das loft

I've been doing lots of work on the Corvus Mae site lately. Why don't y'all take a look and let me know if you find anything weird. I know that the Bios pages still need work, and they're coming next. We also still have to upload some photos, so don't worry about that. But if anything else is weird, lemme know.

Hopefully I'll get to start working with Jon on his software project this week. Maybe make some money even. I really just want to get back into the programming groove - or at least appear to be a serious programmer. I don't want people thinking I'm lazy. Because I'm not. Just distracted is all.

I think we've got that other apartment. I haven't signed the lease yet, but everything looks good with our application. Phew!

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So we didn't get that apartment that we wanted. They said having a guarantor is too complicated, legally. So I no longer like them. I'm kind of glad that I won't have to deal with them anymore. The superintendent was nice enough, but the landlords are bastards.

Meta and I have a few more places we'll be checking out tomorrow, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. I can't wait until this is all over with!

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So, my small and loyal audience... er, let's make that small and shrinking (I haven't heard from Victor in a while; I imagine I bored him to death).

Steve's cat - Bat - hobbles. She's what you'd call an "indoor" cat, I guess. She sleeps practically 24 hours/day. She only gets up occasionally to eat, drink, and do her business. She doesn't seem to have much control over her claws, because when you try to pick her up, she has trouble detaching herself from the surface you're trying to remove her from. So often the best you can do is sway her body from side to side rather than pick her all the way up, since she'll still be fastened to the ground, limited in range of motion by the length of her paws. It's rather funny-looking. She permanently lacks whiskers and facial hair; I'm told it may have been the result of some kind of chemical burn she got years ago. She sleeps upside-down with her paws sticking up in the air. Hey, she just sneezed. There's a first. Oh, and a second. And a third. Oh my.

So Meta's into a Norway phase. Right now we're listening to a folk song by some Norwegian band called Prima Vera. You can learn more about Meta's never-ending fascination from her blog.

I'm off the movie downloading bandwagon (if there ever was one). Or wait.. I got that wrong. How about: I'm on the movie-downloading addict's wagon... of recovery? That's not right either, because they must let you off at some point - you know, once you've recovered, which I already have. In fact, I recovered instantaneously as soon as I stepped on the wagon. So I'm at the wagon stop of recovery from the addiction of downloading movies. Well anyway, I'm sure you get it. The reason is because Paramount Pictures e-mailed Steve (the subscriber of the Internet connection I've been borrowing) to tell him to delete Vanilla Sky, which they somehow figured out that I downloaded from a BitTorrent source a few days ago. That's pretty amazing, I think. Or maybe it's not. Maybe the nature of BitTorrent makes it really easy for them to track you down. Well, good for them. They win.

Meta and I still haven't got the apartment, but we're still trying. The landlord needs proof that my dad can act as a guarantor - i.e., he can cover the rent if we can't (but we can, bastards!). They're such sissies there. At least the superintendent is nice.

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I uploaded the rest of my Europe photos to my gallery. These are all the photos I took during my trip.

Bike Trip, Fall 2004

A compilation of all the videos I took during the trip will be ready shortly.

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Hurrah, hurrah, I made it back safely. Gotta love that old Pearson airport. It cost me $78 to get a ride to Burlington on a shuttle bus (including tip). It took three hours since it was rush hour, and Pearson airport's only ground transportation options rely on the same overtaxed traffic arteries that the rest of the world uses. Funny, in London it takes about half an hour and maybe only $15 to go the same distance (and to much smaller villages than Burlington). That's the GTA for you, I guess. Silly Canadians and their rather inefficient SUV trains.

Right now I'm living in Steve Manning's townhouse in Burlington with Meta. It's all right for now but will be rather cramped for the long term. So Meta and I are going to rent a place for the next few months. Today we went to Oakville and found a two-bedroom apartment in a small, three-storey apartment building on Queen Mary Dr. going for $900/month (most utilities included). We're pretty certain we're going to take it. That's pretty good for being so close to downtown Oakville, and it's almost next door to Meta's work. The lease is for one year; I guess that's normal for most places. I'm just not sure whether they'll let you leave before it's up in case your living circumstances change, say, if you gave them one month's notice or something. It would be nice not to have to worry about having to sublet the place. The reason I'm concerned is because we're hoping to get a house soon after my dad finishes his current cruise job, which will be in the spring, and Meta and I would most likely want to live in it.

As for what I plan to be doing... I'm hoping to do freelance computer work for a while, maybe with Jon. I don't know how much of that kind of work I could find. If I run into problems being able to subsist on that kind of work, maybe I'll just get a boring 9-5 IT job nearby. As if that's so easy to find. :P (Actually I have no idea..)

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11. November 2004

I'm in an 11th-century English pub called the Old Six Bells in Horley, Surrey. It was recommended by my goodly hostess. I ordered a Carling beer because it was the only one, besides Guinness, where I could understand what the man said. In fact, I didn't realize he said Carling; I just pronounced it the way he did, which sounded like "Colling." Maybe he thinks I'm a twit.

