Wrapping up

So we're all done with our adventure, finally home after more than a month in Greece, Italy and France. It was a pretty great trip, though at the end there my wallet just clammed up out of anger. So as I try to coax five or so bucks for a tapa in Granada, I thought I'd share some of our photos from France and Cinque Terre, a beautiful area with five villages within walking distance of each other. 

The villages cling to stunning cliffs overlooking the sea, and I particularly enjoyed the pastel colors adorning the houses. One the left is in Manarola, one of the smaller villages. 

What stratigraphy! 

A path between two of the villages was covered in these locks and other things hanging from fences that couples put up a symbol of their love. 

I wonder if a combination lock is like this gesture's version of a prenuptial agreement. 

Waves crashing into a little port. Emma's there for scale.  

There was a landslide in Cinque Terre in October, so you couldn't walk to each of the villages, which was disappointing. We had to take trains to between the villages. 

A beach in Monterosso

Skink!

Just a nice little soccer field at the top of the cliff in Corniglia

Certainly the most beautiful landscape we saw in Italy, including this gorgeous sunset. 

And then we were in France, which was amazing. We spent some quality time in Nice, where we ran into these jesters practicing at a park atop a hill overlooking the city.

Nice is also gearing up for Carnaval, hence ferris wheel.

And we ate just some incredible food in France, including this nice little place in Aix-en-Provence. We used our combined four French words to figure out how to order this, the plate of the day, which included cauliflower, potatoes, carrots and green beans, and, most importantly, a healthy portion of homemade mayonnaise. 

Best. Mayonnaise. Ever. 

It was way different than the fake stuff in the States, light and subtle, creamy like butter. 

And then we hit up this excellent bakery. The dozen-or-so types of bread in Aix seemed crunchy and golden, appearing mighty tasty. This crescent-shaped, chocolate-filled bread was excellent, and we got a weird-looking green baguette (not pictured). We later learned it was dyed with green tea, and it tasted mighty fine.

This city, know as the "pink city" because of all the bricks every was a great way to end out our trip, especially since we had nothing Toulouse.

Marseille (In our opinion, one of the only picturesque spots in the city)

So that was that. It was a hell of a time, and we'll probably return to France (though probably more northerly) this summer. We picked up some knowledge about traveling, so here are some tips.

The first of which is in lyrical form, meant to be sung to the tune of a slow Johnny Cash song:

• First, don't go to Greece in January.
• You think it will be fun, but it's not very
• Think of all the stuff you'll have to carry
• Spend all night on the floor of a ferry
• No one's in Crete, 'cept a guy named Jerry
• It's the gassy coal mine, I'm your canary
• Though it's Christmas, not all that merry,
• Olympia is closed, Athens is scary,
• Avoid it in winter, and in March and February,
• Don't go to Greece in January.
• Second, it's not a vacation; it's an adventure. 
• However, third, traveling takes a lot of work and planning, but you also shouldn't work too hard trying to see things just to see them, we think. Some days, especially for long journeys, it's good just to chill out the whole day and drink it all in rather than rush around to see all the sights.
• Fourth, bring more vitamin-C than you think you'll need.
• Fifth, don't wait too long to do your laundry, and you can do quite a bit in the sink.
• Sixth, when on a ferry or long boat ride, it's good to just continue eating (say, pistachios or sunflower seeds) to fend off sea sickness.
• Seventh, make every meal count. We always plotted four or five restaurants on our maps before leaving the hostel, in case one or two were closed. It's hard to tell if a restaurant is good just by looking at it's menu, but food is really a great way to experience a place.
• Eighth, bring a Swiss army knife. Beachside bottles of wine don't open themselves.

Cool. Thanks for reading, everyone. I'll have more documentary-related content up throughout the semester, so please continue checking in. 

Rome, Napoli, Florence and More-nce!

Our apologies for not posting sooner. We've had issues with Internet connections, travel plans, illness and, above all, laziness.

However, we've kept taking photos and eating food, and we've even taken a few photos while eating food. So below are a few nicer (read: Emma's) photos from our time in Rome, Napoli and Florence -- as well as two new food blogs about a couple of delicious regional pizzas and some amazing gelato.

