UrbanBackpacker.org

NYC Day 1

2006-11-01T02:19:00.000-05:00

NYC  Day 1

I think it would be safe to say that if you polled people from around to World about their #1 travel destination you would probably find New York City in the top 10 responses. It is the city that never sleeps and we did just that.  We had descended on this metropolis of the world with DJ music in mind. Our goal would be to see RJD2 on our first night and than to scope out Quantic the following night.

We started out in Boston, MA a bit delayed without getting on the road until noonish. My day started with the trek from Dorchester over to Roxbury Crossing in order to meet up with Martin and Nate. From there it was over to Brookline to collect Lindsey Martin's girlfriend and the final piece to our crew. After picking up some sandwiches and gas we were finally on the road.

Now as driver and navigator for our expedition I made the mistake of grabbing the first Interstate I saw headed south I-195. While it got us headed sort of in the right direction it was still wrong.  Our detour took in SRT 44 to traverse Connecticut over to Hartford.  Along the way we took in the rolling country hills while taking in some of the greenery.

When we finally started to hit the snarl of the NYC Metro area’s vial traffic we were still way out in New Haven.  We still had time but we were looking at the clock and hoping we would still make our boat.  The RJD2 concert was set for 9 pm and would be held on a boat going around the Hudson and the Verrazano Narrows.  Since it was on a boat we had no option of a fashionably late entrance.

By the time we were finally in the City limits around the north east side of The Bronx we were really getting anxious with the near stand still we found our selves in on the New England Throughway.  The large amounts of ganja were both helping us cope with what was turning into an very long journey, but all the while contributing to our anxiety.  We were even debating getting a hotel in mid town or even parking over night just to guarantee we made our boat.  In the end we made it to Brooklyn our final destination, parked, and made off for the show with some McDonalds in our stomachs.

Hands down I think the Rocks Off Concert Series is one of the best kept secrets in for boat tours in NY Harbor.  For $30 you get a cruise, option of a cash buffet and bar, and finally some relay kick ass music.  To put this into perspective a Circle Line tour will cost ???????????????? While a circle line takes in the other half of Manhattan Island in my humble opinion I think it is well worth missing the beautiful (insert sarcastic tone here) sights of the East River.  As for RJ the

The RJD2 show was nuts!  His set consisted of classic RJ to new RJ and other sick displays of turntableisms like cutups of Jay-Z and the like.  As for the back drop we had Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty with the dramatic skyline of Manhattan on the other.  The crowd was decidedly young, but because we were on a ship the tight limits on its people capacity kept every thing felling nice and personal and with out the need to fight for elbow room.

By the time we got back to the dock it was going on 1 a.m. but it was time to get out and go hit the town.  We snagged a cab and shot down to the East Village.  First stop was getting some food, but we made the mistake of grabbing some falafel first and missed our chance at some Freis Fries.  Freis Fires located just around the corner from St. Mark’s Place specializes in just fries with some 30 different sauces on them.  This is highly recommended for any outing in village.

Next on the agenda was drinks and that was taken care just around the corner at Jimmy’s.  This little gem tucked into a basement boasts a fantastic beer selection in a neat environment.  The beer selection was given the blessing of those who I was traveling with (Nate, Martian, and Lindsey are all Bartenders) and included highlights like Six Points Cream Stout and plenty of Chimmey.  After getting the boot from the bartender at Jimmy’s we stumbled out in our drunkenness into the street proceeded to smoke a joint, hail a cab, and it the sack back in Brooklyn.

Ping

2006-08-21T22:21:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

Test of a test

Road Trip Time: With a Little Help From All of You!

2006-04-24T19:43:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

It's getting to be that time again. We have been getting the itch to get back on the road. And that's just what we will be doing. Starting this Thursday we will be going from Boston, MA to Orlando, FL. Stops that have been planned thus far are Woodstock, NY; Washington, D.C.; and North Carolina.

Well that's were we have friends that we were going to stop in and say hi to, but we want to get some feed back from all of you. If you have any ideas for stops along our general way leave us a comment with you sugestion. We are game for most things and are willing to travel with a camera. This way we bring the trip to all of you even if you can't physically come (we are moving a car and an apartment so there isn't much room)!

Some of my thoughts so far have been South of the Border or at least the signs for it(they are really entertaining). Or how about the Outerbanks? We want to know where you want us to travel.

By the way if you haven't figured it you yet the best way to read the most current postings is the visit www.urbanbackpacker.org

Cheers,

Turtle

The apology

2006-04-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

Hey no hard feelings about my comment. I figured it was an underhanded comment, but I guess sarcasm doesn't convey to well through this medium. I figured you would have liked the Dave Attel comparison. Both of you are comedians and both of you love late night exploits. Oh well. I will change the wording for you if it helps. You rely have been doing a ton for me. And you are right there has been a ton of activity from you. I am very grateful for all your help

www.urbanbackpacker.org Coming Soon!

2006-04-12T21:34:00.000-04:00

www.urbanbackpacker.org Coming Soon!

So it has been a bit since my last post. I have started two jobs in the last few months so my life has been a bit chaotic. I do apologize to those of you who have stayed loyal readers since we have forced you to put up with our version of Dave Attell, Andy Jackson.

So my personal life isn't really why you read now is it. So here is the scope with UrbanBackpacker. In spite of all the other things that have been going on have all been happening behind the scene.

First up we have secured a proper domain thanks to AdSense sales from the Blog. The URL is
http://www.UrbanBackpacker.org
Most likely by the end of the week I should have the real site live and good to go. You can expect to see our Blog, photo galleries, and video resources. Eventually we will be integrating a Wiki into the mix to allow anyone to share travel resources that they know about.

The responses to we have gotten about our street interviews have been overwhelmingly positive. I promise the video of our Boston ones will be coming out shortly. Thanks to everyone who participated and help give Boston thee unique perspective we were looking for.

Cheers

Turtle

Prodi v. Berlusconi: to care or not to care?

2006-04-12T16:03:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, I started to write a story about the anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death. Thousands gathered at the Vatican, people even slept on the streets to try and be the first in line for the memorial ceremony. There were Polish flags everywhere, military police, and traffic restrictions. I even had a catchy lead: "A funny thing happened on the way to the Vatican". The truth is, a funny thing happened while I was writing the article.

I had nothing. Nada, zip, zilch, niente. Outside of my lead paragraph and my own thoughts on the event, I had no material. Quite frankly, I just didn't care. Neither did most Romans I know. Don't get me wrong, there were thousands of Romans who cared. Shopkeepers hung signs in their windows, churches were crowded, and it was the top headline for all the local newspapers. None of that stopped the bars from running 'til 4am. It didn't ease any tensions. There were no public signs of solidarity outside of the Vatican. Romans just couldn't be bothered.

Ok, so with that idea scrapped, at least the election was coming up. That would be a big deal, right? There were thousands of political propaganda signs littering the billboards and public ad space. The news was covering the event non-stop. It was billed as one of the most controversial and competitive elections in recent Italian history. Every Roman had an opinion on how crazy the event would be, and how polarized and passionate they are about politics. Well, the day came (actually it was a 2 day voting period) and once again, nothing. It was a 51 to 49 per cent victory for Romano Prodi of the center-left coalition, an ousting of the enigmatic sociopath Berlusconi, and a complete shift of power in the country. Reaction....small conversations between coffee, cigarettes and shopping.

I haven't been this let down by inaction since I watched M. Night Shama..whatever's "The Village". I'm going out on a limb here by generalizing, but it has to be said. Romans are all talk, no action. Most of them are just downright lazy. The scary thing is that they actually admit to it. Politically, they remind me of Americans. Lots of talk and debate, but no physical drive to actually change anything.

On Monday night, I got the best explanation of why from a neo-fascist Jiu Jitsu trainer while having coffee (oh, I'll get to that in the next article). "The biggest problem with Italian politics are Italians...", he said, "We expect the same thing from a new president. Honestly, we're too lazy to go out and change anything". Ok, you know you're in trouble when a skin-head neo-fascist gives you the most intelligent quote of the evening.

But that's where I'm at backpackers. I beg someone to prove me wrong on this one. This was a monumental election, and there's little faith that anything here will change for the better. Things will change, that's inevitable, but how and when? Berlusconi represented the center-right coalition. That includes the economic conservatives, religious conservatives, and on the far end, fascists. Prodi's party is the center-left. That includes social reformers, equal rights groups, the Catholic leftists, and on the far end, communists.

Italy will change, but Romans won't care until it actually effects their day-to-day life. Traffic will still be miserable. The cost of living will still be preposterously high. Businesses will still take 3 hour lunch breaks. Transportation strikes will still be a regular thing. Oh, and politics will still be discussed, I repeat, discussed.

As an American I'm aware that the new presidency will have an effect on US-Italy foreign relations. I won't go into how, but it will be exciting to see how the Bush administration deals with the change in power. Prodi's supporters are almost unanimously anti-Bush.

The overall point I want to make is that whining about problems and actually doing something to solve them are two entirely different things. Passion as an ideal is far less effective than passion put into action. The French riot, Ukrainians gather en masse and protest, Haitians burn tires and fire guns at the police. But hey, at least they do something to take a stand.

Unemployement here is hovering near 20%, the economy isn't growing, the social welfare system is in disarray, and immigration is rapidly expanding. Italians took the first step in fixing these problems by electing a new leader. In general, you can tell that people want change. Hold Prodi to the fire, Italy. Demand more jobs, boycott the outrageous taxes, demand a return to the lira, and take to the streets until companies actually pay wages that compare to the cost of living.

I'm not Italian, so what do I know? This is just an observation of what I see. I want people here to succeed, and only they can make it happen. Actions, backpackers, speak volumes over spoken words. There's no better time than now. Carpe Diem Romani. Today ushers in a new beginning for Italy, don't waste it.

City of Contradictions

2006-04-11T01:30:00.000-04:00

The following post was written by Emma Land, a freshman at the University of Washington, and a recent study-abroad student in Rome. She originally submitted this as an essay on Roman culture for her creative writing class.I thought it would give some us a different perspective to the experience of living abroad. Side notes: she's our first female contributor in 2006, she hails from the Pacific Northwest, and her intelligence far exceeds her age. Preach on sista'------Andy

When the plane landed and I walked into the sunlit airport I felt a new kind of awareness coursing through my body. My senses perked up, my heart raced, and I could feel the blood rushing through my veins. The car ride was complete silence, a hazy blur, as I stared, my eyes brimming with tears of shock, at the city of Rome. I checked into my small hotel room, set down my bags and collapsed into my bed. Shock and awe washed over me and I fell into a restless sleep. We toured the streets of Rome that the evening. I was mute. Stunned at the beauty around me, the vibrant culture, the song of the Italian language all of this mixing before my eyes, piercing my ears, leaving me speechless. It was at this point that I fell madly in love with Rome.

I did not come to Rome with expectations or preconceived notions. Of course I came wary of Italian men, but that is to be expected. I came with a child’s notion that this might be fun, but not with an adult’s expectations or prior knowledge. With this as my starting point I was able to view Rome as it is, my own ideas not combating what I saw.

By 4am the skeleton of the market is already up, a few dedicated sellers cleaning and arranging their wares. The Plaza del Biscione is littered with broken bottles, cigarettes butts and the stench of marijuana. The young Italians, a medley of bad asses, who frequent this small plaza leave not only remnants of the nights’ activities, but new graffiti appears nightly. New tags, names, symbols, drawings and incorrectly spelled American swear words cover the stone walls and wooden doors in the plaza. Standing at the door, hunting through my bag for keys, I can hear the heartbeat of Rome: the noise of the market, the clinks and bangs from people already rising from bed, the noise of the few cars littering the streets. The sounds of Rome breathe a life into the city that can be found no where else.

Mornings in Italy force even the most fatigued to rise, not simply because the noise is deafening, but because the sounds are riveting. As my alarm abruptly breaks my dream state I immediately hear the conversations and laughter of construction workers, the honk of car horns, the dropping of construction material and the cries of vendors in the market. If it is a weekend I often hear the crying lady, or as Lisa has dubbed her the Biscione crier. She is a large, rotund woman, swathed in layers of black and dirty orange cloth. I often hear her screams during the day. No one knows why she yells or who she is yelling at so vehemently, but everyone in the Campo de’ Fiore knows who she is. If I am not awake by 10am I often gently nudged awake by the sounds of the Campo.

I sip my morning coffee at Cafe del Biscione, un caffe macchiato, and listen to conversations around me. Two Italian women sit smoking cigarettes inside, even though it’s not allowed, the rhythm of their conversation a melodic up and down song. A group of giggling American girls, who share the first floor conference room with me, stomp in a cacophony of noise, clicking of flip flops and bad Italian as they ask for their lattes to go. The owner of the cafÈ smiles graciously at everyone, but I realize as the American girls go to pay he has charged them an extra 10 centisimi. The owner and the tall, imposing, dark haired barman sing in harmony to the opera music cooing softly in the background. After I have paid, said my goodbyes (a volley of ciaos, buongiornos and gracious smiles) I enter into the plaza.

The fountain giggles as I walk past, the water splashing into buckets put out by the men at the butcher’s shop. My mornings are filled with walks through Rome. The more we stomp around this city the more I realize that there is a never-ending noise to the place, a hum that fills your ears and remains there long after you have left the street. The car horns, the clicking of heels against the cobblestone, the constant mutters of Italian men as high heels pass, the opening and closing of shop doors. These noises make Rome. They are the song that pieces together the streets of Roma.

On our walks through Rome churches loom on every street corner solemn and silent, standing as reminders of one’s duty to God and the Roman Church. As you pull back the heavy wooden doors you enter into a new world. The interiors are gilded, the ceilings high, and marble coats the walls. Within churches there are new sounds: the awe-filled gasps of tourists, the banging of heels against marble floors, the echoes of mass wafting from small chapels to your right and left, the constant mutter of students and teachers and the silent whispers of prayers. The universe within the walls of the church is different. The air is musty. The lights are dim. There are constant reminders to devote oneself to God, to give to the Church. The place wreaks of guilt. The opulence is often overwhelming, blurring and confusing the Church’s message of piety.

In the afternoons the city shuts down: doors close, shutters click shut, the traffic slows and the streets seem bare. Restaurants fill with hungry customers the buzz of Italian coupled with wild hand gestures makes every meal an adventure. Schools also have adopted this break. The Pantheon fills with youngsters: laughing, eating and playing in the piazza. Slowly the streets begin to fill again as everyone leisurely strolls back to work. This abrupt stop in the day took me a month of adjustment. The idea that life could slow for two hours, that lunch could be eaten at a leisurely pace instead of a quick run to McDonalds, shocked me.

