Hey friends. Here’s a big ass update. Have fun! I still have no idea how to disperse these pics so above you have Brendan "Mail Mouth" Dowling and the cast on the Leaning Tower of Pisa mid-climb !
Naples
This is a fast ass city! Italians are scooting around you on scooters, which causes you to move yer scootin’ ass real fast. We started out by walking the city and browsing around. Kind of a new favorite hobby of mine in Europe. (PS: Who the hell am I, Elton John? How many people get a chance to actually have any “hobbies” in Europe?) I just love looking in at the stores. Maybe going in, maybe not. I haven’t bought much at all. Looking is so damn fun. We had lunch at a place Cody had eaten at on one of his prior jaunts into the city and it was top notch. For about 8 Euros a piece we had anti pasto (which included some delicious fried polenta), amazing pizza, and a bit of pasta. Again, if it wasn’t for the walking and finally getting myself to the ship gym I would be a giant piece of dough. How do these hot, thin Italian’s do it? I’ve also coined a new term for every lady in Italy: “Smoky F*ck Eyes”. Jesus. It doesn’t matter if it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner. These ladies are hot! The guys are lookers too, but you really notice how made up the women are. Especially when I’m tooling around Europe in a skort, sweating like crazy.
Naples
This is a fast ass city! Italians are scooting around you on scooters, which causes you to move yer scootin’ ass real fast. We started out by walking the city and browsing around. Kind of a new favorite hobby of mine in Europe. (PS: Who the hell am I, Elton John? How many people get a chance to actually have any “hobbies” in Europe?) I just love looking in at the stores. Maybe going in, maybe not. I haven’t bought much at all. Looking is so damn fun. We had lunch at a place Cody had eaten at on one of his prior jaunts into the city and it was top notch. For about 8 Euros a piece we had anti pasto (which included some delicious fried polenta), amazing pizza, and a bit of pasta. Again, if it wasn’t for the walking and finally getting myself to the ship gym I would be a giant piece of dough. How do these hot, thin Italian’s do it? I’ve also coined a new term for every lady in Italy: “Smoky F*ck Eyes”. Jesus. It doesn’t matter if it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner. These ladies are hot! The guys are lookers too, but you really notice how made up the women are. Especially when I’m tooling around Europe in a skort, sweating like crazy.
Post lunch we split up. Steve and Jenny went shopping and Cody, Brian, Brendan and I ended up walking around in the Spanish Quarter of Naples. The next experience we had can only be described as one that I wished would happen every week. We wandered into a bodega like corner store where the boys decided to have a beer to refresh. The bodega was pretty bare. It looked like they hadn’t really replenished any of the shelves in a couple of weeks. We met the Italian gentleman who was working behind the counter named Enzo. Brian started conversing with him about Naples, Enzo suggested where we should eat, things on the map etc. Enzo had a few English words, but not many. The conversation led to Brian asking about a custom suit maker’s shop we had wandered into a few minutes before. Within minutes, Enzo had us out the door walking up the block to where? No one knew. We just followed Enzo, still in his apron. We enter a courtyard that looks like an apartment complex. Please note Enzo has just walked out of the store to take us here. Maybe he does this often, hence the empty shelves? He knocks on a door and in the house/suit maker shop are two older men in their 70’s and a woman in her 60’s. We walk in and there are cloth books on the table, a couple pieces of furniture and the other room is made for a tailor at work. But all in all it looks like we’re in this Italian house. Which I’m pretty sure we were. Enzo introduces Brian to the tailor who is actually a younger gentleman who comes out from the back. Through a bit of broken English and Italian, Brian looks at a cloth swatch but then finds out that the suits are 1500 Euro. No big surprise. There is a brief moment where Enzo tries to negotiate for Brian which was generous and hilarious considering he had just met us. The old people are just watching and smiling. It’s super surreal. And of course it’s cool but I’m 20% wondering if they’re about to kill us. But all told, the younger guy is a tad bit sleazy. He apparently goes to NYC every 2 months to check things out clothing-wise, yet he hadn’t heard of a famous custom suit maker that Brian mentioned. So we get a business card and Enzo led us out of the house. He chatted with Brian for a bit and basically told him the guy was too much anyways and that if he came back next week Enzo would take Brian to a few more places. We said “Ciao” to Enzo and walked away. After we had walked about 15 minutes, marveling about how fun it all was we see someone in our periphery jetting alongside of us on a scooter. It’s Enzo ! He yells at Brian to hop on and he’ll take him to a few more suit places. It’s hysterical. Brian thanks him kindly but says we’re tired and we walk back to the ship.
All in all a pretty perfect, very authentic-ly European day. That’s why I love that we’re in these ports so many different times. We can see all the tourist spots and amazing old buildings, but still have these jaw dropping experiences. Just from walking around, browsing, and Brian’s Italian skills. Rumor has it my great gramps is from Naples. I got his immigration information from my mom and I’m going to do a bit of research to see if we may still have any Vengo’s living in or around Naples. Wouldn’t that be great?
Pisa
Thursday was Pisa and boy did we do it up. This is a complicated travel day. Since Cody has done this route and Brian did it last year they already have a lead on how to get to where, etc. This is a huge help and so invaluable! Especially since doing everything on our own is much cheaper than going on one of the ship’s shore excursions. So from the ship we took a shuttle bus to a city bus, city bus to the train station, and train to Pisa. Whew. This was a hot ass day too, so we were chillin’ with the locals, sweatin’ our collective nuts off. It was well worth the sweat though.