So we'll start with pizza: I've (Emma) eaten a lot of pizza in the last three and a half years -- delicious pizza, but I have discovered one thing we've been lacking: buffalo mozzarella. If I have my say, we will soon import a herd of italian water buffalo to ABQ. Luckily, we were able to try this our first night in Napoli, before I became bedridden and lost my sense of taste:

It was simple and delicious. Some crushed tomatoes, a few basil leaves, olive oil and that creamy mozzarella di bufala -- that's it. That was pizza Neapolitan style. The restaurant, Di Matteo, was famous and surprisingly cheap -- most all the pizzas under five euros -- and we thoroughly enjoyed it:

And then it was on to Rome! After a long day of filling our mind stomachs at the Vatican museum, we filled our stomach stomachs at the Pizzarium, a "slow food movement" pizza hole in the wall that generally only offers vegetarian pizzas (but not by the slice -- as with many pizza places in Rome, you purchase by the kilo). Our favorite was also the most simple:

It was just tomato sauce and parsley on a thick, crunchy crust, more like thin bread than typical pizza crust. We got the address from this blog, which is much more professional than ours. Check it out next time you're in Rome.

We ended up getting a full kilo of the tasty stuff, including these guys:

From left it's a ricotta pizza, a cauliflower and blue cheese pizza and a spinach and mozzarella pizza. Emma was slightly overpowered by the blue cheese, but I (Pat) thought they were all good. My palate isn't as sophisticated as hers. I also got to wash it all down with an artisan beer from Munich. My kind of place. 

Here are a few other pics from Rome:

The Colosseum, of course. The spires at the bottom there are, I think, Doric columns, but I'm not sure.
I just column like I see 'em.

Palazzo Venezia

Ponte Sant'Angelo over the Tiber River near the Vatican City

The Trevi Fountain. We didn't have any money to throw in, but I think we'll make it back some day anyway. 

This is a Bernini sketch sculpture in the Vatican Museum. Though the Vatican Museum didn't have any major marble works by the Italian master, we saw(and fell in love with) quite a few at the Galleria Borghese.

After that, it was on to Florence, the supposed birthplace of gelato, and let me tell you: There was gelottafit.

Since Florence has a reputation for gelato, a lot of places are trying to milk that cash cow, and then turn it into really crappy gelato. So, for all you travelers, here are a few tips to make sure you're eating the real thing (some from personal observation, some from the blog we mentioned earlier) :

• If the gelato is towering out of the cases, it's probably not good. Gelato should generally be less light and fluffy than ice cream. 
• If the pistachio and mint flavors are bright green, avoid the place, and the same goes if the banana is bright yellow. This probably indicates that the gelato was made with additives and artificial flavors.
• If it has a bubblegum flavor, burn the place to the ground. Or just don't go there.
• And, also generally, if the place keeps lids on the gelato it's a good sign. Some places put way too much effort into the display, but good, authentic gelato places know that letting it air out can weaken the flavor.
• If the place advertises "produzione propia," it means that they make their gelato on the premises so it's probably better. 
• It should have an ingredient list prominently displayed, and said list should not have a lot of ingredients starting with "E," codes for products that are generally artificial.

So we ate gelato after almost every meal, and all was merry. The pictures above were from a place right by the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's most famous bridge.

And here are some other nice shots from Florence:

A view from the Boboli Gardens

The Duomo! 

The bronze doors of the baptistry known as the Gates of Paradise.

So here's the plan now. We're spending our last night in Italy tonight in the incredibly beautiful Cinque Terre. We spent the day roaming between those villages, and will have those photos up (if you're lucky!) soon. Tomorrow we're off to France for a few days and then back to Spain.

As for my journalism stuff, I hope to have at least one video up here in the near future, and perhaps two. I'm just having some audio problems, though they're not insurmountable.

Occupy Vatican

On our first day in Rome we happened on an "occupy" protest in front of the Vatican, and things got a bit intense near the end. At one point, a plain-clothes police officer slapped my camera out of my face and shoved me into the crowd of protesters. I managed to get a shot just a moment before he struck:

The protest started innocently enough, with around 30 protesters chanting and setting down tents in front of the Vatican. However, when they started to move their tents to a different part of the plaza, Italian police -- many of them in civilian clothing-- started pushing the protesters. 

