Turin, Italy

October 3-5

We awoke well rested after a night in of watching TV and drinking Italian wine. Breakfast was downstairs at the hostel, and was really quite nice. We had cereal, bread, fresh fruit, juice, coffee, and yogurt. We even smuggled a couple individual size packages of Nutella back with us. Back up to the room to shower and pack up for our journey to our first farm.

Being we were both out of clean clothes, we thought we better do some laundry before catching a train. The hostel directed us to a place called "free shop" where they had a washer and dryer. We killed time between loads surfing the internet back at the hostel. The dryer didn't quite dry completely, but we packed up our clothes and planned on air drying them at the farm. It was just a short tram ride from the hostel to the train station we needed to depart from.

The train ride to the station near the farm was short and uneventful, about 25 minutes. Once again we had some troubles using a phone in Europe trying to call the farm to pick us up as they said to do, so we went into the small cafe at the train station for help. Inside was a nice older gentleman who made the call for us, and asked us a few questions about where we were from. He was quite surprised to hear we came all the way from the USA to stay at a tiny little farm town in northern Italy. We waited for about 20 minutes, and our ride arrived. We both assumed it was the farm owner, but it turns out another girl from England doing what we were, and a girl from New Zealand who we think works for the farm on a full time basis. The drive to the farm was pretty, in the distance were the French Alps, and we passed through a couple cute little villages. They pointed out a big new church that was recently built to honor Saint Bosco. A few moments later we were entering the gate of the farm.

We were immediately greeted by the 3 farm dogs, a german shepherd and 2 wire hair hounds of some sorts. They were quite impressed when one of them jumped up on Charlie to be pet, as she has been known not to open up to new people very fast. We were shown where our room was above the kitchen or lab as they called it, where we left our bags and were given a quick tour. The big kitchen/lab was where they did lots of canning of products that were sold at markets, and next to it was a store room that looked like it was a store at one time. Inside the main house we were shown the family kitchen and living areas, the computer room, and dining area. Also attached to the house was the agrotoursimo, which was a bed and breakfast and small restaurant. After the tour we were given a while to get our beds situated and unpacked. We also took this time to hang our laundry that was still a bit damp from the morning.

We met up with the other 2 workers after getting somewhat settled and given our first task. We had to cut up peppers into about 1 inch slices, then soak them in a vinegar solution for about 20 minutes, then arrange them into jars with the skin facing outwards. Then they were topped off with olive oil, and the jars sterilized and sealed up. We did that for a bit over an hour and ran out of peppers. Before dinner, which is eaten at about 830 pm here, we were told to gather up a couple trays of walnuts and hazelnuts from the trees in the garden on the hill above the house. Finding the walnuts was easy, but the hazelnuts were a lot harder to find as many of them had been eaten by animals or birds. Afterwards, we cleaned up and went into the main house for dinner.

It was just the four of us workers eating tonight, as both the owners were not home. Our meal consisted of some leftover pasta with tomato sauce from lunch, sauteed mushrooms, bread, and some of the peppers we cut up sauteed in oil with a bit of onions and salt. The peppers were the sweetest peppers either of us had ever had, almost hard to believe we were eating a pepper. They told us that it was a type of pepper only grown in this part of Italy, and were called pepperoni peppers. The pizza topping has a different name here in Italy and is more akin to salami. It's a little strange eating so late and then going off to bed on a full stomach, but ... when in Italy.

The room we stayed in was quite cold even with the heater going.

___________________________________________________________________

To be very honest with everyone the organic farming experience was not what we were hoping for. Instead of going on about what we didn't like, we'll just say that we knew this was not right for us.

We worked the next day which turned out to be almost 10 hours including harvesting all the vegetables and berries before the frost. Dinner that night was very good, we can't say we didn't eat well at the farm.

Sunday morning we had plans to tell the others we were leaving. We didn't want to make it sound like we didn't like it there so we tried to be vague on our reasons. We still ended up working with peppers all morning (not nearly as bad as the 2nd day working with chili peppers that burned through our gloves). After our mid morning cafe break we told them it was time to go. The afternoon was really not very pleasant. but really nothing to speak of. We got a ride to the train station by the husband who we thought was really nice and if he spoke a bit more english we would have had a lot of fun with.

We can sum up our feelings like this.... we were both in a place in our lives that we felt we needed to explore, change, and maybe experience a new way of life. While nearly all of our journey was special we came to know one true fact. We searched for a different way of life, what we thought would maybe even be a better way of life, but all that time we searched we only confirmed that we already had everything we needed in the world. Family and friends and a home. The memories and life experiences will last forever and we now make the decision together to return back home with full hearts and gratitude.

Milan, Italy to Turin, Italy

Thursday October, 2

Nothing novel about this rainy morning. We seem to bring rain with us at least one day in each city we stay in. We are sad to leave our very nice and very affordable hotel (that is listed as a hostel). We left our bags at the front with the friendly owner and set out in search of internet to see if the 1st farm had written us back about coming 3 days early.

It's funny how we have absolutely no concern about leaving our bags at hotels/hostels. The computer, passports, money and tickets are always with us so if someone really wants our dirty clothes... have at it. If we lost our bags we certainly could make due.

We walked about 10 blocks to a place we saw online yesterday on a "free wi fi" site. The walk seemed to take a long time in the rain. When we got there we found we still had an hour before they opened. We went across the street to a cafe to spend a bit of time before we went to the "real cafe." We ordered a total of 4 cafe machiatos, 2 cream filled croissants and then noticed a free little snack buffet. We were all over that!! Chips and salsa, guac, olives, italian pretzels, pickles and cake to name a few things. When the other cafe opened up we ordered two mini italian sandwiches and two sodas. The farm did email back saying they could not take us till Friday. So we decided to go to Turin a day early. We found a hotel there cheaper than a hostel that had wi fi. Finally we don't have to spend time searching for wifi to confirm this and that.

