Vosgne-Romanee, it was nice but I must go back to Italy...

So I have spent two weeks in Vosgne-Romanee, France with Dan, James and Lauren. Over that time, I had the opportunity to explore Dijon, Beaune and the Loire. I walked the vineyards of Romanee Conti and made dinner in its kitchen. My last day there, I was even able to explore the cellar—an opportunity that is so rare that even the interns had to work there for 3 weeks before seeing it. This little town is so quaint and lovely. The bell tower tolls every half hour starting at seven and ending at ten. The seven a.m. bell begins with the usual seven tolls then erupts in a cacophony of ringing for about seven minutes, loud enough to wake the whole town. This bell rings every morning, even on the weekends. At nine, there is a bread truck that drives through the town honking its distinct horn, calling people to come out to the street to buy bread for the day. The noon bell does a similar ringing pattern to the seven, and then this happens again at five and seven at night. The bell marks each major event of the day. At seven, rise, at noon, eat lunch, at five, stop working and at seven, eat dinner. I am curious to learn to what extent the people of the town follow this tolling. We haven’t much followed it aside from waking at 7. We have eaten breakfast then have had something to do during the day. This usually leads us to eat lunch at around 2. We have gone to the grocery store daily.

Then the boys usually go on a bike ride later in the afternoon and we start making dinner around 8. We then eat between 9 and 10. The meals have been phenomenal, as Dan and Lauren are incredible cooks. They made us many dishes including roasted duck, which later became duck soup, CEufs en meurette and lentils with a cucumber relish, among other things. Once, we had purple green beans which were purple raw but to our dismay turned green when we steamed them; we ate copious cheese spreads and lots of moutarde. Yes, we had plenty of Dijon.

I had so much fun in the Loire valley. We went there to visit many castles and although I was disappointed that we weren’t able to taste any wine there, Dan and I made the best of it, exploring spires, bedrooms, kitchens, balconies and gardens. My favorites were to see the petite size of the beds or the architecture of the staircases, some of which were built earlier than the 1700’s. For the most part, the kitchens in the castles were disappointing; except for the last castle we saw which had four individual rooms each with its specific use. One was a butcher, which had meat hooks still hanging from the ceiling. The next was a bakery and then one room with a stove for wood fire breadmaking and then another huge stove for stews. The gardens were incredibly impressive and I decided that when I have my own castle, I want a labyrinth made of hedges.

We went wine tasting in the towns around Vosgne-Romanee a few times and surprisingly had quite a few quality wines. There are so many wineries here, it is definitely a way of life but one that I like. Each winery has a sign out front stating that it is open, but the tasting room more often than not is in the cellar. Many of these wineries are located at peoples’ houses so when you walk in you find the people going about their daily business. Upon seeing guests, they stop at a drop of a hat to show you the winery and let you taste their wines. The smell of each old cellar is such a nice, romantic atmosphere that I feel incredibly fortunate in having. Although I don’t speak French, Dan and James do very well at communicating with the winemakers and without them, I would never have this experience. For that, I am entirely grateful. The tastings are always free and when they find out that we are wine students, they never expect us to buy (although if they are good, we do buy them).

One day, Dan and I took a ride to a little town where the movie Ciocolate was filmed. We didn’t see many shops although there were many cars in the parking lot of the town. It was a small and old town with probably three restaurants and four shops, none of which sold chocolate. But the drive to the town was very nice and we had lunch in one of the restaurants. We both had salads, mine had prunes, ham and gooey cheese that reeked like old, old, old feet. I initially thought that the dressing on the salad produced this putrid smell and was terrified to eat it, but it turned out it came from the cheese which was wrapped in a crepe and easily removable. Dan and I concluded that it was a locally made cheese. Dan’s plate was a salad topped with duck meat, gizzards and fois gras. It was truly the most savory and heaviest salad I have ever seen. It tasted amazing and the restaurant was certainly generous with the duck parts.

