|
|
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
| |
2:49 pm - fuckin urchins, man
|
jesus. so its been a long time. ill try to include everything.
i didnt say enough about biking through croatia. it was absolutely beautiful. i scared deer along the road and they scared me. it was an ocean view the entire time, almost. the bike to pula was the best. after a long night of striking out with swiss-german girls (i blame dave for that, entirely. who gives shit for buying drinks for girls...IN FRONT OF the girls!? espècially rich swiss girls with posh british english accents who love shopping in new york). anyway i was wicked hung over, but i killed it to pula in no time. if someone were to ask me "hey brady, what do you eat for breakfast when you are exhausted and hung over and running on too little sleep?" i would answer them "miles, son. i eat miles."
anyway, bike to ravenna. long, flat, hot, buggy, marshy. but ravenna was nice. i went and did the tourist thing,saw some churches and tombs. they were all ok, but what really blew me away was s. vitale. it is a huge church just filled with beautiful mosaics. absolutely unbelievable. i hung out with some young london guys, talked with a scottish girl who was also biking through italy, and got sweet info from a travel journalist about hostels, especially in portovenere near cinque terre. pay attention, this will come up later, and be on the quiz.
ravenna to florence. one day. you heard right, one day, motherfucker. what do i eat? thats right. originally i planned for 3 days, cause it was mountainous and i had no schedule. then 2 because the norwegians and english guys were gonna meet me there. then they called me (i got a phone in ravenna, too) and said the enlgish guys were leaving on thursday morning. it was tuesday. well shit, i want to spend a whole day with them. i decided to do it all in one day. 140-150ish kilometers through mountainous italy. the first 5 hours were up up and up. i almost gave up when i reached the 900 meter summit (ravenna is sea level) and some guy told me from there to florence it was alllllll down. and it was. and it was awesome. i covered 18km without pedaling once. i was more concerned about my breaks giving out.
florence was awesome. it was really good to see the guys again. i didnt do any museums, which i really regret, but i saw wonderful architecture and by afternoon i was so exhausted (for some reason i though i could handle going out and drinking the night after my ride. big mistake) that i took a nap till evening then just did more hanging out and drinking with the guys. the museums will always be there. just an excuse for me to come back.
the next morning i discovered a group of aussies drew a lovely penis on my back while i was sleeping. the penis was screaming "blagh!" or some other strange word that might mean something in australian. vegard was covered in shaving cream. i figure i got off light.
that morning i walked to the train station, said my farewells to the english guys and then the norwegians, and i was off to lucca (but not before having the most difficult time ever finding my way OUT of florence). the ride was nice, not as beautiful as ravenna to florence, though. lucca was absolutely stunning. the entire old city is surrounded by hills and walls. so beautiful. but tried to get a pizza in a restaurant that, because iw as alone, refused to let me sit outside, or at a regular table inside, and relegated me to a dark corner alone, only further reminding me how truly lonely i was in a country where i didnt speak the language. assholes.
from lucca i went to la spezia, where it was decided to would meet valerie to spend the weekend in cinque terre, because the travel journalist in ravenna had told me there was a hostel in portovenere (just below cinque terre), and her mother said it was an absolutely beautiful part of the country. thats enough for me, so we did it.
la spezia is an awful shitty armpit of hell. i arrived in good spirits after a nice coastal ride up, seeing many campgrounds and figuring id easily find a cheap place to sleep. i dont want to dwell on it, but 4 and a half hours later, after checking every hotel, biking up an incredibly steep mountain for an hour looking for some damn hostel that im convinced doesnt exist, getting yelled at in italian by hotel receptionists, and cursing the name la spezia, i was in the worst spirits of the whole trip and had to bike back 15km to the nearest beach campground. but it all turned out ok because i took a swim in the ocean at sunset and caught a rock crab for a little blond boy with a net who reminded me of myself. he loved it.
the next day i met valerie at the train station and we went to portovenere. it was wonderful to have someone around who actually spoke italian. with that tool at my disposal i was able to enjoy delicious italian meals (ive been eating lots of market food), and relax on beautiful rock beaches in peace. it was a relaxing beautiful weekend, but there was perhaps a little too much wine for me to consider it "restful." cinque terre. most beautiful spot ever. go there.
