The Tranquil South

Hello once again,

We stayed some more in steaming hot Hampi (we're talking way over 40 degrees here( and even warmer in the sun ofc) where we had some great days exploring both the country side but also the ancient temples. We immediately found out that this city was much more cozy and down to earth then what we've experienced so far. Not any Indians taking photos of us with there cell phones (ok, during the festival they actually did, grr) or people asking where we were from and that. Because there was other tourists in this city!! No longer alone against many. In Hampi we got blessed by an elephant aswell!!

The last day in Hampi we crossed a small river to get the other side where we rented a scooter and rode around to different locations. One of them was a monkey temple - at the top of a mountain with only one access: a 600 stepway up the mountain. A nice view yes, but what a walk - and it was midday. 

Sadly we also encountered a drowning accident. When we crossed the river in the small boat three boys got caught in an underwater cave in the river. We saw two of them get saved, but the last one, we heard days after, was found longer down the river hours later. A rather dramatic incident. may he rest in peace.

We are now in Goa, where we've been for the last week. We are in a very small city called Palolem. Oh yeah, and we're living under palm trees in a coconut hut 50 meters from the ocean. Here we've experienced.... long nice days at the beach with sun, fresh fish and happy times. Last saturday we tried Silent Noise, which is a sort of out door club where you wear head phones - and there are different channels you can choose from. a channel with electronica, another with pop, another with more rock'n'roll. the smart thing is that your headphone shines the colour of the channel your listening to, so you can see if other are listening to the same as you. Anyway it's nice to come to a part of India where you can have a party.

Tomorrow we're relocating to another beach, Anjuna, which should also be pretty neat. We'll see.

Forza Lazio!

From North to South

Namaste,

I know my friends who travelled in India told me about the cows on the road - the staring people - the tasty food - the huge cliff between rich and poor - but why do I still feel like noone told me about this country? India has so much to offer it's insane.

Since last we've been on Tiger safari (yes, we saw a wild tiger) and visited Agra (yes, we saw the Taj Mahal), seen Varanasi (yes, we saw the Ganges) and everything is magical. After Varanasi we visited Hyderabad where we stayed almost a whole week as it was a nice break from the north (Hyderabad is a 29 hour train ride south of  Varanasi). From here we made a whole day trip out to a place called Nagharjuna Sagar where we saw waterfalls and old Buddha sanctuaries.

The big thing we've been experiencing these last weeks is that people are taking pictures of us - some come and ask - and some just try to hide it, but they are pretty bad at it.

Oh so much more to write, but it's all hard to write it all down.

We are now in Hampi -  magical little village hidden away by awesome rock formations, laid back people and everything. And today there was a huge festival where the locals threw bananas after an elephant (?!?!?)

We're staying here for some day and afterwards to either Kerala or Goa.

And what a magnificent match by Lazio yesterday, yes yes yes!!!

Forza Lazio

Summary!!

Ok, I havn't updated in a month. Yikes. So this update will be more or less a short summary.

The last two weeks of my time in Rome I got visits from my friends Oliver, Thomas, Mads and Nicolai, almost all arriving on different dates. We had some great times and met very nice people.

After Rome I had 48 hours in Denmark before heading for India! I was honoured be the fact that \my good friends picked me up in the airport. It was good to see my family back in Denmark although it was for a very short visit.

So now I've been in India for soon two weeks with my friend Laerke and feels like we've already been here for ages after all our encounters. We started out in New Delhi where we quickly escpaed from! We've got our own driver at the moment and he's driving us around Rajasthan to different places. It's a little expensive but we get to see much more then if we used the public transportation. This has been our itineray> New Delhi- Mandawa - Bikaner - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Udaipur - Pushkar - Jaipur. Now we're in Jaipur, the pink city. Our favouriote city has been Udaipur.

I only have five minutes left on the computer so it's goping fast. WE've experienced:

The worlds single Rat temple, where u walk in bare feet surrounded by rats.
Camel Safari with the night ending sleeping under the stars. Here we got the best quote so far: "Please Sir, your camel is ready"
Hundreds of forts from mainly the Mughal empire. Very impressive forts.
India winning the WC in cricket - the cities going CRAZY over this as cricket is the most important sport here.
Riding an Elephant!
Indians with crazy quatations such as 'No worry, no hurry, no rice and curry' - 'What can I do for you?Kathmandu!'
Cows, cows, and more cows!

That's all for now, sorry for all the undetalied descriptions, I hope I'll get more time later. We're having a great time and can't wait untill our next adventures - Tiger safari, Taj Mahal and the holy city Varanasi!!

Take care,

Aleksandar

Forza Lazio!

