As December continues to creep closer I am slowly starting to fear that I have so much to do and so little time left to do it, I mean, I still haven't been to the Ufittzi gallery! Not only is there more of Florence and Italy that I want to explore but, I have 3 books to finish, too many photos to develop, and 3 more canvases to fill with paint. But come Tuesday I will have only 17 days left and I'm trying to find ways to budget my time so that I can cram everything in.

Today I spent my time doing my very least favorite activity, cleaning and organizing my apartment and writing lists of everything I need to do. Hopefully this will help me see/do as much as possible while still finishing the loads of work I have in school. But though I'm sad to have to leave Italy after what seems like such a brief time, I can't wait to some home and see everybody! Florence is staring to get ready for Christmas by setting up lights everywhere (which are really beautiful to see) and window displays in many stores and its making me a bit nostalgic...

Let me know if there's anything you need/want from Italy because it won;t be long before I'm back on an airplane headed for the good ol' US of A!

Found some old pictures of when I visited Cinque Terre. Check em out...

Bukowski hour

you’ve got to fuck a great many women
beautiful women
and write a few decent love poems.

and don’t worry about age
and / or freshly-arrived talents.

just drink more beer
more and more beer

and attend the racetrack at least once a
week

and win
if possible.

learning to win is hard—
any slob can be a good loser.

and don’t forget your Brahms
and your Bach and your
beer.

don’t overexercise.

sleep until noon.

avoid credit cards
or paying for anything on
time.

remember that there isn’t a piece of ass
in this world worth over $50
(in 1977).

and if you have the ability to love
love yourself first
but always be aware of the possibility of
total defeat
seems right or wrong—

an early taste of death is not necessarily
a bad thing.

stay out of churches and bars and museums,
and like the spider be
patient—
time is everybody’s cross,
plus
exile
defeat
treachery

all that dross

stay with the beer.

beer is continous blood.

a continuous lover.

get a large typewriter
and as the footsteps go up and down
outside your window

hit that thing
hit it hard

make it a heavyweight fight

make it the bull when he first charges in

and remember the old dogs
who fought so well:
Hemingway, Celine, Dostoevsky, Hamsun.

if you think they didn’t go crazy
in tiny rooms
just like you’re doing now

without women
without food
without hope

then you’re not ready.

drink more beer.
there’s time.
and if there’s not
that’s all right
too.

Eventually we went back to Florinas fathers place to pick up the car that his dad was lending to him (to drive me back to the airport). But when we got there the car wouldnt start! Florian went to the neighbors for help and they arrived (wearing wonderful green overalls) and attempted to help us. *side note (while I was watching them I saw up the mountain a bit an older man with no pants on peeing in a bush/hedge which of course made me secretly laugh...). They triend for a while to jump the car thinking the problem was the battery but to no avail. Florian and I then decied to take bikes back to his mothers while we waited for the repair man (the tripple A of Germany) to call.

Eventually the car got fixed (which tuns out it was very easy to fix!) and our next mission was to find something to do for the night. Florians friends were all going to an on ice discotec party, so we decided to do that as well. It was really neat, and I can't even remeber the last time I had been ice skating before that! At the party I tried Glow-wine(becasue it makes you glow) which is a mix of rum, wine, and spices and it is served warm. I also had some german beer made with fruit (but it was a bit too sweet for my taste). We skated around listened to music and had a great time! The party ended around 1am and we went back to Florian's house with his room mate Denny and his girlfriend and we drank a bit of beer and eventually went to sleep. It was very interesting talking with Florian's friends and I am really glad I had the chance to meet the locals!

Florian and I only got about two hours of sleep before we had to hit the road back to the airport. We got there after another 4 hour car ride and we were a bit early so we got some coffee together. After saying our goodbyes I boarded the plane back to Pisa which surprisingly I did not sleep for. I also didn't sleep for the whole train ride from Pisa to Florence, so of course when I got back to my apartment at 3pm I took a 14 hour nap (if you can call that a nap...).Though my trip was short i had a grand time, and I think Florian and his room mate Denny are going to come visit me in Florence before I go home!

