Ben Murrell

I got up at 5:40, packed up, got to the train station at 6:09 for the 6:30am train to Paris. There were no seats left for Eurail pass holders (surprise, surprise) – this is when I learned that there is a limit of 20 per train. There was no turning back this time though, so I paid the … 114 euros (!!!) … for the ticket. Balls, but I already have reservations at hostels. The train isn’t even full. I’m guessing there is enough room for 800 people on this train, and for a good part of the journey it felt empty.

[[I'm just  not going to type this next section... but basically it's about [[Venice girl]] and then reflecting on how ridiculous it is to get hung up on anyone like that on a trip like this. And about weird dreams I had about my ex after spending time with girls.]]

I arrived in Paris and bought  a 24 hour metro pass. The machines only took coins, and I had no coins at the time, so I waiting in a long line behind two kids. One was really annoying and it started to bother me, then I tuned him out. Anyways… I got the metro pass, then found my way to St. Christopher’s hostel. I checked in, but it was too early to go up to my room, so I left my bags in the luggage room then started to head to the Eiffel tower. When I went into the metro station, there was a girl that looked lost so I chatted her up. She ended up being from the same hostel and was looking for a tourist information center (I think). We became metro buddies and rode the metro together for about 15 minutes till I had to get off and switch lines to get to the Eiffel tower. She was cool, and from Australia (A rarity for me – I don’t have anything against Australian women, I just don’t usually run into any that I’d view any other way than platonic). I think she told me her name, but I didn’t hear it, so for the next two or three days I’d run into her and we’d talk and I’d just not know her name! haha. To make things easier, I’ll call her Marigold here.

Anyways, I rode the metro to the Trocadero station to see the Eiffel tower. As you round the corner to see the giant plaza with the Eiffel tower at the end of it, there was a crepe vendor. Seeing this as a great opportunity to have a French experience, I bought a crepe with bananas and chocolate, then rounded the corner and saw the Eiffel tower and ate my first crepe ever simultaneously The crepe was good – I sat on some stairs and finished it, then I started taking pictures. I think I took too many pictures of the Eiffel tower. Oh well!

I came back to the hostel and had the hostel dinner – while there, I met Ryan (Boston), Ryan (Canada), James (Australia), and Bryan (Australia). We decided we’d go to the Eiffel tower at night when it sparkles – we didn’t end up leaving until 11:30 or so though. I went up to my room to change – on the way, two girls gave me the “You’re tall!” and I gave them the “Yeah, you should come to the Eiffel tower with me and my friends,” so they did. They were staying in my room, it was their last night in Europe and they wanted to stay up all night until their flight out. We stopped by a shop on the way to the metro and picked up some wine, then went to the Eiffel tower. We made it at about 12:30 – the Eiffel tower sparkles something like every hour on the hour for 5 minutes. We hung out and waited, and I laid out with one of the girls and had wine while waiting. The Eiffel tower sparkled, we got some pictures, then we all caught a cab to the Plaza San Michel and tried to find a bar. We didn’t have any luck finding anything good. The girls got kind of stuck up so we ditched them at 3:00am, got kebabs, and caught cabs back home.

Got up at 9 to check out of Hostel Baccarat and into Hostel Mayerbeer. After that, I went to the beach for a few hours, then came back and showered. Listened to some pump me up music and read some stuff online to get [[Venice girl]] out of my head. Got in a really good mood then hit the road, grabbed coffee and a 2gb SD card for 7 euros. Then I got a kebab (my first ever!) and some wine then trekked to Baccarat’s courtyard. A bit of background: Meyerbeer sucked. The only good thing they had were computers that I used to upload some pictures… but besides that… they had no common area and the rooms were all away from the main reception area. It was one of the converted apartment style hostels. It was closer to the beach, and that was about it. I walked into Baccarat like I belonged there and went to the courtyard. I met two more Aussies there (Jason and Jade) who ended up being with Pete and Sam. They came back and we all hung out for a while. They had a burping game called Schwartz! – when someone burped, they called out “Schwartz!” and put their thumb on their forehead. The last person to get their thumb up got slapped in the forehead. After this went on for a while, I introduced the color game. We ended up going to the Old Town, then to the beach. Sam was loose cannon with every shady person he met (since he had a lot of money stolen from him the night before). The whole group skinny dipped in the Mediterranean, then we ended up sitting with a Moroccan on the beach with a guitar (Malik). Same got rough with some guys that were sitting around there… they ended up troubling us for the rest of the night. Sat out and sang with Malik on the beach, and also sang this crazy song the Australians had picked up from some American girl a few days before… it went something like “Arribbityboparouba… [words] … I wish that all the ladies …” It was funny! In the end, Sam got punched in the nose/eye and 3 French/German guys with empty bottles gave chase so we got the hell out of there (It ended with us being on the opposite side of the street, and this coked up 14 year old dealer throwing a bottle at us… but being coked up, he didn’t even get it close… ha).

