Praying on the streets of Rome, Italy

Woke up at 6am and worked out a bit, played some golf like a creep before the sun even came up. Break fast. shower. arrived at Civitavecchia, Italy at 8am. jumped off ship and headed on a 1hr train ride to rome. It was packed and the seat head rests were covered in mildew from other peoples heads ha ha. ghetto. tagging was every where, even the trains.

Priests were everywhere. There was a catholic mass going on when I went to the church and orange colored guards. Must have been over 2000+ people. Neat architecture but by this time I was over it. It seemed like every other street in Italy had some ancient or detailed structure..booo!! It was also packed with tourists and vendors. lame. its hot.

The pillars were tall, seemed pretty new but with a roman touch to them. nothing too interesting in this area. kept wandering.

Came up on this huge statue of the virgin mary, I think ha ha. The smooth texture and deep carvings really made it stand out. No one really cared to look at it. I have no idea why statues facinate me, maybe because I picture someone carving at it for hours.

Another castle, not sure what was inside. Again they were charging way too much, but there was a homeless man snorring really loud on the outside. Feet are so sore. too much walking. thirsty.

A bridge lead to another half of the city, a lot of tall statues decorated it. I noticed the waters were green like baby shit. maybe because it is shit??

ahhh a another market place, i must have spent an hour looking around this one. every vendor had something fresh and new. no one had the same shit here ha ha!! i became fond of a little red vespa here. i know who'd love it!! one vendor was selling jewelry made from coconut shells and another hand made rings. prices weren't bad either. walk. walk. walk.

The streets were beautiful here and the alley ways were the coolest, a little escape from the heat. never wear thick button ups. large door ways.

I want a shell horn like the guy on the right is blowing. I could blow it in the morning so everyone in my neighborhood could know I was up!!! or blow it every time I ate KFC!! the statue was huge, across from these old pillars with ancient pictures of Ra the egyptian god.

Everyone should have huge door knobs like this, doorbells are too nice. Knocking on doors with your knuckles hurts after a while. It was funny though, every door had a different design. Some funny others extremely angry. Door knobs are a big deal here. My door knob would be of a chicken with huge testicles, you would have to knock by banging its testicles ha!! :]

There were a few beggars, but I noticed all of them would only beg from the ground. None of them were standing. They seemed to be of that mysterious race I couldnt put my finger on. This woman stuck me the most, all I could think of was "faith" as she had her old tattered hand perfectly alligned in prayer. She didnt make a sound as people dropped coins into her little jesus tin. Beautiful yet sad to watch.

These were famous spanish steps, steps that popped the blisters on my feet. fml. push on right. It was way too crowded and I wasn't in the mood to get pick pocketed so I ventured off.

Till I ran into this dude with a half sleeve?? His tattoos were plain and simple, of the old school tattoo style. It was still a fresh view since everyone else only had one or two tribal tattoos. Im not sure why but a shit ton of people had boring tribal tattoos. click it to view the detail. reminded me of oli sykes tattoos. next.

I fell in love with this bike as soon as I saw it. I was seriously about to jack this shit and ride it around rome. Old. Faded. yet glorious!! you can really see how the paint on the buildings was chipping and faded. no bike locks. i guess people dont really steal bikes out here.

the street. cars. vespas. car. vespa. vespa. vespa. vespa. vrrooommmmmm. The street vendors were mainly asian and indian here. it was weird, very few blacks. Again fake purses sold well here. the cars were tiny. tiny.tiny.

Among the gypse looking beggars from some mysterious race I was really shocked at the people who had deformaties. One lady had feet that curled in really bad, she moved around by pushing herself on a cheap skateboard. She didnt speak. What pissed me off the most is that priests and other clergy members would walk right past them. I only ran into 3 unlucky people with similar conditions, one man had a huge growth on his head the size of a golf ball. something a simple opperation could of handled. something a church could gather donations for and have treated. yet nothing. like i said there were very few deformed people which could of most likely been helped through surgery. fuck cergy that dont help the needy. why do we make donations at mass??

Walked up to the colliseum, huge 1 hr line to get in. no thanks. it wasnt that tall, but there was a lot of excavated buildings to explore around it. the streets were paved with huge 2x1 ft stones which hammered down on my feet. wear really protective shoes if your going here. walk. walk. walk. tired. too many people. lots of beautiful girls. even saw 1 goth chick ha ha. ran into Talina of all people in the middle of rome. odd ha ha this place is huge!

