Portland to Chicago to Munich to Venice [The Beginning]

9/3/2009

Flying over the U.S.

Time: I don't know (probably 3 PM PDX time because I've been on this plane to Chicago for nearly an hour maybe, and I left Portland at about 2 PM)

I'm on my first hour or so of my first three-and-a-half hour flight to Chicago on my first flight to Italy and already some interesting things have happened:

First there was an unattended briefcase found in the gate before I boarded the plane to Chicago, so it was reported and the police took a look at it to make sure there was no bomb with the intention of blowing a chunk of the airport sky-high.

Then I got on the plane and into my seat (the window seat, which was great). The chick who had the middle seat, of course reading Twilight, the book you can't get away from, asked the flight attendant if she could have a new seat because she felt she "didn't have any space." The flight attendant told her to bring the armrest down between us, but still the chick insisted that she had no space. You may have guessed that she felt cramped next to me because I am a very large individual, and you are right. Now she's in a row behind me and I get to share a lot more legroom with the other young woman in the third seat. Awesome.  Now I have way more room for my backpack and and long, beastly legs.  I caught a break when she moved.  My size really does get me ahead in life.   I have a song for this situation: "Big guuuuy in a liiiittle seat!" (Think Tommy Boy)

Back to the unattended briefcase - it turns out that it belongs to a man a few rows back, who somehow left it behind. He realized he was without his briefcase containing what he said to be his laptop computer, business papers and some money, so he asked the attendant if he could dash back out to the gate and retrieve it. The attendant had just shut the door for takeoff so they said he would just have to be without it. Luckily for him the pilots had the briefcase passed through a window in the front of the plane, so everything is alright now. Judging by his accent he seems to be from Germany, which is very cool.

I had the great timing of using the restroom while the drink carts were out, so I had to wait to return to my seat until they could move the carts and I could get by. The rest of the plane watched as I stood waiting, forced to stand in front of dozens of strangers. It's fun to have an audience.

The lady in front of me has her seat reclined, with the longest legs on the plane [mine] crushed beneath. It's funny that the ONE reclining passenger on board is the one I'm sitting behind, but it's not a lot of fun. She does have a cast, though, so I suppose she needs her comfort.

Why is there a privacy screen between first class and 'regular' class, and why is it see-through? A privacy screen is supposed to keep people from seeing what's on the other side.

For the current in-flight movie is Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy, in which Eddie is a busy businessman whose daughter comes to live with him and his life ends up better than it was before because he uses his daughter's imaginary creations as creative ideas to succeed at work. I have seen a movie just like this: it's called The Gameplan with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.  '30 Rock' was on before this.  I hope I get to see The Office.

I have decided to take my journey to Italy one step at a time (because what choice do I have?) What I mean is that I am enjoying every little thing that happens as if it were my entire adventure, because you want to make everything you do awesome on such an amazing adventure as the one I'm beginning. I am excited to land in Chicago and get on an all-nighter to Munich, then take a border-hop flight to Venice, where I'll meet up with Gretchen (a girl in my program) and spend two days living it up in Venice before moving to Paderno Del Grappa (Keeper of the Wine), a small hill town in the beautiful Veneto wine region of Italy for school.

I am also excited to be a stranger in town, amazed by all of the Italian culture and people and food and wine.

I am ready for my Ducks to smash Boise State tonight. I'll be on the all-nighter to Munich during the entire game, but I am ready to see and hear about how Oregon destroyed Boise State. Go Ducks!

This plane that I am currently on is what you'd expect of an airplane; it's the regular size. I've always wanted to be on a 'mega plane,' the ones with, like, three blocks of seats. Maybe I'll get on one when I head to Munich.

Flying over Illinois

Time: 9:15-ish PM [7:15 PM PDX]

I am officially on a Lufthansa flight to Munich! I have been on this flight for about 20 minutes or so now (I give estimates because there are no clocks or cell phones to tell you what time it is). The map screen at the front of my section says we're flying over Michigan. There is a TV / movie screen to every seat, with music, movies and TV shows programmed in. At the moment I'm watching Appaloosa. In the tunnel on the way to the plane were free copies of Suddeutsche Zeitung, Handelsblatt and Die Zeit, German newspapers. I love foreign stuff, so I grabbed all three. I don't read or speak and German, but I don't care - they're wunderbar!