On the way back to the hostel, I was accosted by my first prostitute on the trip. She started coming after me and talking in French and I was just like “No” and she backed down. [[Compare this to Barcelona later...]] When I got into the main building of the hostel, I saw a rat in the stairwell. It jumped down the middle and I heard it hit the ground and scurry off. When I got to the second floor, I couldn’t get the key to open the door. I gave up after a while and got on the wireless with my iPod, made a post about the situation I was in, then tried the door again. Still no luck, so I went up another flight of stairs hoping I had tried the wrong door. On the next floor, I found a homeless lady sleeping in the stairwell – I think I scared the crap out of her… oops! I went back down and tried the key again – I was starting to get desperate. It was past 3am and I had a 6:30 train to catch! I twisted the key HARD – I thought it was going to break, but then the lock turned and the door opened. Success, I got in! And I went to sleep.

Got up around 6:30 and caught a train to nice, but didn’t get enough tickets for the ride apparently (had to switch in 5 minutes and didn’t realize I needed another). When I bought the ticket, the lady that sold it to me didn’t speak English – I thought she was saying to have a good day or what time the train was… it turns out she was probably telling me I needed to buy another ticket when I switched. Oops. The controllato wrote down 58 euros as the penalty but said since “No italiano” and pointed to his eye as if to point to a tear and the penalty ended up being 5 euros plus the ticket price. I got to Nice around 1pm or so and checked into Hostel Baccarat. Met Canadians and Aussies in my room then went into the Garden/Courtyard. Asked a guy where to get food, went and got cherries, a banana, a baguette, and two beers. Came back and sat with the group the guy was with (who I asked about the food). Ended up being cool Aussies/Kiwis/South African on a BusAbout circuit (Peter, Sam, Beck, Sally, Curly, Niel). We hung out at the hostel then went to a bar that was too expensive so we left, bought champagne, and went to the beach. Sam got in to the water and a homeless guy took 200 euros from his wallet. We hung out with another homeless guy with a drum then went to McDonalds (or Macky’s as they called it) then went back to the hostel.

Woke up at 9:00am, put on sunscreen, then got focaccia and pesto and caught a train to Monterosso al Mare. Hiking back to Riomaggiore right now, it’s a 9km hike. Right now, I’m by a nudist beach between Vernazza and Corniglia, about half way. I swear it was a trap – there were signs that said “Free beach! 20 minute this way” on the main trail, and I was hot so I went. Only when you get to the bottom do you see the signs that say “Naturalist Beach –>”. I wrote postcards and journal entries here and am now goign to head back to the trail and continue back to Riomaggiore.

Cinque Terre was beautiful. I hiked the 9km in about 6 hours then came home and hung out with the roommate for a while. She felt sick, so I went to eat/drink alone and watch the sunset. Got an olive calzone, not many people out on the rocks. I wasn’t feeling well (emotionally) as it was quite lonely and I knew [[Venice girl]] was somewhere in Cinque Terre. I went to bed by 11 and was woken up by Janita coming in around 4:00am with some Italian guy.

I left [[Venice girl]]’s apartment at 9:30, checked out of Plus at 10:00, then called Delta/Travelocity to cancel my return ticket. Got a $510 credit with Delta. One way ticket on the 28th is $2500 out of Rome right now, so I held off on that. After that, I hopped on the net and found no hostels in Cinque Terre but booked Nice for the days after Cinque Terre. Then I went to the market and got a sandwich, then caught a 12:57 train to Cinque Terre. I sat by two people from Lee’s Summit (Riki and Rae) completely randomly, talked with them a lot and got recommendations on what to do and where to go now that my trip is extended. I ended up missing my stop but caught another route with a girl from Canada. Found a hostel (Mar Mar) without a problem and explored Riomaggiore (the first of the Cinque Terre / five lands). Met my hostelmates after a nap (Erin from Google and Janita from New Jersey) and had a beer on the giant rock beach as the sun went down with them. Had dinner after that, then went to bed at 1:00 or so.

