Rome - Day 1

For day one of Rome I started with some of the staples and took a leisurely walk through a very historic part of town. Here are two pics of the highlights of my day.

The Pantheon


Fontana di Trevi.


The place is amazing although my feet are hating me after doing this walk in the still wet shoes from Milan.

To try and get a feel for Milan I went for a walk (despite the constant rain) down to Duomo. It is this massive Catholic Church that seats basically somewhere under a billion. Granted it is never full of Catholics.Here is a shot of me outside the church


Inside the ceilings are so high there appears to be clouds forming up above.
Here is another shot of insider as the service began. These pictures were not supposed to be taken, but I didn't use flash so I don't feel bad about them.

Hostel Diablo - Milan Italy

OK so first of all.... Don't stay here. I booked online 2 weeks ago only to arrive and find out that they don't even have large dorms any more. I did however get a "deal" that entailed instead of paying 8 Euros I get to pay 20 instead of the 33 they want for the bed. Granted I was exhausted when I made it to Milan otherwise I would not be here now.


I did manage to talk them down to 18 and change my stay to 1 night instead of 4.... looks like I might be in Rome tomorrow....

Leaving Luxembourg

Here are some parting shots of Luxembourg. I am too exhausted at the moment to type anything more about it because I stayed up all night until my bus at 2 in the morning and my flight at 6:30 from Germany...

Chamonix Video - Miller Style

Just a short vid I put together of the crew on the mountains in Chamonix Valley

In Luxembourg

After altering my plans a bit I found myself back in Birmingham for a night instead of more time in Switzerland. This morning I flew out to Frankfurt Germany and eventually caught a bus out to Luxembourg City, Lux.

Here is a shot of the German countryside

These are some shots around Lux.

The castle look works for them.
Old-style buidings and churches are also readily available.
Now for a couple of shots of this guy.
Blurry nights?? none yet

POWDER DAY IN THE CHAMONIX VALLEY!!!

Yesterday there was over a foot of fresh snowfall in the Chamonix Valley... Yes, I mean it was a powder day.

Here is a shot of me in front of the trail map to start my day.

I love it when you can stop and look down and not see your board....


I had to go off-piste which is the French way of saying off of the trail to make some of my own lines.

I also did some boarding in Switzerland as well because the border is literally this rope.


After all of my travels you can tell that this was the best and easiest border crossing I have ever had to make.

Snowing at Mont Blanc...

With 2 days left here to board I awoke to see the snow falling and half a foot of fresh powder already down from the night before. My morning will be spent on one set of slopes and the afternoon on the Grand Montets.

Chamonix Day 2... the moutain

Today I got to go out on a slightly bigger day. The mountain is massive and I have 4 resorts to choose from (I think). This is me up above the Chamonix Valley.

Chamonix Day --- Beginner Day

Kissing the Blarney Stone

I will come back and fill this in eventually. I am still traveling so I will just post the pics and some basics. Click on this picture to read about the Blarney Stone.


Blarney Castle


Up top at the Blarney Stone... note the person on her back kissing it.

View of the drop from the stone from below.

A view from the top.

Cork, Ireland St Patrick's

I have returned from my jaunt to Ireland for St Pattys and feel the better man for it. Granted, I am uncertain of my exact Irish lineage but the people there seem enough like me for it to be close.



Here is the hostel I stayed at in Cork from the outside. Notice that the entire downstairs is a bar.... not a coincidence.

When in Ireland try to hang out with the Irish.... when you wake up with a picture like this on your camera you know it was a good night.

Hope everyone had an epic St Pattys

Gone to Cork for St Pattys

I am heading to the airport now and should be back from my St. Patrick's adventure in a couple of days. There will be no posts during this time because my laptop will be sitting this one out. Check back on Thursday or so for pictures of chaos and hopefully the Blarney Stone.

Aston Villa v Tottenham

Yesterday I went to see the local football club Aston Villa play here in Aston. The game got going at 4 so a group met up before the game to get in a few pints.

It seemed like a short time later we were sitting in Row H and watching the match.


The seats were very close to the pitch... Granted upon adding it up with some renovations the stadium will eventually hold 51,000 fans in comparison to West Virginia University's Milan Puskar Stadium that currently holds 60,000.


In the end the home club came up short despite some late heroics from Mr. Carew.

Market in Birmingham City Centre

Saturday I went down to the center of the city here to hit up the market for some cheap produce. The market is full of discount deals on fresh food and the occasional loudly yelling merchant trying to draw attention to their products.

Top Gear - My UK Addiction

Since moving over to England I have had a lot of time spent sitting on my unemployed behind and what better to do than assimilate to the local culture and my niche has become football (soccer for those back home) and cars... My car fix comes in the form of this:
TOP GEAR WEBSITE
Here are the hosts:
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May
Week in an out they set up insane car challenges and test the newest offerings on the test track all driven by this man.... errrr well the Stig.

More Nights in Brum

In the near future my life will start to pick up again in pursuit of stories from foreign land, but right now I am enjoying a little bit of time in one place both in the flat during the day and out on the town here in Birmingham during the nights.

First major event on the agenda is the 15th of March when I will be going to see a football (soccer) match between Aston Villa and Tottenham here in England... more to come

Progressive Prostitution

I saw this the other day and thought it was a great idea for prostitutes. The van serves as a billboard and a transport for runs to the market or clinic after a session. Birmingham is quite the progressive place for luvin...
Now to buy a van...

My Birthday Video

I haven't really shown my day-to-day here so I figured I'd make a video of my birthday for my fam and friends back home. Warning - It can be quite boring.

Parents went crazy with the sign!!

I was greeted this morning by this photo from my parents... which was great, but they have continued with the trend...

Now my Aunt is in on it
As are my grandparents
And they have even recruited my cat to get in on the action... this is where it may have gone overboard, but I figure since I put my parents up online I should put these pics up as well. Hopefully I won't get too many more before the day is over.

Birthday Love from West Virginia

I awoke this morning to find in my email a photo from my parents that serves as an ecard.

I did splotch-out the age because I still contest that I am roughly eleven-years-old.

Birthday Loot

March 4 is officially my birthday but the loot has already started to come in. Tonight Amy gave me this selection here.

A tin of Cadbury's chocolates, glow in the dark glasses, and some bubbles.


Amy's mother and Gramps brought over these things as well.

A bottle of wine.

Beer
and more Cadbury's chocolate.


Normally, I am not one for chocolate or wine (note that I did not mention beer) but given that I have been trying to shed a few pounds I have been craving a small escape from the boring health food.