Vienna, Austria


This beautiful city is doing me lotsa good, i feel like im getting back in touch with the music inclination in me, i wanna play the piano soooo badly! well, at least to some of Mozart´s sonatas...

Visited yet another Mozart´s apartment today in Vienna, the only one remaining after that of his birthplace and his residential place in Salzburg. I know a deadman´s living place is hardly interesting to anyone, but i felt his presence when i stood at his room where he has written some of the greatest pieces in his lifetime, the man was so talented! think ´The Magic Flute´, think ´Don Giovanni´...

Well, we know vienna gave birth to many other famous composers and took pride in being the world capital of music, so of course i also dropby to see Beethoven, Strauss and Haydn. Such geniuses...

Should be heading to Slovakia for a brief visit of its capital tomorrow...

im getting a little weary of all these running around...

some rest is definitely in order...

The germans and me


Breakfast


our cozy hut


apres ski


train travel through ice, nice...


trentino meal


italian steak


me falling on my bums, which was often


alpine view


gondolas

***


Salzburg, Austria

So much have happened in a matter of days! I left Piacenza, traveled to Verona and spent the night there, and thereon headed north towards Trento, great place, i felt completely at home amongst the dolomites, ive always had a thing for the mountain ranges and there is something about them that gives me the sense of peace...

Spent my last day in Italy partying the Italian way, Bonaventura had some of his friends (like 14) over at his place and we spent the night eating some bolognese food and good italian wine, and beer...

from trento, i stopped and visited bolzano and brixen for the day, nice quiet towns with great cathedrals and castles, and the next day went on to Brenner, nothing much there except it is the Italian-Austrian border town...took an austrian train thereon and quickly realized train travel in Austria is EXPENSIVE! im paying something like 16 euros for every 100km i traveled, as compared to the 6 euros/100km in Italy...dont i miss Italy already?

but really, crossing the border through Brenner´s pass actually means entering a whole new world, how can things change so quickly? From latino to caucasian, from cheesy creamy pasta to hot spicy austrian soup, from wine culture to beer culture, from italian plains to the snow-capped austrian alps...so different, and oh so beautiful...!

Brief stopover at Innsbruck and met up with the Bavarian girls (petra, carola and stephie) at Jenbach. We drove up to the sweetest little hut up in the mountain that overlooks the valley, and the view is just so stunning, totally unbelievable, with indescribable feeling...(quoting Jasmine)

The rest of the folks joined us in the evening and there were a dozen of us in total. Met these fantastic friends in new zealand and now we hooked up again for some get-together. Spent the night catching up and you know, drinking...

the next day, what to do in Austria except to ski? we went up the ski field in the gondola and arrived in the winter wonderland. Skiing...you either hate it or you love it, for me, i totally love it but i completely suck...the bruises now resting all over me is a testament of that. But gosh, so much fun...

Left the germans and the bavarians today and continued on my journey while everyone left for home to face reality, got in to Salzburg and right now staying with this great Austrian/German family, who´s been following my journal so far and know everything there is to know bout me...

Will be meeting my favourite composer, Mozart tomorrow at his birth place...cant wait to be totally inspired!

stay tune...



Here´s Lea and Brad again.. :p

It's been very informative traveling so far, im learning new stuffs everyday, about history, cultures, and right now political occurrences that are happening even as we speak...

as im currently staying with Dusan from Serbia in Piacenza, Italy, i am getting right-to-the-date information about the independence declaration from Kosovo, which i knew nothing about until now, gosh im just so ignorant...

the thing i wanna emphasize is, even though we (malaysians) do not have strong diplomatic ties with the Serbians and worse still, Israelis, some of my closest travel mates are from there! no one is holding grudges against anybody...

you know what a good idea is? the politicians should start backpacking around the world to learn of tolerance and acceptance of one another, and stop fighting!

and ironically, i get to know about the current hots of our election issue back home from Luca, my host in rome...i was like:'wow, really?', when he told me about it...not that i really care, if i may add...

may the best man get the victory then...