The next day we woke up bright and early to have breakfast with Florian's mother. She works as a mid-wife at a nearby hospital so this was the only time I got to see her. We had a typical European breakfast (coffee, bread and jam...) and I had a chance to speak with his mother about her travels (and see some pictures), my travels, and life in general. I also had a chance to meet her boyfriend who works as a train conductor, she and Hans (I think is his name) love to ride motorcycles and once brought their bikes to Itlay and travelled around a bit!

After breakfast and meeting Florian's mother and boyfriend I had a chance to meet Florian's dad, his wife and Florian's two siblings hannah (six) and Franz (again I thiiinnnk this was his name, he was five). They also had a lovely home that was up on a mountian a bit and overlooked all of schmalkalden. The kids were so adorable and they were very excited to see florian. Hannah showed me her princess decorated room and she made sure to give Florian some handmade art before we departed.

After meeting the family we decided it was time to explore the town! Florian told me that in English Schmalkalden would probably mean cold and narrow and though it wasn't very cold there were some wonderfully narrow streets. I believe he also told me that it was founded around 800, but I could be wrong about that. The first place we saw was the church (I belive the only church...) which Florian was baptised in and his siblings are soon to be baptaised in! It was a lovely church and at one time Martin Luther used it as a hiding spot while he was translating the bible  so that anyone could read it, even simple folk (this was the reason for his hiding becasue at the time it was illegal and only priests were allow

ed to read it).

We next walked around a bit and stopped at a gallery which is in a Gothic timbered house dating from the 15th Century. As Florian explained to me the timbered houses of Germany consist of a timber(wood) framing that is then stuffed with weaved together sticks and then a sort of clay which hardens and then they paint over it (it didn't sound like the most lasting structure to me but they have been holing up since medieval  etimes!) The woman who owned the gallery was a friend of Florian's and gave us a full tour of the place (explaining to us about the art and the building) and even showing us some of her husbands artworks. There was a lot of great artwork there and I especially liked the art of her husband Harald Reiner Gratz because he uses a similar medium to mine and I found his artwork inspiring. By the end of our tour she asked me if I would like to have as a gift one of her husbands book, which of course I just could not say no to! She gave me the book (a very nice hardcover book with many wonderfull paintings for me to be inspired by!) and another smaller book as well. I tried my best to display my gratitude in both english and german (which consisted of me saying danka, um danka very much!?).

Next we went for a short hike up to the castle! The castle was built on top of medieval ruins but I'm not sure exactly when, it used to have renaissance gardens but unfortunately does not anymore. I got a chance to go inside of the basement of the castle and of course see the beautiful view from outside the castle itself. We only stayed a little while because we were getting wuite hungry by then, so we walked back down to town and had ourselves kebabs.

Arrival/day one in Deutschland

After a very short one hour plane trip that I slept through quite comfortably, I arrived at the Frankfurt-Hahn airport. The first thing I noticed was that it was quite a bit colder than Florence (but still warm for a night in mid-November). I called my friend Florian who was running a bit late because someone had slashed his tires, and he said he would be arriving in about 10 minutes. I'm not sure why but every time I have plans to meet someone I haven't seen in a long time I get slightly nervous (I was even slightly nervous to see my parents when they came) which always makes me feel silly, but I was so excited to be in Germany for the first time that this feeling was slightly overpowered.

Florian arrived with a handmade sign with my name on the front and on the back BOON NUGGETS (a very important new vocabulary word that may not have been introduced into the dictionary yet). Shortly after we settled into the car, and began our journey to Schmalkalden which turned out to be about a 4 hour drive. When we got close to Florian's city we stopped in a nearby town to visit some of his friends. They were all hanging out at the town youth club, which unlike to US, they were able to drink and smoke in. His friends were all very nice but I was a little overwhelmed because they all were talking so much German. Although some did talk to me in English and one of his friends had just hitchhiked from Switzerland (where he is living a working) and he had very good English.

