ICELAND in 5 days and THE END!

So… seems that it’s time to talk about Iceland!! Oh yea… so how was that?

First of all the main thing to tell is : damn!! They really not get too much sunlight, do they??!!!

I was amazed.. these guys live pretty much a long long day all the winter! I’ve been there 5 days and the sun was coming out in the morning at 10.30 and going away at 4.30 pm.. yea guys, 4.5 hours of daylight!! Shocking!!

U are probably wondering what the hell Alex did in Iceland? Let’s find that out :D Like I said in my last update, I landed there on November the 20^th and that day, well.. I pretty much slept all the day long! I don’t know but the jet lag has really a terrible effect on me!! I was totally twisted and basically destroyed!! I was so so tired… and I had a couple of hours in the late afternoon just to have a first glance on the city!!

The day after, still little bit tired, I went out exploring Reykjavik.. what can I tell? Well, it really reminded me Helsinki under some point of view.. I’ve been in Finland and Sweden before but when I was in Sweden I didn’t see anything but Stockholm airport so I can just compare the city with Helsinki where I stayed 4 days back in 2007… and I guess that Nordic capitals are all like these!! Extremely quiet.. nice small buildings and nice people all around! It seemed to me anyway very American.. a lot of fast foods like Taco Bell, Subway, KFC.. but not Mc Donald’s :D They just closed down at the beginning of November.. not convenient for them stay open anymore because of the crisis and the devaluation of the Icelandic currency!!

So, was a nice sightseeing, all around, walking so a lot!! I came back to my hostel (well, was amazing, 25 € a night for a great 4 beds room!!) and I found 2 American guys from New York sharing the room!! Great guys.. we talked about the reason that brought us to Iceland and we headed out to live Reykjavik’s nightlife!! According to various websites that I read, I found out that if u don’t party in Iceland, it means that u never really lived an authentic nightlife!! Well, actually, the experience was great!! I can’t really tell how many people were outside!! Seems pretty much everyone!! Strolling around crawling.. we saw really a crowd!! It’s better not say anything about Icelandic girls!! They are just..amazing!! The cost of life doesn’t seem so high, half liter of beer was 4.5 €.. don’t ask me how much is in Italy..cause I don’t drink beer.. well.. apart for this Saturday night!! The New York guys offered me..like 6 beers!! Of course Icelandic beer.. called how? Guess!! VIKING!!! Of course!!!

Anyway I went back to the hostel around 5.30 am and I had to wake up at 7.30!! Awesome, 2 hours sleep!! Why did I have to wake up so early? Well, basically cause if u go to Iceland by yourself, u need to book an organized tour! U can’t really think about rent a car… so..I booked the Golden circle… they say it’s the best way to see the Iceland highlights! Well, it’s true! They brought us to all the major sites… and well..it was amazing.. the landscapes we saw where really great! Waterfalls, historic landmarks, the point where the European and the American plates meet.. the lava fields everywhere… great experience beside the damn wind that was blowing around 100 km\h!!!! It was so cold!! Was really interesting..specially see the geysers.. was my first time!

The day after instead, with the same company, that seems to have the complete monopoly on all the excursions in Iceland, we headed to the Blue lagoon, one of the major geothermal pool complex in the world… quite fascinating, bath yourself in a 38° Celsius pool when outside is 2°!!

And my travel… my almost 8 months travel pretty much ended with this… I packed all my stuff and on November 24^th I woke up at 5.15 am to catch my connection bus that brought me to Reykjavik airport!!

From there an Icelandair flight brought me to London Heathrow in almost 3 hours and there, I waited my flight connection to Malpensa airport in Milan… terrible experience actually!! In my life I took almost 70 flights and this one was the first time with a 2 hours delay with no information from the company personnel that basically was jerking around.. u are thinking, I’m sure u got Ryanair!! Hell, no!! Was British Airways!! Damn them!! The flight was a nightmare, 2 hours and half delay, terrible take off shaking like hell, terrible people just in row behind me.. and English couple complaining and arguing all the damn flight!!

