"KING FOR A DAY"

It felt wonderful to be on the move again.

That night, the family treated me to a feast of pasta, grilled meats,
cakes, wines, and a bunch of specialties from the region. I've forgotten
the names, but I'll never forget the taste. Federico's grandfather was
fun to talk to because he spoke some English, and he was happy to
practice with me. I feel bad that I didn't attempt to speak any Italian.
I'm just so worried I'll butcher their beautiful language.

Hey, it's Alberto, Federico's friend who I also met in Amsterdam!
We're riding the escalator to get to the Medieval part of Perugia. Weird.

This wall may not look like much, but it was constructed with an
amazing acoustic property. When someone speaks into the vault in
one corner, somebody standing in the other corner clearly hears
the voice, as if they're speaking through speakers. You can even
whisper and the other person clearly hears it. I was shocked!

Nightlife in Perugia. We walked around the Piazza and had drinks with Fred's friends.

Fountana Maggiore lit up at night. It was built in 1278. That's old.

Three of Snow White's seven dwarves. So this is where they retired.

I'll have some Melissa with my pineapple and lime juice.

The plan of the day was to visit Assisi, as in Saint Francis of Assisi,
Italy's patron saint. God talked to him and told him to be a good guy.
I was surprised to learn that Assisi is a sister city of San Francisco.
I was surprised to learn that sister cities existed.

Lots of tourists visiting the historical city. We took an
escalator to get up here also.

A specialty soap shop.

The Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi. Saint Francis is buried in one
of the lower levels. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside.
The funny thing is the tombs surrounding his were labeled with things
like, "Lorenzo, friend of Saint Francis". Imagine being so important that
the most meaningful thing about a friend's life is that they knew you...
now THAT's popularity.

Holy gnocchi con funghi!!! So ridiculously good.

Hey, that's the same brand of coffee as that place in Montreal where
the funny cafe window incident happened. When we went to pay the
bill at the register, the owner asked where I was from. I mentioned
Connecticut, and he told me he was familiar with Hartford. He actually
once owned a restaurant on Franklin Avenue. What are the chances?!

Later that afternoon, Fred brought me to some rapids
to go for a swim. I know, I'm supposed to hate water.

I think we're trying to look pose models or something. It's not working
out, for me anyway.

America needs more castles.

That's Freddy's sister, Eleanor (the Italian version of it).
We hung out in Federico's room a lot because that's where
the computer was. It was nice not having to constantly
look at a clock to see how much time I had left.

mmm... bruschetta all ready to eat, and I don't have to fight for it!

That night, Federico and I met up with his sister and some friends at
a hookah lounge. yay... new experience.

The menu had an assortment of delicious teas, and different flavored
smokes for the hookah. I think we ordered cherry.

Why is it that all my experiences with Federico
involve smoking? And neither of us are smokers.
"ha det gigi k'è da gi giù quand gi giù lu"... some
regional dialect I learned that night.

Eleanor was shy to speak english at first, but once we started talking
about American movies and actors, there was suddenly so much to
talk about.

The interior of a Fiat. Fred drove me everywhere. They were like
three days of absolutely zero responsibility.

Perugia borders a large lake. It was a bit too hot and sunny to be enjoyable though.

I wanted to visit an electronic store to compare prices with home.
It pretty much carried everything we have at similar prices. I was a
bit disappointed, thinking we would be more advanced. Turns out,
we are lagging behind on mobile technology. Federico was video-
conferencing with his friend on his cell phone and thought nothing
of it. I was oohing and aahing like someone who'd never seen a
phone before.

Lunch with Grandpa and Grandma. Their townhouse was right next door.

A football game at an Italian arcade... of course. That
afternoon we went to see the movie "Cars" at a theater.
It was dubbed in Italian, and I was mighty proud that
I understood most of it (I better have, it's a kid's movie).
Fred also told me when they dub American movies over
there, every American actor has an Italian actor who
always voices over their part. But get this... even for this
animated movie, they used the Italian voice that would've
been used for the American actor that did the voice over
for the character. Think about it. It's so peculiar.

The view outside of their front door.

Fred's mom is making a delicious blackberry torta.
I only knew they were blackberries because I learned
the word in Poggio Catino when Gozde and Giuliano
were picking them.

For dinner, we had carry-out pizza. Yup, just like home.
Except that I was in Italy. WOohoo!

That night we hung out at the neighborhood bar. This time in was in
their actual hometown of Corciano. Perugia is the major city nearby.

This is what I miss at home... just hanging out at night for the sake
of hanging out.

I was given a tour of the medieval part of town. It's so
neat that people still live everyday lives behind 700 year
old walls. I wish we still caged out criminals out in public.

This is heaven. All the space, all the softness. I swear, when Fred
showed me around the house the first night and I saw this, all I
wanted to do was dive into it and never get up.

Unfortunately, I had to leave my wonderful hosts and continue on
my travels. Nothing to be sad about though. I'm going to Greece!

That's the national rail transport company in Italy. Not the most
efficient and reliable service, I must say.

An American couple I met on the train. I'd been out of touch with
any news at home for a month, and they were happy to fill me in.
Even better, they followed politics and told me Ned Lemont beat
Lieberman in the Democratic primaries in Connecticut. It was such
random news to hear on a train in Italy.

After a few hours on the train, I reached Italy's Adriatic coast city of Ancona.

"THE ODYSSEY"

Without a map, or enough balls to ask someone where
the port was, I followed my instinct. The sign helped too.

