HOW WE ENDED UP IN ICELAND

Life can be interesting.

First off, most of my posts have put an emphasis on the visuals I experienced this summer. Although the pictures in this post are surely enjoyable, this time around it’s the story that’s most important. There will be more text then usual and I hope people find this as a nice change.

Let’s start where we left off: Aryeh and I have just been told we have to take two trains to the airport. Because of traffic, there was no way we would get there in time by car.

Speeding through the streets of Verona, Brando’s mother frantically explained everything to us. The train out of Verona was full, so she told us we would have to sneak on. Once (and if) we successfully made it through that train ride without encountering anyone asking us for a ticket, we would have to transfer to another train (which thankfully did have seats available). IF OUR FIRST TRAIN WAS LATE in arriving, she emphasized, there was a train leaving from another train station in the same town that we could catch and still get to the airport in time. It seemed like a sketchy plan, but we didn’t have any choice but to give it our best shot.

STEP 1: Make it through the first train ride without getting asked for a ticket.

It was an incredibly nerve-racking experience. Aryeh and I were exhausted but couldn’t sleep because we had to always know where the conductor was. To shorten a story about my heart thumping for an hour, we successfully avoided the conductor and made it to the next train station.

STEP 2: Transfer to the next train.

We were thrilled to make it to the next train station… but the first train was so late in arriving that not only did we miss our initial train, but the backup train was leaving in only minutes and was at a different train station.

I. Hate. Italian. Trains.

Desperate not to give up, I ran to a taxi and asked the guy if he could get us to the next station in time. Either he was trying to scam us or he didn’t really understood what we were asking, but he said yes. After making it about 20 feet in the taxi, we realized there was absolutely no way we would make it in time and we would be screwing ourselves even further by going to the other train station. The best idea was to stay at the current station and catch the next train. The taxi driver asked us to pay 5 euros for driving 20 feet. We pretty much told him to fuck off.

So, step 2 was a failure. But not all was lost yet. The next train leaving would get us to the airport around 9pm, just in time to check in an hour before our flight at 10pm. As a law of international travel, you have to check in an hour before the flight. After that they close the check-in desk. How ever fast my heart was beating on the first train, it was double that on this train. We would have to sprint (with our luggage) to the check-in desk the second that train stopped.

– – – –

We got there at 9:17pm. The check-in desk was dark. Empty. Preparing for the worst, we went to the Aeroflot ticketing office hoping to catch the next plane to Moscow. At least then we wouldn’t have ditch our flight from Moscow to JFK.

They couldn’t get us on any plane for the next two days. Slightly devastated at this point, we managed to get a slight refund on our tickets– around $200. We’ve actually yet to see any that money. It’s possible we never will.

Without tickets going anywhere, we sat in the Milan airport trying to figure out what to do. At the same time that haunting feeling of “we missed the flight” started to sink in. THE flight. The international flight to our homes and loved ones and we MISSED it. Every swear word I could think of was flying through my head.

It was around midnight when we got on one of the computers in the airport to find new tickets. We had 20 minutes of internet for 5 euros. We quickly scrolled through Kayak.com trying to find the best deal. My eyes came across a flight to JFK with a layover in Iceland for around $950. I looked at Aryeh, “you wanna to go to Iceland?”. High strung in emotions, we both burst out laughing.

SURE. LET’S GO TO ICELAND.

And we did. We bought tickets for a flight that left Milan tomorrow night at 11:40pm. That night we slept in the airport, clutching all of our bags tightly so that no one would take them.

It wasn’t the Hampton Inn, but we were finally able to close our eyes. And that was something.

Sunrise the next morning.

Our plane didn’t leave until late that night, so we were pretty much twiddling our thumbs in the airport the entire day. We went to the nice hotel across the street and tried to sleep on their couches in the lobby. We were able to do so with slight success, after I lied to the concierge and told him we had a room at the hotel and were just waiting for our flight.

Later in the afternoon we were a little more creative with how to kill our time.

Finally, the time came for us to board Iceland Air.

Never in my life have I been so happy to board a flight.

On all the seats was small message… Iceland Air, you knew exactly how to get to me.

With timezone change considered, we arrived in Iceland around 2am. There was no [affordable] hotel nearby so we had to sleep in the airport again. The Iceland airport was much nicer then Milan though, and even though I slept on a bench I felt quite privileged.

We woke up to the sun rising through the windows.

The whole airport was very sleek and modern looking. Tourism in Iceland is a big thing, and although I wasn’t exactly there for leisurely pleasure they really made me want to come back. Just google image “Iceland scenery”. You’ll see what I’m talking about.

With some sort of euphoric happiness, we boarded our flight to JFK at 10am. Finally, after all the amazingness, the horribleness, and the downright craziness, we were going home.
It felt right to post this final picture. Pleasant Lake… just a 10 minute drive from my house in New Hampshire. I saw a lot this summer but not much beats the scenery of home.