In between visits

(More pictures coming tomorrow, saturday)

After my Mom and Sister left I was thinking I was very lucky concerning the weather. Despite one of my first days in Rome I hadn't witnessed rain. During the days my mom and sister was here the weather was beautiful once again, only one night did it rain. Ever since they left it has rained. Every single day.

I had some very nice days with my mom (Mama) and sister (Kati) when they came to visit me in Rome from 18.-22. February. I also had the impression they had a good time. We went to all the must-see sights in the center of the city although we didn't make it to St. Peter's Church because of a huge queue. Another place there was a large queue was to the entrance for the Forum Romanum - the old political ground during the Roman Empire. We did decide however that we wanted to see this. After staying in line for around 30 mins. we finally got our tickets and went towards the scanner, where we scanned our tickets. Me and Mama went through and when we looked back we saw Kati standing on the other side of the entrance without a ticket. She just looked and said 'the wind took it'. Typical. The ticket was lying on the bottom of Forum Romanum. So she went back and got a new ticket. Kindda unnecesary as the lady at the scanner saw that Kati had a ticket. As retarded as she could be she just looked at my sister and said nothing. Service? None. Anyway, we had a god time, and for the first time we found our way to the top of the Palatine Hill, which is the place the city was born according to legends 2800 years ago.

We heard this funny anecdote from a tour guide, here at the Palatine Hill I remember now I mention the age of the city. We bumped into this toursit group and we listened to all the history about his ancient place. The tour guide said: "I had a rather funny experience some years ago with this elder man. I was explaining that the Coloseum was started in 72. He came up to me and said I was lying to the group. He said that he'd been here in '69 and that the Coloseum was there that year." 
For the slow ones: the elder man thought the Coloseum was built in 1972, not 72 AD.

Other then sightseeing in the world's most beautiful city we spent a lot of time eating good food and sitting at cafees, where our favourite spot was infront of the Pantheon. I enjoyed it especially as my dinner usually consisted of pasta with chicken and tomato sauce. I'm not the big dinner maker. So pizza, (good) pasta and beef sorted me good. They also had loads of Danish candy for me they brought from Denmark. Paradise.

Mama and Kati also got the chance to catch up with Mattia, our friend from back when we lived here, who is one of the main reasons I'm a Lazio fan today. Other then a nice dinner together we went to the stadium all together and watched Lazio-Bari. Lazio won 1-0, but the real show happened in Genova where the match Genoa-riomma took place. After 50 minutes riomma was in front 3-0, so the stadium didn't care about that match and enjoyed Lazio, who was playing a very good game. The thing about the Lazio fans: Rule number 1: Hate Roma. Rule number 2: Love Lazio. So during all matches when Lazio and riomma are playing at the same time 85 % on the stadium is listening to the riomma match on radio. So, soon after riomma scored to 3-0 everybody took out the radio. But when the stadium speaker announced that the game in Genova was 2-3 everybody turned on the radio once again.

A HUGE celebration came suddenly. 3-3. In 20 minutes riomma had gone from 3-0 to 3-3. But with their nasty luck I was sure they would win the game anyway. But suddenly it happened. The stadium EXPLODED. 4-3 and everybody was hopping and jumping like Lazio had won the title. The stadium starting singing and dancing. It also had a big impact on the players who after the match talked about it in the press. Amazing stuff.

Before the match we went out on memory lane and visited our old appartment building where we lived in 1996-99. To our big surprise had the 'Ghost House', that always was unnocuppied when we lived there, had been renovated totally. We found out that it now was the embassy of Kazakhstan.  

All in all we had a good time. After Mama and Kati left I havn't been doing much other then writing my application for the Anthropology study at Copenhagen University. All boring stuff that has matched perfectly to the boring weather that has been ever since they returned to Denmark!!! Yes, I was also 24 hours in Cagliari, but as Lazio lost that match there's not much to tell. Nice city though where it was nice to be back at a harbour. Now my friends are coming next week, first Nicolai and Oliver on Monday and later during the week Thomas and Mads will join us. Great stuff!

FORZA LAZIO!!

A Trip to Northern Italy

Burnogiorno,

I left you off when I was getting ready for my trip to Brescia, so that is where I will start. I only went to Brescia to see the match, as I could stay at my friend Dani's place once again in Milano (much appreciated) (I actually landed in Bergamo airport, so three different cities in 24 hours). We took the train to Brescia which costed us only 6 euros. Crazy when you compare to Denmark. The ride was some minutes over an hour - the same amount of time/kilometers travelled in Denmark and the price would EASILY get over 15 euros. And the trains are even as good as in Denmark, maybe better. 

