Rodey on the Road

Part I in a sure to be inaccurately named trilogy of lessons learned on the road:

1. When lost in Paris, follow the 3 B’s, and you will always find your way: Boulangerie, Big Dogs, Beautiful Women
2. Wander a new city without a map, just give yourself some time to explore
3. Wander the same city with a map, go somewhere not shown on the map.
4. Get off the train at a station you didn’t intend to- but take your bags with you
5. Order something off the menu that you have no idea what it is.
6. Order water to wash it down just in case
7.Go to a local mall, grocery store, department store, just to browse around.
8. If you only learn one phrase in the local language, learn thank you, and use it often.
9. Smile
10. See the city in the rain.

more to come…

So I have a plane to catch tommorrow to Barcelona, I won’t be on it. I have fallen in love with Paris and France, and I will be staying here for some time. So I haven’t updated the blog for a spell, and here is a rough breakdown. I met my dad in Paris, ate my face off, eddy left. Me and my dad rented a car and drove up to Dieppe, along the coast to Mont St. Michel, down to Anger and along the way we stopped to see his uncles grave, and then from Anger we went to Versaille, and from Versaille we returned to Paris. I could go on and on about the absolutely incredibly, beyond descrpition french food that i had, but I won’t bore you all with the details. Lets just say its good. And leave it at that. So on my trip, in very brief, I saw the Juno Beach Centre, Juno Beach, a museum about Dieppe, alot of Canadian Flags marking the sacrifice made by the Canadians in northern france, I saw some incredibly beautiful chateaus and churches, I came to the conclusion that gargoyles are Jesus’ minions of darkness, I was an excellent navigator and got us to our destinations in a timely and gas efficient manner (despite anything my Dad says) and I ate alot of great unbelievable food if I forgot to mention that. So now I’m in Paris with my dad, the final night, we went out for steak, for a beer or two, or in his case calvados, which is a stronger drink that feels as if you are being given a curb smiley every sip of the way down.
So I’ve fallen in love with France, I will be trying our for les ducs d’Anger, a French League hockey team who has two French Goalkeepers, one who is apparently about 150lbs. So I sent off a couple postcards today, a couple more to go tommorrow, and a few more the next day I think. Basically I’m just having a great time, this post is to just let you know what I’ve been up to, I’m going to make another post just with some random facts or something, and I hope everyone is enjoying their time at home. I have realized how out of the loop I am, so if you have any news from home, or even if your home is not mine, and you would like to share what you have been up to lately or your plans for the near future, it would be great to hear whats been going on outside of my travelling bubble. Apparently its monday, I just lost a day of my life, I need a calendar.

Hello children. Bienvenue, and may I add, I am moving to Paris. Easily the most beautiful city I have ever seen, it has the eiffel tower, the louvre, the opera house, notre dame, the arc de triumph, the champs de elysees. The women here are generally beautiful and just have a way of carrying themselve and a style that I’ve never seen anywhere else, and the whole outlook on life and the way the city is structured is just so wonderful. Sitting in outdoor cafes, facing the street, watching life go by…its like a garage sit in one of the best cities in the world.

So yesterday we went to the Louvre, so Mona, she’s doing OK, and we saw a bunch of other paintings and statues as well, some really unbelievable stuff, and also some stuff that should have been left in the basement. Apres le louvre, we ventured to go see Notre Dame Cathedral, there was mass goingon when we got there and architecturally, it is incredibly beautiful, but I just have this weird thing with being in churches, especially during mass, so it was kind of iffy. From Notre Dame, we headed to the Champes Elysees, where we went around the roundabout surrounding the arc de triumph. It is crazy, as are the Parisian drivers, but it was still very enjoyable. We sat in an outdoor cafe on the street, and then headed to the eiffel tower. Eddy and I walked up as far as you can go, then took an elevator all the way to the top, it was quite the incredible view, and it was a little overcast at the time.