Headed back at 5, on the ship by 6m. Ate dinner by myself after getting into it with my mom again over shit from the past. This asian waiter came up to me and asked me if I listened to deathmetal. I laughed and asked what he know about it. He started topping off Suicide Silence, Job for a cowboy, impending doom, white chappel. i was blown away. His name was Nyoman and he was from Bali, Indonesia. We was a vocalist for a band called Killer Instinct and apparently bali has a huge metal scene. He owned a band clothing store out there, apparently its really hard to get american band merch out there. he said a lot of metal kids make thier own custom hand made shirt out thier to support certain bands since buying a shirt from hottopic.com comes out to over $50 after its imported. Im still really shocked to hear that people around the world really do use myspace as a way to hear of new music. The guy was really cool and super clean cut. would of never guesses. I'm suppost to meet up with Talina tonight at the club. ended up passing the fuck out. fml. o well. missed the "shout" musical too.

Pizza in Piza and the Ghosts of Italy

I woke up fucking early again, the jet lag is hunting me. We stopped at the port of Levorno, Italy around 8am. I was the first one at the buffet again, and they had really good chocolate milk ha. The port was exremeley misty and almost looked cloaked in grey. 5euro bus ride into town left us in the middle of downtown.

Scrambled off the bus and jumped onto another one for 1 euro that would take me to the bust station. Everyone was so confused on where to go and no one spoke english. Again my spanish kicked in and I made a friend on the bus trip.

I forgot her name but she had a grip of piercings and tattoos. They were of an interesting art style and no one payed her any attention. We caught each other starting at the others tattoos and started laughing. She was into american soft rock, similar to linkin park. She told me that it wasn't so taboo to have percings and tattoos and that she never had any issues with getting jobs. She never saw plugs before so she was shocked. She helped me buy my train ticket and pointed us to the right train.

10:30 am- I was on my way to Florence, this really tall spanish looking guy and his little weiner dog sat across from me. He had a very strong spanish face but he smelled like BO and perfume big time!! His little dog kept smelling my feet and wandering around. Everyone on the train started petting him. So I did...fuck it. I love dogs.

My mom started talking to the guy with the dog, he carried himself well and was very surprised to see Mexicans in Italy lol. guess were an exotic breed here ha ha.

I dont quite remember what he did for a living but i got the wierd aura that he was a teacher of some sort. He told us of a few places to stop by and gave us directions to cheap/good places to eat. He spoke spanish, french, english, and italian....fucking crazy.

Some random girl boarded the train and started petting the dog without asking. She smiled and began talking to the spanish guy. She asked about my tattoos in italian and I looked at her funny. She spoke a little english and told me she was a student at the Academy of Art in Florence. She was on her way to school and she wanted to one day be a graphic designer. Feathers on her forearm, she explained that it was for "finding wisdom"...dope!! She looked nothing close to 21 but she was very outgoing and extremely friendly.

I met a man from the same country in africa as Kanye West. He was a sun glasses vendor and was the same age as me. He wore a highlighter green button up and was dressed decently well. He was staring at me going through my pictures and I offered to show him. I went through all of the LA/San Francisco picture and he was amazed at how beautiful my friends were and how big the buildings were. He said he wished he could one day visit but he doubts he ever will. I didn't notice it then but he was one of the "street" vendors...

I got off and started wandering, of course we got lost because my mom has no sense of direction. Fuck. There were african vendors everywhere, one guy tried selling me glasses for 10euros which was insane. After speaking some spanish I got it down to 4Euro, but the glasses were cheap and thin so I didnt get them. The guy spoke portuguese, french, italian, spanish, english, pollish, and his native language. Companies would pay bank for people like him in the states, its insane how they adapted out here to improve their hussle. anything to survive right? but i didnt see to many people buying from them. Fake purses were a hit though, everyone who was selling them had a crowd of white women around them. 30euros for a fake louis vitton bag and they were legit according to a woman who has a real one.

Walked into a bank because my mom wanted directions....stupid right. of course no one spoke english or spanish so we dipped. she flipped on me because i mentioned it would happen lol. The rest of the city was extrememely clean, and i mean no gum on the ground, no trash, not even homeless people. Kinda weird.

