Another Italian driver rant...

I will never tire of complaining about Italian drivers.  Riding to work on the bike everyday is not going to help this problem.   However I feel the need to relate a story from this morning.  I was approaching the worst intersection of my short trip to work. I would gladly double the length of my ride uphill both ways to go around it but there is not another way.    I really hate this intersection partly because there is absolutely no way to avoid it and second because it’s a rough left turn as I’ll explain.  

So let me explain the intersection.  There is nothing on my right and I need to turn left and there’s actually 2 left turns as there are 2 small streets that insect at practically the same spot but at different angles.  The oncoming traffic is coming downhill around a sharp curve.  Of course Italian drivers love to descend this turn at a ridiculous velocity and never once entertain the idea that they can’t see around the bend.  Plus people like to park “temporarily” right in the curve so the on coming traffic has even more trouble making the turn.  So you have on coming traffic flying around a blind curve and 2 small streets where people are trying to pull out from different angles onto the busier street that I’m on.

So this morning I approach the intersection and I see that a car ahead is stopped trying to make a left turn (at this point I don’t know which street he’s turning down).  This is good because it assures me that there is space for me to wait my chance to turn left also.  Unfortunately for him he’s trying to go down the second small street (not the one I take).  I say unfortunately because some lady has stopped to talk to someone and is COMPLETELY blocking the 2^nd street.  I mean this isn’t double parked, this is in the middle of the street at practically 90 degrees to the small street with no way for anyone to enter or exit.  The guy is honking and gesturing as I ride up to a stop behind him.  She SEEMS to be trying to end her conversation and move her car but I don’t care because after a short pause I see my break in the traffic and turn left.  As I do I see another car is trying to exit the street and it too is blocked by this lady.  I can’t help but laugh at her complete disrespect for everyone else on the road.  You can’t just stop where it’s convenient for you.  I really think that Italian drivers lack any kind of respect for others.  That’s the only explanation.  I don’t think they realize that every stupid thing they do makes the roads that much more dangerous.  This lady wasn’t hurting anyone by blocking the road but what if the guy waiting to turn was hit head on by oncoming traffic.  He wouldn’t have been there if she wasn’t blocking the road.  There were plenty of chances for him to turn down his street but he’s stranded there until she moves and I know when she does move she has a good chance of surprising someone coming around the curve making things worst.  The longer he sits at that intersection trying to turn left the more possibility there is for an accident.  Of course the on coming traffic would be at fault for the accident but she’s contributing to it by not letting him clear the intersection.  There are so many little things like this every day.  One my favorite regular issues is when people park in the bus stop so the bus has to stop in the middle of the road and block ALL the traffic.  I love that one!  I blow by everyone on my bike and after I pass the bus I have the whole street to myself.  Of course the down side of this is that it just makes drivers crazier to pass buses whenever they get the chance.  You CAN’T get stuck behind a bus.  You might not have time for a coffee!!!….  Oh Italy and my love/hate relationship….. Oh and there’s always time for a coffee….

 

The Heat is On!

Well the weather has changed a little here lately.  The cool spring has been replaced but real summer heat.  Maybe it feels that much hotter because it arrived all at once.  I was loving the cooler weather as it was perfect for biking but I noticed that when it was cooler there was always a lot of wind.  Now that it’s hot there the wind seems to have disappeared.  I could really use a cool breeze at night to help sleep.  Anyway this weather will bring with it the obligation to go to the sea.  In all my years here I still do not feel the need to go to the sea.  I like cooling off in the sea but most of the other parts I don’t like.  The crowds, the heat, the sand, the sun, it’s like you have to run a maze of other hazards to get to the nice cool sea.  Then the water is usually too cold (at least in June) to stay in very long so you get out until the heat pushes you to go in again. Enough whining, because the weather is supposed to cool off a little next week already.