They're playing a cover of Baby, Light My Fire by The Doors. I ordered a Beef, Mushroom & Ale pie. You know, I'm gradually finding that I want to spend a lot of time experiencing this land. Some other time, I suppose.

The sun is so low here! It felt like morning all day. It's also quite chilly, probably only a few degrees above freezing. The vegetation of London reminds me a lot of most of Germany, even Bavaria. Lots of ivy stuck to everything. Besides bricks, the other architectural feature the English seem to have an infatuation with are chimneys. They're everywhere you look. Most houses have at least two, and often four or five. And they have these funny shapes, too. Silly English.

Oh yes, and fluorescent yellow is very "in" here. In downtown London, every fifth person is wearing a bright, fluorescent yellow jacket. I realize they're used for visibility, and mostly it's the police and municipal officials that wear them. But so do cyclists, motorcyclists and carts pulled by old ladies. Again, I believe the "silly English" expression applies.

Crap, I've written a lot. I'm almost finished my notebook here. (But then I guess for Meta that's probably a daily occurrence.)

I finished my Carling. I think that was a pint. Mm, mm.

English commercials are funny! I mean, in general, I think they're funnier or more down-to-earth-funny or something than the commercials I'm used to. And as usual, English dramas and mysteries are so well acted. They're so good, and addictive. I wouldn't mind living here for a bit, maybe.

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[Later...]

When I got to Luton airport, I had to decide how I was going to get to downtown London, where I had booked my hostel. I bought a map for £5, about $11 (and it's just a very basic road map, too; how dare they). I almost started to ride there, but then I realized it was kind of late in the day for starting a 50 or 60 km trip on the bike, in a place and on a side of the road I've never been. So I reluctantly bought a train ticket to London, bug several stops before my hostel, so that I could save money as well as get to see a bit of my surroundings.

The prices of things in London are much like those in Canada, except they're in pounds sterling, which are worth more than twice Canadian dollars. So yeah, it's pretty expensive. My first impression of the London area was something like "Canada, but Europe." It's striking how different the architecture is here from mainland Europe. The English seem to love bricks, much like the Canadians and Americans, I guess. So much of the ugly architecture here reminds me of home; it's even slightly depressing. But that's just the ugly architecture, like the industrial buildings and big box stores. The houses are churches remind me of home, too, but they're quite charming, in their own way. I guess it's just English. All in all, it's quite a new experience for me.

People look totally different here, too. Much less... French, Italian and German, and more English. I'm sure that means a lot to you.

I went to get some groceries at a huge supermarket as I was making my way to the hostel. The store was called Waitrose. And let me tell you, the organic food situation here is so amazing, both my mouth and my eyes were watering. Waitrose has a huge selection of organic stuff. They had both organic clementines and satsumas! Until now I couldn't even find organic clementines. And Waitrose makes it super-easy to find the organic stuff: they just colour the price tag green. So that's the main characteric by which they distinguish their products: the regular stuff, and the organic stuff. It's so clearly labelled that it seems like it must be a real priority of Waitrose. I was beaming.

It's not such a big deal getting used to cycling on the other side of the road. But it does require thinking, and I find it actually easier to reverse the concepts of "left" and "right" in my mind, rather than remember their new implications. For example, when I see that I have to, say, make a left turn up ahead, I think of it as a right turn, except on the other side of the road. Get it? I hope so.

Right now I'm in the bar of The Generator, the hostel I'm staying at tonight. They have funky blue neon lights all over the place. It's not bad. I get a free drink just for staying a night (I got a gin and tonic), and breakfast. It's only £12.50 a night, which is so cheap compared to almost anything else you can find in downtown London. Even the other hostels I checked were at least £20. The hotel I'll be staying at tomorrow - well, it's really just a guesthouse - will cost £31, and it's not anywhere near downtown London. It's the cheapest place I could find that's within short riding distance to Gatwick Airport. Go figure.

I might get their £3.50 dinner, just for the hell of it. I should have some real English fare while I'm here, no?

So, I like this place - England - so far. Not that I've really seen anything yet. I think it's partly the familiarity (language), partly friendliness (they actually are, it seems), and partly the eco-friendly mentality. It's quite comforting. They only problem is prices. I suppose I could get used to it, or maybe work here so I could make just enough to live here.

So I got the dinner. Not terribly exciting, but good. This is a pretty enormous hostel. It has I don't know how many floors, and each floor seems to have these endless corridors of dorms, probably 6-12 people per room. It's got a really lively first floor, with people strewn randomly in the cafeteria, bar, Internet room, and more. It's completely different from the last place I stayed at, where there were only, maybe, 7 others staying. And yet I don't mind it. It's not insitutional like that terrible place I stayed at in Innsbruck.

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[This morning:]

I'm at Nice airport, waiting to board my plane to London. Last night I woke up and suddenly realized that people drive on the left side of the road in Englad. Then I fell asleep and had a dream that they switched over to the right side recently. But unfortunately, that was just a dream. So it should be very interesting riding my bike to downtown London. I'm a bit nervous. I'm sure I'm going to make a few mistakes. I wonder whether other rules of the road are different there. I'll try to be extra-careful again.

