Italy: Round 2

     We recently had a 5 day break from school, which gave us the opportunity to make a return trip to Italy. Last time, we went to Rome. This time, we went to Pisa, Florence, and Venice. Here's a breakdown of the trip.

Pisa

     We stayed a night in Brussels because that was the easiest airport to fly out of. We had a early morning flight to Pisa. Last time we flew RyanAir, I didn't get a picture inside the plane. It's crazy how many advertisements there are, which is why their flights are so cheap. You can see ads on the back of each seat as well as on each overhead compartment. What you cannot see in this picture are the flight attendants going up and down the aisle for the entire flight, trying to sell different products. You also cannot see the almost constant advertising through the speaker system. Luckily these were easily ignored with headphones and a book.

Let's be honest, there's only one thing in Pisa. We were only there for a couple of hours before we got on the train to Florence.

A monument to poor architecture.

This pose was very popular at the tower. I'm not sure what it signifies..

But I figured it was important to partake of this cultural pose.

Look at how creative I can be.

Front entrance of the tower.

Not sure what this is.

More creative people.

In Rome, we ate by the Colosseum. And now we get to eat by the leaning tower of Pisa. Cool stuff.

A creative attempt at getting my money.

Story Time

     In Pisa, around the tower (where all the tourists are), there are very many salesmen. Most of them are selling "authentic" watches or "authentic" RayBans. I like cheap sunglasses, so I decided to talk to one. Because I learned in Rome how aggressive these sales people are, I let him know first off that I probably would not buy anything. First, I asked him how much the sunglasses were. He said, "Don't worry about that, which ones do you like?" Obviously he wants me to get attached to a pair. I tell him "The red ones", so he hands me a black pair. I pointed to the red pair, and he handed them to me. I put them on and stood there awkwardly because there was no mirror. Now I revisited my old question. This is were things got interesting.

Me: How much?

Him: 20 euros

Me: Sorry, that's too expensive. I'm just looking for a cheap pair of sunglasses.

Him: How much do you want to pay?

Me: I doubt you will agree to my price.

Him: How much? 15 euros.

Me: That's still too much. I'd pay 5 euros.

Him: 10 euros.

Me: Sorry, that's too expensive. I don't really need any sunglasses right now.

Him: OK 5 euros.

Me: [reaching for my wallet] I just want to clarify that the price we agreed upon was 5 euros. (All I had was a ten, and I wanted to make sure I'd get my change)

Him: Yes, 5 euros.

Me: OK. (now we do the exchange. I give him 10, he gives me 5)

Him: Do you have 2 more euros?

Me: What?

Him: 7 euros.

Me: No. We agreed upon 5 euros. Remember?

Him: OK, OK, 5 euros. (and the he faded into the distance).

I'm sure he still made quite a profit. I wonder how many people actually pay the asking price for things like this.

But wait there's more

     While we were standing around, eating gelato, another sunglasses salesman approaches us. He showed us his merch, and I showed him that I had just purchased a pair from another guy. He said "those are nice, how much did you pay? 20?" I told him I paid 5 and he looked very surprised. I'm sure that hurt his chances of getting anyone around to pay any more than that, and yet he remained. He asked my friends what color they liked, and they let him know they were not interested, and still he remained. He asked again, which ones they like. I tried to help him out. "Come on guys, he just wants to know which ones you like." Even with me on his side, he didn't make the sale.

Now that you know these guys mean business...

     Heath and Ethan each wanted a fake authentic watch, and Christina wanted one as a gift for someone back home. So they started speaking to a watch salesman. I think he signaled the beacon for the Cult of Salesmen, because they started flocking toward us. It felt like the zombie apocalypse. A sea of salesmen, just closing in on us, like the walls were closing in on the crew in Star Wars. OK, really there were about 5 total, but it was still pretty ridiculous.

     Ethan is the most hilarious negotiator of all time. Here's a quick summary of his conversation with the salesman.

Ethan: How much for this watch?

Salesman: 30 euros.

E: 30 euros?! Woah! no, no, no. I'll pay ten.

S: 25.

E: No, that's WAY to much. Ten.

S: ok ok, 15 euros.

E: TEN

S: ok, ten.

The full conversation was more interesting, but I'm working with what I can remember a week later.

Boy... That escalated quickly.

Florence

    No aggressive salesmen in Florence, but we were able to have a good time in spite of that. Here are some pics, and I'll identify what I can.

We saw a cool sport where women wrestle and throw a soccer around.

We heard good things about the Florintine T-bone steak, so we had to try it. it was 700g, which I think is somewhere between 1-1.5 pounds. I ate the whole thing.

I got to see the original David statue. It was the first time I've truly been amazed by art. This is just a replica in the original location of the statue.

Based on my knowledge of Clash of the Titans (the original, not that crappy remake), I assume this is Perseus holding the head of Medusa. The irony is that they are both a statue. It just seems wrong to make a statue of Medusa.

We basically saw the tower in the distance and walked toward it. Don't know the official name, but it lead us to a great plaza full of statues.

The side of an extremely large Cathedral.

Same cathedral

Front of said cathedral

The fleur de lys. I've seen it represent many things throughout my life, and I had no idea, until going to Florence, that it originated there. I'm pretty sure the carving I saw in the Academia was the original, but I'm not 100% sure. This one is at a Hard Rock Cafe, where photography is allowed.

Venice

     Venice is very pretty, but much like Bruges, there isn't much to do. It's absolutely worth visiting, but it would be difficult to spend more than a few days there and not get bored. It was very cool to be in a big city and not see a single car. You can either walk or travel by boat. We wouldn't take to kindly to those options in Memphis or Atlanta, but it seems to work for them in Venice.