Hey I’m coming up on my 10^th anniversary of moving to Italy.  Who would have thought?  My original contract was to work in Italy for 3 years but things just keep working out to where I need to stay.  Every year it was just for 1 or 2 more years.  Even now my future here is in doubt as working conditions are not ideal.  There are several layers of problems that are trying to force me out.  If you ask me what I want and I’ll say it’s easy.  Stay here and continue to work as I have been.  Let’s see if that’s possible.  In the 10 years that I’ve been here I’ve learned a lot and changed quite a bit.  I only moved once the whole time and it only up 2 floors in the same building.  I’ve always described this adventure as a roller coaster ride of emotions.  I’ve had some of the best days of my life in Brindisi and also some of the worst.  Things I never thought would happen and things I never thought I was see.

 

Nello waiting for the gecko.

Caffè

I don't know what's so great about this new coffee bar outside my apartment. It's always packed, well at least there are always people parked all over the corner almost blocking access to my street (via Appia) going to the right in the picture below.  They must be giving coffee away!!  I say that because there's another coffee bar across the street (look in the upper left of the photo) that doesn't have near the same popularity. Bohhh!  Just a little rant today. 

2013

Ok so here I am again saying I'm going to restart the blog. This time I mean it. Once a week I WILL write something as there is so much going on. This weekend Brindisi is opening a new park (called Cillarese) and the work along the sea in town is almost complete. Right now there is a boat show in town that is free to get into for the first time in years. I always wanted to go but it was so expensive that I always rejected the idea. Ten euros to look at boats!!  No way. This year I hope to check it out. Last night I passed through but the show was closed. Here's a photo from the other side of the port looking towards the boat show. 

Botswana and Animals!

Hey readers I just got back from 2 weeks of going all over Botswana looking for animals. I think I'll put up a few blog pieces about it because the stories are too long for Facebook. Of course names will be changed to protect the innocent. I had a great time and the trip was not easy but that was part of the fun. We had several nights of camping in subzero temperatures and when I was in boy scouts we didn't even do that. Despite being in Botswana during winter and the dry season we were lucky to see a good number of animals.

The New Bike

This is a Create Bikes fixie that struck me with its colors as I thought surely no Italian driver could say they didn’t see me on this thing. I bought the bike at Absolute Bikes in San Pietro Vernotico. I may mention this store a lot in the blog because I really like going there and I’m convinced that they need to open a store just like it in Brindisi. This bike’s not a true fixie because I have the bike set up to ride on the sprocket that free wheels. If I flipped the rear wheel around it would be a true fixie. I use this one for my daily commute to work and I have tried the fixie side but I’m not convinced that I like that setup yet. Having one gear is not a problem as the ride to work is pretty flat and only about 3 kms. The narrow handlebars allow me move easily between cars in traffic and bike just seems much more maneuverable than the mountain bike. Also I’m sitting up higher than the mountain bike so I can see what dangers await me up ahead. The brakes aren’t that great so I tend to ride slower which is also probably a good idea in my particular urban environment. It’s not a particularly light bike at 11 kgs but again “che me frega?” it’s all about getting in shape. I hope to slightly trick this baby out or at least do some upgrades that I’ll talk about/do later.

Old Mountain Bike

The workhorse is my old Specialized Hard Rock. I think I bought this bike in 1996 as it has an A1 cyclery sticker on it from the west side of Indianapolis. I’m pretty sure I was living on the west side in 1996. I know I had just moved to Indianapolis from Cincinnati to start my first real job after graduation. I know I was still driving that god awful 1988 Mercury Cougar that I bought from my parents. This poor bike has no suspension because that was only on those super expensive mountain bikes at the time (how times have changed!). It was just an entry level mountain bike that had what you needed and nothing more. This seems to still be true because I still use it almost exactly as it was with very few problems; most of the problems have been brought on by me and time. I think the center pull brakes and grip shifters were the s**t then so it was considered a little tricked out because it had those 2 things. I’m not sure what possessed me to pack it for the move to Italy. There wasn’t much chance that I was going to use it because I feared Italian drivers like you wouldn’t believe back then. Since I started riding it again lately on long rides I’m finding that it has weathered time but needs some real tender love care to be a reliable bike. I’m no bike mechanic so it should be interesting to see what happens when I try to fix it. I’m an Engineer so it’s in my blood to think that I can fix it. When things go wrong I’ll just take it to the store. Absolute Bikes has already replaced the right side grip shifter as it was completely shot when I start riding it again. I took the original kick stand off and threw it away long ago thinking it added too much weight. Now I’ve added a crappy Italian one that barely keeps the bike standing. The most recent addition is panniers and rear rack from Topeak that I bought back in the States. I think I’m going to really like this combination. I like to carry a lot of stuff and this bag will let me do that and leave my back free of the sweaty backpack come summer.

