If the shoe fits!

Shoes! They are my downfall when it comes to packing and in life. I would say shoes are the only stereotypical girly girl thing about me. And I'm not into stilettos or heels. My shit is boots! Ankle, midcalf, and whole calf, I love them all. Ok..not a fan of thigh high boots. All I see is Julia Roberts hooking in Pretty Woman when I see them. I don't even think I'm associating thigh highs with hooking. I think I'm associating it with Julia Roberts' horrendous hooking outfit! Anway, I digress.

     

     This will be my first European trip in a very long while. Since cabs are more expensive than in say, Bangkok, I will probably walk around more than usual. I realized I don't have any shoes that are comfortable enough where I could walk in them all day. Actually I do, sandals and throwaway flip flops, but nothing for urban walking. There's no way I'm walking around in a pair of Chacos or Keens in Rome.The weather I think will still be a bit warm, but I wear boots pretty much year round anyway. So I went on the hunt! Initially I was just looking for comfortable shoes and not necessarily boots. When googling 'comfortable walking shoes', I was not happy with what I saw. I want to be comfortable and NOT look like I belong in a nursing home. And I guess ballet flats are the best you could hope for. It's funny that I look at these sites and a description might be, 'it's the cutest ballet flat'. No, it looks like every other ballet fucking flat on the planet. It's the most vanilla of shoes. I love my mary jane flats, but it feels like I've given up on life everytime I wear them. If you're going to notice anything about me, notice my footwear!

     After many hours of looking for something kind of cute, but bold in a regular shoe and not getting it, I started looking at boots. Now, initially I wasn't really looking at boots. I am a huge fan of Frye boots. I love them to death, but they are heavy as hell and they aren't easy to get into/out of quickly when you're trying to strip down for your romantic moment at airport security. As I'm only carrying a 40L backpack this year, 8lbs of boot really would be a huge burden. After much searching I think I found the two boots I was looking for. One pair from Lucky Brand called the Dallis Bootie and another from Born called Alamid. I tried both on at the store and I couldn't decide so I bought both of them! In comparison, I would say the Lucky Boot is more comfortable. I don't know what the hell they put in the soles, but it feels like the soles of your feet are well cushioned.  Anyway, great boot, easy to get on/off and light. As for the Alamid, it wasn't as comfortable as the Dallis, but I do think it looks great. I mean they are comfortable, they're Born for chrissake, just not Dallis Bootie foot-massage-comfortable. As you can see both look very similar with the buckles. I'm digging that look now. Very biker gang type of style. I would like to take both pair with me to Italy, but I gotta choose one and I think it's gonna be Dallis.

     Speaking of shoes, I recently saw this and at first glance I was disgusted. Then I realized something. That's me! No not me literally. I take my shoes off baring my feet on planes all the time. I didn't even realize it was wrong. Now, mind you, I've never propped my feet in someone's face or on their seat where I'm invading their personal space. However I will be the first one taking my shoes off when the 'we're not gonna crash take your seat belt off' bell goes off. I do keep them under the seat in front or maybe my own seat. Sorry, I can't stand wearing socks! It just makes me feel so constricted. So much so that I start to feel a little nauseated. I wonder if that's an actual sickness and not just my personal hangup. I love being barefoot. If I didn't have to wear shoes at all, I wouldn't...well except for public/airplane restrooms cuz gross. There's a reason why 'No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service' signs exist. So now that I know this is a no-no, will I continue to take off my shoes? Yeah, probably. I am courteous to my fellow passengers in all other respects so I feel they can give me a pass on this one.

     I packed my backpack for the first time today and I'm still weighing in at about 15lbs. :( Part of me really just wants to just throw some toiletries in a handbag and go to the airport with the clothes on my back.  You laugh, but it's been done! The good news is that the bag is not full, there's about 30 percent of free space. The thing that's causing the weight is my laptop. I'm a little conflicted about leaving it behind. It has been my lifeline when sitting in airports and wasting time in B&Bs/hotels, but 3lbs really does make a difference!

     So I'm outta here in about 3 weeks and I dunno. I'm having weird feels like I do. It's sort of a 'oh god, the time is near it's almost here.' , followed by 'oh god, i'm getting closer to it's almost over!'. I'm already looking ahead to next year. Currently I'm looking at Lencois Maranhenses in Brazil, Iceland, Guadeloupe, or Fiji. I'm in the mood for weird landscapes..ok Fiji not so strange but  pretty far flung.
We'll cross that bridge later. For now I will be dreaming of  La Dolce Vita and some fine Italian leather boots!

I'm in the mood!

Friends of mine have recently tripped out to Europe and it's been kind of nice to hear about their adventure. It didn't start off great as their luggage was lost by the airline and remained lost for the first couple of days **insert finger waggy carry-on only lecture here**. Miraculously the airline found it right before they were to head out to another country. Aside from that, to hear of their walks in Paris and drinking in Spain had me walking in their shoes vicariously. I wanted to keep the feeling of inspiration going so I bought 3 travel books to keep me in the mood so to speak. One of which I'm reading right now called The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost and it's hilarious! A quick synopsis is this guy in his 20s has no idea what to do with his life other than he doesn't want to work a 9 to 5. He sets off with his girlfriend who's gotten some NGO type job on an island in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific. He's a complete fish out of water and the culture shock is immense which I think anyone who has traveled internationally can understand on some level. Anyway I highly recommend it. The other two that I haven't gotten to yet are Vroom with a View by Peter Moore and A Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by the late David Foster Wallace. I also want to include a book that I have read in the past about the glory and travails of women travelling called Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures which is a compilation of funny stories/essays from women on the road.