the last night in portovenere, after maybe too much wine, i thought it would be wonderful to go swimming. and it was. except i got aced by sea urchins real bad. i was drunk and thought iw as only stepping on shells or rocks at the time, but in the morning my feet were spotted with spines and red and swollen and sore. i could barely walk. i biked back to la spezia to say bye to valerie at the train station, and just that 10km ride made my feet excruciating. that decided it, i took a train to pisa.
got to pisa. checked out the tower. yup, it leans.
the next morning i tried again to get the spines out of my feet. some of them are so small i cant tell if i was successful. they hurt less, but that could also be the aspirin im popping like candy.
rode to siena. there now. its beautiful. i walked around, saw the duomo, had a wonderful lunch of crostinis and (sorry vegtarians) the most amazing veal ive ever had in my life (its a specialty here). i talked with an american who (this is for you, cara) studies child development and music. she was at a conference in bologna and is now just vacationing. not a bad deal. after my meal 2 italian women, who had been speaking italian the whole time, turn to me and ask me why im not having pignolata cheesecake. i say, sure, ill have some. we talk for a bit. they were really nice. they paid for my cheesecake.
its really hot. yesterday i almost passed out before i realized how hot it was. only when i drank my water and it was too hot to drink did ir ealize i should sit in the shade for a bit. i hope tomorrow cools down.
tomorrow: castiglione del lago. then perugia. then i meet valerie in assisi. then i go to rome.
today i also bought an italian phrasebook. i flipped immediately to the "romance" section. or what would more appropriately be called "sleazy english-speaking guy trying to get italian pussy," subtitled: "and how to understand the rejections." i would study this closely.
i hate sea urchins.
not really. but damn, theyre cruel.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, July 19th, 2008
| |
8:11 pm - ill leave my heart in porto viro
|
so i dont have much time, because a homecooked italian dinner is being cooked and ready to serve any minute.
thats right.
so, its been a while since i updated and a lot has happened but i will quickly recap.
croatia: i lived my dream. i sat on a blow up raft, floated in beautiful clear ocean waters surrounded by mountainous scenery, and drank a beer and took a nap. i can die happy.
i biked from rijeka to pula. it was a beautiful ride. pula wasnt so great. dave and i left.
biked to rovinj. rovinj is absolutely beautiful and if i get married i will spend my honeymoon there. the ride was hot. i got lost. it was hot. we stayed at a house with a woman who rented out rooms. dave and i bought fresh fish from the market to cook. but the womans husband insisted on cooking it for us. so dave, myself, and 3 norwegian girls in another room had a delicious homecooked croatian fish dinner. the most delicious thing ive ever had. had good talks with the man, though he spoke almost no english.
the ferry to venice: stormy. very bad. everyone on the ferry was puking everywhere. it was hilarious.
venice: most beautiful city ever. but too expensive. dave and i got a hotel and passed out around 8, and did not wake up utnil morning. but i walked around the entire city before that and the next day, so i feel i didnt miss much.
biked to porto viro. the ride kind of sucked. it was a highway. it was straight. it was flat. it was hot. it was boring. it was marshy. i pulled over to take a leak and got about 1000 misquito bites.
made it 75 km (not bad for half a days riding, i ddint leave venice till 2 or 3). pulled over in porto viro. looked for a campground. asked some guy. he told me to follow him. he took me to his house. i had a shower. his wife is cooking dinner for us. his son is about my age and speaks prety good english. im in the process of arguing with them to even let me sleep outside in my tent. nicest people ever. im blown away. i need to find soemthing else to say besdies thank you.
anyway, dont want to be rude. have to go out to the fam. next stop: ravenna, 'little venice'!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, July 14th, 2008
| |
3:14 pm - the croatian experience
|
i dont have my journal in front of me, so ill have to remember what seems like months worth of stuff. i hope i wont leave anything out.
