Living a Dream

And the Machine, am I right?? But seriously, if you want jokes, that's cool. I'm gonna tell you about the city of Florence real quick, and it's one of my favorite cities in Europe/the world (which really only consists of Europe and like 1/8 of the US because that's all I've seen). Florence, more-so than London, New York, Paris, or anywhere, is the city of art. Oh, you "don't like art"? There are still museums full of stuff you'd like in Florence - it's out of control. According to Tripadvisor there are 83 museums in Florence, and the majority are in an area of about 1 square mile. It's crazy. We skipped out on the Uffizi Gallery, known as one of the world's best (and home of the Birth of Venus by Botticelli), because of the long lines and because I'd been there before and was overwhelmed by the size and underwhelmed by the variety for long stretches. We opted for a trip to the Bargello Museum, which was about 5 euro and had wo...

No. I did not see George Clooney, nor do I know where his house is. That's the first (and usually only) question that gets asked by Americans about Lake Como. The reason he "lives" there though is that it's insanely beautiful and simultaneously close to and far from the rest of the world. It's a 40 minute train from Milan for about 3 euros per person, and once you get there you'll see towns that seem to be only reachable by boat while others are just one more stop along the train route. So what I'm saying is that it's really nice. On an unseasonably warm January day, the two of us headed out to see what all the fuss was over, although I'd gone with Graham in 2012 and knew it was gorgeous. We arrived about 10:00 a.m. and began by stomping through the town of Como, which is pretty nice. It has a major medieval feel, with an old city-wall popping up in a few places and a couple of giant cathedrals. The main one, the Duomo (aka the Como Duomo, to p...

I was informed by my brother that the brief story I will now tell you doesn't sound real. I've mentioned before that if you thought it was too ridiculous to be real, it happens in Italy, and this latest one is no exception. In my opinion, the hardest part to believe is probably the next sentence I'm going to write. About a week ago, Jenna and I were out for a jog. We were on our way back to the apartment on the same route as always and we were just coming up to a crosswalk. It's a weird intersection where it doesn't seem that anyone actually has a stop-sign, but the two intersecting streets are both one-way, so it's not quite as dangerous as it could be in the states. We were coming jogging across the crosswalk and there was a car parked near the curb and kind of hanging-over into the crosswalk (an illegal parking job, if those exist in Italy - this is a country where cars regularly drive down the sidewalk to find the right parking spot). It actually appeare...

Hey Mrs. D. It's been a while, I know. I'd be lying if I said I thought about you often, and I have no idea if this letter will find you doing well or not, but it came to me as I was walking home from a lesson. An English lesson. In Italy, where I'm teaching English lessons as a form of making a living. I have a bit of a bone to pick with you, Mrs. D. It's nothing personal (although you told me I'd never be a good writer, and I'd be happy to write you a letter that really shows emotion and conveys a central theme about whether or not I can write a letter that shows emotion and conveys a central theme), I just think you did a disservice by pounding the rules of grammar into our heads to such an insane degree. Yes, I realize it was funny to have to write "To plus a verb is an infinitive" a crazy amount of times as punishment for misinterpreting a verb form while diagramming sentences. And yes, I realize that that's a fairly important rule. But I ...

Time to break out of the mold and go to another city. As mentioned at the tail end of Part 3 , the three of us (me, Norbert, Jenna) went to Budapest for about 30 hours just to see what it was like. In short, it was beautiful. And cold. And we were not really prepared for the cold. We jumped in the car and drove to Budapest, which was rather uneventful unless you count the part where I spent hours thinking that the lying-down deer that I saw were giant rabbits. But upon arrival, things got more interesting quickly. We checked into an apartment that was much bigger than we needed and tried to immediately set out. We stayed in what was apparently a well-known area for food and young people, and we promptly found the permanent street-food place across the street; you walk inside and there are 5 or 6 food-trucks that sure don't seem to ever be going anywhere. It was a nice touch to get us started. We stayed on the edge of the Jewish quarter and walked past the famously enormous ...

This is where things get a little extra interesting. Parts 1 and 2 were tame compared to how close I came to serious bodily harm in this, part 3. On the 26th of December we went to the zoo because we really had nothing else going on and had heard it was a nice zoo. It was pretty nice. That's about it. But we also began really hatching the plan to maybe go skiing on the 28th. I have never skied before in my life. Despite growing up in Ohio where it gets cold and despite having brothers who skied when they were younger and despite having a friend who was a really really really good skier who I'd go watch sometimes, I never did it. I'm still not sure why. Jenna has been on a couple of ski trips but those are the only times ever. Norbert is, iduno, a really good skier who lives in Austria and goes on week-long ski trips to crazy mountains without lifts and things. So this was a good group to get started with. The weather turned cold on about the 25th and that meant we...

In Part 1 , we had a handful of days in Vienna with Carly. But she had to leave and we had to press on and enjoy dreary old wonderful Vienna (and more) without her. On the day she left, the three of us who remained took a tour of the underground catacombs under St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is Vienna's big, central church. The tour started off shaky, as we weren't sure whether we'd see dead bones or not because we were looking at some burial sites of former priests and the like. Suddenly there appeared a hole in the floor of one room which was quite literally filled with bones. Mostly arms and legs, with skulls neatly placed on top. Very cool. The next room was lined around the walls, and still another was full of haphazard skeletal remains. My bride-to-be was in heaven. I ignored this possible red-flag. No photos allowed though, so I can't share any. We stuck around the city center until dusk, hoping to get a nice glimpse of things under the lights, and ...