Christmas break in Romania

Last Christmas were the most special ones ever, as I went to visit Iulia's paradise(1). We stay all days but one in Braşov, the first day in Bucureşti. At this opportunity I have the chance to meet her parents, with the seriousness that this implies. Also, I met her friends who were constantly asking for us, taking to different places, and enjoying with us our stay.

For me it was the chance to experience both a real winter and a real Christmas, like the ones we see in the movies, or in the Christmas postal we get during this time of the year. The temps were on average around -8°C, with peaks down to -20°C. I have to admit that at the beginning I was quite frightened with such a cold, but slowly I got used to it, wearing underpants, gloves and the unmissable scarf. We did some winter sports, like skiing(2) and going down the hill with slay.

I also tried everything from the Romanian cuisine, honors go to Iulia's mom who delighted us with very delicious dishes. Someone asked me to enumerate the things I don't like and there is only one: one kind of cheese that tastes as butter milk. The rest is excellent.

It's difficult to explain everything that happened in a few lines, it was a very nice time for us of joy and discovering for me. I leave a link to a photolog I made while I was in the trip. You'll have a chance to see a little bit by yourself.


(1) This is the name given to Braşov by Iulia.
(2) To be honest, I barely managed to get skies on and off, and turn around me. It's not as easy as it seems.

A summer vacation

I must admit I'm quite careless with my blog. The thing is that at some point one has to prioritize some things over others, and that's why my blogging activities has been reduced to a bare mininum almost null.

Anyway, I'll try to catch up and revive the main aim of this blog: to keep update all of you about my activities at this side of the ocean (for all my friends on the other side).

Let's go to the point then. This post is about last summer, where my parents came to visit me. They stayed in Europe for a period of 3 months, of which 2 I spent with them. We decide to take most of the chance they were here, so we did some crazy things. As the flew into Barcelona, I went to meet them and come by car to The Netherlands. This was our itinerary:


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We stayed overnight in Lyon where we did some sightseeing in the city. The day after, we arrived to Eindhoven, stopping at midday in Luxembourg.

My parents stayed at my place for one month that we spent traveling of course. We went to places as Cologne, Aachen (in Germany), the punt of the three countries (D-B-NL), Middelburg, Kinderdijk, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Den Bosch, Maastricht, Liège, Verviers, Leuven, Antwerp, Gent, Brugge, among others. As I was coming to the university, Brenda y Alberto, friends of mine and the family already, took them out to visit places in the surroundings of Eindhoven. Thanks them a lot!

In the way back to Spain, we passed by Paris where we stayed overnight. The day after passed by Andorra, to stay a few days in Barcelona. Then, following the route of the Mediterranean, we went to Tarragona, Murcia, Lorca, to finish our trip in Pedro Martinez, the village where my father was born. There, we stayed for the main celebration of the town with most of our relatives. We also travel around the village, like going to Granada and Almería.

Of course, in the meantime, I had to come back to continue with my obligations, while they continued enjoyed, with the very nice companion and support of my relatives.

This trip was the best gift I could ever have done to everyone, this was as thanking them for all they always have given me, all the love they could give. Thanks a lot to them, and all who cordially helped us to have a very nice time.

Return trip:


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Leisure Trips Part I

After some time, finally I managed to find some time to sit and write. The question is of course what happened? Just some trips, quite some work, and some social life. Indeed I'm supposed to work now, but I don't feel like doing that, I feel actually sleepy, tired, then let's write something.

Back to the end of April, some cousins came to visit me for the second time, I also took some days off, and we traveled a little bit, through Holland, we visited places as De Keukenhof, the huge park full of tulips and many other flowers I visited 2 years ago.


We also went to Gouda, the town where the Goudsekaas (the Goudse cheese) is originally from. Also to the capital city of the Noord-Brabant province, 's Hertogenbosch.

As as it couldn't be less, on April 30, we went to Amsterdam to celebrate queen's day. I did this already last 2 years, but every year it is a different party. Too crowded according to my perception.

