Lake Como

We commenced our three week Italian stint in Lake Como, a small community and lake nestled into the hills of Northern Italy close to the border of Switzerland. Again, we were blessed with sunny blue skies the whole way through. We’ve heard rave reviews of Como from a few people, but we think we made the mistake of staying in the most expensive part of town where there were no hostels open, only expensive hotels. We were forced to splurge. Supposedly George Clooney has a vacation mansion here, so everyone was all about the Clooney. They were very proud. Como is surrounded on all sided by tall hills so we did a massive hike up one and had a terrific view of the lake and even the Alps in the distance. On the whole, we enjoyed the majestic scenery but would rather opt to stay in another town elsewhere on the lake. Plus it was winter so we couldn’t swim without shrinking our pebbles.

View of Como (and the Alps in the top right) at the apex of our hike

Some experimental photography for kicks

Ok, this is one of those time-lapse photos gone horribly wrong. Ben’s face (left) can barely be seen in the palm of the hand on the top. Zach is strateling the fingers of the palm on the bottom, and I clearly look demonic on the right while riding a mechanical bull.

Venice

Next we journeyed to Venice, probably the strangest, most intriquing city we’ve visited. The entire city is built on 118 islands that are grouped together and shaped like a fish. They are connected by 400 bridges producing hundreds of canals splitting the city like countless veins. There are no cars, bicycles, mopeds or buses in the city. The streets are narrow alleyways and are bursting at the seems with shops an restaurants. Furthermore, the city is rumored to be sinking small amounts every year and the government is actually installing inflatable walls to block high tides when they threaten to flood the city (it floods an average of 100 times per year).

Commuter parking spots

Piazza San Marco. And plagues of annoying birds that we wanted to shoot with an air soft gun and/or feed alka seltzer.

Here’s my “Hi Mom, this is my one nice photo for you” shot.

We found an open pillar and seized the opportunity to craft our own monument.

Venice at sunset with three guys. How romaaaantic.

We were fascinated with this city for…oh…about a day. Then we started to get lost in the countless streets and started to get board with the water taxis. Moreover, our hostel was a 20 min. bus ride out of town so it was more of a hassle to get downtown during the days. I would like to take my future wife here someday because it’s much more of a romantic city than anything else.

Cinque Terre

Since we have evolved into lazy and glutunous bums during the past 2 months and now crave nothing but intoxicating scenery and uber-relaxing atmospheres, it was only natural that our next stop was Cinque Terre in the Italian Riviera. Literally meaning “5 Villages”, Cinque Terre is a collection of 5 small (…and I mean small) hamlets all within close proximity of each other along the coastline. We stayed in Riomaggiore and found the folk who live and work there to be very warm and hospitable towards tourists.

Poor photo lighting, but mighty fine profiles.

Hike en-route through the 5 villages

Vernazza

There is a famous hike that connects all five villages. It takes 3-4 hours and allows for stunning views of the Mediterranian, as well as these awfully old buildings in each village that are perched right at the edge of cliffs (see above). So we did this hike. Well, we got most of the way through. Then the most unexpected, wildly depressing yet hilarious event happened: we got hit by a miniature tidal wave. We strolled into Vernazza, the 4th village. We were feeling good and met a couple lads on the path who were studying abroad from the States. We got pizzas and sat on a large concrete “dock” that acted as a barrier between the incoming waves and the small harbor where small boats usually dock for the night. The waves were pretty large, occasionally hitting and exploding up a few feet onto the pier where we were sitting (see below). There were about 20 other random tourists sitting, standing and enjoying the sun and the view from this pier as well.

The last photo my camera ever took. R.I.P.

So here we are, eating our pizzas like good little tourist boys, minding our own business, when we see a larger-than-average wave approaching. We noticed that the wake was a fair bit steeper than the rest of the wakes coming in, so Zach, Todd, Chris and I did what any dumb males would do…we immediately stood up, reached for our cameras and approached the front of the pier to capture this glorious moment and giggle in delight.

Big mistake.

