Italy and Slovenia

Sit down - longest one yet. I'm back online :)

Tuesday night in Venice:
We left the hotel at about 845, Italian pizza in hand as we fought through the downpouring rain to make it to the train station. At this point I was feeling better because I had strong ibuprofen in my system. The train left at 9:30 and was scheduled to arrive at 1:40 AM in Ljubljana. The seats made you feel like you were on the Hogwarts Express, with private cabins for groups of 6. Initally we spoke with a Slovenian man (in English) about what he does and such. He is trying to start a business in the U.S. and just returned from California. The lights were turned off in our cabin because one of the two Slovenian people (the other four were me, Rob, Micah and Phil) had them turned off prior to our arrival. We decided to head to the diner on the train for reasonably priced food. I was still feeling weak so I first tried a fruit bowl with whipped cream which was delicious. My mistake was then ordering broccoli cream soup – that didn’t sit well. At two consecutive stops, the train remained stopped for 30+ minutes and we didn’t know why. Apparently some cars were low on energy so TrenItalia had to leave them behind and make hundreds of people move to other cars. Ugh. I was feeling sicker and colder at this point and this worsened until we got off the train, FINALLY, at 3:50 AM. I walked out of the train station uncontrollably shivering and ready to get to Rock’s (Micah’s friend’s) apartment. Our taxi ride was smooth and we made it in at about 4:15. Rock is a great guy and has traveled all over the world. Micah knows him because Rock stayed with Micah in California a few years back. His bookshelf is covered with travel guides to most countries in the world, and maps fill every room of the apartment, including the bathroom.

Wednesday in Ljubljana:
I was asleep by about 4:30 and slept okay, not great. I woke up feeling extremely weak and thirsty at about 1 PM. It was really hard to get out of bed, I sat up for about 10 minutes and then finally gathered the strength to stand and leave the bedroom. After some water and ibuprofen, I now feel a bit better. Rock made me a mixture of warm milk, chocolate flakes and cinnamon which was really good – I just wanted to be sure that I didn’t eat it all and later have the desire to throw up. I haven’t seen much of Slovenia yet, and it’s supposed to rain both today and tomorrow all day. It is a very gray city.

Today Micah, Rob and Phil are going to join Rock at a traditional restaurant in Slovenia. Rock told me it’s very filling – no thank you. I’m still working on the warm milk mixture. These next two days I will try to get some rest, relax, maybe get some homework done, and hopefully I will be back to normal on Friday, where we may go for a hike. On Friday we have to train from Ljubljana to Trieste and then we fly Trieste to Cagliari at 10:10 PM. I am feeling pretty terrible, but don’t worry too much. I’ll survive :)

What’s a bit frustrating is that I am the only one that won’t drink tap water in any city, only bottled. And I am the only one that is sick.

Oh yeah – I just remembered! God uses me – whether sick or not – and I love it! Rock told us he is atheist and especially has problems with the institution of religion and because of the history of Christianity in Europe. Fair enough. He was out with Micah from about 4-8 PM in Slovenia. During that time I read all of James and the first 3 chapters of 1 Peter. He asked me what I was doing while he was gone. Naturally I told him what I was doing. He is a very open person and he initiated the religious discussion because I think he was very interested. I was at the table and he sat down and just started asking questions. 1. How do you know the Bible is accurate? I explained that if God is real, he would not allow his Word to be overly distorted in which it mars rather than glorifies the name of God. It says that “all scripture is God-breathed.” 2. How come Muslims are much more welcoming to me than Christians? (He has traveled all over the world. Rock has certainly experienced many different kinds of people. Rock felt strongly that Muslims were much warmer and more willing to take care of a foreigner, which he didn’t feel was right.) Fair enough. I completely agreed with him, it’s not right. And I told him that. I said that according to the Bible, one of the worst things is to claim to be Christian and to not truly have faith in God. Hypocrisy. I also added that many claim to be Christian without truly walking with Jesus and that true Christians would truly welcome others, such as Rock. He left the conversation knowing that I am either right or wrong. Either Jesus is God or he’s not. Islam, Judaism and Christianity are not all correct. They don’t all worship God. Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the light, and that no one gets through the gates of heaven except through him. If Jesus was God, then Christianity worships the one true God. If not, then Christianity is not worshipping God. If anyone wants to ask me more about all of this stuff, you’re welcome to!