I spent many hours over the course of the last two days trying to find a bag for my bicycle. Nobody at the airport provides plastic bags to passengers. The lady at the information desk was very helpful, calling many people and sports stores to find out if they carried bags. I visited two stores she directed me to, one of them quite far away (by bike), and all they had were these huge, padded sacks, for a minimum of 60 Euros. They couldn't be transported on my bike afterwards. So they were exactly what I didn't need. What I wanted was just a huge, heavy-duty plastic bag, what Air Transat provided me when I flew over here (and they didn't even charge me anything). But not even Carrefour, the big department store in Nice, had those. I had to settle for oversize garbage bags, which weren't heavy-duty or big enough to fit my bike, but I managed to make do using four of them. What an annoyance and waste of time.

A few days ago an Australian couple, Nathan and Jules, joined my room at the hotel. They were very interesting and fun to talk to. They were on a long trip touring Europe and planned to continue on to Canada in the new year, ideally finding jobs and living there for a while. Nathan, a fisherman by trade, was asking me all kinds of questions about laptops and computers, since they were planning to get one to use on the rest of the trip (they needed one for their iPod - not sure why).

Yesterday they were reorganizing their belongings and needed to dispose of a pocket knife that they got in Greece. They said you aren't allowed to bring things like that into Australia. You also can't get BB-guns and a variety of other low-risk weapons there. So they gave it to me. It's really quite nice. I can use it to fend off the cougars in BC, when the time comes.

They said that bed bugs actually exist. I didn't know that, but maybe it's common knowledge? Apparently, Italy is bad for bed bugs. They live in the mattress and come out at night to suck your blood. In the morning you could be covered with splotches of blood if you rolled around and squashed some during the night. They said that some rooms in the Cinque Terre villages have bed bugs. Luckily, there weren't any in the room that Meta and I stayed in two years ago.

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6. November 2004

So I stayed in this hostel in Nice. It's not bad. Very friendly people, hosts and guests alike. It's 18 Euros a night. I'll probably stay here until I leave for London.

I just realized last night that London Luton airport and London Gatwick airport are each about a day's worth of cycling (in opposite directions) from the London city centre, where I already booked two nights at a hostel. My flight to London Luton arrives in the morning, so I'll have time to cycle to downtown that day. But my flight from London Gatwick departsin the morning, too, and I won't have time that day to cycle down to there from downtown. So I imagine I'll have to stay in a hotel near Gatwick Airport the night before I leave. [And boy, are they expensive. The cheapest one I could find was about as much as the most expensive place I stayed at on my whole trip.]

I like this hostel. There's no wireless Internet (despite the abundance of Internet cafes and computer service shops in the area [actually, it turns out I had to go down the hall a bit to find the wireless connections]), but it's got a nice atmosphere. There's a kitchen (just a fridge, sink and microwave), and it's pretty quiet. Guests are pretty social, probably because of the cozy atmosphere.

In my room was a Mexican girl who now lived in California. She was travelling alone on her first trip to Europe. She was quite loud and chatty, but nice. She left today for Florence. Also in my room is a Parisian man, maybe a few years older than me. He's a fast and personal talker, if that makes any sense. He speaks quickly and doesn't seem very patient in getting answers. He also asks a lot of personal questions and likes to know your opinion on many things. But he's really quite friendly. Actually, I think I noticed him warm up to me. At first he wasn't too talkative and just seemed to want to ignore me, but now he's very friendly and telling me about his hike today and how it's sad that Bush has won another term, and so on.

Now a German couple has joined our room. It's not a very big room; I hope we all fit comfortably. (Patrick, the host, had to add another mattress.) [Man, is it just me, or are my blog entries starting to get really dry?]

This cold is annoying. I've been microwaving entire heads of garlic and eating them on bread with brie cheese, similar to how Jon and Meta prepared them last summer (and was most delicious). So far nobody has said anything, so I'll keep doing it. I asked Pierre (my Parisian roommate) whether he minded, and he said he didn't care. But he kept recommending to me that I drink wine to cure myself. For him, he claims, it works every time. So I guess I'll try that.

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5. November 2004

I'm in nice now. So far it doesn't seem exactly like one of Rick Steves' "back-door" towns, with its busy streest and underwhelming downtown, but he still recommends it. Maybe I just have to visit the right parts [it turns out I did].

I passed through Monaco, without touring it at all. It consists mostly of towering apartment buildings. I hardly saw anything, though. I'm sure it has some charming aspects.

After having been in France for only half a day, I've already witnessed three or four occurrences of road rage. The Italians would honk their horns, but I never saw them get angry at other drivers. Here they get angry, they curse, and they make big hand motions. I'm glad I don't have much more riding to do around here.

Another thing I noticed when I entered France was the sudden increase in beautiful women. Virtually all the young women are remarkably attractive. It's quite a phenomenon, actually.

Right now I'm in a cafe across the street from a hostel I'm hoping to stay in tonight. I had a slice of quiche that was so good, and an overpriced bottle of Perrier. French food looks incredibly appetizing on display. It's going to be hard to resist.

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Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I've added a photo albums section to my blog. You can find the link on the right side (or you can click here). There are more photos coming.