We only stayed there for a little while and then continued on to Florian's home. It was pretty dark the whole ride so I couldn't see very much but when we got to Florian's home I could see that it had a very nice view of the town below! Florian's house was really nice and his mom had just re-done the bathroom which they were very proud of (I got to take a shower in it the next morning...). After talking a while, meeting his cat tommy, and having some snacks, we went to bed (I got my very own room).

Found a cheap ticket to Germany! I'm headed there this weekend to visit my friend Florian! Sadly this will be one of my last out of Italy journeys (probably anyhow)...

Last day of Travel

We drove back to Florence on Monday night (I missed a day of school) and we went through a lot of nice mountain towns on the way. Actually my shaky navigation skills gave us about and hour out of the way (but with a wonderful view) tour of the Potti mountains (which turned out to be a good place to pick up a hooker). After getting back on track we found our way to lunch in a small mountain town and then eventually made it back Firenze where we relaxed, ate a pizza, walked around and then slept.

Next day I took them to Piazzale Michelangelo for the best view in Florence, we ate our last meals in Italy and drank San Cristoforo Wine (from the vineyard I picked grapes on). Needless to say it we had an awesome time and it gave me just enough family love to make it until Christmas break. Not to mention some new shoes and about 10 extra pounds...

Day three.

Day three and we were out of Sorrento and getting away from the coast in search of Italy's beautiful hill towns. The weather was iffy, rain, sun, rain, sun, but driving went smoothly and along the way we were intrigued by the many castle towns built on the tops of mountains. We were hoping to get to one so we could explore it.

 After getting off the highway we found a small mountain top town and were so excited to get out and explore that we parked in the middle of the road (we didn't think anyone could drive on the road we blocked anyways, plus the place was like a ghost town) and we decided to leave when an Italian started barking incomprehensible words at Hugh.

We were following signs to Bagnoreggio but we saw along the way a sign for a castle and we decided to visit it. It turned out to be  a hotel/restaurant and the man who owned it (we suspect he was a little lonely) gave us the grand tour. But we had to turn down his offer for lunch because we had to keep on moving (though we did buy some of his homemade jam which is very delicious). When we arrived at our destination we quickly discovered that it had only one restaurant that was open and only one hotel. We tried to eat at this place but it was full, plus we realized that we really wouldn't be able to have too much fun in a completely empty town. So we got a snack at a small bar and kept on driving.

When we reached our new destination Orvietto we knew we were in the right spot. It was the castle on the mountain kind of town we were so enthralled by the whole drive. Plus it had a beautiful Duomo church and the most interesting and beautiful back alleys! We got ourselves a hotel and settled into our temporary home. After a quick glass of wine we went to find dinner (we were all starving and hadn't eaten much since breakfast) but alas, we forgot that in Italy restaurants don't open until 7:30pm so after walking around for a while trying to find an exception, we decided to just wait it out a a small cantina. 

Dinner was well worth the wait, at a small restaurant which we were the only costumers of, we had the best food of the trip. I had tuna and garlic potatoes, Eileen had a pumpkin risotto, and hugh had a seafood pasta (the waitress said his was really special...). Even though we were so stuffed the buttons were staring to pop off of our shirts, we just had to have the chocolate mousse. Full, tired, and content, we headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest before getting back on the road.

Day two.

Back on the road by 8:30ish and on our way to Sorrento. Of course we got lost in Napoli for at least and hour or so, but we eventually found our way. Not only is Napoli a crazy maze if you don't know where your going, but we got the chance to experience to wonderful Italian driving. They don't seem to believe in stop signs (we actually got honked at for stopping at one) and its perfectly ok to take up two lanes, sideswipe people, and go as fast as you may please. 

