I have weird feet. They are wide and my toes are long. I'm also unable to move my baby toe on my own. Trying to find sandals I can actually wear and be comfortable in is proving to be an impossible mission.
The sandals I brought with me almost completely wore through so I had buy some new ones. I was desperate and bought the first sandals I came across, a pair of thongs, knowing full well I cannot wear thong sandals. I can't wear thongs because my toes are too far apart and they just fly off unless I'm making a concerted effort to keep them on my feet. Going up or down stairs in a pair of thong sandals makes me look like a child who has just learned to walk.
Realizing the thongs would be no good as I continue my journy I looked for and bought a pair of adidas sport-type sandals. These fit perfectly in the store. The next day however, not so much. Conveniently these sandals waited until I was sufficiently far from the hostel and began slicing into my toes. Then I got the blisters on the sides of my feet. Fuck.
My toes gushing blood I finally had enough and went all MacGyver on the things. Using my trusty Swiss army knife I cut the band across the top of the sandals to better fit my gnarled and mangled feet. Brilliant! Then I wake up today to find my baby toe on my left foot is bright purple and about twice the size it should be. And it hurts, a lot.
Walking from the hostel to the train station this morning, usually a 7-minute or so walk, took about 20 minutes. My toe looks like an alien's head and the nail is it's glaring alien death eyes or something. Basically if you're backpacking around somewhere, having a gimpy foot is the worst possible ailment you could have.
You know what would make me feel better about my foot? A medium pizza. All for me.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
AAARGH!!!
The title of this post is meant to illustrate my frustration with being in a hostel that has actual computers for use and not internet terminals. This is because I want to be able to share pictures in my updates rather than just ramble on with my crappy writing. I was [ ] that close to buying a mini laptop in Munich a little over a week ago. For 300 Euro I could have had one, which is about $500 or so, but I decided I'd better not. That would give me four computers at home!
So a brief outline of what I've been up to.
After Paris I went to the Swiss Alps and then to Bern. While in Bern everything was closed, so I didn't see much of anything.
Following Switzerland it was into Italy. First Rome, then Florence and then Venice. Florence is easily my favourite of the three. I could have spent weeks in Italy, traveling to the coast, to Sicily and other places. It's a very beautiful country with very odd people. They are so laid back and relaxed and the entire country seems extremely unorganized. I'll detail Italy more as soon as I can, including a write-up on Michelangelo's David, by far the best thing I've seen all trip.
After Venice it was to Munich, Germany. Love Germany. After the somewhat messiness and laziness of Italy, Germany was a big change. Everything is clean, on time and to the letter in Germany. The best part about Bavaria, where Munich is, is that beer is considered a staple food. It's taxed the same as bread or milk or fruit. This means, wherever you can eat a sandwich, you can drink a beer. It's extremely cheap and the Germans love it. Beer gardens and beer halls are the greatest places on Earth. I would move to Munich. Such a stark contrast to Canada where we consider alcohol a poisonous sin and you can only buy it from regulated vendors during limited hours and must consume it in hiding.
After Munich was Budapest, Hungary. Awesome place but it was ridiculously hot. It was so hot I found it difficult to do much of anything. It was here I had to purchase baby powder to help heal my, uhh, diaper rash? Chaffing sucks.
Vienna next. Not much to say about Vienna. A very nice city but also a boring city. Also, stupid hot.
I'm currently writing this in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Now this is an awesome city. So much to see and do, everyone speaks English, the food is great and people are friendly. It's really awesome that the World Cup is happening right now, in the same time zone as Europe no less, because it means there's something to do every single night.
Upon posting this I will be heading to the train station to get on a train for Berlin. I'll be there five days as there's about a billion things to do. That and I quite enjoy Germany. Definitely my kind of country. So, sorry for the boring post but I figured I'd better do something.
So a brief outline of what I've been up to.
After Paris I went to the Swiss Alps and then to Bern. While in Bern everything was closed, so I didn't see much of anything.
Following Switzerland it was into Italy. First Rome, then Florence and then Venice. Florence is easily my favourite of the three. I could have spent weeks in Italy, traveling to the coast, to Sicily and other places. It's a very beautiful country with very odd people. They are so laid back and relaxed and the entire country seems extremely unorganized. I'll detail Italy more as soon as I can, including a write-up on Michelangelo's David, by far the best thing I've seen all trip.
