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. ;)