From there, we flight into Prague, and during two days, we visited such a beautiful city. The people a bit rude though, but we had a nice time walking through its streets, going to restaurants, and more walking!



After that, they came back to Spain, and I visited a friend in Bonn, the birth place of Beethoven. I had gone to Köln which is just "next door", but this small and peaceful city is gorgoleous! It just coincide with the Rheininflammen, an exhibition of fireworks that takes all the Rhein river long. Together with her friends, we had a nice time. Here there are some more pictures by my friend.



That week I enjoyed a lot, ended very tired, but after 4 days just another trip was going to come... this, for a future post :)

A "round" trip

Last weekend was Easter and almost everybody over here, we fled away. With Rogelio, Ángela and Paty, some friends, we went a tour to nearby cities in Germany, France and Luxembourg.

Our first stop was in Frankfurt, what a beautiful combination of modernism and the very ancient style. Of course, we didn't leave without tried the very well-known Frankfurt sausages.

We continued on to Heidelberg which is just the nicest city I have ever visited. A very nice downtown area, combined with some hills, plus the snow that accompanied us all the way along our trip.


That was time to cross the border and go to a most Latin country, finally, after a long time I was missing it. We stayed in Nancy, and before passed by Metz. We liked a lot the main square, and ate a very nice fondue! The morning after, a nice and huge breakfast at the Excelsior brought to my memories those days I went to have breakfast to a bar in Argentina. The same coffee, the same croissants and the very same pistolets with jam and butter.


After that, we wandered through Luxembourg, a very nice combination of a modern city and at the same time a very small village. Impressed of the only 3% VAT, cheap gasoline and smaller than we thought, we suddenly ended up in Belgium, after queuing for filling the car's tank.

The night felt, and the snow as well. In Ardenes region the snow accumulated over the pavement in the highway was a few centimeters thick (±10cm I'd say).

A common factor in the trip was that we visited all churches we could, and we were amazed with all of them.

We all agree that we enjoyed ourselves a lot, and I hope we can repeat the experience of traveling soon!

Note: I owe pictures of the latest places we visited, I'm awaiting my friend to submit them. Hurry up!

El Desafío de Verano 2008 = The Summer Challenge 2008

El evento se anunció hace tiempo, en agosto, y hubo un recordatorio antes que me vaya a Argentina de vacaciones. El desafío de verano fue un desafío y todo un éxito, salvo por el hecho que hubo sólo cuatro participantes. En realidad, cuatro bicicletas participaron, dos de las cuales fueron usadas continuamente por mi hermano Nicolás y yo. Las otras dos fueron ocupadas por mi tío Manuel (tiuu), quien pedaleó casi un 70% del recorrido; mis primos Matías y Fernando; mi hermana Isabel y su novio Nicolás.

The event was announced back, in August, and there was a reminder before I went to Argentina on vacation. The Summer Challenge was indeed a challenge and all a success, except for the fact that there were only four participants. Actually, four participating bikes, two of them were continuously riden by my brother Nicolás and myself. The other two were occupied by my uncle Manuel, who pedalled more almost 70% of the route; my cousins Matías and Fernando; my sister Isabel and his boyfriend Nicolás.
Nicolás, el tiuu, Fernando y yo comenzamos la aventura desde la Posta de las Cabras, un par de kilómetros antes de Alemanía. Empezamos a las 10 en punto de la mañana. Mi hermano Manuel nos condujo en el auto hasta este punto y nos hizo el aguante todo el camino, y tomó la mayoría de las fotos.

Nicolás, Manuel, Fernando and myself started our adventure from the Posta de las Cabras (Spanish for goats' post), a couple of kilometres before Alemanía. The starting time was 10 o'clock. My brother Manuel drove us by car until this point and supported us all the way, and took most of the pictures.

5 kilómetros adelante, mis primas Isabel y Rocío con sus respectivos novios nos encontraron en medio de la ruta.