From the eiffel tower we headed to go see good old Napoleon Bonaparte, and the armery. Napoleons doing OK considering….. anywho, after a little walk around there, we met the girls and went on our boat cruise. There are some incredible views of the city to be seen from the Siene, and after we had seen most of them, the girls and eddy and I hopped off at the eiffel tower. The girls went up, Eddy and I lay out on the grass watching the world go by (it really is fun, to just observe for a while) and then Dianne and I busted out the carousel across the street. We had a race, I had the little pony but he had all the heart, so I won, boo yah. We wandered for an insanely long time trying to find horse meat, or steak cheval as its known, but as we were in a fairly touristy area, none of the restaurants had it. Everyone had heard of it, but nobody knew where to get it apparently. So I had to settle for a meal of wine, smoked salmon, steak with bernaise sauce, and chocolate mousse. I know, it was terrible. So from dinner we headed to the red light district, the moulin rouge. We went to an Irish pub, started drinking, and Dianne and Kate started talking about the military a little bit (Dianne just got out, Kate is stationed in the middle east right now) and the guys at the table next to us overheard, and evidently they were all US Army as well. So the booze flowed, and we decided to go out to a strip club. Travel tip: dont waste your money on strip clubs in paris, just dont do it. It was terrible, it was boring, it was overpriced, it was just a bad experience all around. But that’s only in Paris, in the interests of science, I will have to explore other cities globally. So we left, returned to the Irish bar for more guiness and a crazy drunk french man showing us slight of hand tricks with his cigarette. We passed out in the girls room because we had no idea what time it was (530 or 6ish I think) and then this morning we made our way back to the hotel.

I’m loving Paris, easily the best city I’ve ever been to, the only thing that I find rather disagreable is the price. Every time I see the menu I just want to go surfing in a hurricane, sans board. Well that is what is going on, I will end the post card trivia as nobody has gotten it right.
The Irish Car Bomb was correct, I was not wearing underpants (yesterday was the first day in about 4) and the reason I’m down a pair of boxers is because I had to use my one clean pair as a towel.

So to everyone that played, nice try, thanks for coming out, and hopefully you will all have better luck next time.

Ok,so as of the last entry, I was at the pink palace. The hostel was fun, met a lot of great people, keeping in touch with a bunch hopefuly, and we even trained it up to paris with a couple of the girls we met, dianne and kate. This is just the beginning of the story. So we all get to the town to buy our ferry tickets, but they’re on a siesta, so we have a couple of hours to kill. We find a wallet with about 500 euros in it, and we decide to take it to the police station. Me and Dianne stay next to the store that is about to open while eddy and kate take the wallet. While dianne and I are waiting, and old man comes up and tries to take my backpack, not run off with it, but casually bends down and picks it up. I take it back and tell him that I think this ones mine, he asks to see my ownership papers for it. I tell him I have the papers and he shouldnt worry about it. He asks Dianne if I’m a good guy, she confirms that indeed I am, and he shakes my hand. After about three pumps of the hand, he slaps me in the face. I was in shock. He reaches for Diannes hand, kisses it and wanders off. Crazy greek man. Anyways, we get to the ferry place and the ferry we were trying to get on stopped running the day before, so we had to catch a one hour ferry to the mainland where we would then catch another ferry. We got on our ferry, got to the next port where our ferry was about half an hour late to pick us up. So we all piled on and broke out the party favours we had purchased in the duty free shop and played kings. Dianne and I stayed up talking in the cafeteria area till fairly late, and we had to get up very early. We awoke, actually got to our port of call, and hopped on a train from Bari, Italy to get to Milan, in hopes of switching to a sleeper train to paris. Well it took about 5 hours but we got to Ancona, and the train was stopped for a very long time. We asked around and everyone agreed it would be another hour before the train left. None of us had eaten so Dianne and I left to go get pizza and beer for the four of us. We were gone a total of 9 minutes, and when we returned, the train was gone. Our bags, all our stuff, my eurail passes, was missing. All I had was my money, my passport and my pizza and beer. So we tried to figure out what to do, but the information place wasnt all that helpful, and the ticket counter was even less help, so we ate our pizza before it got too cold. We regrouped and figured out a plan that would get us on a train to Milan with about 10 minutes to spare before our connection. It worked out, we got to Milan (we didnt have seats until the last hour, we had to sit on the stairs in between cars) but we made it to the station. We searched frantically for Eddy and Kate but could not find them. 45 minutes later, after we had left the station to go look for a room for the night, and requested the police to page them in the station, we returned for one last look, and there were Kate and Eddy. The original train had just arrived, very very late. So we got a room, well Dianne and I did, we booked a double and talked the guy down from 170 to 80. Then we tried to sneak in Kate and Eddy,but we got busted, so he made an exception that we could all stay as long as we were out by 5. I woke up at 5 in the morning to see the man working there standing over my bed telling me it was time for us to go so he wouldnt get in trouble. We made it onto our train, and it was very very long, but eventually we arrived in Paris. We managed to get to my Dad, after of course, I had to pee in the metro station (and I do mean in the station, there was no bathroom around so i peed in a garbage can when nobody was looking). Anyways, we went out, had some really great steak, had a beer and returned home. Tommorrow we’re off to the louvre, to do laundry, possibly notre dame, and then a river cruise with eddy, my dad, kate, dianne and me before the four of us children (well me and eddy are children, kate and dianne are 21 and 25) are off to go party in the moulin rouge area. Should be a good update next time.