i stayed at the hostel in budapest with the french guys. we went out and wandered for hours (apparently, its impossible to find a good turkish piyya in budapest. who knew). finally we break down and settle for pizza hut, which turned out to actually be really good and better than anything in america.
after we got our piyya fireworks started going off. we followed the fireworks and they were shooting off behind a beautiful old church, st. istvan's basilica. in the park down some steps a band was playing hungarian folk songs and people were dancing. i have no idea what the celebration was for but we sat and listened to the music and watched the fireworks and ate pizza and drank wine. it was absolutely beautiful. we hung out in the park for a while after the music was over and then walked back to the hostel. charles, the french guy with a british accent, went to bed and thibault and i stayed up really late talking outside and smoking. it was a really good talk and i got to know him really well. so far, some of the best nights ive had have occurred when i got "stuck" somewhere unexpectedly.
i got the train to zagreb. then i had to wait from 10 till 1 in the rmoning to get another train to rijeka, croatia. at the train station i met some old croatians who didnt know english very well but were very nice. they bought me beer and we talked broken english sentences for an hour or two. im not sure exactly what he was saying, but i think he was telling me that he was in the croatian war of independence. he had a healed over hole in his skull i think he said was from a serb. but he said he felt very badly about being in the war,he has no problems, and he loves everyone, even though im american (haha).
so i get into rijeka after 15 hours of train riding and no sleep. now i find out that the town im meeting the guys in is 50 km down the coast. ugh. i hop on my bike and go. it turns out croatians are very bad at judging distances, because i made it to medveja after only an hour of biking. it was 7:30 by then, so i relaxed on the beautiful croatian beach until 11 when the guys were waking up in the campsite (it was easy to find. the whole town is the siye of my childhood neighborhood).
croatia is the most beautiful country i have ever seen. hands down. beautiful mountains meeting clear blue ocean waters filled with coral and fish. unbelievable.
that night me, the norwegians, and the english all got invited to mariahs (one of the norwegians) family reunion dinners they have in this town every year. it was a ton of fun, i met more norwegians and croatians, drank lots of beer, and went swimming in the wee hours of the morning.
the next day mariahs family invited us out on a cruise. we went out into the sea and boated to a beautiful island where we had freshly caught fish. on the way back i left the "young poeples" boat and hopped on the "geriatric" boat. damn, those guys know how to party. they were playing guitar, chugging wine, laughing, dancing, stumbling, singing. it was so much fun. they were all so nice. one man, a local, told me about lots of small towns around that i should bike to. im trying to squeeze them into my trip. but he said rovinj, my final destination in croatia, is absolutely gorgeous and i made a very good choice. i cant wait.
unfortunately, during our boat ride, the weather got rough and it rained on the mainland. i forgot to put my rainfly on my tent that mroning. all of my shitz got soaked. luckily, none of it is ruined, it can all dry. but my book and my journal are now wrinkly, and it was a damp and smelly nights sleep.
last night we went out to some bars. one of mariahs cousins worked in one a few summers ago so we were allowed to stay until almost morning.
this morning i said goodbye to the norwegians. everyone is going further south to split. dave, one nof the english guys, is bussing and following me around. i really miss the norwegians. i feel liken i got really close with them very quickly and i made very good friends. im going to try to meet up withz kristian and veigard in italy. the girls left for norway this morning. ive decided i will move to norway and marry one of them. and our children will be very, very blonde.
im in medveja one more night. dave and i got a hotel so we can actually get a good nightsm sleep and we did laundry. thank god. i was stankin. but tomorrow, pula! after that, rovinj. then italy. where hopefully i will see the norwegians again.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, July 10th, 2008
| |
6:22 pm - budapest unabridged
|
ok. so im checked into the french guys hostel. i have some time to write.
so, in the hostel in bratislava im sitting in the smoking room and talking to some norwegian girls (i love norwegian girls). i tell them my story and that im alone and they invite me to dinner with them and their friends. i accept. in the mean time we meet 2 french guys and some english guys and they say thell meet up with us later.
