Austria for Easter +

As usual, it’s been a while. The end of the semester is amazingly coming to an end, and I can’t believe it. I have spent most of my computer time researching for my two month post-trip or Grand Tour instead of writing blog entries. I wanted to get a chance to write a bit about the highlight of my last couple weeks, my trip to Austria for Easter. If you guys are still checking out my blog here and there, I want to say a big thanks to the Komar family for being so hospitable and kind to let me spend the holiday with them . I left Siena on the Friday before Easter and took a pretty long day train to Villach. After Karen and I dropped a part of the family off the next morning in Munich, we spent part of the day sightseeing in Salzburg and driving in search of a laketown (one of my requests, of course).

A real Easter scene in a Salzburg shop

I remember a time when I was younger visiting family in Sacramento, and I made a list of all the things I wanted to do before I headed home, some quite specific. In hindsight, the list just reminds me of my childhood pretentiousness, but I realize sometimes I make a similar list when I travel now--hopefully not as demanding. Anyways, I said I wanted to see a lake town like the one old Rick Steves mentions, Hallstatt (but not that one, since it was not on the way home). The next day we went to the beautiful Worthersee, and it definitely satisfied my whim for a real Austrian lake town. Thank you Komars.

I think I was most impressed on the trip by the Austrian version of the Easter egg hunt. I’m always interested in how different families celebrate holidays, but traditions change even more when you cross borders. In Austria, children search the garden for not Easter eggs, but Austrian or German or Belgian chocolate and gifts! It’s like Christmas in the Spring plus the best chocolate in the world. The Easter bunny even brought me some chocolate! (*thanks again) and I’m proud to say I have yet to finish the box; I’m trying to savor it as long as possible.

Two girls in the family around my age took me out one night in Villach for a real Austrian beer. I still can’t figure out how to pronounce ‘may I have one’ in German. After these months in Italy, I’ve grown comfortable with the language enough to know I can get out of any minorly bad situation (ie. always ask directions, read timetables, and ask bus drivers questions), and definitely have a certain language prowess with shopping, eating meals, and other day to day activities. When I stepped out of the train in Austria, my first instinct was to say “Ciao.” Although I speak a lot of English here, the Italian switch is definitely on, and it was a tough change to all of a sudden be in a German speaking country. It made me realize once again I may get quite lonely on my two month sojourn if I have no one to speak my own language to. I’ll probably write a lot more blogs, because I’ll just want to think in a language I know. Lucky you.

Another highlight of this Easter trip was our pilgrimage to the Santuario Del Monte Lussari in Italy. This place was a trip. We drove into Italy from Austria to a small ski resort. Up the lift we “skiked” (ski+hike for the non Damerons) to the little lodge-village, then continued up to the top to a chapel. I am happy to say I made it to a church on Easter Sunday -- it was a chapel on top of an Italian-Austrian border mountain filled with skiers, I’m talking people in full on ski gear with ski boots and helmets inside the church. That’s something I’ve never seen. Thanks Again.

Last weekend I went on a couple school trips. On Saturday I went with my Art History class to Assisi. The main cathedral was amazing, but the professor is nuts. She’s beautiful, sweet and definitely intelligent, but I think most of us agree a little pazza. Inside this cathedral there are signs everywhere saying “silenzio.” All tour guides are supposed to have the church approved microphones and all their listeners are supposed to have the ‘right’ headphones. Our professor, who never follows rules or ‘suggestions’ by museum guards. She continuously got in trouble for trying to lecture to our little group of students as we walked around to see the frescos. The monk/security man (not sure what his actual title might be) came up to my professor about five times to tell her to stop. Eventually she told everyone in the group to get out their ipod headphones, put them in their ears, and hide the unattached ends. For those of us without headphones, she said to put our hands up to our ears to pretend we had listening devices. She borrowed a camera from one of the girls and pretended it was her microphone. We walked around the church pretending to have this audio system. The guard/monk man I’m sure knew we were pretending. As we left the upper church for the lower, he told my professor she had to go immediately to the main desk to ‘check’ to see if our devices were approved by the church for use. She looked him straight in the eye and said, “of course.” We did not. In the lower church, another one of these guard/monks walked up to her and said that he had heard from upstairs that there was a professor trying to use the wrong equipment and we had to stop. Looking back, it was just another funny, if uncomfortable couple hours with this one professor, but at the time, I think it’s a little odd to just straight up lie in a church.

I’ve heard this ‘break the rules’ mentality is definitely an Italian trait. Us Americans live with ridiculous invasive laws, so I’ve heard. Sometimes I think it’s best to just pay for the headset.

