Rome

What can i say? I love Rome.  On our first day we met our tent neighbors, Jas and Zurie, and they asked us if we wanted to hang out. duh. of course we did. when they asked us what we wanted to do i only had one answer....see really old stuff.  if its not pre-10th century....been there, done that.  I want to see stuff that's falling apart. honestly, if it was in the movie gladiator...i wanted to see it. 

I don't know if its just me, but i think the sky always looks different in rome. kinda like this....

I don't know. i feel like every movie and picture i've seen (and every day i was there), its like this ridiculously deep blue, but with a lot of fast moving clouds, and then the sun just kinda bursts through for this sort of beautiful, yet erie afternoon. what can i say? i dig it.

anywho. turns out our friends jas and zurie were lying to us. they made up ridiculous names and tried to bamboozle us.  we found this out about 3 hours into our day.  the truth is, i couldnt be mad, because it was a noble effort, and i wished i had done the same thing. so. hillary and shannon showed us all around rome and they were lifesavers. me and matt are travel idiots so somehow we were able to see vatican city, the pantheon, some random castle, some random famous fountain, the spanish steps, and the coliseum all in one afternoon.  most of my photos will be from this day because my batter ended up dying and we were camping....so no outlets. when we got back, we met (of course) and aussie and a kiwi that were our neighbors on the other side.  so we kinda just had our own little block party with our neighbors that night and called it a night.  i would call this a top 3 day of the trip so far....competing for number one.

Next day, slept in, it rained all day. we did nothing. it was fantastic.

Next Next day. went to the vatican museum/sistine chapel.  it was 14 euros to get in, but if you have a chance to see the sistine chapel in real life, you have to do it right?  well, we did....and i'm glad.  Maybe it's just because I don't paint, but the whole vatican and especially the sistine chapel seems like it would have taken an eternity to finish. Everything was so massive and elaborate. and it had to be done upside down. and not just the painting, but every window frame and siding was elaborately painted and carved.  I guess I don't really know how to describe it, but it was pretty amazing to see it.  

Ok that's all. Pics on facebook later tonight. 

Venice

I must say that Venice was one of the places i desired to go the most. As much as i need a car, I always enjoy cities that you don't need one. In Venice, the option is not even there. Streets of canals and alleys for walkways. So for a boy with a new camera, it was a dream come true. For a boy with a tight budget, I have to say Venice was quite the opposite. For instance, I went to get a cup of coffee, which is already expensive, and they ask me if i want to sit down. of course i do. well...double the price. You have to pay for that beautiful chair right next to the canal. so the brings the total to about 10$ for a cup of coffee. a small cup. like, a babies cup. i could actually swallow the cup. So venice for me was pretty much a free walking tour....led by me. a.k.a. i wandered all day. There were some free exhibits and churches open and that sort of thing, so of course those were taken advantage of. Either way, I took about 6 million pictures and I think you'll find most are strikingly similar. stay posted for those.

The second day, me and ryan went down to the peggy guggenheim exhibit that was actually at her old house in venice. They had a great student discount for people under 26.....but wait. I lost my student ID. This should only take some minor sweet talking and I'm in for cheap. But wait....the receptionist is this silly american girl and a florida gator alumnus. She saw ryans UGA ID and didn't budge for me. A minor setback to a pretty awesome place. I'm not exactly an art history buff, but we did manage to con our way into a free audio guide so I'm pretty much a pro now. Turns out Jackson Pollack really did know what he was doing. Picasso...I'm not so sure, but i'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Either way, there were hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and I feel privelaged to have seen it.

Another beautiful thing about Venice is that we ran into old friends. A couple of our "mates" from prague ran into us at the campground so we had a glorious reuniting right? nope. we got verbally dominated for not adding them on facebook. so lesson learned. if you tell someone you will add them. add them. even if you think you will never see them again. after that though, we had a nice little reunion party at the campground which eventually let to a slightly lame, but surprisingly fun toga party. I can't say ive ever done that before, but if you looked at my toga it was fairly obvious. I had to wear undergarments for fear of an unwanted peep show.

So now we are in Rome, but more on that later. Venice was a great experience and a fun one and it's definitely worth seeing....but 2 days was plenty. It was great to hang out with familiar faces which we found out we will see again tonight in Rome. Look for some Venice pics on facebook in the next 24 hours.

seacreast out.

5 days in prague. 3 in berlin. venice here we come.