After booking the hotel we went back to retrieve our bags and walk to the underground. This underground subway was also very easy to use like London. A one way ticket is only 1 euro and an all day unlimited only 3 euros.

Finding tickets turned out to be a bit of a hassle but in the end we got two second (boo) class tickets to Turin leaving at 2:15 pm. Ciao Milan. A beautiful city that we felt severely underdressed for.

Turin well.... they hosted they Olympics once, but I think most cities in Europe could almost claim that.

Our hostel was really an other hotel in disguise! Complete with robes, towels and slippers.... and our OWN private bathroom–we may never leave. The hotel also had wifi but only in the common area. We pulled our classic trick of shopping at the market and staying in. I have to admit we watched tv for hours. Well not really watched tv but it was on in the background and since it was in all Italian we made up our own story line to Survivor Italy. We met a few "kids" from Canada in the common area that were heading out clubbing later. Heather wonders who really goes clubbing anymore??

Milan, Italy to Turin, Italy

Thursday October, 2

Nothing novel about this rainy morning. We seem to bring rain with us at least one day in each city we stay in. We are sad to leave our very nice and very affordable hotel (that is listed as a hostel). We left our bags at the front with the friendly owner and set out in search of internet to see if the 1st farm had written us back about coming 3 days early.

It's funny how we have absolutely no concern about leaving our bags at hotels/hostels. The computer, passports, money and tickets are always with us so if someone really wants our dirty clothes... have at it. If we lost our bags we certainly could make due.

We walked about 10 blocks to a place we saw online yesterday on a "free wi fi" site. The walk seemed to take a long time in the rain. When we got there we found we still had an hour before they opened. We went across the street to a cafe to spend a bit of time before we went to the "real cafe." We ordered a total of 4 cafe machiatos, 2 cream filled croissants and then noticed a free little snack buffet. We were all over that!! Chips and salsa, guac, olives, italian pretzels, pickles and cake to name a few things. When the other cafe opened up we ordered two mini italian sandwiches and two sodas. The farm did email back saying they could not take us till Friday. So we decided to go to Turin a day early. We found a hotel there cheaper than a hostel that had wi fi. Finally we don't have to spend time searching for wifi to confirm this and that.

After booking the hotel we went back to retrieve our bags and walk to the underground. This underground subway was also very easy to use like London. A one way ticket is only 1 euro and an all day unlimited only 3 euros.

Finding tickets turned out to be a bit of a hassle but in the end we got two second (boo) class tickets to Turin leaving at 2:15 pm. Ciao Milan. A beautiful city that we felt severely underdressed for.

Turin well.... they hosted they Olympics once, but I think most cities in Europe could almost claim that.

Our hostel was really an other hotel in disguise! Complete with robes, towels and slippers.... and our OWN private bathroom–we may never leave. The hotel also had wifi but only in the common area. We pulled our classic trick of shopping at the market and staying in. I have to admit we watched tv for hours. Well not really watched tv but it was on in the background and since it was in all Italian we made up our own story line to Survivor Italy. We met a few "kids" from Canada in the common area that were heading out clubbing later. Heather wonders who really goes clubbing anymore??

Milan Italy-Duomo, Aquariums, and Bracelets

Wednesday, October 1

After our fun filled night in, we were happy to sleep in until almost 10am. On our agenda for the day was see the famous cathedral or duomo as it's called in Italian, find internet, and possibly see the fashion district. A real normal shower was a welcome treat. Our wonderful hotel host gave us a map of the city showing all the sites along with the subway routes. We walked about 3 blocks to the nearest subway station, paid 3 euros for a barging priced 24 hour pass, and hopped aboard towards the cathedral.

Immediately after walking up the stairs to the street level, we were hit up by a mob of people selling things. Heather escaped, but Charlie was not so lucky as he had a bracelet tied to his wrist faster than he could walk away. The man said it was free and for good luck and even complimented being with someone as beautiful as Heather. The stairs came up right next door to the cathedral on street level. We knew it was going to be big and impressive, but it was hard to take it all in at once. Its the 3rd largest church in the world after St. Peters in Vatican City and one in Spain, and the 2nd largest gothic style church in the world after the one in Seville Spain. Work began on it in the late 1300's and it wasn't fully finished until the early 1800s when Napoleon ordered it finished when he had conquered Milan.

We walked around the side of it to the entrance and after a brief search of our backpack, we were inside. The first thing we noticed was how dark it was inside. Even with the HUGE stained glass windows and recently added flood lights, its quite dark for a while until your eyes adjust. Once we were in a few feet, we got an idea just how big this cathedral is. Its a big like the Louvre in Paris, you can tell someone how big it is all day long, but it will still be bigger than your expecting. Its also one of the few churches we've been in where you get such a overwhelming good feeling inside. We talked afterwards about how those who tour it for the architectural reason, just how much they miss out on the spiritual feeling in there.

Walking in and looking up towards the ceiling can really make you feel small. It was probably close to 100 feet, with massive stone pillars supporting the structure. We made our way to the back of the church, admiring all of the stained glass windows. Looking towards the altar, it appears to be miles away. We walked along the side of the pews towards the front of the church, stopping to admire all the stone carvings along the way. There was a line for confession, and also a list of all the cardinals that have run the church dating back to when it was built. Above the altar are many paintings, some of which had to be 20 feet by 20 feet, along with 2 huge organs. Also on the side of it is a newer modern organ that appears to be used more frequently. We've heard some of the huge old organs literally have miles of piping and can take over 5 years to restore. This cathedral was under a bit of restoration as we'll get into later. They had the very front of the church roped off so only groups could tour it for about the next half hour, so we decided to come back to that, instead we went downstairs. They had a room full of artifacts that was 1 euro to get into, which we skipped, and instead saw the remains of one of the cardinals dating from sometime in the 1500s. It almost looked fake, as he was still in some sort of suit.

