Ben Murrell

I have been keeping a journal of the stuff I do each day and the places I go. When I get home, I will type them up and put them up on here – I don’t want to spend all of my time here on the computer typing stuff out… for now, I write in the journal when I am doing other things like riding trains or waiting for laundry to dry.

I’m in Florence right now, and I’ll be here one more night. I think I am going to head to Cinque Terre which is a bit south of Genova. If Garmin extends my start date, then I may stay in Florence an additional night depending on how the rest of this day goes (I plan to rent a bike and explore some of the destinations that are a bit further away from the center of the city).

Anyways, I’m having a really good time here in Europe even though I still haven’t managed to break out of Italy – the people are great, the food is great, and there is so much history all around you. If I trek towards Cinque Terre, that will put me near Nice, France which has nice beaches and is on the way to both Paris and Barcelona by train.

Ciao!

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.

I am in Milan right now. The city only has 3 hostels and isnt very tourist oriented… I have only seen 1 other traveler so far (in fact, he pointed me to this cafe).  Because of this, I am going to hop on the night train to Paris tonight and I have booked a hostel in Paris for tomorrow night. The train does not leave until 11 or so, so I am going to check out the Duomo in Milan then go to the downtown area for a while. The backpacker who I met had his wallet stolen on the subway today, so I have to be extra careful. This place is really sketchy. Can not wait to get to Paris.

Enough with the doom and gloom, I had a blast in Rome and Venice over the last few days. I would post more, but I am running out of time and I wouldnt be able to write enough in the time I have left. I have met a ton of people everywhere I have gone. I am really looking forward to Paris! After that, depending on whether or not I am coming home on Sunday I want to go to Florence and to Barcelona. I will probably spend a few days in Paris though because I want to visit Versailles also.

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.

Today, I’m going to Venice (Venezia). Train was at 8:50 and I’m on it now – it’s about 5 hours. The reservation was 15 euros and Ididn’t realize till I got on that it’s Eurostar (high speed). This train is like the one on Mission Impossible I & I’m in a tunnel right now. Hopefully I ride on one later that is like on James Bond or Harry Potter [[I eventually did, but not until the Czech Republic]]. I’ll arrive in Venice around 1:30 and get a hostel, then explore the City – everyone says it is beautiful. Hopefully I meet some fun people at the hostel – it’s a small city. I’m going to miss the fountains in Rome. ALso, I wish I had more time so I could go to Barcelona. A guidebook would be nice, and a daypack / small backpack to carry things with me would be nice too.

I bought a Venice guidebook in the trainstation then explored a bit, but it was very hot and I had my backpack still, so I bought a 36hr waterbus ticket and made my way to the Giudecca island of Venice. On the way, I found people going to the same hostel. After I checked in and put the sheets on my bed, I made my way out to the San Marco Basilica. It was closed but a lot of stuff was still going on (around 6). I kept close to the area and got back to the hostel around 6:45 then went to the supermarket. I got some bruschetta and brought it back and ate it. Then I went back and bought a bottle of vino rosso. On the way back I saw 3 girls sitting by the water having wine so I took a shower and went out. When I got out there were about 20 people out there. We sat from 7:45 – 11:30 and during the time some people came and shot a short film. At 11:30 we set out for Campo Margherita but we never found it (gave up around 2:30). We did manage to hang out with some girls who were studying abroad in Florence and we almost got one of them to jump into the canals (haha, Shannon). It was fun to be in Venice and walk around holding hands/etc because during the day everyone was doing it.

My room had 14 beds and was almost full when we got back at 4am (long waterbus ride). The guys I hung out with (after the big hostel group) were Brian, Aaron (Vermont), and Matt(New Jersey) – they were all traveling alone also. The girls were a mix of Pennsylvania and Illinois, plus one from Canada. Venice has a population of about 80,000 so I started thinking of it a bit like Lee’s Summit.

[[End my hand written section, begin commentary]] This was my first day in Venice. I started to have the same ups and downs I had in Rome – I was euphoric to be traveling, to be in Venice, to be in Italy; but at the same time I was starting to feel really lonely & like I’d made a huge mistake to come alone. On the way to the supermarket when I saw those people sitting outside by the canal, I decided that I was going to be one of them. No more feeling lonely – I was going to make friends everywhere. On days when I arrived in new cities and didn’t know anyone, I’d be comfortable with the fact that I’d explore the city alone, then come back to the hostel and meet tons of people anyways. That’s how it worked for the rest of the trip – I talked to everyone, I met everyone. I’d walk into big groups of people who were traveling together and we’d be friends going out to dinner an hour later. I decided I’d be what Matt & Manny were for me in Rome to everyone else everywhere else. And that’s what I did.

Also, it turns out tons of people travel alone. I haven’t traveled with other people, so I can’t really say I liked it more or less than traveling with other people. I can say that I enjoyed the freedom of being able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. If I wanted to stay an extra night somewhere, I could. If I wanted to leave early, I could. If I wanted to sleep in, I could. All I had to worry about was me which was pretty liberating. I would have loved having people with me that I knew, but at the same time, I probably ended up meeting more people as a result of traveling alone.