the girls friends are 2 huge guys, kristian and veigard (sp?). the girls are Synne, Ane, and Maria. they are all incredible and awesome and really nice and we had a delicious dinner together and then went out looking for a bar to drink at. we find an irish pub, the only place around thats open, and commence loads od drinking. the english and french guys show up and we all have a great time.
when the pub closes we get coerced into following these old finnish guys who take us to this small place, lead us into an empty upsatirs section, and order tons of beer. the leader of the finns keeps ordering rounds of shots of some stuff that he was very excited about. he kept cheersing and yelling at me about facebook. one of the younger finnish guys, whose english was bad, was telling me how he is going to america but will not go to new york because he will get stabbed.
by the time we leave the finns (i can barely sit up any more), the sun is out. we stumble back to the hostel, get 3 hours of sleep, pack up, and go to the train station. i told the norwwegians that if their train lets bikes on, ill go to budapest with them. it does! so i sign up for budapest.
we hang around bratislava for a bit and return to the tation only to find that the train has been cancelled. the next one is in 5 hours.the french and british guys from the hostel are also there, so we all camp out in the station and hang out for 5 hours. we play poker betting cigarettes, one of the french guys gets fined for smoking inside, and eventually we all get on our way to budapest.
so begins the saga of the frenchman. this guy puts his bike in the bike car with me. then starts screaming "my luggage! my luggage!" he left his luggage out on the platform. he freaks out, i dont know what to say. he talks to the french guys and they get his whole story. he just got out of the hospital. he was in for 5 days because he cut his foot and it got infected. it ost him thousands of euros. now hes lost his luggage, including his laptop. he is 15 days into his trip. its sad, until they told me he planned his trip for a year. tat makes it hilarious. he gets off at the next stop to leave his bike, taxi back, and get his stuff. that man will be dead in a month with his luck.
so anyway, runnig out of internet time. budapest. cheap hostel. first night we slept. next day we went to the citadell, saw the amazing view, went to an incredible spa filled with beautiful women and fat men. we ate dinner, played a round of Kings where to kings pot was a mixture of beer, vodka, rum, coke, a french fry, and an onion. 2 cards were left, the 4th king was yet to be pulled, it was me and vegard. he pulls one. its not a king. i say fuck. i pick up the card. its not a king! thank god! the card is missing.
we go to some fancy club on the danue. the staff are assholes and the drinks are expensive. but its good people and i have a great time. again, i dont go to bed until it is very bright outide.
today, we had a breakfast which took forever to get served. i almost choked from laughing with food in my mouth. we get to the train station and the train they are taking to croatia does not allow bikes. the people are very unhelpful and the best i could do was get a time for a train tomorrow that goes to zagreb. from there, they couldnt help me, so ill have to show up and figure out a train to the coast. if all goes well, ill be in rijeka with the gang by tomorrow night, camping on the beach and relaxing. theyre staying for 3 or 4 days, then im going to start biking around the northern peninsula, make it to rovinj, ferry to venice, and begin my much-(but very enjoyably)-delayed italian tour.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| |
4:28 pm - budapest!
|
so i dont have much time. but i will give a brief account. i dont remember if i wrote about the Devin ruins in the last post. but they were awesome. old 5th century castle continually rebuilt through the romans and bathorys. then, i was very lonely in the hostel waiting the night out and i met some beautiful norwegian girls who invited me out to dinner with them and their 2 huge norwegians guy friends. they turned outt o be awesome and some of my favorite people ever. they invited me to budapest with them since theyre going to croatia after. so i went. been in budapest. a big group from bratislava is there as well. french guys and british guys and swedish girls. we are like a big group of 15 all together. everyones great. went out partying in budapest. right now theyre are leaving (im in the train station). bvikes cant go on their train so im going to croatia tomorrow. meeting up with the norwegians and english tomorrow night. the french are staying here. im with them tonight. i might meet up with them in florence. mopre later when i have time.
but these last 2 or 3 (i dont even know) days have been ridiculous. i got into a private sketchy finnish secret drinking club in bratislava. craziness.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, July 7th, 2008
| |
2:51 pm - so much man ass
|
so despite my solemn promise from the viennesian train lady, and my print out of the schedule in my hands, due to a vasty language barrier, angry slovackian women, and a backwards train system, i am stuck in bratislava for one more night. it is pouring rain.