I didnt want to stay around the city I wanted to go to the market places and see all the little things that everyday people in italy do. My mom wanted to see all the historical shit. Butting heads...again!!! After a stupid and pointless arguement we continued through the marketplace. There were a grip of tent vendors like at fleemarkets, but they all sold the same shit. no joke, the exact same leather belts, statues, key chains, jewlery but nothing of worth.

There were little wall carvings everywhere, and nothing to protect them from people damaging them. After getting bitched at for taking too long while taking pictures I followed my mom to this huge...huge church.

This thing was so intense on the eye, i had to look twice. no joke. the doors were over 20ft high and every little thing had detail. I wanted to go in but every fucking church was charging 5-10euro to get in and walk out. why dont they just sell papers that pardon our sins like they used too. its a fucking church a place for prayer, so why would you charge to get in?? w.e. a lot of people were still paying to get in

I strayed from my mom and went down a few allys, saw this guy playing the piano thing?? I caught me taking a picture of him and smiled, it caught me off guard lol. Throughout the trip I had to sneak most of my photos of people since everyone was against getting their picture taking without getting mad or wanting money. He smiled though.

The housing architecture was very clean cut in this area. everyone had simple/natural colors on their houses and the windows opened outward and you can see on the bottom right. Smart lol. so when it rains you can keep your windows open.

ran into some old school metal kids, they had old faded iron maiden t's on. There hair was fucking long and they were staring at me all wierd, as if not to understand the way I looked. I didnt see a single scene kid in europe, i though it was dope to see kids out here supporting the music scene. I'm sure they've experienced things out here I one day hope too....like a concert at a small venue in italy.

I watched a documentary on how people from afrca were coming into italy looking for work and to start a new life. Once here they deal with the fact that there arent many jobs that dont require a degree/education. Many of them start street vending but its like i said earlier, everyone is selling the same shit and there are tons of them. They struggle to get into the country only to face poverty here too. I saw a man sitting on the floor crying, people were giving him money and he was throwing it back at him saying "i am not a beggar". I snapped this picture while i walked by, i liked that he wasnt afraid of how he felt and that people could see his frustration. The reality was that he was on his own here....struggling....crying

One thing that really striked me was the guy i met earlier with the highlighter green shirt, he said thank you for talking to him. I hit me later that people probably dont talk to these people for any reason other than trying to buy things from them. no one asked how their day was, no one asked about things they were going through, no one really payed attention to them at all. they were like ghosts roaming around italy. there but not really there, silent but beautiful.
2pm train ride to Piza, Italy- 1hr

I traveled through large open country with random houses every few miles. There were a grip of abandoned stone buildings along the train tracks and a flood of weed growing,...i seriously mean fields of it. the odor was intense. There were red poppy plans through the country side and farms. The taxi ride from the train station was 6 euro to the leaning tower of piza, it was a 5 min ride but we only had 40 mins to be in the city before we had to head back to the ship. (the ship leaves by a certain time and it would leave passengers if there not back on time ha ha.)

The leaning tower of piza was really crooked, you dont really feel the intensity of it until your standing right in front of it. Tourists were everywhere it was hard to tell who was a local and who wasnt. My friend killian worked in piza and i hit him up on myspace before I left about visiting. I met him at this club called moscow in hollywood a while back and kept in touch ever since.

He was the main chef it his little cafe Lavazza literally walking distance from the leaning tower of piza. He was surpised that I actually came and let me right my name on his cafe wall. He looked so different he got a lot of new tattoos on his legs, his dreads were way longer, and he streched his ears larger. He hooked it up with free pizza and coffee for my mother and I.

The bread was really dry and the pizza fucked up my stomach later but overall the food tasted pretty good. Food tastes better when its free ha ha ha !

The streets of piza were crowded with cars and still very clean, view from my seat before I ate.

Of course another picture of me being a fat ass, i porked the fuck out on all the pizza. the people behind me were from germany.

after a 10euro mercedes taxi ride back to the train station we boarded, I was exhausted from all the walking and sun exposure. I swear im 5x darker now lol. I noticed this guy day dreaming, I couldnt help but wondered what he was thinking about. a simple confterable life. a better job. his family back home. his troubles. a meal to eat. a girl??