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4. November 2004

I did get some garlic and mayonnaise. Unfortunately, I could only get garlic in packages of 5 heads. I suppose I'll take the leftovers back to Canada. Man, those garlic sandwiches are utterly painful to eat. They're good, though.

I rode from Alassio through Imperia all the way to San Remo yesterday. I suppose San Remo is famous for its casino. It's got quite a lot of palm trees and actually a nice pedestrian-only downtown area. There are several interesting tunneled areas. There's this hill that's covered with Italian-style apartment buildings (usually yellow) and palm trees, but there are a couple roads and pedestrian walkways that go straight through the hill, too.

I got to stay at a 25-Euro hotel (that included breakfast) and I could connect to the Internet on the balcony. That was so convenient that I'm going to stay another night. The breakfast is the worst yet, mind you: 8 small slices of Melba-like toast, a tiny square of butter, a tiny bit of jam, and a small air-filled pastry wrapped in plastic. That doesn't quite cover a third of my morning meal requirements, but thanks for trying. I guess I shouldn't expect much for 25 Euros in a city. It's better than that 35-Euro hotel in Milan, which didn't offer breakfast at all. I'm sure everyone is greatly fascinated by my constant talk of hotel prices.

It's another beautiful day, but I have to wear these dark pants, which makes it unbearable to stand in the sun. I don't understand how everyone around here can happily wear long pants on a day like today. Maybe that's just how Italians are - they just don't get hot. Come to think of it, maybe that's why Jon is the same way...

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3. November 2004

I stayed in Alassio last night. It's very much a resort and holiday town. All the towns are rather like that along the Ligurian coast. Nothing I've experienced on this trip, however, compares with Cinque Terre, where I went with Meta two years ago at about this time of year. It's pretty ugly, run-down and overcrowded around here. The towns have their charm, of course, but Cinque Terre was all charm. I bet its lack of public roads has allowed it to remain so quiet and beautiful - plug it's now protected as a national park.

The weather is actually nice at the moment. The sun is shining and it's quite warm, very summery. Who knows for how long it will last.

So it looks like Bush is winning the election. That's a bit frightening. I wonder what's going to happen. Too bad I don't understand anything the Italians are saying about it. Maybe it doesn't matter.

I think I'm getting a cold or something. I have a sore throat and I've been sneezing a bit. I thought it was just the pollution from the cars at first. I should get a head of garlic and some mayonnaise.

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2. November 2004

I've made a few inconsequential observations of Italian hotels. One is, almost none of them have those German windows that open two ways. They just open shutter-style. Another is that their shower heads are fixed to the wall (as in most North American showers, I suppose), whereas German-speaking showerheads are almost exclusively removable. Finally,the Italians put less emphasis on savory foods like meat and cheese at breakfast than the German-speaking. For instance, at this hotel, all they have to put on your bread are butter and jam, and then there's a basket of sweetened croissants and little cakes. I'm getting a bit tired of all these sweets.

The day before yesterday was Sunday and Hallowe'en and yesterday was some other holiday, because everything was closed during the day. However, many shops began to open in the evening on both days. It was quite shocking for me, since I'm not used to ever seeing anything open after 6pm around here. Families were wandering the streets after dark, buying clothes, toys and gelato. It was much like Midnight Madness back home. Also, this morning as I was wandering downtown I noticed there was confetti on all the streets between the cobblestones. I suppose I missed something very exciting last night.

It's been raining regularly every night and into the morning. Then it stops in the morning and doesn't start again until next night. I'm not sure if this is just a coincidence or whether this is a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate for this time of year.

Riding along the coast is very relaxing comopared to riding through mountains or within a hundred kilometres of Milan. There are few big climbs and the traffic is quite orderly and relaxed. I wonder if it will stay that way as I enter France. Italians aren't actually bad drivers, just aggressive and impatient. I think that the French are actually bad drivers, so I'll take extra care when I get there. I may just walk my bike from the French-Italian border to Nice, just in case.

Oh yeah, so that's where I'm headed, FYI. And yesterday I booked a flight from Nice to London, which departs November 10. There are some cheap flights to Toronto by Air Transat during the next couple weeks that I'd like to take advantage of, but they all leave from London. So that's why I'm going there. I haven't booked the Air Transat flight yet, since I still haven't decided for how long I'd like to stay in England. I miss my family and my previous lifestyle, and I'm tired of this intense spending of money. Europe really is expensive to live in.

Drat, now it's getting stormy outside. I can't ride while it's raining since I ripped my plastic waterproof pants in Innsbruck and discarded them. I'll just have to wait until it settles down. Fortunately, it's not cold near the Mediterranean right now. It's quite a comfortable temperature everywhere I go now.

I stayed in this one-star hotel in Finale Ligure for 35 Euros. It felt more like a two-star hotel, though. The woman had an orange tree and maybe a clementine tree, except the fruit was still green. She also had bunches of grapes hanging from her fence along the driveway. I love how everybody in Europe grows food around their house, even in the city centres. It's really how it should be.