As we squeeled with glee, the thing lept over the pier and pounded us to high heaven. It was absolutely massive. In my humble estimation, the spray from this thing reached well over 15 feet. It hit Zach, knocked him clean over, and dragged him into another concrete wall and smashed him into it, bloodying him up a good bit. It hit me in the chest, then (…I do not joke…), picked me up and tossed me over a 5 foot wall, then washed me down a few more steps. One of my shoes and one of Zach’s shoes were washed into the harbor. My body landed on my camera, breaking my fall, splintering the screen and bending the bloody thing in half. Our daypacks were in the process of being swept out to sea but Zach grabbed them just in time. Every part of our beings were saturated – our money belts with cash inside, passports and ID’s. Inside my daypack was my bible, some odds and ends, and my iPod. Fortunately, Ben was the only smart one of the pack and instead of rushing towards the incoming wave, backed up and out of the path of the beast, resulting in a mere wet leg. The rest of us got completely OWNED!

My iPod worked sporadically for a couple days, but after a thorough dry-out session, is now working like new again (praise Jesus). Everything else eventually dried out, but my digital camera is toast. Zach’s heel and ankle underwent a rough bruising and he has been hobbling like a cripple for the past few days. We all laughed pretty hard when all was said and done.

Post tidal wave

Drying out our belongings and licking our wounds in retrospect

So there’s Cinque Terre for ya. We never made it to the 5th village, as we were emotionally and physically tolled from Tsunami de Terre. Next on our plate: Florence, Rome, Naples and Sicily…so stay tuned.

Many Blessings Y’all!

Round two of Mediterranean bliss.  We spent 3 nights in Nice, which proved to be a very ritzy retirement-ish city on the southern coast of France.  We enjoyed and appreciated the layed back and lazy feel of this town.  Another noticeable way the Lord is blessing this trip is through the weather.  Until now, it has only rained one day (in Paris) during the past couple months.  We’ve been incredibly blessed to have lots of sun on this trip, despite the winter months.

Palm trees, pleasant weather, and the warm Mediterranean sea greet us again.

If I can summarize Nice in one word, it would be: rollerblading.  People (especially the old-folk demographic) love to rollerblade on the main strip through Nice.  Although it took much self-control on our part to keep from renting blades and busting a Mighty Duck Flying-V through the streets with nothing but fanny packs, we stuck with plain ol’ walking instead.

Streets of Nice are abuzz at night

The French think pink is still cool. Ha, suckers. Only pink on Ben is cool (savor this one, Allyson!)

We took a day trip 20 min. down the traintracks to the country of Monaco, the world’s second smallest country of only 1.96 square km.  [Can anyone guess the smallest?]  The first scene that greets us is the infamous Monte Carlo Casino, with hosts of exotic sports cars from regular casino guests.  You gotta be a serious highroller to play with the big boys here.  We mostly found Rolls Royces, Ferarris and Bentleys in the parking lot, and it made the few BMW’s there seem like mere Fords.  Aparently, according to the Bellboy whom we chatted with for a few minutes, Johnny Depp recently vacationed here at the casino.

Rows of Ferraris, Bentleys, Rolls Royces in front of the waterside Monte Carlo Casino.

“Verrrry niiiice! How muuuch?”

Oh you know, just the usual 340 kmh. No biggie.

Since we were already in Monte Carlo, of course we had to go inside the casino and gamble once.  So we put 5 Euro into a slot machine and went to town.  It was actually kinda fun, except for the losing part at the end.

 

We got a little bored after a while

Posing in Monte Carlo, beside the casino

Soaking up the sun…and feeling the sour sting of our slot machine bankruptcy.

Back in Nice, we were blessed to find an International Baptist Church on Sunday.  The pastor was a very nice grandpa from Texas who was called to be the interim pastor of this church for a year.  There were only about 20 people in the congregation, and all were very hospitable to us.  It was so nice to worship God in community with other believers – it really filled our tanks.  We met a young lad from Scotland at this church who recently received his Masters in Chemical Engineering and has been working here in Nice for a few months.  He took us out to dinner after church and we loved talking with another guy our age.  He literally had the entire Periodic Table of Elements memorized.  Even funnier than that was the size of the coffee here:

This is the size of a regular “cup” of coffee in France. Just another reason to mock the…I mean…love the French through Jesus.  Goodness I can’t wait to get back to American Sized coffee in Seattle.