Today, I checked out of Plus and checked right back in. Got a room on the girls only floor lol. Went to the Uffizi Gallery and to another museum by it and also went to the market and got a FRESH panini – awesome! Bought an Italia shirt today after the museums, and now need dinner and a shower. 1 month left as of today!

I never ended up getting dinner – I was supposed to go with some Argentinians but they never came back to the roof of the hostel. Instead, I hung out with a guy from Brazil for a while, and then with two girls from New Jersey from Wednesday night pre-DubPub. Around 10:30 or 11, I headed to Dublin Pub to meet the girls from Venice. Hung out with them/Damiano/Mossimo/Pietro/Marco/Giesseppo for the night and danced with the Italians for a few hours at a club. We were headed back at about three and [[Venice girl]] offered to let me stay at her place so I did. She shares a room with another girl that is studying abroad… I don’t really know what to make of her, but I think I creeped her out? I don’t know, and I’ll probably never see her again (they’ll be in Cinque Terre for the weekend, but I’m not going to put any effort into meeting up) and there are 9 million other women here, so who cares…

[[End my hand written section, begin commentary]] So, it’s not like I’ve forgotten this girl’s name or anything – I’m just slightly embarrassed about the whole situation I guess… Looking back, I didn’t handle it well at all. It’s not entirely my fault – I was in a lot of situations I’d never been in before and didn’t really know how to react or what to do – also, I hadn’t quite built up the confidence with that I had by the end of the trip. Anyways, I was really hung up on that girl for a few days, then I was in Nice and everything was nice again

Got up at 10 today, checked out of Florence Youth Hostel and into Plus Florence. Right now, my laundry is drying, then I’ll go hop on the internet and try to find a place to go after Florence. Options in Italy are Verona and Genoa, but I’m not sure. Then, I’ll check my bag in at Plus. I think I will rent a bike for the day and ride around, then go to the Dublin Pub tonight and meet John van Lieshout and the Venice girls. Tonight is the Barcelona/Manchester United soccer match and there is another pub that is supposed to be good for that. I will probably meet up with Rocky and go club if I don’t find [[Venice girls]] at Dublin Pub.

Also, I have a hell of a farmers tan.

Got into Plus, took a shower, then walked up to a big group and got the ball rolling to Kiesh (the place to be for the soccer match) to watch the match. Never saw Rocky there (he came later it turns out) [[I should have gotten a phone...]] but they had a buffet and drink for 8 euros so we did that. Drinks were 8 euros after that, so we came back to Plus Florence and watched the match there. Met a club promoter (Arienne from Quebec) in front of the hostel and convinced her to come in with us. She was hot. Watched the match then everyone bailed on her club for Central Park. I needed to get to Dublin Pub to meet John from Venice by 11, so I left the big group then. When I got there, Jena saw me and was like “BEN!” Jacque wasn’t there, but they kept telling me they were calling her to get her to come. I went in and met John, then we came out and sat with the girls and some Italians. Jacque showed up, we all hung out for a while, then wandered around some park by my hostel. May be going to Cinque Terre after Florence.

During the day, I went to a bike place and rented a bike for the day. I rode along the river and up to the Piazza san Michelangelo. Then I hiked up there and could see the whole city. It was a good view, but not quite Rome… Also, it was looking pretty stormy and I was at least a 30 minute bike ride from where I got the bike. Thankfully, it never rained! Then I rode back and called Garmin and home. Garmin let me push back my start date to June 29th! I’m here another month!