Note: Nobody has won the last postcard question, there have not been three correct answers from anyone. So lindsay, you’re still in the running.

We are staying at the pink palace on Corfu, and I know during the summer months it is known as a huge partying and hooking up place. It definetly is not as bad during the off season (now), but there are still remnants of that vibe around. The place where we eat dinner is also a night club, and theres a pub just down the street that I believe I’ve mentioned before, but if not, it’s Mike’s Dancing Pub. So our first day here involved a nap, I went for a walk to explore the town. It is a very very tourist oriented town, all the menus are in english, offering plate smashing and traditional greek music at every dinner. I looked at the photos of some of these dinners, and it reminded me of a scene out of the its a small world ride at disneyworld. For me anyways, I always thought that traditonal music just sort of happened, rather than being performed for tourists all the time. I was looking for an actual traditonal greek place, but couldnt find one, so I sat down on the place with the english in the small words and the greek menu as the main focus. It was a little food stall, actually a hole in the wall place, and the chef didnt speak english-this was looking promising. It was a mom and pop joint, pop cooked, mom dealt with customers, cash register and cleaning. While I was waiting, it had stopped raining, and from a staircase at the side, the grandmother appeared carrying the couples daughter. I gathered the baby had just woken up from a nap and was being brought to see her parents. The chef/father swept her up in his arms, began gently rocking her back and forth, gently singing to her some greek lullaby. I think I found the only authentic traditional greek music in town.

Some of the other stuff we have been doing isn’t quite as noteworthy or culturally significant-taking a break, swimming, relaxing on the beach. Eddy went on a quad safari while I opted to take the bus into Corfu Town with Laurel, a girl from Calgary, and spend the day wandering around there searching for more traditonal greek experiences. We weren’t overwhelmed by our discoveries, but we managed to find a restaurant with no english on the menu and by cutting down a back alley we found the market that contained almost all locals. Speaking of the girl from Calgary, we have met more Canadians here than anywhere else on our stay. The day after the trip into town, the Booze Cruise was on. Now the booze cruise involves getting on a boat, sailing out, going cliff jumping, cave exploring, to a monastery, to a secluded private beach and getting rather intoxicated on the boat while doing it. The cliffs were great, I jumped off the 69footer, and it was early on so the climb up was that difficult. The swimming in the caves was eery at time, we swam deep enough in that I couldnt see my hand in front of my face, but I could hear the bats screeching overhead. I also may or may not have indulged in a few beers, but I will say this: there was a skulling war between a bunch of guys from England, and me and a bunch of aussies. I am not usually a chugger, and I was batting cleanup (going last, pressures on) and I downed that faster than I have ever downed anything else before. You would have been proud of me for representing Canada.

A special note to the ladies of the group: I am apparently a fabulous dancer. Last night I met this girl and became very very interested in her very quickly because of our initial conversation. (she wanted to talk hockey, she knows alot about the NHL, and my god, I love talking about hockey). So there were about 5 of us in a group, including a guy from the mountain in Hamilton, and we all went down to Mike’s Dancing Pub. Now this girl I met, Diane, is apparently a dance instructor, and I had been drinking since about noon (I didnt say the cruise started late, its more of an all day thing) and I was with her step for step, so watch out ladies, mikeys got moves.

