Barcelona makes amends

well, first off, let me assuage any fears about the swelling of my hand. There were a few questions about it (none from family members, ironically, despite their dominance of the ´comments´space), so I´ll clear it up. I got a bunch of bug bites at Pietro´s and one on the palm of my left thumb got really really huge, and when I woke up in the morning, my palm had swelled up a lot. I should´ve taken a picture, but I took some aspirin instead and it went away. Not really that exciting.

So I think I left you Saturday afternoon in Barcelona. We walked around for a while and eventually made our way to La Rambla, the big street in town. It´s big because they used to sell flowers there, and somehow this made everybody stand around having intellectual conversations. I don´t quite get the connection, but it´s the happening spot now, and it was quite busy on this Saturday night. It´s a bit like Bourbon Street in that you just walk the road people-watching, then turn around and do it again. That and dinner is about all we did Saturday night, but it was a good time. A Saturday night in Barcelona is a good time (probably would´ve been a better time for most of you.)

On Sunday our hotel was ridiculously slow getting around to serving lunch, so we didn´t head into town, via taxi this time, until around 1400. We wanted to see the Olympic village from the 1992 summer Olympics, and it really turned out to be very worth seeing. We saw the basketball arena where the Dream Team won the gold medal and the Estadi Olimpic, originally built for the ´36 Olympics that were moved to Berlin due to the Spanish Civil War and remodeled for the ´92 version. There´s also a big needle-like thing that stretched into the clouds. Not sure what it was, but we were intrigued by it.

The Olympic Gallery is closed weekends (does that make sense at all?), but we had seen a baseball field, since baseball was an Olympic sport, so we wandered down to it. Now it is my belief that no baseball stadium outside of the major leagues is impenetrable, but these Europeans know their security, so I wasn´t sure we´d be able to get in. But the gates were wide open and there were two teams warming up. So we sat and watched for a while, conversing with the only other spectator - a Japanese guy who had spent time in the U.S. and struck up a conversation. We had a great time, and it turned out this was a playoff game. Which is comical because the home team was horrendous (I could have pitched) and the visiting team was from like five hours away. We could only stay for half an inning, but it was entertaining.

So we headed to the FC Barcelona match in the Estadio Camp Nou, one of the biggest stadiums in the world. We weren´t sure where to pick up internet tickets, but we just waited in line with everybody else. I fretted the whole time, and Joe tried to tell me not to worry, but in the end it worked out ... par for the course. The stadium is truly huge, immense, vast, and everything else. And the field (rug, Joe says, since all the fields here are laid down) was in by far the best shape of any we´ve seen. We saw all different types of fans, including two old ladies next to us who were hilarious. There will be pictures to prove it.

Anyway, I´ll try to be brief about the match. Barcelona dominated Real Sociedad 5-0. Ronaldinho has to be the best player in the world, and all five goals were world-class. Ronaldinho set up Mark Van Bommel for a sort of scissors-kick volley for the first goal, then caught everybody by surprise with a 30-yard blast for the second goal. There were brief light problems around halftime, but Ronaldinho turned out the lights (figuratively speaking, of course) with a free kick goal in the second half. Captain Carlos Puyol added a flying header, and my favorite Barca player Henrik Larsson added the last goal, to the delight of a row of Swedish girls wearing shirts to spell out his name. All in all, a perfect atmosphere.

After the game we headed toward a Metro stop with the rest of the world but stopped in a restaurant for dinner. I was surprised it wasn´t totally full, but we had fun. We´re still not exactly sure what Spanish cuisine is ... they´re big on omelettes, which suits me ... but we had fun nonetheless. We checked out La Rambla again, but it was relatively dead, so we headed back to our hotel.

This morning I thought we were catching the early bus, but we were 45 minutes too early, so we took a taxi to the train station, missing the train by about 15 minutes. So bad timing all around, and the next train isn´t until 1206. So here we are.

Next stop: today (hopefully), Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Next game: Wednesday, Champions´League, Stade de France, Lille v. Manchester United (ESPN2)

worse than Lyon

so it´s now Saturday afternoon/evening here in Barcelona. We had a not unadventurous journey to get here, that´s for sure.

on Thursday, we took an afternoon train from Milan that got us over the border to France and into Nice (just past Monaco and Cannes, so the Riviera) for the night. We´ve talked a lot about eating ¨le chinois¨on this trip, and we finally made it happen at a Chinese place right by our hotel. Wandered down to the rocky beach and saw all the disaffected youth out on a Thursday night before packing it in.

Friday/yesterday was the big day of travel. We took an 1114 train to Marseille, where we left the train station just long enough to eat lunch before boarding our next train. This one we took as far as Montpellier, though it continued on to Bordeaux. Both trains were pretty full, so finding a seat was a bit tricky and sometimes physical. Arriving in Montpellier at 1640 or so, we had only to cross the platform (about five feet) to reach our next (and final) train.

