Barcelona. Oh, Barcelona, you seductive enchantress, you! This is one sexy city. About five minutes after my arrival here last night I knew that giving Nice the bum´s rush had been the right choice. It is clean, elegant, cosmopolitan, and best of all, CHEAP! I had tapas and a couple of beers at a local bar for 7 €. In Venice, I would have had to sell my blood for a crust of bread.

On the trainride from Montpellier to Barcelona (Incidentally, the scenery around Perpignan and the border... WOW. Moutains to to the West, seaside cliffs and beautiful little towns to the East) I met a couple of Canadian girls who were doing all the major European cities... trouble was, they were only spending about a day or two in each. I mentioned Kontiki. Blank stares. They are doing the Eurorail thing and appear to be spending half of their trip on trains. To each his own, I guess. I suppose the "big overview" trip has its merits. It can help you determine what you want to see more of the next time you come to Europe. The girls told me they were on a very tight budget. They also told me their last stop would be Ibiza. Ibiza, with its 30 Euro cover charges and 12 Euro cocktails. Best of luck, ladies!

Heard from my man Dave, who has reached Slovenia, I think.... or some other part of the former Yugoslavia where all the women are absolutely gorgeous. He was surprised that Emily and I vanished in Venice, until I fired off an apologetic e-mail telling him that we had gone Donavan Bailey to catch the train for Nice. Along with Em, Dave has been a great travelling companion. He is the kind of guy who takes things in stride. He wouldn´t say shit if he had a mouthful. Another mild mannered and polite Englishman perpetuating the stereotype. He is on a much longer trip than me, and it is taking its toll on his skinny ass. Don´t forget to eat Dave! ;-)

I realize that providence brought me into contact with some amazing people over the last couple of weeks. Best of all, we all "travel" similarly... that is to say, we were interested in seeing similar sights and doing similar things. I just spoke to a Canadian guy in my hostel here who is travelling with a friend. There is some tension because the friend wants to chill out in out of the way places, while he wants to see the big cities. I guess compromise is really critical under those circumstances. This just confirms why it was good that I did this on my own. I think I might have bored some people to tears with my obsessive scrutinizing of Roman ruins!

Trying to keep up with the playoffs... Go Calgary. Lord Stanley´s cup needs to come back to a Canadian city.

Updaterino for anyone who cares to read it...

I am in Montpellier, awaiting the train to Barcelona. Why did I flee Nice so precipitously, having spent barely 12 hours there? Simply put, Nice is not Nice. I mean, the city repulsed me. Yesterday, the day's travelling began with a 200 yard sprint, me carrying both heavy packs, to an early train that was about to leave from Venice (Yes we really did want to get out that badly.... hadn't worked that hard since Infantry training in Gagetown N.B. in '97).... The day's travelling ended with us stepping off the train in Nice, greeted by the overpowering stench of a big pile of dogcrap that someone had stepped in. The smell actually made my eyes water...

Dogcrap. It is everywhere in Nice. It should be on the city's coat of arms. It is the perfect symbol for this city that Emily and I both found to be quite grimy and unremarkable. Granted... you can say "Aha, James, but you did not take the time to sample the city's many charms" To which I reply, if you have to wade through three football field lengths of manure and detritus to get to those charms, is it really worth it? I have heard people say that Marseilles is the pimple on the otherwise lovely countenance that is Mediterranean France, but I would point out that a nasty boil has developped in the area of the French Riviera.

To be fair, I did make the moronic decision of showing up in Nice sans logement during the Cannes Film Fest and the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, so basically, you can call the Nice fiasco my comeuppance. In spite of everything, I gotta say that the scenery around Monaco, Cannes, Nice and points West on the Cote d'Azur is as good as people say it is. Also, somewhat to my surprise, the Nicois were all very friendly, and none mocked my Canuck accent when I spoke French. Em and I managed to find a shithole room for quite cheap in a city where every fleabag dive appeared to be booked, so to celebrate our success, and mark her imminent departure for England, we did dinner and drinks and managed to salvage something from yesterday's debacle.

Today, we got up early so that she could catch her plane to Gatwick, and so that I could grab the first thing smoking out of the area. I am gonna miss Em, who has been an amazing travelling companion with her patience, great sense of humour, and ability to mix powerful concoctions of narcotics to keep my sickness at bay ;o) Definitely a true friend.

Where to begin? Where did I leave off, for that matter? The last couple of days have been hectic to say the least. I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Nice, France. A couple of days ago, I was in Siena... but then, you already know that, don't you? The morning after our second night in Siena, Emily and I decided to move on. It wasn't that we hadn't enjoyed the city... as you may have gathered, I'm basically ready to move there... it was that we both had to adjust our schedules to accommodate Venice. In order to do that, we decided to catch a mid-day train to Florence. That turned out to be a crazy decision...

