Not really. Portocomaro has been absolutely wonderful, but it is time to get moving again. I will forever remember and cherish the memories and the people...good times.

Liz is all better. Here’s to antibiotics they are extremely cheap ($5) here, and you don’t even need a prescription.

We’ve built a great shelf and bird house out of scrap wood using substandard tools and a lot of gumption. It should hold up for years to come. If it's not used as firewood. 

We’ve taken a couple winery tours and tastings where we have gotten the contact information for the American importers. In the Piedmont region, the three most prominent grape species are Barbera, Ruche, and Griniolino; which most of the wine of the region comes from.

Had a typical Peidmontese meal; complete with four plates of antipasta, one plate of pasta, and one meat plate. We still had at least two plates to go before dessert, but we couldn’t eat any more.

We’ve met our replacements. Rob and Polly…a couple Brits who have just begun a two year trip of vagabonding, hitchhiking, and Wwoofing with no real plan to speak of. Sounds like us...but with a British accent. Cherio!

So, now we are back on the train again. En route to Corniglia, one of the five villages which make up Cinque Terre. We are going to spend a couple of days there, one of which Is my 33rd birthday. Hopefully the weather will be as hot/nice as it has been in Portacomaro these past couple weeks and we can go swimming in the Mediterranean.

After a much deserved vacation of hiking and swimming in Cinque Terre we are off to explore the timelessness of Venetian canals, followed shortly by Florence, then to Tuscany to do another Wwoofing site. We’ll be sure to let you know how it went and have loads of pictures to share.

As you may have figured out, this post is a little dated. Due to time and internet access constraints, we cannot always update when we want. By the time that I send this I have already had an astounding birthday in paradise and we are just getting ready to leave Venice. We will update again as soon as we can. Our plan is to camp one night outside Venice then go to our next Wwoofing site. Talk at ya soon.

Well folks,

It seems that I haven’t been in contact for quite some time now.  I’ll try and make up for it…

I think that Liz gave you a pretty comprehensive idea of how Paris was. It was both wonderful and trying at the same time.  But, in hindsight, I would say that it was a definitive learning experience. Plus, compared to some of the countries that we will be visiting in the near future, Paris, as well as the rest of France, will be a walk in the park…at least one of us speaks the language in France (but Liz is a quick learner).

That being said; France for the most part is fairly bass-ackwards for travelers. Sure, there is a TON to see. And the food for the most part is good, if not a little too expensive. But, I don’t know how anybody relies on public transportation to go anywhere. As was mentioned before, you need a reservation to travel anywhere by train, even if it’s to the next town over. We are using our Eurail pass, so we don’t have to pay for any tickets, but for some reason we still have to pay for reservations; which, depending on where one wants to go can be 20E per person.  I think for shorter trips most French people tempt fate and pray that don’t check tickets. But for longer trips there is no getting around it. And if it is a high volume destination then one should book a week in advance. This means standing in line up to an hour to get a reservation which may or may not exist.

Moreover, there is no guarantee that a train will be on time, or not be cancelled last minute. It seems that this is normalcy because no one seems to bat an eye except for the “stupid Americans” that actually think that train schedules should work in a developed nation…I mean this isn’t Cameroon anymore, these guys built half the Chunnel. Needless to say that this happened to us, and we were stuck in Libourne (a town that we though was going to be something, but then turned out to be nothing) for the better part of a day. We wanted to go take a wine tour at the close by St. Emillion which is surrounded by historical vineyards. Unfortunately, when we got to Libourne our transfer to St. Emillion was delayed, then cancelled. Sigh. Oh well, we salvaged the night with Bordeaux’s version of Night at the Museums, where all of Bordeaux’s museums were free admission. But I think Liz has filled you in on all of this…sorry for the redundancy.

Anyway, France is a great place to visit, but I would rent a car if you are going to see anything outside of Paris. Alright…enough bitchin’.

We had a very good time in Bordeaux. If the weather would have cooperated, it would have been parfait. The “very” is mainly due to the people that we met and conversed with. Not only have we made some connections on Couchsurfing, but we also made some friends and memories which we will cherish. Thanks to all who made our stay in Bordeaux so wonderful…namely Camille and her family.