We had reservations for this one, which went all the way to Barcelona, although the car had plenty of standing people who were going shorter distances. As I was putting my bag in the overhead compartment, the girls behind us spotted my Rice Class of 2005 T-shirt. Of course. We knew it would happen eventually. Turns out they played soccer in high school with a couple of girls on the Rice team (Ash Hess and Vanessa for the Owls among you) and were, like us, graduates touring Europe. Although they were doing two months and are almost done. So we talked a bit with them once the car thinned out. Turns out one had played soccer at Tulane. So I named a person I knew from Morristown who had gone to Tulane, who they didn´t know. About 10 minutes later, it hit us: Swack. So we asked about Wes, and ¨of course¨she knew Wes! Crazy small world. This is even better than Danny Putnam´s father-in-law. One of the girls goes out with Brian Bogusevic, the Astros´first-round draft pick. What are the odds? Gotta love Delbarton.

So we got to Barcelona at 2145 or so. Got a cab and asked him about the hotel I had reserved online Thursday. He had to look it up, and then he told us it was within walking distance. Which it certainly was, but we couldn´t find it for a good 30 minutes. We finally did, however, and things were looking up. But the guy didn´t have my name or anything and I don´t think he likes the internet much. So that was very bad. We got vague instructions as to where there were other hotels, but he said it would be hard to find a room.

And so we walked, and walked, and walked. In circles, basically, around the train station and the adjacent bay. Without finding really any hotels. Not like Paris, where there are a ton of places to stay around the train station. This went on for a while, and eventually we decided to get a taxi down to hotels near the beach. Sadly, we speak almost no Spanish. And our cab driver no English or French. So he took us to a hotel on a beach, but it was the most expensive place in town. We´re talking prices of more than €1,000 per night. Crazy stuff. So we walked around that area some more without any success. At this point, I´m about as scared as I get (which is probably a sign of my fortunate life more than anything else, but still) and I vote for sleeping on the beach, while Joe leans toward ponying up €1,000. Neither of which is actually going to happen. We finally went back to the really expensive hotel, and Joe got directions to another four-star one. Which was also full, but they directed us to probably the last hotel in the area, and they had a room. For a surprisingly reasonable rate. So, this being 12:30 in the morning, we just kicked back a bit. Great shower, which is always a must in European hotels, and we got breakfast served to the room.

Problem is, this place didn´t have any more rooms. So we were online for like an our this morning around noon, our checkout time, looking for hotels. Without success. Totally without success. Finally, after one of my schemes had been rejected, Joe found a place. It is north of town and not that well connected to public transportation, but it´s a room. For both nights.

So we took a taxi out there, then headed into town. Via bus and suburban train, which we navigated with surprising success. After landing at the Arc de Triomf, we walked looking for lunch and eventually ate at a vegetarian Indian restaurant. Where we got pizza. Are we lame or what? But we had these delicious spicy carrot donuts as an appetizer that really hit the spot. Then we checked out Gaudi´s work-in-progress church, Sacred Family, which has been under construction since 1892 and is already huge, although it´s not close to done. Pretty cool.

So that´s Barcelona and hopefully the most harrowing part of the trip. Lesson: book ahead and make sure it´s successful when you go to a touristy city over the weekend.

Next game: tomorrow, La Liga, Barcelona v. Real Sociedad
Next stop: Monday, Andorra la Vella, Andorra

our combined kingdoms for a dryer

so our time in Milan is coming to an end; let's see what I can do to recapture it. Basically our Monday night-Thursday afternoon consisted of: meeting/seeing Pietro and his roommates, who were amazingly generous hosts; fumbling with our city map and wondering where the heck we were; this bothering me more than Joe; sleeping late; trying to dry laundry on just about any open surface in the house; taking advantage of free internet; going to a soccer game; trying to dry our clothes; scarfing down pizza; and, in one instance, taking aspirin to avoid my hand puffing up like a blowfish. Who knew?

Around town: the duomo is really big (third largest in the world) but under construction, so you can't really enjoy the facade. Its very gothic interior with a ton of stained glass was in stark contrast to the Florentine duomo. Even Joe and I could tell that. Going up to the top is cool, but it's no Sacre Coeur. We were more entertained by the clientele (thank you, old man with a cigar!) than the view. Without a guidebook, we had very little idea what else to see or how to see it, as evidenced by our failure to see The Last Supper. But we saw a very nice print in the gift shop. We also walked through the town's old castle, which was very cool, and walked down the street with all the fashion labels. I didn't see Louis Vuitton, Lisa, but I thought of you.

Laundry: Not so much with the dryers in Italy, evidently, but it was laundry time just past the midway point in the trip. So for the last two days we have been spreading out clothes all over the house and surely imposing on our gracious hosts. I think they're mostly dry; let's hope so. Also, here's making fun of Joe for never having done his own laundry ... somebody needs to get outside a 100-mile radius. (That was less fun than it was supposed to be, but while I helped him sort his whites and darks, distinctions I don't even use, I promised to publicly belittle him.)

