Casale Monferrato

our flight arrived late... dark-bedtime-last-bus-to-town Oclock. The logical money concious decision would be to spend the night in the airport. But, WE fueled by the energy and excitement of a new place (FUCKING ITALY GAWD!!!) and the idea of getting really drunk eating lots of pizza and passing out in a park sounded magnificant.
SO we took the 45 minute bus into Milan, one of the fashion capitols of the world. We got off the bus still Thrilled to be in this new place. BUT very soon we realized there was no one on the streets. We were in the heart of the town and all the shops were closed. Not even a McDonalds to be found. So we wandered about aimlessly, not knowing what to do with ourselves. Also realizing how sleepy we were. Still wandering around we tossed around the idea of sleeping outside the train station, as we had not seen a single park.
And in the distance, a light of hope. A kiosk in the Median of this main road in Milan was open. They sold Biere and Italian Hoagies!!! This brought us much cheer. Jake had a couple beers and I had a spicey eggplant and roasted red pepper hoagie. This made both of us exremely happy people. But the Post hoagie-beer effect ended up making us even more tired then before. So we dragged our lazy bodies around to the nearest hotel and paid our dues to this man with glasses with only one lense whom spoke absolutely no english. and slept in a nice bed and watched italian porn adds and Italian Mtv (this italian thing is seriously a whole new world).
Next day we cought the train to CASALE MONFERRATO. This involed 2 train changes.
we accidentaly missed our stop by one station. It was a small town stop so we worried about how long it would be until the next train. In agreement we began to hike back to the previous stop. I tried to hitch hike... only one car passed. we got no more then a Kilometer when I, still oblivious to the idea that some people do NOT speak english, asked a middle aged lady fixing up her flower box with Italian accordion music in the background for directions to the previous stop. She looked blankly at us. Jake chimed in with, "do you speak english, we are american?" and she replied "AYE MAMA MIA, AMERICANOS!" and proceded to give us instructions in Italian. I gathered from her that the previous train stop was too far away. So Jake and I walked back to the train stop. We desifered the Italian train departures chart and found a train to be arriving in jsut 30 minutes. I contacted our host Christian and told him to expect us around 5.
From emails Jake and I imagined Christhian to be this middle aged woman with an alternative living facility that need some help gardening. But when we met him he was not middle aged or a lady at all. A hadsome 29yearold hippy Italian greeted us at the Train station with a hug. He invited us to a feast at his friends that evening.
When he mentioned it I imagined a drive to the otherside of town with a couple friends of his. But we ended up driving for and hour or two into the mountains while the sun set. Feilds of Canola flowers blooming and poppys along the road. Up and UP we went into the mountains passing 800yr old churches and homes and towns. When finally we reached the town Union Valley (i forget the italian name). There were hundreds of people drinking wine and eating thin crust pizza on this organic farm on top of a mountain. They wine was made and sold on the farm 100percent organic for only £2 a bottle. The best wine Ive ever tried. All the people were awesome but unfortunately most of them didnt speak english. .... to be continued

Pasta and Wine

Hello All! I'm in Liverpool right now. Lots of down time but lots of cool people.

This Thursday Jake and I will fly to Italy to do some Help Exchange halfway between Milan and Torino. Jake will be staying for about a week and I may be staying for about 3 weeks. Here is a description from the host of the place we will be staying:

"Me, Cristhian I live in a house just at the border of the city. Is a small
house with a big garden, and I host here travellers and volunteers. We will
live in a communitarian spirit, but depend of the moment sometimes you can
live only with me, sometimes we can be a lot of people (last summer we was
13 for two weeks). At the moments there are three bed's places and a lot of
space on the carpets and on the benches and the cots. Also in the garden
there is space for tents.
Sometimes we can have guest that pay for the accommodation so, we will leave
our beds to them.

The house, that is a kind of ashram, have some rules about the community
life, for stay together in the best way. For who want to join there are
three steps: visitor, helper, volunteer.
The visitors can stay a couple of days... just observing and enjoy...
The helpers they will do karma yoga. Karma yoga mean work and give yourself
to the community, enjoying every moment. Giving, we will receive. You will
see. You can choose your work.
Some exemple that things that can be do are:
-Cook
-Collect food (some shop give us fruits and vegetables)
-Clean and take care of the house and/or the garage
-Take care of the garden
-Help the community and the others organizations with preparations of
some
events
-Participate to the artistic, cultural, and social life of the city
-Paint and draw
-ecc...