As I hoped, this plane is a mega plane! I am happy. My seat is a window seat once again, and it's magnificent to see the full moon. I will be able to watch the sun come up as I move east.

I am having a Coca Cola, not a beer, because I don't believe in drinking and flying. Ha ha ha. The flight attendants are hot German women. That is a good sign of things to come.

When I got to the ticket-taker before boarding in Chicago, there were people with yellow-edged tickets. My ticket was not one of those, so I asked, "Am I in the right line?" The ticket-taker chick said "Yes, and you make me feel very short." My height is remarkable.

My seatmate on this plane is an older woman that doesn't seem to speak English as her first language.  She is interesting because of that.

My passport hasn't left my money belt, and it won't for a long time.  There is no way I'm losing it.

I have just made another amazing discovery - there is a lower bathroom floor!  It's incredible!  You don't have to stand in front of everyone to wait for the restroom - you can go down to your own private poop deck!  Haar haar haar (I apologize)

Appaloosa was boring, but alright because of tons of gunfights.  Now for Night at the Museum 2 with Ben Stiller.

There is a GROUCHY old lady in front of us who is getting angrier at the lady next to me because she feels that her chair is getting pushed and pulled every time the lady next to me gets up.  She expects not to be disturbed when she has her seat reclined into her neighbor's lap.  Of course I won't say anything, but I'm stuck watching them for the rest of the flight.

September 4th

Time: 10:18 AM [1:18 AM PDX]

Almost to Munich

This flight has been something else.  I just finished recovering from dehydration - actually, I'm still only about 70% hydrated.  Do NOT under any circumstances neglect drinking water on a 9-hour and 40 minute flight.  Time and altitude will ruin you, so keep drinking water and you'll be just fine.  I made the mistake of drinking a medium Coke from McDonald's before I left Chicago, and some orange juice on the flight.  When you have no water to balance out Coke and orange juice and keep you hydrated the acids create a terrible storm cloud in your stomach.  For what feels like an hour and a half I stood downstairs on the lavatory deck, chugging Dixie cups of water rather than the ocean I need to survive.  I brought this situation upon myself by not refilling my water in Portland after I drank it.  I didn't want to deal with the 3-ounce rule, so I went without.

I have not slept because sleep is for people who are not on amazing European adventures.  I am beating jet-lag with excitement.  Jet lag ain't got nothin' on me!

A minute ago I was given my first breakfast in Europe, complete with strawberries, kiwi, cheddar cheese, a roll with jelly and butter, and an oats-and-honey bar.  I'll call this my Germerican breakfast.  Danke very much!

I am flying over England, guvnah!  I passed Ireland a few minutes ago.  Woo-hoo, laddie!  I am INTERNATIONAL!  Time for Funkyzeit in Munich!

P.S. - Night at the Museum 2 was delightful.

September 5th

Time: 9:02 PM [12:02 PM PDX]

Venice

Here I am, on my second night in Venice and I am still tired, but not nearly as tired as I was last night when I got in.  Here's what's happened up to now:

I survived the flight (I still can't believe I was on a plane from Munich to Chicago 9 hours and 40 minutes because it didn't feel that long [that's what she said!]).  I cleared customs in Germany.  Customs was interesting because I hesitated to put my things in the x-ray bucket because I wasn't sure if they wanted me to do something else than what they want at an American airport.  Turns out it's the same security everywhere (doy!)  I found my way to mein terminal and had a seat to wait.  It was the first time that I was in a land that did not speak English!  It's funny that European people learn English and a whole bunch of other languages in school, but American kids only have to for a few years, after which time we forget it.  I was excited to be in an all-German-speaking place because I'd never been a foreigner before, and being in a completely new continent, country and city is a thrill.  I should mention that on the plane to Munich I left two of the three German newspapers behind, sparing Die Zeit because it has an awesome name and the main story was about the trouble with figuring out which chancellor (the German president) to vote for. To illustrate this tricky situation, the front page image was two hands trying to solve a Rubik's Cube with several different candidates given a color.  Clever!

