That’sa Spezia Meatballa’!

We chilled at the lovely lookout spot for a bit while waking up then drove into town to explore again. Since we couldn’t find parking we just kept driving on the coast to some other little towns in Cinque Terra just by randomly choosing whether to turn left or right on a whim. Great plan. Which of course ended up with us backing down a super steep and narrow road again. HA. But at least this time it wasn’t raining and there were no other cars. Back to La Spezia.

We parked in our spot from the day before then walked through an awesome open air market for clothes and jewelry and other counterfeit goods like sunglasses. It was pretty cool but it was also quite evident that all of the clothes were counterfeit. Sweet. Reminded me of Barcelona a bit where these guys would have fake purses/sunglasses on a sheet then if the cops came they just pulled this one drawstring that turned it into a bag and ran. Classic.

After that we went to an internet café and checked our bank accounts. PAID! Woo! 940 euro for the month of july working terrible security jobs. And that’s like 1300 or so bucks. So that’s just swell.

Wandering through the town having ridiculous conversations was next. Basically Patrick was trying to make the absurd argument how he would’ve fought on the British side in the Revolutionary War and he hates righteous people and loves Hitler. Ya. What a jerk. (dramatization)

Time for dinner! We were definitely the first people at the restaurant at like 7pm. Whoops. Guess we should’ve taken that afternoon siesta at 3 like the rest of Italy. Even so we got some Italian brews and pizza from a guy who spoke like no English. Tasty and real Italian. And insanely fast. He had each of us our pizza in roughly four and a half minutes.

 

 

Back on the road now but this time on the way to Pisa, Italy in order to cut off some of the drive to Rome. We made it there at night and walked along the river which was quite a spectacular sight. Then we decided to argue about stuff… usual. Then we wandered around trying to find the tower but gave up. So then while driving around trying to leave Pisa we found the tower, parked nearby, and snapped some night pics. We ended up sleeping like a block away from the tower. Hilarious.

 

What a fool…

Crazy Coastline!

We got up and knew we wanted to hit up a few of the 5 gorgeous towns in Cinque Terra (pronounced Chink-qweh Tare-ah) and so we set off down the craziest roads ever. The sights and towns and back roads were legitimately some of the most gorgeous sites I have ever seen. Seriously.

We skipped over the fast highway in favor of crazy windy coastline highways that were really scenic. Worth it. The we entered the town of Levanto and saw the gorgeous beach there and knew we had to stop but we had to find some cheap/free parking first. So we kept on the narrow hilly roads until trouble struck. (Duh) We were driving  up this super narrow steep cobblestone street when we got stuck by these dogs walking out in front of us therefore killing our uphill momentum and essentially preventing us from going further up the hill. Or down. Because it was too tight to try and back down with the parked cars on the side of the road not to mention the car behind us on the road. Oh ya. Also our tires were starting to slip on the wet cobblestone due to the rain. Ah! It’s like something out of a movie. We didn’t think we were gonna make it out of there without some huge scratches on that minivan. But with imminent death upon us, Patrick J Kramer folded in our side view mirror (and the other car's mirrors too) and slowly made it back down the road and going back to the beach parking lot. Phew. SO STRESSFUL!

With parking paid for, we walked around in the wonderful little town until it started down pouring again and we rain back to the car after going through this little itty bitty super market. What happens next is purely T-boxer’s fault but I give the kid 1000 props for it.

The rainy beach!

The short story is that all 4 of us stripped down to our briefs and ran into the ocean while it was down pouring like mad. Seriously cold and kinda painful with the heavy rain but seriously worth every second. The waves were almost as awesome as the ridiculous looks we got. HA.

After drying off and deciding never to drive on stupid narrow roads with an under powered minivan again, we drove to La Spezia, which is the biggest town in the Cinque Terra area.

The first order of business in La Spezia was obviously the “Gelato Challenge” where we all had to eat from 500-600 grams of gelato in one sitting. With only our hands. Which is way harder and more painful than it seems. But I won of course. Then needing to have a sugar coma like crazy, we bought a huge brick of bread for next to nothing and some tomato sauce and sat down by the docks of the town and ate it. And Patrick talked about boats.

 

Good day. We drove out to this lookout place and slept. (And I awoke to this sight. Perfect view of the coast)

It’s like a postcard!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that on the way to La Spezia, Patrick was teaching me how to drive a stick. That needs to happen soon… Seriously. ASAP.

On the Road again

So after catch those quick zzz’s we road again. It took a second to get the car going again but it happened. Phew…

We drove for about three hours or so until we arrived at an embassy in Switzerland (aka McDonalds) to grab some free Wifi and we  ordered some MickeyDee’s and got some Swiss Francs in return. Legit. So we left and drove on from there to Lucern, Switzerland where we stopped to try and get some Swiss brews. We’re trying to grab a brew from every country we visit. Pretty sweet right? It’s a world drink that’s made differently everywhere. Don’t judge. It’s awesome.