but yesterday was a good ride. we rode from vienna to bratislava along the danue river. it was beautiful and smooth. the ride and the river. at one point we had to cross the river on a bridge smack in the middle of a nude beach. we must have missed the hot 20-somethings beach. there was nothing but leathery tan man ass and tanned rolls of big women. hilarious. watching the uptight rich american old guys done up in biking gear walk alongside a naked european sucking on a popsicle is one of the most amusing sights i have yet seen.
bratislava was dead last night, but i am attributing that to it being sunday. hopefully tonight will be more lively. hopefully it stops raining, because wearing my bright yellow rain poncho around town will not be cool.
biking along the danue on a beautiful sunny day. thats up there on my list of beauties.
tomorrow, god willing, onward to croatia and the beautiful small coastal town of rovinj. apparently split is an amazing town further south, but the ticket is extremely expensive, and the ferry will be much more as well. i think im going to stick low key and picturesque. and who knows, maybe rovinj will surprise me and be a crazy good time.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| |
9:37 am - it is good you came in summer. in winter, it can be very depressing.
|
|
bratislava! we came in last night, but as it was a sunday night (i assume thats why), everything was pretty dead. i am leaving the group today. they head to budapest, im taking to the train to croatia, then over to italy to begin my solo journey. i might hang around in bratislava tonight and see if it picks up any. i am checking out castles today either way. it is a beautiful little town/city. maybe i'll sleep in croatia tonight. maybe not.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Friday, July 4th, 2008
| |
9:36 pm
|
i have decided to go to bratislava with the group (purely so i can watch eurotrip and compare). after that, i will catch a train to Rovinj, a small coastal town in northern croatia. researching it has made me really want to go. i encourage you all to look it up, and know that i will be there.
i have roughly mapped out my italy tour. i am ggetting a ferry from rovinj to venice. i will go through bologna to florence. over to pisa, then down and east to assisi. from assisi i will go through umbria and make it to rome.
between googling the distances, adding lots for bike routes, and many off-days, ive calcuated my italy trip to be just over 20 days. which is why i dont have enough time to bike to croatia. but i will spend a couple of days exploring to supposedly picturesque mountainous and oceanic surroundings of rovinj.
holy shit, i dont know if im more excited for italy for rovinj.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
| |
6:19 pm - I saw a dead body today.
|
again, im not sure where to start. so, while still in prague, the rest of the group met up with us and we went out to dinner. at the restaurant we met a californian girl and her british cousin, who was a classically witty brit. we decide to go out looking for a sketchy dive bar, because all the tourist bars are far too classy for us.
we find what looks like the seediest bar imaginable, and we walk in and it is this giant fancz coloseum-esque room and its actually a classy-as-hell pool hall. so we go to the bar, have a few drinks, take some absinthe shots (yep, still disgusting the 2nd time. and the 3rd. and 4th). when we get ready to leave theres a big scene at the cash register. apparently they charged some swedes double, theyre refusing to pay, and theay start screaming and making a big deal of it. one fo the kids threatens to fucking kill the cashier. at this point therer are a bunch of bouncers surrounded them and, consequently, us. things were getting pretty hairy and we tried to commubnicate that we#re not with them, we pay what we have to, and run out as the door guys is pushing back the swedes trying to sneak out of the now-unlocked door. they thought i was a swede and kept pushing me back. i thought i was fucked. but the cashier yelled something and i got through.
we went to another dive bar, brian was wasted, we met some german chick and her duitch boyfriend, i almost got beat up by a drunk czech for asking for a cigarette, and brian got screwed out of money on a fake drug deal for some pot. we didnt get in till 4. got up at 8:30 to ride.
but not me! i took my bike in to get a new cable the day before, and apparently it desperately needed a new chain and rear cog set. so, because it was not done at 6 the previous day, as i was originally told, i had to wait around until 10 in the morning to get my bike. i told the rest of the group to head off and id catch up. but, when leaving with my newly fixed bike, i realized that i had lost my bike shorts somewhere. so i had to go back to the bike store and buy new bike shorts. i didnt get out of prague till noon.