After the break shops grind back into action, the city picks up again, cars bustle down the streets. As the sun begins to go down there is a new buzz to the air. Students are done with school. Jobs end. Restaurants open their doors. By 8pm the city is a bustle of hungry people either on their way home or on their way out to eat. This is when Rome is filled with laughter. From every restaurant the clink of silverware on plates can be heard. The hum of laughter, raised voices, the whoosh in the air of wild hand gestures all blend into to a cacophony of joyous sound.

As the sky becomes filled with stars, the moon glistening down on the ancient roads a new life emerges: the nightlife. By 10pm the Campo is filled with Italian and American voices. The bars filled with chatter and noise, music from each restaurant and pub echoes through the Campo mixing and melding together with the conversations happening throughout the square. Men and women dressed in their best coming home from dinner. Teens stand smoking in the Plaza del Biscione. The girls fix their hair, snap their gum, stare with looks of superiority at the foreigners, and giggle at the boys as their young suitors make fools of themselves. The boys roll joints, drink beer and play fight. They are loud and excited, constantly acting up for the attention of the surrounding girls. The Americans stick out in the crowd: stiletto heels stuck in the cobblestone, short skirts, sweats and drunken behavior. By midnight the Americans can be spotted drunkenly stumbling out of the Drunken Ship giggling and falling over one another. By two the Campo is filled with the remainder of drunken Americans, most of the Italians have left for home. By three the Campo is silent, the tourists have left, the Americans have stumbled home, the pubs all closed.

Life in Rome is an amazing adventure full of interesting and shocking surprises. One of the greatest changes for me was the way Italians approach time. Drinking small, quick cafes in the morning, a two-minute event. Then in the evenings or over lunch you are never asked to pay or given the bill until you are ready. The pace contradicts itself. One minute you are rushing to finish your cafÈ in order to make more space at the bar and the next you are leisurely enjoying a 3-hour dinner not once thinking about rushing. The same is true with traffic. Drivers in Rome like to drive with minimal notice to laws: cutting corners, running red lights, and speeding are their main pleasures. On the road Italians are maniacs, but on the streets they stroll, walking as though they have no where to be in the world but right there. This contradiction is a pleasure to me. There are certain activities that deserve the time taken to truly enjoy the experience. Dinner with friends is a pleasure that should be enjoyed. Walking the streets of Rome there is so much to see that taking the extra minutes to get from point A to point B is worth it. Coffee drinking and driving are activities dubbed less important and therefore the time spent on them is less.

Romans also have a unique friendliness. Store owners, workers and every once in a while fellow occupants of my apartment say hello and goodbye at every meeting. At the grocery store or the market Italians meet and make small talk with the workers. I am never treated poorly for not speaking the language or laughed at for my unique miming technique. But, this friendliness only reaches so far. It is a surface friendliness. When I walk around the streets of Rome I am accosted by stares, not simply of men, but also of the haughty Italian women. The teens sneer as I walk out of the building into the plaza at night. I am constantly aware of the piercing eyes of Italians, summing me up, coming to conclusions. The contradiction between friendliness and coldness is about Italian’s pride. The hellos are a friendly gesture, something ingrained in the culture. The haughty response to foreigners comes from a love of Italian culture and a desire to maintain that vibrancy and life with minimal outside interference.

Rome is a beautiful city, filled with antiquity and yet the city is dingy. The streets are dirty and grimy, although every 12 hours the street cleaners appear and sweep the streets with their witches’ brooms. Minutes after the streets are freshly cleaned the trash begins to pile again, the cigarette butts litter the ground and the trashcans start to overflow. At night the streets fill with the younger Italian crowd, who jeer, sneer and yell at the Americans. They stand outside my big, green door and break bottles, chant communist sayings and from time to time riot in the Campo. Graffiti covers the walls of many buildings, a mixture of American and Italian sayings and swearwords. Italians have such a love for their city and culture and yet they disrespect the city they live in. At the AS Roma games the stadium reverberates with Roma cheers, Roma pride bubbles over the edges of the colosseum. But, when you leave you see the youth tagging buildings and the crowds dropping their trash on the ground.

But, the greatest contradiction of all is that while this city is grimy, the younger crowds can be menacing and troublesome, people can be rude and pushy there is never a moment that I do not feel safe and in love with this town. There has not been one moment in my trip that I have not rejoiced at the inconsistencies of this place. That I have not simply laughed at my grocery store being closed at five for no reason or smiled and waited patiently in line at the Post Office for an hour and a half. Rome teaches you to slow down, to learn to smile at contradictions, laugh at closed doors, revise schedules and never once complain. Rome wants you to fall in love with this lifestyle, to embrace the three-hour dinners and long walks through the crowded streets. Rome asks that you choose to slow down and appreciate life and learn to live it to the fullest.

Lost in Translation

2006-03-27T06:27:00.000-05:00

My life here is made up of extremes. If I step back to examine my time in Italy as a series of moments and experiences, they often don't make sense. Sunday was a great example of this.

Starting the day off with a trip to McDonald's automatically puts you in an American mood. Although in the 'states I can't stand the place, I've grown to really appreciate living across the street from the golden arches in a foreign county. Plus, when you eat pasta and pizza about 15 to 20 times a week, it's nice to break the monotony with a Chicken Premiere (sounds lame, but it rocks the shit out of a Big Mac), Maxi Fries, and a Fanta Orange soda. So far Sunday was great. No work, American fast food, and an evening full of NCAA Tournament basketball. Forget Rome, I took the night off from Italy and lived like a yank. At least that's how the day started.

After a late lunch it was off to the Abbey for UConn. Vs. George Mason. The Abbey is the bar I work at. It's technically an Irish pub but it's run by Italians, and frequented by American college students. It's also one of the few pubs here that shows every major American sports match and has legitimate American cheeseburgers.

The game was great. Probably the best college hoops game I've ever seen. I felt like I was in Boston again. Cold pints of beer, the smell of french fries in the air, yelling at the big-screen TV after every missed shot. At the final buzzer it was upset city. The little school from Virginia, George Mason, took down the mighty UConn. The Abbey erupted with a collective scream. High fives circled the bar as wolf-like yells were projected in every direction. Seconds later my American night was over. My night as a yank, cancelled, and I was on a theoretical express flight back to Rome.

"Andy!!!...", said Chilleste, the owner of the bar, "...Please tell American students that if they yell crazy for the games, we turn them off!". As the token American employee present-albeit my night off-I accepted this responsibility. It's been my job since the Super Bowl. Minimum collateral damage is how I look at my role as my boss' American bar ambassador. You see backpackers, cultural exchanges, body language, regional idiosyncrasies, and vocal intonation cannot be easily translated.

People feel more comfortable with their own cultural familiarities. A small fat man named Alberto serves you fettucine and overpriced Sicilian wine at an Osteria (small Italian eateries, like the one in "Lady and the Tramp"), I tell you to get lost after college basketball. It just works better that way for some people. Be honest, you wouldn't exactly feel comfortable with a Chinese-run taco stand. You don't want a Brit to give you dental advice. And you'd probably stay away from a flight school called "Air Allah".

In Rome, like in most big cosmopolitan cities-see New York, London, LA-these lines of distinction are becoming increasingly blurred. In fact, after the Abbey, I spent the rest of the night hopping between four languages and just as many continents. There were the girls from Bavaria who laughed at my jokes (English) until I called them allied spies. I had a discussion on fashion and soccer with an Italian. I said hello to a couple I knew from Barcelona. Ran into a little Bangladeshi rose vendor who I used to kick out of the bar when I was a bouncer. And finally to cap the night off, I ran into Joao (Brazilian) and some friends at the all-night coffee bar and had an hour-long conversation about, you guessed it, languages.

Joao was with a beautiful blonde American girl, her friend from Pennsylvania, and a young looking Italian. With a big Brazilian smile, I was greeted with Portuguese, my adopted third language. Joao knows this, and always talks to me in Portuguese, no matter how bad I tell him I speak it. Then without a pause, he's facing the blonde, all English. Back to me, Portuguese, and then Italian. I join in the melee of languages as best I can, we've got a rhythm going. There is actually a coherent multi-language conversation going on. Everyone's cool but the guy from Pennsylvania. What preceded really put my night into perspective.

"ENGLISH!!!" he yelled drunkenly, "Can't we all just speak English for the love of God. Ever since I've been in this fucking country it's nothing but blah blah blah in other languages. I know you all know English, so why are you trying to be a pain and not speak it?". Joao's smile faded fast. I could tell he was controlling his anger. He wanted to score with the blonde. He's lucky she was there, Joao would have plastered him all over the Piazza. Instead, he took the high road. "When I speak to you, I speak English" he said to the kid, "He (pointing to me) make a little easier with me to speak Portuguese. I make easier for him (pointing to the Italian) to speak Italian". Here we go, the cultural gloves are off.

The guy from Pennsylvania shrunk back in his seat a bit. He then turned from critical to admirational. "I can't believe you guys are actually having this conversation right now" he said, "I really wish I could just understand everything. I feel stupid that I never had to learn how to communicate in anything other than English". He was right, he never did, and neither did many Romans, Parisians, New Yorkers, or Londoners. In many circumstances you don't have to learn speak anything outside of your native tongue. In other circumstances it's a necessity.

We weren't speaking like this because it was a necessity. It just made things run smoother. It made Joao feel comfortable to hear his native tongue, and gave me some much needed practice with it. When he went into the small details of his stories, he spoke with me in English. We both spoke Italian with the Italian guy. Being multi-linguists broadened the level of the topics of conversation. We could use our own idioms, our own body language, our own accents.

Cultural rules were being stripped away by a lively chat, 22oz. Peronis, a bag of chips, and a hot blonde. Nothing was being lost in translation, and we still got to be ourselves. I was the same guy who started my evening with a Value Meal and NCAA basketball. Joao was still going to get laid in whatever language he felt like. We parted ways after some pizza and I walked home. Time to close up my culture passport and call it a night. I felt like there was a lesson to be learned from all this. Cultural judgments will fade when we communicate better with each other. I really believe that.

Maybe next time I see a Chinese taco stand, I'll grab a bite to eat. Lesson or not, however, I'll still never fly "Air Allah".

Persona non Grata

2006-03-19T01:17:00.000-05:00

On St. Patrick's Day I wake up, get some pizza, make espresso, complain about my women problems, and go out to paint the town green. Sometime after a beer with Basam and flirting with Valentina at Blockbuster Video, I get a free turtle. Not just any turtle though. I get a plastic, Senegalese (ahem...CHINESE) turtle for good fortune. "Uno regalo gratis per te" said the man who gave it to me, "Africano per buona fortuna". In other words, a free gift from Africa that will bring me good fortune. Why me? Why a turtle? Why free? Ok, so he tried to sell my a watch first, but when I said no and started to walk away he insisted that I take the turtle.

In Rome it's normal to be approached by recent African immigrants who try with all their might to sell you goods. In fact, it's normal in many big cities all over the world. Hell, they've perfected the practice in New York. "Rolex, Rolex...cheap Rolex mister", they say in English soaked in a thick colonial French accent. Here it's much the same. They work the same types of areas (tourist-filled pedestrian thoroughfares), have the same grueling hours, sell the same shitty goods, and come from the same countries; mostly north and west Africa. People here treat them the same too. Most ignore the sales pitch, some check out the merchandise, and some buy. Others shoot slight glances of fear and disdain, subconsciously showing their disapproval with their body language.

theoretically I should be used to this. I've seen the same guys, same sales pitch my whole life. They're the same here but I'm different. It affects me differently here. In a bizarre way we actually share a part of the same experience. Our lives and backgrounds are extraordinarily opposite but yet in simple terms we do the same thing. Let me explain. I left my country with two bags and a plane ticket. I couldn't speak the language. I needed work badly. I have no visa, no work permits, pay no taxes, and make my money off of tourists.

African politics aside-although it's shameful not to acknowledge this as the impetus for them coming here-they're here to work. They're here to survive, to keep a sustainable life for themselves. They eat pasta, drink espresso, and go to work every day like most other Romans. In Rome though, they're not welcome.

Berlusconi's government sees these types of immigrants as a social and economic cancer. Many Italians decry them in public. Rowdy sections of soccer "ultras" (hooligans) taunt African players on the field and even throw bananas at them during play. My question is, why not me? Why don't I get taunted or scoured at while I'm at work? The answer unfortunately is tragically simple: racism. In Italy the difference between a working tourist and an immigrant is the color of his/her skin.

Racism breaks down reason. Racism is why I work less than these guys and make more money. Racism is why I don't hide from the police when they come around. The real tragedy is that their negative reputation is almost entirely undeserved. I've never had a bad interaction with an African immigrant in three months here. On the contrary, I've been an accessory to petty burglary with Italians (not voluntarily), seen British brawls, American vandalism, and Venezuelan drug trafficking. That's not to say that crime doesn't exist amongst African immigrants. I'm sure it does. But they have more to lose if they get caught. With these guys there's no "plan B".

After the pitch fails, some guys walk away. Other guys will actually walk and chat with you. It's not always for the sale either. My first month here I had breakfast with a Nigerian man who gave up on trying to sell me socks. We got a coffee and a cornetto, split the bill 50/50, talked about music and parted ways. I have a friend from Cameroon who sells CD's in front of the grocery store. He calls me his brother and practices English with me every time I go shopping. I've never given him a cent.

On St. Patrick's day I got a turtle. No bargaining, no hustle, no tricks, just a turtle. A man I didn't know gave me a gift for good fortune. Good fortune that he probably needs more than me. I almost felt guilty for taking it. Three days later though it finally hit me. Giving makes a person feel whole. Giving is what truly defines our character and connects us as human beings. I'll never look at African street merchants the same. I'll always look them in the eye and acknowledge them as hard-working equals. In my own way, that's the turtle I can give back to them.

The Ugly American

2006-03-12T19:25:00.000-05:00

Pale faces, eager eyes, a sense of enjoyment, adventure, independence. Americans in Rome are as omnipresent as Pizzerias and motorini (mopeds). In the center of the city they're catered to as if they were personally invited to come. Some restaurants have an english menu. Bars play American pop music and show college basketball on satellite television. T-shirts are sold with American phrases written on the back. You can even get a budweiser and a hot dog from a street vendor.