THE NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY

June 6th 1944, also known as D-Day. We’ve all heard the historical story of how American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in an effort to liberate Europe from Nazi rule. Many think of the graphic scenes portrayed at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan or perhaps were alive at that time and can remember seeing headlines in newspapers. A cemetery and several monuments were installed on the beach shortly after in remembrance of this dramatic event in history.

We thought it would be worth the stop to check it out on our drive south from Paris.

Very sleek and modern visitor’s center, constructed in 2007.

The inside of the visitor’s center was equally modern looking and had many facts and informational pieces about the battle at Normandy.

Walking through the place I started to feel saddened thinking about the effects of conquest and war. This quote at the end seemed to put everything strait though.

Infinity pool outside

Approaching the cemetery

Most of the graves had a name and date on them… but I did find this unlucky fellow.

There was also an interview going on… I imagine it was for a documentary of some sort. Or maybe they’re making Saving Private Ryan 2? Who knows.

View from the cemetery

Film geekin moment… the path used for the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan:

(this is the last time I’m going to bring it up, I swear)

After that we took a short drive down to Omaha beach.

For those with normal eyesight and lower, let me clarify what the monument says:

“The allied forces landing on this shore which they call Omaha Beach liberate Europe – June 6th 1944”

The beach was beautiful.

Sunset that night

Bienvenue à Paris

You have one day to do as much as you can in Paris. What do you do?

This is the question we asked ourselves when starting our morning across the river from most visted city in the world. (ABC news says it’s third but shhh)

After some deep thought, we decided on two main destinations:

Through unanimous support (and Aryeh’s insistence), we first decided on the Catacombs of Paris.

Which left the number one necessity… the Eiffel Tower.

The Catacombs of Paris

Back in the magical time of the 1770’s, graveyards were overflowwing within the city of Paris due to the catholic church requiring dead to be buried in the cemeteries behind the churches. Desperate for more space in the city, they decided to move all of the bones from the cimetière des Innocents graveyard, the city’s largest cemetery, into empty mines under the city. These bones laying 19 meters under the city are now known as the Catacombs of Paris.

Arriving at 10am, the wait in line took us about 2 and a half hours. It was not the most pleasurable wait of my life… but I have to admit it was actually worth it. 100 percent. There’s something uncomfortably fascinating about looking at a bunch of human skulls. Not to mention it’s figgin cool to go into caves.

Here’s the front of the line… a beautiful sight after a long wait.

After taking a spiral staircase 19 meters ungerground (62 feet), we entered two rooms giving details and history about the catacombs.

Entering the catacombs tunnel

To keep track of where workers had expanded the tunnels, they put information like their names and the date into a pieces of brick.

A wide range of things to see within the tunnels.

So I’m walking around this place just enjoying myself when off us a sudden I turn a corner and….

Oh. Skulls. 

So. Many. Bones.

SOO many bones.

SO MANY BONES DUDE.

In total, the bones were made up of about 6 million people’s remains. We took about 45 minutes crossing the mile worth of tunnels and caves.

After lunch we took a spin around the city to see many popular landmarks.

Which eventually brought us to…

The Eiffel Tower

Looking up

Okay, so we’ve all seen pictures of the Eiffel tower. I didn’t expect to be all that impressed with it, but holy French baguette that thing is HUGE! There’s no way to show what I saw in a picture… but this one gives a decent idea of its incredible size.

Once it was dark enough they started a light show on the tower.

Money shot.

Final artsy picture for the night

Until next time… peace out mes amis.

THAT TIME WE ROADTRIPPED TO PARIS – PART 2

I realized later that a visualization of our trip might be helpful. SO HERE YA GO.

Verona to Paris. In total the drive was about 9 hours, which we split over two days. This post is part 2, AKA day 2.

We started that morning at the border of France and arrived at our hotel outside Paris by that night. Our hotel was to Paris as the Bronx is to NYC. Not exactly IN the city, but pretty darn close. Not to mention much cheaper per night. Today I want to share two stops we made that day… both of which were unplanned.

The first stop was early in the morning while driving through the beautiful mountains of France. We were driving around a bend when I saw a building in ruin with a glistening lake in front of it. WE GOTTA STOP I said. So we took the exit and checked the place out. I have no idea what this place is. I think it’s just some sort of old abandoned factory… also known as a photographer’s dream land.

View from the building:

Inside: (crazy!!)

We spent about an hour and a half there just ogling at all the pictures and videos to take. Speaking of video, I think it’s time for some GIFS.

Okay no but really:

Moving right along…

The second stop was a little later in the day when we were looking for a place to stop for lunch. We get off some random exit and started driving through a town, which ended up being this ridiculously picturesque French village.

