouting in French into a microphone. There was one float that really confused me. Ahead of the rest of the companies floats was a chicken on an atv, so naturally I imagined it was a poultry company or something. However, when the rest of the floats drove by each of them had what looked like a big grinder on top. I was shocked that people would advertise the process for making chicken nuggets, but after further inspection the chicken was just the logo for a bread company.

The first float:

Smurfs:

So I waited some more for the riders to get to the Champs. I was watching the race on a huge tv that they had set up down the road from me. I couldn't tell where they were by the scenery, but suddenly there was the sound of a helicopter and I recognized the riders coming around the obelisk at the far end of the Champs. The whole street went nuts. I got my camera ready:

It was pretty exciting seeing all the riders go by. It made me want to get out on a bike and get that fast. Perhaps when I get home.

The riders went around 7 times total so I saw them zoom past 14 times, which was great. I tried to capture some pictures, its just hard to get them in the frame they are moving so fast.

Hopefully this gives an idea of how close I was to the action.

Im pretty tired so I think that I will finish this post another time.

Tomorrow I am going to go lock my stuff up at the train station and wander about for a little.

Then I head home.

Leaving Napoli. Over Night Train. Paris yo

So the trip is winding down. I can't say that I am not ready to head home, but I definitely have a little more travel in me before I board the plane to the States.

Wednesday night I went to an Opera in the San Carlo theater in Naples. the opera was about clowns and love and murder and stuff. It was a really cool theater, but the ropes on the curtains are actually carved wood. My head found that one out.

The class in Portici finished up with our presentations on the projects we had to do with an Italian classmate. My project was on removal of landfill sites and their impact on housing prices. Luckily I went near the end so they didn't have too much time to ask questions. Lets just say I didn't give it my best effort.

After the presentations we went to our friend Simona's house and made Arancini, which is basically deep fried risotto and cheese. Pretty good, but we made like 60 and I could only realistically eat 2. They are very heavy.

Friday was the last day I had in Italy and it was the last full day my Masshole roommates had as well so we decided do go venture to Pompeii and Vesuvius. The only problem was that the trains were on strike so we had to take a 7 am train and make sure to get on the 1:55 (13:55) train home. That made things a little stressful, but clearly we made it.

Pompeii was alright. I was tired and wasn't interested in walking around much. It is weird to say, but Pompeii is almost too preserved. There is something nice about ruins you can see through or over, but in Pompeii the houses mostly are in tact sans roof. Half delirious and annoyed with massive groups of tourists we went in search of the frozen lava people. The search was fueled by my rendition of the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby". I made a slight alteration to the chorus. It went as follows: Ahh look at all the Lava people where have they all gone" and various deviations about the mythical lava people of Pompeii.

Unfortunately, our impatience and schedule did not allow us to have time to search for the erotic sculpture room.

We took a bus up to Vesuvius. Volcanoes are cool, but they smell like sulfur in case you didn't know. I took some videos at the top. The crater is hugeeeee. there is one part that was actually smoking, which was really amazing.

Despite being almost positive that my trains were going to be cancelled due to the strike. I made it to Paris without incident. The over night train was an event for sure. In the size of a normal full bath there were 6 people. I had the top bunk, which was real nice, because it gave me a little privacy and I couldn't get stepped on. The guy across from me kept getting phone calls all night and texts and what not. The calls were fine, but he didn't have his keys on silent, and I am pretty sure he didn't have T9 word because he kept Beep Booping Beep a Deep Booping all night. I woke up with a sore neck (Europeans are so $%#&ing short).

My arrival in Paris was Ok. I figured out where I was and the direction I needed to head in. I took the metro to a station, walked to another station to get to yet another station, randomly got on a platform and found a train that appeared to be going in the right direction. Needless to say I arrived.

After watching the 20th stage in the tour I went back to downtown Paris to scope out the sitch (situation for you old people). The maps are impossible to read because there are just too many streets to fit on a fold up map. So i figured that I would use my survival skills to get to the Champs Elyseeeesiseiisi. I figured it was late afternoon so and that the Champs was South of my location. After much muttering and walking in circles i determined that if I placed the sun on my right I would make it to the Champs. I second guessed myself about 15 times. For the life of me my brain couldn't remember how the directions on the map related to the real world. It was pretty awful.