Day-by-day and week-by-week new people cross the pond to envelope themselves in the vast complexity that defines Roman culture. They come for the monuments. They come for the bars. They come for the women, the men, the language, the food. In an odd way they come to say that they came.

We get a bad rap here. Sometimes it's deserved and sometimes not. The problem is that we behave as if life outside of the US exists without consequences. Americans often take the "When in Rome..." attitude a little too far. We do things that we'd never dream of doing back home. We drink in the streets, urinate in public, litter, and mock Italians in their own country, Romans in their own city.

Not all of us, however, are like that. Some of us revere the same culture that others mock. Some of us get swept away in the romance and blissful chaos of the Roman atmosphere. Some of us stand breathless in front of the Pantheon, gaze humbly at St. Peter's Basilica, and marvel at the fortitude and longevity of the Coloseum.

I use the term "we" because no matter what type of visitor you are, good or bad, to Romans you're just American. We're a nation of 250 million people, but to them we're but a single entity. We all represent the ugly American. Ugly or not, I'm always going to be who I am. I'm always going to be an American. If others choose to label me that's their business. The best I can do is stay true to my beliefs, respect those around me, and respect the culture I live in. After all, incincerity is the ugliest sin of them all

"Ada" Moment's Notice, Anything Can Happen

2006-03-05T01:20:00.000-05:00

There's a cliche saying that states, "when life gives you lemons, turn them into lemonade". But what happens when the lemons are women, and the lemonade you make out of them tastes more like old bar mix that's turned because you left it out for too long? In an odd and somewhat tragic way, (bear with me, I know the analogy's a stretch) this seems to some up my luck with women in Rome. Out here I am the "Cooler". I'm the black cat that crosses the road, the spilled salt, the shattered mirror. You get the point.

Now I'm not beating myself up, as much as it sounds like I am. On the contrary, my luck with women here is so bad that I find it funny. I'm even smiling and laughing while writing this article. I think it's karma because I've been so lucky with everything else here so far: two jobs, lots of friends, good roommate, great apartment. Women however, are another story. Lauren and Ada are the only two stories worth actually telling. I'll skip Lauren for now, and I'll just go straight to Ada.

If you had read my previous post "Nothing is Ever as it Seems", you'd know that Ada is the southern Italian girl who works at the hot dog stand near my pub. For weeks now we've been chatting with each other in a mixture of broken English and my white-boy version of sloppy street Italian. Each time we would talk, we seemed to get closer and closer. Finally I ponied-up and asked her out via e-mail. I used a webpage to translate text from English to Italian to make it easier. After a day or so, she agreed to go out to dinner and dancing with me and my friend Jason. Hallelujah, my first successful attempt at courting an Italian woman!!!

We agreed to meet on Friday night in Piazza Risorgimento at 8:30, and then walk to small Italian restaurant in my neighborhood. I met up with Jason at 7:00, got dressed up, and walked with him down to the Piazza, 5 minutes late for our agreed upon time. We took a seat on a nearby bench and began to wait. First it was 10 minutes, 20, 30, and eventually 45...no Ada. Just as we were ready to throw in the towel she sent me a text message. "Ciao Andy, I'm Ada....I'm have an problem so no dinner...I come to your house with a friend....and then for dance...ONE BIG KISS".

Jackpot baby, jackpot. Jason and I met up with another friend, grabbed some Egyptian food at "Mr. Kebab", and went home to drink some "Vodka Lemons" before the girls arrived. She got to my house shortly after with her roommate, a beautiful Roman girl named Emmanuella. We flirted, drank, played music, and practiced our respective new languages. Then it was off to the club. As we walked down the street Jason was flirting with Emmanuella and I was singing "Temptations" songs to Ada as she mumbled what she thought were the lyrics to "My Girl". Oh irony, how sweet you are. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Next stop, the "Cantina Messicana" salsa club.

Dancing was a lot of fun. Ada and Emmanuella both study dance at La Sapienza University, and previously attended Italy's National Dance Academy for high school. Those girls could really move. Jason and I weren't humble either, we're both avid dancers, and I think the girls were impressed by our confidence. Yet again, same pairing as earlier. Emmanuella-Jason, Ada-Andy. We took pictures of the four of us and decided to leave around 1:30. Emmanuella told us she had to wake up at 7 and abruptly decided to go home, much to Jason's dissapointment. The rest of us were going to "The Groove", a late-night hip hop spot that's almost as infamous as it is popular. Ada was willing to ditch her friend and go with two Joe Shmo Americans to an after-hours hip hop club that was a 15 minute cab ride away. We kept hugging and flirted like adolescents do; first funny faces, then tickling, pinching, nose grabbing, and noogies.

I was in like Flynn backpackers. Jason knew it, and he acknowledged me with a wink and a smile. When we hit "The Groove" we headed straight for the coat room, Ada's hand in mine, Jason not far behind. Then disaster struck. On our way to the coat room we ran into two girls from Los Angeles who had been drinking at the bar I work at the night before. "Andy Andy..." they shouted drunkenly, "....we're so glad to see you. What are you doing here?". Then one at a time, they leaned over to me and planted a drunken sloppy wet kiss right on my lips. Both of them. This was followed immediately with, "come back home with us, we're leaving right now." We had just jumped from a category 3 to a category 5 disaster, and I could see that Ada's face was not smiling.

I politely declined their request (it takes a brave man to decline that kind of request) and we hung up our coats without much discussion of the incident. Luckily for me, Ada didn't speak enough English to understand what they were saying. Jason split and Ada and I sat and chatted, then danced, then chatted some more. In the smoking room I went in for the kill, I tried to kiss her. She pulled back immediately and in her best English said "NO...you kiss every girls here before me. Why you do that?". The eye of the storm had passed and we were back to a category 5.

"No no no," I said almost desperately, "I'm not like that". Panicking, I grabbed my Cuban friend Ony who could speak Italian fluently. "Dude, I'm in trouble. You have to explain to her that I only want to kiss her, the other girls were just joking". It took him 10 minutes, but Ony got the job done. She was back to smiling and looking at me with widened eyes. Then I tried to kiss her again. "NO Andy, I can't. I can't kiss you" she said again. Now I began to speak Italian with her. "Why, what's the problem, I thought you liked me". "I do.....but I can't, I just can't," she said. Forget a category 5, the next words out of her mouth were like Hiroshima. In the next four words I saw our whole night vaporize before my very eyes. "I have a fiancee," she said, "so I can't kiss you". It was 3:30 in the morning.

The only word which could have been worse than that would have been husband. My face turned pink with embarassment. She apologized repeatedly and said that she still thought I was a great guy. She knew exactly how I felt and it showed. I think she was embarassed too. Apparently he's from her home town in Puglia and he studies economics in Milan. She showed me a picture of them kissing with a heart drawn around it and the words "Ti Amo" or "I Love You" written on it in black ink.

The next few minutes were really awkward. We took a shot of Jaegermeister and hit the dance floor again. We were both trying to pretend like none of that just happened. I began to scour the room for the girls from LA, no luck. That ship had sailed.

After a good dance to ease the tension we went to Dog-Out with my friend Ty who I saw at the bar. She gave us free beers and hot dogs. We said goodbye as if nothing had happened, and Ty and I split a cab home. I was exhausted, it was 6:00am at this point. I smiled, laughed to myself, and grabbed some pretzels from my kitchen. So ends another day in the eternal city. At least I had a fun night. I started out with a lemon, and in the end, this was my lemonade.

Berlin: Some Reminders of the Brutality of Goverment

2006-03-03T23:19:00.000-05:00

Berlin Some Reminders of the Brutality of Government:

The NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the Lexus and the Olive Tree that the worlds “New Economy” and the concept of Globalization in the modern era began on Nov 9, 1989 (in his new book he pokes fun at the irony that this date is 11/9 and has far more significance to the world than 9/11) with the fall of the Berlin Wall. With the collapse of the worlds most heavily monitored and fortified boarders signaled the collapse o f Communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War.

Never has any place stood out to me as a lesson in the follies of control. The obvious atrocities committed by Hitler and the Third Reich are the first to come to mind but that was only the beginning of the control exerted on Berliners in the last century. Three sights illustrate these follies perfectly. They are the Reichstag, The Empty Library, and of course the Berlin Wall. All are with in a shot walk of each other with a number of tours operating in the area (the best is the New Berlin Free Tour leaving from the Starbucks in front of Brandenburg Gate).

The Reichstag is where the control stems from Hitler’s use of the burring of the Reichstag as his opportunity to seize power. He claimed that the arson was actually a communist plot and a signal for revolution. Hitler said he was the man with the plan and persuaded the government into giving him absolute power for 30 days. Those 30 days turned into 12 years of World War and one of the darkest moments in the history of civilization. It was this centralized concentration of power that allowed Hitler’s dictatorship to rise and take control of Europe. The Reichstag remained in its burned shell state up and until just after the fall of the wall. The architect Norman Foster patched the dome with a glass top as an obvious reminder for the past. In addition a spiraling walk way that serves as an art gallery winds up along the dome. From here citizens can look down upon the government in session and elected officials can look upward to the people for inspiration. A fantastic physical analogy for how government should function, for the people.

The Second sight is the Empty Library. This is a subterranean library serving a a memorial to the Nazi book burring. You know that seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy needs to go to Berlin to get back his father’s diary. When he gets there he saves it from a book burning and gets it singed by Hitler himself in the process. Well that burning is what the Empty Library is memorializing. Thousands of books by Jewish authors, liberals, foreigners, communists, and basically anyone Joseph Göbbels deemed unfit to read were tossed from the top window of the Berlin Library and onto a massive bonfire in the middle of. This included authors like Hemmingway, Kafka, Marks, and many others with some of the only copies in existence destroyed. The memorial is a completely empty room with empty white shelves enough to hold about 26,000 books or just ½ of what was burned. You look down though a glass panel in the middle of the square. There is a marker next to the window into the library that has a quote from Heinrich Heine another author whose works were burned. Although the quote was written in response to another book burring 100 years earlier, the words are a chilling forecast of what was to come.

“This was just a practice run. For those who burn books also burn people.”

The final sight is the one that dominates the central Berlin landscape at almost every turn. This of course is the Berlin Wall. Erected in 1961 by the soviets as a means to better control the population of Deutsche Demokratische Republik and in particular the population of East Berlin it quickly became the symbolism of the metaphorical Iron Curtin. Eventually the wall really became two walls with a “killing zone” located in between both. The Soviets made sure that it was secure and employed highly sophisticated security measures to thwart would be defectors. If trying to cross you were forced to one of the 3 designated crossing points Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. The latter being the most infamous of the three. If trying to cross on your own you would be meet with attack dogs on guide wires, land mines, machine guns designed to fire at sound and motion, and of course armed soviet boarder guards. Within the confines of the wall your every as a citizen your every action was monitored, regulated, and controlled. The Gestapo had some 1 agent to every 400 people during the Nazi era. By the late 1970’s the KGB was in the range of 1 agent to every 8 East Berliners. The state knew when you farted. This was all at the fore front of an effort to shape and control German thought into the perfect socialist state.

By 1989 the relaxation of media regulations in the Soviet Union two years earlier had started the disintegration of the Eastern Block. By Nov. 1989 and with the help of a few blunders on the part of the East German DDR government the border was open and the wall was coming down. I was 9 at the time but its significance is clear. Few other events have shaped our world like this and it has defined the world I will grow up in and the differences between the one my parents did.

English by Intimidation

2006-03-01T07:19:00.000-05:00

"Forget the Grammar, Learn to Speak!" is the motto of the Callan method of teaching English. And at the Eil School in Rome, we do exactly that. From the moment you step into the classroom until the moment you leave you are inundated with nothing but English. Not just regularly spoken English though, that would be too soft, leave too much room for error. No, at the Eil School we yell. We stand up, look you right in the eyes, and assertively give you the English language as if we were your drill sergeant, and you were Private Pile in "Full Metal Jacket".

A typical class sounds a little like this. "TOMORROW I WILL GO TO THE CINEMA!...WILL I GO TO THE CINEMA TOMORROW!?!?", then without giving them the time to think or even move, we lead the student's answer along with ours. In unison this time, we both yell "YES, YOU WILL GO TO THE CINEMA TOMORROW!!!!" Any error in pronunciation by the student is quickly corrected by repetition from the teacher. For example, if the student struggles with the word "cinema", we repeat it louder and slower with a bit more annunciation. We say, "CI-NE-MA, CI-NE-MA, CI....NE....MA!!!!!!", and eventually they get it.

As my first teaching job in Rome, or anywhere else for that matter, I found this method of teaching to be rather shocking. Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the loudest people around. It just seemed a little bit too forceful for me at first. I thought, "why would anyone subject themselves to being screamed at in a foreign language for weeks on end, and to top it off, pay about 30 euros an hour for the privilege???". Then it hit me when I met students who had worked their way up through the ranks to the higher level classes. They all spoke English. It worked. It worked in the same way training a dog does. Your puppy doesn't know what the fuck "sit" or "stay" or "good boy" means. If you yell it at him/her enough times and show it what to do however, it will. The difference is that a dog can't speak it back to you, people can.

The human brain is a lot more perceptive than we give it credit for. We innately learn what we feel we have to in order to survive or succeed. For example, I live in Italy, I want to order food, no one in my neighborhood speaks English. After 2 months here I can now order food, make variations on my order, and flirt with the girl serving me. Survival baby, survival. I also do my work schedule (Bartending) in Italian, tell Gypsies to fuck off in Italian, explain my illnesses to the pharmacist in Italian, and make sorry attempts to get laid in Italian (almost never actually works but it's worth a shot). You get my drift backpackers? We learn what we have to and not what we want to. That's the brilliance of the human mind.

The irony of the whole matter is that I've lost my voice after teaching for 5 days with bronchitis. I'm on the sidelines for now until my vocal chords heal a bit. But rest assured I'll be there bright and early on Monday morning, ready to scare the English into a few more Romans. In a sadistic way it's fun. And who knows, maybe someday someone can scare some Italian into me.

What we got in the works for all ya'l.

2006-02-24T09:27:00.000-05:00

So we got a few things brewing up right now. Here's a quick run down some of the things we have coming your way.

First up we have some stuff from the vault or Germany. We have "Lost in the Walled City" a tour of Rothenberg and a bunch more on Berlin. This is one European capital that I think deserves far more coverage than we have given it so far. It really is rare that a capital can so rapidly reinvent its own center.

