Back to Viet Nam

I haven't posted in a long, long time. Travels for work have taken me across the globe and back to my third 'home' Viet Nam. As I sit here in a cafe in Hoi An, an ancient city outside of Da Nang in the middle of Viet Nam, I'm reflecting on what brought me here in the first place 9 years ago. Was it the food? The people? The culture? As people ask me, I cannot remember anymore the moment I fell in love with this country. There was a time my Dad visited and brought back tales of this country and beautiful hand crafted goods, but I think that only sparked my interest even more. It could have been my love for all things Asia, the mindful and spiritual was of a country that has been through so much.

Making my normal rounds with my group, here on this 5th trip I'm getting to see it for the first time through eyes of young adults, older adults, those who left the night before Saigon fell as children, and those who have been here more times than I. So many perspectives, none like my own. As we have passed through southern Viet Nam, once rife with famine, war, and too many atrocities to name, I'm reminded each day of the hardworking nature and beauty of not only the landscape but the people. Life isn't easy here; one of my group mentioned how it's not just the people that life is hard on here- it's hard on buildings, infrastructure, health, and as we have noticed, electronics.

But the people push on, the children push on, and we, as a group of 42, push on. The service learning trip is half over, and these young adults are already changed for good. I hope that they take away a love for this country and it's people just as I did on my first journey here. 

A Visitor Comes a Knockin....

Well, the day finally arrived. 2 ½ years in the making, Zishan Aziz finally came to visit me. He was my lovely house guest here in Italy as my time is winding down to the last days. And let me tell you, it was just what I needed to appreciate my time here. And impress everyone with my unbeknownst handle on the Italian language. I surprised everyone,even myself. I guess it was the same when I was forced to speak Japanese in Japan. What can I say, I cant be bothered….unless I have to be. Then I can hold my own.

Let me start off with the weather. It has been so cold and rainy……..and this weekend brought SUNSHINE!!! Just as I prepared my guest for the raininess and made him bring an umbrella….it was gorgeous. Of course. However, it still was quite chilly. As I had been without heat, my guest brought his electrical skills and figured out how to turn the heat on in our apartment. Two points for Z!

Once Z arrived, I took him out for the real deal….Naples pizza. That’s right. Pizza every day . I don’t think Ill be eating much pizza once I come home for a while. It will be tacos and Chinese food and sushi and Starbuck….. any way I digress.

Saturday came and I was able to take Z downtown. I was proud of myself for being able to do it alone, since I have never ventured that far by myself before. It felt good to know that I ( kind of) know my way around some areas of the city. I guess just the travelling has made it that I don’t have  a NEED to go shopping every weekend in the downtown portion, and I didn’t realize what I was missing. The whole day was so much fun just walking around and exploring. We headed to the “Showcholate” That’s right people, a whole festival about CHOCOLATE. A belated birthday present to me! Fondue, chocolate bars, chocolate beer, wine, shirts, covered things….you name it, it was there. It was really lovely. We spent the afternoon enjoying it, then headed over for some coffee and deep conversation. Leave it to Z to always ask the uncomfortable questions and make me think about my life. Thanks buddy!

We then met up for what would be a very eventful evening with Aldo and friends. Aldo, my sidekick here in Italy. I don’t know what I would have done without him while Ive been here. Hes truly a very special guy !! Plus, his mom feeds me chocolate, and he does too. Cant complain about that. ANYWAY….. they met us at the Showcholate and I was able to show them where to get the free stuff. All of a sudden, Aldo said that I could sing for free chocolate. SO there, in the middle of Piazza Plebicito in the heart of Naples, I sang Call me Maybe ( badly and forgetting the lyrics I may add) for free chocolate. Im pathetic, I know. But its simple to make me happy!

We continued our quest for our night out with both Aldo and Z teasing me about being an old lady who likes to be in bed at 11pm. I said don’t be a hater, I needed my beauty sleep. We ventured down through the heart of Naples on Via Toledo passing all the shops,  newly minted Christmas decorations, and street vendors. Now, these were the same street vendors from Africa that sell random Chinese goods on the street. However, now they were all dressed as Santa. Not like any Santa I had ever seen. Aldo paid a Santa 20 cents to say “ Hey, Carries shy, Merry Christmas Carrie”. See, its just like home. Someone ALWAYS likes to embarrass me!!! But I like it.

We headed up the streets of Vomero, the nicest district in Naples ( which could and maybe did change my complete opinion on Naples) to eat some pizza. Do you see a theme here? Pizza and chocolate. We chatted while we waited for pizza….but before we did we hit the jackpot. While we were walking, we discovered a small changepurse/wallet. While we looked around to see if it may belong to someone, as it looked like a senior citizens wallet….we soon discovered that it probably was not. Hidden inside was a prophylactic, and 10 euros. We decided we didn’t mind that we found it then, and joked around about its contents. Did I mention this was on the “immaculate conception” day? Just a coincidence….anyway we enjoyed amazing pizza, amazing company, and felt full of both food and laughter as well left the restaurant to enjoy our gellatto….now paid for !

As we were arriving for our gelato, we kept thanking the wallet man, and the gentleman who seemed to be dressed up as Oliver Twist. There were so many laughs and jokes, it made it feel as if we were all old friends who had known each other for years. I love nights like this.