I made it to the Champs figure out where I need to be for tomorrows race. They should be getting in around 3 ish my time, but I am leaving here at 5:30am to find a spot. So if you tune in to watch the race I am going to try and be near the finish and hopefully get in the front row. I will try and pick up some tour gear as well.

I will fill you all in on my return tomorrow. Hopefully Ill get some good video.

Ciao Ciao

Como. Alps. BUFFET!!!!

This weekend Jon, Rob, and I went up to lake Como. Getting to the lake is quite a journey from our trash littered city. I wish I could say that the trip was uneventful, but we were disturbed from our rest in our first class seats and deported to second class. When we booked our train tickets on our rail passes the machine told us that first and second class were the same price. Of course no rational human would turn down a reclining seat and free drinks and cookies. However, when they came to check our ticket they told us that we had no right to buy a first class ticket. Of course, seeing as it was 8 in the morning, which is quite early for me, I resisted this fascist train-ticket-checker's commands by stating that we could not be expected to choose second class at the same price. Also, the point was made that we had these seats reserved all the way to the final stop of the train and that no one would be using our seats, so who were we hurting? He wouldn't back down, but also was resistant to reserving us seats in second class, but finally realizing we wouldn't move, he booked us seats in second class.

We caught a connecting train to Varenna, which is on the opposite side of the lake from our final destination. We got off the train in Varenna and were immediately struck by the amount that time seemed to slow down. As we exited the train station I noticed, for the first time in my life, the smell of fresh air. I have smelt cleaner air in many places, but being in Naples and coming to Como was the biggest and most noticeable jump. We caught the ferry across the lake and arrived in Bellagio.

Bellagio is really amazing. It just seems kind of frozen. People were going about doing their own things, but they were never in a rush or impatient. It was easy to fall into the rhythm of Bellagio and the lake.

The first day we found a nice spot to sit and relax. There were stairs that just sort of walked right into the lake, which was pretty cool. Surprisingly despite the number of people walking around during the day, there were rarely any other people down on these steps.

Our spot

It rained in the morning on Saturday, which was a great way to start the day. For the first time in almost a month it was cold when I woke up. I welcomed the chill coming through the open window and looked outside to see the lake and the mountains. The rain had just stopped and the cold air coming over the mountains was pouring the clouds over their peaks and towards the lake. All of a sudden the clouds would just level and drift to the middle of the lake and just dissipate.

We decided we were going to go across the lake to Mennaggio and rent kayaks, but the weather was not calm enough, so we rented bikes instead. The guy at the hostel where we rented bikes said that the trail was not so steep. He must have been comparing the ascent to some inverted rock wall. Climbing the hill was pretty tough. I really missed my super light bike.

After a little while we got to this flat part on the saddle between two peaks. There was a park and a music school. We parked our bikes and walked onto this tiny, fence-bordered soccer field that overlooked the lake. Lucky for us there was a ball to play with, so we did that for a bit before heading up to the top of the mountain.

After a bit more riding we came to a small restaurant on the river where we had lunch. The restaurant was really cool. They had their own fishery and some animals just loafing about. We ordered a cheese plate a jug of wine and fresh pasta with smoked trout. It was amazing. Amazing except for one of the cheeses that I am not sure anyone could become accustomed to. They put a bunch of raw honey on the cheese plate, which is something that I have never seen, but I will continue to do back in the states.

the fish spot

We kept climbing until we got to this church where I got the heebie jeebies scared out of me when the bell went off at 4.

We had a bbq back at the hostel and the manager drove us to the ferry, which was pretty cool of him. Sunday we got up and wandered about until we found a place with a buffet, which was AWESOME. I Love BUFFETS.

No one kicked us out of our seats on the ride home. and we got the snack trolley twice. BOOM!

More boating. Naples Underground. Paestum

This past weekend was pretty action packed. We had originally planned to head up to como, but because we have no internet at our apartment it was difficult to book a room in time. We decided that because we had liked the boat from Sorrento that we would do it again, but this time for the whole day. Unfortunately Rob gets sea sick, so he went to Ischia, which is to the west of Capri.