Second up we have thrift shopping in Vienna and its emerging independent fashion scene. Afterwords we will jump continet and give you the skinny on Orlando, FL.

And of course more tales from the Eternal City from our man in Rome, Andy Jackson.

Finally we are working UrbanBackpacker TV. Our first installment featuring Boston will air on our site within a few weeks. So keep your eyes on us or you may just miss out

Comment issues

2006-02-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

We have had a bit of a problem with our comments as of late. I should have the problem smothed out so comment away. If you have posted a comment in tle past week or so I should have it up. If not I apologize.

'06 Olympics Can't Capture Fans' Interest

2006-02-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

The time is upon us again folks. Time to gather 'round the warmth of NBC's scattered, time-delayed coverage. Time to pretend like we know who the best long track skaters are. Time do be inendated by sponsor after sponsor, parading their products around the flag and the young atheletes du jour. That's right folks, the Olympics are happening. Don't blink though, or they'll be gone quicker than Bode Miller's medal chances.

Much like a dormant cold sore you got on a college spring break trip to Mexico, the 20th winter Olympics has returned from its four year (did anyone notice?) slumber. This time the 15-day athletic extravaganza has landed in the Northern Italian city of Torino. The problem is, no one here cares. Now, I shouldn't say no one, that may be too big of a generalization. There are always going to be the die-hard figure skating fans, bobsled groupies ("Cool Runnings" was a good movie, and you know it), and snowboarders who like seeing their sport on such a big stage. As for the common spectator though, they're harder to find in Rome than good Chinese food.

The irony of all of this is that Romans tune into what's happening in Torino almost religiously, not for the Olympics but for Juventus, the fabled Italian soccer team. In fact, the bars here were packed to capacity for Roma v. Juventus, and Lazio v. Juventus. Both games within the same week of the opening ceremonies. Juve is real to Romans. They're the second most hated/loved team in the country, behind AC Milan. Their games mean something, especially when playing one of Rome's two squads.

The Olympics here have a somewhat gimmicky quality to them. All of the Coca-Cola bottles are covered in an illustrated snowy plastic cover, with their trademark bear on the front. MacDonald's employees all have Torino 2006 work shirts, bright orange with the rings by the breast pocket. There's also the occasional cardboard life-size cutout of some skier or figure skater. Usually, these can be found in front of cell- phone stores or supermarkets.

It could be the geographical separation, or even the cultural separation between Torino and Rome. Traditionally Italians are regional elitists and the cultural differeces, despite the distance, are drastic. In Rome it rarely snows. I've yet to see an ice skating rink. Oh, and did I mention how popular soccer is here. Soccer is year-round, practiced, played, and talked about, ad nausium. People here talk about politics, sex, love, food, and music; not curling or snowboardcross.

In the States I'm sure it's the same way. According to espn.com, this year's Olympic television ratings have fallen much shorter than expected, partly due to the failures of the most heavily marketed athletes (Michelle Kwan, Bode Miller, and Apollo Anton Ohno). Honestly, I think people just don't care for sports that are practically invisible outside of the four-year event. We try to get into it to muster up some national pride, but we live in a world where our borders are getting blurrier by the day. Hell, most of the NHL is playing for Canada, Sweden, Russia, and the Czech Republic. Does that mean we can't root for their countries when they play?

I'm being harsh, I know this. The Olympics are a great diversion and they're fun to watch on a cold Wednesday night in February. Primarily, they're a huge economic boost for the host city and region. Believe me, Italy could use all the economic boosts it can get. My contention is that they've lost some of their past luster and glory. Maybe I've just lost my interest in them. Regardless of how you slice it though, they'll be out of Italy as quickly as the came in. Then you'll have to wait until May to see Italy on your television. This time for the election, and believe me, everyone here from Parma to Palermo will be paying attention.

O' Turtle Where art Thou?

2006-02-20T00:36:00.000-05:00

Dear Fellow backpackers,

I'm not sure how many of you know how you got here, or why you're reading our posts. I know how I do. The person who started this site and had the creativity to put some time into making it look good is Edward S. Popko. I know him as my friend "Turtle". Regardless of who reads this site, how many people, age, sex, orientation, or naionality, you should understand what kind of effort Turtle has made to make this possible.

Now I'm not trying to brag or trump this up in a cocky way. On the contrary, I want to give someone credit to someone who probably wants no credit back. He's doing this for no money, and no accolades (if there are some accolades though, let a brother know....wink wink). He's doing this out of his own desire to expand the curiosity and boundries of normal people living, traveling, and experiencing things in life that take you away from the ordinary. These posts are just a moment in the life of a few writers, but can be a minute, an hour, or a day in our own worlds.

I just want to tell Turtle how greatful I am to help him "make a mark" so to speak, in the realm of free internet information. Mostly, I want to tell him how good of a friend he's always been and always will be. No matter who you are, how you feel, or who you're with, I'll always be there as a friend. I promise.

PS: NOW READ MY DAMN POSTS PEOPLE, I PROMISE THEY'LL GET JUICIER ;)

Nothing is Ever as it Seems

2006-02-19T23:51:00.000-05:00

At a hot dog stand at six in the morning I find peace. After being here for almost two months there are very few certainties that I can rely on. One is that disappointment runs rampant when you are far from what is familiar. The other is that I always find contentment at a little hot dog stand just steps away from the madness that is the Roman late-night bar scene.

If your religion is after-hours hijinx and parody, then your Mecca is "Dog-Out" on Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle II. It's always an eclectic mix of the hungry, drunk, and restless. You see, in this country hot dogs are rare. And in the eternal city the flame never dims on "Dog-Out". The place itself is no bigger than 10 feet wide in diameter, and it sticks out lengthwise into the street. There are two stools and the standing area often overflows if there are more than 4 customers. For all purposes, it's a glorified hot dog stand, not a restaurant.

To be honest I have a big crush on Ada, one of the workers there. They're all unique people, but Ada is something different. She's Italian but not Roman, and if you've ever been here you know the difference. Ada is from the south, I think Calabria. She's a dancer who when given the chance will jump around spritely, eyes lit, talking loudly with her hands, as if she's oblivious to the time and the place she's in. Her eyes are wide and curious, and she has an attitude like a New Yorker. She mocks American accents frequently and well.

We exchange words, her co-worker sings a John Legend song on the stereo. We have a cultural exchang over hot dogs and slightly warm Becks beer. It's the only thing that will keep me up at this point. Not just Ada and her co-worker, but the other customers. Usually in Rome, there's a resentment towards Americans. There's a kind of disdain for how we behave as tourists, students. Not at "Dog-Out". We're all in the same boat. It's scary how pig intestine, parts of beef, and chemicals can really bring many cultures together. European, African, American or not, we all love hot dogs after a night of drinking.

At this point we talk about America, Italy, music, then girls (unless they're girls, then we smile and compliment), and eventually George Bush. I've never had a bad conversation there. Ada is always curious. We trade language phrases like baseball cards. The harder the word, the greater the value. She makes faces when she speaks English. I throw my hands up when I speak Italian, to look authentic. Subliminally I'm trying to talk like a charicature of a Jersey mobster. She talks like an MTV VJ.

Politics aside we're all the same. I don't give a fuck about what you call yourself. Even the greatest proponents are admirors. We all concede to a greater commonality. At "Dog-Out" our commonality is barely legal pork biproducts. I think it can be a model for life. Find common ground in the shittiest and most obscure places, and you can build from there. Even if you don't, nothing beats a dog and a cold brew before you call it a night in Roma....NOTHING.

Hey Bloggers

2006-02-17T00:49:00.000-05:00

Hey backpack-bloggers, it's your favorite bald white guy Andy. Just going to wet your whistle for the next piece. I promise I'm going to edit this one too. Drunken Soccer was a bit too sloppy. I'm caught between writing about the polarization of politics amongst contemporary Italian youth. Specifically, Communism v. Fascism in modern Italy.

It's funny how life works though. My other idea is to elaborate on the loose morals of foreigners on vacation, specifically Americans, specifically girls. Now this soounds a whole lot sexier (literally) than a politcal comparison, but it's more personal and more insulting (sorry if you spent a semester abroad, but don't lie to yourself, you know what goes on!!!). Either way that's my next post. Get a hold of me if you have any knowledge to share on both topics. Oh, and if your name's Lauren and you live in Rome, don't read this. You might be pissed because you're my inspiration to write about American sluts in Italy. Not my fault though, you made a damn good source.

Ciao Ciao,
Andy.

What is the Point of UrbanBackpacker

2006-02-10T14:11:00.000-05:00

Loop: AIGA Journal of Interaction Design : Nomadic Digimarking

While browsing around I recently found this article on Nomadic Digimarking or the ability to leave a temporal digital mark of public spaces while not physically leaving any mark on public property. This allows people to transcend time and space by digital being transported to or socially networked to individuals, places, and things that may or may not be in one particular location at any given time. Socially this can allow people to make connections with others based on personal experience regardless of physical a meeting

When you think about it this concept isn't new by any means. This is what writers have been doing for centuries by describing distant places to their readers. However the concept (like everything else in the world) has only been trubocharged in our modern age.

I guess that is enough headiness for now.

Cheers,
Turtle

Administrative Notes

2006-02-09T12:44:00.000-05:00

Administrative Notes

I have a few administrative notes about the site.  First up I have secured an AdSense account and set up advertising space on the site in order to try and raise some money based on click through traffic.  Since the ads are being generated by Google they will be content related.  For example right now there are ads related to Mozart based on the Happy Birthday Mozart posting that was posted a week or so ago.  I would greatly appreciate any comments about our ad placement.  I still don’t quite know where to place everything and would greatly appreciate layout feedback on everything.  So don’t be shy please post comments on what you think.

A few months ago I got board of the layout that I had originally created and just switched templates.  While this solved the look it unfortunately blew away all of my links and JavaScript driving things like hit counts.  I have finally taken the time to go back through it all and get back up to snuff.  Andy, I will now be able to give you some site feedback on where people are reading things from with this hit counter.  You have certainly added to our readership with peps form the Linwood checking things out, but I can tell you in a few weeks if you have driven up any of our Euro readership (Yes we do have some).

So with that all said PLEASE give us some feed back.  I am very open to moving things around and would like to keep our ad space kept as unobtrusive as possible.

Cheers,

Turtle

Drunken Soccer Full Story

2006-02-03T08:15:00.000-05:00

The late night activities of Thursday, January 26, started out as most others do here in the eternal city. I worked a six hour shift at the Abbey Pub, grabbed my free "shift beer" at about 3am, and headed down to Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle II to grab a bite to eat at Dog-Out. Dog-Out is one of Rome's only hot dog vendors and due to its late closing time, 5am, caters to many local drunks, bartenders, club promoters, DJ's, and homeless wanderers. The hot dogs are phenomenal, and you can get 24oz. Beck's bottles for about 3 euros.
Before I even got the chance to order my dog I bumped into a group of guys from my other job, the Drunken Ship. Mike, Jason, and Dan (all american ex-patriots seem to hang out together, hence why none of us this evening were Italian) had also just left work and were planning on their next move for the evening, debating on how to spend the remaining hours of the early morning. We picked a place called Naklar, a private "social organization" which requires membership and masquerades itself as a "dart society". In reality, these types of places all have titles like this to get through the legal beurocracy of serving liquor all night.
Dan, the soccer player and coach of the John Cabbot University Women's Soccer Team, was easily the most inebriated of us all. Dan became a serious alcoholic after his mother passed away from cancer about a year ago, and in his own words he's been "trying to drink himself to death" ever since. What I didn't know at the time was how talented of an athlete he was, and still is. By the time we left Naklar, he'd been out drinking for about 21 hours straight, no sleep. And his drinking didn't end there.
The next stop on our bender was the MacDonald's in nearby Termini, Rome's central train station. At that moment there was nothing better than the staleness of the previous night's hamburger buns on a bland big mac, salty fries, and a fanta with no ice. This put us in a good mood. Good enough, in fact, to decide to stay up all night with Dan and accompany him to the Holocaust soccer game. There were four of us left standing who agreed. Mike, Jason, Dan, and myself were going to go to Dan's house in Trastevere to drink a few espresso's, pick up his cleats and uniform, and buy a fifth of Bacardi to mix with 20 oz. Cokes at the game. Within an hour we did just that.
It was 10am now, and we sat in Piazza Trilusa like homeless men. In our smelly clothes and wreaking of booze, we reduced ourselves to yelling cat calls at American girls and hard stares at nosey Italian men. All the while we getting drenched by a light but steady rain. At this point I had to stop drinking. The smell of Bacardi nearly made me sick. The bottle was split 50/50 between Mike and Jason. Dan switched to 16oz. cans of beer. He was the captain and coach of the soccer team, and he had 30 minutes before kick-off.
We boarded a charter bus and headed off to a nearby suburb, the name of which I don't know. The bus was full of American semester-abroad students, mostly girls, and a handful of Italian soccer players. They knew Dan was drunk and teased him about it. It didn't matter though, they also knew that drunk or not he was the best player on the team.
The stadium was small but very well maintained. The pitch was bright green and the stands were elevated about 15 feet to give the spectators a perfect view. The stands were lined with older dapper looking gentlemen dressed in long overcoats and shiney Italian leather shoes. There were also the students from the bus and a few young Italians who just wanted to see a game. It was a game between Rome's University all-stars and the Macabee's, an all Jewish team from a Hebrew cultural society. The game was televised live on Rai (Italian TV), and the camera crews were peppered in the crowd and around the field.
The only thing that actually kept me from falling asleep was Jason. His drunken ramblings broke the awkward silence in the fan section, which was surprisingly quiet. Girls just aren't good at being rowdy sports fans. They try, but it's noticeably ingenuine. A kind of forced excitement to mask their real reason for being at the game, to stare at attractive athletic men, muscles blaring, running around in front of them. Not Jason though, he could care less about the game or the girls.
Mike was passed out on a bench while I desperately tried to control my laughter. "Beat the Jews" Jason shouted, "Jews can't play sports well". After a few long stares he quickly followed with, "what, I'm Jewish, I'm allowed to make fun of my own people. Now turn around you morons". I don't think the girls around us understood that this was the bacardi talking, but I did, so I just sat there and laughed.
The game was a blow-out so it quickly became boring to watch. The Macabees were losing 5-1, and Jason turned his attention to the girls. They treated him as if he was a soap box preacher predicting the end of the world on a busy street in Manhattan. He'd yell, everyone would hear him, but no one would look at him. Then he went in for the kill. He found the hottest looking girl in the crowd, sat about two inches away from her, and came out of left field with the most random diatribe of the afternoon. "Do you like the Seinfeld Pez episode?....do you lady?...do you...um...Stephanie? (her name was Britney)....well fuck you then, I thought it was funny" he said as his words slurred together in a barely audible blur.
Within a few minutes the game was over. The all-stars won handily and the players met in the stands to recieve plaques comemorating the event. Dan played masterfully and probably performed better than anyone else on his team. We rejoined him after he got his plaque, 16oz. beer in hand. We then boarded the bus back to Piazza Trilusa. Mike was in and out of sleep and the last thing I heard out of Jason was "hey you....you're the guy...you...I'm going to piss in your mouth". Then he fell asleep too.
At Trilusa we all went our seperate ways. Jason, Mike, and I went home. Dan found a local pub and kept drinking into the late afternoon. He was scheduled to work a few hours after the game. From what I heard secondhand, he locked himself out of his apartment and fell asleep on his stairwell. He missed his shift by 4 hours. The next day Dan was fired. I haven't seen him since.