And at 11.30 pm, after 232 days, I came back to Italy.. not happy of course..and not because I wanted to…

U can check my Iceland photo over here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=159529&id=666147974&l=2695ecc246

U might think, this is the end.. your blog is over.. well, it’s not :) I still miss a last update… an update where I wanna tell what America, what the Travel and what Everything meant to me…

Soon, it will happen :)

C ya

Alex

After 7 months and 14 days.. Goodbye North America.. 3 weeks in Minnesota and the come back to Europe :)

So..like I promised, it comes time to talk about my stay in the northern part of the States and precisely in Minnesota. Someone probably would ask: Why did u go there? What is there to see up there?
Well, I went to Minnesota basically to pay a visit to a family of friends that left Italy back in 1989, 20 years ago and settled here, near Minneapolis.
What can I say? I stayed there for 3 weeks and it was really a good time. Thanks to them and to their parents was really possible see a lot of things about this state. And it wasn’t not bad at all. It’s really a beautiful spot in the world. I could live there.. the only problem are the harsh winters and the cold!! But for all my stay I was really blessed; the weather was just awesome!! I lived my first Halloween, a real American one, I saw my 3rd Capitol, after the one in Austin and the US Capitol in Washington D.C. , I had a taste of Minnesota nightlife and I really saw a lot of nature.
Minnesota is really similar to Scandinavia so it isn’t a surprise at all when you find out that more than half of the population that lives here has Danish or Swedish roots. They are used to the cold, aren’t they?
I was supposed to stay here only 10 days, my program was to go back to the West coast and see San Diego deeply and San Francisco but I gave up. Why that? Well, I have something like 35 kilos of stuff to drag everywhere, 1 gigantic backpack, 1 carry on suitcase and 1 small backpack for my laptop and think about bring them around, all along California, take 4 flights and whatever else.. well, it was unrealistic! So, even if I already had bought the flights, I just postponed this: I know that I’ll come back to the States probably within 2 years so, is better see San Francisco and the rest of the stuff that I missed this time, in another occasion. Well, yea, I lost 200 € because of the fact that I cannot get a refund from the low cost airlines that I used but... it’s ok... I enjoyed my time in the Midwest... I spent a day in Mason City, Iowa as well, so in 1 month and half I visited 20 states plus the District of Columbia. It’s not bad at all, I probably saw a lot more than an average American.
I’m writing this update from Europe actually.. where am I? In Iceland suckers! Surely a place that u don’t visit everyday right?? After a transfer flight from Minneapolis to the JFK in New York City, I left the United States exactly after 45 days since my arrival. And I left North America exactly 7 months and 2 weeks after my departure from Italy on April the 7th. Quite a long time ago right?
So, an Icelandair flight brought me to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland in 5 hours and 45 minutes. The price? 350 USD with a transfer to London included! Amazing right? Is about 250 €! What a deal!! Practically over here in Iceland they’re trying to do everything to boost their economy after the amazing situation that they lived between last year and this one because of the crisis that hit this country more than anyone else.
My impressions? I’ll write them later... for now I just spent some hours here! And I can just say that is cold! And they have only 5 hours of light a day!!!
C ya

The end..New York and the flight to Minnesota :)

So, like I promised, the time to talk about the end of my tour and what happened later has come.

I finished last update talking about what we did in Washington, strolling around the capital, visiting memorials and monuments and then.. well..tell our three week together were almost done..

It was time to say goodbye.. the feeling, at least for me was just one: it was too fast. I always had this feeling every time that I travelled in my life, every time that I enjoyed what I was doing. It usually never happen in Italy, where for most of the time I’m just extremely bored.

I’ve been able to see so many things, so many aspects of the States that I really wanna thank everybody that was with me on this tour and the company that organized it. I didn’t spend a lot at all and it was worth every single cent!

So..it was time to say goodbye like I said and they dropped us off in New Jersey.. we were on our own... was so weird unload the trailer for the last time, put our backpacks on our shoulders again and head to New York.

But I wasn’t by myself. The Danish guys and the Swiss guy followed me in the same hostel and Janka did that as well. I can suggest to book the Central Park hostel in New York, practically in front of the Subway, inexpensive ( 30 $ a night for a 6 beds room), safe and clean. In the end what u need when u are in a big city like this is just a bed.. nothing else.. u spend most of your time just outside, walking really for miles and is exactly what we did...