5-22-12

So now we are en route to Italy where we will be spending the night with another couchsurfer in Asti. Then tomorrow morning we are off to Portacomaro where we will be meeting the family that we will be staying with while WWOOFing. I am hopeful and optimistic as we embark on our adventures in cultivation. We have only had a few brief correspondence with our host family, so there are a lot of questions that have yet to be answered. All I know is that there should be a lot of horses. It should be fun!  We will let you know when they run us out of town…

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Well they haven't run us out of town yet. In fact, we are having a wonderful time. The family (David, Chiara, and their two boys Samir and Oliver) is great and the country-side is beautiful. Liz has some more pending updates. Just wnated to let everyone know that we are still alive.  Ciao Tutti! 

This is the last few hours of our last night in Bordeaux, and France. Tomorrow we travel to Italy to start working on an organic farm. There should be internet access somewhere in the area...after all we contacted the family by internet. But, I am not sure if we will actually have it in the place that we are staying. Therefore, there might be a longer period of time than some of you are used to between posts. Don't worry, we are still living and writing. We will just upload all of them at once when we next have internet access.

Also, I realize that lately Liz has been carrying the blog. I will catch up as soon as I can.:)

Take care and talk at you soon.

K

As you may have noticed most of the blog posts are not posted on the same days that they are written. The below post was actually wiitten on the 10th, but because we don't actually have internet access on the trains we are forced to wait until we get accomodations with wifi before we send them out. I shouldn't matter because most of you probably aren't reading them as tehy come off the press anyway. So don't worry if you don't hear from us (you know who I'm talking to), we are fine and dandy and having  a great time. Happy Mother's Day!

Without further adieu...

Guten Tag Everyone!

We are currently on a train (again) bound for Paris…France. Of course it is a beautiful azure blue day; which always seems to be the case when we are travelling, not so much when we are sedentary.

We just spent a wonderfully relaxing 2 days in Konstanz Germany.  It’s right on the border of Switzerland, so yesterday we took a stroll, in the rain, to visit our Swiss neighbors. We stumbled upon this huge, old farm which today is mainly used for tourism and as a wildlife management area. We got caught in the rain for a while here, but there was plenty to take in, and not having a set schedule means not being in a hurry.

After touring this little corner of Switzerland, we nonchalantly meandered our way back over the border to Germany. We continued to take in the sights of Konstanz all the while looking for a place that sold pencils for an art project for Liz. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful at finding a bleistift, but we did find a genuine Swiss chocolatier, which made Liz’s day all the same. After all that trekking, we found an Irish pub to have dinner (conveniently right under where we were staying) and pass the time talking to some foreign locals.

We then awoke this morning to a stupendous complimentary breakfast, made our accommodations for Paris, and went down to the water to feed some birds (which is becoming one of my favorite past-times) before our train departed. Now we are on route, going through some picturesque mountainous countryside. If everything goes according to plan we should be getting in to Paris around 6 o’clock tonight. Where I will send out this blog and begin our tour of gay Paris.

Au revoir pour le moment…A bientot.

K    

P.S. By now we've actually been in Paris for a few days...we'll update Paris when we organize what we've done thus far...stayed tuned.

Well, here we are on a train again. Seems to be the only time that I have time to just sit and think about what we are doing instead of doing it. We just left Munich this time, and are travelling to Konstanz, Germany; along the border of Switzerland. Thus far we have been couch surfing through Germany, tonight we are actually getting a room, so it will be nice not worrying about anyone else’s schedule. I short stay along the shores of Lake Konstanz to decompress and take it all in. Then we are back on the road to Paris, where hopefully we can scrounge up some sleeping arrangements for about a week. Then we are planning on spending some time to be determined in Libourne, a small town outside of Bordeaux; which is basically a commune of potters. But more on that in later posts…

Munich was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! We stayed with Stefanie and her roommates Rosayna, Sara, and Gregor for the last four days. They were great…very accommodating. It kinda feels weird staying with strangers for extended periods of time without reciprocity. After a while one starts feeling like a mooch. Hopefully someday we can return the favor to all these wonderful people that we meet and stay with; or at least pay it forward.