2006-01-28T03:44:00.000-05:00

Location: Roma, Italia

Subject: Drunken Soccer in memory of the holocaust.

To everyone who is reading, some words of advice about going to holocaust memorials. Don't go out drinking at private after-hours clubs for 5 hours before kickoff. Especially with the team captain, a DJ, and a local bartender. Now you may ask yourself, who the fuck is this? What in the world is he talking about? And why is he telling us this?
While I'd love to elaborate on the final details of this event at the present time, I am about to use up all of my 2 euros worth of time at this internet station. So folks, you're just going to have to wait until tomorrow to get the skinny, if you even give a shit. I think you will. Who can resist a story that involves a sleepless night, finishing a bottle of bacardi before noon, nuns, DJs, private clubs, girls, a Serie C (minor league) soccer player, big macs, and a nationally televised (Italy) soccer game played in memorium of the holocaust?

So....until domani regazzi, ciao bella.

Please welcome our newest team member!

2006-01-27T19:02:00.000-05:00

I would like to take a few moments to welcome our latest member to the UrbanBackpacker team, Andy Jackson. Andy comes to us from Boston and holds a degree in journalism. He has recently made the move across the pond to Rome, Italy and will be posting some of what’s happening in the Eternal City these days. Based a few blocks from the Vatican he has already begun to infiltrate the American ex-patriot community.

Thanks Andy and keep us posted.

Cheers, Turtle

Happy Birthday to Motzart

2006-01-26T23:07:00.000-05:00

Born in 1762 in Salzburg, Austria Amadeus Mozart the child prodigy has been part of humanity ever since. By age 8 he seamed to carry the wisdom of someone 40 years his age someone once remarked. He rose to his peek in the 1780 by promoting himself all the way along.

While Beethoven was a subtle political satirist Mozart was a devout Catholic. This is certainly tied to his home town of Salzburg. During the Hundred Years War the Pope sought to prop up a strong hold in the north for Catholicism. With the Bishop the Italian influence was brought along as well. This can be seen in the Italian style plazas and the abundance of churches throughout the city (if you are relay good see how many of the Papal Keys you can find on buildings through out the city).

A brief walk down the Getreidegasse Street in Salzburg will bring you right past Mozart’s old apartment. The street is one of the most picturesque in all of Europe. Local interest has seen to it to preserve the medieval aesthetic through strict building ordinances. This can be seen in signage. Even McDonalds has had to comply with its medieval arches. While still holding its charm with a gloss of commercialism painted over it Mozart’s home has both a Mango (Gap like store) across the street and the cheesy gift shop with a fake manikin of the man him self.

But in all fairness to the late great composer he hated Salzburg he longed for Vienna and other more cosmopolitan places and couldn’t wait to get out. One Salzburg native even went as far as encouraging us to skip any and all Mozart attractions. We dutifully complied, and took the cheesy Sound of Music tour instead.

Space Mountain - Google Video

2006-01-10T04:16:00.000-05:00

Not quite the real deal, but a good computer mock up.

HK Disney Reosrt Firework - Google Video

2006-01-09T14:07:00.000-05:00

It isn't my vidography. I simply am just biting off of some one else on Google Video. Any way it isn't a half bad depictaion of the show.

Granted the ones we scoped out on New Years wern't even close. I will see about getting the video compiled form the previous year. I might have to wait since my camera at the time didn't record any sound. So it realy ming get spiliced into some thing else as stock footage.

My favorite thing about this show at Disney is that all you see in the foground are the LCD screans for every ones camecorder. Its realy hard to miss it from this angel but, live it realy is funny.

Any way enjoy the show!

Disney World Stewie - Google Video

2006-01-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

Sorry Folks the clip seems to have been found by the copy right thought police.

Too bad.

Basicaly its Stewie flipping out over disney land after sourerly complaining about the long flight to Florida

Disney World Stewie - Google Video

Happy New Year

2005-12-31T16:18:00.000-05:00

We are off to Disney for the New Year. Usualy there is some coverage of it all on live TV but I can't find any listings to help anyone out who cares.

Talk to every one in 2006!!

Epcot Center

2005-12-28T12:28:00.000-05:00

Epcot Center:

So we decided to hit up Epcot Center for the day. Since the all of the parks down here are still mobbed from families still on their Christmas vacation. Because of that we basically did that stuff people would skip. Since it still is the Christmas season each respective country within Epcot has some native Christmas tradition showcased complete with different representations of St. Nick.

Now a bit about Epcot itself: When Walt Disney envisioned Epcot he had in mind a futuristic high tech community where people would live. That never happened in Epcot (see Celebration for how it really happened), but rather it became a Worlds Fair of sorts showcasing the latest is technology and innovation with a slant towards the educational. Surrounding the lake you can visit little mockups of about a dozen different countries. Within each there is some sort of ride or event that showcases that countries culture. When going through here check out the Cast Member’s (this is what Disney calls employees) name tags for where they are from. Disney puts some effort into stocking each country with actually natives for staff. Go to Norway and you will most likely hear the ride safety instructions in a thick Norwegian accent. In recent years Epcot has revamped some of its attractions to give it more thrill rides. Recent editions have been Soaring, Test Track, and Mission Space. All provide you with the traditional amusement park motion thrills.

Welcome to CELEBRATION Florida

2005-12-28T10:57:00.000-05:00

Welcome to CELEBRATION Florida

For the New Year Jill and I will be spending some time in Celebartion, FL. This is Disney's planed comunity that Jill's parents moved to about a year ago. Over the next couple of weeks we will be giving some news from Orlando and Celebration as well as some Theam Park tips and tricks for both Universal Studios and Disneys different parks.

Happy Holidays

Woodstock for Christmas Part 2

2005-12-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

Woodstock for Christmas Part 2:

A Woodstock Christmas tradition that has been going on as long as I can remember is to greet Santa Clause when he arrives in the town. This Christmas Eve celebration is sponsored by the Woodstock Fire Dept. and the chamber of commerce has Santa entering in on the Village Green every year by some new and crazy means. Past years it has been a helicopter, another by a flying 60’s psychedelic Volkswagen Bus (how appropriate for Woodstock). Can be seen here.

Hundreds of people pack the closed off streets of Woodstock starting around 5ish. Around 5:30 to 6 the band will start to play and the singing will begin. Song list can be found in any store, but they are all classics so you will know the words.

This year Santa’s entrance was via gigantic white dove that descended to a gigantic electric guitar to form the 1969 concert logo.

Woodstock for Christmas

2005-12-23T23:35:00.000-05:00

Woodstock for Christmas:

So the plan for the holidays is to swing through Woodstock for Christmas and afterward fly down to FL to visit Jill, her family and the rest of mine.

For travel this time I decided to keep away from the normal Greyhound run from Boston to Albany and take Amtrak through NYC and back up along the Hudson River to the Kingston/Rineclife station just over the river from Woodstock. I had dual motives for this 300 mile detour. First was to keep from giving any money to Greyhound. I have come to despise this company after numerous problems with drivers, shitty service, and just getting lost. The last straw came a year ago when the driver headed from Albany to Boston got lost multiple times. After his 5 pass where he completely missed South Station people had wised up to the fact that he didn’t know where he was. When passengers started telling him that he kept missing it he started to curse back at them and even threaten to “pull the bus over and fight” one passenger. This was the last straw. After filling complaints with Greyhound I was told that I would be credited for a free trip. This never has materialized even after numerous complaints back to their main offices in Texas.

The other alternative is train travel and it is far superior for a few reasons. First up you have leg room this is key. Anyone who has taken a bus will know what I mean. It is never any fun to have your knees dug into your chest while the drunk guy next to you (it tends to be students and these types who take busses) resting his head on your shoulder. The next plus is electric outlets in your seat. This way you can plug a laptop in and watch a movie for example. And the other final plus is a dinning car that serves food and alcohol. The one draw back is that in the US I have never taken a train that is on time. Unlike Europe where you can set your watch to the trains here you best not be in a hurry. This was no exception either. The train was 30 minuets late leaving and someone pulled the air break causing another 20 min delay. This caused me to miss my connecting train and waylaid me in the city for a bit.

This gave me just enough time to poke my head out of Penn Station and get a peak at that miracle on 34th street, Macy’s. As usual they have a spectacular Christmas display in every window. A quick walk up to times gave me just enough Christmas spirit in the city before my train left.

The train ride up wasn’t too spectacular because it was dark out. Since the train runs the Hudson River it offers spectacular scenery the whole way up. Aside from the bridges over the river about the only visible landmark was West Point Military Academy.

Cambridge, MA

2005-12-02T12:50:00.000-05:00

This weekend look for info on Cambridge, MA

Traveling home to Woodstock

2005-11-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

Traveling home to Woodstock

I grew up in a time warp, a tourist trap, a parallel universe, a throw back to the 60’s, a town whose name defined a generation, Woodstock, NY. The town originally founded by Dutch settlers in the 18th century as an artisan community it made it self famous with the Woodstock Aquarian Arts Festival in 1969. While the festival it self or any of the ones that have followed have never been held in Woodstock it self the town still provided the seed that started the idea. Even prior to the concert the town had characters like Bob Dylan and Ritchie Havens calling it home and adding to a solid folk culture that established it self firmly during the 1960’s. While Dylan moved on the town has never abandoned this time period and still seems like a time warp the 60’s and hippies that came with it have never left.

These days Woodstock located a little over 100 miles north of New York City it is a very popular weekend destination for New Yorkers. Second homes are very common around the area. It also can boast some famous residents like Brad Pit, Phil Jackson, and Uma Thurman whose father the Buddhist scholar was attracted to the area by the Buddhist Temple and western home of the 13th Karmapa, a spiritual leader on plain with the Dali Lama.

The music seen is still alive and well with 2 major recording studios providing state of the art facilities and a privet secluded country setting. Act like Metallica, The Dave Mathews Band, members of the Wu Tang Clan, and David Bowie have all recorded albums in the area over the last few years.

Over this Thanksgiving weekend I will be adding some of the tings to do and see in and around the Woodstock area.

Arthritis foundation Benefit at The Hong Kong

2005-10-27T19:06:00.000-04:00

Arthritis foundation Benefit at the Hong Kong Harvard, Sq Cambridge, MA

Tonight we are throwing a benefit for the Arthritis Foundation’s Joints in Motion Team at the Hong Kong Café and Club in Harvard, Sq. Any one who feels like stopping by for a drink or two please do.

What there will be:

Appetizers and food

Suggested donation of $10 will get you some raffle tickets

Option to purchase more tickets if you want to improve your odds of winning.

Drink Specials

Good times

Come on by for a good time.

We are splitting up for a bit.

2005-10-19T22:34:00.000-04:00

No not like that.

Jill is off to a Physical Therapy Student Conclave in Denver Colorado tomorrow. While I did have some tentative plans for NYC this weekend that all may go by the way side in lue of school stuff I absolutely need to get tidied up by next week.

I am starting to pull out most of the junk from the site since I seemed to have scared off my reader base by starting to just throw up link posts of mainly news. Who realy cares right? I mean isn't that the whole point of a blog is to be able to post what you want and make you own news up as you go (mean that in the literal way and also by being your own reporter about he wold you are observations as you travel)

Some other worthy travel notes:

Rick Steves our favorite guide book author has put to gether a radio show that has been airing since last spring. I don't get in on my local NPR station so I only just discovered that he had this new media outlet when it became available on podcast.

When you get a chance the URL is http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/podcast.htm

I have been having great fun catching up with all the episodes and getting new travel ideas. In addition I have been hearing about some of the places that I already have seen and feel a bit of satisfaction that I can relate from seeing it first hand.

I am realy hoping that next week I will be able to get out and start documenting the Boston Area. There is plenty to do and see in the region and the fall season is wonderful in New England.

I will also see about talking Jill in to giving a quick run down Denver.

Update on Jill and the Disney Half Marathon:

2005-10-10T02:32:00.000-04:00

Disney Half Marathon: Day 29

Jill will be running the Tuft's Women's 10K today. Start time is set for noon from the Boston Common. Please support her run in any way you can. She still needs to raise well over a $1000 still for her fundraising effrost for the Arthritis Foundation's Joints in Motion Team. She has a secure donation site provided by the Joints in Motion people. If you can spare a few dollars please help her out.
You can make an online donations by clicking here , but also check out her training blog linked at the top of this post.

Harpoon Octoberfest

2005-09-30T22:20:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

While it isn't Germany we had to deal with the next best thing and hit up Octoberfest at the Harpoon brewery in South Boston.

The Harpoon Lambrac get a *** star rating. All in all the alternative local brew that is about a close in notoriety to Sam Adams gets and only mediocre rating from the two of us. If you are looking for some thing from Harpoon try the IPA or the Heffwizen for nice golden beers.

Below is a crapy cell phone shot of the ompa band playing American pop songs in a very German fashion.

Cheers,

Wired News: IPod Maps Draw Legal Threats

2005-09-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

An intresting service while it lasts. I say just the nature or riding a subway provides a practical minded individual to map it out them selves. Well it seems that that is exactly what this chap has been doing in light of a few cese and disist orders received from San Francisco and NYC. Right now he is seeing about getting legal rights to printing these maps up.

We will have to see how everything pans out.