Back upstairs, we decided to leave the church for a bit and come back after trying to find internet. We had no luck at the usual places like coffee shops and McDonalds, and in fact have started to get strange looks asking if there is wi-fi to be had. Its defiantly harder to find internet the further south we've some, Italy in particular. With no luck, we headed back to the cathedral to see what we missed earlier.

Back inside, we did a quick walk through of the front part that was roped off before, and found we really didn't miss much. There was a cardinal robe behind a glass case, and a few statues. Back outside we went to check out the roof.

Charlie decided to walk up the stairs thinking he'd get some good pictures along the way, while Heather opted for the elevator. To his disappointment all he got was a walk up about 300 some stairs, although he did beat the elevator to the top Heather was in as it only holds about 4 people at a time. Up on the roof is where the true amazement of just how much went into making this amazing church really hit us. There are countless statues of saints all along the roof, endless intricate little details carved into the pillars, the incredible walkway designed into the roof, not to mention the view up there. We find it impossible to imagine a person designing and building this mighty cathedral, we were sure only God himself were capable of something this grand. In a day and age where using a computer to design all the symmetry and molds necessary to make all the details, and to get all the measurements right so everything comes out right in the end, we couldn't imagine how it didn't take 100 years just to draw out the plans for this. There was restoration work going on on the roof of some of the statues and arches, which we figured is pretty much a full time deal with a building of this size and age.

After the church we decided to go wander in search of internet and lunch. Along our way Heather spotted a water fountain with a hippo face for a spout, so she had to get a picture of it. Much to our suprise after poking her head in the building attached to it, she found a free aquarium we could tour! We were both happy that not only was it free, but something fun and different to see. It was set up in a large circle, with many different stations with different types of aquatic life and fish. Everything from a mountain stream to a coral reef was in there. It put a smile on our faces to see it all. We made one more pass through and noticed an outdoor area so we stepped out and found some cute turtles we took pictures of.

Onto our mission of finding internet. We stopped in a few cafes and asked around and they all pointed us to the subway station, as there are pay internet sites in most of the stations. We gave in and went in one to pay for 15 minutes worth to find free wi-fi on a site that shows places that have it. It was basically 3 computers and some payphones in a large closet, and Charlie about passed out towards the end from the stuffy air and smell of people who haven't showered in a while. It smelled a bit like bad Indian food in there. We found some a couple subway stops up the line at a cafe, so off we went.

We came upon Roca's cafe, happy to see a free wi-fi sticker in the window. It was a cozy place with a bar area and half a dozen tables. We took a table and ordered some much missed chips and salsa, and a couple drinks. After surfing the net for a while, we got hungry and ordered a pizza with cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce, and also a grilled ham and tomato panini with plans to stay a while as we quite enjoyed the atmosphere. We ate and got caught up on emails, and also found a cafe up the road from our hotel with wi-fi for us to use the next day. As it got dark, we called it a night, and took the subway back to our hotel where we sat up and talked for a bit before falling asleep.

Venice, Italy to Milan, Italy - Fashion Capitol of the World

Tuesday, September 30

Another very strange night of sleep in our bunk bed hall with curtains. We got up around 7:30 am to catch our last first class train to Milan, Italy. Charlie was in charge of giving the key back to "Christmas Eve" as we named her. She instructed him to eat breakfast before we left but we had a good excuse to skip out of it today.

Our last ride in first class treated us well. We had an entire 6 person car to ourselves complete with closed door. Heather went in search of the bathroom to find 2nd class packed with people sitting and standing in the halls... kind of sort of made us feel bad with 4 extra seats, but not too bad since we were forced to pay for 1st class!?! We snacked the train ride away with banana and nutella sandwiches, yum! The scenery was nice, very typical northern italy.

We are always surprised to see how much graffiti europe has. It's actually quite sad in some of the old beautiful cities to see it scarred this way.

We arrived in Milan around 1pm and stepped in to a huge grand train station. The ceilings in the main lobby must have been 60' feet tall and all with carvings and wonderful architecture. If this is what the train station looked like we were very impressed. And within 2 minutes of walking outside we saw a super model doing a fashion shoot. Heather rolled her eyes and said... "really they are out everywhere?!" The model looked to weigh about 80 lbs and most of that being her 2' tall hair and another 5 lbs of make up. Okay enough of that, maybe we will find her a sammich to eat so she doesn't waste away.

We had rough directions to find the hostel that included a bus ride. In our directions it stated we bought the ticket on the bus. Turns out we scammed a free ride in the end... ha ha.

Milan 0, Heather Charlie 1

The bus dropped us off right at our hostel which to our great great happy surprised turned out to be a 1 star hotel. I think a one star hotel in Italy is a bit nicer than any 1 star in the states. We had a huge private balcony that over looks fountains, landscaped yards and other buildings in the square. Our our complaint would be that they seem to stick a bid-ay in any spare space in Europe... we say ick to that.

Charlie tried to take a quick nap as he's been feeling very worn down and a bit sick the last few days while Heather read. A bit later we took off explore the area around our hostel. We usually like to stick close the first night since we don't have a great idea of the streets and getting lost would probably involve a costly taxi ride home. We ate lunch at a little cafe which we were the only customers there. Charlie had penne puntensca, and Heather had the old stand by of spaghetti carbonarra. We did our usual routine of "find free wi fi" with no luck. No Starbucks in Italy and our old reliable McDonnalds required you to have a cell phone to get a text message with the code to use the wi fi. No good to us, we haven't used a phone in over a month. It was hard to get a good feel of the city being it was a cloudy day. But it wasn't hard to tell that fashion was #1 here.