We had some bread, salami, turkey and cheese for dinner. Micah and Rock were going to eat out in the city but there was lightning and heavy rain. Micah and I also gave Rock the gifts we got him, which were a huge hunk of Italian cheese, a glass-blown (Venice is known for glass-blowing) wine top that seals wine after it’s been opened, and Jack Daniels whisky – an American product. I finished off the night by heading to my bed at about 10 and watching about half of the movie Troy. I just needed to rest my body even though I was having a great conversation with Rock and Micah. (The Christianity discussion had ended hours ago – I would never cut that one short).

Day 1 in Slovenia: D

Thursday in Slovenia
I woke up feeling very weak once again, but not as weak as the day before. I basically just hung out for about an hour, sitting on the couch before deciding to go to the supermarket for some food and drinks. Rock is great – he came with. I got some juice, sprite, milk + cereal, oranges, and crackers. Hopefully this is the combination that will lead to healthiness. :) Micah, Rock, Phil and Rob are now in the city somewhere doing something. Ha that’s about all I know. I decided without hesitation to stay in again today. Being on my feet for the 15-20 minutes at the supermarket was exhausting. I slowly drank a bit of my apple juice and eventually had my first food of the day (cereal) by about 4 PM.

Rock and I were able to have further discussion on religious topics. He wanted to know my beliefs on homosexuality. It was a great conversation and I think his perspective of Christianity in terms of its view of homosexuality was changed. I felt strong enough to join Micah and Rock in going to a local restaurant by walking through the rain. The place was basically closed so we decided to simply get their cake – which Rock loves. When I heard cake I immediately imagines American style sweet cake. This was made up of warm apples, cottage cheese, walnuts and a crispy crust. It was pretty good. It’s now past midnight and I am heading to bed.
I have kind of relinquished the leadership reigns for this part of the trip after being sick and I’ve noticed that things are a bit less organized and timely. Maybe I am biased.

Day 2 in Slovenia: D+

I am fighting opposing feelings. My throat and head have been hurting, so I’ve been taking ibuprofen. However, I am fairly certain that taking this ibuprofen is causing stiffness and pain in my neck. Which pain is worse? That’s the battle I am facing…

Friday in Slovenia
I finally offered to leave bright and early (1030) with Micah and Rock to meet the guys at the train station to work on our plan on getting to Trieste (an Italian city bordering Slovenia) where our flight would leave from. After much debating and looking over a train to X city, then a bus to Y city then a taxi to Z city, Rok was able to give us a number to a company that could send us a van to pick us up for 25 euros a person. This is about what we would have paid with all of the other transportation methods, but this was much easier in that it is direct and would pick us up where we wanted them to.

Micah and I then returned to Rok’s apartment to pack our luggage and bring it to Phil and Rob’s hostel. My neck was really hurting at this point, but my throat and head were greatly improved. To make matters worse, we got on the wrong bus and had to walk about 20 minutes back to the apartment. Man – why does my neck hurt so much? I went back to the apartment and took a hot shower, took ibuprofen, and prayed about it. One of those or all of those worked :). I am now writing this on the Trieste to Cagliari plane and feeling great. Whether God said yes or no to my prayer I praise Him for my good health. After meeting with the guys at about 3 in the afternoon we had about three hours to check out the city of Ljubljana.

Metelcova (I know I didn’t spell this right): It’s a semi-autonomous community within Ljubljana made up of artists and freelancers that aren’t necesairly rebels but don’t like government or their control and basically resist them. It’s hard to explain. All of their buildings are full of graffiti and art and its really interesting.