7:45pm I watched los locos ola' perform, they were one of the best musical/comedy performers ive ever seen. that means a lot coming from me. he would spit ping pong balls at people that would come late then scream OLA'!! so fucking good. check them out online...google it ha ha

10:30pm "Dancing with the Jade stars" was a dance competition put on by the ships crew and members of the cruise ship. One member from the crew would pair up with a volunteer from the audience in the upper level club and would compete in dacing through several different genres of music. One girl really stood out, she was throwing around this asian guy like a rag doll. But she was dominating the dance floor with every style that was played. She ended up winning the competition.

I went to the night club completely bent on making the most of tonight. Everyone was 40+ but fuck it I danced my ass off. all the white people really didnt know how to dance. ha ha. sure enough that girl that won the competition rolled up, after a quick introduction she was my new party friend. Her name was Talina, she was portugues and was from Florida. She lives in the UK now and has her own dance tv show that helps out under privaledged children and she also had her own clothing line. I was impressed, I hardly meet anyone productive with themselves at the age of 20. Besides her hourglass curves and her aesthetic facial features her goals were insanely appealing. She glowed when she danced, i could tell that it was her escape....the same feeling when I perform. We danced till big sister interupted and we said our goodbyes :]

Omelet Du Fromage Montecarlo, Monaco

I woke up around 5:30 and found myself at the highest deck on the ship. It was still pretty dark out, I watched as black seas turned into different shades of emerald blue and glazy reds burned threw the sky like paint streaks. All was still until an orange eye appeared in the horizon over the shores of france and for the first time I saw the sun rise.

At exactly 6am I was the first one to the breakfast buffet...of course ha ha. I wolfed down 3 plates then took a nap till the ship got the Montecarlo port in France/Monaco? Everyone looked haggard as fuck, most of them suffering from jet lag. Funny thing is that everyone kept looking at me weird lol.

The port was small, the clifs were steep, and there was green everywhere. All the banks were closed for some reason and I couldn' exchange my money. Not to mention no one spoke a word of english. The locals were pretty nice if I spoke to them in spanish, but as soon as I switched to english there were fucking cunts. No wonder we dont like the french, assholes ha ha. jk. I wandered around since I had 8 hours to kill in the tinyest city ever!!

The sea gulls here were fucking rabid. I saw one attack a lady for her bread and another swoop on a sub sandwitch out of a dudes hand. Dont fuck with the birds, there down for their shit!! Everything was expensive, except the food. It was really annoying walking around because everyone was trying to sell me shit. Im on vacation mother fuckers, if I wanted to buy something ID BUY IT!!! I went to some little park for silence. There were a grip of metal statues everywhere. One of a couple holding each other was the most aesthetic on the eye. It reminded me of someone...missed her already? sketch! They had exotic plants and among them, cactus lol??

I climbed up to the top of this hill and looked down on the city, it was so colorful and tightly packed. I didnt see a beach anywhere though and I was hungry so I wandered off again. My mom kept getting pissy because I didnt like knowing where I was going. It confused her or something. go away. It was time to feast!!
There must have been 3-4 churches in the small 2 mile walk I did and they were all very detailed. I was getting a tad irritated because I kept trying to take pictures and so many tourists kept walking into them, or there were just s grip of them within the pictur like the one above. fuck tourists ha ha.

I tried to find "french fries" or as they call them here in france..."fries". but no one had them, it was just a grip of pasta places which I didnt think resembled the cuisine of france at all. I settled with this dry ass sandwitch/sub and some wierd sports drink. The sea gulls didnt get me!!

I found a beach on the other side of the city, my feet were fucking done. Once I got on the beach I noticed there wasnt any sand?? It was just small pebbles and people were laying naked all over it. Well at least old as women were. I saw so many saggy boobs i've come to peace with what my "wife's" tits will look like when shes old. fucking disgusting. and they were all over tanned and red. I found a few girls that were my age, they were all topless which was fucking wierd because they were kinda fat lol. They were from some city in southern france and spoke little english but really good spanish. They told me that bars and pubs are the place to be in France and to eat as much food as I can in Italy. Down!! "Chao!"

I got lost on the way back and was able to get away from all the tourists and old people. There were so many beautful streets and mini gardens hanging from windows. Everyone here seemed to ride a vespa and were really clean cut. No one really slowed down for pedestrians and some american lady almost got hit. stupid. its not hard to look the other way. 6pm check in. Passed the fuckout...hello jet lag!

