My Big Fat European Adventure

Day 45 | July 16th
6:07 PM. Long flights were had but Amy and I have officially arrived home to Mike, Mum, Bella and Leo. It's never felt so good to be back! I thought Day 45 would only bring sadness but to be honest, its only given me a sense of rebirth for not only my summer but I think the rest of my life. I've learned so much about the earth, environments, people, emotions, money, dreams etc. from this trip and now that I'm back all I really want to do is apply it to my future. So let the future commence, cheers to new beginnings, and cheers to a new Day One.

CROATIA VIDEO

Day 44 | July 15th
12:38 AM. Since wifi was utterly non-existent in the last leg of our trip, many great things have occurred that I was unable to blog about. However, to sum it all up my nights in Croatia were the most fun I had had on the entire trip. From sneaking into camp sites, festivals and clubs to meeting girls on the beach, to having out-of-body experiences, to spending quality time with family I hardly ever get the chance to see to tanning, swimming and being able to eat the best of foods; the last week of our trip was spectacular. It was nice to have forged new and strong friendships like the ones I had with Robbie, Igor, Mark and so on in such a far place from home. I think what I cherished most was how close I was able to become with my new family-in laws. I was able to create very strong bonds with Kristian's younger siblings Mark and Emma, that I didn't necessarily have before. Unfortunately, our last night in Croatia was a little rocky, of course the three of us got into our worst fight of all time coming home from a club in Makarska ...which was sad to have ended the trip on such a low note. But I suppose all good things must come to an end? In the morning, Rebecca was unable to purchase a ticket with Amy and I due to the flight already being sold out. She decided earlier to wait to buy her ticket which inevitably left her in Croatia for another few days. As of now, Amy and I are waiting in the airport of Moscow, Russia. For some dumb reason our cheapest flight option was to fly from Split Croatia to Moscow Russia then get on another plane from Moscow to Athens, Greece, where we'll then fly from Athens to Toronto. Which will leave us at our last day in our journey, Day 45. It's sad to think how 'over' our trip really is but I mean, how long can you really stay in paradise for?

Day 37 | July 8th
2:10 PM. It's been a life time without wifi so unfortunately 6 days were lost on this blog. However, even without the wifi many adventures have been had. We arrived to the Amalfi Coast (Positano), one of the most exhilarating, beautiful and expensive places on the Earth with absolutely no plan or accommodation. Even though we were warned to do the COMPLETE opposite of that. We arrived and basically asked around for places to stay, everything was either booked or extremely pricey. Somehow the girls stumbled across a woman who knew a friend who happened to have a bedroom up in the mountains, we gave him a call, bartered the price and ended up staying in one of the nicest places in Positano for only $100 a night. The accommodation was only supposed to last the night but our host, Jacky (a successful drag queen) allowed us to stay another night in luxury. We got on so nicely with him he introduced us to his sister who owned a bar on the beach, where we were also very lucky to have wifi, free drinks and food for the majority of our stay. On our third day in Positano, we we're supposed to leave and head to Croatia however, we ran into one of the wealthiest men in Positano who owned the only night club in the area. He told us we had to go to his club "Music on the Rocks" that night because it'd be like no other. Once again, we were treated to free lunch by him and were also given free tickets to the club's event that night. Later on, I ran into some friends from Toronto who just so happened to be in Positano, Claire and Ben. The 5 of us drank on the beach and inevitably went to the club. Only for me, Claire, and Ben to be kicked out within the first hour for reasons I rather not say. Alternatively, we went for a swim, and called it a night. Claire and Ben went back to their villa up in the mountain and I (Without a third night's accommodation) slept on the beach. Being my third night on this trip where I've slept outside, hence I had blacked-out and slept on the beach (accidentally) the night before as well. After waking up on our fourth day we travelled out of Positano, which was horrid because I've never felt so sick in my life. We finally arrived in Anacona where we slept in a train station for a night ..which was also a horrid experience. We finally took the ferry to Croatia, where I met some Australian friends, Maddy and Ella. As weird as the boat-night was, it was amusing at the least. We finally arrived in Croatia yesterday to be greeted by Emma, Mark, Kristian, their cousin Robby and their grandfather. We went to the beach, ate, slept and in the evening Mark and I went out to see the town of Split. However, the best of yesterday was Kristian's proposal to Rebecca on the beach... which had us all speechless. It's been nice to finally be comfortable and relax with the family, especially in such lavish place like Croatia. Our trip is coming to a close but we still have a solid 8 days for our legend to continue.