 This guy climbed the Christmas tree in the middle of the plaza.

 He was subsequently arrested.

 Since it's the Vatican, they had a Pope blessing all the protesters. That's a tarot card book he has in his hand.

 So the police officer at the top of this page threw me into a crowd of 30 protesters, all of whom had, at that point, been protesting peacefully. Later, several protesters jumped barriers in front of the Christmas tree in order to help their colleague in the tree who was facing down half a dozen police officers as he made his descent. These protesters were quickly arrested, and it could certainly be said that they were trespassing.

However, I was simply taking photos of the protesters and the police reaction. The police officer who slapped the camera from my face and then shoved me was, in my opinion, overreacting, especially since he did not identify himself as a police officer beforehand, and since I was only taking pictures outside of the demonstration.

The number of plain-clothed officers responding to this protest certainly relates to a recent interview I did with an Italian activist. I'll have that interview up in the near future.

We just happened upon this demonstration; it occurred about 20 minutes after we arrived to see the Vatican. Interestingly, most all the protesters were chanting in Spanish, so I wonder if they travelled from Spain for this particular movement. I couldn't find anything online about it.

Crete, a food blog and on to Italy!

So, we're ending the first leg of our journey, which means saying YAH-sas (Goodbye) to Greece. A word of advice: Stay away from Greece in January, as many attractions close for the winter months. We walked around quite a few deserted Greek towns, particularly on the island of Crete. In one place we went to, a tumbleweed actually rolled down the main drag, in front of all the closed-up shops in the middle of the day. However, it's a beautiful country and could certainly use your tourism dollars in these tough times. We'd love to return, perhaps when more is happening. 

Here are a few photos from our time in Crete, as well as one from Patras, where we boarded the ferry. 

Sunset in Patras, the last city in Greece we visited. ED 

This severed pig head was just dangling from the ceiling in a butcher shop. The guy offered to pose with it. PL 

An abandoned shop in Chania, Crete. ED

 This is the beach in Kissamos, Crete. It was pouring when we got there, so we sought shelter under an umbrella. ED

This is at the harbor in Chania, Crete. A few restaurants lined this walkway along the 500-year-old city wall, and one or two of them were good. PL

We had a bit of bad luck with rain in a quite a few instances. Despite our misfortune, this rainbow followed us all over the island. PL 

This guy was burning olive branches in the countryside of Knossos in Crete. He was also decapitating doves.  ED

And here's Emma's food post from our best dining experience in Greece. It was cheap, tasty and authentic. Sure wish we could remember the name.

As we were wandering through Chania, we happened upon this place, identified only by it's symbol, a little red house with a spoon sticking out of it's open roof. Luckily for us the daily dishes, scrawled on a chalkboard in Greek, were also visible from the open kitchen. The waiter welcomed us in and opened the lids of huge metal pots to show and briefly describe their contents. Among the options: Chicken burger stuffed with vegetables(aka meatloaf), cabbage stuffed with rice, zucchini and veal, Octopus in beans and cod and potato stew. We settled on the white zucchini stuffed with rice and veal with parsley and lemon cream sauce, oven roasted potatoes and lamb in a tomato sauce, lentil salad with feta, tomato and red onion, and accidentally, a delicious salad with fennel and mixed greens in balsamic dressing with a grilled fresh cheese, somewhat similar to mozzarella. Pat also ordered a greek beer called Alpha, which even I liked. Good, good and better. There's an inherent benefit in having the freedom to change your menu everyday. The cook can take advantage of whatever fresh ingredients are available that day and though it could be exhausting to come up with new dishes everyday(though they probably don't have to) it also wards off boring boredom which can manifest itself in the food. 

Our waiter brought us a small plate of yogurt with honey of which they produce a lot in Crete and a bottle of Raki(a strong liquor). Thinking we were supposed to drink it all, we finished our dessert and raki before realizing that other tables left their bottles about three quarters full. Oh well! The yogurt here is AMAZING! Though we have greek style yogurt in the US, the authentic item is excellent. It's creamy and slightly tangy and rich and it makes me wonder why other types of yogurt even bother to exist. Oh, the yogurt! 

