in less than 4 hours...

I will have begun my journey to Milano, Italy. 

A brief summary/timeline of my plans:

Spend two days, one night in Milano. 

Spend 2-3 days, two nights in Verona. 

July 4th- make our way to farm #1 in Piacenza.

July 11th transfer to farm #2, also in Piacenza

July 24th-25th- take train from Milano to Paris

July 25th-31st- time in Paris with Juliana and her friend Becky

July 30th or 31st- make my way to farm #3, in Diano Marina, an olive farm 300 meters from the coast! 

August 17th- take ferry from Italian coast to Barcelona. seems to be the cheapest option, although I may get a wee bit sick! 

Juliana, a dear friend from the University of Chicago, will be accompanying me on 2/3 of this migrant farm working trip. [She flies out of Paris at the end of our time there.] 

Right, so, I'm way too tired to write anything witty or more interesting. Watch for updates! 

To Eurail, or not to Eurail

There exists a set of train passes meant to make life (transport) easier for non-Euro citizens. There are various types, from regional, one-country passes, or a select pass where you select 3-5 bordering countries, and in 2 months can travel 5-10 days. (price varies for number of days).

I was considering getting the Eurail Select Pass for Italy, Spain, and France, for 5 days of travel. ($299). After much research and reflection, I chose not to get it. 

Here's why:

1. Time and time again, I have read and heard from other travelers to not buy any tickets, travel deals, tourist packages, etc, outside of the country where you are going to be traveling. The mark-up levied by travel agencies, websites customized for the American traveler, etc, is horrendous, usually spanning 1/3-3/4 of the price you would get on the ground. I saw this in action repeatedly in Ecuador, where people would arrive with 7-day excursions to the Galapagos, which they paid almost $3000 for. If they were to buy them in Ecuador, they would pay about$1,500-$2,000 for the same accomodations. It's easier to already have tickets when you arrive, but that security and comfort comes at a price. 

1.a. Eurocheapo.com did their own investigation, testing out prices for train travel based in Germany with the Deutsche Bahn (local train company), and with a leading North American/British agent. 

Let's have a look at what they found: 

1. Berlin to London (2nd class) DB: €49 / Agent Fare: €209
2. Amsterdam to Salzburg (1st class) DB: €79 / Agent Fare: €255
3. London to Cologne (2nd class) DB: €49 / Agent Fare: €106
4. Berlin to Zagreb with stops in Hamburg and Munich (2nd class) DB: €29 / Agent Fare: €322
5. Nuremberg to Dresden day return for family of 5 (2nd class) DB: €37 / Agent Fare: €705

Their explanation? "In most of Europe, rail operators have a whole raft of special promotional fares that massively undercut the regular tariffs (often with discount of more than 80% on the standard fare)" (http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/european-rail-tickets-deutsche-bahn-fares-better-than-rail-agents.html). 

1.b. I didn't test out all of my trips, because in my case, I was deciding between Eurail and on the ground buying, never even considering buying through an agent. Just for fun though, I did run the trip of Milan - Piacenza [half an hour train ride] through both TrenItalia, and RailEurope. TrenItalia- 7 euros. RailEurope- 15 euros. 

2. I did however run my planned trips through RailEurope, to see the highest possible total cost, and to then compare it with the total price of the Eurail pass. 

These are the 5 major train rides I'm planning on taking:

Milan-Paris (two-way)

Milan- Diano Marina

Nice-Barcelona

Milan-Piacenza 

The (highly inflated) total comes to $340. 

Remember, my Eurail pass was only $299. Why didn't I just bite the bullet and get one? $41 cheaper! 

3. Eurail pass is generally considered not worth it in countries like Spain and Italy where buses or the regional trains are extremely cheap. 

4. Train travel with the Eurail pass is not as easy as they'd like to make you think. Here are the catches, and the hidden costs:

a. Say I'm going from Milan- Paris. Italy and France are both covered by my pass. The train, however, goes through Italy, Switzerland, and France. Switzerland is not covered by my pass. Here I have two options: 1. Zig-zag around Switzerland, (not too hard, but wastes one or two of my 5  allowed trips) and 2. Go through Switzerland and pay extra. Probably around 20-50 E. 

b. The Eurail pass does not include additional costs of seat reservations, overnight travel, and high-speed trains. 

Why does one need seat reservations? A seat reservation guarantees you won't be bothered by people coming up and demanding that you get out of their seat. This becomes a problem when new people come on at every station. Seat reservations are usually under 5E though, so no big deal. 

For overnight travel and high-speed trains, I have read stories of people having to pay anywhere from 20 E - full ticket price extra. 

c. Full ticket price, you say? That will really cut into your budget! In fact, it seems like some rail operators consider the Eurail pass to be a discount card, not as a free-ticket granting masterpiece. 