Seriously? A carousel? I swear if you were to go on the internet and download ‘french town background music’, you would get a recording of this town. Anyways, we obviously decided to grab lunch here. I felt it necessary to order a plate of cheese with wine. That’s called French winning.

Adventures in Paris coming up next 🙂

ROAMING IN ROME

A couple thousand years ago, the Roman Empire controlled all of the land the Mediterranean Sea touched. America didn’t exist yet, so this was pretty much like ruling the world.

Pax Roma is what they called this peaceful time at the peak out the Roman Empire. The glory days. Romans were the top dogs, and Rome was the capital of it all. It was the heart of the beast. Remnants of the empire can be seen all over Europe to this day, while Rome stands as a center piece for this epic history. On every street in Rome are the remains of this golden age. Aryeh and myself didn’t need to know where to go when we explored the city… we just needed to walk. The pictures came to us.

We woke up early and started the day off in proper Italian style: espresso and croissants at a local bar.

We found out later that it was some sort of gay bar called “Coming Out”. But uh… oh well. When in Rome, right?

After that we crossed the street (literally) for a spectacular view of the colosseum.

Sunrise giving it a nice glow.

The edge of the coliseum sloping down (far right) was added in recent years to preserve the architecture. When it was first built in 70 AD, the wall continued at the same height all the way around. Over the years it has deteriorated for multiple reasons. Weather, battles, robbers, etc.

Just a few blocks down the street was the Altare della Patria (Alter of the fatherland)

Around the next corner were the preserved remains of a roman forum.

Walking up to the Piazza del Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill)

Busy roman streets

Photo-bombing the fountain. Because I’ll never let Aryeh get a good picture with my camera.

Crossing the bridge towards The Vatican

Vatican square!

The level of detail in the architecture is astounding.

Several statues line the walls around the square. Kind of creepy in my opinion…

It took us about two hours to get from the Coliseum to The Vatican, but if you were to walk there directly it would only take about 20 minutes. Rome was definitely the most history-packed city I have ever been in.

Taking the train back to Verona that night:

A TRAIN TO ROME

On Monday morning Brando received a call from the actor who dubs over the voice of Leonardo Dicaprio for the Italian version of all of his movies (they keep the same actors to maintain a familiarity with the voices). Brando’s been trying to reach this guy for a while, wanting a recording of his voice for one of his video projects. The guy said he could do it if Brando could be in Rome by 6pm that night… so we made a spontaneous decision to go to Rome.

It was about a 4-5 hour trip by train with a layover halfway through. We were about 40 miles out of Rome when the train came to a stop. I turned to Brando… “Is this normal?” I said. He nodded and said we should be moving again in a few minutes.

4 hours later the train was being pushed forward again by another engine. Apparently a cable snapped or something and we were dead in the water. With no power and no AC, it was one of the most unpleasant experiences one could have only a few miles outside of Rome, the historical capital of the world.

I snapped this picture when the power first turned back on. That translates to 107 degrees fahrenheit.

Obviously they couldn’t have passengers wandering around on the tracks, so we sat near the doors desperate for a slight breeze.

Cute pup on the train

People used magazines, newspapers, whatever they could find to cool themselves off.

Attaching the second engine

When we arrived at the next station, there were news reporters waiting to ask people about their experience. Seeing as I didn’t speak a lick of Italian, I had little comment to add.

Obviously we didn’t get to Rome by 6pm to meet with the guy, but he was nice enough to meet with Brando the next morning. While he did that, Aryeh and I took an independent tour around Rome. Lesson for today: Even when life throws you the sweetest fruit ever, you’re still going to catch a sour lemon every once in a while.

Speaking of sweetest fruit ever,

Pictures of Rome coming next! 🙂

AROUND THE 1/2 WORLD IN 8 DAYS – PART 3

Airplanes are one of those few scenarios where you can capture a wide range of pictures and never leave your seat. Tragically it’s hard to get high quality pictures with that damn plastic window in front of my face, but at the same time it’s keeping me alive so I guess that’s okay. Today’s post is short and simple… just a few pictures of our long journey to Italy.

One of the first pictures I took during the flight… pretty sure we’re flying over Canada at this point.

Sun starting to set.

Because our route was so northern, the sun never completely set. The horizon looked like this for about 4 hours… kinda messes with your mind a little.

Sunrise over Europe

We landed in Moscow the next morning with 4 hours to kill until our flight to Milan. Hmm… yup, we DEFINITELY seem to be in Moscow.

Russian Burger King… have it your way! Most likely with some vodka.

A fancy picture of a fancy cappuccino.

I slept the entire flight to Italy, so that’s all the pictures for now. A tour of Verona coming up next 🙂

AROUND 1/2 THE WORLD IN 8 DAYS – PART 2

After waking up to the sunrise in Utah, we continued our drive north towards Boulder, CO. On the way, we passed Arches National Park which is right off of I-70 and highway 191.

