Al Italia!

So, I made it to Italy. I spent the last two days in Luzern, Switzerland and it was beautiful. I spent a full day walking into and around the old town, which unfortunately has been modernized with modern mall type stores, which differ from the little tiendas they had ten years ago. However, I found the hotel (i think) that mom and aunt peggy and i stayed at ten years ago right on the river-lake water way. The current of the river amazed me, it was so fast. I felt like if i fell in I would be in the Adriatic Sea in no time (assuming that it eventually connected with it).

The hostels in Europe are far different than the ones in Australia. The main difference is that none of them have kitchens for public use, which is a huge downer. Im used to being able to buy cheap food and cook it myself, but so far I've spent close to 200 dollars on food alone because I have to buy all my meals, so I'm doing two meals a day and a snack in the middle to conserve money.

I've also been doing a bunch of reading. Primarily for my job which starts in Chicago on September 8th. I just finished The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, and I actually enjoyed it. That Buffet has a keen sense of humor, let me tell you. And he always throws in these wacky analogies which seem to make everything into perfect sense. I didn't understand a lot of the accounting chapter, which was the last chapter, but I'll cover that with my parents when I get back to Michigan.

As of now I have ten days left in Italy, but I am finding it difficult to get up and do things every day. The last two months have finally caught up to me (Australia, moving, driving to Michigan from San Diego, cruise and now backpacking through Europe on my own). I think it'd be more fun to do it with a friend.

I met a guy at the hostel tonight in Florence who's from San Luis Obispo, about two hours north of LA, which is neat. I also met a guy from New Zealand who's moving to Sienna, Italy to become a wine maker. (Neat) So he and I bought two bottles of wine to compare, one for 2.5 euro and one for 5 euro. The 2.5 euro wine was bright purple, and had a super sweet taste, but it was alright. Unfortunately I now have a very purple tongue.

I departed from them, because they went and got pizza with two guys from France, and I came to find an internet. The internet here is much more reasonably priced. I bought 5 hours for 5 euro, as opposed to Switzerland, which was more or less, 6 swedish francs (about 6 dollars) for half an hour. Unreal, right?

Anyways, so far so good. I'm going to go hunt down some gelato now and head to bed. Miss all you back home, and can't wait to get back to the good ol' U S of A.