(no subject)
TWICE. Backspace glitch TWICE. I've lost my entire entry TWICE. This is going to be an unedited entry. No pressing backspace to correct spelling and typing errors. Nope.
Ok. Well. GRR.
Ok. So, life here in Echt really is great. I've had the most wonderful vegan food. Wendy made vegan pancakes the other day (!!!) and I've had lots of soy ice cream (with fruit and almond cookies) and this wonderful vegan cheese (oh my god, it's so good...but I'm betting most of you wouldn't like it) and oh so much yummy food courtesy of Liz and Wendy. Yay.
Today Wendy and I went on a little bike ride. We rode to this place that had wild horses from Poland. They were standing with their feet in the water. It was really nice. The weather here is warm and sunny (prior to being in Italy I would have called this hot).
Hmm..backtrack to Rome so I can fill in some details.
The train to Venice from Rome was 45 minutes late. When the train was less than 10 minutes to departure, and the platform still hadn't been announced, I began to get nervous. Then the board flipped and the arrival time was delayed. This happened three times. Apparently this is nrmal fr Italian trains.
The thing that I think is funniest about travelling alne, is that you're never really alone. On the train I met a guy my age from DC who was going to Florence. We chatted for a couple of hours. When the train was pulling into Venice it was beautiful. There was water everywhere. Big water (it is an island after all). I called Sadie from the train station and then proceeded to find myself a hostel. I stayed there two nights, but the woman never charged me for the second night. I didn't bring it up either.
At the hostel I met two Canadian girls. One of them reminded me so much of my co worker Lia (at the fishery labs). I adore Lia, she is one of the coolest people I know. We spent all our time in Venice together. Eyeing the beautiful hand painted carneval masks that are everywhere, we vowed to have a costume party (they live in Vancouver,so they're close by). On our last night we went to one of the main squares. They have all these little outdoor cafes set up (like all of Europe) but at night they have mini orchestras. In this one square there were 6 different 5-7 piece orchestras: piano, violin, accordian, cello, clarinet. They take turns playing sets, so as not to compete with each other *too* much. It was so beautiful listening to them play, under the Venezian sky, near the edge of the island by the sea, at night, in a square all lit up by a beautiful old church. Oh my god, it was great.
But Venice is hot. It got hotter than Rome (maybe Rome got hotter too--northern Italy is in the middle of a heat wave). The mosquitos there were of a strange breed that were not deterred by my citronella oil. I therefore got eaten alive. My first noticible bite was on my eyelid. My eyelid. It got all puffy and red and hurt. Then I had some row bites along my arm. The bites swelled up and hurt like bruises.
The day I left Venice, I had arranged to take a bus to Paris. I had a few hours to kill from when I had to leave my hostel to when I could get on the bus. So, I bought some canned fruit and actually found a shady park. I sat there for three hours, in the shade reading and eating. I did not move. I was wearing a skirt and a tank top. And boy was I sweating. It was so humid and so hot, just sitting there made me feel like I was going to die. In the shade.
I got on the bus, which, though air conditioned, was still quite humid and hot. I tried to use the bathroom, but it was sweltering, and my eyes burned. I noticed a "there are chemicals under the sink" sign. Yeah, too many chemicals.
Had to change buses in Milan, where a Moroccan who studies in Paris sat behind me and proceeded to try and chat me up the entire time. He said I could stay at his parents house in Morocco whenever I wanted for as long as I wanted. Um, no thanks, I think I'll pass.
I got some frequently interrupted (and stiff necked) sleep on the bus, and awoke in Paris the next day. Paris is one of the central locations for the bus company, so it did not drop me off at the train staion, as I had hoped (train stations are usually central locations and have lots of info on hostels and such). I went to the info office, where no one spoke english. I repeatedly asked for a hostel. Communication didn't really work, there was another guy in there trying to help the girl behind the desk, but once they did figure out what I wanted they couldn't tell me where to go. She gave me her last map of Paris and I headed to the metro.
Fortunately, the woman behind the counter in the metro station had the exact address of a hostel just a stop away. Metro tickets are SO EXPENSIVE in Paris. 1 euro 30, and they only work once. ONCE. Ugh.
I found the hostel, which was unfortunately an HI hostel (hostelling international. I don't like them because they are usually expensive, they're very official and strict..yeah). It wasn't to oexpensive, but it was huge, and the crowd was not my type. The girls behind the desk were unfriendly, they couldn't help me with bus tickets to Holland, and oh, if I wanted a phone card I would have to buy one from the machine behind me. That's where I had to ge change too if I wanted to store my stuff before I could check in. They don't have a free room for luggage like most independent hostels, because they are a big business.