So we happen to drive by a Swiss brewery called Eichoff and had to stop in. We talked some Spanish to a German guy and got our stuff. Then when we tried to start the minivan again… no luck. Woo. Dead again. HA! But we had a plan. Do nothing for 30 mins and drink  some of our newly acquired Swiss brews so that the car will just sit like it did in Reims. So then it worked and we got the car running again and split. But not before eating some wonderful Nutella and bread. Our meal for the whole road trip basically.

We made a quick stop in a Swiss gas station to spend the rest of our Francs and bought SUPER expensive food and super gross tonic water (on accident). Off to Italy! We tried to make the tonic water flavored by putting in strawberry jam but it was an absolute failure. Dang.

After Swiss toll-free highways we hit Italy’s which weren’t but were legitimately the nicest and fastest we’ve driven on so far. Also, it was like an Autobahn so no speed limit! Sweet! We only hit like 80mph or 130kph but there were definitely cars going like 120 at least. And this cool road to Cinque Terra cost us 8.90 euro. Ouch. but worth it.

We got to Genova which is on the Italian coastline at night and it was absolutely  gorgeous. Breathtaking. No photos unfortunately since it was so dark but I really wish I could’ve snapped some. And also the roads were super windy and hilly, it was great. So then we found a little back alley after driving through twisty streets for like an hour and proceeded to sleep right through a crazy thunderstorm. First one I’ve seen all summer. I miss that.

Oh Reims!

So the next morning we picked up Mike 2… 2 hours late because we thought that he got in at 10 like we did. Whoops. Then we found a France map  put a little fuel in and set off towards Bern, Switzerland.

On our way we figured we should grab some food and a Europe map so we stopped in Reims, France at a Carrefour to get it. We got tons of nutella (Which is about a quarter of the price of peanut butter), jam and bread as well as a super expensive Europe atlas. Unfortunately, when we tried to leave our sweet new car wouldn’t start because apparently GAZOLE doesn’t mean gasoline. It means diesel. Which therefore means that we didn’t put that in our diesel engine minivan and instead put SP95 aka gasoline. Ha. We’re screwed.

So we didn’t even have this van a day before doing something drastically wrong. Whoops. So we pondered ideas for a little while because we really did not want to have to pay for the tow truck (70 euro) let alone the actually cost to flush the system out. So we scoped out of the supermarket for siphoning tools and for a telephone to call the car company but found neither so we decided to head into city centre to find some wifi. But first we pushed the car to a gas station and put a little bit of actual diesel in but it wasn’t enough. So the plan was to look up stuff about running diesel engines with gasoline and the low down on siphoning tanks and what not. But of course the one place we found that had wifi wouldn’t work on my computer so we left. Stopped at a garage and played pictionary with the mechanic but he finally said he couldn’t repair it. So we went back to our car while texting Mike 1 back in Ireland to see if he could look up some options for us. And he said you needed a 90-10 diesel-gasoline ratio for it to work but seeing as we had a 25-75 ratio and a completely full tank… that wasn’t going to work. Hooray.

Then we got the car running but if we hit the accelerator it killed the engine so we just left it running in hopes that it would just burn off all the gasoline. Meanwhile Patrick and I went in town again to search for siphoning tools and what do ya know? An internet cafe like 2 blocks from us. Only we spent two hours looking for one and couldn’t find it when we needed it. But we got our tools and went back and set up our siphoning kit but had an epiphany that we could just drive the car as far as possible (now that the accelerator didn’t kill it) and just get towed if necessary. So we did it! And drove off. (but not before putting some diesel in some bottles just in case)

 

Not Orange Soda

We pulled off at a little grassy area along the road in France and slept since we had wasted a whole day in Reims but wanted to make up time. Jeez la wheez.

The Race BEGINS!

While I do realize that the last post was titled Amazing Race, we’ll just give that one to the Races… the Galway Races that is. But now it’s the real race. And the prize is getting home to America. It starts in Paris, France to pick up the leased minivan we got, then to Beauvais Airport to pick up Mike the Second, then to Bern, Switzerland, then Cinque Terra, Italy as well as Rome, Venice, and Florence before going through Austria to hit up Nuremberg, Germany for a Toots and Maytals concert. Following an awesome night of skanking and mayhem we are going east to Prague, Czech Republic in the depths of Eastern Europe and meeting up with Mike 1 there. Then to Krakow, Poland to meet up with our friend Logan and go to Berlin, Germany. From there, Logan, Tyler and Patrick are departing from the road trip but me and Mike 1 & 2 continue on northward to Copenhagen, Denmark (maybe), and over the Amsterdam, Netherlands (where Mike 2 departs) then over to Brussels and Gent, Belgium where my friend Elisa lives. The finally, back to Paris to return the car and fly to Dublin, bus to Galway to pick up our luggage, bus back to Dublin, catch a flight with Mike 1 in the early morning to Toronto and hopefully catch up with Jonathan J Gunasingham, fly back to Chitown and then finally bus back to the Lou and get a ride back home somehow. All this in a matter of 3 weeks. Insane. And let me assure you, the adventures started right away.