Yea.. we walked so much!! Coming back every night at the hostel with hurting feet! New York is..well..is New York!! It didn’t really impressed me so much under the architectural point of view just cause I’ve been living in North America for 7 months so I’m really used to the landscapes but New York has really a particular glamour! You can just wander around, you don’t really need a plan but you definitely need a map!! I spent there 3 days that are pretty much nothing but we didn’t lose time.. there wasn’t time to be tired or to complain! Waking up at 7.30 am and go to be at midnight just cause the time was so tight and the things to see were too many!! I’m quite proud of myself cause I was really able to see quite a lot among the main landmarks! Times Square (just unbelievable.. u go out from the subway and u are wordless..like when u do the same and u face the Coliseum in Rome), Wall Street, Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Centre, Central Park.. the stores (contrarily to what you can think, New York is a lot more expensive than other American cities that we visited for shopping).. it’s really an amazing city..or better is the CITY! It’s basically the centre of the world like Rome, Paris and London were in the past! My only regrets are that I’ve not been able to get a closer look of the Statue of Liberty since we arrived to the port too late to get the ferry and that we didn’t make to the top of the Empire State Building for the same reason. But I’m sure I’ll go back to New York, I don’t know exactly when but it’s surely an easy place to go to visit... there are so many offers that u can fly there relatively cheaply..

It was a nice time.. live all together with a part of our groups for a little bit more.. I liked everyone that was travelling with us and I really liked someone in particular.. I’m sure that I’m going to see someone of them in the future... it will happen :) Specially the ones that don’t live too far away...

So, I left the City on October the 30^th, 25 days after my Canadian departure and I arrived here in Minneapolis where I’m right now with an AirTran flight after a layover in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! I’ll tell about my period here in the Midwest in the next update... for now it’s all..

You can always check my photos, clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147423

See you soon.

Step by step to our final destination!!

To watch all the photos of my tour.. just go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147423

So… yea… here I am after quite a long time.. I don’t like repeat myself but I really didn’t have so much time to update these pages during this amazing time!
Now that it’s over I can really tell that has been one of the best experience in all my whole life... was like a shorter Erasmus. I knew so many nice guys, I really hope to see someone of them again soon in my life.
It’s always true, when you live really close with someone for a while, sharing pretty much every single second of your day, that kind of friendship is stronger than the one that you might have with someone that you knew since when you were a child! Talking with the Swiss guy, it’s pretty much like the Army.. u are like comrades :) We really lived side by side, sleeping in campgrounds, eating and cooking together, moving together during the long drives... was really awesome!
What I saw, all the different American landscapes, it’s simply so so cool.. I still can’t believe that has been so fast.. but was definitely really intense.. I will remember these weeks all my life and the 2000 photos that I did will help me as well!
So, last time I wrote that we were in Austin, Texas where we stayed two nights.. and after that we drove to Houston to pay a visit to the Space Centre that they have over there and after this... well I don’t remember :D
No, actually I do but sometimes is really hard actually recall in your mind when you were somewhere... cause we really have been in so many places!!
After Houston we were in New Orleans.. great time as well over there.. excellent nightlife... you know, sometimes when I think about the nightlife over here I make a comparison with the one that exists in Italy and the Italian nightlife well, it’s simply terrible... millions of clones all dressed up in the exact same way, with the same outfits, same shirts, same shoes, paying 25 € to go into a club.. so pathetic!! We crawled through I think 20 clubs in 1 night, dressed with normal sweaters and T-Shirts and nobody cared!! This is America... of course get into them was free!!! New Orleans it’s different, it’s just an old city that had really hard time with the Hurricane Katrina 4 years ago and still has to struggle everyday.. was actually the only city that I felt little bit dangerous..a feeling that I never had nowhere else... We stopped there 2 days, walking around discovering the old French quarter... was just great!!
Leaving New Orleans, after a stopover nearby to enjoy a swamp tour to spot some alligator, our long journey was almost over.. yea, actually after this stop we just drove a lot toward east... we stopped in Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia but we didn’t really do that much in these days .. it was basically move all our group toward Washington D.C , toward the end...
But we had time to stop by in Lynchburg, Tennessee to pay a visit to the most important thing that they have over there!!! The Jack Daniel’s distillery, an heaven for who likes whiskey.. it was really cool!! I was already in a distillery like this one up in Dublin, in the Jameson one, but this one, God.. it’s Jack Daniel’s!!!
Washington D.C was just our last stop, we spent 2 days over there, taking a look around and realizing that yes, we were in America.. yea.. you actually have that feeling when u are there... cause u see everything, all the symbols of this nation.. that they leave u wonder around like a kid discovering the heart of the biggest country in the world.. the most powerful spot on Earth... surely 2 days are not enough but we did our best to see everything we could! The Mall with all its memorials, from the Vietnam one to the Korean one.. it’s amazing read all the 55000 names engraved in the Vietnam Memorial..it’s something that let you think and so it happens the same with the Korean memorial.. a ghost platoon in the middle of Korea... amazing!
Washington is just that.. it’s the heart of the States... The Lincoln memorial, the Jefferson memorial..all these monuments... are just amazing.. are the history of this country...and see them with all the lights around it’s something really cool... but the view during the day doesn’t leave u disappointed...
That’s all... I’ll talk about the end of our tour in another update..
C ya