Sunday was another interesting day, this time for creative writing. Our professor took us on a driving tour of Tuscany, about four little towns. He showed us al lthe major places in his published novels. Sort of like getting Francis Mayes to personally show you Cortona. My favorite stop was a large, artsy garden project by an expatriate. This place just seemed to have a bit of magic. I wish I remembered the name, because it's probably not in the tour guides. We also stopped at an old woman's home. The professor says she's around 80, but still climbs trees barefoot (not sure why). The woman lives in an unassuming home, but the professor told us when she and her now passed husband decided to renovate, they found a wine cellar from about year 1000. In the little cellar, she makes wine without any additives, the best (and least expensive) I've tried here. I was sad to hear that they weren't going to sell any. I guess this year's was so good, they only let family members purchase it.

Secret Garden in Tuscany

Tuscany!

Spring Break pics plus

Statue rescued from the Sea near Bacoli

(something about that idea makes me smile)

Cappella Palatina
Isola Bella below Taormina--think this and cannoli, close to heaven for me

Not a bad place for yoga in the morning in Sicily

Well, it’s been ages, but I have quite an adventure to recount…
First, I’ll start with vacation-light: a group trip to Maremma, a region in south Tuscany. The highlight of this trip was definitely the Saturday night dinner. After twenty Thanksgivings and other major holiday meals, I can surely say that I have never eaten as much as I did that one Saturday night in the agriturismo (a hotel/farm that makes all of its ingredients). Although it was several weeks ago, I still remember the feeling I had at the end of the meal. I really believed I would have a heart attack that night. In addition to the pre-meal bread and wine, there were five appetizers, two pasta dishes, two meat dishes, a huge hunk of homemade pecorino that we couldn’t refuse, coffee, and strawberry crepes with some sort of incredible crème sauce. I have yet to go on and on about Italian food, probably because I rarely eat in restaurants here. Living in a home, I get the benefits of far fresher fruits and vegetables, and a much more substantial selection of REAL cheeses, pastas, and chocolate than we have in the states, but I can’t say that my experience of Italy has been food-driven (think Eat, Pray, Love). This one night was for sure the food highlight (well, until pizza in Naples…later).

Luckily, to not feel as much like keeling over, the next morning, we went on a challenging hike. The school organizers didn’t tell us exactly what we were getting into. I swear, if Dad was here, he would have planned this exact day. Many girls wore flats and long sleeve, flowy shirts, not exactly prepared for a steep, hilly trek into the woods by the Maremma sea. I knew I was in for it when the organizer looked at my small water bottle, shook her head, and gave me a liter to carry instead. After the hike (and fabulous, worth-it lunch spot), I heard that there was a ‘Beware of Pythons’ sign. I’m always happier not miss those….assuming I don’t get hurt.

Now to the real adventure--Last week I had Spring Break and I decided to use the 10 days to practice solo travel in Europe, CouchSurfing style. For anyone who has not heard me go on and on about this internet organization, it’s well worth some interest. It is an international hospitality group that works by recommendations, kind of like Ebay for making international friends and finding people to stay with. The trip was definitely also a practice of ‘planes, trains, and automobiles’---plus buses and boats. I left Siena on Saturday, the 21st by bus for Rome. In Rome, I took a train to Naples. In the train I sat in a cabin, with a super-stylish Roman woman, a looked- Mafia, extremely talkative old man, and a couple others. The man talked the whole time, and got the others in the train riled up about politics, women in the workforce, the education system in Italy, the overuse of cell phones, etc. Although my Italian is improving, I’m good enough to get the gist of a rapid-dialect filled convo, but really can’t participate. Of course in the middle of the 3 hour ride, the train broke, and I ended up 2 hours late. My new rule for Southern Italy travel--always expect to be 2 hours tardi!

The first night I stayed in a kind run down tourist town close to Sorrento called I think Santa Agnello. There is a fantastic hostel there I’d recommend to anyone looking for a ‘scene’ or on a budget. Complete with bar, live music, surprisingly good, fresh tacos, cheap mojitos, and a glorious waterfall shower (hard to come by here), I give this place (Seven Hostel) a five star recommendation. I arrived around 5 and took a quick train to Sorrento to poke around for a while. Sorrento at dusk was amazing…what does Rick say--the gate to Amalfi? A little touristy for me, but for a couple hours it’s well worth the visit. I preferred my smaller, less eye-pleasing and more real in a slightly Mexico-way town. That night, when I returned to the hostel, I had my first night alone on vacation, and with my little black notebook, I must have looked like a hotel critic….well here I am, giving it my all to get people to go to that place.