Food: I like pizza, we know this. So I have enjoyed Italian food. We also got a great recommendation on a steak place Tuesday night. Meat being really upscale here and the place not being touristy, they were surprised to see us. The layout of the place felt like the southwest U.S. actually, definitely not as crammed as most European places are. Very good food though; and very rare; Mom, you would've been proud. But it's all about the huge lunch of pizza.

Soccer: Milan is home to one of the world's most famous stadiums, the San Siro. Originally built in the 1920s and at one point renamed officially, it continues to be known by its neighborhood name. It has been renovated many a time (read Wikipedia if you really care) and is now HUGE. Really impressive/imposing. Hosted the opening ceremonies of the 1990 World Cup, when Cameroon beat defending champions Argentina in one of soccer's most famous games. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near a Metro stop, so we faced a long walk. We went to see Inter Milan v. Roma in a Serie A game last night. Inter Milan's fans are notorious and the club was banned from having fans for four home games in European competition after they hit an opposing goalkeeper with a lit flare last year and the match was abandoned. We pretty much just saw the good side of the passion, though. Our seats were in the top row of a huge stadium, which sounds bad, but they were actually great (thank you, Luigi!) Only 10 yards off the halfway line, a spot we haven't been in much. The stadium met Joe's approval because of its enclosure, and its roof is really distinctive (www.worldstadiums.com has a decent picture until I can get mine online.)

As for the game, it had so much diving and whining and exaggerating and complaining that it reminded me why I don't actually like Serie A that much, even though it's one of the best leagues. Roma, placed 14th, opened up a 2-0 first-half lead on Inter, placed in the top four. Francesco Totti, the captain, scored the second with a sublime chip from 25 yards. He scored a second goal just after halftime on a penalty kick from a terrible dive that actually fooled the referee. The Inter fans were in shock. But their talismanic Brazilian, Adriano, came on as a sub and scored twice, once from a brilliant free kick and once on a sketchy goal where he accidentally undercut the keeper into dropping the ball). So the last 20 minutes were Inter Milan pumping long balls into the area, but they never got close to an equalizer. Alvaro Recoba and Juan Sebastian Veron were particularly disappointing. In stoppage time, Veron and Totti clashed and literally butted heads a few times before Totti went down like he was shot. In the resulting mayhem, both players were (properly) red-carded. On TV after the game, we got to see a billion slow-mo replays of all the dives, and it was just brutal.

After the game we enjoyed some local food but got rather lost trying to get back to the Metro station. We even turned around when we had been going the right direction. Dumb us. So we took a cab back.

Anyway, we're on to Nice (in France) this afternoon and then Barcelona later on. That will be our last major city before Dublin. I have put pictures from the trip through the D-Day tour online at the Yardley gallery. that's all that will be on until we get home.

Next stop: tonight, Nice, France
Next game: Sunday, La Liga, Barcelona v. Real Sociedad (Estadio Camp Nou)

the great adventure

last post was Sunday afternoon, eh? Well, immediately after leaving the internet cafe, an American guy asked us where we were from. He was wearing an Oakland A's polo shirt, so I asked him about it and it turns out he was Danny Putnam's father-in-law. Danny Putnam played for Stanford against Rice in the CWS in 2003 and is in the A's organization. So that was a bizarre coincidence.

It being Sunday afternoon in Florence, the Uffizi Museum was packed with a two-hour wait, so we skipped it and walked to Piazza del Michelangelo, which has an incredible overlooking view of the city. While up there, we visited San Miniato al Monte, a favorite church of Megan's landlady. It was really neat, with a ton of frescoes and a great patterned ceiling/intricately decorated roof supports. The Florentines used this church to defend against the armies of Charles V and a Medici pope back in the day and put Michelangelo in charge of the defenses. He drew fire to this church's belltower by placing two cannons in it, then bolstered its defenses by hanging mattresses on the side of the tower, saving it from demolition. We walked around the extensive cemetery around the belltower.

Then we people watched on the steps of Il Duomo and eventually headed to dinner. After seating us at a big table, they made us move and fill in another table; it eventually became the English-speaking table, and we made conversation with a Penn State art history prof.

Monday/yesterday was our last day in Florence, and not even a full day. We bussed into the city around noon for lunch, then began the churchwalk (big museums closed). With Megan leading the way with more knowledge than you can possibly imagine, we hit Santa Maria Novella, San Lorenzo, the duomo, and Santa Croce. We missed the duomo baptistry (sorry, Mom) and one of the big Medici tombs. You've got to draw the line somewhere. But the churches were really neat, and Megan knew a lot of little stuff. For instance, the floor of the church in San Lorenzo was designed to resemble the grill on which he was martyred. Good stuff.

