| if some of you didnt know, i was MIA for the last 3 weeks cuz i was backpacking in Europe!! it was a graduation gift and probably was the best one i had this summer. went with my hs bud Quan as he also graduated (from Cal). he already wrote a blog about it so i'll post his first so i dont repeat myself. we each took about 400 photos each so take a look at both cuz there were times when the battery on my camera went bad so i dont have pics from our 2nd day in paris, the french alps, and the first town we went into Northern Italy. also got an hour of video feed but cant post that here.
Quan's blog:
just came back from a 3 week backpacking trip with David. we tried to cover as much land as possible in only 20 days: started in London then Paris, then to the French Alps called Chamonix, took the cable cars over the alps into Italy, then to Cinque Terre, Pisa, Rome, Florence, Venice, and headed north to Interlaken Switzerland, then to Munich, Germany, overnight train to Amsterdam, Holland and final stop at Frankfurt, Germany.
saw lots of interesting sights, met some cool ppl along the way. definately an experience to remember forever. i wanna go back again! there's so much more to see, 3 weeks was NOT enough.
highlights: in London, we were looking for a bar with a few other travellers, couldn't find any open past midnight... then someone directed us to an open bar... it turned out to be a strip club! but no cover charge and no drink minimum!!! just tip each stripper 1 pound before they dance. the strippers were HOT! best value, hands down!
in Paris, we booked a super cheap hotel out of the city, when we got to the city, we had no directions about the hotel and it was past midnight. only ppl around were police that didn't speak any english. eventually they figured out where we wanted to go and just escorted us in their police van to the hotel! then... we realized for only 12.5 euro / person / night... we got a room with 2 beds, a bathroom, and a TV with FREE PORN!!!!
in the French Alps, David forgot to bring a jacket to this trip so he was freezing his ass off... i offered him my blanket and he wore his poncho over it... looked like a total bum! oh ya, i bought some rose wine in Paris so we were chugging that in the mountains to keep warm.
in Cinque Terre, we decided to wing it and not book lodging, we found some beach chairs and just slept on the beach that night... it got kindda chilly and windy in the morning so we had to cover our faces with t-shirts to keep from freezing. when i tried to wake david up, he freaked out cuz his shirt was covering his face... he thot he was being mugged!
in Venice, we also decided to not book anything, turned out even if we tried, it would have been sold out because of the Venice Film Festival. so David slept outside the train station with a bunch of bums and backpackers. i kept up and talked to other travellers and kept an eye on our bags. david can sleep anywhere. while i was talking to travellers, some crazy/creepy bum started hanging around us and talking gibberish while chugging some alcohol. the bum then decided to change his clothes in front of us and WHEEWWW he had the most foul stench! especially when the sea breeze blew in our direction... some of us really wanted to push him into the canal.
also in Venice, couldn't find a bathroom so i wanted to pee into the canal from this small alley... right when i was about to go, a boat passed by! i'm glad i didn't whip it out!!!
in Interlaken, the best adventure resort ever! i went "Canyoning", where you put on a wetsuit, life jacket, and helmet, and you swim through canyon waters and jump off water falls, slide down natural water slides, and rappel down steep cliffs... most awesome experience ever! highest jump was over 35 ft - like jumping off a 3 story building!
in Munich, there was supposedly a nude park but when we got there, there were no nudies to be found... david and i were disappointed.
in Amsterdam, don't ask, don't tell.
in Frankfurt, i split up with david cuz he had to take another flight back to LA (from london) so i walked around the entire city after midnight for 3 hours to soak up the night scene (since my flight was just 6 hours later)... went to the airport around 4am and slept on the floor for a couple hours...
My blog:
London- everything was hella expensive!! everything there cost exactly the same as it does here for food, clothing, etc.: but it is in pounds, not dollars, which means just double the price of whatever it is youre getting and thats the value in dollars. we did a lot of walking here since transportation cost an arm and leg but we did take a tour bus around the 2nd day just so we can get around easier and learn about the city a bit. we met a couple americans and an aussie later that night in the hostel where we went off to eat dinner and to the suprise strip club. kul cats and was a good night.
Paris- probably our favorite city in the entire trip even though it does sound cliche. we covered 12 different sites including the big ones (Louvre- Mona Lisa, Eiffel, Versailles) in only a span of 2 days. the police incident was hilarious- they would have never done that here in the states. we found the ppl to actually be really nice and respectful contrare to the rude stereotype we put on them. also everyone there was very healthy as we hardly found any overweight ppl; to add they dressed the most fashoinably of any city. used a bit of whatever french i could remember from high school just enough to get by as most of the ppl we encountered spoke english.