AMSTERDAM, PRAGUE, GERMANY & ITALY VIDEO

Day 31 | July 2nd
1:52 AM. Munich was lots of fun. We took a tour bus around the city and saw the Olympic Tower, Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden, the BMW building, Glockenspiel and even some more castles. The beer garden was definitely the best part, we had traditional German food (Pig leg, cheese dip, radish, onions, and pretzels) along with 1 litre glasses of beer...each. Afterwards, we had a nice dinner with Andreas's sweet parents and called it a night. From Rosenheim we caught a train (well a few trains, as usual) to Rome, where we stayed at a hotel near the station. There we saw the Coliseum, the Ruins, the Trevi Fountain (which was under construction :( ) and the Spanish Steps. We later went out for an organized club-night crawl thing..? Which wasn't very fun to be perfectly honest but none the less its cool to say I've partied in Rome. Yesterday we travelled all day to get to the Amalfi Coast (Southern Italy) however, we've failed to do so so far. At the moment we're in a hotel in Sarno which is only an hour or so away from the Amalfi so it shouldn't take too long tomorrow to arrive. I'm looking very forward to seeing this 'idyllic' place I've heard so much about.

Day 28 | June 29th
9:43 AM. Last few days have been hectic and we haven't had the chance to even think about connecting to wifi. Our last day in Amsterdam was lots of fun, we did "magical truffles" in Vondel Park (A huge-ass park which is beyond beautiful). The truffles were awesome and I think opened all our minds (if that makes sense? lol) Liking them so much we made sure to buy more for Croatia. In the evening we went to Escape, a notorious club in Amsterdam..but really wasn't even good. I then spent a fortune on McDonald's and chanted famous Brad Pitt lines down the streets. Leaving Amsterdam at 5AM was horrid and extremely exhausting however, arriving in Germany the next day was a good feeling. We finally met up with Andreas in Rosenheim and went to see Ludwig's castle along with having some fish and beers on the island. Today we go to Munich, sounds like Andreas has a million things to show us, so I'm excited.

Day 24 | June 25th

5:25 PM. Yesterday we had the pleasure of seeing Anne Frank's house, which was an absolute great experience. Definitely one of the things I've enjoyed most on this trip so far. The house is completely intact and to be honest HUGE. Although the tour was extremely heart-breaking, it was incredible to see what it was like for Anne and her family to be trapped in an attic for two years. After the self-tour we sat in a huge park outside of the Van Gogh museum and inevitably fell asleep in the sun. When we awoke we went for dinner and made our way to Leidseplein (A night-life area in Amsterdam) where we had lots of fun meeting people and riding bikes through the city, eventually getting home at 7 am. Very last minute we decided to stay in Amsterdam for an extra day, but what we're doing today..I'll never know. I'm just excited to go to the Czech Republic tomorrow.