Oh, and the keeping my clothes streak was dashed last night. I may or may not have attempted to have a no pants party in my room while eddy, laurel and trista were right there, and I may or may not have been the only one to participate. I may or may not have been the one whose white ass was running down the road and jumping into the Mediterranean at 4am this morning/last night. I won’t say. Hope all is well and to those faithful readers, I apologize for the tardiness in this blog update.

And for a postcard, all three of these questions must be answered correctly. The subject is mike’s underweard.
1. Is mike wearing underwear right now?
2. Mike left with four pairs of boxers, he now only has three in rotation. This is because:
a) he tossed one out, it was taking up too much room
b)it got stolen as some kind of weird souvenir
c) he still has the fourth pair but it is not used as a towel along with his bandanas
d) he went out for mexican food again and blew a hole through the cotton
3. What is an “Irish Car Bomb” (other than really tasty)?

Good luck, and God Speed.

Alright kids, I have been unable to update the blog for the past couple days for a couple of reasons, and I will mention them as I tell my story. We went from Vienna to Venice, where we would change trains and head to Bologna, Italy. There was some confusion about which train station to get off at, and we ended up having to run for a train, but we got on, and we ended up in Bologna. My mom had offered me and Eddy one night stay at a nicer hotel if we ever needed sleep, and after our 9 or so hours on trains that day, in closed compartments with many people, I decided that was as good a time as any. So we checked into a fancy hotel, and if anyone as wondering what the guy who designed the star trek enterprise is up to, well he is now designing hotels. This thing was very futuristic and it took eddy and me 5 minutes to figure out how to open the door, and another 15 to figure out how to turn on a light. We spent the night ,got very well rested, and were off the next morning to Bari, Italy, a port town near the top of the heel of the boot. We got there, after about a 7 and a half hour train ride in a compartment with three very stunning italian women and a very nice italian man. We determined that the man and two of the women were family, his wife and his daughter, and they had just met the thrid woman, because as soon as the third woman got off the train, a big family feud broke out. They didnt seem to mind that we were there, after all, we couldn’t speak italian. So on went the conversation. We got to Bari, got on a ferry that left at 10 and our stop was at 6 the next morning. We met an aussie and two girls from canada, found a duty free store on board, bought some alcohol that was cheaper than a bag of chocolate bars, started playing games, didnt realize what time it was till I went to bed at 330. Another thing I didnt realize was that our ferry was about 45 minutes ahead of schedule, and there was a time change involved. I slept through our stop while Eddy ran around an enclosed area for 45 minutes trying to find me apparently. C’est La Vie. We got off the boat at the next stop, Patras, and bought a ticket to Corfu, except we had about 13 hours to kill until our ferry was leaving. I spent the day walking, reading, sitting in greek cafes and sleeping on the edge of the pier with the mediterranean breeze blowing over me. Very nice day indeed. Right before we got on the next ferry, I have to say, I had two of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten in my life, they were mind blowing. So we got on the boat, got a nice spot out in the open so we could have the breeze, we even got two reclining deck chairs to sleep on. We also got rained on, so we had to move when the downpour rose us from our slumber. I changed into a sweatshirt, pants and socks to compensate for my soaking wet sleep sheet, and I had possibly one of the most uncomfortable sleeps I have ever had.
Long story short, we’re in Corfu, during our orientation at the place we are staying, they gave us a shot of pink Ouzo (a greek drink that tastes like black licorice). Should be good here, tommorrow there were be a post card question up, it will be fairly easy, and it will hopefully be easy enough for those who havent won yet. Take it easy everyone, I’m off to a little greek place called “Mike’s Dancing Pub”

im leaving. i got here, i slept, i woke up, i had a bad feeling. We spent all day wandering (not that we were lost, but we didnt have a map and we didnt know where we were or where our hostel was). So we were talking with this girl in the bar last night, and she has stayed at the pink palace in Corfu, Greece. Apparently it is just as cheap as the places we are staying at, has its own private beach, one euro beers, and includes breakfast and a large dinner. It is also on a greek island, and has day trips like the booze cruise (that involves cliff diving and drinking) and atv safaris and alot of other stuff. So rather than headed to venice like we planned, we are going to bologna, italy tommorrow and depending on train connections, we are either spending the night there or trying to get as close to Bari, Italy as possible, where the fairie for Corfu leaves from. so thats the plan as of now, things are going ok, been feeling really tired the past couple days, so i figure a couple days in a little city and on a beach should be good. there also is a weekly toga party, and lord knows i enjoy those. hope everyone is enjoying themselves, and stay tuned for the next postcard question.