I got up at 10 and went to an internet cafe where I booked 2 hostels in florence (Florence Youth Hostel & Plus Florence) then I checked into Florence Youth Hostel and left my bag there. I headed out to the Duomo and went in (free) but didn’t climb the dome (8 euros!). AFter that, I had some gelato and headed to the Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo’s David is at. I had to wait in line for about 30 minutes, but I talked with two Canadian girls in front of me and we went through the museum together. They were sketcher types (busted out sketch books and started drawing stuff). After the museum I tried to pull cash from an ATM and it denied me so I thought my card was locked out. I went back to the hostel, met a guy there and made dinner plans, then went out to call my bank. They collect call was denied on the number I was supposed to call collect, so I went to an internet cafe that had phones for 0.10 euro / minute and I called only to find out that there wasn’t a hold and it was just the machine. Then I called home, but only Nick was home (my mom wanted me to call for a while). We talked for about 10 minutes, then I headed back to the hostel (free internet) and checked my email/facebook. One of my fellow bridgejumpers is in Florence staying with some of the girls we met in Venice that are studying in Florence. We are going to meet at a pub tonight.

After facebooking, we started getting a group together for dinner – there were 7 of us: Joe (Virginia), Rocky Chanana and Chetan (Berkeley, CA), Allen (Australia), and two girls from Canada. We went to dinner at Ciro & Sons and had a real Tuscany 4 course meal with wine. First, a cheese platter, then lasagna, then Florentine steak, then espresso (for me). We split the steak 3 ways – it was 4 pounds. The total for me was 50 euros, holy shit. And we were there from 9:30 – 12:00. It was good, and Allen taught us wine stuff. I won’t be eating like that for the rest of the trip though. Afterwards, Rocky and I tried to a club called Central Park. Three hours later, we had walked a ton and never found it. Not a good time. There are supposed to be 2000-3000 people there – instead we found a shady snack shop with 6 guys offering us “free rides”. Turns out (according to the people running the hostel) that where we went is where you go to buy drugs – not a good time.

I woke up at 8:05am. The waterbus took forever to get to the train station (8:30->9:20) and I missed the train. Decided I’ll catch the train to Milan, fashion capitol and home of the Last Supper. It’s closer to Paris too, and I’ll head to paris either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Today has been terrible. I missed the 8:50 train to Milano. I caught a 10:50 train, then spent 4 hours walking/riding the metro through creepy places where there are only natives. I met a guy who was leaving a hostel as I was walking in and he told me only to stay there if I liked things really dirty, and that he also had a lot of stuff get stolen there. He pointed me towards an internet cafe, so I got the internet and read reviews for the three hostels there – all three talked of high crime (rape style), no students/backpackers, and terrible times in general.

And just now, the train I’m on to Florence just delayed 30 minutes.

Back on topic – I got on the RailEurope site to see if any Paris tickets were available – they were! So I booked “Oops!” hostel in Paris and headed to the station with the intention to get a reservation then go to the Milan Duomo / bar area until 11:00 which is when the night train to Paris left. I got on the ticket machines – no tickets available. So I got in line. I’m thinking I can catch the train to Zurich at 7:20 if Paris isn’t available. A crazy (literally) guy skips to the front of the line and starts yelling at the workers. I don’t get helped till 7:10. No seats to Paris – there are some for 95 euros but none left for the pass (wtf?) [[I later found out that France only allows 20 pass holders per high speed train]]. None tomorrow. 7:20 goes by. I see a train to Florence at 7:30. It’s 7:25, I buy the reservation (20 euro) and get one. It was supposed to arrive at 9:40. Now it’ll be 10:10. I have no place to stay. Oh my shit. I’d catch the night train to Barcelona but if Elliot/Chris come they’ll land in Frankfurt … and … it’s 7:50 now. It left at 7:40.

Running on two hours of sleep probably isn’t helping, but watching the sun come up over Venice was worth it. Today just sucks since it was a wasted day. And I’m losing 30 euro on the room I booked in Paris. ANd that I won’t be going to Paris if I leave Sunday. I mean I literally saw nothing – the highlight was when I met a guy leaving a hostel and he gave me his guide to Milan. Also, beautiful Italian women. But they’re everywhere – I didn’t need to wander through shady areas for four hours to get that. I finally found stamps today and sent my postcards! I hope Garmin responds soon.