So that’s an introduction to my old bike. Next time my new bike.

Biking Blog

I’m thinking about revamping this blog about my life in Puglia. I stop blogging because it seemed like I was repeating myself and whining about the same old Italian problems that will be here forever. About September of last year I started getting interested in biking. I brought my old mountain bike over when I loved to Brindisi in 2003. It has largely been gathering dust because I was afraid to confront Italian drivers on their home turf. I’m not sure what pushed me but I became fixated on a Fixie. I bought the yellow, blue and red machine and started using it as regular transportation to work. Now I also use the old mountain bike for longer trips on the weekend. I’m starting to think more about a real trip with the bike, like from Brindisi to Rome on the Via Appia so that leads me to the revelation that I’m posting today.
I could turn this blog into something where I post about what I’m doing and where I’m going on the bike. It would serve as a record and hopefully push me to go out more and get in better shape. I could still whine about random Italian things like food, weather, politics etc. So what do you think? I wonder if anybody is even still reading this blog. Well it’s been hard to muster the will to write so let’s see what happens…..

Italy can be so stupid sometimes...

I say this with all due respect. One of the many laws that government is trying to pass is getting a little of the good old political treatment. A simple law is now becoming a classical example of the Italian bureaucracy. Listen to this… The new law would limit cash transactions to 1,000 euro (the current limit is 2,000 euro). You can’t buy something in cash for more than 1,000 euro, which sounds reasonable because carrying around tons of cash is not a good idea. With this law it would be harder to launder money and it makes it harder to avoid paying taxes. Credit cards are great for their perfect electronic record of the transaction. Now the parliament wants to add a little exception. They want tourists to be exempt from this rule. I guess these super rich jet setters can’t be bothered to buy things with their credit card. If you’re buying that Rolex or Gucci you want to be able to throw down a big wad of cash because that’s more exciting? I’m looking at you Russians when I say this. So with this exemption it means the store will need to make a copy of the passport of the tourist buying the item for 1,000 or more and then within 3 days deposit the money in the bank with the copy of the passport. Of course all transactions will have some paperwork that goes with them and copies etc... Why can’t Italy make a simple law and stick to it? I mean this original law would help address another issue, which is that tourists should NOT be parading around with huge wads of cash. That’s like wearing a sign that says “ROB ME”. As a foreigner I don’t want some stupid crook to mistake me as one of these idiots going around with too much cash in his pocket. This is just one small example of Italy trying to cater to a very small crowd and screwing everything up. And this exemption can be so easily abused. For crying out loud all they need to do is get a copy of a passport of a foreigner. In hotels they take your passport and make a copy during your stay. Now the hotel clerks could start a side business selling passport copies to merchants who need it for locals who want to spend large wads of cash. The exemption makes a simple thing difficult and opens a whole new line of abuse. Stick to the original law it’s so easy. Cash transactions are limited to 1,000 euro!!!

Carcofi

Ok that hail photo sucks but this photo of artichokes at the market last weekend is pretty good.

Hail

A photo of the hail from my balcony.

Italy

Well I'm still in Puglia and boy have things changed. Well not for me but for Italia. The government has changed and Italy was thrown into the spotlight for the debt crisis. Now the new government is trying to patch things up which obviously is not going down. Add in a few unrelated disasters (Concordia sinking and today earthquakes) and I think I have some stuff to write about. So I'm going to try to get back on the blog wagon.

Holy Crap

Hey with this new Google Blogger App I can update this blog from anywhere. It may be just the thing to get me excited about blogging again. Only time will tell...

Belgium photos

Explanations of the photos to be added one of these days...