I was trying to have lunch on the beach here. It was actually working out well until these little bastard boys came up to me and tried to sell me tissues for 50 cents. I didn't have 50 cents or anything above 25 cents and below 10 Euros. They didn't seem to buy that. They tried to give me these crappy bracelets that all the Italian street paupers like to decorate their victims with. I told them as best I could (in caveman's English) that I didn't want any, even though they were free. Then they started playing with my bike and looking through my stuff. I did my best to tell them to leave me alone, but they either didn't understand or didn't care. After getting super frustrated and losing my appetite, I said I'd give them 10 Euros if they'd leave me alone (that was the smallest bill I had). They seemed to understand that, after forcing some bracelets onto my wrists, which I promptly removed and discarded. Unfortunately, what I just did now rewarded them for their disgusting techniques for getting money from foreigners. How could I have handled it better? I don't have knowledge of self-defense and I don't speak Italian. Maybe it's just another case of WWJD (What Would Jon Do?)...

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1. November 2004

That meal wasn't worth the 17.50 Euros I paid for it. It was moderato, but not allegro. Both courses were too little. Blah. At least they gave me free bread and breadsticks (I think).

So I think I'll find out about hostels in the area at the tourist office. I'm not up for travelling much more at the moment. I just want to relax and get some work done on the computer.

Another thing I really miss is the ability to cook and bake healthful meals. Right now I'd be happy to bake whole-wheat delights in a wood-fired oven on a chilly fall evening in a wooded cabin with my friends and family. :(

Wow, I seem to eat so much more at breakfasttime than most people around me. I've been here, gathering more and more from the buffet, while several other guests have come, eaten and gone. I guess I'm just a breakfast person.

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(Continued...)

Well, I actually didn't get soaked at all, luckily. It was very foggy in the hills surrounding my hostel, but as I descended, the fog cleared up and I could even see large blue patches of sky in the distance. Of course, I only ended up getting a few minutes of sunlight during the ride.

It felt very fall-like in the hills. Quite pretty with all the colourful leaves and vineyards. I reached a height of 500 m, and then it was all downhill from there to Savona. It got quite warm on my way down. In fact, the season seemed to change to summer. I could hardly see any more hints of fall, with respect to vegetation. Virtually all the plants became green as I reached Savona. I guess the real Mediterranean influence is limited to a fairly narrow margin along its coastline.

The Swiss and the Italians both wave their national flags a lot. The Austrians and Germans not so much. The Swiss seem to do it the most, particularly in Ticino. Seeing as Ticino is kind of a high-quality version of Italy, I don't blame them. Oops, that was a terrible comment.

Right now I'm in an Italian (as opposed to Chinese or Turkish) restaurant in Savona. It took me a while to decide where to go. This one isn't all that cheap, but it's Sunday and not many real Italian restaurants are open. Lots of Chinese and Kebap places are, and simple Pizzerias, but I wanted pasta. I hope it's good. I made the mistake of ordering half a litre of white wine as opposed to a quarter. I won't be drinking it all; I've only had most of one glass and my head is already spinning. Silly alcohol. At least it was relatively cheap.

It's funny how so many languages use "OK" the same way the English-speaking use it. Isn't it originally English? Don't the Italians/Germans/French already have a good enough word for that terribly common expression? How did this happen? I'm appalled...

Heh, it's funny how a patron says "ciao" to everyone in the restaurant when he leaves. How very friendly. I'll probably have to do the same. How embarrassing. :)

I'm impressed by the spirit that Europeans have for festivals and celebrations. Tonight is Hallowe'en, and they have this big gathering of witches in one of the town squares. A crowd of people with pointy hats have gathered to take part in various Hallowe'en activities, it seems. There are a number of little bonfires, each with its own grate on the end of a huge wooden rod, which look like they could be used for roasting chestnuts or maybe Mars bars.

I also loved how excited the town of St. Gallen got on New Year's Eve when I was there two years ago. The church bells rang gloriously and there were fireworks everywhere. And St. Gallen is a town with fewer than a third the number of people in Oakville. Picture Oakville getting that excited at New Year's.

I had planned to stay at a hostel here in Savona, but I can't seem to get in touch with them on the phone. There's an automatic message that I can't understand, even though it's in English. I get the idea from it that it's under renovation or something. Normally I'd go to it and check first-hand, but it's on a hill and experience tells me that it would be a big waste of effort. I can't go to the tourist office because it's closed on Sunday. So I had to stay at a hotel again. Or rather, I chose to stay at a hotel. 50 Euros. Too much, yeah, yeah. Actually, I'm feeling I should just have a good time now. I'm feeling tired, feeling as if I should finish up this trip. I'm feeling homesick and I miss my family, friends, and the Internet (my other family member). I miss being able to work on the multitude of projects that I have queued up. So I'm thinking of looking into booking a flight home.

Holy crap, that family just wasted so much food! The waitress just removed three huge plates of almost complete pizzas. Maybe she's putting them in a doggie bag. I do hope so.

