On Europe and Travel

she doesn't care
whether or not he's an island.
she doesn't care,
just as long as his ship's coming in.
she doesn't care
whether or not he's an island.
they laugh, they make money.
he's got a gold watch.
she's got a silk dress
and healthy breasts that bounce
on his italian leather sofa.

Cake - Italian Leather Sofa

So after spending the last two weeks in Italy and Spain, I feel compelled to write a little bit about Europe. Now first off, I LOVE traveling. I love visiting new places and absorbing new cultures. My goals for Italy and Spain were to see lots of shit, eat lots of food, and drink lots of wine. And I think I succeeded.
Going to a foreign country makes you realize just how different a place the rest of the world is compared to America. Well maybe not Rome, which is a giant cosmopolitan city and can't really be all that different from a place like New York or DC. Tons of tourists and the majority of people spoke English (in addition to Italian). But going to a smaller town like Naples really makes the cultural divide quite evident. One of the most noticeable differences in Italy comapred to America is the amount of people that smoke cigarettes. The shit is fucking EVERYWHERE. I may now have lung cancer just from the second hand smoke I inhaled in Europe. Funny that what has become almost taboo here is an accepted part of life there.
Eating in Italy is completely different from America. First of all, most places charge you a euro or two just to sit down at the restaurant (compelte bullshit! especially as the Euro is kicking the US dollar's ass). Plus, they make you pay for bread. They make you pay for bread in Italy! A country where the average citien eats like half a pound of the shit every day!! Money-grabbing bastards. Italian food is also completely different than what we have here. It's more tomato-based and a lot lighter than the heavy, cream-infused Italian we eat in the states. And the food in Italy was just a lot simpler. They didn't try and do anything crazy with the pasta or over-spice the sauce. And what was really amusing was that certain items that we consider staples of Italian food, such as garlic bread, don't even exist in Italy. Needless to say, between the copious amounts of pasta, the wine, and the desserts, I had a good time.
The real beauty of Italy though, at least for me, lies in the art of the country. And I don't just mean the paintings and the sculptures (thought the amount of extraordinary painters that came from the country is mind boggling; Raphael, Donatello, Da Vinci, Titian, Tintoretto, Michaelangelo, Bernini, and I can't draw a fucking stick figure!) but also all the fountains, arches, columns and basilicas that lie within every Italian city. I'm a sucker for medieval depictions, Gothic architecture and random pretty shit lying around, so I loved everything. And seeing the Coliseum and the Sistine Chapel and all the other great churches they have there, you jsut have to wonder how they built these marvels several hundred years ago. Could I live in Italy though? Hmm... probably not. As much as I loved Rome and Florence (an amazing ass city by-the-way, I think I could spend a week there), Italy's just not a place I could see myself living in. Eventually even I get tired of pasta. And for a so-called civilized nation, a trip to an Italian post office proved otherwise (when a city resident is telling you to 'hope' for delivery of your packages, it's not exactly a reassuring sign). I'd definitely visit the country again. There's just too much there to see. I'd love to go to a soccer game, maybe visit the coast, go scuba diving. But I definitely couldn't live there. (Side note: Venice is highly overrated. The canals are cool and all, but really, how did building a city with canals as roads EVER seem like a good idea? To be fair, it did rain the whole time we were there, which maybe skewed my view of the city. I mean, the palace they had there was uber-cool, but the whole beauty of Venice, umm guess I didn't really see that).
Onto Barcelona. This was my second time in the city (the last time I went I must've been like 15, so I remembered very little). I loved the city the first time I went, and I loved it even more this time. The whole Spanish culture is just fucking sweet. Lots of beer and sangria. A set aside time in the afternoon for napping. Go out to dinner at like 9, then head to a bar or club just to chill. Do it all again the next day. That's my type of culture. And as a city, Barcelona kicks ass. Beautiful weather and tons of things to see (A cool basilica, museums and tons of Gaudi's mind-bending architectural creations). A Metropolitan city like Rome, except with a beach and a hell of a lot prettier (it's hard to explain, I mean Rome ahd fountains and piazzas, but Barcelona was jsut a less gloomy, more open). A lot of real good food (paella, gazpacho, tapas) and amazing desserts and pastries (interestingly enough the city seemed to have a high number of Italian immigrants). The locals are all really nice. And Barcelona has both excellent soccer and basketball teams. I think I could actually live in this city. At very least, it beats the shit out of Houston.
People in America need to go Europe, just to feel the history and to embrace a culture different than the States. A problem that plagues this country is that a majority of the population has never even left the country, as opposed to Europe and Australia where travel is highly encouraged (in both England and Australia one is expected to travel for a while before continuing to college). We need something like that in America. Our culture is so money oriented and too sheltered that we never seem to have the time to travel. Well, it's time we made the fucking time. Taking a few weeks off to go and see the world would benefit anyone. I feel strongly about this. Yeah, it's expensive. But it's totally worth it.
I guess I could make up some lie and say it's good to be back home... but fuck it. Home = work. Work sucks. I'd much rather be sipping a glass of sangria and listening to some horrible techno in Spain, or sipping on some red wine and listening to an accordion player in Italy. There's just a charm and quaintness in Europe that America doesn't have. And while it's sweet to be able to watch TV again, it really doesn't make up for being across the globe and seeing the world with your own two eyes. There's no way to understand another culture without actually visiting there. As much as will be lost in translation, certain thing unite us as humans (music, food, alcohol, sports, music, sex, drugs, art). Working hard and making money is good, but what's the point if you can't take some time off to actually see the world? Once we break the narrow box around us we can see the paradise that lies beyond it.