Belgium (May 20-23, 2011)

Last weekend I used Ryanair to have a long weekend in Belgium. They fly Brindisi to Charleroi for ridiculously cheap (this round trip ticket was 40 euros with all the taxes included). I believe this is really cheap because it was over the weekend and the weather in May can be great. This is February or March when the weather is miserable in these parts. We were really lucky with the weather because it was not to hot and not too cold which was important because the hotels we stayed in didn’t seem to have AC so any later in the year and the rooms probably would be uncomfortably hot.

The flight arrived early Friday morning and we jumped into a rental car and headed towards Bruges. We had time plenty of time to get there so we stopped and checked out Gent on the way. Gent was supposed to be a less touristy medieval town like Bruges and for the most part it was. It had some charm but we were left a little disappointed. It wasn’t small and quaint like we were expecting.

In Bruges we used my navigator option on the iphone to get us close to the hotel. We couldn’t get to the hotel because the road was closed. And when I say closed really I mean there wasn’t a road, it was gone. They had it stripped down to bare ground about a foot below street level. I guess this was good because it meant there was no street noise. I highly recommend the Hotel Gheestilic Hof (or something similar to that spelling) as it was great. We were within walking distance of all the major attractions and man did we walk. The first night we had dinner near the main piazza and learned something I didn’t expect. In Belgium this time of year it gets dark really late. We were hoping to stroll around the piazza just after dark admiring the lights but that didn’t happen because at 10:00 PM it was still light out. Also a strange thing about Belgium is everything closes early. The main clock tower (the main tourist attraction) closes the stairs to the top at 4:15 PM! The stores close around 6:00 or 7:00 PM and even the place we had desert at on the square was kicking us out at 10:30. We sat down at 10:00 and the waiter announced that we needed to order right away if we wanted anything. Come on man it’s the weekend, live a little and stay open to midnight. Do you need to get home to bed before the sun sets????

One of the highlights was the boat trip on the canals. I was worried that this would be too touristy but the boat driver was great and view from boat was worth the money. My personal favorite was going up in the clock tower. It was over 300 stairs all in a tight spiral. It wasn’t as hard as you expect but I had to stop to keep from getting too dizzy. We were the first ones to go up in the morning after learning the hard way about that early closing time I mentioned earlier.

After 2 nights in Bruges we went to Brussels for the last night so we would be closer to the airport for early flight out Monday morning. The hotel in Brussels (Best Western City Center) was not nearly as good as the one in Bruges. I really would like to know what “City Center” they are talking about. The two hotels had one thing in common and that was that the road was torn up leading to the hotel. The poor navigator in my iphone again wondered what the hell we were doing. The phone was blurting out directions and seemingly getting upset that we went around the long way. We also found out that we were not far from the “Red Light” district of Brussels during this exploration. I hadn’t seen anything like that since Amsterdam! This hotel was sooo close to the city center that we ended up driving from the hotel to main piazza, interesting given our ability to walk all day. In the end this helped as we were dead tired and stuffed after dinner. One of the highlights of Brussels was dinner. One person of our group had a cousin in Brussels and she showed us around but more importantly took us to a rib place that could be the best I have had in Europe. It was near the Brussels Stock Market and for 15 euro you had all you could eat ribs with a sauce that was dam good. I’m convinced they have stolen the recipe from the USA but that’s ok because we have tons of good ribs sauces and they choose a good one to steal. Brussels seemed to stay awake until after dark so we could see the famous Grote Plaz all light up.

Overall I enjoyed the trip a lot. I learned that Belgian beer is dam good. I know I had heard some good things about it but I really didn’t expect it to be that good. I learned that Belgium eats its waffles in the afternoon, only in the afternoon, and there are 2 kinds. I love the heavier dense kind. They throw a ball of dough that’s the consistency of bread dough into the waffle press and out comes waffle perfection. The other kind is crunchier but seems factory made. They also do a pretty good French fries with an interesting mustardish sauce. They close up the country early so go to any museums or monuments first. They need to take the Italian afternoon pause so they can open past 7:00 PM!

Sicily Round 2

I forgot I had the big old Digital SLR so I have these photos too!!!

