so i must first apologize for my website being down, and for not responding to emails over the past few days. internet has been virtually nonexistant here in italy, until now. i am now waiting in the florence train station, waiting for some people to arrive, and they have incredibly cheapo interneto, so i'm taking full advantage :-)
interlaken was wonderful, mostly because of meeting and hanging out with jim and vanessa. balmers, the place where we were staying, was getting old however, as was freaking EXPENSIVE switzerland. so we say goodbye, and i head of for milano.
stepping off the train, everything people had said was correct, milan's train station is a giant. geeeeez. and its literally 95 degrees. like walking into a brick wall from the 60's of the swiss alps. i'm hungry, and i have to go to the bathroom, but can't cause i got no euro, and ALL of the atm's in the train station are broken. booo. so i walk to my hotel, and after much being lost, i finally hook up with dad and julie.
lovely dinner, right down the street from the 3rd largest cathedral in the world, the milan duomo. they're a bit jet lagged, so i leave them for the evening and go off on my own.
i'm sitting by a fountain, and manage to strike up a conversation with these two italian girls. laughing and such, even though they speak only VERY LITTLE english, and my italian is even worse. somehow, i figure out that they want me to go with them to this river place, which is suppose to be beautiful. so i follow, and we laugh and chat, about anything that we can decipher. it was great. they bought me gelato (ice cream), and i now agree with vanessa and jim that its gods gift to italy. they lived just a ways from my hotel, so at the end of the night we make it back to that area, and go our separate ways, as they had to work early in the morning. all in all it was completely random, but one of the most enjoyable evenings of the trip.
hmmmmm... so, after that, dad and julie had gotten a rental car, so we were off with that towards lake como. scary italian driving, WOW. these people are CRAZY, let me tell ya. and i was just navigating. eventually we make it to where we're headed, board a boat there, and head out across the lake to a wonderful little italian town on lake como, varenna.
varenna's just how i would picture an italian lake town, and we end up having the most wonderful time ever, just sitting at a restaurant right on the lake, having drinks, and then eventually dinner. the italian way. just lounging there. and oooooh my, was the food good. i had a pesto pasta dish, which i wouldn't have gotten other than vanessa had insisted upon getting pesto sauce one night in interlaken and boy was it goooooooood. after dinner, interesting conversation with some rather well traveled americans also sitting there.
lets see... from varenna, we headed to another lake in the area, maggiore, and spent the night at a lovely little place in a town called stressa. wish we could have had more time here, as it was just stunning. dinner, recommended by the owner of our hotel, was interesting. i went with what the waitress recommended, and get this.. it was spaghetti, with a clam and SQUID INK sauce, with fresh clams as well. the plate was BLACK. literally, squid ink. i couldn't help but think of blood dumplings! ha. soooooo very good though, one of the better seafood pasta dishes i've ever had.
so, thats about it... i know its a ton, but its been a while. i'm gonna write some emails now i do believe. hopefully this website will stay up now, i think it was a power outtage that knocked it out, so, yeah.
goodbye for now :-)