 

At the terminal were three or four scattered rows of connected chairs, two tea-and-coffee machines, a T-Mobile hotspot (at which you had to pay to use), several chairs in the far corner, a TV with German CNN, and a smoking station.  A smoking station is a glass box/room in which you can smoke as you please.

I sat down in one of the seats to wait for the shuttle that would take us to the plane.  This German lady came up to me and asked me a question in German.  I gave her a clueless look and finally said "What?"  This told her that I spoke English and she switched to my language.  That was sure nice of her, ha ha ha.  She had asked me if I was reading the newspaper to my right and I told her that I was not.  She had left it there and was coming back to it.  She decided to sit down next to me and we talked abbout where I was from and if I'd been to Europe before.  She told me she'd never been to America, and that she'd known someone from Portland.  She said she was a German to English translator, which is very cool.  I tried to explain to her the Redbull Flugtag that happens every year in downtown Portland, but she had no idea what I was talking about.  She said France is very difficult to be in if you do not speak French; apparently they don't pay any attention to you if you don't speak their language.  I also learned that it's not rude to ask a German to speak English.  I didn't find out what her name is because it didn't come up.  She was on her way to Marseilles, France for business.  She left for her flight before I did.

My shuttle came at long last, and we were carted to the plane, boarding it from the ground like presidents.  The plane was small but it had much more leg room than the bigger ones.  I was happy.  In a short 45 minutes we were in Venice.  I took a nap - rather, I fell asleep - during that time, not out of choice but of exhaustion.  Nature won.

In Venice I waited for my luggage, and as I did two girls in my program, Denise and Annelise, found me.  Denise is from Medford, Oregon and Annelise is from Minnesota.  They met in Minneapolis and took the Minneapolis-to-Amsterdam (or Frankfurt, I don't remember) route.  I'm pretty sure both of them go to Oregon.  I know at least Anelise does.  They're both Juniors.  It was just after I found my luggage that Gretchen, from Minnesota and going to Iowa State, found us.  The next step was to buy bus tickets to Piazzale Roma in Venice, the touristy area that every traveler needs to see.  Once there we decided to meet the next morning in the same spot.  I was staying in the Hotel Antico Capon, in Piazza Santa Margherita, about five minutes from the meeting point; very convenient.  Denise and Annelise were in some place 'by the bus station.'  Gretchen was on Giudecca, the southern island in Venice.  We split up to meet again.  I found my hostel, which has a trattoria on the bottom floor.  Classy.  I was given the key to my room and got set up, glad to be rid of my bags that could not carry themselves.  I was free to wander as I wished.

I walked along the alleyways and backstreets, amazed by the ancient style of architecture that looked like they should be in an old painting.  The buildings have bricks and stone and chiseled arches that look like they have been there for hundreds of years.  
















European architecture does not change over time as does that of the United States.  U.S. buildings seem manufactured in comparison, confined to a standard building code.  I feel like I'm in some very old movie when I walk around Venice because the windows don't have screens, but original wooden double-door window coverings.  The architecture is also beautiful because the buildings and houses look like they have withstood the test of time.  The stone walls are often chipped, giving them a rustic, historic impression.  There are curved balconies that come out a foot or less from the wall, covered with potted plants and ivy that make the windows look very natural.

The canals of Venice are the best part of the whole city.  They accentuate everything and set it apart from anywhere else in the world.  There are people driving boats around the narrow (well, semi-narrow) water-streets with the greatest of ease.  The gondoliers are always a sight to see because the gondolas are black and covered with bronze lion heads and other cool stuff.

The water looks very clean.  It is a magnificent shade of green.  It doesn't seem polluted, but I could be mistaken because it's rare to see any public trash cans in the city.  I could write all day about how Venice looks.  It has been preserved for centuries and it continues to be a spectacle today.

