6 May 2004 ---JOURNAL ENTRY THIRTY-FOUR---
First off, Assiyeah and I celebrated our two-year anniverssary yesterday. May 5, 2002 we were in Naxos and she met me at the above picture, a place called The Temple of Apollo. Yesterday we met for coffee and then went to lunch together. I know, I know, it doesn't sound so epic but it was just right. It's amazing to think of all of the places we have gone since I moved to Europe but it looks like something like this:
Czech Republic: Brno, Prague
France: Colmar, Strasbourg, Neuf-Brisach
Germany: Dresden, Berlin
Italy: Padua, Venice
Netherlands: Amsterdam
Spain: Lanzarote Island
Of course I have gone a couple of other places without her but that's not a bad list for roughly a year of living together, eh? So, we just came back from Padua, Italy (the sister city of Freiburg) on Monday morning and it was a kick ass trip, and it kicked my ass. It started on Wednesday evening at 8pm with all of us drinking wine (all of us meaning 13 of us!!!) in the train station waiting for a fast train to take us to Zurich. From there we took a night to Padua. We arrived at 6:40am, ouch! From there we saw the Botanical Gardens, the oldest in Europe and visited quite a bit of the city, including seeing the most amazing spectacle, that of the graduation ceremony for the students in Padua, the second-oldest university in Europe. It basically involved embarrassing them on the most basic levels (you'll have to email me to get real info!) but this was in the center of town with the whole family and friends watching, ketchup on heads, toilet seats around neck, drinking wine in their underwear type stuff. Yes, I'm telling the truth!
We had three days in Padua. We saw the Parliament building, a famous cafe called Cafe Pedrocchi, and then did some wine tasting out in the hills outside town. It was fantastic. The last day, Sunday, we went to Venice. I, Jason Brown, have now been to Venice. This is a major statement in life. Of course the place was packed beyond belief with tourists and pigeons but I loved it. It was so far the most beatiful city I have ever seen. Every building was perfect, it was dreamy and astounding (is that a real word?). But, all good things must come to an end and Sunday night, after some real Italian pizza) we went home. Quick note: That day in Venice we had an even larger group: A Canadian, me, a girl from Brazil, three girls from Serbia, about 10 Germans, 5 Italians and 5 dudes from Spain. That's quite a group, ain't it?
So, that's about it for now. Oh yeah, the subject line of this week/month's update: I'm 18 days from being 30 years old. Unbelievable, that's for sure but what's even more amazing is how 18-30 years old has been for me. Goddamn, I'm a lucky sob. I love ya'll, hope all is well. The folks come and visit me tomorrow, I'm really excited, I'm going to a bachelor party this weekend, going to Rome next weekend and the Jason Brown World Tour continues...