that´s right, woman, not girl. But we’ll get to that later. so yesterday we went on our ice cave tour. it was up on a mountain, we took a bus and a gondola and hiked for a while to get to the cave. Everyone there was bundling up in sweatshirts, pants, layers, jackets, a parka in a couple cases, and there was me and eddy, in our shorts and tshirts. austrians dont know shit bout cold. So we went into the worlds biggest ice cave, it was pretty cool except in the interests of keeping it natural, they dont take in flashlights or anything, just lanterns, so it was hard to see alot of the stuff. There were massive stalacmites and stalactites that formed things that looked like polar bears or castles and it was pretty crazy. It was cool, but very expensive, i don’t know if i would’ve paid the kinda money we did to go see it. Anyways, now that the nice little tour is out of the way, let me talk to you about last night. On this tour, were these two american girls, ann and kate. They were staying at our hostel so i invited them to come out drinking with us that night. Eddy decided not to drink, so did our buddy john, so it was me and the two girls who were going to be the ones taking them down. Eddy kept to his word, didnt drink, john had a couple once we were out. So we had a couple beers at the hostel, went to the strip of irish pubs and bars in the old city and started our night. Bar number 1, nice atmosphere, quiet, early, just a couple pints. Bar number 2: a little livelier, a few more beers, conversation starts to shift to things that aren´t exactly philisophical discussions. the conversation then shifted to how to tell if a girl is into a guy or not. they said a guy should just know, i disagreed, saying the only way i know is if the girl flat out tells me or grabs me and kisses me. I ask questions, we converse, and we decide that if a girl has her hand on a guys leg, she is aware of it, she is interested in him, and she wants to do something. I may or may not have had a hand on my leg at that point. Bar number three: we meet up with our guide from the ice caves tour, he buys some double vodkas, which the girls thought were two strong, so i have a few of those. some creepster at the corner of the bar calls me over to ask about the girls and wher eim from, and he orders us all some italian liquer, the girls think its gross, i have more than i should. by this time i am absolutely of my rocker, a guy selling flowers walks by, i barter him to a price of whatever the coin i pulled out of my pocker was, and i gave ann a flower. Now a gentleman never kisses and tells, but me being a gentleman in the loosest sense of the world will just say that i had an enjoyable evening. Now this may not be too shocking or surprising to some of you, but the best part is what the title eludes to: Born in massachusetts, she is doing some schooling in australia. The schooling she is doing is law school. she’s in her last year. she is 23 years old. As we were parting ways at the train station this morning, i called her friend over and said by the way, when you get a chance, let her know im only 17. her friend seemed shocked but very amused by this. We got on our train and we are now in vienna…i think…im pretty sure…ill let you know.

p.s. congrats moe, red bull is the drink, we have a winner.

