Well, here we are at yet another location.  The
location I speak of is Venice Italy.  But before I go
on about that I will brief you on Than and my travels
to Nice, France and Cinque Terre, Italy.

Tuesday October 17th we arrived in Nice and stayed for
2 nights.  Nice is actually bigger than we expected
and it was definitely not high season.  So there were
no movie stars or tanned blondes running around
topless on the beach.  The beach in Nice is actually
not a sandy beach, but covered with grey pebbles.  The
beach stretches for quite a ways and is lined by a
concrete boardwalk and casinos and other buildings on
the other side of the street.  Other than the domestic
chores of laundry and tshirt shopping we walked along
the pedestrian malls lined with shops and cafes.  

Tuesday night we ate at the restuarant below our
hostel.  It was recommended for it's Bouillabaise. 
This is a Saffron broth with fish, mussels, and
potatoes.  It was quite tasty.

At our hostel we met quite a few other travelers.  An
australian named Sam who was really cool to hang out
with, some young and all too Canadian Canadians (They
pretty much kept to themselves), a Brazilain girl
Caroline, and two American girls Grace and Cynthia. 
After dinner Tuesday night we all went out to old town
to the bars.  There was a live band playing typical
rock cover tunes and they served damn expensive beer. 
Everyone kinda split one by one and I ended up trying
to walk Cynthia home since she had too much to drink. 
Well, I didn't do such a great job since we ended up
lost and quite a ways from the hostel at about 3am! 
Needless to say she was quite pissed since I had
assured her I knew the way home.  I guess I had more
than my share that night as well.  I quickly recovered
and found our way home, but the walk was pretty quiet
afterwards.  I thought it was quite funny actually.  

Wednesday Grace, Than, and I went to the Matisse
museum up the hill.  For those not familiar with
Matisse, he pushed the limits of art appreciation
using very simplistic or sketchy techniques.  Many of
his works are just black strokes as simple as a smiley
face (Literally!).  Other artists had a difficult time
with this, but fell short of dismissing him when they
realised how he used black to represent both light and
color (I'm still not completely down with this!).  But
nonetheless, Than and I did really like some of this
work and especially his sculptures.  He liked to do a
series of busts making transformations to each one.  

Afterwards, Than, Sam, and I went to the pedestrian
mall and sat at a cafe bewildered by a street
performer.  After an hour of aborted suspense he had
someone stand on his head while his face was planted
in a pile of broken glass!  We're still not sure how
he survived that one.  Afterwards we went to listen to
Jazz for the rest of the evening.

Thursday we headed for Cinque Terre in Northern Italy.
 This area is a piece of Italian coast spanning 5
towns like little gems nestled on the rocky cliffs and
connected by walking trails.  Unfortunately, the
recent heavy rains washed out many of the trails so we
settled for a boat ride along the coast.  Mostly it
was a very quiet area, although it looks like it can
be much busier during high season.  

One thing we really did appreciate in Cinque Terre was
the food!  This is the area where pesto originated. 
So of course, we indulged ourselves with some of the
tastiest pesto gnocchi Than or I have ever experienced
(Rivaling even Bump's own concoctions).  

After two nights there we headed for Venice Italy
Saturday October 21st.  Upon arrival yesterday evening
we were less than pleased to find out that there was a
marathon today and that ALL rooms were booked that
were even remotely affordable.  After calling more
hotels than Than would like to recount and walking
around half the city in vain we accepted our fate,
locked up our valuables and decided to get through the
night and find a hotel in the morning.  Unfortunately,
we found that the train station was locked when we
returned after dinner to retrieve our sleeping bags
and warmer clothes.  So we sat contemplating our lack
of options.  In our meditative state we heard the
familiar Texas drawl we know so well and were greeted
by some fellow Texas boys who insisted we go out
drinking with them.  So we kept warm and were lucky to
be offered rest on their pull out couch at the end of
the evening, well actually early morning.  

Today we awoke and quickly found a hotel room without
any fuss.  Since, we have been walking around the city
taking it all in.  Venice is one of the few cities
that seems to live up to it's reputation.  So after
many pictures and plenty of walking we relax in a cafe
and recant our travels to you all.

I should also mention that the lack of pictures is
mostly due to the fact that I have taken slide film
almost exclusively making it very hard to scan them
in.  I have recently taken some print film which will
be easier.

Okay, off to dinner.  Hope everyone is well.

Cheers,

Chris and Than