For me, my own research on the train from Italy to Spain really put the nail in the Eurail pass coffin. 

Price from Bermacchio (I don't think that's exactly it, but it's some coastal Italian town close to where I'll be) to Barcelona for a youth: 88 E. 

Price for a Eurail holder? 71 E. 

5. For one of my pricey journeys, (Italy to Barcelona) I have the option of going by ferry, which is about 41 E. Can't say I won't get seasick, but the savings and experience may be worth it. 

6. Last but not least, I wanted to order it too late. [i.e. would get to Salt Lake on July 1st. I leave June 30th]

Conclusion: I'm going to go with my intuition and not purchase a Eurail pass. It would be an optimal choice if there were no hidden costs, or if the pass itself was much cheaper, to make the discounts offered worth it. 

Like in so many cases, great idea, bad implementation. 

But as always, only time will tell. I will be keeping careful track of exactly how much money I spend on the rail tickets, (and in general, of course) and will let you know if my hunch was right. 

Cherry Season

With the first days of summer comes the first days of cherry season. For a while now, we have been going about an hour north of Salt Lake to pick our own cherries.

A rational person would have settled with this.



I assure you, however, that I am not one of those. So I filled this one up too.

74 pounds of cherries, folks! I've always been confident in my ability to eat mass quantities of food, but I'm getting a little overwhelmed here. Cherry smoothies, cherry salads, cherries for breakfast, dinner, and desert. Oy!

To-Do List en Español

An excerpt from my journal:
"I also imagine España as being a land where just the thought of making (not to mention following through) a to-do list will get you shipped off back to wherever you came from. [This process, it must be noted, will probably take a while. You know, long lunches, coffee breaks, smoking breaks, long weekends, etc.] Although, if I had to have any type of to-do list there it will probably look something like this:

-plan hike for Saturday
-[buy hiking book]
-make tour reservation for Palace of Contemporary Muzik
-call *you on Skypey
-ask ___ if wants to go to Gibraltar conmigo
-plan Scotland trip with Jen.

Ah yes, methinks I can get used to that kind of to-do list.

Meta-post coming soon...

I got my Lonely Planet Spain book in the mail today, and I sang while I held it. Sang! And I rarely sing.

Ah, the Eyewitness guide really makes me cringe. The art/shop/eat guides, while being half the size, also have twice the information.

Eyewitness Traveler: Boo on you.

I'm an adamant little girl. Once I know what I like, I'll dedicate myself fully, until the next gem comes along. Intense temporary passion, we may call it. And so, Lonely Planet has always been the guidebook for me. I love, love, love the layout and style. The maps in the Ecuador version were heavenly. Easy to digest, compact. Tells you everything you need to know, but not too much. Honest, funny. Have lately been criticized for selling out.. i.e. adding glossy pictures, travel basics, skimping on out of the way, off the road stuff. Fair enough. But comfort and reliability score extra points with me.

We have an Eyewitness guide for Barcelona/Catalunya. In the name of justice, procrastination, and extra super duper research time, the self has started going through it.

1. The first two pages tell you how to use the guide. Big, big problem, kids. Guide should be self-explanatory and easy to use; you're in trouble if you need a guide for the guide.

2. So many symbols, colors, lines, diagrams, charts. I feel like I've stepped into the hippy dippy trippy world of travel books...on hallucinatory mushrooms. Super overwhelming and makes me want to shut the book right away.

3. Continuing #2 fad, what's with all the stuff you need to keep referring back to on the flaps? ["if you get confused, look to right side of back flap." "for explanation of map, look to room #6, door #3 of front upside down inserted flap."]

4. Their very telling slogan is, "the only guidebook that shows you what others only tell you." Dude, I'm going to see the place. I don't need to be shown it; I need to be told about it, so I can expedite my own viewing. There's a fine line between coffee/photo book, travel journal, and travel guide. Watch it. If I wanted to know exactly how many windows, archways, and exits a building had, and then wanted them drawn to me in great detail, [these drawings take whole pages! my god, no wonder you can't cover all of the places to see] i would have become an architect, not a traveler.

5. Minor complaint which may soon resolve itself. I don't see an order to the listing of sites. Other books choose orders of importance, or centrality, or some other useful thing. Maybe you just choose the prettiest pictures?

I'm a Lonely Planet purist. There, I've said it. I shudder when left in the room with other guide books. I would like to try a Rough Guide someday, but that's a big step...

Look!

I made lemon risotto with spinach and mushrooms. Ah, how wonderful it is to have free time and be at home with groceries.
Needless to say, it was delicious! I remain thoroughly convinced that I do not care for rosemary, though. My cookbook says that there's a trattoria in Milano that has at least 23 risottos on the menu everyday. Which means, Juliana, that a visit there is a must.