Lost in Europe – Part One

Posted on May 31, 2005 by reidexplores

Back in 2005, I decided to take time off of school and head to Europe for three months. This covers The Netherlands, France, Germany, Czech Republic, and Switzerland.

Netherlands: Arriving in Amsterdam, finding way to hostel – hostel description First night – nap time- Anne frank / heineken, red light district. Stoned in cafe, laid down on stairs Dinner with Robbin Trip out to Haarlem Canal boat, reiks museum, van gogh museum, wandering the city alone Train to Paris

Paris: Arriving and finding hotel in the rain, getting lost First night with prudes Climbed Eiffel tower on foot, night time lights, ave champs élysées, notre dam, cafe lattes on the street in cafes, musee de orsay being favorite, the luve, lots of walking and exploring, not my favorite hostel scene, stayed in a cramped space with 15 beds. Slept with camera inside sleeping bag. Bracelet guy, gave him 10 euro and he was pissed

Berlin: Decided to leave paris. planned on taking a boat down the rhine river in germany. got off train in a small town, walked all the way to where the boats leave from, only to find out the season hasn’t started yet for the boat trips. left the town. Stopped in Luxembourg. Got to Frankfurt and called ajs friend who didn’t answer. Got on train anyways. Arrived at 11p and finally got ahold of friend. Hopped in taxi and tried to explain where I wanted to go. Taxi drove and stopped by the river with only warehouses. I got out and wandered a little and heard music. Turned out the person I was meeting worked at a raggae club in a boat on the river. I made my way through a sweaty crowd with my huge backpack on. Finally finding my host!! What a day!

Didn’t stay too long. Went to the national Jewish museum. The big tower thing. Mostly just walked around and hung out with my host friend. It was cold and snowy so I decided to make my way farther into eastern Europe: Prague.

Prague: The train from Berlin to Prague was awesome. Really interesting views. First point in trip that I felt very far away. Older trains. Almost all local people. Arrived outside of the main downtown area. Had to read crazy maps and signs. Streets weren’t on any sort of grid. Finally found hostel. Mostly spent my days wandering around getting “lost”. Prague castle. Snow on ground. Town square. Made a journey out of finding real absinthe, not the tourist kind. Found it. Really strong wormwood content. Blacked out. Went to club that was four stories tall. Made out with 40 yr old. Met guy from port Angeles at hostel. Great crowd. Tied with Amsterdam for amazing city. Stayed 2 more days than originally planned. Finally decided to head to Switzerland after hearing train robbery stories!! Crazy overnight train.

Switzerland: Arrived in lucern first and spent the afternoon there. Beautiful place. Could tell I was going to love it in Switzerland. Hopped on train to Bern where I was met promptly by heyc. Left journal at train station and it got stolen. Bummed about that. Explored city. Went to club with heyc and stefanie. Took day trip to interlaken and brienz. Walked through forest. Amazing. Back to Bern. Skiing trip with heyc. Trip to heycs cabin in alps. Left for chamonix via Geneva, stayed there for a night. Tram to glacier. Ice cave. Woke up at 7 and rode cable car to auguille du midi at 12000 ft. Fog broke to see view of mt blanc. One of trip highlights so far. Made my way to zermatt for a night. View of tallest mountain in Switzerland and Matterhorn. From there I journeyed down and met heyc, and we continued on to his cabin on lake maggiore near the town of locarno. Just chilled with his mom and sister. Went up to river. Flipped into lake. Learned Swiss games. Ate great food. Said goodbye and left for Italy!

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Lost in Europe – Part Two

Posted on May 31, 2005 by reidexplores

Italy:

Venice - Started off on the train from switzerland. Passed through Milano but didn’t feel like spending more than a couple hours there, as i was excited to see Venice. Spent two or three nights on an island five minutes from venice, reachable by water taxi only. The hostel was not too exciting, pretty low key. i really enjoyed just getting lost in venice, walking around with my camera with nothing in particular to see or do. I ate at a few nice cafes and mingled with a few people from the hostel. Decided I would rather spend more time elsewhere and left venice satisfied, but hungry for more of Italy.

Cinque Terre – Had briefly seen photos of my Mom in the cinque terre region and it looked amazing. This was not originally part of my plan but I had heard people talking about it in venice. I ventured across from one coast of italy to the other, passing through pisa (didn’t stop for the leaning tower).. arrived in la spezia (just south of cinque terre). It was the evening now and I had no reservations and wasn’t even sure if there were hostels in the region. I asked the staff at the train station and ended up with a phone number of a hostel in the southern most town of the five towns that make up cinque terre, called manorola. It turned out this was the only hostel around! i arrived an hour later and strolled up a hill to the hostel at the top. (after looking at my map of course). I could already tell that my decision to travel here would be well worthwhile. I got settled into my bunk in a room of four. After talking to the people i was sharing a room with for a little while i soon found out that one of the guys had gone to college with one of my buddies from school ‘s brother. what a small freaking world!! I was planning on being in this region for three days but ended up staying for six. It was absolutely incredible. I went on numerous day hikes, along the water and up in the hills. Came across wild bore hunters, did flips into the ocean, watched beautiful sunsets, ate rediculously amazing freshly made pesto pasta every night for 5 euro, courtesy of my hostel and the owner/chef. Sat in the sun writing in my new journal after my other one got stolen. This was a great point in my trip, i felt very comfortable with where i was at in my journey and started to get very excited to meet up with Spencer. I had justcontacted him and we decided to meet in Florence, where his parents would meet us as well.

Florence: I left Cinque Terre feeling completely satisfied and overwhelmed with excitement. I couldn’t wait to see my buddy, and have someone to share my journey with. Being alone was an experience i would never wish to forget, I learned a lot about myself and feel like i built on my self confidence greatly. but, i knew being with a good buddy would have its perks, and i couldn’t have been more excited. I arrived in Florence and found my way to what i thought was the right address. Spencer had emailed me the hotel address that his mom gave him. he was coming from outside of italy and we were all supposed to meet that afternoon. After getting semi-lost trying to find their condo, wandering around fairly aimlessly, I heard a “Jeff!!” and looked up. Sure enough spencers mom Sue was looking down from their condo and spotted me with my big backpack. By the time she came down to meet me, we looked across the square and saw Spencer strolling across in the same fashion and we yelled over to him. Couldn’t have worked out any better. After hugs all around, we ventured up to the apartment, got settled, and enjoyed a great meal all together. spencer and i grabbed a bottle of wine and set out on a walk, night time now. We ended up hopping a wall and sat out on a river, talking about each others adventures and enjoying some classic italian wine. He had been traveling for a long time, 9 months i believe, and also welcomed the idea of having a traveling companion. At that moment, i knew the next month and a half would be one that i will never forget. Spencer noticed my hair was starting to get a bit tangled and we decided to help it along with wax and make me some dread locks. hurt like hell but totally worth it. We spent a couple days wandering around florence, day trip to Siena, seeing the major sights, and then split up. Spencer was going to travel with his family (mom, dad, and sister) for the next week and i was going to spend some quality time in rome with my sister. then spencer and i would meet back up in rome and continue our journey together. I hopped on another train and embarked south to Rome.

Rome: Arrived on a cloudy day in Rome. My sister Sienna had given me directions to their apartment. Found it easily and was excstatic to see my sister in Rome. We walked over to where her husband Yves worked, the United Nations department of agriculture.