I was able to see the most beautiful areas of the city center. I saw some of the main plazas and was able to see their castle at the top of the hill overlooking the city. I saw the river that cuts through the city. One of the coolest things about Ljubljana, an observation I make after having seen it for a total of 3 hours, is its graffiti. Although it’s not legal, those that do the graffiti have a much more political or social intent. They are not simply looking to write their name in a cool way or that sort of thing. I was also able to enter a gorgeous orthodox church for the first time in my life – which was crazy! First, there is no benches or chairs or anywhere to sit. Some kind of prayer was coming from speakers and you couldn’t see who was saying it. All of the walls and ceilings were blue but covered in paintings of Jesus or apostles.

We said thanks once again to Rok and said our goodbyes and hopped on the van to Trieste at 6:30. The van was actually quite nice, as was the driver, and we made it to the airport at 8 and repeated the carry-on-checked-luggage game with Ryanair by checking exactly 15 KG and stuffing to the brim to near explosion of things in our carry-on bags. The security guards wanted to look in my bag for somethings after going through the X-ray machine, which is fine, and I finally discovered that they were looking for a book. Yeah… I do have a book? I’m now on the plane and I’ll let you know if we land ;)

We landed. We left the airport and found a bus running to the city center of Cagliari. We then searched for a bus for a couple minutes and then determined that by 12:30 AM most probably weren’t running. A taxi driver approached us (walking) and asked if we needed a ride. So yeah we did, but first we asked if he knew where our address was ( he didn’t even look at the sheet) and he motions for us to get in. Taxi drivers first need to get you in, then they’ll check on the address. Also, he didn’t have a meter running – he didn’t even have a meter. We’re traveling pros by now so we that without asking before the first couple minutes and he’ll jack up the price when we arrive. So we kept saying “Cuanto costo” which, in Italian, means How much does it cost? That’s practically all we can say. Finally he wrote down a price of 22 euros total, which is fair. We had some miscommunications getting to the hotel but we made it by about 1 and were surprised to find it the nicest hostel we’ve been in for the entirety of the trip! It’s a beautiful two-bed room with a great bathroom and balcony with a 32 inch flat screen tv. The guy that helped us in brought us into what looked like the hotel but actually only three rooms are technically under the name “Fenicottero” and so this guy doesn’t even have like a desk but somehow owns the place. It’s weird. Anyways we told him we were hungry and looking for food even though it was 1 AM and he came back down, at no charge, with a full cake-type thing. He apologized because it was “all he had” haha. It was so nice of him.

Saturday in Cagliari:
We got breakfast at Lucky Café down the street (where we have vouchers for coffee and donut or croissant because we’re in the hotel). We left at about 11:40 for the bus stop to head to a nearby beach. We ran into other Americans and they actually gave us bad advice and we took a bus the wrong direction a few miles and opted to get off and try to find a beach farther that direction which is supposedly great. However, it was very unsuccessful. We waited at the bus stop for over an hour – no bus. We took a bus the other way and finally made it to Cagliari’s 10 km beach at about 2:45, it was a gorgeous beach. I need more descriptive words because I always use beautiful, pretty or gorgeous. I’m always tired when I write these, so go easy on me.

Cool story. So when we were lost trying to find a beach we asked this guy and girl. Eventually and older gentleman joined and the young guy left. Turns out they were father and daughter and were just soooo nice, she spoke English. She offered us a ride to a nearby bus station to get us going (before asking Dad), but he agreed. It was great to see people helping people. (Yes Mom I was in a car with strangers). She wanted two kisses from each of us as we left, which I did – just like in Spain. But she corrects me, “No, in Italy it’s the other way around” and so we did a second two-cheek-kiss exchange starting with the opposite cheeks. The informality of it all (or formality?) just seems weird.