Mi Vida Loca...Barcelona, Spain

Day one and I already fucked up, I missed my first flight to San Francisco by 3 mins. United airways is a fucking lame airline. End of story. Jumped onto another flight with some sketch as people that I think smoked or sold weed and made it back to my home town. Fremont, the town that taught me so much...

Got picked up by some indian guy super early, my mom got into a little arguement over how much she was paying for the trip and I swear the dude went over every pothole on the freeway because of it. Fuck you dude, its too early for this. got to the airport and the people at the front desk were being stupid about putting our bags on the conveyor belt that gets our luggage onto the plane. After 15 mins of waiting my mom runs back up to the desk and throws our luggage on the belt, only to have security come and yell at us. Impatient much?? Shes mad because I keep laughing lol. Security check. Food. 3 hour wait for the plane trip. Made some friend on the wait, 2 girls from Amsterdam, Holland. I sat with (forgot her name) for half the trip, had the best convo about how americans are fat, how fake people are in shopping malls, how dirty LA is compared to tv, pigging out on food, things to do in europe, beliefs on religion and how to handle situations, and our goals in life. She was starting her first day as a lawyer on monday and was really easy to talk too. Green eyes and a body like an hour glass, girls in europe really are fit!!

Got to Philidelphia for my 4 hour layover, the place was boring as fuck. Couldnt leave the airport. Saw a jaguar staring at me...how much? $43,000. "Thank you for using US airways"..sleep

Landed in Barcelona, Spain 10 hours later. Airplane food is fucking great, no joke. Its just like elementary school lunches only $1600 for one. The airport architecture was very modern and used a lot of clear glass. Suddenly I was surrounded by blue eye'd, blonde haired, white looking women that all spoke spanish better than me. weird. they looked german almost. 2 hour delay till we could board the ship. Got onto the cruise lines shuttle and it took us around town.

All the stops were need bet one of the most eye catching ones was a church that was designed by Guotti?? It was still under construction, he was unique in the sense that he only accepted donations from the local people to create his buildings and nothing else. There was so much detail in ever corner, the shot above only shows 1/4 of the building. click it for more detail. "Beware there are many pick pocketers in this area"- spanish bus driver. I'd fuck up anyone that tried to touch my shit!

Another stop was by this castle looking building, the first thing that stood out was this huge statue of a kind. Not sure who it was but it too had great detail. I did my own thing and dipped away from the guide and went down some random alleys. Ended up at this little art shop.

It featured art from the local college, not too many people were stopping in but I thought the work was fucking great. There was a lot of color and geometric shape used in a majority of the pieces.

I want this one in my room, its so grungie!! 350 euro, not too bad seeing how this painting was about 5ft x 3.5 ft. The girl that ran the shop was really chill and had a clean cut image. She was kind enough to let me take pictures even though we weren't suppost too.

I didnt want to miss the bus seeing how the old spanish driver made it really clear that he didnt give a dam if he left anyone behind. Looked back before I stepped on and noticed these dudes with buckets.

Sure enough these guys are making huge bubbles!!! I love bubbles. There were about 3 of them and they could make them so fast. The entire area by the bus was engulfed in human sized bubbles. They tripped out that I was taking pictures and didnt tip them. I hadnt exchanged my money yet though and the dollar is nothing out there. peace out then ha ha. "ya vamos"

The ship was 13 stories high, had 2 pools, a water slide, 6 bars, 4 clubs, and 3 "FREE" Buffets!!! Paradise right...wrong!! All I saw was old ass couples, no one my age and little ass kids. I'd everone was either 1-8 & 40+ with nothing in between. FML!!

I pushed aside my little age dillema and pigged the fuck out in the buffet. They had a little of everything and it actually all tasted good. They had waiters every 5 ft of the place that would pick up your dishes literally as soon as you were done. Handled that shit lol. The crew was mainly asian, couldn't really tell from what region since...you know...most asians look the same!!! jk. but really.

Room 10045 floor 10. The ship was really nice, lots of random artwork everywhere. Karaoki was at 9:30 in the S lounge floor 13. I never noticed how much people enjoyed american karaoki, all the old guys that were good at it were getting all the bitches...all the old, saggy tit, over make-up'd bitches ha ha. I guess i better start practicing :]

5/30/2010