canadian fall

my european travels have ended for the moment, and on the whole i wish that they had never ended.
my summer in italy was incredible. it surpassed many of my visions of the people and culture which i had experienced through mass media, and my week long sprint through some of it's larger tourist destinations.
from beginning to end martina's family welcomed me, even though initially they may have thought me to be a stupid mcdonald eating, suv driving, football playing, poorly dressed white boy....well i suppose it's very possible that they still think that, but if they do, they were very polite about accommodating my canadian-ness.
italy was fantastic. hands down, flat out amazing. the positive stereotypes are all true, the history is mind blowing for all us north americans, the food is the best you could ask for, the wine is excellent and cheap, the countryside is rolling and painted green with the right ingredients for all that wine. the sea is out of a dream, the water feels like you jumped into a salty bath. basically, i can't say enough great things about this country....i hear they play soccer as well....

a place that wonderful needs a bit of negative to outweigh the positive, so throw in a bit of corruption and drivers who think theyre all behind the wheel of a ferrari and you get a pretty well balanced place.

martina has booked her flight and should be arriving in new york on the 14th of october, which although close still seems to be an unidentifiable length of time away in my mind. she will be here for over 2 weeks, and we will do our best to see toronto, ottawa and new york in that time. i am incredibly excited to be able to show her the familiar places and people which make canada home. i have been using quite a few international phone cards, and i can't wait until she is here so she can use them to call her family instead...

school,..its back. back to toronto and ryerson. i am living with dan, a friend from first year. our place is a couple blocks from campus, in a good sized townhouse style development. we've got things that suprised me quite a bit, a washing machine, dryer and a little gift from god...a dishwasher. definitely a plus.

other than that, everything is moving along.

ITALIA

i've been in italy for a few weeks now, and it still upholds the honour of being my favorite european country.
i have been working in a vineyard about 30mins from florence. the vineyard was incredible, 10 hectares of vines and olive trees. since it was located on the top of a hill it was a great place to watch the sunrise at 5:30 each morning when i had to be up for work. i was not paid, but i was given a bed and food. the people i worked with were generally alright, but in the end i realized that the situation just wasnt going to work out. generally speaking, i dont think that im afraid of physical work, but after weeks and weeks of the same repetitive motions of wrapping 10 foot tall vines around a guide wire for 6-8 hours daily...i couldnt take it anymore. additionally, my intention for being in italy is to see martina and with the early am start i could hardly keep my eyes open after 8pm.
martina's parents sensed that this wasnt the best setup, and were also put out that i was not being paid. so, they tracked down a school/seminary with a free room for me. it was really cool that they did that for me and i decided that it was a better option than the vineyard. i always thought that priests would live in a one room cell and would be lucky to have running water, but no! when i walked into my new palacial quarters i was flabergasted! what lay before my eyes but a 2 floor apartment complete with computer, television, bed and the most coveted object of all.......my own private bathroom. the first thing i did was sit upon my porcelain throne with the door open so could watch MTV. beyonce's video was on and looking very bootylicious, needless to say, i had never felt closer to god.
martina's family has been super nice, which was not entirely expected from the stereotype of the protective italian parents. they really enjoy feeding me, which is great because i really enjoy being fed. we are a great culinary team. i think my brain is subconsiously absorbing italian cooking techniques...the other day i was all alone and made pasta al dente with homemade sauce and tomatoes covered with mozzerella. what suprised me the most was that i covered everything with oil and salt.
what i tell you next may shock you, so, prepare yourselves. i am now the pround captain of a small, white Vespa (formerly driven by martina's mother). before leaving i had the impression that motorized scooters were for the stranger part of society, but absolutely everyone drives them here (does that make italy the stranger part of a global society?) after driving for a few weeks i can confidently say that if canada had a warmer climate i would be first in line to buy my new vespa. i've had a few close calls on roundabouts, and succeded in breaking a front headlight on a poorly placed post, but other than that i'm pretty amazing.
the beaches here are great, i've been to one with big waves that toss you around and another with calm blue water and white sand (which is not natural. the beach looks so beautiful because of pollution from a soda factory along the coast, if pollution looks good theres nothing wrong with it)
in a few weeks martina and i will be off to rome to visit our friend silvia who was doing the exchange in birmingham as well. she has a wicked house downtown and it should be a great and inexpensive way to see rome for a week. then, martina's family rents a house on the beautiful pollution beach, and we should be there for about 2-3 weeks to work on my tanning and reading a book on the beach skills.
after this we have been invited to a small island just off the coast of sicily for a week. i'm expecting to wear sunscreen like a layer of skin so i dont turn into a lobster.