i only made it out because some old czech dude on a biczcle showed me the way out, which was not at ALL the way on the map i had of the bike route. apparently, the nice old man had taken me around a mountain range, which was great. however, when he dropped me off, he was unable to communicate fully exactly where i was and i was completely lost in the cyech republic for about half an hour.
eventually i found my way and the group had only made it as far as karlsteijn castle. which is a beautiful castle. so i biked the rest of the day with the group. we went up an awful, awful mountain which literally took about an hour to climb and i thought it would never end. we made it to some small town where a beautiful cute young czech girl named Marketa served us food, and got extremely excited when, through a language-barrier issue, thought we were inviting her to america. i have marked this town for future european-wife-searching.
the next day, yesterday, i decided to go on my own. i want to stop in mroe smaller towns, see mroe, go slower. so, upon leaving Marketa's town...i immediately got lost. i divurged about 15-20 miles west fo where i shouldve been before i realized it. when i was surrounded by beautiful mountain lakes, and there were no lakes on my route, i consulted the nearest czech man who laughed at me and told me to go back east. unfortunately, the entire detour was downhill, which is why i just kept riding and hoping for the best, even though the town names werent familiar.
i made it to czesky budejovice. a town that looked just big enough on the map to be awesome. i was very i would spend the night in a big town-small city, hang out with the locals, and flirt with nice czech girls.
oh god was i wrong. talk about rundown scary soviet throw-back towns. the grey, decaying factories and project buildings immediately terrified me and i found the first bed i could, which was way expensive but very nice and far from the scary part of town, had dinner, and didnt leave the room.
in the morning i thought i was silly for being so scared the evening before. well, no, i have good instincts. i intended to catch the train from c. bud. to vienna, where i can spend a day and a half, then met up witht he guys and go to bratislava. on the way to the train station, soemthing very special happened to me. i saw my first dead body. on the sidewalk. covered in blood. with a czech cop and 2 medics just standing around joking while this young guys bodz was twisted in an unnatural way face down on the sidewalk. at that point i hauled ass tot he train station and got the fuck out of the czech republic. i am now in prague, and off to find a hostel.
stay out of cesky budejovice.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, June 29th, 2008
| |
11:59 am - Euro Adventure Part 1
|
hello everyone. so im in prague now, having (mostly) biked here from berlin. jeez, i dont even know where to start. well i got into berlin and i had to wait at the airport for 4 hours because my bicycle didnt make the plane i did and i had to wait for the next one. after i got it together i rode over to the hotel where iw as going to meet up with my group but they hadnt arrived yet so i bummed around for an hour people watching. which is hilarious in berlin the night before a semifinals soccer match.
eventually i met up with the guys. theyre all pretty cool. the youngest one besides me is 28. we went to a bar to watch the soccer game and OH MY GOD. these people are crazy. i cant even describe it. it was amazing. every play the bar absolutelt erupted with cheers or screams. and it was a really back and forth game. i got hit on by tanzanian girls. then germany won! the entire city poured out into the streets and everyone was drunk and happy and climbing lamp posts and screaming and marching and shooting fireworks. i did all of the above.
the next day with a massive hangover we started biking. we stopped by the brandonburg gate and checkpoint charlie. then we left berlin and started biking through backwoods east germany. its so beautiful. fields and pine forests and small german towns with awesome little german houses. and old school windmills. so beautiful.
we pulled into some barely-on-the-map town called Petruk around 8:30 at night. all the guys had no idea what to do since there was no hilton hotel. so i had to bike around and i found this guy who called his girlfriend who runs this hostel. her name is mya and im in love with her. she spoke broken english with a german accent and opened the hostel (it was the only hostel open and we were the only guests). she even grabbed her own bike and took us to a restaurant, which was the next town over, and the only place open for miles. the hostel was an old school mansion from soviet times. in the morning there was a swarm of people cooking us breakfast and serving us. apparently the hostel is a school for chefs. weird. but it was really nice.