Chamonix/French Alps- took an overnight 9 hr train here to southern France. the weather was a bit cold as i did not pack well for the conditions. we first took a big cable car up to the alps where i started to freeze my ass off as i whore only a tshirt and shorts so quan kindly gave me his blanket and i wore my poncho over it. basically when i got up there, i looked like a freezing bum. then we took the small gondolas (small just to fit us two in it) across the alps 10K feet in the air which was felt like the longest ride of my life. it was about 30-40 minutes with like 4 stops 10k feet up in the air with the gondolas swinging in the air a bit because of the wind. then finally took the last cable car down to Italy where the weather was much better and where we were finally on the ground!
Cinque Terre- see quan's note for the night we spent at the beach. the small towns we hiked to the next day looked like traditional Italy- small buildings clumped up together with hardly a site of a car or any type of technology. Cinque means 5 so there was 5 small towns to visit along this coast off the mediterrean sea. we hiked to the 2nd town after sleeping in the first and that was a killer for me. it was mostly steep uphill with each of us carrying our backpacks that took around 1.5-2 hours...that really put the hurting on my feet but good exercise. when we arrived in the 2nd town, we wanted to eat breakfast but as i we walked in the outdoor seating area, i misstepped and ended up scrapping my entire shin against this block of wood. i hike for 2 hours and end up injuring myself in a fuckin restaurant. anyway, as we were here, we ate lots and lots of gelato!!!! plus more for the week we were in Italy!!! hehe..yep there's a gelateria on practically every corner.
Pisa- slept over Quan's friend's place from Berkeley so big ups to her, as we also got a chance to wash our stink ass clothes. only stayed for the night and we went off to Rome.
Rome- the Italian culture and history didnt hit us quite yet until we got here. first day we settled into our hostel and went around to explore the city til night. we stumbled upon a lot of churches, historic sites such as the Pantheon, big piazzas where there was plenty of cafes (touristy ones though), entertainment, and even a big area where we got to see many artists at work and selling their art. we also stumbled upon a free fencing show in a park we randomly walked into. lots of ppl there, seems like thats a popular sport there.
second day was the big typical touristy day where we went around to see the popular sites of Rome such as the Colosseum, Vatican and a few museums. our little incident with the shady ass gladiators at the colosseum can be seen in Quan's pics. btw, we also brought along this Taiwanese guy Sam who we met in 6bed hostel that morning. probably the hottest day of the trip though. but we managed to find the supermarkets where they sold water for like 20 cents versus the 4 dollars bottles they were selling at the touristy areas. we thought it would be nice to buy a butt load of those bottles and sell them on the streets at the Vatican so we can pay for our meals for the next couple days. i mean there ppl selling fake gucci purses there so why not honest cheap water? haha, the plan never fell through though. didnt hit the Sistine chapel cuz it closes early but the day was all good. then we decided to make use of our tour/bus passes but we ended up waiting for the bus for like an hour as the one we needed to get on
never showed up. that hour turned into 2 as we decided just to board any bus that came by and take it to a certain point hopefully in our direction. we boarded like 3 buses which all managed to make a complete 360 to bring us back to where we originally were. when we finally got back to the hostel, we hit mcdonalds just to save money as they had 50 cent hamburgers for the day. i ordered 10 of them in hopes of saving 4-5 of them for later that night or the next day but Quan and Sam dared me to eat all of them. so i did just to prove them wrong that i can eat all of it. by the 7th one, i felt extremely full but kept going just to save face- see Quan's pic. then we went around town for the night with 2 more guys who were from Germany. fun night as i managed to fall asleep on some random steps.
Florence- went straight to our lodging area which was Camp Michaelangelo- a camping ground where they provided a fixed tent just big enough for 2 beds. also had bathroom, restaurant, tv, arcade, internet, etc.: so it was a good facility for only the 15 euros a night we paid. it alsoy overlooked the entire city of Florence so the views were nice, but the walk up was a bitch. walked around mostly the first day and bought some groceries to cut down on our spending since we already had tasted the very best food Italy had to offer..not to make u guys feel bad or anything...hahaha.
second day we hit the Academy Galleria where the main attraction was the Statue of Me, i mean David. we reserved ahead of time since we heard the lines can get as long as 3 hours so we only waited 15 mins. the next day we hit the Uffizi museum in the morning which was Italian Rennasaince art that included the famous Birth of Venus and Da Vinci's Assumption of the Virgin. we split up to Venice afterwards.