We took the boat much further down the coast this time, and ended up in Positano, which was one of the towns on the Amalfi coast. In comparison to the Cinque Terre towns it is hard to say which is nicer. The regions are pretty different and the landscape on the Amalfi coast allows for slightly larger and more accessible towns. I think I liked the Cinque Terre a little better. We had lunch on some rocky beach and built a little pile of rocks to leave our mark. Karl wasn't happy that Jon and I would throw rocks at the tower and knock it over, but he got over it. We found some cool little artifacts that had washed ashore, but nothing too ancient.

After lunch I drove the boat down towards Capri. A half hour later we were passing through this natural archway around the Southern side of capri. Capri is sort of a big rock sticking out of the water. The southern side has huge white cliffs and overhangs that rise almost vertically out of the med. It was sort of humbling how big and raw the coastline was and made for some good photos. unfortunately, because I was driving, I couldn't get to my camera to take videos or photos, but when people post some of the ones they took I will try to link them.

Saturday we went to the Naples underground. It is an old aqueduct system that stretched about 400km (not willing to convert to miles for my readers). They found the aqueduct and an old Roman stage where Nero performed underneath this guys house and through a wall in his wine cellar. Pretty cool. We had to take candles to navigate some of the narrow channels that kept the water flowing from the cisterns to keep everything cold and clean. During WWII the aqueduct system was used as a bomb shelter.

I ate my first Italian Cannoli .

Sunday, while Rob and Jon went to go brave Rome, Karl and I went down to Salerno to check out this place Paestum. We got off the train in Salerno and everything was closed. No one seemed to know what number bus we needed to take or when it ran, but we were pointed in the general direction. After waiting an hour, and asking countless bus drivers if they went to Paestum we got on a bus and set out on our way.

It is a good thing that there are buses to this place because it is really far away. Looking at the map in the train station is looked close enough to walk in about a half hour. Italians do not believe in putting keys and legends on maps. The tradition dates back many years and is also the reason why there are no street signs, and that the train schedules are completely arbitrary on the local level.

The bus dropped us off in Paestum. There is really nothing around but fields, and suddenly in front of us there were these huge columns supported a Parthenonesque building. We walked to the gate (after downing and extra large Heineken (I am not a huge fan, but in a land that doesn't understand beer, it is amazing)) and bought our tickets. I got bamboozled into also getting a ticket to the museum section. At this point in my journey I absolutely hate museums.

Anyways, Paestum is the best preserved Greek ruin in Western europe. It is on acres of land whose boarders appear to be the areas that people decided not to go walking for the last 2000 years. There are three temples, a couple palaces, a toilet, and a stadium. Pretty cool. The best part was that we were pretty much the only people there. It was really relaxing.

The first temple

The expansive collection of rubble:

Karl on the Toilet:

Some photos:

Finally the weekend.

At last the weekend arrived. After many long hours of commuting and impossibly complicated train schedules the time to visit the area at our own pace was here. We decided to meet up with the other Americans in the program. We met them in the Western part of Napoli where the money grows greener and trash makes it to the dumpster.

The beach, as with almost all beaches or any ocean access in this part of the country requires a rapid decent on uneven stairs to a cliff-bordered tiny little plot of sand. Some call it quaint, some say it is an annoyance, but it was just nice to be by the water on a sunny day. The beach had a separate section that required you to sign in. They only let up to a hundred people go at a time. This part of the beach was actually a preserved archaeological site. The water was very rough. It was a lot of fun swimming over the ruins of some other old thing in a current that twisted and pulled you to any number of treacherously sharp outcroppings. in the middle of this protected bay there was an Island with a house on top. Apparently Virgil lived here. I commented that I too would be a poet if this were my residence.

Sunday we decided to head down to Sorrento. The train was a bit long, but the lemon gelato was well worth the trip. We rented a boat for an hour and cruised out of the harbor into open ocean and to some large rolling waves. It is hard to describe the view. The mountains sort of fall into the ocean. Civilization just sticking its claws into the bare cliff-side. We went swimming, although I am not sure that we were supposed to get out of the boat. But hey, we are American. rules never apply. just kidding.

We took some pictures and video. It felt like an Armani commercial except slightly paler and less defined, but we rolled with it.

Next week I think we are going to head North to Como, but before that there will be many hours of the work I am getting money for.

ciao for now.