On my last trip I was carying my iPod fathfuly with me. Unfortunatly I sitll have an older Black and white display so I wasn't able to play with this nifty little hack, but totaly see the use.

Definatly one of the better travel companions (that dosn't breath air. I would still pick jill over my iPod) becuse of its entertainment pourposes and storage functionality. Almost all of the photos that are up on http://urbanbackpacker.smugmug.com were caried at one point around on my iPod.

The recent close division in the German population vote for it's new chancellor raises a few questions

2005-09-21T11:57:00.000-04:00

The recent close division in the German population vote for it's new chancellor raises a few questions. What is this election commentary regarding a divided country telling us about modern industrialized states with similar values? The US has been dealing with similar difficulties for the last 5 plus years. It seems to me at least that the would have become recently more and more political polarized. We are in a very black and white society when it comes to global politics. While I don't agree with this inflexibility I do see it's prevalence in the world today.

Is this a commentary on the on going debate about strong vs. Weak governments? Or is it conservative vs liberal, shredder vs. Merkel, Democrats vs. Republican.

Are there two Germany's like people say there are two Americas?

Links to the Forbes article:
Click here

SPORER Spirituosen und Weine - Schnaps Liköre Stille Nacht Punsch Kräuterbitter

2005-09-18T01:41:00.000-04:00

A nice Salzburg Schnaps shop.

Cheers

Germany gears up for polls - NDTV.com - News on Germany gears up for polls

2005-09-17T15:40:00.000-04:00

Germany gears up for polls - NDTV.com - News on Germany gears up for polls

Even more election news.

Its down to the wire.

Backpacking The World

2005-09-17T11:08:00.000-04:00

Backpacking The World

These Canadians really get around. It never ceases to amaze me the number of Canadians, Aussies, and Zelanders off on these long walk abouts.

We Americans need to get this all straitened out and keep from overworking ourselves.

Expatica's German news in English: SPD uses dead US soldiers on election posters

2005-09-16T12:15:00.000-04:00

With the German election heating up the mud is slinging.

With election day only few days off the political climate in Germany is starting to get tense.

Check out this link to an article on Expatica discussing Schroeder's party the SPD (Social Democratic Party) use of dead US soldiers underscoreing his opposition to the Iraq War and poking at his conservative opponent Merkel who could be not only a female chancellor but also one born in former DDR. Intresting stuff if forign politics are your cup of tea.

I will be posting some back entries including other election posters and some of the debate highlights that between Schroeder and Merkel while we were stillin Munich.

Did you know...

2005-09-14T17:36:00.000-04:00

Random Fact:

Provided by the UN and given on the CyberSchoolBus

This brings up a curious topic and deserves a few observation we made with our friends from Cali with the nice import coffee from the Netherlands. Earlier on our travels we observed that our train on the Golden Pass thorough Central Switzerland had toilets that obviously (you could see rail ties whizzing by pardon the pun) dumped onto the tracks..

Now I haven’t used the rail system in the US as extensively as I this I now have in Europe, but I never observed the bathroom so closely as I started to in Europe. I believe the same is true now in the US. For example airlines dump waste out via pressurized toilets. In fact an episode of 6 Feet Under Opened with the death scene pulled off by “Blue Ice”.

Where does your poop go? The UrbanBackpacker would like to know.

Disney 1/2 Marathon to benefit the Arthritis Foundation

2005-09-14T13:42:00.000-04:00

Disney ½ Marathon to benefit the Arthritis Foundation:

UrbanBackpacker Jill is running the Disney Marathon taking place at Walt Disney World in Florida on January 8, 2006. The race snakes through the major parks at the Disney World Resort making for an interesting race backdrop.

Jill is currently running with the Joints in Motion Team and raising money for the Arthritis Foundation. Her target goal is $2,500 and she can use any and all of the support that she can get. Jill has set up a Blog including her training schedules and up dates on her training over the next several months.

If you wish to make a donation please visit the Joins in Motion home page or Jill’s Training Blog.

Follow This Link to visit Jill’s personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Arthritis Foundation, Massachusetts Chapter

or Follow This Link to visit Jill’s training Blog

I know that these are tough times many people have been making large donations to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, but if you could find room for any donation no matter how small it would be appreciated.

Moblie blogging how to...

2005-09-13T20:40:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

Subject: I figured since it is sort of an interesting topic and I keep getting questions about it Mobile Blogging seemed worth an entry.

To get started you will need:

1 blog

1 mobile phone with MMS or SMS capabilities

Access to 1 computer to configure every thing you will need to get going.

Personally I have had most success with MMS posts. I seem not to be able to get just simple text to work. That said an MMS message without a picture is generally treated as text only by most service providers. While traveling abroad you should first check with your US based carrier and verify what types of services you will have in your destination country. If you plan on getting prepaid service while traveling you will need to reconfigure the phone settings with Blogger after you have your new phone. This may be a bit tricky and could take up valuable text messages just to get started.

First be registered with Blogger

You will need to send Blogger a text message off of your mobile phone to the following address . Bloger will return a key that you will use to link your phone number/email with your blog.

Enter your code on the following page http://www.blogger.com/mobile-start.g to link it with your blog.

Now any message sent off your phone will be posted with in a few second to your blog.

This feature is good for quick notes do not expect at all that you will be able to do long books with just a phone. There are still limits to technology.

For info on Blogger read On the Go with Blogger: click here

Site overhaul comming soon...

2005-09-12T23:18:00.000-04:00

I am currently working in between work and life on getting the front end overhauled. I figure I know enough not to be biting off of other peoples templates and have a few tricks up my sleeves. In keeping with the spirit of this site I will provide descriptions on how I use the various API’s and as well as the my code if any one is interested in using the same template.

Rants about Swiss Internet

2005-09-11T22:43:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

Subject: Now I am pissed and think that this deserves a back entry into the Blog. While staying Luzern Switzerland we were finally starting to feel the bit of the exorbitantly high Swiss standard of living. Before arriving in Switzerland we were warned about ridiculous charges for things like laundry at 12 chf (Swiss Franc for the latest exchange to the dollar click here) a load.

Our Hostile in Luzern, Backpackers Hostel was charging 2 chf for 15 mins of internet time. In a mad dash to get some of our posts up and update our readers I had my session just shut off. This killed two drafts that I had just spent good francs on.

This got me pissed!

Sleaping in Hostile Situations

2005-09-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

Subject: I feel after speaking with friends about our latest trip that some coments are needed regarding hostiles and sleeping accommodations when traveling.

The concept of hostiles began in Germany in the ___________ . As you can imagin Germany has some of the most hostiles out of any country in the world. It is safe to say that in any major town you pick off the map chances are you will find a hostile of some sort.

What are the advantages? Hostiles tend to be cheep and affordable. In order to keep up with an ever competitive tourist environment many hostiles tend to offer a verity of accommodations ranging from dorm style rooms with 6 or more people to a room to single bedrooms with private bath and shower facilities. And most of all they are tend to be cheep no frills places to rest your head for a night.

Some definate things to keep in mind are the following:

Often times you will be sharing space with other people. Therefore be considerate of roommates and house rules such as lights out times and curffues. You do want to have some security with your valuables so bring a lock and cable. If lockers arn't provided chain your stuff up and keep it safe. As the old saying goes lockes keep honest people honest.
In you want to skimp on sheet rentals (many places will charge extra for this semmingly necessary sleeping items) you can travel with your own.
Use the front desk staff to call ahead and arange your next night when changing locations. This will often times be free and will save you some serious headaches later.
Bring a social attitued. You will be in close quarters with other travelers basicaly all with the same goal in mind. Haveing fun. Use this to your advantage. Pick your fellow travelers brains and see what you may be able to find out about local happenings. Many times you can feel out attractions and places from some one who saw it earlier that day. As a bonus these people will often be your drinking and card buddies on nights you may just what to stay in and have a low key evening. Many hostiles are complete with thier own bar.
Stock up on any free food or included breakfast. Make sandwitches for lunch, stuff your pockets with rolls. Do what ever to keep from spending way too much on food. At the same time do remeber to try local things when ever posible. It may be your only chance ever to do so.

smugMaps: Urban Backpacker Map tours now avaliable

2005-09-11T22:04:00.000-04:00

smugMaps: combining the power of Google Maps with 32,000,000+ smugmug photos

I have managed to get a number of our photos from our trip up online. I am also working on adding Geo Cordinates to a number of pics to give a better tour of this past trip as well as some previous ones.

Check out the photo album at: http://www.smugmug.com/community/Urbanbackpackers

Just a few admin notes

2005-09-09T02:25:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

Subject: Sine I have had a bit of time this weekend I was able to get going on some of our photographs. Right now I am running a few galleries on SmugMug.com and have set up links off the main page of the UrbanBackpacker Blog. Look for more to come. I am working on splitting the site into 3 sections: One for mobile phones and other devices, another for low to medium bandwidth connections, and finally a high band width version hopefully with some Google Earth uses going on.

Back in the USA

2005-09-08T01:46:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

Subject: How do you know your back in Boston? People are already asking how the Sox are doing before even clearing through customs.

After a slow crawling customs line and a quick welcome home from the Agent at the head of the line we were back on US soil. A quick shot over to baggage where we watched them simply tow our bags up through a hole since the conveyer belt wasn’t working. Out to the Silver line (really a bus) and a transfer at South Station to the Red and we were back in Cambridge again.

We were only able to get down a little bit of our travels so please refer back in a week or two once I am able to get in and do some serious work on everything.

Cheers,

Turtle

Euro Youth Hostal

2005-09-04T22:07:00.000-04:00

Location: Munich, Germany

Subject: The Euro Youth Hostile München, Germany

With close proximity to the train station (only 3 blocks from the side entrance) makes this an ideal spot to stay if sailing through Munich on your way to other destinations. It also falls just at the start of the cities main drag. Rooms are cheep, at the time of our stay it was around €22 a night and per person of course. There is a price scale based on room arrangements starting with group style doom rooms, triples, and privet doubles. If you are afraid of crowded sleeping situations try shooting for the mid range of pricing and chances are you may luck out with a privet room. Reservations are recommended for the dorm rooms since this place is well recommended by many other guide books including Lets Go, Lonely Planet, and even Deysukia’s our Japanese friend from Rotenberg book as well. The last is an interesting to note since many Asian groups are there including a chap from Tokyo and Korean sporting a Red Sox cap that I was chatting with while waiting for the showers.

During the evening the bar on the first floor can get quite happening and serves Augustiner a good local brew from the monks a few blocks away with a fantastic bier garden. Generally the bar seems to have only guests but you do see the occasional local stroll in like the old German grandmother who shared a table with me and smoked away at her cigarettes. The staff is young so expect a young vibe around the place. There are couches and some coin operated internet cafes. While breakfast is offered for a few it is best to simply go foraging around Munich itself.

If the place is filled check any of the others on the strip. You have places like Wombats in a modern looking building; this is the same ownership as the one in Wien (Vienna). On top of that there are few other hostiles along the way and a few budget hotels located on the opposite side of the rail station by the Doutch Touring bus stop and offices.

Website: http://www.euro-youth-hotel.de/

E-mail: info@euro-youth-hotel.de

Address: Senefelderstr. 5
80336 München

Phone: 0049 89 599088 11
Fax: 0049 89 599088 77

Munich

2005-09-04T16:04:00.000-04:00

Location: Salzburg to Munich

Subject:
So funny enough, once I was reading to Ed about all the things in Salzburg he went from not feelings like he wanted to stop there at all to telling me we should spend two days there then only our last day in Munich. I didn't even have to pursude him at all. He was trying to persuade me. Funny, huh? So we spent two awesome days in Salzburg and Ed has been singing the puppet show song from The Sound Of Music all day long today. (high on a hill was a lonely goat herd ya odle ah odle o hee hoo!) It it really funny to me. We did a lot that we will fill in later so we can enjoy our last night here. Boo hoo! We made a full circle here and are back at the first hostel we stayed at. Tomorrow night we leave at 9pm for London for one night then back to the states.

Vienna to Salzburg

2005-09-02T04:51:00.000-04:00

Location: Vienna
Subject:
We are in Vienna now waiting for the bike guy to come and unlock our bikes because Ed lost the key!! He seemed fine with it and was pleasant but we feel really supper guilty. After he comes, we are going to see the catacombs. I am not sure what is so cool about looking at a pile of bones you can't pick up and examine but everyone else (including Ed) seems to think this is a fabulous thing. I only agreed because they told me that not many churches let you view their catacombs so figured this might be my one and only chance here. We are heading to Salyburg on the 7:30 train tonight and will arive just after 10pm. Turtle has never seen the Sound of Music if you can believe that so we will watch that tomorrow morning at 10:30 for free in our hostel before heading out to the SOM tour. Should be interesting. I wish we had more time there because I would love to visit some salt mines and bike around the gorgeous water there, but I think Ed is looking forward to getting back to Munich. He seems to be preffering the big cities while I am definetely enjoying the smaller towns and villages more. I feel like I live in a big city and although each city we see has different churches and food, so do the small towns. There is more to do as in activities, but they are all seemingly just for tourists anyways. Don't you think? Don't get me wrong, I've had a great time in the cities learning about all the history which is really fascinating, but at the end of the day I'd have rather day tripped from the nearby town.

Luzern to Vienna

2005-08-31T17:34:00.000-04:00

Location: Vienna

Subject:
Well we survived the night train. Mainly because we had some cool bunk mates but wow it was not fun to sleep on the train. It was hot and bumpy. We finally made it later than expected a little after noon and headed to our hostel, West End Hostel. It is pretty nice and we are in a co-ed dorm room with 3 friendly, high school age German girls, and two guys around our age from NY and Chicago. We are planning to stay here tonight and tomorrow night then head to Salzburg for a day before heading to Munich for our final destiation. Boo. I am sad its coming to a close here. Internet still costs a ton here so more later. Thanks for reading all even though we are doing a crappy job updating. I think we will write more after we come to the states.

Mt. Pilatsus

2005-08-30T22:43:00.000-04:00

Location: Lauzer, Switzerland

Subject: The days activities included a loop around and over the top of Mt. Pilatus with an evening stroll and dinner in the old section of the city.

Due to the flooding most boat traffic on Lake Luzern had been temporally suspended due to a surge in debris in the water. Instead we played the train shuffle again. Thankfully I had checked with the TI located in the train station before simply waiting for a boat.

With all of 5 minuets to spare we made our train only to discover that our station would be only accessible by bus from the station just prior. Apparently they were still having problems with the rail lines though the region (not that much changes in a day).