Deciding a night in might be more fun than wondering around. We went back to the hotel asked for directions to the market and headed out again. To give the report of the cost of tiramisu: 1.55 Euros for a single. (if you remember that's how we gauge the price of a city). We browsed the store, which is one of our favorite things to do, looking at funny foods we dont have in the states and marveling at their fresh fish selection that may have been swimming hours ago. Our winning menu included mini croissants, paper thin italian salami, fresh buffalo mozzarella, two bottles of italian wine (under 3.50 for both!!!!) and of course: a bar of chocolate and another jar of nutella.

We had a great night in! The owner of the hotel was nice enough to give us a few classy plastic cups to drink our fine wine out of. We spent hours drinking, eating, laughing and eventually having our own dance party with iTunes playing in the background.

Questions about traveling

In our last month of traveling, we have noticed a few things that we can't help but ask why?????

1. Why do people attempt to record on video their whole vacation? 

Do they honestly think they will go back and watch it all? Or worse, show it to everyone they know? And how about the guy we saw videotaping his gondola ride in Venice? Did he not know he missed his whole ride trying to catch it all on film?

2. Why do certain people get photographed in front of EVERY statue they come across? 

Are they that narcissistic? Do they need proof down the road they actually saw it? We have followed groups around museums and churches that stop in front of anything of importance and each take turns getting a picture of them with it.

3. Can someone come up with a standard of toilet in the world? 

We've been in 8 countries and seen probably a dozen styles of toilets, each getting weirder than the previous one. They range from a pull cord to flush hanging from the ceiling, to being a hole on the floor. Along this line, showers are just as odd.

4. Why do people take photos with a cell phone? 

Its one thing if you take a picture to send someone right away, but once again, we've followed people taking all their pictures with their phone.

5. Who is watching Australia and Asia? 

To be truthful, its really cool that their cultures are into encouraging traveling like they do, but we often wonder if there's anyone left in these areas.

6. When did they start making washing machines that require a masters degree in engineering to figure out? 

This mostly applies to the ones in England that are a combo washer/drier in one. Call us dumb, but we had better luck figuring out the ones in foreign languages.

7. When did we miss the line that was handing out free SLR cameras? 

We walk around nervous enough with our little canon point and shoots that we'll be mugged or lose them. These people are everywhere with giant lenses that cost more than our entire trip.

8. Can they pick a language in Belgium? 

French or Dutch... you can't have both!!!


9. Who is responsible for the red hair coloring in Europe? 

We've mostly noticed this on women over the age of about 45, but none of them are even close to being red. They are an ungodly color not found in nature. We even have a game going to see who can count the most bad red hair dye jobs in a day.

10. Why can Europeans make a potato chip with 3, yes 3, ingredients, and it takes US companies about 20?

Venice, Italy-Here a church, there a church, everywhere a church-church

We were awoken by the runner of the hostel who we have dubbed "christmas eve" (of avenue Q fame for those not in the know) at about 9:15 am to her basically telling us we had to go eat breakfast. We had planned on sleeping in a bit, but maybe a bit of food isn't such a bad idea. We weren't really sure where to go in this maze of rooms, last night she said something we thought was downstairs, but Heather wasn't too excited about eating with the spider-webs, but as it turns out, it was upstairs. Walking through the hostel we wondered what lotto we lost getting the "room" behind the curtain, when there were 3 very large double bed rooms on our floor, all set up nice with furniture. After a bowl of corn-flakes, we went back down to shower and get ready for the day.

We really had no particular sights to see or places to go, so we just set out in a random direction to see what we come upon. We should note that walking around Venice you begin to feel like a rat in a maze looking for the cheese. There are a million streets and back alleyways to get lost on. About every other couple we saw was stopped, looking at their map. They say locals get lost here too, which we can easily believe.

Venice 1, Heather & Charlie 0.

After walking for an hour or so and passing many churches and crossing many bridges, we found a little square in front of a church and got our first Italian gelatto. We noticed there was a man behind the counter making it, to which Heather said " I like that man." We sat on a bench in front of the church and enjoyed it, looking at the map deciding where to wander. We thought we should head towards San Marco as it is the biggest tourist draw in the city with lots to see. We must have walked over an hour, making a few wrong turns on the way and consulting the map many times, we finally found it. San Marco consists of the basilica of San Marco, the old mayors home which is now a museum, a watchtower, and many shops along the huge sea front area. We thought we'd wander a bit along the shore and find some lunch before seeing the sights. We walked along the shore for quite a while checking out all the menus of the restaurants. Many restaurants in Italy charge extra for table service, usually 10% to 15% and sometimes a cover of 1 or 2 euros per person. As you can about imagine the places on the shore of Venice were quite expensive, so we thought we'd be best finding a place off a side alleyway which are usually much cheaper and many don't charge a cover or service charge. Walking up the shore we came upon a large yacht that had to be close to 150 feet long, and a bit up the dock, a sailboat even larger. We couldn't begin to imagine what they cost. We crossed over the Bridge of Sighs, which we thought had some sort of romantic story behind its name, but it turns out it was along the path to the old prison, and the prisoners were the ones doing the sighing as they crossed it many years ago.