The ear of Dionysis or something like that. I'll look it up later.

Sunset in Siracusa

The alley our B&B was in on.

Artsy photo of the Duomo in Siracusa

The normal photo of the Duomo

This is a night shot of Castelmola which is actually above Taormina. Very small and quiet town.
Another photo in Castelmola. Not sure how that old FIAT got up the road!

Photos from Sicily

How about some photos from the trip to Taormina and Siracusa?! Remember I only have a iphone now.

Crossing the straits. It was too cold to go out on deck. This was in January!!!

Gnocchi with Pistachios. Very good. I highly recommend it.
Boats in the Siracusa harbor.
This was the most surprising find. The catacombs of San Giovanni under this church are incredible.
It wouldn't be Sicily without Cannoli!!!!

The only view of Mount Etna. The rest of the time it was covered with clouds.

Plastic in 2011

So this year we (Italy and I) are lowering our plastic usage, sort of, let me explain. Italy passed a law way back in 2007 to cut down on the number of plastics in use. The law got pushed back several times but finally came into effect on January 1, 2011. It says that plastic bags are “illegal”. Now I put that illegal in quotes because like everything in Italy it’s all relative. For one thing the stores are allowed to keep giving them out until they run out of the old stock. They are supposed to use only biodegradable after that and charge for them to give people incentive to use reusable bags. They are trying to promote cloth bags. So far this year I haven’t noticed any difference. There were some places that already used biodegradable bags and some that didn’t. It seems to still be that way. But before I knew all this I had already started collecting cloth bags last year in various ways so now I’m making the most of them. For instance last year in India I was in a part of the country that already had a ban like this on plastic bags. In 2 places I bought something and they put the items in a small cloth bag. This worked out great because now I have 2 cloth bags, one small and the other medium sized. Also last year I got 2 bigger bags when I bought cat food. They were part of a promotion and they are very ugly but they work. Two other cloth bags were given to me as promotional items when new stores opened in Brindisi. Sorry mom the cloth bag you gave me I gave toAlberta because it wasn’t manly enough! Anyway I have made it habit this year to always go out with a bag in hand, even if I’m not planning on buying anything. I figure you have to get in the habit or it won’t work. It seems to be working. The number of plastic bags that I had has diminished greatly, so what am I going to use when cleaning the cat litter boxes?!! I’ll have to get some good biodegradable bags myself.

Then other part of my low plastic life is water bottles. At work I can get a half liter bottle of water for 25 euro cents out of the vending machine. This seems like nothing so I didn’t think twice about buying a bottle once in a while. Also there are recycling bins at work so I always put the bottles there so I felt ok about it. This year I’m trying to eliminate it all together by refilling a bottle and bringing it from home. The result so far is I have bought 1 bottle of water from the vending machine at work. I don’t think I have saved much money but I would like to think that I’m doing my part to improve my habits every year. At lunch they give a half liter bottle with your meal so there is nothing I can do about that. I have started bringing in a panino for lunch instead of always eating in the cafeteria.

In a related story I bought a new CD case. This is the book-type of case that holds just the CD. I took all of my CDs out of their stupid individual cheap crap plastic cases and put them into the new book-type case. I saved the CD cover/booklet with the CD because that’s important part of these old CDs. My first reason for this was my CDs were taking up too much space on the shelves of the apartment and I never use them. This change made it so my CD collection takes up A LOT less space, which in turn gave me room for other crap that I’ve been collecting on the shelves. Also I felt good throwing out all cheap plastic. Many were already broken or cracked so feel a little liberated by doing this.

Last year was LED light bulbs and solar panels. This year plastic. Hmmm what else can do to be greener? That reminds me that I’ve seen LED light bulbs on sale lately. I think a new generation of bulbs are about to come out and they need to sell off what they have in stock. I think this year they will come out with bulbs that give off “good light” and by this I mean truly equivalent to incandescent but they will stay be too expensive. I say in 2014 LEDs will replace 90% of the lights we use. I already see more and more styles and types in the store. I saw some being used to light the tunnels on the A3 fromSalerno to Reggio Calabria on my way down to Sicily. That should be a good test of them. If they can take being on all the time and in the conditions of the tunnels then they could prove their worth.