While transfer off our train and waiting for the bus Jill and I were joking about the Japanese kid’s lack of a clue about the ambivalence towards him from a German girl at our hostile the previous evening when all of a sudden the very German girl steps off the train just in front of us.

After a some rather awkward moments of where we didn’t know to feel embarrassed about our comments or not Jill managed to strike up a conversation with the girl. We quickly found she was from Potsdam, but now was living and studying in Berlin.

With a quick bus ride hugging along the lake shore and ducking under cliffs and through tunnels we found our selves at the base of Mt. Pilatus and the start of the world’s steepest cog railroad.

At the top you find a two hotels starting at about 100 chf a night for this alpine hide away. A series of sun decks and outdoor dining offer spacitular and nearly 360 degree views of the region. The decks face south towards the Berner Oberland region where the Eiger is located near Interlaken. The sounds of cow bells from graving herds give the impression of large amount of wind chimes placed on the mountain top adding a surreal element to the already thin atmosphere.

In addition the Swiss Army has military instillations built into the mountain it self complete with a radar and communications array situated on one of the peaks. Word on the street is that these circular entry ways to the mountains side’s contain 80 mm guns with a range of nearly 9 miles. Both the added height and remoteness of these instillations act give the advantage of being in an out of reach area while still projecting force out over a vast region. The Pilatus instillation is one of many throughout the region and is intricate to the Swiss Militaries strategy of defense. Since if we weren't in the Lauzern area on a Monday and Boat traffic hadn't been suspened we weren’t able to take in Fortress Furigen. Fortress Furigen is a converted Swiss military instillation dedicated as a museum all thing Swiss military related. Rick Steve describes it as a weapon petting zoo.

Because of my kneen we decided to do the round trip by comming down the cable car on the otherside. You need to transfer to one more gondola to get us back down and to a suberb of Luzern. After squezing out of our sardine stuffed cable car our gondola was spent with a nice swiss older swiss couple that led us back to the bus stop after a quick detoure to used book and junk shop.

We spent our evening soaking up the photogenicness of the old section of Lauzern and a nice dinner along the river.

The Swiss Army

2005-08-30T18:32:00.000-04:00

The Swiss Army

In Robin William’s Live on Broadway, Robin laces into the Swiss as the “nice Germans” poking fun at their famous neutrality and their blend of French and German culture. Shouting “Some of you men have never opened Chardonnay under fire…” he point out the absurdness of any Army that has a wine opener on its knife.

My friends I can report that these stereotypes can be set aside. Because of its neutrality and economic prowess Switzerland has needed to adopt a strategy of defensive planning. Starting in World War II the Swiss government has set out simply to protect Switzerland and avoid alliances such as those that precipitated World War I.

The Swiss government has used their biggest resource to their advantage, Switzerland’s geography. A mountainous country they have used its limited travelable terrain to channel and funnel invading armies where they want as well as developing a series of mountain fortification throughout the country (see Mt. Pilatus entry). All bridges and tunnels (and there are a lot of them) in Switzerland are pre-wired with dynamite and other explosive charges allowing for the military to disable strategic roadways by blowing these vital transportation routes.

During World War II with the threat of Nazi invasion from the north and the west, and Italy on its southern border the Swiss government began installing hidden fortresses and fortification throughout the country. Camouflaged into the sides of mountains and hidden under barns these instillations give Switzerland a very valuable and out of sight defense system. Rick Steve even describes batcave like facilities where the Schweizer Luftwaffe’s (Air Force) fighter jets can take off and land from hidden facilities. With the end of World War II and the threat of Soviet aggression in Europe these hidden fortresses were continued on until modern day. In case of invasion the government can retreat to the heavily mountainous Berner Oberland region and hold out in a secure mountain fortress scattered throughout the region.

During our time in Switzerland the military presence was dramatic. In hind sight I can see that this would make sense, but at the time it was quite surprising. Switzerland’s neutrality has had many benefits to the country as a whole. As was stated earlier the Swiss have held out of any formal alliances for as long as possible. Refusing to join the League of Nations and later the UN, the Swiss have managed to stay out of NATO and even the EU in spite of a rapidly developing integrated European economy. The Swiss finally joined the UN on 10 Sep. 2002, but still refuses to join many other world organizations. As a result the Swiss military needs to only really concern it self with protections. They approach their military role the opposite of us. Rather than projecting their force through out the world as the United States does the Swiss are able to focus on their own defense. Consequently the nation has more military personnel at home who often will go home to their families at night. Therefore it isn’t uncommon to see a Swiss solider sitting at a train station one his way to work whit a sub machine gun slug over his shoulder.

A second and major factor is that according to the CIA World Fact Book “the Swiss Confederation states that "every Swiss male is obligated to do military service"; every Swiss male has to serve for at least 260 days in the armed forces; 19 years of age for compulsory military service; 17 years of age for voluntary military service; conscripts receive 15 weeks of compulsory training, followed by 10 intermittent recalls for training over the next 22 years; women are accepted on a voluntary basis, but are not drafted” (2005) Making military service mandatory for all citizens automatically puts more men in boots than an all voluntary service. We weren’t able to find out if there were options for community service such as Austria offers as an alternate to this compulsory service. In recent years protests (mostly by youth) have precipitated the government to reexamine its compulsory service, but have still opted to stay with its policies for now.

This neutrality has helped attract many international aid organizations to choose Switzerland as a base of operations. These organizations range from the European UN headquarters and International Red Cross both located in Geneva, many sports federations like the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne along with many other international sports federations ranging from baseball to archery.

The Swiss haven’t always been this peace loving. In fact there is a long tradition of mercenaries as a major Swiss export throughout European history. A heavily religious bunch, the Swiss have had strong ties back to the Catholic Church over the centuries. The Pope’s bodyguards are called the Swiss Guard and began as Swiss mercenaries. Even the Swiss flag bears a cross. During the 30 Years War primarily Catholic Swiss waged war on behalf of the Church on Protestant reformers throughout Southern Germany, Bavaria, Switzerland and Austria. The Swiss were even sell soldiers across the border to France during the French Revolution.

But I must say Robin is right about one thing; “When the world goes boom. The Swiss will be just asking: What was that?”

For further reading on the internet check out the following links:

Rick Steve’s Europe: the Swiss Army

CIA Fact book entry on Swiss Military stats

Luzern

2005-08-30T11:44:00.000-04:00

After a great day on top mt. Pilatus shared with some cows, a few mountain goats, and a new German friend we are now having dinner on the river Reuss and waiting for the night train to Viena.

Lausanne to _ then _ then ___ then finally Luzern

2005-08-29T16:31:00.000-04:00

Location: Luzern

Subject:
Internet is obtrosiously expensive so just a quick note that after 5 trains, 2 busses, and much confussion later we have made it over most of the flooded and dissabled train tracks to Luzern. Later all.

Skaters in the world capitol of sport

2005-08-29T15:02:00.000-04:00

Location: Swiszerland

Subject:

Skaters in the spot capitol of the World

Lake Geneva

2005-08-28T09:01:00.000-04:00

There is nothing like wandering lake Geneva by paddle boat. The alps towering out in front of us and France off to the right. We ended up on the wrong boat and ended up in evian france
Oops

Baden-Baden to Lausanne

2005-08-27T12:53:00.000-04:00

Location: Lausanne

Subject:
Safe and sound in Lausanne. Better yet no rain here at all. It is quite sunny. We have found a hostel + hotel in an old church and I am alone in my very clean, 4 bed dorm room and Turtle is sharing with a man who speaks French and Spanish. He was quite embarrssed by his Spanish after trying to speak with him. Hopefully we will have more time tomorrow to write.

So long Deutchland hello Switzerland

2005-08-27T05:35:00.000-04:00

Were hopping the first train out of Baden-Baden and headed to Lausanne on lake Geneva.

Baden-Baden

2005-08-26T13:20:00.000-04:00

Location: Baden-Baden

Subject:
The hostel is gorgeous! It is 5 floors with a big winding staircase and a gorgeous view of beautiful trees and houses peeking through the clearings. I am in heaven here! We are in a bunk room on the top floor and all the walls and ceilings are slanted in like my old room in Milford, but the ceiling is wood. It is so funky. The windows are all odd shapes like triangles and open into the room. It is so neat. Even the shower is cool. It is like a big walk in room with a window that looks out over the woods. (it is way too high and covered for anyone to see in) We went down for our free breakfast and joy! they had frosted shredded wheat. Yummy. After that we went back up to pack and decided why not stay another day? We told the reception then went back to sleep for a bit. We left later on and wandered around outside of the hostel before heading into town on the #201 bus again. The town is so beautiful. It runs along a small river and is just so picturesque. Most of the visitors are middle class and it attracts a lot of french people too. It was great wandering the winding streets and listening to all the languages and peeking into the pricey shops. We headed down to the cheaper bath, Caracalla Therm, and had an awesome time. My time on the computer is running out so more on this tomorrow. Thanks mom for the info. And so happy to hear you are doing well D!!!

Playing bond for the day

2005-08-26T13:15:00.000-04:00

Location: Baden - Baden, Germany

Subject:

You ever see that seen from the James Bond flick Never Say Never where Bond gets into a video game contest with villain while in the posh casino. Well the casino here is like that modeled after Versill and built in the early 18 hundreds.

If James Bond was every able to talk Moneypenny into a weekend off together they would be going to Baden - Baden. Basically a resort town in the Black Forest that started off catering to nobility with it's mineral spas and casinos. It's attracted people like Mark Twain, Trotsky, and Dostryeski over the years just to relax and gamble.

Jill and I spent the day soaking in mineral baths and walking around trying to blend in with people who have way too much money eating overly rich foods. What a contrast from East Berlin. We are catching it at the end of the season so the only show in town is the horse races ( they are a big thing donÃ¤t get me wrong) but the spas are nearly empty so we soaked with some naked Euros in a saunas, steam rooms, and grottos. Hell they even have a real Naked Juice bar (not the brand thing in the buff). We fell well refreshed and relaxed.

My James Bond mission for the night will be gettingoutfittedd to get past security in the casino since they have a strict dress code.

On a side note:
D glad to hear Pragueg isawesomee.Keepp in touch and we will be looking for the English version of your story.

Berlin to Baden-Baden

2005-08-25T13:10:00.000-04:00

Location: Baden-Baden

Subject:
We strolled around Berlin in the morning and wandered about the wall museum and a few other free sites. We did not do Checkpoint Charlie because our tour guide told us it was the most expensive museum in Germany (or did he say Europe....regardless we were turned off). Also, people at our hostel who went found it dull minus one boy who majored in political science. We figured that is for another time when we have more money to spend. There is plenty to see, learn, and do without spending any or much dough for that matter.

We were on a mission to find a t-shirt or sweatshirt that had german on it but everywhere we looked it was all in english. We hunted down second hand stores thinking we might get a good bargain on some vintage german track jacket or something but no luck. Very dissapointing. We headed to the train station and asked the travel agent about switching our eurorail pass to 2 differnt countries since they were flooded and no such luck. Apparently a natural dissaster doesn't qualify as a reasonable need to change countries. Oh well.

We got on the train at 4:41 and had an enjoyable train ride to Baden-Baden. We arrived at 10:15 and waited for the #201 bus to our hostel. It was a steep hike up a few hills to get to the hostel but oh my was it worth it. It is gorgeous here. Right on the edge of the Black Forrest, the town was where European aristocracy would come about 150 years ago to visit the casino and soak in the baths. There are two baths here. A more expensive, posh, naked one and a modern, cheap, clothed one. I have been looking forward to this and I am happy that the air is so nice and clean after being one of the only non-smokers in Berlin. Why is that? EVERYONE smokes here. It is so nasty.

Anyways, off to get some sleep so I am able to enjoy exploring the town tomorrow.

Berlin

2005-08-24T20:14:00.000-04:00

Location: Berlin, Germany

Subject: Berlin Day 1

Since we realized from last nights BBC weather report out plans in the Alps were on hold we decided to take advantage of out hostles name sake and simply sleep in the moring. After some quick showers in some cramped quarters we were off some sight seeing in Berlin's center.

As per EuroAid's suggestion and the rave reviews of other travelers at our hostels we hit up the free New Berlin Tour. This s well worth its free costs. The 3 ½ hour walking tour takes in most of central Berlin. Starting at the Brandenburg Gate and ending on Museum Island. We were blasted with an information overload. Our guide Nick an ex-patriot Brit whose specialty is Archeology and rolling cigarettes with one hand. Nick gave an incredibly detailed whirlwind history lesson ranging from pre-prussion to post cold war Berlin. The tour was well worth it. Payments can be done in the form of tips at the end. In action Spanish versions of the same tour are also available by the same company.

Afterwards we walked around the neighborhoods around Oranienburger, a fashion soho like district. Joining was was a Canadian couple we meet on the New Berlin Free Tour. Jessica and Tia recently graduated College in Ontario and were just finishing a tow month tour of Europe before starting up as teachers in Bristol England. We found them to be quite like minded travelers with similar stratiges when it came to eating and entertainment (cheep). We debated the merits and advantages to the Pub Crawl pluged by the New Berlin tours we took earlier and eventualy decided to give the Berlin night life a shoot. After agreeing to meet back at eight Jill and I split for out hostel to eat quickly, cleanup and change.

By this point Jill wasn't feelin so hot and Hypoglysmic ass made for a bad combination. Once we ate we were fine and ready to get going. 4 U-ban transfers later and dwe were meeting up with our Pub Crawl group. Or at least we thought our group....

Berlin

2005-08-24T19:44:00.000-04:00

Location: Berlin

Subject:
We had a busy day today filled with a free new berlin tour and a night out with new friends from Canada. More to come later tomorrow when we are in Baden-Baden or possibly the day after since we get in late. We will be in Baden-Baden at 10 pm so chances of writing unless we catch the internet along the way tomorrow are slim. By next post we should know where we will head afterwards. Anyone out there know anything about these floods? It is hard to get news in English.

A quick Berlin tourism promo.

2005-08-24T15:05:00.000-04:00

A nice Berlin tourism video. I especialy like the us of time laps photography through out the whole thing.

2005-08-24T07:05:00.000-04:00

Finaly got the mms thing working. We're about to start the free walking tour. This is me in Berlin leaving from Brandenburg gate. Berlin rocks. It is cool, funky, and full of life.