SPAIN VIDEO

Day 22 | June 23rd
10:51 AM. Unfortunately I haven't been able to blog for the last few days due to traveling and no wifi but as of now.. I'm back! As mentioned in the previous post I was lucky to get my first tattoo done in Barcelona on the 19th at a parlour called 19:28. If you're curious as to what I got done, I had my biological/true Italian last name (Calzonetti) put on my chest above my heart (I'll eventually post a photo below). I won't go into details about it but to sum it up it looks great and I couldn't have asked for a better job. Later that night we went to Sonar Music Festival, one of the the top five music festivals in the entire world. It was spectacular, the line-up was great, the venue was huge and everyone was having a great time. I personally enjoyed ASAP Rocky, Skrillex, and Jamie XX the most. It was very cool to see ASAP after listening to his new album all summer. The next day we went to the beach and later a club called Apollo in downtown Barcelona. Maha left for her plane back to London and inevitably we went to sleep in the morning. On Sunday we checked out of our hostel only to get into a massive argument with the staff there concerning our bill for our stay. I won't get into it but basically Amy and Rebecca yelled at an employee for about an hour before getting their way. So in the end it was well worth it. After getting to the Barcelona train station we thought it'd be a good idea to wait for our train in the park outside of the station. As always Amy insisted we rest in the park on the grass until our train arrived. Naturally, we all fell asleep in the park...only to wake up to a screaming senorita who kept pointing at MY backpack. Unsure what the hell she was talking about we nodded and slightly ignored her, until it was evident that she was informing us that a thief had gone through each and every pocket of my backpack while we were asleep. My bag had been fully torn open with my laptop, camera, passport, ipods and so on all exposed. As traumatized as I was...nothing had been stolen. Not one thing. So whatever this criminal was looking for in my knapsack...they didn't find it. At least I don't think? Either way we quickly packed our stuff up and got the hell out of Barcelona. We took a train to Cebere, and one from to Cebere to Paris, then another to Paris to Antwerp AND THEN another to our destination of Amsterdam. We arrived in Amsterdam at around 5PM last night and decided to do some self-wandering in the streets. Inevitably coming across a weed/coffee shop and having never-ending laughs in the middle of the circle (downtown-Amsterdam). Today we're planning to buy coats (because it's freezing here), visit Anne Frank's house, bike around the city and as always, go out to some sort of party. Wish us luck.

Day 18 | June 19th
12:09 AM. The rocky road of travelling hit us again. As soon as we arrived to our hostel in Barcelona Amy got strep throat and the next day we found bed bugs in our room!!! Which basically opened pandoras box. I have bites all over my body (only one to be bitten!) but today, we washed all our clothes and switched rooms, so for now...we think we're good. However, anything could happen at this point. Luckily we finally met up with Maha and our Barcelona trip started to get better, we had the best meal we've had since we've been in Europe. The most deluxe burger (tomato, fried egg, arugula, brea cheese, bacon) along with guacamole and chips and fries! The best! We then went to Park Guell - which is basically a huge park grounds filled with sculptures, designs, architecture and wildlife. Which was quite the extravagant excursion. After we had some gourmet pizza and at the moment we're on our way out to Razzmatazz (one of the best clubs in Barcelona) and from the looks of it we'll be going to Sonar (One of the biggest music festival's in the world) to see a line-up of Asap Rocky, Skrillex, Jamie XX, Die Antwoord, and more. And who knows maybe I'll get my tattoo today ;)

Day 15 | June 16th
11:14 PM. Last night had it's pros and cons. The bar, bbq, and people were great. We met a couple girls from England and a guy from Poland and the entourage was complete for the night. We didn't end up going to DC 10 but instead the club across the street, Sunkiss. Unfortunately, this was the last thing I remember. The night ended early due to me being kicked out of the club ...and I also lost my hat...which is a bummer. This morning we got on the ferry at 10 and arrived in Barcelona at 7:30. We've arrived at our hostel, Garcia City, and now we're just waiting for Maha to arrive, again. I think we're going to take it easy the next couple days and do some sight seeing in the city.

Day 14 | June 15th
8:42 PM. We inevitably went out again last night to a club called Space. We were all pretty knackered so going out was a struggle but in the end it ended up being a fun night, resulting in us getting home at 8:30 am. Music was a little wack but overall it was a fun time. After spending a full day at the beach today we're now going to a pool party with an open bar and bbq and after that we'll be going to our last club in Ibiza called DC 10. It's our last night here before ferry-ing to Barcelona tomorrow and saying goodbye to Mike, so per-usual... we'll be going hard.