So we bussed back up to the villa, got our stuff, and headed back out. Between waiting for busses and walking to and from the bus stop, the back-and-forth took about two hours, so we just missed the 1814 train. That was probably a good thing, however, because we got to eat dinner before the train ride, heading out on the 1914. We got to Milano a little after 2200, and this was the part of the trip I had been worried about. We had an address for Pietro's but hadn't been able to find it on a map. So we gave it to a taxi driver and he said he knew where it was. When we got in, it became apparent that he didn't need to know where it was, because he had a tricked-out GPS system in the cab. And it doubled as TV when it wasn't giving him directions. So he dropped us off here and it was all amazingly easy to get in to the apartment, since one of Pietro's roommates was here to let us in. A big relief for me.

Pietro is a pen pal of my brother's from when we were kids, so he's in his late twenties. My family has visited the family here in Milano before, but not since I was in high school. Pietro is doing his residency at the moment en route to becoming a neurologist. Yikes. But we're staying at his place, and he greeted us warmly when he got home from attending a concert, told us to make ourselves at home, and circled some places on a map for us. So today we're doing laundry, enjoying the internet, and relaxing before we check out Milano itself. And trying to figure out plans for the rest of the trip.

Next game: tomorrow, Serie A: Inter Milan v. Roma
Next stop: some time on Saturday, Barcelona, Spain

someone else doing the talking

well, we no longer have the alternately pleasure/burden of conversing in French. While it was one of the reasons I came to Europe and I really did get better at French in only two weeks, I'm sort of relieved to be in a country where I have no clue at the language and can just talk in English the whole time. Joe and I are relieved to have Megan Batchelor, a friend from Rice, doing the talking for us at the moment. I'm sure Lilit and anyone else who knows a whiff of Italian would be jealous at having it all around, but it's very foreign to me. I had trouble reading the sports newspaper. And it's the only place in Europe, I think, where soccer is not football. It's calcio (CAL-cho or something like that).

We took three trains Saturday, leaving Lyon at 0605 and changing trains in Geneva and Milano. We had time to get pizza for lunch in Milano, and I'm psyched about eating pizza at like every meal. We got to Firenze (Florence) at 4:45, an hour later than the train we wanted to catch. But Megan rocks, so she was there to meet us, and her landlady's daughter, Stefy, had a car to drive us around a bit.

Megan's staying at this awesome villa on a hill overlooking Florence. We drove up there, and the four of us had an amiable chat while Megan and Stefy cooked dinner (we volunteered to help, but most of you know my reputation in the kitchen). The soccer game had been moved up to Saturday night, so Stefy drove us down toward the stadium and we headed in. Fiorentina, the wildly popular local club, have an interesting recent history. They were very successful in the late/mid 90s, as I understand it, but went bankrupt some four years ago and were kicked out of Serie A, Italy's top league. They had to go three leagues down to Serie C2 and work their way up, year by year, to Serie C1, Serie B, and Serie A (I think it was a straight progression). But they're in fourth place in Serie A at the moment and playing great football. They demolished Parma 4-1 behind a hat trick from Toni Luca and one of the best goals I have ever seen from Christian Fiore.

The stadium, where my parents went six years ago, was one of the most interesting parts for me. The architecture of stadiums is fairly different here than in other parts of Europe. The field is usually more separated from the stands than in other stadiums, and the seating areas are more spread out and horizontal, rather than being built vertically on top of each other (I think the San Siro, in Milan, is an exception). Joe properly estimated the capacity of Stadio Artemio Franchi at near 50,000 (it's 47,232, according to worldstadiums.com), and it turns out it was built in 1931. But it was renovated for World Cup Italia 1990. The United States played its first World Cup game in 40 years here, losing 5-1 to Czechoslovakia and later 2-1 to Austria, sandwiched around a 1-0 loss to Italy in Rome. I think it's really neat that I got to see that stadium. What we would call the end-zone areas are called curves here, and that's where the big Italian fan culture is. We sat on the less hardcore of the curves, but it was still exciting and vibrant, with constant chanting and singing. We picked up some words and tunes, but definitely not all. I think our favorite part of the game was the guy behind us and his girlfriend. They made out a lot, but after each goal the guy would go crazy and cheer for about 7 seconds, then turn to the girl with his mouth like wide open and they would make out in a celebratory fashion. She seemed rather less enthused about the game than he did.

We left the stadium singing "Toni Goal, Toni Goal, Toni goal" in honor of the hat trick hero. We got gellato right outside the stadium and then climbed the mountain back to the villa. Its only real drawback is the shower/lack thereof ... you kinda have to crouch to avoid hitting your head on adjacent cabinets while trying to keep the water aimed against the wall. Hilarious.

