Revitalized

I am not too sure if it is Spain or the fact that I am going home in a matter of weeks...

Or maybe it is the revolutionary feel of Christmas rising within my spirits...

I never imagined Spain to be a cold country... Sadly, I have been proved wrong... but it is fitting... We are a matter of a couple weeks away from Christmas time... The holiday cheer, the Eggnog, family and friends... I cannot wait to see little Owens´face light up with Christmas cheer as he takes his first sip of assorted spirits...

There are Christmas markets all across the grand Spanish squares... Christmas trees have been erected all along the avenues... Even modernist designed trees class against Neo-classical, even Gothic urban landscapes...

And this is only Spain...

I cannot fathom what Paris and London should look like....

There may even be SNOW!!!!

My friend is so envious about the idea of European snow... it is from a different ilk than North American snow.... When we think of European snow, Aushwitz comes to mind, Siberia pops into our heads... Paris and Prague covered in a white blanket...

Vancouver snow is just this.... Horrible drivers observing the aftermath of a simple fenderbender because Joe Chan was put to the ultimate drivers test....

hahahaha... ¨I´ll be home for Christmas¨ as the song goes...

Dear Mr. Hemmingway...

I am in Madrid, writing you a letter that should explain a lot about the 21st century....

Italia...Roma... Napoli....

I am too jaded... nothing really interests me any more...

I am like captain Barbossa, from Pirates of the Carribean, unable to taste the fruits of life...

Rome was bold, but the greatest thing i saw was Quantum of Solice...

Naples is loud... no one needs to honk their horn that much... and all the cars are scraped and dented... lay off the coffee pizano...

Spain is only a day away...

Storm Watch: 2008 or "Venice: The little city that should't be"

Venice... It was good, but in a bad way....

I am here, sitting in a hostel in Florence, dead to the world. My eyes burn with that cool tired sensation. I know if i were to close my little pupils I would probably drift off for 12 hours.

Yesterday was a test of strength and spirit.

To say the least, Venice nearly flooded. And there I was sightseeing like a good little tourist.

Let me put you in the picture, let me show you what I mean... St. Mark's Square was empty. St. Mark's Square was under 6 inches of water, curtiousy of the Grand Canal and the Adriatic Sea.... I was even made a 30 second video of this said phenomenon.

Venice is a city that should not be. It is illogical and not practical. But it's faults are equally matched by antiquity. It is a precious little city, stuck in the middle of a lagoon. It is no wonder that the city was under water for most of November 13th, 2008. Heaps and heaps of rain drove down on shoddy side streets. Lightning flashed every 2 minutes. I actually felt like my life could be in danger. This lightning has to touch down somewhere or on someone. The thunderclaps kept calling my name! I'm sure my number would have been drawn if I were like everyone else with an umbrella....

Along the sea wall there were waves waiting to pull me out to become lost in the lagoon. Boats tore by and waves crashed against buildings. The tide was acceptionally high, due to the full moon...

Folks, we are talking about the perfect storm....

As you can tell, I am still alive. But my camera nearly died... The LCD screen is a little warped and a 50 Euro Note got dyed blue (no one would accept the money until earlier today at the Bologna train station)....

So here I am... Florence, dead tired, thinking about Pisa, pizza, Rome, and home....

When in Venice....

Ditch the map... kickin it in the river, like in the Blair Witch Project...

Buy a bottle of "Euro wine" (slang for wine costing only a couple Euros)...

and walk....

I have stumbled upon some great places... including an internet cafe that has taken a lot of money from me....

and I am longing to pee... hopefully in that little canal out back of this shoppe...

Adios for now....

Serbian Department of Peace

Interesting thing about Belgrade and the rest of Serbia: everyone is a cop.

And if they are not a cop then they are looking like cops.

The citadel is pretty amazing. It is free, and free for the general public. They have tanks and bombs, and armored vehicles all around the old fortress. Kids can play on old American Sherman tanks or even on a wonderful Panzerkampfawagen.

I feel like I did not have enough time to see the city. I chose to do all of my museum seeing on the Monday, which is the wrong day to do this, because everything is closed. I really wanted to see the Nicola Tesla museum as well as Tito's grave.

But tomorrow I go to Zagreb to pick up some Eurorail tickets. I don't know what to do in Zagreb. Hopefully I'll be out of there by Thursday.