If you are going to learn, you need to forget what you know.

Another tidbit you've probably heard before, but I thought it fitting for no reason whatsoever. "How easy it is, to follow our thoughts instead of our senses."

Anyway, enough of that.  I am in Paris now, at my excellent friend Axel's place.  I have a bed, food, my own room, a shower; internet, drinks, smokes (not that I smoke anyways... =/ )...what more could a friend ask for?  His roommates are great, tonight one of them was passed out on the couch-that-is-currently-doubling-as-my-bed, and when he woke up he wandered around for a few minutes with no pants on.  Kind of reminds me of Dennis.  It is quite embarassing when a French person apologizes for their poor English while we are carrying on a conversation...because I know if that conversation were in French, I would not be doing so well!  Anyways, the point is I love Axel and his roommates, and how can I repay them but to offer them a place to stay in my home whenever they need it? (and whenever I find it).  But really, if you have an ideas to repay them, I need them fast ;)

  

I am quite impressed with French culture altogether...I don't know if it's the language, the food, the fact that I have friends here...something about Paris (and Lyon, for that matter) makes it seem a lot more home-like than some of the other cities I have visited thus far.  I could do with a bit more time in France, in the city or picking grapes in the country, just some time to soak up the culture and pick up some more of the language.  Yes I said pick up the LANGUAGE, not the girls.  (That misunderstanding already happened.)  Oh yeah, and apparently English-French accents are cute the same way that French-English accents are popular in Western culture!  Who knew?  I thought I just sounded like an idiot.  (I can hear you all agreeing with me as you read this...don't I know you too well! )

I did take a picture or two today without Dennis around, but they werent very good and I dont want to upload them...that's Dennis' job...so I guess it's another day with no pictures.  Sorry.

Bon nuit.

...Wait a second, I can just load up pictures from Dennis' other facebook albums.  Oh nevermind, I don't know how to use Macs.  Forget that.  Sorry for getting you excited. 

Bon nuit encore.

Be quick to laugh, and slow to judge.

What does that have to do with this post?  Nothing.  But its still good advice, isn't it?  I thought so, anyways.  Alright so this is going to be a supershort post because I already wrote it, and Blogger decided it wasn't good enough or something and deleted it.  PLUS, I have to zrite this on a French keyboard as you may be able to tell:  Grrr.  I know you guys only come on here for the pictures anyways, and there is no Dennis around to upload photos so I zon't draw this out any longer than necessary ;)

I'm in Paris now, staying at a good friend Axel,s place for a few days.  The reason we've been inconnunicado is because the city of Lyon has no internet.  That's the way it seems, anyways.  We managed to meet a fez good friends there too, seeing music fests, doing some outdoor climbing in Yzeron and Fontainebleau FINALLY (pictures to come when dennis gets his act together).  He stuck around a few extra days in Fontbleau to climb more while I head up to Leeds for more visiting.  Who knows if we'll ever see each other again.

Ok goodnight!

Do I have anything important to say today?

Nope.

We made it to France, but not as far as we intended...damn those late Italian trains...so we are doing the fastest tour of Nice in recorded history, and then heading on to see some good friends in Lyon! Can't wait! It will be nice to see some friendly faces again.

Alright, that's all for today!

...I don't want to hear any whining, I put up THREE posts last time! That's it, no pictures for you! =P

Jeff and Dennis Climb a Volcano

So after two cancelled trains, we are still stuck in Rome. I can't seem to get out of this city! So, it's time for a new episode:

Jeff and Dennis Climb a Volcano

Time of departure: 5:30 pm
Expected time of return: 8 pm
Actual time of return: 11:45 pm

So you can tell we were prepared for this hike. That's us, the two guys with drawstring backpacks, no dinner, not enough water and no pants. "No pants? Go get pants," the guide insists. Alright, so now we have pants. Maybe we should get some dindin. Chocolate croissants it is.

The way up isn't too bad, albeit a grueling steep hike. When we stopped for a break and realized we were in the clouds, a bit of vertigo set in. Given that our footpath was less than two feet wide, and on either side was the unforgiving slope of the volcano, it was a little unsettling. Little did I know what we had in store for us.


Soon the vegetation ended, and the fog began. Our path was rocky and treacherous, the slope ever increasing. Up and up and up we went, fog so thick you could see it wisping between you and the person in front of you. "Put on your jackets and helmets, around this corner it's going to get windy!" the guide warns us. We do as we're told, and he guides us to the waiting area. At that point he instructs us to put on all our warmest clothes, since the wind is especially nasty today. And nasty it was! Windy enough that we had to move to the debris shelters to shield us from the constant gusting.


There we wait for the better part of an hour for conditions to improve. Not only does the fog persist, but the sun decides this is a good time to set. I notice that I can barely make out the faces of the people I am talking with. Everyone seems nervous about the wind howling around the shelter and the neverending fog. Our guide tells us it's time to see some lava! We are instructed to "Stay in one line, and do not fall to your left or move any rocks! It is very steep!" Great news.