Today being Sunday, we headed into Firenze around 11, again with a ride from Stefy. She accompanied us to the local market to get some sunglasses and had significantly better bargaining success without us around, when they treated her as an Italian, rather than an American (she has dual citizenship and great language skills). Then we looked at the local cathedral (duomo) from the outside ... it really blows my mind because of its colorful exterior, which I just have not seen on many old churches, especially in Europe. We have more churches and a museum or two planned for today and tomorrow.

We're about halfway through the trip but only have a week and a half left on the continent. Also, you can't really fly from Milano to Portugal, so it looks like we'll have to settle for Espana as our taste of the Iberian.

Shout-outs to the MetroStars for opening the MLS Cup playoffs with a 1-0 win over New England and to the Astros for making the World Series. I'm really ticked to miss both the all-star game and the world series in Houston, but what can you do? Hopefully they can turn it around. Oh, and a delayed shout-out to the Rice soccer team for beating SMU several weeks ago and carrying a 4-1-1 conference record into today's big game against UTEP. And will somebody please find me a job?

Next stop: Monday or Tuesday, Milano, Italy
Next game: Wednesday, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (aka the San Siro), Inter Milan v. Roma

France, c'est pres de fin

Well, it's our last day in France for a while. I woke up at like 5 am this morning and got all nostalgic for Rice for a while, but I think I'm over it for the time being.

My first real Champions' League game Wednesday was pretty great. Our seats, having been bought at the last minute, were almost on top of the field. This is a bad thing in European soccer, especially when your seats are below the advertising boards, so you have to kind of peer up and over the whole time. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, kind of like you're playing in the game. We were close enough that after the whole stadium had used these big rolls of colored paper as flashcards and the time comes to ball them up and throw them toward the field, mine actually made it on the field. Silly French can't throw.

We were in the corner next to the Olympiacos fans, which was pretty crazy. Melissa, you can be proud, the Greeks were loud and boisterous (and drunk) the whole way. Lyonnais scored on a free kick four minutes in, which I capture on video on my camera, and continued to dominate the half, quieting the Olympiacos faithful. But the Greeks played better in the second half. As Lyonnais tried to wrap the game up late, they had a goal disallowed for offside. So the Olympiacos fans started taunting all the others, who responded in kind. A few things got thrown, and the riot police had a little work to do. Then Olympiacos scored to tie the game, a really great chip from 25 yards, and their section went berserk. Ours just went nuts holding up the middle finger. Predictably, however, the thrown stuff (plastic bottles, coins, whatever) increased, and the riot police sent a squadron between the Greek fans and our section. We were sort of preoccupied by the stuff being thrown at us, but I looked up in time to see Lyonnais score the winner right in front of us in almost the last minute. Then we were going crazy, especially antagonizing the Olympiakos fans. Joe and I moved up a couple rows to relative safety to finish out the match. Really a great time.

Yesterday was much more chill. We walked around Old Lyon and saw Roman theater ruins and the Basilica de Notre Dame here. Very gold-plated, ornate, and iconic for a Catholic church. Built beginning in 1871 after the virgin supposedly kept the Prussian forces from routing Lyon. We tried to check out their natural history museum later in the day, but it was incredibly lame. Lunch and dinner were both excellent, as Lyon is known for its food.

Next stop: Saturday, Florence, Italy (with Megan Batchelor)
Next game: Sunday, Serie A, Fiorentina v. Parma

the only place to go was up

well, we're pretty sure we hit rock bottom yesterday (Tuesday). As Joe quoted, "These are the times that try men's souls."

Perhaps a little overdramatic, but it was a long day. We woke up at 7 to catch an early train from St. Jean-de-Luz to Bordeaux. It was pouring and still dark out as we struggled to find our way to the train station. St. Jean-de-Luz is hard enough to navgiate in broad daylight. The plan was to catch the TGV (tres grand vite = very a lot of speed/really really fast) train to Lyon via Montpellier, as described in our Eurail timetable.

So the train to Bordeaux was fine, 0815-1025 or so. When we got to Bordeaux, we saw signs for a train leaving at 1037 for Lyon. We figured this was the way to go. We wouldn't have to change trains and we could leave ASAP. This train, however, was part of the Tres Grand Lignes (very big lines) group that also should be called Tres Grand Lent = very a lot of slowness. And stopping. For 15 minutes at a time. We arrived in Lyon, roughly on time, at 7:15 pm. 1909. So we had been on a train for almost 11 hours. With only an overpriced sandwich each. Probably a mistake on my part. Whoops. On the bright side, I wrote a ton on the train.

To improve things even more, it was pouring in Lyon too. And we could not get the overnight train reservation we wanted to Milan for Friday night because of some holiday that apparently involves all of Lyon mass migrating to Milano. Who knew? So now we're leaving Lyon at 6 am Saturday. SIX! ugh. So we took a taxi to a hotel listed in Rick Steves' guide, which we've come to trust on the places it actually covers. We got dropped off in the rain only to discover that the place didn't have a room. No problem, right? There's plenty of deux-etoiles (two-star) hotels in Lyon. We probably tried 5-10 of them without success. Wtf is going on in Lyon? We finally sought refuge at an overpriced three-star place with one room available. The room? The uber-suite (my words, not theirs) fit for six people. 150 euro.