Day 13 | June 14th
3:09 PM. This trip is getting gradually more and more wack. Last night we went to Pacha (one of the best clubs in the entire world, 5 stars) at around 1:30 PM. It cost us 60 Euros to get in which was appalling. However, very worth it. This place had so many floors and levels I was getting lost on the regular. We stayed until around 5am after Bob Sinclair headlined. Afterwards we went home, ate the remainder of the KFC we had bought the night before and (randomly) decided to go back out. We went searching for an after hours in Bora Bora only to find a group of guys who told us there was one in San Antonio. We got into a cab with a man named Danny, who took us to his house and gave us everything** we needed to successfully party at 6am on a Sunday. After reaching this after-hours place at 8am we became friends with all the locals and partied until 12 PM. After going back home and sleeping...that brings us to now...3:15 PM..I'm pretty sure my HP level is at like a 6.

Day 12 | June 13th
5:38 PM. Benidorm round two was way over my head. The night was going very smoothly; we had drinks, danced, and laughed at various different clubs along the strip. It wasn't until we saw Sticky Vicky (An old woman performer who's famous for doing an act completely naked where she takes miscellaneous objects out of her you know what.) This was the last thing I remembered before blacking out and waking up by myself at 6 AM to a homeless man in the middle of Benidorm. After hallucinating and chatting with this local random man, I took a cab and luckily made it to the villa. At this point everyone was getting ready to leave to make our ferry ride to Ibiza. After a horrible ferry ride, long hangover and lack of a voice we arrived at our AirBNB. From what I know we're all going to take some naps, eat, and inevitably go out AGAIN! ...so shoot me.

Day 11 | June 12th
10:11 AM. The last couple days have been hell. Literal hell. When we arrived in Paris there were no trains to Barcelona so we had to take a train to Toulouse (not to mention we had to stay in a dodgy train station where this creepy Romanian guy tried to steal our cases and was being hunted by the police..but thats another story in itself) Once we got to Toulouse we bought all our train stations to get to Alicante where our Auntie Pet's villa is. However, we eventually missed our train in Toulouse so we had to re-buy all our tickets and take three others trains that took double as long to get there. Inevitably we arrived in Alicante and took a cab from the train station to the villa up in the hills. Last night we drove into Benidorm and hit up the clubs on the strip...Benidorm is a mad house at the very least. Bella and Mum fly back home today and the four of us (including Mike. who was waiting for us at the villa) are going to stay at Auntie's villa for an extra day before going to Ibiza...where the real fun begins.

ENGLAND VIDEO

Day 9 | June 10th
1:21 PM. London was fun, we saw Big Ben, Notting Hill and even the wrong Abbey Road. Turns out the notoriously famous Abbey Road zebra striped cross is NOT at Abbey Road Station but at some station called St. Johns or something. Who woulda thought? After exploring we met back up with Maha, went out for fried chicken at a place called The Bird (which was dope) and after went out to a club (Which sucked I'll have you know). Once getting back and going to sleep at around 3 am we woke today at 5:45 to catch our train going to France (And eventually Spain) but when we arrived we found that our train was 180 pounds each ($350!!). We quickly ditched that plan and took the bus instead which was only 80 pounds between the three of us. However, the bus is 9 hours to France!! and we'll still (hopefully) have to take the train from France to Spain (Using our interrail pass, which will be a lot cheaper). It's been a HUGE struggle to GTFO of England but we're trying our best. Hopefully things will go more our way in Spain.

Day 8 | June 9th
12:46 PM. Before reaching the airport the four of us explored the city of Manchester, where we had some Italian lunch and some weird-ass laughs. However, our fun came to a quick end when we said goodbye to Maha and arrived at the airport...only to find out that we should've checked in for the flight hours ago. The three of us were to be charged 45 pounds ($90) for checking in late, not to mention an additional charge for Amy and Rebecca's bag being 9 kg's over weight. The charges came to over $500 so as a result we quickly decided to NOT go to Portugal. After sneaking onto a train and sporadically arriving at Maha's door at 1 AM we've successfully found ourselves in London. Although it wasn't our plan, we saved some money and had ourselves an unforgettable sleep in Maha's double bed. As of now we're doing some London exploring and will hopefully find our way to Spain by tomorrow afternoon but we'll see.. not everything has been going to plan.