5 kilometres further, my cousins Isabel, Rocío and their respective boyfriends found us in the middle of the road.

Justo antes de llegar a Alemanía, Fernando nos dejó, siguiéndonos luego en el auto junto a mi hermano. Haciendo paradas cada aproximadamente 5 km más o menos continuamos hasta la Garganta del diablo, donde tuvimos la parada del almuerzo. Justo unos kilómetros antes, mi tía Gaby nos alcanzó en auto, y nos trajo el delicioso pollo al spiedo para el almuerzo.

Just before arriving Alemanía, Fernando left us, following thereafter by car together my brother. Doing some stops every 5 km more or less we continued until Garganta del diablo (Spanish for devil's throat) where we made the lunch stop. Just a few kilometres before, my aunt Gaby reached us by car, and brought us the roast chicken for the lunch.

Luego de esto, mi tío Manuel nos abandona, porque se acalambró cuando quiso golpear un perro que vino a mordernos durante la mañana. Se nos re-encontró en Tres Cruces. Mi hermana hizo 5 kilómetros desde la Garganta hasta las Tres Cruces junto a su novio. Desafortunadamente para ella, esta es una de las partes más duras de la ruta, la pendiente es muy pronunciada.

After that, my uncle Manuel left us, because he got a cramp in one of his legs while trying to hit a dog that came to bite us during the morning. He re-joined us in Tres Cruces (Spanish for Three Crosses). My sister rode the 5 kilometres from Garganta del diablo to Tres Cruces together with his boyfriend. Unfortunely, this is one of the hardest parts of the route, the slope is quite pronounced.

Luego, continuando hacia abajo fue increíble. Alcancé unos 55.7 km/h, mi hermano y los demás un poco más. No pude mejorarlo porque había unos camiones en la ruta mientras yo descendía. Seguimos la ruta, con un ritmo regular, con subidas y bajadas, disfrutando del paisaje un montón. Pasamos por algunos escenarios naturales como el Sapo, la Casa de Loros, el Obelisco, los Castillos.
Then, the going down after Tres Cruces was incredible. I reached 55.7 km/h, my brother and the others a way more, I couldn't do better because there were some trucks in the road while I was descending. We continued the road, in a regular pace, with ups and downs, and enjoying the sightseeing quite a lot. We pass by some natural sceneries like el Sapo (the frog), casa de loros (parrots house), el Obelisco (the obelisk), los Castillos (the castles).

En determinado punto hubo una subida bien pronunciada y difícil. Se llama El Paso, justo antes del obelisxo. Luego de pasarla nos juntamos para planeas nuestros movimientos. Nos desviamos del pavimento para arribar a Aninamá (nuestro destino final) en línea recta. Este es un camino de tierra y la mayoría de las pendientes son para arriba. Fue dificíl mantener un ritmo razonable. Se hizo difícil continuar debido al cansancio acumulado. A 15 km de llegar, mi hermano fue en el auto a ver el estado del camino. Volvió con malas noticias: el camino estaba cortado por una creciente del río que lo cruza(1). Además, una de las bicis se rompió, y debido a la imposibilidad de llegar en bici a Animaná, abortamos el tour. Arribar a Animaná significaría volver al pavimento (unos 7km), ir a Cafayate (24km) y volver a Animaná (10km). Así que nos quedamos ahí nomás.

At some point there was a going up quite hard, it's called el paso (the pass, or passage), just before the obelisk. After passing it, we gather in the castles, and planned our next movements. We diverted the pavement, to arrive to Animaná (our final destination) in a straight line. This is an unpavemented road, and most of the slopes are going up. That was hard to keep a reasonable pace. Added to the accumulated tireness, it became hard to continue. 15km before our final destination, my brother went by car to check the rest of the road. He came back with bad news: the road was interrupted because of the high level of the river that crosses over it(1). Besides, one of the bike was just broken, and due to the impossibility of arriving by bike to Animaná, we aborted the tour. Arriving to Animaná would have meant to come back to the pavemented road, 7km, and then 24km to Cafayate, plus 10km back to Animaná. So we gave up.

