Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Milano

Went to Milan this weekend, finally, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now; didn’t think I’d get the chance. I stayed with a girl I met back on Ios, Marta, who showed me around the city where I saw a church (big surprise), some big ass graveyard, the football stadium and of course THAT fabulous shopping strip! Actually, the city wasn’t anything too spectacular (sorry Milano), but I had a nice trip. I didn’t even bring my camera along the little tour Marta gave me, so no pics. Sorry about that! But like I said: nothing missed.

I stayed in the heart of the city, which is pretty modern so pretty boring. Boston is probably the largest urban-type city I’ve seen and have to compare with, and Boston was definitely more interesting than Milan- what wit all dem’ brick buildings and all!

Overall, it was a nice weekend. I had some good wine, thick-dough pizza (as opposed to the thin, southern style), panini and possibly the best Tiramisu I’ve ever had (we went to some famous restaurant for the last two, called Primo Guisto).

Not much else going atm, but maybe I'll head to Florence next weekend and visit good ole' Chris Lee, who is apparently here working or studying- or something. It would be good to see my old friend, who showed me the path way back in the genesis of my travels. If not for him, well, all might have been lost..

Monday, November 10, 2008

Back in Mirandola

I arrived safely in Ancona last week without any problems with immigration, lucky me. From there, I headed straight to Mirandola to see my old friends and the Benatti family. The older brother, Nico, hasn’t changed much but Freddy is definitely taller and stronger! Stefano has lost weight; I would say about 30 pounds! Whereas I used to compare him to Tony Soprano, now I would say he’s more of a Silvio. Eugenia is the same, ever so sweet. Paltro’s got a girlfriend, but it’s good to see him nonetheless. I have missed Mirandola, and all my old friends! I even went to a super market that I used to patron and a guy named Mario -who always used to hook me up with free bottles of wine- recognized me, and, of course he gave me a bottle of Montepulciano to boot! I’ve missed Italy, let the wine flow!

I was under the impression that I’d be here as a visitor for roughly one month, but as it turns out Eugenia thought I was coming to teach English again. This was a bit of a shock because I was prepared to head home, money is low and times are tough. What a break! I told Eugenia that I wanted to think about it- another Christmas/New year’s away from the family, away from home. But hey, I need the money and it feels right. I guess not ready to come home yet, so don’t ask! I don’t even know what I’ll do next. I have a few ideas/possibilities, but I’m here ‘til January and for now that’s all I know.

So it’s been a week now and I’m already getting into the groove. No word from James, but that was expected. I promised some pictures from my stay in Athens which are now posted below, so there ya go. I’ll take some pics of Mirandola next week. Ciao~

Photos o' Athens

This is James.
This is James' beamer- makes it pretty fun to ride around Athens. He's a pretty crazy driver too, but seemed to know what he was doing...
James' room where I sometimes spent an excess of 20 hours.
My mobile home. As you can see it's gotten a little fat, need to put it on a diet.

Found this in one of them black market shops in the center of Athens: 70% absinthe and made using 30% wormwood (apparently). I'm quite sure that it's not legal, but it was fun to try. As you can see it came in a dropper, which we used to mix into cokes. We didn't hallucinate at all, but I have to aggree with the info on wikipedia- absinthe creates a sort of lucid-state of drunkeness, where you don't feel stupid-drunk, but rather quit coherent mentally, and nor are you inhibited quite as much in the physical sense.
Went out clubbing on occasion, renting out tables and spending way too much money on alcohol and trying to be big shots (well not so much me, but you get the idea).

James' gun. It used to be his grandfathers and is still wanted by the police for whatever reason. Notice the clip is loaded with live bullets. I wanted to go and shoot it somewhere, but he wasn't keen. Crazy malaka...