The next morning, I took a quick run. If I were to make a “Leann’s 3 Travel Rules” list I think it would be:
1. Get your butt up to run in the morning: Although this is not a new one for Dad or the runners of the family, for those of us for whom running is not necessarily automatic, it’s still a worthwhile travel habit. In addition to the guilt-lessening benefits, a little jog with a camera and a mini map in my pocket lets me pretend to be a bit less of a tourist and see a city or town as it wakes.
2. For solo travel women, take walks at dusk. At this time, it’s not yet uncomfortable to peak into sidestreets, and the city lights begin to dazzle.
3. Go CouchSurfing! (with backup-plans and breaks)

Sorrento at Dusk

O.K Continuiamo…I headed out Sunday for the Amalfi Sita bus drive. The coast is breathtaking. Although I didn’t have the sun to make it quite “Heaven,” I fell a bit in love with this part of Italy. As usual in Italy there was a transportation problem. The road was ‘rotto’ (broken), so at a tiny town, everyone had to get off the bus, and walk a couple kilometers, including quite a hike down to the beach and back up to the road to continue on a different bus to Amalfi. On this little, as usual, confusing side-journey, what a view:

I stayed several hours in Amalfi, visited a paper-making museum, and hiked to the nearby Atrani. Wow, I ate the BEST bruschetta ever in Atrani. It was a mix of caprese and bruschetta, my favorite Italian foods, on a huge plate of bread and melted in an oven.

Amalfi

That night I crossed my fingers and got on a couple trains to meet my first CouchSurfer host, Giacomo. Now, for those of you who don’t know Naples well, it’s not known for it’s extreme safety. Since the Amalfi trip had a few hiccups with the buses (it didn’t help that I missed one), I ended up getting to Giacomo’s small town, Bacoli, later than I had hoped. I met him and his friend and they took me to the beach house where I could sleep. I’m not going to lie here; this is an almost full of details account of my Italy trip, I was freaked out the first night. In a damp, old, rickety house in a dirt parking lot in a small town with a young Italian I’d never met, I stayed awake most of the first night, thinking of how I could get out of the situation. In the morning, though, Giacomo woke me up with a light knock…”Leelee, posso?” (can I?--enter). He brought me coffee and a chocolate croissant, a good way to start the morning. Giacomo led me to the Archeological museum (wow!) and later we met up for a grand tour of the city of Naples. I love the energy, food, crazy dialect, ridiculous parking and honking habits, and history of this city. It’s someplace I’m very glad I had a local to take me to, and someplace I really want to return. The most impressive parts of the city were the pizza and the setting. The pizza….ahh, I’d never really eaten pizza before I Naples. This stuff is different. They say it’s because of the water in the crust. I don’t know if it’s that or the wonderful southern mozzarella, but Naples pizza is worth the plane ticket to Italy. The first time I ate it, Giacomo laughed at how. I knew Italians ate pizza folded, but God Forbid, I folded the pizza the wrong way! After my life changing lesson, I can fold and eat pizza the Naples way. After lunch we stopped by a bar to grab a coffee, and I changed my mind the last second to get a caffe latte. Giacomo laughed and shuddered at the same time. “It’s soooo American.” Later he said he was ashamed he took me to his favorite bar where they know him, because I had the nerve to order a caffe latte after pizza!!?? Insanity! Apparently only coffee is acceptable after eating a whole pizza. Keep that one in mind.
Over the two full days I had with Giacomo as my host, I met his family for meals a few times. They were wonderful, and gave me a pretty fun view into the life of a Naples or near-Naples family, much different than Tuscan families. To begin, I couldn’t understand anything. The mix of the dialect and craziness of the meal was too much, and I stuck with Giacomo’s translation. For one meal, we primarily ate mozzarella, 3 types--baby or fresh, regular, and smoked. My favorite meal was one lunch when we had roasted chicken. As I finished what must have been a half a chicken Giacomo’s mother gave me, she nodded to me, and gave me another whole chicken breast to eat. At the same time, the family’s neighbor, a two-year old switched off saying “Mangia!” (Eat!) because I apparently wasn’t eating enough or ate slowly and Te Manco (I forget exactly the Italian, but “I’ll kill you”); he thought I was spending too much time with his friend. After the lunch, Giacomo’s father let me taste his homemade lemoncello. I told him it was pretty forte, and he got out his also homemade walnut liqueur--intense! My throat burned and it was only noon! I told someone recently and she said this type of southern alcohol is usually 70 proof. Just another day with an old southern Italian father.