We wandered back off the shore a bit and found a small cafe to eat lunch at. Heather got tortolini with procuetto and Charlie got a cheese pizza. Heather had a glass of wine with hers, while Charlie found a new flavor of fanta he likes, lime. After enjoying lunch, we headed back towards the square outside San Marco's basilica. We tried getting in, but were turned away at the door because we had a backpack, so Heather decided to walk along the shops while Charlie took a peek inside. It turned out to be rather disappointing inside, but very beautiful. There were no pictures allowed to be taken inside, but they basically had a roped off path through the church you could walk on. If you wanted to go up to the 2nd level to get a view outside it was an outrageous 4 euros, and to see the treasury room it was another 2 euros. The entire church ceiling was done in a beautiful gold mosaic, and was probably one of the more beautiful churches we've been to, but the cost to go upstairs and the quick path the shuffled everyone through kind of soured the experience. We are more used to being able wander around and take our time touring churches everywhere else in Europe.

After a bit we thought we'd head back to the hostel to clean up a bit and plan out our evening. We did get lost again and ended up on the complete wrong side of one of the islands than we thought, so out came the map and we headed towards the Rialto bridge, the biggest and main bridge across the grand canal. The street was lined with shops and markets, and also many black market dealings of handbags and sunglasses. They had many high-end name bags and glasses they were trying to sell to all the tourists, and would drop from 35 to 15 euros in an instant on the price of what should be a many hundred dollar bag. We still aren't sure if they were all real or stolen or made from the scraps at the factory. Whatever the story, they would have them all spread on the ground on a sheet, with someone on lookout for the police, and when they came walking by, they would gather the bags and run down the street till the police passed, and then found a new place to set up shop. Charlie may be looking for some black market sunglasses in Milan since he lost his in London. Heather just tried to stay away from the hand bags in general.

After a 2 hour walk, we finally found the hostel. We checked email and cleaned up a bit before heading back out in search of dinner. We took a new direction in hopes of finding something new, but we settled on a small cafe again where this time Heather ordered a pizza, and Charlie got a seafood risotto. We dined over a bottle of wine enjoying our final night in beautiful Venice. Heather ordered up an after dinner drink called Lemoncello, and it came in 2 rather large shot glasses rather than small ones as she's had before. We sat for a while and ate a bowl of nuts and a plate of chips that the server thought we needed to snack on while we relaxed.

On the way back to the hostel, we came upon the place we ate last night, with the same piano player playing again tonight, so we stopped by for a glass of wine. We listened to a few songs and started making our way back. On the corner where we had to turn there was a large crowd gathered, so we stopped to see what was going on. Turns out there was a band playing, and they were really quite good, hence the crowd. They even had someone selling their cd as they played. We stayed for a few songs before heading in to call it a night, we have plans to get up early before we get shooed into the breakfast room so we can catch our 9am train to Milan.

Innsbruck, Austria to Venice, Italy

Sunday, September 28

We switched bunks last night mostly to share the burden of the bad one. We think the pillow may be full of wood-chips, even folded over 3 times it felt terrible. We were not sure of the check out time but house keeping came knocking on the door to shoe us out rather rudely. Heather still had her hair in a towel and neither of us were dressed but we made in out in under 10 minutes before we got another slap on the wrist.

The walk to the train station was all down hill, woo hoo. Charlie said many times he'd love to live in a mountain town like Innsbruck. Innsbruck hosted the 1964 and 1976 Olympics, taking it from a very small town to a thriving city. The waters here were the same bright turquoise as in Switzerland. We made a stop at the laundry-mat to check our email (being the ONLY free wi-fi we could find in town). Getting an other 10 cent gelatto was on both of our minds but we decided a lunch might be a better choice.

The train ride from Innsbruck to Venice was beautiful (like they all are). We passed under 2-3 mountain tunnels that kept us in the dark for several minutes. This train was all cabins, three seats on each side that faced each other. Everyone was quite until the cougher got on. We hope we didn't catch anything from him.

When the train got close to Venice we got out of our seats and watched out the window in the hall. It looked like a city floating in the middle of the sea.

First order of business after getting off the train was to find our hostel, actually it's called "Francesca's Bed and Breakfast"... but stay tuned for more. The walk was very nice, almost too much to take in. We had been in two canal cities before this: Bruges and Amsterdam, but nothing like this. No cars on the streets, not even bicycles just tons of people walking and pushing their way along. Our directions were not the best so we got lost once, an older italian woman who Heather deemed "Sofia Petrillo" from the Golden Girls gave us a very very long winded directions in Italian... we just kept nodding like we had any idea what she was saying no matter how loud she spoke. A few more turns and we found the place... urrr maybe!?

The ground floor was exposed brick, and not the pretty kind... dirty with cement steps that were uneven with 100s of years of smoothing down from shoes. We made our way upstairs and found Francesca to be a married asian couple. Hmm that's sort of different. Our room if you can call it that, was merely a hall way between rooms with a curtain we could pull around the bunk bed. We thought, oh well they must all be little icky rooms like this.... oh no the next morning we learned different. But the place did have a computer to use for internet but no wi fi.

Our first attempt at exploring Venice was kept pretty close to where we stayed. Venice is unlike any city we'd been to, getting lost was unavoidable. Venice is uncommonly romantic so just strolling down the streets, and up and down canal bridges was really amazing. It was nearly dark already so not a great time to get pictures. Typical Venetian food consists of sardines, vinegar and onions... we will try to avoid that. We had dinner in a open square with an italian man playing piano (mostly American love song covers). Our first meal in Italy!! Heather had gnocchi with gorgonzola and Charlie had an artichoke pizza. We toasted our first meal with italian wine and enjoyed every last bit. One tiny fact about pizza in Europe is it's never cut, you just eat it with a fork and knife.

Yes the traditional gondola guys were around but the rides are so expensive we thought we better think about it a little more... besides it's still a romantic city.

Off to bed at our crazy little place.

Innsbruck, Austria-Lazy Day in the Mountains

Saturday, September 27

Being 2 very wore out travelers, we took full advantage of being able to sleep in. After waking a bit after 10, we lazily took showers and dressed ourselves for the day. First on the agenda was laundry, as it had been about 4 days again. We made the 10 minute stroll down the hill and found the Laundromat. We did our famous, stuff all of our clothes into one load trick we've mastered on this trip, and made our way up the road to the supermarket in hopes of finding lunch.

