Virtual Travellers!!
Let's see, I left off last time rolling out of Prague
on an overnight train to Italy... actually, we left
Prague for Germany first, meaning we were passing
through Germany for a THIRD time without actually
seeing anything other than train stations (we've heard
good things about Munich and Berlin, but we're saving
that for another trip). Some highlights of the visit:
a 2 hour jaunt on an overcrowded (i.e. people standing
in the aisles), late, smoke-filled train where we were
still lucky enough to find two seats together, and a
bartender at the train station who let us have two
beers and fries even though we were a half a deutsch
mark short (25 cents, I think--all these currency
exchange rates are beginning to blur together!). Then
from Germany, we hopped on an overnight train down to
Italy...
We rolled into Venice around 7 am, after a mediocre
night's sleep in a couchette (a small cabin that
sleeps six people--we had five people in ours). So we
hit the canals of Venice somewhat tired, under some
beautiful dawn colors. We hopped on a boat called a
"vaporetta"--basically a bus except bigger, and with a
hull instead of wheels--and snaked through the
S-shaped "main drag" of Venice to the famous San Marco
square.
Naturally, one of the first things that stands out
about Venice is the boats--and I'm not talking about
those famous, overpriced gondolas (most of them were
docked for the off-season, and the few that we saw
used were during the late afternoon or night), I'm
talking about motorboats of all shapes and sizes,
driven with no obvious rules in effect, cutting each
other off, missing each other by inches, and sometimes
gently bumping into each other as they cruise by! At
least we were in the biggest boat in the canal, so we
had little to worry about. And boats of all types
too--there was a garbage boat that grabbed special
dumpsters and emptyed them into the hold, police
boats, taxi boats, boats with cranes on them, boats
that were nothing but floating generators, boats that
just had a big empty hold and a couple of seats at the
back (kind of like a pickup truck for the water), and
many others...
Safely back on land, I soon discovered that I really,
really liked Venice. I just loved walking down the
maze of streets and alleys, getting lost among shops,
trattorias (restaurants), homes, churches, and plazas.
Some of the streets were so skinny that Karen and I
couldn't even walk side-by-side! Venice made Prague
seem like an easy-to-navigate city--at least in
Prague, you could walk around without randomly
dead-ending into a canal or courtyard. Occasionally
we would see "No way out!" scribbled on a wall by
English-speakers who wanted to save future tourists
from a little bit of frustration!
We were in Venice only two days, and each night, we
trained Northeast of the city to stay with a college
friend of mine who is stationed at Aviano Air Base.
Karen and I had fun chatting with Darren and his wife
Kjersti, eating olives he had picked from his own
backyard and cured himself, and finishing the evening
with "caffe correcto" (cappucino with a small shot of
"grappa", some very powerful liquor).
Some other highlights of Venice were: the amazing
marble, mosaics, and "Pala d'Or" at the Basilica in
San Marco square; getting absolutely mobbed by
thousands of pigeons while feeding them dried corn;
gorgeous glass art; a beautiful off-the-beaten path
church; and writing postcards while tipping back
1000-lire (50 cent) glasses of wine (even the cheap
Italian wines are tasty!) at a locals joint, with
energetic Italian bubbling all around--which, true to
the stereotype, seems to be as much a language of
gestures as it is words.
After Venice, we visited a family friend in
Reggio-Emilia (in central Northern Italy, near
Bologna)--a man named Paolo who was my Mom's
"high-school sweetheart" when he spent a year in
America on an exchange program. I'm glad our families
stayed in touch--we were treated to some first-class
Italian hospitality there!! He put us up in a nice
hotel right near the train station, and we enjoyed a
home-cooked Italian lunch by his wife Ana that lasted
a couple hours, and a fine dinner that night with his
son Stefano and lunch the next day at a local
trattorias. The area is known for it's outstanding
food, and the highest-quality cheese in
particular--I'm convinced that the best Parmesian
cheese doesn't actually come from the neighboring city
of Parma, it comes from Reggio-Emilia, and Kraft's
"Parmesian" cheese tastes like salty sawdust when
compared to the real thing!
At this point in our trip, Karen and I decided that we
had enough of cities for awhile, and decided to head
for the mountains. Fortunately, our hotel was right
next to a travel agency that was able to find us a
great deal on a weekend in Sestriere, a remote resort
town in the Italian Alps along the French border.
Prices were extremely low because the season hadn't
officially opened yet, and the coutryside looked
beautiful in the brochures...
...And it was absolutely breathtaking in person!!!