Later on I had a dinner of spaghetti and mushrooms, and it was amazing.  I had it at the trattoria in front of my hostel, so I got a discount.

After I ate I went to my room, exhausted, pushed my luggage out of the way, and went to sleep.  At the time nobody else was in the room, but I woke up at God-knows-what hour to two guys from Japan moving into the room.  I got up and brushed my teeth, then went to bed for good.  The other guys went to sleep even before me, and I assumed that they were Japanese because that is the language they were speaking.

I woke up a few times that night before I woke up for good in the morning.  I got up because I didn't want to be late meeting Gretchen and because I like having plenty of time beforehand.  I met Gretchen and we waited for Denise and Annelise for half an hour, but gave up when they didn't show.  We could not call them so we were out of luck.  We didn't know their numbers, anyway.  We crossed this enormous bridge to another plaza.  It's a foot traffic bridge.  If someone drove over it they would run over dozens and dozens of people.

 As we walked I took tons and tons of pictures because I didn't want to miss capturing the magnificence that is Venice.  Every alley, every shop, every gondola was as unique as the one before.  We saw this woman dressed in a black dress and veil, holding a cup in her hands, begging, head down.  I wondered if it related to some Italian or Catholic legend or something.  We also stopped for gelato and I had my first triple-scoop cone of blackberry, blackberry and vanilla.  I LOVE GELATO!

We saw some young Italian men and women dressed in very nice, high-fashion suits and dresses.  They looked like they came from a D&G ad (D&G is HUGE, from what I've seen).

I forgot to mention that after crossing the super bridge we saw that someone had spray-painted "Venice is sinking."  When I saw this I thought immediately of a Berlitz ad I've seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPlydXySG6c.

We came across another giant bridge that looked over a massive arm of the Grand Canal, wider than any other part.  The place was packed with people, walking all around and doing all kinds of different things.  The super canal was a sight to behold.

We came back to Piazzale Roma and decided to go to Giudecca for the sake of exploration.  Giudecca is like Venice, Page Two, but nobody (relative to tourism) goes there unless they live there.  The water taxi (a barge outfitted with rails and a roof and a standing / sitting area) makes several stops in a loop around the canal connecting Venezia and Giudecca.  We were on our way to the stop that would take us to Giudecca when I had the realization that as we were in Italy I could buy myself a Heineken.  It turned out to be a bad idea because I despisethe taste of beer.  It makes me sick to my stomach to drink sour, watery beer, and I cringe at the smell of it.  By the time we were on Giudecca and had walked across half of the island I decided to stop forcing myself to drink it (I paid for it, so I had to get my money's worth) and throw away the almost half-full can of liquid monstrosity, thereby committing an international party foul.  Oh well.  I like wine even less.

On Giudecca are several small tabaccis (general stores that sell water, soda and lottery tickets as well as an enormous selection of cigarettes) and a few residential neighborhoods.  I saw two men fishing on the canal, which was interesting because I had not thought that there would be fish in such busy water.  On the door of an apparent small house carved into the side of a building was a hammer-and-sickle symbol that looked to have been painted on and had rusted over time.  It looked like a carving, but I didn't see any indentations.  I have heard that in Italy you are either a Communist or a Fascist.  I could not tell you why.  The entire island is covered in very old factories.  There is a boatyard on the backside, from which a boat was being raised and lowered into the water for use.  There was what looked to be a family there as well, so maybe they had just bought it.  We walked through a residential neighborhood and hit the end of the island, so we turned back.  I went back to Santa Margherita and Gretchen stayed.

On the water taxi ride back I decided not to buy a ticket because the locals were not buying tickets.  When in Venice, do as the Venetians do.  I admired the gigantic church on the bank of the canal because of its size and its architecture.  It is the centerpiece of Giudecca.

When I got back to my hostel I decided to spend the evening in the square rather than in my room.  I had an enormous plate of four-cheese spaghetti with nothing else but the main dish (I had already fallen for being charged for bread sticks and two waters; nothing is free in Europe).  The spaghetti was fantastical.