Our purchases included some chocolates (Heather), a bottle of Fanta, bread, a jar of nutella, and some bananas in hopes they would help our achy muscles. Heather also got some much needed hair products. We enjoyed our picnic lunch in the park, and found that nutella and bananas are one of the greatest combinations on Earth. They are especially yummy in sandwich form. Neither of us are sure if we'll ever go back to normal peanut butter again, although nutella is much cheaper here in Europe than in the states. After about 30 minutes we headed back to switch our clothes to the drier, and just rested on the comfy couch until they were dry. Making the trek back up the hill carrying groceries and 2 bags of laundry made us kind of tired, so we did the smart thing and napped for about 45 minutes after we got back. I know, we've had a pretty rough day so far.

About 3pm we thought we'd better get out and see some of this beautiful town. We walked back down the hill and crossed yet another bright turquoise colored river. There was a cute puppy running along side of us before crossing who was chasing a blowing leaf, and when he tried to grab it his back legs swung too far out and he fell over, it was really cute and funny. We stopped for a moment on the bridge to take some pictures and take in the beauty of the mountains. We decided we'd wander town to try and find some internet, which we should say is quite hard to find the past few days here in Austria. After asking around a bit, we were told to go to another Laundromat that had pay internet. Along the way Heather found the cheapest gelato yet, 10 cents!!! We were sure the guy read his sign wrong, we thought it was a 7 instead of a 1, but who are we to argue! We'll try again tomorrow for sure.

After getting to the Laundromat, we scammed some free wi-fi instead of paying, in the words of Borat, "great success!!" We caught up on our blog, and did some emails over the next half hour. Beings it was almost 5pm, we thought we'd better find some dinner. We wandered past a chinese restaurant, something both of us have been craving for weeks, but found they didn't open til 530, so we wandered up the street a bit to kill time before they opened.

We were back promptly at 5:30 at took a seat at a booth near the window overlooking a street on the old part of town. We should add this restaurant was on the 2nd floor, like many restaurants are here in Austria. We ordered some wonton soup, chicken with cashews and noodles with chicken. We took our time and ate family style, savoring every bite of food we'd been missing for so long. We took our time eating and enjoying everything, and sat in there for about 2 hours. It was nice to take time to enjoy a nice long meal for a change.

After eating we walked around a street in the old part of town, doing some window shopping, and enjoying a very pleasant evening. We walked past one of Europes big, old cathedrals, and might check it out tomorrow if we get a chance before leaving. We made our way back to the hostel to relax for the evening and try to get rid of our worn out feeling, and to maybe put our clean laundry back in our backpacks.

Salzburg to Innsbruck, Austria

Friday, September 26

We missed breakfast with Thomas and Jeanie (the other couch surfer) but from the look Thomas gave us the night before he was not very interested in scrambled eggs. We used some peppers from last night and mystery austrian cheese and enjoyed a hot breakfast!

We said our good byes to our gracious host Thomas before he left for work and invited him to come to St Paul anytime to stay with us. Next we packed up and headed to the train station.

It seems like it's been weeks since we've had internet, honestly only like 24 hours at this point. We looked in vain for a place while we waited for our train to Innsbruck, Austria but found nothing.

At this point it's a clear sign if the train is running even 5 minutes late there will be trouble. Instead of trying to fight our way in first class for seats together we decided to sit in the dinning car the entire time. The 2 hour ride turned in to 2.5 because.... well they don't know but in the middle of a forest we stopped for quite a while. We had shared a tortelloni cheese pasta with a red sauce, honestly it's just train food that's microwaved but we thought it was pretty good. We sat at a table with a man from Bulgaria who wanted to hear all about our travels. He shared some good advise for seeing some of the islands around Venice and saying that 5 months in Italy won't even be long enough. One tip we liked was to go to the cheapest pizza place in italy and order the cheapest thing on the menu, it's bound to be the best. We don't know what his logic was for that thought but we didn't argue.

We arrived in Innsbruck around 3:30 pm. After making a reservation for our Sunday train to Venice we attempted to figure out where our hostel is. After consulting three taxi drivers who pulled out their own maps (never a good sign) we got a ride from them instead of taking the wrong bus and wasting 2 hours.

Honestly a pretty uneventful day. The highlight was the train ride and all the snow capped mountains.

We checked in to the hostel and the host told us we'd be in separate rooms boys/girls. I guess some girl from Japan called and said she's only stay in an all girls room so that screwed up everyone's sleeping arrangements. But the host offered us a private room with a lock for only 4 more Euros a night. SOLD!! Heather joked we were probably on the top level... oh no the lady said: "your room in the attic." Of course it was.

The room is actually really big and nice and with only two full flights of stairs it's hardly even a climb at all.

If we haven't mentioned it before the farther south we travel... the stranger the bathrooms get. There may be something interesting to report on the shower tomorrow.

After a nice nap we headed out for food and had two pizzas. They were very good but we are out of energy to describe them :)

So this is Heather & Charlie signing off for tonight.... hoping we'll find some internet to post some new blogs soon.

Salzburg, Austria - Rain, Churches and Food

What else is there in Europe? All joking aside, we awoke a bit after 8 to have breakfast with our host and the other american guest he had. Thomas went all out and made us a feast of bread, jams, cheese, more of the great salami, and juice. We chatted over breakfast some, and then set out for the day a bit before ten when he headed off to work. It was a light drizzle as we set out with no particular place to go other than to explore Sazburg. Thomas used to be a tour guide in the castle, and gave us some ideas of places to go.