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31. Oktober 2004

The parts of Italy I've visited so far - from Varese through Milan almost to the sea - have much less of a tropical feeling than Ticino. I've noticed far fewer palm trees and aloe here than I did in Ticino, which is farther north. I'm wondering whether this has something to do with the novelty of the idea of having tropical plants grow in Switzerland. Maybe they grow them in Ticino just because they happen to have the minimally warm climate those plants need to survive, whereas in Italy, they only grow them wherever it makes practical sense - where it's actually tropical in climate. Because I don't believe it's actually warmer in Ticino than it is in northern Italy. Of course, I could be wrong.

Twice while I've been riding through Italy I entered an area bearing a strong aroma - but a recognizably artificial one. The first time this happened I was riding through some small town, and it suddenly smelled something like Bubblicious bubblegum. Then after a few hundred metres, it suddenly ceased. The second time, I was riding through another town and there it smelled exactly like that artifical chocolate scent produced by those scratch-n'-sniff stickers (sorry if some of you aren't familiar with these). I hadn't smelled that in many years. It was so weird. I have no idea why those areas had those particular scents. I wonder wheather I'd been passing by flavour factories, if there are such things.

Anyway, back to the story. I decided to continue heading south from Alessandria. After fixing my front flat tire (fourth flat this trip) along the way I arrived in Acqui Termin. The weather was good for riding - cool, cloudy and hazy with the sun appearing every so often - although I would have preferred a clear blue sky so I could see the countryside at its best.

I went to the tourist office in Acqui Termin. There was a really nice, old Italian woman who could speak pretty good English. She took it upon herself to find a place for me to sleep that night, and somehow knew that I preferred something cheap, like a hostel (I guess I have that look about me). So she booked a room at a hostel just south of that city, but in the hills. It didn't look far on the map, but then I didn't realize how much climbing I'd have to do. What a trip.

The directions the kind woman gave me were particularly inaccurate. They said to turn exactly where not to turn, and to not head for where I was exactly supposed to head for. As a result the trip took about one and a half hours longer than it should have. The Italians I spoke to, as I asked for directions, however, were very kind and helpful, for the most part. It's kind of fun trying to communicate with people in a language you don't know at all.

Anyway, I got to the hostel in the end. The family that owned it seemed to be having some kind of party or something that evening, because there was lots of loud talking, laughing, sounds and smells of people cooking and eating. Or perhaps that's just a normal dinner for Italians, I'm not sure.

It was raining pretty heavily in the morning, but now it's stopped (9:30am). I hope it clears up. I'm really getting tired of this weather. Hopefully I won't get soaked on my ride to Savona today.

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30. Oktober 2004

Man, I haven't had a chance to write in so long. Lots to say now.

I stayed in that hostel for one night. I was planning to go down to Alessandria the next day, but I found it terribly difficult to do without the necessary maps loaded onto my GPS, and I wasn't able to upload the right maps at the hostel because there wasn't a power outlet in my room, which I needed for my laptop. I also thought that Alessandria was a bit too far to go in one day (about 75 km). Since I already had a late start, I decided to stay in Milan for another night, so I went to the tourist office there (which took forever to find - I had to go to the tourist shops and look at a variety of guidebooks and maps before I could locate it). They had a detailed listing of all the hotels in Milan, and there were tons. I ended up choosing one that was 33 Euros. It's a lot more than the hostel charged (21.50), and I later found out that breakfast wasn't even included, but it turned out to be worth it in the end because I managed to have wireless Internet access there. That was very gratifying. It's the first time I've been able to connect wirelessly on my trip. My hotel room happened to be amongst many apartments, so I probably was using someone's personal Internet connection. Yay.

While I had Internet access, I looked up information on cheap places to stay on my planned route towards France. There isn't a great selection. Most of the hostels around are HI (Hostelling International) hostels. I probably won't stay in Monaco overnight, since I couldn't find any cheap places there. It would be interesting to pass through, though.

Milan isn't all that spectacular. It has a castle and a cathedral, which are kind of cool, but otherwise it's just terribly overcrowded and with big shopping cathedrals. It felt so good to leave it. It's so stressful to drive in cities; I don't understand why so many people do it, and with cars. Often I'm going faster than traffic because I can sneak past the cars on the right. That's what everyone does here, especially motorcyclists, of which there are very many. You just go wherever you can fit so you can get ahead. If you don't (because you think it's rude or illegal), then someone else will and you'll get nowhere.

Anyway, that day I rode out of Milan down to Pavia, where I visited the tourist office to look up hotels in the region. I found one for 16 Euros down in Casteggio, about halfway to Alessandria (where I knew there was a 12-Euro hostel). There were actually cheaper ones halfway to Alessandria, but not that could offer me a room that night. So I stayed in this Chinese-Italian hotel and resaurant. It wasn't great, but it was only 16 Euros, after all.

It was cloudy and drizzling on and off all day, and the next, and the next. I'm hoping it will clear up one of these days, because it does get a bit depressing.

The next day I rode from Casteggio to Alessandria. I had lots of time, so I took a scenic (and less busy) route. On the way I went to a grocery store in a shopping mall (or centro commerciale, which are everywhere, sadly). It was huge, actually a lot like Costco. It was hard to find things in the quantities I wanted. And it didn't have very good-quality stuff. Oh well, now I know where not to go. The place was called "iper".