     I am a month away from this trip and have bought at least three of my train tickets in advance, most of them longish 3 to 4 hour journeys. I have not booked the regional trains because it appears that they will not allow the ticketless option. I'll just have to get those the day of departure. It was really easy booking through the Trenitalia website and I was really surprised and delighted that they had Economy fares which made my train budget less expensive than I had projected! Win! For the most part I will be travelling in second class on the fast FrecciaRossa, Bianca, Argento trains with some Regional trains thrown in. I considered first class, but after researching, I found that there wasn't a big difference between the two to really justify the cost.
   
     Well, I take that back. I will be taking one first class train from Spello via Florence to Milan just because I don't like the look of the rules for Standard service. Maybe I am interpreting it wrong, but it looks like they won't guarantee the seat if it's sold out. It will be the most expensive ticket clocking in at 122 USD. I haven't bought it yet, because there's a regional train connection (so no ticketless or maybe it's too early). Since it will be late October, I'll have time to buy it in advance. First class has less seats in the cars, therefore a bit more room, and I think they have a little snack they dole out. Second class seems a little more fun and less..I dunno..stuffy? It seems a lot of business people and Americans (no offense, we, generally speaking, just love our personal space) take 1st class. I'm kind of excited about taking the trains! I think it will be much better than flying, just because there's actual scenery, aside from clouds, that I can see. It may be ugly factory cities or beautiful countryside, but it will be something other than half a wing, some clouds, and maybe a mountain. The longest ride I'll be taking will be from Matera to Spello clocking in at nearly 9 hours which means I will have to wake up at a god-awful hour of 5:30am to make the train at 7am. Matera to Bari (Regional train 2 hours), Bari to Ancona ( Frecciabianca nearly 4 hours), Ancona to Foligno (Regional 2 hours) and finally Foligno to Spello (? 4 minutes).  No vacation would be complete without torturing myself. Whee!

                             

 I can't decide what I should do once I am in Rome. There's so much! There are the big sites that I think I will just take the hop on/hop off tourist bus or walk like The Colosseum, The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, etc. I want to see the Crypt of the Capuchin Monks and I really want to see the Vatican, but the crowds..ugh. There is a VIP tour on Viator where it's a small group and you get to go to the secret Vatican rooms I'm very tempted to just suck it up and do it as it is the one place that I think would be a huge disservice if I missed it. I'm not even religious, but the art people, the ART!  There are cheaper skip the line tours, but from everything I've read you'll be fighting for elbow room. To see it unfettered without hundreds of other people jostling for space sounds lovely. Should I splurge? All the reviews for it point to 'Yes!'. Funny enough, I haven't given a second thought to the other big city I'm visiting: Venice. I think Venice isn't a place to 'do', it is a place to 'be', much like the small towns I'm visiting. They have major sites there, but if I miss them it won't be such a big deal as just simply being in Venice and seeing it with my own eyeballs is enough.

     So, everything is coming together. I have one hotel left to book in New York for my long layover before heading home, but I think I'm just going to crash out at an airport hotel. I would like to stay in the city, but holy hell is it expensive..well the hotels and locations I'd like to stay are. Plus the getting to and fro Manhattan will not come cheaply. I've never flown into or out of JFK before so I don't really know what the options are. I just remember when I lived in Queens I made the colossal mistake of going seeing a friend off at the airport. We took a taxi there, but I was so poor, I decided to take the bus back and got horribly lost in Brooklyn. The bus driver just dropped me at some random neighborhood saying it was the end of the line. The only thing I knew about Brooklyn back then was Bensonhurst and the Yusef Hawkins killing. Let's just say I walked briskly. I have no idea how I was able to make it back to Queens.

     I got my backpack! I still haven't packed it out yet to see how it feels, but it looks nice.

     On the left is my year old Kelty Redwing 50 and on the right is my brand new REI Vagabond Tour 40L. As you can see it's much more streamlined and a bit smaller. There are two pockets on the sides, and a top pocket. I kept reading that there was no laptop pocket, but there is a pocket inside the bag where you can put a laptop. Since it's front loading it will make it difficult to whip it out when going through security, but on this trip I won't be catching a lot of planes in-country so the annoyance factor I think will be minimal. There is a back panel to hide the backpack straps, and a pocket on the bottom of the bag to hide the panel away. It is a bit awkward to get it in and make the velcro line up to close it. Those are my only complaints thus far. We'll see what happens when I put stuff in it.

     The language learning is chugging along. It's so strange. I will read a newspaper and think, 'Oh no  I don't know any of these words!', but when I have normal conversations then I do sort of ok. I halt and stammer still, but I feel myself getting a bit better day by day. I have to remember my short term goal is simply to make myself understood for my immediate wants and needs and not a UN interpreter. I'll worry about fluency for my next trip. ;)