First 10 days of travel in America!!

It’s really hard keep these pages update when u are having a great time and u move along the United States… is really difficult find time to write down something when you are too tired because the long transfer or just for the night…

I’m in Austin, Texas today and tomorrow we head to Houston... we’ve travelled around for 11 days until now and has really been great... after the Grand Canyon we went to Las Vegas and well, it’s better that I don’t write down what is that place... is called the city of sin for one real reason!! Was really fun!! I think I never had so much fun in my life..maybe a couple of other times but was really great... during the day.. Las Vegas doesn’t have any charm..it’s just a huge amusement park in the middle of nowhere..but the night.. oh my God.. it’s just crazy!! We went around for 2 hours into a party bus..all together..was just great!! The effects..we felt them the day after! LOL!!! I think the song Waking Up in Vegas, yea..is the right one..definitely...

I don’t wanna describe the details, was just so fun.. really great! After that we went to Zion but I was just too tired to do anything.. it’s a nice natural park but we stopped by for just 1 day..so not so much!!

But after that..the Monument Valley.. oh man.. it’s just like in the movies..it’s simply breathless.. America is just unbelievable.. the nature that you can see over here is something really extraordinary!! We spent a night sleeping into an Hogan with some Native Americans.. Navajos to be exact... and listen to them...listen what their people lived in the past..well.. it helps to reflect about their conditions.. there are so many of them down here in the Southern States..really a lot.. and a lot of people from South America.. the States are really changing.. you find everything written in Spanish everywhere!!

We passed by to Carlsbad, New Mexico to visit a huge national park completely underground.. it’s a cavern complex.. really cool..

Yesterday we arrived over here in Texas after a long long drive, 9 hours... terrible!! Really stay in a closed space like a van for that time..drives you just crazy!! But the night was great... Austin looks really amazing!!

C ya

Arizona: Grand Canyon!

So..well.. the adventure is going on and is getting better day after day…. So..right now we are in the Grand Canyon and yea..I guess that this place really deserves everything has been said about it.. is simply hard to describe what you see and what you feel when you stare at it... I thought that when you are in places like this one u can listen the silence.. well, ok doesn’t mean anything but is to try to explain by words the sensations that you are able to feel. You just there and you can admire the power of the nature or the power of God and you understand how the small is the Man compared to the Earth itself.

So, we woke up like at 5.00 o’clock in the morning and trust me..that’s unbelievable... I mean.. I’ve never seen that time on my watch in my life..well just when we were coming back from some party yes..but not when you have to wake up!! Damn!! But after all the day I can easily say that was worth the effort!!

Unsure about hiking in the Canyon itself.. I followed the others and we went for 6 miles just down and yes..that’s was really great!! The landscapes that you can spot can really live you breathless.. it took a while to go up and down but u know is really not something that you do everyday...

And after like 4 days the group seems more open... I like these guys... it’s fun! And you always start to interact with everyone after a while.. nothing comes at the first moment... and the Americans around..well the guys that are tourists in their own country they are always friendly..they always stop by to talk.. it’s really cool.. I love it.. like I loved Canada!

The only hard thing was sleep in the night.. you can’t imagine how is the thermal difference between day and night over here.. is fucking freezing.. really.. u have the tent and the sleeping bag but whatever..u really shiver all the time!! And sometimes..u think.. we belong to the civilization.. so yea...it’s harsh..but is really an experience!

Luckily the day wasn’t really so hot but is possible imagine how hard is live around here during the summer time... it can really go up quite a lot!

Like I said tomorrow is Vegas and that will be rock man!!! Would be so great!!

C ya