Estas son las estadísticas del viaje: (el GPS iba conmigo)

These are the statistics of the trip: (I carried the GPS)

Y esta es el corte transversal de las pendientes del camino, con respecto a la altura sobre el nivel del mar.

And this is the morphology of the ground, with respect to the altitude above the sea level.
Fuimos albergados en la casa de la familia Salas. Cominos un delicioso corderito en la noche, y más tarde nos fuimos a la fiesta de los artesanos en San Carlos. Aunque los ciclistas estábamos cansados, nos fuimos a dormir a las 6 de la mañana, luego de mucha fiesta.

We were hosted at the house of Salas family. We ate a delicious lamb in the evening, and late in the night went to the Handicraft feest in San Carlos. Although the bikers were tired, we went to bed after 6 in the morning after partying a lot!

En resumen: la pasamos muy bien, no sólo los ciclistas, también los asistentes de equipo quienes nos dieron todo el apoyo psicológico, líquidos y comida. En casa de los Salas tuvimos un recibimiento espectacular y nos trataron de 10. Personalmente, agradezco especialmente al Coco Salas y su familia por tan linda recepción, y solamente disculparnos si fuimos más de lo que esperaban (ahora sumo 18 invitados en total). Otro agradecimiento va para mi tío Manuel quien desde el principio realmente hizo lo más que pudo para llevar a cabo el tour. Él jugó un papel importante en la mayoría de los preparativos del desafío. Y todo los demás que de una u otra manera que estuvieron metidos en el evento. Quiero repetirlo para el año que viene, así que aquellos que tuvieron miedo de unirse: no nos pasó nada, estamos vivos :) ¡Hasta la edición del año que viene del desafío de verano!

In a nutshell: we enjoyed a lot, not only the bikers, also our co-equippers who gave us all the psicological support, liquids and food! At Salas' house we have the warmness and a nice treatment. Personally, I especially thank Coco Salas and his family for such a nice reception, and just apologize if we were more that what you expected (I count now 18 guests!). Another acknowledgement goes to my uncle Manuel who really did his best to carry out this tour from the beginning. He played a crucial role in most of the preparatives of the challenge. And all the others that were involved in this event. I want to repeat it next year, so those who were afraid to join us: nothing happens to us, we are alive :) Until the next year's edition of the Summer Challenge!

(1) En el valle Calchaquí llueve unos poco días al año y en general no llueve mucho. Por esto, no se hacen puentes sobre los ríos. Este año fue más lluvioso que lo normal, y los caminos se vieron cortados por esta razón.

Actualización: sólo agregué la fotos del obelisco.

(1) In the Calchaqui valley only rains a few days during the year, and in general is not much. For this, bridges over the rivers are not built. This year was more rainy than usual, and so the roads were interrupted by the rivers.

Update: Just added the Obelisk picture.

Terug in NL

El título quiere decir 'de vuelta en NL'... con una mezcla extraña de sentimientos, estoy de vuelta, para continuar con mis obligaciones. Por supuesto, les debo muchas explicaciones sobre mi viaje a Salta. Lo que puedo anticipar son varios posts que quiero compremeterme ahora a desarrollarlos: naturalmente hablaré del desafío de verano bicicleteando a Cafayate (por cierto, todo un suceso), el turismo burocrático, el huso horario de verano (del que tengo un post en retrospectiva), los malos vecinos y algunos posts relacionados a escapaditas cerca de Salta.

Como es obvio luego de 7 semanas de vacaciones, tengo muchas cosas para hacer. Así que a medida que me voy poniendo al día con ellas, acomodo mis fotos(1) y me re-adapto a NL, lo voy a ir haciendo. También prometo ponerme al tanto y meterme de nuevo con los blogs de amigos y la actividad cibernética en general :) Y más importantemente, ¡dar mi examen de holandés en menos de una semana!