At the restaurant were four waiters.  The first was tall and built like an Italian Bill Walton, and all he ever said was 'Ciao.'  The second waiter was more of what you'd expect - helpful but very limited in his English.  He asked me where I'm from and I showed him the Portland, Oregon postcards that Gavin's mom had given me to show people.  He told me that I was 'good people.'  He was the most talkative of the bunch and he hawked tables like a superstar.  The third waiter was an older man who was talkative but had nothing much to say.  I came to sit at the restaurant and write these words earlier, and when he realized that I wasn't going to order anything he moved me from the money-maker table I was at to one in the back.  I sat at the table for a good while before I got tired and went upstairs to sleep.

There was a soccer game on, and two bars in the square at which to watch it.  I thought I'd sit, watch and write, but one was very small and the other required that I buy something.

As they had before, my Japanese roommates were up and moving around at a few different points in the night.  It was not so bad because I can sleep through anything.  The guys got up very early both mornings and seemed to be going somewhere for business because they dressed very nicely.  They were gone all day and well into the night.  It was interesting to have them around.

I awoke on my second morning in Venice and became excited to get to Paderno Del Grappa.  My checkout was at 10 AM and I was to meet Gretchen at noon to make the trip.  I left the hostel and had a few hours to wander the city and eat breakfast in Venice one last time.  I noticed that unowned dogs roam the streets.  They are friendly.

In the square outside my hostel was a dog with no owner but a collar, sitting still beneath the church bell tower.  It was fascinating because I would have expected a stray dog to act way differently.  It was sitting upright, looking around at people in the square like an old man on a park bench.  The dog even looked like an old man.

I was tempted to forge a new path to the rendezvous point, but I thought better of it because I didn't want to get lost.  Before leaving the square I filled a bottle with water from a fountain in the center of the square, a necessity for an American in Italy because there is no free water anywhere.  I am confident that it was good water- it tasted alright to me.

In the alleys on my way to the point were Germans, as wide-eyed in splendor as I was.  I was happy to be in the midst of many kinds of Europeans because I felt that I was really in Italy.  I wanted them to notice me and the Americanicity of my Texas Longhorns t-shirt.  There was a self-service movie rental machine, with recent American movies given Italian names.

I reached the bus station (adjacent to where I needed to be) and decided to get breakfast.  I opted for a tuna sandwich-type thing, and it was great.  I DO miss the Village Inn, though.

An old couple asked me in Italian to take a picture of them on a bridge.  After a few shared failures to get the point across I realized what they wanted.  I took the picture, looking up at them as they stood against a Venetian background of canal and sky (on the bridge in the picture below), and they thanked me.

Pay restrooms are my least-favorite things ever.  There is nothing so un-American as a bathroom you have to pay to use.

A grayhound came close to me as I sat waiting, but would not come to me when I called it.  Hmm.

I looked for an Italia sweatshirt, but failed to find one, as Europeans are small and I am huge.  The biggest they had was a 2XL that should have been an XL because the sleeves covered my forearms and came nowhere near my hands.

I met Gretchen and we got in line to buy a train ticket once we found out where the Santa Lucia train station was because a generous Italian lady led us there.  Getchen's suitcase was WAY TOO HEAVY!  We bought our tickets to Castelfranco, a town along the way, and off we went!  Old trains are like old Cadillacs: a hard leather / feet smell and as hot as Hades inside.

In Castelfranco we had to walk across town (ALL THE WAY across town) to the bus station to ride to Paderno.  Being a Sunday, the bus we wanted was not running, so after two hours of determined waiting I had the town's gorgeous ice cream girl called us a taxi.  The taxi driver spoke no English but I still had a conversation with him.

We drove along a country road for about half an hour before we got to Paderno.  We tried tipping the driver but it is an insult to Italians because it implies that they do not make enough money.  I LOVE that policy.

We settled into our hotel (across the street from school, in fact!) and I could finally relax.  We had pizza and wine with other people in our school group and spent the night in luxury.  The next morning we moved onto campus and the term was set to begin!