So we capped off the crappy day by eating at Le McDo and watching bad TV. The channel carrying the Manchester United-Lille match, which is carried in the US!, cut out at 9 pm, so I watched it through fuzz. Things could only get better.

And they did, today. Joe called around and found a hotel on the second try that was like a 2-minute walk from our other hotel. It has three stars for the price of two AND free internet. Please insert a Jenny Rees "hot" now.

However, I went online to get tickets for the game tonight and couldn't get any. Not a good start. But we set out to check out the local Musee de la Resistance, quoting the South Park movie gleefully all the way. And the museum was actually a disappointment. Maybe we've seen too many museums or too much WWII stuff or something, but the whole thing seemed to make the point that the Vichy government was bad. Well, no shit.

So we decided to head down to the stadium and try to get tickets in person. Now this is a UEFA Champions' League match, which is a tournament that involves the best teams (up to four from the best countries) from all of Europe. Olympique Lyon, four-time defending French champions, play Olympiacos Piraeus (umpteen-time Greek champions) tonight. I've watched the Champions' League on ESPN2 for years. The 1999 championship is what got me really into soccer. And I've only seen qualifying matches in person. So I have been stoked for this for a long time. So we took the Lyon Metro (cleaner than Paris, btw) to Stade de Gerland and headed toward the ticket office. We met a scalper on the way, but our French (they really don't teach you how to ask about the availability of legitimate and scalped tickets in French class, do they?) and his English did not get very far. However, he made it clear they were still selling tickets, just for a higher price than he was offering. We took the real tickets without problem and thus will be in attendance tonight. I'm psyched.

And that catches you up pretty much completely. Florence and Milan next week, then we may fly to Portugal, go to Madrid, then back to Paris to fly to Dublin for almost a week, then home.

catching up

wow, it has been almost a week without internet. Some of you can imagine how difficult that is for me. We are currently in St. Jean-de-Luz, France, which is in the Basque country. Since Tuesday, we have: dined and hung out with Shawn Conley and Megan Levin in Paris; joined almost 80,000 French in watching France qualify for the World Cup with a 4-0 win over Cyprus; taken the train to Caen, France; discovered that I am a financial conservative; seen the truly amazing D-Day museum and taken a D-Day beach tour that included Omaha Beach, the American cemetery there, and the U.S. Ranger memorial at Pointe d'Hoc; seen a Ligue 2 (2nd division) game between Caen and Grenoble; taken the train to Paris and then to Bordeaux; seen a Ligue 1 game between Bordeaux and Sochaux; taken the train to St. Jean-de-Luz and enjoyed the beach and local cuisine.

That's the Reader's Digest version. I'm sorry for not posting more often; you know I'd like to. But here are a few details about the above.

Megan and Shawn: we met up with Megan and Shawn in their apartment on the 5th floor of a building in Montmartre. They play the harp and the bass, respectively, so you can imagine how they avoid taking their instruments on the stairs. We walked around for a while, then enjoyed a great, endless-course Italian meal and exchanged many a story of Europe and whatnot. Then we went to "Cave à Jazz" for some live music, but the place was packed, so we walked around a bit and then split up.

France s'est qualifiée: After revisiting "Fez is a Dork" on the dome of Sacre Coeur and seeing the Picasso Museum on Wednesday, we headed to the Stade de France for the France-Cyprus match. We even got free scarves on our way in--you know that pleased me. So going in, France needed to win by five goals in case Switzerland beat Ireland. They were up 3-0 at half-time but struggled in the second half and got the fourth goal with four minutes left. They never got the fifth, but the stadium absolutely exploded and we knew Ireland-Switzerland must have finished 0-0. So the place went nuts and there was a fireworks display on the field to the tune of -- get this -- Vertigo, Highway to Hell, and Born in the USA (!). Bizarre, but cool.

Caen: We took the train to Caen on Thursday. Caen (pronounced with a nasal 'Khawn' sound--Meg, any better way to describe it?) rocks my world. It feels like a really young, college-town type of place. We wandered around and saw an old Norman castle before taking the bus up to the D-Day Museum. Wow. We were absolutely blown away by the whole thing. It's definitely the best WWII museum either of us has been to, we highly recommend it. We got maybe halfway through the museum Thursday, seeing the chronology of the war and one of the two films. That night we walked around town and had dinner, then watched the new movie "Goal!" in French. Which was disappointing because it was made in English.