(1) Como no puede ser de otra forma, las leyes de Murphy se aplicaron a la perfección: justo antes de grabar un CD con mis fotos ordenadas, la computadora no arrancó. El resultado: todas mis imágenes dispersas en tarjetas de memoria, pendrives y otros CDs.

The title means 'back in NL'... With a mixture of feelings, I'm back, to continue with my duties. Of course, I owe you lots of explanations about my trip to Salta. What I can anticipate are various posts I want to commit to now. I'll naturally talk about the summer challenge biking to Cafayate (all a success, btw), the bureaucratic tourism, the daylight time zone (for which I have a post in retrospective), bad neighbours and some related to my getaways around Salta.

It is obvious that after almost a 7-week holiday, I have lots of things pending to do here. So, in the meantime that I accomplish them, sort my photos up(1) and get adapted back to NL, I'll be doing so. I also promise to get updated and reinvolved in some friends' blogs and all the cybernetic activity :) An most importantly, give my Dutch exam in less than a week!

(1) As cannot be otherwise, Murphy laws applied in my case: just before burning a CD with all my pictures sorted up, the computer didn't boot at all. The result: all pictures disperse in memory cards, memory sticks and other CDs.

Summer Challenge 2008 (actualizado/updated)

Hace un tiempo, propuse hacer una bicicleteada desde Salta hasta Cafayate, unos 200 km. Recibí muchos comentarios de todos tipo, desde los más negativos (yo paso) pasando por los neutrales (lo pensaré, pero me tengo que entrenar) y los positivos (seguro, ¿cuándo es?). Por supuesto que la mayoría de los comentarios fueron neutrales y negativos, así que me decepcioné un poco.

Para mi sorpresa, alguno de los que respondieron positivamente han empezado a tomárselo bien en serio y ya están entrenándose, y hasta hay una fecha inclusive. También, por una cuestión de seguridad y precaución (ya que 200km no es una distancia corta), ellos decidieron partir desde Coronel Moldes, acortando el camino en unos 90km, y evitando para parte más transitada de la ruta.

Por lo tanto, lo voy a hacer, acompañado de más o menos 10 personas. Así que si sos uno de los negativos, o no te has hecho la idea todavía, empezá a entrenarte como yo lo haré. Estoy seguro que lo pasaremos bien y vamos a disfrutarlo!

¿Cuándo? Sábado, 13 de enero de 2008.
¿Dónde? Coronel Moldes.

Todavía podemos arreglar cómo llegar allí, y muchos otros detalles, comentando este post, por email, por teléfono o personalmente. No importa, cómo el punto es hacerlo. Aquí les dejo unas fotos que encontré el flickr (cliqueá sobre ellas para ver más) de gente haciéndolo. Espero verlos por allá corriendo juntos!!

Actualización (8/12): Obviamente, aún no es claro si lo vamos a lograr. Lo que es seguro es que vamos a tener un equipo de apoyo (o socorro), que si no llegamos al destino, ellos van a hacer la ruta en sentido inverso hasta que nos encuentren :) (espero que vivos!). Y vamos a tener algunos mates a la llegada. También, la estadía en Cafayate y la vuelta no están claros. En el peor de los casos, podemos quedarnos en un camping y volver el día siguiente en colectivo (o en bicicleta, quién sabe). Sugerencias son bienvenidas.
A time ago, I proposed to do a cycling tour from Salta to Cafayate, about 200km. I got comments of all kinds, from negative opinions (I pass) going to neutral (I'll think about it, I have to train for sure) and rather positive ones (sure, when is it?). Of course most of comments were both neutral and negative, so I felt a bit disappointed.

For my surprise, some of the positive answerers have start taking it very seriously and they are already training for the challenge, and there is indeed a date scheduled. Also, for a matter of safety and precaution (as 200km is not a short distance), they decided to departure from Coronel Moldes, shortening the total path for 90km, and avoiding the busiest part of the road.

