Lucca All the Things to Do!

I have fallen behind once again. A combination of limited access to internet and sparse access to energy after a day of traveling often results in a strait-to-bed situation at the end of the day. What it comes down to is that I am in Prague right now with the family, but in my blog I am still in Milan, just arriving in Lucca. I will have to speed things up a bit. Time for more pictures than words (as if anyone has ever complained about that).

The general movement of the Pavlik family centered around Lucca, Italy, as we made daily excursions to other towns/sites within range. Lucca was a gorgeous little city, with a wall completely surrounding it, a wall that has never had to be rebuilt and successfully made Lucca a place of peace throughout the Middle Ages. We stayed in Lucca for a total of 6 days. Here's a breakdown:

Day 1: Pisa

A few kilometers away from Lucca we took a wrong turn (courtesy of my copilot navigation) and ended up taking a quick trip to Pisa before continuing to Lucca.

That night we went to a local pizzaria. Great people and fantastic food...the Italian pizzas really are simply better

Day 2: Firenze

Mackenzie has spent the last semester in Florence studying abroad. Therefore, we took advantage of this free familial tour guide and spent a whole day in Florence. There are countless sights and it is known by many as one of the birthplaces of the Renaissance.

Need I say? The David.

Hanging out at Mackenzie's Gonzaga in Floence campus. Taking a quick power nap, by the looks of it

Mackenzie made a fresco for one of her classes, using the wall and everything

The Firenze duomo

We went to a church called the Santa Croce, which boasts the tombs of Galileo (above) ...

....Michelangelo....

.....and Dante.

The Ponte Vecchio

Chilling after a long day of walking

Day 3: Lucca Day

For our third day we hung around Lucca and explored the city. We found an awesome little café and hung out for awhile and then rented bikes to do a little self-tour. 

Turns out Mackenzie and Nathaniel went for a run in the morning but didn't have a key and were locked out. I looked out the window when I woke up and thought they were just about to begin and so were stretching...they had already been out there for a half hour or so

Crazy how cheap quality wine in Italy is... 1,92 Euros for a bottle!

View from our window

Mackenzie and Dad trying out the tadem

Sometimes Mackenzie took advantage of her hidden back seat position...

Lucca duomo by night

Day 4: Hill Towns of Tuscany (San Gimignano & Voltera)

We took this day to drive up into Tuscany and explore its amazing hill towns. The scenes were breathtaking. Rolling hills of vineyards, olive trees, and Cyprus trees with villas scattered in among them. The first town, San Gimignano, is quite famous for its hill position and incredible number of towers. These towers used to serve as a symbol of the wealth of residents, so the bigger your tower, the more important you were. There are around 14 still standing today and there used to be closer to 74. 

About 7km outside of San Gimignano. You can see the towers of the town to the far left

Duomo of San Gimignano

View from the wall

You can get see the rolling hills in the distance

View from the walls of Voltera. This city was owned by the Etruscans before being taken over by the Romans

Just a classic Italy shot

Mackenzie and Nathaniel during the tour...and the lady clothespinning the crap out of her rug

Ancient Roman amphitheatre and baths

This is not quite all of our Italian days...but it is all for now. The last section will include the two classic locations of Cinque Terre and Venezia! Ciao! 

Expo-sing Milan

            It’s hard to say what the best part of Italy is. I suppose it is being in it! Beautiful landscapes, friendly people, and absolutely delicious food have been what has defined the country during my time here so far.

I have eaten better in the last 3 days than I may have at any point prior in life…although I just can’t bring myself to bring the gastronomy of Deutschland down from its position on top. In order to avoid any disputes, we will just say that the cuisine of Italy and Germany are both the best and each has its own circumstances for successful satisfying and sating of desire.

Even though it seems my last entry was weeks ago, I realize it hasn’t even been a week. The last 4 days have been completely packed with fun activities and amazing sights. Mackenzie and I leisurely explored Milan the day after arrival. It turns out there is not a ton to see in Milan, but the sites there are certainly are worth the trip! You can expect the first sharp inhale as you walk into the train station, Stazione Centrale. The station is cavernous. The white glass ceiling is easily over a hundred feet about your head as you become lost in the vast expanse of the station. You are quickly reminded how insignificant you are and how significant humanity is.