Anyhow, when we finally got on the highway we were in pretty good spirits! We got off at a town we thought was near Sorrento so we could drive along the coast. This ended up with us finding our way to Pompeii, only to leave without even seeing the ruins (we put very little effort into finding them). Then we were back in the car, driving and driving and driving, following signs that say Sorrento. We passed through a couple cool towns an saw some interesting things, but actually getting to Sorrento was a task. We kept thinking we were there only to find another sign that had an arrow pointing us another 5 kilometers. 

Just as we were starting to get a little frustrated we entered the real Sorrento. We found the first hotel that looked nice and decided to check the price (thinking we surely wouldn't be able to afford this nice place) . Since it was offseason we got a fantastic room for a fantastic price and we were all really excited with our gorgeous view! We spent the rest of the day exploring, hitting a tourist trap for lunch and getting the worst food of our trip, and then relaxing with a bit of wine (in front of our lovely view of the Gulf of Napels). 

That night we went out on the town! Eileen and I bought ourselves cameos becasue they were really affordable and fantastically beautiful. The man selling them to us, Christian, was very nice and told us all about how cameos are made. We thought they might be made out of bone, but they are actually made out for various types of seashells. After searching for a decent place to have dinner we ran back into our new friend Christian and he told us to go to a restaurant owned by his friend Luigi. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and after relaxing for a while in our hotel room we ended our first day in Sorrento.

Day one with the folks.

My next grand adventure began when my parents arrived! They spent two nights in Florence (where we wine and dined with no regard for waistlines...) and on Friday we rented a car and set off along the coast of Italy). Our Plan was to head straight to Sorrento but after a couple wrong turns we decided to head along the coast and take the slow road (hoping for some spectacular views). Our fist stop was in Civitaveccia where we swerved into the first restaurant that seemed to have a good view. The place itself looked pretty drab, and we couldn't understand anything on the menu but the view was great. After asking the waiter what he recomended we figured out that not only did the place have a spectacular view, but the house special (seafood spaghetti) was one of the best meals we had the whole trip!

We got back on the road hoping to make it to Sorrento with enough time to check into a hotel but unfortunately this wasn't happening. I had heard that Napoli (Napels) was a cool place so we decided to get off the highway there not realizing that Naples is a HUGE city and impossible to navigate if you don't know where your going. After a somewhat frustrating drive around Napoli we finally found a hotel off some side road (I don't even know where we were). Hotel Blanc was true to its name, blank. But it was comfortable, clean, and the staff was really nice. Plus you can;t say anything bad about a place that gives you complementary cappuccino and chocolate croissants in the morning!

Health and PIctureplane in Paris

Above: Justin the mime also went to RMCAD (but before my time..) is now living in France and traveling Europe on his bicycle.
Random french Mohawk kid.
Travis the friend I went to see (his band/stage? name is Pictureplane)

Tis me.


Bought a cheap ticket to Paris for Halloween to watch my friend Travis play with the Band Health! Unfortunately my flight arrived at nine p.m. and then I had to take an hour long bus and a 20 min taxi ride and I completely missed both shows. But I was sporting an awesome purple wig and got to hang out with the bands and enjoy Halloween festivities in Paris! Though not many people were dressed up it was a truly memorable Halloween. A friend of Travis' that I met named Justin took these pictures of everyone in the same hat and distorted them(except the poster), I think they are quite neat...

I also got the chance to explore Paris the next day which was quite wonderful except for the torrential rain. To get back to Florence I took the overnight train which was also quite an experience. The compartment I was in was about the size of a walk-in closet and it had 6 bunk-beds which folded out of the wall. The first to arrive in the compartment were me and a nice Australian girl about my age. Then came a man from Egypt, Two men from India, and a man from the congo (when he figured out I was american he kept saying over and over OBAMA, WE CAN, WE CAN!) who all spoke only french (and their native languages). We tried to communicate but it was to no avail.

The mind-control Killer-Fungi

There is much to talk about, Paris, traveling through Italy with the folks, but first, The mind-control Killer-Fungi.

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuopJYLBvrI