European Spring Break

Florence Duomo

Invited by a friend a few years ago, I decided to take a spring break in Italy this year, because there was a lot that I missed last time. Mainly, Florence, which turned out to be quite the sight. After two long flights and a quarter day inside of DXB, I took some more transportation to arrive at my bed and breakfast, a cozy private room with an incredibly friendly Italian.

Majestic as fuck. Brunelleschi hooked it up.

I'm gonna back up for a minute to that second flight, where we hit some violent turbulence, and the fucking amateur pilot decided to drop us rather abruptly to compensate. Maybe he avoided some North Korean target practice. I don't know, people screamed and a couple drinks were spilled. I was too busy swallowing my own asshole to make noise.

Prima - House-made noodles with ragu

But I digress. Ah yeah, Florence! My b&b host suggested where to go for my first dinner in Italy. He did the 90-degree semi-closed-palm-air-slice for effect of just how good I'd feel after eating. It was grippa awkward, being a sole eater in a restaurant with 3 other families, but then food came, and I blacked out from an intense orgasmic taste. 

Secondo - Florentine steak, arugula and parmesan

I felt like a douche taking a picture in a small restaurant of your food, so let me use words to amend this picture. First of all, triple the portion. Second, The cheese was about 10x as big, about 10 3-inch square pieces - fucking SHEETS of parmesan. I later asked if the dish was for 2 people and was rewarded with a "Si." I still ate the shit out of it. I left a few leaves.

The Arno River, mixin it up in Florence.

Right before I left this lovely place, I saw David's naked-ass body for a good 2 hours. It was raining that morning, so I got there with less than 10 other people. It took an hour or so to figure out the plan of attack - how to take a photo without being Captain Obvious about it. This is what I got, but we all know what David looks like:

Later, on day #3, I went to Pisa! Good weather made this pic possible.

You could see the Tower from my hostel's window.

Pisa had a really small-town feeling. And I accidentally ran into the tower while looking for my hostel. Speaking of hostel, I met some absolutely incredible young Germans there. A few backpacking, hitchhiking musicians, and some students. I actually ended up going to the next place with two of them. The place where we hiked between two of the five villages was called Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre - 5 Lands. This is one of them, but the color of the water didn't come out. It's more like flowing jade.

 Ended up staying the night in Rapallo, a quiet coastal city, (though it was night and all the boats were tethered.) We cooked pasta in that hotel, but forgot to get olive oil and cheese. It was still darn tootin after a day of walking in the mountains with my stupid large-ass duffel bag. The ladies were hella buff and took shifts carrying it when Mark wasn't feeling so Strong.

This isn't Trento, but you get the idea of an Alps city.

Next day, I took a train hella far north to Trento to meet my earlier-mentioned friend!

I had to take a moment on the train to make sure I was lookin spiffy. Passed with flying colors, it would seem.

 At Trento, I did a day trip up into the Alps to a city called Arco. I thought the stop was a gas station for about 45 seconds. Shame cascaded me like the Waterfalls of Ignorance, but it was all good. Around midnight, my friend suggested I go to Munich / München / Monaco the next morning. So I hopped a train, booked a hostel, and BAM!

Marienplatz. Most popular square in Munich. Lookit that!

Me in a big ass park, The English Gardens, after watching a buncha people surf a rushing sewer grate.

The good stuff.

Outside my hostel on the last day. That's right, Japan. The wind blew your seeds pretty far!

Munich was the most impressive city I visited. The trains are newer, cleaner, more comfortable and cheaper than Japanese trains. The bike paths are woven into the sidewalks, and very wide. There are tons of bikers, lots of different colored people, everyone speaks English, and everyone drinks. It's super social, there's wifi everywhere, and food is about half of what it costs in both Japan and Italy for what I like. I made friends in a hostel that had a bar in it, with cheap locally produced Munich beer. I drank almost a gallon of it each of the 3 nights I stayed and had no hangovers.

Heading back to Yokohama was absolute hell. Waking up at the asscrack of dawn to take the metro, a 7 hour train from Bavaria to eastern Italy, fucking hurriedly find a bus from Venice city to the airport and get ripped off one last time. One 6 hour flight, an 8 hour layover, and a 9 hour flight later, I was in Handea waiting for my checked duffel bag. It took forever, but I was still able to make the last 2 trains home, and collapsed after an epic bath, 40 hours and 3 countries after I woke up that morning. Awesome trip, but glad to be home.