We wandered our way towards the river and crossed it, finding that much of the festival had been taken down, with only a few craft stands still up. Our first stop was the Franciscan church. Thomas had said this church was quite dark inside, and he was right. We wondered how many candles they had to light before electricity to be able to see in here. The only windows were towards the front of the church, way up high, so the back half was like being in the dark. One thing we noticed is the giant columns in the middle were made of concrete instead of marble like so many others we'd seen. There was also someone playing the giant organ the whole time we were in there, which was fun to hear. One random fact about this church was that its basically next door to the Salzburg Cathedral, but while that was destroyed in WW2, this one didn't receive any damage.

Next we walked along the cliff side as Thomas had said there were caves the church used to use to hide people or things. All we could find was a place that used caves as sort of a conference or party room area, so we were a bit bummed out as cave exploring would have been fun on this rainy day. We then wandered up and down a street closed off to cars that has many high-end shops. It was fun to window shop even if we couldn't afford any of it. Also on this street is the birthplace of Mozart. We poked our noses in the main entrance, saw a large crowd, and noticed it cost more than the Louvre to tour, so we passed, not before snapping a few pics of the outside though.

Being it was about noon, we made our way to the republic cafe where we ate yesterday. We thought we would spend a few hours there having lunch and using the only internet we could find in Salzburg. We found a table near the window and each ordered a beer. For lunch Charlie got a panini style pork sandwich with cheese, tomato, and a chili cocktail sauce, served with a side salad. Heather ordered a delicious smoked duck breast with white rice with black sesame seeds. It was served with tropical fruit like pineapple, mango, pomegranate seeds with a yummy honey glaze sauce over it. The duck tasted more like a steak than chicken, and wasn't greasy or gamey in the least. We sat and enjoyed our food and messed around on the internet while it poured like crazy outside.

When we saw a break in the rain we headed out again towards St. Peters Abbey. We made a quick pass through the church and headed outside to the cemetery, whos likeness was used as a set in The Sound of Music. We were kind of surprised how new some of the gravestones were as this church was quite old. We imagine the oldest ones were in the catacombs in the mountainside we didn't tour. We started walking towards the main area of the city again, and stopped off at an Irish pub for a bit while we waited some rain out. About 4:30 pm we thought we'd head back towards Mirabell garden as Heather saw a scarf there she wanted to buy, and then head back to Thomas's apartment. Much to her disappointment, they had sold the blue one she wanted, so we kept walking. We walked back towards Thomas', and looked for a supermarket near his place, as we had said we'd cook him and his other guest dinner tonight.

We weren't too impressed with the Lidl store, so we went to the market up the road about a block. One thing we should add is we haven't quite figured out how to get a shopping cart yet here, as it involves paying 1 euro as sort of a deposit on the cart, and unlocking it from all the others, so we went without one. The other American girl staying there is a vegetarian so we came up with making a vegetable risotto with grilled cheese, tomato, and pepper sandwiches. We bought all our ingredients and headed back to our hosts apartment a few blocks away. Back at the apartment, Charlie got to cooking the risotto, which really is a labor of love as it involves standing at the stove in front of it for a good 25 minutes, as Heather got everything for the sandwiches ready to toast. The food turned out to be a wonderful hit, and we enjoyed it and good conversation over our meal.

After dinner we each took a much needed hot shower after being out in the rain all day, then settled in the living room with Thomas and Jeanie from Baltimore to relax. We were excited to see there was an American baseball game on tv, the Tigers and Devil Rays were playing. It was fun talking to Thomas about baseball and college football, as he's a big fan of both. We'd both noticed this was the first time in over 3 weeks we'd actually been sitting down relaxing in front of a tv. We took turns working on the blog and when the game was over we decided it was bedtime, as we were both quite tired.

Salzburg, Austria - Mother Superior was not kidding when she said "Climb every mountain"

Wednesday, September 24

If it hasn't already been said Haus Linder is much more than a hostel, a high end bed and breakfast would be a better way to put it. Off our balcony we had a panoramic view of Salzburg, not a bad way to start the day. The breakfast was very good but again... no hot food. We were the only ones in there besides the owner who made us a nice breakfast of breakfast rolls with jams, cheese, juice, coffee, and the best salami we'd had. It was sliced super thin and had a nice peppery flavor. She and her family were off to church service as it was a local holiday celebrating St. Rupert, also the name of her husband she told us. He was the founder of Salzburg and it's a huge deal... we didn't know how huge just yet. We went back to the room to shower and pack up. Our room had a private shower that was kind of funny, it was like stepping into the closet with a bi-fold, sliding door.

When our hosts returned, we thought it was time to pay for our night and head out for the day. Heather opened the door and said "holy blonde kids!" She had her grandkids upstairs with her in the kitchen, about five or six of them, all blonde haired. One of the girls was eating chocolate and offered one to Heather, who is never one to turn down a chocolate. Heather also got put to work for a moment working the phones with an australian guy on the line our host could not understand. After a walk back down the hill and hopping on the train we were off to the main area of town.

We arrived back at the main station and put our backpacks into a storage locker for the day. With a map in hand we set off to find the Mirabell gardens, made famous in the movie The Sound of Music during the "Do Ri Me" song. Along the way what did we find? If you guessed gelato you'd be right. Much to our suprise its the cheapest yet, 80 cents for a cone. We were sold. Charlie got a chocolate flavor and Heather got cookies. Apparently cookies means every good flavor you can think of because this cone was unreal. This was another one of those flavors we could spend paragraphs describing and still not really do it justice.

We came upon the enterance to Mirabell park, and at first, weren't that impressed. Walking up a small hill reveled a beautiful rose garden, and down a few stairs, a huge well maintained flower garden. The Mirabell Garten was pristine. Most interesting was a house on the grounds that one of the archbishops built for his secret wife (naughty, naughty). Oh and they had 15 children!!