I have very cheap internet time right now, so i thought i would post you all. Last night, again, was to be my quiet night. I figured, alright, eddys been sleeping since we got back to the hostel at like 5:30, i’ll just have an easy night, grab a bite to eat and go to sleep. I decided to grab a beer, and i sat down and was talking to these three aussie guys who’ve been travelling for about four months already. (Aussies are everywhere, you can’t esape them). They’re in their early to mid thirties from the looks of things, and they just told me about where they had been and what they had done. Then John from minesota came down, and i started talking with him about stuff, i was just about to finish my beer (by the way, these aren’t normal size beers, its go big or go home when your getting the cheap stuff on tap) when we met two other american guys, and my two aussie roommates came down. So Johno bought me another beer, which was very kind of him, and made up for him spoiling my quiet night. Anyways, the six of us end up wandering around the town at night, and they weren’t sure how to get to the bridge. So I lead the way. About two minutes later, one of the guys from the states offers up that maybe they shouldnt be letting the 17 year old lead the way. Rubbish, i got us there, in plenty of time. We wandered the streets, mostly in search of a bathroom, and ended up peeing in an alley somewhere. We got back, sat in the bar for a while, went to sleep. Eddy was still passed out after i had woken up and gone to the bank this morning, that kid sleeps so much. So i had a nice quiet walk this morning around the new part of town, and went back for some breakfast. I signed up at the ice caves tour and eddy is off trying to find a bank to cash a travelers cheque so that he can sign up to. He has about an hour to get it and make it back to sign up, so good luck to him. Ice caves should be good, and im thinking we’re heading to vienna tommorrow. (Postcard question: a man who lives in salzburg invented a very famous drink, he lives not twenty minutes from where i am staying. What is the drink?)

Take it easy kids, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

well kids, the postcard winner is katherine, the rino, ervasti. id like to thank all the late attempts for their tardy guesses, and lindsay for her drunken posting.

now i have a story for you all. i was beginning to think salzburg was a rather grand disapointment. it was bland, boring, and nothing to do on a sunday. I was tired too, so i was just going to go to bed and get a good nights sleep. There is a bar in the bottom of the hostel, so we went, and played a game of chess, i even said a couple times, im not going to drink tonight, i cant afford it. Stiegl is no guinness, but it went down fairly easy. Before I knew it I had downed a couple beers, was sitting at a table of australian and tasmanian (still australian but further down under) guys discussing travel, politics, and where the best looking women are. Croatia was a popular choice, canada was not far behind. It was also agreed upon that canadian girls are fairly easy. I talked a big game and said i fully agreed, but really, i cant get any at home, germany i have a chance, more about that later.
so the beer is flowing, its last call, we get one more, and then its after last call and we get another one. Me, Eddy, the two guys from tasmania and the bartender are sitting at a table talking, when he mentions his playstation. The tasmanian guy runs up to his room to grab a housewarming gift and we are off to the bartenders apartment to play some playstation. The gift was canadian club, and not wanting to be rude and refuse a drink after id already had too much, i had to down it. we talked about ice hockey, girls, video games, travel, politics, our life stories,…we peed of the balcony, we peed in the bush, we tricked eddy into walking down the pitch black stairs where he hurt is ankle, and in the words of dave the tazzy, the whiskey brought out the man hugs. we parted ways and got back to the room at about 4.
the next morning we ate and went to go see the eagles nest, hitlers house, in bavaria, germany. It was me, eddy, johno and james (two aussies we share a room with) and john (a guy from minnesota). On the bus on the way there, there was this girl a couple seats up who kept looking back at me. I checked the window, and no, i did not having anything on my face. She keeps casting glances my way, so i flash her my award winning smile, and she blushes and turns away. Award winning or gut wrenching, either or. Anyways, she stands up to get off at her stop and she throws a piece of paper between me and james, james almost got hit and was like, wtfff is this? The girl pointed at me and the paper, and i assumed i was to pick it up. And ladies and gentleman, mikey got a german girls phone number (house and cell) and her email address. I think im going to have to ride busses back home more often.

Anyways, we went to hitlers house, which is way up on the mountain, and i got to spend ac ouple hours climbing in the alps, which wasnt that bad, the view was incredible. I ate french fries at hitlers house, but being the dick he was, i was overcharged. Our bus was late to pick us up from the house, so we missed our connecting bus by about two minutes. To kill time we wandered the streets and there was this bright blue, icy cold river running through town. We hopped a fence, climbed down a little hill and me and the minnesota guy peeled to the boxers and jumped in. A crowd was gathering around the bridge looking at us, and i hope it was because of my rock hard body rather than they couldnt believe someone would swim in whatever that river had floating in it. It looked clean, and i can only hope it was.

So thats whats going on children, the ice caves are tommorrow and look out for more postcard trivia. Katherine being the winner is now not eligible for the prize, but she can swoop in with a correct answer and effectively nullify the competition for all others. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves, cheers.