We then hung out on the beach for about 30 minutes until we couldn’t stand to be shirtless in the sun from coldness. Yeah. The wind cleared out all people at the beach because it was blowing so much sand around and because it blows in cold air from the sea. There were loads of kitesurfers on the water and then some people have three wheel cars that the drive around the beach being pulled by their kite. Crazy. We then wandered toward this mountain we really had the desire to climb. On our first attempt, we found no easy way up – Micah and I at least didn’t. So we had left and then engaged in a conversation (spiritual – what else?) and we realized that Rob and Phil still hadn’t come back. So I look up and sure enough they are halfway up the mountain. They loved the view and we are all going to climb up tomorrow so I can’t wait. We got some local Italian pizza (technically for the first time – it was “Istanbul” pizza in Venice) and enjoyed it while watching “Its Always Sunny in Philidelphia”. The other guys then went to meet up with some girls they met earlier and I opted to stay and get some quiet time with God and just quiet time away from others. Alone time is needed here and there and I loved it. Time for bed – it’s 1. Sorry if I am writing too much…

Day 2 in Cagliari
Quick funny reflection on yesterday’s pizza incident: money. We had to pay 16 euros for the pizza. Each of us had all of the money we had in our pockets. We couldn’t afford the pizzas. Ha, so Micah and I ran to an ATM about 5 mins down the road and it worked out.

Woke up at about 1030 today. I love you Jesus for rising from death as you promised and showing the disciples of the time that death is nothing to fear. I listened to Mark Driscoll’s 2009 Easter sermon for the 2nd time and it was very fitting. Being that today is Sunday and Easter, most things here are closed. The buses don’t even run very often, if at all. We quickly decided that today would be a school work day and we enjoyed the nice weather from the hotel balcony. After unsuccessfully going to the breakfast restaurant with our vouchers as we normally should (it was closed) we talked to our guy and he ran out and brought us back coffee and croissants, how nice!! I then started outside working in the sun and for some reason the others remained inside? Eventually they trickled out and we enjoyed that sun until about 4 when it started getting chilly. I spent about 4 hours working today and have made it through 8 pages of my Spanish book, of the 40 I need to read. I’m working on it.
Really not much going on here today. Oh, I bet by now you’re all wondering why you haven’t heard from me – well I haven’t had internet! It took us a while to find food because we’re out and grocery stores are closed. We found a cheap Panini place down the road and each got two paninis (I also got a chocolate filled and covered croissant).

I think I value silence more than everyone else. I’m not saying they talk too much – not by any means. For me, however, I enjoy more quiet time and quietly taking in good views or enjoying good walks + hikes.

I hope you all had a good Easter Sunday and really think about its meaning! Jesus is the only living God :)

Back to my terribly unfun, yeah unfun, Spanish book…

Grade for the day: B-

Monday in Cagliari (Day 3):
We left really early, grabbing the 725 bus towards the city center. We then took an 815 bus to Villasimius, a well-known beach to the east of the city. We got in at about 10:30 after winding the cliffs and mountains of Sardinia on our drive there. After finding a grocery store we made it to the beach by 11. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Beaches are really windy (why do you think waves come in to shore?) and so that makes the environment colder but it was still sufficient to lay out and enjoy God’s wonderful sunshine. I did my best to apply sunscreen to myself. Big tough guys like us don’t ask eachother for help.

In retrospect – I should have asked for assistance. The entire midsection on my back is painfully burnt (don’t worry I recorded video evidence) – where I couldn’t reach.
Anyways, back to the beach. It was fairly secluded with maybe 100 or so people there. It is basically a bay with rocky points on both ends – which turned out to be great of exploring/hiking. The windy was so annoying that we each built walls on the windy side in an attempt to block the majority of the wind. It kind of worked, but wind would come off the top of our walls and cover our bodies. We stayed put until about 3:30, where we switched off, Rob and Micah first, then Phil and me, exploring the rocks on the east side of the beach. We caught the 6:30 bus home where I napped the whole way. When we were near the hotel, almost home, we grabbed our favorite 3 euro Italian pizza to enjoy in the hotel room. We were all zonked from the long day in the sun – here is when I discovered the pain on my back was a deep red burn. I battled pain in the shower and finished the night by finishing 3:10 to Yuma.

Day 3 in Cagliari grade: A-

Tuesday in Cagliari (day 4):
We caught a bus after getting some food at the grocery store and are now at the McDonald’s in the bus station trying to get some Wi-Fi. I’ll let you know how the rest of the day plays out. By the way, I’m sure by now everyone is wondering what is going on with me – I mean I said I was very sick and haven’t really posted anything since then haha. I’m okay!