Waking up on Sunday, unbelievably the sun was still shining. It was so unheard of in Naples these past few weeks that I thought it had to be a miracle! Z and I were able to take a walk, drink some coffee, have some pastries ( again with the eating theme) and enjoy Naples on a Sunday. Now, Ive mentioned before how this city shuts down on Sundays. I felt like such a liar though as I had warned Z…….and somehow everywhere was open this Sunday. What the heck!!! I couldn’t figure it out, and felt like I needed to eat my words. I just couldn’t believe it. I don’t think Z would have even believed me if Aldo hadn’t said the same thing the day before.  During our walk we ran into kids who “loved our English”, a dog convention, a man who I almost kicked because he wouldn’t leave us alone after I told him I didn’t want his dead people flowers, and saw a castle. Not too bad of a day. Plus Z got a bouncy ball from a machine.

All was right in the world :)

Happy Birthday and Goodbye!!

When I finally got home from Barcelona, I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with Matt before he left. We got to have a nice quick chat before our Italian friends descended upon our home for a final farewell. Granted, I looked and felt like a homeless person. Seriously. But they made me feel much better. Between the good conversation, the dancing, our wonderful video parodying “How I met Your Mother” to “How I met my fellow interns” was fantastic and heartfelt ( and full of greys anatomy) to the wonderful performance and singing of happy birthday at midnight. I couldn’t have asked for something better J

Wait....I thought I was in Spain?

 

 

Last weekend I spent some time in Barcelona. I was trying to figure out something nice to do for myself for my birthday, and thought, hey, why not. Its supposed to be a warm, beautiful city. Well, it was unseasonably freezing!!!! The wind whipped, the cold air blew off the water, and I didn’t bring my gloves, silly me. I thought it would be warm! To my dismay, I spent the entire weekend cold. But that’s ok, I was in Barcelona, right!

I realized in Barcelona that not all hostels are the same. While my hostel was very clean, modern, and nice, it wasn’t the best for meeting people who were also travelling alone. I ran into one Japanese kid, a group of teenagers from Germany there for a Yu-gi-oh card tournament, and two lovely girls ( they really were nice) travelling on holiday from Australia, who made friends with the German boys. A far cry from my experience in Berlin. It was at this point I knew I was on my own for travels. I took the advice from my friend Adrian about a *free* walking tour of the city that he had gone on, was advertised at my hostel, and that I had read about online. I thought it would be a good way to become introduced to the city. Well, they must have had a different tour guide.  ( after checking Adrian’s  message, I confirmed this) Ive never had such a bad tour guide! This guy hated everything about being a tourist! He kept confirming that he did not like tourists, that tourists made the city dirty and crime ridden because they buy 4 euro coffees  at Starbucks and only want to drink Sangria, and eat tapas and paella. Well, yeah~! Its like when someone wants to go to Italy and eat spaghetti or pizza. Come on now.  This man just couldn’t redeem himself to me. He kept telling us about a few buildings, but not any real information. It was quite annoying.  Now, these *free* tour guides are usually pretty young, funny, and love the city. This guy kept saying how he was an engineer and just doing this because he gets paid to, and how he hates all the tourist spots. And he was leading a group of tourists. Nice. So at the end of the tour, you give tips on what you think the tour was worth. Really, I just wanted to give him a euro and tell him how terrible he was, but the waitress in me couldn’t do it, so I gave him 8 euro. Then he talked to me inside the bar, and thought it was a pleasure to order a beer for 1 euro that he reminded me that I had to pay him for. Enough said.

So needless to say, it put a bad taste in my mouth. HOWEVER I then found Starbucks, on the touristy road he told us to avoid. And it tasted delicious.  I grabbed a burger and headed back to the hostel. They showed movies at 9pm every night, so I watched the end of Looper and then one of the Mila Jovovich movies, I cant remember what they are called. But it was fun. The next day, I decided to take one of the fun bus tours around the town. Now, it was cold. I really should have thought about what I was signing up for before I bought my ticket to sit on a bus for four hours in the cold wind. However, quickly the trip took a fun turn. I chatted with a few other people who were on the bus, and suddenly we discovered that we were stuck. Literally. The city hop on hop off bus got stuck under an underpass because it lowered itself and didn’t make it back up. It was on too large an incline. It was hilarious, since the recording kept going, and so it was telling us about things even when we were still in one spot. Actually very funny!  We were all escorted off of the bus and asked to wait for the next bus, which was already packed. We were able to get on, and got a good laugh out of it. We looked like crazy people! 

I was able to see all the sights- La Sagra Familia, the Olympic Village, beautiful old churches, the FC Barcelona stadium, Las Ramblas and the shopping areas. It was fun to see the architecture that was so unique and how it would be beautiful in the summer time. A return may be necessary!!!

However, getting home was not so smooth. I will spare you the details. But lets just say I was uncharacteristically emotional at the airport, which shopping and hot chocolate did not fix when my flight was delayed, and then my connecting flight was missed. Not one of my finest moments!!

One of the only places that there is still evidence of the Spanish Civil War....

 

Where Vicky Cristina Barcelona was filmed. This is where they met......

Javier Bardem sat here!!!

 

The Town Hall

 

A Monument to the people climbing sport

 

Our Stuck Bus!!!!!

La Sagra Familia