D-Day: On Friday, we took a taxi to the museum in the morning. Remarkably I was able to carry on a conversation with the taxi driver about soccer and sports in general (the driver in Brussels didn't say much). So I was feeling all French when we got there. We saw the memorial gardens and the other movie before delving into the Cold War exhibit, which was ridiculously ambitious but important to include. The beach tour started after lunch, us with a bilingual guide and a French couple. We did pretty well with her first spiel in French but it got really hard after that. That's about as fed up with French as I've been on the trip. But seeing the American cemetery and Omaha Beach and German pillboxes and everything was really important and moving. I thought I could fathom the losses, but you really can't, it's incredible. The cemetery is everything it's cracked up to be, not so much because of how well it's put together, but because of the gravity of the scene and sacrifice.

Caen 1:1 Grenoble: We went to the Caen-Grenoble game that night and really enjoyed the small (21,000-seat) stadium, although the lime-green seats with no backs were not so good.

Bordeaux 1:1 Sochaux: We spent most of Saturday on the trains to Bordeaux, arriving around 1700 for a 2000 kickoff. I really liked the atmosphere of the stadium, with meat stuffed in a pita roll sold outside and really low roofs on the stands. It rained, forcing us to stand at the back of the overhang with a bunch of locals. We struck up a conversation at halftime of a 1-1 draw. Much to Joe's satisfaction, the game brought a close to the densest soccer part of our trip, 4 games in 8 days.

Le pays Basque: We took the much shorter train ride to St. Jean-de-Luz on Sunday. The Basque nation is located in southwest France/Northern Spain, right against the Atlantic Ocean. They share a common language (Euskera) and flag across the boundaries, although they have little-to-no political autonomy. The beach here was amazing in beautiful weather when we arrived yesterday, and I spent an hour on the beach walking and writing. I had poulet Basquaise (Basque chicken) for dinner and an awesome Basque gateau for dessert.

the other Bayonne: we headed to Bayonne today to see how it compared to New Jersey. Not surprisingly, New Jersey wins. Signs led us all over the place until we finally found the Museum o f Basque Culture, which is closed Mondays. Of course. We walked around some more but had little desire to stay. We then took the train all the way down to Hendaye, just 'cause we could. We walked across a little bridge into Spain, just to say we had. Later, while waiting for the return train, we had our passports checked for the first time by local police.

So yeah, if you made it this far, I owe you a postcard or something. If you really do want a postcard, email me your address. Hopefully there will be more (and much shorter) posts in the near future.

Next game: Wednesday, Olympique Lyon v. Olympiacos Piraeus, UEFA Chamions' League
Next stop: Tuesday, Lyon, France
Next country: Saturday, Italy

en franglais

Well, we're in Paris now. We had a fairly productive last day in Brussels in that we saw what we wanted to see--the EU Parliament--even if getting there wasn't the easiest experience. The tour only included two rooms, but we got to hear a committee argue the (de)merits of the European airplane system.

The train to Paris was great in that it was one of those sit back and just enjoy Europe moments as we prepared to face Paris without a hotel reservation. It worked out great and we got a good deal right next to Gare du Nord on our second try.

Neither of us really slept that well last night, but hopefully today put us on a reasonable schedule. Joe didn't feel well when we got up today, so I gave myself a walking tour of the city (sans map), starting at Notre Dame and working my way east without a specific destination. I bought the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe in a bookstore, so that ought to be fun reading. We're both getting fairly conversant in franglais, I'd say.

So that's about it ... we're supposed to have dinner with two friends of mine from Rice tonight--Shawn Conley and Megan Levin for the Owls among you. So à bientot.

Next stop: Thursday, Caen, France
Next game: Wednesday, France v. Cyprus (Stade de France)

Belgian waffles really are legit

this blog will be much shorter, in part because I'm on a brutal keyboard that has forced me to my 6th-grade hunt-and-peck style of typing.

We found the Gros Markjt yesterday after much wandering. It's big, but we probably caught it at the wrong time (Sunday evening.) We got local waffles at a shop window and enjoyed them with strawberries (me) and chocolate (Joe.) We walked around some more and ate dinner over there as well.

We stayed at the Hotel Manhattan, which created some fun and memorable moments. Joe wants everyone to know that he got less water on the floor during our respective showers this morning. We're also marveling that we missed the Astros-Braves game. 18 innings--unbelievable.

On to Paris today some time, although we will try to see the EU or NATO before we go.

Anybody know how to get the spam commentary off the 'comments' page

of traffic strikes and soccer fans

So we've found the internet here in Brussels on our third day, but it hasn't necessarily been easy.

The flights to Paris were easy enough, and Joe enjoyed some 10 am Guinness in Dublin, but upon arriving in the train station at Charles de Gaulle, we found a train workers' strike prevented us from traveling to Belgium. All trains were stopping in Lille, just short of the border. Now Dad, before you say, "I told you so," it was not a strike in Paris or in France, as trains continued to run there, but in Belgium.