I am first behind the guide, and we step into another world. It consists of a metre of mountain on my right, another on my left, and beyond that, fog obscuring God knows how steep a drop off. Ahead, I follow Mario's footfalls like a lemming. Behind me files a bobbing line of flashlights. I can only make out 4 people, the others swallowed up in fog. Only their torches assure me they are still there. We reach some more shelters near our final observation area. Five minutes or so of waiting seemed to satisfy Stromboli, as we begin to hear sharp rumbling. The fog begins to glow red. Suddenly, the fog clears and we have a clear view of not only the crater, but also the city far below and the sea beyond that. Lava spurts up into the air, in plain sight to all the happy observers. Amazing!

(Dennis managed to take this shot using my head as a tripod)

A few eruptions later, the fog cover moves in again, obscuring our view. Satisfied, we begin to move off. Mario tells us in his thick Italian accent to "STAY IN ONE LINE, follow CLOSE to each other because the fog gets much worse, and the sulfur smells but it is not harmful!" Great. Fog, wind, and now toxic gas. We begin our trek "down", which for some reason is uphill, and boy was Mario right. The fog thickened so that I could barely make out the person two feet in front of me. The path is about two feet wide, either side covered in loose volcanic rocks that could trigger landslides down the precipitous drop masked by the fog. Mario keeps looking back nervously. "ONE LINE! ONE LINE!" He barks repeatedly.

(Dennis in sulfur ready gear...and yes, he wears his sunglasses at night...in the fog.)

The sulfur begins to smell, and burn my throat. Everyone begins to cough, and I use Dennis' handkerchief to filter the smell. The girl behind me begins to have an asthma attack, and Mario stops. Luckily she has her puffer with her. Perhaps the gas and the wind were too much, because we turn around. Some of the group are worried that we've passed the same landmark 3 or 4 times now, but I'm sure the guides just want to play 'scare the tourist'. "We'll it's working, can we go home now??" a lady from London comments.

Sure enough, we can. Another 20 minutes and the fog begins to abate enough that you can see the whole group again, and the wind dies down from a howl to a dull roar. Mario stops us again, saying that while it took us 2.5 hours to climb approx. 900 metres, we would be descending 400m in the next 25 minutes, and it would be too steep to stop. What followed was more like walking down a very large, VERY steep sand dune made of black sand. Sure enough, in 25 minutes we hit the 475 m mark, and we are allowed to take our helmets and jackets off. Relief washes over the faces of the group, some of whom were getting a little high strung at the summit.

After a long hike down, we found pizza, and went to bed for 10+ hours.

THE END.

Next episode: Jeff and Dennis Fight Italian Train Workers for Striking so Often...and Not Paying their Taxes.

Well, I've got some time before my train leaves, so here goes...

So we decided to take our friend's advice and travel to Stromboli, a small volcano island north of Sicily. Apparenly a very unique active volcano, as it erupts every 15 minutes! How could we miss out on seeing real live lava? ...we couldn't. So off we go on the ferry, thinking we would do the volcano hike when we got there, and continue on the ferry up to Naples when we were done. In and out, one day, volcano complete with lava...check.

BUT...

We arrive on the island and some dude (the only one who speaks English) comes over and tells us to stay at his hotel, because the ferry doesn't leave for Naples for three days. Since Italians don't feel the need to pay their taxes, information booths that are actually OPEN are a rarity. So we pretty much have to take this guy's word for it, and the price wasn't THAT bad. So now we're on a volcanic island with one town, where the main road is about wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and I haven't seen a single vehicle yet posessing more than three wheels. No problem, we can spend our time on the black sand beach and catching up on the internet. What's that? The single computer in the internet cafe has a broken monitor, and it will be weeks before a replacement is shipped out? Hm.

Stay tuned for the next episode: Jeff and Dennis Climb a Volcano

Don't confuse motion with progress.

One of the many lessons I've learned on the road so far.

Stop and check your map before wandering around trying to find your hostel (Unless wandering around is your goal...in that case, go right ahead!) No matter how late you are for your train, double check your platform and departure time. You may feel better that you're moving toward the train, but it'll come back to bite you when you find out it's the wrong one!

Anyways, I'm sure there were more reasons for me to write that down, I'll think of them later.

And while you wait for those reasons, here are some entirely unrelated pictures:

Our friend Michelle on Mykonos with a pelican at the restaurant. An ANGRY pelican at the restaurant.

Dennis and I playing camoflauged army men in some hot springs in the sea near the volcano in Santorini.



Taking in the sights of Santorini one last time. Note the case of beer in the left corner...not ours, by the way.



Alright, see ya later!

Where are we going today?

By far, the most useful travel advice comes from travelers.

Should we stay in Catania or ferry up to an active volcanic island north of Sicily with a population of 400 peoplzz? Supposedly we are to ask a priest in the Church for accomodation, because online we can't find less than 50 euro. That was the travel advice I was talking about. Otherwise we probably would have just slept on the coast and used our bags as a lava dam. That would make for a good story.

Anyway, this is where we might go tonight. We'll see.



Oh yeah, and here's another one off the coast of Paros, just because it looks like it'll hurt. Fortunately it's not me.

Another way for Jeff to be lazy

So I figured instead of forcing my travel news on everybody, I could put it all up here and whoever wanted to read it could, and whoever wanted to open their inbox in peace could do that too. I'll probably still send out emails anyway. So if you're not in them, send me an email and demand angrily that I add you. Call me a jerk just for good measure.

Alright so I don't think I have any pictures to add yet, since this post doesn't really have a topic.

Ok maybe just one.

Th-th-th-that's all, folks!