Munich is such a splendid city, with so much history everywhere you look. As a rule, I generally enjoy more relaxed rural towns over big cities, but Munich, I feel, was an exception to this rule. We did so much in what seemed like over a week, but as it stands was only 4 days…Ach du lieber! Here’s a quick rundown of some of the places we saw, and things that we did:

-Marianplatz - The historic city center where the royal palace is situated along with dozens of museums, churches, fountains, and beer halls & gardens; not to mention the hundreds of shops, boutiques, restaurants, and huge Viktualienmarket. We spent quite a bit of time all turned around in this part of town. In fact, we found ourselves getting lost in most places in Munich. I was strange…when we thought we were going south, we were actually heading north, and vice versa. In no other town, yet, have we had this issue. If Munich’s this tough with a map, then Delhi’s going to be quite challenging.

-Church of St. Peter – This is located in the center of Marianplatz. We climbed and climbed (lost count of how many stairs) and were well rewarded for our efforts with a panoramic view of the entire city. We could even see the Alps in the far distance.

-English Gardens – This was just a massive park which would take days to walk completely. But in the center of the gardens is a Chinese pagoda surrounded by a huge biergarten. This is where we got our first beer in Munich. With hundreds of fellow beer aficionados and pretzels bigger than your head, it was truly a German experience. (Side note: I have had a beer every day that I have been in Germany…just one Mom;))

-Hofbrauhaus – While we are on the subject of beer. We also went to the world famous Hofbrauhaus for a liter of beer (each) and various sausages served with kraut. Can we get any more German?

-Surf break – On the south end of the English Gardens was what the local called ‘surf break’, which is where a stream, whether planned or not, makes a perfect wave for local surfers (yeah…in Munich) to hang ten and rip a curl.

-BMW Welt – It’s a showroom filled with the latest and greatest of what BMW has to offer. From cars, to motorcycles, to bikes, it is truly inspiring for anyone who appreciates German engineering. Even the building was a feat of engineering, plus it was right next to the old Olympic grounds and village. Taking all that in was a good way to spend a rainy day.

-Dachau - Our last day in Munich we took a day trip out to Dachau, which I learned was Germany’s very first concentration camp, and the model for all the rest to follow throughout the war. I can say that I am glad that we did, because it was a truly sobering and humbling experience. I felt physically and mentally drained after walking around the grounds and the museum they have set up there. We took an audio tour, so not only did we get the history of Hitler’s rise to power, the daily routine and torture that prisoners had to endure, and the plight of those not fortunate enough to survive their time at Dachau; but we also were able to hear first-hand accounts of survivors of the camp while we were seeing the actual bunk houses that they were packed in, and the saw the videos of the corpses packed on the trains and piled in front of the ovens. One of the strangest things for me was seeing the trees which lined the main road in front of each of the bunk houses. In the videos from “liberation day”, the trees were only 10 feet tall…but as we walked down the boulevard the same trees towered 40 feet over us. To think that those same trees that were around through all the suffering and atrocities are still thriving today. For some reason, that just stuck with me. I urge anyone who gets a chance to absolutely experience Dachau, and revel in the darkness that humans can actually manifest and endure…and how it’s all situated just outside a quiet and conventional town in the middle of Bavaria.

So…yeah, that was Munich.

Prost!

K     

P.S. Check out the flickr site for a lot more photos...it takes way too long to upload photos to the blog.

Well, with around 12 hours of fairly restful sleep after over 24 without any sleep, we set out on amsterdam today with fresh eyes and open minds. Amsterdam did not disappoint. We must have walked 15 miles so far today. We stumbled upon the I AMSTERDAM sign which is right next to the van Gogh museum. So that's two to check off the list.
No we are in repose back at the Hostel before we catch the local night life tonight. The holiday weekend for "Queensday" has officially begun, so the crazies are already out in force. It should be a fun-filled weekend. Let's hope that I still have a couple Euros left to continue on the trip;)
Red light district here we come!

I went from this ...............................to this with a bit of sleep.        It's the miracle drug!

Well we made it through half a days travel, and we still haven't killed each other. I find this promising. The aside photos is from last evening after packing up Liz's place. We are officially saying goodbye to St. Paul. Notice how we don't looked photo-shopped at all. Enjoy more embarassing photos of Liz and myself in our Photo gallery.

Right now we are off to Reykjavik then on to Amsterdam. Take care and god speed. Boosh!