This was a selection of children's Christmas paintings inside the restaurant. Most all featured snow, though we suspect none of those kids have ever seen the stuff up close, considering it was T-shirt weather (when it wasn't raining) during our mid-January time there. 

 And now we're on the ferry to Bari, Italy, where I have an interview lined up with a couple of young Italian activists. Should be good. We're planning (tentatively at best) to visit Napoli, Rome, Florence and Cinque Terre. We could definitely use some advice, if you have any.

Our home for the next 16 hours. 

Greece stain

On our 9th and final day in Greece, we bring you the full account of Athens.

Our first two days took us to the obligatory Athenian sights: the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the Agora and Parliament. They are compulsory for a reason. 

We climbed the hill to the Acropolis and walked into one of the most famous, highly visited sites almost free (gotta love those student discounts). It was stunning. 

Though dozens of tourists clambered among the ruins, I imagine far fewer were there than any given day in June. Some sections were roped off to deter overeager visitors from accidentally toppling a 2,500-year-old Corinthian column, but so many temple fragments sat there that most were just waiting to become the most historic park bench ever. 

    

At a museum in the ancient Agora, a horse and chariot carving on the outside of a marble box.

Pillars at the Agora museum

Go, go, go Greece lighting!

The Acropolis at sunset

Changing of the guard in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier at the Greek parliament building. Among the fluffiest shoes I've ever seen.

Athens Food Blog. Flog?

DATELINE: SOMEWHERE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA--
Emma and I are sitting in the ferry going from Crete back to Athens, where we'll catch a train or a bus cross country in order to catch our ferry to Italy in a few days. We'll probably hit up Olympia, and we'll try and make it to an island famous for its sea turtles. Other than that, we're keeping it pretty easy.

 Keep an eye out for our photos from Crete, including one of mine involving a severed pig head. We'll have those up in the coming days.

Also, I'm currently editing a video interview with a Japanese classmate of mine. I think it'll come out pretty well.

And we'll have another food blog post coming your way.

As for now, here's our first such post-- Emma's musings after meeting our gyro hero:

You can't go far in Athens without crossing paths with the international symbol of Greek food: the gyro. We had our first at Thanasis and have since decided it would be acceptable to eat one for every meal. Meat cooked on a stick, fresh onions, tomatoes and fries(either on the side at a sit down restaurant or cleverly tucked inside the pita for the perfectly walkable meal). 

S&P can be found on every table, though in Greece S&P stands not for salt & pepper, but salt and paprika. Paprika serves as a subtly smokey finish to many plates(gyros, french fries, etc). 

The perfect bite, in action. With a slightly more buttery grilled pita, thinly sliced red onions, roasted tomatoes, juicy ground lamb and a sprinkle of paprika, the gyros at Thanasis left us quite content. And at a shockingly quick rate -- food arrived before the bus boy had time to get our Coke out of the fridge. 

First video, update

I think I'm getting closer to deciding on a topic for the larger documentary, but I'll do a few more interviews before I decide on a specific theme. Right now, I'm focusing on issues facing young people in four of the most fragile economies in Europe, including Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. I'm in Athens right now, and I'll be heading to Italy in about a week. 

Here's a video I did with a Portuguese student, Pedro, as he talked about how he and many of his peers are looking to leave Portugal after they graduate. He spoke of the "brain drain," the phenomenon of skilled workers leaving their home countries to find work, and therefore weakening their country's ability to deal with issues facing it. 

I interviewed a Greek law student last night, and I'll edit and post it in the coming weeks. Also coming up is a video with a Japanese classmate of mine, who talks about the experience of unemployed young people in Japan. 

During my trip through Greece, Italy and France, my girlfriend, Emma, and I will be working on a sort of photo/travel/food blog, which will include daily photos and insights from our travels as well as updates from my documentary project. I hope you'll find time to share this incredible experience with us. 

Soon, we'll be posting some photos from our travels so far, as well as some pictures we've taken after a couple days here in Athens. 

Don't touch that dial.