Transcending Borders With Seeds in Our Hands

You all know that I have all the luck when it comes to getting myself into awkward situations with some of the most odd-ball people on the face of the earth–exhibit A: My flight home from New Zealand where the guy turned to me and asked me if we were going to die that night and told me that I look like Stuart Delgado (still no clue who he was talking about) or Exhibit B: The African guy with blood-shot eyes on my train to Riva Del Garda who got up from his seat EVERYTIME the train stopped and tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “We at Trento?!?!”. Anyway, I got on a bus from Rijeka, Croatia to Split, an 8 hour trip. I had two seats all to myself until Zadar when a woman got on and asked if the seat was free in Croatian. I reluctantly said yes, hiding my mild contempt with a smile and a nod. We pulled out of the station and not ten minutes later my neighbor’s head was bobbing and jolting with the movements of the bus. Then her shoulder dug into my arm, her head tilted down to awkwardly rest on my shoulder, and light snoring sounds began drifting into my left ear. No matter how abruptly the bus driver applied the breaks or turned the corner in a favorable direction, so that her head might jerk the other way and wake her so that she could realize our intimate proximity and mutter, “Oh, excuse me!” in Croatian. I didn’t know whether to hold my ground and protect my personal space from further intrustion with a hard nudge or to retreat towards the window. But with the latter, she might have come further in my direction and have left me a pancake against the window. I thought, “Great…we’re only halfway through the trip and I’m going to have to deal with this all the way to Split.” I attempted to keep reading my book but, of course, kept having my concentration broken. What was strange about the whole situation was that everytime the bus stopped to pick up more passengers she instinctively woke up and turned and asked them if she was at such-and-such a stop. They would reply, “No, not yet,” and my personal war with the obviously seriously sleep-deprived woman would begin again. Luckily, she got off at the second stop after awakening through what I perceived as habit, leaving me to wonder how often she unabashedly relies on a stranger’s shoulder to carry her between stops.

I ended my travels in Italy in Venice. The city itself was indeed smelly and dirty and overcrowded as everyone will tell you, but it did have its charms as well. My time in Venice ended up being the most lucky coincidence because I was walking around at dusk and tried to walk through the many archways into San Marco Piazza but they were all blocked by policemen! I would walk through an alley, over another bridge and again, there was another policeman blocking the entrance. I had no idea what was going on. I eventually came to the part of the piazza right by San Marco’s Basilica and I could make it into the square but most of it was blocked off for some kind of concert. I looked around to see if I could find out who was performing and then I saw a sign saying “Bocelli tickets.” I couldn’t believe it! And the concert started not half and hour after I got there. I got to hear Andrea Bocelli perform live in Venice’s San Marco Square. Since we had the free tickets (standing outside the dividers that blocked off the concert) we couldn’t really see anything. I could see Bocelli and the conductor just barely through a crack in the barracades. There was a full choir and orchestra and a lead soprano whose name I still cannot find. She had a fantastic voice though…probably the best I’ve heard in a live performance. At several points the clock tower in the square began chiming and everyone turned to look at it in disgust, like, “How dare you attempt to make the singers go out of tune!” Bocelli ended with a beautiful duet which must have been his signature song because my fellow listeners were ooohing and ahhing the whole time. After it ended, since we were already in a standing ovation-of-sorts, all we could do was clap all the louder and yell “Bravi!”

There's not much to say about the Italian Lakes that hasn't already been said. They are gorgeous and that is pretty much I did; admire them. I didn't allow myself enough time to really enjoy Como. I only stayed one ... [Continue reading this entry]

I got bored with Milan pretty quickly after seeing the Duomo, which was incredible, but that was pretty much the only sight I'll remember fondly. I walked to La Scala, the opera house where Verdi and other major operatic composers ... [Continue reading this entry]

I took the train from Sorrento to Napoli, a surprisingly short trip, and met quite the old Italian character on the way. He sat down right next to me and started pestering this group of older French ladies who were ... [Continue reading this entry]

I got into Sorrento and COULD NOT find my hostel. Even with looking it up on Google maps and asking a few people I could not find it. I walked and walked. I think I saw all of Sorrento. That's ... [Continue reading this entry]

Okay, I know I'm cheating by skipping way, way ahead, but I think that I will be more likely to keep up with my blog each day if I don't have a month's worth of writing looming over my head. ... [Continue reading this entry]

While in Crete, I had an okay time...the people were not much more friendly and the main sights I wanted to see--the Minoan Palace, Knossos and the Venetian Harbor of Chania--were both very disappointing. They both had a Disneyland-type feel ... [Continue reading this entry]

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And so it begins again! I flew into London around 7:30a.m. on Virgin Atlantic, which was a fantastic airline. I highly recommend it. We flew right along the Thames so I could see all the famous sights of London. You ... [Continue reading this entry]