Before leaving, we decided to check out the Church where Saint Catherine of Siena took her vows. It isn't every day you see the mummified skull of a Saint, but there was Catherine, or rather, there was her head, in a little chapel inside the church. I still can't decide what to make of this bizarre holy relic, but it certainly had an impact of everyone there.

We walked out to the train station with our heavy packs... Emily, always the trooper, had a pack that looked bigger than her. Nevertheless, she soldiered on. We realized that our afternoon trip to Florence would be rushed, but we wanted to go to the Galleria dell'Academia to see Michaelangelo's David before bidding farewell to Firenze once and for all.

As it turned out, we managed to rush to the gallery, spend an hour there, and rush back... but I have to admit it was a bit stressful... we only managed to catch our train by a couple of minutes and we had to run like mad to do it. Still.... I have seen David. Massive, magnificent, beautiful, sublime... he was everything I imagined and he was definitely worth the headache. All other sculpture pales in comparison to this masterpiece.

Arriving in Venice that evening, we trudged wearily to our accomodations, but all fatigue disappeared when we went for a walk along the canals. Venice, long past its era of glory, is now delapidated, shabby, and even a bit vulgar. We even heard that barely half of the buildings there are occupied. Still, there is something magical about the place. We wandered the narrow alleys and along the waterways. Every corner was a postcard picture. I almost started to get used to it!

The next morning, we discovered why they call Venice the most expensive town in Italy. It was highway robbery at every cafe, usurious prices for every service, and plain pickpocketing at the souvenir stalls. For the first time since I arrived in Italy, I found myself genuinely annoyed at the temerity of the hawkers and chiselers. There was also an element of contempt about the place. The locals kinda made you feel like you were the scum of the earth. Somehow, we managed to not get fleeced too badly. By suppertime (where we met back up with David, yet again, and a nice Aussie couple who happened to be friends with a friend of Emily's from Melbourne... small world!) we decided that we would be out of Venice the next day, notwithstanding the fact that we hadnt gone for one of those Gondola rides!

So... yesterday was a travel day... a long tortuous trainride from Venice to Milan to Genoa and finally, here I am in Nice... but more on Nice later. I have to get to Barcelona now!

I have good memories of Venice... the Accademia Gallery and Saint Mark's square were particularly impressive, but sadly, the place will always just seem like a novelty and a giant tourist trap to me... a sad fate for the city that was once known as the Most Serene Republic and was considered a world power among the nation states of the earth

After we walked the girls to the bus stop and wished them well on their way to Rome, Emily and I kinda just wandered the streets of this incredible town. Whereas Florence seems to be more of a Renaissance town, Siena is pure medieval, from its the crenelated tower of its townhall, to the historic banners of its 9 subdivisions. Later, we talked and ate the leftovers from lunch for supper as it rained for the first time since my first night in Italy... pretty incredible luck actually!

Around 9 pm, we heard a terrific commotion in the street outside and rushed out of our hotel, le tre donzelle ("the three damsels"-- I noted the connection to our three american friends that we had met a few hours before and found it a bit spooky.

The people of Siena were celebrating the fact that their hardluck football team had not been "relegated" and so were still a part of Italy's first division. It was organized pandemonium. There was singing and bands playing as the horde carried distinctive black and white banners through the medieval streets to the piazza in the centre of town.

Yesterday, we took it easy, seeing the amazing Gothic Cathedral and a couple of other landmarks, but otherwise resting. Emily and I have both caught nasty colds. Luckily, she is a nurse, and has been keeping me doped up with a steady stream of illegal medication (joking). In spite of our sorry state, we got dressed up and went for a great meal at a fantastic restaurant. I am getting spoiled by all this fantastic Italian food! Today, we are going to do a bit more sightseeing, and then it is off to Venice? Why Venice all of a sudden? Do you even have to ask?... it is Venice!

Last night, we went out on the town in Florence. Although a lovely city, the place is not known for its nightlife, from what I can tell. Still, fortified with a couple of bottles of wine a few shots of Absynth with melted sugar (55% alcohol and a kick like an angry mule), Emily, James, and David set off to see what was going on. We ended up in a little bar just down the way from the hotel Bellavista, which, true to its name, has a great view of the hills surrounding Florence. Since I was already gassed on wine --and as I figured out later, allergy medication-- I nursed my beer and chatted with my companions.

A few minutes after we arrived, Katie, Meagan, and Lindsay arrived. They were three american girls accompanied by some local Italian. We kinda naturally gravitated toward them as the only other english speakers in the bar and by the end of the night we had made boozy plans to all come to Siena this morning. As it turned out, David decided to head to Cinque Terre, but the rest of us jumped on a slow train and ended up spending the afternoon picnicking in the Piazza Campofiori and feasting on italian bread, sausages, cheese, sundried tomatoes and olives (with the obligatory bottle of chianti of course). Since the american girls were heading on to Rome, we figured it was a good idea to nurse our hangovers in this beautiful town before they had to tackle the big city.

Lunch with four lovely ladies in a medieval piazza in the heart of Tuscany... I must have done something good in a past life!;-)