Wish me luck!

10 days, 3 cities, couchsurfing, a gay hostel, and single boy with a backpack...this is going to be interesting...

Leaving tomorrow morning at 9. Wish me luck! Back on November 6 - with more photos and stories (hopefully!) than you can shake a wienerschnitzel at.

Berlin, Prague, and Vienna - brace yourselves.

xoxo
Jai'me

Just Sayin...

Barcelona

As I mentioned before, I recently had a bout of tonsillitis which, among other things, rendered me completely useless and miserable for a couple of days. I went into the hospital on Monday and, while I knew I had already booked/paid for my trip to Barcelona starting Thursday (and that I wasn't going to miss that), I didn't know that I would be on antibiotics and, therefore, unable to drink. Devotees to my life will be astonished to hear that, in the 4 days that I was in Barcelona last weekend, a city about which I've heard nothing but stories of all-night partying, I didn't have a drop of alcohol. Yep. Imagine, me searching the city for non-alcoholic beer the entire time. It was a little surreal. Not to mention depressing.

However, the stars aligned and it turns out that the group I went with, all classmates from NABA, turned out to be, well, not the partying crowd. All was for the best: I was hellbent on getting healthy (after all, I leave on Friday for a 10-day backpacking trip to Berlin, Prague, and Vienna, a solo excursion I have every intention of being social and blitzed for) and was able to see the city in a different light than what I've heard about this whole time.

And, as it turns out, there is more to Barcelona than partying. It's a beautiful city, hands-down. Many different neighborhoods, easy to find weed (thank you, Jesus), and generally a good time. I was able to do some light shopping and feel the ocean breeze on my skin. The best part? That one day, I will revisit, possibly with you, and treat the city the way that my tonsils treated me: like a worthless whore that can do nothing but serve its host. Hun, I deserve it.

Damn, Countess LuAnn gets around. She gets inside your head, man!
My beer of choice: 0.0% Free Damm

At the Park Guell, which was designed by Gaudi (of course) and offers an amazing view of the entire city.

Obviously, in heaven.

Back...With a Vengeance!

I know it's been a while (okay, a couple of weeks) since I've posted anything. In reality, a lot has happened since my trip to Venice, including a 3-day stint in an Italian hospital with a 104-degree fever and a diagnosis of tonsillitis. I have learned a lot, including an entire vocabulary of health-related Italian, and that a couple of my roommates are, frankly, assholes. But what can you expect? There have been good times, too. Lots of ups and downs, especially in the romantic sector, and traveling just keeps getting better.

Speaking of which, I present you with photos from a recent day trip my friend Kristina and I took to Lago Maggiore, a lake just about an hour away from Milano, and Isola Bella, an island in the middle of the lake that was once home to a royal family's summer home and now boasts white peacocks, goregous palazzos, and amazingly authentic restaurants. I highly recommend.
My wardrobe, along with my horizons, is expanding, and you can get a glimpse of my new babies - my Liberty of London scarf from 10 Corso Como, the original concept store, right here in Milan, and my Desigual jacket, which can be seen in my new blog header, which itself is inspired by Beyonce's new music video for the soon-t0-be-classic Countdown.

Enjoy!

Venezia, Day 3

Finally, the last installment of my trip to Venice. My train was at 1 so I had a good part of the day to explore some more.

The Rialto fish market during the day (on a Sunday). As you may know, Italy almost shuts down on Sundays, a surviving characteristic of their intense devotion to religion, specifically Catholicism.

I sat on this dock for a good 45 minutes.
You see many forms of aquatic transportation in Venice, and I loved this one.

Anyway, I made my train back to Milano with no problem and was able to bask in the glory of the weekend. I had a great time and met some cool girls at my hostel, who I have hung out with a couple of times in Milano since then. I loved the experience and hope to visit again in the future. Who knows, maybe next time I will be with a boyfriend, even a husband...Crazier things have happened. For now, it was a fantastic experience and one I'll never forget. Now I realize the plus-side of making those damn milkshakes all summer to pay for this trip...I would do it all over again.

Ciao
Jai'me

Venezia, Day 2 (Part 2)

Later that day, I took a 15-minute vaporetto ride (explained below) to an island called Lido, off the coast of Venice, to go to the beach, an aspiration born partly of the desire to cool off, partly out of the desire to say I swam in the Adriatic Sea, something Beyonce does every summer.
View of Lido from the Vaporetto

Speaking of Beyonce, could this be the yacht she famously spent her 30th birthday on (or should I say infamously, considering that Gwyneth Paltrow was an attendee, their friendship being an aspect to B's personality I am wildly against). No, it's not. It's simply one of the many cruise shits - oops, I mean ships - anchored in Venice's harbor.

Holding on during vaporetto rides is not only authentic and stylish, it's necessary.
Speaking of vaporetti, this is an example of a vaporetto dock. Vaporetti are passenger ferries that act as Venice's metro system. This is a stop, specifically Arsenale, not fare from San Marco. It's expensive, at over 6 euros per trip, but Jai'me was smart and bought a 36 hour pass for 24 euros.

A vaporetto. Notice they have the line number on the side and the destination, just like any other metro. This is the #1 for example, in the Lido direction.

I treated myself to a fantastic lunch/dinner and enjoyed my favorite Italian drink - the Spritz - consisting of Campari and Prosecco, which unofficially has the gayest name in cocktail history.

A seagull in the midst of pigeons in San Marco square. I know how he feels sometimes...
After lunch I went to Palazzo Ducale, or the Doge's Palace, an incredible place that was the seat of Venetian government for centuries.


View of Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore from Palazzo Ducale
Later in the day, a view of the Rialto Bridge from a vaporetto.

Okay, SO. In terms of American tourists, these had to be the worst. We were on a vaporetto and the woman decides when she wants to get off that to solve the problem of intense crowding on the boat - a given in Venice, a city whose entire economy is basically funded by tourism - that she will start screaming "CAN WE GET OFF!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THE PROBLEM, CAN'T WE GET OFF!?!?!". I was like, wow, they're so embarassing. Then I saw the LSU t-shirt.

I unfortunately saw them several times throughout the trip, always in the same clothes.

However, what a magical day nonetheless. So much exploring and listening to music and seeing things I never dreamed of. Very peaceful for the most part and so great to spend time alone.

After all of this I met up with my new hostel buddies Jennifer and Candace and we went to dinner and had some Fragolino, my new favorite variety of wine, that tastes like a strawberry jones soda with alcohol in it (the Italian word for strawberry is fragolina). I suggest you try it - the wine and Venice.