After Venice it was to Munich, Germany. Love Germany. After the somewhat messiness and laziness of Italy, Germany was a big change. Everything is clean, on time and to the letter in Germany. The best part about Bavaria, where Munich is, is that beer is considered a staple food. It's taxed the same as bread or milk or fruit. This means, wherever you can eat a sandwich, you can drink a beer. It's extremely cheap and the Germans love it. Beer gardens and beer halls are the greatest places on Earth. I would move to Munich. Such a stark contrast to Canada where we consider alcohol a poisonous sin and you can only buy it from regulated vendors during limited hours and must consume it in hiding.
After Munich was Budapest, Hungary. Awesome place but it was ridiculously hot. It was so hot I found it difficult to do much of anything. It was here I had to purchase baby powder to help heal my, uhh, diaper rash? Chaffing sucks.
Vienna next. Not much to say about Vienna. A very nice city but also a boring city. Also, stupid hot.
I'm currently writing this in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Now this is an awesome city. So much to see and do, everyone speaks English, the food is great and people are friendly. It's really awesome that the World Cup is happening right now, in the same time zone as Europe no less, because it means there's something to do every single night.
Upon posting this I will be heading to the train station to get on a train for Berlin. I'll be there five days as there's about a billion things to do. That and I quite enjoy Germany. Definitely my kind of country. So, sorry for the boring post but I figured I'd better do something.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Broken Arm Epidemic
Updates on Switzerland and Italy are forthcoming but for now, a quick one.
The first thing I noticed when I got to Rome was the odd amount of people with down's syndrome around the area I was staying. I concluded immediately that it was The Vatican's fault. Makes sense. The other thing I noticed was the amount of people with broken arms/wrists/hands/fingers etc. I saw a few the first day and thought it was weird but as the days went on I continued to see an alarming amount of people with their hand or arm in a cast or sling. Much like the church causing mental and physical disorders in people I thought this was due to crossing the street in Rome.
Rome is a chaotic city. Many busy crosswalks aren't controlled at all and you basically have to take your life into your hands and just step out into the street and hope all the cars come to a screeching halt before slamming into you. It's like Italy's version of BASE jumping or something. So I concluded, in jest, that maybe all these people had had a nasty run-in with an Italian driver.
Then I went to Florence and the phenomenon continued. There were people with broken hands and arms everywhere! "This is ridiculous," I thought and I kept taking notice every time I saw someone in a cast or sling.
Moving on to Venice and the problem continued. I counted five broken arms or hands on my final day in Venice alone.
Somthing is happening to the Italian people. Is it some sort of super virus, causing brittle arm bones? Perhaps genetic engineering? Aliens??? Whatever it is, someone needs to alert the proper authorities. I'd do it myself but if you thought I was a procrastinator before you should see me now after having been around Italians for about ten days.
The first thing I noticed when I got to Rome was the odd amount of people with down's syndrome around the area I was staying. I concluded immediately that it was The Vatican's fault. Makes sense. The other thing I noticed was the amount of people with broken arms/wrists/hands/fingers etc. I saw a few the first day and thought it was weird but as the days went on I continued to see an alarming amount of people with their hand or arm in a cast or sling. Much like the church causing mental and physical disorders in people I thought this was due to crossing the street in Rome.
Rome is a chaotic city. Many busy crosswalks aren't controlled at all and you basically have to take your life into your hands and just step out into the street and hope all the cars come to a screeching halt before slamming into you. It's like Italy's version of BASE jumping or something. So I concluded, in jest, that maybe all these people had had a nasty run-in with an Italian driver.
Then I went to Florence and the phenomenon continued. There were people with broken hands and arms everywhere! "This is ridiculous," I thought and I kept taking notice every time I saw someone in a cast or sling.
Moving on to Venice and the problem continued. I counted five broken arms or hands on my final day in Venice alone.
Somthing is happening to the Italian people. Is it some sort of super virus, causing brittle arm bones? Perhaps genetic engineering? Aliens??? Whatever it is, someone needs to alert the proper authorities. I'd do it myself but if you thought I was a procrastinator before you should see me now after having been around Italians for about ten days.
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