I am going back to Italy tonight to visit Anna and the wineries that I worked at last summer. I had made plans to go to Italy to try to find an internship under the table, as my visa issue still has not been resolved. Between the time that I concluded to revisit Italy and now, a winery in Roa, Spain has offered me an internship for the harvest, so believe it or not, I will be going to Spain at the end of the month! So, I threw away my Italian language books (they have been incredibly heavy to carry all this way) and looked up some Spanish review sites online. Oh, how life throws you curve balls.

~~~ I am now laying poolside at the villa Gioianna in Castiglione Del Lago. I spent about 15 hours on the train getting here; 13 of which were on a sleeper train. I was packed like a sardine in a 6 person sleeper bunk for the night. I woke up almost every hour for one reason or another. It was difficult to get to sleep as the bunk was so small and uncomfortable and the room was incredibly hot. I had nowhere to change into pajamas except for my bunk which was three feet away from an Indian man who had not yet fallen asleep, so I decided to sleep in my jeans regardless of the heat. After one hour, I awoke to two men who were coming in from the bar. They were ready to go to bed and had to put down their bunks which caused a commotion. Once the bed was in place, I looked up to see the bottom of his loft less than two feet above my nose. I finally drifted off to sleep when one hour later the French customs officers wrapped on our door and demanded passports from all six of us. They were rather harsh and forceful and left me in a nervous awakeness that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. They interrogated two people and thankfully I was not one of them. So I tried to go back to sleep… I felt dreary and uncomfortable and hot. I finally dosed off to sleep. When I awoke I found out that the train was 1.5 hours late for whatever reason. I used the restroom which was the single most rancid restroom that I have ever experienced. Plus there was no toilet paper, soap or paper towels. But at least the conductor was speaking in Italian. Finally, after a month of foreign languages, I could again understand a stranger. The train arrived in Firenze and I caught the next one to Castiglione del Lago, where I was picked up by anna and taken to Rosanna’s house for a nice meal. I was greeted with a warm plate of fresh pasta pomodoro followed by home cured sardines, cheese and finally watermelon and coffee for dessert. A standard fare for an early afternoon dinner. Rosanna and I decided to take a walk in our swimsuits around the orchard of the villa where many fruits are just now coming into season. Excitedly, she picked two figs for me to eat; these were the only two ripe figs on the tree. She knows that these are my favorite fruits. Now we are sitting poolside at the villa and I am awake, clean and comfortable again. I am happy to finally be off of the train with a full stomach and happy heart.

One Month in Europe Already?!

I realize that it has been some time since my last post, I have just been so busy! For a quick overview, I have been to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Dalmatian Coast, Stuttgart, Munich, Mainz, The Rhine River and Saulheim in Germany. I have been traveling all throughout Germany and have met many interesting people. Here are some photos until I have some more time to elaborate!

Split, Croatia. This was the first thing that I saw when I came into port at the Dalmatian Coast after my overnight ferry ride. Mate was there waiting to pick me up, at 6am! We went to get coffee, meet a friend and hang out. It was a great morning.














Apparition Hill in Medjugorje. This is such a beautiful place to relax, pray and reflect. I came here one evening right about dusk and stayed until after sundown. I watched people pass and enjoyed the sunset overlooking this picturesque village.


















Katarina and Me. She just finished her studies for the year in Zagreb. We spent a lot of time together and had so much fun. This photo was taken at a dinner in Stuttgart.














After Stuttgart, I stayed at a youth hostel in Munich. I went to see many sights, but the most important to me was Dachau. This was a truly amazing experience.














After learning about the sadder part of Munich's history, I had to relax with some new friends at the Biergarten. Can you believe that they still wear lederhosen!? This group of students were celebrating their new degrees in Electrical Engineering.




















Visiting Munich and making new friends was fun, but it was time to visit old friends. Tanja came to Davis to sublet a room in my apartment 2 years ago and we have kept in touch ever since. Last year I visited her and Bjorn (her boyfriend) in Mainz and decided to come back! We went to a music festival and ate Worscht from the Worscht Sultan.
































