Jono's Travels

A gelateria on every corner, smoke-filled cafes, and oversized sunglasses all seem to be staples of Rome. The city itself has such contrasting areas. One street can be trash-filled and urine-smelling but the next can contain ruins some 2000 years old. The ancient city with the colosseum and the roman forum is smack dab in the middle of Rome. It was almost a surreal experience to be walking around the area (probably could have been moreso if not for the tourist horde!). Had some fun hamming it up with some of the statues and on the circo massimo - you can check out the pictures at the bottom, and yes I know I'm a huge nerdbomber.

On my second day in the city I spent a good chunk of it at Porta Portese - Rome's largest flea market - with Roxanne. It was Rox's last full day so she was on a bit of a bargain shopping spree and really seemed to enjoy the rush from bargaining. It was great to do some haggling at the market itself as it reminded me of south east asia. One of the more comical things were the illegal vendors. From what I can gather you need a permit to sell your goods at the market, however a bunch of sellers, usually foreigners, were setting up shop in the middle of the lane without one. Where the fun came in was when the police showed up and all of a sudden there was 4 or 5 guys from Africa or the Middle East with 50 fake prada purses between them booking it in the other direction. I've seen this a few times now in Italy and will have to try and grab a video of it when I get the chance!

The next day in town, I spent with my parents at the Vatican city. No joke the line for the Vatican museum must have been 1km long but my Dad budged in somewhere near the front (setting a great example there!) and luckily we managed to get inside in about 10 minutes or so. The sheer collection of art in this museum was staggering and the sistine chapel did not disappoint at all. Even as someone who does not usually enjoy museums I really enjoyed myself. Unfortunately in some areas no flash photography was allowed and in others no photography of any sort so I have few pictures and most of these are of the blurry variety.

The real highlight of Italy so far may just be the food however. I've been chowing down on gnocchi for the past few days and gelato seems to have become a daily staple of my diet. The people here are for the most part very friendly and helpful, italian women are unbelievably stylish (read: hot) and it's been fun trying out my backpacker's italian. While there is still an abudance of trendy mullets among the guys, it's a little more toned down than it was in Portugal. The flamboyance seems to be mainly in the shoes - I don't think I've ever seen so many shiny golden shoes in one city before.

Unfortunately it wasn't all peachy on this leg of the trip - my mp3 player broke down (a backpackers nightmare), my parents were mugged on the metro, my dad's luggage was delayed for a day and my mom's is still MIA after 6 days. I know you have to take the ups with some downs but after this stretch hopefully it's smooth sailing for the rest of the trip!

The family vacation ended in Rome - Roxanne is now back in Canada, Mom and Dad flew to Paris on the 15th and I headed north to Florence and then on to the Cinque Terre. Hope all is well with everyone.

Ciao,

Jon

Outside one of the Santa Maria chuches

Roxanne pretending to be a bug with her oversized Italian sunglasses outside Porta Portese

'Racing' along the Circo Massimo

Hammin it up, SPQR style.

Piazza Vittoria Emanuele II - where Mussolini gave his addresses

The Colosseum

Roman Forum

Sunset over Rome

The Last Judgement (I think) - in the Sistine Chapel

Me, Mom & Dad outside Saint Peter's Basilica

Main Square in Ponta del Gada

Azorean coastline

Touristas!

Hamming it up at the thermal hotsprings in Fuernas

Dock in Norteste where my dad used to swim as a kid

Roxanne struggggling on the uphill climb

Some of my Dad's family in Norteste

Hey all,

As most of you probably know I'm in Europe for a couple of months travelling. It starts out as a family vacation/graduation present from my parents before I head off on my own for a little while. No definite plans right now but I'll hopefully wander my way along the mediterranean going eastwards. I'm going to try and keep a travel blog so I don't pester the beegeezes out of you guys with mass emails, so hopefully this works out!

So I'm about ten days in and most so far it's all been in the homeland (Portugal - actually my parents homeland). After a suprisingly pleasant overnighter from Vancouver and a stopover in Heathrow I arrived in Lisbon with my sister. Lisbon itself is a gorgeus city. I had sort of been told that in Europe the city's are almost museums in themselves but I couldn't wrap my head around the concent until I actually saw firsthand. Practically everywhere you go downtown there's a castle, monument, charming street - it's almost sightseeing overload really. Did the tourist thing for the first few days in and around the city, played some golf, relaxed on the riverbanks. I think we may have gone overboard on the castles to start - one thing I've realized is that you sort of have to pick and choose the ones you really want to see - I hate to say it but it really becomes just another castle after you've seen a couple in a day! I also managed to take in a football game - we watched Sporting (one of the big three clubs in Portugal) play in an domestic match. The stadium was built for Euro 2004 and the atmosphere was something even though you weren't allowed any beer in the stadium! I was a little shocked at that at first but I think it's because of all the fights afterwards.

After a few days in the city we flew to the Azores. It's an island chain in the Atlantic and where both of my parents were born. This part of this trip has easily been my favourite so far. The islands themselves were gorgeous - apparently it's the law for all the buildings to have the same colour scheme which makes for a really nice setting. I got to meet family from both sides who I had no idea that existed. I think after a few days I became an expert in carrying a conversation with my relatives through much hand waving and facial expressions! The younger ones speak english well though - I ended up playing some racing games with my cousins and heard a lot about 'North American cars? bad on fuel' and how I needed to 'brake more and show some European handling'. Wish I could have spent more time there but we had already booked flights for this part of the trip ahead of time.

As far as the people go, everyone has been really friendly so far. I don't think I've ever quite seen so many faux-mullet mohawks in my life though. That and I think the Portuguese are single-handedly trying to bring back in those shaved lines on the side of you hair back. Oh and the sheer amount of people who smoke, and the fact that they smoke everywhere is still taking some getting used to.

In terms of the travelling itself I feel a bit more of a tourist than a traveller at times. Sort of a different way of seeing a country and while I am looking forward to getting back into hostels (my liver is in embarassingly good condition for this point of a vacation) the nice meals and a hotel bed aren't too bad either.

So right now we're just waiting around for a day before we fly to Rome tomorrow morning. We're there as a family for a few days before my sister heads back home, my parents fly to France and I continue on to Northern Italy. I'll try to update this semi-regularly and hopefully my blogger ability improves. I've included some photos from our trip in and around Lisbon - I'll get the ones from the Azores up soon hopefully!

Cheers,

Jon