then we elft and kept biking through the same kind of country. we stopped in a town caleld Dahme. it was a pretty bgi town, had an awesome church (they all do, really), and we stopped at a delicious bakery and had incredible german desserts for wicked cheap. german chocolate. oh shit.
we were hopign to make it to dresden that day but the guy in charge miscalculated the distance and we had to stop 18 miles short. this was also some small largely-abandoned town whose name i forget already. but we stayed at a nice little inn, had a delicious dinner at, again, the only place in town open, and caleld it a night.
the next day we biked to dresden. it was a powerful experience. its easy to tell what few old building survived the bombings with theyre right enxt to brand new buildings. msot of the buildings are new. the center of town, with stone cathedrals, was still standing, but all of the stones and statues are still charred black.
at dresden brian, tom, and myself caught a train to prague. the other 4 kept bikign and should arrive here some time tonight. the biking itself is a little ridiculous. gimi, the guy organizing it, is pushing us way too much. the first day we did 60 miles, the second day 65. maybe thats not a lot (i dont know, ive never bike toured before), but on my heavy ass bike with my gear (my bike weighs about 3 times as much as the other guys'), its too much. brian and tom feel the same way. i dont want to power through all of europe, i want to see it. so i might not stay with these guys very long and i might head off on my own soon, cutting out budapest and heading to croatia, maybe. ive gotta start looking at maps.
but the train was an adventure in itself. from germany it was nice. space-age train, lsd screens with stops. very well organized. as soon as we hit the czech republic and switched trains we were smacked in the face with the third world. there was no bike car, they just shoved us in the empty back car, made us wedge our bikes in somehow, blocking all walking routes. no one spoke english. we missed another connecting train becaue the layover time was 4 minutes and our train was 3 minutes late. we sat around for an hour and got another train direct to prague. the czech republic is awesome. prague is cool. but so far ive just been stuck in the touristy parts. ive gotta find a cheap hostel for myself and explore other parts of it. i like the back country of europe much much more than cities, so far.
i have to go search for hostels now. ill update again when i can. see ya guys
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, May 11th, 2007
| |
4:13 pm - why you may not see me for a long time.
|
hey everyone. so i am going to madagascar this summer to work an internship in the rainforest. depending on how i feel at the end of it i may come home at the end of july or stick around and take a second offered internship that lasts until december.
just letting everyone know, cause i guess it'd be weird if no one did.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, October 24th, 2006
| |
7:40 pm - wasting time!
|
so i wasted my 4 day weekend completely. i got about zero schoolwork done. which doesnt surprise me at all, really. however, i would like to have surprised myself and done something.
i really like getting packages from my friends from home. i also really like getting text messages telling me all the fun im missing at home. i really wish i could be there. even if im too stupid to figure out how to text message back, and i probably wont call back because i dont like the phone, its very appreciated every time.
im looking forward to thanksgiving and then winter break. i do like vermont, as always, and i loved living in maine, but it just hit me that i really havent been home for almost a year now. i miss people.
i hate organic chemistry. almost as much as i hate calculus.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, July 28th, 2006
| |
4:34 pm
|
|
so maine is real nice. i live right by the beach in casco bay. there are islands in the bay with ruins of forts from WWI and on foggy days (which there are a lot of) they drift in and out of view like they are floating on clouds. the weather is spectacular. today its 90 and i feel likes its the hottest ive ever experienced in my life, it usually being around 80. i work too much now. when im not working im sleeping from exhaustion from work. ive worked 4-midnight every day for the last 10 days and now i have 3 days off. im very excited about that. everyone at work is really awesome. the other day my boss, the head chef chris invited us to his house, which backs up to hundreds of acres of untouched forest. we smoked a ton of pot and walked in the woods. he showed us beaver dams and trails hes built and we went to the river and i saw a bald eagle flying. id never seen one before. we sat on the river and smoked some more and watched the fish swim. we walked to the eagles nest and i saw the yearling staring at us from the treetops. i am spending my first day off drinking rum and cokes and watching indiana jones, and i just called my grandfather and he is doing much better, which makes me really happy. talia should be coming to visit, which makes me happier than anything because i love her so much. i love maine but i miss school. i miss spending my time reading biology papers and writing essays. is that weird? i feel like that sounds lazy but thats really what i enjoy doing. hopefully we'll all quit work in about 2 weeks and go to bar harbor and then acadia national park. i would very much like to go to acadia. we're going to west virginia next weekend to see david. i miss school and i miss delaware. anyone from delaware whos reading this, know that i miss you and i do really want to call you, but i cant imagine saying anything other than what ive just written here, so then i just dont call for fear of being boring. but know youre in my thoughts. ill be home for thanksgiving and then winter break and i will want to see everyone. i suppose thats all. this is really just to let anyone who reads this know im not dead. but indy is about to push the sandbag onto the idol pedestal, so i must go.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, June 5th, 2006
| |
10:28 am
|
363 Preble St. Apt. #1
South Portland, ME 04106
so when are you going to visit me?