The weekend was over so these two had to go back to work but I still wanted to play. So, I called my friend Tina. We studied together at Davis and her family owns a winery in Saulheim. We traveled all around the Rhein River to see what we could find.














We found a secret club named Die Rampenschisser. They had their hideout in the side of a castle (and probably wont be happy if they find out about my exposing them on this blog). We drank beer with them. Pretty cool, huh??















And tomorrow, I just decided, I will go to France. Dijon is my first stop, then perhaps winetasting at the Domaine Romanee Conti? I hope so!!

Day 13: Trainride to Ancona then an Overnight Ferry to Split

Fields and fields of grapes, sunflowers, kiwifruit, hay and tomatoes pass by me at remarkable speeds. Every now and then I see a building or house providing me evidence of civilized life outside of this giant moving steel bullet. I look around me and I see the faces of people who are each so involved in their own lives, journeys and destinations. A group of about seven young boys in their teens sit a few rows ahead of me smugly drinking hinekin and talking unreasonably loud. They smell of too much cologne. Across me is a woman reading the biggest book that I’ve ever seen. The train is such a great place to observe people. I hear at least four different languages and see people of all shapes and sizes. I try to evesdrop on the two Italian women next to me but stop when I realize that I can only understand every third word. Learning Italian is an interesting and fun experience but some days are harder than others. I can certainly understand the language better than speak it but I still have much work to do before I can consider myself apt at either.

The trip ended with a great success, however I now realize that two weeks is too little time to explore the three wine regions we chose. I do think, however, that I learned a considerate amount about Italian wines and about the way that each taste from each region. Wines from Veneto consist mainly of Valpolicella and Amarone which are both red varieties that are produced by drying half of the grapes and performing a refermentation until a dry wine is made. This results in a high acid, tannic wine which has aromas of cherries and prunes. We also tasted Soave from this region, which is a white wine made from Garganaga which has a fruity profile and a distinct saltiness. Tuscan wines consist of the Supertuscans and Chianti. Unlike the popular belief in California, these wines are of supurb quality. They are big, full bodied wines with strong red fruit characteristics made up of the Sangiovese grape. VinSanto is also produced in this area and is a sweet desert wine. I am not one to usually appreciate sweet wines but I found myself purchasing two bottles of this from Campriano while there. I later had a conversation with one of my colleagues about why it was so enjoyable to us and we came to the conclusion that the complexity of this wine mixed with the high acidity created an agreeable flavor profile. The end of the trip took us to the Piedmont region where we got to taste from the world’s best known Italian wineries such as Pio Cesare, Gaja and Ceretto. This is where we got a taste of Barolo and Barbaresco. These wines are made up of Nebbiolo and Barbera grapes. That produce a powerful yet elegant wine. These can be described as having floral notes with a slightly musty nose and powerful tannins.

So I am now here riding a train to a ferry which I will take overnight to Split. I have a stack of postcards from around Italy that have been written but just not sent off yet. I guess those will have to wait to be mailed out from Croatia. After Croatia I think I want to visit my friends in France and I have plans to go to Germany at the end of the month.

Day 7: West Coast of Italy

Last night we left Castiglione del Lago with happy stomachs and drove to Firenze for a quick day in touristville. While we meandered through the streets for only three hours while James and Dan took the time to solve a pressing problem that has not been resolved since we got here. They have been toting their bikes on the top of the car in 2 boxes. However, due to the summer rain storms here, the boxes have been slowly disintegrating. They had planned on purchasing a bike rack on their first day in Milan but failed to do so. So, two days ago when the boxes would surely crumble, they took them out, assembled them and laid them on the top of the car with the box underneath to prevent scratching the car’s hood. This has been how they have remained since. So, off the boys went while we descended upon the city. The afternoon started out well, but Marc had been sick for two days and could not handle the heat. I took him to sit in a hotel while the rest of the group continued to explore the city. I figured that this would be best as I had seen Firenze multiple times while some of the group had never been to Italy. Nonetheless, Marc ‘s fever skyrocketed while we were sitting there. We were two hours by car from the coast, where we were staying for the night and I could not contact other members of the group. So, we ended up checking him into the hotel room for the afternoon until 6, when we had agreed to meet for dinner.

