Trenitalia

I cannot stop making jokes about Italy's train company -- Trenitalia. No one else seems as enthused. I think it's especially hilarious since Germany's company is 'DB'. Ah, the jokes are endless. Alright, alright, no more translation jokes.

Today is our second day in Florence. So many museums, so much time.

My favorite game to play is 'Avoid The Americans' since there seem to be millions everywhere I've gone. I figure out which neighborhoods my guidebook tells me to hang out in, then find other neighborhoods on a map and go there instead. Voila! It's much more fun to be around people who don't know what I'm saying and who will sell me a banana for 20 cents than to be around Michelle, a raving drunken UVA graduate from Maryland who we met on the street who was furious that 'NO ONE in Munich speaks English!!! NO ONE!!! It's so annoying!!! And they hate me!!!'

Venice was incredibly beautiful. Florence feels like Manhattan with famous masterpieces stuck in the middle of unbelievable churches and buildings. We are staying with a woman and her daughter who rent out five rooms in their flat to tourists. It is like staying with your grandmother, who speaks very very little English. I understand about 10 percent of what she says to me, and I imagine she understands about 15 percent of what I say to her. But she's lovely.

I have averaged about three eatings of gelato per day. I do not understand how it is so much better than normal ice cream.

Munich was like being in an MTV-planned frat party in the middle of Germany. I saw more Americans vomiting from alcohol intake than I did throughout four years of college. Weird.

Time to get home to grandma. We are off to Cinque Terre tomorrow.

More Germany

Tomorrow I take the 4.5 hour train from Hannover to Munich. I'll be meeting up with some of my cousin's friend's from the states. Then we're heading to Italy for a few days. They head home, and I have time in Italy. I'm not sure how long.



The Berliner Dom from below......

......and from above. Take that Ansel Adams!

The mask that you had to wear if you were convicted of telling "smutty jokes." Rothenburg.

Hannover, the view after taking a slanted elevator to the top of their municipal building. Taken today.

Running Around Germany

For the 10 days my family was in town, we drove all over the country.

I think I climbed to the top of about 50 structures overlooking cities. Most of which would not have been declared safe by U.S. standards.

From the top of cathedral in Berlin.

Cathedral in Cologne

Burg Eltz castle, near the Rhine River. There is actually a family still living in it today. We were told they stay there about one day per week. Then they walked out of the house as we were about to leave.

We stayed in the building near the middle of this picture, behind the cluster of four green trees. It's in Rothenburg, a well-preserved city from the middle ages. It thrived for hundreds of years, then became incredibly poor, so it was abandoned and then re-inhabited years later. Bad for Rothenburgians from long ago, great for tourists!

I wanted to take a picture of "Snack Point Charlie" to emphasize that it's okay to ruin the significance of a historical landmark, as long as the food is delicious and the joke is funny. (Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie is the white building on the right....no, we didn't eat there.)

Assmannshausen

I didn't want to resort to posting pictures of things that are silly because they're in a different language, but this one was too good.


After the flight from Charlotte, NC to Frankfurt, my family and I arrived at my uncle's family's house in Hannover on Friday morning, 5/16. My parents and sister stayed for 10 days. Over the next few months, I'll be staying there in between trips around Europe and northern Africa.

I insisted that we go see the local German soccer team, Hannover 96, in their final game of the season on our second day in the country. I didn't expect everyone to come, but we all went, including uber-sports fans my sister and my three cousins. None of whom care about sports at all. My reputation was at stake, so thank god the game was incredibly exciting.

The crowd was like a college football game, multiplied by 1000. The people at this end stood the entire game, chanting insane things. My sister and I debated if they were actually saying clever and rousing cheers. I tried to convince her that one complicated-sounding cheer was actually "Butts! Butts! Butts in your face!"

My cousin Reid. Enjoying his shopping.

Photo Essay: The Chickens Of Kauai

I have no idea why there are thousands of chickens roaming free around Kauai. Someone told me it was because years ago, a hurricane destroyed all the chicken coops and no one has had the inclination to round them all up again, and they've spread. I didn't believe him.

Where I Jogged Every Morning In Hawaii

Radiohead

Went to Asheville NC on Thursday to see some friends. I haven't been everywhere, but if there's another town in America with less than 80,000 people that's more fun, I'd really like to go there.

Then went to Charlotte to hang out with my friends Chris and Miranda and their kids: 3-year old Ethan and 1-year old Madeline.

In the future, anytime I ever think about having kids, I'll try to find my friends with the youngest kids. Ethan and Madeline are awesome, but I've never been around so much snot. And humans who become absolutely ecstatic over throwing things. And I had never really been woken up on consecutive days by a male without pants. Except maybe Greg in college.

We went to see Radiohead on Friday in Charlotte. Booooooooring.

I love Radiohead. At different times in my life I have been obsessed with OK Computer, The Bends, and Kid A. And I think I'm the only person in the world who really loved Amnesiac. They were number 1 on my list of bands I want to see.

They played 24 songs, and the only ones anyone seemed to give a damn about were the 5 or 6 that were released before 2004. I don't think it was coincidence that those were the only songs that contained any discernible melody. Miranda was asleep by about the 9th song (and was completely sober). Sure, Radiohead is interesting and creative and influential blah blah blah barf barf (and the lights were incredible, complete with real lightning going on behind the stage), but god damn their show was boring.