But BEFORE I went to Northern Italy I went for an afternoon to Formello, Lazios training area. First I read that many Lazio fans were going out there to chear for the players because Lazio is in a good spot to reach Champions League next season. Last season at this time the team was fighting against relegation so what a switch of scenario... Anyway I wanted to go there but Formello is far away from Rome, so I contacted my friend Paolo of how to get out there. Paolo is in charge of LazioLand, and helps alot of foreign Laziali with different stuff regarding Lazio. He was the one that arranged that I got an article in the official Lazio magazine. Anyway he said that I could go with him, which was a great opportunity for me as I came 'backstage'. I met alot of people working for the team, I met the guys in charge of the magazine, I was in the new Lazio Radio studio and so on. Great day and great experience!! The bad part is that the training got closed for the fans... 

Anyway, I went to Brescia!!

Brescia was a sunday ghost town. Church, italian football and big lunches was what this city was occupied with I guess. The weather was also awful (My last post 'On the verge of Spring'? Yeah, forgot about that) so it felt like being on the moon or something. The stadium was quite easy to find. Lazio won 2-0 after a very good game by the team. Finally they dominated a match for all 90 minutes. 

We were a little unlucky as we had to sit in the middle of a lot of Brescia fans. Before the match it was stated that it was 'forbidden' for Lazio fans to come to the stadium by the police, so we didn't expect a section for the Lazio fans. We found out when we entered that there was.... Damn. 

After my trip to Milano and Brescia I went three days to Firenze for some sightseeing. I was there with school for many, many years ago (13-14 I think) so I therefore couldn't remember that much of it.

Firenze, with it's beautiful, narrow streets, with it's calm life style, with it's fantastic kindly inhabitants, with it's amazing history, with it's youth, with it's pride, with it's way to always have your mouth open of sheer surprise, is truly one of my favourite cities although I was only there for three days. There was always something new to see, something new to do.

My biggest story from the city is though, that I met Lazio's goalkeeper Fernando Muslera. He was strolling through the streets of Firenze with his girlfriend the day after the Brescia-Lazio match (the team had a day off). I went up and talked to him and got a picture with him. He was the goalkeeper for Uruguay under last years World Cup, the team that reached fourth place. Of course the most importantly fact is that he plays for Lazio. 

I did all the touristy stuff in the city that was required (Galleria Ufizi, Accademia, il Duomo, Santa Croce etc.) and I liked it all. 

Now I'm back in Rome and tomorrow my mom and sister are coming for 5 days!! Looking forward to it.

Forza Lazio

On the verge of Spring

Buongiorno (or maybe buonasera at this time of day),

The curse of writing a blog has already hit me. It's not that I don't want to write down what's been happening and tell y'all, it's just that I forget to do it. Lot's of ideas but no writing. Let me tell you something, I havn't met one person who has a travel blog that hasn't been hit by this curse. Not one. In this case it's happened to me very fast, much faster then I'd expected. Especially since I have a laptop in my room! I already wanted to write after the Lazio-Fiorentina match. But then I had to go to Milano. Ok, after Milano. Then it became weekend and a new match came. But now I'm sitting down infront of the computer and I'm ready.

Ok: after I came home from Bologna I had some days to relax and feel the roman vibe. The roman vibe I would say is basically talking (in my case listening, as I'm still struggling to make whole understandable sentences) about everything and doing it everywhere and speaking to anything. Basically. A group of course talks, on the street, the small sidewalk cafes, in busses wherever. If they're alone, romans have their best friend: cell phones. My God telephone companies down here must be the business. It's very interesting to observe, but when it get's too much I go to a nearby park I found a couple of weeks ago: Villa Doria Pamphilj. I usually take my book (at the moment Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac) and go read. As my title of this blog indicates, it' on the verge of spring, so the sun is out all day and the temperatures creep over the 15 degrees celsius. In this park I took my first run today. Fantastic.

Back to what I'm really here for: football and Lazio (and pizza, but that's always the same, great (but I usually make my own pasta as that's the cheapest)). I got to see the, so far only, victory against Fiorentina. Great victory, but the best part was after the match! Here I got the chance to meet Sinisa Mihajlovic (picture). Some people who reads this maybe says "whaaaa... who cares" Well I care. He was a big hero for Lazio back in the days when I was a little boy in my first years as a fan of the club. He later became a big legend for Lazio. I actually got to see a match at the stadium in 1998 when he scored three goals only on freekick. He's now the trainer of Fiorentina, so that's where the connection to his whereabouts in Rome are. Again a big thanks to Paolo who gave me the opportunity to meet him.

I also had the time to meet up with my friend Mattia, who is the reason I became a Lazio fan!! Great man.