At six, Dan and James came back with no bike rack (it was a Sunday, of course nothing would be open) while the rest of the group had visited some key landmarks of the city. I, too, eventually was able to venture into the city where I meandered up and down the side streets, as far from the tourists as possible. The time alone was truly revitalizing. I met up with the group minus a sleeping Marc at six where we grabbed a quick pizza before waking up our friend and heading toward the coast. So, that was my third experience of Firenze.

After a two hour drive, we arrived in San Vincenzo which is a coastal town where we visited two wineries, Ornellaia and Petra. That night, we stayed in a pretty cool hostel. It was on the top of a hill and used to be the base for a mining company. When we drove up to it, the windows were illuminated and could be seen from the base of the mountain, pretty creepy. We made jokes about 'what if that were where we would stay' and so it turns out, it was. Overall, the place was pretty comfortable, but breakfasts served here are pretty small-- a piece of bread and a coffee. This is good, though because we tend to eat large lunches and then smaller dinners.

Day 2: Twenty Two, Two Wineries, Too Great

Today is my birthday! I have a quick update of my day but will finish it tomorrow during our 4 hour drive to Tuscany. Today we learned about Amarone and Valoplicella wines. These wines are made by drying the grapes in special rooms for up to 3 months before vinification. They are red wines, quite acidic and slightly tannic. They smell strongly of dark fruit and prunes. They have a very high alcohol content, although they hold their alcohol quite well. You wouldn't know that the wines were at 17% just by tasting it. We went to Dal Forno Romano and Allegrini wineries. They were both beautiful. I also spent quite a bit of time trying to buy a phone card to be able to chat here in Italy. I managed that after about 2 hours. I am understanding and communicating more easily than I thought, but that may be because I have the comfort of 7 of my friends to fall back into English with.

We ate at a brilliant restaurant tonight and did not get back until about 12. I have an early start tomorrow, though.

I will write again as soon as I have internet. Ciao for now!

Day 1/2: Frankfurt Airport

I am currently sitting near my terminal at the Frankfurt Airport. I am happily situated so that there is a Beck's 1/2 liter beer (a small) to my right and I have a clear view of the rushing travelers-- a perfect people watching paradise. I just got off of my flight, and as per the expected German efficiency, we arrived 15 minutes early. I am lucky, however, that my connecting flight is in three hours because this airport is huge and the connecting terminal was on the opposite side. I had a nice flight; I was originally seated next to my travel buddy, Amanda but was requested to move due to a newlywed couple who had been separated. They clearly could not bare to be on the same plane but separated by a few seats for 10 whole hours. I understood their longings as I too one day hope to have that connection with another person. So, needless to say I agreed to move seats so that the lovebirds could sit next to each other.

This, to my torn dismay, put me in the middle seat of the middle row of the back of the airplane. Until I realized that I was sitting to a particularly talkative Hungarian. I was very relieved to have this gentleman to sit next to as we seemed to share many interests and music preferences. Thanks to my new friend, whom I later learned was named Gergely (pronounced closely to Gregory), this flight proved to be quite quick and easy. We conversed about work, travel, history and music. He had traveled to California for the first time on a business trip. Stanford had a conference for the study of hearing and he went; he's finishing up his residency in a year to become a doctor.

So here I am smiling from ear to ear about being in Europe. It is even more exciting because I do not know how long I will be here for... I hope to obtain my visa after the Italian International Trip with my friends. If I do so, I will not be returning for 5 months. Otherwise, my amount of time here is unknown. And you know what, I kind of like it that way.

My adventure is just beginning, and I have had so much fun already. I can't wait to find out what else is in store for me.