After successfully navigating through the crowds of
ultra-hip Italians in the hectic Milan train station
without getting so much as a smudge of makeup or drop
of hair gel on ourselves, we took a train through
Turin (home of the famous--though reportedly
fake--shroud that Jesus was wrapped in after his
crucifixion) and flat plains gave way to rocky hills
which gave way to majestic snow-capped mountains as we
climbed into the station at Oulx. For the last
mountainous miles--excuse me, kilometers--to
Sestriere, we hopped on a bus whose chaffeur casually
chatted on his cellphone while taking hairpin turns
overlooking steep valleys.
Since we were two out of the six guests booked in our
hotel that weekend, we got very attentive
service--"There are not many guests, we will take
breakfast to your room... what time is good?" What a
way to be welcomed! Our mountain retreat couldn't
have been better. Our room had it's own balcony which
overlooked a ski mountain, backed by rocky peaks to
the south and an incredible panoramic view across a
valley to the west. We had a spectacular view of both
sunrise and sunset. The room was spacious, warm, and
had it's own bathroom with the first working bidet
I've seen in Europe yet--I want a bathroom with a
bidet when I grow up!
We took two fairly intense hikes that weekend,
requiring a sauna on the third night we were there
("We will turn it on while you are at dinner, it will
be ready at ten"), and enjoyed the dinners prepared
and served by Chef Mimo and hostess Lucheska. When we
weren't hiking or eating, we CHILLED. We hung out on
the balcony a lot, and also watched TV for the first
time on our trip since watching "Robinson" (the
Swedish version of "Survivor") in Stockholm. And it
was BBC--we could understand it!
Good thing we relaxed, since we had a hectic day of
travel this past Monday--packing, dropping a package
at the post office, and making it to the bus station
by the godawful early hour of 10:20, and then making
four train connections after that to get to Ales in
Southern France. Then it was back to relaxation--we
met up with some more friends of the family, a couple
who just moved to a tiny hamlet just west of Ales.
Sharon, a very friendly Scottish gal who speaks
excellent French, picked us up from the station and we
wound our way through tree-covered mountains until we
reached Prades, their hamlet. Karen and I brought the
total population up from 9 to 11 during our stay here.
Yes, we are definitely OUT THERE. The address that
Alex had given in an email earlier was "First house on
the left, Prades, 12345 France" (I can't remember the
actual zip code, but you get the picture!).
I can't tell you how blissfully relaxing our stays at
Sestriere and here at "La Source" (that's what Alex
and Sharon have named their house) have been. I
didn't realize how badly I needed it, too--though
travelling has been fun, it's been quite stressful,
and this was a much-needed break before the final
couple weeks of travelling. The weather has been
beautiful--we had lunch on the balcony in the sun
today, in weather warm enough for t-shirts, enjoying
the view of the horseshoe valley in which Prades is
nestled. The first day we were here, we accompanied
Sharon and their two-year daughter, Skye, down the
road to pick up vegetables for lunch. Alex cooks some
excellent vegetarian cuisine, and conversations over
meals range from intellectually stimulating
discussions of his recently completed Ph.D. work
involving using an EEG to detect the brain's reaction
to musical stimulation, to laughing at the differences
between American and British accents and word choices,
to deciphering what Skye is trying to say, and much
more!
Musically, we've gotten along fabulously--Alex is a
die-hard blues guitarist and a Stevie Ray Vaughn fan
who visited Austin like it was the Holy Land. We
jammed on guitar and djembe together--the first time
I've gotten to slap some sweet goatskin since
Brussels! They have an enormous CD collection, and
have introduced me to some excellent music I hadn't
heard before.
About the most strenuous we've done since coming here
was helping out with hauling and sawing up wood for
the fire, and a mild hike to the top of a ridge with
incredible views of rolling, tree covered mountains.
On the hike, I gathered up a bunch of sweet chestnuts
which we roasted for dessert tonight. And though they
may be remote, there is still quite a social
atmosphere here--no less than a dozen people have
stopped by here for various reasons in the last three
days. I heard a saying about the American midwest
once, something like "where there's more space between
towns, there's less space between people"--it
certainly seems to be true here!
We have thoroughly enjoyed our chance to get to know
Alex and Sharon and Skye--they are an engaging,
energetic, and caring family that have just started
living out a dream here in the outback of France. But
we must travel on... tomorrow, we go "back to
civilization" and head for Toulouse, then
Barcelona--relaxed, refreshed, and ready for the final
two weeks of our adventure!!
Take care,
Scott.
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