Beast at Bay

My mind has been taught and trained.
The cave of despair and domination always around me keeping the beast at bay
But my Hibernation has come to its end
The days ruled by conditioning are no more
I leave my cave with swift exodus
I step out to the wild
Not the wild of trees and rivers
but one of castles and cultures, monasteries and monks, Buddhists and beaches
The wild of people and places my mind has never known
My adolescence will be obvious, but embraced
I will bear it with monumental gratitude
This is the opportunity
The opportunity for the creature void of form and grace
To take the innocent mind I have but wish to understand and
Embrace them as they were a warm fire on a winter night.
I will roam with no cave
But a home of a different construct
One that stretches from this end of the world to the other
My birth will not be taken for granted
My innocent mind will expand
The beast within will no longer be at bay

Happy New Year to everyone..

I hope everyone's holidays have been a pleasant one, and it continues through tonight. So, it has been awhile since I have updated anything, and I guess like everyone else, time has just been getting away from me. So, Christy and I made some major strides over the holiday. Today we booked a flight that will take us from Paris to Rome on the 28th of January that only cost us both with baggage and taxes $120 through RyanAir. We also got a similar deal going from Malaga, to Brussels for $160 for all the same charges for both of us before. Another key couple purchases made today was our Paris Pass. This is a 6 day pass for both of us to see all the museums, events, metro, busing, attractions, wine tasting, and cruises all for under $400 for both. Since we will be there for 14 days we purchased it to start in the middle of our time there so we can have the middle and end to unwind and explore on our own.
We also got the Euroline which is a bus system throughout Europe. We plan on using this for when we have free time between Italy and Spain. We plan on hoping around from Florence to Milan, Marseilles, Barcelona to Madrid. We plan on using the second part to get us from Brussels to Amsterdam and then let it takes us on through Germany for a couple stops then to Prague. We will be adding video to our blog soon as we get closer to the flight date. We plan on uploading a couple videos on how much we are bringing article wise as well as other "must have items" that are needed for international travel, so everyone can get comfortable with how to watch them. We should have a video as well as an itinerary and recap of events as much as we can while there, or at least how much Wi-Fi will let us.

Christy and I have also been mad dashing trying to clean up and pack up all our stuff we can be prepared to go and that has been its own tremendous task. We wanted to thank everyone who has been keeping up with our pre-trip post, and we promise to make it worth it by putting down as much useful info that we can while there as well as as many videos to give everyone a hopeful sense of really being there. Jan 13th it doesnt get any sooner..

Faith in the written word..

So it has come to my attention through checking my page views that EEEEveryone seems to love Christy in the satchel. (As Christy sits next to me giggling) Well, I am really happy that all of you find my girlfriend to be sooo magnanimous. So, I guess due to the lack of clicks(basically nothing) for my attempt to change the culture of men and their bags, I am formally resigning my post as cultural icon to change men of America and just go on letting her wear the bag. I mean you've seen the smile she gave wearing it, who can say no...  So, thank you for all your truthful responses and all together put downs of the male race. Keep up with our posts as much as possible and thank you everyone for having a little fun with us and making this a good opening experience to Europe.

Better on her?

Probably better on her, but dammit I don't care..

Dont hate, its really nice leather..

A man and his man-bag

 The Plight of the man that wishes to relieve his every day essentials problems, but cannot seem to find his place in western culture. Does this sound like any of you? Maybe, but probably not. However, this is a dilemma I will be having come, wait for it, 28 days till we head across the pond.. (Yes already have my traveled snobbery down a month before I even leave.)

 For too long have we been told that we men should just deal with the things we need to carry by some means other than a cows ass by our side. I don't understand this, are we to carry our things around like a St. Bernard fetching the morning paper, or maybe to continue to look like traveling hobos with our dashboards looking like an office desk after your 6 year old nephew came for visit  at work for "family day", yeah family day, when did uncles become a part of that teachers paid holiday.

During better ages, men like Da Vinci, Freud, and Einstein, all carried around bags so they could have the things they needed to do work. Yes, that's right not everything brilliant idea is written on some McDonald's napkin at 2am with special sauce (2 parts ketchup, 1 part mayo, and one part David's hair gel from his date will Jenny before his shift. Could you imagine if Einstein was too scared to have a carry-all because he seen a re-run of friends last week when Joey tried the 'manbag', BOOM, right there no theory of relativity.. Right there if that didnt happen what smart things would the guys from Big Bang Theory have to say that only 2% of the viewers get anyway. So, now that we are going overseas, I am formally announcing that I will be carrying a 'manbag' with me, because guess what!?I like to read,  I have crap to write about and stuff to draw, and maybe its a little difficult to carry all that crap, and not want to look like someone from Amazing Race carrying my huge backpack everywhere, along with half a library in my hand. Oh and readers I may wear the thing when I get back too, so yeah get over it..  Nuff said.

Trains, planes, or even the automobile...

Ok, so here is where the blog becomes interactive, yes that's right I said interactive! Now it becomes each and everyone of your blogs as well.. Look at it eventually being your own virtual tour of Europe where you can sudo choose what you want us to do on our trip, (obviously the most intelligent common sense ideas will be applied, its not going to be National Lampoons Euro vacation or anything.) So for our two weeks we have booked in Italy, and an open week before Portugal that we planned on spending roaming Italy a little more we have a place booked about an hour north of Rome, and 2 hours south of Florence and we have a conundrum. We will be trying to go to both places back and fourth for the first two weeks which  which means traveling to both those places daily about 10 times out of the 14 days. So using a EuRail pass, or the Eurbus thing wouldn't work there, but the following week where we planned on roaming would be a time where these would start to apply.

