chopstick goes for a sail
10-03-2014
, 03:16 AM
After leaving La Ciotat, I headed on to Marseille for the evening. Marseille is pretty close to La Ciotat, so it wasn't a long train ride. It was kind of weird not sleeping on a boat that night after sleeping on a boat the last few months. You get used to the constant movement of the boat after a while, such that the rhythm becomes so standard that it feels weird to walk on land. Depending on how adjusted you are to the boat rhythm, you can experience land sickness for a few minutes to a few hours when you start walking on land after being on a boat for a long time.
The train to Marseille was uneventful, and I checked into a hotel across the street from the rail station. The other great thing about getting off the boat was access to endless hot water showers. Because fresh water on a boat is limited by your fresh water tank capacity, showers tend to be very short affairs. Depending on how the boat is constructed, you may or may not have access to hot water. When you are in port somewhere, you can use marina showers, and they are like heaven when you haven't had a real shower in two weeks, but they are still public shared showers, so the quality tends to be meh.
I say all that to help you understand that having your own shower, to yourself, with endless hot water, feels like winning a few thousand dollars on a scratch off ticket. I think I took at least a 45 minute long shower after checking into that hotel. It was glorious.
The view from my room was pretty sweet as well. I have good loyalty status with IHG, and get free automatic room upgrades whenever a higher class room is available. This one had a sweet view of Marseille:
Yeah, that's a castle up there in the distance.
The next day, I walked back over to the train station and hopped on one of these:
buses. It's called an iDBUS, and they are a train alternative for lots of major cities in Europe. They are a fraction of the price of trains, but a lot slower. The other pluses are that they are pretty nice quality seats, nice enough to sleep in, and they have WIFI. Well, they are supposed to have WIFI. The connection was great in France and atrocious in Italy.
My plan was to head to Milan, spend a day there, then head north to Stresa, which is up in the mountains near the Italy/Switzerland border, and spend a day or two there.
Not much to report for the bus ride. It was mostly along the coastline, but the photos I took were terrible due to the blue tinted bus window glass. Was funny to look out over the ocean and see all the sailboats down past the cliffs after having spent the last few weeks looking up at the cliffs from one of them.
I knew we had reached Italy when I started seeing tons of scooters. Here's a woman on a scooter rocking high heels:
The train to Marseille was uneventful, and I checked into a hotel across the street from the rail station. The other great thing about getting off the boat was access to endless hot water showers. Because fresh water on a boat is limited by your fresh water tank capacity, showers tend to be very short affairs. Depending on how the boat is constructed, you may or may not have access to hot water. When you are in port somewhere, you can use marina showers, and they are like heaven when you haven't had a real shower in two weeks, but they are still public shared showers, so the quality tends to be meh.
I say all that to help you understand that having your own shower, to yourself, with endless hot water, feels like winning a few thousand dollars on a scratch off ticket. I think I took at least a 45 minute long shower after checking into that hotel. It was glorious.
The view from my room was pretty sweet as well. I have good loyalty status with IHG, and get free automatic room upgrades whenever a higher class room is available. This one had a sweet view of Marseille:
Yeah, that's a castle up there in the distance.
The next day, I walked back over to the train station and hopped on one of these:
buses. It's called an iDBUS, and they are a train alternative for lots of major cities in Europe. They are a fraction of the price of trains, but a lot slower. The other pluses are that they are pretty nice quality seats, nice enough to sleep in, and they have WIFI. Well, they are supposed to have WIFI. The connection was great in France and atrocious in Italy.
My plan was to head to Milan, spend a day there, then head north to Stresa, which is up in the mountains near the Italy/Switzerland border, and spend a day or two there.
Not much to report for the bus ride. It was mostly along the coastline, but the photos I took were terrible due to the blue tinted bus window glass. Was funny to look out over the ocean and see all the sailboats down past the cliffs after having spent the last few weeks looking up at the cliffs from one of them.
I knew we had reached Italy when I started seeing tons of scooters. Here's a woman on a scooter rocking high heels:
10-03-2014
, 03:23 AM
Milan had some decent graffiti, but not much:
which was strange to me, because for some reason I figured they would have the goods there. Nothing beats Berlin.