Pisa
Thursday was Pisa and boy did we do it up. This is a complicated travel day. Since Cody has done this route and Brian did it last year they already have a lead on how to get to where, etc. This is a huge help and so invaluable! Especially since doing everything on our own is much cheaper than going on one of the ship’s shore excursions. So from the ship we took a shuttle bus to a city bus, city bus to the train station, and train to Pisa. Whew. This was a hot ass day too, so we were chillin’ with the locals, sweatin’ our collective nuts off. It was well worth the sweat though.
The Tower was amazing! When you walk up to it you really can’t believe you’re looking at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We became even luckier when we scored tickets to climb the tower and go up to the top. Scoring makes it sound like some sort of lottery, but really we were just lucky we got them within a decent timeframe so we could make it back to the ship on time. We also found out later on it was closed to the public last year so we couldn’t have climbed it then. Double score! The climb is pretty easy and it’s so beautiful when you reach the top. The views of the city Pisa are worth the climb alone. The cast joked there would never be anything like that in the states. The railings are pretty open when you get to the top. No netting around it or anything. Still, what a damn thrill. I mean we were in the Leaning Tower ya’ll !
Ship Life
The shows have been great. Our 7:30 show is fun, but is always a big warm up for the 9:30. The later one there are a ton more people, they’ve napped, and they’re ready to laugh. I think 7:30 is still too early for people’s laugh-o-meter after getting back on the boat from Naples at 6 or so. Nevertheless they’ve been a ball. We also purchased the new Harry Potter book in Cannes on Friday so Brendan is tearing through that so I can read it next. I can’t wait!
The other performers are always an interesting lot, and this week is no different. His name is Alberto and he’s been hired to play Flamenco guitar in the Star Bar. Unfortunately Alberto’s guitar did not show up to Barcelona when he signed on, so he has basically been twiddling his thumbs till it arrives on the ship. We first met Alberto when we were playing Celebrity in one of the conference rooms one night. He’s about 5’3, 59 yrs old, and wears what can only be described as renaissance fair garb. A lot of black velvet and boots. He also has giant manicured nails. Giant. Cody has baptized him with the nickname “Wind Chime” since he is always wearing this giant, silver, chime-esque necklace. I think his third sentence in meeting us was “When’s someone gonna shoot George Bush”. His personal history has included things like playing with Frank Zappa and at one point in life he was busy “making drugs for high schoolers”. I mean who hasn’t? The next morning at breakfast he sat with us and shared a short story he’d been writing. It was a story about time travel where the main character travels back in time to have a sex change, sleep with his father and become his own mother. Does it stop there you ask? Nope. The main character then travels back to the present then travels back in time again to become his grandmother, comes back has another sex change and then travels back to become his own grandfather, etc. You get the picture. Oh you don’t? Wait till Alberto goes through every family member for you at breakfast. Then you will. Alberto then tried explaining something about how atoms work. Thank god I had coffee. Then the following night Jenny found Alberto filing his teeth with a ladies nail file at the bar in the main club on the ship. In public. At the bar. With a file…and...teeth. He said he was filing them into vampire teeth. Again, who hasn’t? So that’s Alberto’s tale. We’re hoping he gets his guitar real soon. I’m currently e-mailing McSweeney’s to see if they’ll publish his story. Till next time!
Ship Life
The shows have been great. Our 7:30 show is fun, but is always a big warm up for the 9:30. The later one there are a ton more people, they’ve napped, and they’re ready to laugh. I think 7:30 is still too early for people’s laugh-o-meter after getting back on the boat from Naples at 6 or so. Nevertheless they’ve been a ball. We also purchased the new Harry Potter book in Cannes on Friday so Brendan is tearing through that so I can read it next. I can’t wait!
The other performers are always an interesting lot, and this week is no different. His name is Alberto and he’s been hired to play Flamenco guitar in the Star Bar. Unfortunately Alberto’s guitar did not show up to Barcelona when he signed on, so he has basically been twiddling his thumbs till it arrives on the ship. We first met Alberto when we were playing Celebrity in one of the conference rooms one night. He’s about 5’3, 59 yrs old, and wears what can only be described as renaissance fair garb. A lot of black velvet and boots. He also has giant manicured nails. Giant. Cody has baptized him with the nickname “Wind Chime” since he is always wearing this giant, silver, chime-esque necklace. I think his third sentence in meeting us was “When’s someone gonna shoot George Bush”. His personal history has included things like playing with Frank Zappa and at one point in life he was busy “making drugs for high schoolers”. I mean who hasn’t? The next morning at breakfast he sat with us and shared a short story he’d been writing. It was a story about time travel where the main character travels back in time to have a sex change, sleep with his father and become his own mother. Does it stop there you ask? Nope. The main character then travels back to the present then travels back in time again to become his grandmother, comes back has another sex change and then travels back to become his own grandfather, etc. You get the picture. Oh you don’t? Wait till Alberto goes through every family member for you at breakfast. Then you will. Alberto then tried explaining something about how atoms work. Thank god I had coffee. Then the following night Jenny found Alberto filing his teeth with a ladies nail file at the bar in the main club on the ship. In public. At the bar. With a file…and...teeth. He said he was filing them into vampire teeth. Again, who hasn’t? So that’s Alberto’s tale. We’re hoping he gets his guitar real soon. I’m currently e-mailing McSweeney’s to see if they’ll publish his story. Till next time!
1 comment:
This blog is the best. I can't wait to see Brian is his tailor made suit. I hope he doesn't end up looking too good cuz the vampire Flamenco guitarist will kill him.
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