I woke up at 8:30am and I had to check out of my hostel and back in by 10:30am because I had to change rooms (this is what happens when you book hostels one night at a time – you get shuffled around because they’ve already sold the bed you’re currently in). Got ready and decided to go to the Vatican with Lonnie, Oscar, and Daniel.

The line to get into the Vatican - started on the left!

We got to Vatican City at about 10:00am. The line looked long but we got in by 10:30am to St. Peter’s Basilica. It was an awesome place, very massive and striking.

Me in St. Peter's Basilica

Saw Michelangelo’s Pieta statue. After exploring the Basilica, we went to the Cupella (Dome). 500 circular stairs later, we were at the top of the Vatican and could see all of Rome – got some good pictures!

The view from the Cupella

After that, we went to the Vatican Museum (where the Sistene Chapel is). It was 12 euros to get in. It closed at 4:00pm and we got there at 3:30pm – it took about 10 minutes to get through the line to buy tickets (once in, we had till 6:00pm). There was a ton of cool art (sculptures, tapestries, maps, rooms). My favorite I think were the Rafael rooms. I saw Le Penseur (The Thinker) – I didn’t know this was there! And I had my MegaMinerAI shirt on (with the Zombie Thinker) – had Daniel take my picture with it. Finally around 6 we got to the end (the Sistene Chapel). Magnificent.

When we left the Vatican we were famished – hadn’t eaten since 9:00am and that was just a cappucino and a croissant. We went to McDonald’s because Oscar was craving it – I had a Big Mac (6.20 euro) & Oscar got everyone cheeseburgers. Afterwards, we went to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon

It was closed because of Liturgy or some service, so we went & got gelato (Italian icecream). When we retured, the Pantheon was open and we went in. It was very cool. After that, we went to the Fontana Trevi and threw in coins. Then the Spanish Steps. Finally went home at about 9 and showered, then hopped on the net, then went to Buffeto’s Pizza. Lonnie and I ate with a guy from Naples and a guy from NYC – it was interesting.

Eddie (from Naples) insisted that Roman Pizza sucked, but that Buffeto’s was the best in Rome.

The pizza at Baffetto's

We didn’t get done there till 12:45 or so. Tried to take the bus back, but it was packed so we walked about 25-30 minutes to the Vatican to catch the metro. Met 2 guys from Ohio while waiting. Got to bed at about 2:30am. My new roommates were Febian and Richard from Finland and Nichole from South Africa. They were all going to sleep before I left for pizza and weren’t up the next morning when I got up to leave.

As promised, I’m now transcribing my journal from the trip onto my blog. On my first day, I just made a bulleted list of stuff I did and people I met – for the rest of the journal I wrote out paragraphs/pages each day. I’m going to go ahead and translate the bullet points into a paragraph for this post

I landed at 8:00am on 05/21/2009 – my flight left from Atlanta at 4:15pm. I managed to sleep about two hours while sitting by two crying babies in the middle of the middle section of the Airbus A330-300. In spite of how much I slept, I didn’t feel tired at all – the excitement of being in Rome kept me going all day. The first thing I did was pull some money out of the ATM.

My first euros

The ATM’s in Europe are much more interesting than the ones in the USA – they give 5′s, 10′s, 20′s, 50′s, and 100′s! It was always a surprise to see what I’d get when I pulled money out. I rode the train from the airport to the main train station in Rome (Termini) and found my hostel which was literally across the street from the train station. I had booked one night there from KC before I left so I’d know I had a place to stay for my first night away from home. I stayed in Pop Inn which ended up being a good and a bad thing: I was right by the public transport hub, but it was noisy at night and there was no AC so we had to leave the windows open. It turns out you can sleep through anything after a bit of drinking though

After I checked into my hostel, I got tortured with a blow torch I started walking to the Colosseum. It took about 20 minutes to get there… I rounded a corner and I could see a bit of it between two buildings. It was amazing. That’s when I really realized I wasn’t home anymore – I was in Rome, traveling. The whole day sort of went like this – I’d see something really awesome and be semi-euphoric, then I’d crash and start to think, “Oh my god, I’m here, alone, I’m lonely, what in the hell have I gotten myself into for the next 10 days.” I started to get around the feeling of loneliness in a few ways: I started talking to my video camera, I started asking people to take my picture, and I just smiled.

Me and the Colosseum

Anyways, I made my way to the Colosseum, got some water, then got in line to enter the Roman Forum. I wandered the ruins for a few hours with an audio guide, then I headed over to the Colosseum. I grabbed a panini along the way and ate it on the steps of the Colosseum. I took a tour of the Colosseum which was interesting, but for me the big pull of the Colosseum was just seeing it from the outside. The inside was neat, but I probably would have been fine just staying outside and walking around it. The tour ended around 5:00 and I started to walk back to my hostel. I was tired and thirsty so I decided it was time to figure out how to ride the metro/subway. I went into the Colosseum metro station and bought a ticket and rode the metro back to the Termini station quite painlessly. Rome only has two metro lines and they connect at Termini, so it was a good place to learn how to ride the metro.