More suck today: I bought a 10 euro fonecard online but couldn’t get it to work. I tried calling home collect, but it didn’t work. Apparently they can’t accept collect calls. I don’t know what I’ll do – today feels like a huge waste of money/time (15 euro to Milano, 20 euro to Florence, 30 euro on the Paris hostel, 10 euro on the calling card, and 5 euro on water in the train stations) so I’m weary to buy another card, but I might. I think for the rest of the (assuming Sunday) trip, I need to plan out destinations and reserve train tickets / hostels so I don’t run into this situation again.

Pros: -Even with this much money wasted, I can stay in Europe for 25 days without touching my savings. -Florence has Michelangelo’s David. -Florence is a huge destination for people and is the heart of the Renaissance.

I got to FLorence at about 10:15. Everything was full (hostels and hotels). I walked all over Florence for four hours until 2:00am, when I finally gave in and paid 40 euro for a hotel.

Staying in Venice again – went with Aaron to the train station (he’s going to Florence) and I tried to get a reservation for the night train to Paris. It’s booked for the next 5 days. Not sure what I’ll do now.

In the morning (I got up at 8:30) I saw Amanda McCambridge in the hostel. Talk about random! I went to high school with her – what are the chances?

I sent Garmin an email requesting a later start date – I want to stay longer! I also looked for different plane tickets to get home but it’s not looking good. $150-$200 penalty to change my current ticket and apply the value to a new one. On Travelocity, the best I could find one way was about $750. It’s hard to find flights, but somehow Aaron got one for $220 the other day. If I get to stay longer I want to go to Barcelona for sure. Still trying to decide if it’s worth it (YES) and hoping Garmin gives me the OK.

Just saw Amanda come in (6:17pm) again.

(Here, I drew out a table of options for the 25th that tabulated how long it would take to get to each city and how far that city was from Paris).

I’m going to go buy wine, bread, prosciutto, and cheese and sit by the water

I got some people to go to the supermarket with me (Matt, Navied, Mathias). We got off the waterbus at the wrong stop and got lost a bit. It was 7:30 and we thought it closed at 8. After a lot of walking, we ran about 10 minutes and got there at 7:55. It didn’t close until 8:30. I got prosciutto, provolone, bread, and wine. While we were picking out wine, an Italian guy came and told us we couldn’t buy crappy wine in Italy or we’d think all wine in Italy is terrible. We still ended up getting the cheap (0.79 euro / L) wine, but also bought a bottle of wine that the Italian approved also. We took the waterbus back to Giudecca and had espresso at a small restaurant then I made my sandwich. It started raining, so we took the wine inside.

While inside, I met a British guy and heard the story of Mathias Holz. Mathias is a German and is walking from Munich to Rome. He had so many stories (getting attacked by a goat, 80km a day, 40kg pack, sleeping on beaches and in parking garages, crossing the Alps…) Later, a bunch of us went out to find Piccolo Mondo (a club that some girls from the previous night told us to go to). We finally foudn it, but it wasn’t open yet. We kept walking and found a ton of people wearing pirate stuff. Turned out to be a wedding party. We hung out with them for a while, then started to head home.

On the way home, I told the girl jumping story, so Navied and another guy wanted to do it. And they did, off of a small bridge. Then we decided we all needed to jump from the Rialto bridge – one of three that cross the Grand Canal in Venice. It was probably 30-40 feet up. First, Navied and Mathias jumped, then me and Matt, then the others. We did it. The water was so gross. So so gross. We all probably have AIDS now. We didn’t want to get our things wet, so we skinny dipped – it was crazy! We ran back up, got dressed, and 60 seconds later the Cabinieri cruised by. We got on the waterbus and got home at about 4. Jumpers: Me, Derek Chynoweth, Navied Mahdavian, John van Lieshout, Matt Barret, and Mathias Holz.

At home, I still didn’t know where I’d be going on Monday so I showered then went back down for wifi. I narrowed it down to Bern, Zurich, and Geneva. Then, three girls showed up to Venice/the hostel. We talked a bit, then went out to watch the sun come up over Venice while I kept trying to decide where to go. I finally decided on an 8:50am train to Zurich. Went to bed at about 6:20am. Also, Elliot and Chris Stein may come Tuesday! Fly into Frankfurt & meet up somewhere which would be really cool. Still haven’t heard from Garmin – realized yesterday was Sunday and that’s probably why. ALso, supposed to call home tomorrow but being in a new city may make that hard. Will try though.