So in Alessandria I stayed in this hostel. It seemed to be in an old monastery or something. My two-bed room had an incredibly high ceiling, and the hall outside was arched and very majestic - although not in very good shope or decorated at all. The whole place was very ad-hoc and dirty. I'm sure this place would have been lovely if Germans had made it into a hostel (sorry, Jon, and anyone else I may be offending).

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27. Oktober, 2004

My watch is all fogged up inside, and the light isn't functioning properly anymore. It says water-resistant to 50 m. I guess that doesn't include heavy downpours.

My pants, socks and shoes are still very damp. I thought they might dry overnight, but apparently not. Hopefully it'll be warm enough to wear shorts while riding today, because I sent my only other pair of pants back home.

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26. Oktober 2004

Cheaper my ass. In Varese, almost every hotel I checked was full. The first one that wasn't full I just took, even though it was 55 Euros, because it was very late and starting to rain pretty hard. What a ripoff. It wasn't nearly as good as the last place I stayed at. Oh well, when you're not prepared, you have to make sacrifices. I had tried finding information about places to stay in Varese while I was at a tourist office in Ticino (while offices were still open), but failed because I confused Varese with Verona. [Had I planned better, I would have instead headed for Como, which had a youth hostel.]

Varese, from what I could tell at night, is a pretty wealthy city. It has these huge buildings with enormous, shiny columns. Also, it has crap like expensive hotels. I didn't really have time to sightsee there, but I don't think I missed much. It was kind of just a medium-sized, crumby city.

In fact, most of thise part of Italy, all the way to Milan (where I am now [as I wrote that]), has many of the GTA's negative qualities, including little support for cyclists and pedestrians; huge box plazas and supermarkets; ugly, moderm industrial parks; traffic jams due to way too many cars, and polluted air as a result.

My ride from Varese to a hostel in Milan was probably my worst experience yet on this trip. Half of it was because I was riding on roads with very heavy traffic and no shoulder for most of the time. The other half is because it was pouring rain after it got dark and I had to ride through it while I searched for the hostel. I often felt like giving up. It wasn't cold, but having sopping wet clothes while riding through deep puddles and not knowing where you are is still a very unpleasant experience. But I found it in the end, I survived.

This is probably common knowledge, but Italians are unnecessarily loud. They're also [based on my experience up to the point of my writing] less friendly to strangers than, say, the Swiss or Austrians.

The supermarkets seem to stay open until 8pm [actually, I think that one might have just been an exception]. I got organic, Italian carrots there and they're really crispy, sweet, and wonderful. One should always eat organic, local carrots.

This hostel doesn't have much going for it. For one thing, it's in Milan, one of Italy's least attractive big cities (or so I've been told). It feels like a jail or a high school, with its concrete floors, fluorescent lights, and unfriendly staff. I wouldn't complain if it didn't cost 21.50 Euros anight. I'll pay 12 Euros at most, please. :P

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25. Oktober 2004

I managed to get as far as Hinterrhein, the last village before the San Bernardino pass. The girl in the tourist office in Spluegen gave me a list of places to stay in the area, and one of them was in Hinterrhein, which probably doesn't have more than 80 people living in it, and most of them seem to have the same last name.

Outside of farm-related businesses, these's just a grocery store and this holiday apartment here. Istayed in the apartment (well, house) for just 30 Fr. I got a whole kitchen, living room, everything to myself. In front of the house villagers led their sheep, goats and cattle through the downtown streets, just like in fantasy films. I made a weird, but quite good, pasta dish that involved spaghetti, carrots, zucchini, wieners, curry powder, chili powder and cocoa (the cocoa was an accident). The stars at night were super-bright. I didn't have a good view of them, but I tried taking a picture anyway.

The next morning I rode to the tip of the pass. It wasn't hard, it just took 1.5 hours. It was very cold and windy at times. It was very beautiful when the fog cleared and the morning sun brightly lit the snowy peaks.

Then I rode down for a while. It was pretty cold at first, but the air gradually got warmer, the lower I went (naturally; it would be weird if it didn't).

When the sun came out, it started getting really warm. The villages in the valley started to sport palm trees, too. I entered Ticino, the mostly Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

I rode all the way to Bellinzona, and then I decided to look for a place to sleep. The cheapest place (50 Fr.) was closed. The next-cheapest place I could find was 70 Fr. (The tourist office was closed because it was Sunday, so there may have been cheaper places that just weren't listed in the Yellow Pages.) So I decided to take a chance and hope that I'd find a cheaper place by following Switzerland's third national bicycle path, which heads down towards Chiasso.

This path branched to Locarno at one point. I'd already been to Locarno when I was in Switzerland last time and I had stayed at a hostel there. So I thought I'd try finding the hostel again. Unfortunately, I misjudged the distance and it ended up getting too dark and unsafe to ride before I could find it (plus, I'd lost the bike path and was now on a busy road).

So I gave up and stayed at a hotel for 60 Fr. At least I saved 10 Fr. Blah. I can't wait until I get to Italy; I'm expecting it to be cheaper than Switzerland.

