When in Rome...

There are moments in life that will be forever cemented in memory. One of these for me is having dinner with some of my tour group while sitting outside in a piazza in Rome. I had an excellent tortellini with prawns, split a bottle of italian red wine with the others at my table, and tartuffo for dessert. That moment, and a few others on the trip made all of those days in Afghanistan worth it. We walked towards the ancient part of the city, and there before us was the Coliseum. I always imagined the Coliseum to be out in the middle of a big grassy field, for some strange reason. On the contrary, it's surrounded by the contemporary city. Here gladiators once fought for their freedom or for fortune, Christians were fed to the Lions, and sometimes the lower part was filled with water to stage recreations of sea battles. Shortly after returning to our hotel, two of the girls in our tour group took the "when in Rome" concept to heart and appeared in the hallway dressed in togas. That's the spirit!

The following day, we toured the Vatican and saw countless works of art within its walls. In the afternoon, we split up and wandered about the city at our leisure. Knowing we would need dress pants for some of the upcoming events, Dave and I toured some of the clothing shops the city had to offer. We discovered that when an Italian tailor promises that your pants will be hemmed by 6pm, expect them to be ready no sooner than 7:30.

An interesting aside about the hotel we were in was there was a UNESCO group of students staying there for several months finishing their Masters degree. What made this interesting was there were both Israelis and Palestinians in this group. I ended up speaking with members of both groups, asking them how they got along. They said they were fine one on one, and in groups they just had to be careful about discussing religion or politics. "It's a start," I thought. If members of these groups someday end up occupying positions of influence in their respective governments, perhaps they can come a little closer to achieving peace in that part of the world. The next day, we were off to the birthplace of the Renaissance itself, Florence.

Europalooza Part 4 - The Italian Job

Italy was definitely different from the other places we had been. The people in Germany, Switzerland and Austria were very orderly and precise people. In comparison, Italy was chaos. Interesting, passionate and entertaining chaos, but chaos nonetheless. Italians love talking on their cell phones, especially when driving and cutting across four lanes of traffic. Our tour bus almost smacked into the same car not once but twice when the idiot behind the wheel suddenly cut in front of us.

At highway rest stops with restaurants, our tour guide explained to us the procedure for getting something to eat was you go to the counter where the food is, memorize the name of what it is you want, go over to the cashier in a different part of the shop, tell them what you want and pay for it, then take your receipt, go back to the counter where the food is, hand them your receipt and get your food. Plus, Italians don't believe in queueing. When you get to the front of the so-called "line", if you don't place your hands on the counter in a blocking position, don't be surprised if a grandmother cuts in front of you. That being said, the food was normally worth the wait. I love prosciutto, which is an aged, dry-cured, spiced Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served without cooking, and it was available in abundance in this country.

Our tour guide also warned the girls in our group that they can expect to be hassled by Italian men asking to marry them or go out on a date with them. Our guide told them to simply agree to go out on a date with them on Sunday. He said they'll make up some excuse for why Sunday is no good for them and wander off. The reason for this is Sunday is the day they spend with their wife.

Our first stop in Italy was in the canal city of Venice. We had a few hours to wander around the city on our own and then we got back together and went on a gondola tour, viewing Venice in all of its decaying splendour while drinking champagne. In the evening, we went for a five course Venetian meal complete with muscians around our tables. It was at this dinner that some of the girls should have had a t-shirt saying, "Instant Pary! Just add alcohol and stir." I hadn't even been sure if these girls had teeth, because up until now I hadn't seen them smile. Once they had a few glasses of vino in them, it was time for them to par-tay! Then it was to the hotel for the next leg of our journey. Roma!

Europalooza Part 3 - For a Few Euros More

Our Euro trip continued as we drove into the Rhine valley, the heart of German wine country. Our bus stopped in the village of St. Goar and the tour group went for a boat cruise along the river, viewing many majestic looking castles nestled into the hillside. After dinner, we went for a wine tasting and then went back to the hotel bar so the tour group could get to know each other better. Good times were had by all.

Next on the list was Switzerland. Our hotel was nestled in the mountains in Engleberg and the view was breathtaking everywhere you turned. While there, I picked up a new watch mainly so I could say, "Oh, you like this watch? I got this while I was in Switzerland..."

On our way to Austria, we stopped for lunch in the postage stamp sized country of Liechtenstein. Coincidentally, Liechtenstein is famous for its elaborate postage stamps. We spent a fun-filled afternoon white-water rafting in Austria. There had been a lot of rain in the preceding weeks, as such the water levels were high and the current fast. At the beginning of our trek, we had to jump into the water and swim back to the raft. Most jumped out holding onto the line attached to the raft. I jumped out and realized I was going to have to swim against the 16 km/h current to get back to the raft. I was able to keep the same distance between me and the raft, but couldn't get any closer. Struggling against the current, I started wondering if this is what a salmon feels like. Then I remembered that at the end of their trek, at least they get to spawn. Finally a voice in my head said, "Idiot, there's another raft about 40 feet behind you. You can swim WITH the current to it." Gotta love the path of least resistance.