When I got back to my hostel, I had to get the key to my room (it was too early when I checked in in the morning). This took a while, but when I finally got it, I went back into my room and unpacked some of my stuff. While I was unpacking I met Matt and Manny, two guys in my room from Connecticut. It was their last night in Rome and they were going to be catching a ferry to Athens the next day. Meeting them basically set the tone for the rest of my trip – they were really friendly and shared lots of good info with me about riding trains, taxis, places to stay, things to see, etc. They invited me to go out with them that night, and I went and took a shower. When I got back, another guy had gotten into the room (Lonnie). Lonnie was an older guy that seemed young – it was his divorce trip basically. We all left after everyone was ready and went to a bar right by the hostel where they spoke no English. Had a few drinks there, then headed out to find the Travestere area where there was supposed to be a lot of cheap food/drinks and things to do. We took the bus out to Travestere and had dinner. During dinner we met an Italian lady that let us try her food, she was really nice.

Me in the Roman Forum with the Arch of Septimius Severus

After dinner, we walked out to the bar area and went into a bar where two Italian guys were singing American songs with terrible accents. Naturally, we started belting it out… naturally. It got boring after a while so we left and ended up on the Travestere Steps. While we were on the steps, I got my first taste of gypsies constantly trying to sell stuff to people. Stuff like roses, glow sticks, necklaces, and way overpriced beer. We hung out on the steps for a few hours and I met a Spanish guy (Alejandro) who I got to speak Spanish with a little bit. He was in Rome for the Barcelona/Manchester soccer match that was taking place in a few days. I met his girlfriend and his Italian friend, Ruis. To get home, we took a taxi. Our plan was to not expose the fact that we spoke English and just say “Termini!” over and over to avoid being ripped off. It was funny, but I think the guy figured us out, – the fare was still pretty cheap to get home. When we got home, we saw two guys fighting and detoured around them then got some late night pasta and went to sleep around 3am. When we were getting to bed, we woke up the other two guys in our room who ended up being from Singapore (Daniel and Oscar)… oops!

On Monday, I finally decided that I’d stop talking about going to Europe and go. Originally, I was going to start and end in London – the plan being that I know English so it’d be nice to be somewhere that I can communicate easily, especially since I’m going alone. I spent Monday night trying to find tickets to London and it started out good. I was finding tons of tickets for $496.50 round trip, but I wanted to wait till I figured out the train situation to buy the tickets. When I went to buy the tickets, I discovered that all of the travel sites I was using (expedia, hotwire, travelocity, orbitz) were using outdated info. Every time I tried to buy a $496.50 ticket, the price would jump to over $2000. Things weren’t looking good.

Then I found tickets to Rome, Italy for $600 and I bought them immediately – no sense in waiting again and missing out for good! I’m leaving tomorrow (Wednesday, May 20th) and returning on Sunday, May 31st. I start my job at Garmin on June 1st . Today, I made a trip out to a travel agency to pick up a Eurail pass (they can’t be purchased in Europe, and overnight shipping wouldn’t get it here on time) – I’m good to go in Italy, France, Spain, and Switzerland. I probably won’t end up going to Spain because it’s pretty far out of the way (19 hours from Rome, 9 from Paris) but I really want to because I actually know Spanish (as opposed to Italian/French).

My semi-plan is to hang out in Rome for a few days, then head to Venice, then through Geneva to Paris. I say semi-plan because I don’t really have a plan – I know I want to go to Rome, Venice, and Paris but nothing beyond that is planned. If I get a chance, I’ll post up here and put a post on twitter/facebook when I do.

Ciao!

So, a common interview question I’ve been asked is to write a function that will return the nth number in the Fibonacci Sequence. I think the question is meant to test two things: first, have you retained enough math to know what the Fibonacci sequence is; and second, do you know how to write a recursive function. Last week in my Combinatorics class (this is my Spring break, why am I writing this??), my professor introduced a closed form formula for calculating the nth number in the Fibonacci sequence. This is why I’m writing this now – when I saw the formula, I thought it’d be fun to memorize the formula, then whip it out in those interview questions. Not that I’ll ever get a chance now that I have a job lined up, but that’s another matter.

The formula goes like this:

where (the golden ratio).

I haven’t spent much time reading over the Wikipedia page, and we didn’t spend any time in class on the derivation… but it’s interesting that given integer inputs, the function produces integer outputs even though the square root of 5 is used throughout.

I was thinking to myself, “What would make the most sense in a programming context?” The answer wasn’t (and still isn’t) immediately clear. In the future I intend to do an actual comparison of three different methods of generating the nth number in the Fibonacci sequence (Closed form, recursive, and non-recursive). At first glance, for very small n the recursive and non-recursive forms should beat the closed form. For large n, the closed form should dominate the other two methods with the non-recursive method being faster than the recursive method.

One downside I see to the closed form method is error propagation – even with integer inputs, I would still expect a need to round to the nearest integer due to the small roundoff error incurred by using floats/doubles for the golden ratio.