June 2009
2 posts
Farewell
It occurs to me that I’d like to bookend this travel blog with something other than my semi-rant regarding the Tube Strike. While there are a whole raft of things that I’d been meaning to blog about that never made it here, I don’t have some long epilogue with which to close out the live of this journal. I do, however, want to get out some last thoughts as well as recap the last...
Jun 16th
Tube Strike
I’m not sure if it’s made it into the news back home, but it’s definitely one of the biggest stories in London right now (along with the elections). But as of last night at 7pm the entire Tube sytem in London is going on strike for 48 hours. That’s right, no underground service until I’m outta here! I’ll be honest, I was slightly frustrated when I first heard...
Jun 10th
May 2009
17 posts
Aix
It’s defintely an excersize in self-assuranc when you spend all night at a potluck with people who only speak French, other than the guy you came with, and end up playing some sort of card-based role playing game. Oui!
May 31st
1 note
Bad Luck
In Sicily when you order a bottle of beer at a bar, you get a little plastic cup along with it. A bit wasteful, but whatever. It’s bad luck to ‘clink’ the plastic cups together when you start drinking, so you turn your hands inward and touch the back of your hands together instead. This was told to me by three sepearate residents of Palerme (Palermonians?)!
May 31st
Woo
It’s real sunny in Marseille. Off to Aix en Provence for my first official couchsurfing experience. Of course it’s with another web nerd.
May 29th
BCN is Catalunya
Some random thoughts on Barcelona while it’s still fresh, and before I leave Spain! Barcelona is an incredible city, I must say. It always feels alive, and has great energy without the pretension. I lucked out with my main days there falling on a weekend, that place just does not go to sleep. Case and point, when I woke up at 6:30am on Sunday to catch the train to San Sebastian, every...
May 25th
While I was trying to kill time before my bus back to the airport in Palermo, I had wandered into the post office at the train station in search of stamps. Getting inside was a little bit tricky, consisting of a two different doors, the second of which wouldn’t open until you had passed through the first and had closed behind you. This was the most high tech thing I had seen in Palermo. I...
May 23rd
Sicily
So far Sicily has been faaaaaantastic, if at a little dip in the fun right about now. Palermo was more than I could ask for. The people, the weather, the food. Yesterday I took the train down to Trapani, which is on the northwest coast of the island, and where I am right now. It’s very pretty here, but it’s quite boring. Or at least it’s not the kind of destination for someone...
May 20th
Quickie
The internet is working here in the hostel, and I wanted to just make a quick post. A quick post to say that so far Palermo is incredible. The people are incredible, the weather is fantastic, and so is the food. I’ve been speding the last couple days with great new friends from everywhere in the world, including Sicily. Today we were in Cèfalu, thanks to Guido who drove us there from...
May 17th
First real post!
Ok, so I guess this means no more preparation posts. Because, hey, guess what? I made it to Palermo. This has to have been one of the longest days of all time. I’m still super disoriented with what day it is. Things that absolutely happened yesterday seemed like they never did, and I’m not sure what’s going on I’m so tired. The flight from Seattle to New York was just...
May 16th
Bunk beds, here I come
I’m all packed, lighter even than I expected, and my first flight leaves at 7:30. It’s going to be a long “day”, not getting into Palermo until 10:00am on Saturday. I was a little stressed out last night, but today has been surprisingly relaxed. I went to the gym, took care of some last minute errands, slowly packed this afternoon, ate a good sandwich, went to a fantastic...
May 15th
Tick-tock...
Less than 48 hours now until I leave for Palermo, and it seems like those hours are going by fast. I’m trying to take Rick Steve’s advice (when am I not?), and let at least the last day/day and a half be a relaxed time where I’m not worried about things I need to do before I leave. This means starting to pack and organize everything tonight. It’d be nice to get that done,...
May 13th
Bordeaux
Ok, slight change of plans. I just heard back from a friend of mine, who’s been living in Bordeaux for the last couple of years teaching English. Side note - We were actually more ‘friends of friends’ until Ross and I ran into her in Nice, when we were last in Europe. I think we’ve hung out possibly twice in the United States. Kind of funny to think that two random...
May 11th
Crossing out, and one-way flights
I’ve made some serious progress in the last two days, on my prep list. There weren’t many major things left to take care of, just several small items that are nice to have out of the queue. However, I’m still trying to sort out my day-pack situation. I’d like to bring something compact, but also something non-touristy. I have a backpack that will work, but I fear...
May 11th
Provence
Just to expand a little further, I’ve officially added the Provence region to my planned route. I realized that I had a little too much time scheduled for just Barcelona and Paris. So rather than just going Palermo-Barcelona-Paris, it’s probably going to end up looking more like Palermo-Barcelona-Madrid(or San Sebastian)-Marseille-Paris. That should work. If I hear back from my friend...
May 9th
Today
After a make-up piano lesson and the gym: Hit up the huge REI sale for a quick drying towel, possibly a small day pack, one of those packing cubes for bathroom-related stuff, any other random junk. Gotta take advantage of this sale, but not too much! Ooh, I’m also going to go back to SneakerCity to finalize my shoe situation. Hopefully.
May 9th
May 8th
Here’s the current to-do list I have going in my moleskin. In no particular order. shoes. need to do this quick, so they break in. new small/quick dry towel (my current one smells) day bag? camera HD ipod? new money belt message UK friends print out plane stuff do a test-run with backpack figure out dc hotel larger moleskin. lined? get people’s addresses international data...
May 8th
Oh, hi.
There’s nothing here yet, but that’ll be different soon enough. The rough itinerary as it stands: Seattle Palermo (by way of NYC & Rome) Barcelona Madrid? Paris Brussles (Phoenix show on 6/5, woo!) London Manchester Dublin?
May 6th