After a miserable milan experience....prague came through in the clutch. The hostel was fantastic (and cheap) and as soon as we got there we met some pretty great people. We spent the night hanging out with these two new zealanders....the first two people we met. The coolest part about them, besides the fact that new zealanders dominate aussies in the "cool" department, is they talked us into going to this bar down the street called Cross club. wow. the whole place is made out of car parts. but not in a lame, junkyard kind of way. more like a...holy crap, i could just stare at the walls forever. They had one room with a dj...playing (for lack of a better word) euro-trash techno music. one thing different about dance parties in europe that i noticed is that nobody dances with anybody. you just face the dj, clear some space around you, and just kinda hop around. i may or may not have partaken (may or may not be a word).

first things first. i've always wanted to try this. the orignal budweiser budvar. and on the train from vienna to prague...me and matt shared our first czech pilsner together.

this is not the budweiser we know in america. not even the same beer. history lesson. czech invented the pilsner in the fine town of plzen (say: pilsen). pilsner urquell being the first and it is absolutely all they drink over there. usually only one per bar. you just go up and say "beer" and they pour you the only one they have. usually, pilsner urquell.

anywho. the next night we met toby and maria, a fantastic little couple from dresden, germany and we hung out all night and so they talked us into going on the free walking tour the next day. so we went on the free walking tour of prague and saw some amazing things, and learned a lot about czech history...which lets be honest...none of us know czech history. they take a lot of pride in their country and most of the art/architecture/statues are in some way mocking their oppressors. it was just incredibly interesting to hear about a country who for some reason was left out of U.S. history books. here are a few of my favorite pics from the city.

ok, ignore that last sentence. apprently i forgot how to blog because uploading multiple pictures is a pain. so forget that for now. another glorious thing about prague. czech korun (crown?). 17 of these equal one US dollar. its the one place where the dollar seems to have some value. you can make 1000 korun (57$) last a really long time. what did i spend most of them on? kebabs. there is only one kebab place in athens....my all-time fave that all my friends hate. but in europe, kebabs flow like milk and honey in the promised land. so tasty. so huge. so cheap. in athens its a treat. in europe, its having a budget and i have NO problem with that kind of budgeting.

So after prague, we spent a few days in berlin....which i loved, but...we were faced with some important decisions, like figuring out what the heck to do with our trip, which is ending way faster than we want it to. so i didn't see much of berlin. i was crammed in the internet cafe spending all of my money. But here's the plan and what you can expect.

we are now in venice. then to rome. then, randomly, to see a friend in oslo, norway. then off to london. under the water to paris. up to amsterdam....which will almost definitely include brussels belgium. and that gets us up to november. at that point, it could be time to come home....we'll just have to see.

sorry about the pics, unfortunately all you get to do is read...but, pics are on facebook. enjoy!

Benji and Matt in Europe

Well friends and family, i'll have to keep this one short because i only have ten minutes left on this computer. But, its official....we are traveling men. And besides the fact that milan is the worst city for travelers in the history of the world, its a decent looking city. If you want to imagine what milan is like, just imagine if somehow Los Angelas and Charlestown got together and conceived a beautiful, yet bastard of a child. I think that about sums it up. ok, only 6 minutes left. here's a picture of the place we stayed last night.














And here is a picture of glorious matt keef fresh off of the plane.















ok. out of time. thats all for now.

i miss all of you and wish you could travel with me.

ciao

Return of the Mack....

well, i think i'm going to blog again. things are going to be different this time around. i'm not sure what i mean by that, but i want to be more focused. i'm not referring to the frequency of blogging that i do, but more about the content. in honor of my return, i've written a series of incredibly lame haiku's. enjoy.


hello world wide web
i have missed thee very much
did you miss me too?

I've heard that you did.
I haven't forgotten you.
would you have me back?

yes? is that a yes?
my heart is dancing with joy
it sings songs for you

with that being said
i guess it's about time for
"Return of the Mack"

Wednesday Wishes #8

Long time no blog.

1. I wish the Braves game would have started on time yesterday so I could have gotten to bed before two.


2. I wish that if American Idol ever covers another U2 song, they would get a guitar player who is a little less cheesy. terrible tones all around...probably coming from a pod or solid state amp. but kudos to david cook for actually doing a good job on it.


3. I wish i was more prepared for the Over the Rhine show on saturday. along with iron and wine, it is probably the most soul pleasing music i have ever heard live...or maybe just in general.


4. I wish i had a place to live next year.


5. I wish my car wasn't in the body shop for the last 2 weeks. It led to the demise of meatless may. R.I.P. meatless may. (5/1-5/18). when you don't have a car or any groceries it makes it hard to have a well rounded meal. i wasn't cooking which was a big part of meatless may, and i was eating a lot of the same stuff. i wasn't craving meat really. i think i could have gone the distance for sure, but i decided to cut my losses. i like meat. the end.
   
6. I wish my car got more than 15 mpg's. I'm seriously considering this solution.


7. I wish i wouldn't have had 2 hot dogs last night and 2 cups of coffee this morning. maybe this combo will lead to a good poop story for later. childish? maybe. hilarious? always.


8. I wish i would have told you before now that this New Amsterdam's album is one of my favorites. i bring this up because they have some new material that is really good, but not as good as the previously mentioned, Worse for the Wear.


9. I wish MELANIE JOHNSON read my blog so she could see that I am publicly professing my love for her. and that i will miss her when she is in chi-town.




10. I wish i wasn't so lamely nervous about the american idol finale tonight. p.s. boxing theme? totally lame.

Hallelujah!

this is the new death cab album. it came out yesterday. go buy it!