At about this point I realized I didn't have a picture of myself yet for the weekend. Here you go, Parents.

These mask shops were everywhere. Now I'm ready for a masquerade. Also, didn't realize until after I took the pic that people were taking wedding photos in the other room.

Gondola Ride! Everyone was ready for this picture.

The Capitol building

The Courthouse. At least if you're on trial, you get a nice view.

We went to a da Vinci museum. This museum focused on his inventions, rather than his art. As a mechanical engineering student, it was a very cool opportunity.

This hammering device is awesome, I had to take a video as well.

This shows how adding pulleys reduces the required lifting force. It may be hard to see in the picture, but each one has more pulleys than the one before it. 

This prevents the wheel from turning in the reverse direction. My first thought was that this is how zip-ties work. Great concept.

Converting rotational motion to linear motion (piston).

Da Vinci was apparently the "Father of Robotics" among other things. This "robot" was able to salute the king.

The screw of Archimedes. One of da Vinci's many flying machines.

I don't know the name for this, but it is really cool. As you spin it, it draws water from the bottom bin to the top.

Guess who invented the bicycle.

This lyre is a dragon.

More flying machines.

Shoes for walking on water.

It's hard to see from the picture, but basically, if someone is climbing up your wall, you can just  push down their ladder.

Swords.

And for a random final pic, the sketchiest alley in Venice. We had to go down it single-file.

Thanks for reading! I'll try to have a new post up within a week. Next stop, Paris! 

Bruges, Hackenberg, St. Avold, and Monte Carlo

     Hey guys! Sorry for making you all wait. I do not have much free time here. I decided to combine the past two weekends, as well as the field trip, into one big post. If I split them up, they would have been very short posts, so I figured this was the best way to do it.

Bruges

     We spent a weekend in Bruges. Overall, it was a fun weekend, but there really isn't much to do or see there. Glad we went, but I wouldn't put it on a list of "must see cities". I did have a waffle for just about every meal. Those were great. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Just out of the train station

Group pic walking down the street.

We got to see a chocolate museum.

This is what a cocoa plant looks like.

This is made of real chocolate. It had a sign that said "Do not touch", but Christina decided to touch it. Wouldn't you know it, the guy who made the thing was standing right next to her. He said they spray the "leaves" with hair spray, so people will not eat more than one bite.

Chocolate sculptures. The room wasn't very cold, I wonder if they ever have a problem with these melting.

We got to ride a boat down the chocolate river.

We got to see the process of making chocolate. Very cool process.

We each got a sample after the demonstration. It was delicious.

This is the distribution of ingredients for milk, dark, and white chocolate.

The bell tower, which I photographed at a bad angle. This can basically be seen throughout the city because it's so much taller than everything else.

My attempt at being artsy.

The trip was worth it for the waffles alone. Great stuff.

You can tell I enjoyed it.

We took a canal tour.

Their goal was to cram as many tourists together as possible.

The bell tower again.

Lots of swans and ducks.

Cool building with a dog sleeping in the window.

Me being classy and Christina being a goober.

Another amazing waffle. Also, that orange just was basically just pulp with a bit of liquid added.

No idea what this is, but it was picture-worthy

Cool "castle" we saw when we were lost.

He was making scarves. It's a very cool process.

Field Trip: Hackenberg and St. Avold

   I predicted wrong when I said we'd go to the Memphis Zoo. We went to Hackenberg, which is a fort on the Maginot Line (basically a French military failure, but feel free to research it and come to your own conclusion), and to St. Avold, which I believe is the largest American WWII cemetery in France.

Everyone's excited about Hackenberg.

We traveled through the tunnels by train. Very similar to the ones we get on with out Eurail passes.

France's high-speed TGV model.

This is basically the control system for a cannon. It can turn 360 degrees.

Our reflective tour guide showing us another cannon/gun.

Guns... Lots of guns.

St. Avold. It's depressing to see so many graves, and many people buried here were my age or younger.

Jewish soldiers have a Star of David headstone. All others are represented with a cross.

Special acknowledgement for Medal of Honor. I think there are four MoH recipients buried here.

The overlook point.

"THROUGH THE GRAVE AND GATE OF DEATH MAY THE PASS TO THEIR JOYFUL RESURRECTION"

"TO THESE WE OWE THE HIGH RESOLVE THAT THE CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY DIED SHALL LIVE"

From the overlook.

Because Ruben Rivers was black, he did not receive the MoH until the 90's. It's sad that we allowed people to fight and die for this country without giving them the same respect and acknowledgement as everyone else. I'm glad I was born into a sensible family, and was never fed the same lies as some of my friends growing up in the south.

Monte Carlo

     We had a bro weekend in Monte Carlo. We had a great time there, but getting there and back was an absolute pain. Every step of our journey presented a new difficulty. But we made it back in time for class. and overall it was the cheapest weekend yet (because our casino winnings paid for most of it).

Some High-Rollers ready for action.

We stood for 3 hours on a train because we couldn't get tickets. Reading a book took my mind off of the fact that I wanted to sit down.

Steak tar-tar (Basically just rare beef). Ethan ordered it, not realizing how rare it would be, even after the waiter's warnings. I traded him half of my swordfish (that's right, swordfish) for half of his steak. It was delicious, and not at all sickening. Why have I bothered cooking my meat all these years?

Monte Carlo casino. Notice all of the nice cars. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside.

A little later at night.

Our plan was to stay up all night at the casino. We didn't book a hotel or hostel. Turns out the casino's closed around 3:30, so we had to wait at the train station for about 2 hours. Not so fun.

Overall it was a crazy night, and I don't know how we got that baby.

We leave tomorrow for Florence and Venice (and maybe one or two pictures in Pisa). So stay tuned and I'll try to get the next post up in a more timely manner.