Some days after I went to Milano where Lazio was meeting Ac Milan. Yes, the club owned by Berlusconi. yuck (oh, maybe I'm not allowed to say that while I'm in the borders of Italy). I stayed at my friend Dani's place (once again, thanks!) and we together went to the match. There are some stupid restrictions going on here in Italy, that I don't want to bore you with, so we had to sit amongst the other Milan fans. During the match we got our share of "pezzi di merde" "lasciate milano" (and much more verbal accusations that aren't aloud here), peanut shells, rolled up newspapers etc. Idiot fans. Anyway, the stadium was fantastic. The atmosphere and sound was amazing. No wonder it's considered one of the best stadiums in Europe. Lazio managed a 0-0 which is a good result. Lazio hasn't won on this stadium in the league since 1989. I really wanted the record to be broken that day... but damn no. I also got to go sightseeing in Milano, which is a really nice city.

I was also lucky to get a cancelled ticket so I could see Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'. Well actually me and Dani went to the wrong church to start out with as mankind's best invention= the iPhone gave us the worng directions to the wrong church!! It all got solved and I saw my cultural masterpiece. It's painted directly on the wall (not a fresco, that's what they kept saying, can't remember what it is) which gives it a more  .. how to say... spiritual feel when you're standing infront of it. I wasn't aloud to take photos of the painting. Although, afterwards you were aloud to take pictures of a replica... yeah right. Instead I'l post a picture of the Duomo from the inside. Very gothic church!

After Milano I came back and one day hung out with a friend of mine called Edoardo who I met some years ago in Denmark when my school held the EGMUN. Some of his friends came aswell. It was go to be social again!

The last match was the dissapointign draw home against Chievo (pronounced Kievo!!) where a lot of political stuff was going on as there are accusations that the Milan administration didn't want Lazio to win this match. Long story.

This weekend I'm going to Brescia (via Milano) to follow Lazio there, and on my way back I'm going to take 3 days in Florence. When I get back to Rome my mom and sister are coming to visit. juhuu.

Everything's good, spring is soon coming!

Forza Lazio

First days in Rome and Bologna

Ciao a tutti!

Well the football has sucked radically, but I've had a very nice first week here in Rome, aswell as my three days in Bologna, although I was sck the first day there.

I arrived last tuesday and got settled. I live right next to the Stazione Trastevere, which is fanastic as all transportation is next to: bus - and tram stop is right outside my door. It takes me 5 minutes by tram, then I'm in the centre of the centre!! It takes me like 20-30 minutes to walk so I can't be more satisfied. I'm renting a room in an apartment which belongs to Fernando. He is a very nice guy (although he's a romanista (roma fan) ) and the first day he helped sort out my first concerns - where's the super market, getting an italian phone number and so on.

The next day was the Derby della Capitale, where Lazio meets their ugly rivals: roma. I don't want to comment on the match, but I had a nice day with good friends. It's a tradition that many Laziali (Lazio fans) from around Europe come to this match when it is played via the website Laziofever (soon to become LazioLand). This time was no exceptation - although we were a small bunch this time - and people came from Sweden, Finland, Germany, Norway and Luxembourg. All this is arranged by a man named Paolo - thanks again for setting all this up.  I hanged out with them all day and despite the Derby defeat we had a good day with good food and laughes.

The next couple of days I used to explore my neighbourhood - Trastevere. This is a very beautiful part of Rome. The ancient Romans actually didn't use this part of the city during the start of the Roman Empire, so a big part of Trastevere is Medieval. It makes this area pretty unique and very nice to be. Not that many ancient ruins, but the cobblestone, narrow streets are very charming. Also, apparently the first Roman Christian Church lies here: Santa Maria in Trastevere which I went into one day. Very beautiful.

On Saturday I travelled to Bologna to follow Lazio's match there. As I wrote earlier I got sick the first day, which sucked as I planned to use that day to go sightseeing in the city. I did that Monday morning instead. Another defeat, ¤"&//¤%>&¤"/"¤#, but a on a positive note I met the players by pure accident with my friend Dani. He lives in Milano now for a year, and is also a Laziale and lives usually in Denmark. Suddenly we saw the team bus and we decided to check it out. Well, then we met the team, staff and outside the hotel also the president. We're not that fund of the president, he's a real shitface, so we didn't want to talk to him. Anyway, we met some of the players and took pictures with a few of them. Luckily for them that we didn't meet them after the match because we would've given them a whole lot of shit after that performance.

But hey, not every time you meet your favourite team in sandal's in their hotel.

Yesterday I went sightseeing in Bologna, which is a really beautiful city. A very interesting story combined with some beautiful sights. Too bad I didn't have enough time to go inside some of the churches and explore.

The train home went much better, and I got to see what beautiful landscape this country offers. And it's only January!!

Now I'm back in Rome, going to meet up with some friends the next couple of days, and I havn't even got to the centre yet!!

Forza Lazio