            Your breath will be lost again upon reaching the top of the metro stairs at the “Duomo” stop. The Milano Duomo, or cathedral, is enormous and hugely gothic. It is made different than others by its white stone, straying from the more common gray stone. There is also the possibility of entering the duomo and/or ascending to the top of the roof, which offers an unmatched view of the city. Words fail where pictures are needed.

            The final site we visited was the Galleria Vittoria Manuele. This is one of the most expensive shopping malls in the world, with multiple Prada stores, Louie Vuitton stores, and other shops of similar caliber and renown. Milan is known as one of the fashion capitals of the world and is therefore a perfect destination for shopping and other expensive interests. For sightseeing it has far less to offer than other of Italy’s many destinations.

You know you're fancy when you can use an entire display for a single purse

Some other big news is that Nathaniel and Curtis (who missed the first flight of their trip to Europe) finally arrived in Milan and joined us for a day and a half. We attended the Milano Expo 2015 with them and gave them a flash tour of the city. I have been told that the big international expo happens once every 5 years and was the same event that saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris when it was held there. The event’s theme this year was food production and distribution. It was an impressive event, with 57 countries represented by their respective pavilions there. We ended the day at the expo by attending a Cirque du Soleil performance that was held on the grounds.

 

The covered walkway was close to a mile long

Each country's pavilion had displays and information about the country with relation to the theme of the expo

Good  ol 'merica

Cirque du Soleil

The next day we took a train to Genova (Genoa) to meet up with the parents, who had flew into Paris, rented a car, and were on their way down to Lucca, Italy. Lucca, a gorgeous walled town, is a fantastic place and we have enjoyed our daily excursions to nearby sites…all of which shall be revealed in due course. 

Cool little device to speak with people on different floors

My first Italian pizza

Interesting new trend in toilets 

Milan was an interesting blend of new and old

Nutella heaven

Brazil pavilion 

The Tree of Life was one of the main attraction at the expo

Lunch on travel day

...we were all a little tired on the train ride

Bathroom break

Finally reunited with the full family #successfulselfie

A New Chapter Begins

Well, it sure has been some time, but all stagnation ends with movement! In this case, this movement happens to be a month long trip in Europe with the family, followed by a month in limbo on the continent myself after they depart, and then an indefinite amount of time teaching English in Prague, Czech Republic after that. Quite the happenings happening on this side of the pond and I will blast out a brief summary (with lots of pictures!) of proceedings each week to two weeks.

I am currently typing from my Air BnB bed in Milano, Italy. How I got here is a long story which mainly consists of a long journey. I began my travels at 4 a.m. on Thursday morning (the 28th) in Albuquerque, NM. I then proceeded to fly to Salt Lake City. Then flew to Los Angeles. Then flew to New York. I bought this flight with Delta miles...if you don't actually pay for the flight they don't actually care about you.

In JFK airport in New York I hung out for a cool 22 hours as I waited for my international flight on Singapore Airlines to Frankfurt. As I had forgotten to pack food these days of travel consisted of a final American McDonald's binge, not so much out of patriotism so much as economics when it came to prices of airport food.

I boarded my Singapore flight at 20:25 and sat between a lovely lady from Heidelberg and a lady I could only assume was on her way all the way to Singapore, this making her no less lovely. We landed at 10:30 and I disembarked and promptly went to the airport train station, where I found out my credit card wasn't working. I traded in US dollars at the local ReiseBank for basically no Euros and then took the train to the main train station. At the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) I traded in more US dollars for almost no Euros (all legitimate banks are closed Saturday afternoon and Sunday in Germany) and then grabbed a snack before boarding my bus to Salzburg.

This receipt tells you a little about how bad the exchange at the airport was. The highlighted numbers are the rate and the fee.

I bussed for a few hours then walked about the München station for a few hours. I then got on my second bus and bussed for a quite a few more hours before arriving at the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof at 00:40 Sunday morning. Johanna Egger (a good friend of the family and Mackenzie and mine) was there to meet me, along with her boyfriend, Johannes, and Mackenzie (my sister). Mackenzie had been staying with the Eggers for the previous week after a semester of studying abroad in Florence, Italy.