Getting into Innsbruck, Austria, I noticed there didn't seem to be any fat Austrians. Our tour guide explained to us that Austrians are very much into walking, mountain biking, skiing, etc. I had made friends with an Aussie guy from Perth named Dave, and pointed out a great t-shirt to him which he immediately bought. It shows a yellow road sign with the silhouette of a kangaroo and the caption, "There aren't any kangaroos in Austria." Dave and I headed out to a night club that evening and discovered there is no shortage of beautiful Austrian women. Thank god we could sleep on the bus, because there were a lot of late nights and early mornings on this trip.

The next morning, we were off to the chaotic and passionate country of Italy. Former seat of the Roman Empire. But that's another story...

Europalooza Part 2 - A Fist Full of Euros

Our tour bus disembarked from the ferry and began driving through France. After many years of dreaming about this, I was finally on the European continent. We drove across France and into Belgium, a country of fine chocolates and birthplace of the Smurfs. To commemorate this event, our tour guide Louis played the Smurfs theme song through the bus' stereo system from his iPod. We were to discover that Louis had many songs on his iPod related to the various countries we would be visiting.

Eventually, we passed into the Netherlands. Louis detailed the history of this nation, describing how they had once been a major world trading port, specializing in spices. He also touched upon that the Netherlands had become a very liberal country in the last thirty years or so, and that soft drugs and prostitution were legal.

Our first overnight stop of the tour was in the city of Amsterdam. There are 800,000 people living in Amsterdam, yet there are over a million bicycles within the city. As such there were paved bicycle paths everywhere. We were warned not to walk on the bicycle paths, as local residents would have no qualms about running us down. After having some dinner in the hotel, we set out for a boat cruise of the canals which ran throughout the city. The fact that beer and wine were included in the cost of the cruise definitely added to the levity.

The next morning, we drove out to the town of Edam, home of the famous cheese named after it. We went on a leisurely bike ride around the town on what Claudia the bike lady called "Granny bikes". We visited a place that made cheeze using traditional methods, and also made wooden shoes, some of which were quite intricately carved. This was followed up with a tour of a diamond shop in the diamond district, where we were shown how diamonds are cut and polished, and had the different grades of diamonds explained to us. Strangely enough, the women on the tour seemed more interested in this portion than the men did. The afternoon was free time to tour around the city at our leisure. We walked around the downtown area, had some lunch and visited the Anne Frank museum. The museum was the actual building that Anne Frank and her family had lived in in a series of secret rooms during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Later that night, our tour guide gave the group a tour through the infamous Red Light District. He mentioned to the tour group that if you see a window with a blue light instead of a red light, that means that the woman has "something extra" under her skirt. We had one more night of bar hopping in Amsterdam, then it was off to Germany through the Rhine valley. Stay tuned for more of the Euro adventures of the Renaissance Runner. Same Runner time. Same Runner channel.

RR

Europalooza Part 1

Hello again my Renaissance Runners and Runnettes. The Euro tour to end all tours has finally come to an end, and what a tour it was. This was definitely not a tour to get caught up on your sleep, as there were many late nights which were usually followed by early mornings.

My vacation started when I touched down in Heathrow Airport in London on May 12th. I grabbed a black cab and spent the next half-hour on the way to my hotel marvelling at how green everything was. As a Canadian, I'm used to seeing a lot of greenery. The predominant colour in Afghanistan where I've been staying is dirt brown. Afghanistan is much like Nevada in it's appearance, actually, except without Vegas. Plus, people in Nevada generally don't launch rockets at you while you're sleeping, but I digress.

It was a sunny and warm day in London, so after checking into my hotel I went walking through one of the shopping districts during the lunch hour. My mind boggled at the number of beautiful London girls walking around. And the accents, oh God, the accents! What is it about a beautiful woman speaking in a British accent that makes me crazy with desire? Perhaps it was all the Benny Hill and Monty Python shows I watched in my formative years.

The night life in London was anything but dull, and I hopped around to a number of clubs in the Leicester Square and Covent Garden areas. I took one of those double decker bus sightseeing tours around the city and was awed by such spectacles as St. Paul's cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the famous clock tower containing the bell known as Big Ben. I ended up spending a very fun Sunday evening in a pub around the corner from my hotel with a bunch of friendly theatre arts students from Florida State University. All I had to do was turn to them and say, "Hey there, where are you from?"

Finally the time came to join my Contiki tour group and begin my journey to the continent. The tour group mostly consisted of Canadians, Aussies, Americans and Kiwis, but we also had a South African and a Japanese guy as well. We loaded up on the tour bus, drove to the white cliffs of dover and boarded the ferry for Calais. After a night of drinking, it was a pleasure to be able to indulge in a proper English breakfast on the ferry, which included eggs, bacon, bangers, fried potatos and deep fried toast. Nothing like some heavy fuel to get you back on track.

Well, it's almost time for dinner here and I'm ravenous, so I'll continue my tale later. Peace out!

RR