One of the days in the Naples area, I wanted to go to either Procida or Ischia, islands a little less known than Capri, but the wind was so strong, I stayed in Bacoli, and Giacomo, a history major, showed me around his town. At the local museum and impressive Roman bath ruins, we didn’t see anyone. I saw statues once rescued from the sea and toured freely once decadent roman rooms. It’s a shame no one goes to Bacoli because the town is full of hidden historical finds. To complete this really wonderful Couchsurfing experience, Giacomo also introduced me to his friends; we all played Scopa, a Naples card game that I can’t seem to ever win.

Tourist-free Thermal Baths of Bacoli

I sadly said goodbye to Giacomo Wednesday morning, carrying a bag of oranges his family gave me from their trees in the back garden. I headed further south for Sicily. Honestly I boarded the train, not really sure how I was going to get from the mainland to the island. I thought maybe there was a chunnel. I found out. My train got on a boat!…the whole train changed tracks and continued onto a huge boat along with several other trains. It took me a long time to figure out that I could get out of my seat, exit the train, and check out the view from the upper decks of this strange train-ferry.

In Sicily, my first stop was Taormina, or close. It took me 24 hours to realize I wasn’t actually in Taormina, but the nearby town below. Let’s just say it’s a little confusing when your host only speaks Italian. I stayed again with a host, this time a Bulgarian woman with two daughters who owned a hair salon. We spoke only Italian. She was super stylish in only the way mod, artsy hair-stylists can be. She and her daughters were sweet; the second night one daughter even let me where her puppy slippers to keep my feet warmer : ). The first night, the power went out for a bit, and we ate our grilled veggies (a welcome break after all that cheese and pizza in the South) by candlelight --and cell phone display. The next morning she and I went to the beach for a little yoga. Nothing like yoga in the morning alone in Sicily save your Bulgarian host : )…It was a spectacular moment, but all a little strange considering I didn’t have anyone to chat about it with in my own language.

I went to Taormina for the day and it was OK, really, just a bit too many older German tourists for me. My favorite part of the day, apart from the yoga, was when I grabbed a cannolo (one cannoli) to go (they’re from Sicily, ie. incredible in Sicily) and headed for a spot I saw in the guidebooks--Isola Bella. This little beach connects to a tiny island. The water and cloudy skies made it a bit too cold to swim, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying myself for a few hours just absorbing the scene and the sun when it snuck around the clouds.
From Taormina, I left for Palermo. By that time I was pretty starved for a bit of English and company I could really understand. Luckily on the bus across the island, I met two American girls from New York to chat with. They offered to let me dump my backpack at their hotel so that we could go sightseeing together for the day in Palermo. The three of us walked around the city and sketched. At 7 I thanked the girls for the company, and met my next host, a law student, his friends, and two other Californians he was hosting at the same time.

After such a fantastic time in Naples and an interesting but a little lonely time near Taormina, for me, Palermo wasn’t as fantastic. The cultural mix from a long history of invasions gives the city a flair, a spiciness? And the mix of architectural styles is probably worth the visit. I just don’t think that this city will be on my must-return-to list like Naples. If there was one site that I would want to see again, it was the golden mosaic-ed Capella Palatina. It’s amazing to me how much a city experience is shaped by the travel details, rather than the city itself. After two great CS hosts, I was eager to meet my next host. The first night was fun; I love having kebab in Italy. The second night the two other American girls and I went out with our host and his friends. The pre-discotheque ride around in the back of a convertible in the middle of Palermo is something I won’t forget! By 2am I was tired. Vacationing, I think especially alone, is tiring, and although I like to go out, a long night at the discotheque wasn’t what I was in the mood for. My host had a broken ankle, and he was still dancing! At 4AM I was given the option to go to the train station with the other girls to go to the airport (my flight was not until noon) or watch Formula 1 televised at that time from Australia with a bunch of Italian boys where I was supposed to sleep! An odd situation, and very un CS-like to leave someone without a place to actually sleep. So, after witnessing an almost ridiculously stereotypical Italian boy-american blonde girl conversation at the train station (between one of the girls I was with and my host’s friends who took us to and waited at the train station) I had a pretty uncomfortable morning to sleep in the airport (in my going out clothes of course). I got home safe, and it was for sure an adventure. That last night gave me a little material for a creative writing assignment too, so it wasn’t that bad. I may rethink the CSing for 2 months, and invest instead in some hotel rooms : ).
I give you a break, and refrain from writing about the last 2 weeks…
Hope everyone at home is well!