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23. Oktober 2004

He and his wife were very interested about my trip. His wife spoke English, and that helped me understand more of their questions and advice (I couldn't understand their Swiss German very well).

In many ways they reminded me of Klaus and Rike, my relatives from Germany (except these two were from Winterthur, Switzerland). When I arrived, the wife offered me cake and tea, much the way Rike might. When she spoke, her speech would often end with a trail of "ja"s and "uh-huh"s, which Rike does, too (Meta and I know someone else who does this, too). And the couple would do their best to advise me of where to go, based on their extensive knowledge of the area, which Klaus and Rike always did, too. When I left, the man shook my hand very politely, just the way Klaus always does.

The next day, I crossed the Albula pass. I mounted 600 m in a couple hours. Then I went downhill for quite a while - down 1600 m to Thusis. Very interesting experience. Right near the top of the pass there seems to be a microclimate of sorts. I saw some vegetation, smelled some scents and heard some bird sounds that were very new to me - but it only lasted for a kilometer or so.

In Thusis I reluctantly paid 55 Francs to stay at a hotel. Everything cheaper was full. Oh well, still not quite as bad as 50 Euros. :P

Today I plan to ride down (well, vertically, up and down) towards Bellinzona in Ticino. Another pass separates me from it.

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21. Oktober 2004

Well, well, well. A lot to write about. I left Pfunds and continued along the Inn. I entered Switzerland. The Inn valley became somewhat narrower for a while. The whole landscape started to look less Austrian and more something else (Graubuenden, maybe?). The primary language of this area is Raeto-Romanic (or something like that), Switzerland's least popular national language.

The bike path began to get a bit shoddy in places, as well as pretty hilly and twisty. That's unexpected; I always assumed the Swiss took better care of things like roads and trails than their neighbours. Maybe this is just a bad patch. The path was never this difficult to follow in Austria or Germany - I mean physically exhausting. But I'm getting a good workout. It's forcing me to get a good workout, and my legs aren't giving up or anything. They seem to be adapting well. And shifting gears has almost become second-nature now.

At times I'm starting to take the highway instead of the official bike route because it's somewhat easier to follow, if slightly less safe. But as I said, drivers have been unusually careful and considerate of me when passing. It's quite the treat.

The towns here are all on hillsides, so they are very charming with their steep cobblestoned streets. Also, almost all the roads inside towns and villages are cobblestoned, unlike those in Austria and Germany (from what I could tell during this trip). The buildings are fairly old-looking and sometimes a bit dilapedated, but often painted brightly. Churches look different, usually built from stone.

After a few steep climbs, I arrived in Scuol, or Schuls, as the Germans say. After a while, I managed to find the tourist office (it wasn't very well labelled). They referred me to a place where I could use the Internet. It cost way too much (15 Francs for maybe an hour or an hour and a half).

I happened to reserve a room in a very cool hostel-like hotel by choosing the cheapest place listed in the catalog the tourist office gave me. Unfortunately, it was uphill and in the opposite direction I was travelling in, but I think it was worth it.

The girl who I dealt with there had these big, nice eyes that looked straight at me when we conversed. She was also quite good-looking (very European). But most of all she was friendly and helpful. She let me do my laundry for free, explaining everything very well. She let me use the Internet for free, even though the sign said 10 Francs/hour. The Internet terminals ran Red Hat Linux. I noticed that as soon as I saw that silly Star Wars-like scrolling text screensaver. While she wasn't looking, I hooked my laptop up to the network directly so that I could finally upload those last few pictures from the summer, and post a couple more log entries I had typed up.

It cost 30 Francs without breakfast. That's like 20 Euros. It's good, for Switzerland, I suppose.

In the morning, I packed up some things that I realized I didn't really need, after some thought. (Jon's idea, actually.) I put them all in a box and sent them to my aunt in BC. It cost 56 Francs. Blah. All these costs are accumulating. I should think about earning some money soon... Jon says to find a German ecovillage or organic farm and work there for a bit. It's a great idea, but I have no leads or recommendations. At least Jon knew through Nathan that Everdale was awesome. I don't know anything about such opportunities around here. Meh.

Anyway, sending off that stuff lightened my load a bit, but how much of a difference it will make, I'm not sure.

Then I continued towards Zernez. I didn't follow the bike route for the first section because it looked really twisty on the map. I followed the highway instead, and I think it was much more manageable. Eventually, when the bike route calmed down a bit, I returned to it.

I got to Zernez around 4pm. I bought some milk, zucchinis, canned beans, tuna, and pears. I found out about a (relatively) inexpensive hotel (more like a bed & breakfast) in La Punt, where my next bike route breaks off from the Inn. So I rode down there in a couple hours. That's not bad considering where I began, and that I had to go up and down a few hills and it was generally uphill.

I arrived at this "Chesa Schalom" place, and the man immediately gave me a good feeling about it. He had such a friendly face, and it reflected his personality. I really like it when people are approachable like this. I've had to deal with such a variety of people on this trip, and I wish they were all as approachable as this guy or the girl at the last place I was at.

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