Berlin

2005-08-23T18:00:00.000-04:00

Location: Berlin

Subject:
Well we decided against the pub crawl and spent the night chatting with people in the common area of the hostel. There are quite a few people from Australia and a boy from Washington D.C. and we chatted about things to do here and about where we are from etc. We had a good time and learned all about the floods in Austria, Switzerland, and southern Germany on the BBC. I am pretty bummed but still have some bit of false hope they will miraculously clear and we can go to Interlaken etc. I do know that we are staying in Berlin an extra day because of all this though. Tomorrow we will take a bus tour around town where you can get on and off as many times as you want and are heading to some squatter artisan village at night with Paul and Torrie from our hostel (DC and Melbourne University respectively). Should be interesting. The following day we will catch the 4:40 to Baden-Baden.

We have also uploaded some pictures to past posts so check them out! (yeah for free internet and access to the actual computer not just the keyboard)

Some Admin notes

2005-08-23T14:45:00.000-04:00

Location: Berlin

Subject:

So just a few notes on our Blog. If you havn't figured it out Jill has been making our last few posts so that is why it has looked like I am talking in the third person.

Jill is all set up with her login so you will see the difference between mine and her posts from now on.

Cheers,

Ed

Frankfurt to Berlin

2005-08-23T14:06:00.000-04:00

Location: Berlin

Subject:
We left the hostel this morning after a free breakfast and hiked back to the train station taking some pictures of Frankfurt. It looked a little less unapealing early in the morning but it still is not that pretty of a city to me. There were lots of ducks and swans hanging out near the water which was neat but I thought that to people who live here it must be like the geese in Fenway are to us Bostonians...annoying. We left at 10:13 for the 4 hour trip to Berlin. We soon found out we were sitting in someone's reserved seats, but we figure better we find out sooner than later. We ended up getting two aisle seats across from each other. I sat next to a sweet German girl who was helping me figure things out (how the seat goes back, stations on the free radio in the arm rest, and explained to me that you can't really sleep becauset the conductor changes or comes through at ever stop...there has got to be a better way I'm sorry). Eventually the girl next to Ed left and I scooted in next to him. The trip was nice and went by quicker than expected. We then waited for the EuroAid office to open which is a free booking and information place staffed by Americans. It was worth the wait because we had some big questions such as how do we get to the hostel we booked?? It is called Lete'm Sleep, which is in Eastern Berlin and a bit umm dirty. It is cheap though, which is fine AND free internet which makes me pretty happy. Score! We headed out to dinner after settling and exploring where the toilets that aren't clogged and flooded are and decided to eat at a non-German restaurant. It was actually middle eastern and right across the park from where we are staying. We were thinking of doing the pub crawl to see what the night life is like here but neither of us really want to actually drink or anything so we probably will pass. We are now watching how some of the towns we really wanted to see in Switzerland are flooded. Serious flooding at that. We are pretty shocked and will have to plan according to that. Interlaken was high on my list of to-do's and they showed it covered in high waters. Bern was also shown where we thought we might stop by in on the way to Lousane and/or Geneva. Oh well. We will keep you posted. It seems that we will stay here until the direct train either tomorrow at 4:40 or the following day at the same time because that is the only direct train to Baden-Baden which is a spa town with a casino. Oh yeah. Looking forward to that!

Rothenburg to Frankfurt

2005-08-22T09:07:00.000-04:00

Location: Frankfurt

Subject:
Today we had breakfast in Ruth's house at 8 am with our friend, D. His english has already improved since we spent one night with him. It was good and we soon packed up and left our bags there to head to town. She told us to meet her at the bus station at around 4:30-5:00 and she would bring the bags so we wouldn't have to carry them. We headed out to town and had an awesome day. We first walked the wall and got some nice pictures over the town. We also went to the Friese shop to get our free map our guide book said we were able to get by flashing it. We walked in holding it, she ran over to us and offered us the map (usually €1.50) and told us we all get a 10% discount. Nice! After we climbed the Town Hall Tower. It was a bit creepy but an amazing view. I thought Ed's knee was going to snap in two climbing out the small door on top. Haha. After we toured around the town more playing in the playground with this insane spinning thing the boys got on but i turned green just watching them we went to the Christmas shops and I bought a few ornaments for souvineers while the boys just followed me around probably wondering how I could look at Christmas ornaments so long in August. We also went to Restaurant Glock which was recommended in our guide book to sample the local wines. It is actually a weinstube (wine bar) and for €4.20 you can choose to test taste either the dry or half dry wines. We all chose half dry and out came a little basket filled with 5 small wine glasses (5 cl each whatever that means. We all argued as to how many ounces it was haha.) Under each glass was a number that correlated to a paper he gave us describing each wine. It was really fun but it was too much wine for my empty stomach even with the bread. There was a large group from Montana there who were doing the exact same thing (because they had the same tour book-even funnier) and we had a blast discussing our favorites. After another quick walk around the part of the wall we hadn't walked we were off to meet Ruth then the bus at 5:20. Wouldn't you know that not one of us remembered where the bus dropped us off?? After asking a million people, getting a million different directions, and running all over the place I managed to find the bus leaving town at 5:30 (just when we decided to screw the bus and take the train bc we missed it). I, of course, obnoxiously flagged it down to get directions to where the stop was supposed to be to get our bags and he was sooo nice. He pulled over, called Ruth for us, and waited while she came to give us our bags. She wasn't too happy but we were all so happy to be on the bus. We stopped in Weikersheim and then next was Wurzburg where we had to say good-bye to D. So sad! We have his info though and his blog (http://blog.goo.ne.jp/t_daisuke4009) and will attempt to translate it with one of those online websites. Two hours later we arrived in Frankfurt and hiked to the Hostelling International youth hostel filled with Catholic youth groups on some sort of retreat to see the pope then travel. We were lucky to get a bed with all those people but the hostel has 470 beds. Ahh sleep time. Long day, but good. Just wish D is having a good time and made his train safe. (If he could find the train station-I'm just being silly here D. I'm sure you did fine because you are so awesome. Miss you!)

Fussen to Rothenburg

2005-08-21T16:54:00.000-04:00

Location: on the bus

Subject:
Today we rode the bus all day. It stops in all the romantic towns along the way and the driver plays a cd discussing the area before stopping the bus to let you walk around the square, take pics, use the bathroom then pop back on. It is funny bc he has lots of dif. languages so you have to listen to german, english, and japanese all with the same corny music. It was actually really fun bc we got to see so much. We stopped in Hohenschwangau, Wieskirche, Landsberg, Ausburg, Nordlingen, Dinkelsbuhl, Feuchtwangen then finally Rothenburg. The driver set up our accomodations at a private house and another boy on our bus was going there too. I introduced myself and Ed and invited him to go on the night tour with us because i noticed he spoke english to the driver. He was so sweet and nice and ended up going to dinner with us and we hung out all night. His name is Daisuke and he is 24 and from Kioto, Japan. (check spelling later on that town). He changed his itinerary to hang with us the next day in Rothenburg and we slept happily after the annoying hostel experience.

Munich to Fussen

2005-08-20T16:44:00.000-04:00

Location: fussen

Subject:
We picked up the romantic road bus at 8:00 am and headed to fussen. We made it into town a bit before 10 only to realize the hostel was more of a hike then expected and the castles were 5 km away, not in town as we thought. Our guide book says to get an english tour u need to be there at the crack of dawn so after a long wait at the hostel, the walk there and back, figuring out HOW to get to the castles, and arriving there we were shocked to get tickets to both with no wait. Luckily it was a rainy day and not too many people were out. They were beautiful and we had a lot of fun and exercise climbing up and down the "not for handicapped people" mountain paths to reach the entrance. The hostel was a mess though. They put us in seperate rooms as expected bc of the sexes being seperated but he had 2 girls in his room and i had 2 girls and 1 guy in mine. They messed up everything. We hated this hostel.

Boston to Munich

2005-08-19T14:14:00.000-04:00

Location: Munich, Deutschland

Subject:

We arrived in London early this morning. After fighting for sleep on
some benches in the terminal we made our connecting flight to Munich
and promptly passed out for the whole flight there.

Jet lag was seriously taking its toll on me after leaving the airport
heading downtown on the S1 train. After a whole lot of confusion
about our subway tickets, we never really used them. Not sure how
that was supposed to work, but we will have to figure that out a bit
more in the coming weeks.

Now back to the jet lag. The trains are very fast and efficient but
the air was stuffy. I was starting to feel a bit woozy by about the
4th stop. In a mater of seconds up came the free Brit air waters that
I had been living on for the past few hrs. While puking into a
plastic bag, I was doing my best not to disgust the other passengers.
By the next stop, people were volunteering to help me off with my bag
and a very polite British women had to excuse herself from the seat
across from me.

After catching my breath we caught the next train in and continued our
journey downtown. After making it to Munich's Central station, we
needed to find the ticket office for buses on the Romantic Road, an
old medieval trade route that we will head out on tomorrow. Thank god
Jill has been doing her homework on this portion of the the trip
because it took well over an hr to find the ticket office while
following explicit directions from Rick Steeve's Guide for Germany and
Austria.

Next up was getting our dead tired bodies to the Euro Youth Hostel and
getting our beds for the night. All in all the place is quite nice
and we will have to stop back in on our last days in Munich at the end
of the trip. Jill and I quickly decided to nap for a few minutes.

Those few minutes turned into a few hrs and probably longer if it
weren't for two of our roommates waking us up by walking out of their
rooms laughing at the official Munich Oktoberfest Leinerhosen that
they manged to find while shopping earlier today. There is no way not
to laugh if a couple Brits in short shorts, hats, and suspenders is
your first sight after waking up from some much needed sleep.

Other than that the rest of the day has been just wandering Munich and
getting oriented.

Logan airport Boston, ma

2005-08-18T17:12:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA
So we made it to logan airport and are enjoying dinner thanks to a british airways meal voucher. You got to love labor disputes that leave us with 40$ in hand. This will be my last state side post for a few weeks. Ta ta

Around the World and Back in Three Weeks

2005-08-17T22:44:00.000-04:00

Around the World and Back in Three Weeks

Another nice blog to check out I am headed out to Germany tomorrow and am hopping to do a similar thing as we go.

Train tix

2005-08-16T11:42:00.000-04:00

Location: cambridge, ma
Subject:
Jill managed to talk fed- ex into giving us our rail passes out of the truck while stoped in the street. Anyway it was supper cool of them since it will save us a trip to Somerville.

Props to FedEx

Mobile test

2005-08-15T22:13:00.000-04:00

Location: South Boston

Subject:

Here is my first mobile blogg post. I am planning on using this feature while in the Alps. Slick MMS Feature. I am doing this while I was hooked up to e-stim at a Physical Therapy appointment.

Passport in hand and ready to go

2005-08-15T15:48:00.000-04:00

Location: Boston, MA

Subject:

Jill bless her little heart was able to pick up my passport earlier this afternoon downtown. All I need now is the rail pass' to show up.

Cha Cha Cha Changes...

2005-08-13T23:28:00.000-04:00

Location: Marblehead, MA

Subject:
With a little help from my girlfriend Jill, my girlfriend and her family we were able to roll a ton of change. Basically I have been collecting change for the past year and some. At the end of each day I would empty my change into a Carlo Rossi 1 gallon wine jug. This was either money for when I became unemployed and broke or was going on a fun trip. It seems the later as won out (thank god). All in all we exceeded my expectations on the amount of loot I had saved. I think I have just about enough to cover Jill's and my EuroRail passes. Not bad.

Props to Ned Lovely for the ride up to Marblehead and even more Props to Grand Ma Tudal for her awesome change rolling abilities.

Planning Jitters VI

2005-08-12T21:00:00.000-04:00

Location: Cambridge, MA

Subject: T-minus 6 days until Europe. I missed Fed-Ex with the rail passes and wasn't able to get out of work in time to get my Passport. Will have to get this all done on Monday. Damm!!

Planning Jitters V

2005-08-11T23:18:00.000-04:00

Location: Cambridge, MA

Subject:

T-minus 7 days until Europe. Ordered Euro Rail passes today. We are really going I guess.

Planning Jitters IV

2005-08-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

Location: Cambridge, MA

Subject:

T-minus 8 days until Europe. At the Passport Services Office's suggestion I called at 8 am when the appointment lines opened so that I could get a cancellations appointment sometime that day. I was in luck at 1:30 I managed to shoot downtown and get everything done. My passport will be ready for pick up on Friday.

Planning Jitters III

2005-08-08T23:16:00.000-04:00

Location Cambridge, MA

Subject:

T-minus 10 days until Europe. Unfortunately I haven't been able to speek with anyone who knows anything at the Passport Services Office. Their automated phone services suck and there isn't really any way to check on the appointment you may have made.

When I finaly made it downtown I was only to discover that the Passport Services Offices stop taking interviwe appointments after 2 PM. HELP!!!! I don't know what I am going to do.

Planning Jitters II

2005-08-05T23:16:00.000-04:00

Location Cambridge, MA

Subject:

T-minus days until Europe. I have an appointment with the State Department's Passport Services office downtown at the Tip O'Neil Federal building.

Planning Jitters

2005-08-01T23:14:00.000-04:00

Location: Cambridge, MA

Subject:

T-minus 18 days until Europe. I am in a state of utter nervousness. I can't find my passport. I have looked hi and low, but no luck. I know I had it when I came back from Puerto Rico last summer. Unfortunately I am striking out on finding it. I guess I will have to look into a rush passport. I know it is possible and the offices are in Boston.

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Update on Jill and the Disney Half Marathon:

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The recent close division in the German population vote for it's new chancellor raises a few questions

SPORER Spirituosen und Weine - Schnaps Liköre Stille Nacht Punsch Kräuterbitter

Germany gears up for polls - NDTV.com - News on Germany gears up for polls

Backpacking The World

Expatica's German news in English: SPD uses dead US soldiers on election posters

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Moblie blogging how to...

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Euro Youth Hostal

Munich

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Luzern to Vienna

Mt. Pilatsus

The Swiss Army

Luzern

Lausanne to ___ then ___ then ___ then finally Luzern

Skaters in the world capitol of sport

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Baden-Baden

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A quick Berlin tourism promo.

Berlin

Some Admin notes

Frankfurt to Berlin

Rothenburg to Frankfurt

Fussen to Rothenburg

Munich to Fussen

Boston to Munich

Logan airport Boston, ma

Lausanne to _ then _ then ___ then finally Luzern