People always ask how got around without speaking the languages in Europe.
Believe me, English gets you VERY FAR.

It took about an hour's walk to find the ticket agent. I didn't have any
problem booking the trip since it wasn't high season. I had to be back
to board the ship at 1730hr, so I spent the next few hours wandering
around the city. The conductor of this train waved to me. That was a
nice feeling.

Street lights overhead.

I tried to find a nice view of the port from the hills of the old city. This
was the best I could do. (I know, I didn't try too hard)

There was some girl's volleyball tournament going on in the town square.

I hope this is me in 40 years.

These are hideous. With all the beautiful art in Italy,
you'd think this "artist" would kill himself by now.

I hope this is me in 60 years.

Company car.

I should've been really adventurous and boarded
the boat this way.

That's my ferry, the Superfast V. When I heard that ferry passage was included with
the eurail pass, I imagined a small, dangerous, and overcrowded boat. Like the ones
you always hear about on the news that capsize and kill hundreds of passengers.
This looked more like a cruise ship to me.

A shiny escalator takes brings me to the passenger floors.

That's Renato from Brazil. I ran into him asking workers the same question
I had, Where do we deck passengers store our stuff? They told us we had to
hang on to it. Knowing two sets of eyes are better than one, we agreed to
trust each other and watch over each other's stuff. And knowing a long trip
like this could be excruciatingly boring alone, we decided to be instant friends.

Goodbye Ancona.

I paid for deck passage, which simply means I get to go on the boat.
No room with a bed, but after Poggio Catino, this was nothing new.
This is the deck of the ferry. It's covered and heated with a cocktail
bar and even a pool (though it was closed off). Not too shabby for the
€31 supplement I paid with the eurail pass. In total, the cruise of the
Adriatic sea from Italy to Greece only cost me about $80. Score!

That's right, I'm taking your picture. Keep walking.

The sky fades to a rose colored hue. It reminded me of Titanic.

Dinner available on the ship was pretty good. For €7
I got a whole plate of Greek food.

Me trying to demonstrate to Renato how to hold down the button to use the
best-shot-selection feature on my Nikon camera. No one ever seems to get it right.

Inside the ship was a lounge, casino, dance club, restaurants, arcade,
shops, and other fun stuff to do.

Some folks already asleep on the deck. With deck passage, you find
any free area of the deck and camp out. This family actually brought
an inflatable bed. Most people just find an empty table to put their
belongings and sleep on the benches.

Renato and I wondered how the hell the company made money with
such few passenger. It was a large ship with a large crew, but only
about a few hundred passengers. It all became clear when we went
to the casino. We sat there for about half an hour watching this guy
blow €300 euro on one slot machine. It hurt just to watch it.

Renato tries his luck.

Some dancing in the club.

The older Greek men really got into the dancing.

Sometime during the night we ran into a couple Greek girls and hung
out with them. I know what Renato had on his mind, though they were
waaay underage.

Instead of sleeping on the deck like we were supposed
to, we camped in the lounge. It was a bit more civilized.

I wonder where the dog went to do its business.

Sleeping in the lounge probably wasn't the greatest idea
because the air conditioner stayed on overnight. Renato
layered four of his sweatshirts and was still freezing.

Being a backpacker I stuck with an economical meal.

During the day, we hunted down Rose and Maria again.

The rocky landscape of the Greek coastline. Land was in sight the whole voyage since the
Adriatic is such a narrow sea to cross, and the ship was hugging the coastlines.

Patras in sight. Finally, the 19 hour voyage is over.

I know a large crew is necessary to maintain a ship, but there were so few
passengers it seemed like such a waste.

Yay! Greece!

Some deck passage ticket holders who actually
slept on the deck.

A view of Patras. I visited the city more on my return
trip from Greece, but I don't have any pictures from
that... I'll explain later.

Now you know how to say "ATTENTION" in Greek,
"table, P, O, zigzag, O, X, H". It's like a combo with a
Playstation control.

When we disembarked, out goal was to find the bus station so we could
get a ride to Athens. My eurail pass does work in Greece, but busses are
so cheap, it would've been a waste of a travel day to use it.

Like a scene out of Amazing Race.

Eventually we found the bus station in Patras. While we were waiting
there, that Chinese guy asked me something in Mandarin. I think he
actually asked if I spoke Mandarin. It caught me off guard so I did the
retard shoulder shrug palms up maneuver which universally means
"I don't know what you said". But I really did! I should've used the
little Mandarin I knew to answer him. Damn missed opportunity.

A very long bridge.

What a memorable bus ride from Patras to Athens. Renato is a funny
guy. He's pretty much a horn dog when it comes to cute girls, but his
English wasn't great so he was shy around them. During the whole ride
there, I was teaching him expressions like "you're hot", "hey baby",
and "nice ass". I take for granted those are things you don't learn in a
language class. Anyway, the girls in the seat diagonal from us were
obviously attractive, and overhearing them speak, I could tell one was
an Australian. Renato asked me to make small talk with them to start a
conversation. I eventually did and then went back to my nap. During
their conversations, Renato kept on hinting that maybe they could hang
out together while in Athens. But listening to the girls' response, the
"right" sounded more like "yeah right". However, she gave him her
cell phone number. For the rest of the ride, he kept on texting them
cute notes that I'd type for him. Probably annoyed the hell out of them,
but real funny for me.

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