     Ok, so we are obviously going to need to eventually get over to lower Portugal, so doing the 15 day eurbus on the off season for both of us is roughly $550, and a EuRail pass for both of us in jsut Italy is $300, then a $150 flight over to Portugal from Rome, so that alone is $450. SO with the bus situation we can take the week by starting in Rome and then going over to Venice, Milan, Marseilles, Barcelona using only 5 toal days of our traveling time while possibly seeing so much more. We would then need to take a flight over to lower Port. and thats prob another 150, but the last 10 days of our travel bus time is where I think this might be a good descion. So once we get through our week in lower Port and Spain where the bus trips dont work we can get back over to Madrid and start our trip from there, back to Barcelona( which might not work I htink you can only go to a city once) up to Paris, then to Amsterdam for and extended stay, then through a couple spots in Germany, in route to Prague, then get ourselves back to Paris for a few to Fly out of there. This whole idea of Madrid all the way back to Paris would need to be done in 21 days so most of the places outsides of Amsterdam and Prague would need to be seen in only a day or maybe two. We would also get to be seeing the countryside which has been expressed as being a important thing to do to really have a genuine experience, even though the buses will probably be slow. So our other options where going to be taking a bunch of individual flights that would only connect us after the the first two weeks in Italy to a couple points in Italy, the already planned Port, and Spain trip then a flight up to Amsterdam, there for a week, then to Prague for a week, then back over to Paris for 5 days before we go home.

  So now that I have bored you to death, the people who actually decided to read this far, what are your suggestions? Look at this like a treasure hunt, you have searched this far, you might as well give a thought so you can say you at least didn't waste your time by reading this far...

Bundles from bundles.

Wow. 37 days until our little lunchtime excursion across Europe. It has defiantly set in that the world is about to be at our doorstep, but only because I'm losing dangerous amounts of weight by not being able to afford my daily intake of cookies and cream, I swear, people on methadone have no idea of the real pain you have from a withdraw. So, I came across a show I have never seen before, it was called '$40 a day'. This show, hosted by Rachel Ray has her touring the world in vacation hot spots and eating for under $40 a day. I caught the episode of her in Florence, and pretty much booked my week of eating, so thank you Rachel Ray for your sage wisdom on Florence and the horrible food ideas that you try and push of as edible on your regular show.  So even though I am typing with a blanket over my head shivering from cold sweat due to the lack of sugar and corn syrup, this trip will be well worth it, and with taking the initiative to put on a sweater, wool socks, a nit cap, four pairs of shirts, a jacket, snow suit, rain coat, and pretty much anything I can just to resemble the little brother from a Christmas Story, we are now able to see Europe in all its cold, glumly, glory.

Meet Captain 'Changes his Mind'

Ok quick note.. We are not going to Dublin.. Too expensive to be there on a major holiday, and lets be honest if you haven't gotten your rocks off on St Patty's in Chico by now you might as well not do it. So instead we will be falling back on our regular schedule of Netherlands and Prague after our time in Malaga, Spain. So I apologize to all my Irish ancestry, I will not be showing you how to celebrate your holiday this year. Don't fret holiday, I will see you someday in our home, but for now we will always have Chico..

crippled, but not down

So due to a bad choice made at the gym, I am now couch ridden, and have nothing to do but watch b movies on Netflix, scan Hulu's most watched clips, and try to get as many m&m's in my "normal" handful of trail mix as I can. Christy and I actually just got back from LA a few days ago for thanksgiving. I will have to admit I am not one for traffic and big cities, but people always end up being the difference maker and the people I met this past week made So Cal a great trip for me. Between staying at a huge Hollywood Hills home and wondering what pesky little bugs or "bacteria" where sharing the floor with me the two nights I slept there, to staying with a fantastic couple who made espressos, wine, and the "fur coat" the coolest things a person can be apart of till 2am. The trip will definatly be something I will never forget. Between my long conversations with Joe about art, and the evils of the world, learing about growth from Ingred, watching Paul throw a plastic ball around like he was Nolan Ryan, and I will nor forget the back and fourth between JP and his brother. All Fantastic clips from an even more fantastic week. So a note about the trip since that is really what this blog is about, the plane tickets were bought today and we finally made our minds up about being in Dublin for Patty's Day. Oh, it was a "yes". So in the next week or so we will be finalizing our itinerary and purchasing our EurRail options as well as get our museum passes squared away. So stayed tuned for that, and I hope everyone's thanksgiving was as special as mine.

Choices, choices

Well we have a little over two weeks to get our tickets completely taken care of and we are having some last minutes thoughts about the tail end of our trip. After we leave Malga via Barcelona we are heading to Amsterdam, and should be there for about a week, but there is one little problem. There is still some possibilities to  tinker with the schedule a little and end up in Dublin for St. Patrick's day. We are trying to conger up some people who might want to go that way we can have a group to experience it as well as save on some cost for the expensive lodging that I'm sure it will be. So all and all everything has been going well and we are extremely happy and grateful for the opportunity and cannot wait till the middle of January..

Time to take the Journey

This will be the first post of many that will begin around January 14th and continue through the end of March. The Blog will detail the excursions taken by Christy and Chris through 6 or more countries in Europe. The blog will be an outlet for both of us to reflect on our journey and growth through cultural, personal and artistic experience. While it will ultimately give both of us a written record of the journey, we hope as well that it will inspire more to take trips outside of their comfort zones or within their own realms of possibility and through those experiences grow themselves.