soon?
especially robby?
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, May 18th, 2006
| |
8:07 pm
|
hey guys. i dropped my cell phone in some water and it died. i lost all my phone numbers. so everyone call me or leave your numbers here so i can put them in my new phone. thanks a lot.
and if anyone happens to have real estate connections in portland, maine, itd be sweet if you helped us find a place for the summer.
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
| |
4:01 pm
|
so im back from new orleans with as-of-yet no terminal infections or debiltating respiratory complications. although i believe we were explicitly warned that they could happen at any time...
psyched to back in vermont. kind of psyched to be back in school. not so psyched to be back at marlboro. if that makes sense.
my big decision now is whether to go home for the summer and be with my family and old friends that i feel i am rapidly losing touch with, or to live in maine with some friends from school. ive always wanted to live in maine in the summer.
i will probably just delay this decision until its too late and im forced to come home whether i want to or not.
successes of new orleans:
got drunk on bourbon street
ate fancy funnel cake donuts at world famous cafe
ate gumbo and "traditional" new orleans sandwiches
met really awesome locals
helped a lot
failures of new orleans:
did not see boobs on bourbon street (come on...its kind of expected)
did not get to eat alligator
lost a roll of film of peace rally
now im just putting of homework. i will go do that now.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, March 10th, 2006
| |
6:42 pm
|
|
So tomorrow morning I leave at 5:30 to go to Knoxville, Tennessee. The morning after I am going to Mississippi. I am spending a week there, then going to New Orleans. A group from my school is volunteering, helping clean shit up, fuck shit up, and drink a lot. I am really, really, really excited. Everyone have a great break. I'm pretty sure I will.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
| |
7:55 pm
|
heres my busted face. i like this one because you can really see the bridge of my nose jutting out to the side.
i just got it set today. now my nose is covered in white tape.
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, January 21st, 2006
| |
9:48 am
|
So last night I broke my nose. Went to the E.R. around 1:30, sat for a long time, got X-rays (which I forgot to ask to keep), got asked uncomfortable questions about my previous sobriety, and then went home. The doctor wouldn't set my nose, instead he decided that the thing to do was to wait till Monday, have me call a specialist, and get reparative surgery. Surgery? For a broken nose? Fuck that.
p.s. maybe I'll put pictures up. It's reeaally swollen. But not very bruised...
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, September 23rd, 2005
| |
1:06 am - things i like
|
i like vermont.
i like open mic night at my college.
i like drinking excessive amounts of rum at open mic night.
i like recieving secret notes from heather walls.
i dont like finding out its heather walls, because that means its not from cute girls i have crushes on.
even though heather walls is awesome.
i like dancing with my friends.
i love biking home by vermont moonlight.
i dont like being too much of a wimp to talk to cute girls i like at open mic night.
i like stealing my housemates popsicles.
i dont like seeing the chinese food in the fridge gone.
i love hearing erin sing.
i like bruce lee movies. which i will now go watch. and drink beer.
i dont like finding the beer in my fridge gone.
i dont like leaving bad livejournal entries like this one. but its all i got to say right now.
my bad.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
br_ady's journal