So we waited in a few different lines and finally booked reservations to Lille. We were hoping to find a bus to Brussels from there, but that didn't happen, so we stayed the night there. And never canceled our reservation in Brussels.

We explored Lille at night a bit and saw some cool buildings that surprised us architecturally, but I think the train stations may have been too far away from the city center for any truly fun nightlife.

Quote o' Day 1: "It's like the blind leading the dumb." -Joe, about me (the blind) and him (the dumb--I think).

Saturday morning we headed for Brussels. The Eurail pass is great, but you need a reservation for any TGV train, and apparently you cannot get them via a kiosk. So we still have to wait in line. Kinda annoying. So we caught the second train to Brussels and, upon arrival, had no idea what to do or where to go.

We bought a subway pass but could not find the street where our hotel was supposed to be, so we finally just gave in and took a cab. Which worked perfectly, except of course the hotel had given away our reservation and was booked. So we tried a couple other hotels in the area and ended up at the appropriately named Hotel Manhattan, which charges too much for not enough. But is well-located.

Joe collapsed to sleep for the afternoon, as he is wont to do, while I reveled in the BBC and watched the Northern Ireland-Wales World Cup qualifier. I got Joe up at 5:00 to leave for a match not starting until 8:45. Paranoid much? There is a Metro station right by the hotel, but nothing requires you to stamp your ticket, so we've taken four rides on the Metro so far without any counting against the 10 we bought. Shrug.

No trouble finding the station again, and there were not mobs of fans yet, but there was a cute Spanish family on the train with us. After much confusion and wandering around and asking directions, we found the correct parking lot in which to pick up our tickets. Then we ate sketchy hamburgers (not sure what they really were made of) and enjoyed the scene, with plenty of red-and-yellow-clad Spanish supporters and Belgian fans in the same colors with black, wearing distinctive jester hats with bells on the end. I broke my plan to only buy scarves I could not get via the Internet at home and got a Belgian scarf to fit in.

After checking out this cool park with an artificial turf basketball court surrounded by a slatted wooden fence and thus used for soccer, we headed to the stadium, again trying the wrong side first. We got in about 90 mins before the match, so we got to watch the buildup of fans from our not-so-comfortable seats, which had only a half-back. That's Belgium's idea of an all-seater stadium.

The Spanish fans off to our right were denser and louder in the run-up to the match and very vocal. My favorite pregame moment was when this Belgian band circled the field on the track. The Spanish fans booed them at first but, after they were done playing, applauded. Then a Spanish fan with a big drum talked the stewards into letting him on the track, where he personally congratulated the drummers. Then he joined them to continue marching around the field. Awesome stuff.

The Belgian croud found its way in by kick-off, and the home team took much of the initiative in the first half. Belgium were already eliminated from qualifying, while Spain needed a win to all but clinch a spot in the playoffs for the World Cup. It showed in the second half, as a more-skilled Spain side wore down Belgium and struck two early goals for a 2-0 win. With the lead, the Spanish fans began to "Ole!" every completed pass by their team, which was entertaining but annoying for the Belgians.

Getting out was not as bad as I thought it might have been, and the subway back was crowded but not ridiculously so. We walked around town a bit to get some food, and Spanish fans drove by waving flags and whatnot, while my Belgian scarf provoked a lot of earnest questions from locals about the score.

Quote o' Day 2: "This team ees no good." -Our taxi driver on the way to the hotel about the Belgian national team.

We figure to check out the Grand Place today and maybe some EU or NATO buildings tomorrow before we leave. Hopefully that was enough non-soccer for everyone, but really, the game's the biggest thing we've done so far. Our schedules are still fairly messed up. We are also doing quite a bit of franglais, which is fun and requires little competency--an important factor.

Next stop: Monday, 10 October, Paris (unless we decide to hit Luxembourg for a day just to avoid Parisians. but Paris is the current plan.)
Next game: Wednesday, 12 October, 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier, France v. Cyprus, Stade de France (Saint-Denis)

A fresh slate

So this is my blog for my trip to Europe.

I've been talking about going to Europe to see soccer games forever. I applied to win money to do it and was summarily denied (shocking, I know). So I'm busting out my Thresher earnings and taking the plunge anyway. My best friend from high school, Joe Pinto, is coming with. It's going to be awesome.

We've got a rough itinerary planned, including Brussels, Paris, France at-large, Florence, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Dublin, and stuff in between. We're leaving the night of October 6 and coming back the morning of November 10. I'll post when I can. It seemed easier than a mass e-mail list, especially given my occasionally checkered past with mass e-mails.

So get ready for tales of red-light districts, endless boozing, and soccer-related violence. Plus occasional visits to old churches and the like. And, technology willing, some pictures. It's gonna be good.

Next stop: Friday, Brussels (via Newark, Dublin, and Paris)
Next game: Saturday, UEFA World Cup qualifier, Belgium v. Spain, Stade de Roi Baudoin, Brussels BELG