Venice- only half a day here and we ended up sleeping at the train station, or should i say only me sleeping. slept outside in the cold with the bums as Quan encountered crazy ppl. Venice was very nice but very touristy as almost everyone there was American and big spending. we managed to walk around the entire city as the main attractions that were there were mostly riding the expensive gondolas (one euro a minute which is like $1.25) and museums/churches- stuff we were sick of seeing as we already saw the best works of art the world has to offer.
Interlaken, Switzerland- spent a day of all traveling where we hit our hostel, which was this lodging resort called FunnyFarm that had everything we needed including the extreme (but expensive) sports they offered like sky diving, hang gliding, paragliding, etc.: Quan hit the canyoning they had the next day while i decided to take it mellow and go mountain biking around the area. the town is small as we wanted to take a break from the big city/museum/church agenda. i ended up biking like 4 hours up and down (mostly up) the mountain and town, totaling around 10-12 miles. that night, we went out with a few Aussies for dinner and cards. fun times, learning about another culture/country/ppl. because our train didnt depart til night time the next day, we spent an extra day here and this time we went biking together. but we split after an hour as i couldnt make it up the 1.5 hour bike ride up (another 10-12miles) to the waterfalls we wanted to see- Quan went all the way up while i biked around the city and explored the town a bit. hey, im no Lance Armstrong. switzerland was beautiful overall, so it was a nice break to recover from all the walking and hiking.
Munich, Germany- spent a full day here as we mostly walked around, visited a kool museum (Deutsche) which was mostly a scientific one that had displays of everything u can think of, and hit up a couple important places. but mostly we drank beer here like do they do in Germany and went into what we thought was going to be a nude park. lots and lots of ppl there where they drank beer like water! women, men, families were drinking beer by the pitcher (not those small beer cans we got here). thats all they basically do in Germany since thats where most beer is made...explains the big women that look like theyre part of the German wrestling team.
AMSTERDAM!!!!!- what a way to end the trip...i was lookin forward to this city the entire trip and i was not disappointed...haha. weed, marijuana and almost sort of drug u can smoke is legal there so they have tons of places called 'coffeeshops' where u can pick out from a menu (yes they have a menu for that stuff) of what u want to smoke. ppl say las vegas is sin city- whatever happens in vegas, stays there or whatever the saying is. but amsterdam is an entirely different world; not city, but world. ill stop there and leave it up to u to fill in the blanks of how we spent our time there....hahaha.
after amsterdam, i had to split with Quan to catch my flight in London while he went to Frankfurt. but i had to go to Paris first as my prepaid train to London took off from there. so i had plans to sleep at the train station that night in Paris once i arrived but it happens that they kick everyone out at 1:30am and open at 5am so i had to sleep outside again. this time, in much cooler weather. but i managed to chat it up for a couple hours with this kool black dood from London who was a soul singer trying to make it big. we talked about almost everything with a lot of it about music and his career. he was in Paris to bring his demo CD to some popular radio stations and perform. he was lookin to do the same here in the states so i referred him to the popular soul/rb/hip hop stations here in lala land. if he goes big apparently has has a lot of experience performing in shows for 9 shows including some numbers in the past for ppl like lionel richie and other hit soul singers. if he goes big, thatll be one tight experience ill have.
the next day i went over the english channel into London where i went straight to the airport only to find out i couldnt check in a day early. so i had to sleep in the waiting area for like 12 hours just to kill time. luckily my small investment in a sudoku puzzle book kept me occupied for most of that time. but because i was flying standby on my cousin's very cheap companion pass since he works for an airline, i didnt get on my initial flight. turns out there was one seat left but the plane already took off before they were able to officially confirm that one person didnt and wouldnt show up. i was pretty tired, cranky and sick of London up to that point so luckily i was able to easily get on the next flight to LA which was 3 hours later though.
overall, a great one time experience ill never forget- meeting ppl from all around the world, living and spending on a small budget, sleeping in airports, on trains,
train stations and beaches, visiting the most popular sites in the world, taking showers once about 2-4 days, wearing the same 3-4 shirts, shorts, socks, and underwear for 3 weeks, lugging around 30-40 pound bags almost everyday, gettin buzzed/drunk/high in foreign places with random strangers, and much more!! |