Since I was in Italy, I figured it was mandatory to eat pizza, here is the one I had:
That's how it came out. There is a plate under there somewhere. I had to slide the pizza each time so it was mostly off the plate in order to get the knife in a position where I could cut off a slice. I managed to eat maybe just over half of that thing. The tomatoes were the best part. I also had some kind of grilled vegetables, which were terrible. Soggy eggplant, etc.
One of the things I like about western Europe is that because everyone travels by train, they have great train stations that are optimized for fast service. There are automated ticket machines everywhere, which is infinitely faster than dealing with a line at a counter:
Just step up, use the touch screen to select your stuff, insert your payment, and it prints out your ticket. Also works for printing out tickets that you purchased online.
The Ferrari is a lie.
which was strange to me, because for some reason I figured they would have the goods there. Nothing beats Berlin.
Since I was in Italy, I figured it was mandatory to eat pizza, here is the one I had:
That's how it came out. There is a plate under there somewhere. I had to slide the pizza each time so it was mostly off the plate in order to get the knife in a position where I could cut off a slice. I managed to eat maybe just over half of that thing. The tomatoes were the best part. I also had some kind of grilled vegetables, which were terrible. Soggy eggplant, etc.
One of the things I like about western Europe is that because everyone travels by train, they have great train stations that are optimized for fast service. There are automated ticket machines everywhere, which is infinitely faster than dealing with a line at a counter:
Just step up, use the touch screen to select your stuff, insert your payment, and it prints out your ticket. Also works for printing out tickets that you purchased online.
The Ferrari is a lie.
10-03-2014
, 03:32 AM
I didn't spend much time in Milan, but what time I did spend, I spent mostly at a large cemetery next to the train station. There is a famous cemetery there called the Cimitero Monumentale. It's famous for both the people buried there, as well as the artwork contained there. I spent about 3-4 hours just walking around taking photos of some of the works.
Here are a few of my favorites:
I think I took about a dozen photos of this one from various angles. Angels are, of course, a common motif. Especially grieving angels. I liked this one very much.
There was also a lot of this kind of thing:
of regular people grieving on or near the tombstone. Most of them involved people wailing or flailing.
I liked this one as a more sedate version of the regular people grieving:
and of course the Angel of Death was a popular one. The rest of this one was pretty faded and worn, but I like this closeup shot of the angel cradling the deceased:
If you like this kind of artwork, this place is amazing. I was kind of sad that I was only in Milan for a day, because there were a ton of pieces that I wanted to photograph, but the light wasn't right for them at the time of day I was there. Guess I'll be back.
Here are a few of my favorites:
I think I took about a dozen photos of this one from various angles. Angels are, of course, a common motif. Especially grieving angels. I liked this one very much.
There was also a lot of this kind of thing:
of regular people grieving on or near the tombstone. Most of them involved people wailing or flailing.
I liked this one as a more sedate version of the regular people grieving:
and of course the Angel of Death was a popular one. The rest of this one was pretty faded and worn, but I like this closeup shot of the angel cradling the deceased:
If you like this kind of artwork, this place is amazing. I was kind of sad that I was only in Milan for a day, because there were a ton of pieces that I wanted to photograph, but the light wasn't right for them at the time of day I was there. Guess I'll be back.
10-10-2014
, 11:44 PM
10-11-2014
, 09:34 PM
heh, sure is pulling away from Taiwan...safe travels.
I've been to hawaii twice, and the things your mind can daydream when you're staring out know there's thousands and thousands of square miles of dark water in the distance...the pacific scares me.
you probably won't get this for 2 weeks, but if you find the garbage swirl or whatever, get pics
I've been to hawaii twice, and the things your mind can daydream when you're staring out know there's thousands and thousands of square miles of dark water in the distance...the pacific scares me.
you probably won't get this for 2 weeks, but if you find the garbage swirl or whatever, get pics
10-28-2014
, 01:15 PM