The hostel was FULL of french 7th graders. OH MY GOD. My room was on the 7th floor, so using the elevator was pretty much mandatory when I wanted to carry my stuff upstairs. Well, it took a long time to get up there because in both elevators someone had pushed ALL the buttons. When I got in the elevator, crammed with pre pubescent 7th graders, all the buttons were pushed. The elevator stopped at every floor, while two giggling girls kept pressing the button of their floor in order to make the doors close. This happened pretty much every time I wanted to use the elevator. I just started using the stairs.
My day in Paris was ok. I was on the brink of getting sick, so I wasn't too up for touring the city. I went into the center, saw Notre Dame, the eiffel tower from a distance (wow, that's got to be one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. It looks pretty in the pictures, but awrful along the Parisian skyline), some other chruches, some parks, the river, a department store my mom told me to go to. I was starving and started looking for food, not caring how much it was going to cost. I coulnd't find anything. It's not like I had trouble because I was vegan. I had trouble because I didnt eat meat. EVERYTHING on every menu I saw had meat in it. I even passed by a foi gras store (that's when they force feed birds-geese I think-- by stuffing a tube down their throat and pumping ood into their stomach...I'm not sure why..it probably makes the birds fatter and tastier...whatever, it's incredibly inhumane). They really do serve es cargo (snails) everywhere. And I don't think they eat vegetables, or know what they are.
In my meanderings in Paris I found a demonstration. It was really noisy, though only a few hundred people strong (that is something we need to work on in Seattle, guys. Noisy and boisterous gets attention). Apparently the demonstration was being held because sme peple were in prison, and it was also protesting police presence/behaviour. And boy, did the French plice make the Seattle PD (which is known for its police brutality) look tame. Hmmm. Not only were there police surrounding the entrances to buildings for blocks and blocks away from the protest, but there were steel barricades, lines of police cars and vans, and a barricade of police officers. It almost seemed like they were expecting to arrest all the people present. I was able to slip past them to enter the space of the demonstration, but I was not allowed to leave. One of the protesters showed me how to get out through a cafe. How French.
Went back to the hostel, ate canned lentils and canned corn (yum) and left over Italian bread. Took a shower and went to bed. The next day I only had to go a metr stop away to get t the bus station, where I caught a bus to Liege, Belgium, where Liz and Wendy picked me up. And I've been here (in Holland, not Belgium...but close to Belgium) ever since. Yay.
Ok. Well. GRR.
Ok. So, life here in Echt really is great. I've had the most wonderful vegan food. Wendy made vegan pancakes the other day (!!!) and I've had lots of soy ice cream (with fruit and almond cookies) and this wonderful vegan cheese (oh my god, it's so good...but I'm betting most of you wouldn't like it) and oh so much yummy food courtesy of Liz and Wendy. Yay.
Today Wendy and I went on a little bike ride. We rode to this place that had wild horses from Poland. They were standing with their feet in the water. It was really nice. The weather here is warm and sunny (prior to being in Italy I would have called this hot).
Hmm..backtrack to Rome so I can fill in some details.
The train to Venice from Rome was 45 minutes late. When the train was less than 10 minutes to departure, and the platform still hadn't been announced, I began to get nervous. Then the board flipped and the arrival time was delayed. This happened three times. Apparently this is nrmal fr Italian trains.
The thing that I think is funniest about travelling alne, is that you're never really alone. On the train I met a guy my age from DC who was going to Florence. We chatted for a couple of hours. When the train was pulling into Venice it was beautiful. There was water everywhere. Big water (it is an island after all). I called Sadie from the train station and then proceeded to find myself a hostel. I stayed there two nights, but the woman never charged me for the second night. I didn't bring it up either.
At the hostel I met two Canadian girls. One of them reminded me so much of my co worker Lia (at the fishery labs). I adore Lia, she is one of the coolest people I know. We spent all our time in Venice together. Eyeing the beautiful hand painted carneval masks that are everywhere, we vowed to have a costume party (they live in Vancouver,so they're close by). On our last night we went to one of the main squares. They have all these little outdoor cafes set up (like all of Europe) but at night they have mini orchestras. In this one square there were 6 different 5-7 piece orchestras: piano, violin, accordian, cello, clarinet. They take turns playing sets, so as not to compete with each other *too* much. It was so beautiful listening to them play, under the Venezian sky, near the edge of the island by the sea, at night, in a square all lit up by a beautiful old church. Oh my god, it was great.