Therefore, I'm going to do it, accompanied by more or less 10 more people! So, if you were one of the negative cyclers or didn't make your mind yet, start training as I will do! I'm sure we will have a very nice trip and enjoy a lot!!

When? Saturday, January 13th, 2008.
Where? Coronel Moldes

We can still arrange how to get there, and many other details by commenting this post, by email, by phone, or personally. It doesn't matter how, the point is doing it! Here there some pictures I've found in flickr (click on them to see more) of people doing it. I look forward to seeing you there!

Update (8/12): Obviously, it is still not clear if we will make it. What is sure is that we will have a support team keeping track of our movements, if we don't show up at the final destination, they will do the path in the inverse direction until they find us :) (I hope alive!). And we will have mates at the final destination. Also, staying in Cafayate and the way back is not clear how will be done. In the worst case, we can stay in a camping site and come back by bus (or cycling, who knows!). Suggestions are welcome!

Una escapadita = A getaway (2)

Hace un par de semanas me dí cuenta que aún tenía 1½ días de vacaciones, así que pensé que nada mejor que gastarlos. Así lo hice, y me fui a Granada para 'devolverles' la visita a mis primos. Este un resumen de lo que hicimos:

En la noche del viernes salimos de tapas.

A couple of weeks ago I realized I still had 1½ days of vacations, so I thought it could be a good idea to spend them. So did I, I went to Granada to 'reimburse' a visit to my relatives. This is a kind of report of what we did:

On Friday evening we went out for tapas.

El sábado, caminamos en el casco céntrico y visitamos museos y la catedral. En la tarde, un almuerzo bien fuerte, seguido de una visita a la cumbre de la Sierra Nevada. En la noche, no había más energía para seguir de joda, así que el cansancio decidió que era mejor descansar. Queda pendiente conocer la noche granadina.

On Saturday, walked around the downtown and visit some musea and the cathedral. In the afternoon, a huge lunch, followed by a visit to the top of the Sierra Nevada. In the evening, there was no energy to continue hanging out, so our tiredness decided it was better to have rest. It is pending for me to know the night-life in Granada.


No fue una lástima, porque el domingo temprano salimos a dar una vuelta por las Alpujarras. Es una serie de pueblitos a la orilla sur de la Sierra Nevada. Obviamente un camino no muy recto nos llevó a los pueblos, donde tuvimos un almuerzo típico allí arriba, y puedo decir que las vistas panorámicas son inceríblemente espectaculares. De nuevo abajo en Granada, hicimos una visita flash a algunos familiares, y volvimos a casa de mis tíos a continuar con una charla muy agradable que duró durante todo el fin de semana.

It wasn't a shame, because of Sunday early we went to a round trip to the Alpujarras. This consists of a series of small villages arranged on the southern edge of the Sierra Nevada. Obviously, a not-so-straight path brought us to the villages, we have a typical lunch up there, and I can say that the sightseeing is incredibly beautiful. Down in Granada, we made a flash visit to some relatives, and go back my cousin's home to continue a very pleasant chat all through the weekend.

El lunes, como todo el mundo tiene que trabajar, junto a mi tía hicimos unas compras en la mañana y luego partí a Málaga, donde luego de una caminata de 2 horas fuí al aeropuerto a tomar mi vuelo de vuelta a Holanda. Casualmente encontré otros chavones que también venían a Eindhoven, y experienciamos la aventura de casi perder el último tren.

En resumen, con mis primos y tíos la pasé de 11, muchas gracias por su compañía, buena onda y calidez. Y ahora, me deben una visita aquí abajo, ¡eh!

¡Ah!, a propósito, llovió justo el día después que me vine }:D

On Monday, as everyone has to work, together with my aunt, we did some shopping in the morning, and later I departured to Málaga, where after a 2-hour wander I went to the airport to take my flight back down to Holland. Casually, I met some other guys also coming to Eindhoven, and we experienced the adventure of almost missing the last train.

