Mike D Goes to Europe!

Hello, dear readers. I write this post from a restaurant in the Juan-Les-Pins area of Antibes, in the French riviera. At the moment, I am “benefitting” from having consumed most of a bottle of local wine by myself, so if I slur as I write this, you have only yourselves to blame for not coming with me on this trip and sharing the burden.

But enough about France. Let’s backtrack. Yesterday, I went on a hike through the five towns of the Cinque Terre. Or at least, I started to (hang on - there’s a common theme here). I started at the Eastern-most village of Riomaggiore, and met a couple from the Twin Cities - David and Gloria - on the trail with whom (even drunk, my grammar is exemplary) I had chatted briefly at the train station earlier. We ended up joining up on our walk and, as we approached the third town, Corniglia, it was noted that this town was known for its local wine (here comes the theme). It was about lunch time, so we decided we should stop and chow down and sample some of the local product. Around this time, we randomly ran into the previously mentioned Gary from Albany, who joined us as well.

Long story short - there’s a damn good reason that they’re known for their wine there. The food was excellent as well. Unfortunately, we were unable to hike to the last two towns, for wine-related reasons. But it was a really fun day nonetheless.

After a nap and an ensuing late-afternoon hangover, I met the previously mentioned Finnish girls, Kerttu and Elina, for dinner. We also ran into a couple of guys from Salt Lake City with whom we had all been talking the night before. As with the night before, we had a very fun night of eating, drinking, and stimulating international conversation. Between Gary, David and Gloria, and Kerttu and Elina, I am really fortunate to have found such good travel buddies while on the road. Here’s hoping there are more where that came from.

Oh yeah, the title of this post! I came to Europe trying to experience local life and meet local people. So far, I have pretty much only met other tourists. But so what. I’m having a great time and meeting great people. It’s hard to complain about that.

I’m including a view of Vernazza from the harbor’s walkable breakwater. Next post will be tres francais.

Update: here are the photos from this part of the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/therealmiked/sets/72157608739311887/

This morning I took an early train from Milan to the Cinque Terre, a group of five villages on the Italian Riviera, which is known for its unspoiled beauty and its resistance to modern life. And beautiful it is. I have a small but quaint room that looks out on the Mediterranean. I had to climb 165 steps (I counted) up narrow and winding back alleys to get to it, which can be a little challenging after a few glasses of the locally made wine. I had a nice relaxing nap this afternoon listening to the surf out my window.

This is the Europe I came to see. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. The word is definitely out about this place. It’s absolutely infested with tourists. I would guestimate a tourist-to-local ratio of at least 7-1. That’s a minor bummer, but not so bad. I met some nice Canadians, a friendly guy named Gary from Albany, and a couple of fun Finnish girls, whom I’ll be meeting again for dinner tomorrow.

Time to catch up on my sleep. Attaching a couple photos from the balcony of my room.

So, here I am in Milan, bringing you my first impressions of Europe. My initial arrival on the continent was in Frankfurt, where EVERYTHING IS IN ENGLISH. Seriously, if someone blindfolded you and dropped you off there, it would be several hours before you realized you were in another country.

After a short connecting flight to Milan’s Malpensa airport and a longer bus ride to the city center, I made my way to the Hotel Valley which is, in a word, a shithole. Whoever made this place look appealing on the web site deserves some sort of award. I believe their motto is “Taking ‘dank’ to the next level.” The desk clerk’s energy level makes “Napoleon Dynamite”’s Pedro look like Richard Simmons. I fully expect to find him in the lobby tomorrow morning swinging by a noose of his own creation.

Overall, Milan is entirely underwhelming. It could be any big city in the US or anywhere else.

The hotel’s best feature is its short distance from the train station, enabling me to get the hell outta dodge as quickly as possible, and go see the real Europe.

Update: I just wanted to clarify, for those who weren’t aware, why I came to Milan at all. It wasn’t really somewhere I wanted to visit but it was a somewhat unavoidable quirk of my schedule. My first real destination is the Cinque Terre region on the Riviera. Milan is the nearest major airport. If I had taken the train to Cinque Terre right after arriving in Milan, I wouldn’t have made it there until after midnight. And they don’t go for that in these small towns. Hence, I was forced to spend a night in Milan. Looking forward to moving on this morning.