 

So to start, Patrick, Tyler and I bus to Dublin then fly to Beauvais Airport near Paris. And by near I mean an hour and a half away. So we get into town by shuttle bus around 2 and had an appointment to pick up the car at the Peaugot car dealership at 5pm. So we grabbed some delicious baguettes, camembert soft cheese (sorta like brie) and some chorizo and made awesome sandwiches. Alright. Time to pick up our baby. Only we walked around for like a hour trying to find an internet cafe only to get stuck with some english kids hiding underneathe the Eiffel Tour because of the torrential downpour going on. They were nice and loved our ponchos.

Once we got some wifi at 5pm and found the place we were supposed to pick up the car at we started our mad dash. We ran to the nearest Metro during which Patrick stepped in a humungous puddle which covered about half of his leg. Beautiful. But keep in mind we all had huge backpacks and stuff with us so we’re hauling like crazy with tons of weight. So we take 2 metros and on the way out of the station both Tyler and Patrick get stuck in the turnstiles but Patrick finally broke free and we just left Tyler to die. TO DIE!

We sprinted through the underground tunnels for literally about a half mile or a kilometer over here. ha. We got out of the tunnels at like 5:45 and just asked a taxi where to go and sprinted some more until we were near and we called the place who said that they were closed. Heartbreak. 2 hour race for nothing? I don’t think so. So Patrick and I burst into that place and signed papers anyways and got our silver baby. Phew. So then we found Booty (aka Tyler), hit up the Charles De’ Gaulle roundabout, and headed out of Paris to a  McDonalds to find directions to the airport to pick up Mike 2. Only Patrick decided not to follow them and so we just guessed how to get to the airport. Which involved driving through scary French ghost towns and giving a french kid a ride home but we finally made it and slept in the car and it was great.

We have just started the adventure.

hard times...

So I know this is super late but basically I cant update this blog until i am home from my trip. But rest assured I have been writing everything down and keeping track. Expect more around the end of August.

AMAZING RACE!

So I officially deem this road trip “The Amazing Race: Europe” because I can say, without hyperbole, that this trip would make for fantastic television. And there actually may be a short (or long) film this winter which is going to rock because we are trying to document crap like crazy with all of our cameras. Should be great.

But before we get into the adventure, a little update on the last week and what all went down. So basically me, Patrick, Tyler, and Mike the first had to work the entire week for around 10 hours a day Usually around 11 in the morning to 9 at night when the Galway Races were over. Around 70+ hours in a week. Maybe if I were a robot that would be acceptable but seeing as drinking gasoline makes me want to vomit, I don’t think I am. More on gasoline later. But ya the races are this real hoity toity event in Galway each year people bet their houses and wives on horses trying to win a race all while dressing real fancy-like. On one day there is a best dressed lady and best hat competition which have prizes worth like 15000 euro (which the conversion rate is like 1.2 so around $18000). And let me tell you these hates were just about as big and guady as the women wearing them. So crazy. But all I really did at the races was operate a broken wheel chair lift. It was grand and so freaking easy. Except for all the stupid knackers. (brats)

So at this point you may be wondering why there aren’t any photos documenting this occasion because surely I took some. Well you would be absolutely correct because I did.But one of the very last nights in Galway, Ireland and right before I go on an intense road trip across countries which do not speak my language where something like an iPhone may come in handy, Patrick and I decided to work a couple extra hours of security work by working the barriers in city centre until 2am. Nothing crazy.

Well instead they decided to put us at the Radisson Hotel in city centre which is essentially the whole countries after party for the races. So we show up after hitching a ride with some locals coming from the races and they assign up to, of all places, the dance arena. Why of course. But luckily it’s super lax and Patrick and I just text each other from across the room the whole time. That is until 3am while walking around the dance floor when I guess someone bumped me and hit my wonderful iPhone 3Gs out of my shirt pocket. I searched like crazy with Patrick until 5am when were FINALLY let off. Called and texted and even emailed the phone about a million times but it was gone. Fantastic. Love my life.

But that’s life. I’ve only lost a Zune and iPhone and broken my nice new headphones in the past 5 months. Perfect indeed. I’ll end this post here and start the amazing race posts next time. Cheers!