Genova, Italy


One man's meat is another man's poison...When i told my italian friends that ive incorporated Genova in my itinerary, they have advised otherwise, it's just aint worth the while, they said. Well you know what, im in love with this harbour city, and i daresay more so than Rome or Florence or even Venice!

Traveling from Pisa to Genova takes you through Cinque terre, or Five Lands, the legendary Italian fishing villages, and i didnt pitstop there simply because it is the wrong season! the mediterranean water is freezing cold this time of the year and trust me, it sucks to admire the water at a distance, just like what im going through here in Genova.

this is a vibrant city, and just like other italian cities, it is full of history and medieval buildings, but on the contrary though, and probably why i love it so much, this place is totally free of tourists!

Giovanni brought me out to a fantastic lunch today, and being the hospitable italian host that he is, he wont hear of my getting the bill, gosh, dont i just love being a traveler!

As we are all aware of, the italians are known to be gastronomes, we're talking about a nation who enjoys good food and drink! and they are very eager in sharing that trait to all who aint suffering from food disorder! A complete Italian meal consists of such in that order: Antipasti, Primi (pasta/soup/risotto), Secondi (meat course), Contorno (vegetable) or Formaggi (cheese), and closes with Dolci (sweet) with espresso.

I know i love food, but after Primi i declared that im stuffed (we each had one serving per course, as is customary, and of course, gigantic-sized serving), Gio werent so convinced, so i eventually opted for all time favourite Tiramisu, it was divine...

i later went for a coastal walk to burn off all that fats and soaked in the sun, something in which the italians are blessed with, among others, heavenly weather...

wish i can stay here for a long long time...





started off with fizzy white and bread


followed by white


antipasti


primi


Dolci


coastal walkway


genova day


genova night

geez, just when i thought the italians are a bunch of sober innocents, their alcohol is just as toxic...thanks Parrachino, for making me tipsy!

Happy V-day, guys...




Been running this song through my head lately, that's gotta say something, right?

wow, great city, awesome people, and damn, why am i doing whistle-stop traveling? three days are hardly enough to explore a beautiful city such as this...

I took a four-hour train ride from Florence to Rome this morning, and upon arrival, deposited my heavyass backpack at the station and hopped into the Metro underground...there is simply no time to lose! Rome has much to offer and the time i allocated for it does no justice to it whatsoever...

I got out of the underground and was immediately in awe...there it is, the majestic Colliseum, standing right before me, such an imposing and wonderous architecture, with so many stories to tell, among them sinister ones...

and so it is like that throughout the rest of the day, every corner you turn to, something caught not just your eyes but your breath as well, it is really an exceptional city...

and just like most of the other italian cities, it is infested with tourists...can never seem to get rid of them...it's not like i hate to share such a beautiful city with other people, it's just that, their presence hike up the entrance fee tremendously, few years back and it was free to enter the colliseum, nowadays please deposit 11 euro at the counter, tyvm...

i should feel grateful nevertheless, it is mid-winter now and they say the amount of tourists are the least this time of the year, next month onward when Easter is on, it will be three-fold no less...

After visiting the Palatino, i went to look for Luca at his place. The good thing of staying with an italian host is that, you get to see everything through an italian's eyes, you know where the best pizzerias and gelaterias are, you learn about italian language and history, and you get to experience everything the italian way...

and one of it is flying down the roman streets in the scooter! it was amazing, albeit a little chilly, but riding behind Luca, who was kinda showing off by speeding, is really a shitload of fun...it's like having a personal guide around the city with him explaining every important monuments and obelisks and even statues! you have no idea how many there are lurking in nooks and corners...

we then stopped at what he claimed as one of the best pizza place in town, and sure enough, it was really good! we had a large pizza each along with antipasto and beer...sometimes i wonder how the italians eat all that carbs and yet still maintain a near-perfect figure...Life is unfair huh?