After some time you can become volunteer, for a time that we will plan
together. Being volunteer for us mean being yourself. We believe that every
person has role in the world, and you can do what you feel, and grow. We can
have a lot of possibilities for you to put in practice your dreams, we are
building a lot of connections in the city.

Is hard to explain, so if you feel come, and if you don't feel anymore you
can remember that you are always free to do what you want.
And if you come if you want, I suggest to bring pictures of your country,
and/or photo of some of your adventures, and everything else you want to
share with the local community. One of the our "effect" are the
intercultural learning, where different cultures are a big resource to
connect and share for grow."

tea and wankers

warning... i'm a terrible writer...many grammar errors, mispellings, etc

So excited i couldn't sleep for the entire plane ride, I read the alchemist strait through. A fantastic and inspiring book. I thank Teri for giving the book to me because it helped me further understand for myself why I feel so driven to travel.
On the airplane from Chicago to Ottawa I saw a guy with a food not bombs patch and I felt driven to become friends with him. But I lost my opportunity when we got mixed up in the different lines and people. I did see him again. Arriving in London 5:30 AM I noticed he was on the same plane as we were stepping off the plane. so I caught up with him in the hallway on the way to Customs. I commented on his cool shoes then started talking about travel plans and stuff. Just before customs we agree to wait for each other in the baggage area.
I watched him get through customs with ease as my customs lady kept asking me question after question and eventually she handed me a white sheet and asked me to sit down and wait. I waited and waited and then she me and my bag and had me sit down in the windowless room without giving me a clear reason why. My white sheet explained that there was a 50/50 chance I could be sent home. she told me she'd return in 30 minutes, but the 30 minutes turned into 2 hours. She invited me into this small room where she interrogated me about why I was going to England etc. I waited another 2 hours until she finally said I was free to go and "Welcome to the U.K.!" I hugged her because i could tell she hated her job.
I took the train into town to meet my friend Kristy in Trafalgar square. It was such a relief to see her. She took me back to her dorm room in the far east of London. I took a nap. When I woke up Kristy took me up to Camden market. The market was a maze to get through and even larger then Seattles market. Although this market consisted mainly of Clothes and bongs. It had this AWESOME rave shop the size of a football field... almost. The shop had neon crotchless and nipple less clothes, skirts with giant hoops, everything looked extraterrestrial.
Later that night me and some of Kristy's friends and I shared some duty-free vodka and had a great time... haha.
Thursday I woke up and went to Cultural Politics with Kristy. One of the best lectures i've ever sat through. The teacher was this middle aged lady with a giant tribal tattoo on her arm, dreadlocks, nose ring, and rolled a cigarette during every break. She discussed the myths propagated by the concept of science. It was refreshing.
Later that day I noticed the kid from the airplane somehow contacted me via couch surfing. This was bizarre considering we didn't even exchange names.
So Kristy and I read that he was going to volunteer at a vegan cafe in the evening. Kristy only knew of one Vegan cafe in London, so we decided to visit it.www.pogocafe.co.uk We both got coffe and this amazing moist vegan mango cake. David... the kid from the airplane never showed up. But I asked the lady at the counter if I could use her phone. I called him but his phone didn't work... so I called his friend Chris.
David met us at the cafe. went back to where he was staying which his friends were squatting out.
This was amazing. I've never seen a functioning squat so clean, neat and awesome. The squat was nicer then mine or Kristy's apartment and they weren't paying a thing for it. haha. We drank cider which is 2 pounds for 2 liters of sparkling alcoholic champagne like beverage. AMAZING. Later that night Chris came home... a kick-ass fella from Australia. Had a great time talking to him and david and watching stupid Youtube videos (yeah the squat had internet too)d Spent the night at the Squat.
....

i'll write more later i guess.. runnning out of time. I"m meeting up with my friend Rhys tonight whom I met in Tasmania.

Also.. thanks so much for all the gifts and treasures you guys gave to me for the trip. Very nice of all of you.

I'll never forget your butts.

I've been listening to hip-hop a lot thanks to Jordan. haha.

xox xoxoxoxxoxo