Day 7 | June 8th
12:26 PM. Park Life was incredible! ..from what I remember. We stayed all day dancing and singing. Were lucky to see Earl Sweatshirt, FKA Twigs, Action Bronson, Nas, Hudson Mohawke, Duke Dumont, Sango, Madlib, Jessie Ware and so much more live, which was amazing. People and vibes were great from start to finish. However, the trip home from the park was the saddest experience ever, it took forever and the four of just wanted to sleep. Today we go to Portugal at 9PM and stay there for the day. Looking forward to seeing the country!

Day 6 | June 7th
11:22 AM. Last night was a shit show. We got our bus to Manchester at 10 PM and the evil bus lady kicked us off half way there because we bought the wrong ticket. We ended up cabbing to the Manchester airport and sleeping there for the night! Which was easily one of the worst experiences of all time! However, we met this hilariously funny man from Angola..and that was about our only highlight of the evening. Luckily, we've escaped the hell-hold that is Manchester Airport and have booked a room at the Etrop Grange hotel. As of now we're pre-ing for Park-Life and waiting for Maha to get her ass over here!

Day 5 | June 6th
5:14 PM. The wedding was an absolute success. Ross and Amy had a perfect venue, weather, friends, drinks and so on! Inevitably us five kids (along with the rest of our relatives) got up to shenanigans from start to finish. From 2'oclock to 3 am we ate appetizers, drank champagne, and danced to songs all the way from the Beatles to Bobby Shmurda. It was amazing to spend so much time with the family we never had the chance to hangout with. Overall last night was unforgettable. By the time I got home, we decided to indulge in the late hours of our hotel bar. Where some of our favourite hotel staff was waiting for us. There we drank even more and I was given the pleasure of hearing a random englishman's horrible 4-paged poetry which drove me to bed ever so soon. As of now we stand hotel-less, hungover, and confused as to our future plans for the night. Mike's gone to London to see friends, while Mom and Bella have gone to Coventry to visit Mom's old friend Paula. The three of us are trying to get to Manchester tonight for the Parklife festival tomorrow. But so far all we've done is shotgunned beer in the park, got lost, and laughed at the ugly people of Nottingham.

Day 4 | June 5th
12:11 PM. Greek Steakhouse was great! Great steak and appetizers! Meeting aunts and cousins for the first time was incredible. Lots of new love and friendships.. + drinks. After food, a small group of us met up for post drinks where even more fun was had between the family. With the help of a little Jack Daniels, getting lost in Nottinghamshire, and late night McDonalds the evening was absolutely unforgettable. The wedding tomorrow is at 2:00pm between cousin Ross and his bride Amy. We're being picked up by a coach bus in an hour! Let the fun begin....the tequilas already been purchased.

Day 3 | June 4th
It's 5:10 PM. We've left Aunty Pet's in Rickmansworth to our hotel in Nottinghamshire for the wedding. We've just come back from picking up my brother Mike from the wrong hotel. We're awaiting our reservations for Greek's Steak House tonight at 7:30, where we'll be dining with the rest of Ross and our family for the wedding tomorrow.

Day 2 | June 3rd
11:50 PM. Have successfully arrived in England. Residing with Aunty Pet and cousin Christopher. We’ve been fortunate enough to meet our older cousin Steven as well! Been a long day, heading up north tomorrow for a wedding dinner with Ross. Hopefully we’ll be meeting up with our other cousin Martin as well. Our first Europe day starts tomorrow!

8:11 am. Just landed in Brussels, Belgium.
Next flight is in an hour to London!
Watched American History X and Manhattan on the plane!
Also finally started HBO's Silicon Valley.
Huge pluses so far and I haven't even been outside since very early yesterday.

Day 1 | June 2nd
3:56 PM. Airport Photoshoot!
Waiting for the plane. Toronto to Belgium.