I’m back. After a nine hour flight from Rome, plus a quick jump from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, last Tuesday, I touched down in America. I never thought I would miss it so much, but I also never thought it would be so easy to hop from country to country in Europe, sometimes without even speaking the language. I’d call it a success, and I think Josh would too, as our “well done” final handshakes can attest. I should clarify that our trip was not without its rocky moments. In that vein, allow me to quote myself (with minor revisions), from an e-mail I sent to some friends on June 9.
Josh and I just arrived in Rome, via airplane and ahead of schedule, which should probably be explained before I launch into tales of our wacky exploits.
You know what’s the wackiest exploit of all? Getting all your things stolen in the Brussels train station. Being avid fans of humor, Josh and I naturally chose this route, though I should clarify that when I say “all” my “things,” I mean, my passport, wallet, camera, and both of our rail passes. So, there we were, circa one week ago, stuck in Brussels, all our travel plans dashed. I was assured that my loss was in fact the third robbery in that particular section of the train station in two hours; reassured, we went to the American Embassy in Brussels (which was surprisingly efficient) to replace my passport. I’ll say this for America: as long as you have money (approximately $107 in this case), the government will take care of all your problems in approximately one business day.
Travel plans derailed, after the break…Long story short, we were trying to get from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland; this involved many train transfers and, unfortunately, workers’ strikes put some trains behind schedule, leaving us stranded in Brussels. As we were feverishly calling hostels looking for free rooms, my small backpack was swiped and with it, our previously humorous avoidance of Brussels.
As I wrote, and as Josh and I repeated again and again, Brussels is a brutal city. It’s pretty ugly (this article tries to prove it’s not, and I’ll concede some of the points), and the weather wasn’t welcoming either. Still, it was a good place to relax and watch reruns of mediocre American TV shows. I got over my losses quickly and we booked a flight to Rome, where we stayed for a couple of days before heading to Matera and Bari in southern Italy. I’ll write more on our experiences there in the coming days. For now, enjoy this gem from the aforementioned e-mail:
As for other wacky exploits, Josh keeps on encountering pigeons he wants to kick, and we had lunch at a place called Ciabata Mania today. After woefully losing all my bobby pins in the aforementioned theft, a kind stranger handed me a container of perhaps hundreds of bobby pins, as though from heaven, the other day. Josh is displeased by rumors that he has gained weight, though I can’t positively dispel the rumors, as his hostel beds have all been suspiciously creaky.
Sorry, Josh. He really has remained quite fit, seeing as we walked perhaps hundreds of kilometers a day. (I could never quite understand the metric system.) Luckily, this trip allowed us to rediscover disposable cameras; evidence is on Josh’s flickr account. My disposable camera photos are coming soon.