A massive rock wall we saw while driving through the park… for size reference see the car in the bottom left.

We went on a 2 mile hike to check out the famous Delicate Arch, as seen on Utah’s license plate.

Tragically, in order to make it home in time, we had to keep driving… but the west is the west, and scenery never stops!

We spent the night with Aryeh’s friend in Boulder only to get up early the next morning to continue our drive east. The plan was to meet up with our friend Spencer in Omaha, Nebraska for the next night. Aryeh hadn’t told Spencer we were coming… instead, we got another friend of Spencers to set up a dinner outing with him so that we could surprise him.

The reaction was fantastic. I wish we captured a video of it……….. OH WAIT.

(please forgive the 10 seconds of black at the beginning)

We couldn’t let him know we were coming, so thankfully he let us crash on his couch on very short notice.

The drive after Omaha was very flat and very bland… however I did manage to get a few visually stimulating pictures.

That night we stopped in Pennsylvania at our friend Erin’s house. She refuses to read the blog so for now let’s just consider her “The Loser”. Anyways, leaving early from The Loser’s house gave me the opportunity for some sexy sunrise shots.

The next night we finally arrived at my home in New Hampshire. The official end of one adventure, and the start of a new one.

Pictures of my flight to Italy coming up next!

AROUND 1/2 THE WORLD IN 8 DAYS – PART ONE

Hats, coats, glasses over here. But hurry please, we have so much time and so little to see. Wait a minute… strike that. Reverse it.

Okay but seriously I have a lot to show you and time is limited so lets gets down to it. On a cloudy July 26th morning Aryeh and myself officially left Los Angeles and started our trip east towards New Hampshire (and then towards JFK to fly to Italy).

The first stop on our trip was at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Aryeh was getting very excited.

After a 5 hour drive from LA we finally arrived. Bam!

The immensity of the view kind of slaps you in the face… one picture could never do it justice (but Google Images definitely helps).

There was a railing at some parts for people to hang on to and enjoy the view.

I’ll say it again… there was a railing at some parts.

“Dude… I think I’m insane.”

Quick! Point at the old Asian dude holding the camera!
Bam. Photogenic brilliance.

Oh… didn’t see you there camera. How you duin?

It’s gif-tastic.

After the Grand Canyon we hopped back in the car and continued our drive into Utah where we stopped at 1am somewhere on the side of the road. The next morning I realized we had parked by some oil wells and a beautiful view. Naturally, we had to check out the sun rise. And by that I mean I had to drag Aryeh out of the car at 5:30am so I had a model for the picture. Worth it.

Kind of looks like a car commercial…

Wait. Yup. Yup, definitely a car commercial.

We might just be the coolest people you know of.

I’ll save the rest of the road trip for the next post (which may be a few days seeing as I’m about to get on a plane to Italy).  But more pictures are coming soon! Unless my plane crashes on the way to Italy… then not so much.

FAREWELL TO THE PLAYGROUND

Today I start my journey back east to New Hampshire. But the adventure is not over yet! On August 1st, my friend Aryeh and myself will hop on a plane headed to Italy. Well… technically Russia with a six hour layover in Moscow, but THEN we’re flying to Italy. Brando (creator of the Kick Ass trailer) owns a house in Verona which is where we will spend most of our time. We will also be traveling to Rome, Germany, Switzerland, France (hopefully), and any other adventurous place we can fit into a matter of two and half weeks. Before I say farewell to LA, I’ve got a few last minute pictures to share. I got approval from Oops Doughnuts to show a few pictures from this summer’s internship. Remember Oops Doughnuts?

Yeah. This place. As you may remember they’re currently working on a new Disney show called “Liv and Maddie”. Once or twice a week they took us to Hollywood Center Studios where they film the show. We were able to meet the cast, watch the run throughs, and sometimes watch them filming. The only rule is that I can’t show the shows’s logo with any of the pictures…. soo if you want to see that, look elsewhere I guess!

Andy Finkman, head of Oops Doughnuts and director of the show:

Compared to other Disney shows I thought this one was pretty funny. I may have a biased opinion because I watched them filming though…

Here’s an interview with the show’s star, Dove Cameron:

http://watch.accesshollywood.com/video/dove-cameron-dishes-on-disneys-liv-maddie/2551771416001

For anyone looking for more information on the show feel free to check out this promo:

(Disclaimer: You’re about to OD on “Disney”)

http://video.disney.com/watch/disneychannel-new-series-4e03f58ba62dd061b79e1012

For the next week or two I’ll be doing a lot of traveling so internet will be shaky. Updates may become less consistent, but in a few weeks I think I’ll have some awesome stuff to share…

🙂

TTFN Los Angelus.