This is where the trip becomes fun. We spent the day with the Eggers and woke up to the most fantastic breakfast of fresh fruits and vegetable before we went on an amazing bike ride to a local gorge, Lammerklamm. It was beautiful. We followed this up with a trip to go get Eis and I indulged in 1 Kugel Dunkelschokalade and then 1 Kugel Kaffee Mokka. Delicious! Perfect for a hot day. We went back to the house and relaxed, dozing in the sun. Johanna, Gertha (her mother) and Katha (her sister) spoiled us by making the best Käsespaetzle that I have ever had for dinner. We ended the night off with some cards, a classic game of 7s.

Me, Johanna, Johannes, and Mackenzie

The gorge

Classic biking selfie...the cousins would be proud

This is what biking in Austria looks like.

Mackenzie and Hans chilling after the ride

Katha (left) and Johanna (right) on Käsespaetzle duty

The next morning (the 1st) Katha dropped Mackenzie and I off at the train station and we took a quick train to Salzburg before beginning on our 11 hour bus ride to Milan, where we will meet Nathaniel (my brother) and Curtis (his friend and a friend of the family). We arrived in Milan at 23:15 and after some frantic rushing about on the metro, a 20 minute walk through the dark streets of Milan, and some brilliant navigating by Mackenzie we finally arrived at the house we are staying at at about 1:00 the morning of the 2nd.

Mackenzie and I set for the bus ride with our juices

Iconic church outside of Salzburg

Mackenzie and our Meinfernbus ride

Casually sipping a beer on the bus to Milan

Swiss countryside

...and again

And so here we are. On the 3rd floor of an apartment in Milano, Italy, with the whirring of the pizza machine audible from outside our door as our hostess and her significant other begin the pizza making process. We are in one room that has bedding for 4 layed out and our hostess is in another room. There is a shared kitchen and bathroom.

However, enough talk! Time to hit the streets. We plan on seeing a few different places today, first and foremost an espresso shop! The end goal of the day is to meet Curtis and Nathaniel at the train station.

A doppo!

Buen Provecho!

Well, after a bit of deliberation and reader input I have decided to indeed continue the blog. It seems as though many family members and friends are enjoying it, and it is also a great way to share my life and happenings here with all those amazing people that I have met abroad this past year! What more, I think that I will periodically attempt to write in Spanish or German, just for practice and so that some of my friends might be able to read in their own language (however horribly broken and grammatically slaughtered it may be). I would like to make this short entry about food here.

After 11 months abroad, with a couple 2 week stints at home, I am back to life here at the University of New Mexico, and to a proper New Mexican diet. "What is a proper New Mexican diet?" you might be asking yourself, and the correct answer would be green chile. However, there is much more to the New Mexican diet than green chile, there is also red chile. These two chiles are used to smother burritos, to put on burgers, to insert in quesadillas, and, really, to make just about any sort of food a little better before putting it into your mouth. In all honesty, the traditional food of New Mexico is quite diverse and there is a very proud and intricate culture surrounding it, as it is really to a certain extent a blending of 3 different cultures: anglo, latino, and native American.

It is extremely important not to get "chile" mixed up with "chili", while they are pronounced the same and are even sometimes used interchangably by some. For a true New Mexican, "chile" means a sauce made with peppers that you smother over various food items, whereas "chili" means something that is more like a stew, almost always carries beans, and goes very well with cornbread. In all honesty, "chili" is simply the anglisized form of "chile" (both in spelling as well as character, I would argue)...but here in New Mexico you will only ever find chile!

Last little note before I show you a few pictures of the various wonderful marriages of chile and your favorite food: the difference between green chile and red chile is very important, and almost impossible to explain. Generally red chile has more of an earthy taste (as if you could taste the ground red chiles) and is much more finely blended of a sauce, while green chile is slightly more stewy and you might find chunks of chile or meat in it (also slightly sweeter). However, in the end, each type of chile will depend on who has made it and what their own family/personal recipe entails. The myth that red is usually hotter than green, however, is completely false, best to simply ask the 'house hotness levels' of the two before eating!

Green chile smothered burrito at the Frontier (one of the most delicious, famous, and iconic restourants of Albuquerque), found across the street from UMN

Green chile cheese fries...mmm! NOTE: These look much different than chili cheese fries!

Green chile stew

Enchiladas

Red chile stew

Red chile and cheese smothered tomales