2010 The Year in Review

Back in the good old days when I blogged a lot I could wrap up the year with a highlight from each month. Let’s see if I can do that without the help of continuous blogging to look back on. If I forgot something important then feel free to remind me in the comments.

January

I went to Tunisia and realized a life long dream. I went and saw Luke Skywalker’s house from the original Star Wars. Of course there was a lot more to Tunisia than that but lets not get into the details about how Tunisians are TERRIBLE at giving directions.

February

I saw my beloved Colts get beat by the Saints in the Superbowl. Well I did see some of it live and then I fell asleep. I guess its ok they lost as New Orleans “needed” it more according to the articles. Blah, blah, blah.

March

My soccer team won the work tournament here in Brindisi. Kolletti Bianchi (White Collars) were unstoppable in the semifinals and finals. I have to admit that those two were my best games too. I tried to explain that when the game is important I turn up adrenalin because when you’re over 35 you have ration it!

April

I can’t think of anything that happened in April. That’s unusual because April is Easter and usually I take a trip with that nice long weekend. This year it came and went with no explorations. I can’t remember why. Then April 25th and May 1st both fell on the weekend so a trip using one of these holidays was also out of the question. Italians really need to learn to move vacation days to Mondays and Fridays like we do in the States.

May

In May I made up for April. I went Whitewater rafting in Calabria. I think it’s amazing that this was my first time in real white water. I’m also upset at my slow reactions when someone in my raft fell out. I imagined that in such a situation I would summon superhero strength to pull the fellow out of the dangerous waters. It ended fine but I did nothing heroic and the waters weren't dangerous. I also went home for a week of R&R in Cincinnati. I’ve learned long ago that I need a trip home about every 6 months or I’ll go crazy.

June

This was the start of the World Cup 2010. Highlights for Italy were few so I’ll just relive 2006 in my head. At least the USA made some highlight film material.

July

This month too seemed quiet and without highlights from what I can remember. Maybe this is because like April it’s the month before a lot of traveling. I didn’t have a big 4th of July celebration at my house like in 2009. I guess I need to bring that back in 2011.

August

August is always the big vacation month in Italy and this year was no different. I again went to Asia for the 3rd year in a row. This time it was to Eastern India (Calcutta to Darjeeling) and then Bhutan. Very nice trip and definitely another highlight of my life.

September

I was back in the States but this time for work. I also managed to see a lot of family on the weekend, which is great when it works out like that.

October

This went I really started feeling bad. For those of you who don’t know I was getting a very strange feeling of nausea. It had been bothering me for weeks but in October I really felt bad so much so that I went and saw my Italian doctor for the first time. It was a good experience with the National Healthcare System. Finally I used my tessera di sanita.

November

Continuing my stomach issues I had a gastro-scope done and they found that the valve at the top of my stomach (called the cardias) ain’t doing its job well. So now I’m doing much better with the help of Omeprazolo (I think that’s what it’s called). Also I went to Torino for a long weekend, which was a surprisingly nice town. Then I went home to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. I’ve learned over the years that traveling at Thanksgiving is way better than Christmas. Anybody seeing the news about Europe right now knows I choose wisely.

December

This month has been quiet. I guess the highlight is looking back at all the crazy stuff that happened in my life this year. I’m happy spending another quiet Christmas in Brindisi. After Christmas I may drive down to Sicily. I love to visit that part of Italy I still haven’t seen Stromboli or Siracusa which would be nice.

There is definite fear in the air for me in 2011. A lot could happen. The most definite thing is that I will turn 40! Uffa, that sounds old. My return to the States seems more definite than all the other times that I said I was moving back. I think 2010 was the only year that there wasn’t a danger of me being moved back to the States. This time it could really happen and as usual I’m undecided as to weather its good thing or not. Sometimes it seems like a great idea when something is pissing me off and at other times I think about ALL the changes that will lead to and I think I should stay. Still Italians have taught me a thing or two about family so if I have to leave at least I will be getting back closer to family. There’s nothing wrong with that.