As it is, Luca lives conveniently next to the Vatican City, so we took a stroll to say hi to the pope, and visited Castel Santa Angelo, another magnificent piece of art...More history lessons and more pictures taken...we later hopped in to his favourite bar for some live music, walked along River Tevere, where he criticized Dan Brown for his groundless story-telling, to prove his point and in reference to Angels and Demons , he brought me to the exact location where the story took place...'the dude clearly has no head or tail about Rome', he said.

I am so looking forward to more sight-seeing tomorrow...

Manuele, my host in Ferrara


princess posing for picture


The year of the rat, did you say?


Marek setting up the burner to cook lunch


Ekaitz teaching me how to make tiramisu, coffee flavour for me, and colacao flavour for him


Ekaitz digging in


the grand canal


gelato


Masqueraders


Marek and Raphael


Italy = Pigeons

***


Ferrara, Italy


Wow, so this is what i have been missing my entire life, why wasnt i born an Italian? everything about them just feel so right! so...complete...

Well, almost complete...

Upon touching down at Treviso, i waited at the carousel for my sleepingbag that wasnt gonna show, realization hit pretty quickly and i kinda accepted the cruel fact that it's gone before i even know it for sure...

having gone through worse scenario than this, i shrugged it off and before long found myself in the enchanted dreamland of Venice...It was cold, the sky was gray, and above all, it was rainy...that didnt dampen anything at all, well, at least it didnt dampen the spirit of the masquerader...

So i didnt do much on the first day, went back to Massimo's house and met two other travelers from Poland, and boy, were they totally fun to hangout with...we ate some polish sausages, drank some wine, talked a little, you know, the usual...and in about a coupla hours know everything there is to know about each other...totally cool...

the next day, the finale of Venice carnival 2008, woke up to a brilliant sunny blue-sky day, had some italian coffee and we went costume hunting! nice outfits and fancy masks can be seen everywhere, these people clearly dress to impress! we took tonnes of pictures, went out of the way outside the tourist zone, squeezing through narrow alley and trespassing through residential area, talked to the local people and joined in the local party, it was all fun!

the boys are totally equiped with travel gears, i was very much amazed when they produced a bunsen burner from their backpack and started cooking stew by the canal, and let me tell you this, that could possibly be the best picnic ive ever had, we were in our own world, enjoying the scenery to the utmost and oblivious to curious passers-by, who were most amused by our antics...

after that we stopped by the gelateria for a much needed gelato, it was beginning to feel like summer with all that sunshine and a gelato was most welcome. When night falls, we hopped in the wine shop and got ourselves a bottle of merlot each ( we later regretted not getting two bottles each), and italian merlot is really tasty (maybe i was thirsty)...we sat at the boardwalk beside the grand canal, listening to italian music, watching people dancing, totally mesmerized...

the evening party was the major attraction...everyone gathered at the piazza San Marco to begin a whole-night dancing to end the carnival, after which everyone's gonna sober up to commence a 40-day fasting till Easter...nice...

The Italians reminded me very much of the spanish, the way they party, so much freedom, and so much joy, and gosh, everyone is so beautiful...not exaggerating here...

good things end quickly, as im very much accustomed to it already, the next day, i bidded farewell to my new-found friends of Marek and Raphael, and continued on my journey...They tried to coax me into traveling with them in another direction, but plans were made and other people are expecting me else where, so i have to wave them off at the train station...and you know what, poland is officially added to my itinerary now...

***

I got off the train at Padova and went to meet with Cris, easily the most charming lady ever...we shared so many travel tales and never ran out of conversations, i truly did enjoy my two nights with her and her beautiful kids, savoring real italian food, getting so many different ideas from her approach to life, and was totally inspired...at the end of my sojourn in padova, i knew ive found yet another soulmate...

***

so much to tell, so little time...arrived in the medieval town of Ferrara today and fell in love with it instantly, it's really that easy to fall head over toes to everything and everyone here...

will talk of my experience in Ferrara next time...stay tune!