Crossing over the Salzach river bridge we happened on a HUGE festival! It was of course the St Rupert's day festival. It took up all the streets with food, drinks, beer tents, and rides including a REAL pony merry-go-round. We sampled a few things like pastries, real honey in various flavors and plum schnapps. We toured the beautiful Dom de Salzburg cathedral, dedicated to St Rupert and St Virgil. The cathedral was bombed and mostly destroyed in WW2 reopening May 1, 1959, seeing the renovations were beautiful. We both really liked this church in a way we couldn't explain, it just felt special.

Next item on the list: The Sound of Music. Yes, Heather has been singing constantly! We found out the tours were 37 Euros... a bit out of our price range. We decided to try to see as much of the sites from the movie on foot.

We ended up walking too far around the hill/mountain and realized we were close to the Nonnburg Abby. This was really quite a hike up the hill but we were not about a to let a guy in his 70s in front of us beat us up!! The abby was very small and honestly not that recognizable from the movie. But how often do nun's lie so we believed that it was what they said. Next we just kept heading up the hill looking for "the thing that does the walking for you" to get up to the top and see the Hohensalzburg castle. Well seems we were much further up than we thought, we were too high up to catch them and had to walk all the way up... this was something we vowed NOT to do because too much walking makes us useless at night and for getting up in the morning. Ughh this was hard, by far the hardest "climb every mountain" we've done. However far you think the climb is when you see the pictures just add 30 minutes of 90 degree grade climbing and you'll be in our shoes.

The castle was very interesting and we had high hopes because this was our first castle. We found the only way to go through the actual castle was to go on a guided tour. We were given little devises that described what we saw in each room. The first room was pictures of all the archbishops who had lived in the castle over time and models of the castle as it was added to over the years. On to the torture chamber! Oh this is going to be exciting right?!?! Nahh it's just called that, no one was ever tortured there, just shackled. Torture is a way to get a confession out and no one could be convicted unless they confessed to a crime, so with no court in this castle: no torture. Up a lot of spiral stairs to the very top of the castle to a look out point. Wow we thought we had good views this morning at the B&B, this was breath taking. There were a few clouds around the mountains but the pictures will speak for themselves. Next we walked down a very long hall that lead us to an old organ. This organ was in a room to itself and was used to wake up the people in the castle, not really to be played... actually it didn't even have a keyboard. It should be noted that this is not a "King and Queen" castle, just one for archbishops. Okay so we turned in our little things that talked and thought... ummm that's all we got to see? We weren't the only ones feeling a bit short changed. We wondered more into other building and saw some of the bishops bedroom chambers, an example of a kitchen and other artifacts. We also again thought it would be so much more interested if it had still be set up in the original form. We found out later the castle had been taken over and looted by Napoleon and it's rumor that the art and furniture had been used in fires to keep warm. It's also rumored that if you tour some french museums you might see a thing or two that does in fact belong to Austria. The castle we should also add was freezing! Charlie enjoyed looking at cannons (total boy thing to do). There was a kind of strange area that had a marionette museum. If you ask us, they are creepy but we paid to get in and looked at everything to get our money's worth. We took advantage of the "machine that does the walking for us" down the mountain. Ughh it was packed and made even more packed by two older germans squeezing in who maybe hadn't been introduced to the concept of soap. It was a long 60 seconds down the mountain.

It was nearly 3pm and we were starving. Salzburg seems to be a very reasonably priced town until you are starving and can't find anything that is either open in the mid-day break or in our price range. We settled on a place called Republic which had free wi-fi and beer, prefect. We each had a wiezen beer. Ok we are going to talk about food again so be ready. Charlie had a chicken and chili sauce wrap with a great mixed salad. Heather had a pasta that was a bit of a surprised when it was set down. The spaghetti pasta was nearly black. It was dyed with squids ink which gave it a really rich/light flavor. The pasta was topped with... we're not sure but it tasted like if you combined a tomato/potato/pumpkin with a crisp piece of fried thin cheese and a chili sauce. Yum, we love new food and this was too good not to welcomed into the clean plate club.

After eating it was back to the festival to see what's new to eat and drink. Heather asked a nice looking couple what they were drinking and they only could say "the best." Better try that then. It was kind of like a fruity pink sparkling liquor/juice. A bit too sweet for our taste but fun to try a glass of. With a bavarian pretzel in tow we headed back to the train station to pick up our bags and head over to our Austrian host's place.

Getting our bags out the locker was a little drama because the machine broke and we had to describe what was in there but it turned out fine. We're now off to find Thomas' place (our Austrian host) which we decided on by looking at the map "didn't look too far." Actually it wasn't too far this time but the but you can double your journey with backpacks on. We got a bit confused by the way the number of the building and apartment were written in the address: 20/9... which is which?? We went to the wrong place with a woman who would open her door to us but assured us Thomas was not there... guess we looked a bit sketchy since it was pouring out. We did then find Thomas' place but with some issues with the door bell we sat outside his apartment from 7pm-8pm. Finally we left him a note saying to contact us and headed back into town not having a clue where to sleep tonight. As we got about a block away footsteps came from behind and an out of breath Thomas said.... "are you Heather and Charlie?"

Thomas had been out on his balcony and not heard us ring or knock on the door but when we finally gave up and walked away in the rain he saw us and chased us down. We couldn't be more relieved or impressed by his HUGE brand new apartment. Everything was custom and gorgeous, pretty impressive for a single guy. We sat up and talked a while over a beer. We had our own room!!! Later that night another girl from the US came and took the couch but we didnt meet her till the morning.

Being cold, soaking wet and very grateful to have a place to stay we slept quite well.