Overall, with my relatives I enjoyed quite a lot, thanks to them for their companion, kindness and warmness. And now, you owe me a visit down here!

BTW, it rained the day after I came back :D

Una escapadita = A getaway

Actualmente en mi carrera de doctorado es muy común que tenga que planear viajes fugaces a workshops o conferencias relativamente cerca en Europa. Esta vez fui a una reunión de un grupo de trabajo financiado por la UE donde algunos especialistas discuten sobre temas de investigación en mi área, hacen una tormenta de ideas y tratan de obtener resultados a partir de esto. Además de eso, el vínculo social se hace fuerte y se convierte en la base que favorece los trabajos conjuntos de excelencia. Y no es un demagogia, es cierto.

No hablaré mucho de los tecnicismos pero sí de los lugares que he visitado. La reunión fue en Salerno. No es una ciudad grande, en el sur de Italia, no muy turística en donde el estilo de vida típico de los italianos puede percibirse tan sólo caminando entre sus calles.

Currently, in my PhD career it is pretty common to have to plan rush trips to workshops or conferences somehow close in Europe. This time I went to a meeting of a working group financed by the EU where some specialists discuss research issues, brainstorm a little bit and try to get results out of that. Beyond that, the social link becomes strong and is the basis towards joint work of excellence. And this is not a lobby, it is true.

I won't talk too much on the technicalities but about the places I visited. The meeting was held in Salerno. This is a not so big city, in the south of Italy, not so touristic, rather, not so full of tourists, where the typical Italian lifestyle can be perceived by just wandering through its streets.

Luego que las reuniones terminaron, tuve algo de tiempo para visitar algunos lugares. Primeramente, fui a Pompeya y visité, por supuesto, las ruinas de la antigua Pompeya. Me quedé atónito de ver todo lo que esta gente había logrado en el año 79 de nuestra era cristiana.

After the meetings finished, I had some time to visit some other places. Firstly, I went to Pompei and visited, of course, the ancient Pompei's ruins. I just was astonished to see all what these people had achieved by the year 79 of the Christian era.

Luego de eso, seguí la ruta hacia mi destino final, pasando por Nápoles que solamente conozco desde las vías y su estación, en donde tuve que correr para alcanzar mi tren a Roma. Las vías entre Pompeya y Nápoles es espectacular, van pegadas a la costa.

After that, I followed the way to my final destination, passing by Naples which I only know from the railways and its station, where I had to rush to get my train to Rome. The way between Pompei and Naples is just spectacular, the railways go just next to the beach.

Roma dije, sí. Pasé una noche distinta porque por primera vez estuve en un hostal, compartiendo un cuarto mixto con otros 5, adolescentes en su mayoría :S De todos modos, el día siguiente, caminé todo el día en Roma: el coliseo, y la Basílica de San Pedro. Sin palabras para describir estas maravillas arquitectónicas y todo lo que Roma tiene para ofrecer. Millares de turistas, construcciones antiguas por todos lados.

Rome I said, yes. I spent a night, rather particular for me because I stayed at a hostal, sharing a mixed room with other 5 people, teenagers most of them :S Anyway, the day after, I just wandered in Rome: colliseum, and Saint Peter basilica. No words to describe these and all what Rome has to offer. Plenty of tourists, ancient constructions everywhere.


Y para hablar un poco de Italia, sólo puedo decir que me sentí como en casa. La gente habla como nosotros lo hacemos, en italiano pero no es el problema para nosotros. Solamente me dediqué a hablar con un acento argentino bien acentuado y pasé desapercibido. La pasé bien en este viaje, aunque como siempre digo, no me termina de convencer tener que ir solitariamente por todos lados.

And as for Italy, I just can say that I felt at home. People just speaks as we do, with the same intonation therefore it is not a big issue for us. Just speak with a very stressed Argentinean accent, and we are Italians. I just got a lot fun with this trip, although I was alone, thing that still doesn't convince me at all.