But Venice is hot. It got hotter than Rome (maybe Rome got hotter too--northern Italy is in the middle of a heat wave). The mosquitos there were of a strange breed that were not deterred by my citronella oil. I therefore got eaten alive. My first noticible bite was on my eyelid. My eyelid. It got all puffy and red and hurt. Then I had some row bites along my arm. The bites swelled up and hurt like bruises.
The day I left Venice, I had arranged to take a bus to Paris. I had a few hours to kill from when I had to leave my hostel to when I could get on the bus. So, I bought some canned fruit and actually found a shady park. I sat there for three hours, in the shade reading and eating. I did not move. I was wearing a skirt and a tank top. And boy was I sweating. It was so humid and so hot, just sitting there made me feel like I was going to die. In the shade.
I got on the bus, which, though air conditioned, was still quite humid and hot. I tried to use the bathroom, but it was sweltering, and my eyes burned. I noticed a "there are chemicals under the sink" sign. Yeah, too many chemicals.
Had to change buses in Milan, where a Moroccan who studies in Paris sat behind me and proceeded to try and chat me up the entire time. He said I could stay at his parents house in Morocco whenever I wanted for as long as I wanted. Um, no thanks, I think I'll pass.
I got some frequently interrupted (and stiff necked) sleep on the bus, and awoke in Paris the next day. Paris is one of the central locations for the bus company, so it did not drop me off at the train staion, as I had hoped (train stations are usually central locations and have lots of info on hostels and such). I went to the info office, where no one spoke english. I repeatedly asked for a hostel. Communication didn't really work, there was another guy in there trying to help the girl behind the desk, but once they did figure out what I wanted they couldn't tell me where to go. She gave me her last map of Paris and I headed to the metro.
Fortunately, the woman behind the counter in the metro station had the exact address of a hostel just a stop away. Metro tickets are SO EXPENSIVE in Paris. 1 euro 30, and they only work once. ONCE. Ugh.
I found the hostel, which was unfortunately an HI hostel (hostelling international. I don't like them because they are usually expensive, they're very official and strict..yeah). It wasn't to oexpensive, but it was huge, and the crowd was not my type. The girls behind the desk were unfriendly, they couldn't help me with bus tickets to Holland, and oh, if I wanted a phone card I would have to buy one from the machine behind me. That's where I had to ge change too if I wanted to store my stuff before I could check in. They don't have a free room for luggage like most independent hostels, because they are a big business.
The hostel was FULL of french 7th graders. OH MY GOD. My room was on the 7th floor, so using the elevator was pretty much mandatory when I wanted to carry my stuff upstairs. Well, it took a long time to get up there because in both elevators someone had pushed ALL the buttons. When I got in the elevator, crammed with pre pubescent 7th graders, all the buttons were pushed. The elevator stopped at every floor, while two giggling girls kept pressing the button of their floor in order to make the doors close. This happened pretty much every time I wanted to use the elevator. I just started using the stairs.
My day in Paris was ok. I was on the brink of getting sick, so I wasn't too up for touring the city. I went into the center, saw Notre Dame, the eiffel tower from a distance (wow, that's got to be one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. It looks pretty in the pictures, but awrful along the Parisian skyline), some other chruches, some parks, the river, a department store my mom told me to go to. I was starving and started looking for food, not caring how much it was going to cost. I coulnd't find anything. It's not like I had trouble because I was vegan. I had trouble because I didnt eat meat. EVERYTHING on every menu I saw had meat in it. I even passed by a foi gras store (that's when they force feed birds-geese I think-- by stuffing a tube down their throat and pumping ood into their stomach...I'm not sure why..it probably makes the birds fatter and tastier...whatever, it's incredibly inhumane). They really do serve es cargo (snails) everywhere. And I don't think they eat vegetables, or know what they are.
In my meanderings in Paris I found a demonstration. It was really noisy, though only a few hundred people strong (that is something we need to work on in Seattle, guys. Noisy and boisterous gets attention). Apparently the demonstration was being held because sme peple were in prison, and it was also protesting police presence/behaviour. And boy, did the French plice make the Seattle PD (which is known for its police brutality) look tame. Hmmm. Not only were there police surrounding the entrances to buildings for blocks and blocks away from the protest, but there were steel barricades, lines of police cars and vans, and a barricade of police officers. It almost seemed like they were expecting to arrest all the people present. I was able to slip past them to enter the space of the demonstration, but I was not allowed to leave. One of the protesters showed me how to get out through a cafe. How French.
Went back to the hostel, ate canned lentils and canned corn (yum) and left over Italian bread. Took a shower and went to bed. The next day I only had to go a metr stop away to get t the bus station, where I caught a bus to Liege, Belgium, where Liz and Wendy picked me up. And I've been here (in Holland, not Belgium...but close to Belgium) ever since. Yay.