Next up: three weeks in Italy.  Miss you all!

CIAO

When I think of Barcelona, as in the host of the 1992 Olympic Games when I was 8, I still think of this:

Oh yes, you gotta love the oldschool days of Bird, Magic, Barkley and Jordan sporting nasty high-water shorts and the olden days when there still were white guys in the NBA. Priceless. Barcelona was a very westernized Spanish city. We spent four nights here because not only was our hostel on the roof of a building (of course with outhouse-style showers and washrooms), but Barcelona stole our hearts. It was the coolest city we’ve been to, and here’s why.

The climate change from Switzerland to the Mediterranean coast was noticably drastic! We left snowy mountains and hit a warm, sunny portside city with palm trees aplenty. It was nice to be able to wear just a t-shirt again. Oh and pants too sometimes.

The Rambla at night

Perhaps the most magnetic part of Barcelona was the main strip. Splitting the downtown part of the city is the Rambla (above), a massive mile-long walkway filled with street entertainers, markets, souvineer stands, outdoor restaurants, and throngs of people day and night. It was wildly entertaining. We often found ourselves just walking up and down the Rambla for hours, gawking at the street performers as tourists normally do. Strictly for entertainment’s sake, here were my two favorite street entertainers (a glorified term for “beggers”):

Edward Scissorhands expresses grattitude to a donor

Gentlemen, this is how to really woo a lady

Posing in a large strip of walkway (different than the Rambla) near a local park

Overlooking Barcelona and gettering serenaded for free. Thank you sir, may I have another?

Coastside Barcelona: a crew team glides past an old sailboat

Perhaps the most intriguing jewel in Barcelona was the fascinatingly beautiful La Sagrada Família which was commenced in 1882 by the brilliant mastermind, Antoni Gaudi, who committed over 40 years of his life on this project.  Construction began once again after Gaudi’s death in 1926, and after a haul during the Spanish civil war in the 1930’s, again in 1940.  It remains unfinished to this day and isn’t expected to be fully completed for another 50 years.  Besides the striking, angular architecture, the fact that this worldwide attraction isn’t even complete lends to the sheer fascination and awe of this masterpiece.  I wondered how a partially finished cathedral could be such a hit with global sightseers, but it attracts about 2.2 million visitors annually!  The front pillars are modelled after Californian Redwoods.  Just about every aspect of Gaudi’s work is nature-inspired (instead of the common gothic styled cathedrals scattered all around Europe) which was a refreshing change for our eyes.  But enough words, look at the pictures!

The front spires of Gaudi’s La Sagrada Família

The awe-inspiring front entrance of Sagrada Familia.  The slanted pillars are meticulously crafted to resemble the trunks of Redwoods. 

Looking up at the still unfinished ceiling: the pillars resemble vines which branch off to flower-like blossoms.  Much different than the Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame.

Other Highlights:

Severly loitering and looking to get arrested for a night. All part of the adventure, eh?

We also took a day trip to Monsarrat, a monestary buried high in the hills about an hour outside of Barcelona.  It was established by monks in 1025 AD and still houses 30 active monks today.  We took a very scenic cable car ride which lifted us hundreds of meters in the air just to get up to the Monsarrat.  A boys choir sings in the cathedral every day at 1pm, which we were very fortunate to see.  It was packed out to standing room only.

Monsarrat Cathedral

And then we wandered aimlessly into the surrounding hills: Ben and Zach on top of the world at Monsarrat

What a view!

On our last day, Benji had some down-time while Fedeckel hit the streets and adventurized to the max.

On the walls of a castle overlooking the city

Because we can.

And that’s Barcelona, folks!  All three of us absolutely loved our time here.  This city has everything one could want and need.

 

CIAO!