i've done quite a few cool things here and i look forward to experiencing what else italy has to offer.
a dopo

adventures end and new ones begin

"ayup" friends and family,

it is a rainy day here in birmingham, but probably one of the last i will have the pleasure to experience. since my last post one month ago, school reached its peak, trips have been travelled and now it is time to start packing my bags and saying goodbye to all the friends i've gotten to know over this past semester. it is safe to say that i have had the most fun i possibly could have had and made the most of this exchange. i met many people from many different countries all over the globe, and travelled to a good number of countries as well. at first i found it strange that i didn't really know many british people, but i soon found that it was very fun and educating to get to know about other cultures while experiencing the english way of student living. (and if my flatmate ben is a accurate guide for the english, then i'm sure that they are great people).
at the beginning of june i found myself travelling once again. this time to a 3 day festival full of ROCK in germany. i travelled with joe america, martina and silvia the italianas and yves of germania. the festival called "rock am ring" or "rock in the ring" for all you english speakers is named so because it takes place on a formula one race track. it was absolutely out of control, imagine 80 000 of the hardest rocking germans rocking all night and sleeping all day in tents set up on the race track. there was lots of alcohol consumed, and terrible food eaten, tent sleeping and of course a heavy dose of musical entertainment. highlights for me were the kooks, muse, wolfmother, zoot woman, the smashing pumpkins and certain songs by the white stripes. it was very draining physically, but very worth the effort.
after an 6 hour overnight dash beginning directly after the last concert, joe america and i incredibly caught or flight to lisbon from stuttgart. we definately were prepared to miss our flight, but we got there with time to spare. lisbon may be one of the most fascinating places i have experienced in europe so far, the weather, the people, the city and food made a perfect combination for 5 guys who just finished school to relax and have some fun. i spent 2 days at the beach, a day and a half exploring lisbon and one day in the small city in the mountains called sintra. sintra was definately the highlight of the trip for me. the picture perfect town, with castles on the hill, and palaces with incredible gardens complete with caves 100 meter deep shafts made it unforgettable. the great part about lisbon was that it was so cheap compared to england. if i had spent 4 days in london i would have spent quadruple the money. all in all a great way to wrap up the semester.
yesterday martina and i made our way to warwick castle, one of england's best. it did not dissapoint. inside of the castle was completely furnished with period peices and very lifelike wax figures. the grounds were excellent as well. a trebuchet, victorian gardens, towers, ducks and an archery range. it was a perfect way to spend the day...even if it rained a bit.
so, on the 20th my new italian adventure begins. i'm sure that spending a summer in the tuscan hills with martina will be difficult to rival. i look forward to telling you all about it soon.
see ya

viva l'italia

hello canada,

for those of you in university, i guess you are all finished and in the summer mode by now. i, on the other hand am in the middle of crunch time. papers, exams...you all know how it goes. it has been made somewhat more difficult with the lack of a computer in my room with it being stolen and such, so the library has become my second home. i've got a paper due tomorrow and i was able to compare the rail systems in switzerland vs. canada. basically the paper focuses on how incredible swiss rail is and how much VIA Rail sucks. it will be a riveting read for my prof, i'm sure.

something more exciting than writing papers is going on with me (if you can beleive that anything could be better than whipping up a 3000 word masterpeice). i've decided not to cross back over the atlantic this summer. this summer will be european for me. a few weeks ago i joined an organization called WWOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic Farms), their deal is that organic farms from all over the world join and put their names on a list. then, people like me decide what part of the world they want to live in for a period of time and then start contacting the farms. then...wait to get "hired". they don't pay me, but they do feed me. bonus.

my decision was italy, more specifically tuscany right in between florence and pisa. last week i got a response from a farm offering me a spot. i took it immediately because of the description of what i would be doing: winemaking, beekeeping and sleeping in the same house that napoleon used to spend summers at when he wasn't conquering countries. so when i get back in late august i should be an expert in making (and sampling) wine, and making honey. maybe i'll also get over my fear of getting stung.

one strong reason as to why i chose tuscany is because martina just happens to live 15 minutes away. coincidence? not really.

i had my radio show on tuesday night. as with my previous show on CKCU, i had alot of fun, played some great music, but my friends that listened thought i had some sort of mental deficiency...which may or may not be true. i'll let you decide my mental state, listen in next tuesday from 3-5pm torontonian time. it is streamed via the world wide web at www.scratchradio.co.uk on the top left there is a link that reads "click here to listen", click it.

i've got to churn out another 500 words of pure gold, see you on tuesday.

swiss thief

it is back to reality here in birmingham. the european adventure is over, but it was amazing.
i met dad in zermatt switzerland, i was supposed to meet him at the train station to help carry all the bags...but i fell asleep. i felt pretty bad about not meeting him at the station after he travelled a grand total of 26 hours to get there, but on the other hand, i was extremely well rested.
the next day we hit the slopes, zermatt is amazing. it is a total ski town, but not in the north american intrawest style. all the hotels were small and privately owned. there was no need to make the houses look authentic like the condos at tremblant try to do, because this place was the real thing. the skiing was unbeatable. bluebird skies both days, no lineups, hardpack in the morning then the snow became alot softer getting into the afternoon. we skied 2 days (i rented some armada ar6's for any skiers out there) and really worked our legs. 2 days of heavy skiing in the alps for 2 guys who haven't been on snow this year was damn impressive, well, we were impressed with ourselves anyways.
before i go on about the rest of switzerland, let me say that the swiss have pretty much got it figured out. they chose not to join the european union, they kept the swiss franc instead of kneeling down to the euro, cities are spotless, people often speak 3-4 languages fluently. everything from cars, stores, neighbourhoods, trains, food to the incredible landscape seemed perfect and thoroughly planned. basically, the swiss know whats up.
from zermatt we used our train passes to get to lucern, which is located pretty centrally and took approx 2 hours to get to (actually you could get almost anywhere in 2 hours, the entire country is about the same size as wales or west virginia) the little town of meiringen was where we stayed for one night, if you read sherlock holmes you'll have read the last book where he an moriarty fight next to a waterfall and then fall off to their deaths, this waterfall is a real place and we trekked up the side of a mountain to bask in sir arthur conan doyle's glory. next came the tourist haven of interlaken which we stayed in for a total of 2 hours, souveniers weren't the reason we came to switzerland. bern was up next and was a near favorite for me, the old city was built around 1200 give or take a hundred years, and the street plan hasn't changed, everything is incredibly old. we stayed down the street from where our good friend albert einstein lived for a few years and visited his museum. apperently he was a smart guy, although i wouldn't have minded going head to head with him.
geneva was my favorite swiss city, bigger, faster paced, home of the UN, home of the olympic commitee, parks, awsome waterfront, a mix of old and new...it was wicked. you could almost feel the money entering your lungs when took a breath in this city...rich rich rich. ferrari, bentley, mercedes, bmw, you name the car and this city had more than you could imagine. the UN HQ was a great place, situated right on the lake, huge botanical gardens, and a massive square full of fountains. i saw kofi, we talked politics for the afternoon, great guy all around.
so, after many weeks of trains, backpacks, and hotels it was time to get back birmingham. i was ready to sit down, relax and have my feet massaged.
however, on my second or third day back, my laptop was stolen from my room as i was sleeping. it was 3am and i had put the computer on a chair next to my bed. i woke up to the sight of a dark figure in my window with my laptop in his hands. i started shouting, but he was on his way out of my window by the time i woke up. i ran outside, but the guy was long gone. i imagine that if i wasn't so incredibly angry i might have seen the humour in my situation, running around half asleep and half naked in the middle of the night. so, i got to talk to the police about 10 minutes later (super fast response time), and was told that my neighbourhood is the second most dangerous in england after some scumhole in london. great.
i figured i was safe enough to sleep with my window open, but apperently not.
anyways, ill post some pics soon, i only took a few thousand. they may take a while to sift through.

europe, the epic continent

europe,
what a wicked place. i am in lyon, france right now but let me do a recap to explain how it is that i came to arrive here:
starting with italy. so far it is my favorite country, hands down. just getting there was an adventure in itself, joe missed his plane to venice and proceeded to lose us until we found him in florence. casie and i made it from london to venice no problem, until we arrived downtown looking for our hostel (thats where hostels should be). we asked the airport shuttle bus-driver, and he told us with suprise in his eyes that our hostel was about 45 mins outside of venice (not really in venice at all). we got really really lucky when he told us that the bus depot that he was going to was only 500m down the road from our destination. 500m seems like a short distance, but when it is midnight in the middle of nowhere, walking 500m down a highway with crazy italian drivers flying past you...it seems alot longer.
venice is an incredible city, the number of canals, bridges and gondolas blew me away within 5 mins of being inside the city. the buildings are jammed together, the streets are winding and unpredictable. i found every street to be a suprise, some open up onto squares with incredible architecture, others take a turn to picture perfect canals. great city.
from venice we hopped a train south to florence. we stayed at martina's house in vinci, as in leonardo's birthplace. it was great to have a knowledgable tourguide in a city like florence, without her we would not have experienced like we did. i saw some italian nightlife, which kicks of with dinner on the dancefloor around 11:00, then people start dancing on the tables signaling that it is time to get the dancefloor cleared (a very "straight to the point" way of doing things). the place we went to was one of the more exclusive clubs in florence (i was only allowed in because martina had some sort of connection) and the 10 euro minimum price tag on drinks definately proved it.
after the night was over we were fined 200 euros because i lifted the gate at a parking garage on the way out, it may have been my idea but everybody in the car encouraged me. we were pulled over by the police halfway home as well, and martina dropped her i.d. so it was lucky to get out of that one unscathed.
the next day we got the royal tour, saw some amazing gardens, beautiful squares, michelangelo's david is everywhere, tons of history to take in. pictures will say more about the city than i can, so, wait for those.
the next day i saw the leaning tower of pisa...it really leans, it isn't some european joke that being played on us north americans after all. following pisa i caught a football match and getting there was nearly as fun as the game. i drove a vespa. i always thought that people who drove vespas were losers, but i take it back, they are ridiculously fun to drive and before long i was weaving through traffic like a local. (i did crash into the wall exiting the garage, but lets not talk about that). Empoli vs. Ascoli was the match-up, empoli won with a resounding 4-1 score. the fans go absolutely wild, the chants are continuous and the flags never stop waving. great experience. after that i caught my first sunset on the mediterranian, it turned out to be the best day yet.
rome. so much history and stuff to see that it hurts my head just thinking about it. colosseum, vatican city, fontana di trevi, the spanish steps, ancient ruins, you name it and i saw it. i walked my face off and completely exhausted myself, but it was totally worth it. i almost got robbed as well, this guy came up to joe and i on an empty street and forcefully tried to shake my hand proclaiming "i am your friend, shake shake, i am your friend" i think he was trying to trip me with his legs too. i am a smart cookie and realized he wanted my wallet and not my friendship so i told him to get lost. he began to do the same to joe, but joe wasn't having any of it and started to run, i guess this guy really wanted to make a new friend and started to run right along after him. eventually he got tired, so, we still had our wallets but no new friend. i will laugh whenever i picture joe getting chased down the street.
barcelona was next on the itinerary following rome. the hostel was directly on the beach, but a bit filthy. pluses and minuses i guess. barcelona was meant to be the relaxation portion of the trip and it didn't dissapoint. i took it sooo easy, walking along the beach, leisurely exploring the city and the amazing parks it has. this architect named gaudi totally shaped the style of this city, most of his work is outlandish, strange and makes you stare. i bet he was a cool guy.
we went to a bar called dow jones one night, it had screens all over the bar listing the drinks and their prices. that was normal enough, but get this, the prices went up and down just like the stock market and at select times during the night the market would CRASH! this meant all drinks dropped to 1 euro and a huge rush at the bar followed. they also showed the senators vs the penguins which was wicked. i met up with shideh and saw the olympic park and market with her. i switched hostels and stayed with her at a christian hostel, much much nicer. give it up for g-o-d. she stayed in barcelona a bit longer but gave me keys to her apartment in lyon. so i'm living the life here, sleeping in her bed, eating all her food and generally making her apartment alot dirtier than it was before i arrived. i hope shideh hasn't got into the habit of reading this...
so that explains my journey thus far, it has been great. soon dad will be coming over and i will meet him in zermatt, i can't wait. there should be some great spring skiing and lots of switzerland to see.
if you have read this far, you are truly dedicated.
talk to you in the fuuuture.

dublin/amsterdam/brussels gallery

i took quite a few pictures, here are some of my favorites.

Brussels:

getting in touch with my ninja side

bottoms up

darcy roszell: a living work of art

bruxelles

call me castro

Amsterdam:

city of sin

billion bike